On the old Twitter machine yesterday I got one of the best things I have seen about the candidacy of Bernie Sanders….
Yes, I am a Bernie fan….I have been watching him since the 1980’s….he is an inspiration……all you have to do is listen to him and you will see that he is a true statesman…..not just a sleazy politician…..
Feel The Bern!
Since we went to Afghanistan in 2001 as a response to the attacks of 9/11…. we have been fighting AQ and the Taleban……we have fought them tooth and nail and still not much has happened to change things in Afghanistan….
The US and its allies have made head way only to lose that to the change of seasons…..in the winter months we take it to the max and then in Spring the Taleban returns as ferocious as before….it is a back and forth conflict….and neither side has been able to establish victory although many have predicted so…..not much would substantiate the claims….
And while we concentrate on stopping the Taleban AQ and ISIS factions are making in-roads into the country and its people……there have been some amazing Taleban victories in the north of the country this year…..it is far from over….
The Taleban almost look invincible….they appear to be able to survive no matter what we throw at them……but is that observation correct?
There is an opinion that the Taleban is on life support and that their end is near….Despite their recent military gain in Kunduz, the Taliban’s demise has already begun.
Source: The Taliban’s days are almost over – Al Jazeera English
Is this a fact or is it creative journalism?
Or maybe….just wishful thinking……..
When I was in university I studied international relations especially war and conflict management…..and since my interests in war and its causes I have always looked for that linchpin that could cause the world to explode in an all out war …..a war to end all wars……
A couple of years ago I wrote a synopsis of a paper that I was working on about the linchpin theory….in my theory the South Caucuses would be the most likely region that could start this war of all wars……read for yourself…..
http://lobotero.com/2013/06/13/looking-for-the-linchpin/
It appears that all my hard work has paid off…….there are growing tensions in the very region that I was writing about
A recent upsurge in fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh serves Russian interests and shows the dangers of war by accident.
Source: War looms in the South Caucasus – Al Jazeera English
This region should be watched closely….take our eyes off the prize and it could be very catastrophic…..
“Everything’s gonna be alright”…..(Rod Stewart reference)…..
I see by the clock on the wall….it is time to end my posting day……..I leave my readers with one last thought…….BACON! (Sorry must be on-set Touret’s)….
Yes we have a GOP debate to night…..there will be a “kiddie” table one first and then the Big Event….the Trump Show will commence…..
I will go on record as saying that there will be NOTHING new here…Trump will perform…all others will try to play catch up….
But I guess if you must amuse yourself with silliness….then what you need to watch for in tonite’s matinee……
The Republicans debate again Wednesday night, with a field still big enough to require two events. The undercard is at 6pm Eastern on CNBC (Rick Santorum, Bobby Jindal, George Pataki, and Lindsey Graham), followed by the main event at 8pm on the same network with the remaining 10. (Their rankings, according to cumulative polls: Donald Trump, Ben Carson, Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, Carly Fiorina, Ted Cruz, Mike Huckabee, Chris Christie, John Kasich, and Rand Paul.) Given that CNBC is a business news network, expect a heavy focus on economic issues, notes USA Today. Some things to watch:
- Trump vs. Carson: Trump has lost his lead to Carson in the latest polls (though he still leads cumulatively), which means “the Donald will be looking to tear him down,” notes Slate. Will Carson’s cool demeanor crack now that he’s a bigger target as a frontrunner?
- Which Bush? He has the “most at stake by far,” says Mike Allen of Politico, and he needs a strong night to convince backers he’s still their guy. The question is whether the Bush who shows up will be the relatively subdued Bush of the first two debates or more forceful.
- Rubio vs. Bush: Rubio has skillfully become the No. 1 establishment candidate in part with smart debate performances. One wrinkle Wednesday night: “Bush may be looking for a fight” to reclaim that establishment crown, notes Yahoo.
- Christie as Trump alternative? “This is a debate where Christie needs to come out and show that if you like the Trump swagger, but you have concerns about the Trump electability, I can be your guy,” according to Jonathan Martin in the New York Times.
- Wild cards: Fiorina “needs a shot of momentum” and has gotten one after the first two debates, observes Real Clear Politics. But she and the rest of the pack will likely be struggling to get noticed. Kasich in particular has been signaling that he’s going to get aggressive, while Carson’s rise in the polls is putting pressure on Cruz to stake his claim as the anti-establishment candidate.
Me? I have a really excellent bottle of Spanish Sherry…..I will sleep like a baby.
I read this piece over at my friend at “The Militant Negro” and found it a fascinating turn of situations…..
It appears that Americans are abandoning a sinking ship more quickly than normal….Americans are giving up their citizenship….but why?
Two main reasons:
The first group consists of people who just can’t take it anymore. Constant warfare, intimidation, and the steady erosion of freedom have pushed them to their breaking points.
They look around and think, “This is NOT the country that I grew up in.” And they renounce their citizenship in protest of a government they no longer want to be associated with…….(read more)…….
Source: Americans renouncing US citizenship soars to yet another record high | The Militant Negro™
An interesting stat that we have heard NOTHING about…..apparently the MSM does not want us to know that these people are out there…..or the reasons they want to leave.
My friend over at “Lines by Liming” turn me onto this story…..and after I read about it I have to concur with his humorous take of the story…..
Hobby Lobby? Remember them? They will not let you work for them if you happen to be gay….they find same sex marriage abhorrent…..or to terminate a pregnancy…..and they are a good Christian organization…..remember them now?
According to them…..a woman does not have a right that is Federal law……but this is somehow just fine……
The Museum of the Bible being built in DC by the Christian family behind one of the nation’s biggest arts-and-crafts retailers is coming along nicely. Maybe too nicely, per law enforcement sources, who tell the Daily Beast that the Green family—the ones whose Hobby Lobby chain claimed a big victory last year when the Supreme Court ruled it didn’t have to provide insurance for employee birth control—has been the subject of a four-year federal investigation for “illicit importation of cultural heritage from Iraq,” per the Daily Beast. That comprises hundreds of clay tablets, thousands of years old and inscribed in ancient cuneiform, allegedly smuggled out of the Middle East and shipped to the Greens’ Oklahoma City home base in 2011. The tablets and tens of thousands of other artifacts are for the museum, set to open in 2017 as “one of the world’s largest private collections of rare biblical texts, objects, and artifacts.”
The problem with the Iraq tablets is that, as museum head Cary Summers puts it, there was “incomplete paperwork” attached, though the Daily Beast points out that a simple logistical issue wouldn’t have dragged on so long. Instead, someone looking to bring in artifacts that should never have left their country of origin may have purposely undervalued the antiquities so they could be smuggled into the US. An unnamed source tells the Daily Beast the FedEx forms were marked “hand-crafted clay tiles,” with a value of around $300—which is “technically accurate, but … vastly underestimates their true worth, and … obscures their identification as the cultural heritage of Iraq,” the site notes. Hobby Lobby CEO Steve Green tells the Daily Beast, “Is it possible that we have some illicit [artifacts]? That’s possible,” but adds they didn’t knowingly act illegally.
So is it okay to STEAL? That is exactly what they are doing…stealing another culture’s history…..I believe there is something written down about stealing, right?
But because they are a “good” Christian group these laws do not apply to them…is that about it?
Stealing history of a people is by far the worse type of rape…the rape of a culture…there is NO excuse for this…..religion or otherwise……There is NOTHING “Good” or “Christian” about the theft of a country’s heritage….PERIOD!
Speaking of “good” Christians…..look at what that mental midget Pat Robinson has to say about a guy who ran Guatemala…….
Robertson gushed over Ríos Montt, claiming that he was the real victim because he was targeted by liberals just for being a good Christian.
“I know Efraín Ríos Montt, who was the president there,” Robertson said. “He’s a terrific guy, he was with the El Verbo Church and they had a marvelous government but the left got after him and he couldn’t survive. They just went after him and attacked him and attacked him, the United States State Department went after him, it was terrible.”
Rios-Montt is a good person because he went to a Christian church?
Let’s look at this “good Christian”……….
“At the height of the bloodshed under Ríos Montt, reports put the number of killings and disappearances at more than 3,000 per month,” Patrick Daniels of the Guatemala Solidarity Network noted. “Such was the extent of the violence that in 1999 the UN commission concluded that it constituted acts of genocide.”
His regime specifically targeted indigenous communities with violence and displacement, and in 2013 Ríos Montt was convicted of genocide for crimes committed against the Maya Ixil community. “Hunger, systematic rape and forced displacements were all used as tools of war against the Ixil people,” the BBC reported. However, the conviction was overturned due to a legal technicality and Ríos Montt was later declared unfit to stand for retrial.
– See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/pat-robertson-hails-guatemalan-dictator-charged-genocide#sthash.Ba0VQhpU.dpuf
Let’s pull out of the geopolitical hole for awhile….shall we?
I remember a few years back when all the rage was the successes of the Charter Schools…..I said then that it was a con job….what it boiled down to was education by lotto.
The media trotted out the successful charter schools for all the world to see….it was then decided by the media) that this was the cause to highlight….the problem was they gave the public a very narrow view of the situation…..they never reported on the crappy job this did at educating our children….
The sell was a slogan…..”return control of public schools back to the local area”…..it is still being used to convince people of the necessity to privatize public education….of course they will not call it what it is……but rather some cutesy slogan that all can remember and repeat ad nauseum…..
Our kids deserve strong schools and great teachers under local control. That’s what the charter fight is all about…..it is a lie.
Source: Our real charter school nightmare: The new war on public schools and teachers – Salon.com
If this is an issue that will be on the ballot in your area…..then please learn everything you can about charter schools or whatever slogan they are using to get you to vote for the privatization of your public schools…..do not let them kill public education……it is a fundamental right of our republic…..do not let it go the way of your voting rights…….or abortion rights.
Apartheid was the system of government and segregation used by the government of South Africa for decades……once the system was eliminated the world thought that it would never make a comeback…..they were WRONG!
Israel is turning into an apartheid state with its handling of the Palestinian question and the West Bank……I pointed this out in an op-ed that I wrote for Ace News Room……..
Source: Apartheid: Then And Now ! | In Saner Thought
After it was published I found another person that sees the inevitability of the situation……
Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert criticized incumbent leader Benjamin Netanyahu’s foreign policy on Friday in an interview with Al Jazeera English, saying that Israel is at risk of becoming an apartheid state.
The television interview, which Al Jazeera described as Olmert’s first international interview since he was sentenced for eight months in jail for fraud and breach of trust this past May, aired on Friday evening.
According to excerpts released before the interview aired, Olmert rejected Netanyahu’s claim at the UN that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas isn’t interested in negotiations with Israel. “[Abbas] certainly is a partner for peace. There is no other,” Olmert was quoted as saying. “He is the president of the Palestinian Authority and he, time and again, proved that he’s against terror and that he is ready to spell it out in the strongest possible terms.”
The West was a major mover on the apartheid thing for South Africa……it needs to once again get on the horse and ride to the aid of a people oppressed by a government that wants world recognition.
But in case you still cannot see it……..in their own words……
With the “Wall” in place it has become an apartheid state…..no matter how you try to spin it….the truth is the truth!
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.
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…..