Bullet Points:
** Prompt – Digital graphic – right: A young, ginger-haired person with freckles and round glasses sits in a cluttered rustic kitchen eating a large rectangular strawberry layer cake. They wear a light blue-green jacket, a pink apron, and a textured red head covering. In one hand, they hold a large silver spoon with cake crumbs near their mouth. The cake, topped with white frosting and crumbles, rests on a beautiful large vintage round white English ceramic serving plate in front of them, surrounded by draped red, white, and yellow cloths. The background features aged teal walls and shelves stacked with old, weathered tins and jars. The overall style is reminiscent of a detailed oil painting with warm natural lighting. –ar 1:1 –profile blkk9 –stylize 300 –v 8.2.
** Marching in Michigan. A mostly peaceful Michigan vacation. The antidote for civilization.
** Meanwhile, on Mars.
** PRAHOVO, Serbia (AP) โ Water levels on the Danube River, the second longest in Europe, have dropped so low because of drought that the hulks of dozens of World War II German battleships are emerging into view. They are a curious distraction from the summer heat crisis. The Danubeโsย record low water levels also have forced power plants to the brink of shutting down, and governments across Central and Eastern Europe are taking steps to conserve electricity. In the middle of the river separating Serbia and Romania near the Serbian port of Prahovo, a rusty hull is now visible along with a broken mast where the Nazi flag used to fly. The ships, some still laden with weapons, belonged to Nazi Germanyโs Black Sea fleet that the Germans deliberately sank as they retreated from Romania and as Soviet forces advanced deeper into Europe near the end of the war. The British “Operation Gardening” dropped mines in the Danube River to sink Axis shipping. I’m surprised scrapyards aren’t trying to snap this up as they’d all be considered “Low-Background” steel.
** Turn your pick-up into a technical!
** President Trump signed a second executive order Thursday that does something no administration has ever done: it bans birth tourism outright, using a visa-fraud statute the Supreme Court can’t touch. This comes weeks after the Court struck down Trump’s broader birthright citizenship order 6-3 in June, citing the 14th Amendment. So instead of relitigating who’s born a citizen, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller explained the new approach rests on ๐๐๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐๐๐ ๐จ๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ข๐ ๐ซ๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐๐ง๐ ๐๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐๐ฅ๐ข๐ญ๐ฒ ๐๐๐ญ โ a 1952 law he called โ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฃ๐ข๐ฃ๐ญ๐บ ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ต๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐จ๐ฆ๐ด๐ต ๐ญ๐ข๐ธ๐ด ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต๐ช๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ง๐ฆ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ข๐ญ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฅ๐ฆ.โ The logic is simple: lying to a consular officer about why you’re visiting is fraud. โ๐๐ง ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ’๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฆ๐ญ๐ญ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ข ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ด๐ถ๐ญ๐ข๐ณ ๐ฐ๐ง๐ง๐ช๐ค๐ฆ๐ณ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ’๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ด ๐ข ๐ต๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ๐ช๐ด๐ต, ๐ฃ๐ถ๐ต ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ ๐ต๐ณ๐ถ๐ฆ ๐ฑ๐ถ๐ณ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ด๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ช๐ฏ๐ต๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต ๐ช๐ด ๐ต๐ฐ ๐จ๐ฐ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ข ๐ฃ๐ข๐ฃ๐บ ๐ฎ๐ช๐ญ๐ญ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ณ๐บ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฎ๐ช๐ฏ๐ต ๐ข๐ฏ ๐๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ช๐ค๐ข๐ฏ ๐ค๐ช๐ต๐ช๐ป๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ช๐ญ๐ฆ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ’๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ, ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ’๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ช๐ต๐ต๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ข ๐ง๐ณ๐ข๐ถ๐ฅ ๐ข๐จ๐ข๐ช๐ฏ๐ด๐ต ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ช๐ค๐ข๐ฏ ๐จ๐ฐ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฏ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต. ๐๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฃ๐บ ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ง๐ช๐ฏ๐ช๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ, ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ท๐ช๐ด๐ข ๐ค๐ข๐ฏ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ด๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ๐ฅ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ธ๐ช๐ญ๐ญ ๐ฃ๐ฆ ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ช๐ฆ๐ฅ.โ Miller said. It’s not a hypothetical problem. Texas AG Ken Paxton has already sued Houston-area clinics selling $๐,๐๐๐ โ๐๐ข๐ซ๐ญ๐ก ๐ฉ๐๐๐ค๐๐ ๐โ deals to over a thousand Chinese nationals, and billboards advertising the same scheme have turned up in Mexico.
** She fought the law (some moves on the dame) and the law won.
** The State Department and DHS quietly launched a pilot program this week requiring certain prospective immigrants to post a cash bond โ up to $๐๐๐,๐๐๐ โ before they can get a visa. Applicants from the Dominican Republic who were previously denied on โ๐ฑ๐ถ๐ฃ๐ญ๐ช๐ค ๐ค๐ฉ๐ข๐ณ๐จ๐ฆโ grounds are first in line, with consular officers in Santo Domingo already offering the bond option this week. The โ๐ฑ๐ถ๐ฃ๐ญ๐ช๐ค ๐ค๐ฉ๐ข๐ณ๐จ๐ฆโ rule bars visas for immigrants likely to become dependent on taxpayer-funded benefits. Under the new pilot, instead of an automatic denial, consular officers can set a bond โ typically in the $๐๐๐,๐๐๐ ๐ญ๐จ $๐๐๐,๐๐๐ range โ that gets returned after five years if the immigrant never draws public cash assistance or long-term government-funded care. A State Department official framed it plainly: the bonds exist to โ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฆ๐ค๐ต ๐๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ช๐ค๐ข๐ฏ ๐ฑ๐ถ๐ฃ๐ญ๐ช๐ค ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ง๐ช๐ต๐ด ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฐ๐จ๐ณ๐ข๐ฎ๐ด ๐ง๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฎ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ง๐ช๐ฏ๐ข๐ฏ๐ค๐ช๐ข๐ญ ๐ฃ๐ถ๐ณ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ช๐จ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฐ ๐ข๐ณ๐ณ๐ช๐ท๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐ฎ๐ข๐ซ๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฅ๐ช๐ค๐ข๐ญ ๐ฆ๐น๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ด๐ฆ๐ด ๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฅ๐ด.โ Officials say the program, built on existing authority under the Immigration and Nationality Act, could expand to other countries. No new law, no fight in Congress โ just a president willing to use the authority already on the books.
** 688s are still doing their part. There are currentlyย 24ย Los Angeles-classย fast-attackย submarines still in active commission with the United States Navy, out of 62 originally built. See RIMPAC 2026
** A highly controversial legislative proposal tucked inside the annual US defense bill seeks to criminalize the public disclosure of special operations forcesโ identities, sparking an intense clash between national security mandates and constitutional press freedoms. Specifically, the NDAA amendment dramatically expands the scope of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act, which was originally enacted to shield undercover spies. By renaming targets as protected individuals, this new legal barrier covers service members in sensitive combat units, certain communications crews, and even the civilian contractors tasked with training them. While military supporters argue these secrecy measures are essential to shield elite commandos and their families from retaliatory cyber harassment, critics warn of government overreach. Under the draft, critics argue the Pentagon would wield unilateral authority to decide which operations remain classified, effectively deciding what information is legal to print. Ultimately, this points to the tension between the need to uphold standards of national security and the freedom of the press.
** Who doesn’t love the thumper?
** Fun with DNA.
** SiG reports on sunspot numbers and the solar cycle. Quick question – how significantly does that impact weather patterns – or does it?
Methods
Governments have been using different methods to send people they don’t like on their way since the last ice age (Younger Dryas) ended. We don’t know much about what might have happened before that.
Impalement is a brutal method of torture and execution where a person is pierced by a sharp pole, stake, or hook. It dates back to ancient Mesopotamia around 1772 BC and was used globally as a supreme punishment for crimes against the state, treason, and military rebellion until the 20th century. Image left: A relief that depicts Assyrian soldiers impaling enemies, a brutal form of execution used to instill terror. The scene is from a wall panel located in the British Museum, originating from Nimrud (ancient Kalhu) and dating between the 9th and 7th centuries BC
Babylonia: The Code of Hammurabi from 1772 BCE lists impalement as a legal penalty for specific crimes, such as a wife causing her husband’s death for another man.
Assyria: The Neo-Assyrian Empire used vertical and horizontal impalement on a massive scale. Palace reliefs show captured enemies and rebellious city leaders on stakes to terrify rival populations.
Persia: Rulers like Darius the Great used impalement for political rebels, corrupt officials, and traitors. Ancient historians note thousands of rebels were executed this way.
Medieval and Early Modern Eras
Vlad the Impaler: Vlad III of Wallachia (the historical inspiration for Dracula) used mass impalement in the 15th century as both a tactical psychological weapon against invading Ottoman armies and a domestic deterrent against crime and corrupt nobles.
Ottoman Empire: The practice persisted within Ottoman legal and military frameworks for centuries, occasionally employed well into modern wartime conflicts. (see Turkey)
Other Cultures: Historical records and regional legends across parts of South Asia (such as southern India) and Europe utilized temporary or permanent stake executions for severe crimes against social order.
***
The Email Burns!
How can I live with such guilt? At least I have five hours to wire the money that will save the republic and will stave off a disaster of Biblical proportion. It’s a good thing that I have Mike_C’s banking information and access codes to get the money there in sufficient quantity to satisfy the needs of an imperiled nation!
Identify the Aircraft
1

2
Two graphics to aid your ID


Identify the Shipย
3
No hull number, but you can wrangle a class at the least.
Hint: it was one of the fastest destroyers of World War II – 6 built

4
11 of this class were built and commissioned. Two were lost in combat.

Parting Shot
Big Beautiful Wall

End

3 is French Le Fantasque-class large destroyer later reclassified as light cruisers.
It’s a real stretch to classify that as a light cruiser – unless you don’t have any light cruisers and want to live the fantasy.
They did it for the tax break.
Off topic it is national census here today. Done every five years. Missed the last one as we were overseas.
It is no longer paper and all on line unless you are very remote and requested paper.
They added a controversial question this time asking about sexual orientation (you can opt out). My wife and I put down that we are normal.
If you’re woke, “normal” is recut as “abnormal” – which is not normal, but they say it’s the new normal.
Identify the Aircraft
1 โ Polish PZL P.11c
2 – Soviet Belyayev DB-LK
Identify the Ship
3 โ French Le Triomphant – Le Fantasque-class
4 – Royal Navy Fiji-class possibly HMS Newfoundland
Yes, #4 is HMS Newfoundland – outstanding.
Fun with DNA: hard pass but thank you for that information; itโs scary as all get out.
You can live forever, RSH. And if you don’t want to go the re-built DNA route, you can have your brain up-loaded into one of Musk’s Optimus robots.
If there is any way this defeats cancer I am all in. Not for me, 60% of my clan on both sides are afflicted.
Where do I sign p for the technical mod?
I think that DRJIM is handling that.
The website for Doc’s Technicals should be up later this week…..
Technical; combined with the truck bed “tool” box that VM posted sometime last year, AND a retractable truck bed cover, will the mines CCP endorsements cover this set up?
I’m only the messenger, GFW2 – “don’t shoot me, I’m only the piano player.”
Play it againโฆLL.
I just a text from Greg Coker; he has been diagnosed with MS. I am reaching out to the praying men who will read this. Please lift up prayers for Greg and Edie.
X2
My sister has MS (about 30 years now) bastard of a disease. Best wishes to everyone.
I will pray. I will say that I have two friends, each diagnosed with MS about 20 years ago.
Still with us.
Tough one, prayers treatments help.
RCC; glad to hear that normal is still here, and hopefully coming back soon.
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I’m racist, very racist. I believe in only one race, human, period. Our ethnic nationalities were part of the original creator’s design, with a distinct purpose. Acts 17:26,27.
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I’ve lived and worked with people of various skin color, languages, and culture, ( including cuisines) and respect the ones that are normal, and trying to be compassionate with those that trying to live up to an image. I call BS on TPTB dealing out victimhood cards to the sheeple.
H/T sir for posting the end around move by PDJT when the highest court in the land can’t use common sense to decide what’s wrong and right. Old man and senile senior syndrome are not factors in my nausea of Lawyers finding clauses to get the guilty off the hook.
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Fetterman said, ” grow a pair ” when trying to wake up his fellow party members to start actually working.
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Working livestock, a body knows where to look to sort the boys from the girls. I see the gender confusion just like the race card. Stop messing with the original design!
Ref the cake eating ginger artwork. Well done btw. But does Jules know youโre drawing caricatures of her childhood in the Olโ Blighty? Beware of the wolf hounds sent to visit.
*
Not renewing your MAGA membership in a timely mannerโฆ. If you get shunned at the grocery store by the old blue haired widows itโs on you.
*
Ships and planes today.. batted a zero known.
Jules will find out the hard way…should have made her blonde, but strawberry works better with strawberries.
.
Ships and planes need to be difficult because of some of the sharks doing the IDs. They don’t want to be spoon-fed easy IDs.
No more “minting babies”! H/t Stephen Miller. Amen.
Miller does concisely get to the heart of itโฆand the action is no more complicated than that.
Identify the Aircraft:
1. PZL P.11
2. Belyayev DB-LK
Identify the Ship :
3. French Le Fantasque-class destroyer Le Triomphant
4. British Colony class light cruiser
Excellent!
Dumb question of the day:
Now that the COVID flamozzle is over and the masquerade has run its course (with the exception of muggers, thieves, and other low IQ adherents)
Why does the US government prevent me from purchasing Ivermectin (OTC or per Rx)? Why does my physician look askance at me when I ask for a 20 pill Ivermectin script as though I’m asking for an RX for 100 tabs Percodan?
C’mon Mr Kennedy, let’s get this straightened out
It’s not OTC, but you can get it paying through nose at The Wellness Company, among other places.
I got it a couple years ago through a tele-visit and a compounder from a doctor north of here.
Wasn’t cheap. Didn’t use it all. A friend in Florida needed some for his elderly mom and we mailed it to him.
Almost instant relief for her (not covid).
OTC in Africa, but Big Pharma here makes it difficult to obtain because their unpronounceable newโ meds couldnโt gain marketshare. Remdesivir is toxic, as human guinea pigs discovered. Plenty of online Big Pharma end-around shops carry it, moreso after the Covid PsyOp said it was โhorse pasteโ to scare people away from a well used well documented medicine.
i’m told it gets handed out free along with hcq in africa and some asian areas. its a wonder drug by their own testimony, testimony they cover up til this day. its safer than tylenol too. the new fda chief was a covidian masker, fauci disciple. who the hell is feeding trump all these swamp creatures names for office?
“** 688s are still doing their part. ”
I may have commented earlier, they just decommissioned the San Juan.
First to see action in the Iraq War (2). Except for those CIA guys.
They’re timing out, but they are still lethal. It’s an old story, as old as time.
Older and survived= tested.
Larry, you are letting the rest of us down. Take up the slack and pay your fair share. Whatever that is.
Mike_C has more money than he knows what to do with. He can pay my fair share. It’s becoming the American Way.
Does MikeC have a PleaseFundMe website?
>good thing that I have Mike_Cโs banking information and access codes
I hope you put my entire fortune of $298.34 (plus three “$10 off of $25 purchase” coupons at the local thrift store) to good use.
—
Today, after several months break, I got another email from Best Pharma Grifter (allegedly) Vivek Ramaswamy who wants my support toward his Ohio governorship. That creature is emblematic of our soon-to-be co-ruling class. If you think our current rulers are narcissistic, spite-filled hypocrites full of un-earned self pity (and they are), wait until 100k Ramaswamys really get truly entrenched in US politics and major corporations.
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In more cheerful political/corporate news, I had the opportunity to meet Mike Minogue (and his wife Renee) who is running for Governor of Massachusetts as a Republican. Mike is a West Point grad, Ranger qualified, Desert Storm vet, and former CEO of Abiomed, which is best known for the Impella intracardiac pump. Unsurprisingly, the guy is a good speaker and charismatic as hell. At least in person (I have no idea how he comes across on TV). Pretty decent platform too. The other guy seeking the MA Repub nomination is Brian Shortsleeve, a Harvard ROTC Marine who served in former Yugoslavia and the Persian Gulf. I don’t know much about Shortsleeve, though a major strike against him (in my book) is that he is also a Harvard Business School graduate. I kid. Sort of. While I also have Harvard smeared across my CV, I’m pretty convinced that Harvard, and Yale, are, at best, amoral entities whose primary goals are to increase their endowments and influence above all else. Growth for its own sake, ethics or morality be damned, is the philosophy of cancer.
I sent two of your 50% off Target coupons and the free regular-size sandwich coupon from Jersey Mike’s to the Trump campaign, suggesting they use them as they saw fit.
That’s very generous of you!
Thanks for pitching in!
> Jersey Mikeโs
In the vein of the words of Stephen-the-Mad-Irishman from Braveheart, “It’s mine. MY shop.” (You can tell from the name.)
Thumper. Clint Smith of Thunder Ranch fame was assigned to one in Vietnam (USMC). I would link to one of his videos talking about it, but it would seem that the YouTube algorithm has run over the horizon with its collective hair on fire, requiring sign in for ALL the videos on his channel.
Sunspots and solar cycles have a MAJOR impact on the Alpha Index and MAD detection ranges. That was one of the things ‘we’ watched closely, in addition to making sure we ran comps to have the MAD systems as optimized as possible… sigh