LAUGHING WOLF ON THE END OF NON-PROLIFERATION AND POLISH NUKES: The Only Surprise Is…

I suspect Iran is not the only country working hard to become a member of the nuclear club. You don’t have to go through the Manhattan Project to get to be a member, and you don’t have to be as unsubtle as Iran in creating a viable nuclear weapons program.

The fact that Poland has stepped out in the open like this is interesting, and a bit amusing. If you go back and read this post and the linked posts, I got called some names for suggesting that Poland be made a nuclear power and be the northern anchor for a new, non-military, ‘nato’ (lower case deliberate) that can stand as a bulwark against anything from the East as well as against a Muslim/Islamist West. While I think there is still a chance to prevent an effective European Caliphate (England is starting to wake up, but…), I also still very much think we need a Christian bulwark in the East if Western Civilization is to survive.

I also think some open and honest conversations on what is likely to happen when nuclear non-proliferation efforts are fully dead.

Beijing seems uninterested in either arms control or reasserting non-proliferation, making both largely moot points.

HMM: New anti-government chants reported across Iran after major rallies abroad.

While the street protests have petered out in the face of the brutal crackdown, last week, residents of Tehran and other cities began shouting slogans against the leadership from the relative safety of their own homes inside vast apartment blocks.

In a new night of chants, residents of the eastern Tehran district of Ekbatan on Sunday shouted “death to Khamenei,” “death to the Islamic Republic” and “long live the shah,” according to the Shahrak Ekbatan social media account, which monitors the area.

They need guns.

GEORGE MF WASHINGTON: When Bigger Isn’t Better.

A few weeks ago there was a leak out of the Marvel camp that the opening sequence of the new “Avengers” movie promises to be the biggest action sequence of all time and that it will “blow people’s minds.” This is an entirely logical next step in the ongoing arms race that the studio blockbuster business has become, and I suppose we are all supposed to be duly excited by the prospect. But Hollywood would do well to remember that every arms race eventually metastasizes into self-parody.

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And though it occurs during a different sequence I want to point out one more fantastic stunt from “For Your Eyes Only” because it’s too good not to. Later in the film Bond and his Greek Ally Milos (Topol) raid a warehouse which is rigged to explode. At the end of the sequence (3:55), Bond’s stuntman emerges from the warehouse seconds before it blows up, the pressure wave knocking him flat and leaving us with the certainly that the poor bastard was hit by flying debris.

That’s real filmmaking, my friends, the kind you only get to try once… And it absolutely cannot be duplicated inside a computer.

“For Your Eyes Only” was released in 1981, the beginning of a decade full of movies that shot real action with real actors on, in and around real physical locations. Commando, Beverly Hills Cop, Cobra, Tango and Cash, 48 Hours, Top Gun, Predator, Rambo, Bloodsport, Terminator, Aliens, Above the Law, Lethal Weapon… we could name them by the dozens. What all these movies had in common was constrained budgets that did not allow for the kind of spectacle that can only be achieved through expensive special effects. The people who brought us the great action programmers of the 80’s operated more like Spielberg with his busted shark… they did the best they could with what they had available to them in the real world.

For Your Eyes Only is a perfect example of temporarily downsizing a franchise, a movie that worked surprisingly well as a contrast from the previous Bond outing, the bloated and campy Moonraker.  Wanting to compete with Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Hollywood’s then-burgeoning sci-fi obsession, Cubby Broccoli had Bond in a spacesuit, armed with a laser, sending him up to a giant zero-gravity space station on one of a fleet of Space Shuttles (a few years before the real NASA Space Shuttle first went into orbit), in a particularly silly mess. In contrast, Leonard Marltin gave For Your Eyes Only three stars, and wrote in his long-running TV Movies and Video Guide:

After years of space-age gadgetry, cartoon villains, female mannequins, and giants with steel teeth came this one-shot return to the old days of Ian Fleming minimalism. No other James Bond film has provoked so much debate among 007 fans (even us); judge for yourself. The chases and stuntwork are spectacular; debuting helmer Glen directed 2nd-unit on some earlier Bonds.

Will Hollywood get the message? Alas, probably not, now that it has the opportunity to incorporate cheap AI-driven special effects with paid screenwriters and the most expensive actors on the planet:

ENDORSED: Nancy Mace proposes bill to make aliens deportable, inadmissible for animal cruelty.

The measure is called the “Illegal Alien Animal Abuser Removal Act of 2026.”

“If you come here illegally, you’re already a criminal. Add animal cruelty to the list and you’re on the next flight back to where you came from,” Mace said, according to a press release.

“We have a duty to protect the voiceless from torture and abuse. Animal cruelty is a proven red flag for violence against people. These criminals escalate. Our bill makes it crystal clear: commit these sick acts and you’re deported. Immediately. No second chances,” she added.

Previously: “John Wick is the moderate position on this issue.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: GOP Will Hit the Lottery if AOC Is Dems’ 2028 Nominee. “Gavin Newsom has essentially been running for president for a year already, but Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been uncharacteristically coy thus far. Or maybe we’ve just been distracted because Jasmine Crockett didn’t shut up once during the first 10 1/2 months of 2025. AOC finally stepping out and dipping her pedicured toes in the test waters, and it’s not going well.”

HE’LL DO TO THE COUNTRY WHAT HE DID TO CALIFORNIA: Gavin Newsom goes global: why US voters should beware.

While the governor’s 2026 budget proposal attempts to frame the challenge as a “manageable” $2.9 billion shortfall, the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office has painted a far bleaker picture, projecting an $18 billion deficit.

This massive shortfall threatens essential services to those who need them most.

This is not just bad luck with the markets; it is the result of a governor who expanded permanent social programs using temporary, volatile tax windfalls.

Under Newsom, California is a place where only the ultra-wealthy or the heavily subsidized can afford to live.

The state has a cost-of-living crisis that drives the middle class away, thanks to factors including:

•Energy costs: Californians pay the highest electricity rates in the continental United States — nearly double the national average.

•Gas prices: Aggressive environmental taxes and regulatory premiums keep California’s gas prices much higher than in the rest of the country.

•The poverty paradox: Despite its vast wealth, California has the highest poverty rate in the nation when accounting for the cost of living. More than 7 million residents lack the resources to meet basic needs.

When Newsom boasts of “California values,” he speaks of a system that punishes middle class residents through high taxes and regulatory burdens, forcing them to flee to other states.

California’s neo-feudalism gone national leaves little room for escape.

OLD AND BUSTED: They’re Eating the Dogs!

The New Hotness?

Exit quote:

UPDATE:

CHANGE:

BIAS BY OMISSION:

MORE NUKES IS GOOD NUKES: US Airlifts New Nuclear Reactor Breakthrough.

The U.S. Departments of Energy and Defense on Sunday for the first time transported a small nuclear reactor on a cargo plane from California to Utah to demonstrate the potential to quickly deploy nuclear power for military and civilian use.

The agencies partnered with California-based Valar Atomics to fly one of the company’s Ward microreactors on a C-17 aircraft — without nuclear fuel — to Hill Air Force Base in Utah.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Michael Duffey were on the C-17 flight with the reactor and its components, and hailed the event as a breakthrough for U.S. nuclear energy and military logistics.

“This gets us closer to deploy nuclear power when and where it is needed to give our nation’s warfighters the tools to win in battle,” Duffey said.

Why not deploy nuclear power almost everywhere?

FROM MARY CATELLI:  The Enchanted Princess Wakes.

Once upon a time, a princess was cursed at her christening — but not the one you heard of.

When the fairy decreed that Rosaleen would fall into an enchanted sleep, and how she would wake, the grand plans of kings, to unite kingdoms, failed. They sent her to an out-of-the-way castle in the mountains, in hopes the curse would do no harm to anyone else.

There, alone, Rosaleen lived and learned, and realized that she herself had to be ready to face the curse, and when it broke.

WE KNOW THAT BLOOMBERG HAS CHOSEN ITS SIDE: The Ocasio-Cortez Disaster in Munich Gives a 2028 Election Primer As Bloomberg News Cleans Up Her Mess.

Not sure that the mess has been cleaned up, though.

UPDATE:

NEWSOM’S ‘BRILLIANT’ COMMS TEAM REALLY STEPPING IN IT:

Biden was approaching 77 when DNC-MSM began running their “he’s got a stutter” stories in 2019. Newsom is 58. In 2026, that seems an awfully young age for his comms team to attempt to compete in the “oppression Olympics.” (Perhaps 58 seems incredibly old and infirm to the 20-somethings who are likely ghostwriting his tweets.

(Classical reference in headline.)