Blog Simple

Goals

2012-02-09T10:47:00.000-08:00

What is US policy in the Middle East? Beyond the talk of 'democracy' and 'protection', which is nothing but lies, the policy towards all but the most subservient dictatorships (Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait) is to promote chaos, with the accompanying division into armed groups, misery and death.

A look at the results of Libyan 'liberation' confirms this. This is usually ignored, but the NYT actually has a article about Libya:

As the militiamen saw it, they had the best of intentions. They assaulted another militia at a seaside base here this week to rescue a woman who had been abducted. When the guns fell silent, briefly, the scene that unfolded felt as chaotic as Libya’s revolution these days — a government whose authority extends no further than its offices, militias whose swagger comes from guns far too plentiful and residents whose patience fades with every volley of gunfire that cracks at night.

The relentless propaganda war that preceded the attack in Libya is now being directed towards Syria. If successful, the outcome will be the same, the country divided by militia groups and plunged into a chaos that will surpass anything we've seen so far.

The policy is not to encourage anything resembling 'democracy', but rather to avoid it at all costs.

Joke?

2012-02-08T12:00:00.000-08:00

From the Guardian:

The Pentagon is drawing up contingency plans for intervention in Syria that include military action, as the Obama administration casts around for a more effective strategy to stop the regime in Damascus carrying out violence its own people.

Because violence practiced against other people, such as Libyans, Iraqis, Afghans, Somalis, Yemenis, etc. is OK, especially when practiced by the US, so killing thousands in Syria and Iran is also A-OK.

Manufacturing a civil war and intervening on 'humanitarian' grounds, rather than the old Bush line of 'defeating terrorism', is the Obama tactic for manipulating the press and public. Judging by the resulting lockstep to war in the media today, it has to be considered a success.

Fun in Egypt

2012-01-26T18:59:00.000-08:00

US support for democracy/military dictatorship appears to have has struck a reef in Egypt, the government there stopped some US citizens from leaving the country, following raids on their organizations in Egypt.

The International Republican Institute and the National Democratic Institute are what in the usual parlance are called NGOs (non-governmental organizations) but are really what used to be called a den of spies, agents of a foreign power that subvert or support governments upon instructions from their masters.

Letting these agents do their will is now a condition for continued US aid to Egypt, worth around $1.3bn, or so says President Drone. What the clowns in the administration (and the NY Times) seem to forget is that the main reason for the aid is not to allow the US to pick and choose the rulers of Egypt, but to maintain the Egypt/Israel peace treaty.

So before Obama starts cutting off aid, he'll probably get a call from Bibi Netanyahu, telling him to pay up and shut up. No wonder the Egyptians are acting uppity.

Surrender now, talks later

2012-01-23T10:19:00.000-08:00

Marc Grossman, the special US envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan that Pakistan isn't will to talk to as of yet, says that for talks to start with the Taliban, the Taliban must renounce ties to terrorism.

Since the Taliban are labeled a terrorist organization by the US, the Taliban must thus renounce ties to themselves. The only way I can see to do that is to disband. So disband your organization, and then we'll talk to it.

This is probably just posing on Mr. Grossman's part, the administration needs to sound as bloodthirstily stupid as the Republican field, no mean feat. It does mean that there can't be meaningful talks until after the election, and the US, not the Taliban, changes its positions.

Say what?

2012-01-19T23:09:00.000-08:00

CNN:

A helicopter from NATO's peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan crashed late Thursday in the southern provice of Helmand, killing six members of the force, allied military spokesmen reported.

Peacekeeping mission, now that's a new one. Maybe CNN should have said pissing match.

Hilarity

2012-01-19T11:29:00.000-08:00

Bloomberg:

President Barack Obama will deliver his party’s acceptance speech at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina, moving venues for the final night of the Democratic National Convention, the party announced.

Now that this has hit the press, I'm thinking he might want to reconsider, but its probably too late.

General Diplomacy

2012-01-19T11:23:00.000-08:00

Why would Obama send Gen. Dempsey, head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff , to Israel to confer on policy toward Iran. This very confused administration had a record of mixing roles, but leaving policy discussions up to a general goes beyond the norm.

It could be that no one else is the administration was willing to go, Netanyahu has made it a habit to humiliate civilian members of the administration, including President Drone, and Biden and Clinton or even Panetta might have demurred to put their tattered dignity on the line.

The blurring of lines between civilian and military tasks is becoming even more common in this administration than the last. Putting in Petraeus to head the CIA was emblematic, but sending generals to do diplomacy is an operational choice that shows the confusion that reigns at the top.

STRIKE!!!

2012-01-17T23:06:00.001-08:00

FUCK SOPA!
FUCK PIPA!
Woo woo woo@#$!

Been fishin'

2012-01-06T11:13:00.001-08:00

Enemy of the Week! VIII

2011-12-09T15:47:00.000-08:00

Sorry about the delay.

A tough call this week, the usual front runners, Iran and Pakistan were in a dead heat, but the delay brought a dark horse to the front of the pack, Russia!

Yes, Russia has gone and held elections and they are looked askance by the US's head school marm, aka Secretary of State Clinton.

Suspicious minds may believe that the real bone of contention is other, one, the US is trying to surround Russia with missile defense systems, and two, Russia is hinting at cutting off supplies to the excellent adventure in Afghanistan, which is already sort of cut off by Pakistan.

So congrats, Russia, you are Blog Simple's Enemy of the Week!

Meet your masters

2011-12-02T12:28:00.000-08:00

Back in those early, dim days before there was a Blog Simple, even further back than that, I resided in good ol' Yurp, down in the sunny clime (sometimes) of southern Italy.

When the EU started to take shape, and talk began of the Euro, I was generally favorable. Elimination of border controls, more human rights protections, and the convenience of a single currency seemed, to me, desirable. Political union would surely follow.

Well, wrong and wrong again. The mechanisms that have been put in place have slowly but surely performed a task that we had not considered, putting the Euro countries under the unelected rule of banksters. This is not just influence anymore, the proposals from the ECB's new Goldman Sachs blessed leader make it clear that expanding control of individual nations will be exercised, not by expanding democratic institutions of the EU, but by bank controlled committees run in secret.

Michael Hudson gives some historical perspective to the process:

Book V of Aristotle’s Politics describes the eternal transition of oligarchies making themselves into hereditary aristocracies – which end up being overthrown by tyrants or develop internal rivalries as some families decide to “take the multitude into their camp” and usher in democracy, within which an oligarchy emerges once again, followed by aristocracy, democracy, and so on throughout history.

Debt has been the main dynamic driving these shifts – always with new twists and turns. It polarizes wealth to create a creditor class, whose oligarchic rule is ended as new leaders (“tyrants” to Aristotle) win popular support by cancelling the debts and redistributing property or taking its usufruct for the state.

Since the Renaissance, however, bankers have shifted their political support to democracies. This did not reflect egalitarian or liberal political convictions as such, but rather a desire for better security for their loans. As James Steuart explained in 1767, royal borrowings remained private affairs rather than truly public debts. For a sovereign’s debts to become binding upon the entire nation, elected representatives had to enact the taxes to pay their interest charges.

By giving taxpayers this voice in government, the Dutch and British democracies provided creditors with much safer claims for payment than did kings and princes whose debts died with them. But the recent debt protests from Iceland to Greece and Spain suggest that creditors are shifting their support away from democracies. They are demanding fiscal austerity and even privatization sell-offs.

This is turning international finance into a new mode of warfare. Its objective is the same as military conquest in times past: to appropriate land and mineral resources, also communal infrastructure and extract tribute. In response, democracies are demanding referendums over whether to pay creditors by selling off the public domain and raising taxes to impose unemployment, falling wages and economic depression. The alternative is to write down debts or even annul them, and to re-assert regulatory control over the financial sector.

Read the whole article.

So far bankers have been installed as the head of governments in Italy and Greece. That will become less necessary as governments lose the power over budgets and thus the country. As peoples become more impoverished and more disenfranchised, the powerlessness of their institutions will become more apparent, and other solutions will be sought. It is ironic that Germany, who experience much of the same after WW I, is now helping create similar circumstances in the rest of Europe. Merkel may go down in history as the most catastrophic European leader since you know who.

Free money for everyone!

2011-11-30T11:04:00.000-08:00

As long as you are a (big) banker.

Actually, it's better than free money, they (the central banks) are paying bankers (even more now) to borrow money from them. No wonder the markets are partying hard.

The farce is that this is nothing more than temporizing, once again. How many weeks will it last? My crystal ball says one to two.

Spoils of war

2011-11-29T15:57:00.000-08:00

The strange stuff you can find ransacking the British Embassy in Tehran

Credit: FarsNews/Getty Images
(h/t BagnewsNotes)

Enemy of the Week! VII

2011-11-28T10:21:00.000-08:00

It's Monday once again, and time for Blog Simple's favorite, and lately just about only, feature:

Enemy of the Week!

And we have a new winner! Iran has been monopolizing the rankings for the last three weeks, but just over the weekend, Pakistan had the temerity to get its soldiers in the way of US bombs and missiles, and the results were not pretty:

Pakistani officials said on Saturday that NATO aircraft had killed at least 25 soldiers in strikes against two military posts at the northwestern border with Afghanistan, and the country’s supreme army commander called them unprovoked acts of aggression in a new flash point between the United States and Pakistan.

But the US will investigate:

A senior American military official said on Monday that Gen. James N. Mattis, head of the military’s Central Command, would appoint a senior-ranking officer to lead an inquiry into the NATO airstrike the killed at least two dozen Pakistani soldiers over the weekend.

Yes, for the New York Times, Pakistani soldiers, like eggs, come by the dozen.

Anyway, in response to what General Mattis will call either an unfortunate accident, or Pakistan's fault, Pakistan has closed their boarder crossings to NATO trucks and shut down a CIA base for drones.

Before this incident, Pakistan also recalled its ambassador to the US and fired him, evidently for forgetting which country he worked for. This is problem that affect other countries, the UK ambassador to Israel as well as their defense minister both seem to think they work for Israel.

This undeserved escalation of Pakistan's hostility towards the US makes Pakistan Blog Simple' Enemy of the Week!

Enemy of the Week! VI

2011-11-21T12:22:00.000-08:00

Yes, it is Iran again. Push over the top by the WaPo's ridiculous story of chemical weapon shells to Libya and President Drone announcement of new sanctions, for money laundering!

Congratulations, Iran!

No shame

2011-11-21T12:17:00.000-08:00

Seeing disgusting neo-liberal Mayor Bloomberg with his even more disgusting top cop and neo-fascist Kelly together 'breaking' the pathetic story of a 'lone wolf' terrorist suspect nearly made me toss by cookies yesterday eve.

The media, equally disgusting, parrots these absurd threats without ever pointing out any of the contradictions:
1. He was, like totally, a lone wolf, living with his mother.
2. He had been talking for years with an informant.
3. He was charged with conspiracy.

How does that fit together?

It's obvious the NYPD is now mimicking the FBI in finding half-wits and molding them into publicity stunts for the mayor and police chief.

The pattern is that of reality TV. We just need some celebrity guests to decide whose terrorists rate highest on the scare meter, and award prizes to their creators and enablers.

Enemy of the Week! V

2011-11-14T18:26:00.000-08:00

Variety may be the spice of life, but we have to concede that this weeks EotW (Enemy of the Week) is the same as last week's: Iran!

Yes, the steady drumbeat of the press, joined by the fanatical Republican candidates and their peanut gallery have tipped the scales. There was also a dearth of respectable competition, though China and Russia have risen in the queue, if only for their support of Iran and their opposition to sanctions.

So congrats, Iran, two weeks in a row is new in our (admittedly fledgling) feature. See you again soon!

Perfect

2011-11-09T10:38:00.000-08:00

No need for comment (h/t zero hedge):

Enemy of the Week! IV

2011-11-07T12:34:00.000-08:00

One would have to live in a cave, cut off from all human contact, perhaps even that of mammals, not to know that the Iranian danger has reach new, unheard of, dangerous heights. Israel is ready to attack (hardly a surprise, Israel is always ready to attack just about anyone, anywhere), Britain is preparing an attack, the US, like Israel, is spoiling for a fight, especially since the nefarious plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador was exposed, and Iraq handed them their walking papers.

So, where all that hostility and hatred is aimed, the Islamic Republic of Iran, is Blog Simple's Enemy of the Week! Iran has done everything in its power to gain the coveted award, continued its nuclear program, continued to be unabashedly Islamic, continued to have a scruffy president, as well as a turbaned Supreme Leader who is even more extreme than the scruffy president.

They continue not to reply to allegations that they cannot see, as reported by Iran Affairs:

Iran agreed as a "good faith" gesture to address these Alleged Studies upon receiving the documents that contain the allegations, but the IAEA has not provided them to Iran and refuses to do so because the US prevents it. Read here about them.

Those crafty fiends! Worthy to be Enemy of the Week!

On to Italy!

2011-11-04T13:36:00.000-07:00

'On to Italy' was the conclusion of the last post, and it's there the banksters (IMF) are now going to 'supervise' the austerity measures that Berlusconi has agreed to, but not implemented.

Silvio Berlusconi cares more about himself than anything, including his country. This has been obvious from the beginning, but his egoism seemed to have charmed, rather than dismayed the Italians. To choose it as a feature, rather than a bug in a national leader shows how effective he and his media empire have been in degenerating the political scene in Italy.

This latest ploy to stay in office will be his most damaging, and have the most long term consequences. Both Greece and Italy, we know from the past, have a weakness for 'strong men'. The continuing degrading of national economies will make them more and more palatable to their country, especially as democratic forms are made clearly subservient to foreign and global interests.

That was quick

2011-11-03T22:28:00.000-07:00

The ink had almost dried on my post on Papandreou and his referendum, when he flip-flopped like Mitt Romney on steroids.

No referendum for Greece, a unity government united to screw their people and gratify the banksters and their lackeys, Merkel and Sarkozy. That amounts to folding like a bed spread.

Swallowing the deal that means his political death may allow Europe to kick the can down the road for a month, a week or a day, the vampire banks will only be satisfied with more blood.

Until the will to fight them takes over the political world, their rampage will continue unabated.

On to Italy!

Blame it on Cain

2011-11-02T16:45:00.000-07:00

So, rumors of randiness have seemingly claimed the campaign of yet another pol.

The public Mr. Cain has always seemed a rather vile exemplar of the type, but no worse than the other Rethugs, excepting Ron Paul, who is much the same, but at least claims to want to stop murdering thousands of non-US people.

And none of them can match up, one on one, with the crimes and lies of President Drone, not until they take the oath of office and start up their own atrocities. Then we will see.

The denouement of Cain's campaign is a classic example of a press campaign. The steady beat of the leaks, comments, tweets, posts and old fashioned news articles have pinned him to the ropes, and are beating him to a bloody pulp.

When will someone in the corner throw in the towel? Please. Cain is dumb enough to keep going until he's chopped liver and run over by a steam roller.

Greek Eeek!

2011-11-01T11:42:00.000-07:00

In a fitting coda to Halloween, Greek PM Papandreou’s call for a referendum for the 'bailout' terms that he had agreed to has terrorized the other European leaders.

His logic is clear, most Greeks are opposed to living in debt serfdom for the rest of their and their children's lives, and would probably have chopped Mr. Papandreou into a particularly unappetizing moussaka.

He's now off to meet with the comic duo of Merkel and Sarkozy, doubtlessly to be lectured on his responsibilities to obey his masters (the banksters), and the unsuitability of giving his lazy ungrateful people a voice in their impoverishment.

Will he bow to their will? Will he stick to his referendum guns?

In other words, in whose moussaka will he be the primary ingredient?

Enemy of the Week! III

2011-10-31T13:08:00.000-07:00

There hasn't been a slam-dunk winner for Enemy of the Week, the usual suspects have all been flitting around on our radar screen, so it took Monday's news to put this weeks winner, the Palestinians!, over the top. There had been some desultory rocket firing and Israeli bombing last week, but it was UNESCO's nervy vote to admit them that put the Palestinians in the winners circle.

The administration was quick to point out that such an admission "would hurt the peace process", and so it would suspend contributions to UNESCO, whose radical mission is to "Encourages international peace and universal respect by promoting collaboration among nations".

Hurting the peace process is something we have difficulty getting our minds around, if the peace process isn't already dead and pushing up the daisies, it is so moribund the priest is hustling to finish the last rites before burial. President Drone and Clinton are fully aware of this, of course, but they can just make up tall tales about "hurting the process" and the ridiculous press will repeat them without blinking an eye.

So congratulations Palestinians, with UNESCO's support you are Blog Simple's Enemy of the Week!

Start it up!

2011-10-29T19:29:00.000-07:00

I am waiting

2011-10-26T13:51:00.000-07:00

For Godot, for Christ, for any goddamn thing, just come to some fucking conclusion.

But no, the interminable and intractable wheelings and dealings amongst the Euro countries continues to seesaw from rumor driven hope to rumor driven despair, Merkel and Sarkozy are either lovey-dovey or snarling like feral gerbils, while talk of haircuts oscillates from a third to two thirds on a daily basis. So please stop, OK?

I fear not, the political weakness of the EU will only continue to grow. The demands made on the individual countries, as far as they are met, only weakens their economies further, thus raising more demands, etc.

The real danger is not economic breakdown, it is the political disintegration that is already at danger levels. Merkel, Sarkozy, Berlusconi, Papendreus, Cameron are all cardboard leaders (like our own President Drone), they lack both vision and will. The door is being opened for virulent nationalism and strongman solutions, who else can stand up to the banks?

Enemy of the Week! II

2011-10-24T12:20:00.000-07:00

Last weeks winner, Pakistan, looked like a shoo in for a repeat. Clinton, Petraeus, the new head of the Joint Chiefs, all trekked to Islamabad for some ritual bitch-slapping of our best friend/enemy and undoubtedly a good time was had by all, perhaps excluding the Pakistanis.

But the announcement by President Drone that all troops would be withdrawn from Iraq caused an uproar when it became known that the reason no troops were staying was because the Iraqis would not give them immunity. The nerve! Those ingrates! After all we've done for them! The chorus of recrimination was deafening, drowning out the Pakistan noise and pushing Iraq to the top of the heap.

Well done, Iraq, you are Blog Simple's Enemy of the Week! And remember, Iraq, reminded the surly Clinton, we've got troops right next door in Kuwait.

Defeat

2011-10-21T11:05:00.000-07:00

Make no mistake about it, to use the words of President Drone, despite the blathering bullshit coming from the White House, the obvious truth is that the US suffered a disastrous defeat in Iraq, only Vietnam was worse in the post WWII period. With Afghanistan soon to follow, the end of the Bush/Cheney strategy of massive military presence is over.

Obama's drone wars are certainly cheaper, but ineffective for anything but domestic politics. You can't make allies by just blowing things and people up as Libya will soon prove. As the economic breakdown continues, it too will fade into the background.

Part of the current posturing on Iran is related to the flip side of the US defeat in Iraq, Iran's victory. We can also speculate that the current meeting in Pakistan is to make sure they're on board with continued pressure on Iran, and not really about the 'Haqqani network'.

So now the US has a giant embassy in Baghdad with 16,000 employees and no military support. How long do you think that will last?

Almost forty years ago

2011-10-20T15:05:00.000-07:00

This description of the national security state certainly stands the test of time from almost forty years back. What has changed is that the national security state has mostly co-opted the press, Congress and the judiciary, and they now march to its orders compared to those days.

From The Best and the Brightest:

But arguments like this found little acceptance in those days, instead the Kennedy [Bush/Obama] Administration had been particularly aggressive in wanting to match the Communists [Terrorists] at new modern guerrilla and covert activities, and the lines between what a democracy could and could not do were more blurred in those years than others. These men, largely private, were functioning on a level different from the public policy of the United States, and years later when New York Times reporter Neil Sheehan read through the entire documentary history of the war, that history known as the Pentagon Papers, he would come away with one impression above all, which was that the government of the United States was not what he had thought it was; it was as if there were an inner U.S. government, what he called "a centralized state, far more powerful than anything else, for whom the enemy is not simply the Communists [Terrorists] but everything else, its own press, its own judiciary, its own Congress, foreign and friendly governments--all these are potentially antagonistic. It had survived and perpetuated itself," Sheehan continued, "often using the issue of anti-Communism [The War on Terror] as a weapon against the other branches of government and the press, and finally, it does not function necessarily for the benefit of the Republic but rather for its own ends, is own perpetuation; it has its own codes which are quite different from public codes. Secrecy was a way of protecting itself, not so much from threats by foreign governments, but from detection from its own population on charges of its own competence and wisdom." Each succeeding Administration, Sheehan noted, was careful once in office, not to expose the weaknesses of its predecessor. After all, essentially the same people were running the governments, they had continuity to each other, and each succeeding Administration found itself faced with virtually the same enemies. Thus the national security apparatus kept its continuity, and every outgoing President tended to rally to the side of each incumbent President.

Confused?

2011-10-19T12:11:00.000-07:00

A Google search of the news today with 'Merkel Sarkozy' gives the following headlines, sorted by relevance:
‎

Sarkozy, Merkel to meet ahead of EU summit 2 hours ago

Eurozone talks stalled: Sarkozy 10 minutes ago

‎French Fin Min: Merkel, Sarkozy To Announce New Greek Haircut On ... 4 days ago
‎‎ ‎
Merkel, Sarkozy Say Have Deal On European Banks Oct 9, 2011
‎‎ ‎
EU Crisis Resolution on Sunday Uncertain: Analysts 6 hours ago
‎‎ ‎
Ireland Tells Merkel, Sarkozy to Fix Their Banks: Euro Credit 5 days ago
‎‎ ‎
Sarkozy to hold crisis talks in Frankfurt- sources 4 hours ago
‎‎ ‎
Pimco's Balls Says Merkel-Sarkozy Plan Isn't Signal to Buy ... Oct 10, 2011
‎‎ ‎
Merkel-Sarkozy Divided on Default Threat to Banks: Euro Credit Oct 7, 2011
‎‎ ‎
Merkel, Sarkozy to discuss eurozone debt crisis Oct 10, 2011

Merkel/Sarkozy are a clown tag team par excellence. Whether they do it on purpose, or it just comes naturally, the results seem to flabbergast even the most jaded observers, including yours truly.

Their meetings always seem to end in agreement, the markets get euphoric, and then a few days later there goes Sarkozy, off to another meeting with Merkel. He just left his wife in childbirth to scamper on down to Frankfurt to meet with her again.

The only thing that's clear is that no one has any idea what they're doing except the Greeks, who would like to get the hands on all these finance ministers and heads of state and tear them into little bitty pieces.

Checkbook ready!

2011-10-18T19:03:00.000-07:00

The FDIC is bitching and moaning as B of A is transferring $53 trillion in toxic derivatives from the holding company and Merrill Lynch to the bank proper which is, of course, guaranteed by the FDIC, at least for the $1 trillion in deposits there.

But Bernanke and the Fed are all on board. Since the Fed doesn't have the nerve right now to print up more green, it looks like Congress will be forced to cover some of the losses with tax dollars, via the FDIC. That might kick the can down the road for another few months or so.

If an FDIC bailout is necessary, we will await the Congressional tea party and the GOP candidates reaction with some relish, anticipating moments of sparkling humor.

Our?

2011-10-18T12:34:00.000-07:00

The farewell from the NYT restaurant reviewer gives a glimpse of the mindset of the paper:

All criticism is argument. Mine has been from the start that restaurants are culture, and that there is no better perch from which to examine our shared values and beliefs, behavior and attitudes, than a seat in a restaurant dining room, observing life’s pageant in the presence of food and drink.

Our shared values and beliefs are evidently on display at restaurants that most (99%?) people cannot afford, and probably wouldn't go to even if they could? Only if you're so far up The Village's asshole all you can see is its shit.

Mr. Sifton will undoubtedly continue with his attitudes at his new post as an editor on the national desk of his crappy newspaper.

UPDATE: Also, David Brooks probably eats at those restaurants. He definitely shares in those values, beliefs, behavior and attitudes. Fuckers.

Enemy of the Week!

2011-10-17T11:41:00.000-07:00

America's enemies are as numberless as the missiles President Drone fires at the brown people of the world. There are old established enemies, Iran, Syria, al Qaida et. al., sometime enemies and sometime friends, Pakistan, China, France, Russia, and there are new enemies you never heard of until now, like the Lord's Resistance Army.

One can identify and track President Drone's must faithful supporters, as you could with President G. W. (Feckless Leader) Bush, with the dexterity in which they jump on the current enemy as the 'worst enemy ever', and their enthusiastic will to do 'whatever it takes' (such as launch missiles from drones).

So, as a service to the world and a way to pump out an easy post weekly, Blog Simple has a new feature: ENEMY OF THE WEEK!, that will help you know who to hate most, and who is likely to get bombed next.

Our week 1 enemy of the week is: drum roll.....

Pakistan! Yes Pakistan is now allowing our boys in Afghanistan to be rocket attacked from Pakistan, possibly with the assistance of... Pakistan! We would start drone strikes against Pakistan, except we are already striking Pakistan with drones, so we will continue to strike Pakistan with drones, at least.

Last weeks winner, Iran!, who unfortunately for them started their plotting before Blog Simple rolled out its new exciting feature, came in a strong second.

Last week:
Iran! For try to blow up the Saudi Arabian ambassador and much of Washington and New York using used car salesmen and Mexican drug cartels.

I am not moving

2011-10-13T15:59:00.000-07:00

Good stuff!

A new wrinkle

2011-10-11T14:26:00.000-07:00

The latest amazing terror attack that never will be, Iranian funded Mexican drug cartel assassins/bombers certainly moves the goalposts in the Terrorist of the Month sweepstakes sponsored by the justice department.

Mainly, replacing al-Qaida with Iran makes the stakes a lot higher, and puts it into a larger international arena. The Mexican angle, as absurd as it seems, creates a triangle that can draw more funds to the 'drug war', and puts Iran back in the spotlight, while still keeping the domestic terrorism drum rolling. Trifecta!

Apart from that, the FBI/Justice Department MO is pretty much sticking with the tried and true. Plotter (someone who has already has problems with the law) meets up (inadvertently!) with undercover agent/snitch. When arrested he tells all, and will undoubtedly plead guilty so that no uncomfortable facts will ever need to be quashed by national security claims. It will dominate the headlines for at least a few more days, and provoke deep discussions on NPR and PBS with talking heads from Brookings or AIE who will laud Holder and demand stern action against Iran.

A long time

2011-10-04T12:01:00.000-07:00

The new commander in Afghanistan, Gen. John Allen (USMC) to CBS:

"Well, the plan is to win. The plan is to be successful. And so, while some folks might hear that we're departing in 2014 as a result of the Lisbon Conference and the process of transition, we're actually going to be here for a long time," Allen said.

Is Allen making the policy, or is this the word of the administration as well? After all, they put out the 2014 date. If not, we can be sympathetic to the general as the White House strategy or plan, beyond getting elected, is pretty much a mystery. Just as there was no justification for the 'surge', there is no justification for the draw down. All the war is doing is pissing off all the Afghans it is not slaughtering yet, while transferring big buck to the defense industries.

The general must know that "the plan is to win" is not a plan at all, though the idiots at CBS didn't think it worth a follow-up. Perhaps President Drone doesn't know it, but then Barack Obama couldn't plan his way out of a paper bag. Day to day pretty much sums up his administration and his leadership.

Heinous!

2011-09-30T12:03:00.000-07:00

Protesters in Syria threw tomatoes at the US ambassador!

In other news, President Drone assassinated two US citizens in Yemen to the wild applause of the media.

They just noticed?

2011-09-29T17:47:00.000-07:00

The Telegraph:

Tony Blair's future as Middle East peace envoy was in jeopardy after the Palestinian Authority said it was set to sever all contact with him because of his "bias" towards Israel.

He's only been envoy for four years, and hasn't changed a whit as far as I can see.

How many?

2011-09-29T16:39:00.000-07:00

We wonder how many more people the FBI has in the pipeline to be recruited, indoctrinated, trained, supplied and arrested for terrorism.

It seems to becoming something of an industry, a la Henry Ford, with a production line philosophy to increase efficiency, though probably not lower costs. Was this guy just not ready for the last 9/11, or would that have been too obvious?

Shoe, meet other foot

2011-09-29T12:25:00.000-07:00

New York Times headline:

In Pakistani Media, the U.S. Is a Target for Acrimony

Acrimony is a faint euphemism for how Pakistan is described in the US press, including the NYT, but heaven forbid they should notice something like that.

And in the body of the report there is this gem, a perfect example of Timese:

Such is the media frenzy and warmongering that popular talk show hosts have even begun discussing possible scenarios of how Pakistan should react if the United States attacks the country.

OMG, how those Pakis are excitable:

US politicians continued with the condemnation of Pakistan today, with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R – SC) saying that that was broad bipartisan support in Congress for a military attack on Pakistan and that “all options are on the table” against the nation.

Tough talk

2011-09-27T13:22:00.000-07:00

Where the administration is going with its current propaganda war on Pakistan? It's even hard to know if they actually understand where they are going, of if they're just blundering ahead trying to make brownie points for the upcoming election.

A wider real war in AfPak is the most obvious answer, but that would seem to call up all sorts of contingent problems that cannot be controlled, and that might not help Pres. Drone's election campaign.

So, probably the administration is upping the rhetoric to:
1. Try to cow the Pakistani's into allowing more drones, in a wider area
2. Electioneering.
3. Distract from the ongoing disaster in Afghanistan and pass the blame to Pakistan

The current administration is even less able than the previous to acknowledge that other countries might have other interests that will not always coincide with (what they conceive as) the best interests of the US. They also seem unwilling to admit that other countries can take steps that make things worse for the US, such as shutting down the supply routes. Despite the cozying up to Uzbekistan for supply lines, Russia and China have the first power of veto, and I doubt that the US military would like putting all their eggs in those baskets.

How this episode of foot stomping will end is hard to say, perhaps it's time for another distraction?

The fuck you say

2011-09-11T19:58:00.000-07:00

"America is stronger since 9/11"

Barack "President Drone" Obama continues his pathetic attempt, along with all the fuckheads in the media, to make molehills into mountains, lies into truth, and an accelerated decline into some shit wine (or whine) for the masses.

The masses put up with it in their witless, shitless way, but the whole exercise has been so pathetic that even the TV toads seem demoralized.

Hate Week is OVER, the hangovers will be bad, and the high gone in a puff of smoke.

Hate Week

2011-09-10T09:01:00.000-07:00

Greenwald has an interesting post up, as usual, and draws some parallels between 1984's 'Two Minutes Hate" and the treatment ladled out to the current object of hate and disgust, whether it be Osama, Saddam, Gadaffi, etc., by the US government and the media.

But what we are going through now is Hate Week, as described in Wikipedia:

Hate Week is celebrated in late summer. The events during that time include waxwork displays, military parades, speeches and lectures. New slogans are also coined and new songs are written. The theme of the Hate Week is called the Hate Song. It is mentioned that a unit from the Fiction Department was assigned to make atrocity pamphlets [aka, terror threats] (falsified reports of atrocities committed by Oceania's enemies against her) designed to stimulate Oceania's populace further into enraged frenzy against all enemies. The aggregate effect of Hate Week thus is to excite the populace to such a point that they "would unquestionably have torn [captured enemy soldiers] to pieces" if given the opportunity.

And not only is this Hate Week, it's the Ten Year Super Hate Week. Enjoy!

Look, Terror!

2011-09-08T17:01:00.000-07:00

It's back, and President Drone and the NFL have to take a back seat.

No actual terrorist acts, yet, but the threat level might have to be raised, and at least on NBC, it was both the prologue and epilogue to the President's jobs speech. And we're close to the anniversary. Think of all the sporting events to be hijacked for the greater good of fear and loathing.

As for the speech itself, Obama framed the continuing defunding of Social Security in the best way with his 'American Jobs Act', but when the smoke clears, only the payroll taxes will be cut. A fine performace, after so many bad acts, but he lacks both the will, and the ability, to make any change to the continuing American Tragedy.

Down Mexico way

2011-08-26T15:47:00.000-07:00

President Drone continues to live up to his name:

American Predator and Global Hawk drones now fly deep over Mexico to capture video of drug production facilities and smuggling routes. Manned American aircraft fly over Mexican targets to eavesdrop on cellphone communications. And the D.E.A. has set up an intelligence outpost — staffed by Central Intelligence Agency operatives and retired American military personnel — on a Mexican military base.

How long before they start firing missiles at our brown neighbors to the south? It would take just one 'incident' to kick start selective elimination of kingpins and then soldiers of the cartels, and Mexico may piss and moan, but certainly the current leadership just can't say no to drones, anymore than the US can say no to drugs.

Expanding the drone wars to Central and South America is clearly in the cards. We haven't heard about drones in Columbia yet, not that that means they're not there, but maybe the NYT will have another scoop for us, by and by, as soon as the administration is ready to leak it.

Mismanagement?

2011-08-24T08:48:00.000-07:00

Fantasists such as Juan Cole have now achieved their triumph in Libya, and are probably now ready to turn their guns on other hapless peoples that need to be liberated.

Their premiss for 'humanitarian' intervention is that once the evil dictator has been forced out, the liberated people will be able to live in peace and harmony. What they fail to add is that peace and harmony will require ongoing military action, bombing, torture, targeted assassination, etc.

Then after many years of ongoing destruction, they will announce that the occupation was mismanaged. But they are wrong, they just never understood the process.

Pots and kettles

2011-08-13T16:37:00.000-07:00

President Drone has conferred with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and David Cameron of Great Britian:

Obama and Abdullah agreed that the “Syrian regime’s brutal campaign of violence against the Syrian people must end immediately,” the White House statement said. During the call with Cameron, the two leaders “reiterated their belief that the Syrian people’s legitimate demands for a transition to democracy should be met,” according to a separate statement.

One wonders if Obama discussed the people of Saudi Arabia's legitimate demands for a transition to democracy. Maybe not, since all demonstrations are banned in Saudi Arabia, perhaps Obama doesn't believe that Saudis desire democracy and that they are enamored with being ruled by a sclerotic monarch, propped up by the US. One could also ask if he knows that the majority Shiites in Bahrain protest for democracy, and their protests were ruthlessly repressed by their clownish king, with the help of the popular Abdullah's army?

Certainly Bloomberg's reporter couldn't remember such ironic facts, or at least chose not to report them at this time. After all, it's all about Syria now, isn't it? Oh, and Libya.

Oh, NOz!@!

2011-08-12T23:09:00.000-07:00

NYT, today:
Qaeda Trying to Harness Toxin for Bombs, U.S. Officials Fear
Ricin!!!

Iraqi Leader Backs Syria, With a Nudge From Iran
Maliki is Shiite!!!

As Dizzying Week Ends on Wall Street, Dangers Linger
Money!!!

Be afraid, my bitchez, be very afraid.

Holy Bastille Day, Batman!

2011-08-11T16:30:00.000-07:00

Some political theater.

The guillotine in Tel Aviv Photo: B. Eitan

All the news...

2011-08-10T16:07:00.000-07:00

That's not fit to print. As Israel's protests enter fourth week there is practically no coverage in the US press, and certainly not the photo shown below.

Also, I wonder if the Congresscritters visiting Israel courtesy of AIPAC are interested. I doubt it.

Ha'aretz photo:

Confidence

2011-08-10T10:59:00.000-07:00

Confidence is one of the major goals of the Obama administration, it is its magic wand that will reduce or eliminate all problems. President Drone himself seems to calculate every word and action to best promote confidence, and uses every trick in the book to have the press repeat ad nauseum today's confidence building pablum. He apparently does little else.

I don't believe there is a web site in the western world that isn't trumpeting the news that the Taliban that shot down the helicopter with Navy Seals on board have been killed. How these individuals were identified both as the shooters and as being dead is left up to the imagination of the reader, but since a top general said it, it must be true.

In the calculations of the administration, we can see how this news was necessary to recreate the lost confidence in the Afghan mission. The docility of the press has reached new levels under Obama, the unrelenting and unrelieved propaganda about Libya and Syria, the silence about Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Yemen, etc., the killing of Osama, are all incredibly orchestrated. Now we have another example. The orchestra is supposed to drown out actuality, which none the less keeps rearing its ugly head.

Free money forever!

2011-08-09T15:03:00.000-07:00

Well, for two years, but that's like forever to the Fed.

The transition from despair to euphoria, and vice versa, takes place these days within minutes, and the previous emotion is forgotten as if it never existed.

2013 is past the election, so as a date it comes as no surprise, but the effect of continued low interest rates won't content the markets for long. The gorilla in the room remains, the paper owned by the banks that is worth bupkes, and the bupkes have been leveraged to the point that it dwarfs the world economy.

Banks now run the world, or most of it, but they're broke. Funny, huh?.

Today's dictionary lesson

2011-08-07T11:21:00.000-07:00

When people take to the streets in London, it's a riot, when they do it in Syria, it's a demonstration.

When police respond in London it's maintaining order, when they do it in Syria, it's repression.

Don't go, Timmeh!

2011-08-04T12:24:00.000-07:00

We don't know whether the irony was inadvertent at the NYT today with its article on Geithner, saying how he is being implored to stay on as Treasury Secretary since he's done such a bang up job and probably cannot be replaced by any mere mortal. Probably not, since the anonymous administration officials were talking to just about every major newspaper, and that takes time to set up. Just a bad coincidence?

Of course, a tanking stock market around the world is just the tip of the humongous iceberg that was left in place by Geithner and Bernanke after the last crisis. But since Geithner, Bernanke and Obama are nothing more than the lackeys of the banksters who need to collect ever more rent from the productive economies, or what's left of them, the only role these clowns have is to appear as the public face of the disaster and pretend that it is only temporary. That's why Geithner has to stay, he's necessary to maintain the illusion that any meaningful action is actually possible, when the Treasury, even if it wanted to, can do nothing to stave off disaster.

Only Bernanke has his hands on the printing press, so the sooner he starts up QE3 the better. True, that would mean that 4, 5 and maybe 6 and 7 might be necessary before the election, but at this point, why quibble. The money is illusory anyway, bypassing the real world, and going directly to the banks and the bourses before being swallowed up by the black hole.

Debt limit to the rescue!

2011-07-23T03:21:00.000-07:00

The wave of shock, anger and disappointment that has swept over the US and British media since the identity of the Oslo attacker was revealed has been heartbreaking. The NYT and WaPo in particular have already spent countless hours lining up experts, pundits, and anonymous officials to tell us what to think and why. The WaPo has already used it to prove that the US cannot cut its defense budget, or it will happen here. Jihadi websites were cited by the Times to prove that Al Qaida is back in a big way. There wasn't time to drag out the Libya connection, but it was waiting in the wings.

And now what do they get, a blond, blue-eyed right wing fanatic that proves to them nothing about nobody, and leaves them with the fervent hope that another, giant news story will come along and cover up their need to prove they're not embarrassed about their shitty journalistic ways.

Thank God for them Boehner walked out of debt talks today. That, along with record heat bumped the Oslo story way down the WaPo web page. Look for it to be downgraded again tomorrow.

Today's reading

2011-07-21T09:13:00.000-07:00

Obama Is A Bankster Puppet “Who Brought On The Depression That The Republicans Never Could Have Gotten Away With”

Michael Hudson sums it up concisely.

President Drone speaks

2011-06-29T14:05:00.000-07:00

Fukushima fuck up

2011-06-28T11:50:00.000-07:00

Japan's response to the Fukushima meltdowns has already been one of the lowest episodes of neo-liberal denialism. But this news bumps it up to a new level:

There is a common proven purge for cesium 137 called Prussian Blue (PB), but Japan blocks access to it with a tangle of catch-22s. Doctors abroad are counseled to use PB as quickly as possible for any "known or suspected radiocesium contamination" and can use a relatively simple urine test to assess cesium levels. In Japan, however, doctors can't prescribe PB without a ¥10 million "whole body radiation counter," but according to NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) there was only one such machine in all of Fukushima as of June 2 and it can only process ten patients a day.

By all means, read the whole thing.

Why Japan prefers its citizens to die of cancer rather than use a simple, cheap and effective response is where the vagaries of neo-liberalism shows off its mindlessness. It's denialism after the fact, mindless cruelty hidden behind bureaucratic inertia.

What will it take to make the Japanese angry?

Too distracting

2011-06-22T11:32:00.000-07:00

M K Bhadrakumar in the Asia Times points out that there will be a meeting in Tehran:

Within hours of Obama's announcement on Wednesday regarding troop drawdown in Afghanistan, Zardari will be heading for Tehran to confabulate with Ahmadinejad; two days later Karzai also arrives in the Iranian capital. Nothing brings out more vividly the extraordinary tilt in regional politics.

It will be interesting to see if this gets any US press will let us know about this meeting. So far nothing, but undoubtedly all eyes are turned to President Drone's speech later today.

The Monju monster

2011-06-17T21:04:00.000-07:00

Giving credit when credit is due, the NYT has a mind-blowing article about another Japanese nuclear reactor that is also having several or more probleminos.

The Monju prototype fast-breeder reactor — a long-troubled national project — has been in a precarious state of shutdown since a 3.3-ton device crashed into the reactor’s inner vessel, cutting off access to the plutonium and uranium fuel rods at its core.

This is not long after a fourteen year shutdown after a fire, and you cannot make up this shit:

Prefecture and city officials found that the operator had tampered with video images of the fire to hide the scale of the disaster. A top manager at the plant recently committed suicide, on the day that Japan’s atomic energy agency announced that efforts to recover the device would cost almost $21.9 million. And, like several other reactors, Monju lies on an active fault.

The control that the nuclear industry and their toadies in government (cough, cough, President Drone) have exerted over information around the world is truly amazing. The Monju program was the Japanese version of the Yucca Mountain solution to nuclear waste, and instead of solving anything, it is proving to be a huge and possibly lethal nightmare.

OMG

2011-06-16T01:39:00.000-07:00

If Ayman al-Zawahiri has been appointed al Qaeda's new leader, who appointed him?

Dr. Evil? Or President Drone?

It's not war

2011-06-15T12:47:00.000-07:00

President Drone has thought up a novel justification for his unauthorized bombing of Libya, seemingly illegal under the War Powers Act, it's not a war.

Bombing and killing people when not in a war used to be considered murder from a moral point of view, and I would also think that since the money it costs is being spent without Congressional approval, that also would have once been considered illegal.

But President Drone and the US has evidently moved beyond all this legal-schmegal folderol, the hit man in charge can kill anyone, at anytime, and it remains only for US citizens and the US Congress to sit and watch in wonder, at least when it's not too secret for their tender eyes.

To paraphrase the Talking Heads, substituting war for love:

When my war
Stands next to your war,
I can't define war
When it's not war.

It's not war.
It's not war.
Which is my face,
Which is a building,
Which is on fire.

When my war
Stands next to your war,
I can't define war
When it's not war.

It's not war.
It's not war.
Which is my face,
Which is a building,
Which is on fire.

I've got two wars
I've got two wars
And they go tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet, like little birds
They're my two wars...
Count them one, two wars...
Count them one, two wars.
Which is my face
Which is a building
Which is on fire

[should be four wars, all tweeting like little birds]

It's not war.
It's not war.
Which is my face,
Which is a building,
Which is on fire.

Goodbye Gates

2011-06-11T12:06:00.000-07:00

SecDef Gates has been doing his 'victory' tour, visiting many of the countries that he helped destroy, and some that helped him destroy them.

Strangely, his harshest words were for the helper countries, those of NATO, that have followed the US in all its colonial wars since 9/11 when the bar was set that if your weren't with the US, you were against it.

An objective look at the last ten years confirm what was predicted ten years ago, the entire exercise, Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen and Libya, along with the covert war against Iran have been little more than an expensive boondoggle, enriching a few while impoverishing many.

Gates's fortune, to come after Rumsfeld, made him seem ultra-rational and competent, not to mention honest, but while he did not continue the massive escalation that Rummy would have undoubtedly pursued (Iran!), he was unwilling or unable to convert the adventures into anything but a useless continuation, with the accompanying destruction and impoverishment.

Lets run through the list of his accomplishments:
Afghanistan - a bleeding wound with no exit in sight, especially after the 'surge'
Pakistan - dumped Musharraf, upped droning, sped up the ongoing disintegration
Iraq - allowed the Shiites to win the US inspired civil war, benefiting Iran
Libya - a naked oil grab that has great possibility to spiral out of control on the doorstep of Europe

His answer to all these US disasters is to blame the European part of NATO and thus absolve himself and the US. Europe certainly bears its share of the blame, but for its blind obedience rather than its lack of enthusiasm.

On the other hand, the new 'team' looks worse. Panetta brings nothing to the DoD, just as he brought nothing to the CIA. A placeholder, he must have at least the virtue of loyalty, the question is, to whom. Turning the CIA over to Petraeus is extremely dangerous, another sign that Obama doesn't hold the reins of his administration, and doesn't even want to.

After all, there's an election to be won.

Not so secret

2011-06-09T12:38:00.000-07:00

NYT headline:

U.S. Is Intensifying a Secret Campaign of Yemen Airstrikes

President Drone is so interested in keeping this a secret that it's leaked to the New York Times. If it's really secret, after all, how can he earn more brownie points in the eye of the press and public for being such a stone cold killer?

And the Times, which evidently has a sense of irony equal to a pebble, sees nothing at all strange about it.

Farewell lecture

2011-06-09T01:11:00.000-07:00

Mullen, like Gates, is going around the Satraps, doing his goodbye dance.

Shorter Adm. Mullen, departing Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, speaking in Egypt:

You are still ours, bitches.

And a picture that tells the five words above, at least:

Liberating Libyan Lives

2011-06-08T17:36:00.000-07:00

The UN mandate for action in Libya, to prevent civilian casualties, is proving to be what it looked like from the beginning, an excuse to help one side in a civil war and reap the benefits, no matter how many are killed and maimed.

Preventing civilian casualties is about the last objective of NATO, day and night air raids on Tripoli, watching as refugee ships sink in the Mediterranean sea, and round ups of ostensibly pro-Qaddafi civilians by the rebels show that the main objective is a pro-Western client state that can be economically exploited.

It may be the main benefit of the 'Arab spring' will turn out to be the countries of southern Europe, who have been given an example of how to act then your leaders are running your country for their benefit, and that of their bankster masters. The forces arrayed by the US, NATO, Saudi Arabia and Israel are probably too strong, at least for now, to avoid a rollback of the gains in the spring.

Meanwhile, Clinton meets with the rest of the counter-revolution, divvying up the spoils.

Minding Mueller

2011-06-08T11:08:00.000-07:00

Despite protests from within the FBI over the re-nomination of FBI Director Mueller to an abbreviated two year term (after the original ten), the Senate will undoubtedly confirm him. From the pre-9/11 ignoring of field officer's warnings that something was going on, to the 'find a patsy, quick' anthrax investigation, and crowning it with the blindness to financial crimes by the elite, Mueller has shown that he knows where the bodies are buried, and he ain't talking.

President Drone, one might think, would prefer to have his own man at the job. But such is his weakness and underlying cowardice, there was no way he could find anyone who would take the mauling he'd get in the Senate, knowing that the President didn't have his back.

In two years, of course, Obama will be in his second and final term (or not), the Senate might be wholly in Republican hands, and the choice will probably be to keep Mueller for another two years.

While launching drone attacks and sending death squads (he was obviously afraid to have Bin Laden in custody) might make Obama feel like a manly man, he has been unwilling to fight to set up an administration that is his, and not Bush's. Failure does not get much worse than that.

Clever Kan

2011-06-03T10:56:00.000-07:00

The very weak Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan has found a clever way to stay in office:

During a news conference late Thursday night, Kan indicated he will step down once the government has successfully brought the troubled reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 plant to "cold shutdown" status.

TEPCO had previously announced that the plan was to achieve cold shutdown by November, but changed its story within weeks.

The way things are going at Fukushima, Kan might outlast Qaddafi, Obama, Merkel and Sarkozy.

Nice job, if you can get it

2011-06-02T11:16:00.000-07:00

HuffPo:

A newly-released study from the Congressional Research Service bolsters claims that the nation's largest banks profited off the Federal Reserve's financial crisis-era programs by borrowing cash for next to nothing, then lending it back to the federal government at substantially higher rates.
The report reinforces long-held beliefs that the banking system in essence engaged in taxpayer-financed arbitrage: They got money for free, then lent it back to Uncle Sam while collecting juicy returns. Left out of the equation are the millions of everyday borrowers, like households and small businesses, who were unable to secure loans needed to tide them over until the crisis ended.

And if you can do this once, why not do it again and again?
(h/t cryptogon)

Karzai's last warning

2011-05-31T14:28:00.000-07:00

BBC:

Mr Karzai said his government had repeatedly asked the US to stop raids which end up killing Afghan civilians and this was his "last warning".

But what either the reporter or Mr. Karzai failed to specify was that this was the last warning in the month of May. Next month's warning are being prepared now, just as NATO is preparing new airstrikes.

Goodbye Saleem

2011-05-31T12:52:00.000-07:00

Saleem Shahzad, a journalist that worked for the Asia Times in Pakistan has been murdered.

I've read his reports for several years now, he was able to interview Taliban and 'al-Qaida' people and went where few other reporters could.

But it seems it might have been his latest reporting, delving into the relationship between Pakistan naval officers and the attackers of the Mehran naval base on May 22, that motivated his killers.

Speculation is that they are ISI, but that doesn't mean much. Pakistan's continuing devolution, spurred by the AfPak war, a corrupt political class, and natural disasters is destined to continue. Factions, both internally and externally motivated will only continue to struggle for their shadowy goals, and the few people with the courage and ability to explain what's going on will continue to die.

R.I.P.

If drones could smile

2011-05-25T15:29:00.000-07:00

President Drone, after grovelling in front of Bibi Netanyahu, but getting his ass kicked and his face bitch-slapped all the same, now tells the British Parliament that the US and Britain are indispensable to the world, evidently for eliminating the oversupply of brown people.

Britain is still probably responsible for more millions of deaths throughout its colonial career than the US, but the two certainly tower over the other pipsqueaks around such as France, Italy, Japan, and, yes, Israel.

A beautiful friendship of blood and thievery is thus celebrated by a man who was supposed to bring hope and change, but has brought only more death and destruction hiding behind a constant stream of lies.

But with a smiley face!

Flesh colored kids that glow in the dark...

2011-05-24T09:46:00.000-07:00

it's easy to see without looking to far that not much is really sacred.
-Paraphrasing Bob Dylan's It's Alright Ma, (I'm Only Bleeding)

Japan has taken the bold step of raising permissible radiation levels in schools twenty times.

The government argues the new rules are essential to keeping schools in the Fukushima region from being forced to close.

It's actions like this that show the true face of neo-liberalism. Kids need an education, right? If they develop a few tumors down the road that's just bad luck, maybe that radiation is doing them a lot of good, too.

According to the US based Nobel Prize winning group, Physicians for Social Responsibility, the new limits mean exposed children now have a one in 200 risk of getting cancer, compared with a one in 500 risk for adults.

Unfit to print

2011-05-16T10:14:00.000-07:00

TEPCO has acknowledged that reactors 1, 2 and 3 at Fukushima Daiichi have undergone meltdown. Unit 1 melted within hours of the earthquake/tsunami, and melted though the containment vessel.

The New York Times still hasn't deemed to cover this story, evidently their editors feel that the news that Osama bin Ladin is still dead is of overriding importance, and anything else just a distraction.

UPDATE: In an article on May 18, with the headline "In Japan Reactor Failings, Danger Signs for the U.S." the Times actually says it, well down in the body of text:

Tokyo Electric in recent days has acknowledged that damage at the plant was worse than previously thought, with fuel rods most likely melting completely at Reactors 1, 2 and 3 in the early hours of the crisis, raising the danger of more catastrophic releases of radioactive materials. The company also said new evidence seemed to confirm that at Reactor No. 1, the pressure vessel, the last layer of protection, was broken and leaking radioactive water.

Closure

2011-05-05T12:35:00.000-07:00

I mean, ha, ha, what? Bloomberg headline:

Obama Seeks Closure at Ground Zero After Bin Laden Killing

President Drone opened the election season and the 10th anniversary of 9/11 season together today, and it will only get more intense. The nation's hit man in chief is running on his expertise in dispensing selective mayhem, and he's not going to let us forget his triumph, or the reason for it.

By the way, is the war over in Libya? It sure has disappeared from the news.

Hit men

2011-05-04T11:07:00.000-07:00

It's now three days since Osama bin dead, but the party continues full force. Newspapers, television, the internet, all are obsessed with repeating the latest story from the White House, and commenting solemnly on it as if it were written in stone.

The NYT has stepped up to promote more torture, just so that it's called by any other name. WAPO columnists are practically frothing at the mouth, their blood lust being whetted by thought of hit men in green. USA, USA!

The main import of the killing, if true, is that Obama has started his run for another term in earnest. First they tried to whack Gaddafi, but failed apart from the dead children, then on to Osama. The jockeying of Panetta to Defense, where he will continue his exalted role as placeholder, and Petraeus to the CIA where he will merge the assassination squads of the CIA and the military sends a message that the hit men's gloves are off. President Drone will run for a second term as the nation's hit man in chief.

For the past few years I've made a futile effort to chart the number and spread of movies about hit men. Their numbers are legion. There are funny hit men, romantic hit men, tragic hit men, teenage girl hit men, hit men couples, pretty soon we might expect hit men dogs.

This relentless propaganda promoting killers that kill for gain, or because their jobs are to kill (kind of the same thing) is no accident. Obama, who is too weak to run a coherent foreign policy has hit on a winning strategy. Just kill people and you are cool.

Really?

2011-05-01T22:04:00.000-07:00

President Drone says bin Laden is dead, but how can we know for sure without OBL's long form birth certificate?

President Drone strikes again

2011-04-30T17:05:00.000-07:00

Murdering children brings peace and freedom to Libya!

The White Knight is talking backwards

2011-04-23T09:54:00.000-07:00

President Drone, wearing his hat as a constitutional scholar, has pronounced that Bradley Manning 'broke the law'. This legitimizes Manning's torture, and obviates the need for a trial. If the President can whack whoever he wants, why shouldn't he be able to dispense with the expensive and complicated business of a trial before pronouncing verdict and sentence.

You may recall what his predecessor, the Red Queen, said:

'No, no!' said the Queen. 'Sentence first - verdict afterwards.'

The updated version:

'No, no!' said the President. 'Verdict first - trial afterwards.'

President Drone

2011-04-21T13:27:00.000-07:00

News of the latest addition to the Libyan war, the use of US Predator drones, should come as no surprise. Obama has made them a cornerstone of his foreign policy, as befitting a Nobel Peace Laureate.

As in Pakistan, where they were first used to take out 'high value targets', and their use has morphed into bombing foot soldiers, tribal elders, and any stray civilian that might look suspicious, in Libya we will doubtlessly be assured how they will just kill 'bad guys'. 'Bad guys' is a euphemism for 'anyone killed by a drone'.

Since drones have not shown themselves to be particularly effective, further escalation is inevitable. With advisers now on the ground, and the war showing no sign of ending, a propaganda push for troops is right around the corner.

Third war in the world

2011-04-14T01:12:00.000-07:00

b at Moon of Alabama has a good point, the failure of the NATO bombing intervention in the civil war in Libya now requires 'boots on the ground'.

The necessary press work is well underway, but the Obama administration still seems to lack the balls to defy the unknown. Hillary seems to have disappeared, doubtlessly she's armoring up for a charge to the front. Expect the invisible man (BO) to soon acquiesce to a larger commitment. The British and French like to talk tough, but without Uncle Sam leading the charge they'll just huff and puff.

If Gates is really on his way out, there is no one left to point out the folly.

Shit for brains

2011-04-14T01:02:00.000-07:00

The Barry Bonds case confirms the obvious, put twelve Americans in a jury room and they'll put their stupidity, ignorance and fucking cowardice on display for all the mankind that is dumb enough to watch. I guess you have to count me in on the last point.

The governments' case was a classic witch hunt, you use a grand jury to damn someone no matter what they say, and the witchery is what everyone has done, but a purification rite must go on.

To see them succeed is disgusting, but not surprising.

The unmitigated Gall

2011-04-11T11:40:00.000-07:00

On April 5th, M K Bhadrakumar wrote an article in the Asia Times that looked at the recent killings of UN workers in Mazar-i-Sharif. Some of the points he made were:
1. The impossibility of a Taliban presence in the city.

Indeed, anyone familiar with the Amu Darya region would know that the walk from the Blue Mosque to the UN compound itself is as eternal a walk as the footsteps that Neil Armstrong, the American astronaut, took on July 20, 1969, under the close monitoring of the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral. Not a bird can fly across that one kilometer without the three lords of the northern Afghan manor noticing it (or permitting it to happen) - Rashid Dostum, Uzbek strongman; Mohammed Mohaqiq, Hazara Shi'ite leader; and Atta Mohammad Noor, currently governor of Balkh province and an erstwhile Northern Alliance leader.

Dostum, Mohaqiq and Atta might have had ups and downs in their mutual often-acrimonious equations, but one thing that unites them for a lifetime is their visceral hatred toward the Taliban and their existential fear of a return of the Taliban to power in Afghanistan. They do not need to be told that the Taliban and them simply cannot co-exist within one Afghan political entity.

2. The city and the whole region are in an uproar over the possible release (from Gitmo) and repatriation of Mullah Khairullah Khairkhwa to Afghanistan. Why?

But then, the ISI didn't let misfortune overtake their favorite Taliban official and Khairkhwa regrouped and returned to first lay siege to Mazar and then bombard it for several months and thereafter storm it in August 1998. This time, Khairkhwa and the ISI took no chances. The Hazara Shi'ites were massacred in their thousands in revenge and for the next six days after entering Mazar, Khairkhwa ordered his men to go from door to door looking for male Hazara Shi'ites and summarily executed them.

Thousands of Uzbek prisoners were packed into transport truck containers to be suffocated or to die of heat stroke so that Khairkhwa could spare ammunition. Among those who managed to flee the city were Dostum, Mohaqiq and Atta. Mohaqiq was evacuated in the nick of time from Khairkhwa's clutches by a helicopter.

On April 9th, Carlotta Gall wrote an article for the NYT that says it was the Taliban that was seen as 'stirring the mob to violence'. Many anonymous sources were used, no historical perspective was given, no mention of Mullah Khairkhwa was made, and the conclusions supplied obviously serve the interests of the US and NATO. Ms. Gall's only interest in reporting, like that of her newspaper, is to support the war and the government, hiding behind a mask of objectivity. Unfortunately for them, the longer wars go on, the harder it is to effectively lie, and the masks slip off so often they become useless. But they seem to never learn.

Pee-eww! We have a budget.

2011-04-08T20:41:00.000-07:00

The stench of the Dems waving their buttocks in the air finally overcame the Rethugs, and they seem to have agreed to use a drop of lubricant to help stop up the orifices.

So this drama, played out to the bemusement of the general populace and the delight of the pundits, appears to be over. An orgy of credit taking is coming, so stop your ears and eyes for a few days, until the next clown show is announced.

We can't wait.

Ebbing my tuckus

2011-04-07T21:08:00.000-07:00

New horizons in reporter whoredom.

In my last post I linked to an LA Times article with the headline:

Japan nuclear crisis ebbing, U.S. experts say

It starts with the following paragraphs:

Although the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has not yet been stabilized, there is no evidence that overheating during the last month has resulted in any melting of the reactor vessels or their containment structures, Obama administration officials said Thursday.

If that assessment is correct, then significant additional releases of radioactivity into the environment will be limited, and emergency crews should have a far better chance of preventing further damage to the plant's reactors.

The assessment, provided to The Times on background, suggests that the plant is unlikely to suffer a complete meltdown, in which uranium fuel gets so hot that it melts through the bottom of the reactor and containment vessels, spewing high-level radiation into the plant's underlying foundation.

"We are a long way from a point where anybody would say this is stable," a senior administration official said. "But it is not a runaway. For a long time, we will be at a declining level of risk."

My emphasis, obviously.

Why oh why, LA Times reporter Ralph Vartabedian, would you grant anonymity to 'experts' or 'senior officials' speaking on 'background'? What does 'background' mean here? Is it 'classified', or 'secret'?

Don't you realize that you are being used like a two dollar whore for a worthless story that serves only to prop up the tottering edifice of the nuclear industry and their boy Barack Obama?

Yes, I bet you do.

Tower of Babbling

2011-04-07T20:45:00.000-07:00

Apart from the greatest threat to mankind in the history of the world, the 'shutdown' of the US government, most of our other news threads have degenerated into a morass of contradiction.

In Libya, the US announced that their airstrikes would end last Friday, and then that they were extended until Saturday upon request from NATO. Now we learn that US airstrikes continue, and that possible US boots on the ground might be necessary to augment the US sneakers on the ground of the CIA.

Mission creepiness.

In Japan, the Times says that the recent aftershock/earthquake has complicated Japanese efforts to avoid nuclear catastrophe, in case it hasn't already happened, while the LA Times assures us that US experts are sure the crisis is ebbing. Right.

It's evident that a lack of direction has allowed the press to muck and cluck about like soon to be headless chickens, ready for a new mandate, or their imminent beheading. President O keeps getting smaller and smaller, or maybe more and more transparent, defying his dusky hue as he merges into the background of the White House.

Outside, we are sure, life goes on all around us. Reality, being real, is bound to rear its ugly head even for the press. They'll get their story straight when they're forced to, or after they move on to the next big thing.

Drumming Libya

2011-04-02T20:34:00.000-07:00

The flame of the left at Mother Jones, Kevin Drum, showing his colors:

So what should I think about [the war in Libya]? If it had been my call, I wouldn't have gone into Libya. But the reason I voted for Obama in 2008 is because I trust his judgment. And not in any merely abstract way, either: I mean that if he and I were in a room and disagreed about some issue on which I had any doubt at all, I'd literally trust his judgment over my own. I think he's smarter than me, better informed, better able to understand the consequences of his actions, and more farsighted.

The shorter version:

I am Obama's bitch.

Who's on first?

2011-04-01T14:29:00.000-07:00

US ending its air combat role in Libya

Trying to follow the Obama administration's wandering around, into and from intervention in the Libyan civil war is an exercise in futility, and might lead to premature blindness, baldness, or bad vibes.

The episode, from beginning to the present, has shown that when Obama is presented with a new problem, and not just following the old idiotic policies of Bush, cannot even make up consistent policy, idiotic or not. He just blows in the wind like a scarecrow, hoping someone might be startled into calling him Mr. President and thus re-elect him.

I think that its safe to say that there are disagreements between his underlings, but that should be a feature, not a bug in having advisers. But when the person in charge cannot make up their mind, and allows disagreements to run amok, some serious shit can happen.

Biting the bullet

2011-03-30T12:14:00.000-07:00

When you here phrases like this you know some serious denial is in action:

This is why, despite the damage caused by the efforts so far, Japanese officials have little choice but to continue down the feed-and-bleed path. “The worst-case scenario is that a meltdown makes the plant’s site a permanent grave,” said Tetsuo Iguchi, a professor in the department of quantum engineering at Nagoya University. “In a small island nation like Japan, that’s just not an option. That is why the government is trying to prevent a meltdown at any cost.”

Unfortunately, in cases like this you cannot always control your 'options'. Avoiding a 'permanent grave' may be a laudable intent, making things worse, and killing people, before accepting the inevitable can be just kidding yourself and the public.

Small island nation or not, if the cores have been breached, they won't be able to get the genie back in the bottle. Then what, if not a permanent grave?

Joe

2011-03-27T23:08:00.000-07:00

Joe Bageant, he of Deer Hunting with Jesus, has passed away. Joe was a fine writer, and a perceptive observer of the American Tragedy. He talked about things that seldom, if ever, cross the radar screen of either the MSM, or the so called liberal blogosphere. He will be missed.
R.I.P.

Surreal

2011-03-25T01:26:00.000-07:00

The Japanese version of neo-liberalism faced with a catastrophe is not that different from the US version, but the license it allows the news media to spin is surreal. After this CNN headline "Japan suspects nuclear reactor core at stricken plant has breached" we are presented with this concatenation of sentences:

Safety fears at the plant and beyond — radiation particles have been found as far away as Iceland — are compounding Japan's worst crisis since World War Two.

More than two dozen people have been injured trying to bring the plant under control.

Two of the reactors are now regarded as safe in what is called a cold shutdown. Four remain volatile, emitting steam and smoke periodically, but work is advancing to restart water pumps needed to cool fuel rods inside those reactors.

"It's much more hopeful," said Tony Roulstone, a nuclear energy expert at Cambridge University.

Tony is hopeful, but there is absolutely no context in the article, nor to the actual tragedy unfolding in slow-motion that lets us know why. We just must need feel good phrases from experts, especially from prestigious universities, no matter how far away.

No fly my eye

2011-03-21T21:20:00.000-07:00

The news media continues in large part to repeat that the military action in Libya is the imposition of a 'no fly' zone. Since when does a no fly zone require bombing troops and tanks?

This is an intervention in a civil war. The enthusiasm of Britain and France is especially appalling, evidently it is impossible for mankind to learn anything for more than a few years.

The farcical notion that the 'West' is on the side of 'the people' in the Arab world will be hard to maintain for more that another few weeks or months. The tottering of the repressive apparatus will lead to other interventions, Yemen will probably be next. It remains to be seen if the cowardly and stupid Saudi regime can handle the repression in Bahrain, otherwise the US will need to overtly intervene there as well.

There's a good chance that all these different wars will start to merge. This will be the product of the sclerotic policies that have remained unchanged and unquestioned until something had to give. And with an administration that gives new meaning to the word incompetence, it could be a disaster with world wide consequences.

Smokescreen

2011-03-18T19:53:00.000-07:00

The about face by the Obama administration on military action against Libya is usually being evaluated on its own merit. Here we think otherwise, military action against Libya is a smokescreen to obscure the repressions in course in Bahrain, Yemen, and the festering source of the Arab counter-revolution, Saudi Arabia.

Time will come!

A drone a day

2011-03-18T16:13:00.000-07:00

Obama's drone war in Pakistan keeps escalating, and according to Pakistan, keeps missing. One can understand why Obama does so, for all its inaccuracies, it is risk free, it gives the little cowardly prick a sense of power that he otherwise lacks, and he can pretend that it will help win in Afghanistan. All wrong, of course, but that has never dissuaded him from anything in the past.

Pakistan Gen. Kayani has been one of Washington's most faithful lapdogs since he took over the army, but he must have been forced to speak out this time:

Gen. Ashfaq Kayani said an unmanned U.S. Predator drone had earlier Thursday "carelessly and callously targeted" a peaceful meeting of elders in North Waziristan, a Pakistani tribal region and Taliban stronghold.

"In complete violation of human rights, such acts of violence take us away from our objective of elimination of terrorism," Gen. Kayani said in a statement. Pakistan had officially protested the strike, he said.

In typical fashion, the US replied in the most insulting tone possible:

A U.S. official dismissed the criticism of the strike. "These guys were terrorists, not the local men's glee club," the official said.

Naturally, the official remains nameless.

Just as in the Davis case, we can expect that the Pakistan government and army will get over their snit as soon as public opinion moves on. But propping up a corrupt subservient clique is a game that will run out of time. And when it does, the US will find itself with an enemy that will be beyond its power to control.

A Question

2011-03-18T10:16:00.000-07:00

Hearing that some of the relief problems the Japanese are facing after the tsunami were caused by roads being destroyed washed out, and it thus taking days to reach fishing villages, we wonder why ships and amphibious means have not been used to reach these places.

I've seen nothing about the Japanese navy being used.

Is this from a lack of reporting, a lack of means, or a lack of will?

Emergency responses

2011-03-18T10:11:00.000-07:00

The official response to the nuclear emergency at Fukushima is reminiscent of the official response to the Gulf oil spill.
What are the similarities?

The emergency is handled from the outset by the private corporation that ran the operation before the emergency.
The company minimizes the damage, using government officials as a chorus to prove them correct.
As the situation worsens, the government steadfastly refused to participate.
As the situation worsens, the government steadfastly minimizes the risks.
Ridiculous solutions, the cap on the well, dropping water from helicopters on the holding tanks are offered as the situation worsens. Minimizing continues to farcical levels, while evidence is hidden/blacked out.
Finally, after much time is lost, real solutions are explored, the relief well in one case, and encasing the plant in sand and concrete in the other.

So we can conclude, as opposed to those that contend that this is a Japanese style response to an emergency, that this is a neo-liberal style response to an emergency. The government is used as a tool by a corporation to avoid liability and cost.

And since now neo-liberalism rules from the US, to Japan to Europe, we can expect new crises to be handled in the same blundering fashion, featuring obfuscation, shirking of governmental responsibilities, with the burdens placed on the public coffers and health.

50?

2011-03-15T19:51:00.000-07:00

That only 50 workers are fighting multiple issues in at least four nuclear reactors seems absurd, if not futile.

Oops, as I write, breaking from MSNBC:

Operations to prevent meltdown at Japanese nuclear plant halted due to radiation surge

What's the Japanese equivalent of the China Syndrome, Milwaukee?

Amen

2011-03-12T22:44:00.000-08:00

IOZ has spoken, re Bradley Manning:

What this episode reveals is that the most salient aspect of Barack Obama's character is that he is an asshole of the worst order. He does not delight in cruelty like his predecessor, but is grossly indifferent to it. The Ts have all been crossed. Proper procedures followed? Yes. Fine. Let's move on. I have been assured.

Exit, pursued by a bear

2011-03-10T15:02:00.000-08:00

Whether your some shlump at NPR, or their boss, or the Director of National Security for this benighted nation, the quickest way to get your ass fired is to speak an uncomfortable truth.

Protests and other protests

2011-03-10T11:28:00.000-08:00

WaPo:

Saudi police have opened fire at a rally in the kingdom's east in an apparent escalation of efforts to stop planned protests.

~~Expect a strong statement from Hillary Clinton about peaceful protesters being shot, and drawing parallels to Iran.~~ Expect the US Secretary of State to say nothing.

Tomorrow is the Saudi 'Day of Rage'. Things might get hairy.