Sunday 11 June 2017

The Fix...that was

In the last post I talked about the problems the world faces with climate change.  In this post I thought I would visit what some people, and I emphasize some, have been working on to try to deal with the problem.  This video is from 2011, so obviously some things are out of date, such as our Energy Secretary, and our energy policy.   And that is partly why I found this so interesting, and sad.  It was a time when the US was still intent on retaining a place in the race to future clean energy.    

The rather poignant part was regarding the current residing place of one of the solar panels Jimmy Carter used to have on the White House, which Ronald Reagan had removed.  It seems rather prophetic.  If you have a rainy day, like I have here today, you may want to check it out for nostalgia's sake.


82 comments:

      Lee C.   ―  U.S.A.      said...

I see in the news where Shorthands has cancelled (delayed indefinitely) his scheduled visit to Great Britain on account of the residents of said islands do not appear to appreciate him.  (May have something to do with his withdrawal from the Paris Accords and, beyond that, his climate policies in general.)

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

...the residents of said islands do not appear to appreciate him.

A lot of that going around.

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

Huh! I just checked the video in the post and watched the credits for the people who fund NOVA. I had watched a different uploaded version of it which didn't include them so didn't see who they were until now. I have to say I found it rather ironic to see David Koch's name on that list.

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
      "I found it rather ironic to see David Koch's name on that list."

Does seem to mark them as opportunistic by nature.

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
Headline:  Donald Trump just held the weirdest Cabinet meeting ever

Just in case anybody's interested in reading about ‘the weirdest cabinet meeting ever’.

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And, it appears that Jeff Sessions is going to face an open hearing tomorrow at the Senate Intelligence Committee.  That wouldn't have been his first choice (in spite of the fact that he now claims to have requested it be an open hearing), but he doesn't have many good choices here.  I think we should expect him to be playing primarily to an audience of one, that one being Shorthands, who's reportedly been unhappy with Sessions of late.  Secondary audience will be the dedicated Trumpkins.

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
Radio-Right-Wing was doing a full court press against Special Counsel, Robert Mueller, today (and against his whole team to a lesser extent).  This may explain why they didn't attempt to go after James Comey in advance of his appearance before the Senate Intelligence Committee.  They didn't want to dilute the coming attack on Mueller; didn't want the assault on Mueller to seem like a ho-hum re-run of their attack on Comey.  The appear intent on keeping up the assault on Mueller for as long as it takes to sink in with the dedicated Trumpkins.  Comey came and went; Mueller's gonna be there awhile.  They didn't want to waste too much of their Trumpkins' potential outrage energy against Comey.

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

Rumor has started that Trump is considering firing Mueller. Denials are rampant, but since it is Trump anything is possible.

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

Just in case anybody's interested in reading about ‘the weirdest cabinet meeting ever’.

Now that's an understatement. Did you watch Chuck Schumer's mock cabinet meeting? SNL couldn't have done it better.

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
      "Rumor has started that Trump is considering firing Mueller…
      anything is possible.
"

Shorthands has been known to coördinate strategy with some of the Radio-Right-Wing talkers; they could be preparing the dedicated Trumpkins I s‘pose.  Or, he might just be trying to intimidate Mueller.  If that latter was the plan he's going to be major disappointed, disappointed bigly.  (It was a mistake to float the notion of firing Mueller at all--gonna make Mueller wonder why--at the very least he'll consider it a challenge of some sort and Mueller being Mueller, he'll want to rise to the challenge.  Plus, the rumor has hit the Congressional Republicans like a skunk at a garden party; they don't like it all and have already gone on record.  Better to ask forgiveness than ask for permission.  Trump just gave them a chance to deny him permission even though he hadn't actually asked, and they did.)

      "SNL couldn't have done it better."

My security settings are apparently a little too tight to allow accessing that particular clip from wherever it's from.  But, I did find it on YouTube.  SNL wouldn't have cracked up right there at the end, and they'd have milked it for a bit longer, but, otherwise….

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
I'm still not sure what the hell Jeff Sessions was thinking.  I suppose that'll all be clearer this time tomorrow.

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
By the way, Sessions hasn't handled his previous appearances before a hostile Senate crowd very well.  He just made ‘em madder when it later turned out he'd lied to ‘em when he was there.  It was remarkable because he volunteered the lies, just hopped out there and denied stuff that happened to be true, even though he'd not been asked about it.  I find it curious that Trump would have him out there again.  And then again, there are some hints that Sessions may be freelancing again (that also got him in trouble last time, but with Trump rather than with the Senators).

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Juan Williams has a little piece in TheHill which should serve to remind us that there's actually an underlying problem here, and set of actual, real-world questions that need answered.

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
Well, Jeff's off the hot seat now.  It would appear that his appearance was almost entirely devoted to improving his standing with Shorthands, The Incredible Dancing Bear.

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If I were Mueller, I'd be looking to see if I could bring charges of treason against Michael Flynn.  (Flynn was a uniformed general until August of 2014--probably before he got mixed up with Putin and Putin's people, but maybe not.)  Treason is a federal death penalty crime.  (Espionage counts as a potential death penalty too, but it'd be harder to get the death penalty on an espionage charge.)  Go for espionage if a charge of treason won't stick.
Trump has shown a peculiar loyalty to Flynn.  Most people have discovered that, for Trump, loyalty flows only one way, up to Trump.  Trump is only loyal so long as it's convenient for Trump--except in the case of Michael Flynn.  This causes me to wonder, what does Flynn have on Trump?
Lay a serious (winnable) treason charge on Flynn and he might not want to hazard getting a pardon from Trump; he might want to cut a deal and guarantee himself.

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

Lay a serious (winnable) treason charge on Flynn and he might not want to hazard getting a pardon from Trump; he might want to cut a deal and guarantee himself.

That's kind of what Comey said in his testimony when talking about investigating. Squeeze the little guy to get to the bigger fish.

Well, Jeff's off the hot seat now. It would appear that his appearance was almost entirely devoted to improving his standing with Shorthands,

That does appear to be the case.

Btw, I see there were more demonstrations in Russia against corruption. Apparently there are actually Russians who don't really want the Russian mafia running the country.

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
Morning headlines indicate that Shorthands has very likely learned at least a temporay lesson from the firing of James Comey, and, having had his trial balloon shot down by damn near everybody, he's not going to be firing Rober Mueller, at least, not this week, or, probably not this week.  Ya never know fer shure with Shorthands, but we're probably going to get through the rest of the week without a major event in the Russian Collusion Investigation.  (Assuming Ivanka and Jared can keep him off his twitterphone; the notion that the lawyers were gonna contain him seems to have bit the dust, so it's back on them now.)
That should give people some time to notice what else he's been up to of late, and there's quite a bit to notice.

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Nasty fire in London.  No need for a link; just open a news page and it'll be right there.  Looks really ugly, gonna be a pile of casualties I think, probably including kids (it was an apartment building).

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

I saw that. I haven't read the details yet, though.

There has been a shooting in Virginia at the GOP baseball practice. The House Representative from Louisiana, Steve Scalise, has been shot, as well 4 as others.

It sounds like the shooter was shooting from the dugout at third base. Scalise was at second base and was shot in the hip. He is undergoing surgery. The shooter was "neutralized" according to the article I read. A white male.

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

Six dead and 74 people taken to hospitals from the fire in London. People had been complaining about the building. I would be curious to know what kind of neighborhood it was in.

Marcus said...

Lynnette: "Btw, I see there were more demonstrations in Russia against corruption. Apparently there are actually Russians who don't really want the Russian mafia running the country."

That Russians feel that way is certain. It was also the main reason why Putin got elected in the first place. Sure there is mafia now too (and I take it that you mean there is a Putin-mafia maybe) but Russians remember the 90's when the mafia and the oligarcs almost completely destroyed the country, stripping it of all wealth for short term profits. Putin was the answer to that, and still is the garantor against a return to that in the minds of a majority of Russians. You can't look at a President like Putin and the support he enjoys today without factoring in the memory in the minds of Russians of that quite recent past.

Lynnette: "Six dead and 74 people taken to hospitals from the fire in London. People had been complaining about the building. I would be curious to know what kind of neighborhood it was in."

From what I've read it was what in the US would go by the name Social Housing Project. I could be wrong on that but that's the impression I get, from what I've read. Also there had been a major renovation recently and some blame non-fire-secure insulation materials used for the rapid spread of the fire. Could be we've got a shoddy landlord scenario. Too early to tell for sure, but I'm sure there will be a serious investigation going into this fire. Regardless, it's a terrible thing that happened.

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
      "There has been a shooting in Virginia at the GOP baseball practice."

The FBI has said that there is no indication that the shooting is terrorist related.  By which they mean the shooter is white, ‘cause they have no motive as of yet.

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
The shooter is said to have been a Bernie Sanders supporter who was intensely "anti-" Trump.

Marcus said...

I think we can chalk that up to a "goofball" shooter. A person maybe moved by the media hysteria surrounding Trump but still a goofball. And that's probably what the conclusion will be and this incident will fall off of media's radar quite quick.

That said, I know very well how it would have played out if the victims were Dems and the shooter an anti-Dem.

Would've been in the news for weeks and attributed to Trump is my guess...

Marcus said...

Pleas to Trump:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opgtDm66xus

I think we will have to help ourselves, and that we will, but a helping hand from Trump would be nice.

Marcus said...

Sweden is in dire straits but the Visegad nations know better:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7rdQNeGECw

Money is not everything. Sell out for monetary gains? For sure americans does that, for sure most westrn eurpeans does so also - but not everyone. Eastern europeans do NOT sell their culture away for USA infused Dollars.

Only americans are complete and utter slaves under this artificial entity we call money. Other nations still have a shot at evoding it.

Unknown said...

Lynnette & Lee - you are both slaves. For the moment you are well to do slaves but you are still slaves. The moment your masters decides to take the loot and run you will stil be slaves but there will be notthing to back that up.

Lede

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
I take it you started drinking early today.  That or started at full speed.

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

...Russians remember the 90's when the mafia and the oligarcs almost completely destroyed the country, stripping it of all wealth for short term profits.

The 90's are only 20 years in the past, so memories would still be fresh for much of the population. It is the recent past for Russia.

Putin was the answer to that, and still is the garantor against a return to that in the minds of a majority of Russians.

Sadly people do not always see what is real and what is not.

Could be we've got a shoddy landlord scenario.

Could be. There are some who invest in real estate who really couldn't care less about their tenants. It is only about profits for themselves.

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

The shooter is said to have been a Bernie Sanders supporter who was intensely "anti-" Trump.

Yes. There is a dangerous climate out in the country now. Unfortunately, there are those who seem to believe that violence is the answer.

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

Pleas to Trump:

Two questions, Marcus. The first is what do you think Trump could do to help Sweden, and second, why haven't you asked Putin? Russia is closer.

Only americans are complete and utter slaves under this artificial entity we call money.

Then why call to America for help?

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

The moment your masters decides to take the loot and run you will stil be slaves but there will be notthing to back that up.

Run to where?

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
 
TrumpTweets:    Throwing down the gauntlet before Robert Mueller.  Maybe not the smartest move he'll make today.

Marcus said...

Lee: "I take it you started drinking early today. That or started at full speed."

Yeah, yeah I had a liquid wednesday due to a late business meeting and me following up on that. Had an other meeting today with beer, wine and then some. That's the hazards you face when being a midrange buissnessman coupled with perhaps too much fondness for a drink or twelve.

Still - what I said yesterday, while somewhat exaggerated, is mostly true.

Especially 'bout the Wisegrad group within the EU and how I sympatise with them. Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and the Checz Republic. The most sane nations in Europe, the most sane in the "white world".

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

  
      "…Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and the Checz Republic…"

These nations suffered 70 sequential years of abuse under the Nazis and then under the Communists.  That pretty much wiped out any generation which had not been so abused
Generally we don't look to those who were raised under abuse for exemplars of sanity, the rest of us anyway.

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TrumpTweets:   He's been at it fairly late in the day, for him anyway.  Appears he's spooked by the new revelation that Mueller's opened a formal inquiry directed at him.  His focus on Bill and Hillary shows that he's decided to gin up the Republican ‘base’, the reactionary right-wingers (his dedicated Trumpkins will go along, to the extent that there's not perfect overlap with the reactionary right-winger ‘base’)

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      "I know very well how it would have played out if the victims were
      Dems and the shooter an anti-Dem.
"

Oh yeah, gimme an example.

I'll tell ya what'd happen.  It'd stay on the news for maybe a week in a really, really slow news environment (not a week if there were other news) and then it'd disappear and only reappear if and when the shooter did something newsworthy (like file a ‘mental’ defense, or an appeal of his conviction, or otherwise did something that they thought would get eyes on a headline).
In fact, this one will live on longest on Radio-Right-Wing and FoxNews, and Drudge and Breitbart and the like as they milk it as an example of how abused and misused is the Reactionary-Right-Winger ‘Movement’.  They'll be keeping it alive themselves so they can claim to be abused.

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
@ Lynnette,

The City of Washington D.C. has issued arrest warrants for 12 Turkish security men involved in that beating of protesters last month (I think it was only last month).
If they have diplomatic immunity they'll have to assert their claim to immunity and supply the proof after they get arrested.  (In fact they're all back in Turkey already and this is mostly for show, but they arrest warrants are on file, and that probably will keep them from being returned to America any time soon.)

Lynnette In Minnesota said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Lynnette In Minnesota said...

I did read that our law enforcement people were really pissed off about that incident. And rightly so. But, you're right, they have scuttled off to Turkey and will no doubt not be seen in the US again.

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

I just had to correct a typo.

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
I mentioned several weeks ago that Trump had quietly, almost surreptitiously, handed over control of our ‘policy’ (such as it is) on the Syrian civil war to the Pentagon.

Well, now he's gone that a step further and he has explicitly delegated control of our Afghanistan involvement (which includes support from NATO) to retired general James ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis, now Secretary of Defense.  Weekly Standard 

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...


TrumpTweets:   About Russia, of course.  The man is seriously spooked.

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
Russia has upped their confidence level from ‘may have’ to ‘did’ kill Ibrahim Awad Ibrahim al-Badri al-Samarrai, a/k/a Abū Bakr al-Baghdadi, in a bomb strike against Raqqa.  (But, he's been claimed dead before.)

Presumably they will not get the $25 million reward we'd been offering, even if he is dead.

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
Word is going around that Mueller is looking for unusual financial links among the Trump campaign, things like off-shore banking accounts that suddenly appear and disappear, on the theory that if there were collusion between the Russians and Team Trump it's likely that the Russians were tossing money into the pot as an inducement.

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
Much to my surprise…I guess I'm still capable of surprise here…Roger Simon, he of PJMedia, is already talking about launching a civil war in defense of Shorthands.  I'm serious here--he means real civil war--he's talking about shooting people down in the streets of New York City, to paraphrase Shorthands himself.  Lots of people, dead bodies all over, real, actual, bloody civil war.

Some of the Trumpkins are there already.  I am surprised.  I thought it would take longer.

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

Well, now he's gone that a step further and he has explicitly delegated control of our Afghanistan involvement (which includes support from NATO) to retired general James ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis, now Secretary of Defense.

I know that people may not want the military to be where the buck stops with regard to decisions about the extent of our involvement in conflicts, but I would still trust Mattis before I would trust Trump in this matter. Of course, I may say that about other people in comparison to Trump, as well.

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

What Trump doesn't understand about the poor

By and large, Americans can find jobs today. But too often those jobs have wild swings in pay. A mechanic, for example, might earn $3,500 one month and then drop to around $1,000 the next, when customers don't materialize.
The working poor and, increasingly, the middle class are in a state of "persistent anxiety" about their finances, says Jonathan Morduch, the co-author of a groundbreaking new book, "The Financial Diaries," with Rachel Schneider.


The accompanying video about workers in Kentucky is worth a listen.

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

Russian mafia linked to Syrian chemical weapons

An investment group that U.S. authorities say is run by Russian mobsters and linked to the Russian government sent at least $900,000 to a company owned by a businessman tied to Syria's chemical weapons program, according to financial documents obtained by CNN.

According to a contract and bank records from late 2007 and early 2008, a company tied to a state-backed Russian mafia group, according to U.S. officials, agreed to pay more than $3 million to a company called Balec Trading Ventures, Ltd — supposedly for high-end "furniture."
Wire transaction records seen by CNN confirm that at least $900,000 was transferred.
Both businesses are registered in the British Virgin Islands.

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
Mattis is is already showing sign of following the general tendency (pun intended) to see military solutions to political problems.  He so far has no strategy; he's admitted that much under questioning before Congress, but he already wants it to involve more military power, whatever it's going to be, if and when he comes up with a strategy, he's already decided it involves more military power.  Generals are like that.  They have always carried the hammer.  They always see things that need pounded.  That's what they see.  Mattis is already showing that he's no different.

Comparing him to Trump doesn't fix that.

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
Speaking of Trump…  The Office of Government Ethics has released Trump's financial disclosure forms (required--he had to submit these).  They show Trump worth roughly $1.4 billion.
Trump has been claiming that he was worth $11 billion.  Forbes (the definitive keeper of the list for most people) has always busted him down to around $3 to $3.5 billion (with the caveat that Trump actively tries to conceal his actual net worth and that was just their best guess).

Turns out he's not even worth as much as Forbes though he was worth.

Also--that means he's done very poorly with the money his father left him.  If he'd just stuck it in a indexed stock fund he'd have been worth around $4 billion by now.
But he's managed to make returns of about a third what a idiot investor would have made just sticking the money in any one of the standard indexed funds.

We may hear some Trump squalling about this over the weekend.  (Or, he may decide that discretion is called for here and keep his mouth shut and his stubby fingers off the keyboard in the hopes that the dedicated Trumpkins don't notice--given all the other shit that's goin’ on.

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
I went back and looked at that again.  The $1.4 billion number that Trump reported on his financial disclosure forms, that's his assets list.  That's not his net worth.  It doesn't count his debts.  I don't think he had to report his debts.

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

Mattis is is already showing sign of following the general tendency (pun intended) to see military solutions to political problems.

As dangerous as it may be to allow a General to make policy in a war, I don't think Trump has the ability to make a political solution, deal maker extraordinaire that he is.

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

That's not his net worth. It doesn't count his debts. I don't think he had to report his debts.

Like you, and Forbes, I always doubted his claims of income, and wealth. It is his debt that I am the most interested in. He claimed some huge losses, so to continue in business he had to come up with some serious money to continue to function. I would like to know who is bankrolling him.

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

They just declared a mistrial in the Cosby trial and the trial here in Minnesota with regard to the police officer shooting, and killing, Philandro Castile ended up with a not guilty verdict for the officer.

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

So how does a very large ship, that probably isn't difficult to see, manage to run into a US Navy ship, causing massive damage and possibly causing loss of life? I mean if you are the smaller ship, wouldn't you try to avoid the other ship? And if you are the larger ship wouldn't you also try to avoid ramming a smaller vessel?

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

Also, this is just weird.

A US Navy sailor who was thought to have gone overboard seven days ago and was presumed dead has been found alive aboard the ship that reported him missing, the Navy announced Thursday.

I mean, seven days? What, did he go AWOL and sneak around the ship at night for food? Was there an accident where he was unconscious for seven days? How did he survive without food then? I think there is a lot more to this story then meets the eye.

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
      "I don't think Trump has the ability…"

I actually agree that the odds of Mattis making worse decisions than Trump are pretty low.  My point was more along the lines of, we have a zombie war shaping itself up out there.  Shuffles along with no prospects of intelligent resolution, but it just won't die.

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As for the Navy's problems, collision first:  That's a very high-traffic area.  Collisions there are fairly common (as in every few months sometimes).  Takes a long time to turn a big boat so they have to be careful to strictly follow the ‘rules of the road’ regarding rights of way and precidence.  Turning away from the path of one ship which may have violated the rules can put ya on a collision course with another ship out there--very congested part of the Japanese coastal waters.
Looking at the ship damage, it appears to me that the cargo carrier “T-boned" the smaller naval ship.  But, I can't guess who's fault it was.

As for the sailor.  His shipmates kept up the search for him after their officers had declared him to be likely overboard.  I read one shot piece which said they found him in the ‘engineering spaces’.  And they had sent him off ship for ‘medical evaluation’.  Didn't exactly come out and say he'd been hiding, but the implications were that his friends thought he was in trouble and kept looking for him even after the brass gave him up as an overboard.  They seem to have suspected he'd gone mental and was hiding on-board.  I'm expecting to hear one of these days that he had a mental breakdown of some sort and was found cowering in a closet, hiding from his own peculiar demons, or some such thing.

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
Yeah, I see it…  "precedence" no ‘i’.

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
      "But, I can't guess who's fault it was."

That's not right.  I can guess.  Best guess is the blame falls on the Navy ship and the captain thereof.

Marcus said...

Lee: "These nations suffered 70 sequential years of abuse under the Nazis and then under the Communists"

No, they got shortly blitzed by the Nazists and then suffered for about 50 years under communism. And that is precisely why they are the most resilient today. They recognize the cultural maxism that is being pushed for what it is - communism in a different cloak. And they resent and respond to it.

Ya'll lap it up instead. Increasingly.

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
You're comin’ to the defense of the good name of the Nazis I see.

I'd forgotten that predilection of yours or I might have been a little specific about how long they were abused by each (Nah, come to think on it, I wouldn't have cared ‘nuff to give it a second thought even if I had remembered your predilections in that regard.)

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
@ Lynnette,

The bodies of the ‘missing’ sailors from the USS Fitzgerald have been found in flooded compartments under that twisted metal on its right side.

If, as I suspect, the blame for this falls on the Fitzgerald's captain, he's probably looking at involuntary manslaughter charges.  (Hope to hell he was sober or it'll be worse.)

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

I was wondering if there wasn't some blame to lay at that Captain's door. When sailing in congested waters it is imperative to be alert and aware of your surroundings.

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

Movie day today.

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

Syrian plane shot down by US led coalition forces.

A Syrian warplane was shot down near Raqqa by the United States-led coalition after the regime wounded Syrian Democratic Force fighters in an earlier attack, the US-led coalition said.

The coalition shot down a Syrian plane in self-defense after a regime SU-22 dropped bombs near SDF forces, the statement said.

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

Suggestions are flying around that the vehicle that hit the pedestrians in London tonight might have been targeting people leaving a mosque.

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
      "Suggestions are flying around…"

My first thought was that we had another Ramadan driver, but could be retaliatory I guess.

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Reports are starting to come in that the cargo container ship that hit the USS Fitgerald may have performed an unusual "U-turn" just prior to the collision.  May get the Navy captain off the hook for causing the collision.  (He still lost a ship and some sailors--they won't take that lightly.  To get clear off the hook he'll have to be able to show more than just an unexpected maneuver by the cargo carrier ship.  He'll have to make a showing that he couldn't be expected to compensate for it, assuming it happened.)

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

Now they are saying that it was a van that ran over people who were leaving the mosque. One person was arrested. It sounds like he may have been detained by people on the scene and held for the police. So it does appear that it might have been some kind of retaliation attack. Marcus would probably say I told you so.

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

Reports are starting to come in that the cargo container ship that hit the USS Fitgerald may have performed an unusual "U-turn" just prior to the collision.

I saw that. They were also reporting that the Navy ship had people keeping watch. The whole thing sounds odd.

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
The Russians have announced that they will consider any U.S. planes flying in Syria, west of the Euphrates River to be ‘targets’.  ABCNews

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

This was always a risk. In Syria we and the Russians are not on the same side, even though people would like to maintain that illusion because it is convenient. Russia's main purpose of being in Syria has been to prop up Assad. Their actions are focused on that. We are there to try to de-fang Daesh and will work with those who have that same goal. Those people may not be friends of Assad.

So now we will see what the WH does when we come in conflict with Trump's BFF Putin.

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

It appears that the Navy ship that was rammed neglected to tell anyone right away. It just keeps getting odder and odder.

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

Georgia is getting ready to go to the polls. Will this one flip or will the result be, again, a Republican pulling it out? Lots of money has been pouring into the campaign.

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
      "It just keeps getting odder and odder."

Their captain was injured badly enough to require hospitalization, and they were fighting to keep the boat afloat.  They may have been otherwise engaged--keep the boat afloat first--call it in later.
This doesn't explain why the civilian ship didn't call it in for an hour.  They were inconvenienced but they were not in distress.

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
      "So now we will see what the WH does when we come in conflict
      with Trump's BFF Putin.
"

Well, the first thing to know is that the White House isn't actually running the military operations in Syria.  It was done rather more quietly than Shorthands' explicit declaration that Mattis was now in charge of Afghanistan, but it's been done.  Our Syrian adventure is now being run out of the Pentagon.  They tell Shorthands what he wants to know (which is damn little) when he asks (which is not often, if ever).
A brief outline of where things now stand is contained in the NationalReview.

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
WaPo piece on the Syrian adventure, also fairly brief.

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
TrumpTweets:   Shorthands has apparently come to understand that China's not gonna solve his North Korea problems for him.  Although, he either doesn't yet understand that they were just stringin’ him along; that or he doesn't want to admit to it in public.  (He's been gettin’ some favorable market rulings for his companies in China, so it's not like he's got any incentive to understand they were just stringin’ him along.)

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
Heavy rains and flash-flooding in Georgia today, especially concentrated in regions expected to be favorable to the Democratic challenger for the Georgia Representative seat.

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

Let’s have the debate the Constitution requires.

This is the last sentence in your National Review article about the situation in Syria. What has seemed astonishing to me is the real lack of attention, if not interest, by many people about what is evolving in Syria. The shoot down of a Syrian plane by the US would have been front and center and debated to infinity in the press if it had happened during the last administration. There is just so much to distract Washington, and the country, with the chaos we have in our federal government that something that would have been a serious issue in the past is only a small blip on people's radar. Unfortunately when people take their eyes off the ball that's when they get hit between the eyes.

The way things are going in Syria it appears to be the start of that partitioning that you had suggested may be the end result of the Syrian civil war. With Russian and US involvement it reminds me of the partitioning of Germany or Korea.

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

They are just projecting the Republican candidate as the winner in Georgia. Another depressing result.

Marcus said...

Lynnette: "So it does appear that it might have been some kind of retaliation attack. Marcus would probably say I told you so."

No!

...but I told you so.

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
      "Another depressing result."

A brief review of the available articles on the subject suggests that's a widely felt emotion among the Democrats this morning.
I'd suggest depression is premature.  The dedicated Trumpkins haven't had time for a full and complete Trumping yet.

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

Perhaps the new health care bill that Mitch McConnell has written will help. Or there is always a messy war that could get the idea across.

There was an article in my paper on Sunday about an area of Minnesota that went strongly for Trump, and they are still enthusiastic, saying he is doing a great job! I have heard of mass hysteria, but never mass delusion.

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

A police officer was stabbed at an airport in Michigan. They are looking at a possible terrorist attack.

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
      "I have heard of mass hysteria, but never mass delusion."

It is not a delusion.  He has pissed off the people they wanted to piss off; he continues to dismay and offend their enemies.  That's what they wanted to have happen.

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

Ahhhh, the delusion comes with the idea that pissing off ones enemies will make life better.

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
      "the delusion comes with the idea that pissing off ones enemies
      will make life better.
"

They don't believe that.  Pissing off their enemies is its own reward.