• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

False Scribes! False Scribes!

… makes me wish i had hoarded more linguine

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

This blog will pay for itself.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

We still have time to mess this up!

Mission Accomplished!

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

This is how realignments happen…

We survived Breitbartpocalypse!

Reality always wins in the end.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Shock troops for the Unitarian Jihad.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn – Nancy Pelosi

‘Forty-two’ said Deep Thought, with infinite majesty and calm.

It’s not even safe to go out and pick up 2 days worth of poop anymore.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

I’m going back to the respite thread.

Mobile Menu

  • Look Forward & Back
  • Balloon Juice 2021 Pet Calendar
  • Site Feedback
  • All 2020 Fundraising
  • I Voted!
  • Take Action: Things We Can Do
  • Team Claire, and Family
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • BJ PayPal Donations
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • Nature & Respite
  • Information As Power
  • COVID-19 Coronavirus
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • On The Road
  • Garden Chats
  • Nature & Respite
  • Look Forward & Back
independence hall with a beautiful orange and rose night sky

Adam L Silverman

You are here: Home / Archives for Adam L Silverman

Adam L. Silverman is a consulting national security subject matter expert specializing in low intensity warfare (asymmetric, irregular, and unconventional warfare, revolution, insurgency, terrorism), civil affairs, psychological operations, and cultural considerations for strategy and policy.

He routinely provides operational support to a number of US Army, DOD, and other US Government elements. Dr. Silverman holds a doctorate in political science and criminology from the University of Florida, as well as masters' degrees in comparative religion and international security. Full professional bio available here: https://www.balloon-juice.com/adam-silverman-bio/

Adam Silverman has been a Balloon Juice writer since 2015.

A Few Final Words From President Lincoln

by Adam L Silverman|  November 2, 202010:45 pm| 87 Comments

This post is in: America, Domestic Politics, Election 2020, Open Threads, Politics, Silverman on Security

A Few Final Words From President Lincoln

(Abraham Lincoln Before His Speech at The Cooper Union)

On 27 February 1860 a not yet president Abraham Lincoln delivered his Cooper Union address. Lincoln recognized that the problems the Republic was facing, specifically the people behind the problems the Republic was facing, had not suddenly popped up between the mid 1830s and the 1860s. Rather, these people had been with Americans since before the founding attaching themselves to one faction or party and then another to try to achieve their objectives. And those objectives had little to do with the grand ideals of the Constitution that they then, and their ideological and political descendants today, love to quote while they use it as a shield to deflect responsibility from their actions and a club to bludgeon anyone and everyone that disagrees with them. Those objectives then, just as they are now, had nothing to do with providing for the common defense or securing the blessings of liberty or promoting the general welfare. Then, like today, and like their attempts to overthrow our self governing democratic-republic in the 1930s by subverting FDR’s presidency, was solely about greed, about self enrichment by stealing from the public treasury, from every American and every American’s hard work. Lincoln, clear eyed, had them sized up (emphasis mine):

But you say you are conservative – eminently conservative – while we are revolutionary, destructive, or something of the sort. What is conservatism? Is it not adherence to the old and tried, against the new and untried? We stick to, contend for, the identical old policy on the point in controversy which was adopted by “our fathers who framed the Government under which we live;” while you with one accord reject, and scout, and spit upon that old policy, and insist upon substituting something new. True, you disagree among yourselves as to what that substitute shall be. You are divided on new propositions and plans, but you are unanimous in rejecting and denouncing the old policy of the fathers.

Not one of all your various plans can show a precedent or an advocate in the century within which our Government originated. Consider, then, whether your claim of conservatism for yourselves, and your charge or destructiveness against us, are based on the most clear and stable foundations.

But you will break up the Union rather than submit to a denial of your Constitutional rights.

That has a somewhat reckless sound; but it would be palliated, if not fully justified, were we proposing, by the mere force of numbers, to deprive you of some right, plainly written down in the Constitution. But we are proposing no such thing.

Your purpose, then, plainly stated, is that you will destroy the Government, unless you be allowed to construe and enforce the Constitution as you please, on all points in dispute between you and us. You will rule or ruin in all events.

This, plainly stated, is your language. Perhaps you will say the Supreme Court has decided the disputed Constitutional question in your favor. Not quite so. But waiving the lawyer’s distinction between dictum and decision, the Court have decided the question for you in a sort of way.

Under all these circumstances, do you really feel yourselves justified to break up this Government unless such a court decision as yours is, shall be at once submitted to as a conclusive and final rule of political action? But you will not abide the election of a Republican president! In that supposed event, you say, you will destroy the Union; and then, you say, the great crime of having destroyed it will be upon us! That is cool. A highwayman holds a pistol to my ear, and mutters through his teeth, “Stand and deliver, or I shall kill you, and then you will be a murderer!”

To be sure, what the robber demanded of me – my money – was my own; and I had a clear right to keep it; but it was no more my own than my vote is my own; and the threat of death to me, to extort my money, and the threat of destruction to the Union, to extort my vote, can scarcely be distinguished in principle.

The question recurs, what will satisfy them? Simply this: We must not only let them alone, but we must somehow, convince them that we do let them alone.This, we know by experience, is no easy task. We have been so trying to convince them from the very beginning of our organization, but with no success. In all our platforms and speeches we have constantly protested our purpose to let them alone; but this has had no tendency to convince them. Alike unavailing to convince them, is the fact that they have never detected a man of us in any attempt to disturb them.

Silence will not be tolerated – we must place ourselves avowedly with them.

Rule or ruin. That was the crux of it in 1860.

It was the crux of it in 1933 when a group of ultra wealthy elites unhappy with how FDR was leading the US out of the depression sought to overthrow his presidency. The conspirators included Robert Sterling Clark, Grayson M. P. Murphy, and Prescott Bush among others. They conspired and attempted to recruit Marine Major General Smedley Darlington Butler to turn the membership of the American Legion into an insurgency. An insurgency that would allow them to force FDR to accept a co-president, appointed by the ultra wealthy conspirators, who would secretly run the US on their behalf while FDR served as a figurehead. Fortunately they miscalculated and picked the wrong Marine. Maj. Gen. Butler played it cool, collected the necessary information, and went right to Congress and then the news media in order to expose the plot.

It is the crux of it now in 2020. Rule or ruin! The President, Senator McConnell, the Republican majority caucus in the Senate, the Republican minority caucus in the House, their surrogates, what passes for an intelligentsia within the conservative movement, the ultra wealthy donors like the Mercers, the Kochs, the DeVoses, the Uhliens, the Popes, the Thiels, the Zuckerbergs, and many, many, many others who now, like in 1860 and 1933, seek to enrich themselves at everyone else’s expense.

They seek to rule or ruin. It is all they have ever sought. They don’t care about party, when they finish consuming and using up what’s left of the Republican Party they’ll attach themselves to another party. Just as they abandoned the Democratic Party and attached themselves like the parasites they are to the Republican Party during the Civil Rights era of the 1960s when it became clear that they could no longer achieve their goals through the Democratic Party. All they care about is ruling or ruining. They don’t care about the ordered liberty, civic rights and responsibilities, and individual rights and responsibilities that animated the founders and framers. They don’t actually care about the Constitution or what it means. They don’t actually care about America and its ideals, the actual promise of those ideals, and the charge laid upon us all by the founders and framers to create a more perfect union. They certainly don’t care about providing for the common defense, securing the blessings of liberty, and promoting the general welfare. They don’t actually care about America or Americans except insofar as they can use America to protect themselves, their property, and their wealth and they can exploit every other American to further enrich themselves. If they cannot rule, then they will always seek to ruin.

Lincoln was clear eyed as to who they were and what they were about in 1860. As we go into election day tomorrow, even if you’ve already cast your vote by mail or in person during early voting, we need to be as clear eyed as Lincoln to the threat they pose to the Republic and recognize that voting tomorrow to disempower these anti-American wreckers is just the first step in a centuries long war for not just control of, but for the soul of, America.

Open thread!

A Few Final Words From President LincolnPost + Comments (87)

Demoralization Is the Point

by Adam L Silverman|  November 1, 20209:09 pm| 222 Comments

This post is in: America, Domestic Politics, Election 2020, Information Warfare, Open Threads, Politics, Silverman on Security

The whole point of all the chaos that the President, his campaign, his surrogates, and his supporters are calling for, and the actual chaos that he, his surrogates, and his supporters are creating, are all intended to do one thing: demoralize everyone. In the table below you can see the Soviet doctrinal model for subverting a state and society. Demoralization is one of the major components. Among other actions, it includes subverting the legislative process to subvert the judicial system and the rule of law. Part of the reason that Senator McConnell jammed Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination through in under six weeks just before the election is to demoralize the majority of Americans. It is why he’s already stated publicly that during the lame duck, regardless of the results of the election, he’s not going to bring a COVID relief package to the floor. Rather, all he’s going to do is fill the remaining Federal judicial vacancies in order to achieve a legislative demoralization two for: further packing the courts with Leonard Leo chosen reactionaries and extremists and ensuring that Americans don’t get the help and assistance they need to survive the pandemic.

show full post on front page

Demoralization Is the PointPost + Comments (222)

Demoralization Is the Point 1

The domestic terror attacks on the Biden-Harris campaign bus and the staffers accompanying it in their own vehicles in Texas, promising to give Senator Harris a Texas Welcome, which is reminiscent of what conservative Texans announced they would give President Kennedy in 1963 is intended to demoralize you. Domestic terrorism that appears to have originated with Don Jr. instigating it via his social media accounts. The militia threat in Rome, GA that led to Georgia Democrats cancelling their rally there today is intended to demoralize you. Thethe closing of the Garden State Parkway in NJ, the Mario Cuomo Bridge in New York, and several other major roadways in the northeast are all intended to demoralize people. As are the President’s statements that his lawyers will get right to work as soon as the polls close in Pennsylvania on Tuesday night. And the statements by deadbeat dad and ambulatory thumb Jason Miller on ABC’s Sunday news talk show this morning. The ever more bizarre attempts to smear VP Biden with ever wilder and more bizarre allegations about his surviving son by Giuliani, Bannon, Don Jr., Guo Wengui’s network, and others are intended to demoralize you.

Just as the President’s, his surrogates’, and his supporters’ attempts to make it so that nothing is true, therefore anything, everything, and nothing is possible are intended to demoralize, so too are the activities, actions, and statements heading into election day. And regardless of the outcome of the election, whether they are able to make projections and calls early or whether it takes several days because things seem close on Tuesday and we have to wait for the ballots to be counted, the attempts to demoralize will continue through January 20, 2021. The President, his campaign, the Republican Party, the now clearly misnamed conservative movement, the President’s surrogates, and the President’s supporters want you demoralized. They want you on edge. They want you scared. Because they want the demoralization and the fear to immobilize you.

The political science PhD part of me, in line with Charlie Cook’s projections, looks at the data and information we have and recognizes the high probability that VP Biden wins without much difficult and the Democrats are able to achieve a 52 seat Senate majority. The low intensity warfare professional in me looks at what’s going on and is exceedingly concerned regardless of what happens on Tuesday.

Things are going to be unsettled, uncomfortable, unpleasant, and dangerous no matter what happens on Tuesday night. Especially if what the data tells us is going to happen happens and VP Biden wins. The President, his key subordinates in his administration, in Congress, on the Federal courts, in state governments, his surrogates, and his supporters will ramp up their destructive rhetoric and, in some cases, behavior. Not because it will somehow undo the results of the election, but because in reality they actually hate America; especially the real promise and ideals of America. Just as they hate the vast majority of Americans. And if they can’t control America and rule it and over the vast majority of Americans, then they’ll try to see it damaged so no one else can.

I know the next 120 hours, the next five days, is going to seem like an eternity. An eternity fraught with danger and full of stress. But they only win if we actually become demoralized. America doesn’t belong to them. They don’t own it. They don’t get to control it. And they don’t get to rule it or anyone in it.

So compartmentalize. Do whatever you have to do for self care. And keep doing whatever you’ve been doing to make sure everyone you know is voting and everyone they know is voting.

Edited To Add (ETA) 9:25 PM EST:

I just want to add one comment within the body of the post. Everyone needs to stop freaking out and knee jerking about which demographic is turning out in which ways for Biden versus 2016 or 2012 or 2008. The coalition that VP Biden has built, as well as that has coalesced around him, is not a recreation of President Obama’s 2008 or 2012 coalitions. Nor is it an attempt to recreate Secretary Clinton’s 2016 coalition and then expand it in the demographics that underperformed for her vis a vis for President Obama in 2008 and 2012. Rather, the coalition that VP Biden built was, as I forecast back in January 2019, initially from the left through to the center. With the addition of the NeverTrumpers, whether former Republicans or Republicans who recognize the threat that the Republic is in and are doing the right thing by crossing over and supporting VP Biden’s candidacy, and VP Biden’s ability to pull in non-college educated more rural and blue collar whites, especially white men, tells us something important. What VP Biden has built in terms of an electoral coalition is, for all intents and purposes, a national unity coalition. It now runs from the left anchored by Senator Sanders and all but his most rabid supporters all the way out to the center right with a number of Republicans for Biden, The Lincoln Project folks and their supporters, and at least half of the National Security Leaders for Biden*. This is something almost unseen in modern American political history. And it is important to remember just how broad, wide, and deep VP Biden’s coalition is when you see, hear, and/or read reporting on some proportion of what would normally be a Democratic demographic not turning out in the numbers like they did in 2016, 2012, or 2008. So don’t freak out. Realize just what the Biden coalition is and what it represents.

Open thread!

* Full disclosure: I am advising one of the original 3 star (lieutenant general) signatories of the National Security Leaders for Biden letter. I served as his senior civilian advisor before he retired and have been providing political, strategy, and policy analysis to him since early in the summer. This is a voluntary service, I am not being paid.

 

Regarding the Alleged Hunter Biden Materials: This Is Some of the Most Amateur Looking Garbage I’ve Ever Seen

by Adam L Silverman|  October 29, 20206:59 pm| 124 Comments

This post is in: America, China, Domestic Politics, Election 2020, Foreign Affairs, Information Warfare, Open Threads, Politics, Russia

Since Tucker Carlson, the host of the White Power Hour of Glower Hour, has been told that UPS has found whatever documents and materials he was bitching were stolen last night have been found and will be delivered, I want to make a couple of quick points about the alleged Hunter Biden materials. These will be in line with my previous remarks, but I wanted to add a few things before Tucker starts peddling doctored documents, misinformation, and agitprop on the air tonight.

Cole texted me to ask if I’d seen the repository of alleged Hunter Biden pictures, videos, and emails posted on a site owned by Guo Wengui. I’ve now gone through the materials and here are my takeaways:

  1. These are some of the most amateur looking materials I’ve ever seen!
  2. Some of the pictures are legitimately of Hunter Biden.
  3. Some of the pictures may be of Hunter Biden.
  4. Some of the pictures are clearly altered/adjusted.
  5. Some of the pictures, specifically the vast majority that purport to show actual or simulated sex acts, could be of anybody. Some of these only show the face of one person so it is unclear who the other person is. A lot of them don’t show anyone’s faces, so there is no way to tell who the pictures are of.
  6. The picture of “Malia Obama’s credit card” is most certainly not of Malia Obama’s credit card.
  7. There are NO pictures depicting sex or simulated sex acts with minors/juveniles.
  8. There are several pictures with blurred out faces of women, including one with a blurred out upper body, that have text box overlays asking “are these underage?” Based on the visual evidence presented, there is no way to know, but if they are then everyone in possession of the unaltered photos is in a lot of trouble.
  9. In all the other pictures showing sex or simulated sex acts, the women are clearly not underage.
  10. The picture of the threesome/simulated threesome, which has a text box overlay asking if the women are Malia Obama and one of Hunter Biden’s daughters, is CLEARLY NOT A PICTURE WITH MALIA OBAMA AND/OR HUNTER BIDEN’S DAUGHTER IN IT!!!!! Frankly, I’m not even sure Hunter Biden is in the picture. Specifically, I’m not sure that the picture is not altered.
  11. The couple of network analysis charts are absolute crap. Also, they’re captioned in Chinese, which doesn’t help as my Chinese is limited to martial arts terms. And menu items.
  12. The few emails posted, like the emails published by The New York Post, are dead images. There’s no metadata, so know way to demonstrate their provenance. This implies to me they’re not legit. The same for the photos, though they all have text books with the alleged date, time, and location of where the pictures were taken. But here too, there’s no way to verify any of that.
  13. I did not watch the videos because based on the photos, I’m sure that a few will be of Hunter and some will be doctored, most likely by deep faking them.

This stuff is just incredibly amateurish. They are clearly not intended to persuade anyone, let alone really convince law enforcement or intelligence personnel to take them seriously. Rather, they’re intended to push misinformation and agitprop out through outlets like Carlson’s show on Fox News, The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page, and The New York Post so the President and his key surrogates like Rudy Giuliani can refer to them at rallies and during media hits. And Don Jr. can shitpost them on Twitter.

And now a little bit about Guo Wengui. Guo’s back story is that he’s in self imposed exile from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) because he pissed of Xi and Xi wants him back for what would be a political trial. As a result, Guo took his billions and fled to the US where he’s embraced the hardest of the hard right within the GOP, the conservative movement, and Trumpworld. Guo’s thrown his money around to them as well, which is why he’s funding Bannon’s operations and why Bannon was arrested on Guo’s yacht. They appear to have an initiative they call the New Chinese Federation, which is tied to the Guo backed website that is now posting the alleged Hunter Biden material.

While it is possible that Guo’s story is legit, it is just as likely, and in my professional assessment highly likely, that the story is a cover story*. It’s just too good to be true. Just as the Russians sent a somewhat physically attractive young woman to penetrate the GOP and conservative movement using both gun rights and white Christian religious freedom as the cover story, a cover story that was catnip to the folks at the NRA, other shooting organizations, the National Prayer Breakfast folks (C Street/the Family/the Fellowship), and other white Christian conservative organizations, I think Guo’s cover story is engineered to be equally irresistible.

The Trumpified GOP and conservative movement have over the past four years stopped talking about, as in literally have stopped using the terms China or the PRC and started screaming about the Chinese Communist Party, the CCP, and/or the ChiComs. This is language used for the boundary maintenance of GOP/conservative/Trumpworld identity by allowing for easy identification of those who speak the right words (the literal definition of political correctness that came out of the crypto-fascist movement of Father Coughlin).

Guo’s story seems to be created to be equally irresistible to the Republican Party, the conservative movement, and Trumpworld and to capitalize off of this weird Republican, conservative, and Trumpworld reimagining of the PRC. Just as Butina’s cover story of the emergence of a 2nd amendment absolutism movement in Russia, which is implausible if you know anything about Russia, was designed to be irresistible to the GOP and the conservative movement in the US. When you combine the cover story with all the money he has to share, just as Butina managed to have money to share, you’ve got what appears to be a not for cover operation to penetrate the Republican Party, the conservative movement, and Trumpworld.

It is important to remember, that despite the President’s statements, as well as those by former Acting DNI Grennell and current DNI Ratcliffe, as well as other of the President’s surrogates, Xi does want to see the President reelected:

Donald Trump has argued frequently of late that China is rooting for Joe Biden come November’s U.S. presidential election. In Beijing, however, officials have come around to support four more years of Trump.

Interviews with nine current and former Chinese officials point to a shift in sentiment in favor of the sitting president, even though he has spent much of the past four years blaming Beijing for everything from U.S. trade imbalances to Covid-19. The chief reason? A belief that the benefit of the erosion of America’s postwar alliance network would outweigh any damage to China from continued trade disputes and geopolitical instability.

While the officials shared concerns that U.S.-China tensions would rise regardless of who was in the White House, they broke largely into camps of those who emphasized geopolitical gains and those who were concerned about trade ties. Biden, the former vice president, was viewed as a traditional Democrat who would seek to shore up the U.S.’s tattered multilateral relationships and tamp down trade frictions.

“If Biden is elected, I think this could be more dangerous for China, because he will work with allies to target China, whereas Trump is destroying U.S. alliances,” said Zhou Xiaoming, a former Chinese trade negotiator and former deputy representative in Geneva. Four current officials echoed that sentiment, saying many in the Chinese government believed a Trump victory could help Beijing by weakening what they saw as Washington’s greatest asset for checking China’s widening influence.

Having a catspaw – Guo – with an irresistible to Republicans and conservatives cover story and lots of money to spread around on those same Republicans and conservatives pet projects, including smearing VP Biden to weaken his election chances, makes sense. It also explains why Russian agitprop that was seeded in 2014 to dirty up VP Biden, Secretary Kerry, and VP Cheney, is now being pushed by a self exiled ultra-wealthy Chinese national who has ingratiated himself with and is funding Steve Bannon and other key Trumpworld figures.

We are off the map and through the looking glass.

Open thread!

* The link is to a lawsuit by a private US research firm that Guo had hired to dig up dirt on Chinese nationals in the US that Guo believed to be working for the PRC. However, in the lawsuit that US research firm alleges that Guo was actually having them try to dig up dirt on Chinese working for the US government under false allegations that they were working for the PRC. The case was ultimately dismissed.

Regarding the Alleged Hunter Biden Materials: This Is Some of the Most Amateur Looking Garbage I’ve Ever SeenPost + Comments (124)

The Greenwald Has Flounced! I Repeat: The Greenwald Has Flounced!

by Adam L Silverman|  October 29, 20202:58 pm| 245 Comments

This post is in: Foreign Affairs, Information Warfare, Open Threads, Politics, Silverman on Security

In news that I’m sure will have everyone here incredibly sad, Glenn Greenwald; professional contrarian; faux erudite bullshit artist; asshole; seemingly unaware Russian intelligence dupe; professional victim of everyone else’s intolerance, shortsightedness, stupidity, and inability to appreciate his brilliance; and person running an investigative journalism venture built on his reputation of publishing information provided by leakers; but unable to actually protect one of the leakers because he never actually established any standard operating procedures to vet and protect leakers and he and his crack team are morons; has quit The Intercept. Why you ask? Because The Intercept had betrayed the high ideals and standards that Greenwald established, but apparently failed to inculcate with Pierre Omidyar’s money.

Take it away Glenn!

My Resignation From The Intercept

The same trends of repression, censorship and ideological homogeneity plaguing the national press generally have engulfed the media outlet I co-founded, culminating in censorship of my own articles.https://t.co/dZrlYGfEBf

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) October 29, 2020

"But the pathologies, illiberalism, and repressive mentality that led to the bizarre spectacle of my being censored by my own media outlet are ones that are not unique to The Intercept."

I'll be doing my journalism at Substack for now. Subscribe here:https://t.co/dZrlYGfEBf

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) October 29, 2020

As you can imagine, he wasted over 10,000 words in his diatribe against the publication he established with someone else’s money for not letting him do whatever it is he wanted to do because they are all a bunch of partisan hacks and don’t understand Glenn’s genius for producing overwrought garbage.

Good riddance to bad rubbish.

Open thread!

The Greenwald Has Flounced! I Repeat: The Greenwald Has Flounced!Post + Comments (245)

Floriduh! Man Decides To Investigate the Leopards Eating People’s Faces Party!

by Adam L Silverman|  October 28, 202010:54 pm| 266 Comments

This post is in: Cat Blogging, Faunasphere, Nature, Nature & Respite, Open Threads, Pet Blogging

I meant the title to the post literally, not figuratively.

EXCLUSIVE: A man who paid $150 for a “full-contact experience” with a black leopard says he had to undergo multiple surgeries after he was mauled by the animal in an enclosure behind a Davie home https://t.co/x0zlA4G9Ne

— WPLG Local 10 News (@WPLGLocal10) October 28, 2020

DAVIE, Fla. – A man who paid $150 for a “full-contact experience” with a black leopard says he had to undergo multiple surgeries after he was mauled by the fully-grown animal in an enclosure behind a Davie home.

A picture obtained by Local 10 News shows Dwight Turner’s heavily bandaged head and ear after the savage attack, which detectives from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission say happened behind a home on Earnest Boulevard on Aug. 31.

The man who lives there, identified as Michael Poggi, has a Facebook page saying he runs an animal sanctuary for rare and endangered animals.

I think I’ve identified the problem:

Investigators say Poggi charged the 50-year-old Turner $150 for a “full-contact experience” with his black leopard — to “play with it, rub its belly and take pictures.”

FWC’s report says that once Turner walked inside the enclosure, the leopard attacked.

Imagine that!

The injuries were so severe, the report says the victim’s scalp was “hanging from his head and his right ear was torn in half.”

Authorities say Poggi was charged with allowing full contact with an extremely dangerous animal and was cited for maintaining captive wildlife in an unsafe condition.

Attempts to speak to Poggi at his home have been unsuccessful.

Authorities say he is licensed to have the leopard. They say Poggi admitted to them what he did was illegal.

Yes, in Floriduh! you can get a license for a leopard. Who knew? Floriduh! Man knew…

I would think the lesson here is not to play with, rub the belly of, and take pictures with an actual leopard.

Best wishes for a full recovery for the leopard, who I’m sure was traumatized by all of this stupidity. And also for Mr. Turner.

Open thread!

Floriduh! Man Decides To Investigate the Leopards Eating People’s Faces Party!Post + Comments (266)

Post Debate Open Thread: Good News Everybody, We Never Have To See or Hear the President Debate Ever Again!!!!

by Adam L Silverman|  October 22, 202011:17 pm| 259 Comments

This post is in: Ammosexuals, Election 2020, Gun Issues, Gun nuts, Humorous, Open Threads

Thank someone’s, anyone’s Deity or Deities, or if you’re an atheist, no one’s Deity or Deities, that that is over!!!

And now for your post debate enjoyment, I give you the most specialist operator to ever operate operationally!!!!

Dummy here used up the entire 2nd Amendment. pic.twitter.com/jPEa5SLlZ0

— 𝕊𝕦𝕟𝕕𝕒𝕖 𝔾𝕦𝕣𝕝 (@Sundae_Gurl) October 17, 2020

Here’s the full pic:

Post Debate Open Thread: Good News Everybody, We Never Have To See or Hear the President Debate Ever Again!!!!

This must be the world’s most dangerous Subway! Honestly, I used to go to the Subway on FOB Hammer, which is where my Brigade Combat Team was based out of in Iraq, a couple of times a week and get a sub. Sure, we were on the forward operating base, so inside the wire, but it was still a Subway in a war zone during a war albeit one that was in the Phase IV conventional/Phase VII unconventional phase of war, so post major combat operations. I don’t remember ever having more than my M9 (Beretta 92) and two extra magazines with me. Most of the time my sidearm staid in the armory and I checked it out for when I was operating off the FOB, which was about 50 to 60 percent of my deployed time. And even then, depending on what type of Engagements I was doing, I left my sidearm in the armory rather than carry it because of what not carrying it conveyed to the Iraqis I was interacting with.

The specialist operator to ever operate operationally here, however, is just WOW!!!!

This guy is carrying 4 full size SIG P320s, though the desert tan ones in the drop holsters appear to be an attempt to make it look like he’s carrying the military version, which is known as the M17.

He’s got two fill size mags in the black P320s, so that’s 17 rounds in each. 18 in each if he’s got one in the chamber in each gun. It looks like he’s got the 21 round extended mags for the desert tan ones. Let’s stipulate he’s got one in the pipe in all four guns. So that’s 80 rounds in the guns and he’s got two more full size and two more extended mags in the mag carriers in the small of his back. That’s 72 more rounds. Provided he doesn’t have more rounds or even more guns around front set up for cross draw or appendix carry or in his pockets, he’s got 152 rounds to get a $5 footlong!

Each of this pistols, brand new, out the door, is between $440 to $650 depending on what he’s actually bought. They all look to be the X grip configuration, so those are bit more expensive. The spare mags are $49.99 apiece. At the going rate of ammunition, if you can even find it right now, provided he’s got quality self defense ammo in the guns and the back up magazines, he’s got between $152 (Speer Gold Dots) to $228 (Federal HST) worth of ammunition on his waist and hips. Throw in another $200 to $250 for the drop holsters, the belt holsters, the gun belt, and the magazine carriers. So he’s spent between $3,000 and $4,000 to feel safe getting a $5 sandwich!

Personally I’d just go to a sandwich shop in a better neighborhood. Like Iraq.

Open thread!

Post Debate Open Thread: Good News Everybody, We Never Have To See or Hear the President Debate Ever Again!!!!Post + Comments (259)

The DNI/FBI Announcement On Election Interference: Before Anyone Asks, I Really Have No Idea

by Adam L Silverman|  October 21, 20209:04 pm| 197 Comments

This post is in: America, Domestic Politics, Election 2016, Election 2020, Foreign Affairs, Information Warfare, Iran, Open Threads, Politics, Russia, Silverman on Security

Not that I don’t appreciate getting texts and emails asking me about breaking news… So let me just start with: I have no idea.

I watched the press conference, I’ve read The Washington Post‘s reporting on this, and I’m basically like, (except with much more facial hair):

The DNI/FBI Announcement On Election Interference: Before Anyone Asks, I Really Have No Idea

The Washington Post provides us what I think are the important details:

The technical data embedded in the emails did not make immediately apparent who was behind the messages. But metadata gathered from dozens of the emails pointed to the use of servers in Saudi Arabia, Estonia, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates, according to numerous analysts.

The hosting service that previously carried the Proud Boys domain canceled the registration after Google Cloud notified the customer that a nonprofit group had raised concerns about the controversial organization, said Ladd, the Google Cloud spokesman.

Following the action from the hosting service, the domain appears to have been left unsecured, allowing anyone on the Internet to take control of it and use it to send out the menacing messages, said Trevor Davis, CEO of CounterAction, a Washington-based digital intelligence firm.

I have no idea what other, corroborating information that the CIA, NSA, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA, which is part of DHS), National Counterintelligence and Security Center (NSCS, which is part of ODNI), and the National Security Division at the FBI have, but this doesn’t scream Iran to me. Could it be Iran? Sure. Can I say it is or isn’t definitively based on what I know about how Iran behaves after working on issues dealing with Iran for the Army and DOD for over a decade? I can’t. With this information I could just as easily make an argument that this is an Emirati Crown Price Mohammad bin Zayed and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman effort intended to make Iran look bad, which is a fair amount of the attempted covert and clandestine efforts made by the Emiratis and the Saudis. The whole point of the recent agreements between Israel and the UAE, Israel and Bahrain*, and attempt to get agreements between Israel and Saudi Arabia are really attempts to formalize and make overt the decades long covert and clandestine relations that these states have had with Israel in order to establish an anti-Iranian regional alliance.

Part of the problem here is that DNI Ratcliffe has no credibility. Especially as I’m not sure anyone who isn’t a partisan would classify emails like the one below as being anti-Trump.

The DNI/FBI Announcement On Election Interference: Before Anyone Asks, I Really Have No Idea 2

My read of the email above is an attempt to deactivate Biden voters through intimidation. And based on what was said, I’m not even sure these were the emails that DNI Ratcliffe was referring to.

This leads to my other concern here, especially given what Ratcliffe said and what FBI Director Wray did not. DNI Ratcliffe stated that the intelligence points to Iran and Russia, and that in the case of Iran he generically referenced intimidatory emails and then specifically stated that these Iranian efforts are intended to harm the President’s reelection chances. He provided no details regarding whatever Russia is doing. Director Wray said nothing specific at all; he just provided a general warning that both Iran and Russia are actively trying to disrupt the election and that the US government has thwarted one such attempt.

DNI Ratcliffe is both highly partisan and highly unqualified for the position he is currently serving in. My worry is that by making the statements that he did, and rushing to do them tonight before 8 PM EDT, he has provided the President with talking points for his rally tonight. Something the President can pitch to the rally goers as “Did you hear what Director of National Intelligence Ratcliffe – great man, great man – said earlier tonight? He said the Iranians are interfering in the election to get Sleepy Joe elected. Can you believe that? Can you? It’s true, it’s true!”

Frankly what was presented by DNI Ratcliffe was very thin and very concerning because it was very thin. The more generic statements of Director Wray was better largely because he didn’t provide just enough details to make people question the integrity of what was being briefed.

I want to make one final point. What Director Wray told Americans tonight was what should have been announced back in August, September, and/or October 2016 in regard to what Russia was doing in 2016. The Obama administration wanted to do it, but decided it also wanted bipartisan buy-in, so the President pitched it to both the Democratic and Republican leadership in Congress. Senator McConnell killed it by threatening to use any announcement, no matter how appropriate and how non-partisan, as a weapon to politically attack both President Obama and Secretary Clinton. My issues and concerns here are not that a press conference to warm Americans about foreign election interference was done. My issues and concerns of the lack of specificity except in regard to one statement from DNI Ratcliffe that the interference was intended to harm the President and his reelection chances and the need to do this tonight before 8 PM when there’s nothing that couldn’t have waited till 9 AM tomorrow morning.

We are off the looking glass and through the map!

Open thread!

* Just earlier today we learned that Israel has been running a clandestine embassy in Bahrain that was being presented as a development corporation. This reporting raises the questions of 1) how many other Gulf States has Israel done this in, 2) how many US companies, defense or non-defense sector, have been compromised by doing business with companies that are secret Israeli embassies that only Israel and the host country know are fronts, and 3) how much US intellectual property, especially critical for US national security, wound up being stolen as a result?

The DNI/FBI Announcement On Election Interference: Before Anyone Asks, I Really Have No IdeaPost + Comments (197)

  • « Go to Previous Page
  • Go to page 1
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Go to page 3
  • Go to page 4
  • Go to page 5
  • Go to page 6
  • Go to page 7
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Go to page 212
  • Go to Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

Biden-Harris Inauguration

Biden-Harris Inauguration Website
Watch Inauguration events above ⬆

Kakistocracy
I believe In My Fellow Americans
Defeat Them
Turning Bystanders Into Activists
UFOs and Officers
First Up, COVID
Idiots and Maniacs
Our National Illness
Libraries
You Have One Job

Do Something!

Call Your Senators & Representatives
Directory of US Senators
Directory of US Representatives
Letter to Elected Officials – Albatrossity
Letter to Elected Officials – Martin

I Got the Shot!

🎈Ways to Support Our Site

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal
Shop Amazon via this link to support Balloon Juice ⬇  

Recent Comments

  • NotMax on Open Thread (Jan 23, 2021 @ 12:08am)
  • Kent on Open Thread (Jan 23, 2021 @ 12:07am)
  • sanjeevs on Open Thread (Jan 23, 2021 @ 12:06am)
  • sanjeevs on Open Thread (Jan 23, 2021 @ 12:03am)
  • Yutsano on Open Thread (Jan 22, 2021 @ 11:59pm)

Team Claire, and Family

Help for David’s Niece Claire
Claire Updates
Claire update for the holidays 12/23

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year

Featuring

John Cole
Silverman on Security
COVID-19 Coronavirus
Medium Cool with BGinCHI
Information Is Power

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Submit Photos to On the Road
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Meetups: Proof of Life
2021 Pets of Balloon Juice Calendar

Culture: Books, Film, TV, Music, Games, Podcasts

Noir: Favorites in Film, Books, TV
Book Recommendations & Indy Recs
Mystery Recommendations
Medium Cool: What If (Books & Films)
Netflix Favorites
Amazon Prime Favorites
Netflix Suggestions in July
Fun Music Thread
Longmire & Netflix Suggestions
Medium Cool: Places!
Medium Cool: Games!
Medium Cool: Watch or Read Again

Twitter

John Cole’s Twitter

[custom-twitter-feeds]

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2021 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc