Sic Semper Tyrannis

Mediaworld and the reality of East Aleppo

IMO the Battle of East Aleppo will be over soon.  R+6 is carving up what is left of the pocket like a Christmas "Turkey" (Heh! Heh!).  The Sheikh Sa'eed neighborhood at the south end of the kessel fell today, and a massive drive westward is underway from the area of Aleppo International Airport toward the citadel of Aleppo.  At the same time the Tiger Forces and Palestinian militia are pressing south from the lines they held yesterday along the east-west highway at the "waist" of the former East Aleppo pocket.  IMO the pocket will be gone in a few days.

At the same time civilians are fleeing to government lines en masse where they are transported to reception camps and provided food, water, shelter and medical care.  The Russians have been moving mobile field hospitals into the Aleppo area to provide more capacity.

The lying US and European media are, of course, portraying the situation as something very different.  In Mediaworld, the people of east Aleppo are fleeing from the government.  I ask you, pilgrims, to what place would civilians be fleeing in trying to escape the government?  The east Aleppo pocket is entirely surrounded by government allied force.  Evidently a lot of media halfwits cannot read a map.   The statement is also made in Mediaworld that there is a shortage of drinking water in east Aleppo.  There is no mention in Mediaworld of the rebels' use of drinking water as an instrument for reward and punishment of civilians.  There is also no mention of the SAA's capture of the city water works a couple of days ago and their ongoing efforts to turn the water back on.

Someone should explain to Madeleine Albright what the actual situation is in Syria.  pl

 

The Madness of Sultan Tayyip

1 - He has gutted much of the educated middle class of Turkey in his frantic persecution of all those he thinks might not be loyal to him.

2 - He has sent the Turkish Army into Syria in what was first described as border defense against IS (a group he has long supported) and is now revealed (by him) to be an effort to reach central Syria and depose Bashar Assad.  It appears that Russia (and perhaps the US as well) have made it clear to him that this will not be permitted.

3. Through his relentless leadership purges he has so weakened the Turkish armed forces that the country is no longer a credible military partner in the NATO alliance.

4.  He has so provoked the EU that its weakling leaders have suspended negotiations for Turkish membership.  They did this after first having given Sultan Tayyip a 6.6 billion Euro bribe to stop sending refugees into the EU. 

5.  As a response to suspension of the process of Turkish accession to EU membership, Sultan Tayyip has now threatened to re-open the faucet of volkervanderung into the EU. 

6. He has positioned Turkish forces in the Mosul area in such a way as to be seen by the Iraqi government as having irredentist claims in northern Iraq.

Anything else?  pl

Joe Scarborough thinks East Aleppo is the Warsaw Ghetto

According to the Western Media the population of that part of East Aleppo that is still in rebel (read jihadi) hands is terrified at the thought that soon they will be in the clutches of the SAA and its Palestinian, Lebanese Shia and Iranian allies.

In fact they are flocking to the Syrian government to be evacuated to refugee centers where they are provided food, water, shelter and medical attention.

Fleets of buses are hauling them away from the combat area.  Photographs are available of these civilians lining up to board the buses once they are able to escape from jihadi control.  they tell reporters on the scene that they were used as human shields by the jihadis and fired on if they tried to leave the area of rebel control.

Does the Western MSM acknowledge that?  It does not.  Instead the media and most especially the mendacious and empty headed crews on shows like "Mornin' Joe" cleave to the memetic propaganda line of people like Susan Rice who yesterday insisted all over the Sunday Newsies that the great majority of rebels are secular and moderate and defenders of "our shared values."

Hey, Joe!  I know your friends and neighbors in suburban Connecticut see Nazis and the Warsaw Ghetto everywhere but you should wise up.  pl  

https://southfront.org/mainstream-media-is-in-outrage-as-government-forces-liberating-northeastern-aleppo-and-freeing-civilians-held-there-as-hostages/

https://southfront.org/over-10000-civilians-fled-from-militant-held-parts-of-aleppo-city/

https://southfront.org/government-forces-restore-water-supplies-in-suleiman-al-halabi-neighborhood-of-aleppo-city/

SHORT AND SHARP: East Aleppo Rebel Stronghold Stormed by SAA and Allies

By Patrick BAHZAD 

 

As readers will probably be aware by now, huge developments have taken place in rebel held Eastern Aleppo over the weekend. In a matter of 48 hours, the rebels have lost some 40 % of the urban territory that was under their control. Adding insult to injury, several thousand residents of those areas started moving over to government or Kurdish held areas in the West of the City.

SST has always forecast such an outcome and stuck by its judgement despite the circumstantial developments that media outlets and expert groups with far larger means considered testimony to the "impossible military victory" in Aleppo.

Well, it turns out, they were wrong and probably out of their depth. The pipedream of the moderate opposition and the propaganda BS that was being sold 24/7 both online and on our TV networks do not necessarily make up for a solid military background and real-life experience ... What has just happened over the weekend is the classic example of a strategic breaking point being reaching in a case of attritional urban warfare.

The Counterattack Against President - Elect Trump By Walrus.

At least as I was taught and trained, it is standard military practice, on taking an enemy position, to immediately begin defensive preparations to receive an almost inevitable counterattack. I hope for the sake of America, that President - Elect Trump and his team have made the adequate preparations for the counterattack because in my opinion the Hilary backers are now upon them.

I refer to Four events; Two are courtesy of the Washington Post and obviously made with the approval of its owner.

The first was the denigration by the Washington Post of websites not sympathetic enough to the Clinton candidacy as "Fake News" - deliberate Russian propaganda in favour of Trump. The article was written around the construct of a list of 200 websites that are labelled as either Russian propaganda outlets or Lenins "useful Idiots" who repeat propaganda without checking. In support of this attack were some media moguls who joined in. This suggests to me that the "cure" for "fake news" under a Clinton regime might be an attack on free speech. There are numerous articles on the web dissecting this story.

Then we have Jill Steins petition for a Wisconsin recount - apparently funded very adequately by public subscription to the tune of several million dollars.

Then we have a statement by Hilarys lawyer that the Clinton DNC team will participate in the recount although according to the spokesman the decision was made in sorrow rather than anger as not much is expected to change. 

Then today we have a Washington Post op-ed by Lawrence Lessig calling for the Electoral College not to elect Trump:

"Conventional wisdom tells us that the electoral college requires that the person who lost the popular vote this year must nonetheless become our president. That view is an insult to our framers. It is compelled by nothing in our Constitution. It should be rejected by anyone with any understanding of our democratic traditions  — most important, the electors themselves.......

.......if the electoral college is to control who becomes our president, we should take it seriously by understanding its purpose precisely. It is not meant to deny a reasonable judgment by the people. It is meant to be a circuit breaker — just in case the people go crazy."

The obvious implication is that crazy people voted for Trump and sane people voted for Clinton.

In my opinion, it may be possible to dismiss these events as just a little rabble rousing to improve newspaper circulation prior to the inauguration (will Trump get elected???) - at which point the media focus again changes (now what will President Trump do????). Conversely, this may be a structured attempt to put Clinton on the throne, in which case all hell breaks loose.

I also note that in the UK. Tony Blair has lifted the lid of his casket and again stalks the streets of London aiming to reverse Brexit. Do we see a pattern here? International elites none too happy with revolting peasants on both sides of the Atlantic?

I leave it to the committee to discuss what we are seeing here. I guess it stands to reason that if Trump really plans to "drain the swamp" there are going to be a lot of alligators after him. What comes next I know not. 

Open Thread - 26 November 2016

pl

Black Friday Thoughts - 25 November 2016

 

1.  President's Daily Book Briefings - The notion that a president or president elect is under ANY obligation to sit through a lengthy daily briefing from a team from the Director of National Intelligence office is just wrong.  This system was constructed to meet the perceived needs of various presidents for information on the world.  It is routinely reshaped to suit the desires of the president.  The intelligence guys would dearly love to shape their briefings so as to make them prescriptive, in other words definitive for policy.  They seldom get to do that but they do try.  IMO Trump has policy opinions of his own and is unlikely to be "guided" by the expressed opinions of the DNI or anyone in the intelligence community.  IMO that is a good thing.  Do we want to be governed by someone who yields to the self-important and organizationally "invested" views of the intelligence barons?  If Trump wants Flynn to inform him rather than listening himself to the artful blandishments of skillful briefers, more power to him!  I say that as someone who has briefed the high and mighty many times over many years. 

2.  An emerging ME alliance - Egyptian Air Force fighter aircraft and helicopters have arrived on a Syrian Air Force base in Hama Province.  The media speaks of an emerging axis of alliance among: Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Algeria to combat Sunni jihadism.  I presume that Russia will be very supportive of such an alliance.  At the same time Erdogan's Turkey continues to arrest thousands of opponents and speaks of joining the alignment sponsored by Russia and China even as he continues to support jihadis in Syria. 

3.  The Trump team - In spite of the plaintive bleating of the Democrats about the legally non-existent national popular vote and re-counts that will never happen or will prove nothing but the ability of Stein to raise money, Trump is moving steadily forward with formation of a national security side of his incoming administration.   If I were asked I would advise him to carefully interview people like Mattis, Pompaio, Flynn, Halley and other prospects for nomination or appointment to make sure that these people will follow his foreign policy in both specific and general terms.  Mattis lost his job as CENTCOM commander for crowding the Iranians by sending US warships inshore where they were evidently expected to provoke a fight.  This was contrary to Obama's policy and Mattis was warned about this behavior before he was replaced.  Mattis should be cautioned against exceeding his authorities before being made SECDEF.  Flynn's childish foolishness in going to Moscow at Russian Government expense to attend a conference and allowing his picture to be taken at table with Putin was so indiscreet as to raise questions about his maturity and judgment.  He should be privately cautioned against that kind of self-indulgence>  Pompaio is a tea party congressman from a great plains state who was once in the US Army for a few years and left as soon as he could.   He was first in his class at USMA?  So what?  He was an undergraduate and that was a long time ago.  He appears to be filled with a great belligerence towards Russia, Syria and Iran.  If President Trump orders him to stop all assistance to the "moderate" and jihadi groups CIA has been assisting in Syria, will he carry out his orders or seek to avoid them?  If Romney is made SECSTATE will he follow a policy of detente with Russia, China, etc. or will he try to go his own way?  There are yet more important nominations to be made; DNI, and Ambassador to Moscow among others.  All of these nominees should be interrogated for the same assurances.  If that is done a baseline for performance will be had.  pl

The Shipwright - TTG

"He who works with his hands is a laborer. He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman. He who works with his hands and his head and his heart is an artist." - Saint Francis of Assisi

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There was a time when all men were fully capable of solving problems and realizing dreams with their minds and their hands. I offer you this video series where a fine gentleman does just that. Enjoy.

TTG

“Shipwright Louis Sauzedde shows how to build a work skiff.“

The Impossible Engine

 

http://turcopolier.typepad.com/the_athenaeum/2016/11/httpswwwwashingtonpostcomnewsspeaking-of-sciencewp20161122this-rocket-engine-breaks-a-law-of-physics-but-a-nasa-t.html

Please post any comments on The Athenaeum.  pl

ORIGIN Incensed—Presidents Elect have a right of freedom of speech and expression too.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." (Preamble to the U.S. Declaration of Independence)

Last week, the social media got to me. I became for a time, really incensed, angry.

As a believer in the principles set forth in the Preamble to our Declaration of Independence, I find the burgeoning rhetoric of white nationalism quite disturbing. We have an unrepentant “platform” provider for white nationalistic rhetoric as the newly appointed Chief Strategist for our President elect.  The extent to which the Chief Strategist believes the rhetoric, nobody really knows.  In any case, the code words of the movement are beginning to infect the language of public discourse like a virus. 

White nationalism’s fundamental premise is that our nation should allow the creation of “Euro-ethnic” enclaves as a matter of “freedom” for those who hold a “white Euro-ethnic” identity. That premise carries with it a fundamental belief in the creation of an inevitable and “beneficial” (for the white nationals only) prospect of an ethnically cleansed region in the U.S.  The last time we had serious white nationalism take hold in a significant part of the country things did not end well for the white nationalists whose whole region was devastated with great vengeance.  

Ultimately, over the 151 years since that conflict ended, the American People have made great progress toward forming a society under a mostly ethno-neutral and, increasingly, also a gender-identity neutral government and polity.

White nationalism is a rejection of the ethno-neutral state focused on the guarantee of human rights for all of its inhabitants and the broader world that has been evolving since the beginning of the American experiment.  It is very easy to adopt white nationalism because it is a rejection of the need to get along with others who are different and it feels good to be superior to them.  The ideology requires little effort and almost no study to be good at it.  Shouting racist slogans and making others uncomfortable is even fun for some.  Today, the idea has real appeal to those who have little accomplishment.

Our culture has moved from slavery in the 1600s to racial integration and acceptance of gay marriage.  More so in the urban areas than in the exurbs and rural areas where there is less of  the "lots going on" of urban life and less interaction with the wonderful mosaic of diversity. Now, for the first time in generations, that progress towards neutrality appears to be at issue.  Many find this frightening, other find it good, exciting, and novel. 

 

The Democratic Party in 2017

 

What part of this arithmetic do the Democrats not comprehend?

Seats in the Senate	48 / 100
Seats in the House	186 / 435
Governorships	18 / 50
State Upper House Seats	836 / 1,972
State Lower House Seats	2,344 / 5,411
Territorial Governorships	2 / 6
Territorial Upper Chamber Seats	31 / 97
Territorial Lower Chamber Seats	0 / 91

 The Republicans have 51 seats in the US Senate.  After a run-off on December 11 they will, IMO, have 52 seats. The advantages in state governments grows steadily.  The disadvantage carried by the Democrats as coastal city dwellers operating within the federal republic created by the agreement among the states that is the US Constitution cannot be overestimated.

That is why they lost the latest elections and are likely to continue to lose elections across the board until they reconcile themselves to the idea that the multi-culty beliefs of their Obama style gurus will not bring them power on a regular basis.

Perhaps they need a different country.   pl  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Party_(United_States)

De Mistura's Aleppo fantasy

 

"Deputy Prime Minister, Foreign and Expatriates Minister Walid al-Moallem reaffirmed that it is the duty of the Syrian state to save the citizens from being taken hostages by terrorists in Aleppo city, stressing that the idea of “self-administration” in eastern Aleppo is categorically rejected because “it is a reward” for terrorists.

“We held talks Sunday morning with UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura and his delegation, and we expected to hear from him that a date was set for resuming the intra-Syrian dialogue, but we did not,” al-Moallem said in a press conference, adding that de Mistura focused on what he called “ideas” about eastern Aleppo.

“In fact, we told him that we are in agreement about the need to get terrorists out of the eastern part of Aleppo, regardless of our differences about their numbers, but it makes no sense at all to leave 275,000 of our fellow citizens remain hostages by five or six or seven thousand militants. No government in the world would allow that,” al-Moallem added.

Al-Moallem pointed out that de Mistura talked about “self-administration” in eastern Aleppo is which is categorically rejected.

“Is it possible that the United Nations has come to reward the terrorists who are still firing random shells at Western Aleppo which claimed the lives of thousands of people and wounded many others?” al-Moallem said."  SANA

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

 Just to be clear about what happened - Marquess Staffan de Mistura of the UN proposed yesterday to the Syrian government that R+6 halt their presently successful battle to capture jihadi held East Aleppo and grant jihadi held East Aleppo area autonomy as a rebel held enclave within the boundaries of Syria, a member state of the UN.  Say what? 

Why on earth would the Syrians do that?  Why?  Even the MI-6 run "Syrian Observatory for Human Rights" in London acknowledges that the jihadis in East Aleppo are running out of time, space, ammunition and food.

Ah, yes!  Of course!  The barrel bombing and hospital destruction memes are not having the desired effect and the "White Helmet" farce has been thoroughly debunked, so something else had to be tried.

"Nothing ventured, nothing gained."  pl 

http://sana.sy/en/?p=93897 

http://www.wsj.com/articles/syrian-government-refuses-un-truce-terms-for-aleppo-1479669927

End of Vacation

I am back.  pl

“NSA Director Mike Rogers Could Be Removed in Restructuring” - TTG

“President Obama is considering a recommendation by Defense Secretary Ash Carter and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper to separate the commands of theNational Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command that could lead to the removal of Admiral Mike Rogers who heads both commands. Rogers' potential removal as the head of the National Security Agency was first reported by the Washington Post.

The White House, the Defense Department and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment on the reports. According to a U.S. official, in September Carter and Clapper recommended to Obama a split between the commands of the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command that would result in the removal of Admiral Mike Rogers as the head of both commands.

The NSA is responsible for collecting international signals intelligence. U.S. Cyber Command (CYBERCOM) is responsible for the defense of military computer networks, but can also conduct offensive cyber operations, as it has done recently against ISIS' cyber networks.

If the recommendation to split the commands is approved it could result in separate individuals respectively heading the NSA and Cyber Command. Rogers assumed leadership of both commands in April, 2014, a term that would likely end next April.”  (ABC News)

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The Washington Post and Wall Street Journal articles on this story focus on the politics of the situation. The politics are real and are a serious complication in what could be a major restructuring of our DOD. In other words, the timing is lousy.

 However, I don’t believe the political contraversy is the crux of the issue. In my opinion this proposed separation of the intelligence and operational functions at NSA is long overdue. There were calls for splitting the NSA long before the establishment of CYBERCOM. The NSA mission of signals intelligence collection is diametrically opposed to its mission of securing our nation’s signals communications and information. The emphasis has always been towards the collection mission and the network defense mission has suffered. Thus we end up with the OPM hack and myriad others. We are digitally defenseless.

On top of this dysfunctional mess, we added CYBERCOM, also charged with defending our networks and attacking those of our enemies. This wasn’t always so. In the beginning, SPACECOM was given the mission of defending the GIG, the DOD global information grid. SPACECOM begat JTF-CND (Joint Task Force - Computer Network Defense). It was small, focused and, in my opinion, quite effective. It later moved from SPACECOM to STRATCOM and endured two more name changes. Eventually another element was established under STRATCOM to address the network attack mission. Both elements were then subsumed into CYBERCOM and the DIRNSA was dual hatted. Too damned much in one organization.

If I was in charge, I’d make the NSA a purely intelligence collection and analysis organization and leave it under the DOD with a military commander/director. I would put the entire defensive mission of both the current NSA and CYBERCOM under NORTHCOM, the unified command charged with homeland defense, civil support and security cooperation. CYBERCOM would be charged with offensive cyber operations such as countering the communications and online presence of IS. NSA/CYBERCOM seems to be screwing the pooch on this one. 

I’m sure there are holes in this plan, but I bet it would be a damned sight better than what we have now.

TTG

NSA Director Mike Rogers Could Be Removed in Restructuring (ABC News) 

Pentagon and intelligence community chiefs have urged Obama to remove the head of the NSA (Washington Post)

Breaking Up the NSA (Bruce Schneier)

 

Sasquatch Summit, November 18-19, 2016 - TTG

Earlier today, Colonel Lang momentarily emerged from his reveries to grace us with a bit of wisdom. Actually it was more of a “druther” than a bit of wisdom. Seems he would rather be a Sasquatch hunter than the Director of National Intelligence. He’d rather be stalking through a chilly forest in a drizzling rain than wearing a suit and dealing with the shameless political hacks at Liberty Crossing or in the halls of Congress. Not only does he want to search for Sasquatch, but he wants to ensure the “Sasquatch People” are protected from the inevitable ravages of mankind. Not too shabby a druther. I’d happily join the Colonel in this noble quest. DOL

In a peculiar coincidence, I discovered that the 2016 Sasquatch Summit will be held in Grays Harbor, Washington on 18 and 19 November. Well known Sasquatch researchers  will present “two days of physical proof about Sasquatch, habitat, audio, video, photos, casts and more. In addition, [they will explain] how to identify hoaxes, the differences between authentic tracks and fake, plus tons more.”

I also found a piece in “The Atlantic” entitled “Why Bigfoot Sightings Are So Common Across Cultures.” Only three weeks old, this piece explores mankind’s need to believe in such creatures.

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“Bigfoot might or might not roam the primeval forests of the Pacific Northwest, watching us and avoiding us, a reminder of our deepest, animalistic past. But whether or not there is an actual creature, the archetypal Sasquatch is, in his own way, very real.“  (The Atlantic)

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 I choose to believe if for nothing else than for the sheer adventure of it.

TTG

Sasquatch Summit 2016

Why Bigfoot Sightings Are So Common Across Cultures

The Sasquatch Genome Project  (link provided by Colonel Lang earlier today)

The Situation in Rojava - TTG

“Moments ago, the Kurdish-led 'Syrian Democratic Forces' (SDF) established full control over Tall as-Saman after a 48-hour battle prompted ISIS fighters to withdraw to the neighbouring village of Qaryah Armaniyah.

The capture of Tall as-Saman is significant as it lies on one of two main roads leading directly southwards to the predominately Arab city of Raqqa. The advance puts Kurdish forces some 28 kilometers north of the Islamic State capital.

12 days into the US-backed Kurdish offensive, codenamed operation 'Euphrates Wrath', over 30 villages have been liberated from the Islamic State. However, Kurdish forces have suffered heavy casualties due to ISIS guerilla tactics and suicide bombers.”  (Al Masdar News)

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“All hell is loose in the northeastern countryside of Aleppo as ISIS, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Free Syrian Army (FSA) all battled one another on Wednesday. While ISIS mounted a counter-offensive on Qabasin, their forces completely withdrew from several nearby villages, leaving them easy prey for the US-backed SDF. Thus, the SDF was able to pinch out a largely abandoned ISIS bulge and took control over the villages of Al-Bughaz, Abu Hayj, Hutah, Jubb ad Dam (Qanlê Qoyê), Kur Huyuk, Ulashi, Kandarliyah, al-Qarah and Tall Bersaya - these villages are located northeast of al-Bab.

Meanwhile, Turkish-backed rebels fighting under the FSA banner seized the adjacent villages of Arab Wiran and Shuweiha.

Additionally, FSA fighters have once again captured Qabasin; ISIS was only able to maintain control of the town for three hours earlier today. Moments ago, rebel forces also captured the village of Agil (Aji), southeast of Qabasin.

While the FSA and SDF leadership are still firmly at odds with each other, both parties hope to liberate the Islamic State stronghold of al-Bab.”  (Al Masdar News)

————————————

While all eyes are focused on the beginning of the “final” battle for Aleppo, The YPG/SDF forces are continuing to make offensive gains on both the al Bab and the Raqqa fronts. The seizure of several villages near al Bab was impressive in how quickly the SDF/YPG was able to take advantage of an IS thinning of the lines. That takes discipline and initiative.

I’m also impressed by the early success of “Euphrates Wrath,” the SDF offensive to take Raqqa. That the YPG is the major element in this offensive is surprising. This is not Kurdish land. Phase one of this offensive kicked off with a pincer move similar to the one used to take Hasakah earlier this year. Despite this early success, this is going to be a long term project.

Both the DOD and YPG spokespeople have been making the point that YPG forces are leaving Manbij to take part in “Euphrates Wrath,” but not before they complete the training of the Manbij Military Council. Turkey has long pressured the US to force the Kurds to withdraw east of the Euphrates. While Turkey is pleased about the withdrawal, they are crying like rats eating onions about the recent SDF seizure of IS controlled villages near al Bab. At the same time the DOD announced that the US does not sanction the Turkish/FSA effort to take al Bab and will not provide air support. US advisors have also been withdrawn.

There is also a large build up of SAA and Hezbollah forces in the al Safirah area just south of Aleppo and al Bab. Russia has redeployed seven batteries of S-300s to the same area. Clearly this is all to support the reduction of the Aleppo pocket, but these forces are also in a perfect position to thwart Turkish dreams of taking al Bab, Manbij and beyond.

As a final note, I hope that the DOD plans to do a thorough study of the YPG/YPJ. There are valuable lessons to be learned here. This a remarkably successful, self-trained and self-organized force. Although it possesses  a small number of mortars, armored vehicles and other supporting arms, it is overwhelmingly a very lightly armed infantry force that can move rapidly on foot or in their fleet of light pickup trucks. The individual units enjoy tremendous freedom of action and display remarkable battlefield initiative down to the company equivalent sized force. The all female YPJ units seem to be far more than some new age publicity gimmick. Unencumbered by 100 pounds of equipment, they are effective against an enemy that is apparently terrified of dying at the hands of a woman. The YPJ fighters are also very effective in handling refugees and civilians in liberated villages. The Kurds may be on to something with their approach to the military art.

TTG

For your reading pleasure:

Kurdish forces capture another village in push towards Raqqa city

US-backed Kurds seize 9 villages from ISIS while Turkish-backed rebels attack both

Kurdish militia YPG to depart Syria's Manbij after training, U.S. diplomat says

U.S. halts military support for Turkey’s fight in key Islamic State town

Results of Wrath of Euphrates First Phase – SDF Campaign to Liberate Raqqa

Russia redeploys anti-aircraft missiles to Aleppo

People's Protection Units (Wikipedia)

Kurdish People’s Protection Unit YPG (Global Security)

YPG Rules of Procedure

 

Time Out

Taking some time off.  pl

Article 2 and the 12th Amendment - The Electoral College will remain ...

Out there in "the public," there are various children (of various ages) who are weeping and gnashing their teeth (rending garments, etc.) over Trump's impending election by the Electoral College in spite of the apparent win by Clinton in the national popular vote.  Well pilgrims, this has happened five time in the past and there were undoubtedly cries in each instance to abolish the electoral college system and it never happened.  Why?  Read the linked parts of the US constitution and you will know why.   The electoral college system is an integral part of the Constitution.  It is in the body of the Constitution.  It exists, as does the provision for two US Senators for each state as well as the 10th Amendment to protect the interests of the less populated states in a FEDERAL REPUBLIC.  The people in "the public" who have signed a petition en masse to get rid of the Electoral College are engaged in futile nonsense.  Why?  Simple, 38 small population states would have to agree to an amendment that would emasculate them.  What's the chance?  What would be the incentive?

And then there are other visionaries who want all the states to agree to force their Electors to vote in accordance with the national popular vote.  That idea is also amusing.  I say unto them - Go for it!  Let us know when you get them all lined up.

But, let us say for the sake of discussion, that it was somehow agreed that the Electoral College should disappear to be replaced by a national popular system in which the states played no role. What would the system be like?  Would it be electronic?  Could you log in with some number assigned to you by the feds and then cast your vote on-line?

You could create such a system but it would be endlessly subject to tampering and would make the outcome of elections even more sensitive to the PR industry and the whorish MSM.

pl 

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

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

Gwen Ifill - Beloved Figure

I knew her slightly.

I had the privilege of sitting across the table at the Newshour  from her quite a lot in the year or so that I was employed by them before being "hurled into the public" as Ron White described being thrown out of a NYC bar. 

Ifill was lovely.  One night, off camera, I absent mindedly admired the dragonfly brooch she wore.

"Santa Claus" she said.

"Santa Claus has good taste," I replied.

She contemplated me.

"Either way.  Your servant, ma'am,"  I said before the red light came on.

A great lady.  pl 

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

Mr. Trump - Stay away from ideologues ...

IMO President Elect Trump would do well to avoid appointing ideologues to jobs in his administration.  Republican Part hacks, neocon war-mongers, R2P do-gooders, all these will, if they can, drag him toward high risk positions that he can ill afford given the high level of resistance to his legitimacy among left wing Americans.

He will have Steve Bannon in the building to give him the right wing's point of view and Priebus for balance in trying to deal with the Congress and everyone else in Washington.

President Trump IMO has little regard or respect for the traditional Republican leadership.  IMO that is a good thing.  The GOP wants to gut entitlements and other popular programs.  Trump knows he can't do that without destroying his position in the minds of his supporters. 

Therefore he is going to have to work with the Democrats in Congress.  They may be in the minority but their votes will be needed to overcome GOP resistance to many of the things he will want to do.

For God's sake, no neocons and no "movement conservatives."  pl

Open Thread - 13 November 2016

My regiment before I went to SF.  I like the shirt.  pl

More Alan Farrell ...

"Ladies and Gentlemens:

            Thanks for having me here to honor those who've served.  I was a soldier.  Then I was a teacher.  Now I'm just a...  well, a citizen, I guess.

A teacher. One day I'm dozing through a meeting of the English Composition section at the little college where I've washed up.  My colleagues are selecting topic essays for a timed writing exam.  Idea is to give a common text, ask a couple of  saccharine questions, extort from students some kinda expository prose.  Profs reading aloud timely passages to urge on the group.  It's the catalogue of the times:    Acid rain.  Urban crisis.  Nuclear winter.  Violence in the movies. Campaign finance.  Some kinda owl.

            I feel my chin sagging to my chest.  Lids settling.  May be drooling.    I'm in a state of grace.  Through the cotton I can hear a voice reading out the first lines of a specimen essay by Paul Theroux:  "I am ashamed to be a man. Being a man means being unfeeling, obedient, soldierly,  stupid…"  Soldierly.  Stupid.

No.  Hey.  Now we've got the whole Faculty hammering out a new curriculum for our little college.  Agenda item is the "problem-solving curriculum," where we put… I dunno: "problems" before the students and they ...whatdya figure... "solve" them.  One prof gets up to object:  "Problem-solving?  That's what Kennedy and his advisors tried in Viet Nam.  Problem solving.  And look at the stupid solutions he came up with…  enclaves, carpet bombs, Green Berets…"  Green Berets.  Stupid.

No.  Hey.  I'm just outta the war.  Back on campus trying to go unnoticed.  Snoozing through graduate courses, schlurfing beer, chasing girls.  One afternoon, I lure a nubile coed into a yogurt stand where I spring for a carob bean cone.  "You got drafted?" she asks between flicks of her tongue…  "No.  I enlisted," I say without thinking.  Pause.  "That was stupid…"  Enlisted.  Stupid.

No.  Hey.  It's inauguration day for that Black Wall up in DC.  Civilians all mooing about it.  I wander along its length, look down at the stuff laid along the Wall.  Mementos:  poems, six-pack of beer, flowers, combat boots, dog tags.  A popsicle stick jammed in the ground with little banner glued to it catches my eye.  I stoop, pick it up.  It reads:  "Nomina stultorum parietibus haerent."  What?  Figure it's some kinda Latin tribute for the dead?  You know:  "Dulce et decorum…"  "Here lie in in honored repose…"  Something like that?  It's Quintus Horatius Flaccus… Horace, the Roman poet:  "The names of stupid men appear on walls…"  Dead.  Stupid.

Well,  I was a soldier.  26 years, peace and war.  And I suppose that if I'm not all those things just this minute—unfeeling, obedient, soldierly, stupid—I have been over time.

Long time.

Obama has overruled the pro-nusra faction in his government ...

 

"“The president doesn’t want this group to be what inherits the country if Assad ever does fall,” a senior U.S. official said. “This cannot be the viable Syrian opposition. It’s al-Qaeda.”

Officials said the administration’s hope is that more-moderate rebel factions will be able to gain ground as both the Islamic State and al-Nusra come under increased military pressure.

A growing number of White House and State Department officials, however, have privately voiced doubts about the wisdom of applying U.S. military power, even covertly, to pressure Assad to step aside, particularly since Russia’s military intervention in Syria last year.

 

U.S. intelligence officials say they aren’t sure what Trump’s approach to U.S.-backed rebel units will be once he gets briefed on the extent of the covert CIA program. Trump has voiced strong skepticism about arming Syrian rebels in the past, suggesting that U.S. intelligence agencies don’t have enough knowledge about rebel intentions to pick reliable allies."  Washpost

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

What is this?  Has Obama finally come to his senses in the last months of  his presidency?  If I read this article correctly Obama overruled the neocon Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter, the toadies he brought with him to the JCS and the always power hungry CIA.   Rather than continue to accept the Israeli influenced  "Assad must Go" policy, Obama apparently has directed the DoD to begin massive attacks against this AQ group in Syria.

Will this lead to cooperation with Russia in these operations?  I don't know.  I hope it will.  Apparently Russian air defenses in Syria have been allowing US drone operations in western Syria for some time.  

This change of policy is a radical reversal which indicates that overthrow of the Syrian government is no longer a priority of the Obama Administration.  Logically, but merely so, Carter should resign since his policy recommendation has been rejected. 

The fight for Mosul looks to me to be something that will last a long, long time.   What will Obama do about that in his remaining time?

What will President Trump's policy be in the ME?  Only time will tell.  pl  

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/obama-directs-pentagon-to-target-al-qaeda-affiliate-in-syria-one-of-the-most-formidable-forces-fighting-assad/2016/11/10/cf69839a-a51b-11e6-8042-f4d111c862d1_story.html

Trump Ascends to the Cherry Blossom Throne - Tyler

We are two days post election and already seeing people predicting what a potential Trump Administration will look like. Estimates are all over the place, with the people who confidently predicted Trump could never beat Hillary confidently predicting how his administration will be run. Obviously, they have learned nothing. If we are to understand what a Trump Administration will look like, we must consider and accept a few facts to develop a reasonable analysis.

First, Trump is unprecedented in what he has done, and the way he did it. Running a guerilla campaign, the man put to bed the two most prominent political dynasties in the US (the Bushes and the Clintons), in his first national campaign. A reminder: this is a group that contains: 3 former presidents, two governors, a senator, a secretary of state, and the director of the CIA. This is not a feat that should be underplayed or disregarded. I say this because there is a tendency to regard Trump as an “amateur”, and this is reminiscent of the “he is not really trying!” rhetoric we heard during certain parts of the campaign. Keep in mind this accomplishment when trying to figure out how he will go forward or making ridiculous claims.

We must also consider who did not support Trump, and who did. The “NeverTrump” faction was mostly neocons who were upset about his Jacksonian style engagement, and wanted a hot war with Russia over Syria, Pussy Riot, and transsexual bathrooms. The appearance of those who espouse certain neocon platitudes (Bolton, Flynn), should be noted, but it should also be taken into consideration that Trump is a deviously fast learner. The man saw the pitfalls and tar babies that the Bush II and Obama Administrations entered, won the Presidency partially on saying he’d avoid foreign entanglements, and I imagine he knows very well who these people are and what they want. In the case of Bolton, the man’s boisterous nature over certain foreign policy entanglements is offset by the fact he seems very “America First” when it comes to foreign policy. However, the hardcore neocons such as Krauthammer and Wolfowitz will not be allowed within missile distance of a Trump Administration. I wouldn’t freak out about Trump bringing in certain personages, as he seems to adopt the maxim about “friends close, enemies closer”.

The two largest ideological brakes on any neocon influence will be Senator Jeff Sessions and Stephen Miller. These two men are very much opposed to the “invade the world, invite the world” of neocons like McCain and the others, and seem to play some very vital, important role in his administration beyond what their public personage suggests. I would not be surprised to find out that they wield as much influence with the man as Ivanka, and their usage in his administration is likely going to be spectacular in some way. Remember, Sessions has been the Godfather of Immigration Enforcement hawkishness, and is a leading senior senator to boot. The man will get what he wants and can make it happen finally.

More on this. Finally, let us consider Trump personally. While much is made of his oversized, boisterous personality, when we consider the private man we see a different side that is thoughtful, analytical, and not prone to hasty decisions. To borrow a reference from popular culture, he is Tywin Lannister in a way, where he states that if his enemies bend the knee, it is his responsibility to help them to their feet. Look at his treatment of Ted Cruz for instance. While their relationship is tense, Trump hasn’t held Cruz at length, but instead brought him into the campaign. The same goes for Christie, Carson, and others. Each of these men is going to have a role in the new Trump Administration. I would not be surprised if Cruz gets a SCOTUS nod, depending on factors such as how hard will Cruz work for Trump in the Senate.

So, what policies will Trump bring in his first six months? Right now, it seems health care reform and tax reform are on the table, as well as infrastructure. All things we can get behind. I cannot speculate exactly on what is planned, but I will make three broad points on these issues. Health care reform will not be the usual Republican giveaway to big business, but will have a decidedly populist bent while not being socialized for everyone. People don’t want Grandma not getting her check-up, but they also don’t like seeing people get hand-outs. Look for large tax cuts to the middle class as well as corporate tax reform, and infrastructure reform will include funding the wall. Trump will get this by slicing off the Populist Wing of the Democratic Party (Warren & Sanders) and giving them trophies to wave around as showing that they are “with the people”. These overtures have already been made, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he offered one or two them positions in his Administration.

Foreign policy wise, Trump will begin rapprochements with Russia and other “nationalist/populist” governments across the world, such as those Eastern European countries that refused to heed the diktats of the EU. Trump married an Eastern European after all, and one of his ex-wives is Eastern European. Obviously, the man has a fondness for the region. Look for closer ties with these countries beyond “catspaw against Russia”.

Speaking of Russia, look for an axis to form between the two countries with respect not only for spheres of influence, but cultural considerations as well. There will be less of the attempt to impose secular hedonism on the world, but instead a respect for how each nation tends to its affairs. Ironically, it will be an actual diversity instead of the faux diversity espoused by the globalist adherents of secular hedonism. In the short term, look for the conflict in Syria to wrapped up neatly (as these things go), by the end of the year.

On the domestic front, you are already seeing the resurrection of the paid Soros mobs that exist to sow chaos and attempt to cause an overreaction by the authorities. Think of these as domestic “color revolutions” and funded Maidan Squares. Again, the Left doubles down on a failed policy. It refuses to realize that Trump ran on a law and order platform, and he knows what he owes the people who put him in power. You will see a series of short, sharp responses from an unchained law enforcement able to do its job. There will be the usual MSM propaganda showing the one bleeding baby and woman while claiming that you had a (white) police officer giving them the business with both hands on his nightstick. Rioters will inevitably be classified as “peaceful protesters” even as the vehicles are on fire around them. The MSM will further lose cachet. Some of you wonder why Trump wants to expand libel laws against the media – here is why. It is the nature of the Left, which is in permanent revolution, to overplay its hand. We are seeing it again.

On immigration, Trump does not need to pass broad sweeping laws. He only needs to enforce the ones on the books, something the Obama Administration has not been doing. Look for cries of outrage when Trump replaces many US Attorneys (like when Bush II did the same), and remember this wasn’t an issue when Obama did the same thing. Cutting off aid to sanctuary cities, enforcing immigration law, and making the process of living in the US so onerous for those here illegally will go a long way to reducing our illegal alien population.

Remember when I mentioned Senator Sessions? I would not be surprised if he has stacks of papers on what can already be done. Again, look for more staged incidents of “brutality” in order to attempt to shape a narrative. You are about to be surprised by the amount of would be doctors and rocket scientists claiming to exist in the illegal alien population. Furthermore, Trump does not need to pass a law to build a wall. He simply needs it in the budget. I imagine he will have no problem getting that and pointing towards anyone who attempts to obstruct it as putting the needs of foreign citizens before US citizens. This is powerful rhetoric.

I’ll close by saying let us remember that “everyone” said Trump couldn’t win. Trump did win. Do not make the mistake of assuming Trump won’t do what he says he’s done so you can sleep easier, forming opinions on a mirage you create in the space of your mind. Instead, my friends on the Left, worry that he will not only do what he said he would, but he’ll go above and beyond, and the people will love him for it.

The Art Of The Deal?

 

"First, the President-elect must make a stab at uniting the country, after a scorched-earth campaign in which he consciously tore at the nation's gender, racial and economic fault lines to build a movement to win power. He's practicing some unusual humility.

 

"I pledge to every citizen of our lands that I will be the president for the American people," Trump said in his victory speech Tuesday. "For those who have chosen not to support me in the past, for which there were a few people, I'm reaching out to you for your guidance and your help so we can work together and unify our great country."

 

But his challenges were on clear display Wednesday as protests broke out from Boston to Los Angeles."

 

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

 

The crazies with their foreheads painted "not my president" don't bother me.  They can march around the big cities all they want.  Rain will come.  Snow and wind will come and they will go home.  The progressive cause has taken a mighty hit but it will re-assert itself.

There are two real question facing the US as to what sort of president will Trump be.

1.   Thus far he looks to me to be a man who will run a tight ship deciding major issues himself and will make deals with whomever has the power to enable him to reach his goals.

IMO that means that the Republicans in Congress will either go along with Trump's legislative proposals or see Trump go across the aisle to seek votes.

A good example would be whatever it is that Trump decides that he  wants to do about the obvious failure that is the ACA, presently sinking under the weight of far higher costs than expected and smaller enrollments.   Democrats understand that the law must be modified to survive and to preserve the increase in health care coverage that it has brought.  The hardline Republicans in both Houses of Congress want to destroy Obamacare and they have no realistic alternative other than the usual blather about private health accounts.   Trump will not want to alienate his working class followers.  Why would Trump not make a deal with the Democrats to get what he wants and needs?

2.   There is also a danger that the neocon faction among Trump's advisers will succeed in achieving power in his cabinet.  The appointment of John Bolton to State, would be ,IMO, an unmitigated disaster.  pl 

http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/10/politics/donald-trump-barack-obama-transition/index.html

Hating the Bear

 

"There is no mystery about why the accusations took hold. It was in part because Trump had said early on that he thought he could do business with Putin, earning him the reputation of being soft on big bad Russia. Then the Democrats at their convention chose to divert blame for the hacking of their computer system on to Russian intelligence. This was never conclusively proved and all the supposedly corroborating statements from US officials contained get-out clauses. People with intelligence connections suggested that everyone tried to hack everyone’s computers, especially at election time, without any intention of actually interfering. 

The truth of any Russian involvement will probably never be known. But certain myths that gained currency need to be dispelled. One was that Trump was receiving privileged information from Russia. In fact, anything he said was already openly available before he said it. Another was that Trump had complicated and suspect business dealings with Russia. No evidence was ever produced – despite what must have been exhaustive efforts by the Clinton campaign – beyond a campaign adviser official, Paul Manafort, who had once advised the ousted president of Ukraine. There also seems to have been some confusion between Russia and other parts of the former Soviet Union, which hardly reflects well on the accusers."  The Guardian

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

 Someone explain to me how Russia threatens the security interests of the United States, or even those of the NATO countries into which the US has pushed the alliance?  Explain it to me.  Is it by flying too close to our ships?  Is it by legally fighting on the side of the Syrian government  Is it Russia's refusal to abandon ethnic Russians in SE Ukraine to the tender ministrations of the fascists in Kiev?  How is it?

Do they threaten our security interests by existing?  Is that it?  does their possession of land and armed force automatically make us see them as "enemies?"  I have actually heard them referred to with that word in the boobocrat world of the MSM.  Actually, Jake Tapper, the election night dancing man, called them that today.

Are we really so pathetically juvenile as a country that we must dominate the world?  If so, to what end?  The nice lady from Ft. Brooklyn lost the election.  Making the world safe for "the children" was one of her major themes.  Robbie Mook, her little friend, cried today at her concession speech.  He should.  He will be known forever as a loser after this disaster.

Trump wants to have better relations with Russia?  How terrible!  Why did the Deplorables vote for him?  Perhaps something should be done abut these creatures who "live in the hills with Bibles and guns"  (MSNBC anchor today)  Perhaps they should not have the same voting rights as the Enlightened.   

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/09/donald-trump-putin-russia-kremlin-obama

The Revolt of the Deplorables

 

"Whites without a college degree — men and women — made up a third of the 2016 electorate. Trump won them by 39 percentage points, according to exit polls, far surpassing 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney's 25 percent margin. They were the foundation of his victories across the Rust Belt, including a blowout win in Ohio and stunning upsets in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

In polling, these voters have expressed deep racial and cultural anxieties. In exit polls they were more likely than the country as a whole to say that illegal immigrants should be deported. But those polls also suggested economic concerns and hostility toward leaders in Washington were much more important factors driving them to Trump.

Half of these voters said the economy was the most important issue in their vote, compared to 14 percent for immigration. A majority said international trade takes away American jobs. Three-quarters said the economy is “not good” or “poor” and nearly 8 in 10 said their personal financial situation was the same or worse than it was four years ago. Two-thirds said they preferred Trump to handle the economy instead of Democrat Hillary Clinton, compared with less than half of the electorate overall."  Washpost

----------

Tyler - My hat is 0ff to you!  Chapeau!

I made a logical guess about the outcome but it was merely logical.   I have long been an advocate of belief in the effect of the demonic or lyrical,  if you prefer, elements in the human soul.  Nietzsche has been among my guides to humanity.  I have always opposed the number cruncher approach to analysis.  I missed this one by not following my instincts.

I have thought since 2012 that there was a large White vote missing in that election.  That was correct.  IMO it is impossible to overestimate the resentment of the masses of White people toward the Borgist establishment who scorn them and their values so much.  I wonder how long it will take for the Democrats to start beating the multi-culti changing demography drum again.

First rule here today - NO NAME CALLING!

 Trump's Agenda:

• Destroy Obama's array of Executive Orders
• Appoint a SCOTUS Justice
• Make nice with Russia and China
• Build a more impenetrable system of border barriers
• Back away from regime change in Syria
• Re-negotiate all trade deals.
• Remove barriers to energy production
• Start rounding up illegals who are actual felons.
• Cause members of the NATO alliance (and other alliances) to meet their commitments for defense expenditures.

Trump's visible cabinet choices:

Gingrich at State

Flynn at Defense

Giuliani as AG

pl 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/11/09/how-trump-won-the-revenge-of-working-class-whites/

Faute de Mieux

 

"Polls have opened across the east coast of the United States as millions of Americans go to the polls to choose between Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, or a third party outsider. 

As voting began in the early hours of Tuesday morning in New Hampshire, Hillary Clinton's lead in the polls solidified, with the RCP poll average showing the Democrat nominee up three points.

The village of Dixville Notch, which has just eight voters, became the first in the nation to declare. Shortly after midnight local time, Mrs Clinton won the village with four votes. Donald Trump received two votes, with another going to Gary Johnson, the Libertarian. One voter chose to forgo the candidates on offer and cast a vote for Mitt Romney, the 2012 GOP candidate. 

The final, frenzied hours of campaigning on Monday saw stars galore and mad dashes to key swing states - including, notably, Michigan, which Democrats have conceded they might lose.

"Hopefully it's relatively calm. Hopefully it doesn't blow up. But this hasn't been a regular election year," said Wendy Weiser, head of the democracy program at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU's Law School."  The Telegraph

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

It looks to me that Hillary Clinton will be president, faute de mieux.

This presidency will be marked by a continuation and intensification of an aggressive US foreign policy driven by neocon and Zionist interests and the apparently genetic impulse of the US Navy to dominate the Pacific Ocean area.  This means that the US is likely to re-engage massively in the Middle East to resolve the wars in Syria and Iraq to Clinton's taste.  This re-engagement will lead to the re-introduction of conventional US ground forces to the region if Clinton experiences frustration of her expectation of the hegemony of her instrument for discipline of the world.  That instrument is, of course, the US and its armed forces.  The advisers, trainers, pilots, logistics people presently committed to the anti-IS and anti-Syrian government fights are obviously insufficient to bring the results that she wants.  She will not accept failure of her dreams  for a new kind of world community.  All of that means that US soldiers will start bleeding again in large numbers.

Domestically she will attempt to drive the country to the left in its social mores while simultaneously feeding the beast on Wall Street.  People in the rentier/investor class like me will make money.

Control of the Senate of the United States will be crucial and momentous in the Clinton II years.  If she has it, she will sculpt a  federal judiciary that will enforce her will.  If she does not have control of the senate, she faces the prospect of impeachment and conviction by a Republican controlled House of Representatives and Senate.  They will want her blood and she would be lucky in that circumstance to reach the end of her term.

pl 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/11/08/us-election-2016-america-starts-to-vote-in-most-divisive-electio/

Arwa Damon is brave ...

 

Arwa Damon, CNN's finest IMO, rode into the outskirts of Mosul with a light armored unit of what the Iraqis call the Saladin Regiment.   As the streets got narrower and narrower the possibility of a well sited ambush became apparent.  IS struck at the point chosen and paralyzed the column.  The CNN crew were very lucky to get out the next day still alive.  pl  

http://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2016/11/06/mosul-iraq-battle-inside-isis-offensive-damon-pkg.cnn

“The times they are a’changing” - TTG

“WASHINGTON — Ten women who were commissioned Army officers in the spring graduated from the initial infantry training course Wednesday, becoming the Army’s first female infantry lieutenants. The women were among 166 soldiers to complete the Infantry Officer Basic Leadership Course at Fort Benning in Georgia, a 17-week class that provides new officers the basic skills to lead a rifle platoon into combat, said Army Lt. Col. Matthew W. Weber, the commander of the unit that oversees the course. Officers are commissioned through ROTC, Officer Candidate School or the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.”

“The infantry officer course is a “critical step” toward leading a rifle platoon, but the soldiers who graduated the Army’s first gender-integrated infantry class Wednesday will not join a combat unit for nearly a year, Weber said. They will attend additional courses to prepare them to serve in the traditionally all-male infantry. Those classes include the famously grueling Ranger School, Airborne School, Stryker Leaders Course and Mechanized Leaders Course, Weber said. Eventually they’ll become platoon leaders at Fort Hood in Texas or Fort Bragg in North Carolina.”

“This, the training of an infantry lieutenant, is a process until they step into a rifle platoon,” Weber said. “This is but the very first step in the process.”  Stars and Stripes

———————

I just don’t see how this is going to work… other than as an equal opportunity sideshow act. Even a superbly qualified female infantry platoon leader will still be an object of rare curiosity. I’m all for equal opportunity in employment, but being an infantry leader at the platoon level is not a job. It’s a sacred and deadly profession, a calling, a vocation. I could see qualified female officers and soldiers on an infantry battalion staff or in the headquarters company, but I’d rather not. I guess I’m just not a “modern man.” 

The military education system  has changed since my day. Many in my Infantry Officer Basic Course (IOBC) went straight from graduation to their first infantry platoon. During the last three weeks of my IOBC, we were tracked into light infantry or mech infantry training. In the light track, we did a week of patrolling (Ranger Week), advanced demolitions, defending from and attacking armor, MOBA (military operations in built-up areas) and airmobile operations. The mech guys took their coolers and duffle bags to the field and rode around in M-113s. They said us light guys were anachronisms and would be extinct in a year or so.

According to the article, no infantry officer goes straight to their first platoon after the Infantry Officer Basic Leadership Course. Do they have to go through the Ranger Course? If so, that would be a major change. I’d appreciate an update on infantry officer training in today’s Army.

During the last week in my IOBC we were told there were a lot of openings in the upcoming Ranger Course and we were welcome to try out for it. I figured there’d be no snakes or gators to contend with as a Winter Ranger, so I and many of my buddies said, “Why not?” We were given the PT and swim test the next day and processed into the Ranger training company the afternoon of our graduation from IOBC. I remember us making a game out of giving the Ranger sergeants a ration of crap about us being big time officers now and the sergeants telling us that they’ll remember us come Monday morning. We all got a kick out of it and those sergeants clearly did remember us come Monday morning.

While looking for an online version of this article, I found another taste of the modern Army.     

———————

“WASHINGTON — Two female Army officers have been approved for initial Special Forces training, the first step in the long process to earn the coveted Green Beret, an Army spokeswoman said Monday.

The women are the first female soldiers to be accepted into the Special Forces Assessment and Selection and could report to the three-week program at Fort Bragg, North Carolina as early as October, said Maj. Melody Faulkenberry, a spokeswoman for the Army’s John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center.”  Stars and Stripes

———————

I don’t blame them for trying. To aspire to “earn the coveted Green Beret” is a worthy endeavor. But again, I just can’t see how a female ODA commander would work. I certainly don’t see it as an enhancement of Special Forces capabilities. 

I do remember when I saw, actually heard, the first female member in 10th SFG(A). We were standing on the tarmac going through the manifest call for a night jump at Fort Devens. As our last names were called, we’d respond with a resounding “Here.” All of a sudden, we heard a high pitched “Here” and we all turned around. It was our first female rigger. I heard someone mutter, “When the hell did that happen?”

It appears the Special Forces Assessment and Selection (A&S) is now a prerequisite for attending the actual SFOQC. That didn’t exist when I went through. We applied, took a physical and, if accepted, showed up at the JFKSWC to take the PT and swim test on day one. I was surprised that half our class was weeded out by that test. From what I’ve seen, that A&S is extremely physical, much more so that the PT and swim test. There’s a very good chance that these aspiring female Green Berets will not make through A&S. That’s what’s happening at the Basic School at Quantico.

TTG

http://www.stripes.com/news/us/10-female-soldiers-graduate-infantry-officer-course-will-attend-ranger-school-1.436010

http://www.stripes.com/news/2-female-officers-get-a-shot-at-the-army-s-green-beret-1.420836

Chelsea used foundation money for her wedding?

 

"Podesta replied calling his comments an 'understatement'. (concerning Chelsea)

Band replies: 'I learned from the best. The investigation into her getting paid for campaigning, using foundation resources for her wedding and life for a decade, taxes on money from her parents ... 

'I hope that you will speak to her and end this. Once we go down this road....,' Band wrote ominously.

Chelsea Clinton's wedding is estimated to have cost about $3 million, but is unclear how much money or resources went from the Foundation to the wedding and what it went toward, if in fact, funds were used.

The FBI is allegedly looking into the dealings of the Clinton Foundation, but it is unclear what - if anything - is being investigated. 

Hillary Clinton has also previously said emails she deleted from her private server were related to Chelsea's wedding, according to FOX News.  

The Clinton Foundation is also going through the process of an internal audit and is trying to untangle itself from Teneo, an advisory firm and investment banking platform company launched by Band in summer 2011."  Daily Mail

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

 Just thought we should be aware of this e-mail traffic between Podesta and Band.  pl  

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3910746/Chelsea-Clinton-used-Foundation-money-fund-wedding-according-new-Wikileaks-emails.html

Lebanon is still a mess.

"Lebanon's lawmakers elected Michel Aoun, an lran-backed politician and former general, as president Monday, ending more than two years the country has gone without a leader.

Aoun, 81, is an ally of Hezbollah, the Shiite militia and political party backed by Iran that has helped Syrian President Bashar Assad survive a five-year civil war on Lebanon’s border.

The vote for Aoun, by 83 of parliament’s 127 members, shows Iran-backed political factions shouldered past those aligned with Saudi Arabia, replacing Syria as Lebanon’s chief foreign power broker.

Aoun’s “victory now is a victory for Hezbollah and that alliance, and certainly a kind of black eye for Saudi Arabia,” said Paul Salem, vice president for policy and research at the Middle East Institute, a think tank in Washington."  USA Today

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

President Aoun has now stated that he will seek to align Lebanon with the policies of;  Hizbullah, Iran, the Syrian government and Russia.  This is a remarkable change of heart since he fought so long and so hard to keep the Shia in Lebanon and Iran from wielding a compelling power in Lebanon.  I hold the US and its Israeli inspiration to be largely responsible for this change of heart.

IMO the US has consistently backed the Hariris (father and son) in Lebanon in the evident belief that they were our men.  This has been a mistake.  Both Hariris have always been much closer to Saudi Arabia than to the US and Aoun sees this as a profound interference in Lebanon's affairs and her prospect for survival on Syria's doorstep.  This support dates back to the early 80s when Philip Habib, Richard Murphy and Rafik Hariri swanned around the ME together trying to arrange an end to the Lebanon civil war.  Rafik was Lebanese born but; had moved to Saudi Arabia, had made vast a amount of money in Saudi royal family sponsored government construction contracts, had become a Saudi subject (citizen), and accepted the Wahhabi version of Islam.  The airplane that the Three Amigos traveled together in from country to country was the product of Rafik's exceptionally good financial fortune in Saudi Arabia. 

After the rump Lebanese parliament accepted an armistice agreed on at Taif in Saudi Arabia largely over the heads of the Lebanese, it was decided by the Three Amigos (and those behind them)  that Rafik Hariri, a Saudi Arabian national would assume an unelected role as PM of Lebanon after being re-granted Lebanese citizenship.

Saad Hariri, Rafik's son, returned to Lebanon with his father, resumed Lebanese identity and succeeded to his father's role as instrument of Saudi and US power in Lebanese politics.   He has fulfilled that role ever since.

Now, we see that Aoun, aligned with the adversaries of Hariri's sponsors, has appointed Saad Hariri as PM and head of government in Lebanon. 

Does anyone think this is a stable arrangement?  pl  

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2016/10/31/lebanon-chooses-president-supported-iran-and-hezbollah/93064358/

Quotation marks

I have asked several times that commenters and posters use quotation marks to identify quoted material.  I find it confusing when you do not.  pl

HARPER: GEN. PETRAEUS SPEAKS OUT ON SYRIA

General David Petraeus recently had the opportunity to present his views on the ongoing Syria war, and his remarks were nothing, if not controversial.  Here is a fair summary of his take on Syria:

Syria is ruled by a coalition of ill-repute, made up of Bashar Assad, the Iranian Quds Brigade, Hezbollah and Putin.  The involvement of Russia has turned the Syrian war into a battle of international consequence.  Syria is in the process of breaking up, and there is probably nothing anyone can do at this point to stop that from happening.  The vast majority of Sunni Arabs, as well as the Syrian Kurds, will never submit to Damascus rule, so long as Bashar Assad is in power. 

The United States, as the indispensable global power, still the sole world superpower in every respect, must take the lead in bringing the Syria war to an end.  That means that the United States must support the creation of a safe-zone for refugees to remain inside Syrian territory or in a neighboring state.  Turkey has nicely filled this role through its invasion, which will soon spread further south and encompass an area large enough for such a safe zone.  But that is not enough.  The United States must impose a no-fly zone over Syrian territory.  It is costly, but can be done.  The United States successfully established two no-fly zones over Iraq from the end of the first Gulf War through to the 2003 invasion.  The Kurds in the north and the marsh Arabs in the south were protected.  But that, too, is not enough.  The Syrian Air Force must be grounded, and that can be accomplished by American sea-launch and air-launch cruise missiles strikes.  At minimum, the Syrian Air Force runways can be cratered.

And the Syrian rebels must be armed with shoulder-held anti-tank and some anti-aircraft weapons.  Perhaps Arab Special Forces from neighboring countries can manage and supervise these weapons deliveries.

Yes, this is complicated by the presence of the Russian military forces in Syria, but not to worry.  Putin always stops, the moment he runs up against any immovable object.  The actions proposed show appropriate firmness.  They are not provocations.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZH3WSzPG_-c&feature=youtu.be

Russian "Volunteers" and Egyptian Army in Syria?

 

 

"News on dispatching Egyptian military forces to Syria to combat terrorism

Iranian Tasnim News, 3 Nov 2016 

Source: Mideastwire, copyright protected. Circulated with permission.

Media sources have been carrying news indicating that the Egyptian government has dispatched military forces to Syria in the context of fighting terrorism, and the military cooperation and coordination with the forces of President Bashar al-Assad’s government. “The sources said that Egypt is keen on offering military aid and dispatching forces to Syria in order to participate in the battles of the Syrian government against the terrorists now that major schisms emerged between [Egypt] and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The latter is offering support to the terrorists in Iraq and Syria in addition to the war it has launched against the unarmed innocent people of Yemen. The sources added that the Syrian and Egyptian governments will make an official announcement regarding this coordination, which will be based on combating terrorism, in the near future.

“A Syrian source at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that spoke to Tasnim neither denied nor confirmed the piece of news carried by the media sources. He however indicated that, if this piece of news is confirmed, an official statement will be issued by the ministry of foreign affairs. “Maj. Gen. Ali Mamlouk, the head of the Syrian National Security Office, had visited Egypt some two weeks ago. This was the first announced visit to be carried out by an important Syrian official. Meetings were held with prominent Egyptian officials and the two sides could have agreed on increasing the military cooperation between them. “The visit came at a time when the Egyptian-Saudi relations are seeing differences over the discrepancy between the two countries’ positions regarding the Syrian crisis. Cairo believes that a political settlement involving all the different parties is the way to conclude the Syrian crisis, which has been ongoing for around six years. Meanwhile, Al-Riyadh believes that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad must leave power first. In addition, Egypt has recently voted in favor of a Russian draft resolution regarding Syria at the International Security Council. This step stirred the dismay of Saudi Arabia, the number one country in terms of aid provision to Cairo. “Egyptian President Abdul Fattah es-Sisi summarized, last August, the Egyptian position regarding the Syrian crisis. [The Egyptian position] is based on five principles: “Respecting the unity of the Syrian lands and the will of the Syrian people; coming up with a peaceful political settlement to the crisis; stripping the militias and radical groups from their weapons; re-building Syria; and enhancing the state’s institutions.””"

*********

"According to Kapa, Russian veterans of the Ukraine fighting were recruited for ground combat in Syria when it became clear that Syrians would not be able to hold ground without help, despite Russian air support.

"The Arabs are not warriors by nature, but are thrown together and told to storm high ground. They don't know how to storm it let alone conquer their instincts and move towards the bullets. How can you make them do it? Only by setting yourself as an example," Kapa said. "That's why our guys reinforced their units."

Asked if fighters in the group coordinated with the Russian defence ministry, Kapa said: "Of course"."  The Independent

--------

 @Mike Allen - Is it not obvious that the "volunteer" Russian Military contractors are a project sponsored by the Russian Government?  They are transported to and from Syria in Russian government transport, are treated in Russian military medical facilities and are given Russian government decorations if KIA.  IMO someone in Moscow agrees with my observation that the "R" in R+6 should be bigger.  Don't get too bent out of shape over this.  It is very reminiscent of the AVG in China before Pearl Harbor.

Egypt broke off relations with Syria while Mursi was president.  He was, of course, an ally of the jihadis and the US State Department.  I am not a big admirer of the Egyptian Army and would be pleasantly surprised if they showed up in Syria and showed some fight, but they could be useful in garrisoning quiet areas.  pl 

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/russian-fighters-kremlin-syria-civil-war-al-assad-vladimir-putin-a7396381.html

The Race That Stops A Nation By Walrus.

"The Race That Stops A Nation" isn't describing the Presidential race, its the Moniker of The Melbourne Cup, a horse race first held in 1861 on the first Tuesday in November. Cup Day is a state holiday and most people try and make it into a long weekend as the seemingly endless stream of SUVs towing boats and camper trailers past our front gate on Friday afternoon attested. Cup day is a day when non gamblers have a bet on the horses and non drinkers can be seen with a glass of champagne. Right across Victoria people hold parties and dress up in their Sunday best, praying that our spring weather won't collapse back into winter. Most of the rest of the country will stop to listen to the race, such is the interest, my father told me ,that during WWII Australian Army signals nets in the Pacific overloaded on race day and urgent operational traffic couldn't get through. 

This year we enjoyed ourselves in a week long series of parties and revels that concluded yesterday which I think we thoroughly deserved after a winter of chemotherapy, mastectomy, radiotherapy and the wettest winter since 1905. We are now forswearing alcohol for a month and preparing for what lies ahead. For my partner it is a breast reconstruction now that her cancer appears to be in remittance. For me, it is farm work to make up for the time lost in endless hospital waiting rooms and doctors offices. It is not all bleak. I am now a grandfather to a baby girl who is cute as a button and I await the future with hope rather than sinful despair.

Part of that hope is the possibility that an end may be in sight for Americas self inflicted woes, but we shall see on Tuesday. I attach a link to John Michael Greers summary of the situation - that Trump at least offers hope of principled change for the better while Clinton does not seem to offer anything new. 

"..Donald Trump, by contrast, has been arguing against several core elements of that consensus since the beginning of his run for office. Specifically, he’s calling for a reversal of federal policies that support offshoring of jobs, the enforcement of US immigration law, and a less rigidly confrontational stance toward Russia over the war in Syria. It’s been popular all through the current campaign for Clinton’s supporters to insist that nobody actually cares about these issues, and that Trump’s supporters must by definition be motivated by hateful values instead, but that rhetorical gimmick has been a standard thoughstopper on the left for many years now, and it simply won’t wash. The reason why Trump was able to sweep aside the other GOP candidates, and has a shot at winning next week’s election despite the unanimous opposition of this nation’s political class, is that he’s the first presidential candidate in a generation to admit that the issues just mentioned actually matter. "

https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=27481991&postID=7523666433928129090

Two Untold Stories

 

The Democrats have it as an article of their faith that here is no voter fraud.  Really?  Here is an example of a man, an adult, who was hired by a voter registration organization and then invented voters, filled out the paperwork on them and submitted them to the government.  He was caught doing this and is now arraigned on several felony charges.  The group for which he worked has disavowed him, but, why would they not?  The question remains - how many others were there or are there who have not been caught and who could get their "voters" in to vote with sympathetic election officials?

Then, there is the matter of Virginians in the far SW Mountain Kingdom whose livelihoods have been destroyed by people like HC who want to kill the coal mining industry to fulfill their ecological dreams. These people cannot pay or find basic medical and dental health care and the Republican controlled General Assembly in far away Richmond has refused to expand Medicaid to cover these people.  IMO they have done that to spite Governor Terry McCauliffe, who is the worst kind of carpetbagger, but I do not understand how they could let their fellow Virginians live in squalor in the mountains without available care.  pl  

http://alextimes.com/2016/11/former-alexandrian-charged-with-voter-fraud/

http://www.heraldcourier.com/news/crossroads-medical-mission-and-miles-for-smiles-offer-health-checks/article_da428530-41b4-52bd-a1f1-37135aa9c8f2.html

ISW Warning on Russian Reinforcement in Syria

"Russia intends to escalate its military operations in Aleppo City and Damascus within the coming days in order to demonstrate its force projection capabilities and bolster flagging public appeal for its involvement in the conflict. Russia deployed its lone aircraft carrier - the Admiral Kuznetsov – to the Eastern Mediterranean Sea on or around October 17. The Kuznetsov is also carrying a contingent of Su-33 and MiG-29K/KUB fighter jets that Russian sources claim are equipped with precision-guided munitions, as well as Ka-52 attack helicopters armed with long-range anti-tank guided missiles.[i] The Kuznetsov is escorted by a battle group that includes as many as three submarines likely equipped with Kalibr long-range cruise missiles. The Kuznetsov reached the Mediterranean Sea on November 1 and is expected to arrive off the Syrian Coast in the coming days, where it will be joined by an additional frigate armed with Kalibr cruise missiles from the Black Sea Fleet.[ii] Once the battle group arrives, it will likely not remain idle. Russia will likely use these new assets to support pro-regime ground operations in Aleppo City or Damascus in an attempt to improve domestic support for its military intervention in the Syrian Civil War through a showcase of its naval and air capabilities. A recent poll by the Levada Center indicated that support for the intervention has begun to slip since 2015.[iii] Russians now doubt the Syrian Civil War as a route to improving Russia’s international image or finding common ground with the West.[iv] Russian President Vladimir Putin will likely attempt to reinvigorate these sentiments through a high-profile demonstration of military might and effectiveness."  ISW

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

ISW is, of course, a Kaganesque neocon think tank, but some of their work is pretty good.

It is not at all clear to me that Russian public support for the expeditionary effort in Syria is flagging.  Is it?

Russian air operations in Syria have been largely suspended the last couple of weeks.  One explanatory theory is that Putin is being careful to not provide propaganda points to the Clinton campaign in the form of civilian casualties just before the US election.

Additional aerial firepower will be useful to the Russian command in Syria but I remain convinced that the R+6 ground troop strength is too small for achieving a decisive result in the western Syria region that is likely to become the de facto area of Syrian government control.

The evolving and emerging Russian Army does not have a lot of recent combat experience and little at all in expeditionary operation and logistics.  I continue to think that a force of two MRD equivalents made up of volunteers would be advisable as reinforcements in Syria.  pl

http://iswresearch.blogspot.com/2016/11/warning-update-russia-prepares-to.html?utm_source=Warning+Update%3A+Russia+Prepares+to+Escalate+Military+Intervention+in+Syria&utm_campaign=Warning+Update%3A+Russia+Prepares+to+Escalate+Military+Intervention+in+Syria&utm_medium=email

"Here’s What Could Happen ... " Dan Abrams

 

"3. If Clinton wins the election and is indicted before the inauguration

Here’s where it starts getting tricky.

As mentioned earlier, an indictment is far different from a conviction. An indictment does not disqualify a person from being eligible for the presidency (neither does a conviction, technically, but being in jail would probably get in the way). Should Clinton be indicted after winning the election but before officially taking office, she could try to play beat-the-clock and hope to take office before her case concludes. Once a person is in office as President, it gets even more complicated, as we’ll see later. Should Clinton be indicted and convicted prior to her inauguration, and end up in jail, she may be deemed incapacitated, in which case Section 3 of the 20th Amendment kicks in and the Vice President-Elect, in this case Tim Kaine, would become President. (though that seems unlikely as the wheels of justice do not turn that fast)"  Dan Abrams

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

We might as well think about it.  pl  

http://lawnewz.com/high-profile/heres-what-could-happen-if-hillary-clinton-is-indicted-or-steps-down/

The Russians are coming! - Not.

"  ... the decentralized nature of U.S. polling would make it extraordinarily difficult to subvert a nationwide race. Instead, U.S. officials said it is more likely that Russia would use hacking tools to expose or fabricate signs of vote-rigging, aiming to delegitimize an election outcome that Republican candidate Donald Trump has said he may refuse to accept if he does not win.

“I think it’s correct to say the Russians don’t think they can dictate the outcome,” said Rep. Adam B. Schiff (Calif.), the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. But even as votes are being tallied Tuesday, Schiff said, Russian intelligence services are likely to be “looking through their troves of hacked documents and seeing what they can release.”"  Washpost

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

The truth in this piece is that the IC does not believe Russia has the power to disrupt a US election.  pl 

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/russia-seen-as-unable-to-alter-election-but-may-still-seek-to-undermine-it/2016/11/03/b7387160-a1cd-11e6-8832-23a007c77bb4_story.html?hpid=hp_rhp-top-table-main_usrussia-7pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory

Today's Rasmussen 3 November, 2016

"Republican Donald Trump has a three-point lead in Rasmussen Reports’ White House Watch survey. Among voters who are certain how they will vote, Trump now has over 50% support.

The latest national telephone and online survey of Likely U.S. Voters shows Trump leading Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton 45% to 42%. Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson has four percent (4%) support, and Green Party hopeful Jill Stein picks up just one percent (1%). Two percent (2%) like another candidate, and four percent (4%) are still undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)"  Rasmussen Reports

pl 

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/elections/election_2016/white_house_watch_nov3

" ... the civil war suddenly seems far away." LA Times

"In years past, the booms of artillery, mortars and rockets exchanged between the forces of Syrian President Bashar Assad and the rebels arrayed against his rule provided an ominous backbeat to city life. (“That one is outgoing,” residents would confidently say to flinching visitors.) 

In their stead, all that could be heard in the Christian quarter of Bab Touma on Saturday night was the chatter of an early Halloween celebration. It was another sign of a resurgent Damascus that appears to have shuffled off the war weariness prevalent before the country’s Russian-backed military began making gains against rebel groups over the last year.

Women in high heels teetered on the narrow, decrepit sidewalks. 

They joined gaggles of young people congregating in front of a popular shawarma joint, strategically nestled among a newly opened strip of bars on Mustaqim Street.

Inside the smallest of them, a bar called Abu George, the decor features kitschy lamps, “antique” baubles and posters of bikini-clad women. The walls are covered with thousands of scribbles, lurching from the joyful (“I’m so happy to be here. Wish I could stay forever in Damascus!”) to the defiant (“Only the God [sic] can judge me.”)

The mustachioed bartender, Abu Issam, held court near a tiny counter."  LA Times 

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

 IMO West Aleppo would be a lot like this if the jihadis and FSA unicorns would stop shelling residential neighborhoods there.  Even the UN has now complained of the indifference to civilian suffering involved.  At the same time the RuAF has abstained from bombing in East Aleppo for the last two weeks in the probably futile belief on the part of "the evil Putin" that something can still be made of efforts to separate the jihadis from the unicorns.   This reduction in operational tempo occurs just as the rebels (almost all jihadis) are making a desperate attempt to break the government siege of East Aleppo. 

Down south in the Damascus region, there are still a few pockets of rebel controlled territory but they are shrinking steadily.  The resurgence of ordinary life as described in this piece is reflective of the distance now existing between central Damascus and the places where the shells still fall in the suburbs.

Nevertheless, the aura of the place comes through strongly in this article.  Damascus before the civil war was always a fun place.  The hotels and restaurants were good.  There was no pressure to conform to Islamic standards of dress or behavior, The Grand Bazaar and the "Street Called Straight" were endlessly entertaining.  The secret police were discreetly unobtrusive most of the time.  The women were Western in style.  I remember hanging out in places very like the little bars and cafes described in this piece.

This was all before Robert Ford's War.  BTW, Ford now lives somewhere in northern new England where people still have some common sense.  He is reported to me to be somewhat reflective and perhaps repentant of the role he played in triggering this evil war when he was US ambassador in Syria.  He said recently at a Washington conference that he has discovered in retirement that the mass of the American people whom he lives among reject neoconism and the very thought of another war waged as a result of a policy of overseas aggression.

So, maybe there is hope, pilgrims, maybe.  pl 

 

http://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-syria-damascus-calm-20161031-story.html

Marc Rich, Bill Clinton and Israel

"Fifteen years ago this month, on Jan. 20, 2001, his last day in office, Bill Clinton issued a pardon for international fugitive Marc Rich. It would become perhaps the most condemned official act of Clinton’s political career. A New York Times editorial called it “a shocking abuse of presidential power.” The usually Clinton-friendly New Republic noted it “is often mentioned as Exhibit A of Clintonian sliminess.”

Congressman Barney Frank added, “It was a real betrayal by Bill Clinton of all who had been strongly supportive of him to do something this unjustified. It was contemptuous.”

Marc Rich was wanted for a list of charges going back decades. He had traded illegally with America’s enemies including Ayatollah Khomeini’s Iran, where he bought about $200 million worth of oil while revolutionaries allied with Khomeini held 53 American hostages in 1979.

Rich made a large part of his wealth, approximately $2 billion between 1979 and 1994, selling oil to the apartheid regime in South Africa when it faced a UN embargo. He did deals with Khadafy’s Libya, Milosevic’s Yugoslavia, Kim Il Sung’s North Korea, Communist dictatorships in Cuba and the Soviet Union itself. Little surprise that he was on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List.

Facing prosecution by Rudy Giuliani in 1983, Rich fled to Switzerland and lived in exile.'  NY Post

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

IMO Marc Rich was pardoned by Bill Clinton because the Israeli government pressed him repeatedly to do so.   Why would they do that?  At the time I was in the position of associating with quite a few international oil traders.  They laughed when they talked about Rich as an oil trader and assured me that for an individual like Marc Rich to enter the oil futures and spot oil markets was a virtual impossibility.  The amount of capital required was simply prohibitive.   Their belief was that Rich's traffic in petroleum had to be backed with the money of a sovereign state that wished to trade for profit in this commodity.  They insisted that the only state likely to have wanted to do this but inhibited by the state of its external relations was Israel.

If that was the case, then it is only logical that Rich's legal position with regard to his US taxes was badly compromised.  Would the Israeli government have wanted him to pay US taxes on profits made with its money?  I think not, but Israel would also not want it to be known that it had abandoned its agent.  This is common practice in the world of covert action and clandestine intelligence.  Such knowledge if spread around the Zionist community would reduce the willingness of others to take risks for Israel.  It is for much the same reason that Israel pressed endlessly for Pollard to be released from prison.  Were the Israelis sentimentally grateful for the invaluable services rendered by Rich and Pollard?  Maybe they were but as a cynical past practitioner of the dark arts of covert action and espionage I doubt that was their principal motivation.

Were there incentives offered to WJC other than the unrelenting political pressure from key members of the Zionist community?  Who knows?

And now the FBI has chosen to open at least some of their files on this matter to the public.  Can this be other than a warning to their betters in the elected government?  Is the sentiment "if you take action to stop our investigations or against us, what else will we release?"  pl  

http://nypost.com/2016/01/17/after-pardoning-criminal-marc-rich-clintons-made-millions-off-friends/

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/judicial-watch-documents-reveal-israeli-133212091.html

http://mondoweiss.net/2013/07/foxman-helped-mobilize-wealthy-aipac-board-member-to-obtain-clinton-pardon-of-marc-rich/

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

http://www.opednews.com/articles/3/Clinton-and-Israel--the-by-Philip-Weiss-130713-563.html

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

The limestone bench is still there ...

"Researchers have continued their investigation into the site where the body of Jesus Christ is traditionally believed to have been buried, and their preliminary findings appear to confirm that portions of the tomb are still present today, having survived centuries of damage, destruction, and reconstruction of the surrounding Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem's Old City.

The most venerated site in the Christian world, the tomb today consists of a limestone shelf or burial bed that was hewn from the wall of a cave. Since at least 1555, and most likely centuries earlier, the burial bed has been covered in marble cladding, allegedly to prevent eager pilgrims from removing bits of the original rock as souvenirs.

When the marble cladding was first removed on the night of October 26, an initial inspection by the conservation team from the National Technical University of Athens showed only a layer of fill material underneath. However, as researchers continued their nonstop work over the course of 60 hours, another marble slab with a cross carved into its surface was exposed. By the night of October 28, just hours before the tomb was to be resealed, the original limestone burial bed was revealed intact."  National Geographic Society

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

Having been in the edicule many times, including once on the company of a Chief of Staff of the IDF (Amnon Lipkin-Shahak), I find this very interesting. 

The basilica of the Holy Sepulchre is a purpose built building constructed in the time of the Kingdom of Jerusalem to cover the sites of the rocky knob of Golgotha and the nearby site of the "rock cut tomb."  There had earlier been a much larger church built in the time of Constantine the Great.  This had been destroyed by the Fatimid Caliph Hakim the Mad who was the Shia ruler of Egypt and Palestine.  Hakim had also destroyed a previous version of the edicule by having workmen break it down with sledge hammers.  That being the case there was little expectation that anything would be left of the tomb itself.  This is a massive surprise.

There is a rival tomb site outside the medieval walls of Jerusalem.  Evangelical Christians find the basilica to be too medieval for their taste and prefer the other site.  I find the archaeology that supports the basilica as the site of the crucifixion and entombment to be convincing.  Much of it was done by very competent and well trained Franciscans of the Custody of the Holy Land.  In recent years a lot of secular European scholars have been involved and they seem to be unanimous in accepting the basilica as the correct site.

At the time of Jesus the site was a quarry just outside the walls of the city.  Several hillocks of stone had been left standing in the quarry because of the poor quality of the stone in them.  Some of these had been made into stone tombs for well off Jews.  There were also more tombs carved into the perimeter of the depressed area that was the quarry.  Those are still there and I have explored a good many of them.  One of the existing tombs is said to have been donated by a sympathizer for Jesus' burial.  One of the stone hillocks was used by the Romans for crucifixions.  For this purpose they cut square shafts in the top so that the butt of a cross could be put in them.  Fifty years or so after the death of Jesus the walls of Jerusalem were expanded and the site was then within the walls.   After the conversion of the Roman Empire to Christianity, Constantine built his immense church on the site.  In the process, the stone walls of the tomb were trimmed back as was the hill of Golgotha.  That was done to make the site more convenient architecturally.  A small building was put up over what remained of the tomb.  This was the first of four edicules.

The basilica was under the sole control of the RC Church and the Franciscans from the time of the Ayyubids until the Ottoman government decided in the 18th Century to divide control among its various Christian dhimmi populations.

I am a member of the papally protected order of chivalry that is entrusted with the welfare of the basilica and other Christian interests in Holy Land.  pl 

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/10/jesus-christ-tomb-burial-church-holy-sepulchre/

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

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