Howdy All, a few Interesting Items for your information. Enjoy –
In this issue –
1. Reactor
2. Dogs
3. Code Pink
4. ID
5. Potomac
6. Teachers
7. Database
8. Taxes
1. Reactor. A small but important story last week as three C-17s airlifted a prototype reactor from March AB in Cali to Hill AB in Utah. The 5 MW unfueled reactor is the first delivery of a micro-reactor for testing. It is also the first time such a device has been transported by airlift. The Valar Atomics device was selected as part of the DoE Nuclear Reactor Pilot Program, announced in June 2025. The goal of the program is to expedite testing of advanced reactor designs with the goal of three test reactors in operation by July 4, 2026. Micro-reactors are of interest to the military for deployment purposes, though in the interim, they will use them for daily power for CONUS base electricity. When you take the war machine into less than friendly environments, you need consumables, usually power, water fuel, food and ammunition. Deployments are typically made into areas where they can plug into the local grid or bring their own generation with them (usually diesel or solar under the last administration). The new program intends to explore deployable reactor designs. These always have smaller footprints and are harder to hit from outside, though all have thermal footprints visible via IR. Some of these will also be used to power existing military installations here in the US. Eielson / Wainright near Fairbanks is scheduled to get one of these within the next year or two. Speed of deployment and testing looks to be amazing, far quicker than conventional light water reactor power generation plants which take decades to build and bring online. Speed of the new units is more similar to that of power plants for ships and submarines, which we have been doing for over 60 years. Testing for this particular unit will be done at the Utah San Rafel Energy Lab. Fuel will be transported separately. This is yet another example of Trump efforts to change the energy world. Surprisingly enough, expansion of nuclear capability has decent support on both sides of the political aisle as partisan pushback whipped into a frenzy after Three Mile Island and Chernobyl a decade later has all but disappeared. I would expect to see a proliferation of small reactors military-wide, mostly to power installations, expanding into the civilian world starting with rural population centers. And of course, the AI datacenter guys are looking into them, at least until they adopt a distributed approach to AI a la Jay Valentine’s Fractal Computing which will mitigate the requirement for massive amounts of energy to power them. .
2. Dogs. Who would have thought that dogs would become the latest flashpoint, pushback against creeping Islamization of the non-Muslim world. The story began with a Palestinian activist running Nerdeen Kiswani running her mouth, calling for the newly elected Muslim Mayor of NYC to ban dogs as pets in NYC. While she acknowledged that dogs have a place in society, that shouldn’t include them as indoor pets because they are unclean. Backlash to this little nugget of Islamic wisdom (intolerance) was near instantaneous and withering, to the point where she immediately started claiming it was all a big joke. Note the application of the Muslim Al Taqiyya doctrine allows them to lie to Infidel with impunity. In reaction, Congress critter Randy Fine (R, Daytona Beach) noted that:
“If they force us to choose, the choice between dogs and Muslims is not a difficult one,”
As expected, this triggered all the right people, who unloaded on Fine who has made a name for himself popping off publicly from time to time. But this time around, he is right. Better yet, if it takes an Islamic attack on dogs in the name of Islam to finally trigger some substantial pushback against creeping Islamization and Sharia, I think that will be a Good Thing. Note that this started with one of the people Mamdani brought into NYC governance with him. This is just a start. There will be more. For his part, Fine introduced the Protecting Puppies from Sharia Act of 2026, which won’t go anywhere, but will focus the discussion a bit and be a bit of fun to boot. Note that there is also a push in NYC to start broadcasting call to prayer from local mosques. As much as I dislike that, I do note that I have been listening to church bells from time to time my entire life. If you do one, it is difficult to stop the other.
3. Code Pink. One of the increasingly important stories during the Trump years has been discovery of actual evidence that the NGO world is a fully owned and operated adjunct of the democrat party, usually laundering tax dollars gained by grants or deliver nothing contracts into democrat campaigns, democrat supporting protests, and other activities that support democrat political goals. Not letting an obvious opportunity pass, the other player in this world is China via the Chinese Communist Party, CCP, who does its dirty work via a variety of well-connected billionaires, businesses and NGO donations. Most recent of these are the People’s Forum, Women for Peace (CODEPINK), and other members of the Singham network, non-profits funded by tech mogul Neville Roy Singham an expat living in China whose wife is one of the founders of CodePink. Congressional interest dates back years, though Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley cranked up the pressure last April. That pressure continued last week with a hearing before House Ways and Means on “malign foreign influence.” The organization representatives vehemently denied allegations, ignoring all evidence to contrary.
4. ID. One of the things senate lollygagging on taking up the SAVE Act does is allow us to gather more stories maximizing the contradictions (thank you Abbie Hoffman for that phrase) between their state position against IDs for voting and the way the entire rest of the world operates. Three stories submitted for your consideration.
- First comes out of Somalia itself, which passed a requirement for a biometric ID to be used for voting. We now have a third (or fourth) world nation that will have a more secure election process than democrats want a supposedly first world nation (the US) to have for its elections. Congratulations, democrats, you have convinced everyone that not only do you tolerate corruption, but that corruption is absolutely necessary for successful elections of democrat candidates. Along the way, they are now on record claiming that both blacks and women are too stupid to get an ID, something I would think only applies to people who are stupid enough to vote for democrats.
- Second fun point was a meme that noted 213 House democrat members used their ID to vote against legislation that would require and ID to vote in elections.
- Final ID story comes out of NYC’s new Mamdani administration which is quickly turning out to be a gold mine for mutually exclusive words and actions. NYC got hit by a blizzard over the weekend, not uncommon this time of year. He started the prep by ordering everyone off the streets, apparently practice for the next COVID lockdown. As the city doesn’t have enough people to clear the streets, he asked for volunteers. Plenty of people volunteered. The problem is that the Mayor, who is vehemently against Voter ID for elections, requires up to 5 forms of ID to volunteer to shovel snow from the streets, sidewalks, bus and cab stops. Volunteers got to show up with their shovels and required paperwork, something he was roundly mocked for.
5. Potomac. The sewage spill into the Potomac River upstream from Washington DC is now pushing 300 million gallons since it blew out Jan 24. The sewage is mostly contained, shunted into a canal, and back into the sewage line a quarter mile below the break. This doesn’t work all the time, as clogs of sanitary wipes and other grey water matter need to be cleared from time to time, dumping more sewage downstream. The sewage dump is called the largest in history, just a bit larger than a 2017 spill that dumped 143 – 230 million gallons of sewage into the Tijuana River into the Pacific Ocean below San Diego. Scale of this spill is impressive, as it passed the size of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon blowout and oil spill, 134 – 200+ million gallons into the Gulf of America (Mexico at the time). Not a lot of media interest in this one, though no surprise as nothing is burning.
6. Teachers. The teacher’s unions are actively putting their charges at physical risk orchestrating public school protests and walkouts. In some places, the students have turned unruly, looting neighboring businesses. In other places, they have decided not to play well with passing vehicles, causing accidents and injury. Make no mistake that these protests are orchestrated by the leftist union members, actively putting their charges and the surrounding citizenry at risk. Note that not all protesters are anti-ICE. There are numerous pro-Trump protesters, mostly because there is a well-developed anti-establishment streak in most Americans, and today, the establishment running the government schools is all on the political left. This conflict is leading to a increasing amount of conflict between the students who’ve drank the teacher union’s Kool Aid with those who’ve drank the teacher’s union Kool Aid.
7. Database. What do you do with a massive scandal that directly impacts your ability to get reelected? If you are a Labor member in Great Britain, you hide it. Latest example of this was a report that magistrates courts were in the process of deleting records of the ongoing Muslim grooming scandal. The Times of London reported the archive was being deleted, which prompted a flurry of activity, starting with flat out denial, which quickly morphed into all manner of arm waving about court independence and no requirement at that level to centralize their data with the Ministry of Justice, plans for a newer, better, centralized database, and future improvements all promised Real. Soon Now (with apologies to Jerry Pournelle), Yeah, if you believe that, I have another bridge to sell you. Labor has been up to its ears in brown stuff looking the other way on this scandal for over a decade, punishing complainants and their families. Why? Mostly because they don’t want to inflame their voters who have been told they can do whatever they want to do as long as they vote Labor. This scandal is going to do a lot more damage to its political enablers than anything connected with Epstein which has already reached up into the Royal Family for the first time in half a Millenia.
8. Taxes. One of the little nuggets from California is their 13.3% personal income tax, also known as a Jock Tax, that taxes athletes on income earned while playing games in the state. A number of stories last week started with Superbowl winner Sam Darnold owing more than $249,000 winning the game, while making $178,000 playing the game. In other words, Cali stole $71,000 from him for the privilege of playing in Cali. Cali is not the only state that does this, but it is the worst. The tax not only grabs pay for the game, but it reaches all the way into signing bonuses for that season. This tax has long hit professional athletes. It is now reaching down into the wallets of college athletes on NIL contracts who play games in Cali. What a racket. What a bunch of greedy skunks.
More later –
- AG