Sunday Topics - 17 May 2015

There is a lot of interesting news this weekend:

- Former Egyptian president Mursi has been condemned to death on the inevitable charge of whatever it was that they charged him with this time.  The Sisi government is determined to kill him and a lot of other MB/salafist people in the belief that "dead men don't bite." Egypt is one of the more sophisticated  countries in the region and they can't manage a change of government without killing the losers?  This is really quite indicative of the hopelessness of trying to meddle in the internal affairs of such places.

- Having failed to persuade the Zeidi Yemenis to do anything they wanted by bombing them on the American model, Saudi Arabia has now declared a cessation of air ops.  One can only wonder if the Washington whiz kids played a large role in the "thinking" reflected in all this.  The Zeidis say they await the Saudis next move,

- Obama met a lot of Gulfie second stringers at Camp David.  The gripping and grinning and flesh pressing produced nothing, actually less than nothing since the Arabs must have gone away even more convinced that the US has no idea what it is doing in the ME.   Whoever it was that persuaded Obama to do a sit down with these guys should be fired or never listened to again, but that won't happen.

- It is revealed that Jeb Bush (el-Jebe) is temperamentally unsuited to be US president in the 21st Century.  He believes in such things as moderation, family loyalty, rational thought, etc.  He might have been useful in the 19th Century but, surely not now.  It is also revealed that his foreign policy advisers are the same lying bastards who got us into Iraq.  Wow!  BTW, who are HC's foreign policy advisers?

- On The FZ Global Public Square circus, Mr. 1% groupie (FZ) interviewed Gates (richest man in the world) from Seattle.  There, they indulged themselves in an orgy of exultation and exaltation over the strength of the American economy as reflected in the prosperity of the Seattle region with all its new style high tech industry, high education levels and other wonderfulness.  The underlying idea in this was the joy felt in the wonders of free trade based on international and regional comparative advantage.  All the world is now a free trade zone, FZ exulted, and how foolish the people who oppose TPP really are.  What was left out of this discussion were the large pockets of distressed and poverty stricken people (mostly colored) in the urban regions of the east and mid-west as well as the emergence of what looks like a permanent large underclass among those same people.  Many of the former industrial cities of the east have at least partially emptied themselves of the White blue collar class.  In mute acceptance of economic theory they have moved to follow jobs.  People of color often do not want to do that.  They do not accept the idea of disappearing into a larger population and  want to live in their own ethnic communities.  I don't think FZ visits them much or cares about the obstacle to his theories that they represent. 

- As b has stated in a comment on another thread we will see the real and perhaps final test for the Iraqi government when the "Hashd Sha'bi" Shia militia are committed to the fight in Ramadi.  IMO the US (and friends) in the government/military/media/academic world have no comprehension that IS is an alternative civilization seeking to emerge.  Because of that willful ignorance they are headed for a massive shock.

- Oh, yes, there was the much promoted story of the SF raid on a little site in eastern Syria.  Good job boys!  This was not the Waterloo of IS but the IO campaign on 24/7 news was a good distraction from the disaster at Ramadi.

- The British TV Highland/Jacobite romance "Outlander" has reached a level of psycho-sexual descent in which I (shamefully) watched last evening as Captain Jack Randall of the Hanoverian dragoons nailed the hand of the noble Hieland laird Jamie Fraser to a table so that he would not be inconvenienced by resistance whilst buggering him.  This was in Wentworth Prison (wherever that was). This occurred after Randall licked Fraser's scarred back and gave him a big smooch as Fraser's wife looked on.  Now I'll grant you that life in the Highlands in 1740 was probably not without its inter-cultural problems but this seems a bit much.  A question that occurs is whether this series was watched in Scotland before the recent election.  BTW, I notice that some people in a number of northern English counties are engaged in a Twitter campaign to decide if they should join Scotland.

- I am told the DoD has placed me under interdict and that my e-mail can no longer pass through their servers and SST can not be accessed from DoD computers.  That will solve things.  pl

Related articles

The absence of a wide Gulf leaders for the US Gulf summit in Camp David

Saudi Arabia: King Didn't Mean to Snub Obama

Comments

[bth]

You are. You are. Give my best to Roger C. and Eilhys E. when you see them next. RC, EE and Hackworth were there when I needed them and few came. Moral courage is a rare and hard thing. Hold fast.

[JerseyJeffersonian]

J,

The CIA was probably just pissed that Golsteyn had poached somebody they already had on their own list for "droning". /snark

[turcopolier]

JJ et al

Several officers whom I know asked for assignment at the CIA and the kiddie CI polygraph people elicited from them statements about things the children could only imagine in nightmares. The CIA then "referred" the matter to the FBI as evidence of "war crimes" and these men were destroyed. In fact they had done nothing wrong but the civvies couldn't take the strain. This reminds me of two retired colonels (one of them was my student at USMA). These two served in Iraq and after returning from one of their tours there they took the Army at its word and went to talk to the shrinks about PTSD. They told me they stopped going when they discovered that the psychiatrists were frightened by what they heard and seemed to be going into PTSD themselves. My attitude has always been that what is mine is mine. pl

[Adam L Silverman]

Sir,

I've not read the books and I don't watch the show...

[turcopolier]

Adam

You have better things to do. BTW I know quite a lot about Scottiah history of that period and the scripts seem sound to me, but I am a liberal arts type. As for Randall the bugger, he probably picked up the habit at Eton, but in Scotland he achieved his goal of being a "top." pl

[Adam L Silverman]

Sir,

Bodice rippers are generally not the type of fiction I read. My only real exposure to the books, and the only reason I know even the little about the author writing the first on (at least) without ever visiting Scotland, is that a woman I was casually socially (as in we discussed going out on a date and ultimately chose not to) acquainted with while living in PA was a huge fan and when she found out I had lived in Scotland started gushing about the books, how much she liked them, etc. As for the show/Starz original programming: I liked the Spartucus show, but haven't been able to get into the subsequent offerings like Outlander, Black Sails, or Davinci's Demons. Same thing with HBO's programming. Deadwood and Rome I could watch and enjoyed, subsequent offerings just don't do it for me. I so like Showtime's Penny Dreadful. I do like BBC America's Ripper Street and Copper.

As for being a Liberal Arts type, that makes two of us!

[turcopolier]

Adam

I am tied up by my lovely bride, whom you know, and forced to watch this crap. pl

[Bill H]

I would never laugh at you, but thanks for making me smile.

[turcopolier]

bth

I met his wife once. I have no idea who the other one is. pl

[Tyler]

Adam,

I enjoyed Deadwood, and was sorry to see it go all those years ago. Hell on Wheels has its moments as well.

Personally I wish someone would make some "Weird West" style series like Jonah Hex or Deadlands.

However, The Shield always holds a special place in my heart.

[optimax]

Another theory is the engineer spaced out or was distracted reading train orders and became confused, believing he was on somewhere else on the line, and accelerated when he should have slowed. His amnesia could be real, blocking from his mind a reality he finds too horrible to accept.

[LeaNder]

I appreciated your comment, although maybe for no good reason. ;) Do doubt there some matters would vanish in written history not least due to law, but giving the them prominence may have different reasons.

The first thing I did, was look up the author. ... Again?

I am a huge fan of crime fiction There were times when I looked into the respective American and British authors.

Elisabeth George, selling quite well over here, an American creating Thomas "Tommy" Lynley, 8th Earl of Asherton didn't make it in my case. She sells quite well, apparently, but she didn't make it for more then one book in my case. ...

*****

your reading recommendations concerning the larger political/social Clinton scandals context are quite interesting.

[Macgupta123]

"Flash in the pan"? Maybe like this one? (via Wiki)

The Taiping Rebellion was a massive civil war in southern China from 1850 to 1864, against the ruling Manchu Qing dynasty. It was a millenarian movement led by Hong Xiuquan, who announced that he had received visions in which he learned that he was the younger brother of Jesus. At least 20 million people died, mainly civilians, in one of the deadliest military conflicts in history.

--- 14 years of flash in the pan?

[Fred]

optimax,

Thanks for the input. A computer glitch sounds reasonable. I think they are making these far more complicated than needs to be.

[kxd]

Tyler,

Ah, The Shield. Execellent series. I highly recommend Justified, if you haven't already caught onto it. It stars Timothy Olyphant (Seth Bullock from Deadwood) and Walton Goggins ( Shane from The Shield), who are both superb in it, especially Goggins as Boyd Crowder.

[bth]

Col. Roger Charles ran the Soldiers for the Truth org for many years after Hack died.

[Poul]

Nasrallah seems to have giving the Lebanese government an ultimatum. Clear out Arsal and surroundings of all Syrian rebel groups or Hizbollah will do it for them.

http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/05/lebanon-hezbollah-nasrallah-battle-qalamoun-arsal-isis.html#

[Cee]

Adam,

I started watching Game of Thrones. I can't even begin how shocked I was by the episode last Sunday. Ramsey Bolton needs to die like the late King Joffrey!

[Cee]

Col. Lang,

LOL

Sounds like the situation here when the man complains about CSPAN, RT, Link TV... I keep telling him this is why we have multiple televisions.
I did start recording Wolf Hall. I catch up over the holiday.

[William R. Cumming]

IMO Bill Clinton is HC primary FP advisor! IMO Bill Clinton's FP efforts laregly failed! Is she his puppet?