Day: April 20, 2018

Oh By The Way…..Bite Me!

Closing Thought–20Apr18

My sentiment to the governor of New York and any other politician that tries to tell me what I can say or do……I know that when it comes to protecting Israel this country would suspend our civil rights and violate our Constitution so Israel can hide behind DC’s skirt.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s executive order opposing BDS shouldn’t have made a splash — but it did.

A handful of states had already passed similar measures opposing the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel. So had the New York State Senate — though the State Assembly version has been stalled since last year.

Cuomo’s order, signed Sunday, June 5, was merely supposed to speed up the “tedious” voting process, as he said at the signing ceremony Sunday, just prior to New York’s annual Celebrate Israel Parade.

https://www.ijn.com/cuomo-bds-ny-illegal/

Cuomo is a turd and a rat bastard if he thinks he will stop me from exercising my right to free association and speech. (You may let Cuomo know what I think of this worthless ass if you so desire)……

There are whole countries that are trying to banned BDS France being one of them……but it matters not for us people that want justice then we will fight wherever we are needed……

That’s right……these attempts to stop the BDS Movement is a violation of our basic rights as Americans……

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) concluded its annual policy conference last week with a lobbying day on Capitol Hill. High on its legislative agenda was advocating for bills that would penalise Americans for engaging in their First Amendment-protected right to boycott for Palestinian rights.

AIPAC conference attendees pressed their elected officials to support the Israel Anti-Boycott Act, sponsored by Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD). The original, draconian version of this bill, unveiled at last year’s AIPAC conference, proposed to jail individuals for 20 years if they advanced an international organization’s call for a boycott of Israel, or even of products from its illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.

https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/americans-constitutional-boycott-israel-180315095133552.html

Of course the only way this movement can be fought is by labeling it as “anti-Semitic” which it is NOT…..but that plays well to the morons that will not educate themselves on what the movement is trying to accomplish.  Plus you have the mental midgets like Dershowitz, a Harvard Lawyer (go figure) who spends his waking hours trying to convince readers that anyone that uses BDS is anti Jewish (which is total bullshit but what can you expect from some from Harvard?)……speaking of the governor of New York……

Cynthia Nixon, one of the stars of the “Sex and the City” television series and movies, announced on Monday that she is planning to run for governor of New York. Her decision was met with a Twitter outburst by high-profile attorney and Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, who denounced Nixon as a “bigot” for supporting an artist who refused to perform in the West Bank settlement of Ariel.

Dershowitz, who is the author of “The Case for Israel” and one of Israel’s loudest voices in America took aim at Nixon for backing Israeli actors refusing to perform in illegal settlements. Nixon’s name was just one amongst 150 American and Israeli actors, writers, directors and artists to support the 2010 campaign organised by Jewish Voice for Peace, which endorses the BDS movement. Its backing of the boycott of Israel has earned the progressive Jewish organisation a place on Israel’s BDS blacklist.

http://theantimedia.org/sex-and-the-city-star-supporting-bds/

That is right…I REFUSE to buy anything from Israel…..

If my readers would like to participate in the BDS then this link will get them all the info they need to make an intelligent decision…..

https://bdsmovement.net/

Syria: Post Attack Debrief

After Action Report……..

The US and NATO allies have attacked the country of Syria in response for their use of CWs against civilians…..that attack took place last week…..and now it is time for an IST debrief…..

Our attacks were designed to punishment Assad for the use of CWs…..and yet……

Pentagon officials offered a briefing Thursday saying they believe they have evidence that there were “elements” of sarin nerve gas at the sites that US-led coalition forces bombed on Friday evening. Officials said they hurt Syria’s ability to research chemicals, but probably didn’t eliminate their chemical weapons capacity.

“A perfectly executed strike,” Trump tweeted after U.S., French and British warplanes and ships launched more than 100 missiles nearly unopposed by Syrian air defenses. “Could not have had a better result. Mission Accomplished!”

Marine Lt. Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie, director of the Joint Staff at the Pentagon, said the allied airstrikes “took out the heart” of Assad’s chemical weapons arsenal. He said the missiles hit the “sweet spot,” doing the expected level of damage while minimizing the unintentional release of toxic fumes that could be harmful to nearby civilians.

When pressed, he acknowledged that some unspecified portion of Assad’s chemical arms infrastructure was not targeted.

“There is still a residual element of the Syrian program that is out there,” McKenzie said, adding, “I’m not going to say they’re going to be unable to continue to conduct a chemical attack in the future. I suspect, however they’ll think long and hard about it.”

Really?  After all the banter and “Mission Accomplished” and there is some of his Chem program not targeted….WHY?

If Trump was so outraged at the use of CWs against poor Syrian children why leave any of it untouched?

So basically it was about as effective as the airstrikes a year ago right?

One further note about the attack……

The Pentagon is clearly not being forthright on the details of the Friday attack. Officials also claimed Thursday that no civilians were killed, despite images clearly showing one of the strikes doing major damage to an apartment complex near a research facility.

The Pentagon further claimed not a single of the 105 missiles was intercepted Friday. Again, videos showing interceptions were released almost immediately after the attacks. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also claimed 65 of the 105 were intercepted.

(antiwar.com)

I have never seen such support for a war against another nation than this one…..and the media is the biggest cheerleader…..

A survey by FAIR of the top 100 papers in the US by circulation found not a single editorial board opposed to Trump’s April 13 airstrikes on Syria. Twenty supported the strikes, while six were ambiguous as to whether or not the bombing was advisable. The remaining 74 issued no opinion about Trump’s latest escalation of the Syrian war.

None of the top 100 newspapers questioned the US’s legal or moral right to bomb Syria, and all accepted US government claims to be neutral arbiters of “international law.” Many editorials handwrung about a “lack of strategy” or absence of congressional approval, but none so much that they opposed the bombing. Strategy and legal sanction are add-on features—nice but, by all accounts, not essential.

All this is just examples of how deep the corporate media is invested in these wars…..there is NO voice in  opposition…..as long as there is NO opposition then these wars and the future wars will have a clear path and thanx to propaganda support will remain no matter how many Americans die for no good reason.

chuq in debrief…..20Apr18

TPP Will Not Go Quietly

2016 the promise was to pull out of the TPP because it was NO GOOD for the country and NAFTA would be re-negotiated….promises by then candidate Donny Trump…..

So far NAFTA remains in its original form and the US has pulled out of the TPP in 2017…..but wait there is more news on the TPP front…….

President Donald Trump has asked trade officials to explore the possibility of the United States rejoining negotiations on the Pacific Rim agreement after he pulled out last year as part of his “America first” agenda, the AP reports. Farm-state lawmakers said Thursday after a White House meeting with Trump that he had given that assignment to his trade representative, Robert Lighthizer, and his new chief economic adviser, Larry Kudlow. The Trans-Pacific Partnership would open more overseas markets for American farmers. “I’m sure there are lots of particulars that they’d want to negotiate, but the president multiple times reaffirmed in general to all of us and looked right at Larry Kudlow and said, ‘Larry, go get it done,'” said Sen. Ben Sasse. Eleven countries signed the agreement last month.

Trump’s rejection of the deal has rattled allies and raised questions at home about whether protectionism will impede US economic growth. Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts, the chairman of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee, said he was “very impressed” that Trump had assigned Kudlow and Lighthizer “the task to see if we couldn’t take another look at TPP. And that certainly would be good news all throughout farm country.” The discussions came during a meeting in which Trump told farm-state governors and lawmakers that he was pressing China to treat the American agriculture industry fairly. Midwest farmers fear becoming caught up in a trade war as Beijing threatens to impose tariffs on soybeans and other US crops, a big blow to Midwestern farmers, many of whom are strong Trump supporters.

Is the possibility of re-joining TPP a by-product of the new tariffs that the president thinks will make America Great Again?

ISIS And The Future

ISIS is a subject that we seldom hear about anymore….it just cannot seem to break through the news cycle there are just too many lawyers standing in the way….I revisit this subject because…well someone needs to keep the public focused on real threats and not the manufactured crap we have daily…….

We have had some “good” news lately it is reported that ISIS is on their back foot and we could expect their total defeat any day now…..it is not that cut and dry……

Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR), which oversees the coalition to defeat the Islamic State, warned today that “much work remains to defeat” Abu Bakr al Baghdadi’s organization in Iraq and Syria. The U.S.-led coalition’s statement is at odds with the Trump administration’s stated position earlier this week.

The White House claimed on Apr. 4 that the “military mission to eradicate ISIS in Syria is coming to a rapid end, with ISIS being almost completely destroyed.” The remaining ISIS presence in Syria is “small,” according to the White House’s statement, which did not mention Iraq.

https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2018/04/09/us-led_coalition_says_much_work_remains_to_defeat_to_isis_113298.html

The neocon think tank, The Brookings, has something to say about the possibility of an ISIS 2.0……..

American and international strategy towards the horrific conflict in Syria is at a crossroads. ISIS has been largely defeated militarily on the physical battlefield. The top goal of both President Obama and President Trump has been partially achieved, through a strategy they both helped develop and implement. The temptation for Americans in general, and the Trump administration specifically, may be to declare victory and go home—as in fact Trump has just signaled he would like to do, as soon as possible.

That would not be a good idea. Trump deserves credit for his success in Syria, but it represents an interim goal, not a durable achievement. Withdrawing U.S. forces, security assistance, economic aid and diplomatic engagement risks allowing a war that has killed half a million and displaced 12 million to continue—or worse, to expand into a truly regional war.

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2018/04/07/how-do-we-prevent-isis-2-0-withdrawing-from-syria-is-not-the-answer/

The topic to keep in mind is that ISIS can be beaten by defeat, a total defeat, is another thing all together.

ISIS is dwindling but do not forget them….that would be disastrous.