Tag: war

Warning signal or support?

I think it is too soon to declare which side the Chinese and Russians are actually on with regards to the potential US-North Korea showdown:

China and Russia have dispatched intelligence-gathering vessels from their navies to chase the USS Carl Vinson nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, which is heading toward waters near the Korean Peninsula, multiple sources of the Japanese government revealed to The Yomiuri Shimbun.

It appears that both countries aim to probe the movements of the United States, which is showing a stance of not excluding military action against North Korea. The Self-Defense Forces are strengthening warning and surveillance activities in the waters and airspace around the area, according to the sources.

The aircraft carrier strike group, composed of the Carl Vinson at its core with guided-missile destroyers and other vessels, is understood to be around the East China Sea and heading north toward waters near the Korean Peninsula.

So, Japan is activating more ships in the area, but this is not seen as a “warning signal” because the Japanese are known to be allied with the USA and even more concerned about the North Koreans. It seems to me that it is at least as likely that the Chinese and Russian intelligence ships are there to assist the strike group as serve as any kind of deterrent to it.

It’s important not to take ANY of the public announcements from any party too seriously. Remember, in war, the first casualty is truth. It’s not in anyone’s interests to inform the enemy exactly what it is that they are doing, or intending to do.

At this point, given all the global publicity being devoted to the Carl Vinson group, it would appear to be the most likely candidate for being a feint while the real attack comes from somewhere, or even someone, else.

Mailvox: fighting antifa

A firsthand report from the Second Battle of Berkeley from a reader:

Those Nike batting helmets are light, but they work! I took a rock to the top of my head yesterday that probably would have had me out.We also tested it before the saturday with a could of good smacks to the sides and back with both dowels and 1x3s. The impact jerked your head, but it protected against the pain and did a reasonable job of getting the blow to skate along the curves of the helmet.

One of the folks there next to me wasn’t wearing a helmet, and took a nasty smack in the head with a thrown full mini-can of soda. He recovered OK, but there was a LOT of blood. They have video of him getting treated.

Wear a helmet…even if you are fit and young. I armored up because I am slow, but even those fit madmen dodging rocks on the front line could use it.

…and VD, They did a fantastic job of keeping the lines together yesterday. They had folks watching for flanking and the berserkers (that’s what those based millennials were fighting like…absolutely breathtaking) at the front were keeping an ear out for the yell to pull back when they smashed into the front lines of the very skinny antifa janissaries. There were only a few incidents of folks pushing too far and getting enveloped.

Gloves are necessary as well. I started out with my motorcycle gloves, but lost them when I took them off to put some gauze on the fellow how to smack with the soda. Even though I didn’t take a hit in the hands, I still learned why I needed them after the rally when I was heading back home. I didn’t get pepper sprayed directly, but I did go through the clouds a couple of times and helped a few guys holding their head back when they were getting their eyes washed out. Pepper spray residue was all over my hands and when I took off my mask, helmet and goggles, I instinctively wiped my lips. Noob mistake that would have been mitigated if I was wearing gloves. I’m glad there were no cameras to capture my “it’s too spicy” dance.

Good to know that there are some tactically-aware leaders taking charge, and that people are following their directions. Discipline plus preparation plus leadership usually equals victory. I noticed the discipline right away in the first videos I’d seen; it’s far more important that everyone is on the same page than for anyone to engage in individual heroics or pursue optimal tactical objectives.

It was also significant to see that the tanks were going after the antifa leaders. Remember, antifa is all offense, so the leaders are not expecting to engage in any direct conflict themselves. The wedgies were a nice touch; another effective humiliation is to tie their shoelaces together or to remove their belts and bind their ankles with them.

It seems to me there ought to be a bounty placed on antifa flags and masks. I certainly wouldn’t mind having a flag or two to hang in my office as a trophy.

Cernovich attacked at anti-Trump rally

Apparently they were incensed by the “alt-right leader’s” declaration that Bill Clinton is a rapist:

Controversial alt-right provocateur Mike Cernovich appears to have been punched in the face at an anti-Trump rally in Austin, TX on Saturday after repeatedly yelling “Bill Clinton is a rapist” at the crowd.

The right-wing vlogger livestreamed his protest of the rally calling for President Trump to release his tax returns, and the footage appears to show rally goers shouting obscenities, pushing and shoving protest signs in front of Cernovich’s face.

The livestream on Periscope then abruptly ends when Cernovich’s phone falls after seemingly taking a hit.

Mike, however, “took reasonable measures” to defend himself; read his account here, complete with video.

Cernovich caught the angry mob on film. Watch how feral they are. These are not normal people. They are in a cult. Mike Cernovich was sucker punched. Cernovich took reasonable measures to defend himself. 

As I mentioned after Richard Spencer was attacked, be sure to have a group of at least four with you if you’re going to confront the dyscivilizational. They’re herd animals and they work each other up to attacks on unaccompanied individuals. They’re not natural fighters; you can see the way they have to loom and posture, but they will eventually attack if they feel sufficiently confident.

That being said, people have to stop being stupid and learn the basic tricks and tactics utilized by Black Bloc. There is no excuse for managing to get yourself isolated and ambushed; the false retreat was old when the Parthians were using it against the Romans. 21 were arrested yesterday after the most recent Berkeley skirmish.

Stewart Rhodes, founder of the citizen militia group known as the Oath Keepers, said he came from Montana with about 50 others to protect Trump supporters. They were joined by bikers and others who vowed to fight members of an anti-fascist group if they crossed police barricades.

“I don’t mind hitting” the counter-demonstrators, Rhodes said. “In fact, I would kind of enjoy it.”

But Rhodes credited Berkeley police for new tactics that mostly kept the two sides apart and “our side chilled and relaxed,” though sporadic fights broke out among both groups throughout the morning and afternoon.

“It’s getting sporty,” said Oath Keeper John Karriman, 59, who is from Missouri and was among the group’s security leaders.

AJ Alegria, 31, of Sacramento said he also came to Berkeley to help defend Trump supporters. He said he pursued a counter-demonstrator down a side street and found himself surrounded by a dozen protesters in black masks who he said attacked him with sticks and pepper spray.

“These people create violence all the time… somebody has to stand up to them,” said Alegria, who was injured in the fight.

The problem, as usual, is that conservatives fail to grasp that they are in a war. You simply cannot place any trust in the SJW-amenable authorities. And you need to prepare for physical conflict, by wearing a mouthguard, multiple layers under a thick leather jacket, and safety glasses, at a bare minimum. There is probably a small business opportunity in putting metal reinforcement inside stocking caps and baseball hats to protect the head.

We were told by the city not to bring anything that could be used as a weapon. Our people, for the most part, complied. The antifa did not and brought mace, sticks, poles, and M80 fireworks. We were there to hear speakers. They were there to start a fight. 

Mallorca attack

Car attack in Mallorca:

At least 5 people have been injured (some of them seriously) when a car mounted on the pavement and hit people that were waiting for the bus or walking along the commercial area. The incident occurred in one of the busiest streets of Palma de Mallorca.

 don’t know if it is connected to this earlier story, but there were concerns about attacks on British tourists on Mallorca and Costa del Sol.

Suspected Isis recruiter arrested on Spanish island of Mallorca accused of inciting terror attacks

Apparently the Moroccan driver is claiming that he just happened to lose control of the car.

That might explain it

It was obvious that something with regards to North Korea had changed to concern the US, China, Japan, and Russia alike and convince President Trump to take action. It may have been North Korea’s successful development of sub-launched ballistic missiles, which presumably now give it the ability to nuke coastal US cities for the first time.

North Korea displayed its submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBM) for the first time on Saturday ahead of a massive military parade in the capital, Pyongyang.

North Korea warned the United States on Saturday to end its “military hysteria” or face retaliation as a U.S. aircraft carrier group steamed towards the region and the reclusive state marked the 105th birth anniversary of its founding father.

State TV showed images of the Pukkuksong-2 SLBMs on trucks waiting to be paraded in front of leader Kim Jong Un.

Seeing as how North Korea is believed to be able to develop long-range ICBM that will reach the USA within four years, and SLBM that may be able to reach it now, this may be the last chance that the USA and China have to impose any changes on North Korea.

The Hitler that wasn’t

It’s rather fascinating that despite the media’s ritual anointing of a Hitler du jour, the one world leader who has thus far escaped being granted the title is the one most aggressively engaged in the pursuit of foreign expansionism, imperialism, and the pursuit of Lebensraum, and has now utilized the Hitlerian practice of expanding his personal power through plebiscites.

A narrow majority of Turks will vote “Yes” in Sunday’s referendum on changing the constitution to grant President Tayyip Erdogan sweeping new powers, two opinion polls showed on Thursday.

The April 16 vote will decide on the biggest change in Turkey’s system of governance since the modern republic’s foundation almost a century ago, potentially replacing its parliamentary system with an executive presidency.

Polling company Konda said the number of “yes” voters stood at 51.5 percent, but said its survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.4 percent.

“When this forecast is considered within the survey’s margin of error, a final judgement might be misleading,” Konda said in a statement.

Its survey, carried out face-to-face with 3,462 people in 30 provinces on April 7-9, showed turnout for the vote would be around 90 percent. It said the level of undecided voters had fallen to 9 percent from more than 20 percent in January and there was no evidence to indicate their preference.

China warns Pyongyang

When reading this editorial, understand that The Global Times is essentially a foreign vehicle for the Chinese government, being published by “the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) paramount mouthpiece”, the People’s Daily.

US President Donald Trump tweeted Tuesday that “North Korea is looking for trouble. If China decides to help, that would be great. If not, we will solve the problem without them!”

North Korea’s Supreme People’s Assembly convened on Tuesday. A few days later, North Korea will mark the birth anniversary of the late leader Kim Il-sung on April 15, also known as the Day of the Sun. Pyongyang likes to launch nuclear activities as a political salute around this date. Therefore, April is widely seen as a high-risk period for new nuclear tests by North Korea.

The US aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson is headed toward the Korean Peninsula after abruptly turning back from sailing to Australia, and Trump sent a warning via his tweet. These are probably related to reports that satellite surveillance shows North Korea is likely to conduct new nuclear tests. Washington’s latest threat to Pyongyang is more credible given its just launched missile attack at an air base in Syria. The Korean Peninsula has never been so close to a military clash since the North conducted its first nuclear test in 2006.

If Pyongyang conducts its sixth nuclear test in the near future, the possibility of US military action against it will be higher than ever. Not only Washington brimming with confidence and arrogance following the missile attacks on Syria, but Trump is also willing to be regarded as a man who honors his promises.

Now the Trump team seems to have decided to solve the North Korean nuclear crisis. As the discussion runs deeper, a situation of no-solution will not be accepted. A new nuclear test or an intercontinental ballistic missile test, if conducted by Pyongyang at this time, will be a slap in the face of the US government and will intensify the confrontation between North Korea and the US.

Presumably Beijing will react strongly to Pyongyang’s new nuclear actions. China will not remain indifferent to Pyongyang’s aggravating violation of the UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution.

Translation: China is utilizing US bellicosity as an excuse to save face in Asia and use force if necessary to resolve the North Korean situation. It is unlikely that this result is an accident or was unforeseen by the President.

Syria, because North Korea

It increasingly appears that the Syrian attack was intended to put pressure on China to end the North Korean nuclear threat.

April 11, 2017: A Chinese daily newspaper (Global Times) known for being a state-controlled media outlet used to test new ideas published an item today pointing out that if North Korea does not abandon its nuclear weapons program (which is seen as a threat to China) then China will bomb the nuclear facilities and North Korea will have to live with that or suffer further military and economic consequences they cannot respond to (by attacking China). This article also warned the United States not to contemplate doing this, as North Korea was for neighbor China to deal with, not some distant superpower. Within hours the article was removed from the Global Times website, but many people had seen it and it still existed in Google cache. In other words, China was telling North Korea that stronger measures from China were now a possibility. At the same time the U.S. was making it clear that the kind of attack on Syria the U.S. recently carried out could be tried on North Korea. China agrees that it might come to that but they insist that the bombs or missiles be Chinese.

My current thinking is that the attack on Syria was intended to let Premier Xi know that Trump meant what he was saying about North Korea, and that if China did not swiftly address the situation, the US naval forces being sent to the Sea of Japan would be utilized instead. This also means that the US will have additional assets in place if North Korea were to respond to a Chinese attack by attacking South Korea.

I’ve never thought it was an accident that the attack took place during the meeting between Trump and Xi. It also tends to answer the question that has been plaguing the Trump-doubters, which is why Trump would suddenly appear to do an about-face on Syria. But Trump still doesn’t care about Syria or see it in the national interest, he simply needed something to blow up in order to make it clear to Xi that he would actually follow through on his threats. And I think Trump actually agrees with the Chinese in that he, too, would prefer that any bombs or missiles dropped on North Korea be Chinese rather than American.

If this is the correct interpretation of events, and if the Syria attack causes the Chinese to remove the Kim dynasty from power in North Korea, it will be seen as a brilliant grand strategic move on the God-Emperor’s part. It will also demonstrate that Trump not only is not controlled by the neocons, but that he doesn’t need them at all.

“We’re not going into Syria”

The God-Emperor spells it out:

Amid complaints that his aides are saying different things about Syria and his policy is confusing, President Trump emphatically cleared the air. “We’re not going into Syria,” he told me yesterday in an exclusive interview. “Our policy is the same — it hasn’t changed. We’re not going into Syria.”

He was especially upset that Syria had used chemical weapons after supposedly destroying all its stockpiles under a deal President Obama signed in 2013 and repeatedly boasted about. I asked whether that fact gave him more pause about Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran.

“I don’t need more pause about Iran,” Trump said. “It was the single worst deal ever. It’s a disgrace that a deal like that was even signed. It made Iran a power from a country that was ready to fall apart.”

He wasn’t finished. “Iran won’t honor its deal. Instead of saying, ‘Thank you very much for saving our country,’ they’ve been emboldened.”

Noting those problems and North Korea’s threatening aggression, Trump said, “I knew I was left a mess, but it’s worse than I thought.”

We’ll see whether he stands by that statement. But regardless, it’s clear that he hasn’t been entirely captured or convinced by the neocons, or he wouldn’t come out publicly and say that.

You don’t say

My proposed scenario of a joint US-Chinese effort against North Korea is looking considerably less out there than it did three days ago:

According to Chosun, a Korean news agency, the People’s Republic of China has moved an estimated 150,000 troops to the border of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (a.k.a. North Korea) in order to prepare for “unforeseen circumstances.”

Among such unforeseen circumstances?  The possibility of “military action” by the United States.

Over the weekend, U.S. president Donald Trump ordered the U.S.S. Carl Vinson (CVN – 70) – a 1980 Nimitz-class aircraft carrier – and three guided-missile destroyers to break off planned exercises in Australia and head toward the Korean peninsula.

This redirection was ostensibly ordered in response to North Korea’s latest missile test – in which a nuclear-capable intermediate-range ballistic missile called the Pukguksong-2 was successfully fired for the second time.

Both North Korean missile tests took place as Trump was welcoming key Asian leaders for meetings at his Winter White House in Mar-a-Lago, Florida.

The Chinese military posturing comes two months after its government announced the immediate suspension of coal imports from North Korea – cutting off a vital economic lifeline for North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un.

This doesn’t mean I’m correct. It doesn’t mean that the God-Emperor isn’t sending 150,000 troops to Syria in order to attack Russia, Iran, and the Assad regime there.  But it does demonstrate why it’s probably best to keep your eyes open and your mouth shut when the God-Emperor does something you don’t understand.