Thursday, July 30, 2026

Washington Doctrine of Unstable Alliances applies

 

People hold signs during a news conference on the Venezuela War Powers Resolution on Capitol Hill, Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)

Forever wars are a great way for the arms merchants to make ever more money with the end product, killed and maimed service members and shattered countries. Combine this with foreign policy errors and the track record for the US equates to 0 wins, 4 losses with loss no 5 coming up. The scoreboard. Nam, L, Iraq, L, the Iranian 1979 revolution against the Shah L and Afghanistan, L. For No. 5, the Iran war unless Israel and US do the unthinkable, involve the use of nukes.

With this in mind, there's one guy trying to do something about it and he's a Republican. :)

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) plans to reintroduce an amendment removing a provision from the Fiscal Year 2027 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would substantially expand military technology cooperation between the United States and Israel.

The provision, which was renumbered from Section 224, would establish a United States-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative. It would require the defense secretary to appoint an official responsible for coordinating joint research, testing, weapons development, technology integration and industrial cooperation between the two countries.

The initiative would cover areas including missile defense, artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, cybersecurity, quantum technology, electronic warfare and weapons co-production.

Massie and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) introduced a bipartisan amendment in June that would have removed Section 219 from the bill. Reps. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), Jesús “Chuy” García (D-Ill.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) later joined the proposal.


Why 219? Because of money. The House members voting for this disaster are bought and paid for by AIPAC, the most powerful lobby in the US. If the Senate approves, which they have not, the sovereignty of this once great nation will be forever shattered as it matters not what country is connected to this nation's military, it's the elimination of either country's ability to pursue it's national interest in unencumbered fashion. Washington Doctrine of Unstable Alliances says it all, entangled alliances are dangerous. 



In closing ... 

The widening war



Iago came to Washington and whispered in Othello's ear. Destroy Iran for Greater Israel. 

Let it be written, let it be done - Rameses

No big links here, just yours truly's take on a possible WWIII foisted upon the world
by two monsters, one sane and calculating, the other demented and insane.


The strategic trap: Ramping up war

The situation unfolding today is the textbook definition of a expanding geopolitical failure, driven almost entirely by the domestic electoral vulnerabilities of Bibi and Trump.

Based on latest intel and ongoing events of the past few hours, here's the grim reality of the "unnecessary catastrophe, AKA the CF" currently gripping the Middle East:

1. The collapse of the pause and proxy escalation

The Guardian reporting confirms the brief pause in fighting is now history. The above pix—showing the gutted remains of a site in Iraq's Nineveh province, complete with militia iconography—shows the end result of the U.S. and Saudi Arabia launching joint retaliatory strikes against the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) in Iraq in response to a surprise Iranian ballistic missile barrage targeting a U.S. base in Jordan. 

Why you may ask?  Because Israel and the US assassinated the moderate leader in Iran, enabling a less intelligent and radical hard liner to become Supreme Leader. By doing that, they accomplished the exact opposite of what Trump and Bibi wanted, regime change, thus reigniting Iranian fervor to end the Great Satan and it's accomplice, the Zionist entity known as Israel.

We're no longer just looking at a bilateral conflict; the expanding war is rapidly spreading across the region, pulling Iraqi militias, Saudi forces, and Jordanian territory directly into the crossfire, aided and abetted by Iranian proxies Hezbollah and the Houthis.


2. The White House pivot

The timing of this escalation's not coincidence. It comes exactly after Benjamin Netanyahu concluded in his first face-to-face meeting with Donald Trump at the White House since the war began in February.

The political calculus ...

Netanyahu's Position: Facing critical elections on October 27 and a battered reputation, Netanyahu's political survival depends on maintaining a hardline, offensive posture against Iran. His goal in Washington was to ensure Trump doesn't back out of the conflict or accept a premature ceasefire.

Trump's Trap: Trump originally entered this joint war in February with an aggressive decapitation strike, likely believing his own aura of invincibility would result in a swift collapse of the regime in Tehran. Instead, he has stumbled into a grueling, five-month war of attrition. Now, he's facing intense pressure, ahead of the November midterms, to end a deeply unpopular war that he unilaterally owns.

3. The economic chokehold

Iran understands Trump's electoral vulnerability perfectly. They can't defeat the U.S. militarily, so they attack his poll numbers via the global economy. Also, they have the strategic advantage. They don't have to win, just outlast.

By maintaining the blockade on the Strait of Hormuz and renewing attacks on oil tankers, Iran manipulates the global energy market. Brent crude is moving up again as tit for tat exchanges continue. Iran's strategy is to inflict maximum economic pain at the American gas pump, forcing Trump into a dilemma: escalate the war dramatically (risking further instability and troop casualties) or capitulate to a ceasefire that makes him look weak before the midterms.

4. The ordnance cliff and US strategic exposure

The grim reality of this conflict is rapidly outpacing the industrial base. The U.S. is burning through precision-guided munitions, interceptors, and high-end ordinance at an unsustainable rate. If the current tempo holds, critical stockpiles could reach depletion levels within weeks. This creates a terrifying strategic vacuum: by over-committing hard power to support Netanyahu's immediate objectives, the U.S. leaves itself dangerously exposed on the global stage. This represents a complete abandonment of the strategic restraint and long-term deterrence doctrines championed by leaders like Eisenhower and Kennedy, who warned explicitly against this type of overextension.

5. Domestic issues and escalation risks

The most dangerous variable may not be in the Middle East, but in Washington. As the November midterms approach and the war's unpopularity deepens, the pressure on the administration becomes immense. In deeply polarized environments, the historical fear is that domestic political desperation can lead to manufactured crises, AKA false flags—or exploiting real ones—to justify emergency powers or rally a fractured base. If the conflict is perceived as being manipulated for electoral survival or if emergency measures are invoked, a possible civil war looms.

Conclusion

Yours truly guessed correctly: Bibi got the initial commitment, and now the administration's trapped in a war of its own making. Both leaders are making monumental military decisions based on their immediate political survival rather than on coherent strategy. The result is a volatile, escalating proxy war that is pushing the entire region—and potentially the entire world—closer to the brink.

Remember, this all started in 1953.

Tuesday, July 28, 2026

Being alive or dead, that is the question ...



Schrödinger's Cat, forever residing in the nether world of being either alive or dead, is the glamor puss of quantum mechanics, the star participant in a theory most mystifying when it comes to trying to learn how reality works at deep level, is, unfortunately, not the gist of this article but rather ... is The Turtle alive or dead in the year of our lord 2026.

Are you there, Senator McConnell? It’s me, Governor Beshear.

More than six weeks after Senator Mitch McConnell, the former Republican leader from Kentucky, entered the hospital and vanished from public life, the state’s ambitious Democratic governor, Andy Beshear, sent him a letter.

“I am addressing this letter to Senator McConnell under the assumption that he is capable of reading and responding verbally, and not incapacitated by means of consciousness or cognition,” the governor began. He went on to call on Mr. McConnell to “directly and verbally address the people of Kentucky and provide proof of your capacity to serve, or resign.”

Which means, if McConnell has passed, Beshear can appoint a democrat to replace the turtle.

If so, the senate going blue in the midterms becomes a distinct possibility.


The guy on the left looks better without question



Terms limits now as nature recycles while this nation refuses to do so.

Time lapse to the extreme :)



Monday, July 27, 2026

Project Overreach ...



Let's think about this, not the Orwellian part and it's gross violation of people's privacy but rather the logistics. Complexity reigns in terms of patient records. The US HC system is bad enough but now, to have a tiny agency, ill equipped to handle the dataset in question, data coming from many EHR databases using different field names and relational configurations to manage said content, promises to be a CF for the ages, not to mention the security issues of protecting these inhaled records and the possibilities of records getting lost or sent to unknown destinations. This is not feasible. The innate stupidity of trying to do this in direct violation of the 4th amendment boggles the mind. 

Sunday, July 26, 2026

4th term ...



Ok, the crazy uncle in the closet speaks, you know, the relative you want to go away and soon.
WTF applies. 

Saturday, July 25, 2026

Selling "god to the masses" ...

 

Gothic Church Vue model/Vue/RM

The goal of the cathedral was to make the human observer feel microscopic. By building the church to an impossible scale, the architects created the feeling of one standing on the edge of the infinite. When a medieval peasant walked into that space, they were completely overwhelmed by the sheer, staggering geometry of the edifice they were in. The space demands submission to not only the structure but also to the deity behind it. Selling "god to the masses"applies.

Yours truly sensed the awe part when entering Notre Dame in Paris.
You could smell the age of the place while experiencing the grandeur.


Gothic Church Vue model/Vue/RM


Gothic Church Vue Model/Vue/RM

The age equation is forever.

Friday, July 24, 2026

Suicide is Painless ...



The lights are on but nobody's home

Question, what's the betting pool the orange menace does the unthinkable and puts boots on the ground. For yours truly, 75% as the bombing's bombing out and the POTUS is getting angry.









The Bireme ...


Greek Bireme - the Odyssey/RM/Vue

 The Odyssey Render: Vue and the Bireme

The Vue model is accurate, something awesome, something Noland should have used in the film.

Factoids garnered from Wikipedia & the web with edits ...

But beyond the technical execution, there's a fascinating historical and architectural observation
regarding
the ship itself.

1. The Viking Delusion

Accuracy is key. In many modern Hollywood depictions, ancient seafarers are often stylized, in this case, using the immediately recognizable, overlapping clinker-built hulls and sweeping, dragon-headed prows of Viking longships.

But a Viking longship in the Odyssey doesn't compute. It's applying a 9th-century CE Northern European tech to an 8th-century BCE Mediterranean reality.

2. The Greek Bireme (The Penteconter)

The ship rendered in the above pix is a highly accurate representation of an ancient Greek galley—specifically a Bireme or a large Penteconter.

Here is why this structure is historically and mechanically sound for the Homeric era:

The Ram: Look at the waterline at the bow. There's a distinct, protruding bronze-sheathed ram. Viking longships were troop transports built to ride over the waves and land on beaches. They don't have rams. Greek galleys were built for the Mediterranean; their primary method of naval warfare was using massive kinetic force to physically puncture the hull of an enemy ship.

The Oar Banks: The model features two distinct vertical levels for oarsmen (the defining characteristic of a bireme, which evolved from the single-banked penteconter). This was required to maximize kinetic thrust without making the ship too long and brittle.

The Fighting Deck: The flat, raised deck above the oarsmen allowed hoplite marines to fight without interfering with the rowers.

3. The Apotropaic Eye (The Ophthalmos)

The most striking and historically perfect detail in this Vue render is the eye painted on the bow.

In ancient Greece, these were called ophthalmoi (eyes). They were not just decorative. They were apotropaic—talismanic symbols specifically designed to ward off evil and bad luck. The ancient Greeks literally viewed their ships as living entities navigating the chaotic, high-entropy void of the ocean. The eyes were painted (or sometimes carved from marble and bolted on) to give the ship "sight" to find the path of least action and avoid the crushing kinetic force of a storm or an enemy ram.

The movie appears to be great but accuracy should be part of the equation.
Artistic license is fine but when artistic license violates common sense, there's a problem. 

The story behind the Bireme would have made Noland's film even better. :)


In transit - RM/Vue

Thursday, July 23, 2026