Obama was on the tube today from China. Among his various statements was a description of his and Kerry's efforts to get Russia and the Syrian government to agree to a permanent cease fire that would enable the unicorn/jihadi allies of the US in Syria to refit and re-supply without having the Russian Aerospace Forces bombing the bejayzus out of them while they try to do so. This was tried once before and the ploy gave the jihadi/unicorns some "slack," enough that they were able to bring in reinforcements through Turkey to enable the rebel resurgence at SW Aleppo. Sooo, it worked once. Why not try it again? the Rooshians don't seem keen. I wonder why? Maybe this time they can be persuaded to just give up once and for all. OTOH, perhaps desperation founded in the rebels present degenerating situation is leading to a genuine Obama willingness to compromise on an outcome. I will think about that and write again.
This continuing effort on the part of the Obama/Kerry/NSC/State branch of the Borg is evidence of the persistence of the belief among such people that diplomatic BS unsupported by reality is as weighty as hard fighting armored troops or air power. Remarkable! I do not include the broadcast MSM in the list of Borgists and hangers-on because they have no real thoughts. They are simply meme-sucking propagandists.
I see in the Post today that Jimmy the Clap is leading a search for evidence that Russia is fixing to run the US influence machine and our elections. Ho Hum. Dana Priest is in charge of this at the Post. She hasn't exposed anything lately. Maybe this will work and you never know … Pulitzer maybe? Do you think maybe Clapper's office put her on to this? Unlike Flynn I have been careful to have nothing to do with Russia and its media but I have looked at some Russian "art" online and I do like good Boeuf Stroganov, so I guess I am at risk. pl
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/09/obama-putin-seek-to-salvage-syria-talks-227729
All,
The Borg is playing with fire, in more ways than they are capable of realising.
After the Russian special forces officer was reported killed, directing fire on himself, the ‘MailOnline’, which has churned out an enormous amount of Borgist propaganda, succumbed to its journalistic instincts, and put up some of his ‘family snaps’ — including him posing in a kind of cowboy outfit (if I recall right), and wedding photographs, with the wife he left behind, expecting a child.
Now, if you put up those photos, together with those of General Petraeus, and his girlfriend —
Who the hell are people in Britain expected to think is defending them?
Col Lang –
Slightly off topic is the following from a Colonal Cassad blog post on Sept 9 Aleppo fighting:
“During the course of the fighting was lit almost all the allies of the SAA and the Russian “entrepreneurs”, and Iranian specialists from the IRGC, and “Hezbulla” and “Liwa al-Quds”, and “Harakat al-Nogba”, in General, from the point of view of the coalition war, all members of the coalition contributed.”
It appears that the “Russian entrepreneurs” mentioned are probably the “volunteers” you have been suggesting might already be participating in the fighting in Syria.
In my view, Boris Rohzin (Cassad) has tended to be reliable on such matters.
What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. Opening an investigation into foreign influence in US politics should be interesting, who knows where that will eventually end up. Nice precedent.
Good to see the Russians are learning, ceasefire when enemy is vanquished.
Regarding Syria, specifically the recent closing up of the ISIS border, I was wondering what the Turkish policy for foreign fighters going into Syria will be from now on. The most recent official estimates from late July said that 100-150 ISIS foreign fighters were still entering by the week from Turkey, down from much higher numbers that saw triple these figures pre-2015. Where will they be routed to? Are the threefold decreases in foreign fighters entering ISIS,as per official figures, more a reflection of Turkey arresting/deporting more foreign fighters, or of Turkish elements rerouting ISIS-bound fighters to Idlib/Aleppo, and now potentially Jarablus? I find that information regarding non-ISIS foreign fighters is much less accessible/publicized.
It appears that our esteemed president had some difficulty deplaning when he arrived in Hangzhou for the G-20 conference.
“Jorge Guajardo, Mexico’s former ambassador to China, said he was convinced Obama’s treatment was part of a calculated snub.
“’These things do not happen by mistake. Not with the Chinese,’ Guajardo . . . told the Guardian.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/04/barack-obama-deliberately-snubbed-by-chinese-in-chaotic-arrival-at-g20
Col, you are correct to say that the MSM is not part of the Borg because they just mindlessly repeat what is spoon fed to them. I hold them in even greater contempt for pretending to be journalists. Today on CNN, they were reporting that Russian media is reporting that a deal on Syria is possible in a matter of days, however, the Obama administration is skeptical because of trust issues (nothing bad yet). The anchor cuts to their local reporter at the G20 who goes on to say, that the impasse is over the Russian desire to have joint bombing missions while the U.S. is upset because most Russian bombing is against moderate rebels and civilians.
This is an accurate portrayal of the public U.S. position but is a complete and total misrepresentation of the Russian view.
As someone who reads the Russian Insider and Southfront, I know that the number 1 complaint by the Russians, by far, is that the U.S. has not tried or been able to separate U.S. backed rebels (I refuse to call them moderates), from the Al Qaeda linked rebels. So this CNN ‘journalist’ is pretending to know the Russian position while obviously not making any effort to actually do so.
Lavrov regularly complains about the intermixing of rebel groups and even the Dailybeast makes snarky remarks that the Russians use this as an excuse to bomb moderates. So the Russian claim is well known by anyone who spends any amount of time listening to them.
I just hope that more U.S. citizens go to Russian media and forget CNN, be it rt, Russian Insider, or South Front which has Russian contributors and stops getting the ultra dumbed down and typically inaccurate version of evens in our MSM.
Colonel – Try the Stroganoff Persian style: served with fries instead of noodles, no mushrooms, and less sour cream than the Russian version.
http://www.mypersiankitchen.com/beef-stroganoff-persian-style/
I first tasted it at a local Persian restaurant and go back often for that and for the chicken version. The owner/chef immigrated from a village on the shores of the Caspian.
It will be just another show investigation where Congress members can pretend to be doing some thing useful. Saudi, Qatari, Israel influence will be completely ignored. Surprisingly the Russians will be found guilty of some thing, any thing, whether there is evidence or not. Might as well blame some thing on China as well. No one ever lost votes China bashing. Congress will pass more laws against any thing Russian and great speeches will be made.
Accomplishments? None. Bread and circuses
Mike
My wife puts it over long grain Persian rice. pl
ex-PFC Chuck
The lessons of Havana, Riyadh and Ankara have been absorbed. He should stay home from now on. on
Probably correct. Otherwise heads will be rolling there.
Yup. The down side of him staying home, however, is that he’ll have more time to twist Congressional arms to get the Sovereignty Surrender Treaty (otherwise known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership) ratified.
Speaking of Bear Hustling, I’m pretty sure an escalation in Ukraine will be the October Surprise. The propagandized accounts that will appear in US media will be used as ammunition against Trump, or a guarantee he’s locked into a confrontation with Russia if he does win.
IF there is an agreement to a new ceasefire in Syria.
I bet that the Russians will be smart enough to have terms like, ‘the moderate rebels have to be in the corridor established by the Turkish military’. This way it will give the Syrian army free reign to take Aleppo and even Idlib. To some extent, this sorting is taking place now. While the Turkish zone can serve some mischief in the long term, I can definitely see the Russians proposing this as the area designated for the so called moderate rebels.
It is hard for me to picture the U.S. State Dept. agreeing to terms that would allow Assad’s forces to take Aleppo after months of caterwauling and propaganda but if the Russians agree to anything else, they are being hopelessly naive.
Dear Colonel,
Respectfully I propose MSM are Borg drones, collective members, but not contributing to its consciousness. They cannot compute that resistance (to the latest Borg meme) might note be futile.
I sometime suspect that top members of our imperial city believe they can order the sun to rise at the same time every day (create their own reality). I worry about how reality will assert itself as it always does in the long run.
Did the President really back down from the challenge by the Philippine president?
In my slightly paranoid view the very fact that Col. Lang jokes with Stroganoff and art as a sign of being “russophil” brings up sinister memories and feelings. What the commies could not even try to silence even at the peak of their power was the famous public humor of the lower classes of (Buda)Pest (‘pesti humor’).
I used to think that I have a good imagination and I am prepared for everything, yet the very facts that an ex-KGB officer can credibly act as the saviour of our culture, and the ‘home of the brave and the land of the free’ is on the verge of becoming a dictatorship and a new Soviet Union continously keeps me wondering.
“the recent closing up of the ISIS border”
What are you smoking?
Nothing closed at all.
The Turkish-ISIS border moved south a few miles in a common understanding between those two parties.
Benefits:
1. The U.S. attempt to block the border between Turkey and ISIS with the help of a Kurdish east-west corridor stopped. The border can be kept open indefinitely.
2. No more journalists and Turkish prosecutors sniffing around the passport control and custom offices.
3. Imports to/export from IS now possible without anyone able to prove that such happen.
4. Ability for IS fighters to switch into “moderate rebels” and vice versa under Turkish MIT control.
Stop swallowing the Turkish propaganda and look at a map!
b
Yes. IMO the action in the Turkish run sector east of Aleppo is a separate subject from that of the rest of the country where a different arrangement with the Russians is emerging. I’ll post on this tody to expand. pl
Balint Somkuti
You are a good judge of gallows humor. Clapper is IMO a good example of the dead souls that Gogol wrote of. His conduct in personally bullying intelligence analysts at CENTCOM to obtain the Borg’s desired result speaks volumes. For Clapper to be in charge of this witch hunt is an ominous thing. I have long been struck by the virtue of the motto of the von Senger family, “Neither Fear nor Hope.” I fear for others who have been so foolish as to appear on Russian media. pl
In short, it’s as if CNN is getting the Russian position from our State Dept. rather than actually listening to the Russians themselves. This is highly unprofessional.
This does not require a huge investment in a foreign policy press corp. I understand the official Russian position better than they do just by casual reading of easily available Russian websites in English.
Sir,
as the saying goes around here “there are those leaders whose sight is not obfuscated by anything including, knowledge, manners, even humanity.”
I was vaguely thinking of a novel/thriller I read once, with the hackers the serious evil threat out there more recently. Maybe one, maybe even a network, I don’t really recall. It was a bad read.
In the post 9/11 universe I once stumbled in my admittedly undisciplined reading on the web into the “cyberwar” both official and unofficial, admittedly following someone’s lead, finally into a maybe financially interested circles in the open source intelligence field and it’s main author’s mental state of mind. …
But yes, I am aware that the Russians are supposedly sponsoring the European right over here too for longer now.
*****
Beyond that, it’s interesting you pointed out the comments of the Mail. 😉
take care
Col: I thought the Russians were already isolated because of Crimea. See https://sputniknews.com/world/20160906/1045016148/assad-russia-syria-us.html?utm_source=short_direct&utm_medium=short_url&utm_content=cewp&utm_campaign=URL_shortening
Matthew
IMO the supposed isolation of the Russians does not seem to impress them very much. It is an inconvenience that drives them toward the East/ pl
b, not sure if I wrapped my head completely around your points.
May I ask some type of nitwit question anyway?
How is 4 related to the first three items? Not sure how it is related, but yes, strictly they may not have enough forces to control borders.
Sorry, if I do not follow the Guardian link, admittedly I got slightly hesitant about it more recently. But maybe you can tell me what happened here. Source Pat’s first AP link:
“As the president was greeted by his Chinese hosts, Obama’s aides and journalists accompanying the president clashed with a Chinese official as they tried to watch the ceremony.”
A relationship once uttered a sentence, I probably will never forget. He by the way worked for CNN. If the didn’t feel like going somewhere for close hand reports, they simply reported: there is shooting in the mountains.
Humans that they are, never mind the former’s Vietnam experience, which may in fact have inspired the decision above to not take a closer look, they (he and a colleague from the business) also had a lot of anecdotes about colleagues who supposedly reported from the war front.
I wish I could get their apparently quite exquisite herb mixtures (once had this sensual impression). 😉
Recently saw a shop over here, unfortunately it doesn’t seem to have made it. …
I thought about that. Never mind his former kissing hand event in Riyadh.
Over here the head of the European union made it into a TV kissing cheeks event, I seem to deeply dislike, more personally. 😉
sorry, i’ll definitively shut up for a while. No smilie, added.
You are completely right. Also I have noted (in some postings in the open threads) the draining of US influence in the East. Obama said he would “pivot” to Asia, which would be a very smart thing to do. Malaysia’s a basket case (of their own making), but the US has ignored its relations with that country for decades, largely for petty reasons. Influence in that region would have helped avoid the Saudi’s corrupting that country’s core. And now if nothing is done, Indonesia is surely on course to be sacrificed (again for petty reasons).
All the political attention has been on getting some large hunks of Ukraine, and stirring the pot in the middle east. No attention has been paid to maintaining relations with countries in the Pacific, even though such a huge price was paid for peace only a few generations ago.
So, who just bought themselves a polonium enema?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3776086/Vladimir-Putin-s-official-car-involved-head-crash-Moscow-killed-Russian-president-s-favourite-chauffeur.html
Car jumped the median to plant itself into Putin’s car, but he wasn’t there. Killed his chauffeur instead.
Possible assassination attempt on Putin?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3776086/Vladimir-Putin-s-official-car-involved-head-crash-Moscow-killed-Russian-president-s-favourite-chauffeur.html