Agiel

Uh-oh: Silicon Valley is building a Chinese-style social credit system

Which is ignoring what I had put forward in previous posts, that the Mk41 cannot launch Tomahawk missiles without the necessary _fire control hardware_ (as is the case for vessels for every other allied nation's navy that has ships with the Mk41 cells). As stated with the example of the Kongo-class destroyer if the presence of the cells was evidence that the ship can launch Tomahawk missiles, that would have meant that Japan was in violation of Article 9 of the Post-War Constitution. To classify the Mk41 cells by themselves as a launcher in violation of the treaty is to make the definition of "launcher" so broad as to make it effectively impossible for any side to fully abide by the treaty to the letter. Were such the case any mounting, no matter how crude, that was sized appropriately to prop up a canister which contained a Tomahawk missile plus rudimentary wiring will have qualified as a "launcher". Just as the Trident II has sufficient range that an Ohio or Vanguard-class submarine can launch them at any target within Russia' borders from any waters north of the equator enables them to patrol with almost total security, so too can submarines operate in the Adriatic with nearly as much safety, far more so than a fixed site that is quite well within range of a Kilo-class submarine capable of launching its own submarine-launched cruise missiles. The US military flat out doesn't need land-launched cruise missiles, and in fact are unlikely to want them if it threatens to cannibalise their other budgetary priorities (unless it's a case of the national security apparatus under Bolton cramming it down their throats regardless, Marshall Ustinov-style, which given that by all appearances Trump seems to find a lot to love about Soviet industrial policy isn't wholly unbelievable even by me). As stated by General Paul Selva:

I should have clarified that the Aegis Ashore system is "much more than just its launcher," as the point I was making with the rest of the post is that the Mk41 cells really cannot be taken alone as evidence that they are capable of launching Tomahawks (see original post, vis-à-vis Fridtjof Nansen frigates, Kongo destroyers, plus many other allied vessels). If the existence of the cells on land was enough to have been in violation of INF, then the definition of "launcher" would be so hopelessly vague as to encompass a bewildering number of wholly unrelated hardware (including civilian). Take for instance the M901 launcher vehicle component of a Patriot battery: And compare to a cross-section of a Mk41 VLS module: The cells of both the M901 and the Mk41 are in essence some cabling and steel scaffolding meant to prop up a canister containing the missile. For the former the missiles cannot launch without the necessary equipment, full stop (in its case the fire-control radar and the command vehicle). For the latter it's the TWCS, of which the Aegis Ashore facilities lack. Even if one is utterly convinced of perfidy of military planners so surreptitious as to pass beneath the notice of Congress or the host country one would still have to answer the question of "what's the point?". As mentioned before each cell that does not contain an interceptor makes it correspondingly worse at its intended role, and even if it theoretically maxed out at 24 Tomahawks it's still far fewer effective munitions that can be carried than by other platforms which the Russian military would have a much harder time keeping a watchful eye on (a Flt II Los Angeles Class submarine has 12 VLS tubes for Tomahawks and can carry up to 25 additional missiles that can be launched from its re-loadable torpedo tubes, to say nothing of the Ohio-class guided missile subs which has 154 vertical launch tubes).

Not mine, but I thought it was worth sharing anyways: I have to say I am loving this whole trend of dubbing audio from Half-Life over other media.

Newest Harlequin model: In her right hand is a Fusion Pistol, basically a handgun-sized version of the standard Melta-gun, and no less capable of, well, melting the armour of a Land Raider. Equipped in her right hand is the Harlequin's Caress, which enables her to phase-shift her hand, reach into the chest of her hapless victim, and pluck out his heart (or both, as is the case for Space Marines).

Or, Occam's Razor, such a set-up was the only viable arrangement given Bolton's desire to prove that US involvement in the treaty was dead on short notice since the only other launch platform for a Tomahawk are from Mk67 533mm torpedo tubes and vertical launch tubes from submarines, which are for obvious reasons rather difficult to test on land. The Mk41 launcher by itself is not evidence that it easily launch Tomahawk missiles because the whole system is so much more than the launch cells themselves. Look at a cross-section diagram and one realises that it is in fact simply a series of steel scaffolds to hold a launch canister; without the requisite electronics to put a Tomahawk canister in the Mk41 cells of the Aegis Ashore system one may as well have put in a giant bottle rocket for all the good that does it. The following diagram is essential because it establishes that the Tomahawk Weapon Control System is wholly separate from the Aegis Weapons system that is at the core of Aegis Ashore. Evidence: Here is a Mk41 VLS module on a warship. This is not an American vessel, It's Norwegian Fridtjof Nansen-class frigate. Absolutely no-one thinks these are capable of launching Tomahawk missiles because the fire control system aboard does not support it. Here are the Mk41 cells again. Is it on an American destroyer? One would be forgiven for thinking that it is, but that answer is wrong again. It's a Japanese Kongo-class destroyer. Very few serious people argue that the JMSDF is in breach of Japan's Post-War Constitution because of those cells, and curiously the Kremlin doesn't need much convincing that Japan hasn't abrogated on Article 9 either. Which brings us back to my original assessment as to the chances that the US withdrawal and the recent test would ever lead to a deployed weapon, which remains "Extremely Low," which made Trump and Bolton's decision to leave the treaty doubly stupid in my own opinion, most US Air Force and Navy brass, and that of many experts in the field. As demonstrated by the April 2017 Tomahawk strikes, USS Ross and USS Porter had launched two and a half times the number of missiles than an Aegis Ashore facility has VLS cells (assuming that every one of them notionally contained Tomahawk canisters, which of course makes it virtually useless in its intended role). If the Trump administration tries to make its case for the necessary funding for why I'll presume they'll call Gryphon II, the GAO is going to look at the Tomahawk strike in 2018 and likely conclude that such is totally redundant (particularly as the Pacific theater is an almost entirely air and maritime domain), especially so as it would eat into funds from other projects that they will deem critical (hypersonic TBG and HCSW, B-21 Raider, LRSO, etc.)

People are wondering how Trinity and Neo play into a direct sequel to the original trilogy and here I am hung up on how the Resistance gets out of the Matrix now that pay phones aren't a thing anymore.

Or Black Metal, of which Deathspell Omega's <<The Furnaces of Palingenesia>>, which is virtually a musical adaptation of 1984, to be the most important metal album of the decade: They seemed to have also been on to something in regards to the current political zeitgeist with one of their previous EPs <<Mass Grave Aesthetics>>: The dimension of ethereal totalitarianism discloses itself And takes possession of the quintessential human soul Like a nail hammered through most tender flesh Aeons separate the one whose eyes have seen through the night of the spirit The king, the Lord of hosts, draped in terrifying magnificence From the gleaming clot of trembling vermin If a faith and a belief aren’t nurtured by the moist of blood They do not grow, nor do they live It is at the magnitude of daily murders, massacres and mass graves That we do measure the propagation of our faith Hearken and recognize, that hideous carrion Legs in the air, like a whore displayed, indifferent to the last A belly slick with lethal sweat and swollen with foul gas...

New Mgla joint coming up:

Once again I'm astounded at how actual politicians are getting worked up about the football hooliganism of Portland "antifas" while there's a whole heap of Timothy McVeys out there ready to take out their frustrations on larger society.

@majestic While a secret facility built hundreds of meters under Hawkins is rather improbable, the idea that it was built with the aide of laundered funds and property rights finagling has some weird echoes in reality. Craig Unger had written on capital flight from the former Soviet Union being laundered into the US by buying real estate (by the admission of Oleg Kalugin, a former KGB general, when called for the Russian Mafia effectively operates as a branch of the intelligence services).

I have a feeling that Funko Pops of Alexei, complete with tiny cherry-flavoured slushie, aren't long in coming.

As a reminder that there was a time in the 70's that bombings carried out by fifth columnists in the United States were nearly daily occurrences, to the point that they hardly warranted coverage in national news, the Baader-Meinhoff gang was carrying out routine bank robberies, kidnappings, plane hijackings, and their own bombing attacks (including on NATO bases), and Italy underwent its own wave of political violence between the far left and right that eventually earned the moniker <<Anni di piombo>>, culminating when Italy's own Prime Minister was kidnapped and subsequently executed by the Red Brigade. Personally I think we do a great disservice with talk of the current generation of so-called "antifas" being even a tenth as bad as far-left extremists were in days of yore.

I probably fit all but two of those criteria.

Trump presses Lockheed to keep open a Pennsylvania plant slated for closure I've banged on about this before, but for as much as the GOP claims to have been the party of the "Cold Warriors" Trump seems to find a lot to love about Soviet industrial policy (i.e. "Nothing wrong with epicly wasteful spending as long as there's jobs in it").

As if the IRGC has never needlessly landed Iran in diplomatic hot water before, or that it's categorically impossible for the Iranian leadership's right hand to not know what its left hand is doing:

https://poll.qu.edu/texas/release-detail?ReleaseID=2625 I was of the opinion over the past few years that Texas is in danger of becoming a purple state inside of two decades, not because of "more brown people" but because of an influx of college-educated people seeking lower costs of living in the state (anecdotally I have a cousin who works for Blizzard who has dreams of transferring to the Austin office for that very reason). Perhaps losing Texas might be the wake-up call the GOP needs to stop shooting itself in the stump where its foot once was.