CNBC reports today that Sheldon Adelson, the American Likudnik businessman is trying to get the U.S. Congress to ban online gambling. I doubt that he owns the whole of Congress, so, no dice. Not even all the millions he wasted on Newt Gingrich last year can help him there.
But don’t misunderstand Adelson, there is no morality involved with him, at least not in this case. He is not against gambling, he owns huge gambling interests in Las Vegas. That is how he made his money. He just doesn’t like the online competition. I agree with him on this one, probably the only thing I agree with this right-winger on, but for different reasons since I have no gambling interests in Las Vegas. Come to think of it, I have no gambling interests anywhere. No wonder News Gingrich would not answer my calls. Cheers
mhg
“Last year, according to Saudi sources who’ve worked closely with Bandar, he told King Abdullah that he could solve the Syria situation in a matter of months. The previous intelligence chief, Abdullah’s half brother Prince Muqrin, had not been able to make much headway. But Bandar, as it turns out, has not been much of an improvement. “His job requires being able to work 18 hours a day and he cannot,” says a Saudi who has collaborated closely with Bandar. He is frustrated and angry and anxious to show off to the world his ability to achieve the seemingly impossible, as he did in the past. But as the same Saudi points out, “being angry is not good in the intelligence business.” And in today’s Middle East, chutzpah just isn’t enough……………”
Prince Bandar Bin Sultan (bin Bush bin Al Yamama) may have a complex. He probably thinks he is the smartest among the absolute Al Saud princes that own the country called Saudi Arabia. That doesn’t mean he is. Yet normally he will never be considered as a potential future king. He doesn’t have the requisite tribal blood connections that most of the other eligible princes have. I suspect this is the reason someone like his cousin Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal is more into business than into competing for a future chance at the throne.That might explain why “he is frustrated and angry and anxious to show off to the world his ability to achieve……..“
Or he can always join the Peace Corps or Habitat for Humanity or some other worthy cause.
He can even volunteer for the Salvation Army and help outside Safeway or QFC during the Christmas season.
Cheers
mhg
“Nearly two thirds of Israeli Jews oppose a deal being reached between world powers and Iran on Tehran’s controversial nuclear program, the results of a survey published on Friday said. The survey also showed 52.4 percent supported an Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear facilities in the event of a “bad deal” and if Tehran pursued its nuclear ambitions, while 26.8 percent said they would oppose such an attack. A strong majority of 68.8 percent said they believed the Israeli military was capable of going it alone in a strike on Iran. When asked: “Should Israel support or oppose the nuclear agreement being discussed with Iran?” 65.5 percent said they were against it………………..”
Israelis are supposed to be allegedly apparently the most educated people in the Middle East. Yet they are overwhelmingly against a potential nuclear deal that they know nothing about, yet. Except what their right-wing ‘leader’ tells them, and he doesn’t know much about it either. Which is not necessarily a sign of superior intelligence (self-claimed or otherwise), not necessarily.
Obviously a majority would support a war of aggression because they believe they can win it (which is also not necessarily a sign of superior intelligence either). On the other hand, why shouldn’t they? They have won every one of their wars against the Arabs, except the two against Lebanon and Hezbollah. Those two defeats (2000 and 2006) still rankle but, hey, it is not fun winning all the time. An occasional defeat can make things interesting. Or maybe they know that Uncle Sam will intervene to help them once Ben Netanyahu starts his war of aggression and gets bogged down, big time. They know there are many in Washington who seem to have a strange proclivity for intervention and warring in Muslim lands. It is almost certain that many in the US Congress, possibly both Likud-nik houses, will assume these polls reflect their own American constituencies and vote for war. They almost have already.
“Jewish and Arab MKs exchanged fiery words during a special Knesset hearing on Wednesday to discuss the resettling of Bedouin communities, accusing each other of deliberately thwarting plans to solve the ongoing land ownership crises in Israel’s south. The hearing, led by Likud MK Miri Regev, was interrupted several times by MKs on both sides of the debate, leading to the removal of some participates from the Knesset hall. The “Bill on the Arrangement of Bedouin Settlement in the Negev,” on which debate was held during the hearing, is based on a plan drawn up by former Likud minister Benny Begin………… MK Dov Khenin of Hadash also expressed his concern about the law and said that it sets the stage for the evictions of entire communities ona nationalist basis.………..”
This sounds vaguely but eerily familiar. It evokes a terrible part of history, with words like Lebensraum, Resettlement, etc. Of course I am exaggerating here to make a point: the scale is tiny, the fate of the victims is not as dire, and the issue is being debated openly. But the victims are “selected”, and you see what I mean, or do you?
“Al-Qaeda-linked jihadists in Syria have admitted beheading a fellow rebel by mistake after believing him to be an Iraqi Shiite fighting alongside regime forces, a watchdog said on Friday. A video posted on the Internet on Wednesday showed two members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) holding up a bearded man’s head before a crowd in Aleppo in northern Syria. They said he was an Iraqi Shiite who had been fighting among the ranks of President Bashar al-Assad’s forces……………….”
They did not chop his head off because they mistook him for a “Shi’a fighting with Bashar’s forces”. They chopped his head off because they just thought he was a “Shi’a”, period. Identity is enough for these Wahhabi terrorists to behead someone. I need to ask a Salafi Wahhabi shaikh if this man will go to heaven for being a Salafi or will he go to hell for being killed as a suspected Shi’a. A mere technicality that only a Salafi cleric-lawyer can resolve. As for my special Salafi source, she tells me it is a toss-up now, the Jihadi shaikhs are debating his post-mortem fate.
“Thursday, Nov. 14, Israel sent the White House in Washington a confidential document outlining blow by blow how and when Iran will attain a nuclear weapon if the Obama-Kerry strategy for dealing with the issue goes through. The document was addressed to the National Security Council headed by Susan Rice, debkafile reports. Communications between the prime minister’s office in Jerusalem and the State Department have almost petered out since exchanges between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Secretary of State John Kerry sharpened in tone. Our Washington sources report that Rice and the NSC have taken a critical stand against the State Department’s policies – not just on the Iranian nuclear question……… It confines itself to a dry account, step by step, of how the Iranian nuclear bomb program will continue to unfold if the administration’s secret proposition is accepted…………….”
If we are to believe this Israeli media story, Ben Netanyahu’s Looney Tunes nuclear cartoons that traced Iran’s nuclear path at the UN General Assembly last year are back in circulation. They are now at the White House, in the hands of Susan Rice, allegedly known as more strongly pro-Israel than others. She is apparently a true believer in their veracity, possibly adding her own embellishments, possibly in colorful crayons. Possibly shoving the carrot into Bugs Bunny’s hand. No doubt the reception of this Looney Tunes document in Washington is much warmer than the hilarity of world-wide reaction last year after their UN debut.
“To see why, consider the lessons of other civil wars, which we assess in this week’s briefing. Syria is bogged down in endless killing. Early in the uprising, Western support might have ousted Mr Assad and preserved Syria’s sectarian harmony. That was what this newspaper at first recommended, but the West—and Barack Obama in particular—held back. Now, after more than 110,000 people have died during 30 months of violence, it is too late. Not only have many rebels fallen under the spell of Sunni fanaticism, but history suggests that, unless civil wars end in victory after 12 months or so, they tend to drag on for years. Like many civil-war leaders Mr Assad may prefer to prolong the fighting rather than risk compromise. The rebels, too, will battle on in the knowledge that surrender is likely to mean death. Hence the argument for a negotiated settlement that might bring forward an end to the fighting and spare Syrian lives. The effort is worth it—about 40% of civil wars end through negotiation. But the odds on success are already long. It makes no sense to insist on conditions that would make the talks still more likely to fail……………” The Economist
The Economist has moved back to the right over the past years. They are now more often eager for new Western wars in the Middle East. And by the way, their predictions are often wrong, have been for a few decades. The Economist has somewhat dumbed down over the years, but it is still better than most of its English language rivals. The problem with the Syrian opposition groups is that they believed what they read in Western and Arab potentates media throughout 2011-12. They believed that Bashar al-Assad’s days were numbered. Hell, even some of Bashar’s subordinates and minions believed that and defected to the opposition fighting hard in five-star hotels in Turkey or Jordan or Saudi Arabia or Qatar. Even Bashar’s best childhood friend Brig. Gen. Manaf Tlass got a haircut and defected to the free democratic ambiance of Saudi Arabia. So, it is easy to see why it is hard for the opposition groups to accept that Bashar might be around for some time. I mean if you’ve been promised by ‘the powers that be’ to be crowned Miss Universe, it is hard to accept being the runner-up. If beauty contests are your thing.
“Washington is playing the lead role in delaying the publication of the long-awaited report into how Britain went to war with Iraq, The Independent has learnt. Although the Cabinet Office has been under fire for stalling the progress of the four-year Iraq Inquiry by Sir John Chilcot, senior diplomatic sources in the US and Whitehall indicated that it is officials in the White House and the US Department of State who have refused to sanction any declassification of critical pre- and post-war communications between George W Bush and Tony Blair……………… Without permission from the US government, David Cameron faces the politically embarrassing situation of having to block evidence, on Washington’s orders, from being included in the report of an expensive and lengthy British inquiry..………” Mr. Obama, in other words, is trying to save Tony (the Poodle) Blair’s nuts for now (for the war that I supported). But not for long.
“Sheikh Mohammed Haif al-Mteiri, a former member of Parliament who is not related to the former Kuwaiti soldier and leads a committee that funds mainline rebel groups, said private funding would not exist if countries like the United States had intervened to protect Syrian civilians……………..”
Cute and almost funny. They fund “mainline” rebels, which to them means al-Qaeda type Jihadis. This sectarian admirer of Jihad is using the favorite Wahhabi argument. He claims he and his Salafi ilk support al-Qaeda in Syria because the USA would not intervene. Except that they would also fund the Jihadis to fight the Americans in Syria, should the U.S. intervene. But deep inside, all Salafis are al-Qaeda although they sometimes cover it up, a form of deceptive Salafi taqiyya! But he has chutzpah (he will have to look it up if he reads this, or maybe have it read to him). He is one pissed Jihad supporter because the USA did not intervene in Syria! So, they want the Americans out of Muslim lands, but not when it serves their purposes. Not until after the Americans liberate Syria and hand it over to them, preferably also after they smack the Iranians.
These writers have hit pay dirt. They have encountered these true Wahhabi Salafi gems back in my hometown. He must have promoted himself to “shaikh” recently, while I wasn’t looking. I am almost seriously considering adding “shaikh” to my numerous titles and honorifics. I have noticed that Salafis often disappear for a few of weeks and return with two titles: Shaikh and Herr Doctor. That is what they call “lightening education”. Or maybe they get lost (I like the part about getting lost) in the desert and after about 40 days something unusual happens, an Epiphany…………
