Month: November 2016

ISIS: Will The Song Remain The Same?

Once again my friends at Ace News Room have shown confidence in my writings and published another of my op-eds…I will be eternally grateful to them for their support in my analyses…..

I feel remiss in my duty to help keep the public informed….this past election and its results have kept my attentions elsewhere…..slowly but slowly I will return to where I belong….analysis of international situations….

The election was all consuming for some and it kept the subject of ISIS off the front pages except when one candidate mentioned it in passing….but now that the election is in the history books maybe it is time to once again think about the terrorist group…..

The push to Mosul has begun and the battle for the caliphate capital Raqaa is about to commence….but there are several questions that everyone has been ignoring for about a year……

Source: ISIS: Will The Song Remain The Same?

There is much to be done on the world stage….I just hope that Trump and his picks are up to the challenge of keeping America safe…….

Closing Thought–15Nov16

I thought I would try something new here on IST…..I will give a short summation of what I observed for the day….if it don’t work then I will move on……

I have writing this blog for about 10 years and in 2008 I observed that Obama was not the “change and hope” that voters were looking for (check the archives if you doubt my word) and I feel the same about a Donald Trump president.

So far he is backing off some of his campaign promises and NO one on the Right is concerned that they were lied to for their vote.  Instead most are fixated on the protests…as if nothing matters when it comes to Trump.

It is beginning to look like the main driver of the election was hate…..turn Americans against Americans….there is NO push back on his re-nigging on campaign promises….hate is still being spouted wrapped in the American flag…..but now it is aimed at protesters.

So far nothing I have seen coming out of the Trump transition would lead me to believe anything else.

I will agree that we need to move on……Trump was elected just like Obama was….do not slip into the hateful crap that the Right spewed for 8 years.

If Trump is a pragmatic person then we must give him a chance…..with that said….we MUST STAY vigilant.

On a closing note–I am thinking about bringing back the Assie Award, an award that I gave up in 2012 for there was little interest in it….but this election has proved that it could be a popular post for IST.

100 Years of Voting for the “Lesser Evil”

While I am trying to focus where this country is going ……..all those rabid Trump-sters so they do not have to hear the facts are fixating on the protests…that way they do not have to look at their candidate they can just continue their blind support…..those protesters have nothing to do with how Trump will govern.

This past election I was given grief from several corners of the internet because I said I would vote my principles and vote Green Party……of course there was the usual crap about I would be handing the election to the other side (whatever side that was)…..that I should just fall into line and vote for a candidate that I did not like or approve of…..something I cannot do and will not do.

Photo published for Proof That 100 Years of Voting for the "Lesser Evil" Gave Us Trump and Hillary

Basically they wanted me to hold my nose and vote for one of the two major parties….in essence I was to vote for the “lesser of evils”……for the good of the country……(I laughed then and laugh now)……

As millions of Americans head to the polls today to “have their voices heard” and “make a difference,” many will likely carry out their voting rituals with the intent of electing the candidate they view as the lesser evil. They will vote for Hillary Clinton to stop Donald Trump or vote for Donald Trump to stop Hillary Clinton — at least, that’s what they tell themselves.

Every four years, Americans tacitly accept evil, morally content to accept authority from the candidate they subjectively designate the least harmful. They view this as the practical solution to America’s corruption and inevitable path to destruction. They often mock and chastise those who refuse to compromise their consciences for the sake of participating in a broken system.

Source: Proof That 100 Years of Voting for the “Lesser Evil” Gave Us Trump and Hillary

That’s right…..after about a century of voting for crap candidates and this is where the country has come…..

It is early in a soon to be Trump administration…..as the wise ones say….we will have to wait and see if his election is the seismic switch they think it will be…..

“Repeal And Replace”

Obamacare has been a thorn in the asses of the GOP for years now…..and for all of those years they have been chanting the same lame chant….”repeal and replace”…ad nauseum.

First I agree that it needs to be replaced….but with what….and now I will get the long diatribe on how they will decode….which is good but it still does not explain replaced with WHAT!?

Among those on the street that are all for this issue seems to be those people that Obamacare does not effect for whatever reason….they are on Medicare or VA or Tricare…so why is it important to them?  Maybe they are concerned about the fellow Americans….don’t make me laugh they could care less about their fellow American…..

But Trump has stated that he will “repeal and replace”…it was one of his most taunted promises…..but how will that take place on day one……

President-elect Donald Trump has promised to make getting rid of ObamaCare a priority—but he’s not going to be able to simply summon the Affordable Care Act to the boardroom and tell the law it’s fired. Instead, experts say repealing and replacing the ACA is a process that could easily take a year or more, and it’s very likely that parts of it will survive. Scientific American reports that with Republicans in control of the White House and both houses of Congress, but without a supermajority in the Senate, the party will likely use the “budget reconciliation” process to kill off as much of the health care law as it can, using a method that can’t be thwarted by a Democratic filibuster.

“Through budget reconciliation, it is possible for them to repeal and replace the bill entirely” by cutting off funding to parts of the system, analyst Ana Gupte tells NBC News. “They could choke off the blood supply to ObamaCare.” But the process will have to wait until there is a budget, and repeal may not reach Trump’s desk until late next year, with a replacement coming later still, experts say. In other coverage:

  • Analysts tell USA Today that popular parts of the law are likely to survive, including the ability to keep children on their parents’ health insurance until they’re 26. But bipartisan agreement will be tough, since Democrats don’t want people to think they’re getting rid of ObamaCare—and Republicans don’t want people to think they’re improving it.
  • The Washington Post notes that earlier Republican efforts to repeal ObamaCare included a two-year transition period before the law changed, to give health care companies plenty of time to adjust. If they were “unable to agree in two years on what will take its place, that is the nightmare scenario” that will leave millions without coverage, says Harvard School of Public Health professor John McDonough, who helped craft the law.
  • Politico predicts a long and complicated battle ahead, with ObamaCare advocates promising “total war” to defend the law, and GOP leaders expected to take “big and bold” action.
  • For now, nothing has changed, though confusion about the law’s future is growing. “This administration is going to continue to make a strong case that people should go to HealthCare.gov, consider the options that are available to them, and sign up for health care,” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Wednesday.

What if none of that actually works?

Donald Trump, who campaigned on a promise to repeal and replace “the disaster knows as ObamaCare,” has softened his tone. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, the president-elect suggested the law might be amended instead of repealed. He said he is open to keeping parts of it that he likes “very much,” including allowing young adults to be covered on their parents’ insurance and stopping insurers denying coverage because of pre-existing conditions. Trump said he had shifted position on the law after talks with Obama this week. New health policies outlined on Trump’s website have dropped mentions of reining in drug prices and now include talk of modernizing Medicare, notes the New York Times.

In a 60 Minutes interview that will air Sunday, Trump said he would never get rid of ObamaCare before a replacement was ready, CNN reports. “It will be just fine. That’s what I do, I do a good job. You know, I know how to do this stuff,” he said. The BBC notes that “keeping ObamaCare’s carrots while abandoning its sticks” could be tricky, since the popular parts are made possible by the unpopular parts, like requiring all Americans to have health insurance. In the Journal interview, Trump declined to say whether he still plans to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Hillary Clinton. “It’s not something I’ve given a lot of thought, because I want to solve health care, jobs, border control, tax reform,” he said.

I will give him his props…..he said what I have been saying……you cannot repeal without a replacement…..

As usual….the voter fell for a con without thinking the process out…..

For those slow witted voters of Trump……repeal and replace means kill the law and find an alternative……tweaking the existing law is NOT repealing or replacing…….guess what people…if true he LIED!

Can you hear that?  HE LIED!

Will the rabble hold Trump accountable?  Or will they just brush it off as Dem obstructionism?

Do I need to ask?

There Is Always A Better Idea

Most of the Right wing is thumping their chest about the win of Trump over what the polls were telling the population……the polls were really wrong…..and now the pollsters are trying to explain away their total lack of knowledge of the voting public….it is almost humorous all the tap dancing going on…..

But I read a piece from the UK that made me sit up and think that it would be the best new law in a century…..

Flush all political polls down the toilet……..

Parliament looks set to consider a bill that would introduce strict rules on polling companies and could even ban polls being conducted in the weeks leading up to an election.

Labour peer Lord Foulkes introduced legislation in the last parliament aimed at setting up an Ofcom style regulator for polling companies. The body would draw up rules setting a gold standard for conducting polls and be governed by a board made up of representatives of the polling companies, political parties and the media.

That bill fell due to lack of parliamentary time but Foulkes, who has served as both and MP and an MSP in a political career stretching 40 years, is determined to revive it after the polls apparently failed to predict Donald Trump’s election victory in America.

He said: “In light of the US polls fiasco and Brexit I intend to pursue this bill again.

“Once again we’ve seen how often polling is wrong, which is why the companies involved should welcome regulation and a strict standards to adhere to which would improve their credibility.”

Foulkes’ proposals would also give the new regulator the power to ban polling ahead of a big election. He added: “Banning polling in the last couple of weeks before an election would switch the focus to the issues at stake rather than the media just regurgitating the latest poll.”

Foulkes has previously complained that polling has been “corrupted” by newspapers commissioning and reporting surveys to suit their own agenda and to help shape the narrative going into elections.

Polling companies dismissed Lord Foulkes previous Regulation of Political Polling Bill as “ludicrous” and “offensive”.

(Total Politics)

This is the greatest idea EVER!

I believe that it is in the UK where lies are NOT permitted in political ads either….another great idea.

Thoughts?

Bringing Down the Globalist Monster

Since many seem to read a title and then think they know what the post is about…I thought I would try something different…..

Have you noticed that there is a new word that is making the rounds on sites like FOX and Breitbart and even some blogs…..the term is “globalist”….the alt-Right adores the use of labels…..Me?  If I call someone a moron it is not a label so much as an observation…..

To some it is referring to the expansion of globalization and to others it is an off-handed insult…….an insult for anyone that is not a faux conservative of today….

This article is a bit of a Libertarian look at globalization…..(sorry for the trickery)

The main issue in the world today is globalism versus national sovereignty, and it is playing out in the politics of countries on every continent.

In the United States, GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump’s critique of globalism – encapsulated in his campaign theme of “America First” – has galvanized a mass movement opposed to the internationalism of the regnant elites, their transnational allegiances and their foreign wars.

In Britain, the opposition to the European Union culminated in a referendum which – against all odds, and against all the Powers That Be – repudiated the EU in a stunning blow to the political class.

Source: Bringing Down the Globalist Monster – Antiwar.com Original by — Antiwar.com

For a couple of years now anyone that would stand up to the GOP and its shitload of lies and platitudes has been labeled an “apologist”……

I wrote a couple of op-eds for my friends at Ace News room…the first one is the term “apologist”……

Source: Are You An “Apologist”? | Ace News Room

And then one about the off-handed insult of “globalist”…….

Source: Warning: The “Globalists” Are Coming | Ace News Room

I understand when some spout the crap about the UN as a tool for a one government world….I think they are mistaken….the UN could be a positive step in international relations but not before they eliminate the control of the Security Council by 5 nations…..

While I agree in principle to the push back against globalization….I do not like the term of “globalists”….I do not mind being insulted but at least get it right.

What About Li’l Kim?

First, I am a foreign policy wonk so this post is NOT about some hip-hop celeb…..but rather that little thorn in America’s ass in North Korea.

in case people are not sure what the Hell I speak of…..for over a decade the US has been trying to force North Korea from experimenting and achieving nuke weapons….and now we have a brand spanking new president…..so what will his position be?

No one knows right now…..but there is something for him to consider…..

North Korea’s underground nuclear test on 9 September 2016 marks its fifth since 2006, and the first time that it conducted two in the same year. This is in addition to the country’s series of test launches of mid-range surface-to-air and submarine-launched missiles, although with mixed successes. The growing frequency of these activities indicates North Korea’s steady progress in its nuclear and missile programs, including the miniaturization of a nuclear weapon that could fit into an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). More importantly, it highlights how a decade of sanctions imposed by the international community has failed to induce any meaningful change in the behavior of the North Korean regime toward abandoning its nuclear weapons program.

Source: A Decade Of North Korea’s Nuclear Tests And Failure Of Sanctions Regime – Analysis – Eurasia Review

I am by no stretch of the imagination an Asian expert….with that said it would seem that if a certain solution has been tried for over a decade and there has been little to no success….why keep doing the same thing over and over…..it sounds like commonsense because….it is.

Maybe now would be a good time to try something different….the worse that it would do is the same thing it is doing now…..

What say you?

Are Emails Still Important?

All the back and forth during the campaign of 2016 about the emails from Sec. Clinton…..some even say that it was this issue that brought the mighty Clinton clan down……

But are they still as important now as they were during the campaigns?

(I will give a long pause to give the Right thuugs a chance to contemplate their answer)

If the election has not dampened their resolve then the subject of emails would still be of importance…..

If so, is that all email?

Vice President-elect Mike Pence has gone to court to make sure that the American people never get to see the emails that he wrote as governor of Indiana.

According to the Indianapolis Star, Mike Pence is going to court to argue that all of his emails should not be made public:

Now that the presidential campaign and most of the furor over Hillary Clinton’s email scandal are behind us, the Pence administration is going to court to argue for its own brand of email secrecy.

The administration is fighting to conceal the contents of an email sent to Gov. Mike Pence by a political ally. That email is being sought by a prominent Democratic labor lawyer who says he wants to expose waste in the Republican administration.

The Mike Pence who is going to court to argue that his emails should remain a secret is the same guy who just spent months on the presidential campaign trail campaigning against Hillary Clinton because she used a private email server. Clinton also did something that Pence is fighting not to do. She released her emails to the public.

Hypocrisy will be the norm in the Trump/Pence administration, but the bigger question is what is Mike Pence hiding? Why doesn’t Pence want the American people to see his emails?

Both Trump and Pence favor increasing spying on American citizens, and less transparency for themselves. The incoming administration is destined to be the least transparent in US history.

(politicususa.com)

Now that the shoe is on the other foot…I expect there to be some push back by the Right wing thugs…..after all who is better at hypocrisy?

Does Trump Have A Foreign Policy?

For me foreign policy was the most important issue in this election…..I am pleased that the war hawk did not make the cut…..and I am dubious about the direction Trump will try to take this country……

He may change his tune once he gets that total intel briefing just before he is sworn in….we will just have to go with what he has said for the time being…..but as it is now……what will his foreign policy look like…..

Daniel Byman, Senior Fellow, Center for Middle East Policy: For those looking for some consolation after Donald Trump’s triumph, it is tempting to hope that his actual power will be limited. On the domestic side, of course, there is the constraining power of Congress, America’s federal structure, and the courts. And on the foreign policy side, scholars often point to the international system, arguing that power balances, the demands of allies, and other factors beyond the control of any one country will limit foreign policy options. For those who want the president to shake things up, this is bad news. But for those who worry about a new president’s agenda, this view of things is reassuring.

Source: What This Election Means for US Foreign Policy and Next Steps | World Affairs Journal

There so many opinions at this point that it is getting overwhelming for NOBODY has any idea what his role for the US will be….we have had lots of rhetoric….but how accurate will that be?

I am not a big fan of the WaPo….but this close to the election there is not much to write about when referring to trump’s foreign policy…..I will take them at their word….until I find different…..

The inexperienced executive could dismantle traditional U.S. alliances and more.

Donald Trump proclaimed “America First” on his way to his head-spinning victory in Tuesday’s presidential election, and the success of that message will rock many foreign capitals where leaders have feared that Trump would alter the basics of U.S. foreign policy.

Making predictions about Trump’s foreign policy is difficult, given his lack of experience. But the most likely bet is that as president he will seek to do what he promised during the campaign in breaking from current U.S. approaches to Russia, the Middle East, Europe and Asia.

Source: What President Trump’s foreign policy will look like – The Washington Post

I do not trust the WaPo…I included their point of view because I try to give as much info as possible…….I will be watching his appointments for DoD and State….that should tell me the direction that he is going to travel……

Then there is Time’s take on the Trump foreign policy……..

Donald Trump’s foreign policy? Still up in the air at this point. With Hillary Clinton, we would have known exactly what we were getting. That was her biggest selling point—and a big part of the problem. But Trump is the ultimate black box. Much of this was by design—making America great again was always about America itself, allies and enemies be damned. That makes for an effective political pitch, but it’s a wholly unrealistic governing philosophy for a person whose main responsibility is to navigate the country through choppy geopolitical waters.

And these days, the waters are heaving. The foreign policy challenges Trump will face on Jan. 20 are much more complex than those that Obama inherited from George W. Bush. Technological change, particularly in communications and in the workplace, creates risks and problems that are entirely new. Russia is looking to undermine U.S. power and influence whenever and wherever possible, and a Trump presidency could well embolden Vladimir Putin. Trump becomes the face of Western capitalism at a moment China is offering the world an alternative economic model. For fans of globalization as it has progressed for the past few decades, that’s cause for concern.

Source: Donald Trump’s Foreign Policy Is a Black Box | TIME

If he holds true to his rhetoric then the Trump foreign policy will look like this……

And if he follows through on some of his foreign policy promises, the world will look vastly different. Here’s a quick rundown:

Source: Under President Donald Trump, What Does The World Look Like? Nuclear Missiles And War On The Table

I am not criticizing the president elect just that we have NOTHING by which to judge the direction he will choose other than his words……The reader could go through my archives and find my posts on Trump and his foreign policy and they will see that I had written that there were some aspects of his campaign foreign policy rhetoric that I liked….we will just have to wait and see…..I will return to turn the beast out…….once he starts naming names……

Will this be a new era of American foreign policy….or more of the same?

Stay tuned for the continuing story of president-elect Trump……

Until then……peace out…….

Let’s Blame Lefties

I apologize to my international readers that have come to expect my foreign policy posts…I will return to those soon….but right now there is so much going on in American politics I feel I need to add my voice.

I know that everyone has seen the street protests that have been all over the TV……for one they are not pros that are doing this……second, everyone is concerned….but where was all that concern when the DNC robbed Bernie on a fair primary season?  Where?

Now there is a large population that is butt hurt by the result of the election and soon they will start blaming someone for their ignorance…..

STOP! whining….I mean when 49% of the voting age adults vote what can you expect….but then Americans are good at hindsight and bitching…..and learn nothing in the end.

More than likely it will be the “Lefties” that will get the call…..pure and total CRAP!

I would like to see the mental midgets on the Right learn the difference between a “Lefty” and a Democrat….regardless of what their tiny minds think…they are NOT the same thing.

I am a Lefty and that does NOT mean that I am a Democrat….so do not blame me or any “Lefty” that voted their principles……….it is not our fault that others could not bring themselves to do the same…….

As we witness the post mortem of this troubling election, you can bet that pretty soon, someone soon is going to blame the Left – the hardcore progressives and young Independents who rallied around Bernie – for the result.

In 2000, Al Gore embraced “Free Trade” and international trade pacts that gave corporations power over sovereign nations. Gore supported space-based weapons and Capital Punishment. He was instrumental in crafting the Telecommunications bill that led to the media consolidation we have been seeing (and which made it easier for Rupert Murdoch to own newspapers and TV outlets in the same media markets). He picked one of the most right-wing Democratic senators as his running mate.

Source: Let’s Blame Lefties – LA Progressive

Another thing….STOP! using the word “change”!…..until you actually learn what it means.  You mean nothing by that overused term…. you mean nothing more than a change of your masters not actual change in the society or the system.