If radical Islam is the enemy, the Russians are doing a good thing. The greatest enemy of radical Islam, the Muslim Brotherhood in the Middle East is the current regime in Damascus, and, of course the previous regime, there.
Th Assad's have done more to keep the radicals in line and under control than all the efforts emanating from DC.
The reality is the Alawites are not Muslims, but a Christian sect. Daniel Pipes tells the tale http://www.danielpipes.org/191/the-alawi-capture-of-power-in-syria
Some 'Alawi doctrines appear to derive from Phoenician paganism, Mazdakism and Manicheanism. But by far the greatest affinity is with Christianity. 'Alawi religious ceremonies involve bread and wine; indeed, wine drinking has a sacred role in 'Alawism, for it represents God. ... ... For these reasons, many observers - missionaries especially - have suspected the 'Alawis of a secret Christian proclivity. Even T. E. Lawrence described them as "those disciples of a cult of fertility, sheer pagan, antiforeign, distrustful of Islam, drawn at moments to Christianity by common persecution." The Jesuit scholar Henri Lammens unequivocally but gullibly concluded from his research that "the Nusayris were Christians" and their practices combine Christian with Shi'i elements.
But then the US is not as supportive of Christians in the Middle East as the Russians, nor is the US as dead set against the advance of the Islamic radicals around the world, as are the Russians.
It has been the Russians, not the US, that supplied the Iraqi with aircraft capable of providing close air support to the Iraqi Army.
I think it is a very good thing on many different levels.
* The Russians need a win for domestic reasons * Isis has to be destroyed * Iran has to be integrated into regional stability * Normalcy has to be reestablished for millions of people whose lives have been wrecked by the Neocons * The human resources available in the Middle East are extraordinary * Religious fanaticism has been discredited - now is the time to choke the life out of it * US democracy and freedoms have been severely eroded by the Neocons and the monstrous security state and the most un-American construct called The Homeland * Europe is not going to tolerate the chaos caused by the refugee crisis caused by unnecessary US wars - Nato will be destroyed
This is a good thing as long as we keep all the usual suspects form the GOP Likuds force and the Likud agents in the US government and media at bay till we get it straightened out.
Nothing has discredited the US politically and weakened the US militarily so much as the Neocon putsch. To a person they deserve to be tried for treason, high crimes and misdemeanors. They are hostile to US interests and transparently interested and totally dedicated to a minor foreign state of no value to US interests.
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Evidence reviewed by The Associated Press confirms that police bullets hit bikers in the deadly shootout involving two rival motorcycle clubs that clashed last spring outside a Waco restaurant, though it isn't clear whether those rifle shots caused any of the nine fatalities. The AP reviewed more than 8,800 pages of evidence, including police reports, dash-cam video, photos and audio interviews related to the May 17 confrontation. The evidence offers the best insight yet into how the shootout unfolded. Four months later, authorities have released little information about what sparked the fight or how the gunfire played out, and no one has been charged with any of the deaths. The evidence, which is expected to be presented to a grand jury, includes video footage of people fleeing the scene while shots ring out, audio of police threatening to shoot people if they rise from the ground and photos of bodies lying in pools of blood in the restaurant parking lot. The gunfire erupted shortly before a meeting of a coalition of motorcycle clubs that advocates rider safety. At least 20 people were treated for gunshot and other wounds. Many witnesses, including bikers involved in the brawl and waitresses at the Twin Peaks restaurant, told police that the shooting began after a Bandido rider hit a prospective member of the Cossacks with his motorcycle, according to the evidence. A fistfight ensued, followed by several minutes of shooting. Waco Police Chief Brent Stroman said in June that three officers fired a total of 12 shots, but police have not said whether the bullets struck anyone, fatally or otherwise. Officer George Vrail was assigned to a special detail to cover the meeting and wrote in a 724-page incident report that he saw two officers during the shootout who "had multiple suspects down on the ground. (An officer) informed me they were engaged by gunfire as they exited their marked police unit. (The officer) said they both returned fire and struck multiple suspects with their patrol rifles." In his portion of the incident report, officer Keith Vaughn wrote that another officer spotted a man shooting into the crowd and told Vaughn that he fired one round "to stop the individual from shooting anyone else." Waco police spokesman Patrick Swanton declined to comment on the evidence the AP reviewed, citing a gag order in the criminal case of one of the bikers. According to the incident report, a separate Waco police investigation into the police shootings is underway. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is conducting ballistics analyses. ATF spokeswoman Nicole Strong declined to comment.
The war in Yemen continues though no one bothers to speak of it. All sides have blood on their hands but the Saudis deserve a special call out.
The bulk of the blame for Yemen's current suffering, however, falls squarely on the coalition forces [read Saudi], and on the often shambolic and indifferent war they continue to wage from far away and well above. The New York Times reports:
"Errant coalition strikes have ripped through markets, apartment buildings and refugee camps. Other bombs have fallen so far from any military target ... that human rights groups say such airstrikes amount to war crimes. More than a thousand civilians are believed to have died in the strikes, the toll rising steadily with little international notice or outrage."
US regulators have charged Volkswagen with manufacturing vehicles designed to evade government pollution controls, and said the German auto giant should urgently fix nearly 500,000 cars.
Volkswagen could face an $18bn penalty over the software made to meet clean-air standards during official emissions testing but which would intentionally turn off during normal operations, US and California regulators said.
John Kerry admits US WAS disturbed by build up of Russian military in Syria
John Kerry, the US Secretary of State, has admitted that his country was “disturbed” by Russia’s military build-up in Syria. The movement of Russian fighter jets and other weaponry, including ground-to-air missiles, to Syria could pose a threat to American and allied military forces, he said.
US officials say Russia moved a small number of fighter jets to a base in Syria on Friday, hours after the US Defense Secretary, Ashton Carter, talked with Russia’s defence minister, Sergei Shoygu, in the first military contacts between the two countries in some time.
“Clearly, the presence of aircraft with air-to-air combat capacity ... and surface-to-air missiles raises serious questions,” Mr Kerry said.
The Russians have deployed at least one such system, according to US military analysts who have been scrutinising satellite pictures of the Russian military build-up at a base in the Syrian city of Latakia. Russia says the military build-up will be directed at jihadist groups in the country, which has been torn apart by a civil war between the government regime and rebel groups, which is in its fifth year.
Russia has been one of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s strongest allies, and used its veto power four times at the UN Security Council to prevent international sanctions on Syria, with Western nations having been adamant Mr Assad should be removed, until the rise of the so-called Islamic State (Isis) in Syria and Iraq appeared to become the more pressing issue.
Mr Kerry’s comments came after meeting British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond yesterday. Russia’s apparent new focus on fighting Isis militants could be an fresh opportunity to achieve a new political settlement. The US and Britain “agreed completely” on the urgent need to end this war. “We’re prepared to negotiate,” Mr Kerry added. “Is Assad prepared to negotiate, really negotiate? Is Russia prepared to bring him to the table?”
Military-to-military talks taking place between Washington and Moscow are designed to make sure there are no incidents between Russian and US forces, Mr Kerry said.
Experts say the discussions also amount to a tacit acceptance of Russia’s military build-up after weeks of warnings from Washington against any Russian escalation in Syria.
In another apparent concession, Mr Kerry signalled the US could live with Mr Assad remaining in place for an unspecified time. “We’re not being doctrinaire about the specific date or time – we’re open,” Mr Kerry said, adding that President Assad doesn’t have to leave “on day one, or month one”.
He accused Moscow of a lack of logic by arguing they were bringing in equipment to shore up the Syrian President against Islamic groups without acknowledging that his continued presence at the head of a detested regime acted as a “magnet” for foreign fighters filling Isis ranks.
Mr Hammond said Russian involvement had made the situation more complicated but added that Britain and the US were “completely aligned” on the need for President Assad to go – but the timing and the means needed more discussion.
Experts yesterday questioned the West’s Syrian policy.
Chris Doyle, director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding, said: “It’s really quite difficult to describe the West’s policy towards Syria as coherent. The sacred mantra of Philip Hammond and John Kerry is that Assad must go but it’s not exactly clear how they will do this. The bombing of Isis by the US and its allies has been an embarrassing failure evidenced by its inability to stop the occupation of Palmyra.
“There are no simple answers. We will have to see if the Russians can be persuaded to encourage Assad to go or occupy some symbolic role, but their red line will surely be his replacement with a government that remains sympathetic to Moscow. As for Britain joining the coalition to bomb targets in Syria, well, it’s not going to be a game-changer.”
Mr Hammond stressed yesterday that the Government was clear that if it believed Syrian airstrikes were necessary it would go back to Parliament.
Sir Tony Brenton, former UK ambassador in Moscow, said: “Russia’s central concern is Islamic terror. They loathe Isis and they have taken a pretty hard-headed view about Syria. We in the West have been pretending there is an alternative between IS and Assad despite there being no evidence of that. In fact this week a senior US official went before Congress and admitted that of the 50 moderates only five of them are in the battle.
“Russia has seen there is no alternative so they will back Assad. They know if faced with the choice of Assad or [Isis], the West would make the same choice. They have been trying to persuade us to do the same for some time. Ash Carter picking up the phone to call his counterpart in Russia was a confession that Russia had been right. You will not find Mr Hammond or Mr Kerry admitting that publicly.”
Russian involvement could bring lots of benefits he said: “They know the region, they will bring lots of intelligence.”
The civil war is estimated to have killed more than 200,000 Syrians since the conflict began in 2011. The fighting has forced more than four million people to flee to neighbouring countries while others have been displaced internally .
Elsewhere, a Syrian rebel group has claimed to have fired rockets at the base in Latakia. In a video posted on Friday, a group calling itself the Islam Army warned the Russians that they will not enjoy peace in Syria.
An ally is an agent who faces a common enemy with you and takes the steps to coordinate efforts to attain a mutual goal or interest. It has nothing to do with sentiment and everything to do with pragmatic realism.
An ally can be a former adversary. Russia was an ally who became an adversary and then an ally and then not and now may become one again over Syria.
Iran has had several entrance and exits onto and off the “ally stage” with the US. I predict Iran will become a US ally.
Israel has never been a US ally because Israel has never done anything with or for the US to promote peace in the region. There is an Orwellian nature to our duplicitous politicians or the Israeli-firsters calling Israel an ally. Israel has mostly done the exact opposite. Israel is a monotheistic belligerent antagonist to all her neighbors and has purposely used he US Neocon agents to promote Israeli interests cloaked in the monstrous lie that US and Israel share common this and common that. It is nonsense, propaganda and a dangerous game of the three card monte street hustle.
The dramatic pricing surge has been driven by a combination of two significant legal changes: the 2014 Supreme Court McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission decision that did away with a cap on how much a political donor could give in an election cycle, and an expansion of party fundraising tucked into an appropriations bill last December.
The national political parties are urging wealthy backers to give them 10 times more money than was allowed in the last presidential election, taking advantage of looser restrictions to pursue million-dollar donors with zeal.
Under the new plans, which have not been disclosed publicly, the top donation tier for the Republican National Committee has soared to $1.34 million per couple this election cycle. Democratic contributors, meanwhile, are being hit up for even more — about $1.6 million per couple — to support the party’s convention and a separate joint fundraising effort between the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign.
In return, elite donors are being promised perks such as exclusive retreats with top party leaders, VIP treatment at the nominating conventions and special dinners organized by contribution rank at this month’s RNC finance committee gala.
The new donor packages mark the latest major erosion of campaign finance limits and are reminiscent of the 1990s, when the parties were flush with huge “soft money” contributions from rich backers and corporations. The new push also further elevates the uber-wealthy at a time when independent big-money groups known as super PACs are dominating the 2016 presidential race.
“This makes the parties more indebted to a handful of very large donors giving beyond the means — or even the imagination — of most Americans,” said Trevor Potter, a GOP election-law lawyer who favors stricter campaign finance rules.
Only a rarefied group can play at the parties’ new top levels.
YOU HAVE TO READ THIS PART:
The RNC is pitching its Presidential Trust program, chaired by Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, as a way for “the most elite RNC investors” to help build infrastructure for the general election, according to a description obtained by The Washington Post. Couples who give $1.34 million this cycle will get to “influence messaging and strategy” through exclusive GOP leadership dinners and quarterly retreats, among other events.
[Party fundraising provision, crafted in secret, could shift money flow]
An invitation to the upcoming RNC finance committee fall retreat and gala at Washington’s Mayflower Hotel notes that donors will be assigned to separate “club dinners” at local restaurants depending on their level of giving.
The RNC, which set up the new fundraising levels at the beginning of the year, is already reaping the benefits. The party has pulled in more than $71 million through the end of August and is on track to raise a record amount in the 2016 cycle, officials said.
The DNC has been slower to take advantage of the new fundraising landscape, raising $42.4 million so far this year.
Now it is racing to catch up. Last month, the Democratic Party rolled out three high-level fundraising packages to bring in money before next summer’s presidential convention in Philadelphia. The premier Rittenhouse Square level — named after one of the city’s toniest neighborhoods — requires a supporter to raise $1.25 million or give $467,700 in exchange for VIP credentials, a premier hotel room and tickets to an array of private parties.
Both the RNC and DNC are taking advantage of a measure slipped into a December spending bill that vastly expanded how much national parties can raise by allowing them to collect high-level donations for separate accounts to finance their presidential conventions, building renovations and legal proceedings.
Advocates for reducing the influence of big donors on politics are dismayed.
“This is a return to the old system of using the parties as vehicles to launder the buying and selling of government influence and decisions,” said Fred Wertheimer, president of the group Democracy 21.
For Shaun McCutcheon — the conservative Alabama businessman who filed the suit that knocked down the aggregate contribution limit — the new fundraising is exactly the outcome he was seeking.
“I am very excited about this,” he said, arguing that the funds will strengthen the parties. “This is a good result for the people.”
All pretenses of democracy in favor of oligopoly should now be over. The obligatory US Flag lapel pins will get bigger. The Pentagon will F-35 all of us and we, just another bunch of dopey Americans, will have less influence on the future of this country than the dog shit on your shoes.
Democratic presidential contender Bernie Sanders fired up a capacity crowd of small-dollar donors at a midtown Manhattan theater Friday as he ridiculed the Republican candidate field and called for sweeping progressive change.
Free public universities, a nationwide $15 minimum wage and higher taxes for the rich were parts of the platform advanced by Brooklyn-raised Sanders, a Vermont U.S. senator. The fundraiser inside the 1,500-seat Town Hall on West 43rd Street was the first for Sanders' campaign in New York City, where front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton maintains her headquarters.
"Welcome to the revolution!" Sanders shouted to cheers, adding: “I beg of you -- think big, not small."
A nationwide New York Times/CBS poll released this week shows that Clinton's lead over Sanders has shrunk from 41 percentage points to 20 points compared with earlier this summer.
Sanders' fundraising appeals spotlighting attacks by Clinton's backers have raised more than $1 million, the campaign said this week.
Hundreds whooped, cheered or took to their feet as Sanders prescribed policy pronouncements or demonized Republicans.
When a woman in the audience declared her love for Sanders, the candidate bellowed, "I love you too!"
Sanders spokesman Michael Briggs said the fundraising haul from the event, of an estimated 1,100 or 1,200 people, was about $100,000. The average donation to Sanders is $31.30, according to the campaign -- the minimum contribution for admission Friday was $50 -- and Sanders stressed he was looking for funding from grassroots donors.
"I do not represent the interests of corporate America or the billionaire class," Sanders said. "I don't want their money."
Jihad Watch Exposing the role that Islamic jihad theology and ideology play in the modern global conflicts Sculpture with burned Bible, Torah, and Qur’an banned from competition
September 19, 2015 11:04 am By Robert Spencer 12 Comments
“Whatever happened to freedom of expression?” What indeed? This is what happened to freedom of expression: Islamic jihadists began threatening to murder, and actually murdering, those who exercised it in a way they considered to be offensive to Islam. And suddenly the entire once-free West gained a new respect for Islam and willingness to adhere to Sharia blasphemy laws. For there is absolutely no doubt whatsoever that Nabil Mousa’s sculpture was judged too controversial and turned down not because of the burned Torah or New Testament, but because of the burned Qur’an, and only because of the burned Qur’an. The whole world is cowering in fear before these bloodthirsty assassins, not realizing or not caring about the fact that their cowering is only going to encourage the assassins to be even more bloodthirsty and demanding.
burned quran
“Sculpture with burned Bible,Torah, and Quran banned from competition,” by Kaitlyn S Ross and Julie Wolfe, WXIA, September 17, 2015:
ATLANTA — An Atlanta artist is frustrated after his sculpture about 9/11 was turned down from a national competition for being too controversial.
It was a miscommunication between the city where the competition is held, and the curators who judge the competition. The piece was approved by the curators to be displayed at City Hall in Grand Rapids, Michigan for ArtPrize, an annual competition. But when the city saw it, they thought it was far too controversial to be in city hall. It is a provocative piece called “Paradise Built on the Bones of the Slaughtered.”
It shows the twin towers and then the burned religious scripts of the Torah, Quran, and Bible.
Atlanta artist Nabil Mousa says it’s influenced by his upbringing.
“Being born in Syria I grew up around all 3 religions, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism,” he said.
Raised as a Christian, he said the sculpture is meant to question what people do in the name of religion.
“When you look at 9/11 and you look at this sculpture, you have to think, how can someone commit these atrocities in the name of God and think that God is on their side,” he said.
He knew some people would take offense to the sculpture, but didn’t think it should be banned outright.
“Whatever happened to freedom of expression? Art is supposed to be a way for us to express ourselves and be able to do it without judgment, without censorship,” he said….
Jihad Watch Exposing the role that Islamic jihad theology and ideology play in the modern global conflicts Hoax: 80% of refugees from war-torn Syria aren’t from Syria at all
September 19, 2015 10:42 am By Robert Spencer 29 Comments
“Many of those who have opted to risk their lives to come to Europe have done so for economic reasons,” said Davies. Oh, and then there’s this: last February the Islamic State said it would soon flood Europe with as many as 500,000 refugees. But they couldn’t actually be doing it now, could they? Inconceivable! And the Lebanese Education Minister recently said that there were 20,000 jihadis among the refugees in camps in his country. But they couldn’t be heading to Europe, could they? Inconceivable! The 80% of migrants who claim to be fleeing the war in Syria but aren’t from Syria at all couldn’t have hijrah or jihad on their minds, could they? Inconceivable!
Hijrah, or jihad by emigration, is, according to Islamic tradition, the migration or journey of Muhammad and his followers from Mecca to Yathrib, later renamed by him to Medina, in the year 622 CE. It was after the hijrah that Muhammad for the first time became not just a preacher of religious ideas, but a political and military leader. That was what occasioned his new “revelations” exhorting his followers to commit violence against unbelievers. Significantly, the Islamic calendar counts the hijrah, not Muhammad’s birth or the occasion of his first “revelation,” as the beginning of Islam, implying that Islam is not fully itself without a political and military component.
To emigrate in the cause of Allah – that is, to move to a new land in order to bring Islam there, is considered in Islam to be a highly meritorious act. “And whoever emigrates for the cause of Allah will find on the earth many locations and abundance,” says the Qur’an. “And whoever leaves his home as an emigrant to Allah and His Messenger and then death overtakes him, his reward has already become incumbent upon Allah. And Allah is ever Forgiving and Merciful.” (4:100) The exalted status of such emigrants led a British jihad group that won notoriety (and a shutdown by the government) a few years ago for celebrating 9/11 to call itself Al-Muhajiroun: The Emigrants.
lampedusa_refugees
“Four out of five migrants are NOT from Syria: EU figures expose the ‘lie’ that the majority of refugees are fleeing war zone,” by Ian Drury, Daily Mail, September 18, 2015 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):
Only one in every five migrants claiming asylum in Europe is from Syria.
The EU logged 213,000 arrivals in April, May and June but only 44,000 of them were fleeing the Syrian civil war.
Campaigners and left-wing MPs have suggested the vast majority of migrants are from the war-torn state, accusing the Government of doing too little to help them.
‘This exposes the lie peddled in some quarters that vast numbers of those reaching Europe are from Syria,’ said David Davies, Tory MP for Monmouth. ‘Most people who are escaping the war will go to camps in Lebanon or Jordan.
‘Many of those who have opted to risk their lives to come to Europe have done so for economic reasons.’…
According to rat the Alawites are a bunch of Christians, which explains why Iran is helping them so. It is well known that the Iranians love Christians.
It's just another of the multifaceted examples of syncretism found around the world -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syncretism
Ideas in passages in the Jewish scriptures (the ages of the Patriarchs) can be traced back to Mesopotamia, which can be traced back to India........the old Egyptian iconography is Hinduism splat right in your face.....it's a world wide phenomena, nothing to get excited about....certainly nothing to kill over.....alas,.the typical moslem reaction to misreading.........:(
Obama's "I Don't Have A Clue Speech" nearly four years old now.....
An important document in American History -
September 20, 2015 Obama's Speech for the Ages By Steven Sanders
We are rapidly approaching the anniversary of one the most historic speeches ever delivered by a U.S. President. No, it’s not President Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address or President Regan’s Berlin Wall speech or even President Kennedy’s inaugural address. October 21st will mark the 4th anniversary of President Obama’s “I Don’t Have a Clue” speech.
On that date, in less than 900 words, our President took to the podium of the White House Briefing room and proceeded to deliver a statement proving just how misguided his foreign policy is. It stands an incredible combination of incompetence and incorrectness and should never be forgotten.
Let us begin in the 5th paragraph (official transcript here) where the President lectures the world about the conclusion of the Iraq War.
Over the next two months, our troops in Iraq -- tens of thousands of them -- will pack up their gear and board convoys for the journey home. The last American soldier[s] will cross the border out of Iraq with their heads held high, proud of their success, and knowing that the American people stand united in our support for our troops. That is how America’s military efforts in Iraq will end.
I do believe “America’s military efforts in Iraq” will be continuing for some time to come. Not that anyone could have foreseen or in any way predicted what a rapid removal of all US forces from Iraq might lead to in the region.
Actually there was someone, standing at the same podium of the White House Briefing room 4 years earlier. In July of 2007, then President Bush spoke of the Democrats opposition to his Surge strategy in Iraq and their calls for immediate troop withdraws.
BUSH: It'd mean that we'd be risking mass killings on a horrific scale. It'd mean we'd allow the terrorists to establish a safe haven in Iraq to replace the one they lost in Afghanistan. It'd mean we'd be increasing the probability that American troops would have to return at some later date to confront an enemy that is even more dangerous.
Now returning to October of 2011, President Obama continues his lecture on world affairs.
And finally, I would note that the end of war in Iraq reflects a larger transition. The tide of war is receding.
Unfortunately for President Obama, someone forgot to pass that word over to the “JV” team. And I think Mr. Assad in Syria and Mr. Putin in Russia might disagree that the tide of war is receding. Clearly Iran and Hezb’allah never got that memo.
He continued:
Meanwhile, yesterday marked the definitive end of the Qaddafi regime in Libya. And there, too, our military played a critical role in shaping a situation on the ground in which the Libyan people can build their own future. Today, NATO is working to bring this successful mission to a close.
I could be wrong, but I can’t remember hearing the President, VP Biden or Mrs. Clinton doing much bragging about how great things are in Libya these days following this “successful mission.”
But he wasn’t done yet:
The long war in Iraq will come to an end by the end of this year. The transition in Afghanistan is moving forward, and our troops are finally coming home…And as we welcome home our newest veterans, we’ll never stop working to give them and their families the care, the benefits and the opportunities that they have earned.
I’m sorry, did the “care and benefits they earned” include being seen by a doctor? Apparently not if you’re one of the 800,000 vets who have their records stalled in the VA system or one of the 307,000 vets who died while waiting for a VA appointment.
The President then concluded with what might be the most incorrect thing of the entire speech.
Because after a decade of war, the nation that we need to build -- and the nation that we will build -- is our own; an America that sees its economic strength restored just as we’ve restored our leadership around the globe.
Somehow it fits perfectly as an ending. “We’ve restored our leadership around the globe” -- it doesn’t get more inaccurate than that.
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2015/09/obamas_speech_for_the_ages.html#ixzz3mGvlWwVn Follow us: @AmericanThinker on Twitter | AmericanThinker on Facebook
Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. Civil War Volunteers
Image by Marion Doss via Flickr
One hundred and fifty years ago the young American nation suffered its greatest failure. “The political system could not contain the passions stoked by the infusion of evangelical Christianity into the political process,” argues University of North Carolina historian David Goldfield. Americans collectively jumped into the abyss of bloody, destructive civil war. Recommended by Forbes
Much blood was shed, especially at this time of the year. The single costliest day in American military history was Sept. 17, when the Army of Northern Virginia and Army of the Potomac met in battle near the town of Sharpsburg along Antietam Creek.
By the time night fell around 26,000 men had been killed, wounded, or captured. The fight was a stalemate, though Robert E. Lee later retreated, ending his invasion of Maryland. On no other day in no other war have so many Americans suffered in combat.
A year later, on Sept. 19, began the two-day battle along Chickamauga Creek between the Confederate Army of Tennessee and the Union Army of the Cumberland. In one of the rare clashes where the South held a numerical advantage, the Northerners were driven from the field, though the Confederates failed to effectively follow up their advantage. Around 35,000 men became casualties or captives.
Deaths accumulated in many other battles, big and small. After four years 620,000 people had been killed, enormous wealth had been destroyed, and southern states had been ravaged. America was on its way to becoming a modern nation state closer to the strong, centralized European model, a dubious achievement. The war’s one serious benefit — the freeing of 4 million slaves — was inadvertent, beginning as an incidental war measure.
The tale of American disunion is familiar to anyone conversant in U.S. history. However, in his new history America Aflame: How the Civil War Created a Nation (Bloomsbury Press), Goldfield writes more as a novelist than an academic, making the familiar engaging.
There were many fractures in the young republic, but slavery took center stage as the sectional gap grew. The North was determined to turn slavery into a contained regional institution. The South insisted on preserving slavery as a protected national system. Both sides fought over the symbolic and the abstract.
Were these differences worth mass death and destruction?...................
Lincoln was the most failed US President but for reasons of serving political advantages the oligarchs made him a god and the boneheads followed lockstep.
When Pope Francis arrives in the United States on Tuesday, he’ll greet a flock in transformation, its future tied to the growing influence of Hispanic immigrants and a generational decline in religious affiliation.
Francis will also encounter an American church that relates less with traditional Catholic stances on marriage and family, from divorce to out-of-wedlock births to same-sex marriage.
In other words, U.S. Catholics are evolving with the modern world more quickly than the church itself. And many are anxious to see how the popular pope will tailor his message to them.
"Catholicism in America today is a more diverse population," said William Dinges, a professor of religious studies at Catholic University. That trend, he said, covers not only who American Catholics are, but what they believe, and how they view themselves in relation to the church.
Like it or not, slowly but surely, the evolution is towards a universal humanism that practices goodness for goodness sake and a good life consistent with science and cumulative knowledge and discovery, void of the childish myth and literary dangerous nonsense of some controlling god that gives credence and justification to every possible crime known to mankind. It is a slow process ending in the rebuke of the greatest human scourge and political abusive use of religious zealotry.
The Best Military Campaign of My Lifetime files - (aka The Rufus Files) -
Opinion
Team Obama has spent $500M to train ‘four or five’ Syrian rebels
By Jonah Goldberg
September 18, 2015 | 8:02pm Team Obama has spent $500M to train ‘four or five’ Syrian rebels Photo: Reuters
The news that the Obama administration has spent $500 million to put “four or five” fighters on the ground in Syria adds an almost comic irony to what is ultimately a tragic farce.
In the 1980s, the symbol of Republican incompetence and mismanagement was the $600 toilet seat. Left out of the media coverage was the fact that the toilet seat was for a special kind of anti-submarine aircraft that had been out of production and needed special retrofitting. But forget all that. How does that compare to spending $100 million per non-bionic human soldier?
This news comes from Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III, head of US Central Command, or CENTCOM. Ever the loyal soldier, Austin insists that we should stay the course. It’s not really a tenth of a billion dollars for each rebel, we’ve got another hundred “in the pipeline,” he told Congress Wednesday. No doubt that will turn the tide.
Besides, he says the larger strategy in Syria is working. Specifically, he offered this word salad:
“Despite some slow movement at the tactical level, we continue to make progress across the battlespace in support of the broader US government strategy to degrade and ultimately defeat [the Islamic State].”
No doubt Austin is an honorable man, but it’s difficult to take such a promise at face value. And not just because the Defense Department’s inspector general is investigating allegations — according to reporting by the normally Obama-friendly Daily Beast and The New York Times — that intelligence reports were falsified or otherwise altered to paint a rosy picture in the fight against the Islamic State.
Another irony, given this president’s sanctimony about allegedly “cooked” intelligence on his predecessor’s watch.
There’s also the fact that we’ve heard something like this before. Almost exactly one year ago, when President Obama announced his plan to build an army of Syrians to take out the Islamic State — a group he had only recently dismissed as the “jayvee squad” — he told the American people in a televised address:
“This counterterrorism campaign will be waged through a steady, relentless effort to take out [the Islamic State] wherever they exist, using our air power and our support for partner forces on the ground. This strategy of taking out terrorists who threaten us, while supporting partners on the front lines, is one that we have successfully pursued in Yemen and Somalia for years.”
Four months later, the terrorists Obama was degrading “successfully” toppled the government in Yemen.
Meanwhile, rumors of the Islamic State’s demise are greatly exaggerated. It still controls an area roughly the size of England. Foreign fighters still flock to its ranks. It’s winning the war in Syria, which is why the Iranians and the Russians are now racing to the regime’s aid........
By American one must assume you mean US, Q. Mexico and Canada, both parts of America have not suffered any decline in influence.
As for "Progress to Goal", please define the what you believe the "Goal" is. As for the $6 billion, that is pocket change for the US. Wouldn't even buy the tires for a flock of F-35s. Or keep one of the twelve US carrier battle groups at sea for a week.
You’re still playing at the pompous pedant, that is one who is unimaginative or who unduly emphasizes minutiae in the presentation or use of knowledge.
You’re also still showing your unfamiliarity with English usage in that you fail to understand the evolution of the language. ‘American’ is a perfectly good substitute for US citizen. It has gained that acceptance over the years through constant usage. Additional meanings are often added to words over time. It’s how language evolves.
The only people who object to the use of the term ‘American’ when referring to US citizens (other than the pedants) are the cultural elites in areas like South America or Canada. And you’ll notice I said ‘object to’. They certainly know what it refers to as does the rest of the world both in speech and formal documents. Ask anyone at the UN who they are talking about when they refer to America. Hell, ask the Ayatollah.
As to ‘Progress to Goal’, I refer to the US goal as enunciated by the president, to ‘degrade and destroy ISIS’.
As for the $6 billion, that is pocket change for the US.
You reflect the same mind-set that has given the US an $18 trillion dollar debt. What’s a few billion? You fail to see the opportunity costs of even that relatively small amount. Instead of jet fuel and jdams, how much food and support would it buy for Syrian refugees or perhaps more importantly for people suffering in our own country?
Here, is a site that shows where our dollars are going, most of it into the pockets of the MIC and those that support them in Washington
https://www.nationalpriorities.org/cost-of/
It is an interesting site. Going through the various notes and the backup detail provided is even more interesting. You will note that the numbers on the military don’t include things like ongoing medical costs for those injured in our wars or the non-combat military costs. There is also a section on opportunity costs.
However, the most important point is that we continue to dump money into the war against ISIS with questionable results. Given the expansion of ISIS into other countries since last year, some would even say we have regressed in the fight. None of which does anything to enhance US standing around the world.
PATRICK BUCHANAN:Putin is right to make ISIS, not Assad enemy No. 1 in Syria
What Vladimir Putin is up to in Syria makes far more sense than what Barack Obama and John Kerry appear to be up to in Syria.
The Russians are flying transports bringing tanks and troops to an air base near the coastal city of Latakia to create a supply chain to provide a steady flow of weapons and munitions to the Syrian army.
Syrian President Bashar Assad, an ally of Russia, has lost half his country to ISIS and the Nusra Front, a branch of al-Qaida.
Putin fears that if Assad falls, Russia's toehold in Syria and the Mediterranean will be lost, ISIS and al-Qaida will be in Damascus, and Islamic terrorism will have achieved its greatest victory.
Is he wrong?
Winston Churchill famously said in 1939: "I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest."
Exactly. Putin is looking out for Russian national interests.
And who do we Americans think will wind up in Damascus if Assad falls? A collapse of that regime, not out of the question, would result in a terrorist takeover, the massacre of thousands of Alawite Shiites and Syrian Christians, and the flight of millions more refugees into Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey -- and thence on to Europe.
Putin wants to prevent that. Don't we?
Why then are we spurning his offer to work with us?
Are we still so miffed that when we helped to dump over the pro-Russian regime in Kiev, Putin countered by annexing Crimea?
Get over it.
Understandably, there is going to be friction between the two greatest military powers. Yet both of us have a vital interest in avoiding war with each other and a critical interest in seeing ISIS degraded and defeated.
And if we consult those interests rather than respond to a reflexive Russophobia that passes for thought in the think tanks, we should be able to see our way clear to collaborate in Syria.
Indeed, the problem in Syria is not so much with the Russians -- or Iran, Hezbollah and Assad, all of whom see the Syrian civil war correctly as a fight to the finish against Sunni jihadis.
Our problem has been that we have let our friends -- the Turks, Israelis, Saudis and Gulf Arabs -- convince us that no victory over ISIS can be achieved unless and until we bring down Assad.
Once we get rid of Assad, they tell us, a grand U.S.-led coalition of Arabs and Turks can form up and march in to dispatch ISIS. This is neocon nonsense.
Those giving us this advice are the same "cakewalk war" crowd who told us how Iraq would become a democratic model for the Middle East once Saddam Hussein was overthrown and how Moammar Gadhafi's demise would mean the rise of a pro-Western Libya.
When have these people ever been right?
What is the brutal reality in this Syrian civil war, which has cost 250,000 lives and made refugees of half the population, with 4 million having fled the country?
After four years of sectarian and ethnic slaughter, Syria will most likely never again be reconstituted along the century-old map lines of Sykes-Picot. Partition appears inevitable.
And though Assad may survive for a time, his family's days of ruling Syria are coming to a close.
Yet it is in America's interest not to have Assad fall -- if his fall means the demoralization and collapse of his army, leaving no strong military force standing between ISIS and Damascus.
Indeed, if Assad falls now, the beneficiary is not going to be those pro-American rebels who have defected or been routed every time they have seen combat and who are now virtually extinct.
The victors will be ISIS and the Nusra Front, which control most of Syria between the Kurds in the northeast and the Assad regime in the southwest.
Syria could swiftly become a strategic base camp and sanctuary of the Islamic State from which to pursue the battle for Baghdad, plot strikes against America and launch terror attacks across the region and around the world.
Prediction: If Assad falls and ISIS rises in Damascus, a clamor will come -- and not only from the Lindsey Grahams and John McCains -- to send a U.S. army to invade and drive ISIS out, while the neocons go scrounging around to find a Syrian Ahmed Chalabi in northern Virginia.
Then this nation will be convulsed in a great war debate over whether to send that U.S. army to invade Syria and destroy ISIS.
And while our Middle Eastern and European allies sit on the sidelines and cheer on the American intervention, this country will face an anti-war movement the likes of which have not been seen since Col. Lindbergh spoke for America First.
In making ISIS, not Assad, public enemy No. 1, Putin has it right.
It is we Americans who are the mystery inside an enigma now.
I checked the Pew Poll on American favorability that runs into 2014 (the latest I could find).
Their overall view is that America has a generally favorable impression around the world except in the Middle East. They also indicate that the 2014 numbers are about the same as the 2013 numbers. However, in looking at trends, if you compare 2009 through 2014 you will see a mixed bag with some countries moving positive (Poland, Spain, Turkey, China) some moving negative (UK, Germany, India, Russia) and some countries not moving. In the ME, where most of our military actions have been, it has dropped except in Turkey and Israel (note not all ME countries included in the survey).
It is hard to make judgements of trends based on the PEW research because they only list 43 countries with some of them only listed for 2014. If you just add up the countries 8 remained the same (or in most cases were only listed in 2014), 16 moved positively, and 19 moved negatively since 2009.
It will be interesting to see what the 2015 poll says given current events.
Is that why the Federal deficit is now below the average of the George W years?
The Federal Deficit is Now Smaller than the Average Since the 1980s
The federal government’s deficit in fiscal year 2014 was $195 billion smaller than last year — clocking in at a shortfall of $486 billion, according to an estimate from the Congressional Budget Office.
... measuring the raw deficit only tells part of the story. The U.S. population and economy are much larger today than they were in the 1980s. In fact, adjusted for the size of the economy, today’s deficit is now smaller than the average deficit going back to the 1980s.
The 2014 deficit came in at 2.8% according to the CBO estimate, compared to the 3.2% average since 1980. By that measure, President Barack Obama‘s deficit this year is one that would have been acceptable to President Ronald Reagan. During Mr. Reagan’s presidency, the deficit averaged 4% of GDP.
He's obviously slipping off the recovery program prescribed for him by his shrink. This probably called for at least a year, maybe 18 months, of blog free living.....
The deficit shrank as federal revenues rose by about 9% and spending climbed by only 1%.
Two key factors have driven the plunging deficit in recent years.
First, more Americans are now working, paying taxes, and off the unemployment rolls. The unemployment rate for September fell below 6% for the first time since 2008, while the number of working Americans is at a record high, according to the latest jobs report from the Department of Labor.
In fact, adjusted for the size of the economy, today’s deficit is now smaller than the average deficit going back to the 1980s.
Possibly true, but that average deficit includes the massive deficits under Oboma's previous years; and though it has come down considerably we are still adding a $ trillion to the debt every two years.
Much of the deficit reduction was tied to the sequester and the biggest fight right no on the budget (in addition to planned parenthood) is the demand by Obama and the Dems that the sequester ceilings be breached. It is likely the GOP will go along as long as they get their piece of the pie.
Even under the current level of spending, the president's 2016 budget calls for the deficit to remain in this range for a couple years and then start to rise. By 2020, gross public debt will go from $ 18 trillion to $ 22 trillion. In the same period, interest on the debt will more than double from $230 billion to $540 billion and will be bigger than most discretionary spending combined and pretty much match the deficit in size.
Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson, the self proclaimed fraudster has nothing to add but his fantasies.
I can still quote his past posts, where he proudly tells the world how he stole his aunt's identity and ran her credit cards, then rather than pay the bill, institutionalized his auntie.
are u not the same person that released information conserning an ongoing fbi investigation? Violating all sorts of laws? Telling us about UR informant inside the az fbi's office? U remember when I reported u for making death threats at me and contacted said fbi office? Ax among u spend a few months in jail and u are back and lying as usual
Updated September 19, 2015 12:00 PM By TED R. BROMUND 2 Reprints + - A Syrian flag flies over the capital, Damascus, A Syrian flag flies over the capital, Damascus, Syria, on Oct. 27, 2014. Photo Credit: AP / Diaa Hadid
advertisement | advertise on newsday
The Obama administration never wanted to take the lead on the war in Syria. It hoped that, if we stayed out of the war, it wouldn't come to us. The wave of refugees now moving into Europe, and lapping at the shores of the United States, shows that assumption was wrong.
Germany already has received more than 100,000 asylum requests from Syrian refugees, and expects at least 800,000 applications this year. Europe, according to the United Nations, received 62,000 requests in August, and more than 425,000 this year. And there are more than three million Syrians in Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan. Most Popular
Editorial: What you told us about Common Core Dobie: Driverless cars - are they sure about this? Reader essay: Life as a Nassau Coliseum game volunteer Opinion: Francis a holy man, not a God Readers: Why we opted out of state tests or not
Everyone who didn't want to get involved in Syria, including the Obama administration, owns the result: Not just refugees in the millions, but children drowning in the waves. And yet this administration claimed in 2011 that "preventing mass atrocities and genocide is a core national security interest and a core moral responsibility of the United States." Cartoon Matt Davies' latest cartoon: Appealing to women Comment Submit your letter Reader essays Get published in Newsday
But this goes beyond refugees. We now have open Russian involvement, in league with Bashar al-Assad and Iran, in Syria. This might save Assad, but that will only raise the stakes in the struggle between Assad's Shia-led coalition, and the Sunnis in the so-called Islamic State group. The refugee crisis is merely a symptom of a worsening war.
President Barack Obama is reportedly considering whether he should meet with Russia's Vladimir Putin to discuss the war. Meanwhile, the Europeans are planning another meeting to haggle over how to handle the refugee crisis. Both meetings will achieve nothing of substance.
Putin wants Assad to survive. Unless America wants to go to war at Iran's side, that's a non-starter for us. And the Europeans, as usual, are all about burden-sharing in Europe, not shouldering a burden in Syria. They will never lead.
advertisement | advertise on newsday
But as long as the refugees have a reason to flee Syria, many will end up in Europe. No European burden-sharing deal can change that. Only a secure zone in Syria that protects people from Assad and the Islamic State alike will give them a reason to stop walking.........
We can also, Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson quote your support of genocide and cannibalism. You write such comments with little concern for the "Rights of Man", your fellow citizens are treated, by you, as so much chattel.
Better, for you, to cease your abusive comments and mind your own business. Calling others names and your continued attempts at defamation will not serve your purpose, whatever that may be...
Your statement "O"rdure was that Sodastream was undervalued at $29.11
What is "Occupation"Sat Jul 19, 10:54:00 PM EDT it's a great time to buy the stock (Sodastream) Herr Rodent.. It's undervalued. ($29.11) LOL you really just don't understand business..
That was then ... This is now Sodastream was not undervalued at $29.11. The market now values Sodastream at about one half of when you made your "buy" recommendation.
You were wrong then, you still are. It was not a mention of loss, except by you. There was a mention of "value" which is set by the market.
The statement that Sodastream was undervalued at $29.11 was laughable at the time, that fact borne out by time and the market value, today. $15.41.
You were wrong then, you are wrong today. You have a problem with accepting reality
I have said that the market capitalization of Sodastream has taken a loss. That the loss of market valuation is about 50% since you made you "buy" recommendation, undeniable.
Since Sodastream was first targeted by the BDS Movement, well from $72 and change to $15.11, the loss of market valuation, about 80%.
As good ole Allen told us, during the shutdown of Ben-Gurion International Airport, the existential threat to Israel is the weakness of its economy. Its' dependence on foreign financing being its Achilles Heal.
are u not the same person that released information conserning an ongoing fbi investigation? Violating all sorts of laws? Telling us about UR informant inside the az fbi's office? U remember when I reported u for making death threats at me and contacted said fbi office? Ax among u spend a few months in jail and u are back and lying as usual
You remember those comments...
Which is it...
Did you lie about the informant and seeing the report or did you LEAK classified intel on an open blog?
Aint that the reason you ran away for months last time?
Well, giving rat'sass his due, once he did admit to being a first class asshole.....world class asshole.....
remember that ? I might take the time to check my computer later......that's one I used to have captured....so, he really did tell the truth once, there, that one time......
BDS Suffers Humiliating Reversal in Iceland The second victory for pro-Israel forces against hate in less than a month. September 21, 2015 Ari Lieberman
The last few weeks have gone rather badly for the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. First, there was the Matisyahu debacle where BDS activists tried to have Jewish reggae sensation Matisyahu banned from the Rototom Sunsplash music festival on account of his pro-Israel views. Event organizers initially folded to the BDS pressure and barred Matisyahu from performing, but following an international outcry over what was a blatantly anti-Semitic action, red-faced officials quickly reversed themselves. Matisyahu made his appearance and sang his hit song “Jerusalem,” which is laced with references strongly supportive of Israel. Score one for Israel, zero for BDS.
Over the weekend, BDS suffered another stinging reversal. On September 15, in a move largely characterized as symbolic, the city council in Iceland’s capital of Reykjavik voted to boycott all Israeli products “for as long as the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory continues.” The insidious motion was introduced by known radical leftist and Israel-hater Björk Vilhelmsdóttir and passed unanimously. Iceland’s imports from Israel last year totaled just under $6,000,000, but the percentage earmarked for Reykjavik is unclear.
Vilhelmsdóttir’s husband, Sveinn Runar Hauksson, is a well-known anti-Israel and anti-American agitator and chairs the Iceland-Palestine Association, which advocates the boycott of Israeli products and supports the Hamas terror group. In 2010, Hauksson met with Hamas terror chieftain Ismail Haniyeh and was pictured presenting him with an award. Hauksson is apparently unperturbed by the Hamas charter, which calls for the annihilation of Jews globally.
The council’s move, reminiscent of actions taken by the Nazi Brown Shirts some 80 years ago, prompted immediate outrage. Local attorney Einar Gautur SteingrÃmsson stated that he would submit immediate challenge to the resolution alleging that it violated the Icelandic constitution. Eminent international law scholar Eugene Kontorovich noted that the council’s actions violated international treaties to which both Iceland and Israel are parties and Israel’s foreign ministry highlighted Reykjavik’s hypocrisy in singling out the only democracy in the Mideast for special treatment while ignoring gross inequity and tyranny prevalent in so many other countries.
Counter-pressure directed against Iceland’s government could no longer be ignored, prompting Iceland’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs to distance itself from the actions of Reykjavik’s municipality. On September 18, the IMFA released a statement noting that “the City of Reykjavik's resolution is not in line with Iceland‘s foreign policy nor should it be seen to reflect on Iceland‘s relations with Israel.”
This rather mild-mannered rebuke was insufficient for most, who viewed the municipality’s actions as motivated by nothing short of base anti-Semitism and bigotry. President of the American Jewish Congress Ronald Lauder warned Iceland of the “negative repercussions” should its government fail to take forceful action against the city council’s actions. The Simon Wiesenthal Center went one step further issuing a travel advisory against Iceland.
In rather forceful terms, the SWC issued a statement noting that “Iceland is a major tourist destination, including for many Jews and Israeli tour groups. However, when the elected leaders of its main city pass an extreme anti-Israel and anti-Semitic law, we would caution any member of a Jewish community about traveling there.” The SWC further noted that the municipality failed to issue resolutions against countries with far more egregious human rights records like Syria, Iran, North Korea and Sudan.
Iceland has a rather poor record when it comes to relations with Israel. Its government has repeatedly issued grossly one-sided condemnations of Israel and it was the first Western government to recognize “Palestine” as an independent state, a unilateral move that clearly violated the letter and spirit of the Oslo Accords. It also maintains a spotty record when it comes to relations with its Jewish community. During Israel’s counter insurgency campaign against Hamas, anti-Semitism grew to fever pitch with one Icelandic bicycle store owner hanging a sign stating “Jews Unwelcome.”
Though Iceland’s government distanced itself from the reprehensible actions taken by Reykjavik’s municipality, it bears at least some responsibility, for through its irresponsible foreign policies, it created an environment conducive to hate and bigotry.
On September 19, just four days after the hateful resolution was introduced, Reykjavik’s mayor, Dagur Eggertsson, announced that he would scrap the resolution and acknowledged that the bill was “ill-prepared.” He also admitted that he did not expect such a strong negative international response.
The counter-pressure from Israel and elsewhere worked and once again uncovered the perniciousness of BDS. The resolution masqueraded itself as a human rights issue, but in reality was indistinguishable from boycotts instituted by the Nazis against Jewish-owned business in the 1930s.
Nevertheless, Reykaavik’s humiliating retraction just days after instituting a malevolent anti-Semitic edict represents a significant victory over BDS. It is the second time in less than a month that BDS was soundly defeated in humiliating fashion. Score two for Israel and democracy, zero for BDS.
Isis prepare to behead a group of Christian men on a beach in Hillary Clinton's Libya - pic
As the week ended, Obama's palace guard in the American media were demanding that every other Republican candidate distance himself from Donald Trump's failure to correct, among thousands of attendees at his events, one who apparently is under the reprehensible illusion that the President is a Muslim.
Any candidate who plays this game with the Obamamedia is a fool. Assuming for the sake of argument that the questioner is genuine and not a plant (like, say, the 14-year old all-American schoolboy clockmaker who didn't make a clock at all and is the son of a belligerent Muslim activist and perennial Sudanese presidential candidate whose brother runs a trucking company amusingly called Twin Towers Transportation), putting all of that to one side, there are several entirely reasonable responses one could make to the gentlemen of the press:
1) Unlike Hillary Clinton's under-attended "rallies", a voter doesn't have to undergo a background check or sign a piece of paper pledging to support her in the election before being permitted into a Republican candidate's presence. So at our campaign events there are all kinds of people with all kinds of views - and it goes without saying I won't agree with them all. If you find that odd, maybe you've been covering Hillary too long.
2) Why does one Republican candidate's "scandal" get hung around the neck of every other guy's? I'll answer your question to me about Donald Trump's 'gaffe' after you ask Bernie Sanders, Martin O'Malley, Lincoln Chafee and Joe Biden about Hillary Clinton's server and how she handled Benghazi. Till then, get lost.
4) As to respect for the office, the President is so respectful of the papacy that his White House reception for Pope Francis will be filled with gay bishops, transgender activists and pro-abortion nuns. Apparently His Holiness is expected to have a thicker skin about dissenting voices than King Barack.
5) If I understand you shrill little twerps correctly, I'm supposed to point out to this guy in New Hampshire that the President is not a Muslim but a Christian. Well, his father and step-father were both Muslims, which means, as far as Islam is concerned, he was born a Muslim. Has he renounced it? My fellow candidate Ted Cruz entered this world in Calgary, Alberta in 1970, which means that he was born a British subject and a citizen of Canada. I don't suppose the Queen cares about that one way or the other - unlike your average Islamic scholar in Qom or Cairo. Yet you media types made such a big deal out of it that Ted was obliged to write to Ottawa to renounce even any theoretical Canadianness. Have you inquired of your buddy the President whether he's done anything similarly clarifying?
6) As to whether he's a Christian, have you asked him whether he has attended even semi-regularly any church other than that of Jeremiah ("God damn America") Wright? A man is free to attend the Westboro Baptist Church but if he chooses to do so I'm not obligated to defend his Christianity. And frankly, whatever the President's personal faith, there is no dispute that his leadership of the western world has been an utter catastrophe for Christians around the planet. Some of the oldest Christian communities on earth have been entirely extinguished on Obama's watch: in Mosul, Iraq, which was an American protectorate on the day he took office, not a single Christian remains. Every single one of them is dead or fled. So, instead of jumping through your preposterous hoops and speaking up for the most powerful man in the world, I would rather speak up for the powerless - for the Nigerian schoolgirls, for the Yazidi, for the Copts in Egypt, and for all the other beleaguered Christian communities in the world this feckless president has set alight and watched burn.
7) Oh, and one other thing. This kind of super-fake-o lame-ass nothing controversy that you dowager duchesses of the press are having the vapors about is precisely why the political process has fallen into such disrepute and your own industry is bankrupt. No real person cares about this "scandal". So, unless you've got a question about the economy or immigration or something real, screw off outta here.
And the ruling coalition (in Sweden) is now trying to abolish all religious schools – not because they worry about Jews or Lutherans educating their kids the way they want to, but because they know perfectly well that violent jihad is being taught in all the Wahhabi mosques and madrassas.
September 21, 2015 Donald Trump finally clarifies who caused September 11 By Ethel C. Fenig
Love him, hate him or are somewhere in-between, observers of this run up to the Republican presidential nomination have to admit, by virtue of his brash wealth persona, Donald Trump is shaking up political campaigning. Saying out loud what many secretly think but are afraid to say while framing his own narrative and issues, Trump is attracting backers who have long felt neglected by their candidates from both parties. His well known stance on illegal immigration is the most obvious. His assertion that he could have crafted a better Iran deal for America because of his self publicized skills as a deal maker is another. And on Sunday, appearing on multiple talk shows, he did it again. Several times.
Scolded by the liberal pc guardians for not correcting/answering a questioner at one of his public forums, who insisted President Obama was a Muslim and that Muslims are problematic, (a plant? No scolding reporter managed to get the questioner's name or background) Trump shot back (excuse the description)
"It wasn't people from Sweden who blew up the World Trade Center," Trump told Jake Tapper on CNN's "State of the Union."
"I get that — but to say we have a problem and it's called Muslims because there are some extremist Muslims, is tarring all Muslims," said Tapper.
"Well I don't agree with that at all, but you have extremist Muslims that are in a class by themselves," said Trump, who leads theWashington Examiner's presidential power rankings. "It is a problem in this country and it's a problem throughout the world. I mean all you have to do is look at Europe."
"We can be politically correct and say there is no problem whatsoever, but the fact is, there is a problem with some and it's a very severe problem and it's a problem that's taking place all over the world," Trump said in an interview with NBC's "Meet the Press."
"I have such great respect and love for so many of the people — they are great people," he added characteristically. "I know so many Muslims that are such fabulous people."
Well, glad to finally know who crashed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and that field in Pennsylvania. Thanks for telling it straight Donald Trump, without excuses about Islam as a "religion of peace;" something very few are willing to say publicly.
But, btw Donald, a small correction: in a future attack it could be people from Sweden. Muslims from Sweden. Or Muslims from France. Or Germany. Because that's where they are going. And that's where they are living. As mentioned here several months ago "Muslim Sacralized Rape and Feminized Sweden."
And the ruling coalition (in Sweden) is now trying to abolish all religious schools – not because they worry about Jews or Lutherans educating their kids the way they want to, but because they know perfectly well that violent jihad is being taught in all the Wahhabi mosques and madrassas.
This is a sad outcome. There is nothing wrong with most religious schools.......again, the moslems, the moslems, the moslems..... ruin the party for everyone else.............
Russia, Hezbollah, Syria, Iran and Iranian proxies in Iraq have collectively murdered over 850,000 and created over 18 million refugees.
Wow, this is an amazing silver lining.
The cascade of Shiite and Russian proxy kinetic actions has been quite the amazing domino effect in the middle east.
Now some here will split hairs as to what is the middle east, to them? I could give a rotten apple too...
The cause and effect of Iranian hegemony, propped up with Russian assistance will cause tens of millions to hate russia, iran and their arab homelands for generation...
You can complain about the waste, the corruption, and the misallocations involved in our military programs; however, you still have to admire the ingenuity and inventiveness involved in our pursuit of destruction.
And they will lose. Maybe they can join their brother syrians in Germany.
After all there are ONLY a couple million palestinians, add that to the Iranian/Syrian refugee crisis of over 15 million and it's small potatoes. Syria and Iran (with Russian assistance ((silver lining)) are showing us how to have peace. Self motivated migration.
:)
Got to love it.
Israel doesn't have to throw anyone out.
All they have to do is let the palestinians declare war. Again, openly…
“I do not believe Sharia is consistent with the Constitution of this country.”
Dr. Ben Carson has it exactly right. The Constitution and sharia are not compatible.
All true muslims are dedicated to sharia.
They shouldn't even be in Congress. That asshole Keith Ellison is a perfect example. Swore religion wouldn't enter into it.....but now thick with CAIR, etc...took his oath on the koran....
Iran took samples for IAEA at suspect military site AFP By Arthur MacMillan with Simon Sturdee in Vienna
. Tehran (AFP) - Iran said Monday it independently collected samples at a suspect military site where illicit nuclear work is alleged to have occurred and later handed them to the UN's absent inspectors.
The disclosure that international monitors were not physically present is likely to feed critics of a nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, who have poured scorn on measures used to check if Tehran's atomic programme is peaceful.
In a mark of the high stakes at play it drew a quick reaction from the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency, whose chief insisted that "the integrity of the sampling process and the authenticity of the samples" was not compromised..............
TEL AVIV — Now that the Iran nuclear deal is a fait accompli, it has become a well-established belief that relations between America and Israel are at a low point. Most Israelis argue that this is mainly because of President Obama’s policies.
Opponents of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tend to point their finger at the Israeli prime minister. But the two camps agree on the way forward: the kind of relations the countries used to have must be restored, they say. The first step in this healing process is supposed to occur when Mr. Obama and Mr. Netanyahu meet in Washington in early November.
But Israel would be wiser to have realistic expectations, and make do with less. There is no substitute for America and American friendship, but Israel has developed an unhealthy overreliance on that friendship alone. This needs to change.
Relations between Jerusalem and Washington were not always wonderfully close. The Eisenhower years were icy. France was an ally in the 1950s, mostly because the United States was uninterested at that time. The Kennedy years were an improvement. The Ford, Carter and George H.W. Bush years were tense.
Every weekday, get thought-provoking commentary from Op-Ed columnists, The Times editorial board and contributing writers from around the world.
Yet with time, complete reliance on American support for Israel became a habit of sorts that merited little debate or consideration. It has been a cornerstone of Israel’s national security strategy — a deterrent against enemies. And the price for it has usually been tolerable. Prime Minister Menachem Begin had to contend with an ultimatum from Ronald Reagan to cease bombing Beirut. Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir had to agree to participate in the Madrid peace summit in which he had little interest.
The close relations have been highly beneficial for Israel — diplomatically, financially and psychologically. But it also made Israel somewhat lazy. When in need, or in trouble, the only address it had installed in its diplomatic navigation device was 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW. Israel didn’t invest enough in making other friends. Israel didn’t prepare for a crack in the alliance. Israel sinned twice: It smugly took American support for granted while meekly communicating to Washington that it neither seeks nor sees any alternative to America’s domination.
This process culminated under the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations, when terms such as “no daylight” became common. The interests of the two countries were usually compatible. And in the few cases they weren’t — for example, when Israel wanted to sell reconnaissance planes to China — the countries managed to resolve their differences and move on.
But that dramatically changed when Mr. Obama decided that it was in America’s best interest to sign a nuclear deal with Iran. Suddenly, for the first time after many years of a relatively comfortable, relatively effortless alliance, the countries found themselves at odds regarding an issue that is a major priority for both.
The Iran agreement is now a done deal. And the instinctive response is to pretend that things can go back to how they were before. Once the nuclear accord is implemented, Mr. Obama said a few weeks ago, he expects “pretty quick” improvements in American-Israeli relations. In Israel, members and opponents of Mr. Netanyahu’s coalition argue that restoring the relations with Washington is the most important next step.
But maybe Israel shouldn’t strive to bring relations back to their exact former state. This crisis is an opportunity to reduce our excessive reliance on Washington and think creatively about a way to achieve our goals even in the rare cases when they stand in contradiction to American policy.
Improving Israel’s ties with emerging powers, such as India, is key to advancing such a cause............
Hopefully with the election of a Republican President - any Republican - the insanity of the last eight years will settle back into something approaching more normal and rational.....
The phony intelligence reports were dubbed by insiders as The Rufus Intelligence Reports -
ALL GOOD09.20.159:00 PM ET
Exclusive: This Is the ISIS Intel the U.S. Military Dumbed Down
The intelligence pros said killing certain ISIS leaders might not diminish the group and that airstrikes might not be working. The bosses didn’t like those answers—not at all.
Senior intelligence officials at the U.S. military’s Central Command demanded significant alterations to analysts’ reports that questioned whether airstrikes against the so-called Islamic State widely known as ISIS were damaging the group’s finances and its ability to launch attacks. But reports that showed the group being weakened by the U.S.-led air campaign received comparatively little scrutiny, The Daily Beast has learned.
Senior CENTCOM intelligence officials who reviewed the critical reports sent them back to the analysts and ordered them to write new versions that included more footnotes and details to support their assessments, according to two officials familiar with a complaint levied by more than 50 analysts about intelligence manipulation by CENTCOM higher-ups.
In some cases, analysts were also urged to state that killing particular ISIS leaders and key officials would diminish the group and lead to its collapse. Many analysts, however, didn’t believe that simply taking out top ISIS leaders would have an enduring effect on overall operations.
“There was the reality on the ground but it was not as rosy as [the leadership] wanted it to be,” a defense official familiar with the complaint told The Daily Beast. “The challenge was assessing whether the glass was half empty, not half full.”
Some analysts have also complained that they felt “bullied” into reaching conclusions favored by their bosses, two separate sources familiar with analysts’ complaints said. The written and verbal pressure created a climate at CENTCOM in which analysts felt they had to self-censor some of their reports.
Some of the analysts have also accused their bosses of changing the reports in order to appeal to what they perceived as the Obama administration’s official line that the anti-ISIS campaign was making progress and would eventually end with the group’s destruction.
Lawmakers and even presidential candidates seized on the allegations of politicizing intelligence as the White House tried to distance itself from the very strategy it has been pursuing.
Army General Lloyd Austin came under withering bipartisan criticism on Wednesday when he testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee that after spending at least $43 million over a 10-month period, the U.S. had trained only nine fighters to confront ISIS in Syria.
Senators were dumbfounded that the nearly year-long effort had produced such paltry results, calling it “a joke” and “an abject failure.”......
A Palestinian man was killed on Monday night when a grenade intended to be used to harm Israeli soldiers near Hebron detonated prematurely according to reports by Ma'an News Agency.
The man was identified as Muhannad Mashraqa who by another Palestinian at the scene of the explosion.
Jihad Watch Exposing the role that Islamic jihad theology and ideology play in the modern global conflicts Islamic jihadists burn musician’s piano because music is un-Islamic
September 21, 2015 9:46 am By Robert Spencer 46 Comments
Hadith Qudsi 19:5: “The Prophet said that Allah commanded him to destroy all the musical instruments, idols, crosses and all the trappings of ignorance.” (The Hadith Qudsi, or holy Hadith, are those in which Muhammad transmits the words of Allah, although those words are not in the Qur’an.)
Muhammad also said:
(1) “Allah Mighty and Majestic sent me as a guidance and mercy to believers and commanded me to do away with musical instruments, flutes, strings, crucifixes, and the affair of the pre-Islamic period of ignorance.”
(2) “On the Day of Resurrection, Allah will pour molten lead into the ears of whoever sits listening to a songstress.”
(3) “Song makes hypocrisy grow in the heart as water does herbage.”
(4) “This community will experience the swallowing up of some people by the earth, metamorphosis of some into animals, and being rained upon with stones.” Someone asked, “When will this be, O Messenger of Allah?” and he said, “When songstresses and musical instruments appear and wine is held to be lawful.”
(5) “There will be peoples of my Community who will hold fornication, silk, wine, and musical instruments to be lawful ….” — ‘Umdat al-Salik r40.0
piano
“His piano burned, musician joins migrant tide,” by Rana Moussaoui, Agence France Presse, September 21, 2015 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):
BEIRUT: Three years of siege, famine and bombing of his Damascus refugee camp didn’t kill celebrated musician Aeham al-Ahmad, but something died inside him the day militants burned his beloved piano in front of his eyes. It was then that Ahmad, whose music had brought consolation, even a bit of joy, to Yarmouk camp’s beleaguered residents, decided to join thousands of others and seek refuge in Europe.
“They burned it in April, on my birthday. It was my most cherished possession,” Ahmad told AFP, which is following his odyssey online, step-by-step. “The piano wasn’t just an instrument. It was like the death of a friend.”
For 27-year-old Ahmad, whose songs of hope amid the rubble of Syria’s largest Palestinian camp became a social media sensation last year, “it was a very painful moment.”
Since Syria’s civil war struck Yarmouk in 2013, the once-thriving neighborhood saw its population dwindle from 150,000 Palestinians and Syrians to barely 18,000 people.
The camp was caught up in fighting among government forces, rebels, and extremists and suffered a devastating siege by the Syrian army. About 200 people died from malnutrition and a lack of medicines.
Ahmad became a symbol of hope, helping Yarmouk’s people – particularly its children – forget for a moment the brutal war raging around them with every note he played. “The days when I felt the most helpless were when I had money, but I could not get milk for my year-old baby Kinan, or when my older son Ahmad would ask me for a biscuit,” he said.
“It was the worst feeling.”
But after ISIS militants attacked the camp in April, Ahmad’s gentle, tentative ray of light was engulfed in flames. He was in a pickup truck, trying to move his piano to nearby Yalda, where his wife and two boys were living, when he was stopped at a militant checkpoint.
“Don’t you know that music is haram [forbidden by Islam],” a gunman asked, before torching his beloved instrument.
Ahmad had stayed in Yarmouk until the day ISIS reduced his battered but precious upright piano to ashes: “That’s when I decided to leave.”
He would make for Germany, from where he would then try to get his family out of Syria.
He began the dangerous journey out of Damascus “as rockets rained down,” heading north through the provinces of Homs, Hama, and Idlib until he reached the Turkish border.
“At every step, I would meet another trafficker of human flesh,” he recalled….
September 22, 2015 Ben Carson stands firm. What nerve! By Carol Brown
Ben Carson has done it now. First he had the temerity to say that Islam is in conflict with our Constitution. And now he won’t back down. Doesn’t he know Republicans are supposed to cave, cower, and crumble after standing for truth and that anyone, irrespective of their political leanings, must not criticize Islam?
How dare Ben Carson commit blasphemy. How dare he ignore the president’s warning that “the future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam!”
And now, adding faux insult to fake injury, Carson is “doubling down” on his remarks. In an interview with The Hill, Carson elaborated on his comments from earlier on Sunday.
I do not believe Sharia is consistent with the Constitution of this country. Muslims feel that their religion is very much a part of their public life and what you do as a public official, and that’s inconsistent with our principles and our Constitution.
The Hill reported that Carson stated he would make an exception if a Muslim running for office were to publically reject “all the tenets of Sharia and lived a life consistent with that.”
Carson also raised the issue of taqiyya (good for him!), stating: “taqiyya is a component of Shia that allows and even encourages you to lie to achieve your goals.” And while he noted that the question originally put to him may have been a “gotcha” question, it ultimately “served a useful purpose by providing the opportunity to talk about what Sharia is and what their goals are”..................
Of course if you publically reject sharia you are liable to be killed by some other muslim......so it almost sounds as if Ben is inviting them to commit suicide.....;)
September 22, 2015 What other taboo topics would you like Trump and Carson to bring out of the shadows? By Ed Straker
One of Donald Trump's greatest contributions to this campaign is that now we can talk about illegal immigration once again without being accused of being racists. The first time he did it, people held their breath to see if he would be destroyed in the polls, or if he would apologize or Scott Walkerize. He wasn't, and he didn't. Then suddenly it became okay for everyone to talk about the problem of illegal aliens.
Now Ben Carson has done the same thing with radical Islam. When asked point-blank if a Muslim should be president, he said no. And he didn't apologize. And he's still there. Now, I don't agree with such a blanket categorization, but I am grateful that Carson has made it possible to open a discussion about the problems in the Islamic community, particularly that terrorists and their supporters are a large subgroup in that religion and that there are too few leaders in vocal opposition to it. Previously, even most Republicans were loath to say the words "radical Islam." Now everyone is doing it. Candidates are for the first time questioning the merit of bringing more Muslims from radicalized countries into the U.S. I have never heard Republicans have such a discussion before. Have you?
That started me thinking. What other topics would you like Trump or Ben Carson to make it safe to talk about again? Here is my list:
1) The gay lifestyle, especially the gay male lifestyle, is medically extremely dangerous (regarding AIDS and hepatitis) and not something to promote to our kids in school.
2) Affirmative action is racism and should be attacked as such.
3) So-called "transgenderism" is a mental illness. These people need mental help, not enabling and preferences, and if these sick boys go into girl's bathrooms, they should be arrested and/or sent to mental hospitals.
4) Too many people are going to college. Many people have no need to go to college, and with large dropout rates at public schools and community colleges, the government shouldn't be subsidizing it.
5) Global warming believers are either cultists or people trying to get rich off of the backs of taxpayers. The debate is over – there has been no warming in 17 years.
6) The Endangered Species Act puts animals before people and has to go. People are more important than snails.
7) Rather than hating the rich, we owe a moral debt to people who pay more taxes than we do and should be grateful to them.
8) Women are not equally represented in all industries because they aren't as interested in working in certain industries as men are.
9) Recycling is totally unnecessary. Most of the Earth is completely empty. We have enough space for landfills for thousands of years.
10) If every high school graduate who spoke English carried a gun, the country would be a much safer and more polite place.
11) English is our national language, and there should be no excuse for government forms or ballots in any other language. If you're a citizen, you should speak it. If you don't, you shouldn't be a citizen.
12) The free market is the greatest engine for lifting up the poor, and rather than apologize for it, candidates should praise it. And rather than apologize for saying that 47% of people are on welfare, as Romney did, we should attack that statistic, saying it shows that something is fundamentally wrong with the system.
13) People should save their own money for retirement. Social Security should be limited to the poorest of the poor and the disabled.
14) Government never really "shuts down," and a government "shutdown" never significantly harms anyone. To the contrary, it is like a zero-based audit or a bankruptcy declaration that improves the system.
What would you like Trump or Carson to talk about next?
15) Defunding and closing the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.......a top priority for me....the Idaho Fish and Game Department is bad enough....(more pickup trucks than employees)
The Pope Forgets the Oppressed of Cuba The pontiff’s visit gave the Castros what they wanted. September 22, 2015 Daniel Greenfield 6
Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is a New York writer focusing on radical Islam.
In 1960, Cuban bishops declared that “Catholicism and Communism respond to two totally different concepts of man and the world which it will never be possible to conciliate.” Pope Francis however contends that Communism is really Christianity. “The Communists have stolen our flag,” he said.
The Cuban bishops condemned Communism as “a system which brutally denies the most fundamental rights of the human being.” Pope Francis’ criticisms of the Castro regime were limited to oblique references, a plea for religious freedom for Catholics and general criticisms that could apply to Cuba or any one of a number of other places. He failed to even reiterate his old criticisms of the regime.
Cuban dissidents were kept from meeting Pope Francis and even the “passing greeting” that had been planned was shut down when the Communist authorities detained political dissidents. When the protesters risked their freedom to get near him, they were arrested without receiving any acknowledgement from the pope. The Castros got their meetings and their publicity.
The oppressed, whom Pope Francis claimed to speak for during his visit and during his international travels, were left out in the cold. They were treated to another oblique reference, as Pope Francis expressed his desire to “embrace especially all those who for various reasons I will not be able to meet.”
“It simply doesn’t appear to us to be right or just that the pope doesn’t have a little time to meet with those Cubans who are defending human rights,” the head of the country’s largest dissident organization said.
Pope Francis spoke of Obama’s deal with Castro as a “process of normalizing relations between two peoples following years of estrangement.” But he knows quite well that it’s nothing of the kind. The Cuban people are not estranged from the Cuban refugees in America by a lack of diplomatic relations, but by the brutal suppression of political and religious freedom by the Castro regime.
The Obama deal doesn’t bring the “two peoples” together; it puts money in the pockets of a regime that Pope Francis had once called corrupt and authoritarian. It allows American leftists to tour Cuba for the trade in underage prostitutes that it has become notorious for. This isn’t reconciliation. It’s exploitation.
The clearest sign of what is behind the true “estrangement” in Cuba may be found in the 1960 declaration which contended that “The absolute majority of the Cuban people, who are Catholic... can only by deceit or coercion be led to a Communist regime.”
Today, the reverse is true as deceit and coercion have taken their toll.
The Cuban bishops had defied the Castro regime as a matter of conscience. And they paid the price. The Castro crackdown on the Catholic Church in the sixties has been largely ignored by a media that is eager to tell a very different story. But it appears to have been just as tragically forgotten by Pope Francis.
Francis might have remembered Bishop Eduardo Boza Masvidal who was arrested numerous times and whose church was bombed after urging Cubans to remember "all those who fight and suffer persecution under Communist regimes." And the pope might have remembered his words that Cuba's communist regime is "based on hate and class struggle instead of love... it is a terrible thing to teach a people to hate. It is one of the most unchristian things that can be done."
When Pope Francis attempts to make common cause with Marxists around class struggle, he is making common cause on hatred, rather than love, on divisive resentment rather than reconciliation. It is a plan that is not only doomed to fail, but is doomed to backfire, spreading more hatred rather than love.
As Che Guevara had urged, “Hatred is the central element of our struggle… Hatred that is intransigent…Hatred so violent that it propels a human being beyond his natural limitations, making him violent and cold- blooded killing machine… To establish socialism, rivers of blood must flow.”
This is the final terrible end of spreading class struggle. The hatred takes root and creates monsters.
He didn’t do it in 1960, but only a few years ago. Before the pope’s visit, he said, “I cannot overlook the suffering of my people, the injustices that I believe are avoidable. Dante said that the ninth circle of hell, the worst of all the circles, is reserved for those who in times of crisis crossed their arms and closed their mouths.”
Political change does not happen without political courage. And moral authority is not exercised by tolerating immorality. The moral authority of a totalitarian regime rests not on love, but on fear. Timidity in the face of tyranny upholds that moral authority of political terror. It gives in to fear.
Religion can give people the courage to defy that fear. It can show an oppressed people the paltry limitations of tyrants who rely on intimidation for their authority. It can endow that defiance with moral authority. It is a grave error to sacrifice that moral authority for the sake of reconciling with tyrants.
In 1960, the clergy of Cuba understood that there could be no common ground with Communism, that it had to be defied even if that defiance was doomed, because complicity with evil would corrupt them.
Few serve as better examples of that then Javier Arzuaga, the former left-wing priest who had supported Castro, only to flee shocked and horrified by the butchery.
“The day I left, Che told me we had both tried to bring one another to each other’s side and had failed. His last words were: ‘When we take our masks off, we will be enemies,’” Arzuaga recalled.
The Castros have their masks on again, but underneath is a totalitarian regime based on brutality and hate. Underneath their masks, they are the enemy. To aid them is to risk becoming complicit in their crimes.
If Pope Francis really wished to speak for the oppressed, there are eleven million of them in Cuba. They are not oppressed by capitalism or by global warming. They are oppressed by that fear, the paralyzing anguish that it brings and the apathy that comes with it. They needed weapons against that fear.
The pope’s visit gave the Castros what they wanted, but failed to give the Cuban people what they needed.
Fatah's military wing in Gaza claims 3.5 km tunnel into Israel is ready for next war
Published on Aug 18, 2015 Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades fighter: "There will be a qualitative change for the unit [named after] Martyrdom-seeker Nabil Mas’oud in the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, by using attack tunnels against the Zionist entity. We will now go through one of those tunnels to see what the Martyrs’ Brigades is preparing for this occupation (i.e., Israel)..." Iranian TV reporter: "Here is the first tunnel... When we met the Ribat [Islamic] fighters in this tunnel, they said that the weapons in their hands and their preparations for confrontation with the Israeli enemy are what give them reason to live." Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades fighter: "This tunnel is approximately 3.5 km long and crosses the border between the Gaza Strip and the Zionist enemy. There are tunnels inside [Gaza] through which Jihad fighters pass during war... We spend all our time trying to get money to fulfill our duty concerning our occupied lands and liberate them from the Zionist entity. This is why we are asking [for money]... especially [from] Iran, which is a known long-time supporter of the resistance and the Palestinian cause..." Iranian TV reporter: "The book of resistance is still open... and its last line will not be written until Palestine is liberated."
Notes: Ribat - religious conflict/war over land claimed to be Islamic
Nabil Mas'oud – a suicide terrorist from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades (Fatah's military wing) who, along with Mahmoud Salem from the Izz A-Din Al-Qassam Brigades (Hamas' military wing), carried out a double suicide attack at the Ashdod port on March 14, 2004, killing 10 people and wounding 13.
[Al-Alam TV (Iran) news report, posted on Wattan TV (independent Palestinian channel), June 29, 2015]
This will be the reason for the exodus of most of the arabs of the west bank to leave.
Get ready Europe more "migrants" are about to come...
Was talking with farmer Wayne about a month or so ago, and somehow the topic of the firebombings of Japan came up......one of his uncles had been on those raids......he said that as far as he could see, front, left, and right......nothing but fire......
For the attack on Tokyo, over 300 B-29’s were involved. They took off for a flight that would get them to Tokyo just before dawn, thus giving them the cover of darkness, but with daylight for the return journey to the Marianas. They flew at 7,000 feet. This in itself may have baffled the city’s defenders as they would have been used to the B-29’s flying at 30,000 feet.
The raid had a massive impact on Tokyo. Photo-reconnaissance showed that 16 square miles of the city had been destroyed. Sixteen major factories – ironically scheduled for a future daylight raid – were destroyed along with many cottage industries. In parts of the city, the fires joined up to create a firestorm. The fires burned so fiercely and they consumed so much oxygen, that people in the locality suffocated. It is thought that 100,000 people were killed in the raid and another 100,000 injured. The Americans lost 14 B-29’s; under the 5% rate of loss that was considered to be ‘acceptable’.
The Fire Raids on Japan
The fire raids on Japan started in 1945. The fire raids were ordered by General Curtis LeMay, who some see as the ‘Bomber Harris’ of the Pacific War, in response to the difficulty B-29 crews had in completing pinpoint strategic bombing over Japanese cities. LeMay, therefore, decided that blanket bombing raids on cities to undermine the morale of civilians were an appropriate response. After the attack on Pearl Harbour in December 1941 (referred to as “unprovoked and dastardly” by President Roosevelt), no-one was willing to speak out on behalf of the Japanese citizens.
Pope Francis Desecrates Memory of Catholic Martyrs in Cuba The Castro regime's reward for mass murder. September 22, 2015 Humberto Fontova 3 12
“Dear Mom and Dad,
I’ve just received the news that I’ll be executed by firing squad in the morning. I assure you, dear parents, that I’ve never felt such spiritual tranquility as I do now. I feel content knowing that very shortly I’ll be with God, waiting and praying for you, my parents. I realize this news is painful for you, but please have faith in the Eternal Life. I want you all to rise above this and know that God, in his infinite mercy, has given me the grace to reconcile with Him… Hugs and kisses, not tears, for everyone. Goodbye, my family. Have faith in God.
Long Live Christ the King!
-- Alberto Tapia
“Apunten!" ("Aim!") yelled the unnerved firing squad leader the following morning April 18, 1961 …
“Listos!" ("Ready!")
“-- Viva Cristo Rey!” ("Long love Christ the King!)" suddenly yelled Alberto Tapia shortly interrupting the murder process and greatly unnerving the murderers.
“Fuego!!!” ("Fire!") finally yelled the furious executioner.
A deafening blast and Soviet bullets ripped apart the head and torso of yet another young Cuban martyr. Albert Tapia was barely 21 years old, typical age for most of Castro and Che’s murder victims.
The defiant yells ("Viva Cristo Rey!" "Viva Cuba Libre!" "Abajo Comunismo!") from the bound and staked martyrs “would make the walls of La Cabana prison tremble!” wrote eyewitness to the slaughter, Armando Valladares, who suffered 22 torture-filled years in Castro’s prisons and was later appointed by Ronald Reagan as U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Human Rights Commission.
Given their valiant defiance even during their last seconds alive, by mid-1961 the mere binding and blindfolding of Castro and Che’s young murder victims wasn’t enough. The fine folks who hosted Pope Francis’ in Cuba this week then began ordering that the Catholic youths also be gagged. The shaken firing-squads demanded it. The yells were badly unnerving the trigger-pullers, you see.
As the fine folks who hosted Pope Francis in Cuba this week yanked the young Catholic heroes from their cells, bent their arms back, and bound their hands, two more Communist guards came into play. One grabbed the struggling victim’s hair and jerked his head back, trying to steady him. The other taped his mouth shut.
Raul Castro (who hosted the Pope at yesterday’s mass) and Che Guevara (whose visage formed the backdrop for the mass) were the most notorious executioners during the early years of the Cuban Revolution. The orders, of course, all issued from Fidel Castro, with whom Pope Francis went out of his way to visit and smilingly hob-nob after the mass.
“I am not Christ or a philanthropist,” wrote Che Guevara in a letter to his mother. “I am all the contrary of a Christ -- In fact, if Christ himself stood in my way, I, like Nietzsche, would not hesitate to squish him like a worm.”
As mentioned: an enormous image of Che Guevara formed the backdrop to Pope Francis’s mass in Havana yesterday.
Castro’s KGB and STASI-tutored regime prepared for the Pope’s visit carefully. Any unsightly protests would obviously mar the occasion, especially for a regime long-accustomed to preening in front of the international media mirror. So Cuban dissidents (especially Catholic ones) were rounded up, often brutally, as captured in this video.
"The facts and figures are irrefutable. No one will any longer be able to claim ignorance or uncertainty about the criminal nature of Communism," wrote the New York Times (no less!) about "The Black Book of Communism."
This study found that Castro and Guevara’s firing squads murdered upwards of 16,000 Cubans, the equivalent, given the U.S. population, of almost one million executions. Some more perspective: the UN (the same United Nations that proudly features Cuba on its Human Rights Council, by the way) charged former Serbian dictator Slodoban Milosevic with “genocide” for ordering 8000 executions.
And far from any of the repentance the Catholic Church supposedly requires for forgiveness, the Castro brothers have always doubled- and even tripled-down on their gloating for those thousands of murders, historically denouncing the young victims as “CIA mercenaries” and “terrorists.”
None of this has prevented the Castro regime from receiving the most papal visits recently of any Latin America nation, equaling the number of papal visits to Brazil, with a population of 200 million, 130 million of them declared Catholics. In contrast, Cuba has a population of 11 million, only a tiny fraction of which are practicing Catholics. Someone’s got some serious “‘splainin'” to do for this papal fetish of constantly visiting Stalinist Cuba and chumming around with her Stalinist rulers.
Interestingly, more Popes (three) have recently visited Cuba -- a nation with many more crypto-voodooists than Catholics -- than have visited Mexico (with 97 million Catholics). Hello? And as Joan Rivers used to ask: “Can we talk?” (about this glaring and –for many—disgusting incongruity.)
For many of us, the Papal motivation for visiting Cuba seems no different from Beyonce’s, Conan O’Brien’s, Jack Nicholson’s, Oliver Stone’s, Sean Penn’s, etc. The Popes get plenty of press and get to poke Uncle Sam in the eye. In this respect, they seem no different from all those loud-mouthed, Castro-hugging celebrity popinjays.
Saudi Arabia and its coalition partners are preparing for a major offensive to take Yemen's capital from the Zaydi Houthi rebels this fall. If the battle becomes a house-to-house urban clash, it will have disastrous humanitarian consequences.
If a cease-fire is not arranged, the battle for Sanaa will turn into a humanitarian disaster. Author Bruce Riedel Posted September 21, 2015
The Saudis are massing forces at two locations for the assault on Sanaa. To the east of the capital, coalition forces are preparing to attack in Marib province. According to press reports, 4,000 troops from the United Arab Emirates, another 1,000 from Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, and an unknown number of Yemeni loyalists are assembled for this offensive. Furthermore, south coalition forces in Taiz are preparing another move on Sanaa. Saudi and Emirati troops and Yemeni loyalists are reinforcing this axis as well.
The United Nations’ efforts to arrange a cease-fire this month were stymied by Yemen President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi’s refusal to attend peace talks in Oman unless the Houthis and their ally, former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, withdraw their forces from Sanaa and other cities first and accept UN Security Council Resolution 2216. Hadi remains in Riyadh, although some of his Cabinet members have moved to Aden where the situation remains unstable. A Saudi bombing attack damaged the residence of the Omani ambassador in Sanaa this weekend, sparking a sharp protest from Muscat.
The Saudi military successes in Aden and other fronts so far have been in Sunni inhabited parts of Yemen. Now they are moving into predominantly Zaydi Shiite areas. Sanaa itself is a city of 2 million people. Both the terrain and the local conditions will become more difficult for the coalition forces as the war moves toward Sanaa.
The Yemeni civilian population is already suffering from the effects of months of bombing by the Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF) and its allies, the blockade of key ports like Al-Hudaydah, and shortages of food, clean water and medical supplies. Some Yemenis have even fled across the Bab al-Mandab Strait to comparative safety in Somalia and Djibouti.
Inside the Kingdom, the young Minister of Defense Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the king’s favorite son, remains the face of the war and its most prominent advocate. He engineered the removal of a key supporter of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, Minister of State Saad bin Khalid Al-Jabri, from the Cabinet earlier this month, fueling speculation that Mohammed bin Salman's ambition is to succeed his father. Victory in Yemen is probably critical to those ambitions.
Washington and London, the main arms suppliers to the Kingdom, have significant capacity to influence Saudi policy. The United States has sold the kingdom more than $90 billion in weapons since 2010, according to congressional reports. Since the beginning of the Saudi war in Yemen, the United States has provided crucial logistic and intelligence support, including the establishment of a joint US-Saudi planning cell. The administration has publicly urged Riyadh to open the blockade of Yemen's Red Sea ports and allow humanitarian aid to get into the country, but there is no sign Washington has used its arms leverage. President Barack Obama promised King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud additional security assistance in their meeting this month. Like the United States, the British government has continued to provide a steady stream of spare parts, munitions and other equipment to the RSAF.
For their part, the Houthis have accused Washington of collusion in the war. Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi has said, "The Americans determine targeting of every child, residential compound, house, home, shop, market or mosque targeted [in the war] … Therefore, the Saudi regime is a soldier and servant of the Americans.” Some kind of retaliation against American targets is probably only a matter of time.
The battle of Sanaa could lead to scenes as terrible as those we've seen in Damascus and Aleppo these past few years. It is time for all the parties to accept a cease-fire, open Yemen's ports and airports to humanitarian cargo and begin a political dialogue. Obama needs to use the leverage he has to avert catastrophe.
The Best Military Campaign Of My Lifetime Files aka The Rufus Files
Declassified Obama's Islamic State War Czar Stepping Down 14 Sept 22, 2015 12:10 PM EDT By Josh Rogin & Eli Lake
President Barack Obama is about to lose the man he hand-picked to build the war effort against the Islamic State. Retired General John Allen will be stepping down as envoy to the global coalition this fall, and the White House is searching for a replacement to be the face of America’s flailing effort to destroy the jihadist group in Syria and Iraq.
Allen will leave government service in the coming weeks, four administration officials told us. State Department officials said they were not ready to officially announce Allen’s departure, but he has notified his superiors he will give up his job in early November, after serving just over one year. His chief of staff, Karin von Hippel, will also depart, to join a British think tank.
The timing of Allen’s departure could not be worse for the Obama administration. The incoming Marine Corps Commandant, Lieutenant General Robert Neller, testified last month that the war is at a “stalemate.” Last week, the head of the U.S. Central Command, General Lloyd Austin, testified that of the 54 Syrian rebels trained and equipped by the U.S. military, only “4 or 5” were still in the fight. And now the Pentagon is investigating allegations by dozens of intelligence analysts that their reporting on the progress in the war effort was altered before being given to top officials.
U.S. officials familiar with Allen's decision say he has been frustrated with White House micromanagement of the war and its failure to provide adequate resources to the fight. He unsuccessfully tried to convince the administration to allow U.S. tactical air control teams to deploy on the ground to help pick targets for air strikes in Iraq. Allen also tried several times to convince the White House to agree to Turkish demands for a civilian protection zone in Syria, to no avail. Nonetheless, administration officials stress that Allen's decision to leave his post was motivated mainly by the health of his wife, who suffers from an auto-immune disorder.
"John Allen has put his heart and soul into trying to make the president's strategy work,” said Derek Harvey, a former senior U.S. military intelligence official who worked with Allen at U.S. Central Command. “I have sympathy for the hard task he was given because I do not believe the president's team was fully on board and he was never empowered to bring the leadership necessary to achieve the mission."
While Allen was working inside the administration, the White House could rely on him to push back against many others in the U.S. national security establishment who argued that Obama was not fully committed to his strategy to degrade and defeat the Islamic State. Earlier this month, he told ABC News that there had been many successes in the war, and he focused on setbacks for the terror group in Tikrit, Iraq, and Kobane, Syria.
“Where we were a year ago today, I wasn't sure how it was going to unfold," Allen said. "It was not clear to me even that Iraq would survive this. In the intervening months, we've seen remarkable progress in many respects.”
Allen was successful in negotiating the deal whereby Turkey is now allowing the U.S. to use the Incirlik Air Base for air operations in Syria. But the broader campaign against the Islamic State has been stymied. The Turks recently launched an offensive not against the jihadists but against Kurdish separatists, who have been important allies to the U.S. on the ground. As Islamic State forces have expanded and consolidated territory in Syria, they have managed to keep control of Iraq's second-largest city, Mosul, and expand into Ramadi, the heart of the 2007-08 Sunni-led rebellion against al-Qaeda in Iraq, the predecessor organization to the Islamic State.
"Some elements of the right strategy are in place, but several are under-resourced while others are missing," David Petraeus, the former general and Central Intelligence Agency director, testified Tuesday before the Senate Armed Services Committee. "We are not where we should be at this point."
When Allen was named to his post in September 2014, he initially planned on staying for six months. He agreed to stay on for another six at the request of Secretary of State John Kerry earlier this year. In the short term, his responsibilities are expected to be passed on to his deputy, Ambassador Brett McGurk. But the White House eventually wants to find a big-name replacement for Allen, who as a four-star Marine Corps general led the international force in Afghanistan from 2011 to 2013.
Finding someone to take the job won’t be easy. Just before he became Obama’s lead official in the fight against the Islamic State, Allen wrote an op-ed article in which he called the group a “clear and present danger to the U.S.” and said it “must be destroyed” quickly, using capabilities and power only the U.S. can bring to bear. Just over one year later, the president has yet to commit to a real plan to “degrade and destroy” the Islamic State, as he has repeatedly said is his goal. Until that changes, Allen’s replacement will face the same roadblocks that he did, and the war against the Islamic State will continue to flounder.
Whether you count yourself a fan of President Barack Obama's Middle East policies or a foe, one thing should be stunningly obvious by now: A good part of the president's foreign policy travails in this region stem from a pattern of needlessly high-flying rhetoric. Indeed, time after time again, Obama has gratuitously and unnecessarily raised expectations and then failed to deliver on them...
------------------------------------
Israel-Palestine
"Assad must Go" and Syria Red-Lines
Libya
Defeating ISIS
Iran Agreement
-----------------------------------------
All administrations promise more than they can deliver. Just look at Obama's predecessor when it came to Iraq. What is odd is that this president deemed himself a realist, not a transformer, when it comes to the Middle East; and yet he seems to fall into the expectations gap so frequently.
When you do not or will not act, words become substitutes for deeds. Part of the problem may be that the administration sees the world the way it wants it to be, not the way it really is. Perhaps part of the issue is a desire to deflect pressure by the use of bold words. Whatever the explanation, to have credibility in foreign policy you must say what you mean, and mean what you say. Sadly, far too many times, the Obama administration has done exactly the opposite.
PAPER: Pentagon-trained 'rebels' betray USA, hand weapons to al-Qaeda........Drudge
...........................................
Hillary the Witch has, after months and months of close calculating, decided that there are a few more votes to be gotten by opposing the Keystone Pipeline than by supporting it.
She announced her opposition today.....
The Labor Unions seem pissed, but they don't have the votes....
Chinese Uyghur terrorists establishing base in Syria
A new article reported that 3,500 Uyghurs are settling in a village near Jisr-al Shagour that was just taken from Assad, close to the stronghold of Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP) that is in the Turkey-backed Army of Conquest. They are allegedly under the supervision of Turkish intelligence that has been accused of supplying fake passports to recruit Chinese Uyghurs to wage jihad in Syria.
The news comes on the heels of TIP capturing a Syrian airbase and acquiring MIG fighter jets as well as other advanced weaponry, similar to ISIS capturing Iraqi army’s advanced US weaponry.
It also comes on the heels of the Bangkok bombing at the shrine frequented by Chinese tourists, with Thai authorities now drawing a link to Uyghurs “and the same gang that attacked the Thai Consulate in Turkey” in reference to Turkey’s Grey Wolves.
This seems to corroborate IHS Jane’s analyst Anthony Davis’s assessment that Grey Wolves are the likely culprit, given their anti-Chinese protests and violent demonstration back in July.
Through Turkey’s support for the Army of Conquest, TIP has risen to prominence within the anti-Assad coalition and played a key role in defeating the Syrian army at Jisr al Shughour earlier this year.
The most prominent TIP fighter to emerge from the Jisr al Shughur videos was the spokesman for TIP’s “Syria branch” since 2014, Abu Ridha al-Turkistani. In the videos he led fighters to take over a building, and climbed a clock tower to plant a black-and-white Jabhat al Nusra style flag on which “Turkistan Islamic Party” was written in Arabic.
These Uyghur militants have claimed a series of high-profile terrorists attacks in China in 2013 and 2014, with some Uyghurs calling for an intifada against the Chinese communist regime.
Now that TIP has established a base in Syria and is expanding its presence and recruitment courtesy of its Turkish sponsors, China will have to follow through with its 2013 recommendation “Take fight to ETIM before threat grows” and deploy troops to Syria...
Ben Carson: Big Bang A Fairy Tale, Theory Of Evolution Encouraged By The Devil
“I personally believe that this theory that Darwin came up with was something that was encouraged by the adversary, and it has become what is scientifically, politically correct.”
I certainly hope Drinkin' Joe Biden the Plagiarist gets into the race.......talk about a clown car......
Look at these old worn out clowns.....Hillary, Joe, and Bernie.....ha,ha,ha......not a drop of new blood among the three of them.....
The only guy worth a shit is Jim Webb, and he's a 2%......
Did you notice how Hillary artfully slipped her opposition to the Keystone Pipeline in as quietly as possible when all the news coverage is about the Pope ?
The Old Hag does know some tricks.....too many in fact......
September 22, 2015 Partisan probabilities on Democrats and Israel By Surak
During the past year, there has been much insistent rhetoric from the Democratic Party that support for Israel is "bipartisan." To question such dogma puts one in the realm of the climate catastrophe denier – that is, a person who is such an extremist that facts matter more than theory.
I decided to test the bipartisanship hypothesis (BH) using statistical techniques.............
Advanced statistical software is capable of analyzing the vote counts in the 12 bar graphs above. If the bipartisanship hypothesis is true, we can calculate the probability of observing data like that shown above. It turns out that:
In each of the 12 events depicted above, the odds of a Republican supporting Israel are between 5 and 12,459 times the odds of a Democrat supporting Israel. It would be more likely that a fair coin will come up tails 2,010 times in a row than it would be to see the observed data, if the BH were true. The odds against seeing the observed data, if BH were true, would be about 200,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 to 1..................
...................Given the evidence, it breaks the bonds of credulity to believe that support of Israel is really bipartisan. Recall Debbie Wasserman-Schultz's denial to a reporter that Israel was booed three times during the 2012 Democrat National Convention, shortly after the incident was broadcast on national television. Credulity-straining appears to come naturally to leftists.
Indeed, there is an a priori argument to explain why the Democratic Party is the natural home for American anti-Semitism. But that lengthy argument is a subject for another day.
Indeed, we have a President who is a 'democrat' who is an anti-semite of the first order, and a crazy assed very confused muslim loving community organizing turd....
"The future must not belong to those who slander Islam"
Well long live killing, raping, slaying, stoning, crucifying, stabbing, stealing, burning, exploding, terrorizing then, eh, Mr. President ?
Suicide bomber bursts into tears and is comforted by jihadis before fatal attack in Syria
10:27, 23 Sep 2015 Updated 12:39, 23 Sep 2015 By Sam Webb
The frightened fighter, named as an Jafar al-Tayyar, from Uzbekistan, is seen being comforted by his fellow militants moments before he launches his deadly attack
Tears of young suicide bomber sent to die in Syria Video loading
A jihadist suicide bomber was filmed breaking down in tears before being sent to his death in war-torn Syria.
The frightened fighter, named as an Jafar al-Tayyar, from Uzbekistan, is seen being comforted by his fellow militants moments before he launches his deadly attack on Shi'ite town of Fua in Idlib Province - an Assad regime stronghold.
After he climbs into the explosives-packed armoured personnel carrier, the young man starts sobbing.
An fellow militant says: "Jafar, my brother, don't be afraid. When you are scared, remember Allah," the militant says.
Read more: ISIS terrorists quit because they're not getting the luxury cars and women they were promised
Ahh...the aroma of roasted toasted Hillary in the morning ...
September 23, 2015 New poll reveals yet another disaster for Hillary By Thomas Lifson
A Bloomberg poll released this morning shows that only a third of Democrats and leaning-Democrat voters support Hillary, and even more startling, undeclared potential-but-unsure candidate Joe Biden is supported by a quarter of the same sample.
Margaret Talev and Arit John write:
The findings of a national Bloomberg Politics poll released Wednesday represent a notable achievement for an as-yet undeclared candidate, suggest concerns about Hillary Clinton's candidacy, and raise the prospect of a competitive three-way race for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Clinton, once the prohibitive front-runner, is now the top choice of 33 percent of registered Democrats and those who lean Democrat, the poll shows. Biden places second with 25 percent and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is at 24 percent. The other three Democratic candidates combined are the top choice for less than 4 percent of that base.
The trend is most definitely not Hillary’s friend:
Adding to the good news for the vice president: His favorability ratings are on the rise. Since the last Bloomberg poll in April, Clinton's favorability ratings have dropped 10 points, from 48 percent to 38 percent. Biden's 49 percent favorable score represents a 3-point uptick. He was the only one of a dozen national political figures and entities whose approval rating improved over the summer.
This means that two thirds of the Democrats’ base is not declaring themselves supporters of the “inevitable” candidate, and half support rivals, including one who is not certain to run.
With bad news almost certainly on the way, Hillary is taking on water and listing to the side. It is panic time I her camp, and for the Democrat establishment. As with the GOP, the base is way ahead of the party elites in recognizing trouble.
....................................
September 23, 2015 FBI leaks that it has recovered deleted 'private' emails on Hillary's server By Thomas Lifson
Just hours after being attacked by Senator Grassley for “rebuffing a judge's request for information on the law enforcement agency's investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's private email system,” Bloomberg mysteriously was leaked information that:
The FBI has recovered personal and work-related e-mails from the private computer server used by Hillary Clinton during her time as secretary of state, according to a person familiar with the investigation.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s success at salvaging personal e-mails that Clinton said had been deleted raises the possibility that the Democratic presidential candidate’s correspondence eventually could become public.
I read this as the FBI signaling Senator Grassley and others who may doubt the agency’s enthusiasm in investigating a potential future president (and spouse of a past president) that it is vigorously pursuing the investigation and that it will be yielding fruit. This may well be part of what prompted the State Department to seemingly throw Hillary under the bus.
The noose is tightening. And the number of friends sticking with Hillary diminishes by the day.
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2015/09/fbi_leaks_that_it_has_recovered_deleted_private_emails_on_hillarys_server.html#ixzz3mZQ8kzJe Follow us: @AmericanThinker on Twitter | AmericanThinker on Facebook
It is incredible that anyone at Volkswagen thought the company could get away with it. Did the engineers and executives who came up with that bit of cheating software ever consider the enormous risk they were taking? Did they really think it was worth the inestimable damage to their customers, to the environment, to their shareholders and to their venerable brand to squeeze a bit of illicit power out of their engines?
Yet that’s exactly what they did, according to an announcement by the Environmental Protection Agency on Friday. VW’s share prices promptly plummeted 19 percent; the company now faces billions in fines, costly recalls, possible class-action lawsuits and criminal charges, investigations into its global practices and tremendous blows to sales, to the VW brand and to Germany’s vaunted auto industry.
A most excellent development, to be sure. The Russians are happy, the Iranians are happy, Assad is happy, we should be happy too.....
ReplyDeleteVandals 1st and goal.......
Inside the 5......
Score !! Touchdown Idaho !!!
Idaho back in front.......Idaho 34 Wofford 31
Couple minutes to go.....
That took the bark out of them Terriers.....
DeleteWofford down to their 27 yard line on 3rd and three......
DeleteO hell, I thought we were in the fourth quarter, the third quarter has just ended......
Game is still totally up for grabs then.....
Wofford scores again.....Wofford 37 Idaho 34
DeleteMy cousin and her husband flew to the USC game in LA last weekend. Used Uber for local transport. Said it worked well.....
They are REAL Vandals.....
Final:
ReplyDeleteIdaho 41
Wofford 38
Go Vandals !!!
If radical Islam is the enemy, the Russians are doing a good thing.
ReplyDeleteThe greatest enemy of radical Islam, the Muslim Brotherhood in the Middle East is the current regime in Damascus, and, of course the previous regime, there.
Th Assad's have done more to keep the radicals in line and under control than all the efforts emanating from DC.
The reality is the Alawites are not Muslims, but a Christian sect.
Daniel Pipes tells the tale
http://www.danielpipes.org/191/the-alawi-capture-of-power-in-syria
Some 'Alawi doctrines appear to derive from Phoenician paganism, Mazdakism and Manicheanism. But by far the greatest affinity is with Christianity. 'Alawi religious ceremonies involve bread and wine; indeed, wine drinking has a sacred role in 'Alawism, for it represents God. ...
...
For these reasons, many observers - missionaries especially - have suspected the 'Alawis of a secret Christian proclivity. Even T. E. Lawrence described them as "those disciples of a cult of fertility, sheer pagan, antiforeign, distrustful of Islam, drawn at moments to Christianity by common persecution." The Jesuit scholar Henri Lammens unequivocally but gullibly concluded from his research that "the Nusayris were Christians" and their practices combine Christian with Shi'i elements.
But then the US is not as supportive of Christians in the Middle East as the Russians, nor is the US as dead set against the advance of the Islamic radicals around the world, as are the Russians.
It has been the Russians, not the US, that supplied the Iraqi with aircraft capable of providing close air support to the Iraqi Army.
Deuce, I might be reading this all wrong, but my first instinct was, This Sounds Hopeful.
ReplyDeleteI think it is a very good thing on many different levels.
ReplyDelete* The Russians need a win for domestic reasons
* Isis has to be destroyed
* Iran has to be integrated into regional stability
* Normalcy has to be reestablished for millions of people whose lives have been wrecked by the Neocons
* The human resources available in the Middle East are extraordinary
* Religious fanaticism has been discredited - now is the time to choke the life out of it
* US democracy and freedoms have been severely eroded by the Neocons and the monstrous security state and the most un-American construct called The Homeland
* Europe is not going to tolerate the chaos caused by the refugee crisis caused by unnecessary US wars - Nato will be destroyed
This is a good thing as long as we keep all the usual suspects form the GOP Likuds force and the Likud agents in the US government and media at bay till we get it straightened out.
LoL. Iran and Syria with Russia and Hezbollah will murder a million if not more before this is over. That makes u happy
DeleteNothing has discredited the US politically and weakened the US militarily so much as the Neocon putsch. To a person they deserve to be tried for treason, high crimes and misdemeanors. They are hostile to US interests and transparently interested and totally dedicated to a minor foreign state of no value to US interests.
ReplyDeleteNO SURPRISE HERE:
ReplyDeleteWaco police bullets hit bikers in Twin Peaks melee
Emily Schmall, Associated Press Updated 12:14 pm, Friday, September 18, 201
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Evidence reviewed by The Associated Press confirms that police bullets hit bikers in the deadly shootout involving two rival motorcycle clubs that clashed last spring outside a Waco restaurant, though it isn't clear whether those rifle shots caused any of the nine fatalities.
The AP reviewed more than 8,800 pages of evidence, including police reports, dash-cam video, photos and audio interviews related to the May 17 confrontation. The evidence offers the best insight yet into how the shootout unfolded. Four months later, authorities have released little information about what sparked the fight or how the gunfire played out, and no one has been charged with any of the deaths.
The evidence, which is expected to be presented to a grand jury, includes video footage of people fleeing the scene while shots ring out, audio of police threatening to shoot people if they rise from the ground and photos of bodies lying in pools of blood in the restaurant parking lot.
The gunfire erupted shortly before a meeting of a coalition of motorcycle clubs that advocates rider safety. At least 20 people were treated for gunshot and other wounds.
Many witnesses, including bikers involved in the brawl and waitresses at the Twin Peaks restaurant, told police that the shooting began after a Bandido rider hit a prospective member of the Cossacks with his motorcycle, according to the evidence. A fistfight ensued, followed by several minutes of shooting.
Waco Police Chief Brent Stroman said in June that three officers fired a total of 12 shots, but police have not said whether the bullets struck anyone, fatally or otherwise.
Officer George Vrail was assigned to a special detail to cover the meeting and wrote in a 724-page incident report that he saw two officers during the shootout who "had multiple suspects down on the ground. (An officer) informed me they were engaged by gunfire as they exited their marked police unit. (The officer) said they both returned fire and struck multiple suspects with their patrol rifles."
In his portion of the incident report, officer Keith Vaughn wrote that another officer spotted a man shooting into the crowd and told Vaughn that he fired one round "to stop the individual from shooting anyone else."
Waco police spokesman Patrick Swanton declined to comment on the evidence the AP reviewed, citing a gag order in the criminal case of one of the bikers.
According to the incident report, a separate Waco police investigation into the police shootings is underway. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is conducting ballistics analyses. ATF spokeswoman Nicole Strong declined to comment.
.
ReplyDeleteThe war in Yemen continues though no one bothers to speak of it. All sides have blood on their hands but the Saudis deserve a special call out.
The bulk of the blame for Yemen's current suffering, however, falls squarely on the coalition forces [read Saudi], and on the often shambolic and indifferent war they continue to wage from far away and well above. The New York Times reports:
"Errant coalition strikes have ripped through markets, apartment buildings and refugee camps. Other bombs have fallen so far from any military target ... that human rights groups say such airstrikes amount to war crimes. More than a thousand civilians are believed to have died in the strikes, the toll rising steadily with little international notice or outrage."
http://www.realclearworld.com/articles/2015/09/18/why_yemen_suffers.html
.
.
ReplyDeleteDem Crafty Krauts
US regulators have charged Volkswagen with manufacturing vehicles designed to evade government pollution controls, and said the German auto giant should urgently fix nearly 500,000 cars.
Volkswagen could face an $18bn penalty over the software made to meet clean-air standards during official emissions testing but which would intentionally turn off during normal operations, US and California regulators said.
.
.
DeleteYes, you heard it rght...
Volkswagen could face $18bn fine over secret device that 'intentionally cut emissions' - but only when cars were being tested
.
HOW VERY INTERESTING - THE INDEPENDENT HEADLINE:
ReplyDeleteJohn Kerry admits US WAS disturbed by build up of Russian military in Syria
John Kerry, the US Secretary of State, has admitted that his country was “disturbed” by Russia’s military build-up in Syria. The movement of Russian fighter jets and other weaponry, including ground-to-air missiles, to Syria could pose a threat to American and allied military forces, he said.
US officials say Russia moved a small number of fighter jets to a base in Syria on Friday, hours after the US Defense Secretary, Ashton Carter, talked with Russia’s defence minister, Sergei Shoygu, in the first military contacts between the two countries in some time.
“Clearly, the presence of aircraft with air-to-air combat capacity ... and surface-to-air missiles raises serious questions,” Mr Kerry said.
The Russians have deployed at least one such system, according to US military analysts who have been scrutinising satellite pictures of the Russian military build-up at a base in the Syrian city of Latakia. Russia says the military build-up will be directed at jihadist groups in the country, which has been torn apart by a civil war between the government regime and rebel groups, which is in its fifth year.
IT CONTINUES
DeleteRussia has been one of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s strongest allies, and used its veto power four times at the UN Security Council to prevent international sanctions on Syria, with Western nations having been adamant Mr Assad should be removed, until the rise of the so-called Islamic State (Isis) in Syria and Iraq appeared to become the more pressing issue.
Mr Kerry’s comments came after meeting British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond yesterday. Russia’s apparent new focus on fighting Isis militants could be an fresh opportunity to achieve a new political settlement. The US and Britain “agreed completely” on the urgent need to end this war. “We’re prepared to negotiate,” Mr Kerry added. “Is Assad prepared to negotiate, really negotiate? Is Russia prepared to bring him to the table?”
Military-to-military talks taking place between Washington and Moscow are designed to make sure there are no incidents between Russian and US forces, Mr Kerry said.
Experts say the discussions also amount to a tacit acceptance of Russia’s military build-up after weeks of warnings from Washington against any Russian escalation in Syria.
In another apparent concession, Mr Kerry signalled the US could live with Mr Assad remaining in place for an unspecified time. “We’re not being doctrinaire about the specific date or time – we’re open,” Mr Kerry said, adding that President Assad doesn’t have to leave “on day one, or month one”.
He accused Moscow of a lack of logic by arguing they were bringing in equipment to shore up the Syrian President against Islamic groups without acknowledging that his continued presence at the head of a detested regime acted as a “magnet” for foreign fighters filling Isis ranks.
DeleteMr Hammond said Russian involvement had made the situation more complicated but added that Britain and the US were “completely aligned” on the need for President Assad to go – but the timing and the means needed more discussion.
Experts yesterday questioned the West’s Syrian policy.
Chris Doyle, director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding, said: “It’s really quite difficult to describe the West’s policy towards Syria as coherent. The sacred mantra of Philip Hammond and John Kerry is that Assad must go but it’s not exactly clear how they will do this. The bombing of Isis by the US and its allies has been an embarrassing failure evidenced by its inability to stop the occupation of Palmyra.
“There are no simple answers. We will have to see if the Russians can be persuaded to encourage Assad to go or occupy some symbolic role, but their red line will surely be his replacement with a government that remains sympathetic to Moscow. As for Britain joining the coalition to bomb targets in Syria, well, it’s not going to be a game-changer.”
Mr Hammond stressed yesterday that the Government was clear that if it believed Syrian airstrikes were necessary it would go back to Parliament.
Sir Tony Brenton, former UK ambassador in Moscow, said: “Russia’s central concern is Islamic terror. They loathe Isis and they have taken a pretty hard-headed view about Syria. We in the West have been pretending there is an alternative between IS and Assad despite there being no evidence of that. In fact this week a senior US official went before Congress and admitted that of the 50 moderates only five of them are in the battle.
Delete“Russia has seen there is no alternative so they will back Assad. They know if faced with the choice of Assad or [Isis], the West would make the same choice. They have been trying to persuade us to do the same for some time. Ash Carter picking up the phone to call his counterpart in Russia was a confession that Russia had been right. You will not find Mr Hammond or Mr Kerry admitting that publicly.”
Russian involvement could bring lots of benefits he said: “They know the region, they will bring lots of intelligence.”
The civil war is estimated to have killed more than 200,000 Syrians since the conflict began in 2011. The fighting has forced more than four million people to flee to neighbouring countries while others have been displaced internally .
Elsewhere, a Syrian rebel group has claimed to have fired rockets at the base in Latakia. In a video posted on Friday, a group calling itself the Islam Army warned the Russians that they will not enjoy peace in Syria.
THE BOTTOM LINE OF WHO OR WHAT IS AN ALLY
DeleteAn ally is an agent who faces a common enemy with you and takes the steps to coordinate efforts to attain a mutual goal or interest. It has nothing to do with sentiment and everything to do with pragmatic realism.
An ally can be a former adversary. Russia was an ally who became an adversary and then an ally and then not and now may become one again over Syria.
Iran has had several entrance and exits onto and off the “ally stage” with the US. I predict Iran will become a US ally.
Israel has never been a US ally because Israel has never done anything with or for the US to promote peace in the region. There is an Orwellian nature to our duplicitous politicians or the Israeli-firsters calling Israel an ally. Israel has mostly done the exact opposite. Israel is a monotheistic belligerent antagonist to all her neighbors and has purposely used he US Neocon agents to promote Israeli interests cloaked in the monstrous lie that US and Israel share common this and common that. It is nonsense, propaganda and a dangerous game of the three card monte street hustle.
The dramatic pricing surge has been driven by a combination of two significant legal changes: the 2014 Supreme Court McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission decision that did away with a cap on how much a political donor could give in an election cycle, and an expansion of party fundraising tucked into an appropriations bill last December.
DeleteUS ELECTION SCAM - Your vote don’t mean shit.
ReplyDeleteThe national political parties are urging wealthy backers to give them 10 times more money than was allowed in the last presidential election, taking advantage of looser restrictions to pursue million-dollar donors with zeal.
Under the new plans, which have not been disclosed publicly, the top donation tier for the Republican National Committee has soared to $1.34 million per couple this election cycle. Democratic contributors, meanwhile, are being hit up for even more — about $1.6 million per couple — to support the party’s convention and a separate joint fundraising effort between the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign.
In return, elite donors are being promised perks such as exclusive retreats with top party leaders, VIP treatment at the nominating conventions and special dinners organized by contribution rank at this month’s RNC finance committee gala.
The new donor packages mark the latest major erosion of campaign finance limits and are reminiscent of the 1990s, when the parties were flush with huge “soft money” contributions from rich backers and corporations. The new push also further elevates the uber-wealthy at a time when independent big-money groups known as super PACs are dominating the 2016 presidential race.
“This makes the parties more indebted to a handful of very large donors giving beyond the means — or even the imagination — of most Americans,” said Trevor Potter, a GOP election-law lawyer who favors stricter campaign finance rules.
Only a rarefied group can play at the parties’ new top levels.
DeleteYOU HAVE TO READ THIS PART:
The RNC is pitching its Presidential Trust program, chaired by Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, as a way for “the most elite RNC investors” to help build infrastructure for the general election, according to a description obtained by The Washington Post. Couples who give $1.34 million this cycle will get to “influence messaging and strategy” through exclusive GOP leadership dinners and quarterly retreats, among other events.
[Party fundraising provision, crafted in secret, could shift money flow]
An invitation to the upcoming RNC finance committee fall retreat and gala at Washington’s Mayflower Hotel notes that donors will be assigned to separate “club dinners” at local restaurants depending on their level of giving.
The RNC, which set up the new fundraising levels at the beginning of the year, is already reaping the benefits. The party has pulled in more than $71 million through the end of August and is on track to raise a record amount in the 2016 cycle, officials said.
The DNC has been slower to take advantage of the new fundraising landscape, raising $42.4 million so far this year.
Now it is racing to catch up. Last month, the Democratic Party rolled out three high-level fundraising packages to bring in money before next summer’s presidential convention in Philadelphia. The premier Rittenhouse Square level — named after one of the city’s toniest neighborhoods — requires a supporter to raise $1.25 million or give $467,700 in exchange for VIP credentials, a premier hotel room and tickets to an array of private parties.
Both the RNC and DNC are taking advantage of a measure slipped into a December spending bill that vastly expanded how much national parties can raise by allowing them to collect high-level donations for separate accounts to finance their presidential conventions, building renovations and legal proceedings.
Advocates for reducing the influence of big donors on politics are dismayed.
Delete“This is a return to the old system of using the parties as vehicles to launder the buying and selling of government influence and decisions,” said Fred Wertheimer, president of the group Democracy 21.
For Shaun McCutcheon — the conservative Alabama businessman who filed the suit that knocked down the aggregate contribution limit — the new fundraising is exactly the outcome he was seeking.
“I am very excited about this,” he said, arguing that the funds will strengthen the parties. “This is a good result for the people.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/political-parties-go-after-million-dollar-donors-in-wake-of-looser-rules/2015/09/19/728b43fe-5ede-11e5-8e9e-dce8a2a2a679_story.html
AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM
ReplyDeleteAll pretenses of democracy in favor of oligopoly should now be over. The obligatory US Flag lapel pins will get bigger. The Pentagon will F-35 all of us and we, just another bunch of dopey Americans, will have less influence on the future of this country than the dog shit on your shoes.
OOrah, raise the flag higher boys.
Delete“ oligarchy"
DeleteIN CONTRAST
ReplyDeleteDemocratic presidential contender Bernie Sanders fired up a capacity crowd of small-dollar donors at a midtown Manhattan theater Friday as he ridiculed the Republican candidate field and called for sweeping progressive change.
Free public universities, a nationwide $15 minimum wage and higher taxes for the rich were parts of the platform advanced by Brooklyn-raised Sanders, a Vermont U.S. senator. The fundraiser inside the 1,500-seat Town Hall on West 43rd Street was the first for Sanders' campaign in New York City, where front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton maintains her headquarters.
"Welcome to the revolution!" Sanders shouted to cheers, adding: “I beg of you -- think big, not small."
A nationwide New York Times/CBS poll released this week shows that Clinton's lead over Sanders has shrunk from 41 percentage points to 20 points compared with earlier this summer.
Sanders' fundraising appeals spotlighting attacks by Clinton's backers have raised more than $1 million, the campaign said this week.
Hundreds whooped, cheered or took to their feet as Sanders prescribed policy pronouncements or demonized Republicans.
When a woman in the audience declared her love for Sanders, the candidate bellowed, "I love you too!"
Sanders spokesman Michael Briggs said the fundraising haul from the event, of an estimated 1,100 or 1,200 people, was about $100,000. The average donation to Sanders is $31.30, according to the campaign -- the minimum contribution for admission Friday was $50 -- and Sanders stressed he was looking for funding from grassroots donors.
"I do not represent the interests of corporate America or the billionaire class," Sanders said. "I don't want their money."
Choose a side.
DeleteYou guys are a real gas.
ReplyDeleteJihad Watch
ReplyDeleteExposing the role that Islamic jihad theology and ideology play in the modern global conflicts
Sculpture with burned Bible, Torah, and Qur’an banned from competition
September 19, 2015 11:04 am By Robert Spencer 12 Comments
“Whatever happened to freedom of expression?” What indeed? This is what happened to freedom of expression: Islamic jihadists began threatening to murder, and actually murdering, those who exercised it in a way they considered to be offensive to Islam. And suddenly the entire once-free West gained a new respect for Islam and willingness to adhere to Sharia blasphemy laws. For there is absolutely no doubt whatsoever that Nabil Mousa’s sculpture was judged too controversial and turned down not because of the burned Torah or New Testament, but because of the burned Qur’an, and only because of the burned Qur’an. The whole world is cowering in fear before these bloodthirsty assassins, not realizing or not caring about the fact that their cowering is only going to encourage the assassins to be even more bloodthirsty and demanding.
burned quran
“Sculpture with burned Bible,Torah, and Quran banned from competition,” by Kaitlyn S Ross and Julie Wolfe, WXIA, September 17, 2015:
ATLANTA — An Atlanta artist is frustrated after his sculpture about 9/11 was turned down from a national competition for being too controversial.
It was a miscommunication between the city where the competition is held, and the curators who judge the competition. The piece was approved by the curators to be displayed at City Hall in Grand Rapids, Michigan for ArtPrize, an annual competition. But when the city saw it, they thought it was far too controversial to be in city hall. It is a provocative piece called “Paradise Built on the Bones of the Slaughtered.”
It shows the twin towers and then the burned religious scripts of the Torah, Quran, and Bible.
Atlanta artist Nabil Mousa says it’s influenced by his upbringing.
“Being born in Syria I grew up around all 3 religions, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism,” he said.
Raised as a Christian, he said the sculpture is meant to question what people do in the name of religion.
“When you look at 9/11 and you look at this sculpture, you have to think, how can someone commit these atrocities in the name of God and think that God is on their side,” he said.
He knew some people would take offense to the sculpture, but didn’t think it should be banned outright.
“Whatever happened to freedom of expression? Art is supposed to be a way for us to express ourselves and be able to do it without judgment, without censorship,” he said….
Jihad Watch
ReplyDeleteExposing the role that Islamic jihad theology and ideology play in the modern global conflicts
Hoax: 80% of refugees from war-torn Syria aren’t from Syria at all
September 19, 2015 10:42 am By Robert Spencer 29 Comments
“Many of those who have opted to risk their lives to come to Europe have done so for economic reasons,” said Davies. Oh, and then there’s this: last February the Islamic State said it would soon flood Europe with as many as 500,000 refugees. But they couldn’t actually be doing it now, could they? Inconceivable! And the Lebanese Education Minister recently said that there were 20,000 jihadis among the refugees in camps in his country. But they couldn’t be heading to Europe, could they? Inconceivable! The 80% of migrants who claim to be fleeing the war in Syria but aren’t from Syria at all couldn’t have hijrah or jihad on their minds, could they? Inconceivable!
Hijrah, or jihad by emigration, is, according to Islamic tradition, the migration or journey of Muhammad and his followers from Mecca to Yathrib, later renamed by him to Medina, in the year 622 CE. It was after the hijrah that Muhammad for the first time became not just a preacher of religious ideas, but a political and military leader. That was what occasioned his new “revelations” exhorting his followers to commit violence against unbelievers. Significantly, the Islamic calendar counts the hijrah, not Muhammad’s birth or the occasion of his first “revelation,” as the beginning of Islam, implying that Islam is not fully itself without a political and military component.
To emigrate in the cause of Allah – that is, to move to a new land in order to bring Islam there, is considered in Islam to be a highly meritorious act. “And whoever emigrates for the cause of Allah will find on the earth many locations and abundance,” says the Qur’an. “And whoever leaves his home as an emigrant to Allah and His Messenger and then death overtakes him, his reward has already become incumbent upon Allah. And Allah is ever Forgiving and Merciful.” (4:100) The exalted status of such emigrants led a British jihad group that won notoriety (and a shutdown by the government) a few years ago for celebrating 9/11 to call itself Al-Muhajiroun: The Emigrants.
lampedusa_refugees
“Four out of five migrants are NOT from Syria: EU figures expose the ‘lie’ that the majority of refugees are fleeing war zone,” by Ian Drury, Daily Mail, September 18, 2015 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):
Only one in every five migrants claiming asylum in Europe is from Syria.
The EU logged 213,000 arrivals in April, May and June but only 44,000 of them were fleeing the Syrian civil war.
Campaigners and left-wing MPs have suggested the vast majority of migrants are from the war-torn state, accusing the Government of doing too little to help them.
‘This exposes the lie peddled in some quarters that vast numbers of those reaching Europe are from Syria,’ said David Davies, Tory MP for Monmouth. ‘Most people who are escaping the war will go to camps in Lebanon or Jordan.
‘Many of those who have opted to risk their lives to come to Europe have done so for economic reasons.’…
According to rat the Alawites are a bunch of Christians, which explains why Iran is helping them so. It is well known that the Iranians love Christians.
ReplyDeleteIt's just another of the multifaceted examples of syncretism found around the world -
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syncretism
Ideas in passages in the Jewish scriptures (the ages of the Patriarchs) can be traced back to Mesopotamia, which can be traced back to India........the old Egyptian iconography is Hinduism splat right in your face.....it's a world wide phenomena, nothing to get excited about....certainly nothing to kill over.....alas,.the typical moslem reaction to misreading.........:(
Important Anniversary coming up, Barmates -
ReplyDeleteObama's "I Don't Have A Clue Speech" nearly four years old now.....
An important document in American History -
September 20, 2015
Obama's Speech for the Ages
By Steven Sanders
We are rapidly approaching the anniversary of one the most historic speeches ever delivered by a U.S. President. No, it’s not President Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address or President Regan’s Berlin Wall speech or even President Kennedy’s inaugural address. October 21st will mark the 4th anniversary of President Obama’s “I Don’t Have a Clue” speech.
On that date, in less than 900 words, our President took to the podium of the White House Briefing room and proceeded to deliver a statement proving just how misguided his foreign policy is. It stands an incredible combination of incompetence and incorrectness and should never be forgotten.
Let us begin in the 5th paragraph (official transcript here) where the President lectures the world about the conclusion of the Iraq War.
Over the next two months, our troops in Iraq -- tens of thousands of them -- will pack up their gear and board convoys for the journey home. The last American soldier[s] will cross the border out of Iraq with their heads held high, proud of their success, and knowing that the American people stand united in our support for our troops. That is how America’s military efforts in Iraq will end.
I do believe “America’s military efforts in Iraq” will be continuing for some time to come. Not that anyone could have foreseen or in any way predicted what a rapid removal of all US forces from Iraq might lead to in the region.
Actually there was someone, standing at the same podium of the White House Briefing room 4 years earlier. In July of 2007, then President Bush spoke of the Democrats opposition to his Surge strategy in Iraq and their calls for immediate troop withdraws.
BUSH: It'd mean that we'd be risking mass killings on a horrific scale. It'd mean we'd allow the terrorists to establish a safe haven in Iraq to replace the one they lost in Afghanistan. It'd mean we'd be increasing the probability that American troops would have to return at some later date to confront an enemy that is even more dangerous.
Now returning to October of 2011, President Obama continues his lecture on world affairs.
And finally, I would note that the end of war in Iraq reflects a larger transition. The tide of war is receding.
Unfortunately for President Obama, someone forgot to pass that word over to the “JV” team. And I think Mr. Assad in Syria and Mr. Putin in Russia might disagree that the tide of war is receding. Clearly Iran and Hezb’allah never got that memo.
DeleteHe continued:
Meanwhile, yesterday marked the definitive end of the Qaddafi regime in Libya. And there, too, our military played a critical role in shaping a situation on the ground in which the Libyan people can build their own future. Today, NATO is working to bring this successful mission to a close.
I could be wrong, but I can’t remember hearing the President, VP Biden or Mrs. Clinton doing much bragging about how great things are in Libya these days following this “successful mission.”
But he wasn’t done yet:
The long war in Iraq will come to an end by the end of this year. The transition in Afghanistan is moving forward, and our troops are finally coming home…And as we welcome home our newest veterans, we’ll never stop working to give them and their families the care, the benefits and the opportunities that they have earned.
I’m sorry, did the “care and benefits they earned” include being seen by a doctor? Apparently not if you’re one of the 800,000 vets who have their records stalled in the VA system or one of the 307,000 vets who died while waiting for a VA appointment.
The President then concluded with what might be the most incorrect thing of the entire speech.
Because after a decade of war, the nation that we need to build -- and the nation that we will build -- is our own; an America that sees its economic strength restored just as we’ve restored our leadership around the globe.
Somehow it fits perfectly as an ending. “We’ve restored our leadership around the globe” -- it doesn’t get more inaccurate than that.
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2015/09/obamas_speech_for_the_ages.html#ixzz3mGvlWwVn
Follow us: @AmericanThinker on Twitter | AmericanThinker on Facebook
Here's an article Deuce would agree with -
ReplyDeleteSep 19, 2011 @ 03:43 PM 19,271 views
America's Civil War: Unnecessary But Transformational
Doug Bandow ,
Contributor
I write about domestic and international policy.
Follow on Forbes (194)
Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.
Civil War Volunteers
Image by Marion Doss via Flickr
One hundred and fifty years ago the young American nation suffered its greatest failure. “The political system could not contain the passions stoked by the infusion of evangelical Christianity into the political process,” argues University of North Carolina historian David Goldfield. Americans collectively jumped into the abyss of bloody, destructive civil war.
Recommended by Forbes
Much blood was shed, especially at this time of the year. The single costliest day in American military history was Sept. 17, when the Army of Northern Virginia and Army of the Potomac met in battle near the town of Sharpsburg along Antietam Creek.
By the time night fell around 26,000 men had been killed, wounded, or captured. The fight was a stalemate, though Robert E. Lee later retreated, ending his invasion of Maryland. On no other day in no other war have so many Americans suffered in combat.
A year later, on Sept. 19, began the two-day battle along Chickamauga Creek between the Confederate Army of Tennessee and the Union Army of the Cumberland. In one of the rare clashes where the South held a numerical advantage, the Northerners were driven from the field, though the Confederates failed to effectively follow up their advantage. Around 35,000 men became casualties or captives.
Deaths accumulated in many other battles, big and small. After four years 620,000 people had been killed, enormous wealth had been destroyed, and southern states had been ravaged. America was on its way to becoming a modern nation state closer to the strong, centralized European model, a dubious achievement. The war’s one serious benefit — the freeing of 4 million slaves — was inadvertent, beginning as an incidental war measure.
The tale of American disunion is familiar to anyone conversant in U.S. history. However, in his new history America Aflame: How the Civil War Created a Nation (Bloomsbury Press), Goldfield writes more as a novelist than an academic, making the familiar engaging.
There were many fractures in the young republic, but slavery took center stage as the sectional gap grew. The North was determined to turn slavery into a contained regional institution. The South insisted on preserving slavery as a protected national system. Both sides fought over the symbolic and the abstract.
Were these differences worth mass death and destruction?...................
http://www.forbes.com/sites/dougbandow/2011/09/19/americas-civil-war-unnecessary-but-transformational/
Lincoln was the most failed US President but for reasons of serving political advantages the oligarchs made him a god and the boneheads followed lockstep.
ReplyDeleteNBC reports:
ReplyDeleteWhen Pope Francis arrives in the United States on Tuesday, he’ll greet a flock in transformation, its future tied to the growing influence of Hispanic immigrants and a generational decline in religious affiliation.
Francis will also encounter an American church that relates less with traditional Catholic stances on marriage and family, from divorce to out-of-wedlock births to same-sex marriage.
In other words, U.S. Catholics are evolving with the modern world more quickly than the church itself. And many are anxious to see how the popular pope will tailor his message to them.
"Catholicism in America today is a more diverse population," said William Dinges, a professor of religious studies at Catholic University. That trend, he said, covers not only who American Catholics are, but what they believe, and how they view themselves in relation to the church.
Like it or not, slowly but surely, the evolution is towards a universal humanism that practices goodness for goodness sake and a good life consistent with science and cumulative knowledge and discovery, void of the childish myth and literary dangerous nonsense of some controlling god that gives credence and justification to every possible crime known to mankind. It is a slow process ending in the rebuke of the greatest human scourge and political abusive use of religious zealotry.
I have a very full week ahead, first to Brussels and then on to Germany, Czech, Luxembourg and back next Sunday. Science and commerce calls.
ReplyDeleteHave a good trip, Buddy.
DeleteSend some pictures. :)
Have a good trip.....
DeleteContinuing from :
ReplyDeleteThe Best Military Campaign of My Lifetime files - (aka The Rufus Files) -
Opinion
Team Obama has spent $500M to train ‘four or five’ Syrian rebels
By Jonah Goldberg
September 18, 2015 | 8:02pm
Team Obama has spent $500M to train ‘four or five’ Syrian rebels
Photo: Reuters
The news that the Obama administration has spent $500 million to put “four or five” fighters on the ground in Syria adds an almost comic irony to what is ultimately a tragic farce.
In the 1980s, the symbol of Republican incompetence and mismanagement was the $600 toilet seat. Left out of the media coverage was the fact that the toilet seat was for a special kind of anti-submarine aircraft that had been out of production and needed special retrofitting. But forget all that. How does that compare to spending $100 million per non-bionic human soldier?
This news comes from Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III, head of US Central Command, or CENTCOM. Ever the loyal soldier, Austin insists that we should stay the course. It’s not really a tenth of a billion dollars for each rebel, we’ve got another hundred “in the pipeline,” he told Congress Wednesday. No doubt that will turn the tide.
Besides, he says the larger strategy in Syria is working. Specifically, he offered this word salad:
“Despite some slow movement at the tactical level, we continue to make progress across the battlespace in support of the broader US government strategy to degrade and ultimately defeat [the Islamic State].”
No doubt Austin is an honorable man, but it’s difficult to take such a promise at face value. And not just because the Defense Department’s inspector general is investigating allegations — according to reporting by the normally Obama-friendly Daily Beast and The New York Times — that intelligence reports were falsified or otherwise altered to paint a rosy picture in the fight against the Islamic State.
Another irony, given this president’s sanctimony about allegedly “cooked” intelligence on his predecessor’s watch.
There’s also the fact that we’ve heard something like this before. Almost exactly one year ago, when President Obama announced his plan to build an army of Syrians to take out the Islamic State — a group he had only recently dismissed as the “jayvee squad” — he told the American people in a televised address:
“This counterterrorism campaign will be waged through a steady, relentless effort to take out [the Islamic State] wherever they exist, using our air power and our support for partner forces on the ground. This strategy of taking out terrorists who threaten us, while supporting partners on the front lines, is one that we have successfully pursued in Yemen and Somalia for years.”
Four months later, the terrorists Obama was degrading “successfully” toppled the government in Yemen.
Meanwhile, rumors of the Islamic State’s demise are greatly exaggerated. It still controls an area roughly the size of England. Foreign fighters still flock to its ranks. It’s winning the war in Syria, which is why the Iranians and the Russians are now racing to the regime’s aid........
http://nypost.com/2015/09/18/team-obama-has-spent-500m-to-train-four-or-five-syrian-rebels/
Americans Killed - 0
ReplyDeleteAmericans Wounded - 0
Americans Captured - 0
.
ReplyDeleteCost = $6 billion and counting
Progress to Goal = 0
American Prestige and Influence = Declining
.
By American one must assume you mean US, Q.
DeleteMexico and Canada, both parts of America have not suffered any decline in influence.
As for "Progress to Goal", please define the what you believe the "Goal" is.
As for the $6 billion, that is pocket change for the US. Wouldn't even buy the tires for a flock of F-35s.
Or keep one of the twelve US carrier battle groups at sea for a week.
.
DeleteRat, you’re back, but I see you haven’t changed.
You’re still playing at the pompous pedant, that is one who is unimaginative or who unduly emphasizes minutiae in the presentation or use of knowledge.
You’re also still showing your unfamiliarity with English usage in that you fail to understand the evolution of the language. ‘American’ is a perfectly good substitute for US citizen. It has gained that acceptance over the years through constant usage. Additional meanings are often added to words over time. It’s how language evolves.
The only people who object to the use of the term ‘American’ when referring to US citizens (other than the pedants) are the cultural elites in areas like South America or Canada. And you’ll notice I said ‘object to’. They certainly know what it refers to as does the rest of the world both in speech and formal documents. Ask anyone at the UN who they are talking about when they refer to America. Hell, ask the Ayatollah.
As to ‘Progress to Goal’, I refer to the US goal as enunciated by the president, to ‘degrade and destroy ISIS’.
As for the $6 billion, that is pocket change for the US.
You reflect the same mind-set that has given the US an $18 trillion dollar debt. What’s a few billion? You fail to see the opportunity costs of even that relatively small amount. Instead of jet fuel and jdams, how much food and support would it buy for Syrian refugees or perhaps more importantly for people suffering in our own country?
Here, is a site that shows where our dollars are going, most of it into the pockets of the MIC and those that support them in Washington
https://www.nationalpriorities.org/cost-of/
It is an interesting site. Going through the various notes and the backup detail provided is even more interesting. You will note that the numbers on the military don’t include things like ongoing medical costs for those injured in our wars or the non-combat military costs. There is also a section on opportunity costs.
However, the most important point is that we continue to dump money into the war against ISIS with questionable results. Given the expansion of ISIS into other countries since last year, some would even say we have regressed in the fight. None of which does anything to enhance US standing around the world.
.
.
Deletes/b Here, is a site that shows where our military dollars are going...
.
Words have meaning, Q.
DeleteThere is no country in the world named "America".
There are two continents that carry that moniker, one north of the equator and one south of it.
That you buy into the Federalist propagandists spin, obvious.
PATRICK BUCHANAN: Putin is right to make ISIS, not Assad enemy No. 1 in Syria
ReplyDeleteWhat Vladimir Putin is up to in Syria makes far more sense than what Barack Obama and John Kerry appear to be up to in Syria.
The Russians are flying transports bringing tanks and troops to an air base near the coastal city of Latakia to create a supply chain to provide a steady flow of weapons and munitions to the Syrian army.
Syrian President Bashar Assad, an ally of Russia, has lost half his country to ISIS and the Nusra Front, a branch of al-Qaida.
Putin fears that if Assad falls, Russia's toehold in Syria and the Mediterranean will be lost, ISIS and al-Qaida will be in Damascus, and Islamic terrorism will have achieved its greatest victory.
Is he wrong?
Winston Churchill famously said in 1939: "I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest."
Exactly. Putin is looking out for Russian national interests.
And who do we Americans think will wind up in Damascus if Assad falls? A collapse of that regime, not out of the question, would result in a terrorist takeover, the massacre of thousands of Alawite Shiites and Syrian Christians, and the flight of millions more refugees into Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey -- and thence on to Europe.
Putin wants to prevent that. Don't we?
Why then are we spurning his offer to work with us?
Are we still so miffed that when we helped to dump over the pro-Russian regime in Kiev, Putin countered by annexing Crimea?
Get over it.
Understandably, there is going to be friction between the two greatest military powers. Yet both of us have a vital interest in avoiding war with each other and a critical interest in seeing ISIS degraded and defeated.
And if we consult those interests rather than respond to a reflexive Russophobia that passes for thought in the think tanks, we should be able to see our way clear to collaborate in Syria.
Indeed, the problem in Syria is not so much with the Russians -- or Iran, Hezbollah and Assad, all of whom see the Syrian civil war correctly as a fight to the finish against Sunni jihadis.
Our problem has been that we have let our friends -- the Turks, Israelis, Saudis and Gulf Arabs -- convince us that no victory over ISIS can be achieved unless and until we bring down Assad.
DeleteOnce we get rid of Assad, they tell us, a grand U.S.-led coalition of Arabs and Turks can form up and march in to dispatch ISIS.
This is neocon nonsense.
Those giving us this advice are the same "cakewalk war" crowd who told us how Iraq would become a democratic model for the Middle East once Saddam Hussein was overthrown and how Moammar Gadhafi's demise would mean the rise of a pro-Western Libya.
When have these people ever been right?
What is the brutal reality in this Syrian civil war, which has cost 250,000 lives and made refugees of half the population, with 4 million having fled the country?
After four years of sectarian and ethnic slaughter, Syria will most likely never again be reconstituted along the century-old map lines of Sykes-Picot. Partition appears inevitable.
And though Assad may survive for a time, his family's days of ruling Syria are coming to a close.
Yet it is in America's interest not to have Assad fall -- if his fall means the demoralization and collapse of his army, leaving no strong military force standing between ISIS and Damascus.
Indeed, if Assad falls now, the beneficiary is not going to be those pro-American rebels who have defected or been routed every time they have seen combat and who are now virtually extinct.
The victors will be ISIS and the Nusra Front, which control most of Syria between the Kurds in the northeast and the Assad regime in the southwest.
Syria could swiftly become a strategic base camp and sanctuary of the Islamic State from which to pursue the battle for Baghdad, plot strikes against America and launch terror attacks across the region and around the world.
Prediction: If Assad falls and ISIS rises in Damascus, a clamor will come -- and not only from the Lindsey Grahams and John McCains -- to send a U.S. army to invade and drive ISIS out, while the neocons go scrounging around to find a Syrian Ahmed Chalabi in northern Virginia.
Then this nation will be convulsed in a great war debate over whether to send that U.S. army to invade Syria and destroy ISIS.
And while our Middle Eastern and European allies sit on the sidelines and cheer on the American intervention, this country will face an anti-war movement the likes of which have not been seen since Col. Lindbergh spoke for America First.
In making ISIS, not Assad, public enemy No. 1, Putin has it right.
It is we Americans who are the mystery inside an enigma now.
http://siouxcityjournal.com/news/opinion/columnists/buchanan/patrick-buchanan-putin-is-right-to-make-isis-not-assad/article_3ab31348-70b3-51a9-b9cb-7c03831ae309.html
Bush cost us at least $1.5 Trillion in Iraq. Obama's spent about 6/1,500's (0.004 or four tenths of 1%) of that.
ReplyDeleteLess than 1/2 of one percent of the cost, no casualties, no medical costs, no ptsd, no recurring psychological/suicide problems.
And, if we haven't rolled ISIS back, Yet, we've at least stopped their rampage through Iraq.
Yeah, I think it's the smartest military campaign of my lifetime.
I'm geting ready for a little road trip of my own, but I believe if you'll check the Pew Polls you'll find that America's prestige has gone up
under Obama.
chou.
.
DeleteI checked the Pew Poll on American favorability that runs into 2014 (the latest I could find).
Their overall view is that America has a generally favorable impression around the world except in the Middle East. They also indicate that the 2014 numbers are about the same as the 2013 numbers. However, in looking at trends, if you compare 2009 through 2014 you will see a mixed bag with some countries moving positive (Poland, Spain, Turkey, China) some moving negative (UK, Germany, India, Russia) and some countries not moving. In the ME, where most of our military actions have been, it has dropped except in Turkey and Israel (note not all ME countries included in the survey).
It is hard to make judgements of trends based on the PEW research because they only list 43 countries with some of them only listed for 2014. If you just add up the countries 8 remained the same (or in most cases were only listed in 2014), 16 moved positively, and 19 moved negatively since 2009.
It will be interesting to see what the 2015 poll says given current events.
.
Who's willing to put boots in the ground in the ME? Seems Russia is.
ReplyDeleteIt's all Obama's fault.
ReplyDeleteFor a while I was wondering if he was playing some exceedingly clever game way beyond the comprehension of most of us.
Naw, he just doesn't have a clue as to what he is doing.
That is why oil production in the US is up, gas prices are down and US war casualties are at the lowest they have been in 15 years?
DeleteYeah, I think it's the smartest military campaign of my lifetime.
DeleteRufus
One must in a way admire Rufus for sticking to his guns despite all the evidence.
Is that why the Federal deficit is now below the average of the George W years?
DeleteThe Federal Deficit is Now Smaller than the Average Since the 1980s
The federal government’s deficit in fiscal year 2014 was $195 billion smaller than last year — clocking in at a shortfall of $486 billion, according to an estimate from the Congressional Budget Office.
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2014/10/08/the-federal-deficit-is-now-smaller-than-the-average-since-the-1980s/
Figure the fellas at the Wall Street Journal know of what they write.
... measuring the raw deficit only tells part of the story. The U.S. population and economy are much larger today than they were in the 1980s. In fact, adjusted for the size of the economy, today’s deficit is now smaller than the average deficit going back to the 1980s.
DeleteThe 2014 deficit came in at 2.8% according to the CBO estimate, compared to the 3.2% average since 1980. By that measure, President Barack Obama‘s deficit this year is one that would have been acceptable to President Ronald Reagan. During Mr. Reagan’s presidency, the deficit averaged 4% of GDP.
The rat'sass is back to following me around already.
DeleteThe evidence is on the side of the best military campaign since WWII.
DeleteMeasured by any number of criteria.
Especially those of US blood and treasure expended.
But then, what would a draft dodger care about the blood shed by US soldiers, sailors airmen and Marines in the sands of foreign lands.
Once again Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson refuses to address the facts that do not jibe with his ideological bent
DeleteHe's obviously slipping off the recovery program prescribed for him by his shrink. This probably called for at least a year, maybe 18 months, of blog free living.....
DeleteThe deficit shrank as federal revenues rose by about 9% and spending climbed by only 1%.
DeleteTwo key factors have driven the plunging deficit in recent years.
First, more Americans are now working, paying taxes, and off the unemployment rolls.
The unemployment rate for September fell below 6% for the first time since 2008, while the number of working Americans is at a record high, according to the latest jobs report from the Department of Labor.
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2014/10/08/the-federal-deficit-is-now-smaller-than-the-average-since-the-1980s/
.
DeleteThe federal government’s deficit in fiscal year 2014 was $195 billion smaller than last year
Does that sentence make sense. We are currently in FY 2015. Wasn't last year FY 2014?
Just asking.
.
.
DeleteIn fact, adjusted for the size of the economy, today’s deficit is now smaller than the average deficit going back to the 1980s.
Possibly true, but that average deficit includes the massive deficits under Oboma's previous years; and though it has come down considerably we are still adding a $ trillion to the debt every two years.
Much of the deficit reduction was tied to the sequester and the biggest fight right no on the budget (in addition to planned parenthood) is the demand by Obama and the Dems that the sequester ceilings be breached. It is likely the GOP will go along as long as they get their piece of the pie.
Even under the current level of spending, the president's 2016 budget calls for the deficit to remain in this range for a couple years and then start to rise. By 2020, gross public debt will go from $ 18 trillion to $ 22 trillion. In the same period, interest on the debt will more than double from $230 billion to $540 billion and will be bigger than most discretionary spending combined and pretty much match the deficit in size.
.
.
.
DeleteI see why I couldn't figure out the sentence I questioned two posts up. I see the article was from last year and didn't include the 2015 FY.
.
Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson, the self proclaimed fraudster has nothing to add but his fantasies.
ReplyDeleteI can still quote his past posts, where he proudly tells the world how he stole his aunt's identity and ran her credit cards, then rather than pay the bill, institutionalized his auntie.
are u not the same person that released information conserning an ongoing fbi investigation? Violating all sorts of laws? Telling us about UR informant inside the az fbi's office? U remember when I reported u for making death threats at me and contacted said fbi office? Ax among u spend a few months in jail and u are back and lying as usual
DeleteYou took one of his threats down, Deuce.
DeleteI recall you calling it 'the offending comment'.
Yes, there have been threats.
I suggest I do the A.M. shift and rat'sass do the P.M. shift, or vice versa, so as to avoid the stalking, and make no contact.
Post the threats, Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson, if you can ...
DeleteBut you cannot because they never were made.
If Deuce made a reference to offending comments, post that.
But you cannot.
While I can quote you, verbatim.
Jack, jack, jack..
DeleteBeen there done that.
But we do know you bragged about your informant in the AZ FBI..
Leaking classified information on an ongoing investigation on national security!!
You have been caught so many times you have no credibility.
You were not missed one day, the readers of this blog were SLIENT about your absence.
Not a peep...
No one cares about you Rat..
ReplyDeleteOpEdOpinion
The Refugees, the Europeans, and Us
Updated September 19, 2015 12:00 PM
By TED R. BROMUND
2 Reprints + -
A Syrian flag flies over the capital, Damascus,
A Syrian flag flies over the capital, Damascus, Syria, on Oct. 27, 2014. Photo Credit: AP / Diaa Hadid
advertisement | advertise on newsday
The Obama administration never wanted to take the lead on the war in Syria. It hoped that, if we stayed out of the war, it wouldn't come to us. The wave of refugees now moving into Europe, and lapping at the shores of the United States, shows that assumption was wrong.
Germany already has received more than 100,000 asylum requests from Syrian refugees, and expects at least 800,000 applications this year. Europe, according to the United Nations, received 62,000 requests in August, and more than 425,000 this year. And there are more than three million Syrians in Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan.
Most Popular
Editorial: What you told us about Common Core
Dobie: Driverless cars - are they sure about this?
Reader essay: Life as a Nassau Coliseum game volunteer
Opinion: Francis a holy man, not a God
Readers: Why we opted out of state tests or not
Everyone who didn't want to get involved in Syria, including the Obama administration, owns the result: Not just refugees in the millions, but children drowning in the waves. And yet this administration claimed in 2011 that "preventing mass atrocities and genocide is a core national security interest and a core moral responsibility of the United States."
Cartoon
Matt Davies' latest cartoon: Appealing to women
Comment
Submit your letter
Reader essays
Get published in Newsday
But this goes beyond refugees. We now have open Russian involvement, in league with Bashar al-Assad and Iran, in Syria. This might save Assad, but that will only raise the stakes in the struggle between Assad's Shia-led coalition, and the Sunnis in the so-called Islamic State group. The refugee crisis is merely a symptom of a worsening war.
President Barack Obama is reportedly considering whether he should meet with Russia's Vladimir Putin to discuss the war. Meanwhile, the Europeans are planning another meeting to haggle over how to handle the refugee crisis. Both meetings will achieve nothing of substance.
Putin wants Assad to survive. Unless America wants to go to war at Iran's side, that's a non-starter for us. And the Europeans, as usual, are all about burden-sharing in Europe, not shouldering a burden in Syria. They will never lead.
advertisement | advertise on newsday
But as long as the refugees have a reason to flee Syria, many will end up in Europe. No European burden-sharing deal can change that. Only a secure zone in Syria that protects people from Assad and the Islamic State alike will give them a reason to stop walking.........
http://www.newsday.com/opinion/oped/the-refugees-the-europeans-and-us-1.10860333
Only a secure zone in Syria that protects people from Assad and the Islamic State alike will give them a reason to stop walking
This is what I suggested, safe zones, no fly areas.......but then I got shut down by Quirk and Ash for "warmongering".
Who would create such a "Safe Zone", Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson?
DeleteHow would they do it?
Who would finance it?
Easy Peasy...
DeleteThe safe zones would be paid for instead of giving aid to fake refugees of Palestine.
We can also, Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson quote your support of genocide and cannibalism.
ReplyDeleteYou write such comments with little concern for the "Rights of Man", your fellow citizens are treated, by you, as so much chattel.
Better, for you, to cease your abusive comments and mind your own business.
Calling others names and your continued attempts at defamation will not serve your purpose, whatever that may be...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
DeleteIn further news, something I had not checked up all summer ..
ReplyDeleteSodastream International Ltd
NASDAQ: SODA - Sep 18 4:00 PM EDT
$15.41 per share
Down, down, down ...
Dropping from a high of $72.82 after being targeted by the Boycott, Divest and Sanction Movement.
The Israeli posted, well over a year ago that Sodastream was a good investment ..
He was wrong about that, too.
Hardly wrong.
DeleteThe workers have jobs.
The Palestinians have lost their jobs.
The major plant has been upgraded and is no longer anywhere near palestinian rockets.
AND those that have been with them for the long term?
Do not lose anything until they sell.
Maybe you don't understand the concept of "loss".
You do not loss based upon a price on a given day in time that you didn't sell..
Your statement "O"rdure was that Sodastream was undervalued at $29.11
DeleteWhat is "Occupation"Sat Jul 19, 10:54:00 PM EDT
it's a great time to buy the stock (Sodastream) Herr Rodent..
It's undervalued. ($29.11)
LOL
you really just don't understand business..
That was then ...
This is now
Sodastream was not undervalued at $29.11.
The market now values Sodastream at about one half of when you made your "buy" recommendation.
You were wrong then, you still are.
It was not a mention of loss, except by you. There was a mention of "value" which is set by the market.
The statement that Sodastream was undervalued at $29.11 was laughable at the time, that fact borne out by time and the market value, today. $15.41.
You were wrong then, you are wrong today.
You have a problem with accepting reality
I have said that the market capitalization of Sodastream has taken a loss.
DeleteThat the loss of market valuation is about 50% since you made you "buy" recommendation, undeniable.
Since Sodastream was first targeted by the BDS Movement, well from $72 and change to $15.11, the loss of market valuation, about 80%.
As good ole Allen told us, during the shutdown of Ben-Gurion International Airport, the existential threat to Israel is the weakness of its economy. Its' dependence on foreign financing being its Achilles Heal.
Ah the reality?
DeleteSodaStream is real, you are not.
What Jack? Cat got your tongue?
ReplyDeleteare u not the same person that released information conserning an ongoing fbi investigation? Violating all sorts of laws? Telling us about UR informant inside the az fbi's office? U remember when I reported u for making death threats at me and contacted said fbi office? Ax among u spend a few months in jail and u are back and lying as usual
You remember those comments...
Which is it...
Did you lie about the informant and seeing the report or did you LEAK classified intel on an open blog?
Aint that the reason you ran away for months last time?
caught with the mouse in your mouth...
LOL
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteOur little "O"rdure has not changed a whit, has he?
ReplyDeleteStill cannot find a quote.
Still cannot state a fact.
Still rants on about his private fantasies.
Ah Jack, the inventor of false flags, the creator of multiple names...
DeleteWe remember how you created fake "bob" persona's to make quotes you quote.
More than once you were busted and you also bragged it was a game that you had many online names.
nothing you say has truth.
except that you did and do make threats.
Well, giving rat'sass his due, once he did admit to being a first class asshole.....world class asshole.....
Deleteremember that ? I might take the time to check my computer later......that's one I used to have captured....so, he really did tell the truth once, there, that one time......
Professional asshole !!
DeleteHah....that was it......
"I am a professional asshole" - rat'sass
With this he has told the truth, that one time, we can all agree.....
So how long have you been out of the physical restraints this time, Mr. Rat ?
ReplyDeleteAll clouds have silver lining boobie. Now that Jack is back some one will actually read the drivel that you post.
ReplyDeleteYes Ash, Russia joining the genocide in Syria is a silver lining.
Deletenow tens of thousands will die, more will become refugees..
All arabs...
I guess that's what you wanted all the time..
Ashit is a dumbshit, everyone agrees,
DeleteBDS Suffers Humiliating Reversal in Iceland
ReplyDeleteThe second victory for pro-Israel forces against hate in less than a month.
September 21, 2015
Ari Lieberman
The last few weeks have gone rather badly for the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. First, there was the Matisyahu debacle where BDS activists tried to have Jewish reggae sensation Matisyahu banned from the Rototom Sunsplash music festival on account of his pro-Israel views. Event organizers initially folded to the BDS pressure and barred Matisyahu from performing, but following an international outcry over what was a blatantly anti-Semitic action, red-faced officials quickly reversed themselves. Matisyahu made his appearance and sang his hit song “Jerusalem,” which is laced with references strongly supportive of Israel. Score one for Israel, zero for BDS.
Over the weekend, BDS suffered another stinging reversal. On September 15, in a move largely characterized as symbolic, the city council in Iceland’s capital of Reykjavik voted to boycott all Israeli products “for as long as the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory continues.” The insidious motion was introduced by known radical leftist and Israel-hater Björk Vilhelmsdóttir and passed unanimously. Iceland’s imports from Israel last year totaled just under $6,000,000, but the percentage earmarked for Reykjavik is unclear.
Vilhelmsdóttir’s husband, Sveinn Runar Hauksson, is a well-known anti-Israel and anti-American agitator and chairs the Iceland-Palestine Association, which advocates the boycott of Israeli products and supports the Hamas terror group. In 2010, Hauksson met with Hamas terror chieftain Ismail Haniyeh and was pictured presenting him with an award. Hauksson is apparently unperturbed by the Hamas charter, which calls for the annihilation of Jews globally.
The council’s move, reminiscent of actions taken by the Nazi Brown Shirts some 80 years ago, prompted immediate outrage. Local attorney Einar Gautur SteingrÃmsson stated that he would submit immediate challenge to the resolution alleging that it violated the Icelandic constitution. Eminent international law scholar Eugene Kontorovich noted that the council’s actions violated international treaties to which both Iceland and Israel are parties and Israel’s foreign ministry highlighted Reykjavik’s hypocrisy in singling out the only democracy in the Mideast for special treatment while ignoring gross inequity and tyranny prevalent in so many other countries.
Counter-pressure directed against Iceland’s government could no longer be ignored, prompting Iceland’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs to distance itself from the actions of Reykjavik’s municipality. On September 18, the IMFA released a statement noting that “the City of Reykjavik's resolution is not in line with Iceland‘s foreign policy nor should it be seen to reflect on Iceland‘s relations with Israel.”
DeleteThis rather mild-mannered rebuke was insufficient for most, who viewed the municipality’s actions as motivated by nothing short of base anti-Semitism and bigotry. President of the American Jewish Congress Ronald Lauder warned Iceland of the “negative repercussions” should its government fail to take forceful action against the city council’s actions. The Simon Wiesenthal Center went one step further issuing a travel advisory against Iceland.
In rather forceful terms, the SWC issued a statement noting that “Iceland is a major tourist destination, including for many Jews and Israeli tour groups. However, when the elected leaders of its main city pass an extreme anti-Israel and anti-Semitic law, we would caution any member of a Jewish community about traveling there.” The SWC further noted that the municipality failed to issue resolutions against countries with far more egregious human rights records like Syria, Iran, North Korea and Sudan.
Iceland has a rather poor record when it comes to relations with Israel. Its government has repeatedly issued grossly one-sided condemnations of Israel and it was the first Western government to recognize “Palestine” as an independent state, a unilateral move that clearly violated the letter and spirit of the Oslo Accords. It also maintains a spotty record when it comes to relations with its Jewish community. During Israel’s counter insurgency campaign against Hamas, anti-Semitism grew to fever pitch with one Icelandic bicycle store owner hanging a sign stating “Jews Unwelcome.”
Though Iceland’s government distanced itself from the reprehensible actions taken by Reykjavik’s municipality, it bears at least some responsibility, for through its irresponsible foreign policies, it created an environment conducive to hate and bigotry.
On September 19, just four days after the hateful resolution was introduced, Reykjavik’s mayor, Dagur Eggertsson, announced that he would scrap the resolution and acknowledged that the bill was “ill-prepared.” He also admitted that he did not expect such a strong negative international response.
The counter-pressure from Israel and elsewhere worked and once again uncovered the perniciousness of BDS. The resolution masqueraded itself as a human rights issue, but in reality was indistinguishable from boycotts instituted by the Nazis against Jewish-owned business in the 1930s.
Nevertheless, Reykaavik’s humiliating retraction just days after instituting a malevolent anti-Semitic edict represents a significant victory over BDS. It is the second time in less than a month that BDS was soundly defeated in humiliating fashion. Score two for Israel and democracy, zero for BDS.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/260193/bds-suffers-humiliating-reversal-iceland-ari-lieberman
I say: boycott companies, countries or cities that boycott Israel.......
I've read that Iceland is the most inebriated place in the entire world.......what else really is there to do there but drink.....?
DeletePerhaps Iceland should take in a few hundred thousand lovely muzzies.....?
DeleteThis is good writing -
ReplyDeleteGet Lost, You Palace-Guard Creeps
by Mark Steyn
Steyn on America
September 19, 2015
Isis prepare to behead a group of Christian men on a beach in Hillary Clinton's Libya - pic
As the week ended, Obama's palace guard in the American media were demanding that every other Republican candidate distance himself from Donald Trump's failure to correct, among thousands of attendees at his events, one who apparently is under the reprehensible illusion that the President is a Muslim.
Any candidate who plays this game with the Obamamedia is a fool. Assuming for the sake of argument that the questioner is genuine and not a plant (like, say, the 14-year old all-American schoolboy clockmaker who didn't make a clock at all and is the son of a belligerent Muslim activist and perennial Sudanese presidential candidate whose brother runs a trucking company amusingly called Twin Towers Transportation), putting all of that to one side, there are several entirely reasonable responses one could make to the gentlemen of the press:
1) Unlike Hillary Clinton's under-attended "rallies", a voter doesn't have to undergo a background check or sign a piece of paper pledging to support her in the election before being permitted into a Republican candidate's presence. So at our campaign events there are all kinds of people with all kinds of views - and it goes without saying I won't agree with them all. If you find that odd, maybe you've been covering Hillary too long.
2) Why does one Republican candidate's "scandal" get hung around the neck of every other guy's? I'll answer your question to me about Donald Trump's 'gaffe' after you ask Bernie Sanders, Martin O'Malley, Lincoln Chafee and Joe Biden about Hillary Clinton's server and how she handled Benghazi. Till then, get lost.
3) In the normal course of events, the President - who is supposed to serve as president of all the people, not just the half of the country that voted for him - should command a certain respect. But this particular president has compared the members of the loyal opposition to terrorists and to the more hardcore Iranian ayatollahs. And none of you media bigfeet huffing and puffing about lèse-majesté gave a crap about that. So, if you'll forgive me, as someone designated a terrorist and ayatollah by Obama, I'm disinclined to rise to defend the President's amour propre. Go hector someone else.
4) As to respect for the office, the President is so respectful of the papacy that his White House reception for Pope Francis will be filled with gay bishops, transgender activists and pro-abortion nuns. Apparently His Holiness is expected to have a thicker skin about dissenting voices than King Barack.
Delete5) If I understand you shrill little twerps correctly, I'm supposed to point out to this guy in New Hampshire that the President is not a Muslim but a Christian. Well, his father and step-father were both Muslims, which means, as far as Islam is concerned, he was born a Muslim. Has he renounced it? My fellow candidate Ted Cruz entered this world in Calgary, Alberta in 1970, which means that he was born a British subject and a citizen of Canada. I don't suppose the Queen cares about that one way or the other - unlike your average Islamic scholar in Qom or Cairo. Yet you media types made such a big deal out of it that Ted was obliged to write to Ottawa to renounce even any theoretical Canadianness. Have you inquired of your buddy the President whether he's done anything similarly clarifying?
6) As to whether he's a Christian, have you asked him whether he has attended even semi-regularly any church other than that of Jeremiah ("God damn America") Wright? A man is free to attend the Westboro Baptist Church but if he chooses to do so I'm not obligated to defend his Christianity. And frankly, whatever the President's personal faith, there is no dispute that his leadership of the western world has been an utter catastrophe for Christians around the planet. Some of the oldest Christian communities on earth have been entirely extinguished on Obama's watch: in Mosul, Iraq, which was an American protectorate on the day he took office, not a single Christian remains. Every single one of them is dead or fled. So, instead of jumping through your preposterous hoops and speaking up for the most powerful man in the world, I would rather speak up for the powerless - for the Nigerian schoolgirls, for the Yazidi, for the Copts in Egypt, and for all the other beleaguered Christian communities in the world this feckless president has set alight and watched burn.
7) Oh, and one other thing. This kind of super-fake-o lame-ass nothing controversy that you dowager duchesses of the press are having the vapors about is precisely why the political process has fallen into such disrepute and your own industry is bankrupt. No real person cares about this "scandal". So, unless you've got a question about the economy or immigration or something real, screw off outta here.
YES !
DeleteAnd the ruling coalition (in Sweden) is now trying to abolish all religious schools – not because they worry about Jews or Lutherans educating their kids the way they want to, but because they know perfectly well that violent jihad is being taught in all the Wahhabi mosques and madrassas.
ReplyDeleteSeptember 21, 2015
Donald Trump finally clarifies who caused September 11
By Ethel C. Fenig
Love him, hate him or are somewhere in-between, observers of this run up to the Republican presidential nomination have to admit, by virtue of his brash wealth persona, Donald Trump is shaking up political campaigning. Saying out loud what many secretly think but are afraid to say while framing his own narrative and issues, Trump is attracting backers who have long felt neglected by their candidates from both parties. His well known stance on illegal immigration is the most obvious. His assertion that he could have crafted a better Iran deal for America because of his self publicized skills as a deal maker is another. And on Sunday, appearing on multiple talk shows, he did it again. Several times.
Scolded by the liberal pc guardians for not correcting/answering a questioner at one of his public forums, who insisted President Obama was a Muslim and that Muslims are problematic, (a plant? No scolding reporter managed to get the questioner's name or background) Trump shot back (excuse the description)
"It wasn't people from Sweden who blew up the World Trade Center," Trump told Jake Tapper on CNN's "State of the Union."
"I get that — but to say we have a problem and it's called Muslims because there are some extremist Muslims, is tarring all Muslims," said Tapper.
"Well I don't agree with that at all, but you have extremist Muslims that are in a class by themselves," said Trump, who leads theWashington Examiner's presidential power rankings. "It is a problem in this country and it's a problem throughout the world. I mean all you have to do is look at Europe."
"We can be politically correct and say there is no problem whatsoever, but the fact is, there is a problem with some and it's a very severe problem and it's a problem that's taking place all over the world," Trump said in an interview with NBC's "Meet the Press."
Without describing the terrorist as oppressed or disaffected, Trump then unabashedly continued, using the "some of my (best) friends" are Muslims cliché.
"I have such great respect and love for so many of the people — they are great people," he added characteristically. "I know so many Muslims that are such fabulous people."
Well, glad to finally know who crashed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and that field in Pennsylvania. Thanks for telling it straight Donald Trump, without excuses about Islam as a "religion of peace;" something very few are willing to say publicly.
But, btw Donald, a small correction: in a future attack it could be people from Sweden. Muslims from Sweden. Or Muslims from France. Or Germany. Because that's where they are going. And that's where they are living. As mentioned here several months ago "Muslim Sacralized Rape and Feminized Sweden."
And the ruling coalition (in Sweden) is now trying to abolish all religious schools – not because they worry about Jews or Lutherans educating their kids the way they want to, but because they know perfectly well that violent jihad is being taught in all the Wahhabi mosques and madrassas.
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2015/09/donald_trump_finally_clarifies_who_caused_september_11.html
This is a sad outcome. There is nothing wrong with most religious schools.......again, the moslems, the moslems, the moslems..... ruin the party for everyone else.............
DeleteCUBAN DISSIDENTS KEPT FROM HEARING PAPAL MASS............Drudge (pics of dissidents struggling to get to Mass)
ReplyDeleteCNN POLL: Clinton's lead over Sanders GROWS.......Drudge
It doesn't matter, folks. Neither Clinton nor Sanders are going to be living in the White House.
Checking out for most of day......
ReplyDelete.....I have done my best to avoid The Professional Asshole (his self description)
Have a great day.
:)
Congrats to Russia, Iran and Hezbollah for helping the Syrians for creating 14 million islamic refugees...
ReplyDeleteWow, now that's amazing..
SO here is the news....
ReplyDeleteRussia is getting to be the dominate power in the middle east.
America? Has turned tail and ran.
Syria, Iran, Iraq have all joined Putin.
Even Arabia and Israel are now talking to Russia as the deficit superpower in the region.
I predict that the mass killings and refugee creation will continue (with Russia's support) in order to shore up a new Iran-Russia-Syrian Axis.
It's going to be bloody...
Interesting stats.
ReplyDeleteRussia, Hezbollah, Syria, Iran and Iranian proxies in Iraq have collectively murdered over 850,000 and created over 18 million refugees.
Wow, this is an amazing silver lining.
The cascade of Shiite and Russian proxy kinetic actions has been quite the amazing domino effect in the middle east.
Now some here will split hairs as to what is the middle east, to them? I could give a rotten apple too...
The cause and effect of Iranian hegemony, propped up with Russian assistance will cause tens of millions to hate russia, iran and their arab homelands for generation...
One can only wonder which arab nation is next?
.
ReplyDeleteYou can complain about the waste, the corruption, and the misallocations involved in our military programs; however, you still have to admire the ingenuity and inventiveness involved in our pursuit of destruction.
Electromagnetic Rail Gun
Here is one application designed to use the new electromagnetic rail gun.
Zumwalt-class Destroyer
.
Rail Gun, Smale Gun, I was running around in Team Fortress years ago firing off a portable rail gun...
DeleteRail guns are environmentally friendly. No smoke, no pollution....
DeleteIf we can't think of the environment and global warming when waging war, then what's happened to us ?
Delete.
ReplyDeleteMajority of Palestinians Want Abbas to Resign and No-longer Support Two-State Solution
.
Then they can have war.
DeleteAgain.
And they will lose. Maybe they can join their brother syrians in Germany.
After all there are ONLY a couple million palestinians, add that to the Iranian/Syrian refugee crisis of over 15 million and it's small potatoes. Syria and Iran (with Russian assistance ((silver lining)) are showing us how to have peace. Self motivated migration.
:)
Got to love it.
Israel doesn't have to throw anyone out.
All they have to do is let the palestinians declare war. Again, openly…
Then…
WAIT.
Send all the 'Palestinians and all the Syrians to Russia, east of the Urals somewhere.
DeleteLots of problems immediately solved.
“I do not believe Sharia is consistent with the Constitution of this country.”
ReplyDeleteDr. Ben Carson has it exactly right. The Constitution and sharia are not compatible.
All true muslims are dedicated to sharia.
They shouldn't even be in Congress. That asshole Keith Ellison is a perfect example. Swore religion wouldn't enter into it.....but now thick with CAIR, etc...took his oath on the koran....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Ellison
Scot Walker is out.
ReplyDeletehttp://hotair.com/archives/2015/09/21/scott-walker-reportedly-quitting-presidential-race/
Who's next ?
Santorum ? Graham ?.........?
Hot Air is reporting that Santorum has come out in favor of ethanol.
DeleteThis is a stunning campaign saving move.
My wife and I heard Santorum speak in Idaho some years ago, the last go round.....
The Catholic ladies loved him, but that was about it.....
He should not have gotten into this race, and should get out now....
He is making a fool out of himself.
Hey, hell of a 'deal' you got going there, USA -
ReplyDeleteIran took samples for IAEA at suspect military site
AFP By Arthur MacMillan with Simon Sturdee in Vienna
.
Tehran (AFP) - Iran said Monday it independently collected samples at a suspect military site where illicit nuclear work is alleged to have occurred and later handed them to the UN's absent inspectors.
The disclosure that international monitors were not physically present is likely to feed critics of a nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, who have poured scorn on measures used to check if Tehran's atomic programme is peaceful.
In a mark of the high stakes at play it drew a quick reaction from the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency, whose chief insisted that "the integrity of the sampling process and the authenticity of the samples" was not compromised..............
http://news.yahoo.com/iran-hands-iaea-samples-suspect-military-005156026.html
Samples.....not compromised......by the IAEA at any rate.....
FARCE
With friends like Deuce -
ReplyDeleteIsrael Needs New Friends
SEPT. 20, 2015
Shmuel Rosner
TEL AVIV — Now that the Iran nuclear deal is a fait accompli, it has become a well-established belief that relations between America and Israel are at a low point. Most Israelis argue that this is mainly because of President Obama’s policies.
Opponents of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tend to point their finger at the Israeli prime minister. But the two camps agree on the way forward: the kind of relations the countries used to have must be restored, they say. The first step in this healing process is supposed to occur when Mr. Obama and Mr. Netanyahu meet in Washington in early November.
But Israel would be wiser to have realistic expectations, and make do with less. There is no substitute for America and American friendship, but Israel has developed an unhealthy overreliance on that friendship alone. This needs to change.
Relations between Jerusalem and Washington were not always wonderfully close. The Eisenhower years were icy. France was an ally in the 1950s, mostly because the United States was uninterested at that time. The Kennedy years were an improvement. The Ford, Carter and George H.W. Bush years were tense.
Every weekday, get thought-provoking commentary from Op-Ed columnists, The Times editorial board and contributing writers from around the world.
Yet with time, complete reliance on American support for Israel became a habit of sorts that merited little debate or consideration. It has been a cornerstone of Israel’s national security strategy — a deterrent against enemies. And the price for it has usually been tolerable. Prime Minister Menachem Begin had to contend with an ultimatum from Ronald Reagan to cease bombing Beirut. Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir had to agree to participate in the Madrid peace summit in which he had little interest.
The close relations have been highly beneficial for Israel — diplomatically, financially and psychologically. But it also made Israel somewhat lazy. When in need, or in trouble, the only address it had installed in its diplomatic navigation device was 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW. Israel didn’t invest enough in making other friends. Israel didn’t prepare for a crack in the alliance. Israel sinned twice: It smugly took American support for granted while meekly communicating to Washington that it neither seeks nor sees any alternative to America’s domination.
DeleteThis process culminated under the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations, when terms such as “no daylight” became common. The interests of the two countries were usually compatible. And in the few cases they weren’t — for example, when Israel wanted to sell reconnaissance planes to China — the countries managed to resolve their differences and move on.
But that dramatically changed when Mr. Obama decided that it was in America’s best interest to sign a nuclear deal with Iran. Suddenly, for the first time after many years of a relatively comfortable, relatively effortless alliance, the countries found themselves at odds regarding an issue that is a major priority for both.
The Iran agreement is now a done deal. And the instinctive response is to pretend that things can go back to how they were before. Once the nuclear accord is implemented, Mr. Obama said a few weeks ago, he expects “pretty quick” improvements in American-Israeli relations. In Israel, members and opponents of Mr. Netanyahu’s coalition argue that restoring the relations with Washington is the most important next step.
But maybe Israel shouldn’t strive to bring relations back to their exact former state. This crisis is an opportunity to reduce our excessive reliance on Washington and think creatively about a way to achieve our goals even in the rare cases when they stand in contradiction to American policy.
Improving Israel’s ties with emerging powers, such as India, is key to advancing such a cause............
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/21/opinion/israel-needs-new-friends.html?_r=0
My outlook too. India and Israel are a good fit.
Hopefully with the election of a Republican President - any Republican - the insanity of the last eight years will settle back into something approaching more normal and rational.....
The Hindus have seen the very worst of the Moslems - what with 80,000,000 Hindu dead over the centuries - and yet my Niece says:
DeleteThe ones in the middle east are the worst, Uncle Bob
Chew on that for a while.
DeleteThe phony intelligence reports were dubbed by insiders as The Rufus Intelligence Reports -
ReplyDeleteALL GOOD09.20.159:00 PM ET
Exclusive: This Is the ISIS Intel the U.S. Military Dumbed Down
The intelligence pros said killing certain ISIS leaders might not diminish the group and that airstrikes might not be working. The bosses didn’t like those answers—not at all.
Senior intelligence officials at the U.S. military’s Central Command demanded significant alterations to analysts’ reports that questioned whether airstrikes against the so-called Islamic State widely known as ISIS were damaging the group’s finances and its ability to launch attacks. But reports that showed the group being weakened by the U.S.-led air campaign received comparatively little scrutiny, The Daily Beast has learned.
Senior CENTCOM intelligence officials who reviewed the critical reports sent them back to the analysts and ordered them to write new versions that included more footnotes and details to support their assessments, according to two officials familiar with a complaint levied by more than 50 analysts about intelligence manipulation by CENTCOM higher-ups.
In some cases, analysts were also urged to state that killing particular ISIS leaders and key officials would diminish the group and lead to its collapse. Many analysts, however, didn’t believe that simply taking out top ISIS leaders would have an enduring effect on overall operations.
“There was the reality on the ground but it was not as rosy as [the leadership] wanted it to be,” a defense official familiar with the complaint told The Daily Beast. “The challenge was assessing whether the glass was half empty, not half full.”
Some analysts have also complained that they felt “bullied” into reaching conclusions favored by their bosses, two separate sources familiar with analysts’ complaints said. The written and verbal pressure created a climate at CENTCOM in which analysts felt they had to self-censor some of their reports.
Some of the analysts have also accused their bosses of changing the reports in order to appeal to what they perceived as the Obama administration’s official line that the anti-ISIS campaign was making progress and would eventually end with the group’s destruction.
Lawmakers and even presidential candidates seized on the allegations of politicizing intelligence as the White House tried to distance itself from the very strategy it has been pursuing.
Army General Lloyd Austin came under withering bipartisan criticism on Wednesday when he testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee that after spending at least $43 million over a 10-month period, the U.S. had trained only nine fighters to confront ISIS in Syria.
Senators were dumbfounded that the nearly year-long effort had produced such paltry results, calling it “a joke” and “an abject failure.”......
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/09/20/exclusive-this-is-the-isis-intel-the-u-s-military-dumbed-down.html
Ah those peaceful Fakistinians are at it again...
ReplyDeleteA Palestinian man was killed on Monday night when a grenade intended to be used to harm Israeli soldiers near Hebron detonated prematurely according to reports by Ma'an News Agency.
The man was identified as Muhannad Mashraqa who by another Palestinian at the scene of the explosion.
LOL
Ah the blow up to fast...
Well one less savage on the planet..
Jihad Watch
ReplyDeleteExposing the role that Islamic jihad theology and ideology play in the modern global conflicts
Islamic jihadists burn musician’s piano because music is un-Islamic
September 21, 2015 9:46 am By Robert Spencer 46 Comments
Hadith Qudsi 19:5: “The Prophet said that Allah commanded him to destroy all the musical instruments, idols, crosses and all the trappings of ignorance.” (The Hadith Qudsi, or holy Hadith, are those in which Muhammad transmits the words of Allah, although those words are not in the Qur’an.)
Muhammad also said:
(1) “Allah Mighty and Majestic sent me as a guidance and mercy to believers and commanded me to do away with musical instruments, flutes, strings, crucifixes, and the affair of the pre-Islamic period of ignorance.”
(2) “On the Day of Resurrection, Allah will pour molten lead into the ears of whoever sits listening to a songstress.”
(3) “Song makes hypocrisy grow in the heart as water does herbage.”
(4) “This community will experience the swallowing up of some people by the earth, metamorphosis of some into animals, and being rained upon with stones.” Someone asked, “When will this be, O Messenger of Allah?” and he said, “When songstresses and musical instruments appear and wine is held to be lawful.”
(5) “There will be peoples of my Community who will hold fornication, silk, wine, and musical instruments to be lawful ….” — ‘Umdat al-Salik r40.0
piano
“His piano burned, musician joins migrant tide,” by Rana Moussaoui, Agence France Presse, September 21, 2015 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):
BEIRUT: Three years of siege, famine and bombing of his Damascus refugee camp didn’t kill celebrated musician Aeham al-Ahmad, but something died inside him the day militants burned his beloved piano in front of his eyes. It was then that Ahmad, whose music had brought consolation, even a bit of joy, to Yarmouk camp’s beleaguered residents, decided to join thousands of others and seek refuge in Europe.
“They burned it in April, on my birthday. It was my most cherished possession,” Ahmad told AFP, which is following his odyssey online, step-by-step. “The piano wasn’t just an instrument. It was like the death of a friend.”
For 27-year-old Ahmad, whose songs of hope amid the rubble of Syria’s largest Palestinian camp became a social media sensation last year, “it was a very painful moment.”
Since Syria’s civil war struck Yarmouk in 2013, the once-thriving neighborhood saw its population dwindle from 150,000 Palestinians and Syrians to barely 18,000 people.
The camp was caught up in fighting among government forces, rebels, and extremists and suffered a devastating siege by the Syrian army. About 200 people died from malnutrition and a lack of medicines.
Ahmad became a symbol of hope, helping Yarmouk’s people – particularly its children – forget for a moment the brutal war raging around them with every note he played. “The days when I felt the most helpless were when I had money, but I could not get milk for my year-old baby Kinan, or when my older son Ahmad would ask me for a biscuit,” he said.
“It was the worst feeling.”
But after ISIS militants attacked the camp in April, Ahmad’s gentle, tentative ray of light was engulfed in flames. He was in a pickup truck, trying to move his piano to nearby Yalda, where his wife and two boys were living, when he was stopped at a militant checkpoint.
“Don’t you know that music is haram [forbidden by Islam],” a gunman asked, before torching his beloved instrument.
Ahmad had stayed in Yarmouk until the day ISIS reduced his battered but precious upright piano to ashes: “That’s when I decided to leave.”
He would make for Germany, from where he would then try to get his family out of Syria.
He began the dangerous journey out of Damascus “as rockets rained down,” heading north through the provinces of Homs, Hama, and Idlib until he reached the Turkish border.
“At every step, I would meet another trafficker of human flesh,” he recalled….
http://us1.campaign-archive1.com/?u=12857896c3097382b25b80a09&id=a291b4a06a&e=ed5f5d431b
DeleteNo song, no art in Islam.....
Only killing, slicing, murdering, torturing, beheading, raping, knifing, exploding, bombing, shooting, crucifying, burning........
How unlike the Judeo/Christian way and the European heritage, how unlike the Greeks, the Hindus......how unlike everyone else.....
Awesome news...
ReplyDeleteChicago - 2200 shot this year...
9 killed this weekend alone...
This is Obama's America.
Chicago qualifies as The Big O's hometown......
ReplyDeletefrom the "Go Ben Department" -
ReplyDeleteSeptember 22, 2015
Ben Carson stands firm. What nerve!
By Carol Brown
Ben Carson has done it now. First he had the temerity to say that Islam is in conflict with our Constitution. And now he won’t back down. Doesn’t he know Republicans are supposed to cave, cower, and crumble after standing for truth and that anyone, irrespective of their political leanings, must not criticize Islam?
How dare Ben Carson commit blasphemy. How dare he ignore the president’s warning that “the future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam!”
And now, adding faux insult to fake injury, Carson is “doubling down” on his remarks. In an interview with The Hill, Carson elaborated on his comments from earlier on Sunday.
I do not believe Sharia is consistent with the Constitution of this country. Muslims feel that their religion is very much a part of their public life and what you do as a public official, and that’s inconsistent with our principles and our Constitution.
The Hill reported that Carson stated he would make an exception if a Muslim running for office were to publically reject “all the tenets of Sharia and lived a life consistent with that.”
Carson also raised the issue of taqiyya (good for him!), stating: “taqiyya is a component of Shia that allows and even encourages you to lie to achieve your goals.” And while he noted that the question originally put to him may have been a “gotcha” question, it ultimately “served a useful purpose by providing the opportunity to talk about what Sharia is and what their goals are”..................
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2015/09/ben_carson_stands_firm_what_nerve.html
Go Ben !
Of course if you publically reject sharia you are liable to be killed by some other muslim......so it almost sounds as if Ben is inviting them to commit suicide.....;)
DeleteSeptember 22, 2015
ReplyDeleteWhat other taboo topics would you like Trump and Carson to bring out of the shadows?
By Ed Straker
One of Donald Trump's greatest contributions to this campaign is that now we can talk about illegal immigration once again without being accused of being racists. The first time he did it, people held their breath to see if he would be destroyed in the polls, or if he would apologize or Scott Walkerize. He wasn't, and he didn't. Then suddenly it became okay for everyone to talk about the problem of illegal aliens.
Now Ben Carson has done the same thing with radical Islam. When asked point-blank if a Muslim should be president, he said no. And he didn't apologize. And he's still there. Now, I don't agree with such a blanket categorization, but I am grateful that Carson has made it possible to open a discussion about the problems in the Islamic community, particularly that terrorists and their supporters are a large subgroup in that religion and that there are too few leaders in vocal opposition to it. Previously, even most Republicans were loath to say the words "radical Islam." Now everyone is doing it. Candidates are for the first time questioning the merit of bringing more Muslims from radicalized countries into the U.S. I have never heard Republicans have such a discussion before. Have you?
That started me thinking. What other topics would you like Trump or Ben Carson to make it safe to talk about again? Here is my list:
1) The gay lifestyle, especially the gay male lifestyle, is medically extremely dangerous (regarding AIDS and hepatitis) and not something to promote to our kids in school.
2) Affirmative action is racism and should be attacked as such.
3) So-called "transgenderism" is a mental illness. These people need mental help, not enabling and preferences, and if these sick boys go into girl's bathrooms, they should be arrested and/or sent to mental hospitals.
4) Too many people are going to college. Many people have no need to go to college, and with large dropout rates at public schools and community colleges, the government shouldn't be subsidizing it.
5) Global warming believers are either cultists or people trying to get rich off of the backs of taxpayers. The debate is over – there has been no warming in 17 years.
6) The Endangered Species Act puts animals before people and has to go. People are more important than snails.
Delete7) Rather than hating the rich, we owe a moral debt to people who pay more taxes than we do and should be grateful to them.
8) Women are not equally represented in all industries because they aren't as interested in working in certain industries as men are.
9) Recycling is totally unnecessary. Most of the Earth is completely empty. We have enough space for landfills for thousands of years.
10) If every high school graduate who spoke English carried a gun, the country would be a much safer and more polite place.
11) English is our national language, and there should be no excuse for government forms or ballots in any other language. If you're a citizen, you should speak it. If you don't, you shouldn't be a citizen.
12) The free market is the greatest engine for lifting up the poor, and rather than apologize for it, candidates should praise it. And rather than apologize for saying that 47% of people are on welfare, as Romney did, we should attack that statistic, saying it shows that something is fundamentally wrong with the system.
13) People should save their own money for retirement. Social Security should be limited to the poorest of the poor and the disabled.
14) Government never really "shuts down," and a government "shutdown" never significantly harms anyone. To the contrary, it is like a zero-based audit or a bankruptcy declaration that improves the system.
What would you like Trump or Carson to talk about next?
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2015/09/what_other_taboo_topics_would_you_like_trump_carson_to_bring_out_of_the_shadows.html
15) Defunding and closing the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.......a top priority for me....the Idaho Fish and Game Department is bad enough....(more pickup trucks than employees)
The Pope Forgets the Oppressed of Cuba
ReplyDeleteThe pontiff’s visit gave the Castros what they wanted.
September 22, 2015
Daniel Greenfield
6
Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is a New York writer focusing on radical Islam.
In 1960, Cuban bishops declared that “Catholicism and Communism respond to two totally different concepts of man and the world which it will never be possible to conciliate.” Pope Francis however contends that Communism is really Christianity. “The Communists have stolen our flag,” he said.
The Cuban bishops condemned Communism as “a system which brutally denies the most fundamental rights of the human being.” Pope Francis’ criticisms of the Castro regime were limited to oblique references, a plea for religious freedom for Catholics and general criticisms that could apply to Cuba or any one of a number of other places. He failed to even reiterate his old criticisms of the regime.
Cuban dissidents were kept from meeting Pope Francis and even the “passing greeting” that had been planned was shut down when the Communist authorities detained political dissidents. When the protesters risked their freedom to get near him, they were arrested without receiving any acknowledgement from the pope. The Castros got their meetings and their publicity.
The oppressed, whom Pope Francis claimed to speak for during his visit and during his international travels, were left out in the cold. They were treated to another oblique reference, as Pope Francis expressed his desire to “embrace especially all those who for various reasons I will not be able to meet.”
“It simply doesn’t appear to us to be right or just that the pope doesn’t have a little time to meet with those Cubans who are defending human rights,” the head of the country’s largest dissident organization said.
Pope Francis spoke of Obama’s deal with Castro as a “process of normalizing relations between two peoples following years of estrangement.” But he knows quite well that it’s nothing of the kind. The Cuban people are not estranged from the Cuban refugees in America by a lack of diplomatic relations, but by the brutal suppression of political and religious freedom by the Castro regime.
The Obama deal doesn’t bring the “two peoples” together; it puts money in the pockets of a regime that Pope Francis had once called corrupt and authoritarian. It allows American leftists to tour Cuba for the trade in underage prostitutes that it has become notorious for. This isn’t reconciliation. It’s exploitation.
DeleteThe clearest sign of what is behind the true “estrangement” in Cuba may be found in the 1960 declaration which contended that “The absolute majority of the Cuban people, who are Catholic... can only by deceit or coercion be led to a Communist regime.”
Today, the reverse is true as deceit and coercion have taken their toll.
The Cuban bishops had defied the Castro regime as a matter of conscience. And they paid the price. The Castro crackdown on the Catholic Church in the sixties has been largely ignored by a media that is eager to tell a very different story. But it appears to have been just as tragically forgotten by Pope Francis.
Francis might have remembered Bishop Eduardo Boza Masvidal who was arrested numerous times and whose church was bombed after urging Cubans to remember "all those who fight and suffer persecution under Communist regimes." And the pope might have remembered his words that Cuba's communist regime is "based on hate and class struggle instead of love... it is a terrible thing to teach a people to hate. It is one of the most unchristian things that can be done."
When Pope Francis attempts to make common cause with Marxists around class struggle, he is making common cause on hatred, rather than love, on divisive resentment rather than reconciliation. It is a plan that is not only doomed to fail, but is doomed to backfire, spreading more hatred rather than love.
As Che Guevara had urged, “Hatred is the central element of our struggle… Hatred that is intransigent…Hatred so violent that it propels a human being beyond his natural limitations, making him violent and cold- blooded killing machine… To establish socialism, rivers of blood must flow.”
This is the final terrible end of spreading class struggle. The hatred takes root and creates monsters.
Father José Conrado, who actually lives in Cuba, provides a very different model that challenges the authority of the Castro regime, rather than attempting to find common ground with it. Conrado had challenged Cuba’s dictator on the existence of “prisoners of conscience” and restrictions on “the most basic freedoms: speech, information, press and opinion, and serious restrictions on freedom of religion.”
He didn’t do it in 1960, but only a few years ago. Before the pope’s visit, he said, “I cannot overlook the suffering of my people, the injustices that I believe are avoidable. Dante said that the ninth circle of hell, the worst of all the circles, is reserved for those who in times of crisis crossed their arms and closed their mouths.”
Political change does not happen without political courage. And moral authority is not exercised by tolerating immorality. The moral authority of a totalitarian regime rests not on love, but on fear. Timidity in the face of tyranny upholds that moral authority of political terror. It gives in to fear.
ReplyDelete“The fear generated by a totalitarian regime is not defined. It is a fear that provokes a paralyzing anguish because one can't even define exactly what it is that one fears. What can they do to us? Can they take our lives? Can they take away our honor, by speaking badly about us, with defamation campaigns? They do that all the time,” Father José Conrado said.
Religion can give people the courage to defy that fear. It can show an oppressed people the paltry limitations of tyrants who rely on intimidation for their authority. It can endow that defiance with moral authority. It is a grave error to sacrifice that moral authority for the sake of reconciling with tyrants.
In 1960, the clergy of Cuba understood that there could be no common ground with Communism, that it had to be defied even if that defiance was doomed, because complicity with evil would corrupt them.
Few serve as better examples of that then Javier Arzuaga, the former left-wing priest who had supported Castro, only to flee shocked and horrified by the butchery.
“The day I left, Che told me we had both tried to bring one another to each other’s side and had failed. His last words were: ‘When we take our masks off, we will be enemies,’” Arzuaga recalled.
The Castros have their masks on again, but underneath is a totalitarian regime based on brutality and hate. Underneath their masks, they are the enemy. To aid them is to risk becoming complicit in their crimes.
If Pope Francis really wished to speak for the oppressed, there are eleven million of them in Cuba. They are not oppressed by capitalism or by global warming. They are oppressed by that fear, the paralyzing anguish that it brings and the apathy that comes with it. They needed weapons against that fear.
The pope’s visit gave the Castros what they wanted, but failed to give the Cuban people what they needed.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/260206/pope-forgets-oppressed-cuba-daniel-greenfield
Pope Francis - so far, one big huge disappointment......
DeleteGreat News, the Fakistinians are seeking suicide.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RJleSVTKHU#t=43
Fatah's military wing in Gaza claims 3.5 km tunnel into Israel is ready for next war
Published on Aug 18, 2015
Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades fighter: "There will be a qualitative change for the unit [named after] Martyrdom-seeker Nabil Mas’oud in the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, by using attack tunnels against the Zionist entity. We will now go through one of those tunnels to see what the Martyrs’ Brigades is preparing for this occupation (i.e., Israel)..."
Iranian TV reporter: "Here is the first tunnel... When we met the Ribat [Islamic] fighters in this tunnel, they said that the weapons in their hands and their preparations for confrontation with the Israeli enemy are what give them reason to live."
Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades fighter: "This tunnel is approximately 3.5 km long and crosses the border between the Gaza Strip and the Zionist enemy. There are tunnels inside [Gaza] through which Jihad fighters pass during war... We spend all our time trying to get money to fulfill our duty concerning our occupied lands and liberate them from the Zionist entity. This is why we are asking [for money]... especially [from] Iran, which is a known long-time supporter of the resistance and the Palestinian cause..."
Iranian TV reporter: "The book of resistance is still open... and its last line will not be written until Palestine is liberated."
Notes: Ribat - religious conflict/war over land claimed to be Islamic
Nabil Mas'oud – a suicide terrorist from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades (Fatah's military wing) who, along with Mahmoud Salem from the Izz A-Din Al-Qassam Brigades (Hamas' military wing), carried out a double suicide attack at the Ashdod port on March 14, 2004, killing 10 people and wounding 13.
[Al-Alam TV (Iran) news report, posted on Wattan TV (independent Palestinian channel), June 29, 2015]
This will be the reason for the exodus of most of the arabs of the west bank to leave.
Get ready Europe more "migrants" are about to come...
Was talking with farmer Wayne about a month or so ago, and somehow the topic of the firebombings of Japan came up......one of his uncles had been on those raids......he said that as far as he could see, front, left, and right......nothing but fire......
ReplyDeleteFor the attack on Tokyo, over 300 B-29’s were involved. They took off for a flight that would get them to Tokyo just before dawn, thus giving them the cover of darkness, but with daylight for the return journey to the Marianas. They flew at 7,000 feet. This in itself may have baffled the city’s defenders as they would have been used to the B-29’s flying at 30,000 feet.
The raid had a massive impact on Tokyo. Photo-reconnaissance showed that 16 square miles of the city had been destroyed. Sixteen major factories – ironically scheduled for a future daylight raid – were destroyed along with many cottage industries. In parts of the city, the fires joined up to create a firestorm. The fires burned so fiercely and they consumed so much oxygen, that people in the locality suffocated. It is thought that 100,000 people were killed in the raid and another 100,000 injured. The Americans lost 14 B-29’s; under the 5% rate of loss that was considered to be ‘acceptable’.
The Fire Raids on Japan
The fire raids on Japan started in 1945. The fire raids were ordered by General Curtis LeMay, who some see as the ‘Bomber Harris’ of the Pacific War, in response to the difficulty B-29 crews had in completing pinpoint strategic bombing over Japanese cities. LeMay, therefore, decided that blanket bombing raids on cities to undermine the morale of civilians were an appropriate response. After the attack on Pearl Harbour in December 1941 (referred to as “unprovoked and dastardly” by President Roosevelt), no-one was willing to speak out on behalf of the Japanese citizens.
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/world-war-two/the-pacific-war-1941-to-1945/the-fire-raids-on-japan
Wayne's uncle said he puked in the cockpit....
Pope Francis Desecrates Memory of Catholic Martyrs in Cuba
ReplyDeleteThe Castro regime's reward for mass murder.
September 22, 2015
Humberto Fontova
3
12
“Dear Mom and Dad,
I’ve just received the news that I’ll be executed by firing squad in the morning. I assure you, dear parents, that I’ve never felt such spiritual tranquility as I do now. I feel content knowing that very shortly I’ll be with God, waiting and praying for you, my parents. I realize this news is painful for you, but please have faith in the Eternal Life. I want you all to rise above this and know that God, in his infinite mercy, has given me the grace to reconcile with Him… Hugs and kisses, not tears, for everyone. Goodbye, my family. Have faith in God.
Long Live Christ the King!
-- Alberto Tapia
“Apunten!" ("Aim!") yelled the unnerved firing squad leader the following morning April 18, 1961 …
“Listos!" ("Ready!")
“-- Viva Cristo Rey!” ("Long love Christ the King!)" suddenly yelled Alberto Tapia shortly interrupting the murder process and greatly unnerving the murderers.
“Fuego!!!” ("Fire!") finally yelled the furious executioner.
A deafening blast and Soviet bullets ripped apart the head and torso of yet another young Cuban martyr. Albert Tapia was barely 21 years old, typical age for most of Castro and Che’s murder victims.
The defiant yells ("Viva Cristo Rey!" "Viva Cuba Libre!" "Abajo Comunismo!") from the bound and staked martyrs “would make the walls of La Cabana prison tremble!” wrote eyewitness to the slaughter, Armando Valladares, who suffered 22 torture-filled years in Castro’s prisons and was later appointed by Ronald Reagan as U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Human Rights Commission.
Given their valiant defiance even during their last seconds alive, by mid-1961 the mere binding and blindfolding of Castro and Che’s young murder victims wasn’t enough. The fine folks who hosted Pope Francis’ in Cuba this week then began ordering that the Catholic youths also be gagged. The shaken firing-squads demanded it. The yells were badly unnerving the trigger-pullers, you see.
DeleteAs the fine folks who hosted Pope Francis in Cuba this week yanked the young Catholic heroes from their cells, bent their arms back, and bound their hands, two more Communist guards came into play. One grabbed the struggling victim’s hair and jerked his head back, trying to steady him. The other taped his mouth shut.
Raul Castro (who hosted the Pope at yesterday’s mass) and Che Guevara (whose visage formed the backdrop for the mass) were the most notorious executioners during the early years of the Cuban Revolution. The orders, of course, all issued from Fidel Castro, with whom Pope Francis went out of his way to visit and smilingly hob-nob after the mass.
“I am not Christ or a philanthropist,” wrote Che Guevara in a letter to his mother. “I am all the contrary of a Christ -- In fact, if Christ himself stood in my way, I, like Nietzsche, would not hesitate to squish him like a worm.”
As mentioned: an enormous image of Che Guevara formed the backdrop to Pope Francis’s mass in Havana yesterday.
Castro’s KGB and STASI-tutored regime prepared for the Pope’s visit carefully. Any unsightly protests would obviously mar the occasion, especially for a regime long-accustomed to preening in front of the international media mirror. So Cuban dissidents (especially Catholic ones) were rounded up, often brutally, as captured in this video.
"The facts and figures are irrefutable. No one will any longer be able to claim ignorance or uncertainty about the criminal nature of Communism," wrote the New York Times (no less!) about "The Black Book of Communism."
This study found that Castro and Guevara’s firing squads murdered upwards of 16,000 Cubans, the equivalent, given the U.S. population, of almost one million executions. Some more perspective: the UN (the same United Nations that proudly features Cuba on its Human Rights Council, by the way) charged former Serbian dictator Slodoban Milosevic with “genocide” for ordering 8000 executions.
And far from any of the repentance the Catholic Church supposedly requires for forgiveness, the Castro brothers have always doubled- and even tripled-down on their gloating for those thousands of murders, historically denouncing the young victims as “CIA mercenaries” and “terrorists.”
None of this has prevented the Castro regime from receiving the most papal visits recently of any Latin America nation, equaling the number of papal visits to Brazil, with a population of 200 million, 130 million of them declared Catholics. In contrast, Cuba has a population of 11 million, only a tiny fraction of which are practicing Catholics. Someone’s got some serious “‘splainin'” to do for this papal fetish of constantly visiting Stalinist Cuba and chumming around with her Stalinist rulers.
Interestingly, more Popes (three) have recently visited Cuba -- a nation with many more crypto-voodooists than Catholics -- than have visited Mexico (with 97 million Catholics). Hello? And as Joan Rivers used to ask: “Can we talk?” (about this glaring and –for many—disgusting incongruity.)
For many of us, the Papal motivation for visiting Cuba seems no different from Beyonce’s, Conan O’Brien’s, Jack Nicholson’s, Oliver Stone’s, Sean Penn’s, etc. The Popes get plenty of press and get to poke Uncle Sam in the eye. In this respect, they seem no different from all those loud-mouthed, Castro-hugging celebrity popinjays.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/260201/pope-francis-desecrates-memory-catholic-martyrs-humberto-fontova
Pope Francis is a horse's ass.
He should have gone to Gitmo and said Mass there.
Delete.
ReplyDeleteThe battle for Sanaa looms
Saudi Arabia and its coalition partners are preparing for a major offensive to take Yemen's capital from the Zaydi Houthi rebels this fall. If the battle becomes a house-to-house urban clash, it will have disastrous humanitarian consequences.
If a cease-fire is not arranged, the battle for Sanaa will turn into a humanitarian disaster.
Author Bruce Riedel Posted September 21, 2015
The Saudis are massing forces at two locations for the assault on Sanaa. To the east of the capital, coalition forces are preparing to attack in Marib province. According to press reports, 4,000 troops from the United Arab Emirates, another 1,000 from Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, and an unknown number of Yemeni loyalists are assembled for this offensive. Furthermore, south coalition forces in Taiz are preparing another move on Sanaa. Saudi and Emirati troops and Yemeni loyalists are reinforcing this axis as well.
The United Nations’ efforts to arrange a cease-fire this month were stymied by Yemen President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi’s refusal to attend peace talks in Oman unless the Houthis and their ally, former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, withdraw their forces from Sanaa and other cities first and accept UN Security Council Resolution 2216. Hadi remains in Riyadh, although some of his Cabinet members have moved to Aden where the situation remains unstable. A Saudi bombing attack damaged the residence of the Omani ambassador in Sanaa this weekend, sparking a sharp protest from Muscat.
The Saudi military successes in Aden and other fronts so far have been in Sunni inhabited parts of Yemen. Now they are moving into predominantly Zaydi Shiite areas. Sanaa itself is a city of 2 million people. Both the terrain and the local conditions will become more difficult for the coalition forces as the war moves toward Sanaa.
{...}
.
.
Delete{...}
The Yemeni civilian population is already suffering from the effects of months of bombing by the Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF) and its allies, the blockade of key ports like Al-Hudaydah, and shortages of food, clean water and medical supplies. Some Yemenis have even fled across the Bab al-Mandab Strait to comparative safety in Somalia and Djibouti.
Inside the Kingdom, the young Minister of Defense Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the king’s favorite son, remains the face of the war and its most prominent advocate. He engineered the removal of a key supporter of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, Minister of State Saad bin Khalid Al-Jabri, from the Cabinet earlier this month, fueling speculation that Mohammed bin Salman's ambition is to succeed his father. Victory in Yemen is probably critical to those ambitions.
Washington and London, the main arms suppliers to the Kingdom, have significant capacity to influence Saudi policy. The United States has sold the kingdom more than $90 billion in weapons since 2010, according to congressional reports. Since the beginning of the Saudi war in Yemen, the United States has provided crucial logistic and intelligence support, including the establishment of a joint US-Saudi planning cell. The administration has publicly urged Riyadh to open the blockade of Yemen's Red Sea ports and allow humanitarian aid to get into the country, but there is no sign Washington has used its arms leverage. President Barack Obama promised King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud additional security assistance in their meeting this month. Like the United States, the British government has continued to provide a steady stream of spare parts, munitions and other equipment to the RSAF.
For their part, the Houthis have accused Washington of collusion in the war. Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi has said, "The Americans determine targeting of every child, residential compound, house, home, shop, market or mosque targeted [in the war] … Therefore, the Saudi regime is a soldier and servant of the Americans.” Some kind of retaliation against American targets is probably only a matter of time.
The battle of Sanaa could lead to scenes as terrible as those we've seen in Damascus and Aleppo these past few years. It is time for all the parties to accept a cease-fire, open Yemen's ports and airports to humanitarian cargo and begin a political dialogue. Obama needs to use the leverage he has to avert catastrophe.
Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/09/sanaa-battle-looms.html#ixzz3mU1jSByW
.
Catastrophe ?
DeleteWhat catastrophe ?
Why, President Obozo was touting Yemen as his success story just a few months ago....
More from:
ReplyDeleteThe Best Military Campaign Of My Lifetime Files aka The Rufus Files
Declassified
Obama's Islamic State War Czar Stepping Down
14 Sept 22, 2015 12:10 PM EDT
By Josh Rogin & Eli Lake
President Barack Obama is about to lose the man he hand-picked to build the war effort against the Islamic State. Retired General John Allen will be stepping down as envoy to the global coalition this fall, and the White House is searching for a replacement to be the face of America’s flailing effort to destroy the jihadist group in Syria and Iraq.
Allen will leave government service in the coming weeks, four administration officials told us. State Department officials said they were not ready to officially announce Allen’s departure, but he has notified his superiors he will give up his job in early November, after serving just over one year. His chief of staff, Karin von Hippel, will also depart, to join a British think tank.
The timing of Allen’s departure could not be worse for the Obama administration. The incoming Marine Corps Commandant, Lieutenant General Robert Neller, testified last month that the war is at a “stalemate.” Last week, the head of the U.S. Central Command, General Lloyd Austin, testified that of the 54 Syrian rebels trained and equipped by the U.S. military, only “4 or 5” were still in the fight. And now the Pentagon is investigating allegations by dozens of intelligence analysts that their reporting on the progress in the war effort was altered before being given to top officials.
U.S. officials familiar with Allen's decision say he has been frustrated with White House micromanagement of the war and its failure to provide adequate resources to the fight. He unsuccessfully tried to convince the administration to allow U.S. tactical air control teams to deploy on the ground to help pick targets for air strikes in Iraq. Allen also tried several times to convince the White House to agree to Turkish demands for a civilian protection zone in Syria, to no avail. Nonetheless, administration officials stress that Allen's decision to leave his post was motivated mainly by the health of his wife, who suffers from an auto-immune disorder.
Delete"John Allen has put his heart and soul into trying to make the president's strategy work,” said Derek Harvey, a former senior U.S. military intelligence official who worked with Allen at U.S. Central Command. “I have sympathy for the hard task he was given because I do not believe the president's team was fully on board and he was never empowered to bring the leadership necessary to achieve the mission."
While Allen was working inside the administration, the White House could rely on him to push back against many others in the U.S. national security establishment who argued that Obama was not fully committed to his strategy to degrade and defeat the Islamic State. Earlier this month, he told ABC News that there had been many successes in the war, and he focused on setbacks for the terror group in Tikrit, Iraq, and Kobane, Syria.
“Where we were a year ago today, I wasn't sure how it was going to unfold," Allen said. "It was not clear to me even that Iraq would survive this. In the intervening months, we've seen remarkable progress in many respects.”
Allen was successful in negotiating the deal whereby Turkey is now allowing the U.S. to use the Incirlik Air Base for air operations in Syria. But the broader campaign against the Islamic State has been stymied. The Turks recently launched an offensive not against the jihadists but against Kurdish separatists, who have been important allies to the U.S. on the ground. As Islamic State forces have expanded and consolidated territory in Syria, they have managed to keep control of Iraq's second-largest city, Mosul, and expand into Ramadi, the heart of the 2007-08 Sunni-led rebellion against al-Qaeda in Iraq, the predecessor organization to the Islamic State.
"Some elements of the right strategy are in place, but several are under-resourced while others are missing," David Petraeus, the former general and Central Intelligence Agency director, testified Tuesday before the Senate Armed Services Committee. "We are not where we should be at this point."
When Allen was named to his post in September 2014, he initially planned on staying for six months. He agreed to stay on for another six at the request of Secretary of State John Kerry earlier this year. In the short term, his responsibilities are expected to be passed on to his deputy, Ambassador Brett McGurk. But the White House eventually wants to find a big-name replacement for Allen, who as a four-star Marine Corps general led the international force in Afghanistan from 2011 to 2013.
Finding someone to take the job won’t be easy. Just before he became Obama’s lead official in the fight against the Islamic State, Allen wrote an op-ed article in which he called the group a “clear and present danger to the U.S.” and said it “must be destroyed” quickly, using capabilities and power only the U.S. can bring to bear. Just over one year later, the president has yet to commit to a real plan to “degrade and destroy” the Islamic State, as he has repeatedly said is his goal. Until that changes, Allen’s replacement will face the same roadblocks that he did, and the war against the Islamic State will continue to flounder.
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-09-22/obama-s-islamic-state-war-czar-stepping-down
.
ReplyDeleteObama Foreign Policy: Over-promise, Under Perform
Whether you count yourself a fan of President Barack Obama's Middle East policies or a foe, one thing should be stunningly obvious by now: A good part of the president's foreign policy travails in this region stem from a pattern of needlessly high-flying rhetoric. Indeed, time after time again, Obama has gratuitously and unnecessarily raised expectations and then failed to deliver on them...
------------------------------------
Israel-Palestine
"Assad must Go" and Syria Red-Lines
Libya
Defeating ISIS
Iran Agreement
-----------------------------------------
All administrations promise more than they can deliver. Just look at Obama's predecessor when it came to Iraq. What is odd is that this president deemed himself a realist, not a transformer, when it comes to the Middle East; and yet he seems to fall into the expectations gap so frequently.
When you do not or will not act, words become substitutes for deeds. Part of the problem may be that the administration sees the world the way it wants it to be, not the way it really is. Perhaps part of the issue is a desire to deflect pressure by the use of bold words. Whatever the explanation, to have credibility in foreign policy you must say what you mean, and mean what you say. Sadly, far too many times, the Obama administration has done exactly the opposite.
http://www.realclearworld.com/blog/2015/08/obama_failure_to_learn_in_the_middle_east_111388.html
.
PAPER: Pentagon-trained 'rebels' betray USA, hand weapons to al-Qaeda........Drudge
ReplyDelete...........................................
Hillary the Witch has, after months and months of close calculating, decided that there are a few more votes to be gotten by opposing the Keystone Pipeline than by supporting it.
She announced her opposition today.....
The Labor Unions seem pissed, but they don't have the votes....
.
ReplyDeleteIf Assad Asks, China Can Send Troops
Chinese Uyghur terrorists establishing base in Syria
A new article reported that 3,500 Uyghurs are settling in a village near Jisr-al Shagour that was just taken from Assad, close to the stronghold of Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP) that is in the Turkey-backed Army of Conquest. They are allegedly under the supervision of Turkish intelligence that has been accused of supplying fake passports to recruit Chinese Uyghurs to wage jihad in Syria.
The news comes on the heels of TIP capturing a Syrian airbase and acquiring MIG fighter jets as well as other advanced weaponry, similar to ISIS capturing Iraqi army’s advanced US weaponry.
It also comes on the heels of the Bangkok bombing at the shrine frequented by Chinese tourists, with Thai authorities now drawing a link to Uyghurs “and the same gang that attacked the Thai Consulate in Turkey” in reference to Turkey’s Grey Wolves.
This seems to corroborate IHS Jane’s analyst Anthony Davis’s assessment that Grey Wolves are the likely culprit, given their anti-Chinese protests and violent demonstration back in July.
Through Turkey’s support for the Army of Conquest, TIP has risen to prominence within the anti-Assad coalition and played a key role in defeating the Syrian army at Jisr al Shughour earlier this year.
The most prominent TIP fighter to emerge from the Jisr al Shughur videos was the spokesman for TIP’s “Syria branch” since 2014, Abu Ridha al-Turkistani. In the videos he led fighters to take over a building, and climbed a clock tower to plant a black-and-white Jabhat al Nusra style flag on which “Turkistan Islamic Party” was written in Arabic.
These Uyghur militants have claimed a series of high-profile terrorists attacks in China in 2013 and 2014, with some Uyghurs calling for an intifada against the Chinese communist regime.
Now that TIP has established a base in Syria and is expanding its presence and recruitment courtesy of its Turkish sponsors, China will have to follow through with its 2013 recommendation “Take fight to ETIM before threat grows” and deploy troops to Syria...
http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/if-assad-asks-china-can-deploy-troops-to-syria/
.
It is becoming frightfully complex.
Delete.
ReplyDeleteFrustrated Parents Provide Example of Why They are Frustrated with Common Core
.
Ben Carson: Big Bang A Fairy Tale, Theory Of Evolution Encouraged By The Devil
ReplyDelete“I personally believe that this theory that Darwin came up with was something that was encouraged by the adversary, and it has become what is scientifically, politically correct.”
Evolution: Encouraged by the Debil
Which makes Ben half right, at least...
ReplyDeleteBloomberg 2016: Clinton 33, Biden 25, Sanders 24, Webb 2, O'Malley 1
ReplyDeleteI certainly hope Drinkin' Joe Biden the Plagiarist gets into the race.......talk about a clown car......
Look at these old worn out clowns.....Hillary, Joe, and Bernie.....ha,ha,ha......not a drop of new blood among the three of them.....
The only guy worth a shit is Jim Webb, and he's a 2%......
Did you notice how Hillary artfully slipped her opposition to the Keystone Pipeline in as quietly as possible when all the news coverage is about the Pope ?
The Old Hag does know some tricks.....too many in fact......
ReplyDeleteSeptember 22, 2015
Partisan probabilities on Democrats and Israel
By Surak
During the past year, there has been much insistent rhetoric from the Democratic Party that support for Israel is "bipartisan." To question such dogma puts one in the realm of the climate catastrophe denier – that is, a person who is such an extremist that facts matter more than theory.
I decided to test the bipartisanship hypothesis (BH) using statistical techniques.............
Advanced statistical software is capable of analyzing the vote counts in the 12 bar graphs above. If the bipartisanship hypothesis is true, we can calculate the probability of observing data like that shown above. It turns out that:
In each of the 12 events depicted above, the odds of a Republican supporting Israel are between 5 and 12,459 times the odds of a Democrat supporting Israel.
It would be more likely that a fair coin will come up tails 2,010 times in a row than it would be to see the observed data, if the BH were true.
The odds against seeing the observed data, if BH were true, would be about 200,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 to 1..................
...................Given the evidence, it breaks the bonds of credulity to believe that support of Israel is really bipartisan. Recall Debbie Wasserman-Schultz's denial to a reporter that Israel was booed three times during the 2012 Democrat National Convention, shortly after the incident was broadcast on national television. Credulity-straining appears to come naturally to leftists.
Indeed, there is an a priori argument to explain why the Democratic Party is the natural home for American anti-Semitism. But that lengthy argument is a subject for another day.
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2015/09/partisan_probabilities_on_democrats_and_israel.html
Indeed, we have a President who is a 'democrat' who is an anti-semite of the first order, and a crazy assed very confused muslim loving community organizing turd....
"The future must not belong to those who slander Islam"
Well long live killing, raping, slaying, stoning, crucifying, stabbing, stealing, burning, exploding, terrorizing then, eh, Mr. President ?
Here ya go, pure Islam -
ReplyDeleteSuicide bomber bursts into tears and is comforted by jihadis before fatal attack in Syria
10:27, 23 Sep 2015
Updated 12:39, 23 Sep 2015
By Sam Webb
The frightened fighter, named as an Jafar al-Tayyar, from Uzbekistan, is seen being comforted by his fellow militants moments before he launches his deadly attack
Tears of young suicide bomber sent to die in Syria
Video loading
A jihadist suicide bomber was filmed breaking down in tears before being sent to his death in war-torn Syria.
The frightened fighter, named as an Jafar al-Tayyar, from Uzbekistan, is seen being comforted by his fellow militants moments before he launches his deadly attack on Shi'ite town of Fua in Idlib Province - an Assad regime stronghold.
After he climbs into the explosives-packed armoured personnel carrier, the young man starts sobbing.
An fellow militant says: "Jafar, my brother, don't be afraid. When you are scared, remember Allah," the militant says.
Read more: ISIS terrorists quit because they're not getting the luxury cars and women they were promised
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/suicide-bomber-bursts-tears-comforted-6497847
The Jews have a saying about the Lord putting before the choice of life, or death.......choose life, they say.
The Moslems......we love death more than you do life.
DeleteThe Jews have a saying about the Lord putting before them (all of us, the entire human race) the choice of life, or death.......choose life, they say.
The Moslems.....we love death more than you do life.
Ahh...the aroma of roasted toasted Hillary in the morning ...
ReplyDeleteSeptember 23, 2015
New poll reveals yet another disaster for Hillary
By Thomas Lifson
A Bloomberg poll released this morning shows that only a third of Democrats and leaning-Democrat voters support Hillary, and even more startling, undeclared potential-but-unsure candidate Joe Biden is supported by a quarter of the same sample.
Margaret Talev and Arit John write:
The findings of a national Bloomberg Politics poll released Wednesday represent a notable achievement for an as-yet undeclared candidate, suggest concerns about Hillary Clinton's candidacy, and raise the prospect of a competitive three-way race for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Clinton, once the prohibitive front-runner, is now the top choice of 33 percent of registered Democrats and those who lean Democrat, the poll shows. Biden places second with 25 percent and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is at 24 percent. The other three Democratic candidates combined are the top choice for less than 4 percent of that base.
The trend is most definitely not Hillary’s friend:
Adding to the good news for the vice president: His favorability ratings are on the rise. Since the last Bloomberg poll in April, Clinton's favorability ratings have dropped 10 points, from 48 percent to 38 percent. Biden's 49 percent favorable score represents a 3-point uptick. He was the only one of a dozen national political figures and entities whose approval rating improved over the summer.
This means that two thirds of the Democrats’ base is not declaring themselves supporters of the “inevitable” candidate, and half support rivals, including one who is not certain to run.
With bad news almost certainly on the way, Hillary is taking on water and listing to the side. It is panic time I her camp, and for the Democrat establishment. As with the GOP, the base is way ahead of the party elites in recognizing trouble.
....................................
September 23, 2015
FBI leaks that it has recovered deleted 'private' emails on Hillary's server
By Thomas Lifson
Just hours after being attacked by Senator Grassley for “rebuffing a judge's request for information on the law enforcement agency's investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's private email system,” Bloomberg mysteriously was leaked information that:
The FBI has recovered personal and work-related e-mails from the private computer server used by Hillary Clinton during her time as secretary of state, according to a person familiar with the investigation.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s success at salvaging personal e-mails that Clinton said had been deleted raises the possibility that the Democratic presidential candidate’s correspondence eventually could become public.
I read this as the FBI signaling Senator Grassley and others who may doubt the agency’s enthusiasm in investigating a potential future president (and spouse of a past president) that it is vigorously pursuing the investigation and that it will be yielding fruit. This may well be part of what prompted the State Department to seemingly throw Hillary under the bus.
The noose is tightening. And the number of friends sticking with Hillary diminishes by the day.
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2015/09/fbi_leaks_that_it_has_recovered_deleted_private_emails_on_hillarys_server.html#ixzz3mZQ8kzJe
Follow us: @AmericanThinker on Twitter | AmericanThinker on Facebook
The noose is tightening.
DeleteDontcha just love the sounds of that ?
That's it for me. I've done my part to keep the blood flowing in this joint while the Boss is away.
ReplyDeleteSomebody else step up to the plate...
.
ReplyDeleteWhat Was Volkswagen Thinking
It is incredible that anyone at Volkswagen thought the company could get away with it. Did the engineers and executives who came up with that bit of cheating software ever consider the enormous risk they were taking? Did they really think it was worth the inestimable damage to their customers, to the environment, to their shareholders and to their venerable brand to squeeze a bit of illicit power out of their engines?
Yet that’s exactly what they did, according to an announcement by the Environmental Protection Agency on Friday. VW’s share prices promptly plummeted 19 percent; the company now faces billions in fines, costly recalls, possible class-action lawsuits and criminal charges, investigations into its global practices and tremendous blows to sales, to the VW brand and to Germany’s vaunted auto industry.
.
...it was one 'solution' to a problem - which was "How to pass an emissions test and have a car that can work"
DeleteIt seems that solution was not allowed per EPA regs.