In the West Indies, the wind blows from east to west, predictable and steady. On occasion it will shift: westerly, southerly, but not often, and never for very long. And after that short reprieve, it will once again blow from the east. They are called the trade winds, as are all winds around the globe that blow so steadily, so reliably. Not trade in the sense of commerce, but the older meaning: trade, meaning to walk a path, to cross a sea. Originally, the winds were said to “blow trade,” but in nautical jargon they became, ultimately, “the trade winds,” or simply “the trades.” In the Spanish New World, they might just as well have been known as the conquerors’ winds. Los vientos de los conquistadores.
Those steady trades blew Cristoforo Columbo across the sea and deposited him on the pristine sands of an island he named San Salvador. It was those same winds that carried the ships bearing the many thousands who came after him, men from Spain looking to plunder, to conquer, to make their fortunes. And those who came to govern, and to build cities, and to bring God to a heathen race. And behind them, the English, the French, the Dutch, the Portuguese, who would not be denied their fill of the wealth pouring out of that new world.
The trade winds were constant, as was their need. Every year two fleets of massive, heavy galleons and an assortment of merchant ships, all loaded with desperately needed goods from Old Spain, rode the trade winds from Seville to the West Indies and on to the Spanish Main. There they discharged their cargoes and replaced them with the harvest from Peru’s mines and other jungle-bound settlements. And just as Columbus’s ships, and the galleons, eventually ran smack into that newfound continent, so, too, do these trade winds, colliding with the great mass of the Americas, the first real obstacle in four thousand miles. Only then is their steady sweep interrupted, spinning them off to the north and south.
It was those winds, nearer to the mainland of the Americas, that allowed the great, lumbering galleons to return to Old Spain, loaded with gold, silver, cochineal, and whatever else of value was garnered from Spain’s colonies. Leaving from Havana, the ships would catch the southerlies that would carry them up the Bahama Channel, with Florida some miles off their larboard sides. Near the Virginia Capes and Bermuda, they would find the winds that would at last allow them to run off east to the Azores and back to Spain.
The wind dictated all of that: when and where the ships could sail. It was always foremost in every mariner’s thoughts in the West Indies. Sailors there did not talk about going eastward or westward; they talked of going to windward or leeward. Every mile sailed downwind could only be made up by a laborious slog back, tacking back and forth, or a long and tedious wait for a shift in the wind, or a circuitous route that kept the wind aft. Mariners there jealously guarded every mile made to weather.
Bullet Points:
** Communism “cannot possibly work, because the working class has no class conscience. Workers dream of becoming capitalists, of owning more than others, not of sharing with everybody. There was a joke, ages ago, that said: God gave man three wonderful qualities: intelligence, honesty, and being a communist. But He gave each individual only two. Therefore, if you were intelligent and communist, you weren’t honest; if you were honest and communist, you weren’t intelligent; and if you were intelligent and honest, you weren’t communist.” (right)
** Some unease in Old Blighty where illegal aliens were moved into a neighborhood, and then defended by the police – helping to establish the caliphate. Some people are upset about the situation. It’s lucky for the Caliph that they are unarmed. Is it time to fully change UK culture to accommodate the newly arrived guests?
** The FQ-44A features four weapon pylons capable of carrying payloads up to 500 lbs each (including AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles and guided bombs). It successfully conducted its first live-fire air-to-air missile test against a digital target over the Mojave Desert in July 2026. The elements of the new Sixth Generation USAF fighter system are coming together. Along with the FQ-42A, it will be operated by an advanced battlespace management fighter, the F-47 (yet to be unveiled). The drone rangers have arrived.
** Ukraine propaganda – but just because it’s propaganda doesn’t mean it’s not real. 2026 battlespace management.
** NOT boating with EdB – it’s only aspirational with Ed at this point.
** The VM blog has been around for a while. Sometimes it’s fun to ride the Wayback machine and look at old posts. This one tickled me. The grandkids are still trying to beat me at chess. I don’t let them win. I only play chess with the grandkids, and I don’t obsess over it. There was a time when I was pretty good. The best part of chess with grandkids is the banter. With 11 grandchildren (across 4 daughters), the chit-chat is very different. The holidays are coming, and they will set up the chessboard with their latest strategy to knock the crown off the king.
** File this one under historic helicopters (left) – This Mi-17 helicopter at CIA Headquarters brought the first Americans into Afghanistan just 15 days after the 9/11 attacks. On the 25th anniversary of its historic mission, CIA restored the aircraft to its 2001 paint scheme.
** Today would have been my father’s 98th birthday. It’s still important to recall the dates even if only for myself. He died in an automobile accident two days after Christmas, in 1987.
** Secretary Pete Hegseth announced a 20% cut to the positions reserved for generals and admirals, doubling the reduction he ordered last year. The cuts apply to slots, not the officers currently filling them. Some jobs will be downgraded so that colonels and Navy captains can hold them, and the services have until this Jan. 1 to complete the work. Last year’s order trimmed 10% of all generals and admirals and 20% of four-stars, which Hegseth summed up as “Less Generals, more GIs.”
** Howard Dean, the “DNC chairman Emeritus” and one of the most senior members of the think tank that steers and guides the Democratic National Committee’s ship of state, delivered the “China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations” (CICIR) Welcome address. Notably, CICIR is a Chinese State Security Agency (SSA) front. Further, Dean, as a former senior government official, should know the outfit is an SSA front. The group that co-organized the event, “The Chinese People’s Association for Peace and Disarmament,” is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). It’s also interesting that said association has never advocated for Red China disarming.
** Best thing to eat on a cold rainy night. Green chile stew with steak, with a side of hot, fresh bread/indian frybread/tortilla/biscuit and butter.
** Ontario PM Doug Ford, who is dumber than a post, threatened to remove Crown Royal from his province’s liquor stores. Ford did this to protest the company’s decision to close a bottling plant in Amherstburg, Ontario, and open a $415 million facility in Montgomery, Alabama. Ford called off the ban after Crown Royal gave the province $23 million. Look for some of Ford’s hardcore unemployable friends and relatives to finally get a job.
Charts, Maps, Graphs
“numbers, figures, charts, and graphs – this will be my epitaph”
In Russia (h/t Claudio), those who live in Moscow can buy military exemptions or trade favors.
The same is true in St. Petersburg. The poor and the ethnic minorities are lured by “rich” bounties.
They’re also less able to avoid military service.
Winter at the Mine
You can say that it’s still autumn because of the calendar, but once the snow falls, it’s winter. This isn’t enough snow to move the elk, but the deer will begin to migrate to lower elevations. Some winters, the elk remain in the high country. I think the snow depth that gets them moving is 2’+. Of course, they don’t always move with two feet if it melts fast enough.
At the TSA
TSA told @FoxNews it is taking chairs away from officers checking IDs/travel documents at airport security lines to improve vigilance and hospitality by having officers stand and look passengers in the eye while interacting. A TSA spokesperson told FOX that officers are on 15-minute rotations checking IDs and helping passengers through scanners, then get 30 minutes sitting in a chair at the X-ray machine to scan luggage. TSA will now require officers checking travel documents to remain standing during their rotation.
TSA statement to Fox: “TSA officers performing the travel document checker role are the first to interact with the traveling public. This welcome change reinforces both our security posture and our commitment to hospitality by having these officers on their feet and alert. All officers must meet fitness-for-duty requirements to perform their vital national security function while also creating a welcoming, professional environment for travelers. ”
End
Flag cuts – I can’t help but think we should fire 80% and then build
back to what’s required from better material. Obama’s sabotage brass
are still a real burden.
– Kle.
I don’t know what the fallout would be from removing 80% of serving general officers, outside of treason allegations (General Mark Milley, who needed a Pardon from Pres. Biden’s autopen). General officers have very little protection from being sacked. A lot of the Obama-era people are no longer in active service, but the people brought up through the service academies under DEI who are junior will be an ongoing issue.
Airport Security
It’s a few years since I have been through the TSA in the US but it was slow and annoying.
Australia has had private security at airports for over 20 years.
Overseas trip in May it took about 10 minutes to get through security and I get an extra check because of the metal in my legs.
Interestingly the only people sitting down are the xray machine operators.
TSA at the smaller regional airports is almost universally helpful. Those in the inner-city airports are very much a different matter.
>an extra check because of the metal in my legs
Sorry to hear that. I don’t have personal experience with that sort of thing, but a good friend has the same name as a notorious IRA operative. To make it worse, friend flew weekly from BOS to Washington DC. He always budgeted an extra hour to deal with the “Hey, aren’t you notorious IRA terrorist Seamus McPotato? You’re on the no fly list!” Sigh. No, no, I’m Professor Seamus McPotato, MD, MPH, eminent cardiologist and NHLBI advisor.
We were at a conference in Denver when the notorious McPotato got taken off the terrorist list. “My” Seamus was so happy. Then on our way back to Boston, at the airport he was pulled out for additional screening in a back room because the TSA person on the X-ray machine mistook the power cord of his laptop charger for some sort of bomb. Normally I’d be furious about this sort of idiocy, but for some reason I really like that story.
Back when Massachusetts’ famous floater was still alive I worked for a place that had one female exec named…Teddy Kennedy. Booking flights and hotel rooms were always a hassle. “Oh, you want a flight and a hotel, and your name is Teddy Kennedy. SUUURE you are. Wink, wink; nudge, nudge”
I’m a very reluctant and infrequent flyer. Mrs F Hubert and myself flew to Fort Bragg by way of Atlanta last July for her nephews retirement. She was singled out by the “it’s not gay if it’s TSA” for a full grope and grab. Apparently this particular one had a bad experience with an English teacher in guvment school so decided to take it out on every subsequent one here after.
I’ve had mixed results with TSA. To be frank, it’s not the best job, and I know that places like Los Angeles International have hired “rehabilitated felons” as TSA personnel.
A friend (Australian with US citizenship) flew from Fort Hood to LA to Australia in August and found that he had one live 9mm round stuck to the tape on a gift when he unpacked.
I have had some fun times in LA as all I had was my boarding pass and passport. TSA guy could not grasp the idea that my luggage had been sent directly from one plane to the next.
They usually hire TSA people by the pound or because of some DEI category.
>one live 9mm round stuck to the tape
The first week after flights resumed after 9/11, my girlfriend arrived here in Boston and while unpacking, found in the front pocket of her carry-aboard bag a box cutter she didn’t realize was in there. And neither did the TSA.
—
I recall that the demographics of the airport workers at DTW (Detroit) changed after 9/11. There used to be various non-US citizens working security. They were all fired, and mostly replaced with young Muslim women wearing headscarves and all. (From nearby Dearbornistan.) THAT gave me the warm fuzzies and convinced me that we were a serious nation and not a bunch of dumb assholes more concerned with appearances and checklists rather than actually doing the smart and correct things. (There was also a wave of aggressive young white male losers, but that’s a different story.) Those were the days when TSA wore white shirts instead of the current blue ones.
Box cutters were never ‘a thing’ until that point. Evry old toolbox had a few laying around, then some lunatics decide to use them on a plane and the media goes ape. Glad they didn’t choose forks. Same goes for a folding knife. Yet now the reporterette must say – in her fake disgusted voice – ‘and was carrying a THREE INCH BLADED KNIFE!’ as if this was HUGE, which every Boy Scout (old skool version) or military or outdoorsman was now a potential stabby criminal type just waiting to launch…but then is required by Lafty Rules to explain how this ‘was a deadly weapon.’ So’s a screwdriver when used outside its intended design.
>Box cutters were never ‘a thing’ until that point
Oh, I know. It’s all fake and ghey. I don’t know if it’s brainless hysteria or actually some plan to de-ball the population (or the productive and potentially actually dangerous part of it, at any rate), the fear of firearms, then fear of pocket knives, and so forth. I used to think this sort of remark was tinfoil-hat lunacy, but then you have stuff like Jensen Huang apparently saying something like “kids don’t need to learn basic math because AI will do it for them”. Was that a joke? Or did “They” decide to read-in an East Asian on The Plan, and with typical EA autism the guy just blurts out the plan to make us all weak, incapable, totally dependent useless eaters?
—
I’m being sarcastic, but I’m not sure how much of that is snark vs something approaching the truth. The only thing for sure is that our ruling class despises us as cattle, or possibly just vermin and not even something you could at least get a steak and a pair of boots out of.
—
> So’s a screwdriver when used outside its intended design.
a) Hey, maybe shanking a muthafucka IS a proper and intended use of a screwdriver.
b) Well, yeah, because the handwringers and the HOA Karen types actually don’t think for the most part. So ages ago I worked for a big research entity that did a lot of Defense stuff. You need a security clearance to work there, and you could not bring cameras or audio recording devices into the building, among other stuff. Fair enough. Then I moved to an offsite satellite building where zero DFNS or other classified work was done. And all the desks had answering machines that used micro cassette tapes (this was over 30y ago). Clearly the rules were different here. I brought in one of those little radio/cassette tape player things. A few weeks later it was gone from my desk, with a note from Security saying it was confiscated and destroyed as an illegal recording device. Sure, right. I was a mostly naive grad student who mostly believed in The System back then, but I was still smart enough to not point out that all the employer-provided answering machines were ALSO recording devices. Because they’d NOT have realized, Oh, apparently tape recorders are okay in this building. Rather they’d have confiscated all the answering machines. Because they weren’t just idiots, but checklist-mentality authoritarian idiots. (And also underwear thieves, but that’s another story.)
On a highly encouraging note: Federal Air Marshals Service, (FAMS), has been recruiting and employing TSA personnel into their ranks. I was a Firearms Instructor at FLETC, Artesia, NM, shortly after 9/11. The quality of those initial applicants was top tier. Then, after about 3 months, the gubment decided they wanted more applicants. They upped the ante by allowing applicants who were currently government employees a 5 point preference, and also, any of those employees who had been through a FLETC firearms program another 5 points. Guess what agency we had scads of trainees from??? You got Bureau of Prisons. Those folks who don’t tote guns for a living coming into an agency that touted its ‘top notch marksmen’. We went from zero after hours remedial training to every single day after hours remedial training. Sigh. Now they are recruiting TSA barely warm mentally as the guardians of the airways. Sigh once more.
No surprise, government always working to the lowest common denominator with people they put into place. Their motto is: ‘If it works, fix it.’ Never bodes well for We The People though, then when something goes awry those same ‘officials’ act surprised then add additional layers of bureaucracy to the failing one they put into place. Altho, we now have America.gov, just rolled out by PDJT and…guessing…his DOGE team of computer geniuses, designed to make the Government Nebula simpler to navigate. We shall see…at least this one works, unlike O-Care, that crashed after billions spent, and continues to fail miserably despite ‘fixes’.
I was a Firearms Instructor with legacy INS Border Patrol and CBP Border Patrol. I found the FAMS qualification course fun to shoot. I understand from many exBorder Patrol agents that attended those 1st FAMS classes that they had a hard time eith it.
Come to find out, I understand there were former US Army Delta Operators running the program.
They are never too DEI to fail the course.
I was there for the first year of FAM training when SAIC was running the advanced classes. The FAM course is just a USPSA stage. The times are tight but doable. One cannot dawdle. The bowling pin target was plenty big enough to keep even sloppy hits inside it.
Hegseth: More of that please (h/t Ford v Ferrari)…and at breakneck speed so the dead weight has no chance to regroup…with Boasberg o stop the clearing put action. Then read this (over at Sundance’s):
“Most people will not read the Inspector General Report in full [SEE PDF HERE]. But if you did, you might come to the same conclusion as myself. The entire FED and IG Michael Horowitz should be fired, arrested and prosecuted for corruption at a level that is simply jaw dropping….The issue is really simple if you cut through the fog of the report. The FED Board awarded a no-bid contract to the contractor, without an agreement on the building renovation project and the construction costs associated with it until President Donald Trump began drawing attention to it. This is gross corruption at a massive scale.”
…and the only reason this was uncovered…like Hegseth’s action…is because we have a President who can see construction graft from miles away, yet, arrogantly, the players involved think they were smarter than him and he wouldn’t notice. I say send them to Iran to ‘help out’…and ‘more warp speed Mr. President’.
***
“Ford called off the ban after Crown Royal gave the province $23 million.”: Well now, IT IS always about the money with these bums. What a maroon.
***
You have snow already, or is that last year? Perfect Fall weather here the past week, crisp mornings, warm days. Elk woke us up late last night, and again this morning…the King bugling his herd back up into the dark timber from the hay field edge. Never gets old.
This year.
Glad ours is holding off, need a roof installed before it snows.
Mammoth Lakes, CA picked up 8 or 9 inches. Ours is melting off
And now with the new locale we’re at 4500’ elev. not 7500’ as before…Fall is kinda nice at lower altitude despite the Beartooths, Crazies, and Absaroka mountains in close proximity…a little dusting on the tops this morning.
So your father passed away on your birthday?
Very sorry. Yes, certain dates will never be forgotten. As I get older it surprises me that I really don’t notice them approaching, but when that day arrives I am aware upon awaking. Thanks for sharing so many facts and feelings on your blog.
TSA in Atlanta would have a hard time making a shift on their feet. The larger the airport the ruder TSA is.
Maybe we could put them on those motorized shopping carts?
aS A KID MY DAD TAUGHT ALL 6 OF US KIDS CHESS, IN OUR YOUNGER DAYS WE WERE ALL CLASS AND SCHOOL CHAMPS . WE PLAYED EACH OTHER AND THE WIMNNER PLAYED MY DAD ,IF OR UNTIL YOU COULD BEAT OUR PECKING ORDER YOU DID NOT PAY DAD , HE HAD MANY FRIENDS THAT NEVER PLAYED HIM IN CHESS AS THEY COULD NOT BEAT MYSELF OR MY SIBLINGS . I DID THE SAME WITH MY KIDS (3 DAUGHTERS) IF WE PLAYED TIDDLY WINKS TO TOUCH CONTACT MARTIAL ARTS ,I NEVER LET THEM WIN .WHEN THEY WON IT WAS THRU ABILITY AND THAT IS WHY THEY ARE SUCH FINE WOMEN TODAY ..
** Secretary Pete Hegseth also announced (H/T: LI) New Autonomous Warfare Command to Transform Drone Warfare
“Today, at my direction—we are announcing the creation of Autonomous Warfare Command, or AutoWarCom:
A new 4-star combatant command—with service-like authorities—built to scale autonomous and robotic capabilities across the Joint Force in the fastest peacetime shift in modern military history.”
I think it’s a good idea. The Four-Star can be drawn from an existing billet, as can staffing. They don’t need more bloat to create this.
“Owen West, a former Marine and assistant defense secretary, and Max Strasiser, a Navy SEAL, will lead AutoWarCom”
They’ll be a great combo
Less Generals, more GIs.
Recently watched a YouTube documentary about General Marshall’s purging of 900 Army officers in 1939. The subliminal message was WWII would have been a disaster if they had remained. Perhaps he took note of President Lincoln’s struggles in the early days of the Civil War. Would that war ended sooner if Grant and Sherman were elevated sooner?
>would have been my father’s 98th birthday
This year was (or would have been?) my father’s centenary. But he did live to 92 and 11 months. The last 6 months were … not good. This wasn’t a case of me insisting on “do everything” in the setting of widely metastatic cancer or some such shitheadedness [1]. This was a mostly functional 92-yo recovering well from pneumonia who, one day before discharge, was messed up badly by a remarkably incompetent (and arrogant) hospitalist. And I got caught up in the “mechanics” of “I know how to fix this iatrogenic mess” — which is on me. The metabolic mess WAS fixable (and got fixed) but a 92yo doesn’t bounce back from that sort of thing the same way a, say, 60yo might.
[1] We as a profession are terrible at end-of-life and “code status” talks. I stipulate that up front. (Personally I’m great at that stuff, but there is no real training in it, at least when I was in training. And if there is now, it’s probably utterly corrupted by the usual suspects.) On the patient’s side, it’s usually NOT the patient himself, but some family member who insists on “do everything” even when not only wildly inappropriate (as in zero chance of success) but also often plain cruel to do unto the patient. (And don’t get me started on the cost.) My view is that the two leading drivers of this are: 1) medical ignorance, often combined with the conviction that the parent is being discriminated against; 2) unresolved issues with the parent (or child, etc; but it’s usually a parent). The unresolved thing is usually a bad relationship, and the adult child feels some measure of guilt. It’s not a malice thing, but a psych trauma thing. Though we did have an infamous case of a man with no higher brain function who was “alive” for two years in the ICY (on the ventilator, several months on dialysis, and weekly “code blues”). In that case the daughter understood fully well what was going on but said, “I don’t know if he’s still in there, but on the off chance he has some awareness, I want to him to suffer as long as possible.”
I don’t think my kids hate me that much. I don’t think I’ll live long enough to be a burden.
Me as well, DO NOT want to be any sort of death spiral burden, just walk off into the woods, sit down against a tree or a rock, and doze off into the ether. A hospital bed will not happen at my end of life, especially now when some doctors are looking to Canada for the example (altho, Tennessee Corrections could have used their assistance in that Death Chamber incompetence).
Thing is, dad and a few relatives didn’t think I’d make it to 21, which he proceeded to tell me on the night of said birthday. Funny really, but sorta true.
But certainly would like another 15-20 to finish out a few things in the life journey…or as God sees it, and hopefully the bell doesn’t toll too quickly…but at least another year to finish out the new hovel and property build out.
We lost dad at 57, lung 🤬🤬🤬, took up heavier smoking in his Marine stint and was always very robust and healthy…until that year. Gone inside 6 months, and he too said he didn’t want to be a burden to my mother. Would have been 86 last week. Never a day goes by The Boyz don’t invoke his name or some lesson he STILL teaching us. Left a legacy we have tried to live up to…even at our more seasoned ages…how is it possible I can still hear him in my head? No burden there, only Good Man wisdom and strength.
>those who live in Moscow can buy military exemptions or trade favors
See! We DO have things in common with the Russians.
—
https://youtu.be/ZWijx_AgPiA?si=9BH4lHLelerVOzip
All people at all times. How many congresses do you see at the point of the spear? Sometimes but not often.
At least we’re not as bad as the Brits for Admirals… sigh…