Odious

The power of the Executive to cast a man into prison without formulating any charge known to the law, and particularly to deny him the judgment of his peers, is in the highest degree odious and is the foundation of all totalitarian government.

-- Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (1874-1965), British politician and statesman, in a telegram (21 November 1942) by Churchill from Cairo, Egypt to Home Secretary Herbert Morrison; cited in In the Highest Degree Odious (1992), Simpson, Clarendon Press, p. 391

DMSP Termination

Topic: Suspension of All Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Data

Product(s) or Data Impacted:  All Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) data and products: FINE, SMOOTH and HOUSEKEEPING data from Operational Linescan System (OLS), Special Sensor Microwave Imager Sounder (SSMIS), and all Near-Earth Space Weather instruments

Date/Time of Initial Impact: no later than June 30, 2025 

Date/Time of Expected End: NA Termination

Details/Specifics of Change: 

Due to recent service changes, the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) and Navy’s Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center (FNMOC) will discontinue ingest, processing and distribution of all DMSP data no later than June 30, 2025.  ESPC interfaces will not receive DMSP data and all data products will be suspended.  Users should expect all FINE, SMOOTH and HOUSEKEEPING data from Operational Linescan System (OLS), Special Sensor Microwave Imager Sounder (SSMIS), and all Near-Earth Space Weather instruments to be terminated.  This service change and termination will be permanent. 

-- Notice published by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA (25 June 2025), announcing that after 40 years, on 5 days' notice, the U.S. Department of Defense will no longer provide satellite weather data, leaving hurricane forecasters without crucial information about storms as peak hurricane season arrives in the Atlantic.  The termination has been delayed by 1 month after an outcry from scientists and forecasters, NPR "Defense Department will stop providing crucial satellite weather data" (1 July 2025)

Reasons

The heart has its reasons, which Reason does not know.  We feel it in a thousand things.

-- Blaise Pascal (1623 - 1662), French mathematician, logician, physicist, and theologian, The Pensées (1669) (literally "thoughts") Section IV: On the Means of the Belief (242-290) 277

In Dreams

In dreams begins responsibility.

-- William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939), Irish symbolist poet, dramatist, and mystic, 1923 Nobel laureate in Literature, Epigraph to the book Responsibilities (1914)

None Of This Was Charity

Russia, despite a rickety economy and unsustainable manpower losses, is escalating this fight in an attempt to win through diplomacy -- pouring everything into a renewed effort to break the West's resolve because they can't break Ukraine's lines.  And Ukraine continues to hold at great cost.  If we falter now, the United States risks more than just a battlefield setback.  We risk sending a signal to adversaries and allies alike that America no longer has the stomach to stand with those who fight for freedom.  To give up now sends the message that we have no will to commit to our own national interests.

The history of diplomacy has many euphemisms for disengaging from a fight before the enemy: "ending wars," "retrenchment," "refocusing," "a decent interval," and so on.  The military has a simple word for it: surrender.

The past three U.S. administrations understood both the stakes and the complexity of supporting Ukraine.  They helped Ukraine take the difficult steps toward interoperability with NATO while provided critical military equipment and training.  Our policy and our delivery timelines weren't always perfect, but Republicans and Democrats agreed that a free, strong Ukraine in a position to defend itself was an asset to our security.  And Americans supported that approach.

None of this was charity -- it was strategic investment with deliberate attention to what we could provide without compromising our own readiness.  That took rigor, discipline, analysis, and more risk mitigation than almost anyone who doesn't work in the Pentagon will ever realize.  But it paid off.  Ukraine, once reliant on Soviet doctrine and gear, transformed its military structure and operational capability under fire while defending its sovereignty with courage, combat savvy, and increasing skill.

Ukraine is holding on.  Barely, but bravely.  Let's not make them hold on alone or for much longer.

-- Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling (Ret.), former commander of U.S. Army Europe, "If We Don't Stand With Ukraine, What Do We Stand For?" (7 July 2025)

United We Stand

Let us trust God and our better judgment to set us right hereafter.  United we stand, divided we fall.  Let us not split into factions which must destroy that union upon which our existence hangs.  Let us preserve our strength for the French, the English, the Germans, or whoever else shall dare invade our territory, and not exhaust it in civil commotions and intestine wars.

-- Patrick Henry (1736 - 1799), American attorney, planter, and politician who became known as an orator during the movement for independence in Virginia in the 1770s, Last public speech (4 March 1799); as quoted in Patrick Henry: Life, Correspondences and Speeches (1891) by William Wirt Henry, Vol. 2, p. 609-610

Bound By Ideals

America has never been united by blood or birth or soil.  We are bound by ideals that move us beyond our backgrounds, lift us above our interests, and teach us what it means to be citizens.  Every child must be taught these principles.  Every citizen must uphold them.  And every immigrant, by embracing these ideals, makes our country more, not less, American.  Today, we affirm a new commitment to live out our nation's promise through civility, courage, compassion, and character.  America, at its best, matches a commitment to principle with a concern for civility.  A civil society demands from each of us good will and respect, fair dealing and forgiveness.

-- Former President George W. Bush (6 July 1946 -). First inaugural address (January 2001)