In Los Angeles – Yesterday
Hundreds of federal agents and military personnel are conducting a major immigration enforcement operation in Los Angeles’s MacArthur Park, a sanctuary city area known for heavy MS-13 activity. Despite Mayor Karen Bass demanding an end to the raids, federal authorities have launched one of the largest operations yet, including Border Patrol agents on horseback. Protesters are already beginning to gather.
The Marine battalion first deployed to L.A. was relieved by a second battalion, so they’re rested and ready for protesters to attack them. It’s recreational for the Marine Corps and provides riflemen with experience that they can apply in their careers as Marines.
Do you love L.A.? Roll down the window, pull down the top, etc.
Update from Fox News’ Bill Melugin: “NEW: I just spoke to Border Patrol Chief Gregory Bovino, who was the official on the phone with LA Mayor Karen Bass (so named for a freshwater fish) at MacArthur Park today. I asked him for his message to her, as she demands that the raids end. “I don’t work for Karen Bass. Better get used to us now, cause this is going to be normal very soon. We will go anywhere, anytime we want in Los Angeles.”
Bullet Points:
** The perfect place to catch a communal disease this summer.
** The flash flood tragedy in Texas that claimed so many lives is played out through the Southwest every year, but maybe without such catastrophic loss of life. People often forget that summer monsoons are a natural phenomenon and that swift water can be treacherous for the unwary. The same is true of the heat. Every summer, some hiker sets out in temperatures of 110°F or higher and dies of heatstroke in Arizona. We all need constant reminders to stay alert.
** (h/t Claudio) Last month, three Ukrainian men were arrested in Germany and Switzerland and accused of planning sabotage operations against German foreign military operations. This was to be done by including incendiary or explosive devices in packages they sent to Ukraine. First, to test the concept, packages containing GPS devices were sent from Europe to Ukraine. This was done to discover the route the packages would take on their way to Ukraine. The Russian military intelligence agency, the GRU, was behind this and much more. This includes fires that destroyed a shopping mall and over a thousand businesses in Poland. There was also a fire at a DHL facility in England and a transport company in Poland.
The Russian play for blood scenario should be met with an even more significant move against Russian infrastructure.
** ‘Stone-cold communism’: Canadian government seizes hospice center when staff refuse to allow euthanasia. The Canadians love euthanasia these days.
** What does moonshine taste like? An old buddy of mine, now passed to that great battlefield in the sky, used to swear by homemade squeeze. He didn’t mention sins.
** (Breitbart) Is it any wonder that ratings dumpster fire MSNBC continues to circle the drain? After spending years gaslighting their audience to believe Trump had no shot of winning and might end up in jail, it’s incredible that any fool would even listen to this bilge and tune in for daily doses of misinformation and Leftist boosterism–even as the MAGA agenda continues to rack up historic win after win for working class American Citizens.
** It takes effort to put food on the table.
Assisted Suicide
Mike_C’s comment yesterday, following the VM piece about ANOTHER Russian oligarch taking the suicide plunge from an open window, SURPRISINGLY, has caused me to reflect on my time working at the Orange County (CA) District Attorney’s Office as an investigator with the Organized Crime/Grand Jury Unit. So, yes, another war story. As long-time readers of this blog will recall, I conducted many murder-for-hire investigations and had a good record of solving them and of having them positively adjudicated. Sometimes it wasn’t only the shocking suicide, but the investigator from the local police department, who proved to be key in the solution of the case. To wit, a detective who had not six months before his investigation gone through a nasty divorce where his wife took everything. The detective, a Westminster (CA) Police Officer named Bob, SURPRISINGLY had enough money to buy a new home, a ski boat, a big ass deulie to pull the boat and paid cash. You can put the pieces together.
The Clintons were always far more straightforward, with the murder of whistleblower Seth Rich being emblematic of the M.O. The murder of Seth Rich, a Democratic National Committee (DNC) staffer, occurred on July 10, 2016, in Washington, D.C. He was shot twice in the back at 4:20 a.m. in the Bloomingdale neighborhood and died about an hour and a half later. The perpetrators were never identified, and police, SURPRISINGLY, suspected robbery as the motive. Any theory other than robbery was painted as a right-wing conspiracy, SURPRISINGLY. It sent a clear message to others in the DNC who might want to blow the whistle. Whether two former US Special Forces pipe hitters were hired to take him out or whether he managed to commit suicide with two rounds in the back (a Russian scenario) were theories that only a right-wing nut job could conceive of. Bloomingdale (Washington DC) falls within the shadow firmly of many such less heralded suicides or SURPRISING and SHOCKING murders.
Ooops
(h/t Claudio) Russia used a drone with Chinese components and bombed the Chinese consulate.
On Friday (July 4), just hours after Trump’s phone call with Vladimir Putin, Russia launched the largest drone and missile attack of the war to date on Kiev and other Ukrainian cities.
The Russian drones and debris that fell after being intercepted by Ukrainian air defenses hit the consular section of the Polish Embassy in Kiev and the Chinese consulate in the southern Ukrainian city of Odessa.
Ukrainian authorities stated that investigators discovered Chinese-made parts in the drone wreckage. Those Chinese parts helped the strike that hit the Chinese consulate in Odessa, Serpiga wrote. “There is no more apt metaphor for Putin’s escalation of war and terror while implicating other nations.” This is not the first time Russian bombs have hit the Chinese consulate in Odessa. In July 2023, on the night of July 19-20, the consulate building was damaged in a Russian attack.
Analysis
This article highlights how trade‑offs underpin every economic decision, from tax policy and government spending to individual investment choices. It emphasizes that there are no one‑size‑fits‑all solutions: each policy creates both winners and losers. Economists evaluate options by weighing costs and benefits within tight budget constraints. While some public investments—such as major infrastructure projects in the early 20th century—have indeed paid for themselves, the piece cautions against ignoring these trade‑offs and treating government spending as a free lunch.
Larry Correia Throw-Down
(reposted)
SNIP – Have you guys seen this? 100 American dudes vs 100 British dudes in a fight, no weapons, who would win?
Sorry, England. You’re toast.
If it’s a hundred randos vs a hundred randos, picked by lottery using the same criteria in both countries, unless the Brits somehow win the lottery and get Tom Aspinal in there, and most of the Americans picked are Berkeley gender studies majors, this is going to be real lopsided.
I’m not saying there aren’t tough Brits. There are. But talk to those guys, and they’ll be the first to tell you that the bell curves of our two respective nations do not align on this one, with America being far to the right of Mount Kickass.
Even most of the response videos I’ve seen of this, face-tatted British soccer hooligans from Birmingham are all like “naw bruv, can I be on the Americans team?” While the American tough guy responses are all ‘Yee-haw, get some,’ And then a bald eagle lands on their arm.
Not. Even. Close.
END SNIP
How do you, blog readers, come down on this? Random Brits vs Random Americans.
And because this is VM and I can take things where I like, I was surprised years ago, now, when I worked outside the US, trying to recover man-portable air defense systems from bad guys (mostly Mexican drug cartels) for a living. My work took me to Africa, SURPRISINGLY, because some of them ended up in the dark continent. I found that even the most hardened Africans were scared shitless of the Mexican drug organizations, who ran dope north from Africa into Europe. On one occasion, I called an African warlord (whose help I elicited) out for being a pansy because he wouldn’t move against the cartels, who had fired a Russian-made Strela 3 and took down a rickety old airplane. He said that he didn’t want to do anything that would anger the Mexican drug cartels or the French Foreign Legion. I asked, “What about me? Aren’t you afraid of me?” He replied that Americans always have rules. Sadly, he was correct.
An Interesting Development
The idea of a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians has never seemed more futile than in the months since Oct. 7, 2023. But maybe that opens the door to a new way of achieving peace.
“We want cooperation with Israel,” says Sheikh Wadee’ al-Jaabari, also known as Abu Sanad, from his ceremonial tent in Hebron, the West Bank’s largest city, located south of Jerusalem. “We want coexistence.” The leader of Hebron’s most influential clan has said such things before, as did his father. But this time is different. Sheikh Jaabari and four other leading Hebron sheikhs have signed a letter pledging peace and full recognition of Israel as a Jewish state. Their plan is for Hebron to secede from the Palestinian Authority, establish an emirate of its own, and join the Abraham Accords.
The letter is addressed to Israeli Economy Minister Nir Barkat, a former mayor of Jerusalem, who has brought Mr. Jaabari and other sheikhs to his home and met with them more than a dozen times since February. They ask him to present it to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and await his reply.
“The Emirate of Hebron shall recognize the State of Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people,” the sheikhs write, “and the State of Israel shall recognize the Emirate of Hebron as the Representative of the Arab residents in the Hebron District.” Accepting Israel as a Jewish state goes further than the Palestinian Authority ever has, and sweeps aside decades of rejectionism.
The letter seeks a timetable for negotiations to join the Abraham Accords and “a fair and decent arrangement that would replace the Oslo Accords, which only brought damage, death, economic disaster, and destruction.” The Oslo Accords, agreed to by Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization in the 1990s, “have brought upon us the corrupt Palestinian Authority, instead of recognizing the traditional, authentic local leadership.” That would be the clans, the great families that still shape Palestinian society.
The sheikhs propose that Israel admit 1,000 workers from Hebron for a trial period, followed by 5,000 more. Sheikh Jaabari and another major sheikh claim that Mr. Barkat has informed them this number will increase to 50,000 workers or more from Hebron. Work in Israel is a valuable source of income for Palestinian communities, which have had little development of their own under Palestinian Authority rule. Still, most permits were suspended after Oct. 7. The sheikhs’ letter pledges “zero tolerance” for terrorism by workers, “in contrast to the current situation in which the Palestinian Authority pays tributes to the terrorists.”
Mr. Barkat says the old peace process failed, so “new thinking is needed.” He has been working with the knowledge of his Israeli government to explore possibilities with the sheikhs. A senior Israeli source says Mr. Netanyahu has been supportive but cautious, waiting to see how the initiative develops. The timing may be out of his hands now that Sheikh Jaabari is extending the olive branch in public.
With their bold move, the sheikhs aim to sway Israeli public opinion in their favor. “Nobody in Israel believes in the PA, and you won’t find many Palestinians who do either,” Mr. Barkat says. “Sheikh Jaabari wants peace with Israel and to join the Abraham Accords, with the support of his fellow sheikhs. Who in Israel is going to say no?”
The 48-year-old Sheikh Jaabari often cites his illustrious ancestors, but his actions are guided as much by his view of the future. “There will be no Palestinian state—not even in 1,000 years,” he says. “After Oct. 7, Israel will not give it.” A second major Hebron sheikh, who signed and declares his loyalty to Sheikh Jaabari, agrees: “To think only about making a Palestinian state will bring us all to disaster.” (The other sheikhs spoke anonymously for their safety.)
I watched videos of Sheikh Jaabari and another sheikh signing the letter. I reviewed documents that elaborate on the plan made with Mr. Barkat, which includes the creation of a joint economic zone spanning more than 1,000 acres near the security fence between Hebron and Israel. The sheikhs expect it to employ tens of thousands.
A document in Hebrew lists the Hebron-area sheikhs who have joined the emirate initiative. The first circle comprises eight major sheikhs, who are collectively believed to lead 204,000 residents. The second circle lists 13 more sheikhs, who lead another 350,000. That makes a majority of the more than 700,000 people in the area. Both circles have sworn allegiance to Sheikh Jaabari in this matter, an Israeli associate of the sheikh witnessed. Those clan members also include many of the Palestinian Authority’s local foot soldiers. The sheikhs expect them to side with family.
“I plan to cut off the PA,” Sheikh Jaabari says. “It doesn’t represent the Palestinians.” The clans governed their localities for hundreds of years, he says. Then, “the Israeli state decided for us. It brought the PLO and told the Palestinians: Take this.” Yasser Arafat’s PLO had been exiled to Tunisia after being chased out of Jordan and Lebanon, when the first Oslo Accord in 1993 installed it in the West Bank. This was called the peace process, but the sheikh says he never saw any peace from it.
“There is an Arab proverb,” Sheikh Jaabari says, “Only the village’s calves plow its land. This means that a person who lives for decades outside—what does he know about the location of the springs of water in Hebron? The only thing you”—the PLO—“know about Hebron is collecting taxes.”
Four other Hebron sheikhs, whom I interviewed separately over Zoom, are even more strident. “The PLO called itself a liberation movement. But once they got control, they acted only to steal the money of the people,” one major sheikh says. “They don’t have the right to represent us—not them and not Hamas, only we.” (the article continues)
Chinese Government/Mafia
(Spectator) Shaomin Li argues that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is far more than a conventional political organization—it operates like a tightly controlled, mafia-style secret society with global ambitions. Highlighting that membership isn’t a casual affiliation but a lifelong, oath-bound commitment enforced through ideological scrutiny and loyalty, Li warns that under Xi Jinping, the CCP’s reach extends well beyond China’s borders. The Party engages in worldwide aggressive tactics—political influence, surveillance, suppression of dissent—posing a serious threat to democratic societies. Far from fading, its authoritarian power is growing, demanding sustained Western vigilance.
Unlike democratic political parties, where affiliation is informal and fluid, the CCP operates as a tightly controlled secret society with a formal, card-carrying membership. Joining is no casual decision. Applicants undergo years of scrutiny, ideological vetting, and loyalty tests before being inducted as probationary members. They swear an oath to sacrifice their lives for the party, a pledge enforced with ruthless consequences. Leaving is not an option — defection often leads to public humiliation, expulsion, or imprisonment. The CCP routinely punishes a large number of members, from senior ministers to low-level members, for disloyalty, including asset seizures, social ostracism, and lengthy sentences. While some join for career perks — access to better jobs, networks, or resources — once enlisted, they are bound to the party’s will. Refusal to obey orders, whether spying abroad or suppressing dissent at home, invites dire repercussions.
***
Identify the Aircraft
1
2
3
4 & 5
Essentially the same aircraft but with different adjustments made
to accommodate the various requirements of 2 different operators.
Parting Shot – a History Lesson
(according to Netflix)
End
1 is Bristol 170 Freighter designed as an air ferry for cars and pax.
2?
3?
4 probably Douglas B-66 Destroyer
5 is Douglas A-3 Skywarrior i
Yes.
Identify the Aircraft”
1. Bristol Freighter
2. ShinMaywa US-2
3. BAC TSR-2
4. Douglas RB-66B Destroyer
5. Douglas EKA-3B Skywarrior
Well done.
The Motherland v. The Colonies: We Americans are a decent lot, fare, but only to a point. Except for some portion of a weakened populace from being comfortable, not much has changed since the 1700’s when The Brits discovered WTP were and are a scrappy bunch not to be messed with, especially when you waltz in and start telling everyone what and how things will be. Didn’t end well for them. But as Jesse Stone, when presented with a boxing situation, states “I don’t box, I fight.” When asked “what’s difference between boxing and fighting”, he says, “Rules”. We fight, they box. (PDJT is a fighter, as showcased in Butler PA, the lawfare courts, and The Swamp…never gives up.)
While we Americans operate under a certain decorum of rules as some standard, when pushed up against a wall and the “had enough of this BS fuse” is lit, those rules becomes guidelines at best, then the fighting SISU comes into play and all bets are off.
Jerry Pournelle used to say that there would be a switch from ‘war’, to ‘warre’.
hahahaha
“Interesting development” h/t for posting WSJ info of how the Abraham accords may effect the ” promised land”. When some of these articles are behind a paywall and portions get shared, it’s appreciated.
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MAID in Canada. Beck delivers a revealing report again! “Unexpectedly” has been developed into ” surprisingly” with historical accounts of “assisted suicide”. Excellent posts as well.
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On-site with L.L. in Africa. The Cartel and the French pale compared to the integrity of the hunt for SAM’s on 3 continents. The trophy mounts displayed in the big game room each have a story. Steering V.M. readers to have a look at a particular one today was a pleasant ” surprise”.
china- hearing lots of reports/rumors xi has been sidelined or even house arrested and his wife was trying to find a path out of china. allegedly the chief of the pla, his former backer, is handling day to day ops now. anything to the rumors?…..texas- they admitted seeding the clouds just prior. a peter theil was behind it, another soros type. i’ve watched the radar for 50 years and nothing about this years storms look normal.
The unfolding situation in China is confirmed by friends on the ground. Whether that points to a replacement or a policy shift (two different things) is another matter.
RR- Globalcoolingclimatewarmingchange (h/t Kim Du Toit) is a made up “means to an end” operation that HAS to be true or the Enviro-Left’s house of cards false narrative falls apart and they lose their ill-gotten control over peoples toilets, showers, and washers…or wet spot in the backyard. So no surprise cloud seeding (aka fiddling with Mother Nature, which she is a tough depositor and will take out her wrath accordingly) is being done under the guise of “helping an arid regions farmers”. But yet the Media-ites want this to be PDJT’s fault when in fact it is their agenda.
LA – I don’t love it, although there are some cool things there.
I do, however, love Randy’s t-shirt in that video.
*
Yanks vs. Brits – well, Americans can afford food, so we’re generally bigger.
OTOH, Americans can afford food, so we are generally (me, anyways)
lard-asses resembling The Grimace, so I’d say it’s a toss-up. Unless of
course we’re allowed to bring our regular tool loadout, in which case
the Brits don;t stand a chance, because their government won’t let them
have belts and shoelaces.
– Kle.
I don’t think that the eminent LarryC thought of tools, we do have quite elaborate kits available…
“ won’t let them have belts and shoelaces.”
Hah! Yeah, standard TSA screening is like suicide watch: they take away your belt and shoelaces. Fewer than one in eight TSA people laugh at this, by the way.
Sidebar: FBI says there is “no evidence” of Epstein’s client list (aka Black Book)…and Bondi, Patel, and Bongino look horrible. Which was the point. There likely WAS a client list in evidence and they destroyed it to cover for “the clients”. What speaks to this are the victims who are now being ignored as if they made it all up.
.
Someone (or some group of someone’s) is working hard to eliminate this “CIA Honeypot” operation because the exposing backlash would be unreal. Then again, Weinstein got off easy, and that was more obvious.
It’s fishy, PaulM.
Coincidence this happens just as Bibi hits town? Epstein/CIA/Mossad connections? Let us not forget many people kept Trump 1.0 in the dark.
I don’t believe in coincidences.
When I saw Patel and Bongino interviewed a month or so ago and they said that Epstein committed suicide, Patel had that normally crazy wide-eyed look anyhow but Bongino looked positively scared.
Thinking that was a deflection tactic…not lying per se, but they used a magicians redirect. They know a lot more. Guessing Maxwell has the client list in a safe place as an insurance policy against getting Clinton’d, like Epstein likely was, and this is all theater. Bottom line is the victims are telling the truth, everyone else involved is lying and/or hiding. But like PDJT said yesterday when the reporterette kept asking about Epstein, he dressed her down with the flood victims being infinitely more important to talk about, not some dead guy who traffic’d young girls (yes, evil…but what can be done now?). Trump is correct; Epstein is dead, Maxwell knows everything, and the perp’s are holding their breath hoping it never catches up with them…and once again, the CIA and FBI are complicit in the coverup.
Well, that makes it all better then 😄
My comment about THAT is at LSP’s place.
in re Hebron
has anyone taken a good, hard look at a map of Israel, the distance between Bayt Awa (Hebron regon) and Beit Hanoun (GazaRegion) – becha Netanyahu has – and IMHO I think Israel has gotten tired of pandering to the “western elites”, as well as the notion that the word of an Arab is as good as the sand it’s written on – based on history – it comes back to bite them in the tokhes about ten years later.
*
establish enough of these “sheikdoms” and the Israelis will be left with a postage stamp-sized piece of land that they’ll be able to walk across from one end to the other in about a half hour
More on PAS; being from Oregon, I’m compelled to site that the Brits have looked this way and followed.
From Lifenews 6/20/25 House of Commons again voted again for PAS in the 3rd reading of a bill for hospice care in the UK.
–
“This is not hyperbolae but based on what happens in the US state of Oregon, the model for this law. There, a majority of those who have ended their lives in recent years cite fear of being a burden on their families, careers or finances as a reason. While that law has been expanded and extended several times. Worryingly ‘terminal’ now includes eating disorders such as anorexia and even insulin dependent diabetes.”
–
Washington, Montana, and I believe now Massachusetts have their versions the 1997 DWD act as well.
What about adding alcohol dependence and signing up the politicians?
“ fear of being a burden on their families”
I have a very very Cunning Plan, Baldrick.
Forget the physician in all of this: Make it semi-gladiatorial, and pay-per-view. Or make it a betting event, where X% goes to the family.
For example, you could have a guy tossed into a cage with a bear and and eagle in it. The bear would maul the person to death, then the eagle would swoop down and peck at the bones. Imagine the betting possibilities. Does the bear lead with his right or left paw? How long before the guy dies? Does the eagle eat the eyeballs? And so forth.
—
But that’s stupid. What kind of nutjob would seriously promulgate the idea of killing people using a bear and an eagle? Seriously?
—
Incidentally, “eagle-bear” (ying-xiong) is a homonym for “hero” in Chinese. No, not the same characters. They just sound the same.
Yes, the flash flooding of the Guadalupe is horrific, but not the first nor the last time. They do, just like heat deaths, happen every year, but only make the news when it is a ‘big’ event and the MSM can dance in the blood. Re the Clintons, that’s why it is known as ‘Arkanside’…
Who says that crime doesn’t pay?
Point…
Crime paid someone over the weekend in Jalisco, Mexico!
A semi tractor trailer carrying 33 TONS of gold and silver was hijacked.
It is allegedly worth $2.5 billion!
I have an alibi.
Saw posted on another sight , that getting rid of the Epstein list was the price for Donald’s BBB. I dunno. Could be.