Bullet Points:
** Areas of the UK are completely under Muslim control. When that happens, this happens. Oh, there’s more. What is your daily carbon allotment? The British Crown knows…
** The Police – FAFO.
** (h/t Claudio) A discussion of towed array sonar systems, with the why and the how in an unclassified format. Old NFO didn’t give a fig for towed array sonars. Sonobuoys do a better job, and some can go active once below the thermal or salinity level to target the enemy boat. Of course, helicopters can do some of the same work with dipping sonars and sonobuoys. Are towed arrays on their way out?
If it’s a ship doing the towing, their maneuvering is hampered, and if it’s a hot war, the submarine can swim the fish out of the tube on low propulsion (wire guided), run the wire out slow, and go active with terminal guidance and the ship has a difficult time employing countermeasures before they’re hit (and sunk)
** In Canada.
** Let’s talk about breaching charges.
** The democrats vow to keep the government shut down until somebody notices. “Sooner or later, it’s bound to have some type of effect.”
** Fun with cats. More fun with bears.
** Mars and Venus – it’s always the same.
** More about the courtship of Barack and Big Mike, his husband, in Barack’s own words. He’s doing a lot of interviews on the subject these days.
** Fun with fire arrows. No, it’s not a metaphor.
** More on drone wars. Ukraine vs Russia.
** Russia is trying to rebuild its relationship with Syria so that it can forward deploy ships (all of which suffer from chronic maintenance issues) into the Mediterranean. (more here h/t Claudio)
Omidyar
Pierre Omidyar is an Iranian born in Paris. He is best known as the creator of eBay. He is rolling in cash. His net worth is estimated at in excess of $10 billion. He funds numerous non-profits, behind which he hides, as he does his best to steer the United States in the direction of his own personal preferences. Another leftist tech billionaire hiding behind a stack of shell companies and non-profits is attempting to frustrate the will of the American people and substitute his desires for those of the duly elected President and his appointees.
One of Omidyar’s organizations is the Democracy Fund.
“The Democracy Fund is a left-of-center public policy-oriented foundation chaired and solely funded by eBay founder and former chairman Pierre Omidyar. The organization contributes to center-left and left-wing media organizations, groups seeking to infringe on campaign speech rights, left-of-center voter registration organizations, and nominally non-aligned public policy organizations. The group, headquartered in Washington, D.C., has stated that it has funded over $275 million in grants to organizations. It has also funded the left-of-center Voter Registration Project, as well as projects in journalism, artificial intelligence policy, and election law, often working in concert with coalitions of other left-of-center grant makers.”
The Democracy Fund finances something called the Governors Action Alliance (GovAct). GovAct has now created the Governors’ Public Health Alliance. Leftist/communist governors are signing up to be part of an organization created by Omidyar’s hirelings and bankrolled by him.
Omidyar’s GovAct also supports something called Governors Safeguarding Democracy (GSD). GSD is run by Julia Spiegel, the same lady who runs GovAct. GSD was created in November 2024 for the explicit purpose of resisting Donald Trump and his agenda.
What we see in the case of Omidyar and GovAct is what is increasingly the model for leftist political activity in this country. Organizations seem to emerge out of nowhere, boasting glitzy websites and well-crafted mission statements that discuss ‘bipartisan’ efforts to safeguard democracy and combat oppression. They claim to represent coalitions of ordinary citizens who have spontaneously organized.
It’s a lie. Behind all of these groups are a handful of unbelievably wealthy individuals, who, having gotten rich off of capitalism and free enterprise, now seek to burn the whole system to the ground. Some of them, like George Soros, are now household names. Others, like Omidyar, somehow remain virtually unknown.
Grantifa
(zerohedge) If you’re white, were born in the 40s or 50s, and you yearn for the days of Woodstock, the window hasn’t closed for you yet. You can get back in the game. You may not get laid at the rally the way you did at Woodstock or Kent State, though.
The Democratic Party’s dark-money NGO network, bankrolled by left-wing billionaires, unleashed a highly coordinated, color-revolution-style mobilization nationwide on Saturday; the same tactics U.S. intelligence agencies have used overseas for years in regime-change operations. Yet the turnout wasn’t dominated by unhinged young leftists or gender-confused woke warriors, but rather by white baby-boomer liberals, a mobilization effort that NGO expert Mike Benz described as a “Coup d’f́lat.”
Argentina’s Bailout
(Article Review) The Council on Foreign Relations analysis, “Will Trump’s $20 Billion Backing Help Milei Change Argentina’s Fortunes?” by Brad Setser, examines the extraordinary decision by Washington to extend a $20 billion credit line to Argentina, effectively a direct currency-swap arrangement designed to stabilize President Javier Milei’s fragile economic experiment.
It is a striking departure from the usual reliance on the International Monetary Fund, and it marks one of the most significant unilateral acts of financial support the United States has ever offered a Latin American partner outside formal multilateral channels.
At its core, the U.S. move reflects both strategic calculation and political symbolism.
Milei has become a global poster figure for libertarian reform, austerity, and anti-statist rhetoric, promising to slash Argentina’s deficits and deregulate its moribund economy. Yet despite headline-grabbing fiscal cuts, Argentina’s real vulnerability lies not in its budget but in its foreign-exchange position. The country has run dangerously low on usable reserves—dollars that can actually defend the peso or service external debt.
Much of what Buenos Aires calls “reserves” is illiquid: Chinese yuan from a swap with Beijing or domestic deposits that cannot be tapped without risking a bank run. In truth, analysts estimate that perhaps only a third of the central bank’s reserves are genuinely deployable. That precarious situation explains why the U.S. Treasury, acting through the Exchange Stabilization Fund, decided to step in.
The swap line is meant to serve as a bridge, to reassure markets, strengthen confidence in Milei’s reforms, and prevent another full-blown balance-of-payments crisis. But it is also a gamble.
The United States is effectively betting that Milei can sustain his program long enough for Argentina’s exports and capital inflows to recover. Should the peso collapse or the government fail to repay, Washington, not the IMF, will be left holding the losses.
Setser’s analysis underscores the deep skepticism among economists that such measures can succeed without structural change. Argentina’s chronic problem, he notes, is not merely fiscal indiscipline but a narrow export base and chronic dependence on external borrowing. The country has already undergone multiple IMF rescues totaling over $50 billion, only to relapse into inflation and devaluation.
A temporary infusion of dollars, no matter how large, cannot cure a shortage of exportable goods or a loss of public confidence in the national currency. In this sense, the $20 billion swap may delay rather than prevent the next crisis. Politically, the arrangement also carries risks for both sides.
For the United States, it binds Washington’s reputation to Milei’s success. It opens the door to accusations that the swap is as much about ideology as economics, a reward for a friendly, free-market leader rather than a purely financial judgment.
For Argentina, it raises the question of sovereignty: if the U.S. swap becomes the lifeline for the peso, how independent can Buenos Aires be in setting its monetary path? Moreover, the reliance on a strong-peso policy to fight inflation is historically perilous in Latin America, as every episode of “currency-based disinflation” eventually collapses under the weight of dwindling reserves and external imbalances.
In the end, Setser suggests that the $20 billion lifeline is best viewed not as a solution but as a high-stakes experiment in economic diplomacy. Success would mean Argentina can rebuild its reserves, repay the swap in dollars, and maintain a stable peso without repeated interventions.
Failure would reaffirm the pattern that has haunted the country for decades: temporary foreign support followed by another devaluation and renewed dependence on external creditors. Either way, the U.S. decision marks a bold new precedent: direct American financial backing of a foreign reformer as both economic strategy and geopolitical statement.
Identify the Ship
1
2 & 3
Identify the Missiles
4
We all know it’s an A-7E Corsair. Identify the missiles it’s carrying.
Identify the Aircraft
5 & 6
Parting Shot
End
(1) AA cruiser HMS Curacoa.
(2) German frigate Hamburg and Irish William Butler Yeats.
(3) Looks like a couple HARMs and a couple Sidewinders.
(4) Dragonfly and Skymaster (O2).
– Kle.
Quick off the blocks, Kle.
1 – HMS Curacoa
2 – Sachsen-class frigate Hamburg
3 – LÉ William Butler Yeats Samuel Beckett-class offshore patrol vessel
4 – AGM-88 HARM
5 – Cessna A-37 Dragonfly
6 – Cessna O-2 Skymaster
Yes!
Identify the Ship:
1. HMS Curacoa
2. German frigate Hamburg
3. Irish OPV William Butler Yeats
Identify the Missiles:
4. Sidewinders and Sparrows
Identify the Aircraft:
5. Cessna A-37B Dragonfly
6. Cessna O-2 Skymaster
Very complete!
They used to have A-37Bs, O-2As and OV-10Bs at Patrick AFB back in the mid to late 70’s. Along with periodic flights of A-7s and then A-10s coming to play in the bombing ranges in mid-Florida.
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All were fun to watch. I miss living near an operating air base. Sigh.
Mars and Venus; Oh the joy of having teenage daughters. Got me dog trained to leave the seat down. Then empty nest days came. My man Friday, the cat, got adopted. He didn’t like the dog water. Preferred to drink out of the toilet. How, you say after 4 yrs of Venus regs? I slacked and started leaving the seat up. Concessions, not compromise mind you, just middle ground to keep the peace. I figured, why not just keep the tank lid off? It worked. Eventually we switched to an outdoor water dish for my man Friday.
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What I want to know is why he gets to be on the unlimited plan. The Dachshund and I are on more than a couple regs of rationing, neither of us have a serious weight problem. Is this a astronomy or polarity question, or what am I missing? Are cats / females more disciplined than men? Not according to the way Our master bathroom counter looks. The look on the dudes face! Me, ” thank God for 2nd bathrooms!”
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P.S. The best help I found from several marriage seminars was ” Laugh your way to a better marriage.” Seriously it wasn’t the humor, he just explained things better.
Marriage requires you to always put out 110% without giving much thought as to what the other is putting out (goes for women and men).
X2…not a competition, a team effort partnership.
X3
Truly. A good marriage is an experiment in gestalt. The sum is far more than the parts.
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In my marriage, I make up for her lackings, she makes up for my lackings, between the two of us we have a reasonably functioning brain… And, yes, I meant that.
Just so. If you’re keeping score, it’s never going to work.
Laugh indeed.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29JPnJSmDs0
Gungor is hilarious…and always spot on.
Thank you very much for taking the time to blog.while on the road.
Or any other time for that matter; there is no other news available.
I am still in hospital and will not turn on the TV.
Thank you again.
Will pray for Boron.
Seems I missed the update on him.
I applaud his tv decision. I’ve used one since I hard my first child – August ‘90.
Good riddance.
x100 on thanks to Señor Lambert’ dedication/time/efforts/variety!
Who’s gonna fill his shoes?
🤔
Juan
X2…Get well Mr Boron. Last I knew hospital channels were like airports, CNN and ABC/NBC and Netflix…so good call.
If Boron watches the hospital channels long enough, when they release him, he’ll be dressed like a furbie, shouting NO KINGS! and PEDO JOE – JOE AND HO and things like that…
Hospital gowns will do that to a person if worn for too long.
My prayers for Boron.
Without a DVR function, hospital tv is difficult with medical personnel continually interrupting the plot line.
It’s not like the tv in the rooms is worth anything. By the time you find something decent to watch, it’s half over and if you actually can watch it, then the stupid herd of idiots they call ‘nurses’ and ‘medical professionals’ come stomping in and out and make too much noise to hear or demand you shut the tv off while they’re there.
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Last several times I was in overwatch mode on my wife while she was in the hospital, I just took my laptop and watched anime or played games or read books and such.
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I’ve even brought her old iPod and some speakers and done tunes for her.
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And, boron, so sorry you’re trapped behind enemy lines. I’ll pray that you escape soon and don’t get shot crawling over the wires, so to speak.
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Hate hospitals. Used to be, pre-antibiotics, they’re where you went to die. Then they’re where you went to survive once antibiotics came into being. Now they’re back to places for one to die in. Of course a lot of that ‘dying’ is caused by lack of nutrition due to hospital food being even worse now than it used to be.
Cats: Good to know the big ones are just like the little ones, only… big.
*
BTW, where do people just leave bowls of candy out for trick-or-treaters?
Around here, the first arrival would just take it all.
– Kle.
I’ve been out with the grandkids on a number of occasions and people do leave big bowls out for them. My experience is that the kids each take a piece and move on to harvest at the next house. It’s counterintuitive, but they seem to follow the discipline.
Simple answer to your candy bowl question. Places that are lodged in the 1950s or where Republicans are considered to be ‘leftists.’
Don’t want to go there but some one needs to.
The Parting Shot—–should have some additional information….such as leave time with family visits during the 3 years.
Smile on her face says something. Out to greet him on the tarmac, another fact. Him kneeling and not crossing his arms explains the caption, ” heart warming.” Not a special surprise secret many wives would be able to keep. Bad assumption, and/ or my fictional mind wandering to far?
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Other scenarios occur, and divorce rates for deployed military, I’m only guessing are, difficult for Brass to face up to. Every couple is different and have to work through things ultimately themselves. Still working on it here. As aged whiskey, I’m mellowing out.
Jody gets around, Cletus.
If they are taking to the streets it tells me President Trump is doing what we voted for.
Have a fabulous day and week. ☺
When the youth are at the Turning Point USA rallies and the old commie hippies from the 60s are at the Communist marchies with the gay pride Halloween marchers, I think to myself that there is hope.
Drone Wars – Leave It To Beaver?
Toilet seats – one site had a picture taken at a workplace with unisex toilets. The gals had posted a message to the guys to put the seats down. Some guy posted a reply saying that, since they were empowered, independent women who didn’t need any man’s help, it would be insulting to the women if the guys put the seats down.
I like that. I’ll use it. Thanks Frank.
Good comeback!
“No Kings”…meaningless bored aging [white] Lefty’s with too much time on their hands. (That’s all I’m gonna say about that, other than ‘No Queens’ would have been more appropriate.)
***
Cats v Bears: Love the bears [delayed] response, but certainly says a lot between the two species. Had two young ones show up on front porch at 3:15 AM after we got the entry deck finished, hear this thump and bump, shine the light and these two faces are looking up at me asking to come in. Four days in a row at 3:15AM they came back looking for a handout…after destroying the bird feeders of course. Bold. Cats, not so much, unless you leave a barn cat out for the night.
***
Parting Shot: Funny. Altho, as others suggest, likely had leave somewhere in between. Dad went into the Marines for his stint, came back a year later and mom had my brother, went away for another year, finished his ‘duty’, then mom had me…both September babies a week apart. Once I figured out ‘the logistics’ used to razz him about it. He just smiled.
Ps. Latest ‘higher end’ terlit lid closes automatically. But I must be weird, I prefer it closed…might have something to do with dropping stuff in there over the years when pulling up the pants, like the pocket knife (it’s only chance for a cleaning). Never understood the complaint as I know woman who prefer the seat down but lid up.
The lions do like to eat their smaller cousins. I see that where I live. I don’t keep smaller cats but a lady does a few miles from me and she sees them carrying off the housecats. I went to her house with MRSLL to help her out with some chores and saw a cougar behind her place in a tree and advised her to stop adopting cats for the lions to eat. One day in times of want, they’ll take her. They eat your guts while you’re alive (preference). It’s not a good way to end things here on the Third Rock.
For sure gotta look up when out and about in the rural mountain areas, often they’re on overwatch from some rock or tree perch. Bigger than one thinks…if the neighbor goes missing likely been dragged up in a tree.
Several years ago outside of Anahuac, Texas, a sounder of feral hogs took down a caregiver as she exited her car to check on an elderly man and wife. Imagine their preferred starting point was same as the mountain lion.
My sister was born nine months to the day after our Dad got back from WWII.
Hehe…the greatest generation for sure.
Capitalism allows even the lowest in societal classes to prosper, become wealthy, and place pressure on the “experts”, that are pawns of those that wish competition would go away. Oddly, the “experts” are the most expendable when competition is eliminated, and have no real purpose. I would think they have enough intelligence to realize this, but apparently they don’t.
A rising tide floats all boats. It’s better if you can keep from being jealouse of others and work on yourself. That’s difficult for the class envy types (that Hollywood promotes).
“A rising tide floats all boats.” Except EdB’s…apparently. (sorry Ed, couldn’t help myself)
Sort of on point. I would like to see WW2 vessels before they are all gone. I’ve been on the Iowa and Wisconsin, and whatever carrier it is in Charleston SC Harbor (Yorktown II as I recall). Also the American sub in Manitowoc WI and the U 505 in Chicago. I have ridden several DUKWS.
I understand there is a Higgins Boat in the museum in New Orleans.
Are there any American cruisers left from WW2? Destroyers? Corvettes/Sub Chasers? Liberty ships? PT Boats?
I figured you guys would know.
The USS Midway is in San Diego. I understand a new SEAL museum is in San Diego, too.
If you can get to Hawaii, Pearl Harbor is the crown jewel for 2 historic ships, the Arizona and Missouri.
There’s also a fleet type submarine at Pearl Harbor that is open for tours – or there was. Many years ago I had an office in the fleet intelligence center just west of the USS Missouri (windowless multi-story building). It was FICPAC then. I think it’s been renamed as various admirals restructured to allow them to earn various gongs. Same building, same function. Mentioned in the book of short stories, “CONDUCT UNBECOMING” – available at Amazon.com (shameless plug)
USS Alabama is at Battleship Park in Mobile
And there is a US fleet sub there you can tour. And an Air museum. And some other military stuff. Well worth the trip.
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As to the Higgins’ boat, yes, D-Day museum, which is worth the visit. And I think they have a version of the Floridian vehicle that helped save WWII, that being the LVT series (originally designed as a rescue vehicle for Floridian swamps, or smuggling, or both…)
In Boston, there’s the USS Constitution and USS Cassin Young (Fletcher class), Still in mostly WW2 trim.
Nearby in Quincy is the USS Salem; not quite WW2 but I believe the only CA existing in the world, and has 8″ machineguns.
A little farther away in Fall River is USS Massachussets (another South Dakota Class) and a FRAM conversion destroyer; also
a PT boat and some other stuff.
*
Groton has Nautilus, world’s first SSN.
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NYC has CV Intrepid and SSG Growler.
*
Wilmington N.C. has BB North Carolina, in fantastic condition when last I visited.
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Buffalo has several ships, including a very cool CLG conversion with the “Talos assembly building”.
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Houston has BB Texas, very cool.
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CV Hornet is in San Fransisco Bay. There’s a Liberty ship around there, too, and some landing craft.
*
USS Blueback, a Barbel class, one of the last diesel SSKs built is in or near Portland OR.
*
There’s a DE somewhere in NY State.
*
A bunch of FRAM DDs are around in various places, and fleet boats.
*
It isn’t WW2, but Olympia, of Dewey and Manilla Bay is in Philly.
*
There are more, but that’s a lot of them (with the above that I have not repeated).
– Kle.
BB-35 is at Galveston now. I liked it better moored at San Jacinto, for the symbolism, but I understand the demographics.
*
Liberty Air Museum at Port Clinton, Ohio has a PT boat under reconstruction.
Protest marches
Born in 1944, so I fit the current No Kings crowd. When I joined the Army, all young ladies were “virgins”; reputation being important. When I got back from Germany in 1966, the “sexual” revolution was becoming a thing. Of course, I enlisted. Then came the anti-war marches. My motivation was, fight the war – don’t go half ass. The young ladies behavior was a motivator. After two or three hours of marching around, they were eager to continue demonstrating in private. I doubt things have changed much except many male boomers can no longer perform.
———–
Breach charges
Looks complicated. Why not a 1/4 lb block of C 4? Too cheap, and not gee whiz?
Makita 18v grinder with a proper cutting wheel…less ‘BOOM’ mess and doesn’t require a bomb tech cert…but…not as fast and doesn’t offer the surprise factor. Upside it is reusable.
He’s gonna be suprised when the baby comes out a little dark , just saying.
Tom Clancy did a very fine job in describing modern sub warfare in his “Jack Ryan” series of books, from using the towed array to all the sneaky ways to fire a torpedo.
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As to breaching charges, they make some really neat ones, sheets of sticky film with the charge on the outside and such, but the ones I like are the hard channels that are packed with a cutting charge, basically a linear shaped charge. Fun to watch, don’t want to be near one.
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You can try to wrap crap around an arrowhead to use as a fire arrow, or you could do what the medieval people did, probably the Romans and Greeks and Persians, which is to make a ‘baskethead’ and shove your flammable material inside the basket, soak it well in oil and light it and shoot it. Those work quite well, though distance is greatly reduced, though that really doesn’t matter when shooting at very flammable objects like wooden ships covered in pitch or such.
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As to professors, the Soviet Union, through the KGB (the three letter agency gift that keeps on giving) basically bought most American universities by the late 40s, so it’s no surprise that today’s modern professors are left of Lenin (or Lennon, that feckless jackass.)
Re the sonar systems… I have no comment. :-). Re your graph of professors, other than Professional and Economics, the bottom seven were all Pubs back in the 70s… sigh