US Deploys F-15s To Turkey

Obama has put on his big boy pants and is upping the ante in Syria. We'll see if Putin calls him.

The Pentagon is sending F-15Cs—supposedly to fight the ISIS war. But the jets only have air-to-air weapons, and ISIS has no planes. Which means the real adversary is Russia.

The U.S. Air Force is deploying to Turkey up to a dozen jet fighters specializing in air-to-air combat—apparently to help protect other U.S. and allied jets from Russia’s own warplanes flying over Syria.

Officially, the deployment of F-15C Eagle twin-engine fighters to Incirlik, Turkey—which the Pentagon announced late last week—is meant to “ensure the safety” of America’s NATO allies, Laura Seal, a Defense Department spokesperson, told The Daily Beast.

That could mean that the single-seat F-15s and the eight air-to-air missiles they routinely carry will help the Turkish air force patrol Turkey’s border with Syria, intercepting Syrian planes and helicopters that periodically stray into Turkish territory.

But more likely, the F-15s will be escorting attack planes and bombers as they strike ISIS militants in close proximity to Syrian regime forces and the Russian warplanes that, since early October, have bombed ISIS and U.S.-backed rebels fighting the Syrian troops.

Story here.

Su-27

Russia has deployed Sukhoi Su-27 "Flanker" jets to Syria. Both the F-15 and the Su-27 are highly maneuverable, air superiority aircraft with similar capabilities and armament. The F-15 has had a much greater exposure to aerial combat than the SU-27 which has seen very limited engagement in Angola, Eritrea and Chechnya. The F-15 shot down over 30 Russian aircraft (mostly Migs) during the Gulf War. Of course American pilots did not face Russian pilots in those encounters.

F-15

This could get real interesting. The first F-15s were first deployed in 1972; there have been four upgrades. The F-15E is the latest variant (1988); F-15C's are being sent to Turkey. The Su-27 is a mid-80's Russian product.

I Saw Her Again Last Night

Make The World Go Away

Gimme Some Lovin'

Jailhouse Rock

Listen To Your Dad

It may very well be a tempest in a small to middling-sized teapot, but it is getting interesting.

Quentin Tarantino's father, actor Tony Tarantino, became a member of the NYPD PBA in protest at his son's actions.

Add another bellow from the police unions condemning director Quentin Tarantino and his movies, plus a slap from his own father, amidst continuing deafening silence from the Oscar-winning filmmaker.

"I love my son and have great respect for him as an artist but he is dead wrong in calling police officers, particularly in New York City where I grew up, murderers," said actor Tony Tarantino in a statement released Friday by the New York Police Patrolmen's Benevolent Association.

"He is a passionate man and that comes out in his art but sometimes he lets his passion blind him to the facts and to reality."

Police unions in New York, Philadelphia and Los Angeles have already called for a boycott of Tarantino films — his latest, The Hateful Eight, lands on Christmas Day — and now the New Jersey State Police Benevolent Association has joined the shame-on-Tarantino chorus.

More here.

Mama Said

Police Boycott Tarantino

Three large police unions are manifesting their displeasure with the actions of movie producer Quentin Tarantino by calling for a boycott of his latest movie.

A third major police union has added its voice to calls for a boycott of Quentin Tarantino’s movies, after the Oscar-winning film-maker spoke at a rally against police brutality in New York.

NYPD union boss urges Tarantino film boycott over director's comments

John McNesby, president of the Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5, said the organisation had voted unanimously to join the protest. Patrick Lynch, president of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association in New York, first mooted the boycott on Monday and has since also received backing from the Los Angeles Police Protective League.

“Tarantino has shown through his actions that he is anti-police,” McNesby said in a statement. “Mr Tarantino has made a good living through his films, projecting into society at large violence and respect for criminals; it turns out he also hates cops.”

Tarantino joined three days of protests in New York last week organised by Rise Up October, a group opposing police violence and what organisers call a “genocidal assault on black and Latino people in this country”. Police unions have criticised the film-maker for appearing at the rally and labelling killings by police as “murder” a week after NYPD officer Randolph Holder was fatally shot in the city.

Tarantino has also received criticism from conservative commentators such as Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly, who said the film-maker had “ruined his career” following the remarks. The Pulp Fiction director, whose new film The Hateful Eight debuts in the US on Christmas Day, has not responded to talk of a boycott.

Historically, boycotts of popular movies generally do not work. [As this movie will not be released until Christmas, the author of the article cannot know if it will be popular or not ~sig94]

As they say; bad publicity is better  than no publicity. I wonder if he spoke as he did hoping to provoke this reaction?

Can't You See That She's Mine

I Left My Heart In San Francisco

Tony Bennett is still performing, He's 89 years old.

Do As I Say, Not As I Do

A US destroyer, the USS Lassen, passed within 12 miles of a Chinese artificial island in a disputed section of the South China Sea and the Chinese are squawking.

BEIJING/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. guided-missile destroyer sailed close to one of China’s man-made islands in the South China Sea on Tuesday, drawing an angry rebuke from Beijing, which said it had tracked and warned the ship and called in the U.S. ambassador to protest.

The USS Lassen’s patrol was the most significant U.S. challenge yet to the 12-nautical-mile territorial limits China claims around artificial islands it has built up in the Spratly archipelago as Beijing exercises its growing maritime power.

Washington’s move followed months of deliberation by the administration of President Barack Obama and could ratchet up tension in one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes and increase strains in U.S.-China relations.

A U.S. defense official said the Lassen also went within 12-mile limits of features in the disputed sea claimed by Vietnam and U.S. treaty ally, the Philippines. They said such “freedom-of-navigation” patrols were expected to become more frequent.

According to international law (Article 60 of the 1982 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea) no nation can create an artificial island as national territory and impose a 12 mile limit around it.

Just six weeks ago five Chinese war ships violated the 12 mile limit to the Aleutian Islands near Alaska. One of these vessels, the Shenyang, is shown below.

According to US naval command, it was a legal exercise in "innocent passage" rights granted by international law.

Apparently the Chinese interpret international law in different ways depending on where the water is.

It Hurts To Be In Love

He died in 2006 at the age of 66.

She Loves You

Oh Just Shut Up

These Hollywood types don't get it. All they have to do is say words that they tell you to say, cash the checks, buy the mansions, the yachts and diamond watches and keep their mouths shut. But that's too hard to do.

Emily Blunt can't shut her dumb pie hole. Neither can Seth Rogen.

They cost their people millions.

H/T iOTW.

Everybody Loves Somebody