We’re to the point of identifying what we’re not going to need between now and whenever we sell this place. That’s a challenge, because we don’t know how long we’re going to be here. We’re: first, at the mercy of a couple of contractors, that are supposed to be doing work on the place, (Redoing one bathroom, and repairing the retaining wall that was taken out by a drunk driver, who sadly didn’t take herself out at the same time, though she did 15K in damage to the wall.) Second, we’re going to be at the mercy of the market, and how ever long it takes to sell. Meanwhile we’re paying on two places.
Sigh.
Booze is in the usual place, beer is out in the mudroom, and dinner will be blackened Redfish and broccoli with cheese sauce. The tip jar is at the link. Thanks, as always to everyone who has chipped in.
Before I start on the news from the fleet. I want to cover some truly stupid shit that I keep seeing cropping up in feeds and advertisements. This piece of shit: https://byrna.com/blogs/byrna-nation/the-byrna-cl-product-breakdown
It’s a “less lethal” (LL) weapon that shoots a pellet a little over a half inch in die. (.61) at 400 FPS using a CO2 cartridge. Now for reference, the 45ACP standard military ball ammo was 980 FPS back when I was required to memorize such shit. At that speed, if the light is just right, you can actually see the bullet travel down range. This thing goes half that speed, or about the speed of a BB coming out of a Red Ryder BB Gun. We used to have BB Gun wars when I was a kid. (This was long before airsoft was invented.) They STING, a fair amount. They do NOT incapacitate a 9-year-old, who is running through the pines.
Oh, but this projectile is full of pepper spray and teargas. (OC & probably xylyl bromide, for the rest of this, we’ll just call it OC) Says so right there in the advertisement. That’s nice. If you’re accosted by some Panty Fah member who wants to scream at you while It’s buddy films how brave, how edge-lord It is, that will certainly show It the error of It’s ways. The trouble is that’s not what they’re marketing it as/for. They’re marketing it to the “mommy or grandma who wants to protect themselves from a serious threat but doesn’t want to hurt them” market. That’s the problem.
Go up and take another look at this thing. Now they make it in international safety orange too, but honestly, you can buy a compact pistol in international orange as well.
Can you tell the difference?
At night?
In a high stress environment where you firmly believe someone is going to die? Oh, and they make this stupid thing with a red dot sight, and a laser or flashlight underslung, which makes it look even more like a real gun.
Here’s the thing: If you draw this little piece of equipment out, on someone that is armed, whether they’re a good guy, or a bad guy, they’re going to be able to walk away from the murder charge after they shoot you full of holes, on a self defense plea. Let’s look at some scenarios:
You’re jogging, and some dude accosts you, at maybe five feet away. If you draw this thing, you MUST be able to articulate why you feared for your safety or YOU will be charged as the assailant. So, you’re going to need to wait until he gets much closer than the 60 feet that the manufacturer brags of as the max effective range.
First, is he an actual threat, or are you just freaking out over nothing? If he’s an actual threat, great, you’re good to go with pulling this thing. If not, you’re going to jail, unless you can articulate why he was a threat in your mind. Good luck with that, trained cops sometimes fuck that up.
OK, now we go to the second question, do you draw and immediately shoot him, or do you try and talk him down, while this thing is in your hand pointed at him?
If you shoot immediately, be aware you’re going to catch some of that pepper spray yourself. Their own advertisements claim a 5-foot radius of incapacitation. Are you prepared to work through that, and continue to deal with the threat?
Cops and corrections officers get trained by being sprayed and then having to fight for three minutes before they can decontaminate. It can be hard, or it can be easy, depending on your physiology.
I’ve seen decent sized guys that were completely incapacitated by the stuff, just flailing away madly while unable to see, eyes clenched shut, and snot pouring out their nose. Still unable to drive two hours later—we had to take him home, and have his wife come get the car. I’ve also seen little bitty gals get a full dose, and it didn’t phase her, just made her mad, and she climbed that instructor like he was a stairway, screaming obscenities in Spanish while beating his ass. It took three safety officers to pull her off.
So, this guy you’re going to shoot with this thing, is he from column A, or column B? Is he on something? Because that’s going to massively affect how effectively this stuff works. Pray he’s not on something.
Let’s say you try and talk him down. He’s what, five, maybe ten feet from you? Did you tell him it’s OC? If so, and he’s not armed, he is liable to charge you and take it away from you. It’s amazing how people that are talking, take a measurable beat to transition their minds to action. If he’s a real threat, he’s not going to talk.
On the other hand, if he’s armed, and you don’t tell him it’s an OC gun, and quite possibly even if you do, he’s going to draw his gun and shoot you, then tell the cops “I was just standin here on da corner, didn’t-do-nuffin, this crazy bitch comes up and pulls a gun on me man, what the fuck is a brotha to do?” The cop can’t ask your side of the story, you’re DEAD. He walks, unless he’s got priors and gets busted for having the gun. Five years, out in two. You’re dead forever.
Now let’s make it worse. Dude comes up on you, says something that can’t be heard ten feet away, you draw this thing, and there’s a cop nearby who saw the whole thing. What it looks like to him is a panhandler or something approaches you and you pulled a gun on him!
Guess what, you’re now staring down the barrel of a real gun, in a cop’s hands, who thinks he’s stopping someone from shooting some dude for panhandling. Think fast, that cop might be a rookie, or an idiot, and he’s scared too. He’s had it drilled into him that “Rule one, you go home at end of shift!”
You had better do exactly what he tells you to do, or you’re liable to get shot. He'll get some time on the beach, and depending on where you are, he may or may not lose his job. You’ve been shot, maybe you’re dead, maybe you get to sue the department, where you may or may not win, and you may be in a chair for the rest of your life, if you live.
If Cops deploy LL weapons, (bean bag rounds, OC guns like this one, even Tasers) there is firm guidance that there’s a second officer with his real gun out, as the cover officer, in case this all goes pear shaped. You do not have that luxury!
And, if, by some horrible twist of fate, you pull this sucker on a plain clothes officer, it’s almost guaranteed you’re getting shot. Seriously, just don’t.
If someone wants to make something like this, that doesn’t look anything like a gun, that would be useful. in the meantime, please leave the Less Lethal weapons to the pros. Either carry a gun, or carry regular OC in a canister, if you feel the need. And please, learn some self defense tactics, there’s classes everywhere, they’re more useful, less likely to get you killed, and don’t cost $600 for the chance of getting killed.
OK, now let’s talk about what is going on in the defense world. The PRC is getting more and more froggy, and it shows in everything from the questions that the Committee for State Security employees post on Quora, to how they talk to other nations. Let’s look at a question posted to me this morning:
“How serious are the warnings about China's hypersonic missiles, and what impact could they have on US military strategy in Asia?” (Translation, is our propaganda getting penetration, is Mainstreet USA scared yet?)
My answer, which I believe to be factually correct. (if I missed something on OTH by all means, let me know.) “Communist China, like their mentors the now defunct USSR, over-hype the shit out of their gear. That said, I do believe they have hypersonic missiles. Against land targets, relatively immobile, there is and should be, some real concern.
Against shipping? Not so much.
See a hypersonic missile is going to show up on radar like a fucking billboard. 5 or even 8 times the speed of sound is still not the speed of light. Ships are going to have warning of incoming. The US has gotten rather good at blowing up incoming. They are also very good at “get the fuck out of the way.” The secret to not getting hit by incoming is to not be there when it hits. That can be hard with a target seeker, which is why we got good at shooting stuff down.
But a hypersonic missile is going to be about as maneuverable as a triple trailer semi on black ice. Turn on a dime? Shit, this bitch doesn’t even turn on a football field. Add to that the fact that any sensor is going to be degraded as fuck by the ionization wave made by the missile. So, you have a missile that can’t see worth a damn, and can’t maneuver worth a damn either. It’s going to have to be guided into it’s target, assuming you have a good lock on the target. Once the target is OTH (over the horizon) your ability to maintain lock comes down to either having a sub in the area, an aircraft in the area, or trying to do ionospheric bounce Doppler tracking. (that’s super effective against flying and climbing things. Against floating things? Not so much.) That or you’re going to shoot at where the ship was when you got a satellite image of it, and hope your missile can find it, once it gets there. As previously mentioned, Hypersonic missiles are going to suck at that.
The US had hypersonic missiles back in the late 70s. We decided that wasn’t a good answer for what we needed. We’re going back and looking at it again, as a land attack asset, but against shipping, a subsonic sea skimmer is by far the better answer.”
Then we have this: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2025/may/5/admiral-china-rapid-boil-military-action/ The PRC is practicing for the invasion of free China. They’re doing it out in the open. The sort of stuff that we went to massive effort to hide, when we were practicing to invade Normandy, they’re doing in plain sight.
Why? Because they don’t believe we can do anything about it, and they want to make us afraid, so we’ll just accept it as a fait accompli. They have to go soon or not at all. That makes them desperate, and such people are dangerous.
Trump has called an end to the attacks on the Houthis, based on them saying “Baby don’t hurt me, no more. I’ll be good.” In short, they’re saying they’ll quit attacking US Ships if we’ll quit killing their people and destroying their shit. trump-says-us-will-stop-bombing-yemens-houthis-claims-they-dont-want-to-fight-anymore Do I believe that they are good to their word? Not for a second. The trouble is, as the “good guys” we have to try and see.
It’s worth noting that no one is clear on whether or not they mean “we’ll quit shooting at American ships, everyone else is still a target” or “we’re done trying to sink ships, this is getting too painful.” Time will tell; hopefully, without too many casualties on our side. I know that just wiping an entire group off the map is frowned upon, but I wouldn’t trust most of the nations we are enemies with to keep a bargain, until we do. Honestly, I can’t think of a better group to make an example of than the Houthis. Maybe when they break this agreement, we’ll actually do that.
If you haven’t noticed, SCOTUS overruled an injunction keeping Trump and Hegseth from getting rid of the transexuals in the US military. The Seattle Slimes, is, as you can imagine, up in arms about that. supreme-court-gives-trump-early-win-on-transgender-military-ban/ So let’s look at their arguments:
“Since returning to office, Trump has enacted a sweeping campaign targeting… banning trans women form participating in women’s sports, halting funding for pediatric gender affirming care, blocking passports for trans and nonbinary people and ending gender affirming care for veterans…”
Yes, yes, he has. Trans women are not women, anymore than a steer is suddenly a heifer when you cut off his balls. There is an overwhelming amount of evidence that men who have had a Dickectimy are stronger, faster, and generally more athletic than women, and are hurting women when competing against them. In states where tranies still compete against real girls, the top records and finishes are all tranie. So you’ve removed the very reason that there is Women’s sports. He’s clawing that back and we’re in favor of it.
“Halting Pediatric Gender Affirming Care?” Are you even paying attention to yourselves? These are children. They aren’t allowed to make decisions that might affect them for the rest of their lives, but you want them to be allowed to make just this one choice, that will not only affect them for the rest of their lives, but make them permanent patients of the Gender Swap Mafia? (Well of course you do, you ARE the GSM, and preying on children is hardwired in.)
Blocking passports? No, you can get a passport, you just have to use the sex your genetic make up identifies. No you can’t get a passport that says you’re a cat.
GSM for vets? No one is saying a vet can’t have the surgery, they’re saying “Mr. & Ms. Taxpayer shouldn’t have to pay for it, it’s an elective.” I’ve got more than my share of issues with military medical, and the VA, but this ain’t one of them. Every dollar that is wasted on this bullshit, is one dollar not being spent on real medical care.
They go on to whine “Some trans service members reported being forced to leave women’s dorms and cut their hair in the weeks that followed. Others have already requested voluntary separations or retirements to receive double the typical involuntary separation pay.” And claim that this violates the first and fifth amendments.
Uh, let’s start with Parker v. Levy. The military doesn’t HAVE first amendment rights. Goldman v. Weinberger, Nope, the military does not have first amendment rights.
On the fifth amendment, let’s look at the actual words of the amendment:
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
Well, the first clause specifically says that it doesn’t apply to the military, so we can ignore that.
The second clause talks about being tried twice for the same offence. Not applicable, no one is being tried.
The third one talks about self-incrimination at trial. NO ONE IS BEING TRIED.
The fourth one speaks of being deprived of life, liberty or property without due process. No one is being killed, incarcerated, or having their possessions taken away. You don’t have the right to serve in the military, they kick people out, or don’t let them join, for asthma or flat feet for Gods’ sake. Just because, for a very brief period of time, the tail end of Obama’s second term, and for Joe the meat sack’s term, it was legal for you to be a Transexual in the military does not make it ‘your property.’
The final clause talks about eminent domain. The taking of private property for public use, without appropriate compensation. Again, not at issue here!
This is all smoke and mirrors. There is no substance. They go on to bring up a poster child for the Trans community, and say “look she’s a hero, so you can’t kick them out.” Isn’t it funny how they didn’t have an issue with SEALs with more medals than God, getting kicked out for refusing the Jab? They also don’t seem to have any issue with kicking people out because they have PTSD that’s service related. Mental illness is mental illness. Suddenly deciding at age 30 that “wow, you know, I think I’m really a girl” is mental illness. Not compatible with service.
The folks that are getting kicked out aren’t getting bad paper (no OTH, BCD, or DDs here, all general under honorable or above, unlike the folks that refused the jab.) In fact, let’s look at that quote from them again: “Others have already requested voluntary separations or retirements to receive double the typical involuntary separation pay.” Oh, boo hooo, they’re making me take twice as much money as they pay anyone else, just to get my skanky ass out of uniform.
Finally, they make a big deal about the numbers… Oh, a whole 0.2%, that’s .002 of the military personnel have a “Gender Dysphoria” diagnosis. Note, that’s not “are transexual,” that’s “have a diagnosis.” Bah, that’s a rounding error. Quit fucking shit up for the vast majority, in favor of the less than one percent.
What it comes down to, is that post op transexuals are medically undeployable. They have to have injections daily, they have to, if male to female, have things jabbed into that open wound every day to keep it from healing up, their very existence in uniform is an anti-recruiting tool for the demographic that makes up most of the military.
The overwhelming majority of the Military comes from the South and rural Midwest. Places that are violently against the whole Transexual Revolution. The number of potential Trans, are again, 0.2%. The military celebrated the Tranie Mafia for Biden’s entire term. Recruitment fell through the floor. Trump said he was going to throw the Tranie Mafia out on their ears, recruitment hit record levels. I don’t think there’s anything else that needs to be said. Don’t be Bud Lite, don’t chase a tiny demographic that has never liked you anyway, at the expense of losing your primary customer base.
Commander Sal says some really important things about the loss of aircraft and the risks of shutting down the production line for them at /we-must-not-let-the-fa-18-line-go Unlike me, he’s brief and too the point, you should go read it.
He also hit the nail on the head with one-to-6000-vs-one-to-1400? If you missed it, Hegseth has decided to do what we’ve been talking about for the best part of two decades, which is to cull the ever increasing number of flag officers, back down to something useful.
When you have to have at least two stars on your color to be something more than a coffee fetcher at the Pentagon, shit’s broke. See the quote at the bottom. Sec Def is also going after the Goldwater-Nichols Defense Reorganization act of 1986. It’s broken, and Hegseth looks like the fixer. Go see Sal, he can explain it better than I can.
Then we have the shit going on, on the subcontinent. I predicted in the late 80s that “if there is a next nuclear war, it will probably start between Pakistan and India.” Yeah, still betting on that. Now the latest thing I’ve seen said that Pakistan’s PM said that they had made their reply to the Indian strikes that were in reply to the terrorist strikes by Paki nationals, by shooting down some of India’s planes. If they’re willing to let it lie there, maybe we don’t have that war this month. On the other hand, I’ve seldom seen Muslims willing to let it lie, so time will tell.
Chris Bray had a really nice piece on the “guardians of decay” and their intentional disinformation, and intentional misstatement of your position, so that they can make you look unhinged, as it is reflected in a California government argument over whether or not to make “solicitation of a minor for sex a felony” at miss-information-blocks-reality It’s important, not just in the case currently being discussed, but in the technique that the left loves to use.
And finally, in case you missed it, Trump just passed an EO outlawing the funding of Gain-of-Function Research in China and Iran. (You know, the sort of shit that most likely caused COVID?) It also requires that serious evaluation be conducted before ANY GOFR gets authorized. This should have been common sense, but Fauci seems to have steamrolled a bunch of shit that was not common sense, may he die as horrible a death as some of his victims.
QOTD: “In WWII…we had a force 12 million strong. For that 12 million man element, we had 17 four and five star Generals (and Flag Officers). Today, we have 2.1 million servicemembers, with 44 four star (Generals and) Flag Officers).
It used to be a ration of one General to 6,000 troops. Today it is one General to 1,400.” Sec. Def. Hegseth.
Yours in Service,
William Lehman