NamEndedAllen
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Posts posted by NamEndedAllen
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59 minutes ago, Battlefront.com said:
A reminder that I shouldn't have to make... this is a thread about Ukraine, not Israel, Gaza, Iran, or conflicts elsewhere. Of course there are some topics over overlap, but in such cases the link should be directly established when making a post.
At the moment the only thing I see that is directly relevant is that the House GOP might make an excuse to not bring up Ukraine aid this week. Or it could be the exact opposite. Cryptic statements are all we have tonight:
Steve
Steve, apologies. I wasn’t clear enough at the top to say the connection in my opinion is the impact on Ukraine’s hard-pressed airdefenses. Shortages are already an issue of course, and the heavy expenditures in both the Houti/USN engagements and now this much larger sequence represent a significant expenditure of missiles in the region. Patriot launchers and missiles are in short supply in Ukraine and I doubt this event will make expanding Ukraine’s supply any easier. I hope I am wrong, and this proves to be a case of (twisted?) honor restored and the situation simmers down a bit.
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Mark Hertling CNN talking about the potential for a well-coordinated attack stretching the stocks of ABMs to take out the missile attack, then followed by the drone attack soon after, making that effort more difficult. His concern is whether other bad actors like Hamas and the Hutis and Hezbollah (?) also launching attacks timed to add to and try to overwhelm Israeli air defenses. USA naval assets are likely to augment those air defenses.
Realizing that this may be off topic, I am thinking that the need to restock ALL combatant nations is ramping up the free world’s scarce resource of all the various missiles necessary for air defenses. Ukraine of course already facing a daily drain on its stocks.
edit - would seem highly likely that a ton of money could be made investing in the several companies that produce the various components of these missiles.
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Waiting for the first ballistic missile strikes and the wave of 100 drones launched earlier at Israel, from Iran. Missiles announced moments ago, after this link.
https://www.cnn.com/middleeast/live-news/israel-hamas-war-gaza-news-04-13-24/index.html
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House Democrats are continuing to suggest they’ll have Speaker Johnson’s back if he will put a vote on aid to Ukraine on the Floor. The bill has already been passed by the Senate.
“The head of the House Democratic Caucus suggested Wednesday that Democratic lawmakers stand ready to rescue Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) from a potential GOP coup — if he ushers Ukraine aid through the lower chamber and on to President Biden’s desk.
Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.) stopped short of saying he would vote personally to save Johnson from a motion to vacate resolution. But echoing an earlier message from House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), Aguilar noted a number of Democrats are already on record saying they’d help keep Johnson in power if he stages a vote on the Ukraine package that passed through the Senate in February.
That willingness by Democrats to cross the aisle, Aguilar suggested, should be enough to overcome the number of Republicans who might try to topple Johnson.
“The Speaker needs to put that bill on the floor,” Aguilar said during a press briefing in the Capitol. “You have also heard me say, you have also heard Leader Jeffries say — and he has pointed out that it was an observation, not a declaration — that we feel that if the Speaker does the right thing that he is in a good position.
“But look, we’ve got to do the right thing. We’ve got to pass these bills. We’ve got to have some sanity under this dome. And that means putting bills on the floor that have 300 votes.” “
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4585578-aguilar-johnson-speaker-ukraine/
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2 hours ago, Battlefront.com said:
Option 2 = put forward a weak Ukraine bill, have a wingnut call for leadership change, and have 100% of the Democrats vote for for Jeffries. There is a fairly good chance this might mean the next Speaker is a Democrat.
Not really in play:
Several Dems, including Jamie Rankin, and several others have publicly pledged to support Johnson and NOT vote for their own Jeffries. This is extraordinary only in these times when Party and self interest practically always “trump” the Oath, the Constitution and the best interests of the USA https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-house-democrats-offer-protect-republican-johnson-ukraine-aid-2024-03-22/
Similar but more general declarations from moderate Democrats go back to January of this year.
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17 hours ago, G.I. Joe said:
All fair points. I certainly agree that an army in an existential conflict cannot afford to be as picky as its peacetime counterpart. We can probably largely reconcile the two viewpoints by saying that in wartime the goalposts don't go away, but they may be moved quite a bit. I wouldn't set those concerns aside completely, but the bar for "as long as they don't cause trouble within the ranks" might look a bit different for the duration.
To draw a non-political comparison / example: Flight safety doesn't go out the window in wartime, it is as important as ever, but operating minima and procedures have to be adjusted for operational necessity. Much of the extreme low flying by the Ukrainian Air Force we've seen videos of in this thread would be unacceptable in peacetime even on an approved low level practice route. Down the side of a highway with oncoming civilian vehicle traffic, it would be a court martial waiting to happen. But right now it's presumably preventing more losses from enemy fire than it's causing from controlled flight into terrain, so the tradeoff is acceptable.
Facing death has a way of changing a person.
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1 hour ago, Battlefront.com said:
The thing I hate most about people flaming out after so many years is that I don't want them to go out that way.
Sometimes these events may be only the tip of the iceberg. We don’t know whether or not things in a personal life have piled up or exploded. One contributing factor can be enormous loss and grief. And/Or substance abuse stemming from other problems. Or just bad acid! And a person turns to the familiar confines of this forum. What follows is not much more than a stream of consciousness series of rants. Regardless, it’s pretty clear after the first few posts that he isn’t in Kansas any longer. I may be wrong, but feeding these sorts of posts after that never seems to serve either the forum or the person in whatever form of distress or bad humor. Instead, we have to plough through a heap of turgid nonsense for pages. Perhaps wiser use of everyone’s time and lives to cut them loose from further replies after the obvious is clear.
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2 hours ago, sross112 said:
Ok, so looking at the actual poll, this is typical media/political spinning.
Any evidence that sfhand and MTG are NOT the same person?
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8 hours ago, Tux said:
War has a funny way of punishing equivocal responses and that cannot be the fault of those who are attacked.
This!
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5 hours ago, The_Capt said:
Ok, so what? In '99 Putin used terror as a mechanism to take power. In 2024...he is already in power. Major terror attacks in Moscow are now his problem because he is supposed to be the new czar and lead Russians to a glorious new empire. Having a terror group poop all over that is not good news anyway he spins this...he is the state.
Putin just sent 100k+ countrymen to die in a useless war he started. No one is doubting his capacity to "do dirty". What is in doubt is the utility and practicality of another staged terror attack in the current context.
Simply - because you were sure it would be too difficult for Putin/FSB to carry out this as a false flag. Pretty clear that yes, he was able to do such a thing, possibly multiple times in the past. Period. A factual reference. Not claimed as evidence of guilt but clearly as evidence that such acts are in his modus operandi, his experience and his ruthlessness. That is all.
BTW, our understanding of his actions and rationales is obviously incomplete and speculative.
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2 hours ago, Aragorn2002 said:
Am I correct when I say this rock band isn't a big fan of Vlad? If so, his audience won't be either...
Yes, the young audience may well be apathetic at best? Pretty sure Putin cares very little for young Moscow partying liberals and their rock band(s). Expendables. Like the mobiks. Doesn’t prove any guilt of Putin, FSB only that those attacked are of lttle consequence emotionally and politically to his government. Yet their violent deaths certainly serve the purpose of propping up increased “security” laws and calls for enlarging the security forces. So there are upsides for the government’s social controls. Even if they had nothing to do with the attack.
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3 hours ago, The_Capt said:
More simply put, it may very well have had little or nothing to do with this war. ISIS-K may be taking advantage of Russian security being overstretched because of the war but their motives/objectives have little to do with the war itself.
That is a highly plausible scenario. Big planet, many players with many longstanding feuds, antipathies, deep-seated hatreds and motives for revenge. Difficult to penetrate the fog.
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8 hours ago, The_Capt said:
I think this one is far trickier than first glance. If Putin spins this as somehow a US/Ukrainian operation then he looks weak and incompetent. This was downtown Moscow, not some outer berg. This is clearly a security failure so pinning it on a war opponent makes that opponent look competent and effective. This is counter narratives of “we are winning in Ukraine” which they have been continually pushing. So while it may drive support into Putin’s arms for the war, it may very well create a lot of doubt as to his ability to protect Russian in this war.
In fact a terror attack is just about the worst false flag op to run here. A massive explosion complete with ATACMs debris along with dozens of others “shot down” makes far more sense. An asymmetric terror attack by a few armed gunman simply looks and feels like bad housekeeping and a massive intel failure, no matter how hard one tries to spin it.
I have no doubt they will link this back to Ukraine, but already here this is a soft link. “Ukraine was providing haven, but did not mastermind the whole thing.” I am sure the real wingnuts will come up with all sorts of conspiracy theories but in the end Putin cannot lay this entirety at the feet of Ukraine without making Ukraine look much scarier and effective. So what will be interesting is whether or not he does. If he does, then things are likely worse internally for Russia than we can see. He is willing to take the risk of making Ukraine look like they “got in a good one” because support is seriously flagging and he needs to leverage this any way he can. If they downplay and sidestep, things might be tighter and more stable because Putin is not entirely backed into a corner.
Putin has already called Ukraine “Nazi-terrorists” it was his entire excuse for the war. Demonstrating of given credence to just how effective Ukraine still is at being as such, after two years of war, really runs counter to the entire Russian narrative thus far.
Not claiming it was an FSB planned op. Just that Putin has had dirty fingers in such matters to rise to power, early. So there would be nothing new about Putin’s involvement in further terror attacks on his own people: https://news.yahoo.com/putin-1999-apartment-bombings-ukraine-175001959.html
“There is “no serious doubt that Putin came to power as the result of an act of terror against his own people,” says David Satter, who has investigated the apartment bombings perhaps more thoroughly than any other Western journalist. “Someone capable of such a crime is capable of anything,” Satter told Yahoo News in a telephone conversation from Paris. “And the proper attitude towards him is deterrence, not partnership.”******
The most damning evidence of Russian involvement, however, came from Ryazan, an ancient city steeped in Russian history not far from Moscow. On the evening Sept. 22, residents in an apartment building there saw a suspicious Lada sedan on the street below, its license plate crudely altered with a piece of paper. Responding officers of the local police found a bomb in the basement. It had been made with hexogen, a military-grade explosive (known in the West as RDX) that was only available, according to Satter, at one heavily guarded factory in the Ural Mountains, to which Chechen insurgents could not have gained access.
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Russian investigators and journalists who tried to investigate the bombings often ended up dead. Among them was Anna Politkovskaya, a fearless critic of Putin who worked for Novaya Gazeta, one of the last remaining left-leaning outlets in Moscow today. She aggressively covered the Second Chechen War; in 2006, Politkovskaya was assassinated in her apartment building’s elevator.
“The murder that killed free media in Russia,” the Guardian would much later reflect of Politkovskaya’s death, which came on Putin’s 54th birthday.
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2 hours ago, Erwin said:
While the US exported more under Trump, under Biden that has been reversed: "Although exports increased in the first half of 2023, the United States still imports more crude oil than it exports, meaning it remains a net crude oil importer.Oct 10, 2023"
This is (unattributed) fake news. The USA, under Biden Admin, has broken its export record. And has been a net oil importer for a long time. THAT may be changing now - again, under Biden Admin. Just not sure why you posted that and avoided listing where it originated.
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/us-poised-become-net-exporter-crude-oil-2023-2022-12-19/
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6 hours ago, The_Capt said:
Hard to really say what is going to happen but I am getting a strange sense that something is going to give one way or the other soon.
(Eddy beat me to thisreport a page ago - just catching up with news and the forum. But better ISR, C4 may be behind Patriot losses. The Bear may be old, and slow and woozy like coming out of hibernation…but it is still a big freaking bear. All of We just need to make the big push to get Ukraine to the Finish Line. Like, now. I really hope that what has been done is not the best we can do. Because nothing good can come from letting a major war in Europe drag on and on. )
Well, this might qualify as a bright flashing sign that we have waited too long to do sooner the things that we dilly dallied about too long. And still are. In the USA, even blocking entirely any new funding at all because Big Nurse (men are nurses, too) hates Ukraine and loves Putin.
https://www.twz.com/news-features/russian-shahed-136-with-camera-cellular-modem-could-be-a-big-problem-for-ukraine The latest Russian development involving the Iranian-designed Shahed long-range one-way attack drone reportedly comprises a pan/tilt video camera mounted on the UAV, allowing it to operate in a visual reconnaissance capacity. It is further claimed that the modified drone, seen in an image of a crashed example, uses Ukrainian wireless networks to transmit its imagery back to a control station. While this may look like a crude installation, it is potentially a solution to a very big problem Russia has faced since the beginning of the war and it could have major consequences for Ukraine, which we may already be seeing on the battlefield
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Saw this posted by Garry Kasparov
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On 2/19/2024 at 10:18 AM, SelfLoadingRifle said:
I have just bought the Downfall module. It tells me that there is no download and that I am to use the 'Activate new product' facility. There is one minor catch though. There is no activate new product button/exe.file in my file directory or anywhere else.
I am re-patching to the latest version, but if this doesn't produce the button, I will be well and truly stumped.
Can anybody help?
SLR
Same exact thing happened to me, SLR. Someone finally posted the solution. You have to separately update your CMFB install FIRST. Separate download for the new patch. After i did that, the expected Downfall update shortcut appeared on my desktop and the activate product file in the CMFB folder also worked to activate DF. The frustrating thing was the lack in the instructions and the purchase materials that this was necessary.
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In RL, I bought the first two editions when they came out rather more than few years after Washington’s cruise across the Delaware. I still have the hard copy manuals, and still read over them from time to time. Didn’t know anything about the forums back then, and had no friends willing to try HTH games. Life intervened and I didn't get CMAK until that anthology with all three CMx1 sims. So, no CMAK paper manual. Worse, I failed to get the CMAK strategy guide before it disappeared from view. I still look for used copies online, but never see any. Finding the forums here a few years ago was just a terrific boost and welcome access to so many brilliant minds working on these best wargames, sims. I really appreciate all of you. And I take time to go back and read some of the archived CMx1 posts. We were all so young, once upon a time.
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48 minutes ago, Sequoia said:
There's more than a little theatre going on here
A bit TOO MUCH theater for even a charade of a commitment to the oath they took to serve. Consider that just about half of the country voted for the Party in charge now - by a *5*seat majority out of *435* seats. And, half the country voted for the other Party. But the Speaker insists as per the (made up) “Hastert Rule”, that only bills that will pass with *only* Republican votes will be brought to the Floor for a vote. Although both parties in the House indulge in this defiance of the full nation’s voters, only this Party enshrines the practice as a Rule.
All students of the USA political system must remember this: No legislation is enacted without passing both the Senate and the House. So these 5 seats, out of the entire 435, control the entire federal legislative functioning of the United States of America. 5 individuals, no matter how wacko they maybe. And they are. That is, unless the Speaker acts as Speaker of the entire House, which formally he is. And his Party can boot him out if he does, like they did to his predecessor. Takes some guts to do the right thing…
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1 hour ago, Bannon said:
I’ve enjoyed Combat Mission since Beyond Overlord more than 20 years ago and own almost every title since.
I remember it was a dark and stormy night, not long after Washington crossed the Delaware. I was grumbling to the General that ever since I was up in Boston and that dam P. Revere came running around with hair on fire, I hadn’t had a single opportunity to fire up CMBO. He looked at me that way, you know, and just shook his head.
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Republican House Intel Chair sounds classified alarm about Russian nukes in space. Related topic, as such intel may be a significant part of the Administration’s overall understanding of Russian threats that affects its Ukraine policy.
“The White House's national security adviser and leading lawmakers on Capitol Hill sought to allay public concerns on Wednesday after the House Intelligence Committee chairman warned of a "national security threat" related to a "destabilizing foreign military capability" so serious that President Joe Biden should declassify "all information" about it.”
A current and a former U.S. official said the new intelligence was related to Russia’s attempts to develop a space-based antisatellite nuclear weapon.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/14/us/politics/intelligence-russia-nuclear.html -
3 hours ago, The_Capt said:
So unless he plans on firing great swaths of civil servants - and that is one big union to take on, I do not see him cutting through all that any easier than he did last time.
By now you've seen all the unpleasant answers to your questions. Honestly - with respect, sympathies and appreciation, and despite your earlier objurgations and excoriations, unfortunately we must accept the tensions of not knowing the “correct“ singular answer to understandable confusions about various fraught possibilities in the USA political meltdown. There are no definitive answers until November. If then. And imagine how WE feel back in the, back in the, back in the USA! We have had to live with both the dire warnings *and* the reassurances (“He’s just joking”) for YEARS. Rising to a crescendo on January 6 and now nearing a fever pitch as the next election approaches. But please understand that large numbers of impeccable, credible, insightful voices from both military and civilian backgrounds here have been sounding the alarm in print and online since the 2016-20 first Trump.
Trying to pick one “(he’s joking, and he can’t be an autocrat anyway”) or the other (“he’s deadly serious, like a mob boss and has his loyal lieutenants lined up to begin the process on January 20”) is a fool’s errand. As terribly divided and volatile the public is, almost *anything* could happen. Except I think, a coup attempt if Trump loses. As with billbindc, I think it less likely this time, because he isn’t the incumbent. The stark fear lies with him winning. That is at least a 50-50 probability. And yeah, I trust we’ve beaten this topic into a semblance of a shared understanding about the USA’s electoral and political realities and can wind it up now.
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26 minutes ago, The_Capt said:
Dude, ok it is getting weird now. This is like being on a bus and the guy next to you asks “Do you know about Jesus?” I am not asking what Trump says he will do? I am not asking what he wants to do? I am asking that all things being equal and he winds up in some sort of inverse version of where Biden is right now…what can Trump actually do?
Given his absurd declarations last time compared to what actually got done, we have precedent here. I think I can safely say that your position is pretty clear and duly noted. Now I am going to go find another place to sit - and maybe find someone a bit more pragmatic about the whole thing.
My, you have colorful if irrelevant rhetorical devices! Irrelevant, but colorful. I believe Ive addressed your strawmen sufficiently but please do pay attention to what billbindc, Vet, Dan, and the rest have said more succinctly than I have. We’ve outlined what he can do and why. And read that reporting you likely didn’t. Now back to our War!
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Remember saying this a few pages ago:
‘ I have brought up states removing Trump from the ballot, Ukraine war and various other red lights. The response has been “sure but XYZ checks, balances etc etc” Now suddenly Trump is going to take over and rule you all like Stalin? I am getting whiplash here”
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6 hours ago, The_Capt said:
We have heard all sort of voices on this forum coming at this from different angles and they definitely are not all saying the same thing.
Hey! The posts from me have been in response to you claiming a whiplash injury! As if “everyone* was saying the guardrails will hold if Trump takes over, and now hearing a number of us saying, there are good reasons to suggest they will not. No one is saying you must adopt certain opinions. Plain and simple not to ignore them as never having been expressed. To be clear, I am still glad for your faith in the USA! And far more than you, I hope you and the opinions you are apparently endorsing “it can’t happen here”, are how things turn out. But for the love of Pete please don’t simply ignore, hope, dismiss, and then claim shock if things get even stickier down here than we have already experienced. The election is pretty much on a knife edge, and the future is unwritten.
How Hot is Ukraine Gonna Get?
in Combat Mission Black Sea
Posted
No! It’s THE OIL CANS!