Caption: Internet Troll
Bullet Points:
** Orson Welles recounts a story of Winston Churchill.
** Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán just delivered a powerful message that’s sending shockwaves through Brussels: Hungary is done with the failing EU establishment and is anchoring itself firmly with America. Speaking to supporters, Orbán made it crystal clear: “Today our most important ally in the Western world is unfortunately not Germany’s brotherly parties in Germany, but rather the United States’ Republicans operating together with us!” He slammed the leftward drift in Western Europe: “…and the CSU has become so much of a left-wing party they made it impossible for them to cooperate with us.” Orbán directly refuted the tired Russian-influence accusations pushed by EU globalists: “Today the visit of our American Vice-President is a result of all these false accusations that he wants to bring us together with Russian friendship. It was not the Russians – it was not Russians, but Americans who came here yesterday to Hungary!”
** Three years from now – robot surgeons…(Musk)
** Reimagining the RMS Titanic (right). This is Titanic Week – The RMS Titanic began its maiden voyage from Southampton, England, on April 10, 1912, setting sail shortly after noon for New York with over 2,200 passengers and crew. Sank five days later, on 15 April 1912, in the North Atlantic Ocean.
** What do liberal women care about? Ben delves and delivers.
** Size matters – king of the battlefield.
** A couple of you have emailed to ask me why I’m not in Baghdad. At the moment, Baghdad is dangerous and would likely be worse for me because I am not a diplomat with a QRF and armored transport. Once peace breaks out and things settle down, I’ve been invited there to discuss the new situation with SOMO. Frankly, there would have to be more than a little geopolitical clarity before I hopped a flight to Baghdad, but I think there is a lot to be done there to help the Iraqis craft a way forward in the new reality. We’ll see. For now, traveling into the war zone is an incredibly bad idea.
** Anti-Twelver regime resistance inside Iran is no longer just protests. It’s armed guerrilla warfare. A newly formed group called the 𝐇𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐃𝐞𝐟𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐎𝐫𝐠𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐳𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 ambushed an IRGC checkpoint near the city of Saveh—killing regime security officers. The reasoning is thus: If the Iranian people don’t take out the IRGC, the IRGC will take out the Iranian people. Smart. It’s more than Kurdish or Baluchi fighters in border regions now—these attacks are now happening in 𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐥, 𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐚𝐧-𝐦𝐚𝐣𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐈𝐫𝐚𝐧 near the so-called holy city of Qom. (Tousi TV)
** Hunting in the Shadows: Borneo and South Vietnam 1964-1968 is now available with a male Australian A.I. narrator for those of you who wanted the book on Audible. It is a nonfiction history book. The events described here took place in Borneo during the Indonesian Confrontation in the latter half of 1964 and in the Republic of Vietnam during that country’s fight for its very existence throughout 1965-1968. Malaysia, with the assistance of its allies, prevailed in the Confrontation. Unfortunately, the Republic of Vietnam, after being abandoned by its allies, succumbed to a full-scale Communist armored and infantry invasion in April 1975.
This is the story of an Australian Army officer who was seconded to support the efforts of the Republic of Vietnam in their clandestine war against the National Liberation Front. The story is told precisely as events unfolded without efforts to minimize or maximize. It’s a story of a brutal civil war, of a proxy war, of love, death, and revenge in a wartorn setting. Both the government of the Republic of Vietnam and the National Liberation Front (Viet Cong) engaged in systematic assassination as a matter of policy. Reading this book requires that you read it in the context of the people and events as they occurred.
I found it interesting that one Amazon reviewer trashed the book as being poorly/cheaply done fiction. I assure the readers here on VM and elsewhere that it is completely genuine and accurate history. If you don’t like the writing style, that’s a completely different complaint.
** Sometimes I sit in my office to write/blog at a desktop computer. Sometimes I sit in the dining room area of the Great Room here at the hovel on my laptop. Just a random snap. The table is made from alligator juniper (2 tree trunks) that I cut here on the White Wolf Mine property, milled at a local lumber mill owned by a friend, assembled, and varnished without stain. The legs of the table are walnut (stronger than juniper). The tabletop is 2.5″ thick for strength, but it’s also quite heavy – thus the walnut.
** (Telegraph UK) Sailors who track Russian warships to go on strike. Royal Fleet Auxiliary staff, the civilian support wing of the Royal Navy, plan a walkout in a long-running dispute over pay.
** Though it was reported yesterday as “US Navy Warships Opening Straits of Hormuz,” I’m commenting on it on the Sunday blog because of the news cycle. It’s difficult to know what news to rely on. Iran can shoot at US Navy warships if it wants to. That’s hardly news. The right of innocent passage allows ships from any nation to transit the straits without paying Iran mordida. USN is reportedly “opening the straits,” which must mean that destroyers are going to find out whether there are sea mines by sailing through there as “mine (bullet) sponges”.
(ISW) Iran is using the existence of an unknown number of naval mines it laid in the Strait of Hormuz to force ships to use Iranian territorial waters to traverse the Strait, which enables Iran to shakedown these ships for fees while the ships are in Iranian territorial waters. This protection racket is illegal under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Iran likely designed its threatening behavior and its shakedowns to disrupt the global economy, which Iran calculates will enable it to extract concessions from the United States. Iran warned merchant ships that mines could exist in a “hazardous area” that covers 1,394 sq km of the Strait, including the normal traffic separation scheme (shipping lanes) that ships use to transit the Strait.
And the Iranians are still launching missiles at Israel, and the Israelis are shooting back, so the ceasefire isn’t worth much.
Breaking – Vice President JD Vance: “The bad news is that we have not reached an agreement. And I think that’s bad news for Iran, much more than it is for the US. So, we go back to the US having not come to an agreement … they have chosen not to accept our terms.” — “Never interrupt your enemy while he is making a mistake.” – Napoleon
Identify the Ship
1
Hull number D660
Identify the Aircraft
2
Note 2 engines, not 3
3
4
Over 10,000 built – long production run.
5
250 built
Parting Shot
Truth
End
Identify the Ship:
1. Amiral Ronarc’h
Identify the Aircraft:
2. Savoia-Marchetti SM.79B
3. de Havilland Dragon
4. Polikarpov I-16
5. CAC Boomerang
Outstanding!
1. Thanks! I had to look it up..
The French frigate Amiral Ronarc’h, new this year if google didn’t steer me wrong.
I see the term “frigate” all the time I looked that one up too.. This time an AI told me, **A frigate is a versatile, fast, and moderately sized warship designed for anti-submarine warfare, convoy escort, and maritime patrol, acting as a crucial, cost-effective, and adaptable, multi-mission vessel in modern navies.**
The ship in the photo is a moderate sized modern warship.
Nabal – at least he was able to fall over dead when his foolishness was pointed out to him. Today’s group – I doubt it.
Agreed
Rogan: When truth meets reality for those who live in a self created fantasy that affords permission to be anarchists; these types have no clue what it takes to defend and protect America yet somehow have convinced themselves from their safe space bubble they know better therefore are the arbiters of truth that no one else but them understands. This demented mentality then progresses to judging ‘after the fact’ using their conjured rules and asinine definitions that uses tortured logic to justify their backwards thinking (‘defund the police’??)…like that story from yesterday linked from OldNFO. This mentality is both galling and dangerous, especially when walking around in a crowd, the worst of them aren’t always obvious. Similar to the jaguar off the back deck pic you posted, give it space until it gets bored and walks off…you don’t poke, unless you have no other choice…then, SISU.
***
Now I need a full picture of that amazing table, stunning from what we can see…and even more poetic, right from the WWM property. Well done.
Yes, we can use a photo showing the table!
Reference Titanic: The snapshot of the Titanic sinking provides an excellent leadership study.
-SS Titanic’s Captain Smith who wanted to set an initial speed record despite conditions being unfavorable for such and effort. A company man who ignored obvious danger and earned headlines that he would not want to read had he survived.
-SS Californian’s Captain Lord who was known for being harsh to his crew and refused his crew’s request to sail closer to Titanic. These two ships were, using sea distances, neighbors. Lord even refused the request to reply to Titanic’s distress radio signal with Californian’s radio.
-SS Carpathia’s Captain Rostron who when notified of Titanic’s distress message, changed course, increased speed, set additional lookouts, rotated lookouts every 15 minutes and provided them with a mug of hot chocolate at the middle of that short watch period, gathered his passengers briefing them on the situation and preparing them to assist in the rescue.
Titanic’s sinking usually focuses entirely on the activity onboard Titanic; but is a leadership study that should be examined in detail when remembering Titanic.
Factoid: The ship my great grandparents were on docked at the same time as the Carpathia did. They were immigrating from Switzerland.
My grandparents were on the Titanic passenger list, but did not sell their property quick enough and missed the boat.
Lucky.
**The tabletop is 2.5″ thick for strength, but it’s also quite heavy **
There is something that just “feels right” with a thick table top!
2.5” thick tabletop also sounds like excellent small-caliber cover in a contingency. Planned or afterthought?
And it’s juniper. That stuff is like armor plate….
**they have chosen not to accept our terms.**
That line says so much…
Sidebar: Doubtful this applies to anyone here, but for those who have any illusions (delusions) that TSA and Homeland Security work for your best interest, think again.
MrsPaulM had a weekend trip to Napa to assist a friend in her mothers memorial, had to fly thru SFO…she is also a United million mile flyer but no longer has PreCheck status. Since Hess is our favorite wine, and the events were in Monte La Salle, across the way from Hess, she goes there, gets a few fun things, which included a Hess corkscrew…in a sealed package. Not cheap, but a nice item. Goes to pick up her travel backpack after ‘the scan’ and the TSA guy – in his best ‘I’m all that’ voice – says he needs to inspect it. Fine. Proceeds to unload her gear and clothes to ‘discover’ this corkscrew, in the package, not opened, clearly from a winery. This guy goes all gestapo on her and says she can’t bring it on board (she had no checked luggage, quick trip and a seasoned travel packer). Now, she is First Class, which apparently means nothing anymore, but the guy was almost rabid. So after a few minutes she finally relents because the TSA backed mob scene was asinine, took an hour for he, so breaking ranks to mail it to herself was not an option (because the geniuses at SFO don’t have a USPS drop at the TSA checkpoint, likely on purpose). BUT THEN…kid you not…she watches as the TSA guy walks over to his own backpack sitting on a chair and PUTS the new corkscrew into it then turns smiles at her. Told her to go back with a supervisor and demand he return it….but the mob scene line was massive so she gave it up. Unreal. Time to eliminate the TSA, next to useless, except for hassling innocent travelers.
give the kid who was barely able to graduate with your high school class a position as an administrator in the hospital where you work and before you know it, he/she/it is running the hospital telling all the doctors, nurses, and other staff what/when/how to do whatever they do to take care of patients
give this same position to the kid who was not born in this country and who barely speaks understandable English, and then sit back and watch what happens
This is not a Disney fairy tale
Exactly.
I think that’s bad news for Iran
Is anyone surprised? Trump will resume being Trump and the Democrats, and their worldwide fellow travelers, will resume clutching their pearls.
Yeah, Baghdad is NOT a good place to be right now, regardless of your ‘ethnicity’… I read Hunting in Shadows and talked to friends that were there, they said it was all true, and not sugarcoated at all. Re Rogan, he nailed it.
A neighbor was a Navy Yeoman during that time. While not himself doing the work, he was the one typing the records and reports. He read the book and, to him, rings true.
BBC reporting Orban just lost his reelection bid in a landslide. Winner Péter Magyar is promising closer ties to EU. Zeleskyy approves….
Make of that what you will.
Yeah. Just read that. Darn.
The elites can’t help themselves when their assumed power is threatened, plenty of “fiction” novels use that as the main thread.
And non-fiction accounts. Some of us have been their cat’s paws in the past. They bestow engraved medals affixed to brightly colored ribbons and offer bundles of old paper that people worship as legal tender.
Give us Barabbas!!