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Weekly Update by Mark Armstrong – July 12, 2024

Mark Armstrong — Fri, 12 Jul 2024 23:38:23 +0000

Greetings from Tyler,

Joe Biden’s misstatements are at the top of the list. Are these merely mix-ups which happen to everybody now and again, or something more serious. You almost hate to watch him appear some-where, because you know it will be an embarrassment, but it’s like a train-wreck. You can’t look away. To say that the Democrats are in disarray would be an understatement. Good luck getting Jill out of there, and Joe would rather give up something valuable than make her mad.

So purportedly Obama is scheming with other bigwigs, wondering what they do to get him out of the race, and the sooner the better. You almost don’t want to know what they’ve decided, but it looks like they need to ditch him. But who will take his place? Everybody else is polling lower. Maybe it doesn’t matter. Have they already thrown in the towel?

They’ve already got Peter Navarro and Steve Bannon in jail, and they better be enjoying it, because they’re next, and they know it. They’ve decided to go for broke in defeating Trump. It almost doesn’t matter who they put forward, they’ve just got to beat Trump! If he stoops to the level they have in their efforts to destroy and devastate, they’ve got a lot to worry about. They’ve bankrupted Rudy Giuliani, and they still act like they can call the shots. But not for much longer. It’s almost refreshing watching them squirm.

Biden is embarrassing them every time he opens his mouth, something either incomprehensible or unbelievable comes out of his whispering mouth. Can you imagine the histrionics of his handlers? They must die a thousand deaths. Behind the curtain of course.

The leaders know they’ve got to put somebody else up, but who? You know the choices, and none check all the boxes. It’s come out that all the other candidates for the job have worse poll numbers than the pretender, so what to do?

The media is expressing shock, but they’ve been running interference since the beginning. It’s starting to look like they’re going to get their comeuppance.

The rest of the world is having a good laugh at our expense. They may be fooling somebody, but it’s so obvious that the dude can’t hack it anymore. Who’s going to tell Jill? And what happens after that? The drumbeat continues and gets louder. But Joe may be the best they can do.

We here in Texas got the outer bands of the hurricane that has the power out for hundreds of thousands in Houston. It’s cool here, especially for Summer. They’ve been preaching this global warming gospel for the past 50 years, and the Summer is just like I remember it as a kid. Think of it, we’ve got battery powered everything, and some of it actually works. Unfortunately transportation is not ready for prime time. They think they’ll put us all in battery cars by some chosen date? Yeah, thanks anyway. You hardly see battery cars around here, but this is Texas.

Taiwan has seen Chinese fighter jets. You wonder, with the United States in the present disarray, what will the bad guys do while we’ve got this situation? It’s a dangerous time for the United States and our allies. They must be scared to death.

The pretender is doing everything he can think of to reassure everybody, and mushes up his words too often. Everybody’s going to make a mistake sooner or later, but this guy’s making them all the time.

Have things not gone wrong? Do we not have a war in Ukraine that threatens to start WWIII? Do we not have a war in the Middle East that’s gone on too long already. Who’s running the show? Most think it’s Obama. He doesn’t think things are fair!

The next five months are a dangerous time for the United States. They think they can bring Eastern Europe into NATO? You think Russia is scared? Putin sees everything we do. Viktor Orban is making the rounds, but he supports Trump and claims his efforts are fact-finding.

We’ve got all kinds of nonsense going on in the U. S. that our enemies are wise to. Let’s pray our enemies don’t take advantage of the situation.

Mark

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Weekly Update by Mark Armstrong – July 14, 2023

Mark Armstrong — Fri, 14 Jul 2023 21:59:09 +0000

Greetings from Tyler,

It’s been another week of pitiful embarrassments, as world leaders exchange glances at televised events. The video of him pulling his chair on the beach says it all. They’ve edited that scene out of some videos, for good reason. The only question now is, will he get to see how all this turns out?

U. S. Army Reserves have been called up and are being sent to the perimeter of the Ukrainian war. It’s turning into the 21^st Century Vietnam. Only everybody switched sides. What are the Reserves for? A display of readiness should things go to the next level? Or intended to confuse Putin into believing that we’re prepared to start WWIII over what’s left of Ukraine? It seems like our tranquility is being disturbed by the Biden administration. Whoever is calling the shots.

The Secret Service called a Congressional briefing to let everybody know that the coke case has gone cold. They cannot solve it, not even with all the forensic means available. Certainly not with cameras! There are three or four documentary series on TV, where the most complex crimes are solved. But this time they’re stumped, and furthermore no one should worry any longer because it’s been officially declared dead. So let that be the end of that.

Did you see any of the Chris Wray testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee? He held his own, but got told off by several conservative Senators. The stock answer is that the matter at hand is under active investigation and therefore not to be discussed. It seems like that was the answer to quite a few questions. If something is under investigation, nobody can talk about it. What an ingenious device! The excerpts go on and on.

Why must they make us all complicit? We’re not celebrating any of their goofy months or weeks or whatever. Who decides this nonsense? They can’t ban us all, can they? It’s as if all kinds of ideology has been applied to society in general, and you better not step out of line lest some wire be tripped, and oops, you’re canceled. Is this what we’re facing? We have to lock arms with anti-God idiots to survive? We’ll pass.

It is probably already too late to turn this juggernaut around. We’ve been spent into debt in terms that are difficult to comprehend. The interest on American debt is set to supersede some of the most cherished government programs in coming years. But Ukraine!

How long has society been practicing “affirmative action?” The Supreme Court just ruled the practice un-Constitutional, and you should hear the howling. It’s been understood for decades that institutions have their rules for admission, and… Well, they’re not going to be able to go by those rules in the future. No doubt somebody will come up with another righteous theory, and it’ll take another thirty or forty years to straighten out. But in the meantime true believers are losing it.

Who wants to join the military? Apparently it’s become a bastion of woke philosophy, and recruits are not easy to come by. The military has become a testing ground for equity, diversity and inclusion. You know that must be great for morale. No wonder recruiting is difficult. In addition, who wants to be on the front lines when they’re flirting with WWIII?

Is it true that we’re burning through so many munitions in Ukraine, that the administration is having to send cluster bombs? It’s hard to imagine that the U. S. is dipping deeply into its supplies because Putin has greedy intentions. Ukraine has been reduced largely to rubble. Heart wrenching scenes of mothers emerging from bombed buildings wondering where to go. I’m sure the experts have it all figured out.

There’s no question that the U. S. is being punished. Will there be a revival? It can’t come soon enough, hopefully before the pretender stumbles us into complete oblivion. What happens when the wheels come off? We’ve anticipated some blockbuster publicity before, something that would derail everything, and have been disappointed when nothing happened. Maybe it’ll be different this time. Apparently there are tapes confirming that American policies have been sold, and they will be made public in hearings next week. Stand by, if it happens, for that to overwhelm other news. No doubt explanations are being hatched as you read. Then what? The mind boggles.

It doesn’t look too good and God cannot be amused anymore than we are. America better get back to its founding principles and turn against all this godless philosophy, or everything’s going to go horribly wrong. That’s how it works.

Mark

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Trump tariffs in retaliation for jailed American pastor send Turkey’s economy plunging

Hollie McKay - Fox News — Sun, 12 Aug 2018 13:51:15 +0000

Fierce tensions between the United States and Turkey have continued to escalate over the weekend – resounding through the global economy and inseminating volatility throughout the Middle East markets – in response to Trump’s tough crackdown on the once esteemed NATO ally.

“I have just authorized a doubling of Tariffs on Steel and Aluminum with respect to Turkey as their currency, the Turkish Lira, slides rapidly downward against our very strong Dollar! Aluminum will now be 20% and Steel 50%,” Trump tweeted Friday. “Our relations with Turkey are not good at this time!”

The Turkish lira, tumbled from 4.7 to the dollar to a depleted 6.4 to the dollar, for the first time in history breaking the 6 mark. The lira is reported to have more than 30 percent of its value throughout August, with the biggest hit – a fall of 14 percent – happening Friday. The yield on Turkish decade-long bonds has risen to over 20 percent and inflation is now running at over 15 percent compared to 11 percent one year ago, according to TradingEconomics.

At the crux of the diplomatic dispute is Turkey’s refusal to release American Pastor Andrew Brunson, who has been detained in Turkey for 21 months on “terrorism” charges – suspected of having ties to the outlawed Gulenist movement – along with alleged espionage accusations. U.S. State Department representatives have called the file against him as entirely uncreditable.

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump

I have just authorized a doubling of Tariffs on Steel and Aluminum with respect to Turkey as their currency, the Turkish Lira, slides rapidly downward against our very strong Dollar! Aluminum will now be 20% and Steel 50%. Our relations with Turkey are not good at this time!

Brunson, who had been living in Turkey for more than 20 years doing missionary work and ran a small church in the coastal city of Izmir, is largely thought to be a mere political prisoner and bargaining tool for the Turkish government.

The Trump administration had earlier slapped sanctions on two top Turkish government officials for their fundamental role in Brunson’s ongoing detainment, and Congress is pushing for even more sanctions, such as blocking a delivery of F-35 fighter jets to Turkey and halting funding from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to the beleaguered country that once boasted a robust economy, unique to the Middle East.

US PASTOR IN TURKEY TOPS LIST OF AMERICANS JAILED, SENTENCED ON DUBIOUS CHARGES YAZIDIS SEEK RESCUE OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN ENSLAVED, MARRIED OFF TO ISIS

For a time, it seemed the Trump team had a deal in the works to avoid such tensions coming to a head, with various concessions and incentives being given to Ankara, including the dropping of charges on Turkish guards accused of beating anti-Erdogan protesters in Washington. Yet such deal talks are said to have fallen apart in the past month following the NATO summit in Brussels.

Nonetheless, Erdogan has showed no sign of conceding to Trump’s iron-fist even as his entire economy is on the brink of crashing. In a speech Friday he insisted his country “will not lose the economic war,” and called on Turks to sell their gold and dollars and buy lira to boost the flagging currency – of which analysts have since called “laughable.”While strains between the two military allies appear to have hit a high point, tensions have been brewing for some years in the rocky relationship.

Turkish President Recep Erdogan (AP)

U.S. officials based in Ankara told Fox News in April that diplomatic relations were at their lowest point, fueled in large part by the detainment of Brunson and several other dual U.S citizens – including U.S. Embassy employees – but also as a result of Turkey entering into a deal last September with NATO nemesis Russia to purchase their S-400 surface-to-air-missile system which would thus require Russian military technicians operating in the arena.

Ankara also announced that Erdogan had personally held a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday to address their economic links in the midst of the monetary turbulence.

A central point of contention of Erdogan personally is the U.S.’ refusal to extradite Pennsylvania-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, who the president blames for orchestrating the failed 2016 coup attempt to overthrow his government. U.S. officials told Fox News that the two countries do have an extradition treaty and that the matter has been looked into by the Department of Justice, yet the Turks have not been able to provide irrefutable evidence that Gulen was indeed behind the botched operation.

(Incirklik airbase in Turkey where Turkish and American forces operate)

Following the rise of ISIS in the region around 2014, hostilities also seethed as some Americans accused Turkey of allowing a porous border to provide safe haven to the Islamic insurgency and fertile ground to finance their terrorism. Meanwhile, the Turks assailed the U.S. for arming Syria’s main Kurdish militia, initially the YPJ was folded into what was called the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which they consider to be under the same umbrella as the Turkey-based outlawed Kurdish separatist group, the PKK.Other analysts have pegged the downturn in kinship to as far back as 2003, when Turkey forbade U.S. troops to move through its country in the early days of the American invasion of Iraq.

Hollie McKay has been a FoxNews.com staff reporter since 2007. She has reported extensively from the Middle East on the rise and fall of terrorist groups such as ISIS in Iraq. Follow her on twitter at @holliesmckay

Source: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2018/08/12/trump-tariffs-send-turkeys-economy-plunging-in-retaliation-for-jailed-american-pastor.html
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NATO summit, Brussels, 11-12/07/2018

European Union News — Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:32:59 +0000

From left to right: Mr Donald TUSK, President of the European Council; Mr Donald TRUMP, President of the United States of America. Shoot location: Bruxelles – BELGIUM Shoot date: 11/07/2018 Copyright: European Union

This story is brought to you in association with the European Union Council

The NATO summit was an opportunity to follow up on EU-NATO cooperation. The EU and NATO signed a new joint declaration just ahead of the summit on 10 July 2018.

The NATO summit was also an occasion to take stock of progress achieved since the previous 2016 Warsaw and 2017 Brussels summits.

President Donald Tusk, President Jean-Claude Juncker, and High Representative Federica Mogherini represented the EU at the NATO summit.

President Tusk participated to the working dinner of the North Atlantic Council at the level of heads of state and government on 11 July. The following day he took part in the meeting on Afghanistan.

President Tusk also met bilaterally with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan as well as with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.

Speaking on the eve of the NATO summit, President Tusk addressed President Donald Trump directly:

“Dear president Trump: America does not have, and will not have a better ally than Europe. Today Europeans spend on defence many times more than Russia, and as much as China. And I think you can have no doubt, Mr President, that this is an investment in common American and European defence.”

President Tusk’s remarks on EU-NATO cooperation, 10 July 2018

Remarks by President Donald Tusk on EU-NATO cooperation, 10 July 2018

NATO summit website

New EU-NATO joint declaration

President Donald Tusk and President Jean-Claude Juncker signed a new EU-NATO joint declaration with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, ahead of the summit on 10 July.

Joint declaration on EU-NATO cooperation, 10 July 2018

The new joint declaration sets out a shared vision of how the EU and NATO will act together against common security threats.

“We want to protect European citizens with all possible means available, and there is no better partner than NATO. That is why we have agreed today to strengthen EU-NATO ties in crucially important areas.”

President Donald Tusk’s statement at the EU-NATO signing ceremony, 10 Juky 2018

The EU and NATO will focus their cooperation on areas such as:

military mobility
cyber security
hybrid threats
counter-terrorism
women and security

The new joint declaration highlights that EU’s recent efforts to step up defense and security cooperation strengthen transatlantic security:

“We welcome EU efforts to bolster European security and defense to better protect the Union and its citizens and to contribute to peace and stability in the neighbourhood and beyond. The Permanent Structured Cooperation and the European Defense Fund contribute to these objectives.”Joint declaration on EU-NATO cooperation, 10 July 2018

The declaration builds on the objectives of the previous joint declaration of July 2016, which was signed at the 2016 NATO summit in Poland.

NATO summit, Warsaw, Poland, 08-09/07/2016

At the June European Council, EU leaders said that EU-NATO cooperation should be further deepened through a new joint declaration:

“The European Council calls for further deepening of EU-NATO cooperation, in full respect of the principles of inclusiveness, reciprocity and decision-making autonomy of the EU, including through a new Joint Declaration, building on the progress made in implementing the 2016 Joint Declaration and the related proposals for action.”European Council conclusions, 28 June 2018

About EU-NATO cooperation

The EU and NATO are the backbone of transatlantic security. Their cooperation was established more than 15 years ago. It has led to the development of a broad range of tools to provide greater security to citizens in Europe and beyond.The EU and NATO signed a joint declaration on increasing practical cooperation at the last NATO summit, held in Poland in July 2016.In December 2016, the EU and NATO endorsed 42 concrete actions for the implementation of the joint declaration.Both parties endorsed a new set of 32 actions in December 2017 to expand cooperation to new topics.

Source: https://europeansting.com/2018/07/13/nato-summit-brussels-11-12-07-2018/
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NATO summit was a victory for Trump: John Hannah

Fox Business — Thu, 12 Jul 2018 16:20:42 +0000

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EU fears ‘Russian AGGRESSION’ in Ukraine amid World War 3 fears ahead of crunch NATO talks

George Cook — Wed, 11 Jul 2018 13:26:11 +0000

RUSSIA has been told it should “immediately release” Ukrainian political prisoners as the EU heavily criticises the Putin regime following high numbers of deaths in the region.

Donald Tusk, the EU Council chairman, made the remarks in Brussels on Monday ahead of the most important NATO summit in years.

On Monday, Tusk said: “Russia’s image must not only depend on the organisation of football championships but on what is the reality – the substance of its politics.”

His comments are viewed as an attempt to refocus attention on the Russia/Ukraine conflict and the actions of Putin on the global stage.

Donald Tusk also held a summit with Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko, as he spelt out the EU policy on Ukraine.

A declaration issued in the name of the 28 EU states recognises the “clear violation of Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity by acts of aggression by the Russian armed forces”.

It continued: “We continue to condemn the illegal annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol by the Russian Federation… We remain committed to fully implement our respected non-recognition policies.”

It also named six Russian political prisoners and a Ukrainian film-maker, Oleg Sentov, who is on hunger strike.

The EU has raised concerns that Donald Trump may “legitimise Russia’s violence” and attempted takeover of parts of Ukraine, saying “we’re going to have to see” whether he recognises Putin’s efforts to gain control of Crimea.

Tusk met with the American Ambassador to the EU earlier this week and urged the Ambassador to deliver his message to Donald Trump.

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2014, the EU has become more outspoken on relations between the two countries.

Next week Trump and Putin will hold a summit that will address European security as Russia has seen its image improve since hosting the World Cup finals.

Russia’s foreign relations have also been in the spotlight more recently after multiple Novichok poisonings in Salisbury.

Tusk fears of Russia aggression

Putin has led Russian aggression

The Trump/Putin talks also threaten to take attention away from the NATO Summit in Brussels as hundreds are expected to arrive as part of the two leader’s delegations.

Finland has said it would increase checks on EU borders to ensure the security is high because of the size of the event.

While all eyes are on Russia for the World Cup semi-finals as England attempt to reach the final, violence continued in the region as explosions were heard in Ukraine.

The EU is attempting to calm relations between the countries and is hopeful that it can welcome Ukraine into the political-economic bloc in the future.

Source: https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/986953/EU-Russia-Nato-Putin-Ukraine-World-War-fears

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This is How Russia Could Test NATO, Warns Former US Army Europe Commander

Patrick Tucker - Defense One — Sun, 08 Jul 2018 02:26:51 +0000

Ben Hodges co-authors a new report that explores how Russia might engineer a military crisis on the Poland-Lithuania border.

At Poland’s northeast border there’s only a narrow strip of inland border connecting it to NATO members Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. It’s called the Suwalki Corridor and it has long been an object of concern for Western military leaders.

To the west sits a unique spot Russian territory, the exclave of Kaliningrad, a key military port on the Baltic Sea. To the east is Belarus, a key Russian military ally. On the eve of this week’s NATO Summit, the former commanding general of U.S. Army Europe is issuing a new warning: cutting off that corridor could be how Russian President Vladimir Putin cuts off the Baltic states from the rest of NATO, possibly without firing a shot.

“Situated between Belarus and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, it serves as the only land link between NATO and its three Baltic members, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania,” says a new report co-authored by retired Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, scheduled for release on Monday by the Center for European Analysis, or CEPA, which provided Defense One a copy prior to publication.

“If Russian forces ever established control over this Corridor, or even threatened the free movement of NATO forces and material through it, they could cut the Baltic States off from the rest of the Alliance and potentially obstruct allied reinforcements advancing by land through Poland.”

The significance of the corridor to NATO, and the unpredictability of Russian action, has Hodges worried. The idea of Russia actively invading Europe may seem far-fetched. And it is, as we conceive of it.

“I don’t think that Russia intends to invade Europe as though its 1991. They don’t have the capacity to do that anymore. Especially with the 29 forces of NATO, it completely dwarfs them,” said Hodges, who retired this year.

But if you accept Putin’s goal is to destabilize the NATO alliance and convince some members or unaligned countries to join Russia’s sphere of influence, then it becomes easier to imagine Putin engineering some sort of crisis to make the alliance look impotent or irrelevant to its members’ security, and that’s what has Hodges worried.

The Kremlin wants “a seat at the high table and they do that by undermining the alliance,” Hodges said. “The way that they do that is show that the alliance can not protect one of its members, show that we are too slow, that we can’t deter that sort of attack. If you accept that premise, that they might do a limited attack to demonstrate that NATO cannot protect its members, that would create a problem.”

It’s exactly the sort of scenario Russia drilled last fall during its most recent grand-scale exercise, Zapad 2017. The event took place primarily in Belarus but involved troops and military assets across Russia, including ICBMs. Kaliningrad played a key role in the exercise, according to Phil Karber, president of the Potomac Foundation and one of the authors of the Russia New Generation Warfare Study, a classified analysis of Russian tactics and capabilities written for the U.S. military in 2016.

The Zapad exercise pitted the Russian military against several unnamed, artificial countries that nevertheless exist in the same geographical location as Poland, Latvia, and Lithuania. “The main drive appeared to be hitting eastern Latvia and dropping down into Lithuania and cutting across to Kaliningrad,” from Belarus, Karber said. From there, in the event of an actual invasion, Russia could create a line of defense along the corridor. That would enable Russia to cut off access from Poland to Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.

“In the process… you essentially cut off the Baltics without killing a lot of people or taking over major cities,” said Karber.

For Hodges, the main lesson from Zapad was that the Russian military could move a lot of equipment and troops into Belarus at high speed, making it difficult for Western observers to distinguish between an exercise and actual military action. “There were at least 100,000 troops involved,” he said. “They had a little dog and pony show in Belarus but 80 or 90,000 troops were involved, elsewhere,” he said.

Hodges, in his new CEPA report, lays out a variety of pretexts that Russia might use to spark a crisis in order to invade the corridor. They read as similar to what happened in Ukraine in 2014. Disinformation and hybrid warfare tactics would play a key role in each.

In one scenario, Kremlin-backed separatists in Kaliningrad or Belarus attack a border crossing in Poland or Lithuania, forcing a police response. Russia could cite that Polish or Lithuanian response as a justification for limited military action. In another, Belarusian President Aleksandr Grigoryevich Lukashenko, (whose ties to Putin are strained) is dispatched in a phony coup, forcing a Russian invasion to stabilize the country.

“Used in combination with localized minority unrest … and cloaked in the fog of chaos and uncertainty, Russia would be in a position to justify the projection of its military power near, into, and through NATO territory — all while plausibly shifting the blame for instability onto the targets of its aggression,” notes the report. “In tandem with these efforts, Moscow seeds the public discourse over the border dispute with NATO states through a coordinated propaganda campaign to support Russia’s rationale for expanding and reuniting Kaliningrad with mainland Russia.”

The ultimate object of the military action would not be to occupy the capital of a NATO country so much as to expose the alliance’s incompetence.

“If they ever tried anything, they would do it asymmetrically so that they could achieve whatever they wanted to achieve before the alliance caught on,” said Hodges.

Patrick Tucker is technology editor for Defense One. He’s also the author of The Naked Future: What Happens in a World That Anticipates Your Every Move? (Current, 2014). Previously, Tucker was deputy editor for The Futurist for nine years. Tucker has written about emerging technology in Slate

Source: https://www.defenseone.com/threats/2018/07/how-russia-could-test-nato-warns-former-us-army-europe-commander/149530/
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