At least once a week @secwar @PeteHegseth validates what I have said for nearly two decades: the path to fixing what ails the @DeptofWar lies in putting a warfare-qualified terminal O4 in charge of it. Admittedly, my declaration also included a corollary where 75% of General and Flag Officers are “retired.”

I didn't vote for that specifically. Mostly because I didn't think of it. But, I strongly appreciate it.

Bukele is talking about smashing Haitian gangs and quoting Deuteronomy and I really like this guy.

Counterpoint: "International Law" is just how we explain the United States Navy to children and invalids, and the Navy ain't gonna do anything to stop him.

I told you. I told you all. I told you over two years ago. I told you over two years ago that Vivek Ramaswamy isn't an American and never will be. And what did you say? OMG you just don't like him because he's brown you horrible basement dwelling racist. That's what you said. So I waited. I'm not stupid. I know better than to be right too early. Now I'm going to repeat myself. Vivek Ramaswamy is not American. Everything he says or thinks about America, he must mentally translate into the closest equivalent concept from his own culture, rather than understanding it in its own right. When he says that the founding fathers "sacrificed their honor", he reveals that he does not understand what Americans mean by honor. He is instead translating it to the third world concept of "face" or "izzat", which is not what we would call honor at all, but social standing or reputation with the existing power structure. Similarly, when he thinks that Amy Acton is somehow compromised by having been raped at the age of 12 by an adult charged with her care. Under third world values, this is a loss of "face" for her. Under American values, it's considered dishonorable to rape kids. But the largest and most obvious clue, the one that should have dialed you all in, came earlier. Came two years ago. You know the one. The issue isn't that he called Americans lazy and mediocre. That's just third-world woofing, and we can absorb a simple insult. The third world insults us constantly now that we are selling them smartphones and internet access. Around here, we call that "Tuesday". No, the significant point here is that he revealed his complete lack of understanding of how Americans innovate and succeed. Being dragged into cram school by a tiger mom every summer, to drill trigonometry problems, may be how the Chinese and Indians personally succeed in their societies, by passing examinations and winning secure niches in their society's top institutions gaining much face thereby. But this is not how Americans succeed, and it is not what propelled America to the pinnacle of civilization, technology and wealth. We succeed by how we cultivate, motivate, and allocate talent. This is something you can't explain to third-worlders, no matter how many times you repeat yourself. If they could understand it, they would not be third-worlders, because their countries would long ago have turned into first world countries. They just think we are saying that we are so talented that we don't need to work hard. That we are so much smarter than they are that we can watch Saved By The Bell and have sleepovers and go to prom while they are drilling math problems. This might actually be true. Our average IQ is about 20 points higher, give or take. But that's not what's really going on here. What's going on here is that Americans do work hard... but not in the context of an institutional pipeline set up by the state. Americans work hard by playing. When two American kids invent heavier-than-air flight, they don't do it by going to drill trigonometry problems and sitting for the state college exams. They just play around with kites, and bicycles, and bicycle kites, without asking anyone's permission or blessing first. And they keep obsessively tinkering until something works. They are working hard. But they are not working hard because someone is standing over them with a whip. They are working hard because they are obsessed with bicycle kites. Americans greatness comes from three guys in a shed. We innovate by fooling around. Is every American like this? This talented? This obsessed? Of course not. But the secret sauce has another ingredient, and that is respect for results, not for credentials or riches or titles or izzat. If some American shows up wearing stained overalls, with straw sticking in his hair, and says that his name is Jimmy Ray Hatfield, and he reckons he just mighta dun figgered out this fusion containment thing, ya'll, then Americans don't throw sticks at him. We say... show me. Guys like Vivek don't get that. They don't understand that in America, credentials and job titles are just something you pick up along the way to learning to actually make something, and it is the making of something, not the titles, that we consider to be success. Vivek in office would be a disaster for Ohio, not only because he is a grifting scumbag, but because one cannot foster American greatness if one does not understand what makes America great. The greatness of America is in its people. If the republican party does not realize that, then it must be replaced by a party that does, because the goal is not for republicans to win, the goal is for America to win. And TransAmericans are not Americans.

The War Department has designated Confucius Institutes as a threat to our national security.

Literacy starts at home. 📚

The right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Surround yourself with people who see a flying car and say, "Awesome!" Not people who see a flying car and say, "It's not actually flying" or "I don't see the point." This post is not about cars :)

Do NOT miss this absolutely majestic Out of the Silent Planet concept art from illustrator Eli Ring. You will long evermore for an epic feature film version. And yet when you see his vision of Dr. Elwin Ransom, the hrossa, and beyond, you may not need a movie. artstation.com/artwork/x3yX1…

To be clear: ✅ The @DeptofWar has never procured or used and will not use the mRNA flu vaccine. ✅ The historically used flu vaccine is optional for all Service members. ✅ Military Departments all complied with @SecWar memo by: 1. Making the flu vaccine optional, and 2. Requesting reasonable exceptions for force protection reasons. ✅ All Service members may request religious or medical exemptions from the flu vaccine. ✅ The health and welfare of our force is our number one priority.

When was the last time you heard a politician talk like @JaceYarbrough? Incredible stuff.

The mRNA flu vaccine is not authorized for use by any @DeptofWar or military entity, to include TRICARE. Per @SECWAR memo, the flu vaccine is optional for all Service members except where a Military Department has requested an exception for instances like basic training and operational deployments. There is no place for misinformed rumors when considering the health of our Warfighters.

I am getting lots of incoming questions about the public execution of Nidal Hasan, mostly because I have been outspoken on wanting public executions for over a decade. My position is simple: Executions should be public and brutal, not private and medicalized. They are the ultimate example of the state's monopoly on violence, and the only way to keep that from running out of control is to confront voters with the trade they have made every single time, that they might have appropiate confidence or revulsion in the institution. This is not new thinking. George Washington thought the same. The way we have shifted from hanging to firing squads to doctors quietly injecting chemicals that send our worst gently off to sleep is awful and dystopian, a total short-circuiting of important feedback mechanisms. It makes needless executions more likely, not less so. People who demean this as barbaric or yucky miss the whole point. It doesn't somehow become torture or inhumane (as the UN is suddenly claiming) just because we decline to hide the act behind a curtain. And then there are those who suggest any revel in the death of those who truly deserve it is an indicator of a broken or diseased mind. To the contrary. It is normal, good, and aligned with our natural and national order. That it has not been done here in 60 years is an indictment in and of itself. And that is without even getting into the fact that men were not hung for stealing horse, but that horses may not be stolen. "I would to God that one of the most attrocious in each State was hung in Gibbets, up on a gallows five times as high as the one prepared by Haman. No punishment, in my opinion, is too great for the Man, who can build his greatness upon his Country’s ruin." - George Washington, 1778

I can't find my tool thread, so I'll post this solo: Huge win for America. Amazon now sells Tekton tools... and they're price-competitive with the Chinese brands. Tekton is an American company based in Grand Rapids Michigan, and while not all of their tools are made in the US, they strictly avoid China-based manufacturing. All of their "budget" tools are made in Taiwan. ICON Tools are a brand of Tekton. I just wish they were at the top of the charts for tools. I'd like to see amazon pull the no-name china slop.

An older man shit on my teenage son the other day. Told him he should get a job. My son is 18. He’s in the middle of building an off-grid cabin and launching a YouTube channel that’s just starting to get some traction. This particular gentleman, I guess, doesn’t have much use for entrepreneurship or for a kid building something of his own. When my son mentioned it to us, my wife looked at him and said, “Look at that man’s life. Is that how you want to turn out?” Obvious no. She didn’t lecture. She just said, don’t worry about the advice then. That’s the takeaway... When you get unsolicited advice, don’t take it too seriously unless the person giving it is living a life you actually want.

Where it started: Trump ran on being the most pro-2A President ever. Where it is: Two years into this presidential term and NFA registration for suppressors, SBRs, and SBSs is done, $200 NFA tax is zeroed, pistol brace rule is done, FRTs are legal, DOJ is suing cities, states, and territories, over gun control, DOJ rules ban on handgun sales to 18-20 year-olds is unconstitutional, ban on concealed carry for self-defense in post offices is unconstitutional, and the list goes on. Thank you @realDonaldTrump @ATFDirectorRC @AGToddBlanche @CivilRights

I fully support DJT’s and SECWAR’s decision to execute Nidal Hasan for killing all those innocent people 30 years ago. It’s long past time. I support the firing squad, and I hope they have to reload. I support making it public. But… There’s always a “but…” I do not celebrate it; it’s merely a distasteful thing that must be done… no different than killing in war. After every flight that I dropped bombs on bad guys, I finished the debrief and got midrats (midnight rations), I went back to my stateroom and spent some time praying for those I killed and their families. This is the same… pray for Hasan’s conversion and his immortal soul. Eternity is a long time. “But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” — Matt 5:44

Here’s something I invented a few years ago to utilize my surplus winter solar power. When the wrecked-Model-S batteries that run my house are fully charged, I divert my solar electricity to hot water heating elements that are tied into my hydronic radiant floor heat. Free heat!