Jimi, We Miss You

Closing Thought–18Sep18

There was a time when I thought of myself as a “rock star” then in 1969 in a club called the “Oleo Strut” I got to see a musician named Jimi Hendrix and from the that day on I knew I would never be a “rock star”…..

I bring up Jimi because on this day , 18 September 1970 Jimi Hendrix passed leaving a huge hole in American music scene……

Jimi Hendrix left us on Friday, Sept. 18, 1970. He was only 27. He pretty much lived the way he wanted to. But his time to die came much too early.

Forty years later, it’s hard to express the shock and disbelief we music fans felt that morning as the word spread from London. Hendrix was a rock star, and rock stars just don’t die at 27. Sure, there had been other rock ‘n’ roll star deaths, probably the most famous involving “the day the music died,” the plane crash in Iowa that killed Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens. But Jimi Hendrix had moved beyond being a mere rock star. He was a rock god. And gods just didn’t die, so we thought.

https://blog.chron.com/40yearsafter/2010/09/jimi-hendrix-burned-brightly-died-too-young/

In memory of this superb musician I give you this “Best Hits” interlude……enjoy the trip back in time……

Time for me to take my leave….I shall return tomorrow….chuq

Sabra And Shatila….A Remembrance

Today is the day that we remember the massacre of Palestinians by Lebanese militias working with Israeli forces during the invasion of Lebanon in 1982.

I have written about this tragedy every year…..the world must remember the mass murder of women and children and old people by allies of Israel as they watched over the camp.

https://lobotero.com/2017/09/18/remembering-sabra-and-shatila/

The intense summer heat was gone and the evening was breezy and cool that fateful Thursday evening, September 15, 1982, according to survivors of the Sabra-Shatila Massacre who, 34 years later, still remember and recount many details of the slaughter that was soon to follow.

It was following the 9/14/1982 assassination of President-elect Bachir Gemayel, leader of the Lebanese Forces militia and senior Kataeb Party official, that Israeli forces closed in with their tanks and blockaded the Shatila refugee camp and the adjacent Sabra neighborhood. By prearrangement with their Christian phalange allies, the Israeli invaders led the Kataeb affiliated Phalange militia from Beirut airport north two miles to inside the camp, in violation of their agreement with the US Reagan administration.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2016/09/23/34-years-after-the-sabra-shatila-massacre/

Israel has committed several crimes against humanity and have NEVER had to pay a price for their barbarity. Sabra and Shatila and the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty….two events that should NEVER be forgotten…..no matter how much Israel tries to whitewash their crimes.

STOP Whining!

Our Dear Leader has finally imposed the tariffs that he basically promised while a candidate…..the agriculture sector in the US is starting to hurt those people that voted for Trump……and soon it will extend into the auto industry……

The lobster fishermen in New England are whining….potato farmers in Idaho are whining……cranberry framers are whining……soybean farmers in Nebraska are whining….are you getting the picture?

Time for these whiners to face reality…..they voted for the person that is slowly strangling them……they voted for the person that said what he had in mind as a new trade policy.

So these people need to STOP whining!

Take responsibility for the the shitty vote they gave the person that is killing their future….the control of that future.

Ignorance has consequences.

And the whining continues……this time it is over the turn that the Kavanaugh nomination has taken…..it seems that he has been accused (notice I used “accused”) of a drunken grope and possible rape attempt…..and the GOP has been whining about the timing of the information release……and then of course the Fat Man in the Oval Office had to inject his feelings into the debate….

President Trump weighed in Monday on the allegation against his Supreme Court nominee, Politico reports. “We want to go through a full process” to air Christine Blasey Ford’s allegation that, when they were high school students, Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her, Trump said. If that “takes a little delay, it’ll take a little delay. It shouldn’t certainly be very much,” he said, per Breitbart News. But the president, speaking during an event at the White House in what Fox News notes are his first public comments on the matter, added that he was certain everything would “work out very well” as Kavanaugh is “as high a quality individual as you’ll ever see.” He said Kavanaugh has “never had even a little blemish on his record. The FBI has, I think, gone through a process six times with him over the years where he went to higher and higher positions. He is somebody very special.”

Trump also said Blasey Ford’s accusation “should have been brought up long before.” “I wish the Democrats could have done this a lot sooner,” he said. “Because they had this information for many months, and they shouldn’t have waited until literally the last days. They should have done it a lot sooner. But with all of that being said, we want to go through the process. I’d like to see a complete process. I’d like everybody to be very happy. Most importantly, I want the American people to be happy. Because they’re getting somebody that is great. … We want to make sure everything is perfect, everything is just right.” Asked if Kavanaugh had offered to withdraw from consideration, Trump responded, per Daily Caller video, “Next question. What a ridiculous question.” He noted he has not spoken to Kavanaugh about the matter.

They are whining like the cowards they are……think back to when another guy was nominated for SCOTUS and the games played …..now does anyone think that there would not be a tit for tat?

Keep whining fools! If the House goes Democratic then the paybacks have just begun……

Personally, I do not think these “paybacks” accomplish anything ……but I do understand why the Dems will be doing it…..and anyone with half a brain will understand it also.

Whining accomplishes nothing…..to avoid having to use the “whining gambit” then do the work of the nation and leave political games behind.

The voters are the worse whiners….I guess it is easier than learning the issues and voting for the benefit of the nation….not some party.

Syria By Any Other Name

Since the media has chosen to ignore the conflict in Syria does not mean that the fighting is over.

After all these years of fighting in Syria one would think that the US would have some influence within the country…..one would think…..

Syria’s capital looks a bit like Washington, D.C.: imposing government buildings, heavy traffic, busy streets, and imperious officials. Public edifices are surrounded by concrete walls. The main difference may be the ubiquitous regime propaganda: you can’t miss images of President Bashar al-Assad and his father Hafez, whereas President Trump’s visage is missing from Washington.

Also unusual are the ubiquitous checkpoints. They’re there to prevent terrorism via car bombs. Although the threat of terrorism scares most Americans, it actually offers a form of relief to Damascus residents. Until recently insurgents controlled some suburbs, from which they fired artillery and mortars into the city. Today those neighborhoods, just a few minutes away, are wrecked and empty. It may be the peace of the grave, but at least it is peace.

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/washingtons-influence-in-syria-is-nowhere-to-be-found/

Since the first bomb fell on Syria I have been saying that this battle was not necessary…in fact it is a stupid waste of manpower and money……

As tensions continue to mount around the Al-Qaeda-held province of Idlib in Syria, the New York Times has published an op-ed by virulent neoconservative war whore Bret Stephens explaining that the US should intervene militarily in order to thwart the geopolitical agendas of Iran. He argues that any movement to recapture Idlib should be met with a full-scale assault on the Syrian government, crippling its air force and attacking Bashar al-Assad’s presidential palaces. Stephens says this must be done to prevent Tehran from “consolidating a Shiite crescent stretching from Bandar Abbas on the Persian Gulf to the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon.”

https://theantimedia.com/why-interventionism-syria-crazy-stupid/

And now for your visual entertainment a little ditty about the war in Syria…..

Some people are predicting n end to the war in Syria…if they are accurate what will be next?

There can be little doubt about who emerged as the dominant partner when the presidents of Turkey, Russia and Iran convened in Tehran to discuss the next stage in Syria’s brutal war.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan flew to Tehran with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to join Iranian President Hassan Rouhani for a discussion on the fate of Idlib, the rebel-held province that is the last remaining redoubt of the anti-Assad opposition movement.

https://www.thenational.ae/opinion/comment/as-the-syrian-war-nears-its-end-a-tense-new-struggle-is-materialising-1.770121

Syria,,,,,,Syria….

Turn The Page!

Camp David–40 Years On

Closing Thought–17Sep18

Forty years ago today, 17 September…..Pres, Carter, PM Begin and Egypt’s Sadat met for 2 weeks at Camp David and came away with a peace agreement signed by all sides…..

At the White House in Washington, D.C., Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin sign the Camp David Accords, laying the groundwork for a permanent peace agreement between Egypt and Israel after three decades of hostilities. The accords were negotiated during 12 days of intensive talks at President Jimmy Carter’s Camp David retreat in the Catoctin Mountains of Maryland. The final peace agreement–the first between Israel and one of its Arab neighbors–was signed in March 1979. Sadat and Begin were jointly awarded the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts.

A state of war had existed between Egypt and the State of Israel since the establishment of Israel in 1948. In the first three Arab-Israeli wars, Israel decisively defeated Egypt. As a result of the 1967 war, Israel occupied Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, the 23,500-square-mile peninsula that links Africa with Asia. When Anwar el-Sadat became Egyptian president in 1970, he found himself leader of an economically troubled nation that could ill afford to continue its endless crusade against Israel. He wanted to make peace and thereby achieve stability and recovery of the Sinai, but after Israel’s stunning victory in the 1967 war it was unlikely that Israel’s peace terms would be favorable to Egypt. So Sadat conceived of a daring plan to attack Israel again, which, even if unsuccessful, might convince the Israelis that peace with Egypt was necessary.

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/camp-david-accords-signed

This was the closest the Middle East had come to peace in many years and within a short period….Sadat had been assassinated and Begin also….Carter was replaced with Reagan and from that point on peace was never on the agenda.

The world missed the perfect opportunity to have a lasting peace….and history has shown just how bad events have gotten since those days 40 years ago.

That Leadership Question

AS the 2018 Midterms are looming large and the 2020 presidential election is only two short years away…..the question of leadership from our elected officials should be a paramount question that needs a definitive answer.

I tried to touch on this question recently with a post here on IST……https://lobotero.com/2018/08/29/what-does-it-take-to-be-a-good-leader/

This country desperately needs a good leader….in my opinion we have not had such for at least 50 years…we have had popular leaders but that does not mean they were good leaders.

Leadership is a difficult quality to obtain and there are fallacies that come with the title of “Good Leader”……

Six Leadership Fallacies

1. Burton Brender

One of the hardest things a leader will ever have to do is accurately assess the performance and potential of his or her workers. Often, leaders have so much on their plate that really observing their people is a challenge, and it doesn’t help that there are false signals out there that can fool even the wisest of supervisors. These fallacies can make people who are less competent, and less scrupulous, appear better than they are. To be on guard against them, leaders must constantly assess themselves when meting out rewards, promotions, and punishment. Falling for a leadership fallacy can see the wrong person advanced and drive the right people away.

(Please read on about the fallacies)

http://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/six-leadership-fallacies

There are many qualities that a “Good Leader” must have if they are to be successful….again let me emphasize that good does not necessarily mean popular.

Legalism Has Replaced Liberty

Today, 17Sep18, is Constitution Day….a day in my opinion that is the most important of days in the founding of this country….

On September 17, 1787, the delegates to the Constitutional Convention met for the last time to sign the document they had created. We encourage all Americans to observe this important day in our nation’s history by attending local events in your area. Celebrate Constitution Day through activities, learning, parades and demonstrations of our Love for the United State of America and the Blessings of Freedom Our Founding Fathers secured for us.

For more information on the Constitution then this is the site you need…..http://www.constitutionday.com/

These days everyone seems to hug the Constitution and claim that their views or their candidates are the best representatives of the US Constitution…….you, as a voter, has heard it all from both sides of the political meter……

But actually our liberty has been replaced with of all things legalism.

For those still deluded enough to believe they’re living the American dream—where the government represents the people, where the people are equal in the eyes of the law, where the courts are arbiters of justice, where the police are keepers of the peace, and where the law is applied equally as a means of protecting the rights of the people—it’s time to wake up.

We no longer have a representative government, a rule of law, or justice.

Liberty has fallen to legalism.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/07/06/the-constitution-is-not-neutral/

The Constitution is become a political prop more so than those stupid straw hats of the past…..an understanding is not necessary to run for office just having a copy makes you the perfect candidate to protect the document….

Plus we have a political game of “Simon Says” with our Founders…..Jefferson is one of the most misquoted Founders…..then it is followed by Hamilton and Madison…..a game we need to STOP playing……

As the United States’ depressed, distracted, disorganized, and demobilized populace watches the vicious white-nationalist and authoritarian Donald Trump and the arch-reactionary Republican Party craft a Supreme Court yet further to the right of majority public opinion, the worst of the nation’s slave-owning Founders might just be heard chuckling in their graves.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/07/13/time-to-stop-playing-simon-says-with-james-madison-and-alexander-hamilton/

As a student US Political History I believe that the Constitution is a more deserving incident that deserves its recognized holiday……DoI was basically a grievances list…the Constitution established the rules for a nation.

That Political Argument

As the week begins I would like to write about something that if you are a political blogger then you have had a political debate or if you will argument with someone who shows up on your blog.

Do you think you have ever won the debate with this person? In your mind of course you have but in the other’s mind you have not…..

Let’s take a look at that political argument…….

We’ve all been sufficiently frustrated by the gap between the values someone espouses and the policies they support that we’ve gotten into political arguments to help them see their error. Perhaps, if we’re more honest about our own motivation, we just reacted to get rid of that visceral dissonant feeling that “something that wrong just can’t be allowed to stand.”

And, no doubt, whenever you do that, you lay out a clear, fact-based, logically consistent case for the correct view.

You’ve probably done it many times—and, if you’re like most people, you’ve changed next-to-no minds at all.

In fact, you may have often come away even more convinced of your opponent’s wrong-headedness than when you started, and likely gave your opponent the exact same view of you.

But you keep doing it—even though it does very little good indeed.

Given all the practice everyone is getting, why are millions of decent arguments made by clearly thinking individuals almost all utterly useless when it comes to enlightening others—let alone changing their minds?

This article will give you the answer. Understanding it may change your life.

https://theantimedia.com/political-argument-mistake/

Let me say about here…..no matter how well you give the facts to support your side of the argument…you will NEVER get through a closed mind……and thanx to the ear of social media a closed mind is the way of the world.

Sunday–16Sep18

Several years ago there was a show on SyFy about the coming end of days….I believe the show was called “Dig”….the location was modern day Israel……there seems to be something about the birth of a red calf….it is magical and telling.

Well life does imitate art…..

An Israeli Jewish fundamentalist group that received donations from the country’s defence minister has said that an end of times prophecy ushering Armageddon has been fulfilled following the birth of a “flawless” red heifer.

The Temple Institute, which promotes the construction of a third temple on the ruins of Al-Aqsa Mosque, has announced the birth of the first red calf in Israel for 2,000 year. They believe that a biblical prophecy predicting the end of days has come true. The temple institute in Jerusalem announced the calf’s birth, saying it would undergo extensive examinations to determine if it is red all over.

The Jewish fundamentalist group believes that if the female baby calf is found to be “blemish free” and completely red, the institute will declare that the calf will bring the promise of reinstating biblical purity to the world.

Not to worry there have been countless predictions of the “End of Days” and we are still here….so this one is just FYI

Go now and enjoy your day….chuq

Saturday–15Sep18

The week is over and I begin my usual weekend relaxation….BTW that “honey Do” list just keeps getting longer….I believe there is a conspiracy there.

I attempt to be an FYI blog especially on weekends…give my readers something to read besides my take on the world and politics.

Almost daily I hear people ask just what the Hell is going on in this country…..do you know how difficult of a question that is to answer?

To help you out I found an article that helps people understand the world we live in….

In an environment that is saturated with mass media propaganda, it can be hard to figure out which way’s up, let alone get an accurate read on what’s going on in the world. Here are a few tips I’ve learned which have given me a lot of clarity in seeing through the haze of spin and confusion. Taken separately they don’t tell you a lot, but taken together they paint a very useful picture of the world and why it is the way it is.

1. It’s always ultimately about acquiring power.

read on…..

https://theantimedia.com/understanding-the-world/

Now you know….and time for me to say…TTFN

In Saner Thought

"It is the duty of every man, as far as his ability extends, to detect and expose delusion and error"..Thomas Paine

Month: September 2018