Caption: Is three a crowd?
Bullet Points:
** What does bear spray taste like, Karen?
** It’s a lot easier to prevent termites from getting inside in the first place than it is to deal with a house that’s lost its foundation.
** 118F/48C – I went to Surprise, Arizona yesterday, where my grandson is playing exhibition baseball in front of MLB and College scouts. There are massive Spring Training camps throughout the Western Phoenix Valley area. A record-high temperature was reached there while the young men played and people like me sat in the Sun and watched. There were a lot of scouts, not so many parents/grandparents, but it was very hot. His team (CBA) won both games yesterday and a game the day before. The series will continue to play out. Did I say that it was hot? I’ll monitor his success remotely today. Hopefully he’ll be included in the MLB Draft next year and will land a good scholarship. He has two cousins who play professional minor league baseball for the A’s and the Nationals (traded from the Rangers) and were drafted last year and the year before.
** News update from batshit bonkers Britain.
** CDRSAL – Small and medium-sized wars that populate the periods between larger wars will always give hints to what new weapons, concepts, and technologies will be of importance in the next varsity game. (see right)
** Do you hear the Thunder? Citing configurable payload examples, Anduril officials said one Thunder operating on the battlefield could carry 10 air-to-ground missiles, 16 launched effects, or 76 70mm rockets, in addition to a dozen counter-UAS munitions. Anduril started the 2026 Farnborough Airshow with a splash on Monday when it unveiled an autonomous attack rotorcraft, dubbed Thunder, designed to operate with current and next-generation crewed attack helicopter platforms. (h/t Claudio) More here.
** The march toward totalitarianism is explored.
** The trans community is a hotbed of mental illness. Why can’t we address it that way? Compassionately, but without any sort of glorification for mental illness.
** Synchronization Thoughts on order and disorder.
** The Iran war is creating an opportunity to rethink the region’s security architecture. Iran’s attacks across the Middle East have, for now, placed most Gulf states and Israel on the same side of the conflict. Shared priorities — from building alternative supply chains to countering Iranian capabilities — require greater cooperation. Military and intelligence ties are already deeper than acknowledged, with Israeli technology deployed in Gulf countries directly or through third parties. Both Gulf and Israeli officials have told me these relationships will be harder to conceal if security cooperation deepens.
** What was old is new in Ireland.
** I had a discussion with a friend who had been in the nuclear engineering department on the USS Long Beach (nuclear propulsion cruiser). He said that in addition to all the other valid problems nuclear-powered surface combatants create, nuclear power is a personnel nightmare. The Navy must find enough people who can both pass Nuclear Power School – which is like a two-year degree in nuclear technology packed into six months – and pass the extreme security clearance investigation required for nuclear operators to staff all the nuclear ships in the fleet. In addition to the TS/SBI with a full spectrum polygraph, he needed a Q Clearance, and it took two years to complete that. He said that the micromanagement that he was subjected to convinced him not to re-up, and he went to work for Arizona Power (APS) at the Palo Verde reactor facility for 4X the money the Navy paid, even with bonuses and no micromanagement. The Navy ends up endlessly training people who leave.
The military has a bad habit of screwing with people needlessly over clearance minutiae until they quit and then point to the departure as a victory for the system. I think that the Navy is the worst, but it’s a low bar.
** Canada is MAID for children – and they’re very proud of it. Beck examines another angle. Can I text you the euthanasia plan that’s right for you and your children?
** Imposed under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, the new duties allow the administration to maintain a tariff floor on virtually all U.S. imports despite the Supreme Court setback. The tariffs are also likely to face less legal risk as Section 301 has survived prior court challenges.
Rebuilding American Manufacturing
In the sun-scorched desert just outside Phoenix, a manufacturing and technological revolution is unfolding. A giant, foreign company is expanding its U.S. footprint with a staggering investment announced weeks into President Trump’s second term.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, TSMC, is pouring $165 billion into this site in Arizona, building six state-of-the-art chip factories to power everything from AI to iPhones.
This delicate electronic wafer, etched with hundreds of microchips, is the prize of this manufacturing surge crafted right here for tech titans like Qualcomm and Apple. I pass by this place all the time and watch the footprint expand. This is a great example of the resurgence of manufacturing. We’re bringing in a large number of jobs and a large number of very technically skilled jobs. So this is a prime example of bringing manufacturing back into the United States. It’s not just creating the semiconductors; it’s all of the ecosystem that goes around making semiconductors. It’s everything that ties into it as well.
Almost every other industry in the electronics space depends on semiconductors for what they do. Over the years, the USA dropped to somewhere around 10% or less of chips made domestically. Now the industry is returning to the United States and bringing the most advanced technology with it.
If you look back to the COVID time, there was a lot of risk that came in from the supply chain because things were spread out all over the world. You know, the port shut down, the airport shut down, people were unavailable to come to work. Having semiconductors back in the U.S. onshore reduces that risk and allows us to fend for ourselves and be in charge of our own destiny.
America’s first big manufacturing boom began in the 1800s with the Industrial Revolution. After the Civil War, industries like steel and railroads exploded. By 1900, the U.S. produced 30% of manufactured goods on the planet. Ford’s assembly line and other advances led to a peak in the 1950s. But in the 70s and 80s—a downturn, triggered by globalization and automation. By 2000, we’d lost 5 million jobs, largely in steel, textiles, and electronics. Another dip followed the 2008 recession— 2 million more jobs that could support a family were gone.
The Donkey Dilemma
The Democrats hope to flip districts to their side. Their biggest problem: finding the winning Dem candidate. JoAnna Mendoza is a Marine veteran running for Congress in Arizona. As with Graham Platner, that might have been where they stopped vetting her. She ran unopposed, and only now are we learning that the openly bisexual candidate follows several sexually explicit OnlyFans accounts and accounts of self-described witches on her Instagram. The New York Post discovered that the OnlyFans accounts she follows include one “belonging to a transgender socialist activist who posted pictures in BDSM gear.” Oh, and in response to a question from an LGBTQ advocacy group for “trans women of color,” she came out in favor of legalizing prostitution. So all in all, the perfect Democrat candidate for 2026, a virtual one-woman Rainbow Coalition. Impossibly woke.
Letters of Marque and Reprisal?
(H/T Claudio) The Constitution explicitly gives the government the power to use privateers. But the practice has become more controversial over the last 250 years. Many leaders in the late 18th century already considered privateering a morally ambiguous practice, according to Michael Crawford, a former senior historian at the Naval History and Heritage Command. The use of private vessels in warfare is largely moot in today’s era of US naval dominance.
Some present-day lawmakers want to bring it back. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) authored a bill last year seeking to allow privateering in the fight against drug cartels. Lee and Burchett introduced a separate bill earlier this month calling for the government to use letters of marque and reprisal for cyber warfare.
In a statement, Lee said the legislation “allows American digital privateers to raid cartels, cybercriminals, and foreign adversaries” and seize their assets. “This is the ultimate in white-hat hacking: stealing from America’s enemies at the direction of the president and splitting the profits with the federal government.” Suddenly, it feels like it’s 1812 again.
The rules of engagement in space are still unrefined, if they exist at all. Global debates have weighed the legitimacy of targeting commercial satellites in military operations, especially as communications networks like Starlink and numerous commercial surveillance satellites underpin nearly everything on the terrestrial battlefield.
The tentative verdict seems to be that, yes, these privately owned assets could be legitimate military targets. If that’s true, what is stopping a private operator from going on the offense in space? Would that be space piracy? Not if that operator holds a letter of marque or reprisal.
The US Space Force is already using privately owned satellites in military exercises, simulating offensive and defensive maneuvers to respond to threat scenarios in low-Earth orbit. Those satellites don’t actually have weapons onboard, unless you consider the option of ramming an adversary’s spacecraft. There are good reasons not to do that. But space-based weapons will soon be part of the US arsenal, if they’re not already. US military officials believe Russia is already operationalizing an anti-satellite (ASAT) weapon system in orbit to go along with ground-based ASAT missiles. The Pentagon’s planned Golden Dome missile defense shield is designed to include space-based missile interceptors in low-Earth orbit, which could, in theory, be used to target other spacecraft. Some aerospace and defense contractors are already developing prototypes for space-based interceptors with private investment. Others are pursuing SBIs with a mix of private and public funding.
Last year’s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), an annual piece of legislation that allows Congress to put its mark on defense policy, included an amendment prohibiting the Pentagon from fielding a privatized or subscription-based missile defense intercept capability. If such a system is developed, it must be owned and operated by the US military, not space privateers. Drat!
President Donald Trump signed the bill into law last December, but administration officials have said little about the restriction since then. Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, brought up the topic during a nomination hearing last week for the next chief of the Space Force.
Identify the Ships
1
2
Identify the Aircraft
3
4
End
Caption question – if it’s a father/mother/daughter luncheon then three is not a crowd.
Restaurant update – Ft Scott has a good BBQ place called Brickstreet. Son & DIL, who regularly go to Jack Stack in KC said the meals they ordered were just as good as what they got at Jack Stack. My wife got the burnt ends, and they were not quite as good, but were tasty in their own right.
Man does not live by good BBQ alone (define good),but how can he live well without good BBQ?
…or bacon.
Smoked Swine is part of that food group as are heart attack potatoes and fried green tomatoes.
There’s a place in nearby Osceola that a number of people have highly recommended. However, the guy opens the place at random & part time hours. You’d have to be driving past the place and see the Open sign lit up in order to eat there.
Those places are usually pretty good. I know of a fish place like that in Coos Bay, Oregon.
Identify the Ships
1 – USS South Carolina
2 – USS Arkansas
Identify the Aircraft
3 – Kamov Ka-31
4 – Aérospatiale SA 321 Super Frelon
Nailed them.
Three’s a Crowd? Not if you offer to pick up the check.
***
Synchronicity: God’s hand.
***
How is it there are – or what appears to be – so many unhinged young people? Have to be created to be exactly who they have become: Disrupters. Where the hay are the parents?
***
The Democrat Unicorn EV Bus is going down in a lithium battery immolation while these goofballs are spraying starting fluid on themselves. Okay by me…yet, even more unnerving, they have supporters; people who will vote them back in while spouting every lie in the book about PDJT and Crew. Heard another blip on a Kamala-Cortez Presidential run, the blather was unbelievable, completely whistling past the graveyard. But there it is. Heck, those two (or Jersey Mikie for that matter) could be in prison and people would vote for them. Last week we hear Obama stiffed subcontractors on The Ugly Monolith, one company was put out of business due to a multimillion dollar nonpayment…and no one on that side is screaming for justice while telling us they – The Modern Democrats – are “for the worker”. Baloney (to be polite). All this obvious insanity boggles the mind until one invokes a GumpTruth: “Stupid is what stupid does.”, and ya can’t fix stupid, especially among Lefty’s Lunatics, who often happen to be middle class white woman dressed in Lululemon while driving a Mercedes G-Wagon to their Pilates session after parking the children in daycare.
(Kim DuToit is spot on here, yet the final result is as expected: https://www.kimdutoit.com/2026/07/25/incompetence-so-great/)..always follow the money.
***
Your grandsons…apparently there is some serious quality DNA going on with three exceptional ballplayers heading for The Show. Wonderful to hear…and well done ‘Grandpa’.
Younger generation – a recurring theme in the Old Testament is:
“When all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who did not know the LORD nor the work which He had done for Israel.”
Something else that showed up a lot “Everyone did what was right in their own eyes.”
Will A.I. that is smarter than humanity break the cycle? We’ll know soon enough.
The human race has produced a number of high mental IQ monsters. Where we are lacking is spiritual IQ.
I call it spiritual muscle, but maybe it’s IQ.
Amen.
Identify the Ships:
1. USS South Carolina (CGN-37)
2. USS Arkansas (CGN-41)
Identify the Aircraft:
3. Kamov Ka-31 “Helix”
4. Aérospatiale SA 321 Super Frelon
Excellent – yes, nuclear cruisers
Related to Taiwan semiconductor building near Phoenix. I haven’t been shy about mentioning I retired 10 years ago (it was a really an incentive program to lower costs during an aviation slowdown), but there’s an aspect of this I’ve rarely mentioned. I worked in American electronics manufacturing for nearly 40 years, 1976-2015, and the only constant was being told “there’s no electronics manufacturing in America.” That became true for mass produced, consumer electronics that were practically completely built by machines, but production of industrial-level quality, up to heavy industry, military and space, that has never been the case.
Not anymore, and that is a good thing. We’re back in the electronics business.
It’s Just Lunch: Isn’t that a dating service? If so, one could infer an incorrect impression…altho in this day maybe not.
I saw an ad for the dating service – inspiration for the header. Modern dating. I don’t know much about that, but isn’t it a lonely hearts service for 35-year-old divorcees with two kids who are looking for a love connection? I think they pay the service to find them a man. Thus, “just lunch,” no sex required.
https://www.facebook.com/reel/993337426863333
He’s 100% correct. As for the header picture, these days that could be the ‘It’s Just Lunch | No Men Required’ version…those Alpha white males are rife with ‘toxic masculinity’, whateverthehay that means.
Obviously we don’t tolerate toxic masculinity here on VM. All white men are patriarchy and so are Asian men, so Mike_C doesn’t get a pass.
From what I understand of the past, privateers operated with the turned-back blessing of the countries that benefited from their actions. When convenient politics reared its ugly head, the privateers became public enemy number one, and were summarily given the death sentence, which was carried out in some gruesome manners. I doubt things will be different in the present. It’s a good gig, until some important official’s family member loses a fortune, or finds their secure opinion of life shattered by violence. That, or the problem requiring privateers becomes basically solved, and the lure of loot leads to an uncontrolled privateer.
Good observation and 100% accurate. Oldest tune in the world:
.
I went into a public ‘ouse to get a pint o’ beer,
The publican ‘e up an’ sez, “We serve no red-coats here.”
The girls be’ind the bar they laughed an’ giggled fit to die,
I outs into the street again an’ to myself sez I:
O it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy, go away”;
But it’s “Thank you, Mister Atkins,” when the band begins to play
The band begins to play, my boys, the band begins to play,
O it’s “Thank you, Mister Atkins,” when the band begins to play.
Isn’t it the case that PMCs are used as land-based privateers-giving their clients some deniability (or even outright repudiation) if things go pear-shaped? Wagner Group was widely regarded as Putin’s own army, right?
Second, that MAiD business in Canada is flat out demonic. I’m sure there are some in this country eyeing that jealously.
ObamaCare originally included MAID – remember the death panels to remove “useless eaters” from the system?
.
Wagner was like the Russian version of a Praetorian Guard, who also got too big for their britches. Putin wisely arranged for the airplane crash before things got completely out of hand.
Remove Useless Eaters: Covid was the backup plan.
It didn’t work as advertised.
Canada is threatening to cut off energy they supplly to the USA – FAFO – https://www.facebook.com/reel/1282074873833643
Nuclear Navy Personnel
Take a highly motivated and intelligent young man and send him to a tough school with a 20% graduation rate. Assign him to a clapped out boat that can’t go to sea. Work him like a dog for long hours, because you can, alongside civilians making more money who must be treated fairly. Then feign surprise when he can’t wait to get out. I sit on the sidelines watching it happen to a grandaughter’s fiancee in real time.
Interestingly, my gradaughter was hired by the same shipyard and is making big bucks; some type of precision machining. Classified work.
I wasn’t proud of the observation, but the situation needs to change. It requires a completely new culture. Or we wait around for the humanoid robots to do the crappy jobs which will only work until they’re smarter than we are.
No easy answers, changing an institutional culture when those in the institutions are loath to change. It takes smart leadership from the top that can motivate subordinates to willingly become part of the solution. Too many are risk adverse. Others are set in their ways and believe the way they have mastered is the way things should remain. Humans being humans, we will always be in wars. Complacancy gets people killed.
I’m reminded of press gangs.
I did the nuke thing back in the 70’s and 80’s. Pay was a lot less but the workload was pretty heavy. In my case, the pull to get out was money in the shipyard. But, more importantly, the push to get out was terrible management. Excellent LCDR but really pitiful CPO’s. Hard to find guys that qualify as nukes, hard to get them trained. But easy to chase them out.
**Ford’s assembly line and other advances led to a peak in the 1950s. But in the 70s and 80s—a downturn, triggered by globalization and automation. By 2000, we’d lost 5 million jobs, largely in steel, textiles, and electronics.**
I wonder if you could track the TYPE of collage degrees given in the US from 1949 to 2000 and see a correlation between the type of degrees given and the downfall of American manufacturing?
I know, it’s ancient history at this point…
**Global debates have weighed the legitimacy of targeting commercial satellites in military operations,**
Commercial shipping is a legitimate target, I’d expect everything to be a target with the next war.
I know that’s being weighed.
Ah, Letters of Marque. Yes please.
Will you hoist the black flag, Padre?