Military Newsletter
Latest intelligence on the world situation, updates on US military capabilities, news that affects Military retirees,
and news that will probably never be reported by the "Liberal American Media!"
Edited by Lt Col Kent Vasby, USAF, Ret
State Department Declares 22 Clinton Emails 'Top Secret'
The Associated Press learned ahead of the release that seven email chains would be withheld in full for containing "top secret" information. The 37 pages include messages a key intelligence official recently said concerned "special access programs" highly restricted, classified material that could point to confidential sources or clandestine programs like drone strikes.
Clinton, the Democratic presidential front-runner, insists she never sent or received information on her personal email account that was classified at the time. No emails released so far were marked classified, but reviewers previously designated more than 1,000 messages at lower classification levels. Friday's will be the first at top secret level.
Tehran releases footage of Iranian navy submarine allegedly aiming at a U.S. aircraft carrier
Iranian Tasmin News media outlet has aired a short video, allegedly filmed by a Ghadir-class submarine during a maritime exercise in the Strait of Hormuz.
During exercises and real ops, submarines regularly slip in the heart of the multi-billion-dollar aircraft carriers defensive screen to pretend-sinking U.S. supercarriers, whose underwater defenses are far from being impenetrable.
U.S. Navy sends ship near disputed island in South China Sea
"This operation challenged attempts by the three claimants, China, Taiwan and Vietnam, to restrict navigation rights and freedoms around the features they claim by policies that require prior permission or notification of transit within territorial seas."
The USS Curtis Wilbur, an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer, sailed within 12 nautical miles of the Triton Island, part of the Paracel Islands -- an archipelago claimed by the three.
None of them were notified of the move.
Why does the Pentagon need an Iron Man suit?
When the head of United States Special Operations Command said recently that he hopes his troops will someday soon be wearing super-light, super-strong exoseletons known affectionately as Iron Man suits, it might have sounded like a bit of classic Pentagon excess.
Worlds Most Expensive Jet Somehow Gets Worse
Forget the sonic boomthe U.S. militarys new F-35 stealth fighter just hit massive turbulence that could delay its release yet again.
The problem this timethe radar-evading planes 8 million lines of computer code, amounting to arguably the most complex software suite ever installed on a warplane.
U.S. Navys LCS Struggles to Fend Off Swarm Attacks
The U.S. Navys Littoral Combat Ship struggled in drills at sea to fend off a swarm of small attacking vessels like the Iranian boats it could encounter in the Persian Gulf, according to the Pentagons chief weapons tester.
The fast-attack boats were ultimately defeated by the USS Coronado during three mock engagements in August and September to test its guns and targeting gear.
Who Is Assassinating The Islamic State's Top Leaders In Libya
After a string of assassinations of its local henchmen, the Islamic State's new "Caliphate" in the Libyan city of Sirte is abuzz with talk that an anti-Isil sniper is at work.
In recent weeks, no fewer than three Isil commanders in Sirte have been shot dead from long range, according to local media.
Angela Merkel 'is showing signs of a mental breakdown' and 'narcissism'
Angela Merkel is a 'narcissist' whose refusal to curb immigration may be a sign of a 'mental breakdown, according to a celebrated German psychiatrist.
German psychiatrist Hans-Joachim Maaz said in an analysis that Mrs Merkel is so determined not to admit that she was wrong about her migration policy that she has 'lost touch with reality'.
Latin America's Political And Economic Problems Aid In The Spread Of The Zika Virus
Isla de León, a slum on the outskirts of Cartagena on Colombias Caribbean coast, is a lesson in how to manufacture and transmit the mosquito-borne Zika virus.
Ramshackle hovels with dirt floors, crooked wooden walls and zinc roofs line sun-baked unpaved streets. In the rainy season, conditions resemble the swamp on which the neighbourhood was built.
Venezuela Is On The Brink Of A Complete And Utter Collapse
The only question now is whether Venezuela's government or economy will completely collapse first.
The key word there is "completely." Both are well into their death throes.
Bank of Japan surprises with negative interest rate
Tokyo's central bank hopes that by imposing a 0.1% fee on selected current account deposits effectively a negative interest rate commercial banks will be encouraged to make more loans and so stimulate economic growth. Japan's economy is forecast to grow just 1.1% in 2015 and 1.7% in 2016.
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How Low Can You Go?
Negative Interest Rates and Investors' Flight to Safety
Election 2016: The Candidates' Foreign Policy
Here is how the candidates stand on some of the issues of deep strategic interest to Washington.
Constantine The Great: Roman Emperor, Christian Saint, History's Turning Point
Editor was watching a History Channel program about the Roman Empire & Christianity while preparing today's newsletter.
"The Gun Is Civilization" by Maj. L. Caudill USMC (Ret)
Thanks, Gary
Human beings only have two ways to deal with one another: reason and force.
If you want me to do something for you, you have a choice of either convincing me via argument, or force me to do your bidding under threat of force. Every human interaction falls into one of those two categories, without exception.
Reason or force, that's it.
In a truly moral and civilized society, people exclusively interact through persuasion. Force has no place as a valid method of social interaction and the only thing that removes force from the menu is the personal firearm, a paradoxical as it may sound to some.
When I carry a gun, you cannot deal with me by force. You have to use reason and try to persuade me, because I have a way to negate your threat or employment of force.
The gun is the only personal weapon that puts a 100-pound woman on equal footing with a 220-pound mugger, a 75-year old retiree on equal footing with a 19-year old gang banger, and a single guy on equal footing with a car load of drunken guys with baseball bats.
The gun removes the disparity in physical strength, size, or numbers between a potential attacker and a defender.
There are plenty of people who consider the gun as the source of bad force equations. These are the people who think that we'd be more civilized if all guns were removed from society, because a firearm makes it easier for an armed mugger to do his job. That, of course, is only true if the mugger's potential victims are mostly disarmed either by choice or by legislative fiat--it has no validity when most of a mugger's potential marks are armed.
People who argue for the banning of arms ask for automatic rule by the young, the strong, and the many, and that's the exact opposite of a civilized society. A mugger, even an armed one, can only make a successful living in a society where the state has granted him a force monopoly.
Then there's the argument that the gun makes confrontations lethal that otherwise would only result in injury. This argument is fallacious in several ways. Without guns involved, confrontations are won by the physically superior party inflicting overwhelming injury on the loser.
People who think that fists, bats, sticks, or stones don't constitute lethal force, watch too much TV, where people take beatings and come out of it with a bloody lip at worst. The fact that the gun makes lethal force easier works solely in favor of the weaker defender, not the stronger attacker. If both are armed, the field is level.
The gun is the only weapon that's as lethal in the hands of an octogenarian as it is in the hands of a weight lifter. It simply wouldn't work as well as a force equalizer if it wasn't both lethal and easily employable.
When I carry a gun, I don't do so because I am looking for a fight, but because I'm looking to be left alone. The gun at my side means that I cannot be forced, only persuaded. I don't carry it because I'm afraid, but because it enables me to be unafraid. It doesn't limit the actions of those who would interact with me through reason, only the actions of those who would do so by force. It removes force from the equation... and that's why carrying a gun is a civilized act.
So, the greatest civilization is one where all citizens are equally armed and can only be persuaded, never forced.
Dear Tech Support
Thanks, George
Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 and noticed a distinct slowdown in overall system performance, particularly in the flower and jewelry applications, which operated flawlessly under Boyfriend 5.0.
In addition, Husband 1.0 uninstalled many other valuable programs, such as Romance 9.5 and Personal Attention 6.5, long chats and conversation 8.0, and then installed undesirable programs such as: NBA 5.0, NFL 3.0 and Golf Clubs 4.1. House cleaning 2.6 simply crashes the system. Please note that I have tried running Nagging 5.3 to fix these problems, but to no avail.
What can I do?
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The response (that came weeks later out of the blue):
Dear Desperate,
First keep in mind, Boyfriend 5.0 is an Entertainment Package, while Husband 1.0 is an operating system. Recommend enter command: I thought you loved me.html, download Tears 6.2, and never forget to install the Guilt 3.0 update. If that application works as designed, Husband 1.0 should then automatically run the applications Jewelry 2.0 and Flowers 3.5.
However, remember, overuse of the above applications can cause Husband 1.0 to default to Grumpy Silence 2.5, Happy Hour 7.0, or Beer 6.1.
Whatever you do, DO NOT, under any circumstances, install Mother-In-Law 1.0 (it runs a virus in the background that will eventually seize control of all your system resources.) In addition, please, do not attempt to re-install the Boyfriend 5.0 program. These are unsupported applications and will crash Husband 1.0.
In summary, Husband 1.0 is a great program, but it does have limited memory and hearing, and cannot learn new applications quickly. You might consider getting additional software to improve his memory and performance.
But, for you, we sincerely recommend: Cooking 3.0, wife house cleaning 2.4, wife rubbing husbands feet 4.1, and other surprise wifely attention 5.2, which is, well, you know.
Good Luck!
