Sometimes, the military finds ways to give the American taxpayer a bargain.

Precision, for example, can save a few bucks while still allowing the United States military to un-alive bad guys; just ask anyone who is familiar with the careers of Carlos Hathcock or Chris Kyle.

Instead of pouring machine-gun, rifle, and mortar fire down range, they were adept at knocking off bad guys with one .30 caliber round - and the taxpayers saved some money, in addition to which the bad guys became maladjusted at the realization that if they stuck their heads up, the last thing to go through their minds is likely to be 180 grains of America.

Sometimes, we can do it by using lower tech, too.

This brings us to a recent concern expressed by the acting Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral James Kilby, about how expensive the missiles are that we are using to revoke the birth certificates of Houthi rebels in Yemen.

“New acting Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Adm. James Kilby said he regrets the Navy’s reliance on expensive, high-powered missiles to counter the Houthi threat in the Red Sea and pledged to push for cheaper, more efficient solutions.

 

Speaking to reporters at the Sea Air Space conference in National Harbor, Maryland, Kilby said he was "not concerned" about the Navy’s ability to protect its people – such as the 350 sailors aboard the USS Carney missile destroyer – or its ability to safeguard commercial shipping.

 

He is concerned, however, about "not having better ways to more economically attrit the threat." 

He has a point - and we, as a nation, are nearing $37 trillion in debt. So, how do we square that circle?

Well, here's a notion:

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Before Donald Trump arrived at the White House in January 2017, we were noting various manifestations of “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”

Given the benefit (or detriment) of holding several advanced degrees, including one in psychology, I defined TDS in detail as a form of hysteric cognitive dissonance:

“Thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes resulting in dissociative behavioral and emotive expressions, which render the afflicted incapable of free thought or critical evaluation, and subject to fear and blind hatred of all people and things associated with Trump, to the extent they will abandon normative logic and reason, sever familial and fraternal relationships, and exhibit increasingly angry emotionally incontinent verbal and physical outbursts.”

 

I would conclude that the escalating frequency and intensity of hysterics associated with TDS are greatly exacerbated by the consumption of the hateful rhetoric spewed 24/7/365 by Leftmedia talking-heads and scribes, and across social media platforms.

Realizing the potential for an endless income stream, therapists adopted a kinder, gentler name for TDS, rebranding it as “Trump Anxiety Disorder,” a designer diagnosis for snowflakes and social justice warriors who fear a sociopolitical climate that does not comport with their safe-space value system.

The symptoms generally include a sense of helplessness and lack of control, resulting in anxiety, confusion, and insomnia.

 

While that may be a nicer diagnostic tag for a revenue annuity, the word “derangement” is a much more accurate description of the behavior of leftists and their Democrat Party socialist influencers.

To be clear, the election of Donald Trump did not create the epidemic of emotional incontinence and resulting hatred — the outbreak of TDS and cognitive dissonance on the Left.

Rather, the election revealed it.

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DC is abuzz with a ton of Trump-hating journalists and politicians all of a sudden learning that national security is a thing about which to be concerned.

The Beltway has been seizing and pouncing on a story that they believe is an opening to attack Donald Trump, or at least slow down his pace of progress in the first couple of months by slinging mud at his cabinet and senior advisors.

The story doesn't interest me in the slightest. It's not hard to see the motivation of those now calling for resignations and firings. They're exploiting a mistake in order to scandal the new administration into a standstill.

What I do find of extraordinary importance is what is taking place on a tiny island in the Indian Ocean that happens to contain a very long 12,000-foot runway.

 

Diego Garcia Air Force Base is a joint U.S. and U.K. base on the largest of the Chagos Islands.

The Brits have controlled much of the region as part of their British Indian Ocean Territories, but in 2024, they negotiated transfer of the island to Mauritania, with the exception of a 99-year lease for the Air Base, which is now operated and used by both the Brits and the Americans.

It also happens to be due south of Iran.

In the last week, a pretty significant buildup of U.S. aerial assets have been arriving on the archipelago, and the amount of open source information thus far is something that very well might be of great consequence to the greater Middle East very soon.

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The American president has lost patience with the Russian leader – so have his own people.

The Kremlin is nervous.

On Saturday night, a limousine caught fire north of the headquarters of the Russian security services.

Last week, footage showed servicemen being frisked by special protection officers.

Those same officers were later seen opening up sewer hatches in a hunt for bombs near where the Russian leader was speaking.

To Western intelligence agencies, the situation is becoming clear:  within Russia’s top brass, the knives are out for their leader.

Western analysts are often accused of wishful thinking. Rightly so.

In March 2022, an op-ed in the New York Times described Russia as a “Potemkin superpower,” naively suggesting that just the faintest push would cause the whole regime to suddenly collapse.

Such a projection has not come to pass.

But there is one thing the rising paranoia does certainly reveal:  Putin does think he’s vulnerable.

You can understand why. Let’s first consider the feeling within Russian society at large.

250,000 soldiers have died – grieving mothers are now starting to write to president Putin demanding explanations, with one telling Sky News, “It’s impossible to live like this.”

When Moscow was at war in Afghanistan in the 1980s, it was the mothers of soldiers that formed the frontline of the anti-war movement.

Then there’s the key demand made by Putin in negotiations with the US…

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