Managing Ukraine?

Blog Post
Larry-Lambert

 

Should We Provoke a War with Russia?

Ukraine’s innovative drones are damaging forces and war-supporting industries across western and southern Russia. In a visit to the White House on Sept. 26, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy asked for more help for long-range strikes. He received modest assistance. Pedo Joe Biden said the U.S. would provide the Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW), an unpowered glide bomb with a range of over 60 miles.

Ukraine wanted more. It has repeatedly sought permission to use U.S.-built Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) missiles for long-range strikes deep in Russia. These missiles have a range of up to 190 miles and, with their speed, are better able to hit mobile targets. Before Zelenskyy’s visit, there were hints the U.S. might provide Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles (JASSM). Unlike ATACMS missiles, these missiles are abundant in the U.S. arsenal, and their stealth capability makes them more effective at hitting defended targets.

 

Ride the Time Machine!   As a boy, I would go to old country stores and gas stations with my Dad. They would have these chest-type Coke and Pepsi coolers. The drinks always seemed colder and better out of these. You had to reach down in these old coolers to get your drink. Most would have the bottle opener on the side. When popping the cap off, you would hear it fall inside and clatter on the others.

North and South

We all know that the Southern Confederacy lost the war. The economies were destroyed, and many of the men were killed or severely wounded during the war. The North wrote the books and stressed that the war began because of the institution of slavery, which is a distant partial truth. The abolitionists wanted it to be about slavery, and Lincoln needed to make it about slavery to keep Great Britain and its navy (which would break the blockade) from openly supporting the Confederacy. Still, several issues led to the breakdown and failure to compromise.

John C. Calhoun wrote, “I hold concession or compromise to be fatal. If we concede an inch, concession would follow concession–compromise would follow compromise until our ranks would be so broken that effectual resistance would be impossible. We must meet the enemy on the frontier with a fixed determination to maintain our position at every hazard. Consent to receive these insulting petitions and the subsequent demand will be referred to a committee to be deliberated and acted upon.”

Edmund Ruffin – who represented some of the angrier Southerners, wrote, “I here declare my unmitigated hatred to Yankee rule — to all political, social, and business connections with the Yankees and the Yankee race. Would that I could impress these sentiments, in their full force, on every living Southerner and bequeath them to everyone yet to be born!

Book Review: The Guns of the South, by Harry Turtledove

January 1864–General Robert E. Lee faces defeat. The Army of Northern Virginia is ragged and ill-equipped. Gettysburg broke the back of the Confederacy and decimated its manpower.
Then, Andries Rhoodie, a strange man with an unplaceable accent, approaches Lee with an extraordinary offer. Rhoodie demonstrates an amazing rifle—its rate of fire is incredible, its lethal efficiency breathtaking—and guarantees unlimited quantities to the Confederates.
The name of the weapon is the AK-47.

Mike_C asked for my opinion of the book he had read. The premise is absurd, but sometimes you go for it and suspend disbelief.  That’s what I did. The book is remarkably well-researched and well-written.

Spoiler: South Africans steal a time machine and go back 150 years – (BRM would have done it if he could have pulled it off, but he didn’t – perplexing).

 

FEMA stands for Funneling Emergency Money to Aliens.

 

 

Song of the Day

True Detective Season 2 Theme

The war was lost
The treaty signed
I was not caught
I crossed the line

I was not caught
Though many tried
I live among you
Well disguised

I had to leave
My life behind
I dug some graves
You’ll never find

The story’s told
With facts and lies
I had a name
But never mind

Never mind
Never mind
I had to leave my life behind, etc.

 

Bullet Points:

** The Pareto Rule—The Pareto principle, also known as the 80/20 rule, states that 80% of outcomes are caused by 20% of inputs. I think that we’ve all seen this in action. It explains Boeing, for instance.

** Deep sea diving with EdB. Follow EdB as he looks for the origin of modern democrats. Yeah, I didn’t even think of looking there but Ed is onto something – which is why you go deep sea diving with EdB for answers.

** Eric Prince (founder of Blackwater), Google, WhatsApp, and why you should always use it for your personal communications.

** CDRSAL asks why the US is giving the Houthis a pass. (more at his blog here). I have a solution – carpet bombing them with B-52s around the clock with directed munitions (not indiscriminate iron bombs). We know where the shot callers live even if they’re not home. Sending a calling card or two (hundred) might explain the concept of accountability. The US doesn’t seem to want to do that. Maybe it’s a holdover from the Obama Regimes’s soft spot for Iran? And if they attack another ship, we send more calling cards (if you want them personalized, we can write “Love to Abduhl” or “Love to Mohammed”  or “Love to Aziz” on the side of the bomb with chalk. Reach out and touch someone. We can keep this sort of love up for months. Yes, a 500-lb snake/JDAM will take out more than just one house; I know that. You can’t make an omelet without breaking a few dozen eggs.

Let Abdul-Malik Badruldeen al-Houthi (Abu Jibril) know that we care. And let his extended family and their neighbors know it’s now personal.

If the US is worried about SAMs, that’s why God gave us F-18Gs to jam the spectrum and take out their Iranian-supplied air warfare capacity. Those guys need combat missions, too. The Navy and Marine Corps need a role to play in this. Why should the USAF have ALL the fun?

** This tickles me every time I watch it. It’s been on Virtual Mirage before, but — it makes me laugh.

** Is the Tesla Charger there to give the woke a cheap charge?

 

In the Amazon Rainforest

Recent LIDAR scans have revealed ancient cities deep in the Amazon rainforest, home to at least 10,000 people around 2,000 years ago. These lost settlements, built by the Upano people between 500 B.C. and 600 A.D., are marked by extensive road networks, with the most significant roads stretching up to 33 feet (10 meters) wide and running over 12 miles (20 kilometers). The discovery of over 6,000 earthen mounds and sophisticated agricultural systems challenges our assumptions about ancient Amazonian civilizations, showing they were much more complex and populated than previously believed.

 

 

 

 

Identify the Aircraft

1

 

2 & 3

 

4

A whole flock

 

5

 

6

You should get this one right off.

 

Parting Shot (h/t Frank)

I see a pattern emerging!

End

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52 thoughts on “Managing Ukraine?”

  1. Identify the Aircraft:
    1. Martin AM Mauler
    2. Supermarine Type 508
    3. Supermarine Swift
    4. Beechcraft T-34C Turbo Mentor
    5. SNCASO Trident
    6. Boeing EA-18G Growler

  2. The cokes seemed colder in those old chest-type coolers, because it was.
    The new ones are more “efficient” by not getting as cold, and also, all the
    cold air falls out when you open the doors.
    *
    DeepSea EdB – I have no idea WTF half of those things are… like “is that a fish or a crab? Octopus?”.
    Maybe some sort of Hellspawn?? IDK.
    Never leave the boat.
    *
    Concur vehemently on Arclighting Yemen. Then Iran.
    *
    Yeah, those people in the past did all sorts of stuff we have zero idea about.
    It’s pretty cool.
    *
    – Kle.

    1. ALL of those animals on that DeepSea EdB clip are the drug fueled imaginations of a couch potato
      who programed the AI to imagine such things…
      At least I hope so…
      MSG Grumpy

    2. “The cokes seemed colder.” So did the beer.
      As a kid, my neighbor owned a garage at a crossroads near our house.
      I hung out there and learned to wrench. There were many times that Harvey would start getting the shakes while assembling a motor or such and tell me to go fetch him a beer out of the coke machine, a chest like pictured.
      This is the only picture of the garage I know of. When I arrived, the car was replaced by plywood.
      https://tinyurl.com/Tel-Egypt-Garage

      1. “Well, if you didn’t have an appointment, you do now!” (The Diamond Feed sign is very nice, the American Pickers boys would love that.)

    3. Arclighting … Iran.
      The latest accounts are that the majority of Iranians oppose the regime and that the Christians are now about 42% of the population.
      Probably greater than here, because if you are a Christian there, you really are a Christian.
      I’d hate to nuke them.
      We may be in the same situation here with a regime that is not the legitimate representative of our people getting us close to getting nuked.

      1. I don’t want to nuke them, just run a pile of punitive strikes until they have no ports, no airports,
        No Navy, Air Force, military facilities of note, no nuclear weapons program, etc.
        *
        I have lots of sympathy for the Iranian people, a friend’s dad was a missionary over there when
        I was a kid. However, their government declared war on us almost 50 years ago, and it’s time
        we started taking that at face value. They attack our allies and USN assets weekly, and all the
        traitors in D.C. do is give them money so they can do it again.
        *
        – Kle.

      2. Agreed. I would think Mossad is probably working overtime in and around Tehran to compile a target worklist on different HVT sites that would minimize civilian casualties. Haha sometimes I make myself laugh.

        1. Israel has a reputation for trying to minimize collateral damage without sacrificing the mission.
          I’m sure they have that list.
          Speaking of laughing, with bombing, like comedy, timing is everything…

    4. The perfect temp for a glass bottle Coke is when you pop the lid, a small amount of ice forms on the top area of the actual soda. Just enough. A smattering of ice. Not fully ice, but has to have ice.

      That’s the perfect temp Coke. Especially on a hot summer day. Used to drink them like that when I worked at an unairconditioned boat store as The Parts Guy.

      1. X2 – Yes! The ice is small crystals right up by the mouth of the bottle. You can get a brain freeze from drinking it too fast – perfect.

  3. FEMA- no no. They have a separate account for illegals (variously labeled). For Americans they have a separate but equal account. Thanks kaMala and Joe and O.

    Why should we be defending China’s exports into Europe, or the EU’s oil supply from the Yemenis? They have navies, let them do the work.

    1. The Houthis have to go, Frederick. I’m not big into foreign military adventures, but the Iranian proxies, whether Hezbollah, Hamas, or Houthi, need to precede the Iranian beards into paradise to soak up the attractive 72 virgin allotments so when we get around to shipping the Iranian mullahs and their acolytes, their, they are stuck with the fat homely virgins. It’s a matter of supply and demand.

      2. The Saudis tried that for a few years now and their parade ground troops keep getting their asses kicked. How did the blockade work these past few years, I haven’t kept track?

    2. Middle East Asia for the Asiatics seems like good policy to me.
      =
      My first job that included a specific schedule was working at a mom-n-pop grocery store, less mom because she was deceased, stocking shelves, sweeping up, carrying out for customers, etc., and keeping one of those coolers full of product. Knowing what kind of pop was preferred by the customers and how much of each to stock was a bit of an art. Certainly, they were efficient and all, but there was a yuck factor……..stuff would grow in there and occasionally have to be swamped out. I tried to do that when nobody was in the store, ya follow?
      =
      Pop started dating and eventually committed matrimony with a woman considerably younger, in fact not much older than his son’s wife who was outraged by the prospect of Pop siring more children, a different yuck factor in her opinion.

      1. Kids these days could use those close experiences with business…App’s can never replace the hands-on learning and discipline in the early years of development that carries forward in life.
        —
        Your dad- “It ain’t braggin’ if you can do it.” I figure if an older man captures a younger woman’s heart (in the love sense, not the weird sense), who am I to say anything.

  4. Tesla Bot Charger- Good idea…but it is one more thing isolating people from their decisions. Me, the practical aspect is in a builder’s grade garage (20’x22′) can this thing fit between the car and wall, and what happens if you have 2 Tesla’s, how does it navigate to the second car’s charge port? See, the engineer brain never sleeps.
    ***
    Cohen- Was he a sad man in real life?
    ***
    Chest coolers- Back as a little guy (was one once) would go up to the new house to help dad (cheap laborer). Dad would “treat” for lunch…head the two miles into town for a stop in at the [one and only, been there forever] local grocery/deli and grab a hoagie and chips. I’d stick my arm into one of those with the icebergs floating on top to retrieve a Dr. Pepper (when sodas were made with proper cane sugar). On an August day that was the Arctic on my skinny kid arm that took about ten minutes to regain the feeling. The best of times. (Oh, and no nanny-state mandatory seatbelts, and I got to sit up front like a big guy.)

    1. Cohen – Artists can be interesting, but in Cohen’s case, as with so many, he was tormented and bounced between a dozen or two relationships. His was not a life I’d want.

  5. “Ukraine wanted more.”
    But what even is “Ukraine”?
    I wonder if the average Ukrainian has the same love and trust for their ruler and ruling “elites” as we dirt-people deplorable subhumans have for our beloved “elites”.

    1. Ukraine has been run by a mafia (not unlike Russia) for a long time and the mafia runs on a system of patronage (which is familiar to any American who worked in DC. I’m sure they appreciate being given crumbs from the leader’s table in the same way that we do.

      1. Seems Russia and Iran are going to formalize and alliance. Houthis? Carpet bombing has an appeal. Mining their ports might hurt them more.

        All the players in the region know they need to get done what needs done while Biden is still physically in office.

        Say Trump wins the election and becomes President. He immediately needs to castrate swamp dwellers like slimey Milley.
        Revoke or suspend their security clearances will cripple them. Can he do it? Maybe. https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/can-president-revoke-former-officials-security-clearances

        1. Start by using captor mines that are booby-trapped in the event the Russians try to disarm them.

          1. Mining is a great idea, but knowing The Swamp, we only have 12 in inventory.
            *
            – Kle.

  6. When I was a teenager, we’d take our pellet rifles and walk down the railroad tracks to a large section of undeveloped pastures outside of town. In our travels, we found the fuselage of a T-34 in the middle of a pasture. Over time, we learned there was once a landing strip in that area, and it had been abandoned for a long time. Over time, the area was developed, and I never found out what happened to the T-34, but have a feeling a contractor was surprised, and a scrapper was pleased.

    We had the old chest coolers at our local corner store. On good days, and the bottles on the side of the road were plentiful, we had enough for the 15 cents to get a soda and a candy bar. We always sat outside the store to finish the soda. If we brought it with us, we had to pay an additional 2 cents for the deposit.

  9. Can I not support Russia and still hope they kick the shit out of that Democrat laundromat and its manager?

    I find I believe Putin more than FJB and crew.

    1. Granted, Putin has an agenda, but if USGOV hadn’t green-lighted the invasion of Ukraine, it wouldn’t have happened. I am not privy to the details. It’s a lot like the green light we gave to Iraq to invade Kuwait. Putin’s build-up took two years. The Beltway and Military Industrial Complex needed a cash cow to replace Afghanistan. So please explain to me who the bad guys are.

      1. More a case of “Is anyone in this mess even a decent (much less good) guy?”
        —
        Who would have given the tacit (or maybe explicit) green light? State? Defense? Or who?
        From my strictly amateur perspective, State (Blinken’s patch) and particularly Nuland, made sure to antagonize Russia, and to continually step over clearly and repeatedly stated red lines. Zelenskyy backed State’s play with the same enthusiasm with which he hoovers up lines of Peruvian marching powder (and possibly/probably cock). Then they were all shocked, absolutely shocked, to find gambling in Vladimir’s casino. And now a Fink is buying up Ukraine at pennies on the dollar. I’m not suggesting Tony, ‘Toria, Volodomyr, and Larry were in cahoots, but the effect is certainly as if they were.
        —
        I’m pretty sure Putin is not a good man, and he’s certainly not a “nice” man, but he doesn’t appear to have contempt and hatred for his people. Which puts him ahead of “our” so-called “elite”. Though maybe TTVL don’t consider the overwhelming majority of USAians nor Ukrainians their people. And if they don’t, fair enough., but let them at least be honest about it. Putin is no friend of mine. But he’s not the one forcing [1] ESG and DEI on American corporations. He’s not the one pushing pedophilia, trans ideology and sex-change drugs on my society. He’s not the one gleefully importing millions of low-IQ, low impulse control, violent idiots into my country, and then calling me “racist” or “Islamophobic” if I even notice, much less object. (“America has not yet learned to be multicultural. But without that fundamental change, America will not survive.”) Pretty sure Putin, and actual Russians in general, are not the ones behind over 80% of the porn industry. So Putin is not my friend. But he’s hardly the one fucking my country, no lube, no reach-around, and calling me the violent aggressor if I dare to notice it.
        —
        [1] yes, forcing:
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwwN5kwjAtQ

        1. US Ambassador and Plenipotentiary to Iraq April Catherine Glaspie gave the green light to Saddam. At the last minute, before they invaded Kuwait, they asked if the US would involve itself in the Defense if they invaded. She said no. The First Gulf War began, and I received a “go to war or go to jail” notice from the US Navy. Whether that was her direction from above or not I can’t answer. In Ukraine, my sense is that Nuland was their spear carrier.

  10. Regarding the civilizations of the Amazon Basin. More and more I believe that most of the current Amazon was clearcut farming lands until the local civilizations collapsed and the Forest swallowed everything.
    –
    Funny thing about my hypothesis is that grasslands and farmlands produce far more net Oxygen than the now-Amazon Rain Forest, which is a net CO2 and CO4 producer.
    –
    So I fully support the deforestation and utilization of the deforested lands. Old growth tropical forests actually are bad for the planet if you’re only looking at net O2 production.

    1. X2 There is considerable evidence for that. It’s difficult to say how “advanced” the indigenous were, but they knew how to drain a swamp and engage in advanced agricultural practices. Did they have an alphabet? Did they understand more advanced science? The Amazon basin people had a different culture than the Aztecs, Olmec, etc., and predated the Inca by a long time. Were they influenced by Phoenicians or other seafaring people who crossed the pond? It’s too soon to tell, and we may never know.

  11. I’m not a tremendous fan of Andrew Jackson, but I think he had it right about Calhoun during the Nullification Crisis.

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