Guest scribbler and Military Intel vet, Brad Smith, returns for a free-range chat about Ukraine, UFOs, The Great Cyber Truck Mystery, LA Fires, DEMs, and the Winterscape in Michigan.
Thanks for the good interview. The news cycle is speeding up. It's a mad merry-go-round at centrifugal speed. Who gets thrown off the ride next?
My friend, Patrick, in Los Angeles, sent me a photo of a fiery plume/twister coming up from the ground or maybe down from the sky in the Palisades Fire. It looked like a solar flare on the sun. To me, it looked like the Wrath of God.
Biden just gave Zelensky billions more dollars because the US dollars pay the Ukrainian bureaucrats and soldiers. Without the US money, Zelenky's regime would collapse in days just like the Kabul government did.
Biden thus prevented Trump from ending the war quickly.
It would be interesting to learn how much of those billions is in cash or armament. It was earlier reported that we were mostly offloading our "dated" stuff so the MIC could get orders to build new stuff. Great application of Basic Economics.
If the transfer isn't complete by 1/20, maybe Trump could pump the breaks...
And not just our outdated weapons, everyone in Europe sent every bit of outdated American weaponry and all their Soviet Era weapons as well. Europe is half way disarmed right now.
Trump and everyone else is pushing for Europe to spend more on NATO. They will all re-arm with newer more expensive stuff, if the people allow them too and if they have the money, which isn't as sure of a bet as one would think.
On top of that, arms control agreements have collapsed so that new classes of weapons will be developed by both sides.
The war itself has shown what new tech works and what doesn't, so that even relatively new systems will be replaced because they didn't work on this battlefield.
Russia will do the same, they have their share of corruption as well and one of the reasons Putin stays in power so easily is that he knows which oligarchs butter his bread.
Cold War 2.0 will be very lucrative for the merchants of war, not so much for the peons in the US, Russia or Europe who pay for it. But that is becoming a problem for politicians, the peons are sick of paying for it and it doesn't seem like all the scary Putin Boogieman stories in the world are enough to get the public behind another massive round of defense spending, not here or in Europe anyway. In Russia it's easier to sell the people on defense spending thanks to this war and others that the US has waged.
China appears to be ramping up in a big way militarily but they haven't upped the percent of their GDP that they spend all that much, it's just that their GDP has grown huge, so that the same 3-4% of GDP buys a whole lot more and they have gotten better at building high tech weapons on the cheap than anyone else. They are able to ramp up in a big way without it appearing to be a drain on their economy, that's not the case for anyone else that I know of. They have been the biggest winners of the Ukraine war.
Fun show, thanks for having me back on. We almost finished in twenty minutes. Not bad for that many topics.
On the topic of Directed Energy Weapons, they have all kinds of stuff now that they didn't have just ten years ago. Everyone's been putting big bucks into them, making them smaller and more powerful all the time. It would be easy for them to start fires with them, but it would be even easier to get caught, they are very bright, especially if they are powerful enough to use from any distance at all. Starting fires from the ground would be easier and less risky, why terrorists have never done a huge attack using arson is beyond me, I've been predicting it for years.
The Brits have one that can hit a dime a kilometer away and each pulse is only $12. They have some that can be configured to go after different types of targets and microwave weapons as well.
Most of them have been expensive duds in one way or another, although it hasn't stopped them from dumping tons of money into them and all the big name players are still in the game.
The US has 21 different DEW's in their arsenal that they admit to, primarily missile and drone defense. They mounted one on a Striker that can shoot down incoming drones, mortars and artillery. It had mixed results from what I'm hearing. They mounted one on a C130 specter gunship, "spooky", with VERY mixed results, it's no longer in service. The tried to mount them on fighter jets and that failed as well. They can also shoot out pulses to knock out communications and destroy electronics.
"why terrorists have never done a huge attack using arson is beyond me, I've been predicting it for years." - With their popularity and proliferation, you may not have much longer to wait.
Saw some pics of the C130. Looked cumbersome and expensive. Not surprised to learn it's been mothballed. Our tax dollars at waste...
Thanks for the good interview. The news cycle is speeding up. It's a mad merry-go-round at centrifugal speed. Who gets thrown off the ride next?
My friend, Patrick, in Los Angeles, sent me a photo of a fiery plume/twister coming up from the ground or maybe down from the sky in the Palisades Fire. It looked like a solar flare on the sun. To me, it looked like the Wrath of God.
"Firenado" - ABC report used it last week.
Brian, Sounds like a cross between a Firebird and a Toronado.
Biden just gave Zelensky billions more dollars because the US dollars pay the Ukrainian bureaucrats and soldiers. Without the US money, Zelenky's regime would collapse in days just like the Kabul government did.
Biden thus prevented Trump from ending the war quickly.
It would be interesting to learn how much of those billions is in cash or armament. It was earlier reported that we were mostly offloading our "dated" stuff so the MIC could get orders to build new stuff. Great application of Basic Economics.
If the transfer isn't complete by 1/20, maybe Trump could pump the breaks...
And not just our outdated weapons, everyone in Europe sent every bit of outdated American weaponry and all their Soviet Era weapons as well. Europe is half way disarmed right now.
Trump and everyone else is pushing for Europe to spend more on NATO. They will all re-arm with newer more expensive stuff, if the people allow them too and if they have the money, which isn't as sure of a bet as one would think.
On top of that, arms control agreements have collapsed so that new classes of weapons will be developed by both sides.
The war itself has shown what new tech works and what doesn't, so that even relatively new systems will be replaced because they didn't work on this battlefield.
Russia will do the same, they have their share of corruption as well and one of the reasons Putin stays in power so easily is that he knows which oligarchs butter his bread.
Cold War 2.0 will be very lucrative for the merchants of war, not so much for the peons in the US, Russia or Europe who pay for it. But that is becoming a problem for politicians, the peons are sick of paying for it and it doesn't seem like all the scary Putin Boogieman stories in the world are enough to get the public behind another massive round of defense spending, not here or in Europe anyway. In Russia it's easier to sell the people on defense spending thanks to this war and others that the US has waged.
China appears to be ramping up in a big way militarily but they haven't upped the percent of their GDP that they spend all that much, it's just that their GDP has grown huge, so that the same 3-4% of GDP buys a whole lot more and they have gotten better at building high tech weapons on the cheap than anyone else. They are able to ramp up in a big way without it appearing to be a drain on their economy, that's not the case for anyone else that I know of. They have been the biggest winners of the Ukraine war.
Fun show, thanks for having me back on. We almost finished in twenty minutes. Not bad for that many topics.
On the topic of Directed Energy Weapons, they have all kinds of stuff now that they didn't have just ten years ago. Everyone's been putting big bucks into them, making them smaller and more powerful all the time. It would be easy for them to start fires with them, but it would be even easier to get caught, they are very bright, especially if they are powerful enough to use from any distance at all. Starting fires from the ground would be easier and less risky, why terrorists have never done a huge attack using arson is beyond me, I've been predicting it for years.
The Brits have one that can hit a dime a kilometer away and each pulse is only $12. They have some that can be configured to go after different types of targets and microwave weapons as well.
Most of them have been expensive duds in one way or another, although it hasn't stopped them from dumping tons of money into them and all the big name players are still in the game.
The US has 21 different DEW's in their arsenal that they admit to, primarily missile and drone defense. They mounted one on a Striker that can shoot down incoming drones, mortars and artillery. It had mixed results from what I'm hearing. They mounted one on a C130 specter gunship, "spooky", with VERY mixed results, it's no longer in service. The tried to mount them on fighter jets and that failed as well. They can also shoot out pulses to knock out communications and destroy electronics.
Fun indeed - and informative. Two primary goals.
"why terrorists have never done a huge attack using arson is beyond me, I've been predicting it for years." - With their popularity and proliferation, you may not have much longer to wait.
Saw some pics of the C130. Looked cumbersome and expensive. Not surprised to learn it's been mothballed. Our tax dollars at waste...