Well, we somehow managed to make it through the weekend without the world coming to an end, which in and of itself is something of an achievement. All I can say is that Drumpf destroyed a lot more than he thought on Friday morning. Instead of taking out Iran’s nuclear enrichment sites, he basically bombed his own second term in office.
But that is his problem. Monday is our problem. And for that, we have the Great Mondaydact Browser Masher.
Speaking of mashing – anyone remember the old Monster Mash series? Seeing as how the last week has been quite insane, and this one looks like it will be worse, let us try to relieve the tension with a show that is basically all about monsters having a party.
And while we’re on the subject:
That reminds me…
#BasedTucker is Based
The beatdown #BasedTucker put on that snake is unbelievable. And Cruzโs reactions on social media prove, beyond any doubt, that he is an absolute Gamma. If there is any justice in this world, his political career is over.
Of course, there is none, so it is not.
Dawn of Battle
The Male Brain has plenty of good stuff for us this week โ despite, I might add, the world blowing up around him, over there in Israel. We start with a pair of videos from The Infographics Show, about body facts for females:
And males:
Economics Explained points out some hard truths about foreign aid to countries, being totally useless:
For those of you who, like me, enjoy getting their information in the written word, you cannot do much better than the excellent book by Dambisa Moyo, Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa.
Mind-Expanding Drugs
Also from The Male Brain, here is one from Up and Atom that has a not-at-all-unattractive female presenter, explaining some of the weirdest paradoxes in the Universe:
The most mind-blowing paradox of all, is that the Universe itself even exists in its current form.
Think about it. General relativity is irreconcilable with quantum mechanics. We know both work (with, albeit, some major caveats for the former โ such as the rotation speed of galaxies, which is much faster than should be possible, assuming the age of the Universe is correct). Yet somehow, the moment we go beyond the molecular level and down to the atomic one, the Universe becomes probabilistic, not deterministic, and we cannot figure out how to bridge the two realms.
Despite all of that, we EXIST.
Now try stuffing your brains back in your skull.
Death Smiles At Us All…
Poli-Ticking Off
Mark Dice watches the dust-up between #BasedTucker and Drumpf with quiet alarm:
Ornj Boi betrayed his base, and appears to be in a full-blown political collapse at this point. His Presidency is still salvageable โ BARELY โ but ONLY if he acts immediately to get things right back on track.
But he has already destroyed the credibility of the FUSA, beyond repair. NO ONE in his right mind is ever going to trust an American President, ever again.
#BasedTucker tried to remind him of that. He failed โ not for lack of trying on his part, either. Donny-boy simply forgot what got him elected, and bent the knee to Clown World. He will be destroyed in his turn, and rightly so.
The very-thoroughly-married couple at Redacted watch with growing alarm the rapid deterioration of the Banderite Army in 404:
PJW tries to figure out just what the HELL Ornj Boi was thinking with respect to Iran:
It is simply not possible to avoid the conclusion that Drumpf betrayed his base. Quite a significant chunk of it is, like me, DONE with him.
We could forgive him, if he apologised for what he has done, for his many failures and stupidities, and course-corrected, HARD, toward what he was elected to do.
But I rather doubt that will happen.
Veteransโ Day
LTC Danny Davis takes time out of a family holiday โ to PommieBastardLande, of all places, NOT what I would call a great holiday destination these days โ to analyse the insanity of Ornj Boiโs strikes against Iran:
Judgeโs Ruling
Judge Nap talks to Maj. Scott Ritter to get a hot take on what Drumpf did against Iranโs nuclear enrichment programme โ which, as far as anyone can tell, was ABSOLUTELY DICK-ALL
MUH RUSHIAN KAHLOOOOOOOZHUN!!!
ะฆะฐัั ะัะธะบะฐะทัะฒะฐะตั
The Neo-Tsar gave a masterful, magisterial, extremely confident address at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF โ or, if you prefer the Russian acronym, which I do, ะะะญะค):
ะะตะด ะกะฒะฐัะปะธะฒัะน ะะพะฒะพัะธั!
Grandpa Grumpuss grumps, grumpily, about the pickle in which the Iranians find themselves, having rejected โ of their own free will โ the Russian offer of help with respect to setting up better air defence and intelligence systems:
ะัะดั ะกัะฐัั ะฃัะธั
Stanislav Krapivnik โ former US Army officer, former oil exploration and supply chain expert, now a volunteer in the Russian armed forces, living in the Kaluga region โ explains why Iran is a no-fail situation for the Russian Federation:
Polonium
Ania Konieczek analyses #BasedTuckerโs interview with Gamma-boy Cruz:
Timeo Danaos Et Donna Ferentesโฆ
The good gentlemen of The Duran look at the options facing the Middle East and Russia, in the wake of the US attack on Iran:
Bad Medicine
Dr. John Campbell and Dr. Aseem Malhotra talk about a wide range of subjects
Dr. Suneel Dhand cannot contain his displeasure at the ways in which the MAHA agenda are going off the rails:
Warriors of Faith
Al-Fadi from CIRA International talks to Tha Dizzle about the Holey Koran:
And also do Dr. Jay Smith from PfanderFilms about the problems with the notion that Izzlam is in any way โrationalโ:
Jai and DoC watch as one of Sunni Izzlamโs most prominent dawahgandists tries, and fails miserably, to take on a Shiโa apologist:
Avery from GodLogic Apologetics has to deal with one dimwit Moose Limb after another, each one going into โbot modeโ faster than the last:
Chris at Speakerโs Corner shows exactly how and why Moose Limbs fail to make any kinds of arguments, and resort instead to talking really fast and calling people names:
Manly Men of Manliness
Terrence Popp reckons most women would benefit greatly from listening to their grandmothers โ or at least, certainly, THIS grandmother:
Joker from Better Bachelor cannot contain his delight at the fact that the Whore of Stapleford has been thoroughly BizANNED from OnlyFools, for doing something so stupid and brazen, even that platform could not handle it:
Letโs have a proper round of STRAWNG INDEPENDENTISS WAMMENZES!!! posting their own Ls online. First up, Manosphere:
And Legion of Men:
Next, GriffinMind:
The legendary hoe_math:
Finally, the Eastern perspective from China Unvarnished:
Burn Paedowood to the Ground
Midnightโs Edge watches as Hollyweird devours itself:
The Critical Drinker documents one Rachel Zeglerโs rise and COLOSSAL fall โ and, it must be said, the schadenfreude involved does taste delicious:
Reading Too Much Into Things
Your long read of the week is by Big Serge, and analyses the current state of the Banderastan War, in which the Russians have every reason to keep doing what they are doing, because they are smashing Ukraine (and the West) to pieces:
I have written frequently about the critical importance of a โtheory of victoryโ when waging a war. This refers, in the simplest sense, to the need for a state to have an overarching concept for leveraging power into its war aims. This is the strategic ligament which connects military operations and diplomacy to the stateโs wartime objectives.
As the war moves on into its fourth year, Ukraine and her western backers have cycled through several different theories of victory which were quietly discarded after coming apart at the seams. In the first year of the war, the theory of Ukrainian victory centered on created an unacceptable cost-benefit calculus for Russia. If Ukraine and the west showed unexpected resolve, keeping the AFU fighting fiercely in the field, it was hoped that Russia would back down from fighting a long war, particularly as sanctions gnawed away at the Russian economy. Instead, Russia began mobilizing for a longer fight, and the Russian economy has thus far weathered the sanctions intact.
This theory of victory was then replaced with a model predicated purely on military operations, which supposed that a decisive victory could be won in the south by knifing through Russian defenses in the land bridge. This theory came apart in a much more visible fashion, with western armor burning on the steppe after a botched attempt to breach the Surovikin line. A second attempt to restart decisive operations met a similar end in Kursk.
In the last year or so, the theory of Ukrainian victory pivoted once again, particularly under the auspices of the new Trump administration, in favor of words like โattritionโ and โstalemateโ as a mechanism to gain a negotiated settlement. If the front in Ukraine can be locked into something approximating a stalemate – that is, if the cost of further advances can be made prohibitively high for Russia – the conditions will be set for a negotiated peace.
In contrast, Russia has had an essentially consistent theory of victory since late 2022, when it began mobilization. That theory is very simple: by establishing a basis for sustainable military operations against Ukraine, consistent pressure and ground advances can be maintained until either Ukrainian resistance collapses or Russia controls the Donbas. To this point, Ukraine has not demonstrated capabilities – either to go on the offensive or to halt the Russian advance in the Donbas – that change this basic calculus.
Commentators in the west rarely try to view the conflict from Russiaโs perspective, but if they could they would quickly see why Russian confidence remains high. As Russia sees it, they have absorbed and defeated Ukraineโs two best punches on the ground (the 2023 counteroffensive and the Kursk operation), and they have weathered a long and steady infusion of western combat power without the trajectory of either the ground campaign or the strike war fundamentally shifting. Meanwhile, Russia has essentially scratched off the entire southern Donbas, pushing the front across the border into Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, and they are poised to wrap up the central sector of front as the advance around Pokrovsk and Kostyantynivka blooms.
Weโre left, then, with a jarring disconnect. On the one hand, the Trump Administration approached Ukraine as if their election fundamentally changed everything and instantly raised the probability of a negotiated peace. Russia, however, rather rightly feels that nothing has changed at all. They have absorbed everything the west has thrown into the conflict, and they continue to both advance on the ground and relentlessly strike Ukraine on a material basis that they clearly view as sustainable, without unduly burdening civilian life in Russia.
If anyone was surprised, then, that Russia came to Istanbul only to reiterate the same terms theyโve been presenting from the beginning, they were clearly not paying attention. Russia has no inducement to soften its stance so long as it feels that the battlefield calculus is unchanged, and nothing that the west (or Ukraine) has done since 2022 has given Moscow a valid reason to revise its views. Russiaโs baseline demands ought to be well understood by now, as is Russian willingness to achieve those aims kinetically. If Ukraine will not give up the Donbas at the table in Istanbul, it can be taken by the Russian Army. In the end, thereโs very little difference.
We are left with Woodrow Wilsonโs formulation. Not, of course, his high minded โpeace without victoryโ, which is a nonstarter today just as it was in 1917. Rather, weโre left with the hardened and embittered Wilson of 1918. With the United States now an active belligerent in the conflict, Wilsonโs outlook had darkened immensely, and he now categorically opposed negotiating with an undefeated Germany at all. He had concluded instead that โIf Germany was beaten, she would accept any terms. If she was not beaten, he [Wilson] did not wish to make terms with her.โ
If the olive branch has wilted, the pistol will do.
Linkage is good for you:
- Fyodor Lukyanov condemns the failures of the neoliberal globalist model that has led us all into a potentially cataclysmic war in the Middle East;
- Timofey Bordachyev reckons Israel is coming up to the end of its existence, because of the huge mistakes its leaders (and electorate) have made;
- Elizabeth Blade canvasses a broad range of experts, who are all in line with the view that Iran is a no-fail case for the Global South against the Anglo-Zionist Empire;
- Dr. Mathew Maavak points out that Iran now has a better case than ever to pursue nuclear weapons, when it did not in the past;
- Tarik Cyril Amar โ a committed man of the Left โ explains the civil war threatening to break apart MAGA, with which he actually has quite a lot of points in common;
- We are still looking for answers from the Air India crash that killed over 250 people last week, but simple pilot error might just be one of the best explanations;
- Edward Dutton unpacks the horrifying reality of modern PommieBastardLande, in which women now have the right to murder newborn babies with no legal consequences;
- If you want a simple, no-nonsense, tiling-based, fully customisable window manager, i3 for Linux is a solid bet for you;
- The Danes, of all people, are looking to dump Microsoft and switch to Linux โ and appear to be a long way down that road;
- Step aside, Helldivers 2, there is a new boy in the drop zone;
- UbiSoft, having failed at doing almost everything else of late, is busy remaking the legendary game, Prince of Persia: Sands of Time;
- For those who like โMetroidvaniaโ games, take a look at End of Abyss, which seems to be quite awesome;
- If you have ever been a sysadmin, sometimes you know that the โRโ in โRTFMโ stands for โRememberโ, particularly when dealing with genuinely clueless lusers;
And some more from Dawn Pine:
- The Pentaloons may or may not think aliens exist, but they definitely planted UFO stories just to dick with people, and distract them away from secret weapons programmes;
- The Wakandans who stole iPhones during the recent riots in LA, are going to find those phones can be tracked and traced โ by no less than Apple, which is dystopian in the extreme;
- No matter which side of the Israel-Palestine debate you are on, it is always fun to mock geographically confused Leftoids for making dumb mistakes;
- Bitcoin might fork over a major mathematical issue related to quantum computing, which is going to be all sorts of fun and games;
- The strike against Iran was all kinds of illegal, but you have to admire how the Mossad and IDF executed it, especially with their spike missiles deployed from within enemy territory;
- Someone needs to come up with a new โpizza and gay barโ indicator that tells us when the Pentaloons are about to bomb the shit out of something;
- If, for some reason, you want to know where to find OnlyFools โmodelsโ during the summer, well, here you go;
HALO Nation
Slayergod Remy aka MintBlitz does his thing while discussing how to Make Halo Great Again:
Since I am a campaign gamer, I will say that most of his recommendations hold no interest for me, but I agree entirely with his view that Halo Studios MUST keep the core elements of the series intact. HALO Infinite comes closer to that than any game since HALO 3, though it does have its flaws. And I really like his idea of doing something similar to what Bungie tried with Destiny โ create a core game with the basic mechanics, engine, graphics, physics, etc., all setup and ready, and then add to it over time with extensions and new games that bolt onto it.
Destiny proved it could work โ though the original game was completely boring, the DLC fixed it over time. If Halo Studios can get the base game right, and then add to it over time, that will be an unbeatable combination.
Most of all, though, I think HALO has to go back to the true roots of the game โ wherein it was a trendsetter, not a follower. Even now, with Aiming Down Sights, HALO Infinite feels far too much like HALO 5: Guardians, and that felt quite derivative of the various Call of Medal Counterstrike Battlefield Rainbow games.
BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!!!
Imperial Iterator takes a DEEP dive โ and I mean, like, 20,000 Leagues deep โ into the lore surrounding the return of Lion ElโJonson:
Big Boyz Toyz
Australian Military Aviation History talks jets โ REALLY EARLY jets:
Oh No! Anywayโฆ
Wazzocks gonna wazzock:
Comedy Hour
Meme Warfare
We begin with some dank memes from The Male Brain:
[WITH PUBLIC IMPALEMENTS – Didact]
[About 99.9% of all Izzlamists would fail this rule – Didact]
And now, as LRFotS RobertW likes to say:
Animal Planet
Your aminules are adorkable moment of the week:
Real Men Watch REAL Sports
REPS FOR JESUS!!!
Gym beast props this week go to โ who else? โ Jesus Olivares:
He took OVER 1,000 POUNDS down to well below competition depth. And he made it look pretty easy. That is justโฆ SCARY.
Ass-Kicking of the Eight Limbs
They See Me Rollinโ…
JUST BLEED!!!
Federer Express
Palate Cleansers
Axe Me Anything
Knives Out
Drumlines
Guitar Heroics
MOAR DAKKA!!!
Mighty Wings
Jump-Starts
Gingervitis Injections
Livinโ in the Land of the Metal Gods
I saw IRON MAIDEN play live just recently. It was UNBELIEVABLY awesome โ I was literally 10 feet away from the stage. And this was right after Drumpf bombed Iran, so this particular song really hit hard.
Rock Out With Your Glock Out
Thot Shots
And finally, we come to your Instathots to get the week off to a suitably pneumatic and ridiculous start. First up, Pamela Borek, age 27 (or thereabouts), from Poland:
And second, Marijana Vidovic, in her late 30s, from Serbia:
OK, thatโs all, back to work now, boys.
2 Comments
IMHO, Infinite’s biggest problem is that there are only three environments:
-Zeta Halo exterior (may have a bunch of prefab buildings)
-Zeta Halo interior
-Banished base (the first warship level counts as this)
Contrast with CE where you fight on a warship, a ringworld, a cliffside, a beach, a mix of snowy mountains and Forerunner structures, and a swamp in the first 6 levels. The open world was a great idea, but they came nowhere near realizing its potential. If I blow up an air base, I shouldn’t see any more banshees or dropships in that sector from now on.
The bosses also kind of suck on Legendary and the Hunters are even worse than H5’s if you’re fighting them without power weapons. There’s one point near the end with two in a tiny room with barely any cover that nearly made me quit the game in frustration.
Trump was assassinated. That guy on the stand? Not only is he six inches shorter, but he doesn’t really look like him.
‘It’s that simple.