Day: July 21, 2016

The Cold War–Redux

I have written many posts saying that there seems to be a new “Cold War” brewing….I am not alone….many writers and analysts see the same cauldron bubbling…..writers like Jason Ditz or Antiwar…….

All efforts to make this weekend’s Warsaw summit about the Brexit appear to have failed, and the US has shifted NATO’s focus back to increasing military buildups in Eastern Europe, all the while harping on about Russian “aggression” and the threat of a Russian invasion of the Baltic states.

NATO-Russia relations seem worse than at any time since the Cold War, with many fearing that the continued NATO escalation on the Russian frontier portends another protracted, and costly period of massive tensions with the Russians.

NATO is being used all over the world as a military machine…..and lots of taxpayer cash flows into the organization….but is it possible that NATO may have out used its usefulness?

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was founded in 1949 as a way for American troops to protect a war-shattered Europe from Stalin’s Soviet Union. Today Europe is quite capable of shaping and paying for its own security, but NATO’s structure remains unchanged. The United States still pays nearly three-quarters of its budget. That no longer makes sense. The United States should remain politically close to European countries but stop telling them how to defend themselves. Left to their own devices, they might pull back from the snarling confrontation with Russia into which NATO is leading them.

Source: Is NATO necessary? – The Boston Globe

Personally, I think it is time for the world to find an alternative to a “war footing”…..

How about you?

Would a Trump presidency be that limited factor?

He has made a comment during his convention on NATO……..

If America’s NATO allies find themselves under attack and in dire need of assistance, they can expect a solid “Maybe” from President Donald Trump. The GOP nominee, in an interview conducted Wednesday while he kept one eye on convention goings-on, told the New York Times that in the case of an event like Russia attacking a Baltic state, the alliance would only be honored once he had determined whether nations under attack have “fulfilled their obligations to us.” He said that until we “fix our own mess” in the US, there’s no way he would lecture allies like Turkey about human rights issues like the post-coup purges. “Look at what is happening in our country,” he said. “How are we going to lecture when people are shooting policemen in cold blood?”

In what the Times sees as a preview of Thursday’s convention speech, Trump used the “America First” slogan when he spoke of withdrawing from NAFTA if better terms can’t be negotiated with Canada and Mexico and of bringing American troops home from around the world. “We are spending a fortune on military in order to lose $800 billion,” he said, citing his figures for US trade losses. The US has been pressuring its European allies to spend more on defense, but “never has there been a suggestion that the US would renege on its responsibilities,” notes Jonathan Marcus at the BBC, who predicts that America’s NATO allies will see Trump’s remarks as “at best eccentric and at worst alarming.”

Will he void the NATO Treaty?  Can He do that without Congress?  He would make an enemy of the M-IC….can he afford that problem?

Great speech…but is it at all possible?

Sham Of A Show–Day Three

Day three and the country, that would be America, will meet their VP choice for the GOP, Mike Pence…..and as Ed Sullivan….who? (ask your grandparents) use to say….. ” a really big shoo”…….

We had everything….boring…..cutthroat….chanting….booing…..and just enough crap to make it less than interesting…..

Ted Cruz stood before the third night of the Republican National Convention on Wednesday with an entire convention center awaiting the answer to the question: Will he endorse Donald Trump or won’t he? The answer came late in a speech that was well received until the end. “We stand here tonight a nation divided,” Trump’s final Republican rival opened, before congratulating Trump on winning the nomination. But as Cruz’s prime-time speech, which focused on freedom, neared its finish, it became clear he would not endorse the GOP nominee, proclaiming that Republican voters should not stay home in November, but rather “vote your conscience.”

As chants of “We want Trump!” broke out among the crowd, Cruz replied, per Politico, “I appreciate the enthusiasm of the New York delegation.” Or as Andrew Sullivan put it at New York, “open war is breaking out, as the crowd is beginning to shout Cruz down.” Trump himself appeared side-stage, seemingly to suck oxygen from Cruz’s moment. Writes Sullivan: “Cruz leaves to a massive wall of hostile noise.”

After all the love shown Cruz came the mouth of the South….Newt……

Earlier speakers included Newt Gingrich and Eric Trump, Trump’s third child with first wife Ivana Trump. Eric delivered what the Guardian calls “the rich man’s burden argument for picking Trump.” Trump made the “courageous decision to set aside a company to which he has dedicated his entire life,” Eric said, telling teachers, laborers, and other struggling workers that his father is running for them and they should vote “for the one candidate who does not need this job.”

Finally in crawled the VP candidate….Pence…..

Introduced by Paul Ryan as a “man of solid character,” Mike Pence accepted the “awesome privilege” of being the vice presidential nominee in front of an enthusiastic crowd at the RNC Wednesday night. Pence, who described himself as “a Christian, a conservative, and a Republican, in that order,” joked that Donald Trump “is a man known for a large personality, colorful style, and lots of charisma, so I guess he was just looking for some balance on the ticket.” In what was his first big speech since Trump confirmed him as his VP pick, the Indiana governor recounted his all-American life story, slammed Hillary Clinton on issues such as Benghazi, and warned that this year’s election could shape the Supreme Court for the next 40 years, the AP reports.

Pence piled praise on Trump, saying opponents and the media simply don’t understand why he keeps winning. “They keep thinking they’ve done him in, only to wake up the next morning to find that Donald Trump is still standing and running stronger than ever before. The man does not quit,” said Pence. Trump “gets it,” he added. “He’s the genuine article. He’s a doer in a game usually reserved for talkers.” Soon after wrapping up, with the words “Together we will make America great again,” Pence was briefly joined on stage by Trump himself, who gave him an air kiss and stood with him briefly before Pence’s family came out.

All in all….a good time was had by none……

Day Four approaches……the final chapter can be written (Finally)…..

What The Hell Happened?

2016 was an election about change….a funny topic because Americans do not want change……it was a primary season about the rise of the outsiders….

We have a 3 branch system of government…..a great idea…but unfortunately ours does NOT work and has NOT worked for decades.

It’s 2020, four years from now. The campaign is under way to succeed the president, who is retiring after a single wretched term. Voters are angrier than ever—at politicians, at compromisers, at the establishment. Congress and the White House seem incapable of working together on anything, even when their interests align. With lawmaking at a standstill, the president’s use of executive orders and regulatory discretion has reached a level that Congress views as dictatorial—not that Congress can do anything about it, except file lawsuits that the divided Supreme Court, its three vacancies unfilled, has been unable to resolve.

On Capitol Hill, Speaker Paul Ryan resigned after proving unable to pass a budget, or much else. The House burned through two more speakers and one “acting” speaker, a job invented following four speakerless months. The Senate, meanwhile, is tied in knots by wannabe presidents and aspiring talk-show hosts, who use the chamber as a social-media platform to build their brands by obstructing—well, everything. The Defense Department is among hundreds of agencies that have not been reauthorized, the government has shut down three times, and, yes, it finally happened: The United States briefly defaulted on the national debt, precipitating a market collapse and an economic downturn. No one wanted that outcome, but no one was able to prevent it.

Source: How American Politics Became So Ineffective – The Atlantic

So the question remains…what the Hell happened?

That one is easy to analyze…..

Trumpism may have parallels in populist, nativist movements abroad, but it is also the culmination of a proud political party’s steady descent into a deeply destructive and dysfunctional state.

While that descent has been underway for a long time, it has accelerated its pace in recent years. We noted four years ago the dysfunction of the Republican Party, arguing that its obstructionism, anti-intellectualism, and attacks on American institutions were making responsible governance impossible. The rise of Trump completes the script, confirming our thesis in explicit fashion.

Source: The Republicans waged a 3-decade war on government. They got Trump. – Vox

And then some say it has been a 50 year struggle for the GOP…..a struggle to change the very definition of “American Values”……

The current U.S. presidential election cycle may seem over the top. But in one important way, it is no different than any other over the past several decades. Since the 1970s, presidential candidates running under the Republican ticket have successively shifted further and further to the political right. How many times have we heard—or said—that George W. Bush made Richard Nixon look like a liberal?

The rightward political shift is no accident. Since the end of World War II, far-right conservatives and libertarians have patiently laid the groundwork for a national climate receptive to their ideals of weak government and a strong corporate presence.

Source: The far-right’s 50-year project to transform American values with a clandestine ‘counterrevolution’

Now look at this country and what is happening…..the country is so divided that nothing gets accomplished….it is a program that will change nothing…..a program that will eventually destroy this country from the inside.

(I know it is a lot to take in…but it is worth reading all the links…that is if you see there is something wrong with this country….if not then return for the search for Pokemon).

How Much More Disgusting Can Israel Become?

I have thought that the state of Israel is disgusting for decades….first they attack an American Naval vessel killing American sailors and gets away with it….next they destroy crops and demolish homes so they can steal the land for their illegal; settlements….all of which I find disgusting…but recently I heard a rumor that organs were being harvested from dead Palestinian protesters…..and then I read an article along those lines…..that confirmed the rumors……

Israel has admitted pathologists harvested organs from dead Palestinians, and others, without the consent of their families – a practice it said ended in the 1990s – it emerged at the weekend.

The admission, by the former head of the country’s forensic institute, followed a furious row prompted by a Swedish newspaper reporting that Israel was killing Palestinians in order to use their organs – a charge that Israel denied and called “antisemitic”.

Source: Doctor admits Israeli pathologists harvested organs without consent | World news | The Guardian

This is reprehensible and then I read yet another piece about this situation……

Lawyers for a man who pleaded guilty Thursday in the first ever federal conviction for illegal organ trafficking say he was performing life-saving services for severely ill people.

Levy Izhak Rosenbaum, from New York, admitted in a Trenton federal court to brokering three illegal kidney transplants for desperate New Jersey-based customers in exchange for payments of $120,000 or more.

He also pleaded guilty to a conspiracy count for brokering an illegal kidney sale.

Source: Organ trafficker admits buying Israeli kidneys for $10,000 and selling them in U.S. for $120,000… – Linkis.com

When will the Western world stop protecting these pigs from being held accountable for their actions…..

I think this state is more barbaric than people know…..so if calling these bastards out for their crimes makes me an anti-Semite then I am guilty.

Western Sahara: A New Direction

The world did no stop because the GOP has their convention…I know that may be hard to believe….but it is true.

I have written several posts about the situation in Western Sahara…..my interests come from having worked in the country in my youth….

Western Sahara……A former Spanish colony, it was annexed by Morocco in 1975. Since then it has been the subject of a long-running territorial dispute between Morocco and its indigenous Saharawi people, led by the Polisario Front.

A 16-year-long insurgency ended with a UN-brokered truce in 1991 and the promise of a referendum on independence which has yet to take place.

Although under the de facto administrative control of Morocco, the status and sovereignty of Western Sahara remain unresolved and numerous direct talks have failed to break the political deadlock.

The Saharan Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), declared by the Polisario Front in 1976, is now recognized by many governments and is a full member of the African Union.

The Polisario Front is where I pick up on this post…….the leader of this movement has recently died and the movement was sent into a spiral of intrigue and speculation…..all that has been brought to a halt…….

The Sahrawi people have a new chief and a persistent determination to establish recognition from Morocco, one way or the other.

The newly elected president of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), Brahim Ghali, is calling for a peaceful settlement of its decades-long quest for independence.

He made it known, however, that Sahrawis are ready to fight for their freedom.

In a July 9 election in a Sahrawi refugee camp in Algeria, the indigenous people of the Moroccan-occupied territory in disputed Western Sahara chose Ghali as their president and secretary-general of their liberation movement, the Polisario Front. Ghali replaces longtime leader Mohamed Abdelaziz, who died May 31.

Ghali was one of the front’s founding members. He led the movement’s first military operation against Spain in 1973. In 1991, he began a new career as a diplomat, holding different posts, from Polisario’s representative in Spain to its ambassador in Algeria.

Source: Western Sahara’s Polisario Front elects leader

Image result for western sahara images

The country elected a familiar face for leadership…..the world at large has the power to make this a peaceful time by negotiating peaceful settlement of the fate of the country….freedom and independence are the only right answers.