Starvin Larry

By MarEx 2015-02-27 12:35:35

The littoral combat ship USS Fort Worth (LCS 3) practiced the Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea (CUES) with the People’s Liberation Army-Navy [PLA(N)] Jiangkai II frigate Hengshui (FFG 572) Feb. 23 enhancing the professional maritime relationship between U.S. 7th Fleet and the PLA(N).

Fort Worth and Hengshui were conducting routine training and operations in international waters of the South China Sea when the ships realized a training opportunity was present.

CUES, a set of procedures endorsed by naval leaders at the Western Pacific Naval Symposium in April 2014, is a guideline for unplanned maritime encounters while at sea, providing standards for communication, safety procedures and maneuvering instructions for naval ships and aircraft.

“The interaction with the Hengshui was safe and routine, and the professionalism that was on display by both ships is commendable,” said Cmdr. Matt Kawas, Fort Worth Crew 103 commanding officer. “As the first underway for Crew 103 aboard Fort Worth in U.S. 7th Fleet, this was a real-time situation where we relied upon our months of training in San Diego to execute.”

Fort Worth and Hengshui rendezvoused and used CUES as a signaling protocol to indicate ship maneuvering.

“Having a standardized protocol of safety procedures, basic communications and basic maneuvering instructions is critical as we work together to prevent mishaps and miscommunications at sea,” said Capt. Fred Kacher, commodore, Destroyer Squadron 7. “This will likely not be the last time Fort Worth conducts CUES as she continues to operate extensively throughout Southeast Asia and expand her operational footprint to Northeast Asia during the remaining 12 months of her deployment to the Asia-Pacific.”

Fort Worth departed Singapore Feb. 19 following the first of three crew swaps as part of the ship’s maiden 16-month deployment to the Asia-Pacific. Fort Worth is the first LCS to deploy under the “3-2-1” manning concept, which allows LCS to sustain a 16-month forward presence without fatiguing the crew during the extended deployment. It is named “3-2-1” because three rotational crews will support two LCS ships and maintain one deployed ship. Two additional crew swaps will occur during the remainder of Fort Worth’s deployment, roughly every four months.

Read the rest @ http://www.maritime-executive.com/article/us-and-chinese-seize-training-opportunity

By Michael Isikoff  Yahoo News

A top Cuban official tells Yahoo News that releasing Joanne Chesimard, a former Black Panther convicted of killing a New Jersey state trooper, is ‘off the table’

HAVANA — A top Cuban official told Yahoo News that his government has no intention of turning over a fugitive wanted by the FBI for killing a New Jersey police officer.

“I can say it is off the table,” said Gustavo Machin, the deputy director for American affairs at the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs, when asked about calls for Cuba to return Joanne Chesimard.

Chesimard, 67, is on the list of the FBI’s most wanted fugitives, with a $2 million bounty on her head, for the 1973 murder of a state trooper during a shootout on the New Jersey Turnpike. Convicted in 1977, Chesimard — a onetime member of the radical Black Liberation Army — escaped from a New Jersey state women’s prison two years later and fled to Cuba, where she lives in seclusion under the name of Assata Shakur, officially protected by the Cuban government.

Officials in New Jersey, led by Gov. Chris Christie and Sen. Bob Menendez, ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, have demanded that Cuba return Chesimard before the U.S

. takes any further steps to normalize relations with the communist government.

Cuba’s decision to provide sanctuary for Chesimard “is an intolerable insult to all those who long to see justice served,” including members of the slain New Jersey state trooper’s family, Menendez wrote in a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry last week. In an emailed statement to Yahoo News on Monday, Menendez said Chesimard is a “cop killer” and her return should be “a top agenda” item before any further concessions are made to the Castro government.

Machin’s comments during an interview here at the Foreign Ministry underscore the thorny obstacles that still remain even as the U.S. and Cuba continue talks aimed at restoring full diplomatic relations — including the formal opening of embassies in Washington and Havana.

When pressed about Chesimard, Machin responded that Cuba had granted her political asylum and that therefore she would not be subject to any extradition to the United States.

There are very serious doubts about that case,” said Machin. “We consider that a politically motivated case against that lady.”

The issue of Chesimard’s status — and that of more than 70 other U.S. fugitives who are believed to have received safe haven in Cuba — has taken on new resonance, especially within U.S. law enforcement, since Dec. 17, when President Barack Obama commuted the sentences of three convicted members of the so-called Cuban Five spy ring and returned them to Havana. The commutations were part of a diplomatic breakthrough that included Cuba’s return of imprisoned American contractor Alan Gross and a CIA spy serving time in a Cuban prison.

In a separate interview here, Gerardo Hernandez — the ringleader of the Cuban Five, who had been serving a double life sentence — told Yahoo News he was ready to return to duty for the Castro regime. “I’ll tell you what I told Raúl Castro,” said Hernandez. “I’m a soldier. I’m here to receive my next order.”

Last Friday, Machin’s immediate boss, Josefina Vidal, flew to Washington for a second round of negotiations with State Department officials. U.S. officials have said they want to see further progress by Cuba toward democracy and the freeing of political prisoners. 

But Machin told Yahoo News his government still has its own list of lengthy demands, starting with the removal of Cuba from the State Department’s list of state sponsors of terrorism and, after that, a lifting of the U.S embargo and the return of Guantánamo Naval Base.

In the past, U.S. officials have cited Cuba’s support for the leftist FARC guerillas in Colombia as one basis for the terror designation, although the matter is now “under review.” Machin said the charge of a terror link with the FARC is undercut by the fact that Cuba has

a terror link with the FARC is undercut by the fact that Cuba has been sponsoring peace talks between the government of Colombia and the guerrillas.

“At the very least, we deserve a Nobel Peace Prize” for the talks between the Colombian government and the guerrillas, Machin said. “That is the longest-running conflict in North America.”

“They know in their heart that Cuba has not been involved in anything” related to terrorism, Machin said. 

Some U.S. officials have called Chesimard herself a terrorist, given her background with the Black Liberation Army. The group, an outgrowth of the Black Panthers, was linked to a string of bombings, bank robberies and murders of police officers during the 1970s. In Chesimard’s case, she and two accomplices were accused of gunning down New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster after he pulled them over for a moving violation.

But Machin said the U.S. is harboring its own terrorists involved in attacks in Cuba, most prominently Luis Posada Carriles — who is, he

said, a “free man” in Miami. Posada, who once worked for the CIA, was charged in Venezuela for the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed 73 people, but later escaped from jail and was accused by the Cubans of orchestrating a spate of hotel bombings in Havana in 1997.

“From the Cubans’ point of view, the U.S. is harboring true international terrorists, and Luis Posada Carriles is a case in point,” said Peter Kornbluh, co-author of “Back Channel to Cuba: The Hidden History of Negotiations Between Washington and Havana.”

“But I don’t think another swap,” of Chesimard for Posada, “is in the works,” Kornbluh added. “Fidel Castro gave her asylum, and those decisions are not going to be reversed.”

From HuffPo

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/seth-adam-smith/controversial-artist-atta_b_6785996.html?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000592

From the artist’s site-(click on link to artist’s site at bottom of page to view full sized painting)

Obama Foreign Policy

Is the world a safer place since Obama was made President of the United States?
I felt a need to paint a new image to capture the delicate situation we face as Americans.

What has happened since he’s been in office?  Where is the stability and peace in Egypt, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Crimea, Ukraine, Russia, Iran, Israel, Palestine, China and North Korea? How are our veterans doing? Are American citizens safer as they travel abroad?

When the balance of the world seems to stand on the edge of a knife, where is our President?

I hope this painting will not become prophetic in its meaning.

Since Obama has been President he has played over 200 rounds of golf.

THIS is not a game.

This is Obama’s Foreign Policy.

What has he done?

·      Weakened Egypt and the rise of the Arab spring. http://solutions.heritage.org/middle-east/ http://foreignpolicy.com/2013/04/02/why-obama-failed-in-the-middle-east/

·      Toppled Libya, which led to the emboldening of Al Qaida and the Benghazi Massacre. http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/marc-thiessen-where-was-obama-during-benghazi-ask-the-white-house- http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2014/05/02/the-6-biggest-lies-about-benghazi/ diarist/2014/05/12/70c6b898-d9cc-11e3-bda1-9b46b2066796_story.html

·      Embarrassment in Syria and the “red line.” http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/09/opinion/cupp-obama-syria/

·      Gave away multiple Guantanamo Bay prisoners who returned to ISIS and Al Qaida for an AWOL soldier who caused the lives of American servicemen. http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2014/06/reports-show-danger-releasing-gitmo-terrorists-obama-frees-5/

·      Demoralized our military and has done little or nothing to strengthen the VA hospitals even after exposed corruption. http://militaryadvantage.military.com/2014/06/why-is-the-va-scandal-a-foreign-policy-issue/

·      Removed missiles from Ukraine and opened the door to Russian forces. http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2014/mar/23/mitt-romney/romney-obama-stopped-missile-defense-shield-gift-r/

·      Emboldened Iran’s nuclear plans at Israel’s expense. http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-emerging-iran-nuclear-deal-raises-major-concerns-in-congress-and-beyond/2015/02/05/4b80fd92-abda-11e4-ad71-7b9eba0f87d6_story.html

·      Continued to insult Israel and create a volatile environment in the Middle East. http://www.politico.com/story/2015/01/barack-obama-benjamin-netanyahu-israel-114750.html

·      Done little to oppose North Korea. http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/04/politics/robert-menendez-hits-obama-on-north-korea-cuba/

·      Removed troops from Iraq without an exit strategy. http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/142204/rick-brennan/withdrawal-symptoms

·      Removal of troops from Afghanistan without an exit strategy. http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/marc-thiessen-will-obama-repeat-his-iraq-mistakes-in-afghanistan/2014/06/23/fd935084-facd-11e3-b1f4-8e77c632c07b_story.html

·      Improper use of drones in Pakistan and Yemen with many civilian casualties. http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2015/01/american-drones-killed-civilians-bombing-cambodia-vietnam-war-died-911.html

·      Killing of American citizens abroad in the name of national security. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/07/world/middleeast/07yemen.html

·      Soft on ISIS in the wake of horrific attacks in the Middle East. http://www.nairaland.com/1890136/why-obama-soft-isis

·      Insistence not to mention radical Islam as a major threat to American interests. http://conservativetribune.com/oliver-north-enemy-radical-islam/

Artist’s site-

http://www.jonmcnaughton.com/obama-foreign-policy/

Sapience, not Sentience

In the modest and unassuming manner natural to this column, I advance a small proposal for the emendation of such tatters of the Constitution as can be found: For voting in federal elections, we should employ a literacy test to disenfranchise the majority of the population, to the infinite betterment of the country. This wise move should be accompanied by an increase in the voting age to twenty-five.
The necessity cannot be denied. Consider the following:
Forty-three percent of Americans think Saddam Hussein was personally involved in 9/11.
Sixty-four percent cannot name the three branches of the federal government.
Fourteen percent are illiterate.
Twenty-six percent think the sun goes around the earth.
These numbers may be understood in various ways. To a curmudgeon, who obtains a sour satisfaction from the endless repetition of human folly, they provide the satisfactions of confirmation.  We all enjoy being right. In practical terms, they mean that democracy, or our mild approximation thereto, is a sham, a fraud, an impossibility, and a bad idea. No one so blankly ignorant, so mentally without furniture, so muddle-headed, limited, and barren, should be allowed within hailing range of a voting booth.
Such people cannot possibly know anything of national questions. Those who live in a featureless tundra of the mind usually do so from stupidity. It is unreasonable to blame them for a genetic condition over which they have no control, but it is equally unreasonable to allow them to vote. As for the fairly intelligent who through intellectual shiftlessness learn nothing, I have no patience with them. What possible cause is there for thinking the willfully dull, the deliberately ignorant, or the dull and ignorant, are ompetent to influence policy on matters that they cannot spell? Given that everyone today has access to virtually every book ever written and to the internet, there is little excuse for living in Oprah fog and Eminem darkness.
If fourteen percent are illiterate, a larger number must be nearly so. People who can barely read don´t. People so little engaged as to think Iraq attacked New York –forty-six percent!—vote almost at random, or in the direction in which they are shooed by cunning electoral mechanics and fixers.
The educated and thoughtful may have no idea of the night in which the rest live. We tend to associate with people like ourselves. Consequently if you know where Iran is, you probably don’t know anyone who doesn’t. But—a pre-Copernican quarter of the population believes that the sun moves around the earth? As we said in the Sixties, that’s a whole nuther head-space.
Thus a test of literacy, or more correctly of competence to vote. It might involve reading a paragraph of prose at the level of college, or of what used to be the level of college, and answering questions about it. There might be questions such as how many Congressmen are there, name a country bordering of Iraq, list three rights guaranteed (ha!) by the First Amendment, and when did World War Two take place.
This laudable proposal would transform politics. The basalt principle of current American governance is that you can fool enough of the people enough of the time. The smart can safely be ignored. People with capacious and well-stocked mental larders are statistically insignificant. Thus candidates campaign by grinning and smirking, hiding whatever intelligence they may have, and professing sympathy for orphans and the downtrodden. In France, a candidate with the mind of a lawn chair would be held in contempt, but in America he is thought to be of the people, and authentic. Unfortunately, he is.
The current fourth-grade posturing of politicians would last microseconds with an electorate well on the right side of the bell curve. We would have far fewer dolts and poltroons. I’m sure you can think of several of these.
I suspect people would be surprised to learn how little the members of the House of Representatives know. A Congressman of my acquaintance told me of going with a colleague on a junket to Thailand. His fellow legislator repeatedly referred to the country as “Taiwan.” Thus are we ruled. Allowing the foolish to vote makes likely the election of the equally fatuous, or of a wily confidence man.
Objectors to my splendid idea will assert that a government and electorate of the highly intelligent will exploit the rest. The franchise is said to protect the majority from the unscrupulous. But it does not.  IQs on Wall Street are said to begin at 145. Has the franchise protected anyone from them? Allowing the dim and untutored to vote simply provides the bright and unscrupulous with gullible vote-fodder. It does not prevent but makes possible the exploitation.
A voting age of twenty-five would ensure some degree of maturity, or might, even in an age of mall rats. It is ludicrous to think that teenagers can vote sensibly. They haven’t lived long enough. Like so much of American life, the adolescent vote sprang from the unrealistic idea that we are all equal in everything. Girls can be SEALs, everyone should go to college, that sort of thing. During Vietnam, the argument was that if the young were old enough to die in Asia, they were old enough to vote. And if six-year-olds are old enough to die in car accidents, they are old enough to drive.
While we are at it, we might as a minimum require candidates for federal office to have scored in the ninetieth percentile on the GREs. Again, It is curious that while in France intelligence and cultivation are regarded as good things, in America the use of words of more than one syllable is regarded as evidence of elitism, both being mortal sins. The only offense worse than being superior is knowing that you are.
But why not do yet better? If I may soar even higher into wild and uncontrolled supposition, suppose that candidates for high national office–Congress, the Supreme Court, and the Presidency–were required to have an IQ of 145 or better. This is the beginning of real intelligence, perhaps aproaching the entry level for Silicon Valley (though intelligence at the level of a valley may not be the image I am looking for). Such men—at this level, almost all are—can keep in mind the various pipelines proposed for Caspian hydrocarbons, the effects of shifting exchange rates, and so on. They are precious hard to con. When they travel, they usually know where they are.Intelligent government: What a concept.
So much for ineffable wisdom and preternatural insight. The implementation of my splendid system is left to the student as an exercise.

http://fredoneverything.net/IntelligentVote.shtml

The two men arrested in New York this week for attempting to travel to Syria to fight for ISIS might at first seem to be a confirmation of the warnings often voiced by politicians and law enforcement that the group poses a threat not just in the Middle East but to the U.S. homeland. These were, after all, young men radicalized through the Internet who expressed a desire to either travel to Syria to wage war or carry out attacks at home. But a Times story this week under the wonderful headline “Eager to Join ISIS, if Only His Mother Would Return His Passport,” is pretty reassuring about the actual level of threat the group poses to the U.S.

The fact that this plot to wage holy war against the infidel depended on 19-year-old Akhror Saidakhmetov being able to sweet-talk his mom into giving him back his passport isn’t the only indication in the FBI’s case against the men, released just after their arrest, that we aren’t exactly dealing with future Bin Ladens here.

ORLANDO, Fla. (Reuters) – A Florida Islamic group announced on Monday it has filed a formal notice with the FBI that it plans to sue the agency for $30 million in the death of Ibragim Todashev, a friend of one of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects.

Todashev, 27, a Muslim Chechen immigrant, was killed in an Orlando apartment in May 2013 during FBI questioning about his links with the Boston suspects. The FBI said the agent shot Todashev after he attacked him.

The notice was filed by the Council on American-Islamic Relations Florida (CAIR-Florida), a civil rights group, on behalf of Todashev’s parents who accused the FBI in a statement on Monday of killing their son “in cold blood.”

Thania Diaz Clevenger, civil rights director for CAIR Florida, said the group was “seeking answers and justice for someone who was shot seven times by an FBI agent in his own home after hours of interrogation.”

An FBI spokesman said Monday the agency does not comment on pending litigation.

CAIR spokesman Ali Kurnaz told a press conference in Orlando “there are a lot of things that happened that day that we don’t know … there are things that don’t add up.”

For example, the autopsy report and video from the interrogation have not been publicly released, he said.

CAIR accused the FBI of “careless hiring practices” involving FBI agent Aaron McFarlane as well as a lax internal review that cleared him in Todashev’s death.

CAIR said in a statement that during his time with the Oakland, California, Police Department he was involved in two police brutality lawsuits, four internal affairs investigations, allegations of beating suspects and witnesses falsified police reports.

Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was in court on Monday for a hearing before his trial starts later this week. Tsarnaev, 21, is accused of killing three people and injuring 264 with bombs in the largest mass-casualty attack on U.S. soil since Sept. 11, 2001.

He is also accused of killing a police officer.

Todashev was a friend of Tsarnaev’s brother, Tamerlan, an alleged co-conspirator in the Boston bombing, who was killed in a police shootout.

Todashev’s parents in Russia issued a statement through CAIR on Monday, saying their son “was killed by the FBI in cold blood.”

“Today, together with CAIR Florida, we are starting a process that will bring, as we hope, justice to our son, our family, and our world”

North Korea fired two missiles into the sea on Monday and vowed “merciless” retaliation as the US and South Korea kicked off joint military drills denounced by Pyongyang as recklessly confrontational.

The annual exercises always trigger a surge in military tensions and warlike rhetoric on the divided peninsula, and analysts saw the North’s missile tests as a prelude to a concerted campaign of sabre rattling.

“And if there is a particularly sharp escalation, we could see the North orchestrating some kind of clash on the maritime border,” said Jeung Young-Tae, an analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul.

The missile launches came with a stern warning from the nuclear-armed North Korean People’s Army (KPA) that this year’s military drills would bring the peninsula “towards the brink of war.”

The South Korean defence ministry said the two Scud missiles were fired from the western port city of Nampo and fell into the sea off the east coast — a distance of nearly 500 kilometres (310 miles).

UN resolutions prohibit any ballistic missile test by North Korea and ministry spokesman Kim Min-Seok said Pyongyang appeared intent on triggering a “security crisis.”

“We will respond sternly and strongly to any provocation,” Kim told reporters.

The Japanese government said it had issued a strong protest to the North given the danger such missile launches posed to aviation and shipping.

Missile tests have long been a preferred North Korean method of expressing anger and displeasure with what it views as confrontational behaviour by the South and its allies.

– ‘Brink of war’ –

“The situation on the Korean peninsula is again inching close to the brink of a war,” a spokesman for the KPA General Staff was quoted as saying Monday by the North’s official KCNA news agency.

“The only means to cope with the aggression and war by the US imperialists and their followers is neither dialogue nor peace. They should be dealt with only by merciless strikes.”

North Korea has threatened attacks, including nuclear strikes, on the US before, although it has never demonstrated a missile capability that would encompass the US mainland.

The largest element of the two South Korea-US drills that began Monday is Foal Eagle, an eight-week exercise involving air, ground and naval field training, with around 200,000 Korean and 3,700 US troops.

The other is a week-long, largely computer-simulated joint drill called Key Resolve.

Seoul and Washington insist the exercises are defence-based in nature, but they are regularly condemned by Pyongyang as provocative rehearsals for invasion.

– Retaliation threat –

The KPA spokesman said North Korea would respond in kind to any act of conventional, nuclear or cyber warfare.

“In case even a single shell drops on any place over which the sovereignty of the DPRK (North Korea) is exercised, it will promptly take counteractions,” he said

North Korea has carried out three nuclear tests — in 2006, 2009 and 2013.

In January, the North offered a moratorium on further tests if this year’s joint drills were cancelled — a proposal rejected by Washington as an “implicit threat” to carry out a fourth atomic detonation.

Analyst Jeung said Pyongyang was unlikely to conduct a fourth test just to protest against the exercises.

“Nuclear tests carry more significance than that,” he said, noting that the North’s testing schedule was primarily driven by technical development.

“On the other hand, there is the chance of a mid- or long-range missile test,” Jeung told AFP.

“I would say that a demonstration that it could deliver a nuclear warhead would be more threatening to the world than an actual nuclear test,” he added.

A new research report by US experts published last week estimated that North Korea could be on track to have an arsenal of 100 nuclear weapons by 2020.

In a further sign of rising tensions, the North Korean state-run website, Uriminzokkiri, warned Monday of a fierce response to any attempt by South Korean activists to float anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border by balloon.

“The response might not just be a few shots of gunfire but cannons or missiles,” the website said.

On “Cashin’ In” today, Eric Bolling said the president who promised to “fundamentally transform America” has been busy fulfilling that promise.

Bolling called out President Obama for helping out “too big to fail” banks and car companies, while he now blatantly threatens to bankrupt coal companies.

“He picked his winners and losers. The free market was no longer free,” Bolling said, adding that Obama strong-armed his health care bill through with backroom dealings.

“Next up, President Obama took the laws of immigration and shredded them to suit his liberal friends. Forget what we the people had to say,” Bolling stated. “It doesn’t really seem to matter anymore.”

Bolling added that net neutrality is giving big government control over the Internet, and he then turned his attention to what he said could be “the most dangerous of all” of Obama’s plans.

Bolling explained that the administration trying to bypass Congress to ban certain types of ammunition.

“Remember, ‘ban the ammo’ is a sneaky way to ban the gun,” Bolling said, adding that our most important rights under the First Amendment are protected by our Second Amendment rights.

“If the president is able to take over our Second Amendment the way he took over the free market, health care, immigration and the Internet, we will be administering the last rights to our first rights: free speech, religion and liberty,” Bolling asserted.

“The fabric of America is being shredded, but it has to stop at the Second Amendment. It has to. It’s up to us to demand they keep their hands off our guns, or we risk it all.”

http://insider.foxnews.com/2015/02/28/eric-bolling-fabric-america-being-shredded-it-has-stop-second-amendment

Don’t think .gov inc. won’t do the same thing again-and again,and again…

Stuff you need to get…