If you don't know what you're doing, neither does your enemy.
- Joe Tzu

The one thing that seems to me to be obvious is that Russia means it when they say the US is incapable of negotiation, and the Russians are not in any hurry because they are draining the west. They know that no promise is any more important than it is meaningless.

So, I keep learning more by watching only what Russia does. Everyone else (except Turkey) are running around like recently decapitated chickens.

They also appear to know (like China) that the only way to break the US/NATO is to be patient and watch them do it by themselves. Russia knows there is limited support for the governments of many of the “enemies of Russia” type nations. These same that have openly displayed their own form of Nazi behavior, some for many decades.

The EU volunteered to be destroyed. The US also negatively affected everyone in Europe and Asia, Africa as well as the two America’s. These nations don’t make friends.

A slow going, fewest casualties, most protecting the environment and housing, assisting in delivery of wheat to the world, clearing out a nest of Nazi’s out of control, rebuilding cities, controlling the nuclear plants to deliver electricity…

This sounds more like the complaint about the Romans from “The Life of Brian” (what have the Romans ever done for us)

The western nations that are being unfriendly are losing their shit watching Russia become what the US has ceased to be.

HIMARS

Do you all remember those HIMARS that the US has sent to Ukraine? The US wasn’t going to send the long range ammo so they couldn’t be used for terror bombing of Russian cities. Some of us have been cynical enough to suggest that the long range ammo would get there anyhow (in a plausibly deniable way of course) now look….

Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Błaszczak has announced that the country will acquire 500 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) to support its military modernization efforts.

In a social media post, the minister revealed that he has signed a letter of request (LOR) to acquire US-made M142 HIMARS launchers.

Poland-based factories will reportedly produce some significant components of the system to ensure a “high level of Polonization.”

The country also seeks to ensure that the weapon system can easily be integrated with its battlefield management system.

“We are increasing the capabilities of our rocket and artillery forces,” Błaszczak said. “I have signed an LOR related to the acquisition of about 500 M142 HIMARS launchers for more than 80 batteries of the Homar system.”

Polish armaments agency spokesperson Lt. Col. Krzysztof Płatek said that the technology transfer for the production of HIMARS’ local components would go into a Polish domestic effort called HOMAR...

From HERE

Melt In Your Mouth Pork Belly That Makes U Go Mmm! Dong Po Rou 东坡肉 Chinese Braised Pork Belly Recipe

Go ahead and eat like MM! Yum!

Biden’s Foreign Policy Is One Big Mess

"If you have two friends, better to make them both your enemies. 

Then, in the future, you will be able to control your own people better by saying, "There are mean people over there. That is why we need your guns." 

-Joe Tzu

Over the last months I have written little about other U.S. foreign policy issues than the war in Ukraine.

A short review shows that there is little that Secretary of State Anthony Blinken or his president could count as a success.

Last month Biden traveled to Asia where he had meetings with the QUAD (Australia, Japan, India and the U.S.) as well as with South Asian leaders.

The QUAD meeting was a failure as India showed no sign of joining the other three in their condemnation of Russia. Instead of sanctioning  Russia it is buying more oil from Russia which offers decent rebates. Such disunity does not look good for a U.S. designed anti-China coalition.

Most noted though was that Biden came to Asia with empty hands:

Months after U.S. President Joe Biden first indicated that his administration would launch a new Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) that would signal strengthened U.S. engagement with Asian economies, the president, together with the leaders of a dozen countries from across Asia, announced the launch of the IPEF in Tokyo on May 23. 
...
The slow process of determining what will be in the four “pillars” of the IPEF, how negotiations will be handled due to a division of labor between the U.S. trade representative and the commerce secretary, and uncertainty about which governments would sign up have deepened the ambivalence.

As a result of this ambivalence, the joint statement launching the framework referred to “collective discussions toward future negotiations,” indicating that there is more work to do to flesh out the initiative.

Asian governments are not wrong to have mixed feelings about the IPEF. U.S. trade officials plan to seek higher labor and environmental performances from negotiating partners, but they have also indicated that they are not prepared to offer access to the U.S. market—let alone pursue a TPP-style free trade agreement.

Malaysia’s Mahathir Mohamad said that the new US-led trade group IPEF is intended to ‘isolate China’. It will be unsuccessful doing that as it the whole idea is likely to fail.

As a writer for the Lowy Institute in Sydney opined in the New York Times:

Mr. Biden huddled last week with leaders of the four-nation “Quad” group formed to counter Beijing, vowed to defend Taiwan against China and introduced a new economic pact involving a dozen nations to shore up U.S. economic influence in the region.

Yet China is already winning throughout much of Asia on both the economic and diplomatic fronts, and nothing the United States is doing seems likely to change that. 
...
The Biden administration’s answer, unveiled last week in Tokyo, is its Indo-Pacific Economic Framework. It falls far short.

The plan calls for cooperation on trade, supply chains, infrastructure and fighting corruption. But it does not include better access to the huge U.S. import market, a crucial carrot that normally underpins trade agreements. 
...
Meanwhile, China has forged ahead. State-owned companies have locked up big projects around the region, often under the umbrella of China’s sprawling Belt and Road Initiative.

China also practices persistent diplomacy. Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s travels in Southeast Asia and the Pacific have far outstripped the pace of his U.S. counterpart, Antony Blinken. Despite the fanfare of Mr. Biden’s recent trip to Asia, it was his first to the region since taking office 16 months ago and included visits only to close allies South Korea and Japan. 
...
Competing with China in Asia will not be easy. But it starts with recognizing that right now the United States is losing.

Those words, coming from a staunch U.S. ally, are pretty harsh.

Another area where current U.S. foreign policy is failing is in the Americas. Biden is currently hosting the ‘summit’ of the Organization of American States. The head of states of at least 7 of the 34 OAS member states were not invited or declined to come:

Mr. Biden’s insistence that the leaders of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela not attend the summit was seen in many capitals as a sign of U.S. imperialism and an unwillingness to address in an honest way the complex issues in the region.

The three Central American nations known as the Northern Triangle — El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras — which along with Mexico are the source of about 66 percent of the illegal migration at the U.S. border, decided to send their foreign ministers to the summit as a signal of their displeasure.

Biden’s (or Blinken’s) ideological argument that Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela are ‘dictatorships’ does not make much sense when one learns that the unelected acting president of Haiti, Ariel Henry, was invited even though he is under suspicion of having ordered the murder of his predecessor Jovenel Moïse.

Biden again came with empty hands:

Administration officials said that Mr. Biden would propose reforms to the Inter-American Development Bank to encourage more private investment in the region and investments of $300 million by the United States to combat food insecurity. On Tuesday, Vice President Kamala Harris announced pledges of $1.9 billion in investments by private companies over the next several years.

But it is not clear that the investments will be robust enough to prevent those countries from turning to China for help, a key goal for Mr. Biden.

The foreign policy establishment is not happy with this:

Richard N. Haass @RichardHaass - 11:44 UTC · Jun 7, 2022

The Summit of the Americas looks to be a debacle, a diplomatic own goal. The US has no trade proposal, no immigration policy, & no infrastructure package. Instead, the focus is on who will & will not be there. Unclear is why we pressed for it to happen.

U.S. policy in the Middle East is stuck. The nuclear agreement with Iran is unlikely to be revived under Biden as he has rejected to lift Trump’s terror designation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. His planned visit to Saudi Arabia, to beg for more and cheaper oil, has been moved to some uncertain future date. The leader of Saudi Arabia is still miffed about Biden previously snubbing him. He also wants to continue his OPEC+ agreement with Russia and others oil producer to prevent lower oil prices.

It does not help that the Democratic leaning retired General John R. Allen is under investigation for having lobbied for Qatar, the arch rival of Saudi Arabia. Allen is leading the equally Democratic leaning Brookings Institute which has received major donations from Qatar.

On its anti-China policy the Biden administration had two other setbacks. It had banned solar modules from China over alleged human rights abuses in Xinjiang where the raw materials for making these modules is coming from. This, and a minor trade dispute, led to supply crisis for solar panels and stopped some major ‘green energy’ projects. Biden reacted to that by signing an emergency authorization to lift tariffs on solar modules from southeast Asian ‘producers’ which are in fact reselling Chinese produced ones.

The State Department also seems confused about its own anti-China policy:

The U.S. State Department has updated its fact sheet on Taiwan again, to reinstate a line about not supporting formal independence for the Chinese-claimed, democratically-governed island.

One might argue that Biden’s plan to lure Russia into a war in Ukraine has worked well. NATO is at least temporarily united and the EU under strict U.S. control. But the monetary assault on Russia via sanctions has turned out to be a total failure with the ruble gaining new heights. The effects of the sanctions have instead created another supply shock with prices for oil, fertilizer and wheat going through the roof.

The World Bank has downgraded its global growth predictions and is warning of stagflation. The average gasoline price in the U.S. has hit $5 per gallon and is likely to increase further. General inflation has markedly increased thought the causes get misidentified. This while the stock and house markets are more or less in free fall.

It does not look good at all for the Democrats in the upcoming mid-term election or a reelection of Biden in 2024.

Morale in the White House is down:

President Joe Biden and his aides have grown increasingly frustrated by their inability to turn the tide against a cascade of challenges threatening to overwhelm the administration.

Soaring global inflation. Rising fuel prices. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. A Supreme Court poised to take away a constitutional right. A potentially resurgent pandemic. A Congress too deadlocked to tackle sweeping gun safety legislation even amid an onslaught of mass shootings.

In crisis after crisis, the White House has found itself either limited or helpless in its efforts to combat the forces pummeling them. Morale inside 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. is plummeting amid growing fears that the parallels to Jimmy Carter, another first-term Democrat plagued by soaring prices and a foreign policy morass, will stick.

Biden could still save his bacon by replacing his ideological minded secretary of state and national security advisor with capable realists. The above list includes enough reasons to do so.

He also needs to shut down the war in Ukraine. He could tell Zelensky to end the senseless fighting and to submit to Russia’s demands. Sanctions against Russia could then be lifted and a further oil price increase prevented. (As the war has already moved off the front pages this is likely doable.)

Biden though has never shown the necessary flexibility to do either.

Posted by b on June 8, 2022 at 16:24 UTC | Permalink

A comment

Yesterday, I posted a comment aimed at proving the Outlaw US Empire misgoverns because it lives within a fantasy land of its own creation that ignores reality. 

Today's article by b serves to prove and reinforce that contention. What's happening isn't just a result of Biden's misgovernance as it's been ongoing for decades. 

The first manifestation of Fantasy Land was the creeping falsification of everything that began with WW2 censorship followed by the creation of an agency--CIA--whose activities had to be lied about as well as the actual thrust of US foreign--Imperial--policy. 

And the federal government and the two major political parties were able to get away with their lies. Indeed, the 1948 lie of a War Scare was needed to keep Wallace from ousting Truman as president with Wallace splitting the D-Party vote. That's how long the crap's been ongoing. The lies were then escalated massively with the falsification of economic figures that really took-off at the behest of CIA-VEEP GHW Bush in 1981--Something had to be done to show "Voodoo Economics" was viable. Then Greenspan was brought in to further accelerate Neoliberal economic policies and the regulatory agencies were turned over to Wall Street for it to run and thus further ruin the USA's real economy.

Real economic growth within the Outlaw US Empire ceased in the late 1990s with the bursting of the Dot.com bubble. Prior to that it was recognized that the Rentier Empire needed to increase the value of the collateral backing the dollar while a certain clique wanted to use that need as cover for executing the Zionist dream of expansion within Southwest Asia, but to do that a powerful justification needed to be supplied. Enter 911 and by 2003 the theft of Iraq's resource base. And the fantasy domestic economy seemed to boom, until 2007-8 when it went bust. There was a joke during Clinton's reign about the surge in the number of jobs, the quip being: Yeah, I have three of them. A long-term indicator of all that at the real economy level is displayed in this employment chart, the blue line being the real line that measures real unemployment prior to its falsification. From 2000 onward, that chart shows you why elections needed to be manipulated and the Duopoly solidified. The aberration, or perhaps better would be the hubristic overconfidence of Neoliberal Ds, was Trump's upset victory which in many respected threw off the Neoliberal timetable it planned to pursue. Trump's overt pointing out of the huge damage incurred by the real economy was excellent politics that attracted many voters, particularly many voters who usually don't vote, and that reality had to be quashed. Thus Russiagate, which provided proof of the great depth of corruption within the US Federal government.

With H. Clinton damaged beyond repair, the Ds were left with Biden as their only malleable figurehead. It could be argued the pandemic was unleashed to discredit Trump and to provide the needed cover for the required 2020 election manipulations since Trump's mishandling of the pandemic couldn't be counted on to overcome his still very strong real economy popularity, although his policies there were just as bad as Biden's have proven. Currently, the politicos misgoverning are all ancient and beyond retirement. But who is out there that can replace them that isn't already a Deep State tool? The answer to that question requires new commentary.

Posted by: karlof1 | Jun 8 2022 18:08 utc | 32

I think I love You (2021 Version) by The Partridge Family

A time machine to the late 1960s.

China says all IAEA member states must agree before Aukus nuclear sub project begins

The nuclear submarine project between Australia, the United States and Britain should not begin until ALL International Atomic Energy Agency members agree, China’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday.

Foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said that at China’s request, the IAEA had for the third time decided to establish a special formal agenda to discuss issues around the Aukus group’s nuclear submarine cooperation regarding the transfer, safeguarding and supervision of nuclear materials, which could affect the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

“China has repeatedly stressed that the cooperation between the United States, Britain and Australia on nuclear submarines poses a serious nuclear proliferation risk, affects the international nuclear non-proliferation system, intensifies the arms race and undermines regional peace and stability,” Zhao said in Beijing.

Giant Skull Armchair Designed By Gregory Besson

"Never interrupt my nap while my State Department is in the middle of making a mistake." -Joe Tzu

Parisian designer Gregory Besson imagined an armchair that takes the shape of a skull, a theme that has been treated many times in the design area. Conceived with fiberglass and provided with a high quality leather seat, each creation is unique and will be made on demand.

Mazzy Star – Flowers in December (Live on 2 Meter Sessions)

"The United States is also a one-party state but, with typical American extravagance, they have two of them."

- Julius Nyerere

Haunting and sweet. She has such a unique sound.

A fine Joe Tzu quote

US imports from China rose to an all-time record after seasonal adjustment in April, despite the Shanghai lockdown and other Covid-related blockages

The unrelenting and repeated efforts to talk down the Chinese economy has once again dismissed by the monthly, quarterly, or yearly raw data.

China exports to US jump, contrary to press reports

By David P. Goldman
US imports from China rose to an all-time record after seasonal adjustment in April, despite the Shanghai lockdown and other Covid-related blockages in the Chinese economy. That isn’t what you read in Bloomberg News, whose 30 economists and 100 full-time economics reporters apparently haven’t learned the difference between seasonally adjusted and unadjusted data.

From HERE

Artist’s Stunning and Spooky Abandoned Movie Theater Diorama Is Too Real Not to Believe In

When climbing stairs, better to fall repeatedly and make yourself look weak. That way, people will never be able to tell how weak you actually are."

~ Joe Tzu

Japanese model artist Takatsu breathtaking diorama is one that is taking us down memory lane with a bit of nostalgia–and also one that is so breathtakingly realistic we can’t believe they’re not photographs!

A Comment

We say 'NATO' because it sounds a lot more impressive than "America and a pack of poodles."

-Eugene Debs

“Fix a knife”: US diplomats admit to deliberately hyping human rights in Xinjiang and the US counterattacks

China’s Qiantu K20 Two-Seater EV Costs Just $13,000 Yet Is Really Quick

Andrei Nedelea – Tuesday

Its top version has a dual-motor setup with 214 horsepower and it can sprint to 100 km/h (62 mph) in 4.7 seconds.

Quiantu made quite a splash back in 2015 when it unveiled its fully-electric K50 sports car that went into production in 2018 and was later also made available as a drop-top. However, costing well over $100,000 to buy in its native China, it only found a few hundred buyers before being discontinued in 2020.。。。read more

You Can Now Buy Ghana Dancing Pallbearers Figurines

"We know they are lying, they know they are lying, they know we know they are lying, we kmow they know we know they are lying, but they are still lying."

 -- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

JMG 1/64 Miniatures, a Hong Kong based figurine workshop has released the “Funeral Coffin Dance” figurines. Dancing with the coffin is an ancient tradition common in Ghana. The inhabitants of this country hire special dancers for the funeral to cheerfully send the dead to the next world.

There are two sets. Set A has 7 people with a coffin. Set B has 5 people, with 4 of them crawling on the floor with the coffin on their back.

Set A costs US$49 while set B costs US$40. They are available for preorder til April 24. The shop supports international shipping.

It Appears the Decision Has Been Made: There won’t be a “Ukraine” Anymore

A small announcement made today inside Ukraine carries utterly enormous implications,  It now appears a decision may have been made that there won’t be a “Ukraine” anymore . . .

The announcement of a small change was made by the head of the military-civilian administration of the region, Volodymyr Saldo.  He said quite simply “Residents of all Ukraine, regardless of the place of registration, will now be able to apply for a Russian passport in the Kherson region.”

Sounds simple enough, doesn’t it?

Yet the implications of this seemingly trivial announcement, are staggering:  If residents of “all Ukraine, regardless of the place of registration” can now apply for Russian Passports, then they would all be “Russian” and not “Ukrainian” anymore.

If there is still to be in existence a “Ukraine” how will that be if their citizens are now all Russians?

Looks as though there ISN’T going to be a “Ukraine” anymore.

Life-Size 1964 Ford Mustang Recreated In Lego

Damn! That’s a shit-load of legos!

Business Cards of German and Canadian Government Officials Found in Abandoned Azov Battalion Headquarters in Mariupol

By Sonja Van den Ende on Jun 08, 2022 07:56 pm. LINK

Points to wider western involvement in Ukraine war and association with Neo-Nazi Battalion

[This article presents a Russian view of the war, based on first hand reporting by a journalist whose investigation was made possible by DPR and Russian military protection.—Editors]

Left amidst the ruins of the Azov battalion’s headquarters in Mariupol were the business cards from the German embassy. One was of an attaché named Michael Faul, a Canadian colonel named Colonel Brian Irwin and the French Embassy staff member in Kyiv, First Secretary Christophe Boursin.

According to the following information, Faul now works in the UK: "Michael Faul works at German Embassy London and Consulate General Edinburgh, which is a Federal company with an estimated 766 employees." So he has been relocated or has always been working there, probably for MI6, the UK Secret Service. Last Update: 3/10/2022 5:43 PM (move March 3 to UK), EMAIL: m***@london.diplo.de.

Colonel Robert Brian Irwin, whose bio is interesting: From Ontario, Canada; Decorations for Meritorious Service - Military Division; Meritorious Service Cross; Issued: October 16, 2019; Invested on: May 27, 2021; Rank: Colonel...

As Canada's Defense Attaché to Ukraine from August 2016 to July 2019, Colonel Irwin proved instrumental in achieving Canada's foreign policy goals. He quickly became an influential and important member of the [Canadian] mission [in Ukraine], where he advised successive commanders of the joint task force, promoted security sector reform and actively contributed to military cooperation between the two nations. Known for his professionalism and diplomacy, he has had an undeniable influence on the operations of the Canadian Forces in Ukraine.

The likely authenticity of the documents is enhanced by the fact that in 2018, Irwin had been photographed shaking hands with a member of the Azov Battalion, indicating Canadian government support for the neo-Nazi outfit. […]

The post Business Cards of German and Canadian Government Officials Found in Abandoned Azov Battalion Headquarters in Mariupolappeared first on CovertAction Magazine.

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An interesting observation…

"Chinese ambassador to Moscow has said US hegemony must be ended. US now buying near double the oil from Russia compared to what it was buying prior to banning Russian oil... I suspect it would take very little to send US economy into a very fast death spiral."

Artist Kerri Pajutee Creates Incredibly Realistic Miniature Animal Sculptures

Artist Kerri Pajutee creates incredibly beautiful, real-looking animal sculptures that are to 1:12 to actual size. Pajutee’s remarkable attention to detail imbues each of her miniatures with distinct personality and feeling, particularly when the animal appears to be in motion, with another animal or if something else is happening, such as a haircut. While Pajutee is self-taught, she has found great success in doing something she loves.

“As a self-taught artist, I revel in the creative process. Sculpting has afforded me a means of expression and provided me with over four decades of never-ending trial and fascination. Inspired by the animals I have come to know, my art is motivated by my desire to capture and express that ‘spark’ of personality, while reflecting a personal encounter or endearing memory that will delight the heart and bring a smile to the face of the observer.”

 

Meanwhile…

With so much happening, this announcement during Zakharova’s weekly briefing, here’s some stuff important enough to pass along:

"On June 9-10, 2022, the XX International Likhachev Scientific Readings will be held in St. Petersburg. They are held in accordance with the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation V.V. Putin "On Perpetuating the Memory of D.S. Likhachev" No. 587 of May 23, 2001. The readings are held with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia.

"From year to year, this authoritative forum gathers in the city on the Neva River representatives of the scientific and creative intelligentsia, prominent public figures, politicians and experts from different countries for a constructive exchange of views on a wide range of issues. For two decades, the International Likhachev Readings have established themselves as an authoritative discussion platform. In the current situation, such a format is more than in demand, a non-politicized discussion of trends in modern international relations and the development of world processes in various fields are more relevant than ever.

"This year's Readings will be devoted to the important theme for the entire world community "Global conflict and the contours of the new world order"."

Also there’s this important announcement:

"As we reported at the last briefing, the XXV St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) will be held on June 15-18.

"Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is scheduled to take part in the Forum's events. The relevant formats and bilateral talks between the Russian Foreign Minister are currently being worked out.

"On June 16, as part of the business program, a panel discussion on the topic "The dictatorship of neoliberalism through the eyes of Russian compatriots abroad" will be organized by the Russian Foreign Ministry together with the Rossiya Segodnya International News Agency.

"It is planned to discuss the devaluation of the values of the Western model of liberal democracy on specific examples, in order to talk not only about theory, but also based on practice. We will talk about gross violations of human rights, Russian citizens and our compatriots, but also in principle in the breakdown of all that the West takes credit for itself and what is the basis of the democratic development of the state. There will be interesting participants, experts. I invite everyone."

COVERT INTEL; American Tactical Nukes SHIPPED!

Homeless cat sits by the road and waits for help

A great story.

A fine Joe Tzu quote

Such a tiny man, but what a great voice!

Ronnie James Dio singing Heaven & Hell Heaven and Hell -FHD.

Kung Pao Chicken, how to make authentic Kung Pao sauce 宫保鸡丁

Eat like MM! Yummy!

American “Javelin” Anti-Tank Missiles Sent to Ukraine, Are Now FOR SALE on the Dark Web

World Hal Turner 08 June 2022 Hits: 4252

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People from Ukraine have posted several American made FGM-148 “Javelins” (photo above) for sale on the Dark Web Marketplace, and on Thief Marketplace.

One posting was made less than three hours ago and the seller advertised “shipping available from Ukraine, specifically Kyiv.”

The seller is charging $30,000 USD for what seems to be just the tube. Unseen is the command Launch Unit, and it is unclear if there is a missile in the tube.

The Sale photos posted with the offering are shown below:

 

A full ensemble of the “Javelin” usually goes for $206,000 USD, with the Command Launch Unit valued at around  $120,000 USD and each missile at about 80K USD, so this posting is “a steal.”  I am not publishing the web address of this sale because I do NOT want these weapons out in public.

Listeners to the Hal Turner Radio Show were told WEEKS AGO, that weapons shipped from the USA to Ukraine as “aid” for Ukraine’s war with Russia, were ending up on the Black Market inside Serbia.  The weapons are being STOLEN by Ukrainians when they arrive in the country, and those Ukrainians are offering the weapons for sale on the Dark Web, then pocketing the money.

Listeners to the show were also told that a full TWO-THIRDS of the weapons being sent to Ukraine, were being stolen and sold on the black market.

Hey America, where do you think your $40 BILLION in “aid” is actually going???   Yes, an awful lot of it is being outright stolen.

In case any of you feel like calling your members of Congress to let them know what you think of what’s going on!

UPDATE 5:24 PM EDT —

The seller also has several other American weapon systems ranging from Stinger MANPADS, Phoenix Ghost Drones, and smalls arms and ammunition.

The United States has reportedly sent 5,500 Javelin tubes to Ukraine, and an unspecified number of command launch units which are needed for firing. The United States has reportedly sent 1/3 of its Javelin inventory to Ukraine in order to combat Russian tanks and other ground vehicles since the February 24th invasion.

COVERT INTEL – Central American Nation Gets Russian Troops & Planes

World Hal Turner 08 June 2022

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PAYWALL. Article HERE.

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The Wallflowers – One Headlight (Official Music Video)

I still enjoy this song over all these years.

A fine Joe Tzu quote

Not Good Enough! US Could Sell Its ‘Lousy Warships’ To Allies That Were Designed To Fight China In SCS

By Sakshi Tiwari

May 30, 2022

Earlier this month, US Naval Chief Admiral Michael Gilday advised the House Armed Services Committee that nine Littoral Combat Ships (LCS), some of which were recently commissioned, should be decommissioned owing to unsatisfactory performance.

Despite attempting to outmatch China’s naval fleet, Admiral Gilday had justified plans to get rid of these vessels in the fiscal year 2023.

“I refuse to put an additional dollar against a system that would not be able to track a high-end submarine in today’s environment,” he had told the Committee.

Now, Admiral Gilday has suggested that the Navy can sell some of the vessels to friendly countries and allies, including countries in South America. He made these comments while testifying before the Defense Sub-Committee of the United States Senate Committee on Appropriations while responding to an alternative.

The Navy’s budget request for the Fiscal Year 2023 discloses that nine Freedom-class LCSs will be decommissioned by the end of 2024. Furthermore, two Independence-class LCS will also be decommissioned roughly around the same time, as per the long-term force plan.

The Navy’s estimated FY23 budget has noted that decommissioning the ships will save the service $391 million. This, however, would only fund a fraction of the $3.2 billion costs of the nine littoral combat ships.

This is probably where the idea of selling these ships to friendly countries comes into the picture. Though Admiral Gilday suggested that the ships could be sold, he offered little insight into how that process would take place.

Admiral Gilday stated during the hearing that the decision to decommission the nine Freedom-class LCS — which are fairly young ships and cost billions to develop — was made to “stratify” the Navy’s range of capabilities. He contended, however, that the ships may prove to be beneficial to the navies of US allies and partners.

 

“There are countries in South America which would be able to use these ships that have small crews. Instead of just considering scrapping them as a single option, I think there are others we can look at.”

With high stakes for the US in any conflict that could erupt in the Indo Pacific region (against China), US Navy understandably wants to focus more on the quality of operations that its vessels are designed to undertake. Admiral Gilday admits that the LCS has failed in anti-submarine ops.

Since the LCS was built to operate in shallow areas like the South China Sea, they were welcomed and lauded as part of the US deterrence against China. However, the decommissioning of so many in such a short time is an admission that the costly surface combatants have fallen far short of expectations, reported CNN.

The US Navy plans to decommission the vessels to free up funds for a more capable and combat-ready fleet in the face of the growing Chinese threats, especially in the wake of US President Joe Biden’s promise to counter China’s military if it were to attack Taiwan.

A US congressional report has already admitted that the single biggest threat to its security at sea, China, has the largest Navy in the world by size. The millions of dollars spent on building these less than useful Littoral Combat Ships could thus be recovered by selling them to allies with limited offensive objectives than those of the US Navy.

Why Decommission The Freedom-Class LCS?

Admiral Gilday’s suggestion about selling the ships to friendly countries came as a response to Senator Jerry Moran requesting clarity on why the Navy wanted to decommission the Freedom-class LCS.

The Senator questioned whether “other uses” for the ships could be figured out given their previous role in combating drug smuggling.

Moran backed his argument by citing collaborative activities in 2021 between the Dominican Republic’s Navy and the USS Sioux City (LCS-11) in the busting narcotics trade.

“One of the nine Freedom-class Littoral Combat Ships was involved in joint exercises with the Dominican Republic Navy, those exercises, as I understand, were successful and they interdicted drug smugglers.”

 

Those navies that would be interested in acquiring Freedom-class LCS would want to make sure that they are combat-ready. However, Admiral Gilday made no pitch to potential buyers based on the vessel’s capabilities.

He explained that the Navy’s decision to decommission the Freedom-class LCSs was based on a review of their “warfighting value,” or lack thereof, in the context of the fleet as a whole.

Admiral Gilday went on to elaborate on the shortcomings of the vessel and its non-utility for the US Navy — a precedent that has been widely known and acknowledged by the service and politicians alike over the last few years.

The Freedom-class LCSs’ “warfighting value” was eventually determined by concerns with its long-in-development anti-submarine warfare (ASW) suite, according to Admiral Gilday. He said that the ASW equipment designed to ‘plug into’ Freedom-class ships is “just ineffective.”

Furthermore, the LCS program has been a non-starter in several ways apart from its inability to counter hostile submarines. There have been several recorded instances of the ship breaking down, one of the most famous ones occurring in 2020 when the USS Detroit broke down in South American waters due to a propulsion system failure.

 

The Freedom-class has suffered several well-publicized mechanical breakdowns, including problems with the propulsion system and the highly complicated “combining gear,” according to The War Zone. In the case of the propulsion system, the US Navy stated last year that it would take years to remedy the problem across the Freedom-class ships, with accompanying costs in the tens of millions of dollars per ship.

 

 

Furthermore, the over-the-horizon anti-ship missile that served as its “main battery” for surface combat was retired a decade ago.

Who Will Buy The ‘Disappointing’ LCS From The US?

Taiwan has been considering the acquisition of the soon-to-be-retired littoral combat ships (LCS) from the US Navy, Deputy Defense Minister Alex Poe had said in April this year. Besides, it had also expressed interest in buying the decommissioned US Warship USS Independence, an LCS with just 11 years of service record.

Taiwan requires hulls to compete with China’s significant fleet size advantage, which continues to expand. The Littoral Combat Ships could be a good fit for the littoral warfighting environment that it is likely to experience. Taiwan has already made it known that it intends to employ asymmetric warfare against China.

Taiwan is already testing anti-ship missiles on several of its high-speed Coast Guard ships. Compared to the ships used by Taiwan for the purpose, the Freedom-class would be a significant improvement. It’s feasible that they could become useful assets for Taiwan if the price was appropriate, especially since they’d be deployed on shorter missions close to home.

However, all of this is contingent on the reliability of the ship, which has been abysmal. Furthermore, potential buyers of Freedom-class LCS in South America or elsewhere would be required to cover the exorbitant costs of simply operating these ships, which are, by any measure, exceedingly costly to operate.

Furthermore, with no capacity to deploy anti-submarine capabilities, other mission packages in limbo, and a lack of capabilities in other core mission areas, the Freedom-class LCS delivers low operational value relative to the high operating expenses.

So, while the Navy Chief’s suggestion to the Committee could be worth pondering over, there needs to be a detailed plan chalked out by the Navy Chief to make the vessel’s purchase seem like a profitable venture even to already interested buyers.

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Europol and CIA operate data mining in the SWIFT system

European data from the SWIFT financial transaction system has been supplied in bulk by Europol to the US Treasury Department for data mining for years. This data ended up with the CIA.

By Erich Moechel

The plans of the EU Commission and the Council of Ministers for Europol to use data mining to monitor mass chats, online forums and e-mail boxes have caused an enormous stir. The fact that became known at the same time that Europol is constantly supplying massive data sets from the European SWIFT financial transaction system to the CIA for data mining has so far gone unnoticed by the public.

Two official reports to the US Congress, available to ORF.at, reveal the amount of data that flows into the USA and the rules governing this transatlantic data mining partnership.

The first document on the subject from the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) dates from November 2020. The PCLOB is an independent body in the US Congress that examines new laws and the implementation of projects already passed for possible violations of fundamental and civil rights. At the time of writing this report, the PCLOB was also unaware of the existence of a parallel CIA data mining program for European financial data.

The SWIFT scandal and its aftermath

The data transfers from Europol to the USA are based on the so-called “Terrorist Finance Tracking” agreement between the EU and the USA from 2009. Before that, the CIA had been systematically dealing with huge amounts of data from the SWIFT data center in Culpeper since 2001 , Virginia Self Serviced. Until then, all European transactions had also been mirrored at the SWIFT location in Culpeper. After this scandal broke out in 2006, the European SWIFT data was only processed and stored in the data center in Zoeterwoude (Netherlands) and since 2013 also at the new location in Diessenhofen (Switzerland).

Since the signing of the TFTP agreement in 2009, data from the European SWIFT system has been supplied to the US by Europol, officially to the US Treasury, the US Treasury Department. The algorithms of the same AI applications that the US authorities use to sift through their own foreign payment transactions at SWIFT’s US headquarters in Culpeper were then unleashed on these data volumes from Europe. The results were then also sent to the customer, Europol, and in some cases also to national authorities in the EU area. That was the state of affairs until November 2020, and even the PCLOB, as the responsible supervisory authority, was not yet aware that copies of these massive amounts of data from Europe had been sent to the Central Intelligence Agency since 2016 at the latest.

“More than 40 percent of all searches under the TFTP program are based on inquiries from Europol or EU member states, according to the PCLOB report from the end of 2020. Since the start of the program, 2,750 reports have been sent to Europe, in addition to the report It also includes all datasets that are in any way related to the report.”As far as European data is concerned, the Treasury Department is acting as a de facto outsourced provider to the EU and its governments,” the PCLOB said.

The ominous data sets from third countries

Because Europol itself did not have the license for data mining, European financial transactions in third countries were delivered in bulk to the US Treasury Department for data mining. That should be different now, because at the end of January the European data protection officer ordered that Europol had to delete petabytes of stored data sets. Some of this “bulk data” comes from the national police data collections, since Europol is a service provider for European police authorities in the field of databases and information systems. However, this is a long way from reaching volumes in the petabyte range.

So most of it must come from third parties that constantly produce huge amounts of data, and the SWIFT system is of course the first candidate. The ominous “data records from third countries”, which are expressly mentioned several times in the documents accompanying the new Europol regulation and make up a large part of the data, should therefore largely be the transfers from foreign banks to accounts in the EU area. The entire SWIFT system processes 40 million such transactions every day, but these are not individual transfers but bulk interbank accounts that include all such individual transfers of funds or securities.

More HERE

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