COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

As soon as those two explosions tore through the Boston Marathon Monday, dubious rumors and other false reports started surfacing in the press and in social media. So here's three tips for following stories like this one—lessons to keep in mind not just as events in Boston unfold, but the next time something this terrible happens.

Three Lessons from the Boston Bombing Coverage
...and from every other time a terrible story is developing.
Jesse Walker | April 16, 2013


1. People will find clues everywhere. Most of these will not actually be clues. When individuals enter an apocalyptic frame of mind, the historian Richard Landes has written, "everything quickens, enlightens, coheres. They become semiotically aroused—everything has meaning, patterns." And bombings tend to put people into an apocalyptic frame of mind. We go on edge, alert for aftershocks. Events that we ordinarily might ignore suddenly seem to fit a scary pattern. Everything becomes a clue.
This is completely understandable, even welcome. It may well turn up an unexploded device or a tip that helps uncover the perps. But mostly it will lead to false alarms. We learned that most forcefully right after 9/11, when anything from an oddly lumpy package to some spilled coffee creamer could be mistaken for a doomsday device. But we're learning it all over again now, when—to take the most prominent example—a fire at a library far from the scene of the explosions was identified, apparently inaccurately, as bomb number three. Similarly, The Wall Street Journal briefly reported Monday night that officials had found five undetonated explosives, then had to issue an update: "closer examinations led them to doubt that they were bombs." And that's just the stories that made it into the national press.
Whenever something large and horrible happens, rumors start flying, especially on the first day. Some of those rumors will be reported as fact. Stay skeptical.
2. The initial speculations will be useless. When the press trades in news, you have to carefully sort the well-sourced stories from the less credible ones. When it trades in speculation, on the other hand, you should feel free to ignore everything for 24 hours, if not longer. Chances are small that you'll learn anything, unless you're itching for a lesson in confirmation bias.
The two most infamous terrorist attacks on American soil are the Oklahoma City bombing of 1995 and the 9/11 assaults of 2001. And so, naturally, people have rushed to assume that we were dealing with either the second coming of Timothy McVeigh or the second coming of Osama bin Laden. If they have a worldview where right-wing extremists are especially frightening, they might point out portentously that the explosions occured on Tax Day and Patriots' Day; if they have a worldview centered around the fear of Islam, they find reasons to assume that Muslims must be responsible. Observers with more outré outlooks reached for more unusual narratives, as when Alex Jones, the Illuminati-sniffing talk show host, tweeted that the atrocity "stinks" of a false flag attack. (Evidently they have a special smell.) Jones came in for a lot of mockery, as well he should. But none of these people knew what they were talking about.
As I write, no one has claimed responsibility for the blasts. The police, meanwhile, are keeping their suspicions close to the vest. This could turn out to be a right-wing or Islamist attack, but it could easily turn out to be something completely different. A movement doesn't need to be big or famous to commit murder. It doesn't even need to have a membership larger than a single disgruntled asshole. The history of domestic terrorism is filled with figures like George Metesky, the generator wiper who was injured in a boiler explosion and denied workman's compensation, and who then spent 16 years planting bombs around New York to get his revenge. For now I have no idea who committed this crime and, more to the point, neither do any of the alleged experts speculating on television.
3. Don't panic. Movies and TV shows have given us a deeply misleading picture of how people behave after incidents like this, one where the folks at the scene of the crime lose their minds while those who have the benefit of distance keep a steady head. This is backwards. Sociologists have shown that people tend to behave very admirably under the pressure of a disaster; panic and anti-social behavior are fairly rare. We saw that pattern play out again in Boston, from the bystanders who instantly rushed toward the blasts to help the injured to the locals who opened their homes to stranded strangers. Sure, Bostonians are on edge. Sure, they'll report a lot of suspicious packages that turn out to be harmless. But that's just an understandable dose of caution. If anyone's prone to panicking, it's us folks far from the scene.
So step back. Don't believe every scary report you hear, especially when the story is first breaking. Don't start imagining that the horror in Boston is about to replicate itself in your backyard. And no matter how terrible the images on your TV or laptop screen might be, don't assume the world is going to hell. Terror attacks aren't getting worse; these events are awful, but thankfully they're also rare. Reporters aren't getting worse; in the fog of breaking news, some of them have always made these mistakes. Even the conspiracy theorists aren't getting worse. When a man tried to assassinate Andrew Jackson in 1835, an anti-Jackson newspaper accused the president of staging a false flag attack. Human beings haven't changed all that dramatically in the two centuries since then.
Above all, people aren't getting worse. I don't know what monsters were behind these bombings. I do know that anyone involved in planning them is outnumbered overwhelmingly by the people who responded so ably in the aftermath, rescuing and healing the injured. The world isn't going to hell. It just stumbles into hell sometimes, and then it recovers.
---------------------------------

We live in a world of hyperbole where words are commonly debased. Ever act of mindless criminality is not terrorism. The  first real terrorist in the modern age:




143 comments:

  1. The IRA ...

    The Aryans ...

    Maybe the FALN is making a comeback ...

    More than possible it was the Bogey Man ...

    I still like the IRA, on tax day.

    Or a disgruntled Tea Partier on Patriots Day ...

    Could even be a Wahhabist, then these wounded and dead in Boston are collateral damage in the War on Terror, in a mechanical ambush that allied forces were ill prepared for.

    Security sweeps once every hour at a major public event just will not cut it, in a war zone.

    Unlike the 11SEP01 events, there may be a criminal trial for the Patriot Day bomber, someday. Or not.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Might have been a disgruntled Libertarian, too.

      Maybe even a Democrat.

      Or, Native American.

      Could have been a Black. A dark skinned man was driving oddly in some Penske truck, as Sam reported.

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  2. It will wind up being some dumbassed white guy.

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    Replies
    1. More similar to the Colorado movie massacre than to 11SEP01.

      Son of Sam ...

      This bomber faded away, no follow on attack.
      No suicide ...

      Good gun control, in Boston. Harder to get a gun there.
      Makes bombs an easier way to become a killer.

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    2. Or a knife, or a baseball bat.

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    3. If the runners had been attacked by a knife wielding baseball player ...

      He'd not have gotten away.

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    4. If the bomber had been a shooter, he'd be dead or arrested.


      Unlikely there'd have been one hundred wounded.

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    5. If the bomber had been a knifer, he'd have been caught.

      Wouldn't have been so many legs detached from bodies, either.

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  3. A man, or even woman, with a samurai sword would have been more lethal than a knifer.

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  4. Could have been an inside job.

    We should bring back the Guillotine. Detach body parts from people, get you head detached from you body. Fitting, Dantesque.

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  5. .

    Don't panic. Movies and TV shows have given us a deeply misleading picture of how people behave after incidents like this, one where the folks at the scene of the crime lose their minds while those who have the benefit of distance keep a steady head. This is backwards. Sociologists have shown that people tend to behave very admirably under the pressure of a disaster; panic and anti-social behavior are fairly rare.


    In looking at the videos taken of the chaos after the first bomb went off in Boston, you could see the emergency workers in their yellow coats rushing towards the chaos rather from away from it seconds before the second bomb went off. It reminded me of the 'double-tap' attacks used in Pakistan as well as those here who not only excuse those actions but applaud them.

    .

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    2. No, dimwit.

      The follow on attack on the first responders is standard operating procedure in mechanical ambushes.

      From well before there ever was an Israeli to deny the existence of Palestinians.

      Now the Palestinians did invent the suicide bomber, when the Israeli successfully policed the streets of stray packages.

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    3. .

      Despite the origin of the 'double tap', it's considered a war crime, yet some here still applaud it.

      .

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    4. So now they have to police the streets of stray Palestinians.......

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    5. .

      The follow on attack on the first responders is standard operating procedure in mechanical ambushes.

      Right.

      Standard operating procedure by thugs, cowards, terrorists, and war criminals. Actions approved by the sheeple if it only results in bug splats.

      .

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    7. General Sherman thought only cowards would use land mines against his troops.
      This, after he burnt Atlanta to the ground.

      Standards change, as do tactics, Q.

      But if this was a professional terrorist attack, there'd have been the follow on attack.

      I've never heard it referred to as a "double tap" before, but that does not change the fact that it has become a standard operating procedure, all across the battle fields of the War on Terror.

      Terrorism is war crime, well then, those war crime prosecutors best get Syria and get down to prosecutin'. Those'd be part of the UN, which you have defamed more than once.
      So, if the UN is feckless and there are no war crime prosecutions, then there are no war crimes.
      Just war.

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    9. Guess those fellas writin' on the internet had different teachers, in a different time.

      The guys that taught me, they learned real life lessons in Laos and Cambodia.

      Did they mention command detonation?
      Using claymores? In depth?

      A claymore definitely more violent than a pressure cooker IED.

      the Claymore is command-detonated and directional, meaning it is fired by remote-control, shooting a pattern of metal balls into the kill zone like a shotgun.

      The Claymore fires steel balls, out to about 100 meters within a 60° arc in front of the device. It is used primarily in ambushes and as an anti-infiltration device against enemy infantry. It is also of some use against unarmored vehicles.
      ...
      Internally the mine contains a layer of C-4 explosive behind a matrix of about seven hundred 1⁄8-inch-diameter (3.2 mm) steel balls (about as big as #4 birdshot) set into an epoxy resin.

      When the M18A1 is detonated, the explosion drives the spheres out of the mine at a velocity of 1,200 m/s (3,937 ft/s),[1] at the same time breaking the matrix into individual fragments. The steel balls are projected in a 60° fan-shaped pattern that is 6.5 feet high and 50 m (55 yd) wide at a range of 50 m (55 yd). The force of the explosion deforms the relatively soft steel fragments into a shape similar to a .22 rimfire projectile.[1] These fragments are moderately effective up to a range of 100 m (110 yd), with a hit probability of around 10% on a prone man-sized 1.3-square-foot (0.12 m2) target. The fragments can travel up to 250 m (270 yd). The optimum effective range is 50 m (55 yd), at which the optimal balance is achieved between lethality and area coverage, with a hit probability of 30% on a man-sized target.

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    10. The Army, Q, teaches about ambushes and kill zones.

      In Boston, on Patriots Day, the leading runners of the Boston Marathon were ambushed, mechanically.

      The bomber used a a pair of IEDs.
      The Armies of the whirled used mass manufactured weapons.

      The tactics of ambushes in depth, using command detonated explosives covering the avenues of approach that relief will use in support of their people in the kill zone, old school military. Changing the lexicon does not mitigate the effectiveness of the tactics.

      Explosives, effectively used, can be a tremendous force multiplier, especially for folks that do not have Maverick missiles deployed on Predator drones available to them.

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    11. .

      've never heard it referred to as a "double tap" before, but that does not change the fact that it has become a standard operating procedure, all across the battle fields of the War on Terror.

      Terrorism is war crime, well then, those war crime prosecutors best get Syria and get down to prosecutin'. Those'd be part of the UN, which you have defamed more than once.

      So, if the UN is feckless and there are no war crime prosecutions, then there are no war crimes.



      Don't be obtuse, rat.

      Explosives, effectively used, can be a tremendous force multiplier, especially for folks that do not have Maverick missiles deployed on Predator drones available to them.

      But what of those that have drones available to them?

      If you aren't familiar with the term double-tap, you haven't been looking at the videos of drone raids coming out of the Wikileaks scandal, you haven't bothered to read the numerous articles that have been published describing secondary drone attacks on first responders and
      civilians in Pakistan, which likely means you also haven't heard about the attacks on funerals, weddings, etc.

      Much of the world has condemned the US for using double-taps in the WOT. It is a practice that is forbidden by the Geneva Conventions.

      But then what would the prince of the sheeple care about 'bug splats' in Pakistan or Yemen?

      Oh that's right, he doesn't.

      1. desert ratSun Apr 14, 09:21:00 PM EDT

      1. Argue about the way the drones are utilized?
      You do not like how the President "determines" who the enemy is.

      I could care less.

      Anyone in Pakistan could/should be on the target list. Anyone who is aiding ANYONE that is planning an attack upon US interests is a viable target, per the 14SEP01 Authorization. Anyone that is in the proximity of anyone aiding anyone planning an attack on US interests is a viable target. The proximity of noncombatants should not "Save" the miscreant, in a war.
      Tokyo and Dresden both stand in evidence of civilians that are legitimatly killed, in a war.


      It's funny you spend an inordinate amount of time arguing to assure Muslims are not falsely accused of taking part in crimes yet when innocent Muslims are purposely wiped out in the hundreds, well...mere 'bug splats'.

      .

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    13. Well, Q, it was not long ago you and deuce were going on about Illegal and Unconstitutional Wars.

      Now you are speaking of morality.
      Seems we're making progress.

      That others in the whirled complain about US, par for the course.
      I was raised on it. Don't give a shit about it. Those complaints are like water off a ducks back.

      I do not think that those that are killed in the War on Terror, by US force, are killed because they are Muslims, they are killed because of their associations, which they have control over. The US is at war. The tactics that are being used are the most humane and casualty adverse as could be possible.

      No one has yet to provide reason to repeal the 14SEP01 AUMF, until it is repealed we must prosecute the war, or look even more foolish internationally than JFKerry could possibly manage.

      The President is authorized by law to determine who the enemy is, and then they and theirs die.
      You think that should stop, change the law.

      Your desire for the whirled to revolve about some sort of post modern faux morality is meaningless unless it drives political action. The only action that can stop the War on Terror is to repeal the 14SEP01 AUMF.

      Of have the President declare victory, that he has determined that there are no more threats of international terrorism striking US.
      Not a likely thing.



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  6. Who would tolerate this?

    Israeli security forces have done little to prevent settler violence or to arrest offenders. Many acts of violence have never been investigated; in other cases, investigations have been drawn out and resulted in no action being taken against anyone.From the beginning of the second intifada in September 2000 and through December 2011, B’Tselem contacted the Israel Police concerning 352 incidents of settler-perpetrated violence against Palestinians or their property, inquiring whether investigations had been opened in these incidents and what the current status is in investigations that had been opened. Insofar as is known to B’Tselem, in 71 percent of the cases, an investigation was opened; in about 23 percent, no investigation was opened; in 6 percent no response was received or the request could not be located. An indictment was filed in only 11 percent of all cases in which investigations were opened. In cases where settlers were tried and convicted, they were generally given extremely light sentences – in stark contrast to the policy of law enforcement and punishment where Palestinians harm Israelis.

    ReplyDelete
  7. 'Dark skinned man' - 'Man In Black Jacket On Cell Phone, Wearing Gray Hoodie, White Backwards Cap'...drudge


    Might be Trayvon Martin's brother.......

    ReplyDelete
  8. The rumors are certainly flying. Can't make heads or tails of it. One 'source' says one thing, another just the opposite.

    Sounds like there is an FBI briefing coming up in a couple of hours.

    ReplyDelete
  9. The man sought as a possible suspect is a white male, wearing white baseball cap on backwards, a gray hoodie and a black jacket, according to CBS

    ReplyDelete
  10. I'm following Fox. Lots of activity around the Court House all of a sudden. Crowd has been cleared away. Homeland Security vans all around.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Democrats caught looting the bomb area.

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  12. hee hee,

    boobie hoping against all hope the perp is a muzzie, or a black man, whilst WiO cries Jihadist, Jihadist!

    Naw, ya all got it wrong -- its the NORKs man, the NORKs! They missed Austin and hit Boston.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. understandable given how they sound the same (especially to a NORK)

      Delete
    2. Tee hee hee hee

      Dumbshit, I am just thinking of the possibilities.

      I do hope it is not an American(s) killing Americans. I have a thing against that.

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  13. The Boston Globe has reported that authorities had an image of a suspect carrying, and possibly dropping, a bag at the second bombing scene, just outside the Forum restaurant.

    The alleged bomber was on a phone when he dropped the second backpack and his cell records reportedly led to the identification, sources told CBS.

    Authorities said yesterday the bomber used a pair of six-liter pressure cookers packed with metal nails and ball bearings to rip his helpless victims apart at the finish line.


    -----------------------------


    Interesting comment.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, like we're all too dumb to notice the innocuous "his" which in one stroke rules out half the suspects.

      Very clever.

      Not.

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    2. Put a lid on all sinkers larger than 10 penny.

      Outlaw hardened steel drywall screws.

      Delete
  14. I'm still betting on a White Hispanic.

    ---

    Pressure cookers will have to be registered
    and taxed based on their capacity.

    Buying high capacity cookers will require
    training in safe cookery under pressure.

    Modern life is sometimes described as a Pressure Cooker.
    Henceforth, death will also forevermore be associated with
    these pressure vessels.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      Now, the terrorist watch list can be expanded to included not only those who purchase more than a weeks worth of food at Costco or more than one package of batteries but also to those who buy pressure cookers.

      The criteria continues to grow.

      .

      Delete
    2. Hey professional writer-guy:

      Wouldn't that be "continue"?

      Delete
    3. .

      Good lord, now my grammar is being critiqued by Doug.

      Time to quit.

      :)

      .

      Delete
    4. Crippled by a critique.
      Sad.

      Delete
  15. desert rat Wed Apr 17, 09:25:00 AM EDT

    "Mars One, the Netherlands-based organization that wants to turn the colonizing of Mars into a global reality television phenomenon, is encouraging anyone who is interested in space travel to apply.

    Previous training in space travel is not required, nor is a science degree of any sort, but applicants do need to be at least 18 years of age and willing to leave Earth forever.

    As of now, a flight back to Earth is not part of the Mars One business model.
    "

    ---

    AFTER Atta and the flight school fiascos, this damn regieme still isn't going to recognize
    the obvious and drone them out, our haul them in:

    These bastards plan to blow up Mars!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Mark Sanford uses cellphone as a flashlight in the commission of a crime.

    If anyone has any info on the present circumstances of his South American hotty, I would appreciate.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The article says Sanford is engaged to the hotty.

      Where she is you'll have to ask Mark. Maybe in a camper in his backyard.

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    2. Beats a hut in Africa.

      Or Welfare Digs for Aunty Obama.

      Delete
  17. The capacity for these guys to do the right thing and just disappear simply does not exist.

    ReplyDelete
  18. I have a pressure cooker. Left to me by my aunt. She used it for canning or something. Never have used it. Now I suppose I will have to get a pressure cooker permit and register it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Think mom used to do Pot Roast Stews quick-like back in simpler times.

      The little weighted pressure relief valve was semi-fascinating to me.

      At least it moved, made noise, and had some steamy visuals.

      A "Presto" Cooker, it was.

      Delete
  19. Obama's good friend Bill Ayers, the guy who wrote his book, a cop killer, guilty as hell, free as a bird, was of the opinion 25 million Americans would need to be killed to get right with the program.

    I don't like that idea.

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  20. Obama whining that the 2nd Amendment still stands.

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  21. I think in one of the videos you can see the cooker coming back to earth.

    Probly the top, since the trajectory was nearly straight up and straight down.

    Muzzies got more than bullets to send up toward space.

    I'm about to concede they have won.

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    Replies
    1. Are you saying we are cooked?

      Delete
  22. I'm still guessing jihadi of some sort. They were advised to attack sporting and recreational events. And given explicit diagrams as to how to build pressure cooker bombs on their internet sites. If it were white aryan type Americans I think they would attack some government facility or something connected with the government, not a marathon race. I doubt American blacks have anything to do with it at all. Just my hunch, so far.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. "I doubt American blacks have anything to do with it at all."

      They're too busy killing other American blacks.

      ...or takin their ho to the local abortion mill.

      Delete
  23. Nair do wells:

    "Although honesty ranks as the No. 1 quality for singles in a relationship, 87 percent of women said they would be turned off a date completely by body odor in a man.

    For men, the no-no is spotting a mustache on a woman, with 68 percent citing it as a top deal-breaker.

    The poll, conducted online between March 26 and April 2, found that 61 percent of singles look for their future mates in bars."

    ReplyDelete
  24. AshThought -

    http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2013/04/dumb_dumber_salon.html

    ReplyDelete
  25. National GOP Pulls support for Sanford.

    Poor guy just can't get a break.

    ReplyDelete

  26. CNN backs off arrest of 'dark-skinned male'... AP MESS...Drudge

    Always turn to CNN for news you shouldn't use.

    Fox News reports it has the pictures, very clear, of the two suspects, but is not releasing them until given permission by the FBI.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Ricin mailer from Mississippi.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Senate Gangsters:

    WASHINGTON -- After months of late-night negotiations, a bipartisan group of senators finally released their immigration bill early Wednesday morning that allows the nation's 11 million unauthorized immigrants to apply for U.S. citizenship and tightens security along the nation's southwest border.

    IMMIGRATION BILL: Draws mixed reviews


    The 844-page bill was sponsored by Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and co-sponsored by his colleagues in the so-called Gang of Eight that came together to draft what would be the first major overhaul to the nation’s immigration laws since 1986.

    ReplyDelete
  29. 11 million new Republicans with 30 million extended family members.

    Count on it.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Ron Paul’s six point plan puts a stop to illegal immigration:

    Physically secure our borders and coastlines. We must do whatever it takes to control entry into our country before we undertake complicated immigration reform proposals.

    Enforce visa rules. Immigration officials must track visa holders and deport anyone who overstays their visa or otherwise violates U.S. law. This is especially important when we recall that a number of 9/11 terrorists had expired visas.

    No amnesty. Estimates suggest that 10 to 20 million people are in our country illegally. That’s a lot of people to reward for breaking our laws.

    No welfare for illegal aliens. Americans have welcomed immigrants who seek opportunity, work hard, and play by the rules. But taxpayers should not pay for illegal immigrants who use hospitals, clinics, schools, roads, and social services.

    End birthright citizenship. As long as illegal immigrants know their children born here will be citizens, the incentive to enter the U.S. illegally will remain strong. [Current U.S. citizens will not be affected. Instead, babies born to illegals after a future cutoff date will no longer gain automatic U.S. citizenship. They will still have citizenship in their parents’ home countries.]

    Pass true immigration reform. The current system is incoherent and unfair. But current reform proposals would allow up to 60 million more immigrants into our country, according to the Heritage Foundation. This is insanity. Legal immigrants from all countries should face the same rules and waiting periods.

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  31. But then, I read here that Ron Paul is crazy.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Obama’s Charade didn’t work and he is very , very angry.

    As the Senate began voting Wednesday on nine proposed changes to a gun control bill, the centerpiece proposal on background checks quickly failed to win enough support, despite broad public backing.

    Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.).

    The vote on the so-called Manchin-Toomey amendment was 54 in favor, 46 against — failing to reach the 60-vote threshold needed to move ahead. Four Republicans supported it, and four Democrats voted no.
    A controversial Democratic plan to ban dozens of military-style assault weapons was also defeated by a vote of 40 to 60.
    The votes were a setback for President Obama, who angrily blasted Republicans for defeating the background check compromise, saying, “The gun lobby and its allies willfully lied about the bill.”

    ReplyDelete
  33. My god, they lied. Lied! In the US Senate, they lied! Can you believe it?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It must be a shock to poor President Obama, who has never lied about anything.

      Delete
    2. Obama is as true and truthful as President George Washington, who never told a lie, he even admitted to chopping down a cherry tree.

      Then there is 'Honest Abe' too, who said 'I can never tell a lie', or something like that.

      Once we had a guy named 'Tricky Dick', who never ever told the truth, not even once.

      Delete
  34. Obama wanted a vote.
    He got a vote.
    Now that he lost that vote he resorts to name calling and fear mongering.

    This is how a Democracy works Mr. President.

    Now he can focus on tactics that will reduce crime or play golf.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Meanwhile 1MM babies are aborted each year and another 1MM illegals will enter the US because 1MM Americans are missing from the workforce.

      Delete
  35. For many parents, the emphasis on creativity and analytical thinking in U.S. education makes the expense of sending a child to study abroad worthwhile. But recent episodes of violence involving Chinese students have led some to see the U.S. as dangerous.

    In one incident in April last year, two University of Southern California graduate students from China were shot dead while sitting in a parked car on a Los Angeles street in what police described as a bungled carjacking.

    "If you love him, send him to the U.S., because the U.S. is Heaven. If you hate him, send him to the U.S., because the U.S. is Hell," one Chinese microblogger wrote on Wednesday.

    ReplyDelete
  36. On this day in 1961, the U.S. unsuccessfully attacked Cuba at the Bay of Pigs invasion in an attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kennedy let them die on the beach, as I recall. Pulled the air cover.

      Delete
    2. Then he went on to become a 'hero' by getting Russian missiles out of Cuba. The Russians thus got what they really wanted from the start, which was our missiles out of Turkey. Then he went to bed with Marilyn Monroe. She said it was very good for his back, poor dear. She sang 'Happy Birthday, Mr President' to him on TV. Then he got shot, and we got an even worse President, and a bunch of assholes who thought they were all 'the best and the brightest'. Later, some of these folks went on a nationwide apology tour, admitting they had fucked everything up.

      Delete
    3. April 17, 2013
      Bay of Pigs: The morning that a plane woke me up
      Silvio Canto, Jr.

      President Kennedy chose not to support the men of Brigade 2506. His decision sealed their fate and killed the invasion.

      Let me tell you that no one in the Brigade, or the active anti-Castro movement inside Cuba, was looking for US troops to die for Cuba's freedom.

      My parents would often say: "This is our fight. We just need Pres Kennedy to put a couple of jets in the air". The US jets were intended to decapitate the very small Cuban force and to break the morale of very undisciplined and unprepared Cuban troops.

      A lot of years have passed and I am now living in this wonderful land that opened its doors to us many years ago. Nevertheless, every April 17th I remember cousin Ignacio and all of the brave men and women who were ready to fight against Castro.

      They deserved a better fate. They really did!


      http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2013/04/bay_of_pigs_the_morning_that_a_plane_woke_me_up.html

      And the Cuban people have suffered ever since. Cuba, that wonderful island, where the racism is world class.

      Delete
  37. SUNNY!

    http://houseofsunny.tv/2013/04/17/mr-conservative-looking-for-ms-right/

    ReplyDelete
  38. Under Eisenhower, illegal immigration dropped from 885,000 to 45,000!

    Distrust, then verify.

    Right now, despite a deal last Friday between the AFL-CIO and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on the issue of guest workers, the best guess is that any program will fall far short of removing the temptation for people to cross the border illegally. Under the deal between unions and business, a new program for low-skilled workers would begin with 20,000 visas a year and gradually grow, in years when the U.S. unemployment rate was quite low, to a maximum cap of 200,000.

    Old hands along the U.S.-Mexican border think that such a proposal ignores the lessons of a past guest-worker program, which helped solve a crisis on the border in the 1950s. At that time, arrests of illegal aliens were at 885,000 a year, close to today’s levels. But President Dwight Eisenhower worked with Congress to replace a huge illegal labor force with an expansion of the Bracero program that had started in 1942 to address World War II labor shortages. The legal workers obtained contracts that specified their pay and living conditions.

    Under the expanded program, some 300,000 Mexican workers entered the U.S. legally every year. As the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service noted in 1980, “Without question, the Bracero program was . . . instrumental in ending the illegal alien problem” of the time. By 1959, arrests of illegal aliens had fallen to 45,000 a year;
    they remained under 100,000 until President Lyndon Johnson ended the Bracero program in 1964 at the behest of Big Labor, which didn’t want workers in the United States who wouldn’t become union members.

    Republicans who are willing to trade a path to citizenship for today’s illegal workers for a guest-worker program should be cautioned by history. Senate Democrats cut the guts out of a genuine guest-worker program back in 2007, and one of the chief knife-wielders was a freshman senator named Barack Obama.


    ReplyDelete
  39. Fund Neglected to Mention "Operation Wetback"

    "Once again in 1954, President Dwight Eisenhower deported 1.3 million Mexican nationals (called ‘Operation Wetback’) in order that returning American WWII and Korean veterans had a better chance at jobs.

    ---

    Between 1944 and 1954, "the decade of the wetback," the number of illegal aliens coming from Mexico increased by 6,000 percent. It is estimated that in 1954 before Operation Wetback got under way, more than a million workers had crossed the Rio Grande illegally.

    Cheap labor displaced native agricultural workers, and increased violation of labor laws and discrimination encouraged criminality, disease, and illiteracy. According to a study conducted in 1950 by the President's Commission on Migratory Labor in Texas, the Rio Grande valley cotton growers were paying approximately half of the wages paid elsewhere in Texas.
    "

    ReplyDelete
  40. Long Ago and Far Away.

    Back when we actually accomplished what we said we were going to do.

    ReplyDelete
  41. "We don't know whether it was planned and executed by a terrorist organisation, foreign or domestic, or was the act of a malevolent individual," Mr Obama said. He is due to fly into Boston today for an interfaith service.

    Meanwhile Iran, the US's fiercest critic in the Islamic world, condemned the Boston bombings, yet criticised the US for employing a double standard over drone attacks that kill innocent civilians. The Islamic Republic "is opposed to any bombings and killings of innocent people no matter if it is in Boston, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq or Syria and condemns it," Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told Iranian military leaders in Tehran.

    But he attacked the Obama administration for killing people with drones in Pakistan and Afghanistan. "What kind of logic is it that if children and women are killed by Americans in Afghanistan and Pakistan… it is is not a problem, but if a bombing happens in the US or another Western country, the whole world should pay the cost?"

    ReplyDelete
  42. 16 April 2013 Last updated at 20:12 ET

    Applicants wanted for a one-way ticket to Mars
    By Melissa Hogenboom


    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22146456

    Think of it as the chance of a lifetime, Quirk.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. anon has had a series of mini-strokes,

      don't blame him for re-posting Rat's shit as tho they are fresh Turds.

      The doc's say they are powerless wrt stopping the spread of damage throughout his cerebellum.

      You can picture it as analogous to Farmer Bob being in the silo when the wheat dust blows.

      Delete
  43. First off I would like to say terrific blog! I had a quick question in which I'd like to ask if you don't mind.
    I was interested to find out how you center yourself and clear your head before writing.

    I've had difficulty clearing my thoughts in getting my ideas out there. I do take pleasure in writing however it just seems like the first 10 to 15 minutes are usually lost just trying to figure out how to begin. Any ideas or hints? Kudos!

    Feel free to surf to my site; オークリー

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Most of us drink alcohol freely before writing.

      Ash smokes joints.

      Hope that helps.

      Delete
    2. Rufus does both.

      Delete
    3. Have you noticed how Ash is always tee-heeing? Dead give-a-way. Juvenile simple minded dope smoker.

      Delete
    4. On the contrary, it confirms "him" as a straight Tranny.

      Delete
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    ReplyDelete
  45. .


    The flowers appear on the earth, the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the rat is heard in our land. ..., more cynical discourse from the prince of the sheeple.


    Well, Q, it was not long ago you and deuce were going on about Illegal and Unconstitutional Wars.


    Once again, you miss the point. What I have complained about is the hypocrisy of waging wars with deadly force yet lacking the balls to call them what they are. I complain about the unconscionable euphemisms straight out of the ‘Ministry of Truth’ like ‘time-bounded, front loaded, kinetic action’ as a substitute for war, antiseptic bullshit designed for the sheeple, most of which have no idea what kinetic means. It’s like calling the death penalty a viability termination procedure. Yet, the sheeple say “Baa”.


    Now you are speaking of morality.
    Seems we're making progress.



    Well, I’m speaking morality: you are merely speaking legality, two entirely different things.


    That others in the whirled complain about US, par for the course.
    I was raised on it. Don't give a shit about it. Those complaints are like water off a ducks back.



    That you don't give a shit is obvious. You have stated it on numerous occasions. "I could care less" is your mantra, my country right or wrong, your anthem and that of the sheeple you hang with.


    I do not think that those that are killed in the War on Terror, by US force, are killed because they are Muslims, they are killed because of their associations, which they have control over. The US is at war. The tactics that are being used are the most humane and casualty adverse as could be possible.


    First as to the ‘War on Terror’ itself, the term like the ‘War on Poverty’ or the ‘War on Drugs’ is strictly metaphor, an excuse extended into perpetuity to justify many government actions instituted in this country and abroad that are unnecessary and unjustified based on any overriding national interest.

    That the people we are killing in the drone program are Muslims is irrelevant, the ‘signature’ attacks are indiscriminate, killing men, women, and children of whatever faith at random.

    The tactics are humane? Tell it to the kid who gets his leg blown off. Tell it to the people hit while celebrating a wedding. Tell it to the first responders and the innocents hit with a double tap. Tell it to the two small boys who were wiped out recently for playing with a radio where they could be seen. But as you have stated, you could care less, mere ‘bug splats’. Few people I know would describe a drone attack as humane. Sounds like something the administration’s wordsmiths would come up with. But then, I guess the sheeple are dimwitted enough to buy it.

    (continued below)

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      (continued)

      No one has yet to provide reason to repeal the 14SEP01 AUMF, until it is repealed we must prosecute the war, or look even more foolish internationally than JFKerry could possibly manage.


      More lies. Either that or you are blind as well as dumb. Within the last day or so, I posted an extensive response to your request for reasons why we should repeal AUMF, so extensive that due to word quantity constraints it stretched over three posts. The rest of your statement is just plain silly.

      Now, I could repost the reasons we should repeal AUMF, but let’ face it, you have ignored them twice already and appear to have little real interest in them other than as a straw man.


      The President is authorized by law to determine who the enemy is, and then they and theirs die.


      True enough, the responsibility rests with him, but who can say if it is him that is actually pulling the strings. The stories change daily. One day it is him making the decision, the next it is some ‘well-informed, high-ranking official’. And who is that official? No one knows. We have a white paper, truncated and redacted, supposedly describing our drone policy. On the other hand, we have never even officially admitted we have ever used a drone. And the sheeple continue to "Baa."


      You think that should stop, change the law.


      That would be nice, but as you know the administration has rigged the game by repeatedly playing the ‘national security’ canard making it near impossible to get lawsuits up to the Supreme Court level.



      Your desire for the whirled to revolve about some sort of post modern faux morality is meaningless unless it drives political action. The only action that can stop the War on Terror is to repeal the 14SEP01 AUMF.


      Faux morality? You mean as opposed to sans morality. Your assertion that morality is meaningless unless it drives political action, is ridiculous. Morality begins on the individual level. In the absence of an amoral sociopathy, your conscience ought to give you a clue as to what is right or wrong. The lack of empathy or remorse in the death of innocents abroad, considering them to be mere ‘bug splats’ (if you consider them at all), IMO, denotes a lack common decency and/or conscience.

      Now, I suspect that the majority of the sheeple do this merely by ignoring it so as to avoid being shaken out of their comfort zone and being forced to think. You on the other hand have shown you have thought this through and still, in your words, ‘don’t give a shit’, ‘could care less’ which, again in my opinion, pushes you into the one sick puppy category.



      Of have the President declare victory, that he has determined that there are no more threats of international terrorism striking US.
      Not a likely thing.



      Sadly, true

      .
      .

      Delete
    2. Mr Emmerson, the UN’s special rapporteur on counter-terrorism and human rights, said: “If it is lawful for the US to drone al-Qaeda associates wherever they find them, then it is also lawful for al-Qaeda to target US military or infrastructure wherever [militants] find them.

      “There is a real risk that by promulgating the analysis that is currently being developed and relied on by the United States they legitimise, in international law, al-Qaeda, by turning it in to an armed belligerent involved in a war and that makes the use of force by al-Qaeda and its associates lawful.”



      Researchers at the Bureau of Investigative Journalism estimate that as many as 884 civilians, 18 to 23 per cent of the total, have been killed since the first strike in Pakistan in 2004. Americans need to understand how Pakistan got into such a mess in the first place. The terrorism and extremism was bred by CIA , to get the Russians out of Afghanistan. And then it went unchecked in Afghanistan and North Eastern Pakistan.

      All of the terrorist attacks in India, the 9/11 attacks, assaults on the London Underground, the Madrid railways, etc as well as failed attacks such as the Times Square bomb, shoe bomber, etc had one thing in common.

      In each and every case, the terrorists trained in camps in Pakistan run by the Pakistan Secret Service (ISI) and rogue members of the Pakistan army.

      General Musharraf turned a blind eye to this. US politicians got us involved in it, but the American public is deaf, dumb and blind.



      Delete
    3. Now, Q, you sound like a whimpering internationalist.

      Humane, that's the word to use when a nation like the US is limiting the violence, instead of going "All In".


      Now I would argee that the Federals operate in a Orwellian whirled. That the Ministry of Truth does search for the "best" euphemism to utilize. One reason I don't much listen to them.

      Now the term double tap has long been used in shooting, but I had not heard it used in the utilization of explosives, euphemised as demolitions.

      You're correct, I do not watch drone strikes on youtube. I do not see it as entertainment, watching people die. I do see it a necessary to the interests of the US.

      Change the law, foolish to think that the SOCUTUS would do so, if given the opportunity.
      Politics changes the law, not judges. Even the SOCTUS decisions are political.

      If you think that the War on Terror should end, the Judges will not suffice.

      Politics, power to the people ...
      The people you defame.

      Delete
    4. It is foolish to credit the CIA with the breeding of terrorism in Afpakistan.
      It is the cultural norm, there. The British have legends of the savagery in the lands west of the Khyber Pass.
      The CIA provided training in the use of Israeli supplied Warsaw Bloc weapons to Afghans fighting the Russians. The CIA did not organize and recruit those fighters, the Pakistanis carried that ball. The US funded Pakistani efforts in Afghanistan.

      The ISI did support the camps in Afghanistan, long after the US had left.
      The Pakistani Army does consider Afghanistan to be theirs, integrated into the "Defense in Depth" strategy vis a vie the Indians.

      Delete
    5. .

      An internationalist? Hardly. Ask Ash.

      I have argued that there is no need for us to belong to the UN and that NATO's usefullness ended when the Cold War did. Likewise, I am no pacifist. I have said that the US has the right and duty to engage in and win defensive wars when they are forced upon us. What I have argued against are unnecessary wars of choice. I supported Afghanistan when it started. I still feel it was justified; however, since we have achieved all the goals we set in entering that war, I belive it is long past time to declare victory and leave.

      You are an apologist for perpetual war under the aegis of the WOT. I say that is foolish. Today you support our current policies because of their humanity. The other day you supported them because of their efficiency. As I pointed out, not only do the policies need to be efficient, they also need to be effective.

      If I ask you to list the benefits we have gained from our WOT, I suspect the list would be quite small. Then If I ask you to stack up the costs of that WOT you would see that we have lost inordinately more than we have gained. I could run the same analysis with our paramilitary operations in Pakistan and likely come up with the same results.

      As to your assertions that SCOTUS can't (or won't) change policy, you could be right; however, that doesn't mean that a person of conscience shouldn't want to give them the chance. In addition, given the small sample size we have, I think you may be too pessimistic. The Bush administration officially denounced obvious torture techniques when court cases were winding their way dangerously close to SCOTUS. It's the same reason why presidents some times back down on signing statements and executive orders that are challenged in the courts and heading for SCOTUS. They don't want a precedent set where the legality of the prerogatives they set for themselves are denied by court order.

      Likewise, in 2008, the Supreme Court ruled that Quantanimo detainees had the right to habeas corpus and a civilian trial. Given that ruling, I have no doubt the Court would also shoot down Obama's claims that he can deny American citizens those rights.

      You could be right that a court decision would mean little in practical terms but at a minimum it would put to the lie the contention that the president can act as judge, jury, and executioner when it comes to the lives of American citizens.

      The people you defame

      Now, who is the realist?

      .

      Delete
    6. I am not apologizing for the War on Terror, Q, I am stating the case for the US.
      Where can the US fight a defensive war?
      In Afpakistan ... who is kidding who?

      There is no military threat to the US emanating from the Islamic Arc. We arm the miscreants.
      The Iranians cannot build a tank, let alone blitzkrieg to the Med.

      An American citizen that takes up arms against the US, is amigo, a viable target.

      If the President had been able to order a drone strike on the Patriot Day bomber, it'd have been good. If he could have had a sniper shoot him, better. If it was possible to have arrested the PD bomber preemptively, best.

      The citizenship of the bomber of no more importance than his religion, when it comes to ordering the use force to protect the nation. The Congress has authorized him to protect and defend the US as he sees fit. Doing so both are fulfilling their primary Constitutional duty.

      Delete
    7. .

      Where can the US fight a defensive war?

      If it's not a defensive war, why fight it? There are no national interests involved.

      There is no military threat to the US emanating from the Islamic Arc.

      Exactly. Why then are we messing around over there inviting unintended consequences?

      An American citizen that takes up arms against the US, is amigo, a viable target.

      A viable target in combat, if he's fighting. However, go read the administration's definition of a terrorist. It could probably be stretched to include both you and me very easily. And with the shifting of the drone program to signature assassinations, we haven't a clue as to whom we are killing until after they sort the bodies. I thought we got past the stage where we destroyed the village in order to save it.

      The rest of your post is bull. You have drunk the Kool-aid. Read the Constitution, specifically the Executive Article that lays out the president's duties. Other than adminstrative duties, he is designated commander-in-chief of the armed forces; but his primary Constitutional duty is to "...preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States." It's written into the oath he takes.

      We are purported to be a nation of laws, yet we have people like you, amigo, and the other sheeple that readily accept the premise that the president or some 'high-level, informed official' should be allowed to assume the role of judge, jury, and executioner condemning Americans to death without judicial review, warrant, indictment, or trial based on these guys plea to "Trust me".

      What we are talking about here is waging war and the taking of life and death, not the cola formula for social security.

      Trust me? Based on what? Need I start listing the numerous times our intelligence services have been wrong in the past? Need I mention the technical and paperwork blunders and outright mistakes that have led to the wrong persons being 'renditioned' by this same bureaucracy you have so much faith in? And once again, I ask you to review the latest definition of what constitutes an 'official' terrorist. The administration won't even come out and explain to the American people what their policy entails and yet you are willing to accept their assurances that they will do the right thing. Your credulity amazes. In a word, sir, you are batshit crazy.

      .

      Delete
    8. .

      Sorry, ignore the batshit crazy part.

      My bad.

      .

      Delete

  46. Steve Emerson: Saudi national questioned in Boston Marathon bombings to be deported on national security grounds next week

    Steve Emerson just said on Hannity that a senior official in the agency that is conduction the deportation that Abdul Rahman Ali Al-Harbi, the Saudi national who was detained in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings and then was declared a "witness, not a suspect" after his home was searched, is going to be deported next Tuesday on national security grounds.

    Why deported and not prosecuted? To keep our "allies" the Saudis happy. After all, Al-Harbi has numerous jihad terror connections, as well as friends in high places.

    Was this the deal that was worked out between John Kerry and the Saudis at their meeting yesterday that was suddenly closed to the press?


    http://www.jihadwatch.org/2013/04/steve-emerson-saudi-national-to-be-deported-on-national-security-grounds-next-week.html

    Obama had a little unscheduled chat with the Saudi ambassador yesterday too, I read.




    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Guess it was the Saudi Foreign Minister -

      WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama met with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal at the White House on Wednesday and discussed the conflict in Syria, a spokeswoman said.

      The meeting was not on Obama's public schedule.

      The spokeswoman, Caitlin Hayden, said the president joined a meeting between the Saudi official and Obama's national security adviser, Tom Donilon.

      "The president and Prince Saud al-Faisal reaffirmed the strong partnership between the United States and Saudi Arabia and discussed developments in the region, including the conflict in Syria," Hayden said in a statement.


      Delete

  47. The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad released a statement on Tuesday condemning the ongoing violence, some of which has targeted people running for office.




    (CNN) -- Four blasts in and around Baghdad killed at least three people and wounded 16 on Wednesday, police said.
    Violence has persisted in recent days in the lead-up to Iraq’s provincial elections scheduled for Saturday.

    The latest attacks included a car bombing of an Iraqi army convoy, a car bombing near a police station, a roadside bomb that struck a politician’s convoy and another roadside bomb, police say.


    "These attacks have killed more than a dozen candidates and injured many others." the statement said. “Such terrorist acts are a cowardly and unacceptable attempt to undermine Iraq's democracy and a desperate effort to intimidate Iraqis and deter them from participating in the democratic process."

    About 45 miles (75 kilometers) west in Falluja, the chief prosecutor of the city’s civil court was assassinated on Wednesday night, Ramadi police officials told CNN.

    Maarouf Ahmed al-Kobaisi was in his car when gunmen driving by opened fire, killing him.

    A car bomb exploded about an hour later at a police patrol in central Falluja, according to Ramadi police. It was not immediately known if anyone was hurt or killed in this blast.



    We just meant to help.

    ReplyDelete
  48. While the US and UK inflicted hell continues for the Iraqi people…

    Bush Welcomes Grandchild and Prepares to Dedicate Presidential Library
    By PETER BAKER
    DALLAS – For a former president, it does not get much better than this. Over the weekend, George W. Bush welcomed his first grandchild into the world. And next week he will welcome the arrival of his other baby, a 226,565-square-foot presidential center.

    Mr. Bush, who has remained largely removed from the spotlight in the four years since leaving the White House, returned to television screens on Monday in a series of hospital snapshots with his new granddaughter, Mila, who was born to Jenna and Henry Hager on Saturday night. Next week, he will host President Obama and other dignitaries to dedicate the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum.

    The happenstance of timing served to underscore the dominant themes of Mr. Bush’s postpresidential life here in Texas. Once a wartime commander in chief, he is now a doting grandfather as well as an amateur painter. With his eight years in power behind him, he is trying to frame what they added up to and still promoting causes important to him while staying out of what he calls “the swamp” of national politics.

    “One of the real challenges of life is that when you complete a chapter, you don’t atrophy, that you continue to find ways to contribute,” Mr. Bush told The Dallas Morning News in an interview published over the weekend.

    ReplyDelete
  49. I wonder what shit bird Tony Blair is doing, meeting his “challenges and continuing his “contributions.”

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Blair renewed his criticisms last weekend, telling a university audience in America that electorates on both sides of the Atlantic did not want partisan politics.

      Speaking at Judson University in Illinois, he said: "At the very time that the public has come to a position of wanting you guys to get on and fix it, the political parties have become more partisan. It's the same over our way as well.

      "The very fierce left-right distinctions are really a 20th-century thing. In the 21st century most members of the public don't really think like that. They will think one way on one issue and another on another issue. It's a post-ideological age. If you have a budget deficit you have to fix it. If you have a very polarising political divide, the debate becomes very uncivil, and people find it a turn-off.”

      Delete
  50. April 18, 2013
    A 'Rag Tag Bunch' Strikes Gold
    Bill Schanefelt

    Frequent AT contributor Jack Cashill has produced a great piece at WND about the Martin/Zimmerman fiasco and the work that the "Rag Tag Bunch of Conservative Misfits" at The Conservative Treehouse has done to uncover the truth about "Trayvon."

    Of the "Treepers," Mr. Cashill says:

    ... th[os]e dogged researchers ... have literally done more good work on the Martin case than all the newsrooms in America combined.

    It seems that "Trayvon" should have been on trial in Miami rather than enjoying his "suspension" in Sanford the night George Zimmerman killed him in self-defense.

    Do read the whole thing to understand the deception with which liberalism has distorted this fiasco and the greater fiasco of crime in the Miami-Dade School System.

    And do go to the "Treepers" site, The Last Refuge, to look into the large body of work done there on the subject of "Trayvon" -- it is exhaustive and extremely revealing.

    And do take some time to look at what the "Treepers" have done on Benghazi -- this little-known site owns that story, too!

    And here's a question: if his name were "Fred" Martin, would we even be aware of the story?

    And would that fool, Jamie Foxx, be wearing a picture of "Fred" on his shirt?


    http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2013/04/a_rag_tag_bunch_strikes_gold.html

    Report on Trayvon here -

    Part 9 -

    http://theconservativetreehouse.com/2013/04/16/part-7-the-trayvon-martin-cover-up-sgt-lourdes-hodges-trayvon-foia-14/#more-61679




    ReplyDelete
  51. Speaking of shit birds, I wonder what new magic aptly named “SOS” John Kerry is spreading?

    WASHINGTON — Sharply different perspectives within the Obama administration concerning the Syrian opposition emerged publicly on Wednesday when Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel made separate appearances before Congress.
    Multimedia

    In a long day of hearings, Mr. Kerry highlighted the opportunities in working with the opposition and stressed the need to step up the pressure on the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad.

    Mr. Hagel, joined by Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, noted that the Pentagon was moving to deliver medical supplies and food rations to that opposition. But highlighting the risks of deeper involvement in Syria, General Dempsey said the situation with the opposition had become more confused.

    The differing assessments came as the White House is considering what steps to take next in a conflict that has killed more than 70,000 and defied resolution.

    At the end of the day, Senator Carl Levin, the Michigan Democrat who is chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, wondered aloud if the Obama administration was sending a muddled message.



    : )

    ReplyDelete
  52. Continuing with the shit bird alert, How are our good friends the Saudis this AM?

    The delegates from the United Arab Emirates were in attendance at the Jenadrivah Heritage & Culture Festival in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, when religious police officers stormed the stand and evicted the men because “they are too handsome,” according to the Arabic language newspaper, Elaph.

    “A festival official said the three Emiratis were taken out on the grounds they are too handsome and that the Commission [for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vices] members feared female visitors could fall for them,” Elaph reported.
    The UAE released an official statement indicating that the religious police were anxious over the unexpected presence of an unnamed female artist in the pavilion.

    “Her visit to the UAE stand was a coincidence as it was not included in the programme which we had already provided to the festival’s management,” Saeed Al Kaabi, head of the UAE delegation to the festival, said in a statement.
    It was not clear if the woman’s presence was related to the decision to evict the “handsome” Emirati men.

    Following the incident, Elaph said the festival’s management took swift action to deport the trio back to Abu Dhabi, capital of the Emirates.
    With a majority Sunni Muslim population, Saudi Arabia is a deeply religious and ultraconservative society which forbids women from interacting with unrelated males and refuses to accord them with the same rights as men.

    It is the only country in the world where women are banned from driving.


    I hate when that happens.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      I guess I would likely be banned from all these events.

      .

      Delete

  53. Although Saudi Arabia is a longtime ally of the U.S., terrorism is a complicated issue between the two nations. Fifteen of the 19 suicide hijackers in the 9/11 attacks were Saudi citizens, and Osama bin Laden was born in Saudi Arabia.


    Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister offered condolences to President Obama Wednesday for the victims of the Boston Marathon bombings.
    Prince Saud Al-Faisal made the gesture during a meeting at the White House that included National Security Advisor Tom Donilon.


    The White House didn’t report Mr. Obama’s response about the Boston tragedy, but said the president asked Mr. Al-Faisal “to convey his best wishes to King Abdullah bin Abd Al-Aziz Al Saud.”

    In the immediate aftermath of the Boston bombings, police questioned a Saudi national, but authorities later said he was considered only a witness.

    There were no reports as to Obama and good old Al holding hands during the consolation. Forgot, Obama prefers genuflection.


    ReplyDelete
  54. Way cool! Some extremely valid points! I appreciate you writing this write-up plus the rest of the website is extremely good.


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    ReplyDelete
  55. High noon in Germany (12 o'clock data from agora-energiewende):

    wind power 16.9 GW
    PV 19.2 GW
    hydro 2.4 GW
    biomass 3.8 GW

    conventional 33.9 GW

    sum 76.2 GW, of which are 42.3 GW renewables.

    German demand ~68 GW
    export ~ 8 GW

    Until now no complaints due to net instabilities.


    55% from Wind and Solar.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Just a few years ago, Russia thought they had Germany by the short-hairs. It seemed like the Germans would have to be dependent on Russia's nat gas for their economy. So much for that.

      Now, Exxon, and BP are trying to convince us that we Must be dependent on them for our transportation. That is no more true than was the Russian/German nat gas preposition.

      Delete
  56. For questions about whether or not economic stimulus works, the key question, then, is what’s the multiplier? It’s pretty clear that it has been significantly positive in the U.S. and other developed countries since the downturn. The IMF, for instance, thought the multiplier in Europe was 0.5 before the crisis hit, but has since admitted it was wrong and that the multiplier was more like 1.5. So there isn’t really much doubt about whether fiscal stimulus could be used to boost growth in the economic conditions of the past few years. According to most of the literature on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the fiscal stimulus approach worked.

    The corollary of that finding is that in the kind of weak economy that gives you a high multiplier, budget cuts and tax increases hurt growth in the short run. What’s worse, they might even add to the debt burden. Take the IMF’s estimate of a multiplier of 1.5. That means that if you cut spending by 1 percent of GDP, the economy would shrink by 1.5 percent as well. And because the economy is shrinking by more than the debt burden is growing, the debt-to-GDP ratio would actually go up. Even if you think that high debt-to-GDP ratios cause slower growth, the answer may not be short-term austerity.

    It’s for reasons like this that economists such as Larry Summers and Brad DeLong have argued that the stimulus package will end up . . . . . . . .

    Basically, what any fool knows

    ReplyDelete
  57. Lost in the Boston Marathon news -

    April 18, 2013
    Eyewitness to history: A report from Dame Thatcher's funeral
    Scott Varland

    Outside the entrance to Saint Clement Danes Church in London, England, hundreds of us gathered and quietly waited for the hearse carrying Margaret Thatcher's flag-draped coffin. We greeted its arrival with the sort of unbidden, hushed applause that sometimes arises at transcendent moments.

    The coffin was removed from the hearse, carried through the church to the other side, and placed on a caisson. Meanwhile, I walked to Fleet Street where I knew the funeral procession would pass. Onlookers packed both sidewalks.

    Church bells rang into the silence.
    The procession began. A military band, with its mournful music, and soldiers led followed by six gleaming black horses drawing the caisson up Fleet Street toward Saint Paul's Cathedral where the funeral service would take place. Another black horse, saddled but riderless, walked alongside.

    Margaret Thatcher, a grocer's daughter from Grantham, had rescued Great Britain from the sordid fate of socialist decline and for that had been hated by some.
    Scorn for this real freedom fighter never completely faded away and was present even now. A woman held aloft a protest sign. No one reacted. If we had, we would have debased the occasion and ourselves.

    As the procession passed, we applauded as before and were left to wonder: would a living Margaret Thatcher pass our way again on either side of the Atlantic, and if so, would we possess the wisdom to grant her power?



    Scott Varland is an American lawyer residing in London, England.


    ReplyDelete
  58. Shit bird alert

    JERUSALEM — With Chuck Hagel scheduled to begin his first visit to Israel as secretary of defense on Sunday, Israeli defense and military officials issued explicit warnings this week that Israel was prepared and had the capability to carry out a lone military strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities.

    Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also spoke of dealing with the Iranian nuclear threat in an interview with the BBC broadcast on Thursday. Israel has “different vulnerabilities and different capabilities” than the United States,” he said. “We have to make our own calculations, when we lose the capacity to defend ourselves by ourselves.”


    TRANSLATION

    If we can’t drag the US into another war through the front door, we will start something that we can’t finish because we know that our assets are in place in Washington to force the US into another war at a time and place of our choosing.

    ReplyDelete
  59. The very definition of a strategic liability.

    ReplyDelete
  60. Washington has its marching orders.

    ReplyDelete
  61. The most important thing in the Miserable East

    Overlooked amid the good-natured chuckling that greeted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s smooth appearance on high-rating satire show “Eretz Nehederet” (A Wonderful Country) on Tuesday was the fact that Netanyahu indicated publicly for the first time that he hopes to fight and win a fourth term as prime minister.

    Asked by anchor Eyal Kitzis to comment on January’s elections, in which Netanyahu’s Likud-Beytenu alliance won 31 seats — a disappointing fall from the 42-seats in the last Knesset, but enough to see him retain the prime ministership — Netanyahu said the last time was “good.” But, he promised, “the next time will be better.”

    ReplyDelete
  62. The Israelis may do what we, Europe, and Saudi Arabia should have done long ago.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We, the Israelis, Europe and Saudi Arabia.

      Delete
  63. On this day two years ago, S&P lowered its long-term outlook on U.S. government debt to “negative” from “stable.” The move set the stage for the eventual credit downgrade a few months later that rocked markets and caused some of the most volatile daily swings in stock-market history.

    ReplyDelete
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