Big Country Expat

Greetings Me Droogs N Droogettes!
@#$%^&* Pinkeye man. In the ONE eye (left) that didn’t have any issues. The cataract in the right eye made it damned near impossible to see period. fucking. dot. The VA has been, on the eye issue less than helpful in that they now insist that I come in to get ‘checked out’ by their folks.

Problem is, the VA here eye clinic here is retardedly backed-up appointment wise. I went through the VACCN Program, the Community Care Network (CCN) to get the appointment initially which was “OK N/P” Now? Since it’s going to cost? “Uhhhhh we can get you in in 18 months.”

Uhhhhh no motherfuckers. This’s my dominant shooting eye. I can’t see my red dot on my weapon(s). If the SHTF, I need to see ASAP.

Sooooo now I’m looking at having to use the work Insurance (I did get the vision plan as it’s the only affordable part of the health plan these days, and I do like the ability to get new glasses when needed. I’m just not sure what the OOP is going to be, which means watch out, possible raffle/fundraiser inbound.

Let me know in the comments what y’all may dig. I got the “Battery Holder” Claymores, and also the Matryoshka KGB dolly I used in the substack. Plus another one that’s the Russian Leadership from Lenin at the Center to Yeltsin. Those were from my time stationed in Germany after the Wall came down. Like I said, let me know. I may even do a weapon or so…

Now… True Lies.
“While our work isn’t finished, Bidenomics is already delivering for the American people.” (whitehouse.gov LINK)

Reality:

That’s my “Amazon Saved for Later” list…
Some of it is ‘stuff’ Gretchen was looking at, others from when I had saved it and just plain forgotten about it.
Yeah, we ALL have a list like this
BUT
Look at the amounts on the increases (if you can, I believe click to embiggen works)

In the past, to my malfunctioning memory) the increases were $0.25 here n’ there… this time? The majority of ‘stuff’ has increased across the board by $2.00 or moar fiatbux. The roof racks I was looking at for the car? $5.00.

Some will say “Well BC, it’s inflation.”
No fuckin’ Duh!!!
It’s just that the spin and lies that keeps coming out from Sodom on the Potomac… Those brain-fucking-dead ‘corpses in suits’ in DC are going to be utterly shocked when the next “Insurrection” that may or may not happen is of the “Frankenstein Torches, Pitchforks, and Rifles” sort instead of the “orderly unarmed variety”

In fact IMO, the very panicky reaction to the J6 “Insurrection-Which-Wasn’t” (which is how it should be referred to, not this “J6” bullshit… quick aside, by r/ourguys calling it the ‘J6’ thing, it’s going along with their definition, which we should never, ever do, here endth the spiel) but the “IWW” reaction, or I should say overreaction?

I can only imagine how they’d react to a genuinely pissed off heavily armed mob of say 50,000 people who show up, and don’t stop no matter what casualties taken… like overwhelming human-wave assaults like the Japanese did in 1942 on Guadalcanal… reason I say this is we now know with a certainty that OUR fake and gay DotMil doesn’t have the ability or stones to stand up to that sort of thing.

Those Marines back then were faaaar the superiors of the now-neutered 69th Intersectional Non-Binary Dildo Brigade(s) that the Leviathan can call up to guard them…and even then? We already know they don’t even trust those guys.
How do we know this?
The very fact that alllllll them Nasty Guard folks that were there to insure the installation of the Current Illegitimate Regime? That of the Pretender to the Glorious and Harmonious P&PBUH (Plus 10%) Orifice of The (p)Resident, The Dementor-in-Chief, Emperor Poopypants the First, Chief Executive of the Kidsmeller Pursuivant, Good Ole Slo Xi-Den?

They never issued nor allowed any of the troops ammunition.

Only O-3s and above had rounds for their pistols. I > think < they had some rounds, but it was all locked up and kept far away from the line doggies. Can’t risk a MAGA-Turret Gunner with his M240 deciding that “he’s had enough of this shit” and ending the whole farce right then and there. (looking at you Grimmy)

Happiness is a Belt Fed Machine Gun I swear….
Ride the Lightning gang if given the chance…
That’s what spare barrels are for.

True story:
I melted the cover off of my M249 SAW (5.56mm) heat shield and blew the chrome out of the barrel back in the day. In fact the plastic on the heat shield caught fire as it slagged into the barrel. What had happened was we’d signed for a utterly retarded amount of ammo for our Fall Field Exercise… “Use it or Lose it” indeed. SO much ammo… makes me smile to this day… so much that we had to shoot it all the fuck up. We’re talking tons here… each gunner got TWO TOW missiles each to fire… those were at the time running about $15,000.00 a throw, which in 1996 fiatbux was the cost of a really nice car EACH.

You can’t even imagine how much .50cal, belted 5.56mm, 40mm Belted (for the MK-19s) we had… Literally, I have a picture of my crew that I need to scan and put up here of them loading what was like a 60 foot long single belt of Ma Deuce ‘food’ into a BIG MK-19 can… it looks like those old pictures of the guys loading the wing ammo-sponsons on a P-51 Mustang with .50… 3-4 guys, a looooooong ass belt, being ‘layered’ into the can. Took 2 guys to manhandle it up onto the roof when it came time to shoot it all off.

Me? I had a 20 foot long belt of SAW ammo, which I subsequently used to chop down a small tree downrange. My TC/Section Leader fucking loved that. Like for real… he was cheering the whole time and when that tree went over? OMG…

Anyways, back to ‘stuff’
Don’t know if it’s still going on, but the great gun sales have gotten even lower. Don’t know if it’s still valid but PSA (Palmetto State) had this:

No BCG BUT
A mid-length AR for $280!?!
With Magpul Furniture?
If’n I wasn’t stone broke I’d buy two.
I mean I have two spare BCGs for backups anyways. With the $30 transfer fee at GunGirls? Free shipping???? Holy Hells! Even with shipping, figure a little over six bills for two ARs? (And just as an FYI, I personally prefer the mid-length gas system and use that as my primary weapon)

Good Lord, that’s giving them away

Then in Entertainment news:
As predicted by Enty, Lizzo the Hippo is going completely under the bus, after which said-bus will be going into the shop for a complete suspension rebuild. Them shocks and springs are never going to be recoverable after running that fat blaq pile of lard over. ONLY reason I mention this is that

A) Enty from “Crazy Day and Nights” called this months ago which is why I consider him a must-read for Intel. Link is HERE he’s 5 out of 5 on the scale and because he also dabbles in Poly-Ticks as most fuckwad Poly-Ticians are now interchangeable with celebutards, you can sometimes mine some intel nuggets. That and

B) This Meme:

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!
If you get it, you do, and sorry about the keyboard(s)
So More Later
Big Country

Hey, This’s Sapper. BCE is ok, but kind of blind. Seems not only did he catch the crud, but got some pinkeye going on. Can’t really see too well, so he’s going to be out for a bit.

He asked me to give the update, and apologizes for the extended outage.
(Guy doesn’t catch a break does he?)

Sapper

Greetings Me Droogs N Droogettes!
Soooo seems that ‘newly released vidya’ of the T-72 Tank taking on an entire Krainian Klown Kolumn and utterly Killing it “old school” was actually from two months ago.

The Interview with them was just done and released. They didn’t even know about what an uproar their actions had, until Shoigu hisself showed up to give them their awards

Seems that “Laska” – the tank commander, “Lionya” – the tank gunner, and “Monolith” – the driver/mechanic were awarded with the equivalent of the Medal… In the Soviet Days it was “Hero of the Soviet Union”.

After action reports that they were critical in repulsing what turned into a non-stop shit show of a Krainian Assault, and ended up being a game changer. The Interview (which I screen shotted, well, best to sum it up in what “Laska” said:

“We Died Yesterday”

It twigged in my mind, as the translation apps are sometimes a bit wonky, when it hit me:

Talk about dead-nuts on Aye?
Not sure if that’s what he meant, but hey, they faced undeniably bad and overwhelming odds and kicked the ever loving fuck out of at least a heavy Mech Platoon, to include at the final count 2 x T-64M models, and 8 MRAPs…

So… when the time comes, don’t question the “What” of it.
Do what you trained to do.
As we were taught back in the day, the “Rule of The LGOPs” comes into play… that is “Little Groups of Paratroopers”
“After the demise of the best Airborne plan, a most terrifying effect occurs on the battlefield.  This effect is known as the rule of the LGOPs.  This is, in its purest form, small groups of pissed-off 19 year old American paratroopers.  They are well-trained, armed to the teeth and lack serious adult supervision.  They collectively remember the Commander’s intent as “March to the sound of the guns and kill anyone who is not dressed like you…” or something like that.  Happily they go about the day’s work…..“

Damned straight.
Question not the Commander’s Intent after the fact
Just go out and lay as much hurt on the Enemy as Humanly Possible.
THAT therein, lies the way to Victory.

And on that note, we got Gran#1 Again, as she’s starting school on Monday (so soon!)… Kindergarden no less (OMFG I’m old! old! old!) and we won’t see her for a few weeks whilst the transition is ongoing. So More Later
Big Country

Greetings Me Droogs N Droogettes!
OMG… been sick AF today… visited Dad at the Rehab Facility… lots of sick folks there so’s I’ma ka-thunkin’ that I might have picked up a bug. ANOTHER Reason I don’t go to the hospital unless I’m shooting blood from the orifices… odds are I’m going to catch something there that I didn’t start with.

Otherwise, doing ok, outside of the terminally runny node that makes me look like Hunter Biden after a bump or three, and the achey bod factor. No fever or anything, just feeling shitty ya know?

So on the other front(s) out there, did the “breakfast” on the Krainian MRE. That’s for the Substack over the weekend maybe, depends on when I can finish with the pics and eatin’. Tell you what, a “24 Hour Ration”… no kidding. LOT of food in one of them thar thingies.

Not paying any attention to the Cheeto Jeebus being indicted/arrested/jailed whatever. As far as I’m concerned, OrangeManBad had his fucking chance to do the ‘Spike Lee’ (do the right thing) and he didn’t. Not only that, but he left a lot of well meaning idjits in a sling regarding the J6 Witchhunt who’re still paying for his betrayal. I mean the fact he didn’t leave a blanket pardon for anyone who showed up, but pardoned what appeared to be a hell of a lot of small-hat-big-nosed criminals at his (((son in law’s))) request, I got nothing for his grifting ass.

In fact One of those that he pardoned for scamming and stealing money from folks has been arrested again for doing the same exact type of sleazy shit he was pardoned for the first time. Seems Eliyahu “Eli” Weinstein got busted with 4 others for doing another Ponzi Scheme that was worth $35 million. Not only that, but he hid assest that were supposed to be used to pay back the first group that were stupid enough to be taken in by him… Jews are gonna Jew I guess.

And I do not want to hear the whole “…but he was just one…” yadda yadda. Are you kidding me? I mean talk about a ethnic group as clueless and utterly incapable of self reflection or introspection as can be. As bad as the blaqs as a whole.

Never a clue as to “why do people eventually get tired of us and decide to kill us/chase us/run us off/out of a city/country/area?” Nope, it’s always “They’re jealous of us” or “We’re just better/smarter/quicker than ‘x’ group” rather than realizing that their inherent tribal nature of fucking over ANYONE and EVERYONE who isn’t part of their tribal structure is a target to be exploited. The very weaponization of groups like the ADL and the SPLC to insure that no criticism, however valid can be levied at them, just goes to show how fucked up things are…

Yep. I grow weary of it all.
Oh so weary.
Like Sam Bankman-Fried… That fucking scumfuck who stole billions and directly and provably laundered the money through the Krain, and right back to the very politicos who’re now ordering the “Just-Us” Department to cut him loose.

Ain’t no way we’re getting out of this alive.
Only thing that warms my heart is none of them are either.
So More Later, I gotta get some sleep
Big Country

Greetings Me Droogs N Droogettes!
Added a new family member “Beans” to the house. Chick was looking to re-home a male puddy tat, as her Landlord caught her with him.

So, as of late Bob-the-Cat, aka “The Asshole” has been showing signs of I dunno, like loneliness? Hard to read a cat but it seemed like that he wanted to play a LOT more often than the dog was willing to and/or wanting to.

So, when I saw the re-homing message on next door, I took a chance. Seems to be working out so far as Beans seems really timid around the men-folk (Me and Sapper) but has no issue with the Doggo, Bob, nor Gretchen. He’s a big sumbitch too, a Bombay, compared to Bob Lil Manx Ass. In fact I forget just how small Bob is and the breed is compared to others.

Bob seems to be the one ‘in charge’ despite hitting above his weight so to speak. Beans is, when he does come over to me, a purr-machine… like LOVES his rubbinz. Hope long term it works out. The very fact that they’ve been ganging up on the Pittie, who has been exceptionally restrained and gentle shows that I think they’re (all three) well matched.

Eh. So yeah, we got that going on now.

Now, I have a new substack going up shortly. This one is going to be a “read half, pay for it all” and see if it rolls in any shekels ort not. It’s going to be a review of, all things, a Ukrainian Field Ration.

I realized I had one or two in my long-term DotMil chow pelican case… The outer envelope is long-gone as it was opened by customs on the way in, and to save space I tossed the three meals (Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner) into the box.

The meal-in-question is a Menu #6
Buckwheat soup with pork 
Peas with vegetables and beef
Barley porridge with beef 
Braised potatoes with vegetables and pork 
Canned meat (TUSHONKA)

Have to check out the Substack to follow up with that.

Now, let’s see. Other news, seems that the Columbian Mercs in the employ of the Krain have had it with their “Slavic Overlords”… turns out that working for Nazis as an Untermenchen, you get treated like an untermenchen.
The vidya is over at Simplicius’s page, Link HERE
About 3/4 of the way down.
The Krainians beat down a bunch of guys (Columbians) then sprayed their commander down with pepper spray? when he got pissed off about the whole thing…

Now, couple that that (((they))) have been fucking over the other ‘hired guns’ (That Syrian Dood) and let me tell you, t’ain’t looking good for the “Home Team” IMO.

Mercs historically have a habit of, once being fucked over by their employers, WILL find a way to fuck YOU (said-employer) over right back, and usually at a ten-fold level.

I wouldn’t bet a plugged nickel for Krainfeld’s ass at this point. Outside of possibly getting protection from the Mossad, even the GAE/AINO fuckers are not going to be willing to step up when the wheels come off…

The Columbians?
Oh Holy Hells. These fucking sub-literate Slavic fucks know not of whom they trifle with. Me? If –I- were the Commander of the Columbians? I’d have my boys stand down for a day or two… let them fuckers think they’re in charge and running the show.

Then have my boys get up at like 0230/0300 and go through the entirety of the Krainain Unit, Battalion, Company whatevz… and have them cut every. single. throat. of. every. Krainian. there.

Columbian Necktie style.
If it’s a Brigade sized element, then take out the entire command staff. Then, once done, either mount up and bail to the nearest safe border OR head right to the Russians and tell them “Órale ese… we just did you a solid… mind getting us back to our country?” Of course it’ll never happen BUT

Man it’d be fucking glorious to hear something like that.
Shit… Another aspect? I’d be getting word back to each and every cartel just exactly how the Krainians feel about the Columbians, and make sure that ANY and ALL booger-sugar sent that way has a goodly dose of cyanide mixed in from here on out.

Krainfeld’d be dead within a week IMO.
So that’s it for now,
More Later
Big Country

Greetings Me Droogs N Droogettes!
Got me a feed now on Telegram? Graph? Dunno. War Porn Essentially. Makes me HELLA HAPPY that I got oot whilst the getting was good.

War? These Days?
Oh. My. God.
First Vidya is another for-real Kamikaze Tank.
Remember the first one I poasted up? The T-55 “Obsolete to the Point of Uselessness” I believe some folks would have us believe… until Ivan packed one with a couple of tons of their version of Super HE (think Octal and the like… really big boom for the buck stuff) and set it towards a Krainian Hard Point. Hell… Grins N Giggles, Replay Time ‘cos it, Lord Forgive Me, give me the giggles, especially that Ivan got the Krainians to self-immolate via RPG…

Yeah, that left a Mark.
As well as This New One here:

Very similar outcome…
Now, the other vidya is a MAJOR reason -why- I’m glad to be ‘out’ and NOT running around in the woods doing this shit anymore. The vid is of what appears to be a Krainian Squad of Infantry, humping. The vid (3 separate shot/angles/drones) show the new(ish) Russian Sudnyi Den’ (Judgement Day) i.e. “Terminator” Drones on what appears to be a ‘swarm attack’

3 Drones
First one takes out what appears to be a heavily laden guy near ‘Tail End Charlie’… the footage cuts out as the drone smokes him.
Second drone goes for a guy, looks like a machine gunner, who tries to run the hell off foe some cover… doesn’t look like he made it…
Third drone comes in, there’s smoke, pieces parts from the first two (drone pieces and guy parts), and the third zeros in on a guy behind a tree.
3 Separate Guys
3 Drones operating independently
Looks to me like 3 KIA… which scares the hell out of me. According to some of the intel I got on these, these are semi-intelligent drones… meaning they actively look for targets that’re pre-programmed in their RAM/ROM/EPROM or whatever their itty-bitty silicone brains are… in this case, looks like the three had “Man Marching with Rifle/Pack” as it’s targeting parameters.

That’s some serious SkyNet shit right there.

And as far as I know? The US? I knew our Drone Guys in Affy… the Highly Paid Civilian Contractors who trained and did the maintenance on them high end toys? As far as I know, outside of the CIA/Chair Farce “Predator” (now called the “Reaper” drones,) our armed drones are ONLY those models, armed with with Hellfire Missiles, which also BTW cost $150,000.00 a round…

Whereas the Russians got ‘swarm attack intelligent flying bombs’ which I’m sure cost faaaaaar less than the Hellfire. Odds are they build/buy probably 100-200 of them Judgement Day jobbers for the cost of one Hellfire.

No surprise. It’s all a scam and a grift.
OH… Which BTW, Another Krainfeldian Kon-Artiste Level Grift-O-Rama was found out. I got this a while ago, but as you all know, busy, work, Dad, MY MomUnit, Gretchen and the Cats and Dog, all living together… Total Chaos!!!! Sorry couldn’t resist… but for real
This Video… I can honestly say I’m surprised/not surprised:

The TL;DW
Some Syrian Merc went to the Krain, enticed by the cash he could make for a term fighting the Russians. As Syria has their own localized issues, and in some cases, the ability to go out and fuck with Ivan in the Krain for cash seems like a good idea…

He did a 3 month tour, survived, got paid off and went home. He had enough to get a motorcycle, so he went to buy one, cash in hand. They (the Dealership) called the cops on him, ‘cos it seems the Krainians paid him in bogus US Dollars.
Fuckin’ WOW man.
Like… wow… I don’t want to say “sterotypical” buuuuuuuuuut…
Every.
Single.
Fucking.
Time.
Counterfeit Cash. No wonder there’s been a significant slack off in calls for Mercs. Just Why in the hell would you go and fight for someone who literally is going to fuck you over… and it’s not like they need to fuck over this poor bastard… currently, reports are that the Krainian DotGov  foreign exchange reserves have reached a record high of nearly $39 billion thanks to financial support from Western partners… i.e. OUR tax dollars that they are hording like a motherfucker.

Like it’s really going to hurt to pay off this Syrian Kid his 3 months of Salary… my understanding is DotMil Trained guys who signed up for the Legion made between $820 USD to $2750 USD per month… so let’s just for funsies sakes say this guy was making $1000 a month.

They fucked him over for $3k.

Wow… that right there… well… it sez it all donnit now?
So… Yeeeeeeah
Looking Better and Better that I Stayed the Fuck Home Aye?
More Later
Big Country

Greetings Me Droogs N Droogettes!
Well, per Sputnik, the word is that that Charging Russian Tanker? Got him 9 out of 10 Maxxpros on that particular assault. Link is HERE and there’s follow up pics somewhere out there that I found, I think it was on the Hindustan Times where they had the Russian ‘mop up crew’ shooting vidyas of the carnage. Per the quote : “MOSCOW (Sputnik) – A Ukrainian battalion, trained in the West and equipped for the counteroffensive, has lost nine out of 10 available US-made MaxxPro armored vehicles and lost most of its troops, with only 10 servicepeople of the unit remaining at the forefront, a American daily reported on Sunday, citing a Ukrainian soldier.”

No surprise to me.

I’ve ridden in them big uncomfortable fuckers.
GREAT for surviving an EFP… an explosive force penetrator.

The weapon of choice by the Haj.

The copper plates were supposedly manufactured and imported by the Iranians. Reason being that they (the copper plates themselves) had to be -perfect- in thickness, density, and sizing to perform ‘the best’ for cutting into a vehicle… specifically through the armor.

The Maxxpro however, was not and is not designed for what the Krainians are using them for, which is a glorified Battle Taxi. WAAAAY too fucking tall… try 9 Feet tall with the turret. Hell, as we’ve seen now, I don’t think there’s a Battle-Cab out there that –is– designed or built well enough to survive that sort of action. The video showed the Kraians, even after losing the Heavies, the 2 T-64s they had, they kept going, which resulted in a wipeout.

Not a good plan/look.
No idea where they’re going to go from here.
I do see LOTS of weirdness happening in general.
Obozo’s chef “drowned” in 8 feet of water. Then his Messiahship was seen on the golf course looking all battered and shit, black eye, wrapped fingers, and no one bats an eye.

I’m suuuuure it’s nothing.

Then, the whole “Secret Chinese Bio-Lab in an Abandoned Building” thing…

Link HERE

Yep… nothing to see here… just a lab, and illegal Bio-War Lab, run by ‘unknown Chinese folks’… with some of the ‘stuff’ having been “…detected at least 20 potentially infectious agents, including coronavirus, HIV, hepatitis and herpes, according to a Health and Human Services letter dated June 6.”

Mind you we’re just now finding out about this.
It’s now August.
And it was because a Code Enforcement Officer got curious…
Man… yeah… shit like that gets Ye Olde Hackles up.

So Strange Days indeed. Times like this? Keep your head on a swivel per usual. Inventory and rotate the food(s). Been doing that here witht he canned stuff… what with using the Chicken that’s overdue (June 2022) but ‘serviceable’… killer is the prices are soooo off the chart as I had to have bought them at least in June of 2020… the cans are usually marked for a 2-3 year best by date, and in that 2-3 years?

Replacing the double pack of canned chicken cost an additional $3.20. I may end up letting the best by date go a while longer… all of it is stored indoors, in the temperature controlled indoor pantry… as long as they’re not bulging, I may just keep some of it a while longer… YMMV.

Check your mags and Ammo as well. I’ve instituted a once every two week check/lube/rotation. Can’t hurt. Otherwise, best to keep on keeping on.
So More Later
Big Country

Greetings Me Droogs N Droogettes!
The New Substack is up, and yeah, haven’t started charging for it yet. I keep getting told I should… maybe I’ll get around to it one of these weeks. Either way, Sunday!!! Sunday!!! Sunday!!! ‘Member them “Monster Truck” Commercials? back in the day?

Good shit there…
Only went once to one of those rallies.
It was one of the kids in school’s b-day party… his Dad was BIG into NASCAR and Monster Trucks. THANK whatever Deity that DeadDad was wired into, as he made me bring/wear earpro. Like HIS big ole googly-earmuffs we normally only wore when we went shooting. I took some shit from the other kids.
Initially
We ended up having to leave about 40 minutes into the show. ALL the kids, (‘cept me) and the Adults had headaches and were deaf AF… those who didn’t have earplugs that is. Me? I was the only one who suffered no ill effects.

So, Latest and Greatest From Da Kraine.
Seems that there’s a viday out there. H/T to Shitshow over on Gab, for the Yewtoob link, but I already had it… Sapper N I watched it last night. Longer than the usual 2-3 minute ‘combat vidya’:

I can embed it easier from the YT than the Russian site that it was originally poasted on. A quick Breakdown of the TL;DW.

From what it appears to be is a lone T Variant (80? 90? Not sure) Russian Tank that essentially goes on a full on suicide run. Like no joke. The Ukies are coming in (from the right side as the video is oriented) on what appears to be a meeting engagement of two Tanks (probably T-64s as that’s the majority of what the Krainians have left at this point) as well as what seem to be some (3? 4?) US Made Maxxpro MRAPs. Reason I say that’s what they are is that INSANELY High-Profile is visible from the vidya even at 2 or 3 kliks away.

The ‘narrator’ of the story appears to be the Drone Operator and his chief? boss? Unknown but BOTH of them are like flat out floored at the size of the Balls on the Crew of this Tank of theirs… The tank keeps dodging, juking and weaving, and keeps blowing the ever living shit out of the Krainians, much to the amazement of the Drone Operator(s). VERY cool video if they could get more footage or after-action footage…

Looks bad for the ‘Home Team’ in that particular vid. Which then leads me into an article I found that was written in google-translated English-from-Russian talking about the captured western gear. The link to the article is HERE and pretty much tells you what -I- expected.

Literally, no earth shattering reveals here to be seen.

The biggest takeaway that the Russians did get was that “…the maintainability of Western technology is “extremely low, especially in the field.” It also features resource-intensive maintenance. This situation is caused by “design features”, sometimes irrational, the source said.” Which is by design of course.

The Russians build their gear to be maintainable, as we used to for the crew to be able to do basic, hell even complex maintenance in the field. These days? Not so much. The Military Industrial Complex needs those machines to require highly specialized tools and replacement parts that only THEY can supply. That AND the technicians themselves for that matter.

In Afghanistan, 90% of the maintenance of the newer M-ATV (Oshkosk made) was ALL performed by factory technicians.

Like ALL of it. The –only– time I saw ANY ‘wrenching’ being done on the M-ATV was basic PMCS, which stands for Preventative Maintenance Checks and Services, i.e. make sure the oil and cherry juice is topped off, that the leaks are within spec (they always leak) and that was about it.

ZERO Unauthorized wrenching. ALL of it done by “Forward Placed/Based” Maintenance Technicians supplied by the various Usual Suspects like KBR, CACI and the like… exactly who is providing the wrenching for these projects? Not sure. Initially there were a LOT of calls for guys to go over, myself included, but since I’m not a Vehicle Tech, I have no real clue on what the deal is for the Krainians toys.

I’m sure there’s a nice, big, fat juicy Cost Plus Contract that was awarded somewhere without oversight and or bidding. Like Millions, if not Billions long term, ‘cos these cost plus gigs are never short term.

They’re ALL invariably long term, fixed priced, and include a parts program for all the fiddly bits that’re needed, ‘cos as Ivan said, the somewhat “irrational design features” are just that… A feature, not a bug.

It’s so that Uncle Sugar is ‘forced’ to buy the $700 gasket that -could- probably be made/gotten for $.07 cents, but which would mean that Senator Pusnuts Faggotface doesn’t get to “bring home the pork” to his constituents in the form of long-term manufacturing contracts. Which, by the by are usually then re-farmed out to Chy-Nah as a subcontracted piece-per-pay work anyways at a quarter cost of what the actual retail price would be.

And then, Lo and Behold! When the reality of “We need this NOW (JIT Delivery, just in time for those unfamiliar)” comes around, and then suddenly: “Hey! There’s a delay ‘cos the sub-contractor in West Laos has a localized supply issue, but we’re sure it’ll be resolved in a few weeks!” No one ever seems to be held responsible, even though it may cost lives. Thankfully our DotMil has never (so far) had to go IRL toe-to-toe with a peer DotMil since Korea, ‘cos right now?

Ain’t no way in FUCK are we in any way, shape or form capable of doing anything against Russia, never mind China… hell I think even the Canadians if they decided to get squirrelly up in Vermont, ain’t a whole hell of a lot we -could- do. The very fact that the Russians have called out the essentially unrepairable nature of our heavy gear, (and even then, they haven’t seen an Abrams yet) and the overly-complex designs which are NOT meant to ‘protect’ the people on said heavies, but to further the profit(s) of the manufacturers via an expensive and/or complex repair need on said parts.

I mean no wonder the Brits ordered the Krainians to NOT field the Challenger… it’s not the ‘sooper-secret-armor composition I think, inasmuch is that it’d me poor advertising of their “best Tank” when it comes to potentially selling them to other countries like Egypt or Saudi, both of whom in the past have bought British Tanks.

Hell, Krauss-Maffei, the makes of the Leos have gotten the proverbial ‘black eye’ when it comes to just how lame their Leopard II Alpha 6 model was/is. Before when the Leo IIs were getting smoked in Yemen, the excuse was that it was the ‘export model’ and “not as good as the 2A6” as it was the export model and therefor not the best version.
The Krainians put that lie to rest mighty quick, or rather, I should say that the Russians did… rather quickly, and I think now that’s part of the reason that they’re continuing this stupidity. Russia needs to be punished for showing that the Germans vaunted Leopard Tanks ain’t so vaunted Aye?

You can only imagine how bad it’d be IF they’d actually sent the M1’s over there… There’s a LOT of leaked footage and pictures of the Yemen fight again showing the ‘export model’ of the Abrams ALLLLLLL sorts of torched up. General Dynamics’d be well on the hook for another spectacular failure…

Anyways, food for thought.
More Later, I’m baking Chocolate Chip Cookies tonight.
Big Country

Greetings Me Droogs N Droogettes!
Another day come and gone. This one, again, I literally slept completely away. The docs say it’s because I’m running at full steam all week long that by the time the weekend comes around, my batteries are ‘depleted’.

You know it was a full nights sleep when your ‘breakfast’ is Sapper waking you up with Papa Johns. At 1730. Sheesh. Last night though was fun and productive. I made and we all ate the entirity of the batch of molasses cookies I made. They were a bit too ‘poofy’ (a wee too much baking soda… just a lil too much) that made them a bit more ‘cakey’ than I like but the flavor was so good… between the three of us, we killed the whole batch.

The diet? What diet of which do you speak?
Actually, the diet has been going gangbusters. 4 weeks, and Ozempic and man, I’m down almost 29 pounds in total. Between eating well, no soda (outside of a morning Monster/RipIt) and walking? I’m rapidly getting back into good shape.

So I can let it go when I bake up a premium batch of good cookies and gorge.

Now, as to recent events:
Bitch McConnell?

Yeah
The Gerontocracy ain’t looking too good these days…

Pretty sure that IF the Founding Fathers had thought it possible, there would have been an “Aging Out” Clause put in the Rules.

Thing was, back then? The average age/life expectancy of a Male in 1776 was 38 years old. Only the ‘genetically blessed and/or ‘well off’ (like Washington/Franklin and the rest) made it past their fifties… Hell, Washington cashed in at 67, which back then was old.

The very fact that these fucking retards are saying that the current Pretender to the Glorious and Harmonious P&PBUH (Plus 10%) Orifice of The (p)Resident, The Dementor-in-Chief, Emperor Poopypants the First, Chief Executive of the Kidsmeller Pursuivant, Good Ole Slo Xi-Den is up for re-election!?!

Fucker is already the oldest, most worthless skin-puppet in the Orifice NOW and in history… never mind that IF they manage to steal the whole show again, he’d be 82 fucking drooling years old when he’d have to take the Oath again, not that taking the Oath means –anything– any longer.

And because they ALL have been making sure that they’re essentially ‘the only ones capable of doing the job’, i.e. insuring that they don’t have viable replacements (as having a viable replacement makes them vulnerable, so that’s a no-go) means that WHEN they die, as it will happen…no threats, it’s just a statement of nature/facts, (despite how they LOVE to try and change reality to suit their twisted egos) that there ain’t no capable people to carry on… which opens up a bunch of potentially unpleasant problems… I mean the VP? Harris-the-Ho was picked BECAUSE she was a vacuum-skulled half breed dothead-black chick with no real chops… and all the rest of the ‘new breed’ are either hopelessly compromised/Judaized (Zioclops Crenshaw for one) or utterly dementedly stupid (Occasional Cortex, the Titty Bar Slore) that we as a country? Yeah
We’re fucked.

I mean looking at Feinstein? Are we sure she’s actually alive? Modern servo-technology and nanobots have come a long way… for all we know that corpse in a chair is literally reanimated in another room, and they only wheel her out of the fridge for public votes that she has to be visibly present at.

It’s “Weekend at Bernies” 24-7 these days.
As they say “This will not end well”
More Later
Big Country

Greetings Me Droogs N Droogettes!
What a week we’ve had here at Ye Olde Casa. Dad’s medical condition has improved, however, both of Gretchen’s ‘rents are firmly believing that they can handle taking care of themselves still whereas the evidence shows that they’re not.

We got the report from “I’vefallenandcan’tgetup dot com (j/k) and it shows that Dad’s taken a header at least 24 times in the past 18 months. One day it was 3 in a row. However, they’re not listening, nor wanting to hear it. I’m of half a mind to just hand him my pistola with one round and telling him to just get it over with now, as opposed to dragging us through all this non-stop bullshit.
>Le Sigh<
We all know I can’t and won’t, but yeah, that’s where I’m at at this point. The daily drive for Gretchen has been killing her, never mind cutting into any of our (non-existing) extra income. It’s like a $50 trip each time, which adds up. She’s even offered to go back and live there half the week, just to make sure there’s some stability, but then they refuse even that.

So, he’s got physical rehab ahead of him, and he’s telling us that he’s NOT going. Told Gretchen to tell him he either does rehab, or we won’t bring the Gran up for a visit. I hate to be the asshole in this, but I’m overstressed, overtaxed and generally, I’m wore-the-fuck-out.

A couple of bright lights here though have been you guys. The donations we got have been keeping our heads above water (thank you for all that y’all have done on that let me tell you…) and another thing was I got a rather ‘cryptic email’ from “Steady Steve” warning me of a ‘package inbound’ and to be aware.

Now, generally, things like that are to be approached with Level 4 MOPP Gear and/or an EOD Suit… that being said Steve has sent me some stuff in the past, so I wasn’t too concerned. What did show was a rather lavish gift of some premium steaks packed in dry ice. Like try Waygu Filet Mignon.

There’s steaks, and then there’s fucking steaks man!!!
Holy. Shit.
The note included mentioned his apparent horror that we’d been fucked up via that bad Mickey D’s we had a ways back, and so he gifted us some top end steaks…

Hoo boy man… I’m gonna have to think long and hard of the “how and when” for them babies… Waygu? Never had it before and I sure AF don’t want to fuck it up when I cook them… any advice from the peanut galley is welcome, as that level of beef is beyond my skill set/knowledge.

The other aspect of the gift was the comedy that I had messing with the animals… I took the dry ice and did the “make it foggy/steamy” by putting water on it… The Sausage Princess was alllll sorts of weirded out… I didn’t let her get close to the ice itself, but when I ‘watered it down’ and it went all sizzling and foggy, she tripped. Pretty humorous.

Again, me most ‘umble thanks to Steady Steve for his unbelievable gifty. They will be enjoyed to the max bro.

Now, as far as ‘current events’
Lets see… biddness as usual. Everything is “fucked”, heading towards “more fucked” with a slight chance of “increased fuckery” in the interim. The very fact that they haven’t gone after the Pretender to the Glorious and Harmonious P&PBUH (Plus 10%) Orifice of The (p)Resident, The Dementor-in-Chief, Emperor Poopypants the First, Chief Executive of the Kidsmeller Pursuivant, Good Ole Slo Xi-Den for what are blatant and obvious “high crimes and/or misdemeanors” when they literally tried to fry a sitting President for making a fucking phone call is not lost on “Joe Sixpack”

The disparity is what’s going to get them in deeeeeeep shit. I mean the IRS announced they’re no longer going to show up at people’s domiciles, probably ‘cos they know they’re more than likely to ‘disappear’, seeings that “…if the (p)Resident’s worthless crackwhore son gets away without paying taxes, why the fuck should we?” If there was ever a moment where the old western “Multiple S’s” come into play, that’d be it. Those being:
Shoot ’em
Shovel ’em
and Shut up about it.
I got a buddy with a John Deer, 10 acres and he’s a good friend. The definition of which being one who helps dispose of the bodies Aye? Make of it what you will. Just remember, it takes two parts bleach and one part peroxide to fully remove bloodstains.
Jes’ Sayin’

Now, as far as economic ‘stuff’… I happened on something recently that was a HUGE indicator of “shrinkflation” as they call it. I ran out of Garlic Powder. Now, in this house? That qualifies as an emergency. I use that shit in everything. I use real garlic when I need to, but for ‘fast and dirty’ dinner making, a dash of the powder works in the interim. Besides, lots of the dishes I make, I don’t want/need the itty-bits of the garlic floating around in whatever I’m making.

So I ran to Publix, and bought the BIG jug of Garlic Powder they have. It wasn’t until I got home until I saw the difference:

Now, I fished the empty one out of the trash for the picture.

The new one is on the right, and was in the spice rack area that all the ‘other’ BIG bottles/jugs of spices are. The label on the spice rack in the store even shows the same label for the one one the left. My guess is this’s a new change, and they haven’t gotten up to speed.

First thing though, is you can tell right off the bat is size difference. 9oz on the old, versus 7.2oz on the new. The new jug is also just a wee bit ‘thinner’ than the older one, without the flaring. I even asked the kid if this was the ‘intermediate’ size bottle, and he was like “Nope, that’s the ‘new’ BIG bottle.” Told me he had a LOT of customers asking about it, as the cost?

The new one at 7.2oz costs as much as the old 9oz one did.

Granted, maybe being a bit petty here, however, it’s indicative of a greater problem, that being costs being ‘artificially maintained’… I.E. I buy what I think is “the big jug of spice” and yeah, I did, and yeah I paid for what I paid for it the last time.

HOWEVER

Reality is, I lost 1.8oz of product in the deal. That adds up pretty quickly when dealing in bulk. Just for grins, I calculated that the ‘missing 1.8oz’ makes up, in a case of the product call it 12 bottles in a case for shits n grins, an old case of 9oz bottles is 108oz. Say a bottle costs $5. That’s $60 a case for 108oz worth of product. (Mind you I’m making up all of these numbers purely for demonstrative purposes)

But when you lower the amount of product, and charge the same price? At 7.2oz per bottle, instead of 12 bottles, you get 15 bottles of product with a $15 profit.. 12 Bottles of 7.2oz worth of product comes out to 86.4oz of total product per case. That leaves 21.6oz of ‘free range product’ if you will, which just so happens to be enough to fill -exactly- three more bottles.

By shrinking the amount per bottle, and charging the same (the theoretical $5 per bottle) that’s $15 that’s now a ‘freebie’ but still hurts the consumer, ‘cos, leastways in THIS house? I’m going to be burning through 7.2oz of Garlic powder a hell of a lot quicker than I would have on the 9oz jug.

Now, multiply that by thousands of cases/bottles.
Pretty good gig if you can get it Aye?
Let me know what y’all see shrinkflation-wise as well… I’d be curious. I know Publix isn’t per se trying to fuck over the consumer, but this IS a pretty obvious case where the numbers and the ‘skim’ worked out pretty evenly, considering I pulled the dozen bottles per case and the $5 per bottle out of my ass, just for making an example.

And yes, the Substack will be up NLT Sunday. I had to trash the original one, as ‘current events’ in the Krain have gone sideways, and my points that I had done up are now moot. So, instead, I’m doing a writeup that will be a must read. Check it out.
So, More Later
Big Country