It's a Pip!

POV: you are the captain of an Iraqi oil tanker idling in a Dubai port

It's looking increasingly like these guys thought that if they could wreak more death and destruction than the other side then they would be respected as strong powerful men and they would "win" and that would make them big important heroes. Very possibly they had no rationale deeper than that.

Is it possible CENTCOM sent the plan along and said, "Here's what we need to do the thing" and the White House and SECDEF said "fuck it, we ball, do whatever with what you've got"?

is it morally or legally right? no

has it achieved any long standing strategic aims outside of degrading iranian strike assets? no

did any plan go into thinking about the second-order effects of this conflict? no

I still wonder if Witkoff really is that stupid that he believes that, or if he's so stupid he thinks he can convince us of it.

No way. No WAY.

In a functional democracy we wouldn't have gotten to this point, because they would have ushered him out behind closed doors and give him a dignified off-ramp.

A functional democracy wouldn't have elected him.

But here we are in a failing state.

His Cabinet thinks he's doing a fine job. He lets them do as they please and they tell him how smart he is that he told them to do it. They're not going to invoke the 25th.

Nah, see, this is him dictating gifts to China. It's totally a sign of his strength and massive orange dick.

Had you not told me that was Dakota Johnson and that it was a Vixen still, I would have believed you at first glance.

I mean, this is the closest he will likely ever get to admitting he might be wrong about something.

I keep thinking this is a quote from something else, but I can't place it.

Sure, but that's for the Warrior Class. We can't have the peasantry getting that. They might get ideas!

Wait, why would the Gondor flag be objectionable? Just that it's not a US flag?

it's curious how this won't be accompanied by 75,000 mainstream pundit pieces about how Republicans are obsessed with "identity politics" and need to reconnect with "real America" on "kitchen table issues"

Part of Trump’s mass appeal (and of why he’s so dangerous) is that he really seems to share Joe Barstool’s worldview that there are no complex problems: Everything has a simple brute solution, which previous leaders were somehow too stupid or weak to deploy.

Hell, acknowledging a group at all seems to set these fools off.

Wild. I had a cackling imbecile telling me that the magic bombers would destroy the stockpile and there wouldn't need to be a single American soldier on the ground.

Nice! I wish I'd gotten a picture, but I was more worried the bat would take off again and flutter around the house more.

Slightly poorer than historically. Looking it up, the CP also did not reach the victory conditions OTL: since Romania had captured Kronstadt/Brasov in their offensive, the CP would have had to capture all 5 Romanian supply cities -- and by the end of December, they hadn't captured Jassy/Iaci.

What a story!

As the CP Marshal, this looks like a difficult haul. Constanta will fall within the next few turns, but I've only got 3 turns to take Ploesti and Bucharest, and there's just a huge number of trench-lines now between the Danube and the Dambu rivers.

As happens all too often: intelligence tells the decision makers what they don't want to hear; they ignore it and press on with wishful thinking.

Sure, they know rocs as giant birds - but giant birds that use shrike (impale) or seagull (drop a heavily armored target from high up to crack the shell) tactics?

Unless the stupid fucks DO know what they are doing: and mass casualties is exactly what they want.

Maybe stupidity, maybe malice. Maybe malicious stupidity.

Delightful. Some kind of roc-sized bird, impaling humanoids on stakes!

It has absolutely been a delight to have moved where Joe and I can schedule regular sessions to play games.

Rumors of a Szekely lord somewhere southeast of Bistritz operating against both sides are just rumors, no matter what certain authors in Britain tell you.

The Romanians have advanced as far as the south bank of the Tarnava Mare River, taking Schaumburg (Sighisoara).

Fierce fighting continues in the Carpathians.

In southwest Romania, German forces and Bulgarian forces have linked up at Craiova.

On the Black Sea coast, Bulgarian and Turkish forces, with German advisors, crack the Romanian line. The plan remains to seize Constanta by the end of October.