Day: July 10, 2017

Closing Thought–10Jul17

There is a debate going on about climate change…well there is a discussion because twats are denying there there is anything different….that nothing is changing and if it does it is only as nature wants.

Well and good but I personally do not give a shit which side one cares to take….I am talking about what I see….you may dispute what I see that is your right as it is my right to think negatively……

I have a small orchard with plums, tangerines, satsumas, limes, peaches and olives and since we have NO winter to speak of here in my state these trees do not bear the way they should…so something is changing and not for the good…..10 years ago I was getting so much fruit I was having to can to keep from losing the crop…..these days I do get enough to make a good snack.

I then read an article about the change climate here in the South……

As the United States confronts global warming in the decades ahead, not all states will suffer equally. Maine may benefit from milder winters. Florida, by contrast, could face major losses, as deadly heat waves flare up in the summer and rising sea levels eat away at valuable coastal properties.

In a new study in the journal Science, researchers analyzed the economic harm that climate change could inflict on the United States in the coming century. They found that the impacts could prove highly unequal: states in the Northeast and West would fare relatively well, while parts of the Midwest and Southeast would be especially hard hit.

There is some good news for some states other than the South but since I live in the area mentioned I really do not give a crap about Ohio or New York or any state in the Northern quadrant….sorry about that just being honest.
Not good news for my orchard….the one upside is that the olive trees are doing well these days so there is that……
There is nothing I can do to change this….I need a winter of freezing weather for the fruit to set without it I got a tree…all this is sad because I do love my fruit…well maybe things will improve when my granddaughter inherits the house and land…..
Day is done……..I am off like a dirty shirt…..be well, be safe….chuq

Mosul Is Liberated!

Dancing in the streets………..Celebrate….Celebrate….Dance To The Music!

The news has hit the presses.

Mosul is liberated!

At least according to the Iraqi military………

After months of heavy bloody fighting the army of Iraq with US help has taken the Iraqi city of Mosul…….

Iraq’s state TV says the country’s prime minister has arrived in Mosul to declare victory over the Islamic State in the more than eight-month old operation to drive the militants from the city, reports the AP. “The commander in chief of the armed forces [Prime Minister] Haider al-Abadi arrived in the liberated city of Mosul and congratulated the heroic fighters and Iraqi people for the great victory,” the office of Haider al-Abadi said in a statement on Sunday, per Reuters. Dressed in a black uniform of a type worn by Iraqi special forces, al-Abadi was shown on Sunday descending from a military plane and was greeted by senior security forces commanders. Fighting Sunday was heavy, with the increasingly cornered militants sending female suicide bombers; some 30 ISIS fighters were killed attempting to flee by crossing the Tigris.

Lt. Gen. Jassim Nizal of the Iraq army’s 9th Division said Sunday his forces have achieved “victory” in the sector allotted to them, after a similar announcement by the militarized Federal Police. Nizal’s soldiers danced to patriotic music atop tanks even as airstrikes sent plumes of smoke into the air nearby. Backed by US-led coalition, Iraq launched the operation to retake Mosul in October. Iraqi state TV says government forces drove the militants from all areas and are “chasing” them in some areas in the city. The militants captured Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, in a matter of days in the summer of 2014.

Great news in the battle against the barbaric ISIS….but does this mean the ISIS is at its proverbial end?

It’s a big loss for ISIS, one of the biggest they’ve ever sustained, but claims from Iraqi officials that it marks “the end of ISIS” are a major overstatement of the situation. Clearly, ISIS not only still hosts a lot of territory, but remains hugely powerful and influential besides.

Indeed, ISIS predates its “caliphate” by quite some time, with its origins as the al-Qaeda in Iraq insurgency. The group never totally abandoned those insurgency tactics when they became a land-holding state, and even if they ultimately lose all their territory, they’re just back to that.

And even that direct capability is just the tip of the iceberg, as ISIS retains massive influence in the international Islamist community, and will continue to inspire attacks worldwide, a problem that will likely endure irrespective of ISIS’ near-term prospects.

(antiwar.com)

 

  • A leader emerges: Iraq’s success in Mosul has turned the spotlight on Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi. In a profile, the Wall Street Journal reports that the 65-year-old former electrical engineer has emerged as a genuine leader after three years, to pretty much everyone’s surprise.
  • Premature? But at BuzzFeed, Nancy A. Youssef writes that Abadi and other Iraqi leaders may have made a mistake in declaring the end of the ISIS caliphate last week. Too much fighting remains, in Mosul and elsewhere.
  • Abuses in Iraq: Human Rights Watch says it has reports of Iraqi soldiers beating and executing unarmed men fleeing Mosul

 

This is a good day for Iraq and time to consider rebuilding….but never take their eyes off of ISIS….they will be just as dangerous now as they have been in the past.

The Anticipation Was Deafening

The world was on the edge of their seats waiting for the meeting between Putin and Trump…..how many shoes would drop in this head to head?

We have an agreement on SW Syria……(I did not know that this region was that important in the grand US plan…but as usual I do not know everything, huh?))…….

The extended meeting came as US officials announced the US and Russia reached an agreement for a ceasefire in southwest Syria set to take effect Sunday. The two leaders were expected to discuss Syria during the sit-down, and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson describes the deal as the first indication of the Trump administration and Russia being able to work together in Syria.

Details are still scant on this, and it’s not clear how far east the ceasefire is intended to extend. US officials say the entire goal is to stop attacks against the rebels, while Russia clearly wants the US to stop attacking pro-government forces in the region. There has also been mention of humanitarian aid being allowed in, but past ceasefires have almost uniformly failed at that goal.

The ceasefire is to begin at noon on Sunday, and is open-ended. Tillerson said it could be a first step which, if successful, would be spread to other parts of the country. He also, however, added that the US still insists upon Syrian President Assad.

We all have our opinion on this meeting…..but how did the US media see it?

How did President Trump do at his first meeting with Vladimir Putin at the G20 Summit, which the Wall Street Journal says was hyped by the media “into virtually the second coming of the Reykjavik Summit?” Though the Journal gives the prez a thumbs up, reaction in other quarters of editorial land was decidedly mixed.

  • Wall Street Journal: The editors said the sit-down had but one purpose from Putin’s end: “to discover if he will be able to press Russian interests forward without significant pushback” from Trump. How did Trump measure up in the Russian’s eyes? “We can’t guess, ” the paper says, but Trump’s pressing of Putin about hacking in the November election is a “new element in the Trump equation.” By raising the issue, the president “made clear to Vlad that he’ll be dealing with the President of all the American people. That sounds like a positive outcome.”
  • Politico: In a column, Molly K. McKew rapped Trump for signaling the US will “move on” from the hacking controversy “with no accountability or consequences for Russia” but with a pledge to work jointly on cybersecurity. She also takes issue with two points: an agreement to not meddle in the other’s doings on the homefront., and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s observation that the Russian strategy in Syria was maybe “more right” than the US approach. “Each of these points represents a significant victory for Putin,” she writes.
  • CNN: Commentator David Gergen praised Trump’s performance, saying he “seemed presidential” and calling it “big-league stuff.” He adds, “This seemed like we were back to normal life for the first time, one of the only times in the last few months. This is what we expect from our president.” He adds that “We may agree or disagree with the particulars, but we want our president to show leadership and be at a presidential level.

New York Times: In a column headlined, “Did Putin Have Trump for Lunch,” columnist Nicholas Kristof said he doesn’t “begrudge” Trump’s warm handshake with Putin but bristled at Trump “getting lovey-dovey” with a man involved in election hacking in two countries and the invasion of Ukraine, among other points. As for the deal with Syria, where Russia has “helped the slaughter civilians,” Kristof writes, “It’s great that Trump and Putin reached an agreement that may help Syria, but let’s see whether it translates to advances on the ground.” He says the “really important issue” is North Korea, and Trump “still doesn’t seem to have a strategy to deal with it.”

Slate says that Trump got through the meeting with no gaffes, but Putin was the winner: Even if Lavrov’s version of the election-meddling conversation is an exaggeration, both sides seem to agree that Trump and Putin agreed to “move forward” from the issue, which means “Putin did not, and apparently will not, pay any price for his information-warfare campaign against American democracy.”

After a glowing review from CNN maybe Trump should re-think his “fake news” thing about the network……

I would offer up my analysis but it would be disingenuous……mainly because I did not watch any of it….I had better things to do…..the dog needed a bath.

About Time Someone Noticed

For some time now I have been harping that Saudi Arabia is the seat of all the radical Islam that fuels the terrorists like AQ and ISIS……the belief is called Wahhabism or salafists…..recently Trump went to Saudi Arabia and opened a center for fighting terrorism…..the old glowing orb thing.  Then when the mash up between Saudi and Qatar came about one of the demands that the Saudis had was that Qatar stop funding terrorism……think about that for a moment….keep in mind that most of the hijackers on 9/11 were Saudis…..

In the list of Saudi demands on Qatar…..#s 3 and 4 in the list of demands…..

3) Sever all ties to all the “terrorist, sectarian and ideological organisations,” specifically the Muslim Brotherhood, ISIL, al-Qaeda, Fateh Al-Sham (formerly known as Nusra Front) and Lebanon’s Hezbollah. Qatar needs to formally declare those entities as terrorist groups based on the list of groups that was announced by Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, UAE and Egypt, and concur with all future updates of this list.

4) Stop all means of funding for individuals, groups or organisations that have been designated as terrorists by Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Bahrain, US and other countries.

To help make my point….there is a story out of the UK…….

Henry Jackson Society says Saudi Arabia is ‘undoubtedly at the top of the list’ of countries advancing terrorism.

Foreign funding for extremism in Britain primarily comes from Saudi Arabia, but the UK government should set up a public inquiry into all Gulf funding sources, a report has said.

The report by the Henry Jackson Society also calls for the government to consider requiring UK religious institutions, including mosques, to be required to reveal sources of overseas funding.

The findings come as Theresa May faces pressure to publish the government’s own report into foreign funding of terrorism. The Home Office-led report was completed six months ago, and No 10 says ministers are still deciding whether to publish. MPs nervous of upsetting strategic relations in the Gulf have also decided not to publish a separate Foreign Office strategy paper on the region.

Source: Report calls for public inquiry into Gulf funding of British extremism | UK news | The Guardian

This needs investigating completely…….but since the Saudis are in bed with our government and that of the UK I do not expect to see this coming to light any time soon.

Do you?

Why Use Money?

First let me say that this post is my friend gigoid….we have had a couple conversations about the use of money….

Have you noticed that use of money is on the outs?

People use credit cards, their tablet or their phone for their transactions……there was even a movement that would do away with cash altogether…..I think it originated in the UK (nor positive)…..

The subject got me to thinking about the use of money……why and when did we start this tradition of using money?

And you guys know me…..I feel that I have to give you a historic perspective to help clear it all up…..

Sometimes you run across a grimy, tattered dollar bill that seems like it’s been around since the beginning of time. Assuredly it hasn’t, but the history of human beings using cash currency does go back a long time — 40,000 years.

Scientists have tracked exchange and trade through the archaeological record, starting in Upper Paleolithic when groups of hunters traded for the best flint weapons and other tools. First, people bartered, making direct deals between two parties of desirable objects.

Source: When — and why — did people first start using money? – Salon.com

So is cash a thing of the past?

Whatcha think?