Monday, August 22, 2016

We have intervened enough in Syria, It’s time to defund head-chopping Islamists, restore diplomatic relations with Assad’s government, and work with the Russians to drive out the Islamists and keep them out.

Nicholas Kristof: War Crimes Enabler - Antiwar.com Original

He wants US intervention – on the side of Islamist head-choppers
We all saw the little Syrian boy in besieged Aleppo, wiping blood from his forehead, covered in dust and clearly in shock. How could we help it? Practically every newspaper in the country printed his photo, along with a caption blaming the Syrian military and/or the Russians for his plight. The video is all over the Internet. By the way, little Omran Dagnish is still alive, and is fine physically. But there’s another little boy, a prepubescent child, who hasn’t been dignified with a name, who is also a victim of this war – and he’s dead, beheaded by US-backed Islamist rebels of the "al-Zenki" movement. And the rebels didn’t try to hide this atrocity: they filmed it and put it on the Internet.

These are the people who are defending Aleppo, the rebels we are being told are fighting for “freedom" against the regime of Bashar al-Assad and those dastardly Russians. 

The video of Omran went "viral," while the video of the nameless beheaded boy didn’t. Why is that?

The US media isn’t very interested in publicizing the latter atrocity – because in the information war to provoke US intervention in Syria on behalf of head-chopping Islamists, some children are more equal than others. 

And make no mistake: the propaganda campaign is now in full swing, being pushed by the same media outlets openly campaigning for Hillary Clinton – who is on recordas calling for funding of Islamist groups in Syria and overthrowing Assad. If she is elected, we’re very likely to see a full-scale US intervention, with US forces openly and aggressively confronting not only Syrian government forces but also facing off with the Russians.

The New York Times, which makes no bones about its political sympathies in this presidential contest, has unleashed well-known "humanitarian" Nicholas Kristof in the effort to gin up sympathy for the "moderate" rebels and force Washington’s hand. He babbles on about the death of his dog and the sympathy he received when he wrote about it, and then writes: “ f only, I thought, we valued kids in Aleppo as much as we did our terriers!"

Not that he’s trying to manipulate us or anything.

"For five years the world has been largely paralyzed as President Bashar al-Assad has massacred his people, nurturing in turn the rise of ISIS and what the U.S. government calls genocide by ISIS. That’s why I argued in my column a week ago that President Obama’s passivity on Syria was his worst mistake, a shadow over his legacy.

More than half of those killed in the Syrian civil war were massacred by the rebel forces, none of whose depredations are so much as mentioned by Kristof. And who, exactly, is "nurturing" ISIS – isn’t it the Saudi, Qatari, Kuwaiti, and other pro-head- chopper Muslim states in the Gulf? In the Kristofian lexicon, you’re "nurturing" ISIS if you fight them and prevent them from taking over your country. As for President Obama’s alleged "passivity," if only it were so! Under his regime, US taxpayer dollars financed and "nurtured" Islamist rebels who valorize Osama bin Laden and want to turn Syria into an Islamist theocracy. Kristof’s complaint is that he didn’t send them enough money, guns, and sharper knives to chop off the heads of yet more nameless boys.
Yes, this is “humanitarianism," Kristof-style.

While the political class demands that Obama "do something," ordinary Americans oppose yet another Middle East war. They showed that the last time the Washington-New York know-it-alls ginned up a wave of war hysteria over the alleged "poison gas" episode, in which Assad’s forces supposedly crossed the "red line" and used gas on "their own people." Except, as Seymour Hersh showed, they did no such thing: indeed, it was the rebels who used and are no doubt still using poison gas. In any case, when Obama announced we were going to intervene, the congressional phone lines lit up as tens of thousands called in to register their protest. One by one members of Congress previously committed to war or on the fence backed down – as did the President. 
But the War Party doesn’t take "no" for an answer. No sirree, when the warlords of Washington deem it their "duty" to "liberate" some unfortunate country, they’ll not be denied by those peasants in flyover country. Kristof addresses these impudent peons in his column, one of whom had the temerity to suggest that "There is nothing in our constitution that says we are to be the savior of the world from all the crazies out there." Kristof’s answer is more manipulative rhetoric with no basis in reality:

"I agree that we can’t solve all the world’s problems, but it doesn’t follow that we shouldn’t try to solve any. Would it have been wrong during the Holocaust to try to bomb the gas chambers at Auschwitz? Was President Bill Clinton wrong to intervene in Kosovo to avert potential genocide there? For that matter, was President Obama wrong two years ago when he ordered airstrikes near Mount Sinjar on the Iraq-Syria border, apparently averting genocidal massacres of Yazidi there?

LET’S TAKE THESE “ARGUMENTS" ONE BY ONE:

1) Auschwitz – Is Kristof really saying that Assad is Hitler? If so, he has broken Godwin’s Law, and has therefore automatically lost the argument. What’s going on in Syria is in no way, shape, or form equivalent to what occurred at Auschwitz, as Kristof knows full well.

2) Kosovo — Yes, President Bill Clinton was wrong to intervene in Kosovo: by doing so he created a gangster state that is today the heroin capital of Europe and whose "President" has been credibly charged with trafficking in human organs. The remnants of Kosovo’s besieged Serbian population live in terror, and the country is rife with a virulent ultra-nationalist movement that threatens its neighbors and the peace of Europe.

3) Yazidis — The idea that the Yazidis were under the threat of "genocide" is comparable to the entirely imaginary "genocide" that was supposedly averted by US intervention in Libya – and both have resulted in making the situation worse. In fact, as I pointed out at the time, when US troops arrived on the scene of the supposed “ enocide" that was occurring on Mount Sinjar, they were met with cries of "We want to stay!":

"Several thousand Yazidis remain on the mountain, a senior United States official said, but not the tens of thousands who originally were believed to be there. Some of the people who remain on Mount Sinjar indicated to American forces that they considered the mountain to be a place of refuge and a home, and did not want to leave, a second United States official said.”
Some “genocide"!

This is the Kristof Method: refer to past hoaxes in order to validate the latest hoax. The big problem for him and his comrades in the Weepy Liberals for Perpetual War camp is that, these days, we can fact-check your ass.

Syria was never a Jeffersonian republic where peace and prosperity reigned: it’s in a rough neighborhood. Yet it wasn’t until the Saudis and the rest of the Islamist states in the region began funding and arming Salafist and al Qaeda-like insurgents – and the US joined in with aid to head-chopping "moderates" – that the country exploded and sent out swarms of refugees who are now flooding Europe. Our Israeli allies have openly said they prefer the Islamists to Assad and his Iranian allies: they’ve been plotting and scheming to overthrow the Syrian Ba’athist regime for many years. And now the hypocritical “ iberals" of Kristof’s ilk have taken up the interventionist war cry –in the name of "the children," no less!

As our "moderate" Islamists on the CIA payroll behead children, crucify Christians, and turn Syria into a killing field, "liberals" of the Kristofian persuasion, who preen in print over their own alleged moral superiority, as just as responsible as the Islamists who beheaded that child and held up his severed skull in triumph. In short: for all his self-righteous moral posturing, Kristof is an enabler of war crimes.

We have intervened quite enough in Syria, thank you. It’s time to defund those head-chopping Islamists, restore diplomatic relations with Assad’s government, and work with the Russians to drive out the Islamists and keep them out. 

That’s the only path to peace in Syria.

antiwar_donate_160x200a
An Important Note: The "mainstream" media isn’t reporting the truth about what’s happening in Syria for a very good reason: they support the "moderate" Islamists who want to topple the Assad government. It’s that simple. Just as the Syrian government forces and the Russians are about to free Aleppo from the head-choppers’ grip, the Kirstof Brigade comes out for US intervention to stop the "genocide." And that’s just a coincidence, I’m sure.

There is no "good" side in Syria, and the US should simply stay out of it. That’s the common sense stance shared by most Americans – but not by our war-happy political class. They and their allies in the media will do anything to drag us into that bloody conflict – including “ anaging" the news so that one side comes out looking like the "good guys." 

We here at Antiwar.com aren’t buying into that narrative. If you want the undiluted facts, this is the place to come to. But we can’t continue without your support – your financial support. The War Party has unlimited funding – they have the corporate media working on their behalf. We just have … you. We need your tax-deductible donation to push back against the "mainstream" media narrative and bring the truth to the American people. Please make your contribution today.

NOTES IN THE MARGIN
You can check out my Twitter feed by going here. But please note that my tweets are sometimes deliberately provocative, often made in jest, and largely consist of me thinking out loud.

I’ve written a couple of books, which you might want to peruse. Here is the link for buying the second edition of my 1993 book, Reclaiming the American Right: The Lost Legacy of the Conservative Movement, with an Introduction by Prof. George W. Carey, a Foreword by Patrick J. Buchanan, and critical essays by Scott Richertand David Gordon (ISI Books, 2008).

You can buy An Enemy of the State: The Life of Murray N. Rothbard (Prometheus Books, 2000), my biography of the great libertarian thinker, here.

Read more by Justin Raimondo

52 comments:

  1. The writer makes no sense that I can decipher.

    He wants us out, but then:

    We have intervened quite enough in Syria, thank you. It’s time to defund those head-chopping Islamists, restore diplomatic relations with Assad’s government, and work with the Russians to drive out the Islamists and keep them out.

    That’s the only path to peace in Syria.


    Is the writer a closet Shiite, an Alawite ?

    His name wouldn't indicate that.

    He's calling for the restoration of Assad, who represents about 15% of the population.

    And he wants us to 'work with Russia' to drive all the Sunnis out.

    And Assad is responsible for how many deaths ? Hundreds of thousands ?

    I call on Quirk to decipher the article.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I am gratified that he makes perfect sense to me.

    ReplyDelete
  3. .

    I call on Quirk to decipher the article.

    You've proven you can't be swayed by reason. Go read your jihadwatch. It's more attuned to your nature and intellectual abilities.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  4. How is peace to be attained by gaming up with the Russians and driving all the Sunnis out ?

    How is this idea reasonable ?

    How is it to be done ? And driven out to where, exactly ?

    With Iranians or surrogates in Syria....Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq....Saudi Arabia must be feeling a little surrounded and feeling the need for nuclear weapons, perhaps gotten from Pakistan.

    This situation whole seems unreasonable.

    You haven't compiled with my request, Quirk, to decipher the article. You just call names and hurl insults.

    I believe it's because you can't decipher the article.

    You, Quirk, are the dumbest most dense piece of wood in the entire universe, these days.

    I almost think you ought to go back to drinking. You seemed to think better then, and were a lot easier to get along with....

    The above is not an insult, but in the manner of observation, and hopeful suggestion.







    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The US should NOT try to pick winners and losers in the region!

      Delete
    2. We should support Israel, and a Kurdish state.

      And reformers like Sisi.

      Other than that....

      Delete
  5. I hopefully expected something like the below from Quirk, though the topic is different, an explication of sorts, at least, but all I got was inane insults...

    What Trump’s Foreign Policy Gets Right

    The GOP nominee’s speech last week was a serious contribution, in sharp contrast with Clinton and Obama’s non-strategy


    Mr. Trump’s speech also demonstrated his willingness to face the hand dealt an incoming president, rather than following ideological abstractions, as Mr. Obama has consistently done. Although Mr. Trump restated his opposition to President George W. Bush’s 2003 invasion of Iraq and overthrow of the dictator Saddam Hussein, he nonetheless argues correctly that Mr. Obama’s “reckless” withdrawal of U.S. forces in 2011 rested on an “election-driven timetable” that “surrendered our gains in that country and led directly to the rise of ISIS,” thereby constituting “a catastrophic mistake.”

    http://www.wsj.com/articles/what-trumps-foreign-policy-gets-right-1471818609

    ReplyDelete
  6. .

    Don't consider my comments as insults consider them to be studied observations.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  7. .

    With regard to the article, I agree with it for the most part but with a couple of notable exceptions.

    For instance, I agree the US should have never have gotten into the battle in Syria/Iraq and for many of the reasons the author mentions. I believe Kristof seriously believes in the principles of R2P. There are plenty like him. I used to read him until I couldn't take him any more. After all these years, he continues to fail to see the results of the interventions he lauds. Kosovo is now the central hub and transit location for ISIS recruits transiting from northern Africa to the ME. Libya is a failed state. Syria might as well be called the same thing. We see the results of our 'humanitarian' actions in the bombed out rubble that now constitutes the cities and villages we have 'liberated' and in the millions of refugees wandering the ME and Africa and streaming through Europe.

    I also agree we should open diplomatic relations with Assad. But then, I think we should have diplomatic relations with every state. Why go through the kabuki of condemning a country through surrogates when we can condemn them to their faces and avoid any confusion while at the same time offering us the opportunity to gather useful information.

    On the other side, I disagree with him on two points. The first is that we should join with Russia in the fight against ISIS, al Nusra, and the other militants. We have made enough mistakes in this war. Why willingly make another by allying with Russia (read Russia/Assad) and, in the view of much of the world, accepting dual responsibility for the atrocities they commit.

    The second is with his statement...

    There is no "good" side in Syria, and the US should simply stay out of it.

    The truth is the US should never have got in. Most other countries involved in the fight in Syria/Iraq has some national interest at stake there. It is after all located in their neighborhood. The US (and some of its coalition partners) do not. However, that ship has sailed. There is no way, that at this point the US is going to admit its mistakes (even if it actually recognized that it had made any) and just pick up and leave. Hell, Obama doesn't even recognize that the destruction of the Libyan state was a mistake. He still thinks the war was a great idea. The only problem was he forgot to plan for what came the day after it ended. The neocons and liberal hawks still think the Iraq war was a victory, one that was given away by the next administration. Idiots.

    With that much self-deception in the halls of power we can count on more years in Syria/Iraq, making the same mistakes, creating the same destruction, until there is nothing left to destroy or until some other unintended consequence occurs that makes the current war look like a stroll in the park.

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Excellent.

      Except for this:

      "The neocons and liberal hawks still think the Iraq war was a victory, one that was given away by the next administration. Idiots."

      It was given away by O'bozo. And one can reasonably say he did, by taking the troops out too soon, create ISIS, at least in Iraq. The Generals warned him, too.

      Bashar the Barrel Bomber has killed something over 200,000 now, and we hear of millions of refugees.

      I think he should be shot, not recognized or supported.

      The Sunnis - how does one distinguish between the 'head cutters' and all those others who hate Assad's guts and want/have to fight him ?

      I'd decline any offer to team up with the Russians in support of Assad.

      I don't even think a no-fly/safe zone is really doable now.

      Stay home.



      Delete
  8. There Is a "good" side in Syria. Anywhere there is ISIS, there is a Good Side.

    ReplyDelete
  9. News from the Good Side:

    Strikes in Syria

    Attack, fighter, ground attack and remotely piloted aircraft conducted 10 strikes in Syria:

    -- Near Raqqah, a strike struck an ISIL weapons facility.

    -- Near Ayn Isa, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed a fighting position.

    -- Near Dayr Az Zawr, a strike struck seven ISIL wellheads and a crude oil collection point.

    -- Near Manbij, six strikes struck five separate ISIL tactical units, destroyed a fighting position, a tactical vehicle and an anti-air artillery system.

    -- Near Tamakh, a strike destroyed an ISIL tank.

    Strikes in Iraq

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

    -- Near Bashir, a strike destroyed an ISIL checkpoint.

    -- Near Haditha, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed a fighting position.

    -- Near Mosul, two strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed three vehicles and a mortar position.

    -- Near Qayyarah, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed a mortar system, a vehicle, five assembly areas, a supply cache and a front-end loader and denied ISIL access to terrain.

    -- Near Ramadi, two strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit, a vehicle and a boat and damaged a fighting position.

    -- Near Sultan Abdallah, a strike struck an ISIL security headquarters.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. and America just gave 1.7 billion in cash to Iran to fund it's militias in Iraq (up to 80,000) and fund hezbollah and hamas!!!

      how good.

      Delete
  10. Replies
    1. I don't see how anyone can write so many e-mails.

      The Russians may be the only ones that have all of them now.

      Delete
    2. Huma Emails Reveal More Pay-to-Play....DRUDGE

      Will Rufus ever admit that he is backing a criminal ?

      Naw....

      Delete
    3. Foreign Policy Sale

      Policies Tailored To Your Needs

      Speech Hires or Donations Mandatory

      Contact:

      Huma@FPSale

      Delete

    4. FBI uncovers 14,900 more documents in Clinton email probe

      Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail
      Photos

      The Democratic presidential nominee hits the road after her party’s national convention.

      By Spencer S. Hsu August 22 at 12:04 PM 


      The FBI’s year-long investigation of Hillary Clinton’s private email server uncovered 14,900 emails and documents from her time as secretary of state that had not been disclosed by her attorneys, and a federal judge on Monday pressed the State Department to begin releasing emails sooner than mid-October as it planned.

      Justice Department lawyers said last week that the State Department would review and turn over Clinton’s work-related emails to a conservative legal group. The records are among “tens of thousands” of documents found by the FBI in its probe and turned over to the State Department, Justice Department attorney Lisa Ann Olson said Monday in court.

      The 14,900 Clinton documents are nearly 50 percent more than the roughly 30,000 emails that Clinton’s lawyers deemed work-related and returned to the department in December 2014.

      Lawyers for the State Department and Judicial Watch, the legal group, are negotiating a plan for the release of the emails in a civil public records lawsuit before U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg of Washington.

      FBI Director James Comey testified on July 7 at a U.S. House of Representatives hearing on presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's decision to use a personal email server while serving as Secretary of State. (Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post)

      In a statement after a hearing at the U.S. district courthouse in Washington, Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton said the group was pleased that Boasberg rejected the department’s proposal to begin releasing documents weekly on Oct. 14, ordering it instead to prioritize Clinton’s emails and to return to court Sept. 22 with a new plan.

      “We’re pleased the court accelerated the State Department’s timing,” Fitton said. “We’re trying to work with the State Department here, but let’s be clear: They have slow-walked and stonewalled the release of these records. They’ve had many of them since July 25 ... and not one record has yet been released, and we don’t understand why that’s the case.”....

      https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/fbi-uncovered-at-least-14900-more-documents-in-clinton-email-investigation/2016/08/22/36745578-6643-11e6-be4e-23fc4d4d12b4_story.html?postshare=5841471877718933&tid=ss_tw

      Delete
    5. Trump has taken to saying Hillary is the most corrupt politician in history. Perhaps he is right - from Judicial Watch:

      New Abedin Emails Reveal Hillary Clinton State Department Gave Special Access to Top Clinton Foundation Donors

      AUGUST 22, 2016


      Crown Prince of Bahrain Forced to Go Through Foundation to See Clinton, after Pledging $32 Million to Clinton Global Initiative

      Hollywood Executive Casey Wasserman, Slimfast Mogul Daniel Abraham, Controversial Appointee Rajiv Fernando also among Clinton Foundation Donors Granted Special Favors from Clinton State Department

      (Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch today released 725 pages of new State Department documents, including previously unreleased email exchanges in which former Hillary Clinton’s top aide Huma Abedin provided influential Clinton Foundation donors special, expedited access to the secretary of state. In many instances, the preferential treatment provided to donors was at the specific request of Clinton Foundation executive Douglas Band.

      The new documents included 20 Hillary Clinton email exchanges not previously turned over to the State Department, bringing the known total to date to 191 of new Clinton emails (not part of the 55,000 pages of emails that Clinton turned over to the State Department). These records further appear to contradict statements by Clinton that, “as far as she knew,” all of her government emails were turned over to the State Department.

      The Abedin emails reveal that the longtime Clinton aide apparently served as a conduit between Clinton Foundation donors and Hillary Clinton while Clinton served as secretary of state. In more than a dozen email exchanges, Abedin provided expedited, direct access to Clinton for donors who had contributed from $25,000 to $10 million to the Clinton Foundation. In many instances, Clinton Foundation top executive Doug Band, who worked with the Foundation throughout Hillary Clinton’s tenure at State, coordinated closely with Abedin. In Abedin’s June deposition to Judicial Watch, she conceded that part of her job at the State Department was taking care of “Clinton family matters.”

      Included among the Abedin-Band emails is an exchange revealing that when Crown Prince Salman of Bahrain requested a meeting with Secretary of State Clinton, he was forced to go through the Clinton Foundation for an appointment. Abedin advised Band that when she went through “normal channels” at State, Clinton declined to meet. After Band intervened, however, the meeting was set up within forty-eight hours. According to the Clinton Foundation website, in 2005, Salman committed to establishing the Crown Prince’s International Scholarship Program (CPISP) for the Clinton Global Initiative. And by 2010, it had contributed $32 million to CGI. The Kingdom of Bahrain reportedly gave between $50,000 and $100,000 to the Clinton Foundation. And Bahrain Petroleum also gave an additional $25,000 to $50,000....

      http://www.judicialwatch.org/press-room/press-releases/new-abedin-emails-reveal-hillary-clinton-state-department-gave-special-access-top-clinton-foundation-donors/

      Delete
    6. Nifty little e-mails from Huma included in above article.

      If the USA elects these people to the Presidency, we must rank as some of the dumbest people on earth.

      Delete
    7. I had hopes Trump would do a good job of pounding this shit into the heads of everyone with skulls less numb than Rufus.

      As yet, not so much.

      Delete

  11. Top Doctor: Concerns Over Hillary’s Health ‘Not a Conspiracy Theory’

    Rutgers University Professor of Medicine says Clinton should be assessed by an impartial panel of physicians

    Paul Joseph Watson - August 22, 2016 267 Comments

    Top doctor and Rutgers University Professor of Medicine Bob Lahita says that concerns over Hillary Clinton’s health are not a conspiracy theory and that Clinton should be assessed by an impartial panel of physicians.

    Lahita told Fox Business that he agreed with Dr. Drew on several points about Hillary’s health. Last week, Drew told KABC that he is “gravely concerned” about Hillary Clinton’s health, noting that the treatment she has received is “bizarre”.

    “This is a very unusual story with Hillary,” said Lahita, making reference to her suffering two blood clots, a stroke and post-concussive syndrome, which caused Hillary to have to wear special prism glasses to counter her double vision.

    “The very fact that she’s having these clots and she’s had two bouts of thrombosis is disconcerting to say the least,” said Lahita.

    Asked whether the concerns over Hillary’s health were objectively authentic regardless of politics or whether the leftist media were right to label the issue a conspiracy theory, Lahita responded, “I don’t think it’s a conspiracy.”

    “You go back to the history of our presidents and we’ve had many presidents up until Lyndon Johnson who’ve concealed their health during their campaigns and it had dire effects for our country, going from Kennedy to Roosevelt, to Woodrow Wilson whose wife ran the White House for some time – so we have issues here and I think both candidates should be very forthcoming and perhaps have an impartial panel of physicians review the data and make that kind of decision before Americans go to the polls,” remarked Lahita....

    http://www.infowars.com/top-doctor-concerns-over-hillarys-health-not-a-conspiracy-theory/

    ReplyDelete
  12. Let's hope wiki leaks or the Russians get it done before our corrupt FBI decides its integrity is more important than covering for psychopathic Clinton

    ReplyDelete
  13. A man who lay in front of a car because he didn’t want a friend to leave his birthday party died after being run over early Sunday morning, San Diego police said.

    According to the police report, Jonathan Carlyle Merkley of Garden Grove was celebrating his 34th birthday and drinking alcohol with friends at the Staybridge Suites hotel at 6639 Mira Mesa Blvd. in Sorrento Valley.

    Around 12:30 a.m. a female friend decided to leave the party and started to drive away in her white BMW.

    http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-birthday-run-over-20160822-snap-story.html

    ReplyDelete
  14. Isis has slaughtered about 33,000

    Syria, under Assad with Hezbollah and Iran's helping hands have slaughtered about 480.000


    My bet?

    Both suck.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Palestinians of the ISIS brigade in Jerusalem had a fun event...

    A Palestinian attempting to throw a firebomb at a Jewish home in east Jerusalem on Sunday lit himself on fire during the act.

    A group of Arab youths hurled rocks and several of the deadly concoctions at Jewish residences, one of which set a nearby stairway alight.

    Good news? the arab /isis member is still on the loose and one can only hope his self inflicted burns get infected soon.

    ReplyDelete
  16. http://freebeacon.com/national-security/state-dept-warns-iran-seeking-capture-u-s-citizens/

    Now this is funny...

    State Dept Warns: Iran Seeking to Capture U.S. Citizens

    August 22, 2016 5:16 pm

    The State Department issued a warning on Monday urging U.S. citizens to avoid traveling to Iran, which has made the detention of Americans a priority.

    The latest travel advisory, which emphasizes Iran’s desire to capture U.S. citizens, comes on the heels of a growing scandal over the Obama administration’s decision to pay Iran $400 million in cash on the same day that it freed several U.S. hostages.

    The payment has been cast by lawmakers and others as a ransom payment and prompted concern among U.S. officials that Iran is making arresting Americans a priority.

    The travel warning is meant to “highlight the risk of arrest and detention of U.S. citizens, particularly dual national Iranian-Americans,” according to a State Department announcement on Monday. “Foreigners, in particular dual nationals of Iran and Western countries including the United States, continue to be detained or prevented from leaving Iran.”

    “U.S. citizens traveling to Iran should very carefully weigh the risks of travel and consider postponing their travel,” the warning adds. “U.S. citizens residing in Iran should closely follow media reports, monitor local conditions, and evaluate the risks of remaining in the country.”

    Iran continues to imprison Americans, particularly those holding dual Iranian citizenship, according to the State Department.

    “Iranian authorities have detained and harassed U.S. citizens, particularly those of Iranian origin,” the travel warning states. “Former Muslims who have converted to other religions, religious activists, and persons who encourage Muslims to convert are subject to arrest and prosecution.”


    Now who would have ever predicted this?????


    LOL

    ReplyDelete
  17. .

    'White Boy' Rick Wershe hopes Hollywood film will tell his 'true story'

    Sony to produce a movie on 'White Boy Rick'. Still looking for actor for the lead.

    People in Michigan are generally aware of the 'White Boy Rick' Wershe story and polls taken over the past few years favor him being released from prison. He has been in prison for the past 28 years on drug charges.

    The main lesson we can take from Wershe's story is that it's not smart to rat on those in power, in this case, former mayor Coleman Young as well as high officials in the Detroit police department including Gil Hill who had a part in the Beverly Hills Cop movies.

    Some would argue that justice says Wershe is right where he belongs for selling drugs as a 17 year old. However, fairness (given the way our system operates) would say he should be released given that many of the people he ratted on as a police informant were released from prison decades ago and all of them including some convicted of murder have now been out of prison for years and others never spent a day there.

    There seems to be only one reason he is still there.

    Personally, I hope the movie does him some good.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  18. .

    Anyone would have to be nutz to voluntarily visit any country in the ME.

    The upside is negligible and the downside can be terminal.

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Israel is a wonderful place. You have never been so your judgement on it? Clouded by nonsense.

      Want to study medicine? Nanotech? Bioengineering? Computer Science? Agra? Water purification? Solar Energy? Arts? Dance? Cooking? History? Israel is the place.

      Safer than Nice, Paris or New York.

      :)

      Delete
    2. .

      :o)

      Thanks, but all I have to do is read the travel warnings put out by the US State Department to dissuade me from planning any trips there. And this is the US government which is deferential to Israeli feelings.

      Try and get your bros, Bob and Doug, to go.

      .

      Delete
    3. There is no warning by the state dept about Israel.

      But if you are talking about gaza, jordan, west bank, egypt, iran? you'd have a point.

      But Israel? Your talking out your ass.

      Delete
    4. QuirkMon Aug 22, 07:13:00 PM EDT

      .

      Anyone would have to be nutz to voluntarily visit any country in the ME.

      The upside is negligible and the downside can be terminal.


      I read this as a formal rejection of my offer to him of a free trip to Gaza.

      :(

      Delete
    5. .

      https://travel.state.gov/content/passports/en/alertswarnings/israel-travel-warning.html

      .

      Delete
    6. But Quirk I thought you wanted to bring those peaceful arabs here????

      Delete
    7. .

      No, I am merely willing to allow them to come here if they meet the usual rules and requirements.

      As for the Palestinians, I have no problems with them coming here under the same conditions if they want to. But, of course, most don't as that would mean they would have to leave their homeland rather than fighting for it.

      .

      Delete
  19. Trump just hit it out of the park in Akron Ohio.

    ReplyDelete
  20. It was his best speech yet. They talked about Obama”s ability to stir up a crowd. Watch this one and tell us what you think.

    Keep Rufus away from any sharp objects.

    ReplyDelete
  21. 20:38 GMT
    Voting rights reinstated for almost 13,000 felons in Virginia

    Thousands of felons who have served their time will once again be able to vote, thanks to an individual case review program announced by Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe.

    “Restoring the rights of Virginians who have served their time and live, work and pay taxes in our communities is one of the pressing civil rights issues of our day,” McAuliffe, a Democrat, told reporters Monday, according to a press statement.

    The governor had initially aimed to restore voting rights for more than 200,000 Virginians convicted of felonies who were out of prison, but the state’s Supreme Court ruled against his broad executive order.

    Nearly 13,000 felons who were previously registered to vote will once again be recognized as current on voter rolls, all in compliance with the high court’s ruling, McAuliffe’s office said Monday.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sounds like Virginia is now like the Palestinian territories..

      Felons vote there too..

      Delete
  22. MORE FROM MARKETWATCH ON CROOKED HILLARY:

    Emails released Monday provide new examples of a Clinton Foundation official seeking access to the State Department on behalf of donors at a time when Hillary Clinton led the department.

    The emails—obtained through a lawsuit by conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch—could fuel criticism that the Clinton family’s charitable foundation, in fundraising with wealthy donors, corporations and foreign nations, created a conflict of interest for Clinton during her work as the nation’s top diplomat.

    In an exchange from June 2009, a Clinton Foundation official and longtime aide to former President Bill Clinton wrote to Huma Abedin, a top adviser to the secretary of state, seeking a meeting between the crown prince of Bahrain and Clinton.

    “Cp of Bahrain in tomorrow to Friday. Asking to see her,” the official, Doug Band, wrote, using shorthand for “crown prince.” He added: “Good friend of ours.”


    Abedin, a longtime confidante of Clinton who is now working for her campaign, responded that Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad al Khalifa had sought a meeting with Clinton the previous week “thru normal channels,” and that the secretary of state had said she “doesn’t want to commit to anything for Thurs or Fri until she knows how she will feel.”

    Two days later, Abedin wrote to Band again. “We have reached out thru official channels,” she wrote.

    The new emails were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch against the State Department. The 725 pages of emails from Mrs. Clinton’s personal server included material that wasn’t handed over to the government as part of the Democratic nominee’s archive.

    Josh Schwerin, a spokesman for the Clinton campaign, defended Clinton’s actions as secretary of state. “Once again this right-wing organization that has been going after the Clintons since the 1990s is distorting facts to make utterly false attacks,” he said. “No matter how this group tries to mischaracterize these documents, the fact remains that Hillary Clinton never took action as secretary of state because of donations to the Clinton Foundation.”

    ReplyDelete
  23. ...GOOD FRIEND OF OURS. - Clinton Foundation official and longtime aide to former President Bill Clinton

    “This is a friend of mine”, that means your a connected guy. Donnie Branco

    ReplyDelete
  24. http://www.funnypicpost.com/pics/2ly3cdtv.html

    ReplyDelete
  25. If you are planning a family Christmas holiday to save your marriage then it’s probably too late.

    In Australia, separation peaks just after Christmas time and often it’s the summer getaway that has pushed a couple to breaking point, says relationship expert Dr Nikki Goldstein.

    ReplyDelete
  26. See Hillary in a Money Laundering Machine here -

    Street Art Puts Leonardo DiCaprio and Hillary Clinton in Money-Laundering Machine

    3:01 PM PDT 8/22/2016 by Paul Bond

    http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/street-art-puts-leonardo-dicaprio-921414


    I got a chuckle.

    ReplyDelete

  27. MIGRATING IDEOLOGIES

    There’s one group of minority immigrants in the US that is surprisingly pro-Trump

    By Renuka Rayasam August 21, 2016

    Indian activists from the right-wing organization Hindu Sena hold a Hindu holy book before sending it to US Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump.

    Going against the political grain. (EPA/Rajat Gupta)

    In mid-August, at a concert in New York City to celebrate the 70th anniversary of India’s independence, Anand Ahuja got into a playful argument with Hetal Gor. Inside the United Nations General Assembly Hall, Gor was explaining why she will vote for Hillary Clinton, and Ahuja chimed in with disparaging remarks about the Democratic presidential nominee.

    “She has a track record,” said Gor, a New Jersey-based gynecologist, who grew up in Bombay.

    “Of lies,” said Ahuja, a Nassau County lawyer, who co-founded the political action committee Indian Americans for Trump earlier this year.

    Indian-Americans have historically been stalwarts of Democratic support: 65% of Indian-Americans identified with Democrats in 2014, according to the Pew Research Center.

    On the day of the concert, Trump said people coming to the US should be subjected to an ideological test.

    Yet despite his anti-immigrant rhetoric, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is seeing a surprising amount of support among Indian-Americans, many of whom are immigrants or children of immigrants.

    In addition to Indian-Americans for Trump, the more religiously-focused group, Hindus for Trump, meets occasionally in Brooklyn—the group has an image of Trump sitting cross-legged on a lotus flower on its Facebook page. In July, the also religious Republican Hindu Coalition, which formed last year to increase the clout of Hindus in American politics, officially threw its weight behind Trump. The group’s co-founder, Shalabh Kumar, and his wife donated nearly $900,000 to the Trump Victory Fund because they liked the businessman’s “tough words for Pakistan” and his views on “Muslim profiling,” according to The Hill.

    Indian-Americans are one of the wealthiest, most educated, and fastest-growing immigrant groups in the country.....

    http://qz.com/761507/theres-one-group-of-minority-immigrants-in-the-us-that-is-surprisingly-pro-trump/

    These people ought to be at the head of the line in our immigration policy.

    They are not going to blow you up, or rape your kids.

    They will on the contrary really contribute to the country.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Oh my… Army security brief lists Hillary Clinton as security threat


    posted at 4:01 pm on August 22, 2016 by Jazz Shaw

    The Daily Caller News Foundation has done it again. While this isn’t one of those stories which is likely to blow up into (yet another) scandal for Hillary Clinton’s campaign, it does provide a peek inside of our military and how they view their potential next Commander in Chief. There’s a slide from a military security presentation making the rounds, allegedly coming from a solider who took this particular course. It shows examples of threats to national security through the release of classified information. The list of “suspects” is rather interesting to say the least.


    Admins of the Facebook page “U.S. Army W.T.F! moments” told The Daily Caller News Foundation this is the second time they’ve received a picture of this particular slide in the last six months. They posted the slide to their page Sunday.

    Admins said the picture came from a servicemember stationed at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri.

    The brief, marked unclassified, lists servicemembers Nidal Hassan, Chelsea Manning, Edward Snowden and Aaron Alexis as examples of threats.

    On the second row, the brief pictures Clinton and Petraeus. The text of “careless or disgruntled employees” echoes FBI Director James Comey’s description, “extremely careless,” of Clinton’s handling of top secret and classified information when she served as Secretary of State.

    My, my… that’s quite the rogues gallery.

    ClintonThreat

    In some of these cases you might think that Clinton would be proud to be displayed alongside them. Chelsea Manning in particular is a hero to both the transgender community and liberals who admire service members who leak classified data without permission or thought to who might be harmed. Snowden falls into the latter category as well, though he’s wanted for a chat with the FBI just as Manning was. And being next to someone with the military record of General Petraeus should offer a morale boost, even if he did get himself into trouble over disclosures which were nowhere near as serious as Clinton’s private server turned out to be.

    But that heading at the top… “Who is the threat?” That’s got to sting a bit. My only beef with the course instructors is that none of these examples really fall under the category of “careless” now, do they? Petraeus was using an insecure system, true. (Gmail in that case.) But he knowingly and intentionally told things to his lover which he must have known might see the light of day. Clinton should be obvious at this point. She didn’t accidentally set up a private server at considerable personal expense and delete thousands of government documents from it, including some marked as classified. Those were deliberate acts. Everyone in the top row is pretty much a flat out criminal.

    Still, as noted above, if this is how the military security community is looking at Clinton now, particularly to the point where they use her as a negative role model in briefings, what will they do if she’s in the Oval Office? Would you give full, unvarnished briefings to someone you’ve already been warned of as being a threat to your nation’s security?

    http://hotair.com/archives/2016/08/22/oh-my-army-security-brief-lists-hillary-clinton-as-security-threat/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. RUFUS ! THE MILITARY CONSIDERS HILLARY A THREAT, DOESN'T WANT TO BRIEF HER !!

      Comprende ?

      Delete
  29. In any case, the Islamic State appears to be increasingly using young recruits for its most brutal missions. In the Iraqi province of Diyala earlier this year, a mother told authorities that the Islamic State had recruited her 21-year-old and 14-year-old sons and that they were planning a suicide attack.

    ...

    "Who would suspect a child?" Kirkuk Governor Najmiddin Karim said. "Sadly, they are brainwashed."

    The Islamic State has lost almost half the territory it once controlled in Iraq and about 20 percent in Syria, according to U.S. estimates. But the strategy of the U.S.-led coalition has drawn criticism, with some saying that its scope is too narrowand that defeating the group militarily is not enough.

    ReplyDelete