For Shits And Giggles.

No comments are necessary. 

Yes, they are incompetent buffoons.
 

Open Thread.

 Whatever fits.

How To Put It More Politely?

Teach the real war in the US, not this Hollywood BS. And I mean not just USMA at West Point which is not a real military academy anymore but an indoctrination institution with mostly made-up military "history" and zero academics. 

Ukraine will struggle to make good on its promise to drive Russian forces out of its former territory, US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley stated on Friday. While civilian officials in Washington insist that Kiev must keep fighting, Milley has repeatedly questioned the chances of success. “President Biden, President Zelensky, and most of the leaders of Europe have said this war is likely to end in a negotiation,” Milley said during a meeting of the US-led Defense Contact Group at Ramstein Air Base in Germany. “From a military standpoint, this is a very, very difficult fight,” he added.

Are there any real military historians in the USMA or the US Army War College left? I doubt it, when one's military "science" is built around Hollywood that is what you get. Considering the level of the US public school graduates, USMA is basically a vocational school now, as long as it meets its quota on "diversity". Now, imagine some "graduates" from the US "strategic studies" experts. Idiocracy is upon us. 

My Talking Head...

... on Russian Navy and what Staff Officers do.  

It is also about MRA (Naval Missile-Carrying Aviation) and Admiral Nakhimov nuclear cruiser. 

P.S. If rumors about the use of Gremlins in 404 are confirmed, we need to rethink geopolitics completely.  Plus upgraded version of 3M22 Zircons with the range of around 2,500 kilometers.

It Is Friday...

 ... and a bit on the lighter side of Valery and his virtuoso friends. 

Have a go at it.
 

Andrei Raevsky's Superb Take...

 ... on the "competence" of current "elite". It is superb not because Andrei validates a lot what I write about, but because he is insider. Here is an excerpt from a great article:

I decided to chime in, because I know from the inside what Martyanov describes from the outside, so I want to share with you my own observations on this topic. I studied in the USA for five years, from 1986 to 1991 and I got two degrees in this time period: one BA in International Relations from the School of International Service (SIS) at the American University and a MA in Strategic Studies from the Paul H. Nitze School for Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at the Johns Hopkins University. During these same years I also worked for several (very conservative) think tanks.  The following is a summary of observations I made during this time period and after. First, and I think that this is crucial, I would argue that a generational change took place in the late 80s, but it all truly began with Ronald Reagan’s Presidency.  Let me explain.

Read the whole thing and it will also help to understand why I long for American "elite" of the past with who you could have a dialogue and even handshake agreements, and why today what passes for "elite" in US is a combination of amoral, uneducated and incompetent fanatics.

Please, Get Them Back To The 6th Grade.

To repeat middle school course on basic math, fractions, percentages and shit like that. Come to think about it--basic calculations course from the first grade may be even a better proposition. 

WASHINGTON, Jan 20 (Reuters) - Senior U.S. officials are advising Ukraine to hold off on launching a major offensive against Russian forces until the latest supply of U.S. weaponry is in place and training has been provided, a senior Biden administration official said on Friday. The official, speaking to a small group of reporters on condition of anonymity, said the United States was holding fast to its decision not to provide Abrams tanks to Ukraine at this time, amid a controversy with Germany over tanks. U.S. talks with Ukraine about any counter-offensive have been in the context of ensuring the Ukrainians devote enough time first to training on the latest weaponry provided by the United States, the official said.

A pop-corn time))  Of course, the "official" is anonymous--a feature, not a bug. It is fascinating, really, to see how long a brigade worth of Strykers and Bradleys will last during such an "offensive". Ahh, the zugzwang time--no matter what they do, it all ends up with embarrassment, a euphemism for clusterfuck. They cannot even lie convincingly anymore. Peskov nonchalantly stated yesterday:

If the US and its allies supply Ukraine with heavy tanks, the consequences for Kiev will only be negative, while it will not seriously impact Russia’s military operation in the country, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov claimed on Friday.   

And this was about tanks, mind you. The fate of the light armor, such as Bradleys, Strykers or what have you is unenviable on the modern battlefield. I stress it--BATTLEFIELD--like in the theater-wide clash of the regular standing armies, not calling CAS on the AK-47 and RPG armed goat-herders while on platoon-size patrols in the mountains. There is a difference, believe me. 

But this news is indicative, together with calls from the American side on Kiev regime to withdraw from Artemovsk, because "it impedes the preparation to Spring offensive" (in Russian). The Washington is delusional and desperate because everything they can do there is optics and nothing more. There are documented facts now of very young kids and old men being thrown by regime into the meat-grinder. Zelensky, who is controlled by sore losers from London, who wouldn't be able to field a full combat-ready brigade of anything and continue to wreck their aircraft carriers due to low level of general command and navigational competence, is a dead man walking, because he will be offed by either British or US side, because he knows too much. Both in terms of money laundering and sheer incompetence of NATO military "advisers".  My only question, of course, remains unanswered--where ARE the numbers for anything in the de facto corpses of both 404 and its main sugar daddy-- combined West? That is why they need to go back to school and learn basic calculations. 

In related news. California's attempts to reinvent Physics based on degrees in public relations, political science and Queer studies, and other pseudo academic and magical thinking "degrees", evidently failed. 

As California goes, so goes the nation, or so they say. If that rings true, the nation is set for a reversal of some of its strictest renewable energy plans, after the Huntington Beach City Council voted to dump its plan for 100% renewable energy. Huntington Beach, California, is changing the plan it had in place with the Orange County Power Authority (OCPA)—a nonprofit offering clean energy. But its recent history in a rather unfavorable media limelight has given the city council pause.And Huntington Beach wasn’t the first municipality to pull out—Orange County bailed on the green power authority, citing transparency concerns and a series of ugly audits, and allegations that the authority failed to inform the public that their electricity bills were increasing. Orange County was set to begin receiving green power from the authority by the end of this year. The cost of having the county pull out is estimated to be around $65 million.

Damn you Carnot, Boltzmann and others for inventing Thermodynamics. It is a totalitarian science and it hurts feelings, well... and budgets too.