Caption: If it’s Friday, you can have a party…the sun is over the yardarm somewhere on the planet.
Bullet Points:
** Is there an upside to an Islamic takeover? Ben delivers
** Taiwan, a small island of just 23 million people, just overtook the UK in total stock market value. Taiwan is now the 7th largest stock market in the world, with more than $4.1 trillion in market cap. It just surpassed one of history’s greatest financial centers. The UK is in a state of managed decline, and to listen to the leadership there, they feel very proud to be part of the end.
** Another siege? Yes, this time it’s Suliman the Magnificent vs. Jean Parisot de Valette & The Order of St. John of Jerusalem – on Malta.
** (right) Sometimes you ask yourself how things can happen without an audit trail, how fortuitous accidents happen to the enemies of the rich and powerful. What is the cat’s paw that favors them in the game of life? If former Green Beret Frank Brandt answered you and then didn’t kill you, somebody else like him would do the work. Broken people are willing to risk everything because they have nothing to lose… Broken Toys (cover art by Jules Smith)
** The United States just signed a major 10-year defense roadmap with Morocco on April 16, 2026, ramping up military ties and securing influence right on the southern edge of the Strait of Gibraltar. This smart move comes as Spain wavers on hosting U.S. bases, but reliable allies like Morocco step up fast. No more depending on fair-weather partners. In just over a year, America has positioned itself to dominate the four most critical global chokepoints: the Strait of Gibraltar, the Strait of Malacca, the Strait of Hormuz, and the Panama Canal. These aren’t random dots on a map. They control the flow of oil, trade, and military power across entire oceans. Disrupt them, and the world’s economy chokes. Secure them, and freedom of navigation stays in strong, responsible hands.
** The New York Mets are in the midst of a historic losing streak, and superstitious fans have officially identified a culprit: New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani. While I am not superstitious (as I throw salt over my shoulder as in Dumb and Dumber), I blame Zoltan, too.
** Shooting lasers (h/t Claudio) “Everything happens underneath a campus where thousands of people walk above, unaware that for a fraction of a second, a tiny point of matter hotter than the surface of the Sun just existed below their feet.”
** The UAE is asking the US Federal Reserve for a financial backstop, according to The Wall Street Journal. Emirati officials had told the US they could use China’s currency for oil sales or other transactions if they ran short of dollars. But that’s unlikely anytime soon: The UAE has nearly $300 billion in foreign currency reserves and around $1.8 trillion in sovereign wealth fund assets. The request is more likely a confidence-building measure than a cry for help, Bloomberg economist Ziad Daoud said.
** h/t Claudio (Naval News) According to UP MEDIA, the Taiwanese navy (ROC Navy) has assessed how a Japanese warship fits its requirement of the 6000-ton next generation combatant. ROC Navy is considering purchasing a foreign design to accelerate the construction of its next-generation combatant, and is particularly focused on Japan’s New FFM (aka Upgraded Mogami-class). Modern Japanese destroyers such as the Akizuki-class and Asahi-class meet the displacement and capability requirements for the ROC Navy’s 6,000-ton next-generation combatant, but the New FFM offers better stealth and automation performance. Do you think that Red China would notice?
** Illinois has limited the amount of electricity generated and handed over its distribution to a “non-profit”. Selling the electricity to the highest bidder is logical for the “non-profit”. I live in Arizona and don’t care if Illinois commits power suicide (see the UK) or contents itself with power at 3X or 4X the national price (see California). Businesses are leaving Illinois in droves anyway. Maybe that will reduce the demand for power?
The Era of Commerce Raiding has Returned
As of mid-April 2026, the U.S. military has conducted over 50 strikes, resulting in the destruction of over 50 vessels suspected of drug smuggling in the Eastern Pacific and Caribbean, with at least 177 people reported killed. These actions are part of an ongoing campaign beginning in September 2025 to target alleged narco-trafficking vessels.
During the Venezuelan Campaign, the US Navy boarded and seized vessels from the shadow fleet.
In International waters in the Indian Ocean, approximately 19 nautical miles south of Galle, Sri Lanka, the USS Charlotte (SSN-766), a Los Angeles-class submarine of the United States Navy, fired a Mark 48 torpedo, sinking the IRIS Dena, one of Iran’s most modern frigates.
The US Navy announced a few days ago that it would begin seizing shadow fleet vessels carrying contraband oil in the Pacific. Presumably, there is a presidential order serving as a blank letter of marque and reprisal authorizing this, since it’s a long way from Iran.
Then the Guided-missile destroyer USS Spruance (DDG 111) intercepted M/V Touska as it transited the north Arabian Sea at 17 knots en route to Bandar Abbas, Iran. American forces issued multiple warnings and informed the Iranian-flagged vessel that it was in violation of the U.S. blockade. After Touska’s crew failed to comply with repeated warnings over a six-hour period, Spruance directed the vessel to evacuate its engine room. Spruance disabled Touska’s propulsion by firing several rounds from the destroyer’s 5-inch MK 45 Gun into Touska’s engine room. U.S. Marines from the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit later boarded the non-compliant vessel, which remains in U.S. custody.
Pet Parents and Doll Moms
(Nadya Williams in The Dispatch) On a family road trip last summer, we stopped to eat lunch at a park. A young couple walked by, the woman pushing a fancy pram, occasionally cooing at the occupant within. I peeked over, but instead of a baby, out peered a small lapdog. In the span of a split second, my feelings shifted from shock to confusion to revulsion. It wasn’t the first time I’ve come across a dog in a baby carriage or (in other cases) in a baby sling or carrier worn by the “mother.” But the phenomenon is relatively new, and it prompts questions: Why is this happening now? And what does it mean for our society?
As researchers like Brad Wilcox have been warning, we are witnessing an extreme decline in marriage and the corresponding decline in babies in our society. The latter in America is currently at an all-time low, below 1.6 per woman, well under the replacement rate of 2.1. South Korea’s total fertility rate was the world’s lowest, at 0.75 in 2024. The rate is far below the 2.1 required to maintain a stable population. The result is a world that increasingly resembles the one British novelist P.D. James described in her 1992 dystopian novel, Children of Men.
James opens her narrative in the year 2021, and the senseless violent death of the youngest person alive on the planet at that time. He is 25 years old. Since his birth, no other babies have been born on Earth, because all men have mysteriously become infertile. What does such a world look like? As it happens, it looks eerily familiar to what we have observed around us of late, dogs in baby prams included.
(LL picks up) A lot of the new homes being built in Phoenix are for DNKs (double-income, no kids) or for one child who will never play in a yard. They look like small crackerbox apartments, but they’re “single-family homes”. I’m uncomfortable with that trend. There are no green spaces with ballparks and soccer pitches for kids, but there are small dog parks.
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Identify the Aircraft
1
2
3
4
3 built
5
89 built
End
1 – USAF Boeing RC-135
2 – RAF Handley Page Victor
3 – USAF McDonnell Douglas F-15E Strike Eagle
4 – Royal Navy Blackburn B-54
5 – French Breguet Br.1050
Excellent
Identify the Aircraft:
1. Boeing RC-135S Cobra Ball
2. Handley Page Victor K.2
3. Boeing F-15EX Eagle II
4. Blackburn B-54
5. Bréguet 1050 Alizé
Outstanding
“America has positioned itself to dominate the four most critical global chokepoints: the Strait of Gibraltar, the Strait of Malacca, the Strait of Hormuz, and the Panama Canal.” & M/V Touska – This administration is far and away the most forward looking of the modern era – Recognizing China as the largest issue we and the world currently face. Is it coincidence that it is happening at the same time China is suffering from major internal problems? Maybe not. Combine “Never let a crisis go to waste” with FAFO and maybe this is what you get ?
People don’t give the Trump administration credit. At the same time, none of these problems is new. They’ve been festering for decades. The real question is what comes next after Trump?
” The real question is what comes next after Trump?”
The TDS crowd will be cast adrift.
A hard nosed manager once told me, “If I replace you, your replacement will be worse than you, as good as you, or better than you. Anyway you look at it, the odds are two to one in my favor. I’ll go to Vegas with those odds any day”. Let us hope his successor will be a winner.
Was there a tougher manager than you were?
My toughest managers growing up were relatives and my Dad. I learned what it took to be a car manager from Dan King. Mid 1990’s, if you didn’t make $4,000 a month you weren’t on his crew long. If you weren’t on pace to make $6,000 a month, he was all over you. It worked because he was the most talented desk man I ever met. He didn’t care if you liked him, didn’t need his ass kissed, just perform.
Shooting Lasers: Precursor to ‘Phasers on full Mr. Sulu.’ Unbelievable what some of these ‘underground’ labs are working on.
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No Kids: No surprise when society promotes self-centeredness while dismissing and mocking marriage and family as old-fashioned, labeling woman who have children as ‘birthers’, or homemakers as ‘less than’, while calling men misogynists and abusers. The results of the lie that was/is the feminist movement. Pet and Doll Moms requires no real commitment or humility to something greater than oneself.
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The Marxist/Socialist Effect: The Mets being in a downward spiral with fans blaming MadMommie being installed as mayor, IS the elite’s desired outcome where no one is a loser and everybody shares a trophy (while owners et al charge $20 for a lousy water-downed beer). Fans aren’t buying the ‘sold as nirvana’ baloney. Maybe The Mets will leave NY, further withering a once great city and state. Thing is, and not unlike Illinois where Cap’n Kirk would NEVER say, “No more power Scotty!”….when does the forced decline while charging a premium to live there get bad enough for people to rise up and shake the government tree to rid it of rotten fruit? Thinking never…but they will complain while forgetting it is the very thing they demanded. Capital being portable…money talks…especially when it’s leaving.
No kids; Mollie Englehart @ The Epoch Times article published yesterday opined with sound reason, addressing a variety of causes to a societal collapse in the USA. Highlighted quotes;
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” We have created a world that optimizes for individual comfort, and in doing so, we have made the sacrifices required for family life feel unreasonable.”
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“The cultural messaging that tells us family is optional, inconvenient, or even irresponsible. The economic structures make raising children feel like a liability instead of a contribution.”
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” A commitment or humility to something greater than oneself,” is truly the heart of the matter Paul. I’m praying for grace to be given to our adult children as they raise their families in this day and age. We raised a large family. Not to make up for all the abortions, but because Mrs W. came from a large ranch family and wanted to raise lots of children. We weren’t the smartest, or the most established qualified parents but she sure had the heart. It made me more mature and responsible. I stand humbled for the grace we were given by the Almighty for such an endeavor.
X2
While Chicago remains, there will be no successful ousting of the crooks in Illinois.
The mechanism to vote change is inoperative.
Are you saying Ed, that Dominion and Smartmatic machines are like ATM’s in Chicago? Or is it a societal issue?
Societal causes the Smartmatic/Dominion to stay.
100%…People who like their soft tyranny captivity fall into three basic categories (maybe more); those who enjoy ‘benefits’ from other taxpayer for basically doing nothing in life, those who believe it should all be free, and the willfully ignorant..all have the welfare mentality, not self-sufficiency.
Controlling the hearts, and minds, of the Iranian citizens is the way for this conflict to be rectified. Whether it’s through manipulation through good intelligence gathering, or through outright complete destruction of all things associated with its oil industry is to be seen, but if one of the two doesn’t happen, the entire endeavor will be a waste of resources, and the dangers to the United States will continue unabated. It’s apparent many foreign countries are unwilling to help, and too much of the media (with domestic figures too) is complicit in the attempt to destroy the United States. At this time, it doesn’t matter what they think, and they won’t understand their cowardice is dangerous until they face destruction. We are at war, and only one side can win.
For years I used lasers for cutting plastics (trimming), metal (holes in hardened steel) and welding.
Focal length was so critical.
Then I visited the University of Toronto and met people who were using lasers for purposes I never imagined.
But replicating the temperature of the sun?
In some applications, the idea is to replicate solar heat to initiate fusion (without detonating a fission bomb).
Better they do it under University of Texas at Austin than in a football stadium in Chicago.
Not enough kids is not enough workers later on… robots.
That’s what Musk says. I don’t know that he’s wrong.
China had a marathon race…robots won by a lot. Weird precursor to what may come, AI robots…etc. Not good.
If you don’t have children, do you really have any stake in the future?
Indeed. There is no team, there is only “I”.
Is Hollywood considered a part of the “media” showing (particularly beginning ~1950) women screaming in horrible pain while in labor – why should any woman, who’s seeing this at 13, ever want to put herself through that, particularly when “The Pill” will allow her to enjoy her climax without the worry of pregnancy.
Certainly a weakening Church (also beginning in the ’60s) may be part of the cause.
Not to mention “Feminism” and its strong adherence to the doctrine of improving interpersonal relations between women and the clothiers who emphasized more masculine dress (particularly for the more masculine of the Lesbian pair) and the tsch-tschers who admonished men whose eyes may have strayed towards a woman’s bosom.
My grandmother had her first kid at 15 (OK! it was an agrarian society at that time and place); any female having her first child at that age today is considered a slut and advised to have an abortion and the father jailed for rape.
And you wonder why the minimum reproduction number has fallen below the necessary?
Well put, Boron.
X2.
3
Crackerbox apartments. They are popping up around the DFW area like a cancer. I call them ant hills. So, will future parents pack up the kids for the holidays and head over to grandpa and grandma’s apartment where they grew up?
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Wife and I are blessed to babysit our grandson (just turned 5) a few times each week. We have a yard, so I can take him out to kick his soccer ball around and poke at bugs with a stick. We went to is T-ball game yesterday. It’s nice to sit with other folks raising families (other grandparents at the game too) but it sure feels like we are pushing our way upstream against the current.
Crackerbox apartment complexes are beginning to pop up around the SW area like a cancer. I wonder if the town’s councillors are considering fresh water supply, sewage, drainage, subsidence, traffic, parking, etc ad nauseam.
Somehow I just don’t think so.
Heartily second your assessment. I am convinced their overriding priority is taxable $$ per square foot. We are becoming a society of renters and subscribers, not property owners.
Same here. We DO NOT have the water required to support that kind of increased growth. Period.
Desalinate it and pipe it in from the Pacific. A couple of small modular reactors could handle the desalination and the pumping and piping water is a solved problem. The only thing standing in your way is not money. It’s the government.
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Arizona pipes water in from Mexico and desalinates it. There aren’t as many rules if you only have to cross the US border into your state – mordida in the right place in Mexico and Problema resuelto, gracias.
Yet local governments…especially Colorado’s Front Range…continue undeterred as if it all ‘just magically appears’. All about the revenue gain to them without thinking of the consequences while constantly reminding us plebes about consequences for us not towing the line to build on our private property…etc…etc. Anymore they believe WTP work for them.
I luv how people think something to seaward is going to be ‘stealthy’ even if it doesn’t bounce radar off it. It blazes like a star in the radio frequencies and broadcasts exactly what it is every second of the day unless it is at total EMCON.
Recently, two folks actually put out a study – “The Empathy Channel In Fertility” by Sebastian Galiani & Raul A. Sosa – to prove what’s perfectly obvious: being around babies makes people want babies.
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Unfortunately, for the last 100 years, the big screen (and later, the small screen) focused on displaying single young men and woman as having the time of their lives… and that trend has radically accelerated in the last 30 years, to be actively anti-family. Monkey see, monkey do, and if children are portrayed as “uncool” and a terrible imposition at the time of life when people are most susceptible to media messaging.. and most fertile… then the people most easily swayed will fall for it.
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By the time they realize that they were lied to, and they want children… It may be too late to have them. (See the massive increase in spending on IVF in this country).
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Me, I’m lucky in an unlucky way – I’ve known since my twenties that I wasn’t capable of having children. I’ve long since reconciled to being the crazy Aunt who gives amazing and thoroughly enjoyed but often parentally unapproved gifts… and can offer a shoulder to the ladies in their thirties who are freshly grieving because they didn’t realize they’d run out the biological clock. I don’t make a point of squeeing at pictures of babies and encouraging young mothers because I think their sprogs are wonderful; I do it because they need the support, and encouragement, and somebody has to make the future happen.
My wife and I had to reconcile to the fact that we would be childless. It’s a daunting pressure.
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Even worse, the nieces and nephews, my brothers’ children, refuse to have children (so far.) The end of two very long families, one from the Mayflower and one from the exodus from Acadia. It makes me cry, sometimes, all that family history, from before the Normans left Normandy, comes to an end in the generation past me.
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God, what have we done to ourselves? All the nieces and nephews were raised ‘liberally.’ And it shows.
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Jesus weeps. And so do I.
I’m really impressed with the in-depth historical sketches: Charles Martel, Vlad Tepes, and now Valette. Thank you!
Just returned 4 hours ago from a well deserved vacation. 4 days at Zion and 1 at Bryce. This was our first time in the area in 35 years. East of St George and all the way to the park were brand spanking new McMansions everywhere in territory previously occupied by FLDS. Only thing I can figure is downsizing Cali’s with lots of dough. No cracker jack tiny houses. The Salt Lake Valley now runs from Tremonton to Nephi. Also McMansions. Maybe the Morms are still having kids.
An observation about our national parks. I’m barely able to walk anymore but I can still ride a bike. It was the picture perfect time to visit thanks to my wife’s planning timewise. I predict in less than 20 years a lottery system of sorts will have to be implemented to gain entry. Zion cannot handle the traffic today. Last year we went to the Grand Canyon during spring break for my 80th birthday and the crowds were horrible. I spent many a day in wilderness areas in remote parts of the Canyon with zero crowds. Those days except remote places are gone.
One final entry for the day. Utards are still Utards when it comes to drinking alcohol. The Quorum of twelve can’t possibly create more stupid rules than they have now. Maybe they pass out questionnaires at the gatherings asking to write a moroniach rule against imbibing gentiles.
If you enter the park from the east on a weekday, before school lets out, it’s a much better drive. I just made it with my kids and the crowds were not a problem. Entered about 10:30 am and left out the west side without stopping at Grand Canyon Village. Most of the cool places are either gone or crowded – even the remote places. I went to White Pocket on the Vermillion Cliffs. Off the beaten path, three weeks or so ago and there must have been 18 jeeps and rigs there. It’s a big enough area and people were all respectful. But it’s remote. No more, AOWF. I went to St. George for the first time in 20 years last fall and I didn’t recognize the place. It spread from Zion’s National Park to wherever. Places I took my kids to shoot now have homes on them. I never spent THAT much time in St. George but I had to use a nav to get around this time. I doubt I’ll be back.
Late to the party as usual but I had actual work to do today and no time for reading blogs much BUT happy San Jacinto Day, y’all. Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad! Now somebody get the band to strike up Come to the Bower and we’ll have us a time.
Phoenix isn’t the only place doing that. Sacramento has lots of new construction on 7-8,000 sqft lots with 6-7,000 sqft zero lot line houses and NO parks of any kind. Re the Strait of Gibraltar, the Strait of Malacca, we don’t and won’t control either of them Gibraltar is controlled by Spain, and Malacca is ‘controlled’ by Malaysia, if it’s controlled at all. The Aussies were the last ones that actually did anything there from RAAF Butterworth.
That Japanese FFM looks nice. Capable. With room to grow and change. And it’s got a 127mm autoloader on it, which makes me happy. Especially since we now have proof that a 5″/127mm gun system still has lots of validity in these modern time (the hosing of the Iranian engine room being the example that proves the validity.)
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First Japan is rearming the Philippines with retiring Japanese ships and now they’ll be building ships for Taiwan. Japan rearming East China.
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Is it just me or do you all also think the ChiComs have created some very strange bedfellows in the Western Pacific?
The Red Chinese have told their neighbors that they would be absorbed into the new world order – the new Chinese empire – and would make excellent slaves. The neighbors reacted in an unpredictably hostile way to the termite demands.
When other God-less communists, the Vietnamese, are thinking heavily on allying with Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea and others, well, God-less West Taiwan needs to look deep into the mirror and become fearful of the beast that stares back.