Mexico seeks resolution on Venezuelan crisis.

via Reuters.

Mexico said on Friday that it will push for the Organization of American States (OAS) at an upcoming meeting to call for an end to violence in Venezuela and for a peaceful resolution to a recent wave of protests that has left over 60 people dead.

"The OAS resolution on Venezuela should indicate our concern about the cancellation of elections, lack of respect for the National Assembly, the existence of political prisoners, the use of military courts to try civilians," Mexico's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

With international pressure mounting on President Nicolas Maduro's socialist government, foreign ministers from the 34-nation OAS bloc met in Washington on Wednesday to debate the situation in Venezuela.

The meeting was adjourned after the Bahamas representative on behalf of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) proposed the meeting be suspended and that permanent representatives of the OAS meet again to continue to flesh out proposals.

Mexico's Foreign Ministry said it "will work to generate a resolution that will achieve enough votes, at least 24 votes in favor of the 34 member states," when the OAS holds its general assembly on June 19-21 in Mexico's Caribbean resort city of Cancun.

The Foreign Ministry said the resolution should call "for an end to violence and for the parties to solve the conflict via dialogue."
Two months of protests against Maduro's government, as opposition supporters demand elections, freedom for jailed activists, and foreign humanitarian aid, have convulsed the South American OPEC nation.

The hook has been laid for foreign intervention into Venezuela.  Opposition calling for "humanitarian aid"?

That's the clarion call for military action to "protect"...if I recall correctly the UN states that member nations have a duty to "responsibility to protect" that could loosely apply to the situation here.

via Wikipedia.

 The Responsibility to Protect (R2P or RtoP) is a global political commitment which was endorsed by all member states of the United Nations at the 2005 World Summit to prevent genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.

I don't know the answer to the issues in Venezuela, but this R2P is worrying. How broadly can it be applied?  If gay marriage did not become law could a nation declare that they had a right to invade the US under R2P to aid gays that they viewed as being discriminated against?  The same thinking could apply to a whole host of issues.

Murky, fuzzy, ill defined, feel good statutes like this will be the downfall of the UN. Thankfully its a super bureaucracy.  It absorbs an enormous amount of money but fortunately does very little.  Here's hoping they don't become more "efficient"!

USMC unfunded priorities list is once again "Aviation" heavy...

Thanks to Joe for the link!

via Roll Call.

The Marine Corps has asked Congress for $3.2 billion to buy warplanes and other equipment that did not make President Donald Trump’s fiscal 2018 defense budget plan, according to a copy of the request obtained by CQ Roll Call.

Gen. Robert Neller, the Marine Corps commandant, signed off on the “unfunded priorities list” and service officials sent it to lawmakers within the last week.

It appears to be the first of four such lists due soon on Capitol Hill — one each from the Marine Corps, Navy, Army and Air Force — which together will add up to multiple billions of dollars. This is an annual ritual for the Pentagon and Congress as the budget and appropriations are ironed out.

The most expensive item on the Marine Corps list is $877 million for six F-35 fighter jets. The jet is being built for all the services.

The Marine Corps wish list includes a request for $617 million for four F-35Bs, a version designed to take off and land vertically, and $260 million for two F-35Cs, the jet’s aircraft carrier variant.
The Air Force and Navy may also seek additional F-35s in their forthcoming wish lists.

Other aircraft on the Marine Corps list include:

$356 million for four KC-130J Hercules propeller planes, which can either refuel other aircraft or perform assault missions$288 million for two CH-53K King Stallion logistics helicopters$228 million for two C-40A Clipper jets, the military version of the Boeing 737 airliner, which can carry passengers or cargo$221 million for seven AH-1Z Viper attack helicopters$181 million for two MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft, which are capable of ferrying Marines and supplies$67 million for four UC-12W Huron propeller planes, which are small, multi-mission aircraft

The Marine Corps is also seeking $312 million for five ship-to-shore connectors, which are air-cushion landing craft for carrying Marines ashore in amphibious assaults.

Bad move Kathy Griffin...now this will live for another two weeks.

Proud to announce that I represent Kathy Griffin. We will be holding a press conference tomorrow morning. Here's the details. pic.twitter.com/1FejPNGzoV

— Lisa Bloom (@LisaBloom) June 2, 2017

via Free Beacon.

Kathy Griffin is holding a press conference on Friday to complain about the “bullying from the Trump family that she has endured” following the release of a photo spread showing the comedian holding up a bloodied head of President Trump.

Lisa Bloom, the daughter of famed feminist litigator Gloria Allred and Griffin’s newly hired lawyer, made the shocking announcement on Twitter.

Most had moved on from the story and while her being fired from CNN is probably personally upsetting to her, "oh shit" moments while understandable (we all have them) also have consequences.

How she's gonna try and turn this into a "Trump family is bullying me" love fest is beyond me and I'd bet she's gonna fail.

This is a bad move by Griffin and now this story will live on for another two weeks ... she needs better advisors.

Los Angeles has a staggering number of homeless people.

via SHTFPlan.com

The number of homeless people in Los Angeles is skyrocketing. In just one year, the figures revealed that the homeless population in the city grew 20% while the numbers for the wider Los Angeles County were even higher at 23%.

As if looking at those numbers isn’t cringeworthy enough, The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority reported Wednesday that 6,000 homeless young people were tallied across the county in January, a 61% increase over the 2016 total. Most of the young people are ages 18 to 24. All the youth shelters have waiting lists and affordable housing is tough to find, even with a rent voucher, according to Heidi Calmus of Covenant House California, an international youth homeless services agency with a branch in Hollywood. “The system is overwhelmed,” Calmus said Tuesday night as she and a colleague, Nick Semensky, delivered toiletry bags and sandwiches to young people living in the streets.

Despite efforts to combat the problem, the number of homeless continue to go up. In 2015 authorities declared a public emergency as the numbers sleeping on the streets soared. City officials committed $100 million to tackle the problem. It’s safe to say that whatever is being done right now is not working.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn described the figures as “staggering.” “Homelessness in LA County has grown at a shocking rate,” she said in a statement. “Even as work is being done to get thousands of people off the street and into housing, more and more people are becoming homeless. It is clear that if we are going to end the homeless crisis, we need to stem the overwhelming tide of people falling into homelessness.”

But it isn’t that easy. Experts are placing the blame on soaring rents and a high cost of living as the two major factors. According to Expatistan.com, a 900 square foot furnished apartment will cost over $2400 per month.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said there was “no sugarcoating the bad news”. “It’s impossible to wrap your head around the numbers,” he told reporters, adding that soaring rents and the city’s high cost of living were partly to blame. “We can’t let rents double every year,” he told reporters. Average rents in Los Angeles County have increased by 32% since 2000 while average household incomes for people renting have fallen by 3% when adjusted for inflation, according to the California Housing Partnership.

Story here. 

General leading Philippine battle with Islamists relieved of command

via Reuters

The general leading an offensive against pro-Islamic State militants holed up in a southern Philippine town has been relieved of his command, an army spokesman said on Friday, the 11th day of the country's biggest security crisis in years.

The removal of Brigadier-General Nixon Fortes as commander of the army brigade in Marawi City and his replacement with his deputy, Colonel Generoso Ponio, was not related to the battle that has raged in the city, the spokesman said.

On Wednesday, an air strike aimed at flushing out rebels killed 10 troops, a major blow that the army said was an accident of the sort that sometimes happens in the "fog of war".

Asked if the course of the conflict was the reason for Fortes' replacement, spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Ray Tiongson said: "That's not the reason."

A military source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Fortes was dismissed because not all his forces were in the city when the rebels began their rampage, even though military intelligence had indicated that Islamist militants, including foreign fighters, were amassing there.

The source said that some of Fortes' forces were busy fighting a small band of communist insurgents in a nearby town when some 400 militants overran Marawi City last Tuesday after a botched military raid to capture their leader, Isnilon Hapilon.

Thirty-nine members of the security forces have been killed in the Marawi battles, as well as 19 civilians and 120 rebel fighters.

BAE/Iveco ACV 1.1 entering the building...

It has arrived: the ACV 1.1 has entered the building for #SAS2017! pic.twitter.com/dl5BDiQcn3

— BAE Systems, Inc. (@BAESystemsInc) April 2, 2017

SHORAD Launcher trialled on Bradley Fighting Vehicle

BAE Systems Teams with QinetiQ to Pursue Electric Drive on Combat Vehicles

via Press Release.

BAE Systems has signed a teaming agreement with QinetiQ to incorporate the latest technology for electric drive mobility systems on combat vehicles. This agreement combines BAE Systems’ capabilities as a vehicle designer, developer, manufacturer, and systems integrator with the electric drive expertise offered by QinetiQ, a leading UK science and engineering company operating primarily in the defense, security, and aerospace markets.

The technology offers improved fuel efficiency, reliability, and mobility performance, as well as reduced life-cycle costs and unmatched electrical power available to the platform. This combination allows for advanced weaponry, communications, radar, and field power generation on vehicles.

“This strategic partnership with QinetiQ in the electric drive field ensures we are offering our customers a mature, low-cost technology that can enhance the performance of current and future combat vehicles,” said Dean Medland, vice president of combat vehicle programs at BAE Systems. “This positions us to be a leader in the market as more platforms across the world move toward an electric drive architecture.”

LAND 400 Project Phase 2 contenders.....Image by CFN Priyantha Malavi Arachchi

Open Comment Post. June 2, 2017

Inventory for aviation officers is 47 percent field grade

via Foreign Policy

One rule of thumb I have is that the more a military specialty is removed from combat, the more obscure its language becomes. And so personnel officers contend with acquisition officers for the most impenetrable prose — “procurement bow wave,” “familiar sinusoidal defense budget pattern.”

I mention this because the May issue of Marine Corps Gazette carries an article that uses phrases I haven’t encountered in 26 years of dealing with the U.S. military. My favorite of this new formulations is “unfavorable rank gradient.” What it means is that there are too many older officers and not enough junior ones in Marine aviation. Indeed, write the authors, “our total actual inventory for aviation officers is 47 percent field grade.”

I hope this is a bad joke by Ricks or else Marine aviation is hopelessly broken.

Is retention of junior grade officers that bad or are they promoting that fast? Either way its unsat.  That's alot of churn and a huge bottleneck at the top...no wonder they've gone zero defect over there!

US Carriers conduct "dual ops"...I call them battle drills...

via USNI News.

The U.S. Navy has begun dual-carrier operations with the USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76) and USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) in the Sea of Japan, a service official told USNI News on Wednesday.

It will be first time two U.S. carriers have operated in tandem off the Korean Peninsula since the 1990s and follows several recent North Korean missile tests.

“Operating two carrier strike groups in the Western Pacific provides unique training opportunities for our forces and provides combatant commanders with significant operational flexibility should these forces be called upon in response to regional situations,” Lt. Loren Terry told USNI News on Wednesday.
“The presence of two carriers is part of a regularly scheduled rotation of assets in the region and is not in response to any political or world events. This unique capability is one of many ways the U.S. Navy promotes security, stability and prosperity throughout the Indo-Asia-Pacific.”

Wow.  That LT is spouting a whole bunch of bullshit.  Obviously an Academy grad!

They call it dual carrier operations...a unique training opportunity...regularly scheduled rotation??????

I call it a fucking battle drill. 

Dual carrier ops is something that hasn't been talked about for the future fight. This is obviously something different and the rotation talk is pure fantasy.  Whatever this is, it isn't normal procedure and is usually seen before the start of hostilities.

One other thing.  Remember that the 31st MEU just set sail a few days ago. If we're gonna see some type of fight in N. Korea then the pieces are sliding into place.