Hi there, !
Today Wed 09/08/2021 Tue 09/07/2021 Mon 09/06/2021 Sun 09/05/2021 Sat 09/04/2021 Fri 09/03/2021 Thu 09/02/2021 Archives
Rantburg
533170 articles and 1860347 comments are archived on Rantburg.

Today: 65 articles and 251 comments as of 10:57.
Post a news link    Post your own article   
Area: WoT Operations    WoT Background    Non-WoT        Politix   
General Milley: ‘What You Saw Unfold' with Afghanistan Evacuation Was One of the Plans'
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 4: Opinion
17 23:15 Skidmark [16] 
5 07:53 M. Murcek [7] 
3 15:30 Abu Uluque [8] 
1 12:23 Nyarlahotep Sharpton Omar1411 [8] 
1 07:47 Dale [15] 
5 10:54 746 [7] 
Page 1: WoT Operations
8 17:38 Chris [7]
3 18:38 Hupanter and Tenille3688 [4]
4 16:48 Lemuel Trotsky2537 [8]
4 19:21 Secret Master [12]
0 [4]
1 07:56 M. Murcek [6]
1 10:13 M. Murcek [12]
0 [15]
1 10:24 Frank G [6]
0 [9]
15 21:15 Rex Mundi [7]
1 03:31 Wren [14]
16 19:17 Ebbomoger Speaking for Boskone4589 [11]
2 11:14 M. Murcek [10]
10 20:14 Secret Master [9]
0 [17]
0 [11]
0 [6]
0 [13]
3 16:42 Mike Kozlowski [8]
0 [9]
0 [15]
0 [15]
Page 2: WoT Background
3 12:02 M. Murcek [10]
2 08:04 M. Murcek [3]
2 09:21 Skidmark [3]
1 05:26 Vortigern McCoy4032 [13]
7 19:06 Besoeker [9]
0 [6]
5 07:47 Wren [12]
0 [16]
0 [7]
0 [5]
1 11:13 ed in texas [9]
0 [7]
1 10:33 Bertie Crains2651 [6]
2 14:04 jpal [14]
0 [8]
0 [7]
6 12:40 ed in texas [4]
6 12:45 ed in texas [8]
Page 3: Non-WoT
2 18:28 Angstrom [9]
7 23:07 Maggie the Limpid6332 [6]
7 21:16 Lemuel Trotsky2537 [8]
7 15:02 Deacon Blues [4]
10 23:10 Skidmark [10]
14 19:59 james [8]
22 19:50 M. Murcek [12]
1 07:28 M. Murcek [7]
2 13:04 Tom [12]
0 [5]
0 [6]
1 12:09 Matt [7]
Page 6: Politix
1 12:15 M. Murcek [3]
1 10:54 746 [5]
8 22:48 Lemuel Trotsky2537 [10]
5 21:51 crazyhorse [8]
23 20:38 CrazyFool [8]
3 08:33 Mullah Richard [15]
-Great Cultural Revolution
Congress Stealthily Moves Closer To Making Women Register For The Draft
[Zero] An alternative compromise amendment to suspend draft registration unless the President declared a national emergency and put the Selective Service System into standby was submitted before Wednesday's committee session, but ruled out of order on the basis of arcane PAYGO procedural rules.

Under the same rules, the amendment to the NDAA to expand draft registration to women was ruled in order, considered, and adopted without any antiwar opposition from members of the committee.

Floor amendments may be proposed when the NDAA is considered by the full House and/or the Senate to repeal the Military Selective Service Act, end draft registration entirely, abolish the Selective Service System, or put Selective Service into "standby" as it was from 1975-1980.

But even if such amendments are proposed and put to a vote, they have little chance of success in either the House or the Senate.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/05/2021 01:39 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution -

The Congress shall have Power...

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;


Two militia acts were passed in 1792, the first year Congress met under the new Constitution. The first said who was in the militia and the second how the militia was to arm itself. Today the militia is defined under Title X USC.

A Venn diagram of those who composed the militia and those who exercised the vote was pretty much a total overlap. In 1861 the militia act was amended to include male citizens of African descent followed by the franchise of the 15th Amendment. That changed with the 19th Amendment which while extending the vote to women, failed to include the militia obligation of citizenship that males had been tied to since the start of the republic, aka "skin in the game".
Posted by: Procopius2k || 09/05/2021 6:36 Comments || Top||

#2  ...The point here is to give the liberals something to hit the GOP over the head with and help get rid of the draft as well. 'Equality' don't enter into it.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 09/05/2021 7:06 Comments || Top||

#3  /\ Bingo! Will make the draft absolutely unenforceable and meaningless, thus ending it.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/05/2021 7:09 Comments || Top||

#4  No militia, then no need for the 2d Amendment (for a well regulated militia) will be next. Got to get into the opponents mind to understand their next move.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 09/05/2021 7:40 Comments || Top||

#5  You know, once upon a time you could expect a decent low average from conscripts. Look around today and ask yourself how many people you see at random you'd share a foxhole with.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 09/05/2021 7:53 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Overpriced, but...
[Finex] This stuff is just too expensive. But they have done a lot of worthwile research into this important product and share that freely on their website.
We tripped across this massive unmarked skillet while hunting for vintage cast iron the other day and it "accidentally" ended up in the ever growing FINEX collection.

It is well over 20 inches in diameter and 3 inches deep and weighs in at a ridiculously heavy 36 pounds and 3 ounces. The casting quality is rough and it has a heat ring and a gate mark on the bottom of the pan. Besides being the largest cast iron skillet we’ve ever seen, can you even imagine the stories this skillet could tell? Did it keep a logging camp fed on cold mountain mornings? Did soldiers gather around this in the mess tent?

One thing is for sure and that is that come Sunday morning we are going to make the mother of all blueberry pancakes in this beauty.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 09/05/2021 00:00 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Our cook uses one of these at our Civil War reenactments. We once aquired an ostrich egg. It filled up the skillet.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 09/05/2021 7:18 Comments || Top||

#2  Years ago at a KOA Kamp Store, they were selling a 36" skillet, but it was cheap pressed aluminum with a wooden handle and a coating that I'm sure would last beyond the first use. I have a 12" Lodge and had no trouble making 5 lb of taco meat in it yesterday. Looking at that skillet on the stove inspired the search that lead to this post.

I'd love to own some of the Finex stuff, but I'd buy more Le Creuset product first.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 09/05/2021 7:25 Comments || Top||

#3  /\ Someone in your encampment knew a bit about history and troops on the march.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/05/2021 7:39 Comments || Top||

#4  More to getting protein in the field than eating the peanut butter in an MRE.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 09/05/2021 7:41 Comments || Top||

#5  that sized skillet is standard gear on our Middle Fork Trips
Posted by: 746 || 09/05/2021 10:54 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Two utterly fascinating facts about COVID
[American Thinker] I learned two facts today, one about COVID's survival rate and the other about eye-opening medical information hidden within the bowels of the CDC. Both surprised me and they may surprise many of you as well. Admittedly, I had my suspicions about the survivability of COVID and have known for a long time (courtesy of my Brazilian hairstylist) that ivermectin is a good treatment, provided people receive it early enough. Seeing those suspicions confirmed, however, with hard data from a Stanford professor and the CDC was both shocking and satisfying.

The past 18 months have taught people paying attention to rather obvious facts about COVID mortality rates that the very elderly are the most vulnerable. Other vulnerable people are those with co-morbidities and those who are obese (and no, it's not fat-shaming to state an objective fact that ties in closely to surviving a potentially serious illness).

Dr. John Ioannidis, the Stanford University "Professor of Medicine (Stanford Prevention Research), of Epidemiology and Population Health and by courtesy, of Statistics and of Biomedical Data Science," was curious about actual infection fatality rates (IFRs) for COVID. Extrapolating from confirmed cases, he concluded that, around the world, more than half a billion people have probably been infected with COVID.

Using that metric, Dr. Ioannidis concluded that most locations around the world have an IFR that's less than 0.20%. Additionally, protecting vulnerable populations and treating people with appropriate medicines may further reduce mortality rates.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/05/2021 01:48 || Comments || Link || [16 views] Top|| File under:

#1  When credibility is no longer a concern. You'd thing RS learned their lesson after the Fraternity Rape Hoax lawsuit almost put them out of business. But, no...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 09/05/2021 7:20 Comments || Top||

#2  As of June 1, 51% of covid deaths were in assisted-living facilities. That's with 37 states reporting, and New York in first place, with only 20% of nursing home deaths. Minnesota had 81% pass on in nursing homes. Source
Posted by: Bobby || 09/05/2021 8:00 Comments || Top||

#3 

Skimmed over the R&D PDF report and one line struck me over others.

IFR in nursing home residents has been estimated to as high as 25%.

Yes!, it got me to wondering about NY Gov. "actual" nursing home numbers?

Googling "NY Gov. true nursing home death numbers"

I noted.

1. The numbers were found deliberately falsified and hidden from the public and the CDC for election year political reasons.

2. A number of the NY-Governor's staff admitted, it was done in fear of Trump having and using early accurate data. The focus was more on the political ramifications, than providing data to allow the proper evaluation and handling of the C-19 spread and treatment in given situations.

3. NY-AG Reports indicated the NY-Gov staff knew very early on that the nursing home mandate caused unnecessary deaths. So they under reported Nursing Home Deaths by around 50% to avoid political fallout.

Summary: Socialcrats played politics to protect their political image in an election year and US Citizens died.

Posted by: NN2N1 || 09/05/2021 8:07 Comments || Top||

#4  The old 'bolstering social security' conspiracy.
Sadly, the masses of electively reduced workforce absentees and gimmegrants won't be paying into it.
Posted by: Skidmark || 09/05/2021 9:33 Comments || Top||

#5  Dr. John Ioannidis

Wasn't he popularized here in the early days then rebuked and sanctioned because of 'faulty' data?
Posted by: Skidmark || 09/05/2021 9:37 Comments || Top||

#6  What the heck happened to John Ioannidis?
Posted by: Skidmark || 09/05/2021 9:45 Comments || Top||

#7  SS was a ponzi scheme from the get-go. Only gummint backing has kept it afloat this long.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 09/05/2021 9:46 Comments || Top||

#8  What the heck happened to John Ioannidis?

A brave part time tutor and substitute teacher with 1/10th Dr. Ioannidis' credentials totally debunked him on an obscure website. That is all...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 09/05/2021 9:49 Comments || Top||

#9 
OK, Possibly 99.8% Recovery - So why all the fuss ?
Posted by: Blinky Gleasing7925 || 09/05/2021 10:28 Comments || Top||

#10  Ivermectine, hydrochloriquine, laterile, what's the next political drug of the right?

Why has the right become a hotel for stupidity?

What is a conservative in the Reagan tradition to do? Vote democrat? That's about the sole option left for those of us not mentally controlled by these robotic, anti intellectual ideas of the Trump right.
Posted by: Omaing Stalag1261 || 09/05/2021 10:31 Comments || Top||

#11  robotic, anti intellectual ideas of the Never-Trump right.

FIFY
Posted by: Frank G || 09/05/2021 10:34 Comments || Top||

#12 
Vaccine Voodoo

Media Spreading Panic
The media continue to hyperventilate about “cases” but ignore the fact that death rates have declined since January. When one accounts for the 38 million Americans who have survived COVID and already have antibodies, then herd immunity is already here.

Data indicate that people who had COVID between January and February of 2021 and recovered have 13 times more immunity to the Delta variant than vaccines provide.

We’re at the stage where we can learn to live with COVID as we do with many other endemic diseases such as the seasonal flu. There’s no reason for fear.

But the public health authorities insist that these people with natural immunity must also be vaccinated.

It’s not “science.”
Posted by: Blinky Gleasing7925 || 09/05/2021 10:39 Comments || Top||

#13  What is a conservative in the Reagan tradition to do? Vote democrat? That's about the sole option left for those of us not mentally controlled by these robotic, anti intellectual ideas of the Trump right.

If you aren't going to look at the evidence you can find at your local library you're just going along with people who committed murder under color of "scientific research." I don't think Reagan would have done this; maybe you should look up which party was running Alabama when the Tuskeegee Experiment was underway.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 09/05/2021 14:07 Comments || Top||

#14  Thankfully, research DOES exist for: OTC • ANTI-COVID-19 PHYTOCHEMICALS. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/

🔷Viral Envelope Disruption
🔷Fusion Inhibitors
🔷Entry Inhibitors
🔷RdRp & Replication Inhibitors
🔷Immunomodulators
🔷Indistinct antivirals & support
🔷Bradykinin & Porphyrin Reduction
🔷Metabolism Rehabilitation (e.g., Niacin & Melatonin)
Posted by: cingold || 09/05/2021 19:25 Comments || Top||

#15  Below is a thread discussing COVID-19, the Borg-like mRNA nanotech shot, and potential alternate ways of addressing immune-evasive variants of SARS-CoV-2.
https://twitter.com/end_of_uppsala/status/1334752345511510016?s=21

No one can stop COVID-19 with quarantines & orders or leaky mRNA “vaccines.” Things like ORF8 or not is what matters. Why don’t they sequence for that? You’ll never be able to stop this tiny virus with its spike “mutations,” titers, recalcitrant environmental persistence, & transmissibility. Inevitably ALL of USA population will contract some form of COVID-19 at some point.

Therapeutics are the answer!
Posted by: cingold || 09/05/2021 19:26 Comments || Top||

#16  #1 COVID-19 risk is contracting an ORF8 *strain*. No symptoms bcs immune system mounts little defense. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.08.25.267328.

Think airborne AIDS.

Hopefully, most won’t get ORF8 strain, since the ORF8 genetic material has been deleting from the viral genome —as happened 2002 with SARS-CoV-1, almost as if planned https://doi.org/10.1016/j.meegid.2020.104525
Posted by: cingold || 09/05/2021 19:27 Comments || Top||

#17  Oh, yeah.
That was the frantic Lem proselytizing Ioannidis.
Posted by: Skidmark || 09/05/2021 23:15 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Tolerance -- Nothing but Tolerance
All sorts of lovely ideas that simply don’t apply to jihadi Islam.
[ENGLISH.AAWSAT] That is what the world needs today, especially amid all that has happened and continues to happen in it, from conflicts to disputes, intersections of interests, and wars. It is in need of a moment of contemplation and relaxation to push it to think of humanity’s place, human beings’ worth and the planet that brings us together without passports or restrictions.

All eyes are on Afghanistan, and no one knows the direction things will take for sure or what the Taliban
...the Pashtun equivalent of men...
’s policies will be in the next few days. Will this Taliban differ from that seen two decades ago? There are fears of Afghanistan becoming a haven for radical groups and a center for reproducing a new, mutated image of terrorism. That is why the Taliban is being put to the test today, and they are facing major challenges. The international community is monitoring their behavior and dealings, evaluating their actions, and thus making a judgment on them.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 09/05/2021 00:00 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under: Taliban/IEA

#1  The world cannot be stable so long as we do not strive to spread the spirit of forgiveness continue to hesitate to pull the trigger.
Posted by: Nyarlahotep Sharpton Omar1411 || 09/05/2021 12:23 Comments || Top||


The Great Game: what prospects opened up for China in post-NATO Afghanistan
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
By Boris Rozhin

Chinese interest
As the old Afghanistan transforms into the new "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan", not only the question of the potential growth of the terrorist threat in Central Asia, but also the prospects for cooperation between the Taliban and China, is of increasing interest.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: badanov || 09/05/2021 00:00 || Comments || Link || [15 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  China will always be alone on the world stage. People are but blades of grass to them. You go to bed with China and you will lose your bed.
Posted by: Dale || 09/05/2021 7:47 Comments || Top||


Terror Networks
Could the Taliban form an alliance with Mexico's drug cartels?
[DW] As the Taliban
...Arabic for students...
take control of Afghanistan, they will further tighten their grip on opium poppy cultivation. This in turn will have an impact on the global drugs trade and in particular Mexico's powerful cartels.


Afghanistan and Mexico might appear distant from one another on a world map and are also separated by major historical, sociological and religious differences. But the Taliban and the Mexican cartels are united by the fact that they are both financially dependent on drug trafficking and use extreme violence to expand their political power and control of territory. Ahead of the elections in Mexico in June, numerous candidates were threatened and killed by the cartels, which supported other candidates and bought votes more openly than ever before.

In 2009, renowned experts had already presented evidence to the US Congress of the global perils posed by the Taliban and Mexico's cartels as "transnational drug-trafficking organizations" at a US Congress hearing, pointing out dangerous similarities that have only increased since then.

AFGHANISTAN, MEXICO AND MYANMAR CONTROL 95%
Roughly 95% of the world's opium poppies are cultivated in Afghanistan, Mexico and Myanmar, with all the illegal production and trafficking of heroin and other opiates that this entails. In Mexico, narco mobs are responsible for this and have the support of government officials. In Afghanistan, according to US and UN documents, producers are in direct contact with the Taliban. They also were complicit with the government — including the US-backed one. Experts at the US Congress hearing in 2009 estimated that 50% of Afghanistan's GDP that year stemmed from the proceeds of the illegal drugs trade.

The Taliban have always had an ambiguous attitude: Consumption of opiates is banned but not the cultivation and sale of opium poppies. According to a US State Department report released early this year, most opium production in Afghanistan was taking place in regions already under Taliban control or at least their influence. It said that the Taliban derived a considerable income from the trade, pointing out that this fueled conflict, undermined the state of law, encouraged corruption and was also a contributing factor to drug abuse in the country.

A UN report published in April corroborated these findings and drew a direct link between the Taliban and opium poppy cultivation. It said that the total area under opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan had increased between 2019 and 2020 from 163,000 to 224,000 hectares (402,780 to 553,500 acres). Moreover, though 21 hectares had been eradicated in 2019, none had been in 2020.

COULD RIVALS WORK TOGETHER?
The international narcotics business has spawned a number of cartels in Mexico. The Sinaloa Cartel is currently the fastest-growing one and controls the land where poppy cultivation is most profitable. It is thus a potential rival for the Taliban. But the fact that the cartel and the Islamist group serve different markets means that they could actually complement each other.

According to the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Sinoloa Cartel almost has a monopoly on the US heroin market. The Pentagon believes it to be present in 60% of the world's countries from EU and West African states to India, China and Russia — all nations where drugs from Afghanistan are also sold. For the moment, the Mexican cartel is mostly responding to demand for South American-made cocaineand synthetic drugs. But it would not be the first time that organizations, which are actually in competition, came together to increase their profits and political influence.
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/05/2021 01:01 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under: Taliban/IEA

#1  First they will fight among themselves. The true powers divi up the spoils and consolidate their powers and control. Cartels, mafia, elites and governments all will share in the heredity of spoils. In so doing they protect future generations of their kind at the expense of all others.
Posted by: Dale || 09/05/2021 7:42 Comments || Top||

#2  put em in the ring and let 'em go, my money's on the Mexicans

( pound for pound the most dangerous humans in earth )
-Boondock Saints
Posted by: 746 || 09/05/2021 10:52 Comments || Top||

#3  Could the Taliban form an alliance with Mexico's drug cartels?

How do you know they haven't already?
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 09/05/2021 15:30 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
25[untagged]
10Taliban/IEA
5Islamic State
3Govt of Iran
3Antifa/BLM
2Govt of Syria
2Arab Spring
2Commies
2Devout Moslems
2Govt of Iraq
1Hamas
1Houthis
1Govt of Sudan
1Moslem Colonists
1Muslim Brotherhood
1Sublime Porte
1al-Qaeda
1Tin Hat Dictators, Presidents for Life, & Kleptocrats
1[untagged]

Bookmark
E-Mail Me

The Classics
The O Club
Rantburg Store
The Bloids
The Never-ending Story
Thugburg
Gulf War I
The Way We Were
Bio

Merry-Go-Blog











On Sale now!


A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has dominated Mexico for six years.
Click here for more information

Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Sun 2021-09-05
  General Milley: ‘What You Saw Unfold' with Afghanistan Evacuation Was One of the Plans'
Sat 2021-09-04
  Egypt pumps toxic gas into Gaza tunnel, three Palestinians dead
Fri 2021-09-03
  British-born ISIS "Beatle'' due to plead guilty
Thu 2021-09-02
  Taliban confirm that the group’s Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada will be top authority
Wed 2021-09-01
  Six Iraqis on death row executed, three for 'terrorism': medic
Tue 2021-08-31
  Final US evacuation flights leave, ending America’s 20-year Afghanistan war, equipment left behind disabled
Mon 2021-08-30
  US Airstrike Hits Suicide Bombers Targeting Kabul Airport
Sun 2021-08-29
  Last British flight evacuating civilians from Afghanistan leaves Kabul
Sat 2021-08-28
  Biden Pledges to 'Hunt Down' Those Behind Airport Attack
Fri 2021-08-27
  Karzai, Abdullah house-arrested by Taliban in Kabul
Thu 2021-08-26
  Bomb explodes in northern gate of Kabul airport
Wed 2021-08-25
  Taliban Vows to Help Fight Climate Change
Tue 2021-08-24
  Firefight at Kabul airport kills Afghan guard
16,000 more leave Afghanistan
Mon 2021-08-23
  US Embassy Tells Americans: Do Not Go to Kabul Airport
Sun 2021-08-22
  9 Talbanis surrender to Resistance Forces in Andarab; 6 of them Paks


Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
3.131.110.169
Help keep the Burg running! Paypal:
WoT Operations (23)    WoT Background (18)    Non-WoT (12)    (0)    Politix (6)