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Hell Rains Down.Book 3 in 18 parts, By FinalStand. Listen to the ► Podcast at Explicit Novels. Would you choose ephemeral beauty, or rugged determination? Brief Segway :Senator Susan Collins of Maine, JIKIT's Congressional mentor, at our urging had proposed an amendment to the Taiwan Relations Act Affirmation and Naval Vessel Transfer Act of 2014 which would allow 'Turkey' to purchase six 'Oliver Perry class frigates for $10 million each. The same act already proposed four such vessels to be sold to Taiwan for the same amount as well as giving two to Thailand (and two to Mexico) free of charge.Things had immediately bogged down in the 113th US Congress. It was too easy for Democrats in both Houses to take the President's position that any additional weapons into the South China Sea area would further destabilize the region. The pro-PRC lobby was equally opposed to the bill. Under normal conditions, that would have been good enough to send the measure off to the procedural graveyard.Except in the current contrary nature of the US's chief legislative body, this meant Republicans found themselves drawn to the anything the White House opposed. They could claim they found the anti-Communist, anti-Islamic Extremists stance of the Khanate to be attractive to them though none of them felt the need to actually talk to anyone in the Khanate to find out what they were really all about.We were happy with that policy because true congressional oversight was the last thing we needed. They might start asking uncomfortable questions like...'Who gave you the authority to do any of the crap you pulled?'(No one. We lied like big dogs, purloined resources and cloaked ourselves in 'National Security'. Plus we let our elite personnel have a crack at doing what they had so dedicatedly trained to do, wreck things.)'Wasn't that, that, and that an act of war against the People's Republic of China?'('No comment'. If that didn't work, we would try 'they will never find out'.)'Why are 90% of all the names on these documents redacted? We are the freaking Congress! You work for us.'(Work for them? Not to our way of thinking. We earned our paychecks without any slavish devotion to corporate campaign contributions. We were working so that the lives of Americans and Brits abroad would be that much safer, the world more orderly and for the US and UK to have an ally they could really rely on. We couldn't tell them that. They'd throw us in jail. We'd redacted the records because the names were for people that did not officially exist, or existed in a capacity that didn't imply they were elite warriors, spies and assassins.)Besides,('Those are private citizens not in the employ of this group, or any other government agency we are aware of'.)'We don't care if they are private citizens. We want to know.'('You don't want to know' followed by some major gobbledygook with the term 'deniable assets' interspersed relatively often.)'What do you mean ~ you don't want to know? We asked you a question.'(We meant you people leak information like a sieve and the people we are protecting aren't going to be afraid of getting revealed. They are going to murder people to ensure they are not ~ basically you don't know what is going on and we don't want to tell you, for both our safety's sake.)So,('Trust us. There are factors we are taking into account that you are unaware of because you don't know what's going on'.)'Of course we don't know what's going on. That's why we are asking you.'('You really don't want to know.' We are your highly trained and underpaid experts on this, we aren't raging assholes and we are telling you that bad shit will happen if you force this, thus 'you really don't want to know'.)'What do you mean ~ you really don't want to know?? Yes, we do. We are warning you,'(Okay. Execute Plan B. 'Excuse us for a moment, {create a plausible lie.}'.){Pregnant pause,}Congressman-type: 'It is rather odd that they all had to go into another room to take that phone call.'{Minutes pass}'Go see what is taking them so long.''What do you mean they are all gone? Find them!''What do you mean they seem have left the building? Find them!''Who do I call about this? The FBI, Homeland Security, or the CIA?And finally,'What do you mean they appear to have fled the country? Find them, damn it!'(Hey, I worked with some real shady characters.)Then would come the international manhunts, the flight to avoid prosecution and then resurrecting my life under a different ID in another country which hopefully had a dim view of handing me over to the FBI, or the Navy SEALs.Now back to our regularly scheduled diversion :'It has to do with giving something to the Khanate if you expect them to do anything for you.'Tony: 'You can't appreciate how that is going to look. Besides, that is a political decision, way above your pay-grade.'(Not a good time to remind him that he didn't pay me.)'What precisely do you want us to do? Please be specific.'Tony: 'How is the Khanate going to react to an intervention on the part of the United States?''They will ignore you.'Tony: 'What if the President makes public statement.''What is he going to say?'Tony: 'That the US is dedicated to a peaceful resolution of the unrest in Thailand.''They won't care. They truly believe that actions speak louder than words. If Thailand requested our intervention, or was a client state,'Tony: 'A what?''Client state, a country beholding to the US, or UK for their external security.'Tony: 'I know what client state is. That is 20th Century Imperialist thinking. No one does stuff like that anymore. Besides, the UN is responsible for the external security of its member states, which Thailand is.''The Khanate doesn't see it that way. We won't let them into the UN, so they see no reason to play by the UN's rules. The President can evoke the UN Charter all he wants. Unless he makes UN acceptance dependent on their cooperation, they will see no reason to cooperate.'Tony: 'That's not going to happen.''What part of that won't happen?'Tony: 'The President is not going on international television and endorsing the Khanate as a prospective UN member. What happens if we imply through back channels that the President will support such an action at a later date?''You want us to lie to them? Do you have any idea how badly that will compromise our working relationship with the Khanate?'Tony: 'We will deal with that later. Would they accept such a bargain?''So you are going to lie to them, Mr. Blinken, they will never forgive this act of treachery.'Tony: 'No, you are going to lie to them.'Addison: 'I will resign. I suspect that the rest of the team will quit as well.'Tony: 'What is wrong with your team, Ms. Stuart (Addison)? Can't anyone over there do their damn jobs?''We are doing our damn jobs, Mr. Blinken. We are telling you this is a diplomatically fatal move that will not only reduce this taskforce to uselessness, it will have long term consequences for all future Khanate-American relations.'Tony: 'That is a ridiculous assessment.''That is our experienced assessment. They believe treachery is only forgiven by death. They do believe in loyalty and keeping one's word. In our country, perjury is an unfortunate side effect of the judicial progress. To the Great Khan, it is reason enough to cut your head off.'Tony: 'Fine. I am ordering you to open back-channel talks with the Khanate concerning their admittance to the UN contingent on them taking a reasonable course of action.''Even if we were to do such a moronic thing, the Great Khan will ask Cáel directly to verify this. It is that important to him and his state.'Tony: 'Okay.''Perhaps you could suggest to me what form of coercion I should employ to make Cáel to commit such a blasphemous act?'Tony: 'Tell him to do it. That is what we pay him for.''Mr. Blinken, Mr. Nyilas is an unpaid consultant. At the job he is on sabbatical from, he makes more money than I do. He has an Irish diplomatic passport, been nominated to be the Prince of Albania, Georgia and Armenia, been proclaimed a warrior-prince of Transylvania and is a hero in both Hungary and Romania. He has no brothers, or sisters. His parents are both dead. His only surviving kin are people he is not particularly close to. Since economic and social blackmail are off the table, I am asking you if you are ordering me to use enhanced interrogation techniques to exacting his cooperation in this foolhardy endeavor.'Tony: 'You mean torture him?''I would never go on the record using that word. I don't advise you to use it either.'Tony: 'What kind of people are you?''The kind you engage to take on a mission of this delicate nature. You honestly don't want to know what we've done in the name of our constituent national bodies. You employ us so that you don't have to know. As you said, we 'get it done'. Until now, you have never asked us 'how' we got things done. You wanted the intelligence so we got it for you.'Tony: 'No member of this administration ever asked you to violate US, or International Law.''Which is precisely why the government employs me, so that you can keep your hands clean while mine are steeped in blood. Nothing our team has done will ever blow back on you, so don't worry about that. Why don't we get back to our current dilemma?'(I think until that moment Tony had convinced himself that Addison was another civil servant drone and people like her only existed in the 'black bag' fantasies of conspiracy theorists, hackneyed movie scripts and questionable 'true' spy novels. People like Addison and Lady Fathom weren't standard issue intelligence officers by any stretch of the imagination. They were almost unique in that they did what they did for the very beliefs they had sworn an oath to uphold, to serve their countries.There were no personal vendettas going on. No slush funds were vanishing into Cayman Island accounts. Neither had a God Complex. There was no desire for personal power, career advancement, or fame. I was beginning to think that was why Temujin used them, and me, because we could be counted on to do the right thing when required and only when required. Addison and Fathom had damned themselves forever because someone had to pay the price and get the job done. I imagined they really felt blessed for the opportunity. I worked with maniacs.)Tony: 'Thailand, yes. What if we put troops on the ground in Thailand?''How many?'Tony hummed and hawed so we had to guess.'A Marine Expeditionary Unit? If that is all, they better have an exit plan. Sir, if you want to impress the Khanate with the White House's resolve, you need to start landing troops from the Rapid Deployment Force starting tomorrow. Base aircraft out of Thai air bases. Threaten to ram any Indian Naval vessels that get in your way.'Tony: 'Is that what it would take?'('Yes. It would take the US to growing some balls, damn it!' was not the diplomatic reply though it desperately needed to be said. Hey, I could be a bit of a jingoist when I feel the lives of my loved ones are in danger.)'That is our current assessment of the situation. The Khanate has no reason to take any American threat of force seriously. They won't see anything short of a full-court press as nothing more than posturing for the home audience and what allies we have left.'Tony: 'What does that mean?''It means you are taking the cooperation of Taiwan and Philippines for granted. Our people tell us they see American influence in the region waning and we have been letting the Chinese push them around. Now the Khanate appears and knocks the Chinese back three decades on the World Stage. The Khanate is trying to create a ring of allies around the PRC and a few of them are curious why the US is dragging its heel about such a critical regional issue.'Tony: 'You don't dictate US foreign policy.'(No, we simply enacted foreign policy without your knowledge.)There were probably a large number of Special Forces operators who would be shaking their heads in bewilderment when they found out the US was trying to face down the Khanate over, of all places, Thailand. Hadn't they just busted their humps trying to make the Great Khan see their nations (the US and UK) as potential worthy allies?Working with the Khanate had been 'interesting'. If you asked them for anything, they got it for you, danger and consequences be damned. They'd try anything for the men they considered 'brothers in the struggle'. If you were pinned down by fire from a hillside and asked for fire support, they would napalm the whole damn mountain if that was what it took. The man/woman on the other end of that radio cared for your life, not the human rights of the scumbag shooting at you, or any of the people they might be hiding behind.You also know if they couldn't get it done, it was only because the resources didn't exist. The Khanate Special Forces hadn't acted like co-belligerents, or allies. They treated you like their own kin. They would and had died to make sure some of them got home to their families. If ordered to, they would definitely take the fight to the Khanate. I believed many of them would be asking what had it all been for.'We wouldn't dream of it,' Addison lied.'Good. You have your marching orders. Now get to it,' and Tony hung up on us. Everyone in the room was looking around. What exactly were our marching orders? Had I'd missed that part of our conversation?"Well," Fathom sighed, "there is only one thing we can do." I seriously prayed she would ask me to lie to Temujin."Understood," Mehmet nodded. "Somehow we get the Khanate to launch their offensive into Thailand in three days.""Can they do that?" I blurted out."They do it, or everyone in this room is in a shitload of trouble when they get around to it next week," Addison grinned. "The Khanate high command isn't going to back down just because we ask them to. I wouldn't if I were them.""What happens if they can't make the three day window?" I asked."Then you call up your blood-brother and ask him to fuck over his nation to save us from lengthy prison sentences, or outright assassination," Fathom smirked."If he says 'no'," I looked into her eyes."That's the real tragedy in all this, he won't," she gave me a comforting look. "He isn't going to leave you hanging in the wind. He'll call off his attack dogs because he isn't the kind of man to fuck you over because it is politically expedient. I'm staking all our lives on that. I always have."The Black Lotus? We'd explain to them the ugly reality that neither of us could afford to be painted into a corner over this Thailand issue. We were doing our best, but our political masters were dead set on making a colossal error and we had to follow through with those directives. The Khanate would do everything in their extensive power to support the Black Lotus and if they could invade in three days with some nebulous chance at success, they would go.The Black Lotus, the entire 9 Clans knew JIKIT had no power except what we finagled from the US and the UK. We had borrowed their resources to accomplish what we'd done. The Black Lotus had profited from some of those operations and both the Khanate and JIKIT would owe them big, but we were good for it. That truism was why they worked with us.My personal problem was that I knew the Great Khan would not forgive, or forget this interference by the US. It wasn't in his nature. Worse, the politicians and bureaucrats in Washington would see this as a victory and an expression that the US remained the globe's premier super power. Too few would remember the price of this sense of superiority would be born on the back of Thailand's masses. The revolution would fail after a short, brutal civil war. The tyrant would remain in power and the voice of the Thai people would be stilled.The end result of that late night phone call? We weren't told.What follows is pure conjecture on my part, fueled by intelligence information provided by other JIKIT resources and knowledge about how much the political landscape of Southeast Asia had been transformed by the PCR being driven back to their own coastline, leaving a power vacuum India, Vietnam and the Khanate were eager to fill.The Republic of China/Taiwan --'Aren't you the same people who said only a week ago that sending more weapons into the region would only escalate tensions? And now you want to use our airbases against our latest ally in the region? Do you understand how much internal political turmoil this will cause? Half of us are jumping for joy that someone big and fierce embraces our independence. The other half think it is time to retake China.Yes, we mean the territory currently under the oppressive yoke of the People's Republic of China. Yes, the China the Khanate just kicked the crap out of. The nation that might not be able to protect say, Zhusanjiao. That would be the Pearl River Delta to you Westerners, that huge area on the mainland adjacent to Hong Kong. Hainan is looking pretty ripe for conquest as well. That would be that big island off the coast of, yes, we have indeed suspected you could read a map.At the moment we are expecting the permission of the Khanate to use Woody Island as a forward staging area and logistic base to help us do just that. Take Hainan, yes, that large island currently, and temporarily, under the illegal occupation by those illegitimate bastards in Beijing.What do you mean 'don't declare war on them'? We've been at war with the People's Republic since 1945. No, we are pretty sure we would recall signing a Peace Treaty with them. No, we can't 'get over it' either. Why are you even asking us that? Don't you know our history?Anyway, if we help you, can we expect the same level of cooperation from you as we are getting from the Khanate? In case things go sour, Yes, a shooting war would qualify. See, your people at JIKIT have been helping the Khanate and us, your people, at JIKIT, we are pretty sure it is made up of Americans and British personnel. Why would we think that? Are you serious? Because that's what your governments told us, that's why. Besides, why are you asking us what your people have been doing? Don't they work for you?Speaking of the US government helping us out, what progress is there on the Taiwan Relations Act Affirmation and Naval Vessel Transfer Act of 2014 ? We sure could use those vessels. While we are at it, how about sharing some of the technology used in the F-35. We'll build our own, or a model vaguely similar to it. We value your friendship and know you will help us out in a pinch.Right?'The Philippines --'Sigh. If you really think this will help. By the way, aren't your fighters going to need some in-air refueling? What are you going to do if the Khanate engages them over Philippine airspace? What are you going to do if you get into a shooting war with the Khanate? Will you defend us from their ballistic missile threat? We have a long history as your allies, but the Khanate is totally ruthless, and they scare us. Can you hold our hand, say for the next twenty years?'(The Philippines rolls out their Wish List)Maybe you could give us some advanced fighters?We are a poor country and can't afford to buy any before 2018.We are not greedy, 72 F-16s will do and you are upgrading to the F-35 anyway so we know you have some lying around. Could you also help us with the maintenance cost? We are a poor country, but very large.Some of your decommissioned naval vessels would go a long way in showing us some love. One of those Tarawa-class amphibious assault ships would be really nice and you've got the USS Peleliu decommissioned and about to be scrapped. We have hundreds of islands in our Republic so moving stuff around is pretty tough. Can you help us out?If you could toss in the ship's complement of 20 AV-8B Harrier 2 and 12 V-22 Ospreys with a fifteen year maintenance package that would be even better!We are a poor country. We could never afford to buy any of that stuff.Maybe a frigate, or three? You have a dozen Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigates sitting around. We can finally retire some of our World War 2 relics and make one our new flagship.We know you aren't going to give us one of those powerful nuclear submarines, but maybe you could secure a few loans so we could buy some of those nifty German-made, diesel-powered Type 214's. We hear they are pretty cool, very silent and practically a steal at $330 million per boat! We love you guys! And, we are poor.Oh, and some helicopters!We were going to refurbish some Vietnam-era Iroquois, but since your Marine Corp is retiring the far superior Bell AH-1 SuperCobra, can we have a dozen of those instead?We were going to fix up some of our aging Sikorsky S-76s as air ambulances. Getting new ones would be far superior, don't you think?You also have those cool Blackhawks. You have so many. Could you spare us, say twenty? You're the best!And some guns. And artillery. And some APC's.Did we mention we are a poor country going through an expensive force modernization program?Got any amphibious vehicles lying around? We could use a few of more of those small unit riverine craft (SURC)'s we bought from you recently. They are excellent counter-insurgency tools. You want us doing well fighting the War on Terror, don't you?Did we mention that we are a poor country? And we love you guys!The Federation of Malaysia --We like this idea. Give us say a week to ten days and we can jump right in.You want to go in four days? With what precisely? Compared to the force projections you have been providing us, Who? JIKIT, of course. Who else would you send us to when we requested intelligence on Khanate activities from you? Did we believe them? Why wouldn't we? They are your people,When do you think Thailand will let us intervene? We've asked the Prime Minister if he needs our assistance and he politely declined. Apparently he thinks he's got things well in hand. He does retain command of over 200,000 troops and the opposition is much smaller. I hope you have better luck than we did in convincing him he's in serious trouble.Also, what do you plan to do about the Indian Navy's South China Sea taskforce? It is pretty big, not something we can tackle on our own.Yes, we kind of need to know what you are doing before we decide what we are doing. You do realize that the Gulf of Thailand is currently under the complete domination of the Indian/Khanate/Vietnamese Axis, right?48 combat aircraft? What gave you that idea? The Vietnamese have been refurbishing their Mig-21's like crazy, using Khanate stockpiles, plus there are nearly a 150 Su-22's. Sure, they are both older than manned flights to the Moon, but they can drop bombs, fire rockets and launch ground attack missiles with the best of them. They are still jet aircraft.Worried? You are aware that those antiquated pieces of crap can bomb the northern part of my country, aren't you? So 'yes', we are worried about those 300 flying deathtraps being more than a 'manageable' nuisance.What about our air force? I imagine it will be doing what we trained it to do, defend Federation air space because I doubt those relics will be coming at us unescorted. We can already tell you that the Mig-29's and Su-30's the Khanate and Vietnamese will be flying are excellent aircraft. We fly them too, just not as many.Of course you can base your F-22's out of Sultan Ismail Petra Airport as long as you supply the logistical support. How many? A lot? Could you please be more specific? Two squadrons? My, that's going to get pretty dicey. I believe you when you say the F-22 is a highly advanced stealthy fighter. I also believe that they are a lot less stealthy when they are sitting on the ground re-arming and refueling.Do we think they will really threaten us? They are threatening us, over our Spratly Island claims, are you sure you know what you are getting into? By the way, when this blows over, do you think you can pressure the Khanate into giving us their Spratly island airbase? It is rapidly approaching completion and is over 3000 meters long.How did they do that? They are dredging the ocean floor, it is a man-made island. Didn't your government protest the environmental damage they were causing?No, not the Khanate, the Chinese.Yes, the Khanate currently controls it. They stole it from the PRC hours before the ceasefire. So, can we have it?Yes, we know it belonged to the People's Republic, but it doesn't anymore. Besides, we both opposed it when the Chinese were dredging it up the island from the sea floor, so giving it to us isn't all that egregious, or unexpected, action. It would also go a long way in supporting our just and worthy claims to the Spratly Islands. We really don't want those greedy Chinese, yes, both the People's Republic and the 'Republic of', or, those incompetent Filipinos to steal them from us.Both of us knocking the Vietnamese back on their heels will be going a long way to getting those Communist knuckle draggers to back off as well. Hey, if they do get antsy, can we also take the Vietnamese base in the Spratly's? It isn't as big as the one the Khanate stole, but it is finished, and closer to us. We are sure that if we help you out, you will do the right thing when the time comes. Right?The President of the United States --'They want what? Have they lost their fucking minds?The Philippines is talking about a billion dollar aid package and guaranteed loans we doubt they can ever repay. We only want to use their air bases for a month, maybe two, not deflower their teenage daughters. It isn't as if we are really going to go to war with the Khanate over Thailand. Besides, the last time we 'got involved' like that, George Bush ran up a trillion dollar deficit, and his party was thrown out of office. Doesn't anyone care we are facing a difficult mid-term election in November?So, the Taiwanese think this is the appropriate moment to invade mainland China? And they want our help? Do they know how expensive that can get? Do they understand how much that will unbalance the already shake state of Asian affairs? It is another land war in Asia for the love of God!'And, the Malaysians are going to help us, but not actually help us and they want tens of billions square miles of ocean for the measly concessions they are making? What do they expect us to do with all the Filipinos, Chinese and Vietnamese who already live there?What do you mean none of those islands are actually inhabited? They are just military bases, some of them nothing more than rusting iron hulks on submerged reefs? OH, God damn it! Why don't we take the God damn Spratly Islands for ourselves if they are that fucking important? We have a Marine Corp. Aren't they good at taking islands? I read about it somewhere.No, I'm not changing the damn mission. I'm venting because the world seems to be inhabited with greedy assholes who can't appreciate peaceful discourse without trying to lift my wallet.Okay, okay, I've got this. We are going to form a new international commission to resolve this Spratly Island's nightmare. Have the French chair it. They love that kind of stuff. Makes sure the Germans are on the commission too. They need to look less like money-grubbing douchebags after that fiasco over the Greek economic collapse. Then invite Russia, India and Pakistan. That will pretty much guarantee nothing gets accomplished.That will allow us to keep our promises to those three leeches without having to deliver anything and, when it fails, it won't be seen as my fault. (Groan) What we really need is new videos of Khanate soldiers bayoneting babies, another ISIS atrocity, or more indisputable evidence the Russian Army's involvement in the Ukraine. The Great Khan really screwed us over Tibet (you know, by allowing them to become a free and democratic society), Putin is an evil cuck (who most likely laughs at me behind my back) and another round of Islamophobia-bashing to remind everyone how this is all Bush's fault.No wonder George spent so much time at Crawford Ranch. Navigating international relations is totally thankless and no matter how rosy we paint the latest economic numbers, someone still finds a way to make me look bad. Oh well, if this blows up in my face, I only have two more years in this shooting gallery. Maybe then I might change my mind and decided I really was born in Kenya, or Indonesia. I really wish Hawaii was an independent country. I'd like to retire there if there weren't so many of those damn contentious Americans.The US President wanted to run this operation on a shoestring, not engage in 'nation-building', much less backing an invasion of anybody. In fact, he was trying to stop an invasion.The Philippines was a poor country. So what? It wasn't his fault. He had poor people in the US too and they cast votes.Taiwan suddenly thought it could take on China? They were insane. Of course he would be ignoring a major stated political goal of the ROC for the past 65 years ~ reunification on their terms. Any high-level technological transfer wasn't going to happen because if the Republic ran off the reservation, the President would bloody well be sure no one could trace that decision back to anything he'd done.At least Malaysia was on board, sorta/kinda. They wouldn't actually be able to help until day ten, or fourteen and, unlike the Republic of China, they had a small air force that might not be able to protect forwardly deployed troops. If he ended getting of those National Guard yahoos killed his party would be murdered in November.For a split second, he wondered if he should attempt to make a personal call to the Great Khan, potentate to potentate, except he had this sinking feeling that a winning smile and a handshake would be worse than useless. The man would look him straight in his eyes and start making demands. He would demand action and when the Leader of the Free World prevaricated, he knew the Khanate would call his bluff.And they would fight. The alternative was a grand spectacle of public humiliation and that he could not accept. The US military machine would fight and they would win. They would win because he needed them to win, fast and clean and home for Christmas. Maybe he would authorize the mobilization of those California airmen. Just in case.In the end, Secretary Kerry gave POTUS what he asked for.The Philippines would let them use their country's bases for logistics and strategic assets (aka bombers).The ROC would extend their air umbrella out 200 km to the east, south and west, acting like a shield between the Khanate and US Pacific assets moving through the tight Formosan Straits.Malaysia gave them an airbase from which they could strike into Thailand, or Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. The US Air Force would have the opportunity to be lethally effective.Had they known the sum total of the US commitment, they would have been appalled. The Khanate did not fuck around.One Carrier Strike Group,Forty (maybe sixty) Air Force fighters,Lumbering B-52's flying half way around the globe,Hadn't they been watching the dogfights over China for the past month? Maybe they would like to dive down and examine the wreckage of the PLAN carrier Liaoning and see just how it met its grisly fate?Apparently not.(I live, love and have loved)"What are you doing here?" she got the preliminary nonsense out of the way. With the way she was dressed, I was an expected visitor. She was expecting some make-up sex. I was thinking 'paying for my past mistakes' sex because I was already seeing way too many women who required me to do things outside the bedroom, non-sexual things. I had my dress jacket swung over my shoulder. It would only get in the way later."I brought you motorcycle over. You left it parked by my place," I kept any appearance of lust, or glee off my face."It is one o'clock in the morning," she glowered."I was called into work. I'm on call 24/7.""Let me guess, you can't talk about it.""You wouldn't believe me if I did, so suffice it to say I was doing things I didn't want to do instead of coming over here, waking you up from a sound sleep.""I wasn't asleep. I was angry," I pointed out."I apologize. Maybe I should have waited until morning." She didn't think I should have waited as long as I had. Keeping her waiting until morning would have left her volcanic."I wasn't asleep.""Your bike is in the parking lot across the street," I handed her the lot ticket."How did you find it?""There are only two places in my neighborhood that allows parking and the second one is poorly lit," I replied."And the attendant let you steal it?" she frowned."He knows me. I do a ton of business with him and it wasn't as if I was dressed like your average carjacker.""How did you start it?""Chaz showed me how to spoof the lock. He's got this spiffy lock-pick set on him.""That he carries with him for such contingencies?""Hey, he's the spycraft professional. I'm the amateur who tags along because karma is a bitch," I grinned."Did you ruin the ignition?""No. He's got this skeleton key thingy. I need to get me one of those," I added. See, I was drifting down the path to becoming a hardened criminal and she had to save me. Girls love saving bad boys from themselves. There is an entire literary genre devoted to the topic."Get in here," Anais barked. She emphasized that command by grabbing my tie and dragging me into her room. Now I could ogle her in her bra, panties and dress shirt left open. As I said moments ago, she was expecting me. Anais had thick, light-brown, just-past-the-shoulders hair with blonde highlights. Her dusky skin tone suggested some ancestral link to the South of France while her deep green eyes suggested Celtic ties.She was definitely someone I would describe as possessing an hourglass figure. She worked out just enough to stay fit, practiced judo (in and outside of the bedroom) and ate right. Her ass was the correct mix of firm and fleshy, her breasts were pleasant without too much bounce and she sported broad, but short, nipples that liked to get bitten.With her bare foot, she kicked the door shut, spun me around by my tie until I slammed, back first, into the wall in the short hallway that led to her bedroom."I repeat, what are you doing here?""I never actually apologized for how things ended up," I sodomized the truth. "Anais, I am truly sorry for how badly I fucked up our affair. I acted without a thought for the possible consequences, or thinking about how betrayed you would feel. Can you accept my apology?""You came here to have sex," she declared. She stepped up tightly against my body, her eyes boring into mine. I had around six inches on her so she had to tilt up her chin to do so."That too," I shrugged."I ought to throw you out the window," she growled. We were on the seventh floor. The window didn't open and the safety glass looked alright."I'll go then," I nodded. Now to make her beg for/demand sex."You are not going anywhere," she snarled. Then she kissed me, a tongue-grapple ensued and she finished things by biting my lower lip so much I tasted blood afterwards. I dropped my jacket. I was about to need both my hands."I think us having sex would be a mistake," I pushed her buttons. I wasn't some wimp acquiescing to her demands. I was a free-willed being; a strong man who needed to be wrestled down and forced to perform.She pulled me down into a second kiss. This was an 'I will leave you incapable of thinking about anything but me' kiss. Yes, I had names for kisses too. They were similar to naming the ingredients of a choice meal. I propelled her back until we slammed into the opposite wall. Anais was a tough chick and a bit of banging around was par for the course.I cupped each ass cheek and pulled her up. She responded by wrapping her legs around my hips. We were still kissing. Anais slipped her hands along my sides before linking them up at the small of my back. She pulled me hard against her while she ground her crotch against mine."Clothes," she rumbled from deep within. As in 'why was I still dressed?'"Been a while," I taunted her. Since she was glommed on to me, I used my freed up hands to rip off my tie."Yes. I bet it hasn't 'been a while' for you," she sizzled."Long as in 5:30 this morning," I teased back. At this point in the foreplay that revelation was akin to throwing gasoline on a fire. I was being an unrepentant dog and she was taking me to confessional, between her thighs."Bastard," she condemned me as well as the entire male side of the species."It doesn't mean I haven't missed you, this, us," I riposted. She retaliated by turning her humping motion into to more of a grind. Bad kitty. Bad kitty wanted to be spanked. Woot!"You are never going to change," she dug her fingernails into my flesh. I yanked my shirt off."If I hadn't changed, you wouldn't be here," I reminded her while nipping at her nose and lips."You are still an egocentric bastard," she growled."Hey, I always took care of your needs," I countered. I had. She knew I had and since she currently wanted me to take her to that higher erotic plane, she wasn't going to contest that fact. Instead, she began working her shirt off and in doing so, squishing her boobs against my chest.Holding her tight, my left hand under her right buttock and my right hand on her mid-back, pressing her torso into mine. We dance through two slow circles before crashing, side by side, on the bed. Anais rolled us over so that she was on top. I didn't let her get in a totally dominant pose, oh no. I had a kitty to take care off. I grabbed her firm ass and propelled her up until I was face first with her gusset.I might not remember to check my bank balance, or the atomic number of Technetium (I once had a girlfriend who would rate my performance on the periodic table in the midst of our fucking, I never made it higher than Copernicium before she passed out), but I can recall the precise taste, texture and topography of every cunt I've had face to face contact with. I knew right where to tongue-fuck Anais to twist her up inside.Control-orgasm, control-orgasm, Anais was pig-headed and wanted to keep dictating our reunion. She also wanted to return to the level of sexual bliss we had shared so often before. Her compromise was to hump my face; really grind it in. Black silk underwear is an excellent medium for transferring force and wetness between partners.She rubbed her love-nub against my upper lip/teeth while I did tongue-ups into her cunt. She was wetter than Bangladesh in the rainy season. That was an indicator of some serious masturbatory sessions stopping just short of orgasm before I arrived. I had some aching sensations to play with and I wasn't cruel. I maneuvered a hand between her thighs, underneath the band of her underwear and exposed her vaginal opening to my fingers and tongue while keeping that silky feel for her clitoris."Rurr," she began growling from the depths of her diaphragm. That was how she always was, thundering like a female grizzly bear in heat. It was an expression with deep subharmonic components that caused the heart to flutter and her flesh to shimmer with the vibrations mixed with her bodily sweat."Come on, Baby," I urged her on.That pissed her off. She was trying to hold off her orgasm for a few more seconds. My 'baby' crack shifted her resolve into anger allowing her climax to overwhelm her."Rah," she howled. It didn't sound like a female coming to fruition. It was more akin to the sound European soccer hooligans made when their team scored a goal. The muscles in Anais' thighs were strumming along like the cords of a piano, her belly was undulating in and out, and her head had rolled back so that she was screaming to the ceiling.The countdown was on. The people next door/across the hall/above or below us would be waking up, think that someone had unleashed a wild animal in the hotel, figure out they were not immediately on the menu, then call the front desk, stating their fears as justifiable fact. Anais and I had been down that road before.I gave Anais' flank a light smack to get her attention. Sure she looked back at me with simmering anger, yet she also knew the score. That had been round #1 in a nightlong bout of sexual conquest, rebellion and re-conquest. She drew her knees to her chest so she could pull off her damp panties in one swift motion. I worked off my shoes, pants, socks and underwear. While she soaked up my naked flesh (muscles, scars and all), she retrieved the phone from the side table and placed it beside her. She wouldn't want to break up our rhythm when the phone rang.No romantic small talk interrupted our shared lust. She wanted that cock and I wanted to give it to her. I moved between her inviting thighs while she examined me, her upper body uplifted by her arms resting on her elbows. Bite-kissing-biting resumed. I slowly pushed her head to the bed with the force of my kisses and strength of my upper body pushing down on her. Somewhere along the way, I slipped into her.Condom? Crap. I was slipping. I would have to pull out, because stopping to put a condom on would earn me some serious ferocity on her part. I plunged in. Anais placed her hands on my hips, claws beneath my kidneys, guiding my pace and power. I may have been on top, but she wasn't giving up on one ounce of control."Damn you," she hissed."Yes?" I leered."Fuck you.""I'm working on it. Is there anything," I teased."Bastard," she looked away, "You remember how I like it.""Whatever made you think I would forget?" I kept at it."Don't look so smug.""I'm working on it," I looked smug. Anais dug her fingernails in. I had to be punished, just ask her."When do you have to go back to work?" she huffed."Six a.m. When do you have to go back?""I have two days off.""Good to know," I stole a kiss from her lips painlessly. Good to know.(Painful dreams)I edged back into consciousness realizing that I was not alone. The muffled sense of my surroundings informed me that I wasn't really awake. She sat on my side of the bed, feet on the floor, side to me."Good evening, Dot," I yawned."Good morning, Cáel," the Goddess Ishara let her melodic voice float over me."Hold on," I interrupted her. I weaved as I leaned over, pawed at my pants (still trapped in the real world) and finally drew forth my offering."A fortune cookie," she chuckled. "I admire your dedication.""It is a simple enough request and I aim to please." I hesitated. "We don't have much time, do we?""You are dreaming, not concussed, so we will be alright if we tread carefully," she told me. "This time, I have no cryptic warnings, or specious pieces of information. I am giving you a gift. Take my hand."I did, not that I had much choice. We 'went', where to, I wasn't sure yet I suspected we were skirting the Weave itself where concepts like Time and Distance had little meaning.The Goddess released my hand and I stepped out of the fog brought about by the abrupt nature of our progress to see a woman sitting beside a pool, no, a sunken bath. She looked up at our approach. Oh shit, it was,"Cáel? You are Cáel, aren't you," she smiled. She stared at me with her blind eyes while waiting for my response with deaf ears."Yes, Tad fi, I'm Cáel. How did you know?""I bear our shared life inside me," she graced me with her serene presence."Ah, I was warned," I stopped myself. I was going to add 'this might happen'. That would be unfair as she appeared pleased with this alteration of her life path. "I was warned by the Goddess that she had something to show me. How are you feeling? Is there anything I can do for you?"She put her hand over her lower abdomen and rubbed the spot with her palm."Seeing you and giving you the news in person is enough," she glowed with happiness."Have you picked out a name yet?" seemed weak."I will leave that up to you.""Oh, come on," I relaxed slightly. "This is something we are doing together.""No, it is not, kind Cáel.""Just because she will most likely end up an Isharan doesn't,""No, Cáel. This birth will cost me my life. I am not destined to ever see my daughter draw her first breath," she confided in me."No!" I recoiled. "That's unfair." What else could I say? 'I take it back. I shouldn't have listened to my Goddess and screwed you out of what little life you had left.'"I am content with my fate, Cáel Nyilas Wakko Ishara. Our daughter will be the first female of the Isharan line in nearly 1600 years. Rejoice that we have been confronted by Destiny and triumphed. The light of the Peacemakers will shine once more among our sisters.""It is not worth the cost of your life," I responded bitterly. This was colossally unfair to all three of us."That you grieve for the short time I have left gives me strength, knowing our daughter will grow up with a strong, caring father. I,"I could sense Ishara close by my side."You must go, my Cáel. We will next see each other in the Halls of our Ancestors. Take our daughter and raise her well. I have faith in you," she sighed pleasantly, as if I had sheltered her from the rainstorm with my umbrella."We must go," Ishara whispered in my ear and then we left. I was back in the hotel room, looking down at the tears on my sleeping face and it hurt so much."You gave me that command knowing what it would cost her," I sounded so hollow, chin on my chest, eyes closed instead of looking at my feet."We are not an easy people to love, Cáel. We are harsh. Endless centuries of suffering, pain and mistrust have made us this way. Please understand that what you see as one life passing is really one life coming into being. It is a life Fate would have denied the line of Ishara. I took you to meet Tad fi because I wanted you to greet your daughter with understanding, not sorrow. I owed you.""Steal my anger why don't you?" I chuckled bitterly. "Can I even blame myself for this tragedy? It isn't like you made me do anything. I did it because I wanted to and never gave much thought to the frail health Tad fi was hanging on to. This is so wrong and I don't know what to do.""Wake up. Keep living. If this news turns your heart, or fills your mind with doubt, then both of us have failed you. Tad fi didn't have to tell you. I didn't have to bring you to her. I believed you were owed the chance to say good-bye.""I didn't say that," I exhaled sadly."You openly grieved and let her comfort you. That is more of a 'goodbye' than most people are able to convey. She knows your heart. You were honest in your sorrow. She saw that and that eased her suffering knowing that you are a person who is free with their heart. For a woman who expected nothing but wickedness from men for so long, that was the ultimate gift. You did help her. You truly did.""I," I woke up. Anais was looking down at me, concerned."You've been crying," she noted by touching my cheek with a finger then showing me the dampness."Do you believe a person's soul can fracture?" I murmured. That sort of talk was unlike the 'me' she once knew."Do you believe that another can help you put your soul back together if that happens?" I continued."You are not talking about us, are you?" she studied me."No. I'm thinking about being a parent, not just a father. Can I fuck that up as much as I've screwed up so many of the other women I've cared for, am I going to be worthy of being a Dad?""Oh, I don't know. You are not the man I knew two years ago. I think you have changed for the better. You are still far from perfect yet, you seem to be trying so much harder than previously.""You think I'm going to screw things up, don't you?""Yes. Yes, I do, but I also think you will only make the same mistake once. That is better than most men can hope for," she let her gaze soften."This is us breaking up,""Yes. I think if I stayed, you would break my heart; and I am starting to believe neither one of us wants that," she nodded. "One more time?""I'd love to," I smiled at her. I still hurt. I was using sex to bandage my pain. Anais knew that and was giving me this unlooked for piece of kindness. It was the best break up I'd ever had, or could ever hope for.{5:45 am, Saturday, August 30th ~ 9 Days to go}"You look like someone strangled your kitten," Pamela told me as I exited Anais' hotel room. She was leaning against the wall across the hall. I had the feeling she had been there a while. Of course I hadn't been allowed to wander off alone; most likely, Chaz had kept an eye on me until Pamela relieved him."I, I got Tadifi killed," I unloaded on her.Pamela immediately dropped her casual fa

In this episode, we explore the ins and outs of a $3.5M EBITDA 3PL warehousing company and its role in the fast-evolving logistics and e-commerce space.Sponsors:Acquisition Lab: Thinking about buying a business? The Acquisition Lab offers a proven framework and expert guidance to help you navigate your acquisition journey. Learn more here: https://www.acquisitionlab.comViso Capital: Need funding for your next acquisition? Viso Capital specializes in providing tailored financing solutions for small business acquisitions. Find out more here: https://visocap.net/This episode dives into the fascinating yet challenging world of third-party logistics (3PL) as the hosts evaluate a $3.5M EBITDA warehousing company based in the US Pacific region. With insights on its scalable, asset-light model, impressive margins, and unique value-added services, the team discusses the company's strengths, growth potential, and hurdles such as customer concentration, labor dynamics, and geographical limitations. Learn how this business stacks up in an increasingly competitive industry driven by e-commerce and logistics demand.Subscribe to weekly our Newsletter and get curated deals in your inboxAdvertise with us by clicking here Do you love Acquanon and want to see our smiling faces? Subscribe to our Youtube channel. Do you enjoy our content? Rate our show! Follow us on Twitter @acquanon Learnings about small business acquisitions and operations. For inquiries or suggestions, email us at contact@acquanon.com

In this episode, we explore the ins and outs of a $3.5M EBITDA 3PL warehousing company and its role in the fast-evolving logistics and e-commerce space.Sponsors:Acquisition Lab: Thinking about buying a business? The Acquisition Lab offers a proven framework and expert guidance to help you navigate your acquisition journey. Learn more here: https://www.acquisitionlab.comViso Capital: Need funding for your next acquisition? Viso Capital specializes in providing tailored financing solutions for small business acquisitions. Find out more here: https://visocap.net/This episode dives into the fascinating yet challenging world of third-party logistics (3PL) as the hosts evaluate a $3.5M EBITDA warehousing company based in the US Pacific region. With insights on its scalable, asset-light model, impressive margins, and unique value-added services, the team discusses the company's strengths, growth potential, and hurdles such as customer concentration, labor dynamics, and geographical limitations. Learn how this business stacks up in an increasingly competitive industry driven by e-commerce and logistics demand.Subscribe to weekly our Newsletter and get curated deals in your inboxAdvertise with us by clicking here Do you love Acquanon and want to see our smiling faces? Subscribe to our Youtube channel. Do you enjoy our content? Rate our show! Follow us on Twitter @acquanon Learnings about small business acquisitions and operations. For inquiries or suggestions, email us at contact@acquanon.com

Bomb cyclone weather system hits parts of British Columbia and US Pacific states leading to power outages, closed roads, and at least one death. Former Hong Kong publisher Jimmy Lai is testifying in his own defense in a national security trial. NB Premier says her government will investigate a mysterious brain illness. 

Find me and the show on social media. Click the following links or search @DrWilmerLeon on X/Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube! Our guest this week, Steve Poikenon can be found at his website here.  FULL TRANSCRIPT: Dr Leon (00:00): Now, usually I start this part of the show with a question or a few questions, but today I have to make a statement. After 13 years of either being held up in the Ecuadorian Embassy in Britain, or being in Belmar Prison in solitary confinement, Julian Assange walks free. Why does this matter what led the Biden administration to finally come to its senses and accept a deal? Why should this matter to you? Announcer (00:42): Connecting the dots with Dr. Wilmer Leon, where the analysis of politics, culture, and history converge. Dr Leon (00:49): Welcome to the Connecting the Dots podcast with Dr. Wilmer Leon. I'm Wilmer Leon. We have a tendency to view current events as though they happen in a vacuum, failing to understand the broader historical context in which most events take place. During each episode, my guests and I have probing, provocative, and in-depth discussions that connect the dots between the events and the broader historical context in which they take place. This enables you to gain a better understanding and to analyze events that impact the global village in which we live. On today's episode. The issue before us is what's the significance of WikiLeaks and what's the impact on the freedom of the press? My guest for today's conversation is the host of AM Wake Up and Slow Newsday, which you can watch live on Rock Fin and Rumble, and you can listen anywhere. Podcasts are served. Steve Poin and Steve, welcome. Steve Poikenon (01:51): Thank you very much, Wilmer. It's good to see you not on the radio, Dr Leon (01:57): Man. Well, I have the perfect face for radio from what they tell me, and it's great to see you to be able to put a face with a voice. We've been talking for a couple years now, and it's finally great to be able to put a face with a voice. So footage tweeted by WikiLeaks, I think Julian Assange's wife showed him walking up the stairs onto an aircraft bound for Sipan in the US administered Mariana Islands. He has agreed to plead guilty to one count under the espionage act of conspiracy to disseminate national defense information. Steve, what were your thoughts when you first heard the news that Julian Assange was free? Steve Poikenon (02:44): I was a little stunned. This is something that we've discussed on and off over the last couple of years, and certainly in the last couple of months there have been substantiated rumors that the Biden Justice Department was preparing some sort of plea deal, whether or not the Assange team was going to accept it. That was the thing that we didn't have any certainty about whatsoever. They obviously have gone forward with accepting the deal. He should be, at this point, touching down or walking into the courtroom in the Marianas Islands says a lot about the state of the US empire that we even have a district courthouse in the Mariana Islands. That's just wild to me to begin with, but from the best that I can tell, and Wilmer, you may correct me if I'm wrong, from the best that I can tell, there's nothing in the initial plea agreement that says Julian won't be allowed near a computer or won't be able to access the internet. (03:51) Can't give speeches or interviews or can't have documentaries made about a situation. So by all accounts, up to this point, it appears that when he walks out of the courtroom later in the next couple of hours, he will be a legitimately free human being, and that is a win in and of itself. I'm a father. I can't imagine being taken away from my kids for making the US government angry and then having to know that they're growing up without me. And so the ability for him to take part in raising his own children, I think is the biggest godsend out of all of this. And then we can get into the implications and the impact that this is going to have on press freedom and citizen journalism and everything else going forward. But the huge win here is that he's no longer an inmate in the Guantanamo Bay of the United Kingdom where he was being held with the worst criminals on the island, having never once committed any crime of any sort of significance that would warrant that cell. Dr Leon (05:12): Do you have any idea in terms of why the Mariana Islands other than is the closest space that will enable him then to go from there to his home of Australia? Steve Poikenon (05:25): I think that was the ultimate deciding factor was proximity to Australia. It's not like the US can't construct a kangaroo court anywhere, and it's not like if they didn't have a different provisional, different courthouse, they wouldn't be going through the same sort of performative motions in the eyes of the Biden administration. I think the guilty plea is the thing that they were looking for, something that they could make at least a political, if not a legal for, and then also to not have it be an election issue going forward. Dr Leon (06:04): And from what I understand, this is not precedent setting because this was the result. This is the outcome of a plea deal. This did not actually come as the result of a trial. Steve Poikenon (06:17): If they would've gone to trial and evidence presented and a conviction was rendered and then upheld by a judge, then it would establish a legal precedent because he pled and pled out to time served for what he'd already done. The only thing that it can be used to set a precedent for is politically, or I guess emotionally or spiritually, where people are more hesitant to approach national security reporting or classified information, talk about it, disseminate any of that. And that is I think the real ultimate goal of not just the Biden administration, but the Trump administration and ultimately the Obama administration from where all of this stems is to redefine journalism in the future. Dr Leon (07:10): I want to read from the paragraph from the Washington Post as they reported out this story, Julian Assange's plea deal, sparks global celebration and condemnation reactions were divided as WikiLeaks. Julian Assange heads to a US Pacific territory to cement a plea deal that could soon set him free. WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange's tentative plea deal with the United States, which could soon bring an end to his years long international legal legal saga, drew celebration and criticism reflecting the divisive nature of his role in obtaining and publishing classified military and diplomatic documents. A couple of things. One is the condemnation side of this. The only folks that I can see that would be condemning this deal are people that are tied to the Trump administration, people that are tied to the Biden administration. I don't understand where they get this idea that there's all this divisiveness and condemnation. Steve Poikenon (08:23): There were the usual, the people you just spoke of, but Mike Pence was one of the loudest. There have been a number of former Trump administration officials and a number of former Obama administration intelligence apparatus and national security apparatus officials who have expressed distaste. This now and again, realize that to be opposed to this means you wanted to see a 50-year-old man, 51-year-old man get effectively tortured to death in a US prison for the rest of his life. That's what being in opposition to this effectively means. The reasoning behind it though is because information is currency. Assange and WikiLeaks were a broker of this information that wasn't part of the sanctioned club, and so Pompeo called them a hostile rogue intelligence agency, non-state intelligence agency. If you are viewed like that amongst the apparatus that's making the national security decisions, it doesn't matter what the end result is, if it's not your wholesale destruction, they're going to be displeased. Dr Leon (09:43): There's another paragraph. While Assange supporters saw him as a courageous whistleblower of government misdeeds, his critics saw him as a self-promoter oblivious to the harm that his leaks might cause, oblivious to the harm that his leaks might cause. There has not been one shred of evidence presented to show that any harm other than embarrassment by Hillary Clinton and some of the other government officials who were identified through these WikiLeaks releases, maybe their egos were damaged. But short of that, there's been no harm. WikiLeaks publication of the Afghan War logs did not obscure the names of Afghan civilians who provided information to the US military and omission that dismayed human rights groups and national security officials. Who are they talking about? Steve? Steve Poikenon (10:49): Okay, so when they say that the harm that they're talking about, it's not just their ego, it's their ability to continue to spy on their friends and allies that was harmed. It was the harm that was done by letting people know what the US government is doing with our tax dollars and our names. But Wim Dr Leon (11:07): Steve, it's not as though the allies did not know that they were being spied on. Remember what happened with Bill Clinton and Angela Merkel's? I think it was the Clinton administration and Angela Merkel's cell phone. I mean, it's not as though we don't know. We don't know Israel. It's not as though we don't know that Israel is spying on us. I mean, it's the game that they play. Steve Poikenon (11:31): It is the game that they play, but we're not supposed to know. And the rest of the diplomatic core is all that operates on the pretense and the fiction that it's not happening. That everybody's there to politely try to sort out the ills of the world and that all of the espionage going on in the background is never to be brought up. It doesn't have to stop. You just can't talk about it. If you bring it to light, then the whole operation gets blown up. And that's why WikiLeaks is parent company is called the Sunshine Press. The whole point of it is to bring it into the daylight, that kind of stance from a political point of view, from a journalistic point of view that's going to get you targeted, which is as we saw exactly what happened leading to 13 years of illegal and arbitrary detention. (12:29) Just one quick point to what you were talking about though, when you see major press outlets come out now in defensive Assange, these are, and you had mentioned it, I think even this morning, some of these instant outlets that are reporting on it are outlets that shared the same information. Are these guys then going to look at the plea agreement and go, golly, if Julian Assange isn't being charged as a journalist, does that mean that everyone who has ever shared a piece of classified information can be charged under the Espionage Act? Because Wilmer, I don't know about you. When I read the plea, when I read the plea deal, they're charging Assange as a private citizen. They're not charging 'em as a publisher. They're not charging 'em as a government contractor or a government employee. And those are prior to this, the only people that could get a charge for conspiring to disseminate classified information in this manner. So is that saying that Nick, the janitor or Dan the trucker or whoever your English teacher is now susceptible to Espionage Act charges? Dr Leon (13:48): Well, I think one of the reasons why they're not charging him as a journalist, because that was one of the issues that was being presented in his defense, is that as a journalist, he has the right to disseminate this information. So if they charged him as a journalist, then I think that would probably throw a wrench in their own argument. But to your point, one of the ironies here is when you read the Washington Poll story and the New York Times reporting out on this is that they were complicit in disseminating the information that he made available. Hence during the Obama administration, they called it the New York Times conundrum, and many say that the reason the Obama administration didn't charge him is because Barack Obama didn't want to open up that can of worms. Steve Poikenon (14:45): Well, certainly the idea that the Biden administration would try to with less competent people than were in the Obama administration is somewhat ridiculous. The only reason they could get a plea deal out of the guy is because they'd been torturing him for five years on top of the seven and a half, eight, almost eight years of being confined to one and a half rooms in the most spied on building in London, which is saying a lot because London has more cameras per capita than any other major city. But more cameras were pointed at the Ecuadorian Embassy than anywhere else in London for a very long time. That kind of constant surveillance is going to wreak havoc on an individual. And I got to tell you, Wilmer, it really did surprise me seeing the video, the very brief videos that we have seen of Julian, the last I had heard, he had been in very poor health. He had suffered a stroke or a mini stroke 18 months ago, 20 months ago, something like that. So to see him moving that rapidly, being able to stand walking Dr Leon (15:59): Up the stairs to the plane, Steve Poikenon (16:01): Being able to stand that upright when we had all been told that his back was wrecked and stuff like that, I'm really, really taken away by that. And I can only hope that he remains in that good of health or gets a little bit better shape from here on out because I was imagining the worst I was. And we haven't seen that. So that's very heartening. Dr Leon (16:32): This some will say is a very obvious question, but I think it still needs to be asked and answered Why this deal? Why now? Because when I look at, when I read the plea, when I see what the Biden administration got out of this, could have done this five years ago, he's out on bond. They could have allowed bond five years ago. He could have, instead of being tortured in solitary confinement in Belmar prison, he could have been walking the streets of Piccadilly Circus. So why now? Steve Poikenon (17:14): There's a number of different factors, and one is that it does get eliminated as an election year issue. Trump, regardless of the reality that he's the guy who had Julian arrested was able to successfully run on, we love the WikiLeaks. Have you seen the WikiLeaks? Can't get enough of the WikiLeaks. He was able to gain a lot of ground with that. So it is popular among Americans to want to at least think you have some sort of transparency with your government or think you might be able to have some sort of citizen accountability with your government, which is one of the benefits that WikiLeaks provided. So that's off the table, the Biden administration, because people have goldfish, brain can try to spin it as well. Donald Trump's the guy who had 'em thrown in jail and we're the guys who let him out. Well, you didn't let him out. (18:11) You made him plead guilty to something he didn't do after torturing him for five years and threatening every one and everything that he held dear, that's coercion. That's not a liberation. That's coercion. That's not a victory in any way, shape or form. And I've seen some on the progressive left already try to be like, Hey, man, Trump locked him up, bite him, let him out because he forced him to plead guilty to something that he didn't do. I think we all just need to keep circulating that last part until it sinks in. But we discussed for a number of years on the critical hour how it is a huge problem for the Biden administration or any administration to have Julian Assange on American soil even if the trial takes place behind closed doors in the Eastern District of Virginia, because then you are really putting the press on trial in America for everyone to be forced to pay attention to. And that's something that not Joe Biden, not Donald Trump, definitely not Merrick Garland is capable of dealing with or quelling in a manner that doesn't look like a total brutal dictatorship. And that's what it was going to turn into. Dr Leon (19:35): We have been saying for a couple of years, the one thing, the Biden, for all of the discussion about extradition and all these appeals and the United States sending attorneys to London and going through the barrister and all of that stuff that they were doing, we kept saying, they do not want this man on American soil. They were trying to kill him through the process. Let's drag this thing out for as long as we possibly can and hope the man dies in Belmar prison. We were saying the last, in fact, I remember having a very extensive conversation with you where I was saying, I think the time has come for the Assange Camp to flip the script and take the deal. Tell Merrick Garland, we want to come to the United States. Please extradite us. We want to be on American soil. And we kicked that around for a while. Steve Poikenon (20:41): Yeah, you're absolutely right. And the last thing that any government wants to deal with is having all of its media suddenly turn against it. And in the US, even though the mainstream media is a wholly owned subsidiary of the state, there are people who are allowed to operate with a little bit more freedom. And those are the people who usually command the largest audiences because they're allowed to show a little bit of authenticity on mainstream airwaves, and people are desperate for that. So they don't want their press turning on 'em. They don't want free Assange banners every time they pan into the crowd at a sporting event. They don't want free Assange banners signs every time they go do a man on the street interview. They were in the worst possible position you could be having to make up your case entirely. And having a still somewhat engaged public to where they could mount not just a resistance, but a real jury nullification campaign and a real on the ground, real time education of exactly what their government is trying to do. Via the prosecution of Julian Assange, again, under the Espionage Act of 1917, we're going to take an Australian citizen with a publishing company, publishing outlet, registered in Iceland, give him fake charges in Sweden, imprison him in London and have a Icelandic FBI snitch, make up a whole bunch of stories about him, then recant his testimony. I think Aile, because that's the thing that happened. Pedophile. Yeah, a convicted, convicted pedophile. Dr Leon (22:40): And you haven't even gone through what we did as it relates to Ecuador and what we did in terms of the Ecuadorian election to be, now I'm drawing a blank on the president. Steve Poikenon (22:51): Lennon Moreno was more Moreno. Yeah. Dr Leon (22:55): We didn't even go through what the machinations that the United States went through to get Assange out of the Ecuadorian Embassy. Steve Poikenon (23:05): Yeah. Or touch on the security company that was there at the embassy, uc Global, which was hired first by the Ecuadorian government to provide security then by the CIA via a spook convention effectively at one of Sheldon Adelson's casinos, who was one of Trump's biggest donors at the time, where the head of the security company wound up getting arrested, trying to flee the country after it was discovered that he had had this double dealing with the CIA. And then it was revealed that because of the illegal spying equipment morales's company had placed in assange's rooms at the embassy that led to a planning session with the American CIA where they were plotting out how to kidnap and murder Julian Assange. That was Mike. Dr Leon (23:56): They Steve Poikenon (23:56): Came to, Dr Leon (23:57): That was Mike Ell at the time. And so what folks, and you laying this out, what folks really need to understand is this is not some tinfoil hat conspiracy theory. All you got to do folks is Google it. It's there in mainstream press that this is what the United States went through trying. These are the illegal machinations that the United States government went through in order to try to get this guy. Steve Poikenon (24:28): Absolutely. And people feel certain ways about the gray zone or what, you don't have to read the initial reporting that Max Blumenthal did based off of the reporting that the Spanish outlet El Pais did. Michael Isikoff, two years later, 18 months later, Michael Isikoff through Yahoo News, did the same story, picked it up and took out some of the more poignant points so that he could fit it into a Yahoo story and put out that version of it. But it's there in several mainstream outlets everybody should know. Mike Pompeo tried to have a journalist and publisher assassinated or kidnapped and then assassinated just to prevent him from being able to testify in his own defense is all you can really assume at that point. You're trying to take him out while you have him basically captured. You want to make sure he never works a day in his life again, and you damn sure want to make sure that he doesn't testify because then it becomes part of a court record and then somebody can sue to have that court record or it'll be public Dr Leon (25:40): As a wrap up to this part of the conversation. So I never thought I'd see, this day I thought Julian Sal was going to die in Bell Marsh. What do you see as being the more immediate impacts to this as it relates to press freedom and journalism and some of the longer term impacts? And some of that, I know we won't really know until we hear from him, but your thoughts, Steve Poikenon (26:10): I hope it inspires people to kind of see where the new limits are, because most journalists have just been not necessarily holding back, but the amount of leak based journalism has basically vanished the amount of journalists truly going out there and trying to bring to light some major problems. Boeing comes to Dr Leon (26:35): Mind. Investigative journalism. Steve Poikenon (26:37): Yeah. I want to believe that Julian Assange breathing air again will be a beacon to people to do investigative journalism more often, better than they have been, however you want to frame it. I want that to be a spark that pushes the current boundaries and hopefully pushes 'em back a little bit because it's been relatively restrictive over the last several years. Dr Leon (27:08): There's another issue related to this. It was in consortium news, help us fight theocracy Psychological operations or PSYOPs are operations to convey selected information and indicators to audiences to influence their emotions, motives and objective reasoning, and ultimately the behavior of governments, organizations and groups and individuals. William Casey, the CIA director under Ronald Reagan said, we'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false. And what happened with Julian Assange, I think is a perfect example of this type of behavior by the American government. Steve Poikenon (28:02): It is. And if you look at the amount of government shenanigans that have occurred in the last four, five years since they yanked Julian out of the embassy, there we're seeing more and more lawsuits being brought against major pharmaceutical companies for vital information that they withheld during the last several years were we found out that a lot of what we were originally told about the January 6th incident, and a lot of what happened then was not necessarily true. There's been multiple court cases that have kept political parties from taking part in the American political process. They've kept, Lawfare has been levied against everyone from the aru, the Aru fellas, Dr Leon (29:07): Mali. Yes. Steve Poikenon (29:09): Yeah, I can never, I know, yes. Ella is something that is just not chambered for me. It's not. But from those guys to, like Alex Jones has been a victim of lawfare. Donald Trump has been a victim of Lawfare, and the entire time there hasn't been a really adversarial reporting outlet with the international foundation that WikiLeaks has with the international audience, that WikiLeaks has to mount a citizen and open source intelligence challenge to any of this and the myriad ways, not just through the restrict Act or the new antisemitism bill or a number of the different laws in Europe and Europe, has the internet been shrunk down significantly? But Elon Musk's purchase of Twitter stating that he wants to turn it into WeChat where your entire internet based existence is on through this one app. I would imagine that Julian Assange would have a lot to say about what Elon Musk has been up to. (30:24) He'd have a lot to say about what happened with the WHO or the NIH over the last several years, but we haven't had that opportunity. And that to me is something that the US government can put as a Big W in their column. That's something that MI six could put as a Big W in their column and really goes right back to those forward documents where they were outlining the plan for what they wanted to do with WikiLeaks. They didn't get to scatter the organization to the winds the way they necessarily described 14 years ago. But when's the last time we got a WikiLeaks drop? Dr Leon (31:07): Well, and for folks that may not understand the significance of this, of course, it was the shooting of the civilians, the murder of the civilians in Iraq and the journalists in Iraq that were shot during the war. And WikiLeaks put that footage out for everybody to see the war crimes that were being committed. So if WikiLeaks had been allowed to continue to operate, I would think our understanding of Ukraine would be different. Our understanding of what's being done in Taiwan would be different. Our understanding of what's being done or trying to be done in North Korea would be different. We would have a lot more insight and information into the illegalities, whether they be international law, whether they be American law, whether they be war crimes, that the United States and its allies have been engaging in these various engagements around the world. Steve Poikenon (32:15): You're correct. And let's also recall that WikiLeaks and WikiLeaks alone disclosed the transpacific partnership. They were the outlet that that agreement came to. They published it, people looked at it and went, no, you want to do what? No, no. And those kinds of trade agreements being disclosed that were done in the dark, away from the eyes of the American public with zero opportunity for public comment or any sort of pushback that made WikiLeaks more dangerous in my opinion, then disclosing video of something that according to even the guys in the helicopter was like a three times a day event in Iraq. And it's something that people in the military kind of shrugged off like, well, yeah, that's what we do. But to the average citizen, it's shocking and horrifying, but not as shocking and horrifying as the United States government wants to set up a corporate court, and it will be a couple of CEOs that determine your future. And if you say something untoward about them on the internet, then they're appointed magistrates from the corporation will decide your faith. That's what the TPP was promising. And any outlet that is going to disclose information like that is suddenly become the most dangerous organization on the planet. Dr Leon (33:49): And when you said that, that I'm drawing a blank on his name, the attorney that sued ExxonMobil in Brazil, Steve Poikenon (33:58): Steven Inger, Dr Leon (33:59): Steven Inger, and how Mobil ExxonMobil was able to use a judge. I mean, they just flipped that whole thing. Don Zinger on behalf of the Indians in Brazil, sues ExxonMobil wins an ungodly amount of money, and he winds up going to jail and ExxonMobil because of what they were able to do with the judicial system in New York, it was criminal. So when you talk about a corporate magistrate, Don Zinger is what popped into my head. Steve Poikenon (34:42): And it was because of an agreement that happened during the Trump administration that that was even possible. And they basically dismantled the TPP, they put certain parts of it into different trade agreements and provisions, and then they got the quasi corporate court because the judge, I believe had been a former Chevron attorney. Correct. And that's how that may even be how he got his judgeship was Chevron bought his way into the judgeship. And that is kind of ordinary corruption, but it's ordinary corruption that also has multinational trade agreements codifying it. And again, in the absence of a WikiLeaks or an organization like it, disclosing these kinds of agreements on the regular, you're not going to get the rapid dissemination of that information amount, a successful pushback in time to stop it. You're not going to be able to get people on the same page understanding it because there's no trust with a number of these. (35:48) All of these other outlets are so disparate, nobody's really consolidated in a way that will lend the immediate mass public trust in what you're doing. Like Lit WikiLeaks had built up over a number of years to the point that when 2015, they disclosed the tpp, people from all over the world held rallies immediately, and there were people out in the streets immediately, and it became an election year issue and it wasn't. And people had to change their tone on it and say to the point where Donald Trump even won a lot of people over by saying, it's a bad deal. It's bad. I don't want to be any part of it. Hillary Clinton had to answer for it. They all had to answer for it. On that debate stage back in 2016, it became a real issue. And so if we don't have these kinds of things moving forward, we're going to be in a significantly less informed spot than we were a decade ago. And in the internet age, that should not be how information is progressing. Dr Leon (36:51): And final point here, and I want to go back to this William Casey quote, and this is the former director of the ccia A and Ronald Reagan will know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false. And that takes me, you've heard me say this too many times, Edward Bernas and the book Propaganda folks, you need to get a copy and you need to read Propaganda by Edward Bernas because that's to a great degree what Bill Casey was talking about. And this whole idea, the whole idea of psychological operations, PSYOPs and the PS ocracy. Steve Poikenon (37:47): Yeah. And fifth generation warfare is an asymmetrical warfare conducted on the citizenry, and that's conducted via all elements of propaganda. We're 12 years into living in a reality, a post Smith month modernization act reality. When the Smith Modernization Act passed and went into effect, government propaganda, military propaganda, and government analysts and experts became part and parcel of the media the better part of a halfway through a generation's worth of 24 hour, seven day a week asymmetrical warfare where the vast majority of the people walking around don't even know that they're at war, let alone with their own government, nor that their own government openly declared war on them. That's how good the propaganda is. Everybody should study Bnes. Everybody needs to internalize that the United States is the most propagandized country on the planet. And the only way that we can get out of that is if we understand the landscape that we're standing on and we start to look at how not necessarily individual people that make up that landscape operate, but the institutions that allow for those people to move freely on that landscape operate. And those institutions, we've been shown over and over and over again to be untrustworthy, to be acting not in our interest, to be acting at the behest of not even people in their own country. And yet for some reason, we still get Berna back into thinking that you can vote your way out of an oligarchy Dr Leon (39:44): And so quickly am wake up slow news day. Where do people go? What do they get when they listen to it? Steve Poikenon (39:50): You can go to am wakeup show.com for absolutely everything. We are live Monday through Thursday from 7:00 AM to 10:00 AM Pacific us. There's content on the channel pretty much all the time. We stream out live on Rock fin and Rumble, and then you can catch them pretty much anywhere and everywhere else. And yeah, just thank you so much for having me on. I really have always enjoyed our conversations. Very glad to do your show. Dr Leon (40:22): Well, I got to thank you my guest, Steve Kin, for joining me today. I greatly, greatly appreciate you giving me time out of your schedule, and I always look forward to the conversations that we have and look forward to having many more with you here on Connecting the Dots. Thank you, Steve. Steve Poikenon (40:37): Thank you, Wilmer. Dr Leon (40:39): And thank you so much for listening to the Connecting the Dots podcast with me, Dr. Wilmer Leon, and Steve mentioned the Smith Mut Act, M-U-N-D-T Act. You all can Google that. Look it up. But simply put, for about 60 years that act prohibited the United States Department of State and the broadcasting Board of Governors from disseminating government produced programming within the United States over fear that these agencies would propagandize the American people. However, in around 2013, Congress abolished the domestic dissemination ban, which now has led to this big heated debate about the role of the federal government in free public discourse. Folks, stay tuned for new episodes every week and follow and subscribe. Leave a review, share the show, make a contribution. We would greatly, greatly, greatly appreciate it. Doing this every week is not an inexpensive venture. Your assistance is greatly appreciated. Follow us on social media. You can find all the links below to the show. And remember that this is where the analysis of politics and culture and history converge talk without analysis is just chatter, and we don't chatter here on connecting the dots. See you again next time. Until then, I'm Dr. Woman Leon. Have a great one. Peace. I'm out Announcer (42:20): Connecting the dots with Dr. Wilmer Leon, where the analysis of politics, culture, and history converge.

"My name is Julian Paul Assange." These were the first words spoken by the Wikileaks founder and high-profile long-time former prisoner as he finally faced court to answer charges this week. Assange accepted a deal to plead guilty of violating US espionage law and appeared on Wednesday in a court in the obscure US Pacific island territory of Saipan.  He was sentenced to time already served and boarded a flight home to Canberra, Australia. He arrived home on Wednesday evening to a cold Canberra evening, a triumphant fist raised.  So how big a political coup is Assange's release? Who has been working on it and for how long? Why has Albanese made it a project of his government?  And, the temporary defection of Labor Senator Fatima Payman to the Greens. Joining Jacqueline Maley to discuss is chief political correspondent David Crowe, national security correspondent Matthew Knott, and live from Saipan, North Asia correspondent Lisa Visentin. Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis from Jacqueline Maley. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter here.Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

"My name is Julian Paul Assange." These were the first words spoken by the Wikileaks founder and high-profile long-time former prisoner as he finally faced court to answer charges this week. Assange accepted a deal to plead guilty of violating US espionage law and appeared on Wednesday in a court in the obscure US Pacific island territory of Saipan.  He was sentenced to time already served and boarded a flight home to Canberra, Australia. He arrived home on Wednesday evening to a cold Canberra evening, a triumphant fist raised.  So how big a political coup is Assange's release? Who has been working on it and for how long? Why has Albanese made it a project of his government?  And, the temporary defection of Labor Senator Fatima Payman to the Greens. Joining Jacqueline Maley to discuss is chief political correspondent David Crowe, national security correspondent Matthew Knott, and live from Saipan, North Asia correspondent Lisa Visentin. Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis from Jacqueline Maley. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter here.Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Half million Palestinians at 'worst hunger level' due to Israel's Gaza war https://www.trtworld.com/middle-east/half-million-palestinians-at-worst-hunger-level-due-to-israels-gaza-war-18176796 Almost half a million people are experiencing "catastrophic" hunger in Gaza, according to a United Nations-backed assessment. The latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, partnership said that around 495,000 people — around 22 percent of the Gaza population — are still facing "catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity". This is also known as IPC Phase 5: the worst hunger rating. *) Every day, 10 Gaza children lose one or both legs due to Israel's war — UN https://trtworld.com/middle-east/every-day-10-gaza-children-lose-one-or-both-legs-due-to-israels-war-un-18176961 Ten children per day are losing one or both of their legs in Israel's genocidal war in besieged Gaza, the head of the UN agency supporting Palestinian refugees said. UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini cited figures from the UN children's agency UNICEF and said amputations often take place in "horrible conditions", without anaesthesia. He said that figure "does not even include arms and hands,” of which there are many more cases. *) Australia awaits Assange's arrival after US guilty plea https://trtworld.com/australia/australia-awaits-assanges-arrival-after-us-guilty-plea-18176954 WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has walked free from a court on the US Pacific island territory of Saipan in a deal that allowed him to head straight home to Australia. During the three-hour hearing, Assange pleaded guilty to one criminal count of conspiring to obtain and disclose classified national defence documents. He said he had believed the US Constitution's First Amendment, which protects free speech, shielded his activities. *) ICC issues arrest warrants for Russian military chief, ex-defence minister https://www.trtworld.com/europe/icc-issues-arrest-warrants-for-russian-military-chief-ex-defence-minister-18176787 The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for former Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu and General Staff Chief Valery Gerasimov. The ICC said the decision was made after an investigation into alleged international crimes committed in Ukraine between October 2022 and March 2023. Shoygu and Gerasimov are accused of ordering attacks on civilian infrastructure, as well as committing crimes against humanity of inhumane acts. And finally… *) Trump leads in voter confidence on economy, Biden preferred for democracy https://trtworld.com/us-and-canada/trump-leads-in-voter-confidence-on-economy-biden-preferred-for-democracy-18176973 US voters see Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump as the better candidate for the economy, a new Reuters/Ipsos poll has found. The same vote on Tuesday showed that US President Joe Biden scored better with his approach on preserving democracy. The poll shows that less than five months before the November election, the electorate is divided on the candidates' approach to issues that respondents view as the country's top problems.

A US court has finalised a plea agreement, which will see Julian Assange become a free man. The divisive WikiLeaks founder had been facing eighteen separate counts relating to national security, but instead admitted to a single espionage charge in exchange for time served. After pleading guilty to the offence in the Northern Mariana Islands, a US Pacific territory, the United States' longstanding extradition request was nullified, and Mr Assange is now returning to his native Australia.Caitríona Perry caught up with the BBC's North America correspondent Nomia Iqbal, and former legal correspondent Joshua Rozenberg for their reaction to the deal. They consider how the legal saga has impacted Julian Assange's image, and what it could mean for the future of free speech.The Global Story brings you trusted insights from BBC journalists worldwide. We want your ideas, stories and experiences to help us understand and tell #TheGlobalStory. Email us at theglobalstory@bbc.com You can also message us or leave a voice note via WhatsApp on +44 330 123 9480.TGS is part of the BBC News Podcasts family. The team that makes The Global Story also makes several other podcasts, such as Americast and Ukrainecast, which cover US news and the war in Ukraine. If you enjoy The Global Story, you may well like some of our other pods, too. To find them, simply search on your favourite podcast app.This episode was made by Laurie Kalus and Beth Timmins. The technical producer was Rohan Madison. The assistant editor is Sergi Forcada Freixas and the senior news editor is Sam Bonham.

The wife of the Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange, says she's elated that he's left jail in Britain, but remains worried that his fourteen-year legal battle is not yet over. Mr Assange has left the UK as part of a plea deal with American prosecutors to avoid extradition to the United States. He's due to appear in court in a remote US Pacific territory, where he'll plead guilty to a single charge under the Espionage Act. We'll hear from his wife and ask whether Mr Assange's work was necessary or damaging? Also in the programme: part of Kenya's parliament complex has been set on fire and several people have reportedly been shot dead during huge protests against planned tax rises; and Israel's top court has told the military to end an exemption for ultra-Orthodox religious students straining the coalition government led by Benjamin Netanyahu. (Picture: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange disembarks from a plane at Bangkok Don Mueang International Airport in Thailand. Credit: Wikileaks via Reuters)

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has left London after agreeing a US plea deal that will see him plead guilty to a spying charge and go free.Assange was locked in a lengthy legal battle over his extradition with American authorities, including years living in London's Ecuadorian Embassy from 2012 before detention in HMP Belmarsh.He was sought by the US since Wikileaks published hundreds of thousands of secret documents relating to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.Assange left Britain on a charter flight to plead guilty on a single spying charge at court in a US Pacific territory.Evening Standard home affairs editor Martin Bentham examines what's next in the legal case and Assange's timeline of being locked up in London.Plus, in part two, we look at the increasing price of a pint of beer in London - which has reached, on average, a frothy £6.75.Evening Standard business editor Jonathan Prynn discusses the soaring costs hitting the capital's hospitality sector. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today we're hearing about a dramatic story of Russian espionage, US government denial and how the experience inspired Naval Intelligence veteran Jack Daly to write the book “Laugh Out Loud: Your Personal Prescription for the Best Medicine on Earth”. The book reveals the power of humor but, Daly's story is far from comedy. He was wounded by a Russian laser while photographing a Russian merchant ship believed to be spying on US Naval operations. Daly shares vivid details about this rare espionage event in the Strait of Juan De Fuca (just a few miles off the coast of Washington State). He also shares his thoughts on why the US Government denied it ever happened.After dealing with pain for decades, and a deep concern over the rising suicide crisis among vets, he was inspired to write a book that shows veterans how to overcome problems using the only thing that worked for him- laughter.Check out Jack Daly's new book "Laugh Out Loud" hereFor more on the 1997 Russian laser attack:Washington Post article Wikipedia article on The Strait of Juan de Fuca Special Thanks to comedians Dan Soder, Jim Gaffigan, and Russell Peters.Check out their hilarious Russian jokes hereAnd this hilarious sketch from the legendary Jerry SeinfeldFrom Seinfeld Season 5 Episode 16 "The Stand-In" To reach CBS Eye on Veterans, Host, Phil Briggsphil@connectingvets.comFollow on X@philbriggsVet@EyeOnVeteransSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We are free:We Just Have to Remember How to Act Free“Between the stimulus and response, there is a space. And in that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”(Attributed to) Viktor FranklAs the above profound quote shows, freedom lies in our ability to make our own choices about the actions we take.The truth is that we are responsible for our own actions.We already choose how we react or respond to any stimulus; those actions, whether reaction or response, will be based on our individual belief system that manifests as our thoughts.And our individual belief system, until we understand that we can change it, is often the result of our conditioning through the indoctrination we are subjected to throughout our childhood, mainly via the ‘education system'; a system that disempowers us. But whatever its source, that conditioning is not permanent.Most of us are aware of the power of ‘positive thinking', but thinking alone is insufficient; we have to take actions based on our positive thoughts.True empowerment lies in understanding who we are and finding the courage to accept the challenge of ‘being the change you wish to see in the world', as I discussed in my previous article.This challenge is often referred to as “the hero's journey”.If this is a challenge that inspires you, please join us in my workshop Creating Change by the Power of Your Thoughts; a 90-minute presentation where we'll dive deeper into learning how to create the life experiences we want.Date: Saturday 2nd March 2024Time: 9am US Pacific/12noon US Eastern/5pm UK.To Join Dawn: https://www.dawnlester.com/offers/dv5z5uj8/checkoutThere is no fee for the workshop; you have the option to donate an amount of your choosing on a value-for-value basis(Donations help to support Dawn's work

fWotD Episode 2464: Snowy plover Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day where we read the summary of the featured Wikipedia article every day.The featured article for Friday, 2 February 2024 is Snowy plover.The snowy plover (Anarhynchus nivosus) is a small shorebird found in the Americas. It is a member of the bird family Charadriidae, which includes the plovers, dotterels, and lapwings. The snowy plover was originally described by John Cassin in 1858, but was classified as a subspecies of the Kentish plover in 1922. Since 2011, the snowy plover has been recognized as a distinct species based on genetic and anatomical differences from the Kentish plover. Two or three subspecies are recognized, distributed along the Pacific coast of North America, Ecuador, Peru, and Chile, in several inland areas of the US and Mexico, along the Gulf Coast, and on Caribbean islands. The coastal populations consist of both residential and migratory birds, whereas the inland populations are mostly migratory. It is one of the best studied endemic shorebirds of the Americas, and one of the rarest.Snowy plovers are pale brown above and white below, with a white band on the hind neck. During the breeding season, males have black patches behind the eye and on the side of the neck; the neck patches are separated from each other and do not form a continuous breast band as in many other plovers. Snowy plovers can also be distinguished from other plovers in having an all-black and slender bill, and gray to black legs. The typical call is a repeated "tu-wheet".This plover inhabits open areas in which vegetation is absent or sparse, in particular coastal sand beaches and shores of salt or soda lakes, where it feeds on invertebrates such as crustaceans, worms, beetles, and flies. At the beginning of the breeding season, males excavate multiple nest scrapes that are advertised to females; one of these scrapes is later selected for breeding. Some females will desert their brood soon after the chicks hatch to re-mate with another male, while their first mate will continue to rear the chicks. Such polygamy is uncommon in birds, and is possibly a strategy to maximize breeding success. There are more males than females – 1.4 times as many in California – and the more pronounced this sex ratio is, the more females engage in polygamous behavior.The snowy plover is listed as near threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The main threats are habitat destruction due to invasive beach grasses, urban development, as well as frequent disturbance due to recreational uses of beaches. Conservation measures on the US Pacific coast include roping-off beach areas that are used for breeding, the removal of invasive beach grasses, and protection against egg predators. While such measures have been successful locally, the global population is thought to be in decline.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 01:22 UTC on Friday, 2 February 2024.For the full current version of the article, see Snowy plover on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm Raveena Standard.

The New Zealand government has given its full blessing to Cook Islands and Niue establishing diplomatic relations with the United States. At the second US/Pacific summit in Washington this morning, President Joe Biden announced that the US recognises them as sovereign and independent states. It's an announcement which the U.S. Embassy in Aotearoa has labelled as historic. RNZ Pacific's Lydia Lewis reports.

Defense analyst says US Pacific summit is significant for the region

Election 2023: First time Pasifika voters in the South Island share their concerns; Cook Islands & Niue establish relations with the US; Defense analyst says US Pacific summit is significant for the region; El Nino weather event declared for Vanuatu; Samoan beauty queen sheds light on Pacific issues

Flying Fijians overjoyed after historic win over Australia in Rugby World Cup; Pacific leaders set to meet with US President Joe Biden for US-Pacific summit; US humanitarian mission gets underway in Samoa.

In this podcast episode, we explore how various forms of media have impacted our society, from TV to social media to the internet. The main focus of the episode is on the economy and whether we are headed for a major crash beyond even the Great Depression. We discuss the potential problems that a US crash could create, including the possibility of Alaska being taken by Russia and Hawaii and US Pacific territories being taken by China. We also consider the implications for US weapons. Finally, we discuss how to prepare for such a scenario. Tune in for a thought-provoking conversation on the state of the economy and the potential consequences of a major financial crisis. Website: www.christopherscottshow.com Show Notes: https://www.christopherscottshow.com/show-notes Subscribe: https://www.christopherscottshow.com/subscribe LEAVE A MESSAGE AND MAYBE I'LL MENTION IT ON THE SHOW! https://www.christopherscottshow.com/contact

The most powerful storm to strike U.S. Pacific territory in over two decades: Typhoon Mawar, a Category 4 hurricane, hit Guam on May 24. Cyber attacks, intellectual property theft, forced labor, and transnational repression—hear what officials had to say at a House Hearing on May 23 about threats from the Chinese Communist Party. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is set to launch his 2024 presidential campaign. We share his teaser video and details about the announcement. ⭕️ Watch in-depth videos based on Truth & Tradition at Epoch TV

The United States is on the cusp of signing a security pact with Papua New Guinea that will give US armed forces uninhibited access to its territorial waters and airspace. It's part of a concerted effort from America to re-establish and counter China's influence in the region. New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has been invited to attend a US-Pacific summit that's about to get underway. Our political reporter Anneke Smith joins us now from APEC Haus in Port Moresby.  

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins today explained military presence doesn't necessarily signify militarisation. Chris Hipkins is at the US-Pacific Summit in Papua New Guinea on the same day America's expected to ink a cooperation deal with PNG. The agreement has prompted concerns about increased militarisation. ZB senior political correspondent Barry Soper says there are concerns surrounding the Papua New Guinea- US defence deal, but these shouldn't concern Chris Hipkins. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Chris Hipkins' appearance in Papua New Guinea is being framed as significant.  Hipkins is present for security pact between the US and Papua New Guinea that may give US armed forces uninhibited access to the nation's airspace and territorial waters.  NZME business commentator Fran O'Sullivan says Papua New Guinea put all the Pacific forum nations together with the US, which will be important for the regions involved. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Chris Hipkins' travel plans are up in the air, after Joe Biden cancelled what was to be a history-making trip to the Pacific. Plans have been in the works for the US-Pacific summit, set down for Monday, in Papua New Guinea - with Prime Minister Chris Hipkins set to jet off to Port Moresby this weekend. But the US President has pulled out of the meeting, with debt ceiling negotiations continuing in Washington, and congressional leaders speaking to Biden overnight. Australia correspondent Steve Price told Mike Hosking the cancellation could be hugely significant. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Last time we spoke about the situation in the north pacific and the grand conclusion of the Chindits Operation Longcloth. The battle of the Komandorski islands had basically put a nail in the coffin that was the Aleutian islands campaign for japan. They could not hope to resupply Attu and Kiska properly, therefore America had a free hand to build up to invade them. Also the crazed Onion man Wingate had taken his boys in the fray of Burma and they paid heavily for it. Yes despite all the glory and fame that the propaganda perpetuated the operation had done, in reality, Wingate had sacrifice many lives for little gain. His erratic behavior led to dangerous decision making which took a toll on the men. In the end what can be said of the operation was it atleast provided something positive to boost morale for the British in the far east. But today we are going to speak about the falling of a major giant of the pacific war. This episode is Operation Vengeance  Welcome to the Pacific War Podcast Week by Week, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about world war two? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on world war two and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel you can find a few videos all the way from the Opium Wars of the 1800's until the end of the Pacific War in 1945.  Now two weeks ago I covered Operation I-Go and you may have noticed I sprinkled a bit of foreshadowing information here and there. But to catch you back up to speed so to say let me just summarize those events and the dire circumstances what person would find himself in.  It can easily be deduced by early 1943, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto knew Japan was staggering towards a catastrophic defeat. Rather ironically, he was one of those figures in Japan that tossed as much as his political influence could against the decision to go to war with america. He warned his high ranking colleagues of the great industrial might America held and that it would inevitably overwhelm Japan. His obsession over a decisive naval victory was driven mostly because he knew the only possible way for Japan to come out of WW2 positively was to bring America to the negotiating table as early as possible. But how does one do that exactly? Well Japan held a significant advantage over America in 1941, their Pacific Fleet was by far larger, vastly better trained and held considerable technological advantages. Thus like a game of Axis & Allies, a game I have been playing since I was a teenager and hope to livestream now and then for audiences like yourself, well like a good old game of Axis & Allies if you are the Axis you typically toss the kitchen sink at the offset of the war hoping to break the allies before their productive advantage gradually wins them the board. Yamamoto engineered the raid on Pearl Harbor to smash the US Pacific fleet enough to thwart them of any offensives for 6 months at minimum, though he definitely hoped for a year. After that his plan had always been to force america into a naval surface battle in the hopes of taking out their fleet and forcing them to negotiate. If they did not negotiate after that, well he hoped to buy Japan enough time to build a complex defensive perimeter which perhaps could be used to bleed Americans dry and thus gradually get them to come to terms. Well his obsession for the grand naval battle led him into a trap. Yes, a critical thing the Japanese overlooked during most of the Pacific War was code breaking. The Cryptanalysts at Station Hypo did miracles breaking the JN-25 code, leading them to deduce Admiral Yamamoto's operation MI was directed at Midway atoll. They had knowledge of the locations, the units and the timetables and they used this intelligence to set up a major trap for the combined fleet. The June 1942 disaster at Midway had been a major gambit aimed at forcing the war to an early conclusion, a gambit which fell apart. The losses at Midway meant the war was not to be a prolonged one, though it might surprise many of you to know, the chance of another decisive naval battle was not all but lost, it would just be harder to configure. Regardless the overall viewpoint after the failure at Midway now meant Japan had to fight a war of attrition, something Japan could not hope to win.  Yamamoto had obsessed himself and countless other high ranking figures that Midway was to be the decisive battle, but in reality it fell upon Guadalcanal. Yes the battle for Guadalcanal emerged the decisive battle they had all sought, but the Japanese high command were late to this conclusion. The Americans basically snuck onto the island in an extremely bold manner, forcing what became a horrifying bloody war. In the end the Americans won the battle for Guadalcanal and because of Japan's lackluster planning, this simultaneously led to the major loss of the Buna-Gona-Sanananda front as well. New Guinea and the Solomons were intertwined and Japan kept fumbling back and forth between them which inevitably was leading to them losing both. After the loss at Guadalcanal, Japan had lost the initiative for the Pacific War, now America was in the drivers seat. The battle of the Bismarck Sea proved to the Japanese high command, their sealanes were no longer safe. America was dominating Japan's ability to move men and supplies across the ocean through a war of attrition using airpower and submarines. The Japanese planners understood the allies were going to advance in two prongs; one through New Guinea and the other up the central and northern solomons. For the allies to advance, they required the construction of airfields along the way to provide air superiority to cover their surface fleets and transports of men and supplies. Japan had been massively depleted of ships, aircraft, trained men, resources in general, but one thing they still had an advantage over the allies was their airfields scattered about the Pacific.  On March 15th Japanese high command in Tokyo demanded plans be made to build a new defensive strategy in the central Pacific. The main idea was to build a stronger defensive perimeter emanating from Rabaul. Thus on the morning of April 3rd of 1943, Admirals Yamamoto and Ugaki, accompanied by more than a dozen officers of the combined Fleet staff boarded two Kawanishi flying boats and headed for Rabaul. Yamamoto and the high ranking figures scoured their maps and came up with what was needed to be done to meet this new demand. They needed to hinder the American airpowers advance up the Solomons and New Guinea, this meant hitting allied forward airfields. Four locations were chosen: Guadalcanal, Oro Bay, Port Moresby and Milne Bay. It was to be called Operation I-GO Sakusen and would be the responsibility of the IJN. Admirals Yamamoto and Jinichi Kusaka established temporary headquarters on Rabaul and began planning. The planning led to an incredible concentration of Japanese airpower. The 11th airfleet and 4 aircraft carriers of the 3rd fleet: Zuikaku, Zuiho, Junyo and Hiyo would amass a force of 224 aircraft. The airpower was going to be used to smash the 4 targets and then they would be dispersed to several airfields to mount a new defensive perimeter. They would be sent to places like Buka and Kahili on Bougainville and Ballale in the Shortland Islands. Admiral Yamamoto would personally supervise Operation I-GO as he took up quarters on a cottage high on a hill behind the town of Rabaul. He spent weeks inspecting airfields and other military installations, meeting with local army and navy commanders at various headquarters scattered about New Britain. As was his typical behavior, he bid farewell to departing air squadrons waving his hat to them. For 10 consecutive days, Japanese bombers and fighters hit their designated targets. More than 200 aircraft attacked Guadalcanal on April 7th, a raid larger than any attempted during the 5 month battle over the island. The Japanese pilots came back with extremely exaggerated claims of success. They claimed to have destroyed dozens of ships and hundreds of aircraft. In reality operation I-Go amounted to the destruction of 25 aircraft, 1 destroyer, 1 corvette, 1 oil tanker and 2 transports. The Japanese had lost around 40 aircraft for this.  The Japanese high command including Yamamoto and even Emperor Hirohito bought the success stories. Hirohito send word stating “Please convey my satisfaction to the Commander in Chief, Combined Fleet, and tell him to enlarge the war result more than ever.” On the other side of the conflict, General Kenney had a more damning critique of the way Yamamoto used his air forces during Operation I-Go, “… the way he [Yamamoto] had failed to take advantage of his superiority in numbers and position since the first couple of months of the war was a disgrace to the airman's profession.” The reality was, the aircrews were not the same types that raided Pearl Harbor in 1941, no these men in 1943 were forgive me to say, kind of the bottom of the barrel types. Sure there remained some veterans and experiences men, but far and too few to trained what should have been a brand new generation of Japanese airpower. Japan had squandered their veterans and now she was paying a heavy price for it. On October 25th of 1942, Rear-Admiral Ugaki had written this in his diary “every time it rained heavily, about ten planes were damaged due to skidding.” The Japanese airfields were no match for the American Seabees who were performing miracles across the pacific building superior fields for their airpower. By contrast the Japanese could not hope to match this, they lacked resources and trained personnel. Operation I-GO in the end costed the allies advance 10 days. Yamamoto had his spirits lifted somewhat by Operation I-GO believing it to be a triumph. He announced he would conduct a one-day tour of forward bases at Buin, Ballale and Shortland Island set for April the 18th and this is where our story truly begins. Yamamoto's tour was sent over the radio waves using the JN-25D naval cypher to the 11th air flotilla and the 26th air flotilla. Admiral Yamamoto's operations officer Commander Yasuji Watanabe would go on the record complaining that the information about Yamamoto's visit to the Ballalae Airfield should had been done by courier and not by radio, but the communications officer replied “this code only went into effect on april 1st and cannot be broken”. The message was picked up by three stations of the “Magic” apparatus, the United States cryptanalysis project. One of the three stations ironically was the same team responsible for breaking the codes that led to Midway, station Hypo at Pearl Harbor. Major Alva B. Lasswell, a duty officer at Joseph Rochefort's Combat Intelligence Unit Station HYPO deciphered it and pronounced it to be a "jackpot". The message contained highly detailed information and it was easy to deduce the message was about Yamamoto. It contained his departure time: April 18, 06:00 Japanese Standard Time, 08:00 Guadalcanal Time set for Ballale, 08:00 Japanese Standard Time, 10:00 Guadalcanal Time.; his aircraft which was a G4M Betty and the number of his escorts, 6 Zeros; as well as the entire itinerary for his tour. Admiral Yamamoto's plane was going to be heading over the southern end of Bougainville on the morning of the 18th, a location that happened to be just within the fighter range of Henderson Field. Alva Bryan Lasswell and intelligence officer Jasper Holmes took the decrypted message to CINCPAC headquarters and handed it to the fleet intelligence officer Ed Layton who tossed it upon Admiral Nimitz desk a few minutes after 8 on April 14.  Nimitz scrutinized the chart on his wall and confirmed himself that Yamamoto's plane would enter airspace that could be reached by american fighters from Henderson. “He asked Layton “Do we try to get him?”. The question honestly was a tough one. Was it wrong to target the combined fleet chief based on some sort of convention upon military chivalry? Like most naval officers, Nimitz had interacted socially with Japanese officers during the interwar years. Nimitz was not a particularly vengeful nor bloody-minded man. In era's past, an American flag or general officer would certainly refuse to have his rival commander assassinated. For you American listeners, can you conceive George Washington ordering a hit on William Howe? How about Robert E Lee ordering a hit on Ulysses Grant? However war in the 20th century was not like the previous centuries. Hell even by the standards of the war in europe, the Pacific War was unbelievably more brutal. Honestly if you wanted a good book on the subject of how brutal the Pacific war was, try John D Dowers “War without Mercy: Race & Power in the Pacific War”.  Now during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, cough cough if you want to hear about that one check out my Youtube channel, the IJA and IJN had strictly adhered to the rules of war. Russian prisoners were housed well, fed well, provided good medical care, given cigarettes and alcohol, the 2nd one very important to russians as we know haha. Those who died within captivity were even buried with military honors. During WW1 the Japanese took German prisoners after the siege of Tsingtau and treated them extremely well in Japan, let them parade the country with a band and such. In fact the treatment of the German POW's had a small hand to play in how Japan got into bed with Germany later, and honestly to this very day Japan and Germany have this special relationship. However, Japan certainly did not bring this type of chivalrous etiquette into the Pacific War.  Nimitz may have hesitated to give the order, but he knew full well of the Japanese actions in China, the Philippines, Malaya, Hong Kong, the East Indies, the Solomons. I guess you can say barbarity dishes out barbarity. Yet aside from the morality question, was it wise to kill Yamamoto? This was after all the man who planned and executed the disastrous Midway offensive losing 4 aircraft carriers with nearly all their aircraft. Yamamoto had also mismanaged the guadalcanal campaign by deploying air and troop reinforcements in piecemeals. He arguably was doing a good job losing the war. Layton knew Yamamoto personally and argued that he was the best-respected military leader in Japan and that his death “He's unique among their people… Aside from the Emperor, probably no man in Japan is so important to civilian morale. [His absence] would demoralize the fighting navy. You know Japanese psychology; it would stun the nation.”. Layton said to Nimitz “You know, Admiral Nimitz, it would be just as if they shot you down. There isn't anybody to replace you”. To this Nimitz smiled amusingly and replied “it's down in Halsey's bailiwick, if there's a way, he'll find it. All right, we'll try it”. Thus sealed the fate of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto. Thus Admiral Nimitz sent a “your eyes only” message to Admiral Halsey, alerting him to the situation and ordering a fighter interception with the concluding remarks “best of luck and good hunting”. Codenamed Operation Vengeance approved on the 14th, the assassination of Admiral Yamamoto was done under utmost secrecy to protect the cryptanalysis teams. It just so happened Halsey had already been informed of the operation in a chance encounter in Melbourne Australia. He was inspecting naval facilities in the city and dropped by the communications intelligence office where a yeoman named Kenneth Boulier was working on one of the draft decrypts. Halsey came to his desk and asked “what are you working on son?”. And when Boulier explained, Halsey raised his voice and addressed the entire unit “Goddamit, you people knock off this Yamamoto business! I'm going to get that sonofabitch myself!”. I guess one can say he was enthusiastic about the job. Halsey informed his subordinate air commanders, Admirals Aubrey Fitch and Marc Mitscher about the details of Operation vengeance. Southern Bougainville was roughly 400 miles away from Henderson field and the aircraft would need to take a roundabout route to evade detection. Thus the mission would require 1000 miles or so of flying, a range that would test the capabilities of even the longest legged American fighters. AirSols commander Mitscher called for a secret meeting of his staff on April 16th to figure out the logistics of the operation. It was determined that to intercept Yamamoto's flight, they should use Lockheed P-38 Lightnings which held a comparable range to that of the Zero fighter, though it would not alone be enough. They would need to use a lean fuel mixture and drop tanks to barely make the long flight. It was going to be quite tight, thus the timing had to be precise, or else the aircraft would burn their fuel while waiting for the enemy to make their appearance. Major John Mitchell of the 339th fighter squadron was assigned the commander of 18 P-38's piloted by handpicked airmen. 4 P-38's would be designated as “killers”, ie: the guys who would target Yamamoto's G4M Betty, while the other pilots would cover them against the Zero escorts. The killers were to be Captain Thomas Lanphier, Lieutenants Rex Barber, Joseph Moore and James McLanahan. They were going to intercept Yamamoto in the air just south of Empress August Bay.  Now the direct flight to Bougainville meant crossing over or very close to Japanese held islands which held observers. This meant they would need to veer far out to sea to avoid any visual contact made by Japanese coastwatchers. Likewise they would skim the ocean at wave-top height to avoid detection by Japanese radar. Mitchell plotted their missions course to remain at least 50 miles offshore. This also meant they would have no landmarks to use as checkpoints: it would have to be dead reckoning the entire way, flying by airspeed, clock and compass under strict radio silence for over 2 hours, until they saw the Bougainville coast. The strike force would depart guadalcanl at 7:20. Even after all the precision and planning, the lightning force would only have around 15 minutes to shoot down Yamamoto, this was a extremely tight one. Mitchell gave the odds of the operation succeeded about a thousand to one. Back over in Rabaul commanders like Admirals Ozawa and Jojima were trying to change Yamamotos mind about making the tour to the forward airbases thinking he was taking a large risk. Adamiral Ozawa argued with Captain Kameto Kuroshima, a senior member of Yamamoto's staff “If he insists on going, six fighters are nothing like enough. Tell the chief of staff that he can have as many of my planes as he likes.” Admiral Ugaki who was sick in the hospital with dengue ever tried to send a message to Yamamoto to not go on the tour. That message though it did not make it to Yamamoto directly was interceived by Admiral Jojima. Admiral Jojima argued “what a damn fool thing to do, to send such a long and detailed message about the activities of the Commander of the combined fleet so near the front. This kind of thing must stop” Jojima had actually flown over to Rabaul to stop Yamamoto, but Yamamoto did not back down. Yamamoto was a stickler for punctuality, he alongside his party arrived to Rabaul's Lakuni field a few minutes before 6am Japan time, thus around 8am rabaul time. The party wore their field green khai uniforms and airmens boots, aside from Yamamoto who wore his customary white dress uniform, with his usual white gloves carrying his ceremonial sword. Yamamoto climbed into one of the two G4M Betty medium bmbers and Ugaki climbed into the other. Yamamoto's Betty had the number 323 painted on its vertical stablizer. The planes roared down the runway and climbed. The weather was clear, with excellent visibility above and below the high ceiling. The aircraft leveled out at 6500 with the bombers holding a close formation, enough for Ugaki to clearly see Yamamoto through the windshield of the other plane. The fighters hung out at 8200 feet above them and around a mile around them. The formation headed southeast making its first landfall on the southern tip of new ireland, then south along the coast of Bougainville, past the Japanese bases at Buka and Kieta, then on to Ballale. Ugaki began to nod off as the group began its descent towards Ballale.    Major Mitchells strike group launched at 7:10 guadalcanal time, seeing 2 lightnings fail as a result of a blown tire for one and a fuel transfer problem for the other. Both aircraft were part of the killers team, thus Lieutenants Besby Holmes and Raymond Hine, were replaced with Joseph Moore and James McLanahan. Not a great way to start such a precise mission by any means. As they made the first leg of their route, the P-38's descended to 50 feet to avoid radar detection while the pilots had to endure extremely hot temperatures due to the sea level. The temperature was above 90 degrees as the sun blazed through their Perspex canopies causing the pilots to sweat like pigs. The P-38 was a high altitude fighter and its canopy could not open in flight to regulate the cockpit temperature. Thus instead it kind of acted like a convection oven, building up heat as the sun beat down on it. With nothing but hte sight of rolling waves for over 2 hours, the pilots could have very well dozed off. After 55 minutes of hte first leg, Mitchell turned right to 290 degrees then after another 27 minutes, 305 degrees. 38 minutes after this another 20 degree turn to make the 40 mile leg to the south edge of Empress Bay, all using clocks & compass.  As they crossed the bay they turned 90 degrees and were around 4 minutes from their calculated interception point. The lightnings began to close in and made sight of the southwest corner of Bougainville. In an act of extraordinary navigation they hit the precise location intended at 9:34am, a single minute ahead of schedule. Right on top of them, passing serenly overhead was the Yamamoto and unfortuntately for him, security was quite lax. You see the Japanese held air superiority at Buin, thus they did not anticipate any enemy action. Alongside this the escort zero's had their radiots stripped out to reduce their weight. This meant they would not be able to communicate with the Betty's. Ugaki's Betty was carrying its regular armament of 3 13mm guns and 1 20mm gun, but because of the weight of the munition boxes, only a single belt was filled up for each. As for Yamamoto's Betty, there does not seem to be evidence it was armed at all. Mitchell was shocked to see the two Betty bombers, the intelligence had told them one. This somewhat disrupted his plan not knowing where the escorts were hiding, futhermore 2 lightnings piloted by Lieutenants Besby Holmes and Raymond Hine had to pull out when their belly tanks were released and it caused a technical problem. Thus Mitchell had only half the fighters as planned and now faced double the Betty's. He did not know which Betty was Yamamoto's, but with icy resolve he did not improvise the plan and ordered Captain Lamphier to attack as planned stating “he's your meat, tom”. The rest of the lightnings climbed to perform CAP actions as Mitchell expected the Japanese air base at Kahili to toss some zeros over to greet Yamamoto. None would come, another toss of the dice of fate as it were. As Ugaki recounts the event, at 9:43 he was awoken when his plane suddenly began a steep diving turn. The pilot was unsure what was happening, but all of a sudden evasive maneuvers of the Zero escorts alerted him something was wrong. The dark green canopy of the jungle hills were closing in on them as the gunnery opened up the gun ports to prepare firing. Between the rushing wind from the openings and the guns things were incredibly noisy. Ugaki told the pilot to try and remain with Yamamoto's plane, but it was too late. As Ugaki's plane banked south he caught a glimpse of Yamamoto's plane “staggering southward, just brushing the jungle top with reduced speed, emitting black smoke and flames.” Ugaki lost visual contact for some time then only saw a column of smoke rising rom the jungle. Ugaki's pilot flew over Cape Moira and out to sea, descending steadily to gain speed. Two lightnings were on their ass and some .50 caliber rounds slammed into their wings and fuselage. The pilot frantically trid pulling up, but his propellers dug into the sea causing the Betty to roll hard to the left. Ugaki was tossed from his seat and slammed agianst an interior bulkhead. As water flooded the aircraft he thought “this is the end of Ugaki”. But luckily for him, and 3 other passengers they managed to get free and swim to the beach as they were helped ashore by Japanese soldiers and transported to Buin. Despite his miraculous survival, Ugaki's injuries were severe, including a severed radial artery and compound fracture of the right arm, which would leave him out of action until 1944 From the American point of few, they came upon the Japanese formation catching them by complete surprise. The escorting Zeros were flying above the bombers, scanning hte horizon ahead of them to the south and now suspected American fighters would be approaching them from behind at a lower altitude. There are quite a few accounts of how this went down, but by all of them Lamphier climbed to the left, going nose to nose with 3 escorting Zeros, while Lt Rex Barber banked to the right. In response all 6 of the Zeros made a straight dive from their higer altitude position to get between the bombers and the lightnings. Rather than firing directly at the American fighters, they kept their firing infront of the lightnings trying to prevent their line of sight meeting up with the bombers. With the eruption of the choas, both Betty's accelerated into their dives, distancing themselves. One plane banked right going southwest towards the shoreline while the other banked left going east. Now what follows next has actually been a fight going on for decades with all participants going to their grave swearing their perspective was the legitimate account of the event. Lamphier's story, which is by far the most well known, states he quickly engaged the 3 diving Zeros to the left, managing to shoot down one before twisting away to attack the Betty's. He found the lead Betty skimming the jungle, heading for Kahili and dived in pursuit of it. With the other 2 zeros chasing to cut him off, Lamphier held course and fired a long steady burst across the Betty's course of flight. He watched the Betty's right engine and right wing catch on fire and in his words “the bomber's wing tore off. The bomber plunged into the jungle. It exploded. That was the end of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto.” While racing out over the open sea towards Moila Point, Ugaki himself was horrified to see the funeral pyre of Yamamoto's crashed bomber. But at the same time, Rex Barber tells a different story.  Rex claims Lamphier's initial maneuver going to the left was smart, as it allowed Barber the opportunity to attack the bombers without the Zeroes being on his tail. Thus Rex banked sharply to the right to fall in behind one of the Betty's. At around 1000 feet above the jungle canopy, Rex opened fire, aiming over the fuselage at the right engine. Rex could see chunks of the Betty's engine and fires emerge as he continued to ranke the Bettey with his guns, until the Betty suddenly stopped in mid-air, nearly colliding with him before crashing into the jungle below. Rex also claimed the Betty did not fire back at all. The zero escorts however did catch up to him, but the sudden appearance of Lt's Besby Holmes and Raymond Hine saved him as they shot down the 3 zeros.  Heading to the coasts, Holmes and Hine pursued the remaining Betty and fired upon it scoring some hits. Rex also dropped in behind what is assumed to be Ugaki's Betty firing a burst over it before it hit the water. Holmes claimed to have shot down Ugaki's Betty by himself. Rex states that “Holmes rounds must have hit the tanks and filled the bomber swings with gas fumes, because the ship exploded in his face”. As Rex flew through the black smoke and debris a large chunk of the Betty hit his right wing cutting out his turbo supercharger intercooler. Meanwhile Holmes and Hine were dog fighting two more Zeros. Holmes would claim to have shot one of the zeros down, making his total around 3 Zeros and one betty; Hine's lightning was damaged in the fight forcing him to head east out to sea with smoke trailing his engine. Hine would be last seen around 9:40am, he was to be the only allied casualty of operation Vengeance. With both Betty's down, the mission was done and Mitchell ordered a withdrawal. The lightning's each headed home individually, operating at the limit of their range and suffering the hot weather. The controversy over who shot down Yamamoto's aircraft would begin the moment the pilots got back to base. In the words of Lt Julius Jacobson “there were 15 of us who survived, and as far as who did the effective shooting, who cares?” Yamamoto's plane had gone down about 4 miles inland, in a remote part of the jungle. Search parties took over a day to find the wreck. On April 20th they found the wrecked aircraft, there were no survivors. According to eyewitness testimony, Yamamoto was found sitting upright, still strapped to his seat, with one white gloved hand resting upon his katana. Yamamoto's watch had stopped at 0745hrs. A bullet had entered his lower jaw and went out from his temple; another pierced his shoulder blade. Yamamoto's body was wrapped in banyan leaves and carried down a trail to the mouth of the Wamai River, where it was taken to Buin by sea. His body would be cremated alongside the 11 other men aboard that Betty,  in a pit filled with brushwood and gasoline and his ashes were flown back to Truk and deposited on a Buddhist altar in the Musashi's war operations room.  New's of Yamamoto's death was at first restricted to a small circle of ranking officers, and passageways around the operations room and the commander in chiefs cabin were placed off limits. But the truth eventually leaked out to the crew of Musashi. Admiral Ugaki was seen in bandages holding a white box containing Yamamoto's ashes as he came aboard and the smell of incense wafted from his cabin. Admiral Mineichi Koga was named the new commander in chief. For over a month the news was kept under wraps. On May 22nd, Yamamoto's death was heard on the NHK news. The announcer broke into tears as he read the announcement. A special train carried the slain admiral's ashes from Yokosuka to Tokyo. An imperial party, including members of the royal household and family greeted its arrival at Ueno Station. As diarist Kiyoshi Kiyosawa noted “There is widespread sentiment of dark foreboding about the future course of the war”. Admiral Yamamoto was awarded posthumously the Grand Order of the Chrysanthemum, first class and the rank of Fleet admiral. His funeral was held on June 5th, the first anniversary of the battle of Midway, which also coincided with the funeral of the legendary Admiral Togo Heihachiro, 9 years previously. It was held in Hibiya park with hundreds of thousands coming to pay their respects. Pallbearers were selected from among the petty officers of the Musashi, carrying his casket draped in white cloth past the Diet and Imperial Palace. The Navy band played Chopin's funeral march as the casket was driven to Tama Cemetery where it was placed in a grave alongside that of Admiral Togo. Some sought to make a Yamamoto shrine, but his close friend Admiral Mitsumasa Yonai said “Yamamoto hated that kind of thing. If you deified him, he'd be more embarrassed than anybody else”.  The new commander in chief of the combined fleet, Admiral Koga Mineichi would later say “There was only one Yamamoto and no one is able to replace him. His loss is an unsupportable blow to us.”  I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. Operation Vengeance was a success, leading to the death of the legendary, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto. Would his death help or worsen the allied war effort? For that question to be answered only time could tell.

Palau and the Marshall Islands have signed memorandums of understanding earlier this month for their third Compacts of Free Association, leaving only the Federated States of Micronesia to sign.

Transitions are a time of change-especially in government. For the four US Pacific jurisdictions, these times will shape the political and social landscape for in American Samoa, Guam, the CNMI and Hawaii. What can these unique American communities expect in the transition process? Take a listen.  

It's possibly the oldest question about Mormons and their faith, and we tread fearlessly into the abyss to find the answer once and for all! ALSO: SAVE THE DATE for our Movie Night! We're showing Lauren the 1989 version of Saturday's Warrior! Saturday December 3rd, 6pm US Pacific! Follow us @DrunkMormonPod Visit our HOLIDAY SALE at our Merch Store! And find us on Patreon!

RNZ Pacific journalist Koroi Hawkins discusses the first in-person meeting for the Pacific Islands News Association since the start of the pandemic held last week; the US-Pacific partnership agreement signed this week and fears the Fijian language is at risk.

China loomed large over a US-Pacific Island Summit in Washington last week. Kathryn discusses the latest with Anna Powles, senior lecturer at Massey University's Centre for Defence and Security Studies.

There's a call for more analysis to determine the actual benefits to the region of the US Pacific partnership agreement; We speak with a linguist in Fiji who is concerned about a deterioation in the vocabulary of the widely spoken itaukei language; We look at a recent study on mental health and wellbeing impacts for Maori and Pasifika.

There's a call for more analysis to determine the actual benefits to the region of the US Pacific partnership agreement.

The US announced a historic US$810 million-aid package for 14 Pacific nations after a two-day conference in Washington. Post China desk reporter Kawala Xie reports on the reaction from China watchers and analysts, and recaps Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi's bid to get nations on board a similar deal in early 2022. Brian YS Wong, founding editor-in-chief of the Oxford Political Review and Rhodes scholar from Hong Kong, discusses reports that US businesses are making exit plans from China if…

An important summit has begun with Pacific leaders in the United States. The White House is looking to counter China's growing influence in the region. The talks are focussing on climate change as well as other pressing issues for the Indo-Pacific region, including the coronavirus pandemic, economic recovery, and maritime security

DIA's Challenges to Security in Space 2022 report findings John Huth, defense intelligence officer for space and counterspace at the Defense Intelligence Agency, details some of the main findings of a report about threats to U.S. space capabilities from Russia, China and other adversaries   Operationalizing US-Pacific partnerships Keoki Jackson, senior vice president and general manager for MITRE National Security, discusses the need for the U.S. to reinvigorate alliances with Pacific nations and use whole-of-nation thinking to counter China   Developing direct air capture technology Pamela Chu, researcher at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, describes NIST's efforts to improve direct air capture technologies to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere

Why self-determination for Guam is better strategy than persisting as an American colony. Why oligarchic concentrations of wealth in the US and China need ethnonationalism...and why that's dangerous. The Atlantic Council scandal. Are we in a new Taiwan Strait crisis? Clarifying the #NotAMarxist thing. And what Brazilian jiu jitsu can and can't do for international relations. Contributors: Hunter Marston, Celia McDowall, Gaby MagnusonLev Nachman Tweet: https://twitter.com/lnachman32/status/1553480322695811073Daniel Denvir Tweet: https://twitter.com/DanielDenvir/status/1554511916487397377Sayaca Chatani Tweet: https://twitter.com/SayakaChatani/status/1545346494601244673?t=naUanTNn1Lp1UEwZhhARPw&s=19Christian Davies Tweet: https://twitter.com/crsdavies/status/1541596433299546113?s=20&t=QV_Wff9yeisoIF0jvU2ZvQNikhil Pal Singh article: https://www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2022/06/america-new-civil-war-crisis-industrial-complexGuam Decolonization Report: https://decol.guam.gov/wp-decol-content/uploads/2021/12/Decolonization-Newspaper-Insert-DIGITAL.pdf

In this episode of “Through the Human Geography Lens”, hosts Gwyneth Holt and Eric Rasmussen sit down with Curt Storlazzi, a research geologist and oceanographer with the US Geological Survey's Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, who's also a researcher with the UC-Santa Cruz Institute for Marine Sciences. 01:20 Focus of past and current research on coral reefs and the impact of wave circulation. https://www.chasingcoral.com/ 02:15 Island infrastructure vulnerability to sea level rise. 03:10 The threat of more frequent “overwash events” from sea level rise. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aap9741 05:10 Geographic specificity for island research – especially within US Pacific territories. 06:35 “Boundaries” research with the Pacific Community (Suva, Fiji) Pacific Community: https://spc.int/ Vulnerable Basepoints Project, now https://gem.spc.int/projects/resilient-boundaries Geoscience Australia: https://www.ga.gov.au/ 07:15 Every sandy bump a meter above the waves can define an Exclusive Economic Zones – 200 miles of fishing, mining. https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/facts/useez.html 09:25 How is data being collected in these remote locations? Discussion of tiered trust in source datasets, and triaging islands of concern. 12:20 LIDAR on land and bathymetry in water – accurate and rigorous gold standards, but expensive. Now looking at SfM and satellite colorimetric pseudo-bathymetry. Visual SfM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ceiOd8Yx3g Storlazzi Pseudo-bathymetry paper: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/303697607_Benthic_Habitat_Map_of_US_Coral_Reef_Task_Force_Faga%27alu_Bay_Priority_Study_Area_Tutuila_American_Samoa Pseudo-bathymetry for the enthusiast: https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/10/6/859/htm 14:50 Calibration / Validation efforts with Office of Naval Research 15:50 NASA's Structure from Motion Mars Rover research adapted for earth observation. EROS Earth Observing Group: https://www.usgs.gov/centers/eros 17:05 ICESAT 2 satellite laser altimeter. Global calibration/validation support. https://icesat-2.gsfc.nasa.gov/ https://icesat-2.gsfc.nasa.gov/space-lasers 17:55 Is any data available to the public? Are the models available? American Samoa Bathymetry above LIDAR downloads: https://gisgeography.com/top-6-free-lidar-data-sources/ 20:45 Human security concerns becoming visible from his research 21:30 Island limitations – stranded populations, climate refugees, and all adaptation is expensive. Diasporas require thought. 22:30 Floating Cities being tested in Busan, Korea and the Maldives. https://oceanixcity.com/busan/ https://maldivesfloatingcity.com/ 22:55 Low-lying atoll coral reefs losing the capacity to buffer vulnerable islands. Disclaimer: Opinions expressed on this podcast do not necessarily reflect the views of the WWHGD sponsors and should not be construed as an endorsement. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/wwhgd-support/message

Photo: #PRC:  NATO vs the PLA. @GordonGChang, Gatestone, Newsweek, The Hill James Fanell, government fellow at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy and retired U.S. Navy captain who served as director of Intelligence and Information Operations of the U.S. Pacific Fleet. https://www.reuters.com/world/china/systemic-challenge-or-worse-nato-members-wrangle-over-how-treat-china-2022-06-27/

As the cost of living rises in Fiji, more families are turning to desperate measures to make ends meet. Meanwhile abortion access is tipped to get harder in US Pacific territories after the Supreme Court overturns Roe vs Wade.

Dr. Stephen Bryen is a leading expert in security strategy and technology. He has held senior positions in the Department of Defense, on Capitol Hill and as the President of a large multinational defense and technology company. Currently, Dr. Bryen is a Senior Fellow at the American Center for Democracy, the Center for Security Policy. He has served as a senior staff director of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as the Executive Director of a grassroots political organization, as the head of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, as the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Trade Security Policy, and as the founder and first director of the Defense Technology Security Administration. He is the author of Technology Security and National Power: Winners and Losers, and of three volumes of Essays in Technology, Security and Strategy. Dr. Bryen was twice awarded the Defense Department's highest civilian honor, the Distinguished Service Medal. He previously spoke at Westminster on the subject of: “Russia and Ukraine: What's Next?“ About the study A Center for Security Policy specially organized Panel of Experts, all of whom have extensive experience in the Pacific and with the US Pacific command, believe the US can deter China from attacking Taiwan. The Panel's work resulted in 34 Findings and Recommendations in the study Stopping a Taiwan Invasion. The proposals, if adopted, will discourage any attack from China and strengthen peace and security in the Pacific. The Panel undertook the task of reviewing Pacific security in light of the constant threats to Taiwan coming from Beijing, the massing of air and naval power around the island, and “think tank” reports, now debunked by the Panel, that the US was weak and unable to maintain the balance of power around Taiwan, Japan, Korea and elsewhere in the Pacific. The Findings and Recommendation are supported by a paper reviewing the disposition of US, allied and friendly forces in the region including US Air Force, US Navy, US Marines and US Army components.

After 20 months of Covid, and looking back on the mediocre workplaces that we've all experienced, what does the future hold? The balance of power certainly seems to have changed, and people feel empowered to make choices about where they work on any given day. Many are opting to work more of the week from home than in the office. This is causing some consternation in organisations. There is anxiety about the loss of culture, socialisation, collaboration and innovation through not having people in the office enough of the time. Whether any of these things are actually true, there is no doubt that the option to go into the office some of the time, to see and interact with colleagues is an important part of most people's world of work.How then can we draw people back to the office? Can we make it “better than home” for the right types of activities? How do we create a sense of purpose that people can connect to? How can we show people that we value them? Can we make the workplace hackable, so people can customise it to their needs? And can we make a significant contribution to climate change, by reducing the amount of space we occupy and therefore the amount we continue to heat, light and resource.All of this and more (including bathrooms!) in this episode.  AWA Host: Karen PlumFeatured guests: Lisa Whited, Senior Associate, AWAClark Elliott, Senior Associate, AWAChris Hood, ex-Director of Consulting, AWAGervais Tompkin, Founder of Plus Gervais LLC   AWA Guest details: https://www.advanced-workplace.com/awa/about-awa/the-team/  Further material referred to by Lisa:The Headline exerciseTED Talk: How to start a movement If you would like to attend the AWI webinar - "Working abroad - dispelling the tax myths" on 12 January 2022 (4pm UK, 11am US Eastern, 8am US Pacific) , please use this link to register: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_tMG3gRQhRuG1XjPClvFZDg  CONTACTS & WEBSITE details:AWA contact: Andrew Mawson amawson@advanced-workplace.com  Advanced Workplace Associates: https://www.advanced-workplace.com/      AWI contact:  Brad Taylor btaylor@advanced-workplace.com    Music: courtesy of bensounds.com  Want to know more about AWA? Follow us on LinkedIn Visit our website Thanks for listening to the DNA of work podcast

7th December 2021 marks the 80th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor that brought the United States of America into the Second World War. On the morning of 7th December 1941, just before 8am the Japanese launched their attack on the US naval base of Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii. The Japanese planned the attack as a first strike to cripple the US fleet in the Pacific and prevent America from intervening in other Japanese Pacific Operations. From six Imperial Japanese Aircraft carriers, over 350 planes flew in two waves attacked the American base. Eight US Navy battleships would be damaged, four sunk, along with other cruisers and destroyers. Crucially, one element of the US Pacific fleet escaped the preemptive strike. The American Aircraft Carriers were all absent from Pearl Harbor on the day of the attack. Roosevelt would proclaim the 7th December 1941 as a ‘date that would live in infamy'. Joining me to discuss the attack on Pearl Harbor is Mark Stille. Mark is a naval historian who is prolific in his studies on the naval war in the Pacific. He has written Tora! Tora! Tora!: Pearl Harbor 1941 for Osprey and has two new books out looking at the whole of the US Naval Campaign in the Pacific The United States Navy in WWII: From Pearl Harbor to Okinawa and Pacific Carrier War: Carrier Combat from Pearl Harbor to Okinawa. Patreon: patreon.com/ww2podcast

Tourism is an important source of income for the small US Pacific island of Guam, and the pandemic has made visiting foreign lands difficult. Guam, however, has come up with a special idea: The island invites you to take a “vaccination vacation”. This is particularly popular with Taiwanese. - Für die kleine US-amerikanische Pazifikinsel Guam ist der Tourismus eine wichtige Einnahmequelle. Da die Pandemie den Besuch für ausländische Urlauber schwierig gemacht hat, hat sich Guam nun eine besondere Idee einfallen lassen: Die Insel lädt zum „Impfurlaub“ ein. Vor allem bei Taiwanesen kommt dies gut an.

On the morning of December 8th, 1941, the vaunted US Pacific fleet lay deep in the mud at the bottom of Pearl Harbor. Americans were stunned, but this was just the beginning, as the Japanese rampaged throughout the Pacific, seemingly unstoppable. The six aircraft carriers used on the attack at Pearl Harbor had been training for years, and their pilots were the best in the world flying bible Zero's that flew circles around the lumbering US fighters, knocking them down in droves. America needed a victory — any victory, but ideally a bombing raid on the Japanese capital of Tokyo. But Tokyo was well out of range of Army Bombers, and the short range of Navy planes meant risking America's few precious remaining aircraft carriers. But Franklin Roosevelt wanted to hit Japan, and so the project was handed over to the great celebrity aviator of the day, a 5'4” human dynamo named James Doolittle. Jimmy Doolittle had a history of effortlessly winning every air race he appeared in, and prior to the outbreak of the war he had been the first man to take off, fly, and land exclusive on instruments… instruments he had helped design. There was no better combination of brains, skill and courage in the world, and when he called for volunteers he was absolutely inundated, despite being able to tell the men anything about the mission other than that it would be exceedingly dangerous. After a great many modifications and a great deal of training, Doolittle did what everyone had assumed was impossible: he put huge Army bombers onto an aircraft carrier, and sailed them across the Pacific in the worst weather anyone had ever seen. The plan was to bomb Japan and then land in China, behind the Japanese troops that had been fighting and massacring the Chinese for four years before the attack on Pearl Harbor. When the raid was detected by Japanese ships they were still hundreds of miles short of their launch points, meaning that while they could still hit Japan, none of the aircraft would have the range to make it to safety. Doolittle's crew of five Americans, and 15 other aircraft, lurched off the deck and staggerer into the air. The raid would prove so embarrassing to the Japanese Navy that they rushed into their crushing defeat at Midway, and the hardships endured by the volunteers on the Doolittle Raid beggars the imagination. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On the morning of December 8th, 1941, the vaunted US Pacific fleet lay deep in the mud at the bottom of Pearl Harbor. Americans were stunned, but this was just the beginning, as the Japanese rampaged throughout the Pacific, seemingly unstoppable. The six aircraft carriers used on the attack at Pearl Harbor had been training for years, and their pilots were the best in the world flying bible Zero's that flew circles around the lumbering US fighters, knocking them down in droves. America needed a victory — any victory, but ideally a bombing raid on the Japanese capital of Tokyo. But Tokyo was well out of range of Army Bombers, and the short range of Navy planes meant risking America's few precious remaining aircraft carriers. But Franklin Roosevelt wanted to hit Japan, and so the project was handed over to the great celebrity aviator of the day, a 5'4” human dynamo named James Doolittle. Jimmy Doolittle had a history of effortlessly winning every air race he appeared in, and prior to the outbreak of the war he had been the first man to take off, fly, and land exclusive on instruments… instruments he had helped design. There was no better combination of brains, skill and courage in the world, and when he called for volunteers he was absolutely inundated, despite being able to tell the men anything about the mission other than that it would be exceedingly dangerous. After a great many modifications and a great deal of training, Doolittle did what everyone had assumed was impossible: he put huge Army bombers onto an aircraft carrier, and sailed them across the Pacific in the worst weather anyone had ever seen. The plan was to bomb Japan and then land in China, behind the Japanese troops that had been fighting and massacring the Chinese for four years before the attack on Pearl Harbor. When the raid was detected by Japanese ships they were still hundreds of miles short of their launch points, meaning that while they could still hit Japan, none of the aircraft would have the range to make it to safety. Doolittle's crew of five Americans, and 15 other aircraft, lurched off the deck and staggerer into the air. The raid would prove so embarrassing to the Japanese Navy that they rushed into their crushing defeat at Midway, and the hardships endured by the volunteers on the Doolittle Raid beggars the imagination. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Canada has recorded its highest-ever temperature as the country's west and the US Pacific north-west endure an unprecedented heat wave. A "heat dome" of high pressure parked over British Columbia broke an 84-year-old record in the village of Lytton, where temperatures soared to 46.6 degrees celsius on Sunday. The states of Washington and Oregon are also sweltering, among others in the US. Canada correspondent Laura McQuillan spoke to Susie Ferguson.

Canada has recorded its highest-ever temperature as the country's west and the US Pacific north-west endure an unprecedented heat wave. A "heat dome" of high pressure parked over British Columbia broke an 84-year-old record in the village of Lytton, where temperatures soared to 46.6 degrees celsius on Sunday. The states of Washington and Oregon are also sweltering, among others in the US. Canada correspondent Laura McQuillan spoke to Susie Ferguson.

Calls grow to evacuate Afghans to Guam as US troops leave, and New Zealand beat India in World Test final *) US urged to evacuate Afghan allies to Guam as troops leave With US and NATO forces facing a September 11 deadline to leave Afghanistan, pressure is mounting to evacuate thousands of Afghans who have helped US forces. Despite unusual bipartisan support in Congress, the Biden administration hasn't agreed to such a move. Some have suggested Guam, the US Pacific island territory that served a similar purpose after the Vietnam War. *) Air strike in Ethiopia's Tigray kills dozens of people An airstrike hit a busy market in Ethiopia's northern Tigray village of Togoga, killing at least 51 people, health workers have reported. Health workers added that soldiers blocked medical teams from travelling to the scene. The alleged airstrike comes amid some of the fiercest fighting in the Tigray region since the conflict began in November. *) Libya elections, removal of foreign forces agreed in Berlin talks The second Libya conference has ended in Berlin with a final declaration stressing the need for holding elections on December 24 and withdrawal of all foreign forces and mercenaries. The participants reaffirmed their commitments first made at the Berlin conference in January 2020. Helped by the United Nations, Libya has over the past year made swift progress in addressing a decade of chaos and violence *) Apple Daily goes to final print after arrests, asset freeze Hong Kong's most vocally critical newspaper Apple Daily has said it is printing its last edition after a stormy year. This comes after it was raided by police who froze their assets and its tycoon owner and other staff were arrested under a new national security law. Its founder Jimmy Lai is facing charges under the new law for foreign collusion and is currently serving a prison sentence for his involvement in 2019 protests. And finally ... *) New Zealand trounce India to win inaugural World Test Championship New Zealand have defeated India by eight wickets to win the inaugural World Test Championship final at Southampton. Set a modest target of 139 in 53 overs, New Zealand finished on 140-2 with time to spare in a match extended into a reserve sixth day. "It's a very special feeling," said New Zealand captain Kane Williamson at the presentation ceremony.

US Pacific states and territories leading vaccination roll-out; Pasifika nous to be tapped for NZ vaccination rollout;Pressure building in New Caledonia as nickel crisis continues AND New research looks at climate change impacts on Pacific urbanisation.

Some Pacific countries and territories are leading the United States on Covid-19 vaccination statistics.

For this episode of War News Radio, we’re taking a closer look at two of the Pacific territories, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, whose historical relationships to the United States are defined by conflict and colonialism. This has drastically disrupted the lives of the native Chamorro people who have inhabited Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the rest of the Mariana Islands archipelago for the past 4-5,000 years. There are cultural and historical differences between Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, which led to Guam rejecting reunification with the Northern Mariana Islands in 1960. But both territories still face many of the same challenges today. The U.S. acquired Guam from the Spanish in 1899 after winning the Spanish-American War. The Northern Mariana Islands has a more complicated colonial history, and was passed more or less from the Spanish Empire to Germany, then Japan, then the United Nations, and was officially established as a commonwealth in political union with the United States in 1986. Although the pasts of the two territories differ, the relationship between the U.S. and both territories has been historically characterized by intense militarization, a trend that continues to this day. But increasing calls for decolonization and self-determination could be changing this dynamic. In order to understand this shift happening in the pacific territories, we talked to residents of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands about colonial history, militarism, political representation, and more. This episode of War News Radio was written and produced by Lucas Meyer-Lee, Anya Slepyan, Max Winig, and Sophia Becker.

Sometimes we just need to stop, take a deep breath and allow ourselves to be filled with Mercy. In today’s Prayer & Healing Circle, we empty our cups and expand our capacity to receive, and fill the cup with the healing power of the love of the Divine. Join us in this healing meditation. You're welcome to join us live on Sundays at 10am US Eastern / 7am US Pacific time. http://CommunityforConsciousLiving.com http://JoyfullyLivingWellness.com/the-community-calls

Abrimos con algunos de los últimos proyectos de la polifacética artista radicada en el Pacífico estadounidense Amy Denio, para continuar por el Mediterráneo oriental, con sugerencias sonoras que van desde el reposo a la exaltación sonora, para después encaminarnos por los sonidos más plácidos de la tradición drupad de la India, terminando con el anuncio de la inminente edición telemática y global del festival de 24 horas Ragas Live. We open with some of the latest projects of the multifaceted artist based in the US Pacific, Amy Denio, to continue on to the eastern Mediterranean, with sound suggestions ranging from calm to powerful sounds, and then move on to the more placid airs of the Indian dhrupad tradition, ending with the announcement of the imminent online and global edition of the 24-hour Ragas Live Festival. · Tiptons Sax Quartet – Root dance – Wabi sabi · Amy Denio – Trieste – Corona series · James Basdanis – DiddyCoy – DiddyCoy · Balothizer – Foustalieris – Cretan smash · Murat Kagan Ergun – Çocuk – Çocuk (single) · Sumeet Anand Pandey – Raga Ahir Bhairav: Shyam sundar ko pratah samay – Morning meditation: Darbhanga dhrupad tradition · Brooklyn Raga Massive – Bageshri – In D Imagen / Image: Amy Denio (Tiptons Sax Quartet)

The US Pacific and Mountain regions experienced a slate of outside factors affecting storage volumes during the 2020 injection season. The onset of the coronavirus pandemic in March prompted natural gas demand to drop by as much as 15% during the spring in parts of the Pacific Northwest. The subsequent oil and gas price collapse led producers in surrounding basins to curb production as pipeline maintenance that decreased imports from Canada also limited inflows. Brutal heat and raging wildfires also played a role in seasonal demand as the region faces a possible bullish outlook this heating season.

[EP#8] What do Pacific Islanders think about family? The ladies take the lead on this episode. Two Pasifika women speak on family, followed by a clip reel of past contributors speaking on family from other episodes. Kalani finishes off the episode by summarizing a peer-reviewed article on settler colonialism in the US Pacific. You will hear from: Symone, a Chamoru artist ginen Guåhan Tēatuahere, a diasporic Tahitian poet living in Hawai’i Citations: Aaron John Spitzer (2019) ‘A wolf in sheep’s clothing’: settler voting rights and the elimination of the Indigenous demos in US Pacific territories, Postcolonial Studies, 22:2, 131-149, DOI: 10.1080/13688790.2019.1591569 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/13688790.2019.1591569 Links to Resources: Will Nu’utupu Giles website: www.willgilespoetry.com Symone’s Art Instagram: www.instagram.com/betdegal Tēatuahere’s Poetry Blog: https://teatuaherespoetry.tumblr.com Rhonda’s New Song: https://youtu.be/YrYvHH4J2yE Lisiatē’s Twitter: www.twitter.com/Manhellnaaah Support Deep Pacific Podcast by donating to their Tip Jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/deeppacific Find out more at http://deeppacific.org This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

https://www.lightingthevoid.comLive Mon-Fri 9 pm PacificAage Nost was born on a farm in Norway, in Northern Europe and as a teenager, he had learned Hypnosis from a magician in Europe. By the age of 25 he had learned several languages, studied science including Metaphysics and different forms and theories of Spirituality. At the age of 25 he left Norway to go to the USA to go to flight school and after a career in flight and piloting he started to work on other areas of interest including Paranormal research, hypnosis, oil painting, teaching hypnosis and mind development.Between then and now he has authored numerous books, newsletters, and blogs educating people on subjects such as metaphysics, mental training and abilities, Spiritual science, The Paranormal, ufology, and personal sovereignty. He has also had a long career as a broadcaster and radio host, is doing a radio show called: “The Universal Consciousness Show”, which can be listened to live at 11:00 on Mondays, US Pacific time at: www.lnmradionetwork.com Music By Chronox at https://www.chronoxofficial.comGuitar By Bundy

Sponsored by DigitalOcean: pythonbytes.fm/digitalocean Brian #1: Type Hints for Busy Python Programmers Al Sweigart, @AlSweigart We’ve (Michael and myself, of course) convinced you that type hints might be a good thing to help reduce bugs or confusion or whatever. Now what? Al’s got your back with this no nonsense guide to get you going very quickly. Written as a conversation between a programmer and an type hint expert. Super short. Super helpful. typing and mypy are the modules you need. There are other tools, but let’s start there. Doesn’t affect run time, so you gotta run the tool. Gradually add, don’t have to do everything in one go. Covers the basics And then the “just after basics” stuff you’ll run into right away when you start, like: Allowing a type and None: Union[int, NoneType] Optional parameters Shout out to Callable, Sequence, Mapping, Iterable, available in the documentation when you are ready for them later Just really a great get started today guide. Michael #2: auto-py-to-exe A .py to .exe converter using a simple graphical interface built using Eel and PyInstaller in Python. Using the Application Select your script location (paste in or use a file explorer) Outline will become blue when file exists Select other options and add things like an icon or other files Click the big blue button at the bottom to convert Find your converted files in /output when complete Short 3 min video. Brian #3: How to document Python code with Sphinx Moshe Zadka, @moshezadka I’m intimidated by sphinx. Not sure why. But what I’ve really just wanted to do is to use it for this use of generating documentation of code based on the code and the docstrings. Many of the tutorials I’ve looked at before got me stuck somewhere along the way and I’ve given up. But this looks promising. Example module with docstring shown. Simple docs/index.rst, no previous knowledge of restructured text necessary. Specifically what extensions do I need: autodoc, napolean, and viewcode example docs/conf.py that’s really short setting up tox to generate the docs and the magic command like incantation necessary: sphinx-build -W -b html -d {envtmpdir}/doctrees . {envtmpdir}/html That’s it. (well, you may want to host the output somewhere, but I can figure that out. ) Super simple. Awesome Michael #4: Snek is a cross-platform PowerShell module for integrating with Python via Chad Miars Snek is a cross-platform PowerShell module for integrating with Python. It uses the Python for .NET library to load the Python runtime directly into PowerShell. Using the dynamic language runtime, it can then invoke Python scripts and modules and return the result directly to PowerShell as managed .NET objects. Kind of funky syntax, but that’s PowerShell for you ;) Even allows for external packages installed via pip Brian #5:How to use Pandas to access databases Irina Truong, @irinatruong You can use pandas and sqlalchemy to easily slurp tables right out of your db into memory. But don’t. pandas isn’t lazy and reads everything, even the stuff you don’t need. This article has tips on how to do it right. Recommendation to use the CLI for exploring, then shift to pandas and sqlalchemy. Tips (with examples, not shown here): limit the fields to just those you care about limit the number of records with limit or by selecting only rows where a particular field is a specific value, or something. Let the database do joins, even though you can do it in pandas Estimate memory usage with small queries and .memory_usage().sum(). Tips on reading chunks and converting small int types into small pandas types instead of 64 bit types. Michael #6: ijson — Iterative JSON parser with a standard Python iterator interface Iterative JSON parser with a standard Python iterator interface Most common usage is having ijson yield native Python objects out of a JSON stream located under a prefix. Here’s how to process all European cities: // from: { "earth": { "europe": [ ... ] } } stream each entry in europe as item: objects = ijson.items(f, 'earth.europe.item') cities = (o for o in objects if o['type'] == 'city') for city in cities: do_something_with(city) Extras: Michael: Python decision makers webcast on January 14th, 9:30am US Pacific Guido steps down from Steering Council via Vincent POULAILLEAU GitHub Archive Program, Preserving open source software for future generations, video Python 2.7 will be removed from Homebrew, via Allan Hansen Django 3.0 released Joke: Question: "What is the best prefix for global variables?" Answer: # via shinjitsu A web developer walks into a restaurant. He immediately leaves in disgust as the restaurant was laid out in tables. via shinjitsu

In 2018, there were 27 reported shark incidences that resulted in a shark bite in the US Atlantic Ocean and only 4 in the US Pacific Ocean (3 in Hawaii). Why is there such a difference in shark bites between the two Oceans? Take a listen to find out.  Do you worry about shark bites when you go in the water? Share your thought in the Speak Up For Blue Facebook Group: http://www.speakuoforblue.com/group. Want to be more eco-friendly? Buy certified eco-friendly products from our affiliate partner the Grove Collaborative: http://www.speakupforblue.com/goocean. Check out the new Speak Up For The Ocean Blue Podcast App: http://www.speakupforblue.com/app. Speak Up For Blue Instagram Speak Up For Blue Twitter

Back with us is Flint Whitlock as we discuss his book Depths of Courage:American Submariners at War with Japan, 1941-1945. With America's surface fleet and air arm crippled after Pearl Harbor, the few subs in the Pacific were tasked with keeping the Japanese Navy at bay. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There are just hours left to grab this year’s 5DayDeal — it contains $2,500 of training, plug-ins, and resources for just $89.

Join us for this week’s brand new episode of Type1Radio Lounge. Psonik is back in the captain’s chair, helming the ship as we continue our journey in search of new frontiers on our path to that elusive Type 1 civilisation. Joining Psonik the crew of the ship tonight are Steve, Phi, Swami and Miles.We also hope to have one or more special guests popping in from the Alternate Current Radio/21st Century Wire Summit in Austin, TX, ahead of a special live broadcast of Boiler Room later tonight (12 midnight UK time / 7pm US Eastern / 6pm US Central / 4pm US Pacific) on alternatecurrentradio.com.

Join us for this week’s brand new episode of Type1Radio Lounge. Psonik is back in the captain’s chair, helming the ship as we continue our journey in search of new frontiers on our path to that elusive Type 1 civilisation. Joining Psonik the crew of the ship tonight are Steve, Phi, Swami and Miles.We also hope to have one or more special guests popping in from the Alternate Current Radio/21st Century Wire Summit in Austin, TX, ahead of a special live broadcast of Boiler Room later tonight (12 midnight UK time / 7pm US Eastern / 6pm US Central / 4pm US Pacific) on alternatecurrentradio.com.

This week is pretty special. I got to see a few of my good friends for the weekend, and, currently, my family and I are at Disneyland, the happiest place on earth. It’s a good thing, too. I consumed so much alcohol Friday night and Saturday that I remember very little of the Saints performance against LFC. And, what little I do remember is being replaced by memories of my kids screaming with excitement at the sight of princesses, wild rides, or spinning teacups. I also know that this episode is pretty special.   This weekend I spoke with Millie Peak, #1 for the Southampton Women’s Football Club. Millie and I spoke on Friday evening (pre-alcohol) about her career, being a goalkeeper, the team’s recent form and more. It was a pleasure to get to pick her brain about the game and get her thoughts on it all. I think you’ll enjoy it.   Millie is sponsored by Dosanjh Convenience Stores (link), but the club is always looking for new sponsors, as they players and coaches often have to pay their own way to the matches, for training, etc. If you are interested in sponsoring a player, coach, or advertising, you can visit the contact page on the website, or email the club secretary (email below).   A special thank you to the Southampton Women’s Football Club, Lee Calendar, and Millie for making this happen. It’s a pleasure to be able to work with such a fantastic organization. Millie Peak on Twitter @peakmillie1- https://twitter.com/peakemillie1 Southampton Women’s FC- on Twitter at @sotonwomensfc Website- https://www.southamptonwfc.co.uk/ Club secretary, Amanda Burroughs- secretary@southamptonwfc.co.uk Schedule- https://www.southamptonwfc.co.uk/firsts-fixtures-results **A video with just Millie’s interview will be put up on YouTube by Wednesday night, US Pacific time. A link will be Tweeted several times.   There are two new ways to enjoy the show. You can now listen to the most recent episodes on Soundcloud and YouTube, and you can still subscribe wherever you get your podcasts by searching “Dellivery” in your app- just make sure autocorrect doesn’t change it to delivery- and then look for the same image that is used on the Facebook page and Twitter Account. If you have questions or comments about the show, I'd love to hear them, please contact me via Twitter or email. If you have a guest you'd like me to try and get ahold of please let me know and I'll do my best. The artwork for the show is done by Matt Beling of the wearesouthampton page on Instagram. Be sure to check out the great edits, competitions, and polls he has going on over there. On this episode you heard a riff from BB King, I didn't create or recreate it, I just thought it was a good fit for the show. Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss out on future episodes and give the show a rating on iTunes! iTunes, Acast, Stitcher, Google Play, Tunein, Soundcloud, YouTube All feedback can be sent to @SFCDell_ivery on Twitter or facebook.com/SFCDellivery and questions can be submitted using the hashtag #sfcdell. You can also email the show at southamptondellivery@gmail.com.   Until next time, cheers. -Matt

This week I am joined by TWO, yes TWO guests. The first is Chris Hughes, site expert at Saints Marching. He is a Saint loving journalist who brings passion and professionalism to his job and the team. I enjoyed chatting with him and, at least partly because the Stoke match was what it was, we don’t really go play-by through the game, but we cover it all and I think you’ll enjoy it. Links to Chris’ personal Twitter account, the Saints Marching account, and the Saints Marching website are all below. I encourage you to check them out when you have a chance (or now, now is also good). *Note- I recorded this interview on Sunday morning, as signs of illness were becoming apparent. I was drinking a large amount of tea during the interview to try and keep my voice from cracking, but it’s fairly obvious I was sick… I apologize for that. Also,I’m more sick today.   My second guest this week is Kirsty Bell. We’re talking with her because she is the Captain of the Southampton Women’s Football Club, but she’s really so much more than that. Kirsty was kind enough to give me some of her time to talk about her career and life, as well as the double-winning season of last year at the SWFC. After recording she and the rest of SWFC squad went on to beat their Southampton rivals (Southampton Girls and Ladies) by a score of 3-1, with Kirsty scoring 2 goals after coming on as a substitute. We wish her and the rest of the squad continued success and look forward to speaking with other members of the team in the months to come. Links for the team and Kirsty are below. They are worth checking out and I encourage anyone in the area to check out a match if you are around on a Sunday afternoon. The ladies truly appreciate your support. Also, if you are interested in sponsoring a player or coach, or purchasing an advertisement to help support the club, please contact the club secretary, Amanda Burroughs at secretary@southamptonwfc.co.uk and let her know. Next match: Sunday, October 8, Away to Winchester City Flyers in the FA Cup 3rd Round.   Chris Hughes- on Twitter at @ChrisHughes1996 Saints Marching- on Twitter at @SaintsMarching_ Website- saintsmarching.com   Kirsty Bell- on Twitter at @kirst1937 Southampton Women’s FC- on Twitter at @sotonwomensfc Website- https://www.southamptonwfc.co.uk/ Club secretary, Amanda Burroughs- secretary@southamptonwfc.co.uk **A video with just Kirsty’s interview will be put up on YouTube by Wednesday night, US Pacific time. A link will be Tweeted several times.   There are two new ways to enjoy the show. You can now listen to the most recent episodes on Soundcloud and YouTube, and you can still subscribe wherever you get your podcasts by searching “Dellivery” in your app- just make sure autocorrect doesn’t change it to delivery- and then look for the same image that is used on the Facebook page and Twitter Account. If you have questions or comments about the show, I'd love to hear them, please contact me via Twitter or email. If you have a guest you'd like me to try and get ahold of please let me know and I'll do my best. The artwork for the show is done by Matt Beling of the wearesouthampton page on Instagram. Be sure to check out the great edits, competitions, and polls he has going on over there. On this episode you heard a riff from BB King, I didn't create or recreate it, I just thought it was a good fit for the show. Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss out on future episodes and give the show a rating on iTunes! iTunes, Acast, Stitcher, Google Play, Tunein, Soundcloud, YouTube All feedback can be sent to @SFCDell_ivery on Twitter or facebook.com/SFCDellivery and questions can be submitted using the hashtag #sfcdell. You can also email the show at southamptondellivery@gmail.com.   Until next time, cheers. Matt

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) can protect ocean habitats from exploitation, especially when we use a proactive approach. Dr. Brian Tissot wants to sea that happen off the US Pacific. So he tells us how we can implement MPAs. Show Notes: http://www.speakupforblue.com/session19

Today the tech community's productivity will take a dive as eyes focus on what happens at the Keynote of Apple's WorldWide Developer Conference (WWDC) happening at 10am US Pacific / 1pm US Eastern. With Apple's maniacal focus on secrecy, they are extremely successful in building anticipation. A few things are believed to be known... but how accurate are the rumors? For the first time I can remember, Apple's WWDC Keynote will be streamed live on Apple TV devices, which should be a change in the coverage. John Gruber also had some great thoughts about how Apple originally needed to get people comfortable with a touchscreen interface, and it's time for something more... http://daringfireball.net/2013/06/wwdc_2013_expectations http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324798904578531661685819892.html http://9to5mac.com/2013/06/09/what-ios7-looks-like/ http://9to5mac.com/2013/06/06/wwdc-2013-roundup-ios-7-os-x-10-9-macbooks-genius-like-radio-app-plus-new-tidbits/

At the end of my digital media public affairs workshop at US Pacific Command, I sat down with US Army Lieutenant Colonel Daniel King, the command's deputy director of public affairs, to discuss the major threats facing the US and its allies in the Pacific and what it means for the strategic public relations management… The post Digital StratComm at US Pacific Command appeared first on Eric Schwartzman.

Welcome to this truly awesome collaboration!Video version of this episode | https://www.patreon.com/posts/01-aage-nost-95852586?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_linkEpisode Transcript | https://www.patreon.com/posts/01-aage-nost-95851113?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_linkThis episode is from my co-host conversation with Daniel Bechmann, creator and host of "Flying Chariots-The Rise" Our special guest Aage Nost is highly qualified for arial observations with his Commercial Pilot License, Instrument Rating, Flight Instructor – Airplane (CFI), Flight Instructor -Instrument(CFII), Multi Engine rating, Multi Engine Instructor – Airplane (CFIM), Multi Engine Instructor – Instrument (CFIIM). He has logged more then 10,000 hours of flight time, both in teaching and transportation, including almost 1,000 hours “upside down” teaching Aerobatics. He acted as an Accident Prevention Counselor for the Federal Aviation Administration(FAA), and gave Bi-Annual flight reviews for re-certification of pilots. After he sold his share of Arrowhead Airways, Inc. to his partner, he started to do other things as starting American Barter, Inc. in Minneapolis, Minnesota, got more into Paranormal research, hypnosis, oil painting, teaching hypnosis and mind development.He created, wrote and published “The Constitutional liberator”, a monthly newsletter covering controversial political issues, the “truth behind the truth”, health issues and “banned” medical cures that works, besides many topics the mainstream media do not dare to touch.He co-wrote a book with author, Patricia Ress of Omaha, Nebraska, titled “Alien Encounters in America's Midwest”. It featured hidden Government documents proving the Government cover-up of the UFO issue, NASA prints of building an structures on our Moon, and personal testimonies from people who have had contacts with Extra Terrestrials.For 6 years he was the Host and Producer of a live TV talk show called “The Hidden Truths”, in Tucson, Arizona. It featured the Paranormal, UFO, controversial political issues, Government cover-ups, mind development, hidden and “banned” medical cures, future science, and other “out of the box” issued not covered by the other media.For 5 years he was the Host of a TV news cast called “Access News”. It featured mostly the “Politically Incorrect News Behind The News”.He wrote the book; “Spiritual Science, Higher Consciousness Thinking And How To Access the Universal Consciousness”, now available on Amazon at: https://www.amazon.com/Spiritual-Conscious-Thinking-Universal-Consciousness/dp/147874863X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1525732397&sr=8-1&keywords=Aage+NostHe wrote the book; “Universal Success Principles and How Billionaires Think”, now available at: www.toolsforfreedom.com/success-principles-and-how-billionaires-think-p/9085.htmHe just put out a Video Documentary under the brand name: Fastwalkers Open Files, Volume six, featuring UFO, Alien presence, Universal Consciousness, The real Power of the Mind, and other things we are not supposed to know about.With a co-host in Germany, Aage is doing a radio show called: “The Universal Consciousness Show”, which can be listened to live at 11:00 on Mondays, US Pacific time, 19:00 Greenwich, 20:00 Norwegian and Central European time, at: www.lnmradionetwork.comHis web site with Blogs and nearly 3800 unbelievable pictures is at:  www.universal-consciousness-show.comJoin Aage Nost and the Radio Group on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/382813575429993/?ref=br_rsAnd the journey goes on – – –Find Daniel Bechmann and his truly amazing work | https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNMH6MXGCNf-7pyvJ5M_EcQFacebook | https://www.facebook.com/groups/6390639794302315?locale=de_DESupport your favorite show by signing up for our Insider community!patreon.com/Expanding_RealityInstagram https://www.instagram.com/expandingreality369/Tik Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@expandingrealityFacebook https://www.facebook.com/expandingrealitypodcastYouTube https://www.youtube.com/@expandingreality369/featuredRokfin https://rokfin.com/expandingrealityBitchute https://www.bitchute.com/channel/SnVZUcOEDVPv/Odysee | https://odysee.com/@ExpandingReality:a?view=contentRumble | https://rumble.com/account/content?type=allOur Sponsors:* Check out Factor 75 and use my code expandingreality50 for a great deal: https://www.factor75.com/Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/expanding-reality/exclusive-contentAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy