Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and Speaker Nancy Pelosi are preparing to move a crucial defense bill to a vote in their respective chambers without President Donald Trump's demand for a provision to repeal legal protections enjoyed by tech companies.

It will also contain a bipartisan provision - disliked by the president - that will allow military bases named for Confederate heroes to be renamed.

The move would essentially dare Trump to veto the billion dollar legislation that includes funding for the troops and a pay raise for service members.

The Marine Corps' first F-35C carrier-variant Joint Strike Fighter squadron has officially been declared ready for combat.

Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 314 of Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, California, said its F-35Cs have achieved initial operational capability, or IOC, authorizing the aircraft for worldwide carrier deployment operations, according to a service release.

The Navy's fleet structure is not set up to deal with today's challenges, the service's top civilian leader told lawmakers on Wednesday.

Terrorism is no longer the biggest threat facing the U.S., Navy Secretary Kenneth Braithwaite said during a hearing on Navy and Marine Corps readiness. Threats from Russia and China are increasing, and the Navy must reorganize to address them.

"To meet the unique maritime challenges of the Atlantic theater, we will rename Fleet Forces Command as the U.S. Atlantic Fleet," Braithwaite said. "We will refocus our naval forces in this important region on their original mission -- controlling the maritime approaches to the United States and to those of our allies."

The Marine Corps has said goodbye to its tanks, and so it’s letting Marine tankers say goodbye to the Corps sooner than later.

Marines with the military occupational specialties of Armor Marine (1812), Senior armor staff non-commissioned officer (1869), Main Battle Tank repairer/technician (2146), or Tank officer (1802) will be allowed to get out of the service up to a year early, according to a Marine administrative message due out this week.

“The fiscal year 2021 Early Release Programs are aligned with the Marine Corps’ Force Design and further aligns us with the direction of the National Defense Strategy,” Col. Christopher Escamilla, branch head for Marine Corps Plans, Programs & Budget, said in a statement, adding that the service would “begin a surgical reduction in personnel and realignment of specific capabilities and units.”

Fourteen months of fighting in Tripoli has turned the Libyan capital’s neighbourhoods into death traps.

Tonnes of ordnance remain from clashes between the Libyan National Army (LNA) and the UN-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA), which controls the city.

Most dangerous, however, are the mines laid by LNA forces and now being extricated by GNA military engineers. More than 70 civilians, including children, have been killed by blasts, with at least 125 people wounded. Injuries include loss of limbs.

According to reports, the Department of Defense is moving ahead with plans to formally build a backup air base at Tinian Island, located just 100 miles to the north of its giant and highly strategic U.S. military airbase on Guam, known as Andersen Air Force Base. This comes as the Pentagon is working to expand its existing airfields located deep in the Pacific and even create new ones that it could use during a major peer-state clash, namely with China, in the vast region. It is all part of an emerging distributed combat operations strategy that will likely be as much about survival as about getting an advantage on the enemy, at least during the opening stages of a potential conflict in the Pacific Theater. Anderson Air Force Base is so key to U.S. strategy that the possibility that a natural disaster could knock out flight operations in the entire region is also a driving factor behind this initiative.

The North Carolina-based 2nd Marine Division has a drug problem.

That's how Maj. Gen. Francis Donovan put it in an unusually blunt Marine Corps news release issued by the service this week. The division has changed up the way it screens for drugs after catching several Marines using lysergic acid diethylamide, or LSD.

"We are committed to identifying violators of our ethos," Donovan said in a statement. "The vast majority of Marines within the 2d Marine Division routinely uphold our core values, and they deserve to know that the Marines to their left and right are doing the same."

From Syria to Libya to Nagorno-Karabakh, this new method of military offense has been brutally effective. We are witnessing a revolution in the history of warfare, one that is causing panic, particularly in Europe.

In an analysis written for the European Council on Foreign Relations, Gustav Gressel, a senior policy fellow, argues that the extensive (and successful) use of military drones by Azerbaijan in its recent conflict with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh holds “distinct lessons for how well Europe can defend itself.”

The State Department on Tuesday announced a six new weapons sales potentially worth a combined $1.55 billion, pushing the deals forward ahead of the transition to the Biden administration next month.

The foreign military sales include torpedoes for Brazil, vehicles for Croatia and Lebanon, upgrades for Canadian aircraft, training for the Saudi military and weapons systems for South Korean ships, according to the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA).

Congress, which was notified of the sales on Monday, now has a 30-day window to block any of the deals if it wants to.

The success in drone warfare conducted by Turkey and Azerbaijan is a cause of concern for Europe and should force it to consider its options, a senior policy fellow and analyst at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) has warned.

In the analysis written by Gustav Gressel, he noted that Azerbaijan's victory over Armenia in the renewed conflict for the Nagorno-Karabakh region offers "distinct lessons for how well Europe can defend itself".

During that 44-day conflict, in which Armenia and its militias suffered the loss of thousands of troops and military vehicles, one of the key decisive factors which granted Azerbaijan superiority were the Turkish drones used by the Azeri military.

Those drones, along with the methods of warfare developed through their use in other fronts, enabled Azerbaijan to capture the strategic city of Shusha and force Armenia's surrender on 9 November, leading to the Russia-brokered ceasefire deal which returned the territory to Baku.

Joe Biden made clear he wants to put the old gang back together when he announced his prospective national security team this past week including the likes of John Kerry, Tony Blinken and Jake Sullivan. They represent the worst instincts and outcomes of the Obama Administration’s foreign policy of promoting endless wars while undermining allies and placating adversaries that the Trump Administration had to clean up. How do I know? I served as the Senior White House Advisor at the U.S. Department of State in the Trump administration, cleaning up the mess that the Obama-Biden administration left behind.

The US guided-missile destroyer Donald Cook is on its way to the Mediterranean Sea after completing a maritime security patrol mission in the Black Sea, the US Navy's 6th Fleet said on Wednesday.

"USSDonaldCook begins southbound transit to the #Mediterranean Sea after completing a successful patrol on the #BlackSea in support of @NATO Allies & Partners", the naval press service said on Twitter.

The ship entered the Black Sea on 23 November and conducted air defence exercises with NATO allies, the statement said.

On December 2, 1823 President James Monroe enunciated what became known as the Monroe Doctrine. It was a fantastic mix of presumption and chutzpah: the U.S., and only the US, was entitled to intervene whenever and wherever it desired for whatever reason it decided in Latin America.

Monroe made his position sound a little less imperialistic by emphasizing we didn’t want the Europeans in, rather than admitting we planned on taking over their militarist game. In a statement mostly written by Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, the Monroe administration insisted:

The Marine Corps has a message for the more groovy-minded grunts in the ranks: Please, for the love of God, stop dropping acid.

Several Marines and sailors assigned to the 2nd Marine Division at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina have tested positive for LSD use amid a sweep of recent tests for the drug, the service announced on Monday.

According to a recent anti-drug PSA published in the Defense Visual Information Distribution System, a number of “recent incidents” involving either Marines and sailors induced division leaders to carry out random LSD testing starting this summer.

Before those incidents, Marine Corps officials would have required probable cause for search rather than relying on random screening, according to the service.

So far, personnel have conducted nearly 4,000 tests since the start of the summer with “several” positives.

No matter who ends up winning Senate confirmation for top positions on President Biden’s “national security” team, an ominous dynamic is already underway. Some foreign-policy specialists with progressive reputations are voicing support and evasive praise for prospective Cabinet members – as though spinning through revolving doors to broker lucrative Pentagon contracts is not a conflict of interest, and as though advocating for an aggressive U.S. military posture is fine.

Rationalizations are plentiful, but the results are dangerous. It’s an insidious process – helping to set low standards for the incoming administration. Enablers now extol potential Cabinet picks who’ve combined pushing for continuous war and hugely expensive new weapons systems with getting rich as dealmakers for the military-industrial complex.

Russia has called for the US to halt the deployment of nuclear weapons on the territory of NATO’s European members, arguing it both violates the terms of existing treaties and makes a devastating conflict more likely to happen.
Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told a meeting sponsored by energy companies Chevron and Transneft on Monday that Moscow “hopes that the United States will stop ‘sharing’ nuclear weapons with its allies, and stop deploying nuclear weapons in countries that do not possess such weapons… Obviously, this leads to destabilization, in addition, new risks appear,” he added, “and this is a violation of Articles 1 and 2 of the Non-Proliferation Treaty.”

After a busy November full of military drills, not least of which took place at sea, Egypt is continuing its training efforts into December and throughout 2021, sending a message about its global reach and capabilities.

“The increased number of drills shows that the Egyptian armed forces has the capabilities to conduct all these exercises at the same time,” according to Ahmad Eliba, a defense expert at the Egyptian Center for Strategic Studies. The exercises also show off Egypt’s strategic deterrence capabilities and weapons systems, he added.

This week, the Armenian leadership has reached an unprecedented height in its state management achievements. Prime Minsiter Nikol Pashinayan and his government did not stop at the successful campaign to undermine the Armenian regional position and the epic loss in the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War. Now, they are losing their largest gold mine, which was controlled by the Armenians for the last few decades.

On November 26, Azerbaijani troops entered the Sotk gold mine, which is located in the Gegharkunik province of Armenia, right on the border with the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The mine reserves are estimated at more than 130 tons. GEOPROMINING GOLD, which operates this mine, is one of the largest taxpayers and employers in Armenia. According to Armenian sources, the company paid $34 million into the Armenian budget in the period just between January to September of 2020.

Making political sense of the world can be tricky unless one understands the role of the state in capitalist societies. The state is not primarily there to represent voters or uphold democratic rights and values; it is a vehicle for facilitating and legitimating the concentration of wealth and power into fewer and fewer hands.

In a recent post, I wrote about “externalities” – the ability of companies to offset the true costs inherent in the production process. The burden of these costs are covertly shifted on to wider society: that is, on to you and me. Or on to those far from view, in foreign lands. Or on to future generations. Externalising costs means that profits can be maximised for the wealth elite in the here and now.

The war that Israel initiated in June of 1967 became the stuff of myths and legends on many levels. Now, after fifty one years it may be time to unravel and demystify what took place during those fateful six days in June. There is the myth of the existential threat which called for Israel to engage in a preemptive strike which started the war, then there is the myth of the greatness of the Israeli army and its remarkable abilities, and there is a claim which one can argue is also a myth, that it was this war that changed the face of the Middle East forever. Then, there is an even greater myth and that is that Palestine was occupied as a result of the 1967 war. That the West Bank and The Gaza Strip, which are no more than two small parts of Palestine artificially created when Israel was established, are The Occupied Palestinian territories, as opposed to two areas within occupied Palestine.

The foreign policy team of a potential Biden administration is being touted by the liberal media. We tell you why all of us should be horrified. Also, there is a lot of talk of a Great Reset, and Build Back Better. Does looking backwards bode well for the future?

CrossTalking with Patrick Henningsen and Dmitry Babich.

The European Union is seeking to forge a new alliance with the United States to bury the tensions of the Trump era and meet the challenges posed by China, the Financial Times reported on Sunday, citing a draft plan.

The plan proposes rebuilding ties with common fronts on issues from digital regulation to tackling the COVID-19 pandemic, the FT said.

Relations between the United States and Europe have been strained under President Donald Trump. The EU and most of the bloc’s states have congratulated President-elect Joe Biden.

“As open democratic societies and market economies, the EU and the US agree on the strategic challenge presented by China’s growing international assertiveness, even if we do not always agree on the best way to address this,” the FT cited the draft plan as saying.

The non-partisan U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently released an overview of mission capable rates and the cost of operating U.S. military aircraft. It examined more than 40 different aircraft types, finding that only three of them reached their mission capable goals between fiscal years 2011 and 2019. In total, the report put the collective cost of operating all of the U.S. military's aircraft fleets at $49 billion in fiscal year 2018, taking operational & support (O&S) costs such as maintenance as well as supply support in account. O&S generally makes up 70 percent of a weapon system's total life cycle costs and it includes spare parts, depot and field maintenance, contract services, engineering support and personnel, amongst other factors.

The death toll in a suspected Boko Haram attack on farmers in northeastern Nigeria on Saturday has reached at least 110, a UN humanitarian coordinator in the country said, urging the perpetrators to be brought to justice.

“At least 110 civilians were ruthlessly killed and many others wounded in this attack,” Edward Kallon, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator in Nigeria, said in a statement.

The incident was the “most violent direct attack against innocent civilians” in the country in 2020, Kallon pointed out. The perpetrators of this “heinous and senseless” act must be brought to justice, he added.

A group of armed men on motorcycles ambushed the farmers as they went into the rice fields to gather the harvest on Saturday. The bodies of 43 farmers have been recovered after the massacre, with around 30 of them being beheaded. The security forces have been searching the area for those missing.

The intercept is the latest incident involving NATO and Russian aircraft flying near Russia's maritime borders, with similar occurrences taking place regularly from the Barents and Baltic seas in the north and west to the Bering Sea and the Sea of Okhotsk in Russia's Far East.

A Russian Sukhoi Su-27 fighter jet has been scrambled to intercept a US Air Force surveillance aircraft flying over the Black Sea, the Russian Defence Ministry announced.

The US aircraft involved was said to be a Boeing RC-135 spy plane, with the Su-27 scrambled after ground-based radars had detected it as it approached the Russian maritime border.

Henry Kissinger and Madeleine Albright shouldn’t have any influence over Pentagon policy in 2020.

This oughtn’t be a controversial statement. If one is to drain the swamp, the folks behind the bombing of Cambodia and permanent normalized trade relations with China, respectively, probably aren’t the people you want advising the Department of Defense.

But the former secretaries of state were still on the Defense Policy Board, described by Foreign Policy as “a kind of in-house think tank on retainer for top military leaders, providing independent counsel and advice on defense policy.”

Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller has only been at the Pentagon for one week, but has already announced major changes to military posture and structure around the globe amid a major White House shakeup of civilian leadership.

Standing in front of “Bronze Bruce,” a memorial to Army Special Forces at Fort Bragg this morning, Miller signed a memo authorizing the Pentagon’s Special Operations/Low Intensity Conflict office to begin reporting directly to the Defense Secretary, instead of reporting to the policy undersecretary.

“I am here today to announce that I have directed the Special Operations civilian leadership to report directly to me, instead of through the current bureaucratic channels,” Miller said, making good on language that permitted such a move in the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act. Note the NDAA did not mandate the change; it allowed it.

Earlier this month, at least two missiles were fired from the northern Ethiopian state of Tigray at neighbouring Eritrea as the breakaway region remains engulfed in a conflict with Addis Abba.

Six explosions were reported in the Eritrean capital of Asmara late on Saturday, according to the US State Department, amid tensions in neighbouring Ethiopia, where government forces are fighting the Tigray People's Liberation Front.

The US State Department is urging US citizens to avoid non-essential travel to Eritrea.

An American working for the CIA died this week of injuries from a terrorist attack in Mogadishu, Somalia, according to two people with knowledge of the attack. He is the first American known to be killed as a result of violence in the capital since the disastrous 1993 Black Hawk Down battle.

Michael Goodboe, a 54-year-old former Navy SEAL who worked for the CIA’s paramilitary unit, died after succumbing to injuries from an improvised explosive device, according to the two sources. The two sources requested anonymity because of the sensitivity around the attack and because they were not authorized to disclose Goodboe’s death.

The attack that killed Goodboe was presumed to have been conducted by al-Shabab, an Al Qaeda affiliated group engaged in a decadelong insurgency, though the details remain unclear. One of the people familiar with the attack said Goodboe was flown to Germany, where the U.S. has a military hospital, and later died of his injuries.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has urged his troops not to fear death and focus on preparing to win wars while addressing military commanders.

He told his armed forces on Wednesday to step up training under combat conditions and 'not fear death and hardship', reported state media, citing the leader.

Xi has previously called for military readiness amid spiking political tensions between Beijing and other countries, particularly the US and self-ruled Taiwan, over coronavirus pandemic, territorial disputes and human rights.

Update 2: Iran accused Israel and the U.S. of organizing the assassination of one of its top nuclear scientists on Friday and vowed revenge, sharply escalating tensions in the Persian Gulf in the final weeks of Donald Trump’s presidency. Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was the head of research and innovation at Iran’s Ministry of Defense, and was also viewed internationall as the head of Iran's nuclear weapons program. He was killed close to the Damavand campus of Islamic Azad University, about 60 kilometers east of central Tehran, Iran's Tasnim news reported.

"Terrorists murdered an eminent Iranian scientist today. This cowardice—with serious indications of Israeli role—shows desperate warmongering of perpetrators," Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in a tweet. Iran’s army also accused the U.S. of bearing responsibility. Curiously, Trump retweeted a New York Times report on Fakhrizadeh’s killing without commenting.

Britain’s armed forces have a far more extensive base network than ever presented by the Ministry of Defence. New research by Declassified reveals the extent of this global military presence for the first time – as the government announces an extra 10% spending on defence.

UK military has base sites in five countries around China: naval base in Singapore, garrisons in Brunei, drone testing sites in Australia, three facilities in Nepal and quick reaction force in Afghanistan

Cyprus hosts 17 UK military installations including firing ranges and spy stations, with some located outside UK’s “sovereign base areas”

Britain maintains military presence in seven Arab monarchies where citizens have little or no say in how they are governed

UK personnel are stationed across 15 sites in Saudi Arabia, supporting internal repression and the war in Yemen, and at 16 sites in Oman, some run directly by British military

"America is back" hailed Joe Biden on Twitter this week. The world tried to work out exactly what that meant. For different parts of the world, of course, it means different things. As many liberal Americans breathe a sigh of relief, the people of Libya, Afghanistan and Iraq may shudder. For democratic, progressive values at home were often balanced with interventionism and destruction abroad during previous "normal" administrations. There is no doubt that Russians are viewing Biden’s presidency with trepidation: the return of familiar hawks does not bode well for Russian-US relations.

There was no rea­son to think that a Biden admin­is­tra­tion would be to the left of the Oba­ma admin­is­tra­tion when it comes to for­eign pol­i­cy. Biden comes with a long polit­i­cal career of sup­port­ing the wars of the Unit­ed States and its allies, from the 2003 inva­sion of Iraq to Israel’s aggres­sion against Pales­tini­ans to the pro­tract­ed occu­pa­tion of Afghanistan. And what­ev­er lim­it­ed over­tures he made to the Left dur­ing his cam­paign for the gen­er­al elec­tion in 2020 (while he simul­ta­ne­ous­ly ran on dis­tanc­ing him­self from the Left), for­eign pol­i­cy was almost entire­ly omit­ted, as evi­denced by the issue’s exclu­sion from the uni­ty task force with Bernie Sanders.

The United States is moving its USS Nimitz aircraft carrier and other warships into the Persian Gulf to support the withdrawal of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, CNN reported on Saturday, adding that the decision was made before the assassination of Iranian nuclear physicist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.

The broadcaster is citing an unnamed US defence official, who confirmed that the move was decided before the report about the killing of Fakhrizadeh but would still serve as a message to Tehran.

The Iranian Defense Ministry said on Friday that the head of its research and innovation centre, Fakhrizadeh, had been killed. Earlier on Saturday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani accused Israel of being behind the killing of the nuclear physicist, while Iran’s Ambassador to the United Nations Majid Takht Ravanchi has warned the US and Israel against "adventuristic" steps.

Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations has called on Washington and Tel Aviv to avoid “adventuristic measures” after the assassination of a top Iranian scientist, while also alleging “serious indications” of Israeli involvement.

The Islamic Republic's UN envoy Majid Takht Ravanchi penned a harshly worded letter to the international body on Friday, blasting the “terrorist assassination” of leading nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh by unknown assailants earlier on Friday morning, while also warning that Tehran would retaliate to any brash moves taken by Israel or the US.

Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul said he will ask President-elect Joe Biden’s choice for secretary of state, Tony Blinken, to apologize for supporting the war in Iraq.

In a Tuesday interview with Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto, Paul criticized a few of Biden’s cabinet picks, especially Blinken, a longtime Biden adviser. Biden announced Monday that Blinken would serve as his secretary of state. Paul said he is very concerned about foreign policy under the Biden administration.

“On foreign policy, I am very worried that there will be a big shift, and it’s back to those who believe that we should militarily intervene abroad in a big way. You have neoconservatives on the right who wants to intervene for geopolitical reasons, but then you have liberals, like Blinken and Samantha Power and others, who want to intervene for humanitarian reasons,” Paul said in the interview.

The drone capability will enable submarines to strike adversaries beyond visual range, allowing the aerial vehicles to gather real-time intelligence on enemy strength, movements, and communications.

The department clarified that the US Navy destroyer went 2 km beyond the border line, invading the territorial waters of the Russian Federation. The Russian military warned the Americans that they were ready for a ramming maneuver.

"The Admiral Vinogradov, a large anti-submarine ship of the Pacific Fleet, which is directly tracking the American destroyer, warned the foreign ship through the international communication channel about the inadmissibility of such actions and the possibility of using a ramming maneuver to force the intruder out of the territorial waters," the Defense Ministry said.

After that, the John McCain immediately went into neutral waters: "the American destroyer did not make repeated attempts to enter them."

Watch footage of the rare confrontation in the Sea of Japan below:

After the 'America First' foreign policy of Donald Trump - the first elected US president since Dwight Eisenhower not to start a major war - Joe Biden's election portends a re-run of the Obama years, when the promise of peace was betrayed.

Joe Biden says his cabinet appointments show "America is back" on the world stage - but is that really a good thing?

With former vice-president Biden looking increasingly secure in his claim on the White House despite ongoing legal challenges to the election process, how will his choices for his governing team shape foreign and domestic policy?

The EU is trembling in anticipation at the prospect of a Joe Biden administration, like Ana Steele in Christian Grey’s Red Room of Pain, despite the policies he espouses being precisely the cause of their problems.

Their rushing to congratulate him, even before the presidential result is certified, speaks volumes of their delight that ‘daddy’ is back in the White House.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen could barely contain her joy over what she said was a “new beginning in EU-US global partnership.”

Charles Michel, the European Council president, said it was time to “rebuild a strong EU-USA alliance” and he hastily invited Biden to a European summit in Brussels in the new year, even though the American election has not yet been formally concluded.

We recently highlighted the possibility that the US and China "may well be on the road to war, and nuclear war is no longer unthinkable." For years, we've discussed the relentless quest of Washington elites, preparing the empire for the inevitable collision with China as the battle for economic supremacy nears.

The rapid modernization of the military under the Trump administration, costing taxpayers $2 trillion, was an important signal in gauging Washington Warhawks' level of military preparedness as the threat of rising China increases by the day.

President Trump has described the trillions of dollars allocated to the military as a "colossal rebuilding" effort - something he says has 'never been done before.' Trump has routinely described all sorts of new military technology, including fifth-generation stealth jets, hypersonic missiles, and increased nuclear weapon capability.

In case tensions between the United States and China escalate into open conflict, President Duterte will always put forward the interest of the Philippines, Malacañang said.

“The President’s stand is clear: he will put the national interest of the Philippines, in view of a clash between the two superpowers,” presidential spokesman Harry Roque Jr. said at a briefing yesterday.

Roque reiterated the President’s policy of “being friends to all, and enemy to no one,” when asked about the country’s position amid the heated exchanges between the two countries.

Chinese naval exercises off the coast of the Philippines this summer finally forced the hand of President Rodrigo Duterte, if only for six months.

Despite a friendly relationship with President Trump, the Filipino president had maintained a hard line against the United States while continuing to appease China.

Promised Chinese economic investments, infrastructure development, and jobs were not forthcoming to boost the populist Duterte. Meanwhile, popular support for China is plummeting in the Philippines, and the Filipino military is growing concerned by Chinese activity near the disputed Spratly Islands.

Duterte’s June 1 rapprochement with the U.S. was measured: a six-month delay in the suspension of a Visiting Forces Agreement set to expire with the U.S.

Research organization RAND has run dozens of wargames simulating major conflict scenarios in what it describes as Russia and China’s “backyards.” The wargames suggest that the U.S. forces in those locations would get attacked by a vast array of both conventional and cyber weapons.

RAND Senior Defense Analyst David Ochmanek discussed the simulations at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) in Washington D.C. last week. “In our games, where we fight China or Russia … blue gets its a** handed to it, not to put too fine a point on it,” he said, during a panel discussion. Blue denotes U.S. forces in the simulations.

The defense secretary of the Philippines has warned of the growing risk of conflict in the South China Sea and claimed that if a war erupts, his country will be involved whether the people like it or not.

National Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said in a speech on Wednesday that the Philippines will get dragged into a conflict between the US and China if tensions continue to escalate.

Lorenzana, a retired army general, claimed the confrontation between China and the US and its allies was the most concerning security challenge in the Indo-Pacific region.

“While the US and China continue to assert that their actions are defensive, the danger of miscalculation is ever present, like the near collision of two frigates belonging to the US and China two years ago,” he said.

One day into the 72-hour ultimatum on Ethiopia’s Tigray city, Ethiopia claims many have surrendered, though there is growing pessimism the attack on the city can be avoided.

The Ethiopia Human Rights Commission found that some 600 people were killed in a Nov 9. massacre in Tigray, stabbed or hacked to death. That, and failure to care for the displaced, is raising concern.

PM Abiy Ahmed’s harsh statements against the Tigrayans only add to those concerns, and even if the fighting ends, the government may keep cracking down on the Tigrayans.

A lot of US military aircraft have fallen short of their readiness goals for the better part of a decade, including America's arsenal of fighter jets, according to a new government watchdog report.

Over the better part of the last decade, only three of 46 aircraft types in the US arsenal regularly met the service-established mission capable goals, and only one, the Air Force's UH-1N Huey, consistently met the readiness goal, the Government Accountability Office reported Thursday.

And, that's not even the worst of it.

The COVID-19 pandemic has delayed the results of two research studies that Veterans Affairs officials say are needed to determine whether new health conditions should be added to the list of Agent Orange-connected diseases.

A VA spokeswoman said Tuesday that results of the two studies -- the Vietnam Era Health Retrospective Observational Study, or VE-HEROeS, and the Vietnam Era Mortality Study -- aren't expected until at least next year, and in the case of the mortality study, until "mid-2021."

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed gave the anti-government Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) 72 hours to surrender on Sunday. The head of the region Debretsion Gebremichael rejected the demands, saying that his people are "ready to die" for their homeland.

The UN and international organisations have urged the sides in the Ethiopian conflict to cease hostilities in a bid to prevent civilian casualties, as the deadline for the ultimatum approaches.

"The highly aggressive rhetoric on both sides regarding the fight for Mekele is dangerously provocative and risks placing already vulnerable and frightened civilians in grave danger", said UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet.

The next US administration is taking shape with President-elect Joe Biden naming his picks to top cabinet posts and national security. It heralds a return to "normal" US imperialism and militarism. That is something to dread not celebrate, as American and European media would have us believe.

The incoming Democrat president, who is due to be inaugurated on January 20, is cheerfully reassuring European and NATO leaders that "America is back" after four years of erratic US foreign policy under the maverick Donald Trump.

Biden said his administration will "reclaim America's seat at the top of the table".

US media are also straining with Orwellian euphemisms. CNN says under Team Biden, the US will "reclaim its squandered leadership role". While the Washington Post said the new Biden administration hails the "return to competent government".

A notorious US naval destroyer sparked a diplomatic incident on Tuesday morning after Russia claimed that it had launched an incursion into its territorial waters.

The USS John S McCain, a specialist combat ship designed to hunt submarines, was operating in the Sea of Japan (also called the East Sea), off the coast of the Russian Far Eastern capital, Vladivostok. Authorities say it was more than two kilometers inside Russia’s internationally recognized maritime border.

A statement from the Ministry of Defense in Moscow said that the vessel had “violated” Russian waters and was “warned of the unacceptability of its actions” by the Udaloy-class destroyer Admiral Vinogradov, which had been tailing it. The communiqué added that sailors had told the American ship of the “potential of resorting to ramming to force the trespasser out of the territory.” The US navy has not yet issued a response.

A US foreign policy run by Antony J. Blinken and Jake Sullivan, the likely next secretary of state and national security adviser, will mean more global interventions and regime-change operations, Clinton and Obama style.
Blinken played a prominent foreign policy role in both the Bill Clinton and Barack Obama administrations, while Sullivan was part of the Obama one.

The Democrat-boosting media are, not surprisingly, excited by media-anointed President-elect Joe Biden’s choice of Blinken, his long-time national security adviser, as his secretary of state. Along with his pick of Jake Sullivan, another close aide, as his national security adviser, these appointments supposedly signal restoration of “internationalism” and “globalpartnerships” as guiding principles of US foreign policy.

“Making billions from arms exports which fuel the conflict while providing a small fraction of that in aid to Yemen is both immoral and incoherent.” So thundered Oxfam’s Yemen Country Director, Muhsin Siddiquey after consulting figures from the Stockholm Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) showing that members of the G20 have exported over $17 billion worth of arms to Saudi Arabia since the Kingdom entered the conflict in Yemen. “The world’s wealthiest nations cannot continue to put profits above the Yemeni people.”

Biden's message Tuesday as he unveiled the first six members of his national security and foreign policy team and let them speak for the first time is that "America is back" and is "ready to lead the world" once again.

He reflected in making the in-person introductions that "It's a team that will keep our country and our people safe and secure," and that it—

"Reflects the fact that America is back, ready to lead the world, not retreat from it. Once again, sit at the head of the table."

Peace activists on Monday sounded the alarm over President-elect Joe Biden’s pick for director of national intelligence, Avril Haines, citing her role in drone strike policy during Barack Obama’s presidency and covering up torture perpetrated by members of the George W. Bush administration.

Haines, as former deputy national security adviser and former deputy CIA director, worked closely with Obama and former CIA Director John Brennan as the administration dramatically increased drone strikes.

CIA Director Gina Haspel, as the New York Times noted, will report to Haines. Haspel had a role supervising the CIA’s torture program, and Haines supported President Donald Trump’s nomination of the agency chief in 2018.

One day into the 72-hour ultimatum on Ethiopia’s Tigray city, Ethiopia claims many have surrendered, though there is growing pessimism the attack on the city can be avoided.

The Ethiopia Human Rights Commission found that some 600 people were killed in a Nov 9. massacre in Tigray, stabbed or hacked to death. That, and failure to care for the displaced, is raising concern.

PM Abiy Ahmed’s harsh statements against the Tigrayans only add to those concerns, and even if the fighting ends, the government may keep cracking down on the Tigrayans.

Reflecting that problem, Ethiopia has loudly rejected mediation over the ongoing problem, meaning their endgame is not resolving the dispute but just crushing it.

Joe Biden’s early national security picks cashed in after their time in the Obama administration by consulting for defense contractors or working for think tanks funded by the defense industry and the US government, or both.

On Sunday, Bloomberg reported that Biden has chosen his longtime aide, Tony Blinken, to serve as secretary of state and will name Jake Sullivan, his senior advisor and a former Hillary Clinton aide, national security adviser. Former Obama Defense Department official Michèle Flournoy is considered the favorite to be secretary of defense.

After leaving the Obama administration, Blinken and Flournoy founded WestExec Advisors, a secretive consulting firm whose motto has been: “Bringing the Situation Room to the board room.” Flournoy and Sullivan have both held roles at think tanks raking in money from defense contractors, and US government intelligence and defense agencies.

The United States this week rapidly deployed several heavy bombers to the Middle East this week in an apparent threat to Iran, amid swirling speculation that US President Donald Trump plans to take military action against Tehran before President-elect Joe Biden enters office.

US Central Command said the planes were sent into the region “to deter aggression and reassure US partners and allies.”

In a highly irregular move, the B-52H Stratofortress planes were seen flying toward Israeli airspace on Saturday en route to the base where they will be stationed, likely in Qatar. The aircraft were spotted on civilian tracking software approaching Israel before they apparently turned off their transponders, rendering them invisible on those applications.

It was the third time in the past year and a half that B-52 bombers, which are capable of carrying nuclear weapons and other powerful munitions, have been deployed to the region in

Former President Barack Obama still can't shake his legacy as the "drone president" given he still holds the record for number of ordered covert assassination strikes via drones.

"There were ten times more air strikes in the covert war on terror during President Barack Obama’s presidency than under his predecessor, George W. Bush," one prior human rights study found.

"Obama embraced the US drone program, overseeing more strikes in his first year than Bush carried out during his entire presidency. A total of 563 strikes, largely by drones, targeted Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen during Obama’s two terms, compared to 57 strikes under Bush," the study said.

The U.S. Army is developing a new tool to gain an advantage in the cat and mouse game that is the electromagnetic spectrum mission.

Currently in the early concepts stage, the Army detailed its idea for the Modular Electromagnetic Spectrum Deception Suite, or MEDS, that will seek to confound the enemy within the invisible yet highly dynamic maneuver space of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Despite the fact forces cannot see it, the spectrum is an extremely important space they must cautiously move through just as a unit would in formation through a valley. U.S. adversaries have proven their ability to locate units based solely on their signature in the electromagnetic spectrum, leading to entire concept and materiel changes for the Army to smaller units and command posts. Deception within the spectrum has become a high priority for the U.S. military.

President-elect Joe Biden's pick for secretary of state got criticized for his current consulting work and early support for the Iraq War before his Monday announcements.

Antony Blinken advised Biden to vote for the Iraq War. Also said the US failed by not sending more troops to Syria," Ricochet editor-in-chief Jon Gabriel wrote on Twitter on Sunday.

Blinken was Biden's top aide in 2002 when the former senator voted for a decision allowing the use of force in Iraq. News of Biden's pick drew the attention of Blinken's firm WestExec Advisors.

Russia’s Admiral Vinogradov anti-submarine destroyer stopped the United States’ USS John S. McCain from violating the Russian border in the Peter the Great Gulf, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.

According to the ministry, at 06:17 Moscow time (03:17 GMT) on Tuesday, the USS John S. McCain, which entered the Sea of Japan several days ago, violated Russia’s territorial waters in the Peter the Great Gulf, “passing the maritime border by two kilometers.”

“The Pacific Fleet’s Admiral Vinogradov anti-submarine destroyer used an international communication channel to warn the foreign vessel that such actions were unacceptable and the violator could be forced out of the country’s territorial waters in a ramming maneuver. After the warming was issued and the Admiral Vinogradov changed its course, the USS John S. McCain destroyer returned to international waters,” the statement said.

U.S. forces fired two M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems at targets during Exercise Rapid Falcon last week from Romania into the Black Sea — marking the first time U.S. troops had done so with Romanian counterparts.

According to the service, troops from the Army’s 1st Battalion, 77th Field Artillery Regiment, 41st Field Artillery Brigade deployed the HIMARS systems using an MC-130J Commando II with the U.S. Air Force’s 352nd Special Operations Wing and a C-130 Hercules with U.S. Air Forces in Europe and Africa.

Two launcher crews of six personnel departed Ramstein Air Base in Germany on Nov. 19 for Romania to complete the exercise before returning to Germany immediately afterwards.

“Today we performed a HIRAIN, which is a HIMARS Rapid Infiltration,” Capt. Justin Bland, Alpha Battery Commander, 1-77 FAR, said in a recent Army news release. “This allows us to load up into a C-17, C-130, or a C-5 and go anywhere in the world and provide these timely fires.”

Suicide among U.S. military veterans reached record numbers in Colorado last year, with more than one former service member dying by suicide every week, a new report said.

A 2020 National Veteran Suicide Prevention report from the Department of Veterans Affairs said Colorado’s rate was “significantly higher” than the national rate, The Gazette reported Saturday.

The Army’s V Corps officially returned to Europe Friday with a ceremony at the unit's new forward headquarters in Poznan, Poland, from where it will command missions along NATO’s eastern flank.

The first soldiers attached to the Poznan headquarters began arriving last month after the Army reactivated the unit at Fort Knox, Ky. About 200 troops will eventually be assigned to the forward element in Poland while an additional 400 will work from Kentucky.

The activation of the Poznan mission came after Polish President Andrzej Duda on Nov. 9 signed off on a security cooperation pact that paved the way for the unit to officially launch.

U.S. Army Europe said in a statement this week that they expect the new headquarters to be fully operational by November 2021.

The Army has merged its component commands responsible for operations in Europe and Africa under one four-star general in a new organization that will be headquartered in Germany, the service announced Friday.

The Army’s new U.S. Army Europe and Africa, or USAREUR-AF, will combine the former U.S. Army Europe and former U.S. Army Africa into one organization, the service said. But soldiers will not move from their current locations under the reorganization, an Army spokeswoman said Friday.

USAREUR-AF will be headquartered in Wiesbaden, Germany, where U.S. Army Europe had been posted. Meanwhile, soldiers assigned to the former U.S. Army Africa will remain at Vicenza, Italy, where that command had been posted. The former U.S. Africa has been redesignated the Southern European Task Force-Africa, or SETAF-AF, under the command of USAREUR-AF.

Although the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev stated that “he would make sure peaceful coexistence is established” in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) after Azerbaijan invaded the Armenian-populated area, the situation on the ground couldn’t possibly be any further from that statement. The following videos show just how “peaceful coexistence” looks like to Azeris.

The Pentagon, which had planned the war in Nagorno-Karabakh, was overtaken by its British allies. But none of the great powers worried about the deaths it would cause. Moreover, while London and Ankara renewed their historic alliance, Washington and Moscow gained nothing, while George Soros and the Armenians lost much.

On Sunday, there were new street demonstrations in the Belarusian capital of Minsk. Last week, two British diplomats were declared “persona non grata” by the Belarusian government. They are accused of conducting “destructive activities” – most probably related to aiding demonstrators amid the Belarusian crisis.

I was not going to write a post today, focusing instead on the First Church of the Presence of God discourse, BUT... something has begun to trouble me and it won't go away. I am going with the idea that when you say something, it won't happen. Sometimes speaking out about a potential incident on The Event Horizon serves, in some mysterious and magical fashion to derail it.

There is now SO MUCH EVIDENCE of election fraud that when the president's lawyers get to the Supreme Court it will be a slam dunk. The corruption of the Democrat machine and most especially, the Satanic worker bees; George Soros (employee of the Rothschild Cartel). Bill Gates, Hillary Clinton, and others is as deep and depraved as ANYTHING I have ever seen. They will STOP at NOTHING to have their way. What this means is that another 9/11 style distraction disaster is ON THE MENU. I can FEEL it in the invisible as it vibrates across the ether.

Throughout his campaign, Joe Biden railed against Donald Trump’s ‘America First’ foreign policy, claiming it weakened the United States and left the world in disarray. “Donald Trump’s brand of ‘America First has too often led to America alone,” Biden proclaimed.

He pledged to reverse this decline and recover the damage Trump did to America’s reputation. While Donald Trump called to make America Great Again, Biden seeks to Make the American Empire Great Again.

Joe Biden: “Tonight, the whole world is watching America. And I believe at our best, America is a beacon for the globe. We will lead not only by the example of our power, but by the power of our example.”

Beijing says it wants to join the pact, which regulates the $70 billion cross-border trade in conventional weapons, as soon as possible. The treaty has been ratified by 104 countries, but US President Trump has U-turned.

China has prioritized the signing of the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), which seeks to control the trade in conventional arms and reduce human suffering, the country's Foreign Ministry said on Saturday.

Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly a day earlier, State Councilor Wang Yi said Beijing had initiated domestic legal procedures to join the pact.

When is a war not a war? Apparently in the minds of some folks in Washington if it is a “single strike” or a “limited attack” it is really okay, with or without the consent of Congress as required by Article 1, Section 8, of the Constitution of the United States. The Founders had wanted to take away from the chief executive the ability to go to war, a power which the kings in Europe had abused, but the current rulers of America have chosen to ignore the wisdom of the framers of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. They have done so by wordsmithing what they are doing and somehow attacking another country has become generally regarded as not really war at all, just a reminder to bad guys of what Washington might be capable of if it really gets angry.

Biden’s likely pick for Secretary of Defense, Michele Flournoy, and his top foreign policy advisor, Tony Blinken, have played central roles in every war waged by Democratic presidents dating back to the Clinton era

Joe Biden’s early national security picks cashed in after their time in the Obama administration by consulting for defense contractors or working for think tanks funded by the defense industry and the U.S. government, or both.

On Sunday, Bloomberg reported that Biden has chosen his longtime aide, Tony Blinken, to serve as Secretary of State and will name Jake Sullivan, his senior advisor and a former Hillary Clinton aide, national security adviser. Former Obama Defense Department official Michèle Flournoy is considered the favorite to be Secretary of Defense.

After leaving the Obama administration, Blinken and Flournoy founded WestExec Advisors, a secretive consulting firm whose motto has been: “Bringing the Situation Room to the board room.” Flournoy and Sullivan have both held roles at think tanks raking in money from defense contractors and U.S. government intelligence and defense agencies.

The U.S. military deployed B-52 bombers to the Middle East Saturday, just days after the Trump administration announced a partial withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan and Iraq.

U.S. Central Command said the U.S. Air Force B-52H “Stratofortress” aircrews conducted the mission on "short notice" to "deter aggression and reassure U.S. partners and allies."

“The ability to quickly move forces into, out of and around the theater to seize, retain and exploit the initiative is key to deterring potential aggression," said Lt. Gen. Greg Guillot, 9th Air Force commander.

"These missions help bomber aircrews gain familiarity with the region’s airspace and command, and control functions and allow them to integrate with the theater’s U.S. and partner air assets, increasing the combined force’s overall readiness.”

Late on November 19, Azerbaijani troops started entering the district of Agdam in the Nagorno-Karabakh region. Agdam is one of the districts surrounding the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic that Azerbaijan lost to Armenian forces after the collapse of the USSR, as a result of the First Karabkah War. On November 20, the district is set to be fully transfered to Azerbaijan under the peace deal reached by Baku and Yerevan to put an end to the Second Karabkah War earlier in November. An overwhelming majority of Armenians living in Agdam have already left the area. Over the past days, authorities of the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (also known as the Republic of Artsakh) were assisting in the evacuation. Many of the leaving Armenians were burning their homes in order to not allow the Azerbaijanis to seize them and use them in the future.

On Friday, the Marine Corps activated a new, specialized unit called the Marine Corps Forces Space Command (MARFORSPACE) as a subordinate organization to US Space Command, which will "provide space operational support to the Fleet Marine Force while building a convergence capability to increase warfighter lethality," read a US Space Command press release.

Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Matthew G. Gravy will be the "dual-hatted" commander of MARFORSPACE and Marine Corps Forces Cyberspace Command (MARFORCYBER).

MARFORSPACE will be based at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, while MARFORCYBER is headquartered at Fort Meade, Maryland.

Almost two years since the president declared that U.S. forces would be leaving Syria, American troops are still in that country illegally on a mission that has nothing to do with U.S. security. According to outgoing Syria envoy James Jeffrey, U.S. officials have been playing a “shell game” with troops numbers to conceal how many American forces remained there, and he said that there are a “lot more” than 200 troops operating in Syria now.

The Times of London reported, on November 16, that Trump’s recent installation of loyalists in top Pentagon jobs is likely to be for the purpose of fulfilling his long-term pledge to bring an end to the U.S.’ “endless wars”. It is expected that Trump will order the withdrawal of 4,500 troops from Afghanistan and so end 19 years of occupation.

There are two prominent objections to Trump’s likely proposal. Firstly, a swift withdrawal of U.S. forces, that would have to take place before January, will bring logistical chaos. However, the daily state of chaos which occupation brings to the lives of millions is barely considered.

After triumphing in a bitterly contested presidential election, all eyes are on President-Elect Joe Biden and who he will choose to run his new administration. For much of October, media spent their time dissecting the news that, despite living a lavish billionaire lifestyle, Donald Trump paid only $750 in federal income taxes in 2016 and 2017. In contrast, little was made of Biden’s self-published tax documents. This is surprising because the returns show that he is rich. Filthy rich.

A new proposal to recreate a defunct US Navy fleet in the western Pacific could provide the US with another way to confront China in the South China Sea, but could also alienate regional partners at the same time.

US Navy Secretary Kenneth Braithwaite has proposed refounding the US First Fleet and basing it in the Indo-Pacific region, possibly Singapore, at the southern tip of the South China Sea.

“We want to stand up a new numbered fleet,” Braithwaite said Tuesday, at the Naval Submarine League’s annual symposium, according to USNI News. “And we want to put that numbered fleet in the crossroads between the Indian and the Pacific oceans, and we’re really going to have an Indo-PACOM [Indo-Pacific Command] footprint.”

At least some of the ballistic missiles that China’s People’s Liberation Army fired into the South China Sea during an exercise earlier this year, which you can read about more in the War Zone‘s initial story on those drills, reportedly hit a moving target ship. If true, this would be the country’s first known demonstration of an actual long-range anti-ship ballistic missile capability, which could significantly change the operational calculus for any potential opponent, including the United States, in the disputed maritime region and elsewhere in the Pacific.

For those who are reluctant to recognize the actions taking place to defend America against both foreign and domestic enemies, a massive change was just put in place at the Department of Defense that proves some additional clues about what’s going down.

Special Operations forces have now been restructured to report directly to Defense Secretary Chris Miller, who replaced swamp creature Mark Esper, recently fired by Trump. The term “special operations forces” usually includes special forces from the Army (Rangers, Delta, etc.) and Navy (SEALs), and likely encompasses many tens of thousands of highly-trained, elite troops. (The exact count is not public information.)

Chris Miller, who previously served as the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, described the changes as “tectonic” and as being pursued to “combat transnational threats.”

But he also said something even more interesting:

Russian peacekeeping forces in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) have deployed the advanced RB-341V “Leer-3” electronic warfare system. The system, based on KamAZ-5350 6×6 trucks, was spotted with Russian peacekeepers in Artsakh in a video that was shared by Global News on November 14.

Leer-3 was developed by the St Petersburg-based LLC Special Technology Center, a subsidiary of the KRET Concern. The system, which was first presented in 2015, was designed to monitor and attack GSM communications. Each Leer-3 system relies on one or two Orlan-10 drones carrying electronic warfare payloads. The drone can stay in the air for 16 hours and has an operating range of 140 km.

Japan and Australia reached an agreement on a new military pact this week that will allow their militaries to train in each other’s territories. News of the deal was welcomed by a top US Navy commander in Asia, and it comes at a time when the three countries, along with India, are increasing cooperation to counter China.

“That kind of agreement is really helpful and encouraging to everybody in the region,” Vice Admiral William Merz, the commander of the US Navy’s Seventh Fleet, which is based in Japan, said on Thursday. “We are very supportive of that agreement and we look forward to exercising along right with them.”

Once Japan’s parliament approves the agreement between Canberra and Tokyo, it will mark the first time in 60 years that Japan allows another foreign military besides the US on its soil. The deal is similar to one signed between the US and Japan in 1960, known as the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security.

The next Pentagon chief could cement the US’ already hard defence line on China, with one contender suggesting that American forces could bolster deterrence with the ability to “sink all” Chinese vessels “within 72 hours” in the South China Sea.

Michele Flournoy, an undersecretary of defence in the Obama administration, has been touted as a possible defence secretary in the cabinet of US president-elect Joe Biden.

In an article in the journal Foreign Affairs in June, Flournoy said that as Washington’s ability and resolve to counter Beijing’s military assertiveness in the region declined, the US needed a solid deterrence to reduce the risk of “miscalculation” by China’s leadership.

U.S. Special Operations Forces are poised to deploy a new sniper rifle that's capable of quickly changing calibers to adapt to different missions. The Barrett Multi-Role Adaptive Design (MRAD) Mark 22 can switch between eight different rifle calibers in a matter of minutes. The rifle will enable Green Berets, SEALs, and other special operations troops to engage man-sized targets at a distance of a mile or farther.

According to Motherboard, a Muslim prayer smartphone app with tens of millions of downloads has severed ties with a location company that reportedly sold its user data to the US military.

Dubbed the "most popular Muslim app in the world," Muslim Pro has been downloaded more than 98 million times in 200 countries. The app provides users with Muslim prayer times and shows them the direction of Mecca.

Motherboard released the report Monday that said Muslim Pro sold user location data to a company called X-Mode, which collects location data directly from the app and then sells it to contractors or the military.

Hawks are screeching about a series of high profile firings and resignations that occurred at the Pentagon last week, seeing in the personnel moves a dark portent of a possible coup by the Trump administration. The dismissals are “nefarious… decapitations,” according to The Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin; while journalist Mona Charen dubbed the high-profile resignations a “purge.”

“The president is burning down the Department of Defense in the midst of a presidential transition, which in my experience is unprecedented in American history,” said Eric Edelman, former under secretary of defense and ambassador to Turkey.

After three straight years of failures, the Pentagon now says it doesn’t expect to figure out a proper audit of its assets until at least 2027. That’s an audit to cover an estimated $2.9 trillion in Defense Department assets.

The Pentagon attempted and failed its first audit in 2018. Officials said a failure was a foregone conclusion, and that they managed to finish the failure at all was an accomplishment. Having set the bar for success, they’ve managed to keep failing going forward.

This year’s failure cost $203 million, and officials said they managed to save $700 million, though Covid-19 complicated the matter substantially.

There appears to be something about launching bombs or missiles from afar onto cities and people that appeals to American military and political leaders. In part it has to do with a conscious desire to not risk American lives in ground combat. And in part, perhaps not entirely conscious, it has to do with not wishing to look upon the gory remains of the victims, allowing American GIs and TV viewers at home to cling to their warm fuzzy feelings about themselves, their government, and their marvelous “family values”. Washington officials are careful to distinguish between the explosives the US drops from the sky and “weapons of mass destruction” (WMD), which only the officially-designated enemies (ODE) are depraved enough to use. The US government speaks sternly of WMD, defining them as nuclear, chemical and biological in nature, and “indiscriminate” (meaning their use can’t be limited to military objectives), as opposed to the likes of American “precision” cruise missiles.

A video appeared, showing an Azeri Islamist, or possibly a pro-Turkish terrorist standing on the top of an Armenian church, destroying its cross. It is still unclear where exactly the video was taken, but it’s certainly in southern Artsakh, occupied by the invading Azeri troops. The rest of Artsakh is still under Armenian and Russian control, so it couldn’t have been taken in those areas.

However, this does raise questions of the fate of other Christian religious sites in areas that are or will come under Azeri occupation. If horrifying war crimes committed by Azeri troops and pro-Turkish terrorist allies against Armenian civilians and captured (or killed) soldiers are taken into account, the fate of Armenia’s ancient and Christian legacy, which predates the existence of Azeris for thousands of years, looks rather grim.

The position paper builds on shifts in US global strategy in recent years toward what the Pentagon has called “great power competition” with Russia and China, which Washington sees as “revisionists” attempting to rewrite the US-led post-Cold War world order.

On Tuesday, Axios published an unclassified document from the US State Department’s Office of Policy Planning that lays out a series of goals the US must achieve if it wants to forestall the rise of China as a global superpower.

The document, titled “The Elements of the China Challenge,” bears a number of similarities to the 1947 “long telegram” written by George F. Kennan, a senior US diplomat to the Soviet Union, about how the US should address the rise of that socialist superpower. Kennan advised a policy of “containment” through regional alliances and steady undermining of the Soviet socialist system that became the basis of the Cold War that followed.

After being "encouraged" to leave several countries of Asia due to my attempts at instilling truthful journalism among their youth and resistance to censorship, I have since been traveling throughout the USA. Sniffing around much like an old wolf out of its cage and reintroduced to nature, I feel that it's good to be lean and hungry, even though I am surprised at how the deer cannot figure road kill and the sheep remain content behind electric wire.

After triumphing in a bitterly contested presidential election, all eyes are on President-Elect Joe Biden and who he will choose to run his new administration. For much of October, media spent their time dissecting the news that, despite living a lavish billionaire lifestyle, Donald Trump paid only $750 in federal income taxes in 2016 and 2017. In contrast, little was made of Biden’s self-published tax documents. This is surprising because the returns show that he is rich. Filthy rich.