Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Da Geezer]

GOod photo essay on Cairo, Illinois

Really good.

[Da Geezer]

One thing's clear -- we do know he doesn't care what happens to Syrian children.

I don't know that. Got any evidence? Or does Hack saying it just make it "fact-based"?

[Da Geezer]

Personally, what impressed me the most was being able to take out the MIGs inside of their hangers. That is pretty precise targeting, and intel.

[Ghengis Jon]

Military grade GPS can target within 16" in perfect weather conditions. 3 feet in less than optimal. (My high end handheld is accurate within 6' under dense tree cover.) In cruise missiles and JADAMs, it's the processor and algorithm that can make the minute mid-course corrections in real time that is the true wow factor. Concrete hangars are fish in a barrel. Dropping a bomb down an airshaft of an underground North Korean nuke facility will require that kind of accuracy.

[Wild Hoss]

IDK that Trump doesn't care about Syrian children.

I think he saw an atrocity on television- the direct connection to whatever soul he possesses- and got legitimately angry. He then made an emotional decision to strike at Assad. Lord knows what all it entailed at first, but eventually those around him walked it through reality a bit, and we would up with an orgasm of cruise missiles.

What we do know, is that his previous tweeting about Syria was the bloviating of a flaky ignoramus. But that's not news.

[hack]

These aren't the first horrifying images of children to come out of there. But even if you assume that it took becoming president for him to develop a conscience, youd want to wonder why he wouldn't do the one very obvious thing you could do...

[Wild Hoss]

You're applying logic and subject knowledge to a dipshit.

[THE_WIZARD_]

STFU

[entropy]

[ame]https://twitter.com/acejayhawk71/status/850441891187490816[/ame]

This backfired on CNN


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[Jeff Buchanan]

Maybe some perspective .......

This was military operation that was an extension of politics by other means.

The President is CIC, he has a military staff, JCS, to advise him, the JCS has Intel from the NSC and all it's organs to include SECDEF and SECSTATE. This group is going to come up with options - these are not op plans, they are strategic options. Like:

(1) Political Action : Call Putin and the Ayatollas - discuss. Input from State and NSC/CIA

(2) Military Action: Strike targets in Syria. Preparatory orders to CENTCOM > CENTCOM Staff submits something off the shelf or develops other options. There is ALWAYS on-going target planning for stuff like this so, one can be pretty sure CENTCOM had an active OPLAN for just such an attack using cruise missiles among other methods to deliver ordnance on targets.

These two options are being fleshed out and the President is going to be briefed in depth on them. He'll ask the opinions of others in on the discussion; risks and benefits will be briefed. A good staff is going to do a lot of filtering and provide options, but not too many ...... the bad ones, like Nuke Damascus aren't likely to get to the table.

I'm pretty sure that conventional strikes against several targets within Syria were on the table and in great detail including latest target intelligence which would have included the readiness level of Syrian air defense, presence of Russian military forces, specific high value targets, etc.

I would think several weapons delivery methods were discussed in detail for example, F22s (500nm combat range), B1s (intercontinental), carrier based aircraft (well, not a single Carrier Group was in the Med. The Eisenhower left in late January and was not replaced!).... this last factoid pretty much tells you why aircraft like F18s completely capable of and have been operating within Syria weren't used.

The B1 with a 75K lb payload of unguided and guided munitions would have been an excellent choice but complications of overflight probably prevented the selection of that delivery method. You're always risking a shoot down and I doubt very seriously that the idea of a B1 penetrating an integrated air defense system run by the Russians - something it is touted as being able to do - wasn't a real option.

So, we're looking at the the USS Berry and Porter as the most viable option that very likely expended all their cruise missiles at the highest value targets they could identify.

Importantly, a strike like this that reportedly targeted air defense systems and radars is often a prelude to a follow-on air attacks. Noteworthy that the Russians made it public that they were going to move some of their air defense systems into Syria. Clearly, they were thinking about defending against a follow-on attack.

The best time to have done that (fly 4, B1s in there to level the place and take out runways) was in the confusion that probably erupted as the 59 cruise missiles started popping off. That didn't happen sooooo .........

This was all about optics. I kinda agree in retrospect it was weak. Would have liked to see the damage of 4 B1Bs laying down a swath of 1000 ponders designed to crater runways with some guided cluster munitions coming in just ahead of this on cruise missiles.

I think the lack of a Carrier Battle Group in the Med is a striking, well holy shit, for me. I don't think that has every happened. I'm reading all kinds of bad readiness stuff about USN/USMC F18 Hornets that are getting old and tired. The replacement, the F35, in which the USMC placed all its eggs, is years behind. The USN ordered 260 F35s, don't like them (limited payload in the stealth mode), cut back the order to 230 and have something like 16 operational ...... they're committed to bringing the F35 into full operation but are looking at other options after 2030.

http://breakingdefense.com/2017/02/navy-marine-f-18s-in-death-spiral-as-readiness-plummets/

[Da Geezer]

Entropy: I saw that interview in real time. Glad you posted it.

But seeing it again, it strikes me that it takes a special type of arrogance to insist that these people have to become refugees.

[Da Geezer]

I've been thinking about those photos of Cairo, and of Hack's (correct) observation that we live in one of the only times in history where the laborers do not go to where the jobs are. I lay that on a too-generous welfare system. Where is the incentive to move if you can make as much by staying?

[Whitley]

So your answer is to cut into the social safety net? That seems to be where you are going.


As some of you people know here, I have been job searching. I even went back to school (online) to get credentials I needed to start a new career (did 3 classes in 4.5 months and passed my certification two weeks later. I also the harder course which took a year off my apprenticeship). So I applied at the local hospital here every time an opening comes up. I am qualified because they are looking someone with a certification (and this is an entry level job). I have two glowing letters of recommendation, and even had another guy that works high up in the blood work department speak with the department head and give me a ringing endorsement.

So I talked with the guy that gave me a recommendation and they had talked to a lady that had worked in that department. She said that the department head at looked down and gave her a lot of crap for doing this online. She also said that anytime the department head saw that you had online education she would set the resume aside and not bother with it. She wants an Associate's degree in this field.

I mention all of this to illustrate a simple point. Sometimes you can do everything right, and a person with a little bit of power is just dead set against you because of their own beliefs.

[hack]

That's really odd. Online is normal now. Georgetown charges $70k for an online masters in international economics that I looked into. And its a new degree so there isn't even a track record of graduates moving into good jobs.

[Whitley]

That's really odd. Online is normal now. Georgetown charges $70k for an online masters in international economics that I looked into. And its a new degree so there isn't even a track record of graduates moving into good jobs.

The schooling I got (from AAPC) is from one of the top two organizations in the field (the other is AHIMA). Is it an Associate's degree? Nope. But when I was going to college no one ever thought getting an Associate's degree. It was all about the 4 year one.