Day: November 10, 2015

GOP Debate: If you Carve A Good Yawn

My last post of the day……after dealing with doctors and the stream of mindless questions…..I need a stiff drink……

Yep, that time again…..yet another GOP debate….but this will should prove especially a huge waste of time…..why?  It is moderated by FOX Business Channel……that means softball, worthless questions and even more ignorant answers……but if you must watch then there is a few things that could be worth the wasted time……

The Republican candidates are back at it Tuesday night, with the undercard debate starting at 7pm Eastern and the main event at 9pm on the Fox Business Network. Here’s a look at some key things to watch:

  • Ben Carson a big target? Donald Trump has been taking potshots at Carson all week as questions have surfaced about the details of Carson’s life story, suggesting that Trump—or others—might make him a key target tonight. “Carson would most likely respond by reprising his attacks on the news media, but many primary voters will be eager to see how he responds under a level of pressure he has not yet faced,” observes the New York Times.
  • All eyes on Jeb: All the previews point out that he can’t afford yet another bad to mediocre debate performance and thus faces perhaps the biggest pressure of any candidate Tuesday night. Will he be aggressive or statesmanlike? He may have hinted at a new strategy: “It’s not a debate. It’s a chance to be able to say what you think. I’ll take advantage of that.”
  • Debate alliance? Politico floats the possibility of Bush and Ted Cruz forming an unlikely alliance against Marco Rubio. The theory is that Rubio represents a big obstacle to both, Bush with the establishment vote and Cruz with the conservative base. Rubio’s personal finances in particular could be a target.
  • Actual policy: Moderators at the last debate took lots of flak, at least from the candidates, for veering off the supposed topic of the economy. Given that this one is sponsored by the Fox Business Network and the Wall Street Journal, it could be a chance for the candidates to challenge each other on topics such as tax policy, jobs, and entitlement programs, notes USA Today.

There you are……all the useless news you cannot possibly use……enjoy

The Bullsh*t Is In The Mail

I agree with Bernie……”I have had enough of those damn e-mails”  How about you?

Ever noticed the GOP is like a Pitt Bull with a leg bone?  I mean we could be talking about pizza toppings and they will move the conversation to the Clinton e-mails….Benghazi is about the e-mails….for example…….

But what has really been found out about the Clinton e-mails….I am not talking about what FOX has made up or the puke that WND spreads……I mean what actually has been found?

Bernie Sanders will be pleased to hear that the Hillary Clinton email saga may be finally nearing its end: A source tells Politico that intelligence agencies no longer believe that two emails sent from her private server contained classified information. “The initial determination was based on a flawed process,” the source says, with investigators mistakenly thinking one email contained information from a top-secret report that “actually postdated the email in question.” The State Department and the inspector general of the intelligence community have clashed over whether the emails were classified or not and the source says the office of Director of National Intelligence James Clapper has ruled in the State Department’s favor, though a Clapper spokesman says the review isn’t over.

The emails were not on the agenda when Clinton, Sanders, and Martin O’Malley appeared at MSNBC’s First in the South Democratic Presidential forum in South Carolina on Friday night, moderated by Rachel Maddow, the Guardian reports. Instead, the candidates clashed over gun laws, the death penalty, campaign finance, and the Keystone pipeline. Sanders and O’Malley both accused Clinton of taking far too long to decide she was against the pipeline project, with Sanders calling opposition to transporting “some of the dirtiest fuel on this planet” a “no brainer,” the Guardian notes

My next question is….how long can they beat a dead horse……before they move on to policies and issues?

My guess is…..it ain’t over ’til its over!

Move on!

Turn The Page!

Syria: Who Are Those Masked Men?

Today is yet another time for doctors and hospitals…..I will be depending on drafts that I have for my posts today……I apologize if some of this is not as fresh as you are use to…..but getting old does have its draw backs……

Syria is a fascinating region to research….and since we are ass deep in a rebellion against Assad while simultaneously fighting the terror group ISIS…in the beginning 2011 give or take a couple of months……it all started with people rising up in opposition to the Assad regime and then BAM!….enter the group ISIS and all Hell broke lose…..

In the beginning we constantly told the world that we were working with the Syrian Arab Alliance ….but who is this SAA?

the US announced plans to dramatically increase aid to a group calling itself the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a heretofore unmentioned which itself was presented as having just been formed out of a similarly unknown faction called the Syrian Arab Coalition, which was nominally the recipient of large airdrops of US arms.

The group didn’t form out of nowhere, of course, and in many ways it didn’t form at all, as the indications are that the Democratic Forces exist in name only, and were largely an invention of the US for branding’s sake after the last failed rebel-creation plan.

The “Arab groups” involved are all but non-existent, meaning the Democratic Forces boil down to the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), simply relabeled in hopes that the US can start pouring aid into them more rapidly without infuriating Turkey for arming the YPG.

There you are….an invention……..a rouse to keep Turkey in the fold….so to speak.

You see Turkey has been fighting the Kurds for decades….most of it began in the 1970’s with the PKK fighting for separation of the Kurds from Turkey.

Western Sahara And The Sahrawi

I have written many times about the situation of the country of Western Sahara….

I write about this situation because when I was working in North Africa and the Middle East I was fortunate enough to draw an assignment in Western Sahara….while there I was introduced to the people and culture of the region…..my assignment was to get in touch with the group that was fighting Morocco which was claiming the area known as Western Sahara….Located in northern Africa on the Atlantic Ocean, Western Sahara is surrounded by Algeria to the east, Morocco to the north, and Mauritania to the south. About the size of Colorado, it is mostly low, flat desert with some small mountains in the south and northeast.

 

Maybe a little history will help with this…….

Little is known about Western Sahara before the 4th century B.C., when trade with Europe began. During the Middle Ages it was occupied first by Berbers and then by the Arabic-speaking Muslim Bedouins. In the 19th century the Spanish laid claim to the southern coastal region, called Rio de Oro, and later occupied the northern interior region, Saguia el Hamra, in 1934. The Spanish formally united the two regions, and it became known as Spanish Sahara in 1958. Both Morocco and Mauritania sought to control the territory, and when the Spanish departed in 1976, they divided the territory between them. In the meantime, the indigenous Saharawis began fighting for independence. In 1976, the insurgents, called the Polisario Front, declared a government-in-exile (the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic) from their base in Algeria. Mauritania reached a peace agreement with the Polisario in 1979, but Morocco then seized the land given up by Mauritania and now exerts administrative control over the entire region. The Polisario Front fought Morocco to a stalemate and agreed in Sept. 1991 to a cease-fire, which was contingent on a referendum regarding independence. For more than a decade, however, the UN has failed to hold the referendum; disputes over voter eligibility have been the major stumbling block, as well as Morocco’s opposition to the referendum. In Aug. 2001, former secretary of state James A. Baker, special UN envoy to the Western Sahara, proposed that instead of a referendum on independence, Western Sahara consider becoming an autonomous region of Morocco. The Polisario rejected the new proposal, which it saw as a reversal of the UN’s decadelong promise to hold a referendum on self-determination. In 2002, King Mohammed VI of Morocco reasserted that he will not “renounce an inch of” the Western Sahara.

 

It is beautiful in the desert……the colors and the sounds are something that cannot be described accurately…

For forty years the people of Western Sahara have been fighting for their independence and the world looks the other way….it is not important enough for us to care…….especially in these uncertain times and the rise of terrorists groups….all eyes are on these groups and not looking at the suffering of those in refugee camps……

Source: 40 years of hurt: The never-ending scandal of the Western Sahara | African Arguments

Now the king of Morocco has come out about Western Sahara…..

Morocco’s king has renewed Rabat’s insistence that there will be no compromise on the kingdom’s claim to sovereignty over the Western Sahara, vowing that he will offer no more than autonomy to end the four-decade deadlock over the region.

“This initiative is the maximum Morocco can offer,” Morocco’s King Mohammed said late on Friday, referring to the autonomy plan for the region.

Source: Morocco’s king rules out compromise over Western Sahara – Al Jazeera English

The conflict will continue and the people of Western Sahara will still not have the one thing that all people deserves……Independence!