March 2, 2022

"What is a thermobaric weapon?" A short guide to Putin's new toy

Someone in another thread asked this. So...here we are.

First: "Thermobaric" is derived from the Greek words for heat and pressure. As with many other evil things that aren't named Trump, the Nazis invented them. Fortunately, the Nazis had about as much success in getting them to work as we had getting Trump to not take top secret documents with him when he got evicted from the White House. Other terms for these are aerosol bombs, vacuum bombs and fuel-air explosives.

A thermobaric weapon, in the simplest of terms, is comprised of a can of fuel and two explosive charges. The first charge bursts the can and vaporizes the fuel. The fuel then mixes with air, seeps into buildings, goes down into foxholes and does all the other things a huge cloud of fuel vapor will do. The second charge ignites the mixture after a preset delay to allow the cloud to go into all these places.

When this finally detonates, it has a few really bad effects. First is the huge explosion. You've seen films of the huge explosions after airplanes crash. Well...that's from just the vapor in the fuel tanks. Turn the entire fuel load of a large jet into a cloud of vapor and see what kind of a blast you'll get. The shockwave from these bombs lasts longer than the shockwave from a regular bomb too, and we can't forget that there was fuel vapor in the bottom of your foxhole, your bathroom, etc., to go off.

But...here's the fun part. You don't just get the shock wave going out. You also get one going in. Regular explosives like TNT and C4 have their own oxidizers. Thermobaric weapons use the atmosphere for the oxygen they need to burn. This reduces the air pressure, and because Nature Abhors A Vacuum(tm) air from around the blast rushes in at extreme speed to replace it.

These are cheap to build and totally devastating...and it would be almost impossible to ban one since they can be made from simple materials you will find in any military base's ammunition supply point. You could also build these at home.

February 28, 2022

Raise your hand if your Lieutenant Governor didn't speak at KKKon 2022

https://www.westernstatescenter.org/pressreleasearchive/western-states-strategies-calls-for-mcgeachin-to-resign-after-appearance-at-white-nationalist-event

Idaho has a history with white supremacy which is strange when you understand that, for most of its history, black people didn’t live here. We have the Klan. We had the Aryan Nations. We had a group of neo-Nazis who held a birthday party for Adolf Hitler at Coeur d’Alene’s Independence Point. We have Shaun Winkler, who ran for sheriff of Bonner County on a campaign pledge he wouldn’t burn any crosses during his term in office. (He and his friends burn at least one a week.) We have the John Birch Society, and they’re so embedded at least one county’s Republican supreme soviet has adopted them as a legitimate organization. If you can think of a white supremacist organization, it’s in Idaho embarrassing the few respectable citizens we have left.

So maybe it’s not surprising that Idaho’s leading seditionist, Lieutenant Governor Janice McGeachin, spoke at Nick Fuentes’ America First Political Action Conference.

February 28, 2022

Russian troops destroy world's only AN-225, the largest cargo jet of all

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/antonov-an-225-largest-plane-destroyed-ukraine-scli-intl/index.html

The Ukrainians have pledged to make Russia foot the $3 billion bill for rebuilding it.

February 27, 2022

Famous sayings from various wars

World War I: “It’s a long way to Tipperary.”

World War II: “Kilroy was here”

Korean Conflict: “I shall return.”

Vietnam Conflict: “We must win their hearts and minds.”

2022 Ukraine War: “Go fuck yourself.”

February 25, 2022

I think Putin has three problems here

First problem: He no longer has a military good enough to do this with. It’s arguable the Soviets never really had a good Army, but at the current time conscripts only serve a year, and refusal to report for conscription is extremely high. End result is he tried to invade a sovereign nation with troops whose boots aren’t broken in yet.

Second problem: the only support Russia seems to have is from the Republican Party of the United States. They’re a rogue nation to everyone else.

And finally, the Ukrainians aren’t taking this lightly. All the reports of success out of this war are of Ukrainian victories. Even the taking of Snake Island (where the Ukrainian defenders told the Russian attackers to go fuck themselves, in those exact words) is seen as at least a moral victory for Ukraine.

Give it two weeks to a month and Putin will run out of there with his tail between his legs.

February 25, 2022

War in Ukraine will probably raise price of beer in US

https://www.wisn.com/article/war-in-ukraine-could-increase-cost-of-your-beer-in-wisconsin/39213496?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Email%20-%20Local%20Breaking%20News&utm_source=62182c6ebca8a969f4000f5e653e4100&brzu=3908f787cbfc45b06a9ff892dc714fff37161c2a5bf44d056f53b8ccae04014c&lctg=5cef2fc7014dc16d0adea62a

Ukraine is the fourth-largest barley producer in the world. The linked article indicates 20 percent of all barley used in beer comes from there.

February 25, 2022

I believe Rick Scott is trying to stop all the 1/6 prosecutions and Trump prosecutions

We find this in his tyrannical document:

The Republicans claim insurrection and Trump prosecutions are based on political ideology, so the end result of this line would be to allow insurrection to go unpunished.

February 24, 2022

Meat identification class

Mrs. Jones brought several kinds of meat to her first grade class to see if anyone could recognize them.

The first one was beef. Sally stood up.

“Mrs. Jones, this is beef.”

The second was pork. Tommy stood up.

“Mrs. Jones, this is pork.”

The third was venison. No one stood up.

“Class, this is something your mother calls your father.” Barron Trump stood up.

“Mrs. Jones, this is dickhead.”

February 24, 2022

How many FISA warrants need to be issued?

I suspect our esteemed, twice-impeached, lost-by-11-million-votes, un-American former disaster of a president will rally his equally unpatriotic Republican buddies to provide material support to Russia during their illegal invasion of Ukraine.

Who do you think will join him?

February 23, 2022

2 Utah National Guard helicopters crash, no injuries

https://www.ksl.com/article/50353784/no-injuries-after-2-blackhawk-helicopters-go-down-near-snowbird-

For some reason the main rotor assembly came apart while one aircraft was trying to land, and parts struck the other one.

In the "How did they do that?" department: one of the witnesses to the crash was skier Noah Sikorski. The helicopters were manufactured by Sikorsky Aircraft.