Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[lineygoblue]

You made Master Chief. Good for you. Especially a Boatswain's Mate Chief. There was no "A" school to help the "boats" along. They had to make rank the hard way.

The last base I served at is closed now. It was Airstation Brooklyn NY, and it was on a closed Naval Air Base known as Floyd Bennett Field out near Kennedy Airport. It was a total dump, and everybody had a bad attitude. I was glad to get out of there when my enlistment was up. Looking back on it, I probably should have reenlisted for at least one 4-year term, if they would have agreed to give me orders to District 9 (Great Lakes). But, I'd had enough of military life, so I moved on. I ended up going to work for Michigan Bell, and worked there for 31 years.

CGAS Brooklyn was used as a support base whenever the President came to NYC. Marine One came out to our base to be refueled and maintained. There was a group of jarheads attached to the "Presidential Support Team", who wouldn't let us get within 50' of Marine One without threatening us with serious bodily harm. It was weird, because once Marine One left to go back and pick up the Prez, the Marines lightened up, and were not such bad guys. But, when that bird was there, .. look out.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Ukraine: It is becoming increasingly difficult to get a clear picture of what is going on in Eastern Ukraine militarily. There are few unbiased observers on the ground in the battle space - and now, this is about a 60 km front involving the Western portions of the larger Luhansk Oblast. Both sides are trying to shape perceptions. Pro-Russian sources and the Russian Ministry of defense spokespersons allege Russia has full control of the Luhansk Oblast and have completely encircled the the city of Severdonetsk - a medium sized, important city controlled by Ukraine on it's NW boarders. Ukrainian sources claim other wise. Analysts I'm reading think the Russians are winning the information war right now.

One of the reasons for that is a Ukrainian campaign to highlight the plight of the Donbas depicting it as under constant bombardment and slow but gradual Russian troop advances - to where is never clear. According to analysts, the purpose of that is to keep the pressure up on the west for steady arms flow and the need for longer range, more potent ground launched rocket systems. The impact of that campaign has the unintended consequence of augmenting Russian successes beyond that which they actually are successes. Frontpaging waht are characterized as political activity signaling plans to annex the territory that Russia claims it is in full control of into Russia. That is really a factual stretch but it nonetheless sows doubt about Ukraine's ability to survive both inside and outside Ukraine.

In that back drop are reports that sanctions are beginning to bite inside Russia crippling Russian military industries from replacing expended or destroyed equipment and precision weapons. There also reports of young men resisting conscription and national guardsmen (Rosgavardia) refusing orders to deploy to Ukraine and fight there. Several of these kinds of reports are solid. The Russian Army is bringing mothballed T62 tanks, relics of Soviet post war armaments, to Ukraine to replace destroyed modern armor. None of this is a good sign for Putin's ability to sustain the intensity of current combat operations beyond this small 60km front where 90% of the Russian Army's focus is.

Outside of that small front, the perception that Russia is widening its campaign is being supported by an effective propaganda campaign that highlights limited artillery attacks, e.g., in Kharkiv, where missiles and long range artillery fires are being fired into that city from inside Russia so as to avoid Ukrainian counter battery fires. NB that Zelenski has been talking up the need for Ukraine to have these long range NATO systems to respond to the fires that Russia is delivering from 60-100kms away from intended targets. Today, Russian MOD officials spoke of renewed enthusiasm inside the Russian general staff that Russia can still take Kiev - pure propaganda and lies given the backdrop of known and documented from intel sources of deteriorating amounts of war fighting materials and troops.

Putting the events and information flows available to the public together, the Russians are in worse shape in the battle space than the information space is depicting things. That leads me to believe this may be Putin's last chance to claim some level of victory if the Russian armed forces can actually hold on to what they are making out to be territorial gains before his combat power in Ukraine has deteriorated beyond that required to continue combat operations without unacceptable additional losses suffered by ill-equipped and poorly armed BTGs or what isleft of them.

TBF, the Ukrainians aren't going to just retreat from this "occupied" ground in a manner that abandons Zelenski's stated goal of maintaining the pre-February, 24th lines and boarders with Russia defined by the Minsk Accords of 2014. They'll tactically withdraw, regroup and be ready to conduct the counter offensives Ukraine officials have stated will materialize late this summer.

[AlabamAlum]

Liverpool- Real Madrid today at 2pm (central) in what could be called the Super Bowl of soccer.

No action on it, but if pushed, I would back the “Never Walk Alone” crowd.

[THE_WIZARD_]

STFU

[AlabamAlum]

Ahh. A Los Blancos fan, no doubt. You are about to be in Scouser hell. Much to the chagrin of the locals, I hear they have taken over Saint-Denis (a lovely suburb, just north of Paris).

[Da Geezer]

We need a soccer thread.

Soccer sucks.

[THE_WIZARD_]

Commie sport.

[AlabamAlum]

Soccer is just hockey on grass minus the body checks into the glass!

[Da Geezer]

Hockey players do indeed give out body checks and skate at high speed.

When a soccer pussy is touched, he goes down like he has been shot with an elephant gun.

Big difference.

[THE_WIZARD_]

Never trust a kickball fan...or a Glenlivet drinker...or a Scot...or a Bammer fan...

[iam416]

Liverpool- Real Madrid today at 2pm (central) in what could be called the Super Bowl of soccer.

No action on it, but if pushed, I would back the “Never Walk Alone” crowd.

Reds are gonna fuck them up. 2 clear goals or more

[AlabamAlum]

Reds are gonna fuck them up. 2 clear goals or more

That’s my thought, too. But my soccer betting this year is exactly 50%. With vig, that’s not what I like to call optimal so I laid off from placing a bet today.

[AlabamAlum]

This is pretty much shit whisky. Wonder if they hate me?

[AlabamAlum]

But as god as my witness, I’m finishing the entire bottle watching soccer.

[THE_WIZARD_]

Plenty of drinks that include Fireball...Angry Balls is Angry Orchard cider and Fireball...and Cinnamon Toast Crunch is Rumchata and Fireball...or just mix Fireball with cranberry juice.

Or find your testicles and just take a shot ya wuss.