Don’t Interrupt Them

Well, the For Sale sign is up. Went up yesterday, and we had a couple want to see the house that day. Two more today… Hopefully someone will love the place enough to make an offer. It’s a nice house, if you must live in WA, you could do much worse: It’s just in a state hell bent on committing suicide.

Dinner is going to be eating out, because the two couples that want to look at the place will be here at our dinner time, and we’re not supposed to be here while they’re showing. The tip jar is at the link and I thank you sincerely for your support.

Napoleon may have lost in the end, but even his enemies said that he was one of the foremost military minds in history. And much like other military geniuses like Sun Tzu, Clausewitz, Mahan, and Boyd, his observations and writings are as useful outside the military realm as well. In the end, war is not about technology. Oh, don’t mistake me, Technology plays a huge part, as evidenced by how fast we rolled up Saddam’s army, and how effective operation Midnight Hammer was last weekend. But if technology was the only, or even the primary factor, we wouldn’t have lost in Vietnam, or in Afghanistan.

War is really about understanding people, it’s advanced psychology, done with an ax. Hear me out here.

If you are in a war, there is already a certainty that someone failed on their wisdom roll in figuring out the other guy’s will, intent, and self-perceived capabilities. No one outside of Hollywood and Leonard Wimberley (The Mouse That Roared) imagines a nation going to war intending to lose.

So, if you have gone to war, it’s because either you were convinced that you could get what you wanted from the other guy (Be it trade access, land, his complete annihilation, or to be left the hell alone) by kicking his ass, when he refused to give it to you for what you were wanting to pay for it.

-OR-

You were the attacked party, who was sure that you could not give what the attacker wanted, at the price he wanted to pay, and was certain that either “He’ll never go to war over this” or “If he tries to go to war over this, we can kick his ass.”

Once “The Die is Cast” we find out who was right, and who was wrong in their estimation. But you’re just never going to throw that die if you know you’re going to lose everything. Thus, someone didn’t understand the mind and capability of their opponent. (Probably both failed in this understanding, but that’s another post.)

In the same way, victory in war is not “I killed more of the enemy than they killed of us” unless you’re fighting a war of annihilation. Something that has only been fought a hand full of times in all of history.

No, victory is “Their government decided to do what we wanted them to do, rather than continue to bleed.” Thus, war is about convincing the enemy to “see it my way.” Like Vietnam, or the American Revolution, if you convince the other guy that continuing this isn’t worth the cost, you win. The fact that this is done by killing people and destroying shit is just a problem of being unable to convince each other by any other means. This is the real truth behind the often misunderstood “Win the Hearts and Minds” piece. A piece we failed at, in the short run in Vietnam, but based on current affairs, won in the long run.

Politics, Diplomacy, and Business are basically the same sort of animal as War. Oh, minus the killing and blowing up, mostly, but there are enough parallels that wisdom in one avenue can be applied to the others. Thus the universality of the observations by people from warriors, to effective businessmen, to politicians like Machiavelli. That’s why Napoleon’s observation is key to today’s post.

Right now we have a butt load of people who I consider my enemy for various reasons, that are making mistakes. Huge ones. Mistakes that will inevitably bite them in the ass. Let’s look at a few:

We have the Democratic party and the entire City of New York. Now the first mistake THEY made was going to the “ranked voting structure.” This is one of those things that looks good on paper, and everyone who is a proponent, thinks will give you a more moderate, more mainstream choice. (I’m not going to explain the whole structure of this thing here, consider that homework if you aren’t already aware of it.) Well, as the current mayoral primary election just proved, uh, no, it doesn’t.

They just put Zohran Mamdani on the ballot as the democratic nominee for mayor of NYC, due to this little plot. Now let us take a look at what this guy’s positions are:

1) Card carrying member of the “Democratic Socialists of America.”

2) Passionately anti Jew and Anti-Israel in a town with the largest Jewish population outside of Jerusalem.

3) Wants to give away free bus service, free subways, more rent control on apartments, Government owned Grocery Stores (Humm, let’s see, where have I seen that before? Oh, yeah, the USSR. They didn’t work there, either.) all to be paid for by taxing business and the “rich.”

Now the problem with taxing the rich is that you’re not actually getting the really rich. The folks that have major generational wealth don’t have a lot of “income.” They have a lot of investments and borrow against those so that they don’t show income.

It’s the guys that are still earning enough to eventually put their families in that category that have lots of income. They are also the people that bring money and jobs into your economy. Until they decide that you’re too fucked up to deal with, and move out!

The Northeast is already seeing this as business that have been there since the civil war or before bail out in search of friendlier environments. As someone who watched this play out in Michigan in the 70s, let me tell you, that way lies Detroit.

Do you want to go from being the kings of industry to being an abject lesson in how greed brings down a region? Because this is how you do it.

Oh I’ve seen the suggested solution to the “we didn’t get the rich” problem, and it’s going to be even worse. There has been several proposals, here in WA for taxes on “unrealized profit.” That means if your investment is making money, even if you don’t cash it out, you have to pay taxes on it. Oh, and if your investment loses money, well “tough titty.” Imagine having to track every stock in your investment or retirement portfolio and pay taxes on any money you make on it? Every retirement account in the jurisdiction will go broke.

Or leave.

Mostly, they’ll leave. Just like the automotive firms and other heavy industry left Michigan.

Now the people with a clue in NYC know this. They may not be the majority, but they’re the guys that fund elections. DNC, wave goodbye to funding for elections in NYC for this cycle. Instead, the money will be going to fund mayor Adams’ who is now an Independent, in his reelection campaign.

See the DNC took a bet. When Adams said, “You guys are too screwed up for me!” They bet they could field someone to beat him, instead of making a deal. The only guys they could find, is a communist, or a guy who quit the governor’s office in a cloud of stench over his behavior, sexual harassment, and his complete fuckup of COVID. Now they’re stuck with the winner of that contest, and unless they try to pull the sort of shit they pulled on Hogg, they have to live with it.

Politically, this is the ultimate Kobiatchi Maru. Oh, and there are rumors that Cuomo may do a third party run too. If Adams wins, you have lost the crown jewel of leftism in America to an independent. This also encourages other party breakaways, and ultimately may create a viable third party. If the guy that won the primary wins, you will watch the crown jewel turn to paste. (it’s already paste, but no one is willing to admit it. Once people start leaving town like rats, it’s too late to fix.) or, with Cuomo splitting the party, and Adams also splitting it, the Republican wins… Yeah, no, that’s an even bigger disaster from the DNC view.

Hey DNC, how’s that bed feeling?

Even Reason’s Editor in Chief, (who’s a bit left of center on most things) isn’t happy about this. /reason.com/2025/06/25/my-city-just-voted-for-socialism/ She tears him APART, and it’s glorious.

Pass the popcorn, please.

Then on a similar note, we have WA, my soon to be former home. They passed literally the biggest tax increase in state history, over the objections of not just the Republican, but everyone else outside of the I-5 corridor. Now the budget guys say: ‘It ain’t enough, you’re going to be bankrupt before the next budget comes due, you’re spending too much more than you’re taking in!” WA may have to dip into emergency reserves, despite historic tax increases Showing once again that you can’t take out “pay day loans” to pay your bills, continue your spending habits, and survive. Something my Ex-wife never figured out. Which is right up there with never figuring out that bouncing from man to man in search of “true happiness” ain’t going to work, and the attempt winds you up “old, cold, and alone.” I think she’s trying to reel in number seven now… They keep getting harder to find. I know, imagine that.

But I digress. The point is that WA is also facing a serious exodus of money, and talent. It’s almost like someone could point at a behavioral mindset, like “we’ll make the rich pay for all the things that we think we should give the people that vote for a living.” And say, “see, this is why you always fail.”

Tom Knighton put up a nice piece on Neera Tanden’s closed door ‘interview’ by the House Oversite committee at

At least we have a name

much of it is behind a pay wall, but please believe me when I say it’s worth the money. I’m not going to quote it here, because well, that would be unethical in the extreme. It’s about who was really running the Auto-pen Presidency.

Also on the “Ya’ll are fuckin up” list we have Judge Brian Murphy, (appointed by Biden’s autopen) who literally did the opposite of what SCOTUS just ordered him to do, and then had the audacity to quote Sotomayor’s minority opinion as to why he was justified to do so!!! https://ijr.com/biden-appointed-judge-appears-to-skirt-scotus-ruling-in-deportations-case/

Damn it SCOTUS, how often do you have to listen to some judge in a lower court blow off your rulings before you start hitting heads with gavels? This shit is NOT going to stop, until SCOTUS takes a really hard turn on it, in a way that can not be ignored, like “Mr. District Judge, you are removed from office for violations of federal law.” Or to put it in an old fashioned way: “Bailiff, whack his pee-pee.”

Now it’s worth noting that this kerfuffle is over deporting eight guys, to a foreign nation that they did not come from. All eight are felons:

-Enrique Arias-Hierro (Cuba): Homicide and armed robbery

-Jose Manuel Rodriguez-Quinones (Cuba): Attempted first-degree murder

-Thongxay Nilakout (Laos): First-degree murder

-Jesus Munoz-Gutierrez (Mexico): Second-degree murder

-Dian Peter Domach (South Sudan): Robbery and firearm possession

-Kyaw Mya (Myanmar): Lascivious acts with a child

-Nyo Myint (Myanmar): First-degree sexual assault

-Tuan Thanh Phan (Vietnam) Conviction details not listed.

These are the men a judge, and the DNC are defending from deportation.

Remember, remember, come voting in November,

The DNC Treason and plot.

In the “Don’t do stupid shit in front of a camera” files, we have the city of Tiburon CA, who likes to fine businesses for violation of their ordinance requiring the sorting of garbage into recyclable, food waste, and trash. First violation: $100. Second: $200. Third and subsequent: $500.

A blogger on X “Wall Street Apes,” got video of the employee of Tiburon emptying those required bins.

Into the same truck, in the same trash compactor.

Now look, this isn’t new to me, the whole recycling Mafia thing (and Mafia is a little too on the nose this time, because Waste Management is a wholly owned subsidiary of one of the five families in NYC) has been a con and an income source from the get-go. That said, just like “never hit a suspect with a baton in front of a camera” one should never break the law you like to fine people for, in front of the people you fine. Lawsuits will be inbound shortly, I assume.

On the Geek front, the continuingly more irrelevant fuckwits that brought you Puppy-gate, and the PRC vetted Hugo awards, Asterix-gate, and lately AI-gate, (where in spite of banning people from getting awards because they used an AI assisted drawing for a cover, used AI (Chat GP) to vet and decide who got to go to the con, and who got sponsored…) Yes, I’m talking about ‘World-Con” the awarders of the once great Hugo Awards, that they wanted to change the name of because it seems Hugo Gernsback is now “problematic, ” just stepped on their lips (what type of lips I will leave to your imagination) yet again.

A Long, Fat Shadow

Now they’re eating their own.

One of the foremost Reviewers and folks on the Geek circuit, Leslie Farney, got banned from the Con, with no explanation. What makes this more fun, is that this literary agent, an actual professional Agent, is somewhere to the left of Marx. But she apparently wound up afoul of another lefty, and world-con had to pick who to back. I’m guessing they thought she would go quietly into that good night. Oops.

On the Navy front, and the last little piece for today, we have something that I just learned, while at the Naval Hospital this morning for a biopsy of a skin thing.

This is from a commander who was deployed to the region at the time, by the way, this isn’t just low grade scuttlebutt, this is senior wardroom scuttlebutt. Remember the saga of the Teddy R, and her ability to lose F/A 18’s to Davy Jones? There was the one that fell off the side because it missed the wire, (bad piloting, but it happens) the one that fell out of the side because the ship was maneuvering to avoid an inbound missile strike, (sucks, but lose a bird, lose a bird-farm… Humm, not a hard choice here.) and then there was the one that got shot out of the sky by a DDG seconds after takeoff.

This is about that last one. I don’t know what the hell happened during this investigation, but I learned the result. The CO of the DDG did NOT get relieved, and shortly thereafter was promoted to flag rank, and given a flag command. The Air-boss on the T/R on the other hand… Shitcanned. Relieved, and told to retire. Things that make you go HUMM.

Well, that’s all for today, I need to do other things.

QOTD: In the “holy shit, I never thought I would see the day” file, "I was wrong. President Donald J Trump was right. War with Iran is already over as is their Nuke program!" —actor Rob Schneider, notorious anti Trump lefty actor.

Yours in Service,

William Lehman