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."

Monday, December 29, 2014

Iranians demonstrate their capability to protect sea lanes



The Saudis have been soliciting the US for greater military cooperation with them  and other monarchies in the area. Obama should tell them thanks for asking but no. The Iranians would make for far better allies and are  capable of providing legitimate security to the sea lanes.

The Iranian economy is far more diverse and the US could save a considerable amount of money by reducing its presence. Iran has shown its willingness and capabilities in helping free Iraq from ISIS fanaticism. 

Obama would do well in seizing this opportunity to release the US from being owned by the usual suspects in the region.

232 comments:

  1. In October of this year, (CNSNews.com) – Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that “Iran is a natural ally” of the U.S.

    “As long as Iran is ruled by the ayatollah and bases itself on its sectarian philosophy, we have to be careful. But basically, as a country, Iran is a natural ally of the United States. It’s the ideological, religious component that makes it an antagonist,” said Kissinger, who served as Secretary of State for the Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford administrations.

    Kissinger was half right is saying that it’s the ideological and religious component that makes it an antagonist. All of the religious nut jobs in Israel, Egypt, Iraq, Iran and Saudi Arabia are a problem. The US has a problem with our own religious fanatics. It would be refreshing to see Obama cut them all down to size and seize the opportunity to reduce the religious factor to the margins where they belong.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Iranians are the most sophistcated and modern muslims in the world. Because they are sophisticated, Israeli's see Iranians as competitors for dominance in the mideast.
      The only reason there is antagonism bewtween the US and Iran is that Israel is conducting covert war against Iran, and the US always sides with Israel.

      Delete
    2. The only reason there is antagonism bewtween the US and Iran is that Israel is conducting covert war against Iran, and the US always sides with Israel.


      LOL

      Really?

      The ONLY reason?

      Hmm…

      Sorry charlie, Israel aint the reason.

      Iran's revolutionary government is at war with the GREAT SATAN, the USA.

      You can deflect and misdirect all you wish, blame the Jews all you want but the truth is far clearer..

      The Islamic Republic of Iran wants to reset the world, without America.

      And under Obama's leadership (Valerie Jarrett the Iranian) that is happening without a shot.

      Obama is bowing to Iran.

      Delete
  2. Any and all of them that think they have a special deal with god are a menace. The religious right it ruining Israel and would do the same in the US if we would let them get away with it. Religious fanatics have a universal disdain for women, progress and science. In the age of knowledge it is well past time to be politely silent. There should be no deference or reverence for ignorance institutionalized superstition.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The last I looked, I couldn't find where Iran had attacked anyone for at least 2,000 years.

      Delete
    2. Iran started over a dozen wars since the revolution, far more than America. Perhaps they didn't participate directly, using proxies or groups for hire instead of thier own citizens, but they are responsible for inciting and funding over a dozen wars, hundreds of terrorist attacks, and thousands of deaths. Learn a goddamn thing before you try making stupid comparisons.

      Delete
    3. Rufus also then is affirming the Shah of Iran was a man of peace.

      The Shah was less repressive than the Mullahs.

      Didn't threaten the Great and Little Satans, the USA and Israel.

      The Shad didn't support terrorism all about.

      Seems to me Rufus is nearly arguing for the return of the Shah.

      Everyone would be better off, I agree.

      Rufus is right !!

      :)

      Delete
    4. In the last 2,000 YEARS, Rufus?

      Sweet Jesus

      Delete
    5. You see, folks like Rufus are intentional blind to gray areas of life.

      Iran's proxy army, Hezbollah is not Iran in Rufus's book. Iran's take over of Yemen, doesn't count, Iran attacks on israel since the fall of the Shah doesn't count, Iran's take over of the US Embassy doesnt count, Iran's capture of British naval troops in international waters doesn't count.

      Nothing counts.

      Iran is peaceful and loving.


      Delete
  3. Real Americans will cheer Obama in this. Those with other agendas, less so.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And, except for the dumbasses, of course.

      Delete
    2. While no one was looking, Obama has done a remarkable thing. He has the "deficit ot GDP ratio" down to 19.91%

      Bill Clinton got it down to 19.5ish in 1999. I can't think of another modern (or, semi-modern) President that's come close.

      Delete
    3. That should have been SPENDING TO GDP.

      Delete
    4. Spending in 2014 came in at $3.504199 Trillion

      Treas.Gov

      (and, it's expected to drop a tad this year.

      Delete
    5. While GDP is up to $17.5998 Trillion

      and, rising at between 5 and 6% in nominal terms.

      Fiscal Report

      Delete
    6. Just about the same number as how much Quantitative easing has printed in dollars.

      Delete
  4. It's important that our military has the ability to fight, and win, wars.

    It's equally important that our President knows WHEN to fight wars.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And really really important that the President knows when, and when not, to take the troops out, lest he take them out too soon, like O'bozo, and we end up in a pickle, with one devil being replaced by seven.

      Even Deuce said at one time we have to do something to get rid of ISIS.

      Deuce is more of a war monger than I. All I've said is support Kurdish independence.

      :)

      I would like to know what exactly Deuce thinks we should do now with regard to ISIS?

      I honestly don't know what his opinion is, other than the USA is always wrong.



      Delete
    2. I am a big supporter of the concept that includes if you really fuck something up, you have a moral imperative to try and do something about it and undo the damage.

      The damage done to Iraq by Bush, The Neocons and the US Government is incalculable. The unnecessary killings and damage should have sent more than Saddam to the gallows.

      The US has had as much to do with the creation and spawning of ISIS as anyone. If you bothered to read some of my posts, you might have learned something.

      With that believe and with our capabilities, we have an obligation to destroy the monster that we had a heavy hand in creating. That is morality, not religious horse shit shoved at us by Bush and his holy rollers, but a duty as a human being.

      Delete
  5. Spending in fiscal year 2015 could come in below 19% of GDP.

    That is astonishing.

    ReplyDelete
  6. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Back in the Belmont Club days the idea that Federal spending would drop to 19% of GDP was a stated goal of 'Conservatives' -
      A goal that no one ever expected to reach.

      Obama got it done ....

      Guess that is why some people consider themselves to be 'under' Mr Obama.

      Personally, I just think those people have self-esteem issues.

      Delete
    2. The so-called conservatives have devolved into a cheer leading squad for Big Oil, corporatists, lobbyists, zionists and defense contractors. They are con men worthy of the first order. What do they stand for? Not what they say, what do they do?

      The Democrats don’t pretend to be what they are not. They are unabashedly out for the average working person. The Republicans are out for themselves but wrap themselves in myths, lies and deceptions. I would welcome the collapse of both parties but the Republicans should be first over the cliff.

      Delete
    3. "They are unabashedly out for the average working person.:

      Heh, har de har

      Didn't you mean they are unabashedly out for the average non-working person?

      Delete
    4. When are you going to begin to praise Cuba, and Venezuela?

      Delete
    5. There is a lot about Venezuela to be praised.

      Simon Bolivar certainly thought highly of the place.

      Delete
  7. You know, Rufus, the Federal spendingt as % of GDP number had not been part of the matrix, lately.
    Thanks for mentioning it, it is a sign post on Reality Road.

    ReplyDelete
  8. All of us American folks here should fully support Iran in its desire for a world without The Great Satan, our good ol' US of A, the Fountain of All the Evil in the World.

    The Iranians are Fighting for Civilization.

    Here are videos of just one example of the great work the Iranians are doing -

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3cAJ6Q9QII

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfodgcK68bw

    ReplyDelete
  9. Deuce ☂Mon Dec 29, 08:38:00 PM EST

    Real Americans will cheer Obama in this.
    ............

    Deuce, are you now determining who is and who is not a 'real American'?

    If we all should start to do this, we soon won't have an America at all.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anyone who wants to drag the US into war after war for the benefit of another foreign power is not high on my list as a real 24 ct american firster.

      Delete


  10. POLITICO Pro
    FBI briefed on alternate Sony hack theory

    By Tal Kopan

    12/29/14 7:41 PM EST

    FBI agents investigating the Sony Pictures hack were briefed Monday by a security firm that says its research points to laid-off Sony staff, not North Korea, as the perpetrator — another example of the continuing whodunit blame game around the devastating attack.

    Even the unprecedented decision to release details of an ongoing FBI investigation and President Barack Obama publicly blaming the hermit authoritarian regime hasn’t quieted a chorus of well-qualified skeptics who say the evidence just doesn’t add up.

    Researchers from the cyber intelligence company Norse have said their own investigation into the data on the Sony attack doesn’t point to North Korea at all and instead indicates some combination of a disgruntled employee and hackers for piracy groups is at fault.............

    Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/12/fbi-briefed-on-alternate-sony-hack-theory-113866.html#ixzz3NM9IFAoJ


    I didn't have anything to do with it. I am computer illiterate and I can't handle my own home computer properly............and I am proud of that fact.......:)

    I am almost beginning to think computers a work of the devil.....

    ReplyDelete

  11. RISE: Radical leftists on course to assume power in Greece.......Drudge

    Well, finally !

    The financial struggles of Greeks are over.

    They will fix the Greek economy.

    We can count on it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They are wrecking an edifice that does not work. The radical leftists and the communists are the parties that fought the occupying Nazis and resisted the fascists in the military that took over in the sixties. Greece is too complex to explain in cute glib snippets. The history of Greece and its contributions to civilization are immense. Greece created politics and concepts of civic duty and has always been fractious. There is nothing new that is happening in Greece. Their rebellion against an unjust system imposed on them by a political concept that is no longer working for them is nothing new.

      Greeks will be pleased that someone from Idaho is cheering for them.

      Delete
    2. Iranians will be pleased that someone from Philly, perhaps the only one from Philly, is cheering for them in their fight for civilization as well.

      "The history of Greece and its contributions to civilization are immense."

      I didn't know that.

      Thank you for the insight.



      Delete
    3. The commies in Greece will just make things worse.

      It has all happened before. You are right there. And not so long ago, too.

      Aristotle would think it the next step before the coming of the next strong man, I suppose.

      Delete
    4. Plato wanted out of the cycle. But his solution was as bad as the disease.

      Smart Greeks used to want to come to the USA. Many still do.

      "Like all Greeks, he wanted to come to the USA."

      Hemingway

      Delete
    5. Many Iranians, fighting for civilization, want to blow up the USA.

      I'll take the Greeks.

      Delete

    6. Iran Hangs Seven on Christmas

      Man being hung near Tehran, Iran / AP

      Man being hung near Tehran, Iran / AP

      BY: Adam Kredo
      December 29, 2014 2:44 pm

      The Iranian regime hanged seven citizens on Christmas morning and at least 12 others in the days before and after the holiday, according to Iranian dissidents monitoring the human rights situation.

      Seven prisoners being held in Iran’s Abdelebad prison were hanged “at dawn on Christmas day,” according to the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), an Iranian opposition group.

      The latest round of state-sanctioned killings—which have hit an all time high in the past year—came just days after President Barack Obama praised Iran in an interview at the White House and said that it could be a “successful” member of the international community......

      http://freebeacon.com/national-security/iran-hangs-seven-on-christmas/


      I'll most definitely take the Greeks.

      Delete
  12. News from Idaho -

    Another mysterious explosion heard in Bingham County; residents in Riverside say boom shook their homes


    Posted: Monday, December 29, 2014 12:54 am | Updated: 8:53 pm, Mon Dec 29, 2014
    By Journal Staff

    Bingham County residents are reporting a second mysterious explosion less than a week after the first blast triggered several 911 calls.

    Residents in the town of Riverside reported to the local media Sunday evening that they not only heard a loud explosion but the boom was powerful enough to shake their homes.

    However, the Bingham County Sheriff's Office says that it did not receive any calls from residents about Sunday night's alleged blast.

    This is in stark contrast to the explosion that several Groveland residents reported to the Sheriff's Office on Wednesday afternoon.

    Those reports prompted sheriff's deputies, Blackfoot fire units and Idaho State Police to respond to Groveland to find what blew up.

    But their search of the area turned up nothing.

    Riverside is located about three miles west of Blackfoot, while Groveland is about two miles northwest of Blackfoot. Riverside and Groveland have about 850 residents each.

    Because no one reported Sunday night's explosion to the Sheriff's Office it's unclear if the incident is going to be investigated.

    When contacted Friday about the Wednesday explosion, the Sheriff's Office had no leads on what caused the blast.

    Dozens of Groveland and Riverside residents have commented about the explosions on social media.

    http://www.idahostatejournal.com/news/local/another-mysterious-explosion-heard-in-bingham-county-residents-in-riverside/article_e76e150e-8f2f-11e4-86f2-573e59da983c.html


    It's just possible it's Mormons undergoing training for Mormon-jihad.

    That area down there is filled with 'em.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There is historical precedent for a Mormon-jihad.

      Delete
  13. The Europeans rally to defeat deflation ...

    Prices slid 1.1 percent this month from a year earlier, the Madrid-based National Statistics Institute said today. The drop was the sixth in a row and bigger than the 0.7 percent forecast by economists in a Bloomberg News survey. Euro-area data next week is forecast to show consumer prices in the currency bloc stagnated in December.

    Oil prices have fallen by about half this year, dividing ECB officials as they consider whether to start large-scale sovereign-bond purchases, or quantitative easing. While Germany’s Jens Weidmann says cheaper energy is an economic “mini-stimulus” that alleviates any need for action, others including ECB Vice President Vitor Constancio have warned it could feed into broader price expectations and spark a deflationary spiral.


    Spanish Prices Drop Most Since 2009 as Oil Bedevils ECB Debate

    ReplyDelete
  14. I notice that Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson is taking Greece ...

    Hitler tried, failed.
    As have a host of others.

    Not even the Greeks can take Greece.

    That Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson would have the hubris to think he could take it ....
    Confirms his status as just another delusional dumb fuck American.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. As ignorant of global geo-politics as he is of simple geography and cartography.

      Delete
    2. Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson has repeatedly told us of his that he has a limited capacity comprehending economics.

      Yet that does not stop him from weighing in, and delivering an exposition of his ignorance.

      Delete
    3. To the readers.

      Jack Hawkins is a liar.

      Robert Peterson is no draft dodger.

      Now we do have solid evidence that the man behind "Jack Hawkins" may have served in some low position in the US armed forces but is now what we call a "stolen valor" individual. That is someone who exaggerates and embellishes their service record.

      Please disregard any and all posts that "Jack Hawkins" posts as they typical are factually wrong and misleading.

      Delete
  15. Now take notice, Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson ...

    The Rat Doctrine is only implemented when the Coalition provides close air support to local forces in ground combat operations directly against the Daesh. If there are no local forces engaged in ground combat operations against the Daesh, any Coalition air strikes are not a part of the Rat Doctrine tactical portfolio.

    The folks at Al Jazeera America' seem to be a echo chamber for both the American Stinker and Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson.

    The United States faces massive roadblocks in its quest for victory against ISIL.

    In Syria the prospects for a victory favoring the U.S. are even more remote. The U.S.-backed civilian group the Syrian National Coalition has little popular support. The Pentagon has stopped supporting the Free Syrian Army, the so-called moderate force backed by the U.S. for three years. The Free Syrian Army — not very popular in its own right — wants to focus on defeating Bashar al-Assad’s regime, while the United States demands that rebels fight ISIL first.

    Now the Obama administration has a new scheme. The U.S. claims it will vet moderate rebels, send them to Saudi Arabia for training for one year and then return them to Syria. But even Vice President Joe Biden admitted that the Saudis helped fund and arm extremist rebels for years. The administration has offered nothing but token assurances that the Saudis have changed their practices.


    Understanding the Israeli-Egyptian-Saudi alliance
    By CAROLINE B. GLICK


    Be careful who you lay with, Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson, those are fleas crawling into your ear.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Bob OreilleTue Dec 30, 07:30:00 AM EST
    Many Iranians, fighting for civilization, want to blow up the USA.

    I’ll take the Greeks.


    You are mistaking Iran for Saudi Arabia, who actually did blow up some rather important US buildings. The Iranians were very supportive after 911 but our president, beholden to the Saudis chose to overlook that. Then of course we have our eternal ally Israel. Read on:

    How Iran And Syria Offered To Help (After 911), But Got Rolled

    by Mark Gaffney

    01.05/05 "ICH" -- In the period after 911 the governments of Iran and Syria supplied intelligence information to the United States about Al Qaeda and the Taliban, and in other ways supported the initial US response to the World Trade Center attack. Their cooperation was an important new development, and could have led to improved US relations with both of these countries––but it never happened. This paper will explore why this potential for positive change was not realized. It will also argue that US Mideast policy continues to reflect narrowly conceived interests that are not conducive to the long-term peace and security of the region.

    At the start of President Bush’s first term in office, the troubled US-Iran relationship showed signs of new life. Positive statements by Secretary of State Colin Powell were reciprocated by Iran’s Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi. American oil companies were very much in favor of lifting US sanctions on Iran––for obvious reasons. The last great oil and gas fields on earth still awaiting full development are in Central Asia, in the Caspian Sea basin, especially in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Azerbaijan. And by far the most direct and efficient route to get the oil/gas out lies through Iran, which already has an existing north-south network of pipelines. For this reason, during the Clinton years oil companies lobbied the White House to waive sanctions––as it turned out, unsuccessfully––so that they might reap immense profits from highly lucrative energy swaps. A swap of crude oil might work as follows: Iran would supply oil for export directly from its own fields in the Persian Gulf, while receiving an equivalent amount for its own energy needs from newly developed fields in neighboring Turkmenistan.1 By eliminating the need to transport oil over great distances, such swaps promised enormous savings to investors. Given the large number of officials in the Bush administration who had been plucked from the oil industry, there was every reason to think that the President would cater to these and similar proposals. Even VP Cheney, despite his hawkish views, was on record against sanctions. Back in 1996, while still the chairman of Halliburton, Cheney called sanctions against Iran “self-defeating.”2 His company was well-positioned to benefit. Halliburton had been dealing with Iran, despite the sanctions policy. In fact, the company was under investigation for violating it, and later even paid fines. The company also had business with Turkmenistan. Cheney’s remark reflected the cynical view that “business is business, so boys, let’s get on with enriching ourselves––and policy be damned.”

    ReplyDelete
  17. The Axis of Evil and the dire consequences for the Palestinians

    On January 3, 2002, the Israelis intercepted a ship in the Red Sea, the Karine A, loaded with military arms that had originated in Iran. The arms shipment was apparently en route to the Palestinians in Gaza, though some have said it was bound for Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon. The incident produced an immediate chill in the US-Iran dialogue that had held such promise. The Bush administration condemned Iran’s leaders for supporting terrorism, and for undermining the President’s Mideast peace process. The reality was rather different, however. By the start of 2002 there was no extant US Mideast peace process. Clinton’s Camp David initiative had long since fizzled. The second Intifada was underway. Arafat had been blamed for both––wrongly, as it happens.6 By the time of the Karine A incident, Israeli PM Sharon had rejected the idea of negotiations with the Palestinians, and was preparing a large new military offensive against them, which he unleashed in March 2002. Through the spring and summer of 2002, those Palestinians unlucky enough to live in the occupied West Bank endured a continuing nightmare of Israeli military incursions into their towns and communities. These included the leveling of wide urban areas with American-supplied Caterpillar bulldozers––this in addition to the usual helicopter rocket attacks, targeted assassinations, checkpoints, curfews, torture, and countless other forms of harassment. Sharon had declared open season on the Palestinians. Thousands were killed, and many more were wounded, arrested, or made homeless during this period. What was left of the West Bank economy also collapsed. Most of the population was reduced to bare subsistence, and became dependent on international food aid. For the first time, malnutrition became a serious problem. Many Palestinians lived on the edge, a meal or two away from starvation. During this period Israel reduced to rubble nearly all of the infrastructure (valued at hundreds of millions of dollars) that had been built-up during the Oslo peace process, including administrative and police buildings, radio stations, helicopter and port facilities, water utilities, electric facilities, schools, hospitals––everything needed to support a society, which was precisely the reason for the wholesale destruction: to erase the efforts of the Palestinians to create their own nation. The Israelis even stole or destroyed the Palestinian Authority’s computers and anything else they could get their hands on: administrative, legal and medical records, cultural materials, census information, and so on. The US press widely blamed the victims for the crackdown. The Palestinians obviously had brought this holocaust upon themselves because of their suicide bomber attacks on Israeli citizens, and also because of Arafat’s rejection of PM Ehud Barak’s “generous” peace offer. A more honest assessment, however, would have correctly placed at least an equal measure of blame at the doorstep of Israel and the White House. A more fair assessment would also have recognized the fundamental right of the Palestinians to defend themselves against Israel’s military attacks, which in many cases were carried out with advanced weapons supplied by the United States.

    ReplyDelete

  18. The Truth About the Wars

    By DANIEL P. BOLGER

    As a veteran, and a general who learned hard lessons in two lost campaigns, I’d like to suggest an alternative. Maybe an incomplete and imperfect effort to contain the Islamic State is as good as it gets. Perhaps the best we can or should do is to keep it busy, “degrade” its forces, harry them or kill them, and seek the long game at the lowest possible cost. It’s not a solution that is likely to spawn a legend. But in the real world, it just may well give us something better than another defeat.

    Daniel P. Bolger, the author of “Why We Lost,” retired from the United States Army last year as a lieutenant general.



    Reads like Mr Bolger is recommending the Rat Doctrine

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If you are not winning, change the game plan.

      ... seek the long game at the lowest possible cost.

      Delete
  19. The View from Israel

    Now, let us explore the Israeli viewpoint. The Israeli government has viewed Iran as the regional threat since the period immediately following the 1991 Gulf War, which greatly weakened Saddam Hussein’s military power. No sooner had the dust from that conflict settled than the Israeli government shifted its focus away from Saddam, and launched a campaign to prepare the Israeli people for a future war against its new nemesis. According to the late dissident scholar Israel Shahak, all of the Hebrew newspapers in Israel joined “in the advocacy of this madness,” the lone exception being Ha’aretz, which, however, did nothing to challenge it.9 To my knowledge this war of words was not even reported in the United States. The matter of Iran also loomed large during Israel’s rancorous 2002 election campaign, in which the specter of a nuclearized Shi’ite theocracy became one of the most contentious issues separating the incumbent PM Ariel Sharon from his challenger, former PM Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu. Both candidates were hard-liners. On some issues Netanyahu was even farther to the right than Sharon. Nonetheless, their disagreement over how to deal with Iran was deep, and apparently was irreconcilable. The tone of the debate was bitter. Netanyahu took the position that it was too late to prevent Iran from going nuclear, and that Israel must accept this and come to terms with the new reality. But this only inflamed Sharon, who angrily accused Netanyahu of treason. Sharon evidently believed––no doubt he still believes––that Israel must go to any length to prevent the maturation of Iran’s nuclear program, even if this means war, which, in turn––notice––would require Israel to persuade, push, and, if necessary, to drag the Americans into it. As far as I know, the sparring of the two candidates over the question of Iran was never picked up and reported by the US media.

    In the early 1990s the Israelis also launched a new offensive in Washington to persuade the Americans of the growing nuclear threat from Iran. By this period US-Iran relations had sunk to an all-time low. By 1995 President Bill Clinton was already outraged that Iran was opposing his Oslo Peace Process––with hindsight, Tehran’s reasons appear astutely accurate. The point, though, is that Clinton did not need much prodding by Israel. In May of that year Clinton hardened his containment policy by signing an executive order that imposed sweeping economic sanctions on Iran. Clinton even punished a dozen specified Russian companies for their nuclear and military trade, especially transfers of missile technology. The concern in Washington was not only with Iran’s developing nuclear program, but also with its continuing development of a delivery vehicle, namely, the Shahab-3 missile, which, according to experts will be capable of targeting US bases in the Gulf––and Israel. Clinton was much less successful persuading US allies to cooperate with his sanctions effort. No doubt, US unwillingness––already discussed––to confront Israel over its settlement policies had much to do with this, not to mention the US double standard regarding Israel’s own nuclear weapons program. The world looked to America for leadership, but instead saw hypocrisy. Throughout most of the 1990s the European Union’s policy toward Iran was one of “critical engagement.”10

    ReplyDelete
  20. In November 2002, just weeks after George W. Bush had announced his new first strike policy of preventive war, PM Sharon openly called on the United States to bring about regime change in Tehran, after first dealing with Saddam Hussein.11 In April 2003, after the US invasion of Iraq, Sharon’s public statement was repeated again in more detail by Daniel Ayalon, the Israeli ambassador to Washington. Ayalon issued a statement to the press, in which he called for regime change in Syria and Iran, to be achieved by "diplomatic isolation, economic sanctions, and psychological pressure."12 The ambassador stopped just short of advocating a US-led war against Syria and Iran. This “softer” tone presumably reflected the perceived need to sanitize the message to insure its favorable reception by an American audience (one war at a time, if you please). Ayalon noted that while the overthrow of Saddam Hussein had created new opportunities for Israel, it was "not enough." "We have to follow through," Ayalon told a sympathetic conference of the Anti-Defamation League. “We still have great threats of that magnitude coming from Syria, coming from Iran." Ayalon criticized the European Union for encouraging commerce with Iran, and even appeared to advocate a suspension of diplomatic ties. “Governments should not allow visits by Iranian leaders such as President Sayed Mohammed Khatami and Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi, and foreign leaders should not visit Iran,” he said. "I don't think this is the way to deal with them, because the more the regime is isolated, the shorter its days...” In fact, the Iranian leaders cited by Ayalon were anything but radical Mullahs. Khatami and Kharrazi were both moderate reformers who favored improved ties with the West, especially the US. Ayalon went on to express a delusional hubris rivaling that of Rumsfeld and company in the case of Iraq: “...and, as I mentioned, there is fertile ground in Iran to have a regime change there. Seventy percent of the population [of Iran] are really ready for regime change. They have tasted, they have been experiencing, before, democracy and Western cultures and they are yearning for it.”

    ReplyDelete
  21. The Syrian Sanctions Bill

    A large majority of the US Congress evidently shared ambassador Ayalon’s belief that harsh punitive action by the US would perversely strengthen the forces of democracy in the Mideast. In the Fall of 2003 both the House and Senate passed legislation to impose tough sanctions on Syria, in each chamber by overwhelming margins. Here, the numbers showed just how deep Ariel Sharon’s support was––is––in the US Congress. The bill’s final language gave President Bush considerable leeway to impose a wide range of sanctions against the Assad regime. Yet, as it happened, Congress was far out ahead of the Bush administration, which had not asked for the bill. Indeed, Bush initially had opposed it, and only began to support it on when its overwhelming passage became inevitable. Members of Congress described the legislation as necessary to punish Damascus; and they cited three reasons why Syria was culpable: 1) for allowing infiltration across the border into Iraq; 2) for pursuing weapons of mass destruction (notice, the same charge leveled against Saddam Hussein); and 3) because of Syria's military adventures in Lebanon and its support of terrorism.

    All of the stated reasons were bogus. Not a one of them withstood closer scrutiny. After the House vote the Washington Post ran a follow up story debunking the alleged infiltration across Syria's 300-mile border with Iraq.13 The Post interviewed US military commanders with the 101st Airborne Division, guarding the northern portion of the frontier, and officers with the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, currently watching the southern part of the line. The commanders flatly denied that any significant infiltration was occurring across the Syrian border with Iraq. They acknowledged that a 60-mile stretch of border north of the Euphrates River remained unpatrolled by US ground forces or Iraqi border police. However, they explained that under a project known as Operation Chamberlain the US military was constantly monitoring the line by air. The project apparently involves sophisticated Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (JSTARS) planes––drones––that gather information about vehicle movements and relay this to US forces. Strangely, no one in the press––to my knowledge––asked the next logical question: If our own US military is in agreement that nothing of consequence is getting through from Syria to trouble US occupation troops in Iraq, why then did members of Congress cite border infiltration as a justification for sanctions? Why, indeed?

    ReplyDelete
  22. US Incursion into Syria

    In fact, border violations have occurred, but not by the Syrians. On June 18, 2003 a US Special Operations team known as Task Force 20 crossed the Iraq border into Syria for the purpose of destroying a convoy of vehicles. Senior US officers believed the convoy was carrying high level officials from Saddam’s former regime who were escaping into Syria. The US task force, supported by helicopters and AC-130 gunships, penetrated more than 25 miles into Syrian territory. The raid resulted in a series of enormous explosions––fireballs lit up the night sky––and damaged a nearby housing complex. The incursion also triggered an intense fire fight with Syrian border police, after which, the US force withdrew. The Pentagon praised the operation, but other government sources described it as a fiasco that killed as as many as eighty innocent noncombatants—–the occupants of the cars and trucks, and civilians who lived in the area. High level US officials conceded that military intelligence had been faulty. In fact, the vehicles had been part of a smuggling operation and had no connection with the former Iraqi government. The convoy was carrying gasoline, which accounted for the explosions. Days after the incident, questions were still being asked about the source of the faulty intelligence, and why the Syrian government did not protest the flagrant violation of its sovereignty. In a moment, I will return to these questions. But first, let us complete our discussion of the sanctions bill.14

    The second justification for the bill, Syria's alleged pursuit of weapons of mass destruction, was also dubious, and was akin to the proverbial naked elephant lounging in the living room. It’s no secret, the world has known for many years that Syria possesses chemical weapons mounted on an aging Soviet-era missile force. Yet, none of the supporters of the House bill bothered to mention the obvious: that Syria's decrepit missiles are its markedly inferior deterrent to neighboring Israel's much larger and vastly more advanced arsenal of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.15 In fact, the current imbalance of military power between the two states is so heavily weighted in favor of Israel that to cite Syria's weaker deterrent as a justification for sanctions is laughable, or would be if the implications for the region were not so serious. The language of the bill says nothing about Israel’s weapons of mass destruction, nor was the matter of Israel’s nukes ever mentioned on the House floor preceding the vote––facts that must have perplexed and dismayed the inhabitants of the Mideast, who live under the constant implicit threat of Israel’s nuclear weapons, and who, no doubt for this reason, follow US foreign policy decisions in Washington much more closely than do most Americans, and, I would add, with greater awareness.


    http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article7624.htm

    ReplyDelete
  23. Syria Offers to Help

    The matter of Hezbollah is doubly relevant to this investigation,


    because after 911 the government of Syria, another supporter of Hezbollah, began to share its voluminous intelligence files on Al Qaeda with the CIA. According to Seymour Hersh, who covered the story for the New Yorker, this intelligence sharing was ordered by Syrian President Bashar Assad to improve his relations with the US.25 For many years Syria had been on a US State Department list of states that sponsor terrorism––and Assad wanted off the list. The intelligence sharing operation went well, and by early 2002 Syria was one of America’s most effective allies in the campaign against international terrorism. The Syrians had accumulated extensive files on Al Qaeda because of Al Qaeda’s close ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, a radical Islamic group that the secular Syrian government had been fighting for decades. In the course of tracking the Brotherhood the Syrians had penetrated Al Qaeda cells in the Middle East, and also Arab exile communities in Europe. As a result, they were able to provide the US with dossiers about many of the 911 hijackers, and other Al Qaeda members, who had operated out of cells in Aachen and Hamburg. The quality of the intelligence was excellent. Flynt Leverett, a former US National Security Council adviser, told Hersh that its “quality and quantity exceeded the agency’s [CIA’s] expectations...”26 Another official from the US State Department described the channel as “top notch.” In one case the Syrians provided the CIA with information about an Al Qaeda plot to attack the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain, one of the Gulf states, a heads-up that enabled the US to thwart the terrorist operation and save American lives. Remarkably, the Syrians also allowed the CIA to undertake a sensitive intelligence-gathering mission inside their country––in Aleppo, near the Turkish border. The Syrians made it clear they were also prepared to do even more, for example, to provide the US with detailed information about controversial Saudi links to Al Qaeda. As Robert Baer, a former CIA field officer, put it: “The Syrians know that the Saudis were involved in the financing of the Muslim Brotherhood, and they for sure know the names.”27 Baer is the author of an important book, Sleeping With the Devil, in which he contends that the Saudis have given safe haven to Islamic extremists for many years, including members of Al Qaeda, and have also funded them to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. Baer also believes that the pipeline of cash continues to flow––post 911––for several reasons. One of these is protection. Saudi payoffs and gratuities from so called charities deflect Al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood from attacking the royal family. As Baer points out, so far none of the terrorist attacks inside Saudi Arabia have been aimed at the playboy princes, or at the dysfunctional King Fahd, or at any other family members. Each and every attack so far has been aimed at American or foreign assets, which points to a tacit understanding.28 The terrorists have also refrained from attacking the kingdom’s vast complex of pipelines, refineries, and other oil-related equipment, all of which is extremely vulnerable to sabotage, but whose destruction, from Al Qaeda’s viewpoint, would at this time serve no purpose. Indeed, it would be self-defeating, because it would destroy the basis for the largesse that sustains the terrorists themselves. Consider also that chaos in Saudi Arabia would be an open invitation to the United States to intervene, which no one wants.

    ReplyDelete
  24. ...but keep reading your American Thinker.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Median Household Incomes: The Real Truth about the U.S. Economic Recovery, Four Years Later

    Poverty dropped but household incomes didn’t rise, Census Bureau says
    Census economists said median household income in the U.S. last year was just under $52,000, roughly where it was in 2012 when the figures are adjusted for inflation. The median income is 8 percent lower than it was in 2007, the last full year of pre-recession economic well-being, and 11 percent below what it was in 2000.

    REAL HOUSEHOLD INCOMES FALL 5.9% UNDER OBAMA

    From the beginning of 2000 to the bottom of the recession in May of 2009, real household income fell by only -2%. But in the “supposed expansion,” real household income decayed by another -7.6%, before bottoming in August 2012 at down -9.6%. In the last two years, real household income has grudgingly recovered but is still down -5.9%.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That process began when Nixon opened up China. Had we opened up America instead, real incomes would not have fallen.

      Delete
    2. You can’t hang that on Obama. It is a structural mistake and the intellectual property stolen by the Chinese is probably worth three million American jobs.

      Delete
    3. The numbers are numbers. If you see blame, that's your call.

      Delete
  26. The corruptions of oil have flowed in both directions.

    Long ago, at the insistence of the US, the Saudis became America’s largest arms customer. Saudi Arabia spends a larger percentage of its GNP on weapons than any other nation, by far, and it does most of its purchasing from US companies. Not that the kingdom needs the weapons––the US military protects Saudi Arabia from foreign threats. Baer estimates the grand total of this payola, since the arrangement began in the 1960s, at something in the vicinity of $100 billion. Entire sectors of the US economy arose and have flourished simply because of the Saudis’ willingness to placate the US government. But the sustained high level of military spending has not been good for the country. Today, Saudi Arabia is an armed camp. One day, after the tottering house of Sa’ud has been swept away, the US may find itself confronted by militant warriors armed to the teeth with weapons and ordnance that came from the good old USA.

    The US also played another key role in the emergence of these same Islamic warriors. During the CIA’s largest covert operation ever, the “secret” war waged during the 1980s against the Soviets in Afghanistan, the US and its ally Pakistan passed over the more moderate Mujahedeen groups that might have become the nucleus of a future Afghan government. Instead, we armed and trained the most extreme elements.30 In this, the Saudis were only too happy to assist. They ponied up matching funds: $100 million at a whack. The radical Islamic recipients of this cash lifeline flourished, while more moderate groups passed into obscurity. Many of today’s Al Qaeda fighters received their training and arms during this period. The CIA never guessed that the same insurgents who helped bring down the mighty Soviet empire would later be emboldened to turn their gun sights in a different direction. The radicals Islamicists largely owe their Wahabbist faith to the Saudis, who supplied additional vast sums to establish and run thousands of madrassas across Pakistan’s wild West. There, in the autonomous border lands of mountain tribesmen, rampant smuggling, and the opium trade, a generation of orphans and refugees from war-torn Afghanistan were tutored not in math or science, nor even in their own venerable history, but learned instead a most extreme form of fundamentalist Islam. Wahabbism transmogrified became the Taliban.

    ReplyDelete
  27. What great Americans they all were. Let’s build another huge Roman style monument to all of them and place them around the Mall.

    ReplyDelete
  28. This should be good:


    FBI briefed on alternate Sony hack theory

    By TAL KOPAN 12/29/14 7:41 PM EST
    FBI agents investigating the Sony Pictures hack were briefed Monday by a security firm that says its research points to laid-off Sony staff, not North Korea, as the perpetrator — another example of the continuing whodunit blame game around the devastating attack.
    Even the unprecedented decision to release details of an ongoing FBI investigation and President Barack Obama publicly blaming the hermit authoritarian regime hasn’t quieted a chorus of well-qualified skeptics who say the evidence just doesn’t add up.


    Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/12/fbi-briefed-on-alternate-sony-hack-theory-113866.html#ixzz3NOgXx4wI

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The NorKs do make for handy scapegoats.

      But who knows what evils lurk in the networked mainframes that are the backbone of modern 'Civilization'.

      Delete
  29. The Price of an Egg

    2000 --- $0.09

    2009 --- $0.11

    2014 --- $0.18

    % change 2000 - 2014 --- 100.00

    % change 2009 – 2014 --- 63.63

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

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

      Delete
    3. Compound interest expansion at about 5%, for eggs over the past 14 years.
      It makes one wonder if the transportation costs are not a major factor in th price of eggs.

      Because that that same price rise was mirrored in fuel costs, too
      From $1.48 in June of 2000 to $3.46 in June of 2014 for a gallon of gasoline.

      But then ...
      ... there was a precipitous drop in gasoline prices to $2.13 as of 29DEC2014.

      Delete
    4. Will other commodity prices follow the trail being blazed by the Emirs of Arabia?

      Delete
    5. Will UPS rates decline, begin moving towards that year 2000 baseline?

      Is deflation the 'Coming Thing'?

      Delete
    6. Will the price of an egg drop to --- $0.11?

      Delete
    7. Gasoline is an anomaly, as any fool knows -- a charlatan not so much.

      What is the compounded interest rate on that egg from 2009 -- 2014, something conspicuous by its absence.


      Delete
    8. Figure it out, then let us know, allen.

      I look at longer story arcs, than you do, aye.

      Delete
    9. Was studying some Western Horsemen magazines from the early 1970's. A lot of interesting correlations and trend lines to be seen, but the most interesting of all ...
      Every thing costs about ten times as much now, as it did then.

      From boots, to saddles, horse trailers ... across the board.
      Ten times the money - forty some years later.

      Long story arcs, allen, that is where the truth is found.

      {;-)

      Delete
    10. 11.3% per annum compounded over 5 years (2009-2014) equals the $0.18 egg.

      That means that the purchasing power of the dollar declined by 11.3% (compounded) per year relative to the egg. Oh joy! -- unless one wishes to eat and has a declining real income over the same period. Since real income, per household is about 5.7% less than it was in 2009, that egg is awfully expensive. I suppose we could all eat cake.

      egg production 2009 --- 248.4 billion

      egg production 2014 --- 258.8 billion

      Egg production has increased each year since 2008 (seven years).

      Delete
    11. Long story arcs, allen, that is where the truth is found.

      {;-)


      You would not know truth if it bit you on the ass, fool.

      Delete
  30. When household formation dramatically declines; when real income dramatically declines; when the price of staples dramatically increases; when the number of subsidized Americans is in the 45-47 million range and rising; when the "Middle Class" continues to shrink; the country (general public) is not faring well, despite the economy being awash in cash and equivalents.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Admittedly, Louis XV would have considered himself fortunate, but times have changed. Now that I think about it, so did France.

      Delete
  31. .

    Iran a 'natural ally' of the US?

    Good heavens.

    Quoting HK on Iran is as bad as quoting Bibi on Iran. 'Iran would be a natural ally of the US, if only'..., bubblegum and lollipops, filled with enough caveats and limitations that it sounds like the 'rat doctrine' as described above, otherwise known a CAS, a 'tactic' dating back to WWI.

    The ME is filled with about a half dozen countries seeking regional autonomy and a few more that are proxies. The US has no business being there. There are few things there we need and what we do need can be had without our presence there.

    The US has no natural allies in the ME, only client states and adversaries.

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. ... seek the long game at the lowest possible cost.

      - Daniel P. Bolger

      Delete
    2. In the long run we are all dead.
      ___Keynes

      Delete
  32. The US has no natural allies in the ME, only client states and adversaries.

    In a strictly political Iran is an ally against ISIS . It is more correctly the opposite of an adversary.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      Can serendipity be equated with alliance?

      .

      Delete
  33. The price of a dozen eggs at Walmart varies slightly by location but the average price is between 99 cents and $1.25.

    Eggs - Walmart

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Now, Median Income started dropping about the same time Clinton signed the China MFN (most favored nation) trade status agreement. Bush pushed it back up with his housing Ponzi scheme, but when the bubble bust, almost putting the world into the Second Great Depression, there was hell to pay.

      The Good News is we have gotten 40% of the lost Income back in the last couple of years.

      Delete
    2. I don't think beef prices are moving much, yet, but chicken is off about 20%.

      Milk, down here, is off about 10%

      Coca Cola is down over 30%

      Delete
    3. Prices are funny things. When I was a teen, I caddied. It was an all Jewish country club and they were good tippers. I brought home about about $100 a week. With that $100, I could buy 475 gallons of gasoline. I could alternately buy 490 packs of cigarettes.

      How much was the fifteen year old making?

      Delete
    4. The drought caused corn (chicken feed) to more than double in price, and, of course, oil went from ten dollars/bbl in 1999 to $100.00/bbl just a few months ago.

      Now, corn is back to $4.00 / bu, and oil is down to $55.00 / bbl.

      Delete
    5. That may just be the fuel cost rollbacks, since June?

      Delete
  34. If I split my purchase to half smokes and half gasoline, I was making in real 2014 wages, $2200 per week.

    ReplyDelete
  35. Egg prices hit record high as demand grows [26 NOV 2014]

    Without question the substitution effect is at work, compensating for a major die-off in beef herds during the winter of 2013. Pork production has declined during the same period because of an epidemic of disease among piglets. Moreover, government subsidies have increased by about 30 million souls over the same period, driving demand. With that said, find a staple food that has not increased in price during the period 2009-2014. The fact is that Americans are paying a great deal more, in real terms, for the necessities of nutrition than they were in 2009; and are doing so in the face of about a 5.7% decrease in real income over the same period. When the trend started is irrelevant to the reality.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. $2.18/12 = $0.1816 per egg

      Delete
    2. In 1965-66, a 1955-57 Chevy could be purchased for $50-100.

      Delete
  36. I'm going to the store, tomorrow. I'll report back on the price of eggs.

    I'm betting on "$1.28 for small, and $1.58 for large."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. http://www.ams.usda.gov/mnreports/pybshellegg.pdf

      Delete
  37. .

    That process began when Nixon opened up China. Had we opened up America instead, real incomes would not have fallen.
    Deuce ☂Tue Dec 30, 10:52:00 AM EST


    The problem may have started with Nixon but China and trade deals were just part of the problem. As rebuttal to your statement, I offer you the ultimate appeal to authority

    Jesus vs. the 1%

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      Just saw an article over at RCP stating that in real terms the median wage today is equivalent to that of 1966.

      Chart D in the following article shows the divergence between productivity and wages between the early 1970's and now.

      http://www.epi.org/publication/why-americas-workers-need-faster-wage-growth/

      .

      Delete
  38. .

    You can’t hang that on Obama. It is a structural mistake and the intellectual property stolen by the Chinese is probably worth three million American jobs.


    I don't blame Obama for the problem. It's been a long time developing and may be impossible to reverse for all I know. What I do blame Obama for is that except for right before elections he has shown very little inclination to even 'talk' much less act to try and do anything about it.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  39. Three Syrian diplomats left Damascus for Kuwait Monday where they will reopen their country's embassy in the Persian Gulf nation, ...

    ReplyDelete
  40. Russia threatened Tuesday that it might halt its assistance on critical international issues if the U.S. continues its strategy of economic sanctions against Moscow.

    "The actions by the United States are putting in doubt the prospects of bilateral cooperation on solving the situation around the Iranian nuclear program, the Syrian crisis and other acute international problems,"
    Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

    "As Washington could have seen previously, we don't leave such unfriendly acts without an answer,"
    the ministry added.

    The terse statement comes a day after the U.S. Treasury Department announced it would impose sanctions on four more Russians for alleged human rights abuses, including two law enforcement officials believed to have covered up the death of a prominent anti-corruption lawyer while he was held in prison.

    The ministry’s statement marks latest backward step in the relationship between Washington and Moscow. Relations have deteriorated steadily since the US sponsored coup in Kiev ...

    ReplyDelete
  41. 'Someone was just talking about how ISIS was going to garner revenue from Libyan oil sales ...

    Guess not, really.
    The fires have been burning for almost a week.

    In the 'good ole days' the Libyans would ship a million barrels a day.

    Bet there's a cork in it, now.

    {;-)

    ReplyDelete
  42. My God Deuce, you certainly trashed up your blog with all those long posts !

    I thought we weren't supposed to do that?

    ;)

    Or is that just a prerogative of the blog owner?

    ................

    rat is saying the rat Doctrine is not an EPIC FAIL because one of its elements is lacking, disciplined local fighters on the ground.


    THAT IS JUST THE POINT YOU DUMB SHIT

    JEsus chaREEist

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. rat -O - rooter is really agreeing with me.

      His General Crook Doctrine IS an EPIC FAIL.

      bwabwabwabwahahahahaha

      Delete
    2. Not at all. Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson.
      The Rat Doctrine is and remains a shining success.

      It cannot be implemented where there are no local forces being supported.

      In Syria the only place where the Rat Doctrine has been utilized, it has succeeded.
      That would be in the Battle of Kobane.

      I know of no other instance where Close Air Support is being utilized by local ground force against the Daesh, in Syria.

      Delete
  43. If every American family were allowed some chickens in the home, like in China, the price of eggs would collapse.

    Add a hog or two in the back yard and breakfast would be free.

    ReplyDelete
  44. December 30, 2014
    Obama: Iran can be a 'very successful regional power'
    By Rick Moran

    Obama, the delusional:

    "[W]hen I came into office, the world was divided and Iran was in the driver's seat. Now the world's united because of the actions we've taken, and Iran's the one that's isolated," Obama told NPR.................

    ............Iran is among the least "sophisticated" countries in the world. Their beliefs date from the 9th century and, despite an overlay of Western technology, are as backward as any country on Earth. Any nation that uses as a basis of law the literal interpretation of a book writen 1,400 years ago cannot be considered "modern" in any way, shape, or form.

    What do you think the Saudis and the other Sunni Arab gulf states think of Obama's ridiculous notion that Iran would conform to international law? No one can be that naive, right?

    Iran as a regional hegemon would be a catastrophe for the region and the world. The fact that the president of the United States is encouraging that outcome is unbelievable.

    Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2014/12/obamal_iran_can_be_a_very_successful_regional_power.html#ixzz3NPQvJGfx
    Follow us: @AmericanThinker on Twitter | AmericanThinker on Facebook



    Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2014/12/obamal_iran_can_be_a_very_successful_regional_power.html#ixzz3NPQg1oAR
    Follow us: @AmericanThinker on Twitter | AmericanThinker on Facebook

    ReplyDelete
  45. Just passing it on, as my old girl friend says to do -


    > Subject: Clint Eastwood says.....
    >
    > Clint Eastwood....
    >
    > If you realize each day is a gift, you may be near my age.
    >
    >
    > As I enjoy my twilight years, I am often struck by the inevitability that the
    party must end.

    > There will be a clear, cold morning when there isn't any "more." No more hugs,
    no more special moments to celebrate together, no more phone calls just to chat.

    It seems to me that one of the important things to do before that morning comes,
    is to let every one of your family and friends
    > know that you care for them by finding simple ways to let them know your heartfelt
    beliefs and the guiding principles of your life so they can always say, "He was my
    friend, and I know where he stood."
    >
    > So, just in case I'm gone tomorrow, please know this: I voted against that
    incompetent, lying, flip-flopping, insincere, double-talking, radical socialist,
    terrorist excusing, bleeding heart, narcissistic, scientific and economic moron
    currently in the White House!
    >
    > Participating in a gun buy-back program because you think that criminals have too
    many guns is like having yourself castrated because you think your neighbors have
    too many kids.
    >
    > Regards, Clint
    > Make my day—Pass it on!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Las Vegas is going to get snow for New Years Eve I'm told.

      Delete
    2. Bob OreilleTue Dec 30, 02:09:00 PM EST
      Las Vegas is going to get snow for New Years Eve I'm told.


      Global Warming (sorry, Climate Change) is going to be the death of us all ... ... ... unless something else is ...

      Delete
    3. Told her I could overnight UPS her an emergency snow shovel if needed.

      :)

      Delete
  46. GRUBER: Obamacare WON'T Be Affordable...

    We'll Have To Deny Treatment...............Drudge

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And, he opined this in Two Thousand and Fucking 09

      You poor befuddled old fuck.

      Delete
    2. And it was as true then as it is today.

      You poor befuddled old fuck.

      You PBOF.

      Delete
    3. You might give some thought to going in for a PBOF Scan before the system is in total overload, Ruf.

      It's possible you could still get 'treated'.

      Though there's the risk of the death panel 'treatment' too.

      Your body. Your choice. Other people's wallets.

      As Miss T said once.

      Delete
    4. The law wasn't even passed until March, 2010, dumbass.

      He was opining before the law was even written.

      Delete
    5. Meanwhile, Corporate Profits just keep on truckin'.

      onward and upward

      Delete
    6. This will help:

      If you're a minimum wage earner and of drinking age, be sure to raise a glass when the ball drops Wednesday night. There's a decent chance you'll be getting a pay raise.

      Thanks to a raft of state-level laws and ballot measures this year, 20 states will be hiking their minimum wages on New Year's Day -- evidence of a growing nationwide move toward higher mandatory pay despite congressional inertia on the issue.

      With a proposal to raise the $7.25 federal minimum wage to $10.10 languishing on Capitol Hill, more and more states are choosing to bypass Congress and raise the wage floor on their own. That trend has even come to red states like Alaska, Arkansas, Nebraska and South Dakota, where voters approved various minimum wage ballot measures in the November elections.

      Delete
    7. The left-leaning Economic Policy Institute estimates that the new raises will boost the income of 3.1 million low-wage workers. That includes workers who currently earn minimum wage, as well as workers who earn slightly more than minimum wage but who are still likely to see an increase as employers adjust their pay scales upward. Of course, some employers may respond to the higher wage mandates by cutting hours, though for many workers the wage gains will cover the hours that may be lost.

      The Jan. 1 pay raises will total about $1.6 billion in additional wages, which EPI says will act as a modest economic stimulus, since minimum wage workers are likely to spend the extra cash on groceries and other goods, rather than tucking it away or putting it in the stock market.

      Minimum wage workers in Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, Washington and West Virginia will all see their pay go up on Jan. 1. Minimum wage workers in Delaware and Minnesota are also expected to receive a pay hike in June and August 2015, respectively. (For details on the specific amounts by which wages will go up in each state, take a look at EPI's data here.)

      The upcoming wage hikes underscore the rift between congressional Republicans and the rest of the country when it comes to the minimum wage. The idea of raising the wage floor tends to poll extremely well, with at least two-thirds of respondents in most surveys supporting it, including many conservatives. Nevertheless, Congress hasn't authorized a federal minimum wage raise since 2009, with Republicans standing in the way of more recent efforts.

      Yet as of the new year, for the first time a . . . . .

      Sorry, Republicans

      Delete
    8. Rufus IITue Dec 30, 02:37:00 PM EST

      The law wasn't even passed until March, 2010, dumbass.

      He was opining before the law was even written.

      He was opining while writing the law, dumbass.

      Delete
    9. He did some consulting;

      he didn't "write" shit.

      Dumbass.

      He's a republican-leaning asshole that Did help write Romney's healthcare law.

      Delete
    10. Minimum wage is a hand job.

      Just tripe the cost of health insurance, tires, water and sewage and beef...

      Then the NEED for a rise in minimum wage is an easy issue..

      No mention of quantitative easing from the resident obama ball licker.....

      18 TRILLON PRINTED

      LOL

      I just scored another machine that can replace another employee....

      LOL

      Delete
  47. Not too bright in Idaho


    A woman in the US state of Idaho has been killed after a two-year-old boy accidentally shot her with a gun he found when reaching into her handbag.

    The woman was shot in a Wal-Mart in Hayden, a town in Idaho's northern panhandle.

    A sheriff's spokesman said the woman was shopping with several children and it was unclear if they were related.

    Officials said she had a concealed weapons permit but her identity has not been released.

    The Wal-Mart closed after the shooting.

    Local media reported the woman was visiting the area and died at the scene.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. >>>Local media reported the woman was visiting the area and died at the scene.<<<

      I read about that. She was from Northern Mississippi and kids were all inbreds.

      One was called "Li'l Rufus"

      Don't know if Li'l Rufus was the shooter though..

      Delete
    2. Don't worry, you ignorant motherfucker, about the last thing in the world you have to worry about is a Ruffian shooting you "by accident."

      Delete
    3. Rufus, the great shooter who can't remember what unit he served with in Nam...

      LOL

      Delete
    4. I remember exactly what unit I was with, and I ain't sharing shit with you, clown. I've learned my lesson.

      Delete
    5. LOL

      A drunk learns a lesson...

      What lesson was that?

      That you don't KNOW shit from shinola?

      Remember how you said I wasn't american cause I didn't cap the A?

      FUCK you too fraud...

      Delete
    6. Rufus, with all sincerity?

      I hope your kids all marry Zionists and move to Israel.

      Delete
  48. Could it be part of the Mormon jihad?


    SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A teenager accused of bringing a loaded gun to his northern Utah high school to open fire on other students has been charged with four misdemeanor weapons violations.

    Authorities say the teenager was angry after hearing rumors circulating about him and planned to shoot a former girlfriend and others at Fremont High School in Plain City on Dec. 1.

    The 16-year-old has been charged in juvenile court with possessing a dangerous weapon at a school, possessing a weapon with intent to assault, carrying a concealed weapon and possessing a weapon as a minor.

    Weber County sheriff's Lt. Lane Findlay confirmed the charges Tuesday but didn't have details about when they were filed.

    Messages left with prosecutors weren't immediately returned.

    The Associated Press isn't naming the teenager because he's a juvenile.

    ReplyDelete
  49. Might be. Good possibility, in fact.

    ReplyDelete
  50. Rufus IITue Dec 30, 03:26:00 PM EST

    Meanwhile, Corporate Profits just keep on truckin'.

    onward and upward
    ...........

    I'm hoping d. rat will post his "rat's Portfolio Picks" for the coming year so we all can get rich.

    ReplyDelete
  51. Israeli Right to Dominate Election
    December 30, 2014 by Ari Lieberman 26 Comments
    462730
    Print This Post Print This Post

    Israel's PM Benjamin Netanyahu meets with Canada's PM Stephen Harper on the side lines of the United Nations General Assembly in New YorkIn early December, Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu fired his justice and finance ministers and called for the dissolution of the parliament and new elections. Frequent internal bickering coupled with open dissention from within the ranks of his coalition partners made Netanyahu’s position untenable and forced him to act resolutely. Elections are due to be held on March 17, 2015 and if past elections are any guide, this one promises to have the requisite amount of drama and mudslinging.

    Navigating the labyrinth of the Israeli electoral process is a daunting task. Unlike the United States which has a 2-party system, Israel is a parliamentary democracy which maintains a multi-party system of government. There are 120 parliamentary seats up for grabs in Israel’s parliament or Knesset, as it is called in Hebrew. The party which garners a majority of Knesset seats may lead but no single party in Israel’s history has ever won a majority of parliamentary seats.......

    http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/ari-lieberman/israeli-right-to-dominate-election/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Would we be better off with a Parliament?

      Hmmmm.....

      Maybe, O'bozo would probably be gone by now.

      On the other hand.......

      Delete
  52. Books and Movies by Cubans Themselves
    December 30, 2014 by Lloyd Billingsley 11 Comments
    182526
    Print This Post Print This Post

    ahReprinted from The Sacramento Bee.

    Former California legislator Tom Hayden contends that key episodes in Cuban history are “best recalled” through “The Godfather: Part II” (“50 years later it’s time for closure and moving on”; Forum, Dec. 21). Those who seek actual knowledge of Cuba will find it in two films by actual Cubans.

    When Cuban Gen. Arnaldo Ochoa returned from his military campaign in Africa, “8A,” a play on his name, began to appear on walls all over the island. Cubans believed the popular general was the only one with a chance to topple Fidel Castro’s communist dictatorship. Castro knew it, too.

    He held a show trial for Ochoa and put it on satellite television. Cuban filmmaker Orlando Jimenez Leal taped it and made the documentary “8A.” Viewers can see the regime’s lawyers demanding that their clients get the death penalty.

    Castro agreed and on July 13, 1989, duly carried out the sentence by firing squad, just like back in the day. No appeal process, and no more threat from Arnaldo Ochoa and others.

    In “Improper Conduct,” Jimenez Leal and cinematographer Nestor Almendros portrayed the Castro regime’s repressions against political dissidents, journalists, poets and homosexuals. The New York Times called the film “convincing,” and former Castro supporter Susan Sontag said, “The discovery that homosexuals were being persecuted in Cuba shows how much the left needs to evolve.”

    Hayden has written a new book, “Listen Yankee! Why Cuba Matters.” Sounds fascinating, but readers might want to compare it to books by actual Cubans.

    In “Against All Hope,” which has been compared to Arthur Koestler’s “Darkness at Noon,” Cuban dissident Armando Valladares charts 20 years in Castro’s prisons, and the violence he and other political prisoners suffered. Arrested in 1960, Valladares was not freed until 1982, through the efforts of French President Francois Mitterand and human rights organizations.

    In “Family Portrait With Fidel,” Carlos Franqui charts the Cuban Revolution from 1959 to 1964. Franqui broke ranks over Castro’s shift to Soviet communism, after which “nothing worked.” The privations of the regime get extensive treatment in Heberto Padilla’s novel, “Heroes are Grazing in My Garden.”

    In “The Longest Romance,” Humberto Fontova calculates that between 65,000 and 85,000 people have died trying to escape Cuba, 30 times the number of casualties at the Berlin Wall. Cuba’s prison population includes Eusebio Penalver, “the world’s longest suffering black political prisoner"......

    http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/lloyd-billingsley/books-and-movies-by-cubans-themselves/

    Sorry for the long post/quote but wanted to get the names of the main books in there.

    Interesting article

    ReplyDelete

  53. Arab Israeli Politician Praises Terrorism
    by Ronn Torossian

    The Hamas representative in the Israeli Knesset.

    December 29 2014 / 30 Comments / Read More

    http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/ronn-torossian/arab-israeli-politician-praises-terrorism/

    ReplyDelete
  54. Replies
    1. Doubtless, the Iranians could do better.

      Delete
    2. Judicial lynchings are at a high in Iran this year.

      Civilization is being advance there.

      Delete
    3. Unrepentant eight year-old girls deserve to be slowly lifted by a boom and strangled by a rope until dead (after being serially sexually violated per statute). One would expect nothing less from a jewel of civilization and unrivaled political partner.

      Delete
    4. Let's not forget Zahra Kazemi

      Zahra "Ziba" Kazemi-Ahmadabadi (زهرا کاظمی احمدآبادی in Persian) (1948 – July 11, 2003) was an Iranian-Canadian freelance photographer, who was killed by Iranian officials following her arrest in Iran.

      Although Iranian authorities insist that her death was accidental and that she died of a stroke while being interrogated, Shahram Azam, a former military staff physician who used his purported knowledge of Kazemi's case for seeking asylum in Canada in 2004, has stated that he examined Kazemi's body and observed that Kazemi showed obvious signs of torture, including a skull fracture, broken nose, signs of rape and severe abdominal bruising.[1]

      Her death was the first time an Iranian's death in custody attracted major international attention.[2] Because of her joint citizenship and the circumstances of her death, she has since become an international cause célèbre. In November 2003, Canadian Journalists for Free Expression honoured Kazemi with the Tara Singh Hayer Memorial Award in recognition of her courage in defending the right to free expression.

      Delete
    5. The story did not become a major controversy until almost two years later, when Shahram Azam, a former staff physician in Iran's Defence Ministry, released a statement saying that he examined Kazemi in hospital four days after her arrest and found obvious signs of torture, including:

      Evidence of a very brutal rape
      A skull fracture, two broken fingers, missing fingernails, a crushed big toe and a broken nose.
      Severe abdominal bruising, swelling behind the head and a bruised shoulder.
      Deep scratches on the neck and evidence of flogging on the legs.[1]
      One of the two Iranian intelligence agents charged with her death was acquitted in September 2003. The other agent, Mohammed Reza Aghdam-Ahmadi (محمدرضا اقدم احمدی), was charged with "semi-intentional murder" and his trial opened in Tehran in October 2003. In the same month, the Iranian parliament condemned Saeed Mortazavi, a Tehran prosecutor, for announcing that Kazemi had died of a stroke. On July 25, 2004, Aghdam-Ahmadi was acquitted.

      Delete
    6. ah, yea, Deuce, Rufus and Rat's new found friends...

      The FONT of civil behavior

      Delete
    7. .

      What the heck has this to do with poverty in Michigan?

      Poverty in Michigan that is around 17% compared to the US total of around 15% which of course we can compare to Israel's 20% or so and Iran's 18% to 19% the last time I saw.

      .

      Delete
    8. “Undoubtedly, philosophers are in the right when they tell us that nothing is great or little otherwise than by comparison.”

      Median per-capita income 2013

      Israel --- $7847

      Saudi Arabia --- 4762

      Iran --- 3115

      Lebanon --- 2960

      Turkey --- 2538

      Jordan --- 1550

      Syria --- 1431 (?)

      Lybia --- 1012

      Egypt --- 623

      Iraq --- 617


      Delete
  55. The UN Security Council failed Tuesday to adopt a resolution on Palestinian statehood by a vote of eight to two, with five abstentions.

    ...

    Australia and the United States voted against...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The "Unity" government of the "palestinians" is made up of the PA and the Hamas.

      Both components are terror backers. use ISIS style murder and fear to keep the people in line.

      BOTH execute political prisoners...

      Delete
  56. Replies
    1. That's $0.23/egg, or $0.05 more than the national average. It is also a 109% increase in cost since 2009.

      Delete
  57. Indonesian rescuers searching for an AirAsia plane carrying 162 people pulled bodies and wreckage from the sea off the coast of Borneo on Tuesday, prompting relatives of those on board watching TV footage to break down in tears.

    ...

    A navy spokesman said a plane door, oxygen tanks and one body had been recovered and taken away by helicopter for tests.

    ...

    The plane, whose engines were made by CFM International, co-owned by General Electric and Safran of France, lacked real-time engine diagnostics or monitoring, a GE spokesman said.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Fox said none of the bodies seen yet was wearing a seat belt, and that this argues for some kind of rapid breakup.

      Delete
    2. The single body shown by Drudge was unclothed other than briefs. This too would suggest a midair catastrophe and free fall.

      Delete
  58. Palestinian Statehood Bid Falls Short in U.N. Security Council by One Vote
    Voting for Palestinians
    France
    China
    Russia
    Jordan
    Argentina
    Chad
    Luxembourg
    Chile

    Had the chicken-shit Brits not abstained, the Palestinian measure would have passed. As usual, the Brits displayed their characteristic duplicity. Recently, the parliament voted overwhelmingly in favor of the Palestinians.

    I wonder if the French will sell the Mistrals to Israel. They would be perfect for that day when Israel needs to come ashore in Lebanon and envelop Hezbollah. Furthermore, they would perform as ideal platforms for shielding Israel’s growing natural gas fields from unwelcome visitors – twenty-four attack helicopters provide many eyes and a lot of firepower. Given the French need to sell the ships, anything is possible. A new Sarkosy government in France might see the light of economic expediency and active diplomacy. After all, countering terrorism is everyone’s business as the apple of the president’s eye, Iran, is proving.
    France’s naval industry considers the Mistral one of its engineering jewels, with the navy dubbing the ship the “Swiss army knife”. It is designed to carry as many as a dozen assault helicopters, sixty armoured vehicles, and a dozen tanks. It can also host up to 700 troops and a full hospital.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ... so sorry ... "Parliament"

      Delete
    2. The savages that currently lead the arabs that call themselves by the Roman name "palestine" have once again proved they are not worthy of nationhood.

      LOL

      Maybe they should embrace a new and more arabic spelling of their newly adopted name and call themselves "falinstinian" since there is no P in arabic and they, as a people and culture, are incapable of saying the letter "P"

      Delete
    3. allen, VERY nice...

      Thanks for sharing...

      Delete
  59. Lakhvi arrested before his release from jail

    The Statesman
    30 Dec 2014

    Press Trust of India

    Islamabad, 30 December: Mumbai attack mastermind Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi was today arrested just before his release following a Pakistani court's suspension of his detention under a public security order which had evoked a strong reaction from India.

    “Lakhvi has been arrested in another case,” an interior ministry spokesman told PTI. However, he said the details of the case would be provided to the media later.

    Lakhvi was set to be freed from the Adaila Jail Rawalpindi this morning on the order of the Islamabad High Court after he submitted Rs 1 million surety bond, but just before that the jail superintendent received an order from the government regarding his arrest in another case.

    “Lakhvi was then presented before a magistrate who remanded him in custody,” the official said.............

    http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/content/2008-mumbai-mastermind-arrested-another-charge-controversial-release-pakistan

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Why hasn't the fellow been extradited to India? He is a Muslim, that's why. Pakistan (Islam) forbids such jurisprudential niceties.

      India could make the case stick and he would be hanged like the dog he is.

      Delete
    2. His bond is about $9,900.00. That's $58.93 for each innocent murdered in Mumbai, which indicates the value placed on infidel life by the Most Muslim Republic of Pakistan.

      Delete
  60. Cuban dissidents arrested before free-speech demonstration in Havana..............drudge

    Pre-speech detention ahead of free speech demo. Raul done used his delete button. Wonder which Cuban dungeon they will be going to..........

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Were Che still in charge, a cell would not be necessary. Che proved that when it comes to justice, Marxists get'er done.

      Delete
    2. Since he died in October of 1967, allen, there is little likelihood Che will be in charge of anything.
      Are you in the midst of a 47 year time warp?

      Living for yesterday ... Kind of an understatement.

      Delete
    3. Jack seems to always be in a time warp...

      Delete
    4. Living for yesterday ... Kind of an understatement.


      we should tell Jack this EVERY time he quotes things from years ago that are not current any longer...

      Delete
    5. You'd be welcome to, "O"rdure.

      But there is currency in everything I post.

      Delete
    6. Jack there is NOTHING of value in the lies, misdirection and distortions you quote.

      You post for attention. Your sad, pathetic, lonely life screams at you in your silence.

      That's what you can't stand. Your failure in life, love, being a husband and a father...

      And from that we smile...

      Delete
  61. Re: “some consulting”

    In 2009, just one month after President Obama took office, the Department of Health and Human Services put out a sole-source solicitation titled “Technical Assistance in Evaluating Options for Health Reform.” The contract would be with Gruber, who the document said was the only person “reasonably available to satisfy agency requirements.”

    As the agency put it, “Dr. Gruber developed a proprietary statistically sophisticated micro-simulation model that has the flexibility to ascertain the distribution of changes in health care spending and public and private sector health care costs due to a large variety of changes in health insurance benefit design, public program eligibility criteria, and tax policy.”

    The first four months of (Gruber’s) contract (with the Obama administration) could not be found on the FedBizOpp.gov Web site, but in June 2009, HHS renewed the contract for eight months, with a value of $297,600. Gruber in an e-mail confirmed that the first part of the contract was for $95,000.
    That adds up to $392,600 — or “almost $400,000.”


    … some consulting for some states …

    Michigan: $481,050
    Minnesota: $329,000
    Vermont: $400,000
    Wisconsin: $400,000
    Gruber has also earned more than $2 million over the last seven years for an ongoing contract with HHS to assess choices made by the elderly in Medicare’s prescription-drug plan.


    The “Republican asshole” is apparently loved on a bipartisan basis.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. wow he earned way more than MINIMUM wage...

      I wonder if he paid any taxes?

      Delete
  62. And, he opined this in Two Thousand and Fucking 09
    You poor befuddled old fuck.

    ReplyDelete
  63. Divers and ships will search for the wreckage and the all important black boxes of a doomed AirAsia plane on Wednesday after Indonesian rescuers found several bodies and debris floating in shallow waters off the coast of Borneo.

    ...

    The plane, which did not issue a distress signal, disappeared after its pilot failed to get permission to fly higher to avoid bad weather because of heavy air traffic.

    ...

    Three airline disasters involving Malaysian-affiliated carriers in less than a year have dented confidence in the country's aviation industry and spooked travelers across the region.

    ReplyDelete
  64. The Baghdad Agreement pulls both sides from the brink. It is a win-win, generating revenue for both the KRG and Baghdad, while deferring difficult decisions over Kirkuk's status and Kurdistan's independence.

    The KRG is required to deliver 250,000 barrels of oil per day from oilfields in the Kurdistan Region to Baghdad. It will also assist the export of 300,000 barrels per day from Kirkuk via its pipeline, which skirts territory controlled by the Islamic State. In turn, Baghdad will resume payments to the KRG.

    Baghdad will also give the peshmerga $1 billion to support the ongoing fight against ISIS.

    Baghdad's direct support of the peshmerga also has symbolic value. After 11 years of talks, Baghdad is providing a portion of the national defense budget to the peshmerga. The agreement treats the peshmerga as part of the Iraqi defense system.


    http://www.cnbc.com/id/102301477#.

    ReplyDelete
  65. UN Resolution 181, the Partition Resolution, passed in November 1947, called for the creation of a Jewish state and an Arab state in the land which at that point was controlled by the British-run Palestine Mandate. All the Arab countries opposed the resolution, voted against it, and promised to go to war to prevent its implementation. Representing the Palestinians, the Arab Higher Committee also opposed the plan and threatened war, while the Jewish Agency, representing the Jewish inhabitants of the Palestine Mandate, supported the plan.

    The Arabs and the Palestinians were true to their word and did launch a war against the Jews of Palestine, violating both Resolution 181 and the UN Charter. Much to the surprise of the Arab side, the Jews were able to survive the initial onslaughts and eventually win the war.

    The fundamental fact remains that had the Arabs and the Palestinians accepted the Partition Resolution and not violated the UN Charter by attacking Israel, there would be a 63-year-old Palestinian state today next to Israel, and there would not have been a single Palestinian refugee.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The reality, which you may well know.

      The General Assembly passed on 29NOV1947 - Resolution 181, which RECOMMENDED that the ...

      Recommends to the United Kingdom, as the mandatory Power for Palestine, and to all other Members of the United Nations the adoption and implementation, with regard to the future Government of Palestine, of the Plan of Partition with Economic Union set out below;

      Requests that

      The Security Council take the necessary measures as provided for in the plan for its implementation;


      The Security Council consider, if circumstances during the transitional period require such consideration, whether the situation in Palestine constitutes a threat to the peace. If it decides that such a threat exists, and in order to maintain international peace and security, the Security Council should supplement the authorization of the General Assembly by taking measures, under Articles 39 and 41 of the Charter, to empower the United Nations Commission, as provided in this resolution, to exercise in Palestine the functions which are assigned to it by this resolution;

      The Security Council determine as a threat to the peace, breach of the peace or act of aggression, in accordance with Article 39 of the Charter, any attempt to alter by force the settlement envisaged by this resolution;

      The Trusteeship Council be informed of the responsibilities envisaged for it in this plan;

      Calls upon the inhabitants of Palestine to take such steps as may be necessary on their part to put this plan into effect;

      Appeals to all Governments and all peoples to refrain from taking any action which might hamper or delay the carrying out of these recommendations, and

      Authorizes the Secretary-General to reimburse travel and subsistence expenses of the members of the Commission referred to in Part 1, Section B, Paragraph I below, on such basis and in such form as he may determine most appropriate in the circumstances, and to provide the Commission with the necessary staff to assist in carrying out the functions assigned to the Commission by the General Assembly.


      The "Plan" was never voted upon, by the Security Council, and the inhabitants of the area did not sign on, either.
      The Resolution was ignored by all the parties. The Israeli UNILATERALLY declared an independent state on 15MAY1948
      Seems that no one accepted Resolution 181, concurrent to its passage, the Plan was never implemented..


      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_UN_resolutions_concerning_Israel_and_Palestine

      http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/un/res181.htm

      Delete
    2. If the Zionists had accepted Resolution 181, there would have been no unilateral declaration of Israeli statehood.

      Delete
  66. "There's still a big fight going on here, so we're trying to get the Iraqi army ready to get back on the offensive," said Maj. Gen. Paul Funk, commander of Coalition Joint Forces Land Component Command-Iraq and the 1st Infantry Division. "They've blunted Daesh, and Daesh is losing across the country. We're trying to build that fist so they can finish the fight against Daesh in Iraq."

    Funk, who is in charge of U.S. and coalition land forces in Iraq, refers to the Islamic State as Daesh, an Arabic term that leaders of the extremist group reportedly hate and consider pejorative. It's a term many leaders, including Lt. Gen. James Terry, commander of the U.S. war effort in Iraq and Syria, use as well.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      Perhaps, its just the bold used for the quote but it kinda sounds like General Funk just finished popping a few over at the Officer's Club.

      .

      Delete
    2. "They want to get better at urban operations, they want to get better at fires and maneuver, and they want to understand air-ground integration," Funk said. "That's what they're asking for at the battalion and brigade levels."

      At the division level, Iraqi leaders are looking for guidance on how to sustain logistics over long distances and how to structure the army, Funk said.

      "That's the kind of things they're after," he said.
      "Also, more airstrikes. They like to kill Daesh. We're together on that."

      The Iraqis have already had success against the Islamic State, Funk said.

      "Last week, in Erbil, they took back over 2,500 kilometers of terrain," he said.

      "Just last month, the Iraqi army took back Bayji and all the ground between here and Bayji, that's 600 kilometers of terrain. Even in Anbar, they continue to blunt everything Daesh tries to do. I think the Iraqis have blunted the advance of Daesh, and they're getting the conditions set to conduct an offensive to drive Daesh out."

      Delete
    3. Henry V is a hard act to follow.

      Delete
    4. Re: "Last week, in Erbil, they took back over 2,500 kilometers of terrain,"

      ... gibberish ...

      Delete
    5. http://www.armytimes.com/story/military/pentagon/2014/12/30/iraq-1st-infantry-funk/21062071/

      Delete
    6. ... still gibberish ... You can walk, leapfrog, somersault, pace, skip, etc. 2500 kilometers and never leave your yard.

      Delete
  67. A committee formed by the Kurdistan Region president has questioned 200 Peshmerga officers over their performance when Islamic State (ISIS) militants attacked Iraq’s Kurdish areas last summer, with disciplinary action possible against some.

    ...

    Jabar Yawar, chief of staff of the Peshmerga ministry, said that officers from Shingal all the way to the southeastern frontlines of Khanaqin were questioned by the committee and that some might be disciplined.

    ReplyDelete