NC Renegades

Language Warning – there are a few less-than-cordial words is this rant, but they are worth putting up with, given the overall message which he presents.

Unfortunately, we suffer the consequences of tyranny under the guise of “intolerance”. Who will speak for the children?

David DeGerolamo

Over the course of three decades in public life Hillary Clinton has misspoke and misled the public and mismanaged herself and her team to such a degree that voters cannot help noticing. Yes, many of her falsehoods are white lies. But white lies accumulate. They matter. Not only do they harm the truth. They are turning Clinton into one of the least popular candidates in history.

Since 1998 Clinton has blamed her poor reputation on the vast right-wing conspiracy. Whitewater, Travel Gate, File Gate, the health care disaster—it was all the fault of the Republicans. What’s forgotten is that Clinton has been lying in the service of her ambitions—most notably by protecting her husband from the truth of his infidelities—since long before Bill ran for president. Nor can she blame conservatives for her failure to win the Democratic nomination eight years ago. Hillary can’t help being secretive and deceptive. It’s her nature.

Think of the transcripts of the speeches she gave to Wall Street audiences. Bernie Sanders would like Clinton to release them. She refuses. Why? “When everybody agrees to do that, I will as well, because I think it’s important we all abide by the same standards.” What baloney. Democratic primary voters see the obvious: Hillary is hiding behind a standard she invented.

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I have to believe that justice will prevail. The rule of man has replaced the rule of law. For now.

David DeGerolamo

by Sam Culper

During my last tour in Afghanistan, Palantir was quickly becoming the sweetheart analysis software suite of the Army and Marine Corps.  Before I deployed, I sat through a class offered by the company, and immediately recognized that it’s great software.  Intelligently designed, easy to use, top notch functionality, and categorization options allow an end-user to drill down and really dissect the adversary and surrounding events.  It is, however, only as powerful as the end-user allows it to be.

By the time I left the intelligence community, I had become disillusioned with the state of the average analyst (though not every analyst) and much of leadership which is more interested in developing the latest technology instead developing the minds of their analysts.  Intelligence analysis is, and likely will be for decades to come, 80% investigation and 20% technology; but tools like Palantir are trying to invert that into 80% technology and 20% investigation.  Without a highly inquisitive mind motivated to find the solutions to unanswered or seemingly unanswerable questions, and the proper analytical methods to pick apart your adversary, your analysis of information of intelligence value will be found wanting.

SPACE is an acronym that every good analyst should use, especially where it concerns community security.  Its roots are in our operational security (OPSEC) manual, and when the adversary doesn’t care enough to implement SPACE into his security considerations, it’s our job as collectors and analyzers of information to exploit their mistakes.

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It was announced that Harriet Tubman, a gun-toting former slave (gosh, that 2nd Amendment sure comes in handy sometimes, doesn’t it Liberals?) and hero of the Underground Railroad, will be honored by having her portrait put on the $20 bill.

Which is fine with us, although Donald Trump made the no-holds-barred and utterly indecipherable assertion that putting Tubman on the twenty “is very rough” on Andrew Jackson and sneered that this is an act of “pure political correctness” although Harriet Tubman “is fantastic” and she should absolutely be put on our currency.

And no, we have no idea what he’s talking about. although in fairness, we’re pretty sure that he doesn’t either.

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Iran’s heavy water nuclear facilities near the central city of Arak, as pictured in January 2011. PHOTO: ISNA / ASSOCIATED PRESS

The Obama administration is buying 32 tons of heavy water, a key component in atomic-weapons development, from Iran in an effort to safeguard its landmark nuclear agreement with the country, according to senior American officials.

The Department of Energy’s impending purchase was driven by U.S. concerns that Iran doesn’t have the capacity yet to quickly reduce its stockpile of the material as required under the July nuclear deal, according to these officials.

Under the accord, Iran must keep its load of heavy water to below 130 tons during the initial years of the deal, and under 90 tons later. But U.S. officials said Iran has been struggling to find buyers for the material on the international market and that its stockpile is at risk of rising above that level.

The U.S. hopes its initial purchase will give other countries the confidence to purchase Iran’s heavy water in the coming years.

The deal, estimated at $8.6 million, is expected to be formally signed by U.S. and Iranian officials Friday morning in Vienna.

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I saw this yesterday without the commentary. Andrew Jackson was put on the twenty dollar note as retribution for fighting against central banks.

David DeGerolamo

h/t Matt Bracken

ON JUNE 8, 1967, while patrolling in international waters in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, USS Liberty (AGTR-5) was savagely attacked without warning or justification by air and naval forces of the state of Israel. Of a crew of 294 officers and men (including three civilians), the ship suffered thirty four (34) killed in action and one hundred seventy three (173) wounded in action. The ship itself, a Forty Million ($40,000,000) Dollar state of the art signals intelligence (SIGINT) platform, was so badly damaged that it never sailed on an operational mission again and was sold in 1970 for $101,666.66 as scrap.

At 1400 hours, while approximately about 17 nautical miles off the northern Sinai coast and about 25 nautical miles northwest of El Arish, USS Liberty’s crew observed three surface radar contacts closing with their position at high speed. A few moments later, the bridge radar crew observed high speed aircraft passing over the surface returns on the same heading. Within a few short moments, and without any warning, Israeli fighter aircraft launched a rocket attack on USS Liberty. The aircraft made repeated firing passes, attacking USS Liberty with rockets and their internal cannons. After the first flight of fighter aircraft had exhausted their ordnance, subsequent flights of Israeli fighter aircraft continued to prosecute the attack with rockets, cannon fire, and napalm.

During the air attack, USS Liberty’s crew had difficulty contacting Sixth Fleet to request assistance due to intense communications jamming The initial targets on the ship were the command bridge, communications antennas, and the four .50 caliber machine guns, placed on the ship to repel boarders. After the Israeli fighter aircraft completed their attacks, three Israeli torpedo boats arrived and began a surface attack about 35 minutes after the start of the air attack. The torpedo boats launched a total of five torpedoes, one of which struck the side of USS Liberty, opposite the ship’s research spaces. Twenty-five Americans, in addition to the nine who had been killed in the earlier air attacks, were killed as a result of this explosion.

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