IRGC Quds Force Commander Brigadier General Esmail Ghaani arrived in Syria on October 21 to monitor Iranian-backed militias on the Israel-Syria border, according to Israeli media. CTP-ISW cannot independently verify this report. Iranian-backed militias have concentrated in southern Lebanon and southwestern Syria in recent days as part of Iran-led preparations for the war to expand into a regional conflict. An Iranian state-affiliated journalist previously claimed that Ghaani warned Syrian President Bashar al Assad on October 15 that Iran intends to use Syria as a second front if the Israel-Hamas war expands. An unspecified Iranian intelligence official claimed that Iran would start a ”limited” ground operation from Syria into the Golan Heights and notably not from Lebanon if the situation escalates to protect LH.
sdferr:
Any blast doors? Fuel air explosives are the ticket (to martyrdom for Hamasites). Kabooms with airborne drones to identify exit points (FLIR or infrared thermal imaging) followed up with more kabooms. Rinse and repeat.
sdferr,
Thanks for that link. I knew at some basic level that Israel had its worked cut out for it with regard the tunnels, but that video shows that they face a Herculean task in clearing those out. I hope some minds more adept at planning such a tactic than mine can figure it out. And as some of the comments showed, think of the labor and cost of building those tunnels. Our US tax dollars sent to the Palis well spent. How much forced labor also was used?
om physicsguy and sdferr-
I’m thinking/hoping that IDF has been working on a means to blast the tunnels for a couple of decades now, waiting for an opportunity to physically enter Gaza so they can complete the mission. Ground penetrating radar or sonar, drill holes, pump in appropriate explosive gas and time delay explosive, collapse tunnels (and overlying buildings?). Role of IDF infantry and armor is to establish access; minimal need for high risk room to room clearing.
Following the story of the Samantha Woll murder in Detroit. She was a prominent young Jewish woman, synagogue president, active in Muslim-Jewish “interfaith” activities. The police have said there is “no evidence” that it was an anti-Semitic crime, but there’s also apparently no evidence that it wasn’t. We’ll see.
I’m not sure how deep the Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) scans can get good data, the stuff I look at goes about 15 ft. (I’m using it to identify pipelines and such before drilling boreholes for soil sampling.)
Establishing security in Gazaland to slloe the boffins and sappers map out the Hamasite subsurface infrastructure (tunnels and bunkers) and while the clearing is done (destruction
of said murderer’s dens) is a big challenge for the IDF.
Yes, regarding the murder of a Detroit Jewish synagogue leader we must not speculate about sudden Jihad syndrome. Nothing to see, move along. (sarc)
Have we heard anything from Rashida Tlaib or her peeps in Dearborne or from Ilian Omar or her peeps in Minneapolis?
Crickets.
Prediction: they will never find the killer of Mrs Woll, and a motive will never be established. No consideration that the murder of a prominent Jew who is foolish enough to live in proximity to the largest concentration of Jew-hating Arabs in the USA might be subjected to some hostile behavior perpetrated by said Jew-haters.
This follows the template they used in claiming that the Wuhan virus absolutely positively did not originate in the Wuhan Institute of Virology. We still don’t know for sure…
Who could think such a thing? It’s unpossible.
I find the reports from Detroit on Ms. Woll’s murder peculiar. We hear there is no evidence of a motive. But usually we would hear that her phone and purse were stolen, or that she let her assailant into her home and then trailed blood until death as she ran away, or SOMETHING. Instead, nothing, which probably means there are indications they’d like to cover up for political reasons.
Konstantin Kisin, at The Free Press (via Power Line):
Several of you have posted Konstantin Kisin’s recent editorial. If you like Mr. Kisin and have not seen it, I recommend you take 10 minutes to listen to his speech last year the Oxford Union: https://youtu.be/zJdqJu-6ZPo?si=umnoIh1jjDpeL-6e
“Citizen Free Press” has provided a link to an inspiring speech by Noa Tishby. For Neo’s readers there’s nothing new, but Tishby’s delivery is vivid, and her talk takes less than ten minutes, so if you have the time …
And here’s a brief bio of Tishby:
“Born and raised in Tel Aviv, Israel, actress, producer, writer, and activist … Noa was appointed as Israel’s first-ever Special Envoy for Combatting Antisemitism and the Delegitimization of Israel, a position she held until 2023” (https://www.noatishby.com/bio).
Thus far, the House Speaker battle is a triumph of “Just Say No” to more Federal spending that we don’t have to spend.
But signs are that the struggle to reign in over-spending is about to be lost because the money-whores of the Institutional legacy GOP; indicates this with the unseemly dispatch of firebrand Jim Jordon for Speaker.
The Epoch Times columnist Jeffrey Tucker spells it out for us, citing the honest Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie as exceptionally well informed and alive to the ultimate stakes.
“Here is what Massie wrote in the thick of battle.
“These are important words:
‘I’ve taken thousands of votes during my time in Congress. No roll call has been as clarifying as the one for Jim Jordan as Speaker. Why isn’t his election easy here? Because his leadership represents a credible threat to the unchecked growth of our bloated federal government.’
“Of course the mainstream media described Jordan as far-right and a Trump guy, which certainly gives the wrong impression, if those words mean anything at all beyond signaling “we don’t like him.”
“What he is in fact is the best investigator of deep-state machinations, a fierce debater, and a dedicated opponent of corruption and big government on all fronts.
“He is a good representative of the most prescient and powerful ideas within the GOP. Most especially, he has a bead on the administrative state as the hidden enemy of the U.S. Constitution and American liberty generally.
“And this is precisely why certain powers-that-be in Washington, D.C. were absolutely dedicated to making sure that he could not get this close to the center of power. The urgency these days to keep the racket going and keep rebels at bay has become extremely intense.
“The deep state wants to keep a lid on it.”
His leadership represents a credible threat to the unchecked growth of our bloated federal government.’
Such a heartbreaking ballad. Kate McGarrigle wrote it after her husband, Loudon Wainwright III left her, while she was pregnant, for a performance artist named Penny Arcade. (Shoot me now!)
_________________________
Go, leave
Don’t come back
No more am I for the taking
But I can’t say that my heart’s not aching
It’s breaking in two
I remember days when we laughed a lot
Those that weren’t so good I soon forgot
We could sit and talk till words
Were coming out our ears
Not just for days or weeks or months
But it’s been years
Now here they come
Here they come here come my tears
I saw Rufus at a big Tony Robbins event. He was a participant, but he got on stage with Tony and more than held on his own.
“His [Jim Jordan] leadership represents a credible threat to the unchecked growth of our bloated federal government.’”
TJ, sounds like a sequel to the Empire Strikes Back.
Juxtapose what happened to Jordan (a secret vote that removed him from consideration as Speaker)– something Newt Gingrich said was something he’d never seen before.
Then consider what precipitated all of this. Conservatives in the House wanted to send a CR with spending at about $1.47 trillion– not the full funding of the CR passed by the Democrats. McCarthy eventually brought to the house a spending bill the Democrats liked– and without their support it wouldn’t have passed.
From the Hill about the “clean” CR: “The proposed plan doesn’t have the spending cuts or policy provisions that had been poison pills for Democrats…”
“The clean continuing resolution (CR) would require support from two-thirds of the House for passage because it is being considered under a fast-tracked mechanism called suspension of the rules. That means it would rely heavily on Democratic support to pass.”
“The decision by McCarthy opens his Speakership up to threats from hardline conservatives like Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) who have warned McCarthy to not put a clean CR on the floor.”
““If someone wants to remove because I want to be the adult in the room, go ahead and try,” McCarthy said.”
Odd thing for the Speaker of the House to say– it was like a challenge. Well the eight conservatives bit and here we are today.
This couldn’t have worked out for the Democrat party any better had they been in control. They got the spending level they wanted, with no pesky border spending and while it contained no money for Ukraine– that could be taken care of later.
So what’s the rush to elect a new Speaker– as long as the damage can be pushed onto Gaetz and his merry band. And there is no way the GOPe is going to let a conservative speaker be elected, even if he’s popular– actually because he’s popular.
Until the polling shifts the blame from the conservatives to the GOPe, there is really no downside to the GOPe. The MAGA conservatives get the blame, the GOPe get the spending they want– including Ukraine and Israel and icing on the cake would be a couple of those pesky MAGA’s being primaried and losing their seats.
om physicsguy and sdferr-
Some details on the planned Israeli attack on the tunnels by Edward Luttwak.
I can’t vouch for his accuracy or what his sources are, but he agrees with me that the IDF has been developing a plan to do this, with specialized tactics and equipment, that will minimize their casualties.
Inshallah.
Yep, you have to protect the sappers while they work. I doubt that the tunnels and complexes are on par with Iran’s nuclear facilities by. Grand Slam type bombs from WWII (earthquake bombs may be what’s needed? Houses built on sand …. Be sad to have to rubbleize all of Gazaland.
Re: Edward Luttwak.
Geez. He’s been around a while. I recall browsing his book, “Coup d’État: A Practical Handbook,” back in the 1970s. It’s supposed to be a classic.
I live in a nice ABQ neighborhood near UNM. It used to be rare to see a For Sale sign here. In the past few months I’ve noticed two house sold within a block and now I see three more For Sale signs nearby.
Is there a crash coming?
I read that fed rate hikes are causing slow down in home sales
Oldflyer and other aviators past and present:
What do you know about the off-duty Alaska Airlines pilot who apparently tried to crash a flight from Everett (WA) to San Francisco by shutting down the plane’s engines? The perp’s name is Joseph Emerson, which doesn’t sound like a case of sudden jihadi syndrome. There’s a map of Flight 2059’s flight path at the link.
And you might be interested in Loudon’s response, many years later:
Re: “When You Leave”
neo:
That’s the most thorough act of contrition in song I can recall:
________________________
Then you left women;
One a wife
To save your skin you wrecked a life
When there’s kids, its not just one life you wreck
You’re on the run
You go to town to start anew
But those you left come after you
… The darndest thing is kids grow up
One day some strange adults show up
The ones you left arrive in town
“That’s nice”, you say, “they’ll be around
Perhaps they’re just a bit bereft, but they’ll forgive the one who left”
Sad stories can have happy ends
Perhaps now, you can just be friends
Your power’s gone
It was pretend
The wife you left meant more to them
Its not just that they side with her
You left and who knew where you were
The reason that they came to town
Was just to make the place their own
They realized your greatest fear;
You are so close but hardly here
Its what you think
Its how you feel
And what’s worse is you know its real
–Loudon Wainwright, “When You Leave”
________________________
Through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault.
huxley:
Loudon Wainwright is such a gifted and difficult guy. I once saw him in concert years ago and afterwards, for various reasons (long story), had quite a long talk with him. He was very funny, VERY cynical, very charismatic.
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Take a blurry ride in a tunnel. A Gazatunnel. A murdertunnel. Halloween is coming, after all: https://therightscoop.com/new-video-shows-how-elaborate-hamas-tunnels-are-under-gaza/
Go Leave?
Is that about to be the anti-woke anthem?
In any event, here’s someone who appears to have been mugged…and then some.
“The Day the Delusions Died”—
https://www.thefp.com/p/the-day-the-delusions-died-konstantin-kisin
H/T Powerline blog.
From the Institute for the Study of War
Oct 22, 2023 – ISW Press
IRGC Quds Force Commander Brigadier General Esmail Ghaani arrived in Syria on October 21 to monitor Iranian-backed militias on the Israel-Syria border, according to Israeli media. CTP-ISW cannot independently verify this report. Iranian-backed militias have concentrated in southern Lebanon and southwestern Syria in recent days as part of Iran-led preparations for the war to expand into a regional conflict. An Iranian state-affiliated journalist previously claimed that Ghaani warned Syrian President Bashar al Assad on October 15 that Iran intends to use Syria as a second front if the Israel-Hamas war expands. An unspecified Iranian intelligence official claimed that Iran would start a ”limited” ground operation from Syria into the Golan Heights and notably not from Lebanon if the situation escalates to protect LH.
sdferr:
Any blast doors? Fuel air explosives are the ticket (to martyrdom for Hamasites). Kabooms with airborne drones to identify exit points (FLIR or infrared thermal imaging) followed up with more kabooms. Rinse and repeat.
sdferr,
Thanks for that link. I knew at some basic level that Israel had its worked cut out for it with regard the tunnels, but that video shows that they face a Herculean task in clearing those out. I hope some minds more adept at planning such a tactic than mine can figure it out. And as some of the comments showed, think of the labor and cost of building those tunnels. Our US tax dollars sent to the Palis well spent. How much forced labor also was used?
om physicsguy and sdferr-
I’m thinking/hoping that IDF has been working on a means to blast the tunnels for a couple of decades now, waiting for an opportunity to physically enter Gaza so they can complete the mission. Ground penetrating radar or sonar, drill holes, pump in appropriate explosive gas and time delay explosive, collapse tunnels (and overlying buildings?). Role of IDF infantry and armor is to establish access; minimal need for high risk room to room clearing.
Following the story of the Samantha Woll murder in Detroit. She was a prominent young Jewish woman, synagogue president, active in Muslim-Jewish “interfaith” activities. The police have said there is “no evidence” that it was an anti-Semitic crime, but there’s also apparently no evidence that it wasn’t. We’ll see.
https://nypost.com/2023/10/22/community-shocked-by-stabbing-death-of-detroit-synagogue-leader-the-most-beloved-person-in-detroit/
West TX Intermediate Crude:
I’m not sure how deep the Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) scans can get good data, the stuff I look at goes about 15 ft. (I’m using it to identify pipelines and such before drilling boreholes for soil sampling.)
Establishing security in Gazaland to slloe the boffins and sappers map out the Hamasite subsurface infrastructure (tunnels and bunkers) and while the clearing is done (destruction
of said murderer’s dens) is a big challenge for the IDF.
Yes, regarding the murder of a Detroit Jewish synagogue leader we must not speculate about sudden Jihad syndrome. Nothing to see, move along. (sarc)
Have we heard anything from Rashida Tlaib or her peeps in Dearborne or from Ilian Omar or her peeps in Minneapolis?
Crickets.
Prediction: they will never find the killer of Mrs Woll, and a motive will never be established. No consideration that the murder of a prominent Jew who is foolish enough to live in proximity to the largest concentration of Jew-hating Arabs in the USA might be subjected to some hostile behavior perpetrated by said Jew-haters.
This follows the template they used in claiming that the Wuhan virus absolutely positively did not originate in the Wuhan Institute of Virology. We still don’t know for sure…
Who could think such a thing? It’s unpossible.
I find the reports from Detroit on Ms. Woll’s murder peculiar. We hear there is no evidence of a motive. But usually we would hear that her phone and purse were stolen, or that she let her assailant into her home and then trailed blood until death as she ran away, or SOMETHING. Instead, nothing, which probably means there are indications they’d like to cover up for political reasons.
Konstantin Kisin, at The Free Press (via Power Line):
https://www.thefp.com/p/the-day-the-delusions-died-konstantin-kisin
Several of you have posted Konstantin Kisin’s recent editorial. If you like Mr. Kisin and have not seen it, I recommend you take 10 minutes to listen to his speech last year the Oxford Union: https://youtu.be/zJdqJu-6ZPo?si=umnoIh1jjDpeL-6e
And, if you are not aware, he and fellow comedian Francis Foster have an always interesting podcast, Triggernometry: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7oPkqeHTwuOZ5CZ-R9f-6w
“Citizen Free Press” has provided a link to an inspiring speech by Noa Tishby. For Neo’s readers there’s nothing new, but Tishby’s delivery is vivid, and her talk takes less than ten minutes, so if you have the time …
Here’s the link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzYZb9WRArs
And here’s a brief bio of Tishby:
“Born and raised in Tel Aviv, Israel, actress, producer, writer, and activist … Noa was appointed as Israel’s first-ever Special Envoy for Combatting Antisemitism and the Delegitimization of Israel, a position she held until 2023” (https://www.noatishby.com/bio).
Thus far, the House Speaker battle is a triumph of “Just Say No” to more Federal spending that we don’t have to spend.
But signs are that the struggle to reign in over-spending is about to be lost because the money-whores of the Institutional legacy GOP; indicates this with the unseemly dispatch of firebrand Jim Jordon for Speaker.
The Epoch Times columnist Jeffrey Tucker spells it out for us, citing the honest Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie as exceptionally well informed and alive to the ultimate stakes.
“Here is what Massie wrote in the thick of battle.
“These are important words:
‘I’ve taken thousands of votes during my time in Congress. No roll call has been as clarifying as the one for Jim Jordan as Speaker. Why isn’t his election easy here? Because his leadership represents a credible threat to the unchecked growth of our bloated federal government.’
“Of course the mainstream media described Jordan as far-right and a Trump guy, which certainly gives the wrong impression, if those words mean anything at all beyond signaling “we don’t like him.”
“What he is in fact is the best investigator of deep-state machinations, a fierce debater, and a dedicated opponent of corruption and big government on all fronts.
“He is a good representative of the most prescient and powerful ideas within the GOP. Most especially, he has a bead on the administrative state as the hidden enemy of the U.S. Constitution and American liberty generally.
“And this is precisely why certain powers-that-be in Washington, D.C. were absolutely dedicated to making sure that he could not get this close to the center of power. The urgency these days to keep the racket going and keep rebels at bay has become extremely intense.
“The deep state wants to keep a lid on it.”
His leadership represents a credible threat to the unchecked growth of our bloated federal government.’
Do you want your country back from the bastards? Then Jordan’s work has just begun, if we fight!
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/why-uniparty-sabotaged-jim-jordan
Re: Kate McGarrigle / “Go Leave”
Such a heartbreaking ballad. Kate McGarrigle wrote it after her husband, Loudon Wainwright III left her, while she was pregnant, for a performance artist named Penny Arcade. (Shoot me now!)
_________________________
Go, leave
Don’t come back
No more am I for the taking
But I can’t say that my heart’s not aching
It’s breaking in two
I remember days when we laughed a lot
Those that weren’t so good I soon forgot
We could sit and talk till words
Were coming out our ears
Not just for days or weeks or months
But it’s been years
Now here they come
Here they come here come my tears
–Kate and Anna McGarrigle, “Go, Leave”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63dIZ4ylfac
_________________________
Kate’s daughter says if you listen closely to the album version, you can hear Kate’s tear drop hit the guitar strings.
I can’t. But I have some hearing loss.
Maybe you can.
Here’s a surprise bookend for “Go Leave.” Rufus Wainwright, son of Kate M. and Loudon W., performing “Go Leave.”
–Rufus Wainwright & Amsterdam Sinfonietta, “Go Leave (Kate McGarrigle), Leiden 7/1/2017”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmgnLLZ_D6s
I saw Rufus at a big Tony Robbins event. He was a participant, but he got on stage with Tony and more than held on his own.
“His [Jim Jordan] leadership represents a credible threat to the unchecked growth of our bloated federal government.’”
TJ, sounds like a sequel to the Empire Strikes Back.
Juxtapose what happened to Jordan (a secret vote that removed him from consideration as Speaker)– something Newt Gingrich said was something he’d never seen before.
Then consider what precipitated all of this. Conservatives in the House wanted to send a CR with spending at about $1.47 trillion– not the full funding of the CR passed by the Democrats. McCarthy eventually brought to the house a spending bill the Democrats liked– and without their support it wouldn’t have passed.
From the Hill about the “clean” CR: “The proposed plan doesn’t have the spending cuts or policy provisions that had been poison pills for Democrats…”
“The clean continuing resolution (CR) would require support from two-thirds of the House for passage because it is being considered under a fast-tracked mechanism called suspension of the rules. That means it would rely heavily on Democratic support to pass.”
“The decision by McCarthy opens his Speakership up to threats from hardline conservatives like Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) who have warned McCarthy to not put a clean CR on the floor.”
““If someone wants to remove because I want to be the adult in the room, go ahead and try,” McCarthy said.”
Odd thing for the Speaker of the House to say– it was like a challenge. Well the eight conservatives bit and here we are today.
This couldn’t have worked out for the Democrat party any better had they been in control. They got the spending level they wanted, with no pesky border spending and while it contained no money for Ukraine– that could be taken care of later.
So what’s the rush to elect a new Speaker– as long as the damage can be pushed onto Gaetz and his merry band. And there is no way the GOPe is going to let a conservative speaker be elected, even if he’s popular– actually because he’s popular.
Until the polling shifts the blame from the conservatives to the GOPe, there is really no downside to the GOPe. The MAGA conservatives get the blame, the GOPe get the spending they want– including Ukraine and Israel and icing on the cake would be a couple of those pesky MAGA’s being primaried and losing their seats.
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4231745-house-republicans-to-vote-on-45-day-clean-stopgap-funding-bill/
Mick Mulvaney explaining how the lack of Speaker favors increased spending.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvzW6HLx4Vg
Arnold Schönberg, “Verklärte Nacht”, Stringsextet, Op.4: https://youtu.be/bwxTJJzwwjc?si=78TGjhmCHxjMQXKC
om physicsguy and sdferr-
Some details on the planned Israeli attack on the tunnels by Edward Luttwak.
I can’t vouch for his accuracy or what his sources are, but he agrees with me that the IDF has been developing a plan to do this, with specialized tactics and equipment, that will minimize their casualties.
Inshallah.
https://unherd.com/2023/10/how-israel-will-invade-gaza/
Thanks West TX, will look.
West TX Intermediate Crude:
Yep, you have to protect the sappers while they work. I doubt that the tunnels and complexes are on par with Iran’s nuclear facilities by. Grand Slam type bombs from WWII (earthquake bombs may be what’s needed? Houses built on sand …. Be sad to have to rubbleize all of Gazaland.
Re: Edward Luttwak.
Geez. He’s been around a while. I recall browsing his book, “Coup d’État: A Practical Handbook,” back in the 1970s. It’s supposed to be a classic.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coup_d%27%C3%89tat:_A_Practical_Handbook
OT: Housing market?
I live in a nice ABQ neighborhood near UNM. It used to be rare to see a For Sale sign here. In the past few months I’ve noticed two house sold within a block and now I see three more For Sale signs nearby.
Is there a crash coming?
I read that fed rate hikes are causing slow down in home sales
Oldflyer and other aviators past and present:
What do you know about the off-duty Alaska Airlines pilot who apparently tried to crash a flight from Everett (WA) to San Francisco by shutting down the plane’s engines? The perp’s name is Joseph Emerson, which doesn’t sound like a case of sudden jihadi syndrome. There’s a map of Flight 2059’s flight path at the link.
https://www.axios.com/2023/10/23/alaska-airlines-joseph-emerson-horizon-flight-2059
huxley:
The song nearly always makes me cry, too.
And you might be interested in Loudon’s response, many years later:
Re: “When You Leave”
neo:
That’s the most thorough act of contrition in song I can recall:
________________________
Then you left women;
One a wife
To save your skin you wrecked a life
When there’s kids, its not just one life you wreck
You’re on the run
You go to town to start anew
But those you left come after you
…
The darndest thing is kids grow up
One day some strange adults show up
The ones you left arrive in town
“That’s nice”, you say, “they’ll be around
Perhaps they’re just a bit bereft, but they’ll forgive the one who left”
Sad stories can have happy ends
Perhaps now, you can just be friends
Your power’s gone
It was pretend
The wife you left meant more to them
Its not just that they side with her
You left and who knew where you were
The reason that they came to town
Was just to make the place their own
They realized your greatest fear;
You are so close but hardly here
Its what you think
Its how you feel
And what’s worse is you know its real
–Loudon Wainwright, “When You Leave”
________________________
Through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault.
huxley:
Loudon Wainwright is such a gifted and difficult guy. I once saw him in concert years ago and afterwards, for various reasons (long story), had quite a long talk with him. He was very funny, VERY cynical, very charismatic.