Thank You for Your Service? Coming to a Desert Near You: Robotic Sad Sacks………

      


 Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter

“The US Army is studying whether robots could take the place of thousands of soldiers. The US Army is considering replacing thousands of soldiers with robots as it deals with sweeping troop cuts. A senior American officer has said he is considering shrinking the size of the Army’s brigade combat teams by a quarter and replacing the lost troops with robots and remote-controlled vehicles. The American military is still far from fielding armies of Terminator-type robotic killers ……………………..”

Send Arnold Schwarzenegger out with them, that would be one way to FINALLY get rid of him. Out of sight out of mind.
How do you tell a dented damaged veteran robot: “thank you for your service” before leaving it out in the cold? You don’t: you can always recycle IT.
You know what will happen next, we have seen a version of this film before. Just like drones, every other nation will aspire to make their own robots or buy some, and many will succeed.
Finally a war without human casualties.
Cheers
mhg

[email protected]


HH Shaikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa Endurance Championship……….

      


 Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter

“HH Shaikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa Endurance Championship will kick off at 7 am tomorrow (Saturday) in Bahrain International Endurance Village. Bahrain Royal Equestrian and Endurance Federation BREEF announced that the veterinary examinations for the 120 km and 84 km (qualifying) races were successfully completed today. The examinations were conducted by international experts and was attended by the Vice-President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates UAE and Ruler of Dubai HH Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum and the Chairman of the Supreme Council for Youth and Sport, President of Bahrain Olympic Committee and Bahrain Royal Endurance Team Captain HH Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa……………..”
 

Now
ain’t that nice? I thought some of my readers might like to know about this. Chalk it up to ‘culture’ or ‘shaikhdomness’ or larceny, or genteel crimes against humanity in doses of tear gas and home raids and torture. With a large dose of apartheid thrown in. Take your pick.

This dude Nasser is a younger son of the ruler, younger than the crown
prince who is now long in the tooth. Apparently reportedly he is likely from a
younger wife of the ruler, allegedly preferred by the Saudi overlords of
Bahrain to the crown prince. The crown prince is seen as ‘soft’ on the
opposition, maybe because he wears glasses and is beardless and occasionally acts as if he wants to meet with them. The young Nasser looks predatory, with a sharp face, more hungry-looking: not the kind you’d want to go mountain-hiking with, and if you do you’d be advised to steer clear from any cliffs or steep drops. The opposition claim he has nothing against the torture of  detainees.
As long as he is not on the receiving end.
All allegations, of course. I have never met the guy, but I still would not go mountain-hiking with him.


Cheers
mhg

[email protected]


From the People’s Republic that Mao Built to an Oligarchy………

      


 Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter

“More than a dozen family members of China’s top political and military leaders are making use of offshore companies based in the British Virgin Islands, leaked financial documents reveal. The brother-in-law of China’s current president, Xi Jinping, as well as the son and son-in-law of former premier Wen Jiabao are among the political relations making use of the offshore havens, financial records show………. The Hong Kong office of Credit Suisse, for example, established the BVI company Trend Gold Consultants for Wen Yunsong, the son of Wen Jiabao, during his father’s premiership — while PwC and UBS performed similar services for hundreds of other wealthy Chinese individuals. The disclosure of China’s use of secretive financial structures is the latest revelation from “Offshore Secrets”…………China’s rapid economic growth is leading to a degree of internal tension within the nation, as the proceeds of the country’s newfound prosperity are not evenly divided: the country’s 100 richest men are collectively worth over $300bn, while an estimated 300m people in the country still live on less than $2 a day……………”

Cheers
mhg

[email protected]


Pope Francis and the Fat Well-Fed Hungry Men (and Women) of Davos………

      


 Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter

“Pope Francis on Tuesday called on the world’s political and business elite gathered in Davos to use their spirit of entrepreneurship to alleviate crushing global poverty. In a message read out at the opening ceremony of the annual World Economic Forum, Francis said: “Those who have demonstrated their ability to be innovative and for improving the lives of many people by their ingenuity and professional expertise can further contribute by putting their skills at the service of those who are still living in dire poverty.” It is “intolerable” that hunger continues to stalk the world even though “substantial quantities” of food are wasted, the pontiff added. Ahead of the annual meeting of the global elite that ends Saturday, the charity Oxfam issued a report that said inequality had run so out of control, that the 85 richest people on the planet “own the wealth of half the world’s population.”……………………”

The Pope is right in this case of course. But the men and women meeting in Davos, and those groupies who hang around the periphery, sort of like the IMF-World Bank meetings that I used to attend, are also hungry. Their hunger in Davos is not for food, for I know they are well-fed and well-wined and dined (actually overfed and almost certainly over-wined).
 

I here posted on Davos 2013. Here is an excerpt of that post:

‘”Big
firms no longer aspire merely to train competent managers. They pride
themselves on their ability to select and train leaders for global
roles………. Many of the bankers and politicians caught dozing by the
financial crisis were regulars at Davos. Ordinary folk trust Davos Man
no more than they would a lobbyist for the Worldwide Federation of Weasels……………..”

Also
sprach The Economist,
for once not gushing over the sanctimonious potentates, glib bankers,
my fellow economists, and celebrities converging on Davos.

It is where leaders, potentates, economists, banksters, celebrities, self-styled
celebrities, minions, journalists, and groupies converge. I have been always
skeptic of this gathering: it could just be sour grapes. But I have been even more
skeptic, nay hostile, about it these past four or five years.

Some
shameless bankers and investment banksters are there pontificating to the financial
media about how the economy should be managed. They who managed their banks and
investment banks into near oblivion and had to get public welfare to save their
fat annual bonuses. Banker-Panhandlers with a sense of entitlement, with an attitude, panhandlers with the
Mother of All Attitudes…..’

Cheers
mhg

[email protected]


Syria: the Strange Ban Ki-Moon Geneva Rollercoaster Ride, Hollande’s Polygamy………..

      


 Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter

A strange series of events regarding the Syrian civil war this past weekend:

  • Late weekend United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon gives a presser and invites Iran to attend the Geneva talks on Syria, surprising some of the “Friends of the Syrian Opposition”.
  • The Obama Administration professes surprise and sort of objects strongly, only sort of.
  • Saudi princes and other potentates object strongly but not openly.
  • Their proxy Mr. Al Jarba objects (he calls himself, I think rather presumptuously, @PresidentJarba on Twitter). Opposition groups and militias and gangs and kidnappers threaten to boycott the meeting and keep Assad in power for five more years.
  • Mufti Shaikh Al Al objects, or he should if he knows what is good for him. But he declines to issue a fatwa.
  • The Israelis probably object on the principle that whatever helps Iran is bad for them, and vice versa. Or maybe I just think so, my knee-jerk reaction.
  • Al Qaeda and its Syrian fronts also object, or so I assume. 
  • Francois Hollande of France probably also objects, as does his current main squeeze, his former main squeeze, and his future main squeezes (the French can be more polygamous than we can be, and often they are, but they don’t admit it).
  • My suspicious mind is almost certain that the prime minister of Bahrain (44 or so years in office and going) also objects strongly through his corpulent foreign minister who is also his nephew or cousin. I still can’t figure out WTF he has got to do with all this.
  •  
  • So, guess what happens next? Bingo! Ban Ki-Moon suddenly implodes: he discovers overnight that maybe Iran should not attend Geneva. He withdraws his invitation for Iran to the Geneva meeting on Syria. A dis-invitation under pressure.
  • The Iranians, who would love to attend, act as if they are not interested in attending. They go further: after being dis-invited they claim that that they would not attend a meeting
    that imposes conditions and prerequisites on them.

  • Saudi semi-official Alarabiya headlines that now the Syrian ‘opposition’ groups will attend Geneva, some of them for the talks, others to buy good Swiss chocolate at duty-free prices. Actually they would attend or not if and when their Saudi bosses tell them to.
  • End of the story for now, until the next Syria meeting later this year. Or maybe sometime next year, or the year after.

Cheers
mhg

[email protected]


Vice President of Syrian National Coalition: SNC to Attend Assad’s Funeral in Montreux………

      


 Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter

“The main Syrian opposition group in exile promised on Saturday that it will not “compromise” its principles after it finally decided to attend the peace talks in Switzerland next week. “We will go to Geneva 2 without compromising any principles of our revolution,” Ahmed al-Jarba, head of the Syrian National Coalition, told reporter in a press conference in Istanbul. Jarba said that President Bashar al-Assad’s regime will “enter its funeral,” when attending the conference……………”

Mr. Jarba is going to Geneva because he was told to do so by his foreign bosses. He can’t help using Baathist jargon (mainly Iraqi Baathist jargon like the talk about ‘funerals’, etc)) when talking about the regime, but that comes from a lifetime of growing up listening to them.
 
He now calls himself ‘President Jarba’ on his Twitter account @PresidentJarba), something that might piss off a certain Saudi prince as well as Bashar Al-Assad and many opposition militia commanders. He is actually the vice president of the Syrian National Coalition (SNC), representing only some of the Syrian opposition, especially part of the Saudi faction, but hardly all of it. Everyone knows that the SNC has a king and a president, neither of whom is named Jarba. That the king of the Syrian National Coalition is named Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz, that the ‘president’ of SNC is Prince Bandar Bin Sultan Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.

Bandar’s lifelong ambition now is to liberate Syria for Saudi-style freedom and democracy and tolerance and human rights. That might be opposite to the Iranian and Russian ambition which is also to keep Syria for their own style of freedom and democracy and human rights. Both goals are also different from the ambition of French president Francois Hollande who doesn’t give a rat’s derrière about Syrian freedom but whose goal is to keep the Saudis buying weapons and other goods from socialist France in the name of freedom and democracy and human rights, as well as ‘liberté, égalité, infidélité’.
All this means that the Syrian people are now trapped into an unprecedented sectarian confessional regional proxy war, which means they are now truly screwed, more than ever.

BTW: don’t hold your breath about Geneva (actually Montreux). There will be no agreement of course; it is a place to see and to be seen. Perhaps there may be only a deal to meet again in, say, six months which will be extended to nine or twelve months.
Cheers
mhg

[email protected]


Duke of York in Bahrain: No Tower of London Option for the Former Randy Andy…………

      


 Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter

“The Duke of York is due to start an official visit to the Middle Eastern state of Bahrain to promote the UK. The UK government asked Prince Andrew to make the trip, which begins on Tuesday, as part of Britain’s “Great” campaign to boost business and tourism…………..”

“HRH the Duke of York presented an Honorary OBE to Mr Khalid Al Zayani, Chairman of the Bahrain British Business Forum and Chairman of the GREAT British Week Steering Group. Mr Al Zayani was awarded an Honorary OBE in the 2013 Queen’s Birthday Honours List for services to UK business overseas and UK/Bahraini relations. Her Majesty The Queen gave permission for the honour to be presented to Mr Al Zayani during the Duke of York’s visit. The ceremony was attended by members of Mr Al Zayani’s family. British Ambassador Iain Lindsay congratulated Mr Al Zayani on receiving his honour, saying “I am delighted that HRH the Duke of York was able to present Khalid Al Zayani with his Honorary OBE.………….”

Prince Andrew, formerly dubbed Randy Andy (but that is okay: who of us wasn’t randy at that age?). Now edified as the Duke of York, he has been a regular visitor to the post-uprising occupied Bahrain, the Bahrain of home raids, mass arrests, torture, foreign mercenaries, and daily tear gas. Of course, like all visiting potentates he doesn’t see all that.
What else is there to do for some of these marginal but bored and possibly still greedy royals? They can’t lock them up in the Tower of London anymore, can they? Those were the days.

Cheers
mhg

[email protected]


How to Say “Vive la Révolution” in Wahhabi? Egypt Goes Back to the 99% Solution ………

      


 Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter

“BREAKING: Official says 98.1 percent of voters approve Egypt’s new constitution in first vote after coup” AP

The new incarnation of the Mubarak regime (now called the Sisi regime) did not want to look greedy. It could have opted for 100% approval for its constitution. Instead it decided to make it more ‘competitive’, decided to get only 98.1%, not even the typical Arab 99% we are used to. Of course the Saudi rulers and other potentates in the Gulf do better: they get 100% of the vote from the day they are born. It is love and larceny from the first bite, the first breath. And if you don’t believe this, try visiting the state security prisons in places like Riyadh and Manama, among others.
 
Generalísimo Al Sisi, dubbed Egypt’s newest sex symbol, has said last week that he will decide on running for president if the Egyptian people show that they want him to run. That presumably meant that if the Egyptian people approved his constitution, then he will run. So, it looks like he will run unopposed or against token opposition, a la Mubarak. As for the Egyptian people, I am becoming more convinced by the day that most of them don’t know WTF they want. Worst, most of them seem not to know WTF they are ‘voting’ for anymore. Meanwhile, the truly elected hapless deposed president Mohamed Morsi looks set to rot in prison for the rest of his natural life.
As for the so-called Arab uprisings, the Wahhabi princes own them now, from the Nile to the Euphrates to the Persian Gulf. How do you say: “vive la révolution” in Wahhabi?

Cheers
mhg

[email protected]


U.S. Senate Goes Knesset, Declares Netanyahu ‘War President’ of America……

      


 Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter 

“Today the Senate is about to vote Israel a virtual blank check – for war on Iran. Reads Senate bill S.1881: If Israel is “compelled to take military action in legitimate self-defense against Iran’s nuclear weapons program,” the United States “should stand with Israel and provide … diplomatic, military and economic support to the Government of Israel in the defense of its territory, people and existence.” Inserted in that call for U.S. military action to support an Israeli strike on Iran, S.1881 says that, in doing so, we should follow our laws and constitutional procedures. Nevertheless, this bill virtually hands over the decision on war to Bibi Netanyahu who is on record saying: “This is 1938. Iran is Germany.”……….” Is this the man we want deciding whether America fights her fifth war in a generation in the Mideast? Do we really want to outsource the decision on war in the Persian Gulf, the gas station of the world, to a Likud regime whose leaders routinely compare Iran to Nazi Germany?……………”


Also sprach
Pat Buchanan, one of the few independent voices in U.S. media and politics that does not kneel to AIPAC and to what he has called the “Israeli amen corner”. At issue is independence: the U.S. Congress (both houses) is doing the bidding of the Israeli right-wing prime minister, and acts against the long-term interests of the United States. This bill (S. 1881) would effectively make the Israeli politician the “decider” of war and peace for America.

Cheers
mhg

[email protected]


From Iraq to Syria to Iran: the Quest for a Smoking Gun or a Mushroom Cloud or a Slam Dunk or……..

      


 Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter


“A series of revelations about the rocket believed to have delivered poison sarin gas to a Damascus suburb last summer are challenging American intelligence assumptions about that attack and suggest that the case U.S. officials initially made for retaliatory military action was flawed. A team of security and arms experts, meeting this week in Washington to discuss the matter, has concluded that the range of the rocket that delivered sarin in the largest attack that night was too short for the device to have been fired from the Syrian government…………..”

Could this be a case of déjà vu all over again (Iraq, Iran, Syria, etc)?Could we be revisiting the same story again this year or next in Iran? You betcha it could and we could.

It is true that this does not prove anyone’s innocence or guilt in the Sarin gas attacks. Yet the suspicion of the whole Sarin claim was there from the outset, at least as far as I am concerned. Even some UN WMD official suggested earlier that the rebels may have used Sarin, but then she went silent. The story and video clips were broadcast initially in Saudi semi-official Alarabiya network, in both cases of reported gas use. Western media picked it up quickly and it became “the story” of the time. The U.S. Congress took it from there.
 

I have expressed doubt from the beginning, and not only because I automatically suspect almost anything that is publicized by Saudi media (I do, I also suspect many things that are published in official Iranian media). Several things did not smell right, were neither halal nor kosher, including the timing: these claims (and revelations) always cam right after the Syrian opposition had suffered big military defeats or were about to be ejected from strategic positions (Qusayr, etc). It also did not make sense to use WMD to kill a few dozen civilians, when bombing and bullets had done the same grizzly “job” in the past without an international outcry and outrage. But all this is not new: I and others have pointed this out during the past year.

No wonder the Obama administration for long insisted on only saying that “Sarin was used in Syria“, without specifying the regime or the opposition as the user. That lasted until it came under pressure from congressional microphone-macho type (of both parties) and the Saudi princes and potentates.
This new report is not conclusive, yet neither were the other reports, apparently. But the long quest continues: for the Smoking Gun, the Mushroom Cloud, the Slam Dunk, the Lost Ark………


Cheers
mhg

[email protected]