E-4 Mafia???

A ‘slightly’ different version of capture the flag…

In a strange turn of events, even for the U.N., the World Health Organization held the U.S. flag captive in what seemed to be an act of defiance after the American government withdrew from the organization.

In January 2025, the U.S. announced its plan to leave the WHO. During the yearlong process, the U.S. stopped funding, withdrew all personnel from the WHO, and began pivoting activities previously conducted with the organization to direct bilateral engagements with other countries and organizations. On January 22, 2026, the U.S. completed of its withdrawal from the World Health Organization.

Yet, according to a joint statement by U.S. Secretary of State Rubio and Secretary of Health Kennedy, “even on our way out of the organization, the WHO tarnished and trashed everything that America has done for it. The WHO refuses to hand over the American flag that hung in front of it, arguing it has not approved our withdrawal and, in fact, claims that we owe it compensation. From our days as its primary founder, primary financial backer, and primary champion until now, our final day, the insults to America continue.”

Full article, HERE from UN Watch.

‘Mysteriously’, four days later the US Marines had the flag back…

My only question is, was the ‘order’ given before or after the Marines did their thing???

I mean look at all those ‘innocent’ faces… And they’re in MARPAT, not dress uniforms…

In any case, BZ Jarheads!!!

Finally!!!

A long overdue reward for what he did, that was classified for over 50 years!

Naval aviator Capt. Royce Williams, 100, is set to be awarded the Medal of Honor for his 1952 actions during the Korean War, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., announced on Wednesday.

Issa has played a significant role in Williams’ recognition, introducing the “Valor Has No Expiration Act” in 2025 to extend and expand upon the 1996 National Defense Authorization Act. Introduced last June, the act was instrumental in highlighting Williams’ Korean War record.

Full article, HERE from Military Times. And the rest of the story, HERE.

This is just one story of many that has been buried by classification for many years…

There are other stories out there, as poignant, as horrific, and as normal as any, but where/when/how they happened meant they were ‘shielded’ behind classification. Usually that meant 50 year classification.

I, for one, am happy to see the good captain get recognition while he was still alive. The ‘biggest’ reason his battle was classified was he was shooting down Russian pilots, not North Koreans in an F9F-5 Panther, which was considered inferior to the Mig-15s he shot down!

Bravo Zulu, Captain Williams!

 

Another one…

Bites the dust…

First it was Ellett Brothers, down in SC, due to ‘bad’ investment(s) and bad advice. Bankrupted in 2019, now it’s Big Rock Sports.

Big Rock Sports, the Graham, NC-based distributor of fishing, hunting and outdoor sporting goods, has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation, listing just over $100 million in liabilities. Unsecured claims totaling about $83 million and including many vendors in litigation with Big Rock are not expected to be paid.

Many past senior executives and investors in the business, who appear to be tied to a management-led buyout, also held sizeable unsecured claims.

The filings in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina so far have not detailed the reasons for the move to liquidate, but show the company was facing a wide range of lawsuits from suppliers, property owners and other business partners.

Full article, HERE from SGB News.

Apparently the Canadian subsidiary had already been liquidated/sold prior to the bankruptcy. There seems to be a lot more to this story than is making the news, with the mention of ‘vendors in litigation’…

I don’t have a clue, but something stinks on this one. And this bankruptcy will just add pressure on the gun dealers and others, as there will be less options to get deals from the remaining distributors.

I know that back in the day, Ellett Bros was the ‘favorite’ of the military exchanges that sold guns, as they gave the exchanges a good break on pricing.

I can’t help but wonder what the banks might have had to do with this, as there has been a push to ‘debank’ anything to do with guns…

The distributors that remain are-

Top Wholesale Firearms Distributors-
    • Lipsey’s: Based in Louisiana, one of the largest independent distributors, known for exclusive firearms.
    • Sports South: A major national shooting sports distributor.
    • RSR Group: Known for a broad, diverse inventory.
    • Chattanooga Shooting Supplies:  Offers a wide range of firearms and gear.
    • Davidson’s: A major wholesaler. 
    • Iron Valley Supply: Focuses on outdoor gear and firearms.
    • Bill Hicks & Co.: A prominent national distributor.

Specialized Firearms Distributors-

  • GT Distributors: Supplies both law enforcement/military and the civilian market.
  • Craig’s Firearm Supply: A major distributor for Glock handguns.
  • Pacific Sporting Arms: Specializes in high-grade competition and field shotguns.

Sigh…

And it begins…

USS Abraham Lincoln SG is currently 500nm SOUTH of Iran…

A U.S. Navy fighter jet shot down an Iranian drone that was approaching the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea, U.S. Central Command said Tuesday, threatening to ramp up tensions as the Trump administration warns of possible military action to get Iran to the negotiating table.

The drone “aggressively approached” the aircraft carrier with “unclear intent” and “continued to fly toward the ship despite de-escalatory measures taken by U.S. forces operating in international waters,” Central Command spokesman Capt. Tim Hawkins said in a statement Tuesday.

Full article HERE from Military Times.

Of note, this was a drone, not a manned aircraft, and there are questions how many of those aircraft the Iranians actually have that are flyable.

This crap brings back memories of the BEAREXs we used to have to deal with. That was when a USSR Bear or May would close the strike group, trying to sneak in and get pictures/close approach the ships. The standard response was to use F-14s to ‘push’ the Bear/May out by maneuvering to block them, but the US reserved the right to fire on those aircraft if they did not turn away.

It is apparent in this case, the drone didn’t turn away, so the Iranians were ‘testing’ the US resolve, checking to see if they would actually shoot it down. Now they know…

The Shahed 139 does have a missile capability, in addition to being capable of EO/IR surveillance, with a range of approximately 2000nm. This is not a ‘throwaway’ drone. It appears the Iranians are ‘claiming’ it was actually a Shahed 129, but they don’t have the range to go out 500nm and make it back to shore, so that doesn’t make sense. Also, I’d trust the visual ID of the pilots over the Iranians. I’m betting there are pictures and video of the drone and the shoot, not that we’ll ever see it.

 

NYC…

Is getting what they voted for…

Zohran Mamdani has only been the Mayor of New York City for a month, and on his watch, at least a dozen homeless people have died in the freezing cold after Mamdani implemented a policy prohibiting the clearing of homeless encampments and forcing sheltering. Now trash is piling up in the city, and the streets aren’t getting cleared.

Full article, HERE from Townhall.com

But according to Mamdani it ‘couldn’t be better’…

Those scenes remind me of Italy when the garbage strike went on for a couple of weeks over there in 2010. Literal two story tall piles of garbage, the stench, and the rats. OMG, you didn’t even want to drive down the street with the windows open, either the stench or the rats would get you. But at least they weren’t killing people…

I wonder how long Mamdani is going to last? Much less his ‘administration’. I saw that he’d apparently appointed a former inmate as the new head of corrections for NYC. One wonders how ‘that’ is going to go…

Oh well, I’m west of the Mississippi and don’t have any family up there, so I’ll happily sit down here and watch the meltdown continue. I think the Big Apple has a few worms in it now. Just sayin…

A little humor…

To start the week.  An oldie but a goody!!!

A good laugh for people in the over 60 group !!!

When I bought my Blackberry, I thought about the 30-year business I ran with 1800 employees, all without a cell phone that plays music, takes videos, pictures and communicates with Facebook and Twitter. I signed up under duress for Twitter and Facebook, so my seven kids, their spouses, my 13 grand kids and 2 great grand kids could communicate with me in the modern way. I figured I could handle something as simple as Twitter with only 140 characters of space.

My phone was beeping every three minutes with the details of everything except the bowel movements of the entire next generation. I am not ready to live like this. I keep my cell phone in the garage in my golf bag.

The kids bought me a GPS for my last birthday because they say I get lost every now and then going over to the grocery store or library. I keep that in a box under my tool bench with the Blue tooth [it’s red] phone I am supposed to use when I drive. I wore it once and was standing in line at Barnes and Noble talking to my wife and everyone in the nearest 50 yards was glaring at me. I had to take my hearing aid out to use it, and I got a little loud.

I mean the GPS looked pretty smart on my dashboard, but the lady inside that gadget was the most annoying, rudest person I had run into in a long time. Every 10 minutes, she would sarcastically say, “Re-calc-u-lating.” You would think that she could be nicer. It was like she could barely tolerate me. She would let go with a deep sigh and then tell me to make a U-turn at the next light. Then if I made a right turn instead. Well, it was not a good relationship…When I get really lost now, I call my wife and tell her the name of the cross streets and while she is starting to develop the same tone as Gypsy, the GPS lady, at least she loves me.

To be perfectly frank, I am still trying to learn how to use the cordless phones in our house. We have had them for 4 years, but I still haven’t figured out how I lose three phones all at once and have to run around digging under chair cushions, checking bathrooms, and the dirty laundry baskets when the phone rings.

The world is just getting too complex for me. They even mess me up every time I go to the grocery store. You would think they could settle on something themselves but this sudden “Paper or Plastic?” every time I check out just knocks me for a loop. I bought some of those cloth reusable bags to avoid looking confused, but I never remember to take them with me.

Now I toss it back to them. When they ask me, “Paper or plastic?” I just say, “Doesn’t matter to me. I am bi-sacksual.” Then it’s their turn to stare at me with a blank look. I was recently asked if I tweet. I answered, No, but I do fart a lot.”

P.S. I know some of you are not over 60. I sent it to you to allow you to forward it to those who are… I figured your sense of humor could handle it…If not… find a sense of humor…. We all need to have one of these !!!.

 

We senior citizens don’t need any more gadgets. The TV remote and the garage door remote are about all we can handle.

 

 

Coffeeeeee…

Or 10 ways Veterans drink coffee, in or out of the military.

1. Black – Because additives are a luxury and suffering builds character.

2. Black – No cream, no sugar, no feelings.

3. Black – Drank it this way downrange. Never changed back.

4. Black, but aggressively hot – Skin graft temperature. Must burn.

5. Black, reheated three times – Microwaved until legally questionable.

6. Black, from a mug older than the marriage – Chips add flavor.

7. Navy Sludge – Thick, burnt, oily, and somehow alive. Drinkable by law, not by choice.

8. Black, in a Yeti that’s been through hell – Coffee tastes like memories.

9. Black, brewed too strong on purpose – “If my eye isn’t twitching, it’s weak.”

10. Black, but cut with enough sugar to make Pablo Escobar proud – Still technically black. Don’t argue semantics…

100. Shitty Army Coffee (warehouse-aged, 3+ years). It’s black.

Milk/canned cow/powder is fine, if you have it.

Sugar is fine, if you have it.

My crew would go through TWO of these pots in a 12 hour flight. And woe unto the idjit that actually CLEANED the ##@$%@) coffee pot!!!

And any leftover coffee was used to clean up the galley!

h/t Mike K and Don C

Snort…

Been there, guessed that…

65 dB down in the left ear, 55 dB down in the right ear now. With TWO hearing aids…

Sigh…

Corruption and $$$…

From datarepublican, via Director Blue Substack, HERE.

The ties are there, but took a huge amount of digging to find all of them. Kudos to datarepublican for the work to find all of them.

The only thing better would be the actual names, seeing them arrested, and then tried in a court of law for what they have perpetuated!

These people have blood on their hands and SHOULD be held accountable!

This…

Scares the crap out of me. Especially considering yesterday was the 40th anniversary of the Challenger disaster (O-ring failure that was known/predicted), HERE.

The target launch date for the Artemis II mission, which will take four astronauts on a trip to orbit the moon, is Feb. 6. Early next week, top brass at NASA will gather for a “go /no-go” decision on whether to launch.

It’s been a long time coming. NASA has been developing the Space Launch System (SLS), which includes two solid rocket boosters (SRBs) and the Orion capsule, for 20 years. Development costs have exceeded $29 billion (excluding the Orion capsule), and the entire Artemis campaign cost $93 billion through FY2025.

There has been exactly one SLS launch in all that time. An unmanned Artemis 1 was launched in November 2022, traveling to the Moon and back. It was mostly successful.

I say mostly because there was a slight problem with the Orion’s heat shield. In its efforts to save a little money, NASA redesigned the heat shield “to increase manufacturing and installation efficiency.”

Full article, HERE from PJ Media.

You would ‘think’ NASA would be more concerned about the heat shield, since that is a live or die proposition, rather than simply redesigning it and not testing it…

But I’m not in charge…

Oh, and let me add the whole CF surrounding the Boeing Starliner fiasco. It is, no it’s not safe, well, maybe. But they finally decided to bring it home on auto (after rewriting the software), and had to send SpaceX up to bring the astronauts home almost 8 months later, but at least they came back in one piece.

Personally, I think NASA is just throwing good money after bad with the whole SLS concept, but they have enough ‘friends’ (read congresscritters) feeding at that government tit that want the money to continue, especially in an election year.

I wonder how many of them would volunteer for that flight if it was offered???

Your thoughts?