Donald's First: the Presidential Tour

Donald is wrapping-up the first of what promise to be some very exciting trips to see some really great people in some very interesting places. He'll be jetting home after he reads the riot act to the sluggards of NATO who have fallen behind in their dues. At Mar-a-Lago there's no free lunch, there are membership fees too - why shouldn't that happen everyplace else?

                                                     The Chinaman's free lunch


The 'outing' began with a trip to Saudi Arabia and a meeting with the Arab summit.   It turns out that was the best place he could have started.  Not only were the Shriners really great people, they also gave him a very special decoration and let him get in on a tribal dance. then they let him tell all the Muslims what he thought about making them greater.  His advice;  "Kick them Out!"

                                             The beheadment sword dance

 Never one to beat around the bush, Trump out-war-Presidented the last two in making America's message very, very clear.  No more  'If your people shoot at my soldiers,  they'll die"  or "Show us the evildoers"  Trump 'nut-shelled' it in a way that could be easily-committed to memory: all Muslims have to do to get ahead in the  new American World is 'Kick them out'. Kick out Al Qaeda, or ISIS or Hezbolleh, kick out Nusra Al Shams, Black September, Fatah, Hummis - any evil-doing organization - 'kick them out' into the street and into  the gun sights of waiting Apache jockeys.  Like  'good guys' have been trying to get them to do for almost 20 years.   Problem for Donald is that he's neither a Muslim, nor as far as most Muslims are concerned, a particularly 'good' guy himself.   They applauded and eyed-up his nearly naked women - I'd bet  a lot like General Dreedle's WAAC, - but I wouldn't hold back on dessert waiting for them.

                            I think I can get this into a crack, they let you do that if you're famous

 After that it was back to his roots - everybody knows that 'real' life on Earth started in Jerusalem.  Which was where the Israelis thought Don would announce the latest US embassy.  Dumb bugger wouldn't do it.  Even though the good guys got ISIS to claim they'd tried to put a permanent period on Ariana Grande's spectacular career, all he would do was add them to his 'loser' list. So aside from a few moments spent communing with the trillions of shekels traded at temples of times past and having the ladies pay their respects separately,  Donald only got a cheap yarmulkeh from the Jews. They were probably chuffed about the Saudis becoming a 'first world military' all of a sudden.

Off to Rome and the Holy Father - fap!  The Pope didn't even offer him a 'red hat' like the dozen he passed-out the day before. Something like that and a title 'Prince of the Church' would have been a great great honor for Trump. And he didn't get one. The wall just gained another three feet.

Finally off to NATO and then back to the G7 in Italy.  Both of those are potential losses,  for the NATO gang aren't going to go for his 'Kick 'em out' thing any more than the Arabs did. The G7 could be a real disaster - since Trump has held free trade with anybody, including the G7, as something almost as desirable  as a case of shingles.



The NATO 'shove' - a Bromance is born - even Presidentress Grabheraitus of Lithuania loves the Trumpster. This from one of America's best 'peeple readers'.

So Many Evil 'Trannies', So Few Humanitarian MOBEs

This has nothing to do with royally-decorated Brits, or transvestites. Watching TrumpCo at work, this past one hundred days, one has to be struck with the number of 'troubles' with which the poor man has been afflicted that the 'hopeful' one, before him, wasn't! Thank goodness the recent developments seem to have obviated the other developments that threatened to abort his Presidency.  But pending a victory somewhere, the 'Vita-Suck' tissue-extractor hasn't been turned-off.  That somewhere could be Trump's war - in Venezuela.

Not only is America still dealing actively with the very real 'war fronts'  it has in Afghanistan and Iraq, it still has kinetic 'boots on the ground' 'kicking ass and taking names' in Libya, and Somalia, in (unofficially) Syria and Eastern Europe - thanks to Obama. Now we're seeing the traditional 'bug-a-boos' galumphing back into traditional 'flare-ups',  as Trump tries to 'address' the 8 years they were 'neglected' or 'ignored'.  North Korea is definitely in somebody's sights, Afghanistan is now re-'Surge'-ent and Iran , which wasn't ever off the table, still actively isn't - again. Not only that,  Trump has now made Syria an 'official' red line for somebody unAmerican to cross,  to-day there's Venezuela - where there's just too much 'tyranny' going on - for America to 'ignore' much longer.

                                         La revolucion es mas photogenico

'Bolivarian' Venezuela has been in America's Monroe Doctrine poster child for quite some time. The problem was that the trouble there was 'indigenous' and couldn't be laid to the traditional European 'interference' in America's hemisphere - although, for a while, both the Russians and Chinese were being faulted for supporting the 'regime'.  Even though the OAS tried getting (NATO representative) Juan Carlos of Spain into it - inviting him as a 'guest speaker' to be "insulted" by Chavez - that came a cropper on nobody else getting excited but El Rey.

                                         Ordinarily extraordinary people

When Chavez 'stepped into the mystery' it seemed that 'the times to come' had advanced themselves notably well-enough that America had only to bide its time, for the 'pistoleros' who had failed once before to unseat 'the usurper' and get 'theirs' back,  set about trying to unseat his successor.

                                         Even ordinary girls protest - Nuns, even!

Surprisingly this sad process is taking overly long - the Bolivarian Army doesn't seem to be obeying orders - probably something to do with the "justly merited" charges of 'narco-trafficking' with which the US has threatened them all, or at least the head 'honchos' and the government. Even the recent attempt to unseat another tyrant - the Russian one - by 'crashing' Russia's oil-based economy (and every other oil-based economy on earth that didn't have access to IMF 'emergency' funding)  failed to do more than  'deepen' the economic (consumer) 'crisis' in 'cash-strapped' Venezuela - where people were forced to find a replacement for imported bum-wipe!  The opposition hit the streets - apparently 'supported' by the 'suffering' people - who were being forced to travel abroad to buy the consumer goods (Bulgari and Oscar de la Renta)  they could no longer get at home. Patriotic businesses were forced to shutter their doors and stop importing - which led to 'shortages' of basic foodstuffs, rioting and, lately we are told, the looting of what few local shops and government outlets still remain.

                                       Near THE looted bakery, not near the GM pant

This past week we were treated to the 'spectacle' of the 'reds' socialistically 'taking over' THE  GM factory in Venezuela that hadn't produced a single car in two years.  That hadn't stopped GM from continuing to keep the 2700 Venezuelans it had hired, 'on the payroll' for all that time - good corporate citizens of wherever they are, that they are.  Left out of the saga was the fact that the (corrupt)  courts had recently  ruled against GM,  in lawsuits brought against the company in relation to contracts they had with Venezuelan GM dealerships - and that those 'employees' were busy tearing the factory down for transshipment to more lucrative markets (back in the USSA?).

Apparently this is not the first US firm to 'come a socialist cropper' in Venezuela. When the 'Clorox' company decided to cease operations there, three years ago (how come this wasn't news?), the 'socialists' who worked for the company 'took-over' the factory and continued to provide Venezuela with the means of producing chemical WMD's (should a better reason for humanitarian bombing ever be needed).   Needless to say GM fired everyone, yesterday (by email - they're all connected?). The operations staff having already departed the country. GM also informed the employees they were receiving an unspecified 'separation payment' - those good guys that GM are  - probably enough to purchase a handful of magic frijoles - or a  gun.

 To-day there are 'fears' the 'protests' will turn violent - or morph into 'civil war' -  if 'military arms' supplies are compromised - or that a massacre of good people (protestors) may occur if the government arms its 'socialist militias' and turns them loose on the 'dissidents' - sort a reverse EUkrainia - with a really hyper-aggressive 'crazy man' , who isn't even really 'concerned' or  'threatening' anything yet, ready to  defend freedom and unborn democracy - from Washington. Hell, he might even 'invade' or 'annex' something!  There already is a carrier strike group in the area.

So while we watch a US fleet close-in on possible danger from the Norks, or the Marines taking Helmand back from the Talies, Assad not crossing the line, Putin not invading Ukraine, Dutarte stopping whatever that is , the Somali pirates going away again,  the Saudis having their vict'ry parade in Sanaa, and Lindsay Lohan's unmolested 'pussy',  let's just hope that Venezuela stays on the path of Jebus and Liberty - and that Putin, stealing the French election, doesn't remind Americans, again, that he stole theirs too - and started all this crap.

High Drama American-style II - the Canuck Connection

One would think the recent dog and pony show would be over, if for no other reason due to the opposition to such a grand idea. But when you're defending freedom and saving the world from unparalleled horrors, you'd have to be a milquetoast, or at least undecided, to let ordinary people affect your decision to do some humanitarian bombing. So despite a notable lack of support, the dog and pony show continues. And it grows!

Today the media is a-babble with new 'intel' taken from the sources at Wikileaks - I'd imagine that's supposed to impress everybody, for, apparently, we'd all missed it - that the good guys have known that Assad was building bunkers full of nerve gas and had been doing their darnedest to stop him. And how other things, like flotillas and natural disasters and Kim Dong Il's WMDs got in the way. You see, sheeple, this is not new news - it's  only the nature of the beast. Assad intends to gas everybody!

I'd bet Julian Assange is probably poring over the Manning files to figure out how Madame Bourguiba's predilection for leopard print thongs made it out to the public while an incipient chemical 'gotterdammerung' being executed in Damascus didn't. And where were our Mossad pals, who know where every sparrow falls, while this theoretically real "existential threat" was being pigeon-holed? I find it more than convenient that the leaked faxes and emails show up now - as 'evidence'.

What's 'nice', too, is a critical thread running through the narrative, a 'fessing up to failing', for weren't  exporters in the 'democracies' busily shipping out precursor compounds to enable Assad's doomsday device?  Him being able to take advantage of 'loopholes' in the processes in place to 'sanction' him for other 'crimes'? According to the leaks, he's the proud owner of some 20 years worth of production.

All that gas, and the possibility it could be captured by some of the evil forces fighting Assad - yeppers they don't like him either - could wind up floating ashore in some of those invasion rowboats, come the Jihad. In the meanwhile, there's the threat that Assad, now realizing he won't get bombed for badness, will be encouraged to do it again. After all, both times he's done it already resulted in big gains and really slowed up that rebellion....NOT!

Thus far the narrative has failed to get more than luke-warm acquiescence from the usual suspects. France is now back-pedaling. Britain has voted itself out of the warrior mode. The Chinese and Russians are still making the UN "ineffective" for a bombing permit. And now the Pope is sticking is nose into it.

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2013/09/08/john_baird_fears_assad_poised_to_gas_citizens_again_tim_harper.html

But for those who have the courage of their convictions, and 'Harperguvermint' has convictions if it has nothing else, the ineffective UN should not be permitted to stop 'good guys' from doing an act of  'goodness'. Big mouth John Baird, - Canada's gift to foreign affairs - just wants to remind us how we will feel when Assad has the pictures taken of 25 000 foam-flecked nerve cases, after he dabs the tears from his little piggly eyes that is. Yes, folks, Canada may not be 'up' for any bombing this week, but we stand firmly behind our pals if they want to.  Oh the humanity, and the little girls who aren't in school - somebody has to DO something!

And let's not lose to Putin and a commie 'resurgency', eh?

Imagine that nerve gas causing spasms as it "melts lungs" according to Canada's ambling sack of mother love. That must have been quite the "briefing" John got. Hope he was wearing some briefs at the time. He sure doesn't know his poison gases.

Hear Brad Manning

Brad Manning - the poster boy to blame for everything that's gone 'wrong' in America's little effort to recreate Iraq and the rest of the world, is getting his day in court after almost two years in military prisons. And things are taking a decidedly nasty turn for the powers that be, or at least the powers that were. For despite the 'image' of Manning as so far presented - a homosexual, loser, runt with mental issues and a hatred for everything America stands for, he's turning out to be surprisingly lucid, intelligent and more than reasonable.

One wondered when almost immediately he pled 'guilty' to the greater number of charges against him, illegally sharing classified information he was not authorized to divulge. He remains on trial on the charges to which he pled not guilty, ie the charges of treason, and aiding the enemy in time of war.

Along with that guilty plea, Manning has been able to offer the court an account of what he says he did, and why he did it. In that story is the proof of his pudding. And now someone has leaked the audio of his statement to the court. Unless the government can rebut this, or prove otherwise, Brad Manning might go free at last.

The audio record is available here.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/mar/12/bradley-manning-tapes-own-words

What strikes one immediately is Manning's native intelligence and, apparently, his moral fortitude, he just doesn't sound like somebody who thinks, after two years of 'special handling' by the Marines, that he's done something wrong.

First of all, relating to how and why he came to have access to America's most secret information, it seems that his aptitudes and testing on intake to the military were of such a high order that his other obvious 'deficiencies' were  downplayed. He is not constitutionally fitted to America's standard 'vision' of  the 'warrior class'. Basic training - at least the physical part- was a challenging and notably protracted experience. He passed basic in twice the length of time prescribed - ie he should have 'washed out'. For some reason his superiors saw military value in him that allowed them to make a pass of a short, weak, deficient soldier. He pleads guilty to being a somewhat 'weak sister' sort of guy.

Having passed basic he was assigned to military intelligence where he soon learned his 'craft' - gleaning intelligence reports and synopsizing the same for upward transmission, sifting and combining pertinent reports to make note of trends or patterns that could be used for military purposes. He seems to have been good at his job and technically proficient in managing large data systems. His 'problems' started when he insisted on thinking about what he was reading. He claims to have become affected by a "helping" operation was  becoming a self-defeating one. That Iraqis were unappreciative of American sacrifice, but that America's counterinsurgency tactics were geared to do anything but 'win them over'. What he was reading in situation reports was glaringly at odds with the 'official narrative' put out for the information of American forces, and the American people.

He claims that he did what he could to undo what he considered to be incompetent work by military intelligence and was stopped by military bureaucracy and  hierarchy. He claims that personal problems at a time of furlough led to reflection turning into a perceived need to act. He had 'backed-up' his data in a way that would be accessible to him and he had that in his possession, not for nefarious reasons but only to preserve the continuity and integrity of his work. He sought advice from friends and what he thought to be  trustworthy others - including the man who would later turn him in, who was, then, claiming to be an "journalist" and "pastor".

The notion of sharing what he knew with the US media took form in his mind. He approached some media and was rebuffed. No media sources proved to be as interested in what he knew as he hoped they would be.  Eventually, however, he got somebody, who could appreciate its news value, to look at what he had  ... that was the Wikileaks organization. After that the media started to take notice.

Manning was careful to note that the information he transmitted was, according to its official coding, material that was widely-distributable within military and government circles.  He did not transmit any information that was classified or highly restricted.  He explained those 'official' codes to the court.

In short Bradley Manning is proving to be the Daniel Ellsberg of his time, leaking official documents that are at odds with what is being released as truth, or being done in reverse to what is being said. This is, simply, the 'Pentagon Papers' all over again, only this time from the State Department.

Canada slams the door shut on Iran.

Actually it was more like Canada put a 'fatwa' on Iran. We pulled our embassy staff out early yesterday morning. That was probably a good thing considering Johnny Baird had rinsed his dentures in preparation for announcing the Iranians were welcome to leave Ottawa. No timeline involved since their leaving probably was more of a surprise than ours - at least for the 'good guys'.

But why now? The Iranians, according to Harperment, are now recognized as THE singular threat to the universe - but then they were just as threatening last year, or the year before, or at any time since Ambassador Ken won the 'plum post' on the Potomac by freeing some of the slaves, er , hostages, back in the yellow ribbon days. The National post published a clarification - repeated in the Saturday Star - which outlines what 'they've' been doing to bug 'us' since 1979 5 key Points in Dispute  When you look down the list, the Iranians have done a lot less to us than we've done to them over those 25-odd years. So I'm wondering why this,  and why now.

Harper's off on a jaunt to an APEC meeting in Russia so, although it will have been no surprise, he's bound to get an earful from Putin. Much like the one Putin got in Peking when the world found out the Russian Army was  were 'sticking-up' for the invaded Ossetians and kicking the tar out of gallant little Georgia. I'm pretty sure the Steverino can handle himself when facing down 'Putin's glooms'. Some sources say the Iranians are going to "retaliate" for this, but aside from boycotting 'maple surple' - like a funny 'politicartoon' noted the other day -  or stopping our supply of  'real' pistachios, I don't think they can do much. They aren't even affecting the record high oil prices - as their ex-customers are now buying Saudi.. Oil production in Iran has fallen, and the prices are up, so they have to be hurting too  much to hurt us. Unless as Bigmouth Baird intoned, they've developed an Iranian 5th column already. Maybe the MinDef's newly pregnant 'laydee' is a sleeper cell in 'freedom-fighter' disguise!!!

We're told the resident Iranians in Canada are taking the news like a Turkish-Armenian festival - some are joyful, and others aren't.  The good thing is that, like all the rest of us Canadians who leave our hatreds and animosities outside the door when we come in, they're not fighting their regime change here. Like the rest of us Canucks, some think Harpergovermint is snog-worthy, and others think they're chimps in suits.

Some nasty gits are writing this one off as getting the diplomats to safety before Benny Netanyahoo commits America to another little war. Something near Teheran would have to get bombed to 'take out' those Iranian 'nukuler' sites and well, as we all know airborne 'accidents' have a nasty habit of happening to any Canadians in the vicinity.  Best safe, than repatriating coffins, eh?

So if the balloon goes up will be called upon to stand up for freedom again? I would imagine that we wouldn't be found wanting. We have HMCS Provideur over there in the Gulf supporting a couple of our city-class whatevers as targets for the initial rowboat attacks. We might even have a platoon of the secret JP5 waiting to go 'downtown' on the Revolutionary Guard . But it's virtual cert we won't be putting much up into the air, as the CF18 fleet is pretty-well attritted and Harpergovermint is still waffling on the CF-35. Even if this crisis stimulates them into action, we're well down the customer list for the revolutionary freedom bird. And construction of those 'deliveries' haven't even been started.

So the overall effect? A great big 'ho-hum'. Unless you're one of the three Canadians Harpergovermint hasn't been able to get out of Iranian slammers. We weren't 'talking' to them before, ya know? And we certainly won't be 'talking' to them now, either.  CSIS be getting our 'intel' from the Bulgarians, or somebody who still has an embassy in Teheran, or from the Israelis who 'know all' anyway.

A Codicil: Everybody's looking tres sharp on this one, ladies.
 "Prescient" the Star called Harperino. Getting the diplomats out of Iran's looking like a masterstroke given the attack on the Benghazi consulate and the other embassy demos and burnings.
But what about getting our diplomats out of Libya?

"Well what about it?", asks the Premeer.

Bob Foul-er

The Liberals have been having a focus-session this week, trying to get on their pins again after 'Wolfie o' the North's latest gaffe. To do that,  they had invited a number of  'doers and thinkers' to address the party hacks with a view to acquiring a new 'vision'. With the exception of Bob Fowler, they might have been better advised to do a week on water and colonics in some 'cleansing' ashram.

Of all the ruminators, Bob Fowler's forty minutes really gave the Libs something to think about.

 Bob  Fowler is the Canadian who was ambassador to Teheran when the Shah n Shah's balloon went up, back in the days when the Ayehtolleh was Khomeini, rather than Khameini. That little bit of 'Jamie Bondism' garnered Fowler the 'respect' of the Americans and a posting as ambassador to Washington. After he stepped-down from Canada's foreign service. Bob Fowler 'took up' with the UN. In this role he was kidnapped last year in Niger and held for a few months by the AlQaeda (viz bandit) organization there. In  all his travels and works, Bob Fowler has gained a perspective on many of the current trends of history. Unfortunately he's a little out-of-synch with the conventional wisdom displayed in Ottawa and Washington these days.

Bob Fowler, with a nod to the Canadian government efforts to gain his release, chastised the Conservative government for squandering what good will had been gained for Canada in Africa by changing the focus of Canada's foreign aid to Afghanistan. He also pointed out that, no doubt due to having to pay for a war there as well, the Conservatives had failed to reach Canada's promised GNP/aid ratio. That wouldn't matter anyway, as CIDA would be pumping the boodle into more 'model villages' and non-operating maternal health (abortion and birth control) centres in Kandahar City.

But Bob Fowler dropped a bombshell on the Libs, one that they aren't ready to do anything about. He charged that they were pandering to special interest groups in order to get elected. The biggie was the 'I love Israel' special interest group that forms the bed rock of all three (four) Canadian political parties. This love for the Holy Land, Fowler charges is at the root of many of the problems in the world to-day. The west's backing of Israel, and its consequent intransigence in reaching a peaceful settlement of the Palestinian Arab problem, is the nub of all the anti-western perspectives in the Muslim world. Actually it's the second nub. For the first remains America's notion  that the 'free market' needs to be taken to the middle east and central Asia for the benefit of American interests. 'Playboy after Dark' and American 'culture' had as much to do with the rise of the Taliban and Islamic fundamentalism, as did the occupation of east Jerusalem. But the Palestine problem is one that all Muslims can understand and the Zionists have been fairly stiff-necked in seeing that perspective broadcast abroad.

For Ignatieff, as for Harper, Layton and, possibly, Duceppe the Jewish lobby is very close to home, if not actually in residence. Prominent members of all parties are of the Jewish persuasion and very few of them are not synoptic with the middle east's only 'democratic' atomic and military power. For Canada to go back to the days of the 'honest broker ' - a view never shared by Canada's military peace-keepers, by the way - in middle eastern affairs, would, to-day, be considered a hearty stab-in-the-back by Benny Natanyahu, if not by the White House. But Fowler has definitely called the kettle black and it remains to be seen if anybody will act on this notable political differentiation. More than a few Canadians worry about Israel's propensity and apparent ability, to involve the west in its police actions, wars and security fears. Fowler's words have made him a target for the ADL and the letters to the editor as well as the local pols, from 'grass-roots Canadians',  are, no doubt, in the mail. No 'anti-semite' hate stuff , yet. Just some 'elitist' commentary by a  Hebrew on the Ottawa Citizen. But it has been a slow sort of week.

"There are some things I disagree with", pontificated an awakened 'Wolfie', "but Bob Fowler has earned the right to say them." Geez, ya gotta love the free speech we have in Canada. In less civilized lands somebody would be lining up to drill him. But in Canada he'll be quietly ignored. It's a cinch he won't be getting nominated to run Liberal in any riding in Canada, even if there's a groundswell of public support. Neither will his views be considered.