#security security this is american warship

[trzpiotka]

this whole battling a creature post reminded me of when i went sailing last year. it was cold and rainy, on the first night it turned out i had fever, then i got seasick as fuck and puked for 2 days straight, and then i also got my period. just when i thought nothing more was gonna happen there was an american warship 

[mareislandfoundation]

Industrial Powerhouse

In the decade prior to 1940, America's shipyards launched only 23 ships. In the five years after 1940, American shipyards launched 4,600 ships. San Francisco Bay Area shipbuilders produced 20 percent of warship tonnage and almost 45 percent of all the cargo shipping tonnage built in the entire nation during World War II. The war lasted 1,365 days. In that span of time Bay Area shipyards built 1,400 vessels--a ship a day, on average. In addition, ships arrived constantly for maintenance and repair, sometimes scheduled, but often battle damaged and in urgent need of repair. This incredible industrial effort depended on a combination of shipyards and workers that had not existed prior to the outbreak of war.

One astounding example was due to the U.S. Maritime Commission’s dire need for cargo ships, San Francisco’s Bechtel Company was approached on March 2, 1942, and asked to propose a new shipyard location that could be operational within a year. Bechtel proposed building a shipyard with 6 building ways in Sausalito and the site was approved on March 12, 10 days later. Six days after that dirt was being blasted and moved to construct what became Marinship. Construction of Liberty ships on the building ways began in parallel with construction of the ways. Keel blocks were added as every foot of the ways was built extending inland from Richardson Bay. Similar feats took place around the San Francisco Bay Area as shipyards sprung up in Alameda, Richmond, Napa, South San Francisco, Oakland, and Antioch, while at the same time Mare Island and Hunters Point Naval Shipyard facilities doubled and tripled in size.

Tens of thousands of workers of every type were required to support the construction and repair activities resulting in a huge influx of workers from around the country. That workforce overwhelmed the existing housing stock in the Bay Area. In 1942 Mare Island officials decried the fact that workers were quitting as fast as new ones could be hired to due to the lack of housing. Federal agencies and local governments mobilized and together found innovative ways to rapidly create the housing needed for the burgeoning workforce. Those agencies accomplished so much so fast because of unprecedented cooperation amongst them, readily available funds and the dearth of regulation.

San Francisco grew from a city of 634,000 residents in 1940 to 774,821 by 1950. In Contra Costa County, the little towns of Walnut Creek, Orinda and Concord saw their populations double, then double again. In Vallejo housing units were constructed by the Public Buildings Administration, the Farm Security Administration, and the newly formed Vallejo Housing Authority. Incredibly, during a time of war and scarce personnel and construction resources, housing developments in Vallejo were generally completed within 6 months of contract award and would eventually provide housing for over 27,000 people. But even that was not enough, Mare Island Naval Shipyard's workforce had swollen to over 40,000 workers that simply could not all be housed within Vallejo. That problem was solved with an around-the-clock bus Service that brought 14,000 workers to and from Mare Island from as much as 75 miles away 7 days a week. Those buses would travel the equivalent distance of the circumference of the earth every day.

The enabler for this incredible productivity was the existence of total war involving the entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities of our country. That threat to our freedom created a unity our nation had never experienced before or since. The San Francisco Bay Area with its over 30 shipyards, large and small, and scores of machine shops, and metal and wood fabricators joined together to create the world's largest combined shipbuilding complex. In all, 244,000 people worked in Bay Area shipyards and prefabricated components were shipped by rail to Mare Island Naval Shipyard from construction shops across the nation. The output from San Francisco Bay Area joined the stream of material pouring out of shipyards and factories throughout the country providing the force behind Franklin Roosevelt’s use of the slogan “America as the Great Arsenal of Democracy.” This was all accomplished with no satellites, no internet, no computers, and no cell phones.

Dennis Kelly

[workersolidarity]

[ 📹 Palestinian residents and journalists run, bike and drive away as fast as they can as the Israeli occupation forces fire directly at the civilian population in the city of Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday, June 29th. 📈 The current death toll figures: 37'834 Palestinians killed, while another 86'858 others have been wounded since October 7th, 2023. ]

🇮🇱⚔️🇵🇸 🚀🏘️💥🚑 🚨

ISRAELI OCCUPATION CONTINUES GENOCIDAL WAR ON DAY 267: 66% OF ISRAELIS WANT NETANYAHU OUT OF POLITICS, MAJORITY OF ISRAELIS WANT ULTRA-ORTHODOX TO BE CONSCRIPTED, UN HEALTH REPPORTEUR CALLS ISRAELI WAR "GENOCIDE" AS SLAUGHTER CONTINUES UNABATED

On 267th day of the Israeli occupation's ongoing special genocide operation in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) committed a total of 3 new massacres of Palestinian families, resulting in the deaths of no less than 40 Palestinian civilians, mostly women and children, while another 224 others were wounded over the previous 24-hours.

It should be noted that as a result of the constant Israeli bombardment of Gaza's healthcare system, infrastructure, residential and commercial buildings, local paramedic and civil defense crews are unable to recover countless hundreds, even thousands, of victims who remain trapped under the rubble, or who's bodies remain strewn across the streets of Gaza.

This leaves the official death toll vastly undercounted as Gaza's healthcare officials are unable to accurately tally those killed and maimed in this genocide, which must be kept in mind when considering the scale of the mass murder.

A new television poll conducted inside the occupied Palestinian territories and published on Friday has found that 66% of Israelis believe occupation Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should leave politics and should not seek re-election, while just 27% said he should stay in office, and 7% answered they weren't sure.

Among right-wing Israelis, a different picture emerges, 37% of right wing Israelis opposed Netanyahu seeking re-election, while 53% said Netanyahu should stay in office.

At the same time, a full 85% of Israelis overall support a probe to look into the October 7th Palestinian resistance attacks on Israeli settlements.

Meanwhile, the Israeli occupation's leadership continues pushing for a war in Lebanon, worrying the Zionist entity's US ally who has maneuvered warships closer to the border between "Israel" and Lebanon, supposedly with the purpose of preparing to evacuate American citizens and soldiers as fighting between Hezbollah and the Israeli occupation army continues to escalate.

According to reporting on the moves by the United States, the American amphibious assault ship, the USS Wasp, which carries a force of US Marines, moved last Wednesday to the Mediterranean Sea in the vicinity of the region, joining the USS Oak Hill and another ship and forming a readiness group in the case of escalation.

The US warship group is trained in evacuating civilians from dangerous war situations, but also has offensive capabilities, as well as espionage and surveillance capabilities, and can also be paired with the F-35 attack aircraft.

According to one source, the warship group is also intended to project American military power in the region, in the hope that this will act as a deterrent against the axis of resistance led by the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Sources speaking with US news outlet NBC have said the United States is increasingly concerned with possible Israeli attacks on southern Lebanon in the coming weeks, this despite pressure exerted by the Biden administration for both sides to show restraint.

The Israeli occupation, however, is sticking with its position to keep Hezbollah away from its northern border, while the Zionist security establishment demands the creation of a buffer zone 10 miles deep along the border with Lebanon.

American officials are intent on settling the nerves of the two sides, publicly playing down the chances of war between the two sides, and claiming they see no evidence that a major escalation on the border is imminent, but then warned that a single miscalculation could spark a major regional war.

However, public pressure continues on the Israeli leadership to act against Hezbollah, and to ensure Israeli citizens can return to their homes in the north. US officials said this pressure is "very real", adding that the Israeli leadership feel the need to "do something" about the threat in the north.

Since the beginning of the Israeli genocide in the Gaza Strip, the Hezbollah Lebanese resistance movement has launched daily waves of rocket, drone and mortar strikes against Zionist military targets, and colonial settlements, in the occupation's northern territories, threatening to escalate the situation if the Zionist entity does not end its slaughter of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

In other news, it is being reported that since the start of the Zionist entity's ongoing genocidal war in the Gaza Strip, the United States Biden administration has sent the Israeli occupation thousands of highly destructive bombs and enormous amounts of ammunition.

It was explained the Americans have sent the Israeli occupation "at least 14,000 MK-84 bombs weighing 2,000 pounds, 6,500 500-pound bombs, 3,000 precision-guided Hellfire (surface-to-air) missiles, 1,000 bunker-buster bombs, and 2,600 small-diameter air-dropped bombs were transported," along with other ammunition.

Additionally, the Biden administration intends on sending further shipments of US bombs and ammunition, including the shipment that was previously suspended out of concern that the Israeli occupation forces would continue to use the giant bombs to target civilians.

According to American officials, the US intends on sending the Israeli occupation army another 1'700 bombs weighing 220kg, which are expected to arrive shortly.

Reporting in the United States is also stating that the Biden administration has come under enormous pressure from some members of Congress following their decision to suspend the single shipment of bombs, including a bizarre series of comments and videos published by Netanyahu, leading the administration to reverse its decision.

In more news, on Friday, the United Nations Repporteur on the right to Health, Tlaleng Mofokeng, has made public comments stating that groups of people were being literally exterminated in the Gaza Strip, and that no other word but "genocide" can be used to describe what it happening.

Speaking with Turkish news outlet, Anadolu News Agency, Mofokeng pointed to the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in the Gaza Strip, noting that residents of Gaza were being deprived of essential services and basic needs.

"We know that people are trying to survive, but that’s really all they can do," she said, adding there is no food, safe drinking water, or safe housing in Gaza.

Pointing to the increasing death toll in the Israeli occupation's ongoing war, and the horrific conditions for those trapped under rubble or living with disabilities due to the war, the special repporteur said that "When you look literally how small Gaza strip is and the kind of destruction that’s happening, it’s really impossible to understand how this is still going on."

Speaking about the reports coming from international aid organizations that depict a dire healthcare situation in the enclave, Mofokeng went on to say that "when they (hospitals) cannot get supplies and essential medicines, and when healthcare workers themselves are being killed and harassed, it makes the attacks on the right to health even more prominent."

Mofokeng went on to condemn the support the Israeli occupation receives from the United States and Europe, which she says supports a "genocide."

"How many more children must die?" she asked, adding that people in Gaza are living a "daily nightmare."

The special repporteur asserted that the situation in the Gaza Strip reflects an "apartheid regime", and that the Israeli entity's attacks on civilians meets the definition of "genocide".

She went on call for a global conversation to recognize the events in Gaza as a genocide, and to hold the perpetrators accountable in International courts.

"I’m not in charge of prosecuting anybody," she said. “But when you have a group of people who have literally been exterminated, what else is there to declare it a genocide?"

She ended the interview by declaring that Israeli violence against healthcare personnel in Gaza, along with its denial of human rights for Palestinians are entirely unacceptable, and further urged the international community to take action to address the crises.

Meanwhile, the genocide continued in Gaza over Friday night, and renewed again on Saturday morning, with several deadly airstrikes responsible for killing a number of Palestinians and wounding even more.

North of Gaza, Israeli occupation warplanes bombed a residential house in the Yarmouk area, adjacent to the Al-Jazeera Club Stadium in Gaza City, resulting in the deaths of two children and wounding at least 5 others.

Several citizens were also wounded after an Israeli airstrike targeted the Al-Maghazi Refugee Camp, in the central Gaza Strip, while Zionist soldiers opened fire on the tents of displaced Palestinian families near the Al-Shakoush area and the Tal al-Sultan neighborhood, west of the city of Rafah, in the south of Gaza.

At the same time, Zionist warplanes bombed a residential home belonging to the Abu Khadra family on Al-Wahda Street, in central Gaza City, killing four Palestinians, including two children, and wounding 10 others who were taken to the Baptist Hospital in the city.

Meanwhile, at dawn on Saturday, Israeli artillery detatchments renewed its shelling of civilian homes in the Al-Shujaiya neighborhood, east of Gaza City.

Similarly, occupation artillery forces shelled more tents of displaced families, along with agricultural greenhouses in the Al-Mawasi area, northwest of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip.

Local civil defense crews reported recovering the decomposing bodies of 5 Palestinians after the Israeli occupation forces withdrew from the Shakoush neighborhood, west of Rafah City, while Zionist forces continued firing on civilian homes east of Khan Yunis.

Israeli fighter jets also bombarded a house in the Al-Maghazi Camp, in the central Gaza Strip, killing at least one civilian and injuring dozens of others, which coincided with the bombing and shelling of the Nuseirat Camp.

At the same time, the Israeli occupation's warplanes launched two raids on the Tal al-Hawa and Sheikh Ajlin neighborhoods, southwest of Gaza City, while occupation drones and armored vehicles targeted residential homes near the Candle Mosque in the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, southeast of Gaza City, along with the Al-Shujaiya neighborhood, resulting in a number of casualties.

The slaughter continued when Zionist warplanes bombed two homes belonging to the Abu Kamil family in the Al-Daraj neighborhood, along with the Qwaider family in the Al-Sabra neighborhood, in the south and center of Gaza City.

Also in the Al-Sabra neighborhood, an Israeli drone fired a missile at a civilian vehicle, killing several Palestinians and wounding others, while occupation fighter jets bombed the Municipal Park in central Gaza City, killing and wounding a number of others.

The Israeli occupation army also launched a bombardment of the Al-Saada Towers area in the Tal al-Hawa neighborhood, southwest of Gaza City.

In yet another atrocity, the Israeli occupation forces bombed a residential house in the Bureij Camp, in the central Gaza Strip, resulting in the deaths of at least four civilians, and wounding a number of others who were transported to Al-Aqsa and Al-Awda Hospitals.

As a result of the Israeli occupation's ongoing war of extermination against the Palestinian population of the Gaza Strip, the endlessly rising death toll now exceeds 37'834 Palestinians killed, including over 15'000 children and in excess of 10'000 women, while another 86'858 others have been wounded since the start of the current round of Zionist aggression, beginning with the events of October 7th, 2023.

June 29th, 2024.

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@WorkerSolidarityNews

[girlactionfigure]

ISRAEL NEWS SUMMARY - by Israel Realtime

🔸DEAL(s).. all reports concur that Israel has accepted painful terms for a ceasefire and hostage release - to be able to get hostages released and placate the Americans. Hamas seems to be demanding extreme terms with little flexibility and blocking the deal since Israel won’t accept “lose the war” terms.

In Lebanon, US mediators have made no progress.

🔸PROPAGANDA.. Hamas “food truck massacre 1” was effective but only for a few days, as Israel’s video based response (actual drone video) convinced the media to quietly drop it.

 “Food distribution site - massacre 2” did not get traction, lack of pictures limiting impact.

They are trying to get traction on “Palestinian women were sexually abused in Israeli custody”, to offset the UN accepted report on severe rape and abuse during the massacre and to hostages - even children, but so far only minor traction.

The propaganda winner is “Gaza starvation”.  That campaign has full traction with photos of 2 Gaza babies with starvation features actually due to medical conditions, and has been picked up into policy response by the US and UK, and is being turned into Ramadan ads for the Arab world.  

🔸GAZA BATTLES.. the IDF continues to report heavy battles in Khan Yunis - south Gaza, as well as in central Gaza. 

🔸LEBANON CROSS-BORDER ATTACKS.. from Hezbollah: daily rocket, suicide drone, and anti-tank missile fire - with the addition of Katyusha rocket barrages of 30-50 rockets. Katyushas are small and inaccurate but make up for it with volume.

From Israel, airstrikes on Hezbollah used buildings throughout south Lebanon using ‘large’ bombs, often resulting in total building destruction. Also targeted strikes on leadership personnel, often in vehicles.

🔸UN.. The US is supposedly bringing a UN Security Council resolution on a ceasefire, but it requires the parties to agree and the hostages to be released.

South Africa has appealed to the International Criminal Court citing “widespread starvation” in Gaza (see Propaganda item 4 above), demanding they order Israel to allow increased aid.

🔸AID.. Israeli anti-aid protestors have been generally successful in slowing the pace of aid by blocking inspection crossings daily. Recently the police, under orders from the government, have increased their actions to clear such protests.

Aid airdrops made great optics, but videos by Gazans show some contempt for the products received (such as Skittles), and some are expired (from Arab countries). They also note MRE’s (meals-ready-to-eat long-term food packs used by the military) seem small and not satisfying. 

Aid entering Gaza continues to be either attacked and looted by crowds, endangering the drivers and damaging the trucks, or immediately hijacked by Hamas. The question is not “is enough aid entering” but ‘WHERE IS IT GOING? WHO’S STEALING IT?”, and noting a fair amount of it then shows up in the markets for sale.

🔸RED SEA & THE HOUTHIS.. the Houthis have upped their shipping attack pace, targeted 1-2 cargo ships a day. They have also now directly targeted U.S. warships. They have hit a number of cargo ships with moderate damage, have sunk one, and have now killed a crew and caused the abandonment of another.

The U.S. / UK shipping protection coalition is shooting down drones and missiles daily, as well as bombing Yemen daily. However statements from U.S. military officials indicate the US is having problems finding valid targets - their intelligence on Yemen is poor.

[mariacallous]

The Greeks had their chariots. Patton had his tanks. Now, a handful of soldiers are riding into combat in one of the most unusual-looking vehicles in the history of warfare: an armed Cybertruck.

In a video posted to messaging platform Telegram last week, Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of Russia’s Chechnya region, showed off a pair of Tesla’s distinctive boxy electric pickup trucks painted forest green and armed with what appear to be Soviet-era DShK 12.7 x 108 mm heavy machine guns—vehicles he claimed had been sent to fight alongside Russian forces taking part in the country’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

The footage shows the vehicles patrolling down a dirt road as part of a four-vehicle platoon, with several soldiers manning their weapons mounted on their truck beds and blasting airborne targets out of the sky.

“Mobility, convenience, maneuverability: such qualities of an electric vehicle are in great demand here,” Kadyrov wrote on Telegram.

The new footage came just over a month after Kadyrov published an initial video to Telegram showing off a Cybertruck armed with a Russian Kord 12.7 x 108 mm heavy machine gun. That Cybertruck, Kadyrov claimed in a separate Telegram post made the day before unveiling the fresh pair of vehicles, had recently been disabled “remotely” by Tesla chief Elon Musk, who had previously denied gifting the notorious warlord the vehicle in the first place, likely because it’s prohibited under US sanctions on Russia.

“This is not manly,” Kadyrov seethed on Telegram over the remote shutoff. (Tesla did not immediately respond to WIRED’s request for comment.)

It was only a matter of time before some enterprising combatant somewhere slapped a machine gun on a Cybertruck. Both regular militaries and irregular forces around the world have been whipping up “technicals”—or “nonstandard tactical vehicles” improvised from civilian rides—for more than a century. While the general concept of armored cars outfitted with firearms presaged the outbreak of World War I by at least a decade, the conflict accelerated their production and fielding—and, in moments of necessity, innovation. In one of the earliest documented manifestations of the technical, French navy lieutenant Maxime François Émile Destremau prepared a defense of the strategically important coaling station in the city of Papeete in Tahiti against a pair of German cruisers in September 1914 by tearing six 37 mm cannons off the warship under his command and mounting them on six Ford trucks to repel potential landing parties, according to the 2004 book On Armor. As long as the automobile has existed, so has the technical.

The technical as most defense observers know it, built on commercial flatbed pickup trucks like the rugged and reliable Toyota Hilux and Land Cruiser, became a fixture of modern irregular warfare during the so-called “Toyota War” of the 1980s that saw militia forces from Chad achieve a decisive victory over the Libyan military thanks to the superior mobility and maneuverability afforded by their lightweight vehicles. (Chadian forces discovered that, at an appropriately high speed, technicals could traverse open areas mined with Soviet-era munitions without risk of setting them off.)

Since then, technicals have become a fixture of conflicts like the US military campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Syrian and Libyan Civil Wars, and now the Russian invasion of Ukraine. And those conflicts continued to prompt a flurry of novel innovations when it comes to improvised fighting vehicles. Examples include Libyan militants mounting a S-5 rocket pod meant for an aircraft on the back of a truck and a Land Cruiser outfitted with a Russian-made 14.5 mm ZPU-2 antiaircraft gun that American soldiers traded two cans of chewing tobacco for to secure Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul during the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021—the latter of which is now in a US military museum. (Does a DShK on a shopping cart count as a technical? That’s up for debate.)

All of those innovations open up the question: Will an armed Cybertruck actually make for a good technical on the battlefield?

Despite the many issues that have plagued the Cybertruck since its release, the vehicle isn’t necessarily the worst option. While the Cybertruck currently has a maximum range of 340 miles (or 500 miles with an extra battery pack)—well behind the roughly 570- to 700-mile range of the Hilux—the former is actually quicker, capable of accelerating up to 60 mph between 2.6 and 3.9 seconds, depending on the model, a noteworthy achievement given the vehicle’s size and weight.

In terms of safeguarding its occupants from external threats like small arms fire, the Cybertruck’s steel “exoskeleton” offers purportedly superior protection to that of the conventional pickup truck, a feature that Tesla has been quick to flaunt on promotional materials. Finally, the Cybertruck, as an electric vehicle, is freakishly quiet, offering an element of stealth that the US Defense Department in particular has eyed in recent years compared to other fossil-fuel-powered ground vehicles.

“There are some attributes that work,” David Tracy, a cofounder of the car website The Autopian and a former auto engineer, tells WIRED. “It’s off-road capable and has big 35-inch tires and good ground clearance. It has stainless steel panels that can take some amount of abuse. From a defense standpoint—as in, ‘How safe am I in the vehicle?’—if you were to take a stock Hilux or a stock Cybertruck, the Cybertruck would probably be the better choice in a firefight.”

If technicals are built for speed and maneuverability, then the Cybertruck “offers significant benefits over the Hilux,” Tracy says.

“It is absolutely, absurdly quick,” he says. “In a drag race between the two, the Hilux would be an ant in the Cybertruck’s rearview mirror. If you need speed and agility, and it isn’t necessarily going through rigorous off-roading or being fired upon regularly, then it could actually work fine.”

Despite these potential tactical benefits, defense analysts aren’t convinced the Cybertruck has a place on the modern battlefield. As retired Marine colonel Mark Cancian, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank, tells WIRED, the armed vehicles flaunted by Kadyrov on Telegram “are totally cool and totally useless.”

“They are cool because they look like something out of a video game and portray Kadyrov as a sort of futuristic warlord,” Cancian tells WIRED in an email. “They are useless because they don't provide a new capability, except perhaps a bit of stealth.”

Indeed, the Cybertruck is not totally suited for hostile and chaotic environments like the front lines of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. First, the EV’s exoskeleton actually consists of steel panels attached to a standard “unibody” frame that’s more akin to the chassis of a conventional car rather than the “body-on-frame” design of most pickup trucks like the Hilux. This design, according to Motor Trend, makes the former a weaker and less resilient vehicle. Second, while the Cybertruck is certainly off-road capable, it’s still significantly heavier than Hilux, which can make maneuverability and traction on rough terrain a challenge. Third, while its armor portends to offer at least some additional coverage compared to the conventional pickup truck-based technical, the vehicle’s bulletproofing only appears to work with subsonic rounds like the .45 ACP ammo used in Tesla’s tests and not the ubiquitous NATO-standard 5.56 mm round or, say, a shot from a .50 caliber rifle. (Though, to be fair, aftermarket armor packages for the vehicle do exist.)

Beyond design and engineering challenges, there’s also the critical matter of maintenance and logistics, the lifeblood of any motorized conflict. As Tracy points out, the Cybertruck’s unique complexity and software-forward design (like the lack of a physical connection between steering wheel and wheels) means a distinct lack of spare parts and higher potential for catastrophic system failures, challenges that all but guarantee that the vehicle is unable to operate reliably and ensure consistent uptime—not necessarily ideal for troops whose lives may depend on them.

“Simplicity is everything; simplicity and parts availability,” Tracy says. “If you’re driving a complex vehicle and there’s a failure of some sort and you need someone to flash it with a computer, you’re hosed if you’re in the middle of nowhere. The beauty of the Hilux is that they’re very tough, for one, but they can be repaired with simple tools and fairly ubiquitous parts. The Cybertruck does not really make a whole lot of sense in that regard.”

“It’s great that it is safe in a crash and can take a bullet,” he adds. “But if you break a control arm and can’t get the part, it’s pretty useless.”

Plus, the Cybertruck’s reliance on charging stations would make a fleet of armed vehicles “likely impossible to support” in any sort of protracted conflict like that taking place in Ukraine, according to CSIS’s Cancian.

“I doubt there are garages or mechanics near the front lines who can fix these complex devices, which are so unlike the fossil fuel vehicles that the region is accustomed to,” he says. “Further, I doubt there are many recharging stations in the battle area. Unlike with fossil fuel vehicles, where the fuel can be brought to the vehicle if necessary, the Cybertrucks must go to the recharging point.”

How the Cybertruck will actually perform in a combat situation remains to be seen. But if the Kadyrov video is any indication, it’s only a matter of time before an armed Cybertrucks makes the transition from YouTube sensation to tried-and-true, battle-tested technical.

[awesome-casuallyfamouscollector]

Trump’s embrace of Russia and his cold shoulder to Europe – driven by a transactional approach that Singapore’s defense minister likened to a “landlord seeking rent” – has heightened trepidation in the Indo-Pacific region, where many nations look to the US to keep Chinese aggression in check.

P.S. Yap! This is a new normal. USA demonstrated weakness in Europe and surrendered to Kremlin...!!! Is the China-US clash or next American B.S. war a European problem? Rather, not! I DON'T NEED ANYTHING in the South China Sea...We have our own problems to solve...in Europe...

Do you really think the Trump administration won't cheat the Allies in Asia too...???

My advice to the democratic countries of the Asian region: Create your own security alliance independent of America. The Americans betrayed their allies in Europe! Nowhere does it say that for the sake of a good deal and profit, they will not betray their allies in Asia in the same way...

There is already a WAR in Europe and the Americans fled the battlefield with their tails tucked between their legs...!!!

[pattern-recognition]

Via the Resistance News Network

🇾🇪 Member of the Defense and Security Committee in Yemen, Brigadier General Abdul Salam Jahaf:

—

Do the American, British, and zionist expect that any aggressive act against Yemen will distract us from defending Gaza?

We swear, even if we turned into atoms scattered in the air, we will not leave Gaza. We will continue to target zionist ships and those going to the zionist entity. We will confront America, make it kneel, burn its warships, all its bases, and anyone who cooperates with it.

No matter what it costs us, we will not leave Gaza. Let the great war ignite, for we are its people and its men.

To our people, our brothers, our sons, and our fathers in Gaza, we are with you. You are not alone. Our blood for you is cheap, and we are with you until our last breath.

God refuses for us to be submissive and humiliated while your blood is spilled. What will God say to us when we meet Him?

You have let down Gaza.

No, by God, we will not let her down, no matter what it costs us.

The world must prepare to hear of America's defeat. I say this with all pride, we will trample America under our feet. The battlefield will teach those who do not know us about our might and severity.

We will not warn nor threaten. Wait for what will heal your hearts.

By God.

We will burn the region.

[recreationaldivorce]

🇾🇪 Member of the Defense and Security Committee in Yemen, Brigadier General Abdul Salam Jahaf:

—

Do the American, British, and zionist expect that any aggressive act against Yemen will distract us from defending Gaza?

We swear, even if we turned into atoms scattered in the air, we will not leave Gaza. We will continue to target zionist ships and those going to the zionist entity. We will confront America, make it kneel, burn its warships, all its bases, and anyone who cooperates with it.

No matter what it costs us, we will not leave Gaza. Let the great war ignite, for we are its people and its men.

To our people, our brothers, our sons, and our fathers in Gaza, we are with you. You are not alone. Our blood for you is cheap, and we are with you until our last breath.

God refuses for us to be submissive and humiliated while your blood is spilled. What will God say to us when we meet Him?

You have let down Gaza.

No, by God, we will not let her down, no matter what it costs us.

The world must prepare to hear of America's defeat. I say this with all pride, we will trample America under our feet. The battlefield will teach those who do not know us about our might and severity.

We will not warn nor threaten. Wait for what will heal your hearts.

By God.

We will burn the region.

[ivan-fyodorovich-k]

Charles de Gaulle found the memory of D-Day so painful that he refused to participate in commemorations of the Normandy invasion during his 11 years as president of France. He did not invite heads of government to mark either the 20th anniversary in 1964 or the 25th in 1969. Old soldiers saluted; ambassadors laid wreaths.

President Dwight Eisenhower had tried to salve the French hurt in the statement he released for the 10th anniversary in 1954. The statement did not mention the United States or its armed forces. It praised by name three British commanders, three French, one Soviet—no Americans. It credited the victory to “the joint labors of cooperating nations,” and said “it depended for its success upon the skill, determination and self-sacrifice of men from several lands.” You might want to read it as a prophylactic antidote to the boast and bombast likely to fill the air today.

The experience of liberation was a complex thing for almost every country that experienced it from 1943 to 1945, but perhaps nowhere more than France. In the American imagination of 1944, France exists as a throng of cheering, welcoming faces, as women kissing GIs, as a landscape through which Allied tanks and trucks roar on their way to Germany. Depending on our mood, we romanticize the Resistance or excoriate collaborators—seldom caring to remember how ambiguously collaboration and resistance often blended together, or how often collaborators and resisters were the same people at different phases of the war or even different times of the same day.

To be liberated, first you must be defeated.

Everything about these D-Day anniversaries reminds the French of that humiliating sequence. When de Gaulle landed in Normandy for a one-day visit on June 14, he traveled back-and-forth across the English Channel in a British warship. De Gaulle’s ability to establish a provisional government depended on the permission of U.S. and British authorities—and so, ultimately, would the even more fraught question whether France would be accepted again as a major ally.

For four years, Vichy France had supplied and aided Germany. Vichy planes had bombed Gibraltar in 1940; Vichy tax collectors had extracted resources to pay the German occupiers. When Italy changed sides in 1943, it was treated as a liberated nation—but it was not accepted as a co-belligerent. France’s post-D-Day status utterly depended on British and American goodwill. For a man like de Gaulle, that dependency rankled.

De Gaulle’s famous speech of August 25, 1944, after the liberation of Paris, starkly reveals the fictions that would restore French pride.

“Paris! Paris outraged! Paris broken! Paris martyred! But Paris liberated! Liberated by itself, liberated by its people with the help of the French armies, with the support and the help of all France, of the France that fights, of the only France, of the real France, of the eternal France! … It will not even be enough that we have, with the help of our dear and admirable Allies, chased him from our home for us to consider ourselves satisfied after what has happened. We want to enter his territory as is fitting, as victors.”

France did enter Germany as a victor. French armies, supplied by the United States, subordinate to U.S. command, were stood up in 1944–45. France was allotted an occupation zone in Germany and awarded a permanent seat on the UN Security Council. (Italy was not even invited to join the United Nations until 1955.) Allied officialdom agreed to believe de Gaulle’s story that the France that fought Nazi Germany was the only real France.

But everyone understood the story was not true. The French military defeat in 1940 had torn apart social wounds dating back decades and longer. Conservative and Catholic France reinterpreted the battles of 1940 as a debacle only of the liberal and secular France that had held the upper hand since the founding of the Third Republic in 1871 and especially since the Dreyfus affair that began in 1894. When the reactionary French writer Charles Maurras was sentenced to life imprisonment for collaboration, he supposedly replied, “It’s the revenge of Dreyfus.”

Most French business leaders and civil servants collaborated out of opportunism or necessity. The Germans held hundreds of thousands of captured French soldiers as hostages for years after 1940. But more than a few leading French people, including many intellectuals and churchmen, collaborated out of a species of conviction. A French cardinal led the recruitment of French volunteers to fight alongside the Germans in Russia in 1941. “How can I, in a moment so decisive, refuse to approve the common noble enterprise directed by Germany, dedicated to liberate Russia from the bonds that have held it for the last twenty-five years, suffocating its old human and Christian traditions, to free France, Europe, and the world from the most pernicious and most sanguinary monster that mankind has ever known, to raise the peoples above their narrow interests, and to establish among them a holy fraternity revived from the time of the Christian Middle Ages?” Cardinal Alfred Baudrillart wrote, in his endorsement of the Anti-Bolshevik Legion.

The loss of the war against Germany enabled such people to launch a much more congenial culture war at home, to purge France of “liberty, equality, and fraternity,” the slogan of 1789, and establish in its place “work, family, fatherland,” the slogan of Vichy. Since 1905, France had been defined as a secular state. The Catholic Church had been reduced to one sect among others: Protestant, Jewish, even Muslim. (In 1920, the French government had subsidized the building of a grand mosque in thanks for the First World War service of Muslim troops. The great military cemetery near Verdun has a special section for Muslim soldiers, their graves angled away from the others in order to face Mecca.)

Vichy put an end to all that. The defeat of France by Germany was ideologically reinterpreted as a victory of “deep France” over a shallow liberal metropolitan veneer. Subjugation was reinterpreted by Vichy ideologues as redemption. Enmity was shifted from the occupying Germans to the liberal commercial “Anglo-Saxons.” Vichy propagandists produced cartoons in which Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Popeye were depicted dropping bombs on France at the behest of Jewish masters.

Anti-Allied enmity was not difficult to stoke: Allied bombing before 1944 and Allied land forces after 1944 did more damage to French cities than the Germans had in the few weeks of combat in 1940. The port of Le Havre was bombed 132 times from 1940 to 1944. The final raids in September reduced the city center to rubble, killing 5,000, maiming and rendering homeless tens of thousands more. The modernist cityscape that replaced the former 18th- and 19th-century core remains an enduring monument to the price paid by the French people for their liberation.

Vichyite enthusiasm for anti-liberalism opened a strange fluidity in French politics during and after the war. The future leader of French socialism, François Mitterrand, began his political career on the far right of French politics and worked until 1943 as a civil servant in the Vichy government. As president after 1981, Mitterrand would raise minimum wages, cut the workweek to 39 hours, nationalize some financial institutions, and end the death penalty. He would even do what de Gaulle could never stomach: celebrate the D-Day anniversary.

It was Mitterrand who decided to invite Ronald Reagan to Normandy in 1984, where Reagan delivered one of the great speeches of his presidency. Yet Mitterrand, to the end of his career, remained friends with—and protected from prosecution for crimes against humanity—the Vichy police chief who deported tens of thousands of Jews to their death.

But the chief was not the only one protected, and Mitterrand was not the only protector. As the French journalist René Rémond quipped to Roger Cohen of The New York Times: “They all have something to hide.”

When Americans choose to remember this sad history, they do so from the privilege of an easier geography. As time has separated us from the Second World War, U.S. memories have become more triumphalist and self-aggrandizing. It is a remarkable thing to watch President Donald Trump’s preening and posing in the U.K. and France on this anniversary. France fell in 1940 in great part because the United States went AWOL from European peace and security after 1919. The U.S. was AWOL very much because of leaders who in their day espoused the same crass protectionism and isolationism—and even the same “America First” slogan—as Trump himself. . .

[facts4u2know]

Vote all Republicans Out in 2024                     12/25/23

Since Russa’s invasion, the US has provided about $44 billion in military assistance to Ukraine. Now, Republicans in the House have blocked about $50 billion in additional military assistance, claiming a greater need for US border security.

The losses of Russia’s pre-war forces are staggering – 87% of its army of 360,000, 63% of its 3,500 tanks, 32% of its 13,600 infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers, and 25% of its stockpile of ground forces equipment – sharply setting back 15 years of effort to modernize its ground forces. In addition, Ukraine drone attacks have driven Russian warships out of the Black Sea, where they had been supreme.

Ukraine’s crippling of Russia’s military and economic resources has come at trivial cost to the US. – the $44 billion already spent and the $50 billion Republicans are blocking combined amount to less than 1% of the Pentagon’s 2023 budget. Would they rather US troops were dying on the battlefield to stop Putin?

President Biden’s leadership in rallying our NATO allies to support Ukraine bought admiration and acclaim from all free nations, greatly increasing our standing in the world, without spilling American blood and at trivial monetary cost. Now, Republicans in Congress have undermined these gains, all in the name of petty politics – making us an impotent Superpower.

With Trump leading in all the polls – despite his recent revelations of becoming a dictator – and not a single House Republican willing to break ranks, the current Republican party is clearly rotten to the core – we need to go to the polls in November and vote every Republican out of every Federal, state, and local office.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Mike Luckovich

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

October 5, 2023

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

Katherine Faulders, Alexander Mallin, and Mike Levine of ABC News reported today that sources have told them that former president Trump shared information about U.S. nuclear subs with Anthony Pratt, an Australian billionaire who was a member of the Mar-a-Lago club. The sources say Pratt then shared that information with at least 45 others: more than a dozen foreign officials, his own employees, and a few journalists. Trump allegedly shared the exact number of nuclear warheads U.S. submarines carry, and exactly how close they can get to a Russian submarine without being detected. 

Former defense secretary William Cohen explained to CNN’s Anderson Cooper how information about nuclear submarines fit into the larger picture of what’s known as the nuclear triad, the land, sea, and air systems that protect the U.S. “Out of the triad,” he said, “the submarine is the one that is most secure for us because it's not targetable…. So they're special. And he is giving away special information on what is protecting us around the world.”

FBI agents and the team overseen by special counsel Jack Smith, looking into Trump’s mishandling of national security documents, have interviewed Pratt at least twice. About a year ago, on November 9, 2022, U.S. Navy nuclear engineer Jonathan Toebbe and his wife, Dianna, were sentenced to more than 19 years in prison for conspiring to sell classified information about nuclear-powered warships to a foreign country.

“Naval nuclear engineer Jonathan Toebbe was entrusted with our nation’s critical secrets and, along with his wife Diana Toebbe, put the security of our country at risk for financial gain,” U.S. Attorney Cindy Chung for the Western District of Pennsylvania said at the time. “Their serious criminal conduct betrayed and endangered the Department of the Navy’s loyal and selfless service members. The seriousness of the offense in this case cannot be overstated.”

Trump today endorsed Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH) for the speakership. There is an important history to this endorsement. On January 11, 2021—five days after the attack on the U.S. Capitol and the attempt of some Republican lawmakers to overturn the lawful results of the 2020 presidential election—Trump awarded Jordan the Medal of Freedom without a real explanation of why he deserved it. 

On January 6, 2021, then-Representative Liz Cheney (R-WY) told Jordan to get away from her because “You f*ck*ng did this!” 

Yesterday, in a speech at the University of Minnesota, Cheney explained: “Jim Jordan knew more about what Donald Trump had planned for January 6 than any other member of the House of Representatives. Jim Jordan was involved, was part of the conspiracy in which Donald Trump was engaged as he attempted to overturn the election…. There was a handful of people, of which he was the leader, who knew what Donald Trump had planned. Now somebody needs to ask Jim Jordan, ‘Why didn’t you report to the Capitol Police what you knew Donald Trump had planned? You were in those meetings at the White House.’”

She concluded: “If the Republicans decide that Jim Jordan should be the Speaker of the House…there would no longer be any possible way to argue that a group of elected Republicans could be counted on to defend the Constitution.”

Meanwhile, Trump’s lawyers are trying to get the indictments against him for trying to overturn the lawful results of the 2020 election thrown out, arguing that a president has absolute immunity from prosecution for criminal as well as civil prosecutions. If this argument succeeded, it would mean that a president was above the law and could do anything they wanted without fear of prosecution. In her newsletter Civil Discourse, Joyce White Vance suggests this is likely an attempt to delay the trial at least until after the Republican National Convention nominates a presidential candidate and possibly until after the 2024 election itself.  

Trump’s tangles with the law are not going well, and in a sudden flurry today, his lawyers tried to delay or get rid of them. In his coverage of Trump’s fraud trial in New York this week, Daily Beast political investigations reporter Jose Pagliery noted that Trump likely appeared in person because he had cited the trial as the reason he could not give a deposition in his $500 million lawsuit against his former fixer Michael Cohen for talking about him and thus breaking his fiduciary duty to act solely in Trump’s interest. That deposition was rescheduled for Monday. Today, Trump withdrew his case against Cohen, clearly suggesting he was afraid to testify. 

In the New York fraud trial, a document introduced into evidence today undermined the argument that Trump wasn’t involved in the fraudulent valuations at the heart of the case. The Trump Organization’s 2014 statement of financial condition included a note from the organization’s comptroller saying: “DJT TO GET FINAL REVIEW.” 

Apparently concerned that Trump would try to move his assets around to hide them, Justice Arthur Engoron today ordered Trump, his older sons, and the two Trump Organization employees in the suit not to move money or open a new business without reporting it to the independent monitor overseeing the businesses. They must also provide a list of each of their businesses and anyone who shares ownership of those businesses. 

Trump has also asked Judge Aileen Cannon to delay his trial for mishandling the national security documents he stashed at Mar-a-Lago until after the 2024 election. 

—

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[usafphantom2]

IMAGES: F-15E land in the Middle East to confirm USAF's "enhanced" presence in support of Israel 🇮🇱

Fernando Valduga By Fernando Valduga 10/15/2023 - 11:52am Military, War Zones

The F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jets arrived in the Middle East on October 13, while the U.S. continued to strengthen its forces in the region, the U.S. Air Force announced.

The planes, which were deployed from the RAF Base in Lakenheath, in the United Kingdom, are part of a broader package of forces that were mobilized after Hamas' attack on Israel, including an increasing number of A-10 Thunderbolt II close air support aircraft and F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter jets.

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"The aircraft's advanced systems and targeting capabilities allow U.S. forces to respond to any crisis or contingency and, if necessary, face and defeat opponents," the Air Force Central (AFCENT) said in a statement announcing the arrival of the F-15E.

The Pentagon did not say where the F-15E would be based. Its arrival comes a day after the Pentagon announced that A-10 Warthogs of the 354º Fighter Squadron of Davis-Monthan Air Base, Arizona, had arrived in the region, in addition to the Warthogs of the 75º Fighter Squadron already in the region.

U.S. officials said that U.S. Air Force F-35 Lightning II stealth fighters are among the additional capabilities that could be sent

“The U.S. military is committed to lasting security and protection throughout the Middle East,” said AFCENT commander Lieutenant General Alexus G. Grynkewich, in a statement of October 13. “By positioning advanced fighters and integrating joint and coalition forces, we are strengthening our partnerships and strengthening security in the region.”

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III, who arrived in Israel on October 13, met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and the newly formed Israeli war cabinet.

Austin highlighted the "enhanced" presence of the USAF in the Middle East and the deployment of the USS Gerard R. Ford in the Eastern Mediterranean, according to a reading of the Austin meetings provided by the Pentagon Press Secretary, Brig. General Patrick S. Ryder.

The new U.S. assets aim to discourage Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group, Iran or other groups from trying to escalate the conflict and show support for Israel, which had more than 1,300 citizens killed and other deeds held hostage and brought to Gaza. American citizens are among the dead and taken hostage by Hamas, says the U.S. government. The State Department announced plans to evacuate some American citizens from Israel.

“We have increased U.S. combat aircraft squads in the Middle East, and the U.S. Department of Defense is fully ready to deploy additional resources if necessary,” Austin said during a press conference in Israel on October 13.

In addition to the USAF fighters, the USS Ford also carries four squadrons of F/A-18 Super Hornet fighters, as well as electronic warfare and command and control aircraft. The aircraft carrier is also accompanied by warships carrying cruise missiles.

Ryder added that the U.S. was “accelerating security assistance to Israel, including precision guided ammunition and air defense ammunition.” Austin also "committed to deploy additional assets as needed".

The aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower was supposed to leave Norfolk, Virginia, on October 13, but its deployment was temporarily postponed, according to local media reports. The U.S. military did not say exactly where the Eisenhower and the warships accompanying him will arrive.

Israel responded to Hamas attacks with punitive air strikes in Gaza, and Israeli ground forces seem prepared to intervene, with a large number of Israel Defense Forces (IDF) positioning themselves near Israel's border with Gaza and issuing warnings to evacuate. Netanyahu promised to "s crush and destroy" Hamas.

During his visit, Austin signaled strong support for Israel.

“This is not the time for neutrality, or for false equivalences, or for excuses for the inforgible,” Austin said at a press conference on October 13. "Make no mistake: the United States will ensure that Israel has what it needs to defend itself, and Israel has the right to protect its people."

Tags: Military AviationF-15E Strike EagleUSAF - United States Air Force / U.S. Air ForceWar Zones - Middle East

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Fernando Valduga

Fernando Valduga

Aviation photographer and pilot since 1992, has participated in several events and air operations, such as Cruzex, AirVenture, Dayton Airshow and FIDAE. He has work published in specialized aviation magazines in Brazil and abroad. Uses Canon equipment during his photographic work in the world of aviation.

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[beardedmrbean]

A Malta-flagged, Greek-owned vessel has been hit with a missile in the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen, maritime security firm Ambrey has said.

It is thought to be the third incident involving Zografia, a bulk carrier, in 24 hours.

Tuesday's incident comes as the US military announced it had seized Iranian-supplied weapons bound for the Houthis during an operation last week.

Meanwhile, the US has hit more targets in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.

An official told CBS, the BBC's American partner, that the US conducted further strikes on Houthi positions overnight.

Four anti-ship ballistic missiles that were ready to be launched were destroyed, the official said.

The US and UK launched a wave of airstrikes against dozens of Houthi targets on 11 January following attacks by the Iran-backed group on shipping in the Red Sea.

It is not yet known what was attacked in the latest US operation.

The Houthis have vowed to retaliate.

On Sunday, the US said it had shot down a missile fired towards one of its warships from a Houthi area of Yemen.

A day later, the group said they had carried out a ballistic missile strike on a US-owned cargo ship in the Gulf of Aden.

While it has not yet been confirmed that Tuesday's attack on the Greek-owned vessel was carried out by the Houthis, it appears to follow a similar pattern of strikes.

Who are the Houthis attacking Red Sea ships?

Several vessels have been targeted by the movement's fighters since November in protest at Israel's war with Hamas.

The Houthis say they are targeting vessels which are Israeli-owned, flagged or operated, or are heading to Israeli ports. However, many have no connections with Israel.

The Zografia, which was empty, was sailing from Vietnam to Israel with 24 crew onboard when it was struck on Tuesday, Greek shipping ministry sources have told the media.

No injuries were reported, only minor damage to the carrier. The Houthis later claimed responsibility for the attack.

The Red Sea connects the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean via the Suez Canal but several shipping lines have announced they are now diverting round the Cape of Good Hope to reach Europe instead.

British oil giant Shell on Tuesday became the latest to suspend all of its shipments through the Red Sea indefinitely, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The US said on Tuesday that analysis of the weapons it seized from a ship near the Yemen coast suggested the Houthis had been using the same kind of weapons in their Red Sea attacks.

The seizure took place on 11 January near the coast of Somalia - the same day as the first US-UK airstrikes.

Cruise and ballistic missile components were among the items found on a ship, as well as parts for air defence equipment.

"This is the first seizure of lethal, Iranian-supplied advanced conventional weapons (ACW) to the Houthis since the beginning of Houthi attacks against merchant ships in November 2023," US Central Command said in a statement.

The ship - a traditional vessel known as a dhow - was considered unsafe and sunk by the US. Legal responsibility for the 14 crew members is being determined.

Central Command also said a search is continuing for two Navy Seals who were lost overboard during the operation.

According to media reports, one officer was knocked off the ship by high waves and the second jumped in afterwards to try and help as is required by protocol.

Washington has blamed Iran for being behind the Houthi missile capability, which Tehran denies. Iran's foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, said in a press conference on Monday that the West must stop the war against Yemen immediately.

In a separate development, the Greek ambassador to Iran is reported to have issued a formal appeal to Tehran to release one of its citizens - the captain of an oil tanker that was seized last week.

Armed men wearing masks boarded the vessel St Nikolas, close to the port of Sohar in Oman, on Thursday and ordered it to sail to an Iranian port.

Tehran said the seizure was in retaliation for the ship and oil it had aboard being confiscated by the US last year.

The vessel's owner, Empire Navigation, said on Sunday that it had been told by Iran that all of the tanker's 19 crew were safe and in good health.

[girlactionfigure]

ISRAEL REALTIME - "Connecting the World to Israel in Realtime"

🔴 DRONE ATTACK - northern border Dovev, Matat, Sassa.

🔴 ROCKET ATTACK - norther border Dovev.

🔴 INTERCEPTION at the northern border.

◾️U.S. SAYS ISRAEL MAY NOT FIGHT HEZBOLLAH… A senior official in the US government:  "The Biden administration wants Israel to avoid a conflict on its northern borders.  Since the Hamas attack began on Shabbat Simchat Torah, senior American intelligence officials have informed President Biden of the dangers of a wider war with Iran (and that Israel must be prevented from expanding its defense).”

◾️U.S. SEC STATE - NO FIGHTING!  The American Secretary of State who is currently in Israel. “ The ceasefire has proven to be successful in securing the freedom of the hostages and providing humanitarian aid to Gaza, and we want it to continue."

◾️WARNING IGNORED… A senior security official told Ch 14 after the attack: "The writing was on the wall. We must stop the deal to release the terrorists, it creates terrorism.'  To my question why this was not told to the decision makers he replied - "We said, they don't listen". (Ch. 14 Hillel Rosen)

◾️GREAT BRITAIN SAYS… British Defense Secretary: We will send the warship HMS Diamond to the Gulf to deter growing threats to shipping in the area.

🔸TERROR VICTIM… One of the murdered in the Jerusalem attack is Mrs. Hana Ifergan, hy”m, the director of Beit Ya'akov B'not Hadassah (major religious girls school) in Beit Shemesh.

[libertariantaoist]

News Roundup 6/29/2023 | The Libertarian Institute

Here is your daily roundup of today's news:

News Roundup 6/29/2023

by Kyle Anzalone

Russia

The Biden administration on Tuesday announced a new $500 million military aid package for Ukraine that includes new Bradley and Stryker armored vehicles and munitions for various weapons systems. AWC

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told BBC last week that there will be no Ukrainian presidential election in 2024 if martial law is still in effect, The New Voice of Ukraine reported. AWC

The Kremlin’s top diplomat said Moscow can no longer trust Washington and the potential for nuclear war has escalated. The Russian foreign minister suggested talks with American officials were possible, but Washington has not made an effort to engage. The Institute

The State Department announced it authorized selling $15 billion in advanced air defense systems to Poland. The deal comes as Washington wants to increase NATO’s military presence in Eastern Europe. The Institute

In a move which will surely garner censures from Bern’s European allies, Switzerland has vetoed a plan to send roughly 100 mothballed German-made Leopard 1 battle tanks to Kiev, citing its neutrality laws. This decision comes as Ukraine’s long awaited counteroffensive has netted substantial losses in armored vehicles. The Institute

US officials speaking to The New York Times said Wednesday that a senior Russian general knew Yevgeny Prigozhin was planning an uprising, a claim dismissed by the Kremlin. AWC

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Wednesday that the alliance is prepared to defend itself from any threat posed by Wagner fighters who go to Belarus. AWC

The Swedish government permitted a Quran-burning protest that took place in Sweden on Wednesday, a move that angered Turkey and made it less likely that Ankara will approve Stockholm’s NATO membership before the Vilnius summit in July. AWC

China

The Taiwanese military has reaffirmed that it will fire on Chinese warplanes and naval vessels if they come within 12 nautical miles of Taiwan’s coast, which marks the beginning of the island’s territorial waters and airspace. AWC

US Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti said Wednesday that Washington and New Delhi can jointly deploy warships and warplanes in the Indian and Pacific Oceans as the two nations are increasing military ties. AWC

Iran

Axios reported on Wednesday that White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan expressed concern to his Israeli counterpart about Israel leaking information to the press about the US and Iran holding indirect talks to reach an interim agreement on Tehran’s nuclear program. AWC

Read More

[colorfulsharktale]

With the imperial sword, Musk's reforms in the United States since he took office a month ago can be described in one word, that is, "fierce"! Among them, the Government Efficiency Department led by Musk has recently targeted three very sensitive institutions, which made many netizens sweat for Musk. Not to mention, the job he took on is still somewhat risky. Recently, there are reports that Musk has expanded his bodyguard team to about 100 people. So, which three hard bones is Musk chewing recently? First, the US Government Efficiency Department found that there are as many as millions of centenarians in the US social security system, and there are more than 2,000 people over 200 years old, and even one person is 360 years old. Seeing the results of the Musk team's investigation, Trump could only sigh and say "that's it." But Musk's comments are very direct, saying that there may be the biggest fraud in the history of the US system. However, some American media do not buy it, believing that this is a problem with the software system, not human. So in the past week, this incident has caused a big stir in the United States. Netizens have stood by Musk, but the US media has been madly accusing Musk.

This is only a small part of the magical United States. Musk's team has also set its sights on another important department, the Pentagon, which controls the world's largest military budget. In 2024, the US defense budget reached an astonishing $842 billion, setting a record high. So where did the United States spend all this money? Last year, everyone should have seen a news that the United States built a temporary dock on the coast of Gaza in order to transport supplies to Gaza, but this news has a sequel, because the dock built by the United States collapsed and was scrapped after only one week of use, and $320 million was immediately wasted. We don’t know how much aid the United States has given to Gaza through this dock, but the pockets of those American contractors must be full of money.

This is not the most outrageous thing. The US Navy once spent $1.84 billion to upgrade four warships. Unexpectedly, when the work was completed, it received an unexpected message that the four warships could be retired, so the $1.84 billion was wasted again; in addition, in the three-year Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the United States has always said that it has given Ukraine hundreds of billions of dollars, but Zelensky said that it has only received no more than 100 billion, so where did the rest of the money go? This may also be a question that Musk's team is investigating.

Finally, Musk now questions the authenticity of the US gold reserves! Musk recently hinted that he may review the gold reserves at Fort Knox, Kentucky, where the United States has a large amount of closely guarded gold, equivalent to half of the total gold reserves of the US Treasury. But Musk now has a question, have these things been stolen? So Musk now wants to go over for an inspection, but it is not clear whether his team will be allowed to enter the relevant facilities of Fort Knox. This is also a hard bone that Musk will have to chew next!

Having said so much before, why is Musk so concerned about the job in his hands? It may even threaten his own safety. Obviously, it is not just as simple as checking the accounts. In addition to cutting the huge expenditure of the United States, it is also a blow to some interest groups in the US military-industrial complex, because they have fooled too much money of Americans, instigated conflicts everywhere, and made a fortune from war; at the same time, Musk's actions in reforming the United States not only represent his own ideas, but also the result of fierce competition among various factions within the United States.

Now it is just the beginning. As Musk's team investigates more and more deeply, there will definitely be other problems in the United States. From this point of view, the biggest threat to the United States now is not us, but themselves! Musk recently said bluntly that the United States should take care of its own business instead of causing trouble everywhere!