Wait is this supposed to go in credible defense?
facepalm
Haha, classic The Onion
Checks URL
The Guardian??? 😵💫
The New York Times reported that fragments that fell from the 155mm shell landed on vehicles parked on a ramp on Interstate 5 – a major artery through southern California – which governor Gavin Newsom had ordered closed after learning that military officials had no plans to close the freeway
No intention of closing the freeway for a live fire exercise right above it.
Not only did shrapnel fall on I5 generally…
It hit and damaged JD Vance’s security detail motorcade.
Like, either this was a stupendous coincidence that a shell went bad and purely accidentally just happened to detonate just so as to literally rain on Vance’s motorcade…
… or… this was a kind of not so subtle fuck you buddy from at least one Marine.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/19/us/politics/shell-interstate-5-marines-california.html
A 155-millimeter shell fired during a live-fire demonstration for the 250th anniversary of the Marine Corps at Camp Pendleton on Saturday prematurely detonated, dropping fragments of the shell on a California Highway Patrol vehicle and motorcycle that were part of Vice President JD Vance’s protective detail, according to a patrol report.
Yep, thats right, it gets even clownier with more detail.
…Does… Pendleton have a preexisting artillery range?
Pendleton covers almost 200 square miles and has ranges for just about every ground-based weapon the USMC uses.
During the No Kings protest too
Absolute fucking clown show.
Why on earth would you fire live artillery as part of a drill? What were they thinking?
I don’t usually presume Vance or Hegseth do a lot of thinking.
It wasn’t a drill though. It was a celebration for the anniversary of the marines (pretty sure it was the marines).
The vast majority of training rounds for artillery are still explosive or have a slow burning charge for the purpose of spotters being able to practice… spotting. Think smoke grenade like rounds and so forth. And those can, and will, malfunction.
It is one of many reasons that it is important to remember that a gun is a deadly weapon whether it is firing “Training rounds” or “less than lethal” ammunition. A shockingly high number of babies have been killed by flashbangs and even smoke grenades over the years.
And… that is why you don’t fucking fire a gun in the direction of anything you care about. Which, to be fair. is a rule that trump actually obeyed in his own psychopathic way.
And all those brave men and women who are totally going to stand up when an unlawful order comes on down had no problem firing it at potential civilians either.
“If Gavin Newsom wants to oppose the training exercises that ensure our Armed Forces are the deadliest and most lethal fighting force in the world, then he can go right ahead,” Martin said.
Not just the deadliest. The most lethal too!
From the department of redundancy department.
Maximum efficiency!
Also the highest crayon consumption per capita. Oorah or something.
Yeah yeah. So, just curious, when was the last time our armed forces won a war?? Like by themselves and not with a ton of our allies? I bet they’ve won a lot of wars.
First, having a lot of allies is strength, not weakness.
Second, with that in mind, the last American-led major conflict that ended with the unambiguously successful attainment of America’s major goals was the first Gulf War, but the failures since then in Iraq and Afghanistan had nothing to do with the military bring insufficiently deadly. Killing people is a tool for winning wars, but not the only tool and often not a sufficient tool.
Everyone knows that unless you’re shooting over the heads of your own citizens it really isn’t training.
Fatalist and killingest too boot.
Wait, these fucking idiots were shooting live heavy artillery over fucking Interstate 5? One of North America’s biggest and most important arteries.
And they wanted to do that without closing the roadway down?
Jesus Christ. This is an administration of complete idiots.
5 hour detour sone reported
I genuienly think this was not really a mishap, it was literally intended as an intimidating show of force against SoCal.
Got it in one, and literally what I was saying since this plan was announced. This is military parades all over again - “see this shit? It can literally be in your front yard if you keep up”.
NEWSOM mysteriously closed it a few days ago, he knew before it was released to the news why the reason.
Let me guess: The people who ordered this “excercise” were not military, but political, right?
