Open Thread 22 July 2015

pl

Comments

[Farooq]

Asteroid-Mining Firm's First Spacecraft Deploys from Space Station
(Very nice gif animation shows the deployment)

http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/aerospace/robotic-exploration/asteroidmining-firms-first-spacecraft-deploys-from-space-station

[bks]

Has the Iraqi government retaken Fallujah yet?

[SAC Brat]

Paul Craig Roberts has an article on revisionist history that follows some of the recent discussions here. http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2015/07/21/falsifying-history-behalf-agendas/ I thought it was pretty good, but I'm not the sharpest knife in the chandelier.

Stone Mountain is under attack now: http://www.myfoxatlanta.com/story/29600960/atlanta-city-council-asks-governor-to-look-at-changing-stone-mountain The State should offer to sell it to the critics and let the critics spend their money to make it suitable to their beliefs.

[David Solomon]

Time to Donate To Colonel Lang.....

It seems to me that he has not asked us for a donation in a long time, so I would like to ask on his behalf. That is not to suggest that he has anything to do with my posting.

I just think it is time for us to help out. I just did, so maybe others of his readers would also like to help.

Regards,

David

[turcopolier]

David Solomon

Thanks very much for your help. pl

[William R. Cumming]

P.L. and ALL: Is there any current equivalent to the POWELL DOCTRINE as a unififying postulate as to the APPROPRIATENESS OF EMPLOYING THE US MILITARY IN ORGANIZED VIOLENCE FOR NATION=STATE PURPOSES?

AND IS THE POWELL DOCTRINE DEAD?

AM I CORRECT THAT SOME REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES HAVE PROMISED AN ATTACK ON IRAN IF THEY ARE ELECTED TO THE PRESIDENCY AND BECOME PRESIDENT?

[Valissa]

Foreign policy humor anyone?

How to Speak Foreign Policy Like a Beltway Native - Translating Washington’s favorite foreign policy clichés, from "boots on the ground" to "thank you for your service." http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/07/10/how-to-speak-foreign-policy-like-a-beltway-native/
I asked several dozen denizens of the national security and foreign policy communities to nominate their (least) favorite clichés and euphemisms – the ones that occupy positions in paragraphs that should be occupied by something meaningful, but aren’t; the ones designed to obfuscate rather than illuminate; the ones that should be eliminated entirely from our collective vocabulary.

Here’s what they came up with, along with translations. ...

“War on terror” or “War on Terrorism.”
Translation: “We have no idea who these guys are or what motivates them, but we don’t like them.”

“This will require a whole of government effort.”
Translation: “This will take a miracle. We definitely can’t do it.” Prior interpretations include: “I think this is someone else’s job.”

“There is no military solution.”
Translation: “What, you expected this to work?”

“No boots on the ground.”
Translation: “I prefer to rely on destructive but ineffective air campaigns. This won’t prevent me from sending a whole bunch of Special Forces guys and other ‘advisers’ into combat zones, but please join me in pretending they’re not really there.”

“[The Islamic State/al Qaeda/the Taliban, etc.] has proven to be a surprisingly resilient enemy.”
Translation: “Our intel was all wrong.”

“Thank you for your service.”
Translation: “Better you than me, you poor sap.”
--------------
NOTE: there are 30+ of these in the article... LOL...

There's a new geopolitical comedy on HBO called "The Brink". I think it's hilarious though not all the reviewers agree. Surprisingly my husband likes it too, and he's actually pretty uninterested in foreign policy stuff in general (I've had to explain some of the 'inside joke' verbal zingers) but this has helped him to understand my interest in it a bit better :)

An good overview of the show is here...
Is Global Annihilation Funny? The Brink Thinks So http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2015/03/the-brink-hbo-first-look

The Brink http://www.hbo.com/the-brink

[different clue]

Don't look now but . . . the Coming Ice Age prediction is making another appearance.
http://astronomynow.com/2015/07/17/diminishing-solar-activity-may-bring-new-ice-age-by-2030/
(And of course the headlines are over-dramatic, just like before. They mean a Little Ice Age like the historical last one).

I said once in a comment that I don't think the last predictions of a coming Frosty Chill Age were wrong. I think the actual event was washed-out by unpredicted-at-the-time earth-surface heat retention driven by man made global warming. And I think that if solar activity really diminishes to the point of being a Maunder Minimum 2.0, then we are observing a beautifully-set-up natural experiment.

A very small version of that experiment was run by the Mt. Pinatubo eruption. The global was warming up to that time. Warmists believed that man made skydumping of heat retaining gases was driving the warming. The Pinatubo eruption didn't in itself prove that mankind had been warming the global up to that point, but it did demonstrate that events which change the earth-surface energy budget either through heat-retention or solar-input modification could warm or cool the earth surface weather systems. Pinatubo cast up a lot of sulfur dioxide which hydrated to sulfuric acid micro droplets high in the air. These reflected enough sunlight back into space before it could even reach the surface that less heat was generated for the several years during which that sulfuric acid was up there. Canadian Arctic ice which had been thinning and melting to the detriment of polar bears began re-spreading and re-thickening and lasting more of the year. That enabled several generations of polar bears to hunt for seals better and get fatter eating more seals. These bears were referred to as the "Pinatubo bears". I can't find the CBC Pinatubo Bears link that I remembered from years ago, but here is a link to Pinatubo as a natural experiment. http://climate.envsci.rutgers.edu/pdf/VEAChapter1_Robocknew.pdf

So IF the sun dims down as much as being predicted by some people, we will have a huge long-term version of the Pinatubo Experiment. If man made greenhouse gas skydumping has no effect on earth surface energy budgets, then the coming Solar Minimum should cool the earth down as much as the Maunder Minimum did. If skydumped
greenhouse gases retain heat within the system the way that warmists like me think they do, then the earth surface will not cool down anywhere near as much as it did during the Maunder Minimum. So I hope the sum dims as much as is being predicted. That way we will see who is right and who is wrong about "warmism". I hope I live long enough to see some of the outcome.

[Matthew]

And both Democrats and Republicans let this man serve in government. See http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.666571

Shame. Eternal shame.

[William R. Cumming]

Not ever IMO!

[different clue]

Matthew,

Well, now they know. Or should know. So now they won't bring him back to serve in government any more . . . one would hope.

[nick b]

The Brink is hysterical, particularly the pilots Tilson and Taylor.

[A Pols]

Though not technically a dual national like some high ranking policy wonks, Dennis Ross is pretty darn close when it comes to promoting Israeli interests over long term American ones. I wonder what Eisenhower would think of him. He and others of his ilk (and you all know who they are) have been playing "lets you and him fight" with our foreign policy for a long time now and what does it avail us?
I feel a weariness at times listening to the "Yellow Yawp" which passes for public discourse in the MSM..