Where is Kissinger when we need him

A solution to the Islamic revolution is as likely to be found as that the US will win the World Cup. Where is Henry Kissinger when we need him?

Entrance stage right. Kissinger secretly meets with jihadists, preferable a comfortable place like Paris where a visit would go unnoticed. He gives them enough of what they want to stop most of the terrorists’ onslaught.

It is not a question, really, of solving the plight of Palestians, but rather of stopping a war that cannot be fought with a million drones.

Where is Maj. T.J. “King” Kong, ready to ride a nuclear bomb down on Putin. That’s not fair: to the major. The military has done more than its share.

It is too late, and there is not enough time, to devote too much of  America’s attention on how it got into the fix. Nor is there time to determine whether the U.S. ties with Israel are part of the problem or part of the solution.

At this point the only question is how to get out of the Middle East quagmire. Wasn’t the warning against a land war in Asia.

Some Republicans want to blame President Barack Obama, somewhere coming up with the idea that the outcome could have been anything other than what it has become.

This is the time for the tried-and-true French invention, triage. We need to separate what cannot be saved, ignore what likely will survive no matter what we do, and focus on things we can make a difference on.

Even that strategy has a deep flaw. How can it be assured that the right choices will be made.

For the moment, perhaps the choice is to minimize our losses in the Middle East, let the Arabs settle their own problems and deal with the Russian maverick.

It is true that this could allow Islam to be a symmetrical opponent. The US is much better suited to deal with those kinds of foes.

There are no solutions that will not be bloody, if there are any solutions at all.

One thing that is clear is that ignoring the threat of climate change, which is made more deadly by ignoring the reliance on fossil fuels, will lead no where American wants to go. In any case, standard of living standards must go down, including in the wealthy countries. Everyone knows who will bear that burden.

There may be things working in the favor of the West that are not known. How many know that the late President Richard Nixon’s visit to China was set up because Beijing and Moscow were literally at war in an obscure region few know.

Or perhaps we should turn to the French again, this time for a cosmopolitan solution. A really dirty French bomb that leaves restaurants standing.

Sources:

The Cold War: A New History

New York Times

BBC

RYOT

Stop spilling U.S. blood, send Republicans congressman home

The Republican party just doesn’t get it. Their counterparts only vaguely understand. Let’s put it this way. A town called Tal Afar fell Monday in northern Iraq, and call the whole region “All Afar.”

Dozens died in Kenya, and more elsewhere.

With thousands of American veterans unable to get medical care in a timely fashion, the Republican party is pressing President Obama to do something forceful about the rising power of jidahists in Iraq.

They are even willing to talk with Tehran, though it still has more to do to prove it is not building nuclear weapons to use on Israel.

This is the same party that removed Saddam Hussein, who kept the country under control at least within its borders, from power. It is now clear that former President George Bush manipulated the American people, combining hubris and a desire for revenge for 911, to invade the country that had embarrassed his father.

Now, these same Republicans are worried that the war they started has made Iraq a breeding ground for anti-Western terrorists.

How any new intervention would make things any different is not clear.

Certainly the massacre of how many thousand US-trained Iraqi soldiers by the jidahists, is not going to help the Republicans regain the White House any more than its resistance to health care and immigration reform, support for womens’ rights, anti-government rhetoric or denial of the threat of climate change.

They were shown the door in 2008, some would say they stole the White House in 2000 or they never would have been in power for Sept. 11. Their redux was to trash a Vietnam veteran who actually served while Bush 2 was drinking beer on national guard bases in the south.

There are no easy answers, or perhaps any answers at all, but the US media is going to have to do a better job to retain any semblance of credibility it has. If American wants to see cheerleaders they can watch the NFL.

At the same time, Russia poses a real threat.

Even after it became clear that the Iraq war was a fraud, the US media reported the 2010 Iraqi elections as a democratic exercise of power, writes Iraq veteran Chelsea Manning from a US prison.

In a column published by the New York Times, Manning remembers being ordered to help suppress opponents of the US-supported candidates.

“I was shocked by our military’s complicity in the corruption of that election. Yet these deeply troubling details flew under the American media’s radar,” writes the whistleblower who saw a higher duty than just following orders.

Manning also writes that the issues that concerned him about the fraudulent use of US power “have not been resolved.”

Perhaps by the time his 35-year prison sentence ends the Republicans will admit climate change is real, same-sex marriage will be a nationwide right, marijuana legal and all Americans will have health care.

But don’t bet on it. A safer bet would be that there still are lines for health care at Veterans Affairs hospitals. Meantime, the helicopter blades are already whirling and the Baghdad embassy evacuation has begun.

Sources:

Chelsea Manning

New York Times

Guardian

Hannibal's most deadly weapon near extinction

Once the weapon of mass destruction for Hannibal, African elephants could become extinct. Despite some success in curbing their poaching, more are dying than being born in Africa.
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) said more than 20,000 were killed last year, far above the birth rate.
"Africa's elephants continue to face an immediate threat to their survival from high levels of poaching for their ivory," said Cites Secretary-General John E Scanlon in Geneva.
"Today we are confronting a situation of industrial-scale poaching and smuggling, the involvement of organized transnational criminal organizations, the involvement of rebel militia,” he said.
The possibility of extinction makes the tusks of the animals even more valuable.
Experts say the poachers are armed like drug smugglers, and sometimes use helicopters and night goggles. Some rebel groups, such as the Lord’s Resistance Army, use poaching to pay for their weapons and food. Poachers from rebel groups in south Sudan and members of the Congolese army also are involved.
"The situation is extremely serious," Garamba park manger Jean-Marc Froment said. "The park is under attack on all fronts." A 2012 census found just 2,000 elephants in Garamba Park, down from 20,000 in the 1960s. The park is in the north of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, formerly Zaire.
CITES issued a report Friday saying the numbers killed had declined the last two years, from a high of 25,000, but if the killing wasn’t controlled the animals would become extinct.
The worst poaching is in central Africa, said Tom de Meulenaer, CITES senior scientific officer. "If this same trend continues in the next 10 years we may lose practically all of the elephants in central Africa."
More aggressive enforcement of laws banning sale of ivory from elephants in China has helped, and Beijing has sought to satisfy the market by turning to mammoth ivory found in Russia.

Tesla surprises world again

That headline could, and should been a common sight a century ago. The Serbian-born inventor was light years ahead of more famous inventors, such as Thomas Edison, but never became rich or famous.

Though he lived to be 87, and though he was born before the American Civil War was called on to help the Allies fight the Nazis in World War 2 he is not a household name.

In addition to his most famous achievement, making alternating current power supplies possible, he also was the first to try to transfer electric power wirelessly.

Now, in a vicarious way, he may be getting some of the attention he deserved.

Entrepreneur Elon Musk, developer of the state-of-the-art electric car, is granting other companies access to all the patents his corporation has developed.

At no cost.

Musk is making the gesture to show his frustration with industry and how slowly it has moved to develop cars that will not destroy the plant with greenhouse gas emissions.

Clean, fast and efficient electric cars are no longer something from a Hollywood film, but make up only one percent of the world’s car population.

Musk said his company had guarded its patents and technological advances zealously, like Apple vs Samsung.

He said on Thursday that development of the cars was too slow to help deal with climate change and global warming.

Given that it takes years to get news cars to the market, to use a cliché, it is time to jump start the process.

“It is impossible for Tesla to build electric cars fast enough to address the carbon crisis,” Musk said on the company blog.

Sharing technology could help. “In the long term, I hope this improves the rate at which we transition toward sustainable transport.”

He also said governments must remove the red tape that allows companies to control new technology too long.

“I do think we need some patent reform. Far too much energy,” is going into “patents that do not foster innovation.”

The South African-born Musk, known for his role in PayPal and SpaceX, explained it on the company website: http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/all-our-patent-are-belong-you.

“Technology leadership is not defined by patents, which history has repeatedly shown to be small protection indeed against a determined competitor, but rather by the ability of a company to attract and motivate the world’s most talented engineers. We believe that applying the open source philosophy to our patents will strengthen rather than diminish Tesla’s position in this regard.”

Only $ will solve VA problems

There is no issue in the United States where hypocrisy plays as big a role as the failure to care for wounded and ill veterans.
TV talking heads can talk about old computers, sleezy administrators, lying congressional leaders, and a whole host of other
problems.
But the problem can be summarized in one word: money.
Many voices warned that when we sent soldiers to Iraq on America’s “even for 911 mission” it would overwhelm existing facilities.
The story goes all the way to the American Revolutionary War. Even Caesar had problems.
Closer to the present, in January 2003 a total of 236,000 vets had waited more than six months for care, according to a commission created by President George Bush.
It was a war most everyone wanted to fight but few wanted to pay for. Taxes were lowered.
Indeed, with an economic recession on the horizon, though hidden by get rich quick schemes, the spending was concomitant with a growing desire to reduce the size of government.
Nothing was exempt. Even first responders at 911 had to fight to get decent medical care, and some died before they did.
The military resisted admitting Agent Orange hurt vets who served in Vietnam. Only the overwhelming number of PTSD cases forced the military to admit what it had known since World War 2.
At the same the government put as many obstacles in the path of veterans seeking care as possible, denying, for example, that Agent Orange crippled Vietnam vets.
Retired military veterans had the equivalent of privatization done to their promised heath care.
Although it is popular to speak about protecting veterans, they only make up 13 percent of the population.
The Afghan and Iraq wars added two million more, again a very small number.
Daily Show host Jon Stewart [Unlink] made it clear that neither party is pushing to make helping veterans a major priority.
"On this Memorial Day weekend eve, we can finally admit that America has had for over 200 years a great bipartisan tradition of honoring those who have fought for our freedom by fucking them over once they give their guns back," Stewart said.
Somewhere around $54 billion is being spent now. Some had estimated the two latest wars will cost more than $2 trillion.
And even if the political will was found to pay the bill, it is not at all clear that the doctors and hospitals would be available for such loads.

Sources:

CNN

PTSD

A good man with a gun wasn't enough

The National Rifle Association wants the nation to believe that the only answer to a bad man with a gun is a good man with a gun.
Thirty-one-year-old Joseph Wilcox was one of those good men. Now he is dead.
He intervened after two crazies executed two policemen in a pizza parlor in Las Vegas and went on a killing spree.
Wilson had a concealed carry pistol and he told people around him that he would intervene.
Unfortunately he had only seen one of the killers, 31-year-old Jerad Miller. When he approached Miller, the killer’s wife shot him dead.
The Millers had already shot officers Alyn Beck, 41, and Igor Soldo, 31, dead as they ate their lunchtime pizza. Neither officer was able to fire back. It happened too fast.
But the killers took the time to drap a revolutionary “Do Not Tread On Me” on one of the officers.
They had already made a suicide pact so they were ready when officers chase them into a nearby Walmart.
Amanda Miller, apparently wounded by one of the officers, shot her husband and then herself.
Swastikas were found at the killers’ home of the couple as well as ties to rancher-protestor Cliven Bundy, and plans to seize the Las Vegas Courthouse and begin public executions, Batman movie style.
Advocates of gun controls have argued that arming the public won’t solve the public because the killers will have a plan and be prepared to execute it. They also argue innocent bystanders may be shot by well-intentioned people.
Wilcox’s uncle, John Wilson, told the Las Vegas Review: “He wasn’t political. But he definitely believed in the right to bear arms and the right to defend yourself and others.”
Wilson, choking back tears, said: “He basically… he heard the threat to everyone and he was trying to stop it,” Wilson said. “He wasn’t trying to be a hero. He was trying to do what he thought should be done. “

Officers executed as hate crimes spread

                                            Police officers Alyn Beck, 41, and Igor Soldo, 31


Media outlets say a couple that executed police officers in Las Vegas, shooting them repeatedly, were white supremacists who had a suicide pact and wanted to execute people in the courthouse.
The killers were identified as Jared and Amanda Miller.
After they shot the officers, Alyn Beck, 41, and Igor Soldo, 31, they pinned a flag on one of the officers saying the revolution had begun.
A civilian, Joseph Wilcox, 31, who was carrying a concealed weapon confronted the killers, and was shot and killed.
The Las Vegas Review said documents found in the apartment of Jared and Amanda Miller indicated they planned to seize the courthouse.
Douglas County Sheriff Doug Gillespie, in a news conference, commended police and sheriff's forces for cornering the killers in a nearby Walmart and giving them no choice but to kill themselves. Amanda Miller, who may have been wounded by officers, shot her husband and then killed herself.
Officers confirmed the killers were associated with white supremacists.
The plan is a startling indication of the rising tide of hate in a world where major change is under way, from same-sex marriage to abortion to efforts to control gun rights and inflammatory speech on all sides.
In last week’s European elections right-wing groups made substantial gains.
Mass shootings are only a symptom.
And the killings haven’t been confined to the US with shootings at a Brussels Jewish Museum and three policemen shot dead in Canada.
The Las Vegas Sun quoted neighbors of the dead man and woman as saying they planned the next Columbine.
The Columbine killers had planned to commandeer a jet plane and crash it into New York City.
Their shooting spree claimed the lives of two policemen, killed while eating pizza.
Swastikas were found at the home of the couple, who claimed to have been at Cliven Bundy’s ranch during his standoff with federal forces over unpaid grazing fees.
"They were handing out white-power propaganda and were talking about doing the next Columbine," neighbor Brandon Moore said.
Gillespie said, "My officers were simply having lunch when the shooting started.”
There was at least one shout that a revolution was beginning before the officers were killed and their weapons seized.
The Washington Post said the killers covered the bodies of the officers with a revolutionary war flag with a coiled yellow snake and the words “Don’t Tread On Me.” Some in the Tea Party claim the flag as their symbol.
Sources:
Washington Post
Las Vegas Review Journal

Sources:
Washington Post
Las Vegas Review Journal