Checking In

 

Visiting Iraq

I’m staying at the Guesthouse for the Prime Ministry, which is located next to the Prime Ministry building. A few of the bloggers who visit VM know that I’m in-country on business. Some have expressed concern for my security, but the Prime Minister’s staff treats me well.

The Guesthouse complex features restaurants, meeting rooms, an indoor swimming pool, a fitness center, and 58 rooms, including 14 suites and 2 presidential suites, designed to accommodate guests of the Prime Ministry of Iraq. (stock photo right)

Located in the Baghdad Green Zone, next to the Prime Ministry Building, the Prime Ministry Guesthouse is a 4-storey guesthouse building, designed and equipped as 5+ star hotel quality. It’s similar in purpose to the Blair House in Washington, DC, Chevening House in London, and the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing (which is not one building but many buildings). Security is tight.

I’m here for meetings.

The Department of State maintains a Level 4 Travel Advisory (“Do Not Travel”) for Iraq. U.S. citizens should not travel to Iraq for any reason.

 

Regular blogging should resume in a few days.

 

Bullet Points:

** The Russian government proposed that Russian President Vladimir Putin withdraw from the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

** Bedtime in First Class.

** We could solve the school security problem overnight if we really wanted to. Wanted and unwanted have second and third-order effects that few will admit. I also believe a sick and soulless society will always find a way to build a bigger psycho, or more of them all at once. That’s why individuals will always matter to me. Knowing what to do when it’s time to do it is much more worthwhile than having a policy that only mitigates liability.

** The Governor lives rent-free in President DJT’s head…

** Whoever Britain chooses to lead it away from its era of multiculturalism, something big is going to change. In the United States, most deep-seated reforms must navigate a narrow path of constitutionality and survive the scrutiny of the Supreme Court. Britain has a different constitution.

The democratic prerogatives of the British Parliament are almost absolute. It is true that, at the turn of the century, Blair enshrined the European Convention of Human Rights in British law and empowered a Supreme Court to vet parliamentary decisions.

For now, such institutions and treaties impede any program of large-scale deportation. On the other hand, Britain’s proudly (or notoriously) sovereign parliament could abolish these Blairite guardrails in an afternoon. All three conservative leaders—Farage, Badenoch, and Jenrick—have, in one way or another, declared themselves open to the idea.

Even relative to Brexit, or to what Donald Trump has done thus far in the United States, this would be an earthquake. It would take at least until the next election, but on present trends it cannot be ruled out. Maybe that will turn out to be what Brexit was for.

** MAGA – DC is changing.

**The Robert E. Lee portrait, which was cruelly and forcibly removed against the Army’s wishes at West Point Military Academy on December 27, 2022, is being restored!  Thank you, SECDEF Hegseth!!! To hell with Taliban Ty Seidule and his woke, Maoist Renaming/Destruction Committee. Morale in the military has exponentially grown since Trump was reelected.

This portrait was on the 2nd floor of West Point’s library near a portrait of Grant. Both were removed. But this is not the only thing that was removed in the purge. The Robert E. Lee bust was also removed from the Reconciliation Plaza on December 27, 2022. Perhaps worst of all, a beautiful painting depicting Lee at Gettysburg taking responsibility for Pickett’s charge in West Point’s museum was also removed.

Additionally, an engraved quote from Robert E Lee about Integrity was supposedly removed from a stone wall. What messages did the woke leftists send? Apparently, reconciliation, integrity, along with heritage, valor, and honor are gone. Those themes are slowly being returned.

** Security for the upcoming book tour? Trump revokes Secret Service protection for former VP Harris, AP sources say. I guess the Ho will have to come out of pocket for protection. I’m sure she’s paid for protection before – professionally.

 

VDH on Europe

Victor Davis Hanson argues that Europe is teetering on the edge of crisis due to unsustainable policies on immigration, economy, energy, and defense.

He highlights rising violent crimes by illegal migrants from majority-Muslim countries in nations like the UK, Netherlands, France, and Germany, which leaders and media long downplayed as xenophobic concerns.

Now, public backlash is mounting, with protests in Britain against open borders and Greece eyeing U.S.-style security measures under Trump.

Hanson criticizes Europe’s failure to assimilate immigrants arriving en masse without language skills, cultural familiarity, or compatible values, leading to ghettoization, resentment, and anti-host sentiments.

He ties this to broader woes: stagnating socialist economies burdened by welfare for a shrinking native population (with birth rates below 1.4), unaffordable entitlements (as noted by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz), and a brain drain to the U.S., where deregulation and tech innovation thrive.

Europe’s “net-zero” energy push, which favors subsidized wind and solar over cheaper natural gas, nuclear, and coal, has driven up costs, hindering competitiveness, while China hypocritically exports green technology and builds coal plants.

Additionally, Trump’s demands for fair trade and tariffs, plus Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, are forcing NATO to ramp up defense spending from 2% to potentially 5% of GDP, ending reliance on U.S. protection.

Hanson warns that without radical reforms, securing borders, curbing illegal immigration, trimming welfare, boosting fertility, adopting flexible energy policies, and prioritizing assimilation over DEI, Europe risks collapse, questioning if the continent will embrace these changes or succumb to its “crippling continental disease.”

 

Identify the Aircraft

1

 

2

Please be specific.

 

3

Developed in parallel with the parent aircraft, this one was proposed by Alexander Kartveli as a replacement. It was to be powered by 3,450 hp Pratt & Whitney R-4360-13 Wasp Major 28-cylinder radial engine driving contra-rotating six-bladed Aeroproducts propellers and armed with six M2 Brownings. The USAAF ordered two prototypes on June 18, 1943. The first prototype, with a four-bladed propeller due to delayed delivery of the intended unit, was first flown on February 2, 1944, and the second prototype with the intended propeller followed on June 26 of that year. The second prototype crashed early in the test program, but the USAAF was impressed with its performance and placed an order for 100 production aircraft, equipped with R-4360-19 engines and four 37 mm cannons in place of the Browning machine guns. However, this order was canceled as the war drew to a close.

By 1943, the USAAF had developed several excellent prototypes of what would eventually be rolled out. Jet engines and the war’s end changed those trajectories.

 

Parting Shot

 

End