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."

Tuesday, January 19, 2016

While The Head Puppeteer to The GOP Likud’s Force, Bibi Netanyahu, Maintains His Pathetic Buffoonery on The Successful Iran Nuclear Deal, Iran Moves on:

Is Iran Taking the China Road?
by , January 19, 2016

57 comments:

  1. The Mullahs are fat, happy, and multi-millionaires, to a man.

    And, their power remains secure.

    Life is good.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, and their one dangerous enemy is dead by hanging - compliments of the great satan.

      A Middle-East Political Engineer couldn't have drawn it up any prettier.

      Delete
    2. Where does the millionaire mullah meme come from? Is there decent support for that assertion. I did a quick google and the only reference I saw was in a youtube video.

      It certainly could be true. Heck all the US congress critters are millionaires as well aren't they?

      Delete
    3. It's enough if there's indecent support for the assertion, Young Gentleman.

      Heck, a youtube video ought to be good enough.

      If petroleum prices keep dropping, there will be fewer of them....

      Delete
    4. yea, yea, we know the level of your critical acumen - if you see it on the internet and it conforms to you pre-existing views then it must be true.

      Delete
    5. And the meme is multi-millionaire, not millionaire !

      It's like the leftist meme that all Republicans are racists....guys like Ben Carson, for instance.

      In fact the new meme is if you are white you are a racist whether you even think so, or not, whether you realize you are, or not.

      It's tough to reply to and defend oneself against some of the leftist memes.



      Delete
  2. Pat is just an old demented Catholic Jew-hater from forever.

    **********

    On to more important things --

    SARAH!!!!


    Cruz spokesman: I’d be “deeply disappointed” if Sarah Palin endorses a progressive like Trump; Update: Is this why people don’t like Cruz, wonders Palin?


    posted at 11:21 am on January 19, 2016 by Allahpundit

    Share on Facebook
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    This makes me think it is Palin who’s going to endorse Trump today and that Team Cruz knows it. Otherwise Rick Tyler would have answered this question differently, in spokesman-ese. You know how it goes: “Oh, listen, I’m not going to speculate about who’s endorsing who. Ted Cruz admires Governor Palin, she and Ted Cruz have been allies since he joined the Senate, but endorsements aren’t going to win this race. Iowans are going to decide based on who has the better record standing up to the Washington cartel and that’s obviously Senator Cruz.” He doesn’t say that. What he’s doing here is a sort of “prebuttal” — surely, surely, an icon of populist conservatism like Sarah Palin isn’t about to throw in with the biggest RINO in the race, a guy who was busy praising Barack Obama in the media on the very day that the tea party was born. If her endorsement’s still in play for Cruz, why would Tyler antagonize her by saying backing Trump would be a blow to her credibility instead of saying something flattering instead? He must know something.........

    http://hotair.com/archives/2016/01/19/cruz-spokesman-id-be-deeply-disappointed-if-sarah-palin-endorses-a-non-conservative-like-trump/

    Biggie, folks, if true........

    People, good people, (!) still LOVE Sarah !!

    Go, Sarah !

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cruz is out there today shamelessly pandering to the Christians -

      "Fight for Christ ! Fight for Christ !"

      There is something about Cruz that is deeply unlikeable....

      The Donald put it this way -

      "Nobody likes him"

      :)

      Anybody out there that actually likes Cruz ?



      Delete
  3. ole bob is just dying for Hillary to get indicted for her email crimes. He should aim higher and pursue her for war crimes when she was SOS:

    "Somalia 2011 famine was a U.S.-created war crime, says journalist Alex Perry

    To call the 2011 famine in southern Somalia a humanitarian emergency, is an understatement. More than a quarter of a million people would die as a result of that crisis.

    And at the time, direly needed food aid — even once it was in the country — was sometimes withheld from certain areas for political and military reasons.

    Food aid was being curtailed from going into some areas under the control of al-Shabaab, the Somali Islamist group.

    Journalist Alex Perry was there in southern Somalia in 2011. He investigated the story behind the starvation, and it's led him to some very troubling conclusions.
    •Photo Essay: The Catastrophic Famine in Somalia

    Alex Perry has written extensively for Time magazine and Newsweek. His new book is The Rift: A New Africa Breaks Free, and he was in Guildford, England.

    We did call the U.S. State Department hoping to get its response to these allegations. The reply it sent us is a Treasury Department document it released in August 2011, days after the U.S. government had relaxed its restrictions on organizations delivering food aid to al-Shabaab areas.

    FAQ Regarding Private Relief Efforts in Somalia

    As Alex Perry pointed out, the lifting of the aid ban came during the height of the famine, when it was too late to stop it.

    We've also reached out to the Somali government through its newly-opened embassy in the United States. We have not heard back.

    ..."

    http://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the-current-for-january-18-2016-1.3408273/somalia-2011-famine-was-a-u-s-created-war-crime-says-journalist-alex-perry-1.3408302

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Draw and quarter the bitch, I say !

      After a quick, fair trial, of course.

      Delete
    2. (actually, I don't see in the Constitution anything that says the USA is legally required to give aid to anyone, but that's another matter......the Constitution is so yesterday anyway...)

      Delete
    3. The war crimes charges stems from using starvation as a tool of war.

      Delete
  4. ISIS Cuts Fighters' Salaries In Half As Group Suffers Crippling Blows

    By Shane Dixon Kavanaugh

    ISIS fighters aren't getting any year-end pay raises this January. In fact, in response to mounting military and economic pressure across Syria and Iraq, the terror group is slashing salaries, newly-leaked ISIS documents show.

    The administrative records reveal that ISIS leaders in Raqqa, the group's de-facto capital in Syria, reduced the monthly salaries of all fighters by half sometime around November or December of last year, just as the U.S. began to dramatically increase its airstrikes against ISIS-held oil fields and other financial targets.

    Read More: There's Only One Way To Bleed ISIS Dry

    "On account of the exceptional circumstances the Islamic State is facing, it has been decided to reduce the salaries that are paid to all mujahideen by half," reads the official notice, which was translated and first published by Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi, an ISIS expert and fellow at the Middle East Forum. "It is not allowed for anyone to be exempted from this decision, whatever his position."

    It also notes that fighters will continue to . . . . . . . .

    tough bein' a headcutter out here

    ReplyDelete



  5. 2016

    How Donald Trump defeats Hillary Clinton

    Obama’s black supporters are crucial to a Trump win, and pollsters say he has a chance with this bloc.

    By Ben Schreckinger
    | 01/19/16 05:17 AM EST



    160116-trump-ap-1160.jpg

    While few if any Republicans view Donald Trump as the party’s most electable nominee, some say he would bring unique assets to a general election. | AP Photo




    If Donald Trump becomes the next president of the United States, there will be plenty of surprises along the way. One of the biggest will be the help he gets from black voters.

    According to Republican pollsters and Trump’s allies, the GOP poll-leader — who has been dogged by accusations of racism, most recently for tweeting out a chart that exaggerated the share of murders committed by blacks — is poised to out-perform with this demographic group in a general-election matchup with Hillary Clinton.


    . .

    “If he were the Republican nominee he would get the highest percentage of black votes since Ronald Reagan in 1980,” said Republican messaging guru Frank Luntz, referring to the year Reagan won 14 percent of that bloc of voters. “They listen to him. They find him fascinating, and in all the groups I have done, I have found Obama voters, they could’ve voted for Obama twice, but if they’re African-American they would consider Trump.”

    Another longtime Republican pollster and veteran of multiple presidential campaigns has tested Trump’s appeal to blacks and Hispanics and come to the same conclusion. “He behaves in a way that most minorities would not expect a billionaire to behave,” explained the pollster, who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid damaging relationships within the party. “He’s not a white-bread socialite kind of guy.”

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There’s more. The rest of Trump’s path to general-election victory, as laid out to POLITICO by pollsters, his campaign and his former advisers, looks like this: After winning the nomination on the first ballot, Trump unifies the party he has fractured behind him and reinvents himself as a pragmatic businessman and family man at the Republican National Convention. News of small-scale terror plots on American soil, foiled or successful, keep voters in a state of anxiety. Trump minimizes his losses with Hispanics by running Spanish-language ads highlighting his support for a strong military and take-charge entrepreneurial attitude, especially in the Miami and Orlando media markets. He draws the starkest possible outsider-insider contrast with Hillary Clinton and successfully tars her with her husband’s sexual history.


      160115_hillary_clinton_ap_1160.jpg




      Clinton makes a rare admission: 'Trump's right'

      By Eliza Collins


      If he does all that, holds Mitt Romney’s states, and drives extraordinary levels of working-class white voter turnout in the suburbs and exurbs of Ohio and Virginia, as well as in the Florida panhandle and Jacksonville, he can flip those three Obama states and rack up 266 electoral votes. Winning any one of Iowa, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Colorado, Nevada or New Mexico would put him over the top and make Donald John Trump the 45th president of the United States.

      Shrinking Democrats’ edge with black voters is just one of the counterintuitive wrinkles to the scenario in which Trump stuns the world and wins the White House. His path also includes playing the gender card against Clinton, a Karl Rovian gambit to turn his opponent’s strength — her feminist appeal — into a weakness.

      In October, Roger Stone, Trump’s former longtime political adviser who left the campaign amid acrimony in August, published “The Clintons’ War on Women,” a book that portrays Bill Clinton as a serial sexual abuser and Hillary Clinton as complicit in silencing his victims.

      Trump has seized on that line of attack this month. He greeted the New Year by tweeting, “I hope Bill Clinton starts talking about women’s issues so that voters can see what a hypocrite he is and how Hillary abused those women!” on Jan. 2. Five days later, his campaign released an Instagram video that features images linking the Clintons to Monica Lewinsky, Anthony Weiner and Bill Cosby and declares Trump “the true defender of women’s rights.”

      It is an especially audacious move for Trump – who left the first of his three wives for his then-mistress and was the subject of a since-recanted accusation of marital rape – but one that has already re-injected Bill Clinton’s sexual history into the political conversation.

      Before he’ll get the chance to take on Clinton though, Trump will have to win the primary. With less than three weeks to go until the Iowa caucuses, polls show Trump leading nationally and in nearly every state except for Iowa, where he and Ted Cruz are neck-and-neck......


      Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/01/how-donald-trump-defeats-hillary-clinton-217868#ixzz3xiuWBOEG

      Delete
  6. MORE good news flowing in on the "F#@K Hillary Front" ! -


    IG: E-mails on Hillary server from highly classified “special access programs”


    posted at 2:01 pm on January 19, 2016 by Ed Morrissey

    Share on Facebook
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    36 SHARES


    Hillary Clinton’s secret e-mail server contained more highly classified information than previously thought, according to a letter from the Inspector General overseeing the material. Fox News got an exclusive look at a letter from Thursday that concludes that “several dozen” e-mails contained classified information ranging from confidential to top secret from “special access programs” — information that should have only been seen by a handful of government officials. There could be no mistaking the nature of this information, or its sensitivity:


    Fox News exclusively obtained the text of the unclassified letter, sent Jan. 14 from Intelligence Community Inspector General I. Charles McCullough III. It laid out the findings of a recent comprehensive review by intelligence agencies that identified “several dozen” additional classified emails — including specific intelligence known as “special access programs” (SAP). …

    “To date, I have received two sworn declarations from one [intelligence community] element. These declarations cover several dozen emails containing classified information determined by the IC element to be at the confidential, secret, and top secret/sap levels,” said the IG letter to lawmakers with oversight of the intelligence community and State Department. “According to the declarant, these documents contain information derived from classified IC element sources.”

    Intelligence from a “special access program,” or SAP, is even more sensitive than that designated as “top secret” – as were two emails identified last summer in a random sample pulled from Clinton’s private server she used as secretary of state. Access to a SAP is restricted to those with a “need-to-know” because exposure of the intelligence would likely reveal the source, putting a method of intelligence collection — or a human asset — at risk. Currently, some 1,340 emails designated “classified” have been found on Clinton’s server, though the Democratic presidential candidate insists the information was not classified at the time.

    “There is absolutely no way that one could not recognize SAP material,” a former senior law enforcement with decades of experience investigating violations of SAP procedures told Fox News. “It is the most sensitive of the sensitive.”

    As Catherine Herridge and Pamela Browne note, the SAP classification was set out in an executive order issued by Barack Obama in December 2009. The order, EO 13526, makes it crystal clear that the impact of exposure on national security from these programs is considered “exceptional,” and that only Cabinet level officials or their principal deputies have the authority assign SAP status. The EO emphasizes that it is only to be used when “the normal criteria for determining eligibility for access applicable to information classified at the same level are not deemed sufficient to protect the information from unauthorized disclosure,” and that these programs have to be regularly reviewed to maintain SAP status.

    In other words, SAP designation requires even more security and oversight than other classified information. Transmitting it over an unsecured system, and storing it in an unauthorized location and manner, would create even more vulnerabilities for national security. That brings us back to 18 USC 793 and especially 18 USC 1924, and perhaps other statutes as well........

    http://hotair.com/archives/2016/01/19/ig-several-dozen-e-mails-on-hillary-server-from-highly-classified-special-access-programs/


    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. (she is sooooo screwed - and by herself, too !)

      Delete
  7. Dozens of officials implicated in $9 billion Nigerian theft - 1/19/16
    The entire developing world is a cesspool of corruption..... More

    Cosmic cycles, not carbon dioxide, control climate - 1/19/16
    Those who think the political war on carbon will cool the globe or keep climate stable need to study climate history..... More

    Boy happily cuts off own hand for offending Prophet Mohammad - 1/19/16
    Moral of the story: try not to raise your hand in a Pakistani mosque..... More


    Keep up on things by reading American Thinker.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Just how much has the GOP's presidential nominating contest hurt the Republican Party? Look at these numbers from our NBC/WSJ poll: 42% of all voters say the race has made them feel LESS favorable about the Republican Party, versus 19% who are MORE favorable. Then look at these subgroups.

    African Americans: 57% less favorable, 5% more favorable (-52)

    Latinos: 45% less favorable, 13% more favorable (-32)

    Suburban voters: 43% less favorable, 19% more favorable (-23)

    Independents: 32% less favorable, 12% more favorable (-21)

    Whites: 40% less favorable, 22% more favorable (-18)

    Even nearly a quarter of Republican primary voters (23%) have a less favorable view of the party due to the nominating process, versus 33% who have a more favorable view (+10). Now compare these numbers with the percentages for the Democrats. Overall, 28% say they have a less favorable view of the Democratic Party, versus 17% with a more positive view. And among these same subgroups:

    African Americans: 29% more favorable, 5% less favorable (+24)

    Latinos: 29% more favorable, 17% less favorable (+12)

    Independents: 14% more favorable, 18% less favorable (-4)

    Suburban voters: 28% less favorable, 17% more favorable (-11)

    Whites: 33% less favorable, 14% more favorable (-19)

    NBCNews

    Yep, dem blacks, dey be fallin' in love wit De Donald.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. :)

      Well, The Donald only needs like 12% or some such of the nation's non-racist blacks who might actually consider voting for a white man....

      "White Politicians Matter"

      Delete
  9. This article is really good -


    Cosmic cycles, not carbon dioxide, control climate - 1/19/16
    Those who think the political war on carbon will cool the globe or keep climate stable need to study climate history..... More


    First, ice cores show that in the glacial spring-time the temperature rose before the CO2 levels rose. Therefore, the rising CO2 cannot be a cause of the warming – it is a result of CO2 being expelled from the warming oceans.

    
Second, at the top of every summertime in the glacial cycle, the high levels of CO2 in the atmosphere were unable to prevent the cooling into the next cycle of ice.

    
We are already in the autumn of the current glacial cycle, and nothing man can do will change that. Global temperatures today are lower than they were in Roman and medieval times. They will still fluctuate with the effects of daily, lunar, yearly, and sun-spot cycles, but the long-term trend of maximum and minimum temperatures will continue drifting downward. Once summer temperatures in places like Siberia are unable to melt last winter’s snow, the already growing glaciers will join to form ice sheets, and Earth will once again be gripped by another long Glacial Winter.

    The transition from Greenhouse Earth to Icehouse Earth always occurs suddenly. Once our verdant greenhouse is gone, life of Earth will never be the same again.

    
The warm days, seasons, years, and epochs have never been a deadly threat to life on Earth. Frost, snow, hail, and ice are the killers. If our descendants do not have the energy, resources, and wisdom to keep their people warm and fed through the coming glacial epoch, humans may follow our Neanderthal cousins, who perished in the last glacial winter, just 20,000 years ago.

    
It is a wonder of the modern era that people who cannot accurately forecast next weekend’s weather claim they can regulate the temperature of the whole globe by bashing industry and taxing carbon.

    
There is no evidence in climate history that carbon dioxide has a detectable effect on global temperatures. However, if our continued use of cheap, reliable hydrocarbon energy does slightly delay the onset of the next glacial winter, we and all life on Earth should count ourselves extremely lucky.


    Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2016/01/cosmic_cycles_not_carbon_dioxide_control_climate.html#ixzz3xj9AUAP5

    According to this writer, young upstart naĂŻve memed to death Ash had it all wrong, while the old coot Rufus had it right.

    "It's the weather, stupid."

    Rufus

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Our kid works with a bunch of Math and Science Phds on telescopes @ 10,000 feet.
      Global Warming Believers, according to him.
      "Education" trumps common sense.
      Obviously we can predict ten thousand years from now, but not next week, with the "right" computer models.
      Obviously.

      Delete
  10. .

    How's That War on Drugs Going for You?

    How the Epidemic of Drug Overdose
    Deaths Ripples Across America




    Deaths from drug overdoses have surged in nearly every county across the United States, driven largely by an explosion in addiction to prescription painkillers and heroin.

    Some of the largest concentrations of overdose deaths were in Appalachia and the southwest, according to new county-level estimates released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

    The number of these deaths reached a new peak in 2014: 47,055 people, or the equivalent of about 125 Americans every day.
    Deaths from overdoses are
    reaching levels similar to the
    H.I.V. epidemic at its peak.

    The death rate from drug overdoses is climbing at a much faster pace than other causes of death, jumping to an average of 15 per 100,000 in 2014 from nine per 100,000 in 2003.

    The trend is now similar to that of the human immunodeficiency virus, or H.I.V., epidemic in the late 1980s and early 1990s, said Robert Anderson, the C.D.C.’s chief of mortality statistics...



    As noted in the series of maps, there few states unaffected by this epidemic. Some polls has shown that drug use is one of the biggest (if not the biggest) issue in the New Hampshire race.

    These days, any family with children should have a supply of naloxone on hand.

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. RWE3
      BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq witnessed a sharp increase in civilian deaths
      following the fall of large swaths of territory to the Islamic State
      group in the summer of 2014. Now despite a string of recent battlefield
      losses for IS, civilians in Iraq continue to die at a "staggering" rate,
      according to a new United Nations report.

      At least 18,802 civilians were killed and another 36,245 were wounded
      in Iraq between the start of 2014 and Oct. 31 of last year, according
      to the U.N. report released Tuesday. In just one six-month period
      between May and October last year, more than 10,000 civilians were
      killed.

      The following year the Iraqi government refused to provide the U.N.
      with death toll statistics, stating that the government wanted to
      prevent the data from painting a negative image of the country. But
      civilian casualties since the rise of IS in Iraq are considerably higher
      than the preceding years of relative stability. In 2011, the number of
      civilian deaths due to violence was at its lowest since the civil war,
      with fewer than 2,800 killed.
      ===
      Doug

      He shoulda run on transforming the World.
      ...probably thought that would have to wait 'til he took over the U.N.
      ===
      Crime is also up across America since POTUS and the MSM have made a habit of trashing the police.

      Delete
    2. Very few will produce masterworks like this before they go:

      Lazarus

      Delete
    3. Opium production in Afghanistan skyrocketed after the US took control.

      Just another "Fact of Life".

      Delete
    4. If we could set up a bunch of Benzodiazepine factories also, we could have them dying off good and proper like we do here in America.
      That's how the local hospital euthanized my wife.

      Delete
    5. "In the autumn/ winter of 2008 in the UK a large batch of heroin swept the country that had been contaminated (cut?) with the benzo flunitrazepam (better known as date-rape drug rohypnol). People injecting this heroin were losing whole days, having no clue as to what had happened. During the month or two that this batch was around, aquaintances of swim crashed their cars (thus losing their driving licenses), started fights with their friends over nothing at all, got arrested for all sorts of stuff, basically just ended up in a right mess. Even worse, nationally loads of people overdosed on this stuff, after injecting their usual heroin dose (obviously not knowing it had a large benzo content) and quite a few of these people died. Swim herself had a couple of hits of this tainted gear, and honestly it was horrible - complete blackout for hours and hours, messy dribbling wreck. Everyone she saw who hit this stuff up ended up in a seriously fucked-up condition at best, in hospital at worst.

      Also, you should bear in mind that the opiate reversal drug naloxone won't do anything for a benzo overdose. In the case of an opiate/ benzo combination overdose naloxone (which is what paramedics automatically reach for in an apparent opiate OD case) will counteract the opiates, but it's possible that the benzos will have complicated the situation too much by then for it to successfully bring the patient out of respiratory arrest. Incidentally, the drug flumazenil is indicated for reversal of benzodiazepine overdoses."

      https://drugs-forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=113264

      Delete
    6. Violent crime is at an all time low, 2001 through 2015.

      In the new century, however, there’s been a disconnect. A majority of Americans (63%) said in a Gallup survey last year that crime was on the rise, despite crime statistics holding near 20-year lows.
      http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/04/17/despite-lower-crime-rates-support-for-gun-rights-increases/

      Delete
    7. The heroin on the streets of the US, most of it is from Afghanistan.

      You had always raved about the great medical system we had here in the US, Doug, until you had to witness it first hand, up close and personal.

      Delete
  11. SARAH PALIN ENDORSES THE DONALD !!!!!!!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    2. This is yuuge, YUUUUUGGGGEEEE !!!!

      Howdy, Doug.

      Delete
    3. Thought better of it, didja Quirk ?

      Good.

      I'm heading to the movie.

      This Sarah thing is Yuge I'm telling ya...

      Delete
    4. .

      Not at all. However, as written, it had too many commas in it.

      You being an English major, you probably didn't notice.

      .

      Delete
    5. Only a dumbshit worries about too many commas in a blog comment.

      Or spelling either.

      Just take a look at Old English.

      Spel as thou wilt.

      Relax, and just try to say what you want to say, as if you're at the coffee counter, or driving around Detroit drinking with a friend.

      Delete
  12. .

    Sarah Palin: ...icon of populist conservatism like Sarah Palin...

    Translation: A witless promoter of nativist scaremongering and a torture promoting supporter of the sublimity of violence who has an elitist and mistaken view of party purity. She defines the new right and her endorsement of Trump confirms it.

    They were made for each other (or for any despotic fascist dictatorship around the world).

    .


    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      Note: The 'sublimity of violence' was a phrase I stole from someone else but it seemed appropriate in this context.

      .

      Delete
    2. A forthright admission.

      I knew you wouldn't possess the necessary imagination to come up with such a meaningless phrases yourself.

      Delete
    3. Aha !

      The old despotic fascist dictatorship horse shit comes rolling out the mouth of Quirk.

      Let's see....Sarah was Governor of Alaska for a little while, and Trump, who is nearly 70, never ran for anything in his life.

      Yet Quart is saying they are despotic fascist dictatorship material.

      It's thoughtless disgusting bull shit like this that occasionally prompts me to say "Quart, you old disgusting drunk, you're an asshole, at base. And, base too."

      Delete
    4. (plus the dumbfucker never gets his ,,,,,,'s right)

      Delete
  13. A suicide bomber blew himself up close to a police checkpoint in northwestern Pakistan on Tuesday, killing at least 10 people and wounding more than 20, officials said.

    ...

    Last month, a suicide bomber attacked a government office in northwestern Pakistan, killing at least 23 people.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Movie review : "13 Hours"

    Wife gives it her coveted A+ rating.

    I'm giving only an A because I got tired of the war drums beating endlessly on the sound track in the background.

    Also, nobody ever runs short on ammo or needs to reload, like in the old Western movies of my youth.

    Fuller comment later.....

    ReplyDelete
  15. Video: Remember when Barack Obama said we couldn’t just drill our way to lower gas prices?


    posted at 8:01 pm on January 19, 2016 by Jazz Shaw


    Here’s a fun item for a Tuesday rather than the normal gloom and doom. Do you recall a couple of years ago when filling up your car required a loan application form? And during the debates over fracking, pipelines and all the rest, do you remember the many, many times when President Obama assured us that we couldn’t just drill out way to lower gas prices? Just as a reminder, here’s a snippet from one of the speeches he gave in Florida back in 2012. (Tampa Bay Times)


    “Now, some politicians always see this as a political opportunity. You’re shocked, I know,” Obama says in prepared remarks. “Last week, the lead of one news story said, “Gasoline prices are on the rise, and Republicans are licking their chops.” Only in politics do people greet bad news so enthusiastically. You pay more, and they’re licking their chops? And you can bet that since it’s an election year, they’re already dusting off their three-point plans for $2 gas. I’ll save you the suspense: Step one is drill, step two is drill, and step three is keep drilling. We heard the same thing in 2007, when I was running for President. We hear the same thing every year. We’ve heard the same thing for thirty years.

    “Well the American people aren’t stupid. You know that’s not a plan – especially since we’re already drilling. It’s a bumper sticker. It’s not a strategy to solve our energy challenge. It’s a strategy to get politicians through an election. You know there are no quick fixes to this problem, and you know we can’t just drill our way to lower gas prices.”

    Yeah… two dollar gas. Like that’s going to happen. What a bunch of maroons. Those Republicans are just trying to prop up their billionaire buddies in the oil and gas industry and play you for suckers. Two dollar gas? Don’t make me laugh...........

    http://hotair.com/archives/2016/01/19/video-remember-when-barack-obama-said-we-couldnt-just-drill-our-way-to-lower-gas-prices/



    Heh, O'bozo wanted high gas prices to save the earth. He tried his best to destroy the coal industry, and has partly succeeded. He put off limits Federal lands for drilling.

    But the gods, and American industry, among other forces, including market forces, were against him.

    God Bless $2/gas

    O'bozo wanted it at $6.

    ReplyDelete
  16. U.S. Central Command has acknowledged only seven instances of civilian “casualty events,” cases in which civilians were killed or wounded by airstrikes.

    But Chris Woods, director of the group Airwars, which monitors the coalition’s airstrikes in Iraq and Syria, said the number was much higher.

    ...

    The independent website Iraq Body Count says there is documentary evidence of more than 150,000 civilian deaths in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.


    ReplyDelete
  17. Heh heh heh.....I LOVE this campaign....

    Cruz is pumping Iowa Jesus iron by proclaiming he became a Christian "at age eight".


    Hoot hoot hoot....

    Do I hear an "age seven" ?

    An age seven, any age seven ?

    Any age seven out there ?

    Going, going.....gone to Ted Cruz at age eight !!!!.....

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Hell, Al Sharpton was street preachin' by age eight.

      By conversion primogeniture, Al would have Iowa wrapped up, if he were running.

      Delete
  18. A media outlet associated with Islamic State on Tuesday released a eulogy for "Jihadi John", a member of the militant group who gained notoriety for his filmed execution of hostages, the monitoring organisation SITE reported.

    ...

    The US-British missile strike believed to have killed him was months in the preparation but came together last November as two US MQ-9 Reaper drones and one British MQ-9 cruised above the Syrian town of Raqqa, according to US officials.

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  19. .

    Yet Quart is saying they are despotic fascist dictatorship material.


    Of course, they are 'despotic fascist dictatorship material'. How can you deny it?

    Actually, when I spend the time to read all of Trump's position on the various issues, I agree with him on many if not most. However, some are egregious and make my point as when he promises us more torture and pillage. His heroes? Leaders like Putin.

    Worse, he is an embarrassment. He offers up simplistic solutions that would never get passed in Congress and if they were it would further diminish US standing in the world.

    As for Palin, she has been out of the spotlight lately but she never gets too far away from it. Here is one example.

    Sarah talking to the NRA about terrorists,

    “Oh, but you can’t offend them, can’t make them feel uncomfortable, not even a smidgen. Well, if I were in charge, they would know that waterboarding is how we baptize terrorists.”

    She offers up torture and calls it a sacrament, an odd admixture of barbarity and blasphemy.

    The Sacrilegious Sarah Palin

    Man, the 12 minute speech Sarah Palin gave to the NRA convention is awful. It’s just witless, red-meat blathering, delivered in that nasal whine of hers that makes it sound like she’s chewing wads of tinfoil. For people who like this sort of thing, this is the sort of thing they like.

    Fast-forward in the video to the 6:30 mark, though, and listen to what she says about terrorists. It’s part of a long harangue about lily-livered liberals, delivered in such a way that makes Archie Bunker sound like Cicero. Money quote:

    "Oh, but you can’t offend them, can’t make them feel uncomfortable, not even a smidgen. Well, if I were in charge, they would know that waterboarding is how we baptize terrorists.”

    OK, stop. Not only is this woman, putatively a Christian, praising torture, but she is comparing it to a holy sacrament of the Christian faith. It’s disgusting — but even more disgusting, those NRA members, many of whom are no doubt Christians, cheered wildly for her.


    {...}

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    1. {...}

      I’m with my Lutheran pal Mollie Hemingway on this. Excerpt:

      I’ve long defended Palin against the offensive treatment she’s received at the hands of a blatantly biased media, a media that collectively lost its mind the moment she entered the national stage. But that hardly means she must be defended at all times. … This is a perfect example not just of civil religion but also how civil religion harms the church. Civil religion is that folk religion that serves to further advance the cause of the state.

      Palin and all those who cheered her sacrilegious jibe ought to be ashamed of themselves. For us Christians, baptism is the entry into new life. Palin invoked it to celebrate torture. Even if you don’t believe that waterboarding is torture, surely you agree that it should not be compared to baptism, and that such a comparison should be laughed at. What does it say about the character of a person that they could make that joking comparison, and that so many people would cheer for it. Nothing good — and nothing that does honor to the cause of Jesus Christ.

      If I thought that kind of hateful declaration and abuse of the Christian religion was what conservatism stood for, I wouldn’t be able to call myself a conservative. Some conservatives do stand for that. They’re wrong, and they should be called out on it — not because some liberal somewhere is going to be offended, but first and foremost because we Christians who identify as conservatives are appalled by it.

      UPDATE: Joe Carter at The Gospel Coalition has a great response. Excerpt:

      In our attempts to dehumanize our enemy we end up becoming less than human ourselves. It would be a Pyrrhic victory to save civilization and lose our humanity.

      We must never hesitate to defend our culture, our future, and our lives against those who seek to destroy us. The liberal cosmopolitan elite appeal to tolerance and understanding in the face of such an enemy is suicidal. However, the right-wing populist position, which is willing to face up to and address the evil of terrorism, fails to understand the ramifications of becoming like the enemy by dehumanizing them.


      The truly Christian position is to never forget that evil comes not just from the actions of “terrorists” or “enemies” but from the heart of a fallen, sacred yet degraded, human beings. If we are to preserve our own humanity we must not forget that our enemy differs from us in degree, not in kind. Like us, our enemies need to accept Jesus and to be baptized by water and the Spirit. That is the Christian way, not as Palin would have it, to have our enemies fear a pagan god and have their spirit broken by water.


      .

      Delete
  20. Thinking of a new end of life career, Quirk ?

    The old fraudulent advertiser turns to the collection plate ?

    Quirk's True Christian Gospel Lighthouse ?

    I went to a church in Lexington, Kentucky where they actually passed the plate twice during the service.

    I kinda like Sarah's analogy.

    She's a fightin' Christian, the only kind that stands a chance against the 'Mooselims', as Bernie, still stuck with Karl Marx back in 19th Century London, calls 'em.

    Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition !

    I didn't know Molly was a Lutheran.

    Kinda liked her till now.

    Now I think of her as just preachy bitch.

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    1. I think I'll have to buy the book '13 Hours'. I hear it was written by those guys.

      A quote from Joseph Campbell was mentioned a couple of times.

      "All the gods, all the heavens, all the hells, are within you"

      Which comes from the Upanishads.

      http://responsiveuniverse.me/2012/11/15/how-about-a-little-joseph-campbell-wisdom/

      There was a short scene where of the guys had his nose in a book by Campbell.

      I doubt Joe would have liked the idea of selling one's military abilities on the open market, if that is what they were doing.

      By the way, there was a good scene of the arms bazaar, which makes one understand the Buddha's prohibition against engaging in the arms trade.

      On the other hand, the Buddhists high tailed it to the mountains, and to the east, when the Mooselims showed up, swords in hand. The Mooselims, those wonderful people, have killed at least 80 million Hindus over the centuries.

      All India would be Mooslim today if they had all followed the Buddhist way...

      Towards the end a couple came to the realization they knew zero about Libya, having trouble telling the good guys from the bad until first shot at, and, reasonably enough, wanted to go home, like Odysseus.

      Delete
    2. If Quirk in his purity is unsettled by, as Deuce once called it, "a little water up the nose", he probably would have joined the Buddhists and headed for the hills.

      No guilt in that, but it doesn't give one the right to criticize the other way.

      Delete
  21. If Totalitarianism comes to the USA, it will come from the left, not the right.

    The Nazis and the Commies were both 'socialists'.

    The Donald isn't going to want to turn his holdings over to the State.

    Neither is Sarah.

    Quirk has it ass backwards.

    He says 'they are ALL dicks'.

    But it seems all dicks aren't quite equal.

    ReplyDelete
  22. I'm for the counter-protestors. If it weren't so cold I'd drive down there and join them....maybe in a few weeks....



    Standoff on Oregon Land Inspires a Counterprotest



    The New York Times
    The New York Times



    By KIRK JOHNSON

    Candy Henderson rested on a brisk Tuesday in her tent, not far from the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon.© Jarod Opperman for The New York Times Candy Henderson rested on a brisk Tuesday in her tent, not far from the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon.

    PRINCETON, Oregon — Tensions have run high in eastern Oregon since an armed group seized the headquarters of a national wildlife refuge early this month, but the primary opponents in the standoff have been pretty clear cut: The antigovernment protesters are facing off against law enforcement agents, who are trying to figure out a peaceful end to the illegal occupation.

    But in recent days, as the standoff has dragged toward its third week, a new element has been added to the chemistry: counterprotesters who are converging here to denounce the occupying faction — in person at the refuge headquarters — and demand that federal public lands remain open for all. The newcomers range from environmental activists to retired federal workers to a couple of long-distance hikers.

    “We’re here to say the Malheur is not occupied by the militia — we’re here, we’re on the land,” Kierán Suckling, the executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental advocacy group in Tucson, Ariz., said Tuesday during a rally at the refuge. About a dozen people joined him, from places like Eugene, Oregon and Spokane, Wash., and waved signs at passing vehicles.

    Sign Up For NYT Now's Morning Briefing Newsletter

    The advent of a new assortment of outside protesters has again shifted the dynamics of the situation at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. At first, when a band of armed men and women led by Ammon and Ryan Bundy seized the refuge’s headquarters, they sought support from the local community for their demand that millions of acres of federal land be placed in local, state or private hands. Instead, community leaders asked the Bundy group to leave. F.B.I. agents and sheriff’s deputies from around Oregon then converged in the nearby town of Burns.

    Since then the Bundys, who have gained notoriety as opponents of the federal government, have attracted an assortment of sympathizers — and, now, enemies. The Malheur refuge is remote, about 30 miles from the nearest town, and yet people like Mr. Suckling were upset enough to made a pilgrimage to ask the Bundy group to leave.

    Some in the Malheur takeover group have not liked the new incursion very much, as small as it has been. On a recent morning, a spokesman for the occupiers — gun on hip, cowboy hat on head — was calmly addressing reporters at a news conference when a small but visible tussle started unfolding in view of television cameras.



    Conservation-minded protesters opposed to the takeover of the Malheur refuge demonstrated on Tuesday at a turnoff for the site.© Jarod Opperman for The New York Times Conservation-minded protesters opposed to the takeover of the Malheur refuge demonstrated on Tuesday at a turnoff for the site. Mr. Suckling held up a sign denouncing the occupation: “Keep Public Lands Public.”...........

    http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/standoff-on-oregon-land-inspires-a-counterprotest/ar-BBorNoW?ocid=spartandhp

    ReplyDelete
  23. Perfect !

    Having a pleasant lunch with Quart -


    January 20, 2016

    Conservatives: Just Nazis inside, screaming to get out?

    By George Lemmond



    During a pleasant lunch with a liberal couple, I praised Sarah Palin. After a moment of stunned silence, the lady said, "Well, I'm not surprised if you deny the Holocaust. Do you?"

    Stifling my anger, I said, "Why on Earth do you ask that?"

    "Well, that's the next step," she snorted. "All of you hard-right extremists and evangelists are about to go farther down the path of Hitler. How do you sleep at night?"

    "That's most insulting and ignorant question I have ever heard," I tried to explain. "Conservatism in this country is about personal freedom, and that's the direct opposite of totalitarianism, where the government owns everything – including you. The next step for us would be a Libertarian, not a Fascist."

    The man chimed in. "She's not talking about you; it's just the lunatic fringe, the wacko birds."

    I knew she had included all conservatives as crazies. I said, "I respect your opinions, but you don't respect mine. Why is that? Why do you assume the high moral and intellectual high ground?"

    The couple looked offended. "You have a right to your misguided opinions," she said. "But lately you have been talking about repealing Obamacare, not raising the minimum wage to 15 dollars, and not believing in the settled science of global warming. How could we not believe that your compasses have headed south?"

    We changed the subject to the traffic, to the kids, and to the bill. I lingered for a while for a needed extra cup of coffee. I barely heard the man whisper to his wife as they left, "Where did we go wrong? I thought he was our friend."

    George Lemmond is a marketing professional and an adjunct professor at Georgia State University. His website is lemmond-ontarget.com, and his email is glemmond@charter.net.


    http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2016/01/conservatives_just_nazis_inside_screaming_to_get_out.html#ixzz3xmgOhlur





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    1. .

      We changed the subject to the traffic, to the kids, and to the bill. I lingered for a while for a needed extra cup of coffee. I barely heard the man whisper to his wife as they left, "Where did we go wrong? I thought he was our friend."


      What bullshit. That you can't understand that this entire incident was made up for the article amazes.

      I barely heard the man whisper to his wife as they left, "Where did we go wrong? I thought he was our friend."

      Good lord.

      .

      Delete