Bullet Points:
** (h/t Claudio) Selecting Finland as the lead nation of the naval mines cooperation project is a reflection of the Finnish Navy’s long-standing capability in naval mining and the high quality of Finnish industry. The purpose of the cooperation is to reinforce the Allies’ naval defense. The cooperation is based on a Declaration of Intent signed in July 2024 and approved by many countries in the Baltic Sea and North Sea regions. Putin and Xi work hard to get their neighbors to spend more money on defense. All in all, it’s a good thing. Whether it’s Finland, Sweden, or Poland, it’s better not to have to depend too much on others. Alliances are fine, but as the USA found out in the recent war in Iran, they are often alliances of convenience. I’m not throwing rocks at anyone, but what goes around comes around.
** WSF offers his take on World Cup Soccer drama (right). There are considerable injuries inflicted – but those near death are healed by the cheers from the audience and a card from the referee, and they get up and run for another hour, finishing the game. It’s miraculous.
** Germany just became the clearest case study and cautionary tale of what happens when an industrial powerhouse mistakes dependency for partnership. Look at the world’s three biggest manufacturing powers: the US, Japan, and Germany. All three faced the rise of Chinese manufacturing. Only one took the full hit. The US moved first. It built tariff walls, restricted strategic imports, and effectively shut Chinese cars out of its domestic market with massive duties. Whether people agree with the policy or not, American industry bought itself time. Japan learned from years of economic and political friction. Companies diversified supply chains, reduced dependence on China, and prepared for strategic competition long before it became fashionable. Germany did the opposite.
Instead of building resilience, it built dependence. Bad move. Germany’s trade balance with China in capital goods slid from a surplus of roughly 750 million euros to a €500 million deficit between mid-2024 and August 2025.
** At ICE – US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested approximately 10,000 people over a five-day period at the end of June, marking a significant increase in immigration enforcement as the Trump administration continues its deportation efforts. The figures, obtained by the Associated Press from a person familiar with the data, average roughly 2,000 arrests per day. ICE does not routinely release arrest statistics, making direct comparisons difficult, but the pace represents a notable increase over earlier this year.
** The whole point of the left, from activists to rich kids to mind-numbed bureaucrats to tenure-encrusted professors, is that the middle class, the bourgeoisie, should be regulated, controlled, hemmed in, forced to bend the knee to the hegemonic ‘educated’ class. That’s all.
** Vengeance and Retribution should be completed and released for sale by the end of August if things go according to plan. It’s at about 85,000 words now (Complete length about 100K), and the outline is very fleshed out. Concept cover art begins to come together. (left)
** Schumer and Gillibrand call on Graham Platner to ‘immediately withdraw’ from Maine Senate race after rape allegation. Wow, I did nazi that one coming!
** I doubt that there will be a blog tomorrow on VM.
** Claudio explores the difference between volunteers and press gangs in Russia. The Ukraine front continues to be a thorn in Putin’s side.
** China has expanded export controls on additional Japanese firms, marking another major escalation in the technology rivalry between Asia’s two largest economies. But while much of the world focuses on rare earths, Japan may possess an even more powerful strategic advantage: its near-monopoly over the world’s most advanced photoresists, the indispensable material behind modern semiconductor manufacturing.
Recipes
Spies, Black Ties and Mango Pies – Cooking undercover. Eating in the open. Families of the Central Intelligence Agency tell of their culinary adventures around the world in stories and recipes. The stories are fascinating, and the recipes are delicious. You can share the experience by using recipes such as Curry in the Rain, Top Secret Soup, Ali Baba and the 40 Courses, and more. The book is arranged by geographic area, based on each story’s location. A story may take place in one part of the world, but include a recipe from another region. A geographic listing of recipes is included. Some stories were submitted without a recipe, and some recipes were submitted without a story. The editors have fitted those recipes and stories together. Over 160 recipes.
The Joe Hole
Secret agents delivered behind enemy lines by organizations like the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) or the American Office of Strategic Services (OSS) were codenamed “Joes”. The exit hatch they used naturally became known as the “Joe Hole”. Military mechanics created the hole by removing the plane’s defensive ventral (ball or dustbin) turrets. They then reinforced the aperture with static-line strongpoints, so parachutes would deploy automatically upon exit. It was prominently integrated into Handley Page Halifax bombers by British “Moon Squadrons” and heavily modified Consolidated B-24 Liberators operated by the U.S. Army Air Forces’ secret Operation CARPETBAGGER. Before the Joe Hole, early paratroopers had to exit through the rear or side doors of aircraft, which posed a high risk of slamming into the plane’s tail unit or scattering a group (“stick”) of jumpers too widely across a drop zone. Dropping straight down through the center of the fuselage allowed agents and supplies to be deployed in incredibly rapid succession, ensuring they landed close together in tight, dark, or unmarked partisan drop fields.
Identify the Aircraft
1
2
3
End
Identify the Aircraft
1 – Westland Lysander
2 – Lockheed A-29 Hudson
3 – RAF Armstrong Whitworth Whitley
Exactly
” the middle class, the bourgeoisie, should be regulated, controlled, hemmed in, forced to bend the knee to the hegemonic ‘educated’ class. ”
The Expertocracy.
The Administrative State.
The Administrative State exists to endure. Corrupt practices, human pride, and greed fuel it (along with all of the deadly sins), justifying any excess to keep it alive.
That ‘might’ work if we didn’t have guns…just sayin…
They’ve been working diligently (and unsuccessfully) to make that happen.
Guns are necessary but not sufficient. The other part of course is the will to use them when necessary. On that other front, those who believe they own us (and they are 95% of the way there, by the way) have been extremely successful. How do you conquer a great people when you are numerically few? That was rhetorical. Oh there are so many ways, and so many have been used against us. Here are just a few of the top methods.
—
Convince your victims that they are stained by eternal blood guilt. It doesn’t matter if your victim is personally innocent of everything (even if he is harmless, and useless, as a flop-eared bunny). Teach him that he is guilty because of the actions of his ancestors, or simply people who generally look like him regardless of actual bloodlines. Insist on collective guilt, and collective punishment, for your selected victims. (But for your own people [and for your dumb, violent instrumentum vocale], insist that each is an individual, and that it is … er, racist, I meant RACIST, to judge an entire people by the actions of a few persons who appear to be bad apples. Even those those “bad apples” are really themselves victims of the oppressive system created by your victims. And most importantly, Pattern Recognition is Wrong Think, Bad Think, and criminal Hate Think.)
—
Teach your victims, especially their children, that their culture is inherently evil, that their ancestors were to a man criminal and cruel and that the history of their own people is shameful. Teach them to hate their own kind and to worship the Other, the stupider and more violent the better. (Gosh I love me some “hoops”. And some National Felon League. And of course I simply adore rap. Yummy yummy rap!) Teach the male children that masculinity and chivalry, and even mere physical fitness are “toxic”. Teach the female children that chastity and modesty are “tools of the patriarchy” to keep them oppressed. Teach the females that random sex with as many men as possible, especially the violent and stupid ones, is A Good Thing. If one was particularly evil, one might even come up with a simple way for the ordinary girl or woman to THINK they can monetize their moral corruption. (Pay no attention to Only Fans. Be especially sure to not look up the late billionaire owner.)
—
Promote and glorify sexual deviance. Teach the young that THEY are themselves actually deviant, each and every one, and that those who resist are not only full of hatred and bigotry, but themselves broken and inferior. Insist on access to prepubescent children for the obviously deviant and mentally ill. (“They’re just reading them stories, you bigot!”)
—
If you had the foresight to invest heavily in control of popular culture (TV, movies, music), make shows and movies wherein adult males of your chosen victims are at best bumbling fools, and usually mean-spirited idiots, especially the fathers. Be sure to show that the smartest person in the room, and/or the technical expert, is from your instrumentum vocale group. The most generous and wise persons should also come from this group. To the “practical-minded” (my polite way of saying unimaginative and in many ways functionally autistic) this might sound like a waste of time and money and effort, but the “soft power” of popular culture is of nearly incalculable magnitude. “How many divisions has The Pope?” How many divisions is Hollywood worth? (Lupita Nyong’o IS the most beautiful woman of the Ancient Hellenic world, you racist! Remarks such as “Helen of deTroyt” or “the face that launched a thousand ships … the opposite direction” will not be tolerated.)
—
We’ve had decades of the above. And at least half the American population (I’m talking Heritage Americans, not even including recent invade… I meant New Americans, New Americans.) Anyway at least half of America has imbibed and succumbed to the poison I described above. Persons like that, you could give them an actual arsenal, and they’d still be rabbits. Or perhaps they’d turn those weapons on their own kin in favor of their oppressor/owners and the stupid, violent, dysgenic invaders that the oppressor/owners mean to replace them with.
All true, sadly.
“Graham Platner to ‘immediately withdraw’”
I would have thought that frequently drinking to a blacked out state would be a disqualifier.
I’ve been wondering what characteristics he had that suited him to the US Senate besides being a drunk.
“Let’s pick a bum off the street and run him for Congress. A man of the people!”
Much historical precedence for that. Robert Caro’s 3rd volume in his The Years of Lyndon Johnson books, Master of the Senate, is instructive. In fact, everything in his LBJ books is instructive in that no matter how big an SOB you thought LBJ was, you underestimated the level of his competence at it. I hope Caro lives long enough to finish the fifth and final volume.
Being a drunk, a pervert, and an SOB (per LBJ and the deep state in general) would seem to be prerequisites for membership in the Senate. There are examples of people who snuck in over the transom. It’s interesting to see how John Karl Fetterman (D-PA) has become a voice of reason, wisdom, and kindness in a sea of sludge. I have been harsh with early Fetterman, but I’ve come to respect the man (who benefited from hospitalization at Walter Reid Military Hospital). Things don’t always turn out the way you think they will. He wasn’t an empty pair of shorts and a hoodie after all.
There is truly nothing new under the sun. You’ll remember Clint Eastwood talking to O’Bama’s empty chair during the 2012 Stupid Party convention. Everett Dirkson did that in 1952 whilst campaigning against the guy (name escapes me) who was Majority Leader before Lyndon. One of the gazillion little tidbits Caro tosses out there like after dinner mints.
The party apparatchiks always want candidates that they can feel superior to.
Considering that the apparatchiks are universally abject filth, this limits the caliber
of potential candidates.
*
They also like to have people with lots of dirt, so they can use it to control them.
*
You have all prepared yourselves for Hunter’s Presidential campaign, yes?
*
I think I mentioned this here recently, but… poor Gary Hart.
– Kle.
Gary Hart – the untouchable marble man with feet of clay. On his yacht. Who can forget?
And he’s out.
Identify the Aircraft:
1. Westland Lysander
2. Lockheed Hudson
3. Armstrong Whitworth Whitley
Precisely
I await the new book… it’s going to be a long hot summer…. Waiting … ever waiting … as the cuckoo clock struck the hour… rain began to fall.. slowly at first …
*
The Westland Lysander.. I want one. But in a dark red.
The original black is historical, as you know. Deep blood red would be fetching for a toy. I would love (as in love it long time GI) to have a Lysander and fly it to airshows and so forth. I know they’re rare. I have no idea how much it would (A) cost to buy one or (B) cost to fly one, but I’m sure it would be worth the price of admission to that club.
Cost in 2019 on Ebay – For Sale: 1942 National Steel Car Corp. (Westland) Lysander 3A. Fully restored. 990 hrs TTSN. 75 hrs SMOH on engine. Can not be duplicated for twice the asking price. $775,000. See: https://www.platinumfighters.com/lysander
#lysander #lizzie #warbirdsforsale #platinumfightersales
I asked the OL – she said “I never wudda let you get within 10 feet of me if I’d ever seen you with one of those, less’n you were wearing a monkey suit (tuxedo). The fedora OTOH: you look good in one of those; hides your bald spot – area.”
I have always favored fedoras. I don’t know if it’s a Sam Spade thing or more of an Indiana Jones fetish, but they appeal. Tall crown on the fedora.
.
When I was younger than, like, 7 years old, they dressed me in bow ties. I have photos. Nothing since then, but I could be convinced to wear one with a tux in ‘Dumb and dumber’ orange if there were an event where I could kill a rare snow owl (you have to have seen the movie for it to make sense). I relate to the film in a lot of ways. My favorite character is “the gas man”. My third daughter, Kelly, and I can sit and watch Dumb and Dumber for the 1000th time and laugh through the whole film again.
I have a collection of Fedoras. Some are backups of favorites.
Bow ties look affectatious. Tucker. Bill Nye.
If not bow ties how about bowler hats…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHJFK_FH-8g
I have one Fedora. It’s bright red, and it was given to me by the Red Hat Linux rep one year at the Scalex Linux Expo in L.A.
Might make a good MAGA fedora……
That’ll work, could start a trend, ‘The MAGA Fedora Club’.
You left out Less Nessman…
🤣
Having worked in the Broadcast Industry for six years, I can confirm that WKRP was a documentary.
My wife was attracted to me because of my fedora.
It distracts from the face.
If I rob a liquor store with the brim down, that’s all they’ll remember and the video won’t see my face.
Adventures in packing. Up to now, over the years whenever anyone was coming over: wife – put these things in the computer room so they’re out of the way.
Now: pulling things out of the computer room: wife – what’s THAT doing in the computer room.
Meanwhile, commenting will be sparser than usual while triaging/packing, loading, and moving occupy my time and attention. Taking a break at the moment.
I hate moving, Frank. Condolences. Seriously, it’s my kryptonite.
My next move, I won’t be allowed to take anything with me, and I wouldn’t want the stuff.
Goodwill is your friend for clearing out and giving away those things that don’t belong in the new place, and the new computer room will be roomier…for a little while anyway.
I find bow ties work better on a skinny guy, so I’m disqualified unless I get
leukemia or something.
*
That CIA cookbook and adventure stories volume is probably a top ten
item as a return on investment for our tax dollar with that TLA!
*
The Brits built at least one post-war transport plane with a built-in, factory
chute for paratroops, the Blackburn Beverley. I guess loading ramps that
can be opened in flight replaced that idea.
– Kle.
DCDBT’s: No, but confident woman do.
***
Soccer: Unfortunately USA played like the JV team…happens, especially considering soccer/futebol here is still considered the red-headed stepchild sitting at the kids table sport. That said, kudos to the team for making a great showing up until this last game.
***
Germany’s Demise: Easy enough to see hakf of Europe is in social freefall…at the hands of lousy misguided leadership.
The middle class. “The Men Who Built America”, at the 1:06:27 mark–
—
“….and perhaps America’s greatest innovation yet…a thriving and prosperous middle class”.
—
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2l-dJ8NZlkw
Bow ties? Not a good look on those of us with no necks. In my “cowboy” youth, I wore string ties. The ranch girls liked the look and knew you were serious if your hay hooks were in the pickup bed instead of the passenger footwell when you picked her up for a date.
If anyone wants to know, I’m the one who bought the last copy of Spies, Black Ties, & Mango Pies. My wife LOVES cookbooks. So I had to do it. Apologies to anyone wanting a copy.
I think they’re available on the EAAMOC website if you have authorization to buy from that outlet.
I know two men who look good with bow ties. Both of them are unabashedly geeks; one of them is a gent who was part of the team that programmed a chess game… in 1971. Apparently, I’m one of very few humans to ever see him without a suit jacket and bowtie, as he took the advice not to wear the good clothes on the range.
.
Cookbook acquired; I’ll see if they picked up any good recipes with the good stories.
I had to deal with two engineers during my career that wore bow ties. Neither could be trusted, were petty, and made me firmly believe never to trust a man that wears a bow tie.
Sound advice.
I think LB Johnson’s husband wears a bow tie.
He’s a good guy. Brilliant engineer.
I think it depends on who’s wearing the bow tie. Sean Connery looked much better in one than I ever will….
>it depends on who’s wearing the bow tie
Bingo.
Re: “The Joe Hole.” I recall reading abut british paratroops in WWII jumping out of transports through a hole in the floor. Apparently the hole wasn’t big enough, because a lot of them left their front teeth, and some their upper jaw, on the floor of the plane.