Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Jeff Buchanan]

I think that Iranian proxies will continue to be utilized to poke the bear. I think the IRGC will continue to take provocative actions in the Gulf against a substantial US Naval presence there.

You could argue that Trump's tendency to over-react is a recipe for a hot war, even if it's a quick one, to get started. However, he's been restrained in his responses to these things (e.g., the shoot down of a US drone by the IRGC).

But, make no mistake, Iranians are restless. The focus of the Iranian government, as opposed to the IRGC which pretty much operates as hard-liners in the Iranian government dictate, is on suppressing agitators and there are plenty of those both US backed and independent inside Iran.

There's money to be made getting lots of international news coverage on the brutal tactics the Mullahs use to suppress dissent. That's a winner. A hot war isn't and my take is that the rump administration, if not Trump himself understands this.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Trump makes a well timed announcement minutes ago that the US and China will sign the "Phase I Trade Deal" on January 15th at the WH and that Trump will travel to China at a later date to start further trade negotiations. The Dow lost just under 200 points yesterday, was down before the open but is now up. Shocking.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Around 1500 people have been killed in Iran's internal crackdown on protests. Those are numbers that the government itself admitted to Reuters. That would make them significantly deadlier than the 2009 "Green Revolution" protests.

Supposedly the "Supreme Leader" gave the security forces a green light to use any force necessary to disperse the protests

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iran-protests-specialreport/special-report-irans-leader-ordered-crackdown-on-unrest-do-whatever-it-takes-to-end-it-idUSKBN1YR0QR

[Kapture1]

I watched the last Dem debate. none of those 7 stand a chance against Trump one on one.

[Ghengis Jon]

Our cyber carelessness and love for the internet is now affecting the military.

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-50972890?intlink_from_url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world/us_and_canada&link_location=live-reporting-story

[iam416]

Suck it up, Jon. You only have 1 more year left. You can get through it. Be strong.

[Dr. Strangelove]

"Clear direction from POTUS to continue to hold" --OMB Executive Michael Duffy, August 30, 2019.

With a court order backing them up, this FOIA group was finally able to see behind the extensive redactions in emails between OMB and the Pentagon. Trump has been refusing to turn these emails over to Congress and fought (and lost) to keep them from the public entirely.

The Pentagon repeatedly warned OMB that they were running out of time to release the hold and spend the money by the deadline. By the end of August not jut the House, but Senate Committees were asking a lot of questions about why a hold was put on the funding. The Pentagon was also starting to get questions from military contractors about it. Reading the Pentagon side of things, it seems clear they wanted OMB to take responsibility for the law being broken if the aid couldn't be allocate before the end of the fiscal year. They had been warning OMB about it for weeks and were almost entirely ignored. Then in September, Michael Duffey threw the Pentagon completely under the bus saying it was 100% on them if the funding couldn't be allocated by Sept. 30.

"You can't be serious. I am speechless." was the Pentagon Comptroller's response.

The unredacted emails more or less prove the Pentagon did in fact warn OMB repeatedly and that OMB's General Counsel lied to Congress when he claimed no warnings had ever been raised.

********************

The documents reveal growing concern from Pentagon officials that the hold would violate the Impoundment Control ActAlthough the pretext for the hold was that some sort of policy review was taking place, the emails make no mention of that actually happening. Instead, officials were anxiously waiting for the president to be convinced that the hold was a bad idea. And while the situation continued throughout the summer, senior defense officials were searching for legal guidance, worried they would be blamed should the hold be lifted too late to actually spend all of the money, which would violate the law.


https://www.justsecurity.org/67863/e...egal-concerns/

[Dr. Strangelove]

[WingsFan]

Singer Meat Loaf just announced hes going vegan

[Dr. Strangelove]

Turkey's Parliament authorizes military force inside Libya now, as Erdogan tries to further expand his influence

[WingsFan]

CNN Saturday at 9PM

The life and career of singer Linda Ronstadt is traced from her childhood in Tucson through her decades-long career and to her retirement in 2011 due to Parkinson's disease.

[lineygoblue]

Singer Meat Loaf just announced hes going vegan

Won't that be bad for business?

[Dr. Strangelove]

Quick Dem primary notes: Julian Castro dropped out today and celebrated kook Marianne Williamson has laid off her entire campaign staff.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Reporting (mainly from Al Jazeera) that we may have assassinated a militia leader right outside Baghdad Airport

EDIT: Now being reported that we killed a Major General of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, and Commander of the Quds force for over two decades.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/...232817666.html

[Dr. Strangelove]

The guy we supposedly killed has a long writeup on Wiki

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qasem_Soleimani