No Longer Politically Incorrect!

Chinese medical professionals are conducting a fire drill (above), so yes, it is done. I don’t know if this was in concert with one of Mike_C’s clinical trials, but apparently, they are referenced by PhDs all the time.

Ep. 32 You’ll be shocked to learn this, but it turns out the whole George Floyd story was a lie. pic.twitter.com/4vDXBStHf5

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) October 20, 2023

Still for Sale

For those of you who may have forgotten, the new (soon to be best-selling) novel, Broken Toys is still available, though electrons are limited as is tree pulp, so nobody knows how long it will be. Get your copy now while supplies of electrons and trees remain. As usual, thank you to Jules for all of the artwork that helps to make the book appealing.

News reports of a run on these soon to be best selling books, crowds fighting over the last copies at an unspecified Walmart somewhere in the American South are now confirmed. People were trampled, hospitalizations took place. The police responded to restore order. I advise you to buy popcorn and wait for late breaking news.

One of my guys is working on my behalf to sell the movie rights to Broken Toys. If any of you know people who would be interested in the 100th day of the Writer’s Strike, please let them and let me know…I’m not a union writer. While no screenplay exists, I have written and sold screenplays (but it’s been a few years). I don’t tend to mesh comfortably with Hollywood types (including people you’ve heard of) sitting in H-Wood at the Coffee Bean listening to their endless pontification and world views. I’m good for a polite fifteen minutes. After that, I have people who can sit there and babysit them.

The Avia S-199 Sakeen

It’s a Czechoslovakian-built Bf 109 G, however, there were no DB 605 engines to equip the aircraft with, so it was powered by the less powerful Junker Jumo 211F engine. The aircraft was introduced into service in 1948, and quickly made a name for itself, for being just a horrible fighter. It was underpowered, unreliable, unresponsive and severely lacked firepower, and was finally retired in 1957.

Bullet Points:

** Fake Meat – today there is fake meat available. Vegans say that they use it to fill a void. It’s odd, but Lesbians say the same thing.

** Carlson narrates a political ad.

** (Fox) Netanyahu and Putin are to speak before the Russian president is expected to meet this week with Chinese leaders in Beijing on a visit that underscores China’s support for Moscow during its war in Ukraine. Russia and China have forged an informal alliance against the United States and other democratic nations that is now complicated by the Israel-Hamas war.

** Israel needs to clean out 300 miles of Hamas’ tunnel network north of Wadi Gaza. For those of you who who have fought through rubble from destroyed buildings with people coming up through tunnels around you, there should be an understanding of how complicated this undertaking it. That’s why they have Engineers units (WSF/Frank-the-Tank) may concur.  Bring demo. Leave no voids behind. Ground penetrating radar is helpful but the terrorists dug deep and that’s an enduring problem. And 300 miles of napalm is a lot of napalm…

** Jules reminds us that winter is coming with – Frost.

** The Race to the Dan – After the Battle of Cowpens, General Daniel Morgan began a rapid retreat north to put some distance between him and Lord Charles Cornwallis’s 2,500-battle hardened veterans who were coming their way. To gain time, General Nathanael Greene, the commander of the southern Continental Army, split his force, sending Colonel Otho Williams and a light corps on a different route, hoping to pull Cornwallis away from the slow-moving main army. Tom Hand, creator and publisher of Americana Corner, discusses the Race to the Dan, a series of brilliant maneuvers that had the Americans covering 200 miles on muddy, barely passable roads through almost uninhabited country and over four rivers, and why it still matters today.

** “I need to find a killer. A man who will do murder but who isn’t a total sociopath. Do you know how hard that is to find? The Army ain’t the best place to look. The plain truth is that most soldiers are motivated to fight by group pressures, not because they’re murderers by nature. Some of them think they’re killers because the business of life taking is ladened with the baggage of false expectations. It’s just like sex in that respect. Killing produces the same satisfaction that accompanies masturbation. It’s a strange rite of manhood where killing becomes like sex and sex becomes like killing. The problem is finding one who will deliver the goods without remorse or guilt and won’t go off the reservation on me. I need somebody who will attack problems like a terrier shaking a rat.” — Walter Kennedy, CIA – Vientiane, Laos (White Powder: A Novel of the CIA and the Secret War in Laos) If you read it but didn’t review it yet, please take a moment and do that. 

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In the Middle East

Pedo Joe showed up in Israel and then left. Iran is terrified of a demented 80-year-old pedophile who doesn’t know where he is or what he’s doing and the whore who would take his place should he fall… Thanks for showing up, Joe, and confirming what everyone knows. Everybody missed Kamela at the party, but she was back in DC with her hand on the tiller…If they had both been together, the temptation to strike the head from Great Satan might have been too big for Iran to have resisted…

The problem comes when there is more profit in certain sectors, in poverty and war than there is in prosperity and peace. The US has a public debt of $33.545 trillion with trillions more in unfunded (promised) debt because of social security and medicare entitlements. The question of how we got here and who profited from that $33.5 trillion is significant.

Bullet Points:

** Cold and Flu Season –  I’ve had this year’s flu for the past week, and it’s been a real beast. I did not take a flu injection because I don’t trust them. It’s a side-effect of the COVID-19 plague – a complete lack of trust in that part of the healthcare industry. It’s impossible to know what the “industry” puts into those injections. Does that make me a conspiracy nut? Maybe.

Throughout most of my life, I trusted “the system,” for the most part, understanding that human fallibility was baked in. Today, I don’t. I realize that my opinion is insignificant.

** Wall Street Journal – Cartel News – CULIACÁN, Mexico—The Sinaloa cartel, the leading exporter of fentanyl to the U.S., is prohibiting the production and trafficking of the illegal opioid in its territory after coming under increasing pressure from U.S. law enforcement, cartel members say.

The order comes from the “Chapitos,” the group led by the four sons of imprisoned drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, who transformed the Sinaloa cartel into a global empire managing the supply of narcotics, from Mexican heroin to Colombian cocaine and fentanyl made with precursors from Asia. (more at the referenced article)

** Despite this referenced article (h/t Claudio) there is still a lot of Wall Street big Jewish money supporting Harvard University (Satan’s Vatican) despite it’s pro-terrorist bent.

** Jules (thin as a rail these days) looks at tasty cakes in her take on PlumP.

** Racial essentialism – for those of you who have asked, it’s the focus of the American nation and of course it’s incorporated in this blog, which is owned by a 25 year old black person who identifies as female. Thanks for your interest.

** Confirmed intel holds that Iran plans to attack Israel from the North in Lebanon through proxies. Maybe by the time this blog posts. I find that interesting.

Devout Christians I know say that it’s a sure sign that Jesus will return. Maybe so. I take no position on that. I have not been consulted. Would Congress allow Him to address a joint session? I know that He wouldn’t be invited to the UN. LSP, you’re this blog’s chaplain (in addition to being an ecclesiastical dean, priest, duties with the DLC, etc.) – a man who wears many hats. Do YOU think that the UN would welcome Him?

Ep. 31 How to avoid World War III pic.twitter.com/kdzoMxOt3B

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) October 19, 2023

** “Without even a superficial understanding of the murky stew of clans and tribes that govern the ragged edges of the world, the United States isn’t capable of efficient political murder.” -Baer

** I was recently asked why I wouldn’t want to serve as an officer in the US Navy today. The service employs a large number of DEI people who are otherwise unemployable. They are advocates who make their monetary living and justify their existence by keeping divisions sharp, sectarianism growing, and projecting their own grievances on the young to perpetuate their business model. Who in their right mind would want to work in that toxic environment?

** BURNING QUESTION of the Day: If the slighted, oppressed and dispossessed Harry, formerly known as Prince Harry, moved to Australia, would they make him their King by acclamation? RCC, how do you stand on that? He could take his American princess with him and she could give you advice that seems to be routinely ignored in the Colonies. The proposition makes a lot of sense to me. He could donate his mansion in Malibu to oppressed illegal aliens in the US. Would he leave his butler, driver, cook staff, and other servants to see to their needs in his absence? I’m sure that his new Australian subjects would be thrilled to barf up the kind of money that he needs to support his new administrative realm. Maybe a special Disney style castle could be built in Canberra?

Sport Scuba – Open circuit systems – the Basics

The BUDS Instructor languished while others train.

Then thing get tricky

Ah, the golden age of cartoons.

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For this entry, you have three photos to work with. It’s a little tougher. I wouldn’t want to fly it in combat.

Identify the Film

PaulM’s Stern Warning

In Gaza

I have tuned into Fox News from time to time and I’m afraid that I like I sound like the old man shouting for the kids to get off his lawn as I scold the television before turning it off. At least 50% of what they put out is complete propaganda bullshit. You can sift the other 50% to get some shreds of truth here and there. It is so very frustrating.

I remember these…

A gentleman dresses for Armageddon. They came with the duck and cover drills at elementary school. Somehow, school administrators felt that putting we children under flimsy desks in a crouch with our hands over the backs of our necks to protect against glass being blown out from the windows was a defense against global thermonuclear war… What’s the half-life of… it doesn’t matter.

Kitchen Door

In the Monastery of Alcobaça in Portugal, built in 1178, there is a door measuring 2 meters high and only 32 cm wide, considered the narrowest door in the world.

*

Jules takes on saddles. I rode a western saddle on a Morgan or a quarterhorse, and my experiences differ from those riding a steeplechase. Thus, my concern about getting the family jewels crushed may be misplaced. The Brits never worry about chasing a cow through Manzanita, and their water features are not streams banked with quicksand. I don’t think that they have rattlesnakes that would cause a horse to bolt either.

In 1935

The results were the Nakajima Ki-27, the Kawasaki Ki-28, and the Mitsubishi Ki-33 (a modification of the Mitsubishi A5M carrier-based fighter). Nakajima based its design on its earlier Ki-11 monoplane fighter, which lost to the Ki-10 in the Type 95 Fighter competition. The follow-up Nakajima Ki-12 proposal with a liquid-cooled engine and retractable landing gear was deemed too complex by the Japanese officials; Koyama Yasushi designed the Ki-27 to have an air-cooled radial engine and fixed landing gear. The aircraft had the Nakajima trademark wing with a straight leading edge and tapered trailing edge, which would reappear again on the Ki-43, Ki-44, and Ki-84.

The Ki-27 made its first flight on 15 October 1936. Although it had a slower top speed and worse climb performance than its competitors,[8] the Army chose the Nakajima design for its outstanding turning ability, granted by its remarkably low wing loading. The Army ordered ten pre-production samples (Ki-27a) for further testing, which featured an enclosed cockpit with a sliding canopy and larger wings.

The type was officially accepted into service in 1937 as the Army Type 97 Fighter. In addition to Nakajima, the Ki-27 was also manufactured by Tachikawa Aircraft Company Ltd and Manshukoku Hikoki Seizo KK, with 3,368 built before production ended in 1942.

The Elk get into mischief.

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“Casualties (CASEVAC) to the rear. Officer’s vodka supplies to the front.”

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Broken Toys

My latest novel, Broken Toys, is now available in digital formats at Amazon.com for $3.99. Even if you’re on a budget or a fixed income, you can afford that. I would appreciate it if you’d give the book a try. If you do, please review it and “like” other reviews. It’s the only way for the book to be noticed. Doing this is a huge encouragement for me to write more.

The print edition is out (late-breaking). That’s $11.75 for the paperback; my profit is one dollar. Printing costs, like everything else, are crazy.

Thanks to Jules Smith for the cover art. She is the best!

________________

Broken people are willing to risk everything because they have nothing to lose…

Combat-wounded Sergeant Lucky Frank Brandt is taking pickup work to supplement his medical retirement paycheck in a world where his skillsets are rewarded. As he plies his trade from the New Orleans slums to the Utah desert, his success puts him on a short list that will catapult him into the seats of power.

Captain Claire Hoffman’s life changed when an IED cut her Humvee in half, taking her legs with it. Struggling as a double amputee, army nurse Hoffman returned to school in search of a new way forward. The CIA, looking to fill a quota, offered her that opportunity.

Laurel Vega-Mendoza, a congresswoman from Texas, is tapped to fill a vacancy when the United States Vice President suddenly dies in office. Now on a trajectory to fill the sitting president’s shoes, she casts about for people she can trust among the most untrustworthy group of scoundrels on the planet.

Unbeknown to them, an extrasolar spacecraft devoid of organic life crashed in the Pamir Mountains on the Roof of the World on November 4, 1932. There, in that place, an intelligence awaits its resurrection.

In a world of risks and rewards, they are poised to do things you wouldn’t.

The follow on novel to Broken Toys is titled Hungry Ghosts and I’m working on it. It may be out mid-Spring 2024 if I push it. Contrary to popular opinion, these books do not write themselves.

Bullet Points:

** EdB offers critical points in conflict resolution here.

** As Wall Street put it, the United States mispriced violence. The United States has confused ideas with people. Assassinating bin Ladin never stood a chance of driving a stake into violent jihad, just as Rome did not kill Christianity when it killed Christ. In other words, there’s no point in killing the Clausewitzes of the world but, rather, the general who’s mastered his tactics and is about ready to rout you on the battlefield. (Solemani – thanks President Trump.)

** Epstein filmed the events on his island so that he could have power over the people he filmed. His photos and films made him a very powerful person. They made Epstein more powerful than the powerful people he filmed and he filmed some of the most powerful people. Now an organization that was more powerful than Epstein has taken control of Epstein’s power position. That more powerful organization is currently drunk on power. The FBI has become totally corrupted.

** Are any of you creeped out when you walk into a church and its walls are completely black? I know that black churches matter, but really…

** Housekeeping – The blog has been taking a beating from “malware warnings”. There is no malware problem with this blog. It’s been in operation since 2009 – yes, that long. It’s just that the Federal Government is getting more aggressive against people who write what they’re uncomfortable with others reading. They don’t want to be reminded of Pedo Joe’s dementia and pedophilia; that the Vice President was a whore for many years (not just a slut) and so forth.

** Jules is at it again with her inktober themes in drawing and prose. This time, it’s a bit darker. She’s not on a quest…not exactly.

Meme of the Day

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“Flying Gas Tank”

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Extra points for identifying people in the photo.

Quite A Change in the Pacific

(American Thinker) You wouldn’t want to be a leftist, waking up to the morning’s election results in either Australia or New Zealand.

Both countries’ voters repudiated them and their agendas with pounding mercilessness. CNN used the word ‘punish’ in its headline:

New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has conceded his Labour party lost Saturday’s election, as voters punished the government and took the country rightwards nine months after his predecessor Jacinda Ardern suddenly resigned.

The rising cost of living dominated campaigning with voters New Zealanders ending six years of Labour Party rule, the latter half of which was dominated by the country’s strict response to the coronavirus pandemic that successfully kept infections low but battered the economy.

With more than 98% of votes counted, the center-right National Party, led by former airline executive Christopher Luxon, had amassed around 40% of ballots, according to New Zealand’s Electoral Commission.

“The result tonight is not one that any of us wanted,” he said, according to RNZ. “I gave it my all to turn the tide of history but alas, it was not enough.”

Hipkins was a placeholder, the guy who got the thankless job of taking the helm after rabidly leftwing Jacinda Ardern jumped ship after wrecking the economy. Nobody even wanted the job but he ended up with it. As for Ardern, she landed herself a fancy gig at (Satan’s Vatican) Harvard, supposedly to “teach” even though the only thing that can be learned from her is what not to do.

She expanded government. She printed money. She ushered in ferocious inflation. She let crime run free. And she was a big fan of the heavy-handed grip of government, imposing severe lockdowns, vaxx mandates, gun grabs, and the demonization of the right. She was a truly nasty piece of work who left office with a 29% approval rating that just kept going downhill. While the international left feted her, the Kiwi locals couldn’t stand her and they made their views known on this election, not just her but her entire party and the mess they made. I wrote about her good-riddance exit last January here.

Bullet Points:

** The FBI know who the real bad guys are… As the specter of real terrorism engulfs the news in Israel, don’t forget that the FBI has ideas of its own about who the “real” terrorists are.

Newsweek recently reported that the FBI has clandestinely created a new subcategory of domestic terrorists that it intends to target going forward. The group has been labeled AGAAVE, which stands for anti-government, anti-authority violent extremism, but which is neither anarchist, a militia, or a sovereign citizen group.

The group? Supporters of former President Donald Trump, of course. Those dastardly Make America Great Again types.

I’m sure that the RFK supporters will be tossed into the same bag because he’s an even greater threat to Pedo Joe’s regime.

** In the US Senate: Pennsylvania should be so proud.

** What do you mean – A Grift… The more months that pass, the more that “antiracism”—the fashionable ideology that rose to prominence in the wake of the 2020 George Floyd protests—is being exposed as a grift.

As highlighted last week at Intellectual Takeout, Boston University recently opened an inquiry into Ibram X. Kendi’s Center for Antiracist Research, to uncover, among other enigmas, where $55 million in funding has been spent since the center opened in 2020.

This follows on from BLM’s financial scandal last year: After indulging in a real estate buying binge, the co-founder of the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, Patrisse Kahn-Cullors, abruptly quit, leaving no one in charge of the remaining $60 million in the organization’s accounts.

Meanwhile, just last week in the U.K., a BLM organizer admitted fraud after £30,000 in donations from Black Lives Matter supporters went missing, as reported in The Telegraph in an aptly titled article: “It’s time to admit it: Black Lives Matter hysteria made fools of us all.”

Not all of us…and many of us believe that black guns matter.

** Angel – from Jules.

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Trust

Bullet Points:

** The Bee – CAMBRIDGE, MA — A Harvard University student later identified as Luke Dillon left a lecture on microaggressions a little early so he could make it to the “Kill the Jews” rally on time.

The University happily hosted the rally for mass murder and rape after being assured that no one would be misgendered. “Hate speech has no place here at Harvard,” assured President Claudine Gay. “We affirm everyone’s right, regardless of gender, to feel safe to express their deep hatred and longing to kill Jewish people. That’s why Harvard is more than a school – it’s a family.”

** Don’t get stabbed! “Finally, they cornered Roly, who was now consumed by the twisted power of the dagger. He brandished the blade, its exquisite jewels glowing ominously with a smoky amber light. In a fit of rage and madness, he swung the dagger towards the prince, but the blade turned against him as if possessed by its own will.  The dagger seemed to defy gravity, reversing its course and striking Roly in the chest. He was instantly reduced to dust, and the darkness within him extinguished.” Another masterpiece from Jules.

** Ford Motor is considering cutting a work shift at the plant where it builds its electric F-150 Lightning pickup as demand for the EV truck falters, according to a memo from a United Auto Workers official.

** From the Mail Bag: Name a toxic trait that you have. — If I’m hungry, I’ll graze from the OTHER person’s french fry bag on the way home.

** “Free Healthcare” isn’t free.

** NASA photo of the solar eclipse the other day.

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Is it reasonable to mount the heat-seeking missile between two incredibly hot jet engines?

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This aircraft’s only claim to fame is thinning the ranks of its nation’s pilots.

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From the Days of Fighting Sail

US Congress, Unmasked (h/t Frank)

Did the Los Angeles Dodgers’ act of honoring Satanic Drag Nuns lead to their defeat at the hands of the Arizona Diamondbacks? I’m only asking the question. It’s the Sunday Sermonette if you want it to be.

My daughters and their husbands (3 of 4 sets – one set is a Red Sox fan) are all lamenting the Dodger’s demise at the hands of the “unworthy” Diamondbacks. I pointed out that going full evil with Pride Day, Evil Drag Nuns, etc. sealed their fate.

The Quest Continues

Bullet Points:     

** Once upon a time, in a land of mist, many dragons and rotten monsters, lived a princess. She went by the name of Petal. She wasn’t one of those posh, stuck-up princesses and she wasn’t really pretty and she wasn’t really clever; in fact, she was just an ordinary girl with dreams and aspirations about…ya know…stuff.

The queen, her mother, was droolingly beautiful but very uppity and suited the role of stroppy despot very well.  It’s what led to her having had several husbands…more from Jules.

** Blame? Amid the fallout from yet another foreign policy disaster under Joe Biden’s watch, the administration should be under serious pressure to answer for its glaring failures. But team Biden has by now learned that they can get away with anything because they will not face any of the media pressure normal administrations (and particularly Republican administrations) face not to make major mistakes, or to rapidly correct problems when they arise.

Yes, the media is to blame in large measure, but who feeds that beast? Follow the money. Everything is intentional.

** “Remember, Cesar, that occasion in the Spain campaign?. You had a twisted ankle, you couldn’t walk, and you were thirsty. One of your soldiers collected water from his helmet and brought it to you… you think you could perfectly remember that man who helped you. And yet you do not recognize me, because then I was still a complete man; then, at the Battle of Munda, I lost an eye and part of the bones of my head… Nor would you recognize the helmet he was wearing, because a Hispanic falcata split it in half” Seneca (De Beneficiis, V)

Density

Turf

Israel is going to turn it into one big parking lot.

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I’m just touching base…

Are you ready for the weekend? It doesn’t matter.

Bullet Points:

** A note to Pedo Joe’s Regime – You don’t get to sink the ship and then brag about how many lifeboats you filled.

** The P-47 – Republic used turbochargers to give the P-47 extra boost at higher altitudes, above 20,000 ft, where the R-2800 started to struggle in the thinner air. Technically, it’s a turbo-supercharger.

Pressure from the exhaust gases spins the turbo, which turns the mechanical supercharger. It’s a bit more complicated, but that is, in essence, how the system works.

** Oil Production during Obama’s Third Term (Forbes) – It’s a short article – interesting numbers. “Given the fact that the Biden Administration hasn’t exactly been friendly to the U.S. oil industry, some may be puzzled by this production surge. There is a simple explanation. The price of oil, and technological innovations like hydraulic fracturing, are much more significant than any president’s policies.”

** Dodgers vs Diamondbacks – It’s been interesting to watch the Arizona Diamondbacks clinch the playoff series against the Los Angeles Dodgers. I do follow Major League Baseball. I think that the D-Backs are a distant hope for a World Series winner, but hearts were broken in SoCal as they humiliated the Dodgers.

** The impactor’s velocity was estimated at 20 kilometers per second (12 mi/s). The kinetic energy of the impact was estimated at 72 teratonnes of TNT (300 ZJ). The impact generated winds in excess of 1,000 kilometers per hour (620 mph) near the blast’s center, and produced a transient cavity 100 kilometers (62 mi) wide and 30 kilometers (19 mi) deep that later collapsed. This formed a crater mainly under the sea and covered by 600 meters (2,000 ft) of sediment by the 21st century. The impact, expansion of water after filling the crater, and related seismic activity spawned megatsunamis over 100 meters (330 ft) tall, with one simulation suggesting the immediate waves from the impact may have reached up to 1.5 kilometers (0.93 mi) high.

** Intelligence Officers in Action – TRAVIS AFB, Ca. – 1st Lt. Mike “Nostradamus” Creek is running a victory lap after having “basically predicted the war going on now” following a Hamas surprise attack on Israel that has killed hundreds of civilians and Israeli security forces. Multiple sources report that as recently as last week, the Lt. briefed the 60th Air Mobility Wing commander that the possibility of some form of violence in the Middle East was “possible.”

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Ep. 30 What's happening at the southern border isn’t just an invasion, but a crime. The politicians and NGOs responsible for it are criminals, who should be punished accordingly. pic.twitter.com/cbkTSUyogC

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) October 12, 2023

Bullet Points:

** Military Age Unaccompanied Middle Eastern Males- The border continues to be a major crisis for the U.S. One of the biggest concerns right now is the number of potential terrorists that are just walking into our nation thanks to the criminal Biden Regime. This week, Ben Bergquam was in Lukeville, Arizona, to show how bad it’s getting.

** Black Lives Matter ripped what little was left of their mask off, appropriating the situation in Israel and siding with terrorists. As if there was any doubt they would do otherwise. Gaza has belonged to Israel since before 1947. This is NOT West Bank territory/post 1967. As for oppressed, funny how they don’t talk about how Israel was supplying electricity, water, and humanitarian aid FREE of charge since 2005 or how all supplies for infrastructure were routinely repurposed for missiles and bombs.  Hamas=scum. BLM=scum

** “Today, just before midnight local time, team leaders of the UN Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the Department of Safety and Security in Gaza were informed by their liaison officers in the Israeli military that the entire population of Gaza north of Wadi Gaza should relocate to southern Gaza within the next 24 hours.

If you’re north of the line, you’re an enemy combatant…

** White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby refused to say this week that nuclear war is more dangerous to humanity than climate change.

** Just when you think it cannot get much worse — with lawlessness overtaking our cities, our southern border being overrun, and the president of United States declaring half of voting age Americans “a threat to the very soul of this country” — unsettling bricks are being added to the wall of an emerging police state in America.

We now learn that the Biden administration’s Department of Homeland Security has officially categorized Trump supporters — the so-called members of MAGA — as “domestic terrorists.”  Additionally, the FBI has formed a secret task force that appears nonpartisan, but actually operates in unprecedented ways that depart from prior focus on cells, anarchist, militia and violence-prone groups, and now focus on people who may be peaceful but identify with anti-government and anti-authority thinking.  FBI sources acknowledge that these new categories and task force have been created to target MAGA and Trump supporters. (more)

** The Israeli government disarmed civilians near Gaza prior to the invasion. Now that war has broken out, they’re scurrying to give them 10,000 rifles. This won’t help all the dead people who were left unarmed by the government. There’s a lesson here.

** Stingers (h/t Claudio) Takeaway 1: The US Army no longer makes new FIM-92 Stinger missiles but remanufactures old ones.  Takeaway 2: five years to get a new missile, after a long multiple phase competition. And no mention of production capability.

** Another Gaza Map (h/t CDR SAL)

Israel is at war; Israel will finish it. “We will exact a price that will be remembered by them (Hamas) and Israel’s other enemies for decades to come.”

As I mentioned in yesterday’s blog there will be a concentration of locals that may not exactly be called a concentration camp, but that is what it will be. Gaza will never return to what it was. Gazan civilians will be allowed to leave for other Arabic nations.

** Michelle (Big Mike) Obama:

A swift kick in the balls will solve gender confusion.

** “The OSIRIS-REx sample is the biggest carbon-rich asteroid sample ever delivered to Earth and will help scientists investigate the origins of life on our own planet for generations to come,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement today.

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This Day in History

(Mark Tapson) By 732, the fallen Roman empire had devolved into a patchwork of warring barbarian tribes across what is now continental Europe. When Abd-al-Rahman al-Ghafiki, the governor of al-Andalus, crossed the Pyrenees with the world’s most successful fighting force and began pillaging through the south of what would become France toward Paris, there was no nation, no central power, no professional army capable of stopping them.

No army except one – led by the Frankish duke Charles, the eventual grandfather of Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne. As historian Victor Davis Hanson puts it in a fascinating chapter of Carnage and Culture, his infantrymen were “hardened veterans of nearly twenty years of constant combat against a variety of Frankish, German, and Islamic enemies.” Hanson writes that the Roman legions had crumbled “because of the dearth of free citizens who were willing to fight for their freedom and the values of their civilization.” But the seasoned warrior Charles had gathered spirited, free fighters under his command who were willing to defend their Christian society, and he led them to intercept the marauding infidels, leaving a ravaged trail toward the ultimate prize, Paris.

On the 10^th of October, 732 (some dispute the exact date), the two armies met on a wooded field between Poitiers and Tours (and so the ensuing confrontation is sometimes called the Battle of Poitiers), barely 175 miles from Paris as the crow flies. Abd-al-Rahman arrayed his cavalry against Charles’ solid block of Frankish footsoldiers, which at 30,000 was by some estimates not even half the size of the Arab and Berber army (Hanson speculates that the armies were more evenly matched, but the Franks were unquestionably vastly outnumbered).

The opposing forces sized each other up for a week before Abd-al-Rahman ordered the charge that October morning. But his cavalry, which typically counted on speed, mobility, and terror to lay waste to undisciplined tribes, could not penetrate the highly disciplined, heavily armed Frankish phalanx. In his must-read book Sword and Scimitar: Fourteen Centuries of War Between Islam and the West, my friend, historian Raymond Ibrahim, quotes a contemporary chronicler who described that the Franks “stood as motionless as a wall, they were like a belt of ice frozen together, and not to be dissolved, as they slew the Arab with the sword.”

At the end of the day’s carnage, both sides regrouped for the next assault. But at dawn, Charles and his men discovered that the Muslim army had vanished, beginning their retreat toward the Pyrenees, leaving the booty stolen from ransacked churches and abbeys behind and at least 10,000 of their dead – including Abd-al-Rahman himself. Exact figures in historical sources are questionable, but Arab chroniclers, Ibrahim reports, “refer to the engagement as the ‘Pavement of Martyrs,’ suggesting that the earth was littered with Muslim corpses.”

It was not the last Muslim incursion into Europe – Charles racked up subsequent victories against the Saracens for a few years afterward – but it was the beginning of the end, and Islam never again penetrated militarily as far into European territory. The victory at Tours helped solidify Charles’ standing among the Franks as a great leader (he was afterward dubbed Martel, or “the Hammer”) and defender of Christendom (the Pope reportedly labeled him “the Hammer of God”). He became ruler over all the Franks, essentially unifying all the fragmented territory of western Europe and paving the way for the rise of his grandson Charlemagne to become “the Father of Europe,” the first great ruler of Christendom.

Some historians today downplay the magnitude of the Muslim threat that Martel countered, claiming that Abd-al-Rahman’s force was only a raiding party with no grander designs on seizing the whole European continent. They minimize the significance of the Battle of Tours’ outcome, too; at least one historian even claims that Europe would have been better off if Islam had conquered it.

But Hanson notes, “most of the renowned historians of the 18^th and 19th centuries… saw Poitiers as a landmark battle that signaled the high-water mark of Islamic advance into Europe.” Edward Creasey included it among the fifteen most decisive battles of world history. Many believe that if Charles –– had not stopped Abd-al-Rahman at Tours, there would have been nothing to prevent the Islamic tide from sweeping across the continent and making Europe Islamic. Edward Gibbon called Charles “the savior of Christendom.” In The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire in 1776, he wrote that if not for Charles’ victory, “perhaps the interpretation of the Koran would now be taught in the schools of Oxford.”

If only Gibbon could see Oxford now. Not only is the interpretation of the Koran taught there, but Islam thrives in Oxford, thanks partly to the patronage of the UK’s current dhimmi king. In his essay “Islam in Oxford,” faux moderate Muslim scholar Muqtedar Khan writes that “Gibbon would have been surprised to learn the lesson that military defeats do not stop the advance of civilizations and the globalization of Islam is unimpeded by the material and military weaknesses of the Muslim world.”

Besides his dubious suggestion that Islam has anything to do with advancing civilization, Khan is right: today, the Islamic incursion into Europe is of the demographic, not military, sort. The continent faces an immigration crisis due in no small part to at least one generation of young Muslims, many of whom not only are willfully unassimilated but who are waging cultural and physical aggression against their hosts, establishing parallel communities – “no-go” zones ruled by sharia and in which infidels are unwelcome, to put it mildly. “Nothing can stop the spread of Islam,” insists Islamic apologist Reza Aslan. “Some would try, but it simply will not happen. Absolutely nothing can stop the spread of Islam.”

In 732, Charles Martel begged to differ. What it took was the will, discipline, training, warrior spirit, and righteous faith.

She’s Hot

Jules Chokes: “As I walked back to my car through the city, I noticed people staring at me.  Maybe it was my edgy, swag attire, or my hair looked like I’d just stepped out of a salon.  Yeah, that must be it.  When I reached my vehicle and looked in the rearview mirror, I wondered if I’d been possessed. Black mascara streaks had artfully painted themselves across my snot-dried, ruddy complexion. I looked like something out of a gruesome horror film or a doppelgänger for Gene Simmons.” (more at the post)

The New War

Just about the same as the old war…

Everyone is throwing their cracker in the soup where the new conflict between Israel and Hamas is concerned. They’re all smarter than I am. Given that, I will point out a few things and move on. First, the funding situation changed when Saudi Arabia recognized Israel. In a larger sense (second) most Arab states recognized Israel during the Trump Administration. The Obama/Biden Regime – friendly to Iran sought to undo what President Trump did, of course.

Hamas can only exist with massive funding that trickles down. There is no significant tax base in Hamas. Gaza is a massive slum. Israel would move the people out and flatten the place if any nation wanted the population. So far, they don’t, but Pedo Joe might take them in the US? Stranger things have happened during Obama’s third term in office. It’s 2.048 million people as of 2020, and would be a drop in the bucket when you consider the third world influx into the US that we’ve experienced. That way, Hamas could elect democrat party representatives to Congress (another half dozen Ilhan Omars to add to The Squad*).

72 hours after the initial attacks, the IDF had regained control in all communities in Southern Israel. Nevertheless, a small number of isolated militants remain within the country, and operations to secure the area are in progress.

The war isn’t over. It was just declared. It’s more accurate to say that the war is now contained. Hamas took their shot. Now the IDF can conduct offensive operations. Some say that Israel will bulldoze Gaza and then salt the Earth. Some suggest that it create a nature preserve with a museum on it or something. Maybe use it as turf for war games and military training?

Before this is over The Gaza Strip will be segmented and block by block, it will be be demilitarized. Tunnels will be found and demolished. Buildings atop tunnels will be destroyed and bulldozed into the void where once there were tunnels.

The IDF will go Person by person and theywill be identified biometrically with the primary goal to “de-Hamas” the entire population. The 2+ million population will be concentrated while this process takes place. Responsible leaders will be found to administer civil requirements. Zero tolerance for breaking the peace. Peaceful civilians can stay. Violence will result in non-subsidized exile or imprisonment followed by exile. (*See Pedo Joe with open arms, above)

One More View

The Federalist – Right now, though, many on the left seem upset that conservatives are pointing out that the last two Democratic administrations have appeased and funded the terror states responsible for the attack that has killed hundreds, if not thousands, of Israelis and at least four nine Americans.

There is, most obviously, Joe Biden’s recent $6 billion gift to the mullahs.

“Not a single cent from these funds has been spent, and when it is spent, it can only be spent on things like food and medicine for the Iranian people,” a White House National Security Council spokeswoman said. This pathetic and pedantic deflection was repeated endlessly by the president’s defenders. Even a child understands the concept of fungibility. It is true that Hamas didn’t spend that exact funding on their terror proxies. Islamic fascists, like everyone else, make fiscal plans with an eye on future earnings and spending. And the hostage-taking business happens to be booming.

And no, the $6 billion was not “their money” — no more than the roughly $25 billion that the Biden administration let Iran walk away with by ignoring sanctions or the $10 billion it gave Iran via a waiver to Iraq was their money. Sanctions separated the terror state from its money. That’s the entire point.

The only thing more ludicrous than the notion of the mullahs abiding by an agreement with the United States is the idea that their buddies in Qatar, the country overseeing the funds, is going to make them spend their newfound cash on “humanitarian aid.”

2024

The way it’s looking, the 2024 match up will be President Trump v RFK. I can’t imagine anyone would vote for Pedo Joe. How does that impact the down-ticket races? Who will Pres. Trump pick for a running mate? I seriously doubt that it will be treacherous Mike Pence. Who will RFK reach out to? Ok, I’ll guess. My guess is as good as yours.

Trump-Ramaswamy and RFK-Sinema (I-AZ). It would be a horserace. Demented Pedo Joe and the Ho might be the outsiders on this one. Clearly, it would be difficult for them to campaign in person if the media covered it (as opposed to covered it up). A debate between President Trump and RFK would be worth watching.

If the Republican Party doesn’t unify behind President Trump, there is no need for a Republican Party. During the last Trump Administration, all the RINOs did was fight him while he worked without pay to Make America Great Again.

Identify the Pink Jet

Ok, maybe it’s more of a sandy salmon than pink…

Identify the Biplanes

1

246 of these aircraft were put into service.

2

Primary Operator was the South African Air Force

Happy 248th Birthday, US Navy

Obviously (or maybe not so obvious), I wasn’t there at the Navy’s founding…that’s for my kids, who think I might have been.

I enjoyed my service in a time quite unlike the present one. People have asked if I would do it again. Again, then, but not today. The same is true for much of what I’ve done for a living. I’m still in the mix but in a far different way. To all fellow Navy veterans, I offer a hearty Happy Birthday, fair winds, and following seas!

Ep. 29  After the Hamas attacks, what’s the wise path forward? pic.twitter.com/AwWkcLFUBb

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) October 9, 2023

Housekeeping:

** Ads are coming to Virtual Mirage. I hope that they’re manageable. I’m trying to make the Virtual Mirage Blog pay for itself. If they suck too badly, I can pull them.

** I used to live here. It was a long time ago, but the memories endure.

Are there Too Many Quests?

no

Bullet Points:

** We lost 9/11, which is why Obama, Pedo Joe and the media have worked dilligently to erase it. Ahead of its 20th anniversary, Pedo Joe turned over Afghanistan to the Taliban and left behind $8 billion worth of armaments. (The actual value is $4 billion but defense contractor mark-ups brought the price up to $8 billion as they must cover their bribes — hiring procurement generals upon retirement — somehow.)

** Consider Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, who said, “Many will tell you Israel has a right to defend itself, to safety and security, but are silent on whether Palestinians have those rights too. “Until we can defend the rights of Palestinians just as we do Israelis, we have no leg to stand on when it comes to justice or peace.” Imagine some German-born congressman in 1942 standing up for the rights of Nazis.

** Jules is wandering today.

** Gifts to Terrorists

Identify the Aircraft

1

2

The Quest Continues

If you wake up and your stomach hurts, it may because somebody is prodding a voodoo doll…

Jules asks you whether fortune favors the bold today. “May the odds be ever in your favor.”

Qatar

Almost all of the conversations about the $6 billion given back to Iran have focused on the fungible aspect of money. While true, that focus misses the essential point, where the money was delivered.

The captured $6 billion was held in a South Korean bank, resulting from sanctions violations. The Biden/Blinken crew moved the money from South Korea to a bank in Qatar. Many people may need help understanding the nature of how that makes such a significant difference. The lack of understanding is the result of people needing to fully grasp what Qatar does in the Middle East.

Qatar is the financial center for Islamic extremist operations. Qatar is the banking center for the Muslim Brotherhood. The Brotherhood is the political umbrella for a host of Islamic extremist groups. Qatar has historically been the financial center and funding mechanism of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Not to beat a dead horse, but…

*

The Regime

*

Bullet Points:

** Our thoughts and prayers are with the Chinese Communist Party over their loss of Senator Diane Feinstein.

** Is this a good idea?

*

Identify the Aircraft

1

2

3

4 & 5

6 October 1934. The top aircraft was delivered to the US Army for evaluation.

Subsequently returned to a DIFFERENT aircraft manufacturer for modifications. Please identify both aircraft.

6

Retro

Combined Fleet Commander-in-Chief Isoroku Yamamoto and Combined Fleet Chief of Staff Matome Ugaki photographed on the Nagato’s Bridge.

When you wake up, it’s still the case…

Sleep Techniques

(NY POST) If you have difficulty sleeping, try this. No drugs, just sleep. It works. I do this myself as trained.

Bullet Points:

** RFK: Today, I declared myself an independent candidate for President of the United States of America.

And more than that, I joined my voice with all the people who are fed up and all the people who are hopeful, to make a new Declaration of Independence for our entire nation.

I think that Pedo Joe’s refusal to grant him Secret Service protection in the hope that somebody whacks him, is pushing him to cut the feet out from under the donkeys.

** Jules bounces her way through more ink.

My response to her was that violence does solve problems and Peace through Superior Firepower is a valid philosophy. I don’t think that you can say those things in Old Blighty anymore.

** File this one under shade in the summer and food in the winter.

Identify the Aircraft

1

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Retro

Bullet Points:

** Just the News, “Left-wing activists on Wednesday protested outside congressional offices demanding that the Biden administration push for a negotiated end to the ongoing war in Ukraine.”

But it was a mostly peaceful insurrection. How many will the FBI arrest and DOJ incarcerate indefinitely?

** Smuggling – (h/t Claudio) Russia has developed ways to produce more cruise missiles despite the severe economic sanctions imposed after they invaded Ukraine. Russia has found new sources for components, some of them obtained by smuggling or purchases of components that can be adapted for use in missile production. Most of the smuggling is done via Armenia and Turkey, two countries that are hospitable to smuggling if it has some benefits for locals. Although Turkey is a NATO member, smuggling is tolerated if smugglers pay the right people for access. Such corrupt behavior has long prevented Turkey from joining the European Union.

**  Newsweek reported, “Donald Trump Followers Targeted by FBI as 2024 Election Nears.”

New House Speaker Suggestions

Zelensky because he knows how to run Congress; Alec Baldwin because we need a straight shooter; Sara Lee because nobody doesn’t like Sara Lee; and Elon Musk because he’s shown he can make things run better by laying off 75% of the staff.

French Air Force “Balloon Guns”

 

Mousqueton Berthier Mle1892 w/Chauchat magazine

The Berthier carbines were French firearms designed to equip artillery and cavalrymen, or really anyone for whom a full-sized Lebel infantry rifle would be unwieldy. Its small size made it equally popular with aérostiers and other airmen who had to operate in cramped conditions surrounded by riggings and struts.

A short run of carbines meant to be used in said setting were upgraded from using their original three round en-bloc clip to a nominally twenty-round Chauchat automatic rifle magazine, often underloaded for reliability. This gave its operator a decent amount of firepower, although it was found to be inadequate and replaced with import semi-automatic rifles from Winchester or Remington, before more fully automatic guns could be delivered to the French air force.

During week of October 1941…

Heinz Guderian noted in his diary that he had observed snow for the first time in the campaign in the Soviet Union.

The original plan for Operation Barbarossa was extremely sketchy for such a massive operation. One of the odder aspects of planning was that the endpoints for the invasion were never set forth, and became vaguer and more nebulous the further along planning got.

The first battle plans, prepared for the OKW by General Erich Marcks in mid-1940, actually did set forth a terminal line of the invasion. Marcks proposed the “A-A line” as the operational objective. This was to run from the northern city of Arkhangelsk on the Arctic Sea through Gorky and Rostov to the port city of Astrakhan at the mouth of the Volga on the Caspian Sea. This assumed that the European portion of Russia and its satellites was the only part of the country of any interest and importance. There, the German Army could stop and set up a defensive line beyond which whatever was left of the Soviet Union could be allowed to wither away, as it would pose no threat.

After the Marcks Plan (as it came to be called), though, the idea of any kind of ultimate objective for the Wehrmacht disappeared. The debate instead degenerated into one of whether or not it was even important to get to Moscow, let alone reach any points further east. The prevailing theory – primarily Hitler’s – was that the entire Soviet Union would capitulate after a few decisive border battles destroyed the Red Army, failing that Hitler issued a directive to pursue the Soviets.

As of the first week of October 1941, there had been no “pursuit” in the Soviet Union or at least none that has lasted very long. Every steppe had been contested, every river was defended, every city was fought over and sometimes even been boobytrapped after the Red Army fell back. The defense was uncoordinated and lacking in effectiveness on many occasions, but the Red Army fought all the way.

Now, the best campaigning months of 1941 were already gone and it would only get worse before it got better again. The Rasputitsa* just began.

*In countries of the Soviet Union, the term has referred to two periods during the year — spring and autumn — and also refers to impassable road conditions during such a period, specifically the heavy rains of October and the thaw of the frozen steppe in March.

Given all that, the astounding underestimation of the effectiveness of Red Army opposition during the planning stage of Operation Barbarossa had not really hampered German operations yet, it just has required adjustments to compensate for a slower rate of advance than anticipated. The tanks still ran, the trucks still carried supplies, the horses were still fed from grain in the fields.

However, everything was about to change forever, that October in 1941. The men on the front line saw why after dark as the snow fell around them. The lack of effective antifreeze for trucks or tanks, the lack of chains for wheeled vehicles, the absence of winter clothing which was considered superfluous in June – all of a sudden these omissions loomed large.

Identify the Aircraft

The notation on the fuselage is “experimental” but it’s now a production aircraft.

From Radio Free Asia

(link) There are articles that I recommend that you read and this is one of them.

Major state-owned companies across China are setting up corporate militias under the direct management of local garrisons of the People’s Liberation Army, according to official reports.

Jiangsu-based current affairs commentator Zhang Jianping said the move is likely linked to concern over potential social unrest, however.

“Urban investment groups … owe huge debts and they must want to maintain stability,” Zhang said. “[Armed forces departments] can also help to solve the issue of unemployment among veterans.”

Current affairs commentator Bi Xin agreed.

“They are expanding their capacity to control confrontation between the people and the government,” he said. “Shanghai Chengtou is mostly engaged in urban development and property investment, as well as infrastructure projects like bridges, tunnels, metro lines and so on.”

“The People’s Armed Forces departments are a new way to maintain stability.”

“These armed forces departments have nothing to do with any threat from overseas or about national defense mobilization,” he said. “They are about using military force to suppress people inside the system who are seen as disloyal.”

Me-110G-2

An interesting article on the use of the Me-110 with Lichtenstein Radar in a night fighting role.

Jules blogs about toads in holes and making food that is difficult to assemble in the Colonies. She also has art from her latest inktober that requires phisolophical interpretation…now I’m hungry.

Identify the Aircraft

1

2

Typhoon

One big titanium boat.

Bullet Points:

** Supply chains are not something most of us think about on a day-to-day basis.  Or they weren’t, until the last few years, when we’ve been exposed, at least on the right, to the fragility and susceptibility of said supply chains.  This author works in the shipping industry and has a few thoughts.

** Ukraine War – Just follow the money. The amount of lobbying money spent by Ukraine and others is tremendous, impacting almost all the politicians. Everyone is getting in on it. Consulting firms linked to the White House’s leading Ukraine policy architects — including Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland — appear to be advising the Ukrainian government on its reconstruction efforts funded by U.S. taxpayers. Defense contractor lobbyists are lobbying on behalf of Ukraine for free while taking millions from contractors that benefit from the war.

** What is a “woman”? Fury as women in tech conference is overrun with men claiming to be ‘nonbinary’ – who cut in front of female attendees to network with employers… Oh what a tangled web we weave…

The scandal erupted at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing in Orlando Florida, which is among the most lucrative job finding conventions for young female professionals to meet major tech firms, often right out of college.

The article is funny. I laughed as I read the accounts. The only thing required of a man to actually be a woman these days is a statement of self-identification. Guys fresh out of college looking for work are told that there is a hiring preference if they’re non-binary and they say, “sign me up.”

** A Pentagon official has been seen for the first time since he was accused of running an illegal dog-fighting ring for 20 years – and electrocuting animals that didn’t die in grim battles. A number of people have speculated that since his name is “Frederick Douglas”, and a descendent of slaves,  he stands a good chance of getting a slap on the wrist.

From the Days of Fighting Sail

Race Bannon and Jezebel Jade

Net worth before his term as president and after:

Trump—3B to 2.3B, loss of 700 million

Obama—1.3M to 70M, gain of 68.7 million

G. W. Bush—20M to 40M, gain of 20 million

Clinton—1.3M to 241.5M, gain of 240.2 million

3 USC 102: Compensation of the President of the U.S. Code reads, in part: The President shall receive in full for his services during the term for which he shall have been elected compensation in the aggregate amount of $400,000 a year, to be paid monthly, and in addition an expense allowance of $50,000 to assist in defraying expenses relating to or resulting from the discharge of his official duties. Any unused amount of such expense allowance shall revert to the Treasury…

H/T – you know who you are – an ordinary fence in Texas – Not Martha’s Vineyard…

New Feature Film Release

And All I got was a lousy picture of a blue dress…

Ep. 28  Trans, Inc: genital mutilation is not just a fad. It’s a full-blown industry. How did something this demented happen so quickly? Chris Moritz has been following the money. pic.twitter.com/N2em2hbTE8

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) October 4, 2023

Identify the Aircraft

Yes, it is, but which model…

It’s a Beginning

Settled Science?

Technology

RIP

The Last Quest?

No, there, one more down the page from this one. This is not the last.

Travel Poster

I’d suggest that you should visit the Oort cloud but technically, you’re already there because it visits you.

The Oort Cloud is a vast region made up of trillions of small bodies. Scientists believe that the Oort Cloud serves as a fresh supply of long-period comets – those that take no less than 200 years to orbit the Sun. If the Solar System had two stars with competing gravity, it would make something like the Oort Cloud even more interesting.

Dinosaurs Live Among Us!

Identify the Aircraft

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Bullet Points:

** Suffering doesn’t make you better. Suffering is just suffering.

** More Ink – from Jules

** The smell of rain.

** UK offers a year off with pay for National Health Service workers who are experiencing male menopause.

** Pregnant man battles gators.

Mail Bag Questions

Q – why are there no cute kittens on Virtual Mirage?

Deploy The Kitten!

Q – When did you first start shooting.

A – When I was old enough to hold a rifle and sight accurately. About 6 or 7 years. I shot my first deer when I was 7 1/2 in the White Mountains in Arizona during turkey season. My grandfather handed me his knife and I also field dressed it with his assistance. He did most of the skinning, etc.

Q – Under what circumstances did you meet the famous art philosopher Juliette (Jules) Smith?

A – A South African lady named Azra had a blog that I followed at least a decade ago, maybe longer. Jules was on that blog and contributed. Since then Jules and I have become friends and literary collaborators. Her most recent blog can be found here.

Bullet Points:

** WHAT?

In a stunning reversal of everything that was said over the last 7 years by the left, and just months after the Biden administration was caught selling portions of Trump’s border wall on a government surplus website, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is citing an “acute and immediate need” to waive dozens of federal laws in order to build a border wall in south Texas as the illegal immigration crisis grows utterly out of control.”

Such unmitigated mountebanks.

** DARPA plans to create wireless energy transfer infrastructure to supply near-uninterruptable power to U.S. military bases worldwide. The plan, as reported by Popular Mechanics, is to use laser technology to beam electricity around the planet. Famously a dream of Nikola Tesla over 100 years ago, if successful, this technology, called fittingly enough POWER (“Persistent Optical Wireless Energy Relay“), would make the U.S. military less reliant on liquid fuel like diesel and vulnerable power lines, which can be intercepted or sabotaged by enemy forces.

** Thomas Sowell said, “Much of the social history of the Western world over the past three decades has involved replacing what worked with what sounded good.”

More Quest?

Ok

Identify the Aircraft

1

Hint – they only built one.

2

3

SPQR

From the founding of Rome, up until the reforms of Marius in 104 BCE, the Roman military was a non professional army, made up of land owning citizens. The population was organized into five classes, with the Equestrian class forming the sixth class. The Equestrian class was composed of the wealthiest individuals, which allowed them to become cavalry because they could afford the upkeep of having horses. The rest of the land owning population fell into the five classes, based on wealth and served as infantry.

In 113 BCE, a roaming army of Germanic warriors crossed Rome’s border on the Danube. In 105 BCE they crushed an army of 80,000 legionaries at Arausio, after which the situation became critical. Gaius Marius had just finished the Jugurthine War against the Numidians and was elected consul in absentia during the year 105 BCE. Upon his return to Rome, he began to drastically alter the military in order to combat this new threat.

Until Marius’ reforms, there was a property requirement to join the citizen militia legions. This limited the number of legionaries, as they had to supply their own arms and armor and had to own property valued at 3,500 sesterces or more.

The most important reform implemented by Marius was to ignore this property requirement. He allowed the capite censi of Rome to join the legions. On top of and because of this, Marius arranged for the state to supply the legions with their arms and armor, offered poor recruits the chance to gain a professional soldier’s pay and the chance to gain loot and plunder on campaign. The masses, with little hope of gaining status in any other occupation, flocked to Marius’ new legions.

In contrast to the earlier Roman policy in which the citizen army would disband after a campaign, recruits were now enlisted for a term of 16 years. This created a standing Roman army for the first time and drastically increased its quality. On the other hand, the balanced cross-sectional army of the Roman people at war was destroyed in favor of an army made up mainly of the landless poor, the Proletarii. This would eventually have grave consequences for the republic, as the poor soldiers became loyal to their generals, rather than to the Roman state.

In the bazar.

Conquest

Mistaken Identity in Mexico

BRM reported on this as well, but since it tickled my funnybone, I had to mention it here on VM. (Good fortune on your travels, BRM) Followers of this blog know that for nearly a decade, I was involved to greater and lesser degrees with this sort of drama in Mexico.

Blundering drug cartel hitmen have reportedly murdered their own boss in a shocking case of mistaken identity.

The shootout took place at a private health clinic in Culiacán, Mexico, last Thursday night (September 28).

Sinaloa Cartel gunmen loyal to Los Chapitos – the sons of infamous drug lord Joaquín ‘El Chapo‘ Guzmán – are thought to have been at the hospital guarding another man who was receiving treatment.

Before you judge these guys too harshly, I was in Los Mochis, Culiacan, Sinaloa, in February 2016 when two narcos in a red Toyota Hi Lux pulled up next to me and two of my pipe hitters, looking to murder los Yanquis. The pair crawled into the back of the Hi Lux and dropped the gate in the back of the pick up, and pulled back a tarp to reveal a .50 Barrett. We had black passports and a letter of Marque from the Government of Mexico. Two double taps at 3 feet from M-4’s ended their ambitions and made a big old mess in the truck that somebody else must have cleaned up. High velocity headshots at point blank range, the heads swell like balloons and then splatter open like rotten melons. Given that the range to target (our Yukon) was about 20′, the Barrett was not the right weapon. We had to take photos of the carcasses for MEXGOV. I’ll look for them. (warning, graphic if I can find them) SEMAR came through that afternoon and claimed the kills as their own.

Narco gunmen are not known for training and tactics. The score that day was Yanquis Peligroso – 15 and Narcos – 0. It ended my field work in Mexico. Sometimes you just have to quit while you’re ahead.

This is how I grew up

Today it’s considered to be reflective of toxic masculinity. No wonder I don’t fit in among the woke.

Bar-tailed Godwit

Bar-tailed Godwit has broken its own record in 2022: a first-year bird (five months old!) has flown 13,560 km—just shy of the direct flight limit of a Boeing 787—from Alaska to Tasmania, seemingly non-stop, in just 11 days (average speed c.51 km/hr).

Identify the Aircraft

1

Yes, it’s easy. I thought that this was a cool photo. The airplane has beautiful lines, but was a disappointment to Russian Frontal Aviation because when they appeared over Ukraine, they were more often than not, shot down almost immedietly.

2

3

Memes-of-the-Day

Think about being judged by a jury of 12 licensed voters who were too inept to get out of jury duty…yeah.