Day: April 11, 2019

This Illustrates Where The Sympathies Lie

Closing Thought–11Apr19

About a month ago Rep, Omar made a comment about AIPAC and the MSM went batcrap crazy calling it antisemitism (actually it was not but the MSM wants to poke that toad)…..

When a true bigot and racist and bigot gets very little press, Rep. Stephen King of Iowa…..just a few of the verbage from this d/bag….

Rack up another racially tinged remark for Steve King. The Iowa representative Thursday compared Iowa flood victims to Hurricane Katrina victims in New Orleans in 2005—and the Iowans come out a little better in his eyes, CNN reports. “Here’s what FEMA tells me. We go to a place like New Orleans, and everybody’s looking around saying, ‘Who’s going to help me? Who’s going to help me?'” he said at a town hall in Charter Oak, Iowa (see Facebook video here). “We go to a place like Iowa, and we go, we go see, knock on the door at, say, I’ll make up a name, John’s place, and say, ‘John, you got water in your basement, we can write you a check, we can help you.'”


“And John will say, ‘Well, wait a minute, let me get my boots. It’s Joe that needs help. Let’s go down to his place and help him.'” He went on to say FEMA is “always gratified when they come and see Iowans take care of each other.” FEMA, however, wasn’t quite on board: “@SteveKingIA’s recent comments about @FEMA comparing recovery efforts are inaccurate,” tweets FEMA spokeswoman Lizzie Litzow. Louisiana lawmakers also struck back, with House Minority Whip Steve Scalise calling King’s remarks “absurd and offensive,” while CNN notes that Katrina killed over 1,500 in Louisiana alone, a far higher death toll that the few victims of flooding in Iowa and Nebraska. King recently turned heads by asking how “white nationalist” and “white supremacist” became offensive terms, the Hill recalls.

King just cannot keep his mouth shut……


Congressman Steve King has been lobbying to have his House committeeships restored after he was stripped of them over incendiary comments, notes Roll Call. This won’t help. The Iowa conservative posted a jokey meme about a modern civil war. King has since deleted the post, but you can see it at various sites, including the Hill. It reads: “Folks keep talking about another civil war; one side has about 8 trillion bullets while the other side doesn’t know which bathroom to use.” King then added his own line, “Wonder who would win,” accompanied by a smirking emoji. The image shows two robot-like figures fighting, one blue, one red, each made up of states based on their political leanings.

Both Roll Call and the Washington Post note that King apparently didn’t realize that his own state, Iowa, is in blue, not the side he would pick in that fight. King has not commented about the image or his decision to delete, but he took lots of flak almost immediately. King “isn’t actually COMMITTING treason, but he is fomenting and inciting it,” tweeted Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe. “Ample reason to expel him” from the House. King lost his committeeships over a quote to the New York Times—he insists he was misrepresented—in which he said, “White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization—how did that language become offensive?”

It is WRONG to equate Nationalism with patriotism.

Then King gets attacked with a glass of water…..

Iowa congressman Steve King may be used to hearing criticism over controversial statements, but that criticism took a much more personal turn on Friday. Police in Fort Dodge, Iowa, arrested a man after they say he threw a glass of water on King at a restaurant, reports KCCI. Blake Gibbins, 26, went to the table where King was eating lunch with a group of people and threw the water when King confirmed he was the GOP congressman, say police, per ABC News. Gibbins faces charges of simple assault and disorderly conduct.

Police say the attack was politically motivated, but they didn’t mention specifics. Most recently, King has taken flak for unfavorably comparing victims of Hurricane Katrina with victims of natural disasters in Iowa, with critics accusing him of playing on racial stereotypes. Before that, he got into hot water in Congress for his comments on white nationalism.

I dislike the toad King but Being attacked in an eatery is just wrong…..you can attack him verbally but not physically….

Still waiting for a more in-depth analysis of King’s racism and bigotry……and I wait…… 

Speaking of AIPAC…..

Several Democratic presidential candidates will skip the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s policy conference this year after a prominent progressive group called on them to boycott the event.

Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Kamala Harris, D-Calif., and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., will all ditch the conference, the Associated Press reported, and a spokesman for former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, D-Texas, told NBC News that he also will not attend.

Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, will not be going, The Jewish Week reported, and former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro also won’t show, according to HuffPost.

Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, who is considering running for president as an independent, will also skip the conference, the Associated Press reported.

WE will see who gets the cash……and if these people do not then maybe the statement months ago, deemed antisemitic, is accurate.

Just a thought!

Turn The page!

Arrogance Runs Deep

I have seen a lot of arrogant twaddle coming from the Trump admin……these toads think they work for Trump and not the people of the US…..

In other words too many that are employed in DC these days thinks their shit don’t stink……like the troll Mnuchin our SecTreas…remember him? He and his arm candy wife were clowning in the Treasury with newly printed money…….

……….anyway he and the House have had a head butting contest……

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and House Financial Services Chair Maxine Waters probably won’t be exchanging holiday cards this year after things got a little tense during the Treasury secretary’s testimony on Tuesday. Mnuchin had testified about his plans to respond to requests for President Trump’s tax returns for roughly three hours by 5pm when he reminded committee members that he had a meeting with “a foreign leader,” meaning Bahrain’s interior minister. “It will be embarrassing if I keep this person waiting,” he said, per CNN. “It’s a new day and it’s a new chair,” said Waters. Mnuchin went on to claim a person in his position never testified so long or was treated in such a way by Republicans, as Waters tried to arrange testimony at a later date. “If you wish to leave, you may,” she said with a stern look, refusing to dismiss the hearing.

“If you’d wish to keep me here so that I don’t have my important meeting and continue to grill me, then we can do that,” but “I will not be back here,” Mnuchin said, growing heated. “The secretary has agreed to stay to hear all of the rest of the members,” Waters responded, per the Hill. “Please cancel your meeting and respect our time.” Mnuchin then said she was “instructing” him to stay, while Waters said she was accepting his offer. Mnuchin denied any offer and told Waters to “take the (gavel) and bang it” for a proper dismissal. He left soon after she advised him “not [to] instruct me as to how I am to conduct this committee.” Waters later told CNN that nothing is more important than Congress “trying to find out what exactly this secretary is doing.” Mnuchin only said he would “comply with the law” in regard to Trump’s tax returns, per Time.

His pressing appointment was with some minor minister from Bahrain….WTF is Bahrain?  An island in the Persian Gulf….who has lots of oil dollars and someone that Trump will bow down to on any given day.

Time these self centered jerks get taken down a peg or two……time for them to realize they work for the country and the people and not some country club wannabe.

But wait there is more!

This is from a Congressional Hearing…….

The transcript of the literally unbelievable exchange follows:

Massie: Sec. Kerry, I want to read part of your statement back to you: “Instead of convening a kangaroo court, the president might want to talk with the educated adults he once trusted his top national security positions.” It sounds like you’re questioning the credentials of the president’s advisers, currently. But I think we should question your credentials today. Isn’t it true you have a science degree from Yale?
Kerry: Bachelor of arts degree.
Massie: Is it a political science degree?
Kerry: Yes, political science.
Massie: So how do you get a bachelor of arts, in a science?
Kerry: Well it’s a liberal arts education and degree. It’s a bachelor…
Massie: OK. So it’s not really science. So I think it’s somewhat appropriate that someone with a pseudo-science degree is here pushing pseudo-science in front of our committee today.
Kerry: Are you serious?! I mean this is really a serious happening here?
Massie: You know what? It is serious. You’re calling the president’s Cabinet a “kangaroo court.” Is that serious?
Kerry: I’m not calling his Cabinet a kangaroo court, I’m calling this committee that he’s putting together a kangaroo committee.
Massie: Are you saying it doesn’t have educated adults now?
Kerry: I don’t know who it has yet because it’s secret.
Massie: Well you said it in your testimony.
Kerry: Why would he have to have a secret analysis of climate change?
Massie: Let’s get back to the science of it.
Kerry: But it’s not science, you’re not quoting science!
Massie: Well, You’re the science expert. You have the political science degree.

What can I say?  Massie is in good company….cowards and traitors like Jordan, Gaetz, Nunes and Meadows….time for them to go the way of the dodo……these “people” are a national embarrassment and they do not realize how pathetic their politics appears……at least 33% will think they are god-like……

There should be a sign in DC for those that want to represent the people……”NO STUPID PEOPLE NEED APPLY!”

That would eliminate a bunch of babbling buffoons from local aall the way to the White House.

Return Of The “S” Word

The 2020 election will see a rise in the use of the “S” word, Socialism……the Right will be using it more and more until the actual candidate is chosen…..it is all they have to attack the policies from the Left…..then there are those cowards the Democrat Centrist…they too will jump on the “S” word train.

Even the dolt in the White House has been using it….but don’t call him a f*cking fascist that would be “fake news”……..but the old farts that cannot move into the 21st century will resurrect the lies and the bullsh*t for a lack of any real policies to advance……

There are a lot of people talking about socialism these days. Senator Bernie Sanders, who on Tuesday launched a bid for the Democratic nomination for president, calls himself a democratic socialist, and so does Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Public intellectuals are debating the label anew. And then there’s the most high-profile participant in the discussion: Donald Trump.

The president, of course, is not a proponent. But he has moved “socialism” to the center of his lexicon in February, deploying it in discussions of foreign policy as a weapon against domestic political opponents. He does so at a time when his political messaging has faltered and when the left wing is more energized than it has been in generations. How successful Trump’s attempt to revive an old but often successful line of attack is will be an important test, both for his reelection hopes and for the future of socialist ideas in this country.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/02/trump-socialism-venezuela-bernie-sanders-ocasio-cortez/583135/

Bernie needs to worry about trashing by the media and Right leaning pundits that cannot move into the 21st century and still fight the Cold War…..in other words..”Old Farts”……

Some people are attached to the idea that the Democratic National Committee will “rig” the presidential nomination against Bernie Sanders. The meme encourages the belief that the Bernie 2020 campaign is futile because of powerful corporate Democrats. But such fatalism should be discarded.

As Frederick Douglass said, “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.” Of course top Democratic Party officials don’t intend to give up control. It has to be taken from them. And the conditions for doing that are now more favorable than ever.

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/03/04/big-obstacle-bernie-isnt-dnc-rigging-its-media-trashing

Let me help those people that do not know what socialism is…….for one socialism is not communism….but communism is a form of socialism…..confused? I can help…….https://lobotero.com/2012/02/07/just-what-is-socialism/

I know that is a bit much for some of among us……so maybe this short video will do a better job than having to read……

https://youtu.be/XD94UUTvMts
https://youtu.be/FrtDZ-LOXFw

The Right hates any thing that would move society forward….but yet when it comes to their big donors they have a special type of “socialism”…..

“America will never be a socialist country,” Donald Trump declared in his State of the Union address. Someone should alert Trump that America is now a hotbed of socialism. But it is socialism for the rich. Everyone else is treated to harsh capitalism.

In the conservative mind, socialism means getting something for doing nothing. That pretty much describes the $21 billion saved by the nation’s largest banks last year thanks to Trump’s tax cuts, some of which went into massive bonuses for bank executives. On the other hand, more than 4,000 lower-level bank employees got a big dose of harsh capitalism. They lost their jobs.

Banks that are too big to fail – courtesy of the 2008 bank bailout – enjoy a hidden subsidy of some $83 billion a year, because creditors facing less risk accept lower interest on deposits and loans. Last year, Wall Street’s bonus pool was $31.4 billion. Take away the hidden subsidy and the bonus pool disappears.

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/02/12/trump-wants-socialism-rich-brutal-capitalism-rest-us

Trump is NOT alone…it is a typical and a predictable policy of the GOP and its aging minions……even those conservs that oppose the Trump policies will jump on the “S” word bandwagon and they are not alone the media is also on-board…..instead of debating policies and ideas they resort to the typical BS of name calling…….the old farts are running scared.

Giving the wealthy free stuff is more in line with GOP politics than helping those in our society……but they will not see it and neither will those old farts that are still living in the Cold War.

Is it “Socialism” if it is what the people want?

“Socialism,” snarled Donald Trump at a recent pep rally of far-right Republicans. And the obedient crowd of faithful Trumpistas snarled back in unison: “So-shull-izz-ummm!”

And there you have the entire intellectual content of the GOP’s 2020 re-election strategy under Generalissimo Trump—slap Democrats silly with a scurrilous campaign branding them as Lenin-Trotsky-Stalin reincarnate. It’s not just Trump hissing out the socialist label in a frantic McCarthyesque attempt to make it stick by mindless repetition, but also Mike Pence, cabinet officials, Republican lawmakers, right-wing pundits and, of course, the extremist choreographers of Fox News.

Their incessant babbling has already turned clownish, with many babblers bumbling over their own ignorance and making ridiculous attempts to overplay their weak hands. Texas Sen. John Cornyn, for example, compared Democrats who support ideas such as “Medicare for All” to Mussolini. Apparently, Cornyn is unaware that the brutish Italian dictator was no socialist, but a fascist! Mussolini’s ideology of ultranationalism, promotion of masculine authoritarianism, domination of society by big business and the wealthy and suppression of democratic rights is the opposite of the Democratic agenda. Indeed, it describes the policies of—guess who—Trump and his acolytes, including Cornyn!

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/03/13/its-not-socialism-its-what-people-want
 
https://lobotero.com/2009/02/16/socialism-for-the-rich/campaigns fire up and get serious
ith the “S” word..
Not to worry……we have heard the “S” word more in the last month than in 10 years and we will hear it a lot more as the campaigns fire up and the election gets more serious.
 
Try to remember that there is NO blueprint for a socialist society….so the talk of socialism by the GOP and their master, Trump are just cowards running scared.
 
The GOP is still living in the 1950s and any progress will be equated with the “S” word…..equated falsely I might add.

Libya On My Mind

The magic land of Libya in North Africa has been a continuing sad story since the death of Qaddafi……and it seldom gets any better than all out war.

Recently the warlord of the East, Haftar has decided he will try for total control of the country…..

After years of sabre-rattling, eastern Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar ordered his troops on Thursday to march on the capital Tripoli, escalating a conflict with the internationally recognised government.

Seeking to encircle the capital his forces approached from south and west, seizing one town south of the city before stopping for the night some 60 km (37 miles) south of Tripoli, eastern officials said.

The offensive marked a dramatic escalation of a power struggle that has dragged on in Libya since the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-libya-security/eastern-libyan-commander-orders-forces-to-move-on-tripoli-idUKKCN1RG0S9

The incident and the likely of all out war has prompted the US to remove our people…..

The United States has temporarily withdrawn some of its forces from Libya due to “security conditions on the ground,” a top military official said Sunday as a Libyan commander’s forces advanced toward the capital of Tripoli and clashed with rival militias. A small contingent of American troops has been in Libya in recent years, helping local forces combat Islamic State and al-Qaeda militants, as well as protecting diplomatic facilities, per the AP. “The security realities on the ground in Libya are growing increasingly complex and unpredictable,” said Marine Corps Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, the head of US Africa Command. “Even with an adjustment of the force, we will continue to remain agile in support of existing US strategy.” He didn’t provide details on the number of US troops that have been withdrawn or how many remain in the country.

The self-styled Libyan National Army, led by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, launched a surprise offensive against the capital last week, a move that could potentially drag the country back into civil war. Libya has been gripped by unrest since the 2011 uprising that overthrew and killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi. In recent years, the country has been governed by rival authorities in the east and in Tripoli, in the west, each backed by various armed groups. Fayez al-Sarraj, head of the government in Tripoli, accused Haftar of “betraying” him. Haftar is seeking to capture the capital and seize military control of the whole country before UN-sponsored talks due to start next week; those talks were designed to set a time frame for possible elections in the oil-rich country. The two sides reported at least 35 people, including civilians, had been killed since Thursday.

The US is putting all its apples in one basket…..the basket of CIA asset Gen. Hafter.

Libyan National Army (LNA) head Khalifa Hafter, who is in the process of attacking the capital city of Tripoli for at least the third time since 2014, is reportedly being pushed by the US government for a bigger role in official Libyan affairs. This could include making him the head of the actual Libyan military, instead of just the one he pieced together himself.

Hafter has a long history in Libya, participating in the 1969 Gadhafi coup, finding himself part of a CIA-funded rebel force in the 1980s, and has been positioning himself as a military strongman since Gadhafi’s 2011 ouster.

In 2014, Hafter ousted a parliament, and by year’s end was in the process of launching a coup of his own. In 2015 he became head of the LNA, the force loyal to the Tobruk parliament, and stopped referring to his old title of general, instead styling himself a “field marshal.” His forces have been trying to seize territory and consolidate power since, finding themselves once again moving against Tripoli, this time to remove the US and UN-backed unity government.

This latest action is ruining UN-planned conciliation talks, with officials saying no one wants to talk while Tripoli is under attack. The US sees the solution as just promoting Hafter, figuring he’ll stop attacking Tripoli if he’s part of the government that already controls it.

To be fair, Hafter’s promotion to the Tobruk parliament’s official military chief was also done at least in part to keep him from attacking their territory. That worked, as far as it goes, though Hafter has subsequently acquired substantial territory of his own, and still seems to have designs on ultimately being the military ruler of Libya, or at least as much of it as he can muster.

(antiwar.com)

Haftar has been on the payroll of the CIA since the 1980s……and now they want him to fulfill his contract with them from the days of trying to topple Qaddafi…..

Hopefully the Libyan people will decide if this asset will become supreme leader…..the CIA has done all they can to put their man in power ….now the people need to see it end.