Bunker Talk: Memorial Day Weekend Edition Part 1
Welcome to Bunker Talk, Memorial Day Weekend Edition Part 1. For all our American readers/commenters, I hope you have a great Memorial Day weekend. And, of course, I want to give a huge thanks to all of those who paid the ultimate sacrifice for our country. No words are enough. No debt of gratitude can ever be paid off.
We are going to break up the long Memorial Day weekend Bunker into two parts so we don't end up with 6,000 comments on a single post.
The caption to this week's top shot reads:
06 April 2019, Brandenburg, Prötzel Ot Harnekop: A general's jacket hangs in the Harnekop bunker in the army command room. On three floors 30 meters below the ground, the GDR defense minister and his high-ranking commanders wanted to entrench themselves in the event of war. The current owner has assigned the site and the bunker to various leaseholders who are in dispute over the rights of use. Photo: Bernd Settnik/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa (Photo by Bernd Settnik/picture alliance via Getty Images)
Also, a reminder:
If you want to talk politics, do so respectfully and know that there's always somebody that isn't going to agree with you.
If you have political differences, hash it out respectfully, stick to the facts, and no childish name-calling or personal attacks of any kind. If you can't handle yourself in that manner, then please, discuss virtually anything else.
No drive-by garbage political memes. No conspiracy theory rants. Links to crackpot sites will be axed, too. Trolling and shitposting will not be tolerated. No obsessive behavior about other users. Just don't interact with folks you don't like.
Do not be a sucker and feed trolls! That's as much on you as on them. Use the mute button if you don't like what you see.
So unless you have something of quality to say, know how to treat people with respect, understand that everyone isn't going to subscribe to your exact same worldview, and have come to terms with the reality that there is no perfect solution when it comes to moderation of a community like this, it's probably best to just move on.
Finally, as always, report offenders, please. This doesn't mean reporting people who don't share your political views, but we really need your help in this regard.
The Bunker is open!
Contact the editor: tyler@twz.com
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Newsweek
an hour ago
- Newsweek
'Game-Changing' Anti-Ship Weapon Tested by US Stealth Bomber
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. An American stealth bomber recently tested a "game-changing" weapon designed to sink warships amid China's rapid naval buildup to challenge the United States in the Pacific. The new weapon—known as Quicksink—is capable of "rapidly and efficiently" sinking maritime targets, the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory said in a news release on Wednesday. Newsweek has contacted the Chinese Defense Ministry for comment by email. Why It Matters China has the largest navy in the world by hull count, according to the Pentagon, with more than 370 ships and submarines—including two aircraft carriers in active service—enabling Beijing to expand its military reach and presence within and beyond the western Pacific. Facing China's growing naval threat, the U.S. has been arming its allies and partners in the Pacific—Australia, Japan and Taiwan—with various anti-ship weapons and deploying the Maritime Strike Tomahawk, the ship-sinking variant of the Tomahawk cruise missile. A United States Air Force B-2 stealth bomber returning to Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri on May 9. A United States Air Force B-2 stealth bomber returning to Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri on May 9. Senior Airman Devan Halstead/U.S. Air Force What To Know The test—which took place at a Gulf test range near Eglin Air Force Base in northwestern Florida—involved a B-2 stealth bomber and the 500-pound variant of the Quicksink maritime weapon. Official photos indicate the test was conducted in late April. Quicksink is a U.S. Air Force weapons program aimed at creating "air-delivered, low-cost, surface vessel defeat capability" to enhance Washington's power projection and maintain freedom of navigation in critical waterways, the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory said. The weapon itself is a modified Joint Direct Attack Munition—a family of precision-guided bombs—enhanced with anti-ship capabilities. The 2,000-pound Quicksink variant was successfully tested during an exercise in the Pacific last year, according to the news release. The new, smaller Quicksink variant is modified from the GBU-38 Joint Direct Attack Munition and is set to expand the B-2 bomber's targeting capabilities. The bomber is designed to penetrate the "most sophisticated defenses" and can carry up to 40,000 pounds of weapons. This capability provides a rapid response to maritime threats, the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory said, significantly bolstering the Air Force's counter-maritime deterrence and operations. However, it remains unclear whether the weapon has been officially fielded. A United States airman preparing GBU-38 Joint Direct Attack Munitions to be loaded onto a B-2 stealth bomber at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri for a Quicksink test on April 22. A United States airman preparing GBU-38 Joint Direct Attack Munitions to be loaded onto a B-2 stealth bomber at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri for a Quicksink test on April 22. Senior Airman Joshua Hastings/U.S. Air Force Tom Shugart, a former U.S. Navy submariner and an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that he would be "pretty surprised" if the stealth bomber flew within range of Chinese warships to drop the bomb. "Are we 1,000 percent sure that their air defense systems aren't going to get a sniff?" he asked. The B-2 bomber is one of the U.S. Air Force's most valuable assets, with only 19 aircraft in service. What People Are Saying General David Allvin, the U.S. Air Force's chief of staff, wrote on X on Wednesday: "We unleashed a new QUICKSINK weapon, which significantly enhances our ability to strike stationary or moving surface vessels. This is a true game-changer for the [Department of Defense] and is exactly what [President Donald Trump] means by PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH!" The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory said on its website: "QUICKSINK is an answer to the need to quickly neutralize menacing maritime threats over vast areas around the world. … QUICKSINK is unique because it can provide new capabilities to existing and future DoD weapons systems, giving combatant commanders and our national leaders new ways to defend against maritime threats." What Happens Next It remains to be seen whether the U.S. Air Force and other service branches will develop entirely new weapons or modify existing armaments to neutralize enemy warships.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
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Courier Journal great Bill Luster, ‘the most beloved person in all of photography,' dies
Bill Luster, a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer for The Courier Journal and member of the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame, died Thursday after battling the types of diseases that come with being older. He was 80. He used light and a camera to tell stories in the newspaper in such a way that few could equal. Whether it was Barack and Michelle Obama sneaking a quick dance outside the White House's Blue Room, or a dog stretching while country folk gathered in lawn chairs under a shade tree, Luster had a knack for conveying an entire story in a single frame. 'He operated in such a quiet way, I don't think he ever forced his way into a situation,' said Jay Mather, a former Courier Journal photographer who shared the 1980 Pulitzer Prize for international reporting with reporter Joel Brinkley. 'He gained the trust of subjects easily because of his quiet manner.' Standing just 4'11', Luster was a giant in the world of photojournalism — a world where he used his height as an advantage. He loved to tell the story of when actor John Wayne visited Louisville in 1976 to be grand marshal of the Pegasus Parade. Luster met his plane at the airport and as Wayne climbed off the plane, Luster scrambled backward as he shot. 'He got about 10 feet away, knelt down and said, 'How's this, little pardner,'' Luster wrote in 2008. 'So I do have some advantages, and I still treasure that picture.' Back in the days before digital photography, when photographers had to print pictures using a device called a photo enlarger, Luster needed to stand on a stool — known as a 'Luster Lifter' — to see what he was doing. His photos had a unique perspective both literally and figuratively. Michael Clevenger, The Courier Journal's director of photography, said when he was a young photographer he figured out that talented photographers at the newspaper like Luster didn't necessarily love what they were shooting, but 'what they really loved was telling the best story they could through photos — and Bill was a master at that.' Photographers, Clevenger said, often have just one chance — and a small rectangular box — to tell a story. 'What Bill did best was he used that entire rectangle. Edge to edge, he told stories. … I'm always amazed at how good he was at protecting that space.' In 2010, Luster won the Joseph Sprague Award, the highest honor in American photojournalism, from the National Press Photographers Association. He also won the Joseph Costa Award for Innovative leadership from that organization. C. Thomas Hardin, a longtime photographer and director of photography at the CJ, said Luster had skills few other photographers could claim back in the days before auto-focus camera lenses were available. "He was a great sports photographer," Hardin said. "He had terrific eye-hand coordination. ... He had the ability to follow-focus as the action happened in front of him. Very few people had the innate ability he had." Over the years, Luster was named Sports Photographer of the Year and the Visual Journalist of the Year by the Kentucky News Photographers Association. In 1982, he was named runner-up for Newspaper Photographer of the Year from the University of Missouri's School of Journalism. Over the years, he gained exclusive access to the White House under several U.S. presidents, including Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford and Barack Obama — and he shot photographs of every president from Lyndon Baines Johnson to Obama. Luster had two photo essays appear in The National Geographic magazine — the holy grail of news photographers — and had images published in Time and Newsweek, according to his website. Sam Abell, who worked for National Geographic for more than 30 years and has known Luster since he was a photo intern at The Courier Journal in the late 1960s, said Luster's piece on organ transplants was the "single most difficult story anyone had ever done for National Geographic" both in terms of subject matter and emotionally as he had to photograph people while they were making the excruciating decision about donating a loved-one's organs. "Bill Luster is the most beloved person in all of photography," Abell said. "He had a combination of things: personal charisma, absolute hard work, and belief in the high calling of photography." He covered 55 Kentucky Derbies, continuing to shoot them even after he retired until just a few years ago when his health and mobility issues made it impossible for him. But beyond his work as a photographer, he was a consummate prankster. For decades, he would make up outlandish tales for young reporters, photographers and interns about his previous career as a jockey and the time he had a mount in the Kentucky Derby — tales that were believable because he was a tad under 5 feet. In reality, Luster wrote that a man in his hometown once convinced him he could be a jockey and urged him to climb into the saddle. 'I promptly fell off.' Mather recalled that Luster would often send interns to photograph a man who ran a local laundry who had let it be known over and over again that he did not want his picture taken. At lunch, he'd sometimes pilfer pieces of silverware and drop them into the purses of female coworkers who went along, said Mary Ann Gerth, a former photographer for The Courier Journal who grew up in Luster's hometown of Glasgow, Kentucky, and was photographed by him at a parade when she was a child. 'I found many of the forks and spoons in my purse before we left the restaurant. For the rest, my apologies to the Bristol," she said. He was also the target of pranks. Mather said he and Luster for years traded a self-serving book published by a photographer at another newspaper — trying to find inventive ways to slip it to the other person. After that joke grew old, they traded a gaudy plaster of Paris pig. Mather said he finally got the best of Luster when Pete Souza, the chief photographer for Reagan and Obama, snuck the pig into the White House for Luster to find while he was there photographing Obama. "He's a very determined photographer ... he pursued excellence, no matter the assignment, whether it's a photo of the president of the United States, the Kentucky Derby, or University of Kentucky basketball, or some community assignment around Louisville," Souza said. "But he also had a good sense of humor; he liked to play practical jokes, and he liked to tell stories about practical jokes after the fact," Souza said, noting that one of his favorite pranks happened more than 40 years ago "and he was still telling that story this year." He was a University of Kentucky basketball fan who never forgave Duke star Christian Laettner for hitting the shot in the NCAA's 1992 regional finals knocking UK out of the tournament. In a video at his retirement party, his coworkers included a clip of Laettner speaking directly to Luster, 'Hey, Bill, remember me?' He was a Democrat. During the 2024 election, a Donald Trump campaign sign mysteriously appeared in his front yard. His son, Joseph, quickly removed it and put it in the trash. Retired CJ photographer Pam Spaulding was often the target of his pranks. He once had the light switches in her house changed so that "up" was off and "down" was on. And he often stole her keys and moved her car in The Courier Journal parking lot so she couldn't find it. Before she left for an interview for a Neiman Fellowship at Harvard University, Luster and Mather snuck into her house and hid a frying pan, a tambourine and a copy of the Yellow Pages in her suitcase. "When I got to Boston and opened my suitcase, It took me about 30 seconds to figure out Bill did it," Spaulding said. "When I called him, as soon as he heard my voice, he was on the floor laughing. ... But it wasn't just me, everyone in the country has been pranked by Bill Luster." Charles William Luster was born in 1944 in Glasgow, Kentucky, to Betty and Earl Luster. Earl Luster was a civil engineer and was just starting a long career in the military with posts around the world and around the country when Bill Luster was born. Betty and Earl Luster soon split up and when Bill Luster was 4 years old, Betty married Joe T. Hall, a local rural free delivery carrier in Glasgow who raised his wife's son as his own. Bill Luster graduated from Glasgow High School in 1962 and headed off to Western Kentucky State College, where he began dabbling in photography as a hobby. He returned home to Glasgow in 1964 where he became a photographer and sportswriter for the Glasgow Daily Times. He improved his skills there for five years — occasionally shooting freelance photos for The Courier Journal — before The Courier Journal and Louisville Times hired him in 1969. He married the former Linda Shearer in a ceremony at Highland Baptist Church in 1976. Over 42 years at the Courier Journal, Luster would become the most well-known of the newspaper's photographers, winning some of the biggest national awards and leading the National Press Photographers Association as its president for a term. He had stints as the newspaper's director of photography and was the paper's chief photographer when he retired in 2011. He was part of the teams that won two Pulitzer Prizes for The Courier Journal. The first was the 1976 Pulitzer Prize for feature photography for the newspaper's coverage of court-ordered busing, and the second came in 1989 when the newspaper's news and photo staffs won the award for local reporting for its coverage of the Carroll County bus crash. The crash — the nation's worst drunken-driving accident — killed 27 adults and children on a church bus returning to Radcliff, Kentucky, following an outing to Kings Island amusement park near Cincinnati. Luster's iconic photo of police investigators peering at the burned-out shell of the bus on the newspaper's front page on May 16, 1988, gave readers a graphic image of the tragedy that happened two nights before. Luster was inducted into the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame in 2012. He is survived by his wife, his son, Joseph, and daughter-in-law, Lauren, and two grandchildren. Joseph Gerth can be reached at 502-582-4702 or by email at jgerth@ You can also follow him at @ This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Bill Luster, former Courier Journal photographer, dies at 80
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Is it time to talk impeachment? Given Trump's actions, it may be overdue.
In the few months since Donald Trump returned to the presidency, he has issued so many executive orders and pronouncements on domestic and foreign policy that he may have overwhelmed our intellectual and emotional energy to fully appreciate their impact. Whether or not you approve of the direction he wants to take the country, he took office after being duly elected. Many of his initiatives are within his authority. Generally speaking, Trump has the right to indulge his ideological obsessions and advance policies that benefit the economic class that 'brung him to the dance.' But, what of those executive orders that exceed the limited authority proscribed for the presidency — powers meant to be shared with other branches of government, or those that defy Supreme Court interpretations of the Constitution? Say goodbye to democracy — and our freedoms — if we ignore James Madison's warning in the Federalist Papers No. 47 that "The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny." On Jan. 20, 2025, Trump took the Presidential Oath of Office to 'faithfully execute the Office of President' and 'preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." Yet just three months later, when asked if he agreed with Secretary of State Marco Rubio's statement that every person in the United States is entitled to due process, Trump told NBC's Kristen Welker that he's not so sure. 'I don't know. I'm not a lawyer.' The Constitution states that 'no person' shall be 'deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.' It says 'person,' not 'citizen.' Not surprisingly, the Supreme Court has held that everyone in this country have certain basic rights. When Welker reminded the president of this constitutionally guaranteed right, Trump complained that this only slows him down: 'I was elected to get them the hell out of here, and the courts are holding me from doing it.' This helps explain why democracy requires an independent judiciary — to check the actions of the executive (from local police to presidents) to ensure that government allegations of wrongdoing are accurate and mistakes are not made. Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the recent high-profile example, is Salvadoran, married to an American citizen with three American-born children who has lived in U.S. since 2011. He was granted protected status by an immigration judge in 2019. Nevertheless he was detained by ICE in March and deported to El Salvador without a hearing. The Trump administration originally acknowledged that he was mistakenly deported, and a federal judge ordered that he be returned to the U.S. The Supreme Court unanimously upheld this directive. As of this writing the Trump administration has done nothing to facilitate his return. The President even quipped that he could do so, but he will not. The government now asserts that Abrego Garcia's deportation wasn't a mistake, claiming he is a member of the Salvadoran gang MS-13, but declines to provide evidence supporting the claim. As if to emphasize contempt for constitutional rights, deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller recently said that the Trump administration was considering suspending Habeas Corpus to block an immigrant's right to challenge their detention before being deported. There are other examples of presidential defiance of the law, such as the illegal impoundment of congressionally authorized appropriations and constitutional freedoms. So, it is time to insert the 'I' word (impeachment) into civic conversations. I am not naïve: impeachment is neither imminent nor likely — for now. The disgrace of this period, as future historians will note, is that whether the President has intimidated Congress into silence or they applaud his overly expansive use of power, the legislative branch has abandoned its oversight responsibility. For now, Congress is content to look the other way. Nevertheless, we must begin to insert 'impeachable offenses' into civic conversations. If we don't, we will be complicit in accepting that the aberrant behavior of this President is the new normal for the evaluation of future presidents. Howard L. Simon served as executive director of the ACLU of Florida from 1997-2018. He resides in Gainesville and is president of Clean Okeechobee Waters Foundation, Inc. This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Talk of impeachment hasn't come up. How long can that last? | Opinion
