Month: June 2016

Cleveland In The Cross Hairs

Soon….very soon….the entertainment of a lifetime will commence….the GOP convention in Cleveland…..lots of speculation on what will actually happen during this week long “love” fest……will someone step up and challenge the Donald?  (Not likely…cowards will do as they are told)……will there be demonstrations?  Is there a possibility of violence?

Recently some nut job went to a Trump thing with murder on his mind….he was stopped and carted off to the hoos-cow……he was a little pasty white dude from UK and of course he was mentally ill (if they are white they are always mentally ill)…….but the question still remains…is there a possibility of some sort of violence during the convention?

I am sure that the GOP is taking all precautions to limit the possibility of any violence, right?

……a 3.3-square-mile “event zone” surrounding next month’s Republican National Convention will be prohibited from carrying tennis balls, tape, rope, bike locks, sleeping bags, or any object they could stand on to rise above the crowd and speak. They won’t be allowed to carry swords or water guns. But if they have a license, they’ll be permitted to openly carry real guns, including assault weapons.

As Cleveland gears up to host one of the most controversial GOP conventions in decades, Ohio’s permissive gun policy isn’t the only red flag raised by prospective protesters and civil rights advocates. Many also warn that the regulations put in place by the city place “unacceptable restrictions on free speech” and risk escalating conflict, rather than diffusing it, by forcing rival groups of demonstrators to share tight quarters and schedules while keeping them out of sight and earshot of delegates and the media.

Source: Cleveland Bans Soapboxes and Sleeping Bags, Not Guns, Near Republican Convention

Okay who’s bright idea was it to let guns into the convention?  Maybe they will keep them off the floor of the convention….but would that stop the chances of violence elsewhere during the event?

Like I said….entertainment at its best.

 

“Exit” Stage Right

The votes are in and It is official…..the UK will be leaving the EU……

The BBC, among others, has called it: The UK has voted to leave the European Union, sending shock waves through the EU and world economies. With almost all results in, the vote stands at 52% for Leave and 48% for Remain, the Guardian reports. Signaling discord ahead for the UK, different regions voted differently, with Remain winning easily in Scotland, Northern Ireland, and London, and Leave sweeping much of England and Wales. “Let June 23 go down in history as our independence day,” jubilant UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage told reporters. The British pound, meanwhile, tumbled to its lowest level against the dollar in more than 30 years.

Britain is the first nation ever to vote to leave the EU, which will now shrink from 28 nations to 27. As the rest of the Europe woke up to the news, anti-immigration parties in countries including the Netherlands called for their own countries to hold votes on leaving the bloc, while a senior German lawmaker warned that Britain will receive “no special treatment” and exit negotiations must be concluded within two years, reports the Telegraph, which calls the Brexit vote the biggest crisis in EU history. In Scotland, meanwhile, Scottish National Party leaders are already calling for a second referendum on leaving the UK.

The other big news is that the PM of Britain, Cameron, will be leaving in October to make way for new leadership….

What now for the EU?

Will this start a sprint of countries in search of the “exit” door?  What about Greece?

How will this effect the rest of the world?  Thanx to globalization we are all tied to each other in some way or another…….

Stop using tragedies to justify unjust new laws

Predicted that after the last horrific attack there would be a push for new laws….some want laws governing guns….while others are worried about the influx of refugees…..even some worried that a persons religion should be controlled somehow….or my fave…..new laws to limit our right to privacy or assembly…..

As typical the toads never want to waste a good tragedy to find ways to enact new laws of some sort….after some horrific attack the politicians sprint to the closest news outlet and start calling for this action or that…..

From gun control enthusiasts to Donald Trump, everyone’s living by Rahm Emanuel’s maxim these days.

In the wake of tragedy, calls to “do something” can be deafening. And since politicians never want a serious crisis to go to waste—if I can borrow the infamous phrasing of Rahm Emanuel—our government is always ready and willing to respond to these calls.

Trouble is, there’s usually a reason these post-crisis policies were previously nonstarters: they’re not good ideas.

Laws made in terror, anger, and despair appeal more to our emotions than our common sense. They tend to ride roughshod over individual rights and the limits of the Constitution. They are often unjust and ill-considered, which is (understandably) difficult to see through our tears.

Source: Stop using tragedies to justify unjust new laws – Rare

If these laws are just then why does it take a tragedy for them to be proposed?

Is it just a game?

The Rise Of Evil

I know that there are many in this world that are concerned with the rise of the refugee population in their countries…..the horrifying stories get lots more press than any heart warming one…….and in most countries in Europe there is a rise in the far right political parties…..

An Argentinian man has purchased more than 50 items of Nazi memorabilia from a controversial auction in Munich. The single purchase, said to have totaled more than $683, 000 (£462,000), included a jacket owned by Adolf Hitler and silk underwear that once belonged to Nazi military leader Hermann Goering.

Though the event was closed to press following public outcry, the items under the hammer were sold under the theme,“Hitler and the Nazi Grandees — a look into the abyss of evil,” and hailed from the private collection of John K. Latimer, the physician at the Nuremberg trials.

According to Bild, 50 people attended the auction of more than 169 Nazi relics. An undercover journalist from the German newspaper reported the room was filled with young couples, elderly men, and muscular men with shaved heads and tribal tattoos. The buyer reportedly used the number 888 — the neo-Nazi code for “Heil Hitler” — to make his purchases. One of the items he bought was a brass container Goering used to kill himself with hydrogen cyanide.

Source: Surging Far-Right Movements Across Europe Are Making Hitler Popular Again

It is sad….but at least we here in the good old USA do not have to worry about this sort of thing…….

A Polk County, Tenn., restaurant owner running for a congressional seat is outraging neighbors and the internet with an exceptionally racist campaign billboard, WTVC reports. “I am so enraged I can barely express myself without copious amounts of profanity,” Amy Hines Woody captioned her photo of the billboard on Facebook in a post that has apparently since been taken down. The billboard, which reads “Make America White Again,” was erected near her home by Rick Tyler. Tyler, who says he’s inspired by Donald Trump, is running a “campaign of explicit white nationalism,” according to Gawker. On his campaign website (which is also down; cached version here), Tyler says Trump has “loosened up the overall spectrum of political discourse.” He goes on to claim the “white American super majority,” needed to fight tyranny, is being destroyed.

While the “Make America White Again” billboard was removed Tuesday, Tyler is asking for donations to fund his other billboard ideas, including ones that read “Stop the Muslim invasion” and “Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be miscegenators.” Tyler, who is running as an Independent and got a whopping 0.4% of the vote when he previously ran in 2014, has no realistic shot at winning. Therefore, Gawker states that “his candidacy is probably best read as an example of that which Donald Trump hath wrought.” Meanwhile, calls for a boycott of Tyler’s business, the Whitewater Grille, are coming from former customers and the Kiwanis of Ocoee, which calls his billboard “repugnant.”

The Theory of Recurring Cycles…….

Historic recurrence is the repetition of similar events in history.  The concept of historic recurrence has variously been applied to the overall history of the world (e.g., to the rises and falls of empires), to repetitive patterns in the history of a given polity, and to any two specific events which bear a striking similarity.  (Wikipedia)

Here we go yet again……

Thoughts?

“Duty Bound To Protect Them”

Since my class was cancelled for the Summer session I thought I would spend the day irritating as many people as possible…..

This post will not be met with much interest because most Americans do not want to hear this…..you see it does not fit the paradigm that has been set in motion….

I do not really give a shit about what you think of Muslims…this is not open to discussion….I just wanted the naysayers to know that some of their misguided beliefs are wrong….and border on outright lies.

According to Muhammad Muslims are duty bound to protect Christians…..another thing that westerners do not seem to realize is the the Quran and a Hadith are not the same thing……a Hadith is an interpretation of what the Prophet has said…..there are some Muslims that reject all Hadiths…they do not consider them as important as the Quran…..they reject the authority of the hadith…..

Prophet Muhammad’s covenants state that Muslims are duty bound to protect Christians. It is time that IS sympathizers heeded his call

Picture this. A Muslim leader reaches out to a group of Christians and invites them to his country. The Christians happily accept the invitation, while the Muslim leader prepares his people for their arrival. This is the first time the two communities have met in an official delegation. Matters of state, politics and religion are the topics of discussion. The two groups see eye-to-eye on most issues, but also agree to disagree on theological issues. If one phrase can best describe their meeting, it is “mutual respect”.

At the end of their talks, the Christians tell the Muslims, “It is time for us to pray”. The problem for the Christians is that there is no church nearby to worship. Instead of letting the Christians pray on the dirty street, the Muslim leader tells the Christians, “You are followers of the one true God, so please come pray inside my mosque. We are all brothers in humanity.” The Christians agree to use the “Islamic space” as their own. A bridge between these religious communities is made in the name of peace and goodwill.

This story is not some fairytale. It is a historical fact (I did, however, make-up quotes based on how the interaction might have played out). The Muslim leader of the story is Prophet Muhammad and the Christians are from Najran, or modern-day Yemen. The event happened in Medina in 631 AD. This moment in time represents one of the first examples of Muslim-Christian dialogue, but more importantly, one of the first acts of religious pluralism in Islamic history.

Source: What Prophet Muhammad’s covenants with Christians say about IS | Middle East Eye

You see what ISIS is doing is NOT part of the Muslim belief…..I know this will be as popular as saying that Reagan was the anti-Christ but the fact is there….most choose to ignore the fact and follow or believe a lie….because it fits the paradigm they want…..hate without thought proves that you are a moron.

I await the mindless dribble to commence…

What Option Syria?

I recently wrote a piece about the neocons hiding in the State Dept sending a memo to Obama stating that the best option to fight ISIS was to attack Assad and try to install a friendly government……(in case you are an occasional visitor let me offer the piece for you to read now)…..

Source: Mutual Defense League – In Saner Thought

I bring this all up again because it seems the the biggest neocon in the Sate Dept agrees with the memo…..

In a move that adds to the pressure on President Obama to shift the Syria War strategy, Secretary of State John Kerry has come out in favor of the “dissent memo” signed by unnamed State Department officials demanding a change, saying he believes it to be a “well-crafted argument.”

State Department spokesman John Kirby said Kerry’s comments were somewhat short of a “full-throated endorsement” of the plan, but it is unsurprising to hear he supports the idea of shifting to a war of regime change, as he was the primary architect of the failed attempt to start such a war in 2013.

Kerry had previously only addressed the memo by saying he believed the process of dissent memos is an important one, and that he would meet with some of the authors. Kirby suggested Kerry is now eager to talk to the authors to flush out the idea, and suggested Kerry was open to endorsing the policy change.

Sounds like another experiment in nation building for the US…that has not gone well in the recent past….now has it?

In an opinion piece written The National thew writer agrees with the neocons in the State Dept…..

Last week, news emerged that 51 officers at the US State Department signed an internal memo urging a more muscular approach in Syria. Without action, the diplomats warned, the regime of Bashar Al Assad will have no reason to abide by the cessation of hostilities or negotiate in good faith. And to stem the appeal of extremists, the US should recognise that Mr Al Assad is responsible for the vast majority of the hundreds of thousands of victims in this conflict.

The call comes amid a desperate situation for the Free Syrian Army’s Southern Front in Deraa, arguably the only place where the US policy deserves true praise. The one-eyed policy of focusing on extremists and neglecting the regime is quickly eroding what was a successful effort. Whether the rebel coalition will overcome the brewing crisis there will hinge on whether the diplomats’ advice will be heard.

http://www.thenational.ae/opinion/comment/the-us-has-only-one-good-option-in-syrias-conflict

For those that have not seen or read the memo from the dorks in the State Dept…..click below……

Source: State Department Draft Dissent Memo on Syria – The New York Times

There seems to be some dissent to the dissent….(could not resist using that)…….

Several prominent law professors who were formerly members of the Obama national security legal team are debating the “dissent memo” signed by 51 mid-level career State Department diplomats about the administration’s current policy toward Syria. The diplomats think the United States should carry out airstrikes against the forces of Syrian President Bashar Assad, not just against the Islamic State. The debate has raised a section of Power Wars that reported out the behind-the-scenes legal policy deliberations over the 2012-13 “Syria red line” episode, including the existence and contents of a secret 17-page administration legal memo that assessed the legality of using force unilaterally against Assad’s forces. But I don’t think the debate has perfectly reflected what my reporting showed.

Source: The Obama Legal Team and the Lawfulness of Attacking Assad – Lawfare

Now that you have as much info as you could possibly use…..

After reading the material…do you agree that this is the best way to fight ISIS?

Pick Your Poison

Yes, I think this election will be historical but not for the reason everyone else does….personally I could care less the gender of the person or for that matter the person from the wrong side of the tracks…..this election will be historical because the person who wins will face a uncertain world and a dangerous one at that…..decisions will be epic and dangerous….

So who to choose in 2016?

In their remarks to the nation following the Orlando massacre, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump made their differences—and disturbing similarities—crystal clear.

Trump attacked Hillary Clinton for refusing to label the violence carried out by a mentally-disturbed American-born gunmen of Muslim background as a manifestation of “radical Islam,” leading her to begin using the less-inflammatory but still problematic term “radical Islamism.” More seriously, he reiterated his call to ban Muslims from entering the United States and to subject American Muslims to special surveillance and restrictions.

Source: Pick Your Poison: Clinton Vs. Trump on Foreign Policy

A dangerous world lead by a neocon or a novice……cannot get more dire than that.

“A Chicken In Every Pot”

Where have you heard that statement, right?  Well back in the 1920’s it was a political campaign slogan for the “Kingfish”, Huey Long…..(your history lesson for the day)…..

But chickens made another entry into the dialog somewhere…..Libya of the 1960’s when Mr. Qaddafi came to power….he built roads, water systems, housing, education to improve the lives of ALL Libyans…..but when he is mentioned the most predominant ideas was his support for international terrorism (think Lockerbie–Pan Am 103)…….but when he is analyzed they call him crazy, mad, insane, do-dah….and the one thing they point to was his insistence that All Libyans…be given the hardware to raise chickens in their homes….crazy idea right?

Like everything else…crazy ideas are just recycled under another label and passed onto the people….

Bill Gates recently offered to donate 100,000 hens to poor countries around the world, but one South American nation looked his gift chickens in the mouth and began squawking. “How can he think we are living 500 years ago, in the middle of the jungle not knowing how to produce?” Cesar Cocarico, Bolivia’s development minister, told reporters, per Reuters. “Respectfully, he should stop talking about Bolivia.” Cocarico also described Gates’ poultry philanthropy—mainly extended to impoverished nations in sub-Saharan Africa—as “offensive,” saying Gates should “apologize” once he’s done a little more research into how well Bolivia does on the chicken front by itself, the Financial Times reports, via the Verge. He has a point: The country produces about 197 million chickens annually, with the ability to ship about 36 million of them to other nations, a local poultry group says. And data from the Bolivian Institute of Foreign Trade notes the country saw a significant increase in the production of chicken meat and eggs from 2008 to 2013.

Gates announced his “Coop Dreams” program earlier this month, noting he’d met, through his work with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, plenty of poor people who raised the birds and that “it’s pretty clear to me that just about anyone who’s living in extreme poverty is better off if they have chickens.” He goes on to say that chickens are a cheap investment with easy maintenance and decent ROI, the eggs they pop out help keep kids healthy, and they “empower women” (a belief his wife apparently shares). “It sounds funny, but I mean it when I say that I am excited about chickens,” his post concludes. An enthusiasm obviously not shared (at least when it comes to his donation) by what Gizmodo labels Bolivia’s “leftist, anti-imperialist government.” Bolivians “do not need any gifted chicks in order to live—we have dignity,” Cocarico sniffed.

So a bad idea in the 60’s is now a good idea because some pampered tool comes up with it?

At least the people of Bolivia put this wealthy dick in his place……finally someone that will stand up to this type of idiot….kudos to them.

What Would It Take For A Retaliation?

You know that every action has a reaction……every wrong needs to be set right….but what would it take for NATO to retaliate?

We have an agreement with all the signees of the NATO charter that we will protect in case of and attack….but how is the word “attack” defined that it would take retaliation?

I understand the ramifications if say Russia fires a missile at say Poland…..or a plane attacks a bridge…..but what about if there is a cyber attack (we call that a “hack”)?

NATO Secretary General has weighed in on the subject…..

Just days after NATO declared “cyberspace” a formal military zone, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg warned that major cyber attacks might now be classified as a “case for the alliance” which NATO as a whole would respond to militarily, with conventional warfare.

Though Stoltenberg insisted doing so would depend heavily on the severity of the attacks, he said to establishment of cyberspace as a military zone meant NATO would react to attacks there the same as attacks in air, sea, land, or space.

In theory, this would mean that NATO member nations could invoke Article 4 of the alliance, obliging meetings to discuss mutual military defense if a member nation is “attacked,” simply on the grounds of them being hacked.

Individual NATO member states have also made similar statements over the past years.

The US acknowledged the notion of cyberspace being a new war dimension years ago, enacting the United States Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM) on June 23, 2009, to fulfill tasks related to cyber combat.

In 2011 Washington said it regards cyberspace as an operational domain of war, equating digital attacks to those in the real world, and preparing to respond to them as it does to other threats to national security and wellbeing.

In Moscow, officials have long been concerned about the threat of cyber-warfare against Russia. In March, Communications Minister Nikolay Nikiforov told RT that the US government and a handful of corporations working under US jurisdiction have a disproportionately strong influence on the internet.

Think about what has been said!

It is as if we are looking for any reason to start another conflict….if sso then I ask what constitutes a “cyber attack”?

What actually constitutes an act of cyber warfare? There’s a Republican senator who wants to figure that out.

Everyone knows hackers are breaking into networks quite regularly, whether they be hacktivists, criminals, or foreign intelligence services. But there’s never been a clear definition of “cyber war,” even if that term is thrown around often by cybersecurity experts and politicians alike.

“More or less, we all engage in some manner of [cyber] warfare these days, we just don’t go to ‘war’ over it,” Bradley Moss, a national security lawyer, told Tech Insider last month.

Source: What constitutes an ‘act of cyber war’? – Tech Insider

None of this sounds like a recipe for a safer internet or world……also sounds like that some look for any excuse to use American force…..

Thoughts?

The History of Privatization

The previous post was about the profits that are being made from the M-IC….but they are not alone….and thanx to privatization many folk are getting rich….

Since the election of Reagan in 1980 I have been bitching about privatization of the government….it has invaded all parts of the government….intel gathering is the most scary for me…..since profits are everything to these contractors….. is it more important than the protection of the people?

I mean even the military is partially privatized…..that alone is another scary idea…..

Privatization is killing this country slowly but slowly….

The post-WWII era was a tough time for conservative economists, academics, intellectuals, and business leaders. Social Security, the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Securities and Exchange Act, and other New Deal programs represented a dangerous expansion of government’s role in the economy and society – nothing short of a frontal assault on freedom and the beginnings of socialism in the U.S.

Today, after 50 years of attack on government, privatization is a standard conservative response to tight public budgets, a key pillar of attacks on government, and a lucrative market opportunity for domestic and global corporations. Large corporations operate virtually every type of public service including prisons, welfare systems, infrastructure, water and sewer, trash, and schools

Source: The History of Privatization

Another “conservative” program that is biting the country in the ass….again.