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."

Friday, April 03, 2015

How did the Republican Party become The Stupid Party?

Iran nuclear deal: Can the US Congress sabotage it?

John Boehner and Bibi Netanyahu
Deal breakers: Republican John Boehner and Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu have become close
White House officials are pleased with a new framework with Iran. Republicans in Congress, however, remain sceptical.
Officials from Iran and six other countries, the US, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany, have agreed on a framework for ways to contain Iran's nuclear programme. It provides guidelines for a more lasting agreement, one that is supposed to be reached by 30 June. 
Mr Obama hailed the framework as "historic". If the deal goes through in the summer, it will be a landmark foreign policy achievement. The deal with Iran - and his legacy - are at stake. First, though, he has to overcome resistance in Washington.
"If Congress kills this deal not based on expert analysis, and without offering any reasonable alternative," he said after the agreement was announced, "then it's the United States that will be blamed for the failure of diplomacy."


"What can Congress do to blow this up?" said Joseph DeThomas, a former advisor on non-proliferation for the US State Department. "Well, Congress can do lots of things."
Members of Congress can hold hearings, calling witnesses to testify about the dangers of the agreement and in this way "embarrass the administration," he said. Witnesses could testify about the dangers of an agreement, for example, and about flaws in the administration strategy.
Members of Congress could refuse to appropriate funds necessary for an agreement with Iran to go into effect. This would delay - and perhaps derail - the agreement. There are other options, too.
On 14 April members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee are planning to vote on Senator Bob Corker's bipartisan Iran nuclear agreement review act, as it's known. This would give members of Congress 60 days after a nuclear deal is reached to decide if they want to waive sanctions against Iran.
"We must remain clear-eyed regarding Iran's continued resistance to concessions," said Sen Corker, a Republican from Tennessee. Mr Obama said he wants the sanctions against Iran lifted - and has made it clear he would veto the measure. 
Nevertheless members of Congress could decide to up the ante and impose "pretty draconian new sanctions", NYU School of Law's Zachary Goldman said. It would be hard, since they'd need the support of two-thirds of both the US Senate and the US House of Representatives to over-ride a presidential veto. Both houses are Republican-controlled but they would need Democrat votes.

House Speaker John Boehner at a press conference
House Speaker John Boehner invited the Israeli prime minister to speak to Congress

With a presidential campaign under way, though, the atmosphere is charged. US Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican of Florida with White House aspirations, attacked the framework, saying: "This attempt to spin diplomatic failure as a success is just the latest example of this administration's farcical approach to Iran." 
Gov Scott Walker of Wisconsin, who's likely to be a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, said he would - if elected - renege on any deal with Iran.
Meanwhile Representative Michael McCaul, a Republican from Texas, sent out a statement that warned: "Iranian leaders will now find a nuclear weapon dangerously within reach."
An agreement with Iran has become a "a loyalty test" for Republicans, said Mr DeThomas. Representative Gerald Connolly, a Democrat from Virginia, said many Republicans had already made up their mind - before they even saw the framework. "I think it's very cynical," he said.
In this atmosphere, lead Republicans could lash out at the White House and the diplomats in Switzerland, Mr DeThomas said: "They can say, 'We don't care what you agreed to. We will put the following sanctions on Iran.'"
He added: "That would break the agreement." He said he'd be surprised. Yet he pointed out that members of Congress have recently taken unusual steps regarding Iran. 

Republican Senator Bob Corker - giving a speech
Republican Senator Bob Corker said Americans should remain "clear-eyed" about Iran

The speaker of the US House of Representatives, John Boehner, a Republican, invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to give a speech. Then Republican members of Congress sent a letter to Iranian leaders, telling them a future president could renege on promises made by the current one.
If members of Congress managed to override the president's veto and impose harsher sanctions, the consequences would be far-reaching. 
"What do you think the other great powers of the world are going to say? Then it's not P5-plus-1 against Iran," said Mr DeThomas, referring to the permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany. "It's P4 against the US."
Mr Goldman said: "Additional sanctions would be destructive." He added: "The negotiating process is not done." Neither is the controversy. Members of Congress will make more of their views known in the coming weeks and months - and negotiations will continue in the summer.

60 comments:

  1. Right now, a thousand pundits and politicians are debating the details of Thursday’s framework nuclear deal with Iran. That’s fine. I think the details are far, far better than the alternative—which was a collapse of the diplomatic process, a collapse of international sanctions as Russia and China went back to business as usual with Tehran, and a collapse of the world’s ability to send inspectors into Iran. But ultimately, the details aren’t what matters. What matters is the potential end of America’s 36-year-long cold war with Iran.

    For the United States, ending that cold war could bring three enormous benefits. First, it could reduce American dependence on Saudi Arabia. Before the fall of the shah in 1979, the United States had good relations with both Tehran and Riyadh, which meant America wasn’t overly reliant on either. Since the Islamic Revolution, however, Saudi Arabia has been America’s primary oil-producing ally in the Persian Gulf. After 9/11, when 19 hijackers—15 of them Saudis—destroyed the Twin Towers, many Americans realized the perils of so great a dependence on a country that was exporting so much pathology. One of the unstated goals of the Iraq War was to give the United States a large, stable, oil-producing ally as a hedge against the uncertain future of the House of Saud.

    What George W. Bush failed to achieve militarily, Barack Obama may now be achieving diplomatically.

    In recent weeks, American hawks have cited Saudi anxiety about a potential Iran deal as reason to be wary of one. But a big part of the reason the Saudis are worried is because they know that as U.S.-Iranian relations improve, their influence over the United States will diminish. That doesn’t mean the U.S.-Saudi alliance will disintegrate. Even if it frays somewhat, the United States still needs Saudi oil and Saudi Arabia still needs American protection. But the United States may soon have a better relationship with both Tehran and Riyadh than either has with the other, which was exactly what Richard Nixon orchestrated in the three-way dynamic between Washington, Moscow, and Beijing in the 1970s. And today, as then, that increases America’s leverage over both countries.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Over the long term, Iran may also prove a more reliable U.S. ally than Saudi Arabia.

      Iranians are better educated and more pro-American than their neighbors across the Persian Gulf, and unlike Saudi Arabia, Iran has some history of democracy. One of the biggest problems with America’s Mideast policy in recent years has been that, from Saudi Arabia to Pakistan to Egypt, the governments the United States supports preside over populations that hate the U.S. Thursday’s nuclear deal, by contrast, may pave the way for a positive relationship with the Iranian state that is actually undergirded by a positive relationship with the Iranian people.

      Which brings us to the second benefit of ending America’s cold war with Iran: It could empower the Iranian people vis-à-vis their repressive state. American hawks, addled by the mythology they have created around Ronald Reagan, seem to think that the more hostile America’s relationship with Iran’s regime becomes, the better the United States can promote Iranian democracy. But the truth is closer to the reverse. The best thing Reagan ever did for the people of Eastern Europe and the U.S.S.R. was to embrace Mikhail Gorbachev. In 1987, American hawks bitterly attacked Reagan for signing the INF agreement, the most sweeping arms-reduction treaty of the Cold War. But the tougher it became for Soviet hardliners to portray the United States as menacing, the tougher it became for them to justify their repression at home. And the easier it became for Gorbachev to pursue the policies of glasnost and perestroika that ultimately led to the liberation of Eastern Europe and the disintegration of the U.S.S.R.

      Delete
    2. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, like Gorbachev, wants to end his country’s cold war with the United States because it is destroying his country’s economy. And like Gorbachev, he is battling elites who depend on that cold war for their political power and economic privilege. As Columbia University Iran expert Gary Sick recently noted, Iran’s hardline Revolutionary Guards “thrive on hostile relations with the U.S., and benefit hugely from sanctions, which allow them to control smuggling.” But “if the sanctions are lifted, foreign companies come back in, [and] the natural entrepreneurialism of Iranians is unleashed.” Thus “if you want regime change in Iran, meaning changing the way the regime operates, this kind of agreement is the best way to achieve that goal.”

      The best evidence of Sick’s thesis is the euphoric way ordinary Iranians have reacted to Thursday’s agreement. They’re not cheering because they want Iran to have 6,000 centrifuges instead of 20,000. They’re cheering because they know that opening Iran to the world empowers them, both economically and politically, at their oppressors’ expense.

      Delete
    3. Finally, ending the cold war with Iran may make it easier to end the civil wars plaguing the Middle East. Cold wars are rarely “cold” in the sense that no one gets killed. They are usually proxy wars in which powerful countries get local clients to do the killing for them. America’s cold war with the U.S.S.R. ravaged countries like Angola and El Salvador. And today, America’s cold war with Iran is ravaging Syria and Yemen.

      When America’s relationship with the Soviet Union thawed, civil wars across the world petered out because local combatants found their superpower patrons unwilling to send arms and write checks. The dynamic in the Middle East is different because today’s cold war isn’t only between Iran and the United States, it’s also between Iran and Sunni Arab powers like Saudi Arabia and Egypt, neither of which seems particularly interested in winding down the civil wars in Syria and Yemen. Still, a different relationship between the United States and Iran offers a glimmer of hope. In Syria, for instance, one reason Iran has staunchly backed Bashar al-Assad is because it fears the fierce hostility of his successors. The United States cannot entirely alleviate that fear, since some of the groups battling Assad—ISIS, most obviously—are fiercely hostile to Iran and to Shiites in general. But if Iran’s leaders knew that at least the United States would try to ensure that a post-Assad government maintained good relations with Tehran, they might be somewhat more open to negotiating a transfer of power in Syria.

      Clearly, the United States should push for the best nuclear deal with Iran that it possibly can. But it’s now obvious, almost three decades after Reagan signed the INF deal with Gorbachev, that it’s not the technical details that mattered. What mattered was the end of a cold war that had cemented Soviet tyranny and ravaged large chunks of the world. Barack Obama has now begun the process of ending America’s smaller, but still terrible, cold war with Iran. In so doing, he has improved America’s strategic position, brightened the prospects for Iranian freedom and Middle Eastern peace, and brought himself closer to being the kind of transformational, Reaganesque president he always hoped to be.

      Delete
    4. The Real Achievement of the Iran Nuclear Deal
      Details of the accord matter less than the potential end of Washington’s cold war with Tehran.

      http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/04/the-real-achievement-of-the-iran-nuclear-deal/389628/

      Delete
  2. One must admit, you certainly work hard at it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are missing the prime time Good Friday showing of the O'Reilly blockbuster "Killing Jesus" on Fox.

      Herod has just killed the kids.

      I am missing the Casino.

      When will the wife ever get back ?

      Delete
  3. Killing the kids is of course the Gospels' return slap of the ping-pong ball served them by the slaying of the first born in Exodus11:5.


    King James Bible
    And all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the firstborn of the maidservant that is behind the mill; and all the firstborn of beasts.

    Exodus 11:5


    It's a ping-pong match !

    I've always thought the slaying of the firstborn of the cattle simply goes to far.

    The Hindus, now they have respect for cattle.

    later

    Cheers !

    ReplyDelete
  4. This can no longer be about the Security of Israel. The agreement covers that very well.

    This is now about Economic clout in the Mideast; Oil revenues, the MIC, etc.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Israelis don't seem to think the 'agreement' covers their security very well.

      You might, but they don't, and they live there and you don't live there.

      Most of them see the whole thing as a big fraud and a sell out.

      Delete
    2. So do many in Congress.

      >>>And in a telephone interview, Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) reiterated that his leaders should give his sanctions bill a vote and blasted the president’s announcement and a top State Department negotiator, Wendy Sherman.

      “I would say that Neville Chamberlain got a lot more out of Hitler than Wendy Sherman got out of Iran,” Kirk said.<<<

      Fate of Iran bill rests with Democrats

      Republicans hate the deal, but they don't yet have the votes to kill it.

      By Burgess Everett

      4/2/15 3:22 PM EDT

      http://www.politico.com/story/2015/04/bob-corker-iran-bill-116629.html

      The more thoughtful people here at The Elephant Bar think it is a fraud and a sellout, too.

      Where does Obama get sooooo many brain dead women ?

      >>>Wendy Ruth Sherman (born 1949) is Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, the fourth-ranking official in the U.S. Department of State.[1] She has formerly worked as a social worker, the director of EMILY's list, the director of Maryland's office of child welfare, and the founding president of the Fannie Mae Foundation.<<<

      Well, that's comforting. At least we know now she the deep experience needed to negotiate with the Iranian chess players.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendy_Sherman


      She really ought to be flipping burgers at Wendy's.





      Delete
    3. A resume like that is "a real confidence builder" as my dad would have said.....

      Hell, I'd rather have even Quirk doing the negotiating.

      Delete
    4. >>>White House Gave Up Eliminating Most of Iran's Nuclear Program

      NBC Reporter: "Foreign Minister Zarif Has Come Home a Hero"<<<

      Read articles above at RealClearPolitics

      Can a Nation of Fools long exist ?

      Delete
  5. Replies
    1. Good Lord you're easily entertained.

      Delete
    2. Here ya go Quirk.

      'Assault With A Friendly Weapon'

      288 views

      Be one of the few, one of the very special ones.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uqlgKmeiiA

      Enjoy.

      Delete

  6. Kim Jong-un recruiting 'pleasure troupe' of concubines
    By Thomas Lifson

    It’s a family tradition! Following in the footsteps of his grandfather and father, now that the official three year period of mourning is over, The Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea’s leader is acquiring a harem of the prettiest young girls in the nation of 20 million.

    When he inherited his position in the world’s only communist hereditary monarchy, KJU ordered his father’s “pleasure troupe” disbanded. No moral objections were at work, simply a consolidation of power. Pillow talk and overheard conversations put the sex slaves in a position to know and potentially reveal secrets that might empower opposition. North Korea is a savagely competitive power struggle at all times. KJU allegedly had his uncle executed (some reports, likely exaggerations, had him fed to starving wild dogs) to prevent a possible coup. In Pyongyang, you can’t be too careful.

    But now that he’s in power more securely, it’s time to party hearty.

    If past practice is followed, the young women chosen for the honor will entertain the Dear Leaders until he tires of them, and then be married off to senior officials, honored to have the sloppy seconds, or returned to their home villages with a substantial (by North Korean standards) dowry, including some appliances that are taken for granted by American welfare recipients.

    The mullahs may be satanic religious fanatics, but for sheer calculated rational evil, nobody tops North Korea.

    http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2015/04/kim_jongun_recruiting_pleasure_troupe_of_concubines.html

    Life is cheap in North Korea, and extremely disgusting.

    Damn I'm glad I was born in North America.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson is damned glad he was born in country where he could shirk his civic responsibility and dodge the draft, where he could 'rip off' a bank by fraud, and not go to jail. ...

      That is why Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson is glad, he has led a looter's life, reaping the rewards from the sacrifices of his betters.

      Delete
  7. Common European traits like pale skin and brown eyes evolved relatively recently in central and southern Europe.
    How Europeans evolved white skin

    Ann is a contributing correspondent for Science
    Email Ann
    By
    Ann Gibbons
    2 April 2015 5:00 pm
    110 Comments

    ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI—Most of us think of Europe as the ancestral home of white people. But a new study shows that pale skin, as well as other traits such as tallness and the ability to digest milk as adults, arrived in most of the continent relatively recently. The work, presented here last week at the 84th annual meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, offers dramatic evidence of recent evolution in Europe and shows that most modern Europeans don’t look much like those of 8000 years ago.

    The origins of Europeans have come into sharp focus in the past year as researchers have sequenced the genomes of ancient populations, rather than only a few individuals. By comparing key parts of the DNA across the genomes of 83 ancient individuals from archaeological sites throughout Europe, the international team of researchers reported earlier this year that Europeans today are a mix of the blending of at least three ancient populations of hunter-gatherers and farmers who moved into Europe in separate migrations over the past 8000 years. The study revealed that a massive migration of Yamnaya herders from the steppes north of the Black Sea may have brought Indo-European languages to Europe about 4500 years ago.

    Now, a new study from the same team drills down further into that remarkable data to search for genes that were under strong natural selection—including traits so favorable that they spread rapidly throughout Europe in the past 8000 years. By comparing the ancient European genomes with those of recent ones from the 1000 Genomes Project, population geneticist Iain Mathieson, a postdoc in the Harvard University lab of population geneticist David Reich, found five genes associated with changes in diet and skin pigmentation that underwent strong natural selection.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. First, the scientists confirmed an earlier report that the hunter-gatherers in Europe could not digest the sugars in milk 8000 years ago, according to a poster. They also noted an interesting twist: The first farmers also couldn’t digest milk. The farmers who came from the Near East about 7800 years ago and the Yamnaya pastoralists who came from the steppes 4800 years ago lacked the version of the LCT gene that allows adults to digest sugars in milk. It wasn’t until about 4300 years ago that lactose tolerance swept through Europe.

      When it comes to skin color, the team found a patchwork of evolution in different places, and three separate genes that produce light skin, telling a complex story for how European’s skin evolved to be much lighter during the past 8000 years. The modern humans who came out of Africa to originally settle Europe about 40,000 years are presumed to have had dark skin, which is advantageous in sunny latitudes. And the new data confirm that about 8500 years ago, early hunter-gatherers in Spain, Luxembourg, and Hungary also had darker skin: They lacked versions of two genes—SLC24A5 and SLC45A2—that lead to depigmentation and, therefore, pale skin in Europeans today.

      But in the far north—where low light levels would favor pale skin—the team found a different picture in hunter-gatherers: Seven people from the 7700-year-old Motala archaeological site in southern Sweden had both light skin gene variants, SLC24A5 and SLC45A2. They also had a third gene, HERC2/OCA2, which causes blue eyes and may also contribute to light skin and blond hair. Thus ancient hunter-gatherers of the far north were already pale and blue-eyed, but those of central and southern Europe had darker skin.

      Delete
    2. Then, the first farmers from the Near East arrived in Europe; they carried both genes for light skin. As they interbred with the indigenous hunter-gatherers, one of their light-skin genes swept through Europe, so that central and southern Europeans also began to have lighter skin. The other gene variant, SLC45A2, was at low levels until about 5800 years ago when it swept up to high frequency.

      The team also tracked complex traits, such as height, which are the result of the interaction of many genes. They found that selection strongly favored several gene variants for tallness in northern and central Europeans, starting 8000 years ago, with a boost coming from the Yamnaya migration, starting 4800 years ago. The Yamnaya have the greatest genetic potential for being tall of any of the populations, which is consistent with measurements of their ancient skeletons. In contrast, selection favored shorter people in Italy and Spain starting 8000 years ago, according to the paper now posted on the bioRxiv preprint server. Spaniards, in particular, shrank in stature 6000 years ago, perhaps as a result of adapting to colder temperatures and a poor diet.

      Surprisingly, the team found no immune genes under intense selection, which is counter to hypotheses that diseases would have increased after the development of agriculture.

      The paper doesn’t specify why these genes might have been under such strong selection. But the likely explanation for the pigmentation genes is to maximize vitamin D synthesis, said paleoanthropologist Nina Jablonski of Pennsylvania State University (Penn State), University Park, as she looked at the poster’s results at the meeting. People living in northern latitudes often don’t get enough UV to synthesize vitamin D in their skin so natural selection has favored two genetic solutions to that problem—evolving pale skin that absorbs UV more efficiently or favoring lactose tolerance to be able to digest the sugars and vitamin D naturally found in milk. “What we thought was a fairly simple picture of the emergence of depigmented skin in Europe is an exciting patchwork of selection as populations disperse into northern latitudes,” Jablonski says. “This data is fun because it shows how much recent evolution has taken place.”

      Anthropological geneticist George Perry, also of Penn State, notes that the work reveals how an individual’s genetic potential is shaped by their diet and adaptation to their habitat. “We’re getting a much more detailed picture now of how selection works.”

      Posted in Archaeology, Biology, Europe, Evolution Human Evolution

      http://news.sciencemag.org/archaeology/2015/04/how-europeans-evolved-white-skin

      Delete
  8. If the republicans are successful in killing the deal, then the EU, Russia and China will move on with the deal and the US will be left without a coalition. This will be a win for Iran. Are the Republicans so far up Israel’s ass and that stupid? The short answer is yes.

    The World is going on with this deal, It is bigger than the loathsome GOP.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The People of the United States don't seem to think the Republicans so "loathsome".

      Otherwise they would not have freely elected an overwhelming GOP (Grand Old Party) in the House and a good majority in the Senate.

      It is news to me, and perhaps others, that Russia and China are part of some USA coalition....with Russia invading Ukraine and threatening the Baltic States and Finland, and China planning a war in the Pacific.

      I am beginning to wonder if you haven't been vetted and approved by the propaganda department of VEVAK.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministry_of_Intelligence

      Here is a counter view from an Israeli -

      Iran Is America’s New Iraq

      With his nuclear deal, Obama is making as big a mistake in the Mideast as George W. Bush did.

      By ARI SHAVIT

      April 02, 2015

      http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/04/iran-is-the-next-iraq-ari-shavit-116639.html#.VR-We-HtbIV

      >>>Iran is not an Israel-only issue. Iran should not be a Republican, or conservative or a hawkish issue. If Iran goes nuclear, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey, and the Gulf states will go nuclear. If Iran goes nuclear, Israel will have to change its responsible and restrained nuclear policy. If Iran goes nuclear, the Middle East will become a multi-player nuclear arena, that no one can manage and no one can control. Worried about ISIS? Anxious about Al Qaeda? Shocked by the carnage in Syria? Imagine what will happen when the most unstable region in the world becomes nuclearized. One outcome will be even more extremism. A second outcome will be unceasing conventional wars. A third outcome will be the proliferation of nuclear capabilities in the hands of non- state players that will use them, sooner or later, to catastrophic results. The overall outcome will be a strategic nightmare that will first disrupt the everyday life of Tel Aviv and Riyadh, then Paris and London and finally New York and Chicago. So the most urgent issue of day should not pit Israelis against Americans, Democrats against Republicans, liberals against conservatives. If Iran is nuclearized, everyone’s values and way of life will be endangered. If the Middle East is nuclearized, the 21st century will become a century of nuclear terror and nuclear horror.<<<

      This sounds quite reasonable.

      g'nite




      Delete
  9. The Republicans have sold the US out to a nasty bigoted Israeli politician. Shame on Congress for putting another country’s interests above our own. Enough people have suffered sand died because of the ignorant Republican war party and their Likud masters.

    ReplyDelete
  10. More from the Party of Stupidity and ignorance:

    In a statement that at best can be described as insensitive, former US Representative Michele Bachmann has compared Barack Obama to the Germanwings co-pilot that is believed to have deliberately crashed a jet into the French Alps, killing himself and 149 others.

    In a message posted to Facebook on 31 March, Ms Bachman suggested that the US president is intentionally hurting the US people in the Iranian nuclear negotiations.

    “With his Iran deal, Barack Obama is for the 300 million souls of the United States what Andreas Lubitz was for the 150 souls on the German Wings flight - a deranged pilot flying his entire nation into the rocks,” Ms Bachmann wrote. “After the fact, among the smoldering remains of American cities, the shocked survivors will ask, why did he do it?”

    Lubitz was the co-pilot who investigators say locked himself in the cockpit of a Germanwings jet and intentionally descended and accelerated into the French Alps, killing everyone on board. Recent reports indicate that Lubitz struggled with depression and had researched suicide methods in the days leading up to the crash.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is easy to understand how Bachman might come to that conclusion.

      Many others have done so as well.

      There is only one other option:

      He is totally incompetent.

      Although he could be intentionally harming the country and be totally incompetent at the same time, I suppose.

      This is the outlook I have adopted.

      Delete
    2. Is it because he is black, like Colin Powell?

      bobal Sun Oct 19, 04:07:00 PM EDT
      Colin Powell went to the U.N., carrying water for Bush.

      And now he is for the black that was against the whole thing.

      Colin Powell is a black piece of shit.


      Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson is a racist and a bigot, has been all his life.
      At least since he and his lawyer "Ripped Off" the bank by fraud, destroyed the good name of his aged aunt, right before he had her institutionalized, as part of his criminal conspiracy.

      Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson, a piece of excrement that is lower than whale turds.

      Delete
  11. “After the fact, among the smoldering remains of American cities, the shocked survivors will ask, why did he do it?”

    ... and the ass-clown car keeps rolling along. Someone needs to tell this Republican that:

    A Republican , Richard Nixon made a deal with China, a significant nuclear armed military power.
    A Republican , Ronald Reagan made a deal with the Soviet Union, a significant nuclear armed military power.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Where does Livia Drusilla stand on this 'deal' anyway?

    I really haven't noticed.

    She is, after all, much brighter than Wendy Sherman.

    But then, she always sells out to political expediency however she understands that at any given moment.

    It's possible too that she might just say:

    "What difference does it make now?"

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Here you go, in Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson's own words, calling for an Eugenics Program, for black citizens of the United States.


      bobal said...
      ah, hell, after having thought it over, and considerging that my brother was a doctor, and my sis a med tech, who almost got roughed up by some niggers in Oakland, California, maybe the best thing to do is let the niggers abort, abort, abort themselves.

      They do a good job of that.

      Thu Nov 13, 01:29:00 AM EST

      ... the best thing to do is let the niggers abort, abort, abort themselves.

      They do a good job of that.


      The racist bigot, Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson, spoke and the echoes from the past that still reverberate, today.


      Delete
  13. The lack of wisdom of the existing Republican Congress is stunning and dangerous. Their obsession with Israel, an apartheid state with less population than Los Angeles County, and the right wing Christian GOP, dislocating US political and economic resources and talking about another Neocon war in the ME should concern Americans.

    ReplyDelete
  14. The Republicans are so over the top with their Likudian war fever, that they have bet the farm on the Iranian threat. Quickly, the American people will see them for what they are and the Republicans will be thrashed in 2016.

    ReplyDelete
  15. You, not the Republican Congress or the American People who elected them, are obsessed with Israel, which is not an apartheid state.

    Again, 20% of the citizens of Israel are arabs and some sit in the knesset.

    The American People support Israel to be sure but are not obsessed with Israel, any more than they are obsessed with England, say, or Canada.

    I got to get to bed.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson is not obsessed with ISrael, he just wants to spill US blood and treasure to protect it from delusional enemies he and the Zionists have manufactured as part of their agitprop campaign.

      Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson is obsessed with black Americans and how to limit their access to the "Good Life"...

      Thu Nov 13, 01:29:00 AM EST

      ... the best thing to do is let the niggers abort, abort, abort themselves.


      Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson should have been aborted, the world would have been a better place if he had been.

      {;-)

      Delete
    2. You continue to follow me around, War Criminal.

      Kindly take action against this behavior, Deuce.

      You said you would.

      Nearly everyone here has certified that you are a Liar, and mentally ill.

      Would you like me to list the names again ?

      Delete
  16. US politics is appallingly partisan.


    If this deal gets scuttled because of that it will be a sad occurrence for the whole world.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The 'next' deal will be even better for the Iranians, and will illustrate just how much the US has declined in status, ftr the decade of military equivocation in Iraq and Afghanistan. Political defeat was al that was garnered from two lightning swift and successful military actions.

      The Russians and Charlie Chi-com will roll up the Indians and South Koreans, create an alternative banking system and integrate Iran into it. BRIC is the first step in that direction ... the GOP wants to accelerate it.

      Delete
    2. The Republican Party needs to be destroyed. It is a malignancy. The only thing that it is positive about is more war and fealty to Israeli interests. It has been deserted by free thinkers and is a sewer of religious bigots.

      Delete
    3. Well then you might as well advocate destroying all those middle class voters who have overwhelmingly packed Congress with them.

      Hint: you are out of your tree.



      The Wailers - Out Of Our Tree
      mickll2345
      mickll2345
      474
      38,610
      Uploaded on Mar 17, 2011

      -1965 US -

      Lyrics:
      "Out, runnin' around/Seein' every crazy sight
      A lady in a evenin' gown/Made from a paper kite
      We asked her why/She wore such a crazy gown
      She said if ya wanna fly/Ya gotta get off the ground

      Don't know what we hear an' see/Hey, we gotta be...
      Out of our tree
      Out of our tree
      Out of our tree

      Ran a little ways more/And we happened to meet
      A man building a door/Right in the middle of the street
      We asked him why/He did such a crazy thing
      He said if ya wanna get by/The doorbell ya hafta ring

      Don't know what we hear an' see/Hey, we gotta be...
      Out of our tree
      Out of our tree
      Out of our tree

      Two dogs and a cat/Diggin through a garbage can/ Out jumped a Rat/ Dog and Cat they ran
      Now everything we see/We don't try to figure out
      We know that it just can't be/But it's happenin' without a doubt

      Don't know what we hear an' see/Hey, we gotta be...
      Out of our tree
      Out of our tree
      Out of our tree



      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFtUgTn3_KM


      Your rhetoric continues to become more extreme day by day.

      It is concerning.

      Delete

  17. Shiite leader Ameri: Anbar is next, then Mosul


    ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The head of Iraq's powerful Shiite militias, known collectively as the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), has said the forces will capitalize on a hard-won victory in Tikrit and advance westward to next liberate Anbar province from the Islamic State.

    “We will celebrate the liberation of Salahaddin province soon as we did in Diyala Governorate. We will then move into Anbar province and Nineveh [Mosul] will be our final destination,” Hadi al-Ameri, head of the Shiite Badr Organization, told a press conference on Friday in the center of Tikrit.

    Ameri added that the majority of Salahaddin province is now under the control of Iraqi forces, with small pockets of resistance yet to be retaken.

    Iraqi forces reconquered Diyala province from ISIS militants in January. After nearly a month of fighting, culminating in a week of airstrikes from the US-led coalition, the mixed PMU and Iraqi Army force entered Tikrit in force on April 1.

    The battle exposed divisions within the Iraqi forces and also between Ameri's PMU and the US military.

    “If Iraqi government wants to be thankful to the United States for the Tikrit operation, let them be. But we will not give credit to the US-led coalition and we don’t need them here,”
    said Ameri, widely known as maintaining strong ties to Iran.

    The Iraqi Army, Kurdish Peshmerga, Shiite militiamen and volunteers from Sunni tribesmen are all engaged in the fight against ISIS in different parts of Iraq.


    A US-led coalition is carrying out airstrikes against the jihadists in both Iraq and neighboring Syria.



    http://rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iraq/030420152

    ReplyDelete
  18. Iraq's Tikrit, free of the Islamic State, is a city in ruins
    By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA

    TIKRIT, Iraq (AP) — In Iraq's Tikrit, liberation from the Islamic State group comes at a heavy price, both in loss of life and in the sheer devastation the militants leave in their wake.

    Much of Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's hometown and once a bustling city north of Baghdad, now lies in ruins.

    Islamic State extremists captured it during a blitz last June that also seized large chunks of northern and western Iraq, along with a huge swath of land in neighboring Syria.

    After a nearly 10-month Islamic State occupation, it took Iraqi forces and their allies, including Iranian-backed Shiite militias, a month of ferocious street battles to win the city back. They declared victory in Tikrit on Wednesday, and U.S.-led coalition airstrikes also helped turn the tide in the final weeks of the battle.


    http://www.foxnews.com/world/2015/04/04/iraq-struggles-with-devastation-in-tikrit-after-it-was-freed-from-islamic-state/

    ReplyDelete
  19. The Republicans thought they could use ISIS to force Obama into a ground war in Iraq. They were mistaken.

    Now, they're desperately pushing for war with Iran.

    War is Good (very, very good) for Campaign Contributions.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are absolutely crazy.

      What's it like to be a living hallucination ?
      **********

      Idaho wold population rising - local headline here.

      Since I just got up and don't want to get into a bad mood so early I've declined as yet to read the main story.

      Did see elk tracks out at the farm the other day. They have come down from the high country and are seeking refuge.

      Delete
    2. Idaho WOLF population rising........

      As is the moon tonight.....

      And the rhetoric of Deuce....

      And Ruf's blood alcohol level.....

      I am arming up. Getting my permits this weekend.

      My lawyer's secretary, who lives 1/2 mile away, is changing the oil on her two 4x4 trail machines.

      The first big fellow that goes down for the stuffing shall be named "Quirk", the second shall be named "Deuce".

      Delete
    3. .

      Idaho WOLF population rising........

      ...as wolves migrate from other states for the laughs.

      .

      Delete
    4. .

      Did see elk tracks out at the farm the other day. They have come down from the high country and are seeking refuge.

      Idaho nitwits. Initially, they complained that the wolves were driving the elk to the high country and it was ruining the hunting. Now, they complain that the wolves are driving them to the low country. Them elk just can't catch a break. Nor the hunters.

      Next, the Idahonuts will be complaining the elk are hard to hunt because they are in such great shape from the constant migration.

      .

      Delete
  20. Deuce is getting more goofy day by day with his Republican Party needs to be destroyed rhetoric.

    Evidently Republicans are not "real" Americans.

    This, actually, is beginning to kinda piss me off a bit.

    About the only people in the United States who are not real Americans are the illegal immigrants and those who wish to overthrow the Constitution, which is not a suicide pact, such as the Sharia supporters.

    ReplyDelete

  21. MARCH SADNESS: JOBS LAME...

    RECORD 93,175,000 AMERICANS NOT WORKING...

    Record 12,202,000 Blacks Not In Labor Force...

    Record 56,131,000 Women...

    Fed Cuts Growth Forecast to ZERO..............Drudge

    ReplyDelete
  22. Hillary has hired a new image consultant.

    God, and everyone else, knows she desperately needs one.

    Meet her on Drudge which has pic -


    NYT: Meet Hillary's New Image Consultant......Drudge

    ReplyDelete
  23. RUFUS, you were saying just the other day that there was no savagery being exhibited by the Shia Iraqis or the Iranian Shia militias,etc.


    World | Fri Apr 3, 2015 7:06pm EDT
    Related: World, Egypt, Special Reports
    Special Report: After Iraqi forces take Tikrit, a wave of looting and lynching
    TIKRIT, Iraq

    A vehicle belonging to Shi’ite militia fighters pulls the body of an Islamic State fighter, who was killed during clashes with Iraqi forces, in Tikrit April 1, 2015.
    Reuters/Stringer

    (Reuters) - On April 1, the city of Tikrit was liberated from the extremist group Islamic State. The Shi'ite-led central government and allied militias, after a month-long battle, had expelled the barbarous Sunni radicals.

    Then, some of the liberators took revenge.

    Near the charred, bullet-scarred government headquarters, two federal policemen flanked a suspected Islamic State fighter. Urged on by a furious mob, the two officers took out knives and repeatedly stabbed the man in the neck and slit his throat. The killing was witnessed by two Reuters correspondents.

    The incident is now under investigation, interior ministry spokesman Brigadier General Saad Maan told Reuters.

    Since its recapture two days ago, the Sunni city of Tikrit has been the scene of violence and looting. In addition to the killing of the extremist combatant, Reuters correspondents also saw a convoy of Shi'ite paramilitary fighters – the government's partners in liberating the city – drag a corpse through the streets behind their car.

    Local officials said the mayhem continues. Two security officers, speaking on condition of anonymity, said on Friday that dozens of homes had been torched in the city. They added that they had witnessed the looting of stores by Shi'ite militiamen.

    Later Friday, Ahmed al-Kraim, head of the Salahuddin Provincial Council, told Reuters that mobs had burned down "hundreds of houses" and looted shops over the past two days. Government security forces, he said, were afraid to confront the mobs. Kraim said he left the city late Friday afternoon because the situation was spinning out of control.

    "Our city was burnt in front of our eyes. We can't control what is going on," Kraim said..........

    http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/03/us-mideast-crisis-iraq-tikrit-special-re-idUSKBN0MU1DP20150403?irpc=932

    Sometimes I think you, Rufus, are even more naive than Noble Ash, and he is really really hard to beat in the naive competitions.

    You should know better.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This, with the permission of Noble Ash, is just one of the reasons he and I decline to advocate for getting involved in Iraq, taking the view that the game is up, and there is nothing to choose between the two contending sides.

      I am trying to convince Noble Ash that we should however support the Kurds and their desire for, finally, an independent state, with arms, etc.

      They deserve a State. The Palestinians do not, as they are genocidal, apartheid in the true homicidal sort of way, wish to impose Sharia and beat up the women, and have been that way all my life. They ain't changing.

      Let them move to the land Sisi has offered them.

      Delete
    2. .

      This, with the permission of Noble Ash, is just one of the reasons he and I decline to advocate for getting involved in Iraq, taking the view that the game is up, and there is nothing to choose between the two contending sides.

      Decline to get involved in Iraq?

      You moron, we are involved in Iraq. You and Ash can sit and stare at your navels all you want but we have been in Iraq for 7 months. The problem now is how and when do we get out.

      .

      Delete
    3. .

      Towns destroyed, collateral damage, atrocities, whatever, when its all over doesn't matter who did it, Sunni, Shia, Kurd, US, there is one thing you can count on, the US will be blamed for it.

      In the ME, the US is the go to fall guy.

      Reason number 7 we shouldn't be involved there.

      .

      Delete
    4. Quirk,you ILLITERATE OAF.

      Can't you READ Quirk ?

      I said Noble Ash and I decline to ADVOCATE for getting involved in Iraq.

      We both know, believe it or not, that we are involved in Iraq.

      I was not talking about how or when to get out.

      That is so simple you ought not have to ask.

      You just leave.

      Putting it in terms you might understand, like you left me in the phone booth in Vegas without sufficient change.

      You just.....leave.

      Get it ?

      ?

      Delete
    5. .

      I said Noble Ash and I decline to ADVOCATE for getting involved in Iraq.

      Who gives a shit what you advocate for now. I also said we shouldn't get involved in Iraq. That is irrelevant now. We have been there for seven months.

      You just leave.

      Geez, Bob. You could just leave if it was only the US involved but we roped at least a half dozen allies (and a purported 60) to jump on the band wagon and go in with us. What do we tell them? Never mind? We were just kidding? The US already looked weakened. Do we also have to look like a paper tiger?

      The US needs to come up with some attainable objective in Iraq, and come up with some point, perhaps a major victory where were say, hey the local troops have proved their mettle and we can pull out. The generals are right in pointing out the costs to the US have been minimal; however, the longer we stay the more the chances of some major FUBAR.

      No matter, whether we go now or we go later the US will still be blamed for any damage done there. Even if we win we lose.

      .

      Delete
  24. Here is an article worth reading. Which is why so few people will read it.

    April 2, 2015|A Republic No More, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, Jay Cost, Special Interests

    Is the Republic Lost?

    by Michael Toth|27 Comments

    When the delegates were departing the Constitutional Convention, a woman stopped Benjamin Franklin outside Independence Hall and asked the Pennsylvania delegate, “Well, Doctor, what have we got? A republic or a monarchy?” Franklin responded, “A republic, if you can keep it.”

    Political journalist Jay Cost believes we didn’t. His new book, A Republic No More: Big Government and the Rise of American Political Corruption, is a highly informative and at times deeply dispiriting account of how we failed Franklin’s challenge.

    As that famous reply in Philadelphia suggested, republics are inherently conditional. They depend on the citizenry’s willingness to elect political leaders who are dedicated to the common good. The republican principle is violated when political leaders satisfy the particular interests of only part of the polity at the expense of the whole. It does not matter, moreover, that a particular cause may command the support of a majority. Factional interests, however widely supported, are no substitute for the public interest.

    No wonder Franklin wasn’t so sure how things would turn out.

    The history of American political corruption begins.........

    http://www.libertylawsite.org/2015/04/02/is-the-republic-lost/

    The American People have gotten what they've always wanted, one of them, a true idiot in the White House.

    If it's followed up by the election of Hillary we will have perfect corruption in the White House.

    Too nice a day outside here to be sad.......

    later

    Cheers !

    ReplyDelete
  25. .

    The real pity is that those who do read it won't get its true significance and will assume that one party is better than the other without realizing that it is the system that has been corrupted and that both parties abet that corruption. They are all dicks.

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A not unreasonable reply, but all dicks are not equal.

      The Republicans in Congress want the Senate to vote on the treaty with Iran, for instance, as they have a duty to do under the Constitution.

      The Republicans don't like the idea of Obama writing the immigration laws by himself, for instance.

      The for instances go on and on to the point that one realizes all dicks are not equal.

      Vote for the better dick.

      If the better dick wins repeatedly, slowly things will improve.

      Deuce wants to destroy the Better Dick Party, the GOP.

      Deuce is out of it.

      Who wants a country run by its worst dicks ?

      Delete
    2. .

      You merely offer a retread of your usual argument trying to compare one level of dickdom with another. It's impossible. As they would say in West Side Story, 'once you're a dick you're a dick all the way from you're first quid pro quo to you're last dying day'. They are all dicks and if they don't stick it to you one way they will do it another.

      .

      Delete