Drones 2026

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PRENOTE: The First anniversary of the political assassination of Melissa Hortman and her husband is June 14.  Her murderer was sentenced to life in prison on June 13.  Lori Sturdevant of the Minnesota Star Tribune. has an outstanding column in the June 12 STrib.  You can read it here: MN Star Tribune Lori Sturdevant June 12, 2026

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Drones are a fact of life in modern warfare.  In Sunday, June 7,  Minnesota Star Tribune, columnist Aaron Brown wrote a most interesting column on the topic, with focus on Ukraine and Russia: Drones Aaron Brown.  The column is very much worth your time.

It got me to thinking about the Drones topic in my own little corner of the world.  Searching the word “drones” in my archive, I found 25 posts in which the word appears.

Among them, the one I most remember was December 13, 2011 “The Drones” (see also link to December 20, 2011).  That was 15 years ago.  It was just an honest expression of opinion at the time, and ignited a small firestorm of comments about the technology.

At the time I wrote the 2011 piece, Drones were becoming part of the conversation, but few knew much about them.

Personally, I remember some guy in Hibbing who liked to fly his model plane by remote control (radio) back in the 1980s; and a few years later, just off off Cedar Avenue by the Mall of America, seeing another guy sailing a model boat on a small pond, also radio controlled.

In April, 2016, I saw a thought-provoking film on the issue of drones.  It was “Eye in the Sky”. and my post at the time is here.  As noted, there have been many more posts, just in my space.  Drones are not a new thing….

I’m sure there were people thinking of more military grade uses of drones at the time I first observed them, but at that time in history the internet technology was still in the thinking stage, and likely very hard for any of us to even imagine the days when somebody could accurately and remotely control a tiny flying bomb from hundreds or thousands of miles away.

We live in that future.  Think of the persons in the boats off the coast of Venezuela, killed by drones.  Etc.

Back in 2011 I suppose we could imagine that we could prohibit these weapons of destruction.  But now they are useable everywhere, domestic or foreign, and no longer abstract.

I offer the articles just for personal discussion and reflection.

We will never get rid of Drones, and as sophisticated as they are now, we’ve not seen the end of their evolution.

I’ll reserve my own additional comments on contemporary warfare for a future post after July 4, and I invite you to join in on the conversation.

POSTNOTE:

JUNE 14, 2026: ROBERT REICH ON THE CAGE MATCH AT THE WHITE HOUSE AND WHAT IT MEANS, HERE.  If you’re still not motivated, read this single post, today.

You see many ‘forwards’ below.  Almost all of them are paid subscriptions by myself – they add immeasurably to my knowledge base.  If you can afford subscribe to at least one or more of these commentators.  They’re worth it.

We are at a crucial fork in the road for our country.  I urge you to not only be informed, to be in action wherever you live.  I’m part of the huge majority of ordinary citizens who can make or break their democracy by action or inaction.  The citizens power is the right to vote for officers at all levels, from local to national.  In November we vote for every one of the 435 representatives in the national Congress, plus numerous U.S. Senators, Governors, state legislators etc.  Know your candidates, contribute to them and vote.

There is so much credible information out there, and so many outrageous actions by the current administration, that it is all but impossible to keep up – getting a drink from a fire house seems appropriate.

June 13, 2026 Tim Snyder wrote about Ukraine “Sky defense: bringing it home”

June 11, 2026, came a post from Robert Reich whose entirety is a statement by two men who were long time elected representatives at the state and national level.  They articulate the alarm about the present and future of our democracy.  Take the time to read their thoughts, here.   If nothing else, read the last three paragraphs.

For those who wonder about Social Security, June 12 from Robert Reich.  Persons younger than I will not only be the victims of what is happening today, but are the ones who will have to be responsible for the solution.  This is an important post to read.

Paul Krugman: Elon Musk, Human Ponzi Scheme June 12.  As I was adding this link, an e-mail from a friend came in with Krugman’s post.  I wrote the friend as follows: “In a rational world, I could envision an end game, but in the current environment, I’m not sure, except to say that this is a house of cards and at some point we are going to be badly hurt.”  To which he responded: “Indeed,  rebalance one’s retirement portfolio to safer stuff, and right now index funds might not be that.   Otherwise exercises for balance are good for the mind and body.   A nice weekend is upon us, no ungodly heat….enjoy.”

June 12 Joyce Vance About Youth Voting

June 12 Status Kuo on the USPS as a chokepoint in the upcoming election.

June 12 The Kennedy Center and other Heather Cox Richardson

June 6, I did a related post: “Happy Man“.

And this is Pride Month, and June 9 the Weekly Sift is worth your time.

COMMENTS (more below):

from Joyce: I have long opposed term limits for the reasons Sturdevant expresses; we have term limits already, in the form of elections. What I would change is the way wealth is able to affect elections.

response from Dick: I agree.  It is a difficult issue. Where citizens are ’taught’ to despise the very government they ALL depend on; even worse now with the available methods of destroying lives.

from Brian re Drones: Ah yes drones.  I love flying my little drone all over, for example: [here, Memphis, three years ago]

from Chuck: Here‘s a link that woke me up.

response from Dick: Thank you.  I watched and added it.  Thoughts:  it reminded me of the film I saw in about 2016, “Eye in the sky”.  If you can access it, I’d recommend it.  In order to do mass chaos ((the planeload of individualized drones) requires human manufacture, and coordination at many levels to pull off.  It is theoretically possible, but it would be a huge stretch actually pull it off, and deal with the consequences of the aftermath.

When I wrote my little piece 15 years ago, drones were really just becoming part of the vocabulary.  Not so anymore.  Somehow we should try to enhance and expand the conversation.  Thanks for sending the link.

reply from Chuck:  Around 1984 I worked with a guy who made drones.  Amazing what could be done with them then…

Now?  Your assessment understates their capacity given AI and when AGI comes…

Already bioweapons and medical cures can be targeted at specific gene profiles…

Prepare for chaos.

response from Dick: I accept your opinion but don’t share your apparent conclusions. Anything is possible, granted.  But the more hands (minds) get in the mix, from the very beginning of the process, the more likely there is a catastrophic mistake against the perpetrator.  What good is it, for instance, to wipe out the enemy whoever that is.  The Nazis almost succeeded….  At any rate, I’m just offering this for thinking.  I’ll likely add both your opinion and my two in the likely event that at least one more person is interested!  Thanks for feeding in and being part of the conversation.  How do you propose to solve this, given the current state of affairs?

from Carlo: I HAD A DRONE HOVER OVER MY YARD FOR ABOUT 10 OR 15 MINUTES THE OTHER WEEK.

I emailed the police chief, and he said there are laws about hovering, but they really can’t be enforced. But he said if it happened again, I was to call a certain number, I had to go back and get that number and write it down.
Here is what he said.
CSM

“Hello Carlo,

I hope this finds you well. A drone operator must comply with FAA regulations, including registration requirements, visual line of sight requirements, and altitude restrictions, but per the Minnesota Department of Transportation:

Flights over private property

Historically, landowners were assumed to own the airspace above their property ad coleum – to the top of the sky. The advent of manned aircraft made this untenable, and in a 1946 takings decision the Supreme Court held that the public has a right of flight in the navigable airspace, while property owners held a property interest in the “immediate reaches of the enveloping atmosphere” around their property. Unfortunately, neither navigable airspace nor “immediate reaches” has been subsequently defined in statute or case law.

If you become concerned with a drone being used for harassment, stalking, peeping, or other criminal behavior please call when it’s happening, 651-439-9381.

Hopefully, that’s helpful,

“Happy Man”

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I subscribe to Garrison Keillor’s substack.  I’ve always liked him, and he writes now about being old.  A recent column of his was entitled “I can’t help it, I’m a happy man“.  I commented on his commentary, and also noted another comment, which elicited his personal response.  The three comments (of 43 at the time I’m writing this) follow:

My comment: I’m senior to you [Garrison] and for many years I’ve had a personal mantra to myself every day, including right before I read the post: to “be an optimist and share my optimism with others”. It’s how I try to live. But, optimism aside, we are in glum times, and as our 250th birthday approaches we need to personally engage to save the country that we and many others have nurtured, albeit imperfectly, for our entire history.

Solvay:

It’s nice to live in one’s golden years if one has money. In Project 2025 America, being old without money is pretty scary.

I’m happy it’s good for you. Me, I’m considering the high bridge in my town. So are many others, considering the spiking numbers of jumpers.

Again, I’m very happy for you.

Tra-la!

to which Garrison replied: Don’t even think about jumping. talk to people who. care. about you.

If you read the post, and however many of the comments as you wish, you find that we all see the subject in different ways, depending on how we were feeling at the time we wrote the comment.  And of course, not everybody comments.  This one, at the time I reread it just now, had 182 ‘likes’ which in itself is not a reflection of how many actually read the post, since “like” depends on an individual affirmative act – clicking on a heart icon.

So, my takeaway from this column, and the comments, especially Solvay’s and Garrison’s reply, is that we are all different, and we all have fluctuating moods and circumstances and feelings about many things.

At this moment, I’m closer to Garrisons mood than to Solvay’s, but that’s a matter of ‘moment’ and a subjective judgement at the very least.

I suppose my judgement at this moment was directly affected by another column I read a dozen hours or so ago in the Minneapolis paper Business section for June 9, 2026.  The column, by Alex Vega and Bernard Condon of the Associated Press, was titled: “Elon Musk: World’s First Trillionaire?” and subtitled “SpaceX’s IPO , set to be the biggest ever, would put the company chief executive on the path”, and went on to describe the potential outcome on Wall Street when SpaceX goes public this month.

Solvay, myself and Garrison (most likely) are not players in the predicted Wall Street feeding frenzy.

Then comes the matter of realism: Among other things SpaceX pitches the “need to build “a permanent human colony” on the red planet [Mars] with “at least one million inhabitants” as existential threats loom that could consign man to “the same fate as the dinosaurs”.

Oc course, what is not stated in this dream world prospectus is the concern of Solvay, and probably billions of people already on planet earth who are subsisting from day to day, if they can subsist at all; twinned with the fantastical notion that there will ever be a permanent town of any size on the moon, much less on Mars.

Best we figure out how to get along and help each other out here on the planet we’re stuck on…which isn’t too bad, if we can work together to keep it that way.

How much is too much?

The inequality in personal wealth in this country is very likely the greatest it has ever been.

It is a waste of time to compare Solvay’s pennies  with Elon Musk’s trillion.

There is a relevant comparison though: Solvay’s needs for food, water, and medical care are at least equivalent to Musk.  He physically can’t consume much more Cheerios than she can, and stashing millions of boxes of Cheerios for later eating is equally unproductive.

I connect with the cartoon character I used to like: Scrooge McDuck, dancing around in his money bin full of what seemed liked quarters to this youngster.  No way could he spend it all.  (It didn’t occur to me to demand my share at the time.)

The rich in this country have the same dilemma.  They can accumulate and accumulate but to what final benefit.  The provider of the wealth is the Solvay’s of the world, one expenditure at a time.

 

Countdown to July 4, 2026

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About a month from now is the Fourth of July, the bicentennial of our country.  I am engaged as always, but probably will only rarely post between now and July 4, and not send notice as usual – the absence is intentional.  I do ask you take some time to take a closer and reflective look at this post sometime this month.

The ‘vaation’ gives more time for myself, and any reader, to consider for themselves how each of us fits into the uncertain future that faces us as a nation – a future that we will own by our own individual and collective action or inaction..

I welcome commentaries from anyone about this topic, and will post them if the writer wishes.

If you’re looking for a great starting place, Heather Cox Richardson has organized short videos for the next 250 days.  They’re titled 250 in 250.  Here is subscriber information.  You can subscribe easily.  Check it out.  Each of these will be one minute in length and very well done.

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The official U.S. website for our 250th is America250, from the bipartisan organization  established in 2016.  This website has the official background.  What we will mostly hear about this month is an apparent alternative.  This commentary from Robert Reich today is well worth your time to read.  There will be many other learning opportunities in coming days.

Following are some maps to help organize your own thoughts.  Below is the U.S. basic map for reference .  Here’s the same map in pdf: US Map

 

Here’s a map history of what became the United States from my 1988 edition of the National Geographic Centennial Atlas of American History: Historical US NatGeo1988001.  Included are seven maps from 1775-1960.

From the same source, here are maps for 1750 and 1763 Historical U.S. Map 1750 1763.

In effect, what was to be a celebration is being turned into a battleground for our future.  Learn

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Miscellany:

Here are several comments about my Memorial Day post about Amable Guion.

My friend, SAK, comments from across the pond.

Here are three commentaries about Cuba by visitors in 2009 and 2012.  The photos are thanks to Brian Gately from a 2009 visit.

More about the Kindness Project, here.

One more time: I find most invaluable several commentators on substack, all of whom speak from experience and I find trustworthy.  I also subscribe to them, supporting their work with very reasonable expense.  They are, again: Heather Cox Richardson, Joyce Vance, Robert Reich, Paul Krugman, Tim Snyder, Mary Trump, Garrison Keillor.  There are others as well, on occasion, but these are the standouts.

Here’s my 80th birthday blog from May 4, 2020.  (The kid with the baseball, my grandson, is now an engineer.. He was born less than a year after 9-11-01, and graduated from high school in the middle of the Covid pandemic in June, 2020….)

Stay involved.  Our future as a country is very much at stake.