MSNBC, CNN, FOX, CNBC, CBS, ABC, all abysmal news sources which is why we read Juan Cole, Drudge, Diplopundit, Guardian, Der Spiegel, Tomdispatch. Thanks Juan!
Well, he didn't ask anything about NSA or Snowden being nominated for Nobel Peace Prize and who else has brought up what Gen. Carter Ham said he told Panetta while Benghazi was in progress. Obama was totally 'out of town' on the Obamacare questions. Much better interview than done by the CNN guy.
Brian: I agree with you in that any US soldier in Afghanistan has to be baffled what the mission is. Karzai has always been treated as a total puppet by the US while we tried one useless military/political strategy after another. I don't think Karzai ever supported any of them and I think he was right not to.
Getting the US out of Afghanistan and Pakistan as well may be the next good step for them to take. Iran is more important to Afghanistan's future than we are.
Keith Alexander and his deputy at NSA retiring. Looks like Snowden kind of spoiled his love for the job.. That and the fact President Obama wants to 'reform' the place so it's more user friendly.
I guess Iraq was even more successful than Rwanda at destroying lives and US soldiers.
Great post Juan! I had no idea oil production had dropped by 85% and (is this true?) 2/3rds of Libyans have left the country since the overthrow? link to voltairenet.org
Gregg: Your post got me thinking. Berlesconi couldn't bring down Italy's government so now he supports it. He is their most popular politician trying to save his power.
Obama is USA's most popular politician. He's famous for Obamacare and continuing Bush policies on bankers, secrecy, war, unlimited debt, unlimited spending. This is the perfect time and issue for the republicans to try to destroy Obama and wreck the economy for next years election. I think there is big money behind this power play and the object is to get big concessions for raising the debt limit.
Juan It would be good if your readers were aware of NSA'S
'Total Domination Center' so they could realize how many of their elected representatives absolutely love this sort of thing. The media loves it too so they will never mention it but I think it is the most impactful revelation so far of Glenn Greenwald.
This is a good report as now everyone realizes these soviet weapons used were very effective against civilians in massive quantities. Also it prevented any evidence of sarin being provided to the rebels being uncovered officially.
The problem with the "use of force" approval by congress is that it cannot be effectively limited. Remember when Clinton got approval for Kosovo the public was told over and over that the troops would be home by Christmas. I'm still waiting. (And yesterdays massacre was carried out with a Remington shotgun. No need to buy an AR-15 when you are only going to use it once and your target already has one. Anyone who reads thrillers knows you don't need to buy weapons.)
One byproduct of Wolf Blitzer's (and all the rest) rush to war in Syria is that NSA has not been mentioned on tv for several weeks. Snowden's revelations have been banned from discussion. When Obama was confronted by questions about spying on Mexico and Brazil's leaders he acted like he'd barely heard about it but was defending it nevertheless.
Besides.. All those NSA documents are classified so Shhhh!!
Bill: This article is important. Illustrating how complicated things get. NaFl is essential for fluoridating a water supply, making aluminum window frames and also making sarin gas.
This played a role in the 8 hr debate in the house of commons as did a number of other things revealed by Snowden. You won't see anything like this kind of open debate in the US congress because nothing is declassified that the NSA doesn't want declassified... so you can't talk about it even if it's published in the UK press.
So maybe you can mix sarin gas in with other gases in the field or maybe you just throw in sarin shells with tear gas shells?? The other thing that won't be mentioned is what the
hell is Saudi Arabia and Prince Bandar doing for us or to us? It's time to put the screws to our representatives!!
Reminds me of Jake Tapper today asking State Dept. Spokeswoman: "Is the terror alert still in effect."?
Ans: "That is a day to day determination."
Tapper: "I take note of the fact you did not answer the question."
My take: Tapper would love to ask tough questions but CNN won't let him. So can we get back to important things like Trayvon, gay marriage and a movie about Hillary?
I think this is a really good and timely post.
Yesterday ended the Egypt revolution. What I would like to hear about is what has been the role of US
policy in this? What should it have been? Who is in charge of it? To me it has been incoherent from the time of Obama's Cairo speech and bent badly toward Isreal.
It now seems that among those paying no attention to the US are Libya, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Syria, Russia, Pakistan. Thanks!
Antony: I just read "Pirate Latitudes" by Michael Crichton. It was a great read about how all that worked in 1665 with all the class, religious and cultural twists and turns well portrayed.
Great post Juan! And thanks for putting health care at the top. That is just one more area where Ron Paul made the best case against Obama. And Fukushima is another great example. Why worry about nuclear warheads when you can have strontium 90 in the whole food chain?
John: I've been a follower of Juan since the beginning and I think his point today about Obama's political state of mind is a good one. Obama would never have gotten re-elected if he had stood up to the military. He has never had a discouraging deed regarding the bankers or the secret government conglomerate. They have all gotten away with 'murder', so to speak. If we had elected Hillary or Mitt I think we would be exactly where we are today. They all would have played it the same way and gotten re-elected.
I think Hillary's poll numbers would be a lot lower though.
That is an excellent essay. In addition though, President Obama has to deal with a public that is not very savy and totally divided by the media. Note that 50% of Chicago HS
graduates cannot read a bus schedule and in California people will sign a petition for anything if you preface it with "Would you please help President Obama?" eg cut health costs by euthanizing old people, eliminate the bill of rights etc. link to prisonplanet.com We are now in the hands of a
'Committee of Experts'!
Here is what a long time state department employee said about this post.
The Bengahzi Syndrome seems to be bipartisan, so I agree the Republicans aren't solely to blame. Anyway, these embassies closures mean the buildings are closed to the public, not necessarily closed for diplomatic business. I'm pretty sure we continue to maintain relations, deliver aid, do negotiations, etc., despite being 'closed.'
Jack: Did you wonder what happened to the Grayson hearing with the house democratic caucus scheduled for past Wed?
This post is really well written. link to nakedcapitalism.com
Wait til those Frau Merkel fans find out about this! link to abcnews.go.com
And Dianne Feinstein should stick to judging San Diego mayors after they are already cooked. Big NSA hearing this week!
Zealot reflects my own views about Christianity (I'm only half way thru it) which is that Jesus was all about upsetting the evil order of his day... slavery, torture,taxation, mass slaughter,indifference by the corrupt elites. That's why I have never understood how most all Christian churches have always endorsed our wars, torture, imperialism
pedophilia etc. The history is essential to understanding Jesus and those who wrote about him.
Well said Juan! You should also mention Sen. Ron Wyden's speech last week where he pointed out that NSA has a public
FISA law you can read and a secret interpretation of that law that no one is allowed to discuss... that they deny exists. The debate was excellent! It was FEAR vs THE 4TH! The media seems to be afraid to touch it. The 2014 campaign has begun!
Good Post Juan! and the the one about the EU being fed up with Isreal as well. I love it when Robert Fisk decides to unload on what passes for US Middle East policy.
link to independent.co.uk
Now we arrive in the Middle East as smiling supplicants, blessing any “people’s change” (unless it is any monarchical autocracy of the Gulf)
That was really interesting news Tahar. Before reading that I was convinced there was a real fuel crisis in Egypt. It seems that Egyptian 'business' is run by a very small circle of monopolists who prefer having the military in charge. The big chunk of $$$ just given by Qatar ($12 billion) will probably disappear pretty fast into corrupt hands. I see a big civil war looming. Too many young, illiterate men with no jobs and no food.
Thanks Juan! That is a good response to the Al Jazeera article. Maybe the Snowden revelations have 'muddled my mush'... I know I always find myself searching the foreign papers for ANY idea about what is going on because it is fun and interesting. This is always my first stop of the day.
Juan: Is there any evidence the NSA is accountable to anyone?
(I think the 1977 investigation suggested it was already pretty much doing anything it wanted.) The 'media' may be in the bag for Obama but I can't see where any Republican candidate would have done anything different with regard to the wars being waged by the NSA. (except R.Paul who was easily erased by the media.) If things get bad enough in the US the next couple years (maybe some stuxnet-like disaster) the top candidate for president might be a former NSA DIRECTOR with 'Big Sis' for Veep?
Sure Castellio: Bob Schieffer said last Sunday that CBS had no control over who appeared on their Sunday show. CNN admitted that their coverage of the Turkey riots were at the whim of Erdogan. Many of those same political regulars on the air day after day have now discovered that the military has all their personal info and have to play ball with the NSA to get on TV. It is a YES SIR!! mentality that keeps them saluting and in power. C-Span is polluted with think tankers who just say the same stuff over and over. It is time to start some boycotts... how about against arsenic and growth hormone in your chicken?
Juan: Great Post! So was the one about Cheney, Field Marshal Rumsfeld and Snowden. Shouldn't you mention government control of the the press as part of a police state?
Juan: Your tax dollars at work! Who says we haven't increased spending on education? Have you heard from these guys yet? link to guardian.co.uk
exerpts: It also calls for "traffic mixing", blending the persona controllers' internet usage with the usage of people outside Centcom in a manner that must offer "excellent cover and powerful deniability". (I'm sending this to Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin AND Rachel Madcow!)
Since the Chinese hacked into NSA and almost everyone else and took whatever they wanted isn't it just as likely they leaked this stuff to the Guardian? Also, $80 billion a year is lot of money... It kind of makes the sequester look puny.
Also, that back pack terrorist threat for NYC was actually uncovered by Scotland Yard, not PRISM.
I saw a number of videos of the Isreali missile strike near Damascus. It appeared that a huge military complex about 15 miles long was targeted. At the end of about 90 seconds there was a massive explosion leaving the whole place in flaming ruins. To me that doesn't jibe with a missile convoy.
I think one reason for federal 'proppping up' of the oil companies might be that the 'real economy' here has gotten so bad that retail sales of all energy products (gasoline, propane, heating oil etc) have reached levels not seen since 1997! Likewise, China electricity production has been plummeting, pointing to big economic problems there too. link to zerohedge.com
Juan: The explanation is easy. The Bush WH official who said:"We create our own reality" (in Iraq)was giving away the secret. I saw Gen. Allen answering Afghanistan questions on C-Span. In every answer he appeared to be gazing at the power point presentation in his head as he droned on for 5 minutes leading to the conclusion that Kabul will be secure by Jan 2015. Then he would conclude by saying: "I hope I didn't leave anything out."
He did, at one point indicate that whether the Afghans would fight the Taliban after we're gone remains to be seen.
No mention of $$$, corruption, elections,air support, drugs.
Just create your own reality Juan. And then repeat, repeat, repeate!! Once everyone is asleep just thank them and bow!
Very good post Juan: It sounds like the pope's main reservation about Islam is that they need a pope. He probably would have loved to condemn exploitation of women and young boys but that would have been awkward.
Great post: Re #7-civilian casualties in single digits? Isn't DiFi excluding Af-Pak? And aren't insurgent aged males excluded along with household members and guests of targets? That's why we have lawyers redefining words like civilian.
Very good Juan! (Don't forget folks, Juan himself admits that he couldn't do this without his talent for typing faster than he can think..amazing how few typos.)
To me, all this legal stuff is simply "word-smithing" to accomodate what our foreign policy has been since after WWII. We think our job is to control the world and we therefore are entitled to devise whatever means we want to do that. The best recent example of that was HRC's battle with the WH over what to do with Syria. She wanted to supply arms directly that would tip the balance and bring down Assad so we could step in and ensure that our friends would be in the new "stability" created. That was rejected but look at the outcome. She is a world wide rock star. A more sensible approach from her would have gained her nothing. The voters simply don't care what we do as long as the purpose is to eliminate "bad guys". "Say one thing, do another" is so simple.. So effective!
Yes.. The Americans. So big! So predictable! So divided! Any stupid statement gets a 50% response and 3 days of air time. And the Iraq article was great. Thanks!
Rachel Maddow pointed out that should all of that nice stuff discussed today fall apart Obama will be able to look back and say he had announced the end of both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars in his 1st term.
I think it is also true that the Russians said pretty much the same things when they announced they were leaving. They left enough weapons and ammunition that the Afghan government was able to fight on for a couple years. I think most of the "russian advisors" were talking by telephone during that time. Isn't it interesting how the critical military weapons there haven't changed in 30 years? (Apache gun ships, CH-47 helicopter, RPG, AK-47, C-130, Toyota Hilux trucks, opium $$$)
Great post Juan! Tonite Piers Morgan did emphasize the 9,000 gun deaths repeatedly. Also, don't forget that today's shooter was reportedly autistic/learning disabled.
Mental health for someone like him is "funded" by the states and has not been a priority for 40 years.
I suspect that his mom did the best she could for him (which included buying all the weapons) but was woefully incapable of helping him. There will be lots more of these as long half the country thinks this is a war against sportsmen.
Bill: I've been reading Anne Applebaum's new book about how the Russians imposed the iron curtain after WWII. Their emphasis from 1945 til Stalin's death was imposing central control over youth groups in E. Europe. By 1950 the only thing young people knew was commie propaganda..and it was very effective for many more years. She was able to draw on many original documents and letters from the time.
Great post Juan! I like Morsi's independance and I'm for the young people of Egypt. Stalin said:"Who owns the young people owns the future."...and got 50years out of that. The young people will have to learn the game and hopefully they will win the future in a few years. That was interesting about the Iranian constitution of 100 years ago.
Great reporting Juan!
"President Obama is said to have called him for the third time in 24 hours on Tuesday!" (11/21)
Maybe Obama, the constitutional lawyer, should call him again and explain "signing statements" to him. That way you can grab power and the public doesn't know about it til later.
Juan: It looks like Morsi is adapting "extrajudicial" "extra-constitutional" from his USA mentors. Do you think we can be critical of these moves when we seem to have taken the same steps ourselves?
The Daily Telegraph showed a picture of Isreali tanks shelling gaza during yesterday daylight. (how accurate is that?) The story was taken down later after Hillary Clinton had arrived. Reminds me of Syria.
Thanks Juan! I thought doing anything the Atty General and the White House want and destroying people with opposing views was what the FBI was all about. And isn't this the prime example of how easy it is for Google to produce your emails? It will be interesting to see if anyone has a civil rights lawsuit from this because if these generals have no civil rights certainly the rest of us have none either.
You don't think this was a political assassination orchestrated by Hillary ?
Juan: Aren't you forgetting one important element?: a government that can gain the support of the people. I don't know where a US installed government has any credibility anymore.... Ok, Grenada!
Juan: That's a great domestic wish list but as Studs Terkel said: "Hope dies last."... in other words we didn't hear anything from Obama about change. How about your foreign policy wish list! This year I'm with the 90 million voters and Ron Paul who said: I can't support the status quo.
Juan, it is easy to make the case that Obama has the edge on Romney/Ryan on foreign policy knowledge and experience. Tom Engelhardt makes a really great case that Obama's has been an administration of "managers" who failed to understand the basic changes taking place in the world. Instead they set about to manage the "Bush Legacy".
As far as whether this foreign policy will blow up in their faces he marvels at Obama's determination to keep that from happening before November... but then what? link to tomdispatch.com
Just a reaction Juan: I would say that as wrong as it is it would not make any difference. If pay attention just a bit to CNN, MSNBC, FOX and CNBC they devote MOST of their time to discussing the candidates and the election. The discussion is the same baloney over and over... and I don't think anyone is listening judging by the ratings.
The candidates themselves are totally avoiding any serious issues. If they had 15% of the money they would be using it exactly the same way. Nir Rosen has an excellent article in Newsweek that well explains why no one will be excited about Obama. Romney is the perfect Republican candidate and this year he could fill in as the perfect Democrat if that was what was needed. Keep informing us!
If you have a need to be consistently hypocritical in order
to protect "our interests"
then your comments and actions are easy to choose.
You can always change them later if the need arises!
© 2025 All Rights Reserved
MSNBC, CNN, FOX, CNBC, CBS, ABC, all abysmal news sources which is why we read Juan Cole, Drudge, Diplopundit, Guardian, Der Spiegel, Tomdispatch. Thanks Juan!
Well, he didn't ask anything about NSA or Snowden being nominated for Nobel Peace Prize and who else has brought up what Gen. Carter Ham said he told Panetta while Benghazi was in progress. Obama was totally 'out of town' on the Obamacare questions. Much better interview than done by the CNN guy.
Brian: I agree with you in that any US soldier in Afghanistan has to be baffled what the mission is. Karzai has always been treated as a total puppet by the US while we tried one useless military/political strategy after another. I don't think Karzai ever supported any of them and I think he was right not to.
Getting the US out of Afghanistan and Pakistan as well may be the next good step for them to take. Iran is more important to Afghanistan's future than we are.
Keith Alexander and his deputy at NSA retiring. Looks like Snowden kind of spoiled his love for the job.. That and the fact President Obama wants to 'reform' the place so it's more user friendly.
I guess Iraq was even more successful than Rwanda at destroying lives and US soldiers.
Great post Juan! I had no idea oil production had dropped by 85% and (is this true?) 2/3rds of Libyans have left the country since the overthrow? link to voltairenet.org
Gregg: Your post got me thinking. Berlesconi couldn't bring down Italy's government so now he supports it. He is their most popular politician trying to save his power.
Obama is USA's most popular politician. He's famous for Obamacare and continuing Bush policies on bankers, secrecy, war, unlimited debt, unlimited spending. This is the perfect time and issue for the republicans to try to destroy Obama and wreck the economy for next years election. I think there is big money behind this power play and the object is to get big concessions for raising the debt limit.
Juan It would be good if your readers were aware of NSA'S
'Total Domination Center' so they could realize how many of their elected representatives absolutely love this sort of thing. The media loves it too so they will never mention it but I think it is the most impactful revelation so far of Glenn Greenwald.
link to theguardian.com
This is a good report as now everyone realizes these soviet weapons used were very effective against civilians in massive quantities. Also it prevented any evidence of sarin being provided to the rebels being uncovered officially.
The problem with the "use of force" approval by congress is that it cannot be effectively limited. Remember when Clinton got approval for Kosovo the public was told over and over that the troops would be home by Christmas. I'm still waiting. (And yesterdays massacre was carried out with a Remington shotgun. No need to buy an AR-15 when you are only going to use it once and your target already has one. Anyone who reads thrillers knows you don't need to buy weapons.)
Thanks Juan! great report
And don't forget all the Iraqi refugees Syria took in..
including Riverbend and her family.
One byproduct of Wolf Blitzer's (and all the rest) rush to war in Syria is that NSA has not been mentioned on tv for several weeks. Snowden's revelations have been banned from discussion. When Obama was confronted by questions about spying on Mexico and Brazil's leaders he acted like he'd barely heard about it but was defending it nevertheless.
Besides.. All those NSA documents are classified so Shhhh!!
Bill: This article is important. Illustrating how complicated things get. NaFl is essential for fluoridating a water supply, making aluminum window frames and also making sarin gas.
This played a role in the 8 hr debate in the house of commons as did a number of other things revealed by Snowden. You won't see anything like this kind of open debate in the US congress because nothing is declassified that the NSA doesn't want declassified... so you can't talk about it even if it's published in the UK press.
So maybe you can mix sarin gas in with other gases in the field or maybe you just throw in sarin shells with tear gas shells?? The other thing that won't be mentioned is what the
hell is Saudi Arabia and Prince Bandar doing for us or to us? It's time to put the screws to our representatives!!
C-Span callers have swung violently against Obama this morning. Even Donald Rumsfeld thinks this is a dumb idea!
I'm waiting to hear that the guns of August have gone silent.
John: Egypt has the answer! Mubarek will come back from his comas and lead the new secular revolution!
link to reuters.com
And then biden Kerry and Clinton will all praise the new moderation!
Amen!
Reminds me of Jake Tapper today asking State Dept. Spokeswoman: "Is the terror alert still in effect."?
Ans: "That is a day to day determination."
Tapper: "I take note of the fact you did not answer the question."
My take: Tapper would love to ask tough questions but CNN won't let him. So can we get back to important things like Trayvon, gay marriage and a movie about Hillary?
I think this is a really good and timely post.
Yesterday ended the Egypt revolution. What I would like to hear about is what has been the role of US
policy in this? What should it have been? Who is in charge of it? To me it has been incoherent from the time of Obama's Cairo speech and bent badly toward Isreal.
It now seems that among those paying no attention to the US are Libya, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Syria, Russia, Pakistan. Thanks!
Antony: I just read "Pirate Latitudes" by Michael Crichton. It was a great read about how all that worked in 1665 with all the class, religious and cultural twists and turns well portrayed.
Great post Juan! And thanks for putting health care at the top. That is just one more area where Ron Paul made the best case against Obama. And Fukushima is another great example. Why worry about nuclear warheads when you can have strontium 90 in the whole food chain?
John: I've been a follower of Juan since the beginning and I think his point today about Obama's political state of mind is a good one. Obama would never have gotten re-elected if he had stood up to the military. He has never had a discouraging deed regarding the bankers or the secret government conglomerate. They have all gotten away with 'murder', so to speak. If we had elected Hillary or Mitt I think we would be exactly where we are today. They all would have played it the same way and gotten re-elected.
I think Hillary's poll numbers would be a lot lower though.
That is an excellent essay. In addition though, President Obama has to deal with a public that is not very savy and totally divided by the media. Note that 50% of Chicago HS
graduates cannot read a bus schedule and in California people will sign a petition for anything if you preface it with "Would you please help President Obama?" eg cut health costs by euthanizing old people, eliminate the bill of rights etc. link to prisonplanet.com We are now in the hands of a
'Committee of Experts'!
Here is what a long time state department employee said about this post.
The Bengahzi Syndrome seems to be bipartisan, so I agree the Republicans aren't solely to blame. Anyway, these embassies closures mean the buildings are closed to the public, not necessarily closed for diplomatic business. I'm pretty sure we continue to maintain relations, deliver aid, do negotiations, etc., despite being 'closed.'
August 5, 2013 at 4:56 PM
Jack: Did you wonder what happened to the Grayson hearing with the house democratic caucus scheduled for past Wed?
This post is really well written.
link to nakedcapitalism.com
Wait til those Frau Merkel fans find out about this!
link to abcnews.go.com
And Dianne Feinstein should stick to judging San Diego mayors after they are already cooked. Big NSA hearing this week!
Zealot reflects my own views about Christianity (I'm only half way thru it) which is that Jesus was all about upsetting the evil order of his day... slavery, torture,taxation, mass slaughter,indifference by the corrupt elites. That's why I have never understood how most all Christian churches have always endorsed our wars, torture, imperialism
pedophilia etc. The history is essential to understanding Jesus and those who wrote about him.
Well said Juan! You should also mention Sen. Ron Wyden's speech last week where he pointed out that NSA has a public
FISA law you can read and a secret interpretation of that law that no one is allowed to discuss... that they deny exists. The debate was excellent! It was FEAR vs THE 4TH! The media seems to be afraid to touch it. The 2014 campaign has begun!
Good Post Juan! and the the one about the EU being fed up with Isreal as well. I love it when Robert Fisk decides to unload on what passes for US Middle East policy.
link to independent.co.uk
Now we arrive in the Middle East as smiling supplicants, blessing any “people’s change” (unless it is any monarchical autocracy of the Gulf)
That was really interesting news Tahar. Before reading that I was convinced there was a real fuel crisis in Egypt. It seems that Egyptian 'business' is run by a very small circle of monopolists who prefer having the military in charge. The big chunk of $$$ just given by Qatar ($12 billion) will probably disappear pretty fast into corrupt hands. I see a big civil war looming. Too many young, illiterate men with no jobs and no food.
Thanks Juan! That is a good response to the Al Jazeera article. Maybe the Snowden revelations have 'muddled my mush'... I know I always find myself searching the foreign papers for ANY idea about what is going on because it is fun and interesting. This is always my first stop of the day.
Juan: Is there any evidence the NSA is accountable to anyone?
(I think the 1977 investigation suggested it was already pretty much doing anything it wanted.) The 'media' may be in the bag for Obama but I can't see where any Republican candidate would have done anything different with regard to the wars being waged by the NSA. (except R.Paul who was easily erased by the media.) If things get bad enough in the US the next couple years (maybe some stuxnet-like disaster) the top candidate for president might be a former NSA DIRECTOR with 'Big Sis' for Veep?
Great reporting and commentary Juan! The best I've found or heard.
Sure Castellio: Bob Schieffer said last Sunday that CBS had no control over who appeared on their Sunday show. CNN admitted that their coverage of the Turkey riots were at the whim of Erdogan. Many of those same political regulars on the air day after day have now discovered that the military has all their personal info and have to play ball with the NSA to get on TV. It is a YES SIR!! mentality that keeps them saluting and in power. C-Span is polluted with think tankers who just say the same stuff over and over. It is time to start some boycotts... how about against arsenic and growth hormone in your chicken?
Juan: Great Post! So was the one about Cheney, Field Marshal Rumsfeld and Snowden. Shouldn't you mention government control of the the press as part of a police state?
Juan: Your tax dollars at work! Who says we haven't increased spending on education? Have you heard from these guys yet?
link to guardian.co.uk
exerpts: It also calls for "traffic mixing", blending the persona controllers' internet usage with the usage of people outside Centcom in a manner that must offer "excellent cover and powerful deniability". (I'm sending this to Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin AND Rachel Madcow!)
Since the Chinese hacked into NSA and almost everyone else and took whatever they wanted isn't it just as likely they leaked this stuff to the Guardian? Also, $80 billion a year is lot of money... It kind of makes the sequester look puny.
Also, that back pack terrorist threat for NYC was actually uncovered by Scotland Yard, not PRISM.
And now for today's buried story: link to guardian.co.uk
Obama orders cyber attacks to protect American interests..last October! So Xi and Obama probably had a good laugh over the whole thing!
Any comment on PKK peace deal with Turkey and returning to N. Iraq?
This made my day and I passed it on to The Skeptical Bureaucrat! http://www.skepticalbureaucrat.blogspot.com He shared it with all the STATE DEPT buddies.
I saw a number of videos of the Isreali missile strike near Damascus. It appeared that a huge military complex about 15 miles long was targeted. At the end of about 90 seconds there was a massive explosion leaving the whole place in flaming ruins. To me that doesn't jibe with a missile convoy.
I think one reason for federal 'proppping up' of the oil companies might be that the 'real economy' here has gotten so bad that retail sales of all energy products (gasoline, propane, heating oil etc) have reached levels not seen since 1997! Likewise, China electricity production has been plummeting, pointing to big economic problems there too.
link to zerohedge.com
Juan: The explanation is easy. The Bush WH official who said:"We create our own reality" (in Iraq)was giving away the secret. I saw Gen. Allen answering Afghanistan questions on C-Span. In every answer he appeared to be gazing at the power point presentation in his head as he droned on for 5 minutes leading to the conclusion that Kabul will be secure by Jan 2015. Then he would conclude by saying: "I hope I didn't leave anything out."
He did, at one point indicate that whether the Afghans would fight the Taliban after we're gone remains to be seen.
No mention of $$$, corruption, elections,air support, drugs.
Just create your own reality Juan. And then repeat, repeat, repeate!! Once everyone is asleep just thank them and bow!
Very good post Juan: It sounds like the pope's main reservation about Islam is that they need a pope. He probably would have loved to condemn exploitation of women and young boys but that would have been awkward.
Great post: Re #7-civilian casualties in single digits? Isn't DiFi excluding Af-Pak? And aren't insurgent aged males excluded along with household members and guests of targets? That's why we have lawyers redefining words like civilian.
Very good Juan! (Don't forget folks, Juan himself admits that he couldn't do this without his talent for typing faster than he can think..amazing how few typos.)
To me, all this legal stuff is simply "word-smithing" to accomodate what our foreign policy has been since after WWII. We think our job is to control the world and we therefore are entitled to devise whatever means we want to do that. The best recent example of that was HRC's battle with the WH over what to do with Syria. She wanted to supply arms directly that would tip the balance and bring down Assad so we could step in and ensure that our friends would be in the new "stability" created. That was rejected but look at the outcome. She is a world wide rock star. A more sensible approach from her would have gained her nothing. The voters simply don't care what we do as long as the purpose is to eliminate "bad guys". "Say one thing, do another" is so simple.. So effective!
Bravo Juan! Well said! It was fun to watch those angry old senate muppets snort and howl. (Including the Dems)
Yes.. The Americans. So big! So predictable! So divided! Any stupid statement gets a 50% response and 3 days of air time. And the Iraq article was great. Thanks!
Rachel Maddow pointed out that should all of that nice stuff discussed today fall apart Obama will be able to look back and say he had announced the end of both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars in his 1st term.
I think it is also true that the Russians said pretty much the same things when they announced they were leaving. They left enough weapons and ammunition that the Afghan government was able to fight on for a couple years. I think most of the "russian advisors" were talking by telephone during that time. Isn't it interesting how the critical military weapons there haven't changed in 30 years? (Apache gun ships, CH-47 helicopter, RPG, AK-47, C-130, Toyota Hilux trucks, opium $$$)
Juan: Iranians say: "Ha Ha", game over!
link to debka.com
Great post Juan! Tonite Piers Morgan did emphasize the 9,000 gun deaths repeatedly. Also, don't forget that today's shooter was reportedly autistic/learning disabled.
Mental health for someone like him is "funded" by the states and has not been a priority for 40 years.
I suspect that his mom did the best she could for him (which included buying all the weapons) but was woefully incapable of helping him. There will be lots more of these as long half the country thinks this is a war against sportsmen.
Bill: I've been reading Anne Applebaum's new book about how the Russians imposed the iron curtain after WWII. Their emphasis from 1945 til Stalin's death was imposing central control over youth groups in E. Europe. By 1950 the only thing young people knew was commie propaganda..and it was very effective for many more years. She was able to draw on many original documents and letters from the time.
Great post Juan! I like Morsi's independance and I'm for the young people of Egypt. Stalin said:"Who owns the young people owns the future."...and got 50years out of that. The young people will have to learn the game and hopefully they will win the future in a few years. That was interesting about the Iranian constitution of 100 years ago.
Great reporting Juan!
"President Obama is said to have called him for the third time in 24 hours on Tuesday!" (11/21)
Maybe Obama, the constitutional lawyer, should call him again and explain "signing statements" to him. That way you can grab power and the public doesn't know about it til later.
Thanks Juan for the great reporting!
Juan: It looks like Morsi is adapting "extrajudicial" "extra-constitutional" from his USA mentors. Do you think we can be critical of these moves when we seem to have taken the same steps ourselves?
link to washingtonpost.com
The Daily Telegraph showed a picture of Isreali tanks shelling gaza during yesterday daylight. (how accurate is that?) The story was taken down later after Hillary Clinton had arrived. Reminds me of Syria.
Thanks Juan! I thought doing anything the Atty General and the White House want and destroying people with opposing views was what the FBI was all about. And isn't this the prime example of how easy it is for Google to produce your emails? It will be interesting to see if anyone has a civil rights lawsuit from this because if these generals have no civil rights certainly the rest of us have none either.
You don't think this was a political assassination orchestrated by Hillary ?
Juan: Aren't you forgetting one important element?: a government that can gain the support of the people. I don't know where a US installed government has any credibility anymore.... Ok, Grenada!
Juan: That's a great domestic wish list but as Studs Terkel said: "Hope dies last."... in other words we didn't hear anything from Obama about change. How about your foreign policy wish list! This year I'm with the 90 million voters and Ron Paul who said: I can't support the status quo.
Juan, it is easy to make the case that Obama has the edge on Romney/Ryan on foreign policy knowledge and experience. Tom Engelhardt makes a really great case that Obama's has been an administration of "managers" who failed to understand the basic changes taking place in the world. Instead they set about to manage the "Bush Legacy".
As far as whether this foreign policy will blow up in their faces he marvels at Obama's determination to keep that from happening before November... but then what? link to tomdispatch.com
And Obama, the democrats, Big Sis, Army can't say a word because????
Brian: Here are some ways for Romney to win:
1. $$$$$ Obama is currently desperately appealing for $5 donations.
2. He's not Bob Dole. (Sure, he doesn't stand for anything but corporate greed, but who could pull that off better?)
3. Obama has been ducking the press for months and can no longer draw or risk exposing himself to a big crowd.
Sorry.. that Newsweek article about Obama is by Nials Ferguson.
Just a reaction Juan: I would say that as wrong as it is it would not make any difference. If pay attention just a bit to CNN, MSNBC, FOX and CNBC they devote MOST of their time to discussing the candidates and the election. The discussion is the same baloney over and over... and I don't think anyone is listening judging by the ratings.
The candidates themselves are totally avoiding any serious issues. If they had 15% of the money they would be using it exactly the same way. Nir Rosen has an excellent article in Newsweek that well explains why no one will be excited about Obama. Romney is the perfect Republican candidate and this year he could fill in as the perfect Democrat if that was what was needed. Keep informing us!
If you have a need to be consistently hypocritical in order
to protect "our interests"
then your comments and actions are easy to choose.
You can always change them later if the need arises!
lilGWB