Captioned Graphic: State Dinner
Saigon fell on April 30, 1975. It was also the day when George Washington was inaugurated as the first US President in 1789. The Louisiana Purchase was signed on this day in 1893, and it’s the day that Adolph Hitler killed himself in 1945. The Spanish attacked a pirate encampment in the Dry Tortugas in 1638 – Blackbeard wasn’t born yet.
In 1863, the Battle of Camarón (French: Bataille de Camerone) was a last-stand engagement fought between the French Foreign Legion and the Mexican Army during the Second French intervention in Mexico (1861–1867). A small French detachment of 65 men, led by Captain Jean Danjou, was escorting a supply convoy when it was surrounded near the village of Camarón de Tejeda in Veracruz by a force of around 2,000 Mexican troops. Refusing repeated calls to surrender, the legionnaires made a determined defensive stand at the Hacienda Camarón, holding out for nearly eleven hours until they were either killed, wounded, or captured.
Bullet Points:
** (h/t Claudio) Repurposing Spy Satellites and Searching for baryon acoustic oscillations. In the extremely early Universe, matter was dense enough that sound waves could create interference patterns in the material, with areas forming that had higher or lower densities than average. As the Universe expanded, these patterns were frozen in place, ultimately giving rise to regions with higher or lower galaxy densities. Identifying these patterns at large scales can tell us about the composition of the Universe, including the factors that shape most of its structure: dark matter and dark energy. Tracking how they evolve over time could also help us determine whether dark energy is changing over time rather than accelerating at a constant rate. There have been hints that some details of our understanding of these factors may be wrong, and the NGRST will provide an independent measure of these factors.
** The Maps will Change – The US Supreme Court issued a major redistricting ruling on Wednesday morning. In a 6-3 decision, the court struck down Louisiana’s new congressional map. The majority found the map amounted to what it called unconstitutional racial gerrymandering. Race can no longer be an issue when drawing representative districts.
** The Kurds are nervous in the service these days, and why shouldn’t they be? They are in many cases where they’ve been so many times in the past – wheat between the stones. Because at their heart, the present remnant of the Assyrian Empire (Kurds) is highly factional along tribal and family lines, each of which has its own agenda. The Iranian Kurds need to move tons of opium (their cash crop) to the market. Will USGOV help them do that, or will they stand in the way? The US is playing chess with Iran, and at times, some of the Kurdish factions wonder if they’re pawns (again). The US deal is recognized independence of the Iraqi Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), but what will that look like when the dust settles?
** Examining the remount problem in the US Army and Volunteer Army c 1864.
** Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said that her government told the United States in a diplomatic note that the unauthorized presence of U.S. officials at an anti-narcotics operation in the northern state of Chihuahua should not be repeated.
** The care and feeding of soldiers of Ukraine at the front. (Radio Liberty)
** (h/t Claudio) Digital Fossil Mining – A highly intelligent, 19-meter-long cephalopod actively hunting and crushing prey suggests that the Cretaceous evolutionary arms race wasn’t entirely dominated by vertebrates. By shedding heavy shells like those seen in early nautiloids and ammonites, the ancestors of modern octopuses traded passive defense for active offense. They gained explosive swimming speed, vast improvements in eyesight, and the neurological capacity required for advanced cognition.
** US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent delivered a brutal reality check to Iran’s collapsing regime. While surviving IRGC terrorists huddle like drowning rats in a sewage pipe, America’s naval blockade is choking off their lifeblood. Iran’s creaking oil industry is shutting down fast, with exports halted and storage tanks filling up. Production cuts are imminent, and gasoline shortages loom next. Bessent made clear the Trump administration’s iron grip: no waivers, no mercy, and the US Navy will keep Iranian ports locked down. Decades of funding terror and proxy wars have finally caught up to the mullahs. With the Strait of Hormuz under pressure and tankers turned away, Tehran’s cash flow is drying up by the day.
The American West
The photograph feels like a quiet collision between two versions of the American West that rarely shared the same space. On the left stands Tom Mix, already a towering figure in silent-era cinema, dressed in the kind of carefully curated cowboy image that audiences across the country had come to recognize as “the West.” His presence is theatrical without needing a stage—an outlaw hero, a rider, a symbol shaped as much by cameras and storytelling as by any real frontier experience.
Beside him is Frank Hamer, a man whose reputation was built far from movie sets and applause. As a Texas Ranger, he operated in a world where consequences were immediate and often final, where pursuit and enforcement carried real weight in a rapidly modernizing country. His name would later become tied to one of the most infamous law-enforcement actions of the 20th century—the pursuit of Bonnie and Clyde—, but in this moment, he is simply a grounded figure from the fading era of frontier authority.
What makes the image linger is the tension between them. One man helped create the legend of the West, while the other lived through its rougher edges as it was ending. Standing together, they seem almost like two witnesses from different timelines—one shaping how the West would be remembered, the other representing how it actually functioned. The photograph doesn’t resolve that contrast; it holds it in place, as if asking which version of history people will believe when the dust finally settles.
***
The Lion Roars?
Russia exposes the Potemkin Village – In the last month:
The breakdown, per LSEG ship-tracking data- 63 ships passed within 12 nautical miles of UK coastline (English Channel route, the most direct Baltic-to-Mediterranean transit)- 35 ships transited Britain’s 200-nautical-mile Exclusive Economic Zone, mainly around northern Scotland- At least 10 ships engaged in 𝘴𝘱𝘰𝘰𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘨 — turning off or manipulating tracking systems while crossing UK waters- 544 vessels are currently linked to Russia’s shadow fleet on the UK sanctions list.
The contrast: France, Belgium, and Sweden have all boarded and detained Russian shadow-fleet vessels in recent months. The UK may not have had any ships to do the work, but couldn’t they have borrowed some from Ireland or Morocco? Argentina has a navy. They could sail half a dozen warships to Portsmouth under a lend-lease arrangement to help Old Blighty in its hour of need.
Identify the Aircraft
1
Exported and modified. Rare aircraft – Big Hint: Operated by China
2
3
4
End
Identify the Aircraft
1 – Heinkel He 111
2 – BAC TSR-2
3 – Consolidated Liberator GR Mark V
4 – Breguet 270
Outstanding – that was fast.
4 Thumbs up on the header pic! Most excellent sir
I think i see Mr. Hamer is carrying in a right hand cross-draw.
Why wouldn’t he?
Good eyes. I don’t see the print.
Identify the Aircraft:
1. Heinkel He 111 A-0
2. BAC TSR-2
3. Liberator GR Mk.V
4. Bréguet 27
Excellent, Surly!
Helicopter extraction; Sorry for my ignorance, when and where did this occur? 25+ people waiting to board means several flights or many left behind. Tried to find something related in the text of the bullet points, even with coffee, could connect the dots.
It is an Air America UH-1 helicopter evacuating civilians, both Americans and South Vietnamese, from the roof of the Pittman Apartments, 22 Gia Long Street, Saigon, Republic of South Vietnam, on 30 April 1975. This photo does not show, despite the lying, mainstream media continually saying it does, an evacuation flight from the US embassy. This evacuation occurred as the invading North Vietnamese Army was entering the city.
Not being an American I do not usually comment on United States politics but, on this occasion I will. It was the same party that despicably sold out the South Vietnamese, despite all their promises to the contrary, in April 1975, as despicably sold out the Afghans, in August 2021, again despite all their promises to the contrary.
Your political commentary nailed that one, Sir, straight on and without deflection.
Yup. I doubt anyone here will disagree with that assessment.
Did the same thing to the RoC / KMT, and many others.
– Kle.
My friend, Dave Warren, a Vietnamese orphan, was the last war orphan on the last flight out of Saigon as the tanks rolled in. Operation Babylift featured exceptional heroism on the flight crews that landed during that chaotic time to rescue the war orphans. The Warren Family in New York adopted him and raised him to honorable manhood. Dave doesn’t know what happened to his American father, but his mother was killed in the war, and he was left to his own devices. Catholic Charities took him in and got him out. I won’t go into details here because I respect Dave’s privacy, but it is a compelling story from all angles.
mikew, it was the same individual, joe biden, then and in 2021 that said, ” f those people, they should have gotten out sooner.” both times, same quote. disgusting.
I look for any opportunity to point out that we did win the war in Vietnam until the Democrats sold it down the river.
State dinner; Hearing Trumps press announcement on the radio the other brought me grief. ” We are great friends and the greatest the world has ever seen.” ( paraphrased ) Grievances and rants still allowed on V.M.? The aspects of U.K. being sold out to the rainbow homo accommodations, the rising Muslim communities and the eventual takeover just by population growth alone, as well as political involvement are hopefully covered in private conversations. Additionally if the U.K. is not able to raise an army, deploy a navy, etc, will the U.S. be their defense like Japan? I have no problem with defending another country if the payback is in the black and not the red. I don’t see the trade off as profitable. Is there something I’m not seeing here? When the U.K. left the E.U. to be better off economically, did ties and trading with the U.S. show a profit on our side?
The UK stopped producing goods and services of great value some time ago. Their labor costs are disproportionately high, and the woke/climate/DEI thing has made almost everything too expensive to be uniquely valuable. The Canadians are a better bargain because they’re a border (line in the sand) away. And even they are pricing themselves out of the market without substantial subsidies and favors. Mexico is still a useful trading partner because they’re close, we need the agricultural products and their labor costs are reasonable.
I cannot stop laughing at the “official” White House photo of the State Visit!
Menu:
The Motherland: All manner of British Fare
The Colonies: Mickey-D’s
We are a simple lot, but I’ll take McDonalds and soda any day over bangers and mash, fish pie, and black pudding…oh, and warm-not sweet-tea.
The fish and chips there are very good. And there’s trifle.
Ah, man, Bangers and Mash, done right it’s a righteously delicious meal. Better if you substitute bratwursts over anglo-sausages, and follow more of a Southern American whipped potatoes (with lots of butter, and ‘whipped’ because you use a hand-held power mixer rather than a potato masher, it forms a more smooth texture) and, of course, some brown gravy.
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Sigh, my lovely wife doesn’t like bratwurst. Sigh.
Hauntingly beautiful. My girl Alina Habba absolutely laying it down on The View. Hoping she doesn’t lose too many IQ points hanging with those trolls.”
https://x.com/dannydeurbina/status/2049526400252588223?s=20
-STA LETHAL
I thought you and Alina had broken up. It’s good to see that the spark still burns.
I fly the RVN flag at half-staff on April 30. “Lest we forget.” L-L is a good man for remembering.
As Kle wrote above, USGOV has done the same many times over, and as I pointed out in the Bullet Points (above), the Kurds are nervous that it’s going to happen to them. Since I have been to both Erbil and Baghdad within the past year and because I remain in communications with the Iraqi Kurdish government (KRG), I’m painfully aware. One problem that my friends, the Kurds, have is that the US is the only game in town for them. And yes, I know a lot more than I share on the blog. And no, more details aren’t forthcoming as the dust is heavy in the air and nobody knows where it will settle. But I remain engaged.
USGOV does it repeatedly to the uniform branches.
Yes, and many of us have been victims.
NOTE: Sec. Hegseth and Gen. Caine will testify before the Senate at 11 a.m. (1500 GMT), with questions expected to focus on the conflict launched by the U.S. and Israel on Feb. 28. A White House briefing will follow that hearing. So, depending on where you are, sometime this afternoon. Central Command has prepared a plan for a “short and powerful” wave of strikes on Iran, likely including infrastructure targets as well as another one for taking over part of the Strait of Hormuz to reopen it to commercial shipping
Get er done and end this conflict…price at the pump went from $4.83 for diesel three days ago to $5.18 this morning because the fungible market fiddlers are working overtime in their attempt to wreck PDJT. Won’t work. And like clockwork we have the Demented Group demanding answers to irrelevant, and often stupid, questions of SecWar Hegseth, like they know anything. Tried that tactic the other day and he ate their lunches because he knows what’s what…and they are poseurs desperate to be relevant while being clueless…other than ‘political charades’.
Iran Leadership (what’s left of them that is)…gotta give it to them, they are a stubborn lot…stupid, but stubborn.
Iran is very complicated.
if the head is completely severed leaving the body flailing aimlessly for a little bit, will the Shah’s heir(s?) step in – will the (anti-mullah) Persians accept this will the religious Persians accept this?
I know Iran is still a bunch of tribesmen gathered together under one roof, but, in that respect, it’s not all that different from many other soi disant countries.
They would be far more complicated with nukes.
No kidding. There would have been an Israeli first strike and it might have hit Gaza, Yemen and Lebanon in addition to Iran.
VDH makes a very important point (IMHO) in the very last minutes (~ 11:35) of this clip about the “Democratic” party in that it appears to be no longer the Democratic party that some of my in (and out)-laws voted for in the ’70s. I’m am certain that there are far many more who could point to the exact point in time when the big switch occurred: I can’t.
It appears that it’s no longer just “the party of opposition”; it’s become the “party of treason.” and a group of people/politicians who support treason: the crime of betraying our country – a very strong statement, but valid none the less.
The old democrat party and the present democrats have nothing in common.
Truth, even if the Old D’s were responsible for the unrest in our country for a century or more while denying their own historical facts. Normal people have enough self awareness to look around and say, “Well, that’s not working and we’re losing people’s support, better regroup to rethink our premises.” Democrats/Lefty’s have no such thought, instead they look around and believe since they are smarter than everyone else that the problem lies with the 85% ‘normies’, not them, thereafter tripling down while accelerating off the cliff.
“Sunset” is a fun movie with Bruce Willis as Tom Mix and James Garner as Wyatt Earp.
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Scroll down for a photo of Wyatt Earp.
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http://blog.truewestmagazine.com/2015_04_01_archive.html
Larger than life.
I have despised the Democratic Party since they led the movement to cut off aid to South Viet Nam (“for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee”) thereby flat-out abandoning an ally. Not that I think any better of Nixon and Kissinger for foisting the cease fire agreement on the South that left the NVA in place in the South (ditto the Melville quote). Promises made to those people, and the Vietnamese were people, were broken. Or, for that matter, the Cheney cult that mired us in Afghanistan and Iraq for 20 years (ditto-ditto the above quote) or the Bush cult that went along with it and got the ball rolling. They suck, and there is no redeeming them, and why anyone would trust us after those and other actions is beyond me.
.
I should refrain from commenting on this subject because I stand a little too close to it. Sorry. Not really.
Was Kissinger better than LBJ? Yes, I realize that they were different breeds of cat but the Republicans (over time) are only slightly better than the democrats. Today’s democrats are flat out communists without any of the frosting so to me, they all need to be strung up along the light posts of Pennsylvania Ave and around Columbus Circle in DC. Their evil oozes from them like a malodorous toxic swamp. Bush didn’t feel comfortable striking his Saudi benefactors (US Allies) after 911 so we attacked — Afghanistan? And stayed there, spending tax dollars that were laundered on both sides of the aisle (see evil ooze above). The US has disappointed me time and time again throughout my life, but I retain hope and optimism because it hasn’t all been bad. The Trump Administration and the US Supreme Court is doing a lot to reverse the curse.
Thing is, WTP that are paying attention and know our actual history understand this (re: “…should be strung up along Pennsylvania avenue.”), but these people have been at their decrepit game for so long they believe their behavior and mentality’s are normal. Only one way to fix that attitude…because threats and losses don’t seem to make a dent in their brain matter — eg. Walz out there telling everyone HE and His Cheating Pals fixed the Minnesota Ten-Step Fraud, forcing Patel to correct the massive psychotic lies coming from a governor the ‘nice Minnesotans’ elected yet somehow keep around despite him being at the core of fraud central. ‘Gullible’ doesn’t begin to characterize those voters.
+1
You articulated what I was trying to say much better than I did, and more thoroughly. Like I said, I stand a little too close this and should not comment on it. I usually can’t without resorting to barnyard and barracks language. I get reminded about all that loss of human treasure, then I get pi$$ed and lose the ability to be coherent about it. My apologies for cluttering up your house, Larry.
“A highly intelligent, 19-meter-long cephalopod actively hunting and crushing prey suggests that the Cretaceous evolutionary arms race wasn’t entirely dominated by vertebrates. By shedding heavy shells like those seen in early nautiloids and ammonites, the ancestors of modern octopuses traded passive defense for active offense. They gained explosive swimming speed, vast improvements in eyesight, and the neurological capacity required for advanced cognition.”
I find this fascinating. We don’t know the half of it, imo.
>highly intelligent, 19-meter-long cephalopod actively hunting and crushing prey [… evolution] wasn’t entirely dominated by vertebrates
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Indeed, it’s a highly successful parallel line of evolution that led to both the Bolsheviks and to Goldman Sachs.
h/t Matt Taibbi (“The world’s most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.”)
😮
Hamer is carrying at least ‘one’ pistol, but what I find interesting is Mix’s expression as he looks at Hamer. Fear or???
Hammer wasn’t acting.
It’s interesting that Tom mix got the “all the time, sometimes, never” rule straight but Hamer didn’t care.