pl
RSS- Open Thread – 30 March 2023
- Why We Fight* – TTG
- Mick Ryan on the coming Ukrainian offensive – TTG
- “It’s 7 a.m. in Tel Aviv after a night of protests. Here’s what you need to know about Israel’s political crisis” – TTG
- Russia to base nuclear warheads in Belarus… so what? – TTG
- “Drone strike kills US contractor in Syria; US retaliates” – TTG
- “Ukrainian troops impress US trainers as they rapidly get up to speed on Patriot missile system” – TTG
- “Russia hauls 1950s-era tanks out of storage to join battlefield” – TTG
- “Terran 1 | Good Luck, Have Fun” – TTG
- ISW take on the Xi – Putin meeting – TTG
Working paramedic internships now as well. More wild times.
Egypt Air Liner shot down, and Trump passing Hillary in the polls.
I fear the Syrian situation will fester through the US election. If Clinton manages to ooze into the White House, I fear what will happen with a Kaganoid at the State Dept. For all Trump’s idiot bluster, at least he’s signaled pretty clearly that he wants peace with Russia, whereas Clinton’s coterie is full of angry Polish revanchists like Nuland and Brzezinski. They both share the same gang of hyper-Zionists but that’s been a constant in American politics since Carter at least.
Also, Col. Lang, hope you feel like continuing this, or one of the august guest posters here will pick up the torch. There are precious few sources of information on military and international affairs that are not assimilated by the Borg.
So it’s just fine with you if a man rapes his wife?
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/time-to-press-donald-on-raping-his-wife
‘The details surrounding the alleged rape are bizarrely novelistic even by Trumpian standards. According to Ivana, Trump was driven to freakish rage by a failed anti-baldness surgery – a so-called ‘scalp reduction’. But the actions are very clear cut. According to her deposition, Trump flew into a rage, attacked her, held her down and began pulling hair out of her head to mimic his pain and then forcibly penetrated her.’
Another goodie for the Trump files:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/caleb-andrew-bailey-trump-delegate-indicted
‘A Maryland delegate to the Republican National Convention for Donald Trump was indicted late Wednesday on federal child pornography and weapons charges.
Caleb Andrew Bailey, 30, was charged with production of child porn, unlawful transport of explosive materials, illegal possession of a machine gun and possession of child porn in U.S. District Court in Maryland.’
The next few months are going to be so much fun.
Tyler, Good Luck with your new civilian career move. What makes you
think the Egyptian Air Liner was shot down? Do manpads have a 37,000′
range?
So what is a good gift for a gay wedding? I’m thinking something from Fauchon. Can you bring Foie Gras back from France or is that silly restriction still in place?
He has also praised Bolton, who may be a choice for his cabinet. I don’t think he would be my idea of a point man on reaching out to Russia.
Steve
“The next few months are going to be so much fun.”
Yes indeed. IMO it will rival the most hilarious Jerry Springer episode. I’m not so sure that Hill & Bill will make it through.
http://blog.dilbert.com/post/144606430606/evaluating-the-political-chess-board
This is going to be the season for the partisan slugfest but it will be way more entertaining with Trump going where no establishment politician will as Morning Joe noted. Can’t wait. I’ve got the popcorn ready.
The Bolton who was manning the NeverTrump stall at the DC vote? Doubt it, doesn’t fit his positions anyway. Although I notice Trump has done a deal with Adelson, but then I have never believed he would be anti Israel, just America first.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2016/05/19/trump_adviser_bernie_sanders_is_correct_that_hillary_clinton_is_not_qualified_to_be_president.html
Trump looking to pick up the antiwar Sanders/independent vote.
http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/upfront/2016/05/top-general-defends-donald-trump-160519081014660.html
More from Flynn.
US ELECTION 2016
Top US general defends Donald Trump
General Michael Flynn discusses his role as an informal adviser to the presumptive US Republican presidential nominee.
19 May 2016
In a special web extra, General Michael Flynn, former head of the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) under President Barack Obama, discusses his informal role as an adviser to presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/upfront/2016/05/top-general-defends-donald-trump-160519081014660.html
FLASHBACK:
Jim Webb: I could vote for Trump, but not Hillary
By David Weigel | Post Politics | March 4
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/03/04/jim-webb-id-vote-for-trump-but-not-clinton/
Herrs something relevant versus your guilt by association histrionics.
http://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/may/19/charles-wade-black-lives-matter-leader-charged-wit/
Elaine,
Not a new career. Just cross training.
A MANPAD could have knocked it out of the sky, but where would they have fired from? How does someone on the ground spot a plane with their eye? Likely internal sabotage among subverted staff is the answer.
Gcp,
Maybe spend five seconds researching before posting links. You get more tiresome and desperate every week. How’s Bill’s rep with women?
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/07/ivana-trump-denies-accusing-donald-trump-rape-daily-beast-120721
@ LondonBob
but then I have never believed he would be anti Israel,
He is not anti-Israel and he knows how to play the “Jewish card” well.He uses the fact that his daughter married a Jewish boy ( whose father was sent to prison for 2 years by then NJ AG Chris Christie) whenever he feels he has too. His SIL co-wrote his speech for the AIPAC conference a couple of months ago.
One thing Trump has in common with the Clintons: the father of their SIL went to prison !
Been meaning to note that Trump’s just promoted campaign chairman/chief strategist is Paul Manafort – a republican operative whose “true gift lies in political resuscitations and rebrandings” according to an April 23 FT piece.
What I find most interesting is that a significant Manafort “makeover” was of Yanukovich back in 2005 that apparently led to his reinstatement of prime minister after the 2006 election. A cable from the US ambassador (released by Wikileaks) described the hiring of Manfort as an attempt to change the image of Yanukovich’s party of Regions “from that of a haven for mobsters into that of a legitimate political party”by “tapping into then deep pockets of Donestsk clan godfather Rinat Akhmetov”.
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/9e8a2998-0843-11e6-876d-b823056b209b.html#axzz49COzZBoV
“doesn’t fit his positions anyway”
I don’t recall in the last 20 or so years when the lack of qualifications and competence was an obstacle to being appointed to the top government position.
What office is Bill running for right now?
Your article is nothing more than a rehash of statements made by Trump’s lawyer whereas the original accusations were made in a sworn deposition. Do you know the difference between the two?
You read the Sun Young Moon KoreanTimes? Interesting.
So how is this guy associated with Hillary?
The father of their Jewish SIL went to prison
Jack wrote: ‘This is going to be the season for the partisan slugfest but it will be way more entertaining with Trump going where no establishment politician will as Morning Joe noted. Can’t wait. I’ve got the popcorn ready.’
Indeed it will. I don’t think (at this time) that Hillary can beat him but there is no doubt Trump is going to be a bigger disaster than Reagan.
IMO Senator Sanders will NOT be moving at the DEMS convention to nominate HRC by acclaim. He will have tremendous power in the U.S. Senate whichever person or party wins the election.
GCP,
They were direct quotes from Ivana. Keep chimping out over there.
GCP,
I’m pointing out your laughably myopic hysteria over words Ivana renounced vs. A very real thing that happened.
How does BLM matter to Hillary? They’re her vanguard. Keep up.
A trio of Friday news highlights:
The Sultan at work increasing his power:
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-turkey-politics-immunity-idUSKCN0YB0VC
more fun in the land of our “best ally”:
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-politics-idUSKCN0YB0FU
And a proposal our Foggy Bottom boys will reject out of hand:
R+6 proposal on joint attacks on ISIS:
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-russia-usa-syria-idUSKCN0YB1HB
Fred,
20 mins ago:
Breaking news: US rejects Russian proposal for joint air strikes in Syria: AFP
Tidewater,
I haven’t missed your comment about remote viewing and dream interpretation. I found it quite interesting albeit close to a novella in scope. I’m on the road and have only limited internet and phone connectivity… it’s wonderful. I might post more on the subject in the future.
This article discussing an unprecedented level of oil storage around Singapore in large tankers and the fact that this would be unprofitable unless there were an expected spike in prices.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-05-20/something-stunning-taking-place-coast-singapore
I wonder if this could be in anticipation of a south china sea confrontation, a currency devaluation anticipation in China. Just speculation on my part, but it seems odd that so many people would be making seemingly unprofitable trades that could only be remedied by an oil price or currency event.
All,
I came across in this morning’s ‘Telegraph’ an obituary for Commander Michael MccGwire, who apparently died in March.
He was one of the ‘last of the Mohicans’, having gone to sea in May 1942, as a 17-year-old, after being presented with the ‘King’s Dirk’, awarded for the top cadet at the Royal Naval College Dartmouth, by King George VI – whose future son-in-law had won the award two years earlier.
Unfortunately, neither the obituary, nor the ‘Wikipedia’ entry on which it is partly based, are entirely accurate.
The typescript of a paper dated 1987, entitled ‘The Genesis of Soviet Threat Perceptions’, surfaced some time ago on the net.
The paper looked both forward and back. At its end, MccGwire correctly anticipated the Soviet move to a defensive posture in Central Europe – at a time when the massive intelligence bureaucracies in the United States and Europe were, almost universally, either insisting that Gorbachev’s talk of ‘new thinking’ was a cunning deception ploy, or simply scratching their heads in bafflement.
A key purpose of MccGwire’s paper, however, was to argue that to understand what was happening in the ‘Eighties, it was necessary to go back to the arguments of the ‘Forties. If one misunderstands the past, time and again, one finds that an inevitable result is that one cannot understand the present.
In particular, MccGwire argued, it was necessary to grasp that in crucial respects the key NSC 68 paper of April 1950, whose fundamental ideas were strongly revived under Reagan, had turned out to be wrong.
But one of the things that make MccGwire’s intellectual evolution so interesting was that his starting point had been very much the pattern of attitudes set out in NSC 68. Another is that his eventual total repudiation of these was actually rooted in his military experience and the habits of mind that derived from it.
Having joined the battleship HMS Rodney as a midshipman, MccGwire had been present at the Allied amphibious landings in North Africa, Sicily and Normandy. Subsequently, he had been First Lieutenant on a Motor Torpedo Boat attacking German vessels off the coasts of France, the Netherlands and Belgium.
After the war, he was sent for Russian language training by the Navy at Cambridge. Apparently, he spent most of his time there playing rugby and drinking – but as a result ended up in the early ‘Fifties seconded to GCHQ.
There, he had correctly interpreted the evidence as indicating that the Soviets had embarked on a massive submarine construction programme, and – like everybody else – jumped to the conclusion that its purpose was to refight the Battle of the Atlantic.
Sometimes the combination of practical experience, and an independent habit of mind, really does help avoid the errors into which academics whose background is the ‘axiomatic sciences’ can easily fall.
What MccGwire realised by 1959 was that the preponderant part of the submarine force that the Soviets had constructed was a coastal defence force. One would not say much for the chances of survival of a battleship like HMS Rodney, or indeed any other naval vessel, supporting NATO amphibious landings in the Baltics and Black Sea, if they had to counter a combination of shore-based air and submarines coming out at night.
After using their torpedoes, these could surface and in the confusion cause havoc with the 100mm gun. They wouldn’t need air defenses.
So, suddenly, you come to realise that very much of what has seemed to obvious to oneself may not in seem obvious to your adversary. And you begin the complex process of trying to reconstruct how familiar events and information might appear, if seen by different people from a different perspective.
It was the process of questioning which arose from this initial discovery which led, almost thirty years later, to the analysis of the July 1987 paper.
In the event, MccGwire and people like him – notably his then Brookings Institution colleague Ambassador Raymond Garthoff – won the intellectual argument comprehensively, but lost the political one even more comprehensively.
Figures like Richard Perle, who had totally failed to predict the changes introduced following Gorbachev’s coming to power, were able to persuade people that these were simply the result of the demonstration of ‘strength’ and ‘will’ embodied in the Reagan-era military build-up.
And this is a central reason we are in the mess in which we find ourselves today.
The ‘Telegraph’ obituary, and the MccGwire’s ‘Wikipedia’ entry, are at
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2016/05/19/commander-michael-mccgwire–obituary/ and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_MccGwire .
The ‘Genesis of Soviet Threat Perceptions’ paper is at https://www.ucis.pitt.edu/nceeer/1987-800-05-McGwire.pdf .
The ‘Telegraph’ obituary contains one paragraph I found hilarious:
‘While known for his strong opinions, love of argument and great hospitality – fuelled by his “mermaid’s kiss”, a cocktail of scrumpy, brandy, sherry and ginger ale – MccGwire exhibited natural authority. Despite a series of heart bypasses, over the course of 30 years, he was a bon vivant with a Falstaffian love of food and beer.’
I only met him a couple of times, and never tasted the ‘mermaid’s kiss’. But I know him to have been a wonderful man, and his writings have been a source of inspiration and enlightenment to me, ever since I first came across them, almost exactly thirty years ago.
GulfCoastPirate,
With the very greatest of all due respect . . . might I suggest that when Senator SecState Clinton said a few days ago that under her Administration, Mr. Bill would be the policy leader/doer on economic policy and management, that she was running him for Shadow Office. Given his economic policy against America all through his Administration (NAFTA/WTO membership/MFN for China/ etc.), his re-assumption of power would be a deadly danger to what is left of America’s economy. While that is not directly relevant to “treatment of women”, if “treatment of women” becomes the issue that can deny Senator SecState Clinton the nomination, then it is worth bringing up.
If she gets nominated, then I will find myself voting against the “greater danger”, whichever candidate that turns out to be. If they are both too horrible to vote for, then I will just have to write Sanders in.
Fred
A gay friend says money or gift cards. I think nothing strengthens a bond like matching Hawaiian shirts.
Condolences with a truly great guy passing to his eternal patrol. As per Soviet Naval Doctrine–capability in USSR (and Russia) never was a substitution for the posture. Soviet Naval Doctrine was explicitly defensive and deterrent-oriented. Post WW II Soviet Navy from the get go was built as a Sea Denial force, until reaching its global Sea Denial status by 1970s. Even Soviet aircraft carrier program was built around carriers as primarily air-defense and ASW platform for the naval force designed to fight NATO CBGs away from Gorshkov’s Blue Line, including by means of supporting operations of Soviet/Russian SSNs and SSGNs which were and still remain the main striking force of Russian Navy. Very little attention was given to Power Projection, especially in its current form. But very few people in the West did communicate this truth to policy makers.
We’ve talked in the past about how propaganda is planted in social media by US, British, Israeli and Russian players. Here is an article that came out from CNN with regard to China that is worth a read. Each has their own personality. http://money.cnn.com/2016/05/20/technology/china-social-media-fake-posts-strategy/index.html
Optimax,
Money seems so tacky. Topical shirts would be pretty funny on these two. They are great cooks and one’s a French teacher, thus the thought from above.
Harvard prof urges liberals to treat evangelical Christians like Nazis –
Breitbart News
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/05/10/harvard-prof-urges-liberals-treat-evangelical-christians-like-nazis/
Fred, You may want to check if the couple is registered anywhere;
that way you give them what they want. It’s not impolite to inquire
if a couple (straight or gay) is registered @ major stores &/or sites.
It’s really a rather standard question. Most registration sites will
display which items on their wish list are still available for purchase.
Gift wrapping is usually available for a small charge.
All:
WSJ on the popular sentiment in Europe:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/europes-populist-politicians-win-voters-hearts-1463689360
There is no such thing called “gay wedding” – regardless of what the Congress of Gomorrah, or the Soviet of Sodom ordain.
Babak,
I understand that sentiment entirely. However this being Ann Arbor (Republic of) this would be more accurately described as a “victory celebration” for the political left. This will be the first and last that I attend but solely due to obligation to one individual involved.
The Beaver,
I guess we still have one fast reaction force that works in a timely manner.
euclidcreek,
Welcome to the 1850’s. If only a president would come along to free the noble savages from thier chains of privilege and deliver the salvation of secularism.
Understood.
Then give them money; that would be most useful since they can spend that money the way they wish.
So much make-believe….
Iran’s ballistic missile testing does not violate any U.N. sanctions.
I got clued in when the Russians torpedoed U.S. complaints on the basis that the latest resolution supersedes all previous ones and only calls for them to restrain from testing ballistic missiles. I double checked this and they are quite right.
Here is resolution 2231, see page 3, terminations, 7. section (a) where it terminates 1929 (the one that prohibited Iranian missile testing). Then look at page 99, Annex B: . “Iran is called upon not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles…”
https://web.archive.org/web/20150819092747/http://www.un.org/en/sc/inc/pages/pdf/pow/RES2231E.pdf
This goes back to what Ben Rhodes talked about, the Administration spoon feeds a statement to a compliant media and it gets repeated for months on end, unchallenged and even today their testing is called, illicit, or possibly illegal.
The MSM is incapable of reading existing agreements and is not willing to question it even after another source goes through the trouble of doing it for them.
The Administration side steps their role and is able to stir up the mob without any consequences. Iran isn’t doing anything wrong. They are just taking advantage of the new agreement yet are being portrayed as undermining it in some manner.
Theodicy and the general election:
http://www.getreligion.org/getreligion/2016/5/20/theodicy-in-the-white-house-race-believers-facing-a-choice-that-is-more-than-political
“[F]or millions of cultural and moral religious conservatives this election is evolving into a truly moral or theological problem…
“Would a truly good and merciful God allow voters to end up choosing between Donald Trump and Hillary Rodham Clinton?”
would truffles travel better?
What tragicomedy.
They’re more concerned with “matrimony” for queers as well as lavatories for “cross-gender” freaks than to provide jobs or housing for those disadvantaged.
As we speak, I’ve an associate (a half-Jew) in Oregon suffering some rare strain of muscular dystrophy & living in a trailer park (with his folks).
Unable to get decent employment & relying on food stamps…
I suck at numbers & statistics (can official figures be relied upon?), so I’ve no honest picture how many US citizens are equally suffering or going thru worse.
All,
The human mind evolved to trek through savannas with mates guided by instincts and training. Our perceptions and beliefs are the framework that makes order out of the randomness of life. A world view can be changed with the flick of a switch. Seeing a picture of our blue orb in the vastness of space.
This is another mind altering time. Western news is untrustworthy. PBS’s NewsHour recently had a segment on Russian aggression and invasion of Crimea. Patently false since Russia has had a naval base there since 1783 and fought wars with Turkey, Great Britain and Germany and their allies over the centuries to keep it.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/crimean-muslim-refugees-feel-welcome-but-theres-no-place-like-home/
An unmentionable Civil War has commenced in the West that is, at present, limited to electoral politics. On one side are the plutocrats and their handmaidens who are for free movement of capital and people, perpetual war plus eliminating democratic sovereignty and taxes. On the other side is the western populace who are losing their livelihood and privileges. Identity politics is being used to spin people into manageable wedges. The fault lines are sex, age, religion and ethnicity that play on the human emotions that tie one to family and tribe.
This is visible in the comments above. We get to watch how this plays out in real time.
Yes, it is an indulgence of the affluent; while cities like Flint are poisoned; as Fred can tell you all about it.
UK guys are flying In-your-face air patrols close to Russian border while the city of Liverpool is reverting to back what it was 300 years ago – and Cardiff is now akin to a genteel but shabby old maid whose best days are forever gone; just ask David Habakkuk.
Istanbul is in great need of major rebuilding – land is very inefficiently used there while Turkish government indulges in her un-necessary crises with Russia, Syria, EU, Iran, Armenia, Iraq. Kunari can tell you that.
The Canadians are working on a solution to this sad, sad problem —
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-florida-murder-idUSKCN0YB00D
YT, Have you tried getting help for your associate from the muscular
dystrophy assoc? Here’s their web page
https://www.mda.org/services
I’m sure he did, Elaine.
That’s probably where he gets his [medical] marijuana.
But methinks the weed is affecting his worldview.
“Pro-Palestinian…”
🙂
George Orwell was truly prescient…
Of course, because the purpose of the “Rescue Game” isn’t to provide relief to the disavantaged but to prop up the social status of the “rescuers”.
This has been nicely analysed by the Archdruid, who despite his druidy nuttiness is far from being an idiot:
http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/2016/04/american-narratives-rescue-game.html
the predicament:
http://www.vanityfair.com/magazine/2015/07/donald-ivana-trump-divorce-prenup-marie-brenner (from 1990 – thanks to GCP’s trolling/bottom feeding posts above)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/this-is-how-fascism-comes-to-america/2016/05/17/c4e32c58-1c47-11e6-8c7b-6931e66333e7_story.html
which to choose? don’t remember seeing the Nudelman consort’s dire warning posted anywhere.
cue Eric Idle’s “always look on the bright side of life”
I thank you [once more] for [all] the links [you’ve shown me thus far].
Yes, ‘philanthropy’ seems no more than another tool for the filthy rich (however ill-gotten their wealth) to ‘enhance’ their influence.
Sadly, many are the ‘useful idiots’ working for ’em…
Fred,
If they are great cooks, and they like seriously good olive oil, and they don’t already buy and use some of the Middle Eastern olive oils available from Middle Eastern food stores in South East Michigan, then perhaps a gallon jug of one of the Middle Eastern olive oils gotten after you get back to Michigan might be good.
This is a kind I have sometimes gotten. It is thick and heavy and about as “almost gummy” as any oil I have known. And a light green in color ( at least when I bought some years ago). Here is a picture.
http://www.baroodyimports.com/2011/04/el-koura-extra-virgin-olive-oil.html
Pat Lang
Perhaps you remember the disccussion here under the article “Is Iran now on the path to change?” after the election of the Iranian Assembly of Experts at the end of February? While almost all western media wrote of a big victory of so-called “reformers” back then my information was that the “Friends of Khamenei faction” won big.
http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2016/03/httpwwwthehinducomopinioneditorialblow-for-reformists-in-iranarticle8305450ece.html#comment-6a00d8341c72e153ef01bb08c2c444970d
That seems now confirmed. BBC writes:
Iran hardliner Jannati elected head of Assembly of Experts
A hardline conservative has been elected chairman of Iran’s Assembly of Experts, a powerful clerical body which selects the country’s supreme leader.
Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, 90, was one of the few hardliners to secure re-election to the assembly in February.
Reformists and moderates asked their supporters to vote tactically to stop most of them retaining their seats.
But Ayatollah Jannati’s election is a signal that hardliners are still in control of the assembly.
The composition of the assembly is seen as significant given that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is 77 and has suffered ill-health. …
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-36366595
It’s amazing to see now confirmed that all western media interpreted the Assembly of Experts election results totally wrong. It looks like that they really don’t know anything about Iran.
dc,
Airlines don’t allow a gallon of any liquid on planes, could be an explosive, especially coming from ME. This would lead Fred into a cavity search.
Tidewater to The Twisted Genius,
I would be fascinated to hear what you have to say when you have the time to address what I think is a very difficult thing to write about. I’d love to hear how the US Army approached the…Question? 🙂 I remember there was some serious work being done at Duke. But I was only told that. My understanding of these matters is…not exactly scholarly, if it can be that. I mean, you don’t have to be scholarly. A detective once told me a story here in C’Ville about what a psychic–a woman from one of the coves in the low mountains around C’Ville–did in solving a case. He watched the whole thing.
I just swerved off of a few days or more with Crowley right into the 17th Century. It actually created a little bit of a haunted mood, in part a sense of respect perhaps even a little something like empathy, even compassion, for Crowley and his people. If anyone was serious about it, it was Crowley. Odd to be reading about these deaths on Everest at the moment. (Crowley being a now recognized ,important mountain climber. Who had a disaster and mostly his fault.) I once read that Christopher Marlowe was one of a generation, or perhaps one of the last ones of those who actually believed that MAGICK would work. (Well, alchemy did produce European porcelain!) Though it really doesn’t sound like what the general picture is of Marlowe. Been reading some of the God-haunted 17th Century poets, one being Herrick, who, incidentally, wrote a charming, simple-hearted poem about London, which I had never heard of. (Just how glad he was to be back in London.) Fun to compare it with Dr. Johnson’s “London”. (I think Johnson must have been mugged and robbed more than once.) Makes me wonder what the great pomes are about London, anyway. I always loved it that when the wind blew from the north Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes could (perhaps not very strongly?) hear the wolves in the Regent’s Park zoo doing their basic lunar conversational thing. I wonder what Hughes wrote about London.
This is probably not the point to discuss this– but the the thought that crossed my mind recently was that if Crowley, in the Sahara rituals, as I will call them, actually was able to summon forms, just dark shapes, around him, and, of course, he claimed not only that but a good deal more, then he had succeeded. He had done it! You could infer from this the rest…(Again, grin, I have been reading a little of Milton.) Like clouds, dew, birds, flotsam, and of course sand captured on the waxy bottom of a five-hundred foot lead line. Shapes around you in your proected space, but out there in the night. You are sure of this. You can see them. Land Ho! So to speak. I am going to get another glass of wine. This rainy weather, what I am reading–I have had a sense of a kindliness out there.
The OIG at the Department of State has issued an 86 pp report stating that HRC and many members of previous administrations violated the Federal Records Act. Not a criminal statute but of course violations mean no one really can document violators actions including self-dealing.
Wiki Extract:
The Federal Records Act of 1950 is a United States federal law enacted in 1950. It provides the legal framework for federal records management, including record creation, maintenance, and disposition.
The Federal Records Act came following the recommendations of the Hoover Commission (1947-49). The act, and its related regulations, require federal agency to establish an ongoing program for records management and to cooperate with the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). A 1985 NARA pamphlet describes the Federal Records Act as the “basis for the Federal Government’s policies and procedures for creating, maintaining, and disposing of Federal records. The act and its related regulations define Federal records, mandate the creation and preservation of those records necessary to document Federal activities, establish Government ownership of records, and provide the exclusive legal procedures for the disposition of records.”[1] The Second Hoover Commission (1953-55) addressed paperwork management and recommended the adoption of program relating to “directives management, reports management, paperwork quality control, and clerical work measurement.” As a result, the first Guide to Record Retention Requirements was published in 1955; the guide is updated annually and is used by archivists and other record managers both in and out of government.
The Federal Records Act was amended over time. Amendments in 1976 emphasized paperwork reduction and information lifecycle management. The Paperwork Reduction Act of 1980, which followed the issuance of the report of the Commission on Federal Paperwork in 1977, introduced information resources management and gave responsibility to the Office of Management and Budget for creating federal information policy standards.
In December 2014, the Presidential and Federal Records Act Amendments of 2014 was signed into law by President Barack Obama. This bipartisan act, which followed the 2011 President’s Memorandum on Managing Government Records, modernizes the Federal Records Act. The act expressly expands the definition of federal records to include electronic records (the first change to the definition of “Federal record” since the enactment of the act in 1950). The act also grants the Archivist of the United States the final determination as to what constitutes a Federal record; “authorizes the early transfer of permanent electronic federal and presidential records to the National Archives, while legal custody remains with the agency or the president”; “clarifies the responsibilities of federal government officials when using non-government email systems”; and “empowers the National Archives to safeguard original and classified records from unauthorized removal.”
WRC
IMO she is vulnerable to exposure under other statutes than the Records Act. pl
optimax,
You are correct. I anticipated that concern by suggesting that Fred could buy the rough-gallon jug of Fayrouz olive oil After returning to Southeast Michigan . . . from one of the middle eastern food stores right here in Southeast Michigan. Right here in Ann Arbor, even.
AGREE!
Wiki Extract:
The Battle of Jutland (German: Skagerrakschlacht, the Battle of Skagerrak) was a naval battle fought by the British Royal Navy’s Grand Fleet under Admiral Sir John Jellicoe, against the Imperial German Navy’s High Seas Fleet under Vice-Admiral Reinhard Scheer during the First World War. The battle was fought from 31 May to 1 June 1916 in the North Sea, near the coast of Denmark’s Jutland Peninsula. It was the largest naval battle and the only full-scale clash of battleships in the war. It was the third fleet action between steel battleships, following the smaller but more decisive battles of the Yellow Sea (1904) and Tsushima (1905) during the Russo-Japanese War.
Germany’s High Seas Fleet’s intention was to lure out, trap and destroy a portion of the Grand Fleet, as the German naval force was insufficient to openly engage the entire British fleet. This formed part of a larger strategy to break the British blockade of Germany and to allow German naval vessels access to the Atlantic. Meanwhile, Great Britain’s Royal Navy pursued a strategy to engage and destroy the High Seas Fleet, thereby keeping the German force contained and away from Britain and her shipping lanes.
The German plan was to use Vice-Admiral Franz Hipper’s fast scouting group of five modern battlecruisers to lure Vice-Admiral Sir David Beatty’s battlecruiser squadrons into the path of the main German fleet. Submarines were stationed in advance across the likely routes of the British ships. However, the British learned from signal intercepts that a major fleet operation was likely, so on 30 May Jellicoe sailed with the Grand Fleet to rendezvous with Beatty, passing over the locations of the German submarine picket lines while they were unprepared. The German plan had been delayed, causing further problems for their submarines which had reached the limit of their endurance at sea.
On the afternoon of 31 May, Beatty encountered Hipper’s battlecruiser force long before the Germans had expected. In a running battle, Hipper successfully drew the British vanguard into the path of the High Seas Fleet. By the time Beatty sighted the larger force and turned back towards the British main fleet, he had lost two battlecruisers from a force of six battlecruisers and four battleships, against the five ships commanded by Hipper. The battleships, commanded by Rear-Admiral Sir Hugh Evan-Thomas, were the last to turn and formed a rearguard as Beatty withdrew, now drawing the German fleet in pursuit towards the main British positions. Between 18:30, when the sun was lowering on the western horizon, back-lighting the German forces, and nightfall at about 20:30, the two fleets – totalling 250 ships between them – directly engaged twice.
Fourteen British and eleven German ships were sunk, with great loss of life. After sunset, and throughout the night, Jellicoe manoeuvred to cut the Germans off from their base, hoping to continue the battle the next morning, but under the cover of darkness Scheer broke through the British light forces forming the rearguard of the Grand Fleet and returned to port.
Both sides claimed victory. The British lost more ships and twice as many sailors but succeeded in containing the German fleet. However, the British press criticised the Grand Fleet’s failure to force a decisive outcome while Scheer’s plan of destroying a substantial portion of the British fleet also failed. Finally, the British strategy to prevent Germany access to both Great Britain and the Atlantic did succeed which was the British long term goal. The Germans’ “fleet in being” continued to pose a threat, requiring the British to keep their battleships concentrated in the North Sea, but the battle confirmed the German policy of avoiding all fleet-to-fleet contact. At the end of the year, after further unsuccessful attempts to reduce the Royal Navy’s numerical advantage, the German Navy accepted that their surface ships had been successfully contained, subsequently turning its efforts and resources to unrestricted submarine warfare and the destruction of Allied and neutral shipping which by April 1917 triggered the United States of America’s declaration of war on Germany.
Subsequent reviews commissioned by the Royal Navy generated strong disagreement between supporters of Jellicoe and Beatty concerning the two admirals’ performance in the battle. Debate over their performance and the significance of the battle continues to this day.
Tidewater to William R. Cumming,
Thank you for a very timely background sketch of what happened at Jutland. The battle is being commemorated, I suppose even as we write, somewhere, somehow, by Britain and Germany. Are there ships offshore? It is a grand occasion!
A British and German frigate for the ceremony at Scapa Flow!
Today June 9th the first ship transited the newly widened Panama Canal. 5-10 years to measure the true impact on International trade.
Formal opening June 26th!
virtual antiemetic for queasy-making politics
https://youtu.be/MaT5q7ryOyU?t=238
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNnLNJLZj11RlFYq4HZ6cTQ