Random News and Notes 12 December
The FTC is stepping in to prevent a merger.They have their collective panties in a wad over the proposed acquisition of Liquid Nails by Henkel AG & Co. KGaA, A Dusseldorf Germany based chemical and consumer goods company. The reason? Loctite is among Henkel’s portfolio along with other brands you may have heard of like Persil, Dial and Purex.
Like there isn’t anything more important to deal with right now. . .
We covered the fact that Marjorie Taylor Greene is resigning from Congress shortly after the New Year. I noted then that she was resigning because she couldn’t get her way regarding a Senatorial race in Georgia. Well, seems like she wants to blow up any chance of a career in politics or media too. It is being reported that she is pushing a discharge petition to vacate the Speakers chair.
The report does come from MSLSD, so who knows. That said it would not be getting any traction in the news cycle if it wasn’t the exact kind of thing that bitter harpy would pull.
I honestly do not recall if I mentioned that the 2026 NDAA passed out of the House or not. That is the issue with reading, digesting and trying to condense as much news as I do; it becomes difficult to remember what was covered and what wasn’t. Anyway, it passed, all $902 billion of it. Over the next days or weeks I’ll be taking a look at some of the programs that got funded or cancelled or whatever. Among the provisions I’ve looked at already is that the USAF cannot retire the A-10 or the F-15 E models as they would like to.
Savings – or repurposed funds really – from the retirement of the A-10 would have totalled around $450 million. Not a lot, but not pocket change. Keeping in mind that I changed the religion on my dog tags to read Tac Air, the A-10 is an outmoded aircraft.
The GAU-8 is not capable of killing a modern MBT – in fact it wasn’t capable of killing the T62/64/72 tanks that were the prevalent Soviet tanks when it was introduced. Does it do well against lighter vehicles and massed personnel? I guess. The problem that I see is that the A-10 is not an effective or survivable aircraft in a near-peer conflict. I just don’t see a mission for it that can’t be handled by another, better airframe.
Add to that the future maintenance nightmare as wing center boxes start to fail – they already are come to think of it – several hundred million dollars is being spent on fixing that issue.
The F-15E is a separate issue. The fleet of Strike Eagles is actually growing, between upgrades of the existing E models and the acquisition of the new EX models.
BLM is a grift. It has always been a grift. And now some chickens are coming home to roost. A BLM leader in OKC just got her grifting ass indicted for stealing from a bail fund.
. . . pocketed $3.15 MILLION in returned bail checks into her personal account. She allegedly used this money to pay for luxury vacations, retail shopping, $50,000 in food, a vehicle, and SIX retail properties in Oklahoma City. You just can’t make this up.
The Trump administration just ended temporary protected status for some 6000 Ethiopians. TPS offered deportation relief and work permits for those displaced by the Tigray war.
DHS Secretary Noem said “After reviewing country conditions and consulting with appropriate U.S. Government agencies, the Secretary determined that Ethiopia no longer continues to meet the conditions for the designation for Temporary Protected Status.”
Buh Bye.
