Jeffery Epstein unlikely to have been murdered nytimes.com/interactive/2026… First, I want to complain. I have wasted an hour analyzing the article and getting into Twitter. On another level, my mouse works like a lady who is undecided if she will or she won't. Further, I wasted an hour getting into Motor Vehicles Administration Maryland to ask for an emissions waiver for my non-functioning (6-months) vehicle on grounds I am 80, dont drive the car at all, and am seriously demented. Now look, people. Either I can do productive work (for which I rarely get paid) or waste my time on the stupidities of mundane life and an ancient barely functional computer. Second, my personal biases about Mr. Epstein. I have zero interest in that affair except (1) He broke the law; (2) morally, since I live in a country where half the polpulation - i.e. - males over the age of five, salivate over under-aged women, I feel unconfortable about passing moral judgment on Epstein ; and (3) I do not believe Mr. Trump started the Iran War (or anything) to wag the dog on diverting attention from his alleged role in Epstein's sordid antics. (I may be the last person older than 2-years in America who feels it necessary to defend Mr. Trump on ANY point. But Mr. Trumf, like any cactus, is entitled to "innocent till proved guilty. This said, I must congratulate NY Times on a masterful investigation which is what a newspaper is supposed to do. NYT concludes it is highly likely Epstein DID commit suicide and was NOT murdered. You must read the article yourself to make your own judgement. What struck me was: (1) How completly dysfunctional New York City jails are (and to be fair, most American jails). (2) I am reminded for the 1000th time how brutal American jails are. (BTW, suggestion: do NOT commit a crime within US jurisdiction; it will not end well.) (3) The sheer difficulty of physical access to Epstein's cell, even though the jail was horribly dysfunctional. I have more to say but lunch is 3 hours late.

Well shiver me timbers. Contrary to my doubts, US-Iran have come to an agreement over Hormuz. Or have they? 1. The deal is to be signed in Switzerland on June 19, 2026 2. Assuming it will be signed, the US has gained - precisely nothing. I have no wish to heap ridicule on my President who is already massively troubled. But I'm afraid - forgive me for saying this, but Mr. Trump has TACO-ed in style. 3. US will immediately lift blockade of Iran ports and Iran will reopen Hormuz. But this is no gain because before the war Hormuz was open. 4. US will unfreeze $25-billion in Iran assets. I'm sure there are conditions here and US will not send $25-billion in used $1 bills right away. Some symbloic start. yes. 5. Agreement on N-enrichment put off for 60-days. No US gain here because Iran will take its time. In any case 10-years is being mentioned. and IMHO, it will take 10-years for Iran to restart. So: partial gain, but please consider last year's bombing was supposed to have ended the Iran N- program. I think it was certainly delayed by several years. Not much gain. and if US had to expend - say - a true $100-billion (not by the Pentagon's fancy accounting. I think we're entitled to ask if US had offered Iran all the above and $100-billion might the result been the same as today? Not to speak of the billions of $$$ lost because the oil price went up by $20-30/bbl. Basically the US has lost another war and made a fool of itself in the world - dont think the world sniggering hasnt started or that it will end for another 20 years. My country has been humilitated to get a deal it would have gotten by doing nothing, because we have such morons leading us. Its got nothing to do to with GOP or Democrats, all our political class is idiots. This does not matter to Mr. Trump because he's made a deal, hollow as it is. Forget to mention: Iran's three proxies will be back with a vengence, so we' ve sold Israel down the pig pen double time. Oink oink. Bibi, you thought your're so smart. Countries of the world depending on the US for their security: you were warned before this blowup when the US clearly said you're on your own. You'd be insane not to nuclearize after the US threw about 8 decades of diplomacy over night. I'm sure the US is 10-20 years will just LOVE 10, 20, 30 more nuclear powers. India kindly note:P AS a good American I've been telling you for 30 years not to rely on my country for your security. Its not just a question of adding 500 more N-warheads to your presumed aim of 500 (which is a fake-out, hah hah). I means quadrupling your defense budget to 6% of GDP starting yesterday. Of course you wont do it, youd rather be a vassal of China, but that's none of my beeswax. In America, aside from us patriots noone cares. I hope you understand you may care about America, but the ruling establishment does not care about you. We've been made fools of - again. Situation normal, all fouled up. When will we ever learn (Bob Dylan)

I will ignore the non-news of the US-Iran dustup. US says a deal will be signed Sunday; unless the US has agreed to a deal which will disgust the American people, a Sunday deal appears unlikely. xxxxx I'd rather return to an old topic, Kashmir. I got US Prof. Perry Anderson's "The Indian Ideology" by error. Error because it doesn't provide any new wisdom. Its well written, as is usual for with western books on India. Nothing is untrue factually. But the books reeks of the usual anti-Indian bias on China and on Kashmir. One would think we'd progressed beyond Charles Lamb/Alister Lamb viewpoints on China and Kashmir. The two Lambs are good scholars, but on those topics they're quite behind times - at least as far I can see. Today I'll focus briefly on Kashmir. Does anyone believe India has denied Kashmir "freedom"? Nehru twisted himself into pretzels refusing to interfere until his warped standards of democracy were met, realpolitick be darned. Even with the Pakistani tribals at the gates of Kashmir he was still "On the one hand and on the other" that he was famous for. If Sardar Patel (who was perfectly willing for Kashmir to go to Pakistan) had not forced the issue, Srinager would have have fallen to the raiders and it would have game over. Then Kashmir would be enjoying the "freedom" under Pakistan the Indians so cruelly denied Pakistan. Hari Singh, tyrant of Kashmir, was not forced to sign accession to India. He had no choice, else this great democrat would have had his head chopped off by the raiders - who loved democracy. You can analyze this till the goats have been raped to death; that wont have changed a thing. The Pakistanis would have ruled Kashmir as a colony. The Buddhists, Shia, Sikhs, and the herders would have been killed. not that the Lambs or Perry would be concerned. None of this is relevant to Nehru's missteps, hypocracies, whatever. Then there is tired, crippled, limping carnard that the Indians used 400,000 to 750,000 troops to hold down Kashmir. I have gone over this, to be ignored as usual, but 350,000 or more troops are to protect India's external frontiers. India has missed many a chance to take Kashmir back because the usual poltroons and cowards rule, and continue to rule, India, who head for the latrines each time WAR with Pakistan or China is mentioned. That's a minor untruth: they dont make it to the latrines; they go in situ. AT the very peak of the insurgency at MOST 200,000 police and troops were combating the insurgency, but that includes the police and Border Security Force and troops that were present anyway (I could qualify this. but how many times do I have to do this.) There never were 750,00 troops, at most 500,000 including police/paramilitary. And the reason there were so many is the Indians didnt burn down villages at the slightest suspicion nor (with the exception of some military ops) use airpower. 50,000 soldiers with 500 helicopters and 100 fighter aircraft would suffice if the Indians went at it a la Vietnam. I'm headed for my bed with my Teddy Bears (They play at night and snooze by day). This subject is just too boring and on top of that I have to do is volunatrily: not even for one US cent. na

Dont feel like doing an update. US Side says an agreement on Iran has been reached. Iran say well there's still somethinks to be decided. In any case, if Iran makes an ageement, they'll break it when they can. If you really must, read dailymail.com/news/article-1… xxxx Strange. An intelligent person said if Panama and Suez can charge tolls, why cant Oman and Iran. Well, if Oman builds a canal, they certainly can charge tolls. But this shows you the redefination of "intelligent" down to moron. Then we wonder why the world is in such a mess. Neither Oman or Iran built Hormuz. Its a natural waterway. Duh. If the US gives in on this, it will throw into the trash 250 years of what the US has from indpendence stood for: freedom of navigation at sea. Actually 248 years if you want to be exact. Anyway, whatever. Who cares. xxxxx

we continue the US game of "proprotional self defense" in the Gulf. Doesnt the US Administration feel ashamed of itself voicing such mealy mouthed hyprociy? Noy a bit. The US thinks its being clever. Let me advise that monkeys in a zoo who throw their poop at visitors for amusement are more endearing then Washington Ah, say the wise pundits, America is showing those scalliwag Iranians who is in charge by turning violence off and on. Now look, if violence is the key to us winning, as I believe, why arent we keeping the violence ON till the Iranians grovel? This is some new theory of warfare? The Iranians will have to give in when their armed forces and bureaucrats give in - the rest can starve to death. And we want to make a deal with these super liars of the world? (Actually, the cynics say, the US wants the Iranians to give us an out. Doesnt matter if they give us an out and restart their nonsense the same afternoon - it will be off the US public's radar for five years. Mr. Trump was right to go to war. But the world and much of America hates him so much (not that he doesnt it) the oil back and goshdarn the future. In America "long term planning" means as much as one circuit of a 25-cm glass bowl means to a goldfish. OK, kids: I've moralized enough for one day. You've heard the mind numbing sermon. You can go back to your porn, sports TV, beer, and Fritos.

twz.com/air/boeing-encourage… Like Ol Man River, discussions about restarting C-17 production just go rolling on to nowhere. Its really a case of Talk Talk You Worry Me To Death. (I remember reading years ago men produce more words a day than women. In case India has forgotten, the plan was to buy 24, and India bought 11. Typical fail. The Min of Defense proposes, the Min of Finance disposes - to the trash basket. Now India needs more. If production resumes, India's chances of getting more than 5 are about the same as seeing a purple and green moon flashing off and on with a message saying "Injiuns are bliffing ijits"

US sources have confirmed a drone was responsible for downing the US AH-64 Apache. It could be the helio just ran into a drone swarm. There are problems with helios being able to discriminate in mass targets over water. (Be assured: US knows this problem and is working on it). Or it could be - as Mark Cancian the defense analyst says - the Russians have developed a seeker that can guide the drone to moving targets. But let us stick to the simplest explaination (Occam's Razor (also known as the law of parsimony). It states that when faced with competing explanations for the same phenomenon, you should select the one that makes the fewest assumptions and requires the least amount of extra variables. From Wikipedia.

Mike Thompson 2:18 PM (46 minutes ago) to me Trump just now from the Resolute Desk: “It’s fully negotiated. They’ve agreed. We have to start signing a paper.” “They should sign a deal.” “It totally prohibits them forever having a nuclear weapon.” “It was just tap, tap, tap.” “We hit them hard yesterday, and we’re gonna hit them again hard today.” That is coercive signature extraction. The deal exists at the substance layer. The fight is now over signing, meaning, humiliation, and enforcement. He is using strikes to end the delay. The “bridges and power plants” line is the pressure ladder. He is deliberately refusing to rule out state-function infrastructure. That tells Iran the next rung is not more radar sites. The next rung makes the state itself feel pain. But note that he refuses to say rather than announces. The threat is the tool. Actually firing it would be a darker phase. This is why Vance can sell a durable long-term deal while Trump talks about breaking Iran’s face. Those are not separate strategies. They are a two-voice pressure stack. Vance: the deal is real and long-term. Trump: sign it or the pain expands. Qatar and Pakistan: the bridge. The strikes: the countdown. Iran is almost certainly working the mediators for a last dignity path, so the regime can say it did not sign under naked humiliation. Trump is trying to deny them exactly that. He wants the record to read: Iran delayed, got hit, and then signed. Current phase: coercive ratification under infrastructure-threat escalation. The deal path is alive, and the danger is real. If he actually hits bridges, power, or water at scale, Iran’s need to answer rises materially, and the window this is all meant to force starts to burn. The deal is no longer being negotiated in normal time. The deal is being beaten into ceremony. The signature is the object. The strikes are the clock. The humiliation is the wrapper. The remaining question is whether Iran accepts the paper before Trump moves from military degradation to state-infrastructure punishment. Editor: I'm too exhausted and bored to analyze this ceasefire biz. So I'm giving you Mike's viewpoint. Just a note: Mike are both conservative on national security, but he has a lot more patience for Washington/Trump Mike Thompson 2:18 PM (46 minutes ago) to me Trump just now from the Resolute Desk: “It’s fully negotiated. They’ve agreed. We have to start signing a paper.” “They should sign a deal.” “It totally prohibits them forever having a nuclear weapon.” “It was just tap, tap, tap.” “We hit them hard yesterday, and we’re gonna hit them again hard today.” That is coercive signature extraction. The deal exists at the substance layer. The fight is now over signing, meaning, humiliation, and enforcement. He is using strikes to end the delay. The “bridges and power plants” line is the pressure ladder. He is deliberately refusing to rule out state-function infrastructure. That tells Iran the next rung is not more radar sites. The next rung makes the state itself feel pain. But note that he refuses to say rather than announces. The threat is the tool. Actually firing it would be a darker phase. This is why Vance can sell a durable long-term deal while Trump talks about breaking Iran’s face. Those are not separate strategies. They are a two-voice pressure stack. Vance: the deal is real and long-term. Trump: sign it or the pain expands. Qatar and Pakistan: the bridge. The strikes: the countdown. Iran is almost certainly working the mediators for a last dignity path, so the regime can say it did not sign under naked humiliation. Trump is trying to deny them exactly that. He wants the record to read: Iran delayed, got hit, and then signed. Current phase: coercive ratification under infrastructure-threat escalation. The deal path is alive, and the danger is real. If he actually hits bridges, power, or water at scale, Iran’s need to answer rises materially, and the window this is all meant to force starts to burn. The deal is no longer being negotiated in normal time. The deal is being beaten into ceremony. The signature is the object. The strikes are the clock. The humiliation is the wrapper. The remaining question is whether Iran accepts the paper before Trump moves from military degradation to state-infrastructure punishment. Editor: I still dont see why my Prez stopped the strikes - unless US needed time to replenish. Even if this was true, there's too much snafuing in the Administration. The op started out good and was very well done. Somewhere soon the Administration realized it was wearing a short skirt and no panties. Not good.

Commonwealth Fusion in the US has 70% of its fusion reactor built and plans to bring it online in 2027 arstechnica.com/science/2026… for a steady 400-MW of power (net of what the reactor needs to run it, 100-MW). Being fusion, even us amateurs know there will be magnetic confinement problems. ARW say it has solutions and is confident they will work. Rather than me summarizing the article with the danger of getting things wrong, better you read the article - it is fairly non-technical so as long as you have some idea of fusion reactors, you can comfortably read it. There is a link to a ~40-page paper for you science boffins. A point that struck me: the author says there are the technical details which Commonwealth Fusion is working out, but there is a financial side. With solar power becoming every cheaper, the cost of the power is a question mark. Editor: At the same time, solar is so darn cheap because China is massively subsidising it to wipe out solar competitors, after which, we can assume, solar costs will jump. Unless some technology advance keeps solar very cheap. At the same time, I dont know enough about to say it is something China can monopolise. Panel cost is obviously a major input, but there are other costs.

On Tuesday June 9 an Apache AH-64 was downed in Hormuz was downed. The 2-man crew was rescued by an unmanned boat, the first such rescue in the history of warfare. The US said Iran was responsible. A Shaeed UAV is said have accomplished this this feat, though I dont see how an attack UAV can down a helicopter. At any rate the US blamed Iran. The US then attacked five Iranian bases, said to include radars and SAM sites. (Dont ask me to explain the logic of all this; I dont have anything to with planning this war. This kind of Bish-Bash solves nothing except display a US temper tantrum, forgotten as quickly as it flared up. I wasnt aware wars are fought scoring points and then going back to fake talks. If it had been me, I would have launched 1000 attacks and continued till Iran called "Uncle!" I am reminded by an article I saw that Iran's oil exports have been cut drastically. The pool of Iran oil at sean is shrinking. Iran needs (if I have this right) 1.4 million for its own. so I assume it has either started to shut oil wells which (I know zero about this) is very damaging, or is about to start. Its like not turning a garden hose off and on at will. Its difficult for us amateurs to get good figures, but I'm told Iran's oil exports and down to 10% from before the war started. Remember, a good deal of oil being allowed to leak through the blockade is from Iraq or other friendly US producers. I think very little Iran crude is getting through; what is getting through is stuff like naptha. This is just a guess, but see fdd.org/analysis/2026/06/05/… which gives only 64,000 tons/day naptha. Keplr estimate and 80-million Iran bbl are at sea outside the blockade and 67 million bbl is trapped inside the blockage line. Looks like its going to be game over soon despite the naysayers who maintain Mr. Trump has lost. Hormuz Straits Monitor: 10 ships of 1.1-million DWT last 24 hours. Brent $93/bbl Iran struck targets in Kuwait and Bahrain. Oh yes: US said it made a proptionate response!!!! When are the bliffing retards in Washington gonna learn you either play to win or you dont play. Or you intellectualy challanged kids have totally forgotten Vietnam? Yes, you are too young to remember, but isn't there something called history books? Or are you unable to read?

realcleardefense.com/article… This is an excerpt from "The Lamentable State of British Defence Acquisition" By Bill Sweetman. This is a refreshing reminder that no matter how badly India's defense acquisition is snafued, India is in good company. The difference is that India is only a developing country, and Britain is - allegedly - a developed country. And its sobering that US warship construction has some echoes of the circle of failure that British defense acquisiton is caught in. The British Army’s premier project, the Ajax armoured reconnaissance vehicle, subjects its occupants to levels of noise and vibration that leave them disoriented and nauseated. The Royal Air Force’s acquisition of Wedgetail air-surveillance aircraft was cut down to three aircraft but left Britain on the hook for costly radars for five of them. To save money, Britain used pre-owned 737 Boeing Business Jets for two systems. But one, previously in Chinese hands, is mired in cybersecurity issues, there being many ways to place a bug in an innocent avionics module. For a nation with Britain’s naval tradition, the inability in March to quickly deploy ships to support operations in the Middle East or to augment the defences of RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus is red meat to a tabloid headline writer.

Letters to the Editor on his short article on India's missile cruiser Type 18 project. (You can't call a 13,000-ton warship a "destroyer". Names matter. Anything above 10,000 tons should be a cruiser. Anubrata Das🇮🇳@AnubrataDastech·Jun 1Might as well buy 19000 tonnes nuclear powered Project 23560E cruisers from Russia with 136 VLS including Zircon and S-500. Perplexed@perplexed2012·Jun 1Last destroyer ordered in 2011 during UPA time. Our kadi ninda ganja didn't order (bad word deleted!) in last 12 years Soumabrata Biswas@soumabrata_b·Jun 1Idrw passes off blog posts as genuine news, don't trust them. A@HedronBlue·Jun 1 We are building SSBNs and SSN from scratch and we cant build next gen destroyers??? Sandrocottus@Sandrocottus29·May 31 Indian large destroyer (cruiser) plans long predate any delusions Trump have. Sambarta Dutta@SambartaD·Jun 1>idrw says >believable info Pick one lmaoooo

breakingthenews.net/Article/… (Thanks to Mike Thompson) "Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei's senior adviser Ali Velayati warned on Monday that Iran could block the Bab-el-Mandeb, a strait separating the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa. It is a major shipping route, including for oil exports. "The current security situation in Bab al-Mandab should not lead the enemy into miscalculation. The choice is yours: stop this foolishness or enter a balanced equation for disciplining the two straits," Velayati said, referring to Bab-el-Mandeb and the Strait of Hormuz, according to CNN." Editor: this is what I love about the Iranian leadership. Here they're going down the toilet, so they up the ante by making more threats. People say the Iranians are "proud and strong". I say they're Stoopid. What's great about being proud and strong at the cost of your people? Has anyone asked the Iranian people if they're feeling proud and strong? Of course not, since Iran is an authoritarian state that is fighting for its own survival, not for its people. Yes, I understand that maybe 90% of the world hates Trump World and right now maybe 90% hates Israel (This 90% is a metaphor). But that doesn't mean Iran is right. An N-armed Iran is a threat not just to Israel, but also to all Sunni Mideast. And also all infidels which happen to include my country the US, and 90% plus of my native country India, and a similar percentage of Pakistan, where I was born when it was part of India. We can come up with 10 reasons why an N-armed Iran is not a threat. The number one reason is that Iran is not mad, they dont want their country destroyed n the retaliatory strike Israel, the US, and premptively UK/France (possibly, and perhaps even China and Russia). Now, I know about Iranian Shiasm as much as I know about Faster Than Light spaceship drives. Which is to say very little. What I do know is that one regime I can visualize will use N-weapons offensively is Iran - the martyrdom thing. So I hope I'm wrong. Do people want to take the chance? (BTW, people admire Ho Chi Minh. I do too. Except until say 1966, when the US started causing serious damage to North Vietnam. As an example, I'm told 800,000 NVA probably perished along the Ho Chi Minh Trail. So the North Viet were fighting because they were proud and strong. But was their leadership responsible? No. All they had to do is agree to two Vietnams; the US would have gone home, and then the North could have taken over the South. Yes, I know this is a simplification, but you get my point. The deaths of perhaps 2 million Vietnamese, north and south was futile. Some clever diplomacy would have done better). So I am NOT admiring Iran's proud and strong leadership. They're simply willing to fight to the last proletarian - ie, powerless - Iranian. Iran is going to lose - unless my president continues seeing a deal for which he gets personal credit.

cnn.com/2026/06/07/world/liv… Iran says what's holding up negotiations is US keep changing its position. Well. This is like the polar bear calling the Arctic white (imperfect metaphor - but I'm trying to overcome racial stereotypes, I may need a peaceful visit to the UK). America DOES keep changing its position, but each time its weakening its demands and giving Iran more, Which naturally leads Iran to ask for more. It's not the Iranians are intrinsically bad people (though the leaders are because all they want is to preserve and enrich their dictatorship). Now, my dear Prezziness, the Iranians at least are being honest. And the converse is that no negotiations with Iran are possible. Who told you there were? Only thing that is possible is to defeat them and metaphorically sow their fields with salt. THEN you negotiate. If you dont see this, then only the Lord can help you. In my experience the Lord can be forgiving. But only to people who repent of their hubristic sins. Far be it for mr to speak for the Lord, but I dont see any in this town. You'll have to learn the hard way.

Just a short note on Russia/Ukraine. There seems no doubt Russia is taking a beating. Troop losses above replacement. Ground taken in dozens of meters. Ground lost in hundreds. UAV attacks on Baltic Fleet. Widespread attacks on oil infrastructure etc. That said, I'm not sure the conclusions that opposition to the war within Russia is growing are correct. This conclusion is reached with some quotations from published Russian sources. But is this western propaganda or the truth? Is Mr. Putin unable to punish people for negative material? It sounds logical the Russian domestic is upset especially with the price rise etc. But do we know HOW upset? Its being theorized that Russia's generals are feeding Mr. Putin dreams of victory that are false. Its being said he spends most of his time in Russia's N-bomb proof deep bunkers under hundreds of meters of rock. But how much of this is true? Its a golden rule of totalitarian regimes that they truthful channels open. So is Mr. Putin really out of touch? Are his generals really working behind Ptomekin drama scenes? Maybe it's all true. But maybe it isn't. I just dont know. Maybe Russia is not suffering THAT much. What if the casualties being taken by the dregs of Russian society and DPRK that the public doesnt care much about. Again, I don't know what's true. I do know when Russia was the Soviet Union they couldnt take 15,000 dead in 10 years. Of course, there's a lot more to it. But right now we're told they're taking 15,000 dead, permenantly disabled, and POWs EVERY TWO WEEKS!!! So what's going on? I recently last year Glantz and House "When Titans Clashed" several times. Its a useful corrective to the general Western belief the Soviets won by sheer numbers and unbelievable losses. Glantz and House are highly scholars and they maintain the Russians won as much by skill. I'm not entirely convinced. I mean, how much skill does it take to win at 1:3 to 1:6, the phenomenal material superiority, the pressure of a two-front war, and a complete indifference to casualties. But if the USSR had skill, what happened that now the Russians seem to have NO skill? I dont know, but I am completely baffled by this war.

US-Iran at it again Bang Bam Boom. Some ceasefire. Iran sent 4 attack drones to Hormuz. US blew up a coastal raar. Iran said this was a serious ceasefire. And sneting attack drone into Hormuz is not? Firing missiles at other Mideast states is not (I believe Bahrain and Kuwait were particular targets.) Now may I ask why an Iran coastal surveillence radar was still functioning? Is this the efficiency US is showing in Hormuz? Do we intend to win this war? Or is the US waiting for our Prez to make a deal for the sake of making a deal, how ever pointless? Must be some sophisticated new form of war that us plebians are too stoopid to unnerstand (wad of chewed bacca spit at the ground; new stalk of grass stuck in mouth). If US idea of fighting a war is forcing starving Iranians to east dirt, we'll certainly win around October or a bit later. I was unaware that the US plan was to starve people out. xxxx UKR testing ABM at 1/4 Patriot cost. Less sophistictaed of course. so multiple rounds will have to be fired. Then we learn the coy news that US is firing 2-3 Patriots per Iran missile. Is that true, or do they mean "it can take 2-3 Patriots to make sure of a kill? Who knows? Who care? I certainly dont. (Thank you, Mrs. Trump.)

US carriers: 3 deployed, one training, 4 maintenance, 3 at ports. LPH/Marine battalion group =3 Very sad, truly pathetic; but you know my view. Absolute minimum 15 (4 building on wartime basis, building to 18. China has 4, including 1 training, building to 8 leisurely By mid 2030s, then to 12 by 2040s. Of which 2 will be off Americas west coast, two deployed Indian Ocean and Mediterranean, 4 in port/training, 4 in maintenance. No worries, America. Hopefully we'll get 18 before the sun grows cold, hah hah. TWZ.com rumors: smaller task groups, more numerous. So what do we expect - 1 LPH supplemting the CVS, with 2 escorts for each of 4 carriers? Sorry USN, you still cant have my yellow rubber ducky; you'll mistreat it.

I have been sitting for 1 hr and 15 min staring at a blank screen because I dont know what to say. This started with my reading that Oman wants to build a canal bypassing Hormuz. At first the debate sounded along the lines why does Oman want to build an expensive canal when it can simply triple its old pipeline (1.8 million bbl/day) plus the new one which is 50% complete (1.8 million bbl day to 11-million bbl a day), at a cost of about $200-billion instead of a canal of $500-billion to $1-trillion (figures vary)? So I was looking forward to a debate on this valid point, when I started running into a series of comments basically saying "what's the point when the pipeline will be vulnerable to Iran missiles?" Wah wah wah. There an answer to that: if Iran attacks the pipeline, the world can attack Iran. But instead of thinking positively, it was more "wah wah wah". So am I supposed to believe since Iran can attack the pipeline (or the locks on a canal), we should cry like babies? What is the matter with people? This is the most pathetic thing I have heard. We are supposed to let little Iran hold up a fifth of world oil? So why not ask what will happen if Iran attacks the Suez, or Indonesia attack the Malacca Straits or what pitiful scenario you want to conjure. The reason that people dont want to block oil flow is that noone is mad enough to want to get blown up by an irrate world in their turn. Iran is playing with suicide and they're getting it with it so far because Preziness Trump is so hated by the world they're torn between holding their noses and helping the US on Hormuz, and comitting suicide themselves. (Prez T, please take note.) As far as I am concerned, let the world commit suicide if they want to put personal hate before realpolitik. We (the US) have ample oil. So the price goes up unless Hormuz is cleared. But in time it will come down as the world (especially the US) switches to alt-energy. (Right now, of course, the US Government is PAYING people to jettison alt-energy because of our oil interests. but I wont comment on US craziness here.) Now what games the world is playing - especially the US - I dont understand. But if the US lacks the will to clear Hormuz, how are we going to keep Taiwan safe and Chinese imperialisim in check? (Wot a stoopid question - we arent going to fight China for Taiwan or anything else.) Now, personally I assess Iran has no cards. If it wont collapse in three months, it will collapse soon after, and then Prez T can go "nena nena nena" to the world. (We're very mature here in the US). This entire problem is caused by Mr. Trump love of making "deals" rather than thinking of his country, and "deals" with an Iran that takes making "deals" as weakness. Otherwise we could be on our way to solving the problem. Please understand I WANT Mr. T to succeed rather than suffer a total loss of credibility. xxxxx Hormuz 10 ships, 1.1-million DTW, B rent $96. Please notice more craziness: US is HELPING at least 4 ships a day run the US's own blockade! On my Sainted Aunt Sally.

OMG. This is simply unbelievable navalnews.com/naval-news/202… US Navy is getting serious about (a) getting its warships built in Japan/ROK; and/or getting components built (I assume this means the hull and possibly the power plant). I think the US Navy realized some time ago that US shipyards are not able to do the job. Problems include (a) a very serious shortage capacity, which possibly is tied to lack of capital and building yards lacking vision;(b) shortage of trained labor, which is odd given these are top flight jobs, but I suspect there are disagreements who should pay for the long years of apprentice training, government or the yards; (c) the complete collapse of US civilian shipyards in the face of ROK competition and China's subsidized merchant construction, which has reduced the demand for skilled workers. In their defense, US shipyards say the US Navy keeps changing specs on them even when ships are in an advanced stage of construction. US Navy could say home yards are simply not efficient enough to perform in timely fashion and the weapons technology changes too fast for them to switch to Mark 2 warships. Now, I am not an expert on US warship construction woes. So please check for yourself on what I've said. But even the politicians who want to defend jobs in their constituencies have come to understand the crisis (and especially maintenance/overhaul/modernization of older vessels) and the crisis is such that parochial concerns can no longer overrule national security. What baffles me that ROK ships and not just cheaper (which is to be expected) but their shipyards work so bliffing FAST. xxx H.I. Sutton, the submarine expert says in navalnews.com/naval-news/202… that China has launched a new class of submarines (120 by 10-11 meters) that may be conventionally powered with a low-output N-reactor for AIP. This is certainly innovative (if true). People have been talking about this for some years, but China may have done it. The hve experience with the concept, thwie T-042 This would significantly reduce noise (though US SSN/SSBS are very quiet and save magabucks. The boat is sailless. China has tried this before with no success. Sutton notes the PLAN has launched T041 class (2024) with nuclear-AIP. Sutton is careful to hedge his assumption that the new boat maybe nuckeay-AIP, saying it is possible it is a straight SSN. The US turns out 1.5 boats a year, where as China has launched 15-20 boats in 8 classes in 5 years (double or even 4 boats a year. With SSNs quality is everything and it is significant US keeps upgrading its Virginia class. V is under construction, class VI and VII are yet to come. I'm not impressed with China's 2-3 boats a class. At the same time, the US has fallen very short of SSNs. It needs 75 into the 2030s instead of the less than 48 it is likley to have. Granted these are top-quality. I am not arguing for less quality, but one boat can be only one place at one time. We need many more highest quality boats. If I may add, a fave bugbear is the USN is completely fatuchied (Polite word for the more usual "f-----") on ship names. An example is the SSN names. They started out witgh tge usual submarine fish names, went to cruiser names (cities), then went on to state names. Since the SSBNs also have state names (battleships). There's only 50 states, we ran out of state names soon. So then we went back to fish names, but now USN is using city (cruiser names) again. An untidy mind set is not good. Indian Navy used to be very good, but now they're fatuching up again. The Pakistanis at least I grudgingly admit seem to still consistent,