Random News and Notes 10 January

A couple of days ago, Border Patrol shot two illegals during an enforcement action in Portland. The two tried to hit agents with their vehicle when they were shot. Both survived. At the time, DHS said the pair, Luis David Nino-Moncada and Yorlenys Betzabeth Zambrano-Contreras – both Venezuelan nationals – were members of TdA. The local authorities disputed that. At least initially.

Yesterday, Portland police chief Bob Day was forced to admit the two were indeed members of the violent gang. Worse, the Portland authorities knew they were members during their full throated defenses over the past few days.

Now, I don’t know if it was that time of the month for ol’ Bob, or if he is always a weepy little b*tch, but I suspect he only gets this worked over illegals.

The Pentagon announced it was ordering a review of females in combat roles in the Army and Marine Corps. The six-month study will be conducted by the Institute for Defense Analyses and examine Army and Marine Corps data on fitness, injuries, unit performance, and integration for the roughly 3,800 women in these roles.

Real talk here for a second. Most of y’all know this editor’s background and training, so take these next few paragraphs with that in mind. Women have no business actively participating in probably 90% of armed conflict. And that 10%? That would be in insurgencies, revolutions and guerilla-type wars.

Now, some of you might have the legitimate question of why that is so and there is a (relatively) simple set of answers. First, women are not nearly as capable physically. They aren’t as strong, they do not have the endurance or the speed/quickness as men. They are also more prone to certain types of injuries – particularly in the lower body – than men. Are there exceptions? Sure, but they prove the rule, not make it.

Second, women really mess up unit cohesion in high stress situations. Nearly all of you have had a co-worker that didn’t quite pull their own weight. Stressed you out and caused issues at work didn’t it. Now, imagine that but with your life on the line. A female trooper cannot carry the weight a man can, she cannot march or run as far or as fast as a man. That builds resentment and absolutely fucks unit cohesion. And that is before getting into the protective nature of most men towards women.

Third – and take this with a grain of salt for reasons I’ll explain below – women are much less likely to pull the trigger in a close range engagement. The RAND Corp did a study back in the 80’s that compared the ‘lethality’ – the willingness to kill – between similarly trained men and women and surprising nobody, it turned out men are far more willing to take a human life than women. The spread was pretty astounding, if I recall correctly it was in the 75-80 point range.

But – and this is the grain of salt I was talking about – some of the historical data they used came from research done by Official Army Historian SLA Marshall. Why is that a problem? He made up a bunch of stuff about individual performance of the average US trooper during WWII. Those data were also used by LTC Dave Grossman in his book On Killing. Even if we have to revise that number down by a quarter, there is still a really substantial difference between the two.

Anyway, next item. . .

PSA: Smoking is bad. Unless you are a Persian Queen lighting her dart from a burning pic of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic.

As for the rest of Iran and the popular uprising, the regime is said to have lost control in large portions of Tehran, all of Mashhad – the 2nd largest city, and most of Karaj – the 5th largest city. The regime has cut internet access across the country. However, Elon has made Starlink free across the region.

Reza Pahlavi – the crown Prince – has called for a general strike for tonight.

If you are looking for a decent source on all things Iranian, Nioh is a good follow.