Guerrilla Man

 

So.

LSP

Stagger Lee

 

Dam straight,

LSP

Behold The Raj Today

 

1947, that fated hour when the bankrupt Raj handed over to Asian Subcontinent. All yours, as it were, and you can't help but be moved by Sandhurst's Indian Army room, I assume it still exists. But, curiously, the Raj lives on as evidenced by its former units, not least cavalry:

Is there a moral in this? Of course there is, but in the meanwhile...

Eyes right!

LSP

Get It On

 

Get it on, well yes, quite, but what exactly. A Burris Fastfire 3 RDS onto a Glock 45 Compact Crossfire. Should be easy, right? Just buy Glock's cheap adapter kit and away you go, but not so fast. Everything goes swimmingly well until you notice the slide adapter plate's canted up at an angle towards the rear sight as opposed to flush with the slide.

Bad Error

Bad error. Why would this be? Two reasons. 1: You over-torqued the screws affixing adapter to slide. 2: The screws which you've handily set aside from the gun's original slide plate, the same screws which Burris tells you in its wisdom to fasten sight to slide, are too long. They protrude from the bottom of the adapter plate onto the slide and raise the thing up. Useless.

So what's the fix. Burris tells you to go to Burris and buy their special, proprietary lock washers, which will act as a kind of shim to lift the offending screw (s, there's two) by about a millimeter and hence flush with the adapter plate. Huh. Why not include M3 .50 x 7 in the adapter kit, you tightwad cash heads.

Solution? Go to the hardware store, buy some fresh M3 .50 x 8 screws and some toothed lock washers, it'll cost around 2 bucks if that. Then take them home, file or clip off the teeth of the washers. Then fix the adapter plate to the slide using Glock's provided 6 mm length screws, being careful not to overtorque, "hand tight" says the manual. 

This Locktite accomplished, fix the sight to the adapter/slide by way of custom washers. And there you go, one RDS topped pistol ready to hit the range with all of its compact fury. Will it perform? Let's find out. More anon.

#2A,

LSP

Cooking With LSP - Venison Sausage Pasta

 

So how exactly do you cook with LSP? You mutter skeptically. But not so fast, here's how. Go out and shoot a deer or get someone else to do it for you. Either way is good, your call. Then get some of that venison processed into sausage, so far so good. Next step?

Slice the sausage up into tasty morsels. It's not hard and I use a vintage Sabatier which has a miraculously keen edge. You might choose a different knife, and that's up to you, no "rule." Mission accomplished, dice up onion and garlic and chop up tomatoes. Behold a task well done.

Then fry up the onion in olive oil until translucent and add garlic. Fry for a minute or so 'til fragrant and add venison, brown it as you reflect on bond yields, interest rates and Credit Suisse shareholder wipeout, then add a tablespoon or so of tomato paste. Stir that beast around for a minute or two. Result. Add chopped tomatoes to the mix.

Well done, you've got this far, no small feat. So use your Old Wooden Spoon to stir the pot, adding 2 bay leaves, salt, pepper and basil to taste. Have a glass to celebrate this not inconsiderable victory and add a glass of red wine to the mix, just for kicks. 

Then let it simmer and listen to uplifting music; don't be in a rush, for goodness sake, let tomato, onion, and venison combine together into one compelling whole, you'll smell it when it's done. Word to the wise, let the oil seperate but in the meanwhile, boil up pasta to al dente perfection. Then fall upon your scoff.

Like a Warrior,

LSP

Marking Time

 

Just marking time,

LSP

Sunday Pistol

 

You're not allowed to own a pistol in England unless you're a criminal or a cop, but you can in Texas. You see, free citizens are able to defend themselves whereas serf-slaves cannot. That in mind, here's a Sunday pistol.

Just a little 9, a Glock 45 Compact Crossover Gen 5. Note improvements to magazine well and slide and I tell you, this little barker fits well in the hand. An improvement on Gen 4? Hey, all you Glock experts can argue it out but I'd say yes.

This handy pistol comes with a Burris Fastfire 3 red dot, which I'll set up tomorrow. Then let's see how this diminutive beast performs. Fast, I'd wager. That in mind, I favor .45s with all their explosive power.

Still, I like this little fella.

#2A,

LSP

Light

 

Thanks to the miracle of modern technology, clergy can roam across the internet in search of sermon material; you'll find, to be fair, all kinds of errant nonsense. For example, Jesus' meeting with the Samaritan woman at the well was an exercise in non-exclusionary feminist, anti-racist ethical imperative. Choke that down if you can.

Still, Harvard (Satan's Vatican) & Co. absurdity aside, you'll find an occasional gleam of ruby or diamond in the dust. I liked this, on Christ's famous statement in John 9, "I am the light of the world."

ὅταν ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ ὦ, φῶς εἰμι τοῦ κόσμου.

Hotan en to kosmo o, phos eimi tou kosmou

As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world

A more literal translation of this short verse would be more Yoda-like: “As long as in the world I am, light I am of the world.” Although I use the phrase “I am” twice in the translation, Jesus does not use the formulaic ego eimi at all in this verse. Instead he uses the present subjunctive for “I am”: ὦ (o); and then the present indicative εἰμι (eimi), without the first person pronoun ἐγώ (ego). [I just saw some graffiti today that read, “Your ego is not your amigo”]. So here, Jesus is being ego-less (:

Jesus includes the “ego” when he first identifies as the Light of the World in chapter 8 verse 12, a statement which, as I suggested in a John-in-July post, was intended to reference Isaiah 9:1-2 in response to the Pharisees’ insistence that “no prophet is to arise from Galilee” (7:52). According to Isaiah 9, “God will make glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light, those who lived in a land of deep darkness—on them light has shined.” Jesus says, “You know that light Isaiah talked about in the context of Galilee? I am that light. I am the Light of the World (Ἐγώ εἰμι τὸ φῶς τοῦ κόσμου).

So why does Jesus identify again as the Light of the World in this context, after likely quoting a Jewish proverb? Moreover, how does this serve as an answer or response to the question of suffering?

Johannine scholar Herman C. Waetjen writes, “According to Philo of Alexandria, the ‘light of the world’ is the light of the first day of creation, and it is an image of the divine Logos who makes itself intelligible by means of interpretation.’”[1] One does not have to agree with Waetjen’s argument that the Fourth Gospel was written in Alexandria to accept that Philo’s ideas were clearly in the air that the Fourth Evangelist breathed. On the first day of creation, the Word (Logos) of God proceeded from God and produced light: “God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light” (1:3). For Philo, the light and the Logos become one and the same. So by calling himself the Light of the World, Jesus is saying that he is the light of the first day of creation, a manifestation of the Logos of God.

 

... the light and the Logos become one and the same. So by calling himself the Light of the World, Jesus is saying that he is the light of the first day of creation, a manifestation of the Logos of God.

Daniel Deforest London, you may very well be a Girardian, TECite heretic and for all I know lost in Ivy League heterodoxy, but that was beautifully put. Thanks.

Turn to the Light and utterly reject the works of darkness.

ἐν ἀρχῇ,

LSP

Trump Arrest Rant

 

45, that infamous Russian spy in the pay of the Kremlin may finally be brought to justice by Manhattan's fearless DA, Alvin Bragg. Why? Because the God Emperor had the brazen temerity to send his crooked lawyer, Michael Cohen, a hefty 130K related to Stormy Daniels. We have to ask, was it paid in Rubles?

Keen-eyed readers may remember brave GOP stripper Stormy Daniels and her crusade to get restitution from the Russian agent masquerading as a US President. Stormy lost that battle and had to pay a solid $300K to Team Trump, her totally not cocaine-fueled, Formula One lawyer Michael Avenatti ended up in jail. 

Trump, presidential candidate and ongoing GRU asset, believes he will be arrested next Tuesday and has called for protests. 

OK, enough of that, we can all read the news, such as it is, and it's amusing to reflect on the absurdity of media agitprop in support of our Ruling Elite. But serious question, if Trump was arrested in a fit of kabuki theater leftist posturing, would you protest?

Perhaps not, perhaps you wouldn't welcome that 4 a.m. knock on the door by an FBI SWAT Team. Maybe you wouldn't want to end up in solitary confinement for years without trial. And this raises another question, equally serious if not more so. What have we become?

Nothing good, >30T in debt, not counting all the rest, on the brink of nuclear war, inflation at 6%, an effectively open border, look out wages, and the apparent inability to parse even the most basic math. Viz. What's the difference between a man and a woman. Or, "Hey, let's give our kids puberty blockers while surgeons cut up their genitals. Because freedom." What utter Mengeles.

This is all apparently beyond us, and no wonder. A people that has rejected God will accept his opposite, Satan, a murderer from the beginning and the Father of Lies.

Light v. Dark,

LSP

Duelists

 

It was a fierce and direct age, when mistaken pronouns could result in death (What? - Ed.) and so to duels. What happened, and it was frequent, is that a gentleman would perceive his honor threatened and challenge the offender to a duel, to the death.

It became an issue, with the officer class effectively wiping itself out, such that Louis XIV banned dueling in the late 1600s. However, the ban was ineffectual and such mortal combat remains today. Here's a brief Compound infovid, play up boys:

By the monkey, I tell you they played fast.

Damme and Crockford's Forever,

LSP

Storm

 

What is it about Stations of the Cross on Thursday evenings which invites ferocious weather. I don't pretend to understand the mystic corollary between the Via Dolorosa, Golgotha and our ancient adversary the Weather, but there it is, the battle between Good and Evil played out in the cosmos itself.

It started with brisk wind and slight rain, which fast escalated into a beating tempest. A lull, a calm, a quiet point as birds sang thinking it was Spring. And then?  Clouds rolled in from the South, tornado watch, and it was time to capture the moment from the front porch.

Would this burgeoning storm blast our bucolic farming community or would Weather's wrath pass us by? Thank Gaia, our enemy the Weather chose to strike East and punish the Deep South, like Sherman's army. We pray our brothers and sisters survived.

Stand firm, resolute, and draw the moral of this story as you take it.

Your Old Pal,

LSP

Triomphe!

 

Perhaps you've forgotten Charpentier. Not so fast, punters. And then there's Lully.

Your Old Buddy,

LSP

Wolf Truce

 

Hundreds of wolves, not a few dozen. You may not know that ferocious wolf packs savaged German and Russian soldiers in the Great War. Remarkably, both sides reportedly fashioned a truce to fight the wolves.

Here in Texas, wolves have been shot out leaving coyotes without a natural predator. You can hear them howl, ascendant.

Cave Canem,

LSP

Tracer - An Apology

 

Huh, so-called LSP, we came to this mind blog looking for neat photos of tracer fire and all we got was another Waylon video and a poorly written mini-rant. Guilty as charged, so to make up for the deficiency here's some tracer.

Yes, I want this rig

Russkie tracer

US tracer

Sandy

There you have it, tracer. Word to the wise, mind how you go shooting these little miscreants in the dry heat of a Texan summer. Don't want to set the countryside alight, you see.

Shoot straight,

LSP

Watch My Tracer

 

Watch my tracer. When this thing goes down, and it will, behold the great fall of it. Do you think the madness of the way we live now is destined to live forever? That said, smart people are going gold/ammo/safe, and Waylon is as always awesome.

Your Pal,

LSP

Illuminate

 

It's easy, in this dark, barbarous and benighted age to become a doomer, and with that blind to the light. But hold on, here's this from Archpriest Andrew Phillips:

Christ teaches us then that all things can be used for our healing and benefit and salvation, but that they must first be touched by His grace.

In this way our bodies, mere flesh and bones and blood, can become containers of Christ. Our souls activated, we can become lamps of the Holy Spirit; the eyes of our souls, the doors of perception, become seeing, and we see the whole of God's Creation as it really is. We see that every blade of grass and every hill, every tree and every cloud, every drop of rain and every ocean, all creatures and all people, are miracles of God's handiwork, signs of His sacramental presence among us, and we see that we live not in the banal, everyday world, but in potential Paradise, the world as it really is, as God made it first, for we see God the Creator behind all things and all people.

And then we too, together with the man born blind, can say:

'I was blind, now I see'.

Amen.

Amen indeed, especially so to we see that we live not in the banal, everyday world, but in potential Paradise, the world as it really is. Especial emphasis on as it really is. 

That very same thought struck me as I walked from, of all places, the local Shamrock back to the Compound, the sun rising and filling the air with golden light. Illuminate, φωτίζω.

Lift up your hearts,

LSP

Покаянный псалом

 

Have you heard the prophecy, Moscow is the the third Rome and a fourth there shall never be. Hitler found that out the hard way. Putin has blasted the West and Anglicanism in particular:

"The Anglican Church is considering a gender-neutral God. May God forgive them for they know not what they do,” he said in February speech, “ ... They distort historical facts, constantly attack our culture, the Russian Orthodox Church, and other traditional religions of our country…  Perversion, and the abuse of children are declared the norm. And priests are forced to bless same-sex marriages."

Is he wrong? And if not, does that make him a new Constantine and the Ukraine a Milvian Bridge?

Νίκος,

LSP

Vespers Said

 

Vespers is over and Mexican music fills the air as Eduardo, a good man, tends to several breeds of chickens, roosters and exotic ducks. Jesús, a house down from Eduardo, is running a welding rig and you can see its star bright light from the back deck of the Compound. 

He's working on some kind of metal frame which is already a story high, and who knows what this will become. A garage, a small shop, a fortified strong point? Regardless, I'm all in favor, we build, they destroy. That in mind, must get off the hind... and learn Spanish.

Then the phone rang and a young soldier excitedly announced that he'd bought not one, not two, but three uniforms by way of being prepared for deployment. He'd also purchased a large KA-BAR which fast release clips onto his plate rig.

Such martial ebullience was, I learned, part owing to a promotion; he's acting NCO in charge of battalion maintenance prior to a board next month. To that end, he's drawn up a training program involving weekly runs with his team in full gear, plates, helmets and all. Get fit to fight is his message.

Impressed by this I offered a congratulatory well done, and a promise to defray uniform expense. I did not share the story of a Para RSM, veteran of Arnhem and beyond who told this story, "When we were in Malaya we lost more men through self-inflicted knife wounds than anything else."

He was a model of his type and an inspiration to this day. I remember him taking his 1911 pistol out of an armoury safe and showing it to me, he loved that pistol, a keen marksman even retirement. 

Then UKGOV made it illegal for law-abiding citizens to own pistols and stole his 1911. What utter, tyrannical, lying, thieving Illuminati shill scoundrels. You see, free men can defend themselves, slaves can't.

we build, they destroy

That aside, well done boy on the military upvote and plans for combat readiness, let's hope the last part isn't needed and I mean that seriously.

Your Old Pal,

LSP

God Bless Robert E. Lee

 

Was he not our greatest commander?

LSP

Bankster Wipeout?

The dominoes keep falling, SBX, Silvergate, SVB, Signature NY and on, with many bank stocks halting trading Monday morning after spectacular Stuka-like nosedives. The issue? 

Banks being heavily invested in US Government bonds, a safe have when interest rates are low, toxic underperformers  on the reverse side of an apparently risky coin. And lo and behold, interest rates have risen from near zero to approaching 5%, net result? 

Underwater balance sheets. You see, when interest rates rise bond prices go down leaving their owners subpar and scrambling for liquidity, cash. And that's hard to get when you're fire-selling assets and depositors are withdrawing funds for greener pastures.

Long story short, select banks were/are out of cash and got shut down. Woe to Oprah, Harry & Meghan and all the rest but that's not all. Has the entire financial sector become infected, is US Government debt effectively a toxic security?

Zerohedge thinks so, it's long but worth the read. Here's an excerpt:

Fifteen years later… after countless investigations, hearings, “stress test” rules, and new banking regulations to prevent another financial meltdown, we have just witnessed two large banks collapse in the United States of America – Signature Bank, and Silicon Valley Bank (SVB).

Now, banks do fail from time to time. But these circumstances are eerily similar to 2008… though the reality is much worse. I’ll explain:

1) US government bonds are the new “toxic security”

Silicon Valley Bank was no Lehman Brothers. Whereas Lehman bet almost ALL of its balance sheet on those risky mortgage bonds, SVB actually had a surprisingly conservative balance sheet.

According to the bank’s annual financial statements from December 31 of last year, SVB had $173 billion in customer deposits, yet “only” $74 billion in loans.

I know this sounds ridiculous, but banks typically loan out MOST of their depositors’ money. Wells Fargo, for example, recently reported $1.38 trillion in deposits. $955 billion of that is loaned out.

That means Wells Fargo has made loans with nearly 70% of its customer’s money, while SVB had a more conservative “loan-to-deposit ratio” of roughly 42%.

Point is, SVB did not fail because they were making a bunch of high-risk NINJA loans. Far from it.

SVB failed because they parked the majority of their depositors’ money ($119.9 billion) in US GOVERNMENT BONDS.

This is the really extraordinary part of this drama.

US government bonds are supposed to be the safest, most ‘risk free’ asset in the world. But that’s totally untrue, because even government bonds can lose value. And that’s exactly what happened.

Most of SVB’s portfolio was in long-term government bonds, like 10-year Treasury notes. And these have been extremely volatile.

In March 2020, for example, interest rates were so low that the Treasury Department sold some 10-year Treasury notes at yields as low as 0.08%.

But interest rates have increased so much since then; last week the 10-year Treasury yield was more than 4%. And this is an enormous difference.

If you’re not terribly familiar with the bond market, one of the most important things to understand is that bonds lose value as interest rates rise. And this is what happened to Silicon Valley Bank.

SVB loaded up on long-term government bonds when interest rates were much lower; the average weighted yield in their bond portfolio, in fact, was just 1.78%.

But interest rates have been rising rapidly. The same bonds that SVB bought 2-3 years ago at 1.78% now yield between 3.5% and 5%… meaning that SVB was sitting on steep losses.

They didn’t hide this fact.

Their 2022 annual report, published on January 19th of this year, showed about $15 billion in ‘unrealized losses’ on their government bonds. (I’ll come back to this.)

By comparison, SVB only had about $16 billion in total capital… so $15 billion in unrealized losses was enough to essentially wipe them out.

Again– these losses didn’t come from some mountain of crazy NINJA loans. SVB failed because they lost billions from US government bonds… which are the new toxic securities.

2) If SVB is insolvent, so is everyone else… including the Fed.

This is where the real fun starts. Because if SVB failed due to losses in its portfolio of government bonds, then pretty much every other institution is at risk too.

Our old favorite Wells Fargo, for example, recently reported $50 billion in unrealized losses on its bond portfolio. That’s a HUGE chunk of the bank’s capital, and it doesn’t include potential derivative losses either.

Anyone who has purchased long-term government bonds– banks, brokerages, large corporations, state and local governments, foreign institutions– are all sitting on enormous losses right now.

The FDIC (the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, i.e. the primary banking regulator in the United States) estimates unrealized losses among US banks at roughly $650 billion.

$650 billion in unrealized losses is similar in size to the total subprime losses in the United States back in 2008; and if interest rates keep rising, the losses will continue to increase.

What’s really ironic (and a bit comical) about this is that the FDIC is supposed to guarantee bank deposits.

In fact they manage a special fund called Deposit Insurance Fund, or DIF, to insure customer deposits at banks across the US– including the deposits at the now defunct Silicon Valley Bank.

But the DIF’s balance right now is only around $128 billion… versus $650 billion (and growing) unrealized losses in the banking system.

Here’s what really crazy, though: where does the DIF invest that $128 billion? In US government bonds! So even the FDIC is suffering unrealized losses in its insurance fund, which is supposed to bail out banks that fail from their unrealized losses.

You can’t make this stuff up, it’s ridiculous!

Now there’s one bank in particular I want to highlight that is incredibly exposed to major losses in its bond portfolio.

In fact last year this bank reported ‘unrealized losses’ of more than $330 billion against just $42 billion in capital… making this bank completely and totally insolvent.

I’m talking, of course, about the Federal Reserve… THE most important central bank in the world. It’s hopelessly insolvent, and FAR more broke than Silicon Valley Bank.

What could possibly go wrong?

 

In a word, everything. Note well, I’m talking, of course, about the Federal Reserve… THE most important central bank in the world. It’s hopelessly insolvent, and FAR more broke than Silicon Valley Bank.

Got that? Smart people are liquid (does this mean loading up your safe with gold, diamonds, silver topped canes, flawless emeralds, DOGE$, worthless fiat and ammo? -- Ed.) and thinking themselves fortunate on being upside Krugerrands. That said, maybe everything will work out just fine as Biden and the Genius Patrol reassured us this morning.

See you on the other side,

LSP

Cash is King - Nitty Gritty Dirt Band

 

Yes, the Compound's sound labs take time off to play requests and here's an awesome offering from Adrienne. Check out Cash, who is notoriously King.

Most especially awesome,

LSP

Bonnie Blue

 

This seems appropriate, right about now,

LSP

Behold The MounteBanks

 

Could it be that the rainbow will bring down the economy of the Western world? Oh dear, you know what they say, go woke, go broke. All very model risk.

And look at this crook, Joseph Gentile, not once but twice. Careless, what?

chimp out

Rumors that Oprah lost 500$b in uninsured SVB deposits are entirely unfounded and the same goes for everyone's favorite royal couple, Harry and Meghan. Oprah, we're told, had to be physically restrained when she learned of her loss.

clown and simperer

Getting wild, eh? And what can we say? Simpering clown mountebank The world cries.

 D List idiot and evil

She's not even Wallace,

LSP

Bank Run!

 

Is this the end of the world as we know it? Maybe, if you're an uninsured depositor with SVB (Silicon Valley Bank) which collapsed following a liquidity wipeout brought on by an underwater balance sheet and panic-stricken clients pulling their money out of the fiscal black hole. 

Long story short, SVB was out of cash and the FDIC called game over today and shut the bank down. Via Zerohedge:

Last week we detailed BofA's Michael Hartnett's warning that "The Fed will tighten until something breaks". Well, something just broke... SVB's collapse - the second biggest US bank failure in history - dominated any reaction to this morning's mixed bag from the BLS (hotter than expected earnings growth, rising unemployment (especially for Latinos), better than expected payrolls gains).

 

 

Things started off badly as SVB crashed 65% in the pre-market before being halted. SVB bonds were puking hard and when the FDIC headline hit, the bonds collapsed further... (and) A number of small/medium sized banks were clubbed like a baby seal...

 

 

So far that'd be PacWest Bancorp, Western Alliance Bancorp, First Republic Bank/CA, and Signature Bank/NY. Will the contagion spread? That'd depend on people waking up to find their banks, too, are heavily invested in, ahem, safe havens like T-Bills, which are great until interest rates rise and then they're not.

So let's see how this bizarrely sudden Lehman style fiscal implosion plays out. In the meanwhile, smart investors are going full on into ammunition companies, precious metal and DOGE$. OK, that last one's a long game and a good one.

Beware the Ides of March,

LSP

Apocalyptic Reflection

 

Ferocious rain whips against this old wooden house as thunder rumbles and lightning flashes apocalyptically across the night sky. What is it about Stations of the Cross on a Texan Thursday evening that brings this on. I don't know, I can't fathom the ways of our old enemy the Weather, but it seems appropriate to this evening's devotion.

After all, what is the crucifixion if not the seeming triumph of Antichrist and with that we're reminded of a bestial number, a threefold series of sixes. St. John casts light on infernal mathematics in his Gospel.

At the sixth hour Christ is met by the harlot at the well. Again at the sixth hour, the followers of Caiaphas the false prophet stamp themselves with the mark of the beast, crying out, "We have no king but Caesar." Then darkness falls upon the land at the sixth hour as Jesus hangs dying on Calvary.

There it is, 666 and the character of Antichrist spelled out, whorish infidelity, idolatrous irreligion, and the murderous extinction of life itself. Such is Satan's revolt against God and the serpent appeared to have won, but not so fast.

The Samaritan woman at the well repents and becomes a great evangelist and martyr, St. Photina, in receipt of living water. The false prophets are swept away and the darkness of the cross gives out to the light of Easter and the empty tomb. Life, light and truth win over the deathly night of the beast.

All this played out in Christ's life, setting the template, model, figure and type of the final battle between good and evil. Every day draws us closer to this point and with it the lines are ever more clearly drawn and distinct. Hasten to enlist on the right side of this divide.

In the meanwhile, thunder and lightning crash down with the very force of the Eschaton itself.

Here endeth the Lesson,

LSP

British Army Fail - Outta Ammo And Men

 

It was a force which went hand in hand, charge to charge in support of the greatest empire the world has perhaps ever seen, but now Britain's armed forces are a hollowed out shadow of their former selves. 

Reeling from decades of cuts, the once mighty British Army fields less than 76,000 persons and that number's due to decline to 73,000 by 2025. Of these, one all-arms battlegroup of 25,000, one division, is fit to fight. Except that they aren't, because Whitehall's mandarins have given all their ammo to the Ukraine.

According to the Daily Express, the UK's singular combat division would "run out of ammunition within a few days if required to fight." 

Within a few days. Still, not to worry, money's been allocated to rebuild the 2.5bn GBP worth of armaments given to Zelensky's regime by London. But guess what, thanks to asset stripping, aka industrial off-shoring, ammo replenishment will take around a decade to get to the troops.

What does this mean? Most obviously, a grievous security threat, and with it a gamble on several levels. Viz. Never again will we have to fight an industrial peer-to-peer war, allowing save a lot of money by adopting high-end, high-tech, smaller defense/offense solutions. 

Gone are the days when we needed actual factories producing hundreds of thousands of shells when one smart bomb will do. In short. We will never, ever have to fight another major war in Europe or, for that matter, anywhere else. 

The second wager is like unto the first. If we're called to fight a real war, we'll supply our proxies with arms and destroy our enemy economically until we win, which won't take long. 

You can almost picture nameless, unelected bureaucracies shaking hands on a budget well kept, after all, that welfare vote doesn't come cheap, and then... those dam Russkies arrive out of the East, firing thousands of shells a day, every day, going full WWI but with drones and hypersonic glide bombs. 

What then, your hand's been called and found wanting, your bluff's been called. So what next? You, the FORPOL reader, be the judge.

Arma Virumque,

LSP