Day: October 27, 2015

Is The Persian Gulf Doomed?

The Persian Gulf has been a source of contention for centuries…..everybody that borders on the sea has claimed dominance at one time or the other….

The Persian Gulf seems to always be in the news…..either we are worried that someone will try to close it off or we hear all about the business opportunities if you happen to be a multi-national corporation to the proximity to Iran and the dangers that that might entail….

In case you are not aware of the location of what we call the Persian Gulf…..

Wars are being fought all around the Persian Gulf….Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Yemen….something that has been a common denominator over the years….but there seems to be a new enemy of the region…..

A stark warning, even by the standards of climate research: If emissions continue at their current level, parts of the Persian Gulf region will simply become too hot and humid for people to survive in. Researchers say that by the end of this century, the combined heat and humidity “wet bulb” index in the region could hit 165 to 170 degrees during the worst heat waves, creating sauna-like conditions that even the healthiest person couldn’t survive in outdoors for more than six hours, the Smithsonian reports. The researchers, writing in the journal Nature, say conditions will exceed the “threshold for human adaptability” in cities including Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and, on the other side of the Gulf, Bandar Abbas in Iran.

The researchers say that while air conditioning may keep wealthier areas inhabitable, that’s not an option for people in countries like Yemen. And in the years ahead, the annual hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia could become exceptionally deadly in summer months. “Some of the scariest prospects from a changing clime involve conditions completely outside the range of human experience,” a Carnegie Institution for Science climate researcher tells the AP. “If we don’t limit climate change to avoid extreme heat or mugginess, the people in these regions will likely need to find other places to live.” The researchers say the deadly level of heat can be avoided with relatively modest emissions cuts, the Smithsonian notes

If the trend continues then the only thing the Persian Gulf will be noted for is……. OIL.

Keep in mind that the region we call the Sahara use to be a vast wetlands with a multitude of animals and people…..and as they say….look at it now.

Is The Tea Party Crapping Out?

Can you remember the good old days?

Think back to the election of 2008…..Obama was battling Clinton and McCain was picking of all people an idiot from Alaska to be his VP…..during this process in this year there was the rise of the Tea Party….all those 3 corner hats with tea bags hanging off them, all the yellow flags and dash for far right radicalism…..can you dig it?  And every election since 2008 the Tea Party has gained more and more followers and voters……they destroyed the conservative “Blue Dog” democrats for no other reason than they were democrats…..they even have their own caucus within Congress…..but they decided to change the name to the Freedom Caucus for whatever reason (are they ashamed of the Tea Party?)

Any way it seems that the yellow flags of yesterday are losing their luster with the rank and file……

Support for the conservative Tea Party movement has dropped to its lowest level, with 17 percent of Americans now backing it, a poll released Monday indicates.

About 42 percent of conservative Republicans support the movement, a Gallup poll revealed, a 21 percentpoint drop from the 63 percent who supported the party in 2010.

Does this mean that the Tea Party will soon be a thing of our political past?  Maybe in name….but the ideals are here to stay……the label Tea Party is no long needed for they have successfully taken control of the GOP.

Their far right politics is here to stay at least for awhile……only when conservatives realize they are NO long conservative will they stay on this path of obstruction…..and incompetency.

The next question to ask is….when did incompetency become an attractive characteristic for a candidate?

Washington has always been a silly institution but it has gotten sillier by the election…..we have had this partisan theater for a long time…..it became the rule of the day back in the days of the Clinton-Newt battles….it gave partisans something to rally around….and it gave the media the opening they were looking for to drive the discourse we have in politics…..

But naturally the question some people ask is when did all the bickering start?

May I see a show of hands…..who remembers the election of 2008?

It was McCain versus Obama….the battle of the old versus the new…..that is when this push for “new blood” in Washington hit its hey day…..but we cannot blame John McCain for it all…..it was his choices that started this slide into incompetency of our elected officials…..

William Daley served as President Obama’s chief of staff for a while, and it’s not surprising that he would describe the GOP primary as having a “carnival-like” atmosphere. But in the Washington Post, Daley also makes the case that the GOP’s current problems can be traced to one moment: when John McCain picked Sarah Palin as his running mate. That she had a “blatant lack of competence” was one thing, but that no prominent Republicans stood up to criticize the pick when that became clear was even worse, writes Daley. Afterward, she became an even bigger political figure, with her no-compromises “bombast” becoming the norm.

Today, “the ‘settle for flash’ aura of Palin’s candidacy looks like a warning that the party was prizing glib, red-meat rhetoric over reasoned solutions,” writes Daley. In her wake came candidates like Christine O’Donnell, Todd Akin, Michele Bachmann, and, now, Donald Trump. House Republicans, meanwhile, are engaged in “fratricide.” On the campaign trail, Trump has talked about putting Palin in his Cabinet. “That seems only fair,” writes Daley, “because he’s thriving in the same cynical value system that puts opportunistic soundbites above seriousness, preparedness and intellectual heft.” Click for Daley’s full column.

Since the election of 2008 the GOP has been swirling around looking for the most incompetent candidates as they can find…..after all….it is what the people want…..

I guess McCain and his machine cannot shoulder all the blame…..that distinction goes to the American conservative voter…..

Iraq: You Asked For It And You May Well Get It

While you had your head stuffed into some fantasy football thing…the world is getting a bit more complicated……at least for our troops…..

The title is aimed at all you war hawks that feel that the answer to every problem is to throw troops at it……..who may have won this round of their empire building agenda……

Speaking of military adventurism……..

Recently the first American trooper was killed in a raid in Iraq against a stronghold of ISIS……troops are NO longer in the wings….now are they?

In the past the Obama admin has taken lots of gruff from people like me that feel that the plan to weaken ISIS through airstrikes is a short-sighted plan that will do nothing substantial to end this conflict……

So with all that criticism what is the answer that the Pentagon is coming up with….at least for now……

Having sent US ground troops on a raid mission against ISIS forces, and seen their first soldier slain in ground combat in the latest Iraq war, the Pentagon has feverishly spent the last week trying to spin trading gunfire on the ground with ISIS as an “advisory” mission.

It doesn’t seem a very credible argument, but the Pentagon seems to be testing just how much combat they can get away with while still nominally claiming their ground troops are only engaged in a “non-combat” operation, with the latest reports suggesting the Pentagon is again considering embedding troops directly into Iraqi combat units.

For old farts like myself….this sounds all too familiar….there was another conflict that spiraled out of control using this exact same tactic……can anyone say….VIETNAM?

Is it possible that the neocons are winning this debate?

These people have lambasted the Obama plan since the troops came home from Iraq…..pushing the scenario that we need to be physically present in Iraq to prevent war….to say nothing about the loss of revenue from from the war by the M-IC……looks like we are doomed to be a wartime presence in Iraq for many years to come….and in that time the chances of more American deaths rises exponentially as the number of troops deploy to the country.

It is as if the Pentagon and the M-IC are playing a role in the Star Wars (good movie reference, right?) epics……

Source: The Neocon Hunger for Universal Empire by — Antiwar.com

The common slogan is that we are safer thanx to all this intervention throughout the world…….sorry sports fans…..I do not see and neither does a wealth of analysts.

Regardless of the endless slogans to confuse and convince….we are not safer today than we were 10 years ago……

Source: Endless War Makes Us Less Safe – Antiwar.com

I want to see how the media will play this out in the nightly news….my guess it will be downplayed to avoid any negative blowback…..possibly it will be ignored until it becomes the 500 lb elephant in the proverbial room…..

What say you?

US Military Adventurism: The Definition of Insanity

Since the 1940’s the Us has had to put their wanker in world events……this interventionism is not always a good thing….yes I know we were on the winning side of WW2….but what has happened since that day?

Korea was not a win…..at best a ceasefire and hostilities are still paramount on the piece of land that juts out into the ocean…..okay smartass what about the first Gulf War?

We won that one right?  Not really….we id devastate the Iraqi army but it also was basically a ceasefire…..we could go on….but I believe you have a grasp on the idea.

Our military adventurism has NOT produced many positive results…..we could argue this point but I believe that if we are truly honest we will see that not much has happened that we could call a success in the Middle East.  Okay we killed Saddam…..we killed several bad guys…all that is good but what has it gotten us?

The recent death of an American soldier in Iraq in the fight against ISIS brings into the argument a different aspect…..

On October 22, US Army Master Sergeant Joshua L. Wheeler died near Hawija, in northern Iraq, while taking part in a mission aimed at rescuing prisoners from Islamic State forces. Wheeler is the first American soldier – or at least the first one we’ve been told about – to die in combat in Iraq since […]

Source: US Military Adventurism: The Definition of Insanity – Antiwar.com Original by — Antiwar.com

We can continue down the path we created but all that does is make some arms manufacturers wealthy…..will do nothing to bring about a calmer Middle east….

There is something else that needs to be pointed out when talking about adventurism…..

Source: America’s Elite Forces Deploy to a Record-Shattering 147 Countries in 2015 – Antiwar.com Original by — Antiwar.com

Our military is involved in so many countries that it is hard to keep track……and each country can be said to be the next point of conflict…..

Time for the US to re-think all this overseas adventurism…..not only does it all cost money we do not have….but it will eventually start costing American lives……something I am NOT willing to accept….not in the name of profits and interventionism…..

Mismanaging the Conflict in Jerusalem – International Crisis Group

I have been surprised at the number of media reports on the conflict now being fought in Israel and the Occupied Territories……but I guess this time they cannot ignore the situation as they have done in the past…..

BiBi has made an unfortunate statement that turned the world ‘s head toward Israel and the fighting…..and I have read a report that states that the situation is being mismanaged by Israel….

Source: Mismanaging the Conflict in Jerusalem – International Crisis Group

I trust the Crisis Group because they are for the most part non-partisan….they take the situation and analyze it from several points…..the proper way to analyze ANY situation…..

Also over the weekend there was an event that got very little coverage….but I believe that it is an important situation that could be used to quell some of the violence…..

Thousands of Israelis march in Tel Aviv calling for peace talks with Palestinians—Thousands of Israelis took the streets of Tel Aviv on Saturday night, calling for new peace talks with the Palestinians, amid an international effort to quell a month-long Israeli-Palestinian wave of violence.

Source: Thousands of Israelis march in Tel Aviv calling for peace talks with Palestinians – Xinhua | English.news.cn