Sunday, March 30, 2014
GOV. CHRISTIE APOLOGIES IN LAS VEGAS, LOSES CACHET
A RJKS Tongue-In-Cheek Report.
Governor Christie Apologies To Flat Earthers and Loses His Tough-Guy, Straight-Shooter Cachet
Governor Chris Christie, "mis spoke" at the Las Vegas gambling palace of super wealthy Vegas tycoon and casino owner Sheldon Nobelson. Nobelson was hosting the Republican Flat Earth Coalition where GOP supplicants were gathered to vie for the flat earther's financial support in the 2016 campaign During his presentation, Christie, trying to re-float his swamped electoral canoe after the devastating "GW Bridge traffic tie-up scandal" got himself in bad doo doo again, when he verbally slipped when suggesting that the earth might be a sphere. Christie's speech was an attempt to underscore his strong commitment to the planar earth theory by recounting the events of a 2012 family sea voyage. Christie, waxing eloquent, added a short digression from his prepared remarks intending to underscore his devotion to the widely-questioned “earther” hypothesis. Christie remarked at one point that even though "he was far out to sea, he didn't fall off the edge". But a murmur of disapproval arose among his listeners when, attempting to gild the lilly, he added the further remark that he was "so far out to sea, that he lost sight of land". At that point, a low murmur arose among the fur-coated and bejeweled crowd who shifted around in their seats and looked at each other in disapproval. The term "losing sight of land" is verboten among flat earthers, since the phrase suggests that the earth is actually spheroidal and it is only upon such a surface that the sight of land could diminish then disappear. Such terms are banned in the world of the flat earthers.
Allies of Mr Nobleson quickly caught up to Christie after his presentation and alerted him of his error. According to reporters from the Washington Times, National Review, Spectator, The New American who were attendees, Christie immediately sought out Nobelson and offered him an apology, claiming that he "misspoke". "The earth IS really flat. I believe that in my heart!” said Christie, some said, with tears in his eyes. Mr. Nobelson is reported to have "graciously" accepted the governor's apology. But, Sallus Little, one of the Nobleson's entourage, was not so satisfied with the governor's apology, even if if was delivered on bended knee. Little concluded to reporters that the Governor "either does not understand the issue or is hostile to the flat earth agenda."
The whole affair brings disappointment and trepidation for those of us who saw the Governor as a courageous, straight-shooter who could speak out and tell it like it is. He was so up front, blunt and one might even say a bully, with the likes of school teachers, voters, Jersey Shore residents and others who had little power or leverage. But he was a mumbling schoolboy, unable to state the accepted facts to the flat earthers. Of course these latter were all sitting on wallets bulging with cash. The affair in Las Vegas makes the rest of us, who accept the world as it is, wonder about the ability of the Governor to function effectively in a solar-centric planetary system and scientific based universe. One wonders is Mr. Christie ready for prime time? And what about his ability to make decisions for all the rest of us, the not so wealthy, the powerless, the majority who live in the real world?
Get the picture?
Wednesday, March 26, 2014
OBAMA WANTS US TO PAY FOR HIS MISTAKES IN THE UKRAINE!
President Obama and the Bush neocon holdovers in his State Department and CIA, blundered in their handling of the Ukraine dossier. The US and the EU overplayed their hand in their illegal and counter productive attempts at prying the Ukraine away from the hug of the great Russian Bear--which lives right next door. Their blunders led to the crisis in the Ukraine we face now. In an attempt to save face, as this crisis unfolds, the Obamians, who should have known better (it was quite obvious what Putin would do in regard to Crimea if he was pushed into a corner), are now attempting to placate the unhappy House and Senate left and right...by senseless and counter productive sanctions, fleet movements, saber rattlings, and vituperation.
But what is worse is having to PAY for the stupidity of our leaders too. Funds spent on the Ukraine come out of an already over the top budget...so the money has to borrowed. It means less for educating our kids, repairing our infrastructure and providing for the health of our citizenry. So as it stands now Mr. Obama and company are asking us to take scarce funds from those worthy and necessary expenditures and send it off the the impoverished Ukraine. A black hole for money if I ever saw one. Ask Mr. Obama to turn his attention to the home front. We have Americans as needy as the Ukrainians right here in Peru, Vermont.
Get the picture?
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
CRIMEA: RUSSIAN ATTEMPTS AT REGIME CHANGE IN MEXICO
IMAGINING THE TABLES TURNED ON THE USA. HOW WOULD WE RESPOND?
There has been unrest in Mexico City, where anti-government demonstrators have been camped in the Plaza Central for several weeks. The demonstrations and counter measures by the government have recently turned violent. Twelve indigenous people and two Mezitos were killed when gunfire erupted from the demonstrators and government troops sent to evict the demonstrators from their encampments returned fire. The conflict centers around the opposition of Mexico’s indigenous populations to what they describe as “overly pro-American” anti-native polices and the questionable “financial ties” of President Orlando O’Ryan-Gutierrez to American interests. O’Ryan-Gutierrez, the scion of an American-Mexican family has been in power for the last six years. O’Ryan- Gutierrez’ recent decision to permit the American Company, Ryan Holdings LLC of San Antonio Texas to evict natives and small scale farmers from their land to exploit, vast areas of Mexican natural gas reserves in the southern states of Veracruz and Oaxaca, became the flashpoint incident which set off the original demonstrations.
Gutierrez and his supporters claim that the demonstrations are being incited and supported by foreign interests. They specifically point to Gazprom, the giant state-owned Russian natural gas company, as an instigator. Gazprom is openly supported by Russian-government “KGB” elements who have been actively involved in inciting and supporting anti- government demonstrators. These Russian infiltrators have carried literally carloads of rubles to Mexico where they are converted to Mexican Pesos and passed out to the most violent type of demonstrators. These foreign funds are also used to purchase damaging anti government propaganda. Russian Parliamentarians, Duma members and other officials have actually flown in to Mexico City to encourage and support the demonstrators. A leaked telephone conversation from a Russian agent to the notorious KGB operative, Виктория Ηоваяземля operating in Mexico City, revealed that Ηоваяземля was supplying money, food, tents and even Kalashnikov weapons to the demonstrators. (Ηоваяземля is a well-known former KGB agent who is a supporter of violence and regime change in other countries. Ηоваяземля while in Mexico uses the Spanish “nom de guerre” "Nuevatierra"). Intercepted messages sent by “Nuevatierra” to her handlers in Moscow also revealed that the ultimate goal of the infiltrators from Moscow was to delegitimize, undermine, and remove the pro-American Gutierrez government and replace it with a pro-Russian regime. The new pro-Russian client state is expected to be more compliant to Russian directives. The new Mexican government would distance Mexico from its military commitments to the USA and direct it into the financial and political sphere of Russia.
These events in Mexico have caused great fear and consternation in Washington. Such an outcome is seen within the Beltway as an existential threat to our nation. Military experts in Washington reveal that were this regime-change to take place, literally right on our doorstep, it would have drastic financial effects on the USA, and likely deepen our present economic downturn. Furthermore, if Russia were able to establish a home-port for its new submarine fleet in the Gulf of Mexico, they could literally threaten Washington DC and all US financial centers with their new Dolphin Class sea-to-land rockets.
Mexico is an important element of the USA’s sphere of influence, both politically and economically. Fifty percent of Mexico's foreign trade is with the USA. It is a political ally, as well as a source of massive profits to US and US-based industries, such as those of the electronics, automotive and petroleum sectors. The President and his cabinet shivered at the prospect of these sectors falling away from the grasp of Americans and into the hands of a foreign power. President Obama has been meeting with his cabinet and military planners in secret sessions in the sub-sub-basement war room. They are very puzzled why Russia would be so unthinking and so unaware of the consequences of their actions. Surely the Russians should have known that such threatening behaviors were likely to generate a firm response. How did they think they could get away with it?
NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN MEXICO CRISISf
The massive demonstrations in Mexico City have taken a bad turn. In the face of increasingly violent acts of civil unrest, the legitimately elected President of Mexico, Orlando O. Gutierrez, has fled that City and taken refuge over the border in San Antonio, Texas. From there he has repeated again and again to US news outlets that he is still the legitimate president of Mexico. However, the indigenous rebels, with support from Russia have actually taken over all of the government buildings in Mexico, City. They have the central radio and TV stations and have posted armed men with Kalashnikov assault rifles at the train stations and airports.
Many Americans living in the retirement communities throughout Mexico are calling for help from their government in Washington. Cell phone lines are hot with calls to the US. Smartphone videos of atrocities against pro-American elements in Mexico have gone viral on the internet. Heart-rending pictures of of tired, elderly Americans with their pets and baggage queuing up at the now-closed air terminals have aroused great consternation in the USA and Washington. Congressmen have called on the President to act. Senators are giving table thumping speeches. The President has set aside some prime time on television for a speech to the nation.
MORE REPORTS FROM MEXICO
Yesterday, without warning, the USA launched an attack on the Mexican Yucatan Peninsula. The president asserted he had no choice but to protect the lives and interests of American citizens caught in the civil unrest. In a long speech to the nation he pointed out the dangers of having a “foreign nation” so close to our borders. He revealed that he had sent a task force to protect our Gulf of Mexico from foreign intrusion. As he spoke, helicopter gunships from the USS flattop “Jimmy Carter” lying off the Yucatan peninsula, landed troops simultaneously at the shore sites of Cancun, Progresso, and Campeche located all along the north shore of the Yucatan. The US forces landed safely and were met with no resistance. The mostly happy and inebriated American tourists in these venues greeted the US troopers with with cold bottles of Dos Equis, opened bottles of tequila with salt and lemon wedges and frosty mojitas. Troops landing at the coastal enclave of Progresso moved quickly inland to take the largest city in the Peninsula, Merida without incident. President Obama’s actions were widely and jubilantly hailed as necessary and expedient. Vehicles all over the nation were seen sporting the Stars and Stripes taped to their radio antennae. Praise for Obama has flooded in from all over the nation. Obama’s poll numbers have soared. He has protected the nation from a terrible threat.
Mexico and the rest of South America complained to the OAS....but there was little that that organization could do.
Today local news outlets report that the shallow-sea way between Isla Mujeres and Cancun City was being dredged to prepare a secure harbor facility for the Jimmy Carter” and some of the larger American ships. A land based port facility was bing built in Cancun to supply the new dock areas designated for large military vessels. In the interior of the Peninsula it is reported from journalists that a vast forest clearing project was under way in the central Yucatan for a large US “embassy” and military installation. The new facility is to be called “Freedom Peninsula”.
Get the picture?
There has been unrest in Mexico City, where anti-government demonstrators have been camped in the Plaza Central for several weeks. The demonstrations and counter measures by the government have recently turned violent. Twelve indigenous people and two Mezitos were killed when gunfire erupted from the demonstrators and government troops sent to evict the demonstrators from their encampments returned fire. The conflict centers around the opposition of Mexico’s indigenous populations to what they describe as “overly pro-American” anti-native polices and the questionable “financial ties” of President Orlando O’Ryan-Gutierrez to American interests. O’Ryan-Gutierrez, the scion of an American-Mexican family has been in power for the last six years. O’Ryan- Gutierrez’ recent decision to permit the American Company, Ryan Holdings LLC of San Antonio Texas to evict natives and small scale farmers from their land to exploit, vast areas of Mexican natural gas reserves in the southern states of Veracruz and Oaxaca, became the flashpoint incident which set off the original demonstrations.
Gutierrez and his supporters claim that the demonstrations are being incited and supported by foreign interests. They specifically point to Gazprom, the giant state-owned Russian natural gas company, as an instigator. Gazprom is openly supported by Russian-government “KGB” elements who have been actively involved in inciting and supporting anti- government demonstrators. These Russian infiltrators have carried literally carloads of rubles to Mexico where they are converted to Mexican Pesos and passed out to the most violent type of demonstrators. These foreign funds are also used to purchase damaging anti government propaganda. Russian Parliamentarians, Duma members and other officials have actually flown in to Mexico City to encourage and support the demonstrators. A leaked telephone conversation from a Russian agent to the notorious KGB operative, Виктория Ηоваяземля operating in Mexico City, revealed that Ηоваяземля was supplying money, food, tents and even Kalashnikov weapons to the demonstrators. (Ηоваяземля is a well-known former KGB agent who is a supporter of violence and regime change in other countries. Ηоваяземля while in Mexico uses the Spanish “nom de guerre” "Nuevatierra"). Intercepted messages sent by “Nuevatierra” to her handlers in Moscow also revealed that the ultimate goal of the infiltrators from Moscow was to delegitimize, undermine, and remove the pro-American Gutierrez government and replace it with a pro-Russian regime. The new pro-Russian client state is expected to be more compliant to Russian directives. The new Mexican government would distance Mexico from its military commitments to the USA and direct it into the financial and political sphere of Russia.
These events in Mexico have caused great fear and consternation in Washington. Such an outcome is seen within the Beltway as an existential threat to our nation. Military experts in Washington reveal that were this regime-change to take place, literally right on our doorstep, it would have drastic financial effects on the USA, and likely deepen our present economic downturn. Furthermore, if Russia were able to establish a home-port for its new submarine fleet in the Gulf of Mexico, they could literally threaten Washington DC and all US financial centers with their new Dolphin Class sea-to-land rockets.
Mexico is an important element of the USA’s sphere of influence, both politically and economically. Fifty percent of Mexico's foreign trade is with the USA. It is a political ally, as well as a source of massive profits to US and US-based industries, such as those of the electronics, automotive and petroleum sectors. The President and his cabinet shivered at the prospect of these sectors falling away from the grasp of Americans and into the hands of a foreign power. President Obama has been meeting with his cabinet and military planners in secret sessions in the sub-sub-basement war room. They are very puzzled why Russia would be so unthinking and so unaware of the consequences of their actions. Surely the Russians should have known that such threatening behaviors were likely to generate a firm response. How did they think they could get away with it?
NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN MEXICO CRISISf
The massive demonstrations in Mexico City have taken a bad turn. In the face of increasingly violent acts of civil unrest, the legitimately elected President of Mexico, Orlando O. Gutierrez, has fled that City and taken refuge over the border in San Antonio, Texas. From there he has repeated again and again to US news outlets that he is still the legitimate president of Mexico. However, the indigenous rebels, with support from Russia have actually taken over all of the government buildings in Mexico, City. They have the central radio and TV stations and have posted armed men with Kalashnikov assault rifles at the train stations and airports.
Many Americans living in the retirement communities throughout Mexico are calling for help from their government in Washington. Cell phone lines are hot with calls to the US. Smartphone videos of atrocities against pro-American elements in Mexico have gone viral on the internet. Heart-rending pictures of of tired, elderly Americans with their pets and baggage queuing up at the now-closed air terminals have aroused great consternation in the USA and Washington. Congressmen have called on the President to act. Senators are giving table thumping speeches. The President has set aside some prime time on television for a speech to the nation.
MORE REPORTS FROM MEXICO
Yesterday, without warning, the USA launched an attack on the Mexican Yucatan Peninsula. The president asserted he had no choice but to protect the lives and interests of American citizens caught in the civil unrest. In a long speech to the nation he pointed out the dangers of having a “foreign nation” so close to our borders. He revealed that he had sent a task force to protect our Gulf of Mexico from foreign intrusion. As he spoke, helicopter gunships from the USS flattop “Jimmy Carter” lying off the Yucatan peninsula, landed troops simultaneously at the shore sites of Cancun, Progresso, and Campeche located all along the north shore of the Yucatan. The US forces landed safely and were met with no resistance. The mostly happy and inebriated American tourists in these venues greeted the US troopers with with cold bottles of Dos Equis, opened bottles of tequila with salt and lemon wedges and frosty mojitas. Troops landing at the coastal enclave of Progresso moved quickly inland to take the largest city in the Peninsula, Merida without incident. President Obama’s actions were widely and jubilantly hailed as necessary and expedient. Vehicles all over the nation were seen sporting the Stars and Stripes taped to their radio antennae. Praise for Obama has flooded in from all over the nation. Obama’s poll numbers have soared. He has protected the nation from a terrible threat.
Mexico and the rest of South America complained to the OAS....but there was little that that organization could do.
Today local news outlets report that the shallow-sea way between Isla Mujeres and Cancun City was being dredged to prepare a secure harbor facility for the Jimmy Carter” and some of the larger American ships. A land based port facility was bing built in Cancun to supply the new dock areas designated for large military vessels. In the interior of the Peninsula it is reported from journalists that a vast forest clearing project was under way in the central Yucatan for a large US “embassy” and military installation. The new facility is to be called “Freedom Peninsula”.
Get the picture?
Friday, March 14, 2014
OBAMA MUST SACK BRENNAN
TIME FOR BRENNAN TO GO!
"It (policies initiated and supported by Mr. Brennan) goes against everything that we fundamentally believe in our country*"
*US Senator Paul Rand, on floor of Senate during filibuster against Mr. Brennan's nomination as CIA director.
In my view, Mr. Brennan, is another one of the unfortunate "hold-overs" from the Bush Administration. Like some others of his vintage, he has become more of a threat to our Democracy than the bulwark against terror he claims to be. He serves at President Obama's discretion. But his past history and recent actions should make it clear to the White House that it is time for Mr. Brennan's departure.
Mr. Brennan has an unfortunate similarity to disgraced former President Nixon. Like Tricky Dick, the only President to have had to resign from office, Mr. Brennan's long training as a CIA operative, has left him tinged with a nixonian paranoia that does not serve him or the nation he serves well, at a time when the USA is attempting to pull itself away from an errant and violent past. And like Mr. Nixon, he has an unfortunate willingness to break the law or norms of morality if these serve his ambition, or those of his superiors. These are two dangerous tendencies for a supposed servant of the PEOPLE in a Democracy. They led to Nixon's utter disgrace and downfall. Evidence now on display about Brennan seem to suggest a similar path.
Let us recall that Mr. John O. Brennan organized and publicly supported the CIA torture policies and the rendition of resistant suspects to foreign countries where they would be tortured in an even more brutal manner. Due to these and other activities in the CIA his reputation only two years ago was such that he could not be confirmed by the Senate. President Obama skirted that stumbling block by setting him up in the position of "chief counter terrorism advisor", a position which did not need confirmation. In Obama's second term he was confirmed. Mr. Brennan has been cited in the past for using terms and phrases which suggest he believes his mission is a holy war against Islam. He has been the architect and supporter of President Obama's highly criticized and questionable use of targeted assassinations by drone. He is responsible for efforts to intensify the militarization of the CIA into a "uncontrolled and secrete" organization designed to terrorize and assassinate enemies of the state. He was the architect of the expansion of the drone assassination program into Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Libya, Afghanistan and elsewhere, initiating world condemnation of the USA and concern about our adherence to international law and standards, and of the legality, morality and effectiveness of these efforts. He helped establish and organize the "kill list" of individuals outside of the congressionally authorized war zone for assassination by drone. He is the architect of a more permanent secret system known as the "Disposition Matrix" which is a permanent secret "tool" of the executive branch designed to track, capture, render to another venue for torture, or kill enemies of the state. His efforts during his long career have been to dangerously concentrate lethal power in the executive branch and at the same time to discourage oversight of that power, giving the executive ability to incriminate, judge, target, and execute anyone it considered an "enemy"...regardless of where that person resided in the world or even if he or she was a US citizen.
There are numerous examples of Mr. Brennan's deceptions, half truths and perversions of the truth. In his profession disinformation and prevarications are the stock and trade. One example: In a June 2011 speech Brennan made the jaw-dropping assertion that "there had not been a single collateral death in more than 100 CIA covert drone strikes in Pakistan". But he made that statement only three months after the CIA had rained drone missiles down on what the CIA claimed was a militant's camp, but what turned out to be a gathering of tribal leaders--a tribal council-- conducting a hearing over a mining dispute in North Waziristan. The CIA strikes killed 45 innocent men. Brennan late claimed he did not dissimulate. He was able to claim "zero collateral kills" as a result of the way the CIA counts "kills". Since all the 45 individuals were men between the ages of 12 and 65, they were all defined as "militants" and therefore legitimate targets! This is an insight into how Mr. Brennan thinks and operates.
Senator Rand Paul in his filibuster speech in the Senate stated that in effect: the thrust of Mr. Brennan's efforts in the last decades and as Director of the CIA has resulted in a process in which the chief executive can charge an individual, judge the guilt of that person and execute him or her with no oversight by Congress. He concluded that " it goes against everything that we fundamentally believe in our country."
Is it now such a surprise that this same individual is accused of a "flat out treason" ( by Representative Darrel Issa, chair, House Oversight Committee) for turning his organization's spooks against the Congress itself when it spied on the Senate intelligence Committee?
Two days ago, on March 11, 2014 the Washington Post reported on an extraordinary speech from the floor of the US Senate. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee openly accused the CIA under Mr. Brennan of "secretly removing documents, searching (Senate staff) computers used by the committee, and attempting to intimidate congressional investigators by requesting an FBI inquiry of their conduct." Feinstein called the conflict with Brennan a "defining moment" for Congressional ability to oversee the nation's intelligence agencies. This author believes that if there is no meaningful oversight of our executive branch, we then no longer have a democracy. What we have is some form of phony "elected oligarchy". Feinstein warned that she had grave concerns that the CIA had violated the separation of powers clause of the Constitution. Mr. Brennan quickly denied the validity of Senator Feinstein's charges. But this is a man who also stated with a straight face that there were "zero collateral kills after 100 drone strikes in Pakistan". I suspect that he was applying another one of his Jesuitical semanticisms. Or was it a simple prevarication?
The background behind this outburst of Senate ire is related to the long-running investigation conducted by the Senate intelligence Committee into the conduct of the CIA, during the Bush Administration post 9-11. The CIA and the Senate Committee are at odds about the long-awaited document that is being produced by Feinstein's committee. The committee's report will soon be delivered to the White House where it may remain...in a classified state ---unless President Obama gets up the cohones to release it to the public. Let's hope he does. We all deserve to know what Brennan and his CIA employees have been doing( besides burning tapes of torture procedures)..and not doing, in the name of the people.
What we do know now, based on revelations from Senator Feinstein's speech, and earlier revelations, is that the CIA and the committee disagree over the conclusions of the nearly completed 6000 page report which concerns what the CIA did and did not do to Al Qaida suspects, how the CIA tortured and how they transported these individuals to other countries (rendition) where even more excessive and brutal procedures were used. Brennan would obviously like to prevent this missive from seeing the light of day. He has apparently been doing his best to sabotage committee efforts and prevent it being published. What else would you expect? Mr. Brennan was himself an architect of the very procedures that are only now becoming public knowledge. We can expect that the report will make this clear. According to Feinstein, the torture and rendition policy was far worse than was originally revealed and a horrible example of procedures and policies that should never have been permitted to occur.
Finally, let me say this. This critically important story is indeed a turning point in our nation'a history. How it plays out will establish what kind of a nation we really are. It has also revealed the errors of Mr. Obama's policies. Our President won his first election handily and the electorate expected and deserved a change in the government's direction and policies. It sought and required a clean sweep of the elements of the Bush Administration, and the prosecution and punishment of those (Mr. Brennan among them) who broke the laws. But what we got was a motley crew. The new administration was a mix of progressive men and women mixed in with a cadre of hard-core holdovers from the discredited Bush and Clinton Administrations. As a consequence, Mr.Obama, morphed into a intellectual, dark skinned "Bush light" with better oratory. This new president obviously did not have the experience, political skill, or stomach for the confrontations that were required to take the reins of the nation in a new direction as was his mandate from both elections. He has as a result, weakened the people who supported him, his country, and his party. Perhaps he should have never run.....
Of course, we can always hope. He still has years left. Can he still become the transformative president he wanted to be?
He could start by sacking Brennan.
"It (policies initiated and supported by Mr. Brennan) goes against everything that we fundamentally believe in our country*"
*US Senator Paul Rand, on floor of Senate during filibuster against Mr. Brennan's nomination as CIA director.
In my view, Mr. Brennan, is another one of the unfortunate "hold-overs" from the Bush Administration. Like some others of his vintage, he has become more of a threat to our Democracy than the bulwark against terror he claims to be. He serves at President Obama's discretion. But his past history and recent actions should make it clear to the White House that it is time for Mr. Brennan's departure.
Mr. Brennan has an unfortunate similarity to disgraced former President Nixon. Like Tricky Dick, the only President to have had to resign from office, Mr. Brennan's long training as a CIA operative, has left him tinged with a nixonian paranoia that does not serve him or the nation he serves well, at a time when the USA is attempting to pull itself away from an errant and violent past. And like Mr. Nixon, he has an unfortunate willingness to break the law or norms of morality if these serve his ambition, or those of his superiors. These are two dangerous tendencies for a supposed servant of the PEOPLE in a Democracy. They led to Nixon's utter disgrace and downfall. Evidence now on display about Brennan seem to suggest a similar path.
Let us recall that Mr. John O. Brennan organized and publicly supported the CIA torture policies and the rendition of resistant suspects to foreign countries where they would be tortured in an even more brutal manner. Due to these and other activities in the CIA his reputation only two years ago was such that he could not be confirmed by the Senate. President Obama skirted that stumbling block by setting him up in the position of "chief counter terrorism advisor", a position which did not need confirmation. In Obama's second term he was confirmed. Mr. Brennan has been cited in the past for using terms and phrases which suggest he believes his mission is a holy war against Islam. He has been the architect and supporter of President Obama's highly criticized and questionable use of targeted assassinations by drone. He is responsible for efforts to intensify the militarization of the CIA into a "uncontrolled and secrete" organization designed to terrorize and assassinate enemies of the state. He was the architect of the expansion of the drone assassination program into Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Libya, Afghanistan and elsewhere, initiating world condemnation of the USA and concern about our adherence to international law and standards, and of the legality, morality and effectiveness of these efforts. He helped establish and organize the "kill list" of individuals outside of the congressionally authorized war zone for assassination by drone. He is the architect of a more permanent secret system known as the "Disposition Matrix" which is a permanent secret "tool" of the executive branch designed to track, capture, render to another venue for torture, or kill enemies of the state. His efforts during his long career have been to dangerously concentrate lethal power in the executive branch and at the same time to discourage oversight of that power, giving the executive ability to incriminate, judge, target, and execute anyone it considered an "enemy"...regardless of where that person resided in the world or even if he or she was a US citizen.
There are numerous examples of Mr. Brennan's deceptions, half truths and perversions of the truth. In his profession disinformation and prevarications are the stock and trade. One example: In a June 2011 speech Brennan made the jaw-dropping assertion that "there had not been a single collateral death in more than 100 CIA covert drone strikes in Pakistan". But he made that statement only three months after the CIA had rained drone missiles down on what the CIA claimed was a militant's camp, but what turned out to be a gathering of tribal leaders--a tribal council-- conducting a hearing over a mining dispute in North Waziristan. The CIA strikes killed 45 innocent men. Brennan late claimed he did not dissimulate. He was able to claim "zero collateral kills" as a result of the way the CIA counts "kills". Since all the 45 individuals were men between the ages of 12 and 65, they were all defined as "militants" and therefore legitimate targets! This is an insight into how Mr. Brennan thinks and operates.
Senator Rand Paul in his filibuster speech in the Senate stated that in effect: the thrust of Mr. Brennan's efforts in the last decades and as Director of the CIA has resulted in a process in which the chief executive can charge an individual, judge the guilt of that person and execute him or her with no oversight by Congress. He concluded that " it goes against everything that we fundamentally believe in our country."
Is it now such a surprise that this same individual is accused of a "flat out treason" ( by Representative Darrel Issa, chair, House Oversight Committee) for turning his organization's spooks against the Congress itself when it spied on the Senate intelligence Committee?
Two days ago, on March 11, 2014 the Washington Post reported on an extraordinary speech from the floor of the US Senate. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee openly accused the CIA under Mr. Brennan of "secretly removing documents, searching (Senate staff) computers used by the committee, and attempting to intimidate congressional investigators by requesting an FBI inquiry of their conduct." Feinstein called the conflict with Brennan a "defining moment" for Congressional ability to oversee the nation's intelligence agencies. This author believes that if there is no meaningful oversight of our executive branch, we then no longer have a democracy. What we have is some form of phony "elected oligarchy". Feinstein warned that she had grave concerns that the CIA had violated the separation of powers clause of the Constitution. Mr. Brennan quickly denied the validity of Senator Feinstein's charges. But this is a man who also stated with a straight face that there were "zero collateral kills after 100 drone strikes in Pakistan". I suspect that he was applying another one of his Jesuitical semanticisms. Or was it a simple prevarication?
The background behind this outburst of Senate ire is related to the long-running investigation conducted by the Senate intelligence Committee into the conduct of the CIA, during the Bush Administration post 9-11. The CIA and the Senate Committee are at odds about the long-awaited document that is being produced by Feinstein's committee. The committee's report will soon be delivered to the White House where it may remain...in a classified state ---unless President Obama gets up the cohones to release it to the public. Let's hope he does. We all deserve to know what Brennan and his CIA employees have been doing( besides burning tapes of torture procedures)..and not doing, in the name of the people.
What we do know now, based on revelations from Senator Feinstein's speech, and earlier revelations, is that the CIA and the committee disagree over the conclusions of the nearly completed 6000 page report which concerns what the CIA did and did not do to Al Qaida suspects, how the CIA tortured and how they transported these individuals to other countries (rendition) where even more excessive and brutal procedures were used. Brennan would obviously like to prevent this missive from seeing the light of day. He has apparently been doing his best to sabotage committee efforts and prevent it being published. What else would you expect? Mr. Brennan was himself an architect of the very procedures that are only now becoming public knowledge. We can expect that the report will make this clear. According to Feinstein, the torture and rendition policy was far worse than was originally revealed and a horrible example of procedures and policies that should never have been permitted to occur.
Finally, let me say this. This critically important story is indeed a turning point in our nation'a history. How it plays out will establish what kind of a nation we really are. It has also revealed the errors of Mr. Obama's policies. Our President won his first election handily and the electorate expected and deserved a change in the government's direction and policies. It sought and required a clean sweep of the elements of the Bush Administration, and the prosecution and punishment of those (Mr. Brennan among them) who broke the laws. But what we got was a motley crew. The new administration was a mix of progressive men and women mixed in with a cadre of hard-core holdovers from the discredited Bush and Clinton Administrations. As a consequence, Mr.Obama, morphed into a intellectual, dark skinned "Bush light" with better oratory. This new president obviously did not have the experience, political skill, or stomach for the confrontations that were required to take the reins of the nation in a new direction as was his mandate from both elections. He has as a result, weakened the people who supported him, his country, and his party. Perhaps he should have never run.....
Of course, we can always hope. He still has years left. Can he still become the transformative president he wanted to be?
He could start by sacking Brennan.
Monday, March 10, 2014
UKRAINE CRISIS: US MEDDLING NOT PUTIN TO BLAME
The view from up here in the snow-covered Green Mountains of Vermont is much at odds with what we read and hear from the media in rest of the nation. The news outlets are all rushing to make a Hitler out of Mr.Putin. Well don't agree, but we don't go around much up here with our jeeps and SUVs draped in the Stars and Stripes either. Not that we wouldn't protect what is ours and what’s best for the nation. Maybe it's the clear cold air...and the isolation that permits a person more time to think things over.
In the "Greens" we are not so happy with Mr.Obama’s recent Ukraine foreign policy. How we see it is this. First of all we didn't like his meddling in the internal affairs of that nation. He and his out-of control-CIA and the left-over neocons in the State Department from the failed Bush Administration went a step to far in their efforts to destabilize the Yanukovych middle-of-the-road government and replace it with a hand picked, pro- US, pro-western one. That might seem like a worthy cause to some. But given the geography, history and population of that nation, it was a dumb policy and one that was bound for obvious failure. The Obamaans should have known that.
Given the population of Ukraine, much of its russophone population is in the south and east, and many natives are sympathetic to Russia and fearful of losing their jobs in the event that nation was to hitch up with the EU. In addition, the prospect of another NATO-run entity bristling with armaments right on Russia’s doorstep made Putin squirm. With these and other facts the prospects of a successful US led coup..was not very likely and would likely just stir up dissension and cause a lot of bloodshed. In fact more than 77 people died on both sides in Kiev, partly as a result of US meddling. It looks to me like the original plan--for it was a US plan--was a step too far. Clearly it was overreaching. This by the uncertain Obama administration and the unsophisticated fringe elements in the State Department who view meddling in the affairs of another nation, regardless of the damage done, as simply part of their mandate. The vulgar “F--k the EU” comment by Ms.Nuland of State revealed just how over the top, deeply committed and involved the USA was in generating this coup.
Mr. Putin's response to US meddling on his doorstep and attempts at closing off his vital access to a warm water harbor, were readily predictable. Wiser more sophisticated leadership in Washington should have foreseen the dangers of their foolhardy “shoot from the hip” policy. The result was the Crimea takeover by Mr. Putin that left Mr. Obama and his gang of neophytes flatfooted---again. It is Mr. Putin who seems to be the much better chess player. Obama has again exposed his weaknesses to the world. Mr. Putin is probably secretly blowing kisses to our man in the White House, since he would not have been able to move into the Crimea as he has without Mr.Obama’s unwitting help.
In this dangerous game between the US and Russia the EU is (wisely) a less-than-avid player who has much to loose economically. Russia supplies it with much of its oil and gas and in turn purchases much of its manufactured goods. One would think that the EU would or should have learned its lesson after being sucked in by the US into the economic and military morass of Iraq and Afghanistan. My advice to the those in Brussels is this...start thinking on your own and stop letting Washington lead you by the nose. The neophytes inside of the Beltway do not know what they are doing. There has to be wiser more sophisticated and adult leadership somewhere in Europe. Also, its time to drop the UK! Cameron and his ilk are just a stalking horse for US interests. Wise up EU. Just say “NO” to the next dumb plan the US presents to you. More leadership from Brussels might just make the world a safer better place for us all.
In the "Greens" we are not so happy with Mr.Obama’s recent Ukraine foreign policy. How we see it is this. First of all we didn't like his meddling in the internal affairs of that nation. He and his out-of control-CIA and the left-over neocons in the State Department from the failed Bush Administration went a step to far in their efforts to destabilize the Yanukovych middle-of-the-road government and replace it with a hand picked, pro- US, pro-western one. That might seem like a worthy cause to some. But given the geography, history and population of that nation, it was a dumb policy and one that was bound for obvious failure. The Obamaans should have known that.
Given the population of Ukraine, much of its russophone population is in the south and east, and many natives are sympathetic to Russia and fearful of losing their jobs in the event that nation was to hitch up with the EU. In addition, the prospect of another NATO-run entity bristling with armaments right on Russia’s doorstep made Putin squirm. With these and other facts the prospects of a successful US led coup..was not very likely and would likely just stir up dissension and cause a lot of bloodshed. In fact more than 77 people died on both sides in Kiev, partly as a result of US meddling. It looks to me like the original plan--for it was a US plan--was a step too far. Clearly it was overreaching. This by the uncertain Obama administration and the unsophisticated fringe elements in the State Department who view meddling in the affairs of another nation, regardless of the damage done, as simply part of their mandate. The vulgar “F--k the EU” comment by Ms.Nuland of State revealed just how over the top, deeply committed and involved the USA was in generating this coup.
Mr. Putin's response to US meddling on his doorstep and attempts at closing off his vital access to a warm water harbor, were readily predictable. Wiser more sophisticated leadership in Washington should have foreseen the dangers of their foolhardy “shoot from the hip” policy. The result was the Crimea takeover by Mr. Putin that left Mr. Obama and his gang of neophytes flatfooted---again. It is Mr. Putin who seems to be the much better chess player. Obama has again exposed his weaknesses to the world. Mr. Putin is probably secretly blowing kisses to our man in the White House, since he would not have been able to move into the Crimea as he has without Mr.Obama’s unwitting help.
In this dangerous game between the US and Russia the EU is (wisely) a less-than-avid player who has much to loose economically. Russia supplies it with much of its oil and gas and in turn purchases much of its manufactured goods. One would think that the EU would or should have learned its lesson after being sucked in by the US into the economic and military morass of Iraq and Afghanistan. My advice to the those in Brussels is this...start thinking on your own and stop letting Washington lead you by the nose. The neophytes inside of the Beltway do not know what they are doing. There has to be wiser more sophisticated and adult leadership somewhere in Europe. Also, its time to drop the UK! Cameron and his ilk are just a stalking horse for US interests. Wise up EU. Just say “NO” to the next dumb plan the US presents to you. More leadership from Brussels might just make the world a safer better place for us all.
Friday, March 7, 2014
CALL IT: WEATHER INTENSIFICATION NOT "GLOBAL WARMING"
NOT GLOBAL WARMING BUT WEATHER INTENSIFICATION
Yesterday, while shoveling the fluffy white stuff during our tenth or twelfth major snow storm this year, I got a friendly glove-handed wave from my middle aged and politically conservative neighbor “Jimmy”. We were both struggling again to clear our side-by-side snow-covered driveways. Jimmy, a retired NY City police officer often chided me about “global warming”, aware of my many years of teaching meteorology and climatology. So on this obviously very cold and snowy day he called over the high mounds of snow piled between the driveways: "So are you pointy headed guys still claiming that we are having “global warming"?
“That’s a misnomer,” I countered. “A better term for what we are having is “GLOBAL WEATHER INTENSIFICATION.”
“Oh, so your changing your story huh? So what does THAT mean?
I waved him over into my opened garage, out of the wind and driving snow. He was cold and tired so he quietly acquiesced. I figured I had him at a disadvantage. Perhaps I could actually clear up his muddled thinking, and also avoid having to listen to ad nauseum repetitions of his "Fox News” talking-points at least about climate .
“The fact is the earth as a whole is actually warming a great deal. The reason is that we are constantly dumping increasing amounts of what are known as “greenhouse gases” into the atmosphere. Our cars, trucks, buses, all spew gases that make the air warmer. Then too we also release the same gases from our heating systems, we rely greatly on trucks for transport of our goods. Almost our entire economy runs on fossil fuels.Burning those fuels generate carbon dioxide gas which builds up in the atmosphere. That gas (and others too) has the property of absorbing heat and making the atmosphere warmer. The more CO2 in the air, the warmer the air gets. But we are also intensifying the problem by eliminating forests which naturally recycle CO2 and extract it from the atmosphere. As you well know we are cutting down our forests, and pasting over natural areas with asphalt, bull dozing down down green trees to make housing developments and parking lots. You just have to take a look at the pictures of the earth on Google Maps. Roads, expanses cleared land, industrial areas, parking lots, housing developments have replaced vast areas formerly covered by greenery and much of this has occurred in only the last few decades. This is not only happening here in the USA but all over the world.
He nodded his head. That seemed OK he had heard that before and it made sense. “It’s possible he admitted.”
He pulled me over to the open garage door. “Look out there! That’s what we got today. How is this snow evidence of a warmer globe?”
My response: “The earth’s atmosphere IS warming...but as in many things, the answer is not so simple. The increased warming is not ONLY manifested as warmer temperatures. (Though that is what we see here every summer). The earth’s atmosphere is a giant machine which cycles the energy from the sun. Because the earth is a near globe the heat is mostly absorbed in a belt around the equator. The atmosphere is a fluid that moves heat around. It spreads that heat absorbed in the equatorial area through the atmosphere by winds and cyclonic storms which bring rain, snow, violent winds, increased cloud cover, and hurricanes too. So when we dump “heat-absorber gases” into the atmosphere as a result of our quest for energy we also we make the earth warmer in that equatorial zone. But the EFFECTS of increased atmospheric temperatures are felt throughout the globe...because air is a fluid and it moves around. The effects of heating are:more and bigger storms, more rain, more snow, more instability and more unpredictability in the atmosphere..that is: in three words GLOBAL WEATHER INTENSIFICATION.
So besides pumping more and more CO2 into the atmosphere to make the globe warmer, we are also simultaneously intensifying the effects of this waste dumping process by decreasing those elements on the earth which actually absorb CO2---green plants. Remember in high school you learned about “photosynthesis”? Green plants convert CO2 and H2O into carbohydrates which bind much of the CO2 in an insoluble form called cellulose. This is a way to sequester carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and make a solid substance of it.
That's where our carbon based fuels came from. Our fossil fuels were all produced in ancient much warmer times by photosynthesis. But eons ago..the earth sequestered or set the CO2 as cellulose aside as fossil carbon. We know of this buried carbon as :coal beds, oil deposits and natural gas pockets underground. Today we are avidly exploiting those deposits coving in it with atmospheric oxygen and and dumping the residue of combustion..CO2 right back into the atmosphere again. But that adds this old carbon to the new carbon we already had enough of.
It's like when you have a bad cold. The Doc says: "Jimmy, listen to me--you wanna get better? You rest, drink plenty of fluids and keep yourself nice and warm, that will help you fight the virus.”
His advice is to ameliorate the effects of the infective virus by following a known protocol of hydration, rest, and keeping the body warm, all of which which will slow the rate at which the virus is replicating in your system.
But instead of that you drink no water but slake your thirst with alcohol (dehydrating yourself), go out in the icy cold with no hat or coat on to shovel snow, and stay up all night. What YOU are doing is going to make that cold worse.
That’s about where we are regarding Global WEATHER INTENSIFICATION: we are doing everything to make the situation worse. Pumping more and more carbon dioxide into the air and killing off the plants which absorb it out of the air. The net result more argon dioxide in the air and more and more atmospheric heating. That external heat intensities the storms, make them bigger and more violent and gets us to where we are today...shoveling snow in March.
What we must do is SLOW our use of fossil fuels by a concerted effort at much more efficient energy use; we must eventually end our dependence on all fossil fuels; we have to stop massive deforestation and de-greening of the earth, and turn to “green” energy sources such as wind, hydro, tidal, geothermal, safe nuclear, etcetera.
Then perhaps our kids and grandkids might see some improvement. If we don't do something..soon..we are all lost.
So remember Jimmy, stop calling it “Global Warming” the guys you hang around with at the golf course don't get it. Call it GLOBAL WEATHER INTENSIFICATION, and when they can't play because it too windy, or they have a “freeze delay” in June, or the fifth fairway..with that low spot, has now become a water hazard, and the greens get dry and hard as a billiard table in early summer--that’s all part of what we pointy heads now call “GWI” (Global Weather Intensification).
Yesterday, while shoveling the fluffy white stuff during our tenth or twelfth major snow storm this year, I got a friendly glove-handed wave from my middle aged and politically conservative neighbor “Jimmy”. We were both struggling again to clear our side-by-side snow-covered driveways. Jimmy, a retired NY City police officer often chided me about “global warming”, aware of my many years of teaching meteorology and climatology. So on this obviously very cold and snowy day he called over the high mounds of snow piled between the driveways: "So are you pointy headed guys still claiming that we are having “global warming"?
“That’s a misnomer,” I countered. “A better term for what we are having is “GLOBAL WEATHER INTENSIFICATION.”
“Oh, so your changing your story huh? So what does THAT mean?
I waved him over into my opened garage, out of the wind and driving snow. He was cold and tired so he quietly acquiesced. I figured I had him at a disadvantage. Perhaps I could actually clear up his muddled thinking, and also avoid having to listen to ad nauseum repetitions of his "Fox News” talking-points at least about climate .
“The fact is the earth as a whole is actually warming a great deal. The reason is that we are constantly dumping increasing amounts of what are known as “greenhouse gases” into the atmosphere. Our cars, trucks, buses, all spew gases that make the air warmer. Then too we also release the same gases from our heating systems, we rely greatly on trucks for transport of our goods. Almost our entire economy runs on fossil fuels.Burning those fuels generate carbon dioxide gas which builds up in the atmosphere. That gas (and others too) has the property of absorbing heat and making the atmosphere warmer. The more CO2 in the air, the warmer the air gets. But we are also intensifying the problem by eliminating forests which naturally recycle CO2 and extract it from the atmosphere. As you well know we are cutting down our forests, and pasting over natural areas with asphalt, bull dozing down down green trees to make housing developments and parking lots. You just have to take a look at the pictures of the earth on Google Maps. Roads, expanses cleared land, industrial areas, parking lots, housing developments have replaced vast areas formerly covered by greenery and much of this has occurred in only the last few decades. This is not only happening here in the USA but all over the world.
He nodded his head. That seemed OK he had heard that before and it made sense. “It’s possible he admitted.”
He pulled me over to the open garage door. “Look out there! That’s what we got today. How is this snow evidence of a warmer globe?”
My response: “The earth’s atmosphere IS warming...but as in many things, the answer is not so simple. The increased warming is not ONLY manifested as warmer temperatures. (Though that is what we see here every summer). The earth’s atmosphere is a giant machine which cycles the energy from the sun. Because the earth is a near globe the heat is mostly absorbed in a belt around the equator. The atmosphere is a fluid that moves heat around. It spreads that heat absorbed in the equatorial area through the atmosphere by winds and cyclonic storms which bring rain, snow, violent winds, increased cloud cover, and hurricanes too. So when we dump “heat-absorber gases” into the atmosphere as a result of our quest for energy we also we make the earth warmer in that equatorial zone. But the EFFECTS of increased atmospheric temperatures are felt throughout the globe...because air is a fluid and it moves around. The effects of heating are:more and bigger storms, more rain, more snow, more instability and more unpredictability in the atmosphere..that is: in three words GLOBAL WEATHER INTENSIFICATION.
So besides pumping more and more CO2 into the atmosphere to make the globe warmer, we are also simultaneously intensifying the effects of this waste dumping process by decreasing those elements on the earth which actually absorb CO2---green plants. Remember in high school you learned about “photosynthesis”? Green plants convert CO2 and H2O into carbohydrates which bind much of the CO2 in an insoluble form called cellulose. This is a way to sequester carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and make a solid substance of it.
That's where our carbon based fuels came from. Our fossil fuels were all produced in ancient much warmer times by photosynthesis. But eons ago..the earth sequestered or set the CO2 as cellulose aside as fossil carbon. We know of this buried carbon as :coal beds, oil deposits and natural gas pockets underground. Today we are avidly exploiting those deposits coving in it with atmospheric oxygen and and dumping the residue of combustion..CO2 right back into the atmosphere again. But that adds this old carbon to the new carbon we already had enough of.
It's like when you have a bad cold. The Doc says: "Jimmy, listen to me--you wanna get better? You rest, drink plenty of fluids and keep yourself nice and warm, that will help you fight the virus.”
His advice is to ameliorate the effects of the infective virus by following a known protocol of hydration, rest, and keeping the body warm, all of which which will slow the rate at which the virus is replicating in your system.
But instead of that you drink no water but slake your thirst with alcohol (dehydrating yourself), go out in the icy cold with no hat or coat on to shovel snow, and stay up all night. What YOU are doing is going to make that cold worse.
That’s about where we are regarding Global WEATHER INTENSIFICATION: we are doing everything to make the situation worse. Pumping more and more carbon dioxide into the air and killing off the plants which absorb it out of the air. The net result more argon dioxide in the air and more and more atmospheric heating. That external heat intensities the storms, make them bigger and more violent and gets us to where we are today...shoveling snow in March.
What we must do is SLOW our use of fossil fuels by a concerted effort at much more efficient energy use; we must eventually end our dependence on all fossil fuels; we have to stop massive deforestation and de-greening of the earth, and turn to “green” energy sources such as wind, hydro, tidal, geothermal, safe nuclear, etcetera.
Then perhaps our kids and grandkids might see some improvement. If we don't do something..soon..we are all lost.
So remember Jimmy, stop calling it “Global Warming” the guys you hang around with at the golf course don't get it. Call it GLOBAL WEATHER INTENSIFICATION, and when they can't play because it too windy, or they have a “freeze delay” in June, or the fifth fairway..with that low spot, has now become a water hazard, and the greens get dry and hard as a billiard table in early summer--that’s all part of what we pointy heads now call “GWI” (Global Weather Intensification).
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
US HYPOCRISY AND FAILURE IN UKRAINE
USA HYPOCRISY IN THE UKRAINE LEADS TO DIPLOMATIC FAILURE
It’s the blatant hypocrisy of the US position on the Ukraine which bothers me. Only a week ago the CIA and the State Department were secretly plotting to incite unrest and encourage the most radical elements of the Ukrainian polity to turn away from Russia and become a vassal state of the EU and the USA. The foolhardy, poorly thought out actions of the White House, the CIA and the state department were surely in part to blame for the unnecessary loss of life in and around Independence Square.
(This was a replay of what the US and CIA did in Egypt only eight months ago, when they undermined the legally elected government of Mr. Morsi, whom they did not like for--his pro Egypt policies--concluding he was not going to be as compliant as past Egyptian dictators. So he had to go. Their actions in Egypt led to the installation of another military dictator and a much more repressive regime--more repressive, more violent and prone to more bloodshed.)
In the Ukraine, the CIA was back at it..with bundles of US taxpayer money the CIA and State Department helped stir up the hornet nest in Kiev. The US policy there on the doorstep of Mr. Putin--apparently led by neocons in the State Department --left no wiggle room or escape route for the Russians. Now after the "surprise" military action of Russia..and in the apparent failure of what should have been a diplomatic effort, the President and his advisors stand hang-jawed, nonplussed and unsure of a response.
I also wonder how President Obama who has just barely extricated us from the longest, bloody, unnecessary, most ill advised and illegal war in US history doesn't blanch and choke on his perfidious words when he reads speeches written for him in which he accuses Russia of “aggression”, “illegal occupation”, and “anti-democratic” military actions and threats. He should be the last one to point the finger of blame.n
The truth is the Ukraine situation is a direct result of a failed US foreign policy, incompetent, over zealous state department personnel and an out-of-control CIA which seems to have its own independent agenda. But Mr. Obama is paying for this failure with falling popularity polls and by looking so helpless and incompetent as Russian troops encircle military installations in the Crimea. This is another embarrassment that could have been avoided.
A wiser more savvy administration in better control,of their far-flung and gung-ho departments would have realized the limits of their ability to control events on the very doorstep of the Russians and pursued a more sensible, moderate course of action.
Perhaps even now cooler heads could prevail. Start with reining in the CIA and demoting the hot heads and vulgar personnel in the state department.
Get the picture?
It’s the blatant hypocrisy of the US position on the Ukraine which bothers me. Only a week ago the CIA and the State Department were secretly plotting to incite unrest and encourage the most radical elements of the Ukrainian polity to turn away from Russia and become a vassal state of the EU and the USA. The foolhardy, poorly thought out actions of the White House, the CIA and the state department were surely in part to blame for the unnecessary loss of life in and around Independence Square.
(This was a replay of what the US and CIA did in Egypt only eight months ago, when they undermined the legally elected government of Mr. Morsi, whom they did not like for--his pro Egypt policies--concluding he was not going to be as compliant as past Egyptian dictators. So he had to go. Their actions in Egypt led to the installation of another military dictator and a much more repressive regime--more repressive, more violent and prone to more bloodshed.)
In the Ukraine, the CIA was back at it..with bundles of US taxpayer money the CIA and State Department helped stir up the hornet nest in Kiev. The US policy there on the doorstep of Mr. Putin--apparently led by neocons in the State Department --left no wiggle room or escape route for the Russians. Now after the "surprise" military action of Russia..and in the apparent failure of what should have been a diplomatic effort, the President and his advisors stand hang-jawed, nonplussed and unsure of a response.
I also wonder how President Obama who has just barely extricated us from the longest, bloody, unnecessary, most ill advised and illegal war in US history doesn't blanch and choke on his perfidious words when he reads speeches written for him in which he accuses Russia of “aggression”, “illegal occupation”, and “anti-democratic” military actions and threats. He should be the last one to point the finger of blame.n
The truth is the Ukraine situation is a direct result of a failed US foreign policy, incompetent, over zealous state department personnel and an out-of-control CIA which seems to have its own independent agenda. But Mr. Obama is paying for this failure with falling popularity polls and by looking so helpless and incompetent as Russian troops encircle military installations in the Crimea. This is another embarrassment that could have been avoided.
A wiser more savvy administration in better control,of their far-flung and gung-ho departments would have realized the limits of their ability to control events on the very doorstep of the Russians and pursued a more sensible, moderate course of action.
Perhaps even now cooler heads could prevail. Start with reining in the CIA and demoting the hot heads and vulgar personnel in the state department.
Get the picture?
*"F---K THE EU" OR EXAMPLE OF FAILURE OF DIPLOMACY
“Fuck the EU”* (And Its Consequences.)
*Quote by US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs: Victoria Nuland.
The remark above is by Ms. Victoria Nuland, of the State Department and a member of the wide-ranging and well-connected neoconservative Kagan family (she is the spouse of Prof. Robert Kagan). The notorious Kagan family are all deeply involved in efforts to support and encourage Middle Eastern war---they were particularly engaged in the failed, brutal, economically devastating US-led war in Iraq (as well as other efforts at foreign adventurism). It’s hard for me to understand how Ms Nuland (Mrs. Kagan), with her connections to monumentally disastrous and discredited policies, is now found serving in a high office in the State Department under President Obama---a supposed intelligent, thoughtful, and progressive Democrat.
But what was the context of her vulgar remarks?
Mrs. Kagan and her ilk in the State Department were overly zealous (gung ho) in their efforts to topple the legally elected pro-Russian Yanukovytch government in the Ukraine. They financially supported violent ultranationalistS (some report to the tune of $50 million dollars) and promoted general unrest. But her neoconservative relatives and allies were all deeply frustrated with the support and enthusiasm of our allies in neighboring Europe. The EU which has suffered the ravages of war and its economic aftermath and who get most of their energy supplies from the east were less “gung-ho ” and were proceeding more cautiously. They viewed the EU as having only tepid support for instigating further violent nationalist protests in Kiev. At this juncture, the US was threatening Yanukovytch with “economic sanctions” if he were to enlist military force to suppress the violent protesters who had occupied the central square of Kiev for weeks. The US zealots in the State department thought they had Yanukovytch cornered and buffaloed. The EU saw that as a step too far. The EU was proceeding with the knowledge that it has to live with Russia as its eastern neighbor. Ms Nuland’s angry, vulgar remark was recorded (some say by the Russians) in a conversation with the US Ambassador to Ukraine. Its meaning was simply this: we (the US) can go it alone! ”F--- the EU”, we don't need them! We can topple this government on our own.
But the consequences of this intemperate and poorly thought out form of foreign policy was that Mr. Putin simply made another end run around the US. (The last time he did this was only a few months ago in Syria where he, and Mr Levrov his Foreign Secretary, neatly hog-tied and embarrassed Mr.Obama during the Syrian chemical weapons imbroglio and strengthened and supported his ally in Syria, Mr. Assad.) This time, Mr.Putin ran a nice quarter back steal around Obama’s bow-legged inept team, saying in effect: “If that is how you are going to play, I’ll take the parts of Ukraine I want militarily and you can go F--- Yourselves.”
So what about the consequences.
The Obama Administration has again demonstrated its ineptness and racked up another diplomatic failure..by pushing Mr. Putin to the point where he had no choice but to use his military. The Russian troops were sitting there in the Crimea. What did Nuland, Kerry and Obama expect was to happen? This was all unnecessary. It could have played out very much differently if the elements on our side had a good deal more sophistication, and a lot less hubris.
Wise up President Obama, even GWB was smart enough to finally try to take control of his government from the neocons and war mongers--yes a bit too late..but he did try.
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