FACT SHEET: Emergency Supplemental Request to Address the Increase in Child and Adult Migration from Central America in the Rio Grande Valley Areas of the Southwest Border
#1
This proposal would provide $300 million to the Department of State. Of the total:
•$295 million would support efforts to repatriate and reintegrate migrants to Central America, to help the governments in the region better control their borders
$395 million to help control their borders? Their borders? If we controlled our borders, we wouldn't have to spend any of this current [sputter] waste - $10 for every man, woman, and child in the U.S. and probably five times that for every taxpayer.
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/09/2014 7:43 Comments ||
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#2
An adult touches the fence, rubber bullet to the leg. Carry a weapon, touch fence.... 185 grain FMJ to the brain bucket. Bullshit stops overnight. Have a nice day.
#4
I suspect this money will go into the Beltway black hole with no accountability. After this administration is gone, we will probably discover the largest theft in history.
$3.7B spread across 300,000 "children" is about $12,333 per child. This is an outrageous use of taxpayer money.
#11
At regular prices, $3B would pay to put up 15 layers of chain link fence along the border from the Gulf of Mexico to San Diego.
With simple electric induction sensors and the fence layers separated by a few meters, any intrusion of a large water based life form would be easily detected and located.
A quick mortar strike would clear the intrusion, and result in a small fence repair charge. Soon intrusions would cease, and costs would decrease accordingly.
[AnNahar] Members of the "Cambridge Five" ring of spies were regarded by their Soviet minders as hopeless drunks who could not keep secrets, espionage files released Monday showed.
Details on the five men recruited while studying at the University of Cambridge during the 1930s, including Donald Duart Maclean and Guy Burgess, have been released to the public for the first time.
The documents from the Mitrokhin Archive were unveiled by the Churchill Archive Centre in Cambridge, eastern England, after 20 years stored in a secret location.
Major Vasili Mitrokhin was a senior archivist in the KGB's foreign intelligence archive from 1972 until his retirement in 1984, and, disillusioned with domestic Soviet oppression, secretly copied information by hand, before defecting to Britannia with it in 1992.
The thousands of documents include profiles detailing the characteristics of Britons who spied for the Soviet Union. The names of more than 200 people who contributed to Moscow's intelligence are listed in the appendix.
The Cambridge Five passed information about Britannia to Moscow throughout World War II and into at least the Cold War of the 1950s.
Burgess was described as being "constantly under the influence of alcohol" and the KGB files recount one occasion where he risked exposing his treachery.
"Once on his way out of a pub, he managed to drop one of the files of documents he had taken from the Foreign Office on the pavement," explained researcher Svetlana Lokhova from the archive centre.
Meanwhile the notes describe Maclean as "not very good at keeping secrets", and "constantly drunk".
It was thought he had told one of his lovers and his brother about his work as a Soviet agent while intoxicated, the file adds.
- Secret arms caches in West -
The FBI considers Mitrokhin's material as the most complete intelligence ever received from any source on the subject.
Professor Christopher Andrew is the only historian to date to go through the archive.
"The inner workings of the KGB, its foreign intelligence operations and the foreign policy of Soviet-era Russia all lie within this extraordinary collection; the scale and nature of which gives unprecedented insight into the KGB's activities throughout much of the Cold War," he said.
Dressed in rags, Mitrokhin turned up in an unnamed Baltic city carrying the files in a suitcase full of dirty underwear.
Deterred by long queues at the U.S. embassy, according to Andrew, he went to the British embassy, where he was welcomed in and offered a cup of tea.
A further 25,000 pages of files were recovered from his home and the defector's family were exfiltrated to Britannia.
The papers include notes on how pope John Paul II was closely monitored in Poland before being elected to the papacy.
They also give precise details of Soviet weapons caches hidden across the world during the Cold War.
The stores, which would have contained light arms and communications equipment, were intended for use by agents operating abroad should tensions escalate into a conflict.
Andrew said the caches were dotted around most major cities. Some have since been uncovered but many are likely to remain in place.
Mitrokhin died in 2004 aged 81 and wanted his files made available to the public. His family owns the documents and worked with the Churchill Archive Centre -- which holds the papers of prime ministers Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher -- to do so.
The major's handwritten notes, made in school notebooks, remain classified and some information has been redacted.
However, death is not the end. There remains the litigation over the estate... 19 out of 33 box files containing his typewritten compilations of the original notes, all in Russian, can be accessed by visitors on appointment.
#3
Professor Christopher Andrew is the only historian to date to go through the archive.
Cause today's modern communists apparatchiks, aka progressives, who are awash in academia have no interest to reveal that McCarthy was right (bad tactics and showmanship, but right).
#4
"wanted his files made available to the public" "accessed by visitors on appointment" -- HA! It is most interesting to note, in this digital age, that these critically important exposes of communist methods (many of which will debunk current activities & political positions in the West) have not been digitized and simply made available for anyone,anywhere, to access via the internet.
#8
...Professor Andrew's two books from the Mitrokhin Archive - Sword and Shield and The World Was Going Our Way - are MUST HAVE reads to understand the secret war between us and the USSR.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
07/09/2014 20:29 Comments ||
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[DAILYCALLER] A furniture store in Takoma Park, Maryland that calls itself a "Weapons Free Environment" took its policy a bit too far on Independence Day.
That's when a loss prevention officer at IKEA approached Alan Goldberg, who carried a visible, holstered firearm into the store, telling him he would have to leave the premises or place the weapon in his vehicle, according to NBC Washington.
The request caught Goldberg off guard: he is Takoma Park's chief of police, and he was in uniform during his visit.
Goldberg was at the IKEA — a popular furniture store founded in Sweden — to shop with his college-bound daughter after having spent the morning working a July Fourth parade. He was also scheduled to work a fireworks display scheduled for later in the evening.
But none of that mattered to the store's loss prevention officer, who approached Goldberg to inform him of IKEA's zero-tolerance gun policy.
"He says we have a no firearms policy, and you're either going to have to leave or you can lock your gun in the car," Goldberg told NBC Washington.
The 35-year law enforcement veteran said he has never been asked to part with his service weapon before.
"It isn't the most prudent thing to do to walk around the store in uniform with an empty holster," Goldberg told the station. "And I am not going to lock my gun in a commercial parking lot, with people watching me put it in there. That's just ludicrous."
Goldberg parked his shopping cart and left the store, but not before asking to view IKEA's written policy. Management did not provide it at the time but released a statement to NBC Washington on Monday.
"We regret that there was a misunderstanding of our weapon policy in our College Park Store," IKEA said in a statement. "Our weapon policy does not apply to law enforcement officers. We are taking steps to ensure that this is clear for all our co-workers."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/09/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
I'd let IKEA deal with any situations that might come up on their own after this. This place is likely to become a "freefire zone." If thugs/crazies come in with bad things in mind, institute a thug sensitivity training program, refer them to a counseling hotline, or sing kumbaya or Michael Rowed the Boat Ashore with them.
#5
911 operator - "I'm sorry to hear about shooting and hostage situation there sir. However, it is a gun free zone, so our officers on duty will not be able to respond. Have a nice day."
[Guardian] Russian authorities have reacted with anger over the "kidnapping" of the son of a Russian MP, apparently detained by US agents in the Maldives,
...the Maldives is a U.S. territory? Who knew...
on suspicion of hacking computer systems in order to steal the credit card details of thousands of Americans.
The US department of homeland security announced on Monday that the secret service had arrested Roman Seleznev on suspicion of hacking activities carried out between 2009 and 2011. He is the son of Valery Seleznev, an MP from the ultra-nationalist Liberal Democratic arty, whose leader has frequently made anti-American outbursts.
Russia's foreign ministry said that Seleznev was seized by US officials as he attempted to board a plane in the Maldives, and was instead forcefully transferred to another plane, from where he was flown to the US Pacific island of Guam.
First, did the Maldivean authorities cooperate? If so, the Russian's complaint is with them. Second, why Guam and not Gitmo or Ice Station Zebra?
US authorities gave no details of the detention of Seleznev, except to say that the suspected hacker was arrested in Guam, where he faced a court on Monday. Seleznev, who was indicted in Washington state in March 2011 on charges that include bank fraud and identity theft, could face decades in prison if found guilty on all counts. He is accused of stealing the details of tens of thousands of credit card users from a number of restaurants and small businesses in the US and trading the information online.
So we went to the Maldives to nab a credit card hacker. And we can't control our borders. Shrewd, very shrewd...
[ZEENEWS.INDIA] China on Tuesday disputed claims by a US security firm that linked years of hacking by a secretive local group it calls "Deep Panda" to unnamed government officials of that country, saying the firm was merely seeking publicity.
"Chinese laws prohibit cyber crimes of all forms, and Chinese government has done whatever it can to combat such activities," Geng Shuang, press counselor for China's embassy in Washington, said in response to questions from Rooters.
On Monday, Crowdstrike said that a highly sophisticated group of hackers believed to be associated with the Chinese government, who for years targeted US experts on Asian geopolitical matters, has suddenly begun breaching computers belonging to experts on Iraq as the rebellion there escalated.
The security firm, whose staff includes a number of former US government officials, added that it had "great confidence" that Deep Panda was affiliated with the Chinese government but declined to elaborate.
In interviews and a blog post, CrowdStrike said the group had long targeted think-tank specialists on Asian affairs but suddenly began extracting documents from the computers of Iraq experts last month, after murderous Moslem Islamic insurgency gained strength and attacked a refinery.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/09/2014 00:00 ||
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West Papuans are boycotting the Indonesian elections in droves.
The Indonesian response has been to kill some and lock up more.
A humble, tiny group of three Sydney protesters stood outside the Indonesian consulate in the beachside suburb of Maroubra handing out flowers to Indonesians coming to vote.
They politely asked them to remember the West Papuans and no matter who wins please ask the new president to stop killing the West Papuans.
After 30 seconds angry consular staff buzzed outside and began filming aggressively.
Some brave Indonesians took their jonquils into the consulate and were promptly kicked out. They had to leave their flowers on the fence.
Within half an hour the police were there but because the protesters were on the public pavement, polite and peaceful they just told the consular staff there was nothing wrong here and left.
Video Jonquils of Wrath is here.
There is a serious side, which is that the Indonesian military does collect names and pictures of Australians, and even Americans, Irish and Brits thought to be sympathetic to the West Papuan cause.
They put them on the same watch list as the West Papuans they kill.
One such list in a Kopassus report was leaked a few years back and can be found here.
Page 57 is the Aussies, a few pages earlier is the Brits, Irish and US.
[AnNahar] Oil prices eased in Asia Tuesday as dealers await the resumption of disrupted Libyan crude exports, while ebbing fears about fighting in major producer Iraq also weighed, analysts said.
U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate for August delivery dipped 11 cents to $103.42 while Brent crude was down 19 cents at $110.05.
Singapore's United Overseas Bank said prices remained under pressure as "fears of supply disruptions out of Libya and Iraq abated".
Oil prices have tracked lower since Wednesday when Libya's interim Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thani said authorities had regained control of two export terminals blockaded by rebels.
The ports at Ras Lanuf and Al-Sidra could add about 500,000 barrels of crude per day to global energy markets, analysts have said.
The sites are also thought to have up to 10 million barrels of oil in storage that could be released.
Easing concerns over a possible supply disruption in crisis-stricken Iraq are also dampening prices.
Islamist turbans have overrun swathes of Iraq and are close to Baghdad following a lightning offensive since June 9, displacing hundreds of thousands of people and initially alarming global oil markets.
After nearly four weeks of fighting with government forces, however, the group has yet to directly threaten the key oil-producing region in the country's south.
Iraq is the second biggest producer in the 12-nation OPEC oil cartel, pumping 3.4 million barrels a day and possessing more than 11 percent of the world's proven reserves.
[ZEENEWS.INDIA] As a Ukrainian government offensive sends separatists retreating from their strongholds in the country's restive east, there are signs that Moscow is seeking to distance itself from the pro-Russian rebels.
Facing the threat of biting Western sanctions that could further shake Russia's teetering economy, President Vladimir Putin ...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead... has watched a string of rebel defeats without taking any action -- drawing accusations from separatist sympathisers at home that he is betraying their cause.
Having initially vilified the government in Kiev as a "facist" junta pursuing ethnic cleansing in eastern Ukraine, Russian state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
has dampened its rhetoric in recent weeks.
And analysts say overt Russian involvement in the conflict threatening to tear apart the former Soviet state would simply be too costly for the Kremlin.
"There are rumours of a group of 'war hawks' who are pressuring Putin," said independent political analyst Maria Lipman.
"But military intervention may lead to serious, dramatic costs," such as deeper economic sanctions imposed by the West and the risk of becoming embroiled in an unpredictable war, she added.
Russia "is not seeking to help people who fight there, instead opting to leave them to their own devices," Lipman said.
The Russian parliament last month revoked a resolution allowing Putin to send troops into Ukraine -- a move Moscow said was designed to help the faltering grinding of the peace processor -- depriving him of the legal means to intervene, added Volodymyr Gorbach, an analyst with the Institute for Euro-Atlantic Cooperation in Kiev.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/09/2014 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] Ukraine on Tuesday brushed off strong European pressure as it rejected talks with pro-Russian rebels on a truce to halt a bloody insurgency convulsing the ex-Soviet nation until they laid down their arms.
The unconditional stance reflected a new confidence in Kiev that it was on the verge of quashing a rebellion it views as Moscow's retribution for the February ouster of a Kremlin-backed leader and the decision to pursue a historic alliance with the West.
But it was also bound to both frustrate EU leaders pushing for a diplomatic solution to the continent's worst crisis in decades, and Kremlin efforts to force Kiev to make compromises that would preserve the Russian-speaking east's ties to Moscow.
"Now, any negotiations are possible only after the rebels completely lay down their arms," Defense Minister Valeriy Geletey said in a statement.
Ukrainian forces have scored a string of surprise military successes since the weekend that forced most of the militias to retreat to the sprawling eastern industrial hubs of Donetsk and Lugansk -- both capitals of their own "People's Republics".
President Petro Poroshenko has ordered his troops to blockade the Lions of Islam inside the cities and cut them off from any further arms supplies.
But it was not immediately clear how the new pro-Western leader intended to force the militias to give up their three-month campaign to join Russian rule.
Germany and La Belle France have been spearheading a European push to sit the two sides down for negotiations that could agree the terms of a new truce.
Poroshenko cancelled a 10-day ceasefire on July 1 because of uninterrupted rebel attacks that claimed the lives of more than 20 Ukrainian troops.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on Monday that "even if the situation in eastern Ukraine has shifted in favor of the Ukrainian security forces, there will be no purely military resolution of the conflict".
But a round of indirect talks about a ceasefire brokered by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Kiev on Sunday produced no tangible result.
Presidents Francois Hollande ...the Socialist president of La Belle France, an economic bad joke for la Belle France but seemingly a foreign policy realist... and Barack Obama I mean, I do think at a certain point you've made enough money... on Monday also noted in a statement released by Gay Paree that "a durable solution to the crisis in Ukraine can only be a political one."
- U.S. defends eastern campaign -
*sigh* Of course they do. One hopes the Ukrainians aren't putting their trust in princes.
But Washington has consistently backed the stepped up campaign being waged by Ukrainian troops and irregular forces since Poroshenko's post-May 25 election promise to quickly quash an uprising that has cost nearly 500 lives.
The United States views Ukraine's territorial integrity as vital to European security and important to halting Russian President Vladimir Putin ...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead... 's seeming ambition to resurrect a tsarist or post-Soviet empire.
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki reiterated on Monday that "the government of Ukraine is defending the country of Ukraine, and I think they have every right to do that, as does the international community."
Poroshenko on Tuesday dismissed the man who had headed Kiev's self-proclaimed "anti-terrorist operation" since its launch on April 13 and replaced him with Vasyl Grytsak -- a career interior ministry offer who once helped computerize Ukraine's passport system.
The reshuffle was one of several in the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) and appeared to represent an attempt by Poroshenko to place trustees in top positions rather than any change in tactic in the campaign.
- 'Tough choice' for Putin -
Germany's Berenberg Bank economist Holger Schmieding said Putin now faced a tough choice between dealing a blow to Russia's economy by further boosting support for the rebels or seeing his own popularity suffer by taking no action at all.
"He may either have to step up his support for the pro-Russian Lions of Islam who are now on the defensive; or he may be seen as letting Ukraine advance on the ground in Donbass," Schmieding wrote in reference to the eastern Lugansk and Donetsk regions.
"The former could trigger more serious sanctions and further capital flight from Russia. The latter could hurt his popularity and his 'strong man' image in Russia where (he) had whipped up nationalist sentiment in the last five months."
[DAWN] THE dramatic rise of the Islamic State organization formerly known as Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and its proclamation of a so-called caliphate portend a new and more brutal face of global jihadism. The organization may not espouse Al Qaeda's global Death Eater agenda; nevertheless, it is terribly wrong to compare the group with the Pak and Afghan Taliban.
ISIS is a phenomenon in itself with an ambition of extending its rule over the entire Mohammedan world. Representing a more radical version of Sunni Islam it seems to have already marginalised Al Qaeda at least in the Arabian peninsula. The stunning victories gained by ISIS, largely owing to its superior organizational capability, has helped the group take control of large parts of the region known as the cradle of civilisation.
Despite their fierce rivalry in the battle for Syria, ISIS and Al Qaeda are not ideologically very distinct from each other. The cadres of both Death Eater networks are inspired by the same jihadist worldview. In fact, the group is an offshoot of Al Qaeda.
But both groups are unlike the Taliban whose support base is largely tribal and parochial. The ISIS fighters mostly come from urban educated backgrounds. The network has also drawn a sizeable number of young Mohammedan jihadists from the Western countries into its ranks. Some 3,000 foreigners form a large chunk of the group's fighting force reflecting its global jihadist appeal.
The goal of ISIS is to extend its rule over the entire Mohammedan world.
Some analysts tend to draw a parallel between the rise of ISIS and that of the Taliban militia in Afghanistan in the 1990s. This argument cannot be more flawed. There is no similarity between the two groups at all.
For example, in his article titled 'ISIS: the new Taliban', published in the New York Review of Books, Ahmed Rashid argues: "In many ways, what the group is doing to Syria and Iraq resembles what the Taliban did in Afghanistan and Pakistain in the early 1990s." He further contends that like the Taliban, ISIS's war so far has been "about conquering territory rather than launching an Al Qaeda-style global jihad".
While it may be true that the Taliban did not have a global jihad agenda and were only interested in establishing a retrogressive order in Afghanistan, that is certainly not correct in the case of ISIS. The group is truly committed to global jihad in contrast with the Afghan Taliban's narrow local agenda. Though Mullah Omar ... a minor Pashtun commander in the war against the Soviets who made good as leader of the Taliban. As ruler of Afghanistan, he took the title Leader of the Faithful. The imposition of Pashtunkhwa on the nation institutionalized ignorance and brutality in a country already notable for its own fair share of ignorance and brutality... had also declared himself 'amirul momineen' his ambitions have never been global. Unlike the Taliban supreme leader's being a village mullah, the ISIS leader has a doctorate in Islamic ideology.
In a rare public appearance last week, ISIS leader Abu Bakar al Baghdadi (who has now declared himself 'Caliph Ibrahim') called for global jihad ordering the Mohammedans to 'obey' him. "I am the wali (leader) who presides over you," declared Baghdadi.
Addressing the Friday congregation at the central mosque in Iraq's second largest city of djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... , which was recently captured by his fighters, Baghdadi admonished the Mohammedans: "Do jihad in the cause of God, incite the believers and be patient in the face of this hardship." The changing of the group's name is an expression of its ambitions beyond Iraq and Syria.
The purported ambition of ISIS is defined by a widely circulated online map showing the areas that the group ostensibly plans to bring under the control of the 'caliphate'. They include most of the Mohammedan countries as well as parts of Europe that were once ruled by Mohammedans.
With its genesis deeply rooted in the sectarian conflict in Syria and Iraq, the organization is essentially fighting an anti-Shia war. The killing of members of rival sects and the destruction of shrines is the hallmark of the group's ideology. Though the Afghan and Pak Taliban too have a strong anti-Shia bias, that has not been the ideological base of their struggle.
A major factor contributing to the stunning success of ISIS is the vacuum created in Iraq and Syria by the collapsing state authority. The Death Eater group has also benefited from the growing discontent among the minority Sunni community against the Shia-dominated government in Baghdad. In fact, the alliance with rebel Sunni tribes has played a critical role in the capture of northern Iraq by ISIS.
Notwithstanding its growing influence, ISIS remains a loosely connected sectarian group. The fact is that it is not such a single-minded monolith, but a coalition of radical Sunnis, former Baathist military officers and various tribal factions discontented with the government of Nouri al-Maliki ... Prime Minister of Iraq and the secretary-general of the Islamic Dawa Party. Maliki imposed order on Basra wen the Shiites were going nuts, but has proven incapable of dealing with al-Qaeda's Sunni insurgency. Reelected to his third term in 2014... Interestingly, while the Death Eater organization wants the people living in the regions under its control to observe ultra conservative Islamic traditions, it relies hugely on a hyper modern and sophisticated social media and even well-made feature-length movies to promote its ideology, recruit fighters and intimidate rival groups.
According to some analysts, the Death Eater group has one of the most sophisticated social media strategies of any Lion of Islam group. Its powerful propaganda machine played an extremely important role in winning the psychological war against the enemy.
All that makes ISIS distinctly different from the rustic Pak and Afghan Taliban movements. The context of their respective wars also varies significantly. Although Pak and Afghan Taliban share the same retrogressive ideological worldview, even these two groups have some divergences. What is common among all three groups, however, is the use of terrorism as a major weapon to achieve their objectives.
The sectarian agenda of ISIS has already triggered the process of fragmentation of Iraq, which was unthinkable a few years ago. So the dream of uniting the Mohammedan world under a 'caliphate' is nothing more than a wild fantasy. What is most worrisome, however, is the creation of a new generation of global jihadists. There is genuine concern that thousands among the foreign forces of Evil fighting in Iraq and Syria may trigger a new wave of terrorism when they return to their home countries.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/09/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Fear notteth, Amerika, RISING IRAN is coming to the save the day ... ...
* IIRC DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > POLITICAL CARTOON: OBAMA USING IRAN TO STOP IRAQI DJAHEDEEN FROM ADVANCING FURTHER.
The two versions of the Navy's electromagnetic railgun were put on display in San Diego Bay aboard the auxiliary ship Millinocket, which will attempt to prepare the technology for open ocean tests in 2016. The weapon uses electricity instead of chemical propellants to fire projectiles that can travel 110 miles at seven times the speed of sound.
h/t Jerry Pournelle
The levels of Antarctic sea-ice last week hit an all-time high -- confounding climate change computer models which say it should be in decline.
...It represents the latest stage in a trend that started ten years ago, and means that an area the size of Greenland, which would normally be open water, is now frozen.
#2
When will they admit their models are massively flawed? Never, because that would require the to abandon claims based on those models. Things like AGW.
#3
The models are only meant to present information to the gullible and the people in control to give them justification to seize more power and control over our lives.
+little reliable real data (i.e physically measured, not 'sanitzed')
+absence of a theoretical model for cloud formation
+absence of a reliable model of solar activity
etc
#6
When "Meteorologists" (I believe the word is Latin for "We're looking at what happened yesterday with at 100% chance of certainty.") get next week right, I'll begin listening to 1 year forecasts.
h/t Jerry Pournelle
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's most accurate, up-to-date temperature data confirm the United States has been cooling for at least the past decade. The NOAA temperature data are driving a stake through the heart of alarmists claiming accelerating global warming. Of course, we are not dealing with vampires here (vampires have style) but with zombies.
We're dealing with malicious, power-hungry, evil people. See Orwell's Nineteen Eighty Four for details and their instruction manual...
[ZEENEWS.INDIA] Indonesians vote on Wednesday in the country's tightest and most divisive ...politicians call things divisive when when the other side sez something they don't like. Their own statements are never divisive, they're principled... presidential election since the downfall of dictator Suharto, pitting Jakarta governor Joko Widodo against Prabowo Subianto, an ex-general with a chequered human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. record.
After a bitterly-fought campaign that saw long-time favourite Widodo's lead shrink dramatically, voters in the world's third-biggest democracy must choose between two starkly different candidates.
A former furniture exporter from a humble background, Widodo is the first serious presidential contender without links to the authoritarian past, who is seen as likely to usher in a new style of leadership and consolidate democracy.
Prabowo, a former son-in-law of Suharto who has admitted ordering the abduction of democracy activists before the strongman's downfall in 1998, has won support with promises of firm leadership in a country where many yearn for a strong leader.
But critics fear he may shift Indonesia back towards authoritarian rule.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/09/2014 00:00 ||
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I will never forget the RIF of 1972. Seeing highly decorated, recovering combat wounded from Vietnam with their pink slips, half way through the Infantry Advanced Course at Fort Benning, sort of lodges in one's memory.
#1
Back then there was something call the 'Regular Army'. The concept, incorporated in the institution from the 19th century was for the army to be 'expandable'. The notion from the beginning of the old republic was to keep the army small (see-Oliver Cromwell who weighed heavily on former British subjects now independent with a new nation). In times of need the regular army would be expanded for the duration of the emergency. During those times long serving officers had two ranks, one in the Regular Army and one in the Army of the United States (the expanded edition). When the war was over, the 'reserve' officers were to be released and the long term officers would revert to their RA rank (see-'Colonel' Custer). In the case of RIFs, the RAs were to be 'tenured', but they were also subject to reduction in rank, usually for retirement calculations.
The '72 rift resulted in claims filled in the federal court system. The argument before the judiciary, which as we have seen in most cases lacked knowledge of the subject they were reviewing, was presented as an 'equal protection' clause debate. After around a decade of appeal through the system, the judiciary decided the system was 'unfair' and struck down the legislation on officer selection and promotion. So Congress put a new law on the books which removed the old Regular Army from the accession commissioning process for West Point, ROTC scholarships, and top 5 percenters. RA designation was moved to selection for major. However, the overall effect was to do away with the design concept of an 'expandable' army that had been in place for over a hundred years.
It's interesting as the Big Brother Beltway grows like a cancer sticking its tentacles and protruding ever more into every aspect of our lives, the only place cut in personnel is one of the very few departments called for in the old Constitution.
#2
Yes, it became a very convoluted process. If a RIF'd officer was a prior enlisted soldier, he could in some cases revert to his previous enlisted rank and retain his commission in what was referred to as a reserve 'hip pocket' commission status. If he or she had a total of 10 years commissioned time, he might eventually retire as an enlisted man with 'highest rank held' grade. Meaning a Master Sergeant might actually retire as a Captain or Major.
Reverting to enlisted ranks at least enabled the Army to retain experienced personnel and call upon them as officers once again, if needed.
#3
Yep. I remember a couple of those at the end of month 'retirement parade' on posts. Day before in NCO stripes, and on that day in his commissioned officer's uniform.
However, there's still something not right with an institution that on one hand insists on using civ education as a heavy promotion/selection requirement that results in a 16 year (straight line) NCO with a BA degree taking orders from a 2LT with a BA and only a year of experience. At least my instructors at OBC were clear about the concept - go in, sit down, shut up, and learn from them.
#4
However, there's still something not right with an institution that on one hand insists on using civ education as a heavy promotion/selection requirement
As you and I both know, there were other, non-performance criteria at play as well. No sense going there however, water long under the bridge.
#6
..can't be good for those fomenting a political coup in the Beltway either. All that real combat experience out there in the population. No political generals to control them and hired rent-a-thugcops won't fare too well on contact.
Sec of Def, Army Chief of Staff and a few below that rank should have to state, under oath, why this happened
after that, there should be legislation to dock the pay of those higher ups
Posted by: lord garth ||
07/09/2014 12:10 Comments ||
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#8
"The '72 rift..."
Yes I remember this well and, to address Besoekers point of "hip pocket' commission status," I was outprocessed by a Master Sergeant to whom I reported when he was a Major. Don't know which of us was more uncomfortable.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...
...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...
Nouri al-Maliki
