Day: July 5, 2016

The Hill And Bill Show

Back in ’08 during the GOP mash up for the nomination…..the now defunct Huckabee teamed up with washed up karate kid, Chuck Norris….and I referred to them as the Huck and Chuck Show……and I thought that I would not ever get to use the comic relief mechanism again…..boy!  was I wrong!

The Dems seemingly have their nominee, although not quiet official just yet, Hillary Clinton….. and with her we also get the ex-prez Bill in the White House….and just like that BAM! I get to use my comic mechanism yet again…..with the Hill and Bill Show.

Readers who have followed me both here on Unz.com and also at The American Conservative should have no doubt about my feelings regarding the Clintons. In 1980s Bill’s global transgressions while a peripatetic Arkansas governor even became known to me when I was a CIA officer serving in Europe, a tale best left untold, and in my opinion the Clintons have always combined an oddly selective personal morality with an all-consuming sense of entitlement.

It has been credibly reported that the Clintons (Chelsea included) used to refer to the Secret Service Agents assigned to guard them as “pigs,” an unimaginable slur coming from a president regarding his own protection detail. That sort of counterculture contempt for others fed the miasma of sleaze and corruption that accompanied Bill and Hillary when in office. The dissimulation about Monica Lewinsky engaged in by both Clintons coupled with the sheer driving ambition that they exhibited were unseemly to say the least and the thought of the Clintons redux as something like an Imperial Dynasty in Washington should be enough to keep anyone awake at night.

Source: The Bill and Hillary Show – The Unz Review

Here we go again….a family affair…..as if we did not get enough of family BS with the Bush clan….nope….we gotta do it all over again…..and there are more waiting in the wings….lucky us, huh?

Istanbul Is Not Paris

Last week the terrorists struck again…..it was Paris then Brussels and now Istanbul…….the MSM in the first two were wall to wall coverage and for at least a week of solid coverage…..every possible witness was talked with and every possible angle was analyzed by the wealth of terrorism “experts”…..

Of course there was the outpouring of sympathy from around the world……not so much for the Istanbul attack…..

Within hours of the deadly assault on Istanbul’s Ataturk international airport, analysts and experts were looking for someone to blame. Most cited lapses in airport security or Turkey’s precarious situation given the long-standing conflicts in Iraq and Syria.

The threat faced by Turkey from the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) is real. Major attacks in Turkey attributed to ISIS have killed some 150 people in the past 12 months. Rocket attacks from ISIS-held territory into Turkish border towns are frequent. ISIS did not officially claim responsibility for Tuesday’s attack, but the Turkish authorities pointed the finger.

Source: Why isn’t Turkey getting the same sympathy as Paris after attack?

Today this horrific attack which is the largest airport attack in history….has all but slipped from the headlines…..why is this?  Why the lack of concern that was shown just recently?

Knowing the region and the countries I would like to offer a couple of insights…..

First, Turkey is being a bit authoritarian and limited the press…that could account for the lack of coverage…..

Second and this one I pray is not the correct one….Turkey is a Muslim country….so anything happening there is NOT as important or horrific than the happenings in other European countries.

I will admit that the limited amount of speculation was a bit refreshing…..but this incident deserves the same focus that has been given of all the other attacks this year.

How the Taliban and the US fell out of love

After 15+ years of war in Afghanistan one might want to know how the US and the Taleban came to blows.  Some say it is because of their support for AQ and Osama (for the mentally challenged…that is Osama with an “S” not a “B”)….it is a good explanation but is it the only reason for the division?

Let’s look back….in the 1980’s when Afghanistan was fighting for survival and liberation from Russian occupation……the US was the biggest and best suppliers of weapons and funds to the Afghans fighting the Russians and that included the beginnings of the Taleban……

It would seem that the Afghans have a lot to be thankful for when it comes to the US…..if so then what would drive a wedge between the 2 countries?

I read a good perspective piece in AJE on the situation between the US and the Taleban

The relationship between the US and the Taliban from the late 1990s onwards was defined by one thing: ignorance.

There is a saying that “man is an enemy to that of which he is ignorant”. It seems to perfectly sum up the relationship between the Taliban and the US during the late 1990s.

I recall in the autumn of 1997 interviewing the Taliban’s acting prime minister, Mullah Mohammed Hassan Akhund. He would later become the deputy to Mullah Omar, the spiritual leader of the Taliban.

During our conversation, he received what seemed to be a very important phone call. Wanting to give him some privacy, I stood up to leave the room. But he motioned to me to remain and then put the call on loudspeaker.

Source: How the Taliban and the US fell out of love – News from Al Jazeera

Is there any way to salvage a friendly relationship between the two countries and the 2 ideologies?

Democracy In Retreat

I do hope everyone had a good and fun infused holiday weekend…..that behind us it is time for me to return to my posting schedule (some will be happy other not so much)….

For a very long time now the US has been this symbol of democracy and happy living…..

We decide it was our place to bring democracy to the Middle East…..we even killed their leader to make it possible for democracy to flourish…..it was a failed experiment…..

Then there was the hope for democracy in the Middle East thanks to the Arab Spring protests…..that was also a failure…the only country that moved toward democracy was Tunisia, where the Spring began….the rest was a face falling disaster…..

Democracy is being challenged today as never before since the end of the Cold War. Freedom House has recorded ten consecutive years during which democracy and human rights have declined in more countries than it has advanced. There have been setbacks and backsliding in countries as diverse as Thailand, Venezuela, Hungary, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, and of course in Russia and China as well.

Certainly one of the reasons for the perception that democracy is in decline is the failure of the Arab Spring. Five years ago, in the immediate aftermath of the fall of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, there was hope that what was called the Arab Spring might translate into democratic gains in the one region that had been by-passed by the third wave of democratization two decades earlier. But as we know, the Arab Spring quickly turned into an Arab Winter.

Source: Western Paralysis and Retreat Threatens Democratic Progress | World Affairs Journal

Even in good old reliable America…..there seems to be a retreat of democracy also….I feel that it is only temporary…..but all the signs are there that it could be lost altogether….A risk to democracy is that wily politicians can exploit moments of anger or fear to implement plans that the public wouldn’t otherwise accept.

Worldwide….democracy is being subverted…….

The repeated indicators of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s authoritarian tendencies bring to mind that Erdogan once said, “Democracy is like a streetcar. When you come to your stop, you get off.”

With a statement like that, one can say that at least Turkish voters, including the many who have voted for Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party in multiple elections, were warned. But the phenomenon of authoritarian types rising within a democracy has been around for a long time.

Source: How Democracies Are Subverted – Consortiumnews

Democracy is a fragile thing……it takes very little for it to disappear….

On a final note……

Answered a lot of my questions……