Category: Non Fiction

on top of my soap box

from Debka
US Navy, Air Force, ground, intelligence and special forces units based at home, in Europe and the Middle East, took part this week in a special exercise ordered by President Barack Obama to simulate reactions to a potential US-Israel strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, debkafile’s exclusive military and Washington sources report.

Sunday, April 22, the US also transferred a number of advanced stealth F-22 fighter bombers, believed to be from the 302nd Fighter Squadron 302, from the joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska to the Al Dhafra Air Base in the United Arab Emirates.
According to our sources, the F-22 jets will join the F-15s of the Massachusetts Air National Guard’s 104th Fighter Wing which were transferred to the Al Udeid base a month ago.

Their mission will be to destroy the Iranian air force and air defense batteries so as to clear the way for US and Israeli bombers to go into action against Iran’s nuclear sites and the strategic infrastructure of its army and Revolutionary Guards Corps.
This unprecedented US buildup of air might – supplementing the aircraft on the decks of the USS Abraham Lincoln and USS Enterprise, to be joined by a third carrier as soon as the offensive gets underway – shows Tehran that the Obama administration is serious about using military means as extra pressure on Iran to give way in diplomatic negotiations – both with the six powers and with the US through clandestine channels.

Both moves took place as the United States and five other world powers prepares for the second round of talks with Iran scheduled for next month to rein in its nuclear program.
The comment Israel’s chief of staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz made to AP on April 26 about “other countries” having readied their armed forces for a potential strike “to keep Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons” referred to the deployment of the F-22 stealth jets. He did not name the other countries.

His comment was received in Washington as Israel’s strongest message till now that it will not be alone in attacking Iran but will have partners, presumably the US – and possibly also Britain, France, German, Holland or Italy.
At the end of the US exercise simulating Day One of this attack, debkafile reports that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Lt. Gen. Martin Dempsey submitted to the White House three conclusions:
1.  Iran’s response to a military strike will be “measured,” both to limit the damage to the regime and to conserve military resources for a possible follow-up attack;

2.  The Iranians will go back to work on building a nuclear weapon within a short time;

3.  The destruction of core elements of its nuclear program is expected to change Iran’s attitude in negotiations, making it less cocky and more submissive to international demands.

2 cents:
Absolute foolishness. Nothing was learned from Iraq and Afghanistan. These people – Arab Muslims that are right extremist do not know or work from a position of true submissiveness to the Evil Satan and its allies. Conclusion 1 & 2 are correct but #3 is ignorance personified. To get a real #3 conclusion would require a complete change of Iranian leadership as well as its form of government. Bombing them will not achieve that end. It would require hunting them down and killing them (see Iraq & Afghanistan).

Also the exercise is fully under the mind set of chief empty suit. It is posturing, games, strategics etc. it is a COMPLETELY different thing to actually order the attack. I will go a step further – with confidence – the chief empty suit ordered the mission on Osama ONLY BECAUSE it would have definitely been leaked that he did not do it. He was bullied into it by the politics and the USA citizen’s desire to make the architect of 9/11 pay for it. It was not because the old limp noodle has a patriotic bone in his body. Nor was it because he is strong on the protection of American values and lives versus what has been labeled as an extremist version of Islam.  He will now wave this one bloody success of his horrific term to try and position himself as a successful president.

Israel knows and understands this pathetic man better than probably most the citizens in our own country. It is in our country that so called reality TV shows are the preference of the masses. In the sports world they are called professional wrestling. Our country is sick, wicked, willingly ignorant, immoral and ambivalent. We have a president that represents the majority of the voters in the country.

Now THAT should keep us up at night.

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repeating bad decisions of history

Debka article on crisis in US-Israeli relations over nuclear talks with Iran

The gist is that not only Israeli government but also a bipartisan group of US senators feel that a back channel exchanges held in privacy between O administration and Iran government leaders will result in:

  1. communication while Iran continues its nuclear program instead of freezing
  2. US pushing for some slack on sanctions as reciprocal action for Iran to freeze nuclear program
  3. ending in the result that sanctions will slack but Iran will continue in secrecy (until caught) working with its nuclear program

In private conversations, Netanyahu has said he feels cheated. By its actions the Obama administration leaves Israel with no recourse other than to grapple with the Iranian menace on its own, he has said, and be less sensitive to Washington’s wishes.

The result of tension between the two countries? O decided to send his US National Security Adviser Tom Donilon to an urgent visit to Israel Saturday, Feb. 18, for three days of talks “on regional issues including Syria and Iran.”

2 cents:
For those who have followed US and Russia cold war history what is being replayed is the Nixon, Ford and Carter years of so called diplomacy with Soviet Union over nuclear weapons. What happened during those years was the US would sign treaties or pacts with SU to eliminate certain classes of nuclear weapons technology and then the US would fulfill its end while SU didn’t. This resulted with US strategically inferior in nuclear and military defense to SU by the time Carter was president. This period of time also resulted in the Peace thru Strength program of presidential candidate Ronald Reagan. He provided the data everywhere to anyone on the decline of the US military and bad faith build up of Russia. His solution was simple > military build up in the US until the US was significantly superior understanding that such a strategy would cripple the Russian economy because it could not spend what it did not have. Then from a position of strength negotiate systemic changes of the cold war mentality which led the government selection of Gorbachev and his understanding of the need for real peace and reform in the Soviet Union. Reagan’s cornerstone approach “trust but verify”.
What is done in secret is unable to be verified so one does not act until verification is real.
O will simply bungle through and repeat the actions of Nixon-Carter which will result in Iranian buildup and technology increases while playing around at diplomacy.

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there is SOME time

From Debka: By suddenly stating, contrary to all informed estimates, that Iran’s nuclear arms program has not yet reached the point of no return, Israel’s Defense Minister Ehud Barak implied that Israel was in no hurry to strike its nuclear facilities, a message for which Washington has been angling for months.
In a Kol Israel interview from Turkey, Thursday, Feb. 16, the defense minister’s pronouncement contradicted every reliable evaluation, including those of Military Intelligence Chief Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi on Feb. 2 and his predecessor Amos Yadlin who wrote on Jan. 26 that Iran had passed  the point of no return four or five years ago. But his words were a perfect fit for the recent assertions by US President Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta that Israel had not yet made up its mind to attack Iran.
Kochavi’s information was detailed: He reported that Iran had amassed 10 kilos of 20-percent enriched uranium and four tons of uranium enriched to 3.5 percent. In his view, nothing remains to stop Iran building a bomb but a decision by its ruler. Once taken, Iran’s nuclear program could produce its first bomb or warhead by the end of this year or early 2013 and four or five by 2015.
The defense minister backtracked on a second issue: While noting that Iran was scattering or burying its nuclear facilities to “impede a surgical strike,” he avoided his previous estimate that no more than three to six months were left before all those facilities had been hidden in what he himself called “zones of immunity.”
full article here
2 cents:
So what does this mean? My guess is that this was not so much a changing of mind but Israel’s way of doing two things:
1. O and many of his government – as well as leaders in other countries – believe that the sanctions are now working and that Iran is willing to talk as long as they save face in doing it. The head of Iran does not want to be perceived by his country’s citizens as bowing to the chief Satan and little Satan (US & Israel). What he will require is a resolution that will make him look powerful and victorious in talks with the rest of the world involving the nuclear issue. By Barak begrudgingly clarifying their evaluation of the matter it tells the other countries they have some time to allow sanctions to crush the internal works of Iran and get dialogue going without the worry that overnight Israel unilaterally attacks Iran making their overtures and any dialogue worthless.
2. Building on #1 this is yet another way that Israel is going to show that Iran is actually stalling and has no serious desire to work with the Satans of the world. This in Israel’s eyes will be the final period of grace given and last chance for so-called diplomacy to resolve the Iran nuclear issue.

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What a tragic loss

What an absolute waste. What a loss of talent.
The links are abundant on Drudge Report tying to updates surrounding the death of Whitney Houston.
I can’t help but think of Michael Jackson’s death and others who were so talented and frittered it way over the use of drugs.
It was a horrible day the day she accepted her first date with the thug and loser Bobby Brown. No doubt she was attracted to the bad boy image when she was portrayed as clean and good. I believe it is the picture of what is the norm in life and that is the general rule (so of course there will be the odd – exception) – and that is the bad always drags down the good it is not the other way around. And when one has an upbringing of good and avoids the trappings of drugs and alcohol and then tips their toe in the way too deep in – when they get in it is overwhelming and traps them and drags them to the bottom.

Another subject matter dear to my heart that I SO want to write a book on is the Circle of Influence. The MJ, Whitney of the world and you & I are no different – the power for good or bad of our circle of influence. I think of Elvis, John Bonham, Phil Lynott, and so on…. If only they had a strong, moral circle of influence around them they would probably be here today and produced much more music, good memories, and so on. They would have had long relationships with their children and maybe even grandchildren…

What a tragic loss…

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Gingrich = Clinton

gist: the idiots (Gingrich, Perry, and the leaders of the Republican party) have and are given legitimacy to O’s feeble reelection campaign by the use of their strategies to defeat Romney. As I mentioned easily six months ago, O was going to make this election about class warfare. The Rep. party is adopting his message as a way to defeat Romney.

2 cents: Gingrich is bad for our nation, if not the world. His personal and political lives of the past show him to be void of ethics, morals and esteem-able values. What you have in him is some of the baser qualities of Bill Clinton. He lacks his looks, height and fitness. Think about it for ten seconds and you will know I am spot-on.

The GOP’s suicide march

by Charles Krauthammer 1/19/12

It’s the campaign line of the year, and while the author won’t be carrying it into the general election, the eventual nominee will.

The charge is straightforward: President Obama’s reckless spending has dangerously increased the national debt while leaving unemployment high and the economy stagnant. Concurrently, he has vastly increased the scope and reach of government with new entitlements and oppressive regulation, with higher taxes to come (to offset the unprecedented spending).

In 2010, that narrative carried the Republicans to historic electoral success. Through most of 2011, it dominated Washington discourse. The air was filled with debt talk: ceilings, supercommittees, Simpson-Bowles.

What’s the incumbent to do? He admits current conditions are bad. He knows that his major legislative initiatives — Obamacare, the near-trillion-dollar stimulus, (the rejected) cap-and-trade — are unpopular. If you can’t run on stewardship or policy, how do you win reelection?

Create an entirely new narrative. Push an entirely new issue. Change the subject from your record and your ideology, from massive debt and overreaching government, to fairness and inequality. Make the election a referendum on which party really cares about you, which party will stand up to the greedy rich who have pillaged the 99 percent and robbed the middle class of hope.

This charge, too, is straightforward: The Republicans serve as the protectors and enablers of the plutocrats, the exploiters who have profited while America suffers. They put party over nation, fat cat donors over people, political power over everything.

It’s all rather uncomplicated, capturing nicely the Manichaean core of the Occupy movement — blame the rich, then soak them. But the real beauty of this strategy is its adaptability. While its first target was the do-nothing, protect-the-rich Congress, it is perfectly tailored to fit the liabilities of Republican front-runner Mitt Romney — plutocrat, capitalist, 1 percenter.

Obama rolled out this class-war counter-narrative in his Dec. 6 “Teddy Roosevelt” speech and hasn’t governed a day since. Every action, every proposal, every “we can’t wait” circumvention of the Constitution — such as recess appointments when the Senate is not in recess — is designed to fit this reelection narrative.

Hence: Where does Obama ostentatiously introduce the recess-appointed head of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau? At a rally in swing-state Ohio, a stage prop for the president to declare himself tribune of the little guy, scourge of the big banks and their soulless Republican guardians.

For the first few weeks, the class-envy gambit had some effect, bumping Obama’s numbers slightly. But the story was still lagging, suffering in part from its association with an Occupy rabble that had widely worn out its welcome.

Then came the twist. Then came the most remarkable political surprise since the 2010 midterm: The struggling Democratic class-war narrative is suddenly given life and legitimacy by . . . Republicans! Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry make the case that private equity as practiced by Romney’s Bain Capital is nothing more than vulture capitalism looting companies and sucking them dry while casually destroying the lives of workers.

Richard Trumka of the AFL-CIO nods approvingly. Michael Moore wonders aloud whether Gingrich has stolen his staff. The assault on Bain/Romney instantly turns Obama’s class-war campaign from partisan attack into universal complaint.

Suddenly Romney’s wealth, practices and taxes take center stage. And why not? If leading Republicans are denouncing rapacious capitalism that enriches the 1 percent while impoverishing everyone else, should this not be the paramount issue in a campaign occurring at a time of economic distress?

Now, economic inequality is an important issue, but the idea that it is the cause of America’s current economic troubles is absurd. Yet, in a stroke, the Republicans have succeeded in turning a Democratic talking point — a last-ditch attempt to salvage reelection by distracting from their record — into a central focus of the nation’s political discourse.

How quickly has the zeitgeist changed? Wednesday, the Republican House reconvened to reject Obama’s planned $1.2 trillion debt-ceiling increase. (Lacking Senate concurrence, the debt ceiling will be raised nonetheless.) Barely noticed. All eyes are on South Carolina and Romney’s taxes.

This is no mainstream media conspiracy. This is the GOP maneuvering itself right onto Obama terrain.

The president is a very smart man. But if he wins in November, that won’t be the reason. It will be luck. He could not have chosen more self-destructive adversaries.

His story link

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