It's TACO Day

Trump has canceled the livestream of Nidal Hasan's execution following (completely predictable) widespread and worldwide condemnation of this bit of mindless cruelty.

Evil and stupid.

President Trump on Thursday canceled the Pentagon’s planned livestream of the execution of the Army officer who was convicted in the 2009 Fort Hood mass shooting.

Pentagon officials said last week that the execution of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who killed 13 people and wounded 32 others at Fort Hood, Texas, would be broadcast via livestream, a decision Mr. Trump initially said he supported.

But in private, Mr. Trump quickly began to deliberate with his advisers amid widespread criticism of the decision, and learned after the announcement that Mr. Hasan is paralyzed, according to several people familiar with his thinking. The president’s main concern was whether broadcasting the execution would deter other mass shootings, according to a White House official who was granted anonymity to discuss his thinking.

Here is a message to the editors of the New York Times, stop sane-washing Donald Trump and the Trump administration like you did in the last paragraph.

They are people for whom publicly displayed cruelty is a source of pleasure, nothing more.

………

Mr. Trump added that only immediate families of Mr. Hasan’s victims could watch the execution in person.

The president and his advisers remain adamant that Mr. Hasan deserves to be executed, but the president’s decision to change course constituted a rare retreat in the face of enormous public pushback. The criticism came from Democrats, Republicans, military officials and faith leaders who maintained that broadcasting the execution would turn it into a barbaric source of entertainment that violated core democratic principles.

"Rare retreat?"  Not rare at all.

TACO (Trump Always Chickens Out) is a f%$#ing meme.  He reverses himself all the time.

Now you are attempting to imply steadfastness from the man with a back-bone akin to that of a Common Bloodworm. 

The "Civilized" World

So it looks like Donald Trump and SecDef Pete Hegseth want to livestream the execution of Nidal Hasan by firing squad.

Honestly, the level of depravity here is beyond anything I could have imagined.

President Trump loves a public spectacle. After 14 years on reality television, he has brought one show after another to his presidency — a military parade down Pennsylvania Avenue, the biggest fireworks display ever, even a cage match on the White House’s South Lawn.

Now his administration is planning another unprecedented public exhibition, but one with a macabre twist: livestreaming a firing squad execution.

For the first time, Americans would be invited to watch on their cellphones, laptops and other screens as a convicted murderer is put to death. Never before has an official execution been broadcast live in the United States, turning what in theory is supposed to be the solemn application of justice into an event for an audience of potentially millions.

Under the plan announced this week, those who click online on Dec. 3 would see Nidal Malik Hasan, who gunned down 13 fellow Army soldiers and injured 32 others at Fort Hood in Texas in 2009, shot by rifle-bearing soldiers at the same base on the same day of the week at the same time of day that he opened fire. No limits on who would be allowed to watch were described, even though an Army manual restricts witnesses to an execution.

………

The idea seemed to shock even some of his colleagues in the administration. Vice President JD Vance cast doubt that it would be livestreamed, telling reporters that “I don’t know that that’s going to happen” and adding that he would not watch if it does. But Mr. Trump said he signed off on it. “Did I approve?” he said. “Absolutely I did.”

………

Even some supporters of capital punishment flinched at the idea of livestreaming Mr. Hasan’s execution, calling it medieval and barbaric. “Hasan should face the death penalty, but making his execution public and streaming it? Beyond disgusting,” said Senator Thom Tillis, Republican of North Carolina. “Public executions are what oppressive dictatorships like Iran and Afghanistan do. It should not be happening in America.”

When Tom f%$#ing Tillis is taking the moral high ground, something is profoundly wrong. 

Headline of the Day

Pete Hegseth’s Big Speech Was Weirdest Village People Cover We’ve Ever Heard 

—Wonkette

I got nothing to add to this.

Completely Unfair

It appears that as sick of SecDef Pete Hegseth's Pentagon staffers are, they find his overbearing wife Jennifer even more aggravating that Captain Cirrhosis.

It's gotten to the point that she is widely referred to as, "Yoko Ono." 

Pentagon insiders are sounding the alarm over the “mess” engulfing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s department — as his wife reportedly tightens her grip on both her husband and his public image.

“She's like his parole officer and PR agent all at once,” one source told the Daily Mail, which detailed Jennifer Hegseth’s unusually powerful but unofficial presence inside the Trump Pentagon.

“Now there's a woman with an extremely tight leash on the man she married,” another source told the outlet Thursday.

Staffers have reportedly nicknamed Jennifer Hegseth “Yoko Ono,” comparing her to John Lennon’s fiercely protective wife. She has accompanied her husband to meetings with foreign defense officials, reportedly taken notes and photos during some discussions, and was included in a sensitive Signal chat about U.S. military operations.

This is completely unfair ……… to Yoko Ono.

Now there is a sentence that I could not have imagined ever saying just a few years ago. 

Who Says That Irony Is Dead?

Nope, No Fascist Imagery Here Why am I not surprised that the Trump administration's new uniforms for Space Force were inspired by the uniforms of the Paul Verhoeven film Starship Troopers?

The Dutch director took Heinlein's militaristic and objectively Fascist novel and turned it into an anti-fascist parable. 

Yes, they really are this stupid. 

It was almost too stupid to be real. Last week, the Trump Administration unveiled new uniforms for the United States Space Force with a more-than-surprising caption: “Inspired by the discipline and functionality of the Starship Trooper uniform.” Now, a “Starship Trooper” isn’t a real military force. In fact, it’s not even a fake military force. It’s the title of a 1959 novel about a futuristic military force (who are not directly called “Starship Troopers”) which, in its 1997 film adaptation, was a very obvious commentary on fascism.

The film’s political intention (which is based on a more subtle and debatable intention in the novel) [No, Heinlein's original is Fascist] is something its director, Paul Verhoeven, is used to being overlooked. As far back as the film’s initial release, people latched onto it solely as a big-budget, sci-fi action blockbuster, which it was. But the whole thing was also an over-the-top satire. Space Force clearly missed that with its reveal, so Verhoeven is setting the record straight yet again, almost 30 years later.

………

For the U.S. government to be so proudly announcing it’s using uniforms based on a film, while also completely missing the point of that film, is kind of perfect. After all, as Verhoeven says, the characters in Starship Troopers don’t know they’re fascists either.

You've got to remember that the people behind this are just simple politicians. These are people of the Beltway, the common clay of the Pennsylvania Avenue. 

You know... morons.

For Your Consideration

I give you Zapp Hegseth:

Omg 🤣 pic.twitter.com/Vhw3H8RCYo

— Ingrid Guthrie (@IngGuthrie) September 10, 2026

Yes, I know. That which is seen cannot be unseen.

Only $10M? Such a deal!

The US air force is looking for a replacement for its $30 million MQ-9 Reaper following extensive losses in Iran.

Note that that this price only accounts for the airframe and flight avionics, not the specialized mission equipment.

Given that the Hawker Hurricane, which first flew in 1935 but has a higher climb rate and top speed (Lower ceiling, payload, and range for the Hawker though) cost about $50,000, it does seem to me that the Reaper is a bit overpriced.

The U.S. Air Force is targeting an approximately $10 million unit price, excluding sensors and certain other systems, for a drone to succeed the MQ-9A Reaper. The cost of a fully kitted-out Reaper today is generally reported to be between $30 million and $50 million. The Air Force is also now pushing to accelerate the program to acquire the new drones, dubbed the Massed Modular Aircraft (MMA), amid what it admits are “concerning” Reaper losses in the course of recent operations against Iran.

Air Force Lt. Gen. Christopher Niemi, the service’s Chief Modernization Officer, told reporters that the goal was for the MMAs to be “closer to half” the cost of a Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA), at a roundtable at the Pentagon yesterday, according to Breaking Defense. He also said the service was hoping to see the price tag on its future CCAs fall to around $20 million after full-rate production of those drones gets underway.

Beyond cost, the Air Force has previously said that it wants the MMA drone to perform the same general intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) and strike missions as the MQ-9A. To that end, stated program requirements to date include a speed of at least 200 knots true airspeed, a munition and sensor payload capacity of at least 2,800 pounds, an unrefueled combat radius of at least 2,300 nautical miles with payload, the ability to self-deploy one-way at least 8,000 nautical miles, and the ability to operate from runways no longer than 6,000 feet. The MMAs also need to be highly modular and use open architecture mission systems to make it easier to integrate new capabilities and functionality down the line.

Given that the fly away cost of a 6 passenger SOCATA TBM 910 is about $4½ million, it seems to me that this new UAV is just a trifle over-priced.

This is F%$#ing Insane

Former Biden National Security Council staffer Jacob Stokes is calling for military strikes on Chinese data centers to prevent the PRC from eclipsing the United States on AI.

This guy has drunk so many flavors of Kool Aid, possibly some laced with LSD, that it buggers the mind.

While American tech billionaires fret over the capabilities of Chinese AI, one national security advisor has a brilliant idea to flatten the competition: simply bomb their data centers to smithereens.

In a new report titled “Superpowers and AGI,” former Obama-era national security official Jacob Stokes calls for United States to begin preparing readiness drills in response to Chinese AI development — up to and including military strikes on the nation’s data centers, the South China Morning Post reported.

AGI, or artificial general intelligence, refers to the theoretical point at which an AI model achieves human, or superhuman, levels of reasoning and intelligence. Though the science is still out on whether such a system is even possible, Stokes’ report begins from the assumption that AGI is inevitable, and that if the US can’t get to it first, its military needs to prepare to take drastic action.

Referring to the US as a hypothetical “laggard state” behind China’s achievement of AGI, Stokes — now the deputy director of the Indo-Pacific Security Program at the Center for a New American Security, a prominent DC think tank — writes that the country could “try to sabotage the leading state’s AGI systems, either through physical infiltration or offensive cyber operations; that is, cyberattack.”

 How do idiots like this secure comfortable sinecures at think tanks?

I File This Under, "This and $17.47 Will Get You a Starbucks Venti Pumpkin Spice Latte with Eight Shots of Espresso, Seven Pumps of Pumpkin Sauce, and One Pump of Maple Pecan Sauce."

Still, a man portable high power laser is kind of cool. 

My guess as to the power?  To my not particularly trained eye, I would guess about 1kW.

„Laser weapons“ powered by a backpack energy source have appeared in the Russian Armed Forces pic.twitter.com/Z5aE2JnYIg

— Drone Wars (@Drone_Wars_) August 23, 2026

As to the tech? It could just be batteries, or maybe a fuel cell and a capacitor.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Professionals Talk Logistics

At Exercises Southern Cross and Pitch Black in Australia the USAF was only able to deploy ½ of the F-35s that they planned, and those jets were delayed by a week.

Once more we have a, "It was a viciously sharp slice of mango, wasn't it, sir," moment for the Pentagon.

The U.S. Air Force’s latest fighter deployment to Australia has revealed an uncomfortable reality: If it wants to get into the fight quickly, it needs support from allies.

The service spent months this year gearing up for a nearly monthlong deployment of 12 Lockheed Martin F-35As from Alaska to Australia to support Exercises Southern Cross and Pitch Black. In the end, only six aircraft arrived and were more than a week behind schedule.

This deployment was planned over a year in advance, and still, it fell apart.

A Complete Sh%$ Show

Things have gotten so bad on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln that sailors are literally jumping overboard to get off the ship.

Military families and Congress members are sounding the alarm about an intensifying mental health crisis onboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, as its 5,000 sailors and marines endure a record-breaking deployment at sea tied to the war with Iran.

Two leading specialist military papers, the Navy Times and Stars and Stripes, are reporting that there have been multiple attempts by sailors to jump overboard as poor conditions and mental stresses on the Lincoln reach the breaking point. The crew is in its ninth month at sea, and has spent 250 days consecutively without making land – a record for an aircraft carrier in modern times.

Not to worry.  I'm sure that once Hegseth's plan to give testosterone shots to sailors will fix everything.

……… 

The Navy Times gave details of thwarted suicide attempts onboard the aircraft carrier during the current deployment. Annabelle Loma told the outlet that her husband had tried to jump overboard after his spell at sea kept being extended. 

At this rate, we are going to start seeing a return of officers being fragged sooner rather than later.

The War Crimes Were the Purpose

I am not surprised that the Trump administration's program of targeted assassination in the Caribbean and the South Spear have not slowed drug shipments to the United States.

This is not a surprise.  The goal of this program was never to interdict drug shipments.  It's goal was to murder innocent fisherman for in order to generate the illusion of toughness.

The Trump administration’s deadly military strikes on alleged drug trafficking boats have not reduced the amount of cocaine entering the United States, but they’re prompting criminal organizations to develop new strategies and tactics and undermining traditional investigative methods, according to a previously unreported assessment by the Drug Enforcement Administration, a closed-door congressional briefing and interviews with current and former U.S. and foreign officials.

It's all posturing and politics and corrupt murder. 

Gee, You Think?

Iran has struck a number of clandestine CIA sites in the Persian Gulf area recently, leading some to wonder if Russia is providing targeting information to Tehran. 

Gee, you think?

The US has been providing extensive real-time intelligence and extensive mission planning assistance to the Ukraine since the war there began.

Why would anyone think that Russia would not do the same themselves for their ally?

When US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Russian Foreign Secretary Sergey Lavrov on Thursday in Manila, on the margins of a summit of Southeast Asian nations, Moscow’s war on Ukraine was officially the top agenda item.

But the meeting between Rubio and Lavrov was held under the shadow of fresh reports suggesting that Russia might be playing a more active role than it has publicly acknowledged in Iran’s attacks on United States military sites in the Middle East.

Reports of Iran targeting sites belonging to the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) first emerged in the early days of the US and Israel’s war on Iran. Three days into the war, on March 3, The Washington Post reported that a CIA station in the US embassy in Riyadh had been targeted, according to two people familiar with the matter. On March 6, CNN reported, citing US intelligence sources, that Moscow had been helping Tehran locate US personnel and aircraft in the Gulf.

Now, more recently, the Reuters news agency on Wednesday reported that Iranian drone attacks on CIA facilities, specifically on the embassy in Saudi Arabia, had prompted US intelligence to investigate possible Russian involvement, suggesting that the strikes’ effectiveness and precision could suggest possible evidence of support.

I would make a number of points here, first I'm pretty sure that Iran's organic intelligence capabilities in the region are pretty good, and locating covert CIA facilities is probably well within their capabilities, and second, this is a foreseeable and measured response to similar American actions in the Ukraine.

You mess with the bull, you get the horns. 

 

 

OK, Now I Take Them Seriously

We have seen a number of people sounding the alarm for years about the People's Republic of China naval buildup.

Generally, I have been dismissive of such efforts.  I have generally seen their efforts being more directed to near deterrence and national prestige.

There is simply too much to be done in training, culture, infrastructure, and logistics for them to be a global naval power. 

Well, I just saw a data point that indicates that the PRC is getting serious, specifically the construction of an enormous at-sea replenishment ship. 

As the old saying goes, "Amateurs discuss tactics, professionals discuss logistics."

This is serious.

A very large and interesting-looking vessel is taking shape at a shipyard in southeastern China. What can be seen of it so far points strongly to it being the largest naval resupply ship anywhere in the world. A vessel like this would be valuable for supporting the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) growing blue water ambitions. It would be particularly important for enabling the PLAN’s conventionally-powered aircraft carriers, their air wings, and their escorts, to operate for sustained periods of time far from Chinese shores and friendly ports.

The ship is being built at a yard on Longxue Island, which is situated just southeast of the city of Guangzhou. A review of satellite imagery from Planet Labs indicates that it has been under construction since at least February. A subsidiary of the China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) operates this facility. That firm is currently known as the CSSC Offshore and Marine Engineering Company (COMEC). It was previously called Guangzhou Shipyard International (GSI).

………

In recent years, the yard has become well known for the construction of unique and unusual vessels with clear military or at least dual-purpose applications. This includes what may be a one-of-a-kind ostensibly civilian ‘research carrier,’ jack-up barges designed to connect together to support amphibious operations, and a stealthy trimaran drone ship. Soviet-designed Zubr class heavy hovercraft, which China has built examples of domestically under license, are also regularly seen there. 

The ship being built on Longxue Island that is now drawing attention is approximately 885 feet (270 meters) long and is 121 feet (37 meters) across at its widest (also known as the beam), based on available satellite imagery. There is a superstructure at the bow end with clear wings for a large bridge and a mast on top. There is also a separate superstructure at the stern end with exhaust stacks situated in front of it. 

………

At-sea replenishment, in general, is a critical capability for any major navy that desires to conduct sustained blue water operations without having to rely on friendly ports. Even during peacetime in the broad expanses of the Pacific, port facilities of any kind, let alone ones capable of supporting large warships, can be few and far between and under direct threat. 

The Last Refuge of Scoundrels

So, the Pentagon has been refusing to review new wind power projects, and now a group of renewable energy organizations have filed a lawsuit to end this mishugas.

About f%^$#ing time.

A coalition of renewable energy groups asked a federal court on Friday to order the Pentagon to resume reviews of onshore wind projects, in an attempt to end delays by the Trump administration that have brought the U.S. wind power industry to a standstill.

Since April, the Pentagon has stopped all military reviews of proposed wind farms, which are meant to ensure that turbines don’t interfere with local radar or flight paths. Virtually every new wind project in the country needs to undergo these reviews, which until recently were considered routine and often completed within months.

………

The delays have led to a “total halt of all wind development in the United States,” the groups told the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon in a lawsuit filed against the Defense Department last week. At least 106 planned wind projects in 21 states have been stalled indefinitely, representing an estimated $47 billion in potential investment.

The delayed reviews are the latest in a series of extraordinary actions by the Trump administration to halt the expansion of wind power in the United States. On his first day in office, President Trump issued a moratorium on all approvals for wind farms on federal lands, and the Interior Department last year issued stop-work orders for five wind farms in the Atlantic Ocean that were already under construction. More recently, the administration agreed to pay several companies $1.8 billion to abandon their offshore wind plans.

Mr. Trump has called wind turbines ugly and expensive, and has instead pushed to meet rising power demand with fossil fuels like coal and natural gas.

“My goal,” he said in January, “is to not let any windmill be built.”

One does hope that whatever judge gets assigned to the case makes it clear to the government that there is no presumption of regularity, and so they will have to provide evidence supporting every "and" and "the".

Best Military in the World

The F-35 has only a 25% mission read rate.

No wonder Iran won the war.

The F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter’s readiness rates continued to decline through fiscal 2025, with the fleet’s full mission capable rate falling to 25%, according to a new Government Accountability Office report released Thursday.

The mission capable rate, which measures the percentage of time aircraft can perform at least one of their tasked missions, dropped from 67% in fiscal 2021 to 44% in fiscal 2025, GAO found.

The full mission capable rate, the share of time aircraft can perform all assigned missions, slid from 38% to 25% over the same period.

Air Force officials attributed part of the fiscal 2025 drop to new jets that couldn’t perform their missions because of software delays, along with scarce parts and corrosion problems, according to the report.

“The F-35 is DOD’s most costly weapon system, but it hasn’t met performance goals and costs to sustain the aircraft continue to increase,” GAO wrote in a summary accompanying the report.

The Military Industrial Complex is now eating itself.

This Was Inevitable

The French and German future fighter project has been shut down over disputes over workshare.

This is not a surprise.  Dassault has always insisted on having complete control of so-called, "Joint," projects, with its partners getting little beyond serving as the program's banker.

One need only look at the two modern examples of cross border aviation projects that actually reached production, the SEPECAT Jaguar, (A joint venture of Breuget and  British Aircraft Corporation) and the Concorde. (A joint venture of Sud Aviation and British Aircraft Corporation)

You will notice that the Dassault had no part in any of this.

More than 40 years after France withdrew from the Future European Fighter Aircraft program, Paris and Berlin have called it quits on their effort to work on a sixth-generation combat aircraft in a partnership also involving Spain.

………

Dassault, which was the industrial lead on the fighter program, a year ago voiced displeasure with the program’s structure. The company said it lacked sufficient control and wanted change. That set off months of industrial bickering. The issue came to a head with a new phase of the development program that was due to start in October.

………

Geopolitics also collided with the FCAS. When the governments shook hands, their ambition to develop a fighter was more an industrial and jobs undertaking than a military necessity. Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 drove a change in mindset, making defense more central to French and German motivations. That also crystallized requirements differences. France needs a fighter that is carrier-capable and can deliver nuclear weapons. Germany does not.

………

Fighter requirements are likely to be reset. Germany and Spain are no longer driven to shoehorn their needs into those of France, which were constrained by carrier compatibility. Throughout the program, Dassault and Airbus concept drawings for the fighter differed, suggesting the gap in requirements definition.

………

When an Anglo-French project to develop a variable-geometry combat aircraft failed in the 1960s after Paris pulled out, London pursued a program with Germany and Italy that ultimately produced the Panavia Tornado. The French withdrawal from the pan-European Future European Fighter Aircraft came two decades later, birthing the Rafale on one side and the Eurofighter Typhoon on the other. In the 2010s, Paris and London explored development of an uncrewed combat air vehicle. The two split when the UK voted to leave the EU, spurring France and Germany to explore the FCAS instead.

Rather unsurprisingly, Germany is working with Spain to resurrect the program.

In a significant development for Europe’s future air combat ambitions, Airbus is trying to restart the program to develop a sixth-generation combat jet, now under German and Spanish leadership. This comes less than a week after the Franco-German-led New Generation Fighter (NGF) effort effectively collapsed in its original form, amid acrimony between Paris and Berlin. The NGF was planned as the crewed centerpiece of the pan-European Future Combat Air System (FCAS), which Airbus, as the leading European aerospace corporation, now hopes to get back on track.  

Partnering with Dassault on a fighter project is a losing proposition. 

Today in Unbelievably Crappy OpSec

I have done a Google reverse image search, and this image, and there are literally dozens of copies of this floating around the web.

We know the size of the boom, the size of the F-16, and the size of Palm Jumeirah precisely.

This means that the location of this shot can be determined with a big of basic map work and trigonometry to well within 10 meters.

Not a good look, unless, of course, you are a member of the IRGC. 

The End of an Era

The US Marine Corps has retired its final AV-8B Harriers from service.

The unmistakable howl of the AV-8B Harrier II has been a soundtrack to U.S. Marine Corps aviation for more than four decades. From the deserts of the Middle East and Afghanistan to the decks of amphibious assault ships at sea, the aircraft’s ability to take off from short runways, operate from austere forward bases, and land vertically made it one of the most distinctive combat aircraft ever to wear American markings. Before then, its predecessor, the first-generation AV-8A Harrier, had pioneered the ‘jump jet’ in U.S. service, after entering Marine Corps service in 1971.

Now, that illustrious era has come to an end.

In a ceremony today, the Marine Corps said its official farewell to the AV-8B when its final operational Harrier II squadron, Marine Attack Squadron 223 (VMA-223), known as the “Bulldogs,” marked the retirement of the aircraft at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina.

The event closes a remarkable chapter in Marine aviation history. The Harrier’s departure marks more than the retirement of an aircraft; it represents the conclusion of a concept that shaped Marine air power for generations and helped define the Corps’ expeditionary character.

It provided some unique capabilities, though these capabilities led to a high loss rate. 

Bad Day st the Office

There was a midair collision at an air show in Idaho.

Two F/A-18G Growlers collided, but all 4 pilots ejected safely.

Two E/A-18G Growler electronic attack aircraft collided during the Gunfighter Skies Air Show in Mountain Home Idaho on Sunday, in a mishap captured in dramatic videos. The four crew members of the aircraft, from Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ) 129‘s NAS Whidbey Island-based Growler Airshow Team, were able to eject right after the collision and are being evaluated by medical personnel, according to media reports. The incident took place two miles northwest of the base, according to the 366th Fighter Wing’s Facebook page. The Growler Airshow Team puts on two-jet displays.

Video of the incident showed the one of the Growlers close in on the other from behind and then collide, striking the lead aircraft’s rear with its nose from above. They then became entangled together, nose up, and then down, before tumbling to the ground. Four small explosions from ejection seats blasting out of the falling Growlers can be seen before the parachutes of the four crew members opened up. The Growlers hit the ground, exploding into a ball of flames, followed by the crew members floating down in their parachutes.

The latest report is that the pilots are being checked out, but it appears that there have been only minor injuries.