All over the world in different countries, cultures, tongues, and colors are people who have the same basic desire for happiness and respect from his fellow men. We are the same all over as members of the human race. If we honor each other's boundaries with propriety and consideration our voyage thru life can be rich in knowledge and friendship..........AMOR PATRIAE
PEOPLE AND PLACES
All over the world in different countries, cultures, tongues, and colors are people who have the same basic desire for happiness and respect from his fellow men. We are the same all over as members of the human race. If we honor each other's boundaries with propriety and consideration our voyage thru life can be rich in knowledge and friendship..........AMOR PATRIAE
Saturday, September 7, 2024
Saturday, August 31, 2024
US SHOULD OCCUPY CUBA TO DEPRIVE AND STOP FROM BECOMING A CHINESE AND RUSSIAN MILITARY BASE LIKE THE CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS OF 1962
It was unclear whether the report might complicate Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken’s rescheduled trip to Beijing for meetings that begin June 18
China Has Had a Spy Base in Cuba for Years, U.S. Official Says
![](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2023/06/10/multimedia/10dc-spybase-wlqk/10dc-spybase-wlqk-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale)
A Chinese spy base or facilities in Cuba that could intercept electronic signals from nearby U.S. military and commercial buildings have been up and running since before 2019, when they were upgraded, according to a Biden administration official.
The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence, said the spy base was an issue that the Biden administration had inherited from former President Donald J. Trump. After Mr. Biden took office, his administration was briefed about the base in Cuba as well as plans China was considering to build similar facilities across the globe, the official said.
The existence of an agreement to build a Chinese spy facility in Cuba, first reported on Thursday by The Wall Street Journal and also reported by The New York Times and other news outlets, prompted a forceful response from Capitol Hill. In a joint statement, Senator Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia and chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and the panel’s top Republican, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, said they were “deeply disturbed by reports that Havana and Beijing are working together to target the United States and our people.”
John Kirby, the National Security Council spokesman, denied the reports at the time, saying they were “not accurate.” He added that “we have had real concerns about China’s relationship with Cuba, and we have been concerned since Day 1 of the administration about China’s activities in our hemisphere and around the world.”
But a U.S. official familiar with the intelligence cited in Thursday’s reports insisted that China and Cuba had struck an accord to enhance existing spy capabilities.
Relations Between China and the U.S.Digital Cold War: The Biden administration is exploring what can be done to address security concerns about the cloud computing divisions of Chinese tech behemoths like Alibaba, potentially widening the scope of the technological tensions between Washington and Beijing.
Blinken’s Trip to China: Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Xi Jinping, China’s leader, as the two governments sought to pull relations out of a deep chill that has raised global concerns about the growing risk of a conflict between them.
Spy Balloon: Intelligence agencies learned that Xi was kept in the dark about a spy balloon that crossed into United States airspace this winter as the incident unfolded, President Biden said in a seemingly unplanned riff at a campaign fund-raiser.
Carlos F. de Cossio, a deputy foreign minister of Cuba, wrote on Twitter on Saturday that the latest reports on spying facilities were “slanderous speculation.”
Some of the Biden administration’s critics in Congress questioned the motives for the administration’s response.
“Why did the Biden administration previously deny these reports of a C.C.P. spy base in Cuba? Why did they downplay the ‘silly’ C.C.P. spy balloon?” Representative Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, the Republican chairman of the House select committee looking into strategic competition with China, said in a statement Saturday, referring to the Chinese Communist Party by its initials.
The Biden administration has been working to counter China’s continued efforts to gain a foothold in the region and elsewhere, an administration official said, chiefly by engaging diplomatically with nations that China was pursuing as potential hosts for such bases. The official added that the administration had slowed China’s plans but declined to give specifics.
While Beijing’s global efforts to build military bases and listening outposts have been documented previously, the reports detailed the extent to which China is bringing its intelligence-gathering operations into ever-closer proximity with the United States. Cuba’s coastline is less than 100 miles from the nearest part of Florida, a close enough distance to enhance China’s technological ability to conduct signals intelligence, by monitoring the electronic communications across the U.S. southeast, which is home to several military bases.
China and the United States routinely spy on one another’s activities, and Cuba proximity has long made it a strategically valuable foothold for U.S. adversaries, perhaps most famously during the Cold War, when the Soviet Union attempted to store nuclear missiles on the island nation during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
A spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Wang Wenbin, said Friday in response to the reports, “The U.S. is the global champion of hacking and superpower of surveillance.”
The reports also surfaced at an awkward moment for the Biden administration, which has been trying to normalize relations with China after a protracted period of heightened tensions. Last year, several diplomatic, military and climate engagements between the two countries were frozen after Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan over objections from Beijing, which considers the self-governing island part of its territory.
High-level meetings, including an official trip by Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, were canceled again earlier this year, after a Chinese spy balloon was seen crossing the United States by people on the ground, and tracked hovering near sensitive military sites.
Mr. Blinken is now scheduled to travel to Beijing for meetings that begin June 18, and it is unclear if revelations of a Chinese spy facility so close to U.S. territory could complicate those plans. Other issues hover over the trip, including growing calls for China to release Yuyu Dong, a prominent journalist who has been detained since February last year and is awaiting trial on charges of espionage that his family members say are false. Mr. Dong, a former Nieman fellow at Harvard, met for years in a transparent manner with American and Japanese diplomats and journalists in Beijing.
![](https://ktul.com/resources/media/c601fc76-a407-4c68-88fb-215f17263f98-medium16x9_AP21193552287047.jpg?1626223654958)
HIT ALL RUSSIAN ASSETS CLOSE TO FLORIDA COAST BEFORE THEY ESTABLISH A PERMANENT CUBAN BASE: THIS IS THE TIME TO DESTROY THE RUSSIAN FLEET WITHOUT AIR PROTECTION. DAMAGE REPAIR SUPPORT DOES NOT EXIST THEREFORE SHIPS IN NEED WILL BE STRANDED. NO MATTER WHAT RUSSIA IS ALREADY PREPARING AN ALL OUT WAR.
Cavoli’s assessment represents a grave warning for future threats Russia may pose to the U.S. and Ukraine’s other western backers. Though analysts have expressed concerns about Russia’s submarine forces in recent weeks, they have largely centered on the recent attention the Kremlin has focused on its Pacific Fleet, which conducted massive drills last week and which Moscow analyzed and claimed last week has “high readiness.” Those maneuvers were seen in part as an acknowledgement of Moscow and Beijing’s increased partnership.
Putin previously raised concerns in the West in January when he dispatched surface warships to the Atlantic Ocean, including those the U.S. believes can fire hypersonic weapons potentially capable of defeating American missile defenses. Russia fields 11 ballistic missile submarines, which analysts previously assessed it deploys largely off its Arctic coasts.
Cavoli’s comments come at a time of growing consensus that Russia has severely harmed several key elements of its military power through President Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine in February 2022 without provocation. A string of high-profile and embarrassing failures since then have exposed endemic issues within the Russian Ministry of Defense, particularly deeply rooted corruption among top commanders, logisticians and those overseeing stockpiles. And confusion and mismanagement on the battlefield has created a veritable meat grinder for Russian ground forces, despite Putin’s decision to continue pressing young men into service and sending them into the fight.
Russia continues to benefit from the sheer size of its forces, as seen in the persistent, grinding combat around cities such as Bakhmut in Ukraine’s east. But analysts have increasingly highlighted the core problems that plague its ground troops.
“Russian forces in Ukraine are operating in decentralized and largely degraded formations throughout the theater, and the current pattern of deployment suggests that most available units are already online and engaged in either offensive or defensive operations,” the independent Institute for the Study of War, which has fastidiously tracked Russian military movements in and around Ukraine, concluded in an analysis note on Sunday.
“It is highly likely that the majority of Russian elements throughout Ukraine are substantially below full strength due to losses taken during previous phases of the war,” the institute stated.
The grave warnings also come as a growing number of Republican lawmakers – and several leading GOP presidential candidates – question the value of U.S. support for Ukraine, saying those resources should instead focus on deterring China.
Rep. Mike Waltz of Florida, a former Green Beret commander, employed this argument on Wednesday, questioning Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs Celeste Wallander, who testified alongside Cavoli, about the need to continue dedicating resources to Ukraine when Russia’s military has been devastated.
“We should not make the mistake of underestimating Russia’s military capabilities,” Wallander warned, “because the stakes of getting it wrong are too high.”
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Friday spoke out for the first time about Russian warships in Cuban waters, criticizing the Biden administration for espousing "weakness" on the global stage.
Footage released by the Russian Defense Ministry on Thursday showed the frigate Admiral Gorshkov and nuclear-powered submarine Kazan sailing into Havana Bay, about 100 miles south of Florida. They were not carrying nuclear weapons but were armed with Zircon hypersonic missiles and Kalibr cruise missiles.
The Cuban Foreign Ministry described the Russian naval presence as a reflection of the country's "historically friendly relations" with Moscow, even greeting the ships with a 21-cannon salute. Moscow has defended its four-ship fleet presence as part of routine military drills conducted with allies.
"I'm the governor of Florida, I'm not the commander-in-chief, but if my responsibilities were different, that would not be something that we would allow to be happening," DeSantis said Friday in Hollywood, Florida, according to footage recorded by Florida's Voice. "I think it's really concerning that under this administration, they've put out a posture of weakness that has invited more aggressive actions from our adversaries."
PT 109 AND JFK
| |
| ![]() | Tulagi, Solomon Islands. PT Boat Officers (L-R) James ("Jim") Reed ... |
Thursday, August 15, 2024
Are we prepared;: Scientist outlines terrifying vision of what would happen if America was hit by a nuclear bomb
ARE WE PREPARED IN A NUCLEAR WAR: VISIONS OF AFTERMATH
RUSSIAN GENERALS WILL KILL PUTIN BEFORE HE USES NUCLEAR WEAPONS
ARE WE PREPARED IN A NUCLEAR WAR: VISIONS OF AFTERMATH
| The terrible fate of Earth after a nuclear war has been mapped out using computer models for the first time. |
Researchers from Colorado have studied the effects of nuclear conflict on Earth, looking at the result of detonating Life after a nuclear war revealed: Computer models reveal Earth would suffer a 20-year-long winter and worldwide famine
|
The terrible fate of Earth after a nuclear war has been mapped out using computer models for the first time.
Worldwide famine, deadly frosts, global ozone losses of up to 50 per cent and more would greet any inhabitants of the planet still remaining after a nuclear conflict.
And the researchers hope their study of what they call a relatively 'small' nuclear war will serve as a deterrent against such weapons being used by any nation in the future.
+3
Researchers based in Colorado have studied the effects of a nuclear conflict on Earth. They used climate models to predict what would become of the planet after the detonation of 100 'small' nuclear warheads, and conclude there would be global devastation. Pictured is an atomic weapon test in the 1950s
The unnerving consequences were laid out in a paper called ‘Multidecadal global cooling and unprecedented ozone loss following a regional nuclear conflict.’
THE AFTERMATH OF NUCLEAR WAR ACCORDING TO THE STUDY
Year 0
Five megatons of black carbon released into the atmosphere, which absorbs sunlight and begins to cool the planet. Black carbon rain also kills millions.
Year 1
Average surface temperature drops by 1°C (2°F).
Year 2
Crop growing season is shortened by 10 to 40 days.
Year 5
Earth is an average of 1.5°C (3°F) colder than the present day, colder than it has been in 1,000 years. There is also nine per cent less rainfall. The ozone is also up to 25 per cent thinner, increasing UV rays on Earth.
Year 10
Ozone recovers slightly to just 8 per cent less than modern day.
Year 20
Planet warms slightly to 0.5°C (1°F) lower than the present day.
Year 26
Rainfall increases to about 4.5 per cent less than today.
In it the researchers looked at the outcome of a ‘limited, regional nuclear war between India and Pakistan in which each side detonates 50 15-kiloton weapons.’
They then used computer models to examine the impact on the planet and its environment - and it makes for grim reading. The immediate result of 100 nuclear weapons roughly the size of those dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki being detonated would be the release of five megatons of black carbon into the atmosphere.
Black carbon, not too dissimilar to soot, would block out the sun and can also be fatal to humans.
Following a spell of black carbon rain, a deadly weather front that would devastate what remained of humanity following the nuclear war, the temperature of Earth would begin to drop.
After a year the temperature would fall by 1°C (2°F), while after five it would be 1.5°C (3°F) cooler than it is now.
About 20 years after the conflict it would warm again to just 0.5°C (1°F) below today’s temperature.
Accompanying what the researchers call ‘the coldest average surface temperatures in the last 1,000 years’ would be a huge loss in ozone levels.
They say that global ozone losses of 20 to 50 per cent would occur over populated areas, ‘levels unprecedented in human history’.
Archive: Behind the scenes of a nuclear missile command centre
+3
The immediate result of 100 nuclear weapons being detonated would be the release of five megatons of black carbon (shown) into the atmosphere, say researchers. Black carbon, not too dissimilar to soot and released from the burning of things such as fossil fuels, would block out the sun and can also be fatal to humans
The drop in temperature would produce ‘killing frosts’ that reduce the world’s growing season by 10 to 40 days.
Meanwhile the eradication of up to half of the ozone would increase UV rays in some locations by as much as 80 per cent, raising the chance of developing skin cancer for large swathes of humanity.
Combined with the global cooling, this ‘would put significant pressures on global food supplies and could trigger a global nuclear famine.’
The planet’s falling temperature would also decrease the amount of rainfall.
Five years after the conflict Earth would see 9 per cent less rain, while 26 years after the war there would still be 4.5 per cent less rain.
The result of all this would be devastation and ultimately death for hundreds of millions, and perhaps billions.
But the researchers hope that their example of a relatively small nuclear war between two modestly armed nuclear nations, India and Pakistan, will encourage superpowers such as the U.S. and Russia to discuss nuclear disarmament.
‘Knowledge of the impacts of 100 small nuclear weapons should motivate the elimination of more than 17,000 nuclear weapons that exist today,’ they write.
+3
In their paper the researchers conclude humanity would suffer worldwide famine, deadly frosts and huge ozone losses. The results would be the death of hundreds of millions or billions. Pictured is the abandoned city of Prypiat, which is still experiencing the negative effects of nuclear fallout from Chernobyl
![]()
Welcome to the jungle: This image of New York's Times Square from Russian artist Vladimir Manyuhin's Life after the Apocalypse is reminiscent of scenes from the 2007 film I am Legend
![]()
By night: The same view of New York - minus some lions - with the sun slowly setting in the background
![]()
Busy: Times Square as it looks today
![]()
Still sitting: The 1920 statue of former American President, Abraham Lincoln, in a collapsing Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall in Washington D.C.
![]()
Tourist attraction: Today the Lincoln Memorial is one of the most popular sights for visitors to the U.S. capital
![]()
In a land far, far away: Manyuhin imagines St Basil's Cathedral and Red Square , Moscow, as a beautiful pastoral scene in a future where the city has been reclaimed by the forces of nature the same as other European Capitals
![]()
Orthodox: How Red Square and St. Basil's cathedral look today
![]()
Underground: Manyuhin has transformed a picture of a subway to a scene of destruction
![]()
Unsuspecting: The A train subway line, New York City
![]()
Nature's revenge: Manyuhin has added the odd human survivor to his pieces - but they are few and far between
![]()
End of the world as we know it: Decay and sprawling overgrowth have been added to the photographs to create eerie scenes of a post-apocalyptic Earth
![]()
Armageddon: With its struggling human survivors making their way through a burnt out world, this scene could be straight out of the 2009 film adaptation of the post-apocalyptic book The Road by Cormac McCarthy
![]()
Final fantasy: The imaginings of life after an apocalypse are strangely beautiful
Many viewers have commented how the scenes resemble well known computer games such as Final Fantasy, Fall Out, and Enslaved: Odyssey to the West.
Some of Manyuhin's scenes also look startlingly similar to the backdrop of New York in the post-apocalyptic 2007 film I am Legend starring Will Smith.
While other images, with struggling human survivors making their way through burnt out surroundings, could be straight out of the 2009 film adaptation of the post-apocalyptic book The Road by Cormac McCarthy starring Viggo Mortensen.
![]()
Contrasting: Manyuhin has transformed this landscape in to swamps and marshland in sharp contrast to other burnt out scenes
![]()
Power out: Defunct electricity cables have come down while the pylons slowly erode
![]()
Survivors: Two lone walkers make their way home in a cold and harsh post-apocalyptic world
![]()
Man's best friend: But even in Manyuhin's desolate world, one survivor still has his pet dog to keep him company, just like Will Smith's character Robert Neville in the movie I am Legend