Open Thread - 22 July 2016

pl

Comments

[Babak Makkinejad]

All:

For the Edification of the Man-Made Global Warming Crowd:

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v534/n7609/full/nature18591.html

In a nut-shell, global warming is tied to an average of discrete numbers of precession cycles of Earth's orbit around the Sun.

[bth]

This article may explain some of the background regarding US/Russian air coordination and why DoD was so slow to go along with State proposal on info sharing. http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/russian-warplanes-targeted-us-british-outpost-in-syria-report/ar-BBuEzqw?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=spartandhp

[ex-PFC Chuck]

Just heard on NPR while out driving on errands that Erdogan has delcared July 15 a national holiday to honor the 200 plus coup opponents who died.

[Liza]

Col. Lang:

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Russia bombed a US/UK based in Syria. I'm interested in your assessment of this.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/russian-strikes-on-remote-syria-garrison-alarm-u-s-1469137231

[ambrit]

Is there any truth to the internet rumour of Turkeys' Incirlik air base being locked down? Or is this standard procedure for an "internal" power struggle and the American munitions are safely in US hands?

[Barish]

Old hat - supposedly happened last month, June 16th - and then

1) this here is mentioned about the kind of US/UK-deployment there:

"U.S. and British special forces based in Jordan cross the border into Syria on missions, helping maintain an unofficial buffer zone on Syrian soil to protect Jordan from Islamic State, U.S. officials said. The special forces would rendezvous with their rebel allies at the garrison, initially used by the CIA. For security reasons, the forces wouldn’t spend the night."

So, to quote the piece itself, it's a "rebel outpost" regularly visited by US/UK personnel rather than a permanently maintained base.

2) I am somewhat wary of taking this here about an attack on a "families camp" on July 12th at face-value:

"But on July 12, as Mr. Kerry was preparing to fly to Moscow to complete the agreement to increase U.S.-Russian coordination, Russian aircraft targeted another base near the Jordanian border, about 50 miles from At-Tanf, used by family members of CIA-backed fighters and other displaced Syrians, according to U.S. officials briefed on the strike and rebel commanders.

Tllass Salameh, a commander with the Lions of the East rebel group which works out of the base, said 200 people were living at the “families’ camp.”

In the strike, the Russians used cluster munitions, which increased the number of casualties, according to Mr. Salameh and U.S. officials. Mr. Salameh said two young children, aged two and three, were killed along with two young women and a man in his mid-50s. In addition, 48 people were injured, all civilians, he said."

As it's by no means a first for insurgents in Syria to place militant personnel and arms in such camps, I wouldn't rule that out being the case again here. Further, why aren't the relatives of this outfit kept safe and secure within Jordan's borders, them being beholden to Jordan anyway?

[The Beaver]

Power restored at Incirlik few hours ago:
http://www.militarytimes.com/story/military/2016/07/22/incirlik-has-power-again-but-turkey-mission-faces-uncertain-future/87382168/

[ambrit]

Given the almost non existent reputation of western MSMs now, the sources of this "news" are germane. Is this an "exclusive" message from some shadowy front organization, or a multiply verifiable 'event?' Again, what would be of sufficient motivation for the Russians to do such a thing? This 'attack' is supposed to have occurred weeks ago. Why the delay in going public? Was some cleanup of the venue required? In short, if true, why this happened appears to have some significance. Finally, could some third party have used drones to carry this out and someone is using the 'event' to smear the Russians?
Early days yet.

[ISL]

behind a pay wall, you can read the article here:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/304610925_The_Asian_monsoon_over_the_past_640000_years_and_ice_age_terminations

This article is not relevant to modern and recent climate change which is century time scale or shorter - it is for millennial time scale changes.

[HankP]

Babak -

The study you mentioned has no relation to the current situation, as previous episodes didn't have artificial sources pumping gigatons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year.

[Babak Makkinejad]

"pumping gig tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year."

A canard as, like any other fluid, only so much carbon dioxide or methane can be dissolved in the atmosphere before it starts to spontaneously precipitate.

[Balint Somkuti]

Lone gunman attacks in Munich.

This has to end somehow.

[Fred]

Liza,

When did the Syrian government give permission to either the US or the UK to allow troops into their country? Especially to 'advise' those trying to overthrow the Syrian government.

[Barish]

Another thing should be kept in mind here: last Decembre an air strike by some party within the "Anti-ISIL" coalition hit a SAA post close to Deir ez-Zur:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/12036836/Syrian-government-says-US-led-coalition-hit-army-camp-killing-three-soldiers.html

First reports on the case at hand, "U.S.-backed Syrian opposition forces" being hit went like this a few weeks ago:

http://edition.cnn.com/2016/06/17/politics/russia-airstrike-syrian-rebels/

In the CNN-link, there's this quoted from the Russian MoD:

"The object which had suffered bombardment was located more than 300 km far from borders of territories claimed by the American party as ones controlled by the opposition joined the ceasefire regime," the Russian Defense Ministry said in the statement.

And Russian forces "forewarned member states of the U.S.-led coalition about the ground targets to strike on," the statement added.

In recent months, the Russian Defense Ministry has suggested "compiling a joint map with actual information about location of forces active in Syria," according to the statement. "However, there has been no significant progress reached."

In other words: the US missed stating that in this area, too, there would be participants to the Cessation of Hostilities. Why's that?

[Haralambos]

Breaking news on BBC and Greek news of shooting at a Munich shopping center. Reports remain very sketchy, but some include the claim that there were multiple shooters (three?) and a number of injured.

[rjj]

Well, there is now Munich which seems to be more of the same.

Things are shitty. Try this:

http://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/07/how-a-guy-from-a-montana-trailer-park-upturned-150-years-of-biology/491702/

http://tobyspribille.weebly.com/projects.html

[Jack]

A good overview including video of Munich shooting.

http://www.valuewalk.com/2016/07/munich-shooting-photos-videos-live/

[Jack]

All

Did you watch/listen to Trump's RNC speech? What is your opinion?

[Haralambos]

Police in Munich are asking folks not to post images online of what is happening. These are in German, English and French. My source is Greek TV ΣΚΑÏ.

[505thPIR]

Turkish version of Horst Wessel Lied soon to follow!

[Ghostship]

I think this is the group known as the New Syrian Army who a few weeks ago attempted to attack Al-Bukamal in the Euphrates valley with disastrous consequences when their American "close air support" headed off to attack a large ISIS convoy leaving Fallujah and left them at the mercy of the ISIS forces in Al-Bukamel. So, I think the unofficial buffer zone story is just BS. If they really wanted to seal the Jordanian border to ISIS, why don't they send in some airborne battlefield radar and a few helicopter gunships.
As for the timing of this article, more than a month after the event, it couldn't possibly be to distract attention from the civilian casualties caused by bomb strikes around Manbij because everybody knows the Washington Borg is never so cynical.
Talks are still under way between U.S. and Russian experts over the designated areas where the Russians would have to get Washington’s approval before conducting strikes.
Of course, the "designated area" would never cover the whole of Syria.

[Origin]

What is the view of the Committee on Senator Tim Kaine as a Vice President?

[Allen Thomson]

Could someone knowledgeable about German law enforcement parse what we're seeing in Munich? In particular, there seem to be a lot of Polizei wearing tan trousers, yellow short-sleeve shirts and no headgear, plus vests and carrying pistols and machine pistols. Who are they? Then there are more heavily equipped ones with helmets, more like one would see in a similar situation in the US.

[turcopolier]

Ghost Ship

"... it couldn't possibly be to distract attention from the civilian casualties caused by bomb strikes around Manbij because everybody knows the Washington Borg is never so cynical." Is there any proof of that or are you just running your mouth? pl

[turcopolier]

Origin

My impression is that Kaine has been lucky in his opponents when he ran for governor and the senate. He was also fortunate in his predecessor as a governor. Mark Warner was and is a very popular man in the commonwealth including among populations outside the Northern Virginia suburbs. Kaine was the mayor of Richmond at one point and a leader of the city council there before that. Richmond is a majority Black city, the White population having moved to its exurbs in Chesterfield County and north of the city. Kaine has a reputation as being very pro-Black. IMO Kaine's placement on the HC ticket will not guarantee a Democratic victory in Virginia in November. pl