Sic Semper Tyrannis

Idlib Province must be cleared of rebels.

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

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

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

Government by Cronies for real?

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

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

Worse things to come are likely.  pl 

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

 

 

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

 

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

Free Mecca for the wretched refuse of the teeming shore,

Free Mecca from the clutches of the despot,

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

Free Mecca.

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

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

---

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

---

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

Free Mecca. 

Calexit - Independence for La La Land?

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Why Iran, but not Saudi Arabia? - TTG

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

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

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

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

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

ADDENDUM:

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

A FURTHER ADDENDUM:

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

TTG

Sanctuary Cities

 

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

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

Policy discussions

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

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

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

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

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

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

—————————————

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

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

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

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

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

TTG

HARPER: GEORGE SOROS DECLARES WAR ON PRESIDENT TRUMP

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SST Reopened

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

Banning for personal scorn and abuse

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

What’s going on in Idlib? - TTG

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

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

————————————

Release No: NR-019-17 

Jan. 20, 2017

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

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

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

————————————

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

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

————————————

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

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

————————————

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

TTG

Trump's Inaugural Address

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

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

 

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

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

Is NATO really obsolete ?

 By Patrick BAHZAD

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

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

Remember what NATO was meant for ?

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

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

The Kennedy Inaugural Parade - Republished 20 Jauary 2017

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

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

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

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

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

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

The VMI Corps will be in this inaugural parade.  pl

www.vmi.edu

LOCK HER UP! by Fred

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

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

And the band played on.

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

The song remains the same

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

Lock her up.  

Pardon me.

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

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

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

 

Pardon me.

 

Roadies

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

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

Pardon me.

I'm just a singer....

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

Pardon me.

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

But the song remains the same.

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

Perhaps soon we will know why the caged bird sings

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

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

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

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

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

Looks like the Rose Parade without floats?

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

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

Is it 1828 again? - republished 19 January 2017

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Precious Snowflakes..... By Fred

Precious Snowflakes in the winter of their discontent. 

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

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

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

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

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

YOU were supposed to look out for me...

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

"Virtue's Fool" by Richard Sale

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

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

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

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

Chapter 42

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

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

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

“You look like shit,” Harvey observed.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Like what stuff?”

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

Deir Al-Zor thread - 16 January 2016

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

Open Thread - 16 January, 2016

pl

A Perfect Landing

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

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

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

-----------

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

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

35 pages in January

By Patrick BAHZAD

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

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

Hysteria taking over, once again

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

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

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

Russia, Israel and air defence.

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

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

pl

The Russians are coming! - TTG

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pavel Lysenkov: And what is the maximum?

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

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

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

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

GO CAPS!

TTG

"Reconstruction of devastated eastern Aleppo begins" AMN

 

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

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

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

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

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

-----------

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chapeau!  pl

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

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

By Patrick BAHZAD 

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

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

The DHS/FBI "Joint Analysis Report"

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

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

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

On the Sick List - Pat Lang

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

Dangerous Memes By Walrus.

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

 

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

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

 

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

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

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

Deplorable in Paris - by Fred

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

This must be the place, for romance, 

for, shall I say it, dinner?

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

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

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

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

"No Smoking Gun on Russia Hack" Giraldi

 

"The eagerly awaited report on the alleged Russian influence operation and hack linked to the recent American presidential election finally appeared on Friday. It is quite possible that President Obama, the intelligence community, and Congress now hope that the case has been definitively made to tighten the screws on Russia. If that is so, they are delusional. Moscow and Vladimir Putin may or may not be guilty as charged, but the paucity of the evidence being presented by the White House and the Director of National Intelligence suggests that the American people are being very poorly served by those who have been entrusted with protecting the nation.

The report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence was entitled “Background to ‘Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections’: The Analytic Process and Cyber Incident Attribution.” It followed the short “Joint Analysis Report” that appeared on December 29, produced by the Department of Homeland Security and FBI. The earlier paper was entitled “Grizzly Steppe—Russian Malicious Cyber Activity” but, apart from assertions of suspected Russian activity connected to an unnamed political party, it provided absolutely no evidence that the alleged intrusions into the Democratic National Committee (DNC) servers and John Podesta emails were anything beyond probing for vulnerabilities to collect information, and carried out by unknown parties. In fact, it didn’t even provide the evidence for that and was instead largely a primer on how to avoid being hacked."  Giraldi

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

There is a refreshing amount of skepticism concerning the unclassified Clapper Report.  Good.  pl 

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/no-smoking-gun-on-russia-hack/

IMO Trump may be impeached early and often.

There appears to be a new shared sentiment among the "I hate Trump and the Deplorables" wing of the Democratic Party and the "I hate Russia, er, the USSR, er foreign devils" wing of the Republican Party.

This shared sentiment is continuously voiced with vehemence and certitude on the basis of an evident belief  among the intelligentsia/ignorami that anyone who wishes to improve relations with Russia has demonstrated prima facie evidence of treason in the service of a foreign and malevolent power.   Perhaps Vladimir Putin is actually Dr. Moriarty returned with new and improved air guns at his disposal.

IMO the present media campaign against Trump is intended to de-legitimize him as a legally elected chief executive.  If that can be accomplished then a bill of impeachment against him for something like "failure to defend the country," or "failure to execute legally binding sanctions" is likely.

Would the insurgents have the needed votes in the senate to convict and expel him from office?  Only the event would demonstrate that. 

The Deplorables are watching and waiting.  pl

Trump and the IC "consultants."

" ... how tenable is this for Trump? How long can he go on questioning the information he receives from intelligence briefings, as he seems intent upon doing?"  Washpost

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

Wait for it!  The answer to the question is - indefinitely.  I would think that the Trump Administration will go through the ranks of the SES/SIS position holders at CIA/DIA/NSA, etc. like a scythe.  These folks, of whom I was one (SES-4) are not career protected like the lower members of the federal civil service.  In return for their elevated rank (equivalent to military flag officers) they lack actual legal job security and can be much more easily removed.  They are usually highly politicized schemers and enablers for their presidential appointee bosses at the very top of the food chain.  But who will run things!?  Well, pilgrims there are lots of eager beaver GS-15s awaiting their turn and eager to prove their loyally to the administration.

Hey, why not ?  Payback is a bitch and people like Clapper and Brennan could not have staged this intelligence "coup" without the cooperation of the SES corps. 

And then there is the little matter of the chain of command in the federal government.  NEWS FLASH!!  The IC agencies work for the president.  He does not work for them.  If he does not accept their analysis - so be it!  They are not semi-divine creatures endowed with some special gift of understanding the world,  Well, some are, but not many. 

Any intelligence is destined to support decision making for policy.  It should NEVER be prescriptive.  The news idiots keep asking old intelligence hands what policy should be...  What a sad joke.

For Trump, the IC is just another consultant group.  pl

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/01/06/its-about-to-get-much-tougher-for-donald-trump-to-doubt-the-intelligence-on-russias-hacking/?utm_term=.ea982b6165da

Open Thread - 5 January 2017

pl

McCain and Graham's heros at work ...

 

"The jihadist rebels of Jabhat Fateh Al-Sham (formerly Al-Nusra Front) have obstructed the water supply to the estimated 5 million civilians in Greater Damascus for the 13th consecutive day, creating a humanitarian crisis inside Syria's historic capital.

According to an Al-Masdar field correspondent in Damascus, water has become so scarce in Damascus that the price of bottled water has risen exponentially, forcing many to find alternatives in order to deal with this two week long crisis.

Several civilians have also been reportedly hospitalized as a result of poisoning due to drinking water provided by supply trucks, a local source informed Al-Masdar this afternoon.

The water provided by these supply trucks is intended for basic hygienic purposes like showering; it is not meant to drink.

However, due to crisis, many civilians in Damascus have begun boiling the water supplied by these trucks in order to have readily available drinking water."  AMN 

https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/millions-civilians-damascus-suffer-rebels-continue-block-water-supply/

-----------

McCain and Graham love these guys.  pl

Links

Hannity on his interview of Assange.

http://video.foxnews.com/v/5269107473001/?#sp=show-clips/daytime

****

A technical refutation of the "Russia done it" meme.

https://www.wordfence.com/blog/2016/12/russia-malware-ip-hack/

 ******

Real life in Aleppo

https://janoberg.exposure.co/humans-in-liberated-Aleppo

pl

The Battle for Mosul: IS' swansong or yet another shapeshifting ? (part 2)

By Patrick BAHZAD

 

We are now over two months into the battle for Mosul, and the initial optimism has definitely faded away. The palpable sense of doggedness about the urban combat taking place in the Eastern parts of the city, reflecting an atmosphere of almost trench-like warfare, contrasts sharply with the easy territorial gains achieved by Iraqi security forces in the first days of the offensive. Early announcements about the imminent liberation of the city and the final fall of the "Islamic State" now sound hollow and premature. The truth about Mosul – that much should have been clear from the outset – is that this will be a costly battle. Costly in time, costly in energy, equipment and planning, and most of all, costly in lives. Overall, a rather sobering and grim outlook. Happy new year…  

 It is winter in Northern Iraq: the weather is bad, the terrain is muddy, and around Mosul, the morale of the Iraqi forces is low. Weeks of house-to-house fighting have taken their toll, not just in terms of casualties. There had not been any doubts in the initial phase of the offensive, but uncertainties gradually crept into the Iraqi battle plan, so much so that a complete overhaul of the tactical and operational approach to taking back the city was recently announced.

Loopholes in the operational planning

The basic issue is that the Iraqis went in with one plan in mind, and no backup solution in case things did not go as expected. To be fair, looking at it from the safe distance of a D.C. based think tank, this was a "slam dunk" situation. The numerical advantage of the Iraqi "armada" assembled at the gates of Mosul was quite overwhelming and the first days and weeks, although bloodier than many observers imagine, looked encouraging.

In short, the idea was to isolate Mosul from the main LOCs to and from the city, cut of the centre from its immediate hinterland, disrupt IS' territorial continuity along the Tigris valley and thereby shape a battlefield that would be conducive to offensive operations towards the city, while at the same time containing IS attempts at disrupting the logistical trail up to Nineveh plains. The "shaping" phase, although first delayed and then extended a number times, worked reasonably well. Taking back Qayyarah airbase, with its nearby bridge over the Tigris, dealt a severe blow to the Jihadis and laid the groundwork for planning an assault onto the city.

Manufactured hysteria - once again.

 

"The New York Times was more aggressive, writing flatly, "Obama Strikes Back at Russia for Election Hacking." It backed up its story with a link to a joint FBI/Homeland Security report that details how Russian civilian and military intelligence services (termed "RIS" in the report) twice breached the defenses of "a U.S. political party," presumably the Democrats.

This report is long on jargon but short on specifics. More than half of it is just a list of suggestions for preventive measures.

At one point we learn that the code name the U.S. intelligence community has given to Russian cyber shenanigans is GRIZZLY STEPPE, a sexy enough detail.

But we don't learn much at all about what led our government to determine a) that these hacks were directed by the Russian government, or b) they were undertaken with the aim of influencing the election, and in particular to help elect Donald Trump.

The problem with this story is that, like the Iraq-WMD mess, it takes place in the middle of a highly politicized environment during which the motives of all the relevant actors are suspect. Nothing quite adds up.

If the American security agencies had smoking-gun evidence that the Russians had an organized campaign to derail the U.S. presidential election and deliver the White House to Trump, then expelling a few dozen diplomats after the election seems like an oddly weak and ill-timed response. Voices in both parties are saying this now."  Matt Taibbi

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

We've been here before, pilgrims.  We've been here before.  I wrote the Iraq War hysteria generation up extensively in my 2003 article "Drinking the Koolaid," (link below)

The Bush '43 administration deliberately lied in the media to get the US public to accept war and occupation in Iraq.  Paul Wolfowitz admitted that while testifying before the US Senate.  There had been Iraqi nuclear weapons and chemical weapons programs before the First Gulf War but they were destroyed by UN search parties of inspectors after the war.  In this work they were assisted by US intelligence who sent the inspectors to the right places to find the elements of the programs.  The inspectors got just about everything, all the enrichment devices for fissionable material, all elements of the chemical program.  In the case of the latter the UN took masses of material, piping, etc.,  and gave the Iraqi government no receipts.  As a result after the Bush '43 Administration decided to go to war with Iraq it was possible to claim that the declared inventory of the chemical program was larger than the materiel on hand and that this was "proof" that some of the materiel was hidden somewhere, somewhere...  BTW the Iraqi biological weapons program was ever anything but a research program.

Now, we have yet another attempt to generate mass hysteria through the manipulation of public consciousness.  In this case the "enemy" is Russia against which an aura of hostility is being created that is part ignorance, part hyper-nationalist aggressiveness, and part residual fear of the USSR (which has not existed for decades).    This in spite of the simple truth that if such hostility proceeded to its logical conclusion in a nuclear exchange there would be many millions of dead and wounded on both sides.

As the "icing on the cake" the media now proclaim that the Intelligence Community is a vessel of integrity and patriotic self-sacrifice that, since it hints to us that "the Russians done it," must be believed without question.  Well, pilgrims, those who really know the Intelligence Community know that these agencies are run be self-serving political hacks who may once have been people of integrity but who, by the time, they reach the top will say or proclaim anything that advances their personal interest.

Are we mad enough to believe such people?  Perhaps Trump is not.  pl  

 http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2015/11/drinking-the-koolaid-w-patrick-lang.html 

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/something-about-this-russia-story-stinks-w458439

http://fortune.com/2016/12/31/russian-hacking-grizzly-steppe/

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

Happy New Year -2017

pl