Lockheed Martin has developed a battlefield laser weapon to shoot down drones. Here’s video of it in action.
Keep in mind all the caveats of corporate-produced weapon test videos (if a test run was a failure, you wouldn’t be seeing that video), and don’t expect these to be deployed in the battlefield anytime soon. But it’s still promising.
That’s what this headline implies. The truth is a little less dramatic: Raqqa is on the edge of full liberation and the Islamic State is in retreat everywhere else.
Static lines of control that held for months in northern Raqqa have collapsed, as seen in this Syria Livemap screen cap:
Compare that to this map from September 5:
Islamic State fighters are running out of territory in Raqqa to defend.
Here’s a video from the battle of Raqqa:
Southeast of Raqqa, Syrian government forces and the SDF are both pushing toward Deir ez-Zor.
SDF also say they have captured Syria’s largest oilfield from the Islamic State near Deir ez-Zor.
Elsewhere in the theater, “Iraqi Security Forces and the Syrian Democratic Forces have cleared ISIS out of about 50,000 square miles and liberated more than 6 million people who were living under Islamic State occupation.”
Here’s a map of Iraqi forces collapsing the pocket of Islamic State forces to the southwest of Kirkuk that have been cut off from the rest of the Islamic State at least since the investment of Mosul.
Everywhere within it’s supposed caliphate, the Islamic State is in retreat, and nowhere is it counterattacking successfully. But it still holds a lot of territory, and there’s a lot more fighting left before declaring it dead.
Bonus video: Royal Air Force drone stops Islamic State public execution:
Having been busy with Stuff and Things, Dwight beat me to the punch on the last news on the upcoming corruption trial against State Democratic Representative Dawnna Dukes. But the latest revelation is a doozy:
As they prepare for state Rep. Dawnna Dukes’ corruption trial next month, Travis County prosecutors are prepared to present evidence that she showed up to work at the Capitol impaired, hid a cellphone from investigators and spent more than $51,000 on an online psychic.
At least with regular graft, you can understand how the corrupt pol benefits. Blowing $51 grand of taxpayer money on Miss Cleao just adds insult to idiocy.
More of Dukes’ Greatest Hits:
In other “extraneous acts” listed in the filing, prosecutors say Dukes:
Was absent for roll call 65 percent of the time during the 2017 legislative regular session, and 36 percent of the time in the special session. Responded to a search warrant for her cellphone by providing investigators a phone that did not match the identification number on the phone they had requested Was noticeably impaired while trying to perform legislative duties at the Capitol and showed up late to a House Appropriations Committee hearing on March 29, stating, “I know I’m talking a lot. I’m full of morphine and will be headed out of here soon.” Agreed to a contract with the Austin school district for her company, DM Dukes and Associates, to provide business evaluations but subcontracted the work to a consulting firm. The district paid Dukes $514,224 from May 2015 to March 2016. Arrived late to court settings on June 30 and Aug. 21. Judge Brad Urrutia threatened to hold Dukes in contempt if she does it again. Failed to submit in a timely fashion both a campaign finance report before the 2016 election and a 2017 personal financial statement. She was fined $1,000.
It’s a veritable buffet of bad behavior, and I look forward to Dukes appearing on Most Shocking: Legislators Out of Control.
I’ve gone ahead and added Judicial Watch to the Blogroll under Think Tanks/Etc. Judicial Watch carried out a crucial role in uncovering several aspects of Hillary Clitnon’s Emailgate scandal, and continue to discover and document misdeeds by public officials through targeted Freedom of Information Act requests. Indeed, their work was so valuable, I signed up as a donating member.
They’re worth your time and attention.
(Hey kids! Save that headline and you’ll be able to use it again and again and again…)
Once again, President Donald Trump retweeted a silly meme and liberal Twitter freaked out:
Donald Trump's amazing golf swing #CrookedHillary pic.twitter.com/vKhxxFCBV1
— CNN SUCKS (@Fuctupmind) September 14, 2017
That’s Trump hitting a golf ball cut with one of Hillary Clinton’s many, many campaign trail stumbles, with CGI in the later of that ball hitting her, causing the stumble.
It’s obviously silly, obviously unreal, and elicits a chuckle. It also reminds his followers that the MSM repeatedly covered up this and other Hillary stumbles until leaked footage of her 9/11 collapse made them cover the issue.
Yet liberal Twitter reacted as if President Trump were advocating assaulting random old women in the street:
Trump thinks hitting a woman with a golf ball and knocking her down is funny. Myself, I think it indicates a severely fucked-up mind.
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) September 17, 2017
Uh Trump retweeted this video of him…assaulting Hillary Clinton? pic.twitter.com/LknEOG8CKD
— Ben Dreyfuss (@bendreyfuss) September 17, 2017
NEVER ACCEPT NORMALIZATION OF VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN, no matter how much our sick misogynist in chief revels in it. https://t.co/VlRxaIb2SH
— Lisa Bloom (@LisaBloom) September 17, 2017
Do they actually think Trump is promoting violence? Will hundreds of MAGA-cap wearing Trump supporters descend on Hillary’s book tour with 9-irons and attempt to hook and slice her to death?
It’s like people accusing Mel Brooks of wanting to murder black law enforcement officers based on the sheriff-welcoming scene in Blazing Saddles.
The mockery of same was equally as swift:
Has CNN threatened to dox the person who made this gif yet? 😂😂 #TrumpGolf pic.twitter.com/6Jz1HjtEbb
— Mark Dice (@MarkDice) September 17, 2017
Trump Golf Meme…
The liberal snowflakes melted down! One lib even said he should be jailed for it–yes, jailed for retweeting a video.
— Funkytown (@hotfunkytown) September 17, 2017
The fake outrage over a video of Hillary getting hit by a golf ball is laughable.
Severed head photo was fine?
Trump murder play was fine?— Bob Koch (@TheBobKoch) September 17, 2017
And this is such a big story that the New York Times, the Washington Post and The Guardian all have stories on it.
The weird thing is, the media ought to know by now that such unbalanced pearl-clutching overreactions hurt them far worse that Trump. They also show Trump’s still using the media’s obsession with him to dominate the news cycle.
Here’s a Prager University video demolishing the myth of the “Southern Strategy,” the idea that the party of Bull Conner and George Wallace magically became the party of civil rights and the Republican Party took their place as the party of racism.
(Hat tip: Adam Baldwin’s Twitter feed.)
Remember how a month ago how almost all the different Syrian factions were concentrating on crushing the last remnants of the Islamic State?
Good times, good times.
Well the good times may be over, as Russian and Syrian forces launched an airstrike against the U.S.-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces northeast of Deir ez-Zor.
Both are converging on Deir ez-Zor, thought to be the de facto capital of what’s left of the Islamic State. SDF also wants to keep Assad’s forces on the western side of the Euphrates.
Here’s the situation from Syria Livemap:
It would be nice if both sides could finish dismantling the Islamic State before launching the next war…