Saturday, November 14, 2015
The French 9/11 and limited intelligence
First off there should be an investigation of the French intelligence agency to rule out any radical Muslim sympathizers in some top spots. President Obama plans to forge ahead with the G20 Summit in Turkey anyway which will focus on climate change naturally. Yesterday's ISIS-coordinated multiple terrorist attacks in the heart of Paris - NBC News is going with the planners involved probably used social media codes to pull it off to escape the usual cell phone and other surveillance. I agree and thank you Mark Zuckerberg. I've always felt and made the point that a disturbingly high % of users on social media are a bad element and in particular a terorrist element. IMO ISIS terror is coming to the shores of America and that very soon. The Xmas shopping season is just around the bend, it's a definite Christian ritual and ISIS has said this is the first of a storm. Personally although I never did I would not go shopping on Black Friday. Don't participate in the madness. For the near future I am no longer going to the Palisades Center Mall in West Nyack and the Danbury Fair Mall in CT. is a definite soft target. I'll also see Mockingjay not on a crowded weekend showing but on an off-day. The Russian jetliner and now the Paris attacks, these are highly trained professionals who know what they're doing and some of you have made the point you're not concerned with what's happening over there because we have other things to worry about over here like Pat Robertson. Mistake. On another related note it has always been my personal view that the famed vision of the Third Secret of Fatima publicly released on June 26, 2000 pertains to a future terrorist event of enormous magnitude perhaps even involving Pope Francis himself. ISIS itself has a peculiar theological fixation on the city of Rome if you've noticed. The Sodano Interpretation is so much bullshit and it's just as well Benedict XVI who should know better retired when he did (bad conscience?). I've always maintained ISIS deserves our top priority and attention and not things like processed red meat causes cancer and the latest doings of the Kardashians. ISIS has upped their game when our world's intelligence agencies are woefully lagging behind:)
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The ante keeps going up:
ReplyDelete"MI5 is on high alert amid fears that Isil fanatics are already plotting revenge attacks for the reported killing of Jihadi John in a drone strike in Raqqa, Syria.
The communications of known sympathisers are being monitored closely as surveillance is stepped up to prevent a terrorist outrage in revenge for the operation which is now widely acknowledged to have resulted in the death of Mohammed Emwazi– who as Jihadi John – earned global notoriety. "
__what is the appeal of that bunch?...sort of like a worldwide street gang. The large
migration out of Syria is perfect for covert terrorists..hundreds of thousands meandering through the S. Mediterranean, most of them desperate and likely a few
extremely dangerous. Is there such a thing as a hierarchy of religious psychopaths?
What's truly frightening is if ISIS has found a way to circumvent normal intelligence agencies. Now when Homeland Security says there's no credible threat at the moment do we believe them? As Andrea Mitchell said on the "Today Show" this morning that's what they say.
ReplyDeleteBB you're point, it works like this. Take the Mafia - your typical killer in the mob if he worked alone Society would brand a sociopath, he'd wind up in prison and it'd be a two day news story. However get a group of these psychopaths together, organize them into loan sharking, extortion and murder and suddenly many in Society start to glamorize and romanticize them and movies are made. Ditto with Isil. Also to many of those with already a strong religious bent in this case towards Islam moderation and tolerance become boring. They see the Paris attacks as somehow following through on core principles and it becomes exciting. When you're an extremist you're standing up for something in their eyes.
ReplyDeleteYou may want to reconsider your French vacation .
ReplyDeleteor anywhere in Europe at this point.
DeleteThere was some controversy over why the SWAT team took two hours to storm the Bataclan. I will say this: this was not a regular hostage situation where you try to get on the phone and negotiate.
ReplyDeleteWho would negotiate with a Jihadi John type?
DeleteGuess I'm safe. You would not find me at an "Eagles of Death Metal" concert at Bataclan. (or even Ace Hardware)
DeleteI never heard of some of these groups and I thought I was fairly hip.
DeleteWe ponder the long standing bad blood between Colonial France and N. Africa.
ReplyDeleteDuring the Algerian war of independence, hundreds of thousands of Algerians were
bombed, strafed, captured, tortured and left with intense hatred of the French. Of
the 'loyal' Algerians who came to France, they and their progeny have become a poor and maligned minority. Good recruiting base?
An expert on CBS News said the terrorists may have been using encrypted communications thanks to Apple and Google updates. Snowden would probably say at least we protected privacy.
ReplyDeleteDid you watch the Democratic debate last night?
ReplyDeleteNope. Did they attack the press too?
DeleteBernie Sanders somehow conflated ISIS and climate change. It's advanced math, it's over my head.
DeleteThere is some thought among Pentagon planners about the effect of climate change on population movement. ISIS, however IMO, is a collection of the young, the angry, the muslim fundamentalist anti-
Deletewestern gangster types. I saw one climate projection that put parts of
the middle east into the 140 degree range a couple hundred years hence. Kind of surprised the Bern didn't blame Wall Street.
What kind of shifts do you work..rotating around the clock? Overtime?
DeleteOT sometimes. Usually 7-3:30, sometimes nights 'til 9PM. Interesting thing about a company going out of business, half the workers actively look for jobs and the other half seem to have the game plan of going on gov't assistance. In fact given the political elements of this I seriously considered doing a kind of social blogpost on this but then Paris happened.
DeleteSeriously Pentagon planners think about this stuff? It's so tenuous at best.
DeleteDefinitely. I once wrote a nuclear war contingency plan on moving an entire base elsewhere. Like, with what?
DeleteSo how close are we to droning the caliph?
ReplyDeleteI think the Amazon drone department got that contract.
ReplyDeleteShopping centers - unless it's so low-key I'm missing it but where is the security? Oh I know they have security but where is the Security? IS can pretty much walk in, have a slice of pizza at Sbarro's and then show everyone their suicide vests. I saw a mall cop on a scooter recently, might have been Danbury but it didn't fill me with confidence.
ReplyDeleteOur out in the bush shopping centers are overpopulated with Salvation Army bellringers....and it ain't nowhere near Black Friday. But, yeah, there
Deleteis NYC. A Swiss cousin recently spent a week there, bicycling across some
big bridge, riding on ferries, eating in little bistros. Had a ball. Hey, Gotham
ain't Zurich, Magdalena!
Lindsey Graham thinks we should put a million or so boots on the ground.
ReplyDeleteOmaha Beach, Iwo Jima, Peleliu, Tarawa, Anzio...some folks just can't seem to
get enough. He should be sentenced to camping out at Arlington for a couple weeks.
I would point out that the US is a natural place for any terrorist as it's easy as pie to get guns legally. In fact it's easier than anywhere else. You can outfit your entire terrorist gang with no problems, no background checks, no issues whatsoever and you have an entire national network of legislators actively working to make sure you can continue to buy assault weapons and large capacity magazines at will. There are so-called sportsmen's catalogs where you can buy ghillie suits, all kinds of camo, silencers and everything practically up to rocket-launcher levels. We make it easy to be a high-casualty terrorist.
ReplyDelete& you can keep your arsenal safe and secure in one of those Field and Stream gun safes at Dick's Sporting Goods. "Every season starts at Dick's."
DeleteRegarding the conceptual 'an armed society is a safe society', we ponder
Deletethe data 2008-2011: US citizens killed by terrorists: 74, US citizens killed
by firearms: 45,851. The statisticians note "In God we Trust-all others bring data". Your odds of meeting up with Al Qua Zonker are far far less than Billy Leroy dropping his CC Glock on the toilet floor at the mall. ...and no I'm not giving up red meat, I believe it is protected by
one of the Amendments. :)
I somewhat disagree with the analysis. Terrorist events are or can be somewhat rare depending on the geographic area. In the U.S. definitely rare and I'm including Fort Hood here. However when they do occur they can be spectacular AND (#2) this may all be about to change because imo ISIS is an above average terror group that is already making strides in going global. I'd be a little more concerned BB.
DeleteBTW re the last part: I believe everything over time has been blamed to cause cancer. My doctor advises only eating red meat twice a month which (a) if everyone followed the meat sections in supermarkets would close down and (b) he must be real fun at barbecues.
DeleteYou might mention to the Doc that roadkill isn't red. If he doesn't buy that try the idea the paleoanthropologists believe that hominids became the more intelligent humans back when they switched from figs and paw paws to mammoth and buffalo, the far greater protein ratio providing the
Deleteadded efficient energy to power the brains of the evolving species. Of
course if he is Evangelical Born Again, forget evolutionary theory and stick with God made animals for man to eat. Bet he hates pipe smokers too. My grandpa chewed tobacco until he was 97. It killed him.
Oh and I asked him about coffee and he said no more than two cups a day. So he's living this ascetic lifestyle and he's thin as a rail. Sooooo much denial I think one day he's gonna go all out and wind up as Charlie Sheen.
DeleteRegarding Saty's observations about terrorists and the US gun problem,
Deletewe note an NRA puppet congressman excusing
his state's rejection of Syrian immigrants due to the easy access to guns which he and has ilk have consistently enabled. Wingnut is becoming a
standard noun for such folk.
Donald Trump said the French should have been armed but even so what's a peashooter against an AK-47?
Delete& even if a French citizen did get a good shot at a terrorist you're probably gonna detonate his suicide vest. Think Donald think.
DeleteThe quirks of workers. The other day in my dept. the guy just returned from lunch and announced he's going to the bathroom. He could have just went during his lunch break or he could have simply punched back from lunch and gone downstairs quietly without telling me. I know it's not much of a topic but he does it all the time. I honestly think we need a staff shrink.
ReplyDeleteChefs go to lunch? I'd have thought all the quality control taste testing would
Deleteserve as continual snacking, thus no need for lunch. Knew a guy that spent
half the work day in the John with the newspaper. Took the ivory tower five
years before they booted him out. Workers are funny. Mine used to thank me for whistling Christmas songs all summer long. (they could hear me coming and do something like work, I guess)
Many times recently I've worked long shifts w/o an official lunch break. You pick at the food but it's also good for losing a couple of pounds.
DeleteTis the time of year for giving. For the Libertarians we note that the private charity
ReplyDeletebusiness can be far more ineffective than Uncle Sam.
Quite a few cancer charities on the list.
DeleteCall Centers- I sometimes chat with the unfortunate people that have those jobs. Turnover is sky high (how many times a day do they get
Deletesworn at and hung up on?) and the pay low. Any more I only donate over the phone to political causes, figuring the wounded cops and miracle cures are grossly ineffective. That job, pushing something against high
resistance, resentment and rejection, seems to be the modern version of
the old door-to-door salesman. 'let me vacuum your bedroom for free'
'how about a 10 year subscription to Weekly Foot Disease'?
Yesterday I was looking up lacunar amnesia and the sites are loaded with experts. "We can chat. We can help." I'm just looking up shit, leave me alone. The ever-present eye of Google staring at you down from the sky.
ReplyDelete& why was I looking up lacunar amnesia? Honestly I don't remember:)
ReplyDeleteSpent half a day battling google/MS. Apparently my Windows7 is getting outdated and MS keeps insisting I go to Windows 10. One blog doesn't work in Windows-google anymore, but works in FireFox. Somehow that became my startpage and my
ReplyDeleteextensive list of 'favorites' was on the Google page. After a few hours of fiddling I
accidently got back to my old set up. Had a dream last night where I was being tested for Alzheimer's. I answered all the hard questions, but couldn't remember the
name of the current Secretary Of State. So, I answered "a guy with a skinny face
married to the heiress of the Heinz fortune who got Swiftboated". The examiner
wouldn't accept that and sent me to a room full of toys until I could come up with a name. Tossed and turned until dawn and woke up thinking John Kerry..John Kerry.
I don't get Google like I'll go back to a website and it'll say "you visited this page five times since..." or "you visited this page many times." So what of it? Makes it sound like I did something wrong.
ReplyDeleteGetting back to the lacunar thing the first site I went to had some shrink with it looked like some generic post of "I need to know more about your condition. When did it start yada yada." Touch creepy. What's that French phrase about where's the woman? May as well have thrown that in too.
ReplyDeleteI've caught a few episodes of 'The Brain-With David Eagleman' that has been running onf PBS-TV. I've read quite a bit on the mechanics of the mind, but this
ReplyDeleteguy, a young neuroscientist who reminds me a bit of CBS' Steve Hartman, simplifies
and clarifies some labyrinthine concepts with props, illustrations and visits to experts
labs. Haven't seen the Lacunar Amnesia phenom yet, though.
I just like the way lacunar amnesia sounds. What I have is CBS or Crowded Brain Syndrome. I wish I could delete my Britney Spears and Kardashian files.
ReplyDeleteEver have someone come up to you and you don't know who in blazes they are? About a week ago a woman customer comes up to me all enthusiastic and goes "hi how are you? Take care of yourself" and I'm thinking did we have amnesiac sex or something? "I'm sorry ma'am I have a lacuna."
ReplyDeleteIn the Odd Statistics Department, we note that more Mexican immigrants are leaving than coming across our border. By the time he builds the Great Wall Of Trump, they won't be able to get out. My wife got a call the other day, "Will you accept a collect call from Ward 8, Washington State Prison?" "no".
ReplyDeleteMy state is one of the GOP states that has announced that no Syrian refugees will
ReplyDeletebe permitted to enter. We have always been tough on refugees .
As Charlie Sheen tells it his extortionists took money away from his children. Not that the money would have been spent on prostitutes or drugs or anything like that.
ReplyDelete'Lacuna' is an unfilled space or interval; a gap. Like Nixon had an 18 minute lacuna.
ReplyDeleteI'm halfway through the latest Nixon book . Let me know if I ever comment without a link. :)
The FDA has approved a genetically modified Salmon: Frankenfish, the modified
ReplyDeletefish grows to full size in half the time and is much admired by fish farmers. As a chef, you likely have a considered opinion. But, I'm still pondering- like, do all the
parts grow in half the time? Are these fish sterile, or can they accidently get into the
wild Salmon population (and then what: they swim upstream every three years, but the fast growing ones may do it every, uh, let's see, year and a half) From the Salmon point of view..where has their childhood gone..geez, tadple to lunker in no time. What about the genetics of these fast growing salmonids? Aren't fast growing
cells a type of cancer? Finally, what the heck is it we are eating here?
From a culinary standpoint I was always brought up with wild salmon always taste better than farm-raised salmon but I just saw the salmon story on the wires. It's a new topic but my gut tells me no it's not a good idea. RE the FDA I recently read a piece by a prominent cancer scientist that it's well past time to yank the FDA's power to approve new cancer drugs and give that authority over to an independent cancer board. Makes sense to me.
DeleteIf they can gene-splice a fish to mature in half the normal time, think of
Deletethe Yonkers Middle School football team thrashing the Dallas Cowboys.
Well I just got the bill from the gastro office yesterday. We're talking some major costs for a little butt exploration. At least I saved on the propofol. It is what it is, you only live once:)
ReplyDeleteDid you get snow BB?
ReplyDeleteNope, no snow. Low valley, arid edge of Columbia Plateau, hardly any rain.
DeleteSlipped on the ice with my truck a couple times going to breakfast. We don't know what to expect with an active El Nino. We had an Alberta Clipper last week, put about 100,000 out of power to our north and brought
several giant tumble weeds into my back yard. (the newspaper said that some radioactive dirt from Hanford blew this way, but the cat hasn't been glowing in the dark.)
Couple years back I bought one of them field guides to the weather. Read it twice, still don't understand it.
DeleteYou could ignore the book and get a European weather model app. Even expand your weather hobby by getting other weather apps and comparing them to see which is best. Heck, you could be the first in Yonkers to warn about a tsunami coming up the Hudson. :)
DeleteLOL. Might even come in handy if I'm out of work soon.
DeleteGetting back to the subject at hand I have a member of the family who imo is truly psychic. A few months before 9/11 she was sitting on the couch and out of the blue said she feels something terrible is gonna happen to the Twin Towers and got cold all over. She doesn't do this often but if she told me to avoid a certain hospital or situation I would totally heed her advice. A kind of advanced warning system or something. I don't pooh-pooh it:)
ReplyDeleteHave you asked her for job predictions?
DeleteShe actually has advice in that realm. I should pay more attention. Also a good knowledge of MDs - the GI Office I went to I only went because she said "oh he's excellent." 'Nuff said.
DeleteSpeaking of which I've always wondered why most psychics predict or see stupid stuff like your dead uncle liked the Isley Brothers but when it comes to the biggies like terror attacks they're silent. JOHN EDWARD WHERE ARE YOU???
DeleteMy prediction is that your family psychic is too smart to go pro .
DeleteIt has been reported some of the terrorists in Mali asked some of the hotel guests to recite verses from the Koran, a kind of terrorist version of "Jeopardy." Do Scientologists do this, ask you to recite passages from "Dianetics"?
ReplyDeleteDang! Only thing I ever memorized was 'The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog' and 'Double your pleasure, double your fun-with Doublemint,
DeleteDoublemint gum. Consider me a victim.
Since it has been reported ISIS has become a kind of self-governing quasi-state providing the usual public goods and services how is ISIS healthcare? How is the colonoscopy dept.? getting at those precancerous polyps early not so much so that you can live to be 93 but that someday you may blow yourself up in a crowded marketplace.
ReplyDeleteWe sort of assume that the ISIS Amazon offers explosive vests in convenient colors. IMO, from what little I know of the medieval 'Assassins'
Deletea similar group that opposed the Crusaders, as well as many of their fellow Muslims, the modus operandi, goals and effect is quite similar.
It's weird, it's as if Attila the Hun or Ghengis Khan knew how to use a smartphone. ISIS theology straight out of the 1400s but they can root an Android or jailbreak an iPhone.
ReplyDeleteYou might have the makings of a Sci-Fi film there. Maybe "Back to the Future VII-Ghengis Visits Bill Gates" starring Charlie Sheen and John Tesh.
DeleteTalk about pathos, ya got yer rape, pillage, smartphone, kindle, hordes, swords...and hardly a single Kardashian.
We note that Trump wants to bring back waterboarding. Deja Darth.
ReplyDeleteOn a personal note when a place goes out of business I notice two types of people: those who move on and the institutional people who choose to go down with the ship. Quite a few in the latter category.
ReplyDelete...and the lucky few with a golden parachute.
ReplyDeleteSorry I haven't been around. It's been kind of a rough time for me since we got home from Williamsburg. As could have been predicted I'm manic except this time with delusions for added fun.
ReplyDeleteI think Trump is completely out of control. He's left facts behind and he admits it and doesn't really care who knows it. The rest of the field is left in the dust and I can only guess they're waiting for him to go down in flames. Maybe he will, maybe he won't. He appeals to the basest of the base.
Me? I've been down with Bernie for years. He was the only reason "moving to Vermont" sounded like a good idea.
Reading your comment made me laugh about something. I think I was 47 at the time when my doctor first brought up the subject of colonoscopies. At the time I didn't think it was a big deal, just a notch above a prostate so we got to talking. He made it into a bigger thing for me this 2 day production sometimes done in a hospital. When he mentioned anaesthesia I was like why? I think the real reason is to keep the edgier patients under control. You might get a patient lying there looking at the clock tapping his fingers. There's been days at work where half the workers get under my skin so you imagine doctors being irritating. This maybe sheds some light so forgive me a chuckle.
DeleteYou definitely want anaesthesia if someone's putting eight feet of scope into your body. Trust me on that one.
DeleteBut I'm glad you had a laugh...
My doctor told me it's 4 ft. and the sigmoid is 2 ft.
ReplyDeleteI mean the way you described it no rational person would want it.
ReplyDelete