There’s a highland frog and a lowland frog, an underwater frog and a yachtsman frog – glorious – if you need to run, you might as well sing to keep the cadence. The blog needs a little motivation.
Bullet Points:
** Why is it in the State’s interest to push feminism?
** Jules discusses Picknicky Days. Must you smoke a brisket? I think we all know what the answer to that is.
** Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea security initiative, and its emerging alliance with Egypt, Pakistan, and Turkey (aka Türkiye) are allegedly the reason that they wanted the US to hold off on finally flattening Iran. I don’t see what one thing has to do with another. Pakistan is threatening Iran that if they shoot drones at Saudi Arabia (their bestest buddy), Pakistan and Iran can’t be friends anymore. That’s how it rolls.
** The first thirty US Presidents – AI representation. I think it’s kinda cool.
** Arizona News – Arizona drew commitments for 26,225 projected new jobs and more than $109 billion in investment in the fiscal year that ended June 30, both single-year highs. The figures are projections tied to company pledges, not jobs already filled. The new positions carry an average wage of $81,368, above the state median.
** A US Navy training video. From the 1950s…And what is the medical officer’s role? He’s got to check.
** At last report, the Trump fundraising machine e-mailed me and told me that the door had closed on me being considered a MAGA Republican – too bad, so sad, LL, you’re out. I had not contributed what they felt I should have. BUT WAIT – today I received another e-mail that said there is still time before I’m tossed out on my ear. They’re willing to automatically debit my account monthly so I can enjoy the “benefits” of being a contributor. This sort of thing doesn’t endear me to anyone.
** Saudi Aramco’s second-quarter profit rose 33% from a year earlier, as higher oil prices and strong refining margins offset lower export volumes during the US-Iran war. Decades of investment in pipelines, storage, and Red Sea export terminals helped the company to keep crude flowing despite disruptions to the Strait of Hormuz, Houthi threats in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, and attacks on Saudi energy facilities. The performance allowed Aramco to maintain its $21.9 billion base dividend, providing a critical boost to the Saudi government, which owns about 98% of Aramco and receives about 55% of its revenue from oil.
** In History – The Battle of Honsinger Bluff on August 4, 1873, is one of the smaller skirmishes and battles that are overlooked in “long” history. The battle took place during the Yellowstone Expedition of 1873 (three years before the Battle of the Little Bighorn). A patrol comprising Companies A and B of the 7th Cavalry, led personally by Lt Col G. A. Custer, clashed with Lakota and Cheyenne warriors along the Yellowstone River. The native forces were led by Gall and Crazy Horse. Custer’s 91 men were almost lured into a Fetterman-type ambush by a decoy party of Lakota, but the trap sprang prematurely, and the cavalrymen fought their way to a stand of timber where they held their ground for over 3 hours. Meanwhile, the 7th veterinary surgeon, Dr. John Honsinger, and the sutler Augustus Baliran were 2 miles away, oblivious to the sounds of battle, and watering their horses. They were surprised by a party of Lakota under Rain-in-the-Face and quickly dispatched. The main battle ended with the approach of the rest of the 7th. It was later that day that the bodies of Honsinger and Baliran were found and buried by the river at the foot of the bluff. The bluff itself was named in memory of Dr. Honsinger.
Custer’s Last Stand, also known as the Battle of the Little Bighorn, was fought on June 25-26, 1876. The main engagement and Custer’s defeat occurred primarily on the afternoon of June 25, 1876
The Yellowstone Expedition of 1873 surveyed a section of the proposed Northern Pacific transcontinental railroad. Lakota Sioux and Northern Cheyenne fought this and attacked the survey party throughout the region.
In June 1873, Colonel David S. Stanley led a force of about 1,500 soldiers guarding a railroad survey party in the Yellowstone River Valley. This force included the U.S. Seventh Cavalry, with Lt. Col. George A. Custer as officer commanding. Indians, fierce summer conditions, and internal command dissentions plagued the expedition.
On 11 August 1873, Custer, soldiers, and expedition civilians camped at what was called Camp #44, across the Yellowstone River immediately northwest of Pompey’s Pillar. Earlier that day the Seventh Cavalry had skirmished with Indians downriver on an alluvial plain called Pease Bottom: “Pease Bottom Fight.”
Five days later at Pompey’s Pillar soldiers wanted relief from August heat; the Yellowstone River beckoned. Soldiers stripped, their uniforms scattered, the splashing began. Indians watched and waited. Whether from fun or easy pickings, a few Indians opened fire on the “exposed” soldiers with scattered pot-shots from across the river near Pompey’s Pillar. The soldiers skeedattled, bare-beamed and buck-naked. It is not known if Custer was caught with his pants down too. The soldiers rallied, grabbed rifles and repelled the Indians. No Army casualties reported, except maybe some manly honor of the fabled U.S. Seventh Cavalry.
Head-to-Head – from the Mailbag:
Q – In a head-to-head engagement, how would a Russian Su-35S perform against an F-22 Raptor
Note: The F-22 can also shoot down Chinese spy balloons over US territory…
Caveat: I’m not an Air Force aviation expert, but I have spoken to one who flew combat missions and flew F-15s in interception sorties against the Su-35S toward the end of his career before responding here.
A– I don’t know if you’re aware, but a Su-35S was shot down by a Ukrainian F-16 using an AIM-120 missile on July 8, 2026, marking a notable air combat loss where the pilot safely ejected. The F-16 is not close to a peer of the F-22 Raptor. Having written that, we can go forward. Russia has lost at least nine Su-35S multirole fighter jets in combat operations during the war in Ukraine.** That represents one full year’s production of Su-35S aircraft by Russia. Russia began the full-scale conflict with roughly 100 Su-35S airframes.
My friend the Eagle (F-15) driver said that it is unlikely that the F-35S would see the F-15 before it died. It is very unlikely that it would see the F-22 or get a missile threat warning before it died. The F-22 is a true stealth aircraft with a radar cross section (RCS) of 0.0001 to 0.0005 square meters (roughly the size of a marble or a small insect), whereas the Su-35S has a much larger RCS of roughly 1 to 3 square meters (comparable to a large dinner table or a non-stealth fighter)
You can’t fight what you can’t see.
The F-16 and F-15 carry weapon stores on the outside of the fuselage, as with the Su-35S, so they’re all in the same general category as the EuroFighter and other 4+ generation fighters. The F-22 and the more modern F-35 are a generation ahead of the Su-35S.
The Russians suck at aerial refueling, and even if they didn’t, they don’t have the tech to keep the pumps alive. In a combat scenario, there is a train of technology that supports the F-22 that is not available to the Su-35S. (Su-35S below)
** Of the 9 reported losses, at least three were due to friendly fire from Russian air defense (SAM-300) launches, five due to Ukrainian ground-based defenses, and one to the F-16, less than a month ago.
*** The F-22 assembly line was officially shut down in 2012, with the final aircraft rolling off the Lockheed Martin line in Marietta, Georgia, on December 13, 2011. While it is not an “old” aircraft, we haven’t made one in fifteen years. The F-35 is a more modern aircraft in general terms, though it is a multi-mission aircraft, and the F-22 is still an air superiority fighter. Both the Navy and Air Force are busily completing their 6th Generation aircraft, which will be completely different platforms from one another.
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In the Worker’s Paradise
A lot of humanity has sung the Red China Blues. I did not witness the events below, but in my travels to Red China, I have seen Chinese citizens pulled off the airplane each time I’ve departed before they close the door. I’ve seen families hauled off in departure lounges. It’s almost expected.
(h/t Claudio) A netizen who identified himself as an ethnic Chinese with Japanese citizenship living in Japan reported that on July 2, he took his entire family to China to visit relatives and was scheduled to return to Japan in late July. However, five minutes before boarding, he was barred from boarding the flight and leaving the country.
The netizen stated, “On July 31, I received the certificate restoring my Chinese citizenship (after spending seven days in a ‘black room’—working around the clock, with my family members interrogated separately and told that if I didn’t cooperate, my three children might become orphans and be sent to an orphanage in a remote area. Out of concern for my children, I personally dictated a statement on camera, declaring that I voluntarily renounced my Japanese citizenship and reinstated my Chinese citizenship to cut off foreign consular protection.”
His family of five had been living in Japan for 13 years, where they had run a business for over 20 years, employing more than 40 people—all of which came to an abrupt halt, leaving them devastated. He added bluntly, “I had previously seen reports about Gui Minhai’s nationality being restored and thought it was just rumor; I never imagined this would happen to me now…”
Swedish bookseller Gui Minhai has been missing in Thailand since 2015—more than 10 years now. He has been detained by Chinese Communist authorities all this time, barred from contacting his family, and denied access to lawyers or Swedish consular officials. In May of this year, reports circulated online that Gui Minhai had been forcibly reinstated as a Chinese citizen by the Chinese Communist government.
The netizen who posted about the Chinese-Japanese man being forced to regain Chinese citizenship wrote in the caption: “It happens just like that. Even if your entire family has held Japanese citizenship for many years, as long as you return to the Communist bandits’ country just once, everything is wiped clean. Your Japanese citizenship is ‘voluntarily’ revoked, and your entire family is placed under border control until 2036! Your family’s assets in Japan, worth nearly 100 million yuan, are all lost! This is the result of still harboring illusions about the evil Communist bandits.”
The Chinese authorities would certainly deny the existence of such practices publicly. All the Western foreigners who have found empathy in China would not believe this. Unfortunately, it is happening. What might be absurd in all normal countries is normal in China.
Identify the Vehicle
1
Identify the Aircraft
2
3
Two graphics
Hint: 8 × .303 inch (7.7 mm) Browning Mark II machine guns
Only one was built – were pilots afraid they’d meet their maker in this beast?
End
1 Soviet?
2 is Douglas A3D Skywarrior
3 is Martin-Baker MB 2 a British private-venture fighter prototype
Very good!
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#1 yes.
Identify the Vehicle
1 – Soviet PTS-2
Identify the Aircraft
2 – Douglas RA-3B Skywarrior
3 – Martin-Baker MB 2
Outstanding
Identify the Vehicle:
1. PTS
Identify the Aircraft:
2. Douglas A-3 Skywarrior
3. Martin-Baker MB 2
Very good. Captain Valentine Baker (1/2 owner of Martin Baker) met his maker flying the MB-3, not the MB-2, when the engine failed on takeoff. They’re known for building prototype aircraft that didn’t sell and for ejection seats that did.
> the Trump fundraising machine e-mailed me
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Did they also tell you that the President personally mentioned your name, wondering why you hadn’t responded to his email? Because I’ve been assured that’s the case with me. (Sure, you have chats with Elon Musk, but Donald Trump asks after me personally. Hah!)
You too? Yes, the President asked, “Where’s that cheapskate LL’s money? I’ve given up on Mike_C,” or words to that effect. He wonders why I never answer the 30 spam calls a day asking for more money.
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Actually Musk is a pretty decent guy.
I have both of you beat! President Trump personally emails my wife and asks for updates on my family during staff meetings. I am so assured by his personal assistant.
That shows how much he cares. Do you think that your wife and Donald are becoming too close? I’m not casting aspersions, but Donald does appreciate a slender ankle.
He never contacts me, which is fine…then again I never donate to any politician…ever.
Oh, so you don’t want to make America great again!! You know that President Trump mentions how unhappy he is with you over breakfast every day.
🤣 So yer saying I’m living rent free in PDJT’s head over a McMuffin and hashbrown breakfast? Works for me.
I worked F-22 from YF until shut down and two modernization programs. The weakest link in the kill chain is no spare parts and the companies have left the field. Eveything is obsolete and out of production. This problem of no spares started on day one, almost stopped the production line and will continue. I used to “borrow parts from the Depot” to populate labs for HW and SW development. We borrowed parts in a rolling caniblization three ship sets deep. It was a very unpopular idea. It was like robbing banks. But that is where the money was… I wanted life time spares buy but that will never happen in government procurement. In retrospect it seems like no spares was on purpose, not just incompetence.
I think it was on purpose. As I’ve mentioned in the blog, if you want one F-22 for a mission, you send 3 and hope one of them will fly. It may not always be that bad, but I’ve seen the three-for-one in action. Even though we built 187 of them, it was almost a tech demonstrator. Having said that, they’re capable if you can keep them flying. We moved to the F-35 (for inventory and export) very quickly. I don’t want to seem like a wet blanket because the F-35 is very good for some applications, but it’s not the Swiss Army Knife the USAF had to sell it as to get the Congressional money they wanted. (They and the beltway bandits who employ former USAF generals) Congress, in turn, sold it to the Navy (C with a tailhook and B for the USMC) even though it wasn’t the sort of aircraft that the Navy needed, IMHO. I think that the B version isn’t a bad choice for the USMC, but the Harrier was good enough for most of their applications for much less money. Yes, the F-35B is a better air superiority fighter, but the USMC can’t mid-air refuel them from LHAs, so good but not great. Maybe they can mid-air refuel from the Ospreys for a boost, but it’s not a full tanker situation.
The F-35 is not much better, and maintenance is somewhere around $35,000/flight hour… sigh The ‘funny’ part on the F-35B is that with the VTOL setup, even a small diameter bomb will no longer ‘fit’ in the bombay… sigh
They look good and could be called upon to defend the landing force from an air attack, I guess. I can’t imagine using such expensive and complex aircraft for close air support.
Tom, apparently the “no spare parts” is rampant in the HVAC business once a series of units reaches appx. 10 years in the field. Inverter panel went kaput at 11-12 years….replacement quoted by one vendor at $9600 another at $14000, if you can find one. So why should the aerospace folks let the earthly HVAC manufacturers take advantage of customers, or is it the HVAC/aerospace folks. Ultimate result is, you hunker down and pay for a new unit or masquerade as European and sweat.
Don’t go French on us, Cletus.
> Your family’s assets in Japan, worth nearly 100 million yuan…
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There you go, as to the “why” of it. Fortunately for me, my net worth is crap, so the Chicoms won’t want me “back”. For values of “fortunate”.
I’m sure you’d find more money if they stuffed a dirty sock in your mouth and poured seltzer water up your nose. It’s all about the joy of extortion. If you died under interrogation, you’d just be another overseas Chinese whose heart grew weak living at the Gold Mountain in the lap of luxury. Such is the mindset.
> if they stuffed a dirty sock in your mouth and poured seltzer water up your nose
There’s fellas who’d pay good money for that, if the sock-stuffer had, er, slender ankles.
I am, alas, too boringly vanilla for that sort of thing, but it’s out there.
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https://www.facebook.com/HusHHarding/photos/1329849158956496/
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I know nothing about this HusHHarding person or other legal entity. Found the meme here via Google.
jules’ brown summer…its been that way here up until now. i’ve mowed the lawn twice all year, usually twice a week. a large oak grows next to my home, usually casts a shadow on that side of the house at the height of summer. not this year. what’s different? the tree hasn’t moved, but the sun goes by to the north of that tree now. my yard has large bare patches this year. the deer are starving, in summer. had one break into my chicken coop to eat from their feeder. tore my fence all to pieces trying to get out too, lol…..the seasons here seem to be changing 3 or 4 weeks earlier than normal. its may sound crazy, but i think something is going on with that.
It’s a good wet monsoon season in Arizona. Grass is high in the mountains where I live, and we’re expecting another solid week or two of rain beginning today. The Phoenix valley, with temps of 110-120, feels the global warming. I have heard from the weather folks that they expect heavy snowfall this season, which we need. The last time the pattern was like this, we had 5′. It may be warming incrementally from whatever source. Or maybe man-caused heat is forestalling another ice age. It isn’t settled science.
Green here as well, albeit Sweet Grass county is its namesake. Was 48 yesterday morning and 50 this morning…mid 70’s today. Not complaining during the ‘dog days’ that July showed us up and down the Rockies.
Been dry as a bone here. At least we got a few day break from 90~100* days, but abnormally low precip, per my weather station’s nine years of records….
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And the heat returns Thursday.
We had 1″ hail here (quarter sized) for about five minutes this evening. It made me happy to have a 5-car garage and a steel roof. Then it rained for another half hour hard. Then cleared up.
Presidential AI: That was cool, altho a bit unnerving it can generate such things accurately, even the semi-scowl on Woodrow Wilson face at the end of his portrayal. If it did Biden…maybe come out as an ice cream cone with and AutoPen stuck in it sitting in a beach chair.
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Sidebar: Watched LIONESS S3 Ep1, somehow Sheridan managed to generate the most all encompassing from every possible angle Op with himself in a cameo. So far it’s decent decompression intrigue.
I don’t know what he’s going to do for an encore performance for the rest of the season. He set a high bar.
I was not aware of Custer’s previous (1873) engagements with the Sioux that you mentioned above. He did not learn, did he?
Custer needed to have a big win to propel him to the US Presidency. His financial and political backers told him, and he believed them. I can’t say that they were wrong. He was bold because he wasn’t killed doing the same thing before. If he brought his pack howitzers and Gatling guns with him instead of leaving them behind, and if he followed military doctrine and training, and if he didn’t have subordinates who hated him (Benteen and Reno) leading key supporting units (a lot of ifs), I doubt that the Sioux Confederation would have prevailed. The Indians did NOT like to face artillery firing exploding shells and canister. They couldn’t afford to lose people in the same way that Europeans could (see Civil War casualty lists).
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Many of the Sioux Confederation had repeating rifles, but they were outranged by Army Trapdoor Springfields. The Indians had to get close to be effective with those or with arrows, and the artillery would have held them back because they fought as an unarticulated cavalry/infantry blend.
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Most of Custer’s 7th were not Civil War veterans. They were poorly trained, and many were on their first campaign. You fight the way you train. If McLelland had trained them, they would have performed better. So one more IF to add to the mix. Custer relied on shock but there’s not a lot of shock at 20:1 odds against you. Most of the Sioux had faced the army before.
Politics taking priority over sound military doctrine. Has that EVER lead to good results?
There is a lot that we – or at least I – don’t know.
When I got my first real job and had some pocket money in the 80s, I donated a couple hundred to Reagan’s campaign. I spent the next 10+ years throwing away spam that had to cost them several times the amount I had donated. Lesson Learned- never give money to a politician, it just encourages them.
((This is, of course, different from buying influence.))
It doesn’t matter whether it’s Trump, Obama, the Bush legacy group, or the Clinton Global Initiative; it’s always pay-to-play when you get into the mix at a high enough level. There are many companies in the US that are “too big to fail” – and even if it galls people, there are states that are too big to fail. Reality.
feminism in a nutshell – Irving Berlin’s “Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better)” in Annie Get Your Gun
Frank:
I can jump a hurdle
I can wear a girdle
I can knit a sweater
I can fill it better
I can do most anything!
Annie:
Can you bake a pie?
Frank:
No.
Annie:
Neither can I.
Annie IMHO was pointing out (post WWII) that (almost) with the exception of combat, a lot of women filled mens’ jobs in the Armed Services; they certainly took over mens’ jobs in the factories since the men were at the front
Again just my HO, it is in the interest of the communist/socialist state to destroy the nuclear family, advance queerness (in both sexes), and limit procreation.
Women/females, if properly appealed to, are easier to control (for the most part) different hormones affecting different brain structures; just watch children growing up from the ages of 1-10.
Campaign contributions. Once a Democrat, always a Democrat?
The DNC has finally stopped mailing me solicitations. They always arrived with a no postage required return envelope. Near the 96 mailboxes in this building is a trash can for junk mail. A good source for material to fill the return envelope as full as possible. A year after doing this, I no longer receive mail solicitations. We retired folks need to find amusements where we can.
Should I feel slighted that PDJT doesn’t seem to know I exist? Should I check my spam?
DJT may be sullenly waiting for you to approach him since you’ve snubbed him for so long.
The F-22 is the King of the Air. I was stationed at Dobbins during the time they developed and started production. It was an amazing time as C130H’s were still rolling off the line. I had an officer in my Air Guard unit that was a ME working on the F-22. He never came out and said anything direct but hinted about TS then but known things today.
The F-22 will out perform on handling and acceleration in the fighters while the radar can’t see it. The F-22 performance capabilities are more than the human body can stand. Think about the guy that strapped himself to a rocket on a rail track and survived massive G’s but he survived and a F-22 can kill a pilot in a turn with G’s. Air to air rockets are only good if they are heat seekers and they can get initial firing lock. Radar lock rockets are useless. That leaves bullets. Nobody is going to sneak up on any of our stealth aircraft.
I’m looking forward to Gen 6 F-47 Wraith.