pl
RSS- The Wondrous Oak
- Three Seas Summit: Vilnius 2024
- Tit for tat until it all goes boom
- Deadly H5N1 avian influenza strain detected on mainland Antarctica
- “BYD is launching its next-gen Blade EV battery soon with more range and even lower cost”
- Iran launches air attacks on Israel
- ISW on the developing Ukrainian defense industrial base and Russias strikes on the Ukrainian energy infrastructure
- Britain? Kaput! By Walrus.
- Declaration “Dignitas Infinita” on Human Dignity
- The situation and some possible courses of action … A Pat Lang post reposted from 26 February 2022
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvehkmNI62U&feature=emb_logo
FBI film on campaign prophylaxis
“Even make Americans think they can alter our campaign sows distrust in the process”
My sense is the chicanery inside the system makes the “foreigners” look like pikers.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/11/02/clinton-brazile-hacks-2016-215774
Could your county use some extra money?
According to the US Census there are 3031 counties in the US.
If we redirected the $3.8 billion plus the 500,000,000 for missile defense that we give Israel to US counties budgets each county would receive about
$ 1.3 million.
If we included the $1.2 billion each we give to Egypt and Jordon for signing the Carter peace treaty with Israel that figure increases to $2.3 million for each county.
While $2.3 million may be a small figure for counties with metro cities, it would be a large amount for the majority of counties across the nation.
Since aid to Israel alone accounts for 50% of US foreign aid who would oppose this re direct of taxpayers money…besides the politicians…and how would the politicians explain their opposition to the districts they supposedly represent?
For all you Tulsi fans, SNL called the DNC debate just right: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8EQFhj8ca4&feature=emb_title (Pardon the short intro ad before the SNL debate clip)
An interesting story on how the Hmong diaspora connect
https://www.theverge.com/2019/11/22/20975911/hmong-radio-conference-line-diaspora-america-phone-djs
In March of 1992 I was on Ft Myer, nearing the end of my 4 year enlistment. I has just started a meeting with a career counselor or something along that and told him that I had an interest in becoming a writer. He said the man that was in the other office was a writer for Time. I asked for his name, assuming I would not know because I did not read much. He answered “David Hackworth”. I had just finished reading his book, which was immensely popular in my unit. After a few seconds it registered – I charged into the other office and introduced myself saying how much I loved his book. Turns out I had accosted the wrong man, but he was nice enough to refer to to the actual David Hackworth, standing next to him. Mr Hackworth told me he was headed to the Pentagon (I think Sec of Army) and he would sign my book brought it there. I tore home to my place in Fairfax and then to the Pentagon and sure enough he did sign it. I saw a reference to David Hackworth somewhere on this site and thought maybe the memory would be appreciated.
Here’s a half hour conversation with Dr. Steve Keen, of Kingston University in London, on how the reality distortion field known as mainstream, neoclassical Economics is grossly underestimating the economic impacts we can expect from climate change.
https://www.rt.com/shows/renegade-inc/474059-economics-crises-recessions-planet/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Keen
They’re making a lists…
https://www.adl.org/blog/following-sacha-baron-cohens-speech-here-is-adls-short-list-of-social-media-accounts-that
I would like to say this suggestion is a good idea. However, I don’t trust my local officials to spend it wisely any more than I trust state or national officials or politicians.
The difficulties of the world can not always be solved financially.
Trump just did something good….maybe the dog told him to.
”Trump signs animal cruelty act into law”
By Devan Cole and Allie Malloy, CNN
Updated 9:11 AM ET, Tue November 26, 2019
Making harming a animal a felony…up to 7 years prison time… supersedes state laws…making it federal.
ex PFC …
Doomed! Doomed!
MattS
I knew him. He and I pled for peace from a stage in Texas a month before Desert Storm. The Yahoos in boots and hats were at a loss and could not bring themselves to boo us.
“Clinton is the embodiment of a venal system, Trump is its caricature.”
John Pilger interview
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2019/11/27/american-exceptionalism-driving-world-to-war-john-pilger/
Chuck, we’re entering a Grand Solar Minimum which will last till 2050, it’s gonna be cold!
catherine,
If we didn’t give Ukraine money we could fix Flint’s water system.
If we didn’t let 18 year olds decide on what to study but put conditons on federal loans focussed upon skills actully needed in the workplace as evidenced by the million or so H1B visa holders we would created opportunity for our own citizens.
Chuck,
The science is settled! Therefore we should stop funding colleges and spend that money on fixing the climate.
Scott Ritter has written a long exposition on “the whistleblower”, i.e., Eric Ciaramella.
This includes his history of employment with CIA and NSC, under both Obama and Trump, which is complicated. Included are descriptions of his alleged leaks. Also included are descriptions of the other players: Kendall-Taylor, Vindman, McMaster, Flynn, Fiona Hill, and Kupchan.
There is too much material to summarize accurately, but the theme is:
> the whistleblower, like many of his fellow detailees, had grown attached to the policies of the Obama administration which they had fought hard to formulate, coordinate and implement. They viewed these policies to be sacrosanct, regardless of who followed in the White House.
>
> In doing so, they had committed the greatest sin that an intelligence professional could commit short of espionage—they had become political.
Read whole story here:
https://consortiumnews.com/2019/11/27/scott-ritter-the-whistleblower-and-the-politicization-of-intelligence/
Your brief comment raises a few intriguing questions, First, IIRC you were the head of the DIA Middle East/South Asia desk at that time, whereas Col. Hackworth had been out of the Army for two decades plus, all of which suggests the question of what sort of occasion was this?
If it was not an official Army function of some kine, was it because Hackworth was too much of a persona non grata to the Army establishment?
What policy did you believe at the time was a better alternative to Desert Storm?
Finally Do I presume correctly in your official DIA capacity you would never have offered your opinion on that to higher-ups unless explicitly asked for it?
ex PFC Chuck
I had left the government by that time. It was a love fest put on by a big bank in Ft. Worth, Texas. I had known Hack since I was a cadet and he was a captain instructor at the Ranger School. anything else? Several civilians also spoke but the ‘all hat – no cattle” crowd didn’t care about them.
Yes, and probably move the voting age back up to 21.
Thanks for link
The Obama’s got very wealthy “writing books (though Barry has still not finished his). Old socialist Bernie Sanders got wealthy writing a book.
Heck, Barry Soetoro became President of the United States because of his Bill Ayer’s ghost-written fake biography which propelled him into the spotlight beyond all reason. Politicians writing fake books for partisan audiences is a fast track to instant wealth.
Free market – can’t complain.
WSJ columnist todya raises an old obscure issue today about the Clinton emails and Comey’s calculated exoneration of Clinton’s culpability.
This story reopens the claim Comey had a report there was an email exchange between Loretta Lynch and Clinton claiming Lynch promised her the DOJ would go easy on Clinton. Coney claimed when confronted with this memo, Lynch merely smiled like the Cheshire cat and nothing more was done.
This memo was later discredited as an alleged planted Russian hoax. Yet the memo story is again put in lead position on the opinion pages of the WSJ this very morning. Why was that? Not clear, bu does the author think this alleged Lynch-Clinton campaign exchange will be part of the upcoming Horowitz report?
(WSJ: 11/27/19 – Holman Jenkins, Jr. – “Who will turn over the 2016 rocks”)
I am surprised to see no discussion of the SecNavy/SecDef/POTUS contremps:
Richard Spencer versus Mark Esper, etc.
Is this discussed in some other post, or just not considered at SST?
I did a search using the SST search engine on Spencer, and got nothing remotely relevant.
I would have been at a loss then too, at the time I took it as gospel that we had to invade Iraq and I never questioned it until much, much later.
The best medical care that money can buy?
https://twitter.com/27khv/status/1199730882698985473?s=21
keith Harbaugh
You cannot bargain with your president if you are a cabinet secretary. End of subject.
Sir
I became acquainted with you as I was searching opposing viewpoints to Dubya, Blair, Cheney and Condi. Instinctually I didn’t buy the WMD hysteria. I believe I saw an interview of you on an Australian TV show at that time. My memory fails.
Thank you.
Some professors in Germany ran a calculation, it would only cost a cool 8 trillion dollars (if the transition process is fully optimised) to remodel the German energy system in a way that would reduce carbon emissions by 90%, which is widely believed to be sufficient to achieve the “Paris goals”. A real bargain, that’s just 2x the annual GDP of Germany. And we are not even talking about “carbon neutrality”, the costs for that would be stratospheric.
If the economic impact of “climate change” is less than that, I would say let’s have it and embrace it and plant some palm trees.
Obama got elected because GWB invade Iraq and any democrat not named Clinton was going to win that election.
Keith,
Spencer was a fool and now that he’s gone the new Navy Secretary needs to call Mcraven back to duty and courts martial him.
POTUS’s Son-in-law Jared Kushner has been put in charge of the border wall
All it takes right now is a can-do construction manager – they’ll find the money. Wollstone Ice Rink redux.
They have the prototype, all it needs is production and implantation. It will be beautiful. Just like a WWII-type all out armament production effort to save the Nation, like the Democrats are so fond of these days.
Not so fast, Clinton was winning far more primaries than Obama – he was strong arming the caucuses with his union goons and ACORN and bought off the super-delegates. He thugged his way to the nomination; he never won it.
But his fake book created rabidly enamoured acolytes, who put blinders on to his wholly deficient history, character, talent and experience.
However, I agree – no GOP was going to win following Bush and Iraq. In fact no GOP even wanted to run – always felt McCain stepped up more out of duty than any enthusiasm that someone had to run- token or not in 2008.
But Barry was not a sure thing until the super-delegates and Soros money along with SEIU and ACORN shock troops stuck knives in Clinton’s back, who at that time was winning over the “people”.
I recommend that you take a look at ‘Climate Denial, Crock of the Week’, with Peter Sinclair. This is on Youtube. It is very well done. I have just discovered it, and looked at ‘Solar Schmolar.’
watch”>https://www.youtube.com>watch
It’s scientists against time. Just as in WWII, except that this one is like nothing that mankind has ever seen. There are areas where methane is now boiling up in the East Siberian Sea off Bennett Island. Semiletov has just come back from another expedition, I think his 45th. He took sixty scientists with him this time. They got methane samples by simply throwing a sophisticated kind of bucket into the sea. Eleven or so years ago, when I first tuned in to Semiletov, he was on his way to the Arctic to lay down listening devices. He had a theory that these devices could hear methane bubbles of methane coming up from crevices.
Something I wondered about was what could happen if you sailed into a ten mile wide or more methane bubble. Even a sub.
Google: “Giant methane gas bubble ‘sank trawler’–Telegraph.” November 3, 2000.
news>uknews>Giant-methane-gas-bubble-s”>https://www.telegraph.co.uk>news>uknews>Giant-methane-gas-bubble-s
Tidewater to Tidewater,
Must apologize to Committee for the failure to properly link. I am not sure why. I have a problem with my laptop, it seems. Apologies.
Just published, “Crime in Progress”, praising Christopher Steele.
quote
Steele assured them the memo was credible. It drew on seven sources, including a Moscow foreign ministry official, a former Russian intelligence operative, and two witnesses from inside the Ritz. Crime in Progress doesn’t tell us who the sources are, alas. There are a few tantalising clues: a single accomplished “collector” gathered much of the intelligence, we learn. Steele calls him – or her – a “remarkable person with a remarkable story who deserves a medal for services to the west”. Great care was taken to keep identities secret. The fate of Sergei Skripal – poisoned in Salisbury by a visiting Moscow death squad – was all too possible.
The book’s blunt conclusion: the media failed. There was wall to wall coverage of Hillary Clinton’s underwhelming emails, hacked by Russia’s GRU spy agency and given to WikiLeaks. But the more important story – that Moscow had potentially compromised a White House candidate – went unwritten. Simpson and Fritsch are scathing about the FBI. On the election’s eve it told the New York Times there was “no clear Trump link to Russia” – a misleading statement, even in an age of lies.
Mueller confirmed Steele’s reporting: that the Russians sweepingly and systematically interfered in the 2016 vote. But Mueller, Simpson and Fritsch argue, didn’t follow the money and was overcautious. In the end he failed to find sufficient evidence to prove a criminal conspiracy, in part because of obstruction by the president and his allies.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/nov/28/crime-in-progress-glenn-simpson-peter-fritsch-review
What we need is a method for pressurizing vast areas of the Martian surface with relatively little hassle, labor, and raw material. For a long time, I thought the key might be gigantic masonry vaults, but I’m increasingly convinced that tensile structures are inherently better due to much lower mass requirements. The same goes for digging tunnels, which is so labor intensive that almost noone lives underground. In contrast, a thin, flexible tensile membrane supported by its own pressure seems to be a step in the right direction. But how would this work?
UV resistant polymers as as ETFE are routinely used for exterior cladding of structures that need transparent, curved, lightweight, waterproof barriers. Some of these structures are even pressure stabilized. A multilayer ETFE fabric incorporating Kevlar fibers is an ideal material for both performance yacht sails and transparent pressurized structures on Mars. This material can be thermally or chemically welded in the field for ease of integration, modification, and repair.
To transmit pressure load into the ground, a pressurized ETFE membrane must be periodically anchored to the ground by steel cables that can be arbitrarily long, supporting ceilings high enough to permit cloud formation!
https://caseyhandmer.wordpress.com/2019/11/28/domes-are-very-over-rated/
Factotum,
If memory serves he didn’t win the Michigan primary as the Republican legislature moved the primary up a couple months, this “violated” DNC rules at the time requiring New Hampshire and Iowa to be first and second in selecting delegates. The DNC was unwilling to hold a caucus as by state democratic party rules it would have been held in Detroit. There is zero chance Hilary would have won that vote. The DNC members I knew were part of that decision. I’m not sure which super delegates you are talking about, other than the minority members of Congress and some but not all union leadership.
Tidewater,
Volcanoes? I’m sure atmospheric co2 causes them too.
Regarding Trump and what he does, here is I think an excellent analysis, the brightest from very far that can be found.
https://orientalreview.org/2019/11/15/about-trump/
Colonel,
Talking with some SEAL acquaintances that I visit with from time to time, they have told me that Gallagher needs to go down, and go down not just hard but very hard. They’re basing what they’re saying to me on classified stuff they know but cannot discuss and have not discussed except to say that Gallagher belongs in a federal prison cell.
This is a bucket of worms anyway one looks at it.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2019/11/24/trumps-harmful-meddling-gallagher-case/4290419002/
Colonel,
SB64 introduced in the Virginia legislature that’s a real bucket of worms by your state’s Senator Lucas ( https://www.senatorlouiselucas.com/ ).
SB 64
https://legiscan.com/VA/text/SB64/id/2070814
SENATE BILL NO. 64
Offered January 8, 2020
Prefiled November 21, 2019
A BILL to amend and reenact §18.2-433.2 of the Code of Virginia, relating to paramilitary activities; penalty.
———-
Patron– Lucas
———-
Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice
———-
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:
1. That §18.2-433.2 of the Code of Virginia is amended and reenacted as follows:
§18.2-433.2. Paramilitary activity prohibited; penalty.
A person shall be is guilty of unlawful paramilitary activity, punishable as a Class 5 felony if he:
1. Teaches or demonstrates to any other person the use, application, or making of any firearm, explosive, or incendiary device, or technique capable of causing injury or death to persons, knowing or having reason to know or intending that such training will be employed for use in, or in furtherance of, a civil disorder; or
2. Assembles with one or more persons for the purpose of training with, practicing with, or being instructed in the use of any firearm, explosive, or incendiary device, or technique capable of causing injury or death to persons, intending to employ such training for use in, or in furtherance of, a civil disorder; or
3. Assembles with one or more persons with the intent of intimidating any person or group of persons by drilling, parading, or marching with any firearm, any explosive or incendiary device, or any components or combination thereof.
2. That the provisions of this act may result in a net increase in periods of imprisonment or commitment. Pursuant to §30-19.1:4 of the Code of Virginia, the estimated amount of the necessary appropriation cannot be determined for periods of imprisonment in state adult correctional facilities; therefore, Chapter 854 of the Acts of Assembly of 2019 requires the Virginia Criminal Sentencing Commission to assign a minimum fiscal impact of $50,000. Pursuant to §30-19.1:4 of the Code of Virginia, the estimated amount of the necessary appropriation cannot be determined for periods of commitment to the custody of the Department of Juvenile Justice.
Iran’s submarine launched Jask cruise missile has entered mass production.
https://www.rt.com/news/474784-surprise-iran-cruise-missile/
Wonder who is paying for the Ukrainian Neo-Nazis expenses and fees while they’re participating in the Hong Kong riots.
https://www.rt.com/news/475036-hongkong-ukraine-neo-nazis/