Translate

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

If you have not read this excellent piece by the late Michael Hastings (RIP) from Rolling Stone, I urge you to do so.  It details what a shameful mess this is.  I will be posting later.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/americas-last-prisoner-of-war-20120607

59 comments:

  1. Boston: The Dress Rehearsal

    http://www.infowars.com/holder-to-create-homegrown-terrorism-task-force/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Real Americans (who support the Constitution) and veterans are the terrorists now. How clear do Holder and Obama have to make it? Obama can't be impeached soon enough.

      YouTube tried taking away the accounts of people who are exposing these false flags, but now they're trying something else. Comments on these videos that agree with the YouTuber are flagged as "spam." Comments that say that the YouTuber is tinfoil hat nutso are allowed. Some government people are getting paid to do this trolling. They should be ashamed of themselves.

      YouTube
      Shill ALERT! Thousands of comments marked as SPAM by Internet TROLLS!
      freeradiorevolution
      Published on Jun 3, 2014

      Delete
  2. Bergdahl is Scandanavian. He's a tall, clean-cut, athletic and strong blonde man of great empathy, courage and discernment.

    As such he was able to easily see the craven cruelty, deception and malice of the lessor men around him.

    His parents are counter-culture hippies who are intelligent, athletic and noble in their own right.

    The other servicemen with whom Bergdahl served cannot hold a candle to him or his family.

    If this country was composed of northern Europeans like the Bergdahls then it would have the wealth, unity, prosperity and happiness presently enjoyed by the the peoples of Sweden, Norway and Finland.

    Race explains it.

    Sorry but those are the facts.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There are two distinct issues, here.

      One is the political, moral, and humanitarian value of the Afghanistan War: Highly debatable, as in what might of been (short take out mission -- and leave) has turned into a moral morass and bloody sore on America.

      The second is the military discipline necessary for an army. All indications are that this soldier failed to report to duty and left camp without permission.

      In subsequent patrols influenced by the desire to retrieve the soldier in question casualties were taken.

      If the allegations are true, this is a case study why leaving your post is detrimental to the whole body of men: Others die because of your actions.

      Breaking the chain of command, even at the Pfc level, can cause others to be in harms way.

      Military discipline and political dispositions should be held separately.

      In other words, it wasn't in the soldier's discretion to abandon his post under basic military regulations.

      Too many people have conflated these two different aspects of this situation both on the interventionist and non-interventionist side.

      One can be sympathetic with the soldier's politics, but also recognize the necessity of military discipline in the field when under fire of the enemy (men attempting to kill you).

      But another thing: What was the Obama administration trying to do when it sent Susan Rice, of all people, back out on the Sunday talk shows, saying this soldier served with distinction and honor.

      Obviously that is in serious question.

      With numerous accounts of fellow soldiers of this individual disappearing, apparently failing to report to duty and leaving without permission.

      These are serious allegations that need to be investigated.

      There needs to be an investigation into the timing of the Obama administration swap.

      Looks like a distraction from the VA scandal, something held, a card that could be used anytime.

      But it blew up in Obama's face.

      Many Democratic Party members are uncomfortable about this because they understand the distinction between political judgments and the military necessity of discipline in the ranks.

      The Afghan War has turned into bitter, political fruit.

      Perhaps it's time to turn the page and leave the 'graveyard of empires' for the Afghans -- they will settle it out -- they always have.

      Let not this misbegotten war divide this nation anymore than it already has.

      Delete
    2. Well it's been going on for like 13 years and it's the longest war in history but despite this the hawks don't want to admit that we can't "win" there anymore than we could "win" in Iraq......

      The US doesn't have the ability to invade huge countries in the Middle East and reform their societies. It was an insane thing to suggest in the first place and I don't think that was even the real purpose of these invasions.

      But as stupid an idea as this was I personally know old hands from government who at the time thought it was a great idea. These idiots would tell me things like, "There are precidents for this! Look at what Ataturk did in Turkey decades ago! We can change their values and de-islamicize these places for good just like Ataturk did !"

      What a bunch of shit.

      The US was doomed in Vietnam. There was no possible way to win, but no one wanted to admit that they were dead wrong from the beginning.

      It's the same with these insane wars.

      But like I've said war and statecraft is 99% emotion and people believing whatever they want to believe and there is NO PROFESSIONALISM in the national security field.

      All the think tanks and degreed people from MIT or Princeton or anywhere else don't know shit.

      Delete
  3. And otherwise...

    As for you hawks that hate Bergdahl because he dissented from your savagry so now you're accusing him of DISSERTION....

    Now that really makes me laugh. Obviously none of you know anything about Afghanistan.

    No one can dissert in Afghanistan. There's nowhere to go. It's very hostile in every sense of the word. No one could ever survive there. It's not realistic to suppose that anyone would walk off a base and think they could find a way of living away from it whatsoever.

    Bergdahl got lost. It happens all the time because at night the towns have no light. When I was in Africa it was the same way. If you wander around at all in the dark city you can get lost. He was wandering around and somebody grabbed him and that's how he ended up captive.

    And as for the supposed evidence it shows nothing more than that he made the same statements about the US and wanting to leave that Pat Tillman made before he was killed. So what. They were both dissenters.

    So as for OReilly and the rest of the hawks claiming that he's a scoundrel and a disserter and so forth.....and I reserve this remark for the most extreme conditions....

    Fuck You. You're all assholes of the worst kind.

    Now at least Charles Krauthammer had the honesty to remind the Fox viewers that.....

    Ronald Reagan did the same kind of deal, and it wasn't even for servicemen but just Americans held in Lebanon.

    These exchanges are always costly so shut up about it and stop villifying Bergdahl.

    And as for the family members of the other soldiers supposedly killed looking for Bergdahl and who now are abusing and defaming him....

    Go to hell. You really don't know your sons or what they really did or would do in Afghanistan because parents don't know anymore about what their kids really do in the military than they know what they do at fraternity parties.

    Shut up and stop defaming victims.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. All the time I did government work and even today do my family members know me?

      They sort of know me. But they have no idea what I really do.

      Delete
  4. Now as for Danny Ellsberg having worked for Ed Lansdale in the past.....

    Dr.P where are you getting this?

    I mean it might be true for all I know but why Ed Lansdale? There's so many other people Ellsberg could have worked for why would it be the one guy who's this loner who works by himself or only with others laterally. I mean I don't think anyone worked "for" Ed Lansdale. I could be wrong but....

    And it's a reach to conclude that Snowden is working for Brennan.

    Look I think you're taking interservice rivalry here way too seriously. I don't think at all that CIA puts forward covert actions or ops like you are asserting over budget issues, etc.
    Their battles are bureaucratic, not out in the field running ops to outmaneuver each other and soil each others' reputations.

    CIA has the drones. That's the mission they want in addition to so many other things.

    Why on earth would they want sigint, comint and all that shit at this point? Why trouble themselves with that when it's not generating much anyway?

    The truth is this....

    Take it from me. I know what I'm talking about.

    Anyone who would be up to anything involving national security threats or even high level criminality.....

    THEY DON'T USE THE TELEPHONE OR INTERNET !!

    NSA doesn't collect shit on any targets which mean a damn thing.

    NSA doesn't have any strategic intelligence...none.

    NSA is good only for tactical intelligence involving battlefield situations where idiots in the military of other countries are stupid enough to use their radios, etc., because unlike criminals and intl people the militaries of third world countries [which are our only melieu] are totally stupid.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lemme give you an example. Prior to the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 the radio situation suddenly mushroomed and NSA could see without any ambiguity at all what was about to happen. That's the kind of strategic warning the NSA used to be able to do.

      But in the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait in 1992 it was very different. By that time even the Iraqis realized that they had to stay off their radios or use disguises, etc. but only because they'd just fought a war for nine years and had to learn all these matters the hard way.

      Delete
    2. So why then does NSA collect everything normal people do?

      Well if you look at the people who have been convicted of "terrorism" in the past fourteen years it hasn't been real terrorists with any training or means......

      All the people convicted of "terrorism" in America have been untrained, ordinary people who were dreaming about an attack or actually planning to blow up their sauce pans in Boston or something like that....

      Totally amateur, untrained nutballs who have no connection to any kind of halfway professional militants at all.

      That's why NSA wants to have every single email and telephone call on record....it's for the nuts out there who might blow up their pressure cookers or saucepans.

      Delete
  5. And please you're exaggerating when you say that it's the intl budgets which are hollowing out American economic strength.

    Yes US intl is way, way overbudgeted and they waste a lot and every little thing they produce comes at tremedous cost....

    But this is NOT BAD FOR THE ECONOMY.

    Their spending, like all government spending, is STIMULATIVE and we're in a depression right now with unemployment at about 18 percent in real terms.

    Federal spending and the resurgance of the oil and gas business are the only things keeping this economy afloat at all.

    The last thing we need to do at this juncture is start cutting even more government jobs than we already have. That kind of austerity is only making matters worse.

    ReplyDelete
  6. The US is on an economic path no country has ever charted before.

    It's debt is now the size of it's GDP, and that's the point at which the markets normally consider the debt to be too large to ever be repaid.

    No one left in the world has anymore cash to loan to the Federal goverment. The Chinese, Brits, Japanese, Dutch, etc are tapped out and have lent all they can. particularly at these low rates....

    So now the Federal government has to have the central bank, the Federal Reserve, merely create the money out of fiat and then use this fiat money to purchase these bonds.

    It's like a fucking miracle.

    It's no longer necessary for a government to get it's money from taxing the production of it's citizens. The government can simply borrow more fiat currency from the central bank, which can create it without any production from anyone!

    It's money without any production behind it...yet.

    It will be translated into production when someone receives it and uses it to buy something created by someone.

    But until that point the government can just use more and more of this for whatever it wants....

    And the Federal government is funding half it's spending this way....which is over 20 percent of the GNP....which is to say that ten percent of GNP is now created through totally unproduced money.

    What makes fiat money better than gold backed is that gold is nothing you want to depend on for all your wealth. No one wants the countries with gold mines to have all the money while other more productive countries have nothing.

    What makes fiat better is that it's even harder to produce than gold if produced carefully. And if your economy grows as fast as you make the fiat currency there is no inflation.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Now what's happened in the last twenty years or so since the Fed stopped publishing the M2 figure,,the total amount of dollars in the world....

      Is that they've been creating colossal new amounts of money but there's been no inflation because most of that new never finds its way to the street or the normal economy where people buy or sell things.

      The supply of new money used for people to buy and sell things has remained the same old growth of a few percent per year....

      So what's all the new collossal amounts of money been used for....

      SPECULATION leveraged by people who have access to borrow money from the banks composing the Federal Reserve !!

      Those banks can't make any money loaning out a few billion dollars a year at low interest to businesses who sometimes default on it.

      There's no money there.

      But when they loan out trillions a year to other banks to speculate in derivative, swaps, equities, commodities, currencies.....

      They get rich!

      Isn't America great !

      Delete
    2. Bitcoin is a kind of fiat currency and it works because it's very difficult to make. Anything which is difficult to make and can only be made in limited quantities and with great effort can be used for currency....

      AS LONG AS OTHER PEOPLE AGREE OR ARE FORCED TO USE IT.

      Delete
    3. If someone gave you a Bitcoin what could you do with it?

      It has no intrinic value in that it can't be used to eat, shelter, tranport anyone where they need to go....It had no utility.

      But if you take it to a market where people will trade you some Italian shoes for them which you can wear....or trade you some gasoline to power your car....or trade you a lobster dinner....

      Now you're talking money Dude.

      Delete
    4. In 2008 all the largest banks were near default.

      And a year or so later they were all flush again and today are better than ever !!

      Do you think they made all that money buy making loans to business....in a recession????

      LOL

      No fool they made all that new money overnight by....

      Making shit ass smart bets in various speculative markets and being right about 99 percent of the time !!!

      Now that's talent !!

      Delete
    5. The same mentality which made them all make the same mistake in 2008 and sink the world also makes them right about 99 percent of the time....

      That's the way the game works, and if you take away their methods and mentality because they fuck it up from time to time then they won't be able to make the trillions they do through very smart trading.

      Now if that would be good or bad I really don't know.

      Delete
    6. If you have the connections to get near-zero interest rate loans (in the billions), then you only need to make two, three percent gains to rack up decent profits.

      If you have connections to get near-zero interest rate loans, then you can pump up the stock market in a cartel-like fashion.

      The end game for the bankers is being the "masters of infinity" as Lyndon Johnson once cryptically remarked.

      Of course, if you can make infinite amounts of money then loan it to your connections, they can ultimately buy up all assets.

      But that possibility is slipping through their fingers -- to the extent that China, Russia, India, Brazil, and South Africa (the BRICS) are developing trade exchange mechanisms, i. e., convertible currencies.

      Possibly add in Iran, who is trading with China, India, and Russia, despite U. S. sanctions, and you start to see where the U. S. dollar loses its status as the world reserve currency.

      And, then the "masters of infinity" have a major road block.

      Is it smart trading or is it having so much money that they can push the market in manipulated fashion (again, cartel-like) in the same direction as their bets in the market?

      What about the average Joe?

      Does he get all these advantages?

      Cartel behavior is detrimental to the overall economy as it stifles new companies from entering into the market. A market with limited producers is ripe for the formation of cartels.

      Delete
  7. It's not a cartel.

    I used to have a futures account for trading equities. Anyone with income and good credit can have that. It's been available to ordinary Joes in the US since the 1920s.....

    The problem is that I didn't have the skills to consistent outsmart the market like professional traders do.

    You can open an account managed by a trader who trades currencies, commodities, etc., but the best traders don't work for such funds.

    The best traders are hired by hedge funds.

    See if you can come up with enough money to invest in a hedge fund.

    Anyway I don't think anything that's going on anywhere threatens these titans. Because they have access to trillions in credit and outsmart the markets time and time again they are the winners at this.

    But my point is that it was at a juncture 20 years ago that the Fed decided that they were going to stop publishing how much money was in circulation so that they could begin this process.

    The winners are the banks who loan money to hedge funds and all those in their network.

    The losers are the world economy if they all happen to guess wrong at the same time like they did in 2008.

    ReplyDelete
  8. And What the Fuck is going on with the United States fining Banc Paribas A BILLION DOLLARS for doing business with Iran ?

    The French are going to trade with everybody and anyone who thinks they can get them to fall into line with American sanctions on this or that is a fool.

    Who the fuck does the United States think it is anyway?

    I think Paribas should get the hell out of this country and stay away from places like the United States with its hypocritical and savage, corrupt legal practices.

    Fort that matter if I were a foreign bank I would just stay the hell away from the United States anyway because the government here wants to select and control which banks will accept drug proceeds and if you aren't on their favored list you will get hammered.

    This is a government of total hypocrits.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Dr Steve, Everybody is here talking about the Federal Reserve Bank, maybe they should be reading this following article about the very people that instigated the Federal Reserve Act in 1913!
    'Bilderberg in Copenhagen 2014: Implementing Rothschild´s Declared Plan for His Corporate World Government'
    http://new.euro-med.dk/20140601-bilderberg-in-copenhagen-2014-implementing-rothschilds-declared-plan-for-his-corporate-world-government.php

    ReplyDelete
  10. This presidency will be known as the "whatever presidency."

    Because no matter what the situation, this president or his spokespeople in effect say, "whatever."

    "Move along, nothing to see here."

    But this Bergdaul case has caught the attention of the American People.

    The American People are sick of the lying.

    The American People know the president is a liar.

    And his administration is corrupt.

    But for politics, would not this president face impeachment & conviction?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Known on the street as the "Whatever President."

      "Oh, you're talking about that whatever president?"

      Delete
    2. The game is up.

      The president's poll numbers will fall.

      Below 20% approval ratings will cause impeachment proceedings to begin.

      A full hearing on Obama's fraud, abuse, and corruption is a recipe for conviction in the Senate and removal from office.

      Delete
    3. I wish.

      Every President stumbles in his second term. Look what happened to Reagan LOL.....

      There will be no impeachment.

      Futhermore by now most people ACTUALLY AGREE WITH BERGDAHL and would have done the same thing !

      If the President's critics think they can gain by villifying Bergdahl they'll be sorely dissappointed.

      Most Americans are fed up with these stupid wars.

      Delete
    4. No, Mit, most American wouldn't have failed to report to duty and leave post to go into dangerous territory where beheading, torture, and death possibly awaits.

      At best to wonder in hostile territory with no conceivable way out.

      But most know in the military you can't leave your post.

      It's the lying by Susan Rice on Sunday talk shows that Bergdaul served with honor & distinction.

      It's the obvious attempt at distraction under false pretenses: That we should celebrate getting this soldier back (and isn't Obama grand for this accomplishment).

      This on its own wouldn't be any straw on the camel's back, but, of course, it isn't. It's a culmination of events, that when put together paint a canvass of systemic corruption that threaten the very fabric of the Republic (what left of it, there is).

      Delete
    5. "threatens the very fabric of the republic" ?

      hey wake up friend....

      It's always been this way.

      Delete
  11. Mr. President, you are a liar.

    Why does 20% approval ratings matter?

    Because then the power structure will kick in to protect itself from the incompetence & dysfunction of Obama.

    When 80% of Americans respond, "Mr. President, you are a liar," and abandon him politically, those who pursue the Rule of Law and those that want to appear to can bring articles of impeachment in Congress.

    Crimes & misdemeanors are evident.

    When 80% of young people think the Obama & his administration are corrupt, Democrats will be concerned because Obama is head of the Democratic Party.

    A catchy tune can lead a movement and sum up a feeling particularly among young people.

    In that spirit, here's a little diddy, Liar (Mr. President, you are a liar.)

    I think it catches the meme.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And W.Bush, HW Bush, Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Clinton WEREN'T LIARS ?

      Even Eisenhower was caught lying by the people when he said Francis Gary Powers never flew of the USSR, and then the Russians produced him and his plane !

      Come on buddy....

      The only President who was never caught lying was Jimmy Carter, and the people turned against him for other reasons.

      That's just the way it is.

      Delete
    2. Presidents lie, bosses lie, employees lie, you own lawyer will lie to you, and your girlfriends will lie to you too, and so will your children.....

      The American people are not shocked when a President gets caught lying.

      Send him behind the barn and give him 40 lashes with a wet noodle.

      Delete
    3. But for politics, impeachment & conviction await Obama.

      I'll leave to your imagination what those politics might be.

      But branded LIAR cuts through the crap.

      Brand Obama has taken a fatal political hit.

      What was Obama anyway? Little more than a sophisticated branding strategy.

      So, with that brand sufficiently destroyed, re-branded, if you will, by general acclaim of "Obama is a liar" defense will fade away for all the myriad cases of fraud, abuse, and corruption.

      It is hard to defend a known liar.

      It's hard to respond to a successful appellation of "he's a liar."

      "He's a liar," cuts through the crap.

      And with Obama there're piles of crap.

      But, "Obama, the liar," is like a red-hot knife through butter and politics melts away to expose an incompetent & corrupt emperor with no clothes.

      It's going to happen.

      This Bergdaul case is a tipping point.

      But even if it isn't, based on what we've seen, won't there be another, and another?

      Bets are pretty good when incompetence collides head-on with corruption in the form of one man: President Obama.

      Delete
  12. Mit, there is truth to your rejoinder that all politicians lie, as do we all.

    But and this is a big but: It is the lying in defense of criminal actions, deserving of impeachment & conviction.

    That is the question: Has president Obama engaged in offenses which constitute high crimes & misdemeanors deserving of impeachment & conviction?

    The answer is yes.

    The additional essential question is whether enough Obama supporters abandon him and whether the Democratic Party feels Obama threatens their electoral chances down the road.

    And whether Republicans in Congress feel inaction threatens their own chances for election.

    I suggest we are at that tipping point or soon will be.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think you're dreaming. We are no where near that point and never will be. His poll numbers can get a lot lower and that won't mean his party will throw him under the bus and support an impeachment. You're letting your personal animous cloud your judgement here.

      Obama is a scumbag - a south Chicago politician/limosine liberal who lined his own pockets driving a limosine into the ghetto everday to ply his trade and then went back to his palace at night.

      Tell me the Clintons or Bushes are any different.

      To me the criminal acts he's committed are killing American citizens, detaining them, etc...and he's never lied about that.

      What crimes has he lied about? The Benghazi thing was a covert operation...so what? People get killed in those whey they go sideways. The WH will cover it up just like it did when the Israelis attacked the Liberty.

      It always happens that way because they have no choice.

      Delete
    2. Well, I listened to the C-Span call in on the prisoner exchange (a crude measurement to say the least) and it was focused on the propriety of the exchange...

      It's not the exchange... it's the lying about Bergdahl's record and the timing of the exchange, but since most people are focused on the exchange, then, yes, no impeachment... there are prisoner exchanges, even for less than honorable soldiers.

      So, Obama gets off the hook one more time.

      But another time will come.

      Oh, I agree about Obama and Clinton -- but, by now, the Bushes are higher up the corruption food chain, Bushes are no longer just servants of the elite like Clinton & Obama.

      Delete
  13. Off topic, but touches on an issue that has been raised before on this website: Prince Bandar bin Sultan, aka Bandar Bush, Saudi intelligence chief and fixer:

    Bandar Bin Sultan injected with poison: Report (PressTV)

    "Saudi Arabia's spymaster Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz has been injected with an incurable poison, a Lebanese media report says.

    Some Lebanese media outlets quoted Saudi sources as saying that the prince was injected with an unknown kind of poison.

    Bandar slipped into a coma and was rushed to Morocco and the United States for treatment, the report added.

    Medical doctors say various methods of treatment have failed to restore him to health over the past few months, it noted.

    The Saudi prince is known to have had close ties with former US President George W. Bush, and was an advocate of the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

    Bandar is also widely believed to be the key figure trying to increase Saudi weapons flow to the foreign-backed militants in Syria.

    However, Washington had demanded the removal of Prince Bandar from the Syrian file owing to his mismanagement of the situation in the country, which has been grappling with a foreign-backed crisis since March 2011.

    Several media reports confirmed that Bandar had been sacked."

    This is news if confirmed.

    For one, that he was poisoned, and for two, that he has been sacked.

    The failure of the Syrian policy is causing serious fall out.

    Bandar Bin Sultan injected with poison: Report (PressTV)

    And president Obama is doubling down on Syria by openly training terrorists in Syria.

    The whole Syrian policy, in itself, is worthy of impeachment & conviction.

    But because the leadership of the Congress supported this neoconservative criminal episode while maintaining plausible deniability, Syria, alone, won't be the cause for impeachment & conviction.

    But it is one more "backgrounder" in a complex web of lies, corruption & criminality worthy of impeachment & conviction.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I shed no tears for that scumbag. That guy is bad news.

      Delete
  14. Regarding Syria:

    Syria just completed and election where 88% voted for President Assad with turnout at 77%.

    As reported by the Washington Post:

    "Syria’s Assad wins presidential vote in landslide"

    And the Obama administration's response per the Washington Post:

    "[...] Assad’s victory was always a foregone conclusion, despite the presence of other candidates on the ballot for the first time in decades. The opposition and its Western allies denounced the election as a farce, with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry calling it a 'great big zero.'[...]"

    Syria’s Assad wins presidential vote in landslide (Wash Post)

    A "great big zero" says John Kerry.

    The hypocrisy is stunning:

    Ukraine, where the illegitimate Kiev putsch regime conducted a presidential vote where many were denied a vote and turnout was mediocre is hailed by the Obama administration and John Kerry, but with Syria the duly constituted state administration conducts an election, but according to Secretary of State John Kerry, it's "great big zero."

    I have a suspicion: Take Obama's doubling down on the Syrian policy at his West Point foreign policy speech and Obama's rejection of the Syrian election where Bashar Assad won in a landslide, it turns all Obama administration justifications for supporting "regime change" in Syria on its head.

    Perhaps, the Bergdaul case is actually a distraction from the Syrian election results. Now, I'll acknowledge this may be simply coincidental, but given what we've seen this administration capable of in terms of duplicity & distraction, I can't put it by them.

    But this is how the People of Syria reacted, as reported by the Washington Post:

    "Damascus erupted into a thunderous, rolling clap of celebratory gunfire that appeared to include heavy weaponry after the results were announced. Thousands of Assad supporters flocked the streets to celebrate, some waving large Syrian flags and others carrying photos of Assad as car horns blared. Some men broke into the familiar pro-Assad chant: “With our souls, with our blood, we sacrifice for you, Bashar!”

    Secretary of State Kerry's rational for rejecting the election results is because not all Syrians had a chance to vote (well neither did a lot of Ukrainians, but not matter).

    Kerry overlooks the history of his own country, of course, because during the Civil War a presidential election was held in 1864 where no southern states participated because they were in open rebellion.

    Nobody at the time of the U. S. Civil War or since has questioned that result where nearly half the country didn't vote in a presidential election during a civil war.

    In Syria, no election was possible in "rebel" held territory.

    In Ukraine, we get "whatever" from the administration and in Syria, we get "whatever" from the administration to opposite effects.

    The hypocrisy is at steaming hot, running shit levels.

    Perhaps, the administration didn't want that hypocrisy to be examined too closely.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Think about it. Veterans Administration misfeasance is well known before this administration (think agent orange and Gulf War syndrome), but scandal will not bring down Obama.

      But Obama owns Syrian and Ukrainian policies lock, stock, and barrel. These policies are the scandals the administration is desperate to avoid being exposed.

      Delete
  15. To get a sense of where the Syrian People are coming from in regards the attempt to overthrow Assad, particularly the Sunni middle class who, by and large, have continued to support Assad and, according to the Associated Press reportage, without such broad support among Sunni middle class the Assad government would have fallen long ago.

    From the AP through ABC news:

    "For all the serious flaws in Syria's election, it underscored the considerable support that President Bashar Assad still enjoys from the population, including many in the majority Sunni Muslim community..."

    "Without Sunni support, however, Assad's rule would have collapsed long ago amid a civil war that activists say has killed more than 160,000, displaced at least a third of Syria's prewar population of 23 million, and destroyed wide swaths of the country.

    That support was on display as Syrians voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to give Assad another seven-year term. He won 88.7 percent of the vote, the speaker of parliament announced Wednesday night, although the outcome was never in question."

    "While the balloting and much of the pro-Assad spectacle seen on the streets of Damascus was stage-managed, even the president's staunchest enemies concede that the man who has led Syria since 2000 retains substantial backing.

    "If only minorities were loyal to Assad, they (rebels) would have taken the country," said Wida Saleh, a 35-year-old lawyer and Assad supporter who reluctantly identified herself as a Sunni Muslim."

    "But because the majority (Sunnis) are standing behind him, they have kept Syria standing," she said at a voting booth set up in Damascus' ornate, century-old Hijaz train station."

    Syria's Election Shows Depth of Support for Assad (AP)

    This administration is corrupt and so are the neoconservatives.

    ReplyDelete
  16. There is evidence Bergdahl collaborated with the Taliban.

    But more important, the evidence comes from a U. S. government report.

    That means Obama knew there was serious evidence that not only did Bergdahl leave his post without permission, but also knew there was evidence of collaboration.

    And you bring this soldier back with bunting, flags, and flowers?

    It is either the most arrogant administration ever or they are incredibly stupid, or they have something bigger to hide, so that this disaster is small potatoes compared to the issue they want to hide.

    But with leaked government reports of Bergdahl's active collaboration with the enemy, this poltical firestorm is only going to get bigger.

    Can anybody say, "tipping point?"

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You're totally wrong about this.

      At the beginning many Syrian military officers defected and formed the initial backbone of the resistance. But the resistence got no aid from anyone and Assad struck back with total ruthlessness the way his father had done in the 1970s and after......It's an old story to the Syrians.

      Then the Saudis and others started aiding Salafists showing up there and they were able to make a lot of gains....but then the Iranians came to Assad's aid and a proxy war started. The tipping point against the rebels was when Hezbollah showed up because they are the best fighters in the region...better than the Israelis or anyone else.

      As for the Syrian people supporting Assad you are completely and totally wrong.

      I worked in that area for years and know exactly what public opinion is about Assad in the areas he controls - he is totally feared and dispised. He rules only through total terror and uses the most henious methods of terror even Stalin wouldn't approve of.

      The problem with Assad is that he's only a figure head.
      The real people running his government are the same people who ran it with his father, and they are the worst people in the world, and they want to hold on ONLY BECAUSE OF THE MONEY THEY MAKE by controlling every resourse there.

      They are motivated only by their criminal control over the economy just as the prior regime in Tunisia.

      Unfortunately the west shot it's wad [so to speak] in Libya and cannot do that same operation twice. The Russians were pissed beyond all imagining over Libya and they've drawn a line in Syria. The west got away with Libya because the oil and proximity to Italy and a lot of other reasons, but those motivators don't apply to the poor Syrians so no one will come to their rescue and they're caught in a proxy war between the Saudis and the Iranians.

      Delete
    2. Oh and another thing. Assad is no Sunni. He's an Alowite

      Delete
    3. I'm aware Assad is an Alawite, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

      C-I-A- operator, regarding the circumstances surrounding the start of the violence in Syria look at what happened in Ukraine.

      There were initially peaceful protests, but the rowdiness increased and more serious confrontations with the authorities began as some were no longer peacefully protesting, but rioting with intent to take over government buildings.

      But then as police and protesters confronted each other, snipers shot at BOTH protesters and police...

      A classic way to false flag the police and incite the protesters to violence against those same police.

      C-I-A-operator, you are right I don't have any respect for Obama and that, perhaps, does color my views regarding his administration, but I suggest the same is true for you regarding Syria under Assad, the younger.

      Assad is not his father, his father was ruthless, although the 1982 Homs incident with the Muslim Brotherhood has been exaggerated by the West.

      In this latest attempt to overthrow Assad, there were peaceful protests and they were allowed to proceed, at first because they were non-violent, but this same tactic was used, as in Ukraine:

      Snipers were firing from tops of buildings into both the Syrian police and the protesters, again, to false flag the police and incite the protesters to violence, then terrorists murdered Syrian conscript soldiers in the army who weren't able to handle it.

      Sorry, the Syrian insurgency was carefully planned out in advance, see Seymour Hersh , the Redirection, in the New Yorker, 2007.

      Delete
    4. Syria was identified by General Wesley Clark as one of the five countries in seven years to have regime change. Clark revealed this in the run-up to 2008 presidential election, when he thought these revelations could propel his candidacy -- but he failed to gain political traction.


      C-I-A-operator, regarding your view of Syria, while Assad the elder was in power, you are right, he was ruthless and ruled with an iron hand.

      But his son was different, this son was not groomed to takeover, that was another son who ended up dying in a car crash.

      So, this son is called back from England and hastily prepped to takeover, but he was never as ruthless as his father or the brother for that matter.

      Assad the younger was not perfect, but did loosen things up in Syria, allowed more room for political debate & discussion, which morphed into open street protests.

      The U. S., Israel (on a very Q. T. basis), and Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states supported the insurgency from the start.

      Regarding those soldiers & officers who joined the insurgency, question, how many were paid by the West and Saudi, and how many were motivated by strictly hatred of Assad and his government.

      Don't have an exact answer, but there is both.

      Assad, the younger, has had significant support from Syrians for almost all of the three years of the insurgency. Even the CIA has reported that Assad had about 70% support a couple of years ago, early on in the insurgency, that support has only grown as the insurgents used the most brutal terroristic tactics against Christians, Alawites, and any Sunni who sided with the Assad government.

      In this instance, your dislike of Assad, owing to your work in the Mid East back in his father's day, has clouded your outlook on the current situation.

      That is not surprising. I don't hold it against you, but then again, I've done the research, and it's clear that this always was a foreign led campaign to overthrow Assad with some internal elements also participating.

      Let's face it, but for the outside intervention of the CIA, Saudi, Turkey, and the other Gulf states, along with support from various NATO countries (Britain & France) the attempt to overthrow Assad would have been crushed long ago.

      Delete
    5. Sorry, C-I-A-operator, you can't just shrug off the Syrian presidential election like John Kerry.

      John Kerry is a liar and a hypocrite.

      I'm not saying you are one, but be careful when you come to the same conclusion as a known liar & hypocrite. The election in Syria had just as much if not more legitimacy than the election in Ukraine.

      Higher turnout, higher percentage for Assad.

      When rebels prevent voting in their controlled areas by boycotting or outright violence, that doesn't invalidate the election.

      To do so, gives veto power to rebels, sorry Charlie.

      The Syrian election was conducted by the internationally recognized state apparatus, while the Ukrainian election was carried out by the violent Kiev putsch regime.

      So, what has Syria done?

      They had parliamentary elections, a referendum on a new constitution, and, now, a presidential election.

      Each with broad voter participation.

      C-I-A-operator, your view of Syria is twenty years out of date. Appropriate for the elder, but not the younger Assad's government.

      Delete
    6. Anyone who takes the Syrian elections seriously is living on a different planet.

      And your account of the beginning of the revolt is totally wrong. It didn't happen that way.

      Go to Syria like I did if you don't want to believe the people reporting from there.

      You sound like Webster Tarpley saying the Kadaffi was loved by one and all.

      That's ridiculous.

      Delete
    7. No facts, no evidence, just bullshit.

      So, CIA doesn't change its spots.

      There are multiple sources for exactly that in Ukraine & Syria -- straight out of the playbook -- Your claims seem to justify the brutality of the foreign insurgency, murdering anybody who stands in their way.

      It still stands, you & that liar Kerry claim elections matter where you guys like the result, but don't count where you don't like the results.

      Why don't you provide some facts or examples?

      Delete
  17. Now I want to share a witicisim of John Meynad Keynes, who said.

    "The reason why the hand they claim is there is called invisible is because it isn't there."

    Another one of his I like is,

    "When the facts change I change my mind."

    He said thousands of things like this all the time. Wish we had someone, anyone, like him today.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. To cure a recession he said,

      "What the government should do is take the national treasury and stuff it hundreds of burlap bags and then throw them all down a well and fill it with earth. Then the people can busy themselves digging it all up again until they reach the bags and they can have it. That will end the recession."

      Delete
  18. Now let's get this matter of Bergdahl and the US role in Afghanistan settled once and for all.

    The Taliban are not terrorists. And they do not threaten the United States. No American serviceman in Afghanistan is there "to defend America." Their mission their is to stave off the Taliban rebels who are trying to take back the place from the Karsai government. This is a civil war and perhaps Afghanistan is better off with the Karzai government rather than the Talibs, but this has nothing to do with the safety of the United States.

    The Talibs took over in 1994 with widespread support of the Afghan people. Their governance was strict and there were many issues and problems, but they ruled with public consent because of the disasterous situation which the Talibs resolved. There was absolute stability under the Talibs with the exception of Massoud and a few other dead enders.

    The Talibs tried to get rid of bin-Laden by giving him to the United States under some kind of ad hoc extradiction, but the FBI and no other American law enforcement could link bin-Laden to 911. Even after that FBI could never link him, and he was never indicted for 911, but only for the Africa embassy bombings.

    So the Talibs couldn't hand over bin-Ladin and the US and Brits invaded. In fact the Brits had SF on the ground days after 911 occurred.

    The Talibs never threatened the US, and are not terrorists. Afghanistan may be better off with them confined but they're not going away and this is going to be an issue the Karsai government has to deal with forever.

    ReplyDelete
  19. And as for Sebastian Junger and his stupid jingoistic commercial money-craving films about US soldiers in Afghanistan.....

    You've lost all your credibility. You are not Robert Young Pelton and you never will be. The soldiers in Afghanistan have been lied to about their purpose and mission just as the soldiers in Vietnam were lied to.

    Your job is to get beyond the lies that the grunts have been told and tell the truth which is known to anyone who knows the facts, not to tell a melodrama about "why we fight."

    You are not John Ford in 1942 on Midway. This is not the Second World War. This is a never-ending, small but expensive little war like the US fought in the Phillipines over a hundred years ago and for similar feckless reasons.

    You are not a journalist any longer.

    ReplyDelete
  20. MUST-SEE VIDEO (CONTAINING ALEX JONES INTERVIEW WITH DR. P)

    I'm glad to see LivingonplanetZ doing some work on Isla Vista. There have been two new events--in Seattle and in Moncton (Canada). Canada is taking the guns, also! It's too soon to analyze these events, but FreeRadioRevolution (Jeff C. in Montreal) is already calling Moncton a false flag.

    YouTube
    Isla Vista FAKE - NO Burials, and NO Deaths Until Proven Otherwise
    livingonplanetZ
    Published on Jun 5, 2014

    ReplyDelete
  21. The Real Agenda
    Fake Employment Statistics: More Phantom Jobs Created in America
    Posted at: 10:34, June 7, 2014 By Paul Craig Roberts
    ast April I saw a report that 83% of May’s college graduates did not have a job. I remarked that in my day most of us had 2 or 3 jobs or graduate school offers before we graduated. The latest payroll jobs report issued on June 6 proves that the April report was true.
    (...)
    How is the second quarter going to come roaring back, as the financial media assures us it will, when the jobs report is so discouraging? How much longer will Washington be able to hide the fact that the US economy is sinking?

    If you read all the bullshit that the American media and educational establishment puts out, “education is the answer.” Apparently not. Education is the way to become deeply in debt and work for $7.25 per hour, if you are lucky to escape unemployment.

    America is a Great Big Lie. There is no truth in what we are told. The entire country, along with that part of the world under Washington’s thumb, is run for about six private interest groups. The rest of us are being fleeced.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That should begin "Last April..." Here's another post.

      The Real Agenda
      The Normandy Landing and World War II: The Lies Grow More Audacious
      Posted at: 10:44, June 7, 2014 By Paul Craig Roberts
      (...)
      The Germans lost World War II at the Battle of Stalingrad, which was fought from August 23, 1942 until February 2, 1943, when most of the remnants of the powerful German Sixth Army surrendered, including 22 generals.

      Nineteen months previously the largest invasion force ever assembled on planet earth invaded Russia across a one thousand mile front. Three million crack German troops; 7,500 artillery units, 19 panzer divisions with 3,000 tanks, and 2,500 aircraft rolled across Russia for 14 months.

      By June 1944, three years later, very little of this force was left. The Red Army had chewed it up. When the so-called “allies” (a term which apparently excludes Russia) landed in France, there was little to resist them. The best forces remaining to Hitler were on the Russian front, which collapsed day by day as the Red Army approached Berlin.
      (...)
      The war was won on the Eastern front by Russia. Hollywood’s movies are fun, but they are nonsense.

      Delete
    2. The more people that become educated and trained for the higher paying jobs the less those jobs will pay......

      Delete
  22. You mean Tom Hanks didn't "earn" his right to happy by defeating the evil Nazis?????

    ReplyDelete
  23. No but he did teach Elvis his signature dance moves when he shook those leg braces off his legs. "Run Forest run!". :)

    ReplyDelete
  24. OK guys any thoughts on the Las Vegas shooting this last weekend? Another false flag or real? Barry?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The unofficial rule is that if the shooting makes CNN and the national news, it's a false flag. You could have hundreds of dead people from shootings in Chicago, and those will never make the news. Those shootings, of course, are real.

      Real "NWO conspiracy theorists" know that you can't fight the system with a random shooting like this--that's what they want to be able to take away your guns. The following videos illustrate this:

      YouTube
      Las Vegas Walmart Shooting Hoax Exposed
      TeamWakeEmUP
      Published on Jun 9, 2014
      Conspiracy Theorist don't do terrorist attacks or mass shootings..

      YouTube
      Shocking Report:AB-1014 Allows Anyone To Take Your Gun Rights
      TeamWakeEmUP
      Published on Jun 9, 2014
      Shocking Report:AB-1014 Allows Anyone To Take Your Gun Rights
      AB 1014: "Turn In Your Neighbor" Bill-Make your voice heard!
      https://www.firearmspolicy.org/act/ca...

      Delete