Weird Wednesdays: Falcon Nest, Arizona

Travel 2 Minutes

Falcon Nest, Prescott, Arizona

Constructed at the the slope of Prescott, Arizona’s Thumb Butte, the house that Phoenix architect Sukumar Pal built for his own family soars to 124 feet and views stretching over 120 miles to mountain ranges in every direction; boasting 10 stories and a comfortable 6,200 square footage, including a 2,000-square foot solarium at its middle, it has set the record for being the World’s tallest single-family home, according to the WORLD RECORD ACADEMY.

“The Falcon’s Nest uses passive solar technologies and other alternative power, heating and cooling solutions to minimize its environmental impact,” the KTAR News reports. “Numerous Arizona mountains, such as Humphrey’s Peak and Four Peaks, are visible out of the home’s many windows. A hydraulic elevator takes occupants and visitors from floor to floor. “The three-bedroom, four-bathroom home was built on Thumb Butte in 1994 and sits on slightly more than an acre of land. It boasts 6,200 square feet of living space in its 10 stories.”

“The tallest residential house in North America isn’t in some big, metropolitan center. Rather, it is found at the base of Thumb Butte in Prescott, Arizona. If the looming, 6,000-foot tall volcanic plug isn’t weird enough for you, then maybe the Falcon Nest will be,” the Arizona Oddities reports.

“Towering above the Prescott National Forest at 124 feet, the Falcon Nest is a postmodern conglomeration of rectangular geometry, floor-to-ceiling windows and panoramic views of northern Arizona. Boasting 10 stories and a comfortable 6,200 square footage, this is far from average — especially in Prescott. Its name pays homage to the Peregrine falcons that nest on the slopes of Thumb Butte.


“Some of its notable features include a 2,000-square foot solarium at its middle, extending out above the tops of juniper and Ponderosa pine trees below. The solarium, completely enclosed in glass panels, contains two bedrooms, two baths, the kitchen, a living room and, of course, breathtaking views. From its windows on a clear day one could easily point out the San Francisco Peaks, Bill Williams mountain, and the surrounding Sierra Prieta mountain range. Furthermore, the Falcon Nest boasts some green features like passive heating and cooling capabilities, solar technology and a hydraulic elevator that provides transport from the ground level to the sixth. What it lacks in carbon footprint, it makes up for in innovation.

“Constructed at the the slope of Prescott, Arizona’s Thumb Butte, the house that Phoenix architect Sukumar Pal built for his own family soars to 124 feet and views stretching over 120 miles to mountain ranges in every direction. Also one of the most futuristic homes in the world, Pal built Falcon Crest in 1994 to be energy efficient while still maximizing views with glass walls and ceilings.

“Encompassing 10 floors at different levels and angles above a small 24’ by 24’ footprint, most of the living space is found in the home’s four wings that flare out near the upper level creating a residence of 6,200 square feet with three bedrooms, four full baths, 2,000-square-foot solarium, open kitchen and great room,” the Daily Advertiser reports.

“Having won multiple awards for his specialization in designing energy-efficient homes, the Pal residence has won four residential architecture world records including top honors for its unconventional heating and cooling systems that utilize passive solar for winter heat and micro climate and convective cooling in the summer.”

SOURCE: WORLDRECORDACADEMY.ORG

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Published by pat frederick

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72 thoughts on “Weird Wednesdays: Falcon Nest, Arizona”

    1. Good morning!

      Great article on the Falcon Nest. I used to live in Prescott in the 70s; Thumb Butte, physically was in my back yard, straight up! 😁 I’ll go google walking later. Thanks!

      “According to Pal, since the house is below the summit of the butte, Falcon Nest was an appropriate name as falcons typically nest at lower elevations than eagles, who take the highest perches” [wiki].

      Have a great day, God Bless 🙏

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          1. THANKS GINA!
            i never would have thought to use zillow! From the looks of the interior–it almost seems like a hotel or destination spot–all the tables in the dining area-what seems to be a dance floor–the huge rooms!!

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    2. Good morning! We had a wonderful time – she brought her bestie with her, Liv – she has told Piper for years that I am her favorite grandma ever! Thankfully, I had just made some spaghetti sauce a few days ago and put the excess in the freezer. So we all had spaghetti for supper before they departed. Her deadline to be home is 9 pm so they left here about 8 pm. LOL

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    1. Eric Daugherty
      @EricLDaugh
      https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/17.0.2/svg/1f6a8.svg JUST IN: Sen. Mike Lee tells John Thune and other senators NO, the SAVE America Act can NOT be passed with reconciliation, which was floated because it only needs 50 votes

      “It can’t pass through budget reconciliation because it’s a policy, it is not budgetary and even if you attached money to it, there are things at the margins we could do it to help facilitate compliance with it — but the restrictions themselves have basically zero chance of meeting the standard to pass through budget reconciliation.”

      “There are other reasons out there to do budget reconciliation. Do not be fooled into thinking that we can set down the SAVE America Act and just pick it up on budget reconciliation, that’s not going to work.”

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  10. i did not know this…

    Val1

    March 25, 2026 8:57 am

    Reply to  bjorkdream

    About MTG:
    “During the rallies RSBN loved to interview her.”

    “Marjorie Taylor Greene has been dating Brian Glenn since 2023. He is the director of programming and Chief White House Correspondent for Right Side Broadcasting Network (RSBN).”

    I wonder if he is still in the White House…

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    1. “Glenn is engaged to Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (MTG), with whom he shares strong political alignment.  The couple confirmed their relationship in 2023, and Glenn announced their engagement on December 15, 2025.  Following Greene’s resignation from Congress in November 2025, Glenn decided to step back from his White House role and split time between Washington and Rome, Georgia, where Real America’s Voice built a studio in Greene’s home.” 

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  12. EXCERPT: “Ballot initiatives across multiple states protecting women’s sports could prove to be a turnout driver for Republicans in November, as polling shows the issue is overwhelmingly favorable across all political stripes. 

    “In the off-year elections, turnout is so critical, and our polling shows that were in the 90s (%) amongst Republicans, within the high 80s (%) being strongly in favor. So if you’re looking for an issue that our base voters are going to say, ‘I’ve got to get to the polls for this,’ this is the issue,” Tom Mooney, who is a general consultant to campaigns for such ballot initiatives, told Just The News.

    “We think the majority of voters, overall, even amongst Democrats, favor this common sense, getting it back to where it always has been, that girls’ sports means that should be for females.”

    Mooney’s sentiment appears well-founded in polling on the issue. Myriad surveys show that voters across all parties support keeping transgender-identifying biological men out of girls’ and women’s sports. Polling aligns with Republicans 

    A recent New York Times/Ipsos poll found overwhelming support across all political parties for keeping men out of women’s sports, with 79% of Americans overall in favor – including 94% of Republicans, 67% of Democrats, and 64% of independents. 

    Additionally, a Parents Defending Education poll of American parents demonstrated overwhelming support across all political parties for keeping men out of girls’ sports, with 78% of parents opposing biological males on girls’ teams – including 86% of Republican parents, 80% of independents, and 60% of Democratic parents. 

    The Center Square Voters’ Voice Poll by Noble Predictive Insights also confirmed overwhelming support across all political parties for keeping men out of women’s sports, with 68% of registered voters backing state bans – including 88% of Republicans and 49% of Democrats.

    Yet Democrats won’t support

    Mooney also advised on the fact that in spite of surveys overwhelmingly showing support for protecting women’s sports, elected Democrats typically vote against measures to protect women’s sports.

    “In the Arizona example, every Democrat who had a chance to vote for it passed and voted against it. Our polling in Arizona says that amongst Democrats, it’s 57% favoring protecting girls and 17% against.”

    Trump made it a priority ………”

    https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/gop-sees-overwhelming-support-trans-sports-ballot-issues-key-midterm-success

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  15. Just The News: “The United States reportedly proposed a 15-point peace plan to Iran Tuesday as it looks to negotiate an end to the nearly month-long conflict in the Middle East. The proposal’s main focus is on Iran’s ballistic missile and nuclear programs, which the U.S. has targeted with missile strikes during the conflict, according to the New York Times. 

    President Donald Trump told reporters Tuesday that Iran has already agreed to never develop a nuclear weapon, marking a significant victory for the United States and Israel after Trump bombed Iran’s nuclear facilities last year. “They’ve agreed,” the president said. “They will never have a nuclear weapon. They’ve agreed to that.” 

    Iran has not publicly confirmed that it agreed to permanently stop its pursuit of nuclear weapons. One source told the New York Times that the plan also discusses maritime routes, which comes as Iran blocks ships from using the Strait of Hormuz. 

    The plan comes the same day Trump said Iran has given the United States a “present” related to gas and oil, which he claimed signaled the U.S. is negotiating and working with the “right people” in Iran. “They gave it to us, and they said they were going to give it, so that meant one thing to me: we’re dealing with the right people,” Trump said. “We have, really, regime change. You know, this is a change in the regime, because the leaders are all very different than the ones that we started off with that created all those problems.”

    The U.S. is also hoping that Iran will agree to a one-month ceasefire while the two sides negotiate the peace plan, according to the New York Post.”

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  16. interesting…

    BucknutGuy

    March 25, 2026 10:49 am

    SD posted that he thinks the “something valuable” that the Iranian Regime shared were routing numbers/wire details related to team Obama’s cut of the Iranian Deal. Hard to bet against SD, but my money is on info that ties back to the Z-man running weapons to the Mullahs. Who knows, might not be mutually exclusive.

    Now there is this:

    Swiss to wind down MBaer private bank after US money-laundering accusation | Reuters

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  18. “Fox News caught up with spring breakers and they have NO IDEA what’s going on in the world” — Not The Bee, Harambe Harambe, Mar 24, 2026

    “We know spring breakers aren’t the brightest, but I had no idea they were this dumb. Watch a Fox News reporter ask young Americans about current events.

    [Note: I censored this because these girls’ fathers didn’t tell them that wearing underwear in public is unacceptable]“

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  20. EXCERPT: “Within the last few weeks, the United States’ homefront has been under siege.

    From a mass shooting at a downtown bar in Austin, Texas, by a man reportedly wearing a “Property of Allah” hoodie with an Iranian flag shirt underneath, to the killing of a Reserve Officers’ Training Corps instructor at Old Dominion University by a convicted ISIS supporter; from a truck attack at a synagogue in Michigan to homemade bombs allegedly thrown at protestors and dropped near police outside New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s residence, the violence against Americans has been unrelenting.

    While the media has attempted to obfuscate or even spread lies about the nature of these attacks, one common denominator links them all together.

    All four attacks were apparently committed by those who were either “integrated” into the fabric of American society through America’s naturalization process, or, perhaps more ominously, the children of naturalized citizens.

    With this in mind, it must be admitted that contrary to the assertion of pro-immigration Republican politicians such as Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who unequivocally believe that so long as immigration is “legal,” it is by nature “good,” America’s “legal” immigration system has failed.Mistaken Idea of a Melting Pot

    At the root of this crisis is not only the failure of assimilation, but the very myth of assimilation itself — especially in the modern age. This has brought tens of millions of people from incompatible cultures into America, such as from Sierra Leone, Afghanistan, Turkey, Senegal, and Lebanon. 

    Americans have been taught from a young age that their country is a melting pot, a sort of universalist stew where, regardless of where the ingredients originated from, the resulting dish will only get better.

    Under this belief, America has ceased to be a particular people in a particular place. Instead, it has become a global welcome mat where people from every corner of the world can come, wipe their feet of all that came before, and “assimilate” into an overarching and unified “American” family……”

    https://thefederalist.com/2026/03/25/arriving-legally-doesnt-magically-make-immigrants-good-americans/

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  21. DataRepublican (small r)
    @DataRepublican
    Hello Senator Thune,

    Let’s expose what you’re really doing with “reconciliation.”

    You announced it yesterday, eleven months after the House passed the SAVE America Act. You’re not trying to pass this bill. You’re trying to kill it in a way you can blame on process.

    Here’s how we know:

    Reconciliation requires the Senate parliamentarian to rule that provisions are “budgetary.” Citizenship verification is not budgetary. Photo ID mandates are not budgetary. The parliamentarian will gut the bill. Then you’ll shrug and say “we tried.” We see through you. 

    Meanwhile, you WON’T use the tools that actually work:

    Rule XIX limits each senator to two speeches per legislative day. Keep the Senate in continuous session, file cloture daily, and the filibuster exhausts in ~12-20 days. You dismissed it as “complicated.” Because if you tried and succeeded, you’d have to actually pass the bill.

    Harry Reid nuked the filibuster in 2013 when he wanted results.

    Mitch McConnell changed Senate rules THREE times and canceled the August recess.

    Chuck Schumer used reconciliation within months on a 50-50 Senate.

    You have 53 seats. You’ve changed nothing, canceled nothing, and waited eleven months.

    Now let’s talk donors:

    • Goldman Sachs: $150K to you – top H-1B user
    • Google: $75K – lobbies against E-Verify
    • Meta: $72.5K – Zuckerberg’s FWD[.]us pushes mass immigration
    • Wells Fargo: $90K – banks undocumented immigrants

    Same corporations sponsor Punchbowl News, where you sit for “Fly Out Days” which nobody watches except Congress staffers and K Street lobbyists who pays premium bucks for legislative intelligence. Their reporter then telegraphs to the audience the SAVE Act “will ultimately fail.” 

    Corporate money flows to you AND to the outlet that frames your inaction as inevitable.

    We see the loop.

    You called grassroots anger a “paid influencer ecosystem.” YOU are the paid influencer. You take the wrong side of a 80% issue because you are indistinguishable from a K Street mouthpiece, and an ineffective one to boot who won’t bend the rules to get anything passed. 

    What we want:

    1. Force a real talking filibuster.
    2. Stop hiding behind process.
    3. Pass the SAVE America Act. 

    YOU will become the reason that we will have our butts kicked in midterms. Not Candace Owens, not Nick Fuentes, not anyone else. You and you alone, and all because you want to make the 200 or so viewers of Punchbowl Fly Out Days happy. You’re living in a K Street information bubble, addicted to the comforts and praises of lobbyists masquerading as journalists. You mistake the steak and martini dinners you get invited to as your own constituents. 

    You are not “moderate.” The SAVE America Act has 98% support among Republicans. Name one other thing that has 98% support. You are an extreme minority who prides himself on being a calm leader, when in reality you are well in the running for the most ineffective Majority leader of all time.

    Prove me wrong. Do the bare modicum of effort. Not symbolic. Actual effort. Cancel the recess. Get SAVE America Act passed.

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  22. John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr
    @realJohnJohnJr
    https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/17.0.2/svg/1f6a8.svgOMG… THIS IS THE SINGLE GREATEST CRIME EVER PERPETRATED AGAINST THE AMERICAN PEOPLE BY THE ENEMY WITHIN.

    Border Czar Tom Homan: “No one ever talks about it. I’ll talk about it.”

    “Why did the Democrats release illegal aliens into the interior United States rather than put them into an ICE bed? Why not put them in an empty ICE bed — $127 a night — rather than a hotel at $500 a night?

    The Democrats did it on purpose. If you put them in an ICE detention bed, they get a hearing in 35 days.”

    In other words, you’ve been robbed, deceived, betrayed, extorted, blackmailed, and defrauded—and sedition and amnesty are what they want next.

    Liked by 1 person

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  23. TheLastRefuge
    @TheLastRefuge2
    This is the *active* CIA analyst the IC attempted to reactivate to covert status prior to DNI Gabbard removing security clearances and outlining the fraudulent ICA construct.

    Last year Gabbard moved the National Intelligence Council (NIC) out of the CIA, specifically because the covert nature of the CIA was used by the NIC members to manufacture political intelligence. 

    The resulting NIC analysis, much of which was fraudulently shaped by politics, could not be challenged easily because the CIA shield protected both the authors and their constructs.

    Both Eric Ciaramella and Julia Gurganus worked inside the CIA on the NIC analysis that framed the Russian Interference story in January 2017. The fraudulent Intelligence Community Assessment. Eric Ciaramella was also the anonymous CIA whistleblower in 2019 for the impeachment effort.

    See the moves?

    When DNI Gabbard and CIA Director Ratcliffe worked together to remove the NIC from the CIA, the bad actors within the IC game, and those within the Directorate of Analysis, knew they lost a strategic narrative machine tool.  

    The IC embeds were angry and started leaking stuff to allies in media (WSJ, WaPo, Politico and NYT). The goal was to undermine Tulsi Gabbard at every step, using every resource and doing whatever it took.

    Gabbard stayed on mission, despite the IC trying to penetrate the concentric circles around the Office of The President with their bullshit narratives.

    Those “Trump supporters” who try to undermine ODNI Tulsi Gabbard are either brutally naïve, easily manipulated, or working intentionally to retain the Intelligence Community control system that Gabbard is dutifully deconstructing. 

    Remember that when you see people attacking the ODNI or Tulsi Gabbard !!!!!!!

    Liked by 1 person

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  26. really long article…BUT it brings the info I didn’t realize was true. just how other countries have taken advantage of us.

    Article
    mike bski

    @BskiMike22802

    THE ONLY ALLY THAT ACTUALLY SHOWED UP

    AND THE RECEIPT NOBODY IN WASHINGTON WANTS YOU TO READ I am a science teacher.
    That is relevant, I promise. Bear with me.
    Every single semester, without fail, I get a student who breezes through the first nine weeks doing absolutely nothing — skipping labs, ignoring the reading, borrowing other people’s notes — and then shows up on the day of the final exam absolutely SHOCKED that there are consequences. Not embarrassed. Not apologetic. Shocked. As if the rules of cause and effect were somehow suspended for them specifically.
    I think about that student every time I watch the foreign policy debate in this country.
    Because the United States of America has spent DECADES paying for the protection of nations that, the moment we needed something back, looked us dead in the face and said — politely, diplomatically, with full awareness of what they were doing — “we would rather not get involved.”
    And somehow, WE are the ones who are supposed to feel bad about it.
    So I am going to do something today that apparently the entire foreign policy establishment, the cable news industrial complex, and roughly every pundit with a podcast and an opinion has collectively refused to do.
    I am going to run the actual numbers.
    Not the vibes. Not the “alliances have intrinsic value” speech that sounds very serious and means absolutely nothing when your strait is being blockaded by a terror regime. The NUMBERS. The kind of numbers I demand from my students before they get to make a claim in class. Evidence. Documentation. Math.
    — THE MONEY WE SPEND ON PEOPLE WHO WILL NOT LIFT A FINGER —
    Let me start with Japan.
    We station 54,000 American troops in Japan. Fifty-four thousand. That is more than the entire active-duty force of a dozen countries we consider serious military powers. We spend, conservatively, $5.5 to $6 billion per year maintaining that presence — bases, logistics, personnel costs, forward positioning. That number does not include the cost of surges, exercises, or special operations. It is the baseline. The floor. The minimum acceptable investment in Japan’s continued existence as a sovereign nation.
    Ninety-three percent of Japan’s oil transits the Strait of Hormuz. Ninety. Three. Percent.
    That means when Iran — the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, a regime that has been chanting “Death to America” as official government policy since 1979 — starts threatening to close that strait, Japan’s economy does not merely take a hit. It stops. The lights go out. The cars stop moving. The supply chains collapse. Everything that makes modern Japan functional goes away if that waterway closes.
    So when the United States asked Japan to send mine-sweeping vessels to help keep the strait open — a strait through which nearly ALL of Japan’s energy supply flows — what did Japan say?
    “We would rather not get involved.”
    I will give you a moment to sit with that.
    …
    Okay. Moving on.
    South Korea. We station 23,000 troops there. We spend $3.5 to $4 billion per year on that commitment. The entire reason those troops exist is to serve as a tripwire — meaning the explicit purpose of their presence is that if North Korea ever crosses that border, American blood is shed immediately, automatically, with no vote and no deliberation, guaranteeing American military response. We have pre-committed our sons and daughters to die for South Korea’s survival as a precondition of the alliance.
    Seventy to seventy-five percent of South Korea’s oil comes through the Strait of Hormuz.
    Same question. Same answer. “We would rather not get involved.”
    Germany. Thirty-six thousand American troops. $4 to $5 billion per year — a Cold War holdover that was originally designed to stop Soviet tanks from rolling through the Fulda Gap. The Soviet Union dissolved in 1991. Three decades ago. Those troops are still there. Meanwhile, Germany spent the money we saved them building one of the most expansive social welfare and regulatory bureaucracies on the planet. Good for them. Genuinely. But when the bill came due during Operation Epic Fury and we asked for help keeping a critical global shipping lane open, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz announced to the world that the Middle East conflict “is not a matter for NATO” and Germany “will not become involved militarily.”
    Four to five billion dollars per year. Thirty-six thousand American lives on standby. And when we asked for something back: nothing.
    Qatar. One to one-point-five billion dollars annually. Eight thousand troops. Qatar — the same Qatar that hosts Al Jazeera, which functions as a propaganda arm for half the anti-American movements in the Middle East — spent the early days of Operation Epic Fury actively attempting to undermine American operations. They play both sides as a deliberate national strategy. We pay for the privilege of having them do this.
    Turkey. Three to five hundred million per year. 1,700 troops. Also attempted to undermine American operations. Also on our payroll.
    Saudi Arabia. Five hundred million to a billion annually. 2,500 troops.
    The United Kingdom — our “special relationship” — offered mine-sweeper drones. A rounding error, presented with the confidence of a student who forgot the assignment but remembered to bring a pencil. France called for “stability first,” which is diplomatic language for “we would like to negotiate from a position of complete irrelevance while America handles the difficult parts.”
    NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte — to his credit, at least — admitted publicly that Europe cannot defend itself without the United States. Cannot. His word. And then exactly zero NATO members committed meaningful military assets to help open the strait.
    So let me add this up, because I teach this concept: math does not care about your feelings.
    Conservative annual cost to station American troops in countries that provided ZERO direct military support during Operation Epic Fury: $15 to $18 BILLION. Per year. Every year. For decades.
    Not a one-time emergency appropriation. A permanent, recurring, annual expenditure on nations that, when we called in the favor we have been earning for thirty to fifty years, said “we would rather not.”
    What did we receive in return from all of those countries — combined — during the most significant American air campaign in modern military history?
    Nothing.
    Zero.
    Not a fighter jet. Not a destroyer. Not a single sortie flown over Iranian airspace. Not a sailor placed at meaningful risk. Not one military asset committed to the operation we were funding to protect THEIR strategic interests as much as ours.
    I asked my students a word problem once. If you give someone $18 billion and they give you nothing back, what is your return on investment?
    The class figured it out pretty fast.
    — NOW. LET US TALK ABOUT THE ONE THAT ACTUALLY SHOWED UP —
    American foreign military aid to Israel: approximately $3.8 billion per year.
    Every dollar of that — by legal statutory requirement — must be spent with AMERICAN defense companies. Lockheed Martin. Raytheon. Boeing. Northrop Grumman. The money does not disappear into a foreign government’s treasury. It circles directly back into American defense production, American manufacturing jobs, and American military technology development. It is, in the most technical sense, a research and development subsidy for the American defense industry that also happens to fund one of the most battle-tested militaries on earth.
    Number of permanent American military bases in Israel: zero.
    Number of American troops permanently stationed in Israel: zero.
    Number of times, in the entire history of the American-Israeli alliance, that Israel has asked us to send our sons and daughters to stand between them and their enemies: zero.
    Let me repeat that last one because it seems to get lost in every single conversation about this topic. ZERO. Israel has never — not once — asked for American troops on the ground. Every conflict they have ever fought, they have fought with their own people. Their own blood. No American parent has ever received a knock on the door because Israel needed us to come die for them.
    Now. Here is what Israel provided during Operation Epic Fury, at its own expense, at enormous risk to its own personnel, in exchange for that $3.8 billion:
    Israel flew more combat sorties over Iranian airspace than the United States did. More. Than us. In our own operation. The country we are supposedly helping flew more missions than we did. They absorbed dozens of inbound Iranian missiles — intercepting them to protect shared operational integrity — so that American assets could continue their mission. They provided the intelligence that identified and located Iran’s entire top command structure: the Supreme Leader, his would-be successor, the Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, the head of the Basij, and the individual commanders running those operations. They executed strikes that eliminated those targets.
    As IDF Intelligence Chief Major General Shlomi Binder stated, Iran’s command structure is now “shattered.” Their capabilities are “stripped down to the bone.” What remains is just “whatever scraps they can still push out” — and that is their ceiling.
    On Day One of Operation Epic Fury, Iran launched 350 ballistic missiles. Recent days? Barely double digits. Their ballistic missile capacity has been reduced by upward of 90%. Eight hundred drone launches on Day One; down to 75 by Day 15. Missile factories — destroyed. Drone factories — destroyed. Nuclear facilities — destroyed or heavily damaged.
    Even Al Jazeera — Qatar’s propaganda outlet — ran a piece accurately describing it as “systematic phased degradation of a threat the previous administrations allowed to grow for four decades.”
    When Al Jazeera is complimenting your military effectiveness, you have won the information environment.
    And then there is the technology. Israel shared capabilities with the United States during this operation that no other ally on the list above possesses, let alone offers: advanced laser-based intercept systems, drone countermeasures, intelligence infrastructure built over decades of operating inside the Iranian threat picture.
    Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth put it plainly: “Fighting shoulder-to-shoulder with such a capable ally is a true force multiplier and a breath of fresh air.”
    A breath of fresh air. After years of paying billions of dollars to allies who collectively contributed nothing during a major operation — FRESH AIR is the phrase that comes to mind when you finally fight next to someone who actually shows up.
    That should tell you everything.
    — THE SPREADSHEET THAT MAKES PEOPLE UNCOMFORTABLE —
    Let me lay this out in a format I use on the board in class, because some people learn better visually.
    Japan: $6 billion per year, 54,000 troops committed, contribution during Operation Epic Fury: zero.
    Germany: $5 billion per year, 36,000 troops committed, contribution: zero.
    South Korea: $4 billion per year, 23,000 troops committed, contribution: zero.
    Qatar: $1.5 billion per year, 8,000 troops committed, contribution: actively obstructive in early days.
    Turkey: $500 million per year, 1,700 troops committed, contribution: also obstructive.
    Saudi Arabia: $1 billion per year, 2,500 troops committed, contribution: unclear at best.
    TOTAL — approximately $18 billion per year, roughly 125,000 American service members pre-committed, total military contribution to the most important American air campaign in modern history: effectively zero.
    Israel: $3.8 billion per year (returns to American defense industry), zero US bases, zero US troops permanently stationed there, contribution: flew more sorties than the United States, provided the intelligence that won the opening phase, absorbed inbound missiles for us, and shared technology no other ally on the list has even attempted to develop.
    One of these partnerships is not like the others. And it is not even close.
    — THE PART WHERE THE IRONY BECOMES PHYSICALLY PAINFUL —
    Here is what makes my blood pressure do things my doctor would not approve of.
    The loudest voices in America demanding that we reconsider our relationship with Israel are the same people who have said absolutely NOTHING about the $15-18 billion we spend every single year on alliances that produced nothing when we needed them. Not a word. Not a congressional hearing. Not an op-ed in The Atlantic demanding Germany justify its base costs in light of its refusal to help open a strait that carries its own energy supply.
    Just silence on those. And fury about Israel.
    Quinn’s Law Number Five applies here with surgical precision: when liberalism conflicts with reality, reality must give way.
    The reality — the cold, documented, receipt-in-hand REALITY — is that the most efficient, most reciprocal, most genuinely mutual military partnership the United States currently maintains costs $3.8 billion per year, produces zero overseas base costs, requires zero permanently stationed American troops, returns the investment dollar-for-dollar into American defense manufacturing, and just delivered more combat sorties than we did in our own operation.
    Meanwhile the partnerships that have consumed tens of billions of dollars over decades and committed 125,000 American service members as human shields for other countries’ security could not produce a minesweeper.
    I would say it is a mystery how this reality gets reported the way it does — but I have been a teacher long enough to recognize the difference between someone who has not done the homework and someone who did the homework and does not like the answer.
    The chattering class knows exactly what the numbers say. They just find the numbers inconvenient.
    — AND SINCE WE ARE TALKING ABOUT WHAT THIS COUNTRY OWES ITS OWN PEOPLE —
    I cannot write an article about $18 billion in annual military expenditures benefiting countries that gave us nothing without mentioning what that money could do for the Americans who actually bled to make all of this possible.
    Approximately 54,000 Americans were medically retired before reaching 20 years of service — not because they quit, not because they failed, not because they chose to leave — but because combat broke their bodies before the calendar permitted them to keep the retirement pay they earned. These are men and women who served, deployed, got blown up, shot, burned, and permanently damaged in the uniform of the United States Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Coast Guard. Their bodies gave out before the 20-year mark.
    And this government — the same government that found $800 million for Ukraine, $1 billion for Taiwan, $531 million for NATO facilities, and $175 million for Baltic security cooperation inside a single defense bill — still docks their military retirement pay dollar for dollar against their VA disability compensation.
    Two separate benefits. Earned for two entirely separate reasons. As logically distinct as a pension and a workers’ compensation claim. Congress fixed this offset for veterans who made it to 20 years back in 2004. The only remaining distinction is how fast combat destroyed these particular Americans.
    The Major Richard Star Act — S.Amdt.4056 in the current appropriations bill — costs $975 million per year to fix. Less than what we spend annually in Qatar. A fraction of what we spend defending Japan’s oil supply from a strait Japan refuses to help protect.
    We found the money for everyone else.
    Sign the petition:
    https://c.org/29rGbKJphj
    @MajorStarAct

    @StarActEnemies

    #majorrichardstaract
    — A FINAL WORD FROM SOMEONE WHO HAS BEEN IN THE ROOM —
    I have had students over the years who confused confidence for competence. They were the loudest voices in the classroom. They had the most opinions. They had an answer for everything — they just never actually verified whether the answer was correct.
    The foreign policy establishment that has managed this alliance portfolio for the last half-century is that student writ large. Confident. Loud. Absolutely, demonstrably wrong about which partnerships are actually paying off.
    Israel did not ask for our sons and daughters. It brought its own.
    Germany took our sons and daughters, cashed our check, and told us the Middle East is not a matter for NATO.
    I am not asking you to agree with everything the American-Israeli partnership involves. Reasonable people can disagree on the specifics. But I am asking you to do one thing: look at the actual numbers before you form the opinion. Look at who flew alongside us. Look at who stayed home. Look at who absorbed the missiles so our people could keep flying, and look at who sent a diplomatic statement expressing deep concern.
    The receipt does not lie. It is, as I tell my students, the most useful document in any argument.
    But what do I know — I am only a science teacher and former Army combat medic who learned a long time ago that the people who complain loudest about the cost of something are usually the ones who have never actually added it up.

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  29. Lantern Carriers, Sculptor: Emil Wikström, Location: Central Railway Station in Helsinki, Finland

    What plane is this?

    The Art of Speed

    Not your everyday work cubicle

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  30. hey pat

    You might say well people aren’t the brightest in the village. Case in point.
    Someone asked who the Turkeys running around my neighborhood belong to.
    Answer they’re wild turkeys.
    very clearly wild. Some people

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    1. Shipwreckedcrew
      @shipwreckedcrew
      Early in my career as an AUSA I was on the civil side — where the Govt sues or gets sued.  

      USDA brought me a matter involving a very large cattle ranch that had defaulted on a series of USDA loans secured by ranch property. Several million dollars was involved. USDA wanted to foreclose on the property.  

      I started going through all the records, and included were several files of loan documents from big commercial banks — Wells Fargo, BofA, etc. After going through them I realized they were operating loans secured by the same properties that had not been paid, but foreclosure had been postponed by partial payments for a series of years.  

      What the rancher did was borrow money each year from USDA and use a portion of the loan funds to keep the commercial banks from foreclosing. The commercial loans didn’t get paid — the arrearages just got reduced. But every year the USDA debt got larger and was in line behind the commercial banks for repayment if the property was foreclosed.

      The commercial banks controlled the foreclosure — if USDA quit lending money to the rancher, the commercial banks would have foreclosed.  

      So USDA kept lending him money for operations — money he had no hope of ever repaying.

      I had a meeting with USDA lawyers over the case. I asked “Why does USDA approve new operating loans every year given this longstanding problem and the fact he’ll never be able to repay the loans.

      “That’s what we do. We loan money to farmers that no bank would ever loan money to.”

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  40. Liked by 1 person

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