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."

Sunday, June 26, 2016

Is Brexit The Art Of The Deal?

"Know when to walk away from the table." The Art of the Deal - TRUMP

Just saying...

71 comments:

  1. Can the UK make a better deal for all of the UK by forcing reforms? I think so.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don't see how leaving the Union will force reform on the EU that will then benefit the UK that is not then part of the Union. The EU may very well reform but that won't benefit the UK.

      Delete
    2. The UK may be able to negotiate beneficial trade deals on exit but that is by no means guaranteed.

      Delete
    3. A "healthier" Europe would not benefit an independent UK?

      An idea that makes no sense.
      The UK is not severing all ties with Europe, it is merely leaving the politics of Europe to the Europeans.

      The economic 'union' was never consummated, the pound sterling remaining the official currency of the United Kingdom throughout their membership in the EU.

      The EU is not about to embargo the UK, neither side will want to start a 'trade war'.

      Delete
    4. While they kept their own currency they did have close economic ties - free trade, mobility of labor ect. They will lose access on much of that. They very well may be able to negotiate beneficial access going foward but that is hardly guaranteed and, I think, unlikely.

      A healthy Europe should be to everyones benefit.

      Delete
    5. Will they really lose access to the markets of Europe?

      Will the Euros really cut off their noses to spite their face?

      Delete
    6. In general, do you think the British market is large enough to entice the EU to offer free access to their markets in return for free access to Britain's? Take food for example - the Europeans have been famously protectionist of the trade in food products. Will they give access to the British food exporters in return for selling food to them? I doubt it.

      Delete
  2. Casting the Brexit in Trumpian "Art of Deal" terms doesn't reflect what occurred. They didn't walk away from the table trying to force a better deal further down the road they scuttled the deal. They had achieved better terms and still said no. There is no deal left as they are leaving the Union.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. European history has not ended.

      The "Union" will have to restructure itself, or collapse, now that the UK has started the unraveling.

      ...

      The question before us now is: Does Brexit mark the beginning of the end for this era of peace? Or can the European project be salvaged?


      https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/does-brexit-portend-the-end-of-european-unity/2016/06/25/74e27d4a-3a5a-11e6-8f7c-d4c723a2becb_story.html

      Delete
    2. or they will continue to muddle along without Britain, but yeah, the future is uncertain - the PIIGS problem hasn't been solved as of yet either.

      Delete
  3. I love 'Doug logic' on previous threads - VDH saw Spanish looking folk dump garbage in the street therefore illegal aliens commit the majority of crimes.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, yes, we all know the majority of crimes are committed in stable clean garbage free upper middle class areas of responsible working tax paying citizens.

      Delete
    2. I see our little lying sack of shit has arisen from his slumbers. Here comes a slew of boobie droppings.

      Delete
    3. Why, Good Morning to you too, Smirk.

      Beautiful day here and just had a wonderful late breakfast in town with my wife.

      Hope you are having a great day yourself.

      Delete
    4. I see I just got an e-mail from Eric Trump.

      Wonder what that might be about.

      Maybe they want to buy my development....

      Actually looking at it again, I got TWO !

      One says 're my father's request' and the other says 'My father will fight for you'....

      Don't have time right now but maybe I call them directly on Monday....

      Something big - yuuuuge - is up.....

      Delete
    5. (when making a deal never appear anxious or in a hurry)

      Delete
  4. True enough, but as negotiations begin, a smart politician could return to the underlying root of the problem:

    ...Globalisation, on the other hand, is premised on a different and very narrow kind of internationalism: one that protects the rights of the super-rich to drive down wages and workers’ rights by demanding the free movement of labor, while giving this economic elite the freedom to hide away their own profits in remote tax-havens.

    Globalisation, in other words, switched the battlefield of the class struggle from the nation state to the whole globe. It allowed the trans-national economic elite to stride the world taking advantage of every loophole they could find in the weakest nations’ laws and forcing other nations to follow suit. Meanwhile, the working and middle classes found themselves defenseless, largely trapped in their national and regional ghettoes, and turned against each other in a global free market...


    - See more at: http://mondoweiss.net/2016/06/should-disturbed-brexit/#sthash.7hBsfMqr.dpuf

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. {...} That was a doubly tragic mistake.

      First, it meant there was no prominent figure making a progressive case for Brexit. Many ordinary voters know deep in their hearts that there is something profoundly wrong with the neoliberal consensus and global economic order, but it has been left to the far-right to offer them a lens through which to interpret their lived experience. By stepping aside, Corbyn and the real left allowed Johnson and Farage to forge the little Englander case for Brexit unchallenged.

      Second, voters are ever more distrustful of politicians. Cameron and Corbyn’s failure to be candid about their views on Europe only underscored the reasons to assume the worst about the political class. In a choice between the uncomfortable and perfunctory posturing of the Remain leaders and the passionate conviction of Johnson and Farage, people preferred fervor.

      Compromised politics

      This is a much wider phenomenon. Corbyn’s appeasement of the Blairites is another example of the deeply tainted, lesser-evilism politics that requires Bernie Sanders to tell his supporters to vote for Hillary Clinton, warmonger-in-chief to the military-industrial complex, to stop a loud-mouth billionaire thug, Donald Trump.

      Increasingly, people are sick of these endless compromises that perpetuate and intensify, rather than end, inequality and injustice. They simply don’t know what levers are left to them to change the ugly reality in front of them.

      The result is an increasingly febrile and polarised politics. Outcomes are much less certain, whether it is Corbyn becoming Labour leader, Sanders chasing Clinton all the way to the Democratic convention, or Trump being on the cusp of becoming US president.

      The old order is breaking down because it is so thoroughly discredited, and those who run it – a political and economic elite – are distrusted and despised like never before. The EU is very much part of the old order.


      Delete
    2. {...}

      There is a genuine question whether, outside the EU, the UK can be repaired. Its first-past-the-post electoral system is so unrepresentative, it is unclear whether, even if a majority of the public voted for a new kind of politics, it could actually secure a majority of MPs.

      But what is clear to most voters is that inside the EU it will be even harder to fix the UK. The union simply adds another layer of unaccountable bureaucrats and lobbyists in thrall to faceless billionaires, further distancing ordinary people from the centers of power.

      - See more at: http://mondoweiss.net/2016/06/should-disturbed-brexit/#sthash.7hBsfMqr.dpuf

      Delete
    3. {...}

      ...Disturbing trend for Israel

      Finally, it is worth noting that the trends underpinning the Brexit vote should disturb Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, just as they already are troubling the political class in Europe and the US.

      Like the EU, Israel too is vital pillar of the old global order. A “Jewish homeland” emerged under British protection while Britain still ran an empire and saw the Middle East as its playground.

      After the European colonial powers went into abeyance following the Second World War, the role of patron shifted to the new global hegemon in Washington. The US has endlessly indulged Israel, guarded its back at the United Nations, and heavily subsidised Israel’s powerful military industries.

      Whereas the US has propped up Israel diplomatically and militarily, the EU has underwritten Israel’s economic success. It has violated its own constitution to give Israel special trading status and thereby turned Europe into Israel’s largest export market. It has taken decades for Europe to even acknowledge – let alone remedy – the problem that it is also trading with illegal Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

      If the EU starts to unravel, and US neoliberal hegemony weakens, Israel will be in trouble. It will be in desperate need of a new guarantor, one prepared to support a country that polls repeatedly show is mistrusted around the world.

      But more immediately, Israel ought to fear the new climate of polarised, unpredictable politics that is becoming the norm.

      In the US, in particular, a cross-party consensus about Israel is gradually breaking down. Concerns about local national interests – of the kind that exercised the Brexiters – are gaining traction in the US too, as illustrated last year by the fallout over Israel’s stand-off with the White House over its Iran agreement.

      Distrust of the political class is growing by the day, and Israel is an issue on which US politicians are supremely vulnerable. It is increasingly hard to defend Congress’ historic rock-solid support for Israel as truly in American interests.

      In a world of diminishing resources, where the middle class is forever being required to belt-tighten, questions about why the US is planning to dramatically increase its aid to Israel – one of the few economies that has done well since the 2008 crash – are likely to prove ever-more discomfiting.

      In the long term, none of this bodes well for Israel. Brett is simply the warning siren.


      - See more at: http://mondoweiss.net/2016/06/should-disturbed-brexit/#sthash.7hBsfMqr.dpuf

      Delete

  5. PANAMA CITY — A 984-foot Chinese container ship slowly plodded Sunday into the new massive locks of the Panama Canal, becoming the first ship to officially use the expanded canal and sparking a new dawn for Panama and global shipping.

    Nearby, a brass band played nonstop as onlookers – from Panama, Colombia, Venezuela and a host of other countries – waved flags and danced.

    The $5.4 billion effort to expand the 102-year-old canal took nearly 10 years and the sweat from 40,000 workers to complete. The new set of locks now allow ships carrying up to 14,000 containers, known as neo-Panamax ships, to cut a quicker path between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. U.S. ports have been investing billions of dollars to expand their facilities in a race to accommodate the mega ships.


    http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2016/06/26/bigger-ships-panama-celebrates-opening-its-expanded-canal/86403210/

    ReplyDelete

  6. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi urged all Iraqis to celebrate the recapture of Fallujah Sunday by the security forces and vowed the national flag would be raised in Mosul soon.

    "I call on all Iraqis wherever they are to get out and celebrate," he told Iraqiya state television, standing in front of Fallujah hospital with an Iraqi flag around his neck.

    "We will raise the Iraqi flag in Mosul soon," he said, referring to Iraq's second city, which is the Islamic State group's last remaining major hub following the retaking of Fallujah.


    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-3660885/Iraq-PM-visits-Fallujah-urges-Iraqis-celebrate-victory.html

    ReplyDelete


  7. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said the European Union has "no need to be particularly nasty in any way" in the negotiations with Britain about its exit from the bloc.

    She insisted that deterring other countries from leaving the EU should not be a priority in the talks.

    And she added she was not in favour of pushing for a speedy withdrawal.

    Britain narrowly voted to end its membership in a historic referendum last Thursday.

    Mrs Merkel was speaking after several EU foreign ministers - including Germany's - had urged Britain to quickly implement its exit.

    "It shouldn't take forever, that's right, but I would not fight for a short timeframe," she said.

    She added that she was seeking an "objective, good" climate in the talks with Britain, which "must be conducted properly".


    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36630326

    ReplyDelete
  8. "...Globalisation, on the other hand, is premised on a different and very narrow kind of internationalism: one that protects the rights of the super-rich to drive down wages and workers’ rights by demanding the free movement of labor, while giving this economic elite the freedom to hide away their own profits in remote tax-havens."

    Under NAFTA there is no free movement of labor. I also don't think it is as simplistic as that author asserts where the 'super-rich' are the evil ones. Take Apple for example, an American corporation, which does most of its manufacture overseas but R&D and the other 'thinking' jobs are primarily in the US. The tax avoidance issue is a problem and, I think, best approached through further 'globalization' closing out these loop holes. Reform of the US tax system and its propensity to tax all world income of its citizens and corporations is also necessary, IMHO. In general, it is the lack of 'globalization' at the financial level that allows folks to shuttle money all over the place in order to escape local taxation.

    ReplyDelete
  9. UK car industry needs 'swift EU deal to curb high tariffs'

    David Bailey, professor of industry at Aston University, warned of a "big uncertainty" for the sector following the UK's vote to leave the EU.

    Without a deal, he fears a return to the days when the industry faced a 10% tariff on exports.
    The UK exports 77.3% of its car output, 57.5% of which goes to Europe.

    "What we don't want in two years' time is to go back to [World Trade Organisation] rules which involve 10% tariffs on car exports," he said.

    Prof Bailey added: "Remember, the car industry has had about £8bn investment in the last four years - companies coming here to produce cars largely for the European market. We do not want to deter that.

    "So, we need to make it clear to those companies as quickly as possible that free access to the European market is still in place and we will have a good trading relationship with Europe."

    Almost 1.6 million cars were built in the UK last year, up 3.9% on 2014. Industry analysts predict car output to reach record levels of around two million units by 2017, overtaking the 1972 record of 1.92 million.

    Ford, which employs about 14,000 staff in the UK, warned on Friday that it would "take whatever action is needed to ensure that our European business remains competitive and keeps to the path toward sustainable profitability".
    The boss of Nissan, which produces cars at Sunderland plant, has previously hinted that a vote to leave the EU could impact investment.

    "There are going to be a lot of questions about (whether) you want to continue to invest in the UK for Europe if the UK is outside Europe," Mr Ghosn told CNBC before Thursday's referendum.

    One Example

    ReplyDelete

  10. Daily Mail

    Donald Trump camp hauls in $11 million since Tuesday

    Daily Mail - ‎Jun 23, 2016‎

    Donald Trump's first direct email pitch asking for campaign donations was a success, the Republican National Committee said

    ReplyDelete
  11. .

    My interest in Brexit is merely from an American standpoint. From a foreign policy standpoint, I don't see anything changing. Economically, it will be a mixed bag. Ford will be hurt. But it will be good for the farmers sending feed to support Britain's livestock industries. And so on...

    It may set back the TTIP deal which to my mind is a good thing.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  12. The Brits voted in the Conservatives, who immediately cut taxes on the rich, and started to gut the social programs, while voting down anything that would create more jobs, or increase wages.

    Then, in a stroke of brilliance, the Tories blamed the whole lousy end result on the "faceless bureaucrats of the EU.

    It worked, and the idiot English voted to shoot themselves directly in their own balls. Way to go, Dumb-shits, they played you like the rubes that you are.

    ReplyDelete

  13. As for the "free movement of labor"

    While it may not be de jure, it certainly is de facto.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Maybe in the southwest at the low income level of work but northeast white collar certainly requires green cards and such.

      Delete
    2. Now many illiterate spics go into white collar work in New York City, Smirk ?

      Sometimes I worry about about you....

      Delete
    3. All those flowing over the border do have this advantage - they're all bilingual, eh, Smirk ?

      So it's easy for them to fit right in at American Corporate Headquarters....

      Delete
    4. ....even if they are illiterate.

      Delete
    5. In fact I read in the Wall Street Journal that in some of America's great agribusiness companies there is something strange going on....agribiz is all for tomato pickers, but the white collar board members are finding themselves displaced by English speaking illiterate spics who will work for a few pesos less than they accept.....it is causing a conflict....

      Delete
    6. Idaho BobSun Jun 26, 02:25:00 PM EDT
      Now many illiterate spics go into white collar work in New York City, Smirk ?

      Sometimes I worry about about you....


      Delete


      Are you insane?

      Delete
    7. You need to take that down, Deuce. If you don't it will only get worse.

      Delete
    8. No, I’m going to leave it up as part of his permanent record that by his own word shows he is a racist. He has been denying it and has been called on it. Now it stands,

      Delete
    9. Well, your call.

      However,

      he'll still deny it, but now you'll look as bad as him.

      :) Better you than me, bubba; better you than me. :)

      Delete
    10. It's why we pay you the big bucks, I suppose. :) :)

      Delete
    11. heh, I was trying to get a stir out of Smirk and stirred you two anti-semites up instead.

      By the way, my cousin in Walla Walla now has an illegal-immigrant girlfriend.

      She only has eight kids, and he is always baby sitting the four younger ones.

      The father is in a Mexican prison.

      I don't know where this relationship is going but they are all nice and wish them well.

      Deuce hates Jews, and Rufus hates white people.

      He wanted to hang all those innocent white cops, three of whom turned out to be black....

      A black judge finally got to bottom of it....not guilty....

      Take that, crackers.

      Delete
    12. I admit to being anti-moslem, but that is because of their behavior over the centuries not the color of their skin.

      80,000,000 million dead Hindus in one 250 year period alone....and before the days of guns, too....

      Stop Moslem immigration to the USA now !

      Delete

    13. You are a racist, Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson, now hung by your own petard.

      Delete
  14. By any measure, the US middle and working class has been screwed by globalization.

    Our parents could get married in their early twenties , with a high school education and a stay at home mom, buy a house, own a car, take a vacation and raise family.

    Health care was affordable, there was job security and a pension at retirement. Is that passible for a twenty something today? Hardly.

    It is obvious to a majority of the 99% that the 1% will never do anything willingly. That is changing fast.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Agree.

      It's all the fault of the international banks, controlled by the Jews, and our Congress, also controlled by the Jews, and Hollywood and the media, all controlled by the Jews.

      One can't even get a cheap bagel any longer because the bagel supply is controlled by the Jews.

      Delete
    2. The whole system being enforced by Ruf's racist white cops.

      Delete
    3. I'm taking a nap lest I die of laughter, and disgust.

      Cheers !

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

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      And with his exit the average intelligence quotient on this blog takes a sharp rise.

      .


      Delete
  16. Ash
    I love 'Doug logic' on previous threads - VDH saw Spanish looking folk dump garbage in the street therefore illegal aliens commit the majority of crimes.
    ===
    VDH and I have witnessed the Central Valley change from a Garden of Eden to a Crime and Poverty Ridden Piece of Shit.
    Deny cause and effect all you want.
    Have you read VDH?
    Do you really believe the Central Valley has not turned into a crime ridden POS?

    Despite Silicon Valley and Hollywood, California leads the nation in poverty.

    Two Californias, one rich and prosperous, one a crime ridden pig stye.

    Coincidence.

    (And the rich and prosperous join the pigs demanding a continuation of Democrat Rule.)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. But Ash, living in Canada knows more about California than VDH and I combined.

      Delete
    2. As does Quirk in Michigan.

      In his mind.

      Delete
    3. Bob:
      "By the way, my cousin in Walla Walla now has an illegal-immigrant girlfriend.

      She only has eight kids, and he is always baby sitting the four younger ones.

      The father is in a Mexican prison."
      ===

      A surefire recipe for peace and prosperity, according to Ash and Quirk.

      Delete
    4. No I don't read VDH. I have some knowledge of California - I lived there for 5 years but that was a long time ago and I was young. I've had family there, whom I'd visit occasionally, but they've all died out. I even considered plying my trade there but left after experiencing the nepotism and the unions. The last time I was there was a year ago with my kids. Ironically we rented, for Christmas, a house on a fish farm in the central Valley. There were a lot of billboards arguing water issues.

      Delete
    5. What's all that got to do with bogus statistics?

      Delete
    6. The Government makes accurate statistics impossible.

      That's why you should enlighten yourself by reading VDH.

      Two Californias, in his case as close as Stanford and his family's farm.

      Are illiterate Mexicans a benefit to anyone other than politicians and the people that employ them?

      In the old days there were neat and tidy places for Bracero's to live temporarily and then return to Mexico.

      Now they live in squalor while others support their kids with welfare.

      Delete
  17. All this time I thought Spics were Italian.

    Live and learn.

    Or not.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Naw, spic as in Hispanic, beaners. Wop is Italian slur.

      Delete
    2. Yankee the slur for Americans, Paki for East Indian. ..

      Delete
    3. I like wops.

      Ernest Hemingway was always going 'Woplandward', that is, to Italy.

      Ernie liked the wops a lot.

      He could speak some wop, too.

      Delete
  18. (open in incognito window in Chrome)

    At least five people were stabbed, with some injured critically, during clashes between rallying neo-Nazis and counter-protesters at the Capitol in Sacramento on Sunday, fire officials said.

    Five patients were transported to local hospitals with stab wounds, said Chris Harvey, public information officer for the Sacramento Fire Department. Several other people suffered cuts, scrapes and bruises but were not taken to the hospital, Harvey said.

    "It was quite a bit of a melee," Harvey said, mentioning that several different groups had descended on the Capitol, including counter-protesters.

    Harvey said he did not know which groups the stabbing victims were from.

    Emergency responders got the call at roughly 11:45 am. The victims were spread out over the Capitol grounds, which covers multiple blocks in downtown Sacramento, Harvey said. As of 12:45 p.m. the crowds had been dispersed and most protesters had left the area.

    The Traditionalist Worker Party, a white nationalist group, was holding a march Sunday “to protest against globalization and in defense of the right to free expression,” according to the group’s website. The members appeared to be vastly outnumbered by counter-protesters, who held up signs that read “Nazi scum,” according to photos and videos posted on social media.

    An organizer of the rally who wasn’t at the Capitol, said on a web live stream that one person from his group had been stabbed and was being transported to the hospital.

    “They got one of us but we got six of them,” he said.

    Frances Wang, a local ABC10 reporter at the rally, wrote on Twitter that there were “blood spatters all over the ground. Police trying to control crowds.”

    Video from ABC10 in Sacramento showed portions of the clash.

    http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-neo-nazi-stabbed-20160626-snap-htmlstory.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What's the difference between a neo-Nazi punk and a La Raza punk ?

      Skin color.

      Delete
    2. Rufus would only condemn the neo-Nazi punk though because he's down on whites.

      Delete
  19. Good news from Spain -

    Spain conservatives finish stronger in polls: partial results

    Marianne Barriaux

    June 26, 2016

    Supporters of the Popular Party (PP) hold flags as they wait outside the PP headquarters during Spain's general election in Madrid on June 26, 2016

    Supporters of the Popular Party (PP) hold flags as they wait outside the PP headquarters during Spain's general election in Madrid on June 26, 2016 (AFP Photo/Jose Jordan)
    More

    Madrid (AFP) - Spain's incumbent conservatives finished stronger in Sunday's repeat election, winning more seats than in December polls though still without a majority, partial official results showed.

    Exit polls had initially suggested that the far-left Unidos Podemos coalition had come second -- which would have been an unprecedented shift in Spain -- but official results showed it was actually in third place after the Socialists.

    The election came just three days after Britain's shock vote to leave the European Union, pitting those hungry for change in a country with high unemployment against those who fear it would torpedo Spain's slow economic recovery.

    - Brexit influenced? -

    Pre-election opinion polls had initially suggested that Spain's Socialist party would be overtaken by Unidos Podemos and thus ousted as the country's main left-wing force, but that did not happen.

    And while it is as yet too early to tell, Thursday's shock Brexit may have had a hand in the results as voters decided to stick with long-established parties rather than go for the radical change promised by Podemos....

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/spains-conservatives-win-election-boost-seats-partial-results-205608915.html?ref=gs

    Podemos is the commie party. It is good to see them losing ground.

    From the name, one can guess this article was written by a frog.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Meanwhile,

    Strikes in Syria

    Attack, bomber, fighter and remotely piloted aircraft conducted 14 strikes in Syria:

    -- Near Raqqah, three strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL vehicle and two ISIL tactical vehicles.

    -- Near Dayr Az Zawr, two strikes struck an ISIL gas and oil separation plant and destroyed two ISIL oil wellheads.

    -- Near Manbij, eight strikes struck seven separate ISIL tactical units; destroyed two ISIL fighting positions, an ISIL vehicle, an ISIL vehicle bomb and an ISIL improvised explosive device; and denied ISIL access to terrain.

    -- Near Mara, one strike destroyed an ISIL tactical vehicle.

    Strikes in Iraq

    Fighter and remotely piloted aircraft conducted 18 strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of Iraq’s government:

    -- Near Baghdadi, a strike struck an ISIL staging facility.

    -- Near Rutbah, a strike struck two ISIL vehicle bomb facilities.

    -- Near Fallujah, three strikes struck three separate ISIL tactical units; destroyed 10 ISIL fighting positions, an ISIL boat, eight ISIL light machine guns, an ISIL heavy machine gun, an ISIL staging area, an ISIL vehicle bomb and two ISIL rocket-propelled grenade systems; and denied ISIL access to terrain.

    -- Near Mosul, four strikes struck two separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed an ISIL vehicle bomb storage facility and five bed-down locations.

    -- Near Qayyarah, five strikes struck three ISIL tactical units; destroyed two ISIL boats, an ISIL assembly area, three ISIL vehicles, an ISIL weapons cache, an ISIL vehicle bomb and an ISIL front-end loader; and denied ISIL access to terrain.

    -- Near Ramadi, two strikes destroyed two ISIL boats, an ISIL front-end loader and an ISIL supply cache.

    -- Near Sinjar, two strikes struck two separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed an ISIL vehicle and two ISIL assembly areas and damaged an ISIL vehicle.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yesterday,

      Strikes in Syria

      Attack, fighter and remotely piloted aircraft conducted 12 strikes in Syria:

      -- Near Raqqah, two strikes struck two ISIL logistical routes and an ISIL administration facility.

      -- Near Manbij, eight strikes struck six separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed 11 ISIL fighting positions and an ISIL vehicle.

      -- Near Mara, two strikes struck two separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed six ISIL fighting positions.

      Strikes in Iraq

      Attack, bomber, fighter, remotely piloted aircraft and rocket artillery conducted 20 strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of Iraq’s government:

      -- Near Baghdadi, two strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL weapons cache.

      -- Near Huwayjah, a strike destroyed three ISIL vehicle bomb factories, an ISIL vehicle bomb, an ISIL weapons cache and an ISIL bunker and denied ISIL access to terrain.

      -- Near Beiji, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL fighting position, three ISIL vehicles, an ISIL rocket rail and an ISIL front-end loader.

      -- Near Fallujah, two strikes struck two separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed two ISIL fighting positions, an ISIL boat and two ISIL light machine guns.

      -- Near Kisik, a strike destroyed an ISIL weapons cache and an ISIL mortar system.

      -- Near Mosul, six strikes struck four separate ISIL tactical units and an ISIL vehicle bomb factory and destroyed four ISIL vehicles and an ISIL mortar system.

      -- Near Qayyarah, four strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit; destroyed an ISIL boat and four ISIL assembly areas; suppressed two separate ISIL tactical units and three separate ISIL mortar positions; and denied ISIL access to terrain.

      -- Near Ramadi, two strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed 10 ISIL boats, an ISIL staging area and an ISIL weapons cache.

      -- Near Sinjar, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL fighting position and an ISIL mortar system.

      Delete
  21. “Tactical Vehicles, with bullet proof glass? What ever could those be for, and why are UN vehicles here, in THIS country?!” Fernando Johnson questioned, while Vincent Sammons noted, “They are sealed against gas too.”

    PHOTOS: UN military vehicles seen rolling down Virginia interstate

    June 26, 2016

    By Olaf Ekberg

    http://www.theamericanmirror.com/photos-un-tactical-vehicles-seen-rolling-virginia-interstate/

    Fernando Johnson must be half spic half ollie ?

    ReplyDelete
  22. A white male, maybe Smirk, must have written this -

    June 26, 2016

    At UNC, 'Christmas vacation' is now a microaggression

    By Rick Moran

    We are rapidly getting to the point where any word in the English language uttered by a white male within earshot of an oppressed minority will be considered a microaggression.

    Here's the latest list of no-no words compiled by the University of North Carolina.

    Daily Caller:


    The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill issued a guide this week which instructs students that Christmas vacations and telling a woman “I love your shoes!” are “microagressions.”

    The taxpayer-funded guide — entitled “Career corner: Understanding microaggressions” — also identifies golf outings and the words “boyfriend” and “girlfriend” as microagressions.

    The UNC Chapel Hill guide, published on Thursday, covers a wide range of menacing microaggressions — which are everyday words that radical leftists have decided to be angry or frustrated about.

    Christmas vacations are a microagression, the public university pontificates, because “academic calendars and encouraged vacations” which “are organized around major religious observances” centralize “the Christian faith” and diminish “non-Christian spiritual rituals and observances.”

    Interestingly, the long break between semesters at UNC Chapel Hill for the 2016-2017 academic year will last from December 17 to January 10 — thus covering Christmas as well as the New Year’s Day of the Gregorian calendar. The Gregorian calendar is named for Pope Gregory XIII. The Roman Catholic Church introduced the calendar in 1582.

    The microagression of liking shoes occurs when someone says “I love your shoes!” “to a woman in leadership during a Q & A after a speech.” So it’s a very specific microagression. The problem, the University of North Carolina document declares, is that the shoe admirer values appearances “more than” “intellectual contributions.”

    Similarly, the public school pronounces, interrupting any woman who is speaking is a microagression.

    Golf outings are also a microagression, the University of North Carolina says, because suggesting a “staff retreat at the country club” or even just “a round of golf” “assumes employees have the financial resources” to participate in the “fairly expensive and inaccessible sport.”

    Since there's no reason to say "Christmas vacation," there's no need to take one. Public universities should be forced to change their semester break to late November and return in the middle of December. That way, they can schedule classes on both Christmas Day and New Year's. Opposition to saying "Christmas vacation" would collapse in about a minute.

    Whoever wrote this tripe has never played golf. Public golf courses are usually subsidized and are both accessible and reasonably priced with discounts offered to students.

    Is it possible this guide was written by a male? I have yet to meet any woman anywhere who isn't thrilled if someone compliments her on her taste in shoes.

    I wonder if these people are aware that the 95% of us who are normal are laughing at them?

    http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2016/06/at_unc_christmas_vacation_is_now_a_microaggression.html#ixzz4Cj51koL5

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  23. .


    The Government makes accurate statistics impossible.

    :o)


    Yet, you and your bros are perfectly willing to accept them without question and cite them loudly to make broad claims if it reinforces your confirmation bias.

    And on the other hand when your numbers prove bogus and you are offered opposing data from Pew Research, and various universities and think tanks, summarized and printed in the WaPo you and the Trumpettes refuse to even look at it, continuing your broad generalizations while citing anecdotal knowledge of a certain area in a certain state while your MENSA buddy bays false laughter in desperation and frustration and refuses to even look at the opposing data because it was summarized in a paper that rightly calls Trump what he is, a racist, misogynist, nitwit. Or at least that is his excuse.

    The real truth is you guys are close minded little twerps who refuse to indulge in objective conversation, refuse to entertain the thought that there might be another side to an argument, search for the lowest common denominator in any discussion, and stoop to name-calling in place of rational argument.

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I learned how it is made impossible in the reading I did.

      You, on the other hand refuse to educate yourself by reading VDH's on the ground reporting.

      Delete
    2. Trump is not a racist, nor a misogynist much less a nitwit.

      He was putting women in high positions earlier than anyone, has hired more minorities than you can count, and is a very intelligent man.

      And he was right about the Mexican judge. Go read about it..

      You are a quirk, Quirk.

      Delete