Day: April 14, 2016

War in Yemen: Al-Qaeda is Stronger Than Ever

Does anyone think about al-Qaeda anymore?

You remember them….the USS Cole, 9/11 and all that stuff…..ring any bells?

Of course not…..there is another “bad boy” on the corner and all our interests and focus has been on them and let AQ slide for the time being….

Last year Saudi Arabia in their paranoid state decided that the Houthis (a shia sect) was becoming too powerful and dangerously close to the Sacred Sites of Islam.  Well what to do if you are Saudi?  Start a war and make your point….after all you have a protector ion your back pocket….the US.

The Saudis have always had a hard on for Yemen….why?  (you guessed it….a historical perspective)……..

Back in the day Mecca in Saudi Arabia,a trading center , was in competition with Sana’a in Yemen….well things got hot when the king of Yemen, Abraha al-             Ashramm attacked Mecca….well the war did not go well for Yemen and their army was defeated….all this in the year 560CE…..to this day the Saudis are still pissed about the war even though they won.

Now back to the present……for over a year the Saudis have been attacking by air Yemen and causing a huge humanitarian crisis for the civilians…..but in all the time the war has been going on…..which was started to protect SA from the “bad guys”……..but all this conflict has done nothing to control the Houthis and has had another aspect that was unforeseen……AQ HAS GROWN STRONGER!

One unintended consequence of the war in Yemen: Al Qaeda now runs its own mini-state, flush with funds from raiding the local central bank and levying taxes.

…….Al Qaeda fighters there have abolished taxes for local residents, operate speedboats manned by RPG-wielding fighters who impose fees on ship traffic, and make propaganda videos in which they boast about paving local roads and stocking hospitals.

The economic empire was described by more than a dozen diplomats, Yemeni security officials, tribal leaders and residents of Mukalla. Its emergence is the most striking unintended consequence of the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen. The campaign, backed by the United States, has helped Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) to become stronger than at any time since it first emerged almost 20 years ago.

Source: How Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen has made al Qaeda stronger and richer

Now that AQ is on the back burner….how will this effect their operations against the West?

The all consuming hatred of ISIS has made it possible for AQ to once again arise from the ashes left by ISIS.

If the US is playing chess then they are in serious jeopardy.

Cunctis Vigilis!

Is Hillary Clinton ‘Qualified’?

To be president that is……in my opinion  it is a definite….NO!

Okay she has experience but that does not mean that she will be the best person for the job.

The world is imploding and we are about to elect the person to be the navigator of this decline.  Who do you want leading the team….a surgeon or a plumber?

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has dismissed Sen. Bernie Sanders questioning her qualifications to be President as “silly” – and looking at her résumé alone, she’d be right – but there is also the need to judge her performance in her various jobs.

What is troubling about Clinton’s record is that she has left behind a trail strewn with failures and even catastrophes. Indeed, her highest profile undertakings almost universally ended in disaster – and a person’s record should matter when voters are deciding whether to entrust him or her with the most powerful office on earth.

In other words, it’s not just a question of her holding one prestigious job or another; it’s also how well she did in those jobs. Otherwise, you have a case of the Peter Principle Squared, not just letting someone rise to the level of his or her incompetence, but in Clinton’s case, continuing to get promoted beyond her level of incompetence.

Source: Is Hillary Clinton ‘Qualified’? – Consortiumnews

The Ryan Fantasy

The big news of the week is that Paul Ryan will not seek nor accept the GOP nomination in 2016.  It has the pundits on the MSM stage jerking off at the prospects of speculation that they excel at during these times.

I personally, do not think that his denial is at all the final word….but I have been mistaken before and there is a possibility that may be the case with this situation.

The magazine, The American Conservative, does not agree with me and has cobered the fantasy of Ryan becoming the nominee….

Politico reports that Paul Ryan isn’t running a phantom campaign for president despite some appearances to the contrary:Ryan’s orbit firmly believes that, in a few months, everyone will look at him.

Speculation about Ryan’s intentions strikes me as little more than this year’s version of the 2012 fantasy candidate gossip that a few pundits indulged in last time. During the 2012 cycle, we kept hearing from Bill Kristol et al. that it wasn’t too late for the field to include more candidates, and one name after another was floated to stave off the boredom of Romney’s inevitable victory. This year the outcome is much less certain, but the desire to find a new candidate late in the process is still there. Ryan was the subject of such speculation in 2011 and again in 2014 and 2015, so it was probably bound to start up again now that it looks as if there really could be a contested convention. But it still doesn’t make sense, not least because Ryan seems genuinely unwilling to fill the role that is being created for him.

Source: The Ryan Fantasy | The American Conservative

I can see why he might decline the nomination…..I mean if he accepted and was beat in 2016 then his chances for a later run might be sadly limited…..after all anyone self-centered enough to spend that much time body building would take a massive hit to his ego…..

Make NO mistake…Ryan wants to be president…he may not want to admit to it….but he wants it more than a bacon cheeseburger.

America’s Political Corruption

As an analyst I want to believe that policies are what wins political contest but as a realist I know that is not necessarily true.

In reality the elections are not really about policies but rather some sleazy marketing scheme….that is what wins elections…..not a accurate grasp on policy.

Let’s take a closer look at the political corruption of our elections…..

Policy plays only a small role in electing candidate.

Elections are rigged by many factors. But as Noam Chomsky explains, policy plays only a small role in electing candidates.
“Right after the election, President Obama won an award from the advertising industry for the best marketing campaign and the International Business Press executives were euphoric,” Chomsky recalls in the 2015 documentary Requiem for the American Dream. They said, We’ve been marketing candidates like toothpaste since Reagan. This is the greatest achievement we have.”

Source: Noam Chomsky on America’s Political Corruption: Presidential Campaigns as Marketing Achievements | Alternet

You may want to believe that political campaigns are about the candidate wanting to do the right thing……but I know better and so should you.