JUST the Stolen Documents/Mar-A-Lago/"Judge" Cannon Trial

[Kismet]

https://www.newsweek.com/armed-f-16-int ... ly-1631322

"An armed F-16 military plane flew low circles today over New York City's George Washington Bridge as it looked to divert a small plane away from the city on the day Joe Biden addressed the United Nations General Assembly meeting..

Newsweek Editor-at-Large Naveed Jamali observed the incident in broad daylight around 2:00 p.m. today in northern Manhattan.

"It was pretty dramatic, because this comes obviously a few weeks after the 20th anniversary of 9/11, and occurred over the George Washington Bridge along the Hudson River in plain view of New Yorkers," Jamali told Newsweek.

North American Aerospace Defense Command confirmed to Newsweek that there was indeed an "ongoing operation" over New York City."

Also noted nearby - KC135 tanker. Note the F-16 was armed.

"FAA said Cessna 182 entered the TFR at approximately 2 p.m. The small aircraft was intercepted by an F-16 fighter jet and escorted out of the TFR "without incident," according to a statement from NORAD. The aircraft, owned by the US Military Academy at West Point, was flown by an Army instructor pilot, West Point said in a statement. The instructor pilot was conducting a cadet flight lab in support of an engineering class when the aircraft "briefly" violated the TFR near the George Washington Bridge, the statement said."

[youthathletics]

Didn’t something like this happen during the last administration?

[DocBarrister]

The US-UK-Aussie sub deal is a great thing for the free world alliance. China is stunned.
Bad deal for France, but they were offering an inferior product at an inflated price. Diesel-elec boat at nuc prices.
It will be interesting to learn about the diplomacy, or lack thereof, which lead to this contretemps.

Aussies all in on AUKUS :

https://news.usni.org/2021/09/15/austra ... th-u-s-u-k

https://news.usni.org/2021/09/17/austra ... the-future

The REALLY important question is how does Biden assuage the ruffled feathers of the Chicoms?? Maybe Gen Milley is on the phone with his Chicom counterpart assuring him everything is copesetic between our 2 countries. Maybe if the Chicoms are going to nuke us the Chicom general will reciprocate in kind and call us first...

The “Chicoms” are not the greatest threat to our democracy and national security. The greatest threats are Donald Trump and his cult of white supremacist domestic terrorists.

It wasn’t China or Russia that attacked the U.S. Capitol.

It isn’t China that is spreading anti-vaxxer garbage and causing havoc by refusing to get a very safe and effective vaccine.

No, all of that is attributable to Trump’s cult of violent, racist trash.

DocBarrister

[Farfromgeneva]

The US-UK-Aussie sub deal is a great thing for the free world alliance. China is stunned.
Bad deal for France, but they were offering an inferior product at an inflated price. Diesel-elec boat at nuc prices.
It will be interesting to learn about the diplomacy, or lack thereof, which lead to this contretemps.

Aussies all in on AUKUS :

https://news.usni.org/2021/09/15/austra ... th-u-s-u-k

https://news.usni.org/2021/09/17/austra ... the-future

The REALLY important question is how does Biden assuage the ruffled feathers of the Chicoms?? Maybe Gen Milley is on the phone with his Chicom counterpart assuring him everything is copesetic between our 2 countries. Maybe if the Chicoms are going to nuke us the Chicom general will reciprocate in kind and call us first...

The “Chicoms” are not the greatest threat to our democracy and national security. The greatest threats are Donald Trump and his cult of white supremacist domestic terrorists.

It wasn’t China or Russia that attacked the U.S. Capitol.

It isn’t China that is spreading anti-vaxxer garbage and causing havoc by refusing to get a very safe and effective vaccine.

No, all of that is attributable to Trump’s cult of violent, racist trash.

DocBarrister

I agree but the threat is the undermining of knowledge and our institutions not the violence. Violence has lot of solutions to resolve itself - it’s the old old playbook, we need to think about how the Goths attacked Rome not some localized issue from the last 25-50yrs as our guidebook. Destroying a comparative organizational and abstract advantage in ethos and mythology that has strong self improving aspects is what that crowd needs to be and take responsibility for. I’m sure one tin foil hat regressive and resentful old man who ironically has a name wrapped around a term for progress and innovation would disagree and post a link to some absurd article or subjective piece wrapped around one mildly true fact but that the threat. The threat of Russia or China or the Middle East has never been as real as the mythology around them. Just like Japan eating our lunch buying Rockefeller Center and 7 mi drive/pebble beach. I recall being a kid and aids (gays), crack (black gangbangers who were tagging NYC subways like spitz, not the good ones like Bill Cosby and Jesse Jackson that wild liberals like my mother perpetuated), russia and the Japanese just in time inventory model were what was going to make us so messed up they’d be doing a remix to “do the knew it’s Christmas” for Americans. How’s that going now? Magic doesn’t have aids, white trash opioid epidemic, China (until the last 6 mo when Jack Ma disappeared and was “re-educated” and they are cracking down on their controlled banks and real estate as well as from what I understand taking it to the oligarch class which they now view as an internal threat).

The difference is for our divisions and even inferior understanding of the human condition there was a still a collective will which I deductively refer to as “the Protestant ethic and spirit of capitalism” (Weber-https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pro ... Capitalism). Now it’s a bunch of a-holes shouting about what’s unfair, who deserves a handout and wealth transfers and punishments. Heading from Alabama football to Oberlins new varsity sport called “apologizing whining and protesting” football.

It used to rub me the wrong way all the stupid terms like Chicom, FLP, RINO, mittens. Type of stuff an 8yr old bully I’m the schoolyard but realized no point in even bothering some people will never change. I’ll always be thirsty for the next Halstom Sage or Krysten Ritter so who am
I to speak.

[cradleandshoot]

The US-UK-Aussie sub deal is a great thing for the free world alliance. China is stunned.
Bad deal for France, but they were offering an inferior product at an inflated price. Diesel-elec boat at nuc prices.
It will be interesting to learn about the diplomacy, or lack thereof, which lead to this contretemps.

Aussies all in on AUKUS :

https://news.usni.org/2021/09/15/austra ... th-u-s-u-k

https://news.usni.org/2021/09/17/austra ... the-future

The REALLY important question is how does Biden assuage the ruffled feathers of the Chicoms?? Maybe Gen Milley is on the phone with his Chicom counterpart assuring him everything is copesetic between our 2 countries. Maybe if the Chicoms are going to nuke us the Chicom general will reciprocate in kind and call us first...

The “Chicoms” are not the greatest threat to our democracy and national security. The greatest threats are Donald Trump and his cult of white supremacist domestic terrorists.

It wasn’t China or Russia that attacked the U.S. Capitol.

It isn’t China that is spreading anti-vaxxer garbage and causing havoc by refusing to get a very safe and effective vaccine.

No, all of that is attributable to Trump’s cult of violent, racist trash.

DocBarrister

I'm not certain what is more disturbing doc. The fact you could say something so dumb or the fact you believe something so dumb. Anyhoo I hope the weather is nice in the fantasy world you live in. I'm guessing sunshine, lollypops and roses abound. BTW, how come your Chicom friends are so ticked off at the Nuke sub deal with the Aussies? I don't think the 1/6 rabble could give a rats rear end about that. How much of our 700 billion dollar defense budget protects us from the 1/6 rabble? How much of that budget is zeroed in on your girlfriends the Chicoms. Love em all you want they will not go to the prom with you

[Farfromgeneva]

The US-UK-Aussie sub deal is a great thing for the free world alliance. China is stunned.
Bad deal for France, but they were offering an inferior product at an inflated price. Diesel-elec boat at nuc prices.
It will be interesting to learn about the diplomacy, or lack thereof, which lead to this contretemps.

Aussies all in on AUKUS :

https://news.usni.org/2021/09/15/austra ... th-u-s-u-k

https://news.usni.org/2021/09/17/austra ... the-future

The REALLY important question is how does Biden assuage the ruffled feathers of the Chicoms?? Maybe Gen Milley is on the phone with his Chicom counterpart assuring him everything is copesetic between our 2 countries. Maybe if the Chicoms are going to nuke us the Chicom general will reciprocate in kind and call us first...

The “Chicoms” are not the greatest threat to our democracy and national security. The greatest threats are Donald Trump and his cult of white supremacist domestic terrorists.

It wasn’t China or Russia that attacked the U.S. Capitol.

It isn’t China that is spreading anti-vaxxer garbage and causing havoc by refusing to get a very safe and effective vaccine.

No, all of that is attributable to Trump’s cult of violent, racist trash.

DocBarrister

I'm not certain what is more disturbing doc. The fact you could say something so dumb or the fact you believe something so dumb. Anyhoo I hope the weather is nice in the fantasy world you live in. I'm guessing sunshine, lollypops and roses abound. BTW, how come your Chicom friends are so ticked off at the Nuke sub deal with the Aussies? I don't think the 1/6 rabble could give a rats rear end about that. How much of our 700 billion dollar defense budget protects us from the 1/6 rabble? How much of that budget is zeroed in on your girlfriends the Chicoms. Love em all you want they will not go to the prom with you

Who’s going to be your enemy when China self immolates the way Russia did under communism?

[old salt]

The US-UK-Aussie sub deal is a great thing for the free world alliance. China is stunned.
Bad deal for France, but they were offering an inferior product at an inflated price. Diesel-elec boat at nuc prices.
It will be interesting to learn about the diplomacy, or lack thereof, which lead to this contretemps.

Aussies all in on AUKUS :

https://news.usni.org/2021/09/15/austra ... th-u-s-u-k

https://news.usni.org/2021/09/17/austra ... the-future

No EUro sympathy for the French.

https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2021/0 ... e_today_nl

[old salt]

The US-UK-Aussie sub deal is a great thing for the free world alliance. China is stunned.
Bad deal for France, but they were offering an inferior product at an inflated price. Diesel-elec boat at nuc prices.
It will be interesting to learn about the diplomacy, or lack thereof, which lead to this contretemps.

Aussies all in on AUKUS :

https://news.usni.org/2021/09/15/austra ... th-u-s-u-k

https://news.usni.org/2021/09/17/austra ... the-future

No EUro sympathy for the French.

https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2021/0 ... e_today_nl

One thought occurred to me. The French sub offered was the same hull & weapons systems as their own designed & built Barracuda class nuc boat.

I wonder if the French declined to offer the nuc version to the Aussies, out of deference to the US by not expanding membership in the nuc sub club. The French & Brits initially gained the capability by sharing US technology in building their early generation nuc boats. The UK has remained more dependent on sharing US design & technology than the French, who have more aggressively pursued an independent design & manufacturing capability.

While the nuc powered Barracuda is adequate for France's needs in patrolling the Med & E Atlantic, US attack boats have better range & endurance which is an advantage when patrolling the vast reaches of the W Pac & the S China Sea.

This was a good deal, poorly executed. I admire the French for maintaining their own defense industry, but when it comes to designing & building nuc warships, they should have remained closely linked with the US, imho, as the Brits did & the Aussies are now doing.

[RedFromMI]

OS - the Australians decided when they went originally with the French boats to NOT go nuclear according to some things I read a few days ago. I think the US proposal has differing amounts of support for the nuclear infrastructure.

The Aussies AFAIK don't want nuclear weapons in any case.

[cradleandshoot]

OS - the Australians decided when they went originally with the French boats to NOT go nuclear according to some things I read a few days ago. I think the US proposal has differing amounts of support for the nuclear infrastructure.

The Aussies AFAIK don't want nuclear weapons in any case.

The chicoms don't want the Aussies having nuclear powered subs. Why should that bother the chicoms? The Aussies are thousands of miles away from the chicom sphere of influence. As you point out, these subs will not be armed with nukes.

[jhu72]

A democratic representative has introduced a bill to abolish the US Space Farce. https://www.kron4.com/news/new-federal- ... ace-force/

[cradleandshoot]

A democratic representative has introduced a bill to abolish the US Space Farce. https://www.kron4.com/news/new-federal- ... ace-force/

What?? They didn't like those fancy new uniforms they came up with for the space rangers? I could have seen them being all the rage for Halloween costumes.

[old salt]

OS - the Australians decided when they went originally with the French boats to NOT go nuclear according to some things I read a few days ago. I think the US proposal has differing amounts of support for the nuclear infrastructure.

The Aussies AFAIK don't want nuclear weapons in any case.

When you reference reading "go nuclear" did that mean nuc propulsion or nuc weapons ?

The subs are going to be constructed in Australia. The French may not have been able or willing to export the technology to build & support nuc propulsion for subs. It's a BIG DEAL that the US is willing to share that tech with the Aussies, as we did with the UK & France in the '60's.

The magnitude of the infrastructure needed leads to speculation that patrolling US subs may make extended port visits for maint in Australia, similar to the arrangement the US had with the UK for our sub base at Holy Loch, Scotland which was co-located with their sub base as Faslane.

Having a second US sub base in W Pac, in addition to Guam, is a big strategic asset.

[NattyBohChamps04]

A democratic representative has introduced a bill to abolish the US Space Farce. https://www.kron4.com/news/new-federal- ... ace-force/

What?? They didn't like those fancy new uniforms they came up with for the space rangers? I could have seen them being all the rage for Halloween costumes.

Guardians. A name so terrible Cleveland said, "hey, that's a good idea!"

[youthathletics]

A democratic representative has introduced a bill to abolish the US Space Farce. https://www.kron4.com/news/new-federal- ... ace-force/

What?? They didn't like those fancy new uniforms they came up with for the space rangers? I could have seen them being all the rage for Halloween costumes.

I was hoping for these uniforms.

[old salt]

OS - the Australians decided when they went originally with the French boats to NOT go nuclear according to some things I read a few days ago. I think the US proposal has differing amounts of support for the nuclear infrastructure.

The Aussies AFAIK don't want nuclear weapons in any case.

When you reference reading "go nuclear" did that mean nuc propulsion or nuc weapons ?

The subs are going to be constructed in Australia. The French may not have been able or willing to export the technology to build & support nuc propulsion for subs. It's a BIG DEAL that the US is willing to share that tech with the Aussies, as we did with the UK & France in the '60's.

The magnitude of the infrastructure needed leads to speculation that patrolling US subs may make extended port visits for maint in Australia, similar to the arrangement the US had with the UK for our sub base at Holy Loch, Scotland which was co-located with their sub base as Faslane.

Having a second US sub base in W Pac, in addition to Guam, is a big strategic asset.

Apparently, the Aussies switched & opted to go for nuc propulsion in response to China's recent bullying.
France's Comme si, comme sa attitude toward China was not good enough in this case.

https://www.france24.com/en/asia-pacifi ... ne-dispute
Analysts say that – regardless of France’s outrage – the bottom line is that Sino-Australian relations have deteriorated considerably since the Franco-Australian agreement was made in 2016.

The deal Canberra signed in 2016 for France’s mainly state-owned Naval Group to supply 12 submarines for the Royal Australian Navy was a boon for the French defence industry. Worth €31 billion when it was signed, the deal is now estimated at €56 billion ($66 billion).

It no longer looked like such a great deal for Australia. Concerned about China’s increasingly bellicose foreign policy, Canberra feared that France’s conventional electric-diesel submarines were inadequate for its needs.

‘China surprised us all’

Consequently, Australia got the ball rolling in March – reaching out to its British ally to ask for help in persuading the US to hand over technology it had only ever shared with the UK.

“What’s driven Australia’s decision is a reassessment of its strategic environment, primarily because of China’s behaviour over the past few years as Beijing has really stepped up its assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific region and changed perceptions about the level of potential hazard,” said Brendan Sargeant, Australia’s associate secretary of defence from 2013 to 2017, now head of the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at Australian National University. “It’s a different environment from what it was five years ago – and the rate of change has gone faster than any of our assessments; China under President Xi Jinping has surprised us all.”

“It’s not that the French submarines are bad, it’s that looking into the future, the nuclear option makes much more sense, because with them Australia can sustain operations over long distances and long periods of time – and will be capable of responding to the growth in Chinese capabilities,” Sargeant explained.

The range of the US nuclear submarines is an especially important advantage for Australia, Sargeant continued, because they would have to travel far from their bases to patrol the Indo-Pacific: “It’s difficult to base submarines north of Stirling [a naval base on the southern part of Australia’s West Coast] – the water is too shallow and the tidal ranges are enormous – so submarines will have to go a long way to patrol deep into the Indian Ocean or in the north of Asia, and that would have pushed against the edges of conventional submarine technology.”

‘Scepticism towards Paris’

This Australian paradigm shift from warily engaging with China to preparing for potential confrontation mirrors the same change of thinking in Washington and London. By contrast, France has maintained a more ambiguous China policy – signing on to the official EU line that China is simultaneously a partner, competitor and rival.

Emmanuel Macron has endorsed a divergent position from the growing Anglophone consensus. Calls to “join all together against China” create a “scenario of the highest possible conflictuality” and are “counter-productive”, the French president said in February at a discussion broadcast by the Washington DC think-tank the Atlantic Council.

“France has a more cautious approach towards China, whereas what America wants is for countries to join together collectively and balance against China,” noted Shashank Joshi, defence editor of The Economist.

Macron gave concrete form to this stance when he backed German Chancellor Angela Merkel in forming the “Comprehensive Agreement on Trade” with China unveiled in December 2020.

While the deal would handsomely benefit influential businesses like German car companies, critics accused Macron and Merkel of naively trusting China’s commitments on technology transfers and the use of forced labour. Across the Atlantic, the incoming Biden administration was disappointed that the EU had effectively rebuffed its requests for consultation about European economic relations with China.

Then the Chinese government’s actions made the “Comprehensive Agreement” politically unsustainable in May, when it imposed sanctions on several MEPs and European researchers specialising in China – prompting the EU Parliament to suspend the deal.

“In Washington, that episode contributed to a scepticism towards Paris,” said Robert Singh, a professor of American politics at Birkbeck, University of London. “France is very much seen as too soft on China – at a time when the US is clearly concerned that too many states on every continent are being suckered by China’s economic statecraft into positions where US security alliances are likely to be endangered.”

“So to see France do what it did with that trade deal was very disappointing to the Biden administration,” Singh continued. “My impression is that the US won’t care very much that it has outraged France with this Australian submarine deal.”

‘The better partner’

If Joe Biden mentions his chagrin over France’s China policy in the phone call with Macron expected over the next few days, Macron could very well point to France's actions in response to Beijing’s threats against Western allies in the Indo-Pacific.

France conducts naval patrols of the Taiwan Strait at least once a year to support freedom of navigation – and even deployed, in February, a nuclear submarine to the South China Sea, almost all of which Beijing controversially claims.

Describing France as soft on China would be “unfair”, Joshi said – suggesting that “ambivalent” would be more accurate.

But it seems ambivalence is not good enough for the US – or indeed for Australia. Not only was French submarine technology less attractive for Canberra in the context of Chinese aggression in the Indo-Pacific, but France’s geo-strategic approach also made it a less attractive partner than the US, said Richard Whitman, a professor of politics and international relations at the University of Kent.

“The US thinks about how to contain China. And Australia too is in the position of thinking about how one contains, as opposed to how one accommodates; that’s the fundamental difference with France,” Whitman said. “As a consequence, the US looks like the better partner – when France was always a second-order partner that could supplement rather than replace anything the US might have to offer.”

[a fan]

Been following these posts, OS, in case you thought no one was appreciated that you're sharing them, and your insights.

...thanks for posting them

[old salt]

[jhu72]

Biden UNGA speech well received. Not as entertaining as Trump's, no one laughed. But it seemed to get the job done. The Afghanistan kerfluffle and the French Uboat deal dust up will pass very quickly. Both have largely been events the media cares about a lot more than actual voters.

[MDlaxfan76]

Been following these posts, OS, in case you thought no one was appreciated that you're sharing them, and your insights.

...thanks for posting them

+1