Day: October 20, 2016

Will There Be Political Civil Wars?

This election has seen just about everything possible when it comes to political theory and action.  We have huge differences within the Democratic Party…..and the GOP has not fared too well either….both parties have deep divides  and depending on the outcome of this election could erupt in a political civil war within the parties……

First the GOP….since Trump became the nominee there have been widening chasm in the different factions within the party…….and it looks as if a long predicted interior revolt is simmering……

Whom among us, upon hearing of the grave and perhaps existential threats now facing the Republican Party, is entirely immune to the siren song of schadenfreude? Who from the liberal classes can entirely resist the temptation, when reading about the bitter divisions now rending the GOP, to mutter, “Now that’s a god damn shame,” and then issue forth with a soft and mordant chuckle?

And as Donald Trump spirals down ever further, his descent into humiliation propelled by his own pheromonal and lubricious self-regard, what right-thinking human being can resist whispering a quaint saying of yesteryear? You know the one:

Source: The Republicans’ Civil War – And Everyone Else’s – LA Progressive

But what about the Dems?

The primaries showed the 2 wings within the party and even though Bernie lost and then endorsed Clinton there still a wide divide in the people within the party…..to the point that they also could be looking at an interior struggle…….

As I peruse the receipts of corruption & betrayal otherwise known as the Podesta email leaks, it seems clear as day that there never was & there will never be a place for young people, progressives, socialists, environmentalists or anti-war activists in the democratic party — in fact, it seems the democrats have earned their place beside our wealthy rulers by subverting & incrementalizing[note¹] people’s movements for social, racial, environmental, & economic justice. With every new leak, the evidence of the party’s corruption becomes harder for even their co-conspirators in the corporate media to spin or ignore — but when will their voters abandon them?

Source: The Democrats Must Be Destroyed to Build a Peoples’ Party – The Writing of John Laurits

Personally I think that an internal struggle within the parties could be good for the system…..and since I am still a radical deep down……I like the thought of this possible civil war.

Any thoughts?

Debates: Third Time’s A Charm

The last in a long line of totally worthless exercises in stupid…..ends tonight.

The Third and final debate of the 2016 election season (and none too soon)…..as usual I refuse to watch the crap storm…..I have a book I need to finish….but since there may be some readers out there that still think the election is worth the time invested……

Good news for Hillary Clinton: Many pundits say you won the final debate. Good news for Donald Trump: A lot of them say it was close. Good news for America: You’ll never have to watch these two debate again. The showdown in Vegas turned out to be more policy-focused affair than the first two debates, though there was no shortage of angry exchanges—and coverage is being dominated by Trump’s refusal to commit to accepting the election results. A round-up of debate reactions:

  • Both candidates turned in their best performance of the three debates, according to Chris Cillizza at the Washington Post, who declares Clinton the winner. “She finally figured out the right calibration of ignoring and engaging Trump,” he writes, while Trump’s answer on accepting election results “was a total disaster and will be the only thing people are talking about coming out of the debate.”
  • For a few minutes early on, “we had something like a normal debate,” with candidates setting out familiar policy positions, writes Arthur C. Brooks at the New York Times. But as the evening went on, “concrete solutions mostly disappeared and the tone became far more biting and sarcastic. The candidates were openly contemptuous and disrespectful of each other,” he writes, declaring the only winner to be the “grim status quo” of this election.
  • “This was no game changer, and no knockout punches,” writes Jim Geraghty at the National Review—except for Trump’s refusal to commit to accepting the election results, which could count as a “self-inflicted knockout punch.”
  • Caleb Howe at Redstate.com declares Clinton and Trump joint winners in their attempts to win over undecided voters: Both know that they are hated by many voters, he notes, and while Trump “appealed the haters who lean right, she appealed to the haters who lean left.”
  • Trump desperately needed a win and for a while it looked like he would get one, writes David Gergen at CNN, where 52% of those polled called Clinton the winner, compared to 39% for Trump. After 40 minutes, Gergen writes, Trump “began to lose steam and, importantly, lose control of his ego. Wild charges, interruptions, defensiveness all resurfaced—some would say his persecution complex kicked in.”
  • If it wasn’t for refusing to commit to respecting the election results and his crack about Clinton being a “nasty woman,” “maybe you could call it a draw,” writes Nate Silver at FiveThirtyEight. “The thing is, even a draw would be a bad outcome for Trump, who is 7 points behind Clinton and has few remaining opportunities to catch up,” he writes. But Trump may not fall further in the polls, “because he’s fallen pretty far already and he gave his 35% base some things to be energized about tonight.”
  • Ric Anderson at the Las Vegas Sun thinks Clinton came out ahead: Trump was able to, “for the most part, focus on issues and keep his emotions in check,” he writes, but his “gloom-and-doom assessment of the economy” will not resonate with voters in Nevada, where the economy has been doing very well for years, while Clinton “stayed the course with her message of creating jobs” in areas including infrastructure improvement.

I had to watch it in repeat…..not that I wanted to but rather to see if what I read and heard about the thing were accurate…..

I have two other points that were not made…..

First, the battle for Mosul has begun and the candidates talked about it and not once did they mention that US troops are leading the charge….no wishes for a speedy return of our guys…..NOT one word for them….these are the political props that all fake patriots use but in reality could care less.

Second, it was billed as a debate….it was NO such thing!  What it was was a school yard argument of insults and innuendoes….

Third, that was the most immature outing for supposedly rational adults that I have ever witnessed…all that was missing was the sticking out of tongues after a point was made.

Finally, anyone that votes for either of these d/bags needs their fucking head examined.

Could A New Cold War Be Worse Than the Last?

There is lots of talk about our relations with Russia these days…..especially during the election process…..there are lots of images being past around about the Lat Cold War…….and even some predictions that we are in or headed to a new confrontation with Russia…..

Murray Polner: Nowadays, Washington’s gung-ho cold warriors, few of whom have ever worn a military uniform, and our obsequious mass media, have convinced far too many Americans to dutifully accept the Grand Illusion that, America’s role is to right the wrongs of the world.

The older I become the more I realize that the movies I watched as a kid  somehow taught us how to deal with enemies, real and imagined, at home or abroad. In my beloved cowboy films everything boiled down to good guys/ bad guys, moral oversimplifications and victories delivered by six-shooters. It was clean, swift and uncomplicated, with no remorse.

A very smart, if cynical John LeCarre put it another way with his more realistic “Rule One of the Cold War,” which is just as true in today’s emerging new Cold War: “Nothing, absolutely nothing is what it seems. Everyone has a second motive, if not a third.” That’s certainly true in today’s Syria and everywhere else.

Source: Why the New Cold War Could Be Worse Than the Last Cold War – LA Progressive

Campaign rhetoric aside….does anyone think that we will return to the days of the Cold War hysteria?

There is a need to find a balance between sanctioning Russia for its recent transgressions of international norms and keeping the door open for better relations in the future.”

This year, the tragedies and outrages of the Ukraine crisis have dominated headlines and thinking about Western relations with Russia. There can be little doubt that the United States and its European allies and partners need a response to the Russian annexation of Crimea, to the destabilization of eastern Ukraine, to the separatists’ downing of a civilian airliner—and to the threat to global order that all of these actions represent.

Source: How to Avoid a New Cold War | Brookings Institution

After careful deliberation…..depending on the outcome of the election…..then we will return to “Cold War” footing.

But in case there is still any doubt out there is the blogoshere…..

The Russian Parliament on Wednesday approved the suspension of a cooperative weapons-grade plutonium disposal agreement with the United States, formalizing one of the sharpest downturns in relations between Moscow and Washington since the start of the Ukraine crisis in 2014.

According to the Tass news agency, the measure was adopted virtually unanimously by the State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament. Of the deputies present, 445 supported its adoption, and only one member of parliament abstained.

Source: Russian Parliament Approves Suspension of Nuclear Cooperation with US | World Affairs Journal

Somewhere out there a smile is creeping across the face of a neocon……this made me think of the music of my youth…..

Iraq: Battle For Hearts And Minds

The big news of the week is that the battle for Mosul has finally begun….after months of moving equipment and men around all the prep work has come to the “final” battle…..

If you have been living under a rock and not aware of the situation in Iraq…then I can be of assistance…..

Source: War Against Islamic State in Iraq

I felt it necessary for my readers to be notified of the start of thew battle for I had no confidence that it would be a priority for the MSM……

The war in Iraq has not been in the headlines later even though about a 100 people a day die….the media rather play on an endless loop the gossip coming out of both sides of the election̷…

Source: Iraq: And So It Begins – In Saner Thought

Even if the battle is won and ISIS takes it on the lame….will this be the end of the problems in Iraq?

The Unesco constitution says: “Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed.”

The only thing people seem to agree about the current battle for Mosul is that Isis will be defeated militarily and the city retaken. Militarily, Isis is losing. But progress on giving Sunnis in Mosul reasons to believe in their future and to support the country’s Shia-dominated government remains elusive. And this is the key battleground: without victory here, we will be locked into a cycle of violence without end.

Source: The battle for Mosul is not just coalition (good) v Isis (bad) | Jonathan Shaw | Opinion | The Guardian

Any defeat of ISIS is a welcome story….but in Iraq’s case the possibility of it sinking into further violence is possible…..we have the Iraqi military, the shi’a militias and the Pesh Merga fighting to liberate Mosul….but why?

Each one of them has an agenda…..and not one of them is fighting for the nation of Iraq…..

Iraq could sink into the divisions that have all players in Syria at each others throats…..none have any idea what is at stake beyond their own petty dreams of power….Iraq is looking as a similar problem for the world to sort out.

I say the world because…..well they created the problem….they need to man up and handle it.

Afghanistan: 15 Year War

We do not hear much about Afghanistan these days even though it is our longest war….EVER!

But for those that are interested…..another American soldier has died in defense of their country…..

A U.S. service member and a U.S. civilian died Wednesday after an attack near a coalition base in Kabul, according to a U.S. Forces Afghanistan news release.

The attack was carried out by an unknown assailant, who was later killed, according to the release. The release does not elaborate on the nature of the attack.

In addition to the two deaths, one U.S. service member and two U.S. civilians were injured. They are in stable condition.

The two people who were killed were carrying out unspecified duties associated with the NATO mission to train, advise and assist Afghan forces, according to the release.

I realize that few seem to care about the death of an American soldier…that is until it can be used as a political prop (a practice I find distasteful and pathetic)…….but I will be the conscience of the country if I must……

There is more about Afghanistan……we here that the Afghan army is doing well just they need more planes and such to be successful…..but is that true?

15 years into the NATO occupation of Afghanistan, the Taliban controls more territory now than at any other time during the war, and the losses continue to mount for the Afghan government. The war has never been going “well,” exactly, but the losses are becoming a lot more visible.

the NATO nations involved in the war invested heavily in capturing and holding certain key cities, and as they began to draw down their forces, many nations sold these territorial gains, however limited they were, as their chief military accomplishments. Now, they’re watching those cities fall.

These stories exist everywhere around Afghanistan, as NATO spent billions to build up an Afghan military which is falling apart at the seams, unable to properly defend much of anything, and likewise unable to recruit enough people to make up for their losses.

Afghan officials are downplaying the losses, insisting they are temporary. Yet they are losing an estimated 10,000 police a year just to casualties, above what they’re able to recruit, and in the military, force levels have always been dubious, given the widespread corruption and existence of tens of thousands of “ghost troops” created by crooked officials just to collect salaries.

(antiwar.com)

So as you can read….Afghanistan is NOT the success that some would have you believe……after 15 years it is time for the US to consider whether they want to invest more lives and money in a cause that is falling apart as I type.

Is it worth further investment?