This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: “Teh Stoopid”

  • Yer “Private” Email Update

    Here’s the latest update on the Clintoon email server brouhaha.

    • Number of classified emails found on that “private” server? Now approaching 200 – 188 (125 + 63), to be precise.

    • How did that classified email get there?   Good question. Apparently, it  either “magically” moved between air-gapped systems or was deliberately moved to or created on State Department unclassified systems without proper markings.

    • But the State Department IT staff knew about Clintoon’s private server and gave their OK, right? In a word: no.

    • Oh and that private email server? It appears to have been on the same network – and maybe the same physical machine – as the Clinton Foundation email server.  Compromise one, you compromise both – and does anyone really think that the Clinton Foundation wasn’t high-profile enough to be a hacker target?   In any case, it’s a good bet that the network admins would have had access to both to some degree.

    • Some of the email on that server was, shall we say, “interesting” DoS business. One email apparently included a discussion of impeaching a sitting SCOTUS justice.

    Finally, in unrelated email news: a Federal judge has ruled that the IRS cannot refuse to produce White House emails relating to individual tax returns under the FOIA by refusing to say whether or not the records even exist. The IRS was apparently doing exactly that for FOIA requests relating to the IRS nonprofit scandal headed up by a lady named Lois Lerner.

     

    With apologies to the late Dezi Arnez, in his “Ricky Ricardo” role:  “Lois, Hill’ry – ladies, looks like you both got some ‘splainin’ to do!”

  • ND:tBF Fires More Senior Officials

    Well, the Dork of NorK – AKA Emmentaler-Boi, “Fatboy Kim”, and “ND:tBF” – is in the news again.

    Since last week, North and South Korea have reached an agreement to reduce tensions on their DMZ. Those tensions had led to a recent exchange of artillery fire across the DMZ.

    North Korea expressed “regret” at the wounding of two South Korean soldiers by a landmine (almost certainly planted by North Korea, but unacknowledged by the North). In turn, South Korea stopped loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts across the DMZ that it had resumed recently.

    This output reportedly “pleased” ‘Lil Kim. Accordingly, he showed his approval by firing several senior North Korean defense officials.

    Specifically, he fired several members of North Korea’s Central Military Commission. That body had handled the recent confrontation with South Korea.

    Apparently Emmentaler-Boi was “displeased” because the situation didn’t turn out as expected. I guess he thought the ROK government would cower or grovel instead of fighting back when the North lobbed a shell or two across the DMZ.  So he fired those who handled the confrontation on his behalf.

    Either that, or he was totally clueless beforehand that his military planned something that damn near started a war, and was p!ssed when he found out what had happened. Choose which of the two you want to believe.  I’m opting for him using the fired Central Military Commission people as scapegoats – with possibly a bit of political payback/”internal show of strength”/put his own guys in key places added.  But I could be wrong.

    No word yet on when the fired officials’ executions will be held. There’s also no indication what new, novel, and inhumane method will be used this time.

  • USAF “Honors” A1C Spencer Stone – With a Noncombat Decoration

    We all know that two American military personnel – A1C Spencer Stone and SPC Alek Skarlatos, Oregon ARNG – along with a civilian friend, Anthony Sadler recently were instrumental in stopping a terrorist massacre on a French train. Specifically, they disarmed a terrorist armed with an AK-47, a pistol, and a box cutter who was threatening passengers on the train.

    Well, the USAF has announced that they will honor A1C Stone. They’re going to give him the Airman’s Medal – a NONCOMBAT decoration.

    In the words of Max the Volkswagon: “Dat’s . . . kool.”

    Don’t get me wrong. Yes, the Airman’s Medal is a high honor. But to me, even though it’s a high honor it seems completely inappropriate for this situation. The USAF should know that.

    The criteria for the Airman’s Medal is that it may be awarded “to any member of the Armed Forces of the United States or of a friendly nation who, while serving in any capacity with the United States Air Force … distinguished himself or herself by a heroic act, usually at the voluntary risk of his or her life but not involving actual combat.”

    So, here we have an Airman who engaged an armed enemy in hand-to-hand combat, during a time at which said armed enemy was attempting to attack friendlies. And yes, I do mean “armed enemy”; we’re still fighting terrorists and terrorism worldwide today.

    But to recognize the Airman involved for his heroism in doing that, the USAF is going to give him a decoration for noncombat heroism.

  • US-South Korea Military Exercise Halted – Maybe

    In response to the DMZ incident yesterday, the US and South Korea reportedly halted their annual joint military exercise Ulchi Freedom Guardian.  This year’s exercise had begun on Monday, 17 August 2015 and was originally scheduled to end on Friday, 28 August 2015.

    It is not clear whether the exercise has resumed, might be resumed, or if the remainder has been cancelled outright.   Some reports indicate that the exercise has indeed been resumed.  Others only indicate it has been halted.

    The halt occurred after an exchange of artillery fire across the Korean DMZ.  US defense officials publicly announced the halt, while asserting that they were “monitoring the situation”.  Later claims were that it was a “planned halt” and a halt to consult with South Korea regarding the DMZ incident.

    Hmm.  I guess sabre-rattling – even with a needle-thin, weak, and unreliable tool like the one ND:tBF waves around publicly from time to time – can be effective if your opponent lacks both backbone and guts.  Gee, who’d a thunk it?

    Well done, Obama Administration.  You just caved, and gave the Dork of NorK – AKA Fatboy Kim – exactly what he wanted.

    Why in the hell do you think the DPRK chose this week to lob a few shells southwards?  North Korea has tried for years to get annual US-ROK exercises cancelled or halted; they’ve occasionally been successfu at doing that.  By making this halt public – and by appearing confused and uncertain about what you were doing – you just handed North Korea a major propaganda victory on that score.  That’s true even if the exercise was only halted temporarily.

    But don’t worry, folks; everything will be all right.  After all:  caving and giving a sabre-rattling despot exactly what he wanted worked perfectly well back in the 1930s, right?

  • Doesn’t Pass the “Smell Test”

    Well, the Army’s drawdown is underway.  And even decorated heroes aren’t immune.

    It seems that at least one 11-year Special Forces Sergeant First Class and bona fide decorated hero is being forced out.  His name is SFC Charles Martland.

    He’s been described by former teammates as “the finest soldier they have ever served alongside”.  He was awarded a Bronze Star with V-Device for combat heroism in Afghanistan.  He was runner-up for 2014 Special Warfare Training Group Instructor of the Year.

    But it seems Martland’s records went before a recent Quality Management Program review board.  His file apparently contained a bad evaluation – a “Relief for Cause” evaluation, to be precise.  He was selected for elimination by the board, and he’s being forced out.

    What did Martland do to get relieved for cause?  Well, I’ll tell you.

    Martland’s team was engaged in training Afghan police.  However, while doing that they discovered that one of the “fine individuals” they were training was also a child rapist and a woman-beater.

    Specifically, the SF team supporting the training discovered that that individual had raped a 12-year-old Afghan boy.  The boy’s mother brought her son to the SF detachment for medical care.  When he was examined, the rape was discovered.

    The individual found out that his crime had been discovered.  He then located the boy’s mother beat her for exposing his crime.

    Martland and his team leader afterwards confronted the rapist about what he’d done.  When they confronted the rapist, that “fine individual” told them essentially that it was no big deal – and then laughed in their faces.

    At that point, Martland and his team leader physically shoved the rapist and woman-beater; he fell to the ground.  The rapist was bruised, but otherwise unhurt – unfortunately.  I’d personally be OK with the bastard having ceased consuming oxygen at that point.

    However, the low life bastard afterwards apparently reported the confrontation to other US authorities.  This ultimately led to Martland and his team leader being relieved.

    Yes, you read that correctly.  They were relieved of duty because they confronted a child rapist and woman-beating low-life bastard without seriously injuring or killing him.

    Sorry, but that doesn’t make any freaking sense.  Wrong?  Perhaps technically.  But also IMO completely understandable.  Hell – in my book, if anything those two should have been commended for keeping their anger in check and not summarily killing the bastard on the spot.

    Martland’s team leader opted to leave the Army some time ago.  However, Martland stayed in the Army instead.

    But now he’s getting pitched.

    Fox News has further details here. You should read the linked article.

    But maybe you should wait until later to read it if you’re having high blood pressure issues right now.

  • More F-35 “Good News”

    Most TAH readers have heard about that new F-35 “Lightning II” that DoD insists will be ready for prime time “real soon now”.   (Yeah, I know the USMC has accepted it and declared it “operational” – but I won’t consider it truly “ready for prime time” until it can perform its Close Air Support [CAS] role too.  And as I’ll discuss below, right now the F-35 simply can’t do that.)

    Well, it seems that there’s another little minor issue with the platform that’s been made public.

    Jonn’s written previously about how the F-35 is less maneuverable in a dogfight than one of the aircraft it will replace, the F-16.  Others have written elsewhere about the fact that the F-35 will be far less effective at the Close Air Support (CAS) role than the A-10 – if for no other reason than the F-35 is only designed to carry between 15.5% (USAF model, 182 rounds) and 18.7% (USN/USMC model, 220 rounds) as much cannon ammunition as the A-10 can carry (1,174 rounds).

    But it will certainly be better air-to-air against the current aircraft it might face from Russia or China, right?  Well, in a word – no.

    Turns out that the F-35 will also likely be less maneuverable than the current aircraft from Russia and China it’s expected to face.  So it will likely be worse than those aircraft in an air-to-air role, too.

    Yeah, the analysis was done by a progressive think tank.  So?   Remember:  they are capable of telling the truth on occasion, too.  (smile)

    Gee, what a surprise. I mean, the program has been an unmitigated success so far, right?

    So, to recap: the F-35 is hugely expensive – several times more expensive than the aircraft it replaces.  It’s worse as a CAS platform – and, by the way, it won’t even be available for that role for at least 4 years, as performing that role isn’t possible until gun control software which is projected to be available in 2019 is delivered (and only then if that gun control software works correctly).  It is less maneuverable than the F16 it replaces in a dogfight.  And it’s also less maneuverable than the foreign aircraft it may have to face in air-to-air combat.

    So . . . what’s not to like?

    Folks, we’ve seen this “movie” once before.  Specifically, we saw it early in Vietnam – when US aircraft, designed not for maneuverability and depending solely on air-to-air missiles to take out enemy aircraft – got absolutely savaged by more maneuverable Soviet designs.  (The air-to-air loss ratio early during the Vietnam War was about 1-to-1.)  Plus, those aircraft kinda stunk when performing a CAS role, too.

    The “movie” absolutely sucked then.  There’s a damn good chance we’ll see a modern-day sequel if we continue down this path – and it will suck just as badly as the original.

    We learned from that earlier fiasco, though.  The result was a new generation of US military aircraft that took those lessons to heart.  Those aircraft were the F-15, F-16, F/A-18, and the A-10.

    The F-35 is a turkey.  We need to admit that fact, pull the plug on it, and go back to the drawing board.  Yesterday.

  • About That Clinton “Private E-Mail” . . .

    . . . well, it appears that someone’s “got some s’plainin’ to do”.

    A former member of the Intel Community discusses what was allegedly found in that “private e-mail” here.  The article is IMO worthwhile reading.

    This one might be worth watching.  It appears extremely likely that a serious, deliberate mishandling of classified information occurred.  The key question will be whether DoJ decides to do anything meaningful.

  • TSO’s New Beverage of Choice? (smile)

    TSO says he likes to hoist a glass now and again. So, do you think he’ll be a fan of his Indianapolis’ own Wee Mack Scottish Ale – by Sun King Brewery?

    Better run out and get a six-pack or two before they’re all gone, TSO. (smile)