There isn’t any member of the European Union where a large plurality of the population wants to ethnically cleanse a fifth of their co-citizens.
Fortunately for Native Americans and Native Hawaiians the American empire builders have discontinued their program of ethnic cleansing provided Natives are not on land coveted by mining companies. The Israeli Zionists and the religious and secular right are more determined to complete their plan of total ethnic cleansing. After the Palestinians are gone they will go after bi-ethnic Israeli-Palestinians, After that, who knows? But Israeli ingenuity knows no bounds and they will find more scapegoats to play into their paranoia.
The upset in Michigan by Sanders is even more surprising when you consider the fact that Clinton barely won the popular vote in Metro Detroit where the Clintons have dominated vote totals since 1992 and despite the fact that Hilary Clinton was one of the strongest proponents in U.S. Congress of the federal financial bailout of the auto industry.
PA politicians have a vested interest in keeping alive the myth of the two state solution. But that idea is dead. It was killed long ago and Netanyahu' disasterous polcies merely put the nails in the coffin. These PA politicians want to hold on to their perks, privileges and incomes.
This number is not too surprising. Before Bush's Iraq conquest, he had drummed up 47-60% support for the war: link to en.wikipedia.org
It's just the cowards, haters, and fraidy cats, doing what they do. Every country has got them in about the same proportion. It doesn't reflect well on the Israelis, but neither does it reflect well on US, Germans, French, Russians etc.
Thank you Professor Cole.
That is a great, surreal travesty for Israel and its politicians and its a greater surreal travesty for the USA and its politicians who close the eyes to it and continue to portray Israel as a great democracy. By moral comparison Donald Trump smells like a rose.
Along the same lines, 42% of Israeli Jews say that squatter settlements on Palestinian land in the Palestinian West Bank benefit Israeli security.
This is probably true for two main reasons. One because they make the prospect of the return of the land all but impossible without creating a humanitarian problem of the same order as the one it would resolving, and then because they would be first in line if any external enforcement was ever undertaken and, ultimately, sacrificeable.
Hilary Clinton is far closer to being indicted than she was just a few days ago. It's just been revealed that she wrote many of the e-mails containing secret materials herself and then sent them out over an insecure server. Judge Napolitano, a Fox consultant has written an article about it and has been interviewed on camera. His trenchant analysis on the video makes her political future look dicey, indeed. Immunity for a witness has been granted by a Federal Judge and a grand jury has been called. These things aren't done unless a prosecution is anticipated. Even if she is not herself indicted, the indictment of her associates could well be devastating for her political campaign.
Netanyahu is simply a man who puts the interests of Israel as he perceives them above every other consideration, quite literally. Most leaders do but few have national interests so divergent from broadly accepted Western norms and so it's less apparent. Furthermore he is unrestrained in this purpose by the niceties of loyalty or even good manners. I met Ben Gurion in 1971 and although by then age had mellowed him he must have been exactly the same. Our conversation turned at one point to de Gaulle who he said he greatly admired. There may have been the inadvertent flicker of my eyebrow because he insisted, explaining that de Gaulle was a leader who put the interests of France above all others, and that is what any leader should do.
Professor, your starting to sound like the Nightly News during the Vietnam War: "Our noble allies, with American air support, are re, re, retaking so and so Provence and will soon be on the road to Finale Victory!"
Haven't you read Sun Tzu? "Attack the enemy where he is weak, when he advances with great strength, withdraw and attack at a different weak place."
We have fallen for this same gambit over and over again in Afghanistan and Iraq
Have you ever been in a town or village "Liberated" by U S air power? I have and the folk who were left didn't love us.
No matter how many bombs we drop on them, the Iraqis will not come love us and let us steal their oil, which if you remember, was the whole point of the Iraq invasion.
"(Netanyahu) declined a White House dinner invitation.”
There is nothing strange about that. There is a long history of Israeli prime ministers having contempt for US presidents. Perhaps in Netanyahu's case, the novelty of insulting Obama and the office of the presidency has worn off and is now a bore.
The locals support neither - they do not want Daesh, and they do not want their city to be destroyed.
Alternative options are welcome. However, none come to mind.
I have long worried about the American media's portrayal of Muslims and Arabs.
Since the 1970's it has been OK to use stereotypes for Arabs that if they portrayed Blacks, Hispanics or any other other groups in similar fashion they would have been shut down ASAP.
But it was fine with Muslims.
This hatred we are seeing today has been worked at for some time now.
“We need to begin opening our borders to people, creating a world where everyone can enjoy a basic standard of living, wherever they are born,” Dearden said, “regardless of what passport they possess. Unless we do so, our democracy will disintegrate.”
Interesting. Developments in Europe suggest that, like it or not, it is migration itself that is placing democracy under stress. The choice may be to maintain traditional border controls or to have democracy fall to demagogues.
Only our bought and paid for politicians and the warmongers care for anything Mr. Netanyahu has to say. He lost me on 9-11 when he said the attack on the WTC was "Very good."
As a matter of history, the voting rights act was pushed through Congress by the President and his majority party, it had been in the works, and was signed Aug. 6, 1965. The Watts riots broke out Aug. 11th, on local issues.
And to segue to what I'd like to talk about, that was after I had begun my career of political interest and involvement, at the age of 14, in a 1964 initiative campaign in California, for "fair housing," which was basically sponsored by the black civil rights leaders and enlisted many sympathetic whites.
I've been involved in various sorts of activist causes in every decade since then, including a 14-year long march of unsuccessfully trying to establish the Green Party as something positive in American politics, during which I led a local initiative coalition of local businesses and environmentalists to keep out a Wal-Mart (we only lost by 200 votes and cost Wal-Mart $2.5 million bucks), and later was a state official in Green Party, we were saying everything Bernie is saying now but we had no visibility or money. And we got clobbered by the Dems in 2000 and blamed for Gore's loss, and now it's dwindled into nothing, but darn it, it did make a difference, it did contribute to the overall evolution which is occurring. It does make a difference, I have had the experience that one column of mine in a local newspaper got the county government to change an urban renewal plan in more citizen-friendly directions.
And darn it, even when you fail at your immediate purpose, both the long slog and the revolutionary vision are necessary and desirable. And they do make a difference, because the America of 2016 is mighty different today than the America I remember from 1960, and every little thing I (and millions of others) did to indulge ourselves in cultural and political gestures "against the man" did contribute to a massive cultural revolution in attitudes and behaviors.
We need to do a better job of seeing how it's good that different activists are doing different things and forming coalitions, instead of thinking "they're doing it wrong" and insisting that social and political change comes only in one way. Social and political change has always been an evolutionary chaos, and rational history rejects the view that "the establishment" -- whatever establishment you like to conceive of, in any place or time -- "controls everything" and that only violence is effective.
"For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope: for a living dog is better than a dead lion". Eccl 9,4 (KJV).
What about Trump as succeeding with evangelicals ?
bombing other countries. its what we do. wasting our money terrorizing peoples half way across the globe. us message to anbar residents.." prepare yourself to be refugees. your home is likely to be destroyed. " its called winning hearts and minds.
If you want to understand why people fear Islam, read this guy: . "I care not to debate which came first, Islamism or anti-Muslim bigotry; suffice to say that both feed into each other symbiotically". ~ Maajid Nawaz
Advocating hope for nonviolent change is a foolish sellout, paid for by the right wing.
The right wing controls the government because it controls the tools of democracy, elections and mass media, with money gained by the selfishness and lack of ethics that succeed in business and disqualify them from public office. The right wing by definition consists of those who speak only the language of force. They do not have words for opinion, protest, or nonviolence. If you want to persuade them you must speak their language, otherwise you are hiding in the closet.
They would love to have you singing folksongs and waving signs in your designated protest area, ignored by their media. The American revolution of 1776 did not rely upon nonviolence and would have been an absurd failure if it had. The only nonviolent activity that displaces the right wing is the education of rioters.
None of the mentioned gains against the right wing were obtained by peaceful means. The civil rights acts of the 1960s were gained by riots in the streets: not until then did the right wing pretend to have been persuaded by protestors. Gay rights like female suffrage were obtained by offers they could not refuse, personal relationships with judges, like any other coercion. Climate change is a non-issue designed by the right wing to waste the energy of the left: please, oh please waste your time protesting a someday somehow issue unconnected with the fundamental problem.
Go play in your corner and leave the right wing to be your masters.
A lot of your other candidates have made just as many ridiculous statements. Honestly America if these are the sort of people you can get to represent you then there is no hope for the USA. The only reason you can proclaim yourselves as leaders of the world is because of your arms production and your love of killing anyone who does not think you are the KING PIN and who will not do as they are told. Wake up America and get yourselves educated then there may be some hope for you. Then you can join the rest of us and have sensible discussions on how to deal with the troubles of the world. First though you need to seriously look at someone like Sanders, though he is not perfect he can at least see what is wrong with America. The best day of my life was when I left and joined my thoughts with an educated free thinking country.
The U.S. has become addicted to military Keynesian-ism, unable to beat its swords into plowshares, bankrupted by empire, unwilling to maintain crumbling infrastructure, oblivious to the increasing misery of its own people. Its dysfunctional government is but one of many failed institutions that propel its downward spiral.
Republican politicians do not accept the science of climate change, so we are on track to devastation of the environment. .. if their new round of nuclear weapons doesn't wipe us out first. Maybe they are getting ready for the coming dystopia: militarizing the police, implementing universal surveillance, keeping much of the government's activity secret. If Americans are ready for Fascism, Republicans can deliver.
This looks like the deaths related to changes in food crops alone. It does not include deaths resulting from diminished rainfall, rising sea levels, ocean acidification affecting oceanic food chains... Plus, we're running out of resources, so long-haul shipping, availability of pesticides and fertilizers, and other issues will also affect death rates,
WTF? If this is how many people will die per million humanity will not even notice global warming. These figures are so low not even Africans would notice global warming as a threat to their lives. Something is amiss.
This repört appears on a day that it was headlined on Yahoo that temps. in the northern hemisphere were 2 degrees C above pre industrial levels. For Feb. These reports went on to claim that temps. this much above average would not likely continue.
Well, the graph that was posted here on IC a few days ago would seem to indicate otherwise.
Excellent article! I'd just add that “For well over two decades after the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza in 1967, Israel…[supported] the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood and its offshoot Hamas in Gaza as a counterweight to the nationalist…(PLO). This reached the point where the Israeli military occupation encouraged Brotherhood thugs to intimidate PLO supporters.” Even Anthony Cordesman, respected Middle East analyst for the Center for Strategic Studies, acknowledges that Israel “aided Hamas directly—the Israelis wanted to use it as a counterbalance to the PLO.”
The regime brought tanks into Deraa and opened fire on peaceful youth protesters there. Maher al-Assad was behind this. It also stationed snipers on rooftops and shot into peacefully protesting crowds. The regime militarized this movement quite deliberately. It is a horrible group of people, responsible for gulags and torturing large numbers of helpless prisoners to death.
The phony in American politics: how voters turn into suckers: History tells us that the skeptical American people are easily conned when confronted with the promises of politicians. In 2016, the hairstyles may have changed but the schtick remains the same - link to theguardian.com
Ayman al-Zawahiri, the current head of al-Qaida, is also a physician and surgeon. Excelling in a particular branch of science does not preclude the possibility of one's harboring crackpot views of matters outside his narrow field of expertise. And then there's Dr. Josef Mengele...
I suggest that you read Hugh Roberts' article- then you might understand why the author wrote as he did. link to lrb.co.uk.
Syria situation is vastly more complex than your 'Assad started ...' assertion. Saudi Arabia, with Western connivance, had been seeking to destabilise Syria for years. Syria had already experienced an Islamist uprising thanks to the Muslim Brotherhood.
I'd agree that the government , and particularly the provincial administrations mishandled the initial response to civilian demonstrations, but once the Islamists took up arms, the situation became irreversible.
Also, he owns property where? Manhattan, Atlantic City and Palm Beach. Methinks he holds privately that 2oC temperature rise and consequent sea level rise are cause for concern, and lacking religion-based blinders, might think over reliance on fossil fuels is a problem.
There are two sides to Trump that have been revealed in reams of articles. Among the many features that get him criticized and labeled as a charlatan is his appealing to the uninformed and taking advantage of their lack of knowledge. Take immigration and The Wall. He makes a big issue out of (mainly) Mexicans coming into the United States and that scares the hell out of people afraid of losing their jobs to immigrants who will work for less. Trump ignores the causes of migration to the United States for which, in part, the United States is responsible - support of right-wing governments and overthrow of others especially in El Salvador and Honduras. Nor does Trump say anything about recent reports of more Mexicans leaving the US than coming into it.
This is what I don't understand about Trump. If he is such a charlatan, why did he invite AIPAC/Likud abuse by offering to be neutral re: Palestine and Israel?
A charlatan would emphasize how Israel is our friend. Like Rubio, Cruz, Clinton.....
Also, he did not brag about large genitalia, he instead said "It is not a problem." This was in response to Rubio implying that it was a problem.
I disagree. Not everyone is well-informed and if Netanyahu's assertions are not challenged point by point, those assertions spread even more and become entrenched and believed.
In part of an essay - Donald Trump’s Policies Are Not Anathema to U.S. Mainstream, but an Uncomfortable Reflection of It - link to theintercept.com - Glenn Greenwald addresses this topic.
We should not be surprised if others see the United States, for the most part, as a nation of sheep led by Judas Goats and chicken hawks into a state of perpetual war that will end the short American exercise in democracy but not before havoc and disasters are inflicted throughout the planet. Will the Queen of Chaos be the one to write the final chapters of the decline and fall of the American Empire and lead it through its last hurrah?
And will the Scottish Bard’s dream be deferred yet again?
Then let us pray that come it may,
(As come it will for a' that,)
That Sense and Worth, o'er a' the earth,
Shall bear the gree, an' a' that.
For a' that, an' a' that,
It's coming yet for a' that,
That Man to Man, the world o'er,
Shall brothers be for a' that.
It seems that no Republican candidate can do any harm to his popularity by attacking Islam and Muslims. However, Ben Carson made some other interesting comments. For a doctor he had some extreme views about abortion. He said abortion should be outlawed in all circumstances, including in cases of rape and incest, and compared it to slavery.
Again, as an educated man, it is strange that he rejected the scientific consensus that human activity was at least partly responsible for climate change. He even said that he found the debate on climate change to be "irrelevant" and a distraction from protecting the environment.
As someone who was so opposed to Islam, his tax plan including a 14.9% flat tax for all, except the poorest, is very similar to Islamic Khums or 20% of annual income. His plan would eliminate taxation of capital gains, dividends and interest at the individual level, and he described progressive taxation as socialism. In fact, he claimed inspiration for his flat rate system from the traditional tithe, saying, “I think God is a pretty fair guy.” According to tax experts, apparently his tax system “would increase the deficit by $3 trillion in just one year”.
As a peace-loving Christian, he was pretty reckless to say “military force is not off the table when it comes to Russia.” If that did not usher in Armageddon I don’t know what would.
Perhaps his most innovative foreign policy initiative was to force ISIS out of Iraq in order to allow that group to focus on overthrowing the Assad regime. I suppose after they took over all of Syria he would then carpet bomb them in just one country.
However, what I find most troubling are Dr. Carson’s views about the literal interpretation of the Bible, including the first chapters of Genesis. In an interview in 2013, he said: “You know, I’m proud of the fact that I believe what God has said, and I’ve said many times that I’ll defend it before anyone. If they want to criticize the fact that I believe in a literal, six-day creation, let’s have [a go] at it because I will poke all kinds of holes in what they believe.” It shows that even an advanced level of education cannot remove the virus of religious fanaticism. No wonder the world is in such a mess.
I think he would have a hard time even selling those ideas to Iranian ayatollahs. He will be greatly missed. He provided some relief from The Donald.
It's another evidence that professional education such as engineering and medicine can never make you am informed groomed thinking citizen. You can make good money, but it would of necessity show you a banal jejune ignoramus when it comes to issues of literature, history, and foreign policy.
I am an engineer and can vouch for engineers. Now Dr. Ben Carson has made it clear that physicians are no different either.
My favorite:
Carson claimed that scientists believe that aliens built the Egyptian Pyramids, however he believes that they were built for grain storage for the biblical Joseph.
Just want to be clear on this, no disrespect intended, there's no doubt in my mind that Islam in all its variations has lots to offer. It's just that I am personally disinterested in the finer points of religion for religion's sake. My interest is limited to the extent that it informes history and politics.
This video is probably more aimed at such an audience.
The US is to blame for a lot of things, but I don't think that the Sunnis and Shiites infighting is one of them. The narrow minded closing of the mind that Wahhabism promotes would have occurred regardless of any US action.
I think Sunnism has been greatly influenced by the petro dollar puritanism.
Anti Shia attitude spread so that now many Sunnis make really unreasonable criticisms which historically are new.
It was only when I looked behind the petro dollar and saw what Sunni Islam in this respect, did things start to fall into place and explain why we experience some of the criticism toward ahul bayt amongst some, a attack never expressed in classical Sunni Islam.
I'm sure anything I say can be debated , but this is loosely what I thought:
A Shia' scholar said he envied Sunni ulama for their beautiful poetry of love for the Prophet s.a.w. and it started me thinking that yes Shia spend quite a lot of energy into negative thoughts towards companions etc where as Sunnis have a positive or neutral view of it all.
It therefore looked somewhat reactionary to an event, rather an 'off shoot' than the core of Islam
It also seemed rather far fetched that people that had suffered exile in the desert eating leaves for many years etc would suddenly apostacise on the Prophet's s.a.w. demise.
And this might be corroborated by the Quran 9:100 since the companions are described as the foremost - ahul bayt are not mentioned.
Also whilst I understand the concept of the infallible Imam - and it is certainly serving Shi'ism well in keeping order and avoiding the extremism of some 'Sunni' groups - I believe that a friendly and respectful approach is more correct.
One thing I did find hard was that propaganda exists from both sides,
Spend may be an hour reading non Muslim academic readings of Islamic history to get a more objective view.
Anyway, overall I actually think Sunni Islam (in the sense of what that used to mean) has more in common with Shia Islam than say Wahhabi, Salafi Islam.
There will be that valid question hanging over the succession and the questionable actions of the Ummayyads and their unforgivable, paranoid driven, oppression of the ahul bayt, which we may disagree over.
However, in terms of fiqh and tasawwuf which really have been the life blood of Islam (one observation I have made as a difference with Christianity is that we have not focused on theology) we can work happily together as Muslims.
Perhaps Mustafa Akkad's - Allah have mercy and ever increase him amin! - approach of creating a film of the Prophet s.a.w. that was approved by both al Azhar and the Lebanese Shia Council is the way forward for us all.
Since the split was so early both Sunni and Shia contributions to Islamic history have to be nothing but praised.
So we each do our best, remain silent over what we disagree on as it is NOT actually a matter of belief/disbelief and 1400 years of debates haven't categorically convinced either, and leave the rest to Allah
Ideas of a blogger William Voller
Hillary Clinton has embraced the Iran deal, none of the Republicans has. While I don't like Clinton's foreign policy I think some people exaggerate how hawkish she is. She's hawkish, but nowhere near the Republicans.
The 2003 American invasion and occupation of Iraq created the pre-conditions for radical Sunni groups, like ISIS, to take root.
America, rather unwisely, destroyed Saddam Hussein’s secular state machinery and replaced it with a predominantly Shiite administration.
The U.S. occupation caused vast unemployment in Sunni areas, by rejecting socialism and closing down factories in the naive hope that the magical hand of the free market would create jobs.
Under the new U.S.-backed Shiite regime, working class Sunni’s lost hundreds of thousands of jobs.
Upper class Sunni’s were systematically dispossessed of their assets and lost their political influence.
Rather than promoting religious integration and unity, American policy in Iraq exacerbated sectarian divisions and created a fertile breading ground for Sunni discontent, from which Al Qaeda in Iraq took root.
These are the present day issues that add to the discontent between Sunni and Shia, it is political rather than religious
When it comes to disinterested agnostics, that's about as much as I like to know about the difference between protestants and catholics.
The only reason I bother with the difference between Shia and Sunni Islam is because of its geopolitical implications, which I am profoundly interested in.
I disagree. Syria has long been outside of France and especially Britain's orbit. Iraq and Syria have both been run by Baathist nationalists for more than a generation. Poorly. Britain and France have a role to play in helping but they are not obliged to take responsibility for either civil war.
One of the more interesting points brought up in the debate but didn't get much traction was the inference that military officers would never obey an illegal order. Surely this was worthy of debate given the recent history of the Iraq war, but obviously neither the candidates nor the moderators would want to touch that one.
GOP, BAD. Trump, the worst with nothing good. Another swirl of the Libyan genocide kool aid and I see, Hillary, just a class politician if not mother Teresa and Joan of arc, wrapped into one.
Now watch closely how the rich try to get someone else to pay to build seawalls to protect their property. The problem they will encounter is that the American Right has taught its followers that the cosmopolitan cities that trade with the evil outside world are enemies of the American Way of Life and deserve to be destroyed. Cruz's favorite conspiracy theory is Agenda 21, the evil UN plot to force everyone to live in pinko cities.
Remember about all the talk over the years that the al-Aqsa mosque could be the flash point for the next Arab-Israeli War? No other candidate would make plans to march into that very place to bully Moslems. Even Netanyahu knows that's insane. Trump had to have that explained to him.
I think you were a bit hard on Kasich. He is mainly a domestic affairs guy, but I took his invocation of George H.W. as an attempt to separate himself from the neocons endless war, wars and interventions and from G.W.s go-it-alone, my way or the highway meme and denial that working through others is part and parcel of leadership.
There isn’t any member of the European Union where a large plurality of the population wants to ethnically cleanse a fifth of their co-citizens.
Fortunately for Native Americans and Native Hawaiians the American empire builders have discontinued their program of ethnic cleansing provided Natives are not on land coveted by mining companies. The Israeli Zionists and the religious and secular right are more determined to complete their plan of total ethnic cleansing. After the Palestinians are gone they will go after bi-ethnic Israeli-Palestinians, After that, who knows? But Israeli ingenuity knows no bounds and they will find more scapegoats to play into their paranoia.
False equivalence
The upset in Michigan by Sanders is even more surprising when you consider the fact that Clinton barely won the popular vote in Metro Detroit where the Clintons have dominated vote totals since 1992 and despite the fact that Hilary Clinton was one of the strongest proponents in U.S. Congress of the federal financial bailout of the auto industry.
PA politicians have a vested interest in keeping alive the myth of the two state solution. But that idea is dead. It was killed long ago and Netanyahu' disasterous polcies merely put the nails in the coffin. These PA politicians want to hold on to their perks, privileges and incomes.
Best reply, short and sweet.
This number is not too surprising. Before Bush's Iraq conquest, he had drummed up 47-60% support for the war: link to en.wikipedia.org
It's just the cowards, haters, and fraidy cats, doing what they do. Every country has got them in about the same proportion. It doesn't reflect well on the Israelis, but neither does it reflect well on US, Germans, French, Russians etc.
Thank you Professor Cole.
That is a great, surreal travesty for Israel and its politicians and its a greater surreal travesty for the USA and its politicians who close the eyes to it and continue to portray Israel as a great democracy. By moral comparison Donald Trump smells like a rose.
Along the same lines, 42% of Israeli Jews say that squatter settlements on Palestinian land in the Palestinian West Bank benefit Israeli security.
This is probably true for two main reasons. One because they make the prospect of the return of the land all but impossible without creating a humanitarian problem of the same order as the one it would resolving, and then because they would be first in line if any external enforcement was ever undertaken and, ultimately, sacrificeable.
Hilary Clinton is far closer to being indicted than she was just a few days ago. It's just been revealed that she wrote many of the e-mails containing secret materials herself and then sent them out over an insecure server. Judge Napolitano, a Fox consultant has written an article about it and has been interviewed on camera. His trenchant analysis on the video makes her political future look dicey, indeed. Immunity for a witness has been granted by a Federal Judge and a grand jury has been called. These things aren't done unless a prosecution is anticipated. Even if she is not herself indicted, the indictment of her associates could well be devastating for her political campaign.
Netanyahu is simply a man who puts the interests of Israel as he perceives them above every other consideration, quite literally. Most leaders do but few have national interests so divergent from broadly accepted Western norms and so it's less apparent. Furthermore he is unrestrained in this purpose by the niceties of loyalty or even good manners. I met Ben Gurion in 1971 and although by then age had mellowed him he must have been exactly the same. Our conversation turned at one point to de Gaulle who he said he greatly admired. There may have been the inadvertent flicker of my eyebrow because he insisted, explaining that de Gaulle was a leader who put the interests of France above all others, and that is what any leader should do.
Professor, your starting to sound like the Nightly News during the Vietnam War: "Our noble allies, with American air support, are re, re, retaking so and so Provence and will soon be on the road to Finale Victory!"
Haven't you read Sun Tzu? "Attack the enemy where he is weak, when he advances with great strength, withdraw and attack at a different weak place."
We have fallen for this same gambit over and over again in Afghanistan and Iraq
Have you ever been in a town or village "Liberated" by U S air power? I have and the folk who were left didn't love us.
No matter how many bombs we drop on them, the Iraqis will not come love us and let us steal their oil, which if you remember, was the whole point of the Iraq invasion.
"(Netanyahu) declined a White House dinner invitation.”
There is nothing strange about that. There is a long history of Israeli prime ministers having contempt for US presidents. Perhaps in Netanyahu's case, the novelty of insulting Obama and the office of the presidency has worn off and is now a bore.
The locals support neither - they do not want Daesh, and they do not want their city to be destroyed.
Alternative options are welcome. However, none come to mind.
I have long worried about the American media's portrayal of Muslims and Arabs.
Since the 1970's it has been OK to use stereotypes for Arabs that if they portrayed Blacks, Hispanics or any other other groups in similar fashion they would have been shut down ASAP.
But it was fine with Muslims.
This hatred we are seeing today has been worked at for some time now.
Clinton, Cruz and Rubio are all Israel's pocket,so why waste a trip?
yeah. they are fine with having their cities demolished because we said so.
A pox on both houses and their acolytes
Hillary Clinton is a prominent Democrat who doesn't seem very disturbed by Netanyahu's approach.
Check the math. 12%, not 1.2%. Still not super-generous.
"The top 400 taxpayers filed 0.0003 of the nation’s 147.4 million tax returns but reported 1.17 percent of the nation’s total income."
I think that should be "0.0003 percent", otherwise the numbers don't come out right.
He's an asshole.
“We need to begin opening our borders to people, creating a world where everyone can enjoy a basic standard of living, wherever they are born,” Dearden said, “regardless of what passport they possess. Unless we do so, our democracy will disintegrate.”
Interesting. Developments in Europe suggest that, like it or not, it is migration itself that is placing democracy under stress. The choice may be to maintain traditional border controls or to have democracy fall to demagogues.
Please replace "unwisdom" with a more readily understood term.
A rare piece of good news for the USA and the rest of us.
"(Netanyahu) declined a White House dinner invitation." This is a very strange turn in USA politics, perhaps more strange that the Trump phenomena.
eat the rich
Only our bought and paid for politicians and the warmongers care for anything Mr. Netanyahu has to say. He lost me on 9-11 when he said the attack on the WTC was "Very good."
(Ninth paragraph) link to nytimes.com
By the time he's done, Netanyahu's humiliation may exceed that of George W. Bush.
As a matter of history, the voting rights act was pushed through Congress by the President and his majority party, it had been in the works, and was signed Aug. 6, 1965. The Watts riots broke out Aug. 11th, on local issues.
And to segue to what I'd like to talk about, that was after I had begun my career of political interest and involvement, at the age of 14, in a 1964 initiative campaign in California, for "fair housing," which was basically sponsored by the black civil rights leaders and enlisted many sympathetic whites.
I've been involved in various sorts of activist causes in every decade since then, including a 14-year long march of unsuccessfully trying to establish the Green Party as something positive in American politics, during which I led a local initiative coalition of local businesses and environmentalists to keep out a Wal-Mart (we only lost by 200 votes and cost Wal-Mart $2.5 million bucks), and later was a state official in Green Party, we were saying everything Bernie is saying now but we had no visibility or money. And we got clobbered by the Dems in 2000 and blamed for Gore's loss, and now it's dwindled into nothing, but darn it, it did make a difference, it did contribute to the overall evolution which is occurring. It does make a difference, I have had the experience that one column of mine in a local newspaper got the county government to change an urban renewal plan in more citizen-friendly directions.
And darn it, even when you fail at your immediate purpose, both the long slog and the revolutionary vision are necessary and desirable. And they do make a difference, because the America of 2016 is mighty different today than the America I remember from 1960, and every little thing I (and millions of others) did to indulge ourselves in cultural and political gestures "against the man" did contribute to a massive cultural revolution in attitudes and behaviors.
We need to do a better job of seeing how it's good that different activists are doing different things and forming coalitions, instead of thinking "they're doing it wrong" and insisting that social and political change comes only in one way. Social and political change has always been an evolutionary chaos, and rational history rejects the view that "the establishment" -- whatever establishment you like to conceive of, in any place or time -- "controls everything" and that only violence is effective.
I don't know. I still think of the 43 butchered Mexican student protesters. Still government stonewalling.
"For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope: for a living dog is better than a dead lion". Eccl 9,4 (KJV).
What about Trump as succeeding with evangelicals ?
bombing other countries. its what we do. wasting our money terrorizing peoples half way across the globe. us message to anbar residents.." prepare yourself to be refugees. your home is likely to be destroyed. " its called winning hearts and minds.
If you want to understand why people fear Islam, read this guy: . "I care not to debate which came first, Islamism or anti-Muslim bigotry; suffice to say that both feed into each other symbiotically". ~ Maajid Nawaz
Hazmat trucks shouldn't be anywhere near dense populations. Weaknesses get exploited. #Shia are holding fire, showing wisdom.
Did not the campaigns to re-take Tikrit and Ramadi leave both places in ruins? Do the locals support this over Daesh control?
Any link on your speech at @UofMPress couple of weeks ago?
Advocating hope for nonviolent change is a foolish sellout, paid for by the right wing.
The right wing controls the government because it controls the tools of democracy, elections and mass media, with money gained by the selfishness and lack of ethics that succeed in business and disqualify them from public office. The right wing by definition consists of those who speak only the language of force. They do not have words for opinion, protest, or nonviolence. If you want to persuade them you must speak their language, otherwise you are hiding in the closet.
They would love to have you singing folksongs and waving signs in your designated protest area, ignored by their media. The American revolution of 1776 did not rely upon nonviolence and would have been an absurd failure if it had. The only nonviolent activity that displaces the right wing is the education of rioters.
None of the mentioned gains against the right wing were obtained by peaceful means. The civil rights acts of the 1960s were gained by riots in the streets: not until then did the right wing pretend to have been persuaded by protestors. Gay rights like female suffrage were obtained by offers they could not refuse, personal relationships with judges, like any other coercion. Climate change is a non-issue designed by the right wing to waste the energy of the left: please, oh please waste your time protesting a someday somehow issue unconnected with the fundamental problem.
Go play in your corner and leave the right wing to be your masters.
thank you for information
very nice
Yes, Netanyahu IS EXACTLY LIKE isil, ME-THINKS THIS IS PSCHYCOPATHIC COLLECTIVISM.
A lot of your other candidates have made just as many ridiculous statements. Honestly America if these are the sort of people you can get to represent you then there is no hope for the USA. The only reason you can proclaim yourselves as leaders of the world is because of your arms production and your love of killing anyone who does not think you are the KING PIN and who will not do as they are told. Wake up America and get yourselves educated then there may be some hope for you. Then you can join the rest of us and have sensible discussions on how to deal with the troubles of the world. First though you need to seriously look at someone like Sanders, though he is not perfect he can at least see what is wrong with America. The best day of my life was when I left and joined my thoughts with an educated free thinking country.
The U.S. has become addicted to military Keynesian-ism, unable to beat its swords into plowshares, bankrupted by empire, unwilling to maintain crumbling infrastructure, oblivious to the increasing misery of its own people. Its dysfunctional government is but one of many failed institutions that propel its downward spiral.
Republican politicians do not accept the science of climate change, so we are on track to devastation of the environment. .. if their new round of nuclear weapons doesn't wipe us out first. Maybe they are getting ready for the coming dystopia: militarizing the police, implementing universal surveillance, keeping much of the government's activity secret. If Americans are ready for Fascism, Republicans can deliver.
This looks like the deaths related to changes in food crops alone. It does not include deaths resulting from diminished rainfall, rising sea levels, ocean acidification affecting oceanic food chains... Plus, we're running out of resources, so long-haul shipping, availability of pesticides and fertilizers, and other issues will also affect death rates,
@TheYoungTurks You guys should be much more afraid of Cruz then Trump. Cruz is a hard core globalist and social conservative
@TheYoungTurks Cruz is the perfect medium. Not Trump but not establishment either. And it makes Hillary and you and I, also happy
@cenkuygur Is that an attempt at a power to the people fist?
After considering the fruit salad of his life I am convinced this man has some very serious mental issues.
WTF? If this is how many people will die per million humanity will not even notice global warming. These figures are so low not even Africans would notice global warming as a threat to their lives. Something is amiss.
This repört appears on a day that it was headlined on Yahoo that temps. in the northern hemisphere were 2 degrees C above pre industrial levels. For Feb. These reports went on to claim that temps. this much above average would not likely continue.
Well, the graph that was posted here on IC a few days ago would seem to indicate otherwise.
Excellent article! I'd just add that “For well over two decades after the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza in 1967, Israel…[supported] the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood and its offshoot Hamas in Gaza as a counterweight to the nationalist…(PLO). This reached the point where the Israeli military occupation encouraged Brotherhood thugs to intimidate PLO supporters.” Even Anthony Cordesman, respected Middle East analyst for the Center for Strategic Studies, acknowledges that Israel “aided Hamas directly—the Israelis wanted to use it as a counterbalance to the PLO.”
@cenkuygur either way the country loses.
He is Trump without the stupid hair. Same theocratic tendencies & childish arguing. Freudian slip picture? link to t.co
@cenkuygur Cruz scares me more than Trump. Trump's a narcissistic dick. Cruz's a conniving calculated dick. Rubio is just flaccid.
@cenkuygur I can't help but think this Hitler-esque pose was chosen on purpose? No need to invoke genocide to know he's batshit.
@cenkuygur independents are voting against Trump. They do not have new people. link to t.co
@cenkuygur I doubt he will still have time to beat Trump.
I've noticed that the various forms of Sufi Islam are almost never talked about.
They're important currents within Islam.
Look for books by Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Shaykh Fadhlalla Haeri, Shaykh Kabir Helminski, Martin Lings, and William Chittick.
That was use of overforce with no reason against women supporting #Zaman daily, largest newspaper of Turkey.
Cancer and Cocaine? that's like Intestinal Worms and Kittens.
Oh, good, yes, by all means get rid of Trump for the real whackjob.
The regime brought tanks into Deraa and opened fire on peaceful youth protesters there. Maher al-Assad was behind this. It also stationed snipers on rooftops and shot into peacefully protesting crowds. The regime militarized this movement quite deliberately. It is a horrible group of people, responsible for gulags and torturing large numbers of helpless prisoners to death.
but Assad *does* have to step down // the only "peace" without Assad stepping down would be complete surrender of the rebels
The phony in American politics: how voters turn into suckers: History tells us that the skeptical American people are easily conned when confronted with the promises of politicians. In 2016, the hairstyles may have changed but the schtick remains the same - link to theguardian.com
Ayman al-Zawahiri, the current head of al-Qaida, is also a physician and surgeon. Excelling in a particular branch of science does not preclude the possibility of one's harboring crackpot views of matters outside his narrow field of expertise. And then there's Dr. Josef Mengele...
I suggest that you read Hugh Roberts' article- then you might understand why the author wrote as he did.
link to lrb.co.uk.
Syria situation is vastly more complex than your 'Assad started ...' assertion. Saudi Arabia, with Western connivance, had been seeking to destabilise Syria for years. Syria had already experienced an Islamist uprising thanks to the Muslim Brotherhood.
I'd agree that the government , and particularly the provincial administrations mishandled the initial response to civilian demonstrations, but once the Islamists took up arms, the situation became irreversible.
Also, he owns property where? Manhattan, Atlantic City and Palm Beach. Methinks he holds privately that 2oC temperature rise and consequent sea level rise are cause for concern, and lacking religion-based blinders, might think over reliance on fossil fuels is a problem.
There are two sides to Trump that have been revealed in reams of articles. Among the many features that get him criticized and labeled as a charlatan is his appealing to the uninformed and taking advantage of their lack of knowledge. Take immigration and The Wall. He makes a big issue out of (mainly) Mexicans coming into the United States and that scares the hell out of people afraid of losing their jobs to immigrants who will work for less. Trump ignores the causes of migration to the United States for which, in part, the United States is responsible - support of right-wing governments and overthrow of others especially in El Salvador and Honduras. Nor does Trump say anything about recent reports of more Mexicans leaving the US than coming into it.
Dr. Ben Carson ends the campaign.
link to csmonitor.com
The meds wore off.
Russia and Iran were asked to intervene by the internationally recognised government of Syria. The West most certainly was not.
This is what I don't understand about Trump. If he is such a charlatan, why did he invite AIPAC/Likud abuse by offering to be neutral re: Palestine and Israel?
A charlatan would emphasize how Israel is our friend. Like Rubio, Cruz, Clinton.....
Also, he did not brag about large genitalia, he instead said "It is not a problem." This was in response to Rubio implying that it was a problem.
I disagree. Not everyone is well-informed and if Netanyahu's assertions are not challenged point by point, those assertions spread even more and become entrenched and believed.
In part of an essay - Donald Trump’s Policies Are Not Anathema to U.S. Mainstream, but an Uncomfortable Reflection of It - link to theintercept.com - Glenn Greenwald addresses this topic.
We should not be surprised if others see the United States, for the most part, as a nation of sheep led by Judas Goats and chicken hawks into a state of perpetual war that will end the short American exercise in democracy but not before havoc and disasters are inflicted throughout the planet. Will the Queen of Chaos be the one to write the final chapters of the decline and fall of the American Empire and lead it through its last hurrah?
And will the Scottish Bard’s dream be deferred yet again?
Then let us pray that come it may,
(As come it will for a' that,)
That Sense and Worth, o'er a' the earth,
Shall bear the gree, an' a' that.
For a' that, an' a' that,
It's coming yet for a' that,
That Man to Man, the world o'er,
Shall brothers be for a' that.
I wonder why publicly worrying about murdering innocents is considered "weakness."
You left out part D: "Blame it on the Democrats."
It's only a matter of time before the wingnuts start blaming everything on President Obama...
Guess he sold all those copies of his book he had in his basement
DONALD TRUMP BEATEN BY SUPPORTERS IN MISSISSIPPI by Nicholas Wolfson link to t.co
How do you defeat someone who isn't competing with you?
i like how this author in the last 2 paragraphs remembers Assad started n could have ended this
Relative to Iran, LH & Russia West has done very little intervening perhaps Sinclaire wld've preferred Assad finish off opp early?
I don't think is necessary to answer Netanyahus bullshit, the world knows him and his IDF thugs are the outlaws to be put on trial.
My favorite.... Pyramids were used as grain silos.
It seems that no Republican candidate can do any harm to his popularity by attacking Islam and Muslims. However, Ben Carson made some other interesting comments. For a doctor he had some extreme views about abortion. He said abortion should be outlawed in all circumstances, including in cases of rape and incest, and compared it to slavery.
Again, as an educated man, it is strange that he rejected the scientific consensus that human activity was at least partly responsible for climate change. He even said that he found the debate on climate change to be "irrelevant" and a distraction from protecting the environment.
As someone who was so opposed to Islam, his tax plan including a 14.9% flat tax for all, except the poorest, is very similar to Islamic Khums or 20% of annual income. His plan would eliminate taxation of capital gains, dividends and interest at the individual level, and he described progressive taxation as socialism. In fact, he claimed inspiration for his flat rate system from the traditional tithe, saying, “I think God is a pretty fair guy.” According to tax experts, apparently his tax system “would increase the deficit by $3 trillion in just one year”.
As a peace-loving Christian, he was pretty reckless to say “military force is not off the table when it comes to Russia.” If that did not usher in Armageddon I don’t know what would.
Perhaps his most innovative foreign policy initiative was to force ISIS out of Iraq in order to allow that group to focus on overthrowing the Assad regime. I suppose after they took over all of Syria he would then carpet bomb them in just one country.
However, what I find most troubling are Dr. Carson’s views about the literal interpretation of the Bible, including the first chapters of Genesis. In an interview in 2013, he said: “You know, I’m proud of the fact that I believe what God has said, and I’ve said many times that I’ll defend it before anyone. If they want to criticize the fact that I believe in a literal, six-day creation, let’s have [a go] at it because I will poke all kinds of holes in what they believe.” It shows that even an advanced level of education cannot remove the virus of religious fanaticism. No wonder the world is in such a mess.
I think he would have a hard time even selling those ideas to Iranian ayatollahs. He will be greatly missed. He provided some relief from The Donald.
Professor Sahib,
It's another evidence that professional education such as engineering and medicine can never make you am informed groomed thinking citizen. You can make good money, but it would of necessity show you a banal jejune ignoramus when it comes to issues of literature, history, and foreign policy.
I am an engineer and can vouch for engineers. Now Dr. Ben Carson has made it clear that physicians are no different either.
My favorite:
Carson claimed that scientists believe that aliens built the Egyptian Pyramids, however he believes that they were built for grain storage for the biblical Joseph.
Surely that time when he explained the difference between Sunni and Shia was the best.
The move away from fossil fuels can't come fast enough.
Just want to be clear on this, no disrespect intended, there's no doubt in my mind that Islam in all its variations has lots to offer. It's just that I am personally disinterested in the finer points of religion for religion's sake. My interest is limited to the extent that it informes history and politics.
This video is probably more aimed at such an audience.
The US is to blame for a lot of things, but I don't think that the Sunnis and Shiites infighting is one of them. The narrow minded closing of the mind that Wahhabism promotes would have occurred regardless of any US action.
I think Sunnism has been greatly influenced by the petro dollar puritanism.
Anti Shia attitude spread so that now many Sunnis make really unreasonable criticisms which historically are new.
It was only when I looked behind the petro dollar and saw what Sunni Islam in this respect, did things start to fall into place and explain why we experience some of the criticism toward ahul bayt amongst some, a attack never expressed in classical Sunni Islam.
I'm sure anything I say can be debated , but this is loosely what I thought:
A Shia' scholar said he envied Sunni ulama for their beautiful poetry of love for the Prophet s.a.w. and it started me thinking that yes Shia spend quite a lot of energy into negative thoughts towards companions etc where as Sunnis have a positive or neutral view of it all.
It therefore looked somewhat reactionary to an event, rather an 'off shoot' than the core of Islam
It also seemed rather far fetched that people that had suffered exile in the desert eating leaves for many years etc would suddenly apostacise on the Prophet's s.a.w. demise.
And this might be corroborated by the Quran 9:100 since the companions are described as the foremost - ahul bayt are not mentioned.
Also whilst I understand the concept of the infallible Imam - and it is certainly serving Shi'ism well in keeping order and avoiding the extremism of some 'Sunni' groups - I believe that a friendly and respectful approach is more correct.
One thing I did find hard was that propaganda exists from both sides,
Spend may be an hour reading non Muslim academic readings of Islamic history to get a more objective view.
Anyway, overall I actually think Sunni Islam (in the sense of what that used to mean) has more in common with Shia Islam than say Wahhabi, Salafi Islam.
There will be that valid question hanging over the succession and the questionable actions of the Ummayyads and their unforgivable, paranoid driven, oppression of the ahul bayt, which we may disagree over.
However, in terms of fiqh and tasawwuf which really have been the life blood of Islam (one observation I have made as a difference with Christianity is that we have not focused on theology) we can work happily together as Muslims.
Perhaps Mustafa Akkad's - Allah have mercy and ever increase him amin! - approach of creating a film of the Prophet s.a.w. that was approved by both al Azhar and the Lebanese Shia Council is the way forward for us all.
Since the split was so early both Sunni and Shia contributions to Islamic history have to be nothing but praised.
So we each do our best, remain silent over what we disagree on as it is NOT actually a matter of belief/disbelief and 1400 years of debates haven't categorically convinced either, and leave the rest to Allah
Ideas of a blogger William Voller
Hillary Clinton has embraced the Iran deal, none of the Republicans has. While I don't like Clinton's foreign policy I think some people exaggerate how hawkish she is. She's hawkish, but nowhere near the Republicans.
Very good analysis Jack Thanks for the insight
The 2003 American invasion and occupation of Iraq created the pre-conditions for radical Sunni groups, like ISIS, to take root.
America, rather unwisely, destroyed Saddam Hussein’s secular state machinery and replaced it with a predominantly Shiite administration.
The U.S. occupation caused vast unemployment in Sunni areas, by rejecting socialism and closing down factories in the naive hope that the magical hand of the free market would create jobs.
Under the new U.S.-backed Shiite regime, working class Sunni’s lost hundreds of thousands of jobs.
Upper class Sunni’s were systematically dispossessed of their assets and lost their political influence.
Rather than promoting religious integration and unity, American policy in Iraq exacerbated sectarian divisions and created a fertile breading ground for Sunni discontent, from which Al Qaeda in Iraq took root.
These are the present day issues that add to the discontent between Sunni and Shia, it is political rather than religious
When it comes to disinterested agnostics, that's about as much as I like to know about the difference between protestants and catholics.
The only reason I bother with the difference between Shia and Sunni Islam is because of its geopolitical implications, which I am profoundly interested in.
Keep up the good work, Professor
I disagree. Syria has long been outside of France and especially Britain's orbit. Iraq and Syria have both been run by Baathist nationalists for more than a generation. Poorly. Britain and France have a role to play in helping but they are not obliged to take responsibility for either civil war.
One of the more interesting points brought up in the debate but didn't get much traction was the inference that military officers would never obey an illegal order. Surely this was worthy of debate given the recent history of the Iraq war, but obviously neither the candidates nor the moderators would want to touch that one.
The Federal Triangle in DC will be 40 feet under at high tide. That should make the sharks happy.
GOP, BAD. Trump, the worst with nothing good. Another swirl of the Libyan genocide kool aid and I see, Hillary, just a class politician if not mother Teresa and Joan of arc, wrapped into one.
airstrike will end the terrerost
Now watch closely how the rich try to get someone else to pay to build seawalls to protect their property. The problem they will encounter is that the American Right has taught its followers that the cosmopolitan cities that trade with the evil outside world are enemies of the American Way of Life and deserve to be destroyed. Cruz's favorite conspiracy theory is Agenda 21, the evil UN plot to force everyone to live in pinko cities.
For the third time, I'm relinking this until people get the point.
link to juancole.com
Remember about all the talk over the years that the al-Aqsa mosque could be the flash point for the next Arab-Israeli War? No other candidate would make plans to march into that very place to bully Moslems. Even Netanyahu knows that's insane. Trump had to have that explained to him.
I think you were a bit hard on Kasich. He is mainly a domestic affairs guy, but I took his invocation of George H.W. as an attempt to separate himself from the neocons endless war, wars and interventions and from G.W.s go-it-alone, my way or the highway meme and denial that working through others is part and parcel of leadership.