Defence and Freedom

@ju_ri_22 @TheDeadDistrict Lots of warheads of missiles are built exactly for this - fragmentation also rearward to the sides, despite the overall forward motion adding to the fragmentation vector. ManPADS missile warheads are relatively small, though.

@DefenceFreedom @TheDeadDistrict the missile was on missing anyhow and it looks like it exploded when the distance increased again jetstream, vector of explosion, speeds - good chance not a single fragment was hitting the F18. lucky day for the pilot.

Detonation of an Iranian surface-to-air missile directly behind an F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fighter jet. It appears that all fragments passed by the aircraft without causing any damage.

I mean, how the hell is this even legal? Was it part of the contract that the seller is entitled to say “screw you and the money you've paid us, we're talking these weapons for ourselves”?

@ju_ri_22 @TheDeadDistrict No, the fuzes are usually either radio proximity fuze (kinda radar), laser proximity fuze or possibly electrostatic fuze - no IR detector fuze missile likely Mach 1.5...2 aircraft likely around Mach 0.7 fragments can be Mach 4

@TheDeadDistrict miracle why there were no flares the explosion was initiated by the hot exhaust when the rocket passed behind flightpath rocketspeed around 1 mph, the F18 a bit slower I doubt that any explosion fragment was hitting the F18

@TheDeadDistrict No, some fragments travel sideways backwards unless it's a continuous rod warhead. The visible fiery stuff is not all the fragments. This airframe likely undergoes extended maintenance, probably industry-level maintenance.

@haugejostein Well, keep in mind they only become relevant once a country is having big trouble with debt. Taking in credit can boost real incomes, but it was not necessarily sustainable. So the question is how did the sustainable level of real incomes develop?

A new paper shows that neoliberal austerity policies implemented by the World Bank and the IMF in Sub-Saharan Africa in the 1980s and 1990s were associated with a *20% decline in real incomes.* The destruction caused by these organisations across the Global South is staggering.

Why isn't anyone in the political class discussing how monstrous and unbelievably unacceptable it is that an 'assassination list' exists. It's really beginning to piss me off. How are we out here normalising the murders of diplomats. Hello? Anybody?

Die SPD führte 1977 mit dem KVKG die Familienversicherung ein, gegen den Widerstand der CDU. 50 Jahre später schafft sie sie wieder ab, freiwillig und ohne Gegenleistung. Eine Partei wickelt sich damit selbst ab und stellt ihre eigene Politik in Frage Das ist bemerkenswert.

There is no scenario where the Donald Trump administration goes to war with Russia. None. So what are “security guarantees” actually worth? We’ve seen this before, Budapest. Ukraine gave up its nukes. Got promises, and when it mattered most, those promises didn’t stop Vladimir Putin. That ship hasn’t just sailed, it sank.

And this, kids, is why you break (turn hard) INTO a missile. You’re trying to force an overshoot, just like this.

I am Romanian so I can laugh at the fact that the US president is a demented old man completely devoid of morality or basic human decency. But if I was American I would be ashamed of myself every single day he was in office. The world does not care "you didn't vote for him". He is YOUR president.

To be fair, nobody really climbs SUCH mountans in war. The Americans have a helicopter advantage. Still, an occupation of Iran would cost trillions per year and the Americans maybe cannot refinance their 8+ T $ maturing old debt + finance 2+ T $ deficit in 2026 even without war.

Most of China's sudden breakthroughs are because of the research the state started to fund 10-20 years ago. China would have stayed a backwater if it listened to the money and stock market obsessed Western economists. The greatest example might be EVs. The entire sector was called a vanity project by the foreigners.

what people mean by the rise of the Epstein class in a graphic

What the US is doing to Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores is absolutely crazy and outrageous. They are being subjected to a ludicrous show trial, in which they cannot fairly defend themselves. They can't pay their lawyers, because unilateral US sanctions block them from using Venezuelan government funds. So they are going to lose competent legal representation, and instead get a court-appointed nobody attorney who knows nothing about the case and can't adequately defend them. Moreover, CNN quotes a legal expert who admits that the US regime's kidnapping of President Maduro was a clear violation of international law, but the US judicial system doesn't care. This is a Kafkaesque imperial travesty of justice. Source: edition.cnn.com/2026/03/26/us/…

🤮 Kotz. Würg. Spei. Die große Selbstbedienung CDU und SPD machen den Bundesrechnungshof zur Parteizentrale Berlin, 25. März 2026 – Es ist amtlich: Die letzte halbwegs unabhängige Kontrollinstanz der Republik wird gerade von den Regierungsparteien geschluckt. Ansgar Heveling (CDU), seit 2009 Bundestagsabgeordneter und jahrelanger Justiziar der CDU/CSU-Fraktion sowie enger Merz-Vertrauter, soll neuer Präsident des Bundesrechnungshofs werden. Die schwarz-rote Koalition hat sich bereits geeinigt, die Wahl im Bundestag ist für Anfang Mai geplant, Amtsantritt Ende Mai. An seiner Seite Klara Geywitz (SPD), bis vor wenigen Monaten noch Bundesbauministerin und enge Scholz-Vertraute, die bereits am 19. März 2026 als Vizepräsidentin vereidigt wurde. Gerade noch brave Parteisoldaten im Bundestag und im Kabinett – und plötzlich sollen genau diese beiden die Regierung kontrollieren, wie sie mit den Steuergeldern der Bürger umgeht. Das ist nicht nur peinlich. Das ist ein frontaler Angriff auf jede Restglaubwürdigkeit staatlicher Kontrolle. Der Bundesrechnungshof – früher mal die letzte Bastion Der BRH in Bonn ist die oberste Finanzkontrollbehörde Deutschlands. Er prüft, ob der Bund sein Geld sinnvoll ausgibt, deckt Verschwendung auf und schreibt unangenehme Berichte an Parlament und Öffentlichkeit. Keine Sanktionsmacht, aber enormer politischer Druck – solange er unabhängig ist. Genau diese Unabhängigkeit wird jetzt systematisch zerstört. Ein amtierender CDU-Abgeordneter wechselt direkt vom Fraktionsbüro in den Chefsessel der Finanzkontrolle. Das gab es so noch nie. Frühere Präsidenten hatten meist etwas Abstand zur aktiven Politik. Heveling sitzt noch mitten drin. Und seine Vize kommt frisch aus dem SPD-Ministerium. Das ist keine Personalie. Das ist die komplette Übernahme. „Loyalität gegenüber Merz statt dem Steuerzahler“ Heveling war acht Jahre Justiziar der Unionsfraktion – auch in der Zeit, als Friedrich Merz Fraktionschef wurde. Er gilt als absolut loyal. Geywitz war bis vor kurzem noch Ministerin und hat die desaströse Baupolitik der Ampel mitverantwortet, die der Rechnungshof mehrfach scharf kritisiert hat. Und jetzt sollen genau diese beiden prüfen, ob die Regierung – also ihre eigenen Parteien – ordentlich wirtschaftet? 🤮 Kotz. Würg. Spei. Das ist exakt das, was die etablierten Parteien seit Jahren perfektionieren: Wichtige Kontrollposten mit eigenen Leuten besetzen, bis nichts mehr kontrolliert wird. Erinnerung - Kay Scheller, der scheidende Präsident, hat in den letzten Jahren noch relativ ungeschminkt „Staatsversagen“, unsolide Haushaltspolitik und gigantische Verschwendung angeprangert. Genau das soll jetzt offenbar aufhören. Parteifreunde kontrollieren Parteifreunde. Zwölf Jahre lang. Danach vielleicht noch ein schöner Ruheposten oder Beraterjob – alles auf Kosten der Steuerzahler. 🤮 Zum Kotzen! Der Bundesrechnungshof war eine der wenigen Institutionen, bei denen man noch halbwegs hoffen konnte, dass jemand die Regierung wirklich auf die Finger schaut. Diese Hoffnung ist jetzt offiziell beerdigt. CDU und SPD haben sie sich gegenseitig zum Fraß vorgeworfen. Und während die Bürger weiter die Rechnung für Schulden, Sondervermögen, Ineffizienz und grüne Luftschlösser bezahlen, feiern die Parteien die nächste erfolgreiche Selbstbedienungsrunde. Willkommen in der Republik der gegenseitigen Absicherung. Die Kontrolleure sind jetzt die Kontrollierten. (Und ja, das stinkt genau so, wie es aussieht.) 🤮🤮🤮

Moreover, you need no blockade for years for the severe scenario. Infrastructure damage is sufficient to "achieve" the same effects and we're already moving towards that degree of infrastructure damage. /done

I disagree with the 40 $/bl thing, and I got to say there IS a scenario in between. A crisis ongoing for 2-3 more months leads to a smaller global recession with famines in poor countries. /1

Must watch and share clip of Lebanese journalist @RaniaKhalek on Piers Morgan: “As a Lebanese person asking me to condemn resistance to a brutal supremacist settler colony is like asking a Jew in the 1940s to condemn resistance to Nazi Germany. My entire life my family and my people have been subjected to constant aggression, war crimes, torture, rape, and land theft by Israel. They’ve currently displaced over 1 million people and now Israel’s finance minister is saying they’re going to annex Southern Lebanon, depopulate it of Lebanese, and replace it with Jewish settlers just like they did in the West Bank.”

@softwarnet Do you understand that Ukrainians and Russians have modified these drones into using different frequencies and you couldn't tellf rom a photo whether the Irnaians did so, too?

Do you understand that Ukraine has been jamming these same cheesy Chinese commercial grade drones with off the shelf electronics for years? They are so effective that Russia has all but abandoned 2.4 and 5.8 ghz. The U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) utilizes a layered suite of electronic warfare (EW) tools ranging from individual backpack units to vehicle-mounted systems to disrupt 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz frequencies. The USMC actively fielded "non-kinetic" capabilities to every squad. For infantry on the move, the USMC relies on compact, battery-powered devices to jam standard drone frequencies such as the MODI II Backpack - A lightweight backpack system that jams the specific frequencies used by modern consumer drones (2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz). It is a versatile tool that can also be used for signals intelligence. The USMC has deployed handheld and rifle systems, such as the DroneGun Tactical and similar "rifle-style" jammers. These use directional antennas to "point and shoot" at a drone, forcing it to land or return to its home site. L-MADIS (Light Marine Air Defense Integrated System): Mounted on Polaris MRZR all-terrain vehicles, this system uses two vehicles: one for detection (radar and cameras) and one for "the brawn," utilizing the Modi II jammer to disrupt drone communications. MADIS (Marine Air Defense Integrated System): A more robust version mounted on Joint Light Tactical Vehicles (JLTVs). The Mk2 variant is specifically responsible for the Counter-UAS mission, using electronic countermeasures and an M134 Minigun for a layered defense. To counter swarm attacks, the USMC is deploying high-power microwave systems like the Epirus Leonidas, which can disable multiple drones simultaneously by overloading their electronics rather than just jamming their radio signals. twz.com/news-features/…