COLLECTIVE MADNESS
“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."
ISIS has a lot of tennis shoes on the ground.
ReplyDeleteProbably Adidas.
When did the noble sandal go out of style for the desert jihadi?
What would Mohammad say about this western influence?
If I were Big Boy Baghdadi I'd crucify any of my killers who wore western running shoes. Adido Haram !!
ReplyDeleteAnd why the black clothing out in the desert?
ReplyDeleteBesides the heat, they stand out like a sore thumb.
August 27, 2014
ReplyDeleteSeeing ISIS in the Wrong Context
By John M. Ellis
President Obama's decision-making about ISIS is dominated by the history of U.S. actions in Iraq, especially his own. It's this context that determines what he will and won't do.
Getting troops out of Iraq was his promise; that promise is now fulfilled, and it must not be undone. But this is myopic. It is vitally important to see recent events in the quite different context of the situation that has faced us ever since 9/11, because in that context, we have a golden opportunity – one that we could only dream of until now.
In late 2001, America faced a frustrating situation. An enemy had declared its intent to destroy us and had struck a devastating first blow. We had the most powerful military in the world and could easily defeat any power on the battlefield, but this enemy didn't form up as an army on a battlefield. Our wars have been against states, but this was not a state: it was a loose but extensive network of individuals spread across and hidden among the populations of many countries, including our own. The exasperating result was that while we had a powerful force to defend us, for the most part we couldn't deploy it. We were able to invade Afghanistan to clean out a sanctuary there, but that was all. Good intelligence might let us take out a few individuals from time to time, even one as important as Osama bin Laden, but no serious engagement on a field of battle seemed possible. If our enemy ever managed to kill tens of thousands of us by using poison gas in the New York subway, all thoughts would turn to a retaliatory counter-strike, but we would probably have no idea how or where to accomplish that.
If we keep our eyes on this wider context, we can see immediately that what is happening now in Iraq is an absolute game-changer. Our deadly enemy, radical Islam, has taken to the battlefield! At last, they are out in the open, fighting a conventional war as an army and a state. This is the opportunity we could only wish for during the last thirteen years. Jihadis from all over the world are pouring into Iraq to join them, leaving the cover of their surrounding civilian populations and forming up as an army. They are fighting on our terms, on the battlefield, where we are supreme. At last, after years of frustration, we have the chance to engage and crush them.
DeleteDeciding to do so should be a no-brainer, but Obama hesitates because he is haunted by the idea of "going back into Iraq." Determined to avoid doing anything that could appear to undermine what he sees as his achievement, or worse yet, look like an admission that he had been wrong, Obama lets his boasts shackle him. And yet there is a simple and convincing answer to all of his hesitation: he is seeing these events in the wrong context. This is about the long struggle between modern civilization and a cruel, barbarous force that wants to destroy it, not about George Bush's Iraq war. It may be true that Obama's premature exit from Iraq led to what ISIS is now doing, but that doesn't matter. All that matters is that a hitherto elusive enemy is suddenly out in the open on the battlefield.
Obama obviously senses that something is wrong with his stance, and so he commits air power to attack ISIS, all the while claiming that this is only for humanitarian reasons, or for the protection of the few Americans in the area. And yet it's clear that he hopes his limited moves will stop ISIS without having to admit that this was his real goal. But in so critical a situation we can't afford self-deception. It is in our national interest to destroy this first organized trans-national jihadi army, and that means bringing all the resources that we have to the task immediately. This is the opportunity we have always needed, but never had, to use our overwhelming military superiority against the people who will be the perpetrators of future attacks on the scale of or perhaps worse than 9/11. And for once, most of the world would cheer us on, because the jihadis' barbarism and cruelty have soured virtually everyone.
DeleteObama doesn't see the national interest that is obvious in this wider context because he is fixated on his own interest within the smaller context of Iraq. For their part, the jihadis have evidently calculated that it's safe for them to take to the field, because Obama will never order American troops to take them down. And in this they are probably right. No wonder they think Allah is with them. If Obama understood the uniqueness of this moment, they might soon think otherwise.
John M. Ellis is a professor emeritus and former dean of the Graduate Division at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
President Obama's decision-making about ISIS is dominated by the history of U.S. actions in Iraq, especially his own. It's this context that determines what he will and won't do.
Getting troops out of Iraq was his promise; that promise is now fulfilled, and it must not be undone. But this is myopic. It is vitally important to see recent events in the quite different context of the situation that has faced us ever since 9/11, because in that context, we have a golden opportunity – one that we could only dream of until now.
DeleteIn late 2001, America faced a frustrating situation. An enemy had declared its intent to destroy us and had struck a devastating first blow. We had the most powerful military in the world and could easily defeat any power on the battlefield, but this enemy didn't form up as an army on a battlefield. Our wars have been against states, but this was not a state: it was a loose but extensive network of individuals spread across and hidden among the populations of many countries, including our own. The exasperating result was that while we had a powerful force to defend us, for the most part we couldn't deploy it. We were able to invade Afghanistan to clean out a sanctuary there, but that was all. Good intelligence might let us take out a few individuals from time to time, even one as important as Osama bin Laden, but no serious engagement on a field of battle seemed possible. If our enemy ever managed to kill tens of thousands of us by using poison gas in the New York subway, all thoughts would turn to a retaliatory counter-strike, but we would probably have no idea how or where to accomplish that.
If we keep our eyes on this wider context, we can see immediately that what is happening now in Iraq is an absolute game-changer. Our deadly enemy, radical Islam, has taken to the battlefield! At last, they are out in the open, fighting a conventional war as an army and a state. This is the opportunity we could only wish for during the last thirteen years. Jihadis from all over the world are pouring into Iraq to join them, leaving the cover of their surrounding civilian populations and forming up as an army. They are fighting on our terms, on the battlefield, where we are supreme. At last, after years of frustration, we have the chance to engage and crush them.
Deciding to do so should be a no-brainer, but Obama hesitates because he is haunted by the idea of "going back into Iraq." Determined to avoid doing anything that could appear to undermine what he sees as his achievement, or worse yet, look like an admission that he had been wrong, Obama lets his boasts shackle him. And yet there is a simple and convincing answer to all of his hesitation: he is seeing these events in the wrong context. This is about the long struggle between modern civilization and a cruel, barbarous force that wants to destroy it, not about George Bush's Iraq war. It may be true that Obama's premature exit from Iraq led to what ISIS is now doing, but that doesn't matter. All that matters is that a hitherto elusive enemy is suddenly out in the open on the battlefield...........
Read more: http://americanthinker.com/2014/08/seeing_isis_in_the_wrong_context.html#ixzz3BdWTL2Hj
Follow us: @AmericanThinker on Twitter | AmericanThinker on Facebook
We can count on Obama to get it wrong.
DeleteHe acts as if he has Quart as his Secretary of Defense.
Rat, Rufus, and Bob, all on the same side of the issue with an American Thinker article backing them up.
ReplyDeleteeasy peasy
Having been forced, by Ash's claim, to read the piece ...
DeleteIt became evident that Mr Ellis may have danced around the "Rat Doctrine", but never made mention of the tactics he would use in battling ISIS, now that they are 'out in the open'..
The "Rat Doctrine" may be catching on, but Mr Ellis did not mention it.
I will have to rethink my position. I did not realize it coincided with that of desert rat and swamp rat.
ReplyDeleteBut what is my position?
I'm not certain as to what to do except support a Kurdish State.
What does your Canadian Prime Minister say to do, Ash?
DeleteThe whole thing seems a little odd to me and somewhat ginned up.
DeleteWe are going to war again because one American journalist got his head sawed off?
I can understand protecting a dam, protecting Christians etc and doing some bombing to stop ISIS advance but go back in and try to make Iraq one country again?
I am dootful of the wisdom of this.
Never believe anything you read in the Associated Press -
ReplyDelete>>>>That’s the essence of what is going on. A consistent story is being told because the bias is the story. They’re not there to talk about Hamas. They’re there to talk about Israel’s evil. Any story that contradicts that, doesn’t run.<<<<
Former AP Jerusalem Editor Reveals Hamas Coverup and Anti-Israel Bias
August 26, 2014 by Daniel Greenfield 10 Comments
Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is a New York writer focusing on radical Islam. He is completing a book on the international challenges America faces in the 21st century.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dgreenfield/former-ap-jerusalem-editor-reveals-hamas-coverup-and-anti-israel-bias/
The main idea in this article is also put into cartoon form at the beginning so that readers like Quart and Ash can participate too.
.
ReplyDeleteYesterday, CNN (or FOX?) was reporting that IS troops were still hanging around the Mosul dam and disputing the fact that it has been fully retaken. They also reported that IS troops are within a mile or so of Kirkuk and that about a dozen of them have been arrested inside the city itself as they try to blend in and infiltrate, something made easier by the number of various ethnic groups that inhabit the city.
Above, the American Thinker expert, John Ellis, seems convinced that now that IS has openly taken to the field it is vulnerable, rendering itself open to attack and a simple mopping up action. While the arm-chair pacifist asks, if the IS leadership is as intelligent and experienced as most Western military experts seem to think they are, why when faced with defeat using one approach they wouldn't simply modify that approach and fall back on a less impressive but proven strategy that has served them well in the past, lighting attacks to take over key towns and facilities and blending their fighters in amongst local populations in the cities and towns they control.
.
CNN is downsizing for lack of viewers.
DeleteI think Ellis is saying they actually fight in formation at times, rendering them vulnerable.
Since they have already captured most of their immediate targets the greatest opportunity to whack them may have passed.
But, they also have to hold those towns as well.......
.
DeleteHey, I'm just an arm-chair pacifists, what do I know?
No doubt it will be as General Ellis portrays it, easy peasy.
.
.
DeleteI think Ellis is saying they actually fight in formation at times, rendering them vulnerable.
You think?
Doesn't that hurt?
.
A nine year old girl with an Uzi?
ReplyDeleteNine-year-old girl accidentally shoots instructor
A nine-year-old girl in the US has accidentally killed her shooting instructor while being shown how to use a high-powered automatic weapon.
The 39-year-old instructor was giving the girl a lesson in Arizona, but when she pulled the trigger on an Uzi submachine gun at the Last Stop firing range she lost control of it.
The accident appears to have happened after the gun was switched from single to full automatic mode.
Jennifer Kastner of ABC News reports.
A well named firing range, as it turns out.
DeleteO My God look at this - Al 'Slim' Sharpton is even MORE racist than those racists over there at the rude American Thinker when it comes to pointing out fat blacks......
ReplyDeleteRSS
TSG Facebook
TSG Twitter
August 26, 2014
DOCUMENT: Celebrity
Al Sharpton Is A Bigot... Against Fat People
Now svelte, the civil rights leader loves to mock the overweight
Comments(123)
Share
Al Sharpton
Submit a Tip!
.
.
Submit a Tip!
.
..
AUGUST 26--Now that the Rev. Al Sharpton has transformed himself from an overweight track suit enthusiast to a svelte dandy, he appears to enjoy nothing more than making fun of obese people.
During weekly meetings at his Harlem headquarters, the civil rights activist, who turns 60 in October, has used his overweight followers as punching bag and punch line. He does this while acknowledging the obesity crisis in African-American communities, which are filled with fast food restaurants and few supermarkets.
The multimillionaire Sharpton--who follows a strict diet that has helped him shed about 150 pounds--lives in a luxury apartment on Manhattan’s West Side, where he has easy access to fruits, vegetables, and healthy eating choices. In fact, the MSNBC host just has to take the elevator downstairs, where a Trader Joe’s occupies his building’s ground-floor commercial space..........
http://thesmokinggun.com/documents/celebrity/al-sharpton-and-obese-people-897531
Nice photos of fatso Sharpton and slim Sharpton.
Race hustling pays well if one is good at it.
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/119226/us-airstrikes-isis-syria-are-not-enough-punish-assad-too
ReplyDeleteBashar Al Assad Is Laying a Deadly Ambush for Obama in Syria
bob is it 'really' you?
ReplyDeletePlease, prove that you are who you claim to be. sign in !
Become Obumble, albob, bobal or Farmer Fudd, sign-in and be somebody.
Those ISIS cavalrymen, in the video, they certainly had an adequate defense against air strikes ... those horses are so stealthy the drones will not see them.
ReplyDeleteInfrared
DeleteThe ISIS cavalry, at 2:22, in the video.
DeleteThose horses, part of a combined arms package that includes Toyota trucks with machine guns mounted in the beds, like modern versions of the jeeps in the "Rat Patrol" ...
Those are the ISIS weapon systems which, the armchair pacifists say, will not be stopped by mere Hellfire missiles fired from Predator drones.
.
DeleteOnce again the rat obfuscates, dissembles, and lies.
The air-chair pacifists could give a shit about Toyota trucks. And as for their armored vehicles, we've said before without spare parts and the technical capability to maintain them, in time the desert will take care of those vehicles without any need for hellfire missiles.
What the arm-chair pacifists are concerned about is the ISIS terrorists themselves. We have been assured by the generals here that they are insignificant and can be taken care of with little effort. We shall see. Talk to me after we have cleared Mosul.
Although now I see that whereas before this was going a turkey-shoot, the greatest massacre in the history of warfare, now we are being told we have all the time in the world, it may take a while, but not to worry, relax, have a beer.
But then what do we know, we are only arm-chair pacifists. No doubt you are right and this will be easy peasy.
Well, I better head over and get that six pack.
Have a nice day, general.
.
"Clearing Mosul" is a straw-man.
Delete"WE" don't have to "clear Mosul."
When the Iraqis are ready to work, together (with each other, And the Kurds,) we will be there to help. Our Air Support will make their job infinitely easier.
BUT, if they don't want to get it together? . . . . . . . . . . . Then, it becomes Their job, and theirs alone. What's the big deal?
.
DeleteThe big deal was the apparent assumption by some here that this was going to be a cakewalk, that IS would simply sit out in the desert waiting to be bombed, that they would line up in columns for the US to take out, that when the US entered the fray they wouldn't change their strategy, that those who thought it might be a tougher slog were guilty of 20th century thinking, that the drone was the number 42 of 21st century warfare and nothing could resist its magical powers, all leaving the impression that this little tiff should be cleaned up by Labor Day.
I saw a quote in one of the articles on this fight indicating that IS has overestimated themselves and that we had underestimated them. I don't know if that is true. At least every military guy I have seen seems to take them seriously.
.
Well, you haven't "seen" me, but I am (was) a "military guy," and I Don't take them seriously.
DeleteAt all.
And, I think we've already proven that, when a "partner" steps forward, it Will be a cakewalk (for us, anyway.)
Of course they take the ISIS 'seriously'.
DeleteWhen you defeat a 'nothing' it does not add much to your reputation, does it?
Every threat is to be taken 'seriously' especially if you are in the 'Taking Threats Seriously" business.
But none of Quirk's bantering takes away from the reality that Close Air Support works, tactically.
That, in truth, it WILL make all the difference in the fight. As it did at the dam, outside of Mosul.
If you were to go back and read the "Rat Doctrine", you would quickly become aware that the local forces, those who are being supported from the air, are critical to the success of the "Rat Doctrine".
DeleteAnd, as for "changing strategy," I don't see how they can "change strategy" - at least, to much extent.
DeleteThese aren't "heroes riding into town on a white horse," or "home-grown insurgents." These are psychopathic assholes from "out of town, out of country, even," that are as likely to cut the local, beloved Imam's head off, as they are to order lunch.
They will Not be able to hide out in the local population very effectively, and those "magic 42" drones will have clear "eyes" on their fighting positions when the attack begins.
Those guys are toast.
If there are no local forces, tactical air support is not a game changer.
DeleteThe fellas that rolled into town in a Toyota pickup, they are going to be rolling out of town, or they will stand and fight, with logistical resupply difficult, due to the allied air cap over the battle space. The drones, with infra red vision capability can be on station 24/7, unlike F16s or F18s.
.
DeleteWell, you haven't "seen" me, but I am (was) a "military guy," and I Don't take them seriously.
You are what I would term a 20th Century "military guy".
:o)
But none of Quirk's bantering takes away from the reality that Close Air Support works, tactically.
There was never an argument that close air support doesn't work but merely that it was a tool. You guys have argued that it is the number 42.
That, in truth, it WILL make all the difference in the fight. As it did at the dam, outside of Mosul.
Or that mortar position that allowed the Kurds to retake that town.
:o)
From day one we have been in agreement that US air support helped halt the IS blitzkrieg into northern Iraq. However, while I have argued that there is nothing new about this war except possibly the latest version of technology we have had for years, you have argued that we have entered a new age of warfare where the old rules don't apply, that this is something different, a whole new ball game, that it is now all about air power.
We shall see.
It has been a month since the US entered the fray. I've seen a couple dozen vehicles taken out. The initial thrust from the US stopped the IS advance in the North. However, as we found out later, it was actually Kurds who came through the mountains from Syria that got the refugees out at Sindal and when the US finally got there there was no one left to save. As for the Mosul dam, the US took out a dozen or so vehicles. Was that the deciding factor? The rat seems to think so. However, I haven't seen any of those columns of vehicles being taken out on those desert roads we have heard so much about. I see that IS is still on the offensive in various areas of the country.
Obama has announced he wants to take out IS. We will see if air power is sufficient for the job.
.
Quirk, shame on you. You are misrepresenting numbers, and the facts on the ground, right and left. We have taken out about 100 targets, now. Probably 90, or so, of them were vehicles, of various kinds, and the rest were tanks, artillery pieces, mortars, etc.
DeleteThe Kurds were able to open up that back door Largely Because of our air support taking out various IS positions.
You are, also, completely ignoring the "uniqueness" of this particular situation. If this was being fought in a rain forest we wouldn't be having this discussion. But, it's not. And, it's not being fought against a real Army; it's being fought (or will be fought) against a rampaging gang of maniacs that, evidently, do Not have even rudimentary air defense systems, and it's being fought in a treeless environment where unrestrained overhead optics, and laser/gps guided munitions are "King."
I can't even imagine what has your tail-feathers so ruffled, and I'm not going to waste html code speculating, but it's almost inducive of vertigo.
I mean, why would you say This:
Delete"Obama has announced he wants to take out IS. We will see if air power is sufficient for the job."
?
NO ONE has proposed that "Air Power" would be "Sufficient" for such an undertaking - only that air power will make it a whole hell of a lot easier. Easy Peasy, in fact.
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteWith respect to your notion that IS is simply a "rampaging gang of maniacs" I offer this article as counter evidence:
Delete"ZAKHO, Iraq — The afternoon before his family fled the onslaught of Sunni militants, Dakhil Habash was visited by three of his Arab neighbors. Over tea, his trusted friend Matlul Mare told him not to worry about the advancing fighters and that no harm would come to him or his Yazidi people.
The men had helped one another over the years: Mr. Mare brought supplies to Mr. Habash’s community in the years after the American invasion, when travel outside their northern enclave was too dangerous for Yazidis. Mr. Mare bought tomatoes and watermelon from Mr. Habash’s farm and sometimes borrowed money.
But his friend’s assurances did not sit right with Mr. Habash. That night, he gathered his family and fled. Soon afterward, he said, he found out that Mr. Mare had joined the militants and was helping them hunt down Yazidi families.
“Our Arab neighbors turned on all of us,” said Mr. Habash, who recounted his story from a makeshift refugee camp on the banks of a fetid stream near the city of Zakho, in Iraqi Kurdistan. “We feel betrayed. They were our friends.”
..."
Read the whole article if you want more examples.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/27/world/middleeast/iraq-isis-yazidis-kurds-sunni-arabs.html?ref=world
This comment has been removed by the author.
Delete.
DeleteNO ONE has proposed that "Air Power" would be "Sufficient" for such an undertaking - only that air power will make it a whole hell of a lot easier. Easy Peasy, in fact.
Nonsense.
There were two points that were being argued. Mentioning the second first, there was the issue of mission creep. We have seen it start.
However, the first matter raised is the one we are talking about today. I won't speak for Ash although I think he agrees with me. What I said was that air support was great and the greatest benefit of it would probably be the intel we could give to the Iraqi troops regarding IS movements but that in the end it would be the Iraqi troops that would be the ones that actually take and hold the territory and towns.
Almost immediately we were accused of 20th Century thinking.
And then the hyperbole ran freely, although I am happy to see you still see this operation as a cakewalk.
.
Quirk, this
Delete"What I said was that air support was great and the greatest benefit of it would probably be the intel we could give to the Iraqi troops regarding IS movements"
is just absolutely, totally, 100% Wrong. It's "breathtakingly wrong."
You just can't get any more "wrong" than that.
In this type of fighting, they Know where the Tank is - it's right the hell over there, shooting at them.
They know where the artillery piece is located, and they know where the mortar that's killing them is located.
They can see truck-mounted machine gun that's cutting them to ribbons.
What they need is for someone to "Kill The Damned Thing."
You've somehow managed to get a really skewed idea of Mideast warfare.
.
Deleteis just absolutely, totally, 100% Wrong. It's "breathtakingly wrong."
More nonsense.
IS has 10-15,000 men scattered over 13.000 square miles. There is a 900 mile front. While the US and Iraqi troops are fighting over here IS has been striking over there. If you are waiting for a column of tanks to come rumbling over the desert al a Rommel you are shit out of luck. The key to taking the fight to IS is knowing where they are.
.
Quirk, what you are saying is silly. Maybe you're not serious. Maybe you're just fuckin' wit da monkeys. I don't know. But, let's take that "piece by piece."
DeleteWhatever the number is (and, it's probably closer to 5,000 than 15,000; but that really isn't important,) they are not "scattered around," now, or "attacking." They have already done that. They are, presently, pretty much in fixed positions.
Let's just look at the last week. While we were killing probably somewhere in excess of 500 of the assholes, they weren't attacking somewhere else. They were chopping off a few heads in the places they controlled, and administering a little justice by rape, and lashings, but otherwise there wasn't much going on.
While we were doing a little bombing around the mountain they did form a few vehicles into a semi-convoy outside of Erbil, and we killed them before they could get their pickups moving. You see, we have a lot of airplanes, and, now, a Shit-pot full of Drones.
As I said, I don't know what your blind-spot is on this, but these guys a easy. They're sitting ducks waiting to have their heads chopped off. In your words, "easy peasy"
And, what you don't seem to understand is, the fact that they ARE "Spread Out" in all those towns (large, and small) and Villages is a "Good Thing."
DeleteIf all 10,000 (to pick a number probably on the high side) were dug in at Mosul, it might be difficult for an Army as inefficient as Iraq's to kick them out, even with great air support. But they have their people divided up 15 or 20 places. That's easy pickins.
The "News" media thrives off of "Urgency," and "Emergency," and "Blood."
ReplyDeleteBut, the fact is, Obomb'em has all the time in the world.
What you have here is a large gang of psychopathic assholes running around, and most of the time, killing people we don't much like, anyway.
ISIS isn't going anywhere. They don't have ships, or planes, and most of those desert folk aren't well-known for their swimming abilities.
They, also, don't have nukes, or chemical weapons (thanks, Obomb'em,) and it seems pretty unlikely that they have the maintenance infrastructure to keep those commandeered tanks running very long.
Meantime, they're giving Obomb'em leverage with the Iraqi Government, and, one would assume, with the Iranians.
Looks to me like a good time for a beer, and barbeque, and a round of golf - maybe a football game on Sunday.
Indecisive end to Gaza conflict
ReplyDeleteBy Kevin Connolly BBC News, Jerusalem
Everyone understands that this was an asymmetric conflict - but there is frustration in Israel that it could not turn its overwhelming military superiority into something that looks or feels more like a victory.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is often portrayed as a hawkish right-winger overseas, but in Israeli political terms he sometimes seems more like a cautious strategist.
He will face plenty of criticism from right-wing members of his government that he did not show enough resolve to continue the operation until some kind of decisive defeat was inflicted on Hamas.
Instead, Hamas gets to head into talks making demands on Israel (even if they are not ultimately satisfied) and has demonstrated its ability to resist the strongest and best-equipped army in the region to a standstill.
Even Mr Liberman, the Foreign Minister of Israel admits defeat.
ReplyDeleteLiberman: Israel can't ensure safety of citizens in the South as long as Hamas rules Gaza
http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Liberman-Israel-cant-ensure-the-safety-of-its-citizens-in-the-South-as-long-as-Hamas-rules-Gaza-372499
Highlights
ReplyDeleteConsumer confidence is up and is led by strength in the current assessment which points to gains for consumer readings in August. Consumer confidence rose 2.1 points to a new recovery high of 92.4 reflecting a 6.7 point surge in the present situation component to 94.6. The gain in this component reflects improvement in August employment with substantially more consumers saying jobs are now plentiful, at 18.2 percent vs July's 15.6 percent, and a bit fewer saying jobs are currently hard to get, at 30.6 percent vs July's 30.9 percent.
The gain in the . . . . . .
Bloomberg
I kept trying to tell anyone who would listen that when folks start drawing lines that keep going "up and to the right" till they reach the sky," take it with a huge grain of salt.
ReplyDeleteAnd, now, the CBO figures that Medicare costs to the government will be some $250 Billion Less in 2016 than they were figuring just 8 years ago.
THAT is big, freakin' money, kiddos.
This article has quite a few words, but One Hell of a Chart.
Hell of a Chart
"Well, I better head over and get that six pack."
ReplyDeleteO sweet Jesus I knew it.
Quirk is 'heading over' to Iraq.
And he's starting off with a simple six pack.
He must have finished off that Vatican wine and needs replenishing, liquid wise and for the adventure.
Quirk is a true addict for adventure for The Good, The True and The Beautiful.
(as long as he gets his priorities right)
He is certain death on tanks from two miles with a TOW missile as long as his whistle is wet.
ISIS now has a very limited shelf life.
Deletebob, Robert, is that really you?
DeleteWhy are you not signing in with any of your Google accounts?
What form is your dementia taking, now?
Concerning those 'casualties' in Gaza -
ReplyDeleteAugust 27, 2014
Best for facts to be given by impartial observers...
By Michael Berenhaus
Why does The Washington Post quote the UN as if they are an impartial observer in the Gaza war? For example, in "Fatalities in Gaza prompt scrutiny of US weapons sales to Israel"(8/24/14) the UN is quoted as saying that "nearly three-fourths the dead" in Gaza are civilians.
Interestingly, the UN doesn't deny that Gaza's rockets have been stored in UN facilities, having been caught in the act on more than one occasion. The UN has even returned those rockets to Hamas, the terrorist regime in Gaza. This week, a 4-year-old Israeli was killed by mortar fire Israel states came from near a UN school. Does this seem impartial?
UN officials in Gaza are mostly Palestinian. Palestinians who speak out against Hamas in their campaign to demonize Israel run the risk of being killed as collaborators. Just this week, 18 so-called collaborators were executed publicly in cold blood. To say that UN officials are highly motivated to say whatever Hamas wants is an understatement. They must say that casualties are civilians or else. Recently, the NY Times, the BBC and even Al Jazeera have pointed out that a disproportionate number of those killed in Gaza are male of fighting age, casting suspicion on the UN stats.
Given all this, why does The Washington Post continue to report UN statistics as if they are credible? They are not.
does The Washington Post quote the UN as if they are an impartial observer in the Gaza war? For example, in "Fatalities in Gaza prompt scrutiny of US weapons sales to Israel"(8/24/14) the UN is quoted as saying that "nearly three-fourths the dead" in Gaza are civilians.
Interestingly, the UN doesn't deny that Gaza's rockets have been stored in UN facilities, having been caught in the act on more than one occasion. The UN has even returned those rockets to Hamas, the terrorist regime in Gaza. This week, a 4-year-old Israeli was killed by mortar fire Israel states came from near a UN school. Does this seem impartial?
UN officials in Gaza are mostly Palestinian. Palestinians who speak out against Hamas in their campaign to demonize Israel run the risk of being killed as collaborators. Just this week, 18 so-called collaborators were executed publicly in cold blood. To say that UN officials are highly motivated to say whatever Hamas wants is an understatement. They must say that casualties are civilians or else. Recently, the NY Times, the BBC and even Al Jazeera have pointed out that a disproportionate number of those killed in Gaza are male of fighting age, casting suspicion on the UN stats.
Given all this, why does The Washington Post continue to report UN statistics as if they are credible? They are not.
Read more: http://americanthinker.com/blog/2014/08/best_for_facts_to_be_given_by_impartial_observers.html#ixzz3BcDaNms8
Follow us: @AmericanThinker on Twitter | AmericanThinker on Facebook
The Washington Compost
DeleteWhy? They like the numbers.
Delete.
DeleteWell, let's see. The American Thinker, the Weekly World News of the faux news industry says that information provided by by someone else is unreliable. What's wrong with this picture?
.
Michael Berenhaus is a self appointed Israeli firster and minder, founder of Eye On The Post, an organization that purportedly monitors the Washington Post for its “anti-Israel bias”.
DeleteThe manifestations of perceived bias include the Washington Post's reference to the West Bank and Gaza as "occupied territories"-- the designation given to the territories by the UN and even recognized by Ariel Sharon, Israel's current right-wing Prime Minister. Before setting up this organization he had also organized a boycott of the paper through the BoycottThePost.org website.
In a December 29, 2003 Letter to the Editor of The Seattle Times where he blames the decline in the number of Arab Christians in Bethlehem not on the depredations of the occupation, but on "Palestinian Muslim violence and intimidation" (emphasis added). He placed the blame for the massive ethnic cleansing of the native population in 1948 on the “Palestinian Arabs" and the "neighboring Arab states".
He is an Israeli troll.
Nothing is wrong with this picture.
DeleteAnd, there is nothing wrong with the stars.
The trouble resides in yourself, o tragic figure.
You are a muzzie firster these days. The Hamas can do no wrong, Israel can do no right.
DeleteYou are a little troll like yourself.
"
In a December 29, 2003 Letter to the Editor of The Seattle Times where he blames the decline in the number of Arab Christians in Bethlehem not on the depredations of the occupation, but on "Palestinian Muslim violence and intimidation" (emphasis added)."
He is right.
You can't even bring yourself to admit that using one's children as human shields is a reprehensible act.
DeleteIf you have, I have missed it.
You have missed a lot bob, a whole lot!
DeleteFlight from Ebola: Fingers are crossed
ReplyDeleteSuhas Munshi & Durgesh Nandan Jha,TNN | Aug 27, 2014, 04.46 AM IST
The Times of India
Many Indian nationals visit Africa so a lot are coming and going and it is beginning to cause a lot of concern.
Article here -
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/City/Delhi/Flight-from-Ebola-Fingers-are-crossed/articleshow/40960259.cms
Rejecting Free Money Is Really Expensive: Live from The Roasterie CCCXVII: August 27, 2014
ReplyDelete$423 billion over the next decade if the red states continue to reject Medicaid expansion. This won't be enough of a cash shortfall to send the red states into a near-permanent recession or stagnation--it's only 0.5% or so of gross economic product over the next decade. But it will hurt, and hurt a lot: the right multiplier to apply here is the Moretti long-run geographic multiplier of 6, which means that economic activity in red states in a decade will be 3% less and in blue states 1.5% more than in the baseline.
Richard Mayhew: Rejecting free money is expensive: "Forbes Magazine is using little words to explain to its readers...
...that hospitals in states that . . . . .
dumbest shit you've ever heard of
Seeing that Rufus is repeating his assertion I'll bring this down here so he won't miss it. To your notion that IS is simply a "rampaging gang of maniacs" or, in your other formulation, "What you have here is a large gang of psychopathic assholes running around, ..."
ReplyDeleteI offer this article as counter evidence - not to their state of mind but rather to the notion that they are a bunch of kooks from elsewhere separate from the locals:
"ZAKHO, Iraq — The afternoon before his family fled the onslaught of Sunni militants, Dakhil Habash was visited by three of his Arab neighbors. Over tea, his trusted friend Matlul Mare told him not to worry about the advancing fighters and that no harm would come to him or his Yazidi people.
The men had helped one another over the years: Mr. Mare brought supplies to Mr. Habash’s community in the years after the American invasion, when travel outside their northern enclave was too dangerous for Yazidis. Mr. Mare bought tomatoes and watermelon from Mr. Habash’s farm and sometimes borrowed money.
But his friend’s assurances did not sit right with Mr. Habash. That night, he gathered his family and fled. Soon afterward, he said, he found out that Mr. Mare had joined the militants and was helping them hunt down Yazidi families.
“Our Arab neighbors turned on all of us,” said Mr. Habash, who recounted his story from a makeshift refugee camp on the banks of a fetid stream near the city of Zakho, in Iraqi Kurdistan. “We feel betrayed. They were our friends.”
..."
Read the whole article if you want more examples.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/27/world/middleeast/iraq-isis-yazidis-kurds-sunni-arabs.html?ref=world
I guess they weren't such good friends, after all.
DeleteLook, I don't care if they all get together, and kill each other until there aren't any left. I could care less.
The totality of my contention is that from a military standpoint these turkeys will be easy to defeat.
If Obomb'em decides he has a partner worthy of air support, that's fine with me. If he doesn't ever bomb another headcutter, I can live with that, too. I honestly don't care.
I'm just telling you that there's no reason to believe that what is "working, now" will cease to work next week.
Two spots 'worked' and you proclaim all clear for the rest.
DeleteWhat I am trying to get through your thick old school military mind is that just like Saddam's military was thoroughly routed we still lost, and lost big. There is absolutely no reason to think that next time will be different. In fact, I am offering you evidence that it won't be different. IS has local support. You can bomb their pick-up trucks and kill a bunch but, like the Gazans, it won't change their 'hearts'.
and the rat doctrine is simply a tautology:
Deleteof course, with close air support and local ground forces mopping up peace will reign. His 'doctrine' assumes the local ground forces will mop up and hold the territory. The key is who the fuck are the locals to do this? We did it for the Iraqi Shia but they failed to hold the territory who's next? Assad's Syria? riiiight.
Ash, if they fuck it up, they fuck it up. The only thing it's cost Us is a few J-DAM Smart Bombs, and some Hellfire Missiles.
DeleteIf we hadn't used them there, we would have used them at White Sands. Big Whoop.
AshWed Aug 27, 05:22:00 PM EDT
Deleteand the rat doctrine is simply a tautology:
...........
Interesting, Ash. I will relay this information to my Niece for her consideration. She has only said he repeats himself endlessly and no information flows into his reptilian areas from the outside, and nothing escapes from there, either.
You can also Foley's head to the cost. I'd guess we might see a little other blowback as well.
Deletehttp://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/184387#.U_srjGPjFZ8
ReplyDeleteIsrael is 'Choosing not to Win', Says British Expert
Somehow I just knew Rufus couldn't care less about 10 million slit clits in Sunniland.
ReplyDeleteAfter all, they ain't The Clan.
Would you go to war over 10 million slit clits, Ash?
ReplyDeleteLord Byron gave a shit.
ReplyDeleteHe helped liberate Greece from the Turk.
He was a queer too, and had a bum leg.
<<<>>>Greece[edit]
DeleteFurther information: Greek War of Independence
Lord Byron in Albanian dress painted by Thomas Phillips in 1813. Venizelos Mansion, Athens (the British Ambassador's residence)
Byron was living in Genoa when, in 1823, while growing bored with his life there, he accepted overtures for his support from representatives of the movement for Greek independence from the Ottoman Empire.[43] With the assistance of his banker and Captain Daniel Roberts, Byron chartered the Brig Hercules to take him to Greece. On 16 July, Byron left Genoa arriving at Kefalonia in the Ionian Islands on 4 August. His voyage is covered in detail in Sailing with Byron from Genoa to Cephalonia.[44]
Byron historian Donald Prell, wrote of a coincidence in Byron's chartering the Hercules. The vessel was launched only a few miles south of Seaham Hall, where in 1815 Byron married Annabella Milbanke. Between 1815 and 1823 the vessel was in service between England and Canada. Suddenly in 1823, the ship's Captain decided to sail to Genoa and offer the Hercules for charter.
After taking Byron to Greece, the ship returned to England, never again to venture into the Mediterranean. "The Hercules was age 37 when on 21 September 1852, her life ended when she went aground near Hartlepool, only 25 miles south of Sunderland, where in 1815, her keel was laid; Byron's keel was laid nine months before his official birth date, 22 January 1788; therefore in ship-years, he was age 37, when he died in Missolonghi."[45]
Byron spent £4000 of his own money to refit the Greek fleet, then sailed for Missolonghi in western Greece, arriving on 29 December, to join Alexandros Mavrokordatos, a Greek politician with military power. During this time, Byron pursued his Greek page, Lukas Chalandritsanos, but the affections went unrequited.[26] When the famous Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen heard about Byron's heroics in Greece, he voluntarily resculpted his earlier bust of Byron in Greek marble.[38]<<<>>>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Byron
Lord Byron was sort of a Quartian Prototype, come to think on it.
Except that Quart would never ever off up his own money, if he had any.
DeleteHe would off up life and limb, but not money.
"Your money or your life" said the holdup man.
"Take my life, my good man" answered Quart.
I saw this with own eyes.
The US chose not to win in both Afghanistan and Iraq. Our adversaries tell us that they prevail because death is their greatest joy, while life is ours. We are cowards, they say. They are incorrect. We have lost not to save our lives but because we haven't the stomach to take theirs in the numbers necessary to win. We have become too docile, too civilized, too domesticated for war unless it is waged as some sort of sanitary video game. For years we avoided numerous opportunities to kill ObL. Why? The possibility of collateral damage was too great to risk taking the shot, said the experts. By no stretch of imagination did the potential collateral damage associated with taking out ObL come within 1% of the loss of American life on 9/11? It will be said that no one could know the damage of 9/11 a priori. Fair enough. But we did know the damage he had caused in the bombing of two American embassies. Choices were made. They were wrong. The Arab/Muslim world is now enraged and in chaos. Consequences will be suffered. We have sown the wind.
ReplyDeleteAfter all this, we have learned nothing. Within days, no doubt, we will be making air assaults into Syria and Iraq (the caliphate). Implicit in this stratagem will be support for a dictator guilty of the most heinous of war crimes and the support of a tripartite, pseudo-country, without a national government, a national army, and without a national identity. This will make for us friends and strengthen alliances? No, it will not. We will have simply traded off one set of enemies for a new set. Indeed, we may find ourselves the butt of the joke in Aesop’s, “The Man, the Boy, and the Donkey”: in attempting to please all, we will gain the scorn of all. Worse, we will incur their unslakable wrath.
If this president is willing and able to fight like Genghis Khan, we can pacify the region. That will entail not only the initial murderous war of pacification but some unknown number of punitive, bloody forays against malcontents. Like Caesar in Gaul and Vespasian-Titus in Judea, we will have to methodically kill millions of men, women, and children until our enemies no longer have the spine to resist. They must be broken on the wheel. To do less, we will reap the whirlwind.
For that to happen we would have to suffer another very serious attack or attacks first.
DeleteSooner or later, we will suffer such attacks.
Again, Ash is confusing tactics with strategy.
ReplyDeleteAn armchair pacifist.
Trying to conflate two separate and distinct things, and then create one simple package, as if it were easy peasy, when it is not.
No one ever said that there was a strategic solution. All that was sai was that with Close Air Support providd by US, whoever we supplied it to, would EVENTUALLY prevail, TACTICALLY.
The armchair pacifists can wail on, it does not matter, much.
All that was said was that with Close Air Support provided by US, whoever we supplied it to, would EVENTUALLY prevail, TACTICALLY.
DeleteWinning the battle, that is easy when you can bring the might of the US military to bear..
ReplyDeleteWinning the War, a bit more difficult, as there are politicians and statesmen involved.
Winning the Peace, damn near impossible.
The battle against ISIS, a combined land and air campaign, would not be a question of who would win, but how long the ISIS could sustain itself. Against local forces and US air power, the ISIS forces will be defeated. Perhaps easily, perhaps not so easily, but there is no doubt to the long term outcome, of the battle.
ReplyDeleteAsh, he would not fight the battle, until he was assured of the political outcome that would follow. And that, hile an interesting discussion, has absolutely no bearing on the effectiveness of close air support provided by the US in the battle that will soon be joined.
Ash wants an exit strategy, and a promise of pudding, for dessert.
DeleteFucking eh! If you don't know your end game, if you don't know what you are fighting FOR then you are just pissing in the wind - with far more dire consequences!
DeleteRat,
Deletelook to the Israeli example - they fat outweigh the Palestinians militarily and intellectually yet they cannot win. Why is that?
.
DeleteCome on Ash, the general isn't interested in end-games.
An armchair pacifist.
Trying to conflate two separate and distinct things, and then create one simple package, as if it were easy peasy, when it is not.
No one ever said that there was a strategic solution. All that was sai was that with Close Air Support providd by US, whoever we supplied it to, would EVENTUALLY prevail, TACTICALLY.
But you generals have told us it would be easy peasy, rat. Numerous times.
Now, you harp on tactics and eschew strategy.
Talking of tactics is legitimate when you are talking about a rescue operation limited in time and scope. Saving some people on a mountain would fall into that category.
However, when the drip, drip, drip of mission creep is heard and the mission starts to morph and grow, then strategy becomes more important than tactics as do questions like, What is our objective? What is our national interest in achieving that objective? What metrics will we use to measure our success? How will we know when we have met our goals? These are simple questions. Basic questions. The type of questions we didn't bother with in past adventures until they were forced on us by events.
But the rat has the military mindset. Just keep pumping out those Hellfire missiles. Though as the war morphs and grows the public may eventually note that each one of them costs about $58,000.
.
.
DeleteOther that aiding the humanitarian situation on Sindal mountain and now 'making IS pay', I have not heard Obama explain an objective much less a strategy.
Our goal regarding the refugees in Sindal seems to have been achieved but I don't know what 'making IS pay' means and Obama seems unwilling to say at this point. How far are we willing to go to achieve our objective whatever that might be? In the past the cost/benefit analysis has not been running in our favor.
,
Jury nullification, of course bob the bob would be dismayed,by the injustice of the verdict!
ReplyDeleteA Texas jury Wednesday acquitted a father of murdering a drunken driver who plowed into the back of his out-of-gas truck on a dark road, killing his two young sons as they pushed the pickup to their nearby home.
You lying misrepresenting DUMB FUCK.
DeleteThat is the kind of case I might well vote to let the guy off.
What I objected to was the platform in the Ron Paul outlook that wanted to raise jury nullification to a Principle of Law.
Such a move would be insane, and would negate the need for a legislature in the first place.
Which is probably why a DUMB FUCK like yourself would support the idea.
You are a lying misrepresenting PROFESSIONAL ASSHOLE, just like you said of yourself.
A verdict of negligent homicide in the third degree might be appropriate.
Delete6 months and 5 years probation.
Aug. 27, 2014 6:31 p.m. ET
ReplyDeleteWASHINGTON—The American military campaign against Sunni extremists in Iraq has leveled off in recent days as the U.S. weighs plans for expanded airstrikes and humanitarian-aid drops, officials said.
Preparations were being made for operations near Haditha Dam and to provide relief to an Iraqi ethnic-minority group surrounded by Islamic State fighters. But new strikes and aid drops didn't appear imminent Wednesday, a reflection of the success the American air campaign and Kurdish fighters have had in blunting the momentum of the Sunni insurgent group.
Expanded U.S. operations, both in Iraq and Syria, remain a possibility. Military officials also are developing plans for strikes against Islamic State forces in Syria as part of a broader battle against the militant group that posted a video last week that showed it killed an American journalist. But officials cautioned that the White House isn't yet near a decision. on any expansion of operations.
The U.S. military was prepared last weekend to aid besieged Turkmen residents in Amirli, a Shiite ethnic minority. as appeals for help grew But the latest military assessments are that the situation there isn't dire enough to necessitate direct American intervention.
{...}
{....}
ReplyDeleteGen. Lloyd Austin, the top U.S. military commander in the Middle East, visited Baghdad on Tuesday, and the Pentagon announced it had conducted three additional strikes in Iraq, bringing the total number to 101.
Other than a rise n increase in strikes when the U.S. made a push to help Kurdish forces retake the Mosul Dam, the Pentagon has averaged just two to three a day since the U.S. air campaign began this month.
In part, that tempo reflects a change in tactics by Islamic State militants, who have tapered off their push toward the Kurdish regional capital and have been driven back from the Mosul Dam, officials said. It also may reflect a renewed strength by Kurdish Peshmerga fighters, who have sought to capitalize on the U.S. re-entry into Iraq.
"We don't sense a big surge in enemy operations coming," said a senior military official. "We seem to have hit a stasis right now."
An Obama administration official said that while it is important not to overstate the effect on the ground of American strikes, gains by Kurdish and other Iraqi forces are changing the U.S. calculus.
"If they can clean the underbrush, we do not need to come in with a bulldozer," the official said.
Officials said the U.S. airstrikes so far have created breathing room, giving an opportunity for a new Iraqi government to form and for American diplomats to push for a broader international effort to assist Iraq.
[STORY CAN END HERE FOR PRINT, PLEASE KEEP REST FOR ONLINE]
Humanitarian operations so far have focused on the Yazidi religious community, which was trapped on Sinjar Mountain. But last week, military officials proposed another operation to help Turkmen, a Shiite ethnic minority that also has been targeted by the Islamic State fighters.
{.....}
(....)
DeleteWhite House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Wednesday the administration is monitoring the plight of Turkmen villagers but declined to discuss whether the U.S. is considering humanitarian airdrops or other aid.
As with the U.S. examination of the besieged Yazidi religious community, military officials said a closer look at Amirli indicated that the crises wasn't as dire as it had been initially portrayed. Much of the pressure for U.S. military involvement has been alleviated by a continuing offensive by Iraqi forces in the area, said a senior military official.
"We believe it is not an emergency yet, it's not a pending catastrophe," said the official. "We've got the ability to help, if needed, but right now our assessment is that it is not needed."
—Jeffrey Sparshott
contributed to this article.
Article
ReplyDelete"If they can clean the underbrush, we do not need to come in with a bulldozer," the official said.
Officials said the U.S. airstrikes so far have created breathing room, giving an opportunity for a new Iraqi government to form and for American diplomats to push for a broader international effort to assist Iraq.
ReplyDeleteWashington: The US Air Force has secretly developed a new stealth drone for long-range reconnaissance missions that could be operational by 2015, according to a report Friday in an industry magazine.
The unmanned drone, dubbed RQ-180, is currently in the testing phase at the top secret Groom Lake air base in Nevada - the infamous "Area 51" where the Air Force tested the U2 spy planes in the late 1950s, Aviation Week said.
The Air Force refused to comment when contacted by AFP.
The new aircraft was reportedly built by Northrop Grumann, the company behind the Global Hawk and the X-47B drones, which landed on air craft carriers for the first time this summer.
The US company may have obtained in 2008 a secret contract on the order of $2 billion to develop the latest drone, according to Aviation Week.
An artistic rendering of the RQ-180 on the cover of the magazine shows a craft with striking resemblance to the X-47B, in particular in lack of rear stabilizer and its so-called "batwing" shape.
It was developed for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions, but "could also be capable of electronic attack missions," the magazine said.
"It is similar in size and endurance to the Global Hawk," which can fly for 24 hours up to 1,200 nautical miles (2,000 kilometers) from its base.
A first generation of unmanned aircraft, the non-stealthy Reapers and Global Hawks, were used in Afghanistan and Iraq, but they were deemed too vulnerable in enemy territory equipped with powerful anti-aircraft defenses.
Now the Air Force is slowly turning to stealth drones, better at passing safely over unfriendly territory.
In December 2011, a spy drone that had until then been secret, the RQ-170 Sentinel, crashed 155 miles (250 kilometers) inside Iranian air space.
The unmanned craft, which had taken off from Afghanistan, was on a mission to observe Iran's nuclear sites for the CIA, according to US press reports.
According to Aviation Week, the new RQ-180 "eclipses the smaller, less stealthy and shorter-range RQ-170 Sentinel".
Story First Published: December 06, 2013 22:11 IST
Dec. 2013
According to Aviation Week, the new RQ-180 "eclipses the smaller, less stealthy and shorter-range RQ-170 Sentinel".
DeleteEvery American family should have its own drone.
DeleteIf they wanted to, they could, they would.
DeleteAlmost everyone has a car, and a gun.
There are over 300 million of each of those personal accessories in the US.
There are not that many adult residents in the nation.
The True Cost of Birth Control
ReplyDeleteWomen make up TWO-THIRDS of minimum wage workers. Access to affordable birth control is critical to their economic success.
.
ReplyDeletePeople worry about foreign fighters who journey from their own country to the ME, get radicalized, and then return to practice terror at home.
If we know who these people are (which it seems we do), that they have joined a terrorist organization, why don't we just pull their citizenship so that they can't freely enter the country using a US passport. If the Brits and Europeans did it we wouldn't have to worry about their people entering without a visa?
I'm sure it's not that simple but surely it would help.
.
Just "Pull" their citizenship ....
DeleteWhat ever happened to "Freedom", of speech, travel, assembly....
You're not letting the fear get to you now, are you, Quirk?
Yes. it's not so easy to just pull someone's citizenship.
DeleteIn fact it is really hard to do.
If it can be done at all.
Usually one gives up one's citizenship voluntarily by leaving the country and signing off in an embassy overseas.
And that's why we shouldn't be passing out citizenship to every dirt bag that washes up on our shores, like the Democrats are so hot to do.
DeleteFear? Quirk?
DeleteYou are joking.
Besides he can always come live on the farm away from it all and butcher the elk and deer for me.
And spray the thistles, of course.
Delete.
DeleteYour probably right, rat. Not very well thought out.
However, the intelligence community says they track these guys. If they have joined IS you would think there would be charges that could be brought against them if they come back to the US given that we are at war with the group at least on a de facto basis.
As for fearing them. Not likely. I'm a little too old to worry about that shit. Besides the percentages are with me. No, I would just like to see a little justice for the pricks.
.
.
ReplyDeleteYou simpering hypocrite.
Please explain how you planned to do that.
.
Citizenship, Passports, and the Legal Identity of Americans: Edward Snowden and Others Have a Case in the Courts
ReplyDelete23 Apr 2014
Patrick Weil
In this Essay, Professor Patrick Weil reexamines the constitutional function of the passport in relation to American citizenship. The State Department recently developed a policy of passport revocation whereby some Americans are transformed into de facto stateless persons, like Edward Snowden, or are prohibited from living abroad as citizens, like dozens of Yemeni Americans. In the Yemeni Americans’ case, the State Department confuses the legality of passports and naturalization.
Revoking Snowden’s passport violates the right for a citizen to possess a passport confirming his or her legal identity—including citizenship—while abroad.
.
This passport function, recognized since 1835, is one of the privileges and immunities of American citizens protected by the Fourteenth Amendment
The Supreme Court has never authorized its suspension by the executive for national security reasons, unlike the other function of a passport—the right to travel. New technologies offer a way to distinguish between these two functions and to make effective a constitutional right.
http://www.yalelawjournal.org/forum/citizenship-passports-and-the-legal-identity-of-americans
when prevented from directly revoking or attacking the citizenship of American citizens—which is staunchly protected de jure by Supreme Court jurisprudence and relevant statutes—the State Department has developed a strategy of attack whereby Americans are transformed into de facto stateless persons
Delete
Delete...in a 1958 decision, the Supreme Court declared that deprivation of citizenship couldn’t be used as a punishment.
If you were born in the US, the government can’t revoke your citizenship unless you intend to lose it.
....
The global trend is clear. Governments are using passport revocation and the loss of nationality as a weapon against their political enemies. Given this reality, it only makes sense to obtain a second nationality and passport, "just in case."
Mark Nestmann
Nestmann.com
http://www.nestmann.com/could-they-really-take-away-your-citizenship#.U_6RbWNGkug
.
DeleteWhat is a little ironic is that we can't take their passports but the President can snuff them (and anyone in the neighborhood) without indictment, warrant, or trial.
.
.
ReplyDeleteHow does one choose among competing devils?
How ironic.
From your post above,
You are a muzzie firster these days. The Hamas can do no wrong, Israel can do no right.
You are a little troll like yourself.
I won't even comment on the second line. I leave it up merely to show people what I am dealing with here. As for the first, please put up one of my posts where I have said anything positive about Hamas.
While you were away collecting tribute and free t-shirts at the casino, I was quoting from the Tao of Quirk and your pal WiO asked me what the ol Tao said about Hamas and the tunnels and the hand cuffs and I gave him the following answer:
Sadly, the Tao of Quirk is a short tome, only filled with the bare essentials needed to successfully navigate through life. The scenario you discuss was not included among the observations in the initial edition. However, there is an Addendum filled with purloined observations from various notables the names of whom I can no longer remember. One such might apply.
One of the great tricks of Satan is to display such evil that one could almost believe that their own sins didn't matter.
---- Addendum to the Tao of Quirk
Frankly, I think the leaders of both sides are dicks. However, you in your perverse self-righteousness can only see the evil in the 'other' and not in yourself. Therefore, if someone doesn't jump in with giddy support of your pathetic mewlings about Israel you assume it is because he favors the 'other', in this case, Hamas. Typical logic from a failed English major.
When I say that it was Bibi N who started this latest little dust up or list his reasons for doing it, I am merely stating cold hard facts. It in no way implies approval of Hamas or its methods. When I call you out for stating absurdities straight out of the American Thinker ot the WiO and Allen Alternative History of the Universe it is not because I like Muslims or Hamas but because you are either misinformed or straight out lying.
There's a lesson there. Perhaps you should spend more time at the casino.
.
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Hamass-disastrous-strategy-372554
ReplyDeleteHamas’s disastrous strategy
"Some god of power has clouded their better sense"
ReplyDeleteWritten by a leftist hack...
ReplyDeleteNot the Israel that I know and love.
Just more propaganda...
AshWed Aug 27, 09:16:00 PM EDT
ReplyDeleteRat,
look to the Israeli example - they fat outweigh the Palestinians militarily and intellectually yet they cannot win. Why is that?
Ash, you are of course, full of it....
define "winning"...
then allow others to define "winning"
You don't have the right to tell others what "winning" is...
After all? As I have said, if one macbook survives in Gaza, some in the pro-hamas camp will claim they are winning...
"WiO and Allen Alternative History of the Universe"
ReplyDeleteI do tend to stick with facts, say, the numerous official reports on the USS Liberty incident exonerating Israel of malice. "Malice" is the key word. I have never objected to your alternative narrative, if that it is; it is a free country, after all. My objection is to your calling your opinions facts because you "feel" that way. Of course, you have the right to feel as you please.
As to the narratives of the men who withstood the assault, I would not argue with them. That said, I would walk away knowing what law enforcement knows: the worst witnesses tend to be those involved. See: State v Zimmerman, where "witnesses" claimed to have heard as many as six (6) gunshots, for example. The fact is that Zimmerman had a hot pistol and fired a single round. The State's witness, Mr. Good, destroyed the State's case within minutes, a score (at least) of witnesses and experts notwithstanding.
You might have noticed that I very often give links. I do so because I make no pretense to being the world's foremost authority. Long ago, when I reached adulthood, I had to admit that most people are about a smart as I.
Some claim that the Israeli did win while others, like "O"rdure, set a Standard that cannot be met.
ReplyDeleteWhat is "Occupation"Mon Jul 21, 09:33:00 PM EDT
If there is one Hamas member still alive and spitting? Israel lost…
Nothing wrong is aiming high, shooting for the moon......
DeleteKinda admirable, really.
.
ReplyDelete:o(
You can't even convince your buddies here of your story. This wasn't some drive-by incident over in a few seconds or even a few minutes. This played out over hours. It wasn't a single attack. It played out in waves. They weren't attacked by a single type of weapon, they were attacked by planes and boats, cannons, machine guns, napalm bombs, and torpedoes.
IMO it would take a fool to think the crew of that ship didn't know what was going on over that time span. I'll grant you your credulity but I'll take the word of the crew. I've seen too many lies and cover-ups coming out of Washington in my lifetime to accept the word of a prick like LBJ over the word of the remaining members of the crew, especially when that same prick lied our way into a war that ended up with the deaths of nearly 60,000 servicemen. If he could live with that, do you think the deaths of a few dozen more would bother his conscience?
.
.
ReplyDeleteNot quite sure what your point is about the links.
.
amazing article
ReplyDeletegood
ReplyDeletekeyword
good post
ReplyDeletekeyword
Why Marjorie Taylor Greene Should Be the Republican Nominee for United States President in 2024
ReplyDeleteWhy Marjorie Taylor Greene Should Be the Republican Nominee for United States President in 2024
This is a fantastic post. It includes a lot of crucial elements that make it actually work.
ReplyDeleteWell articulated. loved it.
ReplyDeletedubai desert safari
quad biking in safari
6 emirates tour in a day
dubai city tour
vape shop in dubai
vape shop in sharjah
Ηeуa i am foг thе fіrst time here.
ReplyDeleteI сame acrοss this boaгԁ and I find Ӏt reallу useful & it hеlped me out a
lot. I hoρe to givе somethіng baсk and helρ others like you helped me. Welcome to our community!
ILUMA PRIME
Vape Shop Sharjah
Heets Dubai
Juul Pods Dubai
I got the information In Your blog post. Thank you for sharing this blog post.
ReplyDeleteBirthday Decoration
Hey there, Author!
ReplyDeleteI just finished reading your article on the strange contradictions of Syria, and I couldn't resist leaving a comment. What an eye-opener it was! Your writing style is engaging and informative, making complex geopolitical issues accessible to readers like me. I'm truly fascinated by the way you've dissected the intricacies of the Syrian situation.
Your analysis of the historical, cultural, and political factors that contribute to the complexities in Syria was spot on. It's evident that you've done thorough research, and your ability to break down these intricate elements into understandable pieces is commendable. The way you explored the contradictory role of Syria on the global stage was intriguing. It's so true that this region is a melting pot of contradictions, and your article shed light on why it's essential to approach it with a nuanced perspective. Keep up the fantastic work, Author! Your insights have left me with a lot to ponder, and I'll be eagerly looking forward to your future articles. Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us. https://certifiedtranslationservicesusa.com
ReplyDeleteBest Nvme Cloud Vps Hosting india | Nvme Cloud Vps : Cloud99
Nvme Cloud Vps
Cloud99 Offers High Performance Nvme Cloud Vps Hosting in India.
With High Speeds And 24/7 Assistance Buy Affordable Price..