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."

Saturday, August 16, 2014

Residents near Iraq’s Mosul dam reporting area being hit by airstrikes and bombing



US JETS STRIKE MULTIPLE IS POSITIONS AROUND MOSUL


RUDAW NET


ERBIL, Kurdistan Region—US fighter jets launched a bombing campaign against positions of the Islamic State (IS) near Mosul dam and surrounding towns shortly after midnight on Friday, Rudaw reporter said.

The jets have bombed IS positions in four areas near the dam as well as in Rabia crossing, Mahmoudia, Telskouf, Zumar and Tilkef.

A Peshmerga eyewitness said this is the heaviest US bombing of militant positions since the start of airstrikes against the Islamist group last week.
Rudaw reporter Hevidar Ahmed said that a gas station used by IS militants to fuel their vehicles and a major junction leading to Mosul were targeted by the US fighter jets.

Several hummers were destroyed in the first round of the bombing campaign.
Ahmed said that IS militants have abandoned their posts under the heavy bombardment.

The bombing campaign encompasses an area of more than 32 kilomiters.
The bombing is continuing at the moment and Kurdish Peshmerga forces are expected to launch a ground assault to retake areas lost to the IS earlier this month including the Yezidi town of Shingal.

130 comments:

  1. More and more reports are coming out from Turkish and international media talking about how Turkey is covertly helping IS, one media report said the Turkish armed forces had reacted angry when some government officials wanted to put pressure on IS to stop the onslaught in Sinjar, the Turkish generals had proposed to hit PKK who are fighting IS instead. The Turkish army on the border between Kurdish region of Syria and Turkey have in the past weeks attacked Kurdish YPG forces who are fighting IS, Turkey has closed the border on Kurds in Syria completely but according to reports still gives logistic support to IS and every other jihadi group. It seems the jihadists have a huge network inside Turkey.

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    1. SEGMENTS OF THE INTERVIEW:

      ISIS: THE BOMBSHELL INTERVIEW TO IMPEACH OBAMA
      Arabi Souri July 3, 2014 in Iraq, Syria
      The author found some difficulties in finding a proper title for this post, which is based on a TV interview with the founder of Jihadist movement in Egypt and a former top Al-Qaeda commander. Each line of the interview is a title by itself, each piece of information is more than enough to put tens of western officials and their regional stooges behind bars for a long time; those who are acting as the Humanitarian Bastards crying for the suffering innocent people they inflict this suffering on.
      Finally, I decided to post the text of the interview as it is without my usual adding in, noting how the Western citizens are played by their own governments, so I’ll leave you with the interview conducted by pan Arab Al-Maydeen TV with Sheikh Nabeel Naiem, who was introduced by the TV presenter as: ‘the former founder of Jihad Organization & expert in Islamist groups’, enjoy:

      SEGMENT:

      The legal case (former Egyptian president) Mohammad Morsi is being tried for, the case of communicating (with the enemy) and contacting Ayman Zawahri was an assignment of Issam Haddad by Obama in person on 28 December 2012, he was at the White House in a meeting with the CIA, he says in his confessions when interrogated by the public prosecution in the case..

      - How did you get it?

      Nabeel Naiem: These public prosecution confessions are published and are available.. Obama entered (the meeting room) and gave the CIA team a paper and left, they read it and told him: it’s required by the Muslim Brotherhood to contain the radical groups in the region starting with Hamas & Al-Qaeda, so he called Ayman Zawahri through Rifa’a Tahtawi, head of presidential court, who happens to be Ayman’s cousin from Rifa’a Tahtawi’s phone.
      Ayman (Zawahri) talking to Mohammad Morsi and Morsi says to him: Peace be Upon You Emir (Prince) of Believers, we need your people here in Sinai, and I will provide them with expenses, food and water and prevent security from pursuing them..
      This was recorded and sent to the public prosecutor and this is what Mohammad Morsi is being tried for.

      If you ask how I got to know this? I was in Channel 2 of Egyptian TV, and with me was General Gamal, 1st secretary of Egyptian Intelligence, who recorded the call and written it down and based on it the memo was written and handed to the Public Prosecutor.

      The TV presenter asked him: Is it allowed for the Intelligence Services to tap the telephone of the president of the republic?

      He replied: I’m not tapping the president’s phone, I was tapping Ayman’s (Zawahri) phone and found the president talking to him, telling him Peace be Upon You Emir of Believers, so I wrote down the tape, wrote a report and submitted to the head of intelligence..

      She asked him: Did you inform the president? He replied: It’s not my job, I do not deal with the president (directly), I deal with the head of intelligence and that’s my limits.
      She asked him: What did you write in your investigations and your own report, what did you write after you wrote down the tape (contents)?

      I swear to God he told her, & I was in the same studio,: I wrote that Mr. Mohammad Morsi Ayyat president of the republic is a danger for Egypt’s National Security.
      So the ignorant should know why the army stood by the side of the people on 30 June, because the president is dealing with Al-Qaeda organization, and it’s recorded, and he’s being on trial for it now, and head of intelligence wrote that the president of the republic is a danger on Egypt’s National Security.

      This is the task of these groups in the region. When Obama said he supported Morsi’s campaign with 50 million (Dollars), and when (Yousuf) Qaradawi said: Obama sent us 60 million Dollars for the Syrian ‘Resistance’, God bless you Obama, and we need more..

      Delete
  2. Residents near Iraq’s Mosul dam reporting area being hit by airstrikes and bombing...

    gee I hope there were no babies, kids or old woman nearby.

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    1. The difference is that the residents around Mosul belong there and are being held captive by an outside invading force. Your team are the invaders and occupiers, the masters and lords, over the indigenous people who your team has brutalized, humiliiated and colonized. Your team bombs and destroys their home businesses and families just to show that they can, as a warning not to revolt again.

      Delete
    2. The worldwide disgust, contempt and rebuke for your home team spreads:

      A Dutchman honoured by Israel for hiding a Jewish child during World War Two has handed back his medal after six of his relatives were killed in an Israeli air strike on Gaza.

      Henk Zanoli, 91, wrote to the Israeli embassy in The Hague to say he could no longer hold the honour.

      He said an Israeli F-16 had destroyed his great-niece's home in Gaza, killing all inside, in the recent offensive.

      The Israeli embassy has declined to comment on Mr Zanoli's action.

      ‘An insult'

      Mr Zanoli and his mother were awarded the "Righteous Among the Nations" honour by Israel in 2011 for helping to shelter a Jewish child from the Nazis in their family home from 1943-45.

      The award is accorded to non-Jews who risked their lives to protect and save Jews during the Holocaust.

      However, Mr Zanoli said in a letter published by Israel’s Haaretz newspaper that “to hold on to the honour granted to me by the State of Israel under these circumstances, would be an insult... to those in my family, four generations on, who lost no less than six of their relatives in Gaza.”


      RN

      Delete
    3. We're doing it like it's supposed to be done. Every bomb, every hellfire missile is landing directly on a tank, or personnel carrier, or piece of artillery.

      Delete
    4. {...}

      "The great-great grandchildren of my mother have lost their grandmother, three uncles, an aunt and a cousin at the hands of the Israeli military," he wrote, referring to an air strike by the Israeli military on 20 July.

      His great-niece is a Dutch diplomat who is married to Palestinian economist Ismail Ziadah, who was born in a refugee camp in central Gaza.

      Mr Ziadah's mother, three brothers, a sister-in-law and nine-year-old nephew were all killed after their family home was hit by Israeli aircraft.

      Mr Zanoli, a retired lawyer, offered sharp criticism of Israel's Operation Protective Edge offensive, warning that such actions could lead to possible convictions of "war crimes and crimes against humanity".

      Israel has defended its offensive in Gaza, saying its forces had gone to "unprecedented lengths to keep Palestinians out of harm's away" by issuing warnings via text message, telephone and leaflet dropping.

      Mr Zanoli has faced his own share of family tragedy after losing his father at a Nazi concentration camp and a brother-in-law who was killed for his role in the Dutch resistance during World War Two.

      "Against this background it is particularly shocking and tragic that today, four generations on, our family is faced with the murder of our kin in Gaza. Murder carried out by the State of Israel," he wrote in the letter addressed to Israeli ambassador Haim Davon.

      He was reportedly too frail to hand the medal back in person, but instead sent it to the Israeli embassy in the Netherlands.


      BBC

      Delete
    5. "The great-great grandchildren of my mother have lost their grandmother, three uncles, an aunt and a cousin at the hands of the Israeli military," he wrote, referring to an air strike by the Israeli military on 20 July.

      His great-niece is a Dutch diplomat who is married to Palestinian economist Ismail Ziadah, who was born in a refugee camp in central Gaza.

      Mr Ziadah's mother, three brothers, a sister-in-law and nine-year-old nephew were all killed after their family home was hit by Israeli aircraft.


      Delete
    6. Rufus IISat Aug 16, 09:36:00 AM EDT
      We're doing it like it's supposed to be done. Every bomb, every hellfire missile is landing directly on a tank, or personnel carrier, or piece of artillery.

      Shhh don't talk about those 2400 women and kids that our USA drones killed....

      Delete
    7. Rufus, when you supposedly served in Vietnam how many viet cong babies did America kill?

      Before you say that was a long time ago, so what?

      The middle east timeline that you israel haters always start at is 1948, you don't mention the slaughters of millions of Jews in europe, the hundreds of thousands of jews driven from their historic homes in the arab SQUATTING middle east...

      but 1948 is the redline...

      So how many babies has America murdered in war SINCE it dropped atom bombs on Japan?

      Israel's latest war in Gaza has killed 2000 people, over half terrorists....

      How many did America kill in Afghanistan & Iraq? Libya or Sudan? Yemen or any other of DOZENS of military actions across the globe.

      And face the fact, collateral damage (civilian deaths) may not have been the target but they sure are dead... America killed more in Vietnam just in civilians that the entire death count by Israel in 66 years of war...

      Delete
    8. THIS HAS GOT TO BE THE SICKEST JEWISH JOKE EVER:

      93% OF JEWS ARE PRO-ABORTION
      THE CURIOUS CONSENSUS OF JEWS ON ABORTION
      by Roger Price
      February 1, 2013 | 11:09 am
      Note: Another version of this post was published previously at www.judaismandscience.com.
      ***************************************

      WHAT IS A D&C ABORTION?

      The D&E method, used on unborn children 14 weeks or older, involves using a long steel tool to grasp and tear off, by brute force, the arms and legs of the developing human—after which the skull is crushed.
      Dr. Anthony Levatino, an obstetrician-gynecologist who has performed many D&E abortions, describes the procedure: “Picture yourself reaching in with the Sopher clamp and grasping anything you can…Once you have grasped something inside, squeeze on the clamp to set the jaws and pull hard – really hard. You feel something let go and out pops a fully formed leg about six inches long. Reach in again and grasp whatever you can. Set the jaw and pull really hard once again and out pops an arm about the same length. Reach in again and again with that clamp and tear out the spine, intestines, heart and lungs.”

      Delete
  3. Like I said, "dead men, walking."

    ReplyDelete
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    1. The big cheese saw the handwriting on the wall, and scurried his ass back to Syria.

      Delete
  4. .

    The CIA’s shameful secrets

    OUR OPINION: Public deserves to know what’s in torture report
    HeraldEd@MiamiHerald.com

    Official Washington is on vacation until after Labor Day, but behind the silence and apparent inactivity, a huge fight involving the public’s right to know is taking place. At issue is how far the Central Intelligence Agency can go in hiding shameful secrets and whether the Obama administration will tolerate CIA spying on the nation’s elected representatives.

    This is not just one more partisan brouhaha inside the Beltway, but rather one that pits the intelligence community and its allies in the White House against lawmakers of all political stripes.

    The outcome will determine whether the agency is above the law or a law unto itself — whether it can be called to account for its excesses or whether it will be allowed to hide behind the cloak of secrecy whenever it wants to evade responsibility.

    So far, the agency has managed to keep a lid on a Senate report detailing the CIA’s notorious detention program in the post-9/11 era. The 6,300-page report was produced by the Senate Intelligence Committee and was supposed to be made public earlier this year following routine redaction by the agency to avoid disclosure of genuine national security secrets.


    Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/08/14/4290254/the-cias-shameful-secrets.html#storylink=cpy

    The problem is that the White House is refereeing the issue of how much disclosure to permit and how much “sanitizing” is too much. The president seems to be taking sides with the agency whose methods he routinely criticized as a candidate. Mr. Obama, whose own record on issues of transparency is disappointing, risks being seen as a protector of the CIA rather than a defender of the public’s right to know.

    Many members of Congress have long been defenders of the CIA. They include Sen. Feinstein and Sen. Carl Levin, chair of the Armed Services Committee, who said the CIA’s redactions are “totally unacceptable.”

    If even the CIA’s legislative allies are shocked by the report’s findings, it’s all the more reason to shine a light on them. On this issue, Mr. Obama must be clearly and emphatically on the side of transparency.


    .

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    1. I was working on a response comment and wanted to double check my facts. Found something much more interesting than my comment and will put it together for the next post.

      Hat Tip to you.

      Delete
    2. ONE OF THE MOST EVIL AMERICANS EVER - ALLEN DULLES, HEAD OF OSS & THEN CIA.
      Dulles was responsible of bringing THOUSANDS of Nazis to North & South America.
      Dulles is responsible for the deaths of JFK, RFK, MLK & THOUSANDS more!

      DRESDEN, GERMANY – FEBRURY 13, 1945, the war at its end, Germany in ruins. With no warning, Churchill orders US & British bombers to drop over 3,000 tons of incendiary bombs on this non-combatant hospital city, swollen with refugees fleeing other destroyed cities. The bombs ignited a massive human sacrifice firestorm burning alive between 3 to 500,000 innocents in the worst single event massacre in history. More were genocided in defenseless Dresden than died in Hiroshima & Nagasaki combined.

      CHURCHILL WAS A SHABBOS GOY!

      GOOGLE:

      IN "EISENHOWER'S DEATH CAMPS"



      A U.S. Prison Guard Remembers
      Martin Brech

      ONE MILLION GERMANS STARVED TO DEATH BY THIS STINKING JEW.

      HOW TO HOLOCAUST:

      MISHNAH. HE WHO GIVES OF HIS SEED TO MOLECH INCURS NO PUNISHMENT UNLESS HE DELIVERS IT TO MOLECH AND CAUSES IT TO PASS THROUGH THE FIRE. IF HE GAVE IT TO MOLECH BUT DID NOT CAUSE IT TO PASS THROUGH THE FIRE, OR THE REVERSE, HE INCURS NO PENALTY, UNLESS HE DOES BOTH.

      Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Sanhedrin 64a

      Soncino 1961 Edition, page 437

      Following the Mishnah is a discussion among the sages. One of the Talmud Sages, Rabbi Ashi, comments as follows:

      GEMARA. R. Ashi propounded: What if one caused his blind or sleeping son to pass through, (3) or if he caused his grandson by his son or daughter to pass through? — One at least of these you may solve. For it has been taught: [Any men ... that giveth any of his seed unto Molech; he shall he put to death ... And I will set my face against that man, and will cut him off from among his people;] because he hath given of his seed unto Molech. Why is this stated? — Because it is said, there shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire. From this I know it only of his son or daughter. Whence do I know that it applies to his son's son or daughter's son too? From the verse, [And if the people of the land do any ways hide their eyes from the man] when he giveth of his seed unto Molech [and kill him not: Then I will ... cut him off.]

      — Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Sanhedrin 64b

      Soncino 1961 Edition, page 439

      Rabbi Dr. Freedman, one of the translators of the Soncino Tractate Sanhedrin, clarifies the passage. In a footnote, Rabbi Dr. Freedman confirms that the Talmud Sages use "seed" to denote living children, in the same sense as the Biblical translators understand the term in the above Biblical quotes. In this footnote, Rabbi Dr. Freedman paraphrases the question from Rabbi Ashi:

      3. Is 'thou shalt not cause to pass' applicable only to a son who can naturally pass through himself, but not to a blind or sleeping son, who must be led or carried, or does it apply to all?

      Rabbi Dr. Freedman

      Other footnotes within the same context clarify the fine point of distinction being drawn in the Mishnah and subsequent debates among the sages:

      5. Lev. XVIII, 21. This proves that the offence consists of two parts; (I) formal delivery to the priests, and (2) causing the seed to pass through the fire.

      Rabbi Dr. Freedman (2)

      5. As two separate offences, proving that giving one's seed to Molech is not idolatry. The differences [sic] is, that if one sacrificed to Molech, or caused his son to pass through the fire to some other deity, he is not punished.

      Rabbi Dr. Freedman (3)

      Following the Mishnah, Sanhedrin 64a and 64b contain a rousing debate between the Sages concerning:

      * the circumstances under which worshipping an idol is idolatry,

      * which idols may be worshipped without indulging in idolatry,

      * which parts of child sacrifice in what combination are punishable, and

      * how children may be sacrificed without violating Leviticus.

      Delete
  5. If the U.S. and Iraqi forces go in, and re-take those border crossings, it will be like the cell door on death row clanging shut.

    ReplyDelete
  6. It will be a lesson in what a real army can do to weed out an insurgent enemy without destroying half the country and a kill ratio that doesn’t fall 95% on civilians, unlike our most valued and irreplaceable ally, the chosen star of the universe.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. The Israelis could have put enough drones over Gaza to see, in real time, any rocket attacks, and to have responded, with pinpoint attacks, instantaneously. But, That, did not suit their purposes.

      Delete
    2. Riiiight, slam dunk Rufus, arm chair general, knows how to get it done. Too bad he went AWOL for Fallujah I and II.

      Delete
    3. What the fuck are you talking about. This is in no way, shape, or form anything like Fallujah, I and II.

      Delete
    4. :) He’s just trying to takeee down your mast.

      Delete
    5. :) I got news for him, my mast got takeeed down a long time ago.

      :) :) :) :)

      Delete
    6. Well my mast is up and, coincidentally my wife dragged me out to the boat for the weekend so I'm pecking on the phone.

      the notion that you can throw up a bunch of drones over an area the size of Gaza and pick off peeps launching rockets in "real time" is arm chair general technical fantasy.

      with respect to Fallujah it tonight I a whole.lot more than airstrikes to decimate the Sunni extremists and, again, it is arm chair general fantasy to think a few airstrikes will clean out ISIS.

      Delete
    7. It took a whole lot more than airstrikes...

      Delete
    8. And look at Fallujah today - an oasis of calm and peace and nary a radical Sunni in sight. Yay America!

      Delete
    9. Deuce ☂Sat Aug 16, 09:42:00 AM EDT
      It will be a lesson in what a real army can do to weed out an insurgent enemy without destroying half the country and a kill ratio that doesn’t fall 95% on civilians, unlike our most valued and irreplaceable ally, the chosen star of the universe.

      1/2 of Gaza was not destroyed. and 50-60% of the dead are terrorists.

      but don't let reality and facts cloud your mind that is made up ahead of time...

      But you would fit real well in a kangaroo court...

      Delete
  7. Compare to the noble IDF

    BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — The Food and Agriculture Organization on Thursday warned that the Israeli assault on Gaza had caused extensive damage to the coastal enclave’s agricultural sector and would have long-term consequences.
    The FAO said in a statement that the five-week assault had “forced farmers and herders to abandon their lands and has paralyzed fishing activities, bringing local food production to a halt and severely affecting livelihoods.”
    “The recent fighting has resulted in substantial direct damage to Gaza’s 17,000 hectares of croplands as well as much of its agricultural infrastructure, including greenhouses, irrigation systems, animal farms, fodder stocks and fishing boats,” the statement continued.
    The report added that Gaza had lost half of its poultry in the attack, “either due to direct hits on their shelters or lack of water, feed or care resulting from access restrictions.”
    Losses among Gaza’s crucial fishing sector, meanwhile, were estimated at 234.6 tons, or about 9.3 percent of the yearly catch.
    According to the organization, although Gaza imports most of its food needs, around 28,600 people in Gaza rely on farming (19,000 people), livestock raising (6,000) and fishing (3,600) for their livelihoods.
    “Under the most recent ceasefire many farmers and herders are now able to access their lands, however resumption of food production faces serious obstacles given the damages sustained and shortages of water, electricity, inputs and financial resources, as well as ongoing uncertainty regarding the possible resumption of military activities”, said Ciro Fiorillo, head of the FAO office in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
    The organization also said that food prices had been extremely volatile over the last five weeks, with upward spikes in the price of eggs estimated 40 percent, potatoes at 42 percent, and tomatoes at 179 percent.
    “With local food production halted and food imports curtailed, virtually the entire population of Gaza (about 1.8 million people) is currently reliant on food aid. WFP, together with the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) regularly assists about 1.1 million people,” the report continued, noting that another 700,000 people were relying on emergency food distribution by the Palestinian Ministry of Social Affairs, UNRWA, and WFP.
    Gaza’s dependency on foreign aid is a direct result of the eight-year Israeli siege on the tiny coastal territory, which has had its imports, exports, and movements of people extensively restricted since 2006.
    The lifting of the siege is a key Palestinian demand in ongoing negotiations for the end of hostilities .

    Mirrored from Maan News Agency

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Maybe Hamas should not have started bombing israel and started it a war?????

      Delete
  8. Netanyahu, the narcisstic criminal queen of Israel, gave cover to ISIS which took advantage of the world’s preoccupation with the events in Gaza and extended its presence in Iraq and Syria. Netanyahu grabbed the world’s attention to the slaughter of Palestinian civilians and away from the massacre of Iraq’s Christian and Yazidi communities by ISIS.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yep blame the Jews.

      Crying wolf again..

      Delete
    2. DEUCE,

      I BET YOU READ THE FIRST CHAPTER OF THE PROTOCOLS OF THE ELDERS OF ZION & NEVER KNEW YOU DID IT!

      OPEN YOUR KJV OF THE BIBLE & TURN TO GENESIS CHAPTER 47!

      THIS IS HOW YOU SCREW & ENSLAVE A PEOPLE & SAY GOD INSPIRED YOU!

      AND THERE IS A "LOVELY TOUCH" IN EXODUS 12:36.

      THEN TURN TO EXODUS CHAPTER 32:7-11 & READ ABOUT THE FIRST ANTI-SEMITE!
      BET YOU NEVER THOUGHT ABOUT THAT!

      Delete
  9. Some still aren't "getting it."

    The United States armed forces are being dragged, kicking and screaming, into the 21st Century.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Speaking of the 21st Century, California Solar was putting out the equivalent of Two Large Nuclear Plants, and One Smallish One, yesterday.

    CaISO

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Which, of course, is nowhere near what Texas Wind was doing.

      Texas Wind

      Delete

  11. U.S. NEWS 08.15.14

    The Real Nightmare of Ferguson

    Racial strife, paramilitary commandos, rampant injustice: What happened in Ferguson truly scared us because we see the chaos there as a preview of what could soon come to the rest of America.

    It only took three days. On Day One, my Twitter feed—carefully curated since 2008 to deliver an all-encompassing stream of news and views—was acting as normal. Par for the course on Twitter, the early riots in Ferguson, Missouri, popped up in my feed shortly before the national news media picked up on the story.

    On Day Two, the chatter surrounding the riots started to show up in the way that tends to signal to me that a Big Story is happening: it had started to consume the attention of both the professional media people and the professional music people who I follow.

    Somewhere in the middle of Day Three, however, the story went viral. I don’t exactly mean that it “blew up on social media,” as we say, although that’s true too. My measure of virality on Twitter is simple: suddenly, almost everything else is crowded out and very nearly literally everyone is talking about the news event. Reporting it; linking to it; commenting on it; marveling at it; expressing shock and disgust about it.

    Ferguson went viral in the way that’s familiar from our pop-culture nightmares about epidemics and disease—from the zombies of Night of the Living Dead to the Rage of 28 Days Later to the contagious outbreaks of, well, Contagion and Outbreak.

    The Scourge of Ferguson was upon us.

    Then some really remarkable things began to happen. On Day Four, Ferguson went even more viral. I was able to scroll through my feed and read nothing but tweets about Ferguson. But now, the idea of Ferguson had metastasized and spread, too. It wasn’t just about the shooting of Michael Brown. It wasn’t just about the additional crimes and looting that had sprouted up. It wasn’t even just about the sickening interplay between race and injustice.

    It was also about Gaza. It was about the militarization of America’s police forces—a subject writers like Radley Balko had been pounding on for years, and which I had written about, to positive but unemotional reaction, in June. Most of all, it was about a concept you don’t hear “normal people” use very lightly: something un-American.

    The spectacle of Ferguson’s combat-equipped SWAT police force had struck a nerve. Moreover, the nerve it struck couldn’t be explained by the lame realities that can often abstract and generalize a story away from its moral and factual core. This wasn’t a case of ethical bandwagoning. “Caring about Ferguson” hadn’t turned into a First World problem or fashionable cultural checkbox.

    People were really shaken. I realized that they were afraid.

    Oftentimes public fear like this can be a self-indulgent kind of collective astral projection. As traumatic as it can be to watch localized tragedies and turmoil play out through the media, the kind of emotional communion made possible by instantaneous communication isn’t always good, and it isn’t always true. (The nightmare of Sandy Hook, for instance, summoned forth well-meaning but misbegotten initiatives that use fear to push bad policy, as Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown program did.)

    With Ferguson, however, the fear had arisen from something even more primal and politically relevant than the murder of innocent children by militarized loners.

    {...}

    ReplyDelete
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    1. By what right do WHITE Americans and Black Americans have to live in Indian lands?

      Get out!

      Go home!

      Delete
    2. DEUCE,

      BOY HAVE YOU GOT IT WRONG ON THIS ONE!

      (1) AL SHARPTON IS AN FBI IN FORMANT.
      (2) JESSE JACKSON PLAYED THE "JUDAS GOAT" & WALKED MLK TO HIS DEATH!

      THE BLACK HOLOCAUST
      JOHN W. FOUNTAIN
      author@johnwfountain.com
      Last Modified: May 6, 2012
      Imagine Soldier Field beyond capacity, brimming with 63,879 young African-American men, ages 18 to 24 — more than U.S. losses in the entire Vietnam conflict.
      Imagine the University of Michigan's football stadium — the largest in the U.S. — filled to its limit of 109,901 with black men, age 25 and older. Now add 28,223 more — together totaling more than U.S. deaths in World War I.
      Picture two UIC Pavilions packed with 12,658 Trayvon Martins — black boys, ages 14 to 17 — nearly twice the number of U.S. lives lost in Iraq and Afghanistan.
      Now picture all of them dead. The national tally of black males 14 and older murdered in America from 1976 through 2005, according to U.S. Bureau of Justice statistics: 214,661.
      The numbers tell only part of the story of this largely urban war, where the victims bear an uncanny resemblance to their killers. A war of brother against brother, filled with wanton and automatic gunfire, even in the light of day, on neighborhood streets, where little boys make mud pies, schoolgirls jump rope, where the innocent are caught in the crossfire, where the spirit of murder blows like the wind.
      It is, so far, a ceaseless war in which guns are often the weapon of choice, and the finger on the trigger of the gun pointed at a black male is most often another black male's.
      The numbers alone are enough to make me cry — to wonder why — we as African Americans will march en masse over one slain by someone who is not black, and yet sit silent over the hundreds of thousands of us obliterated from this mortal world by someone black like us, like me. It is a numbing truth borne out by hard facts:
      From 1980 through 2008, 93 percent of black victims were killed by blacks.
      Translation: For every Trayvon Martin killed by someone not black, nine other blacks were murdered by someone black.
      In 2005, — blacks — accounted for 13 percent of the U.S. population but 49 percent of all homicides. The numbers are staggering, the loss incomprehensible.
      Add to the tally of black males 14 and older slain across the country from 1976 to 2005, another 29,335 (slain from 2006 to 2010), and their national body count rises to 243,996, representing 82 percent of all black homicides for that 35-year period. What also becomes clear is this: We too often have raised killers. And this war is claiming our sons.
      But that's still not the end of the story. Add to that number 51,892 black females ages 14 and older, plus five whose gender was not identifiable, and the total, not counting children, is 295,893 — more than the combined U.S. losses of World War I, the Vietnam, Korean and Mexican-American wars, the War of 1812 and the American Revolutionary War.
      Is the blood of these sons and daughters somehow less American?
      Two hundred ninety-five thousand eight hundred ninety-three . . .
      Imagine the United Center, Wrigley Field, U.S. Cellular Field and Soldier Field nearly all filled simultaneously with black boys, girls, men and women. Now imagine that twice over. Now imagine them all dead.
      As far as I can see, that's at least 295,893 reasons to cry. And it is cause enough for reticent churches, for communities, for lackadaisical leaders, for all people — no matter our race, color or creed — to find the collective will and the moral resolve to stamp out this human rights atrocity occurring right under our noses.
      Just imagine the human carnage and the toll to us all if we don't.

      I can't. I won't.

      JOHN W. FOUNTAIN

      Delete
  12. {...}

    Everyone had started reaching for cultural references to contextualize what was going on. Some mentioned Red Dawn. Others brought up The Purge. What instantly sprang to my mind was The Stand.

    “Randall Flagg definitely in Ferguson rn,” I tweeted, flashing back on the terrifyingly human devil figure that drove the narrative of Stephen King’s post-apocalyptic masterpiece. First introduced by King, Flagg sports, among other things, an anti-law enforcement button that read HOW’S YOUR BACON?

    Much like the Man of Wealth and Taste who narrates the Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil,” Flagg, King explains, has the habit of popping up whenever and wherever society is ready to come apart. He is, as the sociologist Philip Rieff put it, a “scourge.”

    Scourges, says Rieff, “are what they represent: wounds to the social organs which are themselves deeply disordered.” Scourges, he says, “are killers who act, momentarily, as agents freed from sacred order and its commanding truths.” Many, he says, are killer loners. “But they can be cultivated, grown, mass-produced; like dragon’s teeth.”

    If that all sounds a bit abstract to you, consider Rieff’s next line—written, in all likelihood, at some point in the 1980s. “It is entirely possible that some young blacks are now being prepared to act as scourges of the unjust American social order.”

    Racial strife and murderous governments, not liberty and democracy, are the rule in history, the established pattern.
    Americans—in and out of my Twitter feed—have begun to grasp that hideous possibility: that America has manufactured a violent and predominantly black permanent underclass, subjected to our malignant paranoia about crime, living slow-motion death sentences in ghettos from which no amount of presidential hope, change, or lecturing can release them.

    Even more important, Americans have begun to understand that the scourge-ification of this underclass is inseparable from the realization of our worst collective nightmare—the scourging of America itself, the ruin of the promise of America that still strikes us in our gut as providential. The widespread belief, still largely subconscious or at least unspoken, that America is breaking, and that we deserve the suffering ahead.

    This isn’t an abstract problem either. We know that America is exceptional in one key respect—we came to democracy without much bloodshed. Around the world, from Hungary and Russia to Iraq and Nigeria, we see the dream of peaceful democratization dragged again and again to what the philosopher Hegel called the slaughter-bench of history. Racial strife and murderous governments, not liberty and democracy, are the rule in history, the established pattern. We know that, mercifully, democratization scourged us only once in ferociously modern style: during the Civil War.

    {...}

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. {...}

      “Fondly do we hope,” Lincoln said in his Second Inaugural, “fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said ‘the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.’”

      We do not want this to be true. This is what we fear: that America, despite its brilliance and its progress, is inescapably complicit in the sin of slavery and racism, bearing a moral debt that cannot be repaid but in suffering and blood—as such debts are paid so routinely around the world which we pride ourselves, however rationally, on standing so far above.

      No amount of militarization can save us from such terrifying justice—the justice of what King has one unhinged survivor in The Stand call a “Killer God.”

      “Does it have to go on and on until the earth belongs to the roaches? He’s no God,” the survivor screams. Discussing the passage, Ross Douthat has observed that King terrifies us with a God “who is prepared to let his people perish for purposes beyond their understanding.”

      But we understand. Dig down, and we know why our dark and twisted fantasies of a suffering, angry American underclass have finally come true. We know why our obsession with health and safety has manifested in a monstrous paramilitary that can swarm our streets in a heartbeat. If we are to be scourged, we know we are to blame.


      Perhaps the shock of unity brought on by Ferguson will occasion our turn away from this path—if, we must add, there is still time.

      Delete
    2. RISE OF THE BLACK SERIAL KILLER

      Justin Cottrell

      CARL EUGENE WATTS
      Confessed to 44 murders! Suspected in up to 80 more!
      Americans have had a curious fascination with serial killers, since the days Jack the Ripper prowled the streets of London. Their stories have been told in countless books, portrayed in the cinema and told as spooky campfire stories to wide-eyed youths. As did the tales of vampires and ghouls in the middle ages, serial killers have haunted our dreams and kept us looking over our shoulder hoping we’re not one of their next victims.
      Most people are familiar with how the story goes. Intelligent middle class white loner, abused as a youth, a bed-wetter until puberty with a morbid fascination of torturing animals as a teen, snaps and begins killing people as an adult. The names and stories of Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, Robert Lee Yates and dozens of others fit this description and seem make this idea credible. Turn on the television or read a fiction book about serial killers and this is the idea portrayed, in nearly every instance, serial killers are always white. But is this always correct? The answer is resoundingly, no!
      (A good introduction to Carl Eugene Watts )
      In 2002 a scene in Washington D.C. and surrounding areas played out over a three week period, as the Beltway Sniper kept the nation on it’s toes. In initial reports, authorities were on the lookout for a white male in his mid-thirties, possibly driving a white mini-van. FBI profilers and sketch artists told the masses what this white killer possibly looked like, and what behavior this individual exhibited. Area citizens were on the lookout for anyone fitting this description, as dozens that fit were interviewed. The nation did a double take once the captured killer, with gun in hand turned out to be a Black Muslim that went by the name John Allen Muhammad.
      Soon following every black commentator that could be found was on the news media, showing their dismay at the thought of a black killer. Articles written at the time by black psychologists and commentators are telling of the mindset of most Americans, about the general perception of blacks being serial killers.
      “This is not typical conduct for us. I mean Black folks do some crazy stuff, but we don’t do anonymous violence. That’s not in our history. We just don’t do that.”[i] “
      “White guys have pretty much cornered the market on mass murders and serial killing.”[ii]
      “There aren’t any black serial killers.”[iii]
      Admittedly, my perception at the time was skewed as well. Aside from what I vaguely remembered from of Wayne Williams, the black serial killer from Atlanta in the late 70’s; I assumed black serial killers weren’t common. In the numerous books I’d read on the subject, from understanding the psychology behind a sociopath to the fine details of their horrible crimes; Williams was usually the lone black killer in their lists. I assumed, that if black serial killers existed, surely the information would be in print.
      [i] White, T.,Willis, L.,&Smith, L. (2002, October 25). African Americans grapple with race of sniper suspects: Relief at capture, worry about repercussions [Electronic version]. Baltimore Sun. Retrieved from http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-te.md .concern25oct25.story
      [ii] Charles, N. (2002, November 2). Black serial killers: A rare breed. Harlem Times, p. 1.
      [iii] Kimberley,M. (2003, November 20). John Ashcroft and the bloodthirsty actions of a bible quoting prosecutor. Black Commentator. http://www.blackcommentator.com/65/65_fr_justice.html

      Delete
  13. Ahhh, bullhocky. Ferguson's problem is 18th century slavery; it's their refusal to give up on good old 20th Century "Jim Crow."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ferguson's problem is Not 18th Century slavery.

      Delete
    2. You have a 70% Black population, with a 95% White police force,

      a White City Council, and a White Mayor.

      Some lazy-assed Black people need to get off their asses, and start voting.

      In the meantime, the Mayor, and City Council might try "growing a brain."

      Delete
    3. Blacks have no right to live in St Louis....

      They do not belong here...

      Back to africa...

      The residents around Ferguson do not belong there, they are occupying Indian lands...

      Delete
    4. YO RUFUS II,

      EDUCATE TO LIBERATE!

      THERE WERE MORE WHITE SLAVES THAN BLACK SLAVES IN COLONIAL AMERICA
      PART 1
      A famous history professor stated that history was not a science but a continuing investigation into the past; a person's conclusion is based on their own bias. This story will offer evidence that the Alba, Scots, Irish and Pics have been the longest race held in slavery.
      The reader will be responsible for their own bias pertaining to White Slavery.
      Alexander Stewart was herded off the Gildart in July of 1747, bound with chains. Stewart was pushed onto the auction block in Wecomica, St Mary's County, Maryland. Doctor Stewart and his brother William were attending the auction, aware of Alexander being on that slave ship coming from Liverpool England. Doctor Stewart and William were residents of Annapolis and brothers to David of Ballachalun in Montieth, Scotland. The two brothers paid nine pound six shillings sterling to Mr. Benedict Callvert of Annapolis for the purchase of Alexander. He was a slave.
      Alexander tells of the other 88 Scots sold into slavery that day in "The Lyon in Mourning" pages 242 243. Jeremiah Howell was a lifetime indentured servant by his uncle in Lewis County, Virginia in the early 1700's. His son, Jeremiah, won his freedom by fighting in the Revolution. There were hundreds of thousands of Scots sold into slavery during Colonial America. White slavery to the American Colonies occurred as early as 1630 in Scotland. According to the Egerton manuscript, British Museum, the enactment of 1652: it may be lawful for two or more justices of the peace within any county, citty or towne, corporate belonging to the commonwealth to from tyme to tyme by warrant cause to be apprehended, seized on and detained all and every person or persons that shall be found begging and vagrant.. in any towne, parish or place to be conveyed into the Port of London, or unto any other port from where such person or persons may be shipped into a forraign collonie or plantation.
      The judges of Edinburgh Scotland during the years 1662 1665 ordered the enslavement and shipment to the colonies a large number of rogues and others who made life unpleasant for the British upper class. (Register for the Privy Council of Scotland, third series, vol. 1, p 181, vol. 2, p 101).
      The above accounting sounds horrific but slavery was what the Scots have survived for a thousand years. The early ancestors of the Scots, Alba and Pics were enslaved as early as the first century BC. Varro, a Roman philosopher stated in his agricultural manuscripts that white slaves were only things with a voice or instrumenti vocali. Julius Caesar enslaves as many as one million whites from Gaul. (William D Phillips, Jr. Slavery From Roman Times to Early Transatlantic Trade, p. 18).
      The documentary record compels us to face the fact that a holocaust was perpetrated against generations of poor White People whose sufferings are far more than is presented here. The horrors they experienced equal anything the more famous sufferers have undergone. Yet, of all the dusty shelves in the dark corners of "Suppressed" history, none has been more completely obscured than the story of the White Slaves of Colonial America!
      A famous history professor stated that history was not a science but a continuing investigation into the past; a person's conclusion is based on their own bias. This story will offer evidence that the Alba, Scots, Irish and Pics have been the longest race held in slavery. The reader will be responsible for their own bias pertaining to White Slavery.

      Delete
    5. WHITE SLAVERY

      PART 2
      Alexander Stewart was herded off the Gildart in July of 1747, bound with chains. Stewart was pushed onto the auction block in Wecomica, St Mary's County, Maryland. Doctor Stewart and his brother William were attending the auction, aware of Alexander being on that slave ship coming from Liverpool England. Doctor Stewart and William were residents of Annapolis and brothers to David of Ballachalun in Montieth, Scotland.
      The two brothers paid nine pound six shillings sterling to Mr. Benedict Callvert of Annapolis for the purchase of Alexander. He was a slave. Alexander tells of the other 88 Scots sold into slavery that day in "The Lyon in Mourning" pages 242 243. Jeremiah Howell was a lifetime indentured servant by his uncle in Lewis County, Virginia in the early 1700's. His son, Jeremiah, won his freedom by fighting in the Revolution.
      There were hundreds of thousands of Scots sold into slavery during Colonial America. White slavery to the American Colonies occurred as early as 1630 in Scotland. According to the Egerton manuscript, British Museum, the enactment of 1652: it may be lawful for two or more justices of the peace within any county, citty or towne, corporate belonging to the commonwealth to from tyme to tyme by warrant cause to be apprehended, seized on and detained all and every person or persons that shall be found begging and vagrant.. in any towne, parish or place to be conveyed into the Port of London, or unto any other port from where such person or persons may be shipped into a forraign collonie or plantation.
      The judges of Edinburgh Scotland during the years 1662 1665 ordered the enslavement and shipment to the colonies a large number of rogues and others who made life unpleasant for the British upper class. [1]
      The above accounting sounds horrific but slavery was what the Scots have survived for a thousand years. The early ancestors of the Scots, Alba and Pics were enslaved as early as the first century BC. Varro, a Roman philosopher stated in his agricultural manuscripts that white slaves were only things with a voice or instrumenti vocali. Julius Caesar enslaves as many as one million whites from Gaul. [2]
      Pope Gregory in the sixth century first witnessed blonde hair, blue eyed boys awaiting sale in a Roman slave market. The Romans enslaved thousands of white inhabitants of Great Britain, who were also known as Angles. Pope Gregory was very interested in the looks of these boys therefore asking their origin. He was told they were Angles from Briton. Gregory stated, "Non Angli, sed Angeli." (Not Angles but Angels).
      The eighth to the eleventh centuries proved to be very profitable for Rouen France. Rouen was the transfer point of Irish and Flemish slaves to the Arabian nations. The early centuries AD the Scottish were known as Irish. William Phillips on page 63 states that the major component of slave trade in the eleventh century were the Vikings. They spirited many 'Irish' to Spain, Scandinavia and Russia. Legends have it; some 'Irish' may have been taken as far as Constantinople.
      Ruth Mazo Karras wrote in her book, "Slavery and Society in Medeivel Scandinavia" pg. 49; Norwegian Vikings made slave raids not only against the Irish and Scots (who were often called Irish in Norse sources) but also against Norse settlers in Ireland or Scottish Isles or even in Norway itself slave trading was a major commercial activity of the Viking Age. The children of the White slaves in Iceland were routinely murdered en masse. [3]

      Delete
    6. WHITE SLAVERY


      PART 3
      There were many times more Whites brought to America as Slaves than there ever were Blacks. And the White Slaves were treated much worse!
      According to these resources as well as many more, the Scots Irish have been enslaved longer than any other race in the world's history. Most governments do not teach White Slavery in their World History classes. Children of modern times are only taught about the African slave trade. The Scots do not need to be taught because they are very aware of the atrocities upon an enslaved race. Most importantly, we have survived to become one to the largest races on Earth!!!
      The record of suppressed records, portions excised in the interests of dogma, politics and all the other alibis of falsehood. We will present to you the truth and follow it wherever it leads, however much it upsets the peddler's cart of the modern pitchmen of recent opinion. Elbert Hubbard tells us that, "It is not deeds or acts that last, it is the written record of those deeds and acts."
      Mr. Hoffman herein provides a small voice as a memorial to the heroic lives of toil and the indomitable spirit of perseverance of the White Slaves of the past, who are in many cases the Forefathers and Foremothers of Millions of Americans Alive Today; a Vital Part of Our Heritage Which Should Never Be Forgotten!
      This is a history of White People that has seldom, if ever, been told in any coherent form, largely because most modern historians have, for reasons of politics or psychology, refused to recognize White Slaves in early America as just that.
      Most Historians of Today Are Total Cowards, and Are Not Willing to Present Anything That Might Upset the Establishment. And if they do display the courage necessary to present the truth, they will be ridiculed and driven from the faculties of the so called halls of learning.
      Others have their own agenda, which has nothing to do with truth; an agenda to present a false historical perspective so as to destroy the faith of White Americans and so destroy their pride in the process. "They were of two sorts, first such as were brought over by masters of ships to be sold as servants. Such as we call them my dear,' says she, 'but they are more properly called slaves.'" [4]

      Delete
    7. WHITE SLAVERY


      PART 4

      Today, not a tear is shed for the sufferings of millions of our own enslaved forefathers. Two hundred years of White Slaver in America has been almost completely obliterated from the collective memory of the American people. "Who wants to be reminded that half perhaps as many as two thirds of the original American colonists came here, not of their own free will, but kidnaped, shanghaied, impressed, duped, beguiled, and yes, in chains?...we tend to gloss over it...we'd prefer to forget the whole sorry chapter..." [5]
      A correct understanding of the authentic history of the enslavement of Whites in America could have profound consequences for the future of the races: "We cannot be sure that the position of the earliest Africans differed markedly from that of the White Indentured Servants. The debate has considerable significance for the interpretation of race relations in American history." [6]
      Most of the books researched are titled with words like "White Indentured Servitude," White "bondservants," White "servants" etc. It is interesting that White People who were bound to a condition of what became in many cases permanent chattel slavery unto death, are not referred to as slaves by Establishment academics. With the massive concentration of educational and media resources on the Negro experience of slavery the unspoken assumption has been that only Blacks have been enslaved to any degree or magnitude worthy of study or memorial. The historical record reveals that this is not the case, however.
      [1] Register for the Privy Council of Scotland, third series, vol. 1, p 181, vol. 2, p 101.
      [2] William D Phillips, Jr. Slavery From Roman Times to Early Transatlantic Trade, p. 18.
      [3] Karras pp. 52
      [4] Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders.
      [5] Elaine Kendall, Los Angeles Times, September 1, 1985.
      [6] Eugene D. Genovese, Roll, Jordan Roll: The World the Slaves Made, p. 31.

      Delete
  14. Looks as if Ash is unhappy about the realities of US air power against "Enemy in the Open".

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hardly unhappy but it has limited utility in addressing the problem at hand.

      Delete
    2. You have no concept of what you are opining on, Ash.

      Delete
    3. ISIS is not the same as the "Sunni resistance in Fallujah."

      To conflate the two is 100% nonsense.

      Delete
    4. If you were to state that this operation will be a whole lot more difficult in the larger cities, such as Mosul, and Fallujah, you would be making some sense.

      Delete
    5. What do you consider the problem to be, Ash?
      A tactical challege or strategic imperatives.

      Tactically there is very little problem, at all.
      It is merely a matter of will.

      Strategically the Syrian sanctuary that ISIS enjoys could present a problem ...
      But for the US to attack ISIS, there, would be tacit support of Assad, and the Israeli contingent will holler and scream if the US would move in that direction. That is the real problem, facing the US, the inappropriate influence that the Israeli have on US policies. However that influence will not help the ISIS forces in Iraq.

      Delete
    6. The Iraqi Sunni will move towards the government and US.
      Money talks and bullshit walks.

      Especially as the natives in Anbar watch as Hellfire rains down on the ISIS vehicles and positions.
      The 'Sons of Iraq' Sunni will get religion and do what they can to avoid the wrath of the Predators.

      Delete
    7. You are a funny guy rat. Why don't you tell us again how we should carry the fight right on through to Syria? Easy peasy just rain death and money from above and he heathen will fall in line behind the pied piper.

      Delete
    8. I tell ya son, I tell ya, it's gonna work...









      ...this time!

      Delete
    9. There is no "good" reason, Ash.

      There is reality. What is the reaction of the US going to be?
      It will react, that is a "given".

      There are those that call for direct intervention into the conflicts. We can point to Mr McCain as an example of this.
      There are those that advocate for "more", when "more" is not needed.

      The fact remains that those elected to "High Office" in the US want to 'do something'.

      Less is best, in that regard.
      Air power is, particularly the use of drones, is as less as it can get, and still be effective, tactically.

      You are making a case against the strategic goals. Which is fine and dandy, but does not, will not, invalidate the tactical effectiveness of "Not Doing Dumb Shit".

      The tactics of using indigenous ground forces, coupled with US air support will prevail.
      The political settlement, or lack there of, that follow ...

      Not what rufus and I have been dicusing.

      Delete
    10. That's absolutely correct. My choices would be:

      1) Very little intervention

      2) Even less intervention


      I'm merely commenting on "what" we are doing, and "is it militarily sound?"

      In my judgment, it will work.

      Delete
    11. The indigenous ground forces? Hmmm, which ones? Are we bombing in favor of he Iranian allied Shia government of Iraq? The separatist Kurdish Peshmerga enemy of our ally Turkey? Are these the indigenous forces we should deem the winners this week? Are we supporting Assad by bombing had s enemy? Yeah, simple!

      Delete
  15. Rick Salutin Columnist, Published on Thu Aug 14 2014



















    I’d forgotten why I find the Clintons so objectionable but Hillary got me back up to speed this week with an interview on foreign policy. She wanted to dispute Barack Obama’s four-word summary of his approach, as reported in the semi-official journal, Foreign Policy: “Don’t do stupid s---.” He was responding to journalists on Air Force One who said he doesn’t have a foreign policy. Later references paraphrased it as “Don’t do stupid stuff,” with a nudge/wink on “stuff.” Hillary disagreed: “Great nations need organizing principles, and ‘Don’t do stupid stuff’ is not an organizing principle.” I’m here to say I think it’s a great one.


    Start with her notion that great nations need organizing principles, as if other countries are just dicking around shambolically. But it’s really we smaller fry who need our wits about us, so as not to be steamrolled. Or begin earlier, at “great nations.” There’s the original sin: that some are great and possess the right and duty to organize others. I know it’s always been thus; that doesn’t make it true or valid. Delusions of greatness are behind all major global messes. When their organizing doesn’t work out, they reorganize and eventually you can’t find anything in the garage. But enough abstraction.


    Hillary’s gripe was based on the Mideast, starting with Syria. She wanted to give weapons to the good guys there and Obama didn’t. But what an example: everything that’s gone bad in the Mideast for 100 years is the result of western nations trying to organize the joint. In 1916, England and France organized it into Syria, Iraq, Palestine, etc. They used rulers to draw neat borders. When things went bad they reorganized: like bombing rebellious Iraqis with poison gas in 1926, a technique the locals took note of. In 1953 the West organized a coup in Iran to remove a democratically elected leader, installing the Shah and breeding generations of rebels till Islamists took power in 1979. So the U.S. “tilted” toward Iraq’s Saddam Hussein in his conflict with Iran.


    Then, emboldened, Saddam invaded Kuwait in 1991. So they attacked him from Saudi Arabia, earning the hatred of Osama bin Laden, whom they’d enlisted as an ally while manoeuvring to oust the Soviets from Afghanistan. Their 2003 invasion of Iraq left the most disorganization in the region ever. Now you’ve got ISIS, which only exists because of that invasion 10 years ago, so they have to intervene again? Are we there yet? Does anyone spot the logical fallacy?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. Stupid equals the notion that you can organize the lives of others based on whatever “principles.” Whole societies don’t just go to sleep and allow foreigners to run them. That’s the stupidest part. You forget there will be reactions to your actions. Has Obama stopped doing stupid? Of course not. He’s the president. He has to “project” U.S. power. He’s tried to avoid invading whole countries by using drones — but they engender the same venomous reactions. He let Hill and the girls (UN ambassador Samantha Power, national security adviser Susan Rice) goad him into overthrowing Qaddafi in Libya. Now it’s utter anarchy there with collateral effects spreading Islamism south into Africa.


      Am I seriously suggesting great nations do nothing while tyrants romp and people die? Yes, because the evidence is in. Intervention simply worsens things.


      The only success in the region, Tunisia, tossed a dictator on their own and are moving ahead. It doesn’t hurt that they don’t have oil to tempt the great.


      I once spent a summer on a hillside in Provence with a dear English friend, trying to recuperate from the lacerations of a bad relationship in Canada. One night as the mistral blew, she spotted me trying to seal and conceal a letter home. She demanded to know what was in it and who to. “I just want to clarify the facts,” I mewled. “Facts?” she erupted about a nightmare I’d meticulously described. “There is only one fact! It is all messed up!” — though she used another word, in the manner of Obama. I handed over the letter and she destroyed it, out of sheer friendship. There’s only one real fact in the Mideast and it’s the same one.

      Delete
    2. Ms Clinton is part of the Council of Foreign Relations cabal. Always has been.

      The idea that the US and England could set an entire train of event in motion, then walk away from the consequences ...

      Well, immoral to say the least.
      The polities of the nations involved, in the Middle East and in Africa, are ALL constructs of past foreign intervention.
      The maps were drawn by the "Western Powers", the boundaries and force integration of the varied tribes and sects, all done by the "Western Powers".

      In retrospect, perhaps they were doing "Dumb Shit" but even if they were, their progeny cannot turn their backs on the consequence of their actions "Cold Turkey". A phased withdrawal from interference in the affairs of others is called for, a withdrawal from "Empire", but that withdrawal has to be done with some 'style' or the cure will be worse than the disease.

      Delete
    3. ... the boundaries and forced integration of the varied tribes ...

      Delete
    4. There is more than ample evidence of the disasters that follow the "Cold Turkey" withdrawal of foreign influence across the globe, tambien.

      Delete
    5. .

      A bullshit concept.

      Iraq was ruined the minute we disbanded their army and fired everyone running the day to day affairs of the country. Democracy is a great idea, in theory. The problem is you never know what is going to happen when the people get to voting.

      Cold Turkey? We were there for 8 friggin years, for three years and a 1000 more American dead after Bush signed the Status of Forces Agreement.

      ...withdrawal has to be done with some 'style'... Lordy, spare me.

      .

      Delete
    6. .

      Militarists take a certain satisfaction in the evident collapse of Obama’s efforts to end the Iraq war. If they have any complaint, it’s that the President was too slow to pull the trigger and ought to widen the US target array. Even former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, now positioning herself for a presidential run, is signalling her appetite for more vigorous action, for example against Syria’s Assad regime.

      To what end? Apart from mounting resistance to the ‘Islamic State’ — a force of perhaps 10,000 fighters lacking either an air force or a navy yet said to threaten the world’s only superpower — what is America’s strategic objective? The answer is that there is none. For the US, military action has become a substitute for strategy, indeed, for acknowledging the fact that nearly a quarter-century of military involvement in Iraq and in the Middle East more generally has produced next to nothing of value. Only the naive, the obtuse or the dishonest will believe (or profess to believe) that trying harder has the slightest chance of producing a different and more favourable outcome.

      The United States and its European allies do not possess the wit nor the will nor the might to fix whatever it is that ails much of the Islamic world. This is the principal lesson that the long Iraq war has to teach. The beginning of wisdom lies in recognising that fact.

      So yes, to address the plight of innocent people at immediate risk, let us airdrop lifesaving bundles. If nothing else, doing so allows fatuous pundits like Richard Cohen of the Washington Post to preen about the United States doing ‘the right thing’, thereby ‘saving many lives and our honour as well’. But let us not confuse moral imperatives with the obligations and complexities inherent in national security policy.

      No doubt the ‘Islamic State’ poses a danger of sorts. But for the United States and for Europe, that danger is negligible. Regional powers such as Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Iran are both more directly threatened and far better positioned to deal with it. Offering whatever indirect assistance might be helpful, the United States would be better served simply to butt out. We’ve done enough damage.


      http://www.spectator.co.uk/features/9287882/no-we-shouldnt/

      .

      Delete
  16. Mike Jacob's store was looted by blacks...

    They stole the booze, meat and anything not nailed down...

    Mile is an arab from "Palestine"

    Mike is not native, he is occupying the native people's lands....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The store, if it really exists, was looted by criminals. Not by a color.

      Delete
    2. Looted by black criminals..

      But wait, aint all blacks all criminals illegally colonizing indian lands????

      Delete
    3. ANd Mike Jacob a Palestinians arab, who is the real Jew (according to rat) is also a criminal occupier...

      Delete
  17. Better stop using Yahoo too!!!

    Internet giant Yahoo! has purchased its second Israel-based company in as many months. ClarityRay, a start-up which specializes in ad-blocking and helps publishers detect advertising fraud and generate alternative pop-ups to users, has been bought out by the multinational corporation, it said on its website.

    "Our vision has always been making the eco-system safe, compliant and sustainable for consumers, publishers and advertisers," the ClarityRay team stated, adding that it helped the online ad industry in "identifying, measuring, and solving many of its unseen hurdles inhibiting that."

    It said that joining the Yahoo! team will enable them to go forward in pursuing that vision, and that "we couldn't be more excited."

    Calling their exit a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity" that will allow for the "mass scaling of our technology, impact and ideas to the absolute forefront of our field," the start-up said they are proud to call Yahoo! "home."

    A statement issued by Yahoo! said, "We’ve been working on building up security capabilities and making Yahoo! a safer place for users and partners. Advertising is an essential part of our business here at Yahoo, and we’re committed to getting it right. ClarityRay is a company with deep expertise in ad-malware detection and prevention. The bottom line for Yahoo! is that search is going to get better and safer for users, and advertising will become more reliable and profitable for partners."


    Stay the course...

    LOL

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What "O"rdure fails to mention is that Yahoo will be relocating the company to Sunnyvale, California, USA.
      As that is where Yahoo's home is.

      Delete
    2. SO?

      Yahoo has paid and will continue to pay israeli Jews for their inventions and innovations..

      Rat I thought you understood we live in a Global economy...

      Oh that's right you shovel horse shit for a living and don't understand whole and retail pricing of energy let alone acquisitions of Israeli Start Ups...

      Lol

      But you can thank Israel for creating new American jobs...

      Delete

    3. Location: Haifa, Israel



      MATAM, Advanced Technology Park
      Tower 3 - Floor 7
      Haifa, 31905 Israel


      Yahoo Labs in Israel focuses on research and development in Web search, (big) data-mining, and recommender systems, distributed systems, computational advertising and computer science theory. The research scientists and research engineers in the team tightly collaborate with Yahoo partners to provide scientific insight, launch novel features, and publish about it, around products such as Yahoo Mail and Yahoo Answers for instance. The proximity of the Labs to Technion, Israel Institute of Technology offers multiple opportunities for Academic relations and student internships. Israel not being such a big country, other universities are also welcome to reach out to investigate research collaboration opportunities.

      The office is ideally located by the Haifa beach, at the foot of Mount Carmel, and within walking distance from the train station "Carmel beach". Yahoo Labs in Israel offer a dynamic and nurturing environment to young talents eager to build a research career, or recognized scientists looking for inspiration (from data and users) and a venue for innovating and impacting hundreds of millions of Web users. Check out the Job opportunities in Haifa!

      For any additional details contact the head of Yahoo Labs in Israel, Yoelle Maarek (send her mail by concatenating her first name yoelle with ymail.com)

      Delete
    4. What don't tell me rat is wrong (again) It seems that Yahoo has more than one office complex...

      San Francisco, California Sunnyvale, California New York, New York Santiago, Chile Barcelona, Spain Haifa, Israel Bangalore, India Beijing, China

      Will wonders ever cease!!!

      Rat is wrong again, and again...

      Delete
  18. Deuce, you latest statements say it all, Jews have no right to self determination or a Jewish state in Israel.

    Those are your positions. Jews are thieves and stole everything from the arabs..

    Your view of history is interesting. And I don't mean interesting...

    But what to do?

    israel is not going away, like it or not.

    And those that seek it's destruction and act on it? Will get their asses kicked, repeatedly.

    Hamas has done it again. That is why almost the entire arab world has laid the blame for the civilian deaths at the feet not of Israel but of the Palestinians own Hamas.....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Zionist colonialists have no right to deprive the indigenous people rights EQUAL to those of the colonialists.
      The colonialists have no right to deprive those Equal rights to others.

      Their fascist regime will fail.
      All the past crusader states have, Israel will not be an exception.

      Delete
    2. To attempt to conflate Zionism and Judaism is just more of the worn out propaganda of the NASI.

      Delete
    3. Lies, deciet and fraud, the tools of Zionism, are all on display with each of "O"rdure's posts.

      Delete
    4. THE GREATEST JEWISH JOKE EVERRRRRRR!

      HISTORY OF PALESTINE
      614-1096 C.E.
      From the Accession of the Mahomedans to that of the Europeans.
      By Rabbi Joseph Schwarz, 1850

      (THE JEWISH RABBI WHO CREATED ISLAM:ISLAM WAS FINANCED & CONTROLLED BY ARABIAN JEWS FROM ITS BEGINNING, TO BUILD AN ARMY TO FIGHT THE ROMAN EMPIRE.)

      Intro:

      [ABU BAKR WAS A JEWISH RABBI]

      Rabbi Shallum, son of the then Resh Gelutha, in Babel, perceiving this dreadful predicament, went to Mahomed, and offering him his submission, friendship, and services, endeavoured to enter with him into a friendly compact. Mahomed accepted his proposition with pleasure, conceived a great affection for him, and took his daughter, a handsome young girl ( A 6 YEAR OLD CHILD), for wife; he made him also a general in his army, and gave him the name of Abu Bachr al Chaliva al Zadik, literally:

      The father of the maiden, the descendant of the righteous; this means, that of all his wives, who were either widows or divorced women, this one was the only one who had never been married before, and then she was the granddaughter of the celebrated chief of the captivity; therefore, the descendant of the righteous. This occurrence induced Mahomed to give up his terrible intention to destroy the Jews in his country, and thus did Rabbi Shallum save his people.

      THE BETRAYAL

      [Why Muhammad hated alcohol]

      Abu Bachr and Aliman now resolved among themselves to remove the dangerous enemy of the Jews, Bucheran. One evening Mahomed, Bucheran, Aliman, and Abu Bachr, were drinking together; the latter two soon saw that Mahomed and the astrologer were strongly intoxicated, and lay stretched out in a deep and profound sleep. Abu Bachr thereupon drew the sword of Mahomed from its scabbard, cut off therewith Bucharan's head, and put the bloody sword back into its receptacle, and both then lay themselves down quietly near Mahomed to sleep. When Mahomed awoke and saw his friend lying decapitated near him, he cried out in a fury: "This terrible deed has been done by one of us three in our drunkenness!" Abu Bachr thereupon said quite unconcernedly: "Let each one draw his sword, and he whose weapon is stained with blood, must needs be the murderer!" They all drew their swords, and that of Mahomed was completely dyed with fresh blood, which proved thus clearly to his satisfaction that he had murdered his friend. He was greatly grieved at this discovery; cursed and condemned the wine which was the cause of this murder, and swore that he never would drink any more, and that also no one should do so who wishes to enter heaven. This is the cause why wine is prohibited to the Mahomedans.

      At a later period, Mahomed learned the whole transaction, and that his father-in-law was the perpetrator of the bloody deed; wherefore, he lost his favour, and he would not permit him to come before him. Abu Bachr went thereupon and conquered sixty places, which had not yet submitted to Mahomed, and presented them to him, through which means he became again reconciled to him, was received in favour, and remained thereafter at court.

      BE SURE TO GOOGLE:

      HISTORY OF PALESTINE
      614-1096 C.E.
      From the Accession of the Mahomedans to that of the Europeans.
      By Rabbi Joseph Schwarz, 1850

      Delete
    5. Farmer RobSat Aug 16, 01:24:00 PM EDT
      To attempt to conflate Zionism and Judaism is just more of the worn out propaganda of the NASI.

      Sorry rat, your "big lie" that Israel and Zionists are "nazis" is worn out..

      But keep crying wolf....

      Delete
  19. THE PSYCHOLOGY BEHIND WEARING BURKA:

    ONCE YOU COVER WITH A BURKA, ALL THAT IS VISIBLE ARE THE EYES!

    WHERE THERE IS A SCARCITY OF WOMEN, A DONKEY WEARING A BURKA, LOOKS ATTRACTIVE.
    THEY HAVE LOVELY EYES & SO HAVE GOATS!

    FROM THE REAR IT’S HARD TO TELL ONE PIECE OF ASS FROM ANOTHER & THE SMELL IS ABOUT THE SAME.

    MECCA & ANIMAL SEX:

    HAJJ PILGRIMAGE INCOMPLETE WITHOUT

    HOT CAMEL SEX

    Sunni Imam Abu Bakar al-Kashani (d. 587 H) records in his authority work 'Badaye al-Sanae' Volume 2 page 216:
    ولو وطئ بهيمة لا يفسد حجه

    ولو وطئ بهيمة لا يفسد حجه

    “If he had sexual intercourse with an animal that will not make his hajj void”
    Islamic Scripture

    Qur'an

    In contrast with what secular and non-Islamic religious sources say about bestiality, this is what the Qur'an has to say on the subject:

    " ________________________________________________"

    That's right - absolutely, positively nothing. Unlike the Qur'an's clear-cut rulings on the morality of homosexuality, Polygamy, rape, and pedophilia, the permissibility of bestiality seems to have been left open to ‘interpretation.’

    If Islamic teachings were truly opposed to such a practice, then this omission is somewhat surprising when you consider that, historically, bestiality was indigenously accepted in the Middle-East.

    HOT MOHAMMEDAN SEX

    Here are the Muslim countries and how they placed in the top five
    world ranking of various bestiality-related internet search terms:
    Pig Sex: Pakistan (No. 1) Egypt (No. 2) Saudi Arabia (No. 3)
    Donkey Sex: Pakistan (No. 1) Iran (No. 3) Saudi Arabia (No. 4)
    Dog Sex: Pakistan (No. 1) Saudi Arabia (No. 3)
    Cat Sex: Pakistan (No. 1) Iran (No. 2) Egypt (No. 3) Saudi Arabia (No. 4)
    Horse Sex: Pakistan (No. 1) Turkey (No. 3)
    Cow Sex: Pakistan (No. 1) Iran (No. 2) Saudi Arabia (No. 4)
    Goat Sex: Pakistan (No. 1)
    Animal Sex: Pakistan (No. 1) Morocco (No. 2) Iran (No. 4) Egypt (No. 5)
    Snake Sex: Pakistan (No. 1) Malaysia (No. 3) Indonesia (No. 4) Egypt (No. 5)
    Monkey Sex: Pakistan (No. 1) Indonesia (No. 3) Malaysia (No. 4)
    Bear Sex: Pakistan (No. 1) Saudi Arabia (No. 2)
    Elephant Sex: Pakistan (No. 1) Egypt (No. 3) United Arab Emirates (No. 4) Malaysia (No. 5)
    Fox Sex: Saudi Arabia (No. 1) Turkey (No. 4)

    AND AS THEY MOUNT THEIR ASSES, THEY SHOUT, "ALLAH AKBAR"

    ReplyDelete
  20. YO BROS,

    I should have said BYZANTINE EMPIRE!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That is correct "O"rdure, the Zionist regime is jut an extension of the Ottoman, which was a remenant of the Byzantine Roman Empire, which subjugated the region and continues to.
      The Israeli government has, to a large extent, continued the Ottoman legal system in regard to land ownership. 

      Thus, today the vast proportion of land within the State of Israel (roughly 93%) is owned and managed either by the Israel Lands Administration (ILA) or the JNF.  This figure includes much of such extensive regions as the Negev and the Judean Wilderness (near the Dead Sea), which are sparsely populated. 

      Jewish settlements in the State of Israel usually are located on lands that are owned by the ILA or the JNF and that have been consigned to each settlement through long-term leases. 

      Less than 7% of the land in the State of Israel is privately owned.


      http://elearning.la.psu.edu/jst060/lesson_2/land-ownership


      Delete
    2. The European disdain for the natives of Palestine, Canaan, or Judea goes well back in hitory, and continues, today.

      But Jewish history tells us that the Romans did not expel the original Jews from Palestine when they crushed the Simon bar Kokhba revolt in 136 AD but instead barred them only from city of Jerusalem – and even then they were allowed to visit it during Tisha B’Av, the annual fasting day on the ninth day of the month of Av in the Hebrew calendar.

      Under Christianity and during the Roman Empire a large number of native Jews converted to Christianity and, with the advent of Islam, most adopted the new religion and assimilated under the new power.

      In addition to the descendants of the Canaanites, the original denizens before patriarch Abraham’s arrival from Mesopotamia, Sand concludes that today’s Muslim and Christian Palestinians are actually the true progenies of the original Jews.


      Jamal Kanj

      Delete
    3. And soon you'll be telling us how great Jesus is and we should all embrace him and be born again.

      Delete
    4. "O"rdure would have us all renounce the science of genetics, in favor of the myths he was taught as a child.

      Delete
    5. Sorry Rat, you can't have it both ways..

      "Muslim and Christian Palestinians are actually the true progenies of the original Jews." then they are not arabs....

      LOL

      You speak out of both sides of your mouth at the same time..

      i suggest you tell the palestinians they are really jews and see how that works out for ya...

      LOL

      Retard.

      Delete
    6. Of course they are Arabs, "O"rdure, the original "Jews", a European term, originating in Greece, were the the "Hyksos" from northern Egypt.

      You are so fixated on racial categories that you lose the truth.
      Typical of racists of all stripes.

      No, Ash, there will be no call to Jesus, that character of legend is just a reincarnation of the Osiris myth.

      Delete
    7. Actually, we're all Africans, . . . . . . but, what the hell. :)

      Delete
    8. Larry is the one I was referring to re Jesus.

      Delete
  21. as famed Zionist Mark Twain once said: The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated...

    Farmer RobSat Aug 16, 01:22:00 PM EDT
    The Zionist colonialists have no right to deprive the indigenous people rights EQUAL to those of the colonialists.
    The colonialists have no right to deprive those Equal rights to others.

    Their fascist regime will fail.
    All the past crusader states have, Israel will not be an exception.


    LOL

    This comes from a guy squatting on Indian/Mexican land in AZ...

    LOL

    Fortress Rat, in Scottsdale... I hope you like salsa gringo...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 79% of PA poll residents would prefer Israeli democracy. After the 1967 war, Israel offered citizenship to all Arab residents of Jerusalem. Arabs over responded; indeed, they oversubscribed. Jerusalem Arabs renouncing their Israeli citizenship has been 0%. On the other hand, Druze living within the Golan refused Israeli citizenship from 1967 - 2011. What happened in 2011 that would make the 100% of the Druze apply for Israeli citizenship?

      As to the pinpoint accuracy of artillery, rockets, etc., any combat veteran knows that the concussive impact and shrapnel even from the lowly hand grenade is unpredictable...only in the movies, boys...only in the movies...keep pretending...

      Delete
    2. As I said, it will be much more difficult in the city (but we still won't have to knock down any schools, or hospitals.)

      hopefully

      Delete
    3. Rufus when they start storing thousands of rockets inside schools and hospitals?

      they will be leveled..

      Delete
    4. WiO,

      I agree with Rufus: they won't. To wage war takes balls. Livni has about the biggest balls you will find in the Israel cabinet.

      Delete
    5. Then the urban looters/rioters will use hospitals and schools as war centers and you will allow it and you will lose.

      Delete
    6. WiO,

      If I were commanding, it would be over. I am unsympathetic and focused only on the outcome. I take the advice of General George Patton to heart: Americans love a winner...

      Delete
  22. In another potentially game-changing development, 25 Sunni tribes in the western province of Anbar, including some that had previously been on the fence, announced on Friday that they were launching a coordinated effort to oust IS fighters.

    Winds A'blowin'

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Just as predicted, what, a week ago?

      The pieces are falling into place.
      Doc Z will be proven correct in his prognostications, as well.
      The outcome, easy to see, for those with eyes and even limited knowledge.

      Delete
    2. Yep, those Sunni fought us (and, pretty damned well, too) because we were the invaders.

      Now, ISIS is the Invader.

      Delete
    3. Oh, is that the indigenous forces the terror from the skies is intended to support - the Sunni tribes?

      Delete
    4. I agree with Rufus, again: We could drive these piss ants into the sand. But we won't.

      As a commander, Obama has one critical weakness: He waits on the enemy to move. A real commander, say, Napoleon,, win, loose, or draw, knows what he is about. As the Duke of Wellington said about Waterloo, "it was the damnedest close run thing you have ever seen." Both the Emperor and the Duke had a game plan. Each stuck to that plan. Only the failings of subordinates put the plans at risk. Marshall Ney and bad weather put Napoleon's plan to ruin.

      At some point ISIS must be confronted. They should be fair game. The weakness will be the implementation. Of course, at any point, they can use the dams to determine the tactical outcome.

      Delete
  23. Events like the complete civic breakdown in Ferguson, Missouri, inevitably get shoved through political filters. They play out before a polarized public, often through ideological intermediaries, and become the responsibility of elected officials. They draw on community resources and are subject to second guessing by agenda-driven people watching from the sidelines.

    But if you pass Ferguson through a political filter, what comes out the other end is completely incoherent. Ferguson is situated in St. Louis County, one of only three Missouri counties President Obama won in 2012. But Ferguson has a Republican mayor, while the state of Missouri has a Democratic governor. Said governor, Jay Nixon, has been roundly criticized for sitting on his hands as Ferguson descended into chaos, and Obama, perhaps wary of inflaming tensions, issued a remarkably tepid response to the unrest days after it began.

    They managed to get outflanked on the left not just by less powerful Democrats but also by people vying to lead the Republican party, most notably Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky. His Time Magazine op-ed included a few ham-fisted phrases meant to construe police brutality as a symptom of “big government”—an ill most conservatives view as synonymous with providing too much aid to residents of cities like Ferguson. But unlike Obama, he attributed the violence against civilians to police militarization, or some other derivative of the “m” word, eight times, and to race several more.

    His core analytical error was a failure to connect the two more directly.

    When you pass Ferguson through a racial rather than political filter, a much more consistent picture emerges, both with respect to the unrest itself and to its place within a broader social context.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. You’ve probably seen the statistics by now. Ferguson is about two-thirds black. It’s police force is nearly 100 percent white. Less than a third of its residents are white, but whites hold five of Ferguson’s six city council seats.

      When the black community in a city like Ferguson loses faith in its police force, and the police respond by crushing the community’s civil and constitutional rights, it isn’t a stretch to say that the white ruling class has created de facto apartheid. Probably temporarily, perhaps without segregationist intent. But functionally, that’s what it is. They’ve also denied the people they serve the services to which they’re entitled. Ferguson’s police department commands a third of the city’s budget and they are using those resources to provide aggressive disservice to the people who finance that budget.

      Ferguson presents an unusually extreme and condensed example of this sort of racial-civic polarization. But you can find expressions of the same basic dynamic—of white public officials using their power to socially weaken black constituents—all across the country.

      “Overall,” according to the ACLU, “42 percent of people impacted by a SWAT deployment to execute a search warrant were Black,” and yet black people comprise just over 12 percent of the national population.

      Though not explicitly violent, voter suppression efforts in southern (and non-southern, GOP-controlled) states constitute a much broader and more insidious exercise of state power along the same racial axis. The politicians passing those laws are overwhelmingly white, the affected constituencies are heavily black. And the consequence is that black citizens everywhere, like black residents of Ferguson this week, become ill equipped to advance their interests before their political leaders. (Shifting back to an explicitly political frame for a moment, Rand Paul’s intrusions on this score have been less inspiring. Back in May, Paul briefly chastised his party for obsessing over voter IDs law on the pragmatic rather than principled grounds that it is ultimately counterproductive. Within a week, he’d reversed himself.)

      The strong resistance southern state governments have shown to the Affordable Care Act’s (essentially free) Medicaid expansion (which the Supreme Court made purely optional in 2012) reflects a similar act of discretion by lily-white elites at the expense of disproportionately black constituents.

      Proliferating open-carry and Stand Your Ground laws are also nominally colorblind phenomena, but ones that effectively heighten racial disparities in homicide convictions and promote a cultural undercurrent of white vigilantism. The same forces operating in reverse allow a group of well-armed, white anti-government reactionaries in Nevada to ward off federal law officers seeking to enforce grazing laws, and generate a tremendous amount of solidarity.

      What happened in Ferguson is a national disgrace. But it was also abrupt and characterized by astounding incompetence. Those ingredients will allow order to be restored and hopefully create the scrutiny required for a thorough reckoning, from the killing of Michael Brown through the changing of the guard Thursday afternoon. But that scrutiny is unlikely to extend past the city limits of Ferguson. And that is a national disgrace as well.

      Delete
    2. Ferguson Is a Microcosm of Our Racially—and Politically—Polarized Country
      In the St. Louis suburb, the white ruling class has created de facto apartheid


      yep apartheid


      I said it yesterday and was lambasted...

      apartheid

      since the original meaning is now meaningless?

      use it freely...

      Delete
    3. "O"rdure posts nonsense, then tells us it is a fact.

      More Zionists lies, more NASI fraud.
      He continues to search for Equivalency, both "O"rdure and allen were "Right On" when they claimed Israel was equivalent to the Boko Haram.
      The are losing it, now.

      As to the "One State" solution of offering all the Palestinians Israeli citizenship and equal rights, what does allen say about the first attempt ...
      It was "over subscribed" - to many Palestinians wanted equal rights, it became a threat to the NASI overlords and was abandoned by the NASI.

      Delete
    4. I spent many of my formative years living in St. Louis, Missouri. I have actually been to Ferguson. It is an equal opportunity "s***hole.

      In all of my life, I have never thought about taking the opportunity of chaos to steal a television or a case of beer. As this incident shows, there are at least two mentalities at work. I'll stick with the one I've got.

      Delete
    5. Stealing television sets and beer is not attractive to the Zionist, they steal entire countries, destroying mosques and cultures as they do so. That is a task commensurate with their egos.

      Delete
  24. "Kurdish peshmerga, with US air support, have seized control of the eastern side of the dam" complex, Major General Abdelrahman Korini told AFP, saying several jihadists had been killed.

    sounds like the Iraqis are on the "west" side. :(

    ReplyDelete
  25. “Late in the seventeenth century, during a clash whose name – Sixth Ottoman – Venetian War…the Turks used the Parthenon as an ammunition depot, confident that the Venetians would never fire on so sacrosanct a monument. They were wrong. One of the seven hundred cannonballs that the Venetians fired at the Acropolis…found its mark…Three hundred Turkish women and children who’d taken refuge on the Acropolis were killed…”

    Some things never change, say, Muslim chivalry and tactical acumen.

    THE NEW YORKER (14 Apr 2014); pg. 36

    ReplyDelete
  26. .

    Heck sounds like we should be out of there in no time. Everything is going swimmingly.

    Of course,

    The US is already running airstrikes around Mosul and other towns. Whereas, before we were attacking IS to prevent a humanitarian crises on the mountain and 'protect our boys' in Erbil, now we are talking of expanding our operations in order to prevent 'genocide'.

    Those that worry about the growing US involvement are accused of retrograde thinking and encouraged to enter the 21st century.

    While some may think that the last thing to 'really' changed warfare was the bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima, we are assured that all we need to do is 'board the drone train'. All the rest is easy peasy, shooting fish in a barrel. This war will be like nothing we have ever seen before. You are witnessing something unprecedented in land warfare. This is entirely new ground.

    While the CIA, various military analysts in the media, the US military, and pretty much everyone else we read says that IS, an army of 10,000 with no navy or air force, is still a formidable force and has shown a remarkable durability because it is “patient,” “well-organized,” “opportunistic” and “flexible” according to a panel of intelligence officials, our resident military experts tell us 'forget about it'. These are simply 10,000 psychopathic assholes with no place to run or hide.

    When lessons of history are mentioned, we are told 'forget about it'. This is something entirely different.

    When we suggest that in the end when it comes to taking or retaking and holding towns and real estate it will be boots on the ground that do it, we are told that tactical air attacks will be the deciding factor, this despite the fact that every official and commenter is saying that air strikes alone will not be sufficient.

    As an example of our resident military 'experts' bona fides we are given the example where one states that the reason the pershmerga were able to retake a town was that a US air strike took out a single mortar position.

    After more than a couple weeks of strikes we have seen reports of all the vehicles the US has taken out. A couple of jeeps here, some trucks there. Yesterday, I saw a report that some humvees and (forget the acronym but we saw one in the pictures from Ferguson) an armored personnel carrier were taken out. All in all, over the two weeks or more we have been bombing all I could find we took out was a dozen or more vehicles, at least, that is all I saw reported. It could very well be that in the end IS will lose more equipment due to lack of spare parts and technical expertise than they do to air strikes.

    Meanwhile, while the US is expanding its air campaign, IS continues to attack new targets and towns. It remains to be seen what part US air strikes will play when it comes to retaking the towns captured by IS.

    From the WSJ,

    Limits of Airstrikes Hinder U.S. Policy in Iraq

    Aug. 11, 2014 8:07 p.m. ET

    WASHINGTON—After four days of pounding targets in northern Iraq, U.S. officials warned Monday that the campaign was unlikely to inflict serious damage to the militant group now controlling large parts of Iraq and Syria.

    The airstrikes' modest impact poses a strategic conundrum for President Barack Obama, who must decide whether to limit American military operations in Iraq once his objectives are met or expand the U.S. role to defeat...


    http://online.wsj.com/articles/limits-of-airstrikes-hinder-u-s-policy-in-iraq-1407802022

    It is a conundrum. Does talk of preventing 'genocide' presage a broader expansion on the part of the US?

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We took out a "handful" of targets, because we shot at a "handful" of targets. One day, a mortar position, and a truck. The next day, an MWRAP, and a Humvee, or, whatever.

      We're not killing snakes, here. We have a lot of time.

      And, Obama said that he would authorize airstrikes under certain conditions. Since you seem not to have been listening, he said that he would authorize airstrikes in support of Joint Iraqi / Peshmerga operations.

      Delete
    2. If Ms Clnton and her ilk gain the upper hand in the policy formation, then yes, the role of the US will exand.

      If Mr Obama and those that seek to avoid "Dumb Shit" retain control of the policy, it may stay at a level that is both productive to US national interests and low cost, in terms of both US blood and treasure.

      The point is, the low level of involvement is enough to turn the tide, if applied with patience and perseverance.

      Delete
    3. ... the role of the US will expand.

      Delete
    4. It's already gotten rid of Maliki. :)

      Delete
    5. .

      And, Obama said that he would authorize airstrikes under certain conditions. Since you seem not to have been listening, he said that he would authorize airstrikes in support of Joint Iraqi / Peshmerga operations.

      Hey, pal. You were the one here the other day talking about those thousands of square miles of barren desert where all the US had to do is cruise along taking out IS vehicles and personnel, one of the greatest one-sided massacres in the history of warfare.

      When Deuce suggested it might not be quite so easy, you claimed it could be "the greatest shooting gallery in the history of warfare."

      A lot of time?

      No need to hurry. Just fly those drones around, pick off twenty or thirty a day, and eat barbeque, and drink beer. No worries, mate.

      :o)

      Fine with me. However, I doubt the people in Qaraqosh or the other towns IS has attacked over the last couple of weeks will be quite so sanguine.

      .

      Delete
    6. A drone took out Maliki?

      Delete
    7. The policy used by the US, of limited direct involvement did.

      No US troops were needed, just background noise and probably some cash.
      A reluctance to use US power in defense of the Maliki government, probable had some impact.

      The promise, by Mr Obama, that US troops would not return, probably had a sobering effect on some of Mr Maliki's supporters. Brought reality into focus, that the US would watch Iraq burn, rather than support Maliki.
      Then, a few limited air strikes turned the tide of battle in Kurdistan.

      So, yes, Ash, the drone strikes in the north had great impact in Baghdad.

      Delete
    8. Great political impact.

      The fact that US drones are real force multipliers was made crystal clear to the politicians in Baghdad.

      Delete
    9. And those politicians acted accordingly.

      The drone strikes in and around Erbil taking out the political support of Mr Maliki in Baghdad.

      Delete
    10. And this all dovetails with the Rufian desire for minimal involvement how?

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

      Delete
    12. Right, micro managing Iraqi politics is minimal involvement.


      not!

      Delete
  27. This, also, must be viewed in the context of our Nuclear Negotiations with Iran.

    ReplyDelete
  28. "No US troops were needed, just background noise and probably some cash"

    Think you could sell that BS the troops stationed with the Kurds,, numbnuts? You are one dumb motherfucker, cowgirl. .

    ReplyDelete