My Latest.

Medvedev's words will sting many here, I know. But it is a reality we cannot ignore anymore. 

 

James Kunstler's Excellent...

... essay on American Jews and their impact from the Democratic Party (nominal Left). Superb piece, which illuminates the road to self-destruction and possible rebirth. 

Tikkun Olam means repair the world. This has been driving American Judaism since the early 20^th century. Meanwhile, the genocide of the 1940s gave new impetus to next year in Jerusalem for what remained of the European Jews, and thus you get the establishment of Israel in 1948 — notwithstanding the geopolitical legerdemain that actually brought it about. American Jews, while sympathetic to a fault with the founding of Israel, and deeply vested emotionally in its success, had a different agenda in the USA after World War Two. They endeavored to repair America. Tikkun Olam! Mostly this expressed itself in Jewish support and involvement in the Civil Rights movement, since the end of discrimination against anybody was considered a good thing for the Jews as well as humanity in general. The country needed a moral repair job, especially after defeating manifest evil in the big war. That effort climaxed in the mid 1960s with the federal legislation that ended Jim Crow policy in voting and public accommodations. Much of the actual on-the-ground work to make this happen was accomplished by Jewish lawyers. This is a fact, not an accusation.

Read the whole piece--it is excellent.  

Meanwhile, Sergey Melikov, the head of Dagestan, mocked rioters many of who are now arrested and will be prosecuted, including Article 212, for inciting ethnic hatred against, in this case, Jews, about looking for Jews in the engine of B-737 which flew into Mahachkala from Israel. 

Russia will NOT allow any kind of ethnically and religiously driven hatred and violence. But Russians wouldn't be Russians if they didn't come up with the meme:

Yes, sometimes it is good to make fun of and mock sheer idiocy and malice. Here it is: Jews in the high bypass ratio turbofan engine. So natural for Jews to hide in these engines. No comments are necessary.

Open Thread.

Go at it.

They Are Just Old.

I am talking about this, of course. And I mean old as in technology sense. 

The Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) was “safely terminated” at 12:06am Pacific time, “due to an anomaly during a test launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California,” said the Air Force Global Strike Command. According to the US military, the missile nevertheless provided “vital data” and that the command “learns lessons from every test launch,” so it can ensure the “continued reliability and accuracy” of the Minuteman III. The command said it would form a Launch Analysis Group to investigate the cause of the anomaly, which will include representatives of the 377th Test and Evaluation Group, the 576th Flight Test Squadron, the Space Launch Delta 30 Safety Office and the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center, among others. Wednesday’s test was announced by Pentagon spokesman Brigadier General Pat Ryder in Tuesday’s press briefing, as a way to demonstrate the “redundancy and reliability of our strategic-deterrence system while sending a visible message of assurance to allies.”

Everyone gets things malfunctioning once in a while, this in and of itself is nothing special, but here is the issue--problems with the US ground-based nuclear deterrent are, however, not new. Let's recall this:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Just over half of the 183 nuclear missile launch officers at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana have been implicated in a widening exam cheating scandal, the Air Force said on Thursday, acknowledging it had “systemic” problem within its ranks. The cheating was discovered during an investigation into illegal drug possession among airmen, when test answers were found in a text message on one missile launch officer’s cell phone. The Air Force initially said 34 officers either knew about the cheating or cheated themselves.But Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James told a Pentagon news conference on Thursday that the total number of implicated officers had grown to 92, all of them at Malmstrom, one of three nuclear missile wings overseeing America’s 450 inter-continental missiles, or ICBMs.

Yes, this was in 2014 and it is reasonable to assume that the problem was addressed but, read the whole piece--it explains institutional issues within US nuclear force and those are not easily addressed. And then, of course, there is this issue of technological development. Minuteman III has been around since 1970s with upgrades in 2010s, which included the replacement of the solid propellant, which do have the tendency to go bad over time. But, in the end, it is still an old missile. 

Compare this now to Russia's constant upgrade of her deterrent which includes such ICBMS as Topol-M (introduced in 1997), RS 24 Yars (introduced in 2010) and now RS-28 Sarmat which entered first line service this year. The difference cannot be starker. This is not to mention still serving RS-36M2 Voevoda (aka Satan II) introduced in 1988. I could continue the list, including 1975 introduced UR-100N Stiletto ICBM, which was now upgraded to carry Avangard hyper-sonic strategic vehicles and is in the first-line service now. So, it is not enough to just maintain but to constantly develop such a complex technology and at this stage it is clear that technology-wise the gap between Russia and the US grows and, in fact, accelerates. 

So, in this respect initial delays of two tests and now a failure of Minuteman III signify a rather precarious state which US deterrent finds itself in. In this particular case the failure was ironic since the stated goal was to send the message to allies. Well, they surely got the message. It is clear that there will be requests now for additional funding of the LGM-35A Sentinel--a replacement for Minuteman III, which should see first deployment somewhere in 2030s. Well, I guess will see if we live then, if this program will be able to lift off.

My Latest.

Enjoy, if you will.  

 

Vera, Scott, Marat and Me.

 Sorry, forgot to post. 

 

 

It Flew.

The first flight of modernized IL-96-400M. 

This is just the start, with PD-35 coming online soon and possibly wing redesigned and made composite--the most important part is that Russia preserved and now develops competencies in wide-body aircraft, which she can produce entirely out of own resources. Count on fingers of one hand how many countries can do that. I'll give you a hint--US and Russia. Airbus is an international consortium having several nations taking part. 

To rub salt into the wound of Russia-Gas Stationists, in Russian--the latest expo of Russia's rolling stock. Rate of Made in Russia? Between 98 to 100%, including all systems of control and propulsion. This all is a real hi-tech. It also is already in serial production or about to start. 

Yep, definitely a gas station. 

In other news, Lindsey Graham confirmed what we always knew about him--he is a genocidal maniac. 

In an interview with CNN on Tuesday, Graham was asked if there was a “threshold” for him, after which he would start questioning Israel’s tactics. The Republican replied in the negative, saying there is no limit as to “what Israel should do to the people who are trying to slaughter the Jews.” “This idea that Israel has to apologize for attacking Hamas, who’s embedded with their own population, needs to stop,” the senator insisted, adding that it is Hamas that is “creating these casualties – not Israel.” Graham noted that Israel does need to “be smart” by trying to “limit civilian casualties.” The lawmaker also called for the delivery of humanitarian aid to “areas that protect the innocent.”

People of South Carolina should be proud. Graham represents them.