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atomheartbevo

Certifiably Surly
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Everything posted by atomheartbevo

  1. US warned about possible attack on its embassy in Caracas, Venezuela says Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro said on Monday his government had warned Washington of a "false flag operation" by "extremist sectors of the local Venezuelan right" to plant explosives at the U.S. Embassy in Caracas. The White House and State Department did not immediately reply to requests for comment. Venezuela's National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez originally reported the plot on Sunday in a message on his Telegram account, saying that the alleged plans had been reported to the United States through three different channels. ----- We are talking occasionally about Trump using Venezuela to distract from various domestic problems, sounds like Maduro is using Trump to do the same.
  2. It's worse when you watch it.
  3. Not to revive an old thread, and NSIAP, and I don't know if I saw this here on another thread or it just bubbled up in my YouTube algorithms, but how about Marty Robbins, as sung by Merle Haggard?
  4. Assaults are done in 2- or 3-man teams. Massed formations are no longer a thing in many areas because of drones (which I guess parallels WWI and massed formations running into machine guns). I know the US is training for drone warfare, but I still don't think we are even close to being prepared for something on this scale. In theory, we would wipe out the leadership and command & control. When Ukraine drops the Kerch bridge, I don't know how Russia will be able to keep their forces in Crimea supplied - Ukraine has hit plenty of stuff in the Azov sea, and the land bridge/rail lines are within reach of the smaller drones. And then there's this, which has to have the Chinese sweating bullets Ukraine’s Sea Drones Are Now Launching Unjammable Fiber-Optic Drones I feel confident that Taiwan is taking notes (and probably supplying a lot of components on some level). The Chinese are using cruise liners as their troop transports, and those things are slow as hell and have a massive radar signatures. Easy pickings for drones when they have to cross almost 100 miles of open ocean.
  5. I don't know how they chose who is going to Illinois, if it was by unit or they were pulling in soldiers from different units, but that sure as hell looks like somebody up the chain-of-command said "hey, let's send all of the guys who haven't passed the APFT in a while!" Because if that was from a single unit And I like how they are all carrying their M4s like some shit is going to go down on the way to the donut shop.
  6. The problem is that our Secretary of State declared that Maduro was a "fugitive from American justice" whatever the fuck that's supposed to mean, so I don't think there are any deals to be cut - Maduro is lining up to be Trump's Noriega or Saddam Hussein or Ghaddafi or whatever example one wants to use. And Trump ordered Grenell to cease discussions in a phone call he made while he was in the middle of meeting with DOD leadership. I know, I know, he was trying to pretend he was tough in front of the generals and admirals, but still. We seem to be ignoring all of the other cartels that are a bit closer and have killed far more Americans than Venezuela's cartels. Kind of odd that Trump has zeroed in on them, and talked about regime change and declared they are unlawful combatants, and Rubio declared he was a fugitive from American justice, etc. I absolutely hope I'm wrong and that nothing happens, but somebody is 100% coaching him on the specific language to use, trying to shoehorn it into the stuff passed after 9/11, and that can't be a mistake.
  7. Sounds just like R/C planes from the 80s and 90s.
  8. No surprise, Russians went big on crypto
  9. Another look at their new missile variant
  10. NEW: The Kremlin continues its reflective control campaign aimed at preventing the US from selling Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine. ISW continues to assess that the Kremlin is attempting to portray potential US Tomahawk deliveries to Ukraine as a dangerous escalation to deter the United States from sending such weapons to Ukraine. The Kremlin has previously conducted similar influence operations when the United States was discussing sending Ukraine Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS), High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), F-16 fighter jets, and Abrams tanks, and has routinely successfully delayed the provision of Western weapons to Ukraine. Previous Western weapons provisions and Ukrainian strikes using US-provided long-range weapons systems, however, did not trigger an escalatory Russian reaction, and the West and Ukraine have repeatedly violated Russia’s alleged “red lines” in the past with no resulting escalation. These recent Russian threats about Tomahawk missile provisions are part of Russia’s wider reflexive control campaign that aims to coerce Russia’s opponents to make policy decisions that actually benefit Russia. Other Key Takeaways: Leaked Russian estimates of Russian killed in action (KIA) to wounded in action (WIA) rates in Ukraine underscore the impact of increased tactical drone usage in Ukraine and the extent to which drones complicate ground advances and casualty evacuation. The leaked estimates indicate that Russian forces suffered their highest casualties in the Pokrovsk, Kupyansk, and Lyman directions between January and August 2025, reflecting command prioritization of these sectors of the front. Russian forces appear able and willing to sustain these casualty rates despite achieving limited tactical advances
  11. It's literally always been this way for several decades - strong economy, lowered enlistment. Weak/unstable economy, higher enlistment. And your numbers didn't seem to break out how many were transitioning from active duty. Toss in rising college costs these days on top of the economy, and that many National Guards will work to cover in-state tuition costs or provide assistance while you are in school and in the National Guard. You don't have to go serve your enlistment for X amount of time (I think 2 or 4 years active-duty) and then become eligible for the G.I. Bill. Right now, for instance, Texas will pay for up to $10,000 a semester, with no minimum time served - you only need to be in and doing your drills, and you only reimburse them if you fail or drop a class. He can go to pretty much to any large city in the US and find a solid job, and he's absolutely going to look elsewhere, at states that don't yank him around. His ties to Texas and desire to stay here are falling away as they transition into empty nesters and he starts looking at separation. Give him lemons, he will make lemonade. But I know plenty of others who were not happy about going to the border. People sign up because they want to serve their state, because they are transitioning from active duty, because free or cheap college while they are in the NG (rather than after), because they want to serve their nation but NG or Reserves make the most sense given their situation, etc. Not because somebody wants attention from the President, especially when they are asked to do the same job that a better-paid civilian is doing.
  12. He's playing fast and loose though - when he describes the cartels as "unlawful combatants" and says we are in a state of "armed conflict" with them, that's very specific legal language meant to allow him to hit anybody he deems an "unlawful combatant" and last I checked, the cartels cross a lot of borders and Congress wasn't talking about them after 9/11. He's trying to treat them like they are Al Qaeda, when they haven't declared war on us, haven't been killing a shitload of Americans and attacking our cities, bases, ships, etc. And to top it all off, he was talking about regime change, which is insane. If he doesn't get what he wants out of this, he will set his sights on another nation down there. Or we will put boots on the ground unless Congress does something (hint: they won't).
  13. Yeah, but if we start bombing Venezuela over drugs, how many other countries in this hemisphere are going to wonder when they are next? Trump clearly needed somebody to beat up on, but nobody likes the 200-pound linebacker in the 12th grade beating the shit out of the 100-pound 6th grader.
  14. I'm guessing not very high. Even prior to 2022, it would not have been high enough to handle the volume they've seen over even just the past year - the amount of aerial attacks is absolutely insane - up to hundreds every day, ranging from ballistic missiles down to off-the-shelf stuff dropping off-the-shelf mortar shells. And the same could probably be said for the US, although we would focus more on destroying the threats on the ground as well as the factories and jamming the command and control. Evidence of this being that Ukraine has been able to repeatedly hit the same sites, even within just weeks of the first strikes, as well as the fact that it's been clear for weeks that Ukraine is going to continue to hammer O&G, and Russia has been mostly impotent to stop it. To put it another way: If somebody in Ukraine is drawing up a list of critical sites and is following that list, somebody in Russia would be just as aware of what that list looks like. So they are clearly short on AA replenishment.
  15. Surprise, in times of economic downtown or job instability, military enlistment goes up - always has, always will. So that's not quite the bragging point you think it is, but you also wouldn't be the first to try to use that as a positive. When the economy is steady or growing in a healthy manner, guess what, enlistment drops. And a shitload of people have joined in recent years because ACASP is giving them a leg up (Trump was not responsible for that, it goes back to Obama and was being expanded under Biden, although the groundwork was laid under Bush). Lot of people who were on the fence are willing to join if they get credit for their civilian work and certifications (i.e. come in at a higher rank/more pay with $5,000 - $20,000 bonuses on top of that). Toss in a shitty economy and them getting credit for their civilian background, and yeah, enlistment will rise. But I suggest you talk to people who had to suspend their schooling or decent jobs so that Abbott or other state governors can get Trump's attention, all the while they are mocked by the locals and having their photos plastered all over social media. Publicly, they won't dare say shit for fear of being reprimanded, and the younger ones will say whatever they feel they need to say to not end up on anybody's shitlist. But when those who have been around are waiting on their kids after school and hanging with other parents, or they are sitting around at their kid's soccer or volleyball practice or camping out and spending a lot of time with other scout parents and shooting the shit, yeah, they have lots to say.
  16. Actually a pretty solid adaptation (Dafore should have been given a chance to run with the John Clark character). But I don't think it's splashy enough for Trump, plus he'd tip it off publicly if he had Rangers and Special Forces in there killing Venezuelan leaders.
  17. You're giving the man far too much credit. Donald Trump lashes out when he needs a distraction. Right now, the Epstein files are simmering on the back burner (the moment the new congresswoman is seated, she is apparently the last vote on some big stuff with the files), Trump is getting mocked over the National Guard stuff (and it hasn't been going the way he expected), he got mocked over the stupid meeting last week with the generals and admirals when Heggie talked about leaders not being fat, the tariffs are starting to raise prices (well they have been), and the government is shutdown (3rd time under Trump). If you don't think he won't lash out at other countries to distract people, you haven't been paying attention.
  18. Or it could be they have a very good grasp of Russia's defenses and its shortcomings and putting that info out there is daring the Russians to move assets around or bring forces back into Russia proper from the occupied territories. There's even been some strikes where I've wondered if they are trying to get the Russians to move AA around - it's easier to spot when it's on the move. Then again, the more they strike, the more outlandish stuff they pull off (such as the huge drone strike launched from within Russia against aircraft), the more paranoid Putin/Russian leadership is, the more AA and other troops/assets are moved in closer to Moscow and St. Petersburg, the more exposed other places are (whether Russian O&G facilities or Russian military sites). We may also be reaching a point of culmination for Russian air defenses anywhere outside of Moscow or St. Petersburg.
  19. I actually have an 8-track player (in my house), and that happens to be one of the 60-70 tapes I have for it. Ford should have included an 8-track player option in the new Bronco line.
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