Day: May 26, 2016

Speaking Of Libertarians

We all know of Ron Paul and his son Rand and their Libertarian leanings….even some within the GOP have these leanings….but that is all there is ….leanings.

As popular as people think Libertarianism …….they are probably mistaken….there some parts of the political philosophy that they will use to their advantage….but a total Libertarian is a thing from the past…..

I have tried to explain this belief to some of my friends and acquaintances….but have been fairly unsuccessful…..the truth is that I also find some of their policies acceptable….but only a few……mostly in the field of foreign policy.

But how do you explain Libertarians to others that are not so sure of what they are or what they believe?

Good question!  And I think I have an answer for them……

Libertarians have a problem. Their political philosophy all but died out in the mid- to late-20th century, but was revived by billionaires and corporations that found them politically useful. And yet libertarianism retains the qualities that led to its disappearance from the public stage, before its reanimation by people like the Koch brothers: It doesn’t make any sense.

They call themselves “realists” but rely on fanciful theories that have never predicted real-world behavior. They claim that selfishness makes things better for everybody, when history shows exactly the opposite is true. They claim that a mythical “free market” is better at everything than the government is, yet when they really need government protection, they’re the first to clamor for it.

Source: Here are 11 questions you can ask Libertarians to see if they’re hypocrites

These days a libertarian belief is one of convenience…anything to be elected and stay elected….whatever is useful to gain that end…..including Libertarianism.

Speaking of “getting elected” as a Libertarian…….

There’s a guy who’s “having a good day” and emerging with surprising poll numbers against Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, but he’s someone FiveThirtyEight says is easy to confuse with “that plumber who fixed your running toilet last month or your spouse’s weird friend from work who keeps calling the landline.” Who? It’s Gary Johnson, the probable Libertarian Party candidate for president, and based on recent numbers, FiveThirtyEight thinks he’s someone to keep an eye on. The ex-New Mexico governor went up against both Clinton and Trump in two May polls, and while Trump and Clinton hovered within 3 points of each other in both polls—Clinton got 38% to Trump’s 35% in a Morning Consult survey released Tuesday, while Trump came out with 42% to Clinton’s 39% in a Fox News poll conducted May 14-17—Johnson walked away with 10% in both matchups. And FiveThirtyEight doesn’t think these polls are necessarily May outliers, citing a Monmouth University poll from March that gave Clinton 42%, Trump 34%, and Johnson 11% in a three-way runoff.

Morning Consult notes that percentage is nearly twice as high as what Johnson got in most 2012 tracking polls when he ran against President Obama and GOP nominee Mitt Romney. And Vox notes that if the experienced Johnson is picked as the Libertarian nominee at his party’s convention in Orlando, Fla., this weekend—along with William Weld, an ex-Massachusetts governor who could become Johnson’s running mate—the Libertarian ticket “could have a real opportunity this November to run a real race against two of the least-liked presidential candidates in recent history.” What FiveThirtyEight also says Johnson has in his favor: history, via other third-party candidates who did fairly well nationally (e.g., George Wallace and Ross Perot). And the Washington Post says the case for a third-party candidate is growing. But FiveThirtyEight also adds Johnson only won 1% of the national vote in 2012 and that he still needs to secure the nomination. (Don’t know Johnson well? USA Today takes you on a “speed date.”)

I am sure that there are some that are pleased with these numbers……but that will quickly disappear on election day.

Welcome To Fallujah (Again)

Fallujah…..a term that will strike many chords to many people….Fallujah has been the focal point of several major battles….especially in the 21st century…..

The first battle for Fallujah was in 2004 or Operation Vigilant Resolve…..was an operation to root out extremist elements of Fallujah and an act of retaliation to, as well as an attempt to apprehend the perpetrators of, the killing of four U.S. contractors in April 2004.

On 1 May 2004, the United States withdrew from Fallujah, as Lieutenant General James Conway announced that he had unilaterally decided to turn over any remaining operations to the newly formed Fallujah Brigade, which would be armed with U.S. weapons and equipment under the command of former Ba’athist Army General Jasim Mohammed Saleh. Several days later, when it became clear that Saleh had been involved in military actions against Shi’ites under Saddam Hussein, U.S. forces announced that Muhammed Latif would instead lead the brigade. Nevertheless, the group dissolved and had turned over all the U.S. weapons to the insurgency by September

The second battle for Fallujah……or shall we call it Operation Phantom Fury……it became one the bloodiest battles since Tet in Vietnam and the battle for Hue.

Nevertheless, the battle proved to be less than the decisive engagement that the U.S. military had hoped for. Some of the nonlocal insurgents, along with Zarqawi, were believed to have fled before the military assault, leaving mostly local militants behind. Subsequent U.S. military operations against insurgent positions were ineffective at drawing out insurgents into another open battle, and by September 2006, the situation had deteriorated to the point that the Al-Anbar province that contained Fallujah was reported to be in total insurgent control by the U.S. Marine Corps, with the exception of only pacified Fallujah, but now with an insurgent-plagued Ramadi.

After the U.S. military operation of November 2004, the number of insurgent attacks gradually increased in and around the city, and although news reports were often few and far between, several reports of IED attacks on Iraqi troops were reported in the press. Most notable of these attacks was a suicide car bomb attack on 23 June 2005 on a convoy that killed 6 Marines. Thirteen other Marines were injured in the attack. However, fourteen months later insurgents were again able to operate in large numbers.  (Thanx to Wikipedia)

Now the ISIS franchise has been in control of the city for a couple of years…..after many skirmishes the Iraqi Army is now attacking the city to re-gain control…

With the fall and virtual destruction of the Anbar Provincial capital city of Ramadi earlier this year, Fallujah is the major ISIS city that is closest to the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, and is the target of a new offensive announced by Iraqi PM Hayder Abadi this weekend.

Fallujah is actually the longesst-held ISIS city in Iraq, falling in January of 2014, when public protests against the Maliki government provided an opening for the ISIS forces to take over parts of the city. Iraqi forces have been surrounding the city in recent months, pending this offensive.

Iraqi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasoul ordered all civilians to flee the city of some 200,000 people, adding that they are providing “corridors” to escape through. This call came in spite of weeks of Iraqi officials claiming ISIS wasn’t allowing anyone to flee.

The Army prediction is that it is only a matter of time before it falls to the Iraqi Army…..

ISIS is retaliating in the only way they know……

Isis execution squads have appeared in the streets of Fallujah, a city 40 miles west of Baghdad, with orders to kill anybody trying to flee or surrender as government forces advance towards this Isis stronghold. “Groups of Isis fighters are saying they will kill anybody in Fallujah who leaves their house or waves a white flag,” says Ahmed al-Dulaimi, a political activist who spoke by phone to relatives and friends in the city.

Iraqi army units started an offensive east of Fallujah on Monday morning after heavy shelling and airstrikes overnight. Mr Dulaimi said that Shia militias known as the Hashd al-Shaabi were joining in the bombardment with a home-made-rocket called “the Nimr”, named after the leader of the Saudi Shia minority, Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, who was executed by the Saudi authorities in January this year.

Source: Isis unleashes death squads as Iraqi forces advance on Fallujah – The Unz Review

Now the tally is starting to filter out of the city from the news action to re-take it……Although the offensive was launched on Monday, Iraqi government forces have besieged the city and its suburbs for several months now, resulting in shortages of food and medicines.

At least 15 civilians have been killed so far during the offensive, sources told Al Jazeera.

At least 35 soldiers and allied militiamen have also been reported killed. More than a dozen Shia militias are taking part under the umbrella of the Popular Mobilisation Forces.

Source: Fallujah: Déjà vu all over again

The battle is under way….how will this end?  Will ISIS be removed from the city?  How many Americans are part of this operation?

 

We Have a Winner!

We Americans love some winners…..but not all winners are good news….

Recently the US used a drone (the weapon of choice for targeted assassination) to kill the leader of Afghanistan’s Taleban….and this time he is really dead…..not some press release that is retracted in a week or so….nope the dude is dead….confirmed by the Taleban themselves.  (I still would like to know how many civilians were at the location).

After the death announcement was released the Taleban stated that there would be a shura (supreme council) to pick the new leader for the Taleban….and the winner is…….

Senior Taliban members, after successfully evading American drone strikes for long enough to hold a leadership conference, have named a successor to the leader killed in a US airstrike last week. The Afghan Taliban, acknowledging Mullah Mansour’s death for the first time, announced Wednesday that he will be succeeded by one of his deputies, Mawlawi Haibatullah Akhundzada. The BBC reports that unlike Mansour, Akhundzada is an uncontroversial choice who has, until now, served more as a religious leader than a military commander and has issued most of the group’s fatwas.

Akhundzada is believed to be a member of the powerful Noorzai tribe from Kandahar, which analysts say will make it easier for him to unite the group. The BBC puts the new leader’s age at somewhere between 45 and 50, though Reuters reports that it’s closer to 60. He is a former aide to Mullah Omar, according to Taliban sources, and like that leader, he is notoriously camera-shy. On the same day Akhundzada was named as the group’s leader, the Afghan Taliban claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that hit a minibus carrying court employees in Kabul that killed at least 10 people, the AP reports.

Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada

He was said to have been chosen over two key rivals – Sirajuddin Haqqani and Maulvi Yakub – due to his religious background.

Now the question is will the two that were passed over take the loss well?

The next question…at least in my mind is……if the US knew the shura was going to happen why not try to take out the council in one fell swoop?

But I guess that is a post for another day…I would not want to confuse my readers unnecessarily.

Clinton and Trump: Nuclearized or Lobotomized?

There are many in the media that are trying to make sense of the 2016 election process…..it appears that the American people have decided that the two most unfavorable candidates are the best ones for the job….where is the logic there?

I admit that I am struggling to see the allure of either of these candidates….neither should be attractive to the voter….and yet this is where we are today…..

A Clinton/Trump election for the hearts and minds of the American people….and what we will get for the investment of our vote?

I so glad you asked!

Introduction Over half the US electorate views the two leading candidates for the 2016 Presidential elections with horror and disdain. In contrast, the entire corporate mass media, here and abroad, repeat outrageous virtuous claims on behalf of Hillary Clinton and visceral denunciations of Donald Trump. Media pundits, financial, academic and corporate elites describe the prospects […]

Source: Clinton and Trump: Nuclearized or Lobotomized? – The Unz Review

Some where there is some logic in these two choices for the voter….but as of yet it has alluded me.

If you see it then please share with me and my readers….

The myth of the ‘moderate Muslim’

If you arte expecting some long winded diatribe about the evils of Islam then you will be sadly disappointed and maybe should move on…..

There are some in the US that cannot get past the fact that someone is a Muslim…..to these short-sighted people there is only one Muslim and they are the people in ISIS and AQ…..none of the others matter…..that is to some.

Nothing is further from the truth….but of course I will be hard pressed to find many people on the street that has any idea what I am speaking about……When I see the lies spread I have tried to show that their belief is just wrong…..but as usual those posts degenerated into….warning about those darn “terrorists” coming down Main Street chopping off heads……I guess that is easier than admitting you are WRONG!

Deconstructing the mythic “good versus bad” Muslim paradigm.

After winning four pivotal presidential primaries on April 26, Hillary Clinton drew a line between “hard working, terror-hating Muslims” and (Muslim) terrorists.

In front of a raucous audience of supporters in Philadelphia, Clinton – the presumptive presidential candidate for the Democratic Party – only made mention of Muslims in relation to terrorism, and reaffirmed the mythic “good versus bad” Muslim paradigm.

Muslim Americans were either “terror-hating” or terrorists, slotted into one of these two caricatured categories with no space in between, or existential affiliation beyond.

Source: The myth of the ‘moderate Muslim’ – Al Jazeera English

I do not expect that Muslims will get much respect here….but at least there is someone trying to right the wrong thinking of the population.