Month: February 2018

Kurds Screwed Again!

The US has aa long history of screwing the Kurds of Iraq…..in the 1990’s after the first Gulf War the US turned their backs on the Kurds after promising them they would not be alone and Saddam gassed them and the US turned their backs….

In 2003 when the US decided to invade Iraq yet again we went to the Kurds for support in their fight and the Kurds stepped up and then when ISIS was a viable enemy the Kurds stood up and fought them in their long war.

And now with Iraq more or less calming down…Saddam gone, ISIS all but destroyed nd the Kurds are asking for some autonomy and what did the US have as an answer?

With a growing split between the Iraqi government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) since a failed secession attempt, the Pentagon has announced that they are not including any funding in their budget to pay for Kurdish peshmerga salaries anymore.

The US long funded the peshmerga, a force of paramilitary fighters armed by the US but loyal to the KRG. That funding came to an end in September, about the same time as the Iraq-KRG split, which came with an assurance that Iraq’s central government would start paying the salaries.

Indications are that Iraq never actually paid the peshmerga, but either way the Pentagon seems to no longer be interested in picking up the slack. They are, however, still planning to continue training and arming them.

Iraq’s determination to preclude the KRG from ever again trying to secede likely means they want to leave the peshmerga as weak as they can, and with Iraq overtly cutting revenue sharing into Kurdish territory they likely can justify continued cuts.

Kurds can be proud of their ally that has stood by them for decades (that is sarcasm)….this is what the US does we use up our allies until they become enemies and then we complain about their lack of respect.

You would think people would learn how untrustworthy the US really is……..

Closing Thought–21Feb18

What is the first rule of fight club?  Surely you have seen this “dude” flick.

In the last couple of years the rise in alt-Right Fight Clubs has been rising.

Anastasia Yankova, a Russian model-turned-mixed martial artist who has appeared in a Nike commercial, was a month away from her professional debut when she took to Instagram to post a cartoon of Adolph Hitler. In the image, Hitler is seated on a window ledge, looking down with weepy-eyes on a dreary, overcast sky. “Matches my mood,” Yankova wrote.

“Aryan sadness?” asked a commenter.

“Only the weather and the restriction of carbohydrates,” she responded with a purple devil emoji later that day, September 2, 2013.

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/02/the-terrifying-rise-of-alt-right-fight-clubs/

It seems that white supremacists are more and more learning missed martial arts fighting in preparation for the coming race war…..think about that for a moment…….

A coming war……Karate and boxing against bullets……good possibility they, the alt-Right, needs to re-think their strategy.

With that piece of advise……I take my leave…..chuq

Governance By Gaslighting

Did anyone ever see the move “Gaslight”?  A mystery aboiut a guy that convinces his wife that she is losing her mind….Charles Boyer (?) and Ingrid Bergman (?)…….we have a leader, the president that is governing by gaslight.

Gaslighting is one of the most extreme, dangerous and effective forms of emotional and psychological abuse and is mostly carried out intentionally. Gaslighting is a game of mind control and intimidation that is often used by narcissists and sociopaths as a way of controlling, confusing and debilitating someone.

The whole intention of gaslighting is to decrease someone’s self-esteem and self-confidence so they are unable to function in an independent manner. The person being gaslighted will eventually become so insecure that they will fail to trust their own judgment, their intuition and find themselves unable to make decisions.

Eventually the victim will become so unsure of what reality looks like that they become completely dependent on their abuser. The abuser will appear to the victim to be the only one to have a clear grip of their mind and also of what is going on around them.

Why do I bring all this up?

My father once told me that a man who worked with him told him that his wife walked in on him in flagrante delicto with another woman and the man denied it. I said, well, what is the guy a pathological liar—you can’t deny the obvious fact. My father said he didn’t know but it somehow seemed to give the man’s wife enough to excuse, forgive, or lose herself in denial. They were still married. It was a new ontological perspective for me—a look at a nature of being that perplexed me.

Years later I learned the metaphorical expression for that sort of blatant horse puckey, gaslighting, or, Are you going to believe me or your stupid lying eyes? It was from a film with a plot that showed how a man made his wife start to believe she was crazy—she stopped trusting the facts.

https://www.laprogressive.com/trump-gaslighting/

All this is just sad that the American public is being played like a cheap drum…..the sooner they, the American people, realize it the sooner this country gets back on track.

Intel For Profit

I have written several posts about the privatization of war by using mercenaries…..corporations like Blackwater like to call themselves a security company but yet they supply mercenaries to fight in several countries…..soldiering for profit.

Nowadays they are also entering into the world of intel gathering taking up some of the slack of our intel agencies like NSA or CIA…….anytime there is a chance for profit I can foresee problems……

There has been an excellent look into this problem with a 3 part series on the privatization of our intel gathering……

Privatized and politicized intelligence is undermining the mission of providing unbiased information to both high-level decision makers and the American public,

Back in 1991, during the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the general consensus of the intelligence community was that America needed a strong Russia. Russians bore the weight of dismantling the Soviet Union and an internally strong and stable Russia was considered the biggest stable democratic government in the hemisphere.

A strong Russia provides stability throughout the region, it was understood. Without a strong and stable Russia, the massive Russian Federation would descend into small nationalist countries. Warring nations and instability would be the norm and not the exception.

https://consortiumnews.com/2018/02/11/u-s-intelligence-crisis-poses-a-threat-to-the-world/

The other 2 parts of this series here…….

https://consortiumnews.com/2018/02/13/how-intel-for-hire-is-undermining-u-s-intelligence-part-2/

https://consortiumnews.com/2018/02/18/a-crisis-in-intelligence-unthinkable-consequences-of-outsourcing-u-s-intel-part-3/

I agree that this has the potential of being disastrous for our intel establishment…..the leaks in the past have been perpetrated by private contractors of our intel agencies.

The more independent people employed the better the chances of catastrophic damage can be done in turn making the country less safe……

Turkey Gets Cocky

I spend my days monitoring world events so much so that I see situations that do not make the nightly news.  I have been keeping an eye on Turkey because this country is doing some interesting things.

Since total breakdown of the caliphate Turkey has been flexing its muscle….first ir was the attack on the Kurds in Syria and Northern Iraq then tanks and men crossed the Syrian border to take the conflict to the Kurds directly.

Since Turkey is a NATO member and the USA needs them as an ally in the region we have stood around with our hands in our pockets letting Turkey run rampant.

But after about a month Turkey is getting cocky and pushing their luck……..they have warned the US not to get involved and now a warning has been sent to Damascus…….

A day after Kurdish officials announced a deal which would see the Syrian Army sending reinforcements into the Afrin District to help them resist a Turkish invasion, Kurdish YPG officials are now denying that any deal was made at all, while Turkey is threatening a “confrontation” if Syria dares to resist the invasion.

Turkish officials say they are fully prepared to fight the Syrian military fight alongside the war against the Kurds, with Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu warning that nothing can stop Turkish soldiers.

(antiwar.com)

Seriously?  Turkey invades another country and then warns them NOT to come to the aid and protection of its people…..damn let sound let taking lessons from Israel.

Turkey and Israel signed a deal on Tuesday to restore ties after a six-year rift, formalizing an agreement which U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said sent a “hopeful signal” for regional stability.

The accord was a rare rapprochement in the divided Middle East, driven by the prospect of lucrative Mediterranean gas deals as well as mutual fears over growing security risks

(NBC News)

Let’s step back in time for a minute……

In the past Greece and Turkey have fought a couple wars….most notably in 1897 and 1921 and they have been at odds over Cyprus for decades and a couple of wars have been fought there also….

Okay why would I bring this up in this post?

Someone is chest thumping……

In an incident that took place less than two weeks after the Greek Defense Ministry announced that Turkey had violated Greek airspace 138 times in a single day, a Turkish coast guard patrol boat on February 13 rammed a Greek coast guard vessel off the shore of Imia, one of many Greek islands over which Turkey claims sovereignty.

Most of the areas within modern Greece’s current borders were under the occupation of the Ottoman Empire from the mid-15th century until the Greek War of Independence in 1821 and the establishment of the modern Greek state in 1832. The islands, however, like the rest of Greece, are legally and historically Greek, as their names indicate.

Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), however, and even much of the opposition seem intent on, if not obsessed with, invading and conquering these Greek islands, on the grounds that they are actually Turkish territory.

In December, for instance, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the leader of the main Turkish opposition CHP party, stated that when he wins the election in 2019, he will “invade and take over 18 Greek islands in the Aegean Sea, just as former Turkish PM Bulent Ecevit invaded Cyprus in 1974.” He said that there is “no document” proving that those islands belong to Greece.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-02-19/turkey-threatens-invade-greece

Hence the title of this post….”Turkey Gets Cocky”

Turkey may be overplaying their hand….the US is not helping diffuse this situation simply because we have NO one capable of diplomacy in the government anymore.

This situation could get ugly….and who will asked to clean up this mess militarily?

Ammo-Sexual Or Douche Bag?

Closing Thought–20Feb18

Earlier today I wrote a post about the protests that are being lead by the kids of the school that suffered the attack….in case you missed my post……..

https://lobotero.com/2018/02/20/childrens-crusade/

Sorry for beating you about head with this subject but this is something that needed to be posted.

I am writing another one because of something I read after my article was posted……I was wondering in the post how long it would take for the pigs on the right to start attacking these children…..well to answer my question….not long at all…..

CNN viewers on Tuesday demanded that the network fire conservative contributor Jack Kingston after he suggested that students who survived the mass shooting in Parkland, Florida were being organized by liberal activists.

During an interview on CNN, Kingston asserted that students organizing for gun safety laws were being “hijacked by left-wing groups that have an agenda.”

“I would say to you very plainly that organized groups that are out there like George Soros are always ready to take up the charge, and it’s kind of like instant rally, instant protest and those groups are ready to take it — take it to the streets,” he added.

The remarks outraged CNN viewers, who wondered why Kingston was given a platform to speak on CNN. Some viewers called on the network to terminate the former Republican congressman.

A douche bag knows no limits……brings to question how much does this person owe the NRA to prompt him to attack children?

This man (I use the term loosely) needs to be made to be the face of the protests……he illustrates the Trumpian mindset….if you do not agree then insult…..it is tacky and shameful but pathetic mostly.

Damn!  How low will these people (and I use this term loosely also) go?

Mitt–Just Like A Bad Penny

Orin Hatch, the greatest senator of a lifetime (sarcasm), senator from Utah will have someone step into his senatorial shoes….most likely it will be Mitt Romney…..remember him?  Sure you do!  He is the one that thinks 48% of us Americans are worthless lie-arounds……..

Anyway the next election in Utah…….

Mitt Romney and President Trump have traded their share of insults in the past, but they appear ready to let bygones be bygones: Trump endorsed Romney’s Senate run Monday night, tweeting that the 2012 Republican nominee “will make a great Senator and worthy successor” to Sen. Orrin Hatch and has his “full support and endorsement,” the Salt Lake Tribune reports. In response, Romney tweeted: “Thank you Mr. President for the support. I hope that over the course of the campaign I also earn the support and endorsement of the people of Utah.” Romney said in 2016 that Trump was a “phony” and he wouldn’t vote for him, and Trump reportedly urged the 83-year-old Hatch to seek another term to keep Romney out of the Senate

Trump and Romney appeared to have buried the hatchet after the 2016 election but there were a few clashes in 2017, with Romney criticizing Trump on issues including immigration and Trump accusing Romney of choking “like a dog” in 2012, Politico reports. Romney, who is expected to easily win the GOP nomination in Utah, didn’t attack Trump when he formally announced the bid last week, though he did make it clear that he has a different view of immigration. “Utah welcomes legal immigrants from around the world,” he said. “Washington sends immigrants a message of exclusion.” (During his campaign, Trump said Romney would have “dropped to his knees” for his endorsement.)

Will Mitt be a voice of moderation in the Senate or will he be one of the cowards that will sign off of everything Trump wants?  Will Mitt be a true conservative or  knee pad Trumpite?

We have seen how easily Mitt will change his stands to win elections.  Has anything changed?

Children’s Crusade

Back during the 13th century with all the Crusade mania…..there was one that was termed the Children’s Crusade…..

Children’s Crusade was a popular religious movement in Europe during the summer of 1212 in which thousands of young people took Crusading vows and set out to recover Jerusalem from the Muslims. Lasting only from May to September, the Children’s Crusade lacked official sanction and ended in failure; none of the participants reached the Holy Land. Nevertheless, the religious fervour it excited helped to initiate the Fifth Crusade (1218). It was arguably the first European youth movement.

https://www.britannica.com/event/Childrens-Crusade

I bring up this piece of history (you just knew that I would find a way to inject some history, right?) because the students that survived the latest mass shooting are planning a march on DC next month…..yhry are on a “crusade”……..

Five students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, made their way through all the major morning talks shows Sunday, appearing on NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox, and CNN. They announced nationwide marches for gun control next month and ripped politicians, including President Donald Trump, who benefit from the National Rifle Association’s political spending while refusing to act to strengthen gun laws.

“Now is the time to get on the right side of this,” Emma Gonzalez, one of the students, said on NBC’s Meet the Press. “Because this is not something we are going to be let [you] sweep under the carpet.” Gonzalez said she was speaking directly to Trump, Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R), Florida Sen. Marco Rubio (R), and other lawmakers who have benefited from pro-gun money.

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/02/can-these-stoneman-douglas-high-school-students-finally-break-the-gun-control-deadlock/

Will this youth movement last?

The movement of young people demanding tougher gun laws after last week’s shooting in Florida arrived at the White House Monday, where teens staged a “lie-in” to represent those shot at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, reports NBC4 Washington. “It’s really important to express our anger,” says a 16-year-old participant from Alexandria, Va. “Every day when I say bye to my parents, I do acknowledge the fact that I could never see my parents again.” Here’s a closer look at the movement—this speech by student Emma Gonzalez went viral over the weekend—and some analysis on why it may not be dissipating any time soon:

  • Three national protests:Fortune rounds up future protest plans, including student walkouts planned for March.
  • Post-Columbine: In the Washington Post, Philip Bump notes that today’s high school students have never known a world where school shootings didn’t exist, and that these survivors are different from those at Columbine, Newtown, and Virginia Tech. “This is the first premeditated mass shooting at this scale that involved people who both grew up entirely in a world in which mass shootings were common and which targeted people old enough to have a voice.”
  • Rebuke to left and right: The wave of student activism is “remarkable,” writes Alex MacGillis at ProPublica, who sees it as a rebuke not just to conservatives who oppose gun reform but to those on the left who have cynically declared that nothing will ever change and given up the fight.
  • Feels different: Yes, passionate voices have emerged after previous mass shootings, but this “feels different,” writes Benjamin Hart at New York. “The preternatural poise of the students in the killings’ aftermath made it feel almost as though they had been anticipating the tragedy—which, in a society where mass-shooting drills at schools have become a fact of life, may not too be far off.”
  • Let them vote: University of Kentucky College of Law professor Joshua Douglas makes the case that 16-year-olds should be allowed to vote. The teens in Florida witnessed horrors and are now pushing for safer schools. “We should include them more directly in our democratic process,” he writes at CNN.
  • Not in vain: In a New York Times op-ed, 15-year-old Christine Yared, a student at Marjory Stoneman, writes that her friend Gina was killed and that her death should not be in vain. Among the tougher laws she wants: “If a person is not old enough to be able to rent a car or buy a beer, then he should not be able to legally purchase a weapon of mass destruction.”
  • Trump’s role: President Trump will meet with high school students for a “listening session” on Wednesday and host a similar forum the following day, reports the Hill. However, the president has been taking criticism from the Parkland students, with 17-year-old David Hogg calling him out on Sunday for faulting the FBI as too focused on the Russia investigation to stop the shooter. “You’re the president,” said Hogg on Meet the Press. “You’re supposed to bring this nation together, not divide us,” per the LA Times.

Just like the children of 700 years ago the modern day equivalent sees their duty clearly.  In history the children marched off to war and the present day warriors are doing the same….they are doing wht adults are not capable of doing……

These kids will probably get more traction than their politician counterparts because the kids have no one to answer to but their generation.  They do not fear retaliation by the NRA because they are not owned by the group.

Will today’s children be successful?

In changing policy probably not….but they will make sure that there is lots of coverage which will make the debate more likely than if they did nothing.

My hat is off to these children and I wish them luck….they will need it…..I am waiting to see if the FOX will attack these children…..keep in  mind that in the 70’s student movement that made the difference.

“Don’t mourn, Organize!”

The Terrifying Underbelly

For years pundits have been trying to explain the habits, voting and others, of the rural Southern voter…..I live among these people and I really cannot explain their habits…but I have read something that may clear it up just a bit…..

I have tried to understand how these voters can vote against their own interests…..time and time again……

As the election of Donald Trump is being sorted out, a common theme keeps cropping up from all sides: “Democrats failed to understand white, working-class, fly-over America.”

Trump supporters are saying this. Progressive pundits are saying this. Talking heads across all forms of the media are saying this. Even some Democratic leaders are saying this. It doesn’t matter how many people say it, it is complete BS. It is an intellectual/linguistic sleight of hand meant to draw attention away from the real problem. The real problem isn’t East Coast elites who don’t understand or care about rural America. The real problem is that rural Americans don’t understand the causes of their own situations and fears and they have shown no interest in finding out. They don’t want to know why they feel the way they do or why they are struggling because they don’t want to admit it is in large part because of the choices they’ve made and the horrible things they’ve allowed themselves to believe.

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/02/insider-explains-rural-christian-white-america-dark-terrifying-underbelly/

Did this help?

Iran In Syria

Syria has been in the news for bout 7 years now…..the war on ISIS was all consuming…then there were the various factions fighting this group or that….then there are the reports that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard is on the ground in Syria in aid to the Assad regime.

Over the weekend I read a report that made me chuckle (not that the death and destruction in Syria is all that humorous….I chuckle at the balls of the US)……

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson yesterday called on Iran to withdraw its troops and allied militia from Syria.

“We are quite concerned about the recent incident involving Israel and Iranian assets inside of Syria. And I think this again illustrates why Iran’s presence in Syria is only destabilizing to the region,” Tillerson said during a press conference in Amman.

Speaking alongside Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, he added that “Iran needs to withdraw its military, its militia from Syria, and allow a hope for the peace process to take hold in Geneva.”

He added that the United States has a sophisticated plan for peace in the Middle East, which has been under development for several months and is now in advanced stages.

(theantimedia.org)

The chuckle is that the US tells Iran to remove its forces from Syria….while the US forces are free to stay…..Syria is a sovereign country and I do not recall Damascus inviting the US to station troops and fight within the borders of Syria.

So Iran must go but US is free to stay…..

Then there is Tillerson stating that the US has a sophisticated peace plan….seriously?

That will be news to the world if it were true…..my guess that it is bullsh*t……

I do enjoy amateurs like Tillerson attempting foreign policy….this is so much crap on a cracker……the US has not had a plan in 7 years so having one now is a bit of a stretch.

Can anyone guess the reaction of Iran to this situation?