Politics

Bob Woodward´s new book "War" is being published the coming tuesday.. In that book Mark Milley call Trump a "Total facist".. Thats strong words coming from a General who worked close over a longer period with him..
 
Bob Woodward´s new book "War" is being published the coming tuesday.. In that book Mark Milley call Trump a "Total facist".. Thats strong words coming from a General who worked close over a longer period with him..
General Milley lost a lot of respect with the Afghanistan withdrawal and the decision to abandon equipment. Trump has a sound bite going around on that subject that is hard to disagree with.
Now, years later, the equipment left is being seen conpletely operational in China, and in the hands of various other designated terror groups. 90 billion founded to terror groups.

There are a lot in the veteran community that still feel slighted at the administrations handling of the withdrawal and aftermath and how no officer truly took ownership and resigned.

There is also little faith left in high ranking intelligence officials and Washington personel after 50 signed a letter in 2020 stating Hunters laptop was Russian collusion and then 3 years later the government enters that same laptop into official evidence against Hunter Biden. No accountability on their outright lying to the American people to literally influence and election.

Shawn Ryan's Episode with Sgt Tyler Vargas who survived the explosion at Abbeyate during the withdrawal paints another picture entirely. It's gut wrenching to hear how much those servicemen and women were failed.
 
@Red Leg - have you heard anything about this?


Well crap, for some reason this board's software doesn't want to expand the link.

a headline for those suspicious of clicking random "MSN" links (and good on you if you are suspicious).

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I didn't make any claims on CO2 causing or not causing changing climate. I didn't make any claims as to if CO2 is a pollutant. I made not commentary what so ever on climate change, let alone whatever the drivers of it may be. It's not the topic of the post and I'm not sure why you jumped to that conclusion.

What I am talking about, is if humans, or any other organism, can measurably change the long term conditions on Earth. On that topic, I am claiming that it is undeniable that plant or animal activity on Earth CAN measurably change the level of atmospheric gases, both CO2 and oxygen. That is simple fact. It has happened many times, most notably with the advent of photosynthesis.

The carboniferous was not an oxidation event. It was a CO2 sequestration event. Which is what I said.

The 'Great Oxidation Event' (so named in literature - link: https://asm.org/articles/2022/february/the-great-oxidation-event-how-cyanobacteria-change) relates to the oxidation of the atmosphere due to the advent of photosynthetic bacteria, roughly 3bn years BEFORE the Carboniferous.

It is the exact OPPOSITE of what happens on Mars, or anywhere else in the solar system, which involves the REMOVAL of O2 from the atmosphere into oxides, in Mars' case primarily ferrous oxides, which is why Mars is red, and has basically no atmospheric oxygen to speak of (approx 1/10,000 of the level on Earth). I agree it's a confusing term because we typically think of 'oxidation' in terms of oxidizing metals or minerals, which is not what the event describes.

Overall, I think we're speaking across each other here, or you've misinterpreted what I've written. Hopefully this clarifies my position!


Of course the planet is changing, it has been long before we walked here. The impact of humans will be so minuscule over the course of billions of years, we may not even register as a major event.

Humans do not create energy. Productive or destructive. All of the energy seen as destructive was already here. We have only redirected it or transferred it to work. It will go back to its original form eventually.

As a tiny minute example of the damage we cause. Look at the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. It pumped high pressure crude into the gulf for months. At the time. Environmentalists proclaimed doomsday and the gulf sea life and shore would be permanently damaged.
The ocean chewed the minor nuisance up and spit it out. 14 years later you may find a blob somewhere on the bottom. Which by the way happens without man’s help. The gulf burps oil blobs. So in one billion years do you think the BP oil spill will be noticeable. Now add all of man’s impact over another 1000 years. We may have left. It may be traceable 10 billion years from now. Like other forms of life that have come and gone.

But my point is. The planet does not care. It will be just fine until the one of the known several major events occur . iE The Sun, the earths core, the poles reverse again. asteroids ETC. Real destructive power.

The earth will not be drastically changed or destroyed by mere humans.

Maybe I am wrong and the experts in Davos like John Kerry and Fink can change the climate of the earth if we give them our money and dominion over us.
 
General Milley lost a lot of respect with the Afghanistan withdrawal and the decision to abandon equipment. Trump has a sound bite going around on that subject that is hard to disagree with.
Now, years later, the equipment left is being seen conpletely operational in China, and in the hands of various other designated terror groups. 90 billion founded to terror groups.

There are a lot in the veteran community that still feel slighted at the administrations handling of the withdrawal and aftermath and how no officer truly took ownership and resigned.

There is also little faith left in high ranking intelligence officials and Washington personel after 50 signed a letter in 2020 stating Hunters laptop was Russian collusion and then 3 years later the government enters that same laptop into official evidence against Hunter Biden. No accountability on their outright lying to the American people to literally influence and election.

Shawn Ryan's Episode with Sgt Tyler Vargas who survived the explosion at Abbeyate during the withdrawal paints another picture entirely. It's gut wrenching to hear how much those servicemen and women were failed.
Bob Woodward´s new book "War" is being published the coming tuesday.. In that book Mark Milley call Trump a "Total facist".. Thats strong words coming from a General who worked close over a longer period with him..
I should start by noting I am not a Milley fan, but perhaps not for the reasons some would perhaps assume. Afghanistan is not one of them. The military plans and executes operations based upon the guidance provided by civilian authority. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs plays no part in such planning. He is not even in the chain of command of the primary planning headquarters, which in this case was CENTCOM. All the initial COAs provided the administration by CENTCOM then commanded by General Kenneth McKenzie, Jr (USMC) called for either retaining a footprint in Bagram or having it be the last portal for withdrawal.

None of those COAs met the administration's timeline for withdrawal or the requirement to remove all US forces. Moreover, the administration had to actually order the beginning of the withdrawal through the State Department which was then the lead agency in Afghanistan. CENTCOM could take no overt action until that order was given. Once the executive branch decided to not leave a residual force and once the order was finally given in mid-August, the only way to meet the withdrawal timeline was to close Bagram first and then conduct the final evacuation through Kabul.

McKenzie has repeatedly stated both in testimony and in interviews that as the overall commander of the operation he "alone bears full military responsibility for what happened at Abbey Gate," That is being a good soldier - or in this case marine. But military leadership can only operate within the constraints provided by civilian leadership. I also place a lot of the blame on Secretary of Defense Austin who has carried the term "deference" to new heights of ineffectiveness. Probably due to his military service, but also his personality, he seems either incapable or unable to exercise a strong military voice within the administration - Afghanistan and Ukraine provide the most obvious examples.

The collapse of the Afghanistan Armed Forces obviously further complicated the withdrawal. The vast majority of the equipment left behind had already been or was going to be transferred to the Afghanistan. With the collapse of the Afghan resistance, there was no way to retrieve the material from around the country nor any ally to receive the material not yet issued. Additionally, there was no mechanism within the withdrawal timeline to withdraw any of the major equipment items from Bagram.

However, very little of it was of any real defense value to the United States or one of our adversaries. The armored vehicles were primarily armored recon vehicles not in the US inventory and already operated by the Afghan Army and around 70 mine resistant vehicles (MRAP) which are nothing more than heavily armored trucks. Most of them were disabled.

Around 150 aircraft were "left behind," but again the vast majority were already being operated by the Afghan Armed Forces. 32 of those, which we had provided, were MI 17 helicopters of Soviet design. Some Blackhawks were left, but their maintenance is very demanding and during the Taliban's recent parade at Bagram, the overflight was by the MI 17s.

The most worrisome thing to me was the night vision equipment with which we had equipped Afghan forces for years. They would have value to a terrorist organization.

None of this equipment is of any particular intelligence interest to China or Russia.

Which is a long way around to @Pondoro's observation. I think it would be a mistake to entirely discount Milley's assessment of Trump. He was there and none of us were. However, I do believe that there is an enormous level of animosity between them, and whatever Trump's obvious failings - particularly between 3 November and 6 January - senior uniformed leadership has a responsibility in our republic to neither like or dislike any political leader. I believe that animosity affected Milley and does to this day. I would suggest I am not alone in that professional judgement.

I think that animosity also led Milley to far too readily embrace some of the more radical goals of the new administration. That is where my issues with him really begin. He had the opportunity to defend the military as an institution with respect to its tradition of providing opportunity and recognizing merit. Instead, he chose to pander to much of the Woke nonsense then blossoming in Washington. It is from that breach of faith with the institution, that the military currently suffers and will require time to overcome.
 
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Do we really care if Tim Walz hunts pheasant.

If he does. Does that make him a good person. Does it make him one of us ?

We are being led into the wrong talking points of this discussion.

Let’s all agree he drives a pickup, hunts pheasant and is a war hero.

Who cares !! He’s a Marist at best. And has Facist tendencies.

Benito Mussolini was an avid sportsman. And a talented Facist

Walz just demonstrates that being in the military and being a hunter alone doesn't mean squat.
 
They are using Walz to try an appear "Folksy" to the middle of the road voter.
The man is a socialist, and a tyrant wannabe.
Walz let Minneapolis burn, and used draconian iron fisted control during covid. Not to mention all his other far left control tactics.
Anyone notice how he sidestepped when asked about his 30 trips to China?

Harris is as smart as a fence post, and Walz is a deceptive fraud trying to con the voter, which isn't very difficult considering the political ignorance of the democrat voter base.
They would vote for a Ham Sandwich, as long as there is a (D) next to it
 
Of course the planet is changing, it has been long before we walked here. The impact of humans will be so minuscule over the course of billions of years, we may not even register as a major event.

Humans do not create energy. Productive or destructive. All of the energy seen as destructive was already here. We have only redirected it or transferred it to work. It will go back to its original form eventually.

As a tiny minute example of the damage we cause. Look at the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. It pumped high pressure crude into the gulf for months. At the time. Environmentalists proclaimed doomsday and the gulf sea life and shore would be permanently damaged.
The ocean chewed the minor nuisance up and spit it out. 14 years later you may find a blob somewhere on the bottom. Which by the way happens without man’s help. The gulf burps oil blobs. So in one billion years do you think the BP oil spill will be noticeable. Now add all of man’s impact over another 1000 years. We may have left. It may be traceable 10 billion years from now. Like other forms of life that have come and gone.

But my point is. The planet does not care. It will be just fine until the one of the known several major events occur . iE The Sun, the earths core, the poles reverse again. asteroids ETC. Real destructive power.

The earth will not be drastically changed or destroyed by mere humans.

Maybe I am wrong and the experts in Davos like John Kerry and Fink can change the climate of the earth if we give them our money and dominion over us.
So we're agreed that humans can have a lasting impact, now we're debating the political question of if it's significant enough to matter, and significant enough to merit any action.

Fair enough.

Firstly, to get your BP question out of the way. No absolutely not, I do not believe that such a local, tiny event will be detectable even 100 years from now. This is a totally micro level impact. Not great for the local wildlife, ideally not something that we want to happen, but certainly not enough to matter, not enough to be even remotely detectable long term, not a big deal on the macro.

To your other point, I'd agree that on the macro level, humanities impact is not unique, or especially significant. Compared to the advent of photosynthesis, or the colonization of the land by plant life, or any other number of examples, nothing we do has been especially impactful. Maybe it never will be.

I'd also agree that the persistent doom-mongering of certain parts of our society on this topic is unhelpful, and intellectually dishonest. There is no way that we as a species are going to make the planet totally unlivable, or wipe out huge swathes of all species, or drastically change global temperatures.

But our impact will be there, and it will change the course of the planet to some degree. it also has the inconvenient distinction of happening to us, now. In the grand scheme of things, the KT extinction event wasn't a big deal. The Earth keeps spinning, life goes on. In the grand scheme of things, what does it matter? It's not great if you're a Triceratops living during the period though...

I think it's fair to say that we as a species can certainly make life pretty difficult for some, perhaps many organisms. Give it 40 years and the White Rhino will stand in (mute) testament to that fact. The Dodo already does. So do a lot of other species, and the number is growing.

Does the planet give a crap about that? No, of course not. Species go extinct all the time. On a macro level, it's barely a bump above normal background levels. Maybe, just maybe, in 100 million years, the organisms of the time may note (if of course there's any that are smart enough) this period as a time of decreasing biological diversity in the fossil record. Maybe they'll do what we do, give it a name and lump it in with all the other mass extinction events. 'The Anthropomorphic Collapse', perhaps. Maybe it won't even be significant enough to merit that. But it will be there.

On a micro level, that's not great, and I personally think that just saying 'screw it' and knowingly accepting the situation then doing nothing is a touch negligent. If you're on this forum and donate your hard earned cash to conservation work, or habitat preservation, or reducing pollution in your favorite trout stream, then you probably agree with me there.

Of course, in order to be effective about addressing the issue, you need good data and intellectual honesty. Both are in short supply. The first due to lack of research, the second due to lack of morals.

Putting our heads in the sand and pretending everything is great, that it's all totally outside of our control, that we can't have an impact, doesn't seem like a good solve. By contrast, hysterical screaming about the end of all life, the end of the species, the end of everything good, is equally, if not more, moronic. Both are pushing a political agenda at the expense of honesty.

I don't have good answers here, I'm not an expert, but I am very keen that we as a society acknowledge that we can make an impact, both positive and negative, that maybe we do therefore have the responsibility to at least acknowledge that, and then have real discussions about the topic based on facts.

Personally I'm probably more bothered about habitat destruction and pollution than I am CO2 / 'global warming', if only because I'm very confident that pollution is having a negative impact whilst I'm not as certain about CO2. But I'm willing to enter into open discussion on either if there's good evidence there, and I'm not going to simply hand wave it away.

Because I quite like this planet, its biological diversity and its interesting little quirks. I'd quite like those who come after me to like it too, and smoggy, polluted concrete wastelands aren't nearly as attractive to me as an interesting bit of rain forest, even if in the grand scheme of things both are an unimportant, transient state of affairs in geological terms.
 
“Putting our heads in the sand and pretending everything is great”

We both agree on the most important aspects. All we can do is our part and not add to the problem.

That’s a far cry from being forced to handing money to John Kerry and his Davos cronies
 
Personally I'm probably more bothered about habitat destruction and pollution than I am CO2 / 'global warming', if only because I'm very confident that pollution is having a negative impact whilst I'm not as certain about CO2.
I agree with you in regard to pollution. Here in CA, not too long ago we used to get warnings about not going outside due to risk from pollution. Not anymore since the emissions requirements came into place. I do not see the orange haze over LA anymore either.

We saw effects of pollution disappear during Covid when even the regular haze disappeared due to people driving less.

Now, what is interesting is that, here in CA, plants are required to monitor CO more than CO2 and operating permits specify the maximum amount of CO that they can emit.
 
They are using Walz to try an appear "Folksy" to the middle of the road voter.
The man is a socialist, and a tyrant wannabe.
Walz let Minneapolis burn, and used draconian iron fisted control during covid. Not to mention all his other far left control tactics.
Anyone notice how he sidestepped when asked about his 30 trips to China?

Harris is as smart as a fence post, and Walz is a deceptive fraud trying to con the voter, which isn't very difficult considering the political ignorance of the democrat voter base.
They would vote for a Ham Sandwich, as long as there is a (D) next to it
Walz is the epitome of a bad politician. As far as I know he has yet to be connected directly to having recieved fraudulent money. But he sure has done nothing to stop fraud under his watch. I believe Minnesota still ranks first in Covid relief fund fraud.
Screenshot_20240807-171649_Facebook.jpg

He went power mad during Covid. We lived 15 miles from town. With a population of ~900 on the edge of a very Blue Collar lake, Lake Mille Lacs. It has lots of small family owned resort/bar/grill/restaurant type business. He had them all shut down..

But allowed even the ones will on site only liquor licenses to sell booze off sale. Wouldn't want to miss out on what, 50% tax on that. After all the refrigerated food had gone bad, he decided maybe it would be ok to allow take out. Note McDonald's and other large food chains never closed down their drive through. But you'd have to follow crazy confusing rules. Like enter one door and exit another. And he had undercover cops trying to go backwards through the wring doors so they could fine the owners.

Then he decided to let them open. But you couldn't sit at the bar facing the bartender, you had to sit sideways. It was laughable. And you had to wear a mask unless drinking or eating. And be damned sure you put it on to go piss! People were sitting around talking with a straw in their mouth holding a drink up so they didn't have to wear a mask. Even husband's and wives. And again the undercover cops out in force! If they put half the effort into securing the border.....

And all the little hardware stores had to close. But Walmart was open!

Walz was draconian with Covid and has been increasingly power mad ever since. Minnesota had a large surplus but he increased taxes anyway!
GUyt3pqXEAAo54R.png
 
And did everyone hear what Walz said during the debate regarding his visits to China. It's where le learned about governance.

So we have a VP candidate who learned how to govern from Communist China. Well those of you who plan to vote for the Harris/Walz ticket ought to move on up to Minneapolis and experience some of that for yourselves first.
 
Walz is the epitome of a bad politician. As far as I know he has yet to be connected directly to having recieved fraudulent money. But he sure has done nothing to stop fraud under his watch. I believe Minnesota still ranks first in Covid relief fund fraud.
View attachment 639992
He went power mad during Covid. We lived 15 miles from town. With a population of ~900 on the edge of a very Blue Collar lake, Lake Mille Lacs. It has lots of small family owned resort/bar/grill/restaurant type business. He had them all shut down..

But allowed even the ones will on site only liquor licenses to sell booze off sale. Wouldn't want to miss out on what, 50% tax on that. After all the refrigerated food had gone bad, he decided maybe it would be ok to allow take out. Note McDonald's and other large food chains never closed down their drive through. But you'd have to follow crazy confusing rules. Like enter one door and exit another. And he had undercover cops trying to go backwards through the wring doors so they could fine the owners.

Then he decided to let them open. But you couldn't sit at the bar facing the bartender, you had to sit sideways. It was laughable. And you had to wear a mask unless drinking or eating. And be damned sure you put it on to go piss! People were sitting around talking with a straw in their mouth holding a drink up so they didn't have to wear a mask. Even husband's and wives. And again the undercover cops out in force! If they put half the effort into securing the border.....

And all the little hardware stores had to close. But Walmart was open!

Walz was draconian with Covid and has been increasingly power mad ever since. Minnesota had a large surplus but he increased taxes anyway!
View attachment 640002
I was born in Minnesota, and lived on the farm in a rural township not far from Albert Lea. Been in Arizona since I was 11.
Didn't know much about politics back then, but farmers tended to be on the conservative side.
Minneapolis sure has slid into the liberal abyss.
I remember when Ventura was Governor, and my aunt sent me the t-shirt that said "Our governor can kick your governor's ass" ...lol
 
And did everyone hear what Walz said during the debate regarding his visits to China. It's where le learned about governance.

So we have a VP candidate who learned how to govern from Communist China. Well those of you who plan to vote for the Harris/Walz ticket ought to move on up to Minneapolis and experience some of that for yourselves first.
Did you see him struggling in the "pheasant hunting clip" .. on the news?

To promote himself as a mans man" ...
 
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I should start by noting I am not a Milley fan, but perhaps not for the reasons some would perhaps assume. Afghanistan is not one of them. The military plans and executes operations based upon the guidance provided by civilian authority. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs plays no part in such planning. He is not even in the chain of command of the primary planning headquarters, which in this case was CENTCOM. All the initial COAs provided the administration by CENTCOM then commanded by General Kenneth McKenzie, Jr (USMC) called for either retaining a footprint in Bagram or having it be the last portal for withdrawal.

None of those COAs met the administration's timeline for withdrawal or the requirement to remove all US forces. Moreover, the administration had to actually order the beginning of the withdrawal through the State Department which was then the lead agency in Afghanistan. CENTCOM could take no overt action until that order was given. Once the executive branch decided to not leave a residual force and once the order was finally given in mid-August, the only way to meet the withdrawal timeline was to close Bagram first and then conduct the final evacuation through Kabul.

McKenzie has repeatedly stated both in testimony and in interviews that as the overall commander of the operation he "alone bears full military responsibility for what happened at Abbey Gate," That is being a good soldier - or in this case marine. But military leadership can only operate within the constraints provided by civilian leadership. I also place a lot of the blame on Secretary of Defense Austin who has carried the term "deference" to new heights of ineffectiveness. Probably due to his military service, but also his personality, he seems either incapable or unable to exercise a strong military voice within the administration - Afghanistan and Ukraine provide the most obvious examples.

The collapse of the Afghanistan Armed Forces obviously further complicated the withdrawal. The vast majority of the equipment left behind had already been or was going to be transferred to the Afghanistan. With the collapse of the Afghan resistance, there was no way to retrieve the material from around the country nor any ally to receive the material not yet issued. Additionally, there was no mechanism within the withdrawal timeline to withdraw any of the major equipment items from Bagram.

However, very little of it was of any real defense value to the United States or one of our adversaries. The armored vehicles were primarily armored recon vehicles not in the US inventory and already operated by the Afghan Army and around 70 mine resistant vehicles (MRAP) which are nothing more than heavily armored trucks. Most of them were disabled.

Around 150 aircraft were "left behind," but again the vast majority were already being operated by the Afghan Armed Forces. 32 of those, which we had provided, were MI 17 helicopters of Soviet design. Some Blackhawks were left, but their maintenance is very demanding and during the Taliban's recent parade at Bagram, the overflight was by the MI 17s.

The most worrisome thing to me was the night vision equipment with which we had equipped Afghan forces for years. They would have value to a terrorist organization.

None of this equipment is of any particular intelligence interest to China or Russia.

Which is a long way around to @Pondoro's observation. I think it would be a mistake to entirely discount Milley's assessment of Trump. He was there and none of us were. However, I do believe that there is an enormous level of animosity between them, and whatever Trump's obvious failings - particularly between 3 November and 6 January - senior uniformed leadership has a responsibility in our republic to neither like or dislike any political leader. I believe that animosity affected Milley and does to this day. I would suggest I am not alone in that professional judgement.

I think that animosity also led Milley to far too readily embrace some of the more radical goals of the new administration. That is where my issues with him really begin. He had the opportunity to defend the military as an institution with respect to its tradition of providing opportunity and recognizing merit. Instead, he chose to pander to much of the Woke nonsense then blossoming in Washington. It is from that breach of faith with the institution, that the military currently suffers and will require time to overcome.
 
Bob Woodward´s new book "War" is being published the coming tuesday.. In that book Mark Milley call Trump a "Total facist".. Thats strong words coming from a General who worked close over a longer period with him..
Everybody is so quick to throw out the "fascism" canard. I wish I could post up Inigo Montoya saying "I don't think that means what you think it means".
People on the left seem to use it to mean "I disagree with you, so I want to kill or imprison you!"
 

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