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Vacuumed and recharged the A/C in the Miata this afternoon. Man, it's nice to have working air again. The car was basically undrivable in the summer months. Obviously it's okay at highway speeds, but if you were stopped for more than a few seconds it was unbearable. I don't know how long it'll last, but I'll enjoy it while it does.
Today, while in a fried chicken restaurant in central Harlem (124th & Malcolm X) I was mistaken for a Frenchman.
A total stranger came up to me and expressed his condolences and words of solidarity as to the recent violence in "my country."
I always used to walk through Harlem with a certain swagger, as though I blended in. Now I find out that the locals perceive me to be not Spanish, but French?!?
An old-school coup fails to topple Turkey’s powerful president
By Ishaan Tharoor July 16 at 2:34 PM
Supporters wait for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan outside his residence in Istanbul. (Murad Sezer/Reuters)
In the age of the smartphone, the coup attempt in Turkey perhaps didn't stand a chance. As speculation swirled on social media on Friday night, a group of mutinous troops took over the state-run TRT station — not a particularly popular network — and forced an anchor to read on air a statement drafted by them about the apparent power grab. Other military units had massed at major bridges and public buildings in Istanbul, Turkey's biggest city, and Ankara, the nation's capital.
The move smacked of a distinctly 20th-century operation, in which uniformed men with guns could swiftly seize control of the machinery of state, starting with the media.
But President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, an entrenched and powerful leader, still had the upper hand. He issued a message via FaceTime, broadcast by a private TV network, urging the Turkish public to rally to his cause. Mass text messages were sent out to countless people across the country. As a result, the haunting call to prayer rang out from Istanbul mosques in the dead of night at a time when nobody prays. The country was activated and on the streets. The coup-makers were soon isolated and cornered.
Much remains uncertain about the chaotic events of the past day, including the origins of the plot against the government. But it seems the coup was ill-executed from the beginning, starting with the delivery of its message. All the opposition parties in Turkey's parliament, despite their loathing of Erdogan, rallied to the cause of the elected government and civilian rule. Most of the main branches of the military and security services remained in Erdogan's camp.
Now, the crackdown has commenced. Nearly 3,000 military personnel have been arrested, according to a statement from the prime minister. Senior officials, including Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, say the "putsch" was led by a clique within the military outside the chain of command. In addition, 2,745 judges and prosecutors have been dismissed from their posts over suspicions that they supported the coup attempt.
"The situation is completely under control," Yildirim said at a news conference on Saturday. "Our commanders are in charge."
Sources in the Turkish president's office point to the secretive Gulen movement, led by an aging Islamic cleric who lives in Pennsylvania, as the main perpetrator. They claim that the leading military officers involved knew they would be sidelined by a purge of Gulenists in the ranks in the coming weeks and had to act fast. The Gulenists have vociferously denied involvement.
What happens next is unclear, but experts are concerned that Turkey's already troubled democracy is in for a rocky ride.
"There was no good outcome," said Soner Cagaptay of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "If the coup had won, the state will be oppressive. If Erdogan wins, it will still be oppressive, because now there’ll be a witch hunt."
As Erdogan's critics point out, the Turkish leader and his allies in the ruling Justice and Development Party, or the AKP, have presided over a grim consolidation of power in recent years that has seen journalists arrested, critical newspapers and TV stations shuttered or taken over, social media censored and opposition politicians stripped of their legal immunity from prosecution.
"Erdogan will most certainly weaponize this coup attempt," says Burak Kadercan, a political scientist at the U.S. Naval War College, subdue more of his opponents and move toward building the "absolute presidency" he has long sought. Kadercan expects "a further deterioration of Turkish democracy or whatever is left it."
The Turkish leadership, though, sees the failure of the coup as a victory for patriots in a country with a long, turbulent history of military interventions. As WorldViews noted on Friday, Erdogan has routinely cast himself as the vulnerable democrat battling the machinations of the deep state — including coup-plotters who would reject the democratic will of the people.
"Every one of them was a tank man," Kilic Kanat wrote in the pro-government Daily Sabah, likening the coup protesters to the democracy activists at Tiananmen Square in 1989. "And every one of them acted responsibly and with courage. They showed the extent of civilian power."
Yet the AKP is by far the dominant force in Turkey and has tremendous control over state institutions, from the judiciary to the civil bureaucracy. Earlier investigations and trials of suspected military coup-plotters had brought the army to heel, despite the ideological differences between the once staunchly secular top brass and Erdogan's religiously minded nationalist party.
The atmosphere of conspiracy and threat cultivated by Erdogan and the AKP had its political uses, and informed much of their campaigning ahead of two parliamentary elections last year. Its logic — presented to the party's religiously conservative base — seems to have been borne out.
"There was this theory they presented that opposing the AKP meant supporting coups," Cagaptay said. "Now that theory has legs."
In Turkey's deeply polarized political landscape, conspiracy theories whirled around Twitter that the coup was in fact an attempt by Erdogan to further expand his control. Some on social media thought the history-minded leader would see his arrival in Istanbul late on Friday night as akin to that of the victorious Ottoman sultan Mehmed the Conqueror.
Others are more skeptical. "They were scared," Kadercan said of the government. "They literally almost begged people to take it to the streets."
The end result, though, may be very much in the government's favor.
Does anyone find it odd, that many people could be arrested for opposition in only 48 hours?
(sound of crickets chirping)
Moving on... More US reporting:
Turkey detains 6,000 in failed coup, including Turkish commander at Incirlik
By Hugh Naylor and Erin Cunningham July 17 at 12:47 PM
ISTANBUL — Thousands of military officers, soldiers and other suspects linked to a failed coup in Turkey have been arrested, authorities said Sunday, amid signs that the campaign against the alleged plotters was turning into a crackdown on President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s opponents.
The country’s justice minister said that as many as 6,000 people had been detained by early Sunday.
Among those arrested was the commander at Incirlik Air Base, which is used by U.S. forces to launch raids against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, a senior Turkish official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. Gen. Bekir Ercan Van was detained along with 10 other soldiers Sunday. The facility is a major installation of the North American Treaty Organization hosting U.S. forces that control a stockpile of nuclear weapons.
The U.S. consulate in the southern Turkish city of Adana said Saturday that authorities had cut power to Incirlik and blocked movement to and from the facility. Turkey also closed its airspace to military aircraft. But the Pentagon said Sunday that the country’s airspace had opened again and that all anti-Islamic State operations had resumed.
“U.S. facilities at Incirlik are still operating on internal power sources, but we hope to restore commercial power soon. Base operations have not been affected,” the Pentagon’s press secretary, Peter Cook, said in a statement.
As many as 3,000 soldiers — including senior commanders in the Turkish armed forces — have been seized by authorities in response to the unrest, which killed at least 265 people and rattled the stability of a key Middle Eastern nation and important U.S. ally.
“What we saw appears to show serious fracturing in Turkey’s military,” said Soner Cagaptay, director of Turkish research at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “This is the second-largest military of NATO, an ally of the U.S. that borders Iran, Iraq, Syria, Russia and the Islamic State. And the last thing Washington wants is to see such an influential NATO member’s military fracture.”
The arrest of so many soldiers suggests that a significant number of Turkey’s armed forces personnel took part in the attempted overthrow.
Some of the most senior military figures arrested in the coup plot include Gen. Akin Ozturk, a former commander of the Turkish air force and military attache to Israel who is a member of the Supreme Military Council.
Another is Gen. Adem Huduti, commander of the Second Army, which protects Turkey’s borders with Syria, Iraq and Iran. And Rear Adm. Hakan Ustem, commander of Turkish Coast Guard, was removed from his post, a senior Turkish official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the subject. It is unclear whether Ustem has been arrested.
Arrest warrants have also been issued for at least 2,745 judges and prosecutors across the country, according to Turkish media reports.
Erdogan seems to have been emboldened after overcoming the biggest challenge to his 13-year rule, with thousands of supporters taking to the streets in Istanbul and other areas of the country in defiance of the rogue soldiers who hatched an elaborate plot to overthrow the government.
The Turkish leader has alarmed many here over his attempts to consolidate power over the years. Some Turks have expressed concern that Erdogan will use Friday’s incident to further marginalize all forms of challenge to his growing powers, whether peaceful or not, even as the country struggles with myriad crises, including unrest from its large minority of Kurdish citizens and spillover from the civil war in neighboring Syria.
Nearly 3 million war-weary Syrians have taken refuge in Turkey, a country of 75 million people.
A series of recent attacks linked to the Islamic State and Kurdish separatists have killed hundreds of people and badly damaged the Turkish economy.
By Saturday, authorities appeared to have neutralized the last threats from the attempted coup, but it was a greatly diminished Turkey that emerged from the chaos of the night before.
Turkish officials say that the mastermind of Friday’s failed plot is Fetullah Gulen, an estranged friend of Erdogan’s and a popular religious cleric who lives in the United States. Gulen has denied any connection to the plot.
Analysts say that Gulen has many supporters who have deeply penetrated Turkey’s police and judiciary but that he holds minimal support in the military.
Erdogan on Sunday attended a mass funeral in Istanbul for five people killed in the unrest. Other senior officials in attendance included Abdullah Gul, a former president, and Ahmet Davutoglu, a former prime minister.
During the services, held at Istanbul’s Fatih Mosque, Erdogan again spoke of Gulen as a central figure in the plot.
The throngs of people in attendance had angry words about Gulen, even calling for his death.
“We want execution!” someone in the crowd yelled.
Erdogan, however, urged restraint.
“If they have guns and tanks, we have faith,” he told the mourners. “So let us think before taking each step. We will act with reason.”
Turkey prepared 'purge' lists prior to coup, says EU leader
EU commissioner suggests Turkey had planned purge before coup attempt, amid conspiracy theories Erdogan orchestrated rebellion.
David Rosenberg, 18/07/16 10:12
Turkey has arrested more than 6,000 during purges of the army and judiciary following the failed coup attempt over the weekend. More than 290 people were killed and some 1,400 wounded in the abortive uprising Friday night and Saturday.
While Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan blamed an exiled Muslim cleric for inspiring the attempted overthrow of Turkey’s government, conspiracy theories have abounded that Erdogan himself may be behind the attempted takeover, using it as a pretext to purge the military and courts of possible enemies.
On Monday, European Union commissioner Johannes Hahn said the rapid mass arrests immediately following the coup attempt suggested the purges were pre-planned.
“It looks at least as if something has been prepared. The lists are available, which indicates it was prepared and to be used at a certain stage. I’m very concerned. It is exactly what we feared.”
Hahn’s comments have fueled speculation the coup attempt was orchestrated by the Turkish president himself.
On Monday it was also revealed that rebel pilots had targeted Erdogan’s plane as the president returned to Istanbul, yet did not open fire. A senior Turkish official claimed rebel forces targeted Erdogan with airstrikes, missing him “by minutes”.
Probably a moot point, but check out what software is available on steam to get your feet wet
I used to design cars for Need for Speed and few other games and loved it however never did it as a career. In highschool i did autocad, delmia, and inventor and also loved it. Thats actually why i did mechanical engineering and even though i loved the actual drafting part i wasnt a fan of the rest which is why i believe game design will work great for me.
Form what I understand, the best way to get into game design is to do a whole bunch of it using mod tools for existing games. I'm not sure how useful formal training is that field -- the only game designer I know has a JD.
I think working for a gaming company is probably more about who you know than what you know. I think every Tech College has a "gamer" program. Probably a ton of graduates floating around in fast food joints.
But if it is something you enjoy, just do it as a hobby. If you are talented, you will probably get someones attention.
Steam releases Indy games in bundles fairly regularly. The games a cheap and fun. I would imagine those games work like a resume to get the attention of larger game developers.
Side note: A friend of mine was making simple cell phone games for fun (early 2000s) and his programming got the attention of SAS (a fairly large software company). His game hobby lead to a very stable career. Although not in gaming, the games are what opened the door.
I think working for a gaming company is probably more about who you know than what you know. I think every Tech College has a "gamer" program. Probably a ton of graduates floating around in fast food joints.
^ This.
A friend of mine back in CA used to be a Technical Director at Rockstar. He did the Midnight Club series, and was also part of the team that dragged the stillborn fetus of Red Dead Redemption out of the medical waste bin, breathed life into its bloated corpse, and released it.
30 years ago was a great time to be a talented game designer / programmer. Demand was high and supply was low. Today, the world of game development is as massively over-saturated with young hopefuls as the world of professional sports. Every now and then, one of them comes up with Angry Birds. But for the most part, the ones lucky enough to find work in the field wind up doing un-glamorous work for meager salaries.
07-16-2016, 07:39 PM
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