Caption: The Germans, the British, and Old Europe are concerned about the America First posture that President Trump is taking. They’re bothered by the change that they see. Their old, reliable American friends and lobbyists are out of their jobs and will morph into malevolent hectors like Bill Kristol and John Bolton, both of whom are irrelevant. Old Europe has disarmed to the point where the British and Germans, respectively, would have difficulty fielding a division of combined arms in the field against a near-peer adversary for a month – and they know it. Their navies are hollow. They are panicking and concerned about Russia, an old toothless bear that couldn’t defeat a neighboring country a fraction of its size. It’s still a large bear.
What should Old Europe do? The US will impose reciprocal tariffs and require them to spend national treasure in their own defense—what sort of a friend is America? The seeds of Trump may long outlast his administration because the slush funds will be drained, and the people who were in place to guide the ship of state (the Swamp), irrespective of who is in charge, will be released from service and denied access. At the annual Munich Security Conference last week, Trump wanted to blast Eurocrats with the sobering truth that the USA is no longer interested in being their unpaid security staff. So, he sent Vice President JD Vance to deliver the message.
What will America do with Russia? The Clintons and the Swamp played their cards, and the American public (still armed to the teeth privately) chose to repudiate the woke mob. Russia will ally itself (in a purely Russian way) with the US, which doesn’t pose an invasion threat to them – slowly and carefully, but they only have one play, and that’s it. China is a threat to everyone, including themselves.
The Russian crisis tracks the European population crisis. Both are very real (see right). Russia thought to reverse the curse by invading Ukraine and reclaiming the white Slavic population as their own, but it didn’t go to plan.
The US will claim what Ukrainian natural resources they want for themselves, and Black Rock (which already has the contract) will rebuild Ukraine, putting Ukraine in financial bondage for eternity. Europe will be saddled with paying for their defense without reimbursement in any meaningful way. As VP Vance put it, “Safeguarding European security must be imperative for European members of NATO. As part of this, Europe must provide the overwhelming share of future lethal and nonlethal aid to Ukraine.”
The only possible European winners will be those (such as the Italians) who decide that America is still a viable ally. The others will find themselves hoisted on their own petard.
Will the Europeans try to assassinate Pres. Trump? They might.
Bullet Points:
** The decision to take public transport means that you’ll sit next to strangers who pretend you don’t exist while breathing directly on you.
** Pedo Joe Biden set a record of 577 vacation days during one four-year term. Most of us were happier when he was gone, but since others made all the decisions, it didn’t matter.
** You wouldn’t want an audit if you got big dollar kickbacks for twenty years and had access to insider trading and free money.
** California spends $9.5 billion a year on healthcare for illegal aliens and has a $30 billion deficit.
** The Federal Reserve System is a cartel. It’s not a government agency; it only appears to be a government agency. You could argue that Congress would better manage the money supply because they’re elected. Then you look at the Squad and Maxine Waters, and the water is muddy.
** The EPA is clawing back $20 billion in last-minute funding on climate justice from the Biden Regime.
** Illegal aliens in America sent $56 billion in cash home just last year – after their children enjoyed free schools, free medical care, free luxury hotel accommodation and meals, an ObamaPhone, and welfare in some US States that you paid for. Let that sink in.
** HogsbreathSS asked me if I was tired of winning. I replied, honestly, never.
** The Secret Service is investigating after Fred Wilson, a special education and social studies teacher at Egg Harbor Township High School, allegedly threatened President Trump on social media.
** The difference between a B-17 and a B-24? The B-17 was built like a tank and handled like a Piper Cub, while the Liberator leaked fuel like a sieve, handled like a tank, and took punishment like a boxer with a glass jaw. The B-24 was a flying packing crate filled with bombs. It had a longer range, though, and to be fair, the VLR Liberator was the plane that closed the Mid-Atlantic “Air Gap” and helped defeat U-boat Packs.
** The FBI has said in a statement that it has dedicated “thousands of personnel” to help with immigration duties as the bureau responds to allegations that corrupt agents leaked information about immigration raids to migrant activists.
DOGE
(Thinker) A rough estimate is that about 10%, or 275,000 federal employees, are no longer on the payroll. Seventy-five thousand took the payout option, and about 200,000 probationary employees were laid off. There may be more as agencies are lopping off components. It’s possible that not every probationary employee was riffed, but this is a fair estimate.
The creation of the Department of Government Efficiency has exposed the federal government’s often archaic bookkeeping and computer systems and the enormous waste and grifting in its operations.
I will discuss below some of the things DOGE has uncovered, but the big news is that the President signed a new executive order this week that empowers DOGE to spearhead the complete reorganization of the federal workforce.
It gives DOGE hiring approval for all positions and reduces the number of new hires (one for every four departing employees), with exceptions for those performing jobs relating to public safety, immigration enforcement, or law enforcement. Agency heads must make plans for reductions in force.
The head of the Office of Personnel Management must initiate rulemaking to revise suitability standards. These include requiring timely compliance with federal law (a large number of IRS employees are themselves tax delinquents) and barring those without citizenship status or who are guilty of theft or negligent use of government resources and equipment.
Agency heads must submit reorganization plans within 30 days, including which agencies or subcomponents should be eliminated or consolidated. This reorganization is essential. We are 36 trillion dollars in debt. A trillion (if all these zeroes are hard to grasp) is 1000 billion.
By the last count I saw, DOGE had already eliminated about 60 billion dollars of waste and fraud in a matter of weeks.”
Derangement
People like this were shameless liars before, but now their very professional existence is at stake.
Prepare for a Hurricane of Gaslighting as DOGE pulls the plug on the grift. There is nothing they will not say or do to keep sucking blood from the system. They are the ticks, Elon is the hot needle.
That’s a nice machine-made sign he’s holding. I wonder who paid for it?
More from the Spectator.
Slush
“A $20 billion Biden administration green-energy slush fund was collecting interest at a private bank and is being distributed without proper oversight, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin reveals in an exclusive interview.
President Joe Biden’s EPA parked $20 billion at the financial institution, which The Post has learned is Citibank, as part of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund.
But the awardees weren’t announced until August 2024, and Citibank was not brought in until September—after Biden’s disastrous June debate performance led him to withdraw from his re-election effort in July. This made for a very different race with Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee.
Zeldin’s team is looking into whether former EPA employees are working at any of the grantees, which include the Opportunity Finance Network (receiving $2.29 billion), where vice president Laura Silverman says she brings “economic, financial, and social justice to communities,” and the Native CDFI Network ($400 million), which has featured Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) as a speaker. Power Forward Communities, a $2 billion recipient, has no list of employees on its website — but does have openings for government affairs VP, communications VP, and special assistant.”
STEM
The competition for upper-tier talent is brutal. The U.S. faces a significant shortage of skilled workers, particularly in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). This shortage affects various sectors, hindering innovation and economic growth. Estimates suggest a shortage of roughly one million STEM workers in the U.S.
The demand for STEM professionals is expected to grow, with some projections indicating a need for an additional 3.5 million STEM workers by 2027.
The shortage is not uniform across all STEM fields—areas like computer science and healthcare face particularly acute shortages. The U.S. education system is not producing enough graduates with STEM degrees. Many students lack interest or adequate preparation in STEM subjects Even among those with STEM degrees, a skills gap exists.
Employers often struggle to find candidates with the technical and soft skills needed for modern workplaces. The U.S. workforce is aging, and many experienced STEM professionals are retiring. The number of younger workers entering STEM fields is insufficient to replace them. Other countries are investing heavily in STEM education and attracting skilled workers.
Women tend to avoid STEM fields, which created an EEO crisis during the Biden Regime. Reality should prevail.
Solutions:
Improve STEM Education: Increase funding and support for STEM education at all levels, from K-12 to higher education.
Focus on making STEM subjects more engaging and accessible to students.
The actual payoff is on the order of 5-10 years away, best case
Upskilling and Reskilling: Invest in programs that help workers develop new skills or retrain for STEM careers. This can help address the skills gap and provide opportunities for those in other fields.
Identify the Aircraft
1
Be exact
2
3
Identify the Armor
4
5
6
Chechnya, 2001
Quote from The Matrix
‘You have to understand. Most people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured and hopelessly dependent on the system that they will fight to protect it.’ Art imitates life.
End
3 is Master Mark 1A, used to train pilots before they went to Spitfire or other fighters.
Yes!
With the amount of IT work going to contractors from other countries, it would be hard for anyone who is paying attention to get interested in going into that field.
One joke line (from Dilbert?) was about IT companies paying industry average salaries while wanting above average workers and performance.
That’s certainly true in many situations.
IDA:
1.Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk Ultralinx
2. Curtiss XP-40Q-2A
3. Miles M.9 Master
IDARMOR:
4. M60TM is the Turkish upgrade of the M60T Sabra Mk. III tanks, featuring; CITV, a new ASELSAN fire control system, ASELSAN Pulat APS, RWR/IR amongst other upgrades, on top of all the upgrades that come with the Sabra Mk. III.
5. Chinese Type 625E, new ‘drone killer’ anti-aircraft system
6. MT-LB 6MB(MT-LB with BTR-80A turret)
Wow, you were up early, HogsbreathSS – great!
“The society which scorns excellence in plumbing as a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it is an exalted activity will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy: neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water.” John W. Gardner.
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A new engineering grad I had to work with recently couldn’t do basic math, as in A+B+C/D=? I schidt you not. You don’t have to wonder what his opinion of “plumbers” was.
Ah, America’s callow youth. Maybe it’s true of kids everywhere who spent their time on video games and being passed through college courses irrespective of their effort or capacity to pass exams?
Two words: Public Schools.
We had TI calculators invented in our time…as a timesaver tool. I still have my HP 11C right here on my desk…but work at doing math in my head to keep the juices flowing up there. Also have my dad’s slide rule in the drawer…because it’s just cool.
((Almost said “three words” to further illustrate, but goofball humor at this time of the morning with such seriousness floating about – ‘pre-coffee’ for some – might have been annoying.)
Gotta exercise that must important muscle! I automatically translate fractions to decimals, Metric to real money, and of course the reverse. My lads do too! I hooked ’em early, using baseball. Must have something to do when there was no pitch clock, yanno. Some years ago, my old man mentioned that he simply COULD NOT find a f’ing slide rule anywhere! (This must have been in the days pre-EBay). Well, April 23d was coming up (He shared the birthday with Shakespeare), I had my boys for the weekend, I had some real money in my pocket, so there’s only one thing to do. Texas Junk Company! Let the boys find some boots (TJC had a literal thousand pair of used boots, cheap), and I knew for certain that if anybody on the planet had a slide rule it would be Bob. SCORE!!! 4 pair of boots, 3 slide rules (NIB, with instructions, one made of gen-you-wine elephant toof!) and change out of a Grant.
You have to admire the men that climbed into the one door on the B-24 knowing there was a good chance they would have to bail out, and realizing their chance of making it to that door was not likely, if they had to leave their crippled bomber. To make things worse, there was a good chance someone in their family may have been fabricating the bombers, and they knew their work ethic. Less determined men would have lost their mind, or deserted.
The Greatest Generation.
Identify the Aircraft:
1. HH-60G Pave Hawk combat rescue
2. Curtiss XP-40Q
3. Miles Master trainer
Identify the Armor:
4. Turkish M-60TM
5. Chinese Type 625E air defense vehicle
6. MT-LBM 6MB with MB2 turret
Absolutely!
” Russia, an old toothless bear that couldn’t defeat a neighboring country a fraction of its size. It’s still a large bear.” I love your blog , check it everyday and enjoy it for the most part , but your take on Russia , is um….. ( I have to be careful here as a guest in your home) disconnected from today’s reality . Russia could’ve cleaned Ukraine’s clock at anytime , but why hurry ? The four (5?) Oblasts that voted via referendum to align with the R.F. are no longer being bombed and shelled constantly Russia has the upper hand , and is in the easy seat just coasting . When , during this SMO did Russia say they wanted to take Kiev , or all of Ukraine for that matter ? Never that I can remember . As for Russia taking over the E.U. , why would they want to do that , the E.U. is a basket case of problems , it would be like taking in your deadbeat Brother in law , his family and his 75 adopted refugee children . I also don’t think Russia wants to get the Soviet Band back together , although I do think they would welcome favorable relationships with any former states that sought to open up . Two more things Kursk was a dumb move, and the few pictures of captured North Koreans that I have seen appear to to Tuvans .
Best Regards, Boats
You can always disagree with my take on things, Boats. I’m not offended. Russia anticipated a cakewalk through Ukraine. They attacked during the Rasputitsa. Who’d do that? Their confidence and ego were unrealistic and turned into a debacle. They never established air supremacy. They clearly had air superiority in places and at times but they couldn’t maintain it. Their ships were sitting ducks in the Black Sea. Yes, it’s true that Russians never worried much about excessive losses, and the sanctions placed on them by the West may have been annoying at times, but they’re Russians and are accustomed to discomfort. They could have taken Ukraine at any time, but IMHO, they would have had to resort to tactical nuclear weapons to do it, and that was a risk that they were unwilling to take. Historically, the Russians have always kept tight control over Strategic Nuclear Forces. When the rest of the place starved, they paid those people on time and well.
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The Russian population problem is not overstated on the blog. It’s of major interest to Putin and Great Russia. It should also concern feckless Old Europe, but they don’t know which restroom to use anymore and love focusing on climate change. I have firsthand knowledge of the situation regarding their concern for the declining population of Great Russians (white people). They have a number of pressing problems, some of which can be kicked down the road. Others can’t.
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Pres. Trump has given Putin face and has taken it from the little comedian in Ukraine with the meeting in Saudi Arabia. He’s also excluded the EU, showing him (and Russia) what he thinks of them. We can argue whether that was a good move, but it’s realpolitik. The Saudis are real and the Russians are real. So are the Americans. Ukraine, a mess before the war, managed to hang in there, but their future won’t be decided in Kiev. We’ll see how it all falls out. Pedo Joe is gone and the swamp is being drained incrementally.
Cool ! thanks for the kind reply . I do think if some form of settled “peace” comes to Ukraine , no matter what that looks like , the hardliner right sector and svoboda party and other militaristic insignia wearing organized and trained units will go back to hassling , assaulting and killing ethnic Russians . Lots of weapons were being gathered and stored , and these guys and gals have been training since grade school. “Bandera is my father, Ukraine is my mother” . Tough bunch of fighters . After Mariupol several top Azov leaders were sent off to Turkey , maybe they are still there who knows .
It will fester. History is on the side of some instability going forward into the mists of the future. Whether it will go fully kinetic again or not once the European peacekeepers depart is anyone’s guess. It has as much to do with Russia’s future as Ukraine’s. The history is deep and ancient. Family ties will keep the fire burning. Think of the American South – which relives the days of the War of Northern Aggression (from the 1860s) to the present.
One carpenter doing work on our house in Tennessee was named after Robert E. Lee. And he was married to a black woman. Sometimes it seems like the South learned some lessons from the war that the north has forgotten.
Et al (a common blog theme this morning): Read this over at Kim du Toit’s place earlier (someone’s quote):
–
“All those people complaining about DOGE as a threat to privacy — why is it okay for the government to know how much money you make and what you spend it on?”
– I would add: …and not us knowing what WTP’s tax money is being spent on…in detail? Those screaming and whining the loudest will hopefully be looking for new work soon (I wish), effectively “outing” themselves as they get more forceful in their ridiculousness how this or that audit, or peeling back the layered veil, progresses at warp speed (yay!). Musk responded to an ‘X’ inquiry about auditing Fort Knox. Bottom line is there are 4,580 tons of US gold in there…last time anyone looked, and that was 50 years ago in 1974. We went off the gold standard in ’71. Gee, wouldn’t it be nice if PDJT put us back on?…that would send a few over the edge, those who’s entire life depends on largess stolen from WTP’s taxes while gaining insider trading and kickbacks and money-laundering…and…and. It’s likely more worse than we think…what if the gold is “missing”…who here would be surprised? Not me. It’s like the billions here and there some of these “departments” have “misplaced” (per DOGE website). How the hay do you misplace a billion dollars? You don’t. And “bringing Chase Bank in”…yeah, nothing to see there (Student Loan were low cost and fine…until Wall Street got in bed with the Federal program…to “manage” it. Look how that turned out.)
–
Point of reference: The IRS takes in 49% from WTP’s taxes, 2% on [existing] tariffs. It appears PDJT’s plans to eliminate the IRS and Federal Income tax and replace it with tariffs, maintaining a good portion of Federal revenue flow without beating the crap out of WTP in the process. More interesting is annual FedRev has increased from $213B in 1964 to $4.9T(!) in 2024. Yeah, something is seriously wrong there, especially since America is worse off with infrastructure, schooling (no more govt run schools would be a start), energy, and a pile of…well…everything these idiots unconstitutionally wrested control.
– Anyone feel like a gerbil on a wheel while our self-appointed ‘betters’ live lavishly on our backs? Me neither.
*
The Time For A Reset is happening, and it’s about time the cheaters and thieves got their comeuppance. Watch what the screamers do next, will be telling.
***
ITA #1…Just really cool looking…but also intimidating if one saw that view when standing on the ground (that scene in TG:Maverick)…would make anyone mess their tighty-whitey’s…which is sort of the point.
The B-24 had the “Davis Wing” which provided less drag along with more lift. The B-24 also had hydraulic lines running everywhere.
I had the pleasure and privilege to get to know an old B-24 command pilot, Philip Rose, who flew a complete tour with the 8th Air Force. He told me that one time they were in the landing pattern after a mission when he experienced a complete loss of control for some seconds. They were in a turn to the left when the controls stopped responding. There was no combat damage to the ship, and yoke, wheel, and rudder pedals were working fine. The control surfaces just weren’t biting any air. As they continued through the turn, control gradually returned, and they landed safely. At the time, he kept it to himself.
Mr. Rose also flew some of the post surrender “Trolley” missions (as did my dad in B-17s) where ground personnel were flown as passengers at low level over various targets so they could see first hand what they had been a part of. Mr. Rose shot some 8mm film on those flights, and gave me a VHS copy.
Somewhere I have a newspaper clipping with a brief bit about Mr. Rose’s return home to Chico, CA. It mentions that as he was not yet 25 years old, his mother had to accompany him to get his driver’s license.
Again, big brass balls clanked when they walked. They were the Greatest Generation.
In the Pacific, where range was paramount, the B-24 was in demand. On mid-Atlantic patrol, its greater range and speed were a big help. In the ETO, where fighter groups from many bases could be concentrated against a bomber group (and fighters more heavily armed), P-47 ace Robert Johnson wrote of seeing returning bomber streams where the Liberators were flying directly under the Fortresses for protection. It seems it was a case of “make do to make the numbers, it’s a war.”
Upskilling & reskilling: something worthwhile that unions could do for their members. Don’t know how many do that, nor to what extent.
I’m not anti-union. In my experience a strong union meant that you had bad, unfair or incompetent management that required the workers to organize for self-protection. In many situations workers don’t want the unions because they’re parasitic. Public employee unions are bad because they use contributions to bribe (contribute to) legislative types who vote their salaries. It doesn’t cost the legislator anything to dole out salary and benefits (unlike a corporate board) from tax money. I’ve written it here on the blog before. No legislative body that controls public salaries should be able to accept money from those people (or through their unions) by way of contribution.
A good union is one that has good union management :) Seems to be a lot like businesses, dunnit. Had one shop steward tell me that he was one of the reps for negotiations, and if management sent a certain secretary his way he would sell out the union in a heartbeat.
I really have no interest in the Ukraine. Except for one thing. Sevastapol IS AND WILL ALWAYS BE Texas territory. It’s about two hours due north of me here in Houston, on the shores of lake Livingston, and on the shores of the Trinity River. Not (pace Professor Schickele) the Crimea River.
I and 100 others in the IT department were RIF-ed from a former Fortune 500 company. I’d been there 32+ years in networking and security. It was off shored to India the year before COVID. They wouldn’t let us work from home, but they let someone in India work from 11.5 time zones away. The hilarious part of this RIF was they let go several Indians, Pakistanis and at least one Austrian. There are plenty of STEM jobs and everyone found jobs before severance ran out, but you owe them no loyalty. They wouldn’t show it to you.
Had something similar happen when I worked in North Carolina. The contracting company would hold lunches for us at a nice restaurant, and the table looked like a mini United Nations. Then the Fortune 500 company decided to offshore some work to India. It came back needing to be fixed, and we did. They tried it a second time, and the same thing happened. The company then said that, based on how successful to offshore experiments were, they were going to offshore all contract work. So I got a job elsewhere.
Side noted: when the Korean contractors discovered that the local residents created hot & spicy sauerkraut, they got all excited.
Neighbors call me Mr. Maytag, always agitating.
What is those re-education camps we joke about now get filled with the leftist thieves and fellow travelers? Banner and I won’t have a retirement home.
I did not previously know what that Chi-Com SPAA is.
If it weren’t painted in (rather attractive) digi-camo designed apparently to blend in on
an alien planet, it would look very Gerry Anderson.
– Kle.
I like everything about this excellent post, especially “morph into malevolent hectors.” Ain’t that the truth.
Who knew 47 would hit their $upply chain$, with a vengeance.
Oh, the UK’s evidently getting ready to boost military expenditure by 11%. Moscow quakes.
Europe has lived off OUR defense budget for years. We’ve known that the whole time. Now that they’ve been called on it, things are getting interesting! Re pay scales, we had that discussion. They want SMEs, but want to pay entry level salaries. That doesn’t work, not now, not ever. DOGE is cleaning house, and conducting a zero based budget review. As far as I know, this is the FIRST time that has ever been done, and I don’t think we’ve seen the upper level of whining, gnashing of teeth, and crying over (insert reason here)…
The B-17 was built like a tank. Used a wing profile that was inefficient, created too much drag. The whole plane was overbuilt. And thus it’s range and bomb load were somewhat limited. Later versions used more powerful engines, added armor, weapons and heavier weapons, turrets, extra stuff. The differences between what we went to war with, the B, C and D models, which were drastically underarmed (many single .30 cal guns) and underpowered, to the final G model with chin, belly and tail turrets, and all guns being .50s, were radical differences.
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The B-24 was built with a highly efficient wing and body. Going to a high-mounted wing allowed tricycle landing gear which arguably made landings and takeoffs easier, but meant that loading bombs was somewhat more difficult. That wing was a real problem as it was long, thin and fragile, oh so very fragile. The -24 was more modifiable than the -17, though. And she had a much heavier bombload and longer range. Arguably a better plane than the Fortress, on paper. But so much more fragile, so much more easily shot down or damaged by a hard landing.
–
Which would I prefer to have flown in? The Fortress, of course. So well built that you’d think that Republic had built it.
> STEM
Maybe I’m not upper-enough tier, but what I see is 30+ years of salary compression, and salaries not keeping pace with currency inflation. I’ve heard 30+ years of want-more-stem talk, but it’s not validated as fact by salary offers.
.
> skilled immigration
Or, the government could stay entirely out of who is permitted to work in what geographical location. Free enterprise doesn’t need a federal Department of HR. Note I didn’t say “vote”, or “collect benefits from a pool they didn’t pay into”, those are entirely separate questions.
.
> Fort Knox
Could be missing. A few years back Germany asked for its gold back from storage and was refused for months. Why? Bank runs are audits.
.
> reset
Don’t forget to implement the Debt Jubilee.
.
> tariffs
Once upon a time the Northern US government funded itself from tariffs on the Southern US agricultural exports. Then the parasite raised the taxes too high for the host to survive. Could we please not do that again?