[Tubby Isaacs]

[Samanfur]

Allegedly, because they won't take women or POC off promotion lists.

[Boiler]

And yet in replies, they all say "but why won't Congress DO something?!" to which my reply is "well, that's what your Holy Second Amendment is for. Use it for that purpose, not for slaughtering schoolkids because someone said hurty words to you once."

Otherwise, quit whining, Septics - you created this mess, Republican and Democrat alike.

[Bones McCoy]

And yet in replies, they all say "but why won't Congress DO something?!" to which my reply is "well, that's what your Holy Second Amendment is for. Use it for that purpose, not for slaughtering schoolkids because someone said hurty words to you once."

Otherwise, quit whining, Septics - you created this mess, Republican and Democrat alike.

They experience existential doubt when told that Rule 303 is more influential than Amendment II.

[kreuzberger]

Nobody is quite sure what this ceasefire deal actually contains.

I suppose that is what happens when you fire all the career diplomats and replace them with slum landlords and the nepo-class of halfwits.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Strait of Hormuz is still closed.

[Andy McDandy]

Iran now has the opportunity to do some first rate trolling. I suggest that they insist on renaming the Strait of Hormuz as the Trump is a Cunt Waterway.

[Spoonman]

Iran now has the opportunity to do some first rate trolling. I suggest that they insist on renaming the Strait of Hormuz as the Trump is a Cunt Waterway.

Strait of Epstein.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Yep. Who could he be criticizing here, I wonder?

[Abernathy]

First day of Trump’s ceasefire deal, and the Israelis are bombing fifteen shades of crap out of Lebanon, apparently destroying whole city blocks and killing hundreds of people.

Because Trump apparently didn’t bother telling Netanyahu about his “deal”. Meanwhile in Washington, Democrats are preparing articles of impeachment on Trump and Hegseth.

So far, so shite,then.

[davidjay]

What's the point of going for impeachment again?

[Boiler]

None whatsoever. He's dodged it twice already and hasn't he had the law changed so he's immune from prosecution, no matter what anyway?

[Abernathy]

What's the point of going for impeachment again?

Presumably because the 25th amendment option is only available via Shady Vance and Trump's cabinet of sycophants and impeachment is the next best thing - futile gesture though it will probably prove to be.

[Watchman]

Bugger! Only early stage

BBC News: Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu treated for early-stage prostate cancer

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckgw72lrvn3o

[Abernathy]

The good news : Netanyahu has the cancer.

The bad news : He’s getting better.

[Boiler]

Rumours that the cancer was delighted it could be treated for Netanyahu were completely false.

[Yug]

The Septics are constantly shrieking about having the greatest military in the world. Well, the eye-wateringly expensive technologically advanced USAF couldn't stop an Iranian pilot in a plane the Shah got from the Yanks 60 years ago

In the early days of the war, an Iranian Air Force F-5 fighter jet struck Camp Buehring in Kuwait – reportedly the first time in many years that a hostile aircraft has hit a U.S. military base.

NBC reported that although air defense systems protected the base, the Iranian pilot managed to evade them and drop a bomb...

https://militarnyi.com/en/news/iranian- ... rt-of-war/

The USA is just like Russia - a paper tiger. Maybe if the Yanks educated and trained their people a bit better their performance wouldn't be quite so poor all the time.

[Bones McCoy]

They've got very good kit.
They've got some incredibly well trained people.
They've got a command system second to none, capable of marshalling all those people.

But like any enormous force, half of it is below average, and some is downright awful.

Consider:
* The challenges of recruitment - you're hauling in a lot of the desperate who have few other options.
* The challenge of team building - in a nation where all the "isms" receive an encouraging nod.
* Warfighting has become a tricky technical business, the redneck who flunked second grade isn't going to thrive.
* Your intake have been raised on John Wayne, Mel Gibson and Tom Cruise movies.

Perhaps the critical point:

Like any advanced hegemon, they're incredibly casualty averse.
But they lack many of the options available to the Romans or the British, which were:
* Suck it up: Other ranks are expendable and there are thousands of potential officers among the younger sons of our wealthy families.
* Atrocities: When the natives act up, there's the option of a completely disproportionate show of force.
* Auxiliaries: Rely on foreign "allies" to do the bulk of policing.


To wrap up:
* USA has massive armed forces, the best being really good.
* There are also a lot of lazy rednecks led by fratboys with substance issues.
* They've got to be extremely careful about exposure to real danger.