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."

Friday, August 29, 2014

“Investors are scared of intensified military activities and a start of military clashes between Russia and Ukraine.”

Ruble Drops to Record as Stocks Fall on Ukraine; Wheat Advances
By Ksenia Galouchko August 29, 2014


The ruble weakened to a record and stocks fell amid concern Russia may face more sanctions as fighting intensifies in Ukraine. Wheat extended its first monthly advance since April.
The currency weakened 0.5 percent to 36.9315 against the dollar at 2:15 p.m. in Moscow, after dropping to a low of 37.0260. The Micex Index slid 0.6 percent. Ukraine’s July 2017 Eurobonds fell for an eighth day, the longest slump since March 2013. Wheat rose a fourth day on concern the conflict will reduce supplies from the Black Sea region.
An escalation of fighting in eastern Ukraine prompted calls by the European Union to threaten further penalties and U.S. President Barack Obama said yesterday Russia faces “more costs and consequences” for violating the sovereignty of its neighbor. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called the offensive a “de facto” incursion by Russia.
“Ukraine’s statements about Russia’s military presence on its territory are concerning signals and a clear symptom that there may be new sanctions,” Artem Roschin, a foreign-exchange dealer at OOO KB Aljba Alliance bank in Moscow, said by phone. “Investors are scared of intensified military activities and a start of military clashes between Russia and Ukraine.”
Sanctions already imposed by the U.S. and Europe are exacerbating a slowdown that threatens an economy teetering on the brink of a recession. Gross domestic product will grow 0.5 percent this year, the slowest since a 2009 contraction, according Economy Ministry forecasts.
Putin’s Troops
More than 1,000 of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s troops are operating inside Ukraine, manning sophisticated weaponry and advising local separatists, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization said yesterday.
The escalation, denied by Russia, prompted a warning of “consequences” from U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel said EU leaders would discuss new sanctions this weekend.
Today’s decline in the ruble sent it down 3.1 percent in August. The ruble weakened 0.4 percent to 48.6275 per euro, the third day of declines. The yield on benchmark ruble notes maturing February 2027 rose three basis points to 9.75 percent after gaining the most since March 12 yesterday. The currency is the worst performer against the dollar among 24 emerging markets this year after the Argentinian and Chilean pesos, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
Stocks fell for a second day, extending this week’s decline to 2.2 percent.
Sell Stocks
Morgan Stanley cut Russian shares to underweight from neutral, citing the rising risk of sanctions following the latest escalation in Ukraine, according to today’s e-mailed note.
“Escalation puts the ‘investability’ of Russia into question,” analysts led by Ronan Carr said in an e-mailed note. “In our worst-case scenario involving full sanctions, a material portion of the listed stock market in Russia could become uninvestable for many investors.”
The yield on Ukraine’s Eurobond rose 15 basis points higher to 12.37 percent, a three-month high.
Wheat futures were at $5.7675 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade today, set to gain 2.6 percent this week. They surged 8.8 percent in August, and reached $5.7925 yesterday, the highest since July 3. Futures rebounded 11 percent since touching a four-year low on July 29 as the conflict worsened.
Russia and Ukraine together will account for 21 percent of global wheat exports in 2014-15, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data.
To contact the reporter on this story: Ksenia Galouchko in Moscow at kgalouchko1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Wojciech Moskwa at wmoskwa@bloomberg.net Alex Nicholson, Stephen Kirkland

214 comments:

  1. The civilized world is out on a ledge. This morons in the media are in a twitter over Obama’s suit. A mad man, soul transparent to Southern Evangelicals, sits in the Kremlin and playing like it is the 1930s in Crimea and Ukraine. The holy of holies, god is great mother fuckers, with their 12th century brains up their previously buggered asses are killing thousands to satisfy their insatiable killing lust.

    Obama, a civilized man, chastened by his impetuous predecessor,George Hotspur is being extremely cautious.

    Viscerally, we all prefer the immediate satisfaction of a Hotspur response, but events of our recent past counsel caution.

    We wasted enough time, lives and economic power making it wrong. Get this one right.

    ReplyDelete
  2. America the cuckholded.

    Thanks to Obama (and his bosses) America stands for NOTHING now...

    Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, Russia, China, Turkey and Qatar now lead the world,

    America is concerned about income redistribution, climate change, C02 output and of course allowing 12-30 million more illegals to come to America and get their legal and rightful benefits....

    ReplyDelete
  3. Obama's greatest ally is "time."

    His strategy should be to "wait" until the pain on the locals is unbearable. Only then will the local groups begin to want to cooperate with each other to make the pain go away.

    If he moves in too soon it will just be "business as usual." If he waits long enough our help might actually be appreciated.

    (plus, any plan put in place will have an easier time succeeding.)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Only then will the local groups begin to want to cooperate with each other to make the pain go away.


      LOL

      The Shits verses the Suns.. Cooperate? Is that the new term for mass murder of each other?

      Personally? The violence that now is consuming BOTH the sides of the islamic shit sandwich? SUCK.

      You are correct however the longer America does nothing? The better, however America is NOT doing nothing, it's allowing Iran to up grade and expand it's centrifuge program, America is allowing instability and chaos to reign.

      All America would have to do to slow down the insanity? Announce the opening up of American oil and coal for export, drive the price of oil thru the floor and in 5 days?

      A lot of the shit would evaporate as the revenue for oil would plummet....

      Delete
    2. You goofy, Zionist fucker, the U.S. is a huge Oil Importer, not exporter.

      Delete
    3. Zionist fucker?

      You are a racist.

      Always blaming the Jews and the whites first.

      The entire world can go straight to hell as long as the flow of Budweiser is not interrupted to Clan Rufus.

      Delete
    4. "Zionism" is a Race?

      Stupid Shit.

      Delete
    5. Anti-Zionism is the new anti-Semitism, but I guess you didn't know that?

      Delete
    6. Horseshit! Most American Jews are in the "anti-Zionist" camp.

      Delete
    7. Next you will be saying most American Jews support Hamas and Iran.

      Delete
    8. Bob, you have a severe case of synapsinosis. Your soul brother referred to two religious groups from the same and different races as LOL

      The Shits verses the Suns


      Then a man who has more intellectual DNA in his cast off socks than you have in your former brain, referred to a political-religious-movement and your synapse storm related occlusion ruptured.

      Delete
  4. Putin is not insane; he knows his adversaries. What makes this Ukrainian move dangerous is that Putin's adversaries don't know themselves and may, consequently, feel that any move is better than none.

    It was just a matter of time before Putin began to gobble up those parts of eastern Ukraine he thought strategically important. At the moment, there is nothing the West can do other than fume. I would advise getting to work on a containment policy and plan - strategy is important. In fact, I would begin with our good friends the French.

    As to blame, we can thank Messers. Clinton, Bush, and Obama for attempting to push NATO et al down the Russian's throat.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What were we to do? Turn those countries away that were desperate to get out, finally, from under the Russian Bear?

      When the Soviet Union collapsed they all ran to the west as fast as their legs could carry them.

      It wasn't a mistake to welcome them in.

      Delete
    2. Damned right, they can defend themselves, or Russia can have them. We didn't lose a damned thing in the Ukraine.

      A bunch of neo-nazis overthrew the elected government (evidently, with our help - bad on us,) but there's no use compounding our idiocy.

      Delete
  5. The price of Corn, btw, is down to, basically, the price of production.

    $3.67 / bu., yesterday.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Barley here was $220/ton just a couple months ago.

      Now it is $160/ton, and falling.

      Delete
    2. I'm glad I'm out of farming.

      The garbanzo beans are all that is left to harvest around here.

      The farmers are spraying on some kind of desiccant to speed up the ripening process.

      We need three more weeks of summer around here.

      The garbanzo beans are always iffy in this regard.

      Delete
    3. He's the ho, he's Bob

      Delete
  6. George Hotspur - :)

    I call and raise you:

    Barack Hamlet

    harharhar

    ReplyDelete
  7. The Personal Income and Outlays Report, this morning, has Year over Year inflation running at 1.5%.

    I saw on tv this morning that Italy is now solidly in Deflation, at -0.2% last month.

    ReplyDelete
  8. http://finance.yahoo.com/news/putin-directly-addressed-rebels-ukraine-115427611.html
    Putin Directly Addressed Rebels In Ukraine For The First Time, And He Used A Frightening Word To Describe Them

    ReplyDelete
  9. The Opinion Pages | Op-Ed Columnist

    Is Everyone a Little Bit Racist?


    AUG. 27, 2014

    Nicholas Kristof

    Let’s start with what we don’t know: the precise circumstances under which a white police officer in Ferguson, Mo., shot dead an unarmed black teenager named Michael Brown.

    But here’s what evidence does strongly suggest: Young black men in America suffer from widespread racism and stereotyping, by all society — including African-Americans themselves.

    Research in the last couple of decades suggests that the problem is not so much overt racists. Rather, the larger problem is a broad swath of people who consider themselves enlightened, who intellectually believe in racial equality, who deplore discrimination, yet who harbor unconscious attitudes that result in discriminatory policies and behavior.

    Scholars have found that blacks and Hispanics treated by doctors for a broken leg received pain medication significantly less often than white patients with the same injury. School administrators suspend black students at more than three times the rate of white students. Police arrest blacks at 3.7 times the rate of whites for marijuana possession, even though surveys find that both use marijuana at roughly similar rates.

    Two scholars sent out nearly 5,000 résumés in response to help-wanted ads, randomly alternating between stereotypically white-sounding names and black-sounding names. They found that it took 50 percent more mailings to get a callback for a black name. A white name yielded as much benefit as eight years of experience, according to the study, published by the National Bureau of Economic Research.

    These doctors, principals, prosecutors and recruiters probably believe in equality and are unaware that they are discriminating. So any national conversation about race must be a vivisection of challenges far broader and deeper than we might like to think.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Joshua Correll of the University of Colorado at Boulder has used an online shooter video game to try to measure these unconscious attitudes (you can play the game yourself). The player takes on the role of a police officer who is confronted with a series of images of white or black men variously holding guns or innocent objects such as wallets or cellphones. The aim is to shoot anyone with a gun while holstering your weapon in other cases.

      Ordinary players (often university undergraduates) routinely shoot more quickly at black men than at white men, and are more likely to mistakenly shoot an unarmed black man than an unarmed white man.

      I’m typical. The first time I took the test, years ago, I shot armed blacks in an average of 0.679 seconds while waiting slightly longer — 0.694 seconds — to shoot armed whites. I also holstered more quickly when confronted with unarmed whites than with unarmed blacks.

      In effect, we have a more impulsive trigger finger when confronted by black men and are more cautious with whites. This is true of black players as well, apparently because they absorb the same cultural values as everyone else: Correll has found no statistically significant difference between the play of blacks and that of whites in the shooting game.

      “There’s a whole culture that promotes this idea of aggressive young black men,” Correll notes. “In our minds, young black men are associated with danger.”

      Further evidence for these unconscious attitudes toward race come from implicit association tests, a window into how our unconscious minds work. You can take them online at https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/.

      One finding is that we unconsciously associate “American” with “white.” Thus, in 2008, some California college students — many who were supporting Barack Obama for president — unconsciously treated Obama as more foreign than Tony Blair, the former British prime minister. Likewise, Americans may be factually aware that Lucy Liu is an American actress and Kate Winslet is British, but the tests indicated that Americans considered Liu as more foreign than Winslet.

      Yet we needn’t surrender to our most atavistic impulses. Prejudice is not immutable, and over all the progress in America on race is remarkable. In 1958, 4 percent of Americans approved of black-white marriages; today, 87 percent do.

      There’s some evidence that training, metrics and policies can suppress biases or curb their impact. In law enforcement, more cameras — police car cams and body cams — create accountability and may improve behavior. When Rialto, Calif., introduced body cams on police officers, there was an 88 percent decline in complaints filed about police by members of the public.

      Yet an uncomfortable starting point is to understand that racial stereotyping remains ubiquitous, and that the challenge is not a small number of twisted white supremacists but something infinitely more subtle and complex: People who believe in equality but who act in ways that perpetuate bias and inequality

      http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/28/opinion/nicholas-kristof-is-everyone-a-little-bit-racist.html?_r=0

      Delete
    2. Even Juan Williams has admitted he is a little uncomfortable when confronting a group of shaggy looking black males on the street.

      But there is a real reason for this - one is much more likely to get roughed up by a group of young black males on the street than one is by a group of 'Zionists', for instance.

      Since Rufus never leaves the confines of his home except to go to Doyle's he may not have experienced this apprehension.

      So he takes his out on whites and 'Zionists' over the internet.

      Delete
    3. Da ho is searching for equivalency, he must be a Zionist

      Delete
  10. Rufus IIFri Aug 29, 08:19:00 AM EDT
    You goofy, Zionist fucker,


    ...brilliant...You have now managed to introduce your garbage an unrelated topic. Now, I don't care if you think him "goofy" and I don't care if you think him a "fucker" but, you neo-Nazi bastard, Zionism has nothing to do with his remark.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I get tired of a constant barrage of this shit:




      What is "Occupation"Fri Aug 29, 08:10:00 AM EDT

      America the cuckholded.

      Thanks to Obama (and his bosses) America stands for NOTHING now...

      Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, Russia, China, Turkey and Qatar now lead the world,

      America is concerned about income redistribution, climate change, C02 output and of course allowing 12-30 million more illegals to come to America and get their legal and rightful benefits....


      Delete
    2. And, This Bullshit:

      however America is NOT doing nothing, it's allowing Iran to up grade and expand it's centrifuge program, America is allowing instability and chaos to reign.

      We've caused Iran to cut All of its 20% Uranium down to fuel grade levels, and are negotiating away their ability to build Nuclear Weapons - but, that doesn't suit the Zionist dream of going to war with Iran.

      I'm just weary of the stupid "sophomore in a Tel Aviv boiler room" craziness.

      Delete
    3. I get tired of a constant barrage of this shit:




      What is "Occupation"Fri Aug 29, 08:10:00 AM EDT

      America the cuckholded.

      Thanks to Obama (and his bosses) America stands for NOTHING now...

      Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, Russia, China, Turkey and Qatar now lead the world,

      America is concerned about income redistribution, climate change, C02 output and of course allowing 12-30 million more illegals to come to America and get their legal and rightful benefits….



      Then refute it, show me how I said anything incorrect. But calling me a "zionist fucker" is so rules for radicals of you…

      When you can't argue the facts? Smear the arguer

      Delete
    4. I kinda think what I said is right on…

      America the cuckholded.

      Thanks to Obama (and his bosses) America stands for NOTHING now...

      Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, Russia, China, Turkey and Qatar now lead the world,

      America is concerned about income redistribution, climate change, C02 output and of course allowing 12-30 million more illegals to come to America and get their legal and rightful benefits….

      Delete
    5. Israel Pays Students For Pro-Israeli Social Media Propaganda


      The move was publicised in a statement from Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office, the Associated Press reported. Students will receive scholarships to "engage international audiences online" and combat anti-Semitism and calls to boycott Israel


      Delete
  11. http://www.jpost.com/International/Jewish-oil-tycoon-Khodorkovsky-urges-Russians-to-protest-purported-military-action-in-Ukraine-372749
    Russian denial of Ukraine military involvement is lie, says former oil tycoon Khodorkovsy

    ReplyDelete
  12. Rufus IIFri Aug 29, 08:55:00 AM EDT
    Horseshit! Most American Jews are in the "anti-Zionist" camp.

    Where do you get this shit?

    Most American Jews support the for a Jewish Homeland in it's historic lands and self determination for those folks.

    Please site your statistics that show MOST American Jews are anti-zionist camp.

    Please do so, or you may just admit you are wrong.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. He is correct, "O"rdure.

      The “Portrait of Jewish Americans” Pew Poll asked a number of detailed questions, such as how many Jews think the settlement project is good for Israel’s security (17 percent said they do) or how many think the Israeli government is sincere in its pursuit of peace (just 38 percent said they do).
      ...
      ... our attitudes are unlikely to change much while the occupation persists, but in the meantime, the Israeli government and their counterparts in the pro-Israel lobby must acknowledge the destructive reality of the occupation – first and foremost on the Palestinians who are subjected to it, and then on the Jewish-American psyche.


      http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/the-jewish-thinker/1.557544

      Delete
    2. So sorry Rat, your so called rebuttal does not prove jack shit.

      " MOST American Jews are anti-zionist camp "

      Questioning Israel choices on security or settlements doesn't say they are "anti-zionist"

      once again you misdirect and or lie…

      Delete
  13. Rufus IIFri Aug 29, 08:19:00 AM EDT
    You goofy, Zionist fucker, the U.S. is a huge Oil Importer, not exporter.


    And?

    How would that effect if America PRODUCED MORE Reducing the amount IMPORTED would drive the price down.

    It's called "supply and demand"

    My theory is there is NOT enough oil and coal being produced. If there were MORE that would drive the cost down.

    Your response? Off topic and literally insulting….

    Let's remind you of what you said "Rufus IIFri Aug 29, 08:19:00 AM EDT
    You goofy, Zionist fucker, the U.S. is a huge Oil Importer, not exporter."

    Brent crude oil fell and U.S. crude rose as ample global supply and lackluster demand pressured the global benchmark while positive U.S. economic data supported oil prices in the world's largest oil consumer.

    U.S. gross domestic product expanded at a 4.2 percent annual rate instead of the previously reported 4.0 percent pace, the Commerce Department said on Thursday, reflecting upward revisions to business spending and exports.


    So if you want to HURT Russia, Iran, Iraq, ISIS, SYria, Qatar?

    Drive the price DOWN..

    Rufus, try reading and thinking before typing…


    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. According the preliminary analysis of Ruf's posts done by my brain information flow expert Niece, Rufus has loads of 'unconscious content' that periodically floats to the surface, along with a 'strong recycle loop' that hinders creative thought. All this surrounding by an extreme Budweiser flow.


      You must keep that in mind when thinking of The Ruf.

      Delete
    2. Unlike Socialist countries such as Israel, in the United States the "State" doesn't produce oil. We leave it to private business.

      And, at $100.00 + / barrel, I will guarantee you that those Private Companies are expanding production just as fast as they possibly can.

      I will remind you one more fucking time: The United States Imports 7 Million Barrels of Oil, Daily.

      There will never come a day in the history of the world that the U.S. is a Net Oil Exporter.

      Delete
    3. That's what she told me the last time I let her blow me, Bob.

      Delete
    4. Rufus IIFri Aug 29, 09:34:00 AM EDT
      Unlike Socialist countries such as Israel, in the United States the "State" doesn't produce oil. We leave it to private business.

      Government in America controls public land drilling leases and Obama has used his office to strangle fossil fuel producers and such from expansion.

      Have you forgotten the OIL transport pipeline from Canada to Texas and OBAMS's hindrance?

      Keystone XL?

      Rufus" Unlike Socialist countries such as Israel, in the United States the "State" doesn't produce oil. We leave it to private business.

      But the STATE does have controls to help or hurt policies..

      On May 30, 2010 a 6 month moratorium on all deepwater offshore drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf was declared by U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar. The limitation was in response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill which occurred in the Gulf of Mexico.

      As a response to the disaster, on 30 April President Barack Obama ordered the federal government to hold the issuing of new offshore drilling leases until a review determined whether more safety systems were needed[1] and authorized teams to investigate 29 oil rigs in the Gulf in an effort to determine the cause of the disaster.[2]

      On May 27 the United States Department of the Interior issued a press release stating that Salazar would issue a 6 month offshore drilling (below 500 feet (150 m) of water) moratorium in the area.[3][4] Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar ordered immediate inspections of all deep-water operations in the Gulf of Mexico. An Outer Continental Shelf safety review board within the Department of the Interior is to provide recommendations for conducting drilling activities in the Gulf.[5] In a May 30 announcement of the limitation Salazar said:

      “ The six month moratorium on deepwater drilling will provide time to implement new safety requirements and to allow the Presidential Commission to complete its work... Deepwater production from the Gulf of Mexico will continue subject to close oversight and safety requirements, but deepwater drilling operations must safely come to a halt. With the BP oil spill still growing in the Gulf, and investigations and reviews still underway, a six month pause in drilling is needed, appropriate, and prudent.[6] ”
      It was challenged by several drilling and oil services companies. The moratorium was to impact 33 deepwater drilling sites, less than 1% of the 3,600 oil and natural gas production platforms in the Gulf of Mexico.[7][4] Local officials in Louisiana expressed concern that the moratorium imposed in response to the spill would further harm the economies of coastal communities as the oil industry employs about 58,000 Louisiana residents and has created another 260,000 oil-related jobs, accounting for about 17% of all Louisiana jobs.[


      So the State does control production…

      Hmmm

      Rufus you speak with forked tongue…

      Liar Liar Pants on Fire.

      ga-ye-go-gi!!!!!!!!

      Delete
  14. Energy & Environment

    A New American Oil Bonanza


    By CLIFFORD KRAUSSAUG. 28, 2014




    THREE RIVERS, Tex. — Whenever overseas turmoil has pushed energy prices higher in the past, John and Beth Hughes have curbed their driving by eating at home more and shopping locally. But the current crises in Ukraine and Iraq did not stop them from making the two-hour drive to San Antonio to visit the Alamo, have a chicken fried steak lunch, and buy fish for their tank before driving home to Corpus Christi.

    “We were able to take a day-cation because of the lower gas prices,” said Ms. Hughes.

    The reason for the improved economics of road travel can be found 10,000 feet below the ground here, where the South Texas Eagle Ford shale is providing more than a million new barrels of oil supplies to the world market every day. United States refinery production in recent weeks reached record highs and left supply depots flush, cushioning the impact of all the instability surrounding traditional global oil fields.

    So oil prices — and those at the pump — are easing.With the Labor Day weekend approaching, the national average price for a gallon of regular gasoline was $3.43 on Thursday, according to the AAA motor club, nearly a dime lower than a month ago. Energy and travel analysts project the lowest gasoline prices this holiday weekend of any Labor Day since 2010, and the highest level of motor travel since 2008.

    John and Beth Hughes stopping for gas in Three Rivers, Tex. They say low gas prices allowed them to take a “day-cation” to buy fish in San Antonio. Credit Michael Stravato for The New York Times

    “It’s a relief,” said Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at GasBuddy.com, who estimates that American consumers collectively saved as much as $700 million a week through much of August compared with last year. “We can thank Texas, North Dakota and Canada.”

    Nowhere is the boom bigger than in Texas, home to two of three of the nation’s biggest shale-oil drilling frenzies. While oil rushes are nothing new to the state of J.R. Ewing and Spindletop, the new bonanza has doubled the state’s crude production over the last two years, suddenly making Texas a bigger producer than either Kuwait or Venezuela.

    The Eagle Ford field surrounding this refinery town is responsible for more than half of Texas’ new bounty. The production frenzy here and other shale fields in West Texas and North Dakota, all made possible by horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, techniques that crack oil and gas out of hard shale rock with blasts of water, sand and chemicals, has lowered the country’s dependence on imported oil by more than a third in recent years........

    http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/29/business/energy-environment/shale-oil-in-texas-keeps-gas-prices-affordable.html?ref=energy-environment

    ReplyDelete
  15. Rufus IIFri Aug 29, 08:19:00 AM EDT
    You goofy, Zionist fucker, the U.S. is a huge Oil Importer, not exporter.



    Now I am a Zionist. I support the right of a Jews to have their national aspirations actualized as the Jewish State. And what a fine state it is.

    20% of Israel is Arab, Moslem and Free. Israel which sits on 1/900th of the arab occupied middle east is the freest and fairest nation in the area. Look at a map, Syria, Iraq and within that area ISIS's new carved out state IS is it free? is it democratic in a jeffersonian way? Look to Tunisia, Libya, Qatar, Arabia as the example for plurality and freedom…. How about Gaza and the West Bank? Hmm…

    Yes I am PROUD Zionist. You, Rufus stand with anarchy, Hamas, folks that behead those that are different, those that shoot rockets and mortars INTENTIONALLY at civilians… That is what you stand for…

    I stand with Israel, you stand with Jihadists savages..

    Makes your folks proud? LOL

    ReplyDelete
    Replies



    1. Idaho BobFri Aug 29, 09:31:00 AM EDT

      According the preliminary analysis of Ruf's posts done by my brain information flow expert Niece, Rufus has loads of 'unconscious content' that periodically floats to the surface, along with a 'strong recycle loop' that hinders creative thought. All this surrounding by an extreme Budweiser flow.


      You must keep that in mind when thinking of The Ruf.

      Delete
    2. And, then you can imagine that little hindu honey's lips locked firmly around MENAC. :) :) :)

      Delete
    3. I confess I cannot recall what MENAC stands for.....if I did I'd probably be pissed.

      She speaks five languages, Rufus, while you speak two.....Grunt, and Curse.

      You are an ape.

      Delete
    4. Every whore I ever met that was from East of the Adriatic spoke four or five languages. It's a geographical thang.

      Delete
    5. More income sources, with greater linguistic abilities.
      da ho knows.

      Delete
  16. Rufus IIFri Aug 29, 09:29:00 AM EDT
    And, This Bullshit:

    however America is NOT doing nothing, it's allowing Iran to up grade and expand it's centrifuge program, America is allowing instability and chaos to reign.

    We've caused Iran to cut All of its 20% Uranium down to fuel grade levels, and are negotiating away their ability to build Nuclear Weapons - but, that doesn't suit the Zionist dream of going to war with Iran.

    I'm just weary of the stupid "sophomore in a Tel Aviv boiler room" craziness.




    I am in Ohio. Been here for 30 years. Before that? Texas, before that? Pittsburgh, before that Philadelphia.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Rufus:

      We've caused Iran to cut All of its 20% Uranium down to fuel grade levels, and are negotiating away their ability to build Nuclear Weapons - but, that doesn't suit the Zionist dream of going to war with Iran.

      Hmm, maybe you were not reading. I said increasing American oil and coal (and natural gas) would drive the prices down and hurt the enemies of America Iraq, Russia, Iran.

      Does that sound like I am advocating "going to war"?

      Delete
    2. Rufus:
      We've caused Iran to cut All of its 20% Uranium down to fuel grade levels, and are negotiating away their ability to build Nuclear Weapons - but, that doesn't suit the Zionist dream of going to war with Iran.

      Your take on the hand job called the "nuclear talks" is telling..

      I notice you didn't response to the point that IRan is now bragging about it's new generation of centrifuges?

      Iran introduces new generation of centrifuges
      The new IR-8 model will process uranium more efficiently

      http://www.timesofisrael.com/iran-introduces-new-generation-of-centrifuges/#ixzz3BmwDQlqg

      Iran currently has nearly 19,000 centrifuges, including 10,000 of the so-called first generation being used to enrich uranium. Some 1,000 second generation machines, three to five times more powerful, have been installed but are not in service. Under the November deal, Iran cannot increase the number of its centrifuges.

      So just 6 year ago Iran had what? 5 thousand or so? Now it has 18,000 and is UPGRADING them…


      The UN Security Council has passed eight resolutions on Iran:

      Resolution 1696 (31 July 2006) demanded that Iran suspend its uranium enrichment activities,
      Resolution 1737 (23 December 2006) imposed sanctions after Iran refused to suspend its enrichment activities, required Iran to cooperate with IAEA,
      Resolution 1747 (24 March 2007) expanded the list of sanctioned Iranian entities,
      Resolution 1803 (3 March 2008) extended those sanctions to additional persons and entities,
      Resolution 1835 (27 September 2008) reaffirmed the preceding four resolutions,
      Resolution 1929 (9 June 2010) imposed a complete arms embargo on Iran, banned Iran from any activities related to ballistic missiles, authorized the inspection and seizure of shipments violating these restrictions, and extended the asset freeze to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL), established Panel of Experts (whose mandate was extended three times by Resolution 1984 (8 June 2011), Resolution 2049 (7 June 2012), and Resolution 2105 (5 June 2013)).

      But I love the claim "All of its 20% Uranium down to fuel grade levels"

      The IAEA February 2013 report stated that Iran has resumed reconverting near-20% enriched uranium into Oxide form to fabricate fuel for the Tehran Research Reactor, which makes it more difficult to further enrich that uranium to weapons grade, since it would first need to be converted back to uranium hexafluoride gas.


      So it NOT getting rid on anything, just playing a shell game…

      How do we KNOW how MUCH Iran has since it doesn't LET inspectors into many Military sites?

      Delete
    3. Your quote is from Feb. 2013, dumbshit.

      Delete
  17. POLL: Dems More Afraid of Global Warming Than ISIS... ..............drudge

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ISIS has no effect on their lives, nor will it.

      Delete
  18. MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday accused Kiev and its allies of backing peace talks only as a smoke-screen to allow Ukraine to continue military operations, sidestepping accusations that Russia is funneling troops into eastern Ukraine to fight alongside separatist rebels.

    Hopes for a diplomatic solution to the crisis have dimmed significantly in recent days. Putin’s claim came as Ukraine’s government proposed repealing a law banning membership in military blocs and moving toward joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which Russia considers a threat to its interests.

    “Ukrainian authorities must be forced to start substantive talks,” Putin told a youth forum in northwest Russia. He didn’t specify how that would happen, but accused Kiev and the West of supporting talks only if Kiev “is allowed to shoot a bit first.”

    Moscow has long called for Kiev to stop its military operation unconditionally, but previous cease-fires have fallen apart almost as soon as they were announced amid allegations from both sides of violations. Ukraine has said it is open to a truce but only if it is observed by both sides.

    In unusually harsh language, Putin compared Ukrainian forces’ tactics to those used by the Nazis in their invasion of Russia, surrounding cities with artillery and shelling civilian targets. Kiev has denied those allegation.


    This man is mad.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mad as a Hatter.

      Mean, uncouth, rude, aggressive, a real shit.

      But he is popular right now in Mother Russia.

      NATO should put some real troops in the Baltic countries ASAP.

      IMHO

      Delete
  19. Hw needs to be removed. The greater degree of removal, the better.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. WE need to be damned careful that we don't pull a GW Bush, II.

      Delete
    2. Now, Cameron is Beating the old "War Drum."

      He'll "beat the drum," and we'll spend the Trillions of Dollars, and American Kids' Lives.

      Fuck those warmongering assholes.

      Delete
  20. We have a real opportunity to assist the vast majority of Muslims to exorcise the fanatical cults from the Muslim mainstream. ISIL has clarified the divide. That division needs to be highlighted and exploited with rational interested Muslims and US ana Nato support.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That is why Egypt has gone to war against the ISIS of Gaza and Egypt, HAMAS and the Moslem Brotherhood.

      Just this week Egypt destroyed the it's 1,650th tunnel from the Gaza Strip into the SInai.

      :)

      Delete
    2. The vast majority of Muslims simply haven't picked up guns yet.

      I hear next to zero outcry in the USA from the vast majority of Muslims here complaining about the behavior of their cousins in the middle east.

      "A moderate Muslim is one that's out of ammo."

      Henry Kissinger

      Or one that hasn't picked up the gun yet.

      Delete
    3. What I do see is a bunch of Muslims from the USA beginning to head off to the middle east to fight for their particular brand of fanaticism.

      I say give them all immediate Visas.

      That fellow - the Fort Hood shooter of 'workplace violence' fame - has announced he wishes to become a citizen of ISIS.

      He however is in jail and it is difficult to renounce one's citizenship in the USA from a jail cell.

      Delete
  21. Henry Kissinger, the war criminal?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Perhaps, whatever your point of view......nevertheless the man knows his Muslims.

      Delete
    2. Obama's got the right idea. When (if?) those people Over There decide that they've had enough, we can make their job a whole, hell of a lot easier. Until then . . . . . . . . . well, we'll probably do something with the Haditha Dam situation. That has the makings of a potential humanitarian disaster of very large magnitude.

      Other than that? Step up the surveillance flights, and get all the drones that we can "on station."

      Delete
    3. .

      They are already pulling the drones they were using to search for and monitor Bobo Harum in Nigeria.

      .

      Delete
  22. We are going to war with ISIL willingly or unwillingly.

    ReplyDelete
  23. In a bluntly worded message Friday, NATO on Friday condemned Russian military action in Ukraine, saying its troops have "illegally crossed the border" as part of a "dangerous pattern over many months" to destabilize its neighbor.

    NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, speaking after a meeting of the NATO-Ukraine commission, was unsparing in his criticism of Russia, charging that its forces were directly engaged in military operations inside Ukraine, continued to supply separatists with tanks, armored vehicles, artillery and rocket launchers and had fired on Ukraine from both Russian territory and within Ukraine itself.

    "This is a blatant violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity," Rasmussen said. "It defies all diplomatic efforts for a peaceful solution."

    Russia has denied its troops have operated inside Ukraine, despite NATO's release of satellite images on Thursday showing what the Western alliance said were Russian tanks, armored personnel carries and artillery moving around in eastern Ukraine.

    Nearly 2,600 people have died in clashes between Ukrainian armed forces and Russian-back rebels since April, according to a new U.N. report.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Sweden and Finland have decided to get closer to NATO.

    ReplyDelete
  25. The new European infrastructure project to increase economic activity may be military bases in the EU.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That would be eminently sensible.

      Just one of many reasons why they won't do it. :)

      Delete
    2. .

      It seems just yesterday that some here were bemoaning our presence in Europe and the dollars involved.

      The Obumble strategy writ large.

      .

      Delete
  26. I am willing to bet that the two US groups with the lowest rates of violent crime are Muslims and Jews.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The "Jews" part is a given. I have never thought about the Muslims in that way, but you might very well be right.

      Delete
    2. Praying 5 times a day doesn't leave a whole lot of time for gettin' in trouble. :) ;)

      Delete
    3. Those good American citizens the boys that blew up the foot race upped the Moslem rate a bit, as did the 'workplace violence' shooter.

      Those fellows were all praying to Allah as they pulled the trigger or blew the bombs.

      I am not certain you are onto much there with that praying five times a day comment, Rufus.

      Delete


    4. PAPER: Terror chatter soars as 9-11 anniversary approaches...

      America's Twin City 'terror pipeline'...

      Fort Hood shooter requests to become citizen of ISIS...

      Man With ISIS Flag Waving From Car Leads Police On Chase Through Chicago...

      Makes Bomb Threat...............drudge

      Hmmmm.....

      Delete
    5. And who is that is shooting up American school children? any more Hmmms?

      Delete
    6. The school shooters, American boys?

      Delete
    7. Factor in the relative populations of regular American boys vs. Muslims.

      It's probably like 300 to 1.

      Hmmmm ?

      We agree on the Jews. More peaceful than Swedes even.

      Delete
    8. The Jewsh criminals are not as violent, but steal much much more.

      This is illustrated by the arrest and conviction of Bernie Madoff, who stole $65 BILLION dollars.

      Delete
    9. http://www.businessinsider.com/how-bernie-madoffs-ponzi-scheme-worked-2014-7

      Delete
  27. Austerity and the Hapless Left

    In today’s column I am not nice to Francois Hollande, who has shown about as much strength in standing up to austerians as a wet Kleenex. But one does have to admit that he’s not alone in his haplessness; where, indeed, are the major political figures on the European left taking a stand against disastrous policies? Britain’s Labour Party has been almost surreally unwilling to challenge Cameron/Osborne’s core premises; is anyone doing better?

    You can complain — and I have, often — about President Obama’s willingness to go along with belt-tightening rhetoric, the years he wasted in pursuit of a Grand Bargain, and so on; still, the Obama administration, while it won’t use the word “stimulus”, favors the thing itself, and in general American liberals have taken a much more forthright stand against hard-money, balanced-budget orthodoxy than their counterparts in Europe. Economists, in particular, have taken a much stronger stand. In Britain there are, to be sure, some prominent anti-austerity voices — Martin Wolf, Jonathan Portes, Simon Wren-Lewis, and I’m sure there are others I’m missing. But they don’t seem to have anything like the weight in the debate that Larry Summers, Alan Blinder, and many others have here.

    Why the difference? I don’t really know. I have a couple of hypotheses. One is that the US intellectual ecology seems much more flexible: here, serious economists with celebrated research can also be public intellectuals with large followings, and even serve as public officials; and they can provide at least some counterweight to the Very Serious People. Think Larry Summers, but also Janet Yellen (and before her Ben Bernanke), and in a somewhat different way yours truly. Such people aren’t totally absent in Europe — Mervyn King was an academic central banker, and so in a way is Mario Draghi. But there’s much more of that in the US.

    {...}

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. {...}

      Another hypothesis is that American liberals have been toughened up by the craziness of our right, and in particular by the experience of the Bush years. After seeing the Very Serious People lionize W, a fundamentally ludicrous figure, and cheer on a war that was obviously cooked up on false pretenses, US liberals are more ready than European Social Democrats to believe that the men in good suits have no idea what they’re talking about. Oh, and America does have a network of progressive think tanks that is vastly bigger and more effective than anything in Europe.

      But I’m just making suggestions here. The haplessness of the European left is still something I don’t fully understand.

      <a href="http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/08/29/austerity-and-the-hapless-left/'>Paul Krugman - NYT</a>

      Delete
  28. Just heard on CNBC: Chicago manufacturers are reporting that their Chinese suppliers are having a hard time getting loans.

    ?

    Intrestin'

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Charlie Chi-com must want to 'slow down' the global economy.

      Delete
    2. Yeah, I just got "lost in the hand."

      My list of 100 most likely headlines out of China did not include "Chinese manufacturers are having a hard time getting loans."

      Delete
  29. Jack is back, so I'm headin' out.

    Nice while it lasted.

    Cheers !

    later

    ReplyDelete

  30. Jewish Vote Goes 69 Percent For Barack Obama: Exit Polls
    Huffington Post
    If you identify as a Democrat, you are far more likely to vote Democratic than if you identify as an independent or a Republican. In this instance, 70% of Jews self-identify as leaning to or members of the Democratic party. That compares with just 49% of the American public overall who at least lean Democratic.

    Jeff Jacoby commenting on the Democrats and those that support Democrats ...

    Yet wherever the left holds sway, Israel is seen through jaundiced eyes. There has been an unprecedented moral inversion, illustrating the power of a noxious idea to seep from the ideological fringe to the mainstream.

    The United States is not yet down to one pro-Israel party. But the seepage among Democrats continues. At the 2012 Democratic convention, a fight erupted over the deletion from the party’s platform of standard language acknowledging Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. It took an order from the White House to restore the pro-Israel clause, and even then it had to be gaveled through over the vocal opposition of half the convention delegates.

    Not long ago, such a hostile gesture would have been unthinkable. Now, with each new poll confirming Democratic chilliness toward the Jewish state Democrats once loved, can it be anything but a precursor of worse to come?


    US Jewry, confirming chilliness toward the Jewish state they once loved, when allowed a "Secret Ballot".

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. US Jewry, confirming chilliness toward the Jewish state they once loved, when allowed a "Secret Ballot".

      Delete
    2. You see, when the Jews of the US get to speak their mind, in private ...

      They vote for the Democrats, they vote for Obama, in droves.
      More than 2 to 1 support for the Democrats.

      Jeff Jacoby says the Democrats are anti-Israel. He may have the 'Standard' figured out.
      US Jews vote for Democrats, ergo, they are anti-Israel.

      Or at least anti the policies that the Zionist regime is pursuing, there.

      Delete
    3. I can see the sun settin'
      It's casting shadows on the sea
      I can see the sun, it's setting
      It's getting colder, starting to freeze

      Delete
  31. Why Obama is driving Jews from the Democratic Party
    August 17, 2014
    A  friend who is conservative and  Jewish asks a question: “Given  Obama’s hostile treatment of  Israel, isn’t it time for Jews to have their Ronald Reagan moment?”
    By that, he means when the Gipper said, “I didn’t leave the Democratic Party. The party left me.”
    Without doubt, the party under Barack Obama has left those Jews who view Israel’s security as threatened.

    Obama recently told a New York Times interviewer, “Because Israel is so capable militarily, I don’t worry about Israel’s survival.”
    That’s shocking, considering Iran’s threat to wipe Israel off the map once it gets nukes. And even as Obama spoke, the Jewish state was in a mini-war with Hamas, which vows to eliminate Israel and is supported by Iran.
    Obama apparently doesn’t take those aims seriously, perhaps believing they are only boob bait for the Muslim masses. But if “Kill the Jews” is what the masses want to hear, why assume that isn’t official policy? After all, many thought Hitler wasn’t serious, either.
    Israel can’t afford to assume its enemies will only talk the talk, so it must act as if those who say they want genocide really do. That’s why it doesn’t play tit-for-tat when it is attacked, and why it is so nervous about Iran.

    Gallup surveyed 88,000 Americans through June and found that 55 percent of Jews approved of the president, while 41 percent disapproved. Among all religious groups, Muslims gave him the highest approval, at 72 percent.
    The 55 percent Jewish approval marks a big decline from the 69 percent of the Jewish vote Obama got in 2012, and the 78 percent he got in 2008.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The only poll that counts is on election day.
      The Jews of the US were with Obama, by a ratio of over two to one.

      That is a fact and no amount of "O"rdure's wiggling will change that reality.

      Delete
    2. We all know that the propaganda ministry in Zionist Israel does not like facts, but there they are.
      By a ratio of more than two to one the Jews of the US voted for Mr Obama. Twice.
      The Jews of the US self identify as 'Democrats' by jut as large a margin.

      We all know what the Jeff Jacoby wrote ... about Democrats.

      At the 2012 Democratic convention, a fight erupted over the deletion from the party’s platform of standard language acknowledging Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. It took an order from the White House to restore the pro-Israel clause, and even then it had to be gaveled through over the vocal opposition of half the convention delegates.
      Not long ago, such a hostile gesture would have been unthinkable.
      Now, with each new poll confirming Democratic chilliness toward the Jewish state Democrats once loved, can it be anything but a precursor of worse to come?

      Delete

    3. Obama’s Fundraising Triumph: Thank The Jews

      Obama’s huge $68 million campaign-money haul in the last quarter came with a big assist from an array of big-money donors — 27 of whom raised more than $500,000 each for his re-election campaign…

      The 244 big-cash bundlers raised at least $37 million, or more than half of Obama’s total fund-raising haul for the quarter…

      By contrast, Mitt Romney, the top fund-raiser among GOP candidates, brought in $18 million…


      The Obama campaign has released a list of these 244 “bundlers” – parties who undertake their own fund-raising efforts for a campaign. It is here.

      By my count (which is still rising) 120 of these individuals are Jewish. No other ethnic or social group (such as the Gays) can be identified as supplying more than a handful.

      Delete
    4. That is the reality of where Jews in the United States.
      They are shoulder to shoulder with Mr Obama, with the Democrats.

      Money talks and "O"rdure's bullshit walks.

      Delete
    5. That is the reality of where Jews in the United States stand

      Delete
    6. They vote with their ballot, the wallets and their feet.

      They are not emigrating to Israel.
      They are funding the Democratic Party and they are voting for Democrats.

      At the 2012 Democratic convention, a fight erupted over the deletion from the party’s platform of standard language acknowledging Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. It took an order from the White House to restore the pro-Israel clause, and even then it had to be gaveled through over the vocal opposition of half the convention delegates. - Jeff Jacoby

      Delete
    7. June 2014 - 64 US Jews make aliyah despite escalating security situation

      Every month from across the globe and the USA Jews emigrate to Israel.

      Cant stop it…

      But your comment was proven false again…

      "Jack HawkinsFri Aug 29, 01:07:00 PM EDT
      They vote with their ballot, the wallets and their feet.
      They are not emigrating to Israel. "


      Yes they are, and yes some can vote democratic, Jews can chew gum and walk at the same time also.. UNlike yourself.

      Delete
    8. Jack HawkinsFri Aug 29, 01:03:00 PM EDT
      That is the reality of where Jews in the United States.
      They are shoulder to shoulder with Mr Obama, with the Democrats.

      It took an order from the White House to restore the pro-Israel clause, and even then it had to be gaveled through over the vocal opposition of half the convention delegates. - Jeff Jacoby


      So thanks for PROVING my POINT, even Democrat Jews are ZIONISTS…


      LOL

      You are one dumb moron...

      Delete
  32. A majority of Americans think the United States should expand its military campaign against insurgents in Iraq into Syria as well, a new HuffPost/YouGov poll shows.

    According to the poll, 60 percent of Americans now support airstrikes against insurgents in Syria, while 20 percent are opposed. That level of support approached the 64 percent of Americans in the survey who said they support the current airstrike campaign against Iraq.

    Fifty-six percent of Democrats, 54 percent of independents and 79 percent of Republicans said they support airstrikes in Syria.

    Support for intervening in Syria has grown dramatically in the past year. A HuffPost/YouGov poll conducted last September found that only 13 percent of Americans thought the U.S. should use airstrikes, while 62 percent said it should not. That poll was conducted after President Barack Obama had considered strikes in response to the Syrian government's use of chemical weapons. The plan was abandoned after Obama failed to win support for it in Congress.

    This time, the administration is considering expanding a campaign of airstrikes, which has already begun in Iraq, to include Syria. The Islamic State, the insurgent group that killed American journalist James Foley, operates in both countries. Obama said Thursday that "we don't have a strategy yet" for dealing with the group in Syria.

    The latest poll also shows bipartisan support for the airstrikes that have already begun in Iraq. Sixty-four percent of Democrats, 57 percent of independents and 73 percent of Republicans said they support the decision to authorize strikes there.

    American support for . . . . . . . . . .

    article

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The only ground troops that the US could support, in a campaign against ISIS in Syria, would be those of Assad's Army.
      As those are the only ground troops combating ISIS, in Syria.

      Wonder if that was part of the background to the questions asked?

      Delete
    2. 73% of Republicans would support President Assad in his battle against al-Qeada, in Syria.

      Israel’s Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren told the Jerusalem Post that Israel so wanted Assad out and his Iranian backers weakened, that Israel would accept al-Qaeda operatives taking power in Syria.

      “We always wanted Bashar Assad to go, we always preferred the bad guys who weren’t backed by Iran to the bad guys who were backed by Iran.”

      Even if the other “bad guys” were affiliated with al-Qaeda.
      “We understand that they are pretty bad guys,” Oren said in the interview.


      http://www.jpost.com/Syria-Crisis/Oren-Jerusalem-has-wanted-Assad-ousted-since-the-outbreak-of-the-Syrian-civil-war-326328

      Which may be why Jews in the US vote for Democrats.


      Delete
    3. They view the regime of President Assad as a greater threat to US interests than they view ISIS/al-Qeada.

      They, in their support of Israel, would rather see al-Qeada rule in Syria than Assad.
      Putting President Obama in a quandary.

      Does he do what the majority of US want, or does he continue to support the Israel position of accepting al-Qeada operatives taking power in Syria

      Delete
    4. ISIS does equal al-Qeada

      While the Zionist spinmiesters got caught with their pants down.

      For years they have tried to equate Hamas with the Iranians.
      But now, in a switch, they want to equate Hamas with ISIS/ al-Qeada.

      This is the same ISIS/ al-Qeada that is the sworn enemy of Iran.

      The Zionists betting that the US market has no memory.

      Delete
  33. I see ole bob is displaying his wisdom again. I particularly liked this little nugget:

    "But there is a real reason for this - one is much more likely to get roughed up by a group of young black males on the street than one is by a group of 'Zionists', for instance."

    To which the obvious reply springs to mind - NOT IF YOU ARE A PALESTINIAN.

    ReplyDelete
  34. Rufus wrote:

    "There will never come a day in the history of the world that the U.S. is a Net Oil Exporter."

    Especially given that it is ILLEGAL to export oil from the US, you can only export refined products.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. For instance, we actually ship some oil to Canada (although, we Import more from Canada than we import - by quite a lot.)

      Delete
    2. I believe all of the Alaskan oil is still Exported.

      Delete
    3. "The Case for Allowing U.S. Crude Oil Exports
      Policy Innovation Memorandum No. 34

      "Federal lawmakers should overturn the ban on exporting crude oil produced in the United States. As recently as half a decade ago, oil companies had no interest in exporting U.S. crude oil, but that has changed. Oil production has grown more in the United States over the past five years than anywhere else in the world, even as domestic oil consumption has declined. With these changes has come a widening gap among the types of oil that U.S. fields produce, the types that U.S. refiners need, the products that U.S. consumers want, and the infrastructure in place to transport the oil. Allowing companies to export U.S. crude oil as the market dictates would help solve this mismatch. Under federal law, however, it is illegal for companies to export crude oil in all but a few circumstances. Over the past year, the Department of Commerce granted licenses to several oil companies to export a small amount of U.S. crude oil. But these opaque, ad hoc exceptions are insufficient. Removing all proscriptions on crude oil exports, except in extraordinary circumstances, will strengthen the U.S. economy and promote the efficient development of the country's energy sector.

      ..."

      http://www.cfr.org/oil/case-allowing-us-crude-oil-exports/p31005

      Delete
    4. On the other hand, I don't believe you can export any of the Gulf of Mexico oil (Federal lands, dontcha know?)

      But, it doesn't really matter, does it? When you use almost twice as much as you produce, you use twice as much as you produce - you are, and, in our case will forever remain, a Net Oil Importer.

      Delete
    5. "U.S. Law Governing Crude Oil Exports

      The primary laws prohibiting crude exports are the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920, the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975, and the Export Administration Act of 1979. The so-called short supply controls in the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) of the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), an agency of the Department of Commerce, spell out these restrictions.

      A few obscure types of crude oil automatically qualify for export licenses under EAR. These types include crude oil produced in Alaska's Cook Inlet or exported to Canada, as long as it is consumed there; and small amounts of heavy (or viscous) crude oil produced in California. Other niche cases do not require licenses. Crude oil transported via the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System or produced overseas and stored in the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve may be exported.

      Some U.S. crude oil can be exported with a presidential finding. This includes crude oil of U.S. origin transported on federal right-of-way pipelines, crude oil produced from the outer continental shelf, and crude oil produced from naval petroleum reserves that were once set apart for use by the military but that are now almost entirely commercialized.

      In nearly all other cases, U.S. crude oil can only be exported if the BIS finds that proposed exports are "consistent with the national interest and the purposes of the Energy Policy and Conservation Act." The agency has the right to accept or reject applications for an export license according to its own unarticulated definition of the "national interest." The only specific case the EAR mentions as meeting these strict criteria is when the exported crude is exchanged for more or better refined oil imports, under a contract that can be terminated if U.S. oil supplies are "interrupted or seriously threatened," and could not have "reasonably [been] marketed" in the United States."

      http://www.cfr.org/oil/case-allowing-us-crude-oil-exports/p31005

      Delete
    6. "Exporting energy is good for the economy. Crude oil exports could generate upward of $15 billion a year in revenue by 2017 at today's prices, according to industry estimates. Those gains would be partially offset by displacing some refined product exports, however. Today's export restrictions run the risk of dampening U.S. crude oil production over time by forcing down prices at the wellhead in some parts of the country. Letting drillers reap extra profits from selling crude oil overseas, if the market dictates, would provide greater incentives for drilling, stimulating new supply. It would also encourage investment in oil and gas production in the United States rather than abroad. In oil-producing regions, more workers would be hired for oil exploration and production, as well as for local service industries. Greater policy certainty regarding exports would also catalyze the expansion of U.S. energy infrastructure.

      As it stands, the primary beneficiaries of the export ban are a few fortunate oil refineries in the central United States—not U.S. consumers—that are able to buy crude oil at depressed prices before selling it at prevailing market rates

      ..."

      http://www.cfr.org/oil/case-allowing-us-crude-oil-exports/p31005

      Delete
    7. Horseshit. All it would do is cost me money, and, maybe, make Exxon some. Exxon already has plenty. Fuck'em.

      Delete
    8. Who owns those refineries, Ash?

      Is it not the same people that own the production companies and the pipeline companies?
      I realize that the corporate identities may differ, but what about the owners of those companies.
      The people involved.

      According to economist Edward N. Wolff at New York University, the wealthiest 1% of all Americans owned 35% of all the stock owned by U.S. households in 2010, a percentage that, due to recent market developments, is likely to have increased to as much as 38% today.

      As of 2010, the richest 5% of U.S. households owned about two-thirds of all outstanding stock, a number that is likely as high as 70% today.


      So, it would be a strong likelihood that the people that are in ownership positions of those companies are from that 5%. Their interests are intertwined, as it were.

      Delete
    9. That's kind of funny. Just a few minutes ago you didn't realize that the export restrictions were in place and now you are convinced of their efficacy.

      Delete
    10. I don't know who owns the refineries. I would imagine it would be the oil companies and they'd have a vested interest in keeping up the export ban. I tend to be a free trader and I was surprised to learn the US had these export restrictions in place and have had them there for as long as they have. I'm sure those making the bucks served by the ban will be happy to keep the status quo as it is.

      Delete
    11. As Mr Romney said, "Corporations are People", albeit a rather 'small' number of people.
      When 5% of the people represent 70% of the corporations, those "people" are not really 'human', are they?

      Delete
    12. Ash, unlike you, I Live Here, and have for a long time.

      I've been reading about these "export restrictions" since 1972. They are mostly "straw men." They are chock full of holes, and as a general rule, mean squat.

      Delete
    13. .

      When 5% of the people represent 70% of the corporations, those "people" are not really 'human', are they?

      What the heck does that mean? Please, take back and rewrite.

      .

      Delete
    14. Open your mind.

      When 5% of the people represent 70% of the corporations, those "people" are not really 'human', are they?

      Corporations are people, says the GOP, but those people are not human.
      Romney received his comeuppance, as was his due, for fronting such a preposterous meme.

      Delete
    15. What are you a Democratic party propagandist? It is the courts all the way up to the supreme court which stated that corporations have the same rights as people.

      Delete
    16. .

      Then why didn't you write that.

      Reread the sentence I spoke to and try again to tell me the verbiage used makes sense.

      Open your mind.

      Lend me a toad.

      .

      Delete
  35. .

    Obama's greatest ally is "time."

    Right, he only has two more years before he can relax and go on book tours.

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      Da boy seems to be aging before our eyes. Each time he takes mike in hand he appears worse. His hair seems to be disappearing although that might be because it has been getting whiter. But even his attitude seems to have changed and his words become more tentative.

      My views on the guy are well known but I would hate to see him suffer health problems because of the job.

      .

      Delete
    2. I wonder just how much tragedy has been averted by the simple act of Presidents killing time till the end of their term?

      Delete

    3. Mr Obama is not tied to quarterly results, he represents the United States and its window is greater than 90 days.
      Indeed the perspective over which the US is judged encompasses decades, much to the chagrin of the amateur pundits that are looking for instant success, a sound bite or ...

      Here at the Elephant Bar, the goals of US foreign policy have not yet been agreed to, let alone the success or failure of achieving those unspecified goals.

      Delete
    4. Go back, and check out photos of Clinton, and Bush "before and after."

      It's a tough-ass job.

      Delete
    5. When Osama bin Laden was "Under Pressure" he became 'Younger Looking' with each successive video released.
      Ever wonder why Obama does not have a video library as extensive as OBL did?

      Or why the Presidents never seem to succumb to Grecian Formula?

      Delete
    6. I think after six years you'd have to buy that stuff by the tanker load. :)

      Delete
    7. .

      A simple comment on the president's appearance and a wish for him to do well healthwise, and the rat launches into some weird ass diatribe about amateur pundits and foreign policy debates at the EB.

      Moron.

      .

      Delete
    8. Rat is a figment of your imaginationFri Aug 29, 03:47:00 PM EDT

      Your response is gratifying enough, proving the missive hit the mark.

      Delete
  36. .

    Is ISIS a product or surrogate of Iran? Well that is just a silly notion. Our chief frenemy, in the sense of an enemy posing as a friend, in the ME remains Saudi Arabia, the unholy union of the Wahhabi and al Saud fornicators. ISIS is merely the latest bastard progeny of that union.

    Why the Saudi have mixed feelings when viewing the ISIS growth.

    Westerners looked at the Kingdom and their gaze was taken by the wealth; by the apparent modernization; by the professed leadership of the Islamic world. They chose to presume that the Kingdom was bending to the imperatives of modern life -- and that the management of Sunni Islam would bend the Kingdom, too, to modern life.

    But the Saudi Ikhwan approach to Islam did not die in the 1930s. It retreated, but it maintained its hold over parts of the system -- hence the duality that we observe today in the Saudi attitude towards ISIS.

    On the one hand, ISIS is deeply Wahhabist. On the other hand, it is ultra radical in a different way. It could be seen essentially as a corrective movement to contemporary Wahhabism.

    ISIS is a "post-Medina" movement: it looks to the actions of the first two Caliphs, rather than the Prophet Muhammad himself, as a source of emulation, and it forcefully denies the Saudis' claim of authority to rule.


    You Can't Understand ISIS If You Don't Know the History of Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia

    The Equation ISIS=Hamas=MB=Hezbollah does not apply. But in the ME, the predominant theme is 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend, for the moment'.

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Follow the money and follow the military assistance.

      The money flows to ISIS from Saudi Arabia and Qatar, from what was known as the "Golden Chain".
      Military assistance, in the form of air strikes against the Assad regime, come from Israel.

      The Israeli ambassador to the US expressed Israeli support for ISIS/ al-Qeada and that support has been backed by munitions.

      Hamas is not ISIS/ alQeada and it is not Iran.
      Hamas is a group of Palestinians fighting the invasion and occupation of their country by Europeans.
      Europeans that claim to represent Judaism, but who, in all reality have merely hijacked that religion. Much as the ISIS/ al-Qeada has attempted to hijack Islam.

      Islam, being many times larger than Judaism, is a harder nut to crack.
      The ISIS team have the Zionist propagandists spinning like a top, and have convinced many in the US of the validity of their buffoonery.

      Delete
    2. "The Israeli ambassador to the US expressed Israeli support for ISIS/ al-Qeada and that support has been backed by munitions"
      ---
      Where can we go to read about that, Jack?

      Delete
    3. Israel airstrikes hit 9 targets in Syria - World - CBC News
      http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/israel-airstrikes-hit-9-targets-in-syria-1.2684003

      CBC.ca
      Jun 22, 2014 - Israeli warplanes bombed a series of targets inside Syria early Monday, the Israeli military said, in response to a cross-border attack that killed ...
      ..
      In all, Israel said it struck nine military targets inside Syria, and "direct hits were confirmed." The targets were located near the site of Sunday's violence in the Golan Heights and included a regional military command centre ...

      Delete
    4. How you've become like WiO rat. Misdirection everywhere. From the article you linked:

      "In his address, Netanyahu said in conflicts like Syria, where al-Qaeda-inspired extremists are battling Iranian-backed Syrian troops, there is no good choice and it is best for Israel to sit back and let its enemies weaken each other. "This is a fault line between civilization and savagery," he said"

      Delete
  37. The crisis in eastern Ukraine is "slipping out of control" and needs to be reined in to avoid a military clash with Russia, Germany has warned.

    Foreign Minister Frank Steinmeier made the remarks on the eve of an EU summit which will consider further sanctions against the Russian government.

    Russia has denied claims by Nato that its forces illegally crossed into Ukraine to support separatists there.

    Some 2,600 people have died in fighting between rebels and Ukrainian troops.

    The conflict erupted in April when Russia's annexation of Crimea prompted rebels to take control of large parts of the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.

    ReplyDelete
  38. I really saw no further need for NATO. Wrong!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What NATO member is threatened, militarily, by the goings on in Ukraine?

      Delete
    2. Goings on that were initially instigated and funded by NATO members.

      Delete
    3. How many countries has the US sent in the military without their permission? How many countries has Russia done?

      Why are we so disturbed by Russia doing it in Ukraine but just fine with US doing it?

      Delete
    4. “Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter.

      The statesman who yields to war fever must realize that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events. ”

      ― Winston Churchill

      The little coup in the Ukraine that was engineered in Brussels and funded by the boys in DC has slipped its leash.


      Cry 'Havoc,' and let slip the dogs of war; That this foul deed shall smell above the earth.


      Delete
    5. or is it the boobie method of reasoning:

      Democracy good if we like their government of choice but bad if we don't like it. Invasion good if US wants control of oil but bad if Russia wants control of gas pipeline and a land link to its warm water port.

      Delete
    6. Intervention, by the US, does not require military boots on the ground, Ash.
      The entire Ukrainian episode was a US enterprise.

      The U.S. government has engineered, financed and fully supported a classic coup d’état that overthrew a corrupt but democratically elected government in Ukraine. Joining in the destabilization of the Ukrainian government were Germany, France, Britain and other NATO powers.

      The U.S. State Department funds an international network of non-governmental organizations and media outlets that are used to create political opposition and conduct regime change against targeted countries from Venezuela to Bolivia to Syria to Ukraine and other countries. A principal vehicle for these U.S. operations is the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).

      A recent article by Robert Parry reports: “NED, a $100 million-a-year agency created by the Reagan administration in 1983 to promote political action and psychological warfare against targeted states, lists 65 projects that it supports financially inside Ukraine, including training activists, supporting ‘journalists’ and promoting business groups, effectively creating a full-service structure primed and ready to destabilize a government in the name of promoting ‘democracy.’”

      http://www.globalresearch.ca/how-and-why-the-u-s-government-aided-a-coup-led-by-neo-nazis-in-ukraine/5371940

      U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Europe Victoria Nuland also participated in the protests—to pass out cookies, no less—in a well-orchestrated imperial stage-crafting effort to present the United States as a nation with the most benevolent and generous of intentions.
      She had previously boasted about U.S. funding of the “democratic opposition” to the tune of $5 billion over the past 10 years

      http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/03/10/us-imperialism-and-the-ukraine-coup/

      Delete
    7. If NATO was not expanding its influences to the very border of Russia, there would be no need for NATO.

      Russia is not being expansionist, NATO is.

      Delete
    8. Russia merely reacting to the provocations of NATO.
      With the few meager tools it has available to it.

      But doing so underneath a nuclear weapons umbrella.
      A factoid that may have some impact on "All options are on the table!", talk from the US.
      As there are certainly options the Russians can bring to the table, as well.
      Options not available to the Iranians, Syrians or Palestinians.

      Delete
    9. Options that Colonel Q could not bring to bear, in Libya.

      Delete
  39. In today’s game of re-dividing and re-colonizing the world, the Russians are bit players as compared to the U.S. imperialists and their not-too-happy lesser competitors in the EU, ever scrambling to maintain their perceived share of the booty extracted from their former colonies and new ones to be assimilated across Eastern Europe. At the level of military power, Russia’s less than a handful of bases outside its borders pales before the 1100 maintained by the U.S. around the world and another 1000 or so stationed in the U.S.

    Today’s Russian billionaires are puny compared to the multi-trillionaire U.S. bankers who looted the U.S. Treasury (the term was “government bailout”) to the tune of some $30 trillion. This was accomplished with the absolute complicity of the subservient Obama administration, which is little more than the governmental mask or façade of America’s real ruling class. In the United States, according to Oxfam International, the wealthiest one percent has captured 95 percent of post-financial-crisis growth since 2009, while the bottom 90 percent has become poorer.


    http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/03/10/us-imperialism-and-the-ukraine-coup/

    ReplyDelete
  40. Ash, please don't put words in my mouth.

    You are becoming just like rathole.

    And, by my count today, 4 people, an unusually low count, have called rathole an idiot.

    You don't want to be thought an idiot, do you Ash?

    Thank You

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bob, he's da ho

      Delete
    2. If that isn't what you meant to say about democracy yesterday you need to try to clarify your position again..

      Delete
    3. What good would that do?

      You still wouldn't understand.

      Delete
    4. Bob, you are not a smart person. You would think that your inability to comprehend computer basics would infuse you with some humility but it hasn't.

      You haven't stated anything about institutions that make one democracy function better than another but rather have simply stated 2 reasons why you don't like democracy - 1.) some governments adopt policy that you object to therefore a military dictatorship is better (Egypt) and 2.) Hitler and Putin both got elected at one point.

      Those are not very intelligent arguments.

      Delete
  41. Could we soon send emails 'telepathically'? Scientist transmits message into the mind of a colleague 5,000 miles away using brain waves
    Scientists used EEG headsets to record electrical activity in the brain
    Electrical activity from words ‘hola’ and ‘ciao’ were converted into binary
    The greeting was sent from Thiruvananthapuram, India to Strasbourg
    A computer translated the message and then used electrical stimulation to implant it in the receiver’s mind, appearing as specific flashes of light
    According to the researchers, this is the first time humans have sent a message almost directly into each other’s brains

    By Ellie Zolfagharifard for MailOnline

    Published: 04:31 EST, 29 August 2014 | Updated: 05:27 EST, 29 August 2014


    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2737532/Could-soon-send-emails-telepathically-Scientist-transmits-message-mind-colleague-5-000-miles-away-using-brain-waves.html#ixzz3BolIestf
    Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook


    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
  42. People that have called rathole an idiot, or worse, today:

    Ash
    Idaho Bob
    Quart
    WiO

    It's a slow day and rathole is getting off easy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bob is still da ho.

      How much for a tea bagger session?

      Delete
  43. Quart, I posted that about thought transfer just for you.

    There is an opening there someway or other for The Fraudster.

    Use your imagination, drink it over a little, and if you come with a good idea, a really good idea, I might back you financially just one more time. Put together an advertising campaign too for my review.

    ReplyDelete
  44. URGENT: Obama to interrupt weekend fundraising trip, will return to DC...........drudge

    This is unheard of.......things must be getting serious.......

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What this country needs is Hillary Clinton's shaky old hand on the steering wheel of the ship of state.

      Eh, Quart ?

      August 29, 2014

      Hillary Clinton's Foreign Policy Failures

      By Jonathan Levin

      Do not be fooled by Hillary Clinton’s attempt to rehabilitate her term as Secretary of State ahead of the 2016 presidential election. From 2009 to 2013, Clinton embodied U.S. foreign affairs even as President Obama’s avowed policy of self-effacement descended into listless, desultory abdication. Notwithstanding her recent critiques of Obama’s performance, Clinton’s failures as Secretary of State helped bring war to Europe, an arms race to Asia, and inferno to the Middle-East. The U.S. and its international standing are weaker for Clinton’s tenure as Secretary of State.

      Clinton’s mistakes began early, with her contribution to the misconceived and poorly executed Russia Reset......

      http://americanthinker.com/2014/08/hillary_clintons_foreign_policy_failures.html

      At least Hillary isn't "a dick" like all the others.

      Delete
    2. To The Readers:

      Quart has come out and pledged his allegiance to Hillary Clinton.

      As a side note: Quart has lost his mind.

      Delete
  45. Hundreds of Yazidi women held in Islamic State prison where they are held as sex slaves or sold off as jihadi brides for as little as $25
    Hundreds of Yazidi women captured by IS while trying to flee Mount Sinjar
    They are now being kept in Badush Prison, in Mosul, northern Iraq
    Escapees have told of how the women are either sold as brides or raped
    Some report victims being forced to call their families to describe attacks

    By Chris Pleasance for MailOnline

    Published: 15:01 EST, 28 August 2014 | Updated: 01:49 EST, 29 August 2014

    Hundreds of Yazidi women being held prisoner by Islamic State fighters in Iraq are being sold off as brides for as little as $25 or repeatedly raped if they refuse, it has been claimed.

    Survivors have told how beauticians were brought in to put makeup on the women before they were attacked, and said some victims were forced to call their families after to explain what had happened.

    According to those who escaped Badush Prison, in Mosul, northern Iraq, the number of women held there could be in the thousands and include Christians and Turkomens - a largely Muslim group closely related to the Turks...........


    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2737096/Hundreds-Yazidi-women-held-Islamic-State-prison-raped-sold-jihadi-brides-little-25.html#ixzz3BotZFun2
    Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

    Islam in its natural state.

    ReplyDelete
  46. Joe Scarborough is an idiot.

    He says Obama coming out and saying he has no strategy is straight out of "The Art of War".

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Whereas it's really straight out of "Being There".

      Delete
    2. You ought to read it.
      It would improve your comprehension of real world politics.

      Delete
    3. Everyone is saying you're an idiot.

      I agree.

      Delete
    4. .

      Obumble, everyone is saying you are and Idiot.

      I agree.

      .

      Delete
    5. .

      You and rat share the same propensity to truncate ideas, ignore context, and distort ideas and statements, either through omission or outright misstatement, as you misrepresent and fabricate. I would come right out and say you were a liar if it weren't for the distinct possibility that you are just too friggen dense to comprehend how screwed up your thought processes are.

      [Obumble's adopted niece,Igor, explaining to her boss at the Max Plank Brain Research facility how she mistakenly substituted Bob's brain for the correct one.]

      Why She Only Got a B+ on the Assignment

      .

      Delete
    6. I have been saying for months now that you are 'and' idiot yourself.

      I have been proven right.......you moron you are backing HILLARY CLINTON !!

      How DUMB is that?

      really, Really, REALLY DUMB.

      So there.

      My Niece requests a scan of your brain.

      Will you comply?

      Delete
    7. (there is a commitment procedure that we can use if we must)

      Delete
    8. If Hillary Clinton hadn't reset the red reset button things with Russia would be a LOT worse, eh, Quart?

      We will be fortunate to have such a wonder woman as President !

      Why, the Rooskies might be in POLAND by now, but for Hillary.

      Delete
    9. Bib, let's see you post a link that supports your assertion that Quirk is backing Hillary Clinton.

      I remember the comment and tour understanding of it is mistaken.

      put up or shut up.

      Delete
    10. .

      Like rat, you cherry pick words and omit context. You are a deceitful old man or the stupidest mofo I have ever come across.

      An English major? Good lord, and I thought the dumbing down of America only started in the last 30 years or so. You are the precursor to the fall.

      .

      Delete
    11. .

      My Niece requests a scan of your brain. Will you comply?

      Naw, I understand she has a hard time keeping things straight. Only got a B+ on her fetching assignment.

      .

      Delete
    12. Quart said he was supporting Hillary is all I recall. I was shocked. It is drilled into what is left of my brain after hanging around this joint for so long.

      Notice Quart does not deny it. He just changes the subject, says I cherry pick words.

      What horse shit. The poor guy is a Hillary skirt.

      Jesus.

      It's Bob, Ash, not Bib.

      A bib is what your mother still puts on you when you are eating your soup.

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

      Delete
    14. .

      Quart said he was supporting Hillary is all I recall.

      And that is your problem. You can read something as short as a paragraph or two and not understand its meaning. You have the attention span of a gnat and it is evident here daily.

      I would ask that you go back and find my post but I realize that would be a bridge too far. You lack the computer skills to even maintain a google account or the mental capacity to remember your password.

      This instance is similar to rat constantly saying that WiO has confessed that Israel had lost in Gaza. It is idiotic to anyone who pays attention to what is said here. He ignores context and truncates sentences. You do the same thing either through intent or ignorance. You and rat are two of a kind, clones, alter egos, mental equivalents, twin sons of different mothers.

      .

      Delete
  47. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/29/marines-walking-dead_n_5737246.html?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000592
    Marines Deactivate Decorated 'Walking Dead' Unit

    ReplyDelete
  48. The U.S. seems to be taking out 5 or 6 pieces of equipment / vehicles per day (except during actual operations, such as at the dam, when they were destroying quite a bit more than that.)

    Now, that may not sound like much, but a couple of months of it, and the Kurds will have to put up with three or four hundred less Humvees, tanks, technical vehicles, artillery pieces, tanks, and such, and probably 1,500 to 2,000 less head-cutters.

    At some point, that will start to make a difference.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      Right, a war of attrition, a battle strategy from time immemorial. At this rate, we should have them defeated in less time than it took to wage the 30 Year War.

      :o)

      .

      Delete
    2. We're not killing snakes, here. Time is on our side.

      Delete
    3. What's the hurry?

      Who else are you going to call, Quirk?

      Delete
    4. I had already mentioned amateur pundits demanding 90 day timelines from Mr Obama,
      Quirk said that it did not apply to him, see him dissemble.

      ;-)

      Delete
    5. Quart will do it himself, in his ultra-light.

      Delete
  49. .

    I've got dogs to walk. Hold that riposte.

    :o)

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dogs?

      It was always 'dog' in the singular before.

      Are you now hiring out to walk dogs to earn a little extra spending cash?

      Delete
    2. Replenish the cognac?

      You poor child.

      Delete
  50. Quart's Heroine is back in action -

    Hillary Joins the Ferguson Lynch Mob

    August 29, 2014 by Matthew Vadum


    Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton participates in "A Conversation with Hillary Rodham Clinton" in Manhattan, New YorkBreaking her calculated silence on the issue, Hillary Clinton said young Michael Brown was a victim of police brutality in Ferguson, Mo., the latest in a long line of helpless black victims mowed down by racist cops who are part of America’s corrupt criminal justice system.

    It’s just more left-wing sloganeering, staples of which are knee-jerk cop hatred and making excuses for black criminals.



    Clinton, wife of the man some used to call America’s “first black president,” has a long history of race-baiting and race-based pandering. She patronized black Americans in her insultingly awful mock African-American accent when she gave her infamous “I don’t feel no ways tired” speech.

    The all-but-declared candidate for the 2016 Democratic nomination for president’s media-hyped public epiphany about Ferguson and Michael Brown comes days after 18-year-old Brown was laid to rest following a grotesque political rally led by the abominable racial arsonist Al Sharpton.

    The former U.S. secretary of state embraces the politically correct lie that a helpless 6’4″ 292-lbs. Brown was shot in cold blood, arms raised while attempting to surrender to white police officer Darren Wilson, instead of the less convenient truth that Brown was trying to crush the decorated cop’s skull with his bare hands and reaching for the man’s handgun. Left-wingers like Clinton also prefer to ignore that fact that minutes before he attacked Wilson, Brown was captured on video bullying a much smaller East Indian shopkeeper during a robbery, an act that some might consider a hate crime. And the public is still waiting for Brown’s not-yet-released postmortem toxicology report..........

    http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/matthew-vadum/hillary-joins-the-ferguson-lynch-mob/

    I'll wager that the complete toxicology report when it coms out shows PCP in the gentle giants veins.

    It already shows pot.

    The drug of choice, I read, down that way these days is a cigar hollowed out stuffed with pot and dipped in liquid PCP.

    This explains stealing the cigars, and his erratic behavior in walking in the middle of the street, and his alleged attack on the Police Officer.

    Hillary may not be 'a dick' but she certainly is 'an asshole'.

    Poor Quart, poor poor totally confused Quart.....

    ReplyDelete
  51. Ah, this figures, now I get it -

    URGENT: Obama to interrupt weekend fundraising trip, will return to DC...

    To attend MSNBC wedding...

    Tells crowd: Media to blame for sense 'world falling apart'...........


    Obbie is hot footing it back to D.C. not to attend to the nation's defense, but to attend a wedding.

    ReplyDelete
  52. NATO's outgoing secretary general is repeating his call for member countries like Canada to boost their defence spending in response to the "wake-up call" of recent crises like the one unfolding in Ukraine.

    ReplyDelete
  53. The lead headline on the Kremlin’s own Web site declared that Putin had “addressed the Novorossiya militia,”
    a clear and unequivocal sign that Putin is putting his own prestige on the line to back the separatist movement. That fact will make it harder for him to back down (if he had any such inclination) and therefore much harder for an increasingly fretful Europe and the United States to come to terms with him.

    The statement made it obvious Putin does not consider the southeastern regions of Ukraine to be sovereign, but sees them, still, as part of Russia’s once and future empire. Putin even offered, in a gesture of noblesse oblige, to help evacuate Ukrainian soldiers trapped by the militias and troops he supports.

    Praising these pro-Russian fighters, Putin highlighted their “major success in intercepting Kiev’s military operation, which represents a grave danger to the population of Donbass [that is, eastern Ukraine] and which has already led to the loss of many lives among peaceful residents.”


    http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/08/29/putin-mocks-the-west-puts-his-own-prestige-on-the-line.html

    ReplyDelete