Note: the Flynn-flam items are in the comments.)
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef has been fighting terrorism for a long time now in Syria, funding those poor resistance fighters trying to depose Assad the Terrible, and is entirely deserving of that medal.
And of course Our Partners in Peace the Sauds in general have been aiding the CIA in Afghanistan since the 1970s, by funding the Mujahidin in a grand scheme to kick those fuckin’ Commies out on their asses, bless their hearts, and in any other Sunni/Shiite proxy wars.
T’was brillig to read that Saint Josephus of Biden had finally apologized after his slip-o-the-tongue accusing the Sauds, the UAE, and Turkey of funneling money and munitions into the not-so-moderate terrorists, wasn’t it? The Sauds and the CIA mightta droned him, but for his mentioning that his mama had always warned her kiddies: “Safety first! Or second, if needs must.” Whew! Closes call, Holy Joe! Now HE might get a Tenet Medal, ya think?
Pay no attention to the many detractors of the award, such as this sort. It’s just sour grapes, isn’t it? How terribly rude they are to our CIA, I swear. That agency and their affiliated ‘human rights orgs (Amnesty Int’l and Human Rights Watch) only ever overthrow the worst tyrants like Gadaffi and Hugo Chavez and far more, and coming to a theater near you soon: Taxi cab driver Nicolas Maduro in VZ)
We know how much they’ve appreciated the Empire’s soft power strategy. And how cruel some are to George Tenet, as well, without whom we may never have liberated Iraq. Twice. Er…thrice?
Prescient Hieronymus Bosch vision of CIA-Saudi hell
Stay vigilant to discern #FakeNews from #PatrioticNews! Sunnis! Sunnis! Rah! Keep Iran in your cross-hairs, Herr Trump! I’d look simply terrible in a burqa! And we’re so sorry, Bahraini Shiite protestors: ya shouldda had the smarts to convert. Plus: the crackdowns were only meant to maintain national stability in a Sunni-ruled, Shiite majority nation. Ooof: today is the 6th anniversary of the original insurrection. The Sauds are still winning!
Yes! Give it all back, that stolen land and warm water port!
And Happy ♥ Day from the US, Syrians and Iraqis! DU: ‘the gift that keeps on giving!
davidly
Greyson Smythe
LeMoyne
juliania2
ohiobarbarian
stephenadavis1
wendyedavis
café babylon 
Trump is walking enigma, wrapped in a mystery, spouting utter delusional nonsense.
Yeah right, Russia’s going to give up Crimea? Hahahahahahahahaha…
This is what I see coming as a result of a dysfunctional system of governance;
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-02-14/coming-soon-city-near-you-us-militarys-plan-take-over-america
TINA possible at this time for the U.S..
Buckle up.
as regards anything ‘FB’, herr T is all over the map. “oh, he won’t be drawn into anything to do w/ crimea!”, but…at least according to spicer, “this is the prez’s position (not just nikki haley’s)”. tomorrow, likely still the same, depending on which red scare wormtongues he’s just listened to.
dagnabbit, and O! for a memory, i’d be embarrassed to tell you how much time i spent trying to find the army war college manual coverage we spoke about here…not all that long ago. zero hedge had loads of links, but not quite a fulsome as this, bless the trots at wsws.org. somewhere i have a list of all, or most, of the dissident groups who’ve all been named as ‘terr’ists’ under the first black prez, but certainly not all right-wing as under clinton’s dhs.
yeah, putin’s just gonna say so long to the russians in the donbass, and to is…sevastapol? tartus is in syria, iirc, (on edit) and tell the crimeans they need to vote to nullify their previous vote to join mother russia again.
Expanding Our Democracy For the Better: Crafting a “newer” Infrastructure for National Security and Defense
Earlier this month, I wrote that our America has become a “dunce nation” and notwithstanding the several emails in which several of my Brothers and Sisters of Shared Experience took me to task via their respective comments that were in quite “negative’ in each ’person’s view, has caused me to reflect on the “unmet needs” of our nation. And in this regard, I write the following.
However, my approach to National Security and Defense is entirely different and founded on the premise that our Indigenous America is in the offing given the predominant demographic shift of 21 million American-born kids reaching their majority and voting–to undocumented immigrant moms or within the next 25 years. And therefore, a new approach is required and not at all considered given the expansive use of today’s money spigot that is our national or congressional spending patterns, and of course, I set aside the heavy burden that our national debt, for the purpose of this commentary.
Therefore, I an calling for a National Security and Defense Commission that will meet monthly and at the behest of the President. Consequently, the Members of this newly-formed Iconic Commission, that is inclusive of both Elected and Appointed Officials, consists of the new norm..
As to the Elected Officials:
• The President
• The Vice President
• The Senate Chairman of Armed Services Committee
• The House Chairman version of Chairman of the Armed Services Committee
• The Chairman of the Select Committee on Intelligence
• The House version of the Chairman of the Select Committee on Intelligence
• The Senate Leadership (Two members from the Senate and two from the House, or respectively the Majority and Minority Leaders from each Chamber of Congress.
As to the Appointed Officials, this participation comes from three distinct directions.
The first level would include the President’s immediate staff for addressing our daily needs as well as crafting the appropriate policies. The second level would come from President’s designated “team” that consists of the various Intelligence agencies and to include the Secretary of Defense, as well as the Admiral/Generals responsible for the management of the Army, Navy, the Air Force and the Coast Guard.
And the third level would include the Secretaries of the Cabinet and where these Secretaries have been confirmed by the Senate, and done at the commencement of each presidential administration.
Thusly, taken together of both the Elected Officials and the Appointed Officials,, this National Security and Defense Commission, would bring forth a more and wide variety of experience in insuring that our Democracy is relegated to the role performed under the auspices of the Commander-in-Chief. Take, for example, the Construct of Presidential Executive Orders would have to undergo the gauntlet that is the Commission and for its consideration and to healthy discussion, and still the Commander-in-Chief remains the final arbiter.
In closing, a widely dispersed “discussion” of our National Security and Defense Construct needs to be established in a formal manner and in which this Commission, would bring forth for me, my satisfaction and comfort knowing that the “decision-making” systemic is being overtly considered and before implementation. And finally, my citizen-input into this critical arena, comes in the form of my standardized and Change of Administration request in which this request for the United Nations to accept and perform its responsibility to create ‘the Border’ between Israel and Palestine, and consequently this subject matter would have greater “influence” within this newly-formed National Security and Defense Commission, and much to my joy. To wit, moving our embassy to Jerusalem is both a political canard and an obnoxious approach to national politics for discounting 1,000 years of history.
Jaango
thanks, jaango; some good planning toward the future. i suppose ‘discussion’ before a prez issues an executive order isn’t too tall an order, is it?
I’m a bit puzzled by the end bit, Jaango. I have seen commentary that moving the embassy to Jerusalem was a sign that Trump favors a one-state solution – are walls/borders such a good thing? A thousand years of history centers on Jerusalem, does it not? (Sorry, I don’t remember the name of the author of the article – he’s Irish and didn’t want to be quoted, so his site says. Something about killing Bibi with kindness was in the title. I believe it is linked in comments on Saker’s approval of Trump’s press conference.)
as jaango may not be back, i’ll answer your question as i’m able. first, this: “Republican nominee Donald Trump pledged to recognize Jerusalem as the “undivided capital” of Israel if elected president as he met with Benjamin Netanyahu in New York, while Hillary Clinton told the Israeli PM she would oppose BDS and UN meddling.”
the essay also claims: “The majority of countries do not recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, with the foreign missions preeminently located in Tel Aviv. Israel seized control of the East Jerusalem after a Six Day War of 1967. Palestinians long to make East Jerusalem their own capital.”
as well, jerusalem is considered a holy city in the three major Abrahamic religions of judaism, christianity and islam. the wiki’s section on religious significance is here.
but how well met: i’d been intending to send you this article on zelandia’ from RT.
on edit: and think what such close ties to bibi, et al mean for iran, the nuke deal, etc. although last i’d read, even israel said that moving the US embassy to jerusalem was a bridge too far to allow for a peace process’ whatever than means for palestinians, at least for now.
trnn has that one electronic intifada dude making a case for the one-state solution, though how he envisions ‘equal rights’ is beyond me.
re: ukraine. i’d checked into consortium news earlier to see what parry and others might have written about the new assaults by the neo-nazis that have been reported by b at moa and others. what i found was a narrative from James DiEugenio on stone’s film “ukraine on fire’. i can’t remember if i’ve ever seen one of his films, as in: if i had, it didn’t stick, although i know they’re controversial at the very least.
his narrative is long, and contains history i hadn’t known, plus a few things i’ forgotten. but it’s a very worthy read, for sure, especially with the newest crisis afoot, and the msm reporting as biased as ever, maybe more given trump’s election, having spawned an even more deepening “evil putin” theme.
“Key people in the film’s production are director Igor Lopatonok, editor Alex Chavez, and writer Vanessa Dean, whose screenplay contains a large amount of historical as well as current material exploring how Ukraine became such a cauldron of violence and hate. Oliver Stone served as executive producer and conducted some high-profile interviews with Russian President Vladimir Putin and ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.
The film begins with gripping images of the violence that ripped through the capital city of Kiev during both the 2004 Orange Revolution and the 2014 removal of Yanukovich. It then travels back in time to provide a perspective that has been missing from mainstream versions of these events and even in many alternative media renditions.”
that i’ve always considered julia tymphenko, the blonde braided one, as a banderist (uber-nationalist, neo-nazi) is no surprise given this explanation:
“For instance, the U.S.-backed candidate for president of Ukraine in 2004 — Viktor Yushchenko — decreed both Bandera and Lebed to be Ukrainian national heroes. In the 2010 election, when Yushchenko couldn’t even tally in the double-digits, Yanukovych faced off against and defeated Yulia Tymoshenko, a wealthy oligarch who had served as Yushchenko’s prime minister.”
this is the brief trailer; the full film says it’s available on youtube, but trying to access it send you to a place that says: ‘watch for free, just register’, but ‘next’ is a page that wants your credit card, ‘just to corroborate your email’, yada, yada. no thanks. “it’s not that i don’t trust you, william tell. it’s just that you’ve got some Cheerious to sell”. pffft.
http://full.greatmovie.us/play.php?movie=5724358
fwiw:
‘Our land’: Russia tells US that Crimea won’t be ‘given back’ to Ukraine‘, at RT
“Russia won’t give Crimea back to Ukraine, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in response to White House comments that Donald Trump expects Moscow to “return” the peninsular.
“We don’t return our territories. Crimea is a territory of the Russian Federation,” Zakharova said at a weekly news briefing on current foreign policy issues.”
on edit: given that about Yulia, i had to chuckle when i’d read theiry meyssan say this:
“In order to resolve the Ukrainian conflict, Donald Trump is looking for a way to help to eject President Petro Porochenko. He therefore received at the White House the head of the opposition, Ioulia Tymochenko, even before he accepted a phone call from President Porochenko.”
And now this over at Sputnik;
https://sputniknews.com/us/201702151050723578-intelligence-community-war-trump/
I’ll be truly surprised if Trump weathers this full tilt boogie against him.
A genuine coup is under way; frankly; I’ll take the one I presently live under…
Over ties to roosia? it’s by wayo f a dem psy-op, i’d think. there may be a nat sec rebellion going on cuz trump as gonna poke a stick into the IC eyes, but that may have been short-lived, i dunno. but a subtweet there ???:
Joe Walters @JWal077
@20committee I can kind of guess but what do you think is going on inside NatSec right now after Trump’s “intelligence” tweet this morning?
look at his selfie and bio. and by the by, high colonic ha a message for you…on some thread or other. man, does he need some fiber in his diet. psyllium seed husks, perhaps? ;-)
ack; the hyperlinks dinnae make, but look at schindler’s list (so to speak): blaming russia for the sit in
crimeaukraine.“A genuine coup is under way.” maybe, hard to figger what all the gevalt und geschrei is about. as occasionally happens thru sheer indolence, i listened to the Patriotic Broadcasting Service’s Snooze Hour. Judy Woodruff as Plato’s guard dog of the State! ruff ruff, Mr. Trump Spokesman. ruff ruff! Russia scary bad! will you denounce here on air your PUtin ties & throw me a frickin’ bone here? bow wow! ruff ruff!
I love how liberals are gloating & celebrating over how gov’t, at least gov’t as the “art” of public perception management & control, is being conducted via leaks from the state security services. America! Fuck Yeah!
…as occasionally happens thru sheer indolence, i listened to the Patriotic Broadcasting Service’s Snooze Hour.
My profound sympathies; I gave up on them in the early 90’s.
I scan 2 U.S. news sites (Google News and Huff Post) for a quick orientation of their present manufactured reality. I also gave up on BBC about 10 years ago. The Independent out of Britain, has some good reporters as well.
The rest of news reading is from Iran (Farsnews), Katehon Think Tank, Sputnik, Bangkok Post, Fort Rus, Asia Times, etc., etc..
TRNN is also quite good.
Cheers
Kucinich weighs in and it’s serious as hell;
http://russia-insider.com/en/kucinich-blows-whistle-intelligence-community-making-every-effort-upend-trump-video/ri18940
well, it is serious as hell, and he nailed it, didn’t he? too sick that maria had to veer over into pizza gate BS, double ish. i wasn’t aware that there was one sole IC leaker, though. i read emptywheel’s parsing of the public statements from the fbi and the wiretaps, content or not, etc., but was none the wiser.
but ye crikey, mr. wd and i were laughing about how impossible it is to know whose versions and voices to trust any longer, given that ‘the real news’ is really only available to satirize, as in: this post. surreal doesn’t even come close.
now the commenterariat at emptywheel’s, and likely denis, don’t seem to have seen herr T’s tweets about ‘putin should give crimea back’, so my thing is that the six directions of deep state might be working, as i implied above.
maybe there’s a lot of smoke & mirrors & next thing you know we’ll be at war w/iran? in the same PBS Nooz hour program, some dembot congresscritter was screeching about subversion of the electoral process, etc., etc., dancing around, w/o uttering, the “t” word (trahison, a francais), slanderous, vicious mud-slinging about someone who’s been offered up as a business hero & model to USaians for 30 years now. don’t remember this degree of outrage (not that i give a hoot about such things) about the Clintons’ dealings w/China back in the day, or SoS HRC’s dealings w/the GCC states, esp. the fellow freedom-likers in Saudi Arabia.
the elite of this nation put forward Trump the reality TV “star” as a POTUS candidate, and wow, public life looks like a very shitty episode of Jerry Springer. go figure.
‘a shitty episode of jerry springer’ is just abut right, amigo. no, whatever shadow government deep throats are driving this current bus, it’s clearly authored by the neoloberal/cons. lemme add a couple links on the flynn-flam, then i gotta go make a batch of pepita sauce, then come back.
from the trots: ‘Intelligence agencies clash with Trump over Russia allegations’
“The crisis deepened on Wednesday, with the Post and Times claiming new revelations based on unnamed current and former intelligence sources, and leading Senate Republicans joining Democrats in calling for a congressional investigation into Trump’s alleged connections to Russian intelligence agencies, both prior to and after the November election.” (not one source named, and oh! the outrage re: any calls w/ russia:
“There would be nothing illegal in such a discussion, and numerous historical precedents exist, some of them far more egregious than the claims being made about Flynn’s call—including the notorious instance of Reagan campaign officials intervening to prevent the release of US hostages in Iran until after the November 1980 election.
Instead, the intelligence agencies seized on the conversation to drive out Flynn, who advocated a temporary understanding with Russia so that the US could quickly move against Iran, and potentially China.”
Pepe Escobar’s “The Swamp strikes back”
“The tawdry Michael Flynn soap opera boils down to the CIA hemorrhaging leaks to the company town newspaper, leading to the desired endgame: a resounding victory for hardcore neocon/neoliberalcon US Deep State factions in one particular battle. But the war is not over; in fact it’s just beginning.”
ah yes. what will ya do for libya now, herr trump? knuckle to stoltenburg? claim you’ll be fighting isis? oh: that’s right: you will be.
I found this quote from James Risen’s behind-the-paywall piece helpful. Risen in the past has been fed leaks from the Borg and gotten his knuckles rapped for it. But this was was the interesting part.
“President Trump plans to assign a New York billionaire to lead a broad review of American intelligence agencies, according to administration officials, an effort that members of the intelligence community fear could curtail their independence and reduce the flow of information that contradicts the president’s worldview.
“The possible role for Stephen A. Feinberg, a co-founder of Cerberus Capital Management, has met fierce resistance among intelligence officials already on edge because of the criticism the intelligence community has received from Mr. Trump during the campaign and since he became president.”
Cerberus Capital Management’s chair is former VP Dan Quayle. They invest enough in defense (or as they put it “weaponry”) to make this not exactly an academic exercise for Feinberg.
My current reading in this fog is that the conflct is the Billionaires vs. the Borg at this point. The former Borg leadership who endorsed Hillary Clinton are among the folks who are not happy with whatever departure from neoconservative responsibility to defend a continuing imperial adventure they see emerging from Trump’s appointments.
If I am right about the protagonists, get your popcorn ready. That will likely be all we “citizens” will be allowed to do.
It will not be a one-sided fight. The President still has the power of declassification, and no one has looked really carefully at the intelligence community’s doings since before World War II. And certainly since the CIA Act of 1949 put most of their operations out of sight of members of Congress. I wonder where the Pentagon (and Mattis) are lining up in this fight. Flynn’s really big defect as far as the IC boys and girls were concerned was that he was from DIA and stuck it to some of their operations when he headed that agency. Likely Brennan got him fired. Not just elite interests and politics, but bureaucratic ones as well involved in this.
Now to see Pepe’s take on this.
thanks, thd; for some odd reason i haven’t used up all of my NYTimes freebies, but the wapo fake news: yes, so they want $99, oh yeah.
but at least feinberg has this much experience, lol: “Through Cerberus, his private equity company, Mr. Feinberg has strong ties to the government contracting industry. Cerberus owns DynCorp International, which has had a wide array of large contracts providing security to the State Department and other agencies. DynCorp is now locked in a major legal dispute over the fate of a $10 billion State Department contract that it previously held to provide air support for counternarcotics operations overseas.”
as well as:
“Cerberus also owns Remington Outdoor, a major firearms manufacturer. In 2008, Mr. Feinberg also considered investing in Blackwater, the security firm founded by Erik Prince, a former member of the Navy SEALs, before it was ultimately acquired by other investors.”
the dyncorp kerfuffle is esp. funny given this from risen’s wiki: “Risen also alleges that the Bush Administration is responsible for the transformation of Afghanistan into a “narco-state”, that provides a purported 80% of the world’s heroin supply.”
i admit i got fogged by the jeffrey sterling prosecution stuff; remember norman solomon writing about him a lot, but have…forgotten. no matter. 3 and a half years compared to Petraeus’s ‘misdemeanor’. and now he might be appointed to fill…flynn’s job? michael hayden’s quote: ack. ish. guess we’ll see IF herr T downsizes the intel community; i kinda hope so, but he’ better watch his back.
but i swear i’m not getting your gist here: “The former Borg leadership who endorsed Hillary Clinton are among the folks who are not happy with whatever departure from neoconservative responsibility to defend a continuing imperial adventure they see emerging from Trump’s appointments.” i’ll try reading it a few more times, see if it takes.
i’ve long loved the photos of GIs guarding our flocks of poppies….
For Morrell and Hayden, and likely others in the IC who supported Clinton, Trump was seen as not being reliably hawkish. It’s about their perceptions, not ours. I don’t think they’ll even be happy with the restoration of the Kissenger policy with K. T. McFarland, if that’s the way that goes. Not just Dems in the mix–Clinton Republicans 2016 version too. Probably the ones that wound up stiffed the worst. Can you see Trump proffering large contracts to the Chertoff Group after Hayden’s actions?
eh. he makes as much as sense as any of the gang of thugs who’ve been POTUS (ok, ol’ excepted Abe. fine. whatever):
“I have been briefed. And I can tell you one thing about a briefing that we’re allowed to say because anybody that ever read the most basic book can say it: a nuclear holocaust would be like no other…We had Hillary Clinton give Russia 20 percent of the uranium in our country. You know what uranium is, right? It’s this thing called nuclear weapons and other things. Like, lots of things are done with uranium, including some bad things. Nobody talks about that.” i don’t have the expertise to find the falsehood in any of these words. i suspect he may have a point about nukular holocausts and such. I also have my doubts that the Clintons just “give” anything away, but w/this crowd, giving=selling, so what do i know? maybe he’s a little confused?
it was a lovely rosy-fingered dawn in russet mantel clad, except for the chem trails of course. i know that if we are not vigilant, some bright, yet dark morning, not too distant, it may be a….Red Dawn. i hear the Russkies are amassing subs off the coast…of Connecticut…godless commies loaded up w/our god-fearing uranium…threatening such beautiful cities as Stamford and Bridgeport…the bastards.
arrgh. i think the light just went on: you were channeling some of herr T’s press conference…stuff?
and @ thd: the borg v. the billionaires, yes i see. only caveat is offer is how many silicon valley billionaires are part of the borg, as well as soros, the compromised humanitarian orgs, etc. that amnesty report was a piece of work (cartalucci’s version). i began wondering if greenwald might have reported it w/ dutiful outrage as amy goodman had, but then i remembered one of his tweets that israel was approaching being an apartheid nation. ya think?
herr trump seems not to want to say fer certain, but close to: ‘one state, two state…let’s let the people decide’…or something. but tomorrow he may say something different. anyone know how his visit w/ bibi went?
on edit: speaking of bibi, the trrn transcript w/ colleen rowley‘s up. now she did pull her punches bit re: GG’s drive, but this is great:
“And the other side to this is that he [flynn] was going to be in position advising Trump in just a few weeks and it’s very normal for Flynn to carry on conversations with heads of foreign governments. It would not be abnormal. Besides having those conversations with the Russian ambassador, guess who else Flynn had conversations with? He had conversations with Israeli Intelligence folks in order to set up the meetings that just happened today between Netanyahu and Trump. There may be other countries as well. I would imagine he probably had many of these conversations and yet they are singling out the conversations he had with the Russian ambassador, which I think should be a worry to many Americans who do not want to see this launching or ginning up of a new war with Russia. and I think that’s one of the reasons why, if they’re going to go this far in the media, we really now should see the actual conversation so that we don’t have any kind of exaggeration going on.”
@ thd: got it w/ fresh eye this a.m., thanks. and look at this tool of the empire weighing in. i was glad to see that a whale of a lot of st. greenwald’s commentariat called bullshit on his partisan Imperial drivel.
but bless her, colleen rowley is saying it right at RT, imo: ‘Democrats & neocon warmongers formed unholy alliance against Trump’ she was on trnn recently, but there was no transcript, so i’d backed out.
fuck, yeah, jason, when ya have herr T saying “you’d all be glad if i bombed the roosian ship off the SE coast of the US!”, yanno you’re living in the most surreal of times. (he’d apparently mentioned ‘getting along with’ china and japan, too, but not iran.
nice, successful, intelligent, liberal on my FB page:
“As much as I try to stop I can not stop warning everyone I can. Did you know everyone dt has surrounded himself has ties to Russia. His son in law, Kelly Anne Conway through her husband, Manafort, Flynn and now Sean Spicer. Who am I missing? No wonder the Russian warships are closing in on both sides of the country and the missiles that were launched earlier this week. Putin must be so happy!” channel the hysteria of alex jones much? (is the “missile launch” a ref to iran? n korea?) those 3 or whatever red warships that aren’t in the black sea or mediterranean are closing in! since russia doesn’t have any ports in the pacific outside russia, i think we may have a few days ‘fore that death fleet hits Napa valley.
anyway, DT’s all chummy w/Bibi, so it’s obvs the ship of state hasn’t turned much, if at all.
both iran and n. korea, iirc. but ya got it all wrong, jason. jones just reported that the rooskies hacked the whole power grid in califor-ni-yay. the new US cyber threat command mustta been smokin’ crack that day.
like the minerals management technocrats!
but yeah,, the red scare quantity is all ya see in the msm, and even alleged left blogsites and citizen journalists.
but no doubt more big city PD’s will go to israel to be trained by mossad, yes? i don’t remember the current list, but it will be expanded. nypd, iirc, has its own offices there already.
A wise man (wise guy?) – yep, male – had this insight. Without a great power enemy, there is no reason for a yuuuuge military industrial complex. Remember the panic about Poppy Bush’s “peace dividend” and then there was “Desert Storm” or Clinton’s “peace dividend”, and then there was Bosnia. Or the budget surplus, and then there was 9/11. Either you have two regional wars or a great power enemy. The two regional wars have been costing too much risk. The great power enemy is a known quantity (so they think) and good for much bigger toys. Thus Cold War 2.0.
The other notion going around in what passes for analysis is that Trump’s infrastructure plan is a non-starter for the GOP that has peddled the notion for 50 years that all infrastructure is socialism. But this same bunch has been OK with military and police Keynesianism because jobs. If you think that John Locke et. al. argued that the only function of government was to provide the military and police, you might find that that model creates only highly militarized police states. Everyone else has to do accounting in which deficits cannot be postponed without bankruptcy and starting from nothing.
(Well there are the corporate persons extinguished in bankruptcy as the principal who is behind the incorporation keeps his money to start another firm that goes bankrupt. Limited liability as being a deadbeat. Scott Reynolds Nelson in A Nation of Deadbeats: an Uncommon History of America’s Financial Crises argued that this is the real American Dream and what its consequences have been for everyone else, you know the folks “who work hard and play by the rules.”)
oh, my. as ever, i’ve spent too much time reading reviews/overviews of s.r. nelson’s book, and locke on da wiki (some odd thoughts re: nature not in production is w/o value, but okay). i suppose a parallel to your locke would be thomas paine’s positing that creating war was a way to increase taxes, or close, as in: directly linked, if not causal. where did i read lately that russia is the most convenient satan?
he certainly knows it, and knows that since 1989 it’s been so. the nato summit in brussels the past two days…also acknowledges it. i pulled a few links for a bit of a laff about it, but dagnabbit: there are so many directions to look. plus: few media even covered it at all! busy w/ flynn/red scare, i reckon.
on edit sat. a.m. unicorn ninja’s back at standing rock, and this tweet contains a lot of news and interviews in their others.
i’m a mite curious about gop being against herr T’s ‘trillions for infrastructure’ project, though, as all i’ve seen is ‘public/private’ stuff, way past “enterprise zones”, and that without mammoth profit and control: no takers, perhaps. but dangit, it’s so easy to project what might become policy w/ him, isn’t it? leaked memos, tra la la. the new one’s the AP leak about 100,000 guardsman to round up…illegals. guess we’ll see if “it’s false!” spicer.
but ‘a day w/o immigrants’ was very kewl, i think.
i’d put a few new things on the last standing rock catch up, but by yesterday the folks there were served ith trespassing violation papers by the bia cops, who said the tribal council head ordered them to…at the best of the gov or ND in preparation for the great Indun Clearout on the 22nd.. but while bouncing in to mattis’s (with a speech impediment) talk at nato, i did find this from ladonna allard, go figure.
sleep well; the world is almost too surreal no to get terribly exercised about, no?
“life is but a dream…”