Archive for the ‘in Ukraine’ Category

Drones, Moscow and Does Anybody Remember The Undeclared War Between the US and Germany During 1941?

Posted: May 3, 2023 by datechguy in in Ukraine, war
Tags: , ,

It would be superfluous in me to point out to your Lordship that this is war 

US Minister Charles Francis Adams to British Foreign Minister Lord John Russell on the construction of Confederate Ships in England 1863

This story leaped out at me:

The Kremlin is saying this was a drone strike to hit Putin and are apparently yelling “Terrorism”. If this was a drone strike by the Ukraine there are plenty of important implications that should scare the hell out of everyone:

  1. While 200 years ago this might have been considered bad form when two countries are at war it is a legitimate target so the cry of “terrorism” is BS.
  2. If the Kremlin in general and Putin in particular are legitimate targets of war then by definition if the Russians launch drones vs the Ukrainian parliament in general and Volodymyr Zelenskyy in particular those would also be considered legitimate attacks on legitimate targets of war.
  3. Given that both Europe and the US are supplying Ukraine with arms any of those shipments would become legitimate targets of Drone or any other type of strikes by Russia as soon as they enter the war zone, that is Ukraine.
  4. This suggests that any US or European pol who enters Ukraine does so at their own risk and may in fact be considered legitimate targets of a drone strike by Russia if they are from a country supplying arms to Ukraine.
  5. What is to stop Russia from “outsourcing” such attacks by commissioning individuals to conduct such attacks in the name of Russia basically “privateering”.

And if that doesn’t scare you let’s take the next logical step:

  1. What is to stop Russia from declaring a “blockade” of Ukraine and thus making shipments of war materials legitimate targets of war?
  2. If a ship is transporting arms to the Ukraine, what is to stop Russia from claiming the contents of that ship contraband of war and either seizing it on the high seas or sinking it as a legitimate target of war?
  3. What is to stop Russia from either directly or using the “Privateering” example to target
    • arms shipments to Ukraine
    • infastructure used to transport arms shipments to Ukraine
    • leaders or parliaments of nations that vote to provide arms shipments to Ukraine

Nobody seems to be considering these possibilities all of which have the potential to not just drag us into war with Russia but to begin World War 3.

And for those fools who have not bothered to study history let’s remind everyone of what was going on for months before Japan Bombed Pearl Harbor.

All of this is not only very possible but becomes more so by the day and if it does come then no amount of clever remarks or tut tuts by folks on Twitter are going to stop it.

Given that our nation is bleeding recruits faster than Bud Light is bleeding customers the only logical and sensible move is for us to do all we can to stop this war and broker a peace because the longer it goes on the more likely those who are making a buck off the fighting will end up dragging us into a shooting war that we are not equipped nor motivated to win and against a nuclear power no less and believe me this administration and those who are getting their 10% will continue to move in that direction as long as they see cash coming their way without worrying about the cost.

A classified duh

Posted: April 8, 2023 by navygrade36bureaucrat in in Ukraine, war
Tags: , ,

It now looks like our very secret plans concerning Ukrainian movements and some of our weapons capabilities have been leaked online. Here’s a link from the Japan Times (it does NOT contain any photos of the documents, which I won’t share):

The scale of the leak — analysts say more than 100 documents may have been obtained — along with the sensitivity of the documents themselves, could be hugely damaging, U.S. officials said. A senior intelligence official called the leak “a nightmare for the Five Eyes,” in a reference to the United States, Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, the so-called Five Eyes nations that broadly share intelligence.

First, ANY leak of classified data causes a nightmare for our allies. Many of them share very sensitive data with us, which requires them to trust the U.S. to treat their data seriously. When you break that trust, those allies hesitate to share data in the future. This makes it really hard to build comprehensive war plans with them, or to cooperate in general.

Now, leaks happen, both in the U.S. and by our allies, so the response to these leaks is the important part. Given that the leaks involved information stamped “Top Secret,” its not going to take the government too long to figure out who leaked it. Here’s the kicker though…what is going to happen because of it?

When I wrote a while back about the Hillary Clinton leaks and everyone treating it as “no big deal,” I was most concerned that not punishing her would essentially excuse other people to leak classified data in the future. If you’re some mediocre bureaucrat that gets to handle classified material, and you see your boss get away with leaking it, then why not leak your material to further your own agenda?

My bet is that the DoD will either find the person, who will be some mid-range bureaucrat in the intelligence community that will, at best, be removed from his or her position, or they won’t find anyone at all, which will likely mean the person that leaked it is too connected to punish. Our allies will hesitate for a while on sharing, and China and Russia will use this as an excuse to say its proof we’re really “at war” and to excuse further transgressions on their part.

This post represents the views of the author and not those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, or any other government agency. Don’t forget to donate to DaTechGuy or purchase one of the author’s books!

Five Three Liners Under the Fedora: Robin Williams East German Women Jokes, Baseball Clocks and Starting pitching, Russia v Ukraine at a year, Catholics Been There Still Doing That, Why Would you Believe the Media on Scott Adams?

Posted: February 28, 2023 by datechguy in baseball, catholic, catholic devotions, culture, in Ukraine, tech, war
Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

I seem to remember Robin Williams doing a riff on East German “Women” athletes years ago. For the life of me I can’t find it on Youtube anymore. I suspect two minutes of Williams riffing on “women athletes of East Germany” would make the left’s arguments on men in women’s sports untenable.

Well now we’ve had the first baseball game decided by the game clock. Bases loaded, two outs, bottom of the ninth, tied game, 3 balls two strikes and the next pitch doesn’t come, game over. Since I’m old enough to remember two hours games my suggestion is want faster games, sign pitchers who can pitch 7-8 innings a start.

The first Anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine has passed and I’ve noticed an inordinate amount of people seem to have forgot about the events at the time. For weeks before Russia moved in Biden signaled Ukraine had to give in and when the came forward he was ready to evacuate Zelenskyy. Absolutely nobody expected Russia to be on the run with Ukraine still fighting today.

The Asbury revival seems to be spreading among protestants. Baylor is now seeing nightly prayer since February 19th. As a Catholic a church that has been doing 24/7 adoration for centuries my reaction is, that’s a nice start.

Finally just a few days after again getting evidence that the media is deceiving people to push an agenda concerning COVID that same media is declaring the Scott Adams is a racist who must be shunned. My take on this is rather simple: Given the history of the media why would any sane person take their judgement on Adams, a person they hate, seriously? So I followed him on twitter.

Under the Fedora Thoughts: Hey Elon What about Robert Stacy McCain? Business returns to as Usual, Lauren Boebert nails it, What a difference One pick makes, My Popular Day

Posted: December 23, 2022 by datechguy in congress, in Ukraine, nfl, personal, Sports, tech, twitter, under the fedora, war
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

A lot of accounts have been restored in to twitter over the last several months under Elon Musk from Donald Trump to Project Veritas to the Gateway Pundit and I cheer the return of these accounts and for a semblance of free speech for conservatives to come back. I must say frankly that I’m getting sick of waiting for the folks at twitter to restore the account of Robert Stacy McCain.

He was one of the first conservatives to be targeted by the twitter cancel crowd because like Libs of Tictok he dared to quote feminists directly using their own words against him to make his point.

I keep seeing these other worthy folks come back but there still remains no sign of Stacy’s @rsmccain account being restored. He had over 80K followers when he was tossed and as a writer no longer connected with major media the loss of such an account had I suspect a real effect on his reach and potential income which was the entire point of kicking him off.

I understand Elon Musk is a busy man but I urge him to take a few minutes out of his schedule and end this injustice against a reporter with thirty years of print media experience behind him and #freestacy

It’s the right thing to do.

A lot of GOP voters are rightly upset about the omnibus spending bill that just passed and the number of GOP senators who voted for this goody package for the left to make it happen.

While it outrages us it should not surprise us as I’m sure this bill contained a bunch of goodie packages for these individual senators and/or their states and/or contributors.

Unfortunately this has been the norm in congress for a very long time, it was the removal of earmarks that was a change from the routine and the people who paid a lot of money to get these folks elected expect to get their dough.

And if it means funding a bunch of stuff that helps the left in their culture war against the country, what do their care as long as they get their cut?

Lauren Boebert’s statement on Ukrainian president after his speech to congress was spot on.

She correctly acknowledged that Zelenskey is doing all he can to save his country from the Russians but also noted that it is our duty to make sure the billions we are sending to him to defend his country actually go toward that goal.

I don’t blame Zelenskey one bit, Ukraine was a land of graft and grift before the Russian invasion and if I was in charge of Ukraine and the US offered me dough but the big guy & his pals wanted their 10% or more I’d not care if thousands of grifters got their share as long as I got kept getting the dough and weapons that I needed to save my country from the Russian hoards. That’s got to be his primary goal.

But it damn well should the goal of a representative of the United States to make sure that the taxpayer dollars of Americans that are being spent to save Ukraine isn’t all about making the rich and connected richer and even if my own rep doesn’t care about it it’s nice that SOMEBODY in congress does.

We got out of work a couple of hours early yesterday so I had a chance to watch the 2nd half of the Jets Jaguars game which pitted Trevor Lawrence the 1st pick overall in the 2021 NFL draft starting for Jacksonville against Zach Wilson the 2nd overall pick in the NFL draft starting for the Jets. In two Seasons Lawrence has taken a bad team and put them within a game of their division lead and a game and a half away from the final wildcard spot this season.

Meanwhile Wilson in a year marred by injury got himself pulled shortly after the start of the 2nd half after taking a Jets team that had a lot of promise nowhere. It makes the 2nd time this season that Wilson has been sat down for poor performance but subsequent injuries to his replacements pressed him back into service.

This goes to show you how thin the line is between success and failure is in the NFL. Both of these two young men excelled in college and have physical tools to make the NFL, tools that 99.99% of the population don’t come near to. Yet one of them has the stuff to make it in this league and one did not. Meanwhile in San Francisco the # 3 pick in that draft Trey Lance is recoding from injury while Brock Purdy the 262nd and final pick in this years NFL draft Mr Irrelevant is about to lead his team to a playoff bearth.

Until the iron comes out of the forge you don’t know where it’s been.

Finally as I did last year at work I came in wearing a full Santa Suit for the final work day before Christmas. Given I have both a real stomach and a real Santa beard (that I will shave shortly after Christmas to the delight of my wife) which causes little kids to gasp when I walk into restaurants this time of year it’s very effective.

I could practically not punch in as about half of the woman (and a few men) punching out for 1st shift wanted a picture and my first hour on the job while I was in theory trying to pick orders was in fact spent taking pictures with groups of very attractive women, many dressed for the season, who all wanted a picture with Santa Claus.

It’s slightly ironic, As I’m one of only 4 white English speaking white Americans on my shift and with very few exceptions old enough to be the father or grandfather of just about everyone in the place it often makes for a lonely & silent work day (the “silent” bit will shock folks who know me) since I have few conversations during the day and can’t understand the conversations around me in Spanish, Portuguese (Cape Verde) , Creole or French (Haitians you know) everyone knows who I am and says hello but I’m generally left alone

But one day a year, for just a few hours when I come in and during the Christmas party I become the most popular person in the place.