I’m Old Enough to Remember When Troops Out of Syria Meant the Return of ISIS…

Posted: October 27, 2019 by datechguy in middle east, News/opinion
Tags: , , ,

…and that every single person in media and many in congress were saying the same thing.

And if you were born two weeks ago you might remember it too.

At the time I wasn’t all that convinced it was the right move but said the following:

It’s possible that this is just part of the standard Trump doctrine of disengagement when possible, it’s also possible that there is a bigger deal that has been made concerning Turkey that I’m unaware of (possibly concerning Israel and a deal there) but we really don’t know. My gut says it’s the wrong move but Potus has played a pretty good hand so far so I’m going to see how the cards fall before I go insane over it.

I’m half wondering if President Trump was counting on the ISIS leadership buying all the propaganda of the left about running away and leaving him a free hand and stuck his head out. In fact I’ve got the livestream of NBC on right now and they’re still playing that line that the pullout is a betrayal as they await the president’s live announcement. They’re also trying to stress the idea that all of this started under Obama.

The spin is a great contrast to the actual announcement which not only stressed that

  1. No US casualties (update 2 minor wounds) other than one Dog who was hurt
  2. Baghdadi took three kids as human shields when he ran away and blew up the three kids with him.
  3. Lots of ISIS causalities and prisoners taken
  4. Lots of intelligence taken
  5. Mentioned the names of ISIS victims when making this announcements and stressed the atrocities of ISIS
  6. Thanked just about everyone from the Kurds, Russia, Iraq and Turks for help.
  7. Thanked the troops and generals and the pros involved in the operation

The President is now taking questions on the details of what is going on. He’s noting that the world should see the video to see how he died like a dog and a coward.

The media (and SNL who believe it or not had a skit about Trump bringing jobs back to ISIS going on live as the news broke) are hardest hit as it shatters every single narrative we’ve been seeing for weeks.

I suspect the MSM will leave this story as fast as they can, I suspect the president won’t allow it.

Update: That didn’t take long

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

however some on the left are saying the right thing

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

If they are smart other Dems will take notes here.

Update 2: this tweet didn’t age well

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

The president stopped talking about 10:10 forcing me to a later mass today, turned on CNN and apparently the President didn’t thank the kurds loudly enough for them and thanked the Russians too loudly

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Bad news for the impeachment meme weekend planned on all the networks.

This Likely Means Nothing for Election 2020

Posted: October 27, 2019 by datechguy in Uncategorized

But my wife and I met another couple for an early dinner at Grandfanally’s Pizza in Salem NH.

Both of us came from Massachusetts from very different routes and noticed something.

Even though there are 13 democrats still running for president the only signs they saw in their drive were for were for Tulsi Gabbard.

I passed through Nashua on the way to the place and saw five signs, four were for Gabbard and one was for Bill Weld.

Make of that what you will.

Sodom and Gomorrah 1962 Where’s the Sodomy?

Posted: October 26, 2019 by datechguy in culture, entertainment, oddities
Tags: ,

Today I watched the 1962 Movie Sodom & Gomorrah staring Stewart Granger, Pier Angeli and Stanley Baker and noticed something that was rather amazing to me.

The movie is pretty good, a great battle scene a few excellent subplots and as you might guess a big finish. As as you might guess there are some liberties taken, the famous exchange between Abraham and God becomes an exchange between the imprisoned Lot and the two angels. Instead of only Lot and his daughters hundreds of Hebrews escape with him. This type of thing is not much of a surprise but there is one big thing missing.

There is plenty of licentiousness, torture, fornication and even a hint of lesbianism, but not a hint of the one thing that Sodom is known for: Sodomy.

Now in fairness this movie was made in 1962 and I would not expect a biblical epic of the time to do a whole lot with the subject, but just as the lesbianism was implied in the form of the queen and her “favorites” you might have thought at a movie about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah would at least give the slightest him of what was going on in there.

And of course the movie ended with Lot’s wife (a 2nd wife who was once of Sodom) turned to salt for looking back and no hint that the next event in the bible was his two daughters getting him dead drunk and sleeping with him because there was in their mind no prospect of any other men around. Of course with hundreds of men escaping that whole rationale is out the window.

Now in an age when the Bible was itself still well known perhaps it wasn’t considered necessary to bother with this stuff, it was only a movie and people understood that liberties might be taken.

But if it was me, if I was going to make a movie like there would be at least some hint as to the sin that destroyed Sodom

Given the history of the next 60 years I think such a warning might have been worthwhile.

Breaking the SCIF phones

Posted: October 26, 2019 by ng36b in Uncategorized
Tags: , , , ,
What all phones should look like after a SCIF visit.

If you’ve never heard of a SCIF before this past week, you probably don’t work in government. SCIFs are Sensitive Compartmented Information Facilities. If you want to read or work on a document that is classified Top Secret, you work in a SCIF. As you can see from a released set of specifications, SCIFs are fairly intensively constructed. Floors and ceilings are solid, wires are in buried conduits checked by the NSA’s TEMPEST program, and access is tightly controlled.

It’s not surprising that when Republican lawmakers go into the SCIF with cell phones, it causes alarm. And it should. Photography equipment isn’t allowed, nor is anything that can conduct two-way communication. Already you have people calling for removal of clearances. But is that appropriate?

In short, no. Congressional Representatives and Senators get access to classified information based on their position. While they are required to take an oath of secrecy, they don’t have to go through the SF86 process. By electing them to their office, the people of the United States (whether they realize it or not) have declared their comfort with that individual having access to classified access.

While some very sensitive information is only released to certain individuals, its pretty small. A Congressman visited a site I worked at before and had access to everything. Now, his staff members did not, and I had to keep them out of certain briefings, but the Congressman himself was good.

In short though, you can’t take away access, unless you kick them out of office.

However, there should be consequences for violating rules. All the Armed Services have harsh and effective ways of dealing with this. Cell phones brought into a SCIF are normally sent to NCIS to be scanned. With people having most of their lives on a phone, losing it for a week while NCIS painstakingly goes through every image and file tends to be good persuasion. The Marines in Iraq, in response to people plugging their personal devices into classified computers, simply confiscated the devices and nailed them to a wooden board outside the SCIF. After walking by a board with iPhones and tablets nailed and screwed to the wall, you get the message quickly.

Confiscate and scan some phones, and put a policy in place that repeat offenders lose their devices. After a few of those, you won’t have idiots bringing phones into a SCIF.

This post represents the views of the author and not those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, or any other government agency. The author kindly reminds you to keep your damn phone out of the SCIF!

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