Why won't the President/Feds call the California incident a terrorist attack?

via The LA Times

A senior federal government official told The Times that Farook was in contact with a small number of suspected extremists. There are also indications that the 28-year-old gunman communicated with at least one person who is currently being monitored as a potential terror suspect, the source said.
Farook's connection to the potential terror suspect may only be tangential, the source said, but the link suggests there may be a "deeper terror matrix" behind the San Bernardino shootings.

The reality? We're looking at an intel failure.

The worry?  We might be looking at a couple of active terrorist cells in the LA area.  But if you think that's something check this out.



So the President isn't sure that this was a terrorist attack?  Every American that is paying attention knows that this was a hit.  The real question is why are the Feds slow walking the declaration of the California shooting being a terrorist attack?  Additionally they are being aided by the news media in calling this a mass shooting incident instead of what it is.

The cynic in me thinks that this is about Obama wanting to push his gun control agenda.  But the tactician in me thinks its about more.  The Democrats are desperate to hold onto the White House and have dreams of picking up the Senate.  What happens if the American people lose confidence in their party?  What happens if no one trusts them to do the most basic of govt functions...preventing terrorist attacks (God knows they have all the tools necessary...monitoring of citizens is at an alltime high)?

ISIS is fighting a war.  We're playing politics.

Japan has a unique and seriously jacked up culture...

A buddy sent me a note saying I had to see this wrestling clip to believe it.  Instantly I knew he wasn't talking about Greco-Roman wrestling and more the WWE style.

I turned it on and when I saw it was Japanese I knew it was gonna be insane.
What happened next had me asking myself what the fuck I had just seen and sending a e-mail to this former friend (just kidding) to inquire if he was smoking crack!

 In all seriousness though.  The Japanese have a unique and seriously jacked up culture.  The sexual innuendo that is rampant there is something that I could never quite wrap my head around.

To each his own I guess.  It makes one wonder though.  If you think Japan is wild (and it is) then you should check out some of the shadier sides of Thailand.  Moving around the globe there are dozens of spots that are on the hot list for sexual "holidays" as the Brits call it I (I understand Kenya is extremely popular).

Anyway.  A little craziness for your Friday...oh and supposedly this vid is breaking the internet.

Terminal Lance on Women in the Infantry...

The "New" Marine Corps is encouraging members to join gender equality groups.

via The Free Beacon.

U.S. Marines and members of all branches of the military are being encouraged to join monthly “Lean In” support groups, where they can visit a “safe place” to talk about gender issues.
The Pentagon is partnering with Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operating officer of Facebook, who began the “Lean In” gender equality movement.
The Marines posted a memorandum on “Lean In Circles” last week, which are intended to make women and men feel more “comfortable” talking about gender in the military.

This new Marine Corps is gonna be something to see.  Chesty was wrong.  There is a bit of difference between the old and the new.  2015 is when the Old Corps died and the new one began.

I've posted in the past with an eye toward advocacy and yelling to the rooftops about what I thought was wrong.  Now?  I'm rethinking the whole thing.  I can't advocate for an organization that I don't believe in so I guess it'll turn just commenting about the decline of a once great fighting force.

But back to this story.  Don't be fooled.  This is simply part of the plan to integrate women into combat arms.  These "lean in" groups are simply indoctrination.

I don't want to see the US at war, but I can't wait to see how these integrated units perform in combat.  Oh and there will be combat.  Can't you sense the predators circling the US because they smell weakness coming from the withered carcass of a once great power?  We're gonna get dragged into combat and our military will fail.  That will be the start of the beginning of the end of US hegemony.

Side Note:  I'm surprised I didn't see the writing on the wall long ago.  The "Legged Squad Support Robot"...in essence a gear carrier for troops over rough ground never made sense.  Unless you integrate females into the infantry and need to find a way to allow them to keep up and not breed discontent by spreading their load to the guys.

Thanks to Eric at ELP Blog for reminding me of this!

MRAPs/Armored Vehicles for Law Enforcement is not the solution...nor is it needed.

via KSBW.com

Multiple military style vehicles were used to bring SWAT teams to Wednesday's attack in San Bernardino. Several similar personnel carriers are in the possession of Monterey and Santa County police departments, following controversial acquisitions.
Following the mass shooting at a center for people with developmental disabilities that left 14 people dead, the shooters fled in their vehicle. Police SWAT teams arrived in Bearcat-style vehicles, and the shooters, a husband and wife, were in their black SUV. While in pursuit, police say they were fired on and the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms reported what looked like a bomb was thrown out the SUV.
Armored vehicles were later used to converge on the couple’s vehicle and secure the scene.
It is the kind of use local police departments claim they need their armored vehicles.

This is one example of numerous stories that have been pumped out by the news media after the terrorist attack in San Bernardino.  My guess is that the image of two Bearcats being used to block the suspect vehicle AFTER the shootout to check it for possible bombs and to retrieve the terrorist bodies is what's capturing the imagination of these people.

They're wrong.

As usual, instead of doing a proper analysis of the incident they're rushing to think that a few "special ops" LEOs are what carried the day.

Again, it boggles the mind.

The real solution lies in up arming patrolmen.  The average LEO on the street doing the job day in and day out.  Lets do a quick recap.  The first people to enter the building?  Street cops.  They're trained to confront active shooters...and now terrorists immediately to help lessen the body count.

The people that found the car and engaged in a shootout with the suspects?  Street cops.

Pumping more money into SWAT and believing that some "super cops" will carry the day is part of the problem that is muddying the issue for law enforcement.  The real solution is to simply do what needs to be done.  Every squad car needs to have a Patrol Carbine ready to go with a combat loadout.  I'm talking at least 300 rounds of ammo.  Plate carriers, helmets, blowout kits and first aid gear in every car ready to be put on when needed.  Additionally we need to get real about what we're dealing with.  The day will come when cops will be called from home to respond to multiple attacks in one city.  That means that this needs to be part of a take home/go bag so that they can deploy from wherever they happen to be if they're off duty.

The real problem is that the real solution isn't simply armored vehicles.  Its upping the training, having standardized requirements and continuous testing to make sure that those standards are met and improved funding across the board.

Doing it the right way will be much more expensive than simply getting a few MRAPs from the military.  The funny thing?  This will militarize the police much more than they are now...but it will be less visible...so easier to get done....if we have the will and Chiefs get smart enough to look at this realistically while explaining the need to the public.

Pakistan in talks to buy the F-35?

via TheNews.com

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will acquire the fifth generation multi-role fighter aircraft from the international market but, for the time being, it will devote its full attention on its state-of-the-art JF-17 Thunder to make it the most effective of its generation.
It has been revealed by Chief of the Air Staff (CAS) Air Chief Marshal Sohail Aman while talking exclusively with The News here on Wednesday evening. He said that Pakistan wouldn’t lag behind the countries of the region in obtaining the fifth generation planes and it has opened negotiations with the US manufacturers for exploring options of buying single engine multirole F-35 viewed as the plane of the next decade.

Really?

They're so desperate for sales that they would consider selling the most (supposedly) technologically advanced piece of US hardware to the country that harbored the most wanted man in the world at one time, is hampering our efforts in Afghanistan and is a thorn in the side of a closer relationship to India?

Simply amazing.

Breaking! SecDef to open all jobs to women.

Thanks to William for this depressing/disgusting news.

The Associated Press: BREAKING: Senior defense official: Defense Secretary Carter to open all combat jobs to women in historic
2015-12-03 16:31:07.897 GMT
BREAKING: Senior defense official:
Defense Secretary Carter to open all
combat jobs to women in historic change.
The Associated Press @AP

This is a mistake.

I just thank God that I don't have any daughters.  This is what happens when people don't speak up...when they'd rather be politically correct instead of concerned with the defense of a nation.

But hey!  The Marine Corps lasted for 240 years ... it was a good run.  Lets see how this New Marine Corps works out.

Breaking! FBI takes over the investigation into the terrorist attack in California.

Watching the press conference given by the President and he announced that the FBI was taking over.

He was extremely guarded in his words and seemed (in my opinion) to be stepping back a bit on his gun control push...oh wait....he's back on that train.

Interesting.

An insider terrorist attack and he's focused on guns.   WAIT!!! I'm watching and typing this live.  He just made a freudian slip.  He said we have the best intel, best military and law enforcement and we can't stop this from happening.  In my mind that indicates that they DO know (besides the FBI taking over) that its as we called it.

The reality of why gun control...even tightened background checks will never pass under Obama...

I was watching coverage of the terrorist attack in California and the issue turned away from this insider attack back to guns...in particular gun control.

It will never happen under this President.  The reason is really quite simple.  The games that the President and his democrat colleagues played after Sandy Hook.  Let's take a trip down memory lane, with a quick down and dirty.  The tragedy hit and the President started talking about gun control.  Senator Diane Feinstein got with her allies in the ATF and drew up a plan to reinstate the Assault Weapons Ban.

The push was on and it took a hellacious push by the Gun Owners of America, note that the NRA was on the verge of rolling over.  But the effort to reinstate the AWB was killed.

Then stepped in the traitor Senator Joe Manchin and he put forward a bill to increase background checks.  That too was defeated and many people wondered why.  It was really very simple.  We saw how things played out in California. The gun control zealots started off with background checks to get their nose under the tent.  Next thing you know we see magazine size limitations, a de facto state ban on assault weapons...essentially the most rigorous gun laws in the US.  On top of all of this we see a competition in liberal states to see who can pass the most restrictive laws possible.

For those of us that live in free states (yeah...the irony of that is both personally ironic and chilling...many of the first "gun control laws" were aimed at freed blacks) we've seen the playbook and will not be fooled.

Until the govt shows a bit of competence and until trust is restored, it will be impossible to pass any form of gun control.  The current President is too polarizing an individual for a compromise to happen.

The only thing this push is going to do (and it will fail) is to spur more gun sales.

Side Note:  Lets go into fantasy land.  Lets say that a gun ban is put in place tomorrow.  Can you imagine the black market that will pop up?  How about the mass public disobedience that will happen when calls to turn in your weapons are ignored?  This is the USA not Australia or Britain.  I know I would ignore the call to turn in my gear and would  bet money that they wouldn't be able to track me down (ok they probably could but that's alot of door to door work...plus I'd lie my ass off and say that I sold them and then dig them up once the authorities left).  The perfect utopian world that the gun grabbers want just can't happen.  At least not  in my lifetime.

Dahir Insaat - Russia Deployable Anti-Tank HE Missile Rounds Combat Simulation (Vid)

If the Russians could actually get this to work then this would be devastating...but one question.  Why would they use American C-5's as the deployment vehicle and then have Russian tanks as the aggressor force?

McCain gives the F-35 program the bad news.

via Bloomberg (this is an interview with John McCain read it all here)...

“That leaves well over 2,000 to complete the program” so “we would have to purchase 100 F-35s per year for more than 20 years at a cost of $10 billion to $12 billion a year,” said McCain, an Arizona Republican. “That seems unlikely, and all that assumes the F-35 will provide the necessary capability.”

This is the most damning indictment of the F-35 and the Pentagons plan I've heard yet.  McCain is a hawk of hawks.  There isn't a military program that he doesn't like but he says "100 F-35s per year for more than 20 years at 10 to 12 billion per year"...in essence he's saying that they won't be able to push the cost curve down.  In other words the Pentagon and Program Office is feeding us bullshit.

But that's not even the worst of it.  Read it and weep fan boys...

"...assumes the F-35 will provide the necessary capability."

That should be chilling for F-35 supporters.  McCain has the secret information.. gets to peek behind the curtain and he is telling us that the F-35 isn't all that it's cracked up to be.  If you take the time to read the entire article, he makes a cleansing statement toward the end but those with eyes to see and a willingness to accept reality know the truth.

Critical mass has finally arrived.

The F-35 program isn't in a death spiral...it's in a flat spin headed out to sea.

Underreported Side Note:  We have word that the Singaporean Air Force has decided to upgrade its fleet of F-16s.  Story here.  This is another "admission" that the F-35 will not deliver on its promise.  Singapore is extremely frugal and are resistant to any pressure that LM might apply.  They're also brutal when it comes to dealing with corrupt officials...with the news that the Australian Senate is going to investigate the efficacy of purchasing the F-35, its turning into a terrible week for the airplane.

A little levity after today's madness. Batman vs Superman is gonna be good!

Awesome!  I might actually have to see this!