Phil1111

Why would it matter what color the handles were if you could not see them? I would think the situation you are implying would be if you COULD see your handles and due to disorientation and harness shifting and because they look identical you decided to pull the wrong one. (I have dual color coordinated pillow handles btw) I thought of that when I was proofreading but was too lazy to change or amend it. Threads like this are useful for all levels of experience because they require introspection about possible problems and how a person would have to resolve them. Then to add go-pros, gloves, etc. into the equation.

I know you're writing in jest. But its surprising the number of trump supporters that have that exact view. They want a 350 ship navy. Want programs to bring back coal, US heavy industry and rebuild the infrastructure. Cut corporate taxes to repatriate offshore stranded earnings of US corporations. Cut personal taxes, etc. etc. When I suggest the costs associated with this, all the borrowing needed and high current employment levels would drive wage inflation. When its pointed out that Obama, together with Republican house and senate members. Just spent $9 trillion in stimulus and QE. To get the US out of the last recession. https://www.thebalance.com/national-debt-under-obama-3306293 The response in about 20-30% of trump supporters is to declare bankruptcy and therefor "stick it to China". Because China holds most of US bond obligations. When its suggested that the Japanese hold the majority of US foreign debt. That Japan is a friend of the US. Well that would just be too bad for them. When I further point out that the majority of US debt is held by US citizens. "Widows and orphans" so to speak and retirees. That US pension funds would be crippled. That the US really can't do it. I just get more trump speak. Thats all liberal, wall street bs. That bankruptcy is a really good option...Yikes.

Though I like the idea of Alec Baldwin getting beat up....I think the Secret Service should be on the job here. Maybe we compromise - the Secret Service can beat up Baldwin. Why? This makes me kind of like him. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/20/arts/television/a-tangerine-wig-and-a-tightrope-walk-alec-baldwin-as-donald-j-trump.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

trump and Goldman Sachs. It just gets better and better. "Trump has made a number of Goldman alums close members of his inner circle. Steve Bannon, the controversial former head of Breitbart News who took over Trump’s campaign and now serves as Trump’s chief strategist, spent time at Goldman before launching his own investment firm. Trump’s pick to lead the Treasury Department, Steven Mnuchin, spent nearly two decades at Goldman before getting into the hedge fund business. And most recently, Trump selected Gary Cohn, who was Goldman’s president and chief operating officer, to serve as the head of his National Economic Council." http://thehill.com/policy/finance/311169-goldman-sachs-good-for-a-quarter-of-dows-trump-rally and now "CFTC fines Goldman Sachs $120 million for manipulating interest rate products ... The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission settled charges against Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., GS, -0.78% and its bank subsidiary for attempts beginning in January 2007 and continuing through March 2012 to manipulate and make false reports concerning the U.S. Dollar International Swaps and Derivatives Association Fix, a global benchmark for interest rate products. The CFTC press release said that Goldman's alleged unlawful conduct involved multiple traders, including the head of Goldman's Interest Rate Products Trading Group in the United States. The CFTC said that among themselves, Goldman traders described trades based on the manipulated USD ISDAFIX as being based on the "jacked price," as opposed to the "fair price"; remarked that other Goldman traders had "gamed the fix" in order to benefit related positions; and strategized how best to extract the "higher value" of USD ISDAFIX cash settlements against customers who lacked Goldman's insight, as a major swap dealer, into the process. Goldman initially did not cooperate with the investigation by failed to produce communications and documents that were potentially relevant to the inquiry. " http://www.marketwatch.com/story/cftc-fines-goldman-sachs-120-million-for-manipulating-interest-rate-products-2016-12-21 It looks as if the Washington Swamp will be filled before its drained. Certainly the Goldman Sachs boys can teach the princelings new more developed and professional techniques to grub money at the trough.

In a way astronauts are a poor example IMO. They are the best of the best with no offense intended to the USN. For every $ the USN spends on Top Gun pilots, NASA likely spends $10,000. Full size modules underwater to practice on, etc. etc. The mission commanders are the pick of test pilots who have dealt with real emergencies, in dead calm demeanor. Pilots deal with simple emergencies to complex. Ones where a co-pilot might be flipping through page after page of a manual. To try another procedure to reset some obscure but necessary fuse. Some where the problem is no gear down but an hour of fuel to figure it out. To Scully's no power, no altitude, full load and no good options. As several have mentioned already altitude and rate of decent are the buffering factors in decision making. A canopy flying more or less straight and more than less inflation. Is different than a spin increasing mess where the rate of decent is the same as freefall. Now the situation is: Dual color coordinated pillow handles under a high speed spinning mal where you can't see your handles. Now act correctly you have seven seconds to safe minimum deployment altitude.

The "beauty" of a private security force is they don't have to follow the same laws. I can't imagine that's going to go over well with his Secret Service guys though. Laws? Since when have laws stopped Trump or his minions from doing whatever the hell they want? And I don't see any conflict with the Secret Service. These goons won't be involved in protecting Trump or his family. They are the ones who will go out and "deal with" anyone who says bad things about him. I'd imagine they'd like to have a "talk" with Alec Baldwin. Yes and when trump or the princelings have to meet with donors in "undisclosed" locations. Or when discussions have to take place regarding how much for what favor. Their loyalty will presumably on display whey they can't remember anything. When testifying before congress, a house committee on corruption. Or a court proceeding regarding racketeering. Just like this famous guard https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34ag4nkSh7Q "I see nothing"

Unlike the anti oil activists? When you just look at the decline of sharks alone, somewhere in the realm of 90% in just a few decades, it is actually frightening. The shift from species to species as they disappear, for commercial fisheries, is a good indication of the state of the ocean. I believe there would be very few people other than those working in the fishing industry that would oppose the notion that this is a serious problem. We were all told that the trees were the main thing to provide us with oxygen but it only makes sense that the ocean would play a greater role when you think about it and learn about it. I suppose it was only a matter of time... ...That you and I agree on something! Don't get me started on Chinese consumption of shark fin soup. Outlaw fishing ships, trawl nets, bilge-water dumping by tankers, etc. The oceans have the biggest role in global warming. https://scripps.ucsd.edu/programs/keelingcurve/2013/07/03/how-much-co2-can-the-oceans-take-up/ Above from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scripps_Institution_of_Oceanography Although I believe we need greater photosynthesis through algae, trees, etc. to convert increasing co2 to o2. For now, détente, I guess, comrade.

I know what you're trying to say but there is a difference between the gliding capabilities of a AC and a skydiver. AC emergencies are generally not high spinning, high g-load ones as well. Factors of which tend to confuse rational problem management. I think this is the best line of the tread: "The difference between a well-thought-out execution of procedures and a panicked one is only a couple seconds. If you pull at the right altitude, then you have time for that. Try once, try twice, buh-bye. " Some altitude to maneuver a reserve to a good landing site is always very nice. Prevents injuries as well.

I can just imagine what will happen when they both groups head out to the range for some trigger time. http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-38297345

False. Some people think that the accusation that a Secretary of State was allowed to enrich themselves using their position of power is a batant right wing smear with no basis in fact. Yes, if those children weren't allowed to sit in on Presidential meetings with government representatives of countries in which their business is operating it would be so terribly unfair on the little darlings. To my knowledge they might be involved to some degree in the transition, but I was unaware they are receiving high level security clearances and positions within the administration to meet with such heads of state. Where will they find the time to run the Trump Empior as been reported by the media? The Opening Day Foundation a "nonprofit" was started by the trump princelings, to fund "conservation charities". "The paperwork for the Opening Day Foundation listed four directors: Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump...A Center for Public Integrity review of Texas incorporation records found the Opening Day Foundation was created less than a week ago, on Dec. 14. Unlike political committees, such nonprofits aren’t required by law to reveal their donors, allowing sponsors to write seven-figure checks for access to the president while staying anonymous, if they choose. The event offers sponsor packages ranging from $25,000 to $1 million. The Trump family has come under scrutiny since the election as questions swirl about how the president-elect will handle his business interests in office. He has said his adult children will take over, but has offered no concrete details. A charity auction for a coffee date with future first daughter Ivanka Trump appeared to have been shut down over the weekend. " The poor princelings can hardly contain themselves in their greed..er... haste to grab as much cash as possible. One closes a "charity" event while her brothers start up another. The only question remains is if there will be statutes bought from charity money of Ivanka,Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump.With the sculptor enhancing the size of the hands of Eric and Don Jr. of course! After all President elect trump bought a nice painting of himself using charity money from another trump charity. The princelings certainly need images of themselves in the white-house and the lobby of Trump tower. So all the political cash can be properly directed to the right trump child. http://thehill.com/homenews/news/311122-trump-brothers-behind-nonprofit-offering-access-to-president-elect-report "Where will they find the time to run the Trump Empior as been reported by the media?" It seems as if they never sleep they are so busy!

I'd have to say I'm neither. But we'd probably get along just fine. I'd only laugh about your Racer behind your back. Or you might think I'm deplorable. Racer, now thats funny. I detest the term deplorables. trump can't deliver the legacy steel mill jobs that pay $100k a year. For plants that were never upgraded during their entire history. The old tire plants that hired any American who could drive a forklift and still pay $100k a year. Whether they could read or write, or not. They all still deserve a vote. The question remains if they recognize the mistake they made by voting trump in 2017 or if it takes till 2018.

Yes and yes. What insurer will even offer private pilot liability insurance with that felony record and mental history. Aviation insurers are notoriously conservative and risk adverse. Some criminals can never be rehabbed. $50K from "zero to hero" with a guaranteed instructor job. http://www.aviationschoolsonline.com/school-info/Airline-Transport-Professionals---37-U.S.-Flight-Training-Locations/83/1606/F/1.php I guess the extra $75k is for lawyers, coke,booze hookers and the rest he'll just waste. Oh! but nobody would hire or insure him. Let alone a first class medical, or even third class dealing with his mental history "depression, attention deficit disorder and intermittent explosive disorder.[18] ".

I think it was a sukhoi or mig fighter/bomber. It was IS who downed the Russian airliner in the Sinai with a bomb.

A crappy $4 million euro suitcase to Putin gets you Turkey. If he hadn't been so cheap he could have got Switzerland. There is a Russian saying: The thief who stole an altyn (3 kopecks) is hung, and the one who stole a poltinnik (50 kopecks) is praised. A kopeck is 1/100 of a ruble.

Smart, distributed power generation grids are the wave of the future. Including industrialized countries. They naturally lend themselves to solar, wind and cogeneration projects. http://bipartisanpolicy.org/blog/beyond-the-building-blocks-implications-of-the-clean-power-plan-for-distributed-resources-and-advanced-grid-technologies/ http://www.elp.com/articles/print/volume-91/issue-5/sections/smart-distribution-a-self-healing-and-optimized-grid.html https://www.smartgrid.gov/the_smart_grid/distribution_intelligence.html The future smart grid for developing countries. http://www.wri.org/sites/default/files/The_Future_Electricity_Grid.pdf

"This year has seen a remarkable run for solar power. Auctions, where private companies compete for massive contracts to provide electricity, established record after record for cheap solar power. It started with a contract in January to produce electricity for $64 per megawatt-hour in India; then a deal in August pegging $29.10 per megawatt hour in Chile. That’s record-cheap electricity—roughly half the price of competing coal power. " 1 mwh=1000 kwh Below are US retail rates. Of course markups, standby peak generation costs and transmission costs are factored into residential rates. http://www.eia.gov/electricity/state/ When combined with: "Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Vinod Khosla, Jack Ma, John Doerr and 15 other high-profile investors have formed a new venture firm, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, that will pour at least $1 billion into cleantech companies over the next 20 years." https://techcrunch.com/2016/12/11/bill-gates-jeff-bezos-and-18-others-commit-1-billion-to-new-cleantech-fund-breakthrough-energy-ventures/

Its against the law to profit from goods or services provided to your own campaign. Its against the law to buy goods or services for less than fair market value.That provides an unfair advantage. He never funded his campaign himself. He relied on donations and the sale of trump branded goods. i.e. hats, etc. The intent of the thread was to address the implications of a family personally profiting from political family connections and how trumps failure to address it is illegal and unethical after he is in office. How its a recipe for corruption and influence peddling. For which Ivanka moving into the White House with her separate office while her brothers Eric and Donald run the family business. Smacks of either cash for access, pay for play, or any other excuse to profit from a political position. And I am sure you have physical evidence of any of this. Do you care to cite any of the laws you say we're broken? I will wait. https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-06-29/trump-campaign-broke-law-by-soliciting-foreign-donations-complaint-alleges http://www.campaignlegalcenter.org/news/press-releases/fec-must-investigate-unprecedented-violations-campaign-finance-laws-clinton http://time.com/4579060/fec-donald-trump-campaign-contributions/ Unfortunately I'm personally not in possession of the "physical evidence". "Foreign Nationals Foreign nationals may not make contributions in connection with any election--Federal, State or local. This prohibition does not apply to foreign citizens who are lawfully admitted for permanent residence in the United States (those who have "green cards"). Corporations and Unions The law also prohibits contributions from corporations and labor unions. This prohibition applies to any incorporated organization, profit or nonprofit. For example, the owner of an incorporated "mom and pop" grocery store is not permitted to use a business account to make contributions. Instead, the owner would have to use a personal account. A corporate employee may make contributions through a nonrepayable corporate drawing account, which allows the individual to draw personal funds against salary, profits or other compensation. Donated Items and Services The donation of office machines, furniture, supplies--anything of value--is an in-kind contribution. The value of the donated item (the usual and normal charge) counts against the contribution limits. A donation of services is also considered an in-kind contribution. For example, if you pay a consultant's fee or a printing bill for services provided to a campaign, you have made an in-kind contribution in the amount of the payment. If you sell an item or service to a committee and ask the committee to pay less than the usual and normal charge, you have also made an in-kind contribution to the committee in the amount of the discount. Under limited exceptions in the law, you may provide certain goods and services without making a contribution to the committee. These exceptions are volunteering, travel expenses and business services. http://www.fec.gov/pages/brochures/citizens.shtml

Its against the law to profit from goods or services provided to your own campaign. Its against the law to buy goods or services for less than fair market value.That provides an unfair advantage. He never funded his campaign himself. He relied on donations and the sale of trump branded goods. i.e. hats, etc. The intent of the thread was to address the implications of a family personally profiting from political family connections and how trumps failure to address it is illegal and unethical after he is in office. How its a recipe for corruption and influence peddling. For which Ivanka moving into the White House with her separate office while her brothers Eric and Donald run the family business. Smacks of either cash for access, pay for play, or any other excuse to profit from a political position.

Most people would look with disdain upon anyone making fun of the disabled. They would take action when observing someone abusing animals. But there is something entertaining about those making fun of trump. Poking his fragile ego, lack of sensibilities and absence of restraint. It always gets the same reaction. SNL is going to reach new levels of popularity come Jan-Feb. 2017. Their opening skits get widespread play already. Alec Baldwin can write his retirement ticket during the trump presidency. Thats if trump doesn't order the CIA to kill him for treason first. But I forget the CIA,FBI.NSA are all conspiring against trump. He just may order his Secret Service driver to go to the NBC studios in NY to personally punch out Baldwin. But that won't do much damage because after all... trump has such small hands.

You sure talk tough. You must be right. In my experience talky talky bullshitting anonymous posters like you are never wrong. It has nothing to do with tough. $1000 a month(er, 62,151 rubles a mo. at todays exchange rates) will make the payments on the little Abkhazia dacha. With some left over for some quality borscht. With real sour cream on top. Not some cheap low fat milk! Lets give Royreader8812 credit where credit is due. He earned the couple kilos of good kolbasa for his efforts here. What he should do is move onto another site... maybe scuba diving. Take another English course, the Kremlin-Putin-KGB desinformatsiya courses 201 and 301. Then try again. Perhaps he can upgrade and fund a Sochi ski condo instead. Where he might even run into his boss on a lift(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RPyycvflrQ. "The Kremlin's Troll Army Moscow is financing legions of pro-Russia Internet commenters. But how much do they matter? ..."I know a lot of Muscovites have little dachas in Abkhazia," he wrote in a recent post. "But could these Muscovites have afforded their little dachas if they hadn't gotten rid of the Georgians and turned a flourishing region into cheap fucking shit, like they're doing now in Crimea?" ... "This is a category of people who I'm sure are paid some small amount of money, maybe $1,000 a month or less. But they're running legitimate blogs, they keep themselves busy. Sometimes they even publish something interesting. But when it's necessary, they also spread 'deza'"—shorthand for disinformation. ...The Kremlin, which has waged a massive disinformation campaign aimed at legitimizing Russia's annexation of Crimea and support for separatists in eastern Ukraine, has employed so-called "troll armies" to invade online territories armed with pro-Moscow rhetoric. A June article by Max Seddon of BuzzFeed reported the Kremlin was spending millions of dollars to pay English-speaking Russians to promote President Vladimir Putin and his policies in U.S. media like Fox News broadcasting and The Huffington Post and Politico news sites. Trolls are reportedly expected to manage multiple fake accounts and post on news articles 50 times a day, often with sentiments as simplistic as "Putin makes Obama look stupid and weak!" http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/08/the-kremlins-troll-army/375932/

What kind of a cowboy, dope smoking, non-USPA, rogue DZ did you start out at? Anyway, after reading some of these many adventures I feel like a rocket-surgeon now. The greatest thing about some stupidity is that no injury results and everyone can laugh about it later.

Your reserve is fine. wolfriverjoe and CrashProne had good advice and a single weekend where you make five jumps a day should address most of your mental issues. Don't take that the wrong way. IMO you are just overthinking the situation. You have likely investigated all the possibilities and just dwelling on the possibility of injury. Nothing wrong with that. A little fear combined with knowledge and experience is called judgement. In the era of round canopies most landings were going backwards. But after 10-20 jumps on your new gear take a course if you want. Don't get over obsessed with canopy size as design(performance) means more than size. Conservative flying is the biggest component of safety. But it is also important not to be intimidated by the situation. You can do some jumps opening higher to get some more flight time as well. Visualizing the landing approaches at 1500' as to exactly where in the air you are going to be and how final approach to flare might help as well. I think you'll be fine after another 20 jumps in the exact gear you have now. Relax, have fun.

Oh, cut him some slack - it's tough for the rightwingers right now. They're facing the fact that not only is Trump the President that the large majority of voters didn't want, he's not even the President that the people who did vote for him thought they were going to get. He doesn't represent their party, he doesn't represent the common people, he's freely admitting that he never believed in and doesn't care about doing the things he promised to the die-hard right to mobilise them in the election... but they have to swallow all that down and pretend it's all good because he still has an R next to his name. That kind of denial is hard to deal with, so it's inevitable they'll end up lashing out! Speaking of mobilizing, it looks like the UK may be in the same camp against trump. I guess that the deniers will just add MI5 and the UK parliament to the great conspiracy. "Russia accused of waging secret warfare against Britain using cyber attacks, espionage and fake news By Patrick Sawer, Senior Reporter 17 December 2016 • 11:17am Whitehall officials have for the first time acknowledged that Russia is waging a "campaign" of propaganda and unconventional warfare against Britain. According to senior figures in Government, Moscow is to blame for concerted attempts to undermine the UK through fake espionage, misinformation, cyber attacks and fake news. It is understood that intelligence officers and senior civil servants across government voiced their concern about the growing scale of the Russian threat during a high-level meeting at the Cabinet Office two months ago. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/12/17/russia-accused-waging-secret-war-against-britain-using-cyber/ All just part of the anti-Putin, anti-trump, great Western LIE and conspiracy. Calling "Royreader8812" Putin and trump need defending over in this thread too!

Uhh....which of the other players have aircraft and ordinance to conduct bombings? The "establishment media" is actually a very fine example of competition at it's best. There is no one media, the media is a chaotic mix of viewpoints and proponents. All shouting to be heard above the din. There is actually no one who does not believe what the media says. There are however many people who choose which brand of media to listen to and believe. You believe "the media" yourself. How about you tell us where you get your information, the information you do believe I mean? Are you a conspiracy theorist by chance? My guess a ip address in Russia as he makes reference to "But you will find the western lie is falling to pieces" and "I am looking forward to seeing the embarrassment of the spokesperson speaking at the state department briefing on Monday." I don't know who gets their info from direct broadcasts of the US state dept., has poor command and comprehension of English. Yet attributes, presumably some event in Syria to "They just wasted billions of dollars and killed thousands more people in yet another failure.'' Anyway back to the subject. Vladimir and his apparatchiks need an appropriate response. I do blame President Obama for a weak policy and history of appeasement of Assad, Putin, Hezbollah and the Syrian situation. He is so terrified of additional entanglements that he has broadcast US weakness in this entire affair. "How to Wage Hybrid War on the Kremlin [Max Boot] Max Boot December 13, 2016 Vladimir Putin’s tenure as Russia’s dictator has been dedicated to twin interlocking goals: to enhance his own power and wealth and that of the country he controls. The more powerful Russia becomes, after all, the more powerful its president becomes, too. In pursuit of more influence, Putin has tried to rebuild the Russian armed forces from a force of low-quality conscripts equipped with weapons that don’t work to a high-quality professional force with cutting-edge weapons. That transformation, only partially complete, has been shown off in Syria, which Putin has used as a showcase for systems including sleek Kalibr cruise missiles and the smoke-belching aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov. But as befits an old KGB man, Putin’s heart appears to lie more with “deniable” covert operations rather than with overt muscle-flexing. Putin has become notorious for using “little green men” — Russian intelligence operatives and Spetsnaz (special forces) in civilian clothing — to infiltrate Ukrainian territory and start an uprising among the Russian-speaking population. And it worked: Russia annexed Crimea and has gained de facto control over much of eastern Ukraine. This tactic of undertaking barely disguised aggression has become known as “hybrid warfare,” and it has consistently left the West wrong-footed because Putin is careful to avoid crossing the normal red lines. The West has been even more flummoxed by Putin’s campaign of political warfare designed to subvert anti-Russian regimes and replace them with more pliable leaders. The most high-profile manifestation of this effort was the hacking of the Democratic National Committee and other Democratic targets in an attempt, as the CIA has now concluded, to swing the U.S. presidential election toward Donald Trump, the most pro-Russian politician in America since the heyday of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s agriculture secretary, Henry Wallace. Russian internet trolls were also busy putting out anti-Clinton, pro-Trump stories, many of them demonstrably false.[Hey Royreader8812 perhaps he was talking about you!] Putin’s interference in the election was probably not the decisive factor (for that, blame FBI Director James Comey’s diligent efforts), but in an election decided by 100,000 votes in three states it is impossible to say what made a difference and what did not. Certainly Trump, who once called on Putin to hack his opponent, acts like a man with a guilty conscience, furiously denying not only that the hacks were designed to help him but that they were the work of the Kremlin at all. Putin will get his payoff if the new administration decides to lift the sanctions imposed on Russia after its invasion of Ukraine — something that is more likely if ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson, to whom Putin awarded an Order of Friendship, is confirmed as secretary of state. Putin’s campaign of subversion and disinformation is hardly limited to the United States, however. It has been playing out across Europe for years, with Moscow supporting far-left and far-right parties that are united by their loathing for the European Union and NATO, the two institutions that Putin rightly sees as the chief impediments to his hopes of resurrecting the Russian Empire or at least a Russian sphere of influence in Eastern Europe. Russia has been most blatant in supporting France’s far-right National Front, which received an 11 million euro loan in 2014 from a Moscow-based bank and wants another 27 million euros to fight next year’s elections. The French presidential election in the spring is a can’t-lose proposition for Putin since both of the leading candidates — Marine Le Pen of the National Front and the mainstream conservative nominee, former Prime Minister François Fillon — favor closer ties with Moscow. In Germany, Angela Merkel looks likely to win re-election and maintain a relatively hard line against the Kremlin, but WikiLeaks has just come out with a massive leak of German intelligence documents, many of them relating to controversial cooperation with U.S. intelligence agencies. This is widely seen as a Russian attempt to undermine Merkel, as WikiLeaks has long been a favorite bulletin board for Russia’s intelligence services. In Montenegro, the Russians are accused of going even further in orchestrating a political campaign against the pro-Western government of Prime Minister Milo Dukanovic prior to the Oct. 16 election. When that didn’t work, the Russians apparently tried to launch a coup to overthrow the government, employing Serbian operatives with close ties to the Kremlin. Little wonder that Alex Younger, the typically secretive head of Britain’s MI6 intelligence service, just gave an unusual speech warning that hostile powers such as Russia, which are utilizing “means as varied as cyberattacks, propaganda, or subversion of democratic process … represent a fundamental threat to our sovereignty. They should be a concern to all those who share democratic values.” His words are echoed by Maj. Gen. Gunnar Karlson, the chief of Sweden’s main foreign intelligence agency, who warns that Russian subversion “is a serious threat because in different ways [the Russians] can push themselves into the very foundations of a democracy and influence democratic decision-making.” Russia is currently running a pressure campaign to dissuade Sweden, which is alarmed by growing Russian intrusions into its sovereign waters and airspace, from joining NATO. It’s easy enough to decry Russian interference, but it’s hard to know what to do about it. As a first step, it is imperative to document and expose Kremlin machinations, which is why it’s important to probe the hacking of the U.S. election. Congressional investigations, as called for by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan, would be one possible approach, but the failed Benghazi committee shows the dangers of congressional grandstanding and partisanship. A better approach, because it would be more serious and nonpartisan, would be an independent commission modeled on the one that probed 9/11; it could be headed by former CIA Directors Michael Hayden and Leon Panetta. But public exposure alone is not enough to make Putin cease and desist; indeed, documenting Russia’s schemes could actually enhance his aura of power by showing how cleverly he manipulates his adversaries. President Barack Obama has been shamefully derelict in making Putin pay a price for his aggression. Although his administration has threatened retaliation against Russia, he has not, insofar as we know, delivered. “We’d have all these circular meetings,” one senior State Department official told the New York Times, “in which everyone agreed you had to push back at the Russians and push back hard. But it didn’t happen.” Among reasons for inaction, the Times cites the president’s “fear of escalating a cyberwar, and concern that the United States needed Russia’s cooperation in negotiations over Syria.” (As if Russia had any intention of cooperating with the United States in Syria!) His failure to more actively oppose Russian efforts during the campaign may have cost Hillary Clinton the election. It’s hard to imagine Donald Trump, the beneficiary of Russia’s cyberattacks, doing much about it, but Obama still has a few weeks in office to act. Possible responses can run the gamut from further sanctions — including financial and travel freezes on individuals responsible for the hacking — to retaliation in kind. Putin likes leaking Western emails. How would he like it if the National Security Agency leaked the communications between him and his cronies? Or if the U.S. intelligence community released details about his widely rumored overseas bank accounts? This could undermine his hold on power by puncturing his aura of self-righteousness and could even lead to asset freezes that would punish him in the pocketbook. Beyond all of that, the West in general and the United States in particular will have to figure out how to wage political warfare on its own. That is something that we did in the early days of the Cold War when the CIA was busy helping anti-communists win elections around the world from Italy to the Philippines — and funding Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Encounter magazine, and other organizations to win the battle for “hearts and minds.” Today, Russia, Iran, China, and other closed societies are potentially vulnerable to a campaign designed to empower dissidents, discredit the ruling elite, and help ordinary people get accurate and uncensored news. Putin suspects the United States of waging just such a campaign against himself and his allies; he holds the CIA responsible for the 2005 and 2014 uprisings in Ukraine that defeated pro-Russian leader Viktor Yanukovych and the 2003 uprising in Georgia, which brought Mikheil Saakashvili to power. The irony is that, beyond the overt and benign democracy promotion efforts of the National Endowment for Democracy, Washington has done little to undermine anti-Western leaders or to promote pro-Western alternatives. It is high time for that to change. The United States needs to revive the political warfare skills it once possessed and that have since atrophied, as Michael Doran and I argued in a 2013 Policy Innovation Memorandum for the Council on Foreign Relations. Putin has shown himself to be a master of this game; other adversaries, including Iran and the Islamic State, also actively wage political warfare. We don’t have the luxury of saying that it’s beneath us to play that game. Nothing less than the future of democracy is at stake." https://ca.news.yahoo.com/wage-hybrid-war-kremlin-222813395.html This was originally published in the website/Journal Foreign Policy but the link to yahoo is made because the FP journal requires membership to read from its site.

troll https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_troll Four in one day doesn't require "evidence". If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, shits like a duck. its a duck. My sources have been quoted already. None of which are the "Syrian observatory for human rights". I'd suggest that you look out the window in the Urals, the suburbs of Damascus or wherever you call home. As I'm not to likely to "you can go slap yourself in face first being an asshole." You should brush up on your English at the same time.