Bookmark Twain

Yes, We Are Back On Bookmarks Again

I'm feeling quite chuffed at having gotten rid of 9 Twitter Bookmarks - we continue to ignore the 'X' label and the re-titling as 'History' HA! take that Elong Tusk - since I didn't cancel the one about the Ukrainian armed forces structure.  I also copied the Donald Trump Blather Bingo Board to Word for later use.  I anticipate the DTBB will get extensive use until his mashed-potato brain gives up entirely.  Art!

What the White House is hiding from you

     'Twain', lest ye be unaware, is an obsolete word for 'Two', derived from the Old English 'Twegen', which is as far off the narrative track as we're going.

     ANYWAY let us continue with the Bookmarks, and once again I don't have any idea how much this Intro will take up.  Strap in and enjoy the wild ramble.

NUMBER 9

We encounter Pyotr Kurzin, the person being 'The Global Gambit' on Youtube, and whom is, interestingly, able to argue points with the guests he has on the channel, seeing this as a path to better understanding and enlightenment.  Art!

     Pyotr in the flesh.  Despite his name he broadcasts in best Estuary English, no need for subtitles, as he is half-Ruffian and half-British, in case you were worried.

     I need to clarify that '71%'since that's the amount taken from the National Wealth Fund, that fabled resource that seems to have elastic boundaries and no lower limit, except here.  Putinpot has nothing left in the NWF to sell apart from gold and yuan; all the euros, dollars and pounds sterling got sold off years ago in the early part of the Special Idiotic Operation.  It used to be that when the Kremlin 'sold' off it's gold, it was really an administrative movement between the NWF and the Ruffian Central Bank.  Well, no longer, when this gold is sold it's gone for good.

NUMBER 8

We mentioned the 'publicly available' organisation of the Ukrainian armed forces, using the acronyms 'TOE' and 'OOB' without explanation.  Deliberately, I hasten to add, since this Bookmark was coming up.  TOE = 'Table of Organisation and Equipment' or what kind of kit a unit had, and OOB= 'Order Of Battle', or what units were present for an engagement.  Art!

     AS is an ex-army officer whose specialism/focus/unhealthy obsession <delete where applicable> is Tunisia in the Second Unpleasantness, and whose mancave makes mine look tidy and sparse.  Art!

     You can't make out the writing unless using an electron microscope, so allow me to explicate that this is a Teuton infantry regiment of the Second Unpleasantness, one of three that made up an infantry division.  AS doesn't date it, rather a shame as Teuton infantry formations were always being reorganised.  The regiment depicted has 99 officers and 3,059 other ranks.  Allow me to blow up one section to starboard.  Art!

     There you have the Howitzer company, notably all horse-drawn, as was most of the Wehrmacht, and behind them the anti-tank company, notated as being motorised.  Presumably because horses are not bullet-proof in close proximity to enemy tanks on the battlefield.  Their <long incredibly dull screed of interest only to saddoes and nerds redacted by Mister Hand>.  the 'door-knocker'.

     

NUMBER 7

Your Humble Scribe has mentioned 'Daractenus' before, the Romanian wag whose English is better than a lot of the English, and whose satirical intent shines through his Tweets.  No mean feat.  Art!

     'very posh cities' is irony howling like a Category 5 hurricane. and the whole thread is far too long to post here, so I shall satisfy myself (and the Word Count) by just adding a single description:

Daractenus

@Daractenus

·

Aug 6

While a romantic sunset, sunrise or the sun in general is not something you're likely to experience in Norilsk, a city that fields a beautiful bi-annual Biblical plague when the local river runs red with pollution, is one for sure bound to go straight to your heart. And lungs.

Fabled Norilsk!

     Norilsk is one of those places that looks like the aftermath of a nuclear strike without any nuclear strike ever happening.

NUMBER 6*

Thanks to 'Klaas Meijer' for posting a video clip of TANKS, the ones visible being present at the French 'Musée De Blines', which is their equivalent of our own mighty BOVINGTON TANK MUSEUM.  Art!

     An AMX-13 in shockingly bad condition; I think because these are not part of the official interior displays, so they're not looked after at all, hence all that rust.  Art!

Self-propelled gun with APC behind it

     Caption not working so: an engineering vehicle, anti-aircraft version and a bridge-launcher.  Yes, the French built all their own AFVs.

     What can he mean?  Art!

     A Teuton Panther, Second Unpleasantness vintage, which the French took as booty during and after the war, until they made up their own tank fleet.  Out of service by 1947 and not greatly missed as they were swinish to maintain.

NUMBER 5

This is one I found irksome, and so did a lot of other commentators, to judge by the statistics.  Art!

     This is an extract from a 'naval historian' who seems more akin to a navel historian.  Khaki was an excellent camouflage, as judged by it still being used in the Second Unpleasantness, and it blended well with the landscape of France in 1914.  'Barely equipped' meant 2 Vickers-Maxim guns per infantry battalion - more TOE! - which is what every other European army mustered, except they mustered many, many times more than the BEF.  Every European army used cavalry, but the BEF used them dismounted as infantry when needed, and they proved an efficient reconnaissance force that also blocked Teuton cavalry -

     I could do a whole Intro on how wrong the Navel Historian is and if you're bad I WILL DO SO.  Art!

'The Nery Gun' of 'L' Battery, Royal Horse Artillery. 
BRITISH CAVALRY IN ACTION, Navel Hisorian

NUMBER 4

We've mentioned the aerospace combat pundit Justin Bronk in the past.  If this chap opines on air warfare, 'tis well to pay attention.  Also his skincare routines, as he looks no older than 18 despite being twice that age.  Art!

     Jammy sod.  'C-UAS' means 'Counter Unmanned Aerial Systems' because Justin is far too precise to simply say 'drone', and has complained in the past that this blanket term conceals a lot more than it conveys.

     Nice perk if you can get it.

NUMBER 3

Another entry from Beefy, which I'm not going to delete as I want to come back and examine the statistics here present.  Art!

     The resolution is so low that even magnifying it beyond this value reveals nothing, so I'd have to work through it line by line.  What torture.

     Also, notice the date: August 13th.  This chart is already out of date as the Kozaky are now targeting Ozon warehouses.  Time to bring on another bingo board!

NUMBER 2

A Ruffian daring to be critical of the war effort, and calling it a 'war', and doing so repeatedly on social media, and criticising the Kremlin, would normally end up prosecuted, silenced, in prison, dead, or all four.  Not so for Max.  Art!

     'Raketa Oreshnik' in the background.  The pundit here is Maxim Kalashnikov, a Ruffian milblogger whom for several months now has been as outspoken as he is here, if a touch less bitterly satirical.  Yet he's not been touched or warned off by the FSB, which leads Conrad to suspect he's got verrrry high level sponsors or protectors in Kremlin or oligarch circles, who date not criticise Charlie Chipmunk Cheeks directly.  Art!

     No, they don't, but they inspire a level of hatred amongst the Kozaky that isn't going to fade or be forgotten for generations.  Well done Putinpot!

NUMBER 1

One from my favouritest Twitter posters, Professor Peter Caddick-Adams, and a link you may - or may not - wish to follow.  Art!

     I am minded of Senator Mark Kelly's interactions with Ruffians when he was an astronaut aboard the ISS, where he defined their behaviour as:

1)  What can I steal?

2)  What can I take credit for?

3)  Whom can I blame if it all goes wrong?

     I have - O irony of ironies! - Bookmarked the page of notes taken from the hour-long podcast and may revisit it.

     And that's it.  Once again a single-subject blog.  Back to normal tomorrow.  Probably.

*  "I am not a number!  I am a free man!"