COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Friday, November 27, 2015

Obama should just tell Turkey and Erdogan to shut up - Jesse Ventura makes more sense than our A-Team Rulers and Masters


Moscow (AFP) - President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia had given prior information to the United States of the flight path of the plane downed by Turkey on the Syrian border. 
"The American side, which leads the coalition that Turkey belongs to, knew about the location and time of our planes' flights, and we were hit exactly there and at that time," Putin said at a joint press conference with French counterpart Francois Hollande in the Kremlin.
Ahead of the Hollande talks, Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan traded barbs, with the Russian leader saying he was waiting for an apology and Erdogan ruling out any such move.
Putin on Thursday dismissed as "rubbish" Turkey's claim that it would not have shot down the jet if it had known it was Russian.
"They [our planes] have identification signs and these are well visible," Putin said. "Instead of [...] ensuring this never happens again, we are hearing unintelligible explanations and statements that there is nothing to apologise about."
Putin has also accused Turkey of buying oil from the Islamic State jihadist group, whose financing heavily relies on the sale of energy resources. 
Putin said there was "no doubt" that oil from "terrorist-controlled" territory in Syria was making its way across the border into Turkey. 
"We see from the sky where these vehicles [carrying oil] are going," Putin said. "They are going to Turkey day and night."
“These barrels are not only carrying oil but also the blood of our citizens because with this money terrorists buy weapons and ammunition and then organise bloody attacks," he added.

TURKEY IS ANOTHER US “ALLY” FROM HELL

93 comments:

  1. Gas is cheaper there, the oil gotten from ISIS -- Turkey should be shipping some to us, for free -- help us pay the rent for our air base there - that's about the only good thing I can think of they could do for us -

    November 27, 2015
    Why do you never see gasoline taxes itemized on your receipt?
    By Michael Bargo Jr.

    In April 2014 I suddenly realized that when you buy gasoline, the receipt does not list all the different taxes you have to pay.

    So I emailed the Illinois Policy Institute (https://www.illinoispolicy.org) and asked them to make up a facsimile of a gas receipt.

    Here's what they came up with, and they featured it in a story on their website.

    Turns out a gallon of gas in Chicago has eight taxes on it. In Park Ridge adds two cents more. (I think today they are higher.)

    I went to a neighborhood gas station -- the owner was a nice guy. I asked him if people get angry with him when gasoline goes up in price.

    He said of course they do. I said "why don't you put a sign in your window, listing all the taxes they customers are paying on a gallon of gas?."

    He said "that's illegal in Illinois, I would get fined, and could lose my gas station!"

    http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2015/11/why_do_you_never_see_gasoline_taxes_itemized_on_your_receipt.html

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    1. You have to go to the story to see the gas tax receipt - it's a whopper.

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    2. .

      Yesterday, I saw a lot of places around here selling gas for $1.63/gal and Michigan is usually one of the higher prices states. And that price was not from a station such as Kroger's or Sam's Club where you can get additional big discounts.

      However, I believe Michigan will soon be kicking up the price by $0.17 - $0.21 per gallon to pay for repairing the crumbling roads here.

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    3. The US forces are stationed at a Turkish airbase, "Draft Dodger", the US does not have an independent base there, in Turkey.

      Gain a little knowledge about geography and geopolitics.

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    4. help us pay the rent for our air base there

      Still can't read, eh ?

      Does your mom know what you are doing ?

      You know you aren't supposed to do blogging.

      Delete
  2. .

    For strategic reasons. You only have to look at a map. They are large and have a powerful military. They abut Iran, Iraq, and Syria. Their coast line covers the entire southern edge of the Black Sea and as such they cover Russia's southern flank and can block its access to the Mediterranean.

    There are plenty of reasons to have Turkey as an ally. The real question is do the advantages offset the disadvantages.

    Putin's comments on the flight notifications kind of changes things. If true, it removes all plausibility deniability and makes it harder for both sides to save face in this matter.

    IMO, Syria is likely to get worse before it gets better.

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  3. .

    Latest on the brewing WWIII in the ME.

    The UAE have reportedly hired Colombian mercs to fight in Yemen. It just gets better and better.

    .

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    1. UAE, Qatar, SA, Turkey and Israel, always helpful.

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  4. I get your points, but anytime Russia wants access to the Mediterranean, I think they will get it. Turkey has a powerful military because they need it given the enemies they have created for themselves. The Turkish military is no asset to the US. In the big picture, the US, Europe and Russia need each other. Turkey, Saudia Arabia and Israel, not so much.

    The ultimate nightmare outcome form all this intrigue is hinted ate here:

    Bengaluru, Nov 25: The ISIS, which hit Paris recently, has made a clear indication and that it is building its global capacity. While it has made its presence felt in large parts of the world, it is common knowledge that the ISIS is nurturing a major ambition in Afghanistan as well.

    While it has made an entry into Afghanistan under the name al-Khorasan, there is still a long way to go before it can be considered a player in the region. Security experts feel that the ISIS will look to strike at Pakistan or Paktika in Afghanistan in order to enhance its strength. Michael Kugelman, Senior Associate for South and Southeast Asia Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, says that if the ISIS can strike in Paris, then it can surely strike in Paktika or Peshawar.

    ISIS making direct appeals to Pakistani recruits: The ISIS has announced its formal expansion into what it describes as "Khorasan"-a region encompassing Afghanistan and Pakistan. ISIS also claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on Shia Ismailis, a religious minority, in Pakistan last May. In recent months, in Afghanistan's Nangarhar province, several hundred disaffected Taliban militants, unhappy about their organization's infighting and demoralized by the death of Taliban supreme leader Mullah Omar, have defected to ISIS. Meanwhile, according to security analysts, the Pakistani terror group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi-like ISIS, a vicious Sunni Muslim sectarian jihadist outfit-has dispatched members to fight alongside ISIS in Iraq. ISIS appears to be making direct appeals to Pakistanis in its recruitment pitches. In its proposed prisoner exchanges, it has invoked the name of Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani woman imprisoned on terror charges in Texas. "Although Siddiqui is unknown in most countries, including in much of the Muslim world, she is a cause célèbre in Pakistan." Kugelman adds.



    Read more at: http://www.oneindia.com/india/will-isis-hit-pakistan-to-nurture-afghanistan-dream-1936946.html

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  5. ISIS is a problem that trumps all others. In the not too distant future, I am afraid that will become obvious to everyone.

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  6. RUSSIA HAS NOTICED

    Russia will continue the free delivery of weapons to Afghanistan’s military as it is concerned by the growing influence of Islamic State and its plans to merge with the Taliban, Chairman of the Federation Council Valentina Matviyenko has said.

    Moscow will continue to closely observe the current situation in Afghanistan and will not ignore the recent rise in activity of Taliban fighters, the Russian Senate speaker said after talks with her Afghan colleague, Fazil Hadi Muslimyar, on Tuesday.

    Russia is especially concerned about the situation in Kunduz and Badakhshan, where the concentration of Taliban terrorists is on the increase, Matviyenko added.

    The Russian official said that her country would continue to supply Afghanistan’s military with free weapons and ammunition, and also welcomed Kabul’s intention to modernize its air force through the purchase of Russian military helicopters. She also promised help in training military and police personnel.

    In late October Afghan President Ashraf Ghani asked Russian authorities for Mi-35 helicopter gunships to help suppress the Islamist insurgency that is on the increase as Western coalition forces pull out of the country.

    Fazil Hadi Muslimyar said in press comments that Afghanistan greatly appreciated Russia’s assistance in its fight against terrorism. He noted that the events of the past 14 years had proved that terrorism is a common threat for all nations and must be opposed with a joint effort.

    Russia has been supplying the Afghanistan government with free weaponry since 2010. Most of the deliveries have been light arms and vehicles.

    In 2014, Washington announced that its military operation in Afghanistan was over. The US-led coalition has pulled out most of its forces and the Afghan military has assumed full responsibility for national security. However, some 13,000 ISAF troops will remain in Afghanistan until the end of 2016 to oversee local forces and provide training on counter-terror operations. The pullout caused Russia to stop the transit of NATO cargo to Afghanistan through its territory in May this year.

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    1. .

      And the cycle continues. Deja vu all over again.

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    2. No kidding.

      Time to let Russia take over Afghanistan again, we've done our rotation.

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  7. Ahh, just another "Mole" in the eternal "Great Whack-a-Mole Game." :)

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  8. ISIS is on the rise in Afghanistan -- and they say they're getting young kids to join the jihad. In a special report, FRONTLINE correspondent Najibullah Quraishi reveals on film the degree to which ISIS is gaining a foothold in the country, and how they’re focusing their efforts on training a new generation of jihadists.

    http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/isis-in-afghanistan/

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  9. Islamic State is training militants from Russia in Afghanistan as part of its efforts to expand into Central Asia, a senior Russian diplomat told a security conference in Moscow. He added that US and UK passport holders are among the instructors.
    “There are several camps operated by [Islamic State, previously ISIS/ISIL, in Afghanistan] that train people from Central Asia and some regions of Russia. They speak Russian there,” said Zamir Kabulov, President Putin’s special representative for Afghanistan.

    He added that there is a wide national variety of instructors in those camps. There are Arabs, Pakistanis and even people with US and British citizenship, he said.

    Russian intelligence estimates the number of militants in Afghanistan who have pledged allegiance to the Syria- and Iraq-based Islamic State, at 3,500, Kabulov said, and the number is rising.

    “The rise of [Islamic State] in Afghanistan is a high-priority threat. Just think about it: [ISIS] showed up in Afghanistan for real just a year ago, and now it has 3,500 fighters plus supporters who may be recruited into the ranks of the militants,” he said.

    https://www.rt.com/news/317989-afghanistan-isis-train-russians/

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  10. "On-line" Shopping is up 22%, YOY, for Black Friday, so far.

    Also interesting, apparel deflation is running about 3% from a year ago.

    ReplyDelete
  11. MY RANT ON THE ASS STABBERS CONTINUES:

    Even if Turkey is right that a Russian fighter jet strayed into its airspace, the plane was within Ankara’s borders for just 17 seconds before being attacked – and was making no hostile moves against the Turks.

    Airspace incursions, granted usually in less politically tense contexts, happen all the time, and generally you’d expect warning shots to be fired and then attempts to force the intruder to leave or to land.

    That the Turks shot down the jet and did so within 17 seconds – with the president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, saying he gave the order to fire himself – suggests very strongly they were waiting for a Russian plane to come into or close enough to Turkish airspace with the aim of delivering a rather pyrotechnic message.

    In this respect, it is understandable that the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, called the attack a provocation and an ambush.

    Moscow may have been foolish to let its planes stray so close to the border – doubly so if its rules of engagement allowed pilots to dip into Turkish airspace when it was operationally useful (as is likely). But Turkey’s response went way beyond the usual practice.

    In 2012, the Syrians shot down a Turkish jet which had entered its airspace, and Erdogan’s furious response at the time was that “a short-term border violation can never be a pretext for an attack”.

    (At the time, Nato secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen called it “another example of the Syrian authorities’ disregard for international norms”. There hasn’t been a similar critique of Ankara.)


    Yet no one wants this conflict to escalate, and both Ankara and Moscow are working to that end. Presumably Erdogan feels satisfied the point has been made, and presumably Moscow, while no doubt harboring its grudges, is aware it has a great deal of lost diplomatic ground to make up and wants to be able to strike a deal with the west over Syria and Ukraine.

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  12. In 2012, the Syrians shot down a Turkish jet which had entered its airspace, and Erdogan’s furious response at the time was that “a short-term border violation can never be a pretext for an attack”.

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    1. If the Russians are not lying about the flight path and timing being give to the NATO forces, in Turkey, then there is no doubt that the Russian aircraft was ambushed, given the timeline of the incursion..

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    2. TO THAT POINT

      Not all the myriad camps fighting against Islamic State are working together seamlessly, though. Russian leader Vladimir Putin has just accused the United States of leaking information about the flight path of one of its planes, according to the Daily Mail.
      Putin claims he shared the flight path of one of his jets with US intelligence, and that the jet was shot down after it entered Turkish airspace.

      “They knew the exact time and the exact place [where the jet would be entering Turkey],”complained Putin, who went on to accuse the US of stabbing him in the back. The Russian leader believes the US has either shared his information with the aim of sabotaging Russian jets wilfully, or carelessly leaked Russian information with US allies who do not have Russia’s best interests at heart.

      Read more at http://www.inquisitr.com/2593115/vladimir-putin-barack-obama-betrayed-us-russia-will-team-with-france-to-fight-islamic-state-after-paris-attacks/#2wGu0TrEH3pS2Wu1.99

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    3. If the Turks are right the Russian jet was in Turkey for 17 seconds, to a depth of 1.36 miles in depth and 1.15 in length. Which meant it was flying at 243 miles an hour.

      A military fighter jet in a combat situation flying at 243 miles an hour?


      Delete
    4. Greece has released data revealing that they could have shot down Turkish jets over 2,000 times, for 2,244 violations of Greek airspace in 2014 alone (according to University of Thessaly statistics based on the Greek military’s count)!

      “Athens agrees with the Russian president’s assessment on Ankara’s hostile actions, which are contrary to the goals of the anti-ISIS coalition,” The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement to RIA Novosti.

      Greece, according to its Foreign Ministry, “especially comprehends provocative moves by Turkey given regular multiple violations of Greek air space by Ankara lasting for years.”


      http://anonhq.com/40550-2/

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  13. .

    Yesterday, in the stories on Real Clear Politics there were four berating the hysterical foolishness present at many of the elite universities in this country. The inmates of these asylum, students, teachers, and administrators alike, seem to have gone batshit crazy.

    There was also one article sympathetic to the pampered, prissy pricks who are spreading the mayhem showing that some in the media are also infected with this mental disorder. You wonder what will happen to these elite little pricks when they are forced to abandon their pampered lives and enter the real world. Will they be beaten down or will they mold the world into their own bizarre image. Who is to blame for these curiosities, the Millenials who birthed them or the baby boomers who raised the Millennials?

    There is no point in putting up all the articles as those opposed to the trend track pretty closely and the one supportive of the trend makes no sense at all (IMO, of course). However, I will put up this one by George Will as it provides a comprehensive (although non-exhaustive list of examples of the absurdities many of the countries next generation leaders are indulging in today on many of America's campuses.

    Beyond Satire: American Higher Education Brought Low

    Give thanks this day for some indirect blessings of liberty, including the behavior-beyond-satire of what are generously called institutions of higher education. People who are imprecisely called educators have taught, by their negative examples, what intelligence is not.

    Melissa Click is the University of Missouri academic who shouted “I need some muscle over here” to prevent a photojournalist from informing the public about a public demonstration intended to influence the public. Click’s academic credentials include a University of Massachusetts doctoral dissertation titled “It’s ‘a good thing’: The Commodification of Femininity, Affluence, and Whiteness in the Martha Stewart Phenomenon.” Her curriculum vitae says she has a graduate certificate in “advanced feminist studies.” Advanced. The best kind...


    {...}


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    1. {...}

      University of Missouri law students, who evidently cut class the day the First Amendment was taught, wrote a social media policy that included this: “Do not comment despairingly [disparagingly?] on others.” A grammatically challenged Ithaca College professor produced this cri de coeur regarding the school’s president: “There have been a litany of episodes and incidents during [his] tenure here which have led to frustration because, when brought to his attention, the view of the protesters is that he has been unresponsive.” Symptomatic of Ithaca’s intellectual flavor is another professor, who says agriculture is “capitalist, racialized patriarchy.”

      The University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, an irony-free campus, declared the phrase “politically correct” a microaggression. The master of Yale’s Pierson College said his regrettable title reminds distressed students of slavery. Wesleyan University’s student government threatened to cut the school newspaper’s funding because it published a column critical of campus leftists. Wesleyan created a “safe space,” a.k.a. a house, for LGBTTQQFAGPBDSM students (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Transsexual, Queer, Questioning, Flexual, Asexual, Genderf---, Polyamorous, Bondage/Discipline, Dominance/Submission, Sadism/Masochism).

      A Washington State University professor said she would lower the grade of any student who used the term “illegal immigrants” when referring to immigrants here illegally. Another Washington State professor warned in his syllabus that white students who want “to do well” in his “Introduction to Multicultural Literature” should show their “grasp of history and social relations” by “deferring to the experiences of people of color.” Another Washington State teacher, in her syllabus for “Women & Popular Culture,” warned that students risk “failure for the semester” if they use “derogatory/oppressive language” such as “referring to women/men as females or males.”


      {...}

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    2. {...}

      The University of Tennessee’s Office for Diversity and Inclusion, worried that students might be uncomfortable with gender-specific pronouns (“he,” “she,” “him,” “her”), suggests gender-neutral noises (“ze,” “hir,” “xe,” “xem,” “xyr”). The University of California system’s sensitivity auditors stipulated that “hostile” and “derogatory” thoughts include “I believe the most qualified person should get the job” and “America is the land of opportunity.” The University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point’s list of racial microaggressions includes “America is a melting pot” and “There is only one race, the human race.”

      Some Johns Hopkins University students proclaimed themselves microaggressed by the possibility of a Chick-fil-A restaurant on campus. (Chick-fil-A’s chief executive defines marriage as Barack Obama did until 2012.) Mount Holyoke College canceled its annual production of “The Vagina Monologues” because it is insufficiently inclusive regarding women without vaginas and men who, as the saying goes, “self-identify” as women. “Gender,” said a student, “is a wide and varied experience, one that cannot simply be reduced to biological or anatomical distinctions,” and the show “is inherently reductionist and exclusive.”

      Writing in the University of California at Berkeley paper, two geographically challenged students objected to a class featuring Plato and Aristotle and other “economically privileged white males from five imperial countries (England, France, Germany, Italy and the United States).” A branch of the University of California at Irvine’s student government passed a resolution against the display of flags. Written by a student in the School of Social Ecology ( “transformative research to alleviate social inequality and human suffering”), the resolution said flags are “weapons for nationalism” and “construct” dangerous “cultural mythologies and narratives” and “paradigms of conformity” and “homogenized standards” and interfere with “designing a culturally inclusive space.”

      Students on Columbia University’s Multicultural Affairs Advisory Board suggested trigger warnings for persons who might be traumatized by reading, say, Ovid’s “Metamorphoses,” wherein some myths portray bad sexual behavior. But a feminist blog warned that the phrase “trigger warning” itself needs a warning attached to it because it might remind people of guns. But, then, the word “warning” might [substitute word for “trigger”] fright.

      So, today give thanks that 2015 has raised an important question about American higher education: What, exactly, is it higher than?


      .

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    3. .

      I love this one,

      The University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, an irony-free campus, declared the phrase “politically correct” a microaggression.

      .

      Delete

  14. NEW DELHI - An ISIS affiliate in Bangladesh said Friday it was behind an attack on a Shiite mosque in the country's north that killed one man and wounded three others.

    And the Zionist continue to spread their propaganda that the Islamic State and Iran are one and the same.
    It is interesting that the Russians are, more than likely, telling US the truth, while the Israeli spread lies and deceit.

    ReplyDelete
  15. INTERESTING



    By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – –

    French President Francois Hollande met Thursday with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Moscow, in his marathon search for a “Grand and Unique Coalition” against Daesh (ISIL, ISIS) in Syria. One of the sticking points between France and the US on the one side and Russia on the other is the fate of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and his Baath regime.
    At the same time, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius gave an RTL radio interview Thursday in which he said that in order to fight Daesh,
    “There are two series of measures: aerial bombardment . . . and ground troops, which cannot be our own, but rather must be the forces of the Free Syrian Army (opposition), the Sunni Arab forces, and –whiy not?– the forces of the regime.”

    This position is 180 degrees from the one France had adopted in 2011 and held to until the 11/13 Paris terrorist attacks by Daesh.
    Yves-Michel Riols writes in Le Monde that:
    ‘In declaring before Congress that the struggle against IS [Daesh] is now the priority for French action, the chief of state backed away from the position of Paris that had considered, until now, that no campaign against the jihadists could be conceived unless there was a clear vision of removing Bashar al-Assad. “French movement on this issue has consisted of revising its priorities so as not to have them pose an obstacle to rapprochement with Russia,” observes Camille Grand, director of the Foundation for Strategic Researdh.’
    If so, Fabius went way farther toward mollifying Putin than did Hollande, who continued to insist that al-Assad has no future in Syria. Moreover, contrary to what Grand said above, France had done nothing against the radical vigilantes (“jihadists”) in Syria at all until September, but rather was sending in arms and money to help hard line Salafi groups overthrow the Baath government, likely in close coordination with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf allies.

    That is, Fabius and to a lesser extent Hollande are revealing a 180 degree pivot away from prioritizing overthrowing al-Assad to prioritizes overthrowing Daesh in al-Raqqa province, their Syrian power base.

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  16. IT GETS MORE INTERESTING

    At the press conference in Moscow, Putin replied to Hollande’s overtures by agreeing that there should be a grand coalition against terrorism, but said he wanted it placed under the aegis of the United Nations.

    He said he was ready to cooperate with President Obama’s anti-Daesh coalition in Syria but that incidents such as the Turkish government’s shoot-down of a Russia fighter jet are “totally unacceptable.” He said that Russian participation would depend on that incident not being repeated, since, he remarked, Russia doesn’t really need to partner with anyone, whether with a state or a coalition.

    Putin argued that the Syrian regime is the ideal partner to have in a fight against Daesh. Hollande could not agree.

    Putin did say, however, that he could envisage cooperating with non-Daesh groups. Capital writes that he ended this way:

    “With regard to the attacks in Paris and Saint-Deni on 13 November, as well as the destruction of a Russian Airbus over Sinai on 31 October, he [Putin] spoke of a “common tragedy.” “We are united in our will to find and punish those who committed [these attacks],” he said.

    Le Monde cautions, however, that Hollande hasn’t really had much luck in forging his grand coalition. President Obama is suspicious of Russia’s strategy of shoring up al-Assad first, against al-Qaeda-led coalitions of rebels and against Free Syria Army units (supported by the CIA), before taking on Daesh in a serious way.

    WOULD THE US VETO A UN SECURITY COUNCIL REQUEST BY RUSSIA TO SANCTION JOINT EFFORTS TO DESTROY ISIS?

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  17. The Turks have been playing this game for years. In the previous post, I mentioned that I was working in Greece in 1967-68 on an Over The Horizon Radar System, monitoring Soviet missile launches. (We were ostensibly civilian engineers doing a high frequency radio experiment)

    There were several Turkish over flights on the base I was stationed in central Greece at Larissa. (We assumed at the times that the Turks were doing this on behalf of the Russians as they always flew over our unmarked trailers and over our antenna arrays.) Most of the flights were unreported but this one made it to the UN:



    LE!lTTF,RDATED25 NG-TEMBER19-967FRCM!WE PEFWINENT.?UPRESENTATIvE OF GREECEADDRESSEDTO THE SECRiWAM-GENEFAL

    Upon instructions frcm my Government, I have the honour to inform you that while efforts are continuing aimed at reducing the dangerous tension prevailing in the Eastern Mediterranean, a Turkish jet aircraft violated Greek air space today by flying over the island of Lesbos.

    Luring this new violation, the Turkish jet intercepted a C-47 aircraft of Olympic Airways which had just taken off frcm the mtilini airport. This act could have had tragic consequences.

    The Turkish aircraft entered Greek, air space at 0827 hours, local time, at a point of 39' 05' north and 26’ 411 east. Its course was scuth-easterly. At 0829 hours, it was spotted at 38’ 58’ north and 26’ 20’ east following a south-westerly direction.
    I would be grateful if ycu could have this letter circulated as a document of the Security Ccuncil,

    Please accept, etc.

    (Signed) Dimitri S. BITSIOS Ambassador
    Permanent Representative of Greece to the United Nations
    ---mm

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  18. THE WHIFF OF URINE IN THE MORNING?

    Turkish President Erdogan has warned Russia’s President Putin not to “play with fire" over his country's downing of a Russian jet.
    In a televised speech, Mr Erdogan said he wanted to meet Mr Putin "face-to-face" at climate talks in Paris to resolve the issue.
    But Mr Putin has refused as Turkey is not ready to apologise, an aide said.

    Russia has also decided to suspend its visa-free arrangement with Turkey, Russia's foreign minister said.
    Turkey says the jet was in its airspace when it was targeted, but Russia insists it was flying over Syria.

    "I would like to meet [Mr Putin] face-to-face in Paris," said Mr Erdogan. "I would like to bring the issue to a reasonable point. We are disturbed that the issue has been escalated.”

    But he also said Turkey did not want to damage its relationship with Russia.

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  19. The Thanksgiving story you know probably goes a bit like this: English Pilgrims, seeking religious freedom, landed in Plymouth, Massachusetts, where they found a rich land full of animals and were greeted by a friendly Indian named Squanto, who taught them how to plant corn.

    The true story is more complicated. Once you learn about the real Squanto -- also known as Tisquantum -- you'll have a great yarn to tell your family over the Thanksgiving table.

    I asked historian Charles Mann, the author of 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus, and Paula Peters, a member of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe and an expert on Wampanoag history, to tell me the real story.

    "This is not revisionist history," Peters promised. "This is history that's just been overlooked because people have become very, very comfortable with the story of happy Pilgrims and friendly Indians. They're very content with that -- even to the point where no one really questioned how is it that Squanto knew how to speak perfect English when they came."

    Here's what really happened.

    In 1614, six years before the Pilgrims landed in modern-day Massachusetts, an Englishman named Thomas Hunt kidnapped Tisquantum from his village, Patuxet, which was part of a group of villages known as the Wampanoag confederation. (Europeans had started visiting the northeast of what is now the United States by the 1520s, and probably as early as the 1480s.)

    Hunt took Tisquantum and around two dozen other kidnapped Wampanoag to Spain, where he tried to sell them into slavery.

    "It caused quite a commotion when this guy showed up trying to sell these people," Mann said. "A bunch of people in the church said no way."

    Tisquantum escaped slavery -- with the help of Catholic friars, according to some accounts -- then somehow found his way to England.

    He finally made it back to what is now Massachusetts in 1619. As far as historians can tell, Tisquantum was the only one of the kidnapped Wampanoags to ever return to North America, Peters notes.

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    1. As far as historians can tell, Tisquantum was the only one of the kidnapped Wampanoags to ever return to North America.

      But while Tisquantum was in Europe, an epidemic had swept across New England.

      "The account that’s recorded by Gov. Bradford of Plymouth Plantation is that there’s a shipwreck of French sailors that year on Cape Cod," Mann said. "One of them carried some disease and it wiped out a huge percentage of the population in coastal new England. ... The guess is it was some kind of viral hepatitis, which is easily communicated in water. It exploded like chains of firecrackers."

      When Tisquantum returned to Patuxet, he found that he was the village's only survivor.

      "Into this bumbled the Pilgrims," Mann said. "They had shown up in New England a few weeks before winter. ... Up until the Pilgrims, the pattern had been pretty clear. Europeans would show up, and Indians would be interested in their trade goods, but they were really uninterested in letting [Europeans] permanently occupy land."

      Often, armed native people would even force Europeans to leave if they attempted to stay too long.

      This time, the Europeans wanted to stay, and the disease that had decimated Patuxet ensured that they had a place to settle.

      "Patuxet ultimately becomes Plymouth," Peters explained. "They find this cleared land and just the bones of the Indians. They called it divine providence: God killed these Indians so we could live here."

      A website Peters helped create for the 400th anniversary of the Pilgrims' arrival puts it even more bluntly: "The graveyard of [Tisquantum's] people became Plymouth Colony."

      Massasoit, a local Wampanoag leader, didn't trust Tisquantum. "He looks at this guy and smells trouble," Mann said. Massasoit kept Tisquantum under what was essentially house arrest until the Pilgrims showed up and promptly started starving to death.

      Patuxet wasn't the only native village decimated by the plague. The entire Wampanoag confederation had been badly hit -- as much as 75 percent of the Wampanoag population was wiped out, Mann said. But the Narragansett, a rival neighboring group, basically weren’t affected by the disease at all. That put the Wampanoag in a precarious strategic position.

      Delete
    2. "The graveyard of his people became Plymouth Colony."

      Massasoit had an idea.

      "He decides we’ll ally with these guys, set up a good trading relationship, control supply of English goods, and the Narragansett won’t be able to attack us," Mann said.

      On March 22, 1621, Massasoit went to meet with the Pilgrims. He brought Tisquantum along to translate.

      Mann described the meeting in a 2005 article in Smithsonian Magazine:

      Tisquantum most likely was not the name he was given at birth. In that part of the Northeast, tisquantum referred to rage, especially the rage of manitou, the world-suffusing spiritual power at the heart of coastal Indians’ religious beliefs. When Tisquantum approached the Pilgrims and identified himself by that sobriquet, it was as if he had stuck out his hand and said, "Hello, I’m the Wrath of God."
      Massasoit was right not to trust Tisquantum, who soon tried to pit the Pilgrims against him. But the plan didn't work: Massasoit "is just pissed off and demands the Pilgrims hand him over because he’s gonna execute him," Mann said.

      The Pilgrims didn't. Instead, Tisquantum stayed in the colony with them, helping them prepare for the next winter.

      "Never did the newcomers ask themselves why he might be making himself essential," Mann wrote in Smithsonian. "But from the Pilgrims’ accounts of their dealings with him, the answer seems clear: the alternative to staying in Plymouth was returning to Massasoit and renewed captivity."

      It's all a lot more complicated -- Machiavellian, even -- than the story you might have learned. Mann in Smithsonian again:

      By fall the settlers’ situation was secure enough that they held a feast of thanksgiving. Massasoit showed up with “some ninety men,” Winslow later recalled, most of them with weapons. The Pilgrim militia responded by marching around and firing their guns in the air in a manner intended to convey menace. Gratified, both sides sat down, ate a lot of food and complained about the Narragansett. Ecce Thanksgiving.

      Delete
    3. So what does this all mean? "While it was by far not the first occasion of human trafficking conducted by European explorers to the new world, the capture of Squanto and his fellow tribesmen would forever alter the course of history for people on two continents," Peters wrote on the anniversary website.

      "We learn about Columbus landing in 1492 and it’s as if nothing happened for over 100 years until the Pilgrims landed," Mann added. "But the Tisquantum story gives you this tiny peek into that all the people involved had been interacting for more than a century."

      And today, of course, the Wampanoag are still around.

      article

      Delete
  20. SOUTHWEST ASIA, November 27, 2015 — U.S. and coalition military forces have continued to attack Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant terrorists in Iraq, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today.

    Officials reported details of the latest strikes, noting that assessments of results are based on initial reports.

    Strikes in Iraq

    Bomber, fighter, attack, ground attack and remotely piloted aircraft conducted 18 strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of Iraq’s government:

    -- Near Fallujah, two strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL rocket rail, an ISIL fighting position, an ISIL bomb cache, and an ISIL command and control node.

    -- Near Kisik, two strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed two ISIL fighting positions and an ISIL heavy machine gun.

    -- Near Ramadi, seven strikes struck two separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed four ISIL buildings, two ISIL command and control nodes, an ISIL staging area, an ISIL heavy machine gun, an ISIL fighting position, seven ISIL boats, an ISIL bed-down location, an ISIL out post, cratered an ISIL used road, and denied ISIL access to terrain.

    -- Near Sinjar, five strikes struck three separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed an ISIL vehicle, an ISIL fighting position, and suppressed an ISIL rocket position.

    -- Near Sultan Abdallah, one strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL fighting position.

    -- Near Tal Afar, one strike struck an ISIL vehicle bomb facility.

    Definition of a ‘Strike’

    A strike, as defined in the CJTF releases, means one or more kinetic events that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single, sometimes cumulative, effect for that location.

    So, the officials said, having a single aircraft deliver a single weapon against a lone ISIL vehicle is one strike. Multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against a group of buildings, vehicles and weapon systems in a compound, with the cumulative effect of making that facility [or facilities] harder or impossible to use is also considered a single strike, task force officials said.

    Accordingly, CJTF-OIR does not report the number or type of aircraft employed in each strike, the number of munitions dropped in each strike, or the number of individual munition impact points against a target.

    DOD

    ReplyDelete
  21. "...

    Why are so many home-grown young Muslims (as well as a few converts) attracted to such a virulent form of faith? The common liberal answer is because they feel excluded. That answer strikes me as pathetically inadequate. A better answer would include a quest for meaning and purpose in a secular, postmodern world, and the attraction of an absolutist faith that offers certainty, structure and a chance for martyrdom and glory.

    Job training and better transit aren’t going to fix that problem.

    ..."

    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/whats-the-matter-with-belgium/article27508948/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If one believes the data points that Legionnaire Q posted yesterday, religion has nothing or at least very little to do with the attraction to violence.

      Religion is not a pretext for violence in the "West". MS13, the Crips, Bloods and other assorted violence prone groups are not motivated by religion, little reason to believe the violence in the Middle East and Southwest Asia are either.

      Opium is the primary driver in Afghanistan, money (US dollars) and power motivates most of the fighters for the Islamic State.
      I do believe.
      How else can one explain the Muslim on Muslim violence in Syria, the Sunni are fighting Sunni. Kurds vs Arabs, both sides, in Syria, are Sunni Muslims. Same goes for Egypt, President Sisi is a Muslim, so is his Army.

      Delete
    2. When the money runs out, the Islamic State fighters desert.
      Often, then, they are captured and executed by those still getting paid.

      Delete
    3. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    4. Some may be mercenary but I doubt it. They seem pretty keen on setting up (well keeping) an Islamic State; a Caliphate. This Sunni state, it could be argued, has an equal right to it's 'Sunniness' as Israel does to its 'Jewishness'.

      The notion that pious Muslims living or born abroad could be supportive of such a State isn't that surprising. Nor that they might opt to go to war to support such a State.

      Delete
    5. There does appear to be ex-Baathist/Sunni/military folk involved in IS. They could very well be mercenary but they have 'opinions'.

      Delete
  22. They were raiding and killing from the git-go.

    It's about the 'faith' and loot, not oil or jobs or being excluded.

    I read ISIS has a few people in 90 countries.

    How many countries are there anyway ?

    They certainly seem to have gone 'viral'.

    There were moslems in India the other day flying the black flag and Allah Akbar-ing and whooping it up....all faces covered.....

    There's a new translation of the Koran out called The Study Koran which tries to give some of the violent passages a little context.

    There's a passage where Mohammad says he disagrees with Allah's prescriptions for the treatment of women, but had to put it in 'cause
    it was Allah's command !

    At $60.00 a copy, it is selling quite well, for this type item.

    The reviewer thought it unlikely The Study Koran - which is packed packed packed with footnotes - would change the behavior of ISIS all that much, which is an understatement.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Robert, your understanding of motivates people that fight is so limited as to be nonexistent.
      But what else would we expect from a draft dodger.

      Just because you believe in the power of literature does not mean that illiterate and uneducated folks across the globe have the same respect for the written word. Religion is just an agitprop. Or there would not be Muslim on Muslim fighting, in Syria.

      The wars are about money and power.

      Delete
    2. Almouthanna recounted spending 10 months in a Syrian jail in 2012, where he said his captors pulled out his fingernails and flayed his skin. He fared better than others, who he claims to have watched get beaten to death.

      When Almouthanna was released, he joined the Free Syrian Army (FSA), the rebel group that took up arms against Assad’s army before jihadists from throughout the world flooded in and turned the war-ravaged nation into a bloody free-for-all. After a few months, Almouthanna said, he left the FSA to join Jabhat al Nusra, an Al Qaeda offshoot that had come into Syria to help the FSA liberate the nation in what became a tense and uneasy alliance. At the same time, ISIS, as it was then known, was gathering momentum and sending fighters in from Iraq, where it had already seized huge swaths of territory, money and weapons.

      A well-chronicled falling out between ISIS and Al Qaeda soon meant the army now known simply as Islamic State was at war with everyone, including the FSA and Al Nusra, Assad’s army, ethnic Kurds in the northeast and religious minorities throughout Syria.

      Four months after Almouthanna joined Al Nusra, his battalion was crushed in a bloody battle with Islamic State, he said. Some 2,000 fighters, including Almouthanna, simply signed on with the victors, he said.

      “I was happy to move to ISIS,” he said. “They had the most money and the best weapons, but other than that they were just the same.”


      Money and power, from the mouth of a real combatant.
      Brought to you, Robeert "Draft Dodger" Peterson by Fox News

      http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/11/06/want-to-kill-isis-deserter-recounts-training-torture-and-terror/

      Delete
    3. Islam was not a motivator, at all.

      Delete
    4. An activist opposed to both IS and the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who is well-known to the British paper, said he had “verified 100 executions” of foreign IS fighters trying to leave the jihadist group’s de facto capital.

      IS fighters in Raqqa said the group has created a military police to clamp down on foreign fighters who do not report for duty. Dozens of homes have been raided and many jihadists have been arrested, the FT reported.

      Some jihadists have become disillusioned with the realities of fighting in Syria, reports have said.

      According to the British press in October, five Britons, three French, two Germans and two Belgians wanted to return home after complaining that they ended up fighting against other rebel groups rather than Assad’s regime.
      They were being held prisoner by IS.


      Money and power, not Islam is motivating the leadership of the Islamic Stat, or they would not be killing other Muslims that are not part of their organization

      Delete
    5. http://www.news.com.au/world/islamic-state-slaughters-100-foreign-deserters-in-syria-report-says/news-story/2d309565b5379cf8557100d029263b5b

      Delete
    6. You are still having difficulty with reading and comprehending.

      It's about the 'faith' and loot

      "and"

      Your mother really doesn't know what you are doing, does she ?

      Delete
    7. No, Draft Dodger, she has been dead for over a decade

      Delete
    8. Your psychiatrist told you to not blog.

      Your mother told you to not blog.

      But, here you with your usual shit.

      You are hopeless.

      Delete
    9. typo

      "But, here you are with your usual shit."

      Always must be crystal clear when trying to communicate with certain people.

      Delete
    10. bob Thu May 27, 12:52:00 AM EDT

      But I did rip off the bank for $7500 hundred dollars, when I was on my knees, and fighting for my economic life, on my aunt's credit card. But that wasn't really stealing, just payback. …


      Just like a meth head, Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson, tries to justify his crime by saying that the loot was owed him, by the people or institution he ripped off.

      http://2164th.blogspot.com/2010/05/gloom-and-doom-wednesday.html

      Delete
    11. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    12. I think it is unwise to underestimate the role that religion/sect plays in Middle East politics/wars. Heck Iran fell to the Mullahs, Saddam was very concerned about his pious subjects (both Sunni and Shia), and Saudi Arabian rulers are also very concerned about the numerous Whabbi they rule.

      I would suggest religion is a strong motivator of many - MB in Egypt, Lebanon is formally governed by Sect positions in government...

      Does any of that mean that all Muslims instructed to violence - NO.

      Delete
    13. .

      They were raiding and killing from the git-go.

      So was everyone else in the ME. It's what they do.

      The Encyclopedia of War argues that less than 7% of all the major wars, rebellions, and revolutions going back to 3500 B.C. had a religious basis for the conflict. I would suggest Idaho Bob read the Encyclopedia of War ($375.00 at Amazon for a 3 volume set) but let's face it, why would he do that when he can get Jihad Watch for free, especially when the latter fulfills his need for confirmation bias.

      .

      Delete
    14. The mullahs of Iran were elevated when the US imposed Shah outlawed all other forms of dissent.

      If the Shah had not been a despot, the opposition would have been political, but, as in Egypt, the political opposition was forced into the mosques.

      Delete
    15. Before the elected government of Iran was deposed, the mullahs were not an active political force.

      Iranians regard Mosaddegh as the leading champion of secular democracy and resistance to foreign domination in Iran's modern history. Mosaddegh was removed from power in a coup on 19 August 1953, organised and carried out by the CIA at the request of MI6, which chose Iranian General Fazlollah Zahedi to succeed Mosaddegh

      Was Mosaddegh motivated by religion or power and money ... I would not bet on religion knowing that he wanted to audit the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC), which was a British corporation (now BP).

      Was the US motivated by religion, in the coup d'etat it engineered in Iran?

      The Elephant Bar is not an irony free zone.

      Delete
  23. What is the “natural rate” for u6?
    November 23rd, 2015 at 8:04 am

    Not the sexiest title, I grant you, but important stuff, nevertheless.

    Those of us interested in just how close we are to full employment like to track the more comprehensive “u6” rate, aka, “underemployment.” It includes all the unemployed, but also the millions of involuntary part-timers (IPT)—who are, quite literally, underemployed—plus a small subset of those out of the labor market who might be willing to work if there were more good opportunities available. Especially because IPT has been so elevated in this recovery, and because some special factors, like depressed labor force participation, have led to a downward bias of the unemployment rate, u6 is worth watching closely.

    As you see below, u6 rose more in the Great Recession and has fallen faster in the expansion than the official rate.

    Unemployment and Underemployment (u6)

    Must-see Chart and rest of artcle


    Jared Bernstein has a small, but pretty sharp, commentariat.

    ReplyDelete
  24. OBAMA: Syrian refugees like pilgrims on Mayflower......Drudge

    Feds warn local law enforcement of 'rogue infidel'......Drudge

    Good Lord

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Escaping religous persecution in Syria, the Muslims are like the Mayflower pilgrims.

      Delete
    2. Or Jews escaping NAZI Germany ...

      But as "O"rdure would tell you, the US turned those folks away, too.

      Delete
  25. That rat, a type of 'rogue infidel', doesn't see some major differences is not at all surprising.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Actually, I would say the difference is: The Syrian Refugees are trying to escape an authoritarian situation, whereas, the Pilgrims were looking for a place where They could Be the Authoritarians.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. :)

      Not bad...
      *********


      A moslem or a 'rogue infidel' of some kind -


      Reports: Active shooter barricaded in Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood, firing at cops
      posted at 2:35 pm on November 27, 2015 by Allahpundit

      No word yet on motive, but there’s a reason why national media have already picked up this story. Fox News is covering it live as I write this.

      Police are exchanging gunfire with the suspect. Several injuries are reported, and patients are being transported from the scene.

      Mike Violette, executive director of the Colorado Fraternal Order of Police, tweeted that the shooter is barricaded and there are multiple victims.

      The one cop who was wounded was reportedly shot in the hand, but that report may be outdated. According to the Colorado Springs Gazette, multiple cops — and civilians — are hurt:

      Scanner traffic indicated at least two officers were down, one near a dumpster, and another taken by ambulance to a hospital. A dispatcher said one patient was wounded at Elite Vision, located an adjacent building at 3470 Centennial Blvd. A later dispatch said at four were injured and an officer was heard requesting an ambulance. Another officer indicated wounded patients were being taken to Penrose Hospital, 2222 N. Nevada Ave.

      At least one victim was taken by stretcher to an ambulance shortly after noon…

      One officer said on his radio that the gunman shot out the back window of his cruiser as the officer tried to “get a look at him. A dispatcher said the gunman wore a long coat with a “hunting-type” hat.

      Because the shooter’s active, media are being kept from the scene. But one reporter got close enough to see this:

      Stand by for updates.

      Update: Two patients taken to the hospital are reportedly in critical condition. SWAT is on the scene.

      Update: Did the shooter target the PP or did he flee to the PP after shooting people elsewhere? Note in the excerpt above that one of the people injured was in an adjacent building, which could mean that the victim was shot inside the PP and ran next door to scape — or could mean that he was shot in that neighboring building and then the gunman ran next door into the Planned Parenthood.

      Update: Now there’s a dispute on social media on whether the shooter is inside the PP at all. On the one hand:

      On the other hand: “A gunman holed up in a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs Friday opened fire repeatedly through windows…”

      Update: Per the NYT, “A local television station reported that the gunman was firing at passing cars from the parking lot.”

      Delete
    2. Probably a white "Christian" terrorist, like the one that bombed the Olympics in Atlanta

      Delete
  27. http://hotair.com/archives/2015/11/27/reports-active-shooter-barricaded-in-colorado-springs-planned-parenthood-firing-at-cops/

    ReplyDelete
  28. I see "planned parenthood," and I think "Christian, anti-abortion terrorist."

    ReplyDelete
  29. Turkey Risks Wider War and Undercuts Fight Against ISIS
    Time for Turkey to face consequences for its reckless escalation of international tensions.
    November 27, 2015
    Joseph Klein


    Turkey is not only trying to kill members of the most effective local forces fighting against ISIS in Syria. It is Turkey, not Russia, which has actually been helping ISIS. For example, Turkey has facilitated the black market sale of oil from ISIS-controlled territories, which helps finance ISIS’s expanding terrorist campaign. As reported by Al-Monitor, quoting a lawmaker from the main opposition party in Turkey, “$800 million worth of oil that ISIS obtained from regions it occupied this year [the Rumeilan oil fields in northern Syria — and most recently Mosul] is being sold in Turkey.”

    Turkey has also served as a convenient transit point through which foreign ISIS recruits pass on their way to Syria. The same Turkish opposition lawmaker stated: “Fighters from Europe, Russia, Asian countries and Chechnya are going in large numbers both to Syria and Iraq, crossing from Turkish territory. There is information that at least 1,000 Turkish nationals are helping those foreign fighters sneak into Syria and Iraq to join ISIS. The National Intelligence Organization (MIT) is allegedly involved.”

    Erdogan’s major difference with ISIS is where the Islamic caliphate ultimately should be based. He believes in the restoral of a caliphate under Ottoman rule. He was willing to risk a wider war in the region to protect his “co-religionists in Syria” and thereby strengthen his own claim to leadership of at least the Sunni Muslims. This is the man whom Obama has named as one of his top five friends among world leaders. It is long past time for Obama to unfriend this authoritarian jihadist.


    http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/260931/turkey-risks-wider-war-and-undercuts-fight-against-joseph-klein

    ReplyDelete
  30. Friday, November 27, 2015

    'What Is Holding Back the Economy?'

    The rise of the crazies is not unrelated:

    What Is Holding Back the Economy?: ...for many if not most people, the standard of living that can be achieved by working has been permanently reduced — by long bouts of unemployment and underemployment, by unstable and insecure employment, by long-term stagnation of wages and, perhaps most significantly, by the failure of Congress to use fiscal policy, consistently and aggressively, to counteract the devastation of the recession and its corrosive effects on the economy.

    For some people in some places, steady work is simply no longer a way of life, if it ever was. In several states where jobless rates have fallen to pre-recession levels, including Illinois and Ohio, the drop is due mainly to shrinking labor forces, not increases in hiring. When unemployment rates go down because people have despaired of ever finding a job, the economy is not really improving. Rather, it is downshifting to a less prosperous level.

    There are two related ways to counter that downshift. One is to make productivity-enhancing investments that create jobs today and lay the foundation for future growth. Such investments would include bolstered spending for education, transportation, environmental protection, basic science and other fields that are the purview of government. The other is to enact policies to ensure that pay and profits from enhanced productivity are broadly shared, rather than concentrated at the top of the income-and-wealth ladder. Such policies would include strict anti-trust enforcement, steeply progressive taxes, a higher minimum wage and support for labor unions. ...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. But for now, there is mostly talk..., and much of the talk, especially from Republicans, is about how government should not step up to the nation’s economic challenges. The economy has recovered from the worst and proven resilient, but it is being held back by what government at all levels has failed to do.

      Not the first to say this, but the problem is that Republicans have misrepresented the causes of the distress so many households feel, in particular scapegoating those who have it even worse as somehow responsible for their problems (and the decline of America more generally). And then they sell the solutions as benefiting the middle class (trickle down anyone?) when they are really directed at reducing taxes for those at the top, and reducing the government services that people rely upon to survive in this economy to support the tax cuts.

      But there is something else I'd like to note. The problem is blamed on government at all levels, and fiscal policy. We hear, when Republicans are named at all, that it is "especially" Republicans as though the balance only tilts in one direction. No, it's not especially Republicans, or even mostly Republicans that are standing in the way of doing more to help those who are struggling to make ends meet. It is Republicans. It's not congressional gridlock based upon reasonable differences over policy that cannot be resolved through compromise, it's an active attempt by one party to block anything the other party tries to do, even if it might help people economically. So long as the political benefits of this behavior -- benefits based upon selling snake oil for the most part -- exceed the economic costs of inaction, Republicans will stand in the way (all the while trying to convince those who are hurt the most by their actions that they will actually be helped). It's time to stop blaming "government" as though that is what is dysfunctional. The dysfunction, as evidenced by the slate of, and preferences over Republican presidential candidates, is in the Republican party. Their actions since the onset of the Great Recession have, in my view, hurt people who should have been helped, slowed the recovery, and diverted our attention from the true problems we face making it impossible to solve them (not that Republicans would have gone along with the solutions anyway). If this election tears Republicans apart and strips them of this ability to stand in the way of helping the working class, a dream I know, I will not be shedding tears. Quite the opposite.

      Delete
  31. Is this just a Quirk, or is it time to expand our horizons, Ladies and Gentlemen ?

    Could they be Sunni, or Shia, out looking for loot, out to force us to up our asses in the air to Allah ?

    Hindus, or Buddhists, or, at least, really good poets ?

    I am hoping for the best, Hindus and poets.....


    Did scientists just pick up the first intelligent radio waves from a distant ALIEN planet?

    ASTRONOMERS have picked up five mysterious unidentified radio signals that could originate from OUTSIDE the Milky Way.
    By Jon Austin
    PUBLISHED: 10:53, Fri, Nov 27, 2015 | UPDATED: 15:08, Fri, Nov 27, 2015

    Has the telescope picked up signals of aliens from another galaxy? GETTY IMAGES


    The "fast radio bursts" included one "double signal" never heard before and have left astronomers buzzing with excitement over the possibility of it being a message with alien origins.

    Only 11 of the unidentified transient radio pulses have been recorded before around the world.

    And it is the curious new double blast - which was accompanied by four "singles" - which has baffled astronomers analysing data from the Parkes radio telescope in New South Wales, Australia.

    Emily Petroff from Swinburne University, in Melbourne, one of the team who discovered the signals, believes the origin could be more remarkable than anything recorded before.

    She tweeted: "We have no idea what's going on, but we know it's definitely something cool.”...........

    http://www.express.co.uk/news/science/622515/Did-scientists-pick-first-intelligent-radio-waves-distant-alien-planet-Australia-telescope

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tune in to the radio show Coast to Coast for all the updates.

      Delete
    2. The source remains a total mystery.

      Seemingly similar readings which excited astronomers earlier this year called perytons at the time were later found to be coming from microwave ovens on Earth being prematurely opened in the canteens of observatories where observations were being taken.

      Delete
    3. The "fast radio bursts" included one "double signal" never heard before

      This is what inclines me to think there may be something Quirkian about all this.

      In extreme situations Quirk used to communicate just this way to Dale and I......really fast talk......sometimes with a repetition to make certain the message got through and the situation salvaged.

      Delete
    4. May be some kind of SOS, sent out by folks being o'erwhelmed by violent immigrants.

      Delete

  32. Lt. Catherine Buckley, a police spokeswoman, said during a news conference that the police were exchanging shots with the gunman, who was barricaded in a windowless office. He was described as white man in a trench coat with an assault rifle.


    http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/28/us/colorado-planned-parenthood-shooting.html?_r=0

    ReplyDelete

  33. Israelis – Not Muslims – Cheered in Jersey City on 9/11
    By Glen Ford
    Global Research

    http://www.globalresearch.ca/israelis-not-muslims-cheered-in-jersey-city-on-911/5491920

    ReplyDelete
  34. Michael Chossudovsky is crazy as hell and so are you, jackass.


    In his book 2000 Bosnia, Kosova, and the West, Mike Karadjis refers to Chossudovsky as a "noted apologist for the Milošević regime".[15] At the time of the Kosovo war, Karadjis accused Chossudovsky of setting out a 'meticulous frame-up', 'full of half-truths, assumptions, and innuendoes about the Kosovo Liberation Army's (KLA) alleged use of drug money', which sought to discredit the KLA.[16]

    In the National Post, Terry Glavin accused Chossudovsky of 'mouthing Baathist propaganda'.[17] Glavin quotes Chossudovsky's characterisation of the 'Syrian revolt' as a revolt of 'Islamists, Salafi as well as Muslim Brotherhood gunmen, [-] death squads supported directly by Turkey and Israel”.[17]

    A 2005 article in The Jewish Tribune criticized the Centre for Research on Globalization's website as "rife with anti-Jewish conspiracy theory and Holocaust denial." Michel Chossudovsky responded that he is of Jewish heritage and would be one of the last people to condone antisemitic views.[18] The same article also reported that B'nai B'rith Canada wrote a letter to the University of Ottawa asking for the university "to conduct its own investigation of this propagandist site."[18]

    In a 2006 Western Standard article by Terry O'Neill, Chossudovsky was included among "Canada's nuttiest professors", "whose absurdity stands head and shoulders above their colleagues" and who were "peddling half-baked or discredited theories or plain old bigotry".[19] Chussodovsky was said to hold that the U.S. had fore-knowledge of the September 11 attacks and the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami; that Washington had weapons that could influence climate change; and that the large banking institutions are the cause of the collapse of smaller economies, characterised by O'Neill as " more like wild-eyed conspiracy theories than serious political discourse".[19]


    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Chossudovsky

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Who knows where he comes up with such piffle and drivel.

      Delete
    2. What that piece from Wiki has to do with Israelis celebrating in New Jersey as the Twin Towers burned, only Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson knows.

      Delete
  35. All politicians, if they are any good at their craft, know the truth about human nature.


    This sounds like Ernest Hemingway.

    But it isn't.

    It's Molly Ball --

    No, she doesn't call The Donald a 'fascist'.



    The Ecstasy of Donald Trump

    As the public’s fear and loathing surge, the frontrunner’s durable candidacy has taken a dark turn.
    Randall Hill / Reuters

    Molly Ball Nov 26, 2015 Politics

    MYRTLE BEACH, South Carolina—All politicians, if they are any good at their craft, know the truth about human nature.

    Donald Trump is very good, and he knows it better than most.

    Trump stands alone on a long platform, surrounded by a rapturous throng. Below and behind him—sitting on bleachers and standing on the floor—they fill this city’s cavernous, yellow-beige convention center by the thousands. As Trump will shortly point out, there are a lot of other Republican presidential candidates, but none of them get crowds anything like this.

    Trump raises an orange-pink hand like a waiter holding a tray. “They are not coming in from Syria,” he says. “We’re sending them back!” The crowd surges, whistles, cheers. “So many bad things are happening—they have sections of Paris where the police are afraid to go,” he continues. “Look at Belgium, the whole place is closed down! We can’t let it happen here, folks.”

    Four months into his crazed foray into presidential politics, Trump is still winning this thing. And what could once be dismissed as a larkish piece of political performance art has seemingly turned into something darker. Pundits, even conservative ones, say that Trump resembles a fascist. The recent terrorist attacks in Paris, which some hoped would expose Trump’s shallowness, have instead strengthened him by intensifying people’s anger and fear.......

    .................Despite all the negativity and fear, the energy in this room does not feel dark and aggressive and threatening. It doesn’t feel like a powder keg about to blow, a lynch mob about to rampage. It feels joyous.

    “There is so much love in every room I go to,” Trump says, near the end of nearly an hour and a half of free-associative bombast, silly and sometimes offensive impressions, and insane pronouncements. “We want our country to be great again, and we know it can be done!”

    Twisted Sister comes on again, and the people start filing out, pumped-up and smiling to each other. They file out past the pen where all the reporters are imprisoned—citing an unspecified Secret Service directive, the campaign has announced that reporters may not mingle with the crowd until Trump has left the building; one is escorted to the restroom while he is still working the rope line. (Last week, Trump’s campaign manager threatened to “blacklist” a CNN reporter who tried to leave the pen to film a protester.)

    The people wave and make faces at the press as they go by. One gray-haired lady in a sweatshirt keeps pointing at her butt and sticking out her tongue at us as she ambles by. She has a savage look on her face.

    This is the thing Trump knows: You can stand around fretting about truth and propriety and the danger of pandering to baser instincts.

    Or you can give the people what they want.

    http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/11/the-ecstasy-of-donald-trump/417870/

    ReplyDelete
  36. Robert Lewis Dear.

    White

    age, 57

    I don't think he's a Syrian Refugee.

    ReplyDelete
  37. Replies
    1. Wrong M.O. too.

      A Syrian might have chosen a rock concert, a cafe, or a soccer match.

      Delete
  38. Saudi King Showered Obamas with $1.3 Million in Gifts in 2014...........RealClearWorld

    Back when I was a kid, a report like this would have been major, major news and might have led to the impeachment of Ike.

    I wonder how much the Obamas are raking in this year, and what's Hillary's take ?

    President Trump would just send the gifts back.

    He wouldn't need them.....

    ReplyDelete