“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, October 15, 2017
Why you were smart to have supported Trump instead of pissing away your vote on Clinton or Christ on a Harley
THIS IS THE GREATEST INDICTMENT OF THE LYING DEMOCRATS, OBAMA AND HILLARY CLINTON, AND THEIR US MEDIA & NEOCON ENABLERS:
If we could assign proxies to vote one's USA vote, if we were in the hospital or such, I would certainly consent to give my proxy to Sam and rest easy about doing so.
We know some here, at least one here, who live forever in the thrall of conspiracy theories. Now we get of a glimpse of why they live so -
Why So Many People Believe Conspiracy Theories
“In this case, conspiracy theories can be like emotional poultices,” says Joseph Parent, a professor of political science at Notre Dame University and Uscinski’s co-author. “You don’t want to blame yourself for things you may lack, so you blame anonymous forces instead.”
Just as important in fostering conspiracies is a desire to be special or different — and that’s a need that cuts across demographic lines. In a study published in May 2017 in the European Journal of Social Psychology, provocatively titled “Too Special to Be Duped,” subjects either took a survey designed to measure their desire for uniqueness or wrote an essay on the importance of independent thought. By significant margins, those who tested high on the need to be special or were primed to feel that way by writing the essay were also more inclined to believe in various conspiracy theories.
“A small part in motivating the endorsement of…irrational beliefs,” the researchers wrote, “is the desire to stick out from the crowd.”
If we could assign proxies to vote one's USA vote, if we were in the hospital or such, I would certainly consent to give my proxy to Sam and rest easy about doing so.
It only takes about five minutes to buy a Facebook ad with a link to a fake anti-Muslim story and aim it at residents of a Michigan electoral battleground county whom the social network's algorithms perceive to be "very conservative."
...
The easiest way to ensure an audience of people susceptible to a message on Facebook is to use the information users have volunteered about their interests, hobbies, and demographics.
Say someone wanted to reach a set of people with anti-Muslim views, as the Russian actors reportedly did.
A good starting place might be the more than 800,000 Facebook users who’ve expressed interest or liked pages related to far-right firebrand Pamela Geller, whom the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) describes as “the anti-Muslim movement's most visible and flamboyant figurehead.”
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User-submitted information is only one piece of Facebook’s targeting toolkit. The company’s software also tries to deduce all kinds of user attributes based on Facebook habits, outside browsing history collected through trackers and cookies embedded around the web, and third-party firms that match offline store purchases with corresponding Facebook users.
I've been reading Pam for a decade, and I can't recall the Rooskies, or anyone else, getting hold of me.
The Rooskies don't have a great opinion of the moslems, whom they have been fighting for time out of mind.
Two Rooskies were reported executed by ISIS or some other moslem group just recently for refusing to deny their Christianity.
Leo Tolstoy has a long tale about his countrymen fighting the moslems, in which the moslem is described as the best one in the story.
That's Leo for you.
Hadji Murad
Hadji Murat (novel) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Hadji Murat Hadji-Mural by Lanceray.jpg The house of Prince Semyon Vorontsov, illustration by Eugene Lanceray Author Leo Tolstoy Original title Хаджи-Мурат (Khadzhi-Murat)
Hadji Murat (or alternatively Hadji Murad, although the first spelling better captures the original title in Russian: Хаджи-Мурат [Khadzhi-Murat]) is a short novel written by Leo Tolstoy from 1896 to 1904 and published posthumously in 1912 (though not in full until 1917). It is Tolstoy’s final work. The protagonist is Hadji Murat, an Avar rebel commander who, for reasons of personal revenge, forges an uneasy alliance with the Russians he had been fighting. Contents [hide] 1 Inspiration 2 Historical context 3 Plot summary 4 Character list 5 Themes 6 Symbolism 7 References 8 External links Inspiration[edit]
The theme of struggle while remaining faithful resonated with Tolstoy even though he was in ailing health; later letters suggest this work gave him a brief, final moment of vigor. Just as the author was struggling with his near death, his extended meditation on the concept of the individual refusing to give in to the demands of the world helped him to complete the book, although he himself had no inclination to publish it and was only concerned with its completion. In addition to the theme of resistance, there are many other ideas that can be found in the novel, such as determinism; this echoes Tolstoy's major work War and Peace. An even clearer theme is the struggle between a Christian Russia and Muslim Chechnya, the classic West vs. East theme found in Russian history and many different stories and novels (and which is once again pertinent in light of First and Second Chechen Wars in Chechnya and Russia). The work is very similar to Alexander Pushkin's work The Captain's Daughter in that it is a realist work based on actual people and events and has a similar direction, though the main character in this novel does not meet the same end. Tolstoy used material in Russian archives, including Hadji Murad's own account of his life.
Australia: Muslim terror suspects refuse to stand for judge, rant about spreading Islam ‘by the sword’ and tell people to become Muslim or ‘face death’
By Pamela Geller - on October 15, 2017 AUSTRALIA
Western political, cultural and media elites still fail to grasp the theological issues that drive this savage movement.
Until our “leaders,” “thinkers” and pundits finally come to grips with the terrible but unvarnished truth, we are in for some very dark days.
“Terror suspects refuse to stand for judge before court is shown terrifying rant about spreading Islam ‘by the sword’ and telling people to become Muslim or ‘face death,'” Daily Mail, October 4, 2017:
An ISIS-inspired terror suspect and his co-accused have refused to stand before a judge during their court hearing.
Sulayman Khalid and Mohamed Almaouie stayed seated while Justice Geoffrey Bellew entered and exited the New South Wales Supreme Court on Wednesday.
The court was shown a video recorded by Khalid, 22, in which he called on secret services around the world to convert to Islam in a 20 minute rant.
‘Islam is spread by the swords. How can a religion spread without using the swords?’ Khalid can be seen saying in a clip shown by Seven News.
A 16-year-old suspect who cannot be named for legal reasons was the only one who stood before Justice Bellew, The Daily Telegraph reported.
The disrespectful behaviour follows charges laid against the burqa-wearing wife of a convicted terror recruiter.
In August Moutia Elzahed was charged with nine counts of disrespecting a court, after saying she ‘only stands for Allah’.
The video played in court today shows Khalid saying security agencies should adopt his religion before it’s ‘too late’.
Standing under the shade of a gum tree as birds called and music played in the background, Sulayman Khalid recorded his rambling message.
‘I would like to forward a message to the secret services of our time – MI5, MI6, MI7, FBI, CIA, ASIO and the rest of the secret services in each one of the countries,’ he says, holding a microphone and wearing a scarf around his head.
‘Accept Islam as your salvation because I swear to you… that a day will come when it will be too late,’ he says.
‘On the day of judgment you will be saying I wish I was made out of dust.
‘You will be put in your black hole, you will be put in your grave.’
He said it was his responsibility as a Muslim to convey the message of Islam.
‘I am directly inviting all of the secret services around the world to Islam,’ he says.
‘It’s not based on terrorism, it’s not based about killing the innocent.’
He later says: ‘It’s either you will become a Muslim and you believe in Allah or you will die by the sword.'
Kurds say "lots of casualties" as Iraqi forces move on Kirkuk
Iraqi Kurdish officials said early Monday that federal forces and state-backed militias had launched a "major, multi-pronged" attack aimed at retaking the disputed northern city of Kirkuk, causing "lots of casualties" in fighting south of the city.
Kurdish forces known as the peshmerga were digging in at the edge of the international airport after withdrawing from their positions outside the city.
My advice on exactly how they should go about getting a state, if I had any, would not be not nearly as well informed as their own policy prescriptions, SCWC.
Iraqi government forces have captured key installations outside the disputed city of Kirkuk from Kurdish fighters. A military statement said units had taken control of the K1 military base, the Baba Gurgur oil and gas field, and a state-owned oil company's offices.
Baghdad said the Peshmerga had withdrawn "without fighting", but clashes were reported south of Kirku ... ... The Kurdistan Region Security Council accused Baghdad of launching an "unprovoked attack" and said the Peshmerga would "continue to defend Kurdistan, its peoples and interests".
...
Peshmerga spokesman Brig Gen Bahzad Ahmed told the Associated Press that the fighting south of Kirkuk had caused "lots of casualties". He alleged that pro-government forces had also "burnt lots of houses and killed many people" in Tuz Khurmatu, 75km south of Kirkuk, and Daquq
Hey Rat, go ahead and post all of Bob's emails from the last 5 years pertaining to this. We know you have your stalking file right there at your finger tips. Go ahead and bore the shit out of all of us.
We know some here, at least one here, who live forever in the thrall of conspiracy theories... says the man who brought the 'Pizzagate' story and others to the bar.
Parties don't descend into vicious civil wars when things are going well for them. So the fact that it's happening now to the GOP tells you a lot about what Republicans are facing, even though they control the White House, Congress, and a majority of state houses and governorships. They are beginning to tear themselves apart over the question of who is to blame for their current difficulties, with one side saying it's the fault of a feckless establishment that is insufficiently loyal to President Trump, and the other side saying — mostly sotto voce, but occasionally out loud — that the responsibility lies with Trump himself.
If the president was right in his repeated insistence that his administration has been a smashing success, there wouldn't be anything to fight about. But in truth, things could hardly be worse: No major legislation has been passed, the effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act was a spectacular failure, Trump's approval ratings are abysmal and a majority of Americans say he's not fit to be president, one Republican officeholder after another is choosing not to run for re-election, polls show Democrats headed for a dramatic win in 2018, and even the one goal Republicans were all supposed to agree on — a big tax cut for the wealthy and corporations — looks like it might be in trouble.
All of which leads to dissension from within, as White House staff rush to tell reporters that the president is an infantile rage-monster whom they have to trick into not burning down the world. When Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) expressed his concerns about Trump's erratic behavior, none of his colleagues came out to contradict him and say that in fact Trump is a wise and careful leader who is performing his duties successfully, no doubt because Corker was only saying publicly what the rest of them say privately.
But to some on the right, this all smacks of a slow-motion coup by quisling Republicans who lack the courage to stand behind Trump and testify to his greatness. Which is one of the reasons that this week, the hardline conservative group FreedomWorks wrote a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell demanding that he and his leadership team resign for their failure to produce a sufficient quantity of conservative legislation. While the signatories were a little on the has-been side (few are dying to hear what Brent Bozell and Ken Cuccinelli have to say these days), it was evidence of a disgruntlement in conservative circles.
Or consider Stephen Bannon, who left the White House and declared that he'd be supporting the Trump agenda (whatever that is) from the outside — which he has decided means condemning Republicans. "We are declaring war on the Republican establishment that does not back the agenda that Donald Trump ran on," Bannon recently told Sean Hannity, adding that "there's a coalition coming together that's gonna challenge every Republican [Senate] incumbent except for Ted Cruz."
Both parts of that plan raise questions about what kind of crusade this is. First, among the Republicans up for re-election are many who have been completely loyal to Trump, and second, why exempt Ted Cruz from the target list? The only logical explanation is that Cruz is a favorite of hedge fund billionaire Robert Mercer and his daughter Rebekah, who are Bannon's patrons and the ones likely to fund this effort.
Bannon's obvious goal is to burn the Republican Party to the ground in the hope that something glorious rises from the ashes. It's hard to know how successful he'll be, although the candidate he backed in the Alabama special election, religious extremist Roy Moore, beat Luther Strange, the candidate Trump himself endorsed (Bannon managed to argue that Moore would be a more faithful vehicle for Trumpism, but I wouldn't bet on it). One of the things the election showed was that conservative Republican voters won't always take their cues from Trump himself, even if they still support him.
Now imagine if Republicans were to fail in what is always their central policy goal: cutting taxes for the wealthy and corporations. It could happen, particularly if Trump barrels clumsily through the process the way he did with health care. Bloomberg News reported this week that while the White House had been saying for some time they wanted to eliminate the deduction for state and local taxes, Trump "grew angry when he learned that the change would hurt some middle-income taxpayers." In other words — and this should surprise no one — he has little idea what's in his own tax plan.
There's no reason to think that as things move along Trump will be any more up on the details, which means he'll be a force of chaos and uncertainty. And the fact that the White House has come up with a plan that would increase taxes for many people could wind up giving some members of Congress pause.
Add in the feuds Trump has cultivated with members of his own party in the Senate — where Republicans can only afford to lose two votes — and tax reform going down in flames is a genuine possibility. Should that happen, the conflicts within the GOP will get even uglier.
Paul Waldman is a senior writer with The American Prospect magazine and a blogger for The Washington Post. His writing has appeared in dozens of newspapers, magazines, and web sites, and he is the author or co-author of four books on media and politics.
US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley on Sunday said the Trump administration hopes to remain in the nuclear deal with Iran, but strengthen it so the “American people feel safer.”
“I think right now you are going to see us stay in the deal,” Haley said on NBC’s “Meet The Press.”
“What we hope is that we can improve the situation,” she continued. “And that’s the goal. … It’s not that we’re getting out of the deal. We’re just trying to make the situation better so that the American people feel safer.”
The Clinton Foundation reportedly will not return as much as $250,000 in donations from disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein following multiple accusations of sexual harassment and rape ... The foundation said donations, ranging from $100,000 to $250,000, have already been spent on projects, The Daily Mail reported. The move to keep the money was expected following tweets from the foundation's spokesman Craig Minassian. "Suggesting @ClintonFdn return funds from our 330,000+ donors ignores the fact that donations have been used to help people across the world,” Minassian tweeted.
Kaepernick threw for 2,241 yards, 16 touchdowns and four interceptions for the San Francisco 49ers during the 2016 season. However, since becoming a free agent, Kaepernick has had difficulty finding a job
Peshmerga: Iraq Has Declared “A War Against The Kurds” ED MORRISSEYPosted at 8:41 am on October 16, 2017
The civil war in Iraq over the last three years touched off by ISIS may just have been an appetizer. Late yesterday, the Iraqi army attacked Peshmerga forces around Kirkuk in an attempt to wrest control of the city and its oil production away from the independence-minded Kurds. The Shi’ite-dominated government in Baghdad has thus far only used the army for this operation, but Shi’ite militias with ties to Iran wait on the sidelines — and that may be one reason why the Kurds are balking at federal control:
Iraqi Kurdish officials said early Monday that federal forces and state-backed militias have launched a “major, multi-pronged” attack aimed at retaking the disputed northern city of Kirkuk.
Kurdish forces known as the peshmerga were digging in at the edge of the international airport after withdrawing from their positions outside the city. Hundreds of armed Kurdish residents were taking up positions inside Kirkuk anticipating an attack. …
Iraq’s Interior Ministry said in a brief statement that federal forces have taken control of a power plant, a police station and industrial areas near Kirkuk. It provided no further details on the fighting or casualties in what it referred to as Operation Impose Security on Kirkuk.
Thus far, the Popular Mobilization Forces are staying out of the fight, but that may not last long if the Peshmerga gain the upper hand:
Iraq’s state-sanctioned militias, the mostly Shiite Arab Popular Mobilization Forces, were ordered to stay out of the city, according to al-Abadi’s office, and instead keep positions in the countryside. They are viewed with deep suspicion by Kurdish residents, who see them as beholden to Iran rather than Iraq’s central government. The predominantly Shiite militias are sponsored and guided by Tehran.
The Washington Post reports that the militias have already declared their intent to enter the city. In fact, they may have precipitated the firefight with an ultimatum:
As Kurdish authorities warned they were about attack, Abadi tried to defuse tension, taking to Twitter to assure that Iraqi forces “cannot and will not attack our citizens.” Iraqi commanders initially dismissed troop movements as routine deployments aimed at securing nearby Hawija, recently recaptured from Islamic State militants.
But Shiite militia leaders close to Iran said that they were there to move into the province and had presented a list of demands to Kurdish Peshmerga commanders.
Those demands included a Kurdish withdrawal from positions including the city’s K1-military base and oil fields.
“The orders are to surround K1 and oil fields and stop and call on the Kurdish forces to retreat,” said a counterterrorism officer who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the topic. “There are strict orders to avoid violence.” But militia commanders took a more combative tone. Anyone who fights Iraqi forces is “the same as ISIS,” said Karim al-Nuri, a spokesman for Iraq’s mobilization units. State television said that counterterrorism forces, the 9th Division of the Iraqi army and federal police forces had taken “large areas” of the province without a fight. It said popular mobilization units took positions “outside Kirkuk.”
So much for “routine deployments.” The Iranian-backed Shi’ite militias appear to be driving this outcome, forcing Haider al-Abadi to act with force against the Kurds — and thereby confirming the Kurds’ worst fears about the Iraq federation’s future direction. If Iraq falls completely under Iran’s thumb, it will spell the end of the autonomy that Kurds have enjoyed since the end of the 1991 Gulf War.
The Kurds feel they have a separate claim on Kirkuk, too. The Peshmerga essentially saved Kirkuk from ISIS three years ago after the collapse of the Iraqi army, which ignominiously fled the region and left it open and unprotected. Ever since then, the autonomous Kurdish government has insisted that the city and its environs belong under their control, while Baghdad has insisted on a return to the status quo ante. Complicating matters is the lucrative oil industry in the Kirkuk region, which both sides want to control. It would have meant tense negotiations under any circumstances, but the referendum last month for full independence provided a catalyst for another civil war.
This puts the US in a very tough position. We still arm the Iraqi army as well as the Peshmerga, and we’re siding with the Syrian Kurd militia YPG over the strenuous objections of our nominal ally Turkey in the fight against ISIS. The Trump administration tried to warn off the Kurds from holding their referendum in the first place to no avail. How does the US see this firefight? Er …
Follow The Associated Press ✔@AP BREAKING: US military says exchange of fire between Iraqi, Kurdish forces in Kirkuk a "misunderstanding." 4:55 AM - Oct 16, 2017 51 51 Replies 270 270 Retweets 179 179 likes Twitter Ads info and privacy
That’s a political reductio ad absurdum. All war is at some level a “misunderstanding”; this falls more into the “inevitable” category. Abadi has basically stumbled back into the same situation that Nouri al-Maliki created by deputizing Iranian-backed Shi’ite militias for the fight against ISIS, which alienated the Kurdish and Sunni minorities all over again. By allowing them to take positions against the Kurds and to issue ultimatums to Irbil, Abadi may have made that alienation impossible to repair.
Aside from a few tiny ethnic minorities, the Kurds and the Israelis are the only two decent cultures in the whole region. The rest are miserable dysfunctional dirtball cultures. It is my understanding that the Kurdish people are the largest distinct ethnic and linguistic culture in the world without a country to call their own. It is my hope that the current adminstration will equip them militarily to at least give them a fighting chance to build a decent country.
"They’re not being persecuted because of their race, or their religion,” Tully said according to WJON. “In their countries they are the race, they are the religion. So they are merely migrants, people looking for a better way of life.”
"THIS IS THE GREATEST INDICTMENT OF THE LYING DEMOCRATS, OBAMA AND HILLARY CLINTON, AND THEIR US MEDIA & NEOCON ENABLERS:"
I clicked on the video to see what this great indictment was and it is some guys sitting in front of a camera reading into a mic. What a waste of time. Deuce, give your head a shake!
In the video, H.A. Goodman specifically says his youtube channel (and evidently his books) are devoted to attacking the Clintons, primarily Hillary. I think most would conclude that's a pretty narrow focus.
I've never visited his site but I would think that after someone has visited the site a few times, similar to someone who has been reading Pam (Geller) for a decade, it reflects in them a certain fixation or compulsion and a tolerance for redundancy.
It's a conspiracy I tells ya. It's the LYING DEMOCRATS, OBAMA AND HILLARY CLINTON, AND THEIR US MEDIA & NEOCON ENABLERS; it's the usual gag from the Clintonites, and the Ape-hangers on their Harley's [?]; it's the establishment GOP; it's the Democrats; it's anyone who didn't vote for Trump.
The good intelligent folk (which) include(s), in alphabetical order: Bob, Deuce, Doug, MOME would rather complain about the problems we could have had than the ones we've got right now.
These 'good intelligent folks' just don't seem to grasp the fact that They Are ALL Dicks or the corollary a dick in hand is always worse than one in the bush.
U.S. planemaker Boeing dismissed a deal between Airbus and Bombardier to partner on Canada’s CSeries jet, calling it an attempt to sidestep import duties recommended by the U.S. Commerce Department following a Boeing trade complaint.
...
The Quebec government, through its financing arm, took a 49 percent stake in the CSeries program in 2015 for $1 billion. Quebec’s share, most recently 38 percent, will slip to 19 percent following the deal with Airbus.
Boeing had filed a trade complaint against Bombardier and the Commerce dept. Imposed duties of about 300%. The Canadian federal government cancelled purchase of Boeing fighter jets because of the tariff. The plane was designed to target a specific market/size of plane which neither manufacturer had a product for. Now Airbus has it and Boeing doesnt.
US to 'not take sides' in Iraqi-Kurdish dispute: Trump President Donald Trump announces America’s neutrality as tensions continue to mount between Baghdad and Erbil
“We've had for many years a very good relationship with the Kurds as you know, and we've also been on the side of Iraq, even though we should have never been there in the first place. We should never have been there. But we're not taking sides in that battle," Trump said.
First, there was “little rocket man.” Now, Kim Jong Un has returned fire in the nickname game with “mad dog Trump."
Pro-North Korean propaganda posters likening the U.S. president to a raging dog have begun popping up across the South Korean capital, Reuters reported Monday, citing social media posts and people that found them.
...
“I am pretty sure it came from North Korea by balloon, since the prevailing winds during October have been from north to south and we’ve been getting reports of others finding them throughout Seoul,” said managing director of Seoul-based news service NK News Chad O‘Carroll, who found some of the posters while jogging.
Golly, we really cannot blame the opiod crisis on the Mexicans.
Sorry, Draft Dodger vut reality bites your prejudice, one more time
In the midst of the worst drug epidemic in American history, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's ability to keep addictive opioids off U.S. streets was derailed -- that according to Joe Rannazzisi, one of the most important whistleblowers ever interviewed by 60 Minutes.
Rannazzisi ran the DEA's Office of Diversion Control, the division that regulates and investigates the pharmaceutical industry.
Now in a joint investigation by 60 Minutes and The Washington Post, Rannazzisi tells the inside story of how, he says, the opioid crisis was allowed to spread -- aided by Congress, lobbyists, and a drug distribution industry that shipped, almost unchecked, hundreds of millions of pills to rogue pharmacies and pain clinics providing the rocket fuel for a crisis that, over the last two decades, has claimed 200,000 lives
JOE RANNAZZISI: This is an industry that allowed millions and millions of drugs to go into bad pharmacies and doctors' offices, that distributed them out to people who had no legitimate need for those drugs.
BILL WHITAKER: Who are these distributors?
JOE RANNAZZISI: The three largest distributors are Cardinal Health, McKesson, and AmerisourceBergen. They control probably 85 or 90 percent of the drugs going downstream.
BILL WHITAKER: You know the implication of what you're saying, that these big companies knew that they were pumping drugs into American communities that were killing people.
JOE RANNAZZISI: That's not an implication, that's a fact. That's exactly what they did. ... JOE RANNAZZISI: Pain clinics overnight popping-up – off an entrance ramp, or an exit ramp on an interstate. And all of a sudden there's a pain clinic there.
BILL WHITAKER: Had you ever seen anything like that before?
JOE RANNAZZISI: Never. In fact-- it was my opinion that this made the whole crack epidemic look like nothing.
JOE RANNAZZISI These weren't kids slinging crack on the corner. These were professionals who were doing it. They were just drug dealers in lab coats. ... IM GELDHOF: They had a business plan. Their plan was to sell a lotta pills and make a lot of money. And they did both of those very well.
This should be good. Due to the opioid crisis the rats are leaving the sinking ship and looking for scapegoats. The Dems are blaming Bush and the GOP for disallowing any government/industry negotiations on drug prices in Medicare Part D.
The GOP is blaming the Dems and Obama for doing the same thing in the ACA.
Congress is blaming the DEA. The DEA is blaming Congress.
In truth they are all guilty. You can't corrupt someone who is incorruptible.
How does the drug industry get away with it? Follow the money.
Though the industry tries to justify the high prices consumers in the US pay for drugs based on drug regulations and high research costs, the fact is that 9 out of 10 companies spend more money on 'marketing and sales' than they do on research. Johnson and Johnson, the biggest spender, actually spends more than double on sales and marketing than on research. Out of the top 10 spenders, Roche was the only one (in 2015) who spent slightly more on research, $9.3 billion (research) versus $9.0 billion on sales and marketing.
The interesting thing is that the bulk of the money isn't spent on consumers but on doctors, the guys who issue the prescriptions, and Congress of course, the guys who write the legislation. Paid trips to seminars, per diem payments, free samples, etc. to the doctors and campaign money to Congress.
Public health officials have called the current opioid epidemic the worst drug crisis in American history, killing more than 33,000 people in 2015. Overdose deaths were nearly equal to the number of deaths from car crashes. In 2015, for the first time, deaths from heroin alone surpassed gun homicides...
Inside a Killer Drug Epidemic: A Look at America’s Opioid ...
In April 2016, at the height of the deadliest drug epidemic in U.S. history, Congress effectively stripped the Drug Enforcement Administration of its most potent weapon against large drug companies suspected of spilling prescription narcotics onto the nation's streets.
By then, the opioid war had claimed 200,000 lives, more than three times the number of U.S. military deaths in the Vietnam War. Overdose deaths continue to rise. There is no end in sight.
A handful of members of Congress, allied with the nation's major drug distributors, prevailed upon the DEA and the Justice Department to agree to a more industry-friendly law, undermining efforts to stanch the flow of pain pills, according to an investigation by The Washington Post and "60 Minutes." The DEA had opposed the effort for years.
Gov. Wolf: 'I have serious doubts' about Pa. congressman's nomination at Trump's drug czar "I have serious doubts now whether Congressman Marino can serve as the nation's top official on drug policy.
The law was the crowning achievement of a multifaceted campaign by the drug industry to weaken aggressive DEA enforcement efforts against drug distribution companies that were supplying corrupt doctors and pharmacists who peddled narcotics to the black market. The industry worked behind the scenes with lobbyists and key members of Congress, pouring more than a million dollars into their election campaigns.
The chief advocate of the law that hobbled the DEA was Rep. Tom Marino, a Pennsylvania Republican who is now President Trump's nominee to become the nation's next drug czar. Marino spent years trying to move the law through Congress. It passed after Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) negotiated a final version with the DEA.
For years, some drug distributors were fined for repeatedly ignoring warnings from the DEA to shut down suspicious sales of hundreds of millions of pills, while they racked up billions of dollars in sales.
The new law makes it virtually impossible for the DEA to freeze suspicious narcotic shipments from the companies, according to internal agency and Justice Department documents and an independent assessment by the DEA's chief administrative law judge in a soon-to-be-published law review article. That powerful tool had allowed the agency to immediately prevent drugs from reaching the street.
Political action committees representing the industry contributed at least $1.5 million to the 23 lawmakers who sponsored or co-sponsored four versions of the bill, including nearly $100,000 to Marino and $177,000 to Hatch. Overall, the drug industry spent $106 million lobbying Congress on the bill and other legislation between 2014 and 2016, according to lobbying reports...
It appears Trump will be withdrawing Marino's nomination as Drug Czar and a number of Senators and Congressmen are proposing legislation to reverse Marino's law.
Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, told ABC News last month that based on the Facebook ads he'd seen at that point it was clear the posts included divisive messages intended to “help one candidate and potentially hurt another.” He said the ads clearly appeared to be part of a broader effort that the U.S. intelligence community has determined was designed to aid Donald Trump and hurt Hillary Clinton in the election.
Independent Russian journalist Lyudmila Savchuk, who worked for the Internet Research Agency in 2015 to expose what the factory was doing, told ABC News that young Russians posed as Americans online, working 12-hour shifts at the company’s headquarters posting comments on U.S. political issues selected by their bosses. Facebook, she said, was one of their primary platforms.
“'Troll factory' is a very appropriate name for it because it really is a large-scale production that works around the clock, and they don't take time off for holidays, lunch nor sleep,” she said. “A huge quantity of content is being produced.”
“He’s paved the groundwork methodically for becoming one of the longest-ruling leaders in the Communist Party,” said Willy Lam, an expert on elite politics with the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
This week’s congress will determine whether Xi’s concepts are enshrined in party orthodoxy. It’s also intended to anoint the country’s next leader, who will take control in five years.
That may not happen, opening the possibility that Xi will find a way to stay on past a decade, continuing to mold China in his image.
Fentanyl, synthetic opioids claim top spot for US overdose deaths By Michael Harthorne, Newser
Fourteen people overdosed on heroin laced with fentanyl in a span of just four hours Wednesday in Camden, New Jersey, NBC Philadelphia reports. While none of Wednesday's overdoses in Camden were fatal, BuzzFeed—citing new data from the CDC—reports fentanyl and other synthetic opioids are now the leading cause of overdose deaths in the US, having killed more than 21,000 people last year.
One epidemiologist calls those numbers "shocking." Fentanyl is about 50 times stronger than morphine and 10 times stronger than heroin. Researchers say the increase in overdose deaths—a jump of 21 percent between 2015 and 2016 driven by fentanyl and synthetic opioids—is likely due to people buying heroin or counterfeit pain pills and not expecting the spike in potency.
Opioids, including fentanyl, are reducing life expectancy in the US by 2.5 months, CNN reported last month. American life expectancy dropped in 2015 for the first time since 1993, and overdose deaths are thought to be the reason.
Experts believe overdose deaths will continue to increase, at least in the near future. According to CDC estimates, more Americans died of overdoses—the majority of which involved opioids—in 2016 than died in the Vietnam War.
President Trump has called the situation a national emergency but has yet to officially declare it as such. (This mom shared a photo of her dying son as a PSA on the dangers of opioids.)
Some here who are addicted to conspiracy theories might think the drug companies are doing this but they would be wrong.
As any big pharma advertising executive can tell you, it's a poor way to keep the customer coming back for more because the dead don't read advertising copy nor take any more drugs.
They've gotten themselves permanently off the stuff.
Some Would Argue That The Drug Companies Have Played No Part in the Current Opioid Crisis
However...
The overdose rates for synthetic opioids and pain relievers have continued to rise over the past several years. In just a five year span, between 2010 and 2015, heroin overdose deaths quadrupled.
Why is this happening?
Among new heroin users, 75 percent report having abused prescription opioids before using heroin. (CDC)
Heroin availability at the retail level in many US markets is a high purity (CDC)
Increased heroin availability at a relatively low price (compared to prescription opioids) (CDC)
Prescription opioids and heroin have similar euphoric effects. (NIDA)
The number of heroin users has more than quadrupled during the last decade.(JAMA Psychiatry)
Approximately 75 percent of new heroin users are coming to heroin after having abused prescription opioids. (CDC) Heroin, on the other hand, has varying purities, adulterants, making it much easier to overdose.
In her interview with Anderson Cooper, McCaskill talks about the drugs companies supplying over 9 million opioid pills to a single community of less than 1,000 people. That's more than 9,000 pills per person. What's wrong with this picture?
The newspapers are filled with details of the drug company practices that were covered up by the 2016 bill pushed through by Marino and Hatch. Easy to check them out just to make sure they are not conspiracy theories.
Hugh Fitzgerald: Erdogan and Kurdish Independence By Hugh Fitzgerald - on October 16, 2017 TURKEY
The Turkish sultan, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is furious. The Kurds of Iraq dared to hold a referendum on independence on September 25. 72% of the eligible voters — which included non-Kurds living in Kurdish areas — took part. An astonishing 93% of them voted for independence. Erdogan doesn’t think the Iraqi Kurds, or any Kurds, anywhere have a right to independence. Erdogan now claims — did you really expect him to behave otherwise? — that the whole referendum business has been a “Mossad plot.” His proof? That some Kurds waved Israeli flags during the vote.
The Kurds are the largest ethnic group in the world without a state of their own, but as far as Erdogan and all other Muslim rulers are concerned, that counts for nothing. All their sympathies and support for independence are lavished on a group of Muslim Arabs who since 1967 have been re-invented as a distinct people — the “Palestinians” — who, it is claimed by Arabs and Muslims, are deserving of a state, on territory originally allocated by the League of Nations to be part of the Mandate for Palestine, the very territory intended for the Jewish National Home which, in turn, was to lead to the creation of a Jewish state. The Muslims, both Arabs and Turks, see no paradox in fighting for an invented people while they deny, at the same time, political independence for a real people, the 35-45 million Kurds. The “Palestinian people” are, by ethnicity, religion, language, and folklore indistinguishable from the Arabs living in Jordan (and from many other Arabs besides), they have the full backing of the twenty-two existing Muslim Arab states, and their cause is promoted at the U.N. as if they really were a separate people. Meanwhile the Kurds, who possess their own distinct language, ethnicity, and culture, are denied the right, anywhere, to their own state, no matter what its dimensions.
Erdogan has threatened an “ethnic and sectarian” war in response to the referendum. “Ethnic” one can understand — the Turkish army has been used to suppress the 18-20 million Kurds within Turkey during many decades of low-level insurrection in eastern Anatolia.”Sectarian” implies a Sunni-Shi’a aspect to this insurrection-and-suppression, but since Turks and Kurds are both mainly Sunni, with some Shi’a among both peoples, it’s hard to see what could be straightforwardly “sectarian” about the Turkish campaign against the Kurds.
Erdogan characteristically accuses the Kurds of being responsible for causing a war that he alone has threatened. He deliberately ignores the fact that the referendum called for the use only of “peaceful means” to win independence. If the Kurds dare to insist on a state of their own, they will have “dragged the region into war.” In Erdogan’s topsy-turvy world, if the Turkish army carries out a campaign against the Iraqi Kurds, it’s because the Kurds started it. How could the Kurds “drag” the region into war? By allowing themselves to hold a peaceful referendum on independence, all the while forswearing any use of violence. For Erdogan, enraged, cannot accept Kurds anywhere declaring themselves for Kurdistan: how dare these Kurdish war-mongers hold this vote, who if they follow through on secession from Iraq, would thereby be practically forcing the Turks to go to war? Erdogan is reminiscent of Hitler in 1938, when the furious Fuhrer accused the Czechs: if they continued to repress the “Sudeteners” (the ethnic Germans in the Sudeten lands of Czechoslovakia) instead of letting them join the Third Reich, they would be starting a war.
Erdogan didn’t just threaten war, but announced a campaign intended to cut Iraqi Kurdistan off at the knees. It will be “left in the lurch,” he warned. Kurds are no longer be able to export any oil through Turkey. They would “go hungry,” he warned, because the Turkish trucks that brought food to northern Iraq would stop coming. Iraqi Kurdistan would be under permanent siege. Of course, any such attempts to smother the nascent Kurdish state would only harden the resolve of the Kurds both in Iraqi Kurdistan, where there are six million of them, and even more importantly, in Turkey, where there are twenty million of them. Attempts by the Turkish military to suppress the Kurds through violence will only increase the clamor among Kurds everywhere for greater rights, and the desire for possible adhesion to the new state, still fighting for its life, in Iraqi Kurdistan.
What Erdogan might have done, if he weren’t Erdogan, and thus a hysterical peddler of conspiracy theories (claiming Mossad was deeply involved in the Kurdish vote because of a handful of Kurds waving Israeli flags), would have been to calmly suggest that Turkey does not object to the referendum’s result, and if the Kurds in Iraq decide to declare an independent state, Turkey would not oppose this. For Erdogan, were he not his limited self, might understand that the existence of such a state would lessen, rather than heighten, the moral claim of Kurds elsewhere to states of their own which might then unite in a single Kurdistan. He could declare that “of course” the Kurdish people deserve to politically express themselves through an independent state, and that it makes sense to have that state arise in Iraqi Kurdistan, where “the Kurds have suffered the most.” Just imagine the reaction to Recep Tayyip Erdogan if he were to utter those six unexpected words: “where the Kurds have suffered the most.”
And meanwhile, he could add, “we in Turkey value our Kurdish citizens, do not wish them to leave, and will gladly meet with their representatives to hear any legitimate complaints, and hope to make them even more desirous of remaining in Turkey through legislation that improves their social and economic condition. We need more government aid for both Turks and Kurds, in rural Anatolia, and I intend to supply it. And that period, when the Kurdish culture, language, identity, were insufficiently respected, when Kurds were not even called Kurds, is over. Of course, we want to insure that our Kurdish friends in Iraq will work with us on this, rather than creating unnecessary difficulties. We will not tolerate attempts from outside Iraq to embroil Turkey’s Kurds in adventurism abroad. For our part, we want to ensure that the Irbil-Ceylan oil pipeline continues to operate, and that nothing untoward happens to disrupt that overwhelmingly important source of revenue for Iraqi Kurdistan, nor to force us to end shipments of food and goods of all kinds to the new state of Kurdistan. Finally, if any Kurds in Turkey want to move to that new state, we will of course help them in that effort, though we shall be sorry to see them go. Turkish territory, of course, is non-negotiable.”
This is the kind of thing that no one would expect from Erdogan; it’s completely out of character. But it just might have a chance of decreasing the appeal, for the Kurds in Turkey, of trying to join an independent Kurdistan, either through territorial secession (which would bring on full-scale war with the Turkish military), or by moving from Turkey to the new Kurdish state. The new and unexpected conciliatory tone might dampen enthusiasm for leaving, or seceding. Meanwhile, the interruption or cancellation both of Kurdish oil exports through Turkey, and of Turkish food and goods now exported to Iraqi Kurdistan could be lifted as a goodwill gesture to the new Kurdish state, though those measures could, it will be tacitly understood, at any moment be re-imposed. In choosing to interpret an independent Kurdistan in Iraq not as a threat, but as an option for those Kurds now in Turkey to move to if, despite this new-found Turkish generosity, they insist on living in a Kurdish state, Erdogan will have seized the high ground, and outflanked the Kurdish diehards.
Unfortunately, Erdogan has given no sign of being capable of feline subtlety, of the iron hand in the velvet glove, of being fortiter in re, suaviter in modo. Still, the Middle East has recently seen some strange sights. It has seen an Egyptian ruler collaborating closely with Israel against Hamas. It has seen Saudi Arabia’s rulers quietly collaborating with Israel on intelligence matters concerning their common enemy, Iran. It has seen the two most ruthless regimes that seemed as if they would remain in power forever, those of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, and of the Al-Assads in Syria, disappear (in Iraq) and decompose (in Syria). It has seen the members of the Gulf Cooperation Council turn furiously on one of their own, tiny Qatar. Why can’t Erdogan surprise us by displaying a seeming sweet reasonableness, born of necessity, toward the Kurds?
If Erdogan were to make this offer, designed to placate the Turkish Kurds sufficiently so that they will want to remain in Turkey, while he repeats his willingness to help those who so desire to settle in the new state of Kurdistan, while making clear there will be no surrender of Turkish territory, he is more likely to keep Turkey intact than if he tries to smother in its cradle a nascent Kurdish state in northern Iraq. For if Turkey were for the second time to thwart the Kurdish dream of an independent state (the first time being in 1923, with the Treaty of Lausanne), Erdogan’s troubles with the Kurds, and not only in Anatolia, will be beyond anything that the Turks have yet encountered from their largest, and most restless, minority.
We will of course hear the usual gag from the Clintonites, and the Ape-hangers on their Harley's but H.A. Goodman nails it.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteIraqi forces, Shiite militia engage in fighting with Peshmerga south of Kirkuk
By Rudaw seconds ago
The Kurds are starting to die, Draft Dodger Peterson ...
The consequence of your policy preferences ...
Stand Tall
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteEveryone knows you are a shia type of guy, War Criminal.
DeleteIt's clear now that the intelligentsia here had it right when voting for Trump.
ReplyDeleteThese good intelligent folk include, in alphabetical order: Bob, Deuce, Doug, MOME.
Of the others I know of:
Ash, if he voted in the US election, certainly would have voted for either Clinton or Sanders.
rat voted for the withered pot head Libertarian who couldn't find Syria on a map.
With Quirk we know he didn't vote for Trump or Clinton, but who did he vote for ?
Only Quirk knows for sure, I don't recall he has ever fessed up.
Some 6th or 7th party candidate of some sort, one presumes.
Perhaps someone who chants at the airports, or perhaps he wrote in someone, even himself, perhaps even writing in "Christ on a Harley".
The Democrats have no obvious leader for their 2020 run.
It will prove entertaining to watch them spill one another's blood in that contest.
Sam votes Down Under, I believe.
DeleteIf we could assign proxies to vote one's USA vote, if we were in the hospital or such, I would certainly consent to give my proxy to Sam and rest easy about doing so.
We know some here, at least one here, who live forever in the thrall of conspiracy theories. Now we get of a glimpse of why they live so -
ReplyDeleteWhy So Many People Believe Conspiracy Theories
“In this case, conspiracy theories can be like emotional poultices,” says Joseph Parent, a professor of political science at Notre Dame University and Uscinski’s co-author. “You don’t want to blame yourself for things you may lack, so you blame anonymous forces instead.”
Just as important in fostering conspiracies is a desire to be special or different — and that’s a need that cuts across demographic lines. In a study published in May 2017 in the European Journal of Social Psychology, provocatively titled “Too Special to Be Duped,” subjects either took a survey designed to measure their desire for uniqueness or wrote an essay on the importance of independent thought. By significant margins, those who tested high on the need to be special or were primed to feel that way by writing the essay were also more inclined to believe in various conspiracy theories.
“A small part in motivating the endorsement of…irrational beliefs,” the researchers wrote, “is the desire to stick out from the crowd.”
https://hotair.com/headlines/archives/2017/10/many-people-believe-conspiracy-theories/
I voted for the pot head.
ReplyDeleteIf we could assign proxies to vote one's USA vote, if we were in the hospital or such, I would certainly consent to give my proxy to Sam and rest easy about doing so.
DeleteWithdrawn.
:)
I think Oprah is running in '20.
ReplyDeleteGod Almighty rescue us from the coming 3 ring circus.
DeleteI can't vote in Australian elections because I'm not a citizen.
ReplyDeleteIt only takes about five minutes to buy a Facebook ad with a link to a fake anti-Muslim story and aim it at residents of a Michigan electoral battleground county whom the social network's algorithms perceive to be "very conservative."
ReplyDelete...
The easiest way to ensure an audience of people susceptible to a message on Facebook is to use the information users have volunteered about their interests, hobbies, and demographics.
Say someone wanted to reach a set of people with anti-Muslim views, as the Russian actors reportedly did.
A good starting place might be the more than 800,000 Facebook users who’ve expressed interest or liked pages related to far-right firebrand Pamela Geller, whom the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) describes as “the anti-Muslim movement's most visible and flamboyant figurehead.”
...
User-submitted information is only one piece of Facebook’s targeting toolkit. The company’s software also tries to deduce all kinds of user attributes based on Facebook habits, outside browsing history collected through trackers and cookies embedded around the web, and third-party firms that match offline store purchases with corresponding Facebook users.
Russian Actors
I've been reading Pam for a decade, and I can't recall the Rooskies, or anyone else, getting hold of me.
DeleteThe Rooskies don't have a great opinion of the moslems, whom they have been fighting for time out of mind.
Two Rooskies were reported executed by ISIS or some other moslem group just recently for refusing to deny their Christianity.
Leo Tolstoy has a long tale about his countrymen fighting the moslems, in which the moslem is described as the best one in the story.
That's Leo for you.
Hadji Murad
Hadji Murat (novel)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hadji Murat
Hadji-Mural by Lanceray.jpg
The house of Prince Semyon Vorontsov, illustration by Eugene Lanceray
Author Leo Tolstoy
Original title Хаджи-Мурат (Khadzhi-Murat)
Hadji Murat (or alternatively Hadji Murad, although the first spelling better captures the original title in Russian: Хаджи-Мурат [Khadzhi-Murat]) is a short novel written by Leo Tolstoy from 1896 to 1904 and published posthumously in 1912 (though not in full until 1917). It is Tolstoy’s final work. The protagonist is Hadji Murat, an Avar rebel commander who, for reasons of personal revenge, forges an uneasy alliance with the Russians he had been fighting.
Contents [hide]
1 Inspiration
2 Historical context
3 Plot summary
4 Character list
5 Themes
6 Symbolism
7 References
8 External links
Inspiration[edit]
The theme of struggle while remaining faithful resonated with Tolstoy even though he was in ailing health; later letters suggest this work gave him a brief, final moment of vigor. Just as the author was struggling with his near death, his extended meditation on the concept of the individual refusing to give in to the demands of the world helped him to complete the book, although he himself had no inclination to publish it and was only concerned with its completion. In addition to the theme of resistance, there are many other ideas that can be found in the novel, such as determinism; this echoes Tolstoy's major work War and Peace. An even clearer theme is the struggle between a Christian Russia and Muslim Chechnya, the classic West vs. East theme found in Russian history and many different stories and novels (and which is once again pertinent in light of First and Second Chechen Wars in Chechnya and Russia).
The work is very similar to Alexander Pushkin's work The Captain's Daughter in that it is a realist work based on actual people and events and has a similar direction, though the main character in this novel does not meet the same end. Tolstoy used material in Russian archives, including Hadji Murad's own account of his life.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadji_Murat_(novel)
Australia: Muslim terror suspects refuse to stand for judge, rant about spreading Islam ‘by the sword’ and tell people to become Muslim or ‘face death’
ReplyDeleteBy Pamela Geller - on October 15, 2017
AUSTRALIA
Western political, cultural and media elites still fail to grasp the theological issues that drive this savage movement.
Until our “leaders,” “thinkers” and pundits finally come to grips with the terrible but unvarnished truth, we are in for some very dark days.
“Terror suspects refuse to stand for judge before court is shown terrifying rant about spreading Islam ‘by the sword’ and telling people to become Muslim or ‘face death,'” Daily Mail, October 4, 2017:
An ISIS-inspired terror suspect and his co-accused have refused to stand before a judge during their court hearing.
Sulayman Khalid and Mohamed Almaouie stayed seated while Justice Geoffrey Bellew entered and exited the New South Wales Supreme Court on Wednesday.
The court was shown a video recorded by Khalid, 22, in which he called on secret services around the world to convert to Islam in a 20 minute rant.
‘Islam is spread by the swords. How can a religion spread without using the swords?’ Khalid can be seen saying in a clip shown by Seven News.
A 16-year-old suspect who cannot be named for legal reasons was the only one who stood before Justice Bellew, The Daily Telegraph reported.
The disrespectful behaviour follows charges laid against the burqa-wearing wife of a convicted terror recruiter.
In August Moutia Elzahed was charged with nine counts of disrespecting a court, after saying she ‘only stands for Allah’.
The video played in court today shows Khalid saying security agencies should adopt his religion before it’s ‘too late’.
Standing under the shade of a gum tree as birds called and music played in the background, Sulayman Khalid recorded his rambling message.
‘I would like to forward a message to the secret services of our time – MI5, MI6, MI7, FBI, CIA, ASIO and the rest of the secret services in each one of the countries,’ he says, holding a microphone and wearing a scarf around his head.
‘Accept Islam as your salvation because I swear to you… that a day will come when it will be too late,’ he says.
‘On the day of judgment you will be saying I wish I was made out of dust.
‘You will be put in your black hole, you will be put in your grave.’
He said it was his responsibility as a Muslim to convey the message of Islam.
‘I am directly inviting all of the secret services around the world to Islam,’ he says.
‘It’s not based on terrorism, it’s not based about killing the innocent.’
He later says: ‘It’s either you will become a Muslim and you believe in Allah or you will die by the sword.'
https://pamelageller.com/2017/10/muslim-sword-death.html/
Politics is Hollywood for ugly people
ReplyDeleteThat is why Mr Trump began politicing, back in 1987.
DeleteThree decades of Ugly.
Hey, Draft Dodger Petersom!!!
ReplyDeleteThe Kurds are dying.
Kurds say "lots of casualties" as Iraqi forces move on Kirkuk
Iraqi Kurdish officials said early Monday that federal forces and state-backed militias had launched a "major, multi-pronged" attack aimed at retaking the disputed northern city of Kirkuk, causing "lots of casualties" in fighting south of the city.
Kurdish forces known as the peshmerga were digging in at the edge of the international airport after withdrawing from their positions outside the city.
Your policy perscription is killing Kurds, boobie
Stand Tall
I don't have any policy prescriptions for the Kurds at all, War Criminal.
ReplyDeleteAll I've said is I hope they get their own state one of these decades.
Self Confessed War Criminal, you don't read and comprehend at all well.
My advice on exactly how they should go about getting a state, if I had any, would not be not nearly as well informed as their own policy prescriptions, SCWC.
DeleteYou advocated for them holding the Independence Referendum.
DeleteThe fruits of that are now being harvested.
Kurds are dying, for no practical purpose thaat advance US Interests in the region
Tbe Kurds of Iraq had autonomy.
Now they have a war.
Against US allies.
Enjoy the fruits of your policy preference, Draft Dodger, the wailing of the wounded, the tears of the orphans ...
Stand Tall
Take responsibility for your past posts, boobie, for the deaths that are generated by what you supported.
DeleteStand Tall
DeleteIraqi government forces have captured key installations outside the disputed city of Kirkuk from Kurdish fighters.
A military statement said units had taken control of the K1 military base, the Baba Gurgur oil and gas field, and a state-owned oil company's offices.
Baghdad said the Peshmerga had withdrawn "without fighting", but clashes were reported south of Kirku ...
...
The Kurdistan Region Security Council accused Baghdad of launching an "unprovoked attack" and said the Peshmerga would "continue to defend Kurdistan, its peoples and interests".
...
Peshmerga spokesman Brig Gen Bahzad Ahmed told the Associated Press that the fighting south of Kirkuk had caused "lots of casualties". He alleged that pro-government forces had also "burnt lots of houses and killed many people" in Tuz Khurmatu, 75km south of Kirkuk, and Daquq
Stand Tall, Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson
DeleteStand Tall
Delete..."burnt lots of houses and killed many people" in Tuz Khurmat ...
Harvest what you have sown, Faux Farmer
Stand Tall
The War Criminal loves the shia.
DeleteHey Rat, go ahead and post all of Bob's emails from the last 5 years pertaining to this. We know you have your stalking file right there at your finger tips. Go ahead and bore the shit out of all of us.
DeleteHey Rat, my name is Luca Brasi, I've been looking for you.
Delete.
ReplyDeleteWe know some here, at least one here, who live forever in the thrall of conspiracy theories... says the man who brought the 'Pizzagate' story and others to the bar.
.
The Republican civil war is spreading
ReplyDeleteParties don't descend into vicious civil wars when things are going well for them. So the fact that it's happening now to the GOP tells you a lot about what Republicans are facing, even though they control the White House, Congress, and a majority of state houses and governorships. They are beginning to tear themselves apart over the question of who is to blame for their current difficulties, with one side saying it's the fault of a feckless establishment that is insufficiently loyal to President Trump, and the other side saying — mostly sotto voce, but occasionally out loud — that the responsibility lies with Trump himself.
If the president was right in his repeated insistence that his administration has been a smashing success, there wouldn't be anything to fight about. But in truth, things could hardly be worse: No major legislation has been passed, the effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act was a spectacular failure, Trump's approval ratings are abysmal and a majority of Americans say he's not fit to be president, one Republican officeholder after another is choosing not to run for re-election, polls show Democrats headed for a dramatic win in 2018, and even the one goal Republicans were all supposed to agree on — a big tax cut for the wealthy and corporations — looks like it might be in trouble.
All of which leads to dissension from within, as White House staff rush to tell reporters that the president is an infantile rage-monster whom they have to trick into not burning down the world. When Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) expressed his concerns about Trump's erratic behavior, none of his colleagues came out to contradict him and say that in fact Trump is a wise and careful leader who is performing his duties successfully, no doubt because Corker was only saying publicly what the rest of them say privately.
{...}
{...}
DeleteBut to some on the right, this all smacks of a slow-motion coup by quisling Republicans who lack the courage to stand behind Trump and testify to his greatness. Which is one of the reasons that this week, the hardline conservative group FreedomWorks wrote a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell demanding that he and his leadership team resign for their failure to produce a sufficient quantity of conservative legislation. While the signatories were a little on the has-been side (few are dying to hear what Brent Bozell and Ken Cuccinelli have to say these days), it was evidence of a disgruntlement in conservative circles.
Or consider Stephen Bannon, who left the White House and declared that he'd be supporting the Trump agenda (whatever that is) from the outside — which he has decided means condemning Republicans. "We are declaring war on the Republican establishment that does not back the agenda that Donald Trump ran on," Bannon recently told Sean Hannity, adding that "there's a coalition coming together that's gonna challenge every Republican [Senate] incumbent except for Ted Cruz."
Both parts of that plan raise questions about what kind of crusade this is. First, among the Republicans up for re-election are many who have been completely loyal to Trump, and second, why exempt Ted Cruz from the target list? The only logical explanation is that Cruz is a favorite of hedge fund billionaire Robert Mercer and his daughter Rebekah, who are Bannon's patrons and the ones likely to fund this effort.
Bannon's obvious goal is to burn the Republican Party to the ground in the hope that something glorious rises from the ashes. It's hard to know how successful he'll be, although the candidate he backed in the Alabama special election, religious extremist Roy Moore, beat Luther Strange, the candidate Trump himself endorsed (Bannon managed to argue that Moore would be a more faithful vehicle for Trumpism, but I wouldn't bet on it). One of the things the election showed was that conservative Republican voters won't always take their cues from Trump himself, even if they still support him.
{...}
{...}
DeleteNow imagine if Republicans were to fail in what is always their central policy goal: cutting taxes for the wealthy and corporations. It could happen, particularly if Trump barrels clumsily through the process the way he did with health care. Bloomberg News reported this week that while the White House had been saying for some time they wanted to eliminate the deduction for state and local taxes, Trump "grew angry when he learned that the change would hurt some middle-income taxpayers." In other words — and this should surprise no one — he has little idea what's in his own tax plan.
There's no reason to think that as things move along Trump will be any more up on the details, which means he'll be a force of chaos and uncertainty. And the fact that the White House has come up with a plan that would increase taxes for many people could wind up giving some members of Congress pause.
Add in the feuds Trump has cultivated with members of his own party in the Senate — where Republicans can only afford to lose two votes — and tax reform going down in flames is a genuine possibility. Should that happen, the conflicts within the GOP will get even uglier.
The Week
Paul Waldman
DeleteCOLUMNIST
Paul Waldman is a senior writer with The American Prospect magazine and a blogger for The Washington Post. His writing has appeared in dozens of newspapers, magazines, and web sites, and he is the author or co-author of four books on media and politics.
Iran has plan if US withdraws from nuclear deal, Washington ‘will regret it’ – MP
ReplyDeleteEU Foreign Ministers Agree to Stand by Iran Nuclear Deal
ReplyDeleteMinisters criticize Trump’s decision to pull out of agreement, warn that U.S. administration could become isolated
MORE iNTRIGUE with a small "i"
ReplyDeleteUS Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley on Sunday said the Trump administration hopes to remain in the nuclear deal with Iran, but strengthen it so the “American people feel safer.”
“I think right now you are going to see us stay in the deal,” Haley said on NBC’s “Meet The Press.”
“What we hope is that we can improve the situation,” she continued. “And that’s the goal. … It’s not that we’re getting out of the deal. We’re just trying to make the situation better so that the American people feel safer.”
THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING
ReplyDeleteThe Clinton Foundation reportedly will not return as much as $250,000 in donations from disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein following multiple accusations of sexual harassment and rape ... The foundation said donations, ranging from $100,000 to $250,000, have already been spent on projects, The Daily Mail reported. The move to keep the money was expected following tweets from the foundation's spokesman Craig Minassian. "Suggesting @ClintonFdn return funds from our 330,000+ donors ignores the fact that donations have been used to help people across the world,” Minassian tweeted.
:)
DeleteHeh
"Already spent it"
A likely story.
ONE GOOD TURN DESERVES ANOTHER:
ReplyDeleteKaepernick threw for 2,241 yards, 16 touchdowns and four interceptions for the San Francisco 49ers during the 2016 season. However, since becoming a free agent, Kaepernick has had difficulty finding a job
No one wants to hire trouble.
DeleteI came up with the most awesome idea on how to bring a building to NET ZERO, but I can't tell you here. Sorry.
ReplyDeletePeshmerga: Iraq Has Declared “A War Against The Kurds”
ReplyDeleteED MORRISSEYPosted at 8:41 am on October 16, 2017
The civil war in Iraq over the last three years touched off by ISIS may just have been an appetizer. Late yesterday, the Iraqi army attacked Peshmerga forces around Kirkuk in an attempt to wrest control of the city and its oil production away from the independence-minded Kurds. The Shi’ite-dominated government in Baghdad has thus far only used the army for this operation, but Shi’ite militias with ties to Iran wait on the sidelines — and that may be one reason why the Kurds are balking at federal control:
Iraqi Kurdish officials said early Monday that federal forces and state-backed militias have launched a “major, multi-pronged” attack aimed at retaking the disputed northern city of Kirkuk.
Kurdish forces known as the peshmerga were digging in at the edge of the international airport after withdrawing from their positions outside the city. Hundreds of armed Kurdish residents were taking up positions inside Kirkuk anticipating an attack. …
Iraq’s Interior Ministry said in a brief statement that federal forces have taken control of a power plant, a police station and industrial areas near Kirkuk. It provided no further details on the fighting or casualties in what it referred to as Operation Impose Security on Kirkuk.
Thus far, the Popular Mobilization Forces are staying out of the fight, but that may not last long if the Peshmerga gain the upper hand:
Iraq’s state-sanctioned militias, the mostly Shiite Arab Popular Mobilization Forces, were ordered to stay out of the city, according to al-Abadi’s office, and instead keep positions in the countryside. They are viewed with deep suspicion by Kurdish residents, who see them as beholden to Iran rather than Iraq’s central government. The predominantly Shiite militias are sponsored and guided by Tehran.
The Washington Post reports that the militias have already declared their intent to enter the city. In fact, they may have precipitated the firefight with an ultimatum:
As Kurdish authorities warned they were about attack, Abadi tried to defuse tension, taking to Twitter to assure that Iraqi forces “cannot and will not attack our citizens.” Iraqi commanders initially dismissed troop movements as routine deployments aimed at securing nearby Hawija, recently recaptured from Islamic State militants.
But Shiite militia leaders close to Iran said that they were there to move into the province and had presented a list of demands to Kurdish Peshmerga commanders.
Those demands included a Kurdish withdrawal from positions including the city’s K1-military base and oil fields.
“The orders are to surround K1 and oil fields and stop and call on the Kurdish forces to retreat,” said a counterterrorism officer who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the topic. “There are strict orders to avoid violence.” But militia commanders took a more combative tone. Anyone who fights Iraqi forces is “the same as ISIS,” said Karim al-Nuri, a spokesman for Iraq’s mobilization units. State television said that counterterrorism forces, the 9th Division of the Iraqi army and federal police forces had taken “large areas” of the province without a fight. It said popular mobilization units took positions “outside Kirkuk.”
So much for “routine deployments.” The Iranian-backed Shi’ite militias appear to be driving this outcome, forcing Haider al-Abadi to act with force against the Kurds — and thereby confirming the Kurds’ worst fears about the Iraq federation’s future direction. If Iraq falls completely under Iran’s thumb, it will spell the end of the autonomy that Kurds have enjoyed since the end of the 1991 Gulf War.
DeleteThe Kurds feel they have a separate claim on Kirkuk, too. The Peshmerga essentially saved Kirkuk from ISIS three years ago after the collapse of the Iraqi army, which ignominiously fled the region and left it open and unprotected. Ever since then, the autonomous Kurdish government has insisted that the city and its environs belong under their control, while Baghdad has insisted on a return to the status quo ante. Complicating matters is the lucrative oil industry in the Kirkuk region, which both sides want to control. It would have meant tense negotiations under any circumstances, but the referendum last month for full independence provided a catalyst for another civil war.
This puts the US in a very tough position. We still arm the Iraqi army as well as the Peshmerga, and we’re siding with the Syrian Kurd militia YPG over the strenuous objections of our nominal ally Turkey in the fight against ISIS. The Trump administration tried to warn off the Kurds from holding their referendum in the first place to no avail. How does the US see this firefight? Er …
Follow
The Associated Press ✔@AP
BREAKING: US military says exchange of fire between Iraqi, Kurdish forces in Kirkuk a "misunderstanding."
4:55 AM - Oct 16, 2017
51 51 Replies 270 270 Retweets 179 179 likes
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That’s a political reductio ad absurdum. All war is at some level a “misunderstanding”; this falls more into the “inevitable” category. Abadi has basically stumbled back into the same situation that Nouri al-Maliki created by deputizing Iranian-backed Shi’ite militias for the fight against ISIS, which alienated the Kurdish and Sunni minorities all over again. By allowing them to take positions against the Kurds and to issue ultimatums to Irbil, Abadi may have made that alienation impossible to repair.
https://hotair.com/archives/2017/10/16/peshmerga-iraq-declared-war-kurds/
We ought to do what we can to help the Kurds.
Lewin Wickes
DeleteAside from a few tiny ethnic minorities, the Kurds and the Israelis are the only two decent cultures in the whole region. The rest are miserable dysfunctional dirtball cultures. It is my understanding that the Kurdish people are the largest distinct ethnic and linguistic culture in the world without a country to call their own. It is my hope that the current adminstration will equip them militarily to at least give them a fighting chance to build a decent country.
EXPERT COMMENTARY
Delete‘A Truly Gordian Knot’ Awaits Trump
OCTOBER 13, 2017 | FABRICE BALANCHE
https://www.thecipherbrief.com/article/middle-east/truly-gordian-knot-awaits-trump?utm_source=RC+World+Mideast+Memo&utm_campaign=3610ce3f43-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1630639ffc-3610ce3f43-84237253
"They’re not being persecuted because of their race, or their religion,” Tully said according to WJON. “In their countries they are the race, they are the religion. So they are merely migrants, people looking for a better way of life.”
ReplyDeletehttp://alphanewsmn.com/st-cloud-residents-call-halt-refugee-program/
I can empathize with their plight.
As well as the Mexican immigrants.
But commonsense with the number allowed.
Up there, top of the fold, deuce wrote:
ReplyDelete"THIS IS THE GREATEST INDICTMENT OF THE LYING DEMOCRATS, OBAMA AND HILLARY CLINTON, AND THEIR US MEDIA & NEOCON ENABLERS:"
I clicked on the video to see what this great indictment was and it is some guys sitting in front of a camera reading into a mic. What a waste of time. Deuce, give your head a shake!
What ? Some guy ?
DeleteMr. Goodman is a Bernie supporter, like you.
Ash, give your head a shake !
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DeleteWhat do you expect, Ash?
In the video, H.A. Goodman specifically says his youtube channel (and evidently his books) are devoted to attacking the Clintons, primarily Hillary. I think most would conclude that's a pretty narrow focus.
I've never visited his site but I would think that after someone has visited the site a few times, similar to someone who has been reading Pam (Geller) for a decade, it reflects in them a certain fixation or compulsion and a tolerance for redundancy.
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ReplyDeleteTrump Against the World
It's a conspiracy I tells ya. It's the LYING DEMOCRATS, OBAMA AND HILLARY CLINTON, AND THEIR US MEDIA & NEOCON ENABLERS; it's the usual gag from the Clintonites, and the Ape-hangers on their Harley's [?]; it's the establishment GOP; it's the Democrats; it's anyone who didn't vote for Trump.
The good intelligent folk (which) include(s), in alphabetical order: Bob, Deuce, Doug, MOME would rather complain about the problems we could have had than the ones we've got right now.
These 'good intelligent folks' just don't seem to grasp the fact that They Are ALL Dicks or the corollary a dick in hand is always worse than one in the bush.
:o)
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a dick in hand is always worse than one in the bush
DeleteWhat is the meaning of 'bush' here ?
And how did the phrase become a corollary to They Are ALL Dicks ?
And, are you calling Bob, Deuce, Doug, MOME all dicks ?
And, why aren't you listed among 'the good intelligent folk' ?
DeleteIs it goodness you lack ?
Or intelligence ?
Or both ?
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DeleteAnd, are you calling Bob, Deuce, Doug, MOME all dicks ?
Naw, simply athletic...er, I mean...simply dick supporters. And enablers and apologists.
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DeleteAnd, why aren't you listed among 'the good intelligent folk' ?
Well, evidently I am not included in that select few.
Surprisingly, I can live with that.
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"Bombardier sells majority stake in C Series to Airbus "
ReplyDeletewelp, there's a big FU to USofA
Justin says it represents evil hypermasculinity unworthy of Canada.
DeleteU.S. planemaker Boeing dismissed a deal between Airbus and Bombardier to partner on Canada’s CSeries jet, calling it an attempt to sidestep import duties recommended by the U.S. Commerce Department following a Boeing trade complaint.
ReplyDelete...
The Quebec government, through its financing arm, took a 49 percent stake in the CSeries program in 2015 for $1 billion. Quebec’s share, most recently 38 percent, will slip to 19 percent following the deal with Airbus.
Boeing had filed a trade complaint against Bombardier and the Commerce dept. Imposed duties of about 300%. The Canadian federal government cancelled purchase of Boeing fighter jets because of the tariff. The plane was designed to target a specific market/size of plane which neither manufacturer had a product for. Now Airbus has it and Boeing doesnt.
DeleteBombardier hasn’t won a major order in 18 months.
DeleteThey have been on the ropes for quite a while. Not anymore.
Delete
ReplyDeleteUS to 'not take sides' in Iraqi-Kurdish dispute: Trump
President Donald Trump announces America’s neutrality as tensions continue to mount between Baghdad and Erbil
Delete“We've had for many years a very good relationship with the Kurds as you know, and we've also been on the side of Iraq, even though we should have never been there in the first place. We should never have been there. But we're not taking sides in that battle," Trump said.
First, there was “little rocket man.” Now, Kim Jong Un has returned fire in the nickname game with “mad dog Trump."
ReplyDeletePro-North Korean propaganda posters likening the U.S. president to a raging dog have begun popping up across the South Korean capital, Reuters reported Monday, citing social media posts and people that found them.
...
“I am pretty sure it came from North Korea by balloon, since the prevailing winds during October have been from north to south and we’ve been getting reports of others finding them throughout Seoul,” said managing director of Seoul-based news service NK News Chad O‘Carroll, who found some of the posters while jogging.
Golly, we really cannot blame the opiod crisis on the Mexicans.
ReplyDeleteSorry, Draft Dodger vut reality bites your prejudice, one more time
In the midst of the worst drug epidemic in American history, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's ability to keep addictive opioids off U.S. streets was derailed -- that according to Joe Rannazzisi, one of the most important whistleblowers ever interviewed by 60 Minutes.
Rannazzisi ran the DEA's Office of Diversion Control, the division that regulates and investigates the pharmaceutical industry.
Now in a joint investigation by 60 Minutes and The Washington Post, Rannazzisi tells the inside story of how, he says, the opioid crisis was allowed to spread -- aided by Congress, lobbyists, and a drug distribution industry that shipped, almost unchecked, hundreds of millions of pills to rogue pharmacies and pain clinics providing the rocket fuel for a crisis that, over the last two decades, has claimed 200,000 lives
DeleteJOE RANNAZZISI: This is an industry that allowed millions and millions of drugs to go into bad pharmacies and doctors' offices, that distributed them out to people who had no legitimate need for those drugs.
BILL WHITAKER: Who are these distributors?
JOE RANNAZZISI: The three largest distributors are Cardinal Health, McKesson, and AmerisourceBergen. They control probably 85 or 90 percent of the drugs going downstream.
BILL WHITAKER: You know the implication of what you're saying, that these big companies knew that they were pumping drugs into American communities that were killing people.
JOE RANNAZZISI: That's not an implication, that's a fact. That's exactly what they did.
...
JOE RANNAZZISI: Pain clinics overnight popping-up – off an entrance ramp, or an exit ramp on an interstate. And all of a sudden there's a pain clinic there.
BILL WHITAKER: Had you ever seen anything like that before?
JOE RANNAZZISI: Never. In fact-- it was my opinion that this made the whole crack epidemic look like nothing.
JOE RANNAZZISI These weren't kids slinging crack on the corner. These were professionals who were doing it. They were just drug dealers in lab coats.
...
IM GELDHOF: They had a business plan. Their plan was to sell a lotta pills and make a lot of money. And they did both of those very well.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ex-dea-agent-opioid-crisis-fueled-by-drug-industry-and-congress/
War Criminal, pain pills made by the pharmaceutical industry and heron, cocaine etc smuggled over the border are two different things.
DeleteNot surprised you didn't know that, Confessed War Criminal.
That's the point, Draft Dodger, the drugs that are devestating the US are not smuggled in to the US.
DeleteThey are manufactured right here, in the USA.
Reality bites your prejudices, one more time.
They've made the problems worse, Self Confessed War Criminal, there is no doubt of that.
DeleteMan's best friend.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Santa-Rosa-fires-bill-dog-marin-humane-12281536.php#photo-14358138
Nice lookin' mutt.
Delete.
ReplyDeleteThe Drug Crisis
This should be good. Due to the opioid crisis the rats are leaving the sinking ship and looking for scapegoats. The Dems are blaming Bush and the GOP for disallowing any government/industry negotiations on drug prices in Medicare Part D.
The GOP is blaming the Dems and Obama for doing the same thing in the ACA.
Congress is blaming the DEA. The DEA is blaming Congress.
In truth they are all guilty. You can't corrupt someone who is incorruptible.
How does the drug industry get away with it? Follow the money.
Though the industry tries to justify the high prices consumers in the US pay for drugs based on drug regulations and high research costs, the fact is that 9 out of 10 companies spend more money on 'marketing and sales' than they do on research. Johnson and Johnson, the biggest spender, actually spends more than double on sales and marketing than on research. Out of the top 10 spenders, Roche was the only one (in 2015) who spent slightly more on research, $9.3 billion (research) versus $9.0 billion on sales and marketing.
The interesting thing is that the bulk of the money isn't spent on consumers but on doctors, the guys who issue the prescriptions, and Congress of course, the guys who write the legislation. Paid trips to seminars, per diem payments, free samples, etc. to the doctors and campaign money to Congress.
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This comment has been removed by the author.
Deletethe fact is that 9 out of 10 companies spend more money on 'marketing and sales' than they do on research
DeleteIf it weren't for the advertising 'industry' and all the sluckers working it this country might have a fighting chance !
:O
Delete.
DeleteThe Opioid Crisis
Public health officials have called the current opioid epidemic the worst drug crisis in American history, killing more than 33,000 people in 2015. Overdose deaths were nearly equal to the number of deaths from car crashes. In 2015, for the first time, deaths from heroin alone surpassed gun homicides...
Inside a Killer Drug Epidemic: A Look at America’s Opioid ...
www.nytimes.com/2017/01/06/us/opioid-crisis-epidemic.html
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DeletePa. Congressman Tom Marino and the drug industry's triumph over the DEA
In April 2016, at the height of the deadliest drug epidemic in U.S. history, Congress effectively stripped the Drug Enforcement Administration of its most potent weapon against large drug companies suspected of spilling prescription narcotics onto the nation's streets.
By then, the opioid war had claimed 200,000 lives, more than three times the number of U.S. military deaths in the Vietnam War. Overdose deaths continue to rise. There is no end in sight.
A handful of members of Congress, allied with the nation's major drug distributors, prevailed upon the DEA and the Justice Department to agree to a more industry-friendly law, undermining efforts to stanch the flow of pain pills, according to an investigation by The Washington Post and "60 Minutes." The DEA had opposed the effort for years.
Gov. Wolf: 'I have serious doubts' about Pa. congressman's nomination at Trump's drug czar "I have serious doubts now whether Congressman Marino can serve as the nation's top official on drug policy.
The law was the crowning achievement of a multifaceted campaign by the drug industry to weaken aggressive DEA enforcement efforts against drug distribution companies that were supplying corrupt doctors and pharmacists who peddled narcotics to the black market. The industry worked behind the scenes with lobbyists and key members of Congress, pouring more than a million dollars into their election campaigns.
The chief advocate of the law that hobbled the DEA was Rep. Tom Marino, a Pennsylvania Republican who is now President Trump's nominee to become the nation's next drug czar. Marino spent years trying to move the law through Congress. It passed after Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) negotiated a final version with the DEA.
For years, some drug distributors were fined for repeatedly ignoring warnings from the DEA to shut down suspicious sales of hundreds of millions of pills, while they racked up billions of dollars in sales.
The new law makes it virtually impossible for the DEA to freeze suspicious narcotic shipments from the companies, according to internal agency and Justice Department documents and an independent assessment by the DEA's chief administrative law judge in a soon-to-be-published law review article. That powerful tool had allowed the agency to immediately prevent drugs from reaching the street.
Political action committees representing the industry contributed at least $1.5 million to the 23 lawmakers who sponsored or co-sponsored four versions of the bill, including nearly $100,000 to Marino and $177,000 to Hatch. Overall, the drug industry spent $106 million lobbying Congress on the bill and other legislation between 2014 and 2016, according to lobbying reports...
It appears Trump will be withdrawing Marino's nomination as Drug Czar and a number of Senators and Congressmen are proposing legislation to reverse Marino's law.
.
https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/top.php?indexType=i
Deletehttps://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/top.php?indexType=i
DeleteThe deadly combo is opioids plus benzodiazapines.
DeleteSen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, told ABC News last month that based on the Facebook ads he'd seen at that point it was clear the posts included divisive messages intended to “help one candidate and potentially hurt another.” He said the ads clearly appeared to be part of a broader effort that the U.S. intelligence community has determined was designed to aid Donald Trump and hurt Hillary Clinton in the election.
ReplyDeleteIndependent Russian journalist Lyudmila Savchuk, who worked for the Internet Research Agency in 2015 to expose what the factory was doing, told ABC News that young Russians posed as Americans online, working 12-hour shifts at the company’s headquarters posting comments on U.S. political issues selected by their bosses. Facebook, she said, was one of their primary platforms.
“'Troll factory' is a very appropriate name for it because it really is a large-scale production that works around the clock, and they don't take time off for holidays, lunch nor sleep,” she said. “A huge quantity of content is being produced.”
“He’s paved the groundwork methodically for becoming one of the longest-ruling leaders in the Communist Party,” said Willy Lam, an expert on elite politics with the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
ReplyDeleteThis week’s congress will determine whether Xi’s concepts are enshrined in party orthodoxy. It’s also intended to anoint the country’s next leader, who will take control in five years.
That may not happen, opening the possibility that Xi will find a way to stay on past a decade, continuing to mold China in his image.
Who is putting the fentanyl the drugs ?
ReplyDeleteThe drug companies ?
Fentanyl, synthetic opioids claim top spot for US overdose deaths
By Michael Harthorne, Newser
Fourteen people overdosed on heroin laced with fentanyl in a span of just four hours Wednesday in Camden, New Jersey, NBC Philadelphia reports. While none of Wednesday's overdoses in Camden were fatal, BuzzFeed—citing new data from the CDC—reports fentanyl and other synthetic opioids are now the leading cause of overdose deaths in the US, having killed more than 21,000 people last year.
One epidemiologist calls those numbers "shocking." Fentanyl is about 50 times stronger than morphine and 10 times stronger than heroin. Researchers say the increase in overdose deaths—a jump of 21 percent between 2015 and 2016 driven by fentanyl and synthetic opioids—is likely due to people buying heroin or counterfeit pain pills and not expecting the spike in potency.
Opioids, including fentanyl, are reducing life expectancy in the US by 2.5 months, CNN reported last month. American life expectancy dropped in 2015 for the first time since 1993, and overdose deaths are thought to be the reason.
Experts believe overdose deaths will continue to increase, at least in the near future. According to CDC estimates, more Americans died of overdoses—the majority of which involved opioids—in 2016 than died in the Vietnam War.
President Trump has called the situation a national emergency but has yet to officially declare it as such. (This mom shared a photo of her dying son as a PSA on the dangers of opioids.)
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2017/10/16/fentanyl-synthetic-opioids-claim-top-spot-for-us-overdose-deaths.html
Some here who are addicted to conspiracy theories might think the drug companies are doing this but they would be wrong.
DeleteAs any big pharma advertising executive can tell you, it's a poor way to keep the customer coming back for more because the dead don't read advertising copy nor take any more drugs.
They've gotten themselves permanently off the stuff.
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DeleteSome Would Argue That The Drug Companies Have Played No Part in the Current Opioid Crisis
However...
The overdose rates for synthetic opioids and pain relievers have continued to rise over the past several years. In just a five year span, between 2010 and 2015, heroin overdose deaths quadrupled.
Why is this happening?
Among new heroin users, 75 percent report having abused prescription opioids before using heroin. (CDC)
Heroin availability at the retail level in many US markets is a high purity (CDC)
Increased heroin availability at a relatively low price (compared to prescription opioids) (CDC)
Prescription opioids and heroin have similar euphoric effects. (NIDA)
The number of heroin users has more than quadrupled during the last decade.(JAMA Psychiatry)
Approximately 75 percent of new heroin users are coming to heroin after having abused prescription opioids. (CDC) Heroin, on the other hand, has varying purities, adulterants, making it much easier to overdose.
https://www.getsmartaboutdrugs.gov/content/how-opioid-painkiller-abuse-can-lead-heroin-use
----------------------------------------------------------
Sen. McCaskill Interview on Opioids
In her interview with Anderson Cooper, McCaskill talks about the drugs companies supplying over 9 million opioid pills to a single community of less than 1,000 people. That's more than 9,000 pills per person. What's wrong with this picture?
The newspapers are filled with details of the drug company practices that were covered up by the 2016 bill pushed through by Marino and Hatch. Easy to check them out just to make sure they are not conspiracy theories.
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All from DRUDGE, just for DOUG -
ReplyDeleteFish Depression No Joke...
Dolphins gossip, whales talk in dialects...
Goat-Herding Dog Refuses To Abandon Flock Amid CA Wildfires....DRUDGE
http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2017/10/16/odin-would-not-abandon-his-flock-as-firestorm-approach/
DeleteHere's another article about the heroic dog:
Deletehttp://www.sfgate.com/opinion/article/Somerville-A-dog-s-bravery-and-devotion-12279954.php
from THE GREAT HUGH-
ReplyDeleteHugh Fitzgerald: Erdogan and Kurdish Independence
By Hugh Fitzgerald - on October 16, 2017
TURKEY
The Turkish sultan, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is furious. The Kurds of Iraq dared to hold a referendum on independence on September 25. 72% of the eligible voters — which included non-Kurds living in Kurdish areas — took part. An astonishing 93% of them voted for independence. Erdogan doesn’t think the Iraqi Kurds, or any Kurds, anywhere have a right to independence. Erdogan now claims — did you really expect him to behave otherwise? — that the whole referendum business has been a “Mossad plot.” His proof? That some Kurds waved Israeli flags during the vote.
The Kurds are the largest ethnic group in the world without a state of their own, but as far as Erdogan and all other Muslim rulers are concerned, that counts for nothing. All their sympathies and support for independence are lavished on a group of Muslim Arabs who since 1967 have been re-invented as a distinct people — the “Palestinians” — who, it is claimed by Arabs and Muslims, are deserving of a state, on territory originally allocated by the League of Nations to be part of the Mandate for Palestine, the very territory intended for the Jewish National Home which, in turn, was to lead to the creation of a Jewish state. The Muslims, both Arabs and Turks, see no paradox in fighting for an invented people while they deny, at the same time, political independence for a real people, the 35-45 million Kurds. The “Palestinian people” are, by ethnicity, religion, language, and folklore indistinguishable from the Arabs living in Jordan (and from many other Arabs besides), they have the full backing of the twenty-two existing Muslim Arab states, and their cause is promoted at the U.N. as if they really were a separate people. Meanwhile the Kurds, who possess their own distinct language, ethnicity, and culture, are denied the right, anywhere, to their own state, no matter what its dimensions.
Erdogan has threatened an “ethnic and sectarian” war in response to the referendum. “Ethnic” one can understand — the Turkish army has been used to suppress the 18-20 million Kurds within Turkey during many decades of low-level insurrection in eastern Anatolia.”Sectarian” implies a Sunni-Shi’a aspect to this insurrection-and-suppression, but since Turks and Kurds are both mainly Sunni, with some Shi’a among both peoples, it’s hard to see what could be straightforwardly “sectarian” about the Turkish campaign against the Kurds.
Erdogan characteristically accuses the Kurds of being responsible for causing a war that he alone has threatened. He deliberately ignores the fact that the referendum called for the use only of “peaceful means” to win independence. If the Kurds dare to insist on a state of their own, they will have “dragged the region into war.” In Erdogan’s topsy-turvy world, if the Turkish army carries out a campaign against the Iraqi Kurds, it’s because the Kurds started it. How could the Kurds “drag” the region into war? By allowing themselves to hold a peaceful referendum on independence, all the while forswearing any use of violence. For Erdogan, enraged, cannot accept Kurds anywhere declaring themselves for Kurdistan: how dare these Kurdish war-mongers hold this vote, who if they follow through on secession from Iraq, would thereby be practically forcing the Turks to go to war? Erdogan is reminiscent of Hitler in 1938, when the furious Fuhrer accused the Czechs: if they continued to repress the “Sudeteners” (the ethnic Germans in the Sudeten lands of Czechoslovakia) instead of letting them join the Third Reich, they would be starting a war.
Erdogan didn’t just threaten war, but announced a campaign intended to cut Iraqi Kurdistan off at the knees. It will be “left in the lurch,” he warned. Kurds are no longer be able to export any oil through Turkey. They would “go hungry,” he warned, because the Turkish trucks that brought food to northern Iraq would stop coming. Iraqi Kurdistan would be under permanent siege. Of course, any such attempts to smother the nascent Kurdish state would only harden the resolve of the Kurds both in Iraqi Kurdistan, where there are six million of them, and even more importantly, in Turkey, where there are twenty million of them. Attempts by the Turkish military to suppress the Kurds through violence will only increase the clamor among Kurds everywhere for greater rights, and the desire for possible adhesion to the new state, still fighting for its life, in Iraqi Kurdistan.
DeleteWhat Erdogan might have done, if he weren’t Erdogan, and thus a hysterical peddler of conspiracy theories (claiming Mossad was deeply involved in the Kurdish vote because of a handful of Kurds waving Israeli flags), would have been to calmly suggest that Turkey does not object to the referendum’s result, and if the Kurds in Iraq decide to declare an independent state, Turkey would not oppose this. For Erdogan, were he not his limited self, might understand that the existence of such a state would lessen, rather than heighten, the moral claim of Kurds elsewhere to states of their own which might then unite in a single Kurdistan. He could declare that “of course” the Kurdish people deserve to politically express themselves through an independent state, and that it makes sense to have that state arise in Iraqi Kurdistan, where “the Kurds have suffered the most.” Just imagine the reaction to Recep Tayyip Erdogan if he were to utter those six unexpected words: “where the Kurds have suffered the most.”
And meanwhile, he could add, “we in Turkey value our Kurdish citizens, do not wish them to leave, and will gladly meet with their representatives to hear any legitimate complaints, and hope to make them even more desirous of remaining in Turkey through legislation that improves their social and economic condition. We need more government aid for both Turks and Kurds, in rural Anatolia, and I intend to supply it. And that period, when the Kurdish culture, language, identity, were insufficiently respected, when Kurds were not even called Kurds, is over. Of course, we want to insure that our Kurdish friends in Iraq will work with us on this, rather than creating unnecessary difficulties. We will not tolerate attempts from outside Iraq to embroil Turkey’s Kurds in adventurism abroad. For our part, we want to ensure that the Irbil-Ceylan oil pipeline continues to operate, and that nothing untoward happens to disrupt that overwhelmingly important source of revenue for Iraqi Kurdistan, nor to force us to end shipments of food and goods of all kinds to the new state of Kurdistan. Finally, if any Kurds in Turkey want to move to that new state, we will of course help them in that effort, though we shall be sorry to see them go. Turkish territory, of course, is non-negotiable.”
This is the kind of thing that no one would expect from Erdogan; it’s completely out of character. But it just might have a chance of decreasing the appeal, for the Kurds in Turkey, of trying to join an independent Kurdistan, either through territorial secession (which would bring on full-scale war with the Turkish military), or by moving from Turkey to the new Kurdish state. The new and unexpected conciliatory tone might dampen enthusiasm for leaving, or seceding. Meanwhile, the interruption or cancellation both of Kurdish oil exports through Turkey, and of Turkish food and goods now exported to Iraqi Kurdistan could be lifted as a goodwill gesture to the new Kurdish state, though those measures could, it will be tacitly understood, at any moment be re-imposed. In choosing to interpret an independent Kurdistan in Iraq not as a threat, but as an option for those Kurds now in Turkey to move to if, despite this new-found Turkish generosity, they insist on living in a Kurdish state, Erdogan will have seized the high ground, and outflanked the Kurdish diehards.
DeleteUnfortunately, Erdogan has given no sign of being capable of feline subtlety, of the iron hand in the velvet glove, of being fortiter in re, suaviter in modo. Still, the Middle East has recently seen some strange sights. It has seen an Egyptian ruler collaborating closely with Israel against Hamas. It has seen Saudi Arabia’s rulers quietly collaborating with Israel on intelligence matters concerning their common enemy, Iran. It has seen the two most ruthless regimes that seemed as if they would remain in power forever, those of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, and of the Al-Assads in Syria, disappear (in Iraq) and decompose (in Syria). It has seen the members of the Gulf Cooperation Council turn furiously on one of their own, tiny Qatar. Why can’t Erdogan surprise us by displaying a seeming sweet reasonableness, born of necessity, toward the Kurds?
If Erdogan were to make this offer, designed to placate the Turkish Kurds sufficiently so that they will want to remain in Turkey, while he repeats his willingness to help those who so desire to settle in the new state of Kurdistan, while making clear there will be no surrender of Turkish territory, he is more likely to keep Turkey intact than if he tries to smother in its cradle a nascent Kurdish state in northern Iraq. For if Turkey were for the second time to thwart the Kurdish dream of an independent state (the first time being in 1923, with the Treaty of Lausanne), Erdogan’s troubles with the Kurds, and not only in Anatolia, will be beyond anything that the Turks have yet encountered from their largest, and most restless, minority.
https://pamelageller.com/2017/10/hugh-fitzgerald-erdogan-kurdish-independence.html/
VIDEO
ReplyDeleteKirralie’s Moment: Promoting Sharia With Your Grocery Purchases
OCTOBER 16, 2017 10:04 AM BY JAMIE GLAZOV
On this new special edition of The Glazov Gang, we feature the Kirralie Smith Moment with Kirralie Smith, president of HalalChoices.com.au.
Kirralie discusses Promoting Sharia With Your Grocery Purchases, unveiling how Islamic Supremacism is being funded with your shopping.
Don’t miss it!
https://www.jihadwatch.org/2017/10/kirralies-moment-promoting-sharia-with-your-grocery-purchases
This good lady mentions the wonderful islamic sharia divorce courts.
DeleteWe certainly don't want those popping up about our country, do we ?
Ladies ?
Quirk ?
Ash ?
Consensual
ReplyDeletehttp://pics.mcclatchyinteractive.com/opinion/editorial-cartoons/z1t33d/picture179225371/alternates/FREE_960/1015-mccoy
We did not find results for: http://pics.mcclatchyinteractive.com/opinion/editorial-cartoons/z1t33d/picture179225371/alternates/FREE_960/1015-mccoy.
Delete:(
North Korea announces it won't engage in diplomacy with the USA until it gets nuked up to the satisfaction of Dear Leader.
ReplyDeleteOur Secretary of State has said we will engage in diplomacy 'until the first bomb falls'.
DeleteTrump is going to China soon, after the dictator there is given another 5 year term by the Commie Political Convention.
DeleteThis is the opportunity to get something done.
Let us mourn, comrades -
ReplyDeleteHillary has broken her toe.