Forget Biden-Trump; watch Macron-Erdogan instead

I've been predicting the imminent demise of the wily Erdogan for about nine years now. I'll be right eventually.

I thought he was a goner in 2016, but apparently Putin saved his ass that time around. He's less likely to be as brotherly next time, what with Erdogan mucking up his various efforts in Syria, Libya, and now Nagorno- Karabakh.

Meanwhile, Sultan-in-waiting Fethullah Gulen hopes his handlers at Foggy Bottom give him another chance. While Turkey is indeed a NATO member, it's likely that those handlers are well aware that it would be a far more reliable (read pliable) ally under a President Gulen.

Enter NATO member Macron, a man with enough arrogance, chutzpah, and self-regard to give Erdogan a run for his money. Macron has troubles aplenty himself; Yellow Vests, Black Death, and a six-million strong Islamist underclass seething with resentments.

 One of the most cherished values of the NATO nations is freedom of speech. In France this freedom is held in especially high regard when it comes to freedom to mock the religion of that aforementioned seething underclass. This has bubbled into the open once again due largely to the folks at Charlie Hebdo reprinting their infamous cartoons of The Prophet to mark the trial of the crazed fanatics who shot up their offices when they were originally published.

This has given Erdogan the opening to pose as the guardian of Islam world-wide. For better or worse, his message is sure to gain traction in the banlieues. How far will white France go to defend its right to mock the religion of its non-white underclass?

There you have it. In this corner, NATO member France. In that corner, NATO member Turkey...

Something's got to give eventually!

Macron gives up saving France, will save Lebanon instead

Finally acknowledging that the French are beyond redemption, Jupiter has thrown in the towel. He will henceforth focus His attention on countries where His efforts are more likely to be appreciated, like Lebanon, and perhaps Mali as well.

Who can blame Him? The Yellow Vesters have been poking sticks in the spokes for what, three years now? The ingrates have no clue how good they have it. Maybe they should move to Lebanon if they hate their country so much.

The Algerian hordes in the banlieues are even worse. You'd think the brown bastards would be grateful to live among the civilized, but noooo... Perhaps they can be given tickets to Mali if they miss Africa so much.

And if that's not enough, the irascible racists at Charlie Hebdo just announced an anniversary reprint of their famed "Blasphemous Cartoons of The Prophet" edition, which could set off a bigger explosion than what thirty tons of ammonia nitrate just did in Beirut.


So goodbye and godspeed, Macron... just make sure you take the unctuous imbecile BHL with you. There can be no redemption for France so long as that charlatan haunts the corridors of power.

How does Dr. Paul Craig Roberts come up with his crazy conspiracy theories?

Hey, just because the dude was once an associate editor of the Wall Street Journal doesn't mean he knows anything.

Roberts has been running amok all over the internet lately insinuating that the Charlie Hebdo operation may not have been what we have been led to believe it was.

For Roberts and others of his ilk, this excerpt from a 12.1.15 CNN International story provides all sorts of fodder for speculative innuendo;

Authorities have released few details on why they've zeroed in on the Kouachi brothers. But they have pointed to one key clue found inside a getaway car the gunmen apparently used: Said Kouachi's identification card. It was discovered by investigators as they combed the vehicle for clues after impounding it.

"It was their only mistake," said Dominique Rizet, BFMTV's police and justice consultant, reporting that discovering the ID had helped French investigators

Damn! Of all the things that could fall out of one's pocket in the midst of a terror op, why does it always have to be the ID card!

Not a set of house keys, not a crumpled receipt from the deli, not a condom packet, not some loose change, not a bag of weed, but the goddam ID card for fucks sakes!

Here's a Guardian story from 2002 about the happy coincidences that abound when the Nations of Virtue are investigating terror attacks. Not least among the happy coincidences post 9/11 was the fortuitous coincidence of Mohamed Atta's passport fluttering safely and unsinged to earth, there to be picked up in the midst of all those mountains of 9/11 rubble by a particularly sharp-eyed investigator!

Folks, this can not be mere coincidence. Nor is it evidence of "conspiracy." 

This is the hand of God at work in our world!

Charlie Hebdo gives master class in how to profit from tragedy

What a difference a week makes!

A week ago Charlie Hebdo was a failing novelty comic with a print run of 50,000 or less.

This week, the print run is for 3,000,000!

In the interim, Charlie Hebdo managed to become a centrepiece, indeed the central focus, in a global debate about "free expression" and "freedom of speech."

A whole bunch of leaders from a whole bunch of places that normally give short shrift to freedom of speech were happy to drop everything to make a Paris photo-op!

Every single one of them was angling for the perfect photo-op to sell themselves to their domestic audience. Netanyahu gave the master class at that break-out session.

Charlie Hebdo is France's answer to the National Lampoon, forty years late and without the redeeming humour.

But it is now a title that will forever be a "freedom of expression" icon, a fact that is undeserved and unfortunate.

Relentlessly mocking the religion of France's underclass may indeed be an exercise in freedom of speech, but to what end?

I think a lot of those "I am Charlie" folks never actually thought it through.

Charlie Hebdo was a racist anti-Islamic propaganda tool, which is why 40 world leaders were able to drop everything and find their way to Paris at a moment's notice.

And the cover of this latest print run of 3,000,000 is specifically designed to stir up more controversy.

With a bit of luck, there will be a print run of fifty millions next week!

Will Haaretz be the next Charlie Hebdo?

The vaguely leftish Israeli newpaper Haaretz has got a whole whack of columnists gunning to become front page news by running afoul of right-wing public sentiment in Israel.

Not to mention further inflaming the "Netanyahu is the greatest leader since Moses" clique.

That should do it!

17 dead in Paris, millions march; 2200 dead in Nigeria, who cares?

The crimes in France this week resulted in a massive show of support from Parisians and at least 40 world leaders who arrived to march in symbolic solidarity with France.

The crimes in Nigeria this week have resulted in... nothing?

Why?

Is not every life precious?

Well, perhaps, but as we all know, white European lives are exponentially more precious than black African lives.

World leaders converge on Paris in search of photo-ops

Charlie Hebdo is obviously much more loved in death than in life. In life, they were consistently harassed by the French state. In death, they are lionized by the French state.

And far beyond! These champions of freedom of expression have inspired a solidarity march in Paris tomorrow, that has virtually every leader in the free world clamouring to climb aboard the bandwagon!
Merkel, Cameron, Poroshenko... yes, ALL the leaders of the free world, and apparently every member of the Israeli Knesset to boot!

Thus far Canada has missed the boat on this one, designating Public Safety Minister Steve Blaney, a non-entity, to represent the country. But that was before news came out that all the top-echelon Likud crowd would be in attendance, which may yet cause a change of plans in Ottawa.

This is truly a heart-warming rally in support of freedom of speech!

But while our hearts are warm and our eyes are misty, let's not forget that as recently as last summer, the nation that now parades itself as the very womb of "freedom of expression," criminalized protest against Israel's invasion of Gaza.

Ah, but life is awash with ironies, is it not?

Netanyahu seeks PR windfall in Charlie Hebdo massacre

Every cloud has its silver linings.

In the immediate aftermath of last Wednesday's attack on the offices of Charlie Hebdo, PM Netanyahu made a point of larding his condolences with an appeal to solidarity among the free and civilized nations. Israel has been facing the scourge of Islamic terror for a long time, of course, and the fact that Islamic terror has struck in the heart of France just proves that we're all in this together.

The Paris terrorists are just like Hamas, the elected government of Gaza. While Hamas may have won a free election, they hate freedom.  They have a poisonous ideology that prevents them from acknowledging the superiority of Israel and the legitimacy of Israel's illegal occupation of Palestinian territory.

Yes, Israel is just like France, and indeed, the rest of the free and democratic world. We must stand together, shoulder to shoulder, and wipe this poisonous ideology from the earth!

By today there was a subtle but not insignificant change in emphasis. Yes, the brotherhood of free and democratic nations must still stand together, but in the meantime, it would be best if all French Jews moved home to Israel.

Because that's the only place they'll ever be safe!

Truly, the Greatest Leader Since Moses has just established a new benchmark for cynical opportunism!

While the world watches Paris, Islamic militants slaughter 2000 in Nigeria

The big story this week was in Paris, where Islamic militants murdered 12 middle-class white dudes.

A story that may have escaped your attention this week comes from Africa, where Islamic militants slaughtered an estimated 2000 black folks, in what Amnesty International is calling Boko Haram's worst mass murder in its mass-murdering history.

These stories have more in common than the fact that Islamic militants were the perpetrators. A superficial analysis would stop there, and conclude that there's obviously something profoundly wrong with Islam. That's been the overwhelming thrust of the punditry we've seen in the main-stream media thus far re: the Charlie Hebdo massacre.

What we call "Islamic militants" don't suddenly emerge from a void. These groups come from long-marginalized populations wherein some members eventually turn to violence after every other avenue for redress has been denied them.

Eventually these people lash out. The fact that the 12 middle-class white victims in France get a thousand times more publicity than those 2000 poor black victims in Nigeria is another symptom of the dysfunctional system that marginalized those populations in the first place.

Jihadi Steve declares war on radical Islam

Big Steve opened his trap yesterday, and sure enough, stupid shit came out.

Steve was thinking aloud about what kind of monsters could possibly carry out the cold-blooded murder of a bunch of harmless cartoonists at Charlie Hebdo. Seems those international baddies have declared war on us, in fact, on all countries and people that don't think and act as they want us to; people like ourselves who value freedom, openness, and tolerance.

Yup, when you hear PM Harper tell the tale, the Nations of Virtue were just sitting around, being virtuous, when, out of the blue, a bunch of bloodthirsty towel-heads took a dislike to us!

To be honest, Steve, it seems to me that those folks would be more than happy to mind their own business, it we would just leave them alone. I don't recall any Islamic nation ever bombing Canada, yet we were beyond proud to be raining down bombs on Libya... oh, sorry! Those weren't bombs, they were "projectiles of democracy!"

Of course we were not acting alone; we were joined by a number of other NATO states, none of which was remotely threatened by Gadaffi either.

There are of course other outrages etched in the collective memories of those evil-doers who have the big hate on for our freedoms. Long before NATO destroyed Libya, we destroyed Iraq, which act, incidentally, birthed al Qaeda, and our lengthy run in Afghanistan has set that country back several generations, and we are currently working our magic in Syria and Iraq again!

So I don't know where you get the idea that those people aren't pissed off for good reasons, Steve. And you know what? I think if you or your brother or father or son was one of the folks in this picture, you'd be pissed off too!






They hate us for a lot more than our freedom.

Charlie Hebdo attack reveals al Qaeda has adopted Western-style commando tactics

According to reports from Paris, today's al Qaeda raid marks a radical departure in the terror group's methods.

Typically, one associates al Qaeda with suicide missions. Obviously, this was no such thing. Instead, today's attack was extremely well-rehearsed and professional in nature. This team of al Qaeda killers have obviously played on the same line for some time, if I may indulge a sports analogy.

This was the unveiling of an entirely new al Qaeda strategy. What does this portend for terror ops of the future? Has the day of the lone fanatic with a suicide vest passed into history?

Was this the work of European ISIS sympathizers who have been professionally trained and battle-hardened in the streets of Aleppo? If so, how many such teams are on the loose in the capitals of Europe?

Today we have witnessed a new stage in the evolution of terror...

Or could this be something else entirely?