Pacific Pivot in Peril. Duarte announces realignment with Russia and China...

Thanks to Nico for the link!

via AFP

"I announce my separation from the United States," he said to applause at a meeting in the Chinese capital.
"America does not control our lives. Enough bullshit," he added in a rambling speech that flipped between languages.
"How can you be the most powerful industrial country when you owe China and you are not paying it?"
His comments came after he met his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People on Tiananmen Square, with the two men pledging to enhance trust and friendship, while playing down a maritime dispute.
Xi called the two countries "neighbours across the sea" with "no reason for hostility or confrontation", the official Xinhua news agency said.

Story here (make sure to watch the vid).

I hope someone in the Pentagon is paying attention.  Why reconstitute US bases on that island when this guy is making these types of statements?  Why continue to provide military assistance of any kind?

I've had Filipino readers state that this guy is speaking for a minority of his country.  Most Presidents do.  He's setting policy and its past time we responded.

Egyptian Armed Forces - Be Prepared (propaganda vid)

Did we miss Egypt doing a massive rearming program?  I know this is a propaganda vid but they have some pretty impressive kit...and alot of it.  Focus has been on Saudi Arabia and the rest of the GCC but Egypt has been doing work.  If a fight comes between Saudi Arabia and Iran, the Egyptians...if they decide to participate or not...could be the key to a Saudi victory or defeat.

The Saudi's should have a care though.  They invited the Egyptians to participate in the Yemen affair and they declined.  Its not an automatic that they will assist against Iran.

Desert Cat via Joe Copalman's Flickr Page.

An AgustaWestland Wildcat AH1 Battlefield Reconnaissance Helicopter from the Royal Navy's 847 Naval Air Squadron banks over the Imperial Dunes northwest of Yuma, Arizona during a recent deployment for desert environmental qualification.
Shot for my article on 847 NAS in the November issue of AirForces Monthly magazine: www.airforcesmonthly.com/view_issue.asp?ID=6722

I'm telling you guys now!  If you're not subscribed to Joe's Flickr Page then you're missing out!

Scorpion jet successfully completes first weapons capability exercise

Thanks to Robert for the link!

Whoever is running the PR shop over at Textron needs a bit of schooling.  If he wants max distribution of his pics then that little "caption" block at the bottom just won't do.  I'd bet body parts I highly value that you'll see these same pics but with that portion cropped off.

But back on task.  Robert is excited about the plane but I just don't see the utility.  Maybe its the next big thing but is it really more valuable than a Tucano?  Is it a step ahead of the A-10?

I like its look but it seems to solve a problem that doesn't exist.  Regardless, press release here.

More pics from MAWTS Offensive Air Support Exercise.

Open Comment Post. Debate Talk. Oct 20, 2016.

I'm sitting here in awe.  Trump could so easily have won the election if he had stuck to the issues of illegal immigration, bad trade deals, jobs, offshoring by corporations etc...

Unfortunately that was beyond his capabilities.  He forgot that this wasn't about him but IS about the people.  He made this a "Me" instead of "We" election.

As expected the mainstream media played up the irrelevant and we have a criminal about to win the Presidency (not the first time either....just the most obvious).

The never Trump people on these pages (I know who you are no matter how much you deny it) and the Republican Party should worry though.  Something evil is about to be unleashed.  If Trump was bad then how much worse will the next person be?  Do you think that Rubio, Cruz or Bush have a chance to win the nomination in the Republican party four years from now?  We're gonna see another Trump but this time it'll be a smarter version, more calculating, less arrogant (publicly) and willing to play the media game.

They won and Trump made it easy, but in the end they will lose....we will all lose.

Pic of the day. German Puma Infantry Fighting Vehicle.

M-ATV Assault.

Thanks to Kinetics for the link!

Website here.

I don't know what we're really seeing here.  Looks like a slightly modded version of the Special Forces model with an emphasis on carrying an Army Infantry Squad.  Didn't know that was a requirement.

You were worried about them going after guns? Forget that they're already planning tax increases!

Watching Morning Joe and Sen Warner from Virginia was on.  Guess what he recommended?  A carbon tax and some type of value added tax!

I thought it was gonna be a play for gun control but I was wrong.  They're about to hit the US with some of the most intense taxes seen in decades.  Do you realize how hard a carbon and VAT tax will hit the US consumer?

We are so screwed!

People will cheer Hillary's election until the pain hits.  We've been watching the wrong thing and now everyone is about to pay.  Literally!

Chaos and food lines in Venezuela. Tragedy next door.

The pics above are from Enrique262 Tumblr Page.  He mostly covers armor and other military subjects on his page, but he also tells the story of what's going on inside Venezuela.

You want to know where your next migration issue will come from?  Yeah Venezuela.

I don't know what Southern Command is doing.  I don't know if they're monitoring the situation and have offered assistance but its been rejected or not.  The same applies to USAID (they're a bunch of useless fucks...that organization is a waste of taxpayer money).

The issue is simple though.  They're standing in lines miles long just to get basic food items.  If we don't help them in their country then they'll be heading to ours.  This is one time when targeted foreign assistance is a smart thing.

What's left in those WikiLeaks that has Washington spooked?

via AP

Ecuador's government acknowledged on Tuesday that it cut off WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's internet access at its embassy in London after the whistleblowing site published a trove of damaging emails from Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.
The foreign ministry said that while it stands by its 2012 decision to grant Assange asylum based on legitimate concerns he faces political persecution, it respects other nations' sovereignty and doesn't interfere or support any candidate in foreign elections.
"The decision to make this information public is the exclusive responsibility of the WikiLeaks organization," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

The recognition of the reprimand comes less than 24 hours after WikiLeaks tweeted that Ecuador had cut off Assange's access to the Internet on Saturday after the publication of Clinton's speeches to Wall Street investment bank Goldman Sachs.

In follow-up messages posted Tuesday, the group claimed U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry had personally intervened to ask Ecuador to stop Assange from publishing documents about Clinton. Citing "multiple US sources," WikiLeaks said the request was made on the sidelines of a visit by Kerry and Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa last month to Colombia to show their support for a peace deal with leftist rebels.

Ya know what I find amazing from the document dump from Wikileaks?  No one has denied that the information is true.  They're playing lawyer, doing spin jobs but no one is saying that they're fabricated.

Massive anti-US protest outside our embassy in the Philippines.

Well this is getting interesting.  I thought that only the Philippine President had a problem with the alliance with the US, but it seems that anti-US feelings run strong in that country.

Awesome.

Cut ties now and save money!  On a more serious note though, it makes no sense to force an alliance on anyone.  If their people are against it then why should we force it?

In my opinion it's past time to cut ties with "sunshine" friends and limit our foreign entanglements.  Let the Aussies and Japanese deal with them.