gearhog

If you want to take a shot at me, grow a spine and do so directly. Obviously, you're a big fan of indirect engagement, but I think it's a weak way to handle your business. I could draw it out for you in crayon and stick figures, and you'd still be incapable of understanding. I do not support Russia, and you're a fool for believing you, me, and the people we care about will experience a better life as a result of this. You're watching the conflict unfold from a half a planet away, and through a soda straw, while nutting in your underoos because you saw a bad guy get exploded. Ok, enough insults. 😄 Here's what I see: a great unraveling of global political, social, and economic orders. Consequences of unlimited growth in world of finite resources. Thucydidies trap. A bunch of 80 year olds spending our nation into oblivion to settle old conflicts before they kick it. Some napkin math I just did: The average price, per acre, of land in Ukraine is $580. Russia has assumed control of approx 30 million acres of mostly farmland. That's $17 Billion dollars. For the $113 Billion we've spent, and gotten nothing, we could have bought the land, built homes and infrastructure, and populated the area with Mexicans, Palestinians, Ukrainians, Africans, Americans, Liberals, Transvestites, whomever... and still had money left over. NATO could have thrown Russia into chaos without a single weapon. This whole thing is hilariously insane. So yeah, big f'n waste.

Jordan cancels Biden's visit. Biden's visit with Egypt and Palestinian leadership also cancelled today. Iran embassy in Syria tells Israel "Time is Up" as Iranian foreign minister flies to Jeddah for emergency meeting with Saudi government. Edit: UN sanctions on Iran for the purchase and sale of ballistic missile and long range drones expired 3 hours ago. They are now free to provide weapons to Hamas, Hezbollh, Russia, etc. US embassy in Beirut attacked. British and French embassy in Tehran attacked. Israeli embassy in Turkey and Jordan attacked. Large protests in Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia, Iraq, Iran, Qatar, Kuwait, Turkey, Yemen, and Canada. Meanwhile, the sharks are circling. https://x.com/jenniferzeng97/status/1714343936204878261?s=20 Nice work, Joe.

You’d be correct. Footage from several angles, including an Al-Jazeera feed, show a failed rocket launch from Gaza. https://x.com/manniefabian/status/1714377828131553446?s=46

Horrific scenes from a hospital in Gaza now. It was hit by a missile. Estimates of 500 to 800 civilian refugees killed in the blast. Abbas said it was an Israeli airstrike. Israel said a Hamas rocket failed. This is definitely going to kick things up a notch.

More acceleration. Marines Bataan Amphibious Battle Group underway to join the Gerald Ford and Eisenhower Carriers in the Eastern Med. That's a lot of power in one place. For deterrence. Remember when everyone doubted Russia was going to invade after massing on the border? You don't move that much shit and not use it. Wall Street Journal says the first 2,000 troops have received deployment orders for Israel support on the ground. Could be fake. Not sure. Palestinian sympathizer shoots up Belgium. Holla Snackbar.

Eh, I wouldn't lose any sleep over it. We've started wars over more dubious intel and you survived.

J, Hamas talking points? I don't think you know what "talking points" are. This email was purported to be from a server hack, but I don't think that it is. That would make it a fabrication. But here's the interesting part: I predict that your ideology would fall precisely in line with all of the what you're claiming to be Hamas talking points. I doubt you would disagree with anything in it. Do you believe it would be anti-semetic for US troops to refuse to fight on behalf of Israel? After all, you believed that unvaccinated people who failed to support the current thing should die. What about people who fail to support Israel? What methods would you use if say, you were an ROTC instructor, and your students said that they weren't interested in fighting a war over the Holy Land? How would you change their mind? Do you believe that Trump and the Republicans are adversely affecting public sentiment that would hinder US efforts to render aid? Do you believe that Israel can win this war alone? None of these sound like Hamas talking points, they sound like yours.

Yeah, I didn’t see the watermark. It’s gotta be fake. Seems too carefully crafted in hitting all the marks I mentioned above. I doubt he begins his official emails with “Hey Bob,”

Nah, dog wasn't killed. Its muzzle was through the fence. Pinching its nose was meant to be a disincentive for poor behavior, but the pliers locked and the dog instantly disappeared with some of the loudest noises ever heard.

Email sent by NGB Chief. Yikes. There are a lot of bad indicators here. -Failure to fight for Israel is "Anti-Semitism" -Planning to alter troop sentiment. -Framing Trump and Republicans as a problem -CENTCOM having limited capabilities and being completely caught off guard. -Israel not being able to defend itself. What’s everyone’s take on this?

I like dogs. But this one time, my friend's daughter was riding her horse and the neighborhood nuisance pitbull mix or whatever tried to attack her (and him) through the woven wire fence. He went to his garage. He never saw the fat-headed dog or his vice grips again. Just remembered that and it made me feel good.

Stories I'm seeing just from scrolling the last half hour or so. Things are accelerating pretty quick. Sounds as though Israel (?) is bombing Aleppo, Syria. Reports are the airport has been destroyed. Military convoy attacked on the Iraq/Syria border. C-130J model Gunship in the skies overhead. Tonight, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh is meeting with the Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian in Doha, Qatar. USS Eisenhower officially joining the USS Gerald Ford in the Eastern Med. Massive Pro-Palestinian protests in London Sweden Sydney Currently reading "The Fourth Turning is Here". Great book if you're trying to make all of this make sense. Also, Ray Dalio's "Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order" is good. Here's a video he produced with a fantastic space station perspective of what's currently happening (although he seems to be plagiarizing the work of lots of others). Worth your time. Buy more firearms.

Hmm... Debatable.

Within the last few, my daughter sent me videos of angry Pro-Palestine demonstrations at her college campus. I'm over-looking a protest from my hotel room. My company just sent a blast email to be on the alert for threats to our operation. Apparently, tomorrow is a "Day of Rage" or "Global Jihad". I think there's no way that happens. Even if it was possible, the minute you go after masses of these groups for deportation, the whole place burns to the ground. But imagine being able to rally the people of a host nation enough to collect these minorities and haul them away. What does that look like? Train cars?

After the Cold War, our defense strategy maintained that the US should be able to fight and win two simultaneous wars in two different theaters of conflict. During Obama, it was changed that we would fight and win one war, and inflict unacceptable losses in another. Then, under Trump, it was fight and win one, and deter aggression in another theater. Our assets are more capable, but there are less of them, and an asset may only be in one place at one time. I estimate half the world's population is rooting for our failure. We're on the brink of an economic "difficulty" to put it mildly. So, we are not equipped to fight and win more than one war and we're dangerously close to financial ruin. We don't have the recruits, and we're sending enormous amounts of weapons, equipment, and ammo to proxy wars to the point we are affecting our own readiness. We have strategic threats in THREE theaters now. The Middle East, Eastern Europe, and the Pacific. What is #1? What is #2? What is #3? If we're feeling top of our game (and we're not), we can choose which one to win, one to fight, and one to disengage. We have multiple Congressional leaders now calling for Tehran to be attacked FFS. I contend that Russia was never a real threat. Why? Because they are small potatoes. China is #1. The world's energy supply (ME) is #2. Kirby is telling you we simply cannot do it all. He's preparing you for the idea difficult choices must be made. The enemy also knows we cannot do it all. Once we're balls deep in Israel, you can bet your ass there will be another fire to be put out. We're being baited into managing all the world's conflicts so that ultimately, we'll be unable to manage any of them.

I have been arguing this shit was going to be a miserable failure. Wasted money. Wasted lives. Now we’re walking away. Hopefully some of you will finally come to the realization we don’t know WTF we are doing. https://x.com/warclandestine/status/1712223627259609419?s=46

Biden saw beheaded babies: https://x.com/natsecjeff/status/1712213351101591907?s=46 Oops, Biden did not see beheaded babies. https://x.com/venturareport/status/1712271660945191352?s=46 Where the beheaded babies story likely originated: https://thegrayzone.com/2023/10/11/beheaded-israeli-babies-settler-wipe-out-palestinian/

The Gerald Ford Carrier Battle Group is currently off the Israeli coast. Obviously, "deterrence" requires two. "The U.S. may deploy a second aircraft carrier near Israel, U.S. defense officials said, an escalation of the U.S. military effort to deter regional powers from joining the war between Hamas and Israel." - WSJ. https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/israel-hamas-war-gaza/card/u-s-weighs-deploying-second-aircraft-carrier-group-i4fMGkmj7mGmlQCNqW1W

Washington Post: White House considers attaching Ukraine funding to Israel aid package Olena Goncharova Mon, October 9, 2023 at 8:08 PM EDT·1 min read The White House is considering a strategy to bundle Ukraine funding with a forthcoming request for urgent aid to Israel, people familiar with the discussions told the Washington Post. This approach aims to enhance the likelihood of Congress approving assistance for Ukraine, despite facing growing opposition from House Republicans.

Yeah, it's bad. I try to remain stoic while attempting to get the facts and assess the situation, but this is some horrific stuff. This attack was designed to provoke an emotional response, and it certainly worked on me. I can't imagine being close to the event. But could there be anything more satisfying to this evil than seeing the leadership of the most powerful nation in the world openly weeping on live TV? Somewhere on our path to modern Western society, it became tolerable for full grown men to lose their composure and put their weakness on full display when representing a superpower during a 60 second news segment. Process your grief elsewhere, then man up and demonstrate that we are a nation of strength, not weakness, and give the public faith that we can make sound rational decisions during dangerous times. It's like looking over at the other cockpit and seeing your lead crying just before you launch a night tac LL formation airdrop in mountainous terrain. WTF? Kirby crying may not be a huge deal in itself, but it affirms my suspicions that this administration is going to fuck this up as bad as everything else in the last 3 years.

Infuriating. White House spokesperson John Kirby cries like little bitch. This is the face of our nation when confronted with chaos, conflict, and evil? What an embarrassment. https://x.com/CollinRugg/status/1711827979784122690?s=20

This f’n guy. Lebanon launching rockets into Israel this hour. Speculation: Hezbollah. Gerald Ford CBG inbound.

That was fast. https://www.flightradar24.com/MOOSE41/325b1d3d