Day: November 2, 2015

Is There Something We Should Know?

I am not someone who signs on to every moronic conspiracy that flies around the net….but recently I read something that made me stop and think about a couple of things that had been happening over the last year…..

Remember Jade Helm?  That was a military exercise that made the Right go batcrap crazy….the government was accused of actually trying to takeover certain areas by force…..do you remember the term now?

Really!  But in case you are scratching that empty head….I can help….

Jade Helm is a multi-state training exercise taking place July 15 through Sept. 15 with members of U.S. Army Special Operations Command and service members from the military’s four branches. While the exercise is taking place across seven states, the Special Operations Forces are only training in five states: Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado.

In a March 24 press release from the Army, Jade Helm 15 was described simply as a “routine training exercise to maintain a high level of readiness.” The reason given for picking out the particular states, including Texas, is because each possesses a “unique terrain” that soldiers might find themselves operating in overseas.

People in Texas were sent into a flying rage saying that the government was basically declaring martial law and taking over the state….so the governor put the Texas national guard on alert to monitor the actions during this exercise….

These types of exercise are nothing new…..nothing at all….

After thinking about all the concern I figure it there is a disaster then there will be a need for the military to step in and keep law and order….I mean think about it…..if there is some sort of Apocalypse there will be those ya-hoos that will want to take advantage, right?

Okay I realize that I may be sounding like a conspiracy nut……and I would agree but after I read a piece I got to thinking that there was more to the exercise than we actually knew…….

If a giant solar flare hit the Earth, it could knock out the entire power grid, meaning no more new Taylor Swift singles, no more televised presidential debates, and no more Facebook photos of babies. But it wouldn’t be all good news. The Washington Post reports the elecromagnetic pulse—or EMP—created by such an event could wipe out electricity for months on end, creating a global catastrophe. That’s why the White House released its National Space Weather Strategy on Thursday. According to the Houston Chronicle, the multiagency plan details how the US will prepare for—and deal with—a massive EMP from space. The six-step plan requires government agencies, schools, the media, the insurance industry, nonprofits, and more to work together. In other words: We might be doomed.

“This is a real and present danger,” the White House’s assistant director for space weather tells the Post. Back in 1859, the sun whacked the Earth with a large EMP. At the time, it only caused some sparking telegraph lines, but the National Academy of Sciences says something like that today could have a $2 trillion economic impact. Something like that almost did happen in 2012, when NASA says we were nearly hit by two large plasma clouds. “If it had hit, we would still be picking up the pieces,” one physicist says. The White House’s new plan calls for the US to get better at predicting space weather, shore up our infrastructure against EMPs, and more, the Chronicle reports. According to the Post, the plan isn’t a moment too soon, as NASA states there’s a 12% chance we will be hit by a massive solar flare in the next 10 years.

Put the two stories together and I am beginning to see something that is not very attractive…..

Surely I am not the only person that put these two stories together……

Maybe I’m just paranoid?

 

Art Of War–GOP Style

Let us change the tone of the posts…..how about the battling Floridians?

The 2016 election has its characters……some are amusing while others are just tedious…..and others that just plain batcrap crazy….and the GOP has at least one in each category…..

But in all reality there are two candidates that can save GOP on a national stage….the problem is that they both are boring and ill informed……Rubio and Bush……

The Bush campaign has fired the first salvo of an inter-party battle…..

The Jeb Bush campaign threw some major shade at opponent Marco Rubio in a PowerPoint presentation for donors obtained by US News & World Report. The campaign met with donors Monday in Houston hoping to reassure them that Bush isn’t as doomed as he may appear. (That perception got worse with Wednesday’s debate.) Afterward, the campaign released a 45-page copy of the PowerPoint presentation it gave to donors to a handful of reporters. But US News managed to obtain the full 112-page version. “The document provides a rare behind-the-curtain look at the gritty details of a campaign at a crucial inflection point,” US News states.

The presentation released to reporters already called Rubio “the GOP’s Barack Obama,” but US News reports the full version includes some even more pointed and specific jabs at the senator’s character and ethics. In fact, there’s an entire slide devoted to Rubio with the title “Marco is a Risky Bet.” Bullet points on the slide refer to Rubio’s “misuse of state party credit cards, taxpayer funds,” and links to “scandal-scarred former Congressman David Rivera” and a billionaire auto dealer Norman Braman, who is a major benefactor. The latter relationship “raises major ethical questions.” The juiciest bullet point reads: “Those who have looked into Marco’s background in the past have been concerned with what they have found.” A Bush aide tells US News that refers to worries cited by Mitt Romney’s team while vetting Rubio for vice president in 2012. Read the full leaked document here.

All the info may be privy but what does Jeb offer in his place?

In my opinion not very much!

But if we are going to be honest about the GOP and its future as a viable party then look no further than Rubio and Ryan (I would not vote for either but the party does need an injection of new blood…. reasonable blood)

The last few years haven’t been kind to the Republican party, writes David Brooks in the New York Times, but he thinks the rise of two 40-something leaders is poised to change that. In a column headlined the “Paul Ryan and Marco Rubio Moment,” Brooks labels Rubio the most likely nominee. Coupled with Ryan’s election as House speaker, that would put the pair of them in prominent spots heading into the election—”a pretty excellent outcome for a party that has shown an amazing tendency to inflict self-harm.” Most of the column is spent praising the 44-year-old Rubio, whom Brooks calls a true “child of this century” when contrasted with other candidates spouting stale formulas.

“He understands that it’s no longer enough to cut taxes and say bad things about government to produce widespread prosperity,” writes Brooks, adding that Rubio is focused on problems such as technology putting people out of work and globalization bringing down wages. His anti-poverty programs are his “biggest departure” from traditional GOP beliefs, writes Brooks, including wage subsidies to encourage people to take entry-level jobs. “In a year in which many candidates are all marketing, Rubio is a balance of marketing and product,” writes Brooks. He and Ryan would make “the wonkiest leadership team in our lifetime,” and “that’s a good thing.” Click to read the full column.

I am not endorsing either of these two people only that they seem to possess the chops to help make the GOP a national party once again…..if the party keeps playing these moronic games it will never return to the glory it once had……

Thoughts?  Can the GOP regain some of the reliability they use to possess?

The New 3R’s

Nope not an educational post….not about reading, ‘riting and ‘rthetic…..not that all….these three R’s are the new plan by the Pentagon in fighting ISIS…..

The Pentagon’s push for a beefed-up US role in the war against the Islamic State (IS) landed with a thud on Capitol Hill on Oct. 27.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter told lawmakers on the Senate Armed Services Committee that military officials are considering a strategy of “3 Rs” focusing on Raqqa, Ramadi and raids in their bid to put the Islamist group on the back foot. Carter said the strategy includes a stepped-up bombing campaign as well as more special forces missions that will put US troops in harm’s way.

“We won’t hold back from supporting capable partners in opportunistic attacks against ISIL [IS],” Carter said, “or conducting such missions directly, whether by strikes from the air or direct action on the ground.”

There has been push back from both sides of the aisle….but all this criticism is not focusing on the most frightful part of the statement….”We won’t hold back from supporting capable partners in opportunistic attacks against ISIL [IS],”………..
That statement is scary for the reason that it what we did and our big problem, Al-Qaeda, was born…..we funded and trained AQ because they were fighting the USSR and they were our enemy back in the day….
But wait we have more plans for Syria…..

The United States ramped up its support for Syria’s opposition with a pledge of nearly $100 million in fresh aid on Saturday. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia’s top diplomat described the timing of the departure of Syrian President Bashar Assad and the withdrawal of foreign fighters as top sticking points to finding a lasting resolution to the civil war in Syria. The American promise of cash, which it says brings to nearly $500 million the amount it has pledged to the opposition since 2012, came a day after the US announced it was intensifying its fight against the Islamic State in Syria with the deployment of up to 50 special operations troops.

It also coincided with the completion of international talks in Vienna to pursue a new peace effort involving Syria’s Iranian-backed government and opposition groups. The negotiations left open the thorny question of when Assad might leave power, and it was unclear whether he or disparate rebel groups fighting to topple him would sign on to any peace proposal. A new round of talks was expected to take place within two weeks. The new US funds will support local and provincial councils, civil society activists, emergency services, and other needs on the ground inside Syria.

 And now we want to try this whole scenario yet again……at what point do we stop doing the same disastrous things over and over?
I believe Einstein had a quote about this type of thinking…….just how many times must we fail and create a foe before we try something new and different?  How many Americans have to die to prove to these people that their thinking is flawed?
Once again…..we will send troops to help the rebels and Russia is attacking rebel positions…..what could possibly go wrong with this scenario?

Syria: Here We Go Again

Do not pay the ransom…I escaped!

Finally the toads at my cable company have found the problem……now on to better things…..

Syria is on everyone’s lips….most of us are concerned about the refugees fleeing from the conflict or that ISIS will win there and move on to other lands and peoples……some of us are worried that the US will commit US troops to the nation and that will spiral out of control (of this I am one of those that worry)……

I am a Viet vet and I know what can happen when American special ops people are sent to “advise” another nation or faction…..we had advisers in Vietnam from 1950-1965……

The U.S. military advisory effort in Vietnam had a modest beginning in September 1950, when the United States Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG), Vietnam, was established in Saigon. Its mission was to supervise the issuance and employment of $10 million of military equipment to support French legionnaires in their effort to combat Viet Minh forces. By 1953 the amount of U.S. military aid had jumped to over $350 million and was used to replace the badly worn World War II vintage equipment that France, still suffering economically from the devastation of that war, was still using.

By 1961 the steady progress of the insurgency was near crisis levels. The new Kennedy administration increased American support for the Diem regime to prevent a collapse. By December of 1961, 3,200 U.S. military personnel were in Vietnam as advisors, supported by $65 million in military equipment and $136 million in economic aid. Military assistance was reorganized as the United States Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV), formed under the command of General Paul D. Harkins in February 1962. MACV was there to support the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) to defend the country. MACV included Army Special Forces (Green Beret) instructors and CIA personnel organizing the Montagnards in the mountains.

By 1963, U.S. military advisors in Vietnam had grown to 16,000 and the Americans were firmly identified with the oppressive Diem regime. Outrage over the Diem regime in Washington was communicated to South Vietnamese military leaders, indicating U.S. support for a new government. The Kennedy administration, through the CIA and Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge, encouraged a coup in early November 1963 in which Diem and Nhu were assassinated. General Duong Van Minh took over the government and the U.S. was obligated to support him and the series of weak governments that followed. Later than same month, President Kennedy was himself assassinated in Dallas, TX and President Johnson assumed office. Hanoi thought that the new President might be looking to exit Vietnam and calculated that an increase in violence would be the lever to push the U.S. out.

Then the Gulf of Tonkin incident and, as they say the rest is history……

Why did I give this short history lesson of advisers in Vietnam?  A great question.  We are about to start this process all over again……

Washington (CNN)The United States is set to deploy troops on the ground in Syria for the first time to advise and assist rebel forces combating ISIS, multiple officials said Friday.

A senior administration official said that the U.S. would be deploying “fewer than 50” U.S. Special Operations forces to Kurdish-controlled territory in northern Syria. The American troops will help local Kurdish and Arab forces fighting ISIS with logistics and are planning to bolster their efforts.

The deployment of U.S. Special Operations forces is the most significant escalation of the American military campaign against ISIS to date.

The U.S. Special Operations forces will first be deployed to northern Syria to help coordinate local ground forces and U.S.-led coalition efforts to fight ISIS, the senior administration official said.

All that info sounds all too familiar to me and anyone else that has been privy to the history of Vietnam……

Here is something to think about…..we are sending in troops to help the rebels and Russia is attacking the rebel positions….what could go wrong there?

No more thing…these are troops we are sending not a pair of inanimate boots….call them what they are….American troops!

After hearing this news….all I could think or say was…….Here We Go Again!

This blog told you this would…..CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?

 

Neocons Launch 2016 Manifesto

I am a foreign policy wonk….I truly love the international situations and the solutions that I see being implemented to control them….most times there are more failures than successes but that does not keep the pundits from talking tirelessly from a position of ignorance…..

I have said that the 2016 election will be mostly a foreign policy election because the world is ablaze and the US will be called upon to put out the fires (I wish them luck)…..

If you are a political geek then you are aware that the neocons want to use force to settle ALL incidents….we will go blindly into a situation that inevitably comes back to bite us in the ass….but that matters not…..the neocons care not….they prefer the use of force in EVERY situation.

The neocons have issued their manifesto before the election…..and it is a typical piece of work for them….

 A mostly neoconservative group of national-security analysts have published perhaps the first comprehensive outline of what they believe a Republican foreign policy should look like as …

Source: Neocons Launch 2016 Manifesto « LobeLog

Personally, I believe the use of force as a last resort……it is easy to drop a bomb….any moron can do that…..not all situations can benefit from military intervention….

I believe that foreign policy deciders need international relations experience…..it should not be a political appointment…..take a look at the last 50 years of history of interventions…..how many have had a truly successful conclusion?