Chinese Border Invasion In Progress?

Posted on February 19, 2024 by Lawrence Person

Back in December, Texas Governor Greg Abbott warned about an “invasion” of Chinese nationals at the border.

Gov. Greg Abbott is highlighting recent numbers from U.S. Customs and Border Protection that show a record-breaking number of Chinese nationals encountered at the southwest border.

According to the latest numbers released, border patrol agents encountered 4,261 Chinese nationals in October—a massive increase from the 430 encounters in October 2022.

The increase in illegal aliens attempting to cross the southwest border has caused Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to take several measures to secure Texas’ southern border.

Abbott spoke to Fox News, explaining how the crisis at the southern border has become an “existential threat” to the United States.

It is extraordinarily dangerous because, first of all, as you point out, we have people from China coming here. We also have people on the known terrorist watch list who are coming across the border. And so there’s extraordinary dangers, calls to our country by Biden’s open border policies. And obviously, Biden is doing nothing about it. And that’s why Texas has to step up and apprehend as many of these people as possible to make sure that they’re not posing a threat to our country.

Abbott’s not the only one. On Joe Rogan’s podcast, Bret Weinstein talked about traveling to Panama to see illegal alien migration problem firsthand, and came away with some disturbing information.

  • “There is a migration of Chinese immigrants that looks different, feels different, and is being housed in a totally separate way in Darien for reasons that are not in any way obvious.”
  • “Now I don’t know exactly what to make of that. I have hypotheses there are no more than that. But the Chinese migration is not forthcoming about why it is migrating. It is composed mostly of young military-aged men. There are some women present, but it’s not 50/50 by far.”
  • “The international community has arranged separate encampments. The Chinese are in many cases traveling a separate way across the Darien Gap. They’re skipping some of the worst parts of it traveling by boat.”
  • “When asked where they’re from, where they’re going, why they’re going, they are uninterested in talking. There’s a hostility to it that I found shocking.”
  • “[If they] didn’t like the way things were in China, they feared their government, they thought that there was economic opportunity, they would be curious about Americans. These are soon to be their countrymen. They would tend to be interested in talking. And even if they, for some reason, because they had lived under a totalitarian regime, felt that they couldn’t talk, they wouldn’t be broadcasting hostility, they would be ambivalent or something.”
  • “That is not the impression that they leave when interacting with them, so I found that utterly alarming.”
  • “I wonder if the [larger migration] is a cloak for this other migration from China, which is nothing if not mysterious. Why are they letting it happen? Why do you think the government is allowing the border to be so porous, and why are they resisting when Texas tries to do something about it?”
  • “Before I went to to Panama, I thought there was a migration of people. Now I think there are two. One of them’s clearly a migration, and the other one could well be an invasion.”
  • “The belief amongst many who have been on the story of the migration for years now is that this is a ploy to create voters, Democratic voters, and I don’t think that’s impossible. I think that’s probably playing a role.”
  • He also brings up the possibility some of have floated to trade military service for citizenship as a way to lessen the army’s resistance to illegal orders. “If you wanted a force that was capable of acting on behalf of tyranny against Americans, then a force that doesn’t have a deep history with the rights of being an American, that doesn’t have a long-standing allegiance to people within the country, that force would be potentially more compliant.”

    • Pre-Flu Manchu, all this would have seemed like paranoid conspiracy theories. But after the lockdowns, the Antifa riots, and the continued government insistence that the warm yellow substance they were distributing on our pants was rain, I have to admit the idea is a lot more plausible than I would have previously considered. And until the social justice warriors ran amok at Evergreen College, Weinstein considered himself a Democrat.

    Someone is importing Chinese national illegal aliens into the United States, for some reason. The only question is who and why.

    Posted in Border Control, Communism, Democrats, Supreme Court, Texas | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

    Worldcon And Team Boot

    Posted on February 18, 2024 by Lawrence Person

    Evidently some members of the science fiction community are shocked, shocked that Hugo nominees at last year’s Worldcon in communist China were excluded from the ballot despite having enough votes to get on it because they might offend the CCP.

    Really? Which part of “communist China” was unclear to you?

    The real people to blame are the Worldcon members who voted to hold a Worldcon in a communist country that routinely rapes and tortures ethnic minorities as a matter of policy to keep them in line. Communist China’s numerous trespasses against international human rights agreements and common decency alike have been known for decades, yet Worldcon voters took a look at China’s Worldcon bid and went “Nah, it’ll be fine!”

    I’m not even mildly surprised at this outcome. Worldcon and most of science fiction’s institutions already showed that they had been corrupted and infected with social justice during the Sad Puppies incident. After that, I decided that neither Worldcon nor the Hugos were worth my time, money or attention. (And keep in mind that I had had collected literally every Hugo winning novel in first edition hardback up to that time.)

    The commie Hugo kerfuffle didn’t cause me to lose respect for the Hugos or Worldcon because I had already lost all respect for both.

    In George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, he wrote “If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – forever.”

    By choosing to hold a Worldcon in communist China, Worldcon voters declared loudly, for all to hear, that they were firmly on Team Boot.

    (Hat tip: Dwight.)

    Posted in Communism, Social Justice Warriors | Tagged , , , , , | 25 Comments

    Dutch “Perfect” Planned City = Instant Slum

    Posted on February 17, 2024 by Lawrence Person

    Bijlmer, built as a planned neighborhood near Amsterdam, was supposed to be the “prefect city” of the future, with high rise apartment complexes surrounded with green space to make the buildings more warm and inviting for residents.

    You know, just like they did with American public housing projects at the same time.

    Bijlmer worked out just as well.

  • “The goal was space, green, and light.”
  • The place was laid out in hexagon structure, so I guess it would make a great wargame map.
  • “We have all the benefits of a dense wealthy neighborhood but with the empty space of a rural one.” Or so they thought.
  • The buildings were 11 stories high, with storage space at ground level and communal areas.
  • Transportation? The pitch: “Innovative three-tiered transportation system! Dedicated roads for cyclists and pedestrians! Separate roads for personal cars buses and trucks! An elevated metro line” into Amsterdam proper.
  • The reality: “There you can find a stray junkie who is illegally occupying one of the apartments. A lot of middle class people do not want to live in the Bijlmer. Our apartments are empty, our construction has been delayed, our metro isn’t finished yet, so the Bijlmer is separated and alone.”
  • “The Bijlmer did not attract the amount of people that were expected. Many households were turned off by the large, alienating high-rises, so they left for recognizable suburbs instead.”
  • Oh, and the prices were too high as well.
  • “A place that was intended to attract middle class families just didn’t. It attracted poverty. Instead the Bijlmer’s design and negative stigma created a self-fulfilling cycle. The nature alleys and parking garages helped criminals get away with crime and made people feel unsafe.”
  • And then the Dutch government turned the place into an immigrant ghetto for people fleeing Suriname. Want to guess how that worked out?
  • “Overcrowding made it impossible to take a bath at rush hour.”

    • Two-thirds of the high rises were eventually demolished.

    I wonder if the video of the projected city was actually from the era. I doubt it, because it really gives off a Backrooms vibe.

    Government urban planners always think they can always do a better job than the free market, and they’re always wrong.

    The guy who did that video also has his notes up so you can check his work.

    Posted in video, Welfare State | Tagged , , , , , , | 9 Comments

    LinkSwarm for February 16, 2024

    Posted on February 16, 2024 by Lawrence Person

    More Biden corruption evidence, a would-be mass shooter turns out to be a pro-Palestinian Bernie Sis, a parent beats the snot out of a would-be child kidnapper, a top sniper dies, Disney gets sued, and Venus is feeling Zoove. It’s the Friday LinkSwarm!

  • Another “Try to contain your shock” headline: “Joe Biden’s Classified Docs Provide More Evidence Hunter’s Pay-To-Play Was A Family Affair.”

    The special counsel report on Joe Biden’s unauthorized removal and disclosure of classified documents exposed much more than our president’s mental deficits and the breadth of his irresponsible handling of top-secret and classified information. The report revealed a close nexus between Hunter Biden’s influence peddling and his father’s responsibilities and access to intel during the elder’s term as vice president.

    On Thursday, Special Counsel Robert Hur released the results of his investigation into the president stemming from the discovery of top-secret and classified documents at Biden’s D.C.-based Penn Biden Center, his private Delaware home, and the University of Delaware. While the specific details in the recovered documents remain unknown, the nearly 400-page report provided an extensive enough summary of the materials to confirm an overlap in the timing and topics of Joe Biden’s vice presidency and Hunter Biden’s “business” enterprises.
    Ukraine Overlap

    Appendix A of the report provided a table summary of the documents recovered. Many of the top-secret and classified documents concerned Ukraine during the time frame when Hunter Biden acted as an intermediary between Burisma’s owner, Mykola Zlochevsky, and the vice president. Recall that Hunter’s business partner, Devon Archer, told the House Oversight Committee that in early March 2014, he met Zlochevsky while in Moscow. And soon after, he and Hunter Biden joined Burisma’s board, receiving $83,000 per month.

    The following month, Hunter Biden sent Archer an email dated April 13, 2014 — one week before Joe Biden would travel to Ukraine and meet then-Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk. Referring to “my guys upcoming travels,” Hunter then elaborated on “22 points about Ukraine’s political situation, with detailed information about the upcoming election and predicting an escalation of Russia’s ‘destabilization campaign, which could lead to a full-scale takeover of the eastern region, most critically Donetsk,’” according to the New York Post.

    Among the material recovered from President Biden’s unauthorized storage locales were several top-secret and otherwise classified or confidential documents discussing Ukraine. One undated document discussed issues related to Russian aggression toward Ukraine. Another, dated Sept. 17, 2014, consisted of a “Memorandum for the Vice President from staff members, with subject ‘U.S. Energy Assistance to Ukraine.’” Also dated Sept. 17, 2014, was an “event memo” from a vice-presidential national security staffer, titled, “Lunch with Ukrainian President Poroshenko,” which was scheduled for the following day.

    The overlap between Joe Biden’s Ukraine-related work and Hunter Biden’s Burisma profiteering became more pronounced in 2015. On Dec. 2, 2015, the lobbying firm Blue Star Group, which Hunter Biden had arranged to work with Burisma, wrote to Burisma that it had “participated in a conference call today with senior Obama Administration officials ahead of U.S. Vice President Joe Biden’s trip to Ukraine next week.” The memorandum provided a summary of the conference call, telling Burisma that “Michael Carpenter, Vice President Biden’s Special Advisor for Europe and Russia, and Dr. Colin Kahl, the Vice President’s National Security Advisor, presented the agenda for the trip and answered questions about current U.S. policy toward Ukraine.”

    Two days after receiving this memorandum, Burisma executives Zlochevsky and Vadym Pozharskyi, on Dec. 4, 2015, pushed Hunter Biden to call his father. The Burisma executives, according to Archer, expressed concern over the pressure they were under from Ukrainian investigators.

    And there’s more, though very little that will be surprising to BattleSwarm readers. (Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)

  • “Joe Biden Met with Chinese Energy Firm Chairman around the Time of $3M Payment to Hunter’s Business Partner.” Of course he did.

    Joe Biden met with the chairman of the Chinese energy firm CEFC shortly after Hunter Biden’s business associate Rob Walker received a $3 million payment from the firm as part of a joint venture the pair were then trying to develop, according to a newly released transcript of Walker’s closed-door congressional testimony.

    Walker testified before the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees on January 26 about his role in Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings with Chinese energy conglomerate CEFC.

    Walker received roughly $3 million from CEFC in March 2017 through its State Energy HK account, bank records show. He recalled a meeting between Joe Biden and CEFC officials in spring 2017, around the time of the State Energy HK payment.

    “Did Joe Biden ever attend any location or meeting or place where CEFC officials were also there?” a staffer asked Walker, according to a transcript of the interview released Tuesday morning.

    “Yes,” Walker replied. He recalled the meeting took place in Washington, D.C., and Joe Biden, who had just left office as vice president, stopped by for lunch.

    “I don’t know the exact — it was 20- probably -17 at some point, but I don’t know exactly when,” Walker said.

    The meeting took place at a Four Seasons hotel in a private room. CEFC Chairman Ye Jianming and other associates were present at the meeting.

    “I don’t know if Zang was there, but I believe that Ye was there. I’m certain of it,” Walker testified.

    He did not know who the other CEFC associates were at the meeting. Walker firmly recalled Jianming and his translator, Hunter Biden, business associate James Gilliar, and Joe Biden attending the meeting.

  • Inflation higher than expected. Unexpectedly!
  • Well, what do you know? “Mail-In Ballot Fraud Study Finds Trump ‘Almost Certainly’ Won In 2020.”

    A new study examining the likely impact that fraudulent mail-in ballots had in the 2020 election concludes that the outcome would “almost certainly” have been different without the massive expansion of voting by mail.

    The Heartland Institute study tried to gauge the probable impact that fraudulent mail-in ballots cast for both then-candidate Joe Biden and his opponent, President Donald Trump, would have had on the overall 2020 election results.

    The study was based on data obtained from a Heartland/Rasmussen survey in December that revealed that roughly one in five mail-in voters admitted to potentially fraudulent actions in the presidential election.

    After the researchers carried out additional analyses of the data, they concluded that mail-in ballot fraud “significantly” impacted the 2020 presidential election.

    They also found that, absent the huge expansion of mail-in ballots during the pandemic, which was often done without legislative approval, President Trump would most likely have won.

    “Had the 2020 election been conducted like every national election has been over the past two centuries, wherein the vast majority of voters cast ballots in-person rather than by mail, Donald Trump would have almost certainly been re-elected,” the report’s authors wrote.

    Not news to those of us who watched returns into the wee hours, only to wake up to The Steal the next morning.

  • House Republicans finally impeach DHS Secretary Mayorkas for intentionally failing to secure the border.
  • Is there any doubt that Fani Willis lied her ass off?
  • Ukraine bags another Russian ship. “Ukrainian Magura V5 Marine Drones have sunk the Ropucha-class landing ship Cesar Kunikov near Alupka in Crimea in the Black Sea.”
  • Russia also had 59 planes and helicopters stolen.
  • Putin says he prefers Biden to Trump in the White House because he’s more predictable. I’m sure he does. Notice that both his Ukraine invasions occurred during Democratic presidential administrations.
  • Austin’s commie congressman Greg Casar wants to federalize Texas power grid.
  • Pervert tries to kidnap kid in a CVS, instantly receives beatdown from parent.
  • Another week, another teacher busted for child porn, this one in Klein ISD.
  • The woman who tried to shoot up Lakewood Church in Houston was a Bernie Sis who had “Free Palestine” written on her AR-15. “[Genesse I.] Moreno had a violent, extensive criminal history stretching back to 2005, according to court records reviewed by Townhall. She was previously arrested for assaulting a public servant, assault causing bodily injury, forgery, theft for stealing cosmetics from a store, evading police, and unlawfully carrying a weapon, among a slew of charges on Moreno’s decades-old rap sheet.”
  • “Soros network gave paid fellowship to head of anti-Israel center propping up terrorism.” Try to contain your shock.
  • Man swatted 47 times.

    Alan Winston Filion, 17, is suspected of targeting hundreds of high schools, mosques, historically Black churches, US senators and even the US Supreme Court with swatting attacks that placed thousands of people in the crosshairs of heavily armed police response teams.

    Prosecutors say the 6ft 3in teenager advertised his services under the pseudonym Torswats on the encrypted messaging app Telegram, charging as little as $40 to get someone’s gas shut off, $50 for a “major police response”, and $75 for a “bomb threat/mass shooting threat”.

    Mr Filion would then post chilling audio of the 911 calls on Telegram as a proof of purchase, according to court documents.

    Among the hundreds of “swats” that Torswats allegedly claimed credit for were multiple hoax callouts at the home of Patrick S. Tomlinson, a Milwaukee-based science fiction author who says he has been swatted dozens of times in the past four years as part of a targeted harassment campaign by a group of “sociopathic” stalkers.

    You’d think after five or six times, the guy would put up a sign in his front yard alerting police to the problem. (Hat tip: Dwight.)

  • Ohio cops go full T.J. Hooker.
  • “Court Orders Netherlands To Halt F-35 Parts For Israel As EU Says “Too Many People” Are Dying.” Excuse me? Does the Netherlands let their court interfere in foreign policy decisions and defense contracts based on events beyond their borders?
  • “Army cancels FARA helicopter program, makes other cuts in major aviation shakeup.”

    The US Army is cancelling its next generation Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) program, service officials announced today, taking a potential multi-billion-dollar contract off the table and throwing the service’s long-term aviation plans into doubt.

    In addition, the Army plans to end production on the UH-60 V Black Hawk in fiscal 2025, due to “significant cost growth,” keep General Electric’s Improved Turbine Engine Program (ITEP) in the development phase instead of moving it into production, and phase the Shadow and Raven unmanned aerial systems out of the fleet, the service added.

    All told, it reflects a massive shift in the Army’s aviation strategy and upends years of planning. There is also an ironic sense of history repeating: the decision to end FARA comes two decades to the month after the Army ended its plans to procure the RAH-66 Comanche and nearly 16 years after it terminated work on the ARH-70A Arapaho, both aircraft designed to replace the Kiowa — the same helicopter FARA was supposed to, finally, replace.

    The reason for ending FARA, Army leaders told a small group of reporters ahead of the announcement, is a reflection of what war looks like in the modern era.

    “We absolutely are paying attention [to world events] and adjusting, because we could go to war tonight, this weekend,” head of Army Futures Command Gen. James Rainey told reporters at the Pentagon on Thursday.

    “We are learning from the battlefield — especially Ukraine — that aerial reconnaissance has fundamentally changed,” Army Chief Gen. Randy George said in a press release. “Sensors and weapons mounted on a variety of unmanned systems and in space are more ubiquitous, further reaching and more inexpensive than ever before.”

    Many commenters here feared the Pentagon wasn’t taking the drone threat seriously. Maybe they are…

  • The Marine Corps’ all-time deadliest sniper, Chuck Mawhinney, has died at age 75.

    From 1968 to 1969, Mawhinney — still only a teenager — was credited with 103 confirmed kills.

    An additional 216 kills were listed as “probable” since the enemies’ bodies were risky to verify in the active war zone.

    Mawhinney had confirmed kills over 1,000 yards, with the average kill shot for snipers during the Vietnam War taken at a distance of 300 to 800 yards.

    He received a Bronze Star with Combat Valor, Navy Achievement Medal, Navy Commendation Medal with Combat Valor, and two Purple Hearts.

    Having more confirmed kills than Carlos Hathcock is pretty impressive. (Hat tip: Dwight.)

  • “Rockwall County Sues to Undo $833 Million MUD Approved by Lone Voter With Criminal Record.” Perhaps the Texas legislature should create a MUD election review board, as these shenanigans have been going on for a while.
  • Disney sued over illegal, racist casting quotas.
  • The CW Network (which evidently still exists) just launched a 12 channel free streaming platform. Including, evidently, a Mystery Science Theater 3000 channel.
  • Someone misread an astronomy chart. Result? Venus now has a mini-moon named Zoove. (Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)
  • “Judge Orders Trump To Pay Whatever Amount It Takes To Bankrupt Campaign.”
  • Donkey + screaming rubber chicken = happy donkey.

    • Hit the tip jar if you’re so inclined.





    Posted in Austin, Crime, Democrats, Foreign Policy, Media Watch, Military, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

    China’s Fake Log Princesses

    Posted on February 15, 2024 by Lawrence Person

    Some of the Chinese news/videos because they’re important. But this story I’m putting up because it’s so ridiculous.

    There’s evidently a genre of China’s video of pretty women in rural China carrying massive logs.

    I know you’ll be shocked, shocked to find out there aren’t really lots of attractive women in rural China wearing makeup and carrying heavy logs around. Naturally, the logs are hollow or made of balsa. Naturally, they’re scamming poor simps (including some in the west) out of sympathy money.

    The one the girls struggling through the mud in her old fashioned revolutionary clothing is particularly risible.

    I wonder what American internet fads are inexplicable to the Chinese. Maybe they’re completely baffled by Hammurabi memes or Rickrolls…

    Thanks for the Memeories…

    Posted in Communism, video | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

    Speaker Mike Johnson: No Foreign Aid Until You Address The Border

    Posted on February 14, 2024 by Lawrence Person

    Looks like Republican Speaker Mike Johnson will not allow consideration of the foreign aid bill until border security is addressed.

    On Wednesday, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson shut down the $95 billion foreign aid package recently passed by the Senate.

    Johnson remained steadfast in his, and most of his party’s, belief that no bill that doesn’t include funding to solve the crisis at the southern border should be considered by the House.

    “The Republican-led House will not be jammed or forced into passing a foreign aid bill that was opposed by most Republican senators and does nothing to secure our own border,” he said. “It’s time for Washington to start showing some love for Americans.”

    “On Valentine’s Day, it’s a good day to point this out,” he continued. “We need to listen to the American people and their needs and take action, and that’s why House leadership will continue to govern with Americans’ interests at heart.”

    Democrats had been trying to gin up support for a discharge petition, which would have allowed them to bypass Johnson and force a vote, however progressives, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, said they would not sign on, citing the bill’s funding for Israel.

    The foreign aid package, which dedicates funding to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, passed with a 70-29 vote as 22 Republicans joined their Democratic colleagues to side in favor of the bill.

    Johnson made it clear even before the votes had been tallied that he had no intention of letting the bill enter his chamber.

    While I’m not opposed to Ukraine aid in general, clearly the border is a far more pressing concern, but the Biden Administrations seems to want to throw open the borders at all costs. They need to pay the price for that decision, including no foreign aid being passed. Indeed, there’s a strong case to be made that with the towering Biden deficits and giant mountain of national debt, no foreign aid should be authorized until the budget is balanced. We also seem to get a very poor return for our foreign aid dollar. The Marshall Plan was over three-quarters of a century ago, and the Cold War ended over three decades ago.

    Moreover, Speaker Johnson’s position (controlling borders is far more important than shipping billions in foreign aid abroad) is one that’s extraordinarily popular with American voters from all walks of life. Make the globalist foreign policy establishment suffer for the Biden Administration’s illegal refusal to enforce border control laws, no matter how hard the lefty MSM rages.

    Foreign aid is a luxury. Protecting the border is an enumerated responsibility of the federal government.

    Posted in Budget, Democrats, Foreign Policy, Military, Republicans | Tagged , , , , , , , | 15 Comments

    Bradleys vs. T90M Follow-Up

    Posted on February 13, 2024 by Lawrence Person

    Here’s an interesting follow-up to that two Bradleys wreck one T-90M post and video a few weeks ago. In this video, Task & Purpose provides more detailed breakdown of the engagement.

  • “In the interview with the Ukrainian Bradley commander Siri, he indicated that the three Bradleys made the conscious decision to seek out the Russian tank. However, one of their vehicles had issues and was not able to effectively engage the tank.”
  • The first Bradley engages the T-90M from a 90° angle, then both vehicles retreat.
  • The T-90 fires and misses. “Aiming at a target close to you in a tank becomes more difficult because you have to traverse the turret faster, and objects will move across your line of sight faster due to its close proximity.”
  • One under-appreciated factor: Turret turning speed. “In the 30ton MSA2 Bradley, the turret can spin 360° in about 6 seconds, or 60° per second…The most often cited metric I see [for the T-90] is about 9 seconds to do a full 360°, or about 40° per second.”
  • “They’re just 50 meters apart. This fight was essentially a ticking time clock for the T-90, because they had a very limited amount of time before the Bradley would manage to knock out their optics and blind them.”
  • “The T90 only had enough time to get off three cannon shots. The T90 has a stabilized turret and autoloader that can fire on the move with up to eight rounds per minute. The T-90 backed away from the road intersection while blindly firing through buildings.
  • “The Ukrainian Bradley does the same thing here, with its 25mm chain gun firing dozens of rounds while flooring it along the road away from the tank.”
  • The encounter took place in the town of Stepove, which is about 12km NW of Avdiivka, where some 40,000 Russian troops have been trying to take the pocket for months.
  • “Forbes reports that Ukraine’s knocking out 13 Russian vehicles here for every one that they lose.” But Ukraine may still have to fall back here.
  • “Most of the buildings are completely destroyed, but the rubble is going to be a major advantage for the Bradley’s to fire and then duck and weave behind for cover.”
  • “The next thing that happens is the T-90M fires off a smoke canister, which is a textbook act to conceal its position and disrupt the thermal sites in the Bradley. There different perspectives on what exactly happened when the smoke was set off. It appears like maybe one of the T-90’s explosive reactive armor pieces might have blown at about the same time, causing that large explosion that we see here. It could have also been from a misfire from the smoke grenade.” I’ve also heard the theory that the Bradley’s 25mm fire may have already damaged the smoke dispenser at this point, triggering the explosive misfire.
  • The physical damage to the T-90s turret may appear minimal to us, but to a Russia tank crew, it would like being inside a large bell being hit by a hammer. “The Russian tank crew would have been extremely disoriented by the blasts, even if the chances of that smaller caliber round penetrating was very unlikely. It’s easy to forget the human factor in these fights.”
  • The Bradley’s “M242 25mm bushmaster chain gun fires roughly 200 rounds per minute at the highest cyclical setting.”
  • “Inside the turret are two ready boxes which feed the linked ammo into the receiver. This gives you the ability to fire two different types of ammo on the fly. That includes the M919 APDST, or armor-piercing discarding sabo tracer depleted uranium round, and the M792 high explosive incendiary tracer rounds.” There’s a switch to change between the two.
  • “The Bradley’s anti-armor 25mm cannon round can penetrate between 30mm to 100mm of steel, depending on the angle at which the round strikes the target.”
  • “However, the Russian T90 reportedly has 400 to 900mm” of armor. Unmentioned here is that the T-90M (like the US, UK and Germany) uses composite armor rather than just steel.
  • So how did the Bradleys disable the T-90? Theory #1 is they destroyed both the commander and gunner’s optics. “If you’re able to hit them, then the crew is completely blinded and essentially combat ineffective.” Ukrainian commander Siri said he learned the tactic from War Thunder. (Are American tanks taking sufficient precautions to keep this from happening to them? To be fair, the chance of enemies getting a 25mm auto-canon this close to an Abrams seems…remote.)
  • Theory #2: Turret ring connection destroyed (much more likely electronics than hydraulics) sent the turret into auto-rotation as seen at the end of the video.
  • Why wasn’t the TOW missile not used? Maybe it wasn’t working, or maybe it was just too close for the TOW to arm properly.
  • The Bradley crew might have run out of APDST and switched to high explosive.
  • Russian tanks have slower reverse speeds than American armored vehicles.
  • There are some 78 Russian attacks a day in this sector. “Ukraine counterattacks with Bradleys, raking the tree lines with 25mm cannon fire. Bradley’s also transports small assault teams that clear out Russian stragglers from time to time. Once Stepove and the tree lines by the railroad are clear, or mostly clear, of Russian troops, Ukraine pulls back to their functional defensive positions and waits for the next Russian attack.”

    • There’s lots more interesting technical and doctrinal details I’ve cut for the sake of brevity.

    Worth looking at.

    Posted in Media Watch, unions, video | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

    Why People Hate The Media

    Posted on February 12, 2024 by Lawrence Person

    With layoffs left and left across America’s newsrooms, there’s lots of hand-wringing over the state of newspapers and “journalism” these days. Notably absent from these laments are any mention of leftism, wokeness, or the naked contempt today’s MSM journalists display again and again for ordinary Americans. Indeed, it’s such a long running theme on this blog that I had to wade through years of Media Watch-tagged posts to find one of the many specific takedowns of that contempt, but it was this one.

    Our ruling elites seem unable to come to grips not only with President Trump pantsing them at every turn, but that their own smug sense of superiority and entitlement is what led to his rise in the first place. They don’t do “humble.”

    Their smug sense of superiority shines through in every imperious announcement and self-satisfied Facebook post. That smug is the reason ordinary Americans love watching President Trump humiliate the media.

    Snip.

    The same people love to conflate contempt for their biased selves into contempt for the freedom of the press and the First Amendment. This is patently false. Ordinary Americans love the First Amendment. It’s the current smug, biased, dishonest incarnation of the MSM that we hate.

    Look in the mirror. We don’t hate the free press. We hate you. Personally. And our loathing for you smug pricks dates back to long before Donald Trump ever threw his hat into the ring…

    Ace of Spades offers up similar thoughts, including this reaction to ideas for media subsidies: “Fuck you. I will literally join a guerilla warfare unit before I allow you to take my money to propagandize against me.”

    We’re not the only one celebrating the demise of the woke, left-leaning, Democrat-boosting MSM. After drinking the rich, zesty tears of Taylor Lorenz kvetching about How Horrible This Happened To Our Beloved Media, Matt Walsh offers similar thoughts.

  • “She’s basically telling us why the media falling apart. It’s Christmas morning but she wants us to be sad about it.”
  • “Feeling sorry for a journalist it it’s like feeling sorry for a tick that you just pulled off of your dog’s ear.”
  • “The journalism profession has completely discredited itself. It has unabashedly become a form of left-wing advocacy. And on the right we’ve been saying this forever, to the point that it just becomes background noise.”
  • “It’s far beyond bias.”
  • “People in the media like Taylor Lorenz have been ignoring us, and laughing at us and all that. Well, here you go. This is what happens. Now you’re all losing your jobs, now you’re all broke, and these entire, once prestigious, storied companies and outlets and publications are are going under.”
  • “Many of these people just have no integrity. They’re very bad people.”
  • “They have destroyed the lives of anyone they deem an enemy, even just normal people like civilians who, for whatever reason, find themselves in the left’s crosshairs, and they get destroyed. That’s a lot of when we talk about cancel culture.”
  • “Then the very people who do that lose their jobs, and, what, we’re not supposed to gloat about it?”
  • “You deserve to lose your job. You’re a very bad person, you have no integrity, you have delighted in your cruelty towards other people and now you lost your job.”
  • Journalism runs on trust, and nobody trusts them.
  • The other problem besides wokeness is over-saturation. “The media business has never been wider than it is right now, but it’s also never been more shallow.”

    • It’s not limited to America. The BBC has the same woke narrative problem.

    Finally, Larry Correia with a succinct distillation of the problem:

    Indeed.

    (Hat tip: Instapundit.)

    Posted in Democrats, Social Justice Warriors | Tagged , , , , , , | 15 Comments

    Why Is Google Selling Adwords For Snuff Films?

    Posted on February 11, 2024 by Lawrence Person

    A comedy group called Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie had a skit about why you should keep your parents off the Internet. “I want to find out if latex paint bonds to stucco. I guess I’ll search for ‘Latex Bondage.'”

    “Uh, you don’t want to do that!”

    I just had one of those moments.

    The quote I was looking for was “My own grandmother fought the Indians for sixty years… then choked to death on lemon pie” from the original 3:10 to Yuma. I remembered the general shape of the quote, and that it was from a western, but not the exact quote, and not the type of pie.

    So I went to Google. Here’s the search string I entered, in all it’s typoed glory: “fought the Indians for 20 years and choked to deth on cream pie.”

    This is the first result that came up:

    Why is Google selling adword placement for snuff films? Remember all the way back when their logo was “don’t be evil?”

    Seems like they’re fine being plenty evil.

    That’s not the only shocking thing in those results. Here are some more:

    Clearly something has gone deeply wrong at Google.

    After I post this, I’m going to write Ken Paxton and Ted Cruz for their respective inquiries into Google. I think they might be interested…

    Posted in Media Watch | Tagged , , , | 11 Comments

    USS Texas: “The Most Gangsta Battleship Of All Time”

    Posted on February 10, 2024 by Lawrence Person

    The Fat Electrician has a tribute video for USS Texas (which is still undergoing refurbishment).

  • “Today we’re talking about the most gangsta battleship of all time: The USS Texas, predating both World Wars, being built in 1914.”
  • “It’s commonly referred to as the last dreadnought. But it’s not technically a dreadnought, belonging to the New York-class of battleswhips, which were commonly referred to as super-dreadnoughts.” It was a class of two, with only the New York and the Texas. There was a pre-dreadnought USS Texas laid down in 1889 and scrapped in 1911.
  • “They had the largest guns ever put on a boat up to that time. That would be the Mark 1, capable of launching two 14 inch shells that weighed nearly 1,600 pounds apiece. The USS Texas had five of them, two in the front and three in the back. It was like a freedom sedan.”
  • They also had ballistic calculators and analogue computers, making them the most accurate naval guns in the world at the time. Plus a whole bunch of smaller guns.
  • “It was the first ship in history to incorporate anti-aircraft guns.”
  • “As well as having a 12″ thick hull, an entire freedom foot of Pittsburgh steel. The only thing millimeters is going to do to that is scratch the paint.”
  • It was the first ship to have a compliment of Marines onboard. “They let the water grunts drive the biggest gun ever made.”
  • The USS Texas saw “almost no combat” in World War I. Via Wikipedia: “Texas’s service with the Grand Fleet consisted entirely of convoy missions and occasional forays to reinforce the British squadron on blockade duty in the North Sea whenever German heavy units threatened.”
  • “But it’s actions in World War II made it a naval legend.” Lots of newer, more powerful ships than the Texas, but the Texas was the only battleship to engage the enemy in all five theaters.
  • “D-Day, June 6, 1944. The Texas would take it’s position 12,000 yards off the coast of Normandy.” It fired 235 rounds at German fortifications in just under 54 minutes. “That is four hundred and eight thousand pounds of ammunition.”
  • “The Texan was shooting the enemy with about three spicy Volvos a minute.”
  • “I’m trying to tell you the Grim Yeeter over here bitchslapped the enemy’s coastline with an entire car dealership in the amount of time it takes you to watch a TV show.”
  • Continued bombarding until running out of ammo June 11, at which point it went back for resupply. By the time it was back, allied troops had driven the enemy so far inland its guns couldn’t reach. So it moved in to 3,000 yards, the closest it could get without beaching the ship.
  • “It’s at that point the Texas said ‘Hold my beer’ and flooded all the blister tanks on the starboard side, tilting the entire boat, changing the angle of the guns, allowing them to reach further inland.”
  • “They gangster leaned a 32 thousand ton warship so they could continue to engage the enemy. This might be the most grunterrific moment in world history.”
  • “It’s not technically a war crime. Geneva didn’t even necessarily know that shit was a fucking option.”
  • The Texas would go on to fight at Okinawa and Iwo Jima.

    • More info at https://battleshiptexas.org/.

    Posted in Military, Texas, video | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments