Caption: Aimlessly walking about.
Why walk when you can fly?
Bullet Points:
** The costs are high, but they’re coming down, and economies of scale should help reduce the prices of interceptors. (h/t) Claudio – and as he notes, the question of both packing and reloading VLS cells is still an issue. You’re never going to get interceptor prices to match low-cost drone prices because it’s completely different tech. However, to be fair about it, the best minds in the business are on it – worldwide.
** Do you think that the political left is a cult?
** LBA Systems Astore Levante (right) – a customized Baykar TB-3 drone for European markets. It’s not a bad option for a navy, but the question is always whether you can baffle or disguise the IR signature. (h/t Claudio) The Italian Air Force will be the first customer. Guidance, payload, and resistance to countermeasures will tell the tale. Is it an ISR bird primarily, or will it be fitted out as a strike aircraft? How will it be controlled, and can it be jammed?
** Is it possible for Communist China to be a good neighbor? No. Thanks, Pres. Xi. The belligerent China Coast Guard (CCG) said on Monday that two rubber boats sent by the Philippines’ grounded vessel BRP Sierra Madre rammed into a Chinese patrol boat in the South China Sea, and the Philippine personnel initiated “malicious attacks” against Chinese law enforcement officers by using oars and long sticks. Tuesday’s announcement marks the third publicly reported instance of China summoning the Philippine ambassador during President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s administration, following summonses in January 2024 after the Philippine president congratulated Taiwan leader-elect Lai Ching-te on his election victory, and in November 2024 over Manila’s enactment of the Maritime Zones Act and the Archipelagic Sea Lanes Act.
** A new escalation in regional maritime security as Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi militia has declared an immediate naval blockade against Saudi Arabia, citing an “eye for an eye” retaliation for Riyadh’s long-running siege. It may be time to unleash USAF B-52s on Yemen to flatten the areas where missiles are placed.
** CDRSAL discusses Cuba from subjective and objective angles. Worth the read.
** HUD suspended the Virgin Islands Housing Finance Authority from federal funding, alleging mismanagement of nearly $2B in hurricane relief.
** h/t Olexandyr and Claudio – Attacks on Wildberries’ logistics hubs (right) have worse consequences for the Russian economy than the $1.2 billion in lost goods reported by the company. Wildberries accounts for 45% of the Russian online shopping market, and together with its closest competitor, Ozon, the two account for 77%. Wildberries is far more deeply integrated into the Russian economy than, for example, Amazon is into the U.S. economy. The company has largely transformed Russian retail toward online shopping, affecting both sellers and buyers. A significant number of Russian entrepreneurs will be ruined as a result of these Ukrainian strikes. Lost hubs are not easy to rebuild—for example, after a fire at one of them near St. Petersburg, the company had to spend a year and a half rebuilding it. The destruction of these hubs will deal a severe blow to Russian military logistics. Wildberries has long been used by Russian volunteers to ship military supplies to the Russian Armed Forces, such as drones, spare parts, night-vision devices, generators, camouflage clothing, tactical footwear, and so on. The strikes not only worsen the quality of life for Russian citizens but also directly undermine the effectiveness of the Russian military.
USMC Force Redesign
(h/t WSF) The United States Marine Corps is undergoing its most radical transformation since World War II under a sweeping modernization blueprint known as Force Design. In a bid to adapt to a looming peer conflict, the leadership made a series of jaw-dropping cuts. The Marines completely disbanded all of their heavy M1A1 Abrams tank battalions, retired a massive portion of their traditional towed artillery, and shrunk their helicopter squadrons.
In place of heavy armor, the Corps has introduced agile, lightweight formations called Marine Littoral Regiments (MLRs). These units are purpose-built to slip onto remote islands undetected, unpack long-range anti-ship missiles, and strike hostile fleets. It is an audacious strategic gamble. Has this transformation created the perfect bottleneck to trap an adversary in the Pacific, or has it left the Marines dangerously exposed if they have to fight a traditional land war somewhere else?
The larger question is “what is the role of the USMC?” It’s a subset of the US Navy despite its love of rebranding itself as something else. The question is better framed, “what is the role of the US Navy?” Expeditionary Warfare (amphibious warfare) is a legitimate USMC role, but dropping them into main battle land warfare situations where they have been fighting for the past fifty years really isn’t. Just make the Army bigger if you want that.
The enemy of the USA is Red China/PRC. It has been and will be, and they’ve been waging war by other means on the US for a long time. The primary driver behind this shift is the reality of the First Island Chain, the strategic network of islands arching from Japan down through Taiwan and the Philippines. In a hypothetical Pacific conflict, massive American aircraft carriers and heavy transport ships could find themselves pushed back by dense defensive networks of land-based missiles. Force Design flips this problem on its head. Instead of launching broad, frontal assaults, small groups of Marines deploy across tiny landmasses like the Philippine Batanes Islands in the Luzon Strait. Equipped with high-tech, truck-mounted launchers firing Naval Strike Missiles, these mobile units turn the surrounding waters into a minefield for enemy warships.
Because these units use a shoot-and-scoot method (firing their weapons and rapidly relocating via ultra-light vehicles and small transport planes), they are incredibly difficult to find and destroy. Recent major multinational exercises like Balikatan and Resolute Dragon have successfully validated this exact concept. The Marines have proved they can scatter across dozens of isolated outposts, create overlapping webs of surveillance and anti-ship firepower, and effectively shut down critical naval chokepoints.
What is the US Navy’s role in a massive ground war? I suggest that there isn’t one. That’s an Army job. If a crisis flares up unexpectedly in the desert landscapes of the Middle East or requires a massive armored breach in Eastern Europe, send the Army. It’s not a Navy mission. Stop trying to wedge the Naval Infantry into missions better suited to the Army. The Navy seizes territory, secures advanced positions, and breaks open doors so the rest of the joint military can stream through. Force Design aims to ensure that the tip of the American spear is light enough to move instantly and lethal enough to command the sea from the shore.
The USMC needs to get out of the big land war business, and they’re transforming themselves to do that.
In the Desert Southwest
In 1894, the Lundberg family faced total ruin in the desert of St. George, Utah. Just a year prior, Anders Lundberg had planted his dream: a 200-tree peach orchard. But when a severe drought struck and the local irrigation ditch ran bone-dry, the saplings were given less than two weeks to survive. The only available source of water was the Virgin River, situated two miles away at the bottom of a steep, 400-foot ravine. With no pipes, pumps, or money to purchase equipment, survival demanded extreme measures.
Determined not to let his dream perish, Anders filled a three-gallon stoneware jar, hoisted it onto his head, and navigated the dangerous, two-mile climb back to the orchard. Dumping the water around the base of the first thirsty tree, he declared, “One down. One hundred and ninety-nine to go.”
What followed was an eight-year crusade of sheer human willpower. From 1894 to 1902, every day between March and October, the family of eight—ranging from eight-year-old Hilda to forty-two-year-old Anders—formed a grueling bucket brigade. Each tree required one jar a day, amounting to 600 gallons of water daily. Divided among the eight of them, every family member trekked 25 round trips per day along the narrow cliff edge, balancing heavy jars on their heads without using their hands so they could maintain balance on the rocky trail.
The sacrifice was immense. Fourteen-year-old Bjorn broke his leg after a fall in 1896, crawling the rest of the way up the ravine and resuming his daily carries the very next morning. Young Hilda started out carrying single-gallon jars at age eight, eventually scaling up to full three-gallon crocks by her sixteenth birthday.
Their persistence paid off. By 1902, a municipal irrigation ditch finally reached the land, saving all 200 trees. The mature orchard went on to yield 40,000 pounds of peaches annually, fully paying off the homestead.
When Anders passed away in 1919, he was laid to rest beneath the very first peach tree he had watered, marked by a headstone inscribed: “He Carried Water.” Decades later, in 1950, a visitor touring the thriving grove asked a 70-year-old Bjorn how they had managed to keep the orchard alive during the drought. Without a word, Bjorn placed an old stoneware jar onto his head, stepped forward, and quietly replied, “Like this. For eight years.”
Maybe I’m Peeing on an Electric Fence
If the US government eliminated the tax-deductible status of all charitable donations and taxed them as standard revenue, it would raise an estimated $135 billion to $185 billion annually in direct tax revenue. This estimate is based on the Giving USA 2026 report, which shows that annual American charitable giving reached a historic $617.20 billion.
If churches paid property tax like every other business, you can tack that on top. I realize that many of you, including my friend LSP, have a vested interest in not taxing religious institutions; make your case for why they should be exempt. Most of them are run like businesses. The top tier is worth half a trillion or more each, and they have their own hedge funds (which are currently taxed). I’m only posing the question – spaghetti against the wall – don’t condemn me to eternal damnation or put me to the question (popular in antiquity) for asking.
Identify the Ship
Name and/or Class
1
2
3
4
Parting Shot
The Modern Left
End
Identify the Ship:
1. America-class USS America (LHA-6)
2. Wasp-class USS Essex (LHD-2)
3. Ivan Rogov-class landing ship
4. Harpers Ferry-class USS Harpers Ferry (LSD-49)
You ran the table, Surly. Well done.
Taxing charities – there have been a number of studies that claimed lots of taxes/fees on some activity, only to have the actual numbers after implementation turn out to be much less. I also have doubts about why the government would want to discourage private charities when all citizens need is supplied by government largesse(rolls eyes).
The question is always, “why” when a tax is proposed. What will the money be used for? Can it be earmarked for a social good (fat chance)? And you’re right – when you have government cheese, why would you need private funds being spent?
There’s one saying out there about giving tax money to the government is like giving smack to a junkie.
Pouring perfume on a pig.
There are charities and then there are charities.
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There needs to be some sort of filter, like, oh, say, “How much of your donations actually goes to what you’re supposed to be doing?”
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Like The March of Dimes, where about 10 cents per dollar actually goes to groups doing charity work. Not 10 cents going to the actual charity work, but to the organizations that do the charity work, where they skim 10-90% off the top.
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Or Goodwill. Or the new wokenfied Salvation Army. When your ‘charity’ leaders are pulling down multi-million dollar salaries and benefits, that ain’t very charitable. Same people who bitch about corporate officer pay for for-profit organizations say absolutely nothing about corporate officer pay for not-for-profit organizations.
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Churches are weird. The actual church and rectory and religious stuffs should be non-taxable. But then there are schools and businesses (like video production companies and recording companies) that skate on or way over the line of ‘religious exemption.’
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I’d much rather over-tax the profit our politicians are making off of stock and market trading and all the other ways that people in the business of politics go from broke to multi-millionaire on government salaries.
I’m gratified that you didn’t choose off the Biodiversity credits and carbon offsets offered by the White Wolf Mine – completely legit.
To The Modern Left – Thank You!
Exactly
How much money is wasted on programs that are not remotely constitutional? Any and all payouts to illegals should be stopped. There are other give away programs that should be stopped. Start charging a large percentage fee for all remittances sent out of the country.
End each and every fraud program that has been brought to light.
(maybe use some rope)
X2
President Trump has reduced the federal workforce, and it will continue to shrink during his administration. After that? Who knows? Most of the “programs” are a complete waste of time.
Tax Question: Dad used to say he was thinking of starting a church at the house, tax free and people willingly donate to your cause.’ Time to end the ‘non tax’ status of so-called non-profits, including churches. Times and mentalities are significantly different than when this was set in place, especially considering IRS rules have got even more of a twisted nebula that no one, not even the IRS, actually knows what’s correct. Too bad MadMommie and his lunatic cohorts aren’t demanding to ‘Defund the IRS’.
Sidebar Comment, re: bloated government agencies: Unfortunately had to deal with the DeptEd the other day…what a total cluster. Not the person, the process and the simple fact – I swear – despite billions spent on yet another nebula shop by WTP, they are using IBM 386 computers and sitting at metal desks. Time for Linda McMann to work herself out of work as promised. But this came to mind: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AYUB3tQs80
***
Lundberg’s: I will not be telling the resident Dane here about a Sweeedishhh (spit, spit – heh) success story because her first comment would be ‘they shoulda moved to North Dakota like the other’s’. 🤣
That aside, what an incredible story of perseverance…major h/t.
***
Parting Shot: Excellent…move to Iran, I hear the 15th Century Throwbacks fully embrace the big girls with purple hair.
It would be interesting to create the White Wolf Ministry and go tax-free…
Call it ‘LLC’…donations will pour in…and when going for the legal it could be LLC, LLC.
Reference Taxing Churches and Charities: Even the oldest records show that governments did not tax churches with gods that the government thought might hurt the king or the nation. For example, in Ezra, King Darius ordered the Jews in exile to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. Those against the project appealed to Darius saying the Jews were trouble and that the rebuilding must be stopped. Darius found that King Cyrus had ordered the temple rebuilt and so ordered it to be completed with this statement “. . . that they may offer pleasing sacrifices to the God of heaven and pray for the life of the king and his sons.” (Ezra 6:10) Such action was not unusual in a world where there was much intrigue and kings wished to appease those they ruled and not be visited by an unknown curse.
*Fast forward to the early ’20s in the US. Anchorage looked into taxing church property that was not the sanctuary but instead outbuildings, offices and such. While it sounded good, and the Mayor and Council were thinking they had a new source of cash to plunder, the churches showed how much they were providing to the City of Anchorage through meals to homeless or poor, overnight lodging for those on the outs including drunk natives, and a multitude of other public services. The cash value of these services provided by churches far outweighed the largest estimate that taxing the out buildings would bring.
*Of course, for all the people calling for separation of church and state, taxing churches would be overlooked as they use they greed glasses to closely examine the situation.
*The problem is that churches surrendered the biblical church responsibility for taking care of the poor and needy to our government when LBJ started the Great Society. That was sold as raising individual taxes less than 1% and yet today we see the gross fraud, corruption and theft installed throughout the entire system. Today American’s don’t remember blacks and other poor living in old homes that they owned but instead only see the tenements and other government provided housing. They don’t remember that those on welfare had to stop by the office or warehouse to pick up a box of food for their use (very limited ability for corruption) but only that a SNAP card won’t let them purchase soda pop (huge corruption). American’s only remember what they have been told by talking heads or what they find at the top of a google search.
Trust A. I., Dave…
No A.I. trust from me LL. I watched the movie: Open the pod bay doors, HAL. I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that.
😁
The thinking has long been that the power to tax is the power to destroy.
The Founders realized the value of religious education.
They didn’t want the State to drive a church closed with taxation, which in some communities would be raised to do just that.
They did not envision Joel Osteen.
💯…both yours and Dave’s comnents.. re: the modern mega church has become big business instead of serving communities with Biblical tenet as the small local church still does. Abdicating church community responsibilites to government is the slippery slope sadky too many have slid.
Tax charitable donations- “”Render therefore unto Cesar the things which are Cesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s”.
If Caesar demands it, it’s our obligation to buckle under, and continue to render to God the things that are His.
Caesar has to stand for re-election….God doesn’t
More on drones.
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https://www.zerohedge.com/military/drone-war-enters-terrifying-new-phase-russia-deploys-300-mph-jet-powered-shahed
Some may think that women refusing to repopulate denies a future Einstein and wonderous discoveries. I doubt it, but I may be wrong. Regardless, I have to thank her for her effort.
I don’t think I would expect much from her output.
“I’m 30 and very fertile…………………………………….”
Thank you, thnak you, thank you!
“The USMC needs to get out of the big land war business, and they’re transforming themselves to do that.”
Many people much more knowledgeable than me will agree with you. What military man said, “Amatuers study tactics; professionals study logistics?” The Marines are nearly always defendent on others for supply/resupply. The Army is built around the Quartermaster Corps. All other things being equal, wasn’t that the determining factor in the War of Northern Aggression?
The South’s economy rested on the successful export of cotton. Nothing else mattered. The blockade meant they’d go broke. For a detailed explanation of European banking and the South and Mexico (same thing), I reffer you to my upcoming historical novel, Vengeance and Retribution.
The USMC is a subset of the US Navy. Marines like to pretend they’re not. The current move is to return Marines to Marine missions and to let the Army be the Army. The USMC, taken by itself, given the ships dedicated to Amphibious Expeditionary Warfare and given that it has its own rotors and jets, is a significant combined arms force. The Army doesn’t have fixed-wing warplanes. It gave them to the USAF. USAF gave their space warfare mission to the Space Force and the CIA’s Geospatial Agency.
I always thought that the Marines got folded into the land troops because of a need for bodies in the sandbox, just like the sailors and airmen that found themselves in MRAPs.
And never forget that the CIA is a non-uniformed branch of the military with equivalent military ranks (for example, a US Ambassador has the equivalent rank of 4 star general), its own maritime force, its own air force, its own special forces group (Ground Branch), and its own DARPA (IARPA is officially part of DNI now but it was CIA) and its own Space Force.
Ed, the US Army in the USA was not hollowed out. The other services wanted a piece of the land campaign. Mission creep.
I guess I always thought wrong :)
That is correct. And I agree with what you said.
What role does the USN and USMC have in a landwar? Keeping the littoral areas under US control. Thus freeing the US Army to go play in the non-coastal, non-riverine areas. Fire support, keeping the seaways and the coastal ports/bases open for to supply the US Army.
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Especially with aircraft carriers, big and little, as not everywhere we potentially will be fighting is within reasonable range of land-based aircraft.
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Now, I fully expect the USN and USMC to be able to do riverine operations, which is fully in the scope of both organizations. Marine strike forces on US Navy gunboats, an excellent use of both. But does the USN have that capability in abundance and are they willing to use them? That’s the real question.
We haven’t had a riverine war since Vietnam, and we used riverboats then.
>If the US government eliminated the tax-deductible status of all charitable donations …
Here’s a crazy idea: Howzabout we NOT give billions each year to foreign countries who either hate us, despise us, or both? Same goes for NGOs.
You mean, America First?
Wotta concept!
I have it on very good authority that we gain much more than we give to our foreign friends. But most especially from our bestes friend and Ally .
This is from another very conservative blog on most things ,except foreign aid to our bestes friend and Ally ,but I could be wrong.
It’s always difficult to judge who gets more from any relationship from interpersonal to international. For example, South Korea and Japan. They would benefit from contracts to build US ships, and the US would benefit from them building ships. Who benefits more? Neither side is getting gifts but both benefit economically. Collaboration does that more than not if we’re selective in how we and they (the larger THEY) do that. Israel’s intelligence in the Middle East is much better than ours but they don’t come close to the US in overhead assets.