After April 15, the backup server will go offline temporarily as the operating system gets changed over from FreeBSD 13.1 to FreeBSD 15.0.
As mentioned before, but bears repeating, the operating system is very old and lacks the advanced tools available for enhanced security. The changeover is necessary because FreeBSD 15.0 has a life to 2029. FreeBSD 13.1 has exceeded its life by about two years
The changeover starts 15 April and will continue until it is done, which should be less than 24 hours.
Simple.
Not so simple is updating all the scripts I have been using for my various websites I have hosted over the last 20 years or so.
So much of those scripts were written in perl, but I may be required to change them over to php. I guess I'll find out.
Iāll make the announcement about the changeover again the day it begins, and then the day it is complete.
After that, the real fun begins when the operating system for this server get changed over.
All prayers and good wishes gratefully accepted ā and make sure you save the O Club and live backup addresses so that you arenāt cut off, should they become necessary. Going cold turkey while badanov and Fred are working at length under the hood is no fun at all, as weāve all discovered the hard way.
[Townhall] There are two kinds of people: the kind of people who want to end the Iran War and people who want to win the Iran War. The Victory Option encompasses the goal of the first kind of people because it ends the war, but ending the war is not the proper objective. The proper objective in any war is to win it. Anyone glancing at social media sees people with an absolute commitment to Americaās defeat. And defeat comes about only if Donald Trump chooses to quit the war ā because the Iranians canāt make us do anything since they donāt have a nuclear bomb, thanks to Donald Trump ā in a way that doesnāt achieve victory. Victory means regime change. Once again, remember your Clausewitz ā war is simply politics with other means. This is a political struggle. The military aspect is just how itās being done, not whatās being done.
A victory end-state is one in which Iran is no longer a destabilizing force in the world ā note that I said āworld,ā not just the Middle East. By destabilizing force, I mean the funder of radically jihadi savages all over the world ā for example, they blew up a Jewish center in Argentina ā as well as enablers of Chi Com mischief by selling Xi oil. They are also a destabilizing force because they seek to be the owners of sufficient numbers of drones and missiles that they can inflict unacceptable punishment on their neighbors. Oh, and thereās the whole nuclear thing. Just imagine Iran with nuclear weapons on top of ballistic missiles. You know, the ballistic missiles they promised they didnāt have, but actually had, since they shot a couple at Diego Garcia? Putting aside all the fatwas the fatheads cite claiming that the ayatollahs had forbidden nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, think about them having Paris and London in hot rock range, with the United States coming soon into the crosshairs as Iran reaches intercontinental capability. Thatās when they start dictating to us. Call me crazy, but I prefer we dictate to our enemies instead of vice versa.
So, what weāre fighting for is a neutered Iran, or rather a neutralized Iran, where it stops being an active enemy. It doesnāt have to be a friend. It just has to not be a threat, because they are right now. And thatās one of the things a lot of people on the Democrat side and some of our podcast bros and libertarians misunderstand. Well, they misunderstand a lot of things, but this oneās particularly important. The mullahs hate us and want us dead for reasons that we canāt necessarily comprehend. But the fact that we canāt comprehend why they believe that some missing mahdi requires them to kill us doesnāt mean that they donāt believe that some missing mahdi requires them to kill us. They do. Theyāve told us so for 47 years. Theyāre not out there chanting āDeath to Americaā figuratively. We have real enemies.
I support victory over the Iranian mullahs.
This puts me at odds with communists, jihadists, Democrats, libertarians, griftomatics, podcastards, and other loathsome creatures.
[PNajadi1967Substack] The first major financial center to cave in now leads a worldwide banking reckoning: cooperate, disclose, and alignāor be shut down.
The first phase of Operation Epic Fury was never the end state. It was a shaping operation: kinetic, visible, and deliberately overwhelming.
What the brilliant and tirelessly hard-working Secretary of State Marco Rubio is now driving is the far more consequential phase: the diplomatic, systemic, and coalition-driven consolidation of that initial shock into durable geostrategic architecture. It is where campaigns either harden into strategic advantage or dissolve into mere spectacle. That is why everything now hinges on Switzerland.
And more specifically, on UBS.
Switzerland has submitted to survive. UBS is the turning point under Epic Fury. Its receipt of a U.S. banking license, approved this past Friday, marks a decisive structural shift, not a routine regulatory step. It places UBS directly under the full supervisory and enforcement perimeter of the United States financial system. That means exposure to Federal Reserve oversight, strict compliance with the Bank Secrecy Act, and direct accountability to the U.S. Treasury and the OFAC sanctions regime. In practical terms, UBS is now fully inside the dollar systemās enforcement architecture, where every transaction, correspondent relationship, beneficial-ownership chain, and client structure is subject to U.S.-grade scrutiny and reporting standards.
The ramifications are immediate and global. U.S. regulatory jurisdiction now cascades across UBSās entire international footprint. Enhanced due diligence, continuous transaction monitoring, and mandatory suspicious activity reporting are no longer optional layers. They are operational requirements enforced in real time. Critically, UBS is now also directly exposed to Section 311 actions under the USA PATRIOT Act, meaning that any systemic compliance failure or exposure to illicit flows can trigger rapid restriction or even exclusion from the U.S. financial system. Within the context of Epic Furyās second act, this is not incidental. It is the blueprint. Switzerland is aligning with the dominant enforcement regime of global finance, and UBS is the signal institution. The message is unambiguous: alignment ensures continuity; opacity invites termination.
This will have huge impact on Monday and throughout the worldās financial markets. Global banking and financial holdings are being reset in real time. No bank can escape the implications. Either cooperate or get shut down. That is now the logic of the moment. And the global reach being coordinated by Marco Rubio makes clear that the hunt for rogue-state enablers, terror finance nodes, cartel conduits, and subversive institutional shelters is no longer theoretical. It is underway.
THIS IS EPIC FURY AND ITS SECOND ACT
Rubioās push became explicit in a March 16, 2026 cable to all U.S. diplomatic and consular posts, directing chiefs of mission to press foreign governments āat the highest appropriate levelā to move quickly against the IRGC and Hezbollah by March 20. It marked the formal shift from kinetic success to coordinated diplomatic-financial pressure: not mere messaging, but alliance enforcement under deadline.
Rubioās directive to U.S. diplomatic posts worldwide was not routine signaling. It was operational diplomacy. As reported, he instructed ambassadors to press foreign governments āat the highest appropriate levelā to move against Iranās Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Hezbollah, and aligned proxy structures, and to do so on an accelerated timetable. The cableās logic was not subtle. Governments were told to move āexpeditiouslyā to reduce the capabilities of Iran and Iran-aligned terrorist groups, because collective action would impose greater pressure on Tehran than fragmented unilateral steps. The same reported guidance argued that IRGC designation would intensify pressure on the Iranian regime, constrain its ability to sponsor terror abroad, and respond to the Guardsā role in foreign plots, espionage, and influence operations. A State Department spokesperson linked that directly to presidential strategy, saying President Trump is focused on securing peace in the Middle East and that the IRGC, Hezbollah, and other Iranian-backed proxies destabilize governments and undermine regional peace.
#1
I don't guess this will affect my swiss bank accounts.
Posted by: chris ||
03/31/2026 2:05 Comments ||
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#2
I do not trust the Fed (thanks T. Jefferson and company). Otherwise, sounds good.
A real interesting article: Federalists vs anti-federalists brawl; https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/spotlight-primary-source/brawl-between-federalists-and-anti-federalists-1788
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
03/31/2026 2:46 Comments ||
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[BrusselsSignal] Is Pakistan finally facing the monster it created? Is Europe prepared for the consequences? The answer is in the smoke rising over the Durand Line. For decades, the Islamabad establishment has played a dangerous game, nurturing the Taliban as a strategic depth agent against India. Today, this plan backfires, and the resulting explosion of violence threatens to send a fresh wave of illegal immigration toward the already strained borders of the European Union.
The "open war" declared by Defence Minister Khawaja Asif marks the end of a thirty-year illusion. The apprentice has not only left the master. He has now turned openly against him. The March 16 strike on Kabul was the moment masks fell. When Pakistani warplanes hammered a rehabilitation centre in the heart of the Afghan capital, the "Islamic brotherhood" of the two neighbours officially ceased to be.
Islamabad claims it is hunting the TTP ā the Pakistani Taliban who find sanctuary under the wings of their Afghan cousins. Kabul denies it. The result is a cycle of diplomacy-in-name-only, where the only language spoken is the language of the air strike, the AK-47 and the suicide vest. This is the reality of the post-American vacuum.
...While the Pakistani economy teeters and its domestic security implodes with a second insurgency front up against Baloch separatists in the south, the Afghan Taliban are playing the long game. They see a Pakistan that is overextended and a West that is exhausted. They are not interested in ceasefires brokered by Qatar or Turkey. They are interested in survival and the expansion of their ideological reach.
Almost nobody talks about it, but we are witnessing the "Gaza-fication" of the Durand Line. The same knowhow of displacement and grazing the land is being applied to the tribal areas. Millions of thousands of people have already been displaced. But the humanitarian cost is only a footnote in a larger, more brutal calculation.
For Islamabad, this is an existential fight against the TTP thorn in its side. For Kabul, it is about defending the sovereignty they fought for twenty years to reclaim. Neither side can afford to blink. The light of the old order is fading. The era where the Pakistani military could manage Afghanistan like a colonial fiefdom is over. The trust is dead. Read the rest at the link
Posted by: Grom the Affective ||
03/31/2026 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[1778 views]
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[9gag] The site may call itself Gag, but the Egyptians are serious as a heart attack. Israel has been trying to give back* the Gaza Strip to Egypt since the first negotiations after the Yom Kippur War in 1973, but successive Egyptian governments ā secular, Muslim Brotherhood, and pious Moslem ā have adamantly refused. The Egyotians believe the Gazans to be immoral, manipulative, thieves, and worseā¦wanting them nowhere near their shops and daughters.
The other reason for the seven layers is so that the nephew of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi (General, Retd) can retain full control of the Egyptian side of the smuggling tunnels under the border, and thus ensure the family gets their fair cut of the proceeds.
* Ditto with regard to the West Bank and Jordan, which is equally adamant about not taking back their Palestinians, who have tried a number of times via the PLO to overthrow the Jordanian government. Black September in 1970 was the big one, but there are regular arrests to keep the plots from getting that far ever again.
[AmericanThinker] Math ruins some really enchanting ideas. Things like fossil-free energy and open borders, combined with generous social welfare. This week, governments that ignored the basics are seeing serious consequences for fantastical thinking. By the same token, however, properly applied math can dispel doomster thinking.
Pollster Mark Penn presents a "math camp" this week. Itās a refreshing response to offset the hysteria about the economic disruption of Iranās "global terror network."
We use 20 million barrels of oil a day. So if oil prices increased during the war to $110 a barrel that is an extra $1 billion a day in costs. So 60 or 90 days of conflict adds about 60 to 90 billion in costs in a 29 trillion dollar economy. About 70 per cent of that is domestically produced so 70 per cent of it stays in the US economy. It just shifts from one sector to the other. In comparison, Trump took in 260 billion in tariff revenues last year and all of the fears of it were overblown as that amounted to only 1 per cent of the economy. The impact here of even a 4 or 6 month conflict (and thereās no indication it will go on that long) are much less than last yearās tariffs. Oil was over $100 for 3.5 years of Obam[a]ās term without daily headlines.
[snip] Imagine for a second how much the world will save in military and human costs once the greatest sponsor of global terror falls or is contained. This is a regime that gunned down thousands of unarmed protesters while diverting all its resources to missiles and nuclear weapons and their aims remain regional domination and beyond.
Net net the math shows that once again the impacts, while absolutely real, are way overblown. The Iranians are playing to our fears and only once we realize that the benefit of removing their stranglehold on the Mideast is worth trillions in the long term can we put our fears in perspective. Once we overcome them, Iranās principal remaining source of power on the West collapses.
Ingenuity and structural resilience go far in preventing doomsday predictions from materializing. Major Gulf oil producers are showing how strategic management and resilience are working around the Strait of Hormuz constraints and Iranian attacks.
Iran struck the UAEās Fujairah oil export terminal, which bypasses the Strait, twice last week. In response, it raised its export capacity by 57% to 1.9 million barrels a day.
The Saudis have an East-West pipeline that bypasses the Strait and is pumping oil at its full capacity of 7 million barrels a day (per Bloomberg).
The UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Qatar signaled their intent to open the Strait with military force. If they follow through on their pronouncements, traffic through the Strait will be freely flowing in a short time.
Posted by: Grom the Affective ||
03/31/2026 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[1776 views]
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#1
This is a regime that gunned down thousands of unarmed protesters
Haven't heard much about this lately.
Must be 'olds'.
#3
I'm always polite and respectful to people unless they give me a reason not to be. Liberals almost always give me a reason not to be within a few seconds.
[CdrSalamander] Three generations of U.S. military officers have built and revised various OPLANs against Iran. We, if anything, have over-planned. Reagan, Bush41, Clinton, Bush43, Obama, Trump45, Biden, Trump47ā¦everyone and their Pentagon has built off each otherās plans.
Weāve got this. Weāre executing decades of hard work. That is why it is going so wellā¦from a military point of view.
Posted by: Clem+Elmish4239 ||
03/31/2026 09:11 ||
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Link ||
[1804 views]
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#1
Commander Salamander has been a Godsend for these two decades.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/31/2026 12:10 Comments ||
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#2
/\ Truth.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
03/31/2026 15:08 Comments ||
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š®š· Iran built underground missile cities near the Strait of Hormuz. The B-1B is the best tool America has to crack them. So hereās the problem.
š®š· Iran built underground missile cities near the Strait of Hormuz. The B-1B is the best tool America has to crack them. So hereās the problem.
Iranās most critical facilities are buried 1,500 feet deep in solid granite with a natural compressive strength of 25,000 to 40,000 PSI. Against that rock, the worldās most advanced bunker buster is mathematically capped at a penetration depth of just 20 to 30 feet.
Physics dictates the underground facilities remain functionally immune. ļæ¼ Military engineers call the 1,400-foot gap between the bombās maximum reach and the facility ceiling the dead zone.
More at the link
Posted by: badanov ||
03/31/2026 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[1758 views]
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#1
What if it just gets sealed up? Hope they brought flashlights.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/31/2026 6:21 Comments ||
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#2
Wondering how much of these underground missile cities were funded by the Clinton's, Obama, and Biden handlers? Given they dumped $$ Billions on Iran during their reigns as acting KINGS?
#3
Physics, also geology. From a comment in the linked article:
The north bank (Iranian side) of the Strait of Hormuz is not characterized by widespread granite at or near the surface.
The area is part of the southeastern Zagros Fold-Thrust Belt (ZFTB), specifically near the Bandar Abbas syntaxis where the belt transitions eastward into the ZendanāMinab Belt.
This is a compressional tectonic zone formed by the ongoing collision between the Arabian Plate (to the south) and the Eurasian Plate (to the north), with convergence rates of ~20ā22 mm/year.
So not at all monolithic or massive.
The geology here is dominated by thick sedimentary sequences ... That is limestone
GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP)
estimated range penetration from 8ā25 ft (2.4ā7.6 m) per strike in limestone.
But I still like B-52 strikes on the surface features.
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/31/2026 8:54 Comments ||
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#4
strategy so far on these missile cities is to entomb all the entrances
this requires repeated hits as material can be dug out but after enough entombing, the dig out job becomes more difficult
if we had tech to locate the vents that would allow some other options (similar to the technique used by Luke Skywalker in SW IV)
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
03/31/2026 9:48 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.
[BrusselsSignal] Is Pakistan finally facing the monster it created? Is Europe prepared for the consequences? The answer is in the smoke rising over the Durand Line. For decades, the Islamabad establishment has played a dangerous game, nurturing the Taliban as a strategic depth agent against India. Today, this plan backfires, and the resulting explosion of violence threatens to send a fresh wave of illegal immigration toward the already strained borders of the European Union.
