Month: December 2019

Magical Mystery Tour

This post is about that ever elusive “Peace Plan” that has been promised by Trump and his ilk for the Middle East…in June a meeting was held (there is always a meeting being held)……

Since taking office, U.S. President Donald Trump has said he wants to strike a peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians. Details about his on-again, off-again peace plan are sparse. Washington recently unveiled the economic component of its vision, which will be discussed at the Peace to Prosperity workshop in Bahrain this week. But neither the Israeli government nor the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) will be there.

What do the countries involved think of the latest attempt to resolve one of the world’s thorniest diplomatic challenges?

https://carnegieendowment.org/2019/06/24/trump-s-middle-east-peace-plan-is-in-works.-what-does-region-think-pub-79365

Trump’s self entitled the “Deal of the Century” has been released (sort of)…….

The so-called “Deal of the Century” would see a trilateral agreement signed between Israel, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Hamas, with the establishment of a Palestinian state branded “New Palestine” on the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/international/middle-east/1576531861-report-trump-middle-east-peace-draft-supports-formation-of-new-palestine

Now that you have the details (as much as we can give the reader)……but all the optimism has come to a raging abrupt HALT…….

A bi-partisan move has put a dagger in that deal….

The United States Congress has rejected a request from the White House for $175m in funds that would go towards pushing the Trump administration’s Middle East “peace plan”.

In a bipartisan decision on Monday, lawmakers rejected having funds be set aside in the government’s 2020 budget.  

In a section devoted to the Middle East, a Congressional document stated: “The agreement does not provide $175,000,000 for a Diplomatic Progress Fund, as proposed in the House report.” 

The Trump administration’s “deal of the century” plan for the future of Israel and Palestine has faced one obstacle after another since inception, including a complete boycott by Palestinian officials. 

The plan calls for $50bn in regional investments over 10 years, with $28bn going to the Palestinian territories – the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip – as well as $7.5bn to Jordan, $9bn to Egypt and $6n for Lebanon.

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/congress-rejects-trumps-175m-request-deal-century-funding

Did you see that…BI-PARTISAN!

Oh crap!

Well “back to the drawing board” as they say……

But good news for Jared….he gets to travel on the taxpayers dime and do god knows what for this country.

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Merry Christmas–2019

It is that time again….time for the credit debt to rise while we spend spend spend to make our acquaintances happy.

Image result for merry christmas images 2019

We celebrate the birth of the founder of the Christian faith……so my gift to my readers on this day is the story of Mary and Joseph…they were the parents if you are not so sure…..

Even if you didn’t hear the Nativity story every year, you’re probably familiar with it. A girl named Mary gets pregnant by the Holy Spirit, her fiance decides to be a solid dude and be God’s kid’s stepfather, she and Joseph go to another city to get counted in a census, there’s no room at the inn, and she gives birth to the son of God (Jesus) in a stable surrounded by cute animals. Then three kings from far away, led by a giant star pointing out where Jesus is, show up with expensive gifts (followed by random shepherds with no gifts). Zoom out on a sweet scene of the holy family. They have to flee to Egypt to escape a murderous king later. But all is calm and all is bright for now.

Cool story. But the truth about the two parents at the heart of the story is often brushed aside when talking about Christianity’s main man. But whether or not you’re a person of faith, Mary and Joseph are interesting characters. The historical details and context of their time make them way more interesting than the figures carrying a staff and riding a donkey in the movies.

https://www.grunge.com/177483/the-untold-truth-of-mary-and-joseph/

This will be my only post of the day……hope all my visitors have a great day and spend time with family, fun and food….and if you are religious, faith.

Image result for merry christmas images 2019

Thanx for helping make IST a must read blog on international and national politics (at least in certain circles)…..I cannot thank you enough for your participation.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Be safe, be well.

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

‘Twas The Day Before Christmas….

Closing Thought–24Dec19

’twas the day before Christmas

and all through the blog

no one was reading

time for lots of nog.

 

visions of popularity dance in my head

But stats were something to dread

For little has been read

and I fret

while lying in bed.

 

That small voice in my head

I heard it say

maybe those readers will return another day

until they do

it must be said

Merry Christmas to all

and to all a good day

 

Peace Out….my friends.

Pro-Choice And The Dems

The Christmas countdown has begun!

Okay before we go through exercise let me state that this is only an observation into the issue of abortion….I am not advocating for one side or the other….this is only my thoughts on the whole issue of abortion from Roe v Wade to today.

My personal opinion in a full disclosure I believe that a woman has a right to her body and government should have NO say in this decision.

The Dems since the beginning have a history of dropping the ball on many issues and abortion is one of them…..

America’s pro-life movement is surging, and not just because of conservative activists—at least according to a detailed New York Times piece about the abortion rights movement’s fragmentation along political, financial, and cultural lines. “It’s really, really complicated and somewhat controversial where the pro-choice movement lost,” says a Rutgers University professor versed in abortion history. With Midwestern and Southern states passing 58 abortion restrictions over six months in 2019, many pointed to years of steady work by conservatives to win state legislatures, pressure judges, and, as the Guardian noted in June, gerrymander districts to win state legislatures. But interviews with over 50 people on the pro-choice side tell another story.

They say national pro-choice leaders had become overly confident, relying too much on President Obama’s abortion protections and assuming Hillary Clinton would win in 2016. Meanwhile, Planned Parenthood was riven by internal discord and apparently didn’t realize the funding problems faced by independent clinics, which perform some 60% of America’s abortions. By one account, pro-choice leaders in swanky New York and California zip codes had lost touch with red-state America. Now Democratic Party presidential candidates are pushing back with ardent pro-choice stands, but polling shows America is still only moderately pro-choice. “I hope they continue doing what they are doing,” says one active conservative. “We’ll run the table in 2020.” Click for the full Times piece

Dems always drop the ball matters not on the issue….they have done so with civil rights, voting rights, etc etc……they get a win and then they are satisfied and move on and leave their win vulnerable to attack from the Right….

They, the Dems, dropped the ball in yesteryear and they are still dropping it as I type.

This issue could be the “sleeper” issue of 2020……

Forget impeachment. Forget Medicare for all, global warming, and income inequality. The sleeper issue of the 2020 campaign is none of those. It is abortion — and it could tip the balance in three swing states to favor President Donald Trump.

Abortion may not be on everybody’s “hot issue” list, but it remains so for the people who head the Catholic Church in the US. And while US Catholic bishops don’t sway a huge percentage of Catholic voters, they just might influence the Catholic voters who count.

An estimated 51 million adult Catholics live in the US, about one-fifth of them in the midwest. When the bishops talk, a key group of swing voters listens: White Catholic voters helped deliver Trump victories in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin in 2016. He won these three crucial swing states by a total of fewer than 80,000 votes.

The Sleeper Issue That Could Swing the 2020 Election

I wish I could say something nice about the Dems but they leave a bunch to be desired….as the Dems of today illustrate….they are bought and sold in the political slave markets of DC.

Democrats are great with big ideas but they SUCK at the art of politics.

Enough said?

I Read I Wrote, You Know

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Does America Need A Space Force?

Not to worry…today will be a short day since Christmas Eve is all about prep for the Big Day…..

I may be one of the few bloggers that are keeping an eye on the news about a new military service, the Space Force. Many Americans are not paying attention but they will when this new force starts siphoning off funds that should go to our society to help make it strong.

In an age when tax cuts deplete the treasury quicker than in the past it would be smart to make sure this thing does not grow out of control as the DoD has done since WW2.

That said the question is….”Does America Need a Space Force?

My opinion is NO way….but there are others that have an opinion….

How quickly the Space Force develops will depend in part on the outcome of this year’s National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, which in the short term at least is focused on parallel proposals to create a “space corps” in the House or a “space command” in the Senate under the supervision of the Air Force, which may or may not be a stepping stone towards a full-fledged Space Force.

As members of the Center for International Policy’s Sustainable Defense Task Force, we have strongly urged that a Space Force not be created, because it is likely to increase bureaucratic waste, encourage the development of costly and unworkable high-tech weapons systems, and to focus attention on the further militarization of space rather than how best to cooperatively manage the risks to America’s civilian and military space assets. It is also likely to be costly—recent reporting by Bloombergindicates even the limited Space Development Agency would cost nearly $11 billion over the next 5 years.

https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2019/10/does-america-need-space-force/160475/

Defense One and I are in agreement…maybe not for the same reason but they say we do not need…I agree…..

But there are others that have opinions on this….

The war of words over how to organize the prospective space force is heating up as the likelihood of major change grows. The manner in which a space force is organized will entrench certain visions of the future over others. As I discuss in a recent report, much of the current upheaval stems from the jousting of six different schools of thought capturing different visions of what future wars will look like and the role of space in those wars. While no single person falls entirely within one school, by clarifying the distinctions between these schools, we can better understand the different visions of future war the various organizational schemes and their advocates seek to institutionalize.

So what are they?

Six Competing Visions for a Space Force

For me the venture into space militarily is a violation of the Outer Space Treaty of 1967 of which the US did sign…..http://www.unoosa.org/oosa/en/ourwork/spacelaw/treaties/introouterspacetreaty.html

After I wrote this draft it became official…Trump will get his Space Force…….

President Trump celebrated on Friday the launch of Space Force, the first new military service in more than 70 years, the AP reports. In signing the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act that includes Space Force, Trump claimed a victory for one of his top national security priorities just two days after being impeached by the House. It is part of a $1.4 trillion government spending package—including the Pentagon’s budget—that provides a steady stream of financing for Trump’s US-Mexico border fence and reverses unpopular and unworkable automatic spending cuts to defense and domestic programs. “Space is the world’s new war-fighting domain,” Trump said Friday during a signing ceremony at Joint Base Andrews just outside Washington. “Among grave threats to our national security, American superiority in space is absolutely vital. And we’re leading, but we’re not leading by enough, and very shortly we’ll be leading by a lot.”

Space Force has been a reliable applause line at Trump’s political rallies, but for the military it’s seen more soberly as an affirmation of the need to more effectively organize for the defense of US interests in space—especially satellites used for navigation and communication. Space Force is not designed or intended to put combat troops in space. Defense Secretary Mark Esper told reporters Friday, “Our reliance on space-based capabilities has grown dramatically, and today outer space has evolved into a warfighting domain of its own.” Maintaining dominance in space, he said, will now be Space Force’s mission. Instead of being its own military department, like the Navy, Army, and Air Force, the Space Force will be administered by the Secretary of the Air Force. Space Force will be the provider of forces to US Space Command, a separate organization established earlier this year as the overseer of the military’s space operations.

https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-military/2019/12/21/the-space-force-is-officially-the-sixth-military-branch-heres-what-that-means/

Just more money wasted on more adventurism!

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Closing Thought–23Dec19

I have seen, heard and rad some blatant ignorant crap, especially in the last 3 years, but this one is one of the crappiest of the lot.

I seems that in a ploy to gain a few votes from the these “progressive” Jews our president is wanting to make a religion a nation.

President Trump plans to sign an executive order Wednesday that will classify Judaism as a nationality, a move that will add teeth to federal efforts to fight anti-Semitism on college campuses. Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 bars discrimination based on race, color, or national origin but not, notes CNN, religion; those who violate that can lose out on federal funding from the Department of Education. The order will reportedly make use of International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of anti-Semitism, which covers “targeting of the state of Israel.” The New York Times reports that’s what the State Department uses, but it’s a definition that has been knocked by some as “too open-ended and sweeping.”

The AP predicts free-speech advocates will be no fans of the order, though an unnamed official says that it wasn’t the intention and the goal is not to clamp down on the boycott, divestment, sanctions movement known as BDS, which uses a boycott on the purchase of Israeli goods or the investment in Israeli companies as a means of supporting Palestine’s desire for statehood. But the head of the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights frames the order as another step in an effort to “to silence Palestinian rights activism” by, as the Times puts it, “equating opposition to Israeli treatment of Palestinians with anti-Semitism.”

What bullsh*t!

Where does it stop?

What happened to the American right of free speech?

For those mental midgets out there…..criticism of the state of Israel is NOT anti-Semitic!  This criticisms are about a fascist state and not a religion…there is a difference that even a garden slug could tell the difference if they weren’t in Congress.

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Sad News From Afghanistan

There are rumblings that a ceasefire in Afghanistan may be close to being implemented…that is the Good News.

The Bad News is that yet another American has been killed in Afghanistan…..the 20th.

An American service member was killed in combat Monday in Afghanistan, the US military said, without providing further details, while the Taliban claimed they were behind a road while the Taliban claimed they were behind a roadside bombing in northern Kunduz province that killed the US soldier. The Taliban now control or hold sway over practically half of Afghanistan but continue to stage near-daily attacks targeting Afghan and US forces, as well as government officials—even as they hold peace talks with a US envoy tasked with negotiating an end to what has become America’s longest war. Scores of Afghan civilians are also killed in the crossfire or by roadside bombs planted by militants.

Monday’s death brings the number of US deaths in Afghanistan this year to 20, the AP reports. There have also been three non-combat deaths in 2019. The statement from the military did not identify the US soldier or say where in Afghanistan the service member was killed. Shortly after the US military statement on Monday, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid tweeted that the US soldier was killed in the Chardara district in northern Kunduz province where US and Afghan forces were carrying out a joint raid. Mujahid said the insurgents had planted roadside bomb that killed the service member. He even tweeted a purported photo ID of the slain US soldier, without saying how it was obtained.

Sad news for the family at this time of the year…..Christmas may never be the same for them.

Our thoughts are with the family……and I am sorry for their loss.

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

What If Archduke Ferdinand Had Survived?

Last year we celebrated the 100 year anniversary of the end of the Great War, World War One…..

As a history buff I am always interested in this war because it was the birth place of the world we live in today.

The War began when Archduke Ferdinand of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was assassinated in Serbia in 1914…and as I like to do….a “what if”……

What if the person that started the war had not died in Serbia in 1914……

World War One was a tragedy with particularly Austrian roots, sparked by the assassination of the heir to the throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo in 1914. But could the war have been avoided if he had not been killed? And would the Austro-Hungarian Empire have survived?

Those are the questions that have been posed at a conference at the Diplomatic Academy in Vienna, which has been training diplomats since 1754.

For at least one person at the conference, the “what if?” question was personal. Maria Camilla Habsburg Lothringen, a descendant of Austria’s former royal family, says the scenario is “quite intriguing” and would have changed her family’s fate.

“We would maybe have a different position here in Austria. Maybe we would have more possessions and more responsibility in our functions.”

However she says the thought of royal responsibilities and the lack of personal freedom makes her a little “uptight”. And the war, she says, is clearly about far more than just the fate of her own family.

“World War One was such a dramatic occasion. To look back at the past and ask what went wrong and learn out of that is a very important thing.”

https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-eu-29991018

Think if the war had been avoided….think of all the millions that would have lived to old age……think about the world we may have had to live in today.

Any thoughts to share?

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

Class Dismissed!

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Turkey And The Rise Of The Ottomans?

Turkey has inserted itself into the situations and events in the Middle East not seen since the days of the Ottoman Empire…..

Their excursions into Syria….their embracing of Russia and its ambitions in the Middle East…..

I have tried to help my reader understand what I am writing about…..https://lobotero.com/2016/10/17/return-of-the-ottomans/

Nothing has changed in my opinion that Turkey is trying to seek control of the Middle East and NOrth Africa as it did in the past……

Turkey has even decided to put a military base in Libya….

With a recent military agreement between Turkey and Libya, and President Erdogan offering to intervene on behalf of the Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli, Turkey’s military is expected to set up shop in a base in Libya.

The exact location of the base is not clear, but is expected to serve as a “quick reaction force” to defend the GNA against Khalifa Hafter’s Libyan National Army (LNA) if requested.

Turkey’s initial interest in the deal was naval exploration for oil and gas. Erdogan also has ideological reasons to support the GNA, which has Muslim Brotherhood ties. Those ties are a big reason for Gulf Arab states to oppose them and back the LNA’s attempted coup.

Not everyone is on board. The opposition CHP in Turkey are objecting, asking what the purpose of Turkey’s involvement in Libya is, adding that they still aren’t clear why Turkey invaded northern Syria either.

(antiwar.com)

CIA operative, Gen Haftar, is seeking support for his move to control the country of Libya……and it appears as if Turkey is willing to help and in doing so would extend Turkish influence throughout the region they once controlled.

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”