Howdy All, a few Interesting Items for your information. Enjoy –
In this issue –
1. Hamas
2. Deprogramming
3. SpaceX
4. Me Too
5. Milley
6. Hayden
7. Newsom
1. Hamas. Hamas celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur war a week ago, boiling out of Gaza into Israel, murdering, raping, and taking hostages mostly in southern Israel. It was a preplanned air, land and sea attack that caught Israel completely unaware. As of this writing, over 1,300 Israelis are dead. Hamas was careful to be just as brutal as (in)humanly possible for the cameras, going old school, killing all the men on the spot, taking as many women and children hostage, carting them back into Gaza to torture, rape, and otherwise abuse for the cameras. Captured documents claimed this ugliness was central to their war plan. In response, Israel is in the process of leveling Gaza, and sealing up the hidey holes Hamas leadership and other warriors are hiding in underground. Reportedly, they have months to years’ worth of food, water and air. We will see. As with all kinetic operations, we are in the early stages of fog of war, where everyone lies about everything all the time. With that in mind, a few thoughts for your consideration.
- The attack appears to have been planned and staged to goad Israel into the most brutal response possible. The persuasion rationale for this is that one of the most important public relations (persuasion) asset Israel holds is the Holocaust. This asset gives them latitude to act in a way that most of the Western world cannot. Essentially, this awfulness happened to us in the past, so we will make sure it never happens again. Hamas via its brutality and most importantly, video of that brutality and inhumanity, are trying to get Israel to inflict similar awfulness on Hamas and its human shields, giving them a similar narrative. Make no mistake, they and their supporters and funders in Iran can and will sacrifice the entire 2.2 million population in Gaza to get that response. Consider this their opening bid.
- With that in mind, what should Israel do? Their first response has been to turn this into a dead baby war, in which the side who can post the most video of dead, mutilated kiddos, wins. Their problem is that they haven’t played in this media world this way much. Hamas has and is really good at it, though dead Israelis from the attack don’t get up and run around after the video is shot like Hamas actors do. Second and most important part, is for the IDF to impose a communications blackout on Gaza. This seems to be underway.
- The reaction in much of the west, particularly on campus has been the same equivocation (Israel is just as bad or worse as Hamas). Young skulls full of much which today we call students, who have been propagandized and brainwashed by media, their profs and administration, reacted predictably, coming out publicly in full support of Hamas. This triggered surprising (to me) pushback which also surprised the students and their media enablers. 31 student organizations at Harvard signed a pro-Hamas letter, which triggered significant pushback. The groups were careful not to release the names of the membership, though a group of conservatives commissioned a truck with video screens on its sides that drove around the campus listing membership names. Several CEOs with Harvard affiliations publicly announced they would not be hiring any of these kids. At least one brick has been thrown at the truck so far.
- I am torn about what to do to these kids. Given that they are students marinated in the toxic leftist stew called public and university education for over 12 years, you can charitably say that they are young and dumb. It is called young dumb because we all were. Do we systematically destroy their lives and future because they did something stupid? I would say no, though with a caveat. I would be very happy at an attention getting step, the functional equivalent of the 2 x 4 used to get the mule’s attention in the old mule trainer story. If this gets their attention, that is a positive outcome. Being young and dumb at the wrong time and place is a deadly lifestyle choice sometimes for the unlucky. We do not know as yet, how deadly their choice will be. OTOH, treating them to the same tender loving care they have inflicted on their conservative classmates for not conforming to leftism on campus should be almost required.
- Last, but certainly not least, is Iran, who has been funding, training, supplying, and egging on Hamas and its murderers. My prediction is that there will be a decapitation strike on the Mullahs sometime in the next year. This makes the hourly location of the government the single most important piece of information in the world. Gonna be difficult to operate your worldwide terror operation running for your lives on a continual basis. You get tired eventually, especially as an oldster.
2. Deprogramming. At the risk of going all Hillary here, demanding forced deprogramming of Hamas, we need to talk a bit about progandizing and brainwashing. Note that the Palestinians have been brainwashed and propagandized since the creation of Israel in 1948, at least 3 generations. It has been done by two entities, international leftism and Iran. The good news is that propaganda and brainwashing require continual reinforcement. Rather than locking everyone in camps like Hillary and her fellow travelers on the left, all you have to do is stop the incoming flow of garbage. As previously mentioned, this means Israel needs complete control of local media. Control of incoming international media will be more difficult. Remember that this is a hearts and minds operation. The last time we successfully dealt with a completely propagandized and brainwashed population was WWII with both Germany and Japan. Germany was leveled, decapitated and partitioned for half a century. Japan quit fighting following a pair of airstrikes and was occupied for 7 years after the end of the war, so it can be done.
3. SpaceX. The Biden regime war on SpaceX continued last week with a report to congress that by 2035, falling debris from licensed low earth orbit satellite constellations could kill or injure someone every two years if they deploy as planned. The report was published by the FAA Oct 5, noting that by 2035, 28,000 hazardous fragments from deorbiting satellites and the rocket that launch them could survive reentry each year if SpaceX Starlink expansion plans are completed. Apparently, they don’t think a fully reusable Starship / Booster combination will fly. SpaceX launched over 5,000 Starlink satellites so far. They are going to grow that constellation to 12,000 and is working on international approval for 40,000. SpaceX challenges the FAA contractor’s (Aerospace Corporation) assumption that pieces of the individual satellites will survive reentry. 358 Starlink satellites have deorbited so far without any reports of debris reaching the ground. The FAA based its conclusions on a claim that SpaceX has not met the 90% success rate for post mission disposal. SpaceX claims better than 99% success, which they have demonstrated so far. In the consulting world, all consultants and contractors always give the customer exactly what they ask for. Otherwise, they won’t get the next gig. Aerospace Corporation has been around for a long time, so I can only conclude that their conclusions are what the FAA and in turn the anti-Musk Biden regime asked for.
4. Me Too. A double tap out of the Me Too world a week or two ago had a pair of money grabs in the sports world go up in smoke. The first was former MLB pitcher Trevor Bauer who held a press announcement of a settlement agreement with the woman who accused him of sexually assaulting her in 2021. The assault charges forced his suspension from MLB and loss of a contract approaching $100 million. He responded to her sexual assault lawsuit with one of his own that allowed him discovery and access to her text and video history. The text history showed this was always a money grab, with her lawyers pushing for a settlement from the start. The video taken on the morning in question showed her uninjured, grinning from ear to ear next to him asleep in bed the morning after. Normally agreements do not allow one party to publicly say what happened and provide evidence, meaning Bauer had her cold. Second comes out of former Michigan State head football coach Mel Tucker, who was fired from a long-term contract over sexual harassment complaints from a contractor hired to instruct the team on sexual harassment. Both were in their 50s, and apparently participated in an extended phone sex relationship which he eventually stopped. She responded with a sexual harassment complaint and texted her intentions to her assistant who was mortally injured in a traffic accident. Her attempts to gain access to the assistant’s phone while she was in the hospital dying led the assistant’s parents to suspect something odd was underway. I predict Tucker will sue Michigan State for wrongful termination and end up with a substantial portion of his contract. I predict Bauer will sue MLB for the same thing. It is these sorts of events that will return the hookup culture to the old rules of conduct.
5. Millley. A piece in The American Conservative responds to a hagiography in The Atlantic about just retired Chairman of the JCS General Mark Milley with a well-deserved hatchet job in response. Milley came to my attention following his intemperate response to a 1 Jun 2020 photo op at St John’s Church following deployment request for active duty military in DC during the George Floyd riots and an attempt by rioters to enter the WH 29 May 2020. Milley decided that Trump wasn’t up to snuff and conspired with other like-minded General Officers to undermine and obstruct Trump for the rest of his term in office. As Milley did this so willingly, I would guess he was already insubordinate to Trump earlier. Milley went so far as to swear key military officers to a personal oath to involve Milley in any decisions they felt were weird or unusual. He also gathered senior military officials in charge of the National Military Command Center on Jan 8 and instructed them not to take orders from anyone unless he was involved. Note that as Chairman, Milley’s only role in the Chain of Command is as an advisor. He is not in charge of a combat command, nor does he control any active-duty forces. He is the President’s principal military advisor, and to the SECDEF and National Security Council. His actions after Jan 6 are fundamentally treasonous, and served to lay the foundation for the woke, incompetent military of today.
6. Hayden. What is it with the woke swampy Generals these days? Next example is retired USAF General Michael Hayden, former CIA and NSA chief who was appointed as an advisor to the media blacklisting (and official censorship) organization NewsGuard. Hayden a week ago called for Senator Tommy Tuberville (R, AL) to be removed from the human race, essentially a death threat. Tuberville in response referred Hayden to Capitol Police for making assassination threats against a sitting US Senator. For his part, Hayden doubled down on his remarks, which all leftys and swamp insiders do reflexively. Given that the Capitol Police are under the control of the Speaker of the House, their response ought to be most interesting. Tuberville has been fighting against woke General Officer (GO) promotions and came up with a useful response to both wokeness and other foolishness (abortion and transitioning medical treatment) coming out of Lloyd Austin’s DoD. GO promotions are approved by the Senate, usually by unanimous consent. Tuberville has refused to give unanimous consent, meaning Majority leader Schumer must bring the nominations to the floor of the Senate for a vote, something Schumer has refused to do so far.
7. Newsom. One of the things you do when clearing the decks to set up a run for President is start vetoing legislation that would be unpopular in the rest of the country. Latest example of this was Newsom’s veto California legislation that would have decriminalized possession and personal use of several hallucinogens, including magic (psychedelic) mushrooms. Also included was DMT and mescaline. Note that Newsom championed legalizing pot in 2016. In his veto message, Newsom demanded setting up regulated treatment guidelines, dosing information, therapeutic guidelines and medical clearance, none of which he demanded for pot. On the face of it, this is a mere flip-flop by one of the oiliest democrats in the nation. But if you apply the follow the money filter to the action, I suggest he is pandering to Big Pharma. There is a growing community out there that swears by magic mushrooms for a variety of mental issues, as they seem to only need to be taken once, work every time, and have no side effects. Pharmaceutical companies, always on the lookout for the Next Big Thing now that nobody is taking COVID vax anymore, is busily creating a pill that will do what magic mushrooms do, though not very well, requiring you always have to come back for more. Newsom’s veto shows us who is paying (and who he wants to pay) him.
More later –
- AG