#most japanese use of a doomsday bunker

[405blazeitt]

i haven't been keeping up with hajime syacho (one of the og big youtubers in japan), but his latest video caught my eye, so i tried to find the beginning of this saga and i very quickly learned that

① he bought a doomsday bunker ????

② he's been using it as a climate-controlled room to raise beetles

[rauthschild]

Trump Activates Doomsday Protocols While Surrounding China With Live Anti-Ship Missiles

By: Sorcha Faal

A grimly foreboding new Security Council (SC) report circulating in the Kremlin today noting how close the “Coronavirus Pandemic War” is tipping towards open global conflict, reveals the reason behind President Putin stating that the action plan for economic recovery from the current crisis “must address a new reality” is due to the grave assessments being made by the Ministry of Defense (MoD) that yesterday led Russia to warn the United States of a massive nuclear response—a nuclear war warning coming at the same time the US has deployed its Doomsday communications planes into the skies over America and the US Northern Command has dispersed essential command and control teams to multiple hardened locations, including the famous Cheyenne Mountain bunker complex in Colorado—and following saw the White House abruptly declaring within the past few hours that President Donald Trump is preparing to flee to his hardened military compound at Camp David.

All of which is occurring at the same time Director-General Chiu Kuo-cheng of the Taiwan National Security Bureau (NSB) is confirming the gravely ill health status of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un—that, in turn, has caused United States and Communist Chinese military forces to jockey themselves into position to preserve their respective positions and strategic interests should the Korean Peninsula explode into open warfare.

A positioning that this week has seen Communist Chinese combat armed aircraft expelling from what they claim are their waters a US Navy warship—that the United States immediately countered by throwing two even more powerful US Navy warships into these contested waters—which were joined by a President Trump declaration confirming that he has a “High Degree Of Confidence” that Communist China created the coronavirus in a Wuhan laboratory—and President Trump further stating that he is now “crafting retaliatory measures” against Communist China—retaliatory measures that already include Communist Chinese waters being surrounded by US Navy attack submarines armed with ship-killer missiles—and who just days ago, were joined for the first time in this crisis by US Marine fighter aircraft flying out of their Japanese bases armed with live Harpoon anti-ship missiles.  [Note: Some words and/or phrases appearing in quotes in this report are English language approximations of Russian words/phrases having no exact counterpart.]

US Marine Corps Hornet fighter jets forward-deployed to Japan conduct exercise against Communist Chinese warships while carrying live AGM-84D Harpoon anti-ship missiles (above/red arrow pointing at) on 29 April 2020.

According to this report, most appalling to be noticed over the past 24-hours as the United States and Communist China edge closer to open conflict in this “Coronavirus Pandemic War”, has been the leftist US mainstream propaganda media keeping hidden from the American people the truth and facts of what’s now occurring—a truth best described by top Indian military strategist Major General Shashi Asthana, who correctly calls this US-China conflict an “Undeclared World War III”—and facts which include why Russia has just threatened the United States with a massive nuclear response.  

If allowed to know the truth, though, this report details, the American people would become aware of the fact that their government asserts that the new low-yield nuclear weapons they’ve created “reduce the risk of nuclear war by reinforcing extended deterrence and assurance”—an assertion countered by Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, who speaking for President Putin warned the US that: “Any attack involving a US submarine-launched ballistic missile, regardless of its weapon specifications, would be perceived as a nuclear aggression”, with her adding: “Those who like to theorize about the flexibility of American nuclear potential must understand that in line with the Russian military doctrine such actions are seen as warranting retaliatory use of nuclear weapons by Russia”.

Most critical for the American people to know about this threat by Russia to launch a massive nuclear retaliatory strike against the United States, this report explains, is that before any US low-yield nuclear weapon can be fired, it must first be authorized by the United States National Command Authority (NCA)—that comprises President Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Deputy Defense Secretary David Norquist—as well as the US military commanding officers of what is known as the Unified Combatant Command (UCC).

The most powerful of the commanding officers in the Unified Combatant Command, this report continues, is US Navy Vice Admiral Charles A. Richard, who commands the United States Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM)—which comprises the triad of all of the air, sea and land based nuclear weapons possessed in the United States nuclear arsenal—and if pre-authorized by the President, or if communication with the National Command Authority cut off, is allowed to singlehandedly make split-second war condition decisions for nuclear weapons use—as are both Russian and Chinese military commanders having the same position as Vice Admiral Richard.

In having the godlike power of being able to instantly annihilate millions, if not tens-of-millions of human beings by split-second wartime decision making, this report notes, United States, Russian and Communist Chinese military commanders having such responsibility are guided by their opponents government authorized stated and published nuclear war doctrines—all three of which include a strict no first nuclear weapon use clause—but upon his being approved by the US Senate this past November-2019 to head the United States Strategic Command, saw Vice Admiral Richard stating that: “I could drive a truck through the holes in China’s no first use nuclear policy”—a statement when added to the assertion being made by the US government that their low-yield nuclear weapons don’t fall under their no first strike doctrine, makes it unmistakably clear what their intentions—intentions best exampled last week the US made a test nuclear bomb run on Communist China—that prompted a warning shot being fired at President Donald Trump in a white paper titled “Once World War III Starts, There Is No Going Back”, wherein he was told “the United States needs to prepare to absorb the first blow” from Communist Chinese military forces—but which no one believes either President Trump or Vice Admiral Richard is going to allow to happen.        

President Donald Trump orders B-1 heavy bomber under US Air Force and Japanese Defense Forces fighter aircraft to make test nuclear attack run (above) towards Communist China on 21 April 2020.

Most dangerously being kept hidden from the American people by their lying fake news mainstream propaganda media about this rapidly moving towards the nuclear abyss “Coronavirus Pandemic War”, however, this report further notes, is its being an exact mirror image to the last great global realignment of power occurring during the Great Depression-World World War II Era of last century—an historic era that saw massive and un-payable nation-state debt and global trade conflicts combining and igniting into all-out total war—the final result of which led to the Bretton Woods System and 1944 Agreement establishing a New World Order—but has now, in fact, collapsed into an old world order no longer viable because of the inherent ideological and economic conflicts existing between the United States and Communist China—and perhaps best explained today by the American banking genius William “Bill” Rhodes, who in viewing current global nation-state debt says it’s “the worst he’s ever seen”, thus causing him to grimly warn: “Here we have a planet-wide phenomenon that is going to make a number of countries have to face unsustainable debt positions”.

The countries most in danger of collapsing because of their “unsustainable debt positions”, this report concludes are those aligned with the Communist Chinese massive project called the Belt and Road Initiative, all of whom today are begging China to save them—an initiative created by Communist Chinese to upend and usurp the United States in foreign trade—and is now in grave peril as the Communist Chinese watch helplessly as President Trump crushes their currency—which explains why Communist China has just announced it won’t cooperate with the World Health Organization into finding out how the coronavirus pandemic started, and why, also, they have now launched a massive global propaganda attack on President Trump over his handling of the coronavirus crisis—both ill advised moves to be sure—especially when coming against a President Trump who when asked if he’d ever use nuclear weapons ominously said: “I’m never going to rule anything out”.

“Every battle is won before it is fought.”

Sun Tzu

[maneatingbadger]

Review - Wonder Woman (2017)

TL;DR: Wonder Woman is good. It has problems. See it, and discuss the problems. Also, airplanes. 

Wonder Woman (2017) is a good film. If you haven’t seen it yet, you should. (Trailer)

Wonder Woman is an important film. Women led and directed it. The character is a feminist icon and welcome change from ongoing male dominance of the superhero genre, at least on the big screen (can’t comment on comics). 

Wonder Woman is a long film. At just over 140 minutes runtime it never drags, but evening theatergoers may be shocked at the lateness of the hour when they exit, as I was last night. 

Now for some rambling thoughts (mild spoilers ahead). 

Wonder Woman is set in the waning days of World War I, a change from her Second World War origins that initially gave me pause. The mainstream moral authority of the Allies in WWII has its complexities, yet they pale in comparison to the more prominent clash of competitive imperialism a couple decades earlier. But Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), aka Diana Prince, is a superhero. Her joining the Allies is a foregone conclusion, and my apprehensions were almost immediately justified (and remained so almost to the very end) when downed pilot Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) calls himself “a good guy” and points at the Germans on the beach as “the bad guys.” Then he explains how the Ottoman Empire is keeping the Kaiser supplied with munitions, so now the faceless, menacing Turks join the evil German monolith. WWII at least had Nazis to punch, but you can’t read All Quiet on the Western Front and come away feeling the German Army in WWI was total evil. 

Then again, maybe you can. Rows of women sitting behind me fucking applauded and cheered as Diana cut swaths through German infantrymen. Never mind that some of them were undoubtedly conscripts, never mind that a German soldier was as patriotic as a Brit or Frenchman, never mind that war is hell and both sides learned that quickly. I can’t believe I’m praising this aspect of Captain America: The First Avenger, but at least Red Skull’s Hydra soldiers were basically Star Wars Stormtroopers circa Original Trilogy: totally made up and combat ineffective. It didn’t matter how many Hydras Steve Rogers and his Brooklyn Boy Band killed, because they were Bad Guys™ and also usually faceless behind masks. But they chose to set Wonder Woman in the actual fighting of WWI, not Marvel’s faux war within (and beyond) a war, and wanton slaughter is rarely a point of satisfaction in the far-from-perfect Hollywood war genre. I certainly never cheered as Tom Hanks’s unit outflanked and suppressed German bunkers in Saving Private Ryan, or when Japanese defenders repeatedly ambushed Marines in Letters from Iwo Jima. Yet we’re supposed to feel inspired by Wonder Woman singlehandedly disposing of fifty poor German boys because she looks good doing it?

Of relevance: The PG-13 rating (and associated lack of gore and violence you might expect from a dedicated WWI period piece) may contribute to some viewers’ lack of empathy for the wounded or dead. I’m not saying Wonder Woman should have been an R-rated war flick, because 1) that’s not what it was ever going to be, and 2) the audience most urgently needing this movie is young girls, so the more accessible the better. But the end result is still a fairly tame view of Western Front conditions. And the lack of blood from Diana cutting her way through German squads with a sword is desensitizing and immersion-breaking. 

Also of relevance: Diana at one point accuses a Scottish sniper (Ewen Bremner)—and more general practitioners of fighting from a distance, e.g., artillery—of fighting without honor because they do not necessarily see those they kill (or, in the case of generals and other REMFs, those they send off to die). There’s a lot to unpack here. The Amazons are a warrior society that worships leading from the front. An obvious drawback to that is when General Antiope dies on the beach: The Amazons lose their top commander (among others) in a skirmish to a small bunch of German sailors. Considering the qualitative and quantitative differences, that is not a favorable exchange ratio. Beyond that, snipers (like drone pilots) arguably see their targets in a much more intimate fashion than any other soldier does, thanks to their scopes (or camera turrets) and the long periods of observation that can precede pulling the trigger. We’ll cut Diana some slack because the Amazons have no concept of ranged warfare beyond the bow, but the notion of “honor” is also complicated. Michael Moore and others have voiced their hatred for snipers as cowards, as if war is a gentleman’s duel. Ethics in war usually applies to noncombatants and enemies who surrender: Those, in other words, who aren’t fighting you, are vulnerable, and have been found throughout history to merit protection. Killing them is cowardly, a point Diana also makes, but killing enemy combatants isn’t. If it were, what “honor” exists in racking up body counts against foes that cannot physically harm you? A sniper hides, a demigod is, well, a demigod, both are practically immune from preventative counters or immediate retaliation. Whither honor, Diana?

Diana’s concern for civilians hit by indiscriminate weapons like artillery and gas is curious in light of Gadot���s compulsory service in the IDF and support for Israel’s bloody 2014 Gaza campaign. This deserves more attention than I or anyone will give it, and I apologize for a level of compassion fatigue those in Gaza, Jordan, and the West Bank surely recognize all too well. Fans are forced to choose between a white feminist cinematic triumph and a marginalized and oppressed community (that this is a conundrum itself speaks volumes), no one wants to tackle Israel-Palestine on top of misogyny, and those sympathetic to Palestinians are losing the PR fight. It shouldn’t be a binary solution set: I gladly join the chorus hailing the film as an important cultural touchstone, and I embrace criticizing Gadot for her support of apartheid, occupation, and, ironically, civilian casualties, especially as she somehow manages not to choke on lines like “I’m willing to fight for those who cannot fight for themselves” or “only love can truly save the world.” Again, when Israeli fighters bomb hospitals, whither honor?

The above point also touches on larger intersectionality concerns that I’ll let other takes explain. 

Captain America aside: Like The First Avenger, Wonder Woman is an origin story about a gorgeous, invincible hero fighting the Germans for the Americans in Europe that ends on a multi-engined doomsday-device-carrying German bomber—hijacked on a suicide mission to save the day by a guy named Steve!

Back to WWI: I was fully prepared to write this movie off as “The Western Allies are good, the Central Powers and Turks are evil, and justice wins in the end.”  But Trevor neatly resolved my qualms in a short monologue while trying to convince a disillusioned Diana to keep helping him. Can’t find it online yet, but it goes something like “Maybe we’re all at fault! Maybe none of us deserve saving!” Diana gradually realizes that humans don’t need the malign influence of Ares, the Greek God of War and primary antagonist, to keep fighting and killing each other, that WWI was never divisible into “good” and “bad guys,” and this is after Chief (Eugene Brave Rock) the Blackfoot character’s almost throwaway line that Trevor’s people drove his off their land “in the last war.” Before those moments, Wonder Woman’s WWI setting was terrible; after them, it was at worst imperfect, a hit-and-miss attempt to address violence as a human phenomenon waged by problematic protagonists. I wish they’d addressed that earlier and more inclusively (the Germans and Turks still resonate as one-dimensional “bad guys”), but I’m impressed at how centrally and effectively that message played out in the end. 

The WWI setting brings us to the level of realism, continuity, and historical accuracy, oft-losing propositions for Hollywood in general at the best of times that tend to fare even worse in the superhero genre. To this day I will not forgive Marvel for its patently ridiculous modern-day helicarriers. But Wonder Woman misses the mark by less than I feared. Here’s what I was able to catch in one viewing: 

The Fokker Eindecker that Trevor flies to escape from Ottoman Turkey was the first operational fighter with a gun synchronized to shoot through the spinning propeller, allowing fixed guns on the centerline for improved accuracy. 

Eindeckers were deployed in the Middle East between 1916 and 1917, though they were mostly replaced by Fokker D.7’s when Wonder Woman rolls around a year a later. Still, props (get it?) to the movie for spotlighting a lesser film star and not the cinematically overused Camels and triplanes.

Note that Trevor escaped from Turkey in a light aircraft with a top speed of 76 knots and endurance under two hours. Even assuming a generous range of 200 miles from the Turkish coast, he can only splash down in the Black Sea or eastern Mediterranean, a rough clue to the location of the edge of Themyscira’s shield barrier. Then he and Diana take a small single-masted sailing vessel from there to London, a voyage of nearly 3,000 miles depending on where he crashed. 

The internet speculates that Themyscira may not exist on our temporal or spatial plane and therefore lacks a permanent location. This 1) could mean the island was closer to the UK when the two set out by boat, and 2) accounts for the island’s obscurity in a heavily trafficked area until Trevor’s fighter and the pursuing German warship blundered into it. Still, you’d think Zeus could have done better than a shield blocking only visible light.

Speaking of that warship, the ensuing beach battle has holes. The novelization disposes of the Kriegsmarine surface combatant on a coral reef, and I do recall wondering why the ship seems to roll and rise at an angle in the background at one point, but this was only a few frames and barely registered on my fellow viewers. Then its rowboats hit the beach in a horrifying demonstration of what happens when technological superiority is overwhelmed by the numerical variety. Passages came to mind from The Gun by CJ Chivers about the use of rapid-fire Maxim and Gatling guns against native tribes in European colonies, specifically the change in outcome when those guns jammed and a handful of soldiers confronted tribal human waves with muskets, bayonets, and bare hands. Similarly, the German riflemen open fire to deadly effect, but the Amazons overwhelm their rate of fire with a frontal cavalry charge. It doesn’t hurt that the Amazons are Made in Olympus, pursue a ridiculous fitness and training regimen, and fight like badasses. 

But they don’t confront Trevor until after the Germans are slain, though he wears a German disguise and grabs a rifle from a sailor in the melee. He is an armed male intruder, and only Diana recognizes his actions as friendly, yet he isn’t killed in the confusion or even threatened at sword- or bow-point afterward.

Speaking of swords, bows, and horses, the Amazon way of war could be much more effective if they emerged a century or even half a century earlier, in the heyday of post-Napoleonic fighting. Queen Hippolyta’s claim that they have nothing to fear while hiding in paradise already failed as an argument to shelter Diana from training; unexamined is what that level of sheltering applied to Amazon society as a whole portends if and when Themyscira finds itself exposed to an ever-advancing outside world. If Diana had come out a quarter century later, she would have confronted heavier and more destructive weapons probably beyond the protective envelope of her shield (unless it’s vibranium, though Wikipedia says an indestructible goat hide, which I like even more) and wrist/ankle bracelets. Her run through No Man’s Land was remarkably devoid of shrapnel, explosives, and weapons fire despite the whole trench line of German regulars shooting at an upright target, and she was stopped cold by machine-gun nests: Imagine 88mm shells from a line of King Tigers or 500lb bombs from diving Stukas. 

She may be a rapid-healing demigod immune to poison gas, but we also see her bleed and block bullets rather than take them. Modern weaponry can hurt and even kill her. And I haven’t even mentioned nukes.

Back to rivet counting: I can’t find any good images yet of the large German bomber from the climactic scene, but it appears to be a fictional version of the so-called Riesenflugzeug or “giant aircraft” bombers produced by Zeppelin-Staaken. 

Like the historical Zeppelin-Staaken R.VI, the movie version appears to have four engines (one Giant was even fitted with a fifth in the nose), but the movie plane has them arranged in four separate forward-facing engine nacelles. The R.VI by contrast had twin-engine pairs with one “pusher” and one “puller” propeller each. I’ll probably also come back to this once that scene is posted online.

The tank whose tracks are used to restrain Wonder Woman at the climax seemed to have the rhomboid shape of a British heavy tank, though the setting is a German-held airfield. 

The Germans captured a number of British heavy tanks of various marks and genders, so perhaps this is a pre-owned model. Again, I’ll be better able to confirm that once the scene is uploaded.

Poison gas is the movie’s most salient and best-realized WWI characteristic.

That about does it for first-runthrough nitpicking (IMDB has more on wristwatches and trouser zippers).

Oh, Rupert Gregson-Williams’s soundtrack is typical superhero fare that didn’t leave much of an impression, but the end credits piece before Sia’s single sounded awful familiar. I later thought I heard elements of Jeremy Soule’s Supreme Commander and Forged Alliance, Ramin Djawadi’s Pacific Rim, and Tom Holkenborg’s Mad Max: Fury Road OSTs, but maybe that’s just me.