Author: lobotero

I have been a radical, labor organizer, writer, lecturer, teacher, analyst, political activist , convention delegate and I still have my sanity--who knew?

Turkey And The End Of NATO

Turkey was in the news every hour for about a week and then something new took over the headlines……but Turkey is still doing its best to destroy NATO of which they are a member.

Seems to me that Turkey is trying to revive the Ottoman experience…..a subject that I wrote my observations about a couple of years ago……https://lobotero.com/2016/10/17/return-of-the-ottomans/

My intel tells me of a plan by Turkey to attack Armenia…..

Turkey planned a military operation against Armenia code-named ALTAY, according to a secret memo that reported missing pages from classified documents which detailed action plan.

The internal memo, submitted to the General Staff and a copy of which was obtained by Nordic Monitor, stated that the plan was still valid.

According to the memo, dated May 23, 2016 and presented to the General Staff by the Directorate of Operations, some of the pages that included air strike operations against Armenia called OĞUZTÜRK Hava Harekât Planı (OĞUZTÜRK Air Operation Plan) had gone missing. The discovery was made during a review of the plans at the Controlled Documents Bureau by the 4th Main Jet Base Command at Ankara’s Akıncı Air Base. A legal investigation was launched into the incident.

Turkey planned military action against Armenia

I made a bold statement that Turkey was out to dismantle NATO…..they would ignore Article 5 of the NATO charter…..by their stand on the Baltics….

Since their invasion of Syria, Turkey has been something of an outlier within NATO. Some nations are openly criticizing them for the attack, and some suggesting expelling Turkey from NATO outright, though no mechanism exists for doing that.

During this week’s meeting, Turkey’s President Erdogan looked to create a major potential obstacle to one major focus, the NATO military buildup in the Baltic States to “defend” against Russia. Erdogan threatened to block this plan entirely if the alliance doesn’t announce that they view the Syrian Kurds’ YPG as terrorists.

Erdogan insists he wants NATO’s help in fighting the Kurds, and has threatened to object to everything NATO does at the summit if they don’t agree to focus on the terrorists. This demand is almost certainly a non-starter, but if Erdogan follows through, it precludes any unanimous votes.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg appeared dismissive of the whole matter, saying that NATO’s entire alliance will respond militarily to any attacks of the Baltic countries.

DMs from Estonia and Lithuania, two of the Baltic states, were even more dismissive, calling the Turkish position a “second-tier problem” that will be easy to sort out.

(antiwar.com)

Now in my mind this is where NATO will fall apart…..if one member is attacked will the rest come to the rescue?

I think NOT!

Armenia is not a NATO member but it is a cooperating partner to several initiatives…..does that give Armenia protection from attack by a NATO member?

Good question.

I brought up Article 5 of the NATO Charter….so explain please…..

Article 5 is at the basis of a fundamental principle of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It provides that if a NATO Ally is the victim of an armed attack, each and every other member of the Alliance will consider this act of violence as an armed attack against all members and will take the actions it deems necessary to assist the Ally attacked.

This is the principle of collective defense.

https://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/what-is-article-5-of-nato%E2%80%99s-founding-treaty

Granted it originally was intended for protection from the USSR…..is it still viable today?

https://www.history.com/news/nato-article-5-meaning-history-world-war-2

So many questions and in this world of chaos will the NATO Charter be tested?

I say it is only a matter of time…..for the original charter is obsolete in this new world we are creating.

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Closing Thought–05Dec19

We hear daily by Trump sycophants…my bad….supporters tell the country and the world that the Dems have nothing on their minds but the impeachment of this president…..in my opinion he needs to go for he thinks he is above the law and that flies into the face of everything this country stands for…..

According to the GOP the Dems have done nothing this session but demand and frame the president …..well if that is true…..then you are listening to bullshit.

There’s a pervasive sense of legislative paralysis gripping Capitol Hill. And it’s been there long before the impeachment inquiry began.

For months, President Donald Trump has fired off tweet missives accusing House Democrats of “getting nothing done in Congress,” and being consumed with impeachment.

Trump may want to look to the Republican-controlled Senate instead. Democrats in the House have been passing bills at a rapid clip; as of November 15, the House has passed nearly 400 bills, not including resolutions. But the House Democratic Policy and Communications Committee estimates 80 percent of those bill have hit a snag in the Senate, where Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is prioritizing confirming judges over passing bills.

Congress has passed just 70 bills into law this year. Granted, it still has one more year in its term, but the number pales in comparison to recent past sessions of Congress, which typically see 300-500 bills passed in two years (and that is even a diminished number from the 700-800 bills passed in the 1970s and 1980s).

https://www.vox.com/2019/11/29/20977735/how-many-bills-passed-house-democrats-trump

Apparently we do NOT pay these elected officials to do the hard work of government but rather we pay them to suck up to a dictator and pervert the process of justice.

Again not my idea of a proper government that was suppose to be all about “by the people, for the people”……we have become a cancerous society that needs to make its mind…do we let lawless assholes run the country or do we take back the government that belongs to us…not Citibank or Putin or anyone else.

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I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Battles That Changed History

I am a student of war or conflict if you like and I am always looking at the consequences and the results of conflicts throughout history……I ran across an article about the 5 most influential battles in history…..

We take certain things in history for granted: Western civilization’s ancient Greek origins, Rome’s stunning domination of the world for hundreds of years or the democracies which have sprung up all over the world etc.

But the things that seem natural now in retrospect (ancient Greek city-states’ progressive concepts, Rome’s pragmatism and efficiency which also translated to the military plane, democracy’s widespread adoption), might not have happened at all!

Because the fate of millions and humanity as a whole can be altered irrevocably by the actions of a small group of individuals or even just one individual. For example, there is a very strong possibility that Nazi Germany would have won the war if it had not chosen to invade Russia, a decision made by Hitler and a handful of his closest that resulted in crippling economic and political consequences for his regime, along with one of the most disastrous military campaign in history.

So, keeping in mind the many alternate histories that could have easily replaced the one we currently have and cling to, a look at 5 world defining historical battles should prove interesting, as regards what would have happened if they had gone the other way.

5 World Defining Historical Battles

I agree these battles are important but I think there are a couple more that should have been included…..

I think the Battle of Ain Jalut…..in modern day Middle East when the forces of the Mamlukes defeated the Mongols in 1260…..http://factsanddetails.com/asian/cat65/sub423/item2692.html

This battle stopped the spread of the khanate Eastward.

My second choice is the Battle of Britain in 1941 which as most of us know the Nazis failed to bring Great Britain to her knees in World War 2….

Anyone care to add any battles that I may have missed?

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

P.S.  Something a little extra……Iraq has been the center of conflict for 5000 years……

Starting with one of the first civilizations….Sumer…..

By 3000 BC, the Sumerians had developed into the earliest civilization of Mesopotamia. The societies were organized into city-states, which warred constantly over the control of water. Two of these, Lagash and Umma, sat 18 miles apart and feuded for generations over the fertile region known as Gu’edena. In 2525, King Eannatum of Lagash defeated Umma using armored soldiers in phalanx formations, and also chariots pulled by onagers (wild asses), an invention frequently credited to the Sumerians. How do we know of this battle? It was recorded by the king on a stone monument, “the Stele of the Vultures.”

https://www.livescience.com/11314-top-10-battles-control-iraq.html

Be Smart!

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Class Dismissed!

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Judiciary Impeachment Hearing–Day One

I watch this stuff so my readers does not have to…..they will thank me in the long run.

The whole impeachment thing has gone from the Intel Committee to the Judiciary……the report released by the Intel to lead the way…..https://lobotero.com/2019/12/04/lets-go-to-the-house-impeachment-report/

A summary of the day’s theatrics….

  • The Constitution lays out somewhat vague standards for presidential impeachment. Look for much discussion about the passage at issue: “The President, Vice President, and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.” How Nadler’s committee applies those words and ideas to the Intelligence Committee report will determine the fate of Trump’s presidency.
  • As for the sentiment going into the hearing, Kathryn Krawczyk puts it like so at the Week: “President Trump either did everything wrong or not much at all, depending on who you ask.” Four constitutional lawyers will testify today: for the Democrats, Noah Feldman of Harvard Law School, Michael Gerhardt of the University of North Carolina School of Law, and Pamela Karlan of Stanford Law School; for the GOP, Jonathan Turley of George Washington University, reports Politico. You can read their opening statements here.
  • Gerhardt said Trump’s actions have been “worse than the misconduct of any prior president.” He also offered what the Washington Post calls one of the day’s most “memorable lines” thus far: “I just want to stress that if what we’re talking about is not impeachable, then nothing is impeachable. This is precisely the misconduct that the framers created a Constitution including impeachment to protect against.” He also argued if Trump ends up getting a “pass,” future presidents will have a green light to imitate his actions.
  • The Hill reports Feldman referenced the afterlife: “Someday we will no longer be alive, and we will go wherever it is we go, the good place, or the other place, and we may meet there [James] Madison and [Alexander] Hamilton, and they will ask us, when the president of the United States acted to corrupt the structure of the Republic, what did you do? Our answer to that question must be that we followed the guidance of the framers, and it must be that if the evidence supports that conclusion that the House of Representatives move to impeach him.”
  • Turley hammered home what he sees as flawed timing in his opening statement. “This impeachment would stand out among modern impeachments as the shortest proceeding, with the thinnest evidentiary record, and the narrowest grounds ever used to impeach a president.” The Guardian reports he later said, “Fast is not good for impeachment. Fast and narrow impeachments have failed,” and later, “If you rush this impeachment, you’re going to leave half the country behind. This is not an impulse buy item.”
  • At CNN, Chris Cillizza called Turley a “very good witness for the GOP,” noting that his explanation at the beginning that he didn’t vote for Trump and didn’t agree with Trump’s view that his July 25 call with Ukraine’s president was “perfect” served to make “his insistence stronger that there wasn’t enough evidence yet to impeach Trump and that the whole process would be better if everyone slowed down, took a deep breath and thought of the ramifications of their actions.”
  • The Hill reports Karlan didn’t stick with her script. In her opening remarks she took GOP Rep. Doug Collins to task for suggesting that today’s witnesses wouldn’t have read the 300-page report or all of the witness transcripts. She addressed the committee’s top Republican by name, saying “Mr. Collins … I read transcripts of every one of the witnesses who appeared in the live hearing, because I would not speak about these things without reviewing the facts, so I’m insulted by the suggestion that as a law professor I don’t care about those facts.”
  • Karlan also mentioned the president’s 13-year-old son, Barron, after she was asked about the framers’ fears of a monarchy taking hold in the US. “Kings could do no wrong, because the king’s word was law,” she explained, but “contrary to what President Trump has said, Article II does not give him the power to do anything he wants. The Constitution says there can be no titles of nobility. So while the President can name his son Barron, he can’t make him a baron.” Melania Trump was not pleased: “A minor child deserves privacy and should be kept out of politics,” the first lady tweeted. “Pamela Karlan, you should be ashamed of your very angry and obviously biased public pandering, and using a child to do it.”
  • The AP reports Republicans on the Judiciary Committee have used their five-minute allotments to criticize the impeachment process and defend Trump, rather than ask questions of the law professors. Louie Gohmert of Texas complained the committee hasn’t had enough time to review the House Intelligence Committee’s report on impeachment; Ohio Rep. Steve Chabot called the impeachment process a partisan exercise and said impeachment pushed by Democrats is inevitable because they don’t like Trump.
  • As for Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz, he used his time to criticize Karlan, who he noted has donated to Democrats in the past, CNN reports. He painted her as a liberal elite with a “contempt” of conservatives, and asked her about an appearance she made affiliated with a podcast called Versus Trump. During the event, he said, she had joked that conservatives spread out geographically “perhaps because they don’t even want to be around themselves.” Of her mention of Barron, he said, “when you try to make a little joke out of referencing Barron Trump, that does not lend credibility to your argument. It makes you look mean. It makes you look like you’re attacking someone’s family. The minor child of the president of the United States.” He did not give her time to respond.
  • GOP Rep. Tom McClintock followed that up by asking the four professors who they voted for in the 2016 presidential election. Karlan protested; ultimately none of the witnesses raised their hands when asked if they voted for Trump, but Feldman said, “Not raising our hands is not an indication of an answer, sir.”

That is day one…..I think it was a good idea for the law professors to talk since the whole process of impeachment has been so clouded with bullshit that it needed to be clarified for the Congresspeople….they have spent many months of obfuscation….the professors were a needed touch.

Now on to day two and the process continues……

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I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

The Magic That Is Bloomberg

The newest billionaire to enter into the Dem process to pick the nominee is Bloomberg.

And as usual our president has to take to Twitter to insult his opponents and a fellow billionaire is no exception…

With Michael Bloomberg in the 2020 race, Bloomberg News reporters are out. That’s the upshot of an announcement from the Trump 2020 campaign, which says it will not provide credentials to any journalists from the news outlet who are seeking to cover Trump campaign events. Axios reports the decision comes after Bloomberg News Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait updated the newsroom policy for the duration of the primary season to “not investigating Mike (and his family and foundation)” per its longtime approach, and would “extend the same policy” to the other 2020 Democratic contenders. The Trump administration, however, would still be treated as fair game as is it “the government of the day.”

A statement from campaign manager Brad Parscale on Bloomberg News’ “troubling and wrong” decision reads in part, “As President Trump’s campaign, we are accustomed to unfair reporting practices, but most news organizations don’t announce their biases so publicly. Presented with this new policy from Bloomberg News, our campaign was forced to determine how to proceed.” He says the campaign’s policy won’t change until “Bloomberg News publicly rescinds its decision.” Fox News reports Micklethwait had this response: “The accusation of bias couldn’t be further from the truth. We have covered Donald Trump fairly and in an unbiased way since he became a candidate in 2015 and will continue to do so despite the restrictions imposed by the Trump campaign.”

All his, Trump’s, nastiness and insults have done little to tamp down the Bloomberg machine….actually after the Trump Tweets and a massive ad campaign Bloomberg has risen to 5% in the polls well two polls for now……

Michael Bloomberg hasn’t been able to buy frontrunner status in the Democratic race, but his massive advertising spend hasn’t gone entirely to waste, according to two new polls. A Hill/HarrisX poll puts the former New York City mayor at 6% among likely Democratic and Democratic-leaning independent voters, ahead of Kamala Harris but behind Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Pete Buttigieg. A Morning Consult poll has Bloomberg at 5%, which puts him in a tie for fifth place with Harris. The bump comes after a $30 million ad spend in the space of a week, believed to be the biggest in presidential primary history, though New York notes that Bloomberg still has the highest unfavorability rating in the field at 29%, according to Morning Consult.

This all just shows me that money can purchase a lot of support…..so is it possible for a candidate to buy the nomination?

Right now it would appear so.

I read, I Wrote, You Know

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Is NATO Brain Dead?

Before I go into my post….I have written stuff about Trump that his die hard supporters have taken exception to but I have also written on several occasions where I have agreed with him on some issues and those times are forgotten because those that do just want to hate anyone that criticizes His Royal Person, Trump.

Awhile back Trump stated that he thought NATO was obsolete….just a reminder for my Trump “friends” here on the web…..

https://lobotero.com/2018/07/10/say-adios-to-nato/

https://lobotero.com/2016/12/05/the-uselessness-of-nato/

https://lobotero.com/2019/04/17/is-nato-dying/

(I do not know why I post reference material for few use them…but I still believe that I need to give them to show that I say is what I wrote)

Now recently the president of France has said that NATO is brain dead…..

In early November, French president Emmanuel Macron complained that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is experiencing “brain death” as its member states go their own ways, with “no coordination whatsoever of strategic decision-making.” US president Donald Trump’s reply: “Nobody needs NATO more than France.” The two continued their duel over NATO’s future at an early December meeting of the alliance’s members in London.

Unfortunately, 2019 Trump isn’t nearly as smart as 2016 Trump, who noted that “NATO is obsolete.” In fact, became obsolete 25 years before Trump called the fact to our attention. The Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact – the two enemies NATO was supposedly formed to protect Europe from – dissolved in 1991.

NATO Is a Brain Dead, Obsolete, Rabid Dog. Euthanize It.

NATO was a good idea back during the Cold War…it was conceived for the protection of Western Europe from attack by the USSR…..and since the fall of the USSR the organization has morphed from a defensive posture to that of an offensive one…think the Balkans, Libya, Afghanistan, et al…..

Then during the 2018 election cycle candidate Trump used the three words that gave me hope for the future (not enough hope to have voted for him)…..”NATO Is Obsolete”……

The three smartest words that Donald Trump uttered during his presidential campaign are “NATO is obsolete.” His adversary, Hillary Clinton, retorted that NATO was “the strongest military alliance in the history of the world.” Now that Trump has been in power, the White House parrots the same worn line that NATO is “the most successful Alliance in history, guaranteeing the security, prosperity, and freedom of its members.” But Trump was right the first time around: Rather than being a strong alliance with a clear purpose, this 70-year-old organization that is meeting in London on December 4 is a stale military holdover from the Cold War days that should have gracefully retired many years ago.

Trump Was Right Before He Was Wrong: NATO Should Be Obsolete

I had hope he would do the right thing with NATO instead he now defends NATO against the criticism of Macron…

I regret that I gave him the benefit of the doubt back in 2016.  I follow the old saying “Actions speak louder than words”….so far on foreign policy Trump has been nothing but an overweight bag of hot air.

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Closing Thought–04Dec19

I recently wrote a post about the president inserting himself into the military justice system by pardoning some convicted war criminals…..read it for yourself…..https://lobotero.com/2019/11/25/messing-with-the-military/

Now that he has successfully crapped all over the UCMJ he wants to use his actions to help him with his election with the military and those fake patriots that say they support them.

If Donald Trump gets his wish, he’ll soon take the three convicted or accused war criminals he spared from consequence on the road as special guests in his re-election campaign, according to two sources who have heard Trump discuss their potential roles for the 2020 effort.

Despite military and international backlash to Trump’s Nov. 15 clemency—fallout from which cost Navy Secretary Richard Spencer his job on Sunday—Trump believes he has rectified major injustices. Two people tell The Daily Beast they’ve heard Trump talk about how he’d like to have the now-cleared Clint Lorance, Matthew Golsteyn, or Edward Gallagher show up at his 2020 rallies, or even have a moment on stage at his renomination convention in Charlotte next year. Right-wing media have portrayed all three as martyrs brought down by “political correctness” within the military.

“He briefly discussed making it a big deal at the convention,” said one of these sources, who requested anonymity to talk about private conversations. “The president made a reference to the 2016 [convention] and where they brought on-stage heroes” like former Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell, who refused to execute detained civilians ahead of a devastating Taliban attack.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-tells-allies-he-wants-absolved-war-criminals-to-campaign-for-him

This nothing but a political stunt trying to win favor with the military…the same military that he plays games with….with their funds and with their lives.

Waiting for one of the GOP faithful that pretend every election that they have the military’s back for them and screw over them the first chance they get.  You want to call someone traitor then look NO further than the GOP.

As I have written before…..Trump needs to keep his grubby LITTLE hands off the UCMJ…..it has worked for over 200 years it does not need anything but to be left alone.

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“Lego Ergo Scribo”