Recordings of the "sonic attack" targeting US diplomats in Cuba

AP.

The above video is the first known recording of the sonic attack that has caused a diplomatic row with Cuba and has injured several US and Canadian diplomats. The sound is horrible, high pitched and extremely annoying. It also gives us few clues as to what is going on and seems to raise more questions than it answers. 

It's important to note that this recording might not be an accurate representation of what is happening. I doubt that the audible frequencies were the ones that did any damage. My guess is that acutally damaging frequencies were ultra or infra sonic. They were either too high frequency or too low frequency for human ears to hear. 

I will say that it is very good that these recordings are being released. Even if the attack is ultra or infra sonic, these new recordings will be used as a warning for those under attack. They won't be able to sense the non-audible frequencies that are doing the damage but they should be able to hear this and take measures to protect themselves. This should hopefully decrease the injuries suffered in these attacks. 

We still don't have a whole lot of clues as to what is happening in Cuba. A sonic weapon seems far fetched but there seems to be little other explanation for what is happening. I doubt this is a natural phenomenon or some kind of industrial accident due to the fact that Cuban citizens aren't being effected as well. 

That leaves this as a deliberate attack. Since Cuba isn't really known for non-communist terrorist groups, it probably is the Cuban government. State level resources are probably necessary for the development and deployment of this weapon... whatever it is. 

This is horrible behavior by the Cubans. One thing you don't ever do is attack diplomats. Doing so is hugely counterproductive since diplomats are the only people that can defuse tense situations. Though it is obvious that relations between Cuba and America were going to get worse after Trump was elected, the Cubans have escalated things beyond anything reasonable. They will pay a heavy price for their actions. 

American/Canadian family rescued from the Taliban in Pakistan.

Catlin Coleman and Joshua Boyle with two of their children. NBC News

Pakistan has secured the release of a family captured by the Taliban. NBC News. American Catlin Coleman and her Canadian husband, Joshua Boyle, along with their three children, are now free. Coleman and Boyle were captives of the Taliban linked Haqqani network, who captured the couple in 2012 in Afghanistan. Coleman was pregnant at the time and gave birth to three children in captivity. Pakistan retrieved the family in an "intelligence based mission". The release comes after criticism from the US government who claimed that Pakistan wasn't doing enough to fight terrorism and extremism in the region. There are hopes that US-Pakistan relations will improve after this operation. 

My Comment:

Very good news out of Pakistan this morning. Though I doubt that the family was in real danger of death, they were still being held hostage by a group of terrorists/criminals. The Haqqani network is somewhere between a gang, terrorist organization and religious group and they are not nice people. They might not execute many hostages like ISIS does, but they do hold them for ransom, separating them from their families. You may remember that they held SGT Bowe Bergdahl after he deserted the military. He was released after a very controversial prisoner exchange.

Thankfully that didn't happen here. It seems as though the Pakistanis launched a military raid to secure the freedom of this family. There doesn't seem to be much information on that raid. The NBC report didn't mention much and neither did any other article that I have seen. I have seen no reports of causalities or even conflict, at least at the time of this post. Still, such an operation is dangerous and I am glad that the family was rescued safely. I'm very impressed that the Pakistanis were able to pull this off, but I wouldn't be surprised if we helped them with intelligence. 

I do have to say that I can't imagine why these people were in Afghanistan in the first place. I don't think I would be comfortable traveling there alone, let alone with a pregnant wife. Afghanistan is a very dangerous place and given how many terrorist groups that are active in the country this family was very lucky that they were kidnapped by a group more interested in ransom. Some of those groups may have loved to execute an American or Canadian hostage. 

Bad judgement aside, it must have been horrible to have to raise young children in that environment. I don't know where these people were being held but I am guessing they had to live a life of constant movement and travel. They couldn't stay in any one place for too long due to fears of the hostages being rescued. That would make it very hard to raise kids. Those kids will have a better life now that they are back home. We can all be thankful for that. 

This seems like a major goodwill gesture from the Pakistanis. Under President Trump, relations with Pakistan have suffered. Trump has been extremely critical of Pakistan for not doing enough to fight terrorists, and with good reason. Pakistan has long been a base for radical groups and is often used as a staging area for attacks on US forces in Afghanistan. His criticism stung and our relationship with Pakistan suffered.

This raid is a gift and a way to make up for the bad blood between the two countries. Obviously America was very eager to get these people home safe, but there is also political concerns as well. This will be a minor victory for Trump, and may encourage him to work with the Pakistanis. He's already praising them and saying that the move shows respect to him and America. 

Will it last? I guess it depends if this is a one off thing. Pakistan still has a lot of work to do in the region. The Taliban still use their country as a base and so do other criminal and terrorist outfits. If they do start to pressure these groups, I see no reason why Trump wouldn't want to work with them. At the very least, this incident can be used as an opening for both sides to try and work together for their common interests. It might not be a panacea but it's a start. 

Trump wins against the NFL. Roger Goodall caves and releases memo saying players should stand for the anthem.

A Donald Trump supporter at a Steelers game. Washington Post/AP.

It what is being seen as a major victory for President Trump, NFL commissioner Roger Goodall has released a memo saying that NFL players should stand for the national anthem. Washington Post. Goodall sent the memo to the owners of the NFL teams and it leaked immediately. Though the anthem protests had never really died down after Colin Kaepernick left the league, Trump reignited the issue at a rally for failed Senate candidate Luther Strange. Trump said the NFL should fire the kneeling players. Trump doubled down by rescinding an invitation to the NBA championship team and his Vice President, Mike Pence, left a Colts/49ers game when players their knelt during the anthem. Trump caught a lot of flack for his stance from the media, but he and his fans were able to put massive pressure on the NFL. The NFL has been declining in ratings and Trump was considering investigating tax breaks for the NFL. Though Goodall himself has capitulated, it is unclear if the players will continue the protests. 

My Comment:

I said a couple of times that I knew that Trump was going to win here. It was fairly predictable after all. Donald Trump has always had good instincts on what middle America is thinking and he knew that people were more upset about these protests then they were letting on. He tapped into that anger and let a boycott movement that hit the NFL right in the pocketbook. There was little doubt in my mind that the NFL would lose, my only question was how long it would take. Three weeks was pretty quick...

Though we don't seem to have good numbers on how effective these protests are it seems like they had an effect. Ratings have mostly been down for the NFL, but that has been a trend for awhile now. Certainly there was polling data that said ratings were down and that people said it was because of the protests, but we won't be sure how much is due to other factors as well. 

But I think we can confirm that the protests were working in some way. After all, Goodall had no other reason to capitulate. He doesn't want a fight with his players and he doesn't want to anger the liberal sports media who are most likely going to crucify him for being spineless. He'd have to have a very good reason to do this and my guess it was the survival of the league itself. I think he knew that his ratings were tanking and people weren't buying tickets or gear anymore. And given how many franchises were on the brink in the first place, he had to do something. 

I have to say that the NFL bungled this entire situation from the start. They never should have allowed Kaepernick to continue his protest in the first place. Perhaps they didn't have to fire him, like Trump had asked for, but they could have taken action against him for kneeling during the anthem. Had they done so, the issue would have died last year. They might have faced a liberal backlash against them, which they probably will get now as well, but considering where the NFL's money is made, that isn't a big deal. 

When Trump brought the issue back to the forefront they could have stopped the controversy again by releasing this memo right away. Instead they had whole teams kneel or otherwise protest the anthem. Critically, they didn't seem to understand why fans were upset. When some of those protests were moved from during the anthem to just before it, fans still booed. 

Why? Because it wasn't just the disrespect to the flag that fans hated. They also hated the fact that the NFL was allowing the game to be politicized. One thing that I have heard repeatedly in this controversy is that regardless of the politics, people were getting pissed that they had to think about politics during the games. For many, the NFL was supposed to be a place where you could get away from politics for awhile and these protests took that away. 

People also didn't like what the players were originally protesting about. Kaepernick started as a way to support Black Lives Matter. BLM isn't popular in the first place, but to have the protest come from a bunch of rich and powerful athletes who have more money that the vast majority of Americans and who aren't oppressed in any meaningful way. It reeks of hypocrisy and the fact that they were bashing the country that has given them so much at the same time made these protests hugely unpopular.   

Though I think Donald Trump deserves some credit for an obvious political win here, we also have to acknowledge that he had a lot of help. Had the people not rallied around him this would have blown over soon. It was normal everyday Americans that made the NFL cave. Trump rallied them and encouraged them but if it wasn't for people contacting advertisers, burning their gear, or even just tuning out, the NFL wouldn't have ever capitulated. 

The question is how many fans did the NFL lose permanently? I know that I personally will probably go back to watching football as soon as these protests end. I am guessing that will happen in the next week or so. But I do think that the NFL probably lost a few fans that won't ever be coming back. What they did in this situation caused a lot of open wounds and not all of those wounds will heal just because the protests end. Some of those fans are gone for good. 

New timeline for Mandalay Bay Las Vegas shooting.

Stephen Paddock. 

Police have revealed a totally new timeline for the Mandalay Bay Las Vegas shooting. In a dramatic turn around, police have now revealed that Stephen Paddock shot at a security guard 6 minutes before opening fire on the crowd. This is massively different than the previous story where Paddock shot security officer Jesus Campos after the guard interrupted the attack. They had claimed that Campos' action is what stopped the attack but now they have no idea what stopped the attack. 

I have to say that this seems to be pretty standard for this investigation. We haven't been told much but much of what we have been told has now been revised. And this new revelation just leaves further questions. 

-Why did Paddock stop shooting and killed himself if he didn't think the cops were going to breach his room? He had plenty of ammo and firearms left and there were still hundreds or even thousands of targets he could have shot. And with the guard chased off, he wasn't being threatened. Why give up? 

-If the guard was shot 6 minutes before the attack started, why didn't cops respond quicker? Was he unable to contact the police?  

-Why did Paddock shoot the guard in the first place? From what I understand he was just investigating an open door, not Paddock. Sure, he was about to attack, but the guard wasn't much of a threat. He could have just waited a few minutes for him to go away. 

-Why didn't he finish Campos off after he shot him? The biggest threat to Paddock was people figuring out where he was shooting from. He should have been a priority target after he opened up on him, why not track him down and kill him? 

I don't have much else to say at this time. I'm just extremely frustrated that we don't seem to be getting any clear answers about this case. We still have no info on the motive and this new revelation doesn't bring anything close to clarity. It's still a huge mystery and I am sick of it.

 And I think the police and the FBI know way more than they are saying. They probably have a good idea what the motive is and who, if anyone, helped him. They aren't releasing it. Part of that is just normal police procedure but I think there should have been more transparency in this case... 

Is the NFL going to cave? Mike Pence puts the pressure on.

Colts players kneeling during the National Anthem. Reuters. 

As you are most certainly aware, Mike Pence made the news today for walking out of a Colts game after several players knelt during the National Anthem. As expected this was huge news and was essentially a giant middle finger to the NFL. Doing so will put an enormous amount of pressure on the NFL to change course. 

I stand with @POTUS Trump, I stand with our soldiers, and I will always stand for our Flag and our National Anthem. pic.twitter.com/B0zP5M41MQ

— Vice President Pence (@VP) October 8, 2017

I'm fairly sure that this was a planned stunt by the White House. That's fairly obvious given that Trump hast taken credit for the idea. That being said, as far as stunts go, this is a highly effective one. By walking out, Pence has kept the issue alive and reminded millions of American that they should still be boycotting the NFL.

I think there are signs that the NFL is starting to cave. A few teams have prevented players from kneeling and even Colin Kaepernick, somewhat pathetically, has said that he will stand again if someone gives him a job. It seems very clear that they want this issue to go away.

And I think the NFL is probably paying a high price for this continued protest. It's hard to get good numbers on the tv ratings. I have seen that some ratings are up and some are down, with the night games especially being hard hit. More importantly though NFL sponsors are threatening to pull out. Individual players have lost promotion deals and some of the bigger sponsors are putting pressure on the NFL.

As for me, I haven't watched a game since the issue returned with a vengeance a couple of weeks ago. In the past I averaged 2-4 games a week but since the kneeling began I watched less and since the scandal revived, I haven't watched a single game. The only reason I even pay attention to the NFL at all is because I still play fantasy football and to pay attention the political aspect.

I also think that the NFL is in a very difficult place. It's very clear that Trump and Pence aren't going to let this go. But I also think that if they force players to stand or forbid protest during the games they risk losing their more liberal viewers and making an enemy out of both the mainstream and sports media. And they have to consider that many of their viewers aren't coming back regardless of what they do. Though I would likely start watching again if the protests were to end, I think there are enough people out there that won't.

Still, I don't think the NFL has much of a chance of gaining back their viewers unless they put a stop to the anthem protests. And they are not only going to lose the people that support the president, they risk losing non-political fans as well. Like I said before, the NFL was supposed to be where Americans could go to get away from politics and that is no longer possible...