Category Archives: U.S. Politics

Iran, Media, U.S. Politics, US Foreign Policy, War on Iran

Mother Teresa of Calcutta as America’s Greatest Enemy……..

 

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“Americans most frequently identify Iran as being the United States’ greatest enemy, a Gallup poll released on Monday indicated. According to the data, Iran topped the list of the biggest enemy to the U.S. with 32 percent of respondents, up from the 25 percent who selected Iran in a 2011 survey. China is a relatively close second with 24 percent, and North Korea a distant third at 10 percent. Gallup’s World Affairs poll was conducted February 2-5, using a random sample of 1,029 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia…………..”

It is possible some people in the United States would have the same strong hostile feelings against Mother Teresa of Calcutta if she had been the target of such sustained vilification by the media and by politicians for several years. (I am not excluding Rick Santorum or Newt Gingrich from these feelings, not yet).
In the past few weeks, mainstream media and kookes alike have made it seem like the West has some kind of entitlement, some right, to wage an unprovoked war on Iran. No wonder the “average” American puts Iran at the top of the list of “mortal” enemies: he has been fed weeks of propaganda and warmongering.
As I said, they would put Mother Teresa at the top of the enemy list had she been the target of such media assault (I exclude most Catholics but not all from that, maybe). I suspect that something like 50% would support waging a war of choice on Mother Teresa after such a sustained media blitz.
Cheers
mhg


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Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab League, Arab Revolutions, Human Right, Syria, U.S. Politics, US Foreign Policy

Bashar al-Assad on Ending the Violence (in Syria)………..

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“Russia’s foreign minister said after Damascus talks on Tuesday that President Bashar al-Assad was “fully committed” to ending the bloodshed in Syria even as regime tanks pounded the central city of Homs for a fourth straight day. Sergei Lavrov said he had had a “very useful” meeting with Assad and that Moscow was eager to work towards a solution based on an Arab League plan that it had previously criticised. “We (Russia) confirmed our readiness to act for a rapid solution to the crisis based on the plan put forward by the Arab League,” said Lavrov, adding that Syria was also ready see an enlarged Arab League mission in the country, Russian news agencies said……”

Of course Assad is committed to ending the violence. The problem is that he seems to want to end it his own way: by killing off the opposition. That would end the violence, but if the opposition refuses to be killed off, then it goes on. Qaddafi also tried to end the violence by finishing off the opposition, but NATO would not allow him. The al-Khalifa regime in Bahrain is doing the same, but on a smaller scale mainly because the people are protesting peacefully. The Western powers liberated Libya from its dictator, just as earlier they had liberated Iraq from its dictator. Syrian opposition and impotent Arab potentates want the West to intervene again militarily and change the regime in Damascus. They were check-mated by the Russian and Chinese vetoes at the UN in their efforts to do a repeat of Libya in Syria.
Will they still do it in Syria in this election year? It will certainly be a tougher nut to crack given that the regime is organized and well-armed (they can do some damage to NATO warplanes and tanks). Besides, Assad still has some regional and international allies (Iran, Russia, China, Lebanon, a few others).
Will they do it? Ich weiss nicht.
Cheers
mhg


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Culture, Latin America, Sanctions, U.S. Politics, US Foreign Policy

Travel: from the Soviet Union to Cuba, from Communist Albania to Cuba, from USA to Cuba………..

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“For years, U.S. citizens have not been able to fly legally to Cuba from the United States. Some travelers found their way around the ban, slipping in through Canada, Mexico or the Caribbean. This was time-consuming, costly and a bit risky……… Looking for a deal to Cuba? Despite these changes, deals are still rare. Airfare is chartered, and with the U.S. government paperwork required, it is nearly impossible to put a trip together yourself. But deals can be found. Friendly Planet, one of the approved travel companies to bring U.S. travelers, currently has two programs (which include the Cuba entrance visa and all U.S. government paperwork). The four-night getaway costs $1,899 per person, based on double occupancy; similar packages from other licensed companies are selling for at least $2,400………”

This is almost like in the old “Communist” Soviet Union, when the state restricted travel. It is almost like trying to travel from old “Communist” Albania to any other country in the “free” or “communist” world. But wait, this is not the old USSR or Communist Albania, it is the USA, a free country, banning travel to Cuba, a “Communist” Bible-less dark-purple country. I am exaggerating a little, as usual.
Both the USA and “Communist” Cuba seem to have one thing in common: both encourage the citizens of the other to come visit; both discourage their own citizens from visiting the other. So, they are not that far apart after all.
Cheers
mhg


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Iran, Israel, Middle East Nuclear, Sanctions, U.S. Politics, US Foreign Policy, War on Iran

Slow Diplomatic Genocide: American Election Choreography and Iranian Agonies ……….

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“The crisis has taken a toll on medical care, affecting the middle class as well as the poor. Because of the ever-tighter pressure on any kind of trade with Iran, the black market price of Herceptin, a breast cancer drug, has nearly doubled in the past year, said Lian, a young nurse who works in the cancer ward of one of Tehran’s major hospitals (the government regulates the mainstream supply of such drugs, but supplies are very limited). The sanctions have also affected medical technology, because radiology machines fall under the “dual use” provisions of laws aimed at keeping nuclear technology out of Iran. At Shohada Hospital, one of the country’s premier institutions, about 1,200 cancer patients a year go without radiological treatment, because the radiology equipment is no longer working and replacement parts cannot be brought into Iran, said Pejman Razavi, a doctor at the hospital. Many Iranians are also skeptical about the Western preoccupation with Iran’s nuclear program. “The economic pressure will not push Iran to a nuclear settlement,” said Kayhan Barzegar, the director of the Institute for Middle East Strategic Studies, who has taught in the United States. “The nuclear file is a nationalistic issue; it’s too late for Iran to backtrack. Domestic politics will react negatively to any negotiation — candidates in the elections will say: you sold the nuclear program!”………….”

It is truly killing by diplomatic means. What these Iranians don’t seem to understand is that the sanctions are not really aimed at their nuclear program. In the media-controlled sound-bite and video-clip politics of America these days, it is the perception that matters more than anything else. The main goal of the sanctions, ever tightening, is primarily to influence the perception of the American voters, to out-hawk the Republicans, usually mostly war evaders. Otherwise all this weekly, almost daily, recalibration of the Western blockade (never sanctioned by the United Nations) wouldn’t make any sense. Sanctions are usually put in place and monitored. These Iran sanctions, sharply and skeptically supervised by the Likud regime and its allies and agents in the United States, are meant to be kept in the headlines. It is tempting to say that every time Mr. Netanyahu clears his throat, a panicked Obama administration tightens the Iran sanctions some more.
Almost everything is choreographed for maximum public effect: from Susan Rice’s hissy fit and selective “disgusting” remark at the UN to Hillary Clinton’s selective “I am deeply troubled” comments. In This Election Year of Our Lord of 2012.
Cheers
mhg


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Humor, Iran, Israel, Middle East Nuclear, U.S. Politics, US Foreign Policy, War on Iran

Breaking News: Netanyahu Claims War Imminent, Neuman Skeptic, FedEx and DHL………

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                                           BFF                                         Gen. Alfred E. Neuman (Ret)

في يوم في شهر في سنة
في يوم في شهر في سنة .. تهدى الجراح وتنام
وعمر جرحي أنا.. أطول من الأيام
وداع يا دنيا الهنا .. وداع يا حب يا أحلام
دا عمرو جرحي أنا ..أطول من الأيام

عبد الحليم حافظ (or Netanyahu flirting with war)

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that his famous long-anticipated “existential” war with Iran was imminent. He said it could come within days, or weeks, or months. When cornered by reporters he added that it could potentially start within a year or two or three. When cornered again, he admitted that it all depends on how resolute the “international community” (aka the United States, aka Obama) will be.

On the other hand, retired General Alfred E. Neuman opined that a war against Iran can be a piece of cake, if only the dour ayatollahs don’t fold too soon, cry uncle, and FedEx all their enriched Uranium to Mooney (Ban Ki-Moon). The general stressed that “We ought to tighten the sanctions, to forestall this FedEx option, also DHL, foreigners use DHL a lot, to make sure not one iota of enriched material goes through. Old Saddam tried to explain that he had no enriched material, no wmd, even allowed Blix and ElBaradei in, those old fellow traveling Commies, but we got him anyway, on a technicality”.
Cheers
mhg




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Iran, Israel, Middle East Nuclear, U.S. Politics, US Foreign Policy, War on Iran

Cacophony of War: Iranian Generals, Israeli Generals, American Generals, and Alfred E. Neuman……..

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BFF                                  Alfred E Neuman


“In a ceremony on Saturday, the production line of a new domestically manufactured naval missile system, named the Zafar (Victory), was officially launched and the first batch of the missile system was delivered to the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Naval Force…”

“The ground troops of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) started the war games, entitled Supporters of Velayat, in south Iran on Saturday. IRGC Ground Forces Commander Mohammad Pakpour said on Saturday that the maneuvers are part of a series of professional drills by the forces under his command. The war games will put on display part of the capabilities of the ground forces in the face of threats against Iran, …..”
 
“Israeli general Joe Schmo stated that Iran has all she needs to build a nuclear weapon.”
 
“Israeli former chief dogcatcher insisted that Iran is still three years away from…..”

“Former editor in Chief of Mad War magazine quoted the Vice President of the Academy that all options are on the table as far as who will win the Oscar for best director…..”

“General Alfred E. Neuman, former chief o the Cuckoo’s Nest Brigade, stated that a war can be devastating ……”

Three things are becoming tedious and boring, and they go on day after day, week after week:

  • One is the stream of Iranian announcements of new weapons developed, new weapons tested, and new military exercises in the Gulf. We can add to them reports of Iranian space projects and drones. Much of it is aimed at deterring a Western war of aggression.
  • The other one is the incessant statements and counter statements by Israeli generals and politicians and the same by American politicians and generals about Iranian nuclear progress and when and how and if they will attack Iran. These are all over the place, often contradictory, always confusing: none of them clarifies anything for the average person. None of them clarifies anything for the non-average person.
  • These statements are either meant to confuse the average person or those who issue them don’t know what the fuck is going on.

Cheers
mhg


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9/11, Al-Qaeda, Iran, Islamophobia, Jihadis, Muslims, Terrorism, U.S. Politics, US Foreign Policy

NYPD Keystones Mixing Shi’as and Oranges: Borrowing the Bahrain Tactics………..

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“The New York Police Department recommended increasing surveillance of thousands of Shiite Muslims and their mosques, based solely on their religion, as a way to sweep the Northeast for signs of Iranian terrorists, according to interviews and a newly obtained secret police document. The document offers a rare glimpse into the thinking of NYPD intelligence officers and how, when looking for potential threats, they focused their spying efforts on mosques and Muslims. Police analysts listed a dozen mosques from central Connecticut to the Philadelphia suburbs. None has been linked to terrorism, either in the document or publicly by federal agencies. The Associated Press has reported for months that the NYPD infiltrated mosques, eavesdropped in cafes and monitored Muslim neighborhoods with plainclothes officers. Its spying operations were begun after the 2001 terror attacks with help from the CIA in a highly unusual partnership. The May 2006 NYPD intelligence report, entitled “US-Iran Conflict: The Threat to New York City,” made a series of recommendations, including: “Expand and focus intelligence collections at Shi’a mosques.” The NYPD is prohibited under its own guidelines and city law from basing its investigations on religion……………”After 1,400 years, the Shias are being targeted in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Pakistan, everywhere,” Imam Malik Sakhawat Hussain said after being told that his mosque was in the NYPD document. “If U.S. authorities become suspicious of the Shias, I would say we are a very oppressed community of the world.”……… At the Masjid Al-Rahman, a prayer hall in the basement of a Brooklyn apartment building, manager Abo Maher was surprised to see his mosque on the NYPD’s list of Shiite locations. “This isn’t even Shia,” he said. “Their information is wrong” ……….”

That would be funny, about the “wrong” mosque. If it wasn’t so stupid and so typical and so nasty. We must all look alike to the Kestone Kops of the Big Apple. They get attacked, people are massacred, by Salafi Wahhabis. There are attempts at terrorism by Salafis from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Africa (admittedly some of them entrapped). Yet the geniuses of the NYPD seem obsessed that the Shi’as might be building a nuclear bomb in Brooklyn. They are apparently learning from the Bahrain regime agents. Maybe for a change it is New York that has sent their cops for training to Bahrain.



Of course increased surveillance of more mosques, be they Shi’a or Sunni or Episcopalian or Haredim, means more overtime pay for New York’s once finest, no?
Cheers
mhg


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Israel, Latin America, U.S. Politics, US Foreign Policy

Florida Race Tightens: Disrespecting Obama and Motherhood before Netanyahu and Cuba……..

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The Florida Republican race is reaching the home stretch. it is desperation time for the Republican candidates. The focus shifts to the special interest groups. The talk is about Space, Israel, and Cubans longing for the days of Batista. Last debate they talked about who would hire the most “Latinos” in their administration. Then there always lurks Netanyahu:

Romney: I’d hire Netanyahu if he were not Israeli prime minister.

Sanrotum: There you go again, disrespecting Netanyahu. You should be ashamed of yourself talking like that about a great American patriot. I’d hire Netanyahu even while he is PM of Israel. Hell, I’d hire him even if he were an Iranian ayatollah.

Romney: I like patriots too. I’d never disrespect Netanyahu. It is Obama who is always disrespecting Netanyahu. I would never do that, not while running for president, for heaven’s sake. I’d rather disrespect my own mother and the intelligence of the American people than Netanyahu, at least until November 2016.

Santorum: I don’t believe you. Anyway, I’d also hire Luis Clemente Faustino Posada Carriles (aka Bambi).
So there, you try beating that.

Gingrich: He sounds like a great Cuban-American and a good Catholic. I’d have to ask Callista first.

Ron Paul: I wouldn’t hire Netanyahu if he were the only man available for the job. Not unless he can bike for 27 miles, which he can’t because they don’t have a 27 mile stretch in that whole place over there. I’d rather send Netanyahu, along with Newt and all the rest of you pandering schmucks to that new moon base Newt and Callista are building.
Cheers
mhg


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GCC, Iran, OPEC, U.S. Politics, US Foreign Policy, War on Iran

Iran Feels the Oil Blockade Heat but Denies it: Back to 1980-88 in the Gulf?……….

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“Ahmadinejad said during a speech at a gathering of the personnel of Sarcheshmeh Copper Complex in the city of Sarcheshmeh, the southeastern province of Kerman, on Thursday. The European Union formally imposed an oil embargo on Iran and agreed to a freeze on the assets of the Central Bank of Iran on Monday, but existing contracts will be honored until July 1. “The West must be aware that the Iranian nation… does not need them. You impose embargo on Iran’s oil but do not see that the United States has not bought oil from us for 30 years, but nothing happened, and Iran followed its path with dignity,” Ahmadinejad said, addressing European countries. He stated that the sanctions are futile……….” Mehr News

Yet this next news item seems to contradict Ahmadinejad’s assertion that the sanctions will not hurt. He is right in one respect: the sanctions are unlikely to hurt the regime. They always hurt the people:

“A top Iranian diplomat has expressed Tehran’s displeasure over an announcement by certain Persian Gulf Arab states to replace Iran’s oil exports, saying Iran will consider such a move as “unfriendly”. Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Iranian deputy foreign minister for Arab and African affairs, made the remarks during a meeting with the undersecretary of the Kuwaiti Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Khalid Al-Jarallah, in Kuwait City on Thursday. Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi last week said that his country will make up for any shortfall in world oil supply caused by sanctions against Iran. ………” Mehr News

The Iranians must have a sense of having been here before, a sense of déjà vu (all over again). During the utterly senseless and futile 1980-99 war, their petroleum facilities were bombed and they were under an American economic siege. Not only did the Saudis pick up the slack and expanded their market share, other Gulf states also sold their own oil for Ba’athist Iraq’s account (Saddam’s exports were severely curtailed).
The Iranians resorted to the “tankers war’ to punish other Gulf exporters, which led to some naval skirmishes with the U.S. navy. The Iranians did not do well in those skirmishes, had some of their speedboats and offshore oil platforms destroyed. The lowest point came on July 3rd 1988, when the USS Vincennes shot down a civilian Iranian airliner (Iran Air 655) over the Gulf, killing nearly 300 civilians. The ceasefire was declared in August.
Had those passengers been Westerners (like the Pan Am 103), and had the guilty party been Libya (like the Pan Am 103), the Iranian victims would have received more than a billion dollars from Qaddafi (just like the Pan Am 103 victims). All posthumously of course (just like the Pan Am 103 victims).
Cheers
mhg


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Israel, Middle East, Palestine, U.S. Politics, US Foreign Policy

Romney and Gingrich and GOPP: Kissing Netanyahu’s Ring, Kissing History Goodbye………

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Quotes from Republican candidates at the Florida debate last night:

“ROMNEY: Well, the reason that there’s not peace between the Palestinians and Israel is because there is in the leadership of the Palestinian people are Hamas and others who think like Hamas who have as their intent the elimination of Israel. And whether it’s in schoolbooks that teach how to kill Jews, or whether it’s in the political discourse that is spoken either from Fatah or from Hamas, there is a belief that the Jewish people do not have a right to have a Jewish state. …… I think he (Obama) disrespected Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu……..”
 
Romney doesn’t give a fig about Netanyahu, He probably recognizes him for the political hustler and serial liar that he is; he probably admires him, if at all, for these qualities more than his being a statesman (he is not). What Romney meant to say was that Obama disrespects the New York and New Jersey and other northeast retirees in Florida. He is appealing to all the Jewish elderly retirees in south Florida, normally a strong Democrat bloc of voters.

“GINGRICH: It was technically an invention of the late 1970s, and it was clearly so. Prior to that, they were Arabs. Many of them were either Syrian, Lebanese, or Egyptian, or Jordanian……… ……..”

Funny, when I was a kid at school, many of my teachers were Palestinians: that is what everybody called them. Well before 1970. Gingrich supposedly studied history, so presumably he knows that he is lying here (as do most of his listeners, possibly even a few of the Republicans in the audience).
GOPP: Grand Old Pandering Party.
Cheers
mhg


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