Category: Current events

Atta boy for the two of ’em

The US leader was rebuffed last month when he demanded private guarantees that no strike would go ahead without White House notification, suggesting Israel no longer plans to “seek Washington’s permission”, sources said. The disclosure, made by insiders briefed on a top-secret meeting between America’s most senior defense chief and Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s hawkish prime minister, comes amid concerns that Iran’s continuing progress towards nuclear weapons capability means the Jewish state has all but lost hope for a diplomatic solution.

On Tuesday, UN weapons inspectors released their most damning report to date into Iran’s nuclear activities, saying for the first time that the Islamic republic appeared to be building a nuclear weapon. It was with that grave possiblity in mind that Leon Panetta, the US defense secretary, flew into Israel last month on what was ostensibly a routine trip.

Officially, his brief was restricted to the Middle East peace process, but the most important part of his mission was a private meeting with Mr Netanyahu and the defense minister, Ehud Barak. Once all but a handful of trusted staff had left the room, Mr Panetta conveyed an urgent message from Barack Obama. The president, Mr Panetta said, wanted an unshakable guarantee that Israel would not carry out a unilateral military strike against Iran’s nuclear installations without first seeking Washington’s clearance.

The two Israelis were notably evasive in their response, according to sources both in Israel and the United States.

“They did not suggest that military action was being planned or was imminent, but neither did they give any assurances that Israel would first seek Washington’s permission, or even inform the White House in advance that a mission was underway,” one said.

Whole story here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/8886543/Israel-refuses-to-tell-US-its-Iran-intentions.html

2 cents:

With O in office I can’t expect Israel to let him know in advance. Maybe in the very beginning of his presidency (benefit of the doubt, try to develop a good relationship) but not now. Especially as things have developed between them (remember comments caught last week with the open-mic?)/ China & Russia are roadblocking stricter sanctions being issued against Iran so despite the news and reminders issued in the IAEA report, things continue as they were. If you or I were an Israeli we would expect our government to protect us – true? The USA can fly thousands of drones into sovereign territories to kill people who are perceived to be enemies of our nation. Run unannounced feet on the ground missions to assassinate terrorists in sovereign nations. Do you see the hypocrisy of O?

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Verdict

Ok, I have read the IAEA report.
Understand that the report is written in such a way that you don’t have to be a nuclear engineer or whatever to get the gist of the IAEA’s assessment. Based solely on what the report states it would seem Iran needs to either admit what they are doing or at least offer plausible explanations for the discrepancies and actions reported and documented. On some of the most alarming deductions and assessments Iran has repeatedly refused to explain the matter. If I was a gambling man – no – I will take it a step better – if I was Bibi or another government official of leadership in the nation of Israel I would be getting my ducks in a row and pull the trigger on some tactical action to remedy the Iran nuclear question. As I wrote in reply to my mother this afternoon I honestly believe by this time next year someone will have made military tactical actions against Iran and for Israel’s sake I hope they did not have to act alone.

icubudLeave a comment

What’s that smell?

The Federal Reserve significantly reduced its forecast of economic growth through 2013, acknowledging that it had once again overestimated the nation’s recovery from the 2008 financial crisis.

Full story here

2 cents:

Gee, so for the last 3 years you mean we haven’t been in a recovery? Note that the opening sentence states “once again” – this doesn’t mean they are repeating themselves for our benefit/knowing. This is ok – remember when we said blah, blah, blah – well it was really blah, blah, blah but now we know it was even blah, blah, blah. But see what can you do about it? NADA. What is going on is that the lies can’t be covered up much longer. See the plan was to lie, lie, lie and the public would embrace it and believe it and spend, debt, spend, debt and the economy would – wala – revive and none the wiser. BUT the public and actually more importantly – the corporations did not buy it which led to the public behavior of not buying it and the stench from the lie can’t be covered up effectively with Lysol.

icubudLeave a comment

not laughing

the above is in page 38 of The Week magazine, 10/21/11 edition
Dictionary.com:
Recession: Economics. a period of an economic contraction, sometimes limited in scope or duration.
Depression: Economics. a period during which business, employment, and stock-market values decline severely or remain at a very low level of activity.

2 cents:
Now tell me again without laughing that we are out of the recession and depression.

icubudLeave a comment

Depitalism – need to correct our economic infrastructure

This article in today’s USA Today points to what I have been writing about – what I refer to as Depitalism.

Quote from article: “While some progress in consumer debt reduction has been made, the heavy lifting of meaningful deleveraging still lies ahead,” the study says. Until consumers repair their balance sheets, they are unlikely to increase spending or take on new debt even with interest rates close to zero. That could continue to hamper the recovery, because consumer demand makes up more than 70% of the U.S. economy.”

 See – it is just a given that our economy requires the individual to be in debt. For the USA to have what the experts call a “healthy economy” requires citizen indebtedness.  That should not be! Capitalism has become mutated and real systemic change needs to occur in the infrastructure of our economic system in order for it to actually become and remain healthy. Contrary to the talking heads out there, the desire of the private sector to reduce its indebtedness is a GOOD THING.

icubudLeave a comment