Robert Gates: Republicans' Grasp of National Security Is at Child's Level
Robert Gates, a Republican stalwart and former US defence secretary who served under eight presidents, has derided the party’s election candidates for a grasp of national security issues that “would embarrass a middle schooler”.
An ex-CIA director who first joined the White House under Richard Nixon, Gates joked that if frontrunner Donald Trump wins the presidency, he would emigrate to Canada. He condemned the media for failing to challenge candidates from both parties on promises he believes are unaffordable, illegal or unconstitutional.
“The level of dialogue on national security issues would embarrass a middle schooler,” Gates said of the Republican contenders at a Politico Playbook event in Washington on Monday. “People are out there making threats and promises that are totally unrealistic, totally unattainable. Either they really believe what they’re saying or they’re cynical and opportunistic and, in a way, you hope it’s the latter, because God forbid they actually believe some of the things that they’re saying.”
Gates is among Republican elders who are dismayed by the way this year’s campaign is unfolding. Establishment figures such as Jeb Bush—whose father Gates served as director of the CIA—are failing to gain traction against mavericks with unusual prescriptions for keeping America safe.
Trump suggested “closing parts of the internet” to prevent Islamic State attracting recruits, Ted Cruz pledged to “carpet bomb them into oblivion”, Chris Christie proposed flying Air Force One over disputed Chinese islands and Carly Fiorina boasted of having had “a private meeting” with Russian leader Vladimir Putin when in fact they met in a green room at a conference.
Gates, promoting a new book, A Passion for Leadership, said: “One of the greatest, most appealing aspects of Ronald Reagan was his optimism about this country and about the future, and these guys all make it sound like we’re going down the drain.” All the candidates, he argued, should “try to communicate better to the American people that these are complicated, difficult problems that are going to be difficult to solve and are probably going to require some sacrifice”.
The 72-year-old declined to comment on specific candidates but was pressed by interviewer Mike Allen on the prospect of Trump reaching the White House. After a pause, he replied: “Well, I live about 50 miles from Canada.”
As the audience erupted in laughter, Gates continued philosophically: “I’ve been around a long time. There are a lot of people who have run for president where people have said, ‘Oh my God, if he’s elected, it’s the end of the world!’ And the truth of the matter is, it wasn’t, and so I’m not prepared to be overly dramatic and believe me, the comment I just made was very sarcastic and humorous, not meant seriously. Somebody out there will write a story that I’m going to Canada. It’s totally not true; I intend to remain within the United States.”
Gates was the only defence secretary in American history to be asked to remain in that office by a newly elected president. Working under Barack Obama, he was alongside Hillary Clinton when she was secretary of state and praised her as “tough minded” with “a lot of common sense” but admitted they began to disagree on issues towards the end, notably the intervention in Libya.
He did not mention Bernie Sanders by name but did suggest both Democratic and Republican candidates are being given an easy ride by the media. “Frankly, I think that the press needs to be more aggressive,” he said. “A lot of people in both parties are making huge promises and commitments.
“In some cases, the things they’re saying they’re going to do are unconstitutional or merely against the law and others are, from a budgetary standpoint, inconceivable, and so it seems to be that the press has not hammered hard enough and been relentless in saying, ‘How the hell are you going to do that?’”
Gates condemned National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden as a traitor, called on tech companies to put security ahead of business interests and cooperate with intelligence agencies on encrypted data, and repeated his past description of Putin as a “stone-cold killer”, which, in the light of the Alexander Litvinenko inquiry, “the British now seem to reaffirm”.
The intelligence veteran of nearly 27 years also spoke about the danger of leaks and recalled the 2011 raid in Pakistan that killed terrorist Osama bin Laden. A friend later emailed him a Photoshopped version of the famous picture in the situation room with the occupants wearing superhero costumes: Obama as Superman, Joe Biden as Spider-Man, Clinton as Wonder Woman and Gates himself as the Green Lantern.
“And we all had a good laugh, and then I said, ‘Mr President, this is the reason the photographs of the dead Bin Laden must never be released, because somebody will Photoshop them and it will anger every Muslim in the world, even those that hated Bin Laden, because of being disrespectful of the dead, and it will create greater risk for our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and for all Americans, especially in the Middle East.’ And to the best of my knowledge, those photographs are the only things about that raid that have never leaked.”
He added: “The Defense Department wrote the book on leaking. They know how to do this. But the Defense Department leaks about policy and budget and weapons programmes and stuff like that. They do not leak about military operations because they know lives are at stake. So the leaks about the Bin Laden raid for the first couple of weeks came from the White House and CIA, and I just thought that was a disgrace.”
How the Iran Deal Highlights Partisan Politics and Neocon Lies
ReplyDeleteJeremy Bunch, January 23, 2016
The long red carpet is being rolled out from Tehran, and we should all hope that what strolls out is copious amounts of pistachios, fancy rugs, and caviar. And oil… oh boy the oil! Yes, the big Iran Deal appears to have been pulled off, and like a man walking out into the sunlight after being in a pitch-black room for a few days, there is some heavy blinking going on. Freedom can be really exciting at first. For those of us who are “Non-Aggression Principle” libertarians, we applaud. When the principles of liberty gain some ground, we find the urge to dance, even when it’s in the middle of a terrible republic in the Middle East.
Unfortunately, U.S. neoconservatives aren’t so happy, and one has to wonder why. I know it sounds absurd to say that because we do know why the neocons aren’t happy about the Deal, but we ought to step back and look at the field, as it were, because this is really remarkable. The neocons are supposedly the freedom fighters of the world, and will use any means available to shove democracy down anybody’s throat. War is perhaps their favorite means, and any formal Just War Theory is replaced with a nebulous strategy of trying to out-guess Russia or protect Zionist interests. There could be other examples, but the bottom line is that these strategies are cooked up in that revolving door that connects the White House, Wall Street, and the military industries. These strategies are defended by appealing to freedom-minded ideas, and it is the countries that we occupy, invade, bomb, etc. that are the unfortunate pawns.
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DeleteBut here is what is remarkable about the Iran Deal. Foreign Policy issues have most often centered on political philosophies and ideologies that are at war. This has meant that US citizens have been at the mercy of their “expert” politicians who decide foreign policy actions. The common citizen doesn’t and can’t have all the intel that these sorts of decisions require, we are told. With the Iran Deal, however, objective science is the big elephant in the middle of the room (even though the neocons and the Israel lobbies have spent every lie possible to distract us into the corners). And this is not controversial science that we are talking about. This is not two respectable weathermen having a disagreement over global warming models. This is simple verification of facts. This is Sesame Street kind of easy. The question is: Does Iran have a nuclear weapons program, or not? No, they don’t. Okay, let’s move on to meddling somewhere else in the world then. No, wait a minute…
All of my neocon friends insist, “How do you know that Iran isn’t hiding a nuclear weapon facility somewhere? We can’t afford to trust the Iranians! They scream ‘Death to America,’ and ‘Death to Israel!’” Any chance of hidden Iranian nuclear weapons facilities has been adequately debunked, but they are not concerned with facts. They are not concerned with science. None of my friends have read the JCPOA, and very few of my friends could tell me the difference between fission and fusion, or even what an isotope is. At the end of the day, they will think whatever Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio tell them to think about the Iran Deal. They could spend one hour in front of Google researching the objective facts about Iran, but the tickling of ears from the mouth of the likes of Cruz, Rubio, Hannity, et al is sufficient.
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DeleteThis is how partisan politics thrives: blindly accepting whatever your favorite politicians tell you and which is automatically the opposite view of the opposing political party. Hey, I am a recovering Rush Limbaugh-ite. A “ditto-er” I guess you could have called me, so I know how this works. But one of the first steps I took away from American conservatism was the realization that virtually every thing Limbaugh stood for was automatically opposed to the Democrat stance. Automatic. Same goes for Fox News today. It doesn’t matter what policy is being looked at, people love the game of politics, and naturally love to choose sides. This is a very sad thing.
When the science of the Iran Deal is explained, the subject is often turned by the neocons. They ask, “What will this do to our domestic oil industry? What about the interests of Californian pistachio growers?” “What of them?” I return. What, you neocons think it is morally justifiable to impose economic warfare on the innocent people of Iran so that our good ol’ boys at home can ensure their profits? You would enslave innocent people in one place in order to protect your twisted idea of freedom somewhere else? Yes, the neocons reply. And just as it is with war, principles mean nothing. Morality is subjective.
In closing, let me drive home the audacity of the neocon position on the Iran Deal. The deal is not based on a disagreement of ideologies, on something that cannot be easily grabbed on to intellectually. The deal is based on real-life, flesh and blood, on-the ground facts. Because this is so, those who have opposed the Iran Deal are not just your typical political liars. They are staring into your eyes, six inches from your face, and telling you that white is black.
Jeremy Bunch works in the field (literally and figuratively) of agricultural research, and moonlights as a blogger, writing on a diversity of subjects including libertarianism, whiskey, and culture. His twitter feed is at @jerbunch.
http://antiwar.com/blog/2016/01/23/how-the-iran-deal-highlights-partisan-politics-and-neocon-lies/
DeleteIdaho Bob Thu Jan 28, 07:10:00 PM EST
ReplyDeleteThe legal experts referenced the the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, which the U.S. abides by and Iran has signed but not ratified. Under it, a warship has “sovereign immunity” and can transit the territorial waters of another so long as they move “continuously and expeditiously” and do not conduct any military operations
So it is a prima facie fact that the Israeli attack upon the USS Liberty was an illegal act.
That the Israeli killing of 34 US service members was and is grounds for war.
Thanks for that clarification, Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson.
Oh, wait a minute, the pariah State of Israel is not party to the UN Convention, which must justify their continued piracy on the Mediterranean Sea.
DeleteThe Israeli attack ships at sea, willy nilly.
Then blame their victims, their MO is clear.
Debate Wrap-up:
ReplyDeleteBen Carson dominated the Debate, won going away.
2nd Place to Rand Paul.
The two Hispanic candidates, the one from Canada, and the one from Florida, didn't do so well. Seemed like old records replayed for the 20th time.
Cristie will go back to full blown blubberbeachball mode after he drops out. Losing weight for a losing campaign is a bummer.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of twisting his words ...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/UNs-Ban-stands-firm-on-Israeli-Palestinian-remarks-after-Netanyahu-rebuke-443031
Who'd have thought...
.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what the chickenhawks on this list would think of me if, as Officer of the Day, I did not disarm, and bring to shore for investigation,two boatloads of heavily armed Iranians, caught parked close to the coast in our sovereign waters.
Heavily armed Iranians?
What do you think the U.S. Coast Guard would do if they came across a couple of boatloads of Canadians floating on the US side of the Detroit River, Lake St. Clair, or any of the Great lakes, especially if they were in uniform?
.
It was a nice touch of the pleasant Iranian pirates to slap a head burka on our lady sailor, don't you think, Quirk-O ?
Delete.
DeleteOh, my god, that is torture. Perhaps, they should have just put her in an orange jumpsuit like we do here.
.
How about a couple of boat loads of armed Cubans, or Venezuelans, Q?
DeleteBy the way, Quirk ought to consider that The Donald opposed the Iraq War from at least 2004, before calling him a 'fascist'.
ReplyDeleteQuirk is almost as full of it at times as Rufus.
The Donald said it would destabilize the Mid-East which, with lots of thanks to Obama in particular, it has done.
DeleteThis was way before Deuce and Rufus had turned.
Moscow— According to Russian daily Novaya Gazeta, Mr. Dmitry Peskov ,the press spokesman for the Russian President, lambasted the Saudi regime in his weekly press conference for sowing terrorism and backing al-Qaeda inspired guerrillas throughout the crisis-hit Syria.
ReplyDelete"the Saudi leadership clings to power and hope they can possibly impede the inevitable collapse of their primitive, barbaric and inhumane political system by targeting the stability and welfare of other neighboring nations," Pravda quoted the Russian official as saying on Monday.
Earlier, the Russian president emphasized that his country can't remain at rest vis-Ã -vis the Saudi mischievous interference in Syria which blocked any Syrian-Syrian peaceful settlement.
" …Russia will defeat Saudis in Syria which became the epicenter of their [Saudis] malevolent plots. It is imperative for all Syrian parties that believe in a peaceful resolution for their country's five-year civil war to sit down at the negotiation table and denounce the Saudi destructive role," said President Putin, adding that Russia will bomb Saudi Arabia back to the Stone Age life when nomad Arabs were in the habit of living in tents unless the regime gives up assisting radical terrorists in the Middle-East.
The Russian President added that strong actions against Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) are justified and crucial due to the fact that Saudi-backed ISIS poses a major international security threat. At the same time, the international community should be under no illusion about the detrimental and suspicious U.S.-Saudi alliance.
http://awdnews.com/top-news/president-putin-russia-will-bomb-saudi-arabia-back-to-the-stone-age-life-unless-riyadh-desists-from-supporting-terrorism
For decades, Riyadh has presented itself as an ally of the West and a force for stability in the region, while providing financial support for Wahhabi fundamentalism around the world. China has been the kingdom’s largest customer as well as a provider of sophisticated weapons, including surface-to-surface missiles. But China also has lost patience with the monarchy’s support for Wahhabi Islamists in China and bordering countries.
ReplyDeleteAccording to a senior Chinese analyst, the Saudis are the main source of funding for Islamist madrassas in Western China, where the “East Turkistan Independence Movement” has launched several large-scale terror attacks. Although the Saudi government has reassured Beijing that it does not support the homegrown terrorists, it either can’t or won’t stop some members of the royal family from channeling funds to the local jihadis through informal financial channels. “Our biggest worry in the Middle East isn’t oil—it’s Saudi Arabia,” the analyst said.
China’s Muslims—mainly Uyghurs in Western China who speak a Turkish dialect—are Sunni rather than Shia. Like Russia, China does not have to worry about Iranian agitation among Shia jihadis, and tends to prefer Iran to the Sunni powers. As a matter of form, Beijing wants to appear even-handed in its dealings with Iran and Saudi Arabia, for example in recent contacts between their respective navies. Chinese analysts emphasize that Beijing has sold weapons to both—more in absolute to terms to Iran but more sophisticated weapons to the Saudis.
More pertinent than public diplomacy, though, is where China is buying its oil.
Nonetheless, China’s oil import data show a significant shift away from Saudi Arabia towards Russia and Oman (which China considers part of the Iranian sphere of influence). Russia’s oil exports to China have grown fourfold since 2010 while Saudi exports have stagnated. Given the world oil glut, China can pick and choose its suppliers, and it is hard to avoid the inference that Beijing is buying more from Russia for strategic reasons. According to Russian sources, China also has allowed Russian oil companies to delay physical delivery of oil due under existing contracts, permitting Russia to sell the oil on the open market for cash—the equivalent of a cash loan to Russia.
China’s interests in Syria coincide with Russia’s.
Saudi Arabia’s proxies in Syria are in trouble. Early in 2015, the Army of Conquest (Jaish al-Fateh), a coalition of al-Qaida and other Sunni Islamists backed by the Saudis, Turks and Qataris, had driven the Syrian army out of several key positions in Northwest Syria, threatening the Assad regime’s core Alawite heartland. The coalition began breaking up in November, however, and the Syrian Army recently retook several villages it had lost to the Army of Conquest. One of the Army of Conquest’s constituent militias, Failaq al-Sham, announced Jan. 3 that it was leaving the coalition to defend Aleppo against regime forces reinforced by Russia.
DeleteEverything seems to have gone wrong at once for Riyadh. ...
This from the Asia Times, by one of good old allen's favorite source Spengler
Saudi Arabia stews in policy hell: Spengler
http://atimes.com/2016/01/saudi-arabia-in-policy-hell/
I offer to buy Rufus a one way ticket to Iran with a case of Budweiser and a supply of Beam as his luggage.
ReplyDeleteg'nite
Cheers !
Roger W. Knight • 23 minutes ago
ReplyDeleteGene Schwimmer sounds like German slang for sperm cell.
How many other candidates are at least talking about bringing the jobs back? At least talking about halting the mass immigration that the employers are using to scab us native born Americans out of asking for decent wages for hard work?
How many other candidates are at least talking about halting the Islamic immigration until we can figure out how to separate those that truly want to be Americans from those who take the Koran literally when it comes to jihad, dawa, taqiyyah, to force converting Americans over to Islam, to terrorism and all of the strategems of war against us infidels and so on.
You see, it is not that we are fooled by the Trumpster, many of us fear that he is just saying what we desperately want to hear. We notice that he does not suddenly apologize for at least saying what we want to hear.
We want to hear these things. No one else is saying these things. Everyone else who campaigned as a conservative and won elections has betrayed us time and time again.
Rush says that there is no doubt about Cruz' conservatism. I guess we can just ignore his previous stances on the H1b's. Lets force even more Americans with engineering degrees to settle for jobs at Jiffy-Lube and driving buses. Or maybe paper pushing office jobs where what engineering skills we have atrophy to nothing. I guess we can ignore his vote for the Corker bill, which guarantees that there is nothing we can do about Obama's sellout to Iran. I guess we can ignore his being for TPA before he was against it. Only it is passed before he decided he was against it.
Then there is bridge blocking Obama hugging Christie, ¡Jeb!, Rand Paul who endorsed the renom of McConnell, Kasich who does not get it, Lindsey Micro Graham, and the first thousand names in the telephone directory.
We are not supporting Trump because we are deluded. It is because THERE ARE NO VIABLE ALTERNATIVES!!!!!
January 29, 2016
The Only Book You Need to Understand Donald Trump's Popularity
By Gene Schwimmer
This writer has watched with amusement the struggles of politicians; pundits; political analysts; campaign managers; and, well, just about everybody to explain the Donald Trump train wreck juggernaut. Here is a man who has never held public office and has achieved less in business than Paris Hilton; who, except for the real estate knowledge, connections, and fortune, all of which he inherited from his father, has failed at pretty much everything except real estate and, of course, self-promotion; who touts himself as a champion of the little guy while being "famous for not paying his bills" to the "little guys" who service him; who is known for threatening to sue critics; whose political views change constantly (for example, opposed raising the minimum wage in the first primary debate, now supports it); who "switched political party affiliations at least five times since the late '80s, according to voting records." Who says he will "bomb the...
http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2016/01/the_only_book_you_need_to_understand_donald_trumps_popularity.html
DEBATE WRAP-UP
ReplyDeleteAn evening of third-rate politicians who don’t understand the issues.
Beats listening to a Criminal, a crazy paranoid commie of the Andre Marty variety, without the military experience, who honey mooned in the Soviet Union, and a duck named Mallard.
ReplyDeleteIn literature[edit]
DeleteAndrè Marty is mentioned in Ernest Hemingway's novel For Whom the Bell Tolls in chapter 42, page 417.
wiki
We knew it was from Hemingway or Joseph Conrad
DeleteThe Donald tried to leverage his participation in the debate into a $5 million gift to charity for the Vets but cheap-o Fox refused to play ball.
ReplyDeleteKick the moslems out and build a big big wall. Vote Trump!
DeleteI'm off to bed to dream of my niece, my lovely and beautiful niece. She is all that is good and right. I shall lie with her now.
Out!
That you, rat ?
DeleteOr some other sicko ?
Looks and reads like your spam, Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson.
DeleteNaw, Jack "the Rat" Hawkins has bragged that has DOZENS of avatars/logins to post under and has no qualms about using distortion, lies, slander to put his points across...
DeleteProve it, "O"rdure
DeleteNothing needed to be REPROVED.
DeleteIt's established fact Jack.
Sorry I don't "jump" thru hoops for you.
DeleteWe all KNOW you distort, lie and misdirect, we ALL know that you have bragged about multiple logons...
And we all remember the dozens you have made up...
Truth 1 - Jack "the Rat" Hawkins 0
The Democrat Party/Obama will lie about anything -
ReplyDeleteJanuary 29, 2016
300 scientists send letter to Congress accusing NOAA of cooking the books on climate change
By Rick Moran
One of the least reliable sources for data on climate change is the US federal government. Now, a group of 300 scientists and academics want Congress to investigate the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for cooking the books on climate data in order to erase the pause in the rise in temperature cited by, among other sources, the IPCC.
Incredibly, the NOAA accumulated data by measuring the water temperature from the engine intake valves of ocean going cargo ships. The scientists want Congress to investigate whether the agency violated the Data Quality Act, which seeks to insure the accurate dissemination of scientific information to the public.
Daily Caller:
“We, the undersigned, scientists, engineers, economists and others, who have looked carefully into the effects of carbon dioxide released by human activities, wish to record our support for the efforts of the Committee on Science, Space and Technology to ensure that federal agencies complied with federal guidelines that implemented the Data Quality Act,” some 300 scientists, engineers and other experts wrote to Chairman of the House Science Committee, Texas Republican Rep. Lamar Smith.
“In our opinion… NOAA has failed to observe the OMB [Office of Management and Budget] (and its own) guidelines, established in relation to the Data Quality Act.”
The Data Quality Act requires federal agencies like NOAA to “ensure and maximize the quality, objectivity, utility, and integrity of information, including statistical information.”
Smith launched an investigation into NOAA’s study last summer over concerns it was pushed out to bolster President Barack Obama’s political agenda. Democrats and the media have largely opposed the probe into NOAA scientists and political appointees, but Smith is determined to continue investigating. NOAA officials surrendered emails to congressional investigators in December.
“It is this Committee’s oversight role to ensure that federal science agencies are transparent and accountable to the taxpayers who fund their research,” Smith told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “Americans are tired of research conducted behind closed doors where they only see cherry-picked conclusions, not the facts. This letter shows that hundreds of respected scientists and experts agree that NOAA’s efforts to alter historical temperature data deserve serious scrutiny.”
Of the 300 letter signers, 150 had doctorates in a related field. Signers also included: 25 climate or atmospheric scientists, 23 geologists, 18 meteorologists, 51 engineers, 74 physicists, 20 chemists and 12 economists. Additionally, one signer was a Nobel Prize winning physicist and two were astronauts.
NOAA scientists upwardly adjusted temperature readings taken from the engine intakes of ships to eliminate the “hiatus” in global warming from the temperature record.
This is a blatant attempt to politicize science by the administration and should be exposed for the dishonest research it is. The only question is who at NOAA was behind the attempt to whitewash the termperature hiatus and whose orders they were acting under.
DeleteThere is yet to be a credible scientific explanation for the lack of rising temperatures despite models saying there should have been close to a one degree increase over the last 17 years. NOAA's attempt to create an explanation out of whole cloth only shows the desperation of climate hysterics who are vigorously denying the facts in front of their face.
One of the least reliable sources for data on climate change is the US federal government. Now, a group of 300 scientists and academics want Congress to investigate the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for cooking the books on climate data in order to erase the pause in the rise in temperature cited by, among other sources, the IPCC.
Incredibly, the NOAA accumulated data by measuring the water temperature from the engine intake valves of ocean going cargo ships. The scientists want Congress to investigate whether the agency violated the Data Quality Act, which seeks to insure the accurate dissemination of scientific information to the public.
Daily Caller:
“We, the undersigned, scientists, engineers, economists and others, who have looked carefully into the effects of carbon dioxide released by human activities, wish to record our support for the efforts of the Committee on Science, Space and Technology to ensure that federal agencies complied with federal guidelines that implemented the Data Quality Act,” some 300 scientists, engineers and other experts wrote to Chairman of the House Science Committee, Texas Republican Rep. Lamar Smith.
“In our opinion… NOAA has failed to observe the OMB [Office of Management and Budget] (and its own) guidelines, established in relation to the Data Quality Act.”
The Data Quality Act requires federal agencies like NOAA to “ensure and maximize the quality, objectivity, utility, and integrity of information, including statistical information.”
Smith launched an investigation into NOAA’s study last summer over concerns it was pushed out to bolster President Barack Obama’s political agenda. Democrats and the media have largely opposed the probe into NOAA scientists and political appointees, but Smith is determined to continue investigating. NOAA officials surrendered emails to congressional investigators in December.
Delete“It is this Committee’s oversight role to ensure that federal science agencies are transparent and accountable to the taxpayers who fund their research,” Smith told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “Americans are tired of research conducted behind closed doors where they only see cherry-picked conclusions, not the facts. This letter shows that hundreds of respected scientists and experts agree that NOAA’s efforts to alter historical temperature data deserve serious scrutiny.”
Of the 300 letter signers, 150 had doctorates in a related field. Signers also included: 25 climate or atmospheric scientists, 23 geologists, 18 meteorologists, 51 engineers, 74 physicists, 20 chemists and 12 economists. Additionally, one signer was a Nobel Prize winning physicist and two were astronauts.
NOAA scientists upwardly adjusted temperature readings taken from the engine intakes of ships to eliminate the “hiatus” in global warming from the temperature record.
This is a blatant attempt to politicize science by the administration and should be exposed for the dishonest research it is. The only question is who at NOAA was behind the attempt to whitewash the termperature hiatus and whose orders they were acting under.
There is yet to be a credible scientific explanation for the lack of rising temperatures despite models saying there should have been close to a one degree increase over the last 17 years. NOAA's attempt to create an explanation out of whole cloth only shows the desperation of climate hysterics who are vigorously denying the facts in front of their face
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2016/01/300_scientists_send_letter_to_congress_accusing_noaa_of_cooking_the_books_on_climate_change.html#ixzz3ydurKU6N
Paul Krugman gets to the heart of the Bernie Sanders/Hillary Clinton divide
ReplyDeleteIt's about whether money is the root of all evils, or just many of them
In his Friday New York Times column, economist Paul Krugman addressed the issue of whether money is the root of all political evils, or just many of them, as epitomized by the divide between Bernie Sanders (for whom the former is true) and Hillary Clinton (for whom the latter is).
Krugman, as has become increasingly clear, belongs to the Clinton camp. “Oligarchy is a very real issue,” he argued, “[b]ut it’s important to understand how America’s oligarchs got so powerful.” It was not merely a matter of “buying influence,” he wrote, that gave rise to “the American hard right,” it was “an alliance between an elite seeking low taxes and deregulation and a base of voters motivated by fears of social change and, above all, by hostility toward you-know-who.”
Krugman admitted that
there was a concerted, successful effort by billionaires to push America to the right. That’s not conspiracy theorizing; it’s just history, documented at length in Jane Mayer’s eye-opening new book “Dark Money.” But that effort wouldn’t have gotten nearly as far as it has without the political aftermath of the Civil Rights Act, and the resulting flip of Southern white voters to the G.O.P.
Until recently you could argue that whatever the motivations of conservative voters, the oligarchs remained firmly in control. Racial dog whistles, demagogy on abortion and so on would be rolled out during election years, then put back into storage while the Republican Party focused on its real business of enabling shadow banking and cutting top tax rates…
Salon
Reading Krugman is OK but taking him seriously is a sign of the last stages of mental deterioration.
ReplyDeleteHas anyone, here, ever won a Nobel Prize for Economics?
ReplyDeleteI haven't, but I should have.
DeleteI farmed through, and survived, the Carter Years.
Onlyby resorting to identity theft and bank fraud, Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson
Deletebob 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. …
http://2164th.blogspot.com/2010/05/gloom-and-doom-wednesday.html
Prove it Jack, and posting blog statements (which are most likely posted by you) aint PROOF...
DeleteDill weed
Delete;-)
I thought it odd last night listening to Marco Rubio in a coming-to-Jesus moment. Odd. Then I spotted a little ditty abut young Marco in some Miami-Gay prostitute something or another. Know nothing about it but does Marco have a Lincolesque Jimmy Swaggart moment in his future?
ReplyDeleteLast year, the New York Times dug into Marco Rubio's ticket-strewn driving history, and the local response was, "Well, he pretty much drives like a typical Miamian." Turns out the Times missed a big part of Rubio's legal history that the Washington Post only recently dug up: He was arrested in 1990 when he was 18 years old. However, the incident report makes Rubio seem like a typical Miami teenager who was at the wrong place at the wrong time.
The Post spends about 1,760 words breathlessly recounting Rubio's previously unreported arrest. In the summer of 1990, Rubio, who had just returned from his first year of college, was hanging out in a public park after hours.
Rubio was technically arrested, but according to those interviewed, he was not handcuffed or taken into custody. Instead, he was handed a notice to appear, and the charges were eventually thrown out.
The park in question is Alice C. Wainwright Park in Brickell. Just two years ago, New Times awarded it Best Picnic Spot in our annual Best of Miami issue, describing it as "a gem hidden among multimillion-dollar mansions on a hard-to-find spot south of downtown" with a "millionaire's view for the masses." In the 1990s, however, the park had a rougher reputation.
“Gang warfare, gunfire, prostitution (straight and gay), drug dealing and muggings" is how a neighborhood newsletter at the time described the park, according to the Post.
Rubio's arrest went down at 9:37 p.m. May 23, 1990. He had a summer job that involved transporting documents to and from Brickell law firms. The remaining police documents on the incident indicate Rubio and two other teenagers were in the park after dark.
Todd Harris, Rubio's presidential campaign strategist, tried to dismiss the story but did note that Rubio was drinking beer at the time, a detail the Post hadn't discovered.
A friend who was with Rubio said they were just hanging out and didn't usually hang out in the park. He said they weren't arrested but instead were given notices to appear in court. Apparently, the charges never went anywhere, and none of the teens ended up in court.
Rubio had never mentioned the incident but has been open about doing a bit of partying in his early years. In his book, An American Son, he detailed an incident where he was at a foam party in South Beach that caused him to get serious with his girlfriend, who would go on to become his wife.
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/marco-rubio-got-arrested-in-miami-in-1990-but-it-was-for-some-bullshit-8196538
A serious affair, having a beer in a park after hours at age 18.
DeleteThis makes O'bozo's use of crack cocaine look like a minor infraction in comparison.
O'bozo doesn't have to come to God however. God needs to come to O'bozo.
Former House Oversight chairman: 'FBI director would like to indict Clinton and Abedin'
ReplyDeleteBy Gabby Morrongiello (@gabriellahope_) • 1/29/16 2:50 AM
MANCHESTER — California Congressman Darrell Issa, who previously led an investigation into Benghazi as former chairman of the House Oversight Committee, says the FBI "would like to indict both Huma [Abedin] and Hillary Clinton" for conducting sensitive government business on an unsecure, private email server.
"I think the FBI director would like to indict both Huma and Hillary as we speak," the Republican heavyweight told the Washington Examiner Thursday, during a debate watch-party at Florida Sen. Marco Rubio's New Hampshire campaign headquarters.
"I think he's in a position where he's being forced to triple-time make a case of what would otherwise be, what they call, a slam dunk," Issa said, referring to FBI Director James Comey, who previously told the Senate Judiciary Committee he would conduct a "competent," "honest" and "independent" probe into Clinton's handling of classified information during her tenure as secretary of state.
Still, Issa suggested Clinton's wrongdoing is obvious.
More from the Washington Examiner
Feingold widens lead in Wisconsin Senate race
By Nicole Duran • 01/29/16 11:58 AM
"You can't have 1,300 highly sensitive emails that contain highly sensitive material that's taken all, or in part from classified documents, and have it be an accident," he said. "There's no question, she knew she had a responsibility and she circumvented it. And she circumvented it a second time when she knowingly let highly-classified material get onto emails in an unclassified format."
Issa's comments come just two days after former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, claimed he has friends in the FBI who "tell [him] they're ready to indict and they're ready to recommend an indictment."
"They also say that if the attorney general does not indict, they're going public," DeLay said Tuesday during an interview on Newsmax TV.
Clinton, who turned over her private email server to the Justice Department in August, has repeatedly downplayed her growing email scandal throughout her presidential campaign. Last Wednesday, she described new revelations about the level of classified intelligence contained on her unsecure server as a "leak" by Republicans.
"This, seems to me, to be, you know, another effort to inject this into the campaign. It's another leak," the Democratic presidential hopeful told NPR.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/issa-fbi-director-would-like-to-indict-clinton-and-abedin/article/2581811
"I think ...
ReplyDeleteWhich means he does not know, but is making assumptions ....
:)
ReplyDeleteDonald Trump Is Shocking, Vulgar and Right
And, my dear fellow Republicans, he's all your fault.
By Tucker Carlson
| 1/28/2016
About 15 years ago, I said something nasty on CNN about Donald Trump’s hair. I can’t now remember the context, assuming there was one. In any case, Trump saw it and left a message the next day.
“It’s true you have better hair than I do,” Trump said matter-of-factly. “But I get more pussy than you do.” Click.
.
.
At the time, I’d never met Trump and I remember feeling amused but also surprised he’d say something like that. Now the pattern seems entirely familiar. The message had all the hallmarks of a Trump attack: shocking, vulgar and indisputably true.
Not everyone finds it funny. On my street in Northwest Washington, D.C., there’s never been anyone as unpopular as Trump. The Democrats assume he’s a bigot, pandering to the morons out there in the great dark space between Georgetown and Brentwood. The Republicans (those relatively few who live here) fully agree with that assessment, and they hate him even more. They sense Trump is a threat to them personally, to their legitimacy and their livelihoods. Idi Amin would get a warmer reception in our dog park.
I understand it of course. And, except in those moments when the self-righteous silliness of rich people overwhelms me and I feel like moving to Maine, I can see their points, some of them anyway. Trump might not be my first choice for president. I’m not even convinced he really wants the job. He’s smart enough to know it would be tough for him to govern.
But just because Trump is an imperfect candidate doesn’t mean his candidacy can’t be instructive. Trump could teach Republicans in Washington a lot if only they stopped posturing long enough to watch carefully. Here’s some of what they might learn:
He Exists Because You Failed.......
Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/01/donald-trump-is-shocking-vulgar-and-right-213572#ixzz3yevzyPwL
This morning, someone said something that is probably way too important to be "the thought of the day."
ReplyDeleteIt's probably "The thought of the Coming Decade(s.)
"Technology is Deflationary."
Look up "Moore's Law."
DeleteOriginally referred to computer "clock speeds" - Speed Doubles Every 18 Months.
Think about technology, as a whole, and the exponential function.
DeleteJapan just went "negative interest rates."
DeleteMy kids didn't drive down to Walmart, or Toys R' Us this Christmas Season. They didn't spend a day walking through stores, making random impulse purchases, stopping for lunch (and/or drinks) at the food court, burning gas and calories.
DeleteThey picked up the phone, and ordered what they wanted from Amazon. Took maybe 5 minutes.
I'm a slow adopter, but next year . . . . yeah, that's for me.
Technology is deflationary.
CHRISTMAS ! - Merry Christmas ! - is celebrated in the Compound Clan Rufus ????
DeleteI'll be damned, when an old atheist allows the kids to get the Christmas Spirit....
Who said the 'Age of Miracles' was over ?
:)
This comment has been removed by the author.
Delete.
DeleteRight, don't get out and enjoy the lights and Christmas decorations, sit in front of a computer and shop.
Of course, other than for my wife and the grandkids, I usually just by Amazon gift cards for everyone. But heck, I spent decades upholding the Christmas traditions. Let the millennials get off their ass, get out, and do their part.
.
Why should they?
DeleteHow many of you still have a land-line? When's the last time you bought a "stamp?"
ReplyDeleteAre you starting to look at that cable bill and think, "Not much longer, sonofabitches."
This is why those old, white guys on CNBC seem so confused, and pissed off all the time.
The world is running away from them.
Yeah the same thing that OJ is thinking sitting in his cell...
Delete#blacklivesdontmattereventoblacks
DeleteTrump calls Cruz an anchor baby - :) - heh
ReplyDeleteFINAL STRETCH: CRUZ IN FOR BRUISIN...
Trump Calls Him 'Anchor Baby'...
Ted shifts focus from Donald to Marco...
STEADY: 12.5 MILLION WATCH FOXNEWS DEBATE...
**POLL** WHO IS YOUR REPUBLICAN PICK FOR PRESIDENT?
SALON: DRUDGE LEADING WAY...
ISSA: FBI 'WOULD LIKE TO INDICT HUMA AND HILLARY'
SOME EMAILS 'TOO DAMAGING' TO RELEASE .........Drudge
For a 'fascist' Trump has a wonderful sense of humor.
Delete.
DeleteLittle known fact,
Benito Mussolini started out as a stand up comic.
.
Mother F@#K !
ReplyDelete/ScienceTop 20 Stocks for 2016
Jan 28, 2016 @ 07:16 PM 35,173 views
Monstrous Cosmic Gas Cloud Set To Ignite The Milky Way
http://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2016/01/28/monstrous-cosmic-gas-cloud-set-to-ignite-the-milky-way/#2a1f0e7060b7
Oh oh.....
ReplyDeleteIs O'bozo turning on Hillary ?
SOME CLINTON EMAILS 'TOO DAMAGING' TO RELEASE
OBAMA ADMIN CONFIRMS...Drudge
Jan 29, 3:03 PM EST
APNewsBreak: Gov't declares 22 Clinton emails 'top secret'
By BRADLEY KLAPPER
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Obama administration confirmed for the first time Friday that Hillary Clinton's unsecured home server contained some of the U.S. government's most closely guarded secrets, censoring 22 emails with material demanding one of the highest levels of classification. The revelation comes just three days before the Iowa presidential nominating caucuses in which Clinton is a candidate.
The State Department will release its next batch of emails from Clinton's time as secretary of state later Friday.
But The Associated Press has learned seven email chains are being withheld in full because they contain information deemed to be "top secret." The 37 pages include messages recently described by a key intelligence official as concerning so-called "special access programs" - a highly restricted subset of classified material that could point to confidential sources or clandestine programs like drone strikes or government eavesdropping.
Department officials wouldn't describe the substance of the emails, or say if Clinton sent any herself. They also wouldn't disclose if any of the documents reflected information that was classified at the time of transmission, but indicated that the agency's Diplomatic Security and Intelligence and Research bureaus have begun looking into that question.
"The documents are being upgraded at the request of the intelligence community because they contain a category of top secret information," State Department spokesman John Kirby told the AP, describing the decision to withhold documents in full as "not unusual." That means they won't be published online with the rest of the documents, even with blacked-out boxes........
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_CLINTON_EMAILS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2016-01-29-14-48-31
Oh my: Some Hillary e-mails “too damaging” to release?
Deleteposted at 3:21 pm on January 29, 2016 by Ed Morrissey
Share on Facebook
5
5 SHARES
What happens when redactions become insufficient to cover the damage to national security from Hillary Clinton’s unauthorized and unsecured home-brew e-mail system? Get ready to find out. Fox News’ Catherine Herridge and Pamela Browne exclusively report that the intelligence community will prevent the State Department from releasing at least 22 e-mails in the current tranche, because not even redactions can prevent damage to national security from their release:.....
http://hotair.com/archives/2016/01/29/oh-my-some-hillary-e-mails-too-damaging-to-release/
Hoot hoot hoot
Fit Hillary for a jump
Suit suit suit
(Institutions[edit]
The jumpsuit has sometimes been mandated as an institutional uniform, as it can be a unisex garment and can accommodate a wide range of body shapes.
Prisons in the United States and Canada frequently use bright orange jumpsuit uniforms for inmates for ease of identification and high visibility. wiki)
What the hell ????
ReplyDeleteWhat the hell is going on here ????
USA has hacked into Israeli drones and USA has been watching everything they've been doing for a long, long time !!!!
I ask, is that the way friends treat friends ????
We here at the EB should all be outraged at this duplicitous behavior.
Code name:
Delete"Anarchist"
Duration;
Last twenty years
Base of operations:
Cyprus
GODDAMN!!!
OIR Spokesman: Coalition Applies Consistent Pressure on ISIL
ReplyDeleteBy Cheryl Pellerin
WASHINGTON, January 29, 2016 — Over the past week the coalition has kept pressure on the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant across the depth and breadth of the battlefield, Operation Inherent Resolve spokesman Army Col. Steve Warren said today.
During a video briefing live from Baghdad, Warren told the Pentagon press corps here that the coalition’s fundamental concept is to provide simultaneous pressure on ISIL.
“Keep pressure on this enemy, all the time, everywhere,” he said, “because that forces them to have to make very difficult decisions.”
This week on the battlefield, coalition airstrikes over Iraq and Syria targeted mainly Mosul, Ramadi in the Anbar corridor and the Raqqa area.
Isolate Through Fires
“Our focus on Raqqa really is to isolate through fires,” Warren said. “We're trying to isolate them to make their lives harder, to make it more difficult for them to move things in and out of the city, and we're trying to degrade them, chip away at their strength and their combat power.”
Friendly forces are maneuvering around Raqqa near the Tishreen Dam to the west and Hawl to the east, he added.
“As [ISIL] sees the forces maneuver,” Warren said, “the enemy has to then try to predict what's going to happen next and act accordingly, and by doing that he exposes himself to our airstrikes.”
In Iraq
On the ground this week in Iraq, operations have focused on clearing ISIL stragglers in Ramadi, improving defensive positions in Sinjar and patrolling in Beiji, he added.
In Syria, fighting along the Mara Line in the country’s northwest continues to be contested as both forces conducted limited offensive operations. Friendly forces holding the Tishreen Dam near Aleppo improved their defensive positions.
In a training update, Warren said the 72nd Iraqi Army Brigade has finished training in Besmaya, Iraq.
“That training is led by the Spanish and the Portuguese contingents,” he said, adding that the training was extended by about six weeks to include a new focus on obstacle breaching.
Training Iraqis
The standard training, he said, is eight weeks long, with extra time possible for commando school, sniper school, some medic training, and other mission-specific areas.
Warren said coalition teams have so far trained about 20,000 Iraqi security forces -- including police and Sunni tribal fighters.
“What we're doing now is … building the force that will go to Mosul eventually,” he added, noting that about 10 brigades must be built and trained.
“We believe that all the forces we've already trained and run through Ramadi, for example, are certainly capable of moving to Mosul. But we [decided to] … run them through another cycle of training. Are they trained? Yes. Could they go to Mosul now? Yes. But we would prefer to give them additional training before they go,” Warren told reporters.
Tidal Wave II
In other coalition activity, Warren said operation Tidal Wave II continues to target ISIL's illicit oil infrastructure in Iraq and Syria.
Several coalition airstrikes recently targeted gas and other separation points in the region between Deir ez-Zor and Raqqa, he added.
“Our operations to strike at other elements of ISIL's financial system [also continue],” Warren said, “the most notable [being] our strikes against banks where we destroyed piles of Daesh cash.” Daesh is another term for ISIL.
On Russian airstrikes in northwest Syria, Warren said they have helped strengthen Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, particularly in the Aleppo region where the airstrikes have been most intense.
“Those airstrikes have benefited the Assad regime and have allowed [Assad] to push back moderate Syrian opposition forces,” he said, “and in some cases ISIL.”
DOD
Carter Thanks The Netherlands Following Announcement of Expanded Air Campaign
ReplyDeleteDoD News, Defense Media Activity
WASHINGTON, January 29, 2016 — In a statement, Defense Secretary Ash Carter commended the Netherlands for its announcement today that its pilots will expand their current mission over Iraq to participate in coalition airstrikes against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in eastern Syria.
“I also appreciate the announcement of additional funding to support moderate armed Syrian opposition groups with civilian means and medical assistance, consideration of additional support to the Iraqi security forces and the Peshmerga, and additional funding for the restoration of damaged hospitals, schools and other infrastructure,” Carter said.
During discussions in Paris last week, the defense secretary met with his counterparts from six of the leading contributors to the campaign to counter ISIL, including Dutch Defense Minister Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert.
While there, Carter said the “lasting defeat of ISIL must be a global undertaking, because it is a global threat.”
The nations at the meeting reached broad agreement on the military campaign plan and the capabilities required to deliver ISIL a lasting defeat, the defense secretary said, “and we each committed to further aligning our contributions to meet those needs in order to continue accelerating that campaign.”
Carter said he was grateful for Hennis-Plasschaert's “immediate action following last week's meeting, and for the continuing commitment from the Dutch people to this fight.”
“They have provided a strong example for the 26 nation military coalition, which will gather in Brussels along with representatives from the Iraqi government in two weeks to discuss the progress of the campaign and what additional capabilities are needed from every member nation,” he said.
DOD
To bad the Congress of the United States refuses to authorize the President to use military force against the Islamic State...
DeleteThe Republicans must all be covert Muslims
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete
DeleteFrance Plans Mideast Peace Effort, and Recognition of Palestine if It Fails
UNITED NATIONS — France said Friday that it would organize an international conference aimed at resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and that France would recognize Palestine as an independent state if that effort failed.
The announcement, made by Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius in Paris, was welcomed by Palestinian leaders, who have been expressing concern that their grievances and quest for full independent statehood have been marginalized by the Syria war, the European migrant crisis and other related issues.
But the announcement was criticized by Israeli officials, who were quoted in Israeli news media as saying Mr. Fabius had essentially made a threat that would encourage the Palestinians not to negotiate seriously.
“France will engage in the coming weeks in the preparation of an international conference bringing together the parties and their main partners — American, European, Arab — notably to preserve and make happen the two-state solution,” Mr. Fabius said. Should that effort fail, he said, “We need to face our responsibilities by recognizing the Palestinian state.”
Israel has grown increasingly concerned over steps in Europe and elsewhere that validate Palestinian statehood without a peace agreement. An official recognition by the French government would be the most significant so far.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/30/world/middleeast/france-plans-mideast-peace-effort-and-recognition-of-palestine-if-it-fails.html?_r=0
DeleteThe French proposal was reported as other frictions were surfacing between Israel and its most important Western allies, adding to its isolation over both the Palestinian issue and Israel’s criticism of the recently completed nuclear deal with Iran.
In the United States, some pro-Israel groups criticized reissued customs guidelines that say products made in the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel should not be labeled “made in Israel.”
The guidelines were originally promulgated in 1995 to strengthen Palestinian exports. American officials said they were reissued this month in response to complaints about mislabeling, and were in no way meant to discourage purchases of Israeli goods.
Good news, the Israeli will no longer be mislabeling products made in the land they illegally occupy. They will be forced to tell the truth about their "Occupation" of Palestinian lands.
Israel is not, of course, occupying 'Palestinian' lands illegally, but you know that.
DeleteYou are just lying and passing gas again.
I don't think Obama has asked Congress to pass a declaration of war against ISIS.
If he has I missed it.
Surely we can all agree at least that USA must be a real shit bird country for spying on it's friend for 20 years.
Tell it to the UN and the EU, Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson.
DeleteThey call the 'Settlements" illegal, the US calls 'em "illegitimate"
THey are illegal, the EU calls 'em a "War Crime"..
That's a fact
Any country that attacks a US naval vessel, killing 34 US sailors is no friend, Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson
Delete.
ReplyDeleteIs a secret sniper killing off Isil's high command in Libya? Only the Shadow knows.
Mystery gunman credited with shooting three of the terror group's leaders in their new "Caliphate" in Colonel Gaddafi's home city of Sirte.
By Colin Freeman, Chief foreign correspondent
3:08PM GMT 29 Jan 2016
As befits all the best practitioners of his shadowy trade, no-one is quite sure whether he is one man or many, or even simply an urban legend.
But after a string of assassinations of its local henchmen, the Islamic State's new "Caliphate" in the Libyan city of Sirte is abuzz with talk that an anti-Isil sniper is at work.
In recent weeks, no fewer than three Isil commanders in Sirte have been shot dead from long range, according to local media.
The killings - reported to be the work of a sniper who honed his skills in Libya’s uprising against Colonel Gaddafi - are said to have sowed panic among Isil's forces in the city, who have carried a string of arrests and executions in a bid to track down the culprit.
The Sirte assassin's most recent casualty, according to social media reports from Sirte, was Abdullah Hamad Al-Ansari, an Isil commander from southern Libyan city of Obari, who was shot dead on January 23 as he left a city centre mosque.
The birthplace of Libya's late Colonel Gaddafi, Sirte has been under Islamic State control since last summer, Libyan intelligence officials estimating that there may now be up to 2,000 jihadist fighters now based there.
The port city’s new masters have made brutal examples of opponents, via a regime of floggings and beheadings enforced by black-masked religious police.
But while the group's leaders now enjoy unchallenged rule on the streets, that does not appear to have left them immune to long-range attack from Sirte's many battle-scarred buildings...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/12129837/Is-a-secret-sniper-killing-off-Isils-high-command-in-Libya.html
.
I assumed you had been working those streets of Sirte, Quirk, on another assignment from The Big Shade.
ReplyDeleteIf you are self reporting from Sirte, knock it off with the sending over the unsecured server....you trying to get yourself killed ?
Delete.
DeleteI run a small souk just outside the main bizarre in Sirte. Our specialty is tabouli and baba ghanouj on warm pita chips which we sell mainly to the local vegetarian snipers.
.
My wife has a friend whose daughter has Hep C.
ReplyDeleteThis is a life saver.
The drug company is donating the drug to her at no cost, as she is, basically, destitute.
$84,000 is the usual cost.
Her life is being saved for $0.00.
Don't ever bitch about the big pharma unless you are certain you know what you are talking about.
What makes the USA a great country ?
Our big wonderful corporations like Merck, John Deere, Boeing, Chevron etal on and on and on....
Without them you'll be farming with horses, like my grandfather, and dying a lot younger.
Deuce wouldn't be driving in his Limo, nor bitching about USA over the internet without our wonderful big corporations.
ReplyDeleteYou make the foolish assumption, as is your SOP, that there would be no innovation without “wonderful big corporations.”
DeleteWonderful big corporations get that way because of the favorable legal, tax, regulatory, financial and political advantages bestowed on them by the ruling class. In reality, every corporation listed it a conglomeration of smaller acquired companies which individually were far more innovative than the sum of the parts.
As usual, your head,originally on TDY up your ass, has become permanent party in Upper Buttocks, Idaho.
In reality, every corporation listed ( BY YOU ABOVE) it a conglomeration...
DeleteThank you, Merck.
ReplyDeleteThe following is an list of Merck’s major mergers and acquisitions and historical predecessors (this is not a comprehensive list):
DeleteMerck & Co.
Merck & Co.
(Founded 1668 by Jacob Friedrich Merck,
confiscated from Merck KGaA during World War I)
H. K. Mulford Company
(Acq 1929)
Sharp & Dohme, Inc
(Acq 1953)
Charles E. Frosst Ltd
(Acq 1965, restructured into Merck-Frosst Canada, Inc,
restructured into Merck Canada 2011)
Medco Containment Services Inc
(Acq 1993, Spun off 2003)
Schering-Plough
(Acq 2009)
Nobilon
Combined into Organon BioSciences
Diosynth
Combined into Organon BioSciences
Intervet
Combined into Organon BioSciences
Organon International
Combined into Organon BioSciences
Schering-Plough
Plough, Inc
(Merged 1971, Founded 1908)
Schering Corporation
(Merged 1971, Founded 1851)
Idenix Pharmaceuticals
(Acq 2014)
Cubist Pharmaceuticals
(Acq 2014)
Trius Therapeutics
(Acq 2013)
Optimer Pharmaceuticals
(Acq 2013) Adolor
OncoEthix
(Acq 2015)
WSJ articles must have some kind of poison pill.
ReplyDeleteArticles gone again.
ReplyDeleteJust look it up.
I give up.
.
ReplyDeleteDon't ever bitch about the big pharma unless you are certain you know what you are talking about.
It's a wonderful story. The girl is very lucky.
But as you said, the price is expensive, $84,000 (?). I saw an attorney general from one of the eastern states on CNBC yesterday. She was asking for a meeting to with the drug company to discuss the price. The CNBC commentators were making the case that this is a life savings drug and the drug maker had the right to make what profit he could get.
In response, the AG made the point that it really is a miracle drug, a life saving drug. That being said, only 2% of the people who need it are able to get it.
Your wife's friend and her daughter are lucky.
But you are also right in suggesting you know what you are talking about before making broad generalizations.
.
$84,000
DeleteThis girl had a Blue Shield high deductible policy. No prescription drugs attachement.
They ran it through there, was denied.
1) She wasn't at level 3 or 4 yet
2) No prescription drug attachment
The mother told my wife the doctor told her he could nearly always get it paid for someway if the patient was destitute.
At any rate, no Big Pharma, no drug at all. It is costly to develop this stuff.
The price should come down.
No John Deere, no Chevron, no Big Fertilizer = starvation, and farming with horses.
I like our corporations.
No Boeing, no flyfly to Vegas, Deuce.
No Limo to drive there, either.
;)
Just Westward Ho, TrailBoss -
DeleteWagon Train !
;)
The story of US hacking Israeli warplanes would be more interesting if along with the hacking the CIA would have installed a digital kill switch.
ReplyDeleteI think that would be murder, a war crime, an act of war.
DeleteBut, whatever.....I know you don't mean it.
The Israeli are already War Criminals, Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson, their settlements in Palestine make them so.
DeleteAFTER WATCHING THE REPUBLICAN DEBATE, ONE MUST FEEL SOME COMPASSION FOR SURVIVING SANE REPUBLICANS
ReplyDeleteAt the Trumpless GOP debate Thursday evening, the candidates once again promised to bankrupt us with military and intelligence spending and to commit vast war crimes with reckless disregard for the lives of women, children and non-combatant men, of the sort not openly plotted since the demise of the Axis powers in 1943-45.
Sen. Marco Rubio seemed to imply that we don’t know where the terrorists are because our intelligence agencies have somehow been insufficiently funded or supported. But the National Intelligence budget rose from $26.6 billion in fiscal year 1997 to $47.5 billion in FY 2008 (Bush’s last year), and then rose again to $53.9 bn in FY 2012.
That’s about a 12% increase in Barack Obama’s first term and a nearly 200% increase since the late Bill Clinton period.
So Rubio’s implication that intelligence spending has been gutted is not only false, it is the opposite of reality. Why would more such spending work since Rubio maintains that the vast increases in the past decade and a half haven’t done the trick?
Moreover, I thought conservatism was about small government and cutting budgets? Why is Rubio saying he wants to be more of a spendthrift than Barack Obama in this sector?
-JUAN COLE
The Republican Party is exasperated.
ReplyDelete...Trump not only survives every kerfuffle he creates, he thrives on them. He is leading the polls in every state at the front end of the nominating process. Only in Iowa might that lead be at risk: his biggest threat is the one candidate the party establishment likes even less, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas. Desperate for someone to rise quickly from further down the field and save the day, they are eyeing Senator Marco Rubio of Florida.
With every groan and moan about Trump, from the top of the party and from some in the media, there is a degree of cluelessness about his popular appeal.
Maybe we in the journalism business were initially clueless too. How quaint a conversation between this reporter and a Washington Post colleague, at a rally launching the Bush campaign in Miami last June, now seems. We had just received word of a Trump press conference the next day in New York. Could he possibly be declaring for president? We agreed he probably was, before getting back to what we thought more important, reporting on Bush. He would be unstoppable, Trump a mere distraction.
Who’s unstoppable now? Some still say Trump got into the race to serve his narcissism and that one day he will step aside again, declaring: “Well, that was fun.” But he surely understood the power of his run from the very beginning. It was at that first press conference in his own Trump Tower that he branded illegal Mexican immigrants “criminals” and “rapists”. He knew who he was talking to.
Among those laughing – at the elite and us – is Rush Limbaugh, a radio loud-hailer for the right for three decades. “Trump is so far outside the formula that has been established for American politics that people who are inside the formula can’t comprehend it,” he said this week, calling the decision to spurn Thursday’s debate in Des Moines one more Trump masterstroke.
{...}
{...}
DeleteThat remains to be seen. Nothing in this most tumultuous of election seasons will come clear until the first votes are cast. After Iowa on Monday comes New Hampshire, which holds its primary on 9 February. Soon after that the circus will move to South Carolina and Nevada.
Those terrified of Trump have not given up yet. No fewer than 22 conservative commentators this week offered their own treatise of opprobrium in the pages of their favourite periodical, the National Review. The one-time reality show bully was, they averred, nothing more than “a philosophically unmoored political opportunist who would trash the broad conservative ideological consensus within the [party] in favour of a free-floating populism with strong-man overtones”.
The same forces would similarly like to derail Cruz, who has practised scorched-earth politics since being elected to the US Senate in 2012, against not just Washington but his own party. Not only do they loathe Cruz, they fancy he’d be even more of a disaster come the general election.
So to Rubio, the senator from Florida and a one-time protégé of Bush. (They can’t abide one another today.) While most of his rivals have adopted the Trump strategy of channelling, and thus reinforcing, the anger of the electorate he has (mostly) remained sunny on the campaign trail.
{...}
{...}
DeleteWith Trump absent, Rubio and Cruz became the joint focus of attention at Thursday’s debate. They tangled furiously, notably on immigration, each accusing the other of having once favoured giving people living illegally in the country a path to establishing legal residency and then changing their minds when conservatives rebelled at the idea. “This is the lie that Ted’s campaign is built on,” Rubio exclaimed. “That he’s the most conservative guy.”
It may be Rubio’s hope that Trump actually prevails in Iowa. He knows that followers of Cruz could be his if the Texan falters.
But things may not work out so neatly. With Trump far ahead in New Hampshire polls, the contest for second place there is more competitive, with Cruz, Bush, Rubio and Ohio Governor John Kasich all seemingly bunched together. And in recent days Rubio has been clobbered by an avalanche of especially harsh negative advertising. He can only hope that will mean his mettle will have been be proved if he fares well in Iowa on Monday.
Doug Gross, who worked on the Mitt Romney campaign in 2012, told Politico: “If he can withstand all of that and be the mainstream alternative, that’s a pretty powerful position to be in.” If Rubio finished a strong third in Iowa, he said, he would become the mainstream Republicans’ consensus alternative to Trump and Cruz going into New Hampshire – and in that case, “I really think he’s likely going to be our nominee”.
But in this election it is hard to distinguish between wisdom and wishful thinking. Maybe Rubio really is the tortoise to watch. He is certainly the Republican that Democrats fear the most. But before this can happen, all those who have flocked to Trump will have to heed what it says up on those billboards. And give a fig.
Trump would be doing the country a great service in destroying the Republican Psycho Ward.
ReplyDeleteHe needs to target the Criminal, the Commie, and the Mallard first.
DeleteThe Ladies on Fox say the Duck looks great without his shirt, though.
He probably should get a pass on that basis.
GLEN BECK CHECKS IN:
ReplyDeleteGlenn Beck challenged Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio Friday, telling Fox News host Megyn Kelly that the Florida senator is “turning his record upside down and inside out” as he battles his competitors for the GOP nomination.
As the race between Rubio and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz tightens, Cruz is shifting his focus away from his chief competitor Donald Trump and refocusing on Rubio, specifically highlighting their differences on immigration reform.
“I just can’t take it anymore. We are an under-informed electorate and you’re allowed to just lie, and lie, and lie on stage,” Beck told “The Kelly File” host. “[I]t’s soundbite city. They’re turning everything upside down — it is incredible.
Marco Rubio reminds me of Jim Jones in a Jesus moment.
ReplyDeleteGetting down with Jesus
Deletein the final debate before next week’s GOP caucus in Iowa, a contest traditionally dominated by evangelical Christian voters, Marco Rubio seemed to be feeling the holy spirit. Asked about a Time magazine cover that once proclaimed him the savior of the Republican Party, Rubio responded:
Well, let me be clear about one thing. There's only one savior and it's not me. It’s Jesus Christ who came down to Earth and died for our sins and so I’ve always made that clear about that cover story.
Then later:
Delete[I]f you do not understand our Judeo-Christian values are one of the reasons America is such a special country, you don't understand our history. You see, why are we one of the most generous people in the world, no, the most generous people in the world? Why do Americans contribute millions of dollars to charity? It is not because of the tax write-off. It's because in this nation, we are influenced by Judeo-Christian values that teach us to care for the less fortunate, reach out to the needy, to love our neighbor. This is what's made our nation so special and you should hope that our next president is someone that is influenced by their faith, because if your faith causes you to care for the less fortunate, it is something you want to see in your public figures. And when I’m president, I can tell you this, my faith will not just influence the way I’ll govern as president, it will influence the way I live my life. Because in the end, my goal is not simply to live on this Earth for 80 years but to live an eternity with my creator. I will always allow my faith to influence everything I do.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/01/28/seo_marco_rubio_talks_jesus_religion_at_fox_news_gop_debate.html
Delete.
DeleteIt's why I have been turned off of the guy since early on. I saw him speaking at a Christian college and even giving the setting all he would have needed was a Bible to thump.
.
You guys just aren't New Testament folk.
DeleteYou're never going to see the Risen Christ, nor meet him in the air.
Your road to Damascus just long, lonely, dusty.....
:(
Please show some compassion for any remaining sane Republicans.
ReplyDeleteTheir demise will be in February.
ReplyDeleteNot much left to suffer for them.
The Donald is compassionate, looks down in pity.......he puts 'em away with great dispatch, merciful....a real Bronx Bodhisattva....
And still trails both Clinton and Sanders at the RCP poll averages
DeleteFancy that.
Were you/are you working with NSA and CIA and Defense on the Israeli drone spying program, rat ?
DeleteI just got to thinking that what with your involvement in the super secret project off Panama with NSA and CIA you might well have been.
Seems like a good fit.
If so, can you give us any info without compromising national security ?
Would be appreciated.
This new Hep C treatment doesn't have nearly the severe side effects as the earlier efforts, either.
ReplyDeleteCure rate way over 90%.
RUSSIA STATES THE OBVIOUS
ReplyDeleteGENEVA, January 29. /TASS/. Russia supports the idea of Syrian Kurds’ participation in the intra-Syrian talks in Geneva, Russia’s Permanent Representative at Geneva office of the United Nations and other international organization Alexey Borodavkin said on Friday. "Those [oppositionists] who met in Moscow and Cairo agreed to stand together. This Moscow-Cairo group demands representatives of the Syrian Kurds be invited to the talks," he told journalists. "We support this idea since it looks impossible to discuss the agenda without Syrian Kurds." "Some regional powers insist on excluding the Kurds. We believe we should not yield to this blackmail," he stressed.
More:
http://tass.ru/en/politics/853308
With inflation taking less of a bite, Real Weekly Earnings for the average factory worker increased 1.8% in 2014, and 1.4% in 2015. This takes into consideration hours worked.
ReplyDeleteJared Bernstein