The story of the Al Qaeda training seminar in Iraq wiping out 21 Qaeda recruits isn't a complete surprise.
Ever since the shoe-bomber and the undie-bomber debacles it's been more than obvious that the Towelheads of Terror are pretty much near the bottom of the barrel in terms of recruit material. I think the IDF is facing a similar crisis, which is why conscription won't go away any time soon.
So while Commandant Abdul Mohamed is showing the newbies how to detonate a car-bomb he detonates a car-bomb, sending the class of '14 straight to their (21x72) 1,512 virgins. Hard to tell if the seminar leader was killed in the "accident" but I am inclined to doubt it.
Here's why. What passes for Al Qaeda these days is idealistic young men, many of them from the toweller diaspora, making their way to the "enter here for jihad" spots around the middle east. Non-arabic speakers from places like Dearborn and Winnipeg show up in news reports playing key roles in high profile Al Qaeda operations a year after they leave home.
If it's that easy for a nerdy kid from Winnipeg to attain a mid-level management position in the world's top terror franchise, where do you think your professional arabic-speaking spooks from the Nations of Virtue are in the management chain?
Hell, they're probably running the outfit!
Which is why "accidents" like this are probably more than accidents.
Monday, February 10, 2014
Sunday, February 9, 2014
The future of Africa
Here's how it's gonna shake out...
AFRICOM been looking for something to do for a few years now. They have not succeeded. But our allies in France have been front and centre, biting off more than they can chew again and again. We are moments away from critical mass...
In a couple of years AFRICOM and their NATO bumboys will be occupying the Dark Continent from the DRC on north. It will be a new era of peace and democracy for the Africans.
Peace.
Democracy.
Peaceful enough to allow the international conglomerates into the deepest and darkest heart of Africa to rip out the diamonds and the copper and the gold.
Democratic enough to allow the international conglomerates into the deepest and darkest heart of Africa to rip out the diamonds and the copper and the gold...
Then we'll be outta there.
Enjoy your peace and democracy...
AFRICOM been looking for something to do for a few years now. They have not succeeded. But our allies in France have been front and centre, biting off more than they can chew again and again. We are moments away from critical mass...
In a couple of years AFRICOM and their NATO bumboys will be occupying the Dark Continent from the DRC on north. It will be a new era of peace and democracy for the Africans.
Peace.
Democracy.
Peaceful enough to allow the international conglomerates into the deepest and darkest heart of Africa to rip out the diamonds and the copper and the gold.
Democratic enough to allow the international conglomerates into the deepest and darkest heart of Africa to rip out the diamonds and the copper and the gold...
Then we'll be outta there.
Enjoy your peace and democracy...
Another "successful" US/NATO intervention goes up in flames
When the Nations of Virtue intervened in the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia back in the '90s they showered themselves with endless praise. The R2P crowd crowed to the heavens about the efficacy of divine intervention, their intervention, in the affairs of others.
Clinton was of course all-in to take the collective mind of his electorate away from his side jobs. To this day, apologists for R2P cite Bosnia as one of their success stories.
So tonight we are treated to headlines proclaiming "Violent anti-government protests spread across Bosnia."
Oh look; here's why the ingrates are rioting:
Bosnians have many reasons to be unhappy as general elections approach in October. The privatization that followed the war decimated the middle class and sent the working class into poverty as a few tycoons flourished. Corruption is widespread and high taxes for the country's bloated public sector eat away at residents' paychecks.
Clinton was of course all-in to take the collective mind of his electorate away from his side jobs. To this day, apologists for R2P cite Bosnia as one of their success stories.
So tonight we are treated to headlines proclaiming "Violent anti-government protests spread across Bosnia."
Oh look; here's why the ingrates are rioting:
Bosnians have many reasons to be unhappy as general elections approach in October. The privatization that followed the war decimated the middle class and sent the working class into poverty as a few tycoons flourished. Corruption is widespread and high taxes for the country's bloated public sector eat away at residents' paychecks.
Hmm... sounds familiar... decimated the middle class... sent working class into poverty... but a FEW TYCOONS FLOURISHED???
WELCOME TO THE AMERICAN DREAM MY BOSNIAN FRIENDS!!!
Why the Olympics are perfectly safe
The Olympics are perfectly safe because the biggest capitalist conglomerates in the world have their brands on display and their money behind this bullshit spectacle of corporate excess.
Yes, Vlad the Hammer is playing along, but just barely. He used the entire Olympic Circus as a diversion to show his people that they are "world class."
Yes, a misguided and pathetic strategy, to be sure, and I would have been so much more impressed with Putin had he thrown over the entire exercise in corporate populism instead of having his country bid for the privilege of worshipping at the altar of Mammon.
That is the very same reason that the city of Toronto habitually spends tens of millions bidding for future Olympic games. They, like Putin, see it as entre to the big leagues.
Hosting Olympic games certifies you as world class.
What bullshit!
Hosting an Olympic games marks you as a made member of the corporatist toady club, ready willing and able to sacrifice the interests of your local population to the demands of the corporate behemoths who call the Olympic shots.
But what's done is done.
Yes, Vlad the Hammer is playing along, but just barely. He used the entire Olympic Circus as a diversion to show his people that they are "world class."
Yes, a misguided and pathetic strategy, to be sure, and I would have been so much more impressed with Putin had he thrown over the entire exercise in corporate populism instead of having his country bid for the privilege of worshipping at the altar of Mammon.
That is the very same reason that the city of Toronto habitually spends tens of millions bidding for future Olympic games. They, like Putin, see it as entre to the big leagues.
Hosting Olympic games certifies you as world class.
What bullshit!
Hosting an Olympic games marks you as a made member of the corporatist toady club, ready willing and able to sacrifice the interests of your local population to the demands of the corporate behemoths who call the Olympic shots.
But what's done is done.
jewjewjewjewjewromaromajewpoleserbczechromaromajewjew
I have to apologize in advance for coming to this story a week late. Up here in the boonies we only get the cream of the NYT a week late.
Better late than never, as the cliche goes, so I was thrilled to read up on Jodi Rudoren's review of Phil Chernofsky's soon-to-be-bestseller And every single one was someone. In case you haven't heard, that's the book that consists of the word "Jew" written out six million times.
Ya, you know where that's going. Another blast of holocaust guilt just in case your memory was fading. No less a professional holocaust exploiter than Abe Foxman wants to see this "book" in the Oval Office and on every coffee table in the land and in every school-child's satchel.
Just to make sure we never ever forget.
Ironically, Chernofsky himself seems to have forgotten that not every victim of the holocaust was a Jew.
This competition to establish who suffered more in a contest in which all competitors ended up dead is an unseemly spectacle indeed.
Rudoren is the latest iteration of Times' middle east bureau chief, a position apparently reserved for Jews only, and preferably right of centre Jews at that. According to her, Abe Foxman was a holocaust survivor.
Which camps did he survive?
And when will she be reviewing the book about the millions of Poles, Serbs, Roma, Christians etc who also perished in the Holocaust?
Every single one of them was a someone too.
Better late than never, as the cliche goes, so I was thrilled to read up on Jodi Rudoren's review of Phil Chernofsky's soon-to-be-bestseller And every single one was someone. In case you haven't heard, that's the book that consists of the word "Jew" written out six million times.
Ya, you know where that's going. Another blast of holocaust guilt just in case your memory was fading. No less a professional holocaust exploiter than Abe Foxman wants to see this "book" in the Oval Office and on every coffee table in the land and in every school-child's satchel.
Just to make sure we never ever forget.
Ironically, Chernofsky himself seems to have forgotten that not every victim of the holocaust was a Jew.
This competition to establish who suffered more in a contest in which all competitors ended up dead is an unseemly spectacle indeed.
Rudoren is the latest iteration of Times' middle east bureau chief, a position apparently reserved for Jews only, and preferably right of centre Jews at that. According to her, Abe Foxman was a holocaust survivor.
Which camps did he survive?
And when will she be reviewing the book about the millions of Poles, Serbs, Roma, Christians etc who also perished in the Holocaust?
Every single one of them was a someone too.
Skinning the union fat-cats
There's a title bound to catch the eye of the right-to-work-for-less crowd. Those folks love to hate unions, and especially union bosses.
Virtually all of those folks would be far better off it they had a union, but that is a matter for another day. For now we'll content ourselves with looking in on Tony Clement's war on Canadian public servants.
Anti-union propaganda, dreamt up in corporate boardrooms and right-wing think tanks and then promulgated uncritically and with great vigour by our mainstream media, usually begins with vast over-estimates of the actual wages of those union members in question. For example, all those mollycoddled UAW /CAW members who almost destroyed the North American auto industry were making $60 or $70 or $120 per hour, depending on where you read about them. Floating these bogus numbers into the public realm has a purpose; to arouse the hostility of those who make less.
The reality is of course much different; even before the post-collapse shakedown of autoworkers across North America, hourly wages for line workers were barely $30. Now they're in the teens. But, thanks to ubiquitous anti-union propaganda, most people you ask still think autoworkers are highly paid.
And that floating of bogus numbers is the strategy that Clement uses at every opportunity in his war on Canada's public service. Oh lookee, the average public employee makes $114,000 per year! Nothing like that headline to raise the rancour of the vast majority of private sector employees who make less.
Then, not quite as splashy as that first headline, another one comes out that purports to set the record straight; it's not $114,000 after all, it's barely $70,000.
A little more time passes and some fringe website that nobody reads will report that the actual median annual income of unionized public workers is less that $50k, but by then the damage is done. Everybody knows that public sector workers are greedy, lazy, incompetent, and overpaid.
Recently Mr. Clement, boss of the Treasury Board and therefore responsible for government spending, has thrust public workers sick-days into the spotlight. Those overpaid lazy public servants are not just greedy and incompetent, they are also scamming their sick benefits AT THE EXPENSE OF HARDWORKING CANADIAN TAXPAYERS!!!
Last year Tony made lots of headlines with his claim that public sector workers take at least five more sick days a year than private sector workers. That of course was only made possible by their union bosses who protected these shirkers from the realities of the real world. Tony had those union bosses and their multitudes of muzzled minions squarely in his sites. He was gonna cut those union bigwigs down to size, and bring those public sector sick benefits into line with the non-existant ones in the private sector.
Turns out there was a fly in Tony's ointment; empirical evidence that reveals Tony's numbers were bullshit from the beginning. Seems that public servant sick days are comparable to private sector sick days. So much for divide and conquer...
Tony was quick to re-spin his war on lazy union workers and their corrupt union bosses. A couple of days ago he was cutting them down to size. Listen to what he is quoted as saying in today's Sunday Star (P A2); "We have employees who run out of their sick days and then go on employment insurance to pay their bills. I don't think that's a good system for them. In fact, I think it's an immoral system."
That's Tony Clement, champion of the Canadian public servant!
Virtually all of those folks would be far better off it they had a union, but that is a matter for another day. For now we'll content ourselves with looking in on Tony Clement's war on Canadian public servants.
Anti-union propaganda, dreamt up in corporate boardrooms and right-wing think tanks and then promulgated uncritically and with great vigour by our mainstream media, usually begins with vast over-estimates of the actual wages of those union members in question. For example, all those mollycoddled UAW /CAW members who almost destroyed the North American auto industry were making $60 or $70 or $120 per hour, depending on where you read about them. Floating these bogus numbers into the public realm has a purpose; to arouse the hostility of those who make less.
The reality is of course much different; even before the post-collapse shakedown of autoworkers across North America, hourly wages for line workers were barely $30. Now they're in the teens. But, thanks to ubiquitous anti-union propaganda, most people you ask still think autoworkers are highly paid.
And that floating of bogus numbers is the strategy that Clement uses at every opportunity in his war on Canada's public service. Oh lookee, the average public employee makes $114,000 per year! Nothing like that headline to raise the rancour of the vast majority of private sector employees who make less.
Then, not quite as splashy as that first headline, another one comes out that purports to set the record straight; it's not $114,000 after all, it's barely $70,000.
A little more time passes and some fringe website that nobody reads will report that the actual median annual income of unionized public workers is less that $50k, but by then the damage is done. Everybody knows that public sector workers are greedy, lazy, incompetent, and overpaid.
Recently Mr. Clement, boss of the Treasury Board and therefore responsible for government spending, has thrust public workers sick-days into the spotlight. Those overpaid lazy public servants are not just greedy and incompetent, they are also scamming their sick benefits AT THE EXPENSE OF HARDWORKING CANADIAN TAXPAYERS!!!
Last year Tony made lots of headlines with his claim that public sector workers take at least five more sick days a year than private sector workers. That of course was only made possible by their union bosses who protected these shirkers from the realities of the real world. Tony had those union bosses and their multitudes of muzzled minions squarely in his sites. He was gonna cut those union bigwigs down to size, and bring those public sector sick benefits into line with the non-existant ones in the private sector.
Turns out there was a fly in Tony's ointment; empirical evidence that reveals Tony's numbers were bullshit from the beginning. Seems that public servant sick days are comparable to private sector sick days. So much for divide and conquer...
Tony was quick to re-spin his war on lazy union workers and their corrupt union bosses. A couple of days ago he was cutting them down to size. Listen to what he is quoted as saying in today's Sunday Star (P A2); "We have employees who run out of their sick days and then go on employment insurance to pay their bills. I don't think that's a good system for them. In fact, I think it's an immoral system."
That's Tony Clement, champion of the Canadian public servant!
Friday, February 7, 2014
Spinning Ukraine
What's truly amazing about the fallout from the expose of the Nuland-Pyatt conversation is that there hasn't been any. One might think that to catch the conspirators red-handed, to find the smoking gun even as it is spewing smoke, would lead to some modicum of umbrage.
One would be mistaken.
Instead, western media spin the story as an expose of naughty Russian spying. Or naughty language by US diplomats. No one seems the slightest bit kerfluffled over the fact that we have witnessed two senior US diplomats plotting regime change in a sovereign nation.
It's like Karl Rove put it a few years back; America is an Empire and creates its own reality. Fuck international law, fuck the norms of civilized discourse between nations, fuck the EU, and fuck the Ukraine.
We're an Empire. We do as we please.
One would be mistaken.
Instead, western media spin the story as an expose of naughty Russian spying. Or naughty language by US diplomats. No one seems the slightest bit kerfluffled over the fact that we have witnessed two senior US diplomats plotting regime change in a sovereign nation.
It's like Karl Rove put it a few years back; America is an Empire and creates its own reality. Fuck international law, fuck the norms of civilized discourse between nations, fuck the EU, and fuck the Ukraine.
We're an Empire. We do as we please.
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