Month: October 2016

Tom Hayden—R.I.P.

Back in the days of my youth there were special people if you were into the protest scene…..Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin and Tom Hayden…..among others.

It all began with the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and their Huron Statement and the movement ballooned from there…..into a nationwide protest against war….where have all the leaders gone?

They were the backbone of the anti-war activism…..we took our cue from their examples……slowly our “heroes” from those days are dying off and there seems to be NO one capable of taking their place as the leaders of a movement……

Sadly Tom Hayden has passed on….he will be missed…..

Famed ’60s anti-war activist Tom Hayden, whose name became forever linked with the celebrated Chicago 7 trial, Vietnam War protests, and ex-wife actress Jane Fonda, has died. He was 76. He died on Sunday after a long illness, said his wife, actress Barbara Williams, noting that he suffered a stroke in 2015. Hayden, once denounced as a traitor by his detractors, overcame his past and won election to the California Assembly and Senate, where he served for almost two decades as a progressive force on such issues as the environment and education. He was the only one of the radical Chicago 7 defendants to win such distinction in the mainstream political world, the AP reports.

In 1960, while a student at the University of Michigan, Hayden was involved in the formation of Students for a Democratic Society, then dedicated to desegregating the South. In 1968, he helped organize anti-war demonstrations during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago that turned violent and resulted in the notorious and circus-like Chicago 7 trial. Hayden and three others were convicted of crossing state lines to incite riot. The convictions were later overturned, and an official report deemed the violence “a police riot.” “Rarely, if ever, in American history has a generation begun with higher ideals and experienced greater trauma than those who lived fully the short time from 1960 to 1968,” he wrote in the essay “Streets of Chicago.” Read more about Hayden, who was married to Fonda for 17 years, here.

Good-bye old friend….Rest In Peace.

How Will The Battle For Mosul Affect Iraq?

Even though the US election is extremely important I cannot in good conscience ignore the rest of the world…..especially the war in Iraq and the battle for the hearts and minds of Mosul……

The battle for Mosul is in full swing and some are even calling it the end game for ISIS.  I do not know it I would go that far…..but it is an extremely important battle for the future of Iraq is at stake…..

Analysis: What happens in Mosul could determine the future direction of the country.

The battle for Mosul is intensifying as Iraqi government forces and Kurdish troops edge closer towards the country’s second-largest city. According to the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) interior ministry, the Iraqi army is only five kilometres from Mosul – and they could be even closer.

Several towns and villages have recently been cleared, including the predominantly Christian towns of Bartellah and Qaraqoush, southeast of Mosul. Fierce battles are raging on multiple fronts.

But fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) are hitting back hard. ISIL fighters have slowed down the advancing forces by waging waves of coordinated suicide car-bomb attacks, deploying tens of snipers and relying on a network of trenches and tunnels.

Source: How will the battle for Mosul affect Iraq? – News from Al Jazeera

Will an Iraqi win amplify the internal problems of the country?  A question few are asking….at least in public…….

Last week the Iraqi government in Baghdad claimed that Turkey had violated its sovereignty by deploying troops and tanks to the town of Bashiqa, north of Mosul. Turkey has stated that this deployment is part of a previously agreed plan to train Iraqi Kurdish forces to combat ISIL. Some Iraqi officials in the central government deemed it a Turkish “invasion”.

The deployment, which had the blessing of the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) of Iraq, but resulted in condemnation from the central Iraqi government in Baghdad, is symptomatic of the schizophrenic foreign policy of post-2003 Iraq, compounded by a complete reversal of a Turkish policy of allying with Iraq’s Kurds against Turkey’s own Kurds.

Source: Diagnosing Iraq’s problems – Al Jazeera English

Granted the complexion of Iraq could change after this battle is won….but will it be the beginning of the end?

Conventional military doctrine cautions against urban operations. Typically they require huge numbers of troops, are painstakingly slow and result in high levels of casualties particularly among the civilian population.

Yet, the Iraqi government is not fighting a conventional war and, as it prepares to wrest back control of Mosul from ISIL, it will be engaged in a battle where the tactics of each side will be determined by their long-term strategies.

For the Iraqi security forces (ISF) not only do they need to dislodge a brutal and – at times – literally suicidal opponent, but they need to retake the city in a way that facilitates Baghdad’s future rule over the Sunni minority population and the encroaching ambitions of the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG).

Source: The battle for Mosul: The beginning of the end – Al Jazeera English

The fixation on the defeat of ISIS is honorable….but someone needs to be paying attention to the consequences that could present themselves……let us not forget what happen in Afghanistan in the 1990’s…..the wrong foot could turn a small problem into a bigger one and a more dangerous one…..

Wasted Time And Neglected Issues

As I say all the time…this election should be more about foreign policy and our constant wars than most other issues…..and I was also hoping that someone would make it a priority of the debates since the candidates do not like talking about it…..I was needlessly to say disappointed.

The last debate would have been a perfect time and place for this conversation and instead we got these lame ass slogans and one liners…..

Even the American Conservative see the lack of concern on this important issue…..

As I feared, the final presidential debate paid almost no attention to foreign policy except as it related to Iraq and Syria. I’ll comment on the candidates’ answers in a later post, but first I wanted to say a few things about the almost total neglect of foreign policy in the general election to date. Foreign policy is without a doubt one of the principal responsibilities of the president, and it is an area where the president has the greatest leeway with the least resistance from the other branches of government. Congress’ abdication of responsibility in this area is well-known. That suggests that the presidential candidates’ views on foreign policy should be among the most important things to know about them, and it means that voters need to be informed about the candidates’ understanding of the relevant issues and how to address them. For the most part, that isn’t happening, and it’s a serious problem that ought to concern us all.

Perhaps more than in any election cycle since 2000, foreign policy has received remarkably little attention in the general election (and it didn’t receive much more during the primaries), and many pressing issues have been ignored entirely throughout the campaign. The war in Afghanistan and the war on Yemen are among the most obvious and damning omissions in my view, but one could find quite a few other other important things that the candidates have never been asked about. We have almost no idea how either candidate would approach approximately nine-tenths of the rest of the world, and the election is in less than three weeks. That is pathetic even by our usual poor political standards.

Source: The Third Presidential Debate’s Neglect of Foreign Policy | The American Conservative

Neither candidate gives me much confidence….regardless that one has “diplomatic” experience….and yet she does not want to push her foreign policy bona fides…..why?

Only two weeks left to make your decision……..If you vote out of some misplaced loyalty or because of some rhetoric that means NOTHING….then you deserve the shittiest government possible.

Please do not vote foolishly.

Peace out…….

Do We Really Want Democracy?

Starting today I shall be posting on the election since the day is about 2 weeks away….even though I believe that foreign policy is the most important aspect I will be covering other situations all if the hope that some of it will assist the voter in some small way…..

During an election, matters not when, we are all told about our great democracy and how it will be subverted if we vote for the other guy…..matter not which party you identify with….they all say the same sort of mindless dribble.

This time around there seems to be more rhetoric along these lines……an since the term “democracy” has become subjective…no longer does it mean the same thing that was meant back in the days of our Founders……

Our founding fathers raised this same question! They didn’t want a Monarchy. But they also didn’t want a Mobocracy. John Adams, our second president, distrusted the masses and defended inequality among men and advocated a government by an Aristocracy based on birth, education, and wealth.

Even our two political parties want to moderate Democracy. They each appoint “super-delegates.” Super-delegates are (1) given more votes that the normal delegate and (2) they are under less obligation to follow the will of their voters. The hope is that super-delegates will counter the pressure of too much “populism” that might give the nomination to the wrong candidate for that party. The super-delegates in the Democratic Party will side with Hillary Clinton to counter the growing popularity of Bernie Sanders, a strong populist and progressive.

Source: Do We Really Want Democracy? | Huffington Post

My question is…..do the voters really want a democracy?  Or maybe it is just another term to use as a prop like patriotism, hero and other such political dog whistles……

What do you want?  Or are you fine with the system as we have it today?

Keep in mind that one party appears to hate democracy in all its glory…..

But those purportedly noble and principled Republicans don’t need Trump to undermine our democratic institutions.  They are already doing so themselves by thwarting a sitting president’s efforts to appoint a well-qualified candidate to the United States Supreme Court—a nominee that they had previously praised—for no other reason than it would likely alter the ideological balance on the Court.  And John McCain has now made explicit what has been a poorly kept secret—that the Republicans will continue to oppose whatever nominee the next Democratic president selects:  “I promise you that we will be united against any Supreme Court nominee that Hillary Clinton, if she were president, would put up.  I promise you.”

Source: The Republican Party—Not Just Its Candidate—Hates Democracy – LA Progressive

To answer the question….I’m not so sure anymore.

Those Damn Crony Capitalists

This election we have had a full array of attacks on the system we live under….even from a person that has gamed the system to benefit himself….there has been so much talked about….especially those damn “crony capitalists”…..but what is this phenom we hear so much about?

Crony capitalism and genuine capitalism, if not opposites, are fundamentally opposed. Unfortunately the broader public, to date, is largely unaware of this.

Crony capitalism is the marriage of the state and private special interests. Some people have called it corporatism, mercantilism, fascism, or even Communism.

We will call it crony capitalism.

By whatever name, it is phony capitalism.

Well said…..and this is where an article I read in The American Conservative comes into the picture…..

The story of crony capitalism—where success in business depends on government favoritism, not competitive products—is often told in anecdotes. Anyone who follows policy debates can rattle off a list: the Solyndra loan-guarantee fiasco; the Utah woman who couldn’t braid hair for a living without undergoing 2,000 hours of formal training, a regulation designed to shield established salons from upstart competition. But while such stories serve as excellent examples of the phenomenon, they can’t reveal its true depth and breadth.

Crony capitalism isn’t just a collection of individual restrictions: it is a cancer that is slowly eating the economy. Signs of it can be found in even the broadest, most fundamental economic data, and the nation’s biggest industries have fallen victim to it. And rooting it out would require a complete rethinking of how businesses and the government interact.

Source: The Crony Economy | The American Conservative

Pay to play comes to mind….the Clinton camp is guilty as sin….Trump ……who knows for sure.

If the liberals are bitching about iot and now a conservative publication is also….then there is a good chance that it is the cancer that some call it.

Constitutionally Speaking

Sunday and I thought I would let you have a bit of a history lesson…..and since the election is just around the corner maybe a dose of what the Constitution is about will be helpful……

This election, as with every election, someone has to bring up the Constitution and our rights….this candidate or that will limit our rights and/or destroy the Constitution…..

I recently watched a vid with justice Souter, the ex-Supreme Court justice, about some of the constitutional stuff……watch it and listen to what he has to say…..interesting just how close he predicted this election back then…..I admit it is a bit lengthy but well worth the time investment……enjoy.

Why Do We Fear Refugees?

My weekend begins and my granddaughter is visiting and we are arguing something we do often….but it is light hearted and informative….

Recently she had a class project about the refugees and the conflicts that have created the flood of people.  She does her own research and she found some stuff that sort of made her worry……it seems she had found in her research and in her classroom that people seem to fear refugees……she asked why.

She found this animated piece on youtube that explains it somewhat and she shared it with me……

Zygmunt Bauman, one of the most influential thinkers of our time, says many Europeans’ fear of refugees boils down to the idea of the “precariat” – people whose lives are marked by precariousness, anxiety and fear.

Bauman believes that in this era of global upheaval and movement, seeing people who have lost everything reminds us of our own vulnerabilities – how we could so easily lose our homes, our jobs and our loved ones.

I could have given her my take on it…..if the world does not want to help these people then stop making the crisis possible….but I wanted her to find her answers on her own…..

I gave her an “A” for her diligence in finding the answer to her question…..

And all I can say is….”That’s my girl”.

Smile! You Are On A Candid Camera

Ever get the feeling that someone is watching you?  That weird feeling on the back of your neck that makes you feel uncomfortable……

You may not be imagining things…….

It’s no secret that American law has been building facial recognition databases to aide in its investigations. But a new, comprehensive report on the status of facial recognition as a tool in law enforcement shows the sheer scope and reach of the FBI’s database of faces and those of state-level law enforcement agencies: Roughly half of American adults are included in those collections. And that massive assembly of biometric data is accessed with only spotty oversight of its accuracy and how it’s used and searched.

The 150-page report, released on Tuesday by the Center for Privacy & Technology at the Georgetown University law school, found that law enforcement databases now include the facial recognition information of 117 million Americans, about one in two U.S. adults. It goes on to outline the dangers to privacy, free speech, and protections against unreasonable search and seizure that come from unchecked use of that information. Currently the report finds that at least a quarter of all local and state police departments have access to a facial recognition database—either their own or another agency’s—and law enforcement in more than half of all states can search against the trove of photos stored for IDs like drivers’ licenses.

Source: Cops Have a Database of 117M Faces. You’re Probably in It | WIRED

But do not fret…….it is for you own safety.

Described by the report’s authors as “unprecedented and highly problematic,” linked databases containing photographs acquired from driver’s licenses, government IDs and mug shots have provided federal, state and local law agencies with the images of about 48 percent of America’s adult population, according to the report.

Databases maintained by the FBI historically have included the biometric information of individuals associated with criminal activity, but those systems in recent years have been linked with the driver’s license photo databases of 16 states and counting. Following a yearlong investigation and a review of more than 100 records requests, the authors of the report wrote that these systems are highly unregulated and officially “out of control.”

Do you really think that all this is for your own safety?

If so then you probably already own a bridge in Brooklyn.

NOTE:  Starting Monday with 2 weeks left before the election…I will be hitting the vote in a full court press…..just in case you would prefer reality TV……

Enjoy your weekend my friends…….chuq

Why Not Admit That America Is Fighting 5 Wars?

The newest push against the barbarous turds in Mosul, ISIS……our continuing pounding of Syria……(thinking)….did I forget anything?

You bet your ass you did….

The shameful conspiracy of silence around America’s many wars

In an election flush with conspiracy theories, here’s one that’s real: Both major party nominees, as well as the journalists who cover the election and moderate the debates, are actively conspiring to avoid talking about the fact that the United States is waging war in at least five countries simultaneously: Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Libya, and Somalia.

In the first two presidential debates, our involvement in the Syrian civil war was briefly discussed, as was ISIS in vague terms, and the Iran nuclear deal, and Russia’s mischief-making in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, and Libya, though mostly in the past tense, focused on our 2011 intervention to depose Moammar Gadhafi and the subsequent attack on American government facilities in Benghazi a year later.

Source: Why won’t anyone admit that America is fighting 5 wars?

Five Wars?  How many more can we fight successfully?

No matter which of the worthless candidates wins the election…we will have many others to contend with in the future….

We, the US, has been at war so long no that it has become humdrum…..at least for some….or should I say most?

The days of massive troops attacking a beach are gone……the Napoleonic style is no more…..there is a whole new way of “fighting”…….these are not your Daddy’s wars…….

A recommendable New York Times piece looks at the mostly hidden way the U.S. is now waging wars. The example is Somalia, where the U.S. has been at war with the people of that country for over 25 years. But, as the authors note, the same modus operandi applies elsewhere.

The Obama administration has intensified a clandestine war in Somalia over the past year, using Special Operations troops, airstrikes, private contractors and African allies in an escalating campaign against Islamist militants in the anarchic Horn of Africa nation.

Source: The New U.S. Way Of War: Special Ops, Mercenaries, Rebels, Proxies, Drones | Global Research – Centre for Research on Globalization

There is a new way of thinking about the combatants……

In May 2007, I concluded my remarks to the graduates of Duquesne University (my Alma Mater) with these words: “Life will soon bring you increased responsibilities, and it is rare that you will have a legitimate choice to do nothing. Responsibility usually demands action.”

In fact, during my tenure at CIA, acting was often tough and a little lonely since the Agency was serving a government whose definition of the war on terror far outstripped any other and a president with a bolder view on how to conduct the conflict than many (eventually most) in the Congress thought appropriate, and within the executive branch, CIA operated on the outer edges of executive prerogative more than any other arm of government.

Source: Choices of War: Detain and Interrogate, or Kill? | World Affairs Journal

The last option seems to be the easiest…..

Avoiding Old Traps in Iraq

Optimism is pouring out of the veins of those involved in the newest attempt to put ISIS down….the Battle of Mosul could very well be the end of ISIS in Iraq….they could tuck tail and run for Raqaa in Syria……But first…another American soldier has died in Iraq…….

While the US-backed Iraqi forces won’t even reach the city of Mosul for at least a couple of weeks, the operation already has its first US death, with a soldier embedded with the Kurdish Peshmerga killed in a roadside bombing attack just north of Mosul.

Exact details on the location are unclear, but the soldier’s vehicle hit the bomb planted in the road, and it detonated. He died later of his wounds. Pentagon officials have described there being around 100 US troops embedded with Iraqi security forces around Mosul.

The media actually reported this death…..but was it because of the major battle or good faith?

Now let’s say they are defeated in Iraq…..will the world make the same mistakes it made in 2004?

The Center for Strategic and International Studies has taken a look at the possibilities…..

It is hard to remember exactly when there was widespread optimism about Iraq, but it is easy to remember the circumstances. Shi’a were united, Kurds were united with them, and Sunni dissatisfaction was the only obstacle to the country coming together. Unfortunately, the Sunnis didn’t see the events of 2004 or so that way. They saw the country’s politics freezing them out permanently, and many committed to doing anything they could to disrupt Iraqi stability. Some supported al Qaeda in Iraq, to protect themselves from what they saw as the depredations of Iraq’s Shi’a community.  Bombs exploded, shrines were destroyed, civilians were murdered, and the optimism evaporated.

Things have gotten better slowly in Iraq, but in the last several months, politics seem to be melting down. The Shi’a coalition is coming undone, Kurdish unity seems to be fraying, and different Sunni groups aren’t sure where to turn. Mosul is about to be in flames. Although Iraqi politics seem headed for a cliff, in fact, recent events are actually a hopeful sign.

Source: Middle East Notes and Comment: Avoiding Old Traps in Iraq | Center for Strategic and International Studies

I look for new problems within the different factions….the Chaldeans, Assyrians, Kurds, on and on…..everyone will be looking for that pound of flesh…..