Madness, it's madness. In March. You know what that means - ....... by Fred

 

Get your brackets ready!

Remember when the real press carried the real important news in March?  

My where have those days gone. It was all so much fun. "Obama played pickup games throughout his marathon campaign...." The ultimate playa. 

But we can restore the spirt of the old days, because we have - a blog!

Step right up, because these are your favorite weeks of springtime for Obama sports fanatics. It's March Madness and time for the sweet mean sixteen, in Syria. Remember, Damascus Lawrence, Damascus. " 

Sorry, that was so last season. You know how that turned out. But it's a new tourney, with new teams, so select your favorites:

 

Now, a word about the rules of the game.

Time keeping by: Tick, tock O'Clock. 

 

"Cool clock, Ahmed. Want to bring it to the White House? We should inspire more kids like you to like science. It's what makes America great." 

Lawsuit

Sorry/not sorry about that lawsuit. 

Clean up by.

No, no, not those guys. Real chemical/nerve agents must have been there.

Here they are -

the White Helmets. Who needs chemical protective gear in a war. Gosh, it's not like this event is real news to be breathlessly reported. If it was you'd hear from our one man shop in Coventry. 

Got your favorites picked out? 

Now you might have question about these picks of mine. Such as - hey, Fred, you've got Jabal al Nursa on both sides, how can that be? Yes, how can that be indeed. 

Hey Fred, where's Steiner? Good question. He's not at the front, is he?
Fred, remeber Lt. al Kasaesbeh?   Who..... ... Stop. You mean you've forgotten already?

"Ahmed al Tayeb, the Grand Sheik of al Azhar University has not only condemned ISIL's burning of Lt. al Kasaesbeh, but has stated that "such a form of killing, is abhorrent under Islam, no matter the justification"."

Shame, shame, shame. 

Hey Fred, how come the Nour al-Din al-Zenki Movement and the Army of Mujahideen didn't make the cut? Who took them out? Oh, Jabat al never mind.

Where's the red line Fred? Which one, dear reader, which one? Better hurry with those picks, it's getting late in the tourney. What kind of surprise can turn this around for team "Free Syria"? Earlier on we saw the new Coach of the West cruise on in with a game changer:

Sorry, but even that wasn't quite enough. Time to juggle the line up. 

So Coach Trump has brought in Bombing Bolton to strengthen the shooting line? He never did win a peace but he sure knows how to leave a nation in pieces. Well, as the saying goes, sometimes you eat the bear, and sometimes the bear eats you. I wonder what the opposting coach is going to do? Say "hold my vodka" and surprise the US? That'll get the right wingers laughing.

Send in your best coach, go ahead, we dare ya.

Woah.  What kind of bear is that? That's not on the approved play list. Nope, not a black bear, not a grizly bear, not even a teddy bear. What's that you say, all's fair in love and war?

Well that means just one thing America. We have a ...... Bear Gap! Yes, a Bear Gap. 

I demand we take action to close the Bear Gap! and do it soon. We better look to our best and brightest, in the heart of the defense establishment, bowels of the think tanks  the swamp. I'm sure there's something right there in the 1,200 page omni-bulls*&$ spending bill you can use. Just say you read it in there somewhere - because nobody else read that damn thing before they voted for it either. What do you think they are, responsible leaders? So take the kind of action only you can do.

No, not that. This takes real strateregy. I suggest you try treating the necons like bridesmaids at a wedding; becasue they all know they should be the one to marry the groom. So give them just what they deserve:

 

Yep, that ought to do it. We may still have a Bear Gap, but if there is one thing we have no shortage of in this age of soy-boys and cat ladies in waiting it's cats. So toss them a bob. That'll keep'm busy for awhile.

To quote reality:

"Republican Senator Lindsey Graham asked whether it was too strong to say that with Russia and Iran's help, Assad had "won" the civil war in Syria.

"I do not think that is too strong of a statement," Votel said."  

You read that right folks. 

About those brackets.

Better luck next time.

Fred

Comments

[J]

Fred,

Speaking of Zuckerberg.........he was born....drum roll....1984.

[optimax]

Fred

I put my money on the Knights of Golem to win.

[LeaNder]

I did notice you are in Kiev. I thought you were German. Which LeaNder are you this time?

Unlikely, I would have been there. Really the reasons are highly complex. Starting with the fact that I am no activist, maybe? Never have been.

To keep it in our current context: I was glued to my laptop screen 24/7 via Al-Jazeera during the Arab Spring. I was deeply sympathetic to their cause. I am not sure I understood completely, what Pat told me at the time, but after that I tended to watch comparable events from the distance.

My more localized dots for not being in Kiev would circle around the German Visa Affair. I never completely erased for me connected dots around a German privatization - re-governmentalization. No it didn't surface in the publicly broadcasted hearing context. ... Never mind, I might be completely wrong. Fact is events and the more public investigation was triggered around reports of events in Kiev. At least partly.

[Fred]

LeaNder,

So you are spoofing the IP location. Is that legal in Germany?

[LeaNder]

So you are spoofing the IP location. Is that legal in Germany?

Well, not illegal in the US apparently. One of the US's most successful startups apparently. The tool is American. I do use it in recognition of my own and e.g. US/British copyright laws concerning media. My top "security expert" advised me to. I mostly obey. At least within limits.

I have already used it independently. Just checked, they still do not alert customers to restrictions. After all the US is the land of the proud and free. ;)

If you check the link below it gets you back into the Arab Spring were it supposedly was used (real or marketing only?), plus financial support in the larger Syrian media perception, if you like, marketing field. Whatever way you wanna look at it. Yes, only one of many minor angles.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Gorodyansky

[Imagine]

Trump has kicked out 60 Russian embassy workers, because England was convinced after one day "it must be Russia". A mafia hit of two people by persons unknown is escalated to "usage of chemical weapons in Europe", that is, cause for WWIII.

Where is the American Intelligence Community in this? Someone must be reporting to Trump that it smells like a psychop.

[turcopolier]

LeaNder #2

You have made it clear that you are a skilled troll, admitted it actually. pl

[Fred]

LeaNder,

"My top "security expert" advised me to. I mostly obey. "

Let me guess: German Intellegence, or the National Endowment for Democracy? I would like to think you're on the FBI payroll like Omar Mateen's relatives, but that's just the romantic in me. What's the pay, you've been at it too many years for it to be done for free.

[Imagine]

That didn't come out right. Meant to express: Making fake videos and fake news targeted for al Qaeda, in an undercover fashion. A fraught, complex situation:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/us-government-pentagon-fake-al-qaeda-propganda-videos-a7348371.html

[Fred]

Imagine,

#34: Nothing to see here with Barack, Bush did it too!

#31: Trump kicked out sixty Russians! That sure beats dropping sixty bombs.

"Where is the American Intelligence Community in this?" The head of FBI counter-intelligence got fired recently. I suspect the rest are a bit busy cleaning up a mess, like the latest from the Islamic Terror attack trial in Orlando:
"Judge rules against Pulse nightclub shooter's widow -The revelation that the Pulse nightclub shooter's father was an FBI informant for 11 years before the attack has little bearing on the trial of the gunman's widow, a judge ruled Monday. U.S. District Judge Paul Byron rejected a defense motion for a mistrial of Noor Salman, who is accused of helping her husband plan his June 2016 mass shooting at the gay nightclub in Orlando, where he killed 49 people."

https://www.mail.com/news/politics/8373072-judge-rules-pulse-nightclub-shooters-widow.html

[Charles]

A remarkably inept hit at that. If the objective was to have two people die, the objective was not obtained. If the objective had nothing to do with the two people who were attacked; then we do not yet know if the objective was met or not.
We do not know the Who, the What, the How, of the Why, and if the Skripals were not the objective then we also do not know the Where of the When.
The Skripal family could merely be the Magician's Assistant in this production.

[Fred]

Charles,

You myn be unable to determine Why, but reinforcing the Narrative Russia, Russia, Russia and the use of chemical weapons in Syria seems pretty damned obvious.

[Charles]

I distrust the obvious, not always, but often.
Every Magician's Assistant has long legs, a large endowment and moves just enough to distract the audience from the Magician's trickery. Every bad production on TV in Films or on stage has a MacGuffin; that thing that is supposedly the driving force in the drama and in fact has nada to do with anything. Some Truths are too important to be allowed out without a bodyguard of lies and misinformation and distraction and дезинформация.

[Fred]

Charles,

"Every bad production on TV in Films or on stage has a MacGuffin" Yeah. You don't need Occam's butterknife to know that every blog attracts its own trolls or "дезинформация" like your comment above. Thanks though, kind of you to take notice.