Bullet Points:
** The M111 was developed by the Capabilities Program Executive, Ammunition and Energetics, along with the Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM). It makes sense.
** The USA made Putin look like the punk he is in his attack on Ukraine 4 years ago. In less than two weeks, the War Department and Israel have sunk Iran’s navy, bombed its air force, and forced the morality police into hiding. The beaters of women who dare show their hair in public will, hopefully, be beaten repeatedly once the revolution begins in earnest.
** Worth a view – City of London banking and the mullahs.
** Warren Buffett made the statement during a CNBC interview when asked how he would fix the national deficit. His answer was simple: pass a law that makes all sitting members of Congress ineligible for re-election any time the deficit exceeds 3 percent of GDP. He said the problem would be solved almost immediately because lawmakers would finally have personal consequences for overspending. The quote has resurfaced repeatedly over the years, especially as the deficit has continued to grow. As of 2026, the U.S. federal deficit is estimated at over 6 percent of GDP, more than double the threshold Buffett proposed. Under his rule, every current member of Congress would be ineligible to run again. No version of the proposal has ever been introduced as legislation.
** Drones – Asymmetric warfare that is rapidly evolving.
** Aircraft used for the official transport of senior Islamic Republic officials were destroyed in a new wave of strikes on Tehran’s Mehrabad airport overnight. The attack came amid intensified airstrikes on sensitive military and government sites in the capital. A large part of the Revolutionary Guards’ transport fleet was also destroyed in the operation.
** How it’s accomplished.
** The UK has officially refused the US request to send navy ships to the Straits of Hormuz, which is funny in and of itself because they have no ships to send.
** The Chinese communists had counted on using Iran to open a second front that would distract America from Taiwan, but President Trump has destroyed that plan for good.
** TV show FBI – and real FBI – same thing, life imitates art.
** (Zeihan) Sweden has seized its first shadow fleet vessel. They even went after a bulk carrier rather than a tanker. As more countries join in on the crackdown on Russia’s shadow fleet, the dominoes are beginning to fall. There’s a good chance that the entire shadow fleet could be dismantled within the next weeks and months. However, there are over 1,000 ships, so there isn’t enough port space to accommodate them all. Expect to see these aging vessels parked off the coast before they can be shipped to India or Bangladesh for scrapping. Beyond the obvious impact on Russian, Iranian, and other oil supplies, global shipping could enter a shortage as vessels are retired.
** Should we talk about reparations?
** US Army vs Cartel Drones (Sixty Minutes)
Thoughts on Writing
Sometimes I need to scout locations to describe them in literature. What if it’s sci-fi and you need to describe a planet you will never visit? Ah, it’s a bit more challenging. Enter the Vermillion Cliffs National Monument in Northern Arizona. The dominant rock unit is the Navajo Sandstone, representing a massive, ancient Jurassic-era desert. The Vermillion Cliffs push up 3000 feet from the desert floor adjacent to Lake Powell and the Colorado River.
In the middle of the blood-red rock is the White Pocket, known for its puzzling, white-hued, and intensely deformed sandstone, believed to result from soft-sediment deformation. There’s no easy way to get to the White Pocket. High clearance 4x4s can handle it. Tours are offered by outfitters. I brought my 07 Toyota FJ Cruiser (built). Then there is the Paria Canyon, featured in The Outlaw Josie Wales. It’s a deep slot canyon carved by the Paria River, exposing layers of Triassic and Jurassic rock. The Indians held the area as being sacred. If you visit, you can understand why.
And that’s where I’ve been – from John D. Lee’s Ferry across the Colorado to the White Pocket and points in between.
This is not “the wave” – that formation is hundreds of miles to the west of where I am, but they look a lot alike.
I figured that since the war in Iran was messing up my business interests and pre-empting what I needed to do, and other associates are handling business for me in Latin America, I needed to do a location scout. And that’s what I’m up to at the moment.
Of course, it’s still Earth. Once a mind twists and turns, it may not feel quite like that when you’re reading the story. A number of you want more Sci-Fi from me, and ever the pleaser, I will try to give you more of what you’re asking for. Hungry Ghosts nears completion at 75,000 words, and I have to decide whether to flesh out the short story Half Life (The Coil) or embark on something wholly new.
A Dragon’s Eye in the White Pocket.
What if dragons were buried in the earth by the elements, and they slept only to be awoken by some mystical process? These thoughts go through my mind as I walk the exotic landscape.
And I think to myself that it would also be fun to put Henry Hudson (The Confederate Cypher, Hudson’s Scouts, and The Crow Creek Expedition) in this territory at the onset of the Apache Wars to the south of here.
Such is the value of location scouting, and none of it is that far from the White Wolf Mine on the Mogollon Rim.
There will be a few more photos from this location scout over the next day or two.
The best part about this sort of thing is that it is all on our shared public land. It’s free for the trekking. Of course, it helps to have your own 4×4 or your own mule if you’re built of sterner stuff than my old body as I approach my dotage.
Speaking of mules, did you enjoy Bloody Bill’s Mule as portrayed in The Crow Creek Expedition?
Identify the Ship
1
Identify the Aircraft
2
3
Don’t overthink it.
4
Overthink this one
5
3,514 built
End
Identify the Ship:
1. HMS Phoebe. Leander class looked better with gun mount.
Identify the Aircraft:
2. Dornier Do 26
3. Focke-Wulf Fw 190A-3
4. Focke-Wulf Fw 190 A-5/U1
5. Nakajima Ki-84 Frank
You’re on it this morning, Surly! Well done.
1 is HMS Phoebe as Surly noted. Between 1973 and 1977 was used for the filming of BBC TV series Warship. Very popular here in Australia. Not sure the show made it to the USA. Later served in the Falklands War.
I didn’t see that BBC series. But in that time period I didn’t see much TV
I stopped by my brothers veterinary clinic one afternoon to say hello. He had some Missouri mules he was running through his hydraulic chute. As I walked in one of them put his hoof right next to my 6’ tall head. Luckily there was a panel between us. Accurate and deadly, what a combo. Mules, the FJ Cruiser’s of the animal world.
Mules being mules… and yes, the FJ is an automotive equivalent.
Owned a Jenny as a guard animal for goats. Effective protector of the herd but she and the guard dogs (Anatolian Shepherd and Great Pyrenees) had an interesting two months of learning to work together. As time progressed the attitude shown in FHubert’s post became evident as she picked up a several hundred pound buck goat by the back and attempted to shake some sense into him. That was the trigger for her to meet some new friends. Guard dogs were happy to see her in the trailer headed for the sale barn.
Bloody Bill’s mule was the famous co-star of the entire book, “The Crow Creek Expedition”, next to Hud the primary character. A great read.
*
Festus in the TV show “Gunsmoke” rode a pack mule named Ruth. A mule saved his life during the Civil War so for evermore he rode a mule and named them all Ruth regardless if male or female.
**I needed to do a location scout. And that’s what I’m up to at the moment.**
That sounds like fun!
I can’t dance or sing, so this will have to do.
‘Dance like nobody’s watching while out where nobody’s watching.’
You and me, don’t even want to do that…maybe that’s partly why I would never attend Stagecoach or Burning Man.
I’ve just started “The Crow Creek Expedition”, the series has been a good read!
Wishing you all the best in further writing and scouting. Very interesting landscape pictures. Caption photo and title; we’re in the process of relocating storage / lifetime of collected resources. 1,000’s of words in today’s artwork.
Enjoy the scout-age…fun stuff. The pictures are some amazing landscape, just have to get out a little ways to see these spots, preferably in the FJ and not on a mule (albeit both are very sure-footed).
***
Sidebar: Just sent off the tax docs to the expert as things in retirement are vastly more complicated instead of being exponentially more simpler…but…government thieves. Anyway, saw a meme the other day (IRS building in the background):
‘I hope Iran doesn’t try to destroy our top secret nuclear facility shown in the upper left corner.’
Yeah, my sentiment as well…especially since Nick Shirley uncovered a larger fraud in California…paid for by yours truly and all the other schleps being forced to pay or else the IRS will haunt you, then take everything you have under laws they created for themselves.
Ain’t “government thieves” kinda-sorta redundant? Anyhow…..I saw that meme too. One can only hope, eh?
Lots of work being done on the fraud over at ticker forum ,, TG extrapolates from what has been revealed that fraud could equal 1/2 the current deficit .
Just finished the trilogy and waiting for more. As a former treasure hunter, I’ve done a lot of research on the KGC. An interesting group—-perhaps some element still remains today?
Great info on the engineering of the Iranian destruction. Listening to the old guard piss and moan is exhilarating.
With the release of information on Round River check out the name Brian Auten. He’s from here in the Magic Valley. Same place as Mark Felt, aka “Deep Throat.”
Mules
We had a mule named Jackson. I treated him with respect, and he treated me with respect. Other people he would bite and kick. He was the boss of the pack string and as reliable an animal as you could want, but only for my father, sister, or myself. He was intimidated by my mother; he wasn’t alone.
He was good at spotting game. Stood like a bird dog with his ears pointing. Sort of, “Damn, shoot the elk, dress him out, and load him. There is grain at the trailer and I don’t want to be climbing these hills all day”.
Mules are practical beasts.
Wonder if there’s any roast beef available in western Nebraska. Bet Kansas is getting some smoke.
I need to look at a map but I recall taking a pickup from Henryville or thereabouts down past Kodachrome Basin and down the slot along the Paria River. Comes out onto 89 headed towards Page as I recall. Been a while – probably forgot some details. Good place to never find the bodies.
You can take 89 to Page or the Stonehouse Road cut-off down to 89A (graded dirt road) and then access the top of the Vermillion Cliffs – yeah, remote.
Vermillion Cliffs – as a matter of fact I drove past them today. Gorgeous as usual! Did not see LL.
I’m 2500 miles into my semi-annual Get-away-from-Oregon-Rain trip. Southern AZ got too hot so I headed northward.
I didn’t see you either. I left the White Pocket in the afternoon and drove home – end of adventure, back to the salt mine.
Shining Toys: You mean like Quitter Before the Storm Joe Kent who is now the Democrats newest shiny toy? The guy completely flips, leaks classified information, etc…and no one thinks to follow the money?
In The Founders day he’d be shot at dawn for his treasonous activity. (As I get older my ‘nice guy’ filter has given way to the ‘good man’ approach, which has little tolerance for players, bums, backstabbers, and/or Constitutional turncoats.)
It’s not like all his previous support of Trump and willingness to take on Iran with reason isn’t on tape. Or disc or chip or something like that.
Somebody got to him.
“Oh, look, it’s an overpressure grenade.” “How does it work, Sarge?” “It rattles the enemy when it blows up, it’s just a flash-bang on steroids.”
–
“Private Carter, what are you doing with duck tape and roofing nails and that M111?” “Uh, they won’t give us any M68s, so…” “Carry on. Just make sure none of the newsies see you carrying one.”
–
And, of course, the actual Nazis used overpressure grenades, the famous potato masher. Which troops rigged all sorts of fragmentation sleeves and stuff before there were ‘official’ versions.
–
Of course the real reason the M111 will ‘kill’ is due to everyone in the room having their eardrums shattered and then being shot by the troops.
Yes, that’s how it will kill.
As to FBI ladies, yeah, right. She’s missing about 80-100lbs, a permanent resting-bitch-face and the inability to do her job but she keeps getting promoted… Seen it with my own eyes.
x2
The nicest frustrated lesbian agent I ever dealt with was a Secret Service agent who took a demotion and moving to North Central Florida in order to get off of Hillary’s detail. She, the agent, was well educated, an actual real agent and not a DEI hire, but, yeah, chunky and stocky and short hair and resting bitch face. But she, the agent, could actually run and gun almost as good as the guys of her weight class and height.
–
She’d come over to my work station for help on lineups and DL photos and casually rip the incompetence of her fellow agents and the cops she was working with. In a most humorous way. Didn’t mention them by name but you could tell who she was talking about. I think she trusted me, a lowly clerk, more than her fellow agents and officers.