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."

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

The Viet Nam War and American Exceptionalism - Believing Our Own BS

88 comments:

  1. I long for a thread which is not concerned with:

    1) Dissing our Nation
    2) Dissing the Police
    3) Dissing the military
    4) Dissing the Jews
    5) Dissing the Republicans

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Perfect half moon out there tonight, with, I think, Mars and Jupiter all in a slightly arced line.

      Starry starry night.

      Huck wondered of the stars if they was made, or just happened.

      The Nigger Jim gave this a think, and was of the opinion that the moon laid 'em.

      What other options are there ?

      :)

      Delete
    2. 1) An August 2014 Gallup survey found that 83 percent disapproved of the job Congress is doing.
      2) Cleveland has reached a settlement with the Department of Justice over a pattern of excessive force and civil rights violations by its police department, and it could be announced as soon as Tuesday, a senior federal law enforcement official said.
      3) American police kill civilians at a rate 20 to 70 times more often than any other industrialized country - Between 2003 and 2009, 4,813 people died during or shortly after arrest. About 60 percent (2,931) were deemed homicides.
      4) Documented civilian deaths from violence in US attack of Iraq: 139,190 – 157,719
      5) According to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, there are more than 4,456 homeless female veterans in the U.S., many of whom have children. They account for 8 percent of the nation’s 58,000 homeless vets. A study by the Veteran’s Health Administration found nearly 40 percent of female homeless veterans were sexually assaulted while in the military.
      6) Viet Nam: 2 million killed
      7) In latest polls GOP Congressional leaders had an overall approval rating of 22 percent, about the same as in summer 2011.


      All in all, hardly worth mentioning?

      Delete
    3. Yankee Noodle, defender of “the Jews” looks to the sky and the first thing that comes to his mind is “Nigger Jim”. I would hazard a guess that Noodle takes first place for comments where “nigger” or “Jews” is mentioned.

      I am not sure what it means but it comes from a source that claims love of Nation, Police, Military, Jews and Republicans.

      Delete
    4. If Mark Twain had called this poor fellow, who was the most saintly character in the whole book, surpassing even Huck - if he had called this wonderful literary creation James, I would have too.

      What I said was I longed for a post where our Nation, the Police, the Military, the Jews and the Republicans were not continually dissed

      You set this post up as just another effort in your propaganda campaign.

      I have been trying to change the subject.

      I see you are back to the name calling.

      A sure sign you are frustrated.

      Delete
  2. Self-parking car plows into journalists........Drudge

    heh, serves them right

    ReplyDelete
  3. Parts of Texas got ELEVEN inches of rain in 6 hours !!

    ReplyDelete
  4. According to the Safe Cities Index, put together by the Economist’s Intelligence Unit (EIU), the title of world’s safest goes to the city that is also the most populous: Tokyo.

    http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/may/26/what-is-safest-city-in-the-world-crime-immigration-tokyo-amsterdam-new-york-bogota

    ReplyDelete
  5. May 26, 2015
    56 shot, 12 dead in Chicago's Memorial Day weekend
    By Thomas Lifson

    The carnage among black young men in Chicago escalates as the weather warms, yet no leftists or race agitators seem to care. The police shooting of a young man in Cleveland draws demonstrations, but the ongoing large scale slaughter in Chicago goes largely unremarked among the demonstrator class or national media.

    The Chicago Tribune reports:

    At least 56 people were shot over Memorial Day weekend between Friday afternoon and early Tuesday morning, according to authorities.

    Twelve people, including three shot Monday afternoon, died from their wounds. Twelve others shot between late Monday morning and early Tuesday morning survived their gunshot wounds, bringing the total of non-fatal gunshot victims for the weekend to 44.

    No race is mentioned for any of the victims, but based on past data, nearly all are likely to be black, for it is black neighborhoods that most shootings have been occurring. And unlike any police-involved shootings:

    No one was in custody for any of the attacks, and police were investigating.

    Make no mistake: something very evil is taking place in Chicago, a city completely run by Democrats for two generations. The evil is on a larger scale, but it is similar to what is taking place across America among young black men raised in (mostly) fatherless homes. The rage that consumes these young males deprived of fathers is understandable, and it can be remedied only by a society and culture unafraid to condemn drive-by fatherhood and the women who make it so easy and attractive for males to behave this way.

    But that is not happening, because the people within the back community who have the standing and resources to mobilize demonstrations and outrage prefer a stance of victimhood at the hands of whites, and make a handsome living from it.

    http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2015/05/56_shot_12_dead_in_chicagos_memorial_day_weekend.html


    I submit Dr. Ben Carson would be a wonderful role model for inner city blacks as President of the United States, instead of the race hustler we have in the job now.

    Go Ben !!

    ReplyDelete
  6. .

    No man is an island, the poet said.

    Are we not complicit if we do nothing, when he could do something to alleviate the suffering, not coming to the aid of our innocent brothers and sister over there ?



    Are we driven by compassion or hubris in assuming we can solve all the ills of the world?

    If we realize our limits, how do we prioritize our efforts in spreading our benevolence? Is a woman in Iraq more worthy than a mother in Nigeria or a child in Bangladesh? Which has more value or is more worthy of our efforts, 300,000 destined to die in Syria or a million that will die in the Congo. Are any of them more worthy than a homeless man starving in Anycity, USA?

    And what form does our charity take? Feeding the hungry? Providing shelter? Medical supplies? Can we solve all of the ills of the world at the point of a gun? Can we trust our politicians and generals to make the necessary value judgments?

    Hippocratic Corpus: Do no harm.

    How do you justify the misery we inflicted on millions in response to a terrorist attack that killed 3100? Despite our best intentions, when you go to war more people are killed than just the combatants.

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good questions, all.

      I was not thinking just of the USA, though, but people of good will all over the world.

      If a gang of brutes were sodomizing young girls in a nearby Park we would all try to stop it.

      Iraq is a day's plane ride away.

      Not in our neighborhood, or is it ?

      I am not embracing the idea just brought it up.

      No man is an island,
      Entire of itself,
      Every man is a piece of the continent,
      A part of the main.
      If a clod be washed away by the sea,
      Europe is the less.
      As well as if a promontory were.
      As well as if a manor of thy friend's
      Or of thine own were:
      Any man's death diminishes me,
      Because I am involved in mankind,
      And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
      It tolls for thee.

      John Donne

      Delete
  7. Here's a truly great idea, embraced by fools in Michigan, Democrats and a Republican or too alike -

    ‘Revitalizing’ Detroit with 50,000 Syrian Refugees?
    May 26, 2015 by Michael Cutler

    http://www.frontpagemag.com/2015/michael-cutler/revitalizing-detroit-with-50000-syrian-refugees/

    Now this is a certain winner.

    I am glad Detroit is the target city, rather than, say, Boise.

    Quirk can fire up his Welcome Wagon.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. too = two

      Got confused thinking of just one Republican

      Delete
    2. The problem here is that studies have shown second and third generation moslems ghetto up, do not assimilate, and become radicalized, and violent, even if their parents are grateful for being welcomed in a new land.

      They begin to bite the hands that have fed them.

      I once proposed that we consider sending Americans to Syria, not to fight for one group or the other, but to act as a separating force, keep the warring parties apart.

      I was ridiculed mercilessly by Quirk for even suggesting such a thing.

      After due consideration, I think Quirk was right. Too many problems with it.

      Likewise I think dropping 50,000 Syrians in Detroit would have some drastic and negative unintended consequences.

      Delete
    3. I don't have any idea what to do with 50,000 Syrian refugees.

      Except maybe send them up Ash's way.

      His liberal enlightened mind will know how to handle them.

      Delete
    4. If they were Syrian Christians that would make all the difference. Christians do tend to assimilate, moslems don't.

      Look at, to pick one country out of the air, the experience of welcoming Sweden, with its no-go areas and the moslem sport of raping blondes.

      Culture counts.

      Delete
    5. “Danes can not even sit on their balcony and eat a pork sandwich”

      May 26, 2015 11:55 am By Nicolai Sennels

      Citizens of Kokkedal

      Citizens of Kokkedal

      Interview with paedagogue Khaled Mustapha about life in a Danish ghetto. The ghetto in question is situated in Kokkedal, which used to be a town where the richer Danes lived. But many things change with Muslim immigration.

      Video from the ghetto in Kokkedal:

      News clip: String of car arsons in Kokkedal. “Police says that the arsons was planned. The police do not have an estimate of the number of cars that have been torched.”

      Translated from Politiken:

      “I ought to be happy; politicians have in recent years invested heavily in the disadvantaged areas. They have spent millions to improve the physical environment, the homes have been refurbished, fine new trees are planted… But the human and social development out here has completely stopped, or maybe even worsened.

      “Immigrant gangs are stronger than ever … and young people’s hatred of Denmark thrive. It is deeply, deeply troubling, and I fear for the consequences for Danish society, if the politicians do not immediately wake up and do something drastic.”

      The call comes from 40-year-old Khaled Mustapha …

      “It is simply not attractive [for Danes to live here]. Yes, we have some students who give it a chance, but they move out of here again as soon as they can. … Ethnic Danes feel unsafe here, and I understand that. They can not even sit out on the balcony and eat a pork sandwich or set a Danish flag on the table without the risk of being accosted.”

      “I hear them, for example, say they hate Denmark and the Danes. And here we are talking about young people who are born and raised in Denmark. When I ask them how they can hate people they have never met, they reply that the Danes are racists who hate Muslims. … I simply do not believe our society can bear this development, if this mentality continues to spread over the next 10-20 years. … the youths are attracted by radical religious environments and immigrant gangs, where they come together to hate Denmark.”

      http://www.jihadwatch.org/2015/05/danes-can-not-even-sit-on-their-balcony-and-eat-a-pork-sandwich

      Delete
  8. :):):):(:(:(

    Marie Harf, the State Department Spokeswoman who said the secret to defeating the jihadis of ISIS is a jobs program, has moved on up.

    She is now Senior Adviser to Secretary of State John Kerry.

    Is this a great country, or what ?

    She will be advising on Iran and nuclear weapons questions.

    Who says we are not an exceptional country ?

    What other country has such morons in charge ?

    ReplyDelete
  9. All this seems unlikely, but....



    How to Prevent the Fall of Baghdad

    Islamic State is likely to use the tactics that worked in Ramadi. The U.S. can do much to change the outcome.
    Iraqis who fled Ramadi after its takeover by Islamic State arrive on the outskirts of Baghdad, about 70 miles away, May 24. ENLARGE
    Iraqis who fled Ramadi after its takeover by Islamic State arrive on the outskirts of Baghdad, about 70 miles away, May 24. Photo: stringer/iraq/Reuters
    By Kevin Carroll
    May 26, 2015 7:30 p.m. ET


    Islamic State, also known as ISIS, has seized control of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province just 70 highway miles from Baghdad. Fallujah, located between, is already a terror stronghold.

    There is little doubt that ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi plans to capture the city whose name he bears. A man who declared himself a caliph, Baghdadi knows his home was the seat of the Abbasid caliphate, founded in the eighth century to which ISIS would like to return.

    It would be a mistake for the Obama administration to continue to underestimate ISIS as the junior varsity. ISIS demonstrated operational capability recently, attacking in opposite directions to occupy both Ramadi and Palmyra, deep inside Syria.
    Opinion Journal Video
    Global View Columnist Bret Stephens on President Obama's reaction to the fall of Ramadi and Palmyra. Photo: Associated Press

    Its Ramadi assault mixed terrorism with conventional tactics. At least 30 huge truck bombs, some reportedly as large as the one used in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, obliterated the city’s defenses, and ISIS forces poured through the breach. A similar attack could be in store for Baghdad. It is assumed that ISIS operatives are in the capital’s Sunni enclaves, with more en route disguised as refugees.

    The fall of Baghdad to ISIS would harm American strategic interests as the fall of Saigon did in 1975. The blow to U.S. credibility and the enhancement of ISIS’s prestige, of its black flag rising over an evacuated U.S. Embassy, would be incalculable. To prevent this outcome, President Obama should consider taking the following actions.

    • Use strategic air power. America’s unrivaled air forces can hit ISIS from anywhere: neighboring countries, the sea and the continental U.S. Yet the sorties flown so far have been minimal, and damage inflicted still less,even as ISIS held a parade in broad daylight in Rutba, Iraq, last week.

    That is the kind of target our aviators dream of. Rules of engagement need to be loosened, U.S. air controllers sent to the front to call in strikes, and more combat aircraft put into the fight.

    • Launch ruthless special operations. Recent raids into Syria were daring and skillful. But a handful of missions do not resemble the operations led by U.S. Army Gens. Stanley McChrystal and Michael Flynn in 2006-07 that eventually broke the back of ISIS’s predecessor, al Qaeda in Iraq, and drove it abroad.

    At that campaign’s height, commandos conducted multiple missions every night. They analyzed intelligence collected on one “objective” to find and fix targets they finished on successive raids. The rhythm, persistence and sheer number of those operations crushed the enemy. Emulate them now, starting near Baghdad.

    • Capture and interrogate ISIS leaders. Much of the intelligence exploited on those missions came from documents and electronics found in terrorist safe houses. But the best came from interrogations, some conducted on the battlefield as the smoke cleared.

    Interrogators acted within the bounds of decency against evil men who deserved no quarter. Yet neither were military and CIA personnel constrained by the rules of evidence and criminal procedure, because their goal wasn’t a courtroom conviction, but the location of the next high-value target. A robust program of capturing and roughly interrogating terrorists abroad should resume, first focused on the whereabouts of ISIS operatives in and around Baghdad.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. There is also a role for police work. ISIS has devotees in all 50 U.S. states; hundreds of Americans traveled abroad to fight for them, and some number have returned. The FBI and state and local law enforcement should make aggressive use of antiterror statutes to question—and perhaps flip into informants—suspects who may be in contact with terror leaders with details of ISIS plans regarding Baghdad. Congress should reauthorize the National Security Agency’s signals intelligence programs identifying such communications between Americans and known terrorists abroad.

      • Send ground combat forces. Despite U.S. efforts to retrain them, the Iraqi army is now unable or unwilling to stand and fight ISIS alone. Its commanders have shamefully thrown down their weapons, discarded their uniforms, and abandoned their men and posts when ISIS threatens. The Iraqi army needs a backbone transplant.

      U.S. airborne units can arrive quickly to secure Baghdad’s airport and the long and vital road from the city to that airfield. More Marines can better defend the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. Americans can stiffen Iraqi lines around the city, and provide artillery and engineer units needed in urban combat. U.S. cavalry units can launch what imperial Britain called “punitive expeditions” to destroy ISIS lairs further afield.

      The arrival of thousands more American fighting men will improve the Iraqi army’s performance. It was no accident that the Sunni Awakening and U.S. surge succeeded at the same time in 2006-07. As U.S. troops poured in, Sunni sheiks cast their lot with what Bing West memorialized as the “The Strongest Tribe” in his book of the same name.

      There are natural advantages to defending Baghdad, which the Iraqis can exploit if steeled by U.S. troops. To seize the capital, ISIS’s lines of communication would expand, a logistical challenge that would leave them more vulnerable to counterattack. The Iraqi army’s lines of communication would helpfully contract.

      The Tigris River is a significant obstacle, and a defensible one. Urban combat favors prepared defenders. And Baghdad is a dense city, its population having swelled to more than seven million, crammed into a place the size of Baltimore or Boston.

      Most important, the predominantly Shiite Iraqi army would be fighting to protect its brethren, unlike previous battles in mostly Sunni cities where they broke and ran.

      This fight is winnable. But if the administration whistles past the graveyard and insists its policy is working even as ISIS nears Baghdad and our diplomats there, the White House may face a debacle that makes Benghazi seem minor in comparison.

      Mr. Carroll served as a U.S. Army officer in Iraq and Afghanistan, and as a CIA case officer in a Middle Eastern war zone.

      http://www.wsj.com/articles/how-to-prevent-the-fall-of-baghdad-1432683027



      Alternatively, let the Iranians defend Baghdad.

      It's becoming Satrap City, Greater Iran.

      Delete
  10. Ah, here we go; Updated Casualty figures from "The Battle of Ramadi."

    American Casualties - O

    American Fatalities - 0

    American Missing in Action - 0

    ReplyDelete
  11. Great. But who owns Ramadi today ?

    I could hardy care less at this point, but just sayin'.

    >>• Use strategic air power. America’s unrivaled air forces can hit ISIS from anywhere: neighboring countries, the sea and the continental U.S. Yet the sorties flown so far have been minimal, and damage inflicted still less,even as ISIS held a parade in broad daylight in Rutba, Iraq, last week.

    That is the kind of target our aviators dream of. Rules of engagement need to be loosened, U.S. air controllers sent to the front to call in strikes, and more combat aircraft put into the fight.<<

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      In Bosnia, we were running 4,000 air strikes a month. Now, in Iraq, we are lucky if we average 15 a day, 1/10 what we had in Bosnia.

      .

      Delete
    2. .

      The point is a simple one. To my mind, the US has no defined strategy in Iraq.

      It has been nearly a year since we got involved. When you get down to it the ultimate objective in war is to win; yet, we tie one hand behind our back in numerous ways, militarily and politically. We seem to be committed to a policy of containment rather than one of winning. In addition, we have seem to have ceded the high ground to Iran. Given the current strategy, if we lose (whatever that means) it will be the US, the leader of a coalition primarily made up of NATO members, that will be blamed. If we win (whatever that means) it will be Iran that is viewed as the winner.

      Did Obama get involved in Iraq for humanitarian reasons? Did he do it out of a sense of guilt for America's part in Bush's war? Did he do it to fight ISIS over there because he though that what he called the JV team was actually a threat to the US?
      Was it over oil? There are probably those who would argue for each of these or any others you would like to suggest. My own view is that he is adopting a risk averse policy based on his past experience, the polls, and a view towards 2016 and his legacy.

      Again in my view, he is trying to get past the abuse that was piled on him over his 'red lines' comments in Syria while accepting the fact that the US public is tired of major land wars in general and specifically in the ME, and he doesn't want to take any risks that might jeopardize Democratic chances in 2016 or his long-term legacy. He is perfectly willing to play whack-a-mole until he is out of office.

      My opinion, I could be wrong.

      .

      Delete
    3. That felt like a "pivot."

      Is it your point that we should be dropping ten times the ordnance that we are at present?

      Delete
    4. Btw, I seem to remember that one of those bombs in Sarajevo landed smack-dab on the Chinese Embassy.

      Are you recommending that we bomb the Chinese Embassy?

      Delete
    5. >>the fact that the US public is tired of major land wars in general and specifically in the ME<<

      >>My opinion, I could be wrong.<<

      Yep, you are right that you could be wrong, because you are wrong.

      One poll I saw recently showed over 60% of Americans have no problem with going back and kicking hell out of ISIS.

      If ISIS should pull off a major hit here it will go higher.

      Delete
    6. I may have missed it but I haven't seen your response to my pleasant request of your opinion as to the idea that Obama's actions all make perfectly good sense if he is the pro moslem son bitch that he is....I posted the whole article for your inspection and comment.

      Delete
    7. .

      One poll I saw recently showed over 60% of Americans have no problem with going back and kicking hell out of ISIS.

      :o)

      I've seen polls that say a majority of Americans would be ok with sending more troops into Iraq. However, I would be interested in seeing the poll that they would like to get involved in a 'major land war' in Iraq.

      Please post a link.

      .

      Delete
    8. .

      Is it your point that we should be dropping ten times the ordnance that we are at present?

      If that is what it takes to get us off the snide, to get us out of the flight training stage, to get us past the current containment policy.

      .

      Delete
    9. .

      Are you recommending that we bomb the Chinese Embassy?

      I am assuming you realize what a stupid remark this is, right?

      .

      Delete
    10. No more stupid than bringing the number of bombs dropped in Bosnia into the discussion.

      Delete
    11. .

      Collateral damage. This is a reason you do not go to war to war.

      Once you are at war, it is inevitable.

      My complaints about the collateral damage fall into two categories. First, is when it is intentional, a specific tactic designed to break the enemies will or for political purposes, the allied carpet bombing of cities in WWII for instance or the Israeli bombing in Gaza or the second A-bomb in Japan. The second complaint is the governments cover-up of collateral damage and its assertion that it doesn't exist with US bombing. Collateral damage is an inevitable result of the wars we wage. Only a fool would doubt it. The public has a right to know what their government is doing in their name.

      .

      Delete
    12. .

      No more stupid than bringing the number of bombs dropped in Bosnia into the discussion.

      Perhaps stupid to you with your Pollyannish view of this war. Not to me or to many commentators on both the left and right. It is only irrelevant to those who accept the current containment policy in Iraq.

      .

      Delete
    13. .

      I may have missed it but I haven't seen your response to my pleasant request of your opinion as to the idea that Obama's actions all make perfectly good sense if he is the pro moslem son bitch that he is...

      It's all bullshit. Of course, that opinion is based on the fact that the 'article' you refer to was probably from one of your usual sources.

      Taking the statement itself, that is equally stupid.

      ...Obama's actions all make perfectly good sense if he is the pro moslem son bitch that he is...

      The is nothing about Obama's actions that 'make perfectly good sense'. Whether he is 'pro moslem' or not.

      .

      Delete
  12. Number of Civilian Casualties averted by not bombing "parade" in Rutba estimated at 50 to 150.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Over/Under on how long ISIS will control Ramadi.

    I put it at 2 Weeks.

    Place your bets.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Which brings the question;

      If ISIS controls Ramadi for a couple of weeks, what was all the shouting about?

      Delete
    2. You got to give up betting and drinking.

      I think it will be more than two weeks but why bet with you when you run out on your debt due ?

      I am hoping WiO sues in Small Claims to enforce the assignment of debt due from me to him.

      ;)

      Delete
  14. .

    To some, no American lives lost is the end game.

    Others ask, what is the point in the first place? An expensive game of whack-a-mole is still an expensive game of whack-a-mole.

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oil.

      As it always was.

      And, not very "expensive," at all.

      Delete
    2. 4 Billion out of a GDP of $18 Trillion?

      0.0002 of GDP

      Delete
    3. .

      Spoken like a true Krug man.

      .

      Delete
    4. Whatever; numbers is numbers.

      Delete
    5. .

      True. Numbers is numbers.

      Approximately 11,200 jobs are created by every $1 billion in military spending. Domestic industries that produce these goods may thrive during wartime, employing people who might otherwise be unemployed.

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

      16

      Has this military spending created more jobs than other kinds of spending? No. In fact, public funds would have created more jobs in the past decade if they had been invested in such industries or sectors as clean energy, health care, or education.

      A billion dollars of spending would create 26,700 jobs in education, 16,800 jobs in clean energy (i.e. construction work to install solar panels on homes), and 17,200 jobs in health care.

      In other words, clean energy and health care spending create 50 percent more jobs than the equivalent amount of spending on the military. Education spending creates more than twice as many jobs...


      http://costsofwar.org/article/lost-jobs

      There are other costs of war besides opportunity costs, of course. For instance, there is also the multiplier effect. Once you shoot a bullet, its value is gone. When you produce a die or a press, it keeps on given.

      And of course, there is the personal cost of war for those involved.

      .

      Delete
  15. On the other hand, $147.00 / barrel oil gave us 10.4% Unemployment.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      Good lord, the number 42.

      Again.

      :o)

      .

      Delete
    2. 42?

      Blow your "number 42." You're just denying reality.

      Delete
    3. .

      Pure nonsense.

      Next, you will be citing 'Big Oil' for the drought in California and Obama's immigration plan being shot down by the courts.

      .

      Delete
    4. I've never seen any correlation between California droughts, and the price of oil, but there is a definite correlation between the cost of energy, and employment.

      Delete
    5. We've never gotten ten cents worth of oil for our efforts in Iraq.

      All about oil is a mythy meme.

      Delete
    6. I have discovered a relationship between the price of oil and Kentucky Derby results, believe it or not.

      Quirk will argue correlation is not causation, but I'm the one making the money.

      He's stuck with selling Racing Sheets at the track entrance gates.

      Ha ha

      Delete
    7. Yeah, blow your number 42, Quirk.

      And numbers 41 and 43 too, for good measure.

      Delete
  16. .

    FIFA: U.S. alleges corruption, indicts 14; Switzerland opens separate probe

    http://edition.cnn.com/2015/05/27/football/fifa-corruption-charges-justice-department/

    • "The next step in the process is extradition," U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch says of the FIFA investigation.

    • Jeffrey Webb, FIFA's vice president, "used his position of trust to solicit bribes from sports marketing executives," acting U.S. Attorney Kelly T. Currie of the Eastern District of New York says.

    • The indictment "is the beginning of our work, not the end" of an effort to rid global soccer of corruption, Currie says

    • Swiss Federal Police will question Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko about how FIFA awarded the 2018 World Cup to Russia and the 2022 World Cup to Qatar, an official with knowledge of the investigation has confirmed to CNN. Mutko is one of 10 people who took part in the voting to be investigated.

    • Charles Blazer, a former member of the FIFA Executive Committee, amassed $11 million in unreported income, says Richard Weber, director of the IRS Criminal Investigation Division...



    John Oliver Blasts FIFA

    .

    ReplyDelete
  17. Wonderful long call from my Niece. She is being published again, this time in something called Brain Structure and Consciousness if I heard correctly.

    The connection is always terrible. They must bounce it up to a satellite then back down.

    Can't they use some Atlantic Ocean fiber optic cable or something ?

    If anyone knows how to make a crystal clear call to Germany please let me know.

    She has a boy friend now. I am glad for this.

    She works her heart out.

    They just got back from an 18 mile three day trek.

    Happy but pooped. Slept like a baby upon return.

    Superwoman.

    :)

    ReplyDelete
  18. .......

    "In most cases, unless a general officer can look at a video picture from a U.A.V., over a satellite link, I cannot get authority to engage," the pilot said on condition of anonymity. Schmitt elaborated on the progress of the coalition's bombing campaign against ISIS based on U.S. military figures. "The air campaign has achieved several successes in conducting about 4,200 strikes that have dropped about 14,000 bombs and other weapons, Schmitt wrote. "The campaign has killed an estimated 12,500 fighters and helped Iraqi forces regain about 25 percent of the territory seized in Iraq by the Islamic State, according to American military figures." However, U.S. officials acknowledged to Schmitt that ISIS has adapted to their bombing tactics. The terror group even used the cover of a sandstorm when they took over the Iraqi city of Ramadi. "We have always said this fight will . .. . .


    - See more at: http://www.gospelherald.com/articles/55739/20150527/iraqis-claim-u-s-restraint-on-air-strikes-to-limit-civilian-casualties-benefits-isis.htm#sthash.rryeTGi0.dpuf

    Most Everyone's Bitching, but 12,500 Couldn't be Reached For Comment

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. While 14,500 new recruits are waiting on the line to answer questions.

      I think it is time to recognize that Marie Harf, the State Department Spokeswoman, was right, we can't kill our way out of this.

      What is needed is a jobs program for the jihadis.

      Marie Harf has risen to the position of Senior Adviser to Secretary of State John Kerry, her portfolio being Iran and nuclear weapons.

      Delete

  19. Baghdad (CNN)—Flanked by friends on a busy downtown Baghdad street, Asa'ad al-Yassiri pulls out a tattered piece of paper. It's his medical release from the Iraqi military, allowing him leave for a bullet wound to his left arm.

    His contingent was among the last to withdraw from Ramadi after an ISIS offensive.

    He's disillusioned about how they left the key city -- especially the mystery surrounding the order to withdraw and how ISIS prisoners earlier were spared from execution.

    In the brutal, seesaw struggle for territory and power between ISIS and central governments in Damascus and Baghdad, Ramadi has become the latest battleground in Iraq.

    Since the takeover of the city in Anbar Province earlier this month, close to 55,000 people have fled, the United Nations has said. Most of the displaced persons headed to Baghdad, about 120 kilometers (75 miles) to the east.

    The latest horrors from ISIS




    Bulldozers rigged with explosives


    ISIS has proved to be dogged foe for the Iraqi military -- and that again was the case in the battle in which al-Yassiri found himself.

    Al-Yassiri and his contingent were positioned just to the west of the city, in open terrain, using berms for cover. The men, about 140 in along this particular front, were split into smaller units of around two dozen.

    ISIS, which calls itself the Islamic State, had targeted some of the positions on either side of al-Yassiri's unit and inside the city.

    "There were three roadside bombs that took out two Humvees and killed five of us. Then they came at us with the bulldozers rigged with explosives," he says.

    War against ISIS: Successes and failures

    The firefight lasted for hours, its final moments captured on a cell phone video. One soldier fires back from behind a berm. Right next to him is a body, that of a comrade killed in battle

    Chaos ensues as more gunfire erupts. Al-Yassiri's commander radios for air support shouting to his men "Fight, heroes, fight!"

    The unit fires back.

    Someone shouts a warning: "They are coming from the other side."

    ISIS fighters were advancing on them from four directions. The unit that was supposed to be protecting their back seemed to have disappeared. They were vulnerable and exposed.

    Someone screams for more ammunition. Al-Yassiri jumps out of an armored personnel carrier and runs to the soldier.

    "The bullet hit my flak jacket at an angle and went into my arm." He fell to the ground. Another soldier dragged him to safety.

    Moments later, another bleak cry of "no ammunition, no ammunition." It was followed by orders to withdraw.

    Al-Yassiri says he had no choice but to obey.

    "We had martyrs and wounded, but we said we won't withdraw, we are used to the blood of martyrs and we have not liberated the land," he said. "But then the convoy withdrew, so we had to withdraw as well."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Al-Yassiri: Blame lies with leadership, not soldiers

      Al-Yassiri is bitter, angry and disillusioned. Two weeks before the fall of Ramadi, he says his unit captured an ISIS position, killing six ISIS fighters. Two are seen torched in a video. Another seven were captured, among them four foreigners, admitting they were tortured for information.

      "I heard my officer interrogating one of them how they manage to plant IEDs between our watchtowers when they are just 100 meters apart?

      "One replied saying, 'We flash our light toward the tower. We know there are only 28 soldiers, that they are in five hours shift rotations and there is a lack of ammo. If a soldier doesn't fire at us, we crawl and plant the bomb.' "

      "We wanted to kill those seven we captured," he continues. "But we couldn't because our commander had already informed our headquarters that they had been captured."

      He bristles at the notion that Iraqi soldiers like him don't have the will to fight. He faults the military leadership and logistical failures that left them without adequate resupply and support.

      He believes that the order to withdraw was a betrayal. The Iraqi government has said it launched an investigation to find out what went wrong and how the order was issued, but so far, no one has given a viable explanation.

      "I want to quit the army, I would, if I thought I wouldn't get into trouble," Al-Yassiri says. "I want to join the militias and go back to the fight."

      An Orphan

      Delete
  20. If there was an order to retreat if may have come from some Officer, an ISIS sympathizer, doing what he considered his duty.

    I kind of doubt the whole story though.

    ReplyDelete
  21. There seems to be some bad info being disseminated, concerning the Bosnian Air Campaign.

    Operation Deliberate Force was a sustained air campaign conducted by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), in concert with the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR) ground operations, to undermine the military capability of the Bosnian Serb Army (VRS), which had threatened and attacked UN-designated "safe areas" in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Bosnian War with the Srebrenica and Markale massacres, precipitating the intervention. The operation was carried out between 30 August and 20 September 1995, involving 400 aircraft and 5,000 personnel from 15 nations. Commanded by Admiral Leighton W. Smith,[4] the campaign struck 338 Bosnian Serb targets, many of which were destroyed. Overall, 1,026 bombs were dropped during the operation, 708 of which were precision-guided.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The NATO bombing campaign has remained controversial, as it did not gain the approval of the UN Security Council and because it caused at least 488 Yugoslav civilian deaths,[64] including substantial numbers of Kosovar refugees

      Delete
    2. Those BIG numbers that some like to cite are from "Operation Deny Flight," which was just an operation to enforce a "No Fly Zone."

      Delete
  22. QuirkWed May 27, 03:14:00 PM EDT
    .

    Collateral damage. This is a reason you do not go to war to war.

    Once you are at war, it is inevitable.

    My complaints about the collateral damage fall into two categories. First, is when it is intentional, a specific tactic designed to break the enemies will or for political purposes, the allied carpet bombing of cities in WWII for instance or the Israeli bombing in Gaza or the second A-bomb in Japan.


    Quirk, your putting the Israeli bombing of Gaza into the same category as the USA dropping an atomic weapon on the Japanese is specious.

    Nor is the comparison of carpet bombing by the Allies on the Nazis i.e. Dresden or even the bombing of Berlin is accurate.


    Israel bombed Gazan targets, after warning the population to leave.

    IF Israel were trying to cause civilian deaths upon the population of Gaza it did pretty horrible job of it.

    Out of 2200 deaths? About 1/2 were civilians.

    Out of a population of 1.2 MILLION? 10,000 bombing runs?

    That's barely one death for 5 bombs.

    Now compare that to Dresden.

    In four raids between 13 and 15 February 1945, 722 heavy bombers of the British Royal Air Force (RAF) and 527 of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) dropped more than 3,900 tons of high-explosive bombs and incendiary devices on the city. An estimated 22,700[3] to 25,000[4] people were killed.


    As for the Atomic bombing of Japan?

    In August 1945, during the final stage of the Second World War, the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The two bombings, which killed at least 129,000 people, remain the only use of nuclear weapons for warfare in history.


    Now look at gaza….

    2,220 killed, 1/2 were Hamas fighters.

    Your disgust at Israel is interestingly misplaced.

    Syria & Hezbollah have killed close to 300,000 civilians in the last 40 months.

    IRan in Iraq with the Shia Militias and Government have killed over 550,000 civilians in the last 6 years….

    Assad of Syria murdered 10,000 civilians in Hama in one weekend….

    But you say?

    "First, is when it is intentional, a specific tactic designed to break the enemies will or for political purposes, the allied carpet bombing of cities in WWII for instance or the Israeli bombing in Gaza or the second A-bomb in Japan. "


    Well Quirk, you are quite misinformed.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah Quirk, that is really quite a grotesque comparison. Dresden, where my Niece lives, was of course just one German city that got the treatment. The firebombing of Tokyo, and other Japanese cities, also comes to mind.

      Go blow numbers 40 and 44 as well as 41, 42, and 43.

      :o)

      ;)

      Delete
    2. If Israel was serious about killing Palestinian civilians that could have randomly shot 10,000 rockets at the civilian population, without warning like Hamas and Hezbollah have done repeatedly…

      Oh yeah, like the Hamas Controlled Gaza Strip did YESTERDAY….

      Did Hamas warn the Israelis that they would be shooting Iranian Long Range Grad Rockets at them?

      What was the purpose? Oh yeah.. You said it well

      ""First, is when it is intentional, a specific tactic designed to break the enemies will or for political purposes"

      So raining thousands and thousands of rockets randomly down on the Israelis would fit into your neat little category would it not?

      Delete
    3. One standard for Israel and the Jews. No standards for the Arabs that attack them, nor any standards of comparison that make any sense for anyone else.

      Comparing the atomic bombing on the Japanese to the Israeli bombing of the Gaza strip?

      Disgusting moral relativism.


      Delete
    4. We might also recall in this context the Hamas Charter which calls for genocide of Israelis.

      Delete
    5. .

      You boys seem to be all caught up in scale when what I was offering was examples of 'a specific tactic designed to break the enemies will or for political purposes'. I merely base that judgment on articles from Israeli officers involved in the Gaza operation who complained that the operation was not driven by military needs but rather on political considerations.

      Would I believe them rather than Bibi. Any day of the week.

      Don't like it, take it up with them.

      .

      Delete
    6. .

      We might also recall in this context the Hamas Charter which calls for genocide of Israelis.

      Your moral relativism is truly annoying.

      .

      Delete
    7. QuirkWed May 27, 05:52:00 PM EDT
      .

      You boys seem to be all caught up in scale when what I was offering was examples of 'a specific tactic designed to break the enemies will or for political purposes'. I merely base that judgment on articles from Israeli officers involved in the Gaza operation who complained that the operation was not driven by military needs but rather on political considerations.

      Would I believe them rather than Bibi. Any day of the week.

      Don't like it, take it up with them.


      Are you talking about the european funded NGO "Breaking the silence" that has no specifics, published in English and not hebrew and has no names, dates or anything other than a propaganda piece?

      Oh…

      You don't believe Bibi, nor anyone but anonymous sourced accusations?

      Sorry Quirk, I call BULLSHIT on you and your examples.

      But the good news?

      You are like the boy who cried wolf.

      That now has helped Syria slaughter over 10,000 palestinian civilians and not a peep out of you…

      Your bias and bullshit will help the arabs slaughter countless palestinians.

      i hope you are feeling good..

      Delete
  23. Santorum is throwing his hat into the ring right now on Fox.

    He's doomed, and wasting his time.

    Dr. Ben Carson, at 13%, is tied for first with Jeb Bush or Scott Walker, one or the other I think it was, among Republican Presidential candidates in recent polls.

    Go Ben !

    ReplyDelete
  24. Sarah Westwood Clinton Foundation hit with racketeering lawsuit

    http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/clinton-foundation-hit-with-racketeering-lawsuit/article/2565069?utm_campaign=Fox%20News&utm_source=foxnews.com&utm_medium=feed

    Bill and Hillary RICO Clinton

    :)

    ReplyDelete
  25. ANALYSIS
    Failure in Ramadi exposes more than just Baghdad’s weakness
    PAUL KORING
    WASHINGTON — The Globe and Mail
    Published Wednesday, May. 27 2015, 5:09 PM EDT

    The headlong flight from Ramadi by thousands of panicked Iraqi troops reveals more than just the abject weakness of Baghdad’s army.

    It also exposes deep, perhaps crucial failings in President Barack Obama’s strategic doctrine – that U.S. air power, coupled with others’ boots on the ground, might resurrect a unified Iraq while defeating Islamic State, the nascent caliphate grounded in violent Sunni extremism.

    “What happened in Ramadi was a failure of the Iraqi forces to fight,” Mr. Obama’s just-appointed defence secretary, Ash Carter, said in a searingly candid condemnation of Iraq’s army on Sunday.

    Cutting and running isn’t new to Iraq’s corrupt and mostly conscript army. In Mosul and Fallujah, in scores of smaller towns and now in Ramadi, the supposedly multiethnic army – intended to reflect the notion that Sunnis and Shiites and Kurds all remain committed to a single Iraq – has collapsed and fled in disarray despite being better equipped and far outnumbering their Islamic State enemies.

    Iraqi forces were “not driven out of Ramadi,” General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, scoffed. “They drove out of Ramadi.” The exodus, captured on video, shows scores of overloaded HumVees crammed with troops, racing out of Ramadi leaving civilians behind. They also abandoned U.S.-provided tanks, weapons and munitions, leaving them to be used by the jihadis.

    Ramadi starkly illustrates the reality that many, perhaps most, ordinary Iraqi conscripts are unwilling to fight and die for the concept of a unified country that doesn’t, and may never again, exist, especially when fighting and losing can mean being massacred by Islamic State jihadis.

    If there’s a second battle of Ramadi, it seems likely to be fought on sectarian Shia-Sunni lines, just as the broader war inside Iraq is increasingly about dividing, not uniting a fractured nation.

    For now, the Obama administration is standing by Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, a Shiite, and his promise to forge an inclusive country tolerant to all its different ethnicities and religions, with a matching army willing to defend all of it.

    Defensively, Mr. Obama’s spokesman Josh Earnest admitted that creating “a willing and capable local fighting force is going to take time.” How much is unclear. The Iraqi army rebuilt during the U.S. occupation cost tens of billions of dollars and took years to create. It all but disappeared after Mr. Obama pulled all U.S. troops out in 2011, claiming they were “leaving behind a sovereign, stable and self-reliant Iraq.”

    Less than four years later, the so-called Islamic State controls more than a third of Iraq (albeit mostly in the sparsely populated west) as well as a huge swath of Syria. Mr. Obama’s strategic vision of high-flying U.S. warplanes and Arab boots on the ground vanquishing Islamic State is, at best, stalled and, at worst, seen as an ill-disguised sectarian anti-Sunni war in concert with Tehran-backed Shia militias.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. After Ramadi fell, Mr. Obama said, “I don’t think we are losing.” He called it a tactical setback. Others aren’t so sanguine.

      “We are in fact losing this war,” General Jack Keane, the former deputy commander of the U.S. Army, told the Senate Armed Forces Committee after Islamic State seized Ramadi in Iraq and Palmyra in Syria only days apart last week. “Moreover, I can say with certainty, that this strategy will not defeat ISIS,” he added, referring to the U.S.-led air war against Islamic State.

      Critics point to Libya where, four years after Mr. Obama’s U.S.-led “air-strikes-only” doctrine backing feuding militias’ boots on the ground, the county is a violence-torn shambles.

      But despite mission creep – there are already between 2,000 and 3,000 U.S. Special Forces and military advisers inside Iraq – Mr. Obama remains steadfastly opposed to putting American ground troops into the fight.

      “We need to have a total of 15,000 to 20,000 U.S. troops in Iraq in order to provide the necessary enablers [and] advisers,” Fred Kagan, an American Enterprise Institute analyst and former professor of military history at West Point, told the Senate hearing. “Anything less than that is simply unserious.”

      Mr. Obama rejects those calls. “There are some in Republican quarters who have suggested that I’ve over-learned the mistake of Iraq, and that, in fact, just because the 2003 invasion did not go well doesn’t argue that we shouldn’t go back in,” he said last week in an interview with The Atlantic. He added: “If the Iraqis themselves are not willing or capable to arrive at the political accommodations necessary to govern, if they are not willing to fight for the security of their country, we cannot do that for them.”

      Others claims it is Mr. Obama who has failed to learn the grim lessons of Iraq. “George W. Bush at least had the guts to reverse and sponsor the surge, which we eventually then succeeded. I wish, I pray, that Barack Obama would do the same thing,” Senator John McCain, the Arizona Republican who was Mr. Obama’s opponent in the 2008 presidential elections, said after the fall of Ramadi.

      http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/failure-in-ramadi-exposes-more-than-just-baghdads-weakness/article24649686/

      Delete
    2. General Jack Keane:

      Keane retired from military service in 2003. He is also a national security analyst for Fox News.

      Delete
  26. .

    Are you talking about the european funded NGO "Breaking the silence"...

    No.

    As I recall the article was from Forward and cited names.

    Does that negate the rest of your post?

    :o)

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      http://forward.com/opinion/israel/201764/how-politics-and-lies-triggered-an-unintended-war/

      n the flood of angry words that poured out of Israel and Gaza during a week of spiraling violence, few statements were more blunt, or more telling, than this throwaway line by the chief spokesman of the Israeli military, Brigadier General Moti Almoz, speaking July 8 on Army Radio’s morning show: “We have been instructed by the political echelon to hit Hamas hard.”

      That’s unusual language for a military mouthpiece. Typically they spout lines like “We will take all necessary actions” or “The state of Israel will defend its citizens.” You don’t expect to hear: “This is the politicians’ idea. They’re making us do it.”


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

      Later that morning, Israel’s internal security minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch told reporters that the “political echelon has given the army a free hand.” Almoz returned to Army Radio that afternoon and confirmed that the army had “received an absolutely free hand” to act.

      And how far, the interviewer asked, will the army go? “To the extent that it’s up to the army,” Almoz said, “the army is determined to restore quiet.” Will simply restoring quiet be enough? “That’s not up to us,” he said. The army will continue the operation as long as it’s told.


      You might want to read the rest of the article as it explains what really started the conflict in Gaza.

      .

      Delete
  27. .

    Your bias and bullshit will help the arabs slaughter countless palestinians.

    I fear you overestimate my powers of persuasion and intent.

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No one ever overestimates The Quirkster.

      It is an impossibility.

      :o)

      Delete
  28. All in all what a wonderful thread.

    We only had one outburst of name calling, directed at yours truly, one incident of 'blow' something or other, and an attempt at humor echoing that once or twice.

    Not bad !

    Those that have posted here today CAN speak to one another in something resembling an intelligent way.

    ReplyDelete
  29. QuirkWed May 27, 05:53:00 PM EDT

    .

    We might also recall in this context the Hamas Charter which calls for genocide of Israelis.

    Your moral relativism is truly annoying.

    ******

    Honestly don't know exactly what you are trying to say, but I find your equating Gaza and Hiroshima truly annoying.

    It is like putting a mouse on one side of a teeter tooter and an elephant on the other and expecting it to balance.

    To the extent that you are a moral absolutist, I also find that truly irritating, along with silly in a juvenile way.

    ReplyDelete