Russia's Game Plan in Syria Is Simple

From Julia Ioffe, at Foreign Policy, "Stick it to the Americans":

In Monday’s press briefing, coming after a weekend in which Moscow increased its military footprint in Syria seemingly exponentially, White House press secretary Josh Earnest declared that the administration had come no closer to deciphering Moscow’s motives for its stepped-up presence in the area.

The truth is Russia’s motives are not that hard to divine.

The most proximate reason is the fact that Bashar al-Assad, Syria’s embattled, murderous leader, has been losing territory at a rapid pace. In July, he made a rare announcement admitting losses and blaming them on a shortage of manpower. “We are not collapsing,” he said, which is not something regimes that are not collapsing often have to proclaim publicly. Allowing Assad to continue on the same losing trajectory is anathema to Moscow. “Bashar al-Assad is losing; he’s losing one town after another,” said Georgy Mirsky, a vintage Russian Arabist who teaches Middle Eastern conflicts at Moscow’s Higher School of Economics. “If you don’t help Assad, he’ll lose and then the whole world will say Putin lost.” Putin placed his bet on Assad four years ago, Mirsky said, and he hasn’t wavered since. Now he has become a prisoner to that bet and to a certain honor-bound logic. “If you make a bet on a horse and the horse comes in last, then how does it look?” Mirsky explained. “It looks like you don’t understand anything. You will be seen as a loser.”

Russia has always supported Assad, but that support now seems to be inadequate to stanch the bleeding. To avoid looking like a loser who bet on the wrong horse — which, incidentally, Putin has done a lot of in the Middle East — Putin simply has to put more on the scale to maintain the same equilibrium.

Why prop up Assad? Some commentators have pointed to what they see as a burgeoning Russian influence in the region, but many in Moscow see it differently. This talk is “slightly exaggerated,” said Fyodor Lukyanov, editor of Russia in Global Affairs, who is no Kremlin critic. “Russia doesn’t have many opportunities in the region, and Syria is a unique case.” Russia, he said, is simply stepping into the void left behind by American waffling and a lack of clarity in its Syria policy. “The growth of Russian influence is directly proportional to the decline of American influence in the region,” Lukyanov explained. “The United States lost its mission so maybe the other regional powers see Russia as bad and unpleasant, but they also see that it acts clearly and consistently.” And yet, Lukyanov said, Russia’s expanded horizon for action in the region “is all thanks to Syria. It all starts and ends in Syria.”

Other, more hard-line voices in Moscow are gloating over this role reversal, however exaggerated or mild...

Keep reading.

We're Sorry for Producing Our Cisgendered Son

From Brandon Morse, at the Federalist.

Man Sets Gas Pump on Fire While Trying to Kill Spyder with Cigarette Lighter (VIDEO)

At Right Wing News, "Brilliant! Man Sets Gas Pump and Car Ablaze Trying to Fry Spider with Lighter [Video]."

Here's a YouTube clip, "Man starts massive fire at gas station while trying to kill spider."

Video Shows Vicious Attack on 83-Year-Old Man in Santa Ana

Obama's America.

From Preston Phillips, at ABC News 10 San Diego, "Please RETWEET this video. Santa Ana, #California PD need help finding person who beat up elderly man on walk Friday."

(Also, "Video of Random Attack on 83 Year Old Man in a Parking Lot.")

Actually, the suspect has been apprehended. At the Los Angeles Times, "Suspect arrested for attack on 83-year-old man in Santa Ana."

'We must abandon almost everything we thought we knew about the goods of progress, happiness and growth...'

I'm reading Adbusters, just as a lesson and reminder of who the enemy is.

Frankly, they're everywhere. The leftist culture has metastasized. It's seeped into the unconscious of the up and coming generations, to the point that young people and their unreconstructed '60s rejects are actively opposed to the preservation of society and culture. And I mean preservation of the society and culture that has generated the highest levels of freedom and prosperity the world has ever known. The radical left of today's cultural Marxist social justice warriors, Democrat pajama boys, and the boot-licking enablers in the Obama-loving media will not stop until the "fundamental transformation" promised five days before election '08 has been achieved.

As you hear every four years, this next presidential election is the most important ever, the most important in our country's history. Just think how much better off we'd be had Barack Obama lost reelection in 2012. It's going to take decades to reverse the damage, which is why stopping the Democrat collectivists in 2016 has become a truly existential proposition.

From Kalle Lasn, publisher and editor of Adbusters, "Thought Control":

Unbridled neocon capitalism has been riding the back of humankind without opposition for nearly two generations now. It has provided no answer yet and it has no answer for the most pressing threat of the future, namely climate change. We economics students and heterodox economists must rise up in universities everywhere and demand a shift in the theoretical foundations of economic science. We must abandon almost everything we thought we knew about the goods of progress, happiness and growth. We have to re-imagine industry, nutrition, communication, transportation, housing and money and pioneer a new kind of economics, a bionomics, a psychonomics, an ecological economics that is up to the job of managing our planetary household.

— From Meme Wars: The Creative Destruction of Neoclassical Economics.

'Go Vegan' Animal Rights Protest March in Hollywood (VIDEO)

At CBS News 2 Los Angeles:



And check the "#GoVegan" hashtag on Twitter. It's a very short step from these "activists" to animal liberation terrorists (who show no hesitation to taking human life in the name of "animal rights").

Closer Huston Street Injured in Angels Spectacular Walk-Off Win Against Mariners at Anaheim Stadium

What a game, seriously.

And as with any spectacular drama, it had extreme highs and lows.

Mike Trout's historic catch, robbing the Mariners' Jesus Montero of a home run in the fourth inning, was simply unbelievable.

But closer Huston Street was hurt bad the ninth inning. Thank goodness David Freese came up and smacked a walk-off home run on the first swing in the bottom of the inning, better for the team to go tend to Street and rest after holding their spot 1/2 game out of a wildcard berth.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Huston Street's injury is a grim note in Angels' dramatic win":

Mike Trout is not easily impressed with himself. Saturday night, he could not help himself. When he returned to Earth, he mouthed several words, including this one: Wow.

Trout made one of the most spectacular catches of this or any other year, pushing himself several feet above the outfield wall to electrify Angel Stadium and rejuvenate the home team.

The catch might live forever on “SportsCenter.” On this night, however, the catch was not the most important development for the Angels, or the decisive play.

In the top of the ninth inning, they lost closer Huston Street to injury. In the bottom of the ninth, David Freese hit a walk-off home run, lifting the Angels to an emotional 3-2 victory over the Seattle Mariners.

The Angels remained one-half game behind the Houston Astros for the final spot in the American League wild-card race. The Angels have eight games left.

It appears unlikely that Street could pitch in any of those games. Manager Mike Scioscia said Street has a groin injury that is “not good.” Scioscia did not put a timetable on a recovery, but Street sat out 13 days because of a groin injury in July.

Joe Smith, the setup man, normally would replace Street as closer. Smith is out with a sprained ankle, and the Angels are uncertain whether he can return before the regular season ends.

However, in the wake of Street's injury, Smith said he might try to throw off a mound Sunday and accelerate his return.

Street, scurrying to back up a base on a routine ground ball, got off the mound cleanly, then took an awkward step and collapsed. He got up and tried to walk off the field on his own but had to be helped back to the dugout. That could leave rookie Trevor Gott as the closer, although Scioscia said he would try a committee approach.

If not for Trout's catch, the Angels would have been staring at a four-run deficit and Felix Hernandez on the mound. But Trout's wondrous feat kept the deficit at one run — and, two innings later, C.J. Cron tied the score with a home run.

Freese, a World Series hero for the St. Louis Cardinals, won the game in the ninth with the first walk-off home run of his career — regular season, that is.

The outlook did not look promising for the home team before Trout donned his cape.

Keep reading.

'I don't trust the UN on free speech issues. You shouldn't either...'

At Popehat, "A Few Comments on the UN Broadband Commission's 'Cyber Violence Against Women and Girls' Report":

I don't trust the UN on free speech issues. You shouldn't either. In a world where Iran wins a seat on the UN's Commission on the Status of Women, people who care about women's rights should also be skeptical. Pro-censorship forces continually pressure the UN for international laws and norms restricting speech — for instance by demanding laws outlawing blasphemy. Allow me some unabashed American exceptionalism: that's a bad thing. The United States' vigorous approach to protecting free speech and rejecting blasphemy laws is good, and foreign norms that encourage blasphemy laws often used to persecute religious and ethnic minorities are bad.

Read it all at that top link, and note the update.

Hat Tip: Instapundit.

BONUS: See Time, FWIW, "U.N. Says Cyber Violence Is Equivalent to Physical Violence Against Women."

Birthday Reading: The War That Forged a Nation

My mom's visiting for my birthday weekend. We're going out to dinner at Ruby's a little later.

Meanwhile, mom gave me a copy of James McPherson's, The War That Forged a Nation: Why the Civil War Still Matters. I've already read a couple of chapters. It's great!

Slow-Motion Sexy Sports Time Video

At Playboy, "It's Slow-Mo Sexy Sports Time with Playmates."

Happy Birthday Bryan Ferry!

He's a great guy. Saw him way back in '79, at my first "gig."

At the Mirror U.K., "Bryan Ferry turns 70 today."

And previously, from January, "Bryan Ferry: 'Let's Stick Together'."

Favorites in Military History

At Amazon, Military History.

Recommended, Alex Kershaw, The Liberator: One World War II Soldier's 500-Day Odyssey from the Beaches of Sicily to the Gates of Dachau.

Shop Clothing, Shoes, Handbags, and More

At Amazon, Shop Clothing, Shoes, Handbags, and More - 20% Off Fall Fashion.

Plus, from Roger Kimball, The Long March: How the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s Changed America.

Communities Struggle to Care for Elderly, Alone at Home

The other "Home Alone."

At the Wall Street Journal, "More people age at home, raising demand for support services":

STOCKHOLM, Maine—At least three times a night during much of the long, harsh northern winter, Aldea Campbell gets out of bed, steps into her slippers, and descends a flight of frighteningly steep, narrow wooden stairs to the cellar to fill her wood-burning stove. She’s 82, a widow, and has lived in her 102-year-old house near the Canadian border for almost six decades.

She burns wood because she can’t afford enough oil to get through the cold months. When her arthritis is bad, she gingerly maneuvers the steps sideways to keep from falling. But still, she slipped on the stairs twice last year, once badly hurting her tailbone. “It happened so fast,” she said.

Such predicaments are increasingly common in Maine: the grayest, most rural state in the U.S., with housing among the oldest in the nation. Maine has another distinction: it is among the first states to experience challenges from a growing number of seniors who are “aging in place”—remaining independent rather than relocating to nursing homes or moving in with grown children.

More elderly across the nation are aging at home for a variety of reasons: they prefer to and are healthy enough to stay; they can’t afford other options such as assisted living; and states in some cases have imposed policies to limit nursing home stays paid for by Medicaid, which is a major funder of long-term institutional health care for older Americans.

But aging in place is proving difficult in places where the population is growing older, supportive services are scarce, houses are in disrepair and younger people who can assist have moved away. As a result, elderly people who live at home are having to rely more on neighbors—who sometimes are elderly, too—and local nonprofits and public agencies are starting to feel the strain from increasing requests for help.

“It’s a huge issue—it couldn’t be bigger,” said Lenard Kaye, director of the University of Maine Center on Aging. “Ninety-nine percent of older adults say they want to stay right where they are until they’ve taken their last breath, but that doesn’t mean they are continuing to remain safe and remain well.”

Keep reading.

Why 'Market Garden' Was a Bridge Too Far

The Allies' Operation Market Garden took place September 17–25, 1944.

Here's a history flashback, at the BBC, "The Battle of Arnhem (Operation Market Garden)" (via RealClearHistory):

In May 1945 it was the Russians who hoisted their flag over the ruins of the Reichstag building in Berlin. In this way World War Two, in Europe, was signalled as being effectively over. However, the troops who captured Berlin could easily have been British or American, if events around a small town in Holland had turned out differently.

If Operation Market Garden, planned to take place in the area near Arnhem, in Holland, had succeeded, the western Allies could have punched their way across one of the last great natural barriers between them and the German fatherland.

Their tanks and troops might have reached Berlin weeks before the Russians, ending the war by Christmas 1944. The fate of post-war Europe might have been very different.

Market Garden was one of the boldest plans of World War Two. Thirty thousand British and American airborne troops were to be flown behind enemy lines to capture the eight bridges that spanned the network of canals and rivers on the Dutch/German border.

At the same time, British tanks and infantry were to push up a narrow road leading from the Allied front line to these key bridges. They would relieve the airborne troops, and then cross the intact bridges.

The plan was conceived by General Bernard Montgomery, commander of the British forces in Europe. The glittering triumph of the D-Day landings in France had become bogged down in the slow and costly progress through the Normandy fields and hedgerows, which the Germans defended with skill and tenacity.

Despite this, after weeks of heavy fighting, the Allies had finally broken through. For the next three weeks they rolled through France and Belgium, liberating Paris and Brussels. Victory for the Allies seemed close.

But Hitler's forces were regrouping, and as the Allies pushed nearer to Germany's borders, German resistance stiffened. Montgomery believed that a powerful, narrow thrust deep into German lines would be more effective than an advance on a broad front, which had become difficult to supply from the few ports controlled by the Allies, and this was why he devised Operation Market Garden...

Keep reading.


And watch, "A bridge too far movie first bridge fight."

Trying on Bras with Helen Flanagan

Watch, at Maxim, "FHM Sexy Shorts Presents: Trying Shedloads of Lingerie with Helen Flanagan."

Interview with Los Angeles Anchor Baby Sophie Cruz, the Pawn Immigrant Child Who Met the Pope (VIDEO)

Following-up from yesterday, "Anchor Baby Sophie Cruz Plea to Pope Wasn't Spontaneous (VIDEO)."

Watch, at CBS News 2 Los Angeles , "LA Girl's Encounter With Pope In DC Not Random."

Interview with Woman Who Gave Birth During Padres-Giants Game at Petco Park (VIDEO)

Following-up from yesterday, "Woman Gives Birth at Petco Park."

And now at ABC News 10 San Diego, "'I'm going to have this baby, like right now'."

At the United Nations, Pope Francis Calls for Urgent Action on Climate Change (VIDEO)

At USA Today, "Pope Francis pushes world leaders at U.N. to protect environment."

Angels Beat Mariners 8-4 at Anaheim Stadium to Move 1/2 Game Out of Wildcard Spot

Second baseman Johnny Giavotella returned from the disabled list to put up a performance for the ages.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Angels begin last stand in playoff chase with a win over Mariners," and "Angels' Johnny Giavotella gives credit to mom for recovery."

And at the O.C. Register, "His vision healed, Angels' Johnny Giavotella is a sight for sore eyes."