I use to get the same Quad S on my tickets when I did official travel when my tickets were bought via DTS.

That's really interesting!!! Thanks for sharing!  (Today it's Green King Ale on tap!)
So, the big question is "what's the nexus between the 'terror watch list' and purchasing through the Defense Travel System?"

At first blush, what could there be?
There's only been Federal Gov't Policy as published through the various Dept. of Homeland Security's handbooks over the years, but as far as I understand, only veterans are considered to be potential domestic terrorists. I know it was removed, partially, during Trump's time, but came back with Biden, but that doesn't answer why it happened to you.

Has everything turned into the DMV? I want to believe it's all due to incompetence, but over the years, there have been a couple of sitting Congressmen who've ended up on a "No Fly List." There never seems to be an answer, at least a public answer.

SCORE CARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Taiwan tracks 27 Chinese military aircraft, 12 naval ships
Attached File

Well, looky here!!!!
I'm guessing the Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group had finished transisting the South China Sea.


Here's another story of Taiwanese indiginous weapon systems in lieu of delivery of US weapons system already paid for. Also, I'm not stopping until I can spell "indiginous" correctly the first time!!!!!!

Taiwan developing underwater unmanned technology

This one is for you, Lieh-Tzu!!
Former US official calls for more US naval passages through Taiwan Strait



Well, that seems to me to be a softening of Pres. Biden's earlier position of definitely using US military force in the event of a Taiwan conflict:
Joe Biden again says US forces would defend Taiwan from Chinese attack

This just popped up, and I expect Carmel is being diabolical chasing it down:
Scholars say Taiwan-Japan relations unlikely to change after Kishida resignation

We'll wait for quotes when we get the "big picture," but for now, this is at least out-of-the-blue for me.

Just speculating, but I believe the elements of the Gov believe some members of the military may be a threat to security because of numerous indicators purchasing guns, registering to vote certain ways, membership it some web boards, etc.

I know the Gov has been hovering up mass amount of data from throughout the web for years.  It’s  not be beyond realm of possible that they they have applying AI to ID people through corralation  that the contemporary gov thinks may be threat.  

https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/malaysia-to-acquire-trains-through-318b-leasing-deal-with-china

I tried warning about this 2 years ago as the wildcard but GD gonna GD anyway, we’re leaning on Allie’s that have their own problems https://www.voanews.com/amp/kishida-reshaped-japan-s-foreign-policy-but-couldn-t-survive-domestic-woes-/7742199.html

Thank you for this post and sharing.  I agree with you 100%. You and a few others here are seeing the big picture.

The R.O.C. Ministry of National Defense posts the flight tracker on X before Taiwan news reports it, usually by several hours.

Thanks!!! I didn't know about 'X', but the Taiwanese MND has an English version of their website: PLA activities in the waters and airspace around Taiwan
But, alas, no pretty picture!!! It's a must have!

Score Card!!!
Taiwan tracks 11 Chinese naval vessels, 6 military aircraft
Attached File

Tomorrow is the half way point of the month. This looks like it's over 500 aircraft for the month. Previous month was a tad over 600 aircraft, and that was with 2 to 3 non-flying days due to the Typhon. Really wish we had a way to get aircraft markings, so we can start seeing a pattern either the same aircraft or perhaps rotating aircraft etc. I'd like to know about engine life. In the 20-teens, the PLAAF could get about 10 to 20 hours flight time out of them. These days, don't know! Everybody seems to be wanting to build jet engines in China for some reason.


We have an update on the story about the former PLA Officer who entered Taiwan by way of a performance boat, got caught, and wants to 'defect.'
Chinese man who illegally entered Taiwan by motorboat denied bail
Attached File

This tough ol' bastard ain't interested in defecting to no one! He screwed up his entry. That boat and the ship that helped him navigate Taiwanese waters was the give-away.

Yours is a better one that I found. Most of them were pretty bad. It's seems as if only leftist media is interested in the story:
'Pulling a Joe Biden': Reactions to Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's resignation

This story was the least sensationalistic. Here's the "Joe Biden" part:
At some point we just have to be honest here. It seems Japanese politics produces corrupt policians that make Arkansas governors  seem like angels in comparison.

I remember several films back in the 80s and 90s based around Japanese corruption

I hate to say it but East Asia like many places has a long track record for corruption

Everyone remember Rising Sun?

I did the math! This is a little over $51.2 million per train set for 30 years. I guess Malaysia want be owning its own tracks around the 20 year mark.

Malaysia amd much of ASEAN are afraid of China so that’s why China keeps pumping  ASEAN as the mechanism for East Asia to resolve disputes. ASEAN didn’t do shit about Burma an example of what China likes ASEAN doing - nothing

China will pump racist NATO and USA are intruding into “yellow man” affairs as outsiders and they will refer to Boxer rebellion Japanese/Westerners victimizing China which is why China pushed so hard to win over South Korea as it doesn’t fit their narrative

You are not incorrect.
Have another Green King!!  

You've always been one of my favorite foreign devils!!! Have a Green King!
Haven't decided what's to be served tomorrow, but it won't be Bud Light!

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202408/1318059.shtml

https://www.voanews.com/amp/kiribati-poll-results-show-pro-china-leader-retains-parliamentary-seat/7743587.html

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce8dy437pdno.amp

When your enemy tells you he wants to kill you, perhaps you should believe him.
Title:





The next part has a "mind-blowing" quote of the belief system of Chinese scholars!:
Hong Kong does not have the GDP it had. There was COVID, so let me rephrase that Hong Kong is back to pre-COVID GDP, but with a lot of government debt that needs to be serviced now. Hong Kong never really had debt issues before. Also, they're using the basic Chinese bull shit system of estimating GDP these days.

I'm not missing the irony of the BBC, a state run entity, being critical of another authortarian government. What's the difference between the PRC and Great Britain inventing "hate speech" charges for foreigners?? Whoops!! Just made the list!!!!!


There's the difference between the PRC and Great Britain.


And now we're right back to not being able to tell the difference between the PRC and Great Britain.

Now we have a very nice "wrap-up" by a very rich and very smart guy:

Score Card!!!
Taiwan tracks 13 Chinese military aircraft, 10 naval ships
Attached File

Tomorrow will be the half way point! It's looking like they'll be hitting in the low to mid 290s unless they get ambitious!

Here's a story I've been waiting for a long time!
Foreign minister urges security dialogue mechanism between Taiwan and Japan

The PRC will not be able to simply only "attack" Taiwan without hitting the Japanese as well. Okinawa and all those little Japanese Islands, say so. PLAN ships will have to be sent to Japanese Territorial waters to act as "picket ships", but they'll also need to get EW and Radar ships out there as well which will also need to be protected.

Now, I wish I could remember what I did with the article about "Taiwanese Comfort Women" protesting or actually, people protesting on their behalf. It was more a MSS thing in any event.

https://www.voanews.com/amp/jakarta-s-exercises-with-beijing-signal-nonalignment-stance-in-us-china-rivalry/7744925.html

Brother Carmel has left us a real "beaut" of an article for Propaganda Friday, and the not-so-big surprise is it's published by the Voice of America.

The article is in three parts. The opener is definitely the shallow end while the meat of it all is in parts 2 and 3. I'm not sure why VOA would copy USA Today when the most important things that you would think the US Gov't would want readers to know is in parts 2 and 3. Mystery! I'm not equating anything nefarious to it, but most people just read the opening paragraphs and call themselves "informed." This is known.^* Moving on! Here's the opener:
Jakarta's exercises with Beijing signal nonalignment stance in US-China rivalry
That's the opening and everyone is now better served with this information.

For those that stay and read, though, things get interesting and fast!

That part in red!! Funny Stuff!!!!

WWII and Swiss Neutrality: The Swiss never conducted joint military exercises with the 3rd Reich, nor with the Allies. In fact, they shot down some Luftwaffe aircraft and still maintained Neutrality. The statement in red is obviously the result of smoking way too much mota. Indonesia is playing both sides in favor of one side over the other, or they're thinking they're smarter than what they are.

The part in blue occurs when one has the ability to blow smoke up one's own ass, and this is "post-graduate level" smoke blowing. What does Indonesia have to offer the "major powers" it believes it has the "brains" to handle???

Well, there's an abundance of low-skill manufacturing that competes with China and Vietnam. Then there's the World's largest muslim population within a single country that the Indonesian government bounces between placating and oppressing in order to pretend there's societal stability. Plus, we have an island archipelago that works as a choke point between the Indian Ocean and the Southern Pacific. I can only wonder which of these the "major powers" would be interested in.

We've already learned one thing about Indonesia when I made the "without hard evidence" claim that the PRC was behind the Piracy at the Straight of Malaca and that area of the Ocean, and that it didn't stop until the Indian Navy started patrolling the Waters. The Indonesians "were patrolling" before. PRC piracy could only occur with Indonesian complicity.

Part 3, and we know it's Part 3 because the first word is "However":
Here's a description of the exercise written by China Military Online:
Chinese naval ships returns from 2023 multilateral naval exercise Komodo
Such an exercise is the excuse to "meet" people from the other militaries but get information. From the PLAN perspective, the real value for the crews on the ships is the part in blue. Humanitarian Aid? The Chinese?? Send one of their 12 Naval Hospital ships for an exercise?? Naw!!! They didn't even show up for the Tsunami back in 2004.

And this begs the question "why?" It's rather out of the blue or green actually as I highlighted in an above quote:

Acting as a conduit of useful information back to the PRC "also explains why Jakarta would be open to low-level military exercises with China even as it prioritizes its much more robust military relationship with traditional partners like the United States, Japan and Australia."

Sierradyne, Baby! Great video Post!!!  Today it's the real Amstel! Not the Amstel Light they use as their export version. The Real Stuff!!!!

The video in a little over 4 minutes describes the land version of the PRC's creating islands in other countries territorial waters. The last two minutes is also good, and worth remembering.

UK and Europe ‘running out of weapons’ to help Taiwan if China invades

https://inews.co.uk/news/uk-europe-running-out-weapons-taiwan-china-invasion-3228835

U.S. naval assets in the Middle East — new map

• ~30% of U.S. Navy fleet en route or in theater
• Guided-missile sub USS Georgia left Crete
• ABE CSG days away

Attached File

Great Job, GoldenMead!!!  It's Amstel on Tap today!!!!!!!!  

I tried to find one the other day. I could only find graphics with the Mediterranean. Now, I'm happy!!

You were literally the first person I thought of when I seen it. I remembered you saying you were looking.

This story is written in an unexpected style. I looked up things. i is part of the Daily Mail Trust Group and there's a holding company called dmg.media that owns i.
I'm going to strip away all that fluff in there except for what I can't cut out inside a paragraph. The Story is important because this is about the third time this year that a European newspaper, even if only on line, has said, Europe is "done" because of the Ukraine War.

Title:
Opening paragraphs describe Taiwan under military pressure from the PRC using "grey" tactics.








Last part of the article is about how the UK can help Taiwan. It's similar to when in Seattle a few years back, and they all reimagined policing. Very similar with very similar results.

Score Card!!!
Taiwan tracks 13 Chinese military aircraft, 7 naval ships
Attached File

By now the Abraham Lincoln's aircraft are out of range, so maybe tomorrow we'll see more PLAAF aircraft. I can hardly wait to find out!!!!!

Seen this on X.  Does a good job comparing what China would gain if they successfully take Taiwan and what we would lose.
Attached File

Gen. Mike Minihan the Commander of the Airforce AIR MOBILITY COMMAND wrote this Memo last year to his Airmen saying he believed we would possibly fight China in 2025.
I believe the MEMO is just as relevant today as it was when he wrote it.  So I’ll share it below for whoever hasn’t read it.

DEPARTMENT OF THE AIR FORCE
HEADQUARTERS AIR MOBILITY COMMAND

MEMORANDUM FOR 18 AF/CC, EC/CC, 22 AF/CC, 4 AF/CC, 618 AOC/CC, ALL AMC WING COMMANDERS

FROM: AMC/CC

1 February 2023

SUBJECT: February 2023 Orders in Preparation for — The Next Fight

SITUATION. I hope I am wrong. My gut tells me we will fight in 2025. [Chinese President Xi Jinping] secured his third term and set his war council in October 2022. Taiwan’s presidential elections are in 2024 and will offer Xi a reason. United States’ presidential elections are in 2024 and will offer Xi a distracted America. Xi’s team, reason, and opportunity are all aligned for 2025. We spent 2022 setting the foundation for victory. We will spend 2023 in crisp operational motion building on that foundation. If you want to know what the operational motion I demand looks like, look at what Total Force Team Charleston did in January.
COMMANDER’S INTENT. Go faster. Drive readiness, integration, and agility for ourselves and the Joint Force to deter, and if required, defeat China. This is the first of 8 monthly directives from me. You need to know I alone own the pen on these orders. My expectations are high, and these orders are not up for negotiation. Follow them. I will be tough, fair, and loving in my approach to secure victory.
END STATE. A fortified, ready, integrated, and agile Joint Force Maneuver Team ready to fight and win inside the first island chain. Maximize the use of the force and the tools we currently have and extract full value from things that currently exist. Close the gaps: C2, navigation, maneuver under attack, and tempo.
RISK. Run deliberately, not recklessly. You will be governed by the principle of calculated training risk, which you shall interpret to mean the avoidance of death, serious injury, and Class A damage to attain higher readiness, integration, and agility. If the Tactic, Technique, and Procedure you are developing increases AMC’s ability to fight and win inside the first island chain… move out. If you are comfortable in your approach to training, then you are not taking enough risk.
OT&E. Attached are our OT&E efforts from 2022 Fall PHOENIX Rally, which will guide our preparation but are not intended to limit creativity of approach. This is not an all-encompassing list. I expect you to move out briskly on the monthly tasks, anticipate the projected tasks and weave them eloquently into your units’ training and operational battle rhythms.
FEBRUARY.
(a) All AMC aligned personnel with weapons qualifications will fire a clip into a 7-meter target with the full understanding that unrepentant lethality matters most. Aim for the head.
(b) All AMC personnel will update vRED [virtual Record of Emergency Data].
(c) All commanders will acknowledge this order directly to me immediately. Then, report all 2022 accomplishments preparing for the China fight, and forecast major efforts in 2023 through command chains by COB 28 February 2023.
MARCH (Projected).
(a) All units will report progress toward established OT&E requirements for INDOPACOM Operations discussed and reviewed at Fall PHOENIX Rally.
(b) All AMC personnel will consider their personal affairs and whether a visit should be scheduled with their servicing base legal office to ensure they are legally ready and prepared.
(c) KC-135 units will coordinate to provide a conceptual means of air delivering 100 off-the-shelf size and type UAVs from a single aircraft.
APRIL (Projected).
(a) All units will report their integration and operation plans for MOBILITY GUARDIAN 2023 to include all events (lead-in and concurrent) they wish to include for credit.
ADMIN. AMC/A3 [Operations] will formalize these orders in FRAGO [Fragmentary Order] format. Completion, progress, reporting, reporting format, and advancement be measured, driven, and collected by our AMC/A3 Team through ARC [Air Reserve Command], NAF [Numbered Air Force] and EC [Expeditionary Center] leadership.
LET’S GO!
MICHAEL A. MINIHAN
General, USAF
Commander

https://www.airandspaceforces.com/read-full-memo-from-amc-gen-mike-minihan/

Who am I to argue with a Chart!!!!!!!

What I would like to point out here is that there are two kinds of consequences charted, one is gain/loss of a few physical, tangible items while the rest of it is all psychological.

While the physical items can be replaced, or substituted at some level of quality and quantity, that will take money, time and effort, but can be done within a generation.

However, the psychological gains and losses, depending on what side of the equation you're on, may take generations to overcome, if at all. Look at Great Britain!!!!

Oh, wait you can't...unless you're looking at a History book. It's just the United Kingdom now, and it's barely that.

Score Card!!!!
Came in this morning!!
Taiwan tracks 15 Chinese naval ships, 7 military aircraft
Attached File

The return to these older flight patterns are interesting. I expected the patterns to be more agressive when the Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group completely passed. That didn't happen. Now, we're left with a couple of choices. One is jet engine replacement as we still don't have any numbers on the hours that Chinese jet engines can live, and the other possibility is this is the lull before the Storm! Only time will tell.
I want to also point out that the red rectangle in the "Northern" corner has a time on station of 11 minutes. That's probably an aircraft while the longer time are more than likely ships averaging 3 to 4 hours on station. Let's assume that how long it takes a PLAN combantant ship to completely empty its magazines.

This is one of those stories that has plot holes in it like so many stories involving governments!
Taiwan Coast Guard says 3 Chinese fishermen missing off coast of Kinmen
(same island where so much has happened in the last 7 months!)
Besides the collision with an "unspecified vessel" where is the Chinese Coast Guard? In any of the previous insertions and extractions, the Chinese Coast Guard was there. Here? Nope. Highly probable conclusion is that a PRC flagged fishing boat hit a submarine and sank with the Chinese Coast Guard cleared of the area, so they don't run into any submarines? Not all of the plot holes will be filled in, but some will. And we'll be ready because when News breaks, we fix it!! (I love that line.)

I hemmed and hawed about this next story. There are two assertions made with one being completely nuts and the other a good and proper idea.
US scholar argues for stronger Taiwan offensive strategy
The problem here is, say you do vaporize the Three Gorges Dam killing tens of millions of Chinese, how do you make certain that the hundreds of millions of Chinese left come to the conclusion that NOW! is the time to over throw the CCP?
It's more likely that those same hundreds of millions of Chinese left will come to the conclusion that vengence is required for the attackers.

However, assertion 2 is here and is even do-able as things stand now:
[color=#0000ff]The CCP will figuratively hang Xi before this happens.

This reminds me too much of Argentina in WWII!!!
But being fair to his point, if the PRC goes after Taiwan, all the countries of the South China Sea will be involved to one extent or another whether they want to be or not. No doubt, some, many, maybe all will reclaim what the PRC took from them to begin with and they'll probably stop there. It's not a strategy I would plow resources into though.

This part is the most dangerous idea "Rubin" is suggesting. First, Taiwan's friends and allies would not stand for it. Way too provocative to say such things publically. It's too bad the researcher Rubin didn't come up with a useful idea how Taiwan could show such a capability? That would be useful, very useful.

Politcal schmoozing for the Win!!!
Taiwan delegation leaves for US to attend Democratic National Convention
We'll see how many photo ops and thank you speeches get said after the DNC Convention.

I highlighted the TPP sentence fragment because they are in real trouble.
Taiwan People's Party embroiled in corruption scandals
(It's been boiling up for the last month, and now it involves the top of the party.)


We've already covered several TPP members getting caught as well as several KMT members.

https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/International-relations/Pacific-island-news-outlets-face-government-pressure-China-influence

https://www.businessinsider.com/chinas-unusual-assault-ship-was-rapidly-built-purpose-a-mystery-2024-8

Iran state news

https://en.mehrnews.com/amp/219746/

China says Philippine vessel 'deliberately collided' with Chinese vessel in the South China Sea

BEIJING, Aug 19 (Reuters) - China's Coast Guard said a Philippine vessel that had ignored its repeated warnings "deliberately collided" with a Chinese vessel in an "unprofessional and dangerous" manner in the disputed South China Sea, according to statements on Monday.

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/china-says-philippine-vessel-deliberately-collided-with-chinese-vessel-south-2024-08-19/

Chinese Coast Guard statement on the incident.
Attached File


Photos of the damaged Philippine ship.
Attached File
Attached File

Man, a lot has happened this weekend and into Monday on the other side of the Pacific!

First, Thanks to all of you for participating in the thread or just reading it!!!! We got lots of stuff to cover.

First up is a Score Card:
Taiwan tracks 9 Chinese naval ships, 8 military aircraft
Attached File

This move here is similar to what the Biden Admin wanted to do with the "Mary Poppins of Disinformation": Biden's 'Mary Poppins of Disinformation' the perfect nanny to tidy up mess of free speech?

Except now it's the PRC!
We covered this in 2022 and 2023 on separate island nations. Back then it was "gifts" of computers and digital printing machines to newspapers. Now, it's flat out money and government commissions to ensure that journalists are "ethical." I had a joke about calling it the "Affordable Children's Ethical Journalist Sustainability Act, but it's not funny any more.

I know Carmel is wild about this ship, but it keeps reminding me of those flying carriers in the sky from the comics and the Japanese anime. It's a big bitch, though, that's for sure.


There are two paragraphs that are far more interesting than the story as a whole:
This is a huge implication for getting the design parameters and technical specifications from spying or just outright purchasing the information.

This bit pretty much speaks for itself. This Nation destroyed its own industrial capability to pursue an agenda of what exactly? Protecting a Yew tree on the Oregon Coast, a small fish in a Delta, a 1.25 inch lizard that's pretty much food for anything that's 2 inches in size? On the other hand, we have wind mills that knock birds out of the sky at an impressive rate and solar projects that can heat up their bodies really quickly almost like a microwave oven can. Amazing! But, I digress!!! Back to work.

Let me show you guys the best thing about this story:
6 results
The earliest this picture was used was on September 4th, 2023.

I point it out because it's "coup" not "coop."

I'm not going to doubt there was a press release, but I do doubt any Iranians attended it!! BUT! and it's a big BUT, it does show complicity between the Iranians and the PRC. This complicity is very similar to US media and the DNC. At least it didn't say, "China says US military coop. with Japan 'weird'

There's probably more depth than their relationship is known besides the oil sales and weapon sales, but we don't have corroboration...yet.

Fantastic photos, GoldenMead!!!

Best line of the story:
Page with the way too short videos;  Propagandists try to show Philippine ship colliding by "broadsiding the bow of a Chinese Coast Guard Ship.

And you really can't tell that these are Chinese Coast Guard ships!! The damage shown in GoldenMead's photos is more of a steel bow hit. I don't believe that Chinese Coast Guard ships use steel bow and Keel construction. Might be wrong! It's 500 ships, and they don't do much search and rescue stuff.