Old War/Dad Power: Clancey chat (both types)

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > Old War/Dad Power: Clancey chat (both types)

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stealie72: Jan 10, 2007; Their eyes locked and suddenly there was the sound of breaking glass.
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The most obscure strain names at a really weird dispensary.

# ¿ Jan 13, 2020 03:21

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# ¿ Apr 24, 2024 12:18

stealie72: Jan 10, 2007; Their eyes locked and suddenly there was the sound of breaking glass.
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C.M. Kruger posted:

If you listen to some of the F-16 designers tell it, the only reason the F-16 ended up being so great was they ran around behind the backs of the "NO RADAR! ONLY LIGHTWEIGHT!" policy makers like Pierre Sprey and designed it with enough internal space for later Block upgrades or telling Hughes "okay please design the AIM-120 to have these features and dimensions that will let the F-16 use it, please also make no mention of the F-16 in your development of it because the generals will get mad."

I'm pretty dumb about this stuff, but how would a modern (like post 1955) fighter work without radar? I get they can be vectored by awacs or other radar, but wouldn't every plane need its own radar for combat awareness and whatnot? And also to use fancy missiles?

# ¿ Feb 13, 2020 04:22

stealie72: Jan 10, 2007; Their eyes locked and suddenly there was the sound of breaking glass.
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The end of the world used to look/sound so much cooler. . .

# ¿ Mar 11, 2021 13:33

stealie72: Jan 10, 2007; Their eyes locked and suddenly there was the sound of breaking glass.
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Sagebrush posted:

e: and forklifts driving around the flight deck

Somehow this put the thought in my head of what a satisfying "plonk" a forklift would make hitting the ocean after it rolls off the flight deck.

# ¿ Apr 5, 2021 00:56

stealie72: Jan 10, 2007; Their eyes locked and suddenly there was the sound of breaking glass.
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Flikken posted:

Electric or propane forklift??

Electric. Because they're heavier.

# ¿ Apr 5, 2021 01:28

stealie72: Jan 10, 2007; Their eyes locked and suddenly there was the sound of breaking glass.
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Imagining the Taliban doesn't really see enough of a difference between beheading our allies and former officials or them going off to some other country to live out the rest of their lives to make it worth doing dumb poo poo like get in a firefight with the US after they've already won.

# ¿ Aug 16, 2021 20:54

stealie72: Jan 10, 2007; Their eyes locked and suddenly there was the sound of breaking glass.
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goatsestretchgoals posted:

Juggalos have been hard anti fascist.

That's Faygo.

# ¿ Nov 18, 2021 03:58

stealie72: Jan 10, 2007; Their eyes locked and suddenly there was the sound of breaking glass.
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Odds that the Ukraine situation is going to be 20 years of Russia doing a big buildup, taking a small chunk and saying "what? You're going to go to war over a few hundred square miles?" every couple years? Putin seems to like the long game.

# ¿ Nov 20, 2021 18:06

stealie72: Jan 10, 2007; Their eyes locked and suddenly there was the sound of breaking glass.
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Wingnut Ninja posted:

The development of anti-Santa (ASANT) weapons

Bravo.

# ¿ Dec 24, 2021 17:39

stealie72: Jan 10, 2007; Their eyes locked and suddenly there was the sound of breaking glass.
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PeterCat posted:

Yeah, not dying in a nuclear holocaust is winning.

Wrong. Surviving a nuclear holocaust is not winning.

# ¿ Dec 31, 2021 00:03

stealie72: Jan 10, 2007; Their eyes locked and suddenly there was the sound of breaking glass.
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Did an open cockpit biplane and the Vampire actually serve at the same time? I know England had issues after WWII, but drat.

# ¿ Jan 7, 2022 04:29

stealie72: Jan 10, 2007; Their eyes locked and suddenly there was the sound of breaking glass.
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M_Gargantua posted:

Everything should be Torx

You think this is going to start an argument? Anyone with four brain cells agres with you.

Unless some dastardly bagged milk havers feel the need to defend their Robertson drive.

# ¿ Jan 8, 2022 16:07

stealie72: Jan 10, 2007; Their eyes locked and suddenly there was the sound of breaking glass.
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hobbesmaster posted:

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

As a child of the cold war (who was 14 when that happened), it's been hard for me to not get excited about the chance for A-10s to finally engage Russian tanks invading a friend, but when I stop and think about what that would actually mean, I stop getting excited.

# ¿ Jan 24, 2022 23:36

stealie72: Jan 10, 2007; Their eyes locked and suddenly there was the sound of breaking glass.
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Potato Salad posted:

we are barely able to provide token funding for primary education

our power transmission networks are deregulated, under-invested, under maintained, oversubscribed shoestrings, and our power generation industry needs a ~~severe regulatory browbeating followed by reinvestment~~ Come To Jesus moment

we apparently had no appetite to pass the original infrastructure bill or even all but the final iteration of its cut-to-the-bone revisions, and infrastructure spending and public security are some of the easiest slam dunk, home run categories for massive return on public investment imaginable

it was apparently a tall order to half-heartedly make disposable respirators-- many from questionably-faithful manufacturers -- available to the public, one time

who is going to defend Taiwan, and with what willpower or budget are they gonna do it?

edit: I know that I am getting off on a tangent and I will stop here, I have just been absolutely furious at all of the takes of fairweather interventionalists on right wing media who apparently think that money grows on trees. some of these same bastards who consigned their state's infrastructure and people to continued rot for the sake of pure ideology are now up in arms that we aren't spilling blood and gold over a turf war in Asia?

Sorry, are you in the cold war thread arguing that the US will not spend freely on its military?

Bridges can fall down, kids can starve, schools can beg for supplies, but the military always gets its money.

# ¿ Feb 24, 2022 15:50

stealie72: Jan 10, 2007; Their eyes locked and suddenly there was the sound of breaking glass.
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Kazinsal posted:

Moreover, do Soyuz capsules still have handguns aboard? I would be batphoning SpaceX for a Dragon capsule 24/7 if I were up there.

And/Or, given the highly educated and motivated type of people that become astronauts, whatever combo of people that are up there are all like "dude, WTF is this even" and then carrying on with their mission of training ants to sort tiny screws or whatever it is they do up there.

And looks like it's 4 Americans, a German, and two Russians. Of course, by Russian blood math, that's a good exchange rate to deorbit and kill everyone while hoping you get lucky and hit DC or London.

Newsweek posted:

This means that those on board the ISS right now are: Kayla Barron, U.S. astronaut; Raja Chari, U.S. astronaut; Pyotr Dubrov, Russian cosmonaut; Thomas Marshburn, U.S. astronaut; Matthias Maurer, German astronaut; Anton Shkaplerov, Russian cosmonaut; and Mark Vande Hei, U.S. astronaut.

# ¿ Feb 24, 2022 23:20

stealie72: Jan 10, 2007; Their eyes locked and suddenly there was the sound of breaking glass.
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That's too bad, because paratroopers randomly landing in the middle of a city seems like a good way to no longer have those paratroopers engaged in combat.

Saw it and had my doubts that even a russia that may have just accidentally drowned a plane full of paras would be that dumb.

# ¿ Feb 26, 2022 23:00

stealie72: Jan 10, 2007; Their eyes locked and suddenly there was the sound of breaking glass.
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priznat posted:

The commercial should also not explain in any way what Javelins are or what they are used for, in keeping with the prescription drug ad

If you have a moderate to heavy Russian armor invasion, Javelin may be right for you.

# ¿ Feb 27, 2022 18:57

stealie72: Jan 10, 2007; Their eyes locked and suddenly there was the sound of breaking glass.
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A bunch of nazis in the Ukraine national guard you say?
*side eyes the US military nervously.

Ukraine should definitely take care of that. Once it takes care of its Russian problem.

# ¿ Feb 27, 2022 22:17

stealie72: Jan 10, 2007; Their eyes locked and suddenly there was the sound of breaking glass.
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Saukkis posted:

All those citizens who are supposed to be throwing them are better of picking up their phones and calling for the nearest NLAW carrier. And if there are no Ukraine military around to do the job, then to me that sounds like that specific location isn't worth a fight.

Some techbro just got a hardon and doesn't know why.

"Its like Doordash but for Javelins"

# ¿ Feb 28, 2022 00:22

stealie72: Jan 10, 2007; Their eyes locked and suddenly there was the sound of breaking glass.
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Mortabis posted:

While you all are arguing about Nazis and molotovs, NATO flankers and frogfoots are being flown to Ukraine literally as fast as they can be gassed up.

https://twitter.com/AlexandreKrausz/status/1498034918785531919?t=pbG9BcoGjfqpoLgFiLkoJw&s=19

gently caress yeah!

Assuming their pilots will have surprisingly new UA flightsuits real soon.

# ¿ Feb 28, 2022 00:25

stealie72: Jan 10, 2007; Their eyes locked and suddenly there was the sound of breaking glass.
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Thomamelas posted:

https://twitter.com/jelle_simons/status/1498648234700509189

Eventually we are going to be watching video of one of these crowds getting mowed down, and then poo poo is going to get really, really bad.

I mean, fuckin Slava Ukraini! to infinity because these people are incredible, but we're still in the "everyone is being relatively nice" phase of these confrontations.

# ¿ Mar 1, 2022 16:19

stealie72: Jan 10, 2007; Their eyes locked and suddenly there was the sound of breaking glass.
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Akion posted:

IIRC they have artillery that can reach pretty far (Smerch and such) but who knows the state of that stuff at this point?

Also great as a demoralization tool while it's sitting there still alive. If you blow it up it's a rallying cry.

And honesly, it's probably better spent churning up the road and forest a few KM in front of the convoy every time it starts to move. If it's sitting there and you can't outright destroy it, better to let it sit there and use resources, and then try to make it return to a state of sitting there once it starts moving.

# ¿ Mar 1, 2022 19:10

stealie72: Jan 10, 2007; Their eyes locked and suddenly there was the sound of breaking glass.
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madeintaipei posted:

British...design...meant to launch white phosphorus grenades made out of glass bottles.

Insert comment about British engineering here. What the gently caress?

# ¿ Mar 2, 2022 17:26

stealie72: Jan 10, 2007; Their eyes locked and suddenly there was the sound of breaking glass.
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shame on an IGA posted:

They made six million of them which were never used but litter the countryside to this day.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._76_special_incendiary_grenade

wiki posted:

Strict instructions were issued to store the grenades safely, preferably underwater and certainly never in a house.

In which universe, exactly, is this somehow a better, more reliable option than "fill old gin bottles with petrol and stuff a rag in them."

# ¿ Mar 2, 2022 17:37

stealie72: Jan 10, 2007; Their eyes locked and suddenly there was the sound of breaking glass.
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Potato Salad posted:

It's hard to not start questioning absolutely everything

I was the kind of middle school nerd who pored over Janes books at the library when the soviet union collapsed, and remember the massive "wait, we were completely lied to by the soviets and US intel" that came after that re the USSR's military might.

Seems like we're having that moment again a generation later.

# ¿ Mar 2, 2022 21:02

stealie72: Jan 10, 2007; Their eyes locked and suddenly there was the sound of breaking glass.
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zoux posted:

https://twitter.com/oliverdarcy/status/1499479196778709019

Wow, but where will I get my unbiased news now

Good, now I can stop bugging Sling about why they're the only national carrier still carrying them.

# ¿ Mar 3, 2022 21:39

stealie72: Jan 10, 2007; Their eyes locked and suddenly there was the sound of breaking glass.
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Cyrano4747 posted:

Crosspost from the lovely crime guns thread. Pay special attention to the dude furthest to the left and what he's carrying:

Lol, maybe he raided a Ukrainian Cabelas on the way there. Does this make the Mosin the gun in active military service the longest?

# ¿ Mar 4, 2022 14:36

stealie72: Jan 10, 2007; Their eyes locked and suddenly there was the sound of breaking glass.
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Nebakenezzer posted:

This HAS to be false. Who the gently caress would do this?!

https://twitter.com/Don_Standeford/status/1499638324671045633

And who the hell is going to sell it to them?

I only took Econ 101, but given the situation, doesn't this basically limit Russia's money supply to what gold they have on hand? Which, granted, with the plummet of the ruble may be enough, but. . . :psyduck:

# ¿ Mar 4, 2022 17:55

stealie72: Jan 10, 2007; Their eyes locked and suddenly there was the sound of breaking glass.
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alex314 posted:

From my limited knowledge of Russian language it seemed more like "for precious metals you won't need to pay 20% vat, so for example it should make a great alternative to buying currencies". Basically "stop converting all your RUB to EUR, USD or other currencies, we're in deep poo poo already. Buy gold instead".

This makes much, MUCH more sense.

# ¿ Mar 4, 2022 18:19

stealie72: Jan 10, 2007; Their eyes locked and suddenly there was the sound of breaking glass.
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Potato Salad posted:

yes I know I keep bringing domestic political topics into defense, I am so loving sorry cryano

it is really really hard for me to not see political transparency and accountability, public investment in education / healthcare / energy / etc... everything though a natsec lens

See also, infrastructure and education spending and the impact of domestic politics on that.

A few years ago, I was bullshitting with some friends and brought up wondering if MIT was currently training the Non-American (I think I said Chinese) engineer that would design the missiles that would kill all of us and got funny looks. A lot of pundits talked about how the "end of history" bullshit ended in September 2001, but right now surely feels like another shoe dropping because the western world has realized that it's not immune to force.

# ¿ Mar 4, 2022 18:51

stealie72: Jan 10, 2007; Their eyes locked and suddenly there was the sound of breaking glass.
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Cyrano4747 posted:

Ah, the rarely successful Pete Townshend defense.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Townshend#Legal_issues

# ¿ Mar 4, 2022 19:11

stealie72: Jan 10, 2007; Their eyes locked and suddenly there was the sound of breaking glass.
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Marshal Prolapse posted:

Man I love strategic bombers, they may be mostly think of a pass except for a few militaries, but god drat the US makes some cool looking ones. From the B-17 onward, our bombers are just cool as hell looking.

The Russian ones mostly just look like knock offs of ours and hell one is just a reverse engineered B-17 if I’m not mistaken. The blackjack bomber looks like a B-1.

I hope you're not slandering the Bear with this comparison.

# ¿ Mar 5, 2022 02:51

stealie72: Jan 10, 2007; Their eyes locked and suddenly there was the sound of breaking glass.
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Marshal Prolapse posted:

I absolutely am.

Philistine! Just look at that weird loving bastard child of a three way between Lockheed, Boeing, and a Tupolev design bureau whose primary design concern seemed to be both "how loud can we make this" and "are you sure the tail can't be any bigger." All their other bombers are a ripoff, but this thing is a proper Frankenstein.

# ¿ Mar 5, 2022 03:22

stealie72: Jan 10, 2007; Their eyes locked and suddenly there was the sound of breaking glass.
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Saukkis posted:

This video is showing a Russian drone operator on the front lines.

https://twitter.com/MarQs__/status/1499695565877227521

Man, that first video has video game level carnage. Poor loving bastards.

Edit: despite that, I was happy to see white arm bands on the corpses.

stealie72 fucked around with this message at 15:54 on Mar 5, 2022

# ¿ Mar 5, 2022 15:51

stealie72: Jan 10, 2007; Their eyes locked and suddenly there was the sound of breaking glass.
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Decoy Badger posted:

Russia allegedly recruiting Syrian fighters to fight in Kyiv. I am sceptical as to how many mercenaries would actually go fight in a battle as intense as the Kyiv invasion. Though I'm sure they'll be deceived/coerced by everyone involved.

Not going to post this as sourced because lol twitter and local media but:
Local Ohio guy is identified as a boogaloo boy last year through his social media posting: https://twitter.com/antifashgordon/status/1325310506157166592

Local Ohio paper posts uncritical article about how he's going to Ukraine to fight the Russian oppressor: https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/2022/03/06/ohio-veteran-henry-hoeft-heading-ukraine-fight-russia-legion/9376048002/

Other internet detectives link Ohio boogloo boy to (perhaps former) boogaloo boy Mike Dunn (made famous in a Frontline documentary about his organizing around the 1/6 insurrection), who is also apparently heading to Ukraine: https://twitter.com/GoadGatsby/status/1500457553750331394

So maybe there's some Boogaloo boys heading there out of a deep seated desire to ~~punish Russia for invading a sovereign nation~~ gain asymmetrical warfare experience for their own ideals of overthrowing the US government. Guess pasty white guys finally have a conflict that they can join in on before going back to terrorize their own countries.

# ¿ Mar 7, 2022 15:01

stealie72: Jan 10, 2007; Their eyes locked and suddenly there was the sound of breaking glass.
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I'm a 45 year old politics/history nerd, and this is the first war in my lifetime where it's been this obvious who the aggressor/bad guy is, and who the victim/good guy is. Putin didn't even bother to have someone stand up in the UN and lie about steel tubes and yellow cake uranium.

How is this even a goddamn discussion?

# ¿ Mar 7, 2022 21:03

stealie72: Jan 10, 2007; Their eyes locked and suddenly there was the sound of breaking glass.
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Cyrano4747 posted:

Counterpoint: observation balloons were counted as A2A kills in WW1, and those were tethered, stationary, and with an observer as glorified ballast. Even the most rudimentary of drones flying a pre-programmed route seems more of a real deal than that.

Yeah, but you were shooting them from a glorified kite that was as likely to kill you as the enemy, so different rules all around.

# ¿ Mar 8, 2022 02:33

stealie72: Jan 10, 2007; Their eyes locked and suddenly there was the sound of breaking glass.
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Saukkis posted:

Yes, it seems most plausible their artillery isn't in range, and attacking the convoy with air strikes is too risky for the current reward. Just slowly try to take out the BUKs with Bayraktar in case the convoy becomes more of a threat.

Yeah, if it's just sitting there bleeding, which is what it's doing now, makes sense to not spend assets that can be better used elsewhere. It's not like the entire world isn't watching the thing.

Can't find it in the many many threads, but I read something that the Ukrainians blew a bridge in front of it and a bridge behind it, and the bridging units are stuck in the same convoy so they can't make it up to fix things. No idea if it's true, but if it is, leaving it there to freeze/starve to death seems like a good solution if you can't easily turn the entire thing into scrap metal.

# ¿ Mar 8, 2022 15:15

stealie72: Jan 10, 2007; Their eyes locked and suddenly there was the sound of breaking glass.
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TK-42-1 posted:

Having everyone in the world laugh at you has to be a huge morale knock. Being stuck and useless has no upside, especially if you�re running out of food and heat. If you�re slowly getting bombed to death then there�s a chance someone gets brave and tries to bust out instead of just continuing to rot in poorly dig latrines.

Good point. Hungry and cold because of poor logistics makes one angry at the brass, bleeding and cold because of artillery makes one angry at the Ukrainian military.

# ¿ Mar 8, 2022 15:25

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# ¿ Apr 24, 2024 12:18

stealie72: Jan 10, 2007; Their eyes locked and suddenly there was the sound of breaking glass.
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zoux posted:

I guess it's a pick your poison issue, but a new EU/US/Venezuela/Iran (?) petro block is preferable to the current one that props up Russia as well as a number of literally medieval monarchies who are currently not even taking our calls.

https://twitter.com/WSJ/status/1501332167401500674

e: also one of whom probably did 9/11

Oh man, if we can parlay this into telling KSA to get hosed, I would be giddy.

# ¿ Mar 9, 2022 20:44

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > Old War/Dad Power: Clancey chat (both types)

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