summer patriot, winter soldier

the russian "terminator" tank thingie ..... a swiss army knife affair .....

the russians are putting some of their "terminator" tank escort vehicles into the fight in the ukraine.   it is much ballyhooed by the russians, and festooned with all kinds of weapons systems.   (to include missiles with all sorts of capabilities.) they are mounted on basically what amounts to a t-72 tank chassis without a turret, if i understand what i have read correctly.

one wonders about the delay of their "insertion" into the fighting.   and, one also wonders about the efficacy of the weapon in all the roles claimed for it.

so far evaluating the worth of russia's weapons systems has been very clouded by the execrable training of their troops, and the very inept execution of very shaky battle doctrine.   the very poor performance of russian armor, and its outdated battle doctrine, have led to the destruction of perhaps 1,000 main battle tanks, and scores of "armored troop" carriers in greater numbers, in something like 80 days of battle against the ukrainians, a supposedly "over-matched" military.  (the ukrainians have done very well, indeed, for being the "underdog" in this fight.)   at this time, i suspect that the russians have suffered somewhere in the neighborhood of 20,000 to 25,000 dead, and perhaps twice as many injured and wounded.

so, at this point, just what impact will the "terminator" have on the battlefield, if any?

the "terminator" by all appearances is quite complicated, with all kinds of stuff hanging off the sides, and it is crewed by 5 or 6 soldiers, which suggests that there is a whole lot of stuff requiring attention .....  arming, aiming, reloading, maneuvering under fire, managing the weapons systems & "acquiring" targets, and just coordinating with the tank crews that the weapon is designed to escort and protect.  unless the crews of the "terminator" are very much better trained and disciplined than the tank crews have been thus far, i suspect that any theoretical strengths the weapon may have are going to be horribly compromised by the skills of the crews.  in short, the crew training in the use of the weapons systems quite likely is going to be lacking.

as to the ability of the "terminator" to withstand attack from the javelin and stinger missiles, it would appear that the use of the t-72 tank chassis renders it no more formidable in this regard than the t-72 tank, and probably more so to downward traveling missiles, as it lacks a hardened turret.   so, unless the "terminator's" weapons give it considerably more "stand off" protection against the missiles deployed by ukrainian troops, and the newly acquired american 155mm howitzers, the "terminator's" are likely to suffer a very similar fate of most of the other russian armor.

the "terminator" reminds me of a bayonet built along the lines of swiss army knife "doctrine."   in short, if appears to me to be equipped with all sorts of useless bullshit to counter the anti-tank weapons that will be arrayed against it by the ukraine, though perhaps well equipped to fight off a world war ii type "infantry swarm" as occurred at the battle of kursk in wwii.

we'll see.

i could very well be wrong.   but, i don't see the "terminator" as any sort of game changer.   it appears to be just another russian contrivance not very suitable for the war being fought with the ukraine, and just another device to feed fodder into the maw of the modern battlefield.  it is ironic, but, all of the advances in technology just makes the ordinary foot soldier so much more important, and in this area, the ukrainians have simply outclassed and "out-manned" the russians.

you will note, the russians still do not talk much about casualties.  and, you will also note that all of their vaunted offensives in the southeast have not advanced them much beyond the lines they occupied after the first 4 or 5 days of the conflict.   the "terminator" will not change this very much, in my estimation.

john jay @ 05.22.2022

 

p.s.   you will not the "skirts" over the tracks and drive wheels on the terminator.   when you look at the charred remains of russian tanks, you will please note the damage done to the "boggies" and the main drive wheels, suggesting the t-72's are quite vulnerable to small artillery and missiles to the side and hull sides of the tanks.   i suspect nothing much has changed with the "terminator."  the burned out hulls of these "new" weapons will sustain & exhibit the same sorts of damage, as it is the same machine.  a new paint job, perhaps, but the same old hulk, eventually.

 

the only trick the dimmo's seem to have up their sleeve is christine blasey ford ....

joy behar, she of "the view" fame, seems to think that the donald has the election in the bag, which is as naked a confession of joe biden's inadequacy as a candidate that any self respecting leftist could ever bring herself to utter.   things must look pretty bleak  ....   and, the "insider" information just confirms what most of us have known for some time.   and, that is, that joe biden has bats in the belfry.  he's several bricks shy of a full load.

you know, as in the crazy old soldier who goes charging up the stair (with his bugle ....  my memory is a little dodgy on this one) in the movie "arsenic and old lace."   like the old ladies, of the same movie.   and, most definitely not like jimmie stewart in "harvey the white rabbit," who is probably more evenly balanced than everyone else.   no, joe biden is not more attuned to the realities of the world than the rest of us ....  he is still spinning the dial, trying to tune in.   he just cannot find the right station.

he is wearing the same little paper hat pogo always wore when he mounted an expedition across the okefenokee swamp, except pogo wasn't crazy either.   sane, like jimmy stewart, a little odd, but not bonkers.  

this makes me nervous.

at times like this the dimmo's come up with the most scurrilous, underhanded, outlandish dirty tricks imaginable.  what in god's name can they have left after the russian dossier fiasco, and lowering themselves to attack his little boy, impugning his intelligence.  (conveniently ignoring the clinton's forays into the caribbean  ...  speaking of which, how can they get any lower?)

the only thing that i can think of that the dimmo's might try, is to claim that christine blasey ford went to summer school with president trump's nominee, and that she appears at the senate hearings to testify that she had sex w the nominee 40 years ago.   (well, why not, she's got the whole thing pretty well rehearsed at this point.)

no one, but no one, can say that this generation hasn't lived through some interesting times.  not desperate times, like wwii, not soul numbing poverty, like the depression, but very interesting as in quite beyond a little quirky, just way out in the far reaches of left field, you should pardon the expression, just out where the goats graze. as  depicted in "arsenic and old lace," without the wit.   the schumer and pelosi era has just  been clinically insane, but somehow lacking in the charm and warmth of two potty little old chubby ladies trying to poison everyone.  

what, the objects of their machinations didn't vote their way?  now, who does that remind you of?   go ahead, just say it.   cleanse your soul.  fly, and be free.  ("mork and mindy."  a long time ago, in many ways.)

john jay @ 09.22.2020

maybe i shouldn't call the dimmo's stupid .... maybe they want what they seem to be breeding ....

i keep insisting on calling the dimmo's stupid, because by my lights they seem oblivious to the consequences of their actions. 

for instance.--  they say that they do not want the matter of the nomination of a replacement for rgb to take place before the election.   i can understand that, because they probably hold out the possibility of electing a dimmo to the white house, in which case they control at least that.   but, then, even before president trump reveals the person he nominates, they are rioting and dimmo "pundits" are chanting "burn it down."  (it seems to make no difference what, they just seem to enjoy setting fires.)

surely by doing so, they realize that this absolutely ensures what they say they wish to avoid, that being that president trump will submit a nomination to the republican controlled senate for the now vacant supreme court seat.

what choice does president trump have now?  to back away from his constitutional duties under this kind of pressure just assures that, if elected, he will face this kind of misconduct at every turn.  to my mind, it almost ensures the dimmo's that they will remain a minority at the federal level, but maybe they assume that winning the hearts and minds of the shit-for-brains youth is more important in the long term.   it makes no sense to me, but, maybe it does to beto o'rourke and the rest of the progressive "brain trust."

(it ignores shakespeare's injunction, that "the past is prologue."  but, who am i to judge.)

maybe i miss the point.   maybe the dimmo's are really not interested in "issues," maybe they simply wish to incite a widespread lust for violent revolution.   maybe they are simply intent on inciting the shit-for-brains crowd into a real revolutionary wrath.   maybe this is simply a recruitment ploy, a strategy to create more warriors intent upon and capable of destruction and fighting.

maybe they do it on purpose?   who knows?   i don't.

if so, i would remind them of several simple truths.--

the dimmo's are city slickers.  fine, if you are handy in the city you wish to set aflame.   but, not so handy if you are intent upon eating while you carry on your revolutionary agenda.   i don't think seattle or portland had any 135 bushel an acre grain this year, nor do i think the apple, potato and pear crops did so hot on martin luther king way.

and, there is the little matter of electricity.   it doesn't take a rocket scientist to spot the power lines from the power grids traveling to the city.    and, the little matter of getting the garbage and sewage out of town.

and, the water into the town.

maybe the dimmo's are inclined to disagree, but i do not think they are particularly advantageously situated to carry on civil war.   oh, they can riot, so long as it is tolerated, and so long as military and police forces are not mobilized to inflict corporeal punishment upon them for their egregious behavior.

but, how many machine barrages are they willing to withstand, to burn, riot and loot, and kick defenseless persons in the head while lying unconscious on the ground?   my old mother, long departed, favored flat bed trucks w/ .50 caliber machine guns on the bed, for that sort of behavior.   she was nice, but she did not favor idiocy and ill behavior.

so, i guess on balance the dimmo's are idiots.  they do little by way of cogent argument to convince me otherwise.

john jay @ 09.19.2020