We got played hard on the Griner trade....

 

Brittney Griner is coming home after being released from a Russian prison in return for infamous arms dealer Viktor Bout - The Merchant of Death.

READ MORE: https://t.co/yYsfmCAhAj pic.twitter.com/gqyKT8K3Fx

— OutKick (@Outkick) December 8, 2022

The difference in coverage on this thing between the left and right (been monitoring it on Fox vs MSNBC) is stunning.

My take is in the title.

We got played hard on this one.

They get back a top agent, notorious for killing Americans and we got back an professional athlete?

Not cool.

The talking heads are saying that in addition to being a Marine (which I would think would get him higher in the pecking order), he's also an "asset" of some sort (the White House Press Sec and the President basically said as much).

So that's the best we could do?

The White House was so desperate to get Griner back that they left the Marine/Asset in Russian hands?

I don't want to buy that but it appears so.

I have little confidence but I hope dude hangs in.  Its been a rough ride I'm sure and I don't see it smoothing out.

One thing seems obvious but if true it will have me punching walls.  I'm pretty sure that the Russians wanted to trade our Marine for the Merchant Of Death.  I'm betting we refused. Then Griner gets busted and we ask for Griner and our Marine ... Russia refuses and makes the counter offer for only Griner.

For political reasons, the White House agrees and now our guy is gonna remain imprisoned for the duration of the new cold war.

I hope that's wrong.

Open Comment Post. 8 Dec 22

 

Others have finally caught up to me. The US is for better or worse in direct conflict with Russia...

Raytheon CEO says the US provides real-time intel on the battlefield in Ukraine. “We see a Russian tank and that information gets fed to the Ukrainians…that’s something the Russians never contemplated.” The US is now in a direct confrontation with Russia. pic.twitter.com/VKWbGLRqA3

— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) December 8, 2022

Let's be clear. Ukraine would have folded like a house of cards long ago without US equipment, money and intel. MOSTLY intel.

The really sad thing?

No one is thinking about the aftermath.

Ukraine is a corrupt cesspool that no amount of money will effectively raise it to EU standards within a 100 years.

It is a bottomless pit that only serves to make certain people wealthy.

But the most interesting thing about this is that we've just brought Middle Eastern style failed states to the heart of Europe.

Those that cheer this fight today will cry tomorrow.  Correction.  There children will cry and curse their parents because this will be a massive drain on the Western world and will be part of the destruction of the middle class with increased taxes to pay for this misfit country.

Open Comment Post. 7 Dec 22

Excellent thread on the V-280 and why some are requesting that the British 16th Air Assault grab a few...

 

🚁 V-280 has been selected for the US Army's Future Long Range Assault Aircraft.

Why is this aircraft, or aircraft with performance like it, important for the UK?

1/🧵 #flraa #v280 #nmh pic.twitter.com/5BZmzAOtmH

— The Other Chris (@TotherChris) December 6, 2022

Geez. What could go wrong except for everything..."enhanced" private security in N. Philly...

I guess this should be seen as an expected outcome of the local PD to properly address the crime problem (in conjunction with if not BECAUSE of the local DA and politicians), but this could go so bad on so many levels that it boggles the mind. This was inevitable though. The average citizen will either take steps to protect himself if the govt won't or they will hire men who they believe are capable of doing it for them. Private security might boom in this country unless we get a handle on things. Is this where Triple Canopy goes next to fill its coffers instead of doing the small war thing overseas?

The private mercenary armies have begun https://t.co/82HxQAcFde

— Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) December 6, 2022

French Special Ops jump from a maritime patrol plane onto their carrier!

3…2…1… Jump around! Watch our special forces conducting parachute jump on the #French carrier #CharlesdeGaulle.
On order, the #FrenchCSG still ready to conduct a special forces airborne insertion. ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/hKDbZ8gicc

— French Carrier Strike Group (@French_CSG) December 5, 2022

Uh wow. Never knew of that being done. Can't even imagine why it would be done, but is undeniably COOL AS FUCK!

A nice little Twitter thread you should read...a break from this insane world is always a good thing!

 

At the age of 40, Franz Kafka (1883-1924), who never married or had children, was walking through Berlin Park when he met a little girl who was crying because she had lost her favorite doll. She and Kafka searched for the doll without success. Kafka told her to meet him the nex pic.twitter.com/RUFZAaa4M8

— tartary and antiquity (@AndTartary) December 4, 2022

READ THE WHOLE THREAD GENTS! Thank me later.

V-280 Wins!!!!!

Note. The US Army is coming to drink the Marine Corps milkshake! With the V-280 they can deploy the 82nd at distance. The MEU MUST BE ENHANCED to meet the competition or else the Marine Corps will be irrelevant! The idea that acting as the eyes and ears of the joint force is pure folly. Unmanned systems will do that more effectively, in the future if not now. Its about GROUND COMBAT POWER and the ability to get shooters on the ground quickly where and when they are needed. The sea gives us an advantage escpecially in a more volitile future where forward basing will become increasingly problematic, but the MEU has got be reinforced and enhanced to meet the future threat. ACV, ARV, more mobile artillery, missiles and loitering drones. We need to work poste haste. The Army is, we should be too. Sorry but FD2030 has been teched out before it was fully implemented!

Thanks to the reader that sent this. I got excited and deleted the e-mail before I locked onto things... 

via Defense One. 

The U.S. Army has chosen Bell to build a new aircraft that will replace the venerable UH-60 Black Hawk, which has been flying soldiers in combat since the 1970s. “It’s a chance to move to the next step in this vital program,” Doug Bush, the Army acquisition chief, said during a Monday evening call with reporters. It’s a huge win that could be worth billions of dollars for the Textron-owned company in the coming decades. Bell, which pitched the V-280, a tiltrotor aircraft similar to the V-22 Osprey, beat a Sikorsky-Boeing team that had proposed a compound coaxial helicopter. The Army calls the replacement deal the Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft, or FLRAA. “We expect initial FLRAA buy to be 750-1K, and mixed fleet of FLRAA + UH-60 for decades,” Cowen analyst Roman Schweizer wrote in an Oct. 12 note to investors.

Here 

Avalanche Company, 1st Battalion, 297th Infantry Regiment conduct arctic training...