Aboulomania

Caption: Can pathological indecisiveness be aided by a murder of crows?

Bullet Points:

** Iranians could no more behave themselves than dogs can stop sniffing each other’s butts. Not everyone on the first row of those prayer rugs bends to the row ahead of them. Five times a day. I wonder if they rotate that front row.

** The Forgotten Art of the Rant – Jules throws her cracker in the soup by way of self-help options from a weary writer.

** What’s for dinner?

** The IRGC, which runs Iran, suffers the same delusion that too many world leaders do. They keep believing they can outlast President Trump because he will leave office in January 2029. They bet that a Democrat will replace him, and it will be the third Obama presidency with its usual mix of Marxism, anti-Semitism, and looting of the treasury. They refuse to recognize that Democrats have no candidate—not even dimwitted and senile FJB. The best they can do is Kamala. Maybe they will go with a more feminine version—Ro Khanna.

** You’re asking, but there is no need to. Why? The answer is here.

** Ukraine says it has struck another 11 Russian-linked vessels in the Sea of Azov, bringing the total number of ships damaged during a nine-day campaign to 116, in what appears to be the most sustained effort yet to disrupt Russia’s maritime logistics and export trade. The Unmanned Systems Forces (USF) of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said operators overnight struck five tankers, five cargo ships, and one tugboat in coordinated operations involving multiple Ukrainian drone units. According to the military, the campaign is aimed at undermining Russia’s ability to finance and sustain its war by targeting vessels supporting fuel and cargo transport.

** Trump hosted Iraq’s prime minister at the White House on Tuesday, who said that all U.S. forces would leave Iraq by Sept. 30, part of a pivot from military ties to energy and trade. The Iraqi Kurds are weighing that decision.

** Is this the ultimate long-range cowboy rifle? Or Question of the Day – which is YOUR favorite cowboy rifle/saddle gun?

** Americans spent an average of $9,717 per person on health care in 2024, but the figure varies widely by state, from $7,233 in Utah to $14,044 in Alaska, according to new Bureau of Economic Analysis data. The top five spenders, on an average per-person basis, were Alaska ($14,044), Washington, D.C. ($13,865), South Dakota ($12,451), New York, and West Virginia.

** Did Oliver Anthony sell out by signing a record deal?

** (h/t Claudio) PARIS — Five European defense firms, led by the startup Destinus, plan to form an industrial partnership to develop Europe’s first exo-atmospheric interceptor to defend against ballistic missiles, with plans to conduct a test of the kill vehicle in space in 2027. Destinus, MBDA, Safran, Airbus and Thales signed a letter of intent in Paris on Tuesday to establish the Bliksem EXO consortium, with the intention of entering into a binding agreement within three months and starting joint engineering work in August, the companies said in a joint statement. The Euros are nervous in the service.

** Tusk Redux – you asked for the extended version – here you go. One more time on VM. Yes, it’s on my playlist.

Are you thinking about Mountain Howitzers?

On this day in 1862, Cochise and the Chiricahua Apache ambushed U.S. troops in Apache Pass. They retreated when soldiers deployed howitzers. The Model 1841 12-pounder Mountain Howitzer was originally designed for the Mexican-American War; it was frequently used during the Civil War in the 1860s and on the Western frontier. Because of its lightweight and mobile design, the Model 1841 is considered one of the earliest American pack howitzers. It was explicitly built to be broken down and transported on the backs of three to four mules, allowing cavalry and infantry units to move artillery through terrain otherwise impassable to standard wheeled cannons.

Specifications & Capabilities Caliber: 4.62-inch smoothbore Barrel Weight: Approx. 220–225 pounds Total Weight (on Pack Carriage): Approx. 750 pounds. Ammunition Types: Shells, Spherical Case Shot (Shrapnel), and Canister. Effective Range: Approximately 1,000-1,200 yards. Tactical Use: Known as the “Bulldog,” it served as close-in infantry support, firing over walls and breaking up enemy skirmishes.

The Crow Creek Expedition begins with a massacre and ends with a prophecy. In between the two, the tactical use of the howitzer is explained.

There is something intoxicating about a secret. Fraternal societies base their rites on symbolic rituals that take initiates on a journey from darkness to light. Secret societies tend to do the opposite, accentuating the darkness of combinations and conspiracies designed to do harm. Specific handshakes (grips), words, and signs are used to identify members whose oaths are backed by the promise of retributive bloodshed if they are revealed.

When the book ends, President Abraham Lincoln has 118 days left to live. It will be followed by Vengeance and Retribution (Book 4 in the series), which will be available in audio, digital, and print formats next month.

Socialist Land Schemes

(Monica Showalter – American Thinker) Ever since Zohran Mamdani was elected mayor of New York, leftists have been softening the public up with buzzwords like ‘affordable’ housing. The San Diego Union-Tribune has a big spread on what at least some of them mean, which is ‘community land trusts’ run by NGOs. They tout it as a great new solution to ‘market failures’ in housing, except that it sounds an awful lot like Soviet or Chavista ‘models.’

With a gushy headline reading ‘Community land trusts reimagine what affordable housing could look like in San Diego,’ today’s U-T reports:

Tierras Indígenas and a few other grassroots groups in San Diego are embracing an alternative model of affordable housing by creating community land trusts, where land is owned by a nonprofit. The model not only creates permanently affordable housing but can also provide a low-cost path to homeownership for low-income families.

Community groups in historically underserved neighborhoods such as Barrio Logan, San Ysidro and City Heights are working to establish land trusts to counter gentrification and host community hubs.

Casa Familiar broke ground on its community land trust development in San Ysidro, called Avanzando, last October.

The idea is that the NGO buys the land, and you lease it. You buy the inexpensive house. This isn’t like other houses. According to the U-T report:

Land trusts are typically a community-led effort, where residents and others invested in the neighborhood’s well-being are the ones governing the trust.

The housing is affordable because the nonprofit takes the cost of land out of the equation. And unlike traditional deed-restricted affordable housing that only has to be income- and rent-restricted for 55 years, land trusts remain permanently affordable — because they include a resale agreement that limits equity gains and requires it to stay affordable in perpetuity.

And that means:

“It’s like an anti-displacement strategy, in which you are empowering the community to steward the land — but also make decisions on what happens in the land,” said Georgette Gómez, a former San Diego City Council member and now the group’s community development officer.

You steward the land. The commissars make the decisions about how you use the land, always ‘benevolently’ of course, and if you don’t like it, too bad. Don’t want toxic solar panels on your home? Tough luck. See some problems with the seismic-worthiness, as public housing recipients did in La Guaira before the quake? Not for you to complain. The commissars will decide it all, just as they did in Venezuela.  One  of these community land trusts, on its website, makes no bones about what the commissars’ agenda is, and who calls the shots on these supposedly private homes:

Each CLT has a unique mission, it’s own values, and established bylaws that are designed to address issues that directly affect that particular community. A CLT has traditionally been used to promote racial, economic, and environmental justice, along with healing from decades of violence that have been perpetrated against marginalized groups.

… and …

Please see our Governance Structure to learn how we maintain community control, as we execute our Mission.

The ‘governance’ link leads nowhere, so just trust the benevolence of the commissar overlords, the ones in the Che t-shirts. It sounds like a condominium association (COA) from hell.

So how do they keep it affordable? The Chavista way, of course, is by fixing the price. That means an owner can only sell his house for the same price he paid for it, even if he has lived in it for 20 years and sunk thousands into maintenance, repairs, and improvements. The U-T cites three NGOs that have gotten into this racket, and only one leaves wiggle room for selling at a higher value for improvements. “May,” they wrote.

Owners, in other words, would not be allowed to build equity (read: wealth) from their homes, which means they don’t have property rights, they don’t have a title deed, which, as Hernando de Soto wrote, was the ‘invisible architecture’ of why capitalist societies succeed and all other societies become ringed with hillside shacks around the central city. That sounds like a recipe for a slum.  What incentive would there be to repair a home if every dollar sunk into it would mean the same price at sale, whether you repaired it or not?

Naturally, New York City’s Marxist mayor, Zohran Mamdani, likes this idea. You can only imagine why.

And as if that isn’t enough, who gets these ‘affordable’ units, constructed on land purchased by NGOs that get their cash from the state, as the U-T story describes? Well, a trip to the websites of the three groups cited — Casa Familiar (formerly Trabajadores de la Raza), PANA (Partnership for the Advancement of New Americans), and Tierras Indigenas pretty well tells us:

PANA equips refugee and immigrant leaders with the tools and knowledge to engage directly with policymakers.

PANA transforms civic participation into a form of collective power.

Our organizing builds collective power to challenge systems that perpetuate inequality, bringing urgent attention to campaign priorities to address mass surveillance, protecting immigrants, equitable development and tenant protections, and passing policies that increase access the vote for more of our language minority communities.

No native-born Americans need apply. PANA, in fact, seems to be a repurposed refugee and illegal immigrant ‘services’ NGO moving on to more profitable endeavors for illegals in the wake of the Trump shutdown of Joe Biden’s migrant services for NGOs. They are far from the only ones.

Tierras Indigenas (stolen land, get it?) writes on its website:

ICLT is working to acquire parcels to implement indigenous and sustainable practices to combat environmental racism and it’s resulting health hazards.

They say it’s all about anti-racism, but don’t mention who the racist they’re defending ‘la comunidad’ from is. Draw your own conclusions.

Casa Familiar is similar:

Originally established in 1968 under the name Trabajadores de la Raza, Casa has grown and expanded its efforts from solely serving Spanish-speaking clients in San Ysidro to providing services and programs to all South San Diego County residents. Early on, Casa recognized that its predominantly low-income clients have changing and varied needs. Casa‘s approach allows the agency to adapt to community needs through a multi-faceted program and funding strategy. This permits the sustaining of advocacy and community development at its core, while simultaneously examining and addressing community needs. Casa Familiar has been serving people in South San Diego for 50 years.

Casa Familiar is the leading service and community development organization in the community of San Ysidro, providing over 40 bilingual programs and services at six different sites in the community. Programs range from Civic Engagement to Health & Social Services, Arts & Culture to Education.

Forty different bilingual programs? Can you say: ‘border surge’?

All of these community land trusts strongly hint at federally funded housing for illegals, who already are responsible for one-third of the rise in housing costs, according to a working paper from the Dallas Federal Reserve.

Now we know why. But what’s bad here is that this Marxist model of affordable housing doesn’t actually give them much in the way of property rights or any ownership of the land, so they remain landless peasants, under the thumb of NGO commissars, and as the Los Angeles mayoral election showed us, they have the muscle to enforce voter uniformity from those housing units. L.A. taught us that even if you are here illegally, your voter registration will be enticed and NGOs will fill out your ballot for you.

This is what leftist advocates and cheerleaders mean when they tout ‘affordable housing. It’s not about the price. It’s about control and making homeowners do what their commissar overlords say. The U-T story, with unintentional irony, notes in the first paragraphs that housing in southeast San Diego is expensive while housing in nearby Chula Vista, which is a heckuva lot prettier and run by a Republican mayor, is not. That’s where the affordable housing problem comes from.

.357 vs 10 mm – You Decide

Identify the Boat

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