FBI Corruption

SHOCKER - The FBI is Corrupt

No, I'm not shocked at all. Then again, while I have worked in concert with the FBI at times, the record will show that by in large, our relationship was acrimonious. A lot of that had to do with unethical conduct on the part of agents that was covered up by management.

On Monday, the FBI confirmed former Bureau Head James Comey personally drafted a statement exonerating Hillary Clinton months before interviewing her.

The FBI cares about its public image. This is the face of the current FBI. Like it, don't like it, doesn't matter. That's what it is. 

Thoughts on Distant Lands and Friends

It's difficult for me to care about Somalia. I'm sure that God cares. Though some say that it's the land that God forgot.

Suicide truck bomb kills at least 276 people

The worst suicide bombing attack in the history of the fight against Al Shaba’ab occurred in Mogadishu on 14 October. News services reported at least 300 people were injured. 

Back to the truck bombing in a moment, but there is a back story as to how and why I feel about Somalia as I do.

John S. is a good, close, personal friend of mine. We worked together in Greece and Italy. His story appeared in the Washington Post. He was shot three times with an AK-47 during the whole Blackhawk Down debacle. The CIA refused his claim for medical retirement, largely because they didn't want to acknowledge that they had case officers in Mogadishu...typical. They'd rather that he rot without a pension than confess that they had a CIA Station (such as it was - read the article) in Somalia.

"...There to meet him was his deputy, Spinelli, 46, a former New York City police detective. He was a solid man with dark hair and a long, thin nose, a native Roman who had immigrated to Brooklyn with his family when he was 12. Only a week before, Spinelli had been torn from a plum assignment in the CIA's Rome station and sent to Somalia. He knew nothing about Africa, but he spoke Italian, and the Italians in the U.N. peacekeeping force weren't getting along with their American counterparts. 

"When Spinelli took Jones to the CIA station, the new chief's jaw dropped: It consisted of two windblown rooms in the vandalized former residence of the U.S. ambassador. Only one room had a door. Spinelli told him they had no business being in the middle of this war zone, trying to meet secretly with agents in a city where they couldn't drive down the street without getting shot at."

Back to the truck bomb...

The truck driver passed through at least five check points without getting stopped and searched at the sixth check point near a hotel down the street from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the truck was stopped, but sped away and detonated before it could be searched. The truck exploded near a fuel tanker that also exploded.

This bombing occurred in the most densely populated area of Mogadishu. This blast attests to major security failings and to the existence of significant support for al-Shaba’ab. 

The last suicide car/truck bomb in Mogadishu killed 10 people in July. After a lull, terrorist groups regularly stage a sensational attack to demonstrate their continued vitality. 

Some 20,000 soldiers from the African Union serve as peacekeepers in Somalia. Security has improved, but this attack shows that Al Shaba’ab retains significant support in the countryside among some Somali clans.

And in North Korea

South Korean and US intelligence agencies have published warnings that North Korea is preparing more long-range ballistic missile launches. 

According to an official source on Friday, 13 October, a US satellite detected North Korean ballistic missiles mounted on transporter-launchers as they moved to areas near Pyongyang and in North Pyongan Province. 

North Korea can track US imaging satellites and is aware of their window of access to North Korea. North Koreans also are experts at concealment.

If imaging satellites detect missiles during movement, it is because the North Korean leadership wants them to be seen to send a message to its enemies. The message is that North Korean opposition to Allied exercises (which will soon begin) is serious and that North Korea can launch missiles with little warning.

Mish-Mash

Cruising Newport (CA) harbor in 90+ degree heat
in October...global warming or just the weather?

Hats

My daughter, Emilie, is not obsessed, but she does wear quite a few hats as part of her ensembles, or get-ups or whatever you want to call them. 

I'm clearly not the most stylish guy on the planet, preferring to wear ripstop cotton or blue denim to other more chique options.

She doesn't need a hat...I've tried to tell her that. 

Of all my daughters, she's the most prone to making fashion statements. Maybe it's because she's the youngest, and still single.

Holding an HK Offensive handgun, which is
too much pistol for her.

Being in paramedic school, I thought that she'd calm down a bit with the whole passion for fashion/thing for bling motif. No, not hardly.

She told me that I destroyed her capacity to be politically correct, anti-gun and all of the progressive proclivities. At least I might have done something right.

But I don't get the hat thing.

Nuclear Iran

The problem with Iran producing nuclear weapons of its own revolves around their promise to use them to wipe out Israel. It's like a person with turrets syndrome.  They can't help but announce the they wish to wipe out (first) Israel and then (second) the United States.  And they are building the launch capacity to accomplish those goals.

Dominoes

They seem mystified when the US (under President Trump) and Israel refuse to come lowing to the knacker for destruction. That may be because President Obama had a different agenda. Then again, he closest and longest serving senior political advisor (Valerie Jarrett) was born in Iran and maintained a close affinity to the world of the not quite right.

Jarrett worked hard to convince her boss that steers can sign meaningful treaties with meat packers.

Naturally, the light-bringer bought it hook, line and sinker.

The worm has turned in terms of the US approach to the world and it's for the better. Ask ISIS - but you can't. Their homeland has been wiped out. No, you won't hear that on the corrupt, smug, lying, elite mainstream media.

Is your Halloween Costume P/C?

I'm guessing that it's not because a Halloween costume, by definition, reflects cultural appropriation. My granddaughters are going as: zombie (age 8), cheerleader (she's 5, she's never been an actual cheerleader) and a bee (age 1). It's the same story with the five grandsons. I can't find the white wolf mask that a friend sent me last year. It's packed somewhere, thus I will go as a grandpa, which reflects no cultural appropriation at all. I'm feeling very superior in that hard fought decision. 

h/t LSP

However if I was a younger version of myself, I might go as a negro in 'black face', Indian, wearing a Vietnamese coolie hat, and I'd drive to some Hollywood neighborhood to beg for candy. I'd have a girlfriend in tow (heterosexuality is not cultural appropriation when you are one) dressed as a witch to show the witches and satanists in Sin City that my heart is really in the right place...