Mark your calendar May 4, 2017 the day Trump said....."You will now see your premiums start to come down!" This statement reminds me of Trump's grandiose claim made in his inaugural address...."Inner city crime stops right here, right now!" To which Samantha Bee responded "Did we just elect Batman?"
In that the bill has only passed the house and senators such as Lindsey Graham are scoffing at the speed in which Trump's henchmen pushed the bill through the House, I don't think we'll see Trumpcare anytime soon.
Just give him a few weeks and he'll be onto something else. The wall on the Mexican border has morphed into MAYBE a blimp patrol? The better and less expensive version of Obamacare is now...NEVERMIND! A few months into his presidency and NATO is no longer irrelevant...sorry isolationist who voted for "Campaign Trump." Dreamers who were going to be rooted out of their jobs and homes can now "Rest easy." Next month sanctuary cities will be his idea because he is, and I quote, "The most flexible guy you'll ever want to meet."
"Trump only wishes he could get that kind of power." The question is ....can it happen here at home? Margaret Atwood being interviewed by Bill Moyers about her novel The Handmaid's Tale thinks it can. link to crooksandliars.com
Sound reminiscent?,,,"It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest." Churchill in 1939.
Speaking of that era ...hearing neocons gush about the $80million rocket attack (There's a new sheriff in town) whose damage was repaired the next day you would think it was comparable to the fall of Berlin.
The possibility of going to war with Russia sends cold chills down my spine. To go to war with Russia led by an ego maniacal former game show host as our commander in chief could spell the end of civilization as we know it.
And so it begins. Here is Lindsey Graham giving Tucker Carlson a contorted explanation as to why Trump should send 7000 US ground troops into Syria. Carlson isn't buying.
Pay attention to when Graham insinuates that if we had troops in Afghanistan prior to 9-11 that fateful day might not have occurred....even though the hijackers were almost all from Saudi Arabia. The neocons are back in the saddle.
Turning away from the middle east, Trump's immature bravado has me deeply concerned especially since North Korea's equally unsettling leader has chosen to fire missiles into the sea as an act of defiance.
Trump is certainly looking for a way to distract the public from Russiagate, unfortunately, N. Korea is a military force to toy with.
What was so blatantly obvious was the contrast between the coolness Trump exhibited towards Angela Merkel (Late night...."Today the leader of the free world met with Donald Trump) and the warmth Trump showed this murderous dictator.
A case could be made Trump envies the control Putin and al Sisi have over their detractors while Trump has to put up with investigations by his political opponents and the free press who dare question his unqualified wife/ daughter Ivanka and his son in law being promoted to the top echelon of government.
What would happen if the US pulled out of Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria and left them to their own devices without any financial or military support?
Neocons might suggest without our efforts the middle east would be quite a different place. A place controlled by the most violent fringes of humanity. While others might argue this country has turned Iraq, for one example, into a perpetual war zone where millions of those we attempted to "Liberate" are rotting in their graves. Afghanistan is little more than a decade long quagmire with only minimal results to show for hundreds of billions of dollars squandered and several thousand American lives lost.
I know. We Americans, like any run of the mill control freak, gasp at the thought of not involving ourselves in the affairs of middle eastern nations. However a sober reflection of the last 25 years will not encourage even the most starry eyed optimist of what we can hope to achieve in a region fractured by intense hatred for one other.
I suggest we take a new approach at , as Comrade Trump says, "Draining the swamp." Take a two year sabbatical from involvement in the region... even to the point of not giving aid and comfort to Netanyahu at the UN. After two years I doubt you would be able to see where our absence made any difference at all.
Think of the US as Bedford Falls from It's a Wonderful Life and Mr. Potter has just been elected president. This time it's not a bad dream.
Yesterday on NPR, that network Trump would like to do away with, experts concluded the pipeline will not create jobs, will not use US steel (Both claims made by our former reality show host/ president) and is totally out of step with the future. They also pointed out most of the oil will be shipped overseas.
"In fact the bill failed because it made the class warfare too transparent." It failed because the so called Freedom Caucus, aka Tea Party, Republicans didn't think it was draconian enough.
No.1...Certainly Putin and his mob are somewhat desperate to have sanctions lifted. They knew Trump, ever the business man, if there is something in it for him, was the better choice to lift the sanctions. (Don't be surprised if there are Russian sweetheart deals for Trump inc in the future.")
No 2...Rep. Gowdy told us repeatedly that "leaking classified information is a crime." However, yesterday Nunes ran to "Daddy Trump' like a school boy and told Trump and the press he had information that exonerated Trump of collusion. Here is what Politico reported..."A Republican source with knowledge of the situation claimed the information that Nunes talked about was from the intelligence community and not the White House."
I hope Rep. Gowdy will call for an investigation to see if Nunes broke the law by leaking classified intelligence.
With a real estate developer turned Commander in Chief (Trump did attend military academy as a teen) coupled with his complaint "we never win wars anymore" I can see how the neocons might see this as the man who will at last provide the foothold in Syria they have long been denied by Obama. McCain and Graham are surely celebrating.
Bush the Idiot, no stranger to foreign entanglements, gave an interview last week in which he was asked about sending troops into Iraq. His response was W-esque. He said "I didn't mind sendin' troops into war, what I did mind was 'em gettin' hurt."
Trump should have consulted Obama rather than accuse him of wire tapping Trump Tower.
The interesting power play now going on is the nomination of Rosenstein to be Assistant Attorney General. Democrats want to hold his nomination ransom in exchange for a special prosecutor to investigate Russian influence within the fiasco known as the Trump administration.
If Rosenstein is allowed to lead the investigation it will no doubt be tainted.
I can only guess at the number of scholars who are hard at work writing books about this president to be released for the summer market. Stay tuned...more bombshells are on the way.
While I agree the US has played a role in creating this humanitarian crisis in Syria, among others, why won't the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt, Iraq and Iran take in large numbers of refugees, who after all are their Muslim brothers and sisters?
Certainly Israel could take in refugees if they were not all about expelling Arabs and practicing apartheid.
At the time of the first Earth Day in 1970, the Cuyahoga River had long been a pollution problem. Cleveland had been a major industrial city since the 1880s, and the mayor then called the river “an open sewer through the center of the city.”
But when the Cuyahoga River caught fire in Cleveland in 1969, many believe it became the symbol of out-of-control pollution that was needed to get the Clean Water Act passed.
I don't remember who said "those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it." but it seems especially appropriate during this, shall we say, unique period in American history.
"The United States will continue its unwavering commitment to the safety of the State of Israel."
Israel is a nuclear power with missiles ready to deliver those warheads to any country within the middle east. Israel has an air force far superior to any nation in the region. Israel has a well equipped army, thanks to the US.
My point being....Israel is perfectly capable of defending its own borders. If Trump is right about anything it is the US should not commit to being the Rambo of the world .
He could reduce his military budget increase by one billion dollars and put five thousand coal miners back to work making $40,0000 a year for five years....restoring leveled mountain tops into solar farms.
I had not made the association between Bannon and Milo...interesting. According to "Fake News" there is a small group ready to turn in their resignations if Milo is not fired. This comes on the heels of his book deal being canceled as well as his invitation to speak to the "Family Values" Protestants at CPAC, a group that is fine with pu$$y grabbing but not so much with pedophilia.
Flynn is a 30 year military man who respects the chain of command. He would never talk relaxing sanctions without being advised by his commander, that being DJTrump. Knowing this the GOP will blame Yates and whoever leaked to cover for Commissar Trump.
Here is what a lifelong Republican recently wrote..
Mark P. Painter, a lifelong Cincinnatian, served as a judge for 30 years.
As Charles P. Pierce said in Esquire last week, “I swear, it's like we elected the Clampetts, if the Clampetts were grifters.”
Flynn was in the military for 30 years. He knows the chain of command. In my opinion a military man would not take it upon himself to discuss sanctions, etc. without clearing it with the Commander in Chief.
Look for a wag the dog play by Trump to get the press off of his scent.
Now that we have a president the Duck Dynasty/ Sarah Palin "Might is Right" warmongers can rally behind, because Commissar Trump is ordained by God, bring on the wall to wall coverage of American missiles illuminating the night sky over Tehran. You can almost hear Hannity saying...."America is great again!"
For eight years the Trumpketeers have suffered under, in their view, a weak president who put health care ahead of a Syrian intervention. A president who made peace with Iran rather than bombing them. Adding insult to injury he was black.
Sidelined by Obama, the neocons have gleefully watched Trump pump up the adrenaline of that segment of the American population, mostly angry whites, to the point even members of the Iranian navy giving our sailors the finger is excuse enough to blow Iranian boats of the water.
Trump is too stubborn and insecure to make peace with enemies, he has to destroy them. That might work in real estate and on reality shows but I think he will find Iran is not as easy to humiliate as Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Trump supports torture because it plays into his fake news policy. Whether it be voter fraud, crowd size, building a wall with Pesos or Making America Great Again he is the quintessential con man who twist lies into alternate facts.
That said he is going to be so easily manipulated into getting us into a war. Today we read Commissar Trump supports "Safe zones" for Syrians. Rather than a safe zone Syrians who enter will be guinea pigs just waiting for the right international incident. This will almost certainly set off a full scale war pitting the US against Assad and Putin. Tonight there is rejoicing at AIPAC and Raytheon.
Having just read this mind numbing article about the many religious factions involved in the Syrian conflict I am more firmly convinced than ever Obama was correct to stay the hell out of that quagmire.
I agree the photos released of a child in an ambulance stirs our anger and emotions, but only those Gucci wearing chickenhawk neocons, who still think we were victorious in Iraq and who mistakenly believe our troop are some type of comic book super heroes with invincible powers, could ever think our involvement is such a maze would do anything more than create thousands of flag draped coffins and a loss of billions of dollars.
Let Assad be. Take a lesson from Iraq, Lebanon and Libya and follow the creed of doctors...First do no harm.
Trump himself is displaying an autocratic bent with his challenge to change our 1st amendment rights. A position that would blend in with totalitarian fundamentalist zealots.
Just last week Trump's spokesperson went ballistic when he supported a NYTs editor being jailed for perceived anti Trump coverage. This is in keeping with his constant berating of journalist, other than Hannity and O'Reilly.
You will remember Trump pleased his rabid Wrestlemania supporters by vowing to jail his former opponent, Hillary,....Putin style. A frightening comment was made by a member of Trump's transition team when he said protesters marching against Trump's policies should be investigated by the FBI and potentially jailed for their activity.
The list of intimidating statements is a daily occurrence in Trump World. I do not think this will end well.
The engine that drives religious belief is not love as in "Love thy neighbor" but fear. Fear of God's wrath or eternal damnation.
Trump was able to sell fear to a battle weary country along with a side dish of prejudice. Fear of Hillary importing "600,000 mostly dark skinned immigrants the first year." Fear of Hillary, with her past as a neocon hawk, further selling out the middle class. Fear that a woman cannot lead this country as efficiently as a man.
Lastly, just as with Jeb and Bush fatigue there was definitely a reluctance to suffer through four more years of the inevitable Clinton scandals and the huckster like behavior of selling the Lincoln bedroom to the hightest bidder. The Bush era is dead and now we bury the Clintons.
As an American who reluctantly voted for Hillary, I sincerely hope Trump will prove to be the best president to ever serve in that office. My head tells me to fear for the worst.
Here is a quote from a Trump supporter here is South Carolina that shows how far apart were are on this pre-election week....“I’ll put it to you this way: If the Taliban had a football team, I’d pull for them before Hillary Clinton (if she) had a football team.”
While I have cast my ballot for Hillary I can't fault Trump for tapping into a mother load of discontent. Our borders are not secure. Our politicians have given incentives to companies to seek out cheap labor in foreign countries while the Clintons and Trumps profit from this arrangement.
Needless wars were started by the Bushes and supported by the Clintons. Wars that have wasted valuable lives and resources here at home and in the middle east. The national debt is out of control hanging over our collective heads like a guillotine while Hillary and Bill give million dollar speeches to Wall St. tycoons and Trump shuns his responsibilities to pay taxes on his multi million dollar income.
Trump was the wrong messenger but he proved there is a pent up demand for a leader who will end the madness of perpetual wars coupled with uncontrolled waste, fraud and abuse.
The danger is that political elites and large corporations might find a more skilled politician who can sell the American public on the idea we need a strong Fascist leader to solve our problems.
"Trickle down economics" is a con that goes like this...Give the rich more money and they will share it with you. (Belly laugh)
Simply put...with the browning of America, Trump is the Great White Hope to the "Lock her up" mob.
Exporting 11 million immigrants, forget that it would take twenty years, billions of dollars, overburden our courts and an immigration police force the size of an army, that kind of rhetoric is mother's milk to his Wrestlemania following.
Watching Trump read his prepared text at the Al Smith dinner he reminded me of a fifth grade student reading "What I did this summer" essay before the class. He had the comic timing of Charlie Manson doing stand up.
This is a man who is not capable of solving complex problems without the threat of violence or other extreme measures.
18 more days and he can go back to promoting Wrestlemania to the same fans who attend his rallies.
I am suspicious of a no fly zone. What does a US fighter pilot do if he encounters a Russian fighter in the zone? Can the zone be used by rebels to operate with impunity?
With the disastrous results we see taking place in Libya, some would call Hillary's War, I don't trust her or her neocon advisers to improve the life of the average Syrian. She admitted this in her emails saying...." A no fly zone will kill a lot of Syrians."
Here is a well done report from CNN showing Syria's Aleppo before and after the bombings. As a lover of architecture this kind of savagery and destruction of irreplaceable ancient structures both saddens and angers me. link to youtube.com
Mike Judge produced an interesting movie named Idiocracy, a movie that predicts a time in the future when US is ruled by a former wrestling champion (Trump promoted Wrestlemania.) Watching the Trump rallies I think of this movie often.
As for the fall of Rome, I think Trump, being the star who can abuse any woman he wants, is more the like the emperor Caligula.
Listening to the NBC report last night I think they mentioned Iran four times in the one minute report. It sounded like AIPAC wrote the script for the reporter.
It.s weird you bring up Donahue. Yesterday I was thinking of how he was pushed out of the door by Chris Matthews and other newly converted Iraq war zealots.
As for Trump, he conquered the field of GOP sad cast of characters by using the kind of bombast he learned during his days of promoting WrestleMania. Here is a well put together clip from YouTube that illustrates this point of view. Notice the crowd at the WWE event is similar to those you see at Trump rallies. This is not to say they are bad people or even ignorant (My attorney is a Trump man) just a group of angry white males....link to youtube.com
9-11, as horrific as it was, dwarfs in comparison to the PNAC policy enacted by Bush/ Cheney to remove Saddam. We now know there was no threat from Saddam's rag tag military and that he had no ongoing nuclear program yet Bush pushed congress to authorize his use of our military to settle old scores.
Using a similar law one might conclude Iraqi families could sue the US for turning their country into a Mad Max hell for no viable reason other than....Bush knew he could.
Not to overuse the word "Dwarf" but imagine several million Iraqis suing the US for damages.
I live in Lindsey Graham country, South Carolina, where Boeing happens to have a large manufacturing plant. Lindsey is caught between supporting what is right for his constituents and pleasing AIPAC. What's a guy to do?
It wold be interesting to hear what approach the man who knows more than generals, Mr. Trump, would take as president but at the moment our ratings obsessed news organizations seem to be fixated on the all important birther question.
Anderson Cooper has a great segment in which one general says...."Taking oil is good idea if you lived in the 16th century." Another comment...." Iraq is now our ally are 16 million Iraqis going to stand by and watch us take their oil. Trump is a businessman, maybe he has it figured out. I personally cannot wrap my mind around it."
Ask who is funding Daesh and you get a crazy quilt answer...Like from this Russian friendly site....which is probably needs an update....
"In Daesh’s role as opposing Syria (just one of its many roles) the terrorist outfit is believed to have received funding from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, as part of their opposition to the Assad regime.
But it also generates its own income, having taken control of local businesses, taxing others, and selling oil. Among its customers, incredibly, is Syria. Since Daesh controls much of the oil-production infrastructure in the country, Syria has little choice but to purchase oil from the very group that seeks to overthrow its government.
Reports also indicate that Israel is a main buyer of Daesh oil. The sale is not direct; oil is smuggled by Kurdish and Turkish smugglers, and then Turkish and Israeli negotiators determine the price. As a result of these oil sales, Daesh has annual revenues estimated at $500 million, according to data compiled by the U.S. Treasury.
In November of this year, Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed that Daesh is being financed by at least 40 countries — including G20 members. With such widespread financing, it will be difficult to defeat Deash."
If this explanation is true you can ask why has this war lasted so long and you get the same answer....Follow the money.
The US has been cautious about going toe to toe with other super powers. The preference has been to do battle with warlord controlled militias and rag tag armies (Iraq) that have limited if any navy, air force or standing army. Even then the results have been disastrous. Obama knows Russia and Iran are a different animal. The question is will Hillary or Trump know?
The GOP has gone insane. All Trump has to do is feed his supporters headlines without details....Build a Wall....I'm Going to Bring Jobs Back....Bomb ISIL So Hard....Press is Corrupt...Hillary is Crooked...We're Going to Have Such a Great Economy.....No Middle East Immigrants...I'll Replace Obamacare with Something So Much Better....I'll Rebuild the Military....and finally....I'm Going to Make America Great Again!!!
In 2003 Ashleigh Banfield gave a speech at Kansas State University in which she complained of networks love of videos showing rockets being fired and the explosions but didn't take the time to cover the carnage we inflicted on the population of Iraq....For this she was fired and spent the next few years at Court TV...Here is part of that speech that in retrospect sounds prophetic, in light of the weekly terrorist attacks the world endures........
"War is ugly and it's dangerous, and in this world the way we are discussed on the Arab street, it feeds and fuels their hatred and their desire to kill themselves to take out Americans. It's a dangerous thing to propagate."
As a residential builder I attended a conference in Atlanta. At the conference I learned of new technology.... solar panels that would heat water. The heated water would, via pipes, heat rocks stored in a concrete tank in the basement or in the ground Then fans would blow the heat into the home. That was almost 40 years ago during the oil embargo. After the crisis passed and oil returned to normal and below normal levels alternative energy was put on the back burner.
Although that engineering still exist it posed many problems. Today Musk is leading the way in solar and battery powered production that might.....just might....lead to individual homes being almost completely off the grid. Eliminate costly heating and cooling bills paid to utility companies would mean billions of dollars per month could be funneled back into the economy creating more purchasing power for the average family or funneled into their 401ks.
All of this terror and hell going on as an oblivious W. churns out more ridiculously bad oil paintings. This is the end game of Bush telling Blair...."I want to kick some ass!"
Although back up to $42 a barrel....oil briefly dipped below $40 and there speculations it will go lower.
With all of the wars having been fought through out history over oil.... solar, wind and power generated by ocean currents could be a catalyst for peace. Sorry Dick Cheney!
If Obama had followed McCain/ Lindsey Graham's advice, the tag team equivalent of Richard Pearl and Joe Lieberman, and ordered generals to deploy ground troops into Syria we would have found our soldiers fighting side by side with the organization blamed for 9-11. The needless loss of life and treasury would have been staggering.
With Assad deposed Syria could expect the kind of war and mayhem now being experienced by Iraq for a generation or more. Speaking of which, Huff Post is reporting a million Iraqis might have to flee their homes in the next few weeks.
Support for Hillary is, to use an old expression, a mile wide and an inch thick. With all of her, in my opinion, justified negatives the big question is....Will she inspire blacks, Bernie's Babies and Latinos to stand in line to vote for her? I think the fear of what Trump is proposing might push the minorities and Bernie's supporters to vote, not so much FOR Hillary, as AGAINST Trump.
As Bette Davis said..."Fasten your seatblets, it's going to be a bumpy ride."
Trump says Obama should have known domestic terrorist were about to commit random acts of terrorism while he doesn't even know his wife's speech is a carbon copy of Ms. Obama's speech. Now we're told the plagiarized speech was Hillary's fault.
Just the tip of the iceberg if Mr. T becomes our Commander in Chief.
Woody Guthrie's song takes on a different meaning when sung by Rep. King to the GOP convention....
This land is your land This land is my land
From California to the New York island;
From the red wood forest to the Gulf Stream waters
This land was made for you and Me. ( AND NO ONE ELSE!!)
Prof Cole writes....' Work to strengthen democracy and inclusiveness and basic human rights."
Didn't we hear Bush and his henchmen use that ideology as a rallying cry prior to the invasion of Iraq? Fact is...this country is not very good at convincing allies, Egypt, Iraq, Israel and or Saudi Arabia...to be inclusive much less Iran, Libya or Syria.
One reason for our lack of success in this region is that, unfortunately, our motives and policies are never purely altruistic.
Maybe McDonough's thinking is not that far off the mark.
You know there is no valid reason for going to war when you have to come up with a bogus scare tactic to rally the American people for a needless war. Bush just couldn't say..."Saddam tried to kill my daddy" and garner a lot of support for war...outside of Texas.
The Bush administration formed what was known as the Iraq War Group, a group consisting of Wolfowitz, Madeline Carville and others, in order to concoct an excuse the public and press would buy into in order to gain support for the invasion.
The scare tactic they agreed on..... Saddam was developing nuclear weapons. To drive this point home Condi Rice ramped up the rhetoric when she made her infamous speech about this country "Waking up to a mushroom cloud" if he was not removed..all part of the con job.
After no WMDs were found Wolfowitz later admitted..."Maybe we pushed the WMD thing a bit too far." This after mothers and fathers were weeping over their sacrificed sons as they buried them in national cemeteries.
At Military.com they are reporting the US has trained less than 100 combatants and the ones they have trained at a base in Turkey have returned to Syria, dropped out of the army and gave their weapons to the opposition. We can only speculate how much this fiasco cost the US taxpayer. Joining forces with Putin is a good move...link to military.com
Uygur is wasting his time criticizing Trump. Trump knows a few things about his militaristic right wing Christian GOP supporters. He plays on their basic instincts to separate oneself from perceived danger, whetter it be a rattlesnake, fire, or as in this case, radical Muslims.
The Palin/ Trump knee jerk reaction to Boston, Paris and now Turkish bombings....No Muslim immigrants....No terrorist attacks. No Mexican immigrants...No illegal drug traffic....More jobs for Americans.
It's all so simple, a cakewalk if you will, not unlike the game plan to remove a dictator in Iraq and establish a democracy. or bomb Tehran in order to save the world from a nuclear threat.
Trump and his supporters still buy into John Wayne's tough guy American cowboy approach to diplomacy...."My guns do my talking."
It's doesn't sound like a perfect situation between the Sunnis and Shia but it is encouraging Iraqis troops can fight their own battles without US soldiers shedding blood.
Here in the US Hillary has said no ground troops while Trump is saying the generals are telling him 20,000 to 30,000 US troops to fight ISIL. This is a flip flop from his earlier foreign policy of "Let them kill each other."
As a South Carolinian, known for our relentless fascination with the civil war, I would be interested in hearing a person or persons with knowledge of US history compare the similarities, or not, of the south's decision to leave the US union and the Brexit vote to leave the European Union. It appears that race, religion and economics played into both decisions.
Had trump been shot the victims from the Orlando club shooting could have issued a statement saying....If only Trump had been armed this could have been avoided
.
Presidential candidate D.J. Trump has said in the past his reaction to such "Terrorist acts" would be to kill the shooter's family. It will be interesting to see if today he still support sthat approach to suppressing massacres.
I would bet their file on Prof. Cole takes up an entire file cabinet.
Couple this anti free speech law with Sen. Boxer and husband attempting to make it illegal and worthy of being dismissed as a student or faculty on a California campus just for speaking or writing anti Israel remarks.
Speaking of denying free speech it took an odd form this past week. I happen to detest Mr. Trump but it was disturbing to watch Latinos chasing Trump supporters through the streets of San Jose. These thugs and their sucker punches brought back memories of blacks being beaten by rednecks in the streets of Selma and Jews being kicked and beaten by Nazis in pre war Germany.
This will be an election to remember and I fear not in a good way.
I think of a similar patriot by the name of Ed Snowden as I remember Ali risking his livelihood and freedom to make their voices heard against Big Brother and the war machine. Both of these men remind me of the line, which I paraphrase, from Julius Caesar....The coward dies many times the Valiant dies but once."
I just read at Anti-war.com that over 4000 Iraqis were killed and 2000 plus wounded in May alone. That's a 9-11 occurring every month in Iraq thanks to Bush, Cheney and Blair....all of whom are enjoying the good life in retirement.
Holder reminds me of the Big Bad Wolf from the fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood who would like to get Snowden to return to the US (Grandma's house) so he might be eaten by the (Big Bad Wolf) justice department. Snowden is no fool. He knows Fox and CNN would go into full "Snowden is a traitor mode" with no dissension allowed.
Last week I listened to Laura Ingraham, right wing radio host and rabid Trump groupie, sneer at Obama for going to Japan and apologizing for, her words, "Vaporizing people." First off...he did not apologize to anyone but rather gave a speech the Pope could have delivered.
Secondly, the nonchalance with which Laura spoke of "Vaporizing" men, women and children speaks to the evilness of the American neocon empire and their total disregard for what they euphemistically call "Collateral damage."
Obama has certainly not been a perfect president but standing up to Netanyahu and his bought and paid for Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran politicians here in the US will always in my mind be worthy of a Bronze Star for heroics.
I think I've got. The US is training The Syrian Democratic Force comprised of Kurdish and leftist Peoples Protection Units along with 5000 to 6000 Arab fighter allied with the Kurds but the US has provided them with no heavy weaponry.
The US is also accused of supporting hard line Salafi groups like the Army of Islam and the Freemen of Syria; it even said US support extended to the al-Qaeda affiliate, the Nusra Front and that Saudi Arabia and Turkey were also behind the Salafis.
Then we have the Mahdi Army or Peace Brigades of Iraqi Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr who are fighting as a militia in Iraq on the side of the government of Bashar al-Assad against the Salafis.
Let us not forget....there is a danger that with Russian backing the al-Assad regime could roll up a lot of the rebel forces and so reestablish its stability.
Russia is also friendly with the Syrian Kurds, so some of Washington’s new haste to deploy the SDF against Daesh may derive they might go to Russia for backing.
Could Iraq not argue the US invaded and destroyed their country based on jingoistic rhetoric and fabricated evidence supplied by what the Bush administration knew were dubious sources, such as Curveball and easily disproved accusations concerning metal tubes and bogus yellow cake documentation. The invasion has led to continued chaos causing loss of life as well as hundreds of thousands Iraqi civilians wounded or displaced. The total tab could reach several trillion dollars when you figure in pain and suffering added to actual damages to homes, businesses and infrastructure.
While we are fantasizing, we can discuss Bush and Blair being charged with crimes against humanity.
The Clintons pick up the sent of money like a bloodhound. Protecting a penniless population would not be good or profitable for the Clinton Foundation.
Actually the goal of the neocons such as the Project For a New American Century, was to destabilze the middle east. Originally, as presented on this video, Israel was to be the military force to take down dictators throwing their rivals into wars carried out by rial factions, then they realized the US would do the fighting for them. It seems to be working beautifully as Israel quietly plunders the and steals the remaining land in Gaza and the West Bank. Take fifteen minutes to watch the video. link to youtube.com
He may be a bombastic snake oil salesman when he is in his off the cuff bloviator mode but when it comes to giving a serious scripted speech his delivery is akin to a first year divinity student. I'm sure the leaders of ISIS are quaking in their sandals right about now.
President Hillary will be Dick Cheney in a pant suit. She is certainly a career politician who would reject the populist approach for one designed to cater to powerful lobbies. When Hillary is president I'm sure the price of sleeping in the Lincoln bedroom will rise significantly from the days when Bill was in the oval office.
How can the American public rally behind our forces being deployed into a war zone that includes the YPG, SDF, Kurds, Sunni Arabs, Christian, Assyrian, Armenians and the Syrian army? In that this country recently spent hundreds of millions of dollars to build a fighting force in that region, which produced 5 fighting soldiers, I would not want to see our young men sacrificed in a war that has no end game.
Hillary's indebtedness to Saban is evidenced by her adoption of his views on the Israeli- Palestinian issue. This is exactly what Sanders has been talking about throughout the campaign. If Hillary gets millions from Wall Street and is paid a quarter of a million dollars to give a speech by billionaires....who do you think will have her ear if she makes it to the oval office? I have no doubt she would throw us under the bus to please the AIPAC constituency.
Somewhat in defense of Hillary. She is not alone in bowing to big money. It's prevalent in local mayor races all the way to the the race for the presidency. Bernie might be the exception to the rule.
Just having appeased the AIPAC hawks with a speech worthy of a Dick Cheney seal of approval my thoughts are turning to which neocon (s) will be appointed to be Sec. of State...Defense Secretary and who would be picked as her running mate ( Corey Booker?)in the Hillary Clinton administration? Thank God Richard Holbrooke is not available for any of the above.
I know humanitarian aid is not nearly as titillating as watching explosives knock down buildings or rockets fired from jets but wouldn't it be noble if the negotiators would first address the more mundane work of providing food and water for the starving and displaced refugees in Syria.
It would be a step in the right direction if Russia, Turkey and the US would exert as much effort and spend as much money providing support for peaceful purposes as they did in tearing the country apart.
On second thought....who am I kidding...that's not going to happen.
Over at David Stockman's Contra Corner he writes....
"Containing and defeating ISIS is the job of the Shiite Crescent. Hasn’t Washington created enough failed states—-Iraq, Syria, Libya, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia etc.—–already?"
Jeffery Goldberg in his Atlantic article admonishes Obama for setting a "Red Line" in Syria and then ignoring his line in the sand. Goldberg does make the rare admission that the gassing of Syrians was probably not the work of Assad, removing a neocon talking point for involving our troops in a free for all in Syria.
As in the case of Bush the Idiot foreign policy of either Hillary or Trump may depend on who they pick as their advisers and cabinet members.
Prof. Cole....Thank you for watching so we don't have to.
I just read this morning what a devout Catholic Rubio proclaims to be. Last week Cruz's father told of how the Cruz family stayed on their knees for hours asking God for a sign as to whether Ted should run for the GOP nomination. Surprise!!...God told him to run.
Now these holy men are tripping over each other as they deny "The least of these" Palestinians basic human rights while Ted vows to make the sand glow in the middle east from carpet bombing. It seems paradoxical to profess to be servants of God while rejecting biblical text such as...Blessed are the peacemakers.
Regretfully, Hillary possesses the same bloody vampire fangs as the GOP candidates. I think we are going to miss Mr. Obama.
Only our bought and paid for politicians and the warmongers care for anything Mr. Netanyahu has to say. He lost me on 9-11 when he said the attack on the WTC was "Very good."
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Mark your calendar May 4, 2017 the day Trump said....."You will now see your premiums start to come down!" This statement reminds me of Trump's grandiose claim made in his inaugural address...."Inner city crime stops right here, right now!" To which Samantha Bee responded "Did we just elect Batman?"
In that the bill has only passed the house and senators such as Lindsey Graham are scoffing at the speed in which Trump's henchmen pushed the bill through the House, I don't think we'll see Trumpcare anytime soon.
Just give him a few weeks and he'll be onto something else. The wall on the Mexican border has morphed into MAYBE a blimp patrol? The better and less expensive version of Obamacare is now...NEVERMIND! A few months into his presidency and NATO is no longer irrelevant...sorry isolationist who voted for "Campaign Trump." Dreamers who were going to be rooted out of their jobs and homes can now "Rest easy." Next month sanctuary cities will be his idea because he is, and I quote, "The most flexible guy you'll ever want to meet."
"Trump only wishes he could get that kind of power." The question is ....can it happen here at home? Margaret Atwood being interviewed by Bill Moyers about her novel The Handmaid's Tale thinks it can. link to crooksandliars.com
There is rejoicing at AIPAC. There favorite Iranian villain is back.
Sound reminiscent?,,,"It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest." Churchill in 1939.
Speaking of that era ...hearing neocons gush about the $80million rocket attack (There's a new sheriff in town) whose damage was repaired the next day you would think it was comparable to the fall of Berlin.
The possibility of going to war with Russia sends cold chills down my spine. To go to war with Russia led by an ego maniacal former game show host as our commander in chief could spell the end of civilization as we know it.
And so it begins. Here is Lindsey Graham giving Tucker Carlson a contorted explanation as to why Trump should send 7000 US ground troops into Syria. Carlson isn't buying.
Pay attention to when Graham insinuates that if we had troops in Afghanistan prior to 9-11 that fateful day might not have occurred....even though the hijackers were almost all from Saudi Arabia. The neocons are back in the saddle.
link to mediaite.com
I think the video proves Prof Cole's point concerning having blood on our hands.
BW "And what would you do if you were Sec. Hill?"
Hill..."I'd drop more bombs on them!"
Turning away from the middle east, Trump's immature bravado has me deeply concerned especially since North Korea's equally unsettling leader has chosen to fire missiles into the sea as an act of defiance.
Trump is certainly looking for a way to distract the public from Russiagate, unfortunately, N. Korea is a military force to toy with.
What was so blatantly obvious was the contrast between the coolness Trump exhibited towards Angela Merkel (Late night...."Today the leader of the free world met with Donald Trump) and the warmth Trump showed this murderous dictator.
A case could be made Trump envies the control Putin and al Sisi have over their detractors while Trump has to put up with investigations by his political opponents and the free press who dare question his unqualified wife/ daughter Ivanka and his son in law being promoted to the top echelon of government.
What would happen if the US pulled out of Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria and left them to their own devices without any financial or military support?
Neocons might suggest without our efforts the middle east would be quite a different place. A place controlled by the most violent fringes of humanity. While others might argue this country has turned Iraq, for one example, into a perpetual war zone where millions of those we attempted to "Liberate" are rotting in their graves. Afghanistan is little more than a decade long quagmire with only minimal results to show for hundreds of billions of dollars squandered and several thousand American lives lost.
I know. We Americans, like any run of the mill control freak, gasp at the thought of not involving ourselves in the affairs of middle eastern nations. However a sober reflection of the last 25 years will not encourage even the most starry eyed optimist of what we can hope to achieve in a region fractured by intense hatred for one other.
I suggest we take a new approach at , as Comrade Trump says, "Draining the swamp." Take a two year sabbatical from involvement in the region... even to the point of not giving aid and comfort to Netanyahu at the UN. After two years I doubt you would be able to see where our absence made any difference at all.
Are Progressives Suffering from Trump Fatigue?
Yes!!
Somewhere there is a neocon arrogantly gloating on Fox, "See, none of this would have happened if Obama had not withdrawn US ground troops."
Meanwhile W cranks out his juvenile quality paintings.
Think of the US as Bedford Falls from It's a Wonderful Life and Mr. Potter has just been elected president. This time it's not a bad dream.
Yesterday on NPR, that network Trump would like to do away with, experts concluded the pipeline will not create jobs, will not use US steel (Both claims made by our former reality show host/ president) and is totally out of step with the future. They also pointed out most of the oil will be shipped overseas.
"In fact the bill failed because it made the class warfare too transparent." It failed because the so called Freedom Caucus, aka Tea Party, Republicans didn't think it was draconian enough.
No.1...Certainly Putin and his mob are somewhat desperate to have sanctions lifted. They knew Trump, ever the business man, if there is something in it for him, was the better choice to lift the sanctions. (Don't be surprised if there are Russian sweetheart deals for Trump inc in the future.")
No 2...Rep. Gowdy told us repeatedly that "leaking classified information is a crime." However, yesterday Nunes ran to "Daddy Trump' like a school boy and told Trump and the press he had information that exonerated Trump of collusion. Here is what Politico reported..."A Republican source with knowledge of the situation claimed the information that Nunes talked about was from the intelligence community and not the White House."
I hope Rep. Gowdy will call for an investigation to see if Nunes broke the law by leaking classified intelligence.
With a real estate developer turned Commander in Chief (Trump did attend military academy as a teen) coupled with his complaint "we never win wars anymore" I can see how the neocons might see this as the man who will at last provide the foothold in Syria they have long been denied by Obama. McCain and Graham are surely celebrating.
Bush the Idiot, no stranger to foreign entanglements, gave an interview last week in which he was asked about sending troops into Iraq. His response was W-esque. He said "I didn't mind sendin' troops into war, what I did mind was 'em gettin' hurt."
Trump should have consulted Obama rather than accuse him of wire tapping Trump Tower.
The interesting power play now going on is the nomination of Rosenstein to be Assistant Attorney General. Democrats want to hold his nomination ransom in exchange for a special prosecutor to investigate Russian influence within the fiasco known as the Trump administration.
If Rosenstein is allowed to lead the investigation it will no doubt be tainted.
I can only guess at the number of scholars who are hard at work writing books about this president to be released for the summer market. Stay tuned...more bombshells are on the way.
While I agree the US has played a role in creating this humanitarian crisis in Syria, among others, why won't the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt, Iraq and Iran take in large numbers of refugees, who after all are their Muslim brothers and sisters?
Certainly Israel could take in refugees if they were not all about expelling Arabs and practicing apartheid.
At the time of the first Earth Day in 1970, the Cuyahoga River had long been a pollution problem. Cleveland had been a major industrial city since the 1880s, and the mayor then called the river “an open sewer through the center of the city.”
But when the Cuyahoga River caught fire in Cleveland in 1969, many believe it became the symbol of out-of-control pollution that was needed to get the Clean Water Act passed.
I don't remember who said "those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it." but it seems especially appropriate during this, shall we say, unique period in American history.
What?
No condemnation from the Russian press of Putin hacking into the DNC and possibly affecting the outcome of the presidential election in the US?
Shocking!
When I want the straight scoop I always look to the Russian press first and Fox News second.
"The United States will continue its unwavering commitment to the safety of the State of Israel."
Israel is a nuclear power with missiles ready to deliver those warheads to any country within the middle east. Israel has an air force far superior to any nation in the region. Israel has a well equipped army, thanks to the US.
My point being....Israel is perfectly capable of defending its own borders. If Trump is right about anything it is the US should not commit to being the Rambo of the world .
He could reduce his military budget increase by one billion dollars and put five thousand coal miners back to work making $40,0000 a year for five years....restoring leveled mountain tops into solar farms.
But then Raytheon would object. Just a thought.
He also had a role in Hidden Figures. He definitely has a stage presence on screen and I suspect a long career ahead of him.
I had not made the association between Bannon and Milo...interesting. According to "Fake News" there is a small group ready to turn in their resignations if Milo is not fired. This comes on the heels of his book deal being canceled as well as his invitation to speak to the "Family Values" Protestants at CPAC, a group that is fine with pu$$y grabbing but not so much with pedophilia.
Flynn is a 30 year military man who respects the chain of command. He would never talk relaxing sanctions without being advised by his commander, that being DJTrump. Knowing this the GOP will blame Yates and whoever leaked to cover for Commissar Trump.
Here is what a lifelong Republican recently wrote..
Mark P. Painter, a lifelong Cincinnatian, served as a judge for 30 years.
As Charles P. Pierce said in Esquire last week, “I swear, it's like we elected the Clampetts, if the Clampetts were grifters.”
Flynn was in the military for 30 years. He knows the chain of command. In my opinion a military man would not take it upon himself to discuss sanctions, etc. without clearing it with the Commander in Chief.
Look for a wag the dog play by Trump to get the press off of his scent.
Putin is a mafioso thug who would have made Capone proud...."I have built my organization upon fear." Al Capone
Trump in his own small hands way attempts to intimidate the press and his opponents so they will fear him.
Using The Donald's own rhetoric..."They are bring in drugs, murderers and rapist" why isn't Mexico on the list of countries banned?
Now that we have a president the Duck Dynasty/ Sarah Palin "Might is Right" warmongers can rally behind, because Commissar Trump is ordained by God, bring on the wall to wall coverage of American missiles illuminating the night sky over Tehran. You can almost hear Hannity saying...."America is great again!"
For eight years the Trumpketeers have suffered under, in their view, a weak president who put health care ahead of a Syrian intervention. A president who made peace with Iran rather than bombing them. Adding insult to injury he was black.
Sidelined by Obama, the neocons have gleefully watched Trump pump up the adrenaline of that segment of the American population, mostly angry whites, to the point even members of the Iranian navy giving our sailors the finger is excuse enough to blow Iranian boats of the water.
Trump is too stubborn and insecure to make peace with enemies, he has to destroy them. That might work in real estate and on reality shows but I think he will find Iran is not as easy to humiliate as Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Trump supports torture because it plays into his fake news policy. Whether it be voter fraud, crowd size, building a wall with Pesos or Making America Great Again he is the quintessential con man who twist lies into alternate facts.
That said he is going to be so easily manipulated into getting us into a war. Today we read Commissar Trump supports "Safe zones" for Syrians. Rather than a safe zone Syrians who enter will be guinea pigs just waiting for the right international incident. This will almost certainly set off a full scale war pitting the US against Assad and Putin. Tonight there is rejoicing at AIPAC and Raytheon.
Having just read this mind numbing article about the many religious factions involved in the Syrian conflict I am more firmly convinced than ever Obama was correct to stay the hell out of that quagmire.
I agree the photos released of a child in an ambulance stirs our anger and emotions, but only those Gucci wearing chickenhawk neocons, who still think we were victorious in Iraq and who mistakenly believe our troop are some type of comic book super heroes with invincible powers, could ever think our involvement is such a maze would do anything more than create thousands of flag draped coffins and a loss of billions of dollars.
Let Assad be. Take a lesson from Iraq, Lebanon and Libya and follow the creed of doctors...First do no harm.
Trump himself is displaying an autocratic bent with his challenge to change our 1st amendment rights. A position that would blend in with totalitarian fundamentalist zealots.
Just last week Trump's spokesperson went ballistic when he supported a NYTs editor being jailed for perceived anti Trump coverage. This is in keeping with his constant berating of journalist, other than Hannity and O'Reilly.
You will remember Trump pleased his rabid Wrestlemania supporters by vowing to jail his former opponent, Hillary,....Putin style. A frightening comment was made by a member of Trump's transition team when he said protesters marching against Trump's policies should be investigated by the FBI and potentially jailed for their activity.
The list of intimidating statements is a daily occurrence in Trump World. I do not think this will end well.
I just read that Sheldon Adelson is a huge supporter of John Bolton and is pushing for Bolton to be in a position of power.
So much for draining the swamp, a term that will take on new meaning if Sarah Palin is picked to head up the EPA.
The Trump appointees are going to make the GW Bush cabinet look like the faculty at Harvard.
The engine that drives religious belief is not love as in "Love thy neighbor" but fear. Fear of God's wrath or eternal damnation.
Trump was able to sell fear to a battle weary country along with a side dish of prejudice. Fear of Hillary importing "600,000 mostly dark skinned immigrants the first year." Fear of Hillary, with her past as a neocon hawk, further selling out the middle class. Fear that a woman cannot lead this country as efficiently as a man.
Lastly, just as with Jeb and Bush fatigue there was definitely a reluctance to suffer through four more years of the inevitable Clinton scandals and the huckster like behavior of selling the Lincoln bedroom to the hightest bidder. The Bush era is dead and now we bury the Clintons.
As an American who reluctantly voted for Hillary, I sincerely hope Trump will prove to be the best president to ever serve in that office. My head tells me to fear for the worst.
Here is a quote from a Trump supporter here is South Carolina that shows how far apart were are on this pre-election week....“I’ll put it to you this way: If the Taliban had a football team, I’d pull for them before Hillary Clinton (if she) had a football team.”
While I have cast my ballot for Hillary I can't fault Trump for tapping into a mother load of discontent. Our borders are not secure. Our politicians have given incentives to companies to seek out cheap labor in foreign countries while the Clintons and Trumps profit from this arrangement.
Needless wars were started by the Bushes and supported by the Clintons. Wars that have wasted valuable lives and resources here at home and in the middle east. The national debt is out of control hanging over our collective heads like a guillotine while Hillary and Bill give million dollar speeches to Wall St. tycoons and Trump shuns his responsibilities to pay taxes on his multi million dollar income.
Trump was the wrong messenger but he proved there is a pent up demand for a leader who will end the madness of perpetual wars coupled with uncontrolled waste, fraud and abuse.
The danger is that political elites and large corporations might find a more skilled politician who can sell the American public on the idea we need a strong Fascist leader to solve our problems.
Halloween movie...."Carlos Danger".....starring Tony Weiner and Huma Abedin.
What a great name for a horror picture actress...Huma Abedin....right up there with Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi.
"In the past, the US military has warned the Saudis against hitting civilian infrastructure."
Good one.
* Reducing taxes paid by billionaires.
"Trickle down economics" is a con that goes like this...Give the rich more money and they will share it with you. (Belly laugh)
Simply put...with the browning of America, Trump is the Great White Hope to the "Lock her up" mob.
Exporting 11 million immigrants, forget that it would take twenty years, billions of dollars, overburden our courts and an immigration police force the size of an army, that kind of rhetoric is mother's milk to his Wrestlemania following.
The carnage in Iraq reminds me of the WW II battle for Berlin and atrocities committed throughout the Pacific Islands.
Here is a posting from AntiWar.com reporting on the latest brutality and hell on earth conditions Iraqis are facing. link to original.antiwar.com
Watching Trump read his prepared text at the Al Smith dinner he reminded me of a fifth grade student reading "What I did this summer" essay before the class. He had the comic timing of Charlie Manson doing stand up.
This is a man who is not capable of solving complex problems without the threat of violence or other extreme measures.
18 more days and he can go back to promoting Wrestlemania to the same fans who attend his rallies.
I am suspicious of a no fly zone. What does a US fighter pilot do if he encounters a Russian fighter in the zone? Can the zone be used by rebels to operate with impunity?
With the disastrous results we see taking place in Libya, some would call Hillary's War, I don't trust her or her neocon advisers to improve the life of the average Syrian. She admitted this in her emails saying...." A no fly zone will kill a lot of Syrians."
Here is a well done report from CNN showing Syria's Aleppo before and after the bombings. As a lover of architecture this kind of savagery and destruction of irreplaceable ancient structures both saddens and angers me. link to youtube.com
Mike Judge produced an interesting movie named Idiocracy, a movie that predicts a time in the future when US is ruled by a former wrestling champion (Trump promoted Wrestlemania.) Watching the Trump rallies I think of this movie often.
As for the fall of Rome, I think Trump, being the star who can abuse any woman he wants, is more the like the emperor Caligula.
Listening to the NBC report last night I think they mentioned Iran four times in the one minute report. It sounded like AIPAC wrote the script for the reporter.
Trump is, in his juvenile mind, Caligula. He is the emperor who can take what he wants because he is (belly laugh) a star
It.s weird you bring up Donahue. Yesterday I was thinking of how he was pushed out of the door by Chris Matthews and other newly converted Iraq war zealots.
As for Trump, he conquered the field of GOP sad cast of characters by using the kind of bombast he learned during his days of promoting WrestleMania. Here is a well put together clip from YouTube that illustrates this point of view. Notice the crowd at the WWE event is similar to those you see at Trump rallies. This is not to say they are bad people or even ignorant (My attorney is a Trump man) just a group of angry white males....link to youtube.com
"She maintained that if the regime were overthrown, it would create a vacuum within which “quickly filled” by “terrorists of all stripes.”
Can you really argue with that point of view?
9-11, as horrific as it was, dwarfs in comparison to the PNAC policy enacted by Bush/ Cheney to remove Saddam. We now know there was no threat from Saddam's rag tag military and that he had no ongoing nuclear program yet Bush pushed congress to authorize his use of our military to settle old scores.
Using a similar law one might conclude Iraqi families could sue the US for turning their country into a Mad Max hell for no viable reason other than....Bush knew he could.
Not to overuse the word "Dwarf" but imagine several million Iraqis suing the US for damages.
I live in Lindsey Graham country, South Carolina, where Boeing happens to have a large manufacturing plant. Lindsey is caught between supporting what is right for his constituents and pleasing AIPAC. What's a guy to do?
It wold be interesting to hear what approach the man who knows more than generals, Mr. Trump, would take as president but at the moment our ratings obsessed news organizations seem to be fixated on the all important birther question.
Anderson Cooper has a great segment in which one general says...."Taking oil is good idea if you lived in the 16th century." Another comment...." Iraq is now our ally are 16 million Iraqis going to stand by and watch us take their oil. Trump is a businessman, maybe he has it figured out. I personally cannot wrap my mind around it."
link to rawstory.com
Ask who is funding Daesh and you get a crazy quilt answer...Like from this Russian friendly site....which is probably needs an update....
"In Daesh’s role as opposing Syria (just one of its many roles) the terrorist outfit is believed to have received funding from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, as part of their opposition to the Assad regime.
But it also generates its own income, having taken control of local businesses, taxing others, and selling oil. Among its customers, incredibly, is Syria. Since Daesh controls much of the oil-production infrastructure in the country, Syria has little choice but to purchase oil from the very group that seeks to overthrow its government.
Reports also indicate that Israel is a main buyer of Daesh oil. The sale is not direct; oil is smuggled by Kurdish and Turkish smugglers, and then Turkish and Israeli negotiators determine the price. As a result of these oil sales, Daesh has annual revenues estimated at $500 million, according to data compiled by the U.S. Treasury.
In November of this year, Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed that Daesh is being financed by at least 40 countries — including G20 members. With such widespread financing, it will be difficult to defeat Deash."
If this explanation is true you can ask why has this war lasted so long and you get the same answer....Follow the money.
And as president , H Clinton vows to don her Mighty Mouse cape and burst into...."Syria!!! Here I come to save the day!"
The US has been cautious about going toe to toe with other super powers. The preference has been to do battle with warlord controlled militias and rag tag armies (Iraq) that have limited if any navy, air force or standing army. Even then the results have been disastrous. Obama knows Russia and Iran are a different animal. The question is will Hillary or Trump know?
The GOP has gone insane. All Trump has to do is feed his supporters headlines without details....Build a Wall....I'm Going to Bring Jobs Back....Bomb ISIL So Hard....Press is Corrupt...Hillary is Crooked...We're Going to Have Such a Great Economy.....No Middle East Immigrants...I'll Replace Obamacare with Something So Much Better....I'll Rebuild the Military....and finally....I'm Going to Make America Great Again!!!
Feel free to wipe face with palm.
I find the different factions waging war in Syria much like the presidential election here at home....There is no one to cheer for.
In 2003 Ashleigh Banfield gave a speech at Kansas State University in which she complained of networks love of videos showing rockets being fired and the explosions but didn't take the time to cover the carnage we inflicted on the population of Iraq....For this she was fired and spent the next few years at Court TV...Here is part of that speech that in retrospect sounds prophetic, in light of the weekly terrorist attacks the world endures........
"War is ugly and it's dangerous, and in this world the way we are discussed on the Arab street, it feeds and fuels their hatred and their desire to kill themselves to take out Americans. It's a dangerous thing to propagate."
As a residential builder I attended a conference in Atlanta. At the conference I learned of new technology.... solar panels that would heat water. The heated water would, via pipes, heat rocks stored in a concrete tank in the basement or in the ground Then fans would blow the heat into the home. That was almost 40 years ago during the oil embargo. After the crisis passed and oil returned to normal and below normal levels alternative energy was put on the back burner.
Although that engineering still exist it posed many problems. Today Musk is leading the way in solar and battery powered production that might.....just might....lead to individual homes being almost completely off the grid. Eliminate costly heating and cooling bills paid to utility companies would mean billions of dollars per month could be funneled back into the economy creating more purchasing power for the average family or funneled into their 401ks.
All of this terror and hell going on as an oblivious W. churns out more ridiculously bad oil paintings. This is the end game of Bush telling Blair...."I want to kick some ass!"
I don't know how Purple Heart recipient DJ Trump could have gotten this wrong.
Although back up to $42 a barrel....oil briefly dipped below $40 and there speculations it will go lower.
With all of the wars having been fought through out history over oil.... solar, wind and power generated by ocean currents could be a catalyst for peace. Sorry Dick Cheney!
All Iran has to do is call Trump a genius and a fabulous businessman and they will be his life long friend.
If Obama had followed McCain/ Lindsey Graham's advice, the tag team equivalent of Richard Pearl and Joe Lieberman, and ordered generals to deploy ground troops into Syria we would have found our soldiers fighting side by side with the organization blamed for 9-11. The needless loss of life and treasury would have been staggering.
With Assad deposed Syria could expect the kind of war and mayhem now being experienced by Iraq for a generation or more. Speaking of which, Huff Post is reporting a million Iraqis might have to flee their homes in the next few weeks.
Thanks Bush/ Cheney....Mission Accomplished!
Support for Hillary is, to use an old expression, a mile wide and an inch thick. With all of her, in my opinion, justified negatives the big question is....Will she inspire blacks, Bernie's Babies and Latinos to stand in line to vote for her? I think the fear of what Trump is proposing might push the minorities and Bernie's supporters to vote, not so much FOR Hillary, as AGAINST Trump.
As Bette Davis said..."Fasten your seatblets, it's going to be a bumpy ride."
Summation of the GOP convention and all of the adoring delegates fawning over Trump....He is their Great White Hope.
Trump says Obama should have known domestic terrorist were about to commit random acts of terrorism while he doesn't even know his wife's speech is a carbon copy of Ms. Obama's speech. Now we're told the plagiarized speech was Hillary's fault.
Just the tip of the iceberg if Mr. T becomes our Commander in Chief.
Woody Guthrie's song takes on a different meaning when sung by Rep. King to the GOP convention....
This land is your land This land is my land
From California to the New York island;
From the red wood forest to the Gulf Stream waters
This land was made for you and Me. ( AND NO ONE ELSE!!)
The Republican platform calls for the bible to be taught in schools... If you need another example of religion being forced on our children.
I suspect Pence will make a campaign stop at Ken Ham's Ark.
Prof Cole writes....' Work to strengthen democracy and inclusiveness and basic human rights."
Didn't we hear Bush and his henchmen use that ideology as a rallying cry prior to the invasion of Iraq? Fact is...this country is not very good at convincing allies, Egypt, Iraq, Israel and or Saudi Arabia...to be inclusive much less Iran, Libya or Syria.
One reason for our lack of success in this region is that, unfortunately, our motives and policies are never purely altruistic.
Maybe McDonough's thinking is not that far off the mark.
You know there is no valid reason for going to war when you have to come up with a bogus scare tactic to rally the American people for a needless war. Bush just couldn't say..."Saddam tried to kill my daddy" and garner a lot of support for war...outside of Texas.
The Bush administration formed what was known as the Iraq War Group, a group consisting of Wolfowitz, Madeline Carville and others, in order to concoct an excuse the public and press would buy into in order to gain support for the invasion.
The scare tactic they agreed on..... Saddam was developing nuclear weapons. To drive this point home Condi Rice ramped up the rhetoric when she made her infamous speech about this country "Waking up to a mushroom cloud" if he was not removed..all part of the con job.
After no WMDs were found Wolfowitz later admitted..."Maybe we pushed the WMD thing a bit too far." This after mothers and fathers were weeping over their sacrificed sons as they buried them in national cemeteries.
To paraphrase the line used during the banking crisis...Hillary...Is too big to jail.
At Military.com they are reporting the US has trained less than 100 combatants and the ones they have trained at a base in Turkey have returned to Syria, dropped out of the army and gave their weapons to the opposition. We can only speculate how much this fiasco cost the US taxpayer. Joining forces with Putin is a good move...link to military.com
Uygur is wasting his time criticizing Trump. Trump knows a few things about his militaristic right wing Christian GOP supporters. He plays on their basic instincts to separate oneself from perceived danger, whetter it be a rattlesnake, fire, or as in this case, radical Muslims.
The Palin/ Trump knee jerk reaction to Boston, Paris and now Turkish bombings....No Muslim immigrants....No terrorist attacks. No Mexican immigrants...No illegal drug traffic....More jobs for Americans.
It's all so simple, a cakewalk if you will, not unlike the game plan to remove a dictator in Iraq and establish a democracy. or bomb Tehran in order to save the world from a nuclear threat.
Trump and his supporters still buy into John Wayne's tough guy American cowboy approach to diplomacy...."My guns do my talking."
It's doesn't sound like a perfect situation between the Sunnis and Shia but it is encouraging Iraqis troops can fight their own battles without US soldiers shedding blood.
Here in the US Hillary has said no ground troops while Trump is saying the generals are telling him 20,000 to 30,000 US troops to fight ISIL. This is a flip flop from his earlier foreign policy of "Let them kill each other."
As a South Carolinian, known for our relentless fascination with the civil war, I would be interested in hearing a person or persons with knowledge of US history compare the similarities, or not, of the south's decision to leave the US union and the Brexit vote to leave the European Union. It appears that race, religion and economics played into both decisions.
Had trump been shot the victims from the Orlando club shooting could have issued a statement saying....If only Trump had been armed this could have been avoided
.
Presidential candidate D.J. Trump has said in the past his reaction to such "Terrorist acts" would be to kill the shooter's family. It will be interesting to see if today he still support sthat approach to suppressing massacres.
I would bet their file on Prof. Cole takes up an entire file cabinet.
Couple this anti free speech law with Sen. Boxer and husband attempting to make it illegal and worthy of being dismissed as a student or faculty on a California campus just for speaking or writing anti Israel remarks.
Speaking of denying free speech it took an odd form this past week. I happen to detest Mr. Trump but it was disturbing to watch Latinos chasing Trump supporters through the streets of San Jose. These thugs and their sucker punches brought back memories of blacks being beaten by rednecks in the streets of Selma and Jews being kicked and beaten by Nazis in pre war Germany.
This will be an election to remember and I fear not in a good way.
I think of a similar patriot by the name of Ed Snowden as I remember Ali risking his livelihood and freedom to make their voices heard against Big Brother and the war machine. Both of these men remind me of the line, which I paraphrase, from Julius Caesar....The coward dies many times the Valiant dies but once."
I just read at Anti-war.com that over 4000 Iraqis were killed and 2000 plus wounded in May alone. That's a 9-11 occurring every month in Iraq thanks to Bush, Cheney and Blair....all of whom are enjoying the good life in retirement.
Holder reminds me of the Big Bad Wolf from the fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood who would like to get Snowden to return to the US (Grandma's house) so he might be eaten by the (Big Bad Wolf) justice department. Snowden is no fool. He knows Fox and CNN would go into full "Snowden is a traitor mode" with no dissension allowed.
Last week I listened to Laura Ingraham, right wing radio host and rabid Trump groupie, sneer at Obama for going to Japan and apologizing for, her words, "Vaporizing people." First off...he did not apologize to anyone but rather gave a speech the Pope could have delivered.
Secondly, the nonchalance with which Laura spoke of "Vaporizing" men, women and children speaks to the evilness of the American neocon empire and their total disregard for what they euphemistically call "Collateral damage."
Obama has certainly not been a perfect president but standing up to Netanyahu and his bought and paid for Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran politicians here in the US will always in my mind be worthy of a Bronze Star for heroics.
What brilliant strategy is in place to fill the vacancy left by the demise of al Assad?
I think I've got. The US is training The Syrian Democratic Force comprised of Kurdish and leftist Peoples Protection Units along with 5000 to 6000 Arab fighter allied with the Kurds but the US has provided them with no heavy weaponry.
The US is also accused of supporting hard line Salafi groups like the Army of Islam and the Freemen of Syria; it even said US support extended to the al-Qaeda affiliate, the Nusra Front and that Saudi Arabia and Turkey were also behind the Salafis.
Then we have the Mahdi Army or Peace Brigades of Iraqi Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr who are fighting as a militia in Iraq on the side of the government of Bashar al-Assad against the Salafis.
Let us not forget....there is a danger that with Russian backing the al-Assad regime could roll up a lot of the rebel forces and so reestablish its stability.
Russia is also friendly with the Syrian Kurds, so some of Washington’s new haste to deploy the SDF against Daesh may derive they might go to Russia for backing.
Thank You Dr. Cole... piece of cake.
Could Iraq not argue the US invaded and destroyed their country based on jingoistic rhetoric and fabricated evidence supplied by what the Bush administration knew were dubious sources, such as Curveball and easily disproved accusations concerning metal tubes and bogus yellow cake documentation. The invasion has led to continued chaos causing loss of life as well as hundreds of thousands Iraqi civilians wounded or displaced. The total tab could reach several trillion dollars when you figure in pain and suffering added to actual damages to homes, businesses and infrastructure.
While we are fantasizing, we can discuss Bush and Blair being charged with crimes against humanity.
The Clintons pick up the sent of money like a bloodhound. Protecting a penniless population would not be good or profitable for the Clinton Foundation.
Actually the goal of the neocons such as the Project For a New American Century, was to destabilze the middle east. Originally, as presented on this video, Israel was to be the military force to take down dictators throwing their rivals into wars carried out by rial factions, then they realized the US would do the fighting for them. It seems to be working beautifully as Israel quietly plunders the and steals the remaining land in Gaza and the West Bank. Take fifteen minutes to watch the video. link to youtube.com
He may be a bombastic snake oil salesman when he is in his off the cuff bloviator mode but when it comes to giving a serious scripted speech his delivery is akin to a first year divinity student. I'm sure the leaders of ISIS are quaking in their sandals right about now.
President Hillary will be Dick Cheney in a pant suit. She is certainly a career politician who would reject the populist approach for one designed to cater to powerful lobbies. When Hillary is president I'm sure the price of sleeping in the Lincoln bedroom will rise significantly from the days when Bill was in the oval office.
How can the American public rally behind our forces being deployed into a war zone that includes the YPG, SDF, Kurds, Sunni Arabs, Christian, Assyrian, Armenians and the Syrian army? In that this country recently spent hundreds of millions of dollars to build a fighting force in that region, which produced 5 fighting soldiers, I would not want to see our young men sacrificed in a war that has no end game.
Hillary's indebtedness to Saban is evidenced by her adoption of his views on the Israeli- Palestinian issue. This is exactly what Sanders has been talking about throughout the campaign. If Hillary gets millions from Wall Street and is paid a quarter of a million dollars to give a speech by billionaires....who do you think will have her ear if she makes it to the oval office? I have no doubt she would throw us under the bus to please the AIPAC constituency.
Somewhat in defense of Hillary. She is not alone in bowing to big money. It's prevalent in local mayor races all the way to the the race for the presidency. Bernie might be the exception to the rule.
Just having appeased the AIPAC hawks with a speech worthy of a Dick Cheney seal of approval my thoughts are turning to which neocon (s) will be appointed to be Sec. of State...Defense Secretary and who would be picked as her running mate ( Corey Booker?)in the Hillary Clinton administration? Thank God Richard Holbrooke is not available for any of the above.
Dick Cheney in a pantsuit.
I can either vote for Trump, God help me, or I can stay home. Those are my choices on election day.
I know humanitarian aid is not nearly as titillating as watching explosives knock down buildings or rockets fired from jets but wouldn't it be noble if the negotiators would first address the more mundane work of providing food and water for the starving and displaced refugees in Syria.
It would be a step in the right direction if Russia, Turkey and the US would exert as much effort and spend as much money providing support for peaceful purposes as they did in tearing the country apart.
On second thought....who am I kidding...that's not going to happen.
Over at David Stockman's Contra Corner he writes....
"Containing and defeating ISIS is the job of the Shiite Crescent. Hasn’t Washington created enough failed states—-Iraq, Syria, Libya, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia etc.—–already?"
Jeffery Goldberg in his Atlantic article admonishes Obama for setting a "Red Line" in Syria and then ignoring his line in the sand. Goldberg does make the rare admission that the gassing of Syrians was probably not the work of Assad, removing a neocon talking point for involving our troops in a free for all in Syria.
As in the case of Bush the Idiot foreign policy of either Hillary or Trump may depend on who they pick as their advisers and cabinet members.
Prof. Cole....Thank you for watching so we don't have to.
I just read this morning what a devout Catholic Rubio proclaims to be. Last week Cruz's father told of how the Cruz family stayed on their knees for hours asking God for a sign as to whether Ted should run for the GOP nomination. Surprise!!...God told him to run.
Now these holy men are tripping over each other as they deny "The least of these" Palestinians basic human rights while Ted vows to make the sand glow in the middle east from carpet bombing. It seems paradoxical to profess to be servants of God while rejecting biblical text such as...Blessed are the peacemakers.
Regretfully, Hillary possesses the same bloody vampire fangs as the GOP candidates. I think we are going to miss Mr. Obama.
Only our bought and paid for politicians and the warmongers care for anything Mr. Netanyahu has to say. He lost me on 9-11 when he said the attack on the WTC was "Very good."
(Ninth paragraph) link to nytimes.com
My favorite.... Pyramids were used as grain silos.