Sic Semper Tyrannis

"Strike The Tent" trilogy by W. Patrick Lang

    

To Order Directly From the Author:

Rosemont Books

PO Box 2713

Leesburg, VA 20177

Pricing for Perfect bound Softcover: 

The Butcher's Cleaver:  $23.95 (Hardcover $33.95)

Death Piled Hard:  $18.95   (Hardcover $28.95)

Down the Sky:  $15.95  (Hardcover $25.95) 

Please add $3.99 S&H handling for each book ordered, or $11.89 for all three books in the Trilogy.

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Also Available from:

 iUniverse

 
http://bookstore.iuniverse.com/AdvancedSearch/Default.aspx?SearchTerm=W.+Patrick+Lang

E-Book version of all three available at iUniverse

Barnes and Noble

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/W--Patrick-Lang?keyword=W.+Patrick+Lang&store=allproducts&iehack=%E2%98%A0

Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Butchers-Cleaver-Confederate-Secret-Services/dp/0595474764/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1358700423&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Butcher%27s+Cleaver

I was interviewed some time ago by the North Carolina Museum of History concerning the writing of this trilogy.

"The Confederate Secret Services, a conversation with W. Patrick Lang, novelist, retired U.S. Army colonel, and military intelligence consultant

Patrick Lang discusses his two novels, The Butcher’s Cleaver and Death Piled Hard, both of which focus on Claude Devereux, a Virginia banker who is recruited by the Confederate secret service and placed in the office of Union secretary of war Edwin Stanton. Approximate run time: 24 minutes. Podcast " 

This podcast is highly recommended

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"Science currently holds that time travel is an impossibility, but readers of Down the Sky, thefinal volume of Colonel Pat Lang’s Strike the Tent trilogy will question that assertion. Code-named “Hannibal,” Confederate penetration agent Claude Devereux is firmly lodged in the upper echelons of the Federal war machine. Now a Brigadier General of the Union forces with the new Congressional Medal of Honor on his chest, Major Devereux of the Confederate Secret Service knows time is running out. His minders in Richmond may no longer trust him, his personal life is a shambles, and Union spy-catcher Lafayette Baker is determined to bring him down. Only his peculiar, personal friendship with President Lincoln holds his enemies at bay.

 

Is Trump a believer in Stephen Anton's and Michael Miller's Trumpismo?

 

"To save America, Anton proposes a blitz of desperate actions. The point, he argues, is to take exceptional and potentially suicidal steps (the rushing-the-cockpit scenario) because the America that conservatives aspire to preserve faces total elimination. He reveals this in a section of his essay that looks at the intentions of  “the Left.” Some of the Left regard conservatives as Nazis, he writes: “How does one deal with a Nazi – that is, with an enemy one is convinced intends your destruction? You don’t compromise with him or leave him alone. You crush him.”

The flip side of believing your enemies want to crush you because you are a Nazi is the belief that you must crush them first. “So what do we have to lose by fighting back?” Anton asks. “The Left, the Democrats, and the bipartisan junta (categories distinct but very much overlapping) think they are on the cusp of permanent victory that will forever obviate the need to pretend to respect democratic and constitutional niceties.” Anton’s ideology has a temporal as well as political edge: it is now-or-neverism."  The Intercept

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 Michael Anton and Stephen Miller are big this weekend,  Miller is everywhere as a voluble surrogate for the surrogate Kelly Ann Conway. 

Miller may be young but he ain't afraid of the Borgists.  My SWAG is that if Bannon has his way Jake Tapper will have to find someone other than Conway to use as a partisan punching bag.   Anton is the author of a now famous article that denounces what he sees as the degeneracy of the United States and which calls for a top to bottom "revolution" in thinking in the USA.  Understandable.

The Left does not like such thinking since they believed before HC's catastrophic loss that there was a revolution but it was their revolution and it had triumphed.  Their discovery that not only had she lost but that Obama's neglect of the Democratic Party for two terms had devastated the party at the state and local levels is something they still have not absorbed or accepted as a new reality.  IMO the Democratic Party left is still trying to undermine Trump's public positions in the hope that convincing evidence of an impeachable charge can be created before the Trump Administration solidifies its institutional position.

IMO this badly misunderstands Trump himself as opposed to his entourage.  I think the error is in thinking that Trump has an ideology other than a crude sort of nationalism based on a lot of movies and marching around at NYMA. 

For Trump IMO "the Art of the Deal" remains all.  Whatever he says or does in making phone calls, running his hand up President Ji's leg, etc, is just stage management in a long (or short) process of negotiation. 

The revolutionary right wing "geniuses" (Bannon, Miller, Anton, etc., ) are just there to take the heat off him on the right.  They, like the NSC crew, should be careful that they do not cause him discomfort or are a distraction from the deals.  pl 

https://theintercept.com/2017/02/12/dark-essays-by-white-house-staffer-are-the-intellectual-source-code-of-trumpism/

The election of 1824 - provided by Richard Sale

The most visible candidate was House Speaker Henry Clay. A leading War Hawk during the War of 1812, Clay had a power base in Kentucky, was a gifted public speaker, and had support for his so-called American System of protective tariffs and federally sponsored internal improvements. His high-profile advocacy of these issues made him a familiar name in much of the country. Although he was well known, his clear identification with the war and nationalism weakened his roots in the South, which was beginning to fear supporting anyone for President who was not a slave owner or a supporter of states' rights.

 

Then there was General Andrew Jackson from Tennessee, the hero of the Battle of New Orleans. Jackson's reputation as an Indian fighter and western expansionist, owing to his military escapades in Spanish Florida (see Jackson biography, Life Before the Presidency section), gave him national standing above all other candidates. It also helped that Jackson could enter the race as an outsider, a defender of the Republic who had risked his life in service of his nation. In fact, his supporters talked about him as another George Washington. Few experienced politicians, however, expected Jackson to win if any of the opposing candidates could broker a cross-regional coalition that would unite either the West or the South with New England or the mid-Atlantic States.

 

Such a coalition was no easy task to achieve. After all, the 1824 election occurred in a day and age when a new political electorate composed of regionally focused voters had only recently been empowered with the franchise. Since 1820, the old political caucus method by which the congressional leaders nominated presidential candidates had fallen into disrepute. This was principally because the old caucus system failed to connect with the wishes of the new voters, the tens of thousands of males who had been enfranchised by the removal of property ownership as a criterion for white male suffrage. This new climate looked to regional endorsements of candidates by state conventions or state assemblies, which meant that regional popularity, rather than congressional intrigue, would drive the nomination process.

 

Although Adams was a centrist politician of sorts-a Jeffersonian-Federalist, to coin a new term-many Americans still identified him as a New Englander and as the son of the old Federalist leader John Adams. Additionally, many staunch Democratic-Republicans blamed Adams and his supporters for having transformed the party of Jefferson into a disguised form of Federalism under the rubric of "National Republicans." Southerners, moreover, objected to Adams because of his moral opposition to slavery. They remembered his criticism of the Missouri Compromise of 1820 as a proslavery conspiracy, and they suspiciously recalled Adams's efforts to include language opposed to the international slave trade in the Treaty of Ghent, which ended the War of 1812.

 

Four Democratic-Republican Candidates

 

In the summer of 1824, an unofficial caucus of less than a third of the congressmen eligible to attend nominated Crawford for President. Supporters for Adams denounced the caucus bid, and the Massachusetts legislature nominated Adams as their favorite-son candidate. The Kentucky legislature did the same for Clay. Both nominations followed the pattern set by the Tennessee legislature, which had nominated Andrew Jackson in 1822. John C. Calhoun of South Carolina dropped out of the presidential race by announcing his bid for the vice presidency, a move that both Adams and Crawford endorsed. Because all four candidates were nominal Democratic-Republicans-the Federalist Party had disintegrated by this point-the election would be decided without reference to party affiliation.

 

As the campaign progressed, Jackson emerged as the man to beat. The size of his rallies in key swing states-Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana, New York, and New Jersey-far surpassed or rivaled those for Clay and Adams. In this first election in American history in which the popular vote mattered-because eighteen states chose presidential electors by popular vote in 1824 (six states still left the choice up to their state legislatures) -Jackson's popularity foretold a new era in the making. When the final votes were tallied in those eighteen states, Jackson polled 152,901 popular votes to Adams's 114,023; Clay won 47,217, and Crawford won 46,979. The electoral college returns, however, gave Jackson only 99 votes, 32 fewer than he needed for a majority of the total votes cast. Adams won 84 electoral votes followed by 41 for Crawford and 37 for Clay.

 

 

Confronting Iran ? President Trump entering uncharted waters in Yemen (2)

By Patrick Bahzad

"Morality is the weakness of the brain. It can be dangerous
when it is not alleviated by thought and reason"
(from A Season in Hell, by Arthur Rimbaud)

As explained in part (1) of this piece, President Trump is facing some tough challenges if he intends to unsettle the "empire by proxies" that Tehran has established in the Middle-East. By chosing Yemen as the starting point for his roll back policy of Iranian influence, his team has picked a country that is going down the road other failed States have taken before in the region. But even though Yemen might be the weak link in the Iranian chain of "choke points" spread all around the Arabian peninsula, there is no guarantee of success for the new US administration.

A close advisor to President Trump recently said the President would take on Islamic radicals, whether they are "Jihadists or Khomeinists", meaning whether they are ISIS/AQ or the IRGC and its surrogates. Taking the morale high ground and wanting to confront Evil is nothing new in American politics. From that point of view, the administration's statements do not exactly come as a surprise. There has been the "Empire of Evil" and the "Axis of Evil" before. In both these cases though, there was a strategy - however flawed and misguided - underpinning the moral claim, which seems to be totally lacking today.

Revenge is a dish best served cold

It is hard to imagine an administration that has already shown its lack of preparation on such basic issues as immigration law having a well thought through strategy for any kind of US intervention or operation. If the recent SEAL Team 6 raid is any indication to go by, we are in for a rough ride.

Taking risks is in the nature of military arts, but when giving the green light for anything like this, you need to carefully weigh the prospective gains against the risks incurred. Getting the scalp of a senior AQAP may certainly justify putting US operators at risk. Does it necessarily mean you try and have a go at the next best occasion, getting into something that has potentially serious implications in case anything goes wrong ?

I surely can't make that call, but it seems the first raid authorized by the President has already lost the US some good will among the Saudi backed "legitimate" government of Yemen, as well as among Central Yemeni tribes that were not overly hostile to US interests. This is a game where patience trumps bravado, and you'll have to bite your lip more often than not, missing out on a good chance to get a bad guy out of the way.

Does Donald Trump understand this ? Do his closest advisors ? Only time will tell. But if they think "intelligence fusion cells", "combined joint task forces" and "kill lists" alone are going to get us anywhere near the goal the President is contemplating, they are deeply mistaken. Kinetic actions have their place in any overall strategy mixing military assets and foreign policy efforts. However, they are only means to an end. They are not a self serving purpose as such, even less so in Yemen.

Confronting Iran ? President Trump entering uncharted waters in Yemen (1)

By Patrick Bahzad

"I need not tell you, Sir, that the
Red Sea is as much closed as the Gulf"
(from 20 000 Leagues Under The Sea, by Jules Verne)

So this is where President Trump apparently decided to make his first significant foreign policy move. Not in Iraq or Syria, as part of the fight against ISIS and other Jihadi groups, not in Ukraine, which has seen a recent flare-up in combat. But in Yemen, at the Strait of Mandeb, the "Gate of Tears". Push back against Iran is the scent of the day in D.C. and the new administration has picked the most unseemingly place for it. American concern for what is going on in Yemen is understandable and may call for closer monitoring. Aggressive moves in the Red Sea however, or in Yemen itself, bear tremendous risks. The Bab-el-Mandeb, as its name indicates, has always been treacherous waters.

During the presidential campaign, Donald Trump had already hinted at his determination to take on Iran. He had stressed the need for a more confrontational approach and condemned the nuclear deal that the Obama administration had signed with Tehran, literally threatening to tear it up. As President, he has now backed away from such drastic measures, but heightened tensions with Iran became apparent as soon as he took over at the White House.

Ominous signs

Twitter warnings by "The Real Donald Trump" were followed by Iran test firing a ballistic as well as a cruise missile, which may or may not constitute violations of the Nuclear Deal and UNSC resolution 2231. Additionally, in what might be considered an unrelated incident, Houthi forces in Yemen launched an attack against a Saudi frigate, killing two sailors and seriously damaging the ship.

This combination of events triggered National Security Advisor Mike Flynn into putting Iran "on notice", an expression devoid of any meaning in international diplomacy and therefore probably all the more dangerous. The escalation is pretty obvious and additional US sanctions against Iranian individuals and entities only added to it.

But it is not just White House executives like "National Security Advisor" Mike Flynn and "Chief Strategist" Steve Bannon who seem on board with the tough talk about Iran. James Mattis, the newly appointed Secretary of Defence and presumably a voice of reason within the new administration, recently dubbed Iran "the single biggest state sponsor of terrorism in the world". With statements by senior members of the White House and the Cabinet being that unanimous, a feature not necessarily obvious when you look at the short track record of the new Presidency, it is pretty clear that there is now a very deliberate policy shift towards Iran.

The Liberals' conversion to the support of States Rights ...

"In American political discourse, states' rights refers to political powers reserved for the state governments rather than the federal government according to the United States Constitution, reflecting especially the enumerated powers of Congress and the Tenth Amendment. The enumerated powers that are listed in the Constitution include exclusive federal powers, as well as concurrent powers that are shared with the states, and all of those powers are contrasted with the reserved powers—also called states' rights—that only the states possess"  wiki on states' rights

*********

"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. ^"       10th Amendment to  the US Constitution

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The states of the South have always been devoted to the notion of federalism and the rights of the states.  The rest of the country?  not so much  ...  IMO the South has favored federalism because it has always been weaker party in a division of the country into cultural zones,

Now we have an  emerging situation in which anti-Trump and liberal states in the Deep North and West are using the mantle of states rights to oppose the power of the federal government.

The governor of Washington looked mighty funny gloating on TV over Washington State's victory over  the federal government, mighty funny.  pl  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_C._Calhoun

Another look at Russia’s radio-electronic combat - TTG

In October 2015 I put up a post largely about the Richag-AV and Krasukha-4 jamming systems then appearing with the Russian forces moving into Syria. It sparked a good discussion that cut through a lot of the techno-hype. One thing that became clear was that Russia developed and employed a broad family of radio-electronic combat (REC) technologies. Another point made was that these jamming technologies do not form an impenetrable force field. They work together as a “system of systems” to create an extremely hostile electro-magnetic environment for enemy weapons and surveillance systems. It’s not voodoo magic.

As a review of this subject, South Front put out an excellent summary of Russian REC capabilities. Although the article has a sensational title, “Ultra-Secret Weapon that Allows Russia to Assume His Supremacy in Electronic War in Syria” and it has been translated from Romanian to French and then to English, it is both readable and informative.

To continue the review, I took a look at some of the stories out there about the Cook/Su-24 incident. They run the gamut. A lot of the stories seem to conflate two different ECM systems. The Su-24 accounts from the Cook describe a single, basket-like pod under the belly of the fighter-bomber. Other stories describe the Khibiny as torpedo-like pods attached to the wing tips of many of the newer generation Russian aircraft, but not the Su-24. The Su-24 mounted system supposedly shut down, degraded or jammed the Aegis radars and/or fire control systems, but not the engines of the Cook. The wing tip mounted Khibiny system mounted on newer Russian aircraft is said to jam the ability of missiles to lock on and hit the aircraft. Sounds like two different ECM systems to me.

Another ECM incident involved a drone flown out of Syria towards Israel. The drone "deflected" two Iron Dome missiles and one missile fired by an Israeli F-16. This last incident is from a blog by Brad Cabana, a Canadian who posted reliable info during the louder parts of the war in Ukraine along with a thought provoking story of an incident surrounding the coup attempt in Turkey. 

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“In fact, Erdogan was scheduled to meet in Moscow with Russian President Putin just two days before the coup. However, all that came to a sudden end when Erdogan was spirited out of his vacation home just prior to an attempt on his life by a platoon of Turkish special forces. Somehow he had gotten wind of it, boarded his jet, and jettisoned off toward Turkey's capital. While enroute to the capital his plane was "locked onto" by two Turkish F-16's. Despite locking onto Erdogan's jet the Turkish fighter pilots could not fire and bring it down - for whatever reason. The bottom line is that al the evidence points toward a very important Russian intervention in the coup - to stop it that is. It appears that Russian intelligence intercepted the coup plotter's communications and plans, alerted Erdogan in advance, and saving his life in the process. It likely also proved very clearly to Erdogan who his friends were, and who they were not. In any case, the mysterious escape from the lethal missiles of those two Turkish F-16s is really what this article is about.

Funny enough, Erdogan's saving grace seems to be a part of another trend that has raised its head for at least the last few years. Simply put, the Russians have developed technology that renders all missile systems, nuclear or conventional, useless. In November, 2014 the first high profile incident occurred when a Russian SU-24 fighter bomber shut down all systems on the USS Donald Cook in the Black Sea. The only armament the plane carried was a small basket - an important little basket known as "Khibiny" - perhaps named after the Russian mountain of the same name. In any case, the entire state-of-the-art destroyer was rendered unable to defend itself while the SU-24 flew eleven simulated bombing runs over it before flying off. The Cook's Aegis system (most modern US defence system) was shut down completely. 

Then, just three weeks ago a military drone entered Israeli airspace from Syria. The Israeli military fired two Patriot missiles at the drone, but the deadly accurate missiles could not hit the slow and plodding drone. Then an Israeli fighter pilot fired an air-to-air missile at the drone, but the missile would not strike it. It appears quite obvious that the Russian drone had on board a system similar to the Khibiny electronic warfare device that shut down the Cook. However, this system appears to not jam the firing systems, but just the missiles themselves. That would be a variant of the system and essentially render anti-aircraft systems and fighter jets obsolete. It seems clear the Russians used the air-tight "Iron Dome" Israeli anti-missile system as a test for this technology. Not a bad choice considering Israel's small land mass and therefore concentrated air defence systems. Or, in other words, no better place to test it in the world.” (Rock Solid Politics)

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Cabana’s account of Erdogan owing his life to Russian ECM is interesting, but I haven’t found any other accounts of the incident. It might be true. It might be myth. Perhaps some of our august fellow correspondents can shed some light on this story.

I did find several other references to this last incident that corroborate Brad Cabana’s account. This sounds like a well planned field test of a Russian ECM system. I’m sure there were some Russian REC technicians shouting “Eureka” at the results of this experiment. I’m also pretty damned sure there were a lot of Israeli military officers and politicians crying “Ooooh Shiiit! We’re scrooowed!” It doesn’t take much imagination to understand the ramifications of just the possibility of such a lightweight, low power ECM becoming available to Hezbollah missile forces.

TTG 

http://www.timesofisrael.com/russia-not-hezbollah-sent-drone-into-israel-report/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

https://www.rt.com/news/351844-israel-drone-missiles-intercept/

http://nationalinterest.org/feature/israel-almost-shot-down-russian-drone-17390

 

Gorsuch will have to be lucky ...

Well, pilgrims, the man from the ivory judicial tower has stepped on his crank.  He allowed a member of the Connecticut congressional delegation to inveigle him into denouncing the president who nominated him  to the Supreme Court.  Then, to make the situation even more delicious from the Democratic Party point of view, Gorsuch freely told Blumenthal that he should tell anyone he liked of Gorsuch's statements.

Gorsuch has been on the appellate bench for 18 years.  It would seem that this is long enough to become fully insulated from reality.

Given President Trump's pugnacious personality it is hard to believe that  he would see Gorsuch's statements to Blumenthal as other than disloyal and a betrayal.  I would not be surprised to see Gorsuch's nomination end in a withdrawal.

The next nominee will probably have little to say to the Democrats.  pl

“Trump Administration Looks at Driving Wedge Between Russia and Iran” - TTG

By Jay Solomon, Feb. 5, 2017 7:47 p.m. ET

“WASHINGTON—The Trump administration is exploring ways to break Russia’s military and diplomatic alliance with Iran in a bid to both end the Syrian conflict and bolster the fight against Islamic State, said senior administration, European and Arab officials involved in the policy discussions.

The emerging strategy seeks to reconcile President Donald Trump’s seemingly contradictory vows to improve relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin and to aggressively challenge the military presence of Iran - one of Moscow’s most critical allies—in the Middle East, these officials say.

A senior administration official said the White House doesn’t have any illusions about Russia or see Mr. Putin as a “choir boy,” despite further conciliatory statements from Mr. Trump about the Russian leader over the weekend. But the official said that the administration doesn’t view Russia as the same existential threat that the Soviet Union posed to the U.S. during the Cold War and that Mr. Trump was committed to constraining Iran. 

“If there’s a wedge to be driven between Russia and Iran, we’re willing to explore that,” the official said.”  (WSJ)

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What is the goal here, besides continuing to uphold the notion that America is the indispensable nation destined to shape the world to its messianic vision? The only discontinuity from the previous Borg hegemonic policy is the laudable desire for a peaceful and cooperative relationship with Russia. Other than that, there's still a slavish obedience to Likudnik demands. Does the Trump Administration want this better relationship with Russia more than it wants to destroy the Shia Crescent and please Israel?

Trump has much to bargain with. He can end the sanctions targeting Russia and acknowledge a Russian sphere of influence in its near abroad. Would this be enough to entice Putin into abandoning Iran and dismantling the R+6 coalition in Syria? It might be tempting, but I doubt Putin will bite. I think the long game here is the Russian desire to establish a bulwark against the Wahabbi jihadist threat on its southern flank. That bulwark would dissolve with a weakened Iran and Syria and a U.S. backed Saudi Arabia.

I guess we’ll find out soon enough who’s the real champion of the art of the deal.

TTG

https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-administration-looks-at-driving-wedge-between-russia-and-iran-1486342035

https://sputniknews.com/politics/201702061050405042-russian-us-experts-trump-iran-russia-triangle/

https://www.rt.com/op-edge/376480-trump-china-iran-russia/

John Bercow and the mother of all parliaments.

 

"“An address by a foreign leader to both houses of Parliament is not an automatic right. It is an earned honor, Bercow told MPs on Monday.

 

“Before the imposition of the migrant ban, I would myself have been strongly opposed to an address by President Trump in Westminster Hall. After the imposition of the migrant ban, I am even more strongly opposed… 

 

“I feel very strongly that our opposition to racism and to sexism and our support for equality before the law and an independent judiciary are hugely important considerations in the House of Commons,” he added."  usatoday

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Smug.  Pretentious. Self-congratulatory,  Vertically challenged = John Simon Bercow

In 1775 the colonists in North America did not wish to reject their king, however repellent George III may have been.  No, what they objected to was the smug assertion of authority over the colonies by the Westminster Parliament and resulting taxation without representation as well as most of the other grievances listed in the Declaration of Independence.  Some attitudes never seem to change.

Is it not correct that the UK wants a special trade agreement with the United States?  Both Teresa May and Bercow have now offended the head of state and head of government of the US.

Is this the way to obtain that agreement?  pl  

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/02/07/trump-address-uk-parliament/97582218/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bercow

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Declaration_of_Independence

The Fly by Richard T. Sale

There once was a fly. It loved itself excessively. It flew in quick-changing jerks. Its flight was full of stops and starts, and it had eyes in the back of its head, and it thought, “I can do anything. I am the most smartest creature in the world and that makes me the most formidable.”

“Even more formidable than a lion?” asked a humble turtle one day, tired of hearing the fly brag about itself.

The fly liked to torment the turtle by landing on its face, making it pull its meek head in.

“Watch me,” said the fly.

It took the turtle a long time to accompany the fly to where the lion was lying sleeping in the grass, especially since the fly twice landed on the turtle’s face and he had to put his head in twice.

The lion, heaving eaten a heavy meal, was lying blinking in a daze when the fly landed on its nose.

With a great shake of his head, the lion dislodged the fly, but the fly landed right back again.

“So if he is stronger? Do you think he can hurt me?”

The turtle thought it better to leave the lion alone -- the great beast was starting to sit up and switch its tail.

So the fly buzzed and landed right on one of its eyes. With a great roar, the lion pawed at  his face, and the fly nimbly flew away. It circled the lion's head, and the lion, in a rage, roared and tried to paw it but its claws were too clumsy and the fly escaped.

So all the poor turtle heard for the next few days was how great the fly thought it was finally. Trying timidly to assert itself, the turtle said, “Well, at least I can swim. You can't do that, you must admit.”

“Idiots. Why do I need to swim when I can fly?” asked the fly, zooming about and trying to land on the turtle's nose.

“Please don't,” said the turtle.

“Okay, this one time I won't,” said the fly. ““But you can't make me not do it.  I like to do what I want, when I want, and no one can stop me.”

 And the fly went buzzing about, annoying all the larger, slower beasts of the forests. The elephant tried to swat the fly with its trunk, but was too slow; the leopard tried to bat it with its paws, and did no better than the lion.

The fly was practically off its head with praise of itself.

He and the turtle were sitting on the grass, the fly on a blade, the turtle just sitting, quiet.

The fly was talking about itself, when the turtle spotted something that looked almost like a green twig. He thought he saw it move.

He tried to ask the fly what it was, but the fly interrupted, talking of all the new triumphs it planned to have over other animals in the forest.

“The horse is faster,” said the turtle.

“But I can fly and why should I race a horse?” the fly said.

“The mole can go underground,” the turtle said.

“And he's blind when he's not digging in a hole,” said fly.

“But the birds fly like you,” said the turtle.

“But they're not as nimble,” said the fly and landed on the turtle's nose.

As the turtle's head came out, he thought he saw that a green twig had moved. He tried to tell the fly, but the fly was too busy making mock.

“Do you know how stupid you look with your eyes all scrunched up, and your silly head being dragged backwards and your fat little …”

The fly never finished.  A tongue flicked out and back and snatched the fly which disappeared into the lizard that looked like a twig.

“Very talkative,” the lizard said calmly. “Very good too,” it said, licking its lips.

And the moral is this: To be slow is not to be stupid. To be fast is not to be smart.  To be nimble is not to be strong.

But to be conceited is to be blind.

 

                                                          

                                                         ###

A lot of the media is at war with Trump, well ...

 

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.^"     1st Amendment to the US constitution - 1791

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 Brian Stelter is 31?  Who knew?

The section of the 1st Amendment quoted above speaks of actions prohibited to the Congress of the United States.  It does not regulate press relations between the Executive Branch of the federal government and the developing media.

It should be intuitively obvious to the casual observer that CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times, The Washington Post and many other media outlets are deeply committed to hostility to the Trump Administration on each and every issue that may arise no matter how trivial and if there are no trivialities available, they seem quite willing to be creative.

If I were the Trump Administration I would reciprocate in terms of access to government officials now serving.  Active Civil Servants and Soldiers in the US Service have no (zero) right of access to the press other than to read printed material or listen to broadcast media.  They all take an oath  to safeguard government information provided to them in the course of their work.  There are criminal penalties involved for "unauthorized disclosure" if the government  chooses to prosecute.  At the same time the government may choose to release (openly or covertly) whatever information it pleases using these same employees or service members.  The information belongs to the government.

So, while the federal government has no right or real ability to regulate or censor the media in the US, it has every right to selectively decline to cooperate with some media based on unrelenting prosecutorial attitudes and behavior.  Under such "rules" there would be no on-screen interviews or behind the scenes "backgrounders" for the "hostiles."

Under such process the government would continue to refrain from attempting to prosecute people like James Risen, author of "State of War," while continuing to be free to prosecute people like Jeffrey sterling, the ex-CIA man who was Risen's supposed source for Chapter 9 of the book.  I was a defense consultant in the case.  pl 

https://southfront.org/media-turning-on-itself-usatodays-wolff-slams-cnns-stelter-as-ridiculous-self-righteous-figure/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution

South Front Report on US vehicular equipment.

 

"The U.S. Army has been plagued with costly acquisition failures in recent decades, chief amongst them the Future Combat System (FCS) program. This $200 billion program initiated in 2000, the largest U.S. military acquisition program ever attempted, failed to produce results on a multitude of levels and was abandoned by 2009. The Armored Ground Vehicle (AGV) and Armored Gun System (AGS) programs also wasted tens of billions of dollars before being cancelled without achieving their intended goals. These programs were chiefly defeated by an overly bureaucratic Army acquisition system, and the fact that the Army had asked for far too much from the defense industry, demanding many new and unproven technological advancements.

The FCS was the most expensive, most ambitious, and most transformative modernization program ever undertaken by the U.S. Army. It is often hypothesized that the U.S. experience in the first Gulf War of 1991 and in the NATO Kosovo intervention of 1999, led to the desire for a more rapidly deployable U.S. Army expeditionary force. FCS envisioned a highly mobile new Army, light enough to be air-deployable, yet lethal enough to survive on the modern battlefield. This survivability would be provided through the leveraging of new technologies, as well as superior command and control capabilities that would tie together all the various armed forces in a seamless information sharing and communications network.

The Army set very high deployment goals as part of FCS, which would prove to be unattainable."  South Front

---------------------

The US Army is still in the midst of a long term transition to an expeditionary force capable of brigade sized interventions on short notice with a high degree of lethality and sustainability in its systems. The attainment of that goal is still  long way off.

It should be noted that the joint SOF forces involved in the GWOT are really a separate army fighting a different kind of war from that envisioned for US Army general purpose forces.

I suppose that someone will now argue for the irrelevance of such forces in the world of Bill Lind's 4th generational warfare,  I agree with the US Army leadership that the US needs to possess highly capable ground forces that amount to more than a huge SWAT Team.  The Russians seem to think that with regard to their own forces as well.

The history of the present wars in Syria and Iraq support my belief in the continuing need for general purpose forces.    pl  

https://southfront.org/u-s-army-and-its-armored-vehicles-military-analysis/

A couple more things ...

1.  The slide  to war with Iran.  IMO we should all be aware of the ongoing push in the present NSC towards ever increasing hostility toward Iran.  the Iranians clearly have little common sense and are allowing a situation to develop in which people like Flynn and Derek Harvey are pushing the president toward actual red lines on the other side of which IMO is a shooting war with Iran involving the US Navy and USAF.  This deadly duo seems to be motivated by a desire for revenge against Iran for its support of insurgents during the US occupation of Iraq.  How mature!  Israel's as yet untested influence on President Trump and its desired application of a version of Cheney's 1% solution adds to the momentum.

2.  Natanyahu's trip to the kennel.  He will be here on the 15th.  The Israeli press is filled with pros and cons as to whether or not he will be able to bring Trump to heel.  IMO an ego as large as Trump's will not react well to the sound of its master's voice. 

3.  Niki's visit with Churkin.  She went to Vitali Churkin's home in NY City yesterday to talk things over.  A desire for cooperation was expressed thereafter.  IMO the message delivered by her was "Don't pay any attention to the hostile sounds we are making.  They are for the benefit of people like McCain and Graham.  All will be well." 

4.  President Trump wants to de-regulate banking?   I watched the old documentary (2010) "Inside Job" today.  It deals with the general criminality and neglect of duty of assorted banksters, government officials, regulators and presidents in creating the economic and financial meltdown of 2009.   The major players in that fiasco are still active and on the scene in Trump's government.  They are now older, richer and yet more cunning.  And now Trump wants to do away with parts of Dodd-Frank?  This will need watching pilgrims.  pl

HARPER: IRAN-CONTRA LIAR ABRAMS NO PLACE AT STATE DEPT

One of Ronald Reagan's great undoings as President was the fact that a gang of neocons managed to penetrate his Administration at the second and third tiers, particularly at the Defense and State Departments, and as "consultants" to the National Security Council.  End result: Iran-Contra and other debacles that left a black scar on the Reagan legacy.  Although an independent prosecutor, Lawrence Walsh, was appointed to fully investigate the illegal arming of the Nicaraguan Contras and the covert shipping of ballistic missiles to Iran, some via Israel, few of the culprits were actually indicted and fewer were convicted. 

The reason for dredging up this bit of ancient history is the fact that one of the nastiest of the Iran-Contra criminals, Elliot Abrams, is under consideration for the powerful post of Deputy Secretary of State, according to a January 25, 2017 Washington Post column by Josh Rogin.  I do not use the word "criminal" rhetorically. Abrams was one of the few Iran-Contra players to be convicted, albeit of a misdemeanor crime of misleading Congress.  He actually lied to Congress, which was a felony, but he struck a plea agreement with Special Prosecutor Walsh and got the reduced penalty in return for a promise to cooperate.  That October 1991 deal had been preceded in July 1991 by a similar plea deal by Alan Fiers, the CIA officer who was also a key player in the illegal arming of the Nicaraguan Contras.  Abrams headed the Restricted Interagency Group, which coordinated the secret war in Central America between the White House, the CIA and the Pentagon.  Other members of the RIG were Lt. Col. Oliver North and Fiers.

Abrams is neocon aristocracy.  Before he joined the Reagan Administration, he worked for Senators Henry Jackson and Daniel Patrick Moynihan.  His father-in-law was Norman Podhoretz, editor of Commentary magazine and a co-founder of the American neo-conservative movement along with Irving Kristol.  

Although his misdemeanor convictions deprived Abrams of a post in the George H.W. Bush Administration, he was a co-founder of the Project for a New American Century (PNAC), which produced the neocon blueprint for the George W. Bush Administration's endless regime change wars.  He was appointed by Bush 43 to a top post at the National Security Council, where he was in the middle of the promotion of the disastrous Iraq invasion of March 2003.

Any appointment of Abrams to a top post in the Trump Administration, especially a post as powerful as Deputy Secretary of State, who effectively runs the day to day affairs of the U.S. diplomatic corps, would be a disaster.  An even larger disaster, to be avoided, would be the flood of neocon ideologues into key State Department posts if Abrams were to get the job.  Open the door a crack and the stink bugs swarm in. They never travel alone.

No doubt, Bibi Netanyahu, who is preparing his first visit to Washington since the Trump inauguration, is crossing his fingers, and perhaps even praying that Abrams gets the job.

"A Ramble on the Greeks" By Richard Sale

     Before the fall of Greek democracy, Athens began as a center of education and humanity. The best honey and the most deadly hemlock were produced there.  

     According to Jacob Burckhardt, the great 19^th century historian, the Athenians loved progress; they were quick to make decisions and execute them; they never hesitated; they were keen for foreign adventures and forays, and pursued advantage for themselves as much as possible.

     Plans not carried out were counted as failures.  Every gain seemed to them trivial compared to what remained to be done, and after a failure, they set to work to obtain some new success. They never paused to enjoy what they had. They were also incessant meddlers who gave no peace to themselves or their neighbors.    

    The best of the Greeks pursued excellence (‘arte’’), an honorable existence, but the din of the mob drove the excellent underground.  Homer said that the ambition of noble people was “to be first, and outshine the rest.” He called them “the Virtuous Few,” and they were to be a guiding, living force in the democracy.

     But those who were outstanding in any way faced envy, an undermining hatred of anyone who was better than the rest,  delighting in their misfortunes, making incessant efforts to thwart and humiliate them at every turn.  Homer depicts the jeering of a victor and the pain it inflicts.

Expansion    

     The problem was that as the polis expanded the more ruthless and unprincipled it became. Greek democracy laid claim to excellence in ethics and morals, but there was little concern about the happiness or suffering of others.  Slaves had no rights, yet they were expected to have morals. Morals were mere tools for subjugation.   

     The polis claimed it was working for the common good, but it had developed in a way that embraced mutual aggression and nasty feuding. Its citizens were easily provoked and led astray by strong passions of the commonplace. Hesiod in his masterpiece “Works and Days” pronounced the Greek democracy “unrighteous.”

"JSOC and the Mexican drug lords." - 1st Published December 2009

 

"JSOC appears to be running out of "high value targets," in the places where they have been used so successfully.  They can continue in places like Yemen and Somalia but they should be given something really useful to fo.

I suggest that they should be unleashed on the Mexican drug cartels.  Kill or capture.  Kill or capture.  Those should be the instructions.  The legal niceties could be "cleaned up" through arrest or execution warrants.  On the other hand, maybe that is not necessary if recent history is a guide.

I suggest a special federal court for this purpose.

This is not irony.  These druggies deserve that we should send them "the very best."" 

------------

I wrote this in 2009.  If the Mexican government does not clean up their act ... The raid in Yemen might suggest an additional mission.  Maybe not SEALS.   pl 

http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2009/12/jsoc-and-the-mexican-drug-lords.html

"Destabilization" comes home to roost.

"At a church in Washington, D.C., last weekend, dozens of federal workers attended a support group for civil servants seeking a forum to discuss their opposition to the Trump administration.  And 180 federal employees have signed up for a workshop next weekend, where experts will offer advice on workers’ rights and how they can express civil disobedience.

At the Justice Department, an employee in the division that administers grants to nonprofits fighting domestic violence and researching sex crimes said he and his colleagues have been planning to slow their work and to file complaints with the inspector general’s office if they are asked to shift grants away from their mission.

“You’re going to see the bureaucrats using time to their advantage,” said the employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. Through leaks to news organizations and internal complaints, he said, “people here will resist and push back against orders they find unconscionable.”"  post-gazette

---------------

 As Malcom X once said "the chickens have come home to roost." 

For decades now the various US administrations have made use of the facilities provided by USIA, CIA black ops, various party connected pro-democracy groups, NED, etc. to; interfere in other peoples' elections, political party structures and to tinker with history to give not so gentle shoves in the direction that Borgists have believed was in the interest of a utopian future for mankind and the creation of even more; massive egos, and wealth here in Washington and across Borgistan.  It should be stressed that all administrations of both parties have done that.  And guess what, pilgrims, I know  this because like other fairly senior denizens of the intelligence world I was often used by the government of the day to "leak" information to the oh, so clever press.  "Now you understand, this is on deep background just for you" because you are so special ... Who leaked the "news" about the Australian phone call yesterday?  Is it not obvious that the WH "leaked" it to make the world and themselves think how bad-assed they are?

This kind of behavior has become reflexive and universal, but to carry out government  by slight of hand and other skullduggery requires the active cooperation of the senior members of the federal civil service.  Not the contractors, the contractor employees are seldom players, they are just money-makers for the contractor companies. 

So, when I read of political operatives, for that is what they are, seeking to organize the federal civil service against the present administration of the United States it gives me pause.  If they should succeed to some degree, the result would be paralysis for the government.  If you think that is a good thing you should consider that the damage to the functioning of all parts of the Executive Branch would be deep and long lasting.

A small example of the chaos that would ensue from a failure of function was provided by the ineptitude of the Trump Administration in not staffing and coordinating the "immigration" EO across the interagency last week

The federal civil service was created because of the murder of a president.  We live in parlous times.  People should not play with fire lest they be burnt.  pl 

http://www.post-gazette.com/news/politics-nation/2017/02/01/Plans-to-defy-Trump-among-federal-workers/stories/201702010158

Wrath of Euphrates, Phase III - TTG

"ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The US-led international coalition against ISIS provided its allies in Syria with armored vehicles, a spokesperson for the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said and a US colonel confirmed. “The armored vehicles and troop carriers had arrived four or five days ago,” Talal Silo told Reuters on Tuesday. “Previously we didn't get support in this form, we would get light weapons and ammunition. There are signs of full support from the new American leadership, more than before, for our forces,” he added. 

Silo said the vehicles would be used to support the SDF’s ongoing offensive on ISIS-held Raqqa, which the extremist group claimed as its capital. The SDF is a coalition of forces including the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), the Syrian Arab Coalition, and Turkmen and Assyrian elements. During its campaign for Raqqa, the SDF has also added many local fighters to its ranks. 

The US-led coalition has been backing the SDF as a key ally on the ground fighting ISIS in northern Syria, providing advice, air support, and some arms. American officials, however, have been very clear that the arms they supply are to the Syrian Arab Coalition and not Kurdish forces, who are dominant members of the SDF. The US is balancing its support of the YPG and SDF with its alliance with fellow NATO member Turkey who considers the YPG to be a terrorist group with ties to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). 

Coalition spokesperson, Col. John Dorrian, confirmed that they have provided vehicles to the Syrian Arab Coalition. "We have provided armored Sport Utility Vehicles to the Syrian Arab Coalition using existing authorities, in the interest of helping protect our partnered force from the [ISIS] improvised-explosive device threat," Dorrian told AFP news agency on Tuesday. "The decision was made by military commanders, and has been in the works for some time.”

The process of delivering the supplies began under the administration of former US President Barack Obama. A US general commented to USA Today in mid-January that the US air force had been increasing airdrops of weapons, ammunition and other equipment to opposition forces who are closing in on Raqqa.

Antony J. Blinken, the former deputy secretary of state in Obama’s administration, wrote an opinion article in the New York Times on Tuesday in which he hinted that current US President Donald Trump would shift US policy towards further arming Kurds in Syria. “In the last days of the Obama administration, the Pentagon said it would immediately seek permission from President Trump to do just that,” Blinken wrote. “It rightly wants to take advantage of the SDF’s momentum in isolating Raqqa.”" (RUDAW)

————————————

There are several accounts, photos and videos of the delivery of 200 Guardian light armored personnel carriers to the YPG/SDF. These vehicles seem to be well suited to style of YPG/SDF fighters. My guess is that a lot of their current light trucks are reaching the end of their life cycle and need replacing. This is a suitable upgrade. I bet the embedded Special Forces advisors had a hand in picking these vehicles rather than anything heavier and more complicated. 

These will be used in Phase III of Operation Wrath of Euphrates in what has become a classic YPG operation, a double envelopment of Raqqa. The Kurds and their allies are sitting at the north end of the dam at Tabqah. The plan is to take the dam along with Tabqah and then swing east along the southern bank of the Euphrates. A second attack will cross the river between Raqqa and Deir az-Zor and swing to the west. The two prongs of the attack will meet south of Raqqa and isolate the city from the rest of IS held territory. It’s an ambitious plan, but I’m confident the YPG/SDF forces can do this with the more robust support from the U.S. that is surely forthcoming.

 *

In his inauguration address, Trump said he would wipe Islamic State “from the face of the earth.” He won’t do it alone, but I think this Administration, the confoundingly competent fighters of the YPG/SDF and the embedded Green Berets will play a significant part in their final destruction.

TTG

* This photo was captioned SDF and US Special Forces crossing the Euphrates River. I never get tired of saying it. "The shit's on, good buddy." 

Idlib Province must be cleared of rebels.

IMO the Astana Peace process will go nowhere, will soon disintegrate and then the situation in western Syria will require further offensive action on the part of R+6 to insure Syrian Government control of Idlib Province.

Since the fall of eastern Aleppo City to government forces action has been in what are IMO mainly peripheral areas. Palmyra, pockets around Damascus, even SAA participation in the anti-IS fighting at al-Bab, and at Deir al-Zor are none of them critical to the government's fate.   The SAR has been negotiating surrender arrangements all over western Syria with pockets of jihadis/unicorns.  Part of the surrender agreement is always the voluntary removal of the super hard core cadres to Idlib Province.  As a result, a steady build up of rebel forces there has been underway for some time.  This is somewhat reduced by a steady stream of air attacks on them that now includes USAF attacks.

A question in my mind is whether or not Mattis and Flynn accept the idea that Idlib Province must be cleared of rebels for peace to have a chance in Syria.  Thus far they seem to be obsessed with the notion that Iran and Hizbullah are the bad actors on the Syrian scene rather than the jihadis/unicorns.  IMO the yes-men Flynn has bee hiring are unlikely to argue for other than group think.  pl

Government by Cronies for real?

So, Steve Bannon is elevated to the Principals Committee and the DNI as well as the CJCS is removed from automatic attendance for some actions?  Ah, well, now we are headed for trouble ...  Issues "accidentally" arise that involve you when you are not at the table.  Flynn will protect the IC's interests?  Flynn is essentially a glorified technician in the combat intelligence trade and not a deep thinker.  Several of the men appointed to supply Flynn's staff are men like Flynn.  We must remember that when these fellows were promoted to their retirement ranks, promotion rates were very high, too high.  Would some of them have been promoted that high in ordinary circumstance?  Perhaps they would have been but I have doubts.

It was fairly easy to excuse the fumbling "bull in a China stop" style of the first week by attributing it to inexperience, but this indicates a desire to govern by "kitchen cabinet." that is a menace.

Worse things to come are likely.  pl 

Note:  That does not make HC a better candidate than she was.

 

 

Free Mecca - refugees deserve a safe zone……. by Fred

 

Free Mecca, for the tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free, 

Free Mecca for the wretched refuse of the teeming shore,

Free Mecca from the clutches of the despot,

Free Mecca, birthplace of Mohammad, land of the Holy Places of Islam. End, ancient lands, your storied tyranny and gilded pomp. 

Free Mecca.

A modest proposal for the safety of Muslim refugees from the violence and destruction in Middle East. The West has absorbed millions of non-Western refugees from the ongoing strife and conflict in the region. Yet the King of Saudi Arabia has accepted virtually none; all while allowing the funding of radical jihadist terrorists across the globe and serving as a safe haven for such. His government is even now bombing fellow Muslims in neighboring Yemen while the world behaves like Chamberlain at Munich. 

It is time to create a “safe zone” for the followers of Islam. There is no better place on Earth than the one most sacred to followers of Mohammad.  To provide the proper legal justification I submit the following:

---

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary to assume among the power of the earth the separate and equal station to which God entails them, a decent respect for the opinions of mankind requires that we should declare the causes which impel this assumption of responsibility. 

Whereas the King of Saudi Arabia, defender of the holy places of Islam, 

For, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these neighboring lands,

For declaring himself invested with power to legislate in all cases whatsoever.

He has made judges dependent on his Will for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has deprived the people of the benefit of Trial by Jury. 

He has endeavored to prevent the migration of people of neighboring states; and raising the conditions of new barriers to entry to these of Lands.

He has plundered Yemen’s seas, ravaged her coasts, burnt her towns, and destroyed the lives of her people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless ISIS Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the People of the Free World, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the Refugees, solemnly publish and declare,  a “safe zone” for the followers of Islam.

---

There is no better place on Earth than the one most sacred to followers of Mohammad. 

Free Mecca. 

Calexit - Independence for La La Land?

 

"When this first started getting massive media attention, I was pretty sarcastic about the effort, so let me be very "Yes, I'm a libertarian" clear: Californians should have every right to decide whether they want to remain part of the United States. I was previously a supporter of the right of the citizens of the United Kingdom to decide whether they wanted to remain part of the European Union.

Having said that, though, I have seen little to change my mind that the people who are pointing to CalExit as a possibility have little grasp of either the demographics of the state, nor its actual finances. It is oblivious to the fact that the non-coastal parts of California are similar to the non-coastal parts of the rest of the United States (more conservative folks who voted for Trump). It is oblivious to the reality that the state's financial crisis is due to overspending within California and not because they're sending money to D.C. (Gov. Jerry Brown just announced that the state is sliding back into deficit spending again).

It would be fascinating if CalExit passed, and then the citizens within the state said, "Well, why stop there?" and continued seceding to create their own little quilt of Luxembourg-style countries. After all, citizens within the state, particularly those in Northern California, have been trying to secede from California to create their own states. They feel as left out by a state government dominated by coastal progressives who don't care how their favored policies and regulations affect the economies in less-well-off parts of the state."  reason.com

--------------

Well, now, pilgrims, this is fun!  IMO further secession within an independent California would be practically inevitable.  I lived in the Golden State for a while when a boy and have been back recently.  Yes.  the "coastals" are not the same as the rest;  loggers, cattlemen, farmers, fishermen, oilmen etc.  You know, the people the coastals go to gaze at, as in "Sideways."  BTW, the "Hitching Post" steakhouse in "Sideways" is a pale imitation of the real and original version in Casmalia a cowtown in the live oak covered coastal hills 30 miles away.  "Oh give me a home where the Black Angus" roam ..."

BUT, the really funny thing about this secession thingie is the assumption on the part of this blogger, and others I suppose, that California has a RIGHT to secede from the Union.  The new state of California went to war against the Confederate States of America in 1860 over this same RIGHT."  pl 

http://reason.com/blog/2017/01/27/calexit-secession-petition-gets-approval

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_California

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_California

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_National_Guard

http://www.hitchingpost1.com/AboutCasmalia.html

 

Why Iran, but not Saudi Arabia? - TTG

With the signing of the executive order designed “to protect United States citizens from foreign nationals who intend to commit terrorist acts in the United States,” Trump barred entry into the U.S. of aliens from a list of seven countries for the next ninety days. Notable in this list was the inclusion of Iran and the exclusion of Saudi Arabia. None of the countries are specifically named in the executive order. They are “countries referred to in section 217(a)(12) of the INA, 8 U.S.C. 1187(a)(12).” So rather than naming those countries that he and his national security team think may pose a danger to U.S. citizens, he relies on a list compiled by a Borg infested DOS and DHS of an administration now out of office. So is this a case of SSDD?

This executive order invoked the specter of 9/11, yet Saudi Arabia gets a free pass once again. The country most responsible for supporting and sustaining both the Islamic State and Al Qaeda skates free. The Borg found it convenient to cozy up to the Saudis to further its goals, but why does Trump continue that coziness? He railed against the Clinton Foundation’s Saudi connections. I thought things might change. However, in August of last year, he told Fox News this.

“Saudi Arabia — and I get along great with all of them. They buy apartments from me,” Trump said in Mobile, Alabama. “They spend $40 million, $50 million. Am I supposed to dislike them? I like them very much.”

During his presidential bid, his organization established eight companies tied to hotel interests in Saudi Arabia. Seems the coziness with the fountainhead of radical Islamic terrorism will continue, despite all the bombastic rhetoric, executive decrees and drastic actions taken to supposedly protect U.S. citizens from radical Islamic terrorists. Just more security theater and fodder for the meme machines. Well, it's still early.

Maybe Iran should negotiate with the Trump organization to build a Trump Towers in Teheran and a golf resort in Shiraz. Just think of the marvelous carpets that could decorate the club house. Then, perhaps, they’ll get the same consideration as the Saudis from the current Administration.

ADDENDUM:

Within 24 hours of this executive order, at least two Iraqis who worked with American Forces during our war in Iraq have been denied entry into the United States. One was an interpreter with the 101st for ten years. He and his family have been threatened with death for his loyal service. This situation offends me personally as a retired Army officer. It is an affront to the honor of this country and our Armed Forces. I call on Secretary of Defense Mattis to intervene to right this wrong without haste. I am not naive enough to think this has never happened under Bush and Obama, but they’re not President anymore. I have two words to the Commander in Chief of our Armed Forces if he doesn’t fix this. Disgusting. Sad.

A FURTHER ADDENDUM:

The former translator was released after 17 hours in Federal custody when U.S. Representatives Jerry Nadler and Nydia Valazquez and immigration lawyers went to the Queens airport to intervene on the detained man’s behalf. DOL

TTG

Sanctuary Cities

 

I am not a lawyer but IMO the constitutional situation in the US is such that the federal government and the governments of the several states share sovereignty.  This can be clearly seen in the structure of the US Constitution and the existence of such things as separate state law codes in the states.  Municipalities in the United States have no sovereignty.  They are altogether instruments of the state governments or in the case of the District of Columbia, of the US Congress.  State laws automatically apply within the cities contained in the individual states.  In the same way the principle of the supremacy of federal law applies to the states and the cities with them.  This principle is very popular with left when they are in command of the federal government, but not so much when the right is in charge.

Therefore, IMO ,there is no basis in law for cities to defy federal immigration law.  What has emerged in this area of law is something similar to the defiance of federal law by the states with regard to marijuana.  pl

Policy discussions

Are not included in my three month ban.  What I am trying to halt  is the bitter partisan nastiness.  pl

"Russian choppers transport Syrian paratroopers to besieged Deir Ezzor" - TTG

"BEIRUT, LEBANON (2:50 P.M.) - On the night of January 23rd, the Russian Air Force reportedly transported dozens of Syrian Arab Army (SAA) soldiers to the Deir Ezzor Governate after the road to the military airport was close by the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS).

According to the Russian news outlet "Izvestia", Ilyushin-76 transport carriers and Mi-17 choppers made their way across the vast Syrian Desert to the Deir Ezzor Governate in order to transport a large number reinforcements from the Syrian Arab Army's 104th Airborne Brigade of the Republican Guard and 1st Armored Division.

It was necessary for the Russian Air Force to complete this transport of reinforcements because most aircraft were unable to land in the province due to the Islamic State's proximity to their landing zones.

The Syrian military's high command reportedly thanked the Russians yesterday for allowing them to use their technology in the fierce fight against the Islamic State." (Al Masdar News)

—————————————

The situation is still pretty damned hairy at Deir ez-Zor, but this successful air insertion of a sizable force means things are much improved from a week ago. The original Izvestia article gives more detail of the operation. Elements of the 104th Republican Guard Airborne Brigade were first transported to the Qamishli Military Airport in northeast Syria by Russian Il-76 transports and trans-loaded onto Russian Mi-17 (Mi-8?) helicopters before the surprise night insertion into the airport at Deir ez-Zor. The size of the force was estimated to be a reinforced battalion task force.

The 104th did a similar airmobile insertion not that long ago to reinforce the defenses of the T4 after the fall of Palmyra. Another element of the 104th has been defending Deir ez-Zor since 2013. This was General Issam Zahreddine’s unit since the beginning of the war in Syria. The unit is heavily Druze, as is Zahreddine, known as the Lion of the Republican Guard. 

A night insertion into a contested LZ is obviously a difficult operation. I’m sure this is why it was done with Russian Aerospace Forces helicopters. Most of the Russian air support for the defenders of Deir ez-Zor seems to be based at Qamishli, some 180 miles away from Deir ez-Zor. The situation at Qamishli must be much improved since last year when Syrian warplanes were withdrawn due to Kurdish and American threats.

For some reason, Al Masdar News chose a photo of soldiers rappelling from a UH-1 "Huey" helicopter to accompany its article. I don't think anybody does that anymore. Now it's all fast roping from UH-60 Black Hawks. The Russian Mi-17 or Mi-8 helicopters are much larger than either of these U.S. helicopters.

This is a two year old article about Deir ez-Zor, the 104th and General Zahreddine. Despite its age, it contains a lot of good information.

TTG

HARPER: GEORGE SOROS DECLARES WAR ON PRESIDENT TRUMP

On December 20, 1998, 60 Minutes aired an interview with George Soros.  At one point, Steve Kroft asked the Hungarian-born speculator about his teenage years in Budapest, under the Nazi occupation.  Soros freely admitted that he had been protected by a Nazi collaborator.  Kroft asked:  "My understanding is that you went out with this protector of yours... went out, in fact, and helped in the confiscation of property from the Jews." Soros answered: "Yes. That's right.  Yes."  Kroft:  "That sounds like an experience that would send lots of people to the psychiatric couch for many, many years.  Was it difficult?"  Soros:  "Not at all.  Not at all.  Maybe as a child you don't see the connection. But it created no problem at all."  Kroft: "No feeling of guilt?"  Soros: "No."  Asked how he could have watched fellow Jews be sent to the slaughter, Soros elaborated: "Well, of course I could be on the other side, or I could be the one from whom the thing is being taken away.  But there was no sense that i shouldn't be there, because that was--well, actually, in a funny way, it's just like in markets--that if I weren't there--of course I wasn't doing it, but somebody else would--would--would be taking it away anyhow.  And it was the--whether I was there or not, I was only a spectator, the property was being taken away.  So the--I had no role in taking away that property.  So I had no sense of guilt."

In the early 1990s, Soros famously made a $2 billion killing in a 48 hour short-selling spree, on the breakup of the European Rate Mechanism.  Asked on December 19, 1992 by the Guardian newspaper whether he had any guilty feelings about bringing ruin to a long-standing source of European financial stability.  Soros answered, "I'm sure speculative actions have had some negative consequences. But that does not enter my thinking at all. It cannot.  If I abstained from certain actions because of moral doubts, then I would cease to be an effective speculator.  I have not even a shadow of remorse for making a profit.  I did it only to make money."

This is the George Soros who is behind the financing of many of the hysterics being directed against the new U.S. President.  Through front organizations like MoveOn.org, Soros bankrolled the "spontaneous" protests across the country after the results of the November elections were announced.  Soros' charitable foundation (sic), the Open Society Fund, poured money into many of the organizations that turned out on Saturday to protest that Donald Trump is "not our President."  Soros' main "philanthropic" passion has been to finance movements to legalize all illicit drugs in the United States.  

Back in 2001, Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham founded the Reform Institute to promote their political agenda.  McCain and Graham never seem to have met a war that they did not wish to promote, regardless of whether it served or damaged U.S. interests or national security concerns.  McCain's top aides, including his 2004 campaign chairman Rick Davis, received hefty financing from George Soros, as did the Reform Institute itself.  At least 56 of the organizations that protested on Saturday, January 21 against the Trump inauguration were on the Soros foundation payroll.  Roger Stone, a long-standing Trump political adviser and confidant, told the New York Post that "while there were many sincere women there, it [the Saturday march] was also a large AstroTurf operation paid for by Soros designed to destabilize the new president."

Another Soros-funded outfit, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), has already filed a law suit against Trump, challenging the Constitutionality of his presidency, on the grounds that his hotels take in revenue from foreign governments.  Soros' Open Society Foundation and the Tide Foundation, which received an undisclosed amount of Soros funding, are two leading financiers of CREW.

Soros has made a name for himself internationally by funding "Color Revolutions" in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, the Middle East and Southeast Asia.  Judging by the level of Soros-funded hysteria since November 8, Soros' next "Color Revolution" target might be right here in the U.S. by Harper

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Soros

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeThpbBGNQ8

https://arizonadailyindependent.com/2015/10/13/mccain-and-soros/    

http://humanevents.com/2011/04/02/top-10-reasons-george-soros-is-dangerous/

SST Reopened

As of 1800 on 25 January.  I have banned some of you.  There will be no discussion of US domestic politics for the next three months.  There will be a research paper on George Soros posted this evening.  pl

Banning for personal scorn and abuse

I am not going to further tolerate those who indulge themselves here in personal scorn and abuse.  Tomorrow I will ban some of you in the hope of cleansing SST of your boorishness.  I will examine the list of commenters and make some choices.  pl

What’s going on in Idlib? - TTG

“BEIRUT, LEBANON (12:30 P.M.) - The jihadist rebels of Jund Al-Aqsa (Al-Qaeda franchise) and Harakat Ahrar Al-Sham clashed again in the Idlib Governorate, marking the end of this brief period of peace. According to local rebel activists, Jund Al-Aqsa carried out a surprise attack in the Jabal Al-Zawiyah area of rural Idlib on Friday, targeting a Harakat Ahrar Al-Sham prison that was holding 13 of their members.

Jund Al-Aqsa's surprise attack on this prison paid off, as they managed to free 13 of their members while also seizing a large cache of weapons from Harakat Ahrar Al-Sham in the village of Qaminas. These two rebel factions are no strangers to infighting, as they both have engaged in their share of attacks against one another in both Idlib and Hama.” (Reported in Al Masdar News on 20 Jan)

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Release No: NR-019-17 

Jan. 20, 2017

U.S. manned and unmanned aircraft conducted a precision air strike Jan. 19 against an al-Qaida training camp in Idlib Province, Syria. More than 100 al-Qaida fighters were killed in the strike. 

The Shaykh Sulayman Training Camp was operational since at least 2013. The removal of this training camp disrupts training operations and discourages hardline Islamist and Syrian opposition groups from joining or cooperating with al-Qaida on the battlefield.

U.S. strikes have killed more than 150 al-Qaida terrorists since Jan. 1. These strikes include the removal of Mohammad Habib Boussadoun al-Tunisi, an external operations leader, on Jan. 17; Abd al-Jalil al-Muslimi, a facilitator associated with a network plotting terror attacks in the west, on Jan. 12; and Abu Hasan al-Taftanaz, an al-Qaida senior leader, on Jan. 6. These strikes, conducted in quick succession, degrade al-Qaida's capabilities, weaken their resolve, and cause confusion in their ranks. (official DOD press release)

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Seems the growing pool of jihadis around Idlib are suffering from the dual effects of “multi-culti” overcrowding of different groups in too small an area and the loss of their sugar daddies. That’s enough to make anybody testy. Good. Let the bastards soften themselves up with all this infighting before the R+6 must inevitably deal with them.

 What’s happening in Idlib now brought to mind one of the scenarios Colonel Land and I bandied about when we were developing the last war game. 

————————————

“On the heels of the liberation of Aleppo, the Russian 45th Detached Reconnaissance Brigade received orders to prepare for deployment to Syria. A few days before Christmas and augmented with Hizbullah commando units its teams were inserted by ground infiltration, airdrop and helicopter insertion to conduct reconnaissance of the area north of Idlib to include the Kafriya/al-Fou'ah pocket and the Taftanaz Military Airfield.

Within days of their arrival on target, these Spetznaz and Hibzullah teams began targeting jihadi leadership in surrounding towns along with ATGM launchers and ammo stores. These attacks simulated a pattern of inter-group fighting among the jihadis through targeted killings, raids and ambushes. The locations of AA launchers and missiles were provided through GRU cooperation/penetration of Turkish suppliers. After the murder of Ambassador Karlov, Erdogan has quietly slowed the resupply of the Idlib rebels/jihadis and has deftly hampered the efforts of NATO and the Gulfies to effectively reorganize the rebels. It seems the Russians can be quite persuasive and know the value of discreet diplomacy. They are also masters of maskirovka. Russian and Syrian media outlets play up the apparent disunity and in-fighting among the Idlib rebels and attribute the increasing assassinations and attacks to that in-fighting.”  (from an email between TTG and Turcopolier)

————————————

Developing this stuff was fun. It was so much fun, I went down to the cellar and dug my web gear out of my old rucksack. I fondled it and, just for a moment, wished to be a young man again. In this scenario, the boyos from the 45th were the invisible hand behind the growing jihadi distress and infighting among the Idlib jihadis. That’s probably not happening in Idlib today, but who knows. A man can dream, can’t he? I’m sure most of you heard about the nine IS jihadis who were rendered unconscious and killed by unknown assailants in the village of Hatleh outside Deir az-Zor on 19 Jan. In the nearby towns of al-Mayadeen and al-Ashareh,the locals stormed several IS centers and set them on fire. Whether this is a sign of popular uprisings against the jihadis or the result of some invisible hand gently nudging from behind, this is a damned good turn of events. DOL

TTG

Trump's Inaugural Address

" ... For too long, a small group in our nation's Capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost. Washington flourished -- but the people did not share in its wealth. Politicians prospered -- but the jobs left, and the factories closed.

The establishment protected itself, but not the citizens of our country. Their victories have not been your victories; their triumphs have not been your triumphs; and while they celebrated in our nation's capital, there was little to celebrate for struggling families all across our land.

 

That all changes -- starting right here, and right now, because this moment is your moment: it belongs to you.

It belongs to everyone gathered here today and everyone watching all across America. This is your day. This is your celebration. And this, the United States of America, is your country.

 

What truly matters is not which party controls our government, but whether our government is controlled by the people. January 20th 2017, will be remembered as the day the people became the rulers of this nation again. The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer" ...  Donald Trump

 

--------------

 

IMO the speech was a statement of intent to halt "progress" as the "progressives" understand the word.

 

Today we have many, many people marching against Trumpismo across the world.

 

I am puzzled as to what the people in the streets think they will accomplish.  Do they think that Trump will say in astonishment, "they don't love me" and resign?  Did any of these people vote for him or for any Republican member of Congress?  The answer is surely NO!

 

What leverage do they have?  Do Scarlett Johansson and the aged Madonna have the force to move him?  pl  

http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/20/politics/trump-inaugural-address/index.html

Is NATO really obsolete ?

 By Patrick BAHZAD

Very shortly, Donald Trump will be sworn into office as the 45th President of the United States. By all accounts, his Inauguration will resemble no other in recent history. The country is deeply divided and the gap between the pro- and anti-Trump will be very visible, even today, when the whole country should regroup around its new elected leader. To a European audience however, Donald Trump's recent comments about NATO being "obsolete" and "not dealing with terrorism" matter much more than the internal dissent in the US itself. Those statements have created a spark of outrage across NATO members and triggered a salvo of reactions pointing to POTUS' ignorance about NATO's record in both regards. While Mr. Trump's statements are definitely debatable, there is lots to be said about his critics as well. Here are a few thoughts on the topic.

The latest controversy touches on two core issues: 1) NATO's commitment to defending its members and 2) NATO's record when it comes to dealing with terrorism in general, and global terror organisations in particular. Both issues are closely linked to highly volatile situations: the new "cold war" with Russia on the one hand, and the fight against IS (or AQ) on the other.

Remember what NATO was meant for ?

NATO itself was created in 1949 as a system of collective defence aimed basically at defending Western Europe (and North America) against the Soviets first, and more broadly against the Warsaw Pact after 1955. Large scale engagements in faraway lands were never supposed to be part of NATO's core business, which is one of the reasons some NATO members – Germany in particular – had a hard time adjusting to the concept of "out of area" missions, after the end of the Cold War. While there is no doubt as to NATO's essential contribution to peace and stability in Western Europe, NATO itself was not the only decisive factor in this achievement.

What has kept us safe from war is not so much the existence of the Alliance as the inherent risk of "mutually assured destruction" that any conflict between East and West could have morphed into. There has also been a dynamic at work in Western Europe , based on the realization that war as a means of achieving political gains was no longer an option. Without such fundamental awareness, it is difficult to imagine NATO could have united countries that had just emerged from the most devastating war the continent had witnessed since the 30 Years War. After the unravelling of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact however, the main "raison d'être" of NATO disappeared and the Alliance should have undergone major restructuring, yet it maintained its "business as usual" stance.

The Kennedy Inaugural Parade - Republished 20 Jauary 2017

The VMI Cadet Corps is in the middle ground of this Washington Post photograph, first the staff and then the two battalions with the color party between.

It snowed the day before.  There was sleet in the night, and then the parade.  The parade began in 3rd St. SE near the capitol.  The route of march passed the equestrian statue of Grant, the one in which he is hunched over against the rain in the Wilderness.  Then we came down Pennsylvania Avenue to this point.  There were three inches of icy, salty, slush in the street.  You can see a bare patch of pavement just in front of the regimental staff.  The band in the foreground did not belong to us. 

The street has changed.  The "Occidental" restaurant still exists but it inhabits quarters on the lower floors of a large office building on the same site.  Down the street there are a few familiar landmarks like the spire of the old Post Office and the capitol itself but nearly everything else is gone including the trolley car tracks.

We turned right here into 15th Street and then, a block later left again into Pennsylvania Avenue.  The big reviewing stand was there in front of the White House.  At "Eyes Left" all you could see was Jack Kennedy standing with his hat held over his heart.  His beautiful wife was at his side.

We "fell out" at Washington Circle in the George Washington University campus half a mile away.

The buses waited there for the three hour trip back to school.

The VMI Corps will be in this inaugural parade.  pl

www.vmi.edu

LOCK HER UP! by Fred

The 3:10 to Yuma  for Huma.   I hear a train a comin'

They knew it was wrong, but there was an election a comin'

And the band played on.

The band. Huma and the Fifth Dimension. The immunity dimension. They knew it was wrong, but  

The song remains the same

The 227 has come and gone. The Trump train is scheduled in at 304  - though it may arrive early and under budget. Soon the train for Huma will be leaving the station to 

Lock her up.  

Pardon me.

The content of the emails remain unchallenged; but who knows what they knew and when they knew it? 

Hillary Clinton's former chief of staff, Cheryl Mills, received an immunity deal from the Justice Department during the year-long FBI investigation of Clinton's server.   “Clinton and her staff exhibited "extreme carelessness" by sharing classified information on an unsecured server that was kept in Clinton's basement.  Rep. Jason Chaffetz, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said the immunity deals were "beyond explanation.””

"And he (Combetta) did indeed use Bleachbit on these records?" Chaffetz continued. (FOX)

 

Pardon me.

 

Roadies

Bryan Pagliano.  We know more about Podesta’s emails than his testimony. Though it looks like Clinton's former IT aid was held to be in contempt of Congress for failing to comply with a subpoena for testimony and documents. 

Paul Cometta, an employee an employee at the firm that managed her server after she left the State Department,  appeared before the House Oversight Committee but refused to answer questions and invoked his Fifth Amendment rights. He does have that right. “According to the F.B.I. documents, Mr. Combetta told the bureau in February that he did not recall deleting the emails. But in May, he told a different story.” (NYT)

Pardon me.

I'm just a singer....

The FBI also granted immunity to 2008 Clinton campaign staffer Heather Samuelson and John Bentel, the former director of the State Department's Office of Information Resources Management.  

Pardon me.

BleachBit, the new Clorox. IT really does help clean things up. I wonder what IT will do to the"reconciling of holdings"? Soon though a new environmentally friendly man will be in the White House. Budgets will be cut and heads will roll. We'll have to go back to the old ways with lots of  Sunlight.

But the song remains the same.

The content of the emails remains unchallenged. Neither named nor unnamed sources have linked the conduct of Huma nor any of the fab-five to Putin.  But.....  

Perhaps soon we will know why the caged bird sings

Pardon me, but here is some bi-partisan backup:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/09/29/reps-clinton-aides-who-got-immunity-deals-directed-email-scrubbing.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/09/us/politics/hillary-clinton-emails-investigation.html

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/trump-dubs-clinton-staff-fbi-immunity-five

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/five-clinton-aides-received-immunity-deals-in-fbi-probe/article/2602684

Looks like the Rose Parade without floats?

Participating Groups	City	State
Talladega College Band	Talladega	Alabama
Russellville High School Band	Russellville	Arkansas
Merced County Sheriff's Posse	Hilmar	California
The Freedom Riders	Kersey	Colorado
Coastal Florida Police & Fire Pipes & Drums	Palm Coast	Florida
Palmetto Ridge High School Band	Naples	Florida
Kids Overseas	Richmond Hill	Georgia
Olivet Nazarene University	Bourbonnais	Illinois
Columbus North High School Band	Columbus	Indiana
Culver Academy Equestrian	Culver	Indiana
Indianapolis Metro Police Motorcycle Drill Team	Indianapolis	Indiana
1st Infantry Commanding General's Mounted Color	Ft. Riley	Kansas
Boone County Elite 4-H Equestrian Drill Team	Burlington	Kentucky
West Monroe High School Marching Band	West Monroe	Louisiana
Michigan Multi-Jurisdictional Mounted Police Drill Team & Color Guard	Ann Arbor	Michigan
Mid America Cowgirls Rodeo Drill Team	New Buffalo	Michigan
Tupelo High School Band	Tupelo	Mississippi
Marist College Band	Poughkeepsie	New York
Nassau County Firefighters Pipes & Drums	East Meadow	New York
NYPD Emerald Society Pipes & Drums	East Moriches	New York
North Carolina Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association	Hillsborough	North Carolina
Cleveland Police Mounted Unit	Cleveland	Ohio
First Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry	Philadelphia	Pennsylvania
Franklin Regional High School Panther Marching Band	Murrysville	Pennsylvania
The Citadel Regimental Band & Pipes and Summerall Guards	Charleston	South Carolina
University of Tennessee Marching Band	Knoxville	Tennessee
1st Cavalry Division Horse Cavalry Detachment	Fort Hood	Texas
Lil Wranglers	College Station	Texas
Texas State University Strutters	San Marcos	Texas
Caisson Platoon, Fort Myer	Fort Myer	Virginia
Fishburne Military School Army JROTC Caissons Battalion	Fishburne	Virginia
VMI Corps of Cadets	Lexington	Virginia
Frankfort High School Band	Ridgeley	West Virginia
American Veterans		National
Boy Scouts of America		National
US Customs and Border Protection Office of Field Operations		National
Disabled American Veterans		National
Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors		National
US Border Patrol Pipes & Drums		National
Wounded Warriors		National

This is the order of march of tomorrow's inaugural parade as it appeared in the Washington Post today.   There are a lot of horses, a great many horses.  The street sweepers will be busy.  There is not a lot of representation of the US Armed Forces in this Order of March.  Perhaps this representation does not appear in this list.  We will see.  pl

Is it 1828 again? - republished 19 January 2017

"Jackson's quick temper was notorious. Brands says, "His audacity on behalf of the people earned him enemies who slandered him and defamed even his wife, Rachel. He dueled in her defense and his own, suffering grievous wounds that left him with bullet fragments lodged about his body."   However, Remini is of the opinion that Jackson was often in control of his rage, and used it (and his fearsome reputation) as a tool to get what he wanted in his public and private affairs.

Brands also notes that his opponents were terrified of his temper:

Observers likened him to a volcano, and only the most intrepid or recklessly curious cared to see it erupt.... His close associates all had stories of his blood-curling oaths, his summoning of the Almighty to loose His wrath upon some miscreant, typically followed by his own vow to hang the villain or blow him to perdition. Given his record – in duels, brawls, mutiny trials, and summary hearings – listeners had to take his vows seriously.

On the last day of the presidency, Jackson admitted that he had but two regrets, that he "had been unable to shoot Henry Clay or to hang John C. Calhoun. " Wiki on Jackson's Temperament

----------------

Some themes remain vital in human affairs for a very long time.  A long standing one in the history of the English speaking peoples (Churchill's phrase) is the issue of whether or not government and its control over people's lives should be highly centralized in the service of the interest of metropolitan elites or widely dispersed among the people.  This difference of opinion developed after Magna Carta and by the 17th Century had become a split in English life between the Country Party and the Court Party. That distinction was imported to North America and has remained an enduring feature of US political life to the present day.

In 1828, the main issues in the US presidential election were related to this old disagreement concerning governance.  The incumbent president, John Quincy Adams,  was in many ways an archetypical establishment figure.  The son of the second president, he spent his entire life in the federal government, advocated positions that would be popular today in the Borg; emancipation, centralization of financial services and debt in the Second National Bank, etc.  He so loved the federal government that, deprived of the White House in 1828, he ran for the House of Representatives where he then served for many years as a figure of the emerging Northern nationalist faction along with Daniel Webster and Henry Clay.

Opposing Adams was Andrew Jackson, the man he had defeated four years before when what was called a "corrupt bargain" was struck in the House of Representatives. Neither man had enough votes in the electoral college to be elected.  Jackson was anything but an establishment creature.  He was altogether a self made man who had clawed his way up from the bottom of the social order to become rich, powerful and a national military hero.  He was rough and crude and he told the ordinary people that he would level the playing field for white men in the USA.  He did not hesitate to encourage harsh and violent behavior and had himself personally supervised the removal to the trans-Mississippi of the highly Europeanized tribal Indians of the Southeastern US.  Why?  The Indians were in the way of the establishment of large scale agribusiness and the settlement of the region by whites and their black slaves.  He was quite un-apologetic about all this.  When Jackson was inaugurated he threw open the doors of the White House for a reception to which one and all were invited.  The crowd famously tracked mud all over the rooms and carpets, stood on the needle point embroidered chairs and got gloriously drunk while they sang bawdy songs.  He was re-elected for a second term and to this day is thought of by the Democratic Party as one of their two founding figures.  The other being Thomas Jefferson, a somewhat different man, an aristocrat who chose to side with his beloved yeomen farmers.

Now we have Donald Trump, the grandson of a German immigrant from a little country town.  The name was originally "Drumpf."  Donald Trump's father and his son after him strove mightily and became rich in the dog eat dog world of New York City business where sharp elbows and an abrasive, abusive, bullying manner are requirements for success unless you have that magic commodity, "old money."  If you have that, then you can be gracious.  Donald trump's daughter, Ivanka, now has old money and is reported to me to be gracious.  Donald Trump tells the mainly white spiritual descendants of Jackson's supporters that he will make them whole again both in their self image and in their pocketbooks.  That is a powerful message in the face of left wing insistence that white voters are a wasting asset in America. 

Opposing him we have the John Quincy Adams figures of the "modern" age;  Hillary Clinton, who openly advocates minority interests in what Trump's supporters see as a zero-sum game of political and economic warfare,  Bernie Sanders who seems a gentle, well mannered man but who nevertheless is openly in favor of the same kind of re-distributionist policies that most Trump supporters see as an effort to deprive them of control over their own destiny.  And then in the background are the politicians, media flunkies, and political consultants for whom Trump threatens a re-definition of politics and parties.  pl 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Jackson#Temperament

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Quincy_Adams

Precious Snowflakes..... By Fred

Precious Snowflakes in the winter of their discontent. 

There they were, poised to be part of the change we can all believe in; to carry on the work of Abraham, Maritn and John. Just like mom, and dad, and ……… Hillary. Free the slaves, desegregate the schools, end Jim Crow, ......  put a woman in the White House.  What happened? What has become, they ask, of their hope, of their future?  

It was a long, long time in the making, this generation of change.  For a dozen or more years,  most of their existence really, they have been told the twin tales. Important tales. That they need that degree -for a job, a future, for the money it will bring; and the social validation. That other tale?  The victim’s story; the tale of innate disempowerment, of innate helplessness. The story of 1 in 5 women; of Fraternites as centers of racism and sexual assault. The tale well documented in last year’s Rolling Stone article, the one the President of the University of Virginia used to set policy. 

What else is so prevalent in this college generation? Along with that feeling of teenage angst there is also, when young, whether in college or not, that deep, deep seated emotional need to belong, to be accepted. Such need will drive a man or woman – to fraternities, to sororities, to… social activism. We've sure seen a great deal of the latter this past year. 

This election cycle the woman of the movement, the mothers of the movement, the blogs – Jezebel, Huffpost, the magazines - Glamour, Slate, and as always, the celebrities  - Katy Perry, Beyonce, Madonna, and on and on; one and all – most of the main stream media too -  told the young of the Republic that the inevitable was at hand. They all roared out: Demographics are destiny! For they knew black lives matter, immigrant lives matter, refugee lives matter, climate change is settled and …… then the election. And now the aftermath: no woman in the White House, no free college, no degree, no …. value. The racist, sexist, misogynist, - the Hitler(!) is coming and last of all many will remain …. Blue Collar! 

Well, since celebrity is so important let’s let Hollywood explain it:

YOU were supposed to look out for me...

Old stories are often the best stories, aren’t they? They tell a tale worth telling - the tale of the human condition. It sure caught the feel of NYC in 1950. That vignette catches the mood of this generation too. Yep “YOU were  supposed to look out for me.”…… " So much for self-reliance and individual responsibility. Can't have that now, so the colleges say. Well, anyhow, now you know how they feel. Their entire lives stretch out before them. An “undiscovered country” as the Bard put it; yet they feel helpless, as if their lives are over. Truly this is the winter of their discontent.  

"Virtue's Fool" by Richard Sale

I wanted to forward to the readers of the site a bit of  two chapters from my novel, Virtue’s Fool. The novel takes place during the Democratic Convention, notorious for its police violence.

The action  takes place in the early hours of the morning. There are two characters, Harvey Stone, a man in his sixties, theSenio Deputy Managing Editor of Epoch, the Great American Magazine, and Peter fielding, a young reporter who has been with there only  seven months. Peter has already gotten two national exclusives about the illegal bombing of North Vietnam, and the building of the U.S. spy plane, the SR-71, which was built “off the books,” its cost disguised as “engine overhauls” at the Wright-Patterson air base.

The Midwestern editor, Adrian Hall, has appointed Peter to head four teams of reporters and photographers to cover the street violence.  When these chapters begin, Pater has been out late. He has been attacked, chased, tear-gassed and is entirely worn out.  Harvey Stone is trying to mentor Peter, a shy ambitious man who remains very uncertain of his footing there.

I implored the readers to remember this is a conversation, not a term paper.

Chapter 42

Harvey was looking commiseratingly at Cheryl, who was gathering up her tings, about to leave. He looked up and saw the figures in the doorway. They came in slowly, like old men.

“Well, well,” he said to them. “The wanderers.”

It was almost two in the morning.  Their faces were white as chalk, but Harvey instantly saw that something was wrong with their eyes. He got to his feet, and waited for them. Howard came first; his body bulging with equipment, Peter just behind, and behind him came Duane, a bundle of nerves. They moved feebly, utterly worn out. Peter and Howard were bareheaded. Duane was holding a helmet.

“You look like shit,” Harvey observed.

“You know, a simple ‘good evening’ or a ‘how the hell are you, would probably suffice,” Howard said.

“Not to guys who look the way you look,” Harvey said. And he realized then that their eyes were swollen from tear gas.

“What are you doing here?” Peter asked. His face was utterly worn out. “You should be in bed,” he told Harvey.

“Waiting for you guys. Christ, I was beginning to think you’d been sent to jail.”

“We went to check out the streets of Old Town. After they cleared the Park the cops forced a lot of kids into Clark Street,” Howard said. His eyes were swollen small.

“Clark Street, I heard. So what happened?”

“Everything. We saw all kinds of stuff,” Peter said, blinking. His blue eyes were swollen.

“Like what stuff?”

“Oh, I don’t know. They had cops piling out of unmarked cars and beating people. They hit residents, forced some out of their houses...” Peter said. “...we saw some guy trying to drive his car, and the cops stopped him and, leaning in his window, he said, ‘Listen, you goddamn mother fucker, get this fucking car out of here’. And then...” Howard was saying. “He was a guy just trying to get home,”

Deir Al-Zor thread - 16 January 2016

OK.  "Now's the time and now's the hour."  Somebody better get off their dead asses and save these people.  pl

Open Thread - 16 January, 2016

pl

A Perfect Landing

"A few minutes after launch, the Falcon 9's first stage separated from the upper stage, then headed back down to Earth to attempt a touchdown on "Just Read the Instructions," one of SpaceX's two robotic "drone ships," which was stationed in the Pacific Ocean off the California coast.

The rocket stuck the landing eight minutes after lifting off. SpaceX has now pulled off seven such touchdowns during orbital launches, with five coming on drone ships and two rockets flying back to their launch sites on terra firma. (The previous six landings all occurred after launches from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, between December 2015 and August 2016.)

These rocket touchdowns are part of SpaceX's effort to develop fully and rapidly reusable launch vehicles, a key priority for SpaceX's billionaire founder and CEO, Elon Musk. Such technology could cut the cost of launches dramatically, potentially enabling much greater access to space, Musk has said."  Space.com

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Musk is just amazing.  He must have nerves of steel.  The landing of the first stage booster was only a few feet from the bull's eye on the barge.  pl 

http://www.space.com/35338-spacex-return-to-flight-rocket-launch-landing-success.html

35 pages in January

By Patrick BAHZAD

The snow ball effect keeps on growing. Three days after Buzzfeed published the incendiary private intelligence report that had been circulating inside the Beltway for months, there is still no end in sight to the whole media frenzy. And today's breefing of the House certainly was not intended at making the whole thing fade away. As the endgame emerges more and more clearly, with words such as "treason" and "impeachment" being mentioned with a striking regularity, it looks like caution – once again – is being thrown into the wind. History shows that the inevitable fallout from such an incredible turn of events will be far reaching. What is unclear, is who will benefit from it and who will pay the price. Vae victis !

After each piece of information – or disinformation – that comes to light, we are litteraly bombarded with new speculations that are basically useless at figuring out what is going on. As Inauguration Day approches, chances are, we have not seen the end of it and there still is room for yet another layer of hyperbole.

Hysteria taking over, once again

There are legitimate concerns about what went on, but the current media circus is not the appropriate way to address those questions. Two official reports have now been released, and a third private intelligence report that reads like an indictment also found its way into the press. Elected officials are pursuing an agenda of their own that has nothing to do with the national interest.

Look at the evidence, they are telling us. What evidence ? Asking us to disqualify Trump on the basis on some poorly drafted intelligence reports, or a pile of garbage that could have come right out of a British tabloid, that is a bit of a tough proposition when it comes to the Presidency. Is this what it is all about ? Convincing enough among the American public and in particular among members of Congress that Trump is unfit for office? Or is it just about forcing him into making the policy concessions his opponents in both parties are so eagerly awaiting ?

Up until Tuesday, both courses of action were conceivable, but the leak of the Trump "dossier" changes the equation: unsubstantiated allegations that all major news outlets had refused to publish found their way into the MSM and added what some may have expected to be the final nail in Trump's coffin. There are gaping holes in that narrative though and public opinion as a whole does not seem to buy into it. The question is, however, whether Congress will take the bait. Something very dangerous is looming in the shadows and I can assure you, it is not Vladimir Putin…

Russia, Israel and air defence.

With the overnight reports of Israel missile attacks on Mezze Air Base near Damascus certain questions arise:

1. Why missiles?
2. Has Russia "greenlighted" certain selected attacks by Israel in Syria?
3. Is this a warning of a coming attempt to kill Assad?
4. Is Russian air defense less capable than reputed?
5. What do the Syrians mean by "repercussions? 

pl

The Russians are coming! - TTG

Nope. Nothing political. No elections. No fake news. Just hockey. The greatest sport in the entire world. Last night the Pittsburgh Penguins came to a sold out Verizon Center here in Washington DC to face their arch-rivals, the Washington Capitals. The air was electric. Alexander Ovechkin, the face of the Capitals, no, the face of the NHL, was poised to score his 1,000th NHL career point and cement his position as a hockey legend.

Only 35 seconds into the first period, “Ovi’s favorite assist man Nick Backstrom got him into the offensive zone, and then Ovi took it from there. A spectacular move to center and an even better shot.” OVI SCOARS!! The crowd goes wild. Well, even more wild than it normally does. Listen to John Walton call it. 

Ovi went on to score a second goal and the Caps beat the Penguins 5-2. The Caps moved into second place in the league. What a night.

Among many other things, Ovi is famous for answering “Russian machine never breaks” when asked about a potential injury after being hit with a puck. He barely spoke English at the time. Ovi is as tough as T-34.

He comes from good stock. This is part of an interview with Mama Ovechkina in today’s “Sovetskii Sport.” 

"Pavel Lysenkov: What did this 1000th point mean for you? Only four Russians have ever reached this level – aside from Ovechkin, Kovalev, Mogilny and Fedorov.

Tatyana Ovechkina: I am not thinking a whole lot about Kovalev and Fedorov scoring. I am more interested in my son. I am glad he got his 1000th point and accomplished this minimum task.

Pavel Lysenkov: And what is the maximum?

Tatyana Ovechkina: The Stanley Cup, of course. You know that. I am happy for our other guys who played so well in the NHL, Fedorov and the rest. But I am even happier for my son. 

Pavel Lysenkov: Now Ovechkin is the headline news on every website, the face on every newspaper front page tomorrow.

Tatyana Ovechkina: Please don’t focus your attention on that. He scored, and forgot about it. You know, I really don’t like all this fuss, don’t give interviews often. Let Sasha play, and that’s it. Nothing else."

Na pravda, Mama Ovechkina, na pravda. “Let Sasha play, and that’s it. Nothing else.”

GO CAPS!

TTG

"Reconstruction of devastated eastern Aleppo begins" AMN

 

"Rebuilding in devastated parts of eastern Aleppo has begun now that the entirety of the city has been purged of terrorist groups.

A video released on Wednesday shows tractors and forklifts in the Saif al-Dawla district clearing the streets of sandbags and rubble amid efforts to help civilians return to normal life to eastern Aleppo, which had been under militant control since 2012, PressTV reported.

A mobile hospital in eastern Aleppo has also been established by Russian rescue workers.

“At the moment two tents are deployed: surgical and therapeutic and paediatric. At the moment about 100 people got assistance, we plan to provide help to 100 more,” said Ruslan Guzeev, head of the Russian medical department of special purpose.

Workers have begun returning to factories with Syrian Prime Minister Imad Khamis stating that the return of Aleppo's industrial capacities being a top priority."  AMN News

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IMO this place will be rapidly re-built.  The Chinese, the Indians, the Europeans, etc. will pour money into a myriad of projects.

Out in the eastern desert the SAA and friends are pushing IS back from around Tiyas air base.  NW of Damascus the water supply is going to be turned back on soon as the springs are liberated from the jihadis.  The SAA are making noises about an offensive toward Quneitra.  I don't understand why.  The jihadis there have full Israeli support and the population is much reduced because of the nearby Israeli threat and their long ago destruction of the city of Quneitra.

TTG and I remain committed to the thought that the main threat to the long term viability of the Syrian Government is continued jihadi possession of and now consolidation in Idlib Province.  We can only hope that the R+6 alliance is waiting for a visible result from the coming Astana negotiation before deciding on a decisive campaign.  pl  

https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/reconstruction-of-devastated-eastern-aleppo-begins/

"Spy chief trashes leaks, assures Trump of loyalty" Politico

"The U.S. director of national intelligence extended an olive branch of sorts to Donald Trump late Wednesday — denouncing media leaks, casting skepticism on reports that Russia has compromising material on the president-elect, and assuring Trump that America's spies stand ready to serve him.

In a statement, James Clapper said he had spoken Wednesday evening with Trump, days after the spy chief and some of his counterparts met with the incoming president to discuss the U.S. intelligence community's assessment that Russia tried to interfere in the 2016 election, possibly to help him win. 

On Tuesday, CNN, BuzzFeed and other media outlets reported that the intelligence officials had told Trump about an unsubstantiated private report that detailed how Russia's government allegedly had salacious information about him. BuzzFeed published the apparent dossier, which Trump has denounced as false.

"I expressed my profound dismay at the leaks that have been appearing in the press, and we both agreed that they are extremely corrosive and damaging to our national security," Clapper said of the information that has come out since last week's intelligence briefing."  Politico

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I can hear it now.  "I told Brennan we should not get involved but he wouldn't listen."

(irony alert) Jimmy Clapper is GOOD, one of the best.  My hat is off to him.

It sounds like Obama held out on him in the end for something he wanted, and that was enough ... 

Chapeau!  pl

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/clapper-trump-233517

Is it just me or has someone decided to go after Trump ?

By Patrick BAHZAD 

There are nine days left until Inauguration Day and it feels like each one of these days is going to count. A shit-storm of epic proportions is blowing over the US, coast to coast, and I cannot remember having witnessed anything of this magnitude since, well, since 9/11 and the case for WMDs. You might think that is a bad analogy. Maybe. But I can smell when something is not right from a mile away and, believe me, something is not right here. I will not engage in lengthy speculations about what is going to happen now, or whether or not someone colluded with someone else. What I am going to do though is present a brief reminder of the facts (the evidence if you like) and then throw in a couple of thoughts based on my personal experience and gut feeling.

To be honest, I don't like Trump. He is a successful businessman though and I respect that. He campaigned hard, said a lot of things (some of which I found disgusting), but he also – obviously – touched on something that is dear to a significant segment of the electorate. He won the election fair and square, in line with the provisions of the US Constitution, and I would challenge anyone to prove otherwise. As far as I'm concerned, that is the end of the story. Now of course, the issues that we have been dealing with since early December are not linked to the election as such. Remember ? The current debate started when the dust had settled on all the claims about "Hillary won the popular vote", "let's do a recount" and so on. I'm not sure this is a coincidence, but that is just me ...

The DHS/FBI "Joint Analysis Report"

Fact is however that the first official IC report to look into the matter of the DNC hack was the DHS/FBIS "Joint Analysis Report" of December 29th 2016. And what a strange report that was, starting with a disclaimer which read that the report was "provided for information purposes only. The Department of Homeland Security does not provide any warranties of any kind regarding any information contained within". Admittedly, you need to take a few basic precautions with Intel reports. But claiming as a matter of baseline, that you can't be held accountable to anything you're writing does sound a little weird.

There were weirder elements still in the report itself, which is basically a summary of findings made by private cybersecurity companies which dealt with the DNC hack, in particular "Crowdstrike". But those findings only make up for 3 pages out of the 13 contained in this JAR. The rest is related to barely relevant technical details or to mitigation strategies and practices any 5 year old should be aware of. There was also a list of suspicious IP adresses that organizations should be on the lookout for, because they could be linked potentially to the entities that attacked the DNC. Funny enough, some 40 % of these addresses were TOR exit nodes (you can make up your own mind about what this could mean) and some addresses were even attributed to the wrong country: IPs in Switzerland were identified as "Swaziland", Danish IPs as Germans (probably because ".dk" can be easily misread as ".de").

Typos and misunderstandings you might say. But that kind of error, in addition to the global layout of the report, definitely points to a very rushed approach, not to an intel report that is careful worded and thought through. Talking about intel, what did the JAR have to say in that regard ? Well, not much actually, at least not much more than the reports published weeks and months before by cybersecurity experts who had analyzed the DNC hack.

On the Sick List - Pat Lang

I am suffering from my usual mid-winter heavy cold.  I went to my doctor today.  I got through the holiday season before it really got bad.  This is not pneumonia.  I have had that several times brought on by exposure over the years.  Bear with me for a while if I seem not on my game.  pl

Dangerous Memes By Walrus.

The "Birther" meme attached to President Obama was a cleverly crafted and slimy attempt to derail his Presidential campaign. While it developed a life of its own after his inauguration it never was going to be a call to action by patriots. The Trump - Russia meme in my opinion is a much more serious information operation because it is designed to question the legitimacy of a President Trump defence and foreign policy actions.

To put that another way, this IO is not political point scoring, its attempting to influence U.S. foreign and defence policy in a very direct way - precluding a whole raft of policy options related to normalizing relations with Russia, winding back NATO expansion and other areas that I don't even know about. I don't know if this is against the law or not.

CNN  has just led with a story that the intelligence community presented Trump with a dossier alleging five years work by the Russian Government to both compromise Trump and promote his presidential prospects and allege collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian Government. 

"....(CNN)Classified documents presented last week to President Obama and President-elect Trump included allegations that Russian operatives claim to have compromising personal and financial information about Mr. Trump, multiple US officials with direct knowledge of the briefings tell CNN.

The allegations were presented in a two-page synopsis that was appended to a report on Russian interference in the 2016 election. The allegations came, in part, from memos compiled by a former British intelligence operative, whose past work US intelligence officials consider credible. The FBI is investigating the credibility and accuracy of these allegations, which are based primarily on information from Russian sources, but has not confirmed many essential details in the memos about Mr. Trump...."

 

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/01/10/politics/donald-trump-intelligence-report-russia/index.html

 

Buzzfeed obligingly then leaks all 35 pages of the alleged "Memos" on which the summary is allegedly based, that go into scatalogical detail about Trump in Russia.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/kenbensinger/these-reports-allege-trump-has-deep-ties-to-russia?utm_term=.pkOOrazq7#.oc4JGA7v2

 

Folks, to me, it doesn't seem to me that American politics can get more surreal. I don't think I've seen more flaky conglomerations passing as intelligence summaries, ever..... and CNN apparently bought it,..... and the liberal media follow suit. Trump wanted to defile the bed that President Obama slept in at a hotel in Moscow, so he arranged a sex party???

The Alt right are now digging and it seems that at least the plot for that particular memo ( the sex party one) was fed by a prankster to one DNC operative Wilson, who appears to have run with it. CNN,  Fake News all of the time. 

I'm half a world away in opposite time zones, please tell us what your morning brings... It seems to me that a "Trump the Traitor" meme is a very dangerous creation.

Deplorable in Paris - by Fred

A journey in the cold snows of winter, to the land of my forebears. A light snow fell as I walk to the cathedral my ancestors prayed in before they embarked on their journey to a new life in the New World. A day much like this; at the end of one year, before the birth of the new. Long ago when the world was lit only by fire.

I wonder what they would make of the lights of ours? Electric lamps and guards before the door to the house of God. They would recognize what was within; the joy at the birth of the hope of salvation. Even now, in the winter of such contentment, the song and the joy remains the same.

Such was the day on my arrival in the City of Light that Christmas Day. A chill wind and soft snow with just enough warmth to threaten a thaw. No throngs of gawking tourists; just a long, thin, line of worshipers moving ever forward past the barriers and the watchful eyes of the CRS. Few seats were vacant. Only a few were filled with visitors from distant lands. A sermon in French and in Latin. My ancestors would recognize the temper of our times.

Such a different day, just two days later, at that other cathedral of the City, St. Sulpice. A paved road stretches forth from the Luxembourg Gardens to Place Saint Sulpice. 

Guards and tourists too at one end. At the other? No throngs at the door, no CRS, no guards visible at all. A few tourists, a few parishioners. Just we few, we happy few. Lost souls hearing the echo of the Word. The soft baa, baaing of the black sheep is heard within the cathedral, though most do not know their condition, nor how close damnation - or salvation, lies. For there at the edge of the Nave stood Mephistopheles with - a bag of cookies. His hand out stretched in temptation to his pupils. His eyes gleaming as he tempts in mockery of the communion.

How close to evil we come, so close, when an anger equal to that of pagan Achilles rises in our breast. Lead us not into temptation and deliver us from evil, so goes the prayer. A softer passion moved me. I took a few short steps when at the edge of the transept I was brought to a stop by what I beheld at a nativity display. Just beyond the velvet rope, stretched out full length, giving coins and prayers to the baby Jesus, a woman of middling age. Tears ran down her faces; and down the faces of the French women who stood in amazement, in compassion. They crossed themselves and spoke soft prayers to God. Life played out before me in all its sadness and hope and glory. The third calendar day from the one we mark as the birth of our savior. A trinity indeed.

It was a short walk, though one long in contemplation, toward the Cluny and the Medieval Age. How did Goethe put it? Das Ewig Weibliche zieht uns hinan?  Long I stood in contemplation in front of her. “I’m with her” has such different meaning here.

Hours later a different longing, a secular one? A primal one? Growling out, from the stomach. A simple longing, for mothers cooking? Such a shift from food for thought, and the soul. I ventured out again, on a different road, one well paved, well traveled:


A few turns, a darkened street, a single lite. So much like that first night in France, in the century passed. 

Here it lies, just beyond....an adventure.

This must be the place, for romance, 

for, shall I say it, dinner?

Mmm, mm.  A full day, a full belly, satiated I journeyed forth again, to find just how late the hour.

Even the night owls had ventured home to bed. An example I was looking forward to follow. Just a few steps more, a minute or two only from this very cafe. It was then, so unsuspectingly, at the very threshold of the Inn that I was set upon so suddenly - by a fierce beast with black hair and white fangs. I thought can it be, the hound, the Hound of the Baskervilles!? Why here is the scoundrel:

Well, he is a hound. More Puppy of Paris than diabolical beast. Lemon (pronounced the French way) the Puppy of Paris. Well there is only one thing to do after being set upon by such as he. Uphold the tradition - of Americans abroad. I took him (with the owners permission)  into the courtyard for a round of fetch. It was then the urge struck me; and yes, I did the deed, just like so long ago with Lil' Yeller. I taught a young dog a new trick. There were some hastily concealed smiles, betrayed by flashing eyes, from the ladies behind the counter when they heard young Lemon sound forth the proper greeting to the master when he returns home: "Baarrrooooo!".  I wonder how that greeting sounds in French? At least in the future no one will mistake him for a puppy. I know, it was, in a word, Deplorable.

Thus concluded the most important events in the tale of a winter journey.