Military Veterans and Patriots

Tag: Ecuador

  • The View From Here

    The View From Here

    Featured Image: The Thousand Islands region of the St Lawrence river taken from Grenadier Island.

    We’re kicking off today’s View with some news out of Ecuador. From Reuters:

    Ecuador is reeling from a fresh wave of violence that has shaken the South American nation, with President Daniel Noboa launching a military crackdown on gangs after criminal groups took more than 100 prison staff hostage and armed men dramatically interrupted a live television broadcast.. . .

    Police said on Sunday that Adolfo Macias, the leader of the Los Choneros criminal gang, had disappeared from the prison where he was serving a 34-year sentence. Authorities are trying to track him down.

    Meanwhile, there were incidents of violence in at least six prisons beginning on Monday. As of Wednesday, more than 100 guards and other staff were still being held hostage by prisoners. In Riobamba, a provincial capital in central Ecuador, 39 inmates escaped from a prison, though some have been recaptured.

    Seven police officers were also kidnapped around the country, though three have been freed.

    Much of this is being blamed on the Coof and the Ecuadorian response by the ‘experts’. While that may have some effect, it’s really the soft on crime policies and the look-the-other-way attitude towards drug cartels that caused this explosion in violence. And let’s be honest, that part of Central and South America has a unique violence problem and has for a very long time. El Salvador has tried to crack down on criminal gangs this year with some success. That success has not been without detractors, there has been widespread condemnation of potential civil rights abuses. This editor thinks El Salvador hasn’t gone far enough with the punishment for Mara Salvatrucha.

    Hunter Biden made a short appearance at a hearing being held in the House. The committee was marking up the charges against him. Nancy Mace, R-SC, laid into the first son:

    “My first question is who bribed Hunter Biden to be here today?” Mace said.

    “You are the epitome of white privilege coming into the Oversight Committee spitting in our face ignoring a congressional subpoena to be depose.? What are you afraid of? You have no balls.”

    Mace added: “I think Hunter Biden should be arrested right here, right now, and go straight to jail.” [….]

    “Hunter Biden wasn’t afraid to sell access to Joe Biden to the highest bidder when he was an elected office. He wasn’t afraid to trade on the Biden brand, peddle influence and share those ill gotten gains with members of his family, including Joe Biden,” Mace said.

    “He wasn’t afraid to compromise the integrity of the presidency and vice presidency by involving Joe Biden shady business deals with our foreign adversaries. But Hunter Biden, you were too afraid to show up for a deposition and you still can’t today.” Mace added “My last message to you, Hunter Biden, you play stupid games, you win stupid prizes.”

    He fled the hearing shortly after that exchange.

    https://twitter.com/RNCResearch/status/1745106360834924959?s=20

    I have a couple of questions about his appearance at the hearing. First, why didn’t the Chair order the Sergeant at Arms to arrest him on the spot? Before anyone asks, yes, they have that authority. I’ll freely admit it would have been pure political theater, but still.

    Second, who on his team thought this was a good idea? Never mind the legal exposure, as if there would ever be consequences. The press lit into Hunter as he left the hearing, and his advisors had to know it would happen. This is the best of the press questions AFAIC:

    https://twitter.com/TPostMillennial/status/1745107221992632623?s=20

    Anthony Fauci testified to the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic Chaired by Ohio Republican Brad Wenstrup. Here are the highlights of his testimony:

    https://twitter.com/COVIDSelect/status/1745048323852005634?s=20
    https://twitter.com/COVIDSelect/status/1745048326448247246?s=20
    https://twitter.com/COVIDSelect/status/1745048329128427718?s=20
    https://twitter.com/COVIDSelect/status/1745048331414307111?s=20

    I really hope that odious little gnome gets what he deserves. That said, I’m a realist and know, deep down, nothing is going to happen. And I mean nothing at all. This country, and the entire world for that matter, is no better prepared for a major pandemic now than they were 5 years ago. Hell, they’re probably worse off now. You know, scratch ‘probably’. The way the shot was forced on everyone created more issues than it could have ever solved. Worst among those issues is the heightened hesitancy to get new and novel shots.

    A recent intelligence report seems to show the People’s Liberation Army of the CCP has major corruption and readiness issues. The report indicated that instead of rocket fuel, many of the CCP’s ICBMs contained water in their fuel tanks. It also indicated the silo doors on some of the fixed missile installations did not open far enough to launch a missile. There are indications that Xi is undergoing a major purge in the PLA leadership over these and other concerns.

    https://twitter.com/nexta_tv/status/1743709041145065975?s=20
    …to risk staging large-scale military operations in the near future, according to the publication.

    While I have no reason to disbelieve this story, I still remember that the US intel agencies were saying the Soviets were still a major threat right up until the USSR collapsed in 1991. It’s not that I think the PLA is immune from that level of corruption, they aren’t, it’s the fact that Obama’s NSC leaked the identities of most US assets in China and they either got rolled up or got disappeared.

    All that said, my opinion of the PLA/CCP hasn’t changed much over the past few years. They’re good at bullying smaller neighbors but that’s about it. Their record of force projection is abysmal. Hell, the Vietnamese kicked the shit out of them in the late 70s/early 80s. Look up the Sino-Vietnamese war if you don’t believe me. Then there’s the shit that’s going on with India in the Aksai Chin region.

    Got a story to share? A comment on anything here? Let us know in the comments below.

  • Doc Three

    Doc Three

    The Fascinating World of Deep Mountain Lakes

    This is a nature documentary, which leads us into the fascinating world of deep mountain lakes. We conquer ice palaces of unsuspected beauty. In the freezers, in which elves, fairies and mountain trolls once did their mischief, we move, using a special breathing technique and with special cameras in search of nocturnal hunters, whose eyes are equipped with residual light amplifying receptors. A nature documentary, recorded in 2k-cinema format with precision cameras, such as super slow motion, time lapse, residual light and remote-controlled cams.

    Great Smoky Mountains – Staggering Biodiversity in America’s most visited National Park

    Great Smoky Mountains National Park is an American national park in the southeastern United States, with parts in Tennessee and North Carolina. The park straddles the ridgeline of the Great Smoky Mountains, part of the Blue Ridge Mountains, which are a division of the larger Appalachian Mountain chain. The park contains some of the highest mountains in eastern North America, including Clingmans Dome, Mount Guyot, and Mount Le Conte. The border between the two states runs northeast to southwest through the center of the park. The Appalachian Trail passes through the center of the park on its route from Georgia to Maine. With 12.5 million visitors in 2019, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the most visited national park in the United States.

    The park is almost 95 percent forested, and almost 36 percent of it, 187,000 acres (76,000 ha), is estimated by the Park Service to be old growth forest with many trees that predate European settlement of the area. It is one of the largest blocks of deciduous, temperate, old growth forest in North America.

    The variety of elevations, the abundant rainfall, and the presence of old growth forests give the park an unusual richness of biota. About 19,000 species of organisms are known to live in the park, and estimates as high as an additional 100,000 undocumented species may also be present. Park officials count more than 200 species of birds, 50 species of fish, 39 species of reptiles, and 43 species of amphibians, including many lungless salamanders. The park has a noteworthy black bear population, numbering about 1,500.[38] Elk (wapiti) were reintroduced to the park in 2001. Elk are most abundant in the Cataloochee area in the southeastern section of the park.

    It is also home to species of mammals such as the raccoon, bobcat, two species of fox, river otter, woodchuck, beaver, two species of squirrel, opossum, coyote, white-tailed deer, chipmunk, two species of skunk, and various species of bats.

    Over 100 species of trees grow in the park. The lower region forests are dominated by deciduous leafy trees. At higher altitudes, deciduous forests give way to coniferous trees like Fraser fir. In addition, the park has over 1,400 flowering plant species and over 4,000 species of non-flowering plants.

    From Ecuador to Galápagos

    Ecuador is worth a journey for just more than one reason. For example there would be the history of the Inca wall Ingapirca or the shamanism which is still prevalent. But Hans and his team have also been anxious of course to see and to feel the traces of the former colonialists from Spain everywhere in the country.

    Ecuador lies on the middle of the earth, the equator. This fact is high-lighted with a huge globe, which is a main target for tourists. However, Ecuador is particularly interesting for nature-lovers. Large parts of the west of the country is covered with Amazon rainforest. For humans the jungle is inhospitable but for the animals it is an ideal place to live. The camera crew has taken some hardships to be able to observe some animals at close range.

    From the alligator to the boa and from the butterfly to the squirrel monkey, such cute animals as well as dangerous predators are represented in this documentary. Everything is to discover on narrow space in Ecuador, from a magic coastal landscape up to dangerous time bombs of mother nature, the volcanoes. Highlight of the film is the visit of the Galapagos islands far off shore the pacific coast. Charles Darwin observed the turtles and the Galápagos marine iguana here. But primarily he concentrated on the finches, however. They were of greatest importance for the proof of his theory of evolution.