The Off Topic Topic

[Crazy_Ivan80]

https://www.hln.be/mijn-geld/etienne-71-trouwde-met-zijn-schoondochter-anja-53-ik-vind-het-spijtig-dat-ik-mensen-zeer-heb-gedaan-maar-heb-geluisterd-naar-mijn-hart~ab74437c/

Indutch and behind a paywall but from the blurb: the guy married his daughter-in-law,  making her kids/his grandkids his kids...

That's some crusader kings level family treeing. 
As long as everyone is happy I guess

[Josquius]

I recently learned about a book known as "The Camp of Saints". A French novel from the 70s, very well known in certain circles apparently.
Reading the synopsis.... holy cow. So much of the nonsense one hears the far right come out with these days all in one handy narrative. I wonder how much this is ground zero for. Quite interesting to hear basically the same tired non-points but in the 70s.

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

In Calcutta, India, Catholic priests promote the adoption of Indian children by those back in Belgium as a form of charity. When the Belgian government realizes that the number of Indian children raised in Belgium has reached 40,000 in just five years, an emergency policy attempts to halt the migration. Desperate for the chance to send their children to what they call a "land of plenty", a mob of desperate Indians swarms the consulate. As a Belgian aid worker works through the crowd, an Indian gong farmer known only as "the turd eater", carrying aloft his monstrously deformed child, begs him to take them back to Europe, to which the worker agrees.

The worker and farmer bring the crowd to the docks, where there are hundreds of ships once owned by European powers, now suited only for river traffic. Nevertheless, the crowd boards, and a hundred ships soon leave for Europe; conditions on board are cramped, unsanitary and miserable, with many passengers including children publicly fornicating. As the ships pass "the straits of Ceylon", helicopters swarm overhead, capturing images of the migrants on board to be published in Europe. Meanwhile, on the Russian Far East, the Soviet troops see masses of Chinese ready to enter Siberia but are reluctant to fight them.

As the fleet crosses the Indian Ocean, the political situation in France becomes more charged. At a press conference about the crisis, a French official who offers a speech in praise of the migrants is confronted by a journalist who claims he is merely trying to "feed the invaders" and demands to know if France will "have the courage to stand up to" the migrants when they reach France. The official decries this question as morally offensive and threatens to throw the journalist out when he continues to yell. Other journalists seek to inflame tensions between the French and Africans and Arabs already living in the country. Over time, these journalists begin to write that the migrant fleet is on a mission to "enrich, cleanse and redeem the Capitalist West". At the same time as the fleet is praised by those in Paris, the people of Southern France, terrified of the migrants' arrival, flee to the north.

As the fleet approaches the Suez Canal, Egyptian military forces fire a warning shot, causing the fleet to steer south, around the Cape of Good Hope. To the surprise of observers, the apartheid regime of South Africa floats out barges of food and supplies, which the migrants throw overboard. The international press is thrilled, believing the rejection of these supplies to be a political statement against the apartheid South African regime. Western leaders, confident the migrants will accept supplies from their "more virtuous" nations, organize a supply mission, funded by governments, charities, rock stars and major churches, to meet the migrants off São Tomé. However, the fleet does not stop for these barges either, and when a worker from the Pope's barge attempts to board one of the ships, he is strangled and thrown overboard. The press attempts to contain coverage of the murder.

When the migrants pass through the Strait of Gibraltar, the French president orders troops to the south and addresses the nation with his plan to repel them. However, in the middle of the address, he breaks down, demanding the troops simply follow their consciences instead. Most of the troops immediately desert their posts and join the civilians as they flee north, and the south is quickly overrun by the migrants. Some of the last troops to stand their ground take refuge in a small village, along with Calguès, an old man who has chosen to remain at his home, and Hamadura, a Westernized Indian who is terrified of his "filthy, brutish" countrymen and prides himself on having more in common with whites than Indians. The troops in this village, a total of nineteen Frenchmen and one Indian, surrounded by what they deem "occupied territory", remain the last defense of Western values and "Free France" against the immigrants.

The immigrants make their way north, having no desire to assimilate to French culture, but continuing to demand a First World standard of living, even as they flout laws, do not produce, and murder French citizens, such as factory bosses and shopkeepers, as well as the ordinary people who do not welcome them. They are also joined by the immigrants who already reside in Europe, as well as various left-wing and anarchist groups. Across the West, more and more migrants arrive and have children, rapidly growing to outnumber whites. In a matter of months, the white West has been overrun and pro-immigrant governments have been established, while the white people are ordered to share their houses and flats with the immigrants. The village containing the troops is bombed flat by airplanes of the new French government, referred to only as the "Paris Multiracial Commune". Within a few years, most Western governments have surrendered. The mayor of New York City is made to share Gracie Mansion with three African-American families from Harlem; migrants gather at coastal ports in West Africa and South Asia and swarm into Europe, Australia, and New Zealand; London is taken over by an organization of non-white residents known as the "Non-European Commonwealth Committee", who force the British queen to have her son marry a Pakistani woman; millions of black Africans from around the continent gather at the Limpopo River and invade South Africa; and only one drunken Soviet soldier stands in the way of hundreds of thousands of Chinese peasants as they overrun Siberia.

The epilogue reveals that the story was written in the last holdout of the Western world, Switzerland, but international pressure from the new governments, isolating it as a rogue state for not opening its borders, along with internal pro-migrant elements, force it to capitulate as well. Mere hours from the border opening, the author dedicates the book to his grandchildren, in the hopes they will grow up in a world where they will not be ashamed of him for writing such a book.

The obvious answer is

But that so many are spouting this nonsense today....

[Syt]

I mean look at Enoch Powell in the UK and his 1960s Rivers of Blood speech, or the anti-Irish/Italian/Chinese sentiments in the USA in the 19th century. It's not exactly a new phenomenon.

[Razgovory]

Camp of the Saints was Steve Bannon's favorite book.

[Valmy]

This reminds me of the great immigrant caravan of 2018 coming to destroy America if the Democrats won.

[Josquius]

I mean look at Enoch Powell in the UK and his 1960s Rivers of Blood speech, or the anti-Irish/Italian/Chinese sentiments in the USA in the 19th century. It's not exactly a new phenomenon.

Anti-immigrant hysteria is of course much older than that. But the exact framing outlined here, the caricature of the left, etc...
It rings some bells.

[Baron von Schtinkenbutt]

Sikorsky Unveils the S-70UAS U-Hawk, First Fully Autonomous Black Hawk Helicopter

The S-70UAS U-Hawk is a modified UH-60L that removes the cockpit entirely to create an uncrewed, mission-flexible platform designed for logistics, support, and future air-ground teaming missions.

After years of experimentation with the MATRIX autonomy suite and the optionally piloted Black Hawk, Sikorsky has now taken the next step toward a fully autonomous utility helicopter: on Oct. 13, 2025, during the Association of the United States Army (AUSA) 2025, Sikorsky announced the new prototype of an unmanned Black Hawk, dubbed S-70UAS U-Hawk.

Describing the U-Hawk as a versatile autonomous aircraft that transforms one of the world's most proven helicopter platforms into a fully uncrewed system, the company said the aircraft has been developed in just ten months.

The U-Hawk replaces the Black Hawk's cockpit with actuated clamshell doors and a forward loading ramp, resulting in 25 percent more cargo space than a conventional UH-60L. In the configuration shown in official photos, the clamshell "nose" opens upward and outward, exposing a flat cargo bay where vehicles or supplies can be loaded directly from the front. The ramp can be lowered for drive-on operations or sealed for flight, giving the aircraft a clean, aerodynamic profile with no cockpit glazing. This redesign eliminates the traditional two-seat crew station and turns the front fuselage into an integral part of the cargo area.

The system uses a third-generation, low-cost fly-by-wire architecture integrated with MATRIX autonomy technology to enable uncrewed flight. The U-Hawk's conversion was led by Sikorsky Innovations, the company's rapid prototyping group, which completed the transformation from concept to reality in just ten months.

According to Sikorsky, the enlarged cargo area allows the U-Hawk to:

• Accept longer payloads such as missiles
• Enable uncrewed ground vehicles to drive on and off
• Carry supplies or modular containers
• Launch swarms of reconnaissance or strike drones
• House internal fuel tanks for extended range or endurance

"Sikorsky is innovating a 21st century solution by converting UH-60L Black Hawks into a fully autonomous utility platform," said Rich Benton, Sikorsky vice president and general manager. "We developed this prototype from concept to reality in under a year, and the modifications made to transform this crewed Black Hawk into a multi-mission payload UAS can be replicated at scale quickly and affordably. The U-Hawk continues the Black Hawk legacy of being the world's premier utility aircraft and opens the door to new capabilities as a UAS."
The clamshell nose of the U-Hawk (Image credit: Sikorsky)

Missions

By eliminating the cockpit and crew stations, the U-Hawk gains additional internal volume and flexibility for a variety of mission types. The aircraft can now accommodate oversized cargo up to its maximum gross weight, self-deploy over 1,600 nautical miles, or loiter for up to 14 hours without refueling.

Potential U-Hawk configurations include:

• Air-ground teaming: transporting and deploying an uncrewed ground vehicle, such as the HDT Hunter Wolf 6×6 UGV
• Cargo transport: carrying up to four Joint Modular Intermodal Containers (compared to two on a UH-60L)
• Missile transport: hauling a HIMARS pod of six rockets or two Naval Strike Missiles
• Launched effects: deploying small drones or munitions from quivers mounted inside the cabin
• External lift: retaining the ability to carry 9,000 pounds (4,080 kg) via its cargo hook
• From Pilots to Operators

Interestingly, the U-Hawk is designed to be operated from a tablet interface that manages all phases of flight, from start-up to shutdown. At the touch of a button, the clamshell doors open and the ramp lowers to allow loading or drive-on operations. Once the cargo is secured, the operator sets mission parameters, and the MATRIX system automatically generates a flight plan.

Using a combination of cameras, sensors, and autonomous navigation algorithms, the U-Hawk can conduct fully automated missions without a pilot on board.

Cost-Effective and Scalable

By removing the cockpit, crew stations, and associated avionics, Sikorsky has created what it calls the first fully autonomous Black Hawk utility helicopter.

"The U-Hawk offers a cost-effective utility UAS by leveraging commonality with the existing UH-60 fleet, and its uncrewed nature reduces both operating and maintenance costs," said Igor Cherepinsky, Sikorsky Innovations director. "We focused on efficiencies in the retrofit by designing and manufacturing vehicle management computers, actuation components and airframe modifications. We will incorporate those efficiencies into future modifications and manufacturing for our family of UAS products."

The U-Hawk represents Sikorsky's most ambitious step so far in its autonomous rotorcraft roadmap, following years of testing with the optionally piloted Black Hawk and RAIDER X. If development proceeds as planned, the aircraft could soon provide a new class of uncrewed utility platforms capable of operating in high-risk environments where crewed helicopters cannot.

Pretty cheeky, actually naming it the U-Hawk.