Caption: Moving the radar from SCAN (beeping on the threat warning) to track with a radar lock (solid tone). But who is targeting whom?
Bullet Points:
** The U.S. Maritime Administration has signed an agreement with nuclear technology developer CORE POWER to explore a pathway toward U.S.-flagged nuclear-powered commercial ships, expanding the Trump administration’s push to bring small modular reactors into the maritime sector. MARAD and CORE POWER (US) Inc. announced the Memorandum of Cooperation on Monday, establishing a framework to address some of the biggest obstacles facing commercial nuclear propulsion, including regulatory approval, port operations, crew credentialing, nuclear fuel and lifecycle services, insurance and financing. The agreement is the third signed by the Department of Transportation since Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy launched a maritime small modular reactor initiative in May. Earlier agreements with the ports of Long Beach and Corpus Christi established potential testing areas and frameworks for exploring nuclear-powered vessels and shoreside applications.
** Dolly Parton – Dead at 80. RIP (right). She had one heck of a run.
** Jules chokes on the Blood of Christ – More in her report. Is she going to the hot place as a result? Can wolves bring balance to life? Or are they merely there to keep her humble?
** Naval Drone Parade – on water – Ukes show you how it’s done. The USVs included several different models from multiple manufacturers, and serving with different branches of the armed forces. Prominently, Magura V7 USVs displayed the Sea Dragon air defense system. Magura was the first Ukrainian USV, with the V1 prototype tested in the summer of 2022. The V7, built by Uforce, represents four years of rapid development. The Sea Dragon system can mount both the American AIM-9M Sidewinder and Soviet AA-11 Archer missiles. In the parade, Archers were carried. Another type that displayed Sea Dragon, this time with Sidewinders, was the Sargan USV. Additionally, another Sargan displayed four hangars for quadcopter drones, and another showed the combination of 4 x ‘Grad’ 122mm rockets and an electromagnetic warfare (EW) suit. The Sargan, also known as Seawolf, has been associated with the Navy (VMS – ZSU). Additionally, several ‘Sea Baby’ USVs were also present. Associated with the Security Service (SBU), Sea Baby is a general name applied to a range of hull types. The ones shown are recent models and appeared to be armed with ram charges. Other Sea Babies not shown at the parade have been observed with remote weapon stations (RWS), Grad rockets, and the Sea Dragon air defense system. (h/t Claudio) CDR SAL on other naval drones.
** Nick Shirley visits France – and Minnesota…and there is now a Nick Shirley Bill in the California legislature to stop investigative reporting – Carolla reports.
** 90% Tax Rate?
** Any serious effort to de-escalate tensions in the Middle East must address the Houthi threat directly. The group has its own interests, says Stark: “No one should assume that a deal with Iran will bind what the Houthis do next.”
And so it goes
The Chinese Economy
(h/t Claudio and Strategypage) August 11, 2026: Between April and June, the Chinese economy expanded more slowly than it had since 2022. The cause of this was declining household consumption, which blurred manufacturing efforts and exports. All this increased anxiety over the prospects of long-term sustainability and the creation of unbalanced growth. Local and international economists expected five percent growth in the first quarter. Actual performance was 14 percent less. China’s economy expanded at its slowest pace in over three years in the second quarter, with weak household consumption clouding prospects for strong manufacturing and intensifying concerns over the long-term sustainability of its unbalanced growth model.
All consumption is down in China, particularly among the affluent and the 200 million-strong middle class. Imports of high-end foreign goods have fallen by nearly half. These affluent Chinese have cut their consumption of non-essential items to a fraction of their normal levels. Chinese retail outlets are suffering, with layoffs and bankruptcies spreading. For the majority of Chinese, this means more unemployment and a desperate scramble to secure or create new jobs in the still-vibrant gig economy. High-tech export industries are still going strong, as is demand from overseas customers.
The current economic problems were not so much a surprise as a continuation of economic woes that have been underway for some time. Four years ago, China’s economic problems continued to worsen, notably in bank failures, unemployment rates, and economic growth. About a fifth of 16- to 34-year-olds in China seeking work failed to find it. That’s twice the rate for other industrialized countries. More of these young job seekers, especially recent university graduates, are settling for lower-paying, low-career-growth government jobs. The youth unemployment rate is partly due to the rapid growth in the number of university graduates. At the end of the 20th century, it was one million grads a year. Now it’s 11 million a year.
The GDP growth rate continues to slide, and bank failures are growing. The government has stopped announcing annual GDP growth rates and now says it will do its best to sustain economic growth. Those efforts are concentrating on preventing a collapse of the financial system. Bank failures are a major and growing part of the problem. China implemented bank deposit insurance in 2015. It covers losses in bank failure of up to $75,000 per depositor. That protects all but a few percent of depositors, who hold less than half of banks’ liquid assets. The problem is the bank must officially fail before depositors can get their money. Currently, nearly half a million depositors are unable to access their money, and the government further erodes confidence in the banking system by tolerating banks’ excuses (“we are upgrading our software”) to delay triggering deposit insurance payouts. Customers who protest publicly are silenced by changing their health status to “infected”. Anyone with that designation cannot appear in public without risking arrest and confinement. The more frequently and longer these tactics are used, the more people will lose confidence in the banking system. There is already a lot of illegal activity and corruption in the banking system, and learning more about it has long-term effects on popular attitudes towards the government. This is one reason for the problems contained within Evergrande, the largest real estate firm in China. Evergrande is still sliding towards bankruptcy. Efforts to prevent that have failed so far.
China’s economy was already slowing down when the current covid19 shutdown in Shanghai and elsewhere made matters worse. There is also an unresolved real estate bubble, and more Chinese banks are experiencing liquidity problems as they struggle to meet withdrawal demands. The economic damage caused by all this led to a $5 trillion stimulus program to alleviate worker suffering and provide businesses with the cash needed to keep operating. The actual decline in GDP growth is a state secret but is believed to be severe enough to cause GDP to shrink and mark the official end of decades of high GDP growth. China’s economy, at $18 trillion (or less) per year, is the second-largest in the world. The Americans have economic problems, but not to the extent China does.
This is mainly about the size of their $117 trillion in government debt, which is nearly four times the size of the U.S. debt. China’s debt is 6.5 times GDP, while the U.S. debt of $29 trillion is 1.26 times GDP. It’s worse when you take population size into account. China has about four times the population of the U.S., meaning the average Chinese person has about 16 percent of an American’s income while carrying far more government debt per capita. Much of that debt stems from millions of housing units built by local governments that few Chinese can afford or choose not to consider, because many of these Ghost Cities are too far from where the jobs are or so defective as to be useless. China’s bond market is the second largest in the world after the United States. With this kind of debt, quality (the ability of debtors to repay) is a major factor. The quality of Chinese debt is much lower than the U.S. or the West in general, and the extent of this problem was deliberately hidden by debtors, especially local governments, for decades. Some of that bad debt is related to BRI (Belt and Road Initiative) projects, which is currently about $60 billion. Poor management, COVID-19, and local violence and corruption turned most of that debt into a liability, or worse, because default either means China assumes ownership of the project or the local government interferes and creates a diplomatic as well as economic problem. All this makes China’s real estate bubble far more dangerous than those encountered in previous major economies.
The situation in the South China Sea is becoming more difficult for China because the Philippines has implemented measures to reduce the Chinese threat by curbing corrupt Chinese influence in the country. That is the main reason why the new Filipino government is canceling three Chinese-financed railroad construction projects worth nine billion dollars. This was part of a $24 billion Chinese proposal for projects that improved Filipino ports and transportation networks. The cancellation of these projects has been under consideration for over a year due to vague loan terms and China’s failure to perform. The Chinese are believed to be using the loan program as a weapon to coerce the Philippines into making concessions in the South China Sea.
A national opinion survey conducted at the end of June found that Filipinos trusted the United States, Australia, and Japan the most while trusting China and Russia the least. Respondents were asked to rank a list of 10 nations by trustworthiness. The results of the survey, ranked by trust, were the United States, Australia, Japan, Germany, South Korea, Britain, Indonesia, India, Russia, and China. There was some support for China, but the U.S. had more than three times as much support. This meant the Americans had the support of most Filipinos while China had only a small minority. Only Russia and China had the majority of Filipinos mistrusting them. Trust of Russia used to be positive, but the February invasion of Ukraine and Chinese support for it made Russia nearly as untrustworthy as China to most Filipinos. Until China expanded its “lost territory” claims to the South China Sea nearly two decades ago. China was seen as a potential ally of, and investor in, the Philippines. Despite numerous Filipino diplomatic efforts, China refused to compromise on its claims. At this point, China is seen as the greatest threat to the Philippines, especially since the Chinese appear to have additional claims on Filipino territory and independence as a nation.
Identify the Aircraft
1
Identify the Ship
2
Newly delivered
3
Parting Shot
End
2 is Landing Craft Utility (LCU) made by Austal Pty Ltd an Australian company that went worldwide. The LCU were made in their Alabama manufacturing plant.
(1) Sea Fury.
(2) MSV (L) ?
(3) Columbian Navy LCU Bahia Honda.
– Kle.
Identify the Aircraft
1. Blackburn Firebrand
Identify the Ship
2. Landing Craft Utility 1700-class
3. Landing Craft Utility 1466-class
Exactly.
3 is Bahia Honda now Colombian National Navy previously LCU-1543.
Lake America? Is this real or a parody of Trump? The Gulf of America thing was cute when things were going well (or at least better than the ridiculous shitshow of Now) but outrageously tone deaf today. It’s fine to joke around when you’re clearly exceeding your success metrics, but when you’re behind the 8-ball, you just come across as an ass. If this nonsense is supposed to “energize the base” for the midterms (shellacking inbound) it’s not gonna.
—
On a pedantic note, “Lake America” is stupid. It should be “Lake New York”. It ain’t freaking “Lake Canada” it’s Lake (mor)Ontario. If you’re gonna rename the Great Lakes, why not tag Lake Superior with “America” instead of the second-crappiest Great Lake? (Lake Erie is the crappiest Great Lake because Cleveland excretes into it.)
—
Am I spending too much brane energy on a tone-deaf and therefore stupid trolling attempt? Yes, guilty. Because thinking about real issues is even more depressing and infuriating given the clown-show that is Now.
I’m pretty sure the ‘Lake America’ thing is just Trump trolling Canada’s Carney over his At War comments.
… or somebody pretending to be Trump put together a meme.
It’s a joke. Or, as they say in Mexico, a “yoke”. A troll at best.
X10! Love it…Carney is…err…not smart (to be polite)…e’s messing with the Bog Dog yet is the Yappy one in the ring yet somehow has no clue he’s getting pummeled into the mat (Delusion will do that to a person). Lake America is the ultimate troll.
Last year I posted on Facebook while I was in Toronto looking across at New York that we rename it Lake America.
But Lake New York is sufficient until they stop aggravating us
How many emails from The Donald did you receive today? In the immediately preceding 24h I got three from his people and five from the President himself. 😮 I don’t know when the man sleeps. It’s a brutal schedule for any person, much less an 80-yo. Double 😮😮
I checked my trash – four e-mails directly from President Trump, my old friend. I have no idea how many of the calls that I didn’t pick up were from the President. Trump (directly) or from people who wanted to save me money on car insurance.
Lake America is interesting, but the real impact was that suddenly Canada is quietly back at the table instead of screaming about raising tariffs on US goods. Realistically, the goods in play aren’t a large percentage of goods in either direction, but the Canadian press made a big deal out of it and our worthless press jumped right on the band wagon.
>the Philippines has implemented measures to reduce the Chinese threat by curbing corrupt Chinese influence in the country
Good on the Filipinos. The Chinese are exploitative ethnosupremacists who openly consider all non-Chinese to be inferior beings. Now if only the USA could even try to curb the corrupting influence of a bunch of exploitative ethnosupremacists who openly consider everyone not Them to be inferior beings. If only.
—
>A national opinion survey conducted at the end of June found that Filipinos trusted the United States, Australia, and Japan the most
That is not a good look on the Filipinos then (contra what I wrote above). The US has a long long track record of screwing its “allies” (no lube and not even the courtesy of a reacharound). Australia is well on its way to becoming a Chinese satrapy (not that we should feel superior, seeing as we are also a satrapy). And Japan! Japan? Some people will not let WW2 become a part of history rather than remaining the Eternal Present (since 1946 the foundational myth of the Fallen West) but for any SE Asian nation to write off what Japan did to them in the same time period? Only the extremely unserious could possibly think (for values of “think”) that way.
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>while the U.S. debt of $29 trillion is 1.26 times GDP
When was the US debt $29 trillion? It’s north of $40 trillion now. (Rhetorical question, the debt was “only” 29 trillion five years ago. A mere five years!) But at least we spent all that money (that we don’t even have) wisely, on things that benefitted the people of the US. (/sarc tag obvious)
Coffee shop art. Target lock indeed. The gentleman is about to fall into the spider web.
*
The Firebrand had an ever changing role during development so it missed WWII. But it did serve post war as a torpedo bomber on British aircraft carriers. Not a great aircraft, but not as awful as some claim. But the Spitfire in its many forms was such an excellent and popular aircraft it never had a real chance.
*
Power and internet restored at home. Back to normal after two weeks. A number of areas still have no power.
Really a random post for other readers. I dropped my Facebook account long, long ago, but it has never interfered with watching the little snippets that Larry links to. Until today. Now FB puts up a sign in page after a minute of video. The audio keeps playing, although I haven’t let one keep playing much longer.
~~
Does anyone else who isn’t always logged into FB get that? Anyway around that?
I don’t do a Fakebook subscription, so I share your “pain”.
Same happens with me.
Yeah, they are currently winning the war against my anti-bullshit software.
– Kle.
Most of the Facebook clips are just for fun. Is it better if I use YouTube?
I do YouTube even though I attempt to avoid “giggle” as much as possible.
There will be no giggling on this blog.
‘Giggle’…like schoolgirl is verboten among Alpha’s. Same goes with using a drink straw in public.
+1
Same here, started a day or two ago. Yes, YouTube works better for me, but I have no idea how much cross over there is between that platform and Facebook.
—
Call me a crusty Olde Pharte. Our first OS was Win 95. To this day,I have zero social media accounts. I do email and the occasional text message, period. Mine is the last generation who remembers life with three TV networks, the original dial up telephone, and no social media.
WIn 95, now I feel old, my first was Win 3.1. at least for the IBM’s, I guess it was really the Commodore 64
“…small modular reactors into the maritime sector.”
If we don’t complete this area of maritime future yesterday, the PRC will – including regulatory approval.
I just can’t help thinking of the Chinese bringing small atomic bombs into our Pacific ports – or nuclear material to invest our ports
Targeting – I’m reminded of studies showing guys thinking they’re the one who first noticed the gal and initiated contact, and yet observations showed that the gal notices the guy, places herself in his direct line of sight, and makes motioned designed to attract attention.
Motions, not motioned.
Sly, cunning, and bear considerable watching.
Guy looks fairly nonchalant about having two loaded knees pointed at him.
A lot of guys would go for it and take the consequences.
Yes, you would have to give it a spin. The consequences would not even cross your mind.
Sometimes that targeting turns into MAD. Other times it fills the house with Grandchildren. Yay!
It’s difficult to tell how things will work out.
On target lock: I worked F-22 Electronic Warfare for many years. The automatic responses to missile launch detection etc are very much the same as seduction. Working EW for a while changed the way I think. Coyote packs also respond in the same way. It is all a good training model autonomous drones.
I thought Lake of America was a perfect and very effective troll. It introduced confusion and outrage just like EW counter measures.
The Ross fire in no longer a direct threat to me. It is amazing how much the news does not understand anything about basic math and geography. We had a wind shift from SE to NW. They got it exactly backwards on how the wind shift affects fires. This shift will blow the fire back on the burn area for everyone west of the fire. If you are on the east side of the fire things are much worse. No wonder the news does not understand target lock, seduction or cause and effect.
The coyotes are celebrating the 30 degree temperature change…
God moved…excellent.
Off-topic:
asked a teaching/research cardiologist (in the pool this AM) if the isn’t research on rechargable pacemakers?
ans: the research community isn’t really all that interested. in ten years, which is the average time on pacemaker replacement , there have been multi-generational changes in the computer chips
Medtronics brand installed in 2014. They provided a remote reader used every six months. Somehow there is still 2 years battery life. Will it outlive the 82 year old body?
While not afraid of the operation, all the bullshit with United Health Care makes the longer the wait the better.
I’ve always been interested in the latest advances in the various branches of medicine (and how they affect a patient’s dental visit as well).
I also had a Medtronics pacer installed in 2016 recently replaced due to a more rapidly failing battery, but I’ve had USAA since Homer was a pup, 1966 (zero probs, zero aggravation).
>research on rechargable pacemakers?
Honestly, probably little interest because you can’t make meaningful money to make it worth the costs associated with getting the “novel device” approved from a regulatory standpoint. In either the “device” (pacemaker, prosthetic valve, what have you) or the drug world, it costs a LOT to do the clinical trials needed for approval. Sure, a different battery type likely will not need to go through the full process, but the problem here is that the current ~10y interval between “generator changes” is already pretty long. So can you charge enough premium for a novel rechargeable over current devices to make it worth the “set up” costs? Probably not. Good idea, but the economics side probably doesn’t work out.
—
In hospital, the dental stuff we “see” is usually yanking out dodgy teeth. (For the lay person, there is great fear that an implanted heart valve, or knee replacement for that matter, will get infected by bacteria in the blood stream. So if the procedure is urgent/near life saving, then someone is called on to just pull the suspect teeth so that they don’t provide the source for bacteremia.) We don’t generally see inpatients getting other dental procedures while in hospital. So I’m kind of curious whether general community dentists, much less a specialist, kind of look down on “hospital dentists”.
—
>the bullshit with United Health Care
Yeah. So the CEO murdered by Luigi Mangione was the UHC CEO. It’s at least 9:1 of “that bastard had it coming” to “oh the poor man” among working health care people I’ve talked to. This represents not our greed in wanting money that UHC refuses to pay (authorize procedures) but rather rage that we can’t provide proper first-world care to a patient Who Has Faithfully Paid insurance premiums to UHC for decades. While of course money is important, the fury is the feeling that UHC and similar entities are not holding up their end of the contract between paying insurance policy holder and insurance company. To be clear, it’s not asking for charity, it’s not some rando who crawled out of an illegal conex box yesterday who wants a $200k treatment. It’s a guy who faithfully paid into the system for decades then being denied not because he failed to understand the contract, but because there is a deliberate and widespread scheme to deny, delay, and obfuscate.
Recently UHC came up with a requirement, “referral from primary care physician”. I now need a referral to see the cardio clinic I’ve used since 2014. My primary is the VA. While the VA functions have gotten better, it is still time consuming.
They have also changed their coding system for claims. My share for SYNVISC injections went from $35 to $208. The clinic claims coding changes. $2512 for fifteen minutes in the room and two injections per knee.
I reviewed a situation involving UnitedHealthcare and one of my adult daughters. It was more or less what you laid out. I’m sorry that Mangione was sloppy.
Dolly Parton: My mom would have been 90 yesterday had she not moved on toe Greater Pastures well deserved, then read about Dolly’s passing. Never easy, yet we know Heaven awaits to the deserving.
As for Dolly, who was married to her husband for 58 years, who passed last year, my bother sent this earlier,
“RIP Dolly Parton…countdown to the hoity toity NYT et al…making references to all us ‘other’…
Dolly, $650M net worth…AFTER giving away another estimated $500M…Always a great businessperson…never knew her politics…Lessons all-around.”
Yup. Class act…and as a youngin’ said ‘No’ to Elvis when he said he’d record ‘I Will Always Love You’ – loved the song…but Tom Parker demanded half of the publishing rights. Nope, not happening. 18 years later when Whitney Houston covered the song Parton said, “I made so much money I could have bought Graceland.’ Heh.
***
Nick Shirley Law: And how exactly is this Constitutional? Guessing PDJT will direct someone to intervene.
***
Parting Shot: Don’t give Hollywood any ideas…because they have no good ones left.
***
Sidebar Followup: Okay, couldn’t help myself despite my nixing Lioness the other day…watched S4Ep4 last night…better, more intrigue and plausibility, and the dialog was dialed back. So what does an accomplished surgeon husband/father do when his wife is…well…gonna have to watch it. Hopefully Sheridan continues with the story without ‘gratuitous embellishment’.
Lake America?
Many wheels within wheels going on here. Carney, et al, are owned by the PRC and the friend of my enemy is my enemy. Letting the PRC to set up on our Northern Border is a direct threat. A tariff war will hurt the average Canadian, not on the government teat, far more than our citizens. That may just the push Alberta independence movement over the line. PDJT indirectly interfering wiith Canadian politics? Notice MS Smith keeps her distance from the other governors?
Whatever, letting the Chinese set up in Canada is unacceptable so fuck their sovereignty. They are now our enemy.
I saw first hand how China influences Taiwan. We don’t want them there or in Mexico etc.. Monroe doctrine applies to the north as well as south.
Sitting here chilling after a day in the salt mines (actually a good one working on the homestead, but I digress)….watched the 90% Tax Old Saw. How is it during my entire adult life this is STILL being considered by anyone while being given a free pass on the absolute criminality of the concept? I have heard forever that the rich don’t pay their fair share…whatevertheheck that actually means. Really? (As Stossel points out).
Time for PDJT and Bessent to bury the IRS six feet under, concrete the thing, then salt the entire tax code and light it on fire…then enact a simple flat tax…or better, no Federal tax at all, use tariffs like The Founders did to fund themselves. Then, and only then, will America as represented by Congress (hahahah, yeah) have a budget to operate on. Anyone proposing this confiscatory theft garbage should be laughed out of the room, not given two seconds of air time to spout their Socialist agenda.