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, July 19, 2016

So what are they going to do with the 20,000 people they arrested in Turkey, the Erdogan fascist Islamic dictatorship?

Erdogan’s purge may give Nato no choice but to expel Turkey from the alliance

CON COUGHLIN - TELEGRAPH

Ever since Turkey joined Nato in 1952, its membership has been viewed as a vital bulwark in the defence of Europe against threats emanating from Russia and the Arab world.
During the Cold War, the fact that American bombers could be flying over the former Soviet Union within an hour of take-off from their Turkish bases meant the other alliance members were unswerving in the commitment to keep Turkey in Nato.

More recently the country’s proximity to the bitter conflicts raging in Iraq and Syria has again emphasised the importance of keeping Turkey within the Nato fold, especially in view of the new terror threat caused by the creation of Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isil).
Turkey’s pivotal geographical location is also the reason the US airbase at Incirlik in southern Turkey remains home to Nato’s largest nuclear weapons facility. Built by the US Army Corps of Engineers at the height of the Cold War, the facility still holds 50 B61 hydrogen bombs – each one capable of generating an explosive force 100 times greater than the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima.

So the fact that Washington now talks openly about the possibility of suspending Turkey’s Nato membership shows just how badly relations between Ankara and its Western allies have deteriorated since last week’s ill-fated military coup.

Questions about Turkey’s continued Nato membership have been raised following the nationwide crackdown implemented by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Last week’s coup by a group of disgruntled military officers may have ended in abject failure, but another coup, one undertaken by Erdogan loyalists, is now in full swing against those deemed to be opponents of the president’s increasingly authoritarian style of government.

Yesterday it was the turn of the country’s education establishment to suffer the nationwide purge that has already seen thousands of military personnel, police and lawyers either jailed or sacked. More than 15,000 university staff were suspended over claims they backed Fethullah Gulen, a US-based cleric accused of plotting Friday’s uprising, while 1,500 university dons have been ordered to tender their resignations.

The Americans have also had their own taste of what it is like to be on the receiving end of one of Mr Erdogan’s vengeful tantrums. First they were accused of supporting the plotters, then Washington faced a major security alert after the Turks cut the electricity supply to the Incirlik base, a potentially disastrous development given the sensitivity of the munitions that are stored there.

This prompted John Kerry, the US Secretary of State, to warn that Turkey faced suspension from Nato if it persisted with its ruthless purge. Membership of Nato requires countries to uphold certain democratic principles, and Mr Kerry said the US “will measure very carefully what is happening” in Turkey. “The level of vigilance and scrutiny is obviously going to be significant in the days ahead.”

Mr Erdogan’s undoubted enthusiasm for crushing the last vestiges of dissent against his totalitarian style has even prompted suggestions that the president was already planning the purge prior to the coup, which would explain why lists of those to be detained were so readily available once the coup failed.

The question now is whether, if Mr Erdogan continues to overplay his hand, Nato is really serious about ditching its difficult, but valuable, ally. This is by no means the first time political instability in Ankara has caused other alliance members to reassess their relations with Turkey. One of the biggest rifts occurred in 1960 when, despite appeals for clemency from the Queen, the Pope and the US President, generals hanged the prime minister, Adnan Menderes, following their successful coup d’etat.

But on this and the other occasions that Turkey has had repressive governments, fears that expulsion from Nato might drive it into the arms of Russia or Arab dictatorships in the Middle East meant the alliance tended to turn a blind eye to its political inadequacies.

So it is a measure of Mr Erdogan’s unpopularity among other Nato members that Turkey now faces the very real prospect of suspension from the alliance. Many European leaders are still seething over the Turkish leader’s role in helping to create last summer’s migration crisis, when he failed to take firm measures to curb the activities of people-smuggling gangs. Concerns also persist about his commitment to the Islamist cause, and especially his regime’s links to al-Qaeda-related groups in Syria. 

In an ideal world, it would be in everyone’s interests for Mr Erdogan to cease his efforts to turn Turkey into an Iranian-style Islamic republic, thereby allowing Turkey to retain its place at Nato’s top table. But if he really is determined to pursue his radical Islamist agenda, then Nato will have no option but to rid itself of its troublesome Turkish ally.

Erdogan’s “ Burning of the Reichstag” moment:

67 comments:

  1. Erdogan’s “ Burning of the Reichstag” moment, and that is how it is done and that is what happening in a Nato allied country that has 50 nuclear weapons and there is not a damn thing we can do about it.

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  2. Most experts believe that the US maintains 50 nuclear weapons in Turkey housed at the US air base at Incirlik. The weapons are Cold War-era B-61 “gravity" bombs.

    “It’s an open secret” the bombs are at Incirlik, Joshua Walker of the German Marshall Fund, who specializes on US-Turkey relations, told CNN.

    Turkish authorities encircled the base, cut off the power supply and temporary closed the airspace around Incirlik as they fought off the coup launched on Friday.

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  3. Well, we armed ISIS with everything else.

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  4. Now sports fans, don’t believe that there is some magic code that it and only it can enable those bombs.

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  5. By the way, we upgraded them and still we left them in Turkey

    America's New, More 'Usable', Nuclear Bomb In Europe

    November 10, 2015. The Guardian has done a useful recap of the issues raised by the B61 upgrade; an excerpt:

    ”... In non-proliferation terms however the only thing worse than a useless bomb is a 'usable' bomb. Apart from the stratospheric price, the most controversial element of the B61 upgrade is the replacement of the existing rigid tail with one that has moving fins that will make the bomb smarter and allow it to be guided more accurately to a target. Furthermore, the yield can be adjusted before launch, according to the target.

    "The modifications are at the centre of a row between anti-proliferation advocates and the government over whether the new improved B61-12 bomb is in fact a new weapon, and therefore a violation of President Obama's undertaking not to make new nuclear weapons. His administration's 2010 Nuclear Posture Review said life extension upgrades to the US arsenal would 'not support new military missions or provide for new military capabilities.'

    "The issue has a particular significance for Europe where a stockpile of 180 B61s is held in six bases in five countries. If there is no change in that deployment by the time the upgraded B61-12s enter the stockpile in 2024, many of them will be flown out to the bases in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and (YOU GUESSED IT Turkey.

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    1. OUTFUCKING STANDING - Let’s here it troops. OOrah

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  6. ITS WORSE THAN YOU THINK - READ ON:

    In 1991, U.S. President George H. W. Bush decided to retire almost all the tactical nuclear weapons operated by the U.S. Army and the U.S. Navy. His reasons were simple: these short-range weapons were militarily useless and imposed significant burdens on the armed forces in terms of money, manpower, and time. Twenty-three years later, only one type of tactical nuclear weapon remains in the U.S. inventory: the B-61 gravity bomb. In addition to the several hundred B-61s located at home, the United States currently deploys around 180 of them in Europe, at bases in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Turkey. In the event of a nuclear conflict on the continent, NATO would deliver the bombs via U.S.-built F-15 or F-16 aircraft or European-built Tornado fighters, operated by some combination of Belgian, Dutch, German, Italian, and U.S. crews. Originally intended to prevent Soviet forces from penetrating Western Europe, the planes could travel as far east as Russia. But owing to their slower speed and lower altitude, they would be much more vulnerable to Russia’s ground-based air defenses than would longer-range strategic bombers and missiles.



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    1. https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/europe/2014-05-29/bombs-away

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  7. BOTTOM LINE:

    The Caliphate has nuclear weapons for the taking. What are we going to do about it?

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  8. Well, duh, we COULD put the 50 nukes on a B-52 and fly 'em home.

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    1. Which is what I would suggest we do.

      THEN, kick Turkey out of NATO.

      The Russians would love us for a few days.

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    2. THEN, invite Israel and India to join NATO.

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    3. Do you think it could be that simple?

      Delete
  9. "...

    Melania Trump is, of course, the numero-uno Real Housewife of all of America. Her speech, plainly meant to be the climax of the evening, was promoted by pundits and Trump staffers all day long. It would “humanize” Trump. It would illustrate, for those voters tempted by but wary of Trump, that he’s a father, a family man and cares about his family.

    For hours, the text crawl on CNN told viewers that Melania Trump had worked on the speech for five to six weeks with a speechwriter. Some writer, it turned out.

    Then it came, the speech that was all platitudes about finding love, coming to the U.S. and loving the U.S. Given the established aloofness of her demeanour, the fact that she was able to deliver a speech brimming with warm bromides seemed remarkable. Three cheers for her was the gist of the initial reaction.

    And then the real reaction came. The striking similarities with Michelle Obama’s speech in 2008 were glaring. It was plagiarism, plain and simple. What a disaster.

    While the plagiarism drama played out overnight on late-night cable news and social media, the Trump campaign reverted to the game of outwit, outplay and outlast. Which, in crude political terms, is “lie, deny and keep going.” This is, you know, the team that wants to run a country through crisis times and restore greatness.


    ..."

    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/television/john-doyle-rnc-is-a-mad-mash-up-of-survivor-and-desperate-housewives/article30981970/

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  10. Isn’t a platitude something repeated to the point of tedium? What else are you going to say about your husband, kids and family life that hasn’t been said before?

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    1. I was reporting on the real action at the Convention, and you took it down.

      You have no one to blame but yourself if things get boring around here.

      Delete
    2. Hillary has this advantage:

      She has no normal family life whatsoever with which to bore people.

      Delete
  11. Deuce, humorless, has vanished my excellent reporting on the Convention.

    The upshot - "Q" was finally arrested in front of the Idaho delegation, and is being dragged out now by the Police, quoting something from "My Little Pony".....

    It beats worrying about the Turks suddenly stealing American nuclear weapons in Turkey, which is not going to happen.

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  12. Turkey vowed to root out allies of the U.S.-based cleric it blames for an abortive coup last week, widening a purge of the army, police and judiciary on Tuesday to universities and schools, the intelligence agency and religious authorities.

    Around 50,000 soldiers, police, judges, civil servants and teachers have been suspended or detained since the coup attempt, stirring tensions across the country of 80 million which borders Syria's chaos and is a Western ally against Islamic State.

    "This parallel terrorist organization will no longer be an effective pawn for any country," Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said, referring to what the government has long alleged is a state within a state controlled by followers of Fethullah Gulen.

    "We will dig them up by their roots," he told parliament.

    A spokesman for President Tayyip Erdogan said the government was preparing a formal request to the United States for the extradition of Gulen, who Turkey says orchestrated the failed military takeover on Friday in which at least 232 people were killed.

    U.S. President Barack Obama discussed the status of Gulen in a telephone call with Erdogan on Tuesday, the White House said, urging Ankara to show restraint as it pursues those responsible for the coup attempt.

    In parallel talks, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter and his Turkish counterpart discussed the importance of Turkey's Incirlik Air Base in the campaign against Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, the Pentagon said.

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    1. One of the dopey commentators on CNN, David Gergen, said that the Trump nomination was a hostile takeover. How inconvenient that we had to have the people voting messing up the results.

      Delete
  13. .

    Turkey’s Latest Target in Mass Purge: Educators


    The crackdown after Friday’s failed coup attempt continued, as more than 15,000 employees of the education ministry were suspended, 1,500 university deans were ordered to resign and 21,000 teachers lost their licenses...


    Well, this was predictable.

    Every country does it from the biggest to the smallest whether it be called a dictatorship, a theocracy, a plutocracy, or an autocracy.

    Control the press, control the facts, manage the message, and in the end, for long term control, shape the minds of the kids by controlling the educational system. In a nutshell, control history. Orwell gave us the blueprint for it in 1984.

    Reagan argued the thing you don't want to here is 'We're from the government and we are here to help'.

    I would argue the scariest is, 'We're the most transparent administration in history'.

    .

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    1. .

      Every country does it from the biggest to the smallest whether it be called a dictatorship, a theocracy, a plutocracy, or an autocracy, or a democracy.

      .

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  14. Really ? I apologize.

    I wonder what happened.

    I had the Quirkster being introduced as an alternative candidate for Prez.....Security was closing in.....The Q People were tossing Q around like a dwarf among themselves to keep their Hero from being arrested....I was having fun with it....

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  15. And don't think the Turks can just cut off the electricity to that airbase.

    I'd eat my hat if that place doesn't have lots of backup generators.....

    ReplyDelete
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    1. .

      Of course, they have back up power. So what?

      .

      Delete
    2. Good question.

      Someone was saying the Turk had cut the power to the airbase.

      So what ? They got backup generators.

      Delete
  16. The Q People claimed to represent the 58th state in the Union, The Great State of Mind, as they called it, and claimed enough delegates to dictate the nominee all by themselves.

    When not recognized by the Chair, immediately their disturbances broke out on the floor.....they carried Q on their shoulders, like some Primitive King....

    ReplyDelete
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    1. It was all in one continuing commentary with reply after reply....perhaps I hit the delete button somewhere along the line on the first, and they all vanished....anyway the inspiration has now abandoned me.....

      Delete
    2. Well, I will step out on a limb here, but I’ll predict Trump will be president.

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    3. Really? The guy is such a bombastic buffoon. Something is really rotten in the State of Denmark if you are correct!

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    4. Better a buffoon than a criminal, Ash.

      I think he is going to win too.

      This convention is boring though, so far.

      I hate to think about the Supreme Court if Hillary wins.

      Delete
    5. Even you, b00bie, have an inkling of your success at political prediction.

      Delete
    6. You're a moron, SMIRK, that desperately deserves a good mugging.

      Delete
  17. There is something glitchy with blogger, the last four or five posts ended up in triplicate and I had to delete entire posts, but have not moderated comments for a couple of days.

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  18. .

    Perhaps, it would have been better if Incirlik had stayed down...


    US air strike in Syria kills up to 85 civilians 'mistaken for Isil fighters'


    US air strike killed more than 85 civilians, including children, in Syria on Tuesday after the coalition mistook them for Islamic State fighters.

    Some eight families were hit as they tried to flee fighting in their area, in one of the single deadliest strikes on civilians by the alliance since the start of its operations in the war-torn country.

    Pictures of the aftermath of the dawn strikes on the Isil-controlled village of Tokhar near Manbij in northern Syria showed the bodies of children as young as three under piles of rubble.

    The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strikes appeared to have been carried out in error, with the civilians mistaken for Islamist militants.

    It is thought Tuesday’s bombing was among the first by jets taking off from Incirlik air base in Turkey since it reopened after the failed coup.

    The area has seen intense fighting between extremists and members of the US-backed Syria Democratic Forces (SDF) that have been advancing towards the Isil stronghold of Manbij under the cover of intense airstrikes by the US-led coalition...



    .

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    1. .


      One more reason the US shouldn't be in the ME.


      .

      Delete
    2. The US has, and always will be, 'involved' in the ME but the pertinante question is in what capacity?

      Delete
    3. .

      Yes, but should it be? And I am not talking about diplomatic relations or humanitarian aid. What I am talking about is intervention, direct or indirect, in the affairs of the various nations there.

      The US has no overriding national interests associated with the ME.

      .

      Delete
    4. We all know what you are talking about.....washing our hands of the whole thing.

      Delete
    5. .

      Finally. It's only taken 6 or 8 years for you to get it.

      Unfortunately, experience tells us you will have forgotten it by tomorrow, maybe by later tonight.

      .

      Delete
  19. Christie is speaking about Hillary....

    "Lock her up"

    "Lock her up"

    "Lock her up"

    the delegates and crowd are shouting.....

    :)

    Ah, music to the ears....

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    1. Christie: "In Syria, she called Assad a reformer, a different kind of leader.....400,000 dead ago"

      Crowd: "Lock her up"

      "Lock her up"

      "Lock her up"

      Delete
    2. He's now on the reset button with Russia....

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    3. "Lock her up"

      "Lock her up"

      "Lock her up"

      Delete
    4. This convention WAS boring but isn't right now....

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    5. Many have their hands crossed, as if in hand cuffs.....

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  20. Turkey LIKE Hamas and the moslem brotherhood can and will simply execute those they disagree with.

    20,000?

    Nothing compared to the numbers of Kurds they have murder let alone Armenians.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Yet another Trump has appeared.....Tiffany....

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  22. AshTue Jul 19, 08:42:00 PM EDT

    The US has, and always will be, 'involved' in the ME but the pertinante question is in what capacity?

    OH ! o

    Ash has committed himself.

    We will always be there.

    He owes us now his insights into the whats, hows, whens, how longs, how much etc or he is not participating in the discussion.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Quirk has chosen the easier way out.

      He can now put his ethical nostrils up in the air, sniff, and call everyone else dicks, and not concern himself about the various genocides on going there, or those others promised for the future....there, and here too....

      Delete
    2. .

      Did you bother to read the article I put up a few posts back about the 85 civilians, men women, and children who the US just killed in a bombing run?.

      Which is better for us to not interfere in the 'genocide' as you call it or to participate in it. How many cities does the US have to destroy there; how many villages does the US have to destroy in order to save; how many refugees do we have to create; how many people does the US have to kill there before you finally get it?

      .

      Delete
  23. .

    There were a couple good points made but for the most part the convention sucked tonight as much as last night.

    [And next week, we've got Hillary's staccato whine to look forward to.]


    The last couple days showed us some of the nuts in the GOP. Next week, we will be reintroduced to some of the nuts in the Democratic Party.

    .

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    1. They're all dicks, and democracy is doomed.

      We are unable to govern ourselves.

      We need a small click of philosopher-kings, as Plato recommended, to guide us....for THEIR(the P-Ks) ultimate benefit.

      Plato in a nutshell.

      Aristotle had no answer, he only described the whirl.

      Quirk seems to me a Platonic sort of fellow.

      Delete
    2. .

      Bob, you are a fool.

      Because I complain about the two dolts, one a congenital liar and the other a buffoon, who are running for the highest office in the land you infer I am asking for a change in the political system set up in our Constitution.

      You are constantly offering up pseudo-intellectual bullshit and are surprised when no one with a modicum of sense buys it.

      Lordy.

      .

      Delete
  24. I want one of those neat convention headphones and gear all the commentators are wearing.

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    1. Even Eric Trump has one on and he's not a commentator, but a guest of a commentator.

      Delete
    2. Lara Trump has one !

      She's wife to Eric, I think.

      Damn, they're cool.

      They make you look like you know what you are talking about.

      Delete
    3. Laura Ingraham's got one !

      Everybody's got one !

      Delete
    4. Slap one of those on Quirk, and one might be fooled for awhile thinking he knows something....

      Delete
  25. When all else fails to cheer -

    Activists from BLM, KKK, Westboro Baptist throw urine at each other during RNC protests....DRUDGE

    ReplyDelete
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    1. What's the Bureau of Land Management doing there?

      Delete

    2. They got this special kind of Lizard Urine from Arizona/New Mexico Four Corners area.

      The were testing it as an anti-illegal immigrant weapon.

      They touched the whole kurkuffle off....

      Thinking ahead.....maybe use it on ISIS one day....

      Delete
  26. Australia's Air Force chief says he wants to see warships and planes continue to regularly sail and fly into the South China Sea, despite the rising military tensions in the disputed waterway.

    ...

    In the early 1980s at the height of the Cold War the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) began flying surveillance flights out of Malaysia's Butterworth Air base in an operation named Gateway.

    ...

    As regional tensions rise over China's rapid military expansion in the South China Sea, Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has noted the historical similarities.

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    1. Philippines rejects China's offer to talk 'outside of' court's ruling on South China Sea

      The Philippines' top diplomat said Tuesday he had rejected a Chinese offer to hold talks "outside of and in disregard" of an international tribunal's ruling last week that debunked Beijing's claim to ownership of virtually the entire South China Sea.

      Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay Jr. said he told his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi that China's condition "was not consistent with our constitution and our national interest," adding Wang warned that if the Philippines insists on China's compliance to the decision, "we might be headed for a confrontation."
      http://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-philippines-south-china-sea-20160718-snap-story.html


      Why Americans should care about the South China Sea

      http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-schake-south-china-sea-ruling-20160714-snap-story.html

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