the United States Air Force has only one dedicated close-support fighter, the Warthog / A 10 (thank you George !)

It has a 30mm Gatling with the payload capacity of four B-17s.

The Air Force, though, doesn't seem to care much for the Warthog, and has been trying to get it out of service. 

the Air Force has stopped training Warthog drivers, and depot maintenance operations on the A-10 are wrapping up. 

Now, though, there's a new bill in Congress to keep the 'Hogs flying for a few more years: It's called the Bolstering Recognition, Resurgence, Retention, and Remembrance of the Thunderbolt Act.

That's right. It's the BRRRRT Act.

We've learned from the war with Iran how useful a flying Avenger cannon can be, and that's prompting a lot of people to take another hard look at keeping them around. The BRRRRT Act proposes to keep at least 126 Warthogs flying.

There's still a place in the modern battle space for a dedicated, low-and-slow, dedicated close air-support airplane, and the A-10's a very, very good one

https://redstate.com/wardclark/2026/07/24/keeping-the-a-10-flying-the-new-brrrrt-act-n2204736#google_vignette

https://www.fool.com/investing/2020/02/29/could-this-drone-replace-the-a-10-warthog.aspx

Seth is selling some chutes! 250 apiece: 3 Deist white chutes, 1 has black cords, 2 have red; 2 bags: one chute metal products and one Deist (this would be epic garage eye candy)

https://www.facebook.com/groups/2695731877370740/posts/4745606979049876

the actual car driven by Jim Clark - legendary double-Formula 1 World Champion and 1965 Indianapolis 500 winner - in the 1967 Rex Mays '300' road race at Riverside, California. The Vollstedt-Ford chassis serial '67B' is up for sale

The Ex-Jim Clark, Rex Mays '300' at Riverside, Ex-Cale Yarborough, Gordon Johncock, Tom Sneva, George Follmer, John Cannon...and even Chris Amon 1967 Vollstedt-Ford 67 USAC 'Indianapolis' Racing Single-Seater

https://cars.bonhams.com/auction/31959/lot/24/1967-vollstedt-ford-67-usac-indianapolis-racing-single-seater-chassis-no-67b

news on the job training front, results remain to be seen to be believed (I suspect that this might only be to get dealership oil change, tire change, and brake job mechanics, all low paying jobs with high turnover due to low pay)

Ford is joining a handful of other corporations - including Google, BlackRock, and Carhartt - to form what the group calls the Alliance for America’s Skilled Trades. This new alliance has three specific goals in mind - to build a jobs pipeline for skilled trades, highlight what's working across the country - including the launch of a Skilled Trades Report - and grow the movement moving forward by adding additional partners.

The Alliance for America's Skilled Trades will work to help fill the hundreds of thousands of open skilled trades jobs that exist at the moment, creating good careers for people in industries where there are high demand for such things. It plans to begin rolling out training efforts in 30 U.S. states to start, which will soon expand to cover the entire nation.

"This Alliance began with companies sharing what works and applying insights from effective programs," Farley said. "By bringing together the collective know-how of these four companies, this Alliance can reach more people interested in skilled trades in more places. One proven approach is investing in apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs, which create opportunities to earn and learn on the job while receiving sustained mentorship. For many, apprenticeships are a vital option that allows them to gain critical new skills and economic mobility - all without four-year college debt."

https://fordauthority.com/2026/07/ford-joins-skilled-trade-alliance-with-google-blackrock-and-carhartt

A photograph of a Formula 1 car shows you what it looks like. A Giorgio Piola drawing shows you how it works.

It started with a bet. Piola and his brother were both good at drawing. All four kids in the family were. But Giorgio and the brother closest to him in age fought about it constantly. My drawing is better than yours. No, mine is. One day they each sent a drawing to a magazine. The magazine wrote back to Giorgio. Only Giorgio. They liked his work, and by the way, there was a Grand Prix in Monaco in 20 days. Did he want to come produce a technical report? He was 19. He went. He was supposed to be studying engineering, and he did not go back to studying engineering.

His father was one of eight lawyers to the Pope. His father wanted all of his sons to have degrees, and Giorgio was the only one who didn't get one.

That was 1969. He's now attended over 900 Grands Prix. More than any driver, any team principal, any engineer. The person who has been to the most Formula 1 races in history is a man with a pen.

https://petrolicious.com/blogs/articles/racing-lines-giorgio-piola

in 1962, the CIA found a Russian ice drift station used to monitor US submarines, and to develope advanced Arctic anti-submarine warfare technology, (thank you George! ) ( A true story about a B 17, submarines, and an adventurer)

The Russian drift station had been abandoned when the ice runway the Soviets had been using to receive restocks of supplies, had been demolished by a pressure ridge, making it impossible for any more incoming flights to reach the station. 

The Soviets were forced to abandon their station, confident that, with no way on or off the drift station, all their secrets would eventually be consumed by the Arctic.

The U.S. employed similar ice stations to keep tabs on Soviet submarine movement, and being able to see how the Soviets equipped their own drift stations—including the tech they employed and any research they left behind—would be invaluable intelligence.

On May 28, 1962, a B-17 took off from Resolute Bay, a Royal Canadian Air Force base, carrying a paratrooper and Russian language expert from the Air Force.

 A first attempt two days earlier had failed when the crew couldn’t locate the station, but this time, they found a different and newer drift station, and the two men parachuted down onto the ice. Once Major Smith radioed a positive report, the B-17 returned to base, where crews affixed the equipment needed for Fulton’s Skyhook to—hopefully—retrieve the men. LeSchack and Smith had 72 hours to search the drift station.

Robert Fulton, son of the president of the Mack Truck Company, had already lived quite a life before he came to the attention of the CIA. Born in New York in 1909, Fulton had studied architecture in Vienna, visited King Tut’s tomb in 1923, spent 17 months on a “motorcycle adventure” across 32 countries, (wrote the book One Man Caravan that I posted about in 2011 https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/search?q=robert+Fulton)   and turned a fascination with photography into a job with Pan Am “taking pictures for the development of the trans-Pacific air route.”

In 1958, he introduced the Fulton aerial retrieval system, otherwise known as Skyhook. The system utilized a harness that was attached to a 500-foot braided nylon line. When it was time for pickup, a portable helium bottle would inflate a balloon, which lifted the line to a height where it could be easily hooked by the pickup plane’s angled steel “horns.”

It was used in the 2008 blockbuster The Dark Knight, after Bruce Wayne asks his engineer Lucius Fox about a way to get aboard an airplane “without it landing.” With a smirk, Fox tells him, “The CIA had a program back in the ’60s for getting their people out of hotspots called Skyhook. We could look into that.”

https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/a73274458/batmans-skyhook-cia-mission/

it's heat wave time again, and the Joe Ramsey Boulevard in Greenville, Texas, has a small section that essentially turned itself into a ramp due to extreme heat

https://fordauthority.com/2026/08/ford-super-duty-catches-major-air-after-road-buckles-due-to-heat-video/

it's been a couple of years since I've come a cross a heat buckled highway... That was Michigan if I recall correctly... this is Texas? How has this highway not had higher heat in the past? 

from way back when Overland was building prairie schooners - check out the wagon wheel encased in bricks over the door

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=28505098242425098&set=gm.1744064496541249&idorvanity=352404969040549

I get a kick out of vintage catalog cover art

https://www.facebook.com/groups/2695731877370740/permalink/4743712322572675

Colonel Harlan Sanders, Grand Marshal of the 1972 Indianapolis 500

https://www.reddit.com/r/OldSchoolCool/comments/726a4n/colonel_harlan_sanders_grand_marshal_of_the_1972

Felix Chevrolet used Felix, officially, as their name and identity since the early days.

The Felix Chevrolet showroom has been decorated with large statues of Felix, exact replicas made of the original paper mache, from the original molds, using fiberglass

They were in the process of sending the existing ones in to be refurbished a couple decades ago, and they were also ordering more, when Mel asked if he could possibly have one made. Absolutely! The more they ordered, the lower the price would be! So he ordered three!

https://www.facebook.com/mel.birnkrant

the abandoned electric trolley bridge over the Maumee River. It's 1221' long and 16' wide. It was built in 1908 and discontinued use in 1937 when interurbans cars were no longer used.

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1036736488761343&set=pcb.28387923237481155

A section of Roman road has been found at the site of planned autobahn construction near Drackenstein in southern Germany.

 

The road was built using the striking bright white Jurassic limestone from the eroding edge of the Swabian Alb. Stones were collected and used as the foundation layer of the roadbed. They would have been covered by gravel, sand and a top layer of paving stones.

So far, approximately 90 meters [295 feet] of the “Alblimes Road” have been excavated. This road connecting Rottweil and Heidenheim an der Brenz is one of the oldest in Baden-Württemberg and was likely built under Emperor Vespasian. Alongside the Roman forts and settlements, the “Alblimes Road” represents the crucial infrastructure of the newly established province of “Germania Superior” in the 1st century AD.

https://dailytimewaster.blogspot.com/2026/08/a-section-of-roman-road-has-been-found.html

Mennonites have become some of the most prolific land buyers in Belize, acquiring large properties and making bids faster than competitors.

Mennonites have become some of the most prolific land buyers in Belize, acquiring large properties and making bids faster than competitors.

The small Central American country, flanked by Mexico, Guatemala and the Caribbean Sea, is about the size of the U.S. state of New Jersey, but its dense jungle is now much smaller than it once was. The nation lost around 20% of its forest cover between 2001 and 2025 — more than 865,000 acres, the size of Rhode Island.

Much of the deforestation in Belize has been tied to Mennonites, the conservative and largely insular Christian denomination that began migrating to Belize more than six decades ago, cutting down the rainforest to establish new colonies.

https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/land-records-reveal-how-mennonites-are-reshaping-belizes-forests/

coolest thing I saw today, Slices Of Life, by Qu Tianran, up for the Eisner Award for Best Painter/Multimedia Artist!

with a one page, or two page piece of art, Qu conveys a cool or beautiful moment that many people see, but don't pause and enjoy. 

you can save a lot of money by simply looking at the art on Instagram, 

https://www.instagram.com/qu.comics

https://www.instagram.com/qu.draws/

I've only shared the vehicle ones, that's what's relevant here, but I heavily recommend you look at the tribute to Monet's lily pond. If you know someone who loves art, then get them some of Qu's books, for birthday or Xmas gifts. Click the links, you'll be impressed, and see why

the 2nd Amendment made it clear, Americans have a CONSTITUTIONAL right to own and carry (if they wish to) guns for self defense, defense of homes, and country. But the anti gun types, who would rather be victims, and would rather others were victims, have crippled the trucker's rights to carry a gun across state lines

“Individuals do NOT lose their constitutional rights simply by crossing into another state. In fact, there is no other constitutional right that Minnesota requires a visiting individual to first obtain permission before they may exercise a fundamental right.”

Long-haul truck drivers with guns face a confusing mix of state laws. Reciprocity laws vary: some states accept permits from others, while some do not. A trucker can be legal in one state but face serious criminal charges once crossing a state line.

Federal legislation to create a uniform reciprocity law has been introduced multiple times in the last 10 years alone. Each time, the bill failed. Two truck drivers decided to tackle the problem in court.

Last January, interstate truck drivers David McCoy II and Jeffrey Johnson Sr. filed a federal lawsuit against Minnesota. They claim the state’s concealed-carry reciprocity gun law violates their Second Amendment rights.

McCoy has a concealed-carry permit from Texas. Johnson holds permits from Florida and Georgia. At the time the lawsuit was filed, Minnesota did not recognize any of these permits. Consequently, both drivers had to lock up their guns before entering Minnesota or risk charges.

“Minnesota’s failure to honor lawfully issued firearm permits from all states places an unreasonable burden on plaintiffs’ Second Amendment right to bear arms,” the lawsuit states. “Individuals do not lose their constitutional rights simply by crossing into another state. In fact, there is no other constitutional right that Minnesota requires a visiting individual to first obtain permission before they may exercise a fundamental right.”

https://landline.media/truck-driver-keeps-second-amendment-fight-rolling/

The United States has charged seven Chinese executives and four of the world’s biggest shipping container manufacturers with fixing prices and restricting the global supply of shipping containers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) said the companies controlled about 95% of the world’s standard dry shipping container production and worked together between November 2019 and January 2024 to limit output and raise prices.

Prosecutors said the alleged conspiracy increased the cost of shipping containers during the global supply chain crisis, forcing businesses and consumers to pay more for goods shipped worldwide.

https://www.marineinsight.com/u-s-charges-4-of-the-worlds-largest-shipping-container-manufacturers-over-multi-billion-dollar-trade-conspiracy/

after two deadly shootings in less than a week, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will pause non-urgent vehicle stops, and maybe, comply with the federal govt use of deadly force policy? The use of body cams?

ICE agents tried to pull over the car of 26-year-old Joan Durán Guerrero, a Colombian national, and the agent shot and killed him. The agents were not wearing body cameras, 

ICE agents in Houston attempted to pull Salgado Araujo over agents say he tried to use his van as a weapon,

The Department of Homeland Security's policy says deadly force cannot be used solely to prevent someone from fleeing … unless the person poses a significant threat of death or serious physical harm to the agent or others.

DHS accused Salgado Araujo of weaponizing his car against the ICE officer. In Maine, the agency said Durán Guerrero posed a public safety threat.

But in these cases, there hasn't been video evidence to back up those allegations.

None of the federal immigration agents were wearing body cameras, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

After the shooting of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis in January, DHS vowed to quickly deploy body cameras to federal immigration agents nationwide.

But that hasn't happened.

https://www.npr.org/2026/07/14/nx-s1-5893456/ice-vehicle-biddeford-houston

S&K Towing in the process of shutting down its operations, because it got greedy, and violated the law preventing tow truck companies from selling or disposing of active duty military member's vehicles

According to the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA), tow companies are required to obtain a court order before selling or disposing of a vehicle owned by an SCRA-protected servicemember.

In May 2024, a Military Legal Assistance attorney contacted S&K Towing and explained that the company was violating the SCRA. In response, a manager at S&K Towing told the attorney, "We do this all the time."

Between August 2020 and April 2025, S&K Towing Inc illegally sold or disposed of nearly 150 vehicles, many of which were registered to Camp Pendleton addresses. In other cases, vehicles were auctioned even after they were told that the owner was in the military.

S&K Towing will pay $160,000 to servicemembers who were affected by the illegal towing and auctioning of their vehicles.

"This settlement sends a strong message that all towing companies must recognize servicemembers' rights and take the necessary steps to comply with the SCRA," Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division said in a news release.

https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/orange-county-tow-company-settles-lawsuit-auctioning-camp-pendleton-vehicles/

In the Sacramento suburb of Roseville, California, Flock misread license plates in 71% of the alerts it sent to police

 https://www.businessinsider.com/flock-camera-misread-license-plate-reader-california-roseville-police-2026-7

I've preferred the looks of the Diablo over the looks of every other Lambo made in the last 40 years

https://petrolicious.com/blogs/films/the-devil-in-the-trees-lamborghini-diablo-gt

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Lamborghini_automobiles

a DEEP DIVE into how the end of the cold war benefitted Nascar, and how ignition/exhaust timing benefits from an X pipe, and how this all started with a submarine, (USS West Virginia SSBN 736(the deep dive, get it?) ) and ended with SEX (Side Exit X pipe)

I don't know why NASA needs a new wind tunnel... I don't think NASA has a future in air or spacecraft... at present NASA already seems obsolete. Private industry seems to be the only spacecraft in operation

https://x.com/NASA/status/2083289440542208058 this link says the NASA quoted reason for a new multi-million-dollar wind tunnel is "to play a role in developing experimental planes and future Moon and Mars missions"  

 Hmmm,... not much atmo on the moon or mars, so, what's the point of aerodynamic tested craft? 

And we sure as hell ain't going to send anyone to Mars in the next century or two, if ever... it's a one way trip, at best,  based on the crew needing more food and water than we can currently send with them

50 stolen vehicles were recovered after a monthslong investigation led to the discovery of an active chop shop in Norco

https://ktla-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/ktla.com/news/california/norco-chop-shop-bust

Federal officers recovered 366 packages of cocaine from a commercial truck and flatbed trailer at California’s Calexico Port of Entry.

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/20m-in-cocaine-found-beneath-floorboards-of-commercial-truck-trailer-at-california-border

the most outstanding race car stuff I've seen in a long time, is FASTER by Jesse Lonergan

I didn't post the page with the "F"

https://www.jesselonergan.com

if you want to enjoy a cool noir mystery, in comic book / graphic novel form, try Blacksad. a noir comic series created by Spanish authors Juan Díaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido, it has OUTSTANGING watercolor art - nominated for three Eisner Awards in 2004, and winner of two Eisner Awards in 2013

Blacksad is constantly up to his ears in trouble. Sticking his nose into mystery after mystery, often getting involved with women almost as dangerous as the criminals he thwarts. Be it solving the murder of a famous actress or keeping nuclear weapons out of terrorist hands, Blacksad's grim work often provides a mirror for real world conflict and human issues, never turning a blind eye to racism, political tensions, or brutally sudden violence.

Canales and Guarnido redefine the standards for graphic storytelling, carving striking characters that are both animalistic and intimately human. Guarnido's sumptuously painted pages and rich cinematic style bring the world of 1950s America to life, earning high praise from comics legends like Will Eisner, Stan Lee, Jim Steranko, and Tim Sale!

Check out the outstanding art on these skateboard decks by Kevin Tong

the grocery store magazine rack doesn't even carry a single car magazine anymore

 

1949 Dodge Wayfarer "Sportabout" the last Mopar roadster until the Viper

https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/performance-cars/the-forgotten-dodge-roadster-that-beat-the-corvette-to-market-by-four-years/ar-AA292ovM

the Kaehni ignition, a sorta diesel glowplug approach to firing a gasoline engine in the late 50s

At the 1965 Oakland Roadster Show, one of the most unusual hot rods on display was Chuck Miller's 1923 T-bucket powered by a Buick Nailhead that appeared to have no distributor.

 There was no distributor cap, no bundle of spark plug wires, and no conventional ignition system visible. Instead, a single ignition unit mounted at the front of the engine supplied high voltage through one lead while all eight spark plugs fired continuously whenever the ignition was switched on. When *Hot Rod* magazine published photographs of the car in its June 1965 issue, many readers insisted the setup could not possibly function. Ten months later, the magazine published a follow-up article explaining the system's operation, and the car ultimately received the show's Engineering Award for its innovative design.

The ignition system was known as the Kaehni ignition, based on a design patented by Frank J. Kaehni (U.S. Patent 2,968,296, granted in 1961). Originally developed for the Economy Engine Company of Youngstown, Ohio, which manufactured large stationary natural gas engines for the petroleum industry, the system was adapted for automotive use by engineer Charles Miller. Instead of relying on breaker points, a distributor, and mechanical timing advance, the Kaehni ignition used a solid-state transistorized oscillator operating at approximately 1.2 kHz to trigger an induction coil capable of generating roughly 45,000 volts. Every spark plug received hundreds of sparks per second regardless of piston position, eliminating nearly all moving parts normally associated with an ignition system.

The concept worked because only one cylinder at any given moment contained the correct combination of compressed air and fuel required for combustion. Although all eight spark plugs fired continuously, only the cylinder on its compression stroke could ignite the mixture.

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=pfbid0ChTeZqWw8ThnKvsSNb98wUTmKRTooSF1XAz3ADs8pxDem5vNvuV8jb4LbLGVjvkil&id=61562869869003

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/it-wont-work-chuck-miller-show-car-kaehni-ignition.837578/

July flew by, here are the banners (fewer than usual because I didn't update them daily during Comic Con)