Free Republic

"Watching his Socrates ECM cycle has done very, very well for me, for two decades"

Including, apparently, the ten years he was in prison and not publishing forecasts. Because people incarcerated in Federal prison are not allowed to write and publish newsletters like that.

Armstrong invented Socrates after he got out and backdated it and created a back story for it resembling the Master Control Program from TRON.

Real world reality doesn't matter as much here as it used to.

Yes.

Check the Antihero Podcast, "Ep 37: Rob O'Neill: The Web of Lies". This was uploaded August 27, 2023. At 19 minutes it gets into who killed Bin Laden. Going back further, Task and Purpose (web), "Robert O’Neill Is Not The Hero Of The Bin Laden Raid", Published Nov 7, 2014.

"But he’s not the hero of the raid that killed bin Laden. Task & Purpose spoke with a member of the SEAL community under the condition of anonymity who said that SEALs and many in the special operations community are pissed that O’Neill is now stepping up to claim the spotlight."
...
"But it’s O’Neill — who almost certainly was not the most heroic man on the raid, and may not have even fired the shots that killed bin Laden — who now stands to garner all the credit.

" "“You have this point man, one of the real heroes of this thing, keeping quiet, being humble, and setting a good example,” Task & Purpose’s source said."

Osama Bin Laden was killed May 2, 2011, and O'Neill started taking credit a few years later. Carlson can't claim ignorance of the controversy around O'Neill and that the Special Operations community is mad at him for taking the credit. The SEAL community knows who shot Bin Laden, and that he does not want his name public. That man was not Robert O'Neill.

Food for thought:

For O'Neill and other SEALs on the Bin Laden raid to still be alive and tell their stories, as to who did and didn't kill Bin Laden, means they were not killed during Extortion 17.
But why let reality get in the way of a conspiracy theory?

"The reason for such intense scrutiny is the outsize contributions of Jewish donors to US political campaigns, with Jewish donors contributing a whopping 50% of funds received by the Democratic Party and 25% to the Republican Party, Troy says."

What is the source for that claim? Jews are 2.4% of the U.S. population. This means the remaining 97.6% of the U.S. population donate the remaining 50% to the Democrats and 75% to the Republicans. That sounds a bit far fetched.

By the way, the Free Republic HTML Sandbox show how to use tags so the image doesn't take up so much space.

Oversized images tend to disrupt threads. This is your thread you posted, right?

Who is funding them?

I have no idea.

The "Sure Foundation Baptist Church" (SFBC) is a small group of affiliated churches. Google Maps suggests it has ten member Churches, nine in the US, one in Canada.

From what I can find, the SFBC is derived from the New Independent Fundamental Baptist Movement, (NIFB) which started with Steven Anderson.

The United Orthodox Church (UOC) of Ukraine is the Moscow controlled, Russian intelligence controlled Chruch.

Just like the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) is run in support of the Russian government and Russian intelligence services, for over a hundred years now.

The Orthodox Chruch of Ukraine (OCU) is the Orthodox church that is loyal to Ukraine not Moscow.

It is one of many of Ukraine's churches that are not targeted by the Ukrainian government because they are not aiding Russia's invasion.

And I know people who keep posting "Zelensky is going after Christians" don't care that by making these arguments, they are defending Russian covert operations against sovereign nations.

Comments, questions, informed critiques, angry ranting and raving?

Tear Collection Kits available at poster's expense.

Yes, and many on the right are willing to help.

Don't forget about Jeff Sessions, Rod Rosenstein, and especially William Barr who let this happen. Matthew Whitaker was the only AG Trump had who wasn't out to get him, he wasn't around long enough or skilled enough to stop this.

Probably, and dumber about it.

To make sure it is posted on this thread, and in plain, fully descriptive, unambiguous, non-obscurative, Standard American English:

Treason is one of the few crimes under US Federal Law that has no statute of limitations.

Is that good enough?

Bayraktar TB2s carrying laser guided rockets sounds like a nice combo for providing early warning and shooting down Shahed drones. Helping pick off targets in Russia’s mini-meatwave attacks sounds good too. Unless Ukraine has more ambitious ideas in mind. Ukraine got really good use out of their TB2s.

Any Sir Lancelot sightings at the wedding?

“Eating carburetors for breakfast” was made up for that ad. It is a fake figure of speech.

Pipes is right on some points and a little off in others.

1. The White House cowboy succeeded
2. Washington preempted a potential nuclear enemy
3. Americans can still lead

All correct. It is also more correct that the Democrats hate Trump so much they would rather have the country and our allies suffer then let Trump accomplish anything and get the credit for it.

From #4, "For example, we now know that the U.S. Air Force provided hundreds of aerial refuelings for Israeli jets over Syria or Iraq on their way to Iran":
No one in the Trump administration or the Air Force has confirmed this. News media likes to speculate what could be connected, especially when it involves military matters when no one who knows is talking. Then eventually, some news agency puts the word "confirmed" or "confirmation" in an article title. Usually, the confirmation never has a source confirming what is supposed to be confirmed. This is classic "Those who know do not speak. Those who speak do not know", with a layer of those who don't know, want to sound good by making things up.

Israel has its own airborne refueling tankers. Their older tankers that were good enough to get the Israeli Air Force to Iran when they were bought, are still good enough for the job. Israel does not need US tankers for what they were already prepared to carry out on their own.

"6. Alarmists made wrong predictions":
Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, Steve Bannon and Douglas Macgregor among others of the more MAGA-than-Trump commentators were not just wrong, they laid bare how far over the deep end they are and have been. They left has lots of so-called experts who just use headlines as excuses to tell Democrats what they want to hear and as platforms for their own agendas and issues. Conservative commentary is not exempt from media manipulation.

"7. Air power won the day" and "11. Performative war replaced real war":
These two contradict each other a little. Iran can support Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis. In a stand up fight the proper Iranian armed forces showed how nearly useless they are, except as validating how well US weapons work.

When one side cannot mount effective opposition, the other side almost always gets total dominance. Drawing deep conclusions from a lopsided fight usually means little in the long run.

"12. Tehran attacked an ally":
Iran told Trump and Qatar in advance, and Trump let Iran get in a face saving attack on the Al Udeid Air Base which is largely abandoned. This is a repeat of what happened when after General Solemani was killed. Iran launched a retaliatory attack on al-Asad Airbase. Iran warned the US of both attacks in advance, and they did no real damage. They were just enough for Iran to claim "revenge!", not enough to invite further retaliation.

This reinforces how precarious the situation the Iranian government faces, when they need permission to save face.

Russia is not running out of weapons, meaning bullets, shells, rockets, bombs and missiles. That is true.

They are running out of tanks, armored vehicles, combat aircraft, and now used cars and trucks. As well as no-training infantry who are more afraid of getting killed by their own officers and blocking units behind them then by the Ukrainians in front of them. That is also true and more important than how many drones per month Russian can produce.

And money, let's not forget money. Russia's money woes are getting more visible outside of Russia. Which means the banking and finance problems are getting really bad inside Russia.

Lets take a look at the source of those videos, HS Mapping and search for videos about Pokrovsk, going back a year. This is what I found going back a year:

• "Pokrovsk Western Front Collapsed l Another Ukrainians Withdrawal"
• "Complete Collapse Of Ukrainian Defenses West Of Toretsk And North Of Pokrovsk"
• "Massive Russian Plan To Collapse Ukrainian Defenses Between Toretsk And Pokrovsk l Krymske Falls"
• "Complete Collapse Of Ukrainian Defense Line On Pokrovsk Front"
• "Pokrovsk Defenses Collapsed l Pokrovsk Battle Rages On Russians Push From South"
• "Collapse Of Ukrainian Defenses Between Toretsk And Pokrovsk Is Inevitable"
• "Russian Journey To Pokrovsk Is Clear l Russia Captures Zhelane l Ukrainian Incursion Continues"
• "Russian Breakthrough In Multiple Fronts l Russia Resumes Pokrovsk Offensive"
• "Pokrovsk And Toretsk Front Collapsed l Russia Captures 10 Ukrainian Villages l Niu York Falls"

For a defense to collapse for a year sounds odd to me. But then, my logic and reasoning are based on American cultural norms
They are not founded on Russian Nationalism, and definitely not any need to defend any Russian empire building.

This one from ten months ago, really shows the point: "Russian Forces Just 2 Kilometers Away from Pokrovsk l Central Toretsk Collapsed"

It has taken a year for Russia to achieve these three monumental tasks of historic military effort:

1. Advance two kilometers, which happen to be.
2. 35 kilometers from Donetsk city, where the invasion started.
2. All to not capture a city of 30 square kilometers.

This just adds to the three years worth of reasons why we Zeepers aren't impressed with Russian bravado or those who defend it.

Keep telling yourself that.

At first, it was Russia was going win in a few weeks. Weeks became months. Then the Russian narrative was the AFU is/is about to/was already destroyed so Ukraine might as well give up. It got comical when the Russian army's officially confirmed reporting destroying two to three times what Ukraine had, as well as more HIMARS than are in Europe. That didn't work, and now it is on to the mythological Red Army that can take casualties that would break any other nation.

In 1941, Germany invaded Russia. In 1944, Russia was strong enough to counter-attack. A year later they reached Berlin. For three years Russia has failed to make overwhelming manpower a winning strategy.

Ukraine is holding out better than Russia's economy.

"We're broke"

The best outcome for both Ukraine and Russia is for Putin to tank the Russian economy and face the consequences.

" charging across open fields with the expectation of minimal resistance."

Granted there is some loaded language here, it is amazing that Russia keeps making the same mistakes over and over again. Ukraine's battlefield surveillance is so good that Russia cannot mass forces anywhere to attack without Ukraine knowing it. Second, Russian logistics are so bad, there are few places they can concentrate forces for a major attack. This all tells Ukraine exactly how Russia forces will attack.

Ukraine's main strategy is attritional and preserving its own forces. They are willing to trade land for as much Russian blood as possible. The smart move for Ukraine is to drag this out as long as possible. Then hope there is a fall "mud season" to really slow Russia down and then let "General Winter" deal with the Russians.

After 3 years and thousands of pages of physical and electronic ink, the Russian army has advanced less than 100 kilometers from where they started. Russia has not won and Ukraine has not lost.

It's a bad situation there. Not much information available.
Three gunmen, six shot and one critical, police responding.
Anything on top of this is speculation.