Sonnen said something was off with the McGregor fight...he was right.

Sonnen called it.  This should have been a great fight.  Instead you had Sonnen midweek talking about how each fighter didn't seem like they wanted to be there.

The knockout (so sorry for you guys that paid) isn't the alarming part.  I'm not even fired up about Aldo not speaking english for his interviews.  It's the body language that each fighter exhibited before the fight that alarms.

So who is the real big winner in this fight?  Sonnen as a fight analyst.  The MMA was as real as it could get.   The idea of having an undisputed champion for years at a time is silly in combat sports.  The best in the business will get beat on any given night.  Rousey's loss isn't a show stopper that some believe.  It's the sport being the sport and that's why the UFC is the loser.

I'm really getting the vibe that we're seeing king making going on.  That's bad for the sport.  A one punch knockout of Aldo just seems wrong he's too good a fighter for that type of non-sense, has shown too much grit in previous fights.  The UFC  is the big loser because the calls that fight fixing is going on is gonna grow louder.

Valhalla - Remote Controlled Weapon Stations Family

The discussion flared over remote controlled weapon stations with regard to the Lithuanian decision to procure Boxer APCs.  I was curious to see if anything new was on the market and ran  across Valhalla turrets.

They appear to be a small company, and since they're just starting up, I couldn't find any "real life" examples of their products.  The concepts are interesting though.  The website is here.

This movie looks like its gonna be crazy good!

The more I see the more I want to see....I hope the actual movie is as good as the previews....This is suppose to be a true story but I never heard of Hugh Glass....

Kudlow adopts the new conservative position on visas...

via National Interest.

know this is not my usual position. But this is a war. Therefore I have come to believe there should be no immigration or visa waivers until the U.S. adopts a completely new system to stop radical Islamic terrorists from entering the country. A wartime lockdown. And a big change in my thinking. ISIS and related Islamic terrorists are already here. More are coming. We must stop them. Until FBI director James Comey gives us the green light, I say seal the borders. Here’s what we must do: Completely reform the vetting process for immigrants and foreign visitors. Change the screening process. Come up with a new visa-application review process. Stop this nonsense of marriage-visa fraud. And in the meantime, seal the borders. I agree with Jessica Vaughn, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies, who argued many of these points in excellent detail on the National Review website on Friday. Again, why am I taking this hardline position? In the past I have been an immigration reformer, not a restrictionist. But we are at war. That changes everything. Let me emphasize that my support for wartime immigration restrictions is not based on religion. I think Donald Trump made a big mistake here. Instead, I agree with this Rupert Murdoch tweet: “Complete refugee pause to fix vetting makes sense.”

Kudlow is a immigration booster, free trade enthusiast and a big part of the Republican political elite that has been pushing to expand H-1B visas (have you noticed that almost all our news broadcasters suddenly have Brit accents?).

I don't buy this conversion...or change.  I don't buy it one bit.

I do believe that he sees where the party is and knows that unless he changes his stance then he'll no longer have a seat in leadership.  This is why I believe that Bush, and the other "preferred candidates" for president are going to fail this year.

People remember the stance these folks took on immigration, free trade and now on the ISIS/Visa issue.  They played it safe and now they're no longer relevant.

Much to my surprise the only viable Republican presidential candidates in the environment that we find ourselves in is Trump and Cruz.  Even the party leader's fallback candidate, Rubio, is no longer viable.

This is going to be an interesting election.  As of this moment I'm thinking Cruz will probably take it.  Oh and for those that are thinking Hillary, I just don't see the Democrat coalition holding together.  A coalition formed of competing interests rarely lasts and if Rahms troubles in Chicago are any indication then its already splintering.

Friday's losses were bad..historically Mon will be a bloodbath..

Thanks to Super Rhino for the link!

This is a follow on to the economy being strange post I did earlier.

Fri saw a 300 point drop, and if history is prologue then Mon will be beyond nasty.  Cramer says to sell.  I say you're probably already late.  The players in the market were taking money off the table by the second on Fri, so you're just catching a falling knife.

Does that mean stay the course?  Yeah.  Stand pat and when the inevitable rally hits midweek or even the following week, then you act to get out of bad positions.

My advice?  If you're not a day trader then get out of this thing....pick your spot and get out....its unwinding while we speak and the "little guys (yeah, if you're upper middle or lower then  you're a little guy) are gonna get crushed.

This is pure "bro science"....so do what you think is best.

The F-35 worked out at the Expeditionary Airfield at 29 Palms?

via Marines.mil

MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. -- Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 121 conducted the F-35B Lightning II’s first-ever expeditionary test in support of exercise Steel Knight 16, Dec. 10, 2015.
Exercise Steel Knight is a combined arms live-fire exercise that implements a combination of air and ground assets to complete a wide range of military operations to prepare 1st Marine Division for deployment as the ground combat element of a Marine Air-Ground Task Force.
VMFA-121’s role in the exercise was to conduct close air support drills and expeditionary missions in support of the MAGTF.
During the exercise, the F-35 utilized the expeditionary airfield on Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, California, and the expeditionary landing pad at Red Beach on Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California.
“We’ve done similar landings in [Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Arizona], but the one at Red Beach was the smallest vertical landing pad we have used to date,” said Maj. Colin Newbold, the flight operations officer with VMFA-121.
Exercise Steel Knight allowed VMFA-121 the opportunity to illustrate the abilities of the F-35 to operate organically in an austere environment while helping accomplish the mission of the MAGTF.
“This is the first time that we get to truly test the capabilities of the aircraft in an expeditionary setting,” said Newbold, the flight operations officer with VMFA-121. “This is going to be a real learning experience for everyone involved and will prove helpful in the future when developing tactics.”

This is interesting.  HQMC released a few photos of the F-35 SUPPOSEDLY operating from the Expeditionary Air Field at 29 Palms and Red Beach at Camp Pendleton.

I'll hold my fire until I get better info, but I'm wondering....

The F-35 operating in an austere environment?  But we're building brand new facilities at every Air Station to accommodate this queen.  Did we waste money doing that or is the planes capabilities in challenging locations not up to snuff?

I'll hold my fire but I'm smelling another publicity stunt.

Note:  The Operations Officer's name seems familiar for some reason.  Newbold.  Time to take a look thru my files...

Navy's newest ship breaks down...needs to be towed back to port. Yeah...it's an LCS.

via Navy Times.

The ship was commissioned Nov. 21 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and has been making the long trek to San Diego through the Great Lakes since.
Problems with the propulsion plant began almost as soon as Milwaukee got underway from Halifax. The ship’s computer system triggered an alarm and the ship called away an engineering casualty.
Engineers cleaned out the metal filings from the lube oil filter and locked the port shaft as a precaution. In the early hours of Friday morning, the ship was conducting steering tests and lost lube oil pressure in the starboard combining gear due to the presence of the same metal filings in that filter.
The metal filings in the lube oil have not been a class-wide issue, according to the Navy.
The ship then dropped anchor while the engineers worked on the system. By mid-morning, the salvage ship Grapple rendezvoused with Milwaukee and connected a towing hawser line for the trip back to Little Creek.
The ship is currently manned by Crew 104, and was scheduled to swap with Crew 108 in Mayport. The crews will now swap in Virginia while the ship’s system is repaired.
News of the breakdown reached Capitol Hill by late Friday. Sen. John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement to Navy Times that the plant issues were troubling and called for accountability.

This doesn't surprise me.

The LCS is a ship without a mission and stems from a concept that was short sighted and trendy.

A warship built to operate in the littoral zones?  Yeah.  Sounds great...even futuristic...but its bullshit.  You're talking about a patrol boat for that mission set.  In the meantime the US Navy needed a frigate.  But instead of acknowledging the failure that is the LCS, the powers that be "stayed the course" and simply rebranded the LCS in a vain attempt to fool the clueless. 

The saddest thing about this time in our military history is this.  We will fight future wars with the weapons we're building now.

Future Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, Airmen and Coast Guardsmen will be at a disadvantage because this generation's leaders couldn't do the hard thing....admit that they got it wrong.

Something weird is going on with the economy.

via Bloomberg.

Third Avenue, founded by value investor Martin Whitman, said on Dec. 9 that it wasblocking clients in the Focused Credit Fund from pulling out its remaining $788 million in assets to avoid fire sales, so that the fund could be liquidated in an orderly fashion. “Unfortunately, the present environment has harmed our ability to successfully implement our strategy,” Third Avenue’s chief executive officer David Barse wrote.
The move was unusual in the world of mutual funds, which are typically required to keep a portion of assets in highly liquid investments so they can meet redemption requests on a daily basis. The Focused Credit Fund, according to its prospectus, had the ability to “invest unlimited assets in below-investment grade credit instruments.”

I've been getting bombarded with e-mails about this news story.  Quite honestly I have no knowledge of Third Avenue, but the idea that a mutual fund would suddenly freeze withdrawals appears to be kinda spooky.

What I do know is that oil prices have cratered and the oil producing states from the South, up to the Midwest and over to Alaska (including Canada) are in a hurt locker.  Additionally the other oil producing nation states are hurting...Venezuela, Nigeria, North Africa and the Middle Eastern states are barely making it.  I personally think we're seeing the bursting of an artificial "OIL BUBBLE" that was not acknowledged but mirrors the high energy rates being charged in California starting in 2002.

Last but not least, Carl Icahn is stating that this is only the beginning.  Do your own research but something weird is going on with the economy...the world wide economy.

More proof the F-35 is inadequate. Northrop Grumman releases illustration of 6th gen fighter.

via Flight Global.

Thermal management will be a critical factor in a brewing competition to replace hundreds of Lockheed Martin F-22s and Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornets, says a top Northrop Grumman executive.
Releasing a new artistic concept of a so-called sixth-generation fighter on 11 December, Northrop Aerospace Systems president Tom Vice singled-out the critical but often overlooked quality of managing all the heat generated by ever-more powerful weapons and sensors anticipated on future combat aircraft.

Interesting isn't it.  A briefing to defense media of an illustration of a 6th gen fighter?  Talk about it being armed with lasers?

The reality is stark.

This is not only more proof that the F-35 is inadequate, but it also shows that the threat fighters...the J-20, J-31, PAK-FA and Japanese stealth fighter....are considered to be more formidable than is being let on in the public.

Before the F-35 has even entered service, its already being relegated to the "might be a bit better" than the F-16, but not by much category.

Face it boys and girls.  The USAF and USN is already working on the 6th gen fighter.  The USMC won't play for two reasons.  We can't afford it and if they did try and dip a toe into the 6th gen water the tribe would go ape-shit.

Even more important is this fact.  The USAF won the budget war but the US Navy clearly won the doctrine/concept battle.  What do I mean?  The 6th gen is shaping up to be biased toward Greenert's "payloads over platforms" war cry.  Additionally Electronic Warfare is set to be a "domain"...more Growlers are coming so that's another Navy win that's not be talked about enough.

The good admiral is probably the most consequential of the service chiefs of his tenure.  Amos was a failure and irrelevant.  Ordierno was absolutely useless and is trying his hand at analysis to improve his legacy.  Hostage was a mess.  Greenert is the only one  that got even a piece of it right.

Lithuanian defense ministry buys 88 Boxer APCs & pulls a magic trick.

via Reuters.

The Lithuanian government said on Friday it would proceed with negotiations to buy 88 Boxer armored fighting vehicles in a deal worth up to 400 million euros ($439 million).
The decision, where the Boxer was selected from a list of 12 suppliers that also included Swiss Piranha and American Stryker vehicles, came as the Baltic country moves to bolster its military amid tensions between Russia and the West over the Ukraine crisis.
"After this decision, the project of the largest ever defense purchase will move forward swiftly," Lithuanian armed forces chief Jonas Zukas told reporters.
Senior government sources told Reuters the value of the deal was expected to be no higher than 400 million euros. That would still represent is a big undertaking for Lithuania, whose total defense budget stands at 425 million euros this year.
The Boxers are to be equipped with 30mm MkII guns and anti-tank system Spike-Lr, both manufactured by Israeli companies, the sources said.

I can't argue with the selection of the Boxer and the weapons fit seems solid too.  30mm cannons and Spike-Long Range missiles?  That's spot on.

What has me scratching my head is the magic trick they're pulling off.  A 400 million Euro deal while having a total defense budget of 425 million Euros?

Interesting doesn't begin to state it.  We're seeing some financial accounting games with the F-35 that are bordering on the criminal (no, not bordering...they're breaking the law) but the Lithuanians are taking the concept and injecting steroids into the process.  More to come I'm sure.