Month: April 2017

6 Of One And A Half Dozen Of The Other

Every American knows how barbaric ISIS can be and that AQ was the bastards that lead to the 9/11 attack and the horrific actions since that fateful day…..

Our troops are fighting both organizations at the same time……all across the world ISIS and AQ affiliates are attacking and killing…..

But “what if” the two terror groups started working together and coordinate their attacks?

The leader of so-called ‘Islamic State’ (IS) has spoken to al Qaeda about a ‘possible alliance,’ according to Iraqi Vice President Ayad Allawi. The talks come as Iraqi troops close in on IS fighters in the city of Mosul.

Allawi told the Reuters news agency in an interview on Monday that he had the information from Iraqi and regional contacts knowledgeable about Iraq that “the discussion has started now.”

“There are discussions and dialogue between messengers representing [IS leader Abu Bakr] Baghdadi and representing [the head of al Qaeda, Ayman] al Zawahiri,” he said.

It is unclear how the two groups would work together, Allawi said.

Source: ′IS′ in talks with al Qaeda on ′possible alliance′ – report | News | DW.COM | 18.04.2017

Right now the talks are for Iraq and Syria….but if that is a success would that lead to a worldwide affiliation?

This is something that our counter-terrorism boys and girls should keep a close eye on this situation for this could lead to a much more dangerous world…..of course it could be just a ploy to make sure that the resources and cash keep flowing for years to come.

Any thoughts?

Is Obama A Socialist?

Have you noticed that some things never change when it comes to the “Ignorati”?

This is one of my favorite pieces of manure from the Right….Obama is a socialist…or is it Marxist….or ……..what it is is total fabrication from loonies that would not know a socialist if one walked up and bit them in the ass.

Months after Obama has left office the dog whistle idiots on the Right are still going on about Obama as some sort of “socialist”…..I understand why they do it…..it is because they will not bring themselves to admit that their man in the White House is incompetent fool….so they are still stuck on Obama and anyone that will not agree with them as some sort of “socialist” conspiracy….FYI….do not compare Trump to a fascist or they, the Right, will go batcrap crazy for only they can make shit up about a president past of present.

But let’s look at Obama being a socialist.

The easy answer to the question is NO….but that is not good enough for the chin wagers on the Right…..so let’s look deeper…..

Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States, is not a socialist. While varying theories and approaches exist among socialists, all of them advocate for some form of social or state ownership over the means of production. Obama proposes none of this

While Obama has argued for enhanced and even structural regulation of certain industries, including health care, this in no way suggests a move toward all-out socialism. In contrast, Obama received widespread support from Wall Street interests during campaigning and, as of 2014, continues to receive only muted approval of his policy decisions from self-identified American socialists.

The term “socialist,” as applied to Mr. Obama, may have become a fear word or pejorative deployed by some conservatives convinced of its ability to shock the public and create ideological rifts among the electorate, according to CNBC. This, the same source suggests, possibly results from the weakening shock value of words such as “liberal” in American political discourse. While Mr. Obama may support some socialist-inspired policies when applied to social justice issues and public protections, a broad coalition of American statesmen and women have supported similar policies for generations, both Republican and Democrat. Some such policies have become essential features of America’s capitalist democracy, policies such as government regulation of food and workplace safety, social security, Medicaid and Medicare, along with publicly supplied protections for veterans and their families.

With all that said…..cut it anyway you slow mental midgets like…the answer is still….NO!

BTW….being black does NOT make a socialist either….contrary to popular belief.

We Approach A Fork In The Road

As Yogi would say….”when you come to a fork in the road, take it”……..

This country is ripping itself apart and the sad thing is that few seem to care as long as some arbitrary political direction is maintained.  The population is filled with accusations, innuendoes and pure political hatred…..all this hatred is bring this country to a fork in the road and no matter which fork is taken the country will suffer.

(Please if you are a Right winger read the article before throwing your usually retort of the Godwin Law….)

So many of us were wrong, myself included, about Donald Trump. We saw in the jut-jawed, brow-furrowed Mussolini-like posturing, in the blatant narcissism, in the reckless disregard for truth, the anger and incitement to hatred, the declamations that he would fix everything single-handedly on Day One of his presidency, his disdain for democracy and hints that he would lock up his opponents — we saw in all of these things incipient fascism.

After the inauguration, I began reading Victor Klemperer’s chilling diaries on the rise of Nazism, I Will Bear Witness, and Sebastian Haffner’s memoir of the early days of Hitler, Defying Hitler. The analogies were all too close. Others on these pages have made similar observations. We were on the verge of something unprecedented, something horrifying. We were on the verge of authoritarian government headed by an ignoramus and possible psychopath. We were on the verge of the end of democracy.

Source: America Is Barreling Toward Political Anarchy, Not an Organized Fascist State | Alternet

Anarchy is already raising its ugly head……and it is beginning from within the walls of the White House and radiating out from there.

Our politics has become a jumbled mess of bullshit……issues mean little attitudes on one subject or another…..no cohesion left in this political soup.

Isolationism: What’s It Good For?

During the run up to the election of 2016 there was a call for the US to revert back to a policy of isolationism…..

But first let’s look at isolationism as it pertains to foreign policy….

National policy of avoiding political or economic entanglements with other countries. Isolationism has been a recurrent theme in U.S. history. It was given expression in the Farewell Address of Pres. George Washington and in the early 19th-century Monroe Doctrine. The term is most often applied to the political atmosphere in the U.S. in the 1930s. The failure of Pres. Woodrow Wilson’s internationalism, liberal opposition to war as an instrument of policy, and the rigours of the Great Depression were among the reasons for Americans’ reluctance to concern themselves with the growth of fascism in Europe. The Johnson Act (1934) and the Neutrality acts (1935) effectively prevented economic or military aid to any country involved in the European disputes that were to escalate into World War II. U.S. isolationism encouraged the British in their policy of appeasement and contributed to French paralysis in the face of the growing threat posed by Nazi Germany.

(britannica.com)

But those days are long one.  The US cannot revert into isolationism….not in the global economy we have today….it is a myth…..

The American Conservative had a brilliant take on this issue……

For reasons unknown, and if revealed unlikely to be reassuring, my hometown newspaper, the Boston Globe, regularly provides space on its opinion page to the novelist Richard North Patterson. As a manufacturer of pulp fiction, Patterson has achieved spectacular success, churning out bestsellers with titles like The Devil’s Light and Loss of Innocence. If my own books sold a tenth as many copies, I’d retire to a baronial estate in Scotland and spend my remaining days fishing for trout, sipping single-malt whiskey, and reading potboilers by the likes of Richard North Patterson.

So as a spinner of fictional yarns, Patterson is a master of his craft. Unfortunately, when commenting on events of the day, that penchant for fiction persists.

Source: The Fiction of U.S. Isolationism | The American Conservative

The US cannot hide within its borders…..it must engage the world….but through the use of force is not the way to engage.  Diplomacy is a better weapon than a bomb.

Closing Thought #2–19Apr17

EXTRA!  EXTRA!  Read All About It!

My second closing thought for the day….but this was just good to wait.

It is official the Mouth Of FOX News is out on his ass!

Embattled Fox News host Bill O’Reilly will not return to the air.

In a statement released Wednesday, parent company 21st Century Fox announced that O’Reilly had lost his job at Fox News Channel. “After a thorough and careful review of the allegations, the Company and Bill O’Reilly have agreed that Bill O’Reilly will not be returning to the Fox News Channel,” a statement said.

The decision comes after advertisers fled the O’Reilly Factor over revelations that Fox News paid out nearly $13 million in settlements to five women who claimed the host sexually harassed them. Last week, O’Reilly announced he would be taking a vacation that was planned “last fall,” prompting sources at Fox News to reveal the Murdoch family is considering whether to keep O’Reilly on the air. He was scheduled to return next Monday.

What will all those deep thinkers of the “Ignorati” do without their source of crappy news?

Not to fret you lovers of lies….there is always Breibart or Alex Jones or WND to turn to for your bullshit news.

You know all this could have been avoided he he had enough brains to pay a hooker instead of flexing his Johnson at co-workers….just saying.

Peace out…my friends….chuq

Closing Thought–19Apr17

Ahoy Mateys!

Anchors Aweigh!

But first…what are these Trump-ites smoking?

Spicer said that the 48% win by the Dem in was a big loss for the Dems….even the Tweeter in chief wrote that it was a loss for the Dems…and these are the people that say news is fake news…..that must be some kinda good shit they be smoking!  Bag it and price it!  The internet will do the rest!

Now to the post at hand.

There is a mash up between the US and North Korea…..the exchange of words, some not so polite and then our President threatened the NK with the full force of the Us Navy……a carrier group headed for the waters off the Korean peninsula….

VP Pence has his “tough” words for NK…….

“We will defeat any attack and meet any use of conventional or nuclear weapons with an overwhelming and effective American response,” he said. “All options are on the table. History will attest the soldier does not bear the sword in vain.”

But then when the smoke settled the group was not anywhere it was said to be….

Over the past couple of weeks, speculation about an imminent US attack on North Korea has centered heavily around the USS Carl Vinson’s carrier strike group, which White House officials had hyped as having been sent to the Sea of Japan to send a “powerful message.”

The White House and other top officials had reiterated this deployment many times since the initial announcement, presenting it as steaming rapidly toward North Korea for an apparent confrontation. Imagine everyone’s surprise, then, when the US Navy released a picture of the USS Carl Vinson off the coast of Indonesia.

You’ll immediately notice that Indonesia is nowhere near North Korea, and also that the ship was announced as having left Singapore en route to North Korea, and actually sailed in the opposite direction. The White House is now insisting that they were just telling the media what the Pentagon had told them about the USS Carl Vinson’s destination.

(antiwar.com)

Now….WTF?

Now I know a bit of misdirection is always used in world affairs but this was something more than that.

Was this a ploy?  Or just a bit of chest thumping?

I understand a diplomatic bluff but this one was a lame one at best….in today’s electronic world it could be easily verified of the location of this “group”…..

This was amateur hour at best….. Just a few months into the Trump administration, it still isn’t clear what course the president’s foreign policy will ultimately take. What is clear, however, is that the impulsiveness, combativeness, and recklessness that characterized Donald Trump’s election campaign have survived the transition into the presidency.

Not the best way to run a foreign policy……but without experts in the field this is what we have left…..juvenile bragging and threatening…..zero credibility.

Go now!  Enjoy the rest of your day….I shall be back….chuq

Afghanistan: Is There A Road Out?

This is a situation that I have written about many times and yet very little has changed in all that time.

Damn near 16 years of continuous war in Afghanistan….and yet no one wants to get out…..that is none of the M-IC wants to get out they are making obscene profits….so why kill the goose with the golden eggs?

My problem with this conflict is that we accomplished most of what we set out to do by 2003….and yet we are still fighting a war we cannot win…..why?

There is no military strategy for Afghanistan…..the country has turned over that portion of this conflict to defense contractors that will do anything but leave a lucrative “gold mine”……

More than 16 years after the first Special Operations Forces unit stepped onto Afghan soil, does the United States have a strategy in Afghanistan?

The Trump administration is still trying to determine the answer to that question, which is why President Trump dispatched National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster to Afghanistan for a full review of Washington’s options. McMaster, Trump said, traveled to Afghanistan to “find out how we can make progress alongside our Afghan partners.”

“Progress” is an interesting term, because it’s been used by civilian and military leaders repeatedly for more than a decade and a half as a means to assure the American people that their sons, daughters, mothers, and fathers in uniform are undertaking a mission that is of the utmost importance to the national security of the United States.

Source: Still Missing a Strategy After 16 Years in Afghanistan | RealClearDefense

National Interest magazine was looked that the situation in Afghanistan…..

Good strategies are essential for the priority national-security challenges America faces, whether it is Syria, ISIS, Russia, China, North Korea or Afghanistan.

President Trump has sent National Security Advisor H. R. McMaster to Afghanistan as part of a U.S. strategy in that key country. Afghanistan is America’s longest-standing commitment in the post-9/11 struggle against terrorism and remains a frontline state in that effort. In February, the commanding U.S. general in Afghanistan testified that some twenty terrorist groups are operating in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region, the “highest concentration” in the world.

Source: An Afghanistan Strategy for Trump | The National Interest

As someone who studies and writes about conflicts…I see NO strategy from this president or any of his predecessors….NO one seems willing to find a successful conclusion to this war….why?

Here is the only strategy I have seen …….

That more US troops are headed to Afghanistan, some 16 years into the invasion and occupation, is a foregone conclusion, with commander Gen. John Nicholson seeking “a few thousand more troops” in testimony to Congress, and seemingly all recommendations out of the Pentagon seeking escalations of varying sizes.

Hawks outside of the chain of command, however, are seeking even bigger military commitments to the conflict. Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) Senior Fellow Stephen Biddle, formerly a part of assessment teams for Gens. Stanley McChrystal and David Petraeus, is arguing for the US to send “around 100,000” ground troops to Afghanistan.

(antiwar.com)

There you have the only strategy these people have…..more troops, more war…..

What a grand plan!

Syria: Another Regime Change?

Since the gas attack and the subsequent missile attack the chants of “Assad must go” have amplified….and the ever popular….”Assad’s days are numbered”…these are nothing more than cute slogans and one liners…..

I tried to give my reader my take on what “regime change” would look like for Syria…….

Source: What’s The Syrian Endgame? – In Saner Thought

Let’s say that we have success with a Syrian regime change….(wait!  I need to stop laughing)…..really….what are the options that the “leaders” are considering for this mythical regime change?

Beyond the narrow justification of these strikes as being necessary to reinforce an eroding international norm against the use of chemical weapons, this U.S. military intervention has resurfaced questions concerning the ultimate strategy that the Trump Administration is pursuing in Syria.  Before the strikes, senior administration officials including Secretary of State (SecState) Rex Tillerson and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Halley suggested that U.S. policy would abandon even the pretense of President Barack Obama’s objective of ousting Assad from power in Damascus[3].  However, in the aftermath of the strikes, the Trump Administration signaled an apparent about-face as National Security Advisor (NSA) Herbert Raymond “H. R.” McMaster declared that U.S. policy in Syria would “simultaneously” pursue the twin goals of destroying the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and removing Assad[4].  While the fight against ISIS is making significant progress, the administration has not yet articulated a detailed strategy for pursuing the ouster of Assad.  There are two broad options available:

Source: U.S. Options for Regime Change in Syria | RealClearDefense

Sorry but I may offer an opinion neither of these two options will hold the key to a successful regime change.

Look at Iraq…..that alone should deter these toads from either of the two options….In the post referenced above from IST I set forth what the future of Syria will look like.

I wish I could be more optimistic, you see I have lived in Syria many years ago and I liked the country and the people, there is not much left in the country for a successful transition to democracy.

I am positive that Syria can bounce back from this Hell….but not so with the way the US is approaching the problem…..and for now that is all there is….

Populist Under Every Rock

I do so enjoy my little history lessons from time to time….Americans seem to think that history has nothing to do with anything…..politicians have worked hard to make the uninformed voter as ignorant as possible on history.

The election of 2016 was one where the media made lots of ratings with the rise of populist thought in our politics.  But this past election was actually nothing new…there is always a populist line of campaign just it does not get the attention it should and our history has a rich heritage of populist thought.

There 5 major ventures into populism in our election process……

The 2016 election constituted one of the great populist uprisings of American history. A large segment of the electorate rose up against American elites and many of their underlying governing nostrums—globalism, lax border control, free trade, American military adventurism, a wariness toward nationalism, the cozy relationship between Big Government and Big Finance. It’s an open question whether President Trump, who ran against those nostrums, will govern as he campaigned. There are sound reasons to believe he will abandon many of his campaign pronouncements and meld his populist rhetoric with more establishmentarian actions. If so, his political story could become one of the great sleight-of-hand perpetrations of the American experience.

It may be instructive, in any event, to look at the other great populist uprisings of our history by way of a comparative analysis. Herewith then is a list of the country’s five most powerful waves of populism.

Source: The Five Most Powerful Populist Uprisings in U.S. History | The American Conservative

There you have your electoral history lesson….we will thank me later.

Class dismissed!

Foreign Aid And National Security

We have a new president, 89 days in case you were unaware (LOL), his policies are clear foreign aid bad, national security good…..the problem is the two issues can go hand in hand…..

President Trump released his first budget on March 16th which largely functions as his programmatic wish list, or perhaps better said, as his strategic vision for the nation’s priorities.  The drastic cuts he proposed will likely not all come to fruition as Congress still has it’s say on the matter, but they speak volumes to the workforce who has to implement his programs and to our partners overseas whom we rely on for security cooperation.  Leaving aside the cuts to domestic agencies, the President’s proposed cuts to the State Department generated a lot of angst among national security professionals.  In what seems to be a hallmark of decision making by the Trump Administration, the architects of the budget seemed unable to account for second and third orders of effect of their budgetary decisions—in this case, that these massive budget cuts to the State Department would have significant effects on our Homeland Security.

Source: Foreign Aid and Homeland Security: A Match Made in Washington | RealClearDefense

The problem is no one wants to look at the correlation between the two issues…..one can strengthen the other.

Another problem is I do not believe that the current administration is capable of commonsense decisions….they feel everything must be sweeping a Tweet-worthy.