Bullet Points:
** A House of Commons committee heard evidence that bot activity linked to Iran appeared to drop sharply during internet shutdowns inside the country, with a UK Defence Journal report referenced in the discussion.
** Are you hungry? Real meals during the Civil War.
** Why did the Cubans send midgets to defend Maduro?
** I have never ridden a zorse. I think a zebra and a horse would be a good mix for a hearty, reliable mount.
** 68
** It defined an attitude. It’s my car.
** h/t Claudio – some people have a lot of time on their hands. I’m saying that it’s a bad hobby. The Singapore Strait is a crucial maritime shipping route connecting the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea. Roughly 100,000 ships pass through these waters each year, together carrying roughly one-third of all goods traded globally. The strait’s strategic location also makes it a hub for shadow fleets transiting between Iran, Russia, and Venezuela to China, one of the world’s largest importers of sanctioned oil. Osman has a front-row seat. “Singapore is probably the best place on earth to see (shadow ships),” the 32-year-old said. While ships above a certain size are required under international law to keep their automatic identification system (AIS) trackers on, shadow vessels will sometimes go dark to evade authorities. But because the Singapore Strait is so narrow, it’s practically impossible for a ship to transit safely without switching on its location tracker.
** The U.S. Army has confirmed that it plans to start fielding its new MV-75 tiltrotors in 2027. This is at least five years earlier than originally planned, and three years earlier than what the service was targeting just 12 months ago. The Army has been pushing for some time now to accelerate this program, which it sees as especially critical for any future high-end conflict in the Pacific region.
** A local Navajo friend told me that a coyote approaching you or crossing your path is ominous. If a coyote crosses the path of a Navajo, they go home for a day or two in order to avoid the impending calamity. Coyotes portend a shift or change ahead. I didn’t know that. I’ve had many scores of coyotes cross my path in my life, and just stumbled on as usual.
** Communists in Minneapolis are said to be turning out with rifles to oppose ICE operations to arrest and deport. We all know how that will end up.
** Track the Canadian Hate Speech Law – Bill C-9, legislation intended to strengthen protections against hate propaganda and hate crimes. They removed a ‘religious speech defence,’ which protects peaceful expressions of religious belief, could create legal uncertainty and restrict legitimate religious discourse. As with the UK, the Canadians are ramping up against political enemies using “hate speech” – translated to anything that the government doesn’t like as the hammer to strike the anvil.
** Marxists take advantage of the generally low IQ of their most ardent followers. The idealistic young leftist believes the bullshit that if only THEY were the ones to implement socialism, “this time it will work!”
Fame
The Clintons
Rep. James Comer: “Facing contempt of Congress, the Clintons’ lawyers made an untenable offer: that I travel to New York for a conversation with President Clinton only. No official transcript would be recorded, and other Members of Congress would be barred from participating. I have rejected the Clintons’ ridiculous offer.
The Clintons’ latest demands make clear they believe their last name entitles them to special treatment. The House Oversight Committee’s bipartisan subpoenas require the Clintons to appear for depositions that are under oath and transcribed. Former President Clinton has a documented history of parsing language to evade questions, responding falsely under oath, and was impeached and suspended from the practice of law as a result.
The absence of an official transcript is an indefensible demand that is insulting to the American people, who demand answers about Epstein’s crimes. As part of our investigation, the House Oversight Committee has released transcripts of interviews with former U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr and former U.S. Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta, providing much-needed transparency to the public. Without a formal record, Americans would be left to rely on competing accounts of what was said.
Former Secretary Clinton’s on-the-record testimony is necessary for the Committee’s investigation, given her knowledge from her time as Secretary of State of the federal government’s work to counter international sex-tracking rings, her personal knowledge of Ms. Maxwell, and her family’s relationship with Mr. Epstein. Contempt proceedings begin tomorrow.”
Identify the Ships
1
There are four classes of ships in this photo. Can you name them?
2
Identify the Aircraft
3
Two turning, two burning.
Parting Shot
End
1 Ships and boats are from Assault Craft Unit TWO.
Foreground is an LCM-8
Middle Landing Craft Utility (LCU)
Small boat?
Rear is Amphibious Assault Ship
Maybe the coyote is the one that needs to go home for a few days when you cross his path?
I fear the Road Runner…
Lol
MEEP-MEEP!
Hah!
But I’m trying to imagine a life/culture where one could get away with going home for a day because of the jaywalking proclivities of some random canid. Wily or not.
—
Then again, I’m in a metal tube on public transport from one leftist hive to another, drinking pisswasser “coffee” laced with carcinogenic sweetners, contemplating the free and democratic choice of whether I get to be exploited, and de facto ruled, by degeneracy-pushing vulture “capitalists” or by their neo-Bolshevik cousins.
[insert GIF of Théoden saying “How did it come to this?”]
—
If I were some coyote-cautious Navaho I’d be asking me, “Let’s compare our cultures. Who’s the deluded idiot monkey boy now, monkey boy?”
—
Not that I have strong feelings about this or anything….
Mike; In all good humor, if it’s come down to Farmer Brothers or Boyds brown shirt versions of the bean, perhaps seeking out a good source for Tetly, real raw milk cream, and genuine slave made style of cane sugar may bring reprieve for the railing commute. A little goes a long way.
> real raw milk cream
Yes! I recall a Swiss friend (and this was an urban Zuricher at that, not some farm guy with ready access to The Pure Quill) being horrified at “watery, tasteless” American supermarket milk. Eventually he settled on the organic $8/gallon (back then, yet!) Whole Foods milk as “not so bad” and “good enough for Anna” [his toddler daughter]. And this wasn’t some America-resenting Euroweenie person. He rather liked it here. (And he had stories of junkies shooting heroin into their penis veins in the middle of the day on public transit in Zurich. “I’m pretty libertarian — do what you want. But taking out your penis on a tram full of schoolchildren? To shoot heroin? This is wrong!” Friend attended the ETH back in the (failed) experimental days of free needles/needle exchange.) Anyway, I find that one of the many advantages of “real food” is that I actually need far less of it to feel satisfied, in addition to it tasting better and almost certainly being better for you.
—
But Swiss friend moved back to Switzerland when Anna turned 13 or 14. “This is not a healthy culture for young women.” He’s not necessarily wrong. A Scarsdalian friend was telling me the other day that her 14-yo daughter’s schoolmates skip lunch for (only) an iced coffee, because they don’t want to get fat. (Friend’s daughter gets mucho flak for eating lunch. Not that daughter is even remotely fat — she does a lot of sports. Plus she likes to eat.) These near-children are also buying “anti-aging cream” at the Ulta store, and some are even getting botox injections. (We’re not even going to talk about the quaint custom of pre-college nose jobs, that’s a different compartment.)
Local son nearby here just started milking 4 jerseys. $10 gallon and has a waiting list. Breeding mainly for roping calves. Had to invest in a milking machine lighten the load.
There is money in whole milk – a significant retail trade wherever you set up.
Trump just ok’d whole milk for schools again.
I didn’t know that was not an option.
That’s great news, put the local Health Department ninny’s on notice that people who like to purchase whole unpasteurized milk from their local dairy farmer will now be able to without the “authorities” giving everyone grief because it cuts into Big Ag’s profit (as if). This is the true [original] ‘farm-to-table’, not the nouveau chic version use to brag to their elite friends.
Ther are two big reasons for the way we Americans do milk. One is distance from source to user. Seriously, when was the last time you saw a dairy producer right outside a town or city that said producer serves? Yeah, thanks to all the Karens and NIMBYies the dairy farms and other animal farms and even crop farms move farther and farther away from the end users
–
The second reason is… um, look at a globe or world map. Mosta Europe is more north than most of the US of A. I live in Florida and my AOA is on the same latitude as the friggin Gaza Strip. The US, for all it’s blizzards, gets boiling hot in the summer. There are youtube channels that show farmers who have 3-4 feet of snow drop on them in the winter and yet in the summer the temps are pushing 100 degrees. In Iowa and Illinois and Kansas. I’m in Gainesville, FL and we don’t normally get at or above 100 degree weather.
-.
Thus our watered down pasteurized milk. Same reason for our watered down summer pilsner piss-water beer. Both travel better, store better, and taste okay. Neither are great, but good enough. And having had a heavy dark doublebach beer during a hot summer day, yeah, if I was going to drink a beer that piss-water pilsner would probably be good enough and better than that heavy dark beer.
–
I’ve had real whole milk, and it’s… heavy. Damn. Real heavy. Overpowers the cereal, overpowers the brownies and pancakes and other deserts. If you need your pasteurized milk to be heavier, for cooking or such, you can add heavy cream. But overall, our good enough American milk is good enough.
>that piss-water pilsner would probably be good enough and better than that heavy dark beer
Sacrilege! The finest (commercial) beer is Founders Breakfast Stout: 8.3%ABV, with coffee, chocolate, and oatmeal. My German friend heard about this and physically recoiled. “That would be illegal in my country!” Actually ex-friend. Strong disagreement on firearms and 2A. Oh well.
—
Okay, I’ll admit I’m taking this way too seriously, but Karens and NIMBYs are the small end of the problem. The main causes are corporate/finance/vulture “capitalism”. Small, independent farmers (or anything else independent) cannot be allowed, because Our Betters can’t control them so easily. In the case of agriculture, independents must be wiped out. We bipedal talking animals were made to be fungible slaves on corporate latifunda owned by actual human beings. And if that worthy goal is not met, then the only “independence” is to exist as sharecroppers.
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I have no problem in general with pasteurization. In fact, I think it’s a good idea. BUT, governments have no business forbidding people from buying the pure quill from willing suppliers, so long as both parties are uncoerced and understand and accept the risks.
Here is a classic short story, Lipidleggin’
https://www.billstclair.com/DoingFreedom/000623/df.0600.fa.lipidleggin.html
Heavy beer is great for drinking for enjoyment when not working.
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But, and you knew there was a ‘but,’ didn’t you..
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Back before safe water, weak beer was safe to drink, and low alcohol levels meant one had to work hard to get drunk, especially if drinking weak beer while working hard.
–
Thus the American pilsner reigned supreme because it traveled well, survived being warm, had a ‘good enough’ flavor and was safe to drink.
–
Nowadays, sure, there are high alcohol beers and heavy beers and chewy beers that have far more flavor but you’ll get drunk quicker on them than on weak American pilsners. Many which have actually a decent flavor.
–
Euroweenies consider our beers to be weak summer brews. Yeah, because America is hotter than the Euroweenies can handle.
X2
Rancher. They frequently don’t make it home when they cross my path.
1a – Landing Craft Mechanized LCM-8 – Mike Boat
1b – Landing Craft, Personnel, Large
1c – Landing craft LCVP Higgins Boat
1d – De Soto County class Tank Landing Ship (LST)
2 – Special Operations Craft – Riverine
3 – Fairchild NC-123K
Outstanding.
> Marxists take advantage of the generally low IQ of their most ardent followers. The idealistic young leftist …
Eh. Maybe so, but I’m not sure about that, the low-IQ part that is. The word “idealistic” that you used actually captures the underlying issues: Allow me to explicate [read that in your best Critical Drinker voice]. I think the “intellectual” appeal of Marxism exploits two psychological vulnerabilities (primarily; the secondary and lower-order exploitations are many more). Marxism at its core exploits (misplaced) compassion, and it exploits resentment. It’s sad that compassion can so easily be weaponized, but it’s true. As to the resentment, Marx was personally very resentful with SERIOUS daddy issues among other things, plus he came from a culture of resentment (those damn German Lutherans! Again). In the FUSA of 2026, look at the typical Antifarian, or the academic leftist for that matter: generally unmanly males and sexless (often shapeless) females, often in marginal jobs (unless they have parental support, as many of the rank-and-file academic ones do). You don’t generally see people who personally have their acts together out there agitating for Marxism.
—
And that ties into the Resentment. Even if you talk a good game about “body positivity” or “the toxic male gaze” and so forth, most of them know they’re unattractive (with personalities that match their unfortunate appearance). That’s partly why the weird clothes, the piercings and the blue hair. “If you don’t try to play the game, you can’t lose,” but we all HAVE to play the game, regardless of whether we are trying. [ed. Praise Freya that I’m pretty. -MC] This is also why the sort of useful fools who push the Hard Left narratives are so keen on destroying standards of beauty (the phrase “conventionally attractive” is guerilla psychological warfare against Beauty, and Truth, and the lofty and aspirational). This is also why they push so hard with the “everyone is beautiful and special” nonsense. It’s as the villain (“Syndrome”?) in The Incredibles said: When everyone is super, then no one is.
Evil abhors beauty.
Parting shot; hopefully the next couple weeks can be a clean sweep. Up there looking at 8 below and 9 above for the first week. 15 and 22 for the following week. Usually very little snow falls at those temps. Paddy wagons should maneuver without hindrance at 3 a.m. Free 7 a.m. breakfast should be served for Mr T’s state guards persons if they get called up that early to “meet the press” and wave on the final wagon en route. Just plz stay on the sidewalk, no mraps will be harmed by speed bumps or deer in the headlights.
With the current Winter weather wave running across the northern portion (5 degrees in Philly) we’ll see who’s hearty and truly committed to their vacuous cause. My guess is most of these paid activists – who likely do not own a pair of insulated work Carhartt’s – will remain in their warm beds or hangout in their preferred Starbucks huddled over their soy latte’s writing screeds online.
Paul M: I’m up in the Lehigh Valley, it was -6 when I woke up this morning.
Lower Bucks County boyhood, always a bit chillier up your way.
Perfect weather for spraying them down with fire hoses. Or using a water bomber.
Identify the Ships:
1. USS Grant County (LST-1174), two LCM-8, one LCM-6, one TBD
2. SOC-R (Special Operations Craft – Riverine)
Identify the Aircraft:
3. Fairchild C-123K Provider
Excellent
Back when I was a BP Agent in the Big Bend of Texas there was a ranch in southeastern Brewster County that for some reason transplanted a zebra on its land. Southeast Brewster county has not one green plant, unless you count the off green of the creosote bush. My partner and I were traveling across this ranch when the poor creature spotted us and came running. We thought it strange but really got concerned when the doggoned thing tried to bite me through my open window. (no A/C ya know.)
We managed to outrun it to the next gate and escape its intentions. Probably mad as all get out for being stuck there.
Coyote story: Big Bend National Park Rangers had intercepted a human smuggling load but let all involved escape into the open country. Several BP units responded to apprehend the aliens. (We did.) But on to the coyote story. My partner and I were driving on a dirt road in the area looking for tracks of the aliens when up ahead of us, coming straight at us, were two coyotes just dog trotting down the road. I stopped the Ramcharger and we just watched as they kept coming. When they got to the front of our vehicle they parted, one to the right and one to the left. The one that came by my side never slowed down but just glanced up at me and kept on going. We had neither one seen anything like that at all. I guess the ‘don’t shoot the animals’ atmosphere in the Park had lulled their fear of humans.
Coyote story… MrsK and I have had coyote, fox and big horn sheep share a path numerous times by just trotting past on both sides, looking at us and continuing on.
*
One in particular was walking in front of us for about a mile, stopping, looking back for us to catch up, then continue on. We became concerned that it needed help of some kind and was leading us. It ended at a small brook where it got a drink then laid down for a few minutes, then satisfied “we” were ok it sprinted off vanishing into the forest. Apparently we were being led to the watering hole.
*
Most memorable was several big horn sheep appearing rapidly out of the brush, approaching the car, surrounding it, then one coming up and sticking a head full of horns into the open window to sniff and see what was what. Then deciding we were not interesting and departing. The entire incident lasting less than thirty or so seconds so by time we reacted there was no time to roll up the manual crank window.
*
There have been a number of interesting developments in Syria the last week or so. My understanding of that area is limited but it appears the Kurds have been pushed out of a major oil field and the Turks are flexing more power in the north.
The Kurds left and went to Iran to fight. The media has not reported on it.
.
As mentioned here previously, when I was a young boy an uncle of mine found a lone coyote pup and brought it to me. I raised Dusty-the-Coyote. Eventually he got a taste for the neighbor’s chickens, which he would bring home, uneaten or partially eaten and would leave them as gifts for me. The chicken owner ended his depredations. He was a coyote being a coyote but he was a good pet.
Bongino’s final statement is all one can do when forced into that sort of interaction with someone who jumps the shark by saying she hates something yet has developed a position based on what others say. It is beyond intellectually dishonest. One can only shake their head and politely walk away. A good lesson to maintain one’s sanity, no convincing that person on anything, including the facts.
***
I relish (for justice sake) the Clinton’s getting their heads handed to them, they are deserving of no less than harsh but righteous treatment. Unfortunately I am not at all convinced the R’s will do a damn thing to hold the prior reprobate crew accountable, so far this year they have accomplished absolutely nothing but say they’re gonna do something. Not holding my breath…but it should be entertaining.
***
68: Live your own life, doesn’t matter what others say about you or how you should live or be.
The clip of the Cuban boxes being carried was pretty bizarre and thoroughly unsettling. The only explanations I can come up with are they collected some body parts, stuffed them into the boxes and just randomly assigned them names of the guards – or – they’re empty boxes and it’s just ceremonial. Which is really pretty much the same story with only the detail of what’s in the box being different.
Nope, not random body parts. Not symbolic. It’s the result of mobile crematoria. Just like the Russians have been using in Ukraine to hide their horrific losses at the hands of AK-toting grannies and teenaged beauty queens. Not to mention at the hands of the Ghost of Keeeev. And just like the horrid Germans used to hide their crimes against humanity toward the end of WW2. Because a nation so energy-starved it was using horse transport would expend fuel on burning millions of corpses. Mobile crematoria are ALWAYS the answer.
The PRC made use of similar equipment throughout the Worker’s Paradise during COVID.
Do you think Venezuela, where you have to bring your own bedding to the hospital – and your own medicine – has the resources for embalming?
And even if they did, would they waste it on Cuban guards?
Fifty years ago I was living north of Pittsburgh. Every Monday we’d visit a nearby dairy farm and buy two gallons of milk directly from the holding tank. $1.00 a gallon. We had to finish it by Saturday night because, come Sunday, it had soured. Never had that opportunity since.
When I was younger, the dairy delivered and I think that’s about what we paid. I think that we got a gallon at a time but I don’t recall how frequently it arrived. We left a dollar (usually in quarters) in the washed empty bottle on the porch and they delivered a fresh one.
I was just watching Fiddler on the Roof, where Tevye delivered milk by pouring it out of the can into the customer’s containers.
Fresh milk? Yeah, twice a day.
Fresh milk that has to be used within the day or two.
–
I’ll take my good old over-processed and pasteurized milk that I buy 5-6 gallons at a time (at $3.99 per gallon vs over $5/gallon under Xiden) and has a refrigerator shelf life of 2 weeks. And it tastes great. Not too thick, not too thin, though I prefer summer milk over winter milk because it’s sweeter.
Zorse. They come in camo. Cool!
—
Communists in Minneapolis with rifles. Over at “Western Rifle Shooters Association”, down the page in the memes under “Dane gelded” is a photo of one. Under that is a close up with a red circle emphasizing the ejection port on his AR. Can’t tell why.
I saw that as well. I believe the circled area is showing no ejection port and thats it’s probably a air-soft rifle.
Sorry for the double post i was duped.
Now that’s smart. Bring an airsoft rifle to the ‘fight’ and point it at the police/ICE/BP.
Suicide by Cop….
It turns into that, doesn’t it?
Commies in mini Leninstalingrad; Are the Nepoleo’s mounting scopes on air soft and fully auto nerf’s? Ouch! In frozen weather that would sting a bit. Only if… if, forces were in Capri’s and cami’s.
Clintons: “The absence of an official transcript is an indefensible demand that is insulting to the American people, who demand answers about Epstein’s crimes.”
How about demanding answers about Clinton crimes?
Living in rural WI, three coyotes worried my GSP. Two are now hats and one is a wall hanger. Amazing range on a .243.
As an aside, I recently watched a good movie about a B-17 crew flying out of Algeria, during the assault on Italy.
It never occurred to me before, but with hundreds of those planes in the air, bothered by ME-109s, did anyone ever study how many of the planes were shot down by the .50 cal. gunners on our own planes? With all that lead in the air, it would seem it must have happened.
Yes, there are studies out there, done during the conflicts, that show blue-on-blue damage. But overall the damage from recovered crashed planes and from damaged but landable planes shows more damage from smaller-than-.50BMG or much-larger-than-.50BMG (20mm and 37mm and, of course, varieties of flak pieces.)
–
Damage from recovered aircraft that mostly made it to base or back to base was studied and areas for armoring and stiffening were identified, until some wag (who probably immediately got his ass beat for being a smart-ass, a correct smart-ass) pointed out that the areas needing stiffening and armoring were the parts that weren’t shot-to-shit on the planes that made it back.
–
Lots of boring and really boring studies done by the military before, during and after WWII, well before, during and after all the wars since the Spanish-American War about what was expected to work, what actually worked and what didn’t work out there.
–
I’ve read the condensed after-action study of Tarawa, Bloody Tarawa and the study members identified all the places that failed and all the remedies that were needed to not ever have another Tarawa, Bloody Tarawa and newsreel footage of bodies of US Marines washing up against a sea wall.
–
So, yeah, buddy kills, it happened. There’s photo evidence of one plane-load of poor bastards being bombed by one of their own squadron mates. Shit happens in war. Good people get whacked by their own side. But they worked really hard not to whack their own.
–
I want to see a study of how dangerous all those expelled shell casings were. Did they get sucked into engine intakes or ping some dumb farmer on the head? And what about the bullets and shells and fragmentation and small pieces-parts of planes? Did they randomly fall and kill cows and people and pigs? Never found a study about that particular problem. But, of course, if you’re doing the Air War thing over someone else’s land (especially if they’re the enemy,) then there’s not a real concern over fallout collateral damage, well, at least in the day when the US media was actually on the side of the US. Friggin rat-bastid commie news media.
Thanks, Beans, never thought about the ‘fallout’ on the poor German pigs….
Another major hazard for the bomber formations was mid-air collisions. Here is one story.
—
https://www.historynet.com/bizarre-b-17-collision-over-the-north-sea-during-world-war-ii/
Our dairy had an exclusive contract with Steffens dairy in Wichita. As such we were not allowed to sell any on the open market. An older gentleman worked for the farmer north of us, and had his 4 grandkids dumped on him to raise by his deadbeat daughter. My dad and uncle had a verbal agreement with him. He would stop by every other evening to “visit” and would draw 2 gallon of raw milk out of our bulk tank, and put 2 dollars on top, fulfilling our agreement not to resell any, he simply left a couple of bucks so he didn’t feel like it was charity. I can’t help but think we were the only reason those kids grew to adulthood.
The boat in #2 looks like a Mk-11… And the Clintons ‘may’ get a come to Jesus this time…maybe
What does Contempt of Congress really mean? It hasn’t meant much in the past. The most it will do is ratchet things up.
“Contempt of Congress” means when you’re a little people Congress can get your happy little butt thrown in federal pound-your-ass prison while if you’re some elite pervy mo-fo you can do whatever you want.
–
It’s kind of like what happened to Martha Stewart. She got screwed over by the system because she had no ‘protection.’ Meanwhile that little rodent Fauci is walking around like a cock-of-the-walk when he should have been tried and jailed for murder over his actions over the AIDS epidemic, which was basically a chance for him to experiment with AIDS sufferers. Let alone his actions over the Wu-Ping Cough.
–
Thems-that-haves always have it better than Thems-that-haven’t. Especially since the federal judiciary and federal prosecutors haven’t been sifted through and the leftist marxists haven’t been booted out or charged criminally.
Regarding coyotes, well, it’s the Navaho. If it works for them, fine. I’m not a Navaho, so if I see a coyote walk in front of me I’ll freak out because I’m in the middle of a small city and coyotes shouldn’t be here. Bad enough seeing the occasional trash-panda or ‘possum.
–
Me, I’ll stick with my superstitions, which is listening to my local bruja, that being Mrs. Andrew. If she gets unsettled about something, like me going out to do shopping or something, I very much listen and only go out for absolute emergencies, normally just staying home and hunkering down. Saved me demonstrably from several crashes (hearing the thump and the wails of sirens, falling trees, very bad lighting storms, crazed dogs and neighbors and such.
–
Don’t ask to rent out my bruja. She’s mine. Find your own.