Uber is locked in a legal battle with Google over stolen trade secrets and the cutthroat race for the self-driving car that both companies have set their sights on. It’s a corporate war that could decide the future of the auto industry. And in the middle of it, is just one man: Anthony Levandowski.
Chairman and one board member are absent. PLEASE NOTICE how mindful this group is to make sure that all blue comments are submitted right at the start.
Set aside for the time being everything you've seen or heard about "The Taliban". Here's some recent online sources you might want to read, look and listen to and learn after 16 years of endless war and billion$$$$$$$$$$$$ - and now more - of U.S. Taxpayer money thrown at a military-to-military solution . . . When everyone says "There is NO MILITARY SOLUTION" ??
Afghanistan Again?
The American Military’s Repetition-Compulsion Complex by Ann Jones*
Here we go again! Years after most Americans forgot about the longest war this country ever fought, American soldiers are again being deployed to Afghanistan. For almost 16 years now, at the command of three presidents and a sadly forgettable succession of generals, they have gone round and round like so many motorists trapped on a rotary with no exit. This time their numbers are officially secret, . . The conflict, we’re told, is at present a “stalemate.” > We need more American troops to break it, in part by “training” the Afghan National Army so its soldiers can best their Taliban countrymen plus miscellaneous “terrorist” groups. In that way, the U.S. military ― after only a few more years of “the foreseeable future” in the field ― can claim victory.
But is any of this necessary? Or smart? Or even true? . . A prominent Afghan diplomat doesn’t think so.
She reminded the author of this article that the Taliban are not some invading army - That would be us. They are Afghan citizens, distinguished from their countrymen chiefly by their extreme religious conservatism, misogyny, and punitive approach to governance. Think of them as the Afghan equivalent of our own evangelical right-wing Republicans. You find some in almost every town. And the more you rile them up, the meaner they get and the more followers they gain. But in times of peace ― which Afghanistan has not known for 40 years ― many Taliban most likely would return to being farmers, shopkeepers, villagers, like their fathers before them, perhaps imposing local law and order but unlikely to seek control of Kabul and risk bringing the Americans down on them again. Few Afghans were Taliban sympathizers when the U.S. overthrew the Taliban regime in 2001. Now there are a great many more and they control significant parts of the country, threatening various provincial capitals. SEE VIDEO UPLOAD farther in post
They claim to be willing to negotiate with the Afghan government ― but only after all American forces have left the country. For the Trump administration, that’s not an option. (Think what a negotiated peace would mean for our private arms manufacturers for whom America’s endless wars across the Greater Middle East are a bonanza of guaranteed sales.) . . .
Instead, the president has put “his” generals in the Oval Office to do what generals do. Those in charge now ― James Mattis, H.R. McMaster, and John Kelly ― are all veterans of the Afghan or Iraq wars and consequently subject to what Freud labeled the “repetition compulsion”: “the blind impulse to repeat earlier experiences and situations,” often in the expectation that things will turn out differently. You’d think these particular generals, having been through it all before, would remember that very little or nothing ventured in Afghanistan (or Iraq) by “the greatest military the world has ever known” has worked out as advertised. . . . - Ann Jones, Contributor Author, ‘They Were Soldiers: How the Wounded Return From America’s Wars — The Untold Story’ Link > http://www.huffingtonpost.com
* Ann Jones, ContributorAuthor, ‘They Were Soldiers: How the Wounded Return From America’s Wars — The Untold Story’ __________________________________________________________________________
Published on Sep 25, 2017
President Trump recently announced he would send more troops to Afghanistan. The war in Afghanistan is the longest conflict in US history, and it has been primarily against the Taliban and now ISIS. Both insurgencies have made ground against the Afghan army and are now in full control or have support in many sectors of the war-torn country. --------------------------------------------------
Summary: Stratfor reports on Trump’s new strategy for the Afghanistan War, showing its low odds of success. It’s a follow-up to my post Why Trump’s plan for Afghanistan will fail. How many US troops will die or be crippled trying to make this doomed plan work___________________________________________________________________________________
More excerpts from Ann Jones' article: The accretion of witless insults, like those dogs, or the pork ribs in the MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) that the U.S. military hands out to Afghan soldiers, or endless fatal U.S. airstrikes (mistakes!) on villages, hospitals, wedding parties, and Afghan National Security Forces have all added up over the years, making Americans unwelcome and their Afghan friends targets. You undoubtedly noticed some of the headlines at the time, but the Afghanistan story has proven so long, complicated, and repetitive that, at this point, it’s hard to recall the details or, for that matter, the cast of characters, or even why in the world we’re still there doing the same things again and again and again American victory certainly hasn’t materialized, but the greatest military the world has ever known(as it’s regularly referred to here) cannot admit defeat. The American effort is now to be exclusively military. There will be no limits on troop numbers or time spent there, nor any disclosure of plans to the enemy or the American public. There is to be no more talk of democracy or women’s rights or human rights or peace negotiations.
> Lessons Learned (and Unlearned) We can’t allow Afghanistan to become a safe haven for terrorists, Trump insisted, echoing (however unintentionally) Barack Obama and George W. Bush before him. He seems unaware that the terrorists who acted on 9/11 had found safe haven in San Diego and Oakland, California, Phoenix and Mesa, Arizona, Fort Lee and Wayne, New Jersey, Hollywood and Daytona Beach, Florida, and Newton, Massachusetts, among other American towns and cities. On 9/11, those 19 terrorists possessed 63 valid U.S. driver’s licenses issued by many different states. It was in the United States that all 19 of those terrorists found safety. It was here, not in Afghanistan, that the prospective pilots for those hijacked planes learned to fly.
America's great divide: The large parts of America behind by today's economy Kim Hart https://www.axios.com
Economic prosperity is concentrated in America's elite zip codes, but economic stability outside of those communities is rapidly deteriorating.
Data: Economic Innovation Group
Distressed Communities Index
Map: Lazaro Gamio / Axios
What that means: U.S. geographical economic inequality is growing, meaning your economic opportunity is more tied to your location than ever before. A large portion of the country is being left behind by today's economy, according to a county-by-county report released this morning by the Economic Innovation Group, a non-profit research and advocacy organization. This was a major election theme that helped thrust Donald Trump to the White House.
The 2017 Distressed Communities Index
The Distressed Communities Index (DCI) combines seven complementary metrics into a broad-based assessment of community economic well-being in the United States. Relying on Census Bureau data for the years 2011 to 2015, the DCI covers over 26,000 zip codes and 99.9 percent of the U.S. population as well as cities, counties and congressional districts, enabling Americans to understand how their local well-being stacks up at every scale of life. The DCI groups places evenly into five different tiers based on their performance on the index: Prosperous, comfortable, mid-tier, at risk, and distressed.
As you’ll see below, the U.S. economy contains a diverse and fragmented landscape of economic well-being—one in which many communities are flourishing, while far too many are left behind.
The 2017 DCI finds that52.3 million Americans live in economically distressed communities—the one-fifth of zip codes that score worst on the DCI. That represents one in six Americans, or 17 percent of the U.S. population. By comparison, 84.8 million Americans live in prosperous communities—the one-fifth of zip codes that score best on the DCI. These top-performing zip codes contain 27 percent of the country’s population, a far greater share than any other tier. Underlying indicators of well-being vary drastically across the different tiers of U.S. communities. READ MORE > http://eig.org/dci
Doesn't look like the 16-year war is ending any time soon
Afghan Air Force receives first Black Hawk helicopters
Reuters Staff September 19, 2017 / 4:02 AM / 6 days ago
KABUL (Reuters) - The Afghan Air Force took delivery of its first four U.S.-made UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters on Tuesday as part of a planned replacement of its aging fleet of Russian-made Mi-17 helicopters, officials said.
The U.S. plans to supply a total of 159 Black Hawks to Afghanistan in the coming years as it boosts the capacity of the AAF, considered one of the best-performing parts of the Afghan Defence and Security Forces.
“The first Afghan Air Force UH-60s arrived today in Kandahar. They will help further develop a capable and sustainable AAF,” the NATO-led Resolute Support mission said.
The robust Soviet-era Mi-17 is the workhorse of the AAF, accounting for around half of all sorties in recent months and is very popular with Afghan pilots.
As well as moving troops and casualties and flying in supplies to areas difficult to reach by road, the helicopters can also be fitted with weapons for close air support to units on the ground.
Blogger Note:
According to this report on 18 Nov 2013Earlier this year Pentagon had agreed to buy a total of 63 Mi-17 V5 helicopters for the Kabul government at a cost of $1.1 billion. Photo: AP
Russian military experts have accused the U.S. Defense Departmentof playing politics and bowing to lobbyists in its cancellation of an additional $345 million worth of Russian Mi-17 helicopters for the Afghan air force. The Pentagon last week cancelled a plan to buy 15 more Russian Mi-17 helicopters to beef up the Afghan air force, citing weapons sales from Rosoboronexport, the state arms exporter, to the Syrian government. "From the very beginning it was clear that this deal was very sensitive. There were constant demands in the U.S. to get out of it for political reasons," said Vasily Kashin, an expert from the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies. Kashin added that previous to this, no one had doubted that the Mi-17 would be the best choice for the Afghan air force. "In Afghanistan, there is a big problem with the staff. They at least still have some technicians who have experience with Soviet equipment. But Afghans do not know how to properly maintain machinery from Western producers," Kashin said. The United States, whose troops are scheduled to leave Afghanistan in early 2014, already purchased 20 Russian Mi-17. According to an agreement that is part of the joint effort of Moscow and Washington to combat international terrorism, the Pentagon had agreed to buy a total of 63 Mi-17 V5 helicopters for the Kabul government at a cost of $1.1 billion.
However their age makes them increasingly difficult to maintain and replace and they are to be phased out over the coming years and replaced with refurbished Black Hawks, one of the mainstays of the U.S. Army’s helicopter force.
In addition to operational considerations, the Pentagon has also long faced political pressure from Congress to switch spending to U.S.-built aircraft.
Strengthening the Afghan Air Force is a central part of President Ashraf Ghani’s four year plan to improve Afghan security forces which have struggled to contain the Taliban insurgency since the NATO-led coalition backing the government ended its main combat operations in 2014. Source: https://www.reuters.com
Reporting by James Mackenzie; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore
