Tag: war

A tradition, now lost

Fred Reed recalls Marine boot camp, circa 1966:

A recruit was standing on a roof at Parris Island in the burning sun at parade rest. His DI had put him there to work on the roof and somehow had forgotten him. A passing sergeant noticed, stared curiously for a second, and bellowed, “Git down from there, prive.”

The private didn’t move.

“Goddamit, git down here,” bawled the instructor, unused to being ignored.

Nothing. The private looked deeply unhappy, but didn’t so much as twitch.

Another DI came along and yelled, but nothing moved the recruit. He gazed desperately ahead, either deaf or crazed by the sun. A group formed on the sidewalk, including a warrant officer, a lieutenant, and, finally, a passing light colonel.

The colonel snapped his crispest order. The private stared ahead. The crowd conferred, decided they had a mental case on their hands and prepared to send for a struggle buggy and some big corpsmen. Then the private’s DI returned.

“Jaworski, Ten-hut! Git your butt down from there.”

Down came Jaworski. From parade rest, you see, the only acceptable order is “attention”. The manual of arms says so.

“You see,” a drill instructor explained to me, “a recruit’s in a place he doesn’t understand at all, and nothing ever works for him. Back home, he knows the rules. Maybe he’s a big dude on the block, got it made. Not here. Everybody’s yelling at him and he can’t ever do anything right.

“So he figures he’ll do exactly what he’s told. It’s his way of protecting himself. If something goes wrong, he thinks at least it’s not his fault. This is what a drill instructor’s got to learn — nothing’s too crazy for a recruit to do if he thinks it’s what you told him. And you really got to think about it. Otherwise you can get him hurt.

“One time in winter a friend of mine, Sergeant Grunderling, had evening duty at some building and he wanted to go take a leak. So he tells this recruit who’s with him, ‘I’m going out for a minute. Don’t let anyone in who doesn’t know the password. You got that?’

“The recruit says, ‘Yes, sir,’ so Grunderling relieves himself and realizes he can’t remember the password. So he hollers, ‘Minter, open the door.”

“What’s the password?”

“I forget. Open the door.”

“I can’t do that, sir. You told me not to let anybody in who doesn’t give the password, sir.”

“Goddamit Minter, now I’m telling you to open the door.”

“‘No sir, I can’t do that.”

“Minter, it’s cold out here.”

“No, sir, I can’t do that.”

“By now Grunderling’s mostly frozen and so mad he can’t see straight, but he sees threats ain’t going to help him.

“Please, Minter, let me in. I ain’t gonna yell at you. I won’t do anything to you.”

“Aww, you’re trying to trick me.”

“No, Minter, honest, I ain’t trying to trick you. Open the door.’

“You’re gonna yell at me, aren’t you sir?”

“No, Minter, I promise.”

“Finally, old Minter opens the door and Grunderling nearly kills him. But he should have expected it. A recruit does exactly what you tell him.”

Societies in decline are always shocked to discover that their militaries are no longer what they once were when they run into a harder, more disciplined enemy. Just consider Athens after attacking Syracuse. Or the Spartans when they confronted the Thebans.

Today’s Marine Corps may have more advanced weapons, but it seems highly unlikely that the changes in its preparation will prove to be for the better.

Shutting down government

Ann reiterates… build the bloody wall already!

Fake News’ question of the week: Will Trump risk a government shutdown over the wall? 

The media flip back and forth on who’s to blame for a government shutdown depending on which branch is controlled by Republicans. But the “shutdown” hypothetical in this case is a trick question.

A failure to build the wall IS a government shutdown. 

Of course it would be unfortunate if schoolchildren couldn’t visit national parks and welfare checks didn’t get mailed on time. But arranging White House tours isn’t the primary function of the government.

The government’s No. 1 job is to protect the nation.

This has always been true, but it’s especially important at this moment in history, when we have drugs, gang members, diseases and terrorists pouring across our border. The failure of the government to close our border is the definition of a government shutdown.

This isn’t like other shutdowns. Democrats can’t wail about Republicans cutting Social Security or school lunches. They are willing to shut the government down because they don’t want borders.

Take that to the country!

As commander in chief, Trump doesn’t need Congress to build a wall. The Constitution charges him with defending the nation. Contrary to what you may have heard from various warmongers on TV and in Trump’s Cabinet, that means defending our borders — not Ukraine’s borders.

It’s not that hard.

  1. Build the wall.
  2. Drain the swamp.

If it’s truly necessary to fight a war with North Korea, so be it, but don’t let a little thing like nuclear war get in the way of the primary national interests. And if the swamp is excessively resistant, well, just park the USS Carl Vinson in Chesapeake Bay.

WWII production trivia

MR sent this fascinating explanation of one reason the Allied bombing campaign was a bust with regards to inhibiting German aircraft manufacturing:

When I was in grad school I heard of the origins of CO2/Sodium Silicate core making in Germany during WWII. The fellow said we were bombing factories and foundries.  My dad and later myself were metallurgists, both doing time in the foundry industry before branching out.

Coremaking….. cores make the hollow spaces inside castings, is heat intensive as it was done with oil bonded sands that had to be baked like cookies.  Gas, coal, coke…..and big core ovens. A cupola to melt iron can be made from oil drums and bricks and the molding sands can be mixed with a shovel and rake, but you need ovens for cores.  We couldn’t figure out how the Germans were making castings so soon after we bombed their foundries into the stone age.

After the war we found out that they had invented a core making process that did not need ovens or oil.  Simple sodium silicate and clean sand.  What the foundry men would do was take the coreboxes, the molds for the core..out in the cities and countryside.  They taught the people to mix the silicate and sand and ram up the cores, then set them out in the air.  In a few hours to a day the core would be hard as a rock…literally.  The two halves, or more pieces, would be glued together and be ready to go. They had regular drop off and pick up routes and kept the German foundry industry humming.

Necessity, as is so often the case, proved the mother of invention. Given the dearth of invention in Silicon Valley of late, perhaps we should encourage the North Koreans to bomb the Bay Area.

Controversial teaching methods

Dark Triad Man helps get the word out about the bike-lock-wielding professor at the Second Battle of Berkeley:

At the Battle of Berkeley on April 15th, an masked Antifa slid forward from the confusion and swung a bike lock into the head of an unarmed man, immediately drawing blood, before slipping back into the crowd.

The act of violence, while predictable, was an unprovoked criminal assault with a deadly weapon intended to cause grievous bodily injury. It could easily have killed the victim.

The criminal attacker was originally identified by /pol/ as San Francisco State University professor Eric Clanton.

Jack Posobiec has since confirmed that Eric Clanton is at Diablo Valley College.

It should be interesting to learn just how amenable the educational authorities are.

Warning signal or support?

I think it is too soon to declare which side the Chinese and Russians are actually on with regards to the potential US-North Korea showdown:

China and Russia have dispatched intelligence-gathering vessels from their navies to chase the USS Carl Vinson nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, which is heading toward waters near the Korean Peninsula, multiple sources of the Japanese government revealed to The Yomiuri Shimbun.

It appears that both countries aim to probe the movements of the United States, which is showing a stance of not excluding military action against North Korea. The Self-Defense Forces are strengthening warning and surveillance activities in the waters and airspace around the area, according to the sources.

The aircraft carrier strike group, composed of the Carl Vinson at its core with guided-missile destroyers and other vessels, is understood to be around the East China Sea and heading north toward waters near the Korean Peninsula.

So, Japan is activating more ships in the area, but this is not seen as a “warning signal” because the Japanese are known to be allied with the USA and even more concerned about the North Koreans. It seems to me that it is at least as likely that the Chinese and Russian intelligence ships are there to assist the strike group as serve as any kind of deterrent to it.

It’s important not to take ANY of the public announcements from any party too seriously. Remember, in war, the first casualty is truth. It’s not in anyone’s interests to inform the enemy exactly what it is that they are doing, or intending to do.

At this point, given all the global publicity being devoted to the Carl Vinson group, it would appear to be the most likely candidate for being a feint while the real attack comes from somewhere, or even someone, else.

Mailvox: fighting antifa

A firsthand report from the Second Battle of Berkeley from a reader:

Those Nike batting helmets are light, but they work! I took a rock to the top of my head yesterday that probably would have had me out.We also tested it before the saturday with a could of good smacks to the sides and back with both dowels and 1x3s. The impact jerked your head, but it protected against the pain and did a reasonable job of getting the blow to skate along the curves of the helmet.

One of the folks there next to me wasn’t wearing a helmet, and took a nasty smack in the head with a thrown full mini-can of soda. He recovered OK, but there was a LOT of blood. They have video of him getting treated.

Wear a helmet…even if you are fit and young. I armored up because I am slow, but even those fit madmen dodging rocks on the front line could use it.

…and VD, They did a fantastic job of keeping the lines together yesterday. They had folks watching for flanking and the berserkers (that’s what those based millennials were fighting like…absolutely breathtaking) at the front were keeping an ear out for the yell to pull back when they smashed into the front lines of the very skinny antifa janissaries. There were only a few incidents of folks pushing too far and getting enveloped.

Gloves are necessary as well. I started out with my motorcycle gloves, but lost them when I took them off to put some gauze on the fellow how to smack with the soda. Even though I didn’t take a hit in the hands, I still learned why I needed them after the rally when I was heading back home. I didn’t get pepper sprayed directly, but I did go through the clouds a couple of times and helped a few guys holding their head back when they were getting their eyes washed out. Pepper spray residue was all over my hands and when I took off my mask, helmet and goggles, I instinctively wiped my lips. Noob mistake that would have been mitigated if I was wearing gloves. I’m glad there were no cameras to capture my “it’s too spicy” dance.

Good to know that there are some tactically-aware leaders taking charge, and that people are following their directions. Discipline plus preparation plus leadership usually equals victory. I noticed the discipline right away in the first videos I’d seen; it’s far more important that everyone is on the same page than for anyone to engage in individual heroics or pursue optimal tactical objectives.

It was also significant to see that the tanks were going after the antifa leaders. Remember, antifa is all offense, so the leaders are not expecting to engage in any direct conflict themselves. The wedgies were a nice touch; another effective humiliation is to tie their shoelaces together or to remove their belts and bind their ankles with them.

It seems to me there ought to be a bounty placed on antifa flags and masks. I certainly wouldn’t mind having a flag or two to hang in my office as a trophy.

Cernovich attacked at anti-Trump rally

Apparently they were incensed by the “alt-right leader’s” declaration that Bill Clinton is a rapist:

Controversial alt-right provocateur Mike Cernovich appears to have been punched in the face at an anti-Trump rally in Austin, TX on Saturday after repeatedly yelling “Bill Clinton is a rapist” at the crowd.

The right-wing vlogger livestreamed his protest of the rally calling for President Trump to release his tax returns, and the footage appears to show rally goers shouting obscenities, pushing and shoving protest signs in front of Cernovich’s face.

The livestream on Periscope then abruptly ends when Cernovich’s phone falls after seemingly taking a hit.

Mike, however, “took reasonable measures” to defend himself; read his account here, complete with video.

Cernovich caught the angry mob on film. Watch how feral they are. These are not normal people. They are in a cult. Mike Cernovich was sucker punched. Cernovich took reasonable measures to defend himself. 

As I mentioned after Richard Spencer was attacked, be sure to have a group of at least four with you if you’re going to confront the dyscivilizational. They’re herd animals and they work each other up to attacks on unaccompanied individuals. They’re not natural fighters; you can see the way they have to loom and posture, but they will eventually attack if they feel sufficiently confident.

That being said, people have to stop being stupid and learn the basic tricks and tactics utilized by Black Bloc. There is no excuse for managing to get yourself isolated and ambushed; the false retreat was old when the Parthians were using it against the Romans. 21 were arrested yesterday after the most recent Berkeley skirmish.

Stewart Rhodes, founder of the citizen militia group known as the Oath Keepers, said he came from Montana with about 50 others to protect Trump supporters. They were joined by bikers and others who vowed to fight members of an anti-fascist group if they crossed police barricades.

“I don’t mind hitting” the counter-demonstrators, Rhodes said. “In fact, I would kind of enjoy it.”

But Rhodes credited Berkeley police for new tactics that mostly kept the two sides apart and “our side chilled and relaxed,” though sporadic fights broke out among both groups throughout the morning and afternoon.

“It’s getting sporty,” said Oath Keeper John Karriman, 59, who is from Missouri and was among the group’s security leaders.

AJ Alegria, 31, of Sacramento said he also came to Berkeley to help defend Trump supporters. He said he pursued a counter-demonstrator down a side street and found himself surrounded by a dozen protesters in black masks who he said attacked him with sticks and pepper spray.

“These people create violence all the time… somebody has to stand up to them,” said Alegria, who was injured in the fight.

The problem, as usual, is that conservatives fail to grasp that they are in a war. You simply cannot place any trust in the SJW-amenable authorities. And you need to prepare for physical conflict, by wearing a mouthguard, multiple layers under a thick leather jacket, and safety glasses, at a bare minimum. There is probably a small business opportunity in putting metal reinforcement inside stocking caps and baseball hats to protect the head.

We were told by the city not to bring anything that could be used as a weapon. Our people, for the most part, complied. The antifa did not and brought mace, sticks, poles, and M80 fireworks. We were there to hear speakers. They were there to start a fight. 

Mallorca attack

Car attack in Mallorca:

At least 5 people have been injured (some of them seriously) when a car mounted on the pavement and hit people that were waiting for the bus or walking along the commercial area. The incident occurred in one of the busiest streets of Palma de Mallorca.

 don’t know if it is connected to this earlier story, but there were concerns about attacks on British tourists on Mallorca and Costa del Sol.

Suspected Isis recruiter arrested on Spanish island of Mallorca accused of inciting terror attacks

Apparently the Moroccan driver is claiming that he just happened to lose control of the car.

That might explain it

It was obvious that something with regards to North Korea had changed to concern the US, China, Japan, and Russia alike and convince President Trump to take action. It may have been North Korea’s successful development of sub-launched ballistic missiles, which presumably now give it the ability to nuke coastal US cities for the first time.

North Korea displayed its submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBM) for the first time on Saturday ahead of a massive military parade in the capital, Pyongyang.

North Korea warned the United States on Saturday to end its “military hysteria” or face retaliation as a U.S. aircraft carrier group steamed towards the region and the reclusive state marked the 105th birth anniversary of its founding father.

State TV showed images of the Pukkuksong-2 SLBMs on trucks waiting to be paraded in front of leader Kim Jong Un.

Seeing as how North Korea is believed to be able to develop long-range ICBM that will reach the USA within four years, and SLBM that may be able to reach it now, this may be the last chance that the USA and China have to impose any changes on North Korea.

The Hitler that wasn’t

It’s rather fascinating that despite the media’s ritual anointing of a Hitler du jour, the one world leader who has thus far escaped being granted the title is the one most aggressively engaged in the pursuit of foreign expansionism, imperialism, and the pursuit of Lebensraum, and has now utilized the Hitlerian practice of expanding his personal power through plebiscites.

A narrow majority of Turks will vote “Yes” in Sunday’s referendum on changing the constitution to grant President Tayyip Erdogan sweeping new powers, two opinion polls showed on Thursday.

The April 16 vote will decide on the biggest change in Turkey’s system of governance since the modern republic’s foundation almost a century ago, potentially replacing its parliamentary system with an executive presidency.

Polling company Konda said the number of “yes” voters stood at 51.5 percent, but said its survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.4 percent.

“When this forecast is considered within the survey’s margin of error, a final judgement might be misleading,” Konda said in a statement.

Its survey, carried out face-to-face with 3,462 people in 30 provinces on April 7-9, showed turnout for the vote would be around 90 percent. It said the level of undecided voters had fallen to 9 percent from more than 20 percent in January and there was no evidence to indicate their preference.