Open Thread 7 March 2017

pl

Comments

[BabelFish]

Kuznetsov: Old Smokey is heading into the yard for three years. I had posted that my friends who worked in maritime propulsion thought she was kind of a wreck, based on the way she belched black exhaust while going through the Channel. They will replace the majority of her boilers and modernize her combat systems. In past readings, commentators reported that the Russians had lost the thread of trained pilots and has contractors flying her aircraft and also training up new aircrew.

It will be interesting to see what kind of aircraft the evolve for this ship. With no catapult, conventional aircraft can not launch with full combat loads. Could they develop an F-35ski?

http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/russias-only-aircraft-carrier-will-soon-be-out-action-3-19678

http://thediplomat.com/2017/03/russia-to-upgrade-aircraft-carrier-in-2017/

https://www.rt.com/news/378386-putin-syria-fighting-terrorists/

[BabelFish]

The blues are running at Jax Beach. Water temp 75 F/ 24 C. Some Pompano, Speckled Trout and medium Reds. Talked with 4 guys trying to make a living using a drag net. Rubber dinghy out past the breakers with one end, a stout hombre ar the other. Did not look like it was working too well this morning. Tough way to make ends meet but bless them for giving it a go.

[mike]

From last week: Daesh in Raqqa are putting up overhead street curtains to hide their movements in the city. Not sure how effective these would be against hyperspectral imaging. But they would block visual observation.

http://en.hawarnews.com/is-is-striving-for-hiding-the-fighters-are-advancing-towards-al-raqqa/

It appears to be a poor man's effort to camouflage like the Douglas Aircraft factory during WW2 by camouflage pioneer Colonel John Ohmer and his Hollywood set designers.

http://twistedsifter.com/2012/01/camouflage-cali-hiding-air-bases-factories-plants-netting-wwii/

Also saw reports that Daesh in Raqqa is forcing all civilian males to wear the same type clothing that the Daesh fighters wear in an attempt to confuse targeting. And perhaps to induce civilian casualties by SDF and the coalition for propaganda value. Can't find that link now.

[ann]

I am reading Andrew Bacevich's-- America's War. Before I ask this, I did a web search and did not see any thing to discredit this person or his military career.

I would like any feedback the forum has on him. Thanks

[Thirdeye]

According to AlMasdar, the SAA is rolling on towards the Euphrates in east Aleppo. Reports that the pumping stations, which supply water to Aleppo city, have been taken are apparently premature. South of the pumping station is the inlet to the Al Jar Canal, which runs along the line of contact north of Deir Hafer and is being used by ISIS to flood lands for a terrain obstacle. Once the SAA is solidly established on the bank of the Euphrates, the ISIS position around Deir Hafer is extremely precarious.

[turcopolier]

Ann

Colonel (Ret) Dr. Andrew Bacevich is as far I can tell one of nature's noblemen. He lost a son in Iraq and he, so far as I can tell is without fear. pl

[Haralambos]

Since there seems so much 'madness' about recently, I thought this piece by Robert Parry might add some gravity to the 'discussions,' if they are worthy of the name: http://tinyurl.com/hp9cbcp

He notes in regard to the investigations that various folks are calling for based on accusations and doubts: 'that is not how investigations are supposed to work. You’re supposed to have evidence of wrongdoing and then examine it in the investigative phase to see if the evidence withstands scrutiny. What Friedman is suggesting is more like a “fishing expedition” or a “witch hunt.”'

[jonst]

I do not know the man personally. But a person I trust knows him, slightly, from their days at BU...and he backs up the Col's opinion below.

I've read most of his books. Saw him lecture once. I wish to god we had more of his type. That is my judgment. And he seems to be both a noble man, and a shrewd one. Rare.

[jonst]

Well, the fat's in the fire now..with the wikileaks dump. So much material to read. How does one wrap their arms around it?

[William R. Cumming]

As my memory grows rusty post a correction. Criminal referrals within the federal Executive Branch are ultimately the subject of 28 U.S.C. 585 and those in federal departments and agencies are required to refer alleged criminal matters to their Inspector General. Within the Executive Offices of the President not sure who has the authority.

But after listening to today's press briefing it appears that the Congressional Intelligence Committees have now been selected as the organizations (not DoJ) to which the President (presumably after briefing) has now decided to refer his felony allegation of former President Obama, and wondering how those Committees will proceed. I know of no other felony allegations by any other President of A FORMER PRESIDENT. ARE THERE OTHERS?

[Fred]

BabelFish,

Good luck with the reds. Watch the weak jaw on the trout. All good eating though the blues are best smoked.

[LondonBob]

http://rbth.com/international/2017/03/03/us-general-trump-wont-take-confrontational-approach-with-russia_712923

Interview with retired U.S. Army Major General Paul Vallely and Michael Maloof on Trump's foreign policy, with a particular focus on US-Russian relations. The comments about the internal workings of the Trump team are interesting.

[fanto]

All,
It was amazing to see Anderson Cooper saying “Putin is a killer” when he interviewed Ms. LePen – on CBS “60 Minutes” - he repeated verbatim what O’Reilly famously asked President Trump a few weeks ago. How is that possible that these two, Cooper and O’Reilly, would have the same idea implanted in their minds?

[turcopolier]

LondonBob

Vallely and Maloof are hard core neocons. Vallely is one of the originators of the doctrine of "Mind War." http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2009/10/mind-war-aquino-and-vallely.html

[mike]

I used to help pull a net for my 80-year-old neighbor back in the mid 70s in coastal NC. He went mainly for speckled trout, but we would get nothing but blues when they started to run. But that was not in the surf. We took the easy way in quiet bays and inlets of the ICW. That was hard work. I cannot imagine doing it in heavy breakers.

Do you have any good recipes for blues. My neighbor would not eat them and gave them away. I tried broiling one but it caught on fire. My SWMBO has never let me near the oven ever since.

[MRW]

LondonBob,

If you want better analysis of US-Russian relations, listen to Stephen Cohen on WABC-AM Radio every Tuesday night at 10 PM EST. It’s online. It’s the John Batchelor Show.

Here is the home link: http://johnbatchelorshow.com

I find navigating the homepage confusing.

But you can go to https://audioboom.com/channel/johnbatchelor and search the archives. That page has a glitchy thing that requires you to scroll to the bottom to load the next page of archive entries.

They are well worth the time, and the advantage of listening to the archived version is that the ads are removed.

[MRW]

I don’t think I can take Mika Brzezinski’s pearl-clutching mewling about her fear about Trump and the danger to the empire another day. Christ, she’s a hyperbolic school marm.

Scarborough is a close second. They spend three hours with their fingers in their mouths and their eyeballs in adolescent fear engaging in palace intrigue and gossip. They don’t read. They seem incapable of discussing the long-term consequences of policy--the consequences, not the results--and show no interest in it. The other daily bumps on a log that sit there aren’t much better.

[trinlae]

Re WL dump, in showing the details of tech methodology use gone wild (the how), isn't there a subtle implication that it goes without saying that the contents of the tech methods (the what) are trivially exposable if not already in hand?

In choosing the timing of the he said-she said divisions in presidential administration succession factions, each purporting to have greater dirt on opponents than the other, the new Snowden II perhaps checkmates them both, while alerting would-be secret holders to the likelihood that their imagined secrets are already compromised in principle.

As for the tech details re PCs, i am not surprised at these revelations at all, being one to normally keep windows update set to off and firewall (Comodo) set by default to blocking all writes out. Once you set these blocks on the firewall, the log function tracks the attempted writes out, and then throwing these IP addresses into IP lookup searches, invariably one sees that they are trying to send info from one's hard drive to Redlands, WA microsoft hq. It is a bot that runs 24/7. Ditto for the ms office post 2003-7 that monitors and tracks use. I only use MS office on pc that is installable offline from cd, and never upgraded to win10 either. I am not in any secure line of work and just take these measures as personal ethical preference. But if I did have security requirements I would go back to win xp. Most work on text or number files doesnt need much computing power - the old 386 machines are fine. Then use a modern machine for internet work, pics and video etc. On a pc, control-alt-del will load task manager, and all unnecessary or stealth updates can be turned off, and disabled permanently via windows services (right click from task mgr): Google/chrome, Adobe, flash player, printer updates, are all kept off or disabled on my pc. My machines only update when I choose. Platonic social use is via the ipad, basically open although private browsing and vpn are kept on just to make others work harder-there is no faith concept of confidentiality presumed.

I noticed the We are Change YT channel report today which has an anti divide-and-conquer/left-right position (ostensibly), and showed various media outlet reports that drew attention to Trump's apparent Borg capture by Cheney-esque factions (much as respected Colonel has been lamenting the prospect over the past weeks): https://youtu.be/MQo2iPJOWB8

[Sam Peralta]

All

A solid interview by Marine Le Pen with Anderson Cooper.

http://www.cbsnews.com/live/video/anderson-cooper-interviews-marine-le-pen-for-60-minutes/

Transcript of the interview: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/frances-marine-le-pen-says-shes-not-waging-a-religious-war/

I now understand why the the EU & French Borg are going all out to knock her out of the election.

An excerpt from the interview:

She calls for a radical shift in the country’s foreign policy, vowing to renegotiate its membership in the European Union, or else leave altogether. A move that could result in the breakup of the EU. And just like President Trump, she’s questioned the role of NATO, and advocates closer ties with Russia.

Anderson Cooper: What is your admiration for Russia, for Vladimir Putin?

Marine Le Pen (translation): Look. I’m not a fan in a rock concert, you see. I am a political leader in a great nation of the world. What interests me are France’s interests.

Anderson Cooper: You don’t believe Russia’s a threat for Europe?

Marine Le Pen (translation): I don’t believe that at all. I think that’s a big scam.

Anderson Cooper: Invasion in Ukraine--

Anderson Cooper: Invasion of Crimea?

Marine Le Pen (translation): I’ll tell you what the danger is for Europe. It’s carrying out a cold war against Russia and pushing Russia into China’s arms. That’s the threat to Europe.

Anderson Cooper: You don’t think Vladimir Putin, though, is a killer, is a-- is a-- a threat to France, to others in this region?

Marine Le Pen (translation): No, I don’t believe it is so. Nothing Vladimir Putin has done would make me reach that conclusion.

[LondonBob]

Interesting because I must admit I have never heard of either before, Maloof I probably have seen on RT before, and reading that I would have guessed neither were. Perhaps another sign that adopting a neocon outlook has been a matter of careerist necessity than deep ideological commitment for many outside the nucleus of that peculiar sect.

[trinlae]

The below narration from the poet and national malaise chronicler Linh Dinh includes an extensively detailed narrative recollection by the subject "Rudy the Math Prof" re his long years in the middle east in what sounds like the 1980s or pre Iran-Iraq war era. Being "food for thought" it might be interesting reading for SST. It has few comments but those there are also telling.

http://linhdinhphotos.blogspot.com/2016/08/obscured-american-rudy-retired-math.html

[trinlae]

This DIY recent broadcast on Fukushima has an interesting report at 1m7s on the rarely discussed factor of the burning earth under the reactors.

https://youtu.be/SyKkhI_GKkg

The reporter is also interesting for his fully disclosed connection to Assyrian aid work.

[BillWade]

Fred, Blues, I'd prefer it steamed, but for my cat if I had a cat, lol.

[turcopolier]

LondonBob

If you thought they are not neocons you are mistaken. Vallely was a leading advocate for war with Iraq on Foxnews. Maalouf was well known to me by reputation for the high opinion of him that was held by neocon co-workers of mine in DIA. pl