Day: September 4, 2018

Closing Thought–04Sep18

Tryin’ To Reason With The Hurricane Season…….

Here in Gulf Coast storms are as inevitable as the sun coming up….but we have been effected badly in the past so we watch and prepare……

It appears that another tropical storm will become a hurricane named Gordon…..and it appears that my town is in the cone of possibility…after Katrina we have had our fill of storms….but that aside a real hurricane is heading our way.

This is just to let my readers know that if I am not on-line one day soon it is because the hurricane has taken out our web service…..NOT to fear I will return as soon as possible.

Until the day of reckoning I will continue to write and report on the world around us.

A musical interlude for those that suffer from hurricanes…..or for all you Parrot-heads…..

They say Gordon will be a Cat. 1….not much more than rain and a bit of wind…..but for us after Katrina any hurricane makes one shudder with anticipation….let’s hope the weather guys and gals are right….if not they will get a strongly worded email from me.

Hopefully I will be back tomorrow with luck…….chuq

As I wrote this draft news has come that the wind shear is keeping this storm from forming into a dangerous hurricane……it remains a tropical storm……we can hope that this holds true through the night and landfall.

It’s The Economy Stupid! (Again)

Labor Day (that was yesterday) got off to a rousing start with a Tweet from Our Dear Leader…..Trump then touted the economy, tweeting, “Happy Labor Day! Our country is doing better than ever before with unemployment setting record lows.”

I have looked at the economy from several different political points of view……https://lobotero.com/2010/06/28/its-the-economy-stupid/

Dear Leader and the his enabling cowards, the GOP, keep thumping their chests like sex crazed primates over the economy and it is just silly…..maybe it works for a few individuals but nit so much for the country…..

Wages are falling, Wall Street tycoons are swimming in profits from stock buybacks, and the federal deficit is exploding. Every way you slice it, the Republican tax scam is failing spectacularly, falling far short of the blustering promises of Trump, Speaker Paul Ryan, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

When Republicans jammed through the tax scam on a party-line vote, Trump promised it would be “rocket fuel” for the economy, helping families across the nation. Ryan promised tax cuts for everyone. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin vowed the bill would pay for itself.

All lies.

https://shareblue.com/republican-tax-scam-busted-doesnt-promised/

We can keep lying to the people and it will come back and bite someone in the ass….most times the working class are the ones that get bitten while the 1% enjoy the high life.

Saudis Throw A Hissy Fit

There has been report after report that the Saudis and the UAE have been ignoring civilians when ordering these attacks…….After 2 separate attacks and the deaths of 60+ children in Yemen the UN finally has issued a report on the action of the Saudis…..The report noted Saudi and UAE forces killed thousands of civilians in airstrikes, tortured detainees, raped civilians, and used child soldiers as young as eight. The two nations repeatedly hit residential areas and there is “little evidence of any attempt by parties to the conflict to minimize civilian casualties.”

After the report was issued the Saudis threw one of their fits…..

the UN confirmed in considerable detail misdeeds by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, killing thousands of civilians in Yemen, raping and torturing detainees, and using child soldiers. The report warned these may amount to war crimes.

While they didn’t specifically dispute any of this, Saudi Arabia was predictably furious about the report, angrily condemning it as having “misconstrued the facts of the conflict… ignoring the true reasons for the conflict,” while saying that it was an Iranian coup against the “legitimate government in Yemen.”

(antiwar.com)

Not to worry….the Saudis will be protected by the US and the UK among others…..not to worry the Saudis have many “friends” on the Security Council so their position will be protected.

Many have asked just what does the US truly get for its undying support for the Saudis?

Ever since Franklin Roosevelt’s historic rendezvous in 1945 with Abd Aziz Ibn Saud, the founder of Saudi Arabia, American presidents have been enamored with Saudi kings.

But nothing in the 70 plus-year history of U.S.-Saudi ties comes close to the cosmic groveling that now defines President Donald Trump’s relationship with Saudi Arabia and his slavish obeisance to its dangerous and irresponsible policies.

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/08/29/trump-mbs-saudi-arabia-yemen-middle-east-foreign-policy-219617

Personally, I think it is time to end our undying support for the Saudis and their allies and demand a cessation of hostilities in Yemen….end the cycle of death for the people of Yemen…..

If the US were to follow the rules of warfare written into US military law and treaties to which the US is a party, the US must immediately end its support for the Saudi Arabia-led war in Yemen. We should also marshal all of its diplomatic tools to end the conflict. Since 2015, Saudi Arabia, and allies such as the United Arab Emirates, have been waging a devastating war in support of the former government of Yemen against the current Houthi regime. Amnesty International has called the conflict a “forgotten war” because its deadly consequences have failed to rise to the level of international crisis in media or government agendas. However, under former President Barack Obama and now Donald Trump, the US has been complicit in war crimes and the creation of a completely preventable humanitarian nightmare for the people of Yemen

https://original.antiwar.com/Jared_Keyel/2018/08/30/no-more-forgotten-wars-end-us-support-for-saudi-coalition-war-crimes-in-yemen/

After writing this draft the Saudis have accepted they may have screwed the pooch on these attacks…..

The Saudi-led coalition fighting rebels in Yemen admitted on Saturday that “mistakes” had been made in an August air strike that hit a bus and killed 40 children, and pledged to hold accountable anyone who contributed to the error.

The rare concession follows mounting international pressure, including from allies, to do more to limit civilian casualties in a civil war that has killed more than 10,000 people and pushed the already impoverished country to the brink of famine, Reuters said.

(antimedia.com)

Do not believe it!  My guess is the PR group told them to take credit and the story would die…if they did not the backlash would be great and a story for all times.

In closing…..the US involvement in this conflict is not guilt free…..

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/08/yemen-us-blood-on-hands.html

Afghanistan Still

Sad News:  Yet another American has been killed in Afghanistan……

Details are still unclear, but one American soldier was reported killed and another wounded Monday in what officials are describing as an “apparent insider attack” in eastern Afghanistan. The wounded soldier is in stable condition.

(antiwar.com)

17 years and what do we have to show for our occupation of Afghanistan?  The Taleban is still a functioning army……violence is a daily occurrence…..US troops are still dying……

With all that what of Afghanistan?

According to Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Joe Dunford, neither he nor the Pentagon in general expect that the “current form” of the US military mission in Afghanistan, a practically permanent US deployment in a protracted fight with insurgents, is going to last forever.

(antiwar.com)

After that was said the intel people had to get their two cents in also…..

Hope springs eternal for Pentagon officials, with regards to any war the US is involved in. Everywhere and always they believe the war is going well and about to turn the corner, and over the past 17 years, that’s been the constant military stance on Afghanistan.

But the war is plainly going badly. With Trump Administration officials reporting they are heading toward a policy review, US intelligence officials are also increasingly frank with their own assessments on the war.

A number of intelligence officials are challenging the Pentagon’s insistence that things are fine, and the policy review is likely to include a new intelligence assessment for the administration. The military is scared to death of that assessment.

(antiwar.com)

Things are fine?

After 17 years of blood sweat and money and the best description is “things are fine”?

Seriously…is it not time to face the music and admit that we have done all we can for Afghanistan and bring our weary troops home?