Beautiful B-2 Spirit and not-so-beautiful DoD testimony

Let's look at pictures first, before getting into the nitty gritty of U.S. Air Force project management.

Putting a B-2 through its paces at 90° North

This is a beautiful photo of a beautiful B-2 Spirit approaching the North Pole.

Testing B-2 performance at a geomagnetic extreme point 

The US Air Force provides some details about this test flight:

A B-2 Spirit flies to the North Pole on October 27, 2011, on a test mission from Edwards Air Force Base, California. The polar flight helped ensure that the B-2 maintains its combat capability in all environments...

The North Pole's coordinates are 90° North latitude and 0° East or 0° West longitude, take your pick. (For the sake of notational accuracy, it is usually expressed as 90° North but disregard that for the moment.) Patience, please, as I am going somewhere with this.

 Comfortable expedition to the North Pole
thanks to Russian icebreaker (2013)

So, 90°N 0°E is merely a "quarter" rotation of the Earth away from coordinates of  0°N 0°E according to the map projection of the World Geodetic System 1984. WGS84 is an oft-used global reference system for modeling the Earth. The U.S. Department of Defense and even more importantly, GPS (Global Positioning System) both use WGS84. By the way, the DoD developed GPS and made it publically and freely available to all in the early 1980s.

Null Island is L0L0

If one is doing geocoding with GPS and WGS84, the Library of Congress describes 0°N 0°E as 

"a curious blend of real and imaginary geography, of mathematical certainty and pure fantasy"

The more ephemeral aspect of the location, referred to by some as Null Island, is uhh mapped in the Library of Congress link above. Please click? It is a great image!

Further details, for the VERY curious, are available elsewhere: 

"Null Island is an ephemeral geography, a foggy ship of state sailing thru autumn mists, surrounded by sirens and map cherubs. Null geocodes, welcome home."

Latitude 0, longitude 0 is also the Land of L0L0! In another, Second Life, 0, 0 was the Land of LOL for me.

F-16 with bomb at Bagram

A GBU-54 is a really heavy precision-guided bomb. It uses both GPS and laser to find its target. Moving targets are challenging, and the GBU-54's "dual" guidance system improves accuracy. 

In the photo below, a GBU-54 is mounted under the wing of an F-16 at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan. I hope Joe Biden didn't leave it behind for the Taliban following our disastrous departure from Kabul in September 2021.

Courtesy U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Christopher Boitz 

I am curious whether those are two GBU-54s or one. If just one, does the smaller, oval-shaped thing next to it help launch it, or provide fuel for travel to its target? 

I think it is just one bomb, not two, because both objects have visible part numbers that start with "BJ21". I would really like to see more of the mechanism to secure the bomb under the wing, and how it releases! 

Thank you for your attention...

A few days ago, I saw a great meme thing on the Twitter X. It was a GBU-54 just like this one, hanging on the wing of an F-16. On the side was written, "Thank you for your attention to this matter". I can't find it now. This is the best I could do.

Peace through strength works.

Thank you for your attention to this matter. https://t.co/OkjMKOvsIS pic.twitter.com/QrCbYvlJQs

— Dustin Grage (@GrageDustin) July 3, 2025

That seems to be Donald Trump's new favorite phrase. I have read it frequently during the past few weeks, as part of his Truth Social and other communiques, especially with Iran and Israel, and the bombing of Iran's nuclear facilities in June 2025.

OMG Immigration police seen detaining people denied asylum

Deporting illegal aliens

U.S. Customs Enforcement and Immigration officers are caught by the local Phoenix affiliate of ABC News, ABC15, in the act of DOING THEIR JOB! Just look at what is going on in downtown Phoenix today.

This is a Breaking News report. According to the ABC15 live action reporter,

Our crews at the scene on Wednesday morning saw agents waiting outside and detaining people as they exited the building. ABC15 spoke with a few of the people who were being placed in vans, who said they initially came to the courthouse for asylum cases, which they say were then dismissed.

Is case dismissed a good outcome? 

The reporter asked questions of two women being assisted to their seats in one of the white vans. Through the assistance of a Spanish interpreter, both said that they had gone to court for hearings of their request for asylum cases; the immigration judge had "dismissed" both cases. One woman was from Venezuela, another from Mexico. 

Asylum hearings are not like civil lawsuits or non-immigration related criminal charges!  Dismissal of a lawsuit or criminal indictment would be a GOOD thing for a defendant. Dismissal of a request for asylum would NOT be a good thing for an asylum seeker. If dismissal were the outcome of these immigration court hearings, then arrest and deportation would follow. 

ABC15 doesn't seem to realize this, as they "reached out to officials to find out why people were being detained or arrested".

Asylum as shortcut to migration

The consequences of illegal entry (i.e. deportation) are held in abeyance if one claims to be seeking asylum in the U.S. Until the presidential administrations of Obama or maybe, G.W. Bush, this sort of asylum seeking was rare, and mostly sought by citizens of Warsaw Pact countries during the Cold War. 

As of 2018, an estimated 11 million illegal aliens resided in the U.S. including the Obama-declared DACA aka Dreamers. Between 10 and 20 million asylum seekers joined them during the four years of Joe Biden's presidency. Be aware that the entire U.S. population is about 330 million men, women, and children. 

11 + 15 = 26 million illegal non-citizens residing in our country means that 7.9% of the people in our country lack legal status.

Not-so-developing story

ICE's response should surprise no one:

"U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is executing its mission of identifying and removing criminal aliens and others who have violated our nation’s immigration laws. All aliens in violation of U.S. immigration law may be subject to arrest, detention and, if found removable by final order, removal from the United States, regardless of nationality... The agency publicly announces operational results when appropriate."

Illegal entry to the U.S. is a criminal act, yet ABC15 news didn't consider the ICE statement to be helpful in shedding light on the situation.