DeCalifornia

 

With apologies to LL,

LSP

It's Over

 

You were going to vote Trump like a sorry fool and then that dream died. Yes, smash hit celebrity superstar Taylor Swift has endorsed Kamala, the Candidate of Joy. Wow, now all you idiot Nazis will have to change your vote from the Orange Fuhrer to La, who is not a Kackling Whore. So take that, autocrat Fascists, it's over.

In related news, Russian strongman Valdimir Putin has told the world that deep strike attacks by Western supplied and guided missiles on Russian territory would be counted as an act of war. Let that sink in, an act of war. Two questions.

1. Can we fight such a thing, given off-shored manufacturing and more seriously 2. Should we fight it at all. 

In answer to the first, I'd argue doubtful. To the second? Why should any American soldier lose his life in defense of Blackrock? Why should anyone at all die so that Larry Fink & Co can get even moar richer than they are already?

You know, because if Russia wins in the Ukraine there'll be this trans genocide and everyone in Europe will live in the Soviet Union and have to go to church and worship icons instead of going to trans bathrooms. And Blackrock and its buddies will lose a whole lotta cash.

Genius celeb Taylor Swift's socialist, private jet net worth is estimated at 1BN$. Not shabby!

Cheers,

LSP

In The Navy

 

You may have read that the US Navy is drastically cutting back its Fleet Auxiliary by 17 or so ships. Why? Because no one wants to join the Rainbow Unicorn Sea Force and swear fealty to the Walking Corpse and Kackling Whore? Possibly, but maybe not so fast. Armchair Warlord offers trenchant analysis:

News came out recently that the US Navy is planning to mothball seventeen fleet auxiliaries - including an entire class of new fast transports - due to manpower shortages.

Contrary to what one would first think, this is not related to the "DEI recruiting crisis."  This is due to a separate recruiting crisis in Military Sealift Command caused by the extreme workloads the civilian mariners who crew these ships are subjected to - far in excess of what military sailors or mariners working in the civilian sector are expected to do.  

With that being said, let's take a look at what's potentially going away and what it can tell us about the USN's priorities going forward.

1. All 12 currently-active Spearhead-class fast transports.  These ships are militarized fast catamaran ferries and largely intended for use rapidly moving troops and equipment around inside of a given theater.  The class is apparently a perfectly workable port-to-port ferry but totally unsuitable for the various amphibious warfare schemes the USN and USMC have tried to patch it into, which - to be fair - it was not designed for.

The upshot of this is that the US military is going to lose enough high-speed, shallow-draft sealift capacity to move a brigade at a time* from Point A to Point B.  This suggests that we're (1) deprioritizing actually defending the Baltic States and Finland; (2) equally deprioritizing the defense of the Southwest Pacific on land; or (3) both, given that seaborne troop movements are now going to have to rely on far more conventional amphibious shipping that will be wasted on ferry duty, or highly vulnerable commercial shipping.

* approximately 7200 tons of cargo and 3700 personnel for all 12 ships in a single lift.

2. The two forward-deployed Expeditionary Support Bases, which are basically oil tankers converted into Special Forces lilypads.  The obvious reason for this is that the Navy has run the numbers and concluded that these ships - which are slow, enormous, and have little defensive armament - would be sitting ducks against the Houthis, let alone a first-rate enemy.

This is mostly infuriating because these ships are brand-new.  In fact they actually commissioned a new one in February.  Bluntly, the Navy seems to have wildly miscalculated what the "low-end" threat actually is, and assumed these ships would be able to fly off SOF and marines into hostile territory in Africa while not having to fend off anything more dangerous than pirate speedboats.

What's interesting here is that there are actually six of these ships extant or under construction but only the two forward-deployed hulls have been mentioned as in line for mothballing.  I'd be on the lookout for the rest of the class being similarly deactivated in the near future, even though some of them are literally still on the slipways.

3. Two dry cargo replenishment ships and one fleet tanker, which I think is simply due to manpower issues and the low-hanging fruit of the ESBs and EPFs already having been plucked.  Losing these directly impacts the USN's ability to sustain combat operations at the high end.  They need these ships out in the fleet.

With the exception of those cuts (which make up a small amount of the total), however, the obvious conclusion is that the US Navy is cutting auxiliary vessels that don't directly support its high-end battle fleet.  This sort of retrenchment and specialization onto the "core mission" of fighting World War Three, however, carries the risk that - as usual - the next war will be with the people we weren't planning to fight.  The USN has already struggled mightily doing what was, objectively, a very simple humanitarian aid/disaster relief mission in Gaza... and equally-mightily keeping the Bab al-Mandeb open to Western shipping.

  

I know nothing, but found the above engaging.

For those in peril,

LSP

PS. Some years back, my eldest was out of Basic on Christmas leave. There we were around the family table in Dallas with some old friends from England. My boy said the discipline at Benning was pretty thorough, which it is. I replied, "B might want to speak to that, he was in the old Navy." And he was, back when Great Britain ruled the waves. He joined as a junior rating (is that the rank?) at the age of 15 and graduated up to command a nuclear sub. 

B looked at us both and grinned, a little, so it was. His people are out of Camberwell; Londoners of an age will know what that means. If you search the internet you'll find photos of my friend celebrating the last issue of rum in the RN. I won't go on.

Let's Invade Russia

 

And then there's this.

Paulus went on to live in a palatial villa in East Berlin, the same Paulus who broke Germania, at Stalingrad. What utter catastrophe. And now they're trying the same gambit again, but with far less men. Whatever, here's some inspirational music. Perhaps you're getting ready to enlist? You know, to defend NATO.

Zu Befehl.

LSP

With Apologies To Our Lady

 

Have the people had enough? Maybe not quite yet, but you can feel the simmering discontent as prices continue to rise and the richest amongst us, our Beloved Rulers, grow moar richer than they already are. Is greed like an addiction, as in can't get enough?

Speaking of which, have you noticed the Church of England's dropping the word "Church" from its profile? Well, if the shoe fits.

With apologies to the Blessed Virgin,

LSP

What A Delicious Dish!

 

So tasty! Like no kidding, and we're talking about Beef Wellington, see Cav & Guards. All well and culinary good, you clubmen, but is there an alternative? Cheaper perhaps and almost as tasty? Some say there is. Here, have a look:

Thanks, RHSM, good call.

Groove, surely, is in the heart,

LSP

CUTLASS

 

Cutlass drill. You may find this helpful: point, slash? Both, surely.

And if you're not doing your part to sink the NWO then what part are you playing? Point being, engage the sword, enemy onboard.

Your Old Pal,

LSP

Wandering Around

 

So whaddya do on Easter Tuesday? Train El Diacono to say the Mass, well done. Then wander through the sylvan boulevards of Olde Tejas to the Square. Take that in, in all its Confederate monument glory, and note the Gold Nugget Pawn's new signage.

Well done, boys, long may you reign. But what's this? Texan Pride? Is that some kind of rainbow thing? No, it is not. Reassured, glance into the shopfront of "Alterations" and spot a pink glitter mushroom. Hunh. Some kind of disco scene perhaps. And next door?

The newly opened Ember Cigar Lounge, promising fine wines, bourbon and, of course, cigars. Now, I don't even like cigars, as a rule, but ventured in to see what it was all about. And, per Ember's marketing it was about "Tradition, Honor, Excellence." Bold call, did Hill County's first cigar lounge live up to promise? 

Sure it did, in a North Central Texan Exclusion Zone kind of way. Plenty of cigars, which are traditional for a cigar lounge, and I'm sure many of them were excellent and sold honorably, give or take, fair play. Overall ambiance? Not bad at all, with some big boys turning up half-way through, so I had fun for an hour or so. But will the "high-end-cigar-bar" concept take off on the town square.

Maybe it will and I hope it does, after all, there's plenty of lawyers congregated in the townsquare hub of this county seat and hey, we could all do with a civilized place to meet and drink in the center of town, such as it is. Whatever, the guys who run this new setup have a good vision and I hope it succeeds, we'll see.

In the meanwhile, I've promised them photos from St. James and Clubland next week.

Ad Solem,

LSP

Yes We Do Requests

 

Sure thing. Here at the Compound we're pretty much always ready to fire up the juke box and play requests. This one's from Wild, and what a one it is.

Good call. And Wild, I see your BST with BOC. Turn it up:

Oh yes indeed. 

So don't be shy, send in your tunes,

LSP 

STAND STEADY

 

Well done, boy, go for that commission. Keep your eye on the ball.

Just sayn'.

Your Old Pal,

LSP

Attention Soldats!

 

Ici. Patria Nostra.

La Mort c'est la Vie,

LSP

PS. How'd that fat guy get through selection?

PPS. Back in the mists of time we had a corporal in HQ Battalion who'd fled the Gloucesters for the 2nd Rep, for "some action" and then caught religion, jumped ship and handed himself in to UKLF. Pending trial for his infamy he served as acting corp, he'd give orders in French, "Soldats!" Good man and now, I believe, an Anglican Deacon somewhere in England. So.

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

Clubs

 

Have you noticed there's this weird axiom or principle. Viz. Don't go to war against Russia."Ha, ha!" you say, "We are so powerful now that we can defeat that puny 13 time zone state, with its peasant ways and backwards obsession with artillery." Like how weird, here's a country which actually makes shells for its guns, how primitive and stupid.

Then there's Western Europe, which has gambled for decades on never, ever having to fight another kinetic war. You know, with guns and missiles and actual soldiers. Oops.

In other news, the Eagles are gearing up for an RV in London. This means, for me, revitalizing club memberships. Witch one? I hear the yuck Reform's going cheap. Then there's the nasty National Liberal Club. Abhorrent, but think of the reciprocity.

The Bangalore Club, the Bermuda Yacht Club, our very own Petroleum, and on across the world. And you get a beautiful Thames Embankment terrace, which we love. And reciprocal at the good old East India and the nasty Army club in DC.

Ad pursuit of happiness,

LSP

Alright? Rollright

 

Years ago, whaddya do? Drive out of London for the ROLLRIGHT STONES. Set up with a few tarps, grill venison on ye olde homely fire pit, drink a few Hackney Spritzers and then go to the stones as the Moon waxes full.

And there they were, us and the ancient stones themselves, shining in the silvery light of the moon, so ghostly Selene. Witch way? But no Wild Hunt. No UFOs. No ghosts. No portals to another time and space, or were there? Maybe not so fast.

Mr. Winwood sings about it in his acclaimed song:

Rock on kids,

LSP

Tzarina

 

Failed Davos Clown BoJo quipped at G7 with his elite goofoff rulers that Russia wouldn't be a threat if it was run by women. Excuse me? See Catherine the Great. 

who reads the Economist anymore anyway? BoJo, what a clownfall

BoJo now rests in the dustbin of history as the failed ruler he is. Unlike, say, Putin, and his beautiful, powerful female successor, see video.

Your Pal,

LSP

Ride On

 

Look at this fool, a couple of years back. Well it's all fun and games till you break your femur. But I tell you, it's a great thing to go fast on a horse. I know, many of you have forgotten more about riding than I'll ever know, but we're not scoring points here, just having fun.

Ride On,

LSP

Yum, Pancake Time!

 

Time for pancakes. And I'll leave it at that.

Yum!

LSP

Candlemas 2022

 

You may have missed it but today's Candlemas, the beautiful feast of the church year in which the Old Testament is fulfilled in terms of the New and Christ, the living temple, enters into His earthly facsimile.  It is, when you think on it, a bridge to Easter.

Here's Newman:

The Angel-lights of Christmas morn,

Which shot across the sky,

Away they pass at Candlemas,

They sparkle and they die.

Comfort of earth is brief at best,

Although it be divine;

Like funeral lights for Christmas gone,

Old Simeon's tapers shine.

And then for eight long weeks and more

We wait in twilight grey,

Till the high candle sheds a beam

On Holy Saturday.

We wait along the penance-tide

Of solemn fast and prayer;

While song is hush'd, and lights grow dim

In the sin-laden air.

And while the sword in Mary's soul

Is driven home, we hide

In our own hearts, and count the wounds

Of passion and of pride.

And still, though Candlemas be spent

And Alleluias o'er,

Mary is music in our need,

And Jesus light in store.

Bless you all.

Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος,

LSP

Well Done Son

 

He's happy, I'm happy, the Army's happy because a Specialist's done well and passed a Soldier of The Month board, which opens up NCO school and makes his leaders look good, so they're happy too. So what next?

A new regiment, obviously, to guard our southern border, the President's Own, made up of lancers, auxiliary Mexicans, a "melee" and associated hard chargers. Hon. Col.? Melania. She inspires the troops, and all of us. Unlike, say, Dr. Jill or the Field Hand.

In other news, Miss Trudeau's fled Canada to a secret location because a fringe minority of truckers have taken over zhir main city, Ottawa. Oops, time to go, Justine. You can imagine the transgendered gnashing of teeth in Toronto.

And what's with Toronto anyway? They think their city's so cosmopolitan and European but it's just this place in Canada, which has to be fed... by truckers. 

Arduus Ad Solem,

LSP

Musk Rocks Neil Young is an Idiot

And in the darkness bind them https://t.co/BvxR4HTTq1

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 27, 2022

You may think that Elon Musk, the world's richest man, is strange and weird but he's got Covid tyranny down. In the darkness bind them. Well said, Mr. Musk, and how willingly they're bound.

Canadian truckers rule

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 27, 2022

Unless you're a Canadian trucker and Elon, who loves the Peoples' Currency, DOGE$, is all in favor of the Convoy. Canadian truckers rule. But how to defeat Justine and associated rainbow safety tyrants? 

 

Vote them out

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 27, 2022

Good call but do we still have that luxury ? In the meanwhile, Neil Young's an idiot.

Your Pal,

LSP