Tag: weapons

Pictorial Essay: 19 Weapons Of War That Make You Say “HUH???”

Since the warmongering whores of both the Democrappy and Repukey party are just itching for WWIII, I thought it would be fun to look at some Not-Ready-For-Prime-Time weaponry invented by humanity’s past idiots. Enjoy.

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SUBMARINES

Neger (Germany, WWII)

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First thing you need to know – easily butt-hurt politically correct people should stop reading now — is that “Neger” is German slang for “nigger”. This submarine derived its name from the fact that the Germans couldn’t even find volunteers from their mental institutions – “You want me to drive THAT thing? Nein!! Find yourself another nigger!”. Eventually they found pilots from the National Suicide Hotline.

The above picture looks like a torpedo glued to another torpedo, with a human riding in one of them. But, that’s actually a submarine … except, The Neger couldn’t actually, you know … submerge! The thing floated along like a Giant Turd while the pilot stuck inside struggled to breathe, or see.   The Neger would be positioned just slightly below the surface of the water. Waves constantly washed over the dome, making it basically impossible to see through. It was a fun boat.

Oh, it had absolutely zero navigational equipment. Neger’s pilots were instructed to bring their own watches with compasses in them and peer through the vehicle’s bubble dome to gradually steer toward enemy ships – which as already noted, was next to impossible. But wait, there’s more. Upon reaching a target, the pilots had to pull a lever to launch the Neger’s lone torpedo. Unfortunately, the release mechanism jammed more than half the time, launching the pilot for one helluva last ride to glory.

The Germans produced 200 of these suicide subs in 1944. Amazingly, they were able to destroy 5 ships in the Normandy invasion (one cruiser, one destroyer, and three minesweepers). The fatality rate for Neger pilots was 80%.

 

Aoshima I-400 (Japan, WWII)

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Yes, that’s an airplane on the sub!

US warships transiting from the Atlantic to the Pacific had to pass through the Panama Canal. Admiral Yamamoto thought that this was the Achilles Heel of the US Navy. So, he had this idea. Let’s severely damage the canal and choke off US fleet deployment by sinking a bunch of American ships while they were in the canal. Hmmm, OK, so how best to accomplish that? Bombers? Sounds good. Aircraft carrier? Sounds good. Submarines? Sounds good. Then, in a moment of orgasmic ecstasy, Admiral Yamamoto thought to himself, “Hell yeah, Grasshopper! Let’s combine all three in one vessel!!”

As such, the Aoshima I-400, the Death Star of WWII, was born. It displaced 6,500 tons and was over 400 feet long, or about three times the size of ordinary submarines of the day. It had a figure-eight hull shape for additional strength to handle the on-deck hangar for housing the three Aichi M6A Seiran aircraft. In addition, it had three anti-aircraft guns and a large deck gun as well as eight torpedo tubes from which they could fire the Long Lance – the largest, longest ranged and most deadly torpedo in use at the time. It housed a 144-person crew and more guns than the state of Texas. It stored enough fuel to circle the entire globe one and a half times and totaled over 13,000 horsepower of propulsion. Woo hoo!!!

But, in the biggest dickhead management cost-saving decision in history, the Japanese decided “Who the hell needs a runway?”. They would save a lot of money if their kamikaze pilots exploded instead of landing back on the submarine. (Takeoff, a one-time event, was accomplished via an 85-foot catapult.) These super-subs never fulfilled their designed roles; it’s unclear if they actually fought at all. Two of them were captured at war’s end and eventually scuttled in US waters.

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While we fight over Trump, France closes 3 mosques, finds hundreds of weapons

Hat tip Francis Marion

Via Hot Air

The French have adopted what is clearly a no-nonsense attitude toward radical Islamist terrorism since the Paris attacks and they’re not taking their foot off the gas. As the United States continues to debate over “tone” and how to balance religious liberty and tolerance against domestic security, Francois Hollande’s forces have “cut a few corners” on those subjects and just begun shutting down mosques. At least three of the Muslim houses of worship have been closed already and law enforcement has found a trove of disturbing items among the haul. (Speisa)

Police investigating the Paris terror attacks have shut down three mosques in a series of raids to close the net on Islamic extremists, the Express reports.

Police in France also arrested the owner of a revolver found during Wednesday’s raid, France’s Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said.

Security officials found jihadist documents at the mosque where yesterday’s raids took place.

They have placed nine people under house arrest. Another 22 have been banned from leaving the country Mr Cazeneuve said.

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How the US Became a Toyota Dealer for ISIS

Guest Post by Claire Bernish

 

(ANTIMEDIA) Middle East — If you’ve ever stumbled across genuine Islamic State propaganda videos or photos and their loose resemblance to car commercials — albeit with a notably dystopic terror-cult tinge — you probably quizzically crinkled your brow. But after time spent perusing more oddly indistinguishable ISIS propaganda than you’d care to remember, that crinkled brow surely crystallized into veritable folklore:

Where did ISIS get all those new Toyota trucks?!

Now, at long last, U.S. counterterrorism officials have commenced an ostensibly earnest attempt to answer that open question — by asking Toyota how, exactly, ISIS came to possess such an impressive array of its late-model pick-ups and SUVs.

In response, Toyota claims to have no idea how it happened — partly because tracking vehicle sales won’t necessarily catch middlemen or wholesalers with terrorist ties.

And after all, the company maintains a “strict policy to not sell vehicles to potential purchasers who may use or modify them for paramilitary or terrorist activities,” according to Ed Lewis, Toyota’s director of public policy and communications in Washington, as reported by ABC News. “We briefed Treasury on Toyota’s supply chains in the Middle East and the procedures Toyota has in place to protect supply chain integrity.”

Lewis’ reference to “Treasury” is Toyota’s pledge to “support” an inquiry by the U.S. Treasury Department’s rather problematically-monikered Terror Financing Unit — which is one ostensible arm of a purposefully nonspecific “effort” to somehow prevent ISIS from acquiring Western stuff.

“This is a question we’ve been asking our neighbors,” beseeched Iraqi Ambassador to the U.S., Lukman Faily. “How could these brand new trucks . . . these four-wheel drives, hundreds of them — where are they coming from?”

Toyota’s Land Cruisers and its overseas version of the Tacoma — the dubious Hilux — have become a notoriously iconic feature of ISIS.

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Why Do American Weapons End Up in Our Enemies’ Hands?

Guest Post by Ron Paul
undefinedIt happens so often you wonder whether it is due to total ineptness or a deliberate policy to undermine our efforts overseas. It’s most likely a result of corruption and unintended consequences, combined with a foreign policy that makes it impossible to determine who are our friends are and who are our enemies. One would think that so many failures in arming others to do our bidding in our effort to control an empire would awaken our leaders and the American people and prompt policy changes.

A recent headline in Mother Jones read: “US Weapons Have A Nasty Habit of Going AWOL.” The report was about $500 million worth of military equipment that is unaccounted for in Yemen. Just as in so many other places, our policy of provoking civil strife in Yemen has been a complete failure. At one time it was announced that there was a great victory in a war being won with drones assisting groups that claimed to be on our side in the Yemen Civil War. As usual, we could have expected that these weapons would end up in the hands of the militants not on the side of United States and would never be accounted for.

There are numerous examples of how our foreign intervention backfires and actually helps the enemy. Just recently a headline announced: “CIA cash sometimes refills al-Qaeda coffers.”  This was a story of our government helping pay ransom to al-Qaeda for the release an Afghan diplomat. However this was a measly $5 million so it was not considered a big deal. Another headline just recently announced that, “Iraqi army downs two UK planes carrying weapons for ISIL.” The Iraqi army is supposed to be on our side, and many people believe the UK is also on our side as well. One thing for sure the American taxpayer pays for all this nonsense.

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WE’RE #1

War – What’s it Good For?

Corporate Profits

Is the American Empire policing the world or inciting war around the globe?

Are Obama, McCain and the rest of the One Party politicians keeping the American people safe or putting the world in danger by proliferating weapons of destruction across the earth?

The proof is in the profit figures of the U.S. military industrial complex.

“WAR is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small “inside” group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.”

Smedley Butler