VertRep

VertRep

Sunday, February 24, 2019

On Midrats 24 February 2019 - Episode 477: Afghanistan & the Long War with Bill Roggio

You can listen to the show at this link:  Midrats Episode 477: Afghanistan & the Long War with Bill Roggio
We are going to take a clear, cold, and unsparing look at the status of the conflict in
Afghanistan and the Long War in general with our returning guest, Bill Roggio.

In a far-reaching discussion, we will touch on the rather unpleasant reality of where we have put ourselves through our own action, and what people should expect going forward.

Bill is a senior fellow at FDD and editor of FDD’s Long War Journal, which provides original reporting and analysis of the Global War on Terror from Afghanistan and Pakistan to Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia, North Africa, Iran, and beyond. He is also president of the nonprofit media company Public Multimedia Inc.

Bill was embedded with the U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Army, and Iraqi forces in Iraq between 2005 and 2008, and with the Canadian Army in Afghanistan in 2006. From 1991 to 1997, Bill served as a signalman and infantryman in the U.S. Army and New Jersey National Guard. His articles have been published in The New York Times, The Weekly Standard, The Daily Beast, National Review, and The New York Post, and his work has been in outlets including The New Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, CNN, Foreign Policy, and Bloomberg.
You might note that the link is to Spreaker which is something new for us.

UPDATE:

Some things mentioned during the show:

The Office of Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) annual Worldwide Threat Assessment

A map from that Assessment showing areas where ISIS is active and a couple of maps of historic Caliphates:


source

Tuesday, February 19, 2019

Another Threat to Society - "Marijuana, Mental Illness, and Violence"

A really interesting article from the Hillsdale College publication Imprimis Marijuana, Mental Illness, and Violence
Over the last 30 years, psychiatrists and epidemiologists have turned speculation about marijuana’s dangers into science. Yet over the same period, a shrewd and expensive lobbying campaign has pushed public attitudes about marijuana the other way. And the effects are now becoming apparent.

Almost everything you think you know about the health effects of cannabis, almost everything advocates and the media have told you for a generation, is wrong.
If you are concerned about the effects on our society of the promiscuous use of legal and illegal drugs, then this article about the relationship of marijuana to mental diseases, you should read this article.

The issues raised need far more exposure.

Not only should we be concerned about what the research reported on by Mr. Berenson indicates, we should also be concerned about the long-term effects on the bodies of habitual users of marijuana - if inhaling tobacco smoke or chewing tobacco are known cancer risks, it seems pretty obvious that doing the same sort of ingestion with another substance must pose some risk - one that the users of today will tomorrow being suing the legal purveyors of their supply for "misrepresentation" of the health benefits of their product.

Of course, the illegal suppliers will prove to be unlikely defendants in such trials.

Full disclosure - I graduated many years ago from the Navy's Drug And Alcohol Counselor School and was the director of one of the Navy Counseling and Assistance Center/Alcohol Rehabilitation Drydock facilities and thus have some practical experience in the drug and alcohol abuse world.

Saturday, February 09, 2019

On Midrats 10 February 2019 - Episode 475: The US Navy's Face Mission; Naval Presence - History & Present Use

Please join us at 5pm (EST) on 10 Feb 2019 for Midrats Episode 475: The US Navy's Face Mission; Naval Presence - History & Present Use

From showing the flag in the Mediterranean in the first decades of our
republic's history, through Teddy's Great White Fleet, to FONOPS in today's South China Sea - "being there" is a little understood strategic mission.

What is its history and utility in the 21st Century?

Our guest fo the full hour will be Dr. James Holmes, returning to Midrats to discuss this and related issues.

Dr. Holmes is a professor of strategy and former visiting professor of national security affairs at the Naval War College. A former U.S. Navy surface-warfare officer and combat veteran of the first Gulf War, he served as a weapons and engineering officer in the battleship Wisconsin, engineering and firefighting instructor at the Surface Warfare Officers School Command, and military professor of strategy at the Naval War College. He was the last gunnery officer to fire a battleship’s big guns in anger.

The book he co-authored with Toshi Yoshihara, Red Star over the Pacific, now in its second edition.
If you can't listen at the regular time, you can also pick the show up later by visiting either our iTunes page or our Stitcher page.

Sunday, January 27, 2019

On Midrats 27 January 2019 - Episode 473: The Fort Report on the FITZGERALD Collision with Geoff Ziezulewicz

Please join us at 5pm (EST) for Midrats Episode 473: The Fort Report on the FITZGERALD Collision with Geoff Ziezulewicz
Over 18-months after the deadly collision of the USS FITZGERALD with the
Philippine-flagged merchant ship ACX Crystal off the Sea of Japan, from the courtroom to the fleet, we still have not come to terms with latent causes, accountability, or even a full understanding about what happened from a human and machine perspective.

Earlier this year, journalist Geoff Ziezulewicz received a copy of the Fort Report made shortly after the collision by Rear Admiral Brian P. Fort, USN.

Geoff will be our guest for the full hour to review the findings, the reactions to it, and further developments.

Geoff is a senior staff reporter for Military Times, focusing on the Navy. He covered Iraq and Afghanistan extensively and was most recently a reporter at the Chicago Tribune. He welcomes any and all kinds of tips at geoffz@militarytimes.com.
If you can't listen at the regular time, you can also pick the show up later by visiting either our iTunes page or our Stitcher page.

Friday, January 25, 2019

Friday Film: Effects Of An Atomic Blast On Electric Power Facilities

EMP?

Recently released report dated 2017 (released to public in July 2018) NUCLEAR EMP ATTACK SCENARIOS AND COMBINED-ARMS CYBER WARFARE (pdf), leading to this piece by Bill Gertz China, Russia Building Super-EMP Bombs for ‘Blackout Warfare’:
"Nuclear EMP attack is part of the military doctrines, plans, and exercises of Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran for a revolutionary new way of warfare against military forces and civilian critical infrastructures by cyber, sabotage, and EMP," the report states.
***
The latest EMP commission report, "Nuclear EMP Attack Scenarios and Combined-Arms Cyber Warfare," is the 13th and final report of the commission. It is dated July 2017. However, as a result of a lengthy security review the report was made public last week.
Well, it's not like we haven't known of this potential threat and more - here's a film based on 1955 "Civil Effects Tests" -



And an 2016 interview with the author of the report -

Wednesday, January 23, 2019

Time Again for this: "Men Without Chests"

Nice piece of work from the Acton Institute. You can acquire C.S. Lewis's The Abolition of Man, of which this is the first chapter, for free here.


Monday, January 21, 2019

U.S. Navy Office of Naval Intelligence Worldwide Threat to Shipping (WTS) Report 17 December 2018 - 16 January 2019 and HORN OF AFRICA/GULF OF GUINEA/ SOUTHEAST ASIA: Piracy Analysis and Warning Weekly (PAWW) Report for 10 - 16 January 2019

Of special interest:
MEXICO On 9 January, illegal fishermen attacked and boarded a ship from an environmental NGO which was conducting a patrol in the Vaquita Refuge in the Upper Gulf of California.
More here:
More than 35 skiffs attacked a vessel belonging to the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, the international maritime wildlife conservation organization, in the upper Gulf of California on Wednesday, hurling “lead weights, dead fish, and even Tabasco sauce” at the ship.

According to Sea Shepherd, poachers aboard the skiffs also threatened the organization’s M/V Farley Mowat with Molotov cocktails, sprayed gasoline at the ship and poured it in the water around the vessel.




Saturday, January 19, 2019

Saturday Is Old Radio Day: Suspense "The House in Cypress Canyon" (1946)

Considered a classic in terrifying radio shows. Starring Robert Taylor, Cathy Lewis, Hans Conried and Howard Duff (as Sam Spade).