Posted by: Steve White ||
07/03/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
...I notice Mr. Winston does not appear on the rolls of The Righteous Among The Nations. He is truly deserving of that honor.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
07/03/2015 7:19 Comments ||
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#2
A person must be nominated by someone rescued by him or her. Most people don't know that, and so don't act on it. Others are nominated, but refuse the honor, feeling that what they did was not special enough to be fussed over.
[INDEPENDENT.CO.UK] They are often portrayed on screen as little green men with elongated limbs and saucer-like eyes. Entirely too humanoid.
From E.T to the X-Files, aliens from outer space have captured our imagination for decades. I used to read lots of science fiction when I was a kid. Andre Norton, among others, even had humans interbreeding with humanoid aliens. Even as a twelve-year-old I thought the idea was ridiculous. Poul Anderson even had one of his heroes seduce one. I thought that was actually yucky--convergent pheromones would be pretty unlikely.
Yet a new book from a leading evolutionary biologist argues that if they exist and we ever encountered them, they would look very similar to us. I doubt it. We've got three or more evolutionary strains just on earth: vertebrate, insects, and arachnidae. I don't know where octopi and squids fall in that set so maybe it's four or more. And centipedes. That would make five. And clams and oysters and barnacles. Aliens might look more like ants or spiders or bumblebees or (going back a little further) trilobites. Most successful kingdom of all time, evolution and planet: bacteria.
Professor Simon Conway Morris said extra-terrestrials that resemble human beings should have evolved on at least some of the many Earth-like planets that have been discovered by astronomers. Some perhaps, given the size of just our galaxy. But would bilateral symmetry be the rule or the exception? Assuming the aliens had heads at all what's forcing them to have only two eyes? Spiders have eight eyes. Insects have only two eyes but they're compound. Why would they have noses? Insects don't. Why not something like gill slits or blowholes? Or osmosis? Insects and spiders have different mouth equivalents. Would they use language? If so, why, since rubbing their palps together could convey all sorts of data? How many sexes? Bees have males, non-breeding "females," and queens. Would they have DNA? Or some other equivalent that brilliant Cambridge University scholars haven't thought up yet? I could keep going but my tentacles are getting tired from all this typing.
In his new book published on 2 July, The Runes of Evolution, the University of Cambridge academic builds on the principle of convergent evolution -- that different species will independently evolve similar features, with the comparison of the camera eye of an octopus and a human eye a favourite example -- and argues it will not just took place on Earth. I'm kind of at a loss for the intelligence data in that last sentence--likely there's a word or two missing or the writer lost track of tense. The panda's thumb is another favorite example of convergent evolution but lobsters have no thumbs. They do have elbows, I suppose, though trilobites didn't. But it's probably more intellectually satisfying than speculation on how many angels can dance on the head of a pin, and just as likely of proof.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/03/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
My favorite theory is that aliens came & went between 200,000 and 1,000,000 years ago after genetically modifying some hairy fellas they met in Africa. Due to budget cuts at Galactic Central, they haven't been back.
#4
Well, they might have been gone 200k-1m EARTH years, but that's relativistic now isn't it. They could have said, "Let's pop out for a tea and be back in 20."
#5
It is interesting to contemplate: What would the result look like, if ten consecutive generations of humans were born, raised, grew up, and then died - all in weightlessness? I'll wager that it would be a pretty strange looking result.
[DAILYMAIL.CO.UK] The TransAsia flight crashed upside down into a river in Taipei in February
There were 58 people on board the plane, which clipped a bridge and taxi
Report reveals crew had shut off working engine after the other lost power
The plane crash claimed the lives of 43 people - only 15 people survived
Back in the Lower Paleolithic I heard tell of a Chinese pilot who landed upside down in a fog.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/03/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
Happened to one of my instructors during an FAA checkride ("similated" engine failure induce by the FAA Inspector.). He, of course, "busted" the ride, and it happens more than you might think. No little light on the throttle to ID the "bad" engine, and the gauges can be misleading, esp. at lower power settings.
#4
Prince's real name is Prince. That's what his mother named him at birth. It's not a made-up stage name like Jon Stewart. That's why it was so outrageous what Warner tried to do, claim ownership of his NAME.
#8
Kevin Smith was contacted to make some kind of documentary film on Prince (when he was artist formally known as). The project didn't get to far but one part cracked me up. He worked with Prince's agent or helper or whatever and went shopping for Prince wardrobe in the Kids' department of a store because Prince was so tiny.
#5
Adulthood, replaced by a population of children in adult bodies who have no comprehension of the real world outside their urban bubbles. It's all shadows on the wall.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/03/2015 13:43 Comments ||
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#9
I like Matt Welch's comment. Something along the lines of Boss Jefferson Davis Hogg being the bad guy which made the Duke boys rebels against the souther corrupt political machine.
[Tolo News] Responding to reports that the Kabul ...the capital of Afghanistan. Home to continuous fighting from 1992 to 1996 between the forces of would-be strongman and Pak ISI/Jamaat-e-Islami sock puppet Gulbuddin Hekmayar and the Northern Alliance, a period which won Hek the title Most Evil Man in the World and didn't do much for the reputations of the Northern Alliance guys either.... Appeals Court has ruled to commute the death sentences handed down to four individuals convicted of brutally murdering Farkhunda earlier this year, members of Farkhunda's family have expressed their outrage, calling on leaders of the national unity government to step in and prevent any further injustice.
Sources close to case recently told TOLOnews on condition of anonymity that the Kabul Appeals Court has reversed the Primary Court's May death penalty sentence for four of the men observed in video footage as key perpetrators in the barbaric mob attack on Farkhunda. The four men have reportedly had their sentences reduced to 20 years imprisonment.
Meanwhile, ...back at the hanging, Butch continued with his last words, trying not to repeat himself too often...... the Appeals Court is said to have entirely acquitted Omran, the custodian of the Shrine where Farkhunda was killed, despite that he was originally sentenced to 16 years in prison. Omran was found guilty of instigating the mob attack on Farkhunda for make false accusations publicly that she had burned the Holy Koran.
In addition, eight another defendants, each sentenced to 16 years imprisonment for their role in the murder, were also acquitted by the Appeals Court.
"How could the court make such a decision?" Farkhund'as mother Hajira Malikzada asked on Thursday. "I am feeling pain in my heart, and I am poor," she added.
"We do not accept this verdict - this is not justice," Farkhunda's father Mohammad Nadir Malikzada said. "I demand justice from the president and the chief executive," he added.
President Ashraf Ghani ...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. .. was very public with his outrage over the mob killing when it occurred three months ago. The incident was treated as a national tragedy, with the backdrop of the Afghan government's struggles to recast the country after years of state-backed brutality against women under the Taliban regime.
Joining Farkhunda's parents, some civil society groups have also called on the national unity government to review the ruling of the Appeals Court. "The court ruling has raised questions on promises made by the leaders of national untiy government, nor the people neither Farkhunda's family accept the court ruling, the president and chief executive must appoint a speicla court to review the case," MP Neelofar Ibrahimi said.
"The ruling has changed all hope into disappointment," civil society activist Humaira Qaderi said on Thursday. "This means that Afghanistan's legal and judicial institutions support criminals rather than implementing justice."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/03/2015 00:00 ||
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[Reuters] Liberia confirmed a third Ebola case on Thursday, nearly two months after it was declared Ebola free, and officials said they were investigating whether the disease had spread through animals before resurfacing.
Dr Moses Massaquoi, case management team leader for Liberia's Ebola task force, said the three villagers who had tested positive for the disease "have a history of having had dog meat together."
The first new Liberian sufferer died on Sunday in Nedowein village, about 50 km (30 miles) from the capital Monrovia. Two others have since tested positive in the village.
Some locals said the deceased and others in the village had recently dug up and eaten a dead dog.
It has not been proved that dogs can carry the virus, although humans have been infected by eating monkey flesh in past outbreaks.
Liberia, worst hit by the West African Ebola outbreak last year, had been declared Ebola free on May 9.
None of the new victims is known to have traveled to Guinea or Sierra Leone, and Nedowein is far from Liberia's borders, leading to speculation that there could be hidden pockets of the virus or new means of transmission.
For a map, click here. You can enlarge the map, if you open it separately.
Russian military analyst Boris Rozhin said today that rebel infantry have moved back into western sectors of Shirokino after a Ukrainian patrol was spotted there. So far, Donetsk officials have yet to confirm the return of rebel forces to Shirokino.
By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com
Rebel forces holding the forward town of Shirokino have withdrawn their troops, "unilaterally demilitarizing" the town after nearly six months of fighting, according to Russian language news accounts.
A Ukrainian commander, identified as General Major Andrei Taran, told the 0629.com.ua news outlet Thursday that rebel troops have left the town, and have taken up positions in two towns immediately east of Shirokino, including Sahanka and Bezimyanoye.
For a week, discussions coming out of the working groups of the Minsk II agreement trying to hammer out a permanent settlement in this year old war included a proposal to demilitarize the resort town -- nearly completely destroyed by artillery fire and direct fire combat since at least last February -- by removing combatants.
Rebel forces and Ukrainian volunteer units including the Ukrainian "Azov" Regiment have been fighting over the town, with the Ukrainian side clinging to western sectors of the town. Both sides have accused the other of hitting targets using heavy artillery including tank gun fire, all of which is supposed to be withdrawn to a sufficient distance to stop artillery fire.
According to another news account in korrespondent.net, rebel forces left with town starting around midnight, July 2nd and ending at first light.
An observation post is to be set up and maintained by a Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
Shirokino was the most forward outpost of the rebel forces in the Mariupol region, and had been, according to repeated rebel news announcement, subjected to Ukrainian artillery fire since last February. It was only a few weeks ago that elements of the "Azov" Regiment took control of the western sectors of the town.
Rebel forces have withdrawn to Sahanka, itself under heavy Ukrainian artillery fire for a week, now presumably because of rebel plans to establish a base there.
According to the spokesman for the Donetsk ministry of defense, Lt. Colonel Eduard Basurin, Ukrainian forces have been using drones to adjust artillery fire into Sahanka. According to an official rebel report, Ukrainians have been using 120mm mortar fire at Sahanka and other locations in the Mariupol defense zone occupied by rebel forces.
Basurin also said that many residents have left Sahanka because of the destruction rendered by Ukrainian artillery fire, to include eight residences. A total of 300 are said to have left the town
According to Ukrainian media, rebel artillery have been firing into Mariupol starting at around 2030 hrs July 2nd using 152mm and 122mm tube artillery. According to data supplied by the Ukrainian ministry of defense, rebel artillery used also included 120mm mortars fire. Rebel have been using antitank guided missiles (ATGMs), with one hitting in the Leninskiy district of Mariupol. The report does not specify any damage or casualties by rebel fire, only that the artillery did not hit Ukrainian troops in Mariupol.
Ukrainian media have accused rebels of planning to use Shirokino as a springboard for an offensive aimed at capturing the port city of Mariupol. Two days ago US paid media, using data supplied by the Ukrainian volunteer "Dnepr-1" Battalion and the Ukrainian ministry of defense have said that a Russian forward operating base (FOB), has been set up for what appears to be a reinforced Russian rifle company. The plan, accuses Ukrainian media, is to use the base located just 12 kilometers from Volnovakha as a base for offensive operations aimed at enveloping Mariupol with a single pincer from Volnovakha to some point a few kilometers to the west of Mariupol.
Once that encirclement operation is successfully in hand, rebel forces in Shirokino were to push their way into the city.
Rebels abandoning a forward area such as Shirokino in the face of accusations that it would be used to attack Mariupol, would seem to fly in the face of such accusations, but for the rebels' penchant for displays, and their considerable ability to play up such moves.
According to data supplied by the Ukrainian ministry of defense, General Taran said: "The cynicism of the situation lies in the fact that before the next negotiations in Minsk militants defiantly decided to return to Ukrainians destroyed and deserted Shirokino positioning the solution as the observance of the Minsk Agreement."
The area around Mariupol, just before Minsk I in September had rebel forces in isolated groups holding positions to the northwest of the city. Mariupol had been used by the Ukrainian military as a marshaling point for their now failed operation in August, 2014 to envelope Donetsk city from the south. That operation led to the battles around Ilovaisk, arguably, one of the two great military disasters for the Ukrainian military.
How much the rebels holding those positions would have helped in subsequent operations is unknown.
Chris Covert writes about foreign military issues for Rantburg.com. He can be reached at grurkka@gmail.com and on Twitter. You can read past articles about the 2014 war in southeastern Ukraina by clicking here.
[NYTIMES] The International Monetary Fund, a big Greek creditor, conceded a point on Thursday that the Athens government has long been making: Without some reduction in the country's staggering debt load, Greece has little hope of a sustained economic recovery.
It was a significant acknowledgment, and an indication that if or when bailout negotiations resume, Greece might win some relief from its debt of 300 billion euros, or about $330 billion. It just might not be relief granted to the leftist government of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.
The I.M.F. argued on Thursday that the five-month-old government bore the blame for having made Greece's economic situation so much worse that a new €50 billion relief program is now necessary.
The organization did not mention Mr. Tsipras or his party by name, but said the country's economy and finances had deteriorated sharply because of government policies since the end of last year. Mr. Tsipras took office in January.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/03/2015 00:00 ||
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When your only tool is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.
[DAWN] HYDERABAD: A division bench of the Sindh High Court, Hyderabad circuit, on Wednesday granted interim pre-arrest bail till July 14 to Ali Hassan Zardari, a cousin of former president Asif Ali Zardari, in a sum of Rs1 million in an ambulances misuse case.
The bench comprising Justice Abdul Rasool Memon and Justice Syed Saeeduddin Nasir directed the special prosecutor of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and the deputy attorney-general (DAG) to produce whatever evidence they had against the petitioner on the next date of hearing.
The applicant has also been directed to cooperate with the NAB authorities in the investigation as and when summoned.
In his constitutional petition filed through Advocate Haq Nawaz Talpur, Ali Hassan Zardari has cited the NAB director general, Federal Investigation Agency, Anti-Corruption Establishment, Sindh IG, Shaheed Benazirabad SSP, Rangers director-general and others as respondents.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/03/2015 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] A strong contingent of police led by a DSP came under attack by a gang of dacoits during an operation to arrest its ringleader and members in the Phuladiyoon area on Wednesday. One policeman received gunshot wounds in what was described as the ambush.
An FIR was registered at the Phuladiyoon cop shoppe on behalf of the state against Noor Mohammed Marri, Mubarak Marri and Abo Marri.
It said that a contingent comprising personnel from the Phuladiyoon, Sindhri and Dilber Maher cop shoppes was ambushed during a hunt for the wanted suspects and their associates in Jumma Marri village, an area surrounded by thick woods. It said that one policeman, Deedar Abro, sustained bullet wounds in the ambush. The attack triggered a shootout but the gangsters managed to disappear in the forest, it added.
The Sindhri DSP, who led the police contingent, said that the operation was planned on a credible tip-off about the presence of the wanted outlaws in the area.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/03/2015 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] LANDI KOTAL: A passenger was critically maimed when an employee of the Frontier Works Organisation opened fire on a cab after it did not stop despite signal on Wednesday.
Khasadar officials said that the FWO employee, Salim Younas, opened fire on the cab, as repair of the road near Landi Kotal bazaar was in progress. The firing resulted in the injury to a passenger, Gulistan Mohmand, sitting on the front seat. He was taken to Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. at death's door.
Taxi drivers have condemned the incident and demanded the arrest of FWO employee who fled after the incident. The cab driver said that his vehicle was fired upon without any provocation.
The residents also lamented the rude behaviour of FWO officials and employees and alleged that the incident was the third of its type when FWO employees misbehaved and scuffled with the local residents or transporters on a petty issue. They said that an FWO road dumper had damaged five vehicles during the expansion of Torkham road a week ago, but the FWO officials refused to compensate the owners of the affected vehicles.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/03/2015 00:00 ||
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[NYTIMES] An engine malfunction was the reason an Indonesian military aircraft crashed into an urban neighborhood, the chief of the air force said on Thursday, offering the first official explanation of the disaster two days ago.
Air Marshal Agus Supriatna told news hounds in Medan, the capital of North Sumatra Province, that one of the four propellers on the aircraft, an American-built C-130 Hercules transport, was not functioning, causing it to crash about two minutes after takeoff on Tuesday from Soewondo Air Force Base in the city. All 122 people on the plane were killed, as well as at least 21 people on the ground.
"The pilot had asked to return to base, and that was an indication there was something wrong with the plane," Marshal Agus said. "There was a malfunction. One of the propellers wasn't working; that's why the plane went down so fast."
A woman who witnessed the crash said she noticed that at least two of the C-130's four propellers were not turning when the aircraft smashed into a gated compound of shops with living spaces above them. The witness said that in the seconds before the crash she saw thick smoke coming from one of the plane's wings. Two should have been adequate to keep it in the air from what I understand. If they were down to one then they were toast.
There has been speculation that the aircraft, which was transporting Indonesian military personnel and their dependents between military bases, may have been overloaded with passengers. It was bound for stops in the Riau Islands, the Natuna Islands and Indonesian Borneo when it took off on Tuesday.
The doomed aircraft missed striking a dense cluster of lower-class dwellings and shops by a few yards; instead it hit the compound, which has some open space as well as a number of popular traditional Indonesian massage parlors.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/03/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
The same as the Taiwan air crash. Pilot lost one engine and turned off the wrong engine, resulting in two lost engines. In Taiwan this left them with zero engines, but here they've got two remaining so they should have been OK. Guess is that pilot dumb enough to turn off the wrong engine probably doesn't know how to trim the aircraft for flight with two engines out.
#2
Flying with two engines out is often possible, though it would be easier if they were on opposite side (were they?)
Losing two on take-off of a loaded aircraft makes for a much harder task.
#3
If both dead engines were on the same side of the A/C, the lift and yaw issues, esp. at high power settings and low airspeed, could result in control problems as serious as a "rollover."
#4
And if you had a pitch control problem and a locked prop transmission, the result would have been engine failure and possibly enough asymmetric power to cause a stall.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
07/03/2015 12:21 Comments ||
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h/t Jerry Pournelle
Most Americans think they know the history of slavery because it has been an abhorrent part of the American narrative taught in schools, portrayed in Hollywood, and mentioned frequently in the media.
But here is something you probably didn't know: The first recorded American slave owner was a black man.
#2
About Obama asking reparations for slavery Here is my answr as an European whose ancestors never hemld slaves (just like many Americans whose ancestors came to Ameerica welle after 1865):
"Go f;ck yourself and ask them instead to your masters the Saudis"
#3
And the "history" presented in "Roots" was an almost total fabrication.
African tribal members were, in most cases, property of their Chief and could be sold/traded without onlookers raising an eyebrow. Why chase Kunta Kinte through the jungle when a simple barter would have taken care of things very efficiently?
And don't get me started about how the slavers are usually represented as either American or British but the Dutch, who really dominated the trade, are strangely absent.
#6
And the "history" presented in "Roots" was an almost total fabrication.
Not to mention that at the end the guy returns to Africa and seems moved to tears after meeting a distant cousin: a Muslim, so we are left with the impression that they are the good guys. Someone just forgot about Muslim tribes raiding their neighbors in order to supply Middle East harems with "material".
#9
I lived in West Africa for two years from 2009 to 2011. The people in the north still hated the people in the south.
Know why?? The southern tribes were the the ones that sold the northern tribes to slavers on the coast 200 hundred years ago.
#3 below - Dutch ran the trade during the peak years 1650ish to early 1800s but the Mooselimbs had been taking people from West Africa for 600 years by then. Funny - never hear too much about the slaves moving east under moose limb control. Only west under gringo control.
Posted by: Bangkok Billy ||
07/03/2015 21:46 Comments ||
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h/t Instapundit
The poll shows that 57% of Americans see the flag more as a symbol of Southern pride than as a symbol of racism, about the same as in 2000 when 59% said they viewed it as a symbol of pride. Opinions of the flag are sharply divided by race, and among whites, views are split by education.
Among African-Americans, 72% see the Confederate flag as a symbol of racism, just 25% of whites agree. In the South, the racial divide is even broader. While 75% of Southern whites describe the flag as a symbol of pride and 18% call it a symbol of racism, those figures are almost exactly reversed among Southern African-Americans, with just 11% seeing it as a sign of pride and 75% viewing it as a symbol of racism.
Among whites, there's a sharp divide by education, and those with more formal education are less apt to see the flag as a symbol of pride. Among whites with a college degree, 51% say it's a symbol of pride, 41% one of racism. Among those whites who do not have a college degree, 73% say it's a sign of Southern pride, 18% racism. Instapundit's comment: ONCE AGAIN, REPUBLICANS PREEMPTIVELY SURRENDERED TO A MEDIA BULLDOZING OPERATION. My comment: Maybe time for all of you to rethink your adoration for Nikki Haley.
#1
The Confederate flag is better called the rebel flag; it's not about race but of not wanting to be told what to do by some distant government and its supporters. In fact, that was even the case in 1865.
#4
The Confederacy was indeed about slavery. We've had 150 years of revisionist history trying to tell us that the southern leaders were noble and just trying to fight off northern aggression and centralized government.
Nonsense.
The South was afraid of Abraham Lincoln for one reason: they knew he and the Republicans would do away with slavery. First in the new territories of the west, then in the border states, and finally in the deep South. Lincoln was beguiling but the other Republican leaders (Steward, Chase, etc) were not -- they were quite open about this. It was the whole reason the Republican Party had been formed.
Southern leaders couldn't push slavery but so hard -- most of the young men who were to fight for the south didn't own slaves and didn't care much one way or the other. But they could be induced to fight for home, and so that was the storyline that was adopted.
After the war ended the South really couldn't continue to cling to slavery nostalgia. But the other nostalgia? That was the history that was adopted.
I have no sympathy for the Confederate battle flag -- should have been done away with it in the southern states long, long ago.
Then again, I'm a Republican.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/03/2015 13:50 Comments ||
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Posted by: Steve White ||
07/03/2015 18:15 Comments ||
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#8
The Southern battle flag evolved into the southern 'F U' flag to the central government, and has now evolved into a more generalized redneck 'F U' flag to the overpowerful central government - kind of like the Gadsden flag. Yes, racists also drag it around, but I think they're a minority.
#9
I don't even own one but after last week, I'd be waving it wide and high at Daytona and the 4th, as a FUCK YOU. My family was a southern family with slaves... we haven't had any in quite a while I'm pretty damn sure, and members died on both sides of the Civil War
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/03/2015 21:54 Comments ||
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#10
The "Stars and Bars" was, at one time, a symbol of battle between honest men of vastly differing opinions. Now, it's more a "I'm not gonna' do it, try and make me." thingy, right?
Is there anyone alive today, aside a few who keep their prey chained in a basement, who has kept a slave? How many affirmative actions do we have to go back until one is found?
#11
The Southern soldier by and large fought for his tribe be it Texan, Georgian, Alabaman et al.* Just as Germans and Japanese did for their tribe, and damn hard. Often with far better behavior in a civil war which by historical standards is generally brutal and unforgiving than the other two mentioned in general war. All three groups were exploited by their ruling class for their own ends and gains. The Southern leadership was trapped. Too many early success and then passing the mark of more deaths than all the previous war in American history, they could not come to terms, to include selling the slaves to the federal government, as it would be viewed as a betrayal of all the preceding sacrifice of the yeomanry for the wallet of that same class.
* as Shelby Foote alluded to in Ken Burn's series The Civil War, before 1860 it was the United STATES of America, after 1865 it was the UNITED States of America.
[WAPO] The CIA has paid more than $10 million to a management consulting firm advising senior U.S. intelligence officials on a broad reorganization that agency Director John O. Brennan began earlier this year, current and former U.S. officials said.
The agency also is requiring some of its departments to surrender portions of their annual budgets in an effort to collect enough money to cover other costs associated with the restructuring, officials said.
The payments to the firm, McKinsey & Co., have been viewed with skepticism by some at CIA headquarters and on Capitol Hill at a time when the agency is confronting significant new security threats as well as pressure to trim costs.
Several current and former U.S. officials said they were surprised by the magnitude of the consulting contract, an arrangement that officials said Brennan did not mention to workers when he announced the reorganization or explain to lawmakers in briefings.
"What is the rationale?" said a U.S. official familiar with the contract. "When you're talking about millions and millions of dollars, there ought to be a reason why the money is being spent." Be a shame to see all of those bright young minds with new clearances and poly's leave the project after contract expiration.
The sum paid to McKinsey represents a tiny fraction of a CIA budget that is believed to exceed $12 billion annually. But current and former U.S. officials said they could not recall a previous case in which the CIA had hired an outside consulting firm at such expense.
CIA spokesman Dean Boyd declined to comment on the contract or overall cost of the reorganization, but said the agency is "implementing this plan within our existing budget and without seeking additional funds from Congress."
A spokesman for McKinsey in Washington declined to comment. None of our 'members' in our 105 global offices are authorized to discuss client affairs without client and corporate approval. Pardon the redundancy.
McKinsey, which specializes in advising companies on management issues and corporate restructurings, was hired to help carry out what CIA officials have described as one of the most ambitious reorganizations in the agency's history.
#1
The CIA has a bigger problem.
The Central Intelligence Agency is once again mired in crisis. CIA Director John Brennan finds himself “deeply concerned.” The spy agency he runs suffers from an affliction that he says has “persisted despite repeated efforts by Agency leaders to address it.”
What is ailing this vital guardian of national security? The CIA’s upper echelon, Mr. Brennan said on Tuesday, does “not reflect the diversity of the Agency workforce or of the nation.”
Mr. Brennan was commenting on the “Director’s Diversity in Leadership Study,” an unclassified report released that day. The study comes to the “unequivocal conclusion,” he said in a statement, that there has been a major failure at the agency in the “crucial” area of diversity and inclusiveness. . . .
The report is unsparing. Senior positions at the “highest levels of the CIA” are “consistently occupied by white male career officers.” While minority officers make up 23.9% of the CIA workforce, the higher echelons of the CIA don’t come close to that number. For example, the Senior Intelligence Service, the crème de la crème of the spy agency’s personnel, manages only a 10.8% minority composition. Spies with disabilities and LGBT spies, according to the report, are no better represented in the CIA’s upper leadership, though women are generally faring well.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
07/03/2015 10:48 Comments ||
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#2
Gays and Transvestites as spies?
Might work given some of the odd sexual appetites of some foreign operatives and diplomats.
I guess now that we are all throwing the closet out in the street and being gay is supposedly de-stigmatized, and that means blackmailing a high ranking official into cooperating has gone bye bye...NOT
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
07/03/2015 12:19 Comments ||
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#3
...It's been my experience that when a business becomes incapable of performing its core functions, the restructuring merry-go-round starts. Sometimes they can, with immense luck, land on the right combination of ideas and capabilities.
Most of the time they're rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.
And if we get hit this weekend, I hope and pray that when the CIA says, "We never saw this coming," someone has the courage to hold up that report about not-enough-GLBT-agents and say, "Yeah. We know."
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
07/03/2015 18:03 Comments ||
Top||
#4
...It's been my experience that when a business becomes incapable of performing its core functions, the restructuring merry-go-round starts. Sometimes they can, with immense luck, land on the right combination of ideas and capabilities.
Most of the time they're rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.
And if we get hit this weekend, I hope and pray that when the CIA says, "We never saw this coming," someone has the courage to hold up that report about not-enough-GLBT-agents and say, "Yeah. We know."
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
07/03/2015 18:03 Comments ||
Top||
Anti-police activists were set to burn the American flag at a New York City park Wednesday evening, but their plans seemingly changed when dozens of bikers and veterans came out to counter protest.
Flocking to Brooklyn's Fort Greene Park, individuals opposed to burning the U.S. flag waited for the "Disarm NYPD" group to arrive. While most urged for peace, several bikers threatened violence toward anyone who would burn the American flag.
"We're here to f*** up tiny liberal punks," a biker who refused to identify himself told TheBlaze. Vid @ Link
#4
I support the first amendment right of ass-clowns to burn the American flag - that scenario has already been interpreted by the courts as freedom of speech. I fully support freedom of speech. HOWEVER, freedom of speech is not the same thing as freedom of consequences from unwise speech. I enthusiastically support beating the living crap out of flag burners.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[NYTIMES] The International Monetary Fund, a big Greek creditor, conceded a point on Thursday that the Athens government has long been making: Without some reduction in the country's staggering debt load, Greece has little hope of a sustained economic recovery.
