Month: May 2014

Was An Apology Necessary?

Opinion from the desk of the Editor

Today I started off with international relations and now I will do a 180………….

By now even the densest yahoo has heard of the idiot Sterling and his problems with black people……of course he is not a racist because some of his close friends are black, always a good statement to make when you are finally outed.

And once again the country is having that conversation that we are told we need to have every time some screws up and makes a lame brain statement……..and the beat goes on…..unfortunately the MSM will not lets this go…..they cannot…it is worth its weight in gold in ratings.

Is there any more that can be said?  Of course there is.

When speaking about the sterling situation the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban, made a statement……

 “I know I’m prejudiced and I know I’m bigoted in a lot of different ways. If I see a black kid in a hoodie on my side of the street, I’ll move to the other side of the street. If I see a white guy with a shaved head and tattoos, I’ll move back to the other side of the street. None of us have pure thoughts; we all live in glass houses.”

After he made his statement the MSM was all over it and made it into a statement of the Trayvon Martin situation……..and Cuban had to back track on what he had said……..

“In hindsight, I should have used different examples. I didn’t consider the Trayvon Martin family, and I apologize to them for that. Beyond apologizing to the Martin family, I stand by the words and substance of the interview,” Cuban said in a series of tweets.

“I think that helping people improve their lives, helping people engage with people they may fear or may not understand, and helping people realize that while we all may have our prejudices and bigotries. We have to learn that it’s an issue that we have to control, that it’s part of my responsibility as an entrepreneur to try to solve it.”

My question is why did Cuban have to apologize?  he was speaking to truth……but the MSM had to have something to keep the Sterling issue going…..if not they would have to wait until the NBA ruling and that could take awhile and they did not want to lose the news.

My opinion is that Cuban did not owe anyone anything.  He spoke his mind and someone took offense and he did what he had to do……..this situation illustrates why we can NEVER have the conversation that all pundits say we need to have on race.

NO one wants that conversation to take place…..especially the MSM…….people are afraid of this conversation…..why?  You cannot be honest without hurting someone’s feelings or your words are turned back on you……..

The much needed conversation is doomed……it will never take place…..thanx to FEAR!

The Making Of A New Somalia?

Inkwell Institute

North African Desk

There you go….a new week and we have not managed to destroy all life….well not yet….but we keep trying.

I have said just about everything I wanted to say on our cracker jack political system so as usual I will move on to more important issues and more important places……..

The US and its allies have done their part brilliantly…..we hve managed to pretty much destroy all opponents……and we did it with a smile and pat on the back…..we showed up to save them from themselves…..and in doing so we have created some of the most dangerous spots in the world……..oh I don’t know Iraq, Syria, and now we are condemning Libya…….been a helluva century so far.

What are talking about Professor……Qadahfi is gone and all is right with the world,……..ain’t it?

All is right….only if you have the attention span of a rabbit in heat.

Eastern Libya hates Tripoli….Southern Libya is just pissed….and then there are the militias (Militias?  Where have I heard the term before?)…..every megalomaniac has a militia (again that sounds vaguely familiar) and the militias do what militias do….they fight whoever is the bad guy of the day.

Recently there was a coup, only we do not call it a coup these days, that put the entire country in a tizzy…….all this stems from the area that Americans know all too well….only they have no idea they know it….Benghazi.

What do the separatists want? They demand not mere autonomy but something close to independence. The territory of Cyrenaica (Barqa, in Arabic) followed concrete steps in this sense: it first established a shadow government, after advocating for a loose federal system of government sharing power for months with Fezzan, the south western region of Libya and in June 2013, Sheikh Ahmed Zubair Senussi, head of the Cyrenaica Transitional Council, declared self-government.

On November 4 2013, it unilaterally declared its condition of “semi-autonomous state.” The separatist region even announced the establishment of an independent oil company after taking over several commercial seaports, a step prior to the creation of a Cyrenaican Defense Force.

The self-proclaimed government of Cyrenaica insists it is not defying the government or Congress, but rather claim their right to export. It has been complaining for decades of being sidelined from the political arena. The east is where most of the country’s wealth lies, in form of oil reserves. It made sense that the uprising started there, as the city has become a hub for intellectuals, dissenters, unsatisfied youth and political activists. Contrary to Tripoli, the city has grown from the meddling of different identities. Cyrenaica has forged its identity on a strong sense of tribal membership that today remains present even among the urban youth.

All this violence makes me think of a country we know all too well…..Somalia.  Libya is looking at a situation that is playing out today….in Syria….In Somalia….and to a lesser extent in Iraq.  all the violence…..all human rights violations……all the lawlessness……tribe against tribe…..clan against clan…..and eventually all against the US.

Libya is flirting with a civil war…..and won’t that be just peachy?

All these countries are countries that our congressional war hawks have made the US a part of the violence………and that will bite us in the butt……..any day now.  These war hawks in their rush to assist the military-industrial complex have lost sight of the consequences of their positions.  And as soon as something goes wrong, and it will go wrong, these hawks are the first to assign blame and it is never their fault.

Time for the US to re-think their failing foreign policy…….19th century answers will not work in the 21st century.

The Isolation Game

Inkwell Institute

Eurasian Desk

Today I would like to write about the popular technique used to handle our problem states in the world….sanctions.

In the beginning there was Russia and Ukraine……..after much provocation violence broke out…..a referendum was voted on…….and the world got its panties in a twist.  The US could not stand by and let Russia dictate the future of Ukraine.

We began with our typical response to a growing situation……..we threatened and then set about putting sanctions into place that would necessarily isolate Russia for not acting like a good guy on the world stage.  We then set about convincing Europe to join in our efforts…..did not work out the way we had planned……you see Europe gets about 80% of its natural gas from Russia…..so our European friends were not so quick to jump on the US sanctions bandwagon.

While our sanctions set about making Russia pay for their actions….they, Russia, signed a $400 billion agreement with China for natural gas….oops, that should make our sanctions a little less effective.

You see we employed a tactic from the 19th century to isolate Russia and force them to toe the line……a naive attempt at best.  Why?

Russia knew exactly what our response would be to their aggression…..tit is our go to tactic to any type of aggression, anywhere in the world…….our lame attempt at sanctions was just a worthless endeavor…..you see Russia had been trying to cut a deal with China for 10 years and it just made it necessary to ward off the sanctions that the US was trying to impose.

The isolation game we tried was destined to fail…..Russia had all its bases covered and a solution for each problem that US would throw at them.

The US needs to spend some time and find a new more up to date strategy for handling aggression in the 21st century………if not then our foreign policy will remain as impotent as it is today.

Why Not Pee In Your Chili?

Okay it was unintentional but looks like today is going to be a Boko Haram Day….all day…….

You there are times when “it is best to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt”………cannot recall who made that statement but it proves true time after time……

After the kidnapping of the Nigerian girls the world kinda looked the other way until they could fake it no more……Boko Haram has been a Nigerian problem….in other words a local problem….to the point that they did not threaten any American interest we pretty much left the situation to the locals……but all that may have changed dramatically………..

Boko Haram may be planning an attack on US interests in Nigeria, US intelligence officials tell NBC News. The evidence of this is “fragmentary” and lacks specifics, the sources admit, but counterterror officials are sufficiently worried to the point that they’re stepping up efforts to locate the group’s military assets and trying to determine who sits at the top with frontman Abubakar Shekau—who already has a $7 million bounty on his head. “Boko Haram has a long standing interest in this,” one senior official said. But officials think that interest has intensified as the US steps up its role in hunting for the kidnapped school girls.

Of course, there are precious few US targets in Nigeria’s northeast, where Boko Haram is strongest, but there are some in the capital of Abuja. Boko Haram has been blamed for two bombings in Abuja in the past five weeks, according to CNN, amidst a wave of violence that has grew especially intense this week with the massive Jos bombing. The UN yesterday officially blacklisted Boko Haram—a step Nigeria’s government had refrained from requesting until now—which will make the group’s members subject to asset freezes, travel bans, and arms embargoes, al-Jazeera reports.

People call stupidity like this as “cutting your nose off in spite of your face’…..my grandfather called it…..”pissing in your chili”………This d/bag just painted a bull’s eye on his organization’s back……..the US may be slow on the uptick but this is a direct threat……we will not allow this to go unanswered……the eye in the sky will be watching……..this dude just invited the US to the dance.

What’s the old saying…..”can’t fix stupid”!

Muslim–The New “Black”

Opinion from the desk of the Editor

Last week I watched the closing speeches of the “Super’ Tuesday elections…….I thought they were the most pathetic collection of BS that I have ever heard…..now that I am more disgusted……let us move on shall we?

I recently wrote a post about Islam……and as predicted the buzzword got some action on the site…..the post was explaining why I disagree with the hate mongers that say all Islam is about killing the infidel and hate……the post was entitled…..”Damn The Hate”…….

As I thought there was lots of telling me read surah 2 and 4 which sez it all for some people…….that Muslims will kill anyone not a Muslim…….not true!

I was giving my thoughts on Islam from my perception when I was exposed to it everyday while working in the Middle East……I never encountered anyone that would attack me for not being Muslim and yes, contrary to popular belief I am not a Muslim.  I was treated with generosity, friendship and understanding.  I am not saying that hate is not there….just that I was not exposed to it when there.

I mean anyone can find a hate passage in the Bible…….it is all in the interpretation.  people can find hate if they look hard enough and in any place they chose.

It is true that some terrorists are Muslim but that does not mean that ALL Muslims are terrorists………..for instance the hot button terrorist of the day—–Boko Haram………and this article says it better than I could, especially at this early hour………..

Boko Haram considers itself an Islamist group and often gets labeled as such in news reports, maybe with the word “extremist” tossed in. Wrong, writes Carla Power at Time. Boko Haram is a “criminal group,” not an Islamist one, and that’s what we should call it. Everything about its actions defies the teaching of Muhammad, from its campaign against education, to its forced marriages and conversions, to its declared war on Christianity and the brutal slayings of innocents.

Even the very idea that Boko Haram is waging jihad is incorrect, because self-appointed leaders like Osama bin Laden or Boko Haram’s Abubakar Shekau have no authority to do so. Far from being Islamist, members of Boko Haram are actually “traitors to their faith,” writers Power. “Their sickening deeds and rhetoric repeatedly demonstrate that not only do they lack kinship with the vast majority of the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims, but they lack respect for the religion they claim to fight for.” Click for the full column.

Boko Haram is a criminal organization that is using Islam as a justification…….they are NOT true Muslims.  The killing of innocents is a sin……suicide is sin………just as Christians can find justification of their actions in the Bible……so do these faux Muslims.

The hate that is spouted daily is just disgusting regurgitation from small minds.

Words like Islamist or Muslim are just a dog whistle word for hate…….Muslim is the new Black!

 

UN Sanctions Approved

Opinion from the desk of the Editor

First, I would like to ask all my readers to take a moment to remember all those brave Americans that gave their lives in defense of their nation………they gave more than was asked of them…..and to a country that is not noted for its thanks…..please remember and reflect….it is the least we can do………

It is evident if one reads my posts that I am NOT a supporter of sanctions.  Yes, they work on some level but as a whole they are just a fart in the wind in today’s world.  I point to the sanctions that were announced aimed at Russia because of the Ukraine situation…….I ask….at what point were they effective?

Russia accomplished what they set out to do….they kept Ukraine from entering into an association with NATO……..sanctions would have made difference of the outcome.

I bring up this because of the kidnapping of those girls in Nigeria by Boko Haram…….it seems the answer to the problem, at least from the UN is to impose sanctions against Boko Haram.  The UN has issued a statement on these sanctions………”What will the practical impact of that be? Hard to say but it’s an essential step we had to take,” said Australian U.N. Ambassador Gary Quinlan, al Qaeda sanctions committee chair, adding that the aim was to “dry up support” for the group.

“We will work to try and make sure that anybody supplying any material assistance to Boko Haram – whether funding or arms – will in fact be stopped, will be deterred by the fact they too will be eligible for listing on the sanctions list,” he said.

This is just laughable to me……….BH is financed by bank robbery, extortion and all around violence……weapons are obtained using those same tactics…..now where will sanctions change anything in that area?

Sanctions on BH are a worthless waste of energy…….sanctions are nothing but a feel good device to make the world think something is being done to control the situation…..it will accomplish very little and will certainly NOT rescue the girls in question.

BH is laughing their butts off….they see it for what it is…….NOTHING!

Once again it is the world employing outdated tactics to handle a very modern problem.  They cannot think outside the box because they cannot find the box.

 

Creative Policy Making

I am always bitching that there is NO creativity in our policy makers….they seem to go to old stand by solutions that have NO footing in reality……so whenever I see a creative approach to policy making I am usually mildly impressed…….

Italy has done just that recently….mildly impressed me in the policy sector that is…….

Surprisingly enough, this idea didn’t come from Silvio Berlusconi: Italy plans to include things like illegal drug sales, prostitution, and cigarette smuggling in its GDP figures for the first time, immediately giving the size of the economy a big boost, Bloomberg reports. Prime Minister Mario Renzi has pledged to cut the country’s deficit to 2.6% of GDP, a target that will be a lot easier to hit when illegal sectors of the economy are included.

The European Union’s statistical agency has provided guidelines for estimating the contribution of illegal activities to the economy, and the move is expected to add up to 2% to Italy’s GDP, ANSA reports. (As for Berlusconi, he’s doing community service at a hospice after being convicted of tax fraud.)

Cool!  finally, people that can think outside of the box (as it were)……….any thoughts?

Karma Is A Bitch!

The weekend and let’s do something different………all of my life I have heard such comments as “what comes around goes around”……..or my fave….karma is a bitch!

Apparently those statements are footed in truth…….

Haitham Gamal “was on the road to recovery” after three drunk-driving convictions, says his lawyer. Unfortunately, he was also on the road—on his bike, as per a California-mandated license suspension—when a 19-year-old driver who was allegedly drunk and speeding hit and killed the 38-year-old Gamal. “He was doing the right thing, and somebody hit him that had been drinking,” lawyer Walter Cole tells the OC Register. “A lot of my clients are in denial. He wasn’t.” Gamal was sentenced the day before his death to five years’ probation and 45 days in jail; he leaves behind a wife and young children. Charges for the driver are pending blood test results, police say. “Obviously, any kind of fatal crash that involves alcohol, I think, just speaks to the dangers of drinking,” says an Orange County Sheriff’s Department spokesman.

after reading tht I can safely say…..truly………”KARMA IS A BITCH”

Got anything to go with this post?  let’em fly!

2014–The “Grassroots” Con Job

I guess the best to start is to bring everyone up to date on what is being reported in the MSM about the upcoming 2014 elections…….blah……BLAH…….BLAH and then the every popular….yada….yada….yada…..Benghazi.

Now you know as much as anyone watching the MSM in the recent days………but my fave topic covered by the media is that of the “grassroots”…….every party is scrambling to grab these voters by the scrotum……….but there is a problem with the term…….to me when talking about the grassroots we would be talking about the hopes and desires of the common folk…….but if we look closely at polls that show what the common folk find important is not covered in any of the rhetoric……if true then what is the “grassroots” that people keep mentioning at every turn?

The Tea Party loyal seem to use the term very loosely………they want to portray themselves as the champion of us common folk…….but are they?

Those who align themselves with the Tea Party fancy the phrase “grass roots” to describe their fight with the GOP “establishment.” Sorry, writes EJ Dionne in the Washington Post, but it’s hard to think “grass roots” when billionaire donors are involved. No, what the GOP really has are “two establishment factions spending vast sums to gain the upper hand.” The result is a party moving further and further to the right, where a “political correctness of an extremely conservative kind now rules.” Dionne points to the win of Ben Sasse in the GOP Senate primary in Nebraska as a prime example. Ted Cruz, for one, invoked the phrase “grass roots” to describe why the ultra-conservative Sasse won, despite the $2.4 million in ad spending on his behalf.

Plus, the university president worked in the George W. Bush administration and is hardly an outsider. “So, is this really the grass roots speaking to Washington?” asks Dionne. “Or is it more accurately seen as a cadre of conservative groups, largely working out of Washington, rising up with a ton of cash to persuade voters to listen to them?” GOP voters can expect similar choices in future primaries, thanks to the Supreme Court rulings opening the door to bigger donations. But in the end, they’re simply picking “between two establishments that, in the end, differ little on what they would do with power.” Click for Dionne’s full column.

The scary part is that someone will vote for corporate control….freely.  And even pretend that it is best for all the country and the totality of American peasantry.

Grassroots implies that the common man/woman has its concerns addressed by their elected officials…..sadly this is pure invention……

grassroots is a dog whistle, nowadays, it has nothing to do with reality……….Apparently one can only be considered “grassroots” if one has more money than brains……