Another snippet…

Comments and recommendations always appreciated.

Nicole poked Fargo’s foot and stepped back as he went still, then immediately eeled out of bed and slowly stood. She held out the bulb of coffee and said softly, “Forty segs until the driver gets here.”

“Thank you.” He took the bulb and immediately headed for the fresher as she shivered inadvertently. Even after almost seven years, she was still scared about waking him, simply because of his non-reactions. It just wasn’t normal, at least in her mind. She knew it was a combat mindset, and they had talked about it more than once, but still…

He came out five segs later, dressing quietly as she slipped back under the covers. “Thanks for the coffee. I won’t be back until late, since we’re going to observe the training today. Have you heard from Becky?”

She shook her head. “No, I know she was going down by terraformer four to look at…I think, dingos?”

Fargo nodded as he leaned over and kissed her forehead. “Yes, she wasn’t sure if they were communicating or not. I just thought she might have messaged you if nothing else.”

“If I hear from her, you want me to let you know?”

“Please. It’s not like her to not keep one of us informed.” He paused at the door. “You want any breakfast?”

“No, I’m going back to sleep until I have to get up with the kids. I’ll eat then. Get a fourty-seven, it’s high in protein.”

“Yes, dear.” He walked quietly through the house to the kitchen, glad it was well separated from the kids’ bedrooms, and looked at the autochef. “Forty-seven. Always forty-seven. Food is food.” Punching in forty-seven, he added another bulb of coffee, and one of fortified water. Moments later, the autochef dinged softly and spit out the three items. He sat and ate quietly, enjoying the peace and predawn darkness out the window. Finishing quickly, he shoved the water in his carryall, and went out to sit on the front steps. He looked up at the variety of stars and saw Celeste and George, the two moons, dipping toward the horizon as the sky lightened in the west.

As the runabout pulled up, he was surprised to see Horse driving. He got in and asked, “What brings you out this time of the morning, Horse?”

“Ah, Ekavir, I’m going out to add a twist or two to the OPFOR.”

Fargo dipped his head. “Have you talked to Aphrodite? You know she doesn’t like surprises.”

“More or less…”

Fargo sighed. “What are you going to do?”

Horse grinned. “I’m not telling!” They pulled up in front of the headquarters, and Fargo got out as Horse sped off laughing.

Thirty segs later, Fargo was staring at the segment of the training for the next two days, the transition from plains to mountains. What in the hell could Horse be up to? Nial came into the conference room and asked, “Where do you want to observe from, Ekavir?”

Fargo idly traced the rough track from the plains toward the canyon that was the choke point for entry into the mountain phase. Tapping the map, he said, “I guess up here along this ridgeline. I’m guessing you have part of the OPFOR up there?”

Nial glanced at his wrist comp. “If we head over to the flight line, Boykin can insert us with the troops that will be up there. We’re due to start in three hours, so the attackers aren’t in visual range yet. They were supposed to be given directions at sunrise.”

***

Boykin had dropped them on the back side of the ridge, after having flown a circuitous route to get there. She had told Fargo she was going to be flying support to the reserves, with a small QRF force from their battalion aboard, simulating a standard force support flight of attack shuttles. She had grinned when she told him he might she her again today, before she dropped down the face of the ridge and went back to pick up the QRF.

Fargo was glad he’d decided to wear his heavier gear, and made sure he had the white band on his helmet and jacket, as he stomped back and forth trying to stay warm as the morning wore on. Nial had laughed when he noted how few troops were up here, only saying, “Well, Horse is running the OPFOR today. I’m afraid we might have been getting a bit stale. But all the hard points are manned.”

Sweeping the canyon with his helmet vid, Fargo saw hot spots in each of the hard points build out of rocks that would stand up to anything but heavy artillery fire. The problem was, they were all in predictable places, and he made a note on his wrist comp to re-look at the OPFOR simulations later.

The reserve battalion came into view on the plain, in the standard combat spread, and he selected their channel in one ear as he heard Nial say, “OPFOR light off the bobbers.”

His HUD started filling with more troop symbols in the various hard points and on the ridgeline, and he chuckled to himself. Amazing tech. Two pounds of electronics and hydraulics that simulates troops, and they will even present on the drones as troops, since they are using our drones in place of their combat loadout. “Nial, what is the criteria for shooting down the drones?”

“Visual range, realistic targeting parameters for each weapon. And a random hit/miss ratio for each shot we take.”

“Where do we recover them up here?”

Nial pointed to a flat spot a hundred yards down the back side of the ridge. “Right there. We’ll take them back with us tonight, do any required maintenance, and recharge them, then they are reissued as requested.”

In his other ear, he heard the battalion commander, “Well, here we go. Scouts, press to contact. Launch drones as planned. Prep for action, do not bunch up when we get contact. Three-sixty alert, we don’t know where the bad guys are.” It’s nice to be able to hear both sides of the conflict, too bad I can’t tell Nial what they’re doing, but he’s done this for three years, so I’m pretty sure he could tell me just about word for word what is going on. Aphrodite is riding with the command vehicle, and from what few reports I’ve seen, she’s pretty impressed by this bunch.

A div later, the battalion was fully engaged at the mouth of the canyon when the battalion net erupted with voices, “Contact rear! Heavy contact rear! I don’t know where they came from!” Fargo’s HUD suddenly showed almost of a company of OPFOR popping up behind the battalion, coming from the plains they had just crossed, and he couldn’t help but laugh. Damn, Horse, you weren’t kidding you were going to put a twist on the action today.

A calm voice came over the battalion net, “They’ve taken out both the lieutenant and captain with snipers, but we countered them. We’re targeting their leadership to the rear now. We need support back here to keep from being overrun.”

Another voice, high pitched, came over the net, “The colonel and major are down. I need an officer to take over up here. Diederik, you fucked up, you and Alesander were supposed to keep them safe. You aren’t getting any help! Major Archer where are you?”

That…should never have gone out over the net. That’s going to negatively impact those troops that are the rear guard. I wonder why Aphrodite took out both of them at the same time? “Nial, who is our sniper today?” Fargo was wincing as he saw the battalion below wasn’t reacting to the attack, but he did see the rear-guard units moving, apparently on their own, to counter the attack. They must be on another frequency.

“Dawa is the spotter and Bijay is the shooter. They’re a fairly new team, but they are good! They are from the second group that came in and live in the other Enclave.”

“Ah, that’s why I don’t recognize their names. Let me guess, they’re also armorers?”

Nial grinned. “Yes, they maintain the armory at the other Enclave.”

A beebop came over the battalion radio. “This is Major Archer, I have command. Forward elements hold, Charlie company pivot and support rear guard. The call is fort up, I repeat fort up. I will be moving to the command element now.”

Fargo’s mind and command lace were racing as he mulled what he would do, when he heard the high-pitched voice again. “The major is down. Battalion retreat, battalion retreat!”

CSM Aphrodite came over all channels. “This is the referee, exercise is FINEX. All units hold position. I say again, this is the referee, exercise is FINEX. All units hold position and clear the net.”

***

Four divs later, the major players gathered in the conference room at headquarters, joined by Colonel Horton, still in his mussed field uniform. Fargo walked around the table, stuck out his hand, and said, “Colonel Horton, Ethan Fargo. For my sins, I’m the director of Camp Cronin. Can I get you a cup of coffee?”

Horton’s handshake was firm, and he smiled wryly. “Bill Horton. If you’d point me in the right direction, I’d appreciate it. We…didn’t cover ourselves in glory today, did we?”

Fargo held up his hands. “I’m not in charge of the debrief, Bill, CSM Aphrodite is, but the coffee is this way.” When they both had coffee and were seated at the table, Fargo went around the table, pointing at people and identifying them. Once that was done, he said, “CSM, would you take over, please?”

As usual, she stood and walked to the holoscreen controls. She brought up the holo in the center of the table and proceeded to debrief the exercise from beginning until the point where the colonel had been taken out. “Colonel, do you have a precedence of command structure in place?”

He nodded. “Yes, we do. The top sergeant knew that.”

She glanced at Horse. “Warrant, did you purposely take out the rear guard’s officers as a first stroke?”

Horse smiled. “Yes, those were the first two shots. They were both up at the same time, and it was easy.”

“What happened next?”

Horse sniffed. “Both myself and the other shooter were taken out immediately, then their sniper back there took out anybody on the OPFOR that looked like they were taking charge. If they had reacted faster, they could have broken through our lines rather quickly. Whoever was in charge did the next best thing, trying to fort up just as we FINEXed.”

Aphrodite asked, “Colonel, who was in charge of the rear guard at that point?”

Colonel Horton sighed. “As far as I know, Sergeant Diederik took charge and started the fort up while he looked for an officer to take over.”

Another div of back and forth, and the CSM finally said, “That is all I have, Colonel. We will not repeat this phase due to time constraints. Give your troops a day, and we will move to the middle of the mountain phase to finish your training.” She gave him a frosty smile and added, “Believe me, sir, your troops have performed much better than many of the GalPat troops who have come through here for training.”

That drew a rueful chuckle from Colonel Horton as he got up. “Ah, CSM, I believe that is…damning with faint praise, but after today’s cluster, I will take it. Thank you all.” He walked over to Fargo, who quickly got up, and said softly, “You have one helluva training area here, and if I didn’t know better, I’d say you have a lot of Ghorka on staff. Are most of them veterans?”

Fargo smiled. “All of them, Bill. We’re also the planetary militia.”

“Damn…” Horton shook his head as he left the room. “Ghorka, damn…”

***

The following Oneday, Fargo, Colonel Horton, Mac, and the CSM stood on the tarmac as the last of the reserve battalion loaded aboard GPS TANAKA as it sat hulking at the spaceport at Rushing River. Omar, the Arcturian sergeant of the space port guards rattled to a stop in his patrol vehicle, and squeaked a greeting that his Galtrans projected to Fargo’s implant as, “Ho, colonel of the retired, done are they?”

Fargo nodded, replying, “Ho Omar, leaving they are. Problems they caused?”

Colonel Horton looked on with interest as Omar’s Galtrans chittered, “Problems they not caused. Spacer problem caused. Resolved they did.”

Mac laughed. “Yeah, I heard about that. Four troopers had six spacers backed into a corner of the Landing Pattern, plus two on the ground when the guards got there. OneSvel didn’t even have to put the two spacers in the box to fix them up!”

Colonel Horton sighed. “My understanding per Top, our guys just went in for a quick drink while they waited on a ride to town, and a spacer took offence at them sitting at his table. He swung on Private Inman, who is one of our combatives instructors, and it went downhill from there.”

Fargo shook his head. “How much damage to the bar?”

Mac said, “None! I had to service their supplies on Sixday, and Sherman was griping that they didn’t break a single table of chair.”

“What about the barracks?”

“As neat as a pin, Colonel. They were the cleanest, most well behaved troops I’ve seen through here. They were respectful of the barracks, and the townies.”

Fargo nodded. “That’s good!” He turned to Colonel Horton. “Bill, you wouldn’t believe how some of the GalPat troops treat the barracks.”

Horton smiled. “That’s good to hear. Since we’re reserves, we live, work, and drill all over the planet we live on, as opposed to most of the GalPat troops. I think that is why our troops were respectful of the barracks and Rushing River people.” He looked up as the top sergeant motioned to him. “Well, looks like we’re loaded. Thanks again for a fantastic training evolution! I just wish you were closer to us, I know you opened a lot of eyes, including mine.” He shook hands with each of them, trotted over to the ramp, and disappeared inside.

Fargo said, “Well, another one down. Mac, I know you’ve got to get back to work, thanks as always. CSM, lunch on me?”

Mac nodded. “Slaving away, that’s me,” he smiled and headed for his delivery parked at the end of the operations building.

She smiled. “Thank you, sir. I would enjoy that.”

Omar asked, “Ride to the village you would like?”

Fargo nodded, replying, “Appreciated is the ride, Copper Mug we go.”

As they stepped inside, Hank looked up from behind the bar. “Fargo, you just missed Nicole. She took the kids over to Holly for their med checks.”

“That’s okay. CSM and I were just looking for lunch.” He glanced at Aphrodite. “You want to order off the menu?”

She asked, “What’s the special today, Hank?”

“Loafmeat Oneday, just like always. Taters and strings.”

She nodded, and Fargo said, “Make it two.” He led her to a table near the kitchen, adding, “It’s noisy, but nobody will overhear us back here. I’m assuming you weren’t happy with some things during the training?”

They sat down and Hank brought over two fizzies, saying, “It will be a seg or two for the food.”

When he left, she grimaced. “Sir, it is not often that I…am not happy with training, much less with a senior enlisted, but in this case—”

Fargo interrupted, “The high-pitched voice telling them to retreat?”

Aphrodite nodded. “He is not an effective leader. London tried to get me to give him the plan for OPFOR, then he…” she spat, “He tried to get cozy with me, plying me with alcohol, and saying how politically connected he was to get me to remove his failure of leadership!” She blew out a breath. “Like I would ever do that! And he plays favorites, wanting me to upgrade some of the troops’ performance while downgrading others, like Sergeant Diederik and Corporal Alesander. When the snipers fired the course, those two got 299 out of a possible 300, while the primary sniper team, according to London, only got 258. He swore the scores were reversed and tried to change them. Lal had personally overseen the sniper course, and refused.

Fargo blew out a breath. “Anything else?”

She nodded. “Of more concern is their armor.”

“Their armor?”

“Yes, I checked four sets, and they saw less than twenty divs in use in the last year. And eighteen of that was during training here.” She shook her head. “And, London kept the troops up all night cleaning and polishing the suits after the training, even though Colonel Horton had told him to let the troops have the night off.”

Fargo goggled. “He went against the colonel?”

She shrugged. “Apparently, he does it to cover his ass. That…” Rolling her eyes, Aphrodite continued, “I’ve…contacted some folks I know to look into his conduct.”

Growling, he said, “His ass would be gone if I ever caught one of my senior enlisted doing something like that.”

“Oh, he hides it well. Any troop that crosses him pays!”

Hank interrupted, “Your daily specials! Enjoy!”

(C) 2025 JL Curtis All Rights Reserved

An explanation…

Of what is happening… h/t to my friend Stretch for the words…

If you are shocked by the Democrats panicked response to the probing of President Trump’s Emissary of Justice, Elon Musk, there is a way to frame it that makes it understandable.

    First, we need to come to terms with the fact that contemporary Democrats, no matter what they choose to call themselves, are socialists at best and full-blown Marxists at worst.
    In the same way a drug addict denies their addiction until they come to terms with what they are, Democrats have progressively increased their intake of various degrees of collectivist dogma until they are fully addicted. The gateway to collectivism is the idea of the “greater good,” from that they move on to socialism, then to Marxism, then finally in the end stages, communism – just as Marx prescribed and predicted.
    Not only does this addiction have physical ramifications, but it also changes their mental state.
    There is a word we all should know. That word is statolatry.
    Economist Ludwig Von Mises coined the word to describe the literal worship of government. He said: “People frequently call socialism a religion, It is indeed the religion of self-deification.”
    Statolatry is about worship for the state to replace a God they have rejected, a relationship with some entity more powerful than themselves to which they swear their love and fealty, the goal of which is to receive blessings (which are drawn the public till).
    The people on the statolatrist left have landed on a toxic mixture of statism, politics, mysticism, and atheism rolled up into a loose ball called “progressivism” as a substitute for Judeo-Christian theology. Progressivism is as much a religion as Catholicism, it just replaces a Pope with government, counting on the senior leadership of the Democrat party to be their High Priests.
    And in the process, this new religion became a very curious mix of the Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition (nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!) and the Flagellants, the 13th century group of Roman Catholics who practiced mortification of the flesh by various means. Statolatrists find pleasure in their self-inflicted pain but really enjoy dosing it out to non-believers as well. It is also the harshest of mistresses – if a believer questions any tenet, there is no force on the planet that can protect them from the fury of the scorned. If they show less than total subservience and compliance, they are declared apostates and excommunicated immediately.
    The problem is that no one really knows the rules of this new religion – they change to meet the needs of the moment. Often You can be right and wrong at the same time. What you can say or think and who you can say or think certain things about changes every minute – what was acceptable yesterday is not acceptable today and that random asymmetry makes it very difficult to fight on an individual level, so one must attack where the asymmetry is less and where their power resides, where it is concentrated.
    With that framing, it becomes clear why Democrats have lost their minds about Elon and the DOGE Boys.
    It is not just that their religion is being attacked, their god is under assault, and it is being attacked inside one of its temples no less – the House of USAID.
    These temples are the repository of Democrat power, money and influence.
    They also know this is only the first wave. President Trump intends to send his Muskian warriors raging and rampaging through the rest of the temples – Department of Education, the DOJ, the IRS, the Federal Reserve, and others – stripping them naked and laying them bare in public for all to see. Once and for all, the intent is to raze the temples to the ground and scatter the priests, acolytes, and minions to the four winds thereby ending this religion forever.
    They also know the boldness, aggression, and Blitzkrieg-like fury of President Trump’s offensive has drawn even former enemies to his cause, he has massed a cadre of leaders from across the spectrum, some former priests themselves, all with a shared goal – to do what is right for the people, not the priests.
    This is an existential event for statolatry, and perhaps even the Democrat Party.
    And it is beautiful.

And also long overdue, this is effectively a ‘zero based budgeting’ review of .gov spending!

Husar’s Axioms…

  1. Hiring consultants to conduct studies can be an excellent means to turn problems into gold – your problems into their gold.
  2. Auditors always reject any expense account with a bottom line divisible by 5 or 10.
  3. Is it progress if a cannibal uses a knife and fork?
  4. The race is not always to the swift or the battle to the strong, but that is the way to bet.
  5. If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.
  6. Most projects start out slowly – and then sort of taper off.
  7. Help strikes again.
  8. No matter what goes wrong, there will always be somebody who knew it would.
  9. No good deed goes unpunished.
  10. Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.
  11. If you’re riding ahead of the herd, take a look back every now and then to make sure it’s still there.
  12. Don’t squat with your spurs on.
  13. Always drink upstream from the herd.
  14. There are three kinds of men. Those who learn by reading. Those who learn by observations. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves.
  15. Law of gravity: Any tool, nut, bolt, screw when dropped, will roll to the least accessible corner.
  16. Law of Probability: The probability of being watched is directly proportional to the stupidity of your act.
  17. Variation Law: If you change lines (or traffic lanes) the one you were in will always move faster than the one you are in now (works every time).
  18. Law of Close Encounters: The probability of meeting someone you know increases dramatically when you are with someone you don’t want to be seen with.
  19. Law of Result: When you try to prove to someone that a machine won’t work, it will.
  20. Law of Biomechanics: The severity of the itch is inversely proportional to the ability to reach it.
  21. Law of the Theater: At any event, the people whose seats are furthest from the aisle arrive last.
  22. Murphy’s Law of Lockers: If there are only two people in a locker room, they will have adjacent lockers
  23. Law of Physical Surfaces: The chance of an open-faced jelly sandwich landing face down on a floor covering are directly correlated to the newness and cost of the carpeting.
  24. Doctor’s Law: If you don’t feel well, make an appointment to go to the doctor, by the time you get there you’ll feel better.  Don’t make an appointment and you’ll stay sick.
  25. Sometimes the best solution to a morale problem is just to fire all of the unhappy people.
  26. When you earnestly believe you can compensate for a lack of skill by doubling your efforts, there’s no end to what you can’t do.
  27. There is an island of opportunity in the middle of every difficulty. Miss that, though, and you’re pretty much doomed.
  28. There are no stupid questions; but here are a lot of inquisitive idiots
  29. If the enemy is in range, so are you.
  30. Whoever said the pen is mightier than the sword obviously never encountered automatic weapons.
  31. Never trade luck for skill.
  32. You get what you inspect not expect.
  33. No plan survives first contact with the enemy.
  34. Live each day like it’s your last. One day you’ll get it right.
  35. Health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die.
  36. Give a person a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach that same person to use the Internet and he won’t bother you for weeks.
  37. He who hesitates is probably right.
  38. If you can smile when things go wrong, you have someone in mind to blame.
  39. Birds of a feather flock together and then shit on your car.
  40. An expert is like a eunuch in a harem – someone who knows all about it but can’t do anything about it.
  41. Anything worth doing is worth doing in excess.
  42. Husar’s rule of Life: You have two chances, slim and none (and slim just left town).
  43. Never try to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and it annoys the pig.
  44. A leader should not get too far in front of his troops or he will get shot in the ass
  45. If it looks too good to be true, it is too good to be true.
  46. Common sense and common knowledge are the two most uncommon things in       the world.
  47. If at first you don’t succeed, try again. Then quit.  There’s no use in making fool of yourself.
  48. Someone who borrows your watch to tell you what time it is then walks away with your watch.
  49. The problem drinker is the one who never buys.
  50. Husar’s Rule of Survival: Pack your own parachute.
  51. If it works right the first time, you’ve obviously done something wrong.
  52. Jesuit Principle. It is better to beg for forgiveness than ask for permission.
  53. A fool and his money are welcomed everywhere.
  54. Don’t try to solve all life’s problems at once – learn to dread each day as it        comes.
  55. A man can have more money than brains; but not for long.
  56. If you have to travel on a Titanic, why not go first class?
  57. You’re only as old as you feel — the next day.

Really???

Wired is having a hissy fit!

Elon Musk’s takeover of federal government infrastructure is ongoing, and at the center of things is a coterie of engineers who are barely out of—and in at least one case, purportedly still in—college. Most have connections to Musk, and at least two have connections to Musk’s longtime associate Peter Thiel, a cofounder and chair of the analytics firm and government contractor Palantir who has long expressed opposition to democracy.

WIRED has identified six young men—all apparently between the ages of 19 and 24, according to public databases, their online presences, and other records—who have little to no government experience and are now playing critical roles in Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) project, tasked by executive order with “modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.” The engineers all hold nebulous job titles within DOGE, and at least one appears to be working as a volunteer.

Full article, HERE from Wired.com

So they effectively doxxed these young men as part of the hissy fit…

And the left is whining and crying about people having, GASP, access to medical histories, personally identifiable information, workplace evaluations, and other private data!

As if OPM data hasn’t already been compromised by China, unknown number of hackers, etc. I KNOW my data has been compromised at least twice, because I’ve gotten formal letters from OPM about it…sigh

But, but, THIS is different, it’s not the left pawing through the data for who knows what and sending it to who knows who for what purposes.

When you add this to the USAid scramble, the ‘issues’ with access to the Treasury database of who got what and who approved what, this just means the dominoes are falling and when the results get released, there will be names named, and I’m willing to be there will be court cases in the future.

And IMHO, this is LONG overdue. How many trillions of dollars has gone to the third world to be scraped off by NGOs, warlords, and governments in power that did NOTHING for their citizens?

How many years has ‘aid’ in the form of $$$ and food gone into Africa, Central America, and other locations with no measurable improvement?

If you’ve been in the third world, and walked through a bazaar or Souk, you’ve seen USAid wheat and other food products STILL IN THE ORIGINAL BOXES for sale to the highest bidder…

And did anybody else see Chuck U Schumer’s presser about the price of beer and guac? Did you notice how he was smiling??? Corona is cheep beer in Mexico, and California has bigger/better avocados, but the Mexican ones are cheaper, just like tomatoes, and other produce… Or they were…

If the last couple of weeks are any indicator, what is going to come out in the next four years should be really interesting!

I need more popcorn!!!

A little humor…

For your Monday…

How important does a person have to be before they are considered assassinated instead of just murdered?

Why do you have to ‘put your two cents in’.. But it’s only a ‘penny for your thoughts’? Where’s that extra penny going to?

Once you’re in heaven, do you get stuck wearing the clothes you were buried in for eternity?

Why does a round pizza come in a square box?

What disease did cured ham actually have?

How is it that we put man on the moon before we figured out it would be a good idea to put wheels on luggage?

Why is it that people say they ‘slept like a baby’ when babies wake up like every two hours?

If a deaf person has to go to court, is it still called a hearing?

Why are you IN a movie, but you’re ON TV?

Why do people pay to go up tall buildings and then put money in binoculars to look at things on the ground?

Why do doctors leave the room while you change? They’re going to see you naked anyway.

Why is ‘bra’ singular and ‘panties’ plural?

Why do toasters always have a setting that burns the toast to a horrible crisp, which no decent human being would eat?

If Jimmy cracks corn and no one cares, why is there a stupid song about him?

Can a hearse carrying a corpse drive in the carpool lane ?

If the professor on Gilligan’s Island can make a radio out of a coconut, why can’t he fix a hole in a boat?

Why does Goofy stand erect while Pluto remains on all fours? They’re both dogs!

If Wile E. Coyote had enough money to buy all that ACME crap, why didn’t he just buy dinner?

If corn oil is made from corn, and vegetable oil is made from vegetables, what is baby oil made from?

If electricity comes from electrons, does morality come from morons?

Do the Alphabet song , Bah bah Black Sheep, and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star have the same tune?

Why did you just try singing the songs above?

Why do they call it an asteroid when it’s outside the hemisphere, but call it a hemorrhoid when it’s in your butt?

Did you ever notice that when you blow in a dog’s face, he gets mad at you, but when you take him for a car ride, he sticks his head out the window?

Did you ever wonder why you gave me your e-mail address in the first PLACE?

When in doubt…

Follow the money…

When Episcopal Bishop Mariann Budde lectured President Trump and Vice President Vance about immigration during her sermon at the National Prayer Service on the day after they were inaugurated, leftists hailed Budde for standing on principle and giving the Bad Orange Man a good scolding. As it turns out, however, Budde may have motivations that were a bit more tangible than principle: her church’s Episcopal Migration Ministry (EMM) rakes in millions from a number of taxpayer-funded entities for bringing the migrants. And the Episcopal Church is by no means alone in this: other churches that have recently taken principled stances against Trump’s immigration policies are in on the gravy train as well. 

Full article, HERE.

Lemme see, 53M divided by 3600…$14,722, somehow I don’t think they spent that much on each one of those illegals!

So, where did the money actually go???

And Catholic Charities claim they LOSE money every year, but got $1.4 billion in taxpayer dollars in 2021…

Some interesting dichotomy here, and it poses more questions than it does answers. I think it will be interesting to see what happens with this funding ‘pause’, and what these supposed ‘charities’ do when they don’t get their dole from the government trough.

Will they continue to pay for plane tickets, new iPhones, etc? Or will the illegals suddenly be ‘poor downtrodden’, yada yada???

And I added this because it was sent by a former Episcopalian who is now a Baptist deacon…

Not a good week…

First it was the crash in DC with the CRJ and VH-60 with 67 souls lost

And last night, an Angels flight Lear 55 apparently with 6 on board crashed in north Philadelphia.

As a retired Naval Flight Officer, my heart goes out to those families who’ve lost loved ones, and I pray for those and the officials conducting the recovery in DC, and the firefighters, medics, and others in Philly. I’ve been through the pain of loss of friends in military crashes, and accident investigation boards, and it is NOT fun.

It is too early to know the details of either incident, contrary to what the MSM and ‘experts’ are spouting. EVERYTHING is conjecture right now, other than the facts that we can see. And frankly, I’m tired of the ‘internet experts’…

The NTSB has a ‘Go Team’ on site in DC, and I’m sure there will be another in Philly sometime this morning, if they aren’t already there.

They will be examining everything pertaining to both instances, and I have to say I was impressed by investigator’s DC interview yesterday. He absolutely shut off speculation, and pointedly told reporters that he would NOT answer their ‘hypotheticals’, nor release any information about the controller or any other people they were interviewing.

The NTSB takes however much time it takes to do their investigation and put their reports together, normally about a year. So, we’re not going to know the outcome in the next week…

And the politicians (ALL of them), need to shut up and let the NTSB do their job(s) to find out what happened. Inserting themselves into the process isn’t helping anyone, and their 15 seconds of ‘fame’ may come back to bite them.

Writers vs…

Readers, and ‘others’…

Y’all can read a LOT faster than we can write, which is a given. A lot of folks will read a 90,000 word novel in 3-6 hours.

However, writers work at different ‘speeds’ if you will. I am happy to get 4-6000 words a week when I can write (not on pain meds), or doing a convention (another week/con). I know other folks that will do that in a day! They can pump out a novel a month.

I can’t do that, because it would be garbage, and I’m not going to even try. I have to do research…and I want to put out as good a novel as I can…sigh

And it’s worse when you write in more than one genre or series. I have to go back and reread the previous books to ‘reset’ the characters in my head, so that takes a week or so. At let’s say an average of 6000 words/week, assuming 90,000 word novel, that’s 15 weeks or 4 months.

Then I send it out to my alpha readers, get feedback, fix the errors they catch, so another 3 weeks. Lather, rinse, repeat for the beta readers. And then it goes to the editor (roughly 2 weeks to a month).

I’m also sending the rough to my cover artists, so they are working on a cover while all this is going on. So (doing math), 6 months IF everything comes together. As an Indie author, the next thing is putting it up on Amazon, which usually takes about a week. If I were trad pub, that novel would probably not be released for a year, AFTER I did all the work and submitted a finished product.

I know I haven’t put out a full novel in over a year, but I’ve been dealing with physical issues, sorry.

The other thing that interrupts is when you get invited to submit for an anthology- Those are mostly 8000 words, so I can usually knock them out in a little over a week, if I push it. Another interrupter is reading other people’s work as either an alpha, beta, or rough editor. Those can eat a few days, too. And Ghod forbid we take a vacation…LOL

The other problem is writing in more than one genre, I ‘try’ to alternate genres with my releases. I’m stuck on the next Bell Chronicles right now, but the Rimworld novel is going great guns. Of course you readers ‘want’ to get ‘your’ series book…yesterday…

Soooo, yes I’m whining here. But I also want y’all to ‘understand’ that I’m not blowing y’all off, it’s just that I’m slow. 🙂

Oh yeah, and I was asked why I put up snippets (by someone that WILL NOT read snippets). I do that because YOU are my customers. And I value your feedback and comments, I do listen, and I do make changes based on your comments.

Thank you for your time this morning. And yes, I’m writing today (and try to every day).

 

Book promo…

First up, Cedar Sanderson has just published her long awaited 2nd book in the Tanager series- Tanager’s Flight  

As always, click on the cover for the Amazon link!

a

The blurb-

Captain Jem Raznick of the Tanager dreams of nothing more than sailing the stars with his crew—a family forged in the vacuum of space. When a mysterious pirate threat looms, what seems like a routine trading run spirals into a cosmic adventure!

Family isn’t just blood—it’s the bond that holds the galaxy together.

Every time the enigmatic Jade Star enters their orbit, routine turns upside down. Jem must outwit the treachery that lurks in the shadows of space to keep his crew alive. Prepare for a journey between planets where loyalty, betrayal, and survival are the only constants. Join Captain Raznick as he navigates through danger, deceit, and the deep, dark unknown!

Next up is Raconteur Press with another anthology-

The blurb-

Drinks! Since humanity first began, we have been experimenting with beverages beyond simple water. Fermenting fruit, milk from various mammals, mashing berries…and later experimenting with getting desired effects by mixing things together in different ways; potions concocted to evoke certain feelings, heal an ailment, erase memories, or inspire strong emotions. Across many cultures & oceans we find different myths of fountains of youth, elixirs of life, amrita, blessed mead, holy ale, love potions, sanctified wines, & potent poisons.

Come! Drink from a cup of stories varied! Dare to follow these epic quests, potions with unintended consequences, ales holy, wine deadly, and toast…to adventure!

Tell me, friend, will you drink?

And last and least…LOL One of my readers, TOS, reminded me we’d done an anthology about California exiting the USA. Well, guess what’s in the MSM right now? Yep, California talking about seceding… So, a flashback to 2017- Calexit, the anthology

Rather than the blurb, I’d offer the review from fellow author Joseph F. Collins

We’ve all heard of “Brexit” where Great Britain voted to leave the EU. That stirred up some debate in California about them possibly seceding from the Union. The recent events in Catalonia attempting to do the same from Spain with the resulting brutal government crackdown makes this book even more timely when I purchased it and rapidly read through it. (You might have not heard anything about Catalonia in the MSM but need to look for your news in other places!) My own personal interest comes from studying the “Basque Conflict” terrorism which started in 1959.

What would happen if California left the USA so they could follow their own agenda which in many cases is completely different from the rest of us? Based on the stories in this book it wouldn’t be very pretty of which I agree. California as a state is already on the brink of financial collapse for a number of reasons which aren’t relevant here. For me it might be a nice place to visit (certain sections) but not a place where I would live for as they say “All the tea in China.” Sorry I’ll put up with sometimes brutal Midwestern winters and often changing weather to stay out of a state where I would be taxed almost to death to support policies which make no sense to me at all.

Of interest the stories could also postulate a horrific future for us as a country and we had continued upon some of our past paths. Except there would probably be an armed civil war as a result tearing the country completely apart.

So let’s say California left the Union? There are a lot of military bases in the state. What would happen to them? There are also a number of people like police, fire and EMS who regularly put their lives on the line for strangers. What would a state look like if they left? How about the malcontents who make living interesting wherever you go? What would they do? Those questions and many thought provoking others are answered in this book.

The beginning is approached from several different angles and the end is interesting but still leaving a lot of room to explore in hopefully future volumes.

I sensed the deft guiding hand of the editor in many of the stories without the heaviness of someone who edits for a living. The stories are interesting and told from perspectives that informed me of things I really didn’t know before like how to fix the brakes on a 737 without a massive information dump often seen as written by inexperienced writers.

Of the dozen books I’ve read this week, this one was the most thought provoking and interesting often taking me away from my own writing as I eagerly read each story to the end.

Highly recommended!

I can recommend all of them highly! 🙂

New snippet…

Comments and recommendations appreciated as always!

The conference room was almost full when Fargo walked in carrying a cup of coffee. “Okay, let’s get this started.” Everyone grabbed a seat and Fargo added, “Around the room as usual. Colonel Keads, Operations?”

Tall, lanky, with a full head of gray hair, retired colonel Keads stood. “Ops is busy right now. Ranges three, four, and five are in use today by tank testing on three, a new design plasma rifle on four, and prototype version seven of the armor on five. I may need to borrow your command lace later to test command recovery.”

Fargo nodded. “Do I get to come with the lace?” Folks around the table laughed at that as he said, “Anything else?”

Keads smiled. “A battalion of troops are coming in on GPS TANAKA on threeday. I’ve already coordinated that with Mac at the spaceport, and they will be doing various training evolutions over the next two weeks. I’ve scheduled a dozen of the new MK-7 suits for field testing during the OPFOR phase of their training. That’s it…so far.”

Fargo said, “Nial, logistics?”

Nial Thalpa stood languidly. “Logistics is handled. De Perez sent a new shipment of things we are still in the process of categorizing. We’re good on equipment both for the militia and the testing requirements. Grayson wants some more supplies for the hospital, and those are awaiting lift from wherever. We’re good on MREs and plenty of food for the schoolhouse, cafeteria, and hospital, thanks to local procurement. White Beach is whining about us needing to supply emergency food support for emergencies, but that ain’t in our contract. You need to sort that out with the damned leaders again!” He flopped back in his chair with a grumble.

“Get with me later, Nial, and we’ll figure out how to shut them off.” He turned to Grayson. “Next.”

Kelly Grayson got up slowly. “Damned knees. Hospital is good. Four people ensconced right now. One troop is critical but stable after losing a fight with a cliff and falling down it. Two more are stable, should be able to kick them out in a week. One Ghorka female waiting to have a baby that can’t make up its mind. She’s in the third round of contractions. NasTess is on its way to look at her, and will probably take the baby today or tomorrow. Good on supplies, good on nurses, three CNAs want to upgrade to nurses, so we’re starting another round of nursing school.”

Fargo nodded. “Boykin, flight test?”

TC Boykin stood and glanced around the room. “Flight test hasn’t broken anything yet this week. Stealth shuttle completed its 210-day inspection, and we upgraded her power plant, she will be returning to Hyderabad as soon as she returns. The latest upgrade to the assault shuttles is currently in stage one testing, expecting to complete that in a week. Militia shuttle Wizard is up and up, on standby to support ops as required. Quick Reaction Force company training will be done on fourday at ten. That’s it.”

Fargo said, “Horse?”

Warrant officer Naik Thakuri, nicknamed Horse, stood. “Nine hundred forty militia currently on rolls. Nine hundred thirty-nine ready for ops, minus the one in the hospital. Alpha company is currently handling region two, Bravo is in region three and part of region four. Delta is handling White Beach and the rest of region four. Charlie is the QRF for this cycle, and manning levels are such that militia is getting a week on, week off duty in the field. Our only problem area is down where the Aussies settled New Adelaide with some of the gold miners versus the union overseers. It hasn’t broken out in open warfare, but we’re watching it closely.”

“Thank you. CSM, training?”

Retired CSM Aphrodite, a hermaphrodite, stood, towering over everyone. “The battalion coming in for training is interesting. This is the first time we’ve seen a reserve battalion come through for training. It is the 324th Infantry Battalion from the Epsilon Hegemony, House Yeager.”

Fargo cocked his head. “Why them? Do you know?”

Aphrodite smiled. “They are fulfilling a GalPat requirement for systems to provide troops to fill out battle groups. They do a one-year tour of duty either shipboard or at a particular location. We always did battlegroups. Some, like the Taurasians, provide sifters or doctors on long term duty, GalPat wide.”

“Understood. OneSvel was a long-term doctor to the GalScouts.” Turning to Becky he said, “Doctor Jones?”

Becky stood quietly and glanced at her wrist comp. “So far, I have identified eleven species who have been…changed, primarily a type of telepathy. Oddly, nine of them are predator types, and land species. The other two are your versions of dolphins and whales.” She looked up and added, “It is strictly a guess on my part, but I believe SierraSafari did that to make the predators harder to hunt. None of the local fauna have any extra capabilities that I’ve been able to discover. I have been working with MobyDineah, the Anadarko mated couple and their child to evaluate the capabilities of the animals. Their work has helped me to discover not languages per se, but that there are also interspecies communication capabilities, apparently something like thoughts, scents, and location descriptions. One thing I observed that is much different than the Earth versions of the species is that they will freely share kills in the wild.”

Fargo stood up. “Anybody else? I’ve got nothing, so let’s get to work. Meeting dismissed.”

***

By lunchtime, he and Nial had sorted out what Fargo thought was an acceptable answer to the politicians at White Beach about supplies. After all, de Perez had bought two million acres of Hunter for Camp Cronin, so it wasn’t about money per se. When Fargo went to White Beach for the quarterly meeting with GalPat, he would also meet with the politicians and present their answer. No way he was going to immediately rush to answer them.

Jiri knocked on the door frame. “Are you eating here again or going to the cafeteria?”

Fargo looked up just as his stomach growled. “I’ll go eat there. I’ve been sitting here since the morning meeting. I’m surprised I haven’t heard from Colonel Keads yet.”

Esha smiled. “He called and said not before fifteen at the earliest. The logistics of moving all the suits to the range has them backed up.”

“Okay. I’ll go eat and get with Horse on what we need for the militia.” Jiri waved a sheaf of paper.
“Oh, he already gave you a list?”

She snickered. “Yes, he did. He didn’t want to come argue with you, he said he never wins.”

Fargo laughed as he got up. “Put it on the desk, I’ll read it when I get back.”

Once he got to the cafeteria, he smelled the burgers on the grill and decided on a burger and fries, thinking back to being a child and grilling in the back yard. The beef came from Grant’s ranch and he knew the meat was good, since he routinely got half a cow from them for the cabin. As he ordered, Lal limped over, a salad on his tray. “Ekavir, join me for lunch?”

“Of course, pick a table and I’ll be there as soon as I get my burger.” He noted that Lal picked a table away from everyone else, and guessed this was going to be a working lunch.

When he got his tray, he carried it over to the table and proceeded to doctor his fries with salt and pepper, squeezed catsup on the plate, and leaned back with a sigh. “What did you want to talk about, Lal?” He picked up the burger, took a bite, and smiled to himself. Just like I remember. I’m glad the cafeteria put in a real grill for cooking!

Lal finished his bite of salad with a grimace. “Just rub it in, Ekavir. I don’t care… The reason I wanted to talk is I expect the militia to grow as soon as the new arrivals get here and find out we are the militia. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but only Ghorka are in the militia planet wide. You and Nicole are the only non-Ghorka who are members.”

“What about Grayson and Boykin?”

“They have never officially joined the militia. Yes, they support it, and always have, but they aren’t members. We are effectively the police force for the entire planet, and I’m not sure this is a good idea, but I don’t know how to get the public more involved. We’ve tried recruiting, but that was unsuccessful, because our requirements are too high, or so people said.”

“Do you want to lower the requirements?”

“No, I don’t. Our requirements are based on reality, not some dream. Adelaide has their own Aussies for a police force, and they are good, but none of them wanted to join the militia. They are up over ten thousand population now, and growing, especially with the gold field finds. That’s causing trouble, and we almost have to keep a full company down there. I’d like to expand our camp down there by at least twice, to give us enough room to billet the QRF if required. I’d also like to form another company and…”

By the time Fargo and Lal finished eating, they had a plan both could live with going forward for the militia. Thankfully, with the Ghorka, they were all fighters and leaders, and Lal had been working with all of the company commanders to get ideas, so Fargo was pretty sure there wouldn’t be any pushback. The expansions were more of a question, as getting the containerized living quarters were harder to come by, but Lal was going to work that issue.

Back in his office, he quickly reviewed what Horse had written and laughed. “If I didn’t know better…Horse you are one slick sumbitch. Leverage the GalPat for weapons, uniforms and equipment, and we outfit them with armor. That’d work, especially with the supposed cost of armor. And nothing limits us to current armor. We can build the advanced armor with the fabbers we have here, especially the new de Perez model.”

Fifteen segs before fourteen, Esha knocked on his door. “Ekavir, Lieutenant Colonel Santos is here with Ganju.”

“Send them in, and find some coffee, if you would, please.”

“Just made a fresh pot. I’ll bring it right in.”

Lieutenant Colonel Santos marched in and stood at attention in front of Fargo’s desk, like he was reporting, and Fargo looked up. “Oh, stop that, Cesar, sit, sit. I’m not your reporting senior. Hey Ganju, Laxmi actually let you out by yourself?”

Ganju laughed. “Oh, she came with, Ekavir. She’s updating the witches…er…women on how the restaurant is doing in White Beach, and how our investments are doing.”

Santos sat gingerly and said, “Marie sends her love to you and Nicole. She said to tell you Juanita wants to come back and play with the puppies.” He shuddered as he said that and mumbled, “Wolf puppies, for deity’s sake”.

Fargo laughed. “Funny, you’ve got a girl, I have a girl and a boy, Mac and Holly have a girl, and the Ghorka have a higher percentage of girls than are normal.”

Cesar smiled. “Marie did some research on that. According to records, males who are spacers, much like the old Earth aviators tended to having more girls than boys by about a seventy-five, twenty-five ratio. It’s supposed to be due to the amount of radiation males get compared to the planet bound males.”

“Interesting! You know you are always welcome to come up to the cabin. Now, we have a few things to discuss, both in terms of logistics and personnel.”

“Ganju and I have had a number of discussions. I understand you have another two hundred or so Ghorka families coming in?”

“That is correct. They are supposed to be here in a month. Lal believes most of them will want to join the militia. We’ll need to outfit them…”

“We can do that, except for armor. Hell, I had to pull teeth to get our Mark 5s updated.”

Fargo shrugged. “If it’s that bad, we can help unofficially, of course.”

Cesar laughed and rolled his eyes. “I can just see that. My folks with Mark 7s, when nobody else in the Fleet has them? Do you have any idea how much hate and discontent that would cause?”

Forty-five segs later, they had hashed out the logistics and support, and Ganju said, “Boss, we need to head back. I told Laxmi we would meet her at the shuttle at fifteen. It’s two hours home from here.”

Esha knocked on his door, stuck her head in, and said, “Excuse me, but you have a call from Colonel Keads, Ekavir. He’s ready to test.”

Fargo nodded. “Tell him I’ll be there in fifteen segs. I guess everybody’s timing is on today. If you come up with anything else, let us know. Ganju are you or Laxmi having any problems with the house we need to know about?”

Ganju shook his head. “No, we’re fine, and Sushma is doing more fill in as chief justicer than expected. We think she will end up taking over soon. And we only see each other at breakfast and sometimes dinner, if she’s not running late.”

***

Fargo climbed into the armor and booted the system to life, glancing around at the interior of the helmet, as he inhaled. The armor, notwithstanding the liberal use of ‘Stink be Gone’, smelled of sweat, fear, and miasma of electronics, metal, and hydraulics. Nothing looked different on his HUD as he waited for the AI to come up. When it did, he said, “Amy, run BIT please.” He felt his command lace connect and expand into combat command mode as the built-in test completed, and he keyed the radio. “Test director, armor is up and up, standing by for direction.”

“Ah, Colonel, the suits are all within five hundred yards. They are manned, with specific directions given to the users to simulate various yellow, red, and black conditions. Please follow the test plan steps for command recovery testing.”

Fargo brought up the test plan in his HUD and quickly reviewed the steps they wanted him to conduct, even as he called up the command menu. He identified all nine of the suits, wincing as he thought back to previous battles where the colors would have meant troops lost. Putting that aside, his command lace prioritized the armor recovery as if they were in contact, targeting the furthest suits first.

He selected the furthest yellow suit and initiated a command recall. <Amy, carat unit 019. Perform sequence on execute command. Command override. Anti-Grav on. Plank. Three-foot clearance over ground. Move to carat position. Execute.> He quickly dropped a carat 15 yards to his left as he saw the suit begin to move. He had successfully recalled six of the nine, executing kneel and open commands for each of them, when he got to the suit that was colored black. He gave Amy the same command sequence, but she replied, <Unable unit 009. No response.> Well, shit. Now what do I do? If the suit is totally dead, there is no…wait a minute, I’ve got two more units. He spotted units 06 and 08, both within fifteen yards of 09, and both were red. I wonder if I can do this. <Amy, carat units 006 and 008. Perform sequence on execute command. Command override. Anti-Grav on. Plank. Three-foot clearance over ground. Move to unit 009 position. Execute.> <Unable unit 009. No location available.>

Fargo wanted to hit something, but sighed. “Well, shit. Can I drop a carat on the position and get them there?” He dropped a carat on 009 and gave the command, <Amy, carat units 006 and 008. Perform sequence on execute command. Command override. Anti-Grav on. Plank. Three-foot clearance over ground. Move to carat position. Execute.> Both units floated over to 009 and hovered there. <Amy, carat units 006 and 008. Perform sequence on execute command. Command override. Anti-Grav off. Stand up. Stabilize. Execute.>

He got both units standing up next to 09, but there was nothing else he could think of to recover the unit. “Fuck!”

The test director came over the radio. “FINEX, FINEX, FINEX. We are done. Thanks, Colonel. Great job of executing the test!”

Fargo snarled, “I left one on the field. That…there has to be a way to recover a dark suit!” He strode angrily back to the staging area, knelt and climbed out as he thought, <Amy, shutdown sequence and thank you.> <Shutting down, Ethan.>

He climbed out and realized he was sweating. He shivered in the sudden chill as the test director walked up.
“Colonel, the only way we know of to recover a dead unit is with a recovery team. There simply isn’t any other option.”

Fargo grumbled, “Well, there should be.”

Cocking his head, the test director said, “Well, if you can come up with something, we’ll try it.”

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be pissed at you. You folks have done wonders with the recovery procedures. I just hate leaving anyone on the field of battle.”

“Understood, Colonel. We’ll take the armor back and put it away, I’m sure you’d like a shower.”

Fargo nodded as Ramesh pulled up in a runabout. “Need a ride, Colonel?”

“Sure do, Ramesh. Back to the office, please.”

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