Looking at this from a Chain Of Evidence view point.
The BIDEN/DNC controlled FBI/DOJ/DC Swamp sequestered the Epstein files for about 5.5 years, for political reasons. During that time period, I am sure no one doubts the holders and their political controllers went over the files to protect themselves and could have "enhanced" the files on political opponents.
It fact as we already know, the Files were spread across multiple Field Offices and other oddly location places in DNC strongholds.
These files, should not be considered acceptable Court evidence. In that, the files have had too many hands and eyes involved in them those 5+ years to be trusted and/or use with any degree of completeness or accuracy.
Besides! IF TRUMP were Guilty As SIN, as some of the DC Swamp and media are trying to now cast. Wouldn't these files have been released during the 2000 or 2024 election cycles?
Of course, there is the other train of thought.
The files are now being used to control the certain DNC / DC Swamp / Elites that are the actual Guilty.
#3
Bondi is playing hopscotch around the fact a bunch of powerful people messed with kids and we are mad about it. We know that one of our government agencies pimped out our underage daughters to perverts. Pam can continue her puppet show ad nauseam. In the end we will still want the perps and a shutdown of whichever government entities participated. We are already tiring of the stupid dance and are ready for her to be pitched into the dumpster along with Blanche. Just put Harmeet in and let’s roll.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
12/24/2025 12:03 Comments ||
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#4
Most likely what Super Hose says is true but NN2N1 makes some good arguments. It's easy to believe that much of this evidence has been seriously compromised. Merrick Garland and Christopher Wray certainly had enough time to tamper with it and I doubt if they had any scruples in that regard. The time when anything could have been done about Epstein may have passed. Now it's just Democrats attempting to tar Trump with the Epstein brush but, if they really had anything on him, they would have incicted him with in back in 2021.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/24/2025 13:16 Comments ||
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#5
He's dead, Jim.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/24/2025 13:17 Comments ||
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[RedState] Former senator Ben Sasse, who represented the state of Nebraska from 2015 through 2023, took to social media on Tuesday morning to make a devastating announcement about his health: he's been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, which he called "a death sentence ...the barbaric practice of sentencing a murderer to be punished for as long as his/her/its victim is dead... Sasse, 53, wrote, "This is a tough note to write, but since a bunch of you have started to suspect something, I’ll cut to the chase: Last week I was diagnosed with metastasized, stage-four pancreatic cancer, and am gonna die." While noting that death "is a wicked thief" and that he's "on the clock," Sasse said he's still got a lot of fight left in him and that there are groundbreaking treatment options available to him.
He also had a message for his fellow Christians during this run-up to Christmas, writing, "There’s not a good time to tell your peeps you’re now marching to the beat of a faster drummer — but the season of advent isn’t the worst. As a Christian, the weeks running up to Christmas are a time to orient our hearts toward the hope of what’s to come."
Ben Sasse, a one-time Department of Justice employee who eventually worked as a congressional staffer (he was chief of staff to former GOP Rep. Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska) and a college president, was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2014, handily beating his Democrat opponent, Dave Domina, and winning 93 of 94 counties.
During his time in the Senate, Sasse served on the Judiciary, Finance, and Intelligence Committees, and was heavily involved in judicial nominations, tax and budget issues, and national security policy. He was well-known for locking horns with President Trump, and blamed the president for "pouring gasoline on these fires of division" and ignoring his oath of office on January 6, 2021.
Sasse resigned his Senate seat in 2023 in order to become president of The University of Florida, a post he ended up leaving in July of 2024. He has spent the time since leaving Florida largely out of the public eye.
#2
You don't beat pancreatic cancer. Doctors are getting better at treating it though. They can give you a few extra years. It's good to let them do their jobs, even if your quality of life will be seriously degraded, because they keep learning and keep getting better at it. Maybe someday in the future, people will beat it. That's why you keep fighting.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/24/2025 13:45 Comments ||
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[FoxNews] It was just another day for Patrolman Michael Poon when he received a call about a dog stuck on a frozen Lake Mohawk in New Jersey.
"You comfortable going in Mike?" asked a fellow officer as he put on the necessary ice suit to withstand the dangerously low temperatures.
Officer Poon quickly changes into the ice suit, attaching ropes to himself to help with the extraction after saving the animal.
Footage shows both officers running to the lake, where Poon crawls onto the ice and makes his way to the trapped dog. Upon arrival, the dog immediately panicked, swimming away from the officer to the other side of the broken ice.
Eventually, Poon jumps into the water, quickly getting a grasp of the dog before helping it out of the water. His fellow officers then pulled him back onto dry land.
Some cultures are definitely better than others.
Thanks to the safety gear, Poon completed this rescue with no reported health risks, including hypothermia.
According to the National Weather Service, hypothermia can occur in certain situations, particularly in water. It is essential to be aware of the many risks that come with the dropping temperatures during the winter.
"This incident serves as an important reminder about the dangers of ice," a statement from the Sparta Township Police Department reads. "Ice conditions can change rapidly and are often unpredictable. Please use caution around frozen bodies of water and help us keep everyone safe—people and animals alike."
“Just everyday heroics — nothing special, sir. Please, go about your business.”
[FoxNews] Sedan had rolled over and caught fire after speeding without lights in Illinois, police dashcam video shows rescue
Police officers in Illinois crawled beneath a burning overturned car early Sunday to rescue a trapped motorist after a high-speed crash on Interstate 88, authorities said.
The rescue happened around 3:40 a.m. after an officer on routine patrol spotted a sedan speeding on Route 83 without any lights on before it exited onto eastbound I-88, the Oak Brook Police Department said.
As the officer attempted to catch up, police said he encountered a crashed vehicle. The vehicle had rolled over, and its entire engine compartment was engulfed in flames.
The driver, the car’s sole occupant, was still trapped inside.
Police dashcam video shows the officer and other responding Oak Brook officers use fire extinguishers to knock down the flames while working to free the occupant. Officers crawled underneath the overturned vehicle and successfully pulled the driver to safety.
The driver and two officers suffered minor injuries, including smoke inhalation. All were treated at a local hospital and later released.
Police later confirmed the crashed vehicle was the same one the officer saw speeding on Route 83. Illinois State Police are handling the ongoing crash investigation.
[CNN] An even more potent atmospheric river-fueled storm is on a collision course with California after a first storm triggered deadly flooding and evacuations over the weekend in Northern California.
The new storm and another after it are prompting new evacuations in the Los Angeles area’s burn scars and a rare high risk for flooding from forecasters with months’ worth of rain and life-threatening flooding expected in Southern California.
At least one person is dead after flash floods from the first storm inundated Redding, roughly 150 miles north of Sacramento, according to Redding Mayor Mike Littau, who said police and fire crews carried out water rescues Sunday.
A police officer pulled the victim from a flooded vehicle, Littau said Monday morning, though the official cause of death is still under investigation. Officials have not said how many water rescues were carried out in the city.
Shasta County, where Redding is located, was hit particularly hard Sunday evening, with heavy rain flooding multiple roadways, including parts of Interstate 5, according to officials.
Nearly a month’s worth of rain fell in the Redding area Saturday through Sunday: One of the city’s fire stations measured just over 5 inches of rain.
Redding police said they responded to “numerous calls for stranded motorists” and urged drivers to avoid flooded streets.
Paul Mast posted video of his son standing in the middle of a Shasta County road flooded by a nearby creek. Mast said they were on their way to a family Christmas gathering but had to turn around because floodwater had washed out part of the road.
Shasta County wasn’t the only area underwater on Sunday: Crews also performed water rescues in Humboldt County, where the floodwater was chest-deep in some places. There were “numerous incidents” where deputies rescued people from vehicles stalled in floodwater, a sheriff’s office spokesperson told CNN. Several homes flooded, forcing residents to evacuate, in some cases by boat and jet ski.
While the flooding is subsiding Monday, there have been reports of washed out roadways, debris flows and mudslides throughout the county, the sheriff’s office said, urging residents to stay vigilant ahead of this week’s upcoming storms.
Farther east, in Placer County, rising water on the South Yuba River prompted evacuations. Officials issued warnings for multiple properties in Cisco Grove in the Sierra Nevada on Sunday and at least nine people were evacuated from one home there, according to the Placer County Sheriff’s Office.
Early Monday, Sonoma County deputies rescued a motorist in Santa Rosa who drove into floodwater and had to climb onto the roof of their vehicle amid the rising water, the sheriff’s office said.
More flooding rain, debris flows and rock slides are widespread concerns with this week’s multiple storms. Strong winds that could potentially knock out power are also expected.
Much of California is under a flood watch until Friday.
If only California’s dams had been maintained, there would be somewhere for the predictable heavy rainfall to go. If only fire hydrants were kept filled, brush and eucalyptus kept trimmed, and all the usual firefighting precautions taken instead of all greenery let grow wild in an inappropriate frenzy of nature worship, the soil would have been better able to absorb moisture instead of sliding off the hillsides. In other words, if only this had been anywhere except California under current management.
#16
The WayMo autonomous cars were shut down because the traffic signals were off
Humans may be weak and puny compared to robots, but we are adaptable. When the signal lights fail, we are able to self-organize and take turns going thru the intersection.
On the other hand, robots are very patient and will happily wait until the sun burns out for the green light to appear so they can drive thru the intersection.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] A slight increase in solar flare activity is possible due to an increase in sunspot area. This was reported on December 23 by the Solar Astronomy Laboratory of the Space Research Institute (IKI) of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
"Over the past 24 hours, a gradual increase in sunspot area has been observed, which could lead to some increase in flare activity today," the laboratory said in a statement on its Telegram channel.
It is noted that the most significant groups of spots are concentrated in the right (eastern) part of the Sun; they have almost no impact on the Earth.
According to scientists, despite the upward trends, the level of flares remains low and does not have any noticeable impact on space weather.
On December 22, the Solar Astronomy Laboratory reported that magnetic storms of varying severity could occur on Earth in the coming days due to the impact of a large coronal hole on the Sun.
According to scientists, signs of solar wind flow from the coronal hole affecting Earth were detected approximately 24 hours earlier than expected. Moreover, the fast solar wind, including the one affecting our planet, originates primarily from the equatorial regions of coronal holes.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] More than 300 earthquakes have rattled the same region in California over the past month, sparking fears among locals that a big one could soon strike.
San Ramon in the East Bay has been the epicenter of this seismic activity, which sits on top of the Calaveras Fault, an active branch of the San Andreas Fault system.
The Calaveras Fault is capable of producing a magnitude 6.7 earthquake, which would impact millions of people in the San Francisco Bay Area. The US Geological Survey (USGS) estimates there is a 72 percent chance of this happening by 2043.
The earthquakes began on November 9 with a 3.8 magnitude, and the tremors have not stopped since. The latest, which hit today, measured a 2.7 magnitude.
Sarah Minson, a research geophysicist with the USGS's Earthquake Science Center at California's Moffett Field, told SFGATE: 'This is a lot of shaking for the people in the San Ramon area to deal with.
'It's quite understandable that this can be incredibly scary and emotionally impactful, even if it's not likely to be physically damaging.'
Minson noted that while the swarms seem relentless, they do not indicate a major event is imminent.
'Given the magnitude and locations of the earthquakes that have happened so far, there is no significant risk of something happening on one of the major faults,' she explained.
USGS research geophysicist Annemarie Baltay said she is not unusually concerned that the recent earthquakes signal anything larger on the horizon for San Ramon.
'These small events, as all small events are, are not indicative of an impending large earthquake,' Baltay told Patch.
'However, we live in earthquake country, so we should always be prepared for a large event,' she said.
#1
I wonder if tearing down all those Dams and Reservoir since the early 2000 to appease the over the top environmentalists, has played a role?
Having lived and worked in the Valley areas back in the 70's & 90's. There was always the question of when THE BIG ONE would happen, and refill the San Joaquin Valley again.
Currently, the California Valley is pumping out of massive amounts of underground fresh water, to meet the population's and the farming agricultural increasing demands. Which, has caused the Valley to drop as much as 30+ feet in several areas.
#2
CA also dumps an enormous amount of fresh water into the sea to save a bait fish.
We used to live in Danville,Ca next town north of San Ramon. I monitored the quake activity and we never had this many. Sarah basically has to say don't panic but be prepared. Any change in activity is significant given we know little about causality of earthquakes.
#3
I lived in the Bay Area from 2007 to 2015. We had earthquakes pretty regularly. There would be a loud boom and shake at the Richmond plant where I worked. I would walk out to the dock to see if a trucker had given us the geriatric gramma backup treatment. That was never the case. One of the loaders eventually clued m in.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
12/24/2025 9:49 Comments ||
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#4
frequent low-level quakes along tectonic plates can often relieve stress. The strike-slip faults that "lock up" build stress and can result in the Big One
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/24/2025 10:49 Comments ||
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[Breitbart] Cuba’s communist regime, which regularly rants about the purported U.S. “embargo” hurting its economy, has purchased over $8 billion worth of agricultural and food products from the U.S. since 2001, the Madrid-based outlet Diario de Cuba reported on Monday.
For decades, the Cuban regime and its allies around the world have incessantly presented a false narrative that the United States’ “embargo” on Cuba is the one and only cause of all of Cuba’s shortcomings — and not the decades’ worth of failed communist policies, brutal repression, and gross mismanagement of the country’s infrastructure that has pushed the island-nation to the brink of complete ruin.
In reality, the “embargo” is a series of measures that mildly limit economic activity between the two countries yet does not hinder nor prevent the shipping of medicine or humanitarian supplies, especially in emergency situations, nor does it prevent Cuba from importing food from the United States.
Diario de Cuba explained that food purchases from the United States, which started as a “timid acquisition” during the rule of late dictator Fidel Castro, is now one of the “main markets for essential goods for Cuba.”
The outlet — citing statistical data from the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, a private, non-profit, membership-based corporation — Cuba has so far spent $8 billion in food purchases from the U.S. since December 2001 when Fidel Castro authorized an initial $4.31 million purchase.
According to the data cited by Diario de Cuba, Cuba consistently spent hundreds of millions of U.S dollars every year in food purchases since that initial December 2001 purchase, something the outlet described as the “increased dependence” of Cuba on U.S. food. According to the data, 2008 stands as the year with the most dollars spent by Cuba on U.S. food purchases at over $710 million.
The organization noted that the data does not itemize “transportation charges, bank charges, or other costs associated with exports,” as the Cuban regime “reports unverifiable data that includes transportation charges, bank charges, and other costs.”
“Despite complaints from the regime that it has to pay for such imports in advance, given the absence of credit mechanisms between the two countries and the decades of debt accumulated by Havana, even with its allies, the millions needed to make the payments have not been lacking,” Diario de Cuba wrote.
Between January and September 2025, Diario de Cuba reported, the communist regime spent over $359 million purchasing food from the United States. This included increases of between five to eight percent between August and September, respectively. The amount represents a 15.58-percent increase from the roughly $310.96 million that Cuba reportedly spent during the first nine months of 2024.
Diario de Cuba stressed that, despite the million-dollar purchases, both the Castro regime and its state media avoid making mention of them while “playing the victim and blaming Washington for the shortages suffered by the island’s inhabitants.”
“Cuba imports food, medicine, and humanitarian goods freely, which is allowed by the embargo. In just the last year, U.S. exports to Cuba increased by 16%, with $585 million USD flowing into the island in 2024,” the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs explained in an October media post in both English and Spanish.
The State Department’s post was part of a broader social media campaign reminding its users that the “embargo” is not the cause of Cuba’s collapse but, rather, the result of the Castro regime’s disastrous communist policies.
The campaign was launched by the State Department in the days leading to this year’s quasi-traditional vote at the United Nations on a resolution condemning the United States’ “embargo” on Cuba and demanding its end. Unlike past editions of the yearly resolution, the 2025 edition saw the United States attract an unprecedented number of supporting countries against the resolution. Argentina, Hungary, Paraguay, North Macedonia, and Ukraine joined Israel, which has historically stood with the U.S. against the resolution, in voting against it.
#1
The agricultural lobby. They pushed harmful foods on us for years. They have the political power to bypass an embargo against a dangerous communist state on our border. Because fuck the Cuban people who need to be nudged or shoved to overthrowing their government. CIA can't do it, they blew it bigtime already. Bay of Pigs, exploding cigars, a food embargo would do it but that's too much money for Big Ag to let sit on the table.
[IsraelTimes] Australia canceled the visa of a British national after he was charged with displaying a banned Nazi symbol, the immigration minister says, as the country cracks down on antisemitism in the wake of a terror attack targeting a Hanukkah event at Bondi Beach.
The government revoked the visa of a 43-year-old man who was charged on December 8 with displaying a Nazi symbol and advocating for violence against the Jewish community on social media platform X, according to Australian Federal Police.
“If you come to Australia on a visa, you are here as a guest,” Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke tells the Australian Broadcasting Corp, referring to the British citizen.
“If someone comes here for the purposes of hate, they can leave,” he says.
Burke and the federal police do not name the British man but the federal police say he displayed the Nazi Hakenkreuz – a type of swastika – and espoused “pro-Nazi ideology with a specific hatred of the Jewish community” from two X accounts from October to November.
After having his visa revoked, the man, who was living in the state of Queensland, was taken into immigration detention and will be deported unless he voluntarily leaves first, media reports say.
#1
Australia doesn't fuck around with that after Bondi Beach. Netanyahu demanded action and it's happening.
See how it works when antisemites live in fear instead of Jews living in fear?
#1
Was there not long ago. The only thing Danish about it was the busiest gift shop in the village we stopped at. It is very underpopulated and in a weird sort of doldrums. The whole place must be on reverse Dane Geld.
[IsraelTimes] The US State Department says it will deny visas to a former European Union commissioner and four others, accusing them of seeking to “coerce” American social media platforms into censoring viewpoints they oppose.
“These radical activists and weaponized NGOs have advanced censorship crackdowns by foreign states — in each case targeting American speakers and American companies,” the State Department says in a statement announcing the sanctions.
The measure targets Thierry Breton, the former top tech regulator at the European Commission, who often clashed with tech tycoons such as Elon Musk over their obligations to follow EU rules.
Breton is described by the State Department as the “mastermind” of the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), a major piece of legislation that imposes content moderation and other standards on major social media platforms.
The DSA has become a bitter rallying point for US conservatives who see it as a weapon of censorship against right-wing thought in Europe and beyond, an accusation the EU furiously denies.
The DSA stipulates that major platforms must explain content-moderation decisions, provide transparency for users and ensure researchers can carry out essential work, such as understanding how much children are exposed to dangerous content.
[FoxNews] Trump administration says 2022 directive flouted federal law restricting VA abortion services
A Department of Justice opinion published Monday reversed a Biden administration directive that allowed Veterans Affairs to provide taxpayer-funded abortions, concluding that federal law bans the VA from offering abortion services in most circumstances.
The DOJ Office of Legal Counsel said in the opinion that a rule the Biden administration issued in 2022, in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s landmark Dobbs decision, flouted the law.
OLC Deputy Assistant Attorney General Joshua Craddock wrote that while the secretary of Veterans Affairs has wide latitude over what types of medical services it offers to the millions of veterans under its purview, "that discretion is not limitless." The Veterans Health Care Act "makes clear" that the VA is restricted to providing abortion services only when a pregnancy carries certain types of risks, Craddock wrote.
"That language is unambiguous," Craddock said. A footnote noted that the only exceptions consistent with the law were abortions for "life-threatening circumstances, including treatment for ectopic pregnancies or miscarriages."
Asked about whether the VA was providing abortions, press secretary Peter Kasperowicz told Fox News Digital it was not, attributing the halt to the DOJ's new interpretation of the law.
"The DOJ’s opinion states that VA is not legally authorized to provide abortions, and VA is complying with it immediately," Kasperowicz said, noting that the DOJ's opinion was consistent with a new Trump administration rule proposal that was still going through the regulatory process.
That Trump administration’s rule also suggested that the Biden administration had oversold the need for an abortion policy change. The prior administration had predicted the agency would need to provide some 1,000 abortions per year in the wake of post-Dobbs restrictions on abortions in various states. However, the VA has since 2022 been providing roughly 140 per year, the administration said.
That’s actually an important point.
The VA, led by Secretary Doug Collins, operates dozens of medical centers throughout the country and offers lifelong health services to about 9 million veterans and other eligible beneficiaries.
The DOJ OLC advises the executive branch on the legality of its policies, and the administration views the OLC's opinions as binding interpretations of the law.
#2
* The U.S. population may shrink in 2025 for the first time ever as immigration and birth rates decline.
* The immigrant population fell by over a million between January and June 2025, Census data shows.
* Experts warn the drop could slow GDP growth and weaken job creation in the coming years.
Immigrant population fell by over 2 million as of a few days ago, and has something like another five million to go to get back to pre-Biden numbers. On the other hand, a lot of the jobs they were doing are things like construction that Americans would love to do (right, chris?) or will happily do without, like crime of all sorts. So I think it won’t have nearly the impact on the economy as feared.
And birth rates track confidence in the future — with young white men being able to have their desired careers because DEI is greatly reduced, and boss girls no longer coddled — the marriage rate should rise and babies follow at a rate of 3-4 per family.
My prediction, worth what you just paid for it. ;-)
[CBS News] Washington — The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a bid by the Trump administration to deploy National Guard members to the Chicago area while a legal challenge moves forward, delivering a setback to President Trump in his effort to use federalized troops in Illinois to ensure enforcement of federal immigration laws.
The high court left untouched a judge's decision blocking the government from putting National Guard members on the streets of Chicago and surrounding areas. The Trump administration had urged the Supreme Court to allow the extraordinary move to deploy the troops over the objection of Illinois' Democratic governor, arguing that federal courts cannot second-guess the president's decision to call the National Guard into federal service.
But the Supreme Court declined the administration's request to freeze that order in a decision that appears to be 6-3. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch dissented.
In an unsigned order, the Supreme Court found that "at least in this posture" the Trump administration has not met its burden to show that Title 10, the law Mr. Trump invoked, permits him to federalize the National Guard "in the exercise of inherent authority to protect federal personnel and property in Illinois."
#2
Do it anyway, who is going to do anything about it besides whining and bitching on the "news"?
Posted by: chris ||
12/24/2025 6:53 Comments ||
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#3
Correct me if I am wrong, but I do not believe a High Court has ever denied a Presidential National Guard deployment previously. Are we seeing a new Legal Precedent being established ?
We appear to be moving rapidly toward the unthinkable.
#4
I guess it’s time to read the Insurrection Act.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
12/24/2025 11:27 Comments ||
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#5
All Trump needs to do is to declare Chicago in insurrection. There is no checklist to do so and no bank on that power in the constitution. Full military roll in and arrest all the seditionists and street thugs.
I would argue military style executions but that may be going too far.
#8
The decision is based on the argument IF a President can not use active duty troops to perform a duty under the law, a President can not use the National Guard to perform that same duty.
My gut reaction is to arrest them all and give them about 1000 hours of community service doing the most disgusting things they can find.
This story is on Instapundit and Legal Insurrection as well.
#9
^ except the Constitution says otherwise as in comment #1. Posse comitatus law restricts the active Army, but can not alter the Constitution as written.
#10
@9 Depends on how you choose to define militia as it was originally written.
The line between the active duty army and the National Guard is much thinner now than at any point in history.
And I would be very concerned with a Newsom, Biden or Harris using the National Guard because local and state law enforcement was unwilling to carry out some absurd order of theirs.
The US is in a downward spiral and despite his best efforts, I think Trump won't be able to turn the country around.
#11
Per Title 10 USC § 246 - Militia: composition and classes
(a) The militia of the United States consists of all able-bodied males at least 17 years of age and, except as provided in section 313 of title 32, under 45 years of age who are, or who have made a declaration of intention to become, citizens of the United States and of female citizens of the United States who are members of the National Guard.
(b) The classes of the militia are—
(1) the organized militia, which consists of the National Guard and the Naval Militia; and
(2) the unorganized militia, which consists of the members of the militia who are not members of the National Guard or the Naval Militia.
Tangential note: Class 2 is the basis of selective service, aka the draft. Males that category are already in the militia as provided for in the Constitution.
Art I, Section 8
To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress
#12
My experience in California regarding the use of Guard troops may be helpful. The Guard can be placed on active fedeal duty in tweo categories, Title 32 and Title 10. Both are federal active duty, but Title 32 places the Guard chain of command directly under the State Governor and his Adjutant General. In this status they are exempt from Posse Commitatus and may be directed to perform whatever roles the State allows the Governor to employ. During the early stages of the LA riots we patrolled with LAPD and LASD officers and deputies and in fact actually used deadly force on two occasions I recall. When the Guard was then federalized into a Title 10 staus, they became federal troops and Posse Commitatus applied, severely restricting the roles we were then allowed to play. I suspect the SCOTUS ruling revolved around the President versus the Governor as the Command Authority for deployment to Chicago. FWIW...
They were promoted from the State Department ranks rather than proposed by President Trump from outside.. One has to wonder how many think either the department or the the country they were posted to is their client, not President Trump and the secretary of state he appointed.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] The Trump administration is recalling nearly 30 career diplomats from ambassadorial and other senior embassy posts around the world.
Don’t all diplomats have to submit their resignation when a new president comes in, in case he wants to accept it and put someone else in the position?
Diplomats in 29 countries were given notices Wednesday informing them that they'd be out of a job by mid-January, according to two State Department officials.
All of them were assigned to their posts by the Biden administration but had remained in their jobs for the first year of Trump's second term despite an initial wave of cuts that targeted mainly political appointees.
So they got an extra year to prove they were unbiased, and failed the test. Do stop whining — it’s so undiplomatic.
The directive offered no explanation for the recall, but Trump administration officials said they will now be replaced with personnel deemed fully supportive of Donald Trump's 'America First' priorities.
See?
A senior State Department official called this 'standard process in any administration' but admitted that President Trump wants people who will be in line with his policy goals.
That is the point of diplomatic personnel, after all.
'An ambassador is a personal representative of the president and it is the president's right to ensure that he has individuals in these countries who advance the 'America First' agenda,' a senior State Department official said.
The recalled diplomats were encouraged to find new roles in the State Department, a second US official said.
Or not, as the case may be.
The Trump administration's directive now leaves the United States without leadership in critical countries including in Rwanda, Egypt and Armenia - all countries where Washington is trying to sustain peace efforts that the president has championed.
Which means that they’re at the war-war stage, not ready for jaw-jaw.
It is the latest in the Trump administration's efforts to concentrate high-stakes diplomacy in the hands of a small group of special envoys comprising longtime friends like son-in-law Jared Kushner and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, who are now working on Russia-Ukraine peace talks and post-war plans for Gaza.
Or to get people in place so that the diplomatic corp is capable of smoothly transmitting the current government’s position.
Commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin:
[ColonelCassad] Trump announced the creation of large "laser battleships" displacing up to 40,000 tons, which will be armed with the most modern weaponry.
Among Trump's wishes:
1. The construction of two battleships with a displacement of 40,000 tons.
2. The main armament should be lasers and modern missiles.
3. The battleships will have nuclear weapons on board.
4. The battleships will be equipped with railguns.
5. They will belong to the "Trump" class.
6. Trump plans to personally participate in the design of the battleships named after himself.
7. The first ship is scheduled to be launched as early as 2028, and it should enter the fleet by 2030.
Just when experts were practicing the theme that the time of large warships is over and the dominance of naval drones is ahead, Trump came along and ruined everything.
P.S. Trump stated that the US would keep the stolen tankers carrying Venezuelan oil. In general, theft of other people's property at the state level is becoming commonplace in the brave new world.
#1
I find it impossible to believe that a new type of ship of this size, which has yet to be designed, could be launched by 2028.
even getting the design completed by 2028 seems possible but a long shot
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
12/24/2025 0:25 Comments ||
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#2
After the dweebs at NavSea get done, it'll be a 40ft fishing boat with three different brands of outboard motors and a giant spotlight but no generator.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
12/24/2025 8:36 Comments ||
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#3
Think of all the USS Trump baseball caps he's gonna sell. Scrambled eggs? Another ten bucks.
What no driving range?
Posted by: Penguin of the Best Desert ||
12/24/2025 8:51 Comments ||
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#4
Art of the deal! After negotiation: Donald J. Trump Ballroom Modules for LCS.
#5
I would like to see a napalm cannon added on the quarterdeck for port visits. That could add some spice to security alerts. You would have to dress the watch in crash suits, but it would be intimidating. The idea is to send a consistent message.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
12/24/2025 12:16 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...the barbaric practice of sentencing a murderer to be punished for as long as his/her/its victim is dead...
[FoxNews] It was just another day for Patrolman Michael Poon when he received a call about a dog stuck on a frozen Lake Mohawk in New Jersey.
[FoxNews] Sedan had rolled over and caught fire after speeding without lights in Illinois, police dashcam video shows rescue
[CNN] An even more potent atmospheric river-fueled storm is on a collision course with California after a first storm triggered deadly flooding and evacuations over the weekend in Northern California.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] More than 300 earthquakes have rattled the same region in California over the past month, sparking fears among locals that a big one could soon strike. 
[IsraelTimes] The US State Department says it will deny visas to a former European Union commissioner and four others, accusing them of seeking to “coerce” American social media platforms into censoring viewpoints they oppose.
