Down that Rabbit Hole

Curiouser and curiouser - and somebody's getting paid to keep us safe?

The US 'suffered' another mass shooting last week. In their penchant for such things, it was described as 'the single greatest mass-killing by a lone gunman in US history'.   While it may be one for the record books, it is not a singularity in US history,  nor is it probably THE ultimate. For along with the normal three-day hoo-haw about 'who dunnit' and the seven-day mourning period for the victims, this incident is no different from any of the others - in that the essential condition which gave rise to it - the 'right' to bear some heavy-duty firepower - runs on, untroubled, to the gun shops and shooting ranges.  The US Senate refused to impinge, even slightly, on America's 'Gord-given' right to have an arsenal at home.

Perhaps obfuscating any change were the details.  While the Americans killed were possibly a cross-section of normal Americans, they didn't represent many of the true believers who hold America's best interests hostage to their own. They were for the most part gay, and for the other part largely Hispanic.  The shooter himself is being told-off - aside from the blatted 'pledging of allegiance to ISIS' - as a possible self-loathing  sodomite, or someone unlucky in that kind of love and looking to take a 'harem' with him.  He certainly succeeded killing and wounding well over 150 people in a two hour period when he wasn't holed up in a toilet, or trying to get through to 911.   One has to wonder what his 'load out' was,  as he walked, or flew,  or morphed  past the off-duty officers on duty as security guards.  Something went-off the rails there, for  not only did he have a long gun, a pistol and a knife, he also had  a significant amount of ammunition. And we're told he'd bought it all only days before. And he carried it all, unremarked,  into a closing time crowd.

                                            SWAT squad load-out. The battle of The Pulse



It's sad, really, that the shooting is remarkable only for a spate of the standard 'bolshoi' that seems to be the 'blffftsplk cloud' around all such sad events.

First there was the saga of the authorities having had him 'on their radar' but not being able to 'get the goods on him', or stop him.  His wife is facing charges of failing to stop him because she failed to notify authorities that she had been trying to talk him out of something that might have involved his new guns - if she knew about those. But when we hear about some of the 'terrorists' that authorities did stop, one has to wonder if they aren't relying far too much on paid informants  and mapping-out their own 'terror scenarios' to entrap some poor schmuck into doing them?

Nine terrorists who were stopped.

Then there are  the knee-jerk reactions and generalized stupidity that follows such outrages.  Somebody had his bank account frozen after after writing his dog's name 'Dash' on a cheque to the dog-sitter. Either the dog-sitter has a threatening Arabic name,  or somebody at Chase Manhattan was in 'Dwight Smoot'  mode and thought he had meant to write 'Daesh'.

Puppy dog tales 

In an even more humorous anecdote Homeland Security got involved when somebody created a money transfer to a buddy to pay for a night out  and memorandized it with the guilty phrase "ISIS beer funds".  Obviously that electronic communication was flagged in some 'trapment warehouse' and along with the nude selfies, 'sent up' for the attention of operatives with better skill sets.  This was the sort of thing that, possibly,  'soured' Snowden on America, one  might imagine, but the official follow-up was the work of morons and a waste of valuable security resources - considering a real terrorist shot up a gay bar and killed 70 people. .

This Bud's 4 U

And then there's that need to take some action. If you can't shut down a gun shop, or 500, well you can stop them jihads sending messages that make people want to grab an assault rifle and a passel of  ammo and go  wreak a cowardly killin' somewhere.  Facebook and Twitter are to blame for wrecking America if  the 'Allahu Akbars', 'salaam''s  and 'inshallah''s aren't curtailed.

Cutoff my nose to spite my face.

And lastly,  a truly sad commentary on the effects of it all.  This story is about a 3 year-old practicing her 'lock down' skills -  hiding in the bathroom and acting out what she might need to do if a bad man with a gun came to her school - stand on the toilet so he can't see your feet when he looks.

Peek a boo. Bang!

What's interesting is the response to the story.   Practical suggestions for further training for a wide array of emergencies at school and elsewhere.  The standard 'bleeding heart' criticism of the anti-gun population. Even a reminder that sanitation is important when hiding from a gunman. I'm surprised that nobody mentioned good etiquette. There were  reminders of how effective armed teachers might be - they'd certainly get those drills down pat ( Mr.  Woloshowinsky will be pretending to be the shooter to-day - his gun will remain unloaded.) .  Somebody recalled the good old days when hiding under a desk wasn't really going to save anyone from a nuclear bomb, (nobody wanted to frighten the kids by telling them that) . But it was used to do something in kids about 'Russians'.  A fear that many still hold in their essential being to this day and transfer, ever so easily, to whatever boogey-men are selected for their paranoic consideration.

As long as somebody suffering some delusion, or a bigger hate,  has access to a gun, kids in schools - or people in churches , theaters, libraries or simply on the street  are still going to get shot in America the Armed.

It's like dogs biting people - we'll ban breeds one by one, up the fines and punishments  - but we won't make the beggars, all of them, wear a muzzle if they're out in public.  Like muzzles on all dogs the answer to gun violence in America is glaringly obvious too.

No guns, no gun violence.

Fallujah - the Third Time Round

The third Battle of Falljuah (Iraq) seems to be coming to a close as forces of the Iraqi government close in on whatever ISIS forces are holding on to the city. Concerns are being expressed for civilians trapped in the city and yesterday morning it was reported that ISIS was killing those who were trying to leave. That seems to be a fairly standard report coming out of these things.

Yesterday i happened to find a report on YouTube from a Vice News reporter traveling with an  Iraqi Army special forces unit, 'the Golden Division',  as they moved in on Fallujah.  The parts of the operation depicted involved the 'liberation of two outlying towns just north of Fallujah.

Fallujah is no stranger to danger in the mess that is modern Iraq.  It first became a news item, for civilized people, when the denizens of the place killed three American 'contractors' back in the days when Bushco's 'mission accomplished' was starting to derail itself. They killed, burned and strung-up the corpses and, for their pains, received the gentle ministrations of a US Marine regiment. The first assault just seemed to annoy the locals - at least those who weren't killed - and they 'forced' the Marines to do it all over again,  bigger and better, a few months later.  Fallujah was pacified, and largely flattened.

When the town was rebuilt,  it was as some kind of 'model' for what civilization was going to look like in Iraq. The centre of the city was a fortified FOB to protect government and police buildings. It was hoped that the surviving Sunnis would 'see sense' and, like many other Sunnis,  accept Uncle Sammy's gratitude. They did and they and started hunting down "AQ terrorists" for him.

Things were looking good until the Americans decamped,  leaving a lightly-armed Sunni Anbar facing the Shia-dominated, and American-armed  Iraqi government.  It didn't take long for an 'insurrection' to occur.  The Sunnis re-staked their  claim on Anbar and fought the Shia forces to a stand-still.  The Sunni revolt was still underway when ISIS came driving down from the north and captured the place,  two years ago in November.

After the Iraqi Army was  routed so badly the US had to form a new coalition to help and returned to Iraq.  Now the US-backed Iraqi government, after training and re-equipping,  is poised to hit back.  What seems apparent is that the Sunnis of Anbar are about to get the 'comeuppance' they were 'due' five years ago. And because they've been lying-down with the devil, they're going to  get the Shia version of Islamic, and Iraqi,  justice - in spades.

One of the things that is most noticeable about the clip attached, is the eminent humanity displayed by the unit commander,   who,  although he's pretty convinced he's dealing with some bad dudes, shooting at him, he's also pretty sure some are hiding among the civilians he takes.  But he, repeatedly hectors his men,  'Don't hit them!'.  At least on camera and, incidentally, after they do.

 Given the 'injustice' we are told America rescued Iraqis from, most of the men we see sitting captive will be lucky if all they get is a good hiding.  In one scene the commander's mask slips as he goes, in person, to arrest a family who, he was told denounced a woman's son to ISIS.  "I'll break your teeth."  seemed a mild promise of worse to come as a man and his three sons were frog-marched off for 'investigation'  in Baghdad.

But if the commander is not as good as the good guys might hope, he closes the report by warning that the forces following behind him are real villains.

 Yesterday a news story reported that the assault on Fallujah was being 'delayed'  because of 'communications problems' in the attacking units.  I would bet that that problem is the one the fighting commanders have to deal with when the rievers, rapists and real killers show up. I'm pretty sure everybody knows this operation will either make peace, or set Iraq up for another decade of  sectarian violence.   Or the drift into sectarian statelets with continued strife.

Just like the neocons' plan for that  'New American Century' in west Asia foretold.

Egyptair: MH 17 The Putin Connection?

 The recent downing of  the Egyptair Airbus over the Med must have reminded somebody that MH17 is still in need of some definitive proving.  And so there is a regurgitation of the 'social media ' evidence that Putin dunnit.

Tell that to the Aussies,  who are convinced they're going to be able to convince the ICJ that the chips are all turning-up 'Putin' - and they'd like a few hundred million to assuage the grief involved. The US attorney who got Ghaddafi to cough-up the boodle over Lockerbie - or was that to ensure the release of the convicted, and at that time dying, bomber - has signed-on to 'assist' the case.  It might help if any Russians had been convicted since having a Libyan charged, and found guilty, probably made the Lockerbie case a slam-dunk even if the money did come later.  But there are no convicted, or even identified, Russians - so MH17 might be tougher.

Although the first part of the MH17 investigation was concluded and the conventional wisdom that 'the russians did it' was upheld by Dutch investigators, enough questions were left unanswered to at least hint that the final word may not be emanating from Kyiv.  The Ukrainian side of the issue was adopted from virtually the first moment and only lacking proof would indicate it isn't wrong.  Facebook posts of what  'Bellingcat' thinks the Russian military are up to, his evidence is - to a large degree - open to some questioning or interpretation. It is no 'smoking gun'. That's a large part of the problem that could apparently be resolved easily.  But for some reason it has not been.

Within two days of the incident, US Secretary of State John Kerry gave every indication that he knew all there was to know about MH17, so much so that he appeared at the UN to demand a sanctions program. But statements aside, one would think if definitive proof was available, as he claimed  it was, it would have been made available to the investigation - even 'sub rosa' if military secrets were involved.   Here's what he told America and the world three days after the crash.

Kerry on 'Meet the Press'  July 20, 2014.

The discussion had been wide-ranging before Kerry Arrived but he launched himself into the topic 'ab initio', he remarked on the separatists' guilt, the Russian commander admitting as much, rejoicing over the hit etc , their control of the crash site,  the loading of victims bodies into trucks, knowing Russia had supplied them with Buks and then.  

DAVID GREGORY:
"Are you bottom lining here that Russia provided the weapon?

SECRETARY JOHN KERRY:
There's a story today confirming that. But we have not, within the administration, made a determination. But it's pretty clear, when, you know, there's a build-up of extraordinary circumstantial evidence. You know, I'm a former prosecutor. I've tried cases on circumstantial evidence. It's powerful here. But even more importantly, we picked up the imagery of this launch. We know the trajectory. We know where it came from. We know the timing. And it was exactly at the time that this aircraft disappeared from the radar. We also know, from voice identification, that the separatists were bragging about shooting it down afterwards.

DAVID GREGORY:
Right.

SECRETARY JOHN KERRY:
So there's a stacking up of evidence here, which Russia needs to help account for. We are not drawing the final conclusion here. But there is a lot that points at the need for Russia to be responsible. And what President Obama believes and we, the international community, join in believing, everybody is convinced we must have unfettered access."

There was a conclusion drawn then that still exists and this is a 'smoking gun' story  if I've ever hard one.  Yet Kerry has yet to provide the evidence of which he speaks. Or admit making a creative statement to 'color' an already bloody disaster.

The most  development in the saga is a recently release dash cam of what is claimed to be the rebels Buk 'moving into position' shortly before it downed the Malaysian airliner.

 David Perry of Consortium news deconstructs the updated conventional wisdom

David Perry "More Gameplaying on MH17?"

The second part of the investigation. The presentation of incriminating evidence and the proof of Russian perfidy is not expected anytime soon. 

In the meanwhile there is another plane  - Egyptair - fallen from the sky and even now (almost two weeks later) almost beyond the ability of modern man to retrieve let alone know exactly what happened.  We're nor getting much better at air disasters, are we? 

Big Brother at Work

There have  been a number of interesting government 'interventions' in otherwise 'small potatoes' over the past wee while.  Some of them are worth a look


Anti-Israel boycotts.  A number of western governments have recently enacted legislation to 'outlaw' any 'boycott Israel' activities in organizations or institutions that receive government funding.  Canada passed such a law after a McGill University Student group moved to boycott Israel. Obama signed similar legislation in the USA. Similar laws have been passed in Britain, France and Germany.  All to stop support for Palestinians and the boycott of goods manufactured in Israeli West Bank 'settlements',  but imported as 'Products of Israel'.

The boycott was instituted to have such products labelled accurately.  One of the most notorious products was a soft-drink flavoring system (Soda Stream) manufactured in the Jewish West Bank using 'Palestinian labour'.  The company has now gone out of business completely, after  relocating to the Sinai area of Israel and hiring 'bedouin tribesmen'.

It remains to be seen what penalties will be incurred for failing to adhere to the laws.

The Brexit - Brexception:  Prime Minister Cameron campaigned his last election on the notion that Britain could do better outside the EU and should have a better deal inside it.  He has recently concluded a round of trade negotiations that, he claims, make 'staying in'  in Britain's best interests. Some commentators liken it to the Munich agreement that gained a breathing space before the inevitable bad times to come.  In Cameron's mind there will be no 'Brexit' from the EU - and so all the other is bumpff.  What nobody has noticed, yet, is that Britain has gained no special dispensation from EU control over its economy, or other important affairs of state. Britain is as 'tied' to  the EU this week, as it was a month ago, and will be in the future. Cameron got little more for his troubles than he already had.  And, should he win the up-coming referendum,  Britain will be more tightly attached to Europe than it has ever been. All this does is 'shut-up' the vocal rump who've been complaining since last the lion roared. And that isn't the British banks and financial system - which let its mind be known by devaluing the pound - citing the 'upset'.

Ukraine - on going:  The EU was had 'Ukraine Week' at the Parliament a few weeks back (shows how long I've been procrastinating)  - celebrating all things Ukrainian with socializing and canapes. The purpose was to 'keep Ukraine high on the EU agenda' - as if Ukraine and its sad state could be ignored. The Dutch were preparing to 'ratify' their EU agreement with Ukraine (they didn't- but this is 'no longer important') - something that had been bruited to fail when put to the Dutch, even after a government plan to 'manage' the dissonance was revealed last week. Ukrainian ministers were doing their world tours of western capitals, 'selling' the struggle against Russia for the 'defense of civilization'.  Western governments bought it, at least insofar as maintaining, or as in the case of the US, extending,  the sanctions program against Russia.

In the meantime,  the imminent collapse of Russia is postponed, again, while Ukraine 'gears-up' for the only option to doing nothing, trying to 'provoke' the rebels into the 'attack' that would justify one more, hopefully successful,  "tooth-breaking offensive" to regain 'the east.'  There was a minor dust-up related to this when somebody in the EU parliament  noticed the 'nazi' tattoos on the portraits of some wounded Ukrainian servicemen displayed for the edification of the Euros.  The photos were hastily removed from display but also appeared  on an AV presentation.  (So have any references to this minor fiasco.  But I shall keep on looking - they were there - video and all - on Ukrainian government sites.)

The east China Sea continues to focus the lights of the great defender of most things, as the Chinese continue to tun reefs into desert islands from which they can 'threaten' international shipping or something like that.  One would think that building a landing strip in the middle of a sea would be a good idea.  Ir's a pretty virtual certainty that international, indeed any kind of shipping, which might have avoided a submerged reef, would certainly avoid an emerged islet built on top of it.  But the Chinese building anything, without somebody's say-so,  not inside China,  is a threat to American interest somewhere, somehow.

Syria continues as Syria has continued since 'the US led coalition' showed up to fight the ISIS thing the  Saudis and Gulf States  created for them.  Correct that: things actually started to change after the Russians showed-up. Things are still changing, how is not yet clear.

Strange

 "The road to heck passeth through procrastination" - cleaning up some 'old' ideas.

 Just when you think things have gotten as funny, stupid, tragic, etc as they're  going to get,  along come the next thing, worse (or better).  In this instant it's another sad story of Putin 'doing it' (although he is never directly accused).

As we all know one of the blowback effects of the strife in Ukraine has seen both sides setting-up ministries to handle the necessary 'skew' on news, the amplification of outrages and the 'toning' of accusations.  There are - we are told -  an army - Putin's Army - of internet commentators   scanning for stories and either bolstering Putin's misdeeds or making mock of the poor valiant Ukrainians. Apparently there are a number of patriotic, nation-loving people who do the same thing for Kiev. So when 'Peace-President' Poroshenko was mentioned in the Panama Papers a tide started rising about him and his promises to divest himself of his oligarchy, so as to run the country for somebody else' benefit and not his own. Something had to be done, enter Putin's army and the cockamamie story posted in a recent New York Times. Although the writers claim their 'contact' indicated he was hired by Ukraine, you can bet your  Vyshyvanka that Putin did it -  to make Porko look better.

A Hoax Cloaked in An Ukrainian Interview


The Hindustan Times is a unique rag,  often breaking stories from Asia well-before they appear in western media.  They are BIG on 'the evils of ISIS' stories but sometimes that even can get obfuscated. One of their more garish tales was the execution of 15 potential 'Brides' in an unnamed marketplace somewhere - for, apparently, refusing to be brides.   This sad tale started in the HT early in the day, by noon it was featured by the Jerusalem Post and made it to America in time for the dinnertime news. It was like all others of its ilk,  a memory by the next day.  Strangely enough,  the same story surfaced datelined two weeks prior to the 'big' HT reveal,  on the website of a Catholic newsfeed organization in the USA and penned by one of their staffers.

HT provided this bit of human interest which typically went on to make the rounds of western media. It was, later on, displayed as a lesson learned from the gallant Israelis who featured "door knocking" - a targetting missile on the roof -  as a replacement for the formerly-used method of placing a phone call to warn that destruction was imminent.


Door Knocking

In this instant, the report accompanied the much-circulated story of the US destroying ISIS cash reserves.  It is a telling breakthrough in humanitarianism that such bomb strikes on other 'terror targets' are often decried for the later arrival of a second missile  - intended  to disrupt any rescue effort.  Could you imagine the crowd of possible 'collateral damage' that would have gathered to pick up any flying bills?   Things are looking up.

Superbowl Ell

The 50 edition of America's annual rite of passage took place last Sunday. It was a mediocre game lacking virtually everything that makes a play-off game of anything exciting.  A boring two hours played by two evenly-matched mediocrities.  It will not be remembered for the sport as much as for the military and its complex strutting and showing their stuff.

 It is such shows of militaristic jingoism paired with the 'sine qua non' commercialism that, possibly,  made Bushco2 come up with the notion that somebody might 'hate us for our freedumbs.'  One can imagine Nick the Greek and other such  iconic heavy rollers chomping down a little harder of that Costa Rican  'cuban' stogie and choking down a lump in the throat as they heard Lady Gaga get the National anthem as 'right' as it has been gotten in the past quarter century - she was 'pitch perfect' and forgot none of the lyrics.   Poignant, if not pregnant.


From there things all ran down hill, or down the leg.

A minor scandal tainted the National Football League this year when it came to light that all the national military fervor associated with opening-game ceremonies and involving members of the US armed forces were not voluntary. At least not voluntary from the NFL's perspective, they asked for and received,  the monetary gratitude of the US Department of Defense. They may even have charged for all the 'free' tickets handed out to participating military personnel. The love relationship between pro football and the Military was the same kind of transaction that takes place outside the gates of most military installations most Friday and Saturday nights - some mutual admiration and a cash transfer.

Perhaps that's why the DoD felt the need to get into the annual 'creative' advertising competition.

 The big game has become a contest of sorts to see what big business can do to shill its junk. Commercial advertising for the event, as well as being very expensive,  has become highly competitive and innovative as ad agencies vie to  have the ad with most YouTube hits after the game. US military suppliers Northrup-Grumman   might have a winner in the fantasy category. They chose to spend their boodle advertising the weapons of the future - a new,  yet-to-be-designed,  fighter jet that apparently could contend with the Sith Lord' s Tie Fighters.  But then the F35 is still a dud and the new advanced fighter is a gleam in, possibly, our granddaughter's eye - or it will be if it takes as long to gestate. 

While the viewing audience may have been awed - if they weren't in the 'biffy' or getting more dip from the kitchen, the game attendees had to be content with the displays and the fly-past, as well as what has been described as a massive military 'security' presence.

Air space was closed for miles around the venue, drones were prohibited. Military security vehicles, armed with heavy machine-guns, were prepared for the finest bang-bang a dollar can buy. And a whole company of field-equipped soldiers were deployed on watch inside the stadium. These latter in addition to the panalopy of service choristers, banner bearers, bandsmen and  the requisite command and control units required to pull it all off. The military was even linked to the GPS system which apparently is used to track and guage player movement, activity and health on the field during the game.  They couldn't do it without somebody.

Not to go unmentioned was the fantastic 'Pepsi half time show'.  The show featured the British groups 'Cold Play - but it shouldn't have bothered. The lead singer 40-something Chris Martin spent a noticeable amount of time rolling around on stages close to what could have been a couple of his daughters and their pre-teen friends - if he truly ruled the world, he might have done it better from a throne of some sort. But nice sneakers.  Bruno Mars reprising his big show last year could have carried this one all by himself - or rather, with his coteries of jazz-hopping homies - they had practiced their stuff, did it well and didn't grab crotch once - unlike the aforesaid Martin who must have had a blazing case of jock itch.  The third element - included I imagine for T&A effect, for whatever tune she was singing was inaudible -  was the badass of black divas 'Beyonce'. Appearing in her trademark vinyl 'knickers' - this year's surgical grade front zipper led the adolescent imagination in what might have been underneath that 'thang', with the industrial-strength performance hose.  She also had a pair of granny boots that only a foot fetishist, or Miss Grundy, could have admired. She was accompanied by a harem of black Jezibels on the not-too-well coordinated prowl for something. Some bozo writer in the Toronto Star, Monday, wrote a paean to Beyonce and her significance for blackitude,  black youth  and art.

Cold Play review

Shy of rolling a battle wagon into the game, the games couldn't have been better for the  military if no one else .... say there's a thought for next year.

Meanwhile  Levi Stadium, where the game was held, is on the orbit path of Kim Jung Un's newly launched satellite.

A Pigs' Funeral for a Dog's Breakfast - and other Christmas Tales

As Christmas comes to Ukraine and it approaches the second anniversary of its 'new' freedom,  there is not much changed to distinguish it from the mess the Maidan made.   While it is questionable that Ukraine would have changed had it not 'gone crazy' - twenty years of doing things wrong didn't teach many lessons about doing things right - for the mistakes, rather than being undone,  are  now magnified, more numerous and far more violent than they were before.

Neo-EUkraines' singular failure was to use the nationalist right wing extremists to unseat the former government.  No matter what 'cleansing' -  purely superficial -  the 'euro-technocrats' did to clean-up for the EU and the 'free world',  the fascist rump rules the country -  and terrifies them.  The touted 'reforms' - largely to mollify foreign investors and open Ukraine up to economic exploitation - fly directly into  the 'national power'  objectives of the right wing. The notion of making Ukraine strong by selling out to the IMF may play well with expatriots in the west, but to those Ukrainians at home, now being weaned forcefully from the 'ravages' of socialism, the switch to the higher start-up costs of a fee economy stand a good chance of forcing many of them to use an EU visa (if they ever get one) to head west like their 'betters' do, and have traditionally done.

In an apparent replay of a traditional Ukrainian form of protest, farmers descended on the Rada building two days before Christmas #1 and the 'festivus for the rest of us'   celebrated by 40 percent of Ukrainians. The funeral of a pig was meant to epitomize the effect of a new 'tax' system and the budget, on Ukrainian farmers. Farmers, formerly an 'honored' estate in the country,  are now not only expected to supply their sons for the siege of the east, they're expected to sell for less - to feed the revolution and to help the entrepreneurs sell something in Europe. Russia stops buying Ukrainian produce completely in January. Ukrainians can't afford to pay Russian prices and the EU would need an even deeper discount to take food they already don't need.   It could be the farmers see the advent of another economic 'Holodmor' more clearly than they see the coming of Christ. Both are equally as frightening - or 'redeeming', if you're 'doing lunch' in the Rada restaurant.

Meanwhile Poroshenko is off in Israel keeping warm (and looking for money)   He made a point of apologizing on front of the Knesset for the 'history' of the heroic cleansing of Ukrainian (communist) Jews during the last war. Things got a little 'out of hand' then, too.


 Meanwhile 'at the front' in East Ukraine:

                           “Adolf Hitler is together with us, Adolf Hitler is in each of us, 
                   and an eagle  (America?) with iron wings will help  us at the right time,”


Merry Christmas and more of the same next year? 

We (Maybe) Ain't Seen Nuthin' Yet

  

The Japanese tsunami of 2012 is a vague memory these days - now that we don't have to worry about the flotsam and jetsam of that sad occasion washing up on our beaches - or at least we don't have to worry about reading about it. It's all 'old news' now.

                                                               Debris flow 2012

And then perhaps it's not.  One of the notable sideshows of the tsunami was the flooding of the Fukushima nuclear plant and the ensuing 'Chernobyl' incident.  That incident, too, was played-down. It may have cost the head of the Japanese Nuclear agency his job and, perhaps, the President of Japan another term, but the plant itself remains even more dangerous than the little irradiated playground in northeastern Ukraine.  For while some work has been done on the site, an awful lot more has to be done and it's looking like it could get a lot worse before it gets better.

      
                                             One of 17 explosions - Reactor 2 goes up


Murphy's Law:  it just so happened that, on the day of the disaster, some very sensitive work as being done to convert one of the reactors to use a different kind of fuel. A protective shroud had been removed in preparation for removing the fuel rod bundles and the replacement rods - containing a fuel that combines uranium and plutonium (MOX) fuel were stored for ready insertion.  It appears the work crews has little time to secure their work area before they were evacuated.  It also appears not that the fuel cooling pools were overstocked with used bundles and at least one had fresh fuel rods stored with the used ones. It is also certain that at least one of the pools suffered damage with resulted in exposed fuel which overheated, caught fire and caused a 'minor' nuclear explosion before melting the reactor and dissipating into the earth. It  is estimated to-day that significant percentages of fuel in 4 reactors dissipated into the atmosphere, including all the fuel in one of them.  That's the good news.

The bad news is that 3 years after the event  very little works has actually been done either to satabilize or ameliorate the situation at Fukushima. The great fear is that something will happen to compromise more fuel rods and cause another 'reaction event'. And even greater fear is that the plutonium in the new fuel rods may also be involved,  discharging enough radiation to trigger sympatethetic reactions at other nearby by reactors (Fukushima 2 is 10 KM from the affected site). Should this happen, the results for Japan, at the very least,  could be catastrophic.

The danger is that parts of the reactor hardware are unstable. Any attempts to stabilize them could cause injury to the stored fuel. That fuel will, at some point, have to be removed and relocated to storage. The removal could cause materials, already affected by heat and shock, to rupture and allow the fuel to mix.  Kabloooie!


And then there is all the contaminated soil and water just waiting to be taken, or washed, away.

 


For the sake of comparison Chernobyl contained 130 tonnes of radioactive materials and only a small part of that was affected.  Fukushima, as it sits to-day, contains over 1700 tonnes of fissionable material - possibly more - as it seems the records of what is supposed to be there compared to what has been observed aren't accurate.

Somebody - in this case the Japanese Nuclear Industry - nwas playing more than fast and loose with nuclear safety  - for profit.  It's ironic that the same nation that experienced the first nuclear bombing may also be the first to undergo a 'real' nuclear tragedy. For the ones we've had already - Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, are 'squibs' compared to what sits on Japan's Pacific coast.



                                                  One of the reactors, afterward


Ironic as well that Japan has recently abrogated its status and a 'neutral' country and wants to develop military teeth. And that the same folk  who supervised Fukushima, were also in the van to see Iran sanctioned over a nuclear program they denied and no one has been able to prove they had.  Maybe if there were economic and political sanctions for having nuclear accidents they'd have looked after their own house first?

Fukushima to-day

"10 Reasons Ukraine is Dead." - G. Phillips

 I'm posting someone else's work, because it encapsulates what I'm thinking about the sorry state that is EUkrainia to-day.


With a tip of the ballcap to Graham Phillips at "The Truth Speaker"

 I've added his blogs to my faves, so I would encourage the reader to check out his work.


Ukraine as it is: 10 Reasons Ukraine is Dead. 


Phillips puts your money where his mouth is. Providing some 'humanitary' for the folk of 'Free' Donbass. 

Since the Last Time, Last Time

The 'last time' I updated (October 5th)  I wrote about the USAF strike in the MSF hospital in Kunduz.  The most recent development of that horror is the announcement that the aircrew involved have been suspended and may be looking at a court martial.  Something has come off the rails at PR headquarters.

LA Times Report

We should recall that the incident happened when Afghan and US Special forces were engaged in the mission to drive the Taliban invaders out of that city - hopefully saving it, without destroying it.  If the Taliban were playing true to form - where the notion about 'fighting and running away' is wiser than 'standing up' like a man so the nice chopper jockeys can shred you, they were probably exiting, stage north, while the good guys rolled into town from the south - at night.  An assault, at the best of times, is usually governed, at least when there are Americans involved,  by the 'war philosophies' of 'fire superiority'  and its related axioms: fire suppression, reconnaissance by fire, fire and movement,  etc - which generally involve a lot of shooting.

That this is happening at night, when either you can't see, or the night vision goggles are lighting up like a Disney movie, you have a recipe for the wrong people getting shot, or shot at.  And so when the 'Spectre' gunship, circling above to provide 'fire support' (another axiom),  received the report that maybe, somebody inside the hospital may have fired at the 'saving' forces, the gun sights would have been zeroed on the coordinates and confirmation of target sought. Obviously they got that for they opened-up and, after 55 minutes of the best airborne bang-bang money can buy and their ammo bins emptied,  the hospital had been put out of commission. Obviously too, in the heat of all that 'action' nobody thought to vet the procedure with HQ - which had, unbeknownst to the birdmen,  one of those silly humanitarian agreements with MSF about not shooting-up their hospital.

I'll bet that, after they wiped-off,  even the gunship crew knew there was a 'shitstorm' coming their way. And so the PR second-guessers kicked into overdrive. They took witnesses out of action to testify to seeing Taliban dashing about and firing from inside the hospital. Only thing wrong with that there were no dead Taliban, their weapons or even empty cartridges from all the shooting, found inside.  Not that there wouldn't have been,  for some non-military types actually got into the hospital before the good guys drove an AFV though the wall of a destroyed ward three days later  to get inside to 'do their investigation'. The MSF and Afghan watchman could easily have spirited-off the dead bad guys and picked up all the empties and guns left behind.   Why they even got the President of Afghanistan on the news,  to say that he wouldn't second-guess 'good intel' and, while it was regrettable, the shoot'em-up was OK by him. The President of the USA, of course, praised the good work of MSF and blamed the Taliban for endangering them. The US armed forces came up with a body of information and 'scenarios' to justify wiping them out.

And to-day, well the pendulum swings and somebodies, the guys at the sharp end, are going to have a chance to make their own case for why they felt the need to do what they were trained and deployed to do,  in front of the humanitarians who sent them there and would have been pinning medals on them if this had turned-out to be a 'feather in their cap', rather than 'a black eye'.   If Joe Heller were still alive he would be roaring about this one.

A human interest story coming out of this sad mess."The Man on the Table"  


Milo Minderbinder lives and the Big Picture is still what counts.

Speaking of that Big Picture again. The western military is agog in anticipation of what Putin is going to do to the Turks.  While he seems to have ruled out risking a 'nukuler conflagration' by attacking a NATO member under Article 5 of the Treaty. (Boo! Hiss!  Pusssaaay!) , Putin is being cracked-up for all kinds of creativity designed to bring about the end of all we hold dear and sacred.  The western media is full of 'what ifs', but the other 80 percent of the balderdash deals with why it was so right of the Turkish Air force to drop a Russian jet in the course of its duties bombing Syrian terrorists - well not quite terrorists like the ones we don't like, these are doing the same things and we do like them.  Like the Kurds defending their homes against ISIS, the Turkomens of Syria are 'defending their homes' against the Assad regime. In most other places they are called 'rebels', in Syria they're called the 'Free Syrian Army' because we've armed them like a regular army  to destroy tanks and aircraft. Apparently they couldn't drop the Russian aircraft 'attacking' them,  so their blood brothers across the border did.   The Russians initially claimed it was ground fire that downed the jet  (it was ground fire that killed one of the crew) but rather than take the 'free out',  the Turks responded with a radar tracking map and claimed the Russians flew over a 20 Km-wide sliver of southern Turkey that pokes 50 KM into northern Syria. the overflight took 17 seconds, during which the Russian aircraft (2) were 'warned' 10 times. Then a Turkish fighter fired an Aamraam long-range missile which struck one of the Russians while it was in Syrian airspace. That caused a crash inside Syria.

Russia denies the aircraft were in Turkey at all.  It's maintaining that story to-day while NATO is making noises about 'overreactions' and the US is saying it can't confirm Turkish radar data.





The Russian media slant:

We'll see where this goes but it's pretty certain it won't be a cause for war or even some Shock 'n Awe.

Brennt Paris? Nein Mein Fhurer.

Like the cinematographic marvel that described Dietrich Von Choltitz' defiance of a  Fuhrerbefehl in order to save the City of Light, there will probably be a couple of 'cinemas' come out of 'Paris - the bulwark of latter-day democracy and freedom'.  I've been waiting to see how things shake-out after the latest 'terrorist outrage' and, as I expected, there's more of 'wag the dog' in the reaction than there seemed to be in the perpetration.

One of the nice things about having all the perpetrators wind-up either killing themselves (preferred) or being killed in subsequent security operations, it that it leaves the sheeple wondering 'why' and the way open for somebody to fill-in their blank. The narrative belongs to the survivors, usually the distaff side of the perpetrators' cause, if there is one. In most western democracies, under such attack, is there any permissible cause to be killing innocent citizenry or upsetting 'routine life' - unless they are rioting coloured people?  And such it was in Paris.

But, as in other such instances,  a couple of points are noteworthy.

Once again security forces were able to identify the perpetrators quickly,  almost within  minutes. Lucky happenstance - an abandoned rental vehicle loaded with weapons - led to rented hotel rooms and the identification of a number of the terrorists and the 'Belgian connection' which continues to generate news (see below) Had there been a dumped corpse in the trunk, that car might well have sat, ignored, until the pong  disturbed the neighborhood - but when everybody's looking in back windows for a 'bum' it was quickly identified. Or maybe they left it parked in the roadway.  A passport found in the street led to the notion that Syrian Jihadis might have be on a mission from God to pose as refugees and infiltrate the vulnerable EU.   The discovery has EU member-states shoring-up the internal 'grenzen' and fortifying the outer wall - to stop refugees.  And then there was the logo. Somebody went diligently to work to create something to portray the times, faster than Parisian came up with caps and 'liberty trees'  and altars to celebrate the Revolution a couple of centuries ago.

Presidente Hollande was 'on the air', again within minutes,  promising France that revenge was in the air that 'relentless attacks' were in the offing and that the target was clear - ISIS, or as a preceding step perhaps a regime change in Syria. He announced to the French that their country was 'at war'. As if what France's membership in NATO and it's involvement in 'Yugoslavia' (vestigial), Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Mali, CAR, Djibouti and a number of other places weren't actual 'wars'.  This is 'vrai laine' - all that's needed is a UN mandate and some willing allies.  The only real ally - or at least 'relentless' - seems to be Vlad Putin.


Needless to say outrage was worldwide and spread by a media slavering for the sort of sensation that sells paper. Even Charlie Hebdo rose to a suitably moronic  'Gallic' reaction to the shooters

                                     "Zey av zee weapons, F*ck them! We av zee Champagne!"


The rest of the world looked for stories of courage under fire, lucky escapes, tragic deaths and who to blame. All were intrinsic to the story, and Paris is famed, or infamous,  for its 'paparazzi'.  But the main intent, or message, was to instill fear of imminent repetitions. The fear spread faster than a Tsunami. Populations at far remove from Paris were demanding military action. France was placed under a state of National Emergency that will last until February at least. Belgium started-off with police raids - they netted no real suspects - but warnings of 'imminent attack' were announced yesterday and  to-day EU headquarters and no doubt the NATO command complex, is under guard and lock-down  security.

In related news  - according to the world press,  ISIS claimed responsibility for downing a Russian airliner the week before -  that resulted in increased Russian air attacks on Syria.  In Mali,  AQ - now ostensibly an 'ally' against ISIS in Syria - attacked a hotel in Bamako killing a number of westerners.
In the west,  the Syrian refugees are being tarred with the terrorism, despite any substantial evidence of a link. Plans to locate some of those fleeing the war there are being squelched by those afraid of actually 'importing terror'.  In other news it has been reported that Syrians have been fleeing to the west surreptitiously for the four years since trouble broke out and during the years of economic hardship leading up to it.  What put so many on the road, just recently, is another story as yet untold.

The plight of the refugees and the call to help, in my estimation, is a really good 'cover' for western governments to use to distract from the on-going process used to create refugees in the first place. They've found a winner with this, as it adds to the notion that 'they hate us just for trying to be kind'.
And it creates another subset of 'losers' in Syria, and other places, when the illegals are sent back, or the 'evil doers' aren't selected for resettlement.  The Polish foreign Minister called for arming, and training Syrian refugees in military camps before returning them to 'liberate' their homeland.  This wouldn't be far from the truth, for collecting pay as a 'rebel', or an ISIS jihadi,  beats starving in the dark and being suspected as a traitor..

Warnings of attacks on Jews by somebody, and by ISIS on the US military,  have been announced. While actual attacks on Israeli Jews have seen a number stabbed, and lot more Palestinians (and a couple of mistaken identities) shot or beaten to death by 'scared' or  vengeful Israelis.

The UN voted for 'action' on the incident, in response to France's pleas,  but thus far no definition of the action, or call for participants, has been made.  The only possible dissenting voice on the UNSC could be China - unless Ukraine opposes Russia on principal.

And in Ukraine an uptick in both 'provocations' and military movements seem to be pointing at somebody perhaps thinking that Putin has taken his eye off their ball. We'll possibly see another outbreak of fighting there. Or perhaps all the sabre-rattling is to make sure the EU doesn't lighten-up on the new anti-ISIS  'ally'  living in the Kremlin.   The EU has just extended sanctions on Russia past next June and Kyiv, like TelAviv, doesn't like not being on Page One - so this could all have just been PR hype. Recent blockades of Crimea and closing airspace to Russian commercial flights just add to all the romance - (while the Russians boycott Ukrainian turnips, eggs and kielbasa while threatening to turn off the gas)

In Belgium a week of 'dragnets' have not turned-up  the one 'missing' perpetrator, the brother  of two of the dead attackers. Nor have any arms caches or bomb-making labs been uncovered as they have in France. Belgian authorities blame their lack of success on Belgians "tweeting about police activities" so that the 'jihadis' are forewarned and have time to move themselves, and their arsenals. In response to an appeal, the Belgians are being lauded by authorities for tweeting and posting pictures of cats in poses relating to security situations and warnings. Maybe now the police will be able to stop the terror,  pussy-cat style.


What's new pussy-cat?

Russia ... Bleeding Russia.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=132&v=pv6ROkgsiNs


Russia seems to be covering-up well the fact that it's going down the 'caca hole'.  Or, perhaps, the Russians are 'enjoying the ride'.  Whatever it is, they seem to be disconnected from the 'facts' on the ground, or at least the groundswell of caterwauling and accusations of  'disrupting world order', 'threats to world peace', destabilizing neighbor countries, downing airliners (their own and other peoples') bombing middle eastern hospitals and -  the very latest - cheating at the Olympics.

Russia may be a media hell-hole, but we still 'heart' those Russians.  We'd be more than willing for them  rise up and cast off their chains.

What Will Putin Do?

Putin's great Syrian adventure is being 'doomed and gloomed' as Mr Obama's similar adventure wasn't. But then he doesn't have any 'coalition', or 'duties to protect' anybody.  Well neither does America really, either. There are some people very interested in regime change, or thorough destabilization in Syria but it's hard to see the benefit, other than to be having 'that' happening 'over there' rather than 'over here'. Some of the protagonists will get the blow-back, if any, before the USA does. Russia may be one (IS, now according to the wise) of them. But it's  a fair statement to make that Russian bombing isn't going to be any more militarily-successful than coalition bombing has been - other than to pound the rubble into smaller particles.  The one essential point, I think, missed by so many commentators - the reason Assad didn't fall like other 'tyrants', the reason the civil war in Syria still rages -  is because the half of the Syrian population that haven't fled into refugee camp,  are still there, fighting for their homeland and their President.  They're not all 'free Syria rebels' and the Jihadis are, largely, not Syrians at all.   As in a previous Afghan 'quagmire',  Russia is not alone.

Lawyer 'gets it' chapter and verse


The US secretary of defense Ash Cater recently pegged Putin for threatening world peace and the 'world order'. He must have been listening to Kristol and Perle's 'Visions of Amerika' again,   for he seems to think that if it isn't America doing the military stuff it has to be an enemy. This week however he's 'sticking up' for those around the East China Sea who can't stick up for themselves. But that's all about  China and another threat.


Putin continues to 'disrupt' gallant little EUkrainia. He was recently accused of sending 'modern weapons' into eastern Ukraine because somebody claimed a T90 tank has appeared in the east - it looks remarkably similar to the T80 , 82, 85 or 88 tanks that have already appeared in eastern Ukraine - usually unloaded from a western Ukrainian railroad cars. Somebody also seems to think Putin has slipped in a newer variety of rocket artillery with which to 'invade' the place. So far OSCE has failed to come up with any evidence that Russians are crossing the border with anything, but we KNOW they are, eh?

 Just like we 'know' they downed the Malaysian airliner, but we can't prove it and, like, they probably downed their own over the Sinai just for sympathy. The good guys didn't drop it, see?

Just recently, we think, or pretty well know,   they've been cheating at the Olympics.  Not the ones at Sochi, where they almost certainly did cheat, no,  the ones in England - where we found 'evidence' of two labs in Russia doing doping tests and covering-up results by losing things and misplacing samples. As if the Russians were testing their athletes who won in London, taking the samples back to Moscow? If they were,  there is something wrong with that, and probably the rest of the doping testing regime as well. Once again he media is full of  reputed wrongdoings and demands for sanctions.  One writer even opined that it might would be good for the Rio Olympics if Russia was banned and its 'allies' boycotted - more medals for the real 'sports'.  Maybe the US should boycott in protest?  It should be simple to drum up another coalition.

Putinic Russia  meanders on to economic ruin and political turmoil while the pacific west apparently hits new heights of stock market activity and consumer confidence.  Sadly, all that 'progress' is nonexistent outside the first world and increasingly to more denizens of that, as well.   Things are great if you have a) a steady income and b) a 'good' job and really great if you're in the top 15 percent.

Leonhid Berszhidski,   writing for the National Post,  points out that the current brouhaha, and especially the ceasefire, have shown Ukrainian weaknesses - he describes this as "the rot at Ukraine's core".  Whether or not there ever was a ceasefire, let alone a war in the east, Ukraine has been rotten on the inside for a long time. But he can't say the  'skin' isn't impressive.  If you take a look at some of the malarky coming out of the place, you get the notion it's just another house of cards waiting to get kicked-in .

Well,  for starters there is that 'new' police force being depended-on to bring Eukrainia beyond the knout and the billy club. You know the ones with the US-style uniforms - paid for be guess who - (so that's why). But those service 'shakos' look more like something the SS sported on dress-up day - black with the silver piping, all that's missing is a little totenkopf. And where did they get the training - why from US cops of course, but I haven't been able to figure out what city, or cities they came from. That would have to cause some confusion, for America doesn't have a  much of a homogeneous police force outside the military and the FBI. Watch for the tasers and the 'SWAT' squad - although there are a number of security and militia units already doing those. Interesting, too, that the top echelon chosen to command this are a number of Georgian ladies - ex-government and police officials come to help Saarkaasvili birth Ukraine into NATO and the EU.  Like Ukraine,  they thought a military showdown with Putin was a good way to start. Like Georgia the money and effort were  wasted and the military came out a bust.

Ukraine still has a way to go.

Russia is not alone in its 'misery'

Putin is Assad (Offside) Again

Putin is 'off side' in Syria now, as well as in EUkrainia. Russian 'interference' in Syria is starting to bother America. Just yesterday the US had to complain that Putin was giving Assad the 'red carpet treatment' on his first visit outside Iraq in 4 years. I expect they would have preferred the Russians 'shirtfront' him over the barrel bombs and ostracize him into leaving office. For the first, and most annoying, aspect of that Russian interference has been an insistence on maintaining Assad in power, in contravention of everything else good and holy that's been going on in Syria.  Assad you see has been busily killing 'everybody' that ISIS hasn't already killed.

Add to that a rumor that the Iraqi government was preparing to ask the same kind of Russian assistance for its war on terror and you have America 'hitting back'. "It's him or me, Delores"  or something like that General Joe Dunford - Marine tough guy and US Chief of Staff is supposed to have told the Iraqi government. There is only room for one good-guy (or 65 of them)  in Iraq's GWOT. If Russia wants to help fight ISIS in Iraq, the USA will be taking its 'balls' home. What in the heck are the other 65 'independent' nations who've seen the sunny side of the need to fight terror in Iraq going to do?  Are they going home on the freedom bird, too?  That would sort of make a big fat lie - or expose a nasty truth -  about 'growing democracy and freedom' and rebuilding damaged lands. I think there would be a whole whack of people in a number of first world countries looking at their boys being used as America's cannon fodder, and changing the regimes that pretend independent action but really just sell-out to Washington. Something like this could put the kibosh on NATO.

Our way or the Other way?

Since Putin started his Syrian campaign the world is missing the blow-by-blows we've come to expect with serious military operations. That could be good reason,  for such 'reporting', later,has often failed to meet any criterion for truth. The results have certainly not borne out the 'descriptions' of 'vic'try'.   Assad has LEFT Syria for the first time in four years.  Maybe something is changing and we just haven't heard about it.  And maybe the Iraqis have.

Maybe 'getting it done' have a very different meaning in US English and in Russian.  Or the 'it' part is completely different between the two.

 It's obvious, given 14 years of the best warfare money money can buy,  that something hasn't been done right, or at all. Who needs a multi-national  coalition if  the strategy and tactics are clear and unimpeded by massive economic 'disruption'?

That trip to Moscow?  Another 'bust' for US intel.  They didn't know he'd gone until he was back in Damascus. And he flew through US-controlled airspace - a war zone - to get there.

Assad's Flight into Russia

Drones Used to be Fairly Useless Bees

Some whistleblower in the US military has done it again  and this time it's about drone strikes.

The Intercept:the Drone Papers

Jeremy Scahill tried kiting the topic a few years back with his story called "Dirty Wars" and how America was 'droning' the hell out of an undeclared - let alone unannounced or even unremarked war in Yemen. A war that has since taken-off,  whether the western media cover it or nor. Back then it was about cruise missiles taking out and obscure tribal encampment - which led to the the subject of AlAlwaki and the 'droning' of first him, and a week later his teen-aged son.  At the time it was all 'poo-pooed' as the necessary removal of a 'dire' threat to America. Someone who, as a 'turncoat', for at one point he backed the USA, was accused of dispatching a series of incompetent bombers to drop airliners. Rather than sending incompetent bombers to screw up a water supply or take out a power corridor - something that might allow more time and leg room,  as opposed to 'flicking that bic' on a non-smoking flight to set fire to a shoe bomb or some sexy briefs.  Given that track record - and a 100 percent interception rate,  one might think AlAwaki might still have been working for the good guys.  All our 'dire threats' ought to be of such a magnitude.

 But a couple of  things that seem obvious are that the Drones aren't 'solving' anything and they aren't making the situation any better. The number of drone strikes has continued to multiply in response to the increasing numbers who find themselves on a ''targeted killing" list.  Apparently this is a thoroughly vetted and fool-proof way of taking the war to those who most want it.  If that was a believable statement,  a similar 'accident' at a Hospital in Kunduz might lead one to believe that the 'vetting process' may not be all it's cracked-up to be. It seems that the vetting, like some of our wars, is based more on creative writing and creative plagiarism than it may be related to much fact. It's a bad situation but, running afoul any security service , for whatever reason they might 'be concerned' about you, and under no particularly unfortunate or accidental circumstances, can get you very dead.

I am reminded of a warning I received, a few years back, from a friend that my blogs were being read by an 'agency' in New York . This only because I had received an email he sent to a number of people. They were concerned enough, about him, that they were checking his friends and weren't happy with what I was writing.  The 'agency' in question - which at that time was busily hiring speakers of Arabic and mid-eastern languages -  went on to garner a significant contract from the US military to 'find good news' about Iraq, in middle eastern sources. They went on to manufacture 'good news' to be planted in middle eastern sources  Eventually they 'morphed' their business into the interception and evaluation of  'electronic' messages from 'foreign sources' routed through the USA and moved from New York to the mid-west. Maybe they'll be reading this.

It's a sure bet that, once you're noticed, you won't be forgotten and all it takes is somebody 'creative' who wants a promotion to make you a target.

The Case if Bilal Al-Berjawi

Case in point - the  British, Lebanese-born "commander of AQ" who  was 'droned', last spring, in Somalia.  This guy's 'story' reads like that of a number of young Brits who originated in the middle east or Arabic/Muslim parts of the world.  Generally it is traveling that brings them to the attention of somebody and gets them on a list. Once they are there, it seems that they only require some 'proof' - usually in the form of somebody else's reported suspicions, to be placed in the category of physical jeopardy. It's a virtual certainty that, should your 'baseball card' (the description of you and your 'rap sheet') ever wind up on the President's desk, as we are told they ALL do, he's going to pore carefully over your story and ask salient questions to clarify his thinking on your guilt, innocence or whether somebody isn't feeding him the kind of intel that made him think surging into Afghanistan was going to change anything.  He's a busy man and, after a cursory glance, your ass might be grass - he gives 60 days for 'concrete action' to be taken. After that you'd be, what? Home free?  Or a target for some private security firm?

What is disturbing is that these 'cases' are built-up by  'intel' services reflecting back to each other information that they have already traded. It is often cases of what we already 'know' or surmise being turned into 'truth' by receiving it back from somebody who didn't, or doesn't, know.  Al-Berjawi was a 'problem'  for MI5 that was 'shared' with US national security who developed his credentials as a high level AQ commander in Somalia and a risk to US lives  to the point that the US President ordered him assassinated. No one would need to wonder if he wasn't in Somalia because he could no longer go anywhere else?  He certainly couldn't go back to Britain and be arrested tried in a court and convicted - of what?  It was easier for British authorities to let the Americans 'waste him'.

9 out of 10 'problem muslims' or 'potential terrorists' come to the attention of British authorities by traveling to the middle east, and become antagonistic toward British Authorities usually due to 'something' that happens to throw a wrench into their travel plans - an arrest or airport detention.

Given the rapid and increasing use of drone technology in all aspects of government and  civil authority.   The use and abuse of such technology should be studied and if necessary (duh!)  curtailed.  It has all the makings of another Geneva Convention because drone survellance, and drone warfare, can affect everyone.

They're at the Polls. They're off!

Well actually they've been off for about three months now, but on Monday Canucks everywhere - except for the few 'evil doers' who've been stripped of their one vital 'rite of citizenship', or sent to  the wrong place or accidentally mis-identificated, will be choosing the 'boseaux' who'll be leading them for the next 4.36 years.

Leading the pack is Canada's young wonder - not Bieber the bong-bandit - but the loin-spring of a famous, or infamous depending on yer politics, former Prime Minister.  Justin Trudeau decided to enter politics as a career at the same age his father was padding a canoe to Cuba in preparation for a legal dissertation. That would reflect the distaff side of the family that has him related to a former Cabinet Minister, so there could be some of those 'leadership' genes at work. - Like the Pitts,  Barry Maurice and the other one who looked a bit like prince Valiant. The young fellow has a refreshing sort of manic side which shows from time to time - like staging a boxing match with the big-mouthed bad boy of the Canadian Senate - Pat Brazeau - and tuning him up smartly.  Maybe replacing him in the Senate will be on the first order of business.


 

The next pony is an interesting cypher of a guy who came from out  of the mourners to assume the mantle of leadership - sort of like how Gorby and the others came from the photo background to head the Communist Party Praesidium - when they still had one of those. Tom Mulcair had to be teaching somewhere,  or running some kind of government services kiosk,  for he has an unctuousness about him that would make him a tricky 'pin-down' in a greased pig competition. He was probably smiling when he knifed that little Madame Mao for the 'leader's' job in the NDP.  He did however hold on to Jack Layton's political opportunism in Quebec and made the party a virtual 'etat'. He's currently the leader of the official opposition and electing more like him couldn't hurt.

The third horse in the race is little Ms May - leader of the Green Party. Actually if she gets a chance she makes a lot of sense about a number of things the others don't. Her party has one solitary seat in parliament and I'm not even sure if it's hers.  Naturally - under the 'current rules' - the good guys are happy to leave her paying the full shot for everything, while the public purse picks up the a big part of the tab for their 'official' election expenses. She has some thoughts on that, and why they get to have all the other seats when she, and the folks who vote for her make up close to 10 percent of the population.

The Bloc Quebecois may be running ccandidates too, but only in and for 'quebeckers' - no national sweeps coming up 'dere'. There are usuially other parties the libertarians, the Communists and the Rhinocerous party for those who'd rather vote than sit around in the basement making sick.

And last but not least is the 'man' Canadians love to hate. The STAR portrays him as some soulless Easter Island-style icon of Toryism.   But he's not, he's more like some fat fuck who got a make-over, his teeth capped and fell into the shitter the day the new suits were being given out.  Mercifully he also had thy political instincts of  a Borgia pope as well as facing a string of 'second-raters' in the other parties. He actually got to approximate the middle of the group photos of the G8 .... G7 .... G6 - and avoided being blackballed by the big boys. For all his brown-nosing around Obama, though,  he got even less than the screwing Bushco gave him over the lumber tariff.   Maybe the president will reward him by signing the pipeline agreement on his last day in office. That would be a better legacy than an imaginary budget surplus - even if it was $2 billion smackeroos. That just means the military won't have put in their prophylactic order for the year and somebodies'  life saving operations have for some reason been cancelled.




Hey it's been an exciting time and not a helluva lot of parliamentary time wasted. Jeez they would have only been back form their summer recess last wee and preparing for the Christmas Break.  Let's send them back to work in the new year with a new agenda.   Less holidays might be a good start.

By way of an update, Young Mr. Trudeau won the election by a larger margin than ever elected his Senior.  As a first order of business he informed President Obama that the bombing department of Canada's part in the 'coalition for Iraqi freedom' was going to be called home.  Hopefully the rest of the mission will follow.   Good start undoing the stupid.

Muammar Row the Boat Ashore

The world media is, all of a sudden,  focussed on the middle eastern refugee problem.  Given that the middle east hasn't seen a peaceful day since the 40's and that 'refugee camps' are now geographic fixtures, how could it come to pass that the world gets blindsided by 'them' shifting their focus to a walk to Europe?  The last time there was such a migration, occurred in the 12th century and went in the opposite direction - the People's Crusade.

We 'knew' there were a lot of refugees - after all hasn't Assad been killing so many of his own people that the West has been 'honour-bound' to get the UN to introduce sanctions and  a little humanitarian bombing? Obama almost got his wish, but Putin 'interfered' to make a deal that (maybe) stopped an 'act of Congress' from adding to the rubble that is modern Syria. The Syrians have been moving out of the line of fire since Ambassador Geoff Pyatt declared the street riot  a legitimate attempt to remove a tyrannical government. That being said, the Gulf States immediately introduced a 'carte blanche' for weapons while the US called for, and trained, 'rebel forces'. Even the perennial bushwhacker John 'the Admiral' McCain  flew over to glad-hand 'the heroes'.  Little was anybody to know these were wolves in camo duds, more affiliated with the kind of  Islamic state that hates our freedoms than the kind of guys who would 'roll over' for a golf cart and a pair of new balance sneakers for each of 'the staff'.

John was shaking hands with the devil himself - Al Baghdadi the Killer.

In less than a year Obama's militias turned into ISIS, and then ISIL. Not only did the clear Assad's forces out of eastern Syria , they launched an invasion of America's second best friend , (well,   third), in Asia and drove the Iraqi government out of the northern half of the country. Then they allied themselves with the Iraqi Sunni 'insurgency ' and drove the Shiite government out of even more territory.  Lately ISIS/IL is only 34 miles from Baghdad. And the 'driving-back' seems stalled, while Europe girds its 'lions' for the fray.

 Needless to say  between the beheadments, and the bombing campaign, anybody with an iota respectable self-preservation made tracks for the nearest neutral ground. In northern Syria that was Lebanon on the west, Turkey to the north or 'Kurdistan' to the east. Anywhere else was into the fire.
And so things remained until Turkey declared itself into the War on Terror. All of a sudden southern Turkey - where the camps were - started to look like places a refugee could get confused with a Kurd. That's right, the Turks declared a 'war on terror' and  promptly attacked the Kurds. The Kurds returned the favour - inside Turkey - and the 'shivaree' was on.  For refugees,  all of a sudden Europe, at a distance, started to have some 'Clampett appeal'.

And so the latter-day 'descent of the Helvetii into Gaul' commenced.  But these weren't Swiss they were mostly Moslem refugees and they descended via Greece and  the Balkans onto south-central Europe. And there were thousands upon thousands of them - taking open boats to the Greek Islands, 'hopping'  the mainland, walking through Greece and the parts of former Yugoslavia to the border of Hungary. There the EuroHans Briker stuck his finger in a Dyke and  tried to stem the tide. But some broke through heading for Germany and even the Scandinavian countries. The Hungarians tried 'defending ' Europe against a tide of 'seekers' -  who  had actually started six months ago and had the Hungarians fencing-off their border. But this time they overwhelmed the border -a number of times. They 'hijacked' (metaphorically) the railway system in order to get to Germany. To-day we have the Austrians volunteering to man the ramparts with their old 'ally'. Holding Europe as they used to do a half a millennium ago.

Now the Euros are just like any other redneck who doesn't want to be forced into Sharia courts or to have to wear baggy pants, smoke the dope of pray eighty-five times a day - even if they do legitimize teen-aged sex slaves. They wanted to keep everybody out. But a kid drowned and a foolish photographer had his reputation made, taking a picture that mobilized the kind of sympathy rednecks save for their pets.  All of a sudden there is a groundswell to stop this or take refugees in. Today another half-dozen babies drowned, and while the patriots claim they shouldn't have taken their kids into danger, they still think that bombing them only hurts 'the bad guys'. And if these people are hurting,  it IS because they are 'bad guys' - in disguise! Those unpowered life rafts are the 'invasion rowboats' we've been told would bring Al Qaeda, or the Taliban, or, now, ISIS, ISIL and all the unholy killers of pandemonium.

Since the Last Time....

Not to be outdone by the Ottomans,  the New Russian Empire itself took up the bombing of the  jihadis in Syria. Like the Turks bombing the Kurds, the Russians targeted  America's allies and bombed the 'anti-Assad forces near their bases on North western Syria. That earned Putin more 'mad dogging' and almost more sanctions - if anybody could think of any. Where any of this goes remains within the 'Mystikal 8 Ball'.
  

 The change in Russian 'attitude' - from an 'interferer' to a bombing pal,  came after the Prez and the President traded  stink-eyes and unminced words at the UN General Assembly last week.   Apparently Putin came away from that either unknowing, or unconvinced, that the good guys knew better about where he should be dropping his bombs.  The UTube coverage after the first raids was the kind of thing only a real warfighter would want, no shredded women or babies to be seen. Only what the coalition calls 'fighting aged males' - on stretchers or carrying them away.  Surprising since that category seems to make up a significant proportion of the refugees pouring into Europe. But hey, fighting age males have everything going for them.


Speaking of the upside of media coverage. As the Coalition of Justis got ready for a little recorded ass-kicking in Kunduz this past week, they ran afoul the twitterverse when MSF started complaining that somebody with an air force had treated their hospital in that place, to 90 minutes of the best high- rate firepower a first-world military-industrial complex can produce. The shooting killed more 20 staff  and patients and wounded  a good number more.


MSF pulled out of Kunduz.

Nothing out of the ordinary, either in the event - they happen all the time to Afghans- or in the Coalition reaction.  First of was was the doubt over who'd done it, or if it wasn't a fairy tale.  That was followed by the 'mistake' mantra  and the 'well the bad guys were in the hospital wire' malarky.  The latest ' evolution'  of the story is that the Afghans asked fore close air support after 'being attacked' in the area of the hospital. Washes for me if we recall that the C130 'Spooky' and 'Spectre' gunships are the cutting edge of accurately-placed fire. If  you've seen John Wayne in 'The Green Berets' you've seen how they can stitch a lead  seam between gooks and good guys - and that outfit was primitive. Today we're told 'eyes on the ground' designate targets with laser and the guns put the ammo within centimeters - just to make sure they don't shred the wrong people. The Hospital in some weird battle zone prescience,  informed the good guys of their GPS location to save them having to look it up in combat. That apparently didn't happen either.

You'd think the Coalition would train the Afghans better before giving them a designator?  After all wasn't it Afghans who called in an airstrike that wound up 20 miles from the guys who needed it causing an international incident when the attack helos shot up a post 14 miles inside Pakistan?   But that was before the days of Afghans with laser designators ... and MSF 'battlefield' hospitals.


See the update to the story  - Nov 26


Closer to home the Canadian election is entering the home stretch.  The incumbent leader continues to pointing out the danger of switching horses in mid-stream but generally doesn't appear to have much first-hand knowledge of the stream itself. Maybe the horse does. He equates this go-round with not spending money like he has done for 8 successive years now. Almost like magic a budget surplus of $2 billion he said he knew he had,  just 'appeared' in time for the election.  I was reading to-day how the government had 'trimmed back' public housing this year and guess what?  It saved 4 billion dollars!  I think he may have promised it away in new spending.

His other big thing is banning the niqab at citizenship ceremonies. Since the candidate for citizenship would have to identify herself (this isn't gender issue, yet) to the Judge and probably to one other agent of the crown, it matters naught what she has on when she takes her oath - although dignified clothing is mandated for all attending - within abilities, genders and other rights and freedoms. You can't  be sporting a set of bodacious ta-tas, even though a woman's right to do just that in public has been enshrined at least in the Province of Ontario. Most 'old stock' Canadians are 'up in arms' about the topic, swinging the election round to the Steverino who has removed more rights than any premier before him, and some of those were fighting real wars.  Now if Steve were to mandate that all those 'old stockers' also had to attend a citizenship ceremony, say sometime before the age of 18 and twenty-five, and also risk 'decitizenshipment' and exile should they 'turn foul traytor' or become an unwanted criminal, he would lose this election.

The yanks are still playing around getting ready for the first primary, next Spring.

And that refugee crisis in the news for the last two weeks. It's gone just like Yemen, and magic.