Jonna Mendez, former CIA Chief of Disguise, takes a look at spy scenes from a variety of television shows and movies and breaks down how accurate they really are.
[AMERICANTHINKER] Friday's London Bridge terror attack by a fanatic Islamist with knives -- and not the first one on that bridge -- was a case study in all kinds of things that have gone wrong as blue-city politics and leftist reform agendas take over.
Who let this beast into the country at all? He was born there, just like Anjem Chaudary.
Why, even after one terror attack attempt, was he let out of the can on parole, with only an ankle bracelet to monitor him? It was obviously a waste of time.
Why was he not booted back to his hellhole of origin, first plane out? Britain was his hellhole of origin.
Why were the cops, that everyone's supposed to rely on in lieu of guns, not around?
Why did it take bystanders, one "armed" with a whale tusk taken from a decorative display on a chowhouse wall, and another wielding a fire extinguisher, to knock the beast down?
Why don't bystanders in London have access to guns?
So many things wrong with this picture just to start.
The worst though was the fact that the terrorist was not just let out on a much undeserved parole, he was busy lecturing the leftists at Cambridge University at a conference, participating in "workshops" on his supposed prison rehabilitation, the leftists eating it up and calling for more such "reform." He was one of their leaders and they were taking it from him.
These fellas are amazing. The terrorist has already killed 2 people, injured others and they chase him down with a whale tusk and a fire extinguisher. He’s wearing a suicide vest which they don’t know is fake. Incredible. True heroes. #LondonBridgepic.twitter.com/0hduOInM9I
Here's Kurt
Donald Trump is talking about labeling the Mexican drug cartels that own our failed state neighbor as "terrorist groups," and this is yet another step toward what is increasingly looking to be an inevitable confrontation. They just butchered several American citizens, including kids, which cannot go unanswered. They murder thousands of Americans a year here with their poison, which cannot go unanswered. But are we Americans even able to answer a bunch of pipsqueak thugs anymore? Let’s put aside the question of if we should use our military against Mexico (I discussed it here in 2018, to the consternation of liberals and Fredocon sissies) and look at what might happen if we did escalate.
None of it is good.
It’s not a matter of the prowess of our warriors. Our warriors, unleashed, would lay waste to anything we point them at. But the question is, "Would we ever unleash them? Would we let them do what it takes to achieve the goal of eliminating the cartels?"
Of course not. We haven’t decisively won a real war since World War II (except the Gulf War, unless you accept the arguable premise that it was an early campaign in a still-continuing Iraq conflict). And there’s a reason we don’t win. We don’t truly want to, as demonstrated by our unwillingness to do the hard things required to win. Could you imagine the Democrats siding with America in a war on Mexican drug cartels? If you can, you’re higher than Hoover Biden at a strip club on a Saturday night.
Again, this is not to say whether a war on the Mexican drug cartels is a good or bad idea. Nor is it to say we do not have the combat power to do it ‐ we do. It’s just to say that America is culturally and politically unwilling to do what it takes to win, or to accept the losses that would come with a military campaign against the drug cartels.
...A massive U.S. invasion is unlikely for many reasons, but there would be a temptation to use special ops types to target key cartel personnel and locations. This can be effective in a counterinsurgency, where you are trying to stamp out rebels trying to overthrow the government. But here, the cartels are infiltrated into the government. You can’t kill a few leaders and go home. Mexican society is infected with the gangrene of corruption. A few SEALs smoking some sicarios is a boon to humanity but it doesn’t win the war. More just take over. To cure corruption, you would have to tear down and rebuild Mexican society a la Japan and Germany after World War II. Anybody up for that quagmire? Anyone? Hello?
...The sad fact is that our establishment does not really want to take on the cartels. The failed state next door is a distraction from their real priorities: Ukrainian/Russia tiffs and getting sideways with NATO allies over communist Kurds. Nor do they want to gin up public pressure to take the only action that would devastate the cartels: seriously defending our own border. They want the new voters, they want the cheap labor, and they don’t care how many Mexicans and Americans die to keep them both flowing.
Especially the coda. Our political class wants cheap labor and a lock on latinx votes, both of which are enabled by elimination of border security and tolerance of the failed state on our southern border.
#2
increased lower class wage costs through increased wage competition is just one of the benefits the establishment gain from subsidising migration.
The other part of the welfare state for the rich is much higher rents.
#3
What Would a War on the Drug Cartels Look Like?
It would look like Federal action against street corner drug sellers and 'no-go' zones that local police endure. The only invasions would be of inner city complexes.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
12/02/2019 8:39 Comments ||
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#6
If they hand it to the military and say destroy, it will be an outstanding victory. ROE is no nukes or chemical weapons, no action inside the US. If it's tied to the cartels, it eats a JDAM. You take cartel money, you are a target. I don't care if the other countries look like a smoking wasteland afterwards. It's not our job to fix them. It is the US job to stop foreign terrorists and invaders from hitting us. No mercy and no quarter.
#8
I smart war on the cartels would mean targeting the cartel leaders and lt's for assassination. Either using drone strikes or Special Ops. Might add to that dropping flyers on the cartel mansions saying that the mansion will be leveled at x hour on y day and then doing just that.
Don't worry about the economic side, we've tried that for decades without success, but we are really, really, really good at killing people so that's how we should do it. if the cartel's think some other cartel is the one taking them out alls the better.
Yeah, right. You know why they won't secure the border? That'd stop the flow of money into the hands of American politicians. Go after that money, follow it, and you are likely to discover some very uncomfortable truths.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/02/2019 10:46 Comments ||
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#11
The truth is the violence is heading north. It will be in our streets with full military grade weapons going against our civilian judicial system, just like the fight near the Texas border. It is only a matter of time because we won't stop this shit until it is too late.
#14
DV is correct, to a point, but go to Nogales and you will see it is already here. It is difficult but very possible to get the cartels with success. For example, go after the money. Then send in the teams to kill everyone that touched it, to include back tellers and couriers. Id the cartel leadership and kill everyone that supports them, postal workers, trash haulers, bank tellers, maids, etc... These folks will get isolated. Then kill them. Post the target lists of all those that support in the papers giving them three days to stop supporting or they will be killed. This process of isolating from the outside in works.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
12/02/2019 12:21 Comments ||
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#15
Gonna discover them anyhow - the way Darth described.
Exactly what I'm afraid of. Because the corruption is already so deep, it'll be impossible to stop it peacefully. Might be impossible to stop it at all.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/02/2019 12:45 Comments ||
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#16
...the other side of the war is to allow their customers to all OD. No customer base, no money.
#17
Does this really merit the all-out war that the deaths of some rich cultists is demanding though ? Isn't the cartel empowered and abetted by entrenched agents and politicos within America, given a place in the world by the increasing liberal madness of hollywood morality and dysfunctional euphoria ? I think Trump has gotten some measure of service from Mexico in terms of border control, it would be good to not jeopardize that in a moment of 'tough guy' aggression. The solution may lie elsewhere ? Bear with me a little, please.
If only America could tighten down the domestic front, work toward ousting libtard democrats and academic outfits from their positions, take back conservative control of society.
I think everything is hanging on the next six years. Trump, and we... all need to use every trick in the book and some outside it to discredit, vilify and screw every God-cursed sodding liberal's career; to take this to physical levels if need be, but encourage a nationalist core of American society, while instructing families themselves to fight the menace of addiction. Not by tried before faggot counseling and 'baby why won't you talk to me' shtick, or 'say no' posters. But openly revolting against legislation that outlaws disciplining children, intrusive nanny state controls, and school and college indoctrination and experimentation in everything from ganja to mushrooms chasing 'out of body experiences', the almost coerced dismantling of christian moral education and nationalist ethos. The drug dealer cannot force you at gunpoint to buy the fucking thing once you don't want it.
The Trump could supplement these efforts by replacing every significant DoJ, FBI, BoP appointee to Americans instead of 'African Americans', 'Arab Americans', 'Asian Americans', globalist demagogues and insane cat lady's bluffing their way through the Bar. But he can't do everything for the people. A lot can be accomplished faster, if young republican supporters are willing to place some blind trust in Trump, and sacrifice some liberties and conveniences to get out there and oppose the Democrats at every turn, HK type disobedience for months, maybe years.
The cartels cannot be starved, like countries. They cannot be nuked or carpet bombed because they're in urban locations. You can send out the green berets against them and off a number of them, but ultimately they are corporations, not a cult or militia alone. They shall always have ready customers and their product always in demand, unless the penalty for distributing/taking the drug itself is maximized by customer States themselves. One long standing solution would be to insulate your youth from their product by measures involving everything from brute coercion to punitive action against such things.
For all these things you need absolute power in conservative hands first. No democratic process or miry checks and balances by compromised legislators over the executive.
#23
Rantburg regulars can tell you I've called for years for a real war on drugs. If you really want to do it on the cheap, offer scalp money, letters of marque and allow them to keep any drug money they are able to loot.
As for the people in the US, you have to go by our legal system. My vote is death for all but the users and they can be flogged publicly to pay their debt.
I have no issue with reducing cartel nations to smoking wastelands, they have more than enough American blood on their hands.
h/t Instapundit
You see it in the maps. In 2015, 1.4 million Hong Kongers voted in elections in which pro-Beijing candidates swept the city's 18 district councils. Last week, 2.9 million Hong Kongers voted and pro-democracy candidates won every district but one. That is an increase in turnout of more than 100 percent and a stunning rebuke both of Beijing and of chief executive Carrie Lam, who has failed to respond adequately to the demands of the pro-democracy movement that has disrupted Hong Kong for the past six months. Maps of the city once shaded pro-mainland blue are now pro-liberty yellow.
...What is happening in Hong Kong is not isolated. The China model of authoritarian development is damaged and scarred. What seemed as sturdy and invulnerable as a Borg Cube looks more like a fragile and wobbly mobile by Alexander Calder. The regime of Xi Jinping is under economic and political and diplomatic pressure that it is not handling well. This beleaguered combatant in an era of great power competition is more dangerous to the United States than before.
What legitimacy the Communist Party possessed was based on the decades of economic growth inaugurated by Deng Xiaoping in 1978. But growth has slowed to its lowest level in decades as the Chinese workforce ages, low-hanging investment opportunities disappear, and the trade war with the United States reduces manufacturing output and sends supply lines to Vietnam and Mexico. Capital is fleeing China at a record pace as the bourgeoisie hedge against stagnation and turmoil.
...The resistance to Beijing is both domestic and foreign. Lost in all the predictions of Chinese dominance were the voices of China's neighbors in the Pacific. Neither Japan, nor Vietnam, Taiwan, the Philippines, nor Australia want to live in a Chinese lake. Most extraordinary has been the response of the United States. Within four years, the American elite has swapped its belief in China's "peaceful rise" for the recognition that it may be in the opening phase of a Second Cold War whose outcome will determine the ideological character of the 21st century. While Tariff Man wages his trade war, opposing Chinese theft of intellectual property and arguing for structural changes to China's state owned enterprises, Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and Secretary of Defense Mark Esper speak of the political and security challenges presented by Chinese authoritarians who become more willing to lash out as they lose their grip. Ever wondered how much of the "resistance" is funded with Chinese money?
#1
In engineering models break all the time. One of the reasons you always are working on the NEXT model.
I really don't get why lawyers and politicians get so attached to models.
[The Gold Institute for International Strategy] With our Mid-East policy in disarray, China and Russia have not missed a beat and are stepping in to fill the gaps. It is clear the intention of their advances in technological research and development (R&D), military and otherwise, is to surpass the U.S.’s global distribution and ultimately become the dominant player in this area. As recently as May 2019, it has been reported that U.S. allies in the region have been meeting with the Chinese to become a Cyber hub for their Belt and Road Initiative.
While President Trump has been engaging China on trade talks, Xi Jinping has continued the largest military buildup of the last hundred years. On October 1st China’s military exhibited to the public much of their high-tech weaponry, of which about half have never been seen before, leading many to question what they are not showing.
With Russia's hypersonic weapons and China’s cyber and space capabilities, it is no longer enough to keep up with the Jinpings, but rather is the time for the U.S. to step up and leave these questionable characters in our technological rearview mirrors. One such opportunity for the U.S. to take a significant step forward is with the upcoming merger of Raytheon Co (RTN) and United Technologies Corp (UTX). The mergers of such companies would create innovation powerhouses that would not only place the U.S. on track but give the necessary bandwidth to surpass competing nations in relatively short form.
In 1889 the commissioner of the U.S. patent office, Charles H. Duell, was widely quoted as saying, "Everything that can be invented has been invented," something that in 2019 we know is farthest from the truth. The race for technological advances within the defense sector has a far greater impact than in any other sector. In an age where there is a renewed weapons race between the U.S. and its adversaries, mergers like this one between Raytheon and United Technologies become ever more significant.
Just recently, a Saudi oil field was attacked by 18 drones allegedly from Iran. No longer are attacks of this precision that have global ramifications only able to come from superpowers like the U.S. or Russia or China, but also now by rather small countries like Iran.
China has emerged as a global science and technology leader, with strong funding in research and development (R&D), which from 2000 ‐ 2016 has risen to almost 25.1% in global R&D. Russia is leading the race in hypersonic technologies, something that the United States has yet to be able to defend against, and Iran has placed a great deal of their efforts in weaponizing Cyber and EMP. The U.S. is currently in catch up mode.
With every passing day, month and year, our weapon systems and those of our adversaries become more and more advanced and our systems more antiquated. Just recently, it was reported that Strategic Automated Command and Control Systems (CACCS), the communications system that controls the U.S. nuclear program would no longer use 8inch floppy disks. Arguably our most important weapons program is using a system that was created 50 years ago when the Oldsmobile Cutlass was the bestselling American car.
With the 21st century weapons race well underway and insufficient to keep up with the Jinpings technologically, we must also surpass the Jinpings in research and development (R&D).
#3
In fact, let me take it a step further. Drop the policy of high school grades determining access to higher education - really intelligent/creative people not doing well in schools run by third-raters.
#4
The Skunkworks lads delivered innovation unfettered to your military and spooks free from administrative buffoonery for years.
In my opinion, fancy tech alone does not win battles. Resolve and willingness to descend to levels of crazy does. Partly the reason the west has been stumbling indecisively in the mid-east for so long.
As for the chinks, their only war xp for decades has been smashing in tibetan monk skulls with Norinco56 butts and sneaking into neighbours' backyards to build plastic sheds. China's advantage over the west will never be fancy weapons of war.
If there is any advantage on their side it's the west's unreasonable adherence to some faux-altruistic tenet of propriety in combat, rules of engagement, humanist conventions and anti-confrontationism.
It's not that Iran,China, Turkey, whatever are becoming stronger. It's that the USA, the only real 'Annihilator level' military is mired in faulty policy and powerplays within.
#6
One such opportunity for the U.S. to take a significant step forward is with the upcoming merger of Raytheon Co (RTN) and United Technologies Corp (UTX). The mergers of such companies would create innovation powerhouses that would not only place the U.S. on track but give the necessary bandwidth to surpass competing nations in relatively short form.
I've seen a lot of corporate mergers result in nothing but big payoffs for the stockholders of the company being swallowed and layoffs for their employees. If there is any innovative capability in either of the two companies they can damn well develop it on their own or else stop crowing about how great they are.
Pull our companies out of China, stop giving them our intellectual property, keep our people from being bribed by the commie bastards. IOW, treat them like we treated the USSR. Then we'll see what kind of threat they pose.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/02/2019 11:10 Comments ||
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#7
Letting McDonnel Douglas get absorbed into Boeing doesn't look like it's doing too well these days.
#9
p.s. Once heard a former CO of Israel Military Industry say "In my time security had orders to escort any MBA from the territory -- politely, but firmly".
[NYP] BET founder Bob Johnson is putting his money on Donald Trump to spend another four years in the White House.
Johnson, America’s first black billionaire, thinks there’s no Democrat who can take down the president in 2020.
"If you take a snapshot today, I don’t think that group is capable of beating Trump despite what the polls say," Johnson, 73, told CNBC. "I think the president has always been in a position where it’s his to lose based on his bringing a sort of disruptive force into what would be called political norms."
Though the president remains rock solid with GOP voters, he has struggled with African Americans. He received just 8 percent of the black vote in 2016, has made many overtures to African Americans, including speaking at the Black Leadership Summit in Washington and his public bromance with Kanye West.
"What the hell do you have to lose?" Trump famously told black voters in August 2016, urging them to vote for him and arguing that Hillary Clinton and Democratic policies had failed their community.
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.
Jonna Mendez, former CIA Chief of Disguise, takes a look at spy scenes from a variety of television shows and movies and breaks down how accurate they really are.
[NYP] BET founder Bob Johnson is putting his money on Donald Trump to spend another four years in the White House.
