Time to form a new party without the Clinton Gang. Pelosi and Schumer use the same bait and switch tactics the Republicans have perfected to fool their base.
Let the dead bury the dead: It is time to form a new party and let the Democratic hacks figure out how to pay all those IOU's to the high rollers.
Yup, charge up your cars with electricity from the nuclear power plants before they shut down.
With two ageing, low lying, nuclear plants in the path of this huge storm I'm think more about Fukushima than Teslers.
I don't give a damn about the money. This is about sending American kids to a foreign country to satisfy the racist fantasies of a crazy President and his idiot "Base".
"IF I were fierce, and bald, and short of breath,
I’d live with scarlet Majors at the Base,
And speed glum heroes up the line to death.
You’d see me with my puffy petulant face,
Guzzling and gulping in the best hotel,
Reading the Roll of Honour. ‘Poor young chap,’
I’d say—‘I used to know his father well;
Yes, we’ve lost heavily in this last scrap.’
And when the war is done and youth stone dead,
I’d toddle safely home and die—in bed."
This poem was written about British Staff Officers in WW I
But I've always felt it truly describes the cowardly, Neocon, Chicken Hawks, like Friedman, who always want to sent other people to war while they stay safe at home.
Freidman is double Chicken Hawk: Too cowardly to fight for his beloved Israel or the United States.
Trump's strategy is to put the inevitable collapse of Afghanistan off until he is out of Office. The invasion of Afghanistan was just stupid, but America's elite Establishment went all in on it, along with our equally stupid invasion of Iraq.
Just like Vietnam, it will go on and on because no one in power has the guts to admit it was a stupid idea in the first place and they were wrong.
The Republicans are just acting like Republicans, It's the Democrats, under control of the Clinton Gang, who have given control of the Government to the 1%.
Trump bankrupted a casino, Hillary backs our oil wars that have killed a million people and caused the refugee crisis that is breaking apart the EU.
We need a new Party without the corrupt Clinton gang.
As some readers have pointed out: Although Trump is a demented fool, his policies towards the environment are standard issue Republican.
We are about to see a Republican feeding frenzy on mother earth. These greedy little swine are going to do all the horrid thing they have been promising their 1% masters they would do if they ever got the power again.
This is the time to form a new Political Party. The Democratic Party is still controlled by the Clinton Gang and it's addiction to money, so it's been neutered. The Clintons are like herpes: They may go hide for awhile, but they'll be back.
To recognize a Country you need a Treaty.
The Constitution provides that the president "shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two-thirds of the Senators present concur" .
Therefore, no recognition of a Palestinian State ever.
Throughout history and around the world the ruling classes have used racism and religion to control the masses and even get them to support the systems that oppress them.
And, it always seems to work.
Iran has the ability to destabilize the gulf region. An unstable gulf means higher oil prices and may make Europe turn to Russia for it's oil.
With an obliviously insane President Trump and Americas two failed wars in the region and Americas support of anything Israel does,Russia has a good chance to become an even greater power in the region.
The IDF is used by Israel to oppress and kill Palestinians in their native country, I don't think it matters if they have "Gender Equality" in their ranks.
Professor, do you even know any members of the working class? Your comments on the Middle East are insightful but you seem totally disconnected from the realities of the working class in this country.
I live in Ellison's district. I'm a disabled Vietnam Veteran and had a problem with the VA. I contacted Ellison's office and got to speak with a very nice Somali woman who didn't seem to understand what the VA was. She told me to write a letter and they would look into it.
Like Hillary, Ellison has a lot of good proposals that he, like she, knows would never get through Congress. Working people have been getting this run around for years from the Democrats and are sick of it.
My story had a happy ending, I called Al Franken's office and spoke to a staff member who knew what I was taking about and he contacted the VA for me and got things straighten out.
If your looing for a real Democrat to replace the Clinton Gang, why don't you look at Al Franken? He's honest, realistic and working people vote for him.
I find myself in the terrible position of have no choice but to vote for someone I don't like or trust to insure that a dangerously deranged man does not become President.
I'm afraid Hillary will get us more involved in the Syrian Civil War with disastrous results, but Trump is so bad she is still the best choice.
Bush/Cheney, Obama and Clinton have made such a mess of things it's hard to see a way out of this self imposed tragedy the U S Government has gotten us into.
It's a given that Trumps ideas and plans will never happen, but neither will Hillary's.
Everything Hillary proposes will cost money or cost rich people money and will have to pass Congress.
It's just silly to think any of that is going to pass the Republican controlled House.
Trump and Clinton are both selling us a bill of goods that can and will never happen.
And concerning our unending stupid oil wars: Both Candidates are preaching a variation on "More of the Same" which has been a 10+ year disaster.
So Hillary and Trump are both lying to the American people and the only thing this election proves is the utter bankruptcy of our political system.
ISIS Leadership and Command will withdraw before the battle, leaving small groups of fighters, who will put up stiff resistance, necessitating air strikes that they will avoid by falling back to secondary positions before the bombs fall, leaving the civilians and infrastructure to take the punishment.
This will be repeated over and over again until many thousands of civilians are killed and the city is in ruin. Then the last of the fighters will slip out of town.
Obama will declare a great Victory and Hillary will claim a vindication of the Obama/Clinton strategy in fighting ISIS and Terrorist everywhere.
Throw in a few bombed Hospitals and some atrocities by Shite fighters and you have our upcoming battle.
It's all so sadly predictable.
The money lost is really minor compared to the loss of our democracy. We now have a fourth branch of Government that is neither elected, impeachable or in any way accountable to the citizens: The Military.
I was a Sargent in the Marines, 1965-69 with a year in Vietnam and I'm not talking about the brave young men and women who fill the ranks and do the fighting and dyeing, it the arrogant, ignorant, corrupt "Professional Officer Corps" that has lead and lied the country into every insane military blunder since Vietnam.
Now we are looking to a Hillary Clinton Presidency. Mrs. Clinton is so out of touch with reality that after supporting our debacles in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria she supported doing the same thing over again in Libya.
We seem to be in a death spiral with oil wars and our "Finest Fighting force in the world" that can't even control tiny, poor , primitive Afghanistan just going on and on while the Political Class cheers our monumental failures and promises more of the same.
The Chinese are coming! Cry Havoc!
Step back and take a deep breath, folks. And get a grip.
OK - China is nosing around, big deal. It doesn't change the fact we have no business in the Syrian Civil War and the defeat of ISIS will be the birth of another movement that's main goal is to get America out of their country.
Before going any further I suggest you go to Tom Dispatch today and read the fine repost of Andrew Bacevich's Pentagon, Inc. from 1-27-11 and then look at Vox's "27 maps that explain the crisis in Iraq" to get an idea what is happening.
The least worst situation might be Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran losing a little territory to form Kurdistan, Iraq splitting into Northern Sunni Iraq and Southern Shiite Iraq but this doubtful.
China and Russia are minor problems, Warrior Queen Hillary is about to walk away with the Presidency any all the things you hate about the Clintons ( they come in pairs, like scissors and pants) are going to become national policy.
I think Hillary is just as delusional as Trump but we are so used to avaricious, dishonest, warmongering Neocons that she doesn't seem as dangerous as she really is.
Hillary and the Pentagon are the real threat to world peace, not Russia or China,.
Our oil based economy created ISIS. It wasn't just Bush/Chaney and the Neocons that got us into The Iraq oil wars debauches: It was the entire U S ruling establishment, including Warrior Queen Hillary, that got us into this mess.
Yes, Trump is dangerously insane, but Hillary Clinton can look at the mess we made in Afghanistan and Iraq and do exactly the same thing in Libya and really be surprised when the same thing happens. That shows she is pretty crazy too.
The U S Government is committed to controlling Middle Eastern oil, so whoever is President, we will be involved in Imperialistic oil wars in the Middle East until there is a real change in American policy, and with both major political parties owned by Wall Street and the 1%, I just don't see that happening.
Professor Cole, I am absolutely dumbfounded at your continuing belief in the Clintons ( like shoes, they come in a pair - Oh, what a pair)! After NAFTA, which has destroyed Mexico's rural economy and help turn Mexico into a failed Narco State, the deregulation of the Banks and not regulating derivatives which lead directly to the crash of 08'. Hillary voting for and continuing to support our Imperialistic oil wars, their dishonesty and lying and mind boggling corruption, their support for the rape and pillage of the planet for the short term profit of the 1%.
After all this and much more you still think Hillary is going the change and appoint "Liberals" to the supreme Court!
Citizen's United gave the 1% the legal cover to buy our Government and you think Hillary is going to do anything to upset that? One thing you can say about the Clintons is when you buy them they deliver so the chance of anything but a plutocrat friendly appointment is about nil.
The Clintons will do what the Clintons have always done: Work for the 1% and the Clintons.
And a note on Neanderthals, They lived peacefully within their environment for a few hindered thousand years until us Homo Sapiens showed up, then they went extinct.
We Homo Sapiens may be the smartest monkeys on the third rock from the Sun, but we ae also the most violent, greediest and most self destructive.
Welcome to the Monkey House, Professor Cole.
Silverman is irrelevant but Franken is a great example of a "Clinton Democrat" or Republican Lite politician.
He campaigned as a progressive but once in Office he has worked for ethanol producers, agribusiness and the Banks.
The Clintons and the likes of Franken have turned the Democratic Party into the other party of the rich and given us essentially a one party phony democracy.
Don't blame the Sunni and Shi'a for the bloody mess the United States made by invading Iraq to steal the oil.
Our Government only current concern is to support the Shi'a Government in hopes of getting a shot at the oil once the Sunni are put down.
It has always been about oil and after 10+ years, a million deaths millions made refugies and 2 Trillion dollars spent it's all still about the oil.
Ka-Ching! Cuomo just nailed down all the money he will ever need for any political campaign he wants to run.
Can't wait to see what Hillary is going to do for Israel.
A three way civil war, we are backing the Bagdad government in the hope we will get access to the oil. this has always been an imperialistic oil war: Started by Bush/Cheney continued by Obama/Clinton and to be carried forward by Warrior Queen Hillary. With the Pentagon Generals singing "There's a light at the end of the tunnel - were just about to win!"
Completely empty gesture, Warrior Queen Hillary will listen to Wall Street, the 1% and Israel and the Pentagon is going to get a Dick Cheney with a strap-on
What the elites of both parties don't realize that we poor peasants have had it with their bait and switch game.
This reminds me of my time in Vietnam. The NVA would take a town or cut a vital rout and we would bomb it to oblivion while the NVA withdrew leaving the local civilians to die. Then we would go in finding the NVA long gone but lots of dead civilians. The Generals would declare Victory! And then the NVA would hit another town down the road.
Will the road stay open - Of course not!
All these different parameters and measurements used by academics and think tanks and the Pentagon just show how out of touch with reality they are. Good Lord! We have spent trillions of dollars, killed at least a million people, displaced millions more in our 10 years plus Wars and "our" Governments in Afghanistan and Iraq are not even in control of their own Capital Cities.
Now the candidates, except for Sanders, are arguing about how to dig deeper holes.
" her campaign is funded by millions and millions of dollars from Wall Street"
That is my problem with the Clintons, they are corrupt as Hell! The problems in the middle east are a direct result of our meddling for oil and Israel and Hillary has taken Millions of Dollars from both, and one thing about the Clintons: When they are paid they deliver.
Burning fossil fuels is poisoning the planet but also making Wall Street very rich. If elected Hillary would spend Billions on oil wars because that is what she has been paid to do.
We should use the money we waste on oil wars for replacing fossil fuels with sustainable energy sources.
Can anyone really believe that Hillary would do anything that would cut into the profits of Wall Street?
Hillary is for the Status quo and the status quo is killing the planet.
A Clinton rejecting money. That's hilarious!
But seriously, with Citizens United from the Roberts Court anybody can slip any candidate as much secret money as they want.
Hillary just may be our next Prez, so Informed Comment will have more oil wars and massacres of Palestinians to write about.
The U S is only in Iraq to get at the oil and this will never happen. The Iraqis hate the U S Government and for good reason. We invaded their country to steal the oil and destroyed their society and killed hundreds of thousands of their people, but still our Government thinks they will let us steal their oil. Only an insane person could believe this but Official Washington, from Obama on down are absolutely delusional when it comes to the middle east.
If ISIL is defeated another group will spring up and then another and then another. Iraq is disintegrating and no amount of U S "Boots on the Ground" is going to stop it.
You don't even mention that Obama - Clinton have been just as blood thirsty and wrong as Bush- Cheney.
The wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Libya. The constant barrage of lies about the great progress we are making everywhere.
The same crooked contractors the same endless flow of money.
Our middle east wars are oil wars fought for the 1% who bankrolled bush/ Cheney and Obama/Clinton.
Hillary Clinton will keep up the wars and the killings and the lies because she works for the same people as Bush/Cheney.
It's 2:30 AM and I'm tired but I won't try to sleep. I'm a Vietnam Veteran with PTSD and I know tonight would be a bad one to go to sleep.
So to keep myself busy and distracted I tried this:
In the NY Times search and google I searched "progress in Iraq 2015","progress in Iraq 2012" ,"progress in Iraq 2010" and "progress in Afghanistan 2015" and just followed it back to 2004 for both searches. It was freighting because it was all the same. Presidents, "High Ranking Officials" and the whole Political Establishment admitted things were tough but we were making progress.
My birthday is coming up so I tried the NYT for March, 1946, the year of my birth. You can guess, the French were have some problems in Vietnam but their General said they were making progress.
Professor, your starting to sound like the Nightly News during the Vietnam War: "Our noble allies, with American air support, are re, re, retaking so and so Provence and will soon be on the road to Finale Victory!"
Haven't you read Sun Tzu? "Attack the enemy where he is weak, when he advances with great strength, withdraw and attack at a different weak place."
We have fallen for this same gambit over and over again in Afghanistan and Iraq
Have you ever been in a town or village "Liberated" by U S air power? I have and the folk who were left didn't love us.
No matter how many bombs we drop on them, the Iraqis will not come love us and let us steal their oil, which if you remember, was the whole point of the Iraq invasion.
On the eve of the Civil War a prominent South Carolina Jurist observed: " South Carolina is too small to be a Republic , and too large to be an Insane Asylum "
The last thing the Clintons and the Corporate loving leadership of the Democratic Party wants is the progressive wing to gain any strength.
The Democratic Party has become Republican-Lite, thanks the Democratic Leadership Council and the Clintons who are masters of "Bait and Switch" - They make Progressive noises but work for the Rich.
At this point I'd rather go down with Bernie than go the "Lesser of two Evils" route with Hillary, who would continue the Oil Wars for the 1% and Trade Agreements that give away the ranch to International Corporations and of course, protect the Banks.
It's really time for a New Progressive Party. Things have changed too much for the old Party to remain relevant.
Nice photo op, but price per ton shipping costs will always be much lower by sea and ships can go to any sea port as market demands change.where as a rail road is set in one place.
Pure fantasy!
Senator Graham was one of the first on T V last night spouting the party line of "NO", and where do you get the idea he is principled?
There will be no cross over of Republican Senators and the Republicans will use this as a Battle cry for the rest of the election.
So Obama has no chance of getting anyone on the court. Dose anyone think things will get better after the election? Hillary's choice will be as pro 1% as any of the Republicans.
The Plutocracy has been here since Bill Clinton and there is no end in sight.
Obama is just pulling a Bill Clinton: Make as many rich friends happy just before leaving Office as possible and get those $250,000 "Thank You" notes from the rich after leaving Office.
Worked for Bill, he is worth $100,000,000 now and Hillary will best him if she gets elected.
I'm dumbstruck by how people just except this.
It really is simple: Do you want more of the same or are you willing to take a chance on something new.
Clinton is just more of the same Blood for Oil neocon madness and she is personally corrupt and dishonest.
The lesser of two evils, which is all we ever get to choose, is Sanders.
Obama is just as mad and murderous as Bush/Cheney. In their insane drive to steal Iraq's oil they have made the United States the greatest Terrorists Nation on earth.
No matter how many people we slaughter, the Iraqis are not going to give their oil to the International oil cartels who would be the only ones to profit from our killing.
We have killed Millions of people over the last 10 years and made millions more homeless in our insane wars for oil and we have nothing to show for it but Hillary and the Republicans try to get elected by promising to kill more and there is no opposition to this madness.
It's clearly time for a new Party. The Clintons, the Democratic Leadership Council, and Obama have turned the Democratic Party into Republican Lite. I'll never forget the revulsion I felt when new President Obama crawled up to Wall Street calling the lying jackals that caused the crash of 08' "Savvy Businessmen".
I am supporting Sanders because 8 years of Hillary could be the tipping point of our Democracy and the planet.
Professor Cole;
The U S Government has no allies in the region, we are fighting an imperialistic war to control the oil. The same Neocon fantasy that drove Bush/Cheney to invade Iraq to steal the oil is working in Obama when he tries to win favor with our teetering semi-puppet Shiite government in Iraq by bombing the Sunni cities to rubble, killing thousands of innocent civilians and driving the survivors out.
One of my strongest memories of Vietnam is the smoldering upper torso of a child in the ruins of a village after an American air strike. After seeing that I just can't cheer American Air Strikes like you do.
We are choking our Planet to death with oil and killing millions of people fighting over what's left of it. If we don't get off oil and develop sustainable energy sources out Civilization will surly collapse.
With that in mind I really can't cheer our latest great bombing success.
It's not being mentioned because it an utter disaster. The Iraqi Army, that we have trained and equipped for the third time, can't clear 1000 fighters out of a bomber out ghost town even with U S air support is just another failure in our ever failing oil wars.
I can't see how you can call this a sucess
Excellent analysis, but it leaves out the fact that those "policymakers and experts making the same dumb mistakes time after time" are greatly rewarded for their failures.
The New York Times and its Editors are doing quite nicely after being cheerleaders for the Iraq invasion, Dick Cheney's Halliburton stock has keep him rich and Colin Powell is getting $100, 000 to $200, 000 per speech after lying through his teeth at the UN to get us into the Iraq Invasion.
Stupid blunders make those in high places and their friends rich. Which is quite depressing.
Bush/Cheney invaded Iraq to steal the oil. This tall about being mad or dumb is just smoke to cover our attempt to control the oil for western oil cartels.
Our Government has become so corrupt that unending war to steal oil to keep a few super rich men rich while ignoring the consequences for the vast majority of the people is just excepted as the way things are.
Professor Cole, Why are you still defending Colin Powell? He is a self serving opportunist who lied to the World with his knowingly false speech at the UN and did the bidding of Bush/Cheney in the run up to the war. He is just as guilty as any of them.
The #1 fact kept from the American Public is that Israel has Nuclear Weapons and the means to deliver them in Iran.
Therefore, Iran is not and never will be a threat to Israel because the Iranians do not want to die.
This makes Netanyahu's visit a bit suspect.
" undermine Israeli democracy"
Israel is a democracy as Mississippi was a democracy in 1935.
Israel is a Racist, Theocratic, European Colony that uses terror to control it's subject population. The Palestinian People are trying to throw off Colonial Rule and have the same right of self rule as any other people.
Netanyahu is right, Israel should declare itself a Racist Jewish State - Because that's what it is.
The Republican leaders of the House and Senate are promising to remove the present weak restrictions on Coal, Gas and Oil production and Obama and the Democrats are irrelevant because they depend on Oil Money as much as the Republicans. Now with Secret Money we won't even know who is getting Oil Money.
The Courts?
Obama's Justice Department will not prosecute any more Oil Men than it did Bankers. And who can afford to go against the Oil Men in court.
If everything worked as it should, it would be a good time to get out of Oil. But our government has become corrupt so Oil will be a very good investment for a long time.
Renewables & solar will be axed by the Republicans so Oil will continue to own our Government until people form a new party without quislings like the Clintons and Obama.
With out big change we are doomed.
The "History" being ignored is that Israel has Nuclear Weapons and the means to hit any target in Iran.
Iran is not now or ever will be a threat to Israel because the Iranians do not want to die.
This Bibi & Boehner show was stunt, but Obama is such a coward he will scuttle the Iran deal as ordered.
Bush/Cheney's plan was to invalid Iraq, set up a puppet "Democratic" Pro-Western Government that would let the oil cartels control the oil supply of the Gulf and by extension the world oil market.
This is the Neocon Fantasy and it is still being followed by Obama and it is absolutely insane.
Obama is now going to retrain and reequip the Iraqi Army that we trained and equipped for ten years and countless Billons. The same Army that fell apart and ran away in their first battle, abandoning it's American equipment to the bad guys, to fight alongside the Iranian Army and the American Army.
The Iranians are never going to leave and as soon as we help them whip the bad guys they will turn to the Kurds to get the oil back for the Shi'ite Iraqis, and what will we do then?
Has anyone thought that those thousands of support personnel could be used as hostages?
The Bibi & Boehner Show , with AIPAC shoveling Gold from the balconies, has whip Congress into action to do something against
Iran - anything as long as it makes them seem tough.
Does anyone seriously believe this is not going to blow up in our faces, as usual, again?
It's really very simple: The Iraqis are not going to let us steal their oil so we should stop trying.
We probably could have replaced oil with renewables with the money we wasted on this failed armed robbery, which is no where near over, but that's really going to Fantasy Land.
"General Dempsey, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Iran's military assistance in the Tikrit offensive could be positive as long as it did not fuel sectarian divisions."
An Iranian Shiite Army fight in a Sunni area - What possible problems could arise ?
The Obama War Team is more delusional than Bush/Cheney's. What does Obama think he is going to accomplish?
Is he going to wheel out Cheney to tell us the Insurgency is in it's final throes, or maybe we will be greeted as liberators?
Obama and this nation just will not admit to the destruction we have done to steal Iraq's oil.
The Bibi & Boehner Show was about electioneering and fund raising, Iran is just handy.
They had Adelson and Newt in the balcony just in case someone in Congress forgot how Newt got to win South Carolina and who showers Millions on Bibi.
This was all to get Bibi re elected and start a "who loves Israel more" money fight in Congress. And by making Obama look weak and foolish it will harm Hillary and help Republicans.
The fact that Bibi is a War Criminal who brags of terror bombing woman and children in Gaza just doesn't seem to matter to any of the important people.
Seriously, Folks: We all know Obama will fold and get us into some stupid Military Fiasco that will cost thousands of lives and Billions of Dollars.
Support for Israel brings Money and Votes and people get to stay in Power with Money and Votes so people in Power will support Israel even if it starts using Napalm on the Kids of Gaza.
After the AIPAC Circus and Netanyahu's gig there will be a "Who Loves Israel More" Money Fight in Congress to make points for the upcoming elections in 2016 - Where secret money will rule.
The real threat to America is the corruption of our elected Officials.
Who has kill tens of thousands of innocent Arab women in Afghanistan and Iraq? Who has killed thousands of Palestinian Woman in the Terror bombings of Gaza?
Who is the No. 1 Oppressor of Arab Women ? The Good ol' Christian U S A and our dear Jewish Friends in Israel.
Israel is a "Democracy" in the same sense that Mississippi was a Democracy in 1935.
300,000 Jews from Russian don't have enough untainted "Jewish Blood" to be considered "True Jews"?
What sort of crazy racist nonsense is that? As a non Religious person, I can see no difference between the Racist Whites of Mississippi and the Racist Jews of Israel.
Ol' Bill-O could have gotten just bunches of War experience in Vietnam - but he, like all the Media Giants of his Generation, found one of the outs that only existed for the White Middle Class & above: He became a Teacher at St Bendovers Catholic Boys School.
Catholic Priests & Bill - What a world view those kids must have gotten.
If Giuliani saying something stupid is News Worthy, the Race must be on.
The Earth will travel over 1,000,000,000 miles around the sun before we elect the next President, and as Earth bends and distorts space time, our pols will be distorting and bending reality and reason and spewing it out across the Cosmos via the Electromagnetic spectrum
Professor Cole;
I think you underestimate the power of Fundamentalist Christians in the Republican Base to bolster the Israel Lobby.
Many of those people believe Obama is the Anti-Christ and the world will end soon as predicted in the Book of Revelations.
This is often hard for rational people living in the scientific, technical world to understand, but this is really part of these people's world view and no amount of reality can penetrate this cultic belief.
Then there is the Money. Dose anyone really know what the new rules will bring?
The greatest atrocity committed by modern Christianity is the systematic, institutionalized rape of thousands of young boys by Roman Catholic Clergy.
Religion was invented by the ruling class to support the ruling class.
We are there to steal the oil.
I was a Marine in Vietnam and I know that air strikes can be devastating or useless depending on the target.
But all air strikes need boots on the ground and you need boots on the ground to steal oil, so I'm pretty sure we will be sending troops and I'm just as sure this is going to blow up in our faces.
Bomb the bad guys, support the good guys and they will love us so much they will help us take their one resource .
It's insane, it does not work, but they are going to do it again.
Netanyahu's state sponsored terrorism against the people of Palestine will mainly be a Victory for U S arms manufactures and Israel's puppets in the U S Congress.
The U S will replace all the munitions used to kill Palestinians and Israel's supporters in Congress will get even more money from American Zionists and, thanks to recent decisions by the Supreme Court, secret money direct for Israel.
I was a Marine in Vietnam. Words and pictures can't describe an air strike, you have to stand over a smoldering body and smell the napalm and burned flesh to get the reality of it.
The real enemy of the American people are the oil cartels that control "our" President and Congress.
We, the people, must take our Government back from the 1% and their lackeys and put our country to work developing sustainable alterative to oil
As a PS:
I live in a poor mixed race area in Minneapolis, when I go out late at night I ware a Vietnam Veteran's hat, I got a ride home in a rain storm once from a friendly cop.
"You have the right to get your ass kicked, anything the cop has can and will be used against you, you will be charged with anything the cop wants to charge you with and it will be validated by a court of law."
After 6 years of following the same policies as Bush, Obama is just as responsible as Bush for the mess we find ourselves in. If Bush invaded Iraq under false pretenses , Obama got elected with the false promise of "Change".
As soon as he got into Office, Obama buddied up with the same crew of fools that wrecked the world economy and set us on the path of perpetual War for oil and the greed addicted 1%.
Our only slim hope is to form a people's party not working for the 1%, but the people and the planet.
The U S Government's only interest in Iraq is to get cheap oil for the oil cartels.
The Government's policy is to back any regime that will sell the cartels cheap oil. That these people have other priorities than enriching the global 1% is just beyond the people in our government.
And if thousands more die and more $ Billions are wasted - So what? The Pols and the 1% never pay for their mistakes, it's always the peasants money and blood that is lost.
The U S may have the outward form of a Democracy, but it is a functioning Plutocracy with both political parties and the MSM working for the 1%.
We have to change our Government at home before we can hope to change it's policy overseas.
Non sequitur ! Being less crazy and mendacious than Bush & Co really is the faintest of praise.
I've been on cattle drives and if steers were as well behaved and as easily led as the MSM and the Important People it would have been an easer job
Still got a thing for the Old Gray Lady, Professor?
The old girl will never admit there may be a fundamental flaw in the system. When a paper voluntarily submits to censorship by the Israeli and American government you can't really believe anything it says.
If your waiting for the Times to question the system, I'm waiting for the Times to open an Office in Gaza and hire a Palestinian Women to run it.
The U S Government has two goals in the Middle East.
1, Keep cheap oil flowing to the Oil Cartels.
2, Support Israel.
It is rank hypocrisy to talk about Democracy, or improving the lives of the people. It shouldn't surprise people that Obama and Bush both go to Military Force to coerce the People of Iraq and Afghanistan. Bush and Obama work for the Oil Cartels.
It is our system that is rotten with corruption and until we change that, our Government will be working for the Rich who can buy anything they want.
aren't you forgetting "1984"?
War is Peace
The troops we are sending are not ground troops
we just need to train the troops we trained for 10 years
a Pentagon study shows our drone strikes are effective.
BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU.
I was frightened by Obama's remarks. It seems Obama has adopted the Neocon fantasies 3.0 that have lead us into the disasters of Afghanistan and Iraq.
When he stated that our troops died fighting for Iraqi Democracy, and the room didn't break out laughing, I realized that this is the Washington Line now.
We spent ten years and Billions of dollars training and equipping the Iraqi army and it fell apart in it's first engagement. So Obama wants to send advisors to train the Army we trained.
In 1967 I went to Vietnam as a bright eyed young Marine ready to slay the evil foe and "Kill a Commie for Christ". It took about a week and one firefight to figure out everything I had been told about Vietnam was a lie, but until the last helicopter left the Embassy roof the Washington lie machine was still going on about the light at the end of the tunnel.
Is ISIS really trying to "Take Bagdad"? It would make no sense, they should strengthen their hold on the Sunni territory they have taken and use the money it has stolen to refit and rearm. There is no threat from our Billion Dollar Iraqi Army and if the U S is stupid enough to start an indiscriminate bombing campaign it will only play into their hands - again.
What I fear is that Obama will use this as an excuse to stay in Afghanistan, which is poised for a Civil War the moment our troops leave, if we leave next week or next year.
The smart rats get off a sinking ship first.
I'm a combat veteran of Vietnam and have seen and smelled the dead and heard the screams of the dying. To Professors and pundits these are just word games played in nice safe places, so the dead are just abstracts.
The words of these cowardly Chicken hawks caused the death of real people.
If any of your friend were kill by street thugs you would demand Justice, but you give a free pass to those who have killed thousands with their lies?
Do you also absolve Colin Powell, who now claims his lies to the world are a "Blot on his record"?
How can you call a man who lied repeatedly about Iraq honest ? He may have been a small cog in the Bush/Cheney lie machine but he was part of it, a just saying sorry doesn't cover it.
Professor Cole;
You have got it all wrong!
I just checked with Official Israeli sources ( The New York Times) and it was our Government that forced Israel to do this.
By not following Netanyahu's orders Obama has caused America to lose influence with Israel.
It is the corruption of our Government that permits Israel to dictate policy to the United States and when the Republicans take full control of Congress will see even more support for Israeli Racist Ethnic Cleansing.
Are we going to see Obama slapped around in public by Netanyahu again ? If BiBi wants to, all he has to do is call.
Bush and Cheney, George Will and Tommie Friedman, Rush and tough guy O'Reilly, who skipped out on Vietnam by becoming a teacher at Saint Bendovers Catholic Boys school.
The decedents of Ronnie.
Ronnie Ragan was a horrible human being who couldn't tell a lie from the truth and didn't care.
He truly is the Father of the Neocons
The Democrats in Congress are just as responsible for our decade of War as the Republicans.
Why did Obama cover for Bush/Cheney's lying us into the Iraq War ? Why did he continue the Afghan War when even he could not say what we were fighting for?
Why? Because the Wars are very good Business and the 1% are making huge profits from our oil wars.
Obama is just as much for sale as Bill Clinton was and the Democratic Leadership is as corrupt their Republican counterparts.
We need a new Green Anti-corruption Party to take back our Democracy before it is too late.
Pumping poison into the air is very profitable for Politicians and the Rich people who own them.
Obama has been as good to the Rich as Clinton and Bush/Cheney were and I don't see how some nice words and small gestures will do anything but lull the uninformed. Which is what Obama is good at.
We need a New Party! Democrats and Republicans work for the 1%, we need a party for the 99%
Don't forget the White Southerners defend Slavery and Racism with the Bible and their take on Christianity.
Organized Religion always enables the Powerful to oppress the weak with the Blessings of the Lord.
A burden on the 1% and an opportunity for the rest of us.
Unfortunately, the 1% have bought our government and we get horror shows like XL Pipe line that Obama is pushing.
We have to take our Government back or we are Doomed.
Corn Ethanol is immoral, if I can use such an archaic word.
Turning food into fuel for SUVs and Limousines in a hungry world is just flat immoral.
But that never slowed the 1% down, did it.
What an amusing story!
The Times own internal policy of "Everything Israel does is Wonderful and any criticism of Israel is Anti-Semitism " is very old News.
We need to form a peoples party right now because the Supreme Court has legalized secret bribery, gutted the voting rights act, and thing are about to get really bad.
The 2016 Presidential election will be all secret money
Obama's cover-up of the crimes of Bush/Cheney and his adoption of Bush/Cheney's middle east policy show that our two party Democracy is a fraud.
Who ever gets elected, no matter what they say, will be working for the 1%.
We are all working for the 1%
here's a real quote from "The Art of War" by The Chinese Military Master Sun Tzu:
"If ignorant both of your enemy and yourself, you are certain to be in peril."
If you want to see why we win every Battle but lose every Imperialist War we fight, read "The Art of War"
I read it when I got back from Vietnam and I cried.
Eisenhower was a Republican, but he would have been thrown out of todays Republican Party for being too "Soft" and "Weak" by Republican Chicken Hawks like Cheney, Bush and Boehner.
Stalin, on the other hand, would fit right in.
Netanyahu will continue his ethnic cleansing because he can. Israel is a client state of America but the American Political Class is a dependent of the state of Israel.
With the Supreme Court's legalization of secret bribery things are bound to get worse and I doubt if our next Prez will keep us from attacking Iran at Israel's bidding.
Good Lord! I'd forgotten the blank soul-less shark eyes and the smug ignorant nonsense.
Doesn't this guy ever up grade his software ?
It's depressing to think that this man may convince enough of his peers to buy him the Presidency in 2016.
If we keep burning fossil fuels our Civilization will die.
Archaeology and History are full of Civilizations that have self destructed when the greedy few over exploited their resources for their short term gain.
Western Civilization can go forward or fall behind, and if we fall behind it is because we weren't able to control the Greedy Bastards.
What amazed me is that he said this with a straight face! This isn't just self delusion, it seem to effect our whole Political Class: The 8 Year horror show of Bush/Cheney never happened!
Hard to believe Kerry first appeared before Congress protesting the Vietnam War.
Israel has more support in Congress than Obama has, so talk of sanctions against it is nonsense.
In the 2014 elections Israel can secretly reward it's supporters and punish it's detractors, so it's likely that Israel's interference
with our political process will help give the Republicans control of Congress.
Our system is broken, Congress and the president are for sale. If we don't form a new party to fight this insane corruption we are doomed.
That Cheney can still get air time on places other than Fox shows that the cover up by the Government and the MSM of the truth of the Bush/Cheney years is succeeding.
The Afghanistan National Army will collapse and it soldiers will go to work for various War Loads in the upcoming Afghan civil war.
We have not pored Billions into Afghanistan, we have pored billions into the pockets of corrupt American contractors and rich, corrupt Afghanis.
It's time for America to realize that we have be lied into these imperialistic war to steal oil for the 1%.
Of course Obama knew that the Afghan war was a stupid war based on Bush/Cheney's Neo-Con fantasies, but he wanted to get elected and what were a few thousand lives and a few Billion dollars compared to him becoming top dog?
1, Of course the government is using every means available to hide the fact that it has become the servant of the Rich.
America went through the looking glass and down the rabbit hole with Ronnie Reagan, and every president and Congress since then has spun fairytale lies to the American people while working overtime to make the rich richer.
2, trolls are rude people, not psychopaths, and this study seems like psychobabble
Where will the energy to run those solar plants come from?
With few resources and unable to feed it self, Israel is no a viable State. It will be a beggar Nation for as long as America is willing to fund it.
If you want to curb gun violence in the US, legalizing Marijuana would be a giant step forward.
The Drug Gangs that rule many parts of our major cities relie on profits from Pot sales to fund their turf wars
Time to form a new party without the Clinton Gang. Pelosi and Schumer use the same bait and switch tactics the Republicans have perfected to fool their base.
Let the dead bury the dead: It is time to form a new party and let the Democratic hacks figure out how to pay all those IOU's to the high rollers.
Yup, charge up your cars with electricity from the nuclear power plants before they shut down.
With two ageing, low lying, nuclear plants in the path of this huge storm I'm think more about Fukushima than Teslers.
I don't give a damn about the money. This is about sending American kids to a foreign country to satisfy the racist fantasies of a crazy President and his idiot "Base".
"IF I were fierce, and bald, and short of breath,
I’d live with scarlet Majors at the Base,
And speed glum heroes up the line to death.
You’d see me with my puffy petulant face,
Guzzling and gulping in the best hotel,
Reading the Roll of Honour. ‘Poor young chap,’
I’d say—‘I used to know his father well;
Yes, we’ve lost heavily in this last scrap.’
And when the war is done and youth stone dead,
I’d toddle safely home and die—in bed."
This poem was written about British Staff Officers in WW I
But I've always felt it truly describes the cowardly, Neocon, Chicken Hawks, like Friedman, who always want to sent other people to war while they stay safe at home.
Freidman is double Chicken Hawk: Too cowardly to fight for his beloved Israel or the United States.
Trump's strategy is to put the inevitable collapse of Afghanistan off until he is out of Office. The invasion of Afghanistan was just stupid, but America's elite Establishment went all in on it, along with our equally stupid invasion of Iraq.
Just like Vietnam, it will go on and on because no one in power has the guts to admit it was a stupid idea in the first place and they were wrong.
The Republicans are just acting like Republicans, It's the Democrats, under control of the Clinton Gang, who have given control of the Government to the 1%.
Trump bankrupted a casino, Hillary backs our oil wars that have killed a million people and caused the refugee crisis that is breaking apart the EU.
We need a new Party without the corrupt Clinton gang.
As some readers have pointed out: Although Trump is a demented fool, his policies towards the environment are standard issue Republican.
We are about to see a Republican feeding frenzy on mother earth. These greedy little swine are going to do all the horrid thing they have been promising their 1% masters they would do if they ever got the power again.
This is the time to form a new Political Party. The Democratic Party is still controlled by the Clinton Gang and it's addiction to money, so it's been neutered. The Clintons are like herpes: They may go hide for awhile, but they'll be back.
To recognize a Country you need a Treaty.
The Constitution provides that the president "shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two-thirds of the Senators present concur" .
Therefore, no recognition of a Palestinian State ever.
Throughout history and around the world the ruling classes have used racism and religion to control the masses and even get them to support the systems that oppress them.
And, it always seems to work.
Iran has the ability to destabilize the gulf region. An unstable gulf means higher oil prices and may make Europe turn to Russia for it's oil.
With an obliviously insane President Trump and Americas two failed wars in the region and Americas support of anything Israel does,Russia has a good chance to become an even greater power in the region.
The IDF is used by Israel to oppress and kill Palestinians in their native country, I don't think it matters if they have "Gender Equality" in their ranks.
Professor, do you even know any members of the working class? Your comments on the Middle East are insightful but you seem totally disconnected from the realities of the working class in this country.
I live in Ellison's district. I'm a disabled Vietnam Veteran and had a problem with the VA. I contacted Ellison's office and got to speak with a very nice Somali woman who didn't seem to understand what the VA was. She told me to write a letter and they would look into it.
Like Hillary, Ellison has a lot of good proposals that he, like she, knows would never get through Congress. Working people have been getting this run around for years from the Democrats and are sick of it.
My story had a happy ending, I called Al Franken's office and spoke to a staff member who knew what I was taking about and he contacted the VA for me and got things straighten out.
If your looing for a real Democrat to replace the Clinton Gang, why don't you look at Al Franken? He's honest, realistic and working people vote for him.
I find myself in the terrible position of have no choice but to vote for someone I don't like or trust to insure that a dangerously deranged man does not become President.
I'm afraid Hillary will get us more involved in the Syrian Civil War with disastrous results, but Trump is so bad she is still the best choice.
Bush/Cheney, Obama and Clinton have made such a mess of things it's hard to see a way out of this self imposed tragedy the U S Government has gotten us into.
It's a given that Trumps ideas and plans will never happen, but neither will Hillary's.
Everything Hillary proposes will cost money or cost rich people money and will have to pass Congress.
It's just silly to think any of that is going to pass the Republican controlled House.
Trump and Clinton are both selling us a bill of goods that can and will never happen.
And concerning our unending stupid oil wars: Both Candidates are preaching a variation on "More of the Same" which has been a 10+ year disaster.
So Hillary and Trump are both lying to the American people and the only thing this election proves is the utter bankruptcy of our political system.
ISIS Leadership and Command will withdraw before the battle, leaving small groups of fighters, who will put up stiff resistance, necessitating air strikes that they will avoid by falling back to secondary positions before the bombs fall, leaving the civilians and infrastructure to take the punishment.
This will be repeated over and over again until many thousands of civilians are killed and the city is in ruin. Then the last of the fighters will slip out of town.
Obama will declare a great Victory and Hillary will claim a vindication of the Obama/Clinton strategy in fighting ISIS and Terrorist everywhere.
Throw in a few bombed Hospitals and some atrocities by Shite fighters and you have our upcoming battle.
It's all so sadly predictable.
The money lost is really minor compared to the loss of our democracy. We now have a fourth branch of Government that is neither elected, impeachable or in any way accountable to the citizens: The Military.
I was a Sargent in the Marines, 1965-69 with a year in Vietnam and I'm not talking about the brave young men and women who fill the ranks and do the fighting and dyeing, it the arrogant, ignorant, corrupt "Professional Officer Corps" that has lead and lied the country into every insane military blunder since Vietnam.
Now we are looking to a Hillary Clinton Presidency. Mrs. Clinton is so out of touch with reality that after supporting our debacles in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria she supported doing the same thing over again in Libya.
We seem to be in a death spiral with oil wars and our "Finest Fighting force in the world" that can't even control tiny, poor , primitive Afghanistan just going on and on while the Political Class cheers our monumental failures and promises more of the same.
Thank you!
It is so refreshing, and unfortunately rare, to read a report that has historical depth and context.
The Chinese are coming! Cry Havoc!
Step back and take a deep breath, folks. And get a grip.
OK - China is nosing around, big deal. It doesn't change the fact we have no business in the Syrian Civil War and the defeat of ISIS will be the birth of another movement that's main goal is to get America out of their country.
Before going any further I suggest you go to Tom Dispatch today and read the fine repost of Andrew Bacevich's Pentagon, Inc. from 1-27-11 and then look at Vox's "27 maps that explain the crisis in Iraq" to get an idea what is happening.
The least worst situation might be Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran losing a little territory to form Kurdistan, Iraq splitting into Northern Sunni Iraq and Southern Shiite Iraq but this doubtful.
China and Russia are minor problems, Warrior Queen Hillary is about to walk away with the Presidency any all the things you hate about the Clintons ( they come in pairs, like scissors and pants) are going to become national policy.
I think Hillary is just as delusional as Trump but we are so used to avaricious, dishonest, warmongering Neocons that she doesn't seem as dangerous as she really is.
Hillary and the Pentagon are the real threat to world peace, not Russia or China,.
Our oil based economy created ISIS. It wasn't just Bush/Chaney and the Neocons that got us into The Iraq oil wars debauches: It was the entire U S ruling establishment, including Warrior Queen Hillary, that got us into this mess.
Yes, Trump is dangerously insane, but Hillary Clinton can look at the mess we made in Afghanistan and Iraq and do exactly the same thing in Libya and really be surprised when the same thing happens. That shows she is pretty crazy too.
The U S Government is committed to controlling Middle Eastern oil, so whoever is President, we will be involved in Imperialistic oil wars in the Middle East until there is a real change in American policy, and with both major political parties owned by Wall Street and the 1%, I just don't see that happening.
Professor Cole, I am absolutely dumbfounded at your continuing belief in the Clintons ( like shoes, they come in a pair - Oh, what a pair)! After NAFTA, which has destroyed Mexico's rural economy and help turn Mexico into a failed Narco State, the deregulation of the Banks and not regulating derivatives which lead directly to the crash of 08'. Hillary voting for and continuing to support our Imperialistic oil wars, their dishonesty and lying and mind boggling corruption, their support for the rape and pillage of the planet for the short term profit of the 1%.
After all this and much more you still think Hillary is going the change and appoint "Liberals" to the supreme Court!
Citizen's United gave the 1% the legal cover to buy our Government and you think Hillary is going to do anything to upset that? One thing you can say about the Clintons is when you buy them they deliver so the chance of anything but a plutocrat friendly appointment is about nil.
The Clintons will do what the Clintons have always done: Work for the 1% and the Clintons.
And a note on Neanderthals, They lived peacefully within their environment for a few hindered thousand years until us Homo Sapiens showed up, then they went extinct.
We Homo Sapiens may be the smartest monkeys on the third rock from the Sun, but we ae also the most violent, greediest and most self destructive.
Welcome to the Monkey House, Professor Cole.
Silverman is irrelevant but Franken is a great example of a "Clinton Democrat" or Republican Lite politician.
He campaigned as a progressive but once in Office he has worked for ethanol producers, agribusiness and the Banks.
The Clintons and the likes of Franken have turned the Democratic Party into the other party of the rich and given us essentially a one party phony democracy.
Don't blame the Sunni and Shi'a for the bloody mess the United States made by invading Iraq to steal the oil.
Our Government only current concern is to support the Shi'a Government in hopes of getting a shot at the oil once the Sunni are put down.
It has always been about oil and after 10+ years, a million deaths millions made refugies and 2 Trillion dollars spent it's all still about the oil.
Ka-Ching! Cuomo just nailed down all the money he will ever need for any political campaign he wants to run.
Can't wait to see what Hillary is going to do for Israel.
A three way civil war, we are backing the Bagdad government in the hope we will get access to the oil. this has always been an imperialistic oil war: Started by Bush/Cheney continued by Obama/Clinton and to be carried forward by Warrior Queen Hillary. With the Pentagon Generals singing "There's a light at the end of the tunnel - were just about to win!"
Completely empty gesture, Warrior Queen Hillary will listen to Wall Street, the 1% and Israel and the Pentagon is going to get a Dick Cheney with a strap-on
What the elites of both parties don't realize that we poor peasants have had it with their bait and switch game.
This reminds me of my time in Vietnam. The NVA would take a town or cut a vital rout and we would bomb it to oblivion while the NVA withdrew leaving the local civilians to die. Then we would go in finding the NVA long gone but lots of dead civilians. The Generals would declare Victory! And then the NVA would hit another town down the road.
Will the road stay open - Of course not!
All these different parameters and measurements used by academics and think tanks and the Pentagon just show how out of touch with reality they are. Good Lord! We have spent trillions of dollars, killed at least a million people, displaced millions more in our 10 years plus Wars and "our" Governments in Afghanistan and Iraq are not even in control of their own Capital Cities.
Now the candidates, except for Sanders, are arguing about how to dig deeper holes.
" her campaign is funded by millions and millions of dollars from Wall Street"
That is my problem with the Clintons, they are corrupt as Hell! The problems in the middle east are a direct result of our meddling for oil and Israel and Hillary has taken Millions of Dollars from both, and one thing about the Clintons: When they are paid they deliver.
Burning fossil fuels is poisoning the planet but also making Wall Street very rich. If elected Hillary would spend Billions on oil wars because that is what she has been paid to do.
We should use the money we waste on oil wars for replacing fossil fuels with sustainable energy sources.
Can anyone really believe that Hillary would do anything that would cut into the profits of Wall Street?
Hillary is for the Status quo and the status quo is killing the planet.
A Clinton rejecting money. That's hilarious!
But seriously, with Citizens United from the Roberts Court anybody can slip any candidate as much secret money as they want.
Hillary just may be our next Prez, so Informed Comment will have more oil wars and massacres of Palestinians to write about.
The U S is only in Iraq to get at the oil and this will never happen. The Iraqis hate the U S Government and for good reason. We invaded their country to steal the oil and destroyed their society and killed hundreds of thousands of their people, but still our Government thinks they will let us steal their oil. Only an insane person could believe this but Official Washington, from Obama on down are absolutely delusional when it comes to the middle east.
If ISIL is defeated another group will spring up and then another and then another. Iraq is disintegrating and no amount of U S "Boots on the Ground" is going to stop it.
You don't even mention that Obama - Clinton have been just as blood thirsty and wrong as Bush- Cheney.
The wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Libya. The constant barrage of lies about the great progress we are making everywhere.
The same crooked contractors the same endless flow of money.
Our middle east wars are oil wars fought for the 1% who bankrolled bush/ Cheney and Obama/Clinton.
Hillary Clinton will keep up the wars and the killings and the lies because she works for the same people as Bush/Cheney.
It's 2:30 AM and I'm tired but I won't try to sleep. I'm a Vietnam Veteran with PTSD and I know tonight would be a bad one to go to sleep.
So to keep myself busy and distracted I tried this:
In the NY Times search and google I searched "progress in Iraq 2015","progress in Iraq 2012" ,"progress in Iraq 2010" and "progress in Afghanistan 2015" and just followed it back to 2004 for both searches. It was freighting because it was all the same. Presidents, "High Ranking Officials" and the whole Political Establishment admitted things were tough but we were making progress.
My birthday is coming up so I tried the NYT for March, 1946, the year of my birth. You can guess, the French were have some problems in Vietnam but their General said they were making progress.
Clinton, Cruz and Rubio are all Israel's pocket,so why waste a trip?
Professor, your starting to sound like the Nightly News during the Vietnam War: "Our noble allies, with American air support, are re, re, retaking so and so Provence and will soon be on the road to Finale Victory!"
Haven't you read Sun Tzu? "Attack the enemy where he is weak, when he advances with great strength, withdraw and attack at a different weak place."
We have fallen for this same gambit over and over again in Afghanistan and Iraq
Have you ever been in a town or village "Liberated" by U S air power? I have and the folk who were left didn't love us.
No matter how many bombs we drop on them, the Iraqis will not come love us and let us steal their oil, which if you remember, was the whole point of the Iraq invasion.
On the eve of the Civil War a prominent South Carolina Jurist observed: " South Carolina is too small to be a Republic , and too large to be an Insane Asylum "
The last thing the Clintons and the Corporate loving leadership of the Democratic Party wants is the progressive wing to gain any strength.
The Democratic Party has become Republican-Lite, thanks the Democratic Leadership Council and the Clintons who are masters of "Bait and Switch" - They make Progressive noises but work for the Rich.
At this point I'd rather go down with Bernie than go the "Lesser of two Evils" route with Hillary, who would continue the Oil Wars for the 1% and Trade Agreements that give away the ranch to International Corporations and of course, protect the Banks.
It's really time for a New Progressive Party. Things have changed too much for the old Party to remain relevant.
Nice photo op, but price per ton shipping costs will always be much lower by sea and ships can go to any sea port as market demands change.where as a rail road is set in one place.
Pure fantasy!
Senator Graham was one of the first on T V last night spouting the party line of "NO", and where do you get the idea he is principled?
There will be no cross over of Republican Senators and the Republicans will use this as a Battle cry for the rest of the election.
So Obama has no chance of getting anyone on the court. Dose anyone think things will get better after the election? Hillary's choice will be as pro 1% as any of the Republicans.
The Plutocracy has been here since Bill Clinton and there is no end in sight.
Obama is just pulling a Bill Clinton: Make as many rich friends happy just before leaving Office as possible and get those $250,000 "Thank You" notes from the rich after leaving Office.
Worked for Bill, he is worth $100,000,000 now and Hillary will best him if she gets elected.
I'm dumbstruck by how people just except this.
It really is simple: Do you want more of the same or are you willing to take a chance on something new.
Clinton is just more of the same Blood for Oil neocon madness and she is personally corrupt and dishonest.
The lesser of two evils, which is all we ever get to choose, is Sanders.
Obama is just as mad and murderous as Bush/Cheney. In their insane drive to steal Iraq's oil they have made the United States the greatest Terrorists Nation on earth.
No matter how many people we slaughter, the Iraqis are not going to give their oil to the International oil cartels who would be the only ones to profit from our killing.
We have killed Millions of people over the last 10 years and made millions more homeless in our insane wars for oil and we have nothing to show for it but Hillary and the Republicans try to get elected by promising to kill more and there is no opposition to this madness.
It's clearly time for a new Party. The Clintons, the Democratic Leadership Council, and Obama have turned the Democratic Party into Republican Lite. I'll never forget the revulsion I felt when new President Obama crawled up to Wall Street calling the lying jackals that caused the crash of 08' "Savvy Businessmen".
I am supporting Sanders because 8 years of Hillary could be the tipping point of our Democracy and the planet.
Professor Cole;
The U S Government has no allies in the region, we are fighting an imperialistic war to control the oil. The same Neocon fantasy that drove Bush/Cheney to invade Iraq to steal the oil is working in Obama when he tries to win favor with our teetering semi-puppet Shiite government in Iraq by bombing the Sunni cities to rubble, killing thousands of innocent civilians and driving the survivors out.
One of my strongest memories of Vietnam is the smoldering upper torso of a child in the ruins of a village after an American air strike. After seeing that I just can't cheer American Air Strikes like you do.
We are choking our Planet to death with oil and killing millions of people fighting over what's left of it. If we don't get off oil and develop sustainable energy sources out Civilization will surly collapse.
With that in mind I really can't cheer our latest great bombing success.
It's not being mentioned because it an utter disaster. The Iraqi Army, that we have trained and equipped for the third time, can't clear 1000 fighters out of a bomber out ghost town even with U S air support is just another failure in our ever failing oil wars.
I can't see how you can call this a sucess
Excellent analysis, but it leaves out the fact that those "policymakers and experts making the same dumb mistakes time after time" are greatly rewarded for their failures.
The New York Times and its Editors are doing quite nicely after being cheerleaders for the Iraq invasion, Dick Cheney's Halliburton stock has keep him rich and Colin Powell is getting $100, 000 to $200, 000 per speech after lying through his teeth at the UN to get us into the Iraq Invasion.
Stupid blunders make those in high places and their friends rich. Which is quite depressing.
Bush/Cheney invaded Iraq to steal the oil. This tall about being mad or dumb is just smoke to cover our attempt to control the oil for western oil cartels.
Our Government has become so corrupt that unending war to steal oil to keep a few super rich men rich while ignoring the consequences for the vast majority of the people is just excepted as the way things are.
Professor Cole, Why are you still defending Colin Powell? He is a self serving opportunist who lied to the World with his knowingly false speech at the UN and did the bidding of Bush/Cheney in the run up to the war. He is just as guilty as any of them.
The #1 fact kept from the American Public is that Israel has Nuclear Weapons and the means to deliver them in Iran.
Therefore, Iran is not and never will be a threat to Israel because the Iranians do not want to die.
This makes Netanyahu's visit a bit suspect.
" undermine Israeli democracy"
Israel is a democracy as Mississippi was a democracy in 1935.
Israel is a Racist, Theocratic, European Colony that uses terror to control it's subject population. The Palestinian People are trying to throw off Colonial Rule and have the same right of self rule as any other people.
Netanyahu is right, Israel should declare itself a Racist Jewish State - Because that's what it is.
The Republican leaders of the House and Senate are promising to remove the present weak restrictions on Coal, Gas and Oil production and Obama and the Democrats are irrelevant because they depend on Oil Money as much as the Republicans. Now with Secret Money we won't even know who is getting Oil Money.
The Courts?
Obama's Justice Department will not prosecute any more Oil Men than it did Bankers. And who can afford to go against the Oil Men in court.
If everything worked as it should, it would be a good time to get out of Oil. But our government has become corrupt so Oil will be a very good investment for a long time.
Renewables & solar will be axed by the Republicans so Oil will continue to own our Government until people form a new party without quislings like the Clintons and Obama.
With out big change we are doomed.
The "History" being ignored is that Israel has Nuclear Weapons and the means to hit any target in Iran.
Iran is not now or ever will be a threat to Israel because the Iranians do not want to die.
This Bibi & Boehner show was stunt, but Obama is such a coward he will scuttle the Iran deal as ordered.
Bush/Cheney's plan was to invalid Iraq, set up a puppet "Democratic" Pro-Western Government that would let the oil cartels control the oil supply of the Gulf and by extension the world oil market.
This is the Neocon Fantasy and it is still being followed by Obama and it is absolutely insane.
Obama is now going to retrain and reequip the Iraqi Army that we trained and equipped for ten years and countless Billons. The same Army that fell apart and ran away in their first battle, abandoning it's American equipment to the bad guys, to fight alongside the Iranian Army and the American Army.
The Iranians are never going to leave and as soon as we help them whip the bad guys they will turn to the Kurds to get the oil back for the Shi'ite Iraqis, and what will we do then?
Has anyone thought that those thousands of support personnel could be used as hostages?
The Bibi & Boehner Show , with AIPAC shoveling Gold from the balconies, has whip Congress into action to do something against
Iran - anything as long as it makes them seem tough.
Does anyone seriously believe this is not going to blow up in our faces, as usual, again?
It's really very simple: The Iraqis are not going to let us steal their oil so we should stop trying.
We probably could have replaced oil with renewables with the money we wasted on this failed armed robbery, which is no where near over, but that's really going to Fantasy Land.
"General Dempsey, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Iran's military assistance in the Tikrit offensive could be positive as long as it did not fuel sectarian divisions."
An Iranian Shiite Army fight in a Sunni area - What possible problems could arise ?
The Obama War Team is more delusional than Bush/Cheney's. What does Obama think he is going to accomplish?
Is he going to wheel out Cheney to tell us the Insurgency is in it's final throes, or maybe we will be greeted as liberators?
Obama and this nation just will not admit to the destruction we have done to steal Iraq's oil.
The Bibi & Boehner Show was about electioneering and fund raising, Iran is just handy.
They had Adelson and Newt in the balcony just in case someone in Congress forgot how Newt got to win South Carolina and who showers Millions on Bibi.
This was all to get Bibi re elected and start a "who loves Israel more" money fight in Congress. And by making Obama look weak and foolish it will harm Hillary and help Republicans.
The fact that Bibi is a War Criminal who brags of terror bombing woman and children in Gaza just doesn't seem to matter to any of the important people.
Seriously, Folks: We all know Obama will fold and get us into some stupid Military Fiasco that will cost thousands of lives and Billions of Dollars.
Support for Israel brings Money and Votes and people get to stay in Power with Money and Votes so people in Power will support Israel even if it starts using Napalm on the Kids of Gaza.
After the AIPAC Circus and Netanyahu's gig there will be a "Who Loves Israel More" Money Fight in Congress to make points for the upcoming elections in 2016 - Where secret money will rule.
The real threat to America is the corruption of our elected Officials.
Who has kill tens of thousands of innocent Arab women in Afghanistan and Iraq? Who has killed thousands of Palestinian Woman in the Terror bombings of Gaza?
Who is the No. 1 Oppressor of Arab Women ? The Good ol' Christian U S A and our dear Jewish Friends in Israel.
Israel is a "Democracy" in the same sense that Mississippi was a Democracy in 1935.
300,000 Jews from Russian don't have enough untainted "Jewish Blood" to be considered "True Jews"?
What sort of crazy racist nonsense is that? As a non Religious person, I can see no difference between the Racist Whites of Mississippi and the Racist Jews of Israel.
Ol' Bill-O could have gotten just bunches of War experience in Vietnam - but he, like all the Media Giants of his Generation, found one of the outs that only existed for the White Middle Class & above: He became a Teacher at St Bendovers Catholic Boys School.
Catholic Priests & Bill - What a world view those kids must have gotten.
If Giuliani saying something stupid is News Worthy, the Race must be on.
The Earth will travel over 1,000,000,000 miles around the sun before we elect the next President, and as Earth bends and distorts space time, our pols will be distorting and bending reality and reason and spewing it out across the Cosmos via the Electromagnetic spectrum
Professor Cole;
I think you underestimate the power of Fundamentalist Christians in the Republican Base to bolster the Israel Lobby.
Many of those people believe Obama is the Anti-Christ and the world will end soon as predicted in the Book of Revelations.
This is often hard for rational people living in the scientific, technical world to understand, but this is really part of these people's world view and no amount of reality can penetrate this cultic belief.
Then there is the Money. Dose anyone really know what the new rules will bring?
The Book is: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders .
The greatest atrocity committed by modern Christianity is the systematic, institutionalized rape of thousands of young boys by Roman Catholic Clergy.
Religion was invented by the ruling class to support the ruling class.
We are there to steal the oil.
I was a Marine in Vietnam and I know that air strikes can be devastating or useless depending on the target.
But all air strikes need boots on the ground and you need boots on the ground to steal oil, so I'm pretty sure we will be sending troops and I'm just as sure this is going to blow up in our faces.
Bomb the bad guys, support the good guys and they will love us so much they will help us take their one resource .
It's insane, it does not work, but they are going to do it again.
Netanyahu's state sponsored terrorism against the people of Palestine will mainly be a Victory for U S arms manufactures and Israel's puppets in the U S Congress.
The U S will replace all the munitions used to kill Palestinians and Israel's supporters in Congress will get even more money from American Zionists and, thanks to recent decisions by the Supreme Court, secret money direct for Israel.
I was a Marine in Vietnam. Words and pictures can't describe an air strike, you have to stand over a smoldering body and smell the napalm and burned flesh to get the reality of it.
The real enemy of the American people are the oil cartels that control "our" President and Congress.
We, the people, must take our Government back from the 1% and their lackeys and put our country to work developing sustainable alterative to oil
As a PS:
I live in a poor mixed race area in Minneapolis, when I go out late at night I ware a Vietnam Veteran's hat, I got a ride home in a rain storm once from a friendly cop.
"You have the right to get your ass kicked, anything the cop has can and will be used against you, you will be charged with anything the cop wants to charge you with and it will be validated by a court of law."
The American Government is in Iraq to steal the oil for the international oil cartels. Presidents can come and go but the rich always rule.
After 6 years of following the same policies as Bush, Obama is just as responsible as Bush for the mess we find ourselves in. If Bush invaded Iraq under false pretenses , Obama got elected with the false promise of "Change".
As soon as he got into Office, Obama buddied up with the same crew of fools that wrecked the world economy and set us on the path of perpetual War for oil and the greed addicted 1%.
Our only slim hope is to form a people's party not working for the 1%, but the people and the planet.
The U S Government's only interest in Iraq is to get cheap oil for the oil cartels.
The Government's policy is to back any regime that will sell the cartels cheap oil. That these people have other priorities than enriching the global 1% is just beyond the people in our government.
And if thousands more die and more $ Billions are wasted - So what? The Pols and the 1% never pay for their mistakes, it's always the peasants money and blood that is lost.
The U S may have the outward form of a Democracy, but it is a functioning Plutocracy with both political parties and the MSM working for the 1%.
We have to change our Government at home before we can hope to change it's policy overseas.
Non sequitur ! Being less crazy and mendacious than Bush & Co really is the faintest of praise.
I've been on cattle drives and if steers were as well behaved and as easily led as the MSM and the Important People it would have been an easer job
Still got a thing for the Old Gray Lady, Professor?
The old girl will never admit there may be a fundamental flaw in the system. When a paper voluntarily submits to censorship by the Israeli and American government you can't really believe anything it says.
If your waiting for the Times to question the system, I'm waiting for the Times to open an Office in Gaza and hire a Palestinian Women to run it.
The U S Government has two goals in the Middle East.
1, Keep cheap oil flowing to the Oil Cartels.
2, Support Israel.
It is rank hypocrisy to talk about Democracy, or improving the lives of the people. It shouldn't surprise people that Obama and Bush both go to Military Force to coerce the People of Iraq and Afghanistan. Bush and Obama work for the Oil Cartels.
It is our system that is rotten with corruption and until we change that, our Government will be working for the Rich who can buy anything they want.
aren't you forgetting "1984"?
War is Peace
The troops we are sending are not ground troops
we just need to train the troops we trained for 10 years
a Pentagon study shows our drone strikes are effective.
BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU.
I was frightened by Obama's remarks. It seems Obama has adopted the Neocon fantasies 3.0 that have lead us into the disasters of Afghanistan and Iraq.
When he stated that our troops died fighting for Iraqi Democracy, and the room didn't break out laughing, I realized that this is the Washington Line now.
We spent ten years and Billions of dollars training and equipping the Iraqi army and it fell apart in it's first engagement. So Obama wants to send advisors to train the Army we trained.
In 1967 I went to Vietnam as a bright eyed young Marine ready to slay the evil foe and "Kill a Commie for Christ". It took about a week and one firefight to figure out everything I had been told about Vietnam was a lie, but until the last helicopter left the Embassy roof the Washington lie machine was still going on about the light at the end of the tunnel.
What makes Bradshaw unique among Fox Commentators is that he was once very good at something.
Is ISIS really trying to "Take Bagdad"? It would make no sense, they should strengthen their hold on the Sunni territory they have taken and use the money it has stolen to refit and rearm. There is no threat from our Billion Dollar Iraqi Army and if the U S is stupid enough to start an indiscriminate bombing campaign it will only play into their hands - again.
What I fear is that Obama will use this as an excuse to stay in Afghanistan, which is poised for a Civil War the moment our troops leave, if we leave next week or next year.
The smart rats get off a sinking ship first.
I'm a combat veteran of Vietnam and have seen and smelled the dead and heard the screams of the dying. To Professors and pundits these are just word games played in nice safe places, so the dead are just abstracts.
The words of these cowardly Chicken hawks caused the death of real people.
If any of your friend were kill by street thugs you would demand Justice, but you give a free pass to those who have killed thousands with their lies?
Do you also absolve Colin Powell, who now claims his lies to the world are a "Blot on his record"?
How can you call a man who lied repeatedly about Iraq honest ? He may have been a small cog in the Bush/Cheney lie machine but he was part of it, a just saying sorry doesn't cover it.
Israel has bought Congress, just like the Banks, the Oil Industry and Jackals of Wall Street.
Obama has been irrelevant for a long time.
Professor Cole;
You have got it all wrong!
I just checked with Official Israeli sources ( The New York Times) and it was our Government that forced Israel to do this.
By not following Netanyahu's orders Obama has caused America to lose influence with Israel.
It is the corruption of our Government that permits Israel to dictate policy to the United States and when the Republicans take full control of Congress will see even more support for Israeli Racist Ethnic Cleansing.
Are we going to see Obama slapped around in public by Netanyahu again ? If BiBi wants to, all he has to do is call.
Bush and Cheney, George Will and Tommie Friedman, Rush and tough guy O'Reilly, who skipped out on Vietnam by becoming a teacher at Saint Bendovers Catholic Boys school.
The decedents of Ronnie.
Ronnie Ragan was a horrible human being who couldn't tell a lie from the truth and didn't care.
He truly is the Father of the Neocons
The Democrats in Congress are just as responsible for our decade of War as the Republicans.
Why did Obama cover for Bush/Cheney's lying us into the Iraq War ? Why did he continue the Afghan War when even he could not say what we were fighting for?
Why? Because the Wars are very good Business and the 1% are making huge profits from our oil wars.
Obama is just as much for sale as Bill Clinton was and the Democratic Leadership is as corrupt their Republican counterparts.
We need a new Green Anti-corruption Party to take back our Democracy before it is too late.
Pumping poison into the air is very profitable for Politicians and the Rich people who own them.
Obama has been as good to the Rich as Clinton and Bush/Cheney were and I don't see how some nice words and small gestures will do anything but lull the uninformed. Which is what Obama is good at.
We need a New Party! Democrats and Republicans work for the 1%, we need a party for the 99%
Isn't it strange that those who pound the Bible most also want to pound it to the poor?
How about those of us without Religion?
Don't forget the White Southerners defend Slavery and Racism with the Bible and their take on Christianity.
Organized Religion always enables the Powerful to oppress the weak with the Blessings of the Lord.
A burden on the 1% and an opportunity for the rest of us.
Unfortunately, the 1% have bought our government and we get horror shows like XL Pipe line that Obama is pushing.
We have to take our Government back or we are Doomed.
Corn Ethanol is immoral, if I can use such an archaic word.
Turning food into fuel for SUVs and Limousines in a hungry world is just flat immoral.
But that never slowed the 1% down, did it.
I think you should look into the working and ecological conditions in China before you declare the Chinese Government cares about the little guy.
What an amusing story!
The Times own internal policy of "Everything Israel does is Wonderful and any criticism of Israel is Anti-Semitism " is very old News.
We need to form a peoples party right now because the Supreme Court has legalized secret bribery, gutted the voting rights act, and thing are about to get really bad.
The 2016 Presidential election will be all secret money
Obama's cover-up of the crimes of Bush/Cheney and his adoption of Bush/Cheney's middle east policy show that our two party Democracy is a fraud.
Who ever gets elected, no matter what they say, will be working for the 1%.
We are all working for the 1%
here's a real quote from "The Art of War" by The Chinese Military Master Sun Tzu:
"If ignorant both of your enemy and yourself, you are certain to be in peril."
If you want to see why we win every Battle but lose every Imperialist War we fight, read "The Art of War"
I read it when I got back from Vietnam and I cried.
Eisenhower was a Republican, but he would have been thrown out of todays Republican Party for being too "Soft" and "Weak" by Republican Chicken Hawks like Cheney, Bush and Boehner.
Stalin, on the other hand, would fit right in.
Obama didn't prosecute the crimes of Bush/Cheney because he's a ringer for the 1% and is as corrupt as Cheney.
Please give an example of Brooks making an intelligent comment. I've never heard one.
Brooks is the Gray Old Lady at The Gray old Lady.
Netanyahu will continue his ethnic cleansing because he can. Israel is a client state of America but the American Political Class is a dependent of the state of Israel.
With the Supreme Court's legalization of secret bribery things are bound to get worse and I doubt if our next Prez will keep us from attacking Iran at Israel's bidding.
Good Lord! I'd forgotten the blank soul-less shark eyes and the smug ignorant nonsense.
Doesn't this guy ever up grade his software ?
It's depressing to think that this man may convince enough of his peers to buy him the Presidency in 2016.
If we keep burning fossil fuels our Civilization will die.
Archaeology and History are full of Civilizations that have self destructed when the greedy few over exploited their resources for their short term gain.
Western Civilization can go forward or fall behind, and if we fall behind it is because we weren't able to control the Greedy Bastards.
What amazed me is that he said this with a straight face! This isn't just self delusion, it seem to effect our whole Political Class: The 8 Year horror show of Bush/Cheney never happened!
Hard to believe Kerry first appeared before Congress protesting the Vietnam War.
Israel has more support in Congress than Obama has, so talk of sanctions against it is nonsense.
In the 2014 elections Israel can secretly reward it's supporters and punish it's detractors, so it's likely that Israel's interference
with our political process will help give the Republicans control of Congress.
Our system is broken, Congress and the president are for sale. If we don't form a new party to fight this insane corruption we are doomed.
That Cheney can still get air time on places other than Fox shows that the cover up by the Government and the MSM of the truth of the Bush/Cheney years is succeeding.
The Afghanistan National Army will collapse and it soldiers will go to work for various War Loads in the upcoming Afghan civil war.
We have not pored Billions into Afghanistan, we have pored billions into the pockets of corrupt American contractors and rich, corrupt Afghanis.
It's time for America to realize that we have be lied into these imperialistic war to steal oil for the 1%.
Of course Obama knew that the Afghan war was a stupid war based on Bush/Cheney's Neo-Con fantasies, but he wanted to get elected and what were a few thousand lives and a few Billion dollars compared to him becoming top dog?
Petreaus built his career on lying to Congress and the American People and except for a silly little sex scandal, Petreaus would be head of the CIA.
1, Of course the government is using every means available to hide the fact that it has become the servant of the Rich.
America went through the looking glass and down the rabbit hole with Ronnie Reagan, and every president and Congress since then has spun fairytale lies to the American people while working overtime to make the rich richer.
2, trolls are rude people, not psychopaths, and this study seems like psychobabble
Where will the energy to run those solar plants come from?
With few resources and unable to feed it self, Israel is no a viable State. It will be a beggar Nation for as long as America is willing to fund it.
If you want to curb gun violence in the US, legalizing Marijuana would be a giant step forward.
The Drug Gangs that rule many parts of our major cities relie on profits from Pot sales to fund their turf wars
Please keep the focus on the content, not the graphic bells & whistles !
PLEASE don't waste money on graphics and bells and whistles like so many sites do. and don't hire a big staff and start running ads.