Monday Music "Armageddon It" By Def Leppard

 

I am continuing my string of "bugaloo" songs.  This discussion was started in the "Monster Hunter Nation, Hunters Unite", back in November of 2019? it is a Facebook group with enthusiast of the ILOH "International Lord of Hate" A.K.A Larry Correia.  We were talking about what song would we use if we looked out of our window or glanced at our security camera and saw this.....

One of the alphabet bois lining up to take down your house...What would be your "Valhalla" song and you would set it up to play as you load up magazines set up the Tannerite Rover, turn on the water irrigation system and fill it with gasoline instead of water and prepare yourself.

 I figured it would scar the alphabet boys if they come busting in and hearing a song about people having a good time and standing up for themselves and having the best music from the best decade and  playing  it Loud will scar the Alphabet Boi's as they force the stack through the door, because they will be exposed to good music for the first time unlike the crap they listen to now sipping their soi latte's and comparing notes on the latest soyburger recipes and who wears the best manbuns in the team.

 

      Well I decided to go with "Armageddon it" by Def Leppard, this song was huge especially in Germany where I was stationed.  Robinson Barracks had a problem keeping the CD in stock for a while.  I consider it up there with the Joshua Tree by U-2 in popularity and influence.  I still jam on the songs when they come on the radio, or on my MP3 player.

"Armageddon It" is a song by English hard rock band Def Leppard from their 1987 album Hysteria. It was released as a single in 1988 and went to No. 3 in the U.S. (their fourth U.S. Top Ten hit).
The actual line of "Armageddon It" is meant to be a word play on the line "I'm A Gettin' It," thought up by the band during the recording sessions for the Hysteria album. The vocal style of the song is described as "T.Rex meets Eddie Cochran with backing vocals", according to singer Joe Elliott in the liner notes for Vault: Def Leppard Greatest Hits (1980-1995).
The video for the song was the second to feature Def Leppard in a live arena setting. On 12-13 February 1988, the band recorded two shows at the McNichols Arena in Denver, Colorado for a future live film release. However, a month later, "Armageddon It" was set to be released as the sixth single off the popular Hysteria album and a promo video clip was urgently needed.
From the band's end, there was hesitation to film another concept video. Although they were happy with the results for "Hysteria" (the single) and "Animal," they were very unsatisfied with the way "Pour Some Sugar on Me" had turned out for its concept.
Therefore, an idea was pitched to quickly create a video edited from the Denver footage. It was another hit in the UK, reaching the Top 20. Months later, it was released in the United States and was even more successful, reaching the Top 3.

However, "Pour Some Sugar on Me" was the first song used there for the "live" concept (in fact, many of the scenes are the same in the two), but instead of filming a different video, slight changes were made using footage filmed in October at the Omni in Atlanta, Georgia.
There are two mixes of the song that appeared in the single: "The Atomic Mix," which is the album version, and "The Nuclear Mix," which is an extended version.

 

Some even more pithy thoughts and musings

 Well I came back from my mini vacation and we had gone to the land of the mouse and I was a bum, really didn't go out much, just chilled and read a book that the spousal unit had gotten for me per the recommendation of Mike Rowe,

The book was excellent and I did discover that I had to read with "Cheaters" so I could read the print better......Man it sucks getting older, and of course on the way back we stopped and gassed up at the same place we stopped at on the way down...

    You betcha.....Grabbed a brisket and gassed up the Focus for the run into the Atlanta area, then got ready for going back to work.   And bummer......No overtime....NOOOOOOO, but I start specific  airplane type school on Monday for the next 2 weeks, I will post a bit about that next week.

 

      Well anyway the long anticipated Soviet er I mean Russian attack on the Ukraine has commenced, 

  I am of 2 minds of this, I want to run a lot of ammo, guns and whatever tank and helicopter buster ordinance they need, but no troops.  I stand by my assertion that the people pushing for war with the Russians know that it ain't their kids fighting and dying, but "Flyover Kids" that are gonna fight and die, and truth be told, we don't need to be bogged down there at the end of a logistic chain.  Now on few different observations.  One was that the Ukraine Gave up their Nukes with the promise that we would give them security assurances, and Russia signed that agreement as did China, but now China and Russia has violated that agreement and I believe that the Ukraine wishes that they kept a few Nukes especially because Putin has threatened to rattle the nuclear saber at everyone else. The Second point was that there was an agreement that NATO wasn't going to expand farther eastward and there was talk about the Ukraine joining NATO.  If I was Putin, I would have been concerned because if you look in the dictionary under "Paranoid", you will find a Russian.

    I honestly believe that Putin wants to restore the glory of Soviet Empire without the trappings of the Communist part, but with him in charge, remember he was a colonel in the KGB before the fall of the Soviet Union.  Back before the fall, the Soviet Union was a superpower and feared and respected through the world especially for their military might.  Now they are more known for how good their porn is and their cyberhackers...Putin wants to bring back the days that the world trembled before the Soviet  Russian Empire.  

    Despite the Russian invasion, the various lefties immediately tried to twist the resulting invasion to fit their pet cause to almost humorous effect....I would laugh but these people are deadly serious, this is how they think and act and see life through the prism of their intersectional bias and prejudices. and then pushing into twitter and social media and their vapid followers the bias and lies and flatout bullcrap, I want to laugh but instead shake my head because this shows how far America and Western Civilization has fallen.

   Meanwhile the Clown of Climate Change Flipper A.K.A John Kerry made a Statement about the Russian aggression against the Ukrainians and of course he trotted out his pet cause and he likes to go to summits in private jets and live in a standard of living that he and the rest of "our betters" want us to follow but they will be exempt from by their station in life and we will be destitute but they will be just fine.  Again I see the decline of the West in his statement and I wonder if the Romans did the same shit while the Gauls got ready to cross the Danube.

  Meanwhile the effect of the invasion is already being felt at the pump, the day of the invasion, I went and gassed up the Focus and pulled the cover off the Truck and since the tank was at 1/3, filled her tank up too.  Spent $51 bucks on gas that night.

   And the next day gas had jumped 20 to 25 cents a gallon in my area and in other areas it had climbed more than that.  When *Orange Man Bad* was the President, we were energy independent until Xiden got elected and he made it a point to shut down all the pipelines he could and shut down and or cripple all the leases he could forcing us to import oil and energy again, I guess making sure Hunter getting his kickbacks from all those energy companies were more important and of course "the Big Guy" getting his 10% " and everyone else pays the price.

Of course Xidens bad poll numbers are causing problems for the donks, their poll numbers are hitting the crater and of course with Xiden being the standard bearer for the Donks and the Party especially for the incoming Midterms

   All the assorted chickens that the Donks have been pushing have come back to roost and it is promising to be a bloodbath for the Democratic party and a

   Reminder that the voters are not to be blown off but the hardcore donks are ignoring the polling data and doubling down with the "State Knows Best" attitude and continuing with their present course and now from my latest count, there are 30 retirements before the midterms setting the stage for the biggest bloodletting in a 100 years.  Of course I had touched on this before in a Prior Blog Post that Felonia Von Pantsuit will most likely challenge Xiden for the nomination setting a stage for a possible  rematch between her and former President Trump for the 2024 elections.

    President Trump was arrogant, but his heart was in the right place and he would fight when he was attacked, unlike the GOPers before that would act all nice and stuff, he would counterattack and this was part of the reason for his popularity with the middle class, they saw that he would actually fight rather than roll over and take it.  And this is turning into the biggest "I Told You So" in recent History to a lot of people who had bought into the propaganda by the legacy media and believed the crap spewed by them about President Trump and now they realized that they have been lied to and now they are angry and that is partially why Xidens poll numbers are in the cellar and the media trying to prop him up is failing massively because the lies that they are pushing don't jibe with the reality that people are experiencing.  

Apparently there is a lot of data about the Covid that the CDC, you know that government agency that worked hand in hand with the Donks to cripple the economy and gave the selfsame democrats an opportunity to get their inner STASI on and they used it to punish their neighbors and people that they didn't agree with politically, they used the edicts from the CDC to get people fired from their jobs, and harassed on social media and kids mentally abused and turned into mental shut ins, yeah...that CDC.  Well there is data out there that the CDC refuses to release because it "Goes against da Narrative" but the wheels are coming off that wagon..

The CDC is now recommending that 3/4 of the Americans indoor can now go without the mask...especially that the new polling data shows that the mandates are being blamed in the democratic party by 62% of the American public, and to get that high of a percentage, the donks know that the percentage is higher than that because any sampling of the population always over samples democrats so it is higher than that and it looks bad for the midterms.

   And surprisingly the new mandates have come out saying "Relax them".  

        I wonder why.......

and finally

If I was Taiwan, i would be highly concerned, The Ukraine is being invaded and China has been building their military up for the past 20 years, and their best ally is being led by a senile doddering old fool that is basically a meat puppet for his handlers and I would be concerned partly because I would have no faith in the United States coming to my aid, especially with severe doubts with the penetration of the top layers of the U.S government by the security apparatus of the CCP and the resulting bribery of the son of the U.S. President, there is great concern that the Americans will even get involved.  If I was Taiwan, I would be using a variation of General Order 227 and adopt a scorched earth policy.

The History of the Dragunov

 

 I am still on Vacation, I preloaded this in my blog before I left,

 When I was in the Gulf during Desert Storm, I had gone into a Bunker in Iraq and found a draganov and had every intention of taking the rifle home as a "War Prize" because it was semiauto and I figured it wouldn't be an issue, but when we were trying to clear customs in the Gulf to return back to Germany despite having documentation, damm MP's confiscated the rifle and I had no recourse, my unit wanted to return and if I stirred up a hornets nest, my unit would have been pushed back on the rotation so I ate my pride and to this day it still galls me, I think some asshole took my rifle home for himself.

     I snagged this off "SOFREP"

    Oh well.....*Mutters*

Soldier firing a standard-issue SVD Dragunov (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Thomas Stubblefield/DVIDS).

Whether you’ve encountered the Dragunov in the field, a documentary, or even in the Call of Duty videogame franchise, it’s no secret that the semi-automatic Soviet-era rifle is one of the best firearms ever to be designed and produced by the Russians. From its natural appeal and aesthetic in its wooden stock to its reliable long-range accuracy, today, we’re going to discuss a bit of the historical context that went into designing this rifle!

 

In response to the rising usage of submachine guns on the battlefield, the Red Army thought they were losing important high ground leverage in engaging enemies long-range. While these submachine guns (SMGs) were definitely effective in close-range, trench combat, SMGs do not offer the same long-range cover fire infantry soldiers needed to push forward with gaining objectives.

Some of these SMGs included the infamous World War II PPsh-41 using the 7.62x25mm known as the “papasha” (daddy) gun, which uses the same rounds as the Tokarev pistol. Machine guns like the DP-28 and DS-39 were also standard, high rate firearms that could lay sufficient covering fire, however sacrificing accuracy for the rapid-fire rate.

The armies of the West had rifles that could shoot at ranges exceeding Soviet weapons, which meant Russian troops would have to advance over several hundred yards under accurate fire before their own weapons could be employed.  In a close-in fight, like an urban environment, the AK had a distinct advantage in house-to-house fighting, but in closing in on that town or city, they faced getting shot to pieces by longer-ranged Western small arms.

So then, the Soviets faced a dilemma. How do they equip their infantry troops with both battle rifles and sufficient long-range cover fire to cover the advance of their troops across open ground? This is where the development of the Dragunov comes in.

From 1957 to 1963, a competition was held to develop a rifle that designated marksmen in the Soviet Army could use, that was cost-effective (meaning it was cheap enough to mass-produce), and could engage enemy targets faster than enemy riflers.

The answer to this problem was the first Dragunov rifle model 1963, designed by Yevgeny Dragunov, a man whose family line comprises gunsmiths. Mainly a sporting rifle designer, he was not a stranger to military service as he had served in the military in 1939. He defeated Sergey Simonov, the designer of the SKS carbine, and Aleksandr Konstantinov for the rifle competition. Mark the irony of a Communist country like the USSR holding a “competition” like free-market Capitalists.

The Dragunov rifle has a striking similarity to the AK47 cosmetically in its furniture placement and the pistol grip housing the trigger group, but, the AK-47 is a rugged, cheap to produce and operate assault rifle not meant to be a marksman’s rifle, while the Dragunov was made for precision(As the Soviets viewed it) marksmanship. You see, the average Russian soldier was not really trained as a marksman, he was expected to shower the enemy with rounds from his AK47 while pushing in as close to the enemy as possible.  In contrast, the U.S. Army and especially the Marine Corps trained on and prized marksmanship at range. So in a sense, the Dragonuv was intended to give a Soviet soldier a rifle as capable as the M-1 Garand or M-14 was in the hands of  Marine or Army GI trained to hit targets at distances of 600-800 yards

The U.S. and USSR  looked at snipers in the post-WWII era very differently.  America did not have specially trained snipers until after the Vietnam War. Believe it or not, snipers were widely disdained in both militaries because they killed at range and without warning to the other side.  There was something about it that seemed unsporting somehow in war.  In WWII, German snipers were especially hated by American GIs and were generally executed upon being captured. During the Normandy campaign, quite a few German paratroopers were executed by our troops because their camouflage smocks and unusual helmets marked them as snipers to American soldiers.  Word was passed down to stop shooting paratroopers who surrendered to them, but they were not told to stop shooting snipers they caught red-handed. General Omar Bradley himself said that he didn’t mind if snipers were treated a bit more roughly than other prisoners were.

So while the Dragonuv is often called a Sniper Rifle, it really wasn’t designed to be one and Soviet units equipped with them did not employ them as such either. In the 1970s a Soviet rifleman equipped with the Dragunov would often find himself firing tracer and armor-piercing ammunition rather than the more precise 7N1 round. If you still doubt me, consider that the Dragonuv was equipped with a fitting for a bayonet and you wouldn’t expect a sniper in a carefully prepared concealed position to break cover to participate in a bayonet charge, would you? In proxy conflicts during the Cold War, it was used by troops in third world countries as a sniper rifle, not by design but by necessity as it was the only thing offered for sale by the Soviets that could come close to fulfilling that role.

The Dragunov was built to extend the range of an infantry squad or platoon on the assault and to serve as a defensive element when static. As a matter of standardization, it used the 7.62x54mmR rounds leftover from World War II but was pretty revolutionary in its design as a purpose build precision rifle.  The Dragunov was semi-automatic rather than a bolt action and held 10 rounds with a bolt hold-open feature on the last round to make reloading faster.  It was equipped with PSO-1 optical sights with an illuminated reticle with a rangefinder and could be adjusted for windage and elevation. Perhaps most innovative was the IR filter on the sights which could detect early versions of American infrared lanterns used on its own sniper rifles. The barrel at 620mm allows the cartridge propellant to burn properly, thus increasing projectile velocity and accuracy.   It was found that the Dragonuv was actually a much better rifle than the standard ammunition it was made to shoot, so the Soviets created a special match-grade version of the 7.62.x54mm round in the 7N1 cartridge in 1967, the Dragunov could be very precise in the hands of a trained shooter who had the right ammunition for it,

The Dragunov could deliver accuracy out to 800 yards, the AK was good out to 330 yards to 350 yards.

Ever since the Warsaw Pact, the Dragunov has seen multiple wars wielded by different nationalities, mostly by former Soviet countries even till today. In fact, over the years, the Dragunov rifle has been subject to numerous upgrades as it is considered lightweight and highly effective in combat. It is also relatively cheap to make and care for in the field.  In contrast to Western rifles that have to be kept spotlessly clean to shoot well, the Dragunov seemed made to be abused. The shooter could even select how much gas was used to cycle the piston with a setting for a dirty rifle, using low-powered rounds in very cold weather.

You may have seen the rifle in recent memory when it was fielded by the Afghan National Army and more notoriously by the Taliban. Saddam’s forces and Iraqi insurgents in the early 2000s saw a clone model of the gun named “Al-Qadissiya” heavily based on the Dragunov SVD and the Romanian designed PSL-54C. In fact, Saddam owned a gold-plated version of the cloned Dragunov. From 1955 to 1975, it was used by the Vietnamese People’s Army, and more so used by various nations today, including the Philippines, Russia, Senegal, and even China.

Few changes have been made to the original Dragunov of the 1950s. However, this doesn’t mean that countries have not been trying to improve it. The 2020 Russian upgrade, The SVDM is otherwise known as Snáyperskaya Vintóvka sistém’y Dragunóva Modernizirovannaya, features new muzzles and chrome-fitted barrels. The stock, handguard, and grips are now made with polymer, making it more lightweight than its original counterpart. Lastly, it also features a Picatinny rail and an adjustable rail to improve its sights.

 

Other weapon variants include the 1990 Snayperskaya Vintovka Dragunova Skladnaya (SVDS), also known as the sniper rifle version despite the fact that the Dragunov is not a sniper rifle. This version has a folding stock, synthetic pistol grip, and a heavier barrel for more durability. Alongside this version is the SVDSN, or the night vision version for paratroopers.

The Russian SVU rifle is a shortened version of the Dragunov equipped especially for the Special Forces of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs. Another Russian variant would be the SVDK, which uses 9.3x64mm Brenneke cartridges.

Since 2016, there has been a talk of replacing the Dragunov rifle with the Chukavin SVCh or the SVK. Interestingly, the firearm is also designed by Kalashnikov Concern. How does it pose a threat to the legendary Dragunov? Well, for starters, it has a range of 1,600 yards and uses 7.62×51mm NATO, 7.62×54mmR, and .338 Lapua Magnum making it more versatile than the traditional Dragunov.

With various sight options, and multiple weight reductions, will this mark the end for the Dragunov, the weapon of choice for designated marksmen in the Red Army?

 

"The Mob Mentality"

 I snagged this off OReilly, He is correct in his assertion about the "Mob Mentality" and how it operates in the digital age.

Be thankful you were not a pioneer in America. Life on the western frontier was brutal—few comforts, no law, and danger everywhere.

In the midst of that arose "frontier justice," where settlers dished out punishments to perceived miscreants without much deliberation. Steal a horse; you could be hanged by the neck until dead. Commit a violent crime; termination by the mob was common. In many places, the presumption of innocence did not exist.

Today, the mob mentality has returned to the United States driven by social media, where there are few protections. Anonymous "trolls" can assassinate individual characters, destroy businesses, and even threaten personal safety.

Few police agencies have the resources to investigate, and internet companies generally deny responsibility for injustice. The mob knows it can inflict grave damage to people with little risk.

Hello, Tombstone.

Freedom of Speech is now being used against the American people. Let's count the ways. Good people who might want to run for office are often dissuaded because they will likely be smeared and their families seared. Few candidates escape that.

Organizations funded by ideological fanatics like George Soros incite boycotts against businesses. It's easy on the net. Just put out an allegation and demand a company change something or fire someone.

Corporations often fold quickly, meaning few in the marketplace are safe. Attacks organized on the net can hurt profits, and the bosses know it. Better to give the mob what it wants.

Amid this madness, power has shifted. Anonymous character assassins on Twitter, Instagram, and other social media are on the march. Due process has been obliterated. Allegations become facts at light speed. Dark money allows dishonest political groups to threaten sponsors and anyone who might hold influence. If you don't do what the mob wants - it could very well come for you.

No one is safe. Every public person is one accusation away from ruin. Corrupt lawyers are lined up to exploit accusations, demanding big money "settlements." Blackmail, extortion, and defamation are now common occurrences against the social media backdrop.

This is our country and society today—millions of swords, no shields. If you fight back in civil court, the ordeal will last years and likely cost millions. The mob has all the weapons.

The result is massive injustice and a rapidly declining interchange of ideas. Most folks fear the mob and flee from it.

The bad guys are winning.

 

Why Russia's Military isn't quite as powerful as it seems.

 I have been super busy at work and unable to post on the blog, 

    I snagged this off "Sandboxx"

 With tensions between the United States and Russia once again simmering to a boil, Russia’s massing of troops and hardware along Ukraine’s borders have prompted a resurgence in concern about what a war between these former Cold Warriors might look like. Russia has made a spectacle of unveiling new and exotic weapon systems and combat platforms in recent years, from stealth fighters to nuclear doomsday torpedoes and seemingly everything in between.

But there’s a difference between developing a platform or weapon and deriving any actual tactical or strategic value from it, and while that idea is often lost in the sea of headline-grabbing buzzwords like hypersonic, nuclear, and stealth, Russia has placed much more focus on the former than the latter in recent years.

Russia’s 50 megaton “Status 6” drone torpedo

Let there be no doubt, a war between NATO and Russia would only end one of two ways: With Russia eventually suffering a defeat because it lacked the economic power it needed to sustain combat operations on such a large scale… or with a nuclear exchange that would end our world as we know it. As bad as the nuclear option may be, victory in a conventional war likely wouldn’t be much to celebrate either. Russia and its allies would all but certainly exact a punishing tole on American and NATO forces, likely quickly capturing the Suwalki Gap and severing the Baltics from the rest of Europe as the conflict ballooned away from Ukraine and into what would have a strong likelihood of becoming a new World War.

It’s clear, then, that war is an unacceptable outcome that leaders on both sides of this conflict are likely hoping to avoid (while continuing to pursue their own geopolitical interests, of course), but if a conflict were to result, it’s important to have a clear-eyed perspective on just how capable Russia’s advanced weapons, tanks, and aircraft really are.

Russia emphasizes hybrid warfare because it’s cost effective

During the Cold War, the United States and Soviet Union played the roles of competing super powers, with each nation investing heavily into new weapons technology they hoped would give them a decisive edge against the competition. Of course, the Soviet Union fell in the early 1990s, leaving the Russian people to pick up the pieces and the United States reigning as the world’s sole remaining super power.

Less than a decade after the fall of the Soviet Union, Vladimir Putin (a Russian politician and former KGB agent) rose to power, and although he’s shuffled titles periodically to avoid term limits, the nation has remained under his control in one form or another since 1999. Putin is a popular figure among large portions of the Russian people (thanks in no small part to a government-controlled media) but internationally, he’s seen as an aggressive leader with few qualms about ending lives as he pursues his vision of restoring his nation to its former Soviet glory. Over the years, Putin has been tied to a number of public assassinations and attempts, including the poisoning of a former Russian military intelligence officer turned MI6 informant (Sergei Skripal) on English soil in 2018.

Russian President Vladimir Putin (Courtesy of the Kremlin)

It’s because of Russia’s aggressive foreign policy that the nation’s economy has struggled to find new footing since the end of the Soviet glory days. Russia’s military annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 serves as one significant example of Russia’s knack for circumventing international norms through the use of irregular warfare. Russia’s attempts to influence foreign elections in Europe and the United States serve as yet another.

Russia’s aggresive foreign policy has hindered military modernization

Su-75 Checkmate

Sanctions placed on Russia by the international community following those and countless other incidents have left the Russian military with an ever-shrinking pot of money to invest in Putin’s force-wide modernization efforts. As a result, Moscow has adopted a “best bang for their buck” mentality, with less emphasis placed on actual combat operations, and far more placed on developing high profile weapons that draw global attention. That attention helps Russia posture as though they remain a potent global military threat, while also bolstering foreign weapons sales—providing the nation’s military apparatus with a much-needed injection of funds.

But not all of these “advanced” Russian weapons are quite what they seem. In fact, many of Russia’s high profile technological leaps in military prowess have since proven to be little more than publicity stunts. The Su-57, Russia’s 5th-generation stealth fighter, exists in too few numbers to matter even if it were as capable as they claim. Expert assessments place their premier stealth fighter’s radar cross-section as about comparable to that of America’s 4th generation F/A-18 Super Hornet, and their recently unveiled Checkmate fighter, if it ever flies at all, will almost certainly be even less stealthy.

 

Likewise, Russia’s T-14 Armata main battle tank may also prove to be among the best in the world, if only Russia could afford to build any. Like the Su-57, Russia has been unable to produce the T-14 in any appreciable numbers, with the most recent projections saying serial production will begin sometime this year. It’s important to note that the Su-57 may yet to prove highly capable at the sorts of missions it was designed to fly, and the T-14 would offere a marked improvement over Russia’s existing tank platforms… but a lack of funding has left these points moot.

But while capable platforms like those wait patiently for enough Rubles to kick-start production, these other headline-grabbing efforts made a splash in the media in recent years, only to quietly fail once the cameras were off.

The Uran-9 Infantry Drone

(WikiMedia Commons)

Back in 2018, Russia’s state-owned media outlets were aflutter with reports of the Russian military’s new advanced infantry support drone dubbed the Uran-9. Shortly after the platform was unveiled, Moscow announced that they were deploying the drone mini-tank to Syria, where it would participate in combat operations in support of Bashar Al Assad’s Russian-backed regime.

At first glance, the Uran-9 looked like something to behold. The tread equipped mini-tank boasts a 30mm 2A72 autocannon as it’s primary weapon, along with a 7.62-chambered PKTM machine gun, four anti-tank missiles and 6 thermobaric rocket launchers. It was designed to work via remote control and, according to Russian media, was built to withstand heavy fighting in urban environments.

It wasn’t until a few months later that reports of just how poorly the Uran-9 performed in combat started to bubble to the surface. In a Russian Security Conference held later in 2018, A.P. Anisimov, a Senior Research Officer from the 3rd Central Research Institute of the Russian Defence Ministry, discussed a laundry list of issues the Uran-9 encountered before offering his final conclusion that the platform simply couldn’t do the tasks it was built to do.

Aside from lots of structural problems with the chassis and weapons platforms, operators regularly lost control of the Uran-9 when line-of-sight was obstructed. The platform also used a non-stabilized video camera for targeting, which Anisimov described as making identifying, tracking, or engaging any targets at any distance nearly impossible.

The Nuclear-Powered ‘Skyfall’ Cruise Missile

(DoD Image)

Vladimir Putin delivered a national address in March of 2018 that, among other things, touted a number of new and highly advanced Russian missile systems. Although he discussed a number of missiles, it was the nuclear-powered cruise missile NATO has dubbed the SSC-X-9 Skyfall (known in Russia as the 9M730 Burevestnick) that caught the most attention.

According to Putin, this new missile would have a near-unlimited range thanks to its on-board nuclear reactor. That would theoretically allow the missile to strike any target in the world, as well as allowing for evasive maneuvers to avoid being intercepted by anti-missile defense systems.  As a result, Putin called it “invincible.”

The idea of a nuclear-powered cruise missile wasn’t particularly new. The United States experimented with nuclear propulsion systems in the 1950s, but scrapped the effort out of concerns that the nuclear-system could spread radiation on anything below its flight path. Concerns about the safety of such a propulsion system were once again brought to light after a Skyfall cruise missile went missing after its nuclear engine failed to fire and the missile fell into the ocean. Another explosion at Russia’s Nenoska test range was believed to have involved the same missile. It reportedly killed five to seven scientists.

American intelligence agencies have spoken publicly about Putin’s “invincible” missile, pointing out that thus far, the nuclear propulsion system has failed to propel the missile in every test launch Russia has attempted.

The Flying AK-47 (Shotgun Drone)

RU Patent (11) 113562 (Kremlin)

In 2019, Russian media unveiled what they claimed would be a game-changing technology: a new drone that, at first glance, appeared to be equipped with an AK-47, but that later turned out to be intended for use with an AK-style Carbine Vepr-12 Hummer 12 gauge shotgun. The small drone was reminiscent of a remote-controlled airplane, with what looked like a standard issue rifle occupying the majority of the fuselage. Of course, building an aircraft around a weapons system worked for the A-10 Thunderbolt II, but a 12-gauge shotgun is no GAU-8 Avenger.

At first glance, the drone seemed pretty cool, but the more you think about it, the less effective a single flying shotgun with a 10-round magazine could really be in practically all combat situations. Unlike quad-rotor drones that can hover in place and take careful aim, this drone has to maintain forward momentum to keep from crashing–which makes it extremely difficult to level the weapon directly at a target. That became even more apparent when video was released of the drone in action.

This drone might seem like a whole lot of fun to operate, but it certainly won’t tip the scales of any conflict in Russia’s favor.

 

3 very unusual Firearms.

 

 

 

Have you heard of a harmonica pistol? How about a gun to shoot around blind corners? The need to kill people during wars or even just to protect your country or territory calls for creativity, and it’s safe to say firearms makers were certainly creative in coming up with inventive and perhaps even unsafe firearms to bring into battle. Here are three of the most creative and weird firearms in history:

German rifles, including the STG44 assault rifle with Krummlauf and a G3 battle rifle. (Joe Loong, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Wish you could shoot your enemy from around the corner without risking exposing yourself? Say no more!

Literally translated to “curved barrel,” Krummlauf was an attachment to Germany’s  Sturmgewehr 44 rifle during World War II. Not only that, but it also came with a periscope sighting device so that you could still aim at your target. There were also varying versions of degrees depending on your needs: 30°, 45°, 60°, and 90° bends, although it was the 30° that was produced that most. This idea was also applied to tanks to cover dead areas during close-range assaults. You see, troops could effectively take out panzers during WWII as long as they could get right up to the tank, unbothered whether they would survive or not. The Germans depended on their infantrymen to make sure that no enemies could get close and climb up on their tanks. If that didn’t work and Russian troops climbed on the tank, the tank commander would unbutton his hatch, slip out and angle krummlauf, and then hose the enemy troops off without exposing himself to enemy fire or maybe even bothering to get out of his seat… ideally.

The thing with this seemingly brilliant idea was that the curve on these barrels caused the bullets to shatter, causing an unintended shotgun. To try to reduce the pressure built up by gasses once the bullets were fired, designers experimented with drilling small vent holes. That didn’t help much, and the krummlauf’s life span was still short. Predictably, there wasn’t much of it produced.  The recoil must have felt weird too, jerking to right pretty hard we expect.

If you are like the rest of the 1 billion coffee drinkers all over the world, then you’d love this gun.

Coffee grinder Sharps carbine. (Guns.com)

Coffee is certainly an important part of the modern army and it was to the Union Army of 1865 too.  During the Civil War, when the soldiers wanted their morning coffee before popping a mini-ball into Johnny Reb, making coffee was left to the individual soldier who received a ration of coffee beans as part of his pay. The reality of this was that coffee could be pretty hard to make in the field as the initial process usually involved bashing the army issue roasted beans between two rocks or against a rock with the butt of their rifle. Done every day for weeks and months, the Army noticed a lot of rifles with broken buttstocks were being returned.  The Army used to issue ground coffee but they had to stop. Greedy War profiteers were mixing dirt with pre-ground coffee sold by weight to maximize profits, so the government switched to whole beans instead of just locking up the crooked coffee mongers.

Lt. Col. Walter King of the 4th Missouri Cavalry went to the Springfield Armory to propose a solution. His idea? Attach a coffee mill in the buttstock of the .52 Sharps carbine. He placed his orders in 1865, and less than 100 Sharps carbine were modified to include the coffee grinder before the war ended. In practice, Lt. Col. King’s grinders didn’t work very well, so the project was stopped. About twelve of his coffee mill sharps survived and are worth a tidy amount of money today. One of them was auctioned and sold for $7000. If you’re interested in getting one for yourself, you have to be cautious because tons of fake coffee mill Sharps are being sold out there.

 

A 9 mm harmonica pistol. Taken at the National Firearms Museum.

No, you could not produce music with it.

The most famous maker of harmonica guns was no other than John Moses Browing’s father, Jonathan Browning. Before the revolving rifles, each chamber of the steel slide was breech-loaded with a powder charge, projectile, and percussion cap. This slide was to be inserted into the breach, and the shooter had to release a camlock to advance the slide after a full round was shot. Its first model involved lining up each chamber with the barrel through hammering by hand. Later versions rectified this and added double-action models that advanced the slide through the gun to a new chamber whenever you pull the trigger. A major problem that emerged was that there was no way to really holster one of these pistols while loaded.  These pistols were a novelty item that never really took off, but tried to solve the problem of being able to fire and reload a pistol quickly. Apparently, even in the 1830s people knew that you might not drop an attacker with a single shot and would need follow on rounds to eliminate a threat

 

A few Pithy Thoughts...

 

Sorry for not posting yesterday, I have been very busy at work. 

I went to Wal-mart and noticed a few things.....or not a few things.....

  My wife wanted some "Baby Grande" biscuits.....well none to be had....Although they did have a few cans of  Old NFO's favorite "Whompcan" Cornbread.

This was all the "Dr Pepper" period in the store.   And this was normal, I have noticed that the Walmart employees are getting creative in trying to make the shelves look more "Stuffed" than they actually are.

    But Hey "Lets Go Brandon".

   

  Apparently Hillary being her corrupt self, had a bunch of tech companies spy on the Trump building and plant evidence implicating Candidate Trump and eventually President Trump in the long running "Russia,Russia,Russia" scam that Mueller and the Democrats tried for 3 years to pin on President Trump.  Well Special Council Durham has released a report that isn't covered by the Legacy Media(Insert my shocked face), because They are all in the Tank for Hillary and the democrats and 

 

there is a rumor that Felonia Von Pantsuit will throw her corruption tainted taira into the ring in 2024 and challenge the incumbent President Xiden for the Democratic nomination and there is also  a rumor that a lot of democrats will go with it because Hillary is corrupt and Venal and a total bitch, but she is at least coherent unlike the current occupant at 1600 Pennsylvania ave.

She and the Hardcore democrats know that the mainstream media are very friendly to Hillary and will let her slide on a myriad of things that would have gotten a Republican and especially Former President Trump hounded wherever he went.  It will be interesting to see how this played out with the 2022 elections coming up this year, and the donks are expecting a bloodbath.

Speaking of the 2022 elections, the new polls are coming out and the expected bloodbath is having the Donks stepping back from the enforced restrictions, mask mandates, and VAXX mandates, apparently the new polls are out and most of America are blaming the Democrats for the problems despite the friendly lapdog media running interference for them.  This has the DNC scared to death, all of a sudden the CDC has decided to "Change the Science" since their benefactor is going to catch a lot of blowback by this and now things have all of a sudden changed....

 

     The CDC has taken a huge hit to their credibility running political cover for the democrats and their attempts to seize power all in the name of "Fighting the Virus" and nobody trust what they say anymore...except the hardcore donk supporters, everyone else doesn't.

    And there is one person that still hopes the virus stays malignant because it is the key to his power

.    And yes only the hardcore donk supporters believe anything out of that charlatan's mouth....everyone else wishes he would go away.

   And the worse thing about the past 2 years of Covididioticy is what it has done to the kids, you have kids that are behind the curve ball in language skills and comprehension due to the mask, and because of the lockdowns, the suicide rate  have been in an all time high, all to keep in power the teachers unions and give the democrats a chance to get their inner dictator on.  I wish helicopters or woodchippers were in vogue right now....

 And speaking of getting their inner Dictator on is the Premier of Canada, Ol Castro's kid Justin Trudeau whom after fleeing Ottowa because of the trucker protest on the VAXX mandates, and and now there are trucks blocking the bridge between Canada and Michigan and of course the Leftist are all a flutter

    *Wow*, the total distain our "Elitist Betters" have for people that they view "From the lesser social strata", than themselves.  "Just get a Soldier", like we are replaceable, interchangeable, malleable pieces to move about as they sit on their cloud and look down upon those in flyover country and believe in their innate superiority because of their family or their education in that ivy league school.  These clowns believe that they are our new feudal lords and are pissed off that the "Hoi Pelloi" are getting "Uppity" and are forgetting their place in the great scheme of things.  Remember we are here just to exist to support them in their lifestyle, our dreams, hopes and aspirations don't figure into the equations because we are lesser beings and of we were actual people like they are, we would have gone to the right schools and have the same belief systems like they did.

What people are pissed off is the forced VAXX mandates, the same people that were screaming "My Body My choice" now have gone full Gestapo and have tried to force the issue and get people fired from their jobs, keep them restricted to their homes and shunned from society because they for various reasons didn't want "The Jab". 

 

 Now my attitude is, if you want it, fine get it, if you don't ,fine then don't, it is a personal choice.  The problem is that a lot of lefties went full NAZI and tried to get and in some cases got people fired from their jobs for not getting "The Jab", it was like a religion or a rite of passage for them...I saw all the virtue signalling on farcebook from them "I Got the Jab, Look at me how Virtuous I am", The same people shrieking "Stay Home" are the same people that have safe government jobs like School Teachers or work for .gov in some other capacity and they CAN work from home and they stay home and act all virtuous and the rest of us have to out there and produce something for a living or we don't eat and pay the bills, you know....the "essential Employees".   I saw a lot of that, a lot of sociatial pressure to get it, and if you didn't you were everything from subhuman trash to wanting to kill your fellow human beings for refusing to "Jab up", and this caused a lot of resentment because it showed a 2 tiered society and now they are talking about a 2 or a 3rd booster....Say whut?  My employer has backed off the Mandates......for now, so my job is secure......for now.

 

Stacy Abrams, the 2018 Democratic for Governor and who was responsible for having the 2021 ALL-STAR GAME  pulled out of Atlanta  because of the Georgia Voting Law changes, well anyway she had a picture of herself in a classroom full of kids, she wasn't masked, but all the kids were.

                                          Here is the Actual Pic is question...

      What is it with our "Betters", the rules they foist upon us don't apply to them, you notice all the events, the stars and politicians are unmasked, but all the staffs and help are masked, so they are not noticed,their faces and their individuality removed so they are the nameless, faceless underclass.  Then you wonder why the Trucker revolt is picking up steam in many countries and the protest is spreading, the people are tired of the bullshit and are starting to pushback.
 

 

    This is how the average liberal is, unhappy, to them everything is misery and they have to try to change it because everything in the United States is "Evil".  I think that they have no spiritually inside so they adapt the tenats of liberalism and the goalpost change all the time and that makes a person miserable because of all the incertainty,  How can you be a believer when the rules change on you all the time, hell you would be miserable if the the teaching that you grew up as a kid changed as you got older and the foundation you thought you had turned out to be of sand and it shifted due to political winds and expediency.

    With all that shifting around, I would be miserable too, and I would be soo miserable, I would make my fellow man miserable, because if I was miserable and he was happy..."By Gaia, that isn't right, he has to be just as miserable and nasty and ugly as I am, remember fairness and equality is part of the tenets of liberalism, and I have to spread the blessings of liberalism to my fellow man".....See what I mean?

     Well Xidens ATF sent out a post on Valentines day, nothing says love like having an ex-spouse or partner gaslight you to the most rogue of the federal agencies on the planet....Remember to the ATF, due process is a suggestion and rights is just seeing which dog get shot when they drop in for a midnight "Visit" and if you just don't happen to get shot, count your blessings, because Rover sure ain't gonna worry about it, you can go to the pound and get another dog after it is "Just a silly mistake" after they leave when your house is trashed and you have to bury your dog and the warrant they got from a friendly ATF judge was full of bullshit from an "anonymous source".   Then you have to go to court to try to clear your name all because your EX wanted to score some kind of payback.    ATF   Keeping it classy since WACO.

   And speaking of Government, it seems like we are in an abusive relationship with them, the rules keep changing, we have all these unusual diktats coming down from D.C on the Potomac, and the size of the IRS is doubling to "Catch Tax Cheats"......Riiight....the one agency that have a different  court system and a different legal system than all the rest of the .GOV and you wonder why this goves people the chills, the one agency (Well the ATF will just show up, shoot your dog and maybe you,) but the IRS will flat our take everything you have and leave you destitute and you have to go to their court to prove that it "Was a mistake" with their judge to get your stuff back, and people wonder why this gives them the chills.

We have rumblings of Putin invading the Ukraine and adding "The Breadbasket" to Mother Russia, and our "Betters" are pushing sanctions and other things and beating the drums of war, talking about committing troops and I am horrified, I am an Army Cold War Veteran, I was part of VII Corp in Southern Germany and I also went to the Persian Gulf as part of Desert Storm, so as they say "I smelled the smoke and saw the elephant" That isn't what concern me, I was part of a highly trained green machine that had all the branches of the services that were well equipped and highly trained in warfighting, now the Army and the Military in General has newer equipment and in a lot of cases, better equipment, but the leadership flatout sucks, they are more concerned about "Diversity and Inclusion" then warfighting skills, whereas our near peer enemies don't have that problem and we will get our asses handed to us.  Our troops are fragmented, the ones that believe in this country are forced to either get vaxxed or get out, and the ones that stay in are the ones that will be ideologically pure to the left in this country, but they can't fight worth a crap, but by God they check off all the boxes.  And our "Betters" that are pushing for a confrontation, it won't be their kids fighting and dying, it will be "Flyover Countries" kids fighting and dying.  Our"betters" have no skin in the game unless the payouts they have in any Ukraine companies *Cough*Hack* Hunter Biden's  Gas Company sponsorship*Cough*Cough*. If there is a fight, we will have China watching and

either getting ready to carve up Taiwan or they will while we are embroiled in the Ukraine dealing with Russia.  They will be studying how we fight and figuring out countermeasures  and right now I don't have faith in the leadership military, Civilian, and political to do whats is in the best interest of our country, 

    And Finally

Inflation is at a 40 year high and the legacy media is giving ol Gropy Joe political cover.  They are saying the official inflation rate is 9.7%.  I think it is higher than that

          This was in December, now it is February.....And I think it will get higher and our Betters in D.C ain't gonna care because their fiscal policies don't affect them, they live in this bubble but it affect everyone else and I think they will use the money policies to crush dissent and force compliance to their diktats.  Nothing brings out their inner STASI like democrats.