Episode V: The Persian Empire Strikes Back

[CNCAppsJames]

Well hopefully all is well with him and he prospers more wherever he's gone to
 

He's doing well. Skilled labor is tough to find in the area though. That can be said everywhere though. 

We've been looking for an AE for a while. Executive Management decided the candidate needed to live in a certain geographic region in southern Komiefornia so that limited an already REALLY small pool of potential candidates. We had another solid candidate but... but was practically neighbors with our current SoCal AE and traffic in SoCal is so bad, it's 3 hours to make a trip that should only take 90 minutes. So what would be a 10-11 hour day (including travel), is really closer to 13. It's just brutal there. 

I don't miss that place one bit. I miss a few friends, and my oldest son's family, but that's it. I go there for business and to see the grandkids then I GTFO. 

 

[Elmer Fudd]

Joe moved his company to Idaho.

G-Code moved to Arkansas.

I hear that Arkansas is brutal in the summer. I guess that is the price you pay to get away from the rat race. I was just in Miami, what a clusterfuck.

[mowens]

I hear that Arkansas is brutal in the summer. I guess that is the price you pay to get away from the rat race. I was just in Miami, what a clusterfuck.

I used to spend my summers there as a boy. If you've ever been to Branson, it's like that in the North. Hot and humid but beautiful. In the very far south it's like Hell but with humidity instead of flames.

[gcode]

G-Code moved to Arkansas.

yup been here 2 weeks now

Swapped Riverside County (population 2.6 million)
for Baxter County (pop 43K)
Mountain Home has a population of 13.5k
Things are very laid back here.
First night here, the hot water heater in my new house failed.
I called a plumber the next morning.
The plumber arrived in a half hour and replaced the hot water heater.
I asked him for the bill and he said they'd mail it.

It cost me $86 to register our 2 cars , a '24 Acura and a '24 Mazda.
In SoCal that would have been $1100+.
Property taxes, insurance, electricity, natural gas, water etc are all a fraction
of SoCal rates.
Gas is up from $2.60 to $2.80 since we got here. I'm guessing the jump
is due to events in Iran.
The last gas I bought is SoCal was $5.40

Bottom line, my wife and I worked into our 70's because we could not afford to retire In SoCal.
I had a medical issue last August that forced the issue.

One thing I love about SoCal now that I'm not there is home prices.
I was selling my house to a coworker, but his sister backed out at the last minute.
I turned it over to a young woman from eHomes and she presented me with 24 solid offers
in less than a week. It went into 23 day escrow last week. If all goes well it will close
near the end of March.

So far I love this place.
My neighborhood is so quiet you can hear a pin drop.
Nearly everyone I meet is from Cali, Colorado, Washington or Oregon.

The weather will take some getting used to.
When it rains it freakin' rains, hail too.
In this neighborhood you only see beaters in the driveways, the nice cars are in the garages
so they won't get hail damage.

I'm sure the summers will be brutal, but this house is very well built and I see a new over capacity
A/C unit in it's future.

[Newbeeee™]

^^^^ BIG payrise AND you're only 300 miles from Elvis!

[CNCAppsJames]

I've lost count the number of times a contractor or some providing a service said "we'll mail you the bill". So refreshing.

Gotta love small towns.

[Elmer Fudd]

Dude. Small town people support their local football teams. See that Y over yonder on that mountain? It's looking at you. JM2CFWIW. 

[mowens]

Mountain Home is about a little over an hour to Batesville, where I have family and visited often in my youth. They were the only relatives with an indoor toilet, lol.
My grandma lived in Newark, about a 15 minute drive from Batesville.
We used to go swimming in a stream near there. We always called it Doty creek but I guess it's real name is Dota Creek.

Before I was born, my dad worked on a ferry near Oil Trough, on the white river.

As you know, you are in a beautiful area. If it gets to hot you can just go to one of the lakes and cool off.


You're about an hour from Evening Shade to, if anyone remembers that tv show.

[gcode]

The US-Israeli strategy against Iran is working.

Two weeks into Operation Epic Fury, the dominant narrative has settled into a comfortable groove: The United States and Israel stumbled into a war without a plan. Iran is retaliating across the region. Oil prices are surging, and the world is facing another Middle Eastern quagmire. US senators have called it a blunder. Cable news has tallied the crises. Commentators have warned of a long war.

The chorus is loud and, in some respects, understandable. War is ugly, and this one has imposed real costs on millions of people across the Middle East, including the city I live in.

But this narrative is wrong. Not because the costs are imaginary, but because the critics are measuring the wrong things. They are cataloguing the price of the campaign while ignoring the strategic ledger.

When you look at what has actually happened to Iran's principal instruments of power – its ballistic missile arsenal, its nuclear infrastructure, its air defences, its navy and its proxy command architecture – the picture is not one of US failure. It is one of systematic, phased degradation of a threat that previous administrations allowed to grow for four decades.

I write this from Doha, where Iranian missiles have triggered alerts for residents to take shelter and Qatar Airways has started operating evacuation flights. I lived through four years of war in Baghdad.

I have worked for the US Department of State and advised defence and intelligence agencies in multiple countries. I have no interest in cheerleading for war.

But I have spent my academic career studying how states authorise the use of force through intelligence institutions, and what I see in the current campaign is a recognisable military operation proceeding through identifiable phases against an adversary whose capacity to project power is collapsing in real time.

An arsenal built over decades, dismantled in days
Iranian ballistic missile launches have fallen by more than 90 percent from 350 on February 28 to roughly 25 by March 14, according to publicly available data. Drone launches tell the same story: from more than 800 on Day 1 to about 75 on Day 15.

The figures drawn from US and Iranian military statements differ in detail but converge on the trajectory. Hundreds of Iranian missile launchers have been rendered inoperable. According to some reports, 80 percent of Iran's capacity to strike Israel has been eliminated.

Iran's naval assets, fast-attack craft, midget submarines and mine-laying capabilities are being liquidated. Its air defences have been suppressed to the point at which the US is now flying nonstealth B-1 bombers over Iranian airspace, a decision that signals near-total confidence in air dominance.


The campaign has moved through two distinct phases. The first suppressed Iran's air defences, decapitated its command and control, and degraded its missile and drone launch infrastructure. By March 2, US Central Command announced local air superiority over western Iran and Tehran, achieved without the confirmed loss of a single American or Israeli combat aircraft.

The second phase, now under way, targets Iran's defence industrial base: missile production facilities, dual-use research centres and the underground complexes where remaining stockpiles are stored. This is not aimless bombing. It is a methodical campaign to ensure that what has been destroyed cannot be rebuilt.

Iran now faces a strategic dilemma that tightens every day. If it fires its remaining missiles, it exposes launchers that are promptly destroyed. If it conserves them, it forfeits the ability to impose costs of the war. Missile and drone launch data suggest Iran is rationing its remaining capacity for politically timed salvoes rather than sustaining operational tempo.

This is a force managing decline, not projecting strength.

There is more.
This was published by Aljzeera

[mowens]

https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/17/politics/joe-kent-resigns-iran-war

[Here's Johnny!]

I see this war/ conflict dragging on for years now. Hopefully I am wrong.

[Incogneeto]

They're gunna use this for all sorts of lockdowns - fuel shortages (although none of our gas comes from there), food shortages.... price gouges already as gas has rocketed in UK and here (Cyprus) - Gov talking here "massive eleccy rise because war".... buckle up bittercups!

Nah!! This is The FAFO Prez. The false front Demo's have no control now.

[Incogneeto]

If you observe the world stage, there's a lot of similarity to the convid plandemic being quickly put into place. Same reactions, but a different cause....
We will see and I really hope I'm wrong, but I fear Johnny is way nearer the truth than "nothing will happen".

HilLiary made it very clear it was the Dems Cause ...GLOBAL initiative, Clinton foundation and such. She clearly wanted No Borders. A Global economy. Israel and Trump aren't buying it. The frenchies , Brits and the rest can have their Euro Compliance.

[Incogneeto]

Glad you have such faith in Daddy VaxxxxSeeeen....

What choice would you have made as President. And The NHI (Fauci) CDC and WHO are all advising you??

Would you have made a better choice??

[Incogneeto]

I wouldn't have voted because I refuse to play their game

Ok!! Neuro!!! "Fencesitter"