The lyrics translate in part: “On a nuclear-powered submarine, with a dozen bombs just under 100 megatons, I crossed the Atlantic and called up the gunner: ‘Point, Petrov, toward Washington, D.C.,’ I say.”
“Forgive us, America, good old America, but it was a shame you were discovered 500 years ago,” the choir continued.
Awesome.
Related:
Neat.
The same Russian social media trolls accused of meddling in the 2016 US election may be to blame for the deadly measles outbreak across Europe last year, according to a new report.
If true, that would be an impressive demonstration of “asymmetric warfare.” If you can actually talk the stupider/more gullible sections of your opponents population to damage not only themselves but some other fraction of their nation, using nothing other than some online posts… why *wouldn’t* you? Never mind geopolitics, just consider human nature. We’ve seen cases where Mean Girls will use whisper campaigns and social media to bully another girl into killing herself. Not for political purposes, not for material gain, but just for the lulz. Some people just want to watch the world burn. And anyone who has ever met humans knows that “some people” is just another way of saying “most people.”
Heck, if the CIA had some paid trolls who figured out that they could convince some Chinese sailors to set off scuttling charges in Chinese boomers, you gotta assume that those paid trolls would be reeeeeeeeaaaaaaaallllly tempted to do that just for the hell of it. So if Russian trolls figured out that they can convince European dumbasses to willingly harm themselves and European economies, thus boosting Russian economic prospects… well, the strategy cost approximately nothing.
I would not be surprised to find that many of the problems in the west these days are intentionally created by very small groups with minimal funding. The return of superstition, such as anti-nukers, creationists, magickal thinking, socialism, astrology and whatnot, damages the ability of the US to progress scientifically and technically. And cranking out horoscopes and nuclear fear-mongering is cheap and easy. Are the Chinese behind it? The Russians? The dastardly Canadians? Who can say. Be ever vigilant.
The “Russian propaganda machine” no more cares about getting Gabbard elected than it did about getting Trump elected. All it cares about is sowing chaos in the American electorate, something it has proven to be quite good at.
Satellite imagery shows that the Russians seem to be packing up and going home, abandoning the”nuclear powered cruise missile” test site. The article suggests that this is because the missile isn’t working. Other explanations include that the Russians are simply testing elsewhere. In any event, some interesting photos here.
Whoopsie.
Sure, the T-34 is a tough little tank, but c’mon, be a little more careful. As soon as you drive it off the truck its resale value falls right over.
As described hereabouts back in March, Vladimir Putin claims to have himself a nuclear powered cruise missile. I remain dubious, but the fact is that the Russians launched *something* and it crashed into the Barents sea. The Russians seem to be looking for it… and chances are fair that the United states Navy is as well.
Back in July the Russians released a video that purported to show bits and pieces of the supposedly nuclear-powered Burevestnik missile:
The video does not show the configuration with any clarity. What can be made out is that it seemed to have a fairly conventional forward fuselage designed for low radar reflectivity, with relatively simple flip-out wings of the type common to cannisterized cruise missiles. Two further points can be gleaned from the video:
1) The missile isn’t that big… seems right in line with something like a Tomahawk.
2) The facility almost seems like a high school gym.
Both of these argue against taking the claim of nuclear propulsion too seriously. Of course, it’s a video produced and released by the Russians, so it’s impossible to say whether it is remotely accurate; it could be pure deception. But assuming it truly depicts the weapon system, it seems *real* *small* for nuclear propulsion, and the facility and the workers in it seems to be pretty lackadaisical about working around nuclear systems.
The satellite is doing some wacky maneuvers that make some experts think that it is a weapon, or a weapon testbed. Most likely explanation is that it is an satellite inspector/destroyer. This accusation of course results in spluttering outrage from the Russian government… the same government crowing about building a nuclear powered cruise missile and a long range nuclear powered autonomous submarine with a multi-megaton warhead designed to take out American coastal population centers.
OK, politicians: if you want the coveted Unwanted Blog Endorsement, I don’t care what your policies are on transgendered bathrooms or gay wedding cakes. You either support the creation of a Space Force equipped with Orion-powered deep-space bombardment forces or you can go pound sand, ya commies.
“There will be war if…” spins wheel “… Georgia is admitted into NATO.”
If you want to know what it will look like when Putin launches World War V (WWIII having been the Cold War, WWIV the Surt worshippers vs. civilization), it’ll look kinda like this, just more so (things get sporty around 2:06):
I look forward to the day when the US fields new boomers, SLBMs, nukes and RVs. They are desperately needed.
A few news items of interest:
Russia is opposed to a US military base in Poland for reasons that are at best unclear. Off the top of my head, only two reasons would exist:
One of those ideas seems more likely to me than the other.
If Russia neither fears Poland nor plans on conquering Poland, then their best course of action would be to shrug off the US military presence and spend not a single ruble on countering it.
And…
Far as I know, the only parties who dispute that the South China Sea is international waters is China.