tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post8817032077260496798..comments2024-03-28T21:41:52.558-04:00Comments on The Elephant Bar: Obama should just tell Turkey and Erdogan to shut up - Jesse Ventura makes more sense than our A-Team Rulers and MastersDeuce ☂http://www.blogger.com/profile/13472858446242700869noreply@blogger.comBlogger93125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-40738430755742624312015-11-28T00:40:34.197-05:002015-11-28T00:40:34.197-05:00Saudi King Showered Obamas with $1.3 Million in Gi...Saudi King Showered Obamas with $1.3 Million in Gifts in 2014...........RealClearWorld<br /><br />Back when I was a kid, a report like this would have been major, major news and might have led to the impeachment of Ike.<br /><br />I wonder how much the Obamas are raking in this year, and what's Hillary's take ?<br /><br />President Trump would just send the gifts back.<br /><br />He wouldn't need them.....Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02337923317977922025noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-43266223425517734732015-11-28T00:30:28.351-05:002015-11-28T00:30:28.351-05:00Wrong M.O. too.
A Syrian might have chosen a rock...Wrong M.O. too.<br /><br />A Syrian might have chosen a rock concert, a cafe, or a soccer match.Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02337923317977922025noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-71414891908975550452015-11-28T00:29:14.732-05:002015-11-28T00:29:14.732-05:00Nope, doesn't sound like it.Nope, doesn't sound like it.Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02337923317977922025noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-18849904111339279872015-11-27T23:54:27.425-05:002015-11-27T23:54:27.425-05:00Robert Lewis Dear.
White
age, 57
I don't th...Robert Lewis Dear.<br /><br />White<br /><br />age, 57<br /><br />I don't think he's a Syrian Refugee.galopn2https://www.blogger.com/profile/10149969176825932175noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-43895418117539226992015-11-27T22:07:31.288-05:002015-11-27T22:07:31.288-05:00All politicians, if they are any good at their cra...<i><b> All politicians, if they are any good at their craft, know the truth about human nature. </b></i><br /><br /><br />This sounds like Ernest Hemingway.<br /><br />But it isn't.<br /><br />It's Molly Ball --<br /><br />No, she doesn't call The Donald a 'fascist'.<br /><br /><br /><br />The Ecstasy of Donald Trump<br /><br />As the public’s fear and loathing surge, the frontrunner’s durable candidacy has taken a dark turn.<br />Randall Hill / Reuters<br /><br /> Molly Ball Nov 26, 2015 Politics <br /><br />MYRTLE BEACH, South Carolina—All politicians, if they are any good at their craft, know the truth about human nature.<br /><br />Donald Trump is very good, and he knows it better than most.<br /><br />Trump stands alone on a long platform, surrounded by a rapturous throng. Below and behind him—sitting on bleachers and standing on the floor—they fill this city’s cavernous, yellow-beige convention center by the thousands. As Trump will shortly point out, there are a lot of other Republican presidential candidates, but none of them get crowds anything like this.<br /><br />Trump raises an orange-pink hand like a waiter holding a tray. “They are not coming in from Syria,” he says. “We’re sending them back!” The crowd surges, whistles, cheers. “So many bad things are happening—they have sections of Paris where the police are afraid to go,” he continues. “Look at Belgium, the whole place is closed down! We can’t let it happen here, folks.”<br /><br />Four months into his crazed foray into presidential politics, Trump is still winning this thing. And what could once be dismissed as a larkish piece of political performance art has seemingly turned into something darker. Pundits, even conservative ones, say that Trump resembles a fascist. The recent terrorist attacks in Paris, which some hoped would expose Trump’s shallowness, have instead strengthened him by intensifying people’s anger and fear.......<br /><br />.................Despite all the negativity and fear, the energy in this room does not feel dark and aggressive and threatening. It doesn’t feel like a powder keg about to blow, a lynch mob about to rampage. It feels joyous.<br /><br />“There is so much love in every room I go to,” Trump says, near the end of nearly an hour and a half of free-associative bombast, silly and sometimes offensive impressions, and insane pronouncements. “We want our country to be great again, and we know it can be done!”<br /><br />Twisted Sister comes on again, and the people start filing out, pumped-up and smiling to each other. They file out past the pen where all the reporters are imprisoned—citing an unspecified Secret Service directive, the campaign has announced that reporters may not mingle with the crowd until Trump has left the building; one is escorted to the restroom while he is still working the rope line. (Last week, Trump’s campaign manager threatened to “blacklist” a CNN reporter who tried to leave the pen to film a protester.)<br /><br />The people wave and make faces at the press as they go by. One gray-haired lady in a sweatshirt keeps pointing at her butt and sticking out her tongue at us as she ambles by. She has a savage look on her face.<br /><br />This is the thing Trump knows: You can stand around fretting about truth and propriety and the danger of pandering to baser instincts.<br /><br />Or you can give the people what they want.<br /><br />http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/11/the-ecstasy-of-donald-trump/417870/Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02337923317977922025noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-67970732156584386202015-11-27T21:28:18.938-05:002015-11-27T21:28:18.938-05:00What that piece from Wiki has to do with Israelis ...What that piece from Wiki has to do with Israelis celebrating in New Jersey as the Twin Towers burned, only Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson knows.Jack Hawkinshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00342056653466462640noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-91158309649083702552015-11-27T20:38:10.237-05:002015-11-27T20:38:10.237-05:00Who knows where he comes up with such piffle and d...Who knows where he comes up with such piffle and drivel.<br /><br />Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02337923317977922025noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-43464182531817351592015-11-27T20:25:04.694-05:002015-11-27T20:25:04.694-05:00Michael Chossudovsky is crazy as hell and so are y...<i><b>Michael Chossudovsky is crazy as hell and so are you, jackass.</b></i><br /><br /><br /><i>In his book 2000 Bosnia, Kosova, and the West, Mike Karadjis refers to Chossudovsky as a "noted apologist for the Milošević regime".[15] At the time of the Kosovo war, Karadjis accused Chossudovsky of setting out a 'meticulous frame-up', 'full of half-truths, assumptions, and innuendoes about the Kosovo Liberation Army's (KLA) alleged use of drug money', which sought to discredit the KLA.[16]<br /><br />In the National Post, Terry Glavin accused Chossudovsky of 'mouthing Baathist propaganda'.[17] Glavin quotes Chossudovsky's characterisation of the 'Syrian revolt' as a revolt of 'Islamists, Salafi as well as Muslim Brotherhood gunmen, [-] death squads supported directly by Turkey and Israel”.[17]<br /><br />A 2005 article in The Jewish Tribune criticized the Centre for Research on Globalization's website as "rife with anti-Jewish conspiracy theory and Holocaust denial." Michel Chossudovsky responded that he is of Jewish heritage and would be one of the last people to condone antisemitic views.[18] The same article also reported that B'nai B'rith Canada wrote a letter to the University of Ottawa asking for the university "to conduct its own investigation of this propagandist site."[18]<br /><br />In a 2006 Western Standard article by Terry O'Neill, Chossudovsky was included among "Canada's nuttiest professors", "whose absurdity stands head and shoulders above their colleagues" and who were "peddling half-baked or discredited theories or plain old bigotry".[19] Chussodovsky was said to hold that the U.S. had fore-knowledge of the September 11 attacks and the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami; that Washington had weapons that could influence climate change; and that the large banking institutions are the cause of the collapse of smaller economies, characterised by O'Neill as " more like wild-eyed conspiracy theories than serious political discourse".[19]</i><br /><br />https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_ChossudovskyCharltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02337923317977922025noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-15446525828990187722015-11-27T19:15:12.452-05:002015-11-27T19:15:12.452-05:00Israelis – Not Muslims – Cheered in Jersey City on...<br /><i><b>Israelis – Not Muslims – Cheered in Jersey City on 9/11</b></i><br />By Glen Ford<br /><a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/israelis-not-muslims-cheered-in-jersey-city-on-911/5491920" rel="nofollow">Global Research</a><br /><br />http://www.globalresearch.ca/israelis-not-muslims-cheered-in-jersey-city-on-911/5491920Jack Hawkinshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00342056653466462640noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-16629296167793167582015-11-27T18:11:57.258-05:002015-11-27T18:11:57.258-05:00Before the elected government of Iran was deposed,...Before the elected government of Iran was deposed, the mullahs were not an active political force.<br /><br /><i> Iranians regard Mosaddegh as the leading champion of secular democracy and resistance to foreign domination in Iran's modern history. Mosaddegh was removed from power in a coup on 19 August 1953, organised and carried out by the CIA at the request of MI6, which chose Iranian General Fazlollah Zahedi to succeed Mosaddegh</i><br /><br />Was Mosaddegh motivated by religion or power and money ... I would not bet on religion knowing that he wanted to audit the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC), which was a British corporation (now BP). <br /><br />Was the US motivated by religion, in the coup d'etat it engineered in Iran?<br /><br />The Elephant Bar is not an irony free zone.Jack Hawkinshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00342056653466462640noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-70314483967634491892015-11-27T18:05:34.021-05:002015-11-27T18:05:34.021-05:00The mullahs of Iran were elevated when the US impo...The mullahs of Iran were elevated when the US imposed Shah outlawed all other forms of dissent.<br /><br />If the Shah had not been a despot, the opposition would have been political, but, as in Egypt, the political opposition was forced into the mosques. Jack Hawkinshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00342056653466462640noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-30591359207619263862015-11-27T17:25:34.138-05:002015-11-27T17:25:34.138-05:00Lt. Catherine Buckley, a police spokeswoman, said ...<i><br />Lt. Catherine Buckley, a police spokeswoman, said during a news conference that the police were exchanging shots with the gunman, who was barricaded in a windowless office.<b> He was described as white man in a trench coat with an assault rifle.</b></i><br /><br />http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/28/us/colorado-planned-parenthood-shooting.html?_r=0Jack Hawkinshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00342056653466462640noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-58687933842779582822015-11-27T16:27:02.741-05:002015-11-27T16:27:02.741-05:00May be some kind of SOS, sent out by folks being o...May be some kind of SOS, sent out by folks being o'erwhelmed by violent immigrants.Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02337923317977922025noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-13715032532542655912015-11-27T16:25:10.804-05:002015-11-27T16:25:10.804-05:00The "fast radio bursts" included one &qu...<i>The "fast radio bursts" included one <b>"double signal"</b> never heard before</i><br /><br />This is what inclines me to think there may be something <i>Quirkian</i> about all this.<br /><br />In extreme situations Quirk used to communicate just this way to Dale and I......really fast talk......sometimes with a repetition to make certain the message got through and the situation salvaged.Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02337923317977922025noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-38690419717385971872015-11-27T16:19:51.338-05:002015-11-27T16:19:51.338-05:00The source remains a total mystery.
Seemingly sim...<i><b>The source remains a total mystery.<br /><br />Seemingly similar readings which excited astronomers earlier this year called perytons at the time were later found to be coming from microwave ovens on Earth being prematurely opened in the canteens of observatories where observations were being taken.</b></i>Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02337923317977922025noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-25895304757450767692015-11-27T16:17:02.699-05:002015-11-27T16:17:02.699-05:00Tune in to the radio show Coast to Coast for all t...Tune in to the radio show <i>Coast to Coast</i> for all the updates.Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02337923317977922025noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-56768265900721351722015-11-27T16:15:54.889-05:002015-11-27T16:15:54.889-05:00Is this just a Quirk, or is it time to expand our ...Is this just <i>a Quirk</i>, or is it time to expand our horizons, Ladies and Gentlemen ?<br /><br />Could they be Sunni, or Shia, out looking for loot, out to force us to up our asses in the air to Allah ?<br /><br /> Hindus, or Buddhists, or, at least, really good poets ?<br /><br />I am hoping for the best, Hindus and poets.....<br /><br /><br />Did scientists just pick up the first intelligent radio waves from a distant ALIEN planet?<br /><br />ASTRONOMERS have picked up five mysterious unidentified radio signals that could originate from OUTSIDE the Milky Way.<br />By Jon Austin<br />PUBLISHED: 10:53, Fri, Nov 27, 2015 | UPDATED: 15:08, Fri, Nov 27, 2015<br /><br />Has the telescope picked up signals of aliens from another galaxy? GETTY IMAGES<br /><br /><br />The "fast radio bursts" included one "double signal" never heard before and have left astronomers buzzing with excitement over the possibility of it being a message with alien origins.<br /><br />Only 11 of the unidentified transient radio pulses have been recorded before around the world.<br /><br />And it is the curious new double blast - which was accompanied by four "singles" - which has baffled astronomers analysing data from the Parkes radio telescope in New South Wales, Australia.<br /><br />Emily Petroff from Swinburne University, in Melbourne, one of the team who discovered the signals, believes the origin could be more remarkable than anything recorded before.<br /><br />She tweeted: "We have no idea what's going on, but we know it's definitely something cool.”...........<br /><br />http://www.express.co.uk/news/science/622515/Did-scientists-pick-first-intelligent-radio-waves-distant-alien-planet-Australia-telescopeCharltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02337923317977922025noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-27592145076830258662015-11-27T15:57:08.231-05:002015-11-27T15:57:08.231-05:00Mark Thoma - Economists View<a href="http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2015/11/what-is-holding-back-the-economy.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+EconomistsView+%28Economist%27s+View%29" rel="nofollow">Mark Thoma - Economists View</a>galopn2https://www.blogger.com/profile/10149969176825932175noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-12218303300986078632015-11-27T15:55:51.516-05:002015-11-27T15:55:51.516-05:00But for now, there is mostly talk..., and much of ...But for now, there is mostly talk..., and much of the talk, especially from Republicans, is about how government should not step up to the nation’s economic challenges. The economy has recovered from the worst and proven resilient, but it is being held back by what government at all levels has failed to do.<br /><br />Not the first to say this, but the problem is that Republicans have misrepresented the causes of the distress so many households feel, in particular scapegoating those who have it even worse as somehow responsible for their problems (and the decline of America more generally). And then they sell the solutions as benefiting the middle class (trickle down anyone?) when they are really directed at reducing taxes for those at the top, and reducing the government services that people rely upon to survive in this economy to support the tax cuts.<br /><br />But there is something else I'd like to note. The problem is blamed on government at all levels, and fiscal policy. We hear, when Republicans are named at all, that it is "especially" Republicans as though the balance only tilts in one direction. No, it's not especially Republicans, or even mostly Republicans that are standing in the way of doing more to help those who are struggling to make ends meet. It is Republicans. It's not congressional gridlock based upon reasonable differences over policy that cannot be resolved through compromise, it's an active attempt by one party to block anything the other party tries to do, even if it might help people economically. So long as the political benefits of this behavior -- benefits based upon selling snake oil for the most part -- exceed the economic costs of inaction, Republicans will stand in the way (all the while trying to convince those who are hurt the most by their actions that they will actually be helped). It's time to stop blaming "government" as though that is what is dysfunctional. The dysfunction, as evidenced by the slate of, and preferences over Republican presidential candidates, is in the Republican party. Their actions since the onset of the Great Recession have, in my view, hurt people who should have been helped, slowed the recovery, and diverted our attention from the true problems we face making it impossible to solve them (not that Republicans would have gone along with the solutions anyway). If this election tears Republicans apart and strips them of this ability to stand in the way of helping the working class, a dream I know, I will not be shedding tears. Quite the opposite.galopn2https://www.blogger.com/profile/10149969176825932175noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-59206837743252015482015-11-27T15:53:58.236-05:002015-11-27T15:53:58.236-05:00Friday, November 27, 2015
'What Is Holding Ba...Friday, November 27, 2015<br /><br /><b>'What Is Holding Back the Economy?'</b><br /><br />The rise of the crazies is not unrelated:<br /><br />What Is Holding Back the Economy?: ...for many if not most people, the standard of living that can be achieved by working has been permanently reduced — by long bouts of unemployment and underemployment, by unstable and insecure employment, by long-term stagnation of wages and, perhaps most significantly, by the failure of Congress to use fiscal policy, consistently and aggressively, to counteract the devastation of the recession and its corrosive effects on the economy.<br /><br />For some people in some places, steady work is simply no longer a way of life, if it ever was. In several states where jobless rates have fallen to pre-recession levels, including Illinois and Ohio, the drop is due mainly to shrinking labor forces, not increases in hiring. When unemployment rates go down because people have despaired of ever finding a job, the economy is not really improving. Rather, it is downshifting to a less prosperous level.<br /><br />There are two related ways to counter that downshift. One is to make productivity-enhancing investments that create jobs today and lay the foundation for future growth. Such investments would include bolstered spending for education, transportation, environmental protection, basic science and other fields that are the purview of government. The other is to enact policies to ensure that pay and profits from enhanced productivity are broadly shared, rather than concentrated at the top of the income-and-wealth ladder. Such policies would include strict anti-trust enforcement, steeply progressive taxes, a higher minimum wage and support for labor unions. ...galopn2https://www.blogger.com/profile/10149969176825932175noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-86897162431323286082015-11-27T15:32:11.634-05:002015-11-27T15:32:11.634-05:00.
They were raiding and killing from the git-go.
....<br /><br /><i>They were raiding and killing from the git-go.</i><br /><br />So was everyone else in the ME. It's what they do.<br /><br />The <i>Encyclopedia of War</i> argues that less than 7% of all the major wars, rebellions, and revolutions going back to 3500 B.C. had a religious basis for the conflict. I would suggest Idaho Bob read the <i>Encyclopedia of War</i> ($375.00 at Amazon for a 3 volume set) but let's face it, why would he do that when he can get <i>Jihad Watch</i> for free, especially when the latter fulfills his need for confirmation bias.<br /><br />.Quirkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00272168240606512672noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-62157527226982411272015-11-27T15:30:40.607-05:002015-11-27T15:30:40.607-05:00I think it is unwise to underestimate the role tha...I think it is unwise to underestimate the role that religion/sect plays in Middle East politics/wars. Heck Iran fell to the Mullahs, Saddam was very concerned about his pious subjects (both Sunni and Shia), and Saudi Arabian rulers are also very concerned about the numerous Whabbi they rule.<br /><br />I would suggest religion is a strong motivator of many - MB in Egypt, Lebanon is formally governed by Sect positions in government...<br /><br />Does any of that mean that all Muslims instructed to violence - NO.Ashhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16688752302081088907noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-66149405190465947342015-11-27T15:29:02.837-05:002015-11-27T15:29:02.837-05:00Turkey Risks Wider War and Undercuts Fight Against...Turkey Risks Wider War and Undercuts Fight Against ISIS<br />Time for Turkey to face consequences for its reckless escalation of international tensions.<br />November 27, 2015<br />Joseph Klein <br /><br /><br /><i> Turkey is not only trying to kill members of the most effective local forces fighting against ISIS in Syria. It is Turkey, not Russia, which has actually been helping ISIS. For example, Turkey has facilitated the black market sale of oil from ISIS-controlled territories, which helps finance ISIS’s expanding terrorist campaign. As reported by Al-Monitor, quoting a lawmaker from the main opposition party in Turkey, “$800 million worth of oil that ISIS obtained from regions it occupied this year [the Rumeilan oil fields in northern Syria — and most recently Mosul] is being sold in Turkey.” <br /><br />Turkey has also served as a convenient transit point through which foreign ISIS recruits pass on their way to Syria. The same Turkish opposition lawmaker stated: “Fighters from Europe, Russia, Asian countries and Chechnya are going in large numbers both to Syria and Iraq, crossing from Turkish territory. There is information that at least 1,000 Turkish nationals are helping those foreign fighters sneak into Syria and Iraq to join ISIS. The National Intelligence Organization (MIT) is allegedly involved.” <br /><br />Erdogan’s major difference with ISIS is where the Islamic caliphate ultimately should be based. He believes in the restoral of a caliphate under Ottoman rule. He was willing to risk a wider war in the region to protect his “co-religionists in Syria” and thereby strengthen his own claim to leadership of at least the Sunni Muslims. This is the man whom Obama has named as one of his top five friends among world leaders. It is long past time for Obama to unfriend this authoritarian jihadist.</i><br /><br />http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/260931/turkey-risks-wider-war-and-undercuts-fight-against-joseph-kleinCharltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02337923317977922025noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-22964403608345161352015-11-27T15:24:07.740-05:002015-11-27T15:24:07.740-05:00There does appear to be ex-Baathist/Sunni/military...There does appear to be ex-Baathist/Sunni/military folk involved in IS. They could very well be mercenary but they have 'opinions'.Ashhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16688752302081088907noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-48436675126401524422015-11-27T15:22:36.414-05:002015-11-27T15:22:36.414-05:00This comment has been removed by the author.Quirkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00272168240606512672noreply@blogger.com