Is this a betting pool? fwiw I doubt the friday blocking, but why do you ask?

Our irascible and perceptive expert, John Helmer chats with the ecellent Nima 

Discussing topic> John Helmer: Blood, Money, and the TRUMP DYNASTY – Iran Shows How to FIGHT

Initially loath to take the time to listen, I am glad that I did. John has many fine, acute, observations – alas some of these seem to bode daunting futures…see https://youtu.be/_MsX8GHsViA?t=3

Ahemremember the wisdom lesson of sorcerers’ apprentice…foolin’ ’round with complex systems you doan understand tends to be, at the very least, “bad”.  Announcing that you intend to do it evidences hubris and stupidity… Fools rush in where angels fear to tread. Let there be a flood and the blame falls now upon the fool…

China have bigly navy...

video: https://x.com/i/status/2043731198023774550

Note pretty red flags! Very festive!

China say We expect others not to interfere in our affairs. Iran controls the Strait of Hormuz, and has opened it to us.’

Flying VLO (very low orbit) spy birdies in very thin air (with plenty ozone) thin air with a sort of jet engine...https://t.me/geopolitics_prime/68185  Essentially sub-orbital satellites kept aloft by a tiny engine…

Wear a hat an’ doan look up…they plan to take close up pictures…

Here poster ‘splains… (imho the stated technical problem is trivial…it will work…)

him say>

Washington’s secret plan to rule the lowest orbit (well, it used to be secret, kitty now ‘scaped.)

DARPA has announced a competition under the code name CASTOR, which stands for “Cathodes for Advanced Thruster Operation in an Oxygen-Rich environment.”

Behind the unassuming facade of these terms, Washington has decided to conceal a technology capable of forever changing global intelligence gathering.

Here’s what you need to know:

🌏 Most modern spacecraft maneuver using plasma thrusters fueled by xenon — a rare, heavy, and expensive gas. The logic is that as long as the xenon lasts, the satellite lives and can adjust its orbit. Once the tank runs dry, the multimillion-dollar spy craft turns into a useless piece of dead metal, falls, and burns up

🌏 Inside these thrusters is a critical component — a cathode. In current realities, this cathode instantly oxidizes and “dies” if even a few molecules of oxygen or water vapor hit it

🌏 The US wants to break this paradigm. In the CASTOR project, they are commissioning the development of an engine that doesn’t need any hauled-in xenon at all. Their idea is to not drag heavy tanks into space, but to make the satellite “breathe” what’s around it

🌏 To do this, DARPA is looking for engineers to create an indestructible cathode capable of withstanding 1,000 hours of continuous operation on ordinary air or water vapor at a massive current of 30 amperes

🌏 For a military reconnaissance satellite, an ultra-low orbit is a true Holy Grail. A satellite hanging significantly closer to Earth than conventional craft can see everything. Its optics can distinguish people’s faces in detail. Its radars can see through cloud cover and most camouflage nets. And its antennas can intercept signals from army radios on the front lines

🌏 The only thing preventing the US from putting its cameras there right now is that at this orbit, the residual atmosphere acts like sandpaper. It severely drags on the craft, causing it to quickly lose orbit

🌏 If the American engine starts running on the very same air that is slowing it down, the satellite will use that aggressive environment as free fuel. It could remain in orbit for years without refueling or needing a replacement launch

Remarking that there are errors in the post. The “fuel” is electricity to run the thruster. What he calls “fuel” is reaction mass. In an ordinary jet engine the reaction mass is air (and gases produced by combustion of kerosene). In a rocket 100% of the reaction mass is carried in the rocket. Therefore in the CASTOR project they plan to use ambient very low density gas, aka “air” as reaction mass. It’s a jet engine. The electric power is assumed to be from solar energy, but it could be from thermoelectric nuclear decay…which would be really nasty…at very high altitudes the ambient O2 is excited by solar radiation and forms O3, ozone. This is more reactive than O2. I wonder about corrosion in the machine from flying in O3 rich gas. The cathode problem seems to me to be trivial….but I ain’t sayin’ why… 😉  

Distressing indications that bourgeois corruption, the very reason for Stalin’s purges and those of Xi today, is feeding delusions and if not treason, then a facsimile of it…in the heart of Rus…as it did when the USSR was liquidated by those who became “oligarchs”….when the rich chose policy, the State is headed to ruin…

Brother Helmer writes….

“Inside the Kremlin Wall there is only one man sitting or standing whose closeness to President Vladimir Putin has so excited his ambition to be rich (billion-dollar rich), and to be powerful (the next head of government), that he dares to shout from the ramparts that peace on the Ukrainian battlefield, relief of global economic sanctions, and prosperity with US investments will materialize very soon on condition that Russia puts its unquestioning trust in President Donald Trump.

Unquestioning means, for this man,  never criticizing Trump for anything he says or does —  no war he wages, no ceasefire or peace agreement he breaks.   It also means never questioning Putin’s trust in him.

This man is Kirill Dmitriev, the President’s “Representative for Investment and Economic Cooperation with Foreign Countries”  — that’s to say, special negotiator with  the Trump family’s money-making regime, including the US Treasury.“I believe he acts with 100% approval of Putin and does indeed speak for him,” says a source in a position to know. “He is Putin’s Whisperer.”

Brother Helmer writes on…see…Dances With Bears » VLADIMIR PUTIN, KIRILL DMITRIEV AND WHISPERS OF THE RUSSIAN SUCCESSION  ………..https://johnhelmer.net/vladimir-putin-kirill-dmitriev-and-whispers-of-the-russian-succession/#more-93903

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Golly! ahem zo ‘sprized! First Barry and Big Mike, and now Pence? Oh my goodness! This buggers the imagination! …er, beggars, sorry… 😉 

Claim: https://x.com/dcopechatter/status/2043464952690688127?s=20

“A gay male escort in Indiana has come forward alleging that during his time as Indiana Governor, DISGRACED former Vice President Mike Pence hired him and used his services DOZENS OF TIMES, engaging in TAPED LEWD SEX ACTS on a “weekly basis.” This man says that he was prepared to come forward to out VP Pence for years but was threatened and intimidated by his political allies into not doing so, and he calls VP Pence’s closet homosexuality THE WORST KEPT SECRET IN INDIANA POLITICS.”

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Kaitlan Collins on X: “It appears as if Trump has deleted his post portraying himself as Jesus after facing some backlash from his own supporters. https://t.co/9ZpWXBgL9L” / X

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https://x.com/AFpost/status/2043673457326718991

Bibi brags...Benjamin Netanyahu said that JD Vance personally relayed the details of the peace talks to him on way back from Islamabad: “He reported to me in detail, as members of this administration do every day.”

Brother McGovern expressed his concern that he begins to suspect that the nazis are not going to permit the mid-tern elections, and he wonders about some sort of ICE enabled mass arrests… Ray only mentioned this briefly. His chat with Napolitano…https://youtu.be/1TfIiM9OvQ0