Month: February 2023

Legislation Without Representation

Is our beloved ‘democracy’ just a big lie?

I ask that question because of the idea that DC needs representation in our Congress.

The Republican-led House of Representatives on Thursday approved two measures that would overturn a pair of bills passed by the D.C. Council, one that allows non-citizens to vote in local elections starting in 2024 and another that revises and modernizes the city’s century-old criminal code.

The votes on the disapproval resolutions — the first time since 2015 the House has advanced such measures, and only the second time in three decades — came largely along party lines, though dozens of Democrats broke ranks and voted in favor. On the resolution targeting the non-citizen voting bill, the vote was 260-162, with more than 40 Democrats joining Republicans. On the resolution aimed at the revised criminal code, the vote was 250-173, with 31 Democrats joining the Republican majority.

No one representing D.C.’s 700,000 residents voted on either resolution, as the city only has a single non-voting delegate to Congress.

The disapproval resolutions, which would have to be approved by the Senate and signed by President Joe Biden to take effect, mark an early start to what many D.C. officials and advocates worry will be aggressive efforts by House Republicans to interfere in local affairs. And they stand in stark contrast to how D.C. was treated during Democratic control of the chamber, when on two occasions lawmakers passed bills granting the city statehood.

During debate that started Wednesday night and stretched into Thursday morning, Republicans argued that they were merely acting to tamp down on “radical” actions by the “out-of-control” D.C. Council.

Republican-Led House, In Which D.C. Has No Vote, Passes Measures Repealing Two D.C. Bills

Personally I think it is a slap in the face of democracy to allow these people without representation….

Back to the question….is democracy a big lie?

Just a few thoughts on that question….

Is Democracy The Big Lie?

It is a lie at least for the residents of DC.

How can any American citizen be without proper representation in our Congress?

Would you stand by and let your voice go unheard?

Anyone else have a thought or two on the democracy thing?

What say you?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Onto Victory!

The news, as biased as it can be, is reporting that Ukraine will enter into a new phase…..an attack on Crimea.

Ukrainian sources told The Times that they would plan to use these missiles to hit Crimea, strikes that would seriously risk provoking Moscow. But both the US and Britain are less concerned about escalating the war.

Ukraine has already received some Harpoon missiles from Denmark and launchers from the US. The anti-ship missiles have a range of about 70 miles, although other variants can hit targets over 100 miles away. The Harpoons have a longer range than artillery missiles the US has sent, but the Harpoons are designed for coastal defense.

It’s not clear if Ukraine could use Harpoons in its ground battle against Russia with the current launchers, but Ukrainian officials claimed they used them to sink a Russian military tug boat last June. The Times report said the Harpoons would be less accurate if they were used on the ground.

The Storm Shadow missiles could hit targets at a range between about 150 miles and 350 miles, depending on the variant. They are typically fired from aircraft, and the UK is also considering providing Kyiv with fighter jets and plans on training Ukrainian pilots starting this spring.

Moscow would view the provision of jets and longer-range missiles as a major provocation, and Russian officials have been warning strongly against the move. Recent reporting suggests the US and its allies are no longer concerned with the risk of Russian President Vladimir Putin using a nuclear weapon in response to attacks on Crimea based only on the fact that he hasn’t used one up to this point.

(antiwar.com)

Could this be the start of the re-taking of Crimea from Russian clutches?

Not according to a Pentagon official.

Senior Pentagon officials told lawmakers in the House Armed Services Committee last week in a classified briefing that Ukraine is unlikely to retake Crimea from Russia, POLITICO reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the briefing.

The briefing reflects other recent reporting that said US officials don’t think Ukraine has the capability to take the peninsula, which Russia has controlled since 2014. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley said back in November that the probability of Ukraine kicking Russia out of the territory it captured since last February and Crimea is “not high.”

Milley reiterated this point on January 20. “I still maintain that for this year it would be very, very difficult to militarily eject the Russian forces from all –– every inch of Ukraine and occupied –– or Russian-occupied Ukraine,” he said.

According to the POLITICO report, the Ukrainian government was “furious” with Milley’s comments. Ukrainian officials maintain that kicking Russia out of Crimea is still one of their war goals, although Ukraine is beginning to lose more territory in its battle against Russian forces in the east.

Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL), the head of the House Armed Services Committee, declined to discuss the contents of the briefing his panel received on Crimea but signaled the US might be looking to wind the war down.

According to POLITICO, Rogers said the war needs to “end this summer” and said the US must rapidly supply Kyiv for a coming offensive. He also indicated the US might try to put pressure on the government of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to have a more realistic idea of victory and said that “Russia is never going to quit and give up Crimea.”

“What is doable? And I don’t think that that’s agreed upon yet. So I think that there’s going to have to be some pressure from our government and NATO leaders with Zelensky about what does victory look like,” Rogers added. “And I think that’s going to help us more than anything be able to drive Putin and Zelensky to the table to end this thing this summer.”

But a lot could happen between now and the summer, and as the US and its allies continue to announce major escalations of military aid, a direct clash between NATO and Russia becomes more likely.

(antiwar.com)

I do believe the last statement of the article says it all….this is what so many are praying for….and soon.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

That Soul-less SOB

Notice:  This will be by only post today I will be attending a wake for a family friend.  Be back tomorrow.

Have you been to the supermarket lately?

Did you notice that there were few check-outs open….only those pieces of crap known as the ‘self-checkout’?

Those modern inventions that allow companies to limit the employees needed as ‘cashiers’.

There seems to be more and more of these soul-less SOBs showing up every day.

This is why I use a store that has NO self-checkouts….I like the interaction between myself and the human cashier….

But the problem of the self-checkouts is getting interesting….

There are those who always do, those who occasionally do, and those who’ll never, ever so much as contemplate such a degrading experience.

No, I’m not talking about attending an Apple launch event. I’m talking about choosing self-checkout over the human kind.

It’s become a severely emotive subject, one that causes conniptions among the usually mild-mannered.

Why, some supermarkets are even inserting barriers to prevent shoppers from leaving until they’ve had their self-checkout receipts inspected. 

But who ever gets the receipt anyway?

Naturally, I seek solutions to the world’s problems, so I was moved to a heightened frenzy by this statement: “New Vynamic Smart Vision POS solution built on SeeWare distributed machine learning simplifies in-store checkout for frictionless, accurate, self-service transactions.”

Look at all those words. Aren’t you pulsating at the idea of, um, a frictionless shopping life brought to you by smart vision and machine learning?

Please, therefore, allow me to translate a little. There’s a big deal here. Well, a big deal for everyone who gets heartily annoyed whenever they use self-checkout machines.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/hate-self-checkout-get-ready-for-a-change-you-never-expected/

But since there are times when I am forced to participate in this exercise I believe that these companies should give a 3-5% discount on my total purchase…..because I could care less on the stock futures of said company….this idea would be a show of good faith to their customers.

Any personal thoughts on this subject?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Charter Of The Forest

I have not been writing so much these days about history and some of the misconceptions that are taught….I will rectify my absence.

The Constitution is in the news almost daily….it is used for every aspect of the news….so we should go back to the beginning.

Some Americans believe that the rights outlined in the Constitution were original thoughts by the Founders.

How many of you were taught in your history classes that the Constitution had its beginnings with the Magna Carta?

That teaching is not as accurate as you might think…..the Magna Carta was to quell the rebel barons had very little to do with the ‘common man’.

The Magna Carta, the Great Charter, or the Big Letter, signed by King John on June 15, 1215, at Runnymede, a meadow by the River Thames, to make peace with rebel barons, is perhaps the most well-known document that argues the existence and vigor of individual legal rights. Specifically, at the time of its signing, the immediate goal was protecting the private property of wealthy elite feudal lords who didn’t like their King.

Habeas Corpus—”show me the body”—as a defense against unlawful imprisonment, also traces a legal genealogy to the Magna Carta. However, the origins are in the Assize of Clarendon of 1166. I point out this distinction as noteworthy as there is more to the history of the Great Charter and its legacies.

For example, the Charter of the Forest, issued on November 6, 1217, two years after the Magna Carta, is the less-known of the agreements between these warring parties.

 “Unlike the Magna Carta, which dealt with the rights of barons, the Charter of the Forest addressed the rights of the common man. It restricted the amount of land that the king could claim for private use and restored the right of common access to natural resources.”

The Magna Carta Manifesto: Liberty and Commons for All by Peter Linebaugh examine the fascinating history from below of this document and the implications for the legal claims of private property.

English commoners’ rights come from The Charter of the Forest, not the Magna Carta

Since I am not as expert on English history I would like to hear from my English friends that will have more information than me.

There is so much that we Americans are not taught and I try to correct that oversight as best I can.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

State Of The Union–2023

It was that time again….the annual manure spreading exercise known as the State of the Union…

As promised a quick and painless review of last night’s speech..

President Biden is stressing unity and the economy in his 2023 State of the Union address. Some key early points on those fronts from his prime-time speech on Tuesday:

  • “You know, my Republican friends, we could work together the last Congress. There’s no reason we can’t work together and find consensus on important things in this Congress as well,” said Biden, per the Washington Post. “Fighting for the sake of fighting, power for the sake of power, conflict for the sake of conflict, gets us nowhere.” In fact, before the president began his speech, he publicly congratulated the new House speaker, Republican Kevin McCarthy. “Speaker, I don’t want to run your reputation, but I look forward to working with you.”
  • “We are the only country that has emerged from every crisis stronger than when we entered it,” the president said. “Today, COVID no longer controls our lives. And two years ago, our democracy faced its greatest threat since the Civil War. Today, though bruised, our democracy remains unbowed and unbroken.”
  • The economy is a big theme, per the New York Times. “As I stand here tonight, we have created a record 12 million new jobs—more jobs created in two years than any president has ever created in four years,” says the president. (The boast is accurate, but CNN notes that the pandemic skewed things.) “My economic plan is about investing in places and people that have been forgotten. … This is a blue-collar blueprint to rebuild America and make a real difference in your lives.”
  • Buying American: Biden announced that all construction material for federal projects must be made in America. “Lumber, glass, drywall, fiber optic cable. And on my watch, American roads, bridges, and American highways are going to be made with American products as well.”

During the speech the idiots acted out and did what they do….political theater….

Things got a little testy in the House as President Biden made his pitch for Congress to lift the debt ceiling to avoid default. Biden said Republicans lifted the ceiling three times for former President Trump “without preconditions or crisis,” per the New York Times. “Tonight, I’m asking this Congress to follow suit.” Jeers rang out from Republicans as Biden said of Trump: “No president added more to the national debt in any four years than my predecessor,” notes the Washington Post.

And boos and shouts of “liar” and bulls—” could be heard as Biden accused Republicans of going after Social Security and Medicare, per the Times. “Instead of making the wealthy pay their fair share, some Republicans, some Republicans want Medicare and Social Security sunset.” As the boos rang out, Biden added that he “wasn’t saying it’s a majority” of Republicans. He ad-libbed: “Let me tell you, I enjoy conversation.” The Hill notes that GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene yelled, “Liar!” and gave a thumbs-down to Biden’s comments.

Later, as Biden was asking Congress to pass his immigration plan, some Republicans, including Greene, chanted “Secure our border!” per the Washington Post. Biden paused briefly amid the chants, and the New York Times reports that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy “shushed” the GOP chanters.

Then there is the inevitable ‘rebuttal’ this time it was a Trumpian idiot, the governor of Arkansas Huckabee…..as of yet the GOP has never found an intelligent response to the SOTU….and this year was no different.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders delivered the Republican rebuttal to President Biden’s State of the Union address Tuesday night, and she did not hold back: The Arkansas governor declared Biden “unfit to serve as commander in chief” and said he’s putting both the US and the entire world at risk with his “weakness.” She also took a shot at his age: “At 40, I’m the youngest governor in the country, and at 80, he’s the oldest president in American history,” she said. A few more of her biggest jabs at Biden and the Democrats, as reported by CNN, the Wall Street Journal, and Politico:

  • “Normal” and “crazy” made a couple appearances: “The dividing line in America is no longer between right or left. The choice is between normal or crazy,” she said. At another point, decrying what she called the “false idols” of Democrats, she said, “That’s not normal. It’s crazy, and it’s wrong.”
  • So did “woke”: Drawing another contrast between herself and Biden, Sanders said, “I’m the first woman to lead my state and he’s the first man to surrender his presidency to a woke mob that can’t even tell you what a woman is.” She also specifically called out Biden’s SOTU address as being tethered to “woke fantasies.”
  • Her former boss was also mentioned: Recalling her time as Donald Trump’s press secretary, she talked about a trip to Iraq on Christmas in 2018, saying that when the troops saw Trump, “the room erupted. Men and women from every race, religion, and region, every political party, every demographic you can imagine started chanting in perfect unison over and over and over again, ‘USA, USA, USA.’ It was an absolutely perfect picture of what makes our country great.”
  • In contrast to that, “Biden and the Democrats have failed you,” she said, pointing to inflation, crime, border policy, education, and US-China relations, among other things. She said she didn’t believe “much of anything” Biden said in his address, accusing him of “doubling down on crazy.”
  • And a line from Trump: In his own brief response to the SOTU, Trump said in regard to sexual orientation and gender identity issues that Biden is “trying to indoctrinate and mutilate our children.” As for Sanders, she said “most Americans simply want to live their lives in freedom and peace, but we are under attack in a left-wing culture war we didn’t start and never wanted to fight.”

All in all the speech was great political theater that proves just how petty the GOP has become.

All in all the speech was a yawn….but if you would like more opinions from others…..

One big theme in coverage of President Biden’s Tuesday night State of the Union address? The POTUS was scrappy and seemed to relish it. As Politico’s headline briefly put it, “Biden pokes the elephant.” Some quick takes and reactions:

  • CNN offers a few takeaways from the SOTU here. Kevin Liptak notes the president “powered through” despite the clear and open hostility aimed his way from the other side of the aisle. “The spectacle of Biden smiling and offering a pointed riposte through multiple rounds of heckling from some House Republicans was, in many ways, an apt illustration of his presidency and a useful preview of his likely 2024 candidacy,” Liptak writes. Another takeaway? Despite his age, he showed “vigor” and energy, per Liptak.
  • At Fox News, however, David N. Bossie illustrates how Republicans saw the speech: He says Biden “was in full spin mode from the get-go, behaving more like a desperate candidate on the campaign trail.” Bossie also says Biden’s speech failed to reflect on the “obvious takeaway,” which, according to Bossie, is that Republicans took control of the House of Representatives in the midterms “because the American people voted against the president’s left-wing agenda
  • At NBC News, Jonathan Allen delves into the moment Marjorie Taylor Greene called Biden a liar, when the president was accusing Republicans of going after Medicare and social security. He “went off-script” to accept Greene’s comment “as on-the-spot agreement from the GOP to keep the programs intact,” proving he was “nimble enough … to box them in on Social Security and Medicare.”
  • Vox runs down 5 winners and 2 losers from the SOTU here. Among the winners: “The ad-libbing old-school Joe Biden.”
  • If you’re looking for economic takeaways, CNBC has those here. Among the topics: billionaire tax, junk fees, and the insulin price cap.
  • If it’s fact-checking you’re interested in, outlets including CNN, the Hill, the Washington Post, the New York Times, and PolitiFact did that.
  • The Post also looks at 39 “key proposals, pledges, or priorities” from last year’s SOTU and runs down which ones flopped and which ones succeeded in the year since.

But for those that want to draw their own conclusion….Politico has a full transcript of Tuesday’s speech here.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Tonight Is The Night

The big news for today, Tuesday, is that Biden will strut into the joint session of Congress and give his speech, State of the Union….I will watch and write my review tomorrow but for those that have better things to do then here is what is expected tonight…..

President Biden delivers his second State of the Union address Tuesday night, but don’t expect a raft of specific new policy proposals given the near impossibility of making them reality in a divided Congress, reports the AP. Instead, expect a speech offering Americans general reassurances that the nation is on the right track, particularly with the economy in regard to inflation and unemployment. Presidential historian Luke Nichter of Chapman University sees Biden’s No. 1 goal as being a “calming presence” for the country. Another crucial task will be making the case that he should run for re-election, even as many Democratic voters are skeptical about that.

“I think this is an impossible speech to give because it’s a speech that requires him to speak both about the state of the union as it is and the direction he hopes to lead it, which is about playing the role of statesman,” political scientist William Howell of the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy tells the Hill. “But it also is going to lay the groundwork for most likely his own run for office in 2024, which will call for him to be decidedly political and to cover all kinds of ground.” The war in Ukraine and China’s spy balloon are likely to surface as topics on the world front.

“(W)e’re told not to expect a red-meat, campaign-style speech,” per the Politico Playbook. “Instead, expect a traditional presidential call for unity—and a subtler pitch for steady leadership over partisan chaos as Washington heads into a high-stakes standoff over the debt limit and long-term fiscal planning.” The speech starts at 9pm Eastern, and notable guests include the mother of Tyre Nichols, the man who stopped a gunman at a California dance hall, and Bono.

This speech will probably be a yawn because there is very little Biden can say or promise that will be at all doable.

Stay tuned for the speech review tomorrow here on IST.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

It’s China Again!

It seems that all the hoopla about that balloon floating over the US has some animosities toward China erupting all over the blogosphere.

That is the M-IC think tanks have all the chest thumping but what about the average Joe thinks and feels?

I am glad I asked.

A large majority of Americans support talks aimed at reducing tensions with North Korea and China, according to a survey released Friday by The Harris Poll. The results are at odds with the state of opinion in Washington, where policy elites continue to one-up each other over how to respond to an incident in which an apparent Chinese surveillance balloon flew over the U.S. in recent days.

Two-thirds of respondents agreed that the U.S. should “engage in dialogue as much as possible to reduce tensions” with China, while 20 percent said Washington should “not restart official dialogue and instead spend more money on military build-up.” Support for talks focused on deescalation went up by five points since 2021, when Harris last asked the question.

Meanwhile, 68 percent of Americans polled told Harris that President Joe Biden should offer to hold direct talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, and 58 percent said the United States should offer diplomatic or economic incentives “in exchange for steps toward denuclearization.” 

In Washington, optimistic views of China’s geopolitical rise have soured in recent years, as demonstrated by the ongoing controversy over what appears to be a Chinese surveillance balloon. While some experts (including Pentagon officials) were quick to point out that the Chinese balloon posed no threat, the incident caused an uproar among many foreign policy elites, which no doubt contributed to Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s decision to postpone a scheduled trip to Beijing this past weekend.

As for North Korea, Biden has balked at the idea of changing U.S. policy toward the isolated state, opting instead to leave severe sanctions in place while expanding military cooperation with South Korea. And increased tensions with Russia and China have largely pushed issues related to North Korea to the periphery of policy making conversations.

Harris conducted the online survey from January 17-19 on behalf of the American Friends Service Committee, a prominent Quaker anti-war organization. The results are weighted to be representative and are based on a sample of 2063 American adults.

The pollsters also found increased support (59 percent) for establishing a diplomatic presence in North Korea since 2021, when a slim majority of respondents (52 percent) approved of the idea. 

Americans far less hawkish on North Korea and China than policy elites: poll

I find this poll interesting….Americans seem to want hostilities to weaken with China and North Korea but are chest thumping primates when it comes to an actually shooting match.

The poll is not an indication of what I read on IST….so I am a bit skeptical of the results of the poll.

Only the Pentagon knows what is really happening….and they will NEVER tell the American people the truth.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Could The Balloon Be The Beginning?

We all are well aware of the balloon incident….the media, the Pentagon and the right wingers got lots of print over the balloon violating our space….but did you know that this was not the first time it had happened?

Just to keep you in the loop….

…a senior Pentagon official briefing reporters was more specific, saying it happened three times under the Trump administration and at least once under Biden.

The official said that Chinese balloons “transited the continental United States briefly at least three times during the prior administration and once that we know of at the beginning of this administration, but never for this duration of time.”

Fox News reported that at least one Chinese balloon flew over Florida and Texas during the Trump administration, but President Trump and former top officials in his administration strongly denied the claim.

Later, an unnamed senior Biden administration official claimed to Fox that the balloons that transited over the US during the Trump administration were only “discovered” after he left office. “They went undetected,” the administration official said.

The Triad, Pentagon, media and right wingers, are making hay out of this situation….but why?

Could it be to help the prediction made by a Pentagon official?

A four-star US Air Force general thinks a war between the US and China is only two years away and has ordered his forces to start preparing for the conflict.

In a memo obtained by NBC News, Gen. Mike Minihan, the head of Air Mobility Command, said of a war with China, “I hope I am wrong. My gut tells me will fight in 2025.”

AMC is a major command of the US Air Force and is responsible for transportation and refueling. Nearly 50,000 airmen are members of AMC, and the command oversees about 430 aircraft.

Rep. Michael McCaul, the new chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said that he believes Minihan’s prediction is right. “I hope he is wrong. … I think he is right though,” McCaul told Fox News on Sunday.

But China has stepped up its military activity around Taiwan due to increasing US support for Taipei. Despite Beijing’s warnings, the US continues to boost ties with Taiwan, including by providing unprecedented military aid. At some point, this support could become intolerable for China, and Beijing could take actions short of an invasion, such as a blockade or attacking small islands that Taiwan controls off mainland China’s coast.

A war between the US and China could also be sparked in the South China Sea, where the US has increased its military presence in recent years. US and Chinese warplanes and warships occasionally have close encounters in the area, and with US-China relations at such a low point, an accident could spiral into a wider conflict.

Minihan told the officers he commands to report all major efforts they take to prepare for war with China by February 28. He said during the month of February, all AMC personnel should “fire a clip into a 7-meter target with the full understanding that unrepentant lethality matters most. Aim for the head.”

Minihan also called for his personnel to get their affairs in order as they prepare for war. He said in the month of March, they should “consider their personal affairs and whether a visit should be scheduled with their servicing base legal office to ensure they are legally ready and prepared.”

(antiwar.com)

Now I know that there are those out there that will have strong opinions on this developing situation.

So let them fly.

Could this situation of the balloon be the beginning?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Are The Tanks Rolling?

The news shot across the media….the US and its allies will be sending tanks to the Ukrainian forces in their on-going conflict with the forces of Russia.

The US announced on January 25 that it will send thirty-one M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine. The tanks may take months or even years to arrive and may never see the battlefield. But that may never have been the intent.

The M1 Abrams is the main battle tank of the US military and is one of the most powerful and sophisticated tanks in the world. But, for Ukraine, that is both the advantage and the problem.

According to military analyst Daniel Davis, “it could take a year or more for all these Abrams to make it to Ukraine, so any expectations that these tanks will have an immediate impact on the fighting needs to be tempered.”

In his comments announcing the decision, Biden said that delivering the tanks to Ukraine will “take time” without further specification.

Reporting ahead of the Biden administration’s announcement, the Associated Press said that “it could take months for the tanks to be delivered.” Other reporting by the AP added that “it could take months or years for the tanks to be delivered.” The longer estimate seems to be based on US intentions to purchase new tanks through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative package, which provides longer-range funding for weapons, rather than sending tanks from US stockpiles.

US Is Sending Tanks to Ukraine. But Why?

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Tuesday that Ukraine expects to receive between 120 and 140 Western-made tanks in the “first wave” of deliveries.

“The tank coalition now has 12 members. I can note that in the first wave of contributions, the Ukrainian armed forces will receive between 120 and 140 Western-model tanks,” Kuleba said. “These are Leopard 2, Challenger 2, M1 Abrams.”

Tanks may not be the answer that Kyiv thinks it will be…..

It seems to be a case of little provision for so much supposed effect. The debates, the squabbles, the to-and-fro about supplying Ukraine with tanks from Western arsenals has served to confirm one thing: this is an ever-broadening war between the West against Russia with Ukraine an experimental proxy convinced it will win through. Efforts to limit the deepening conflict continue to be seen as the quailing sentiments of appeasers, the wobbly types who find democracy a less than lovable thing.

So far, promises have been made to ship the US M1A2 Abrams, Germany’s Leopard 2 and the UK’s Challenger. Others have alluded to doing the same thing – including France regarding its Leclerc tanks – but tardiness fills the ranks, and logistics will make the provision of such weapons a long affair. Re-export licenses will have to be issued, notably regarding the Leopard 2; training Ukrainian tank crews will also need to be undertaken.

All in all, the picture is not as rosy as those in Kyiv think, despite the confident assessment from Ukraine’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Andriy Melnyk that his country’s defence forces would have access to “at least a hundred tanks” within three months.

Ukraine’s Tank Problem

How will this end?

Thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Up, Up And Away My Beautiful Balloon

For at least a week the eyes of America and the media has been on the “Chinese’ balloon floating over the US….now the country can rest quietly the damn thing has been shot down.

US Air Force fighter jet on Saturday shot down a balloon launched by China that was suspected of spying as it floated over several states and inflamed tension between the nations. The balloon came down in the Atlantic Ocean, off the South Carolina coast, the AP reports. Recovery efforts began immediately. President Biden afterward praised the US forces involved. “I ordered the Pentagon to shoot it down on Wednesday as soon as possible,” he said. Military leaders decided the operation would pose the least danger to people on the ground if the balloon was shot down “when it got over water within our 12-mile limit,” Biden said, per the New York Times.

F-22 fighter jets from Langley Air Force Base in Virginia were deployed, per CNN, and fired a single AIM-9X missile at 2:39pm ET when the balloon was about 6 nautical miles from Myrtle Beach. The FAA had imposed ground stops and closed airspace over parts of the Carolinas earlier in the afternoon, saying the move was to “support the Department of Defense in a national security effort,” per the Washington Post. The Coast Guard also had told sea traffic to leave the area, anticipating debris would be scattered over a large area. The military tried to time the operation so that crews could reach the debris, projected to fall in US territorial waters, before it sinks.

Calling the operation “a lawful action” in a statement, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said China was using the balloon “to surveil strategic sites.” The balloon, which was floating at an altitude of 60,000 feet, had been spotted Saturday over Charlotte and South Carolina’s Greenville County. Jeffrey Billie of Pawleys Island, South Carolina, saw the balloon come down, per the Times. “It was two fighter jets dancing with this thing going around and around it,” he said. Next, a third jet appeared and fired the missile as the balloon moved over the water. “Then, of course, the round big white ball that we saw—all of a sudden it looked like a shriveled Kleenex,” he said. Another Chinese balloon is over Latin America, Pentagon officials said.

Can we put this to bed?

But not before I share something I read on Twitter…..

The Halfway Post
 
@HalfwayPost
 
BREAKING: 6 local conservatives in South Carolina have accidentally shot themselves in gun accidents while attempting to shoot down the Chinese balloon.
Is this a valid story?  Is this satire?
 
I suspect it is satire but knowing the idiots and their guns it has a ring of accuracy.
 
If so I cannot laugh enough on this Sunday.
 
I do not follow this site so I cannot say the accuracy of the report….but….still damn funny.
 
Can we now put this diversion to bed now?
 
I Read, I Write, You Know
 
“lego ergo scribo”