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Comments Posted By choicelady

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Games Theory 101: Syria, Russia outplayed

Excellent, succinct analysis, Murph. I can see the fine mind that guided students all those years! Now of course the Emos would just say you were an Obamabot (and therefore I understand your reaction to me yesterday – very funny!) but this is logic at its best.

Thank you! Hope you’re on the President’s live talk tonight!

» Posted By choicelady On September 10, 2013 @ 5:40 pm

The Return of American Isolationism?

Unless a sheik, a king, or a tyrant with oil money is in control, ALL of the Middle East is in meltdown and has been for centuries. We pretend this is new. It’s not. With few exceptions, Obama has kept us OUT of it as he should. Nothing worse than our pomposity demanding that people settle things our way. Libya was about uprooting Qaddafi, and that got done. They asked for help and got it. But Syria is asking, too – the people of Syria are begging especially since the chemical weapons.

Now the issue is – how will it get done since the UN will be blocked and the path therefore is less clear. I do think this president will abide by the NO vote that will almost inevitably come from Congress and that he WANTS it so he CAN pursue non militarized means without the monkey on his back from the GOP that he is ‘weak on defense’.

I don’t know if anyone can do anything at all, but I do know I will judge PBO by only his own actions, not by the past. I hope his actions work out as well on Syria as they have done in other circumstances. He knows the USA no longer can be the Grand Imperial Presence with a big stick on ALL issues all of the time.

» Posted By choicelady On September 7, 2013 @ 8:41 pm

I don’t judge PBO’s actions by Bush’s. I judge by his own. Libya was precisely what he said. The issue for me is whether it would engender more harm than good, but it is not about judging the present from another perspective under a different administration.

» Posted By choicelady On September 6, 2013 @ 1:03 pm

WATCH NOW: Live Video of Senate Debate on Use of Force in Syria

I think he does know it, knows that Baggers do NOT know it, and is putting this up with the full certainty it will be turned down.

I see this as the ‘briar patch’ strategy. May be wrong. But I think he wants CONGRESS to take the “no military intervention” stand so he can proceed without that ‘Obama is weak let’s impeach him” monkey on his back.

» Posted By choicelady On September 5, 2013 @ 9:04 pm

There are joint powers efforts to infuse the host nations with money to sustain the refugees. They are NOT being forgotten.

» Posted By choicelady On September 5, 2013 @ 9:03 pm

Global Red Line is indeed chemical weapons. That has been true since 1919. Mustard gas used against allied troops led to international conventions against their use always.

Does not mean it has to be dealt with militarily. Given the retaliation by Syrian, Iran, Russia, China – I’m NOT sure this president is willing to play that kind of brinksmanship. Could be wrong. Have been before, but I think he took it to Congress to protect his standing as a negotiator rather than a military hawk. Congress cannot call him ‘soft’ if they vote NO.

» Posted By choicelady On September 5, 2013 @ 9:02 pm

NOTHING which is why I think we are not ‘going there’. I think the president WANTS a “NO” vote. Israel then becomes the military presence. We continue with diplomacy.

» Posted By choicelady On September 5, 2013 @ 8:57 pm

I think that’s been true since about the 1890s. I am no longer sure that’s true in this administration. I am waiting and watching because I think the Congressional vote is going to be NO, and I actually think that is what the president wants.

Israel may handle it on their own. WE can continue to use diplomacy, not bombs, that way.

Could be wrong – don’t know foreign policy much – but I have a sneaking suspicion this is the long plan.

» Posted By choicelady On September 5, 2013 @ 8:56 pm

…and then he added two amendments (non binding but still) calling for ‘regime change’. Ever and always the Baggers’ Boy.

» Posted By choicelady On September 5, 2013 @ 5:34 pm

Well we can now see we are no longer the biggest or worst purveyor of arms. Progress? Do not think so.

» Posted By choicelady On September 5, 2013 @ 5:33 pm

AdLib and Kalima =- all I can say is HOLY CRAP!!!

» Posted By choicelady On September 5, 2013 @ 5:32 pm

Can’t. Russia and China won’t play and have veto power.

» Posted By choicelady On September 5, 2013 @ 5:29 pm

AB – that is very helpful. You have it straight from those impacted.

Rawanda was our most egregious fail. The Congo? We DO have 300 troops there helping the local forces fight Kony. That is critically different from our historic indifference to Black Africa.

So we will see. There are more negatives for the US in striking delivery systems for CBW in Syria than in NOT. I am (written above) hoping that this is the president’s way of deflecting the ‘Obama is a coward’ Bagger meme by putting the outcomes on Congress. Then he can move forward to do what he can without them biting his butt every inch of the way.

» Posted By choicelady On September 5, 2013 @ 5:29 pm

I don’t think so any more than any OTHER nation that could be affected.

» Posted By choicelady On September 5, 2013 @ 5:25 pm

I guess I’d disagree that this administration has done these things. We have sent a very limited number of troops (300) to deal with the Congo (and wherever the Lord’s Liberation Army is present), because we must. There is NO over-riding interest for us geopolitically. It is simply a matter of humanity. We are quietly dealing with Timor, and the Tamil Tigers have been largely quiet recently – we are dealing with them, too. But via humanitarian groups I’ve worked with, it’s not militarily.

Using chemical weapons is simply the standard that cannot be tolerated. It has been an issue since WW I and mustard gas. Again – we have NO interests in Syria and in fact it is AGAINST our interests to do this since Russia objects, Iran could close the Straits of Hormuz, and it may not work out at all well if we were to strike.

It is my hope that what is REALLY going on here is that the president hopes that Congress will NOT authorize Obama to strike thereby giving him the floor upon which he can stand for moving ahead with NON military intervention. When you have the McCains pounding the table for ‘regime change’ (embodied in his amendments) there needs to be ‘protective cover’ by making Congress responsible for non-lethal actions.

If ever we had an administration that saw other nations as having sovereignty and not just as tools of our interests, it is this one. PBO has rejected every call to keep following the National Security Memo #68 written in the early days of the Cold War. That requires us to intervene in all actions we think potentially harmful to US interests. He has NOT done that. He has respected other nations’ right to determine their own fate, intervening with only UN approval or, in this case where that cannot be obtained, the support (maybe not) of Congress.

The compelling interest is humanity. CBW are the MOST despicable weapons on earth save nukes because you cannot defend against them at all. No subway bomb shelters will make it OK as London withstood the blitz. The President is correct – it is a global Red Line. Not ours.

I will be most interested in seeing what happens if we do NOT have the votes. I think that actually may be the goal. We will watch and wait and see the outcome. I do trust this president to do what is right, not what is expedient to our ‘interests’.

» Posted By choicelady On September 5, 2013 @ 5:24 pm

And quite seriously – is there something here we can use for real?

Can we do something other than surgical drones, bombs, etc.? Let’s think upon it – I think, in a funny statement, we MIGHT have created a game change.

» Posted By choicelady On September 3, 2013 @ 6:39 pm

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO(ts).

» Posted By choicelady On September 3, 2013 @ 6:38 pm

NON LETHAL ACTION! Drop boots from helicopters – empty boots. AdLib – you’re a genius! Everyone will run for cover, no one will be able to get out of the house, and no more CW can be used because no one will be able to get to it.

And the very poor can wear the boots later.

You need to be elected to office.

» Posted By choicelady On September 3, 2013 @ 5:22 pm

Why Obama Can’t Be a Magic Genie on Egypt

Thank you for good sense, AdLib. We do not have THE influence everyone wants thanks in no small measure to the “we done wan no stinkin’ foreign aid goin’ overseas” (because foreign aid ought to go to Red states that are about as foreign to the U.S. as anyone…)

More important and totally missed by even GOOD reporters is that this president is refusing to perpetuate National Security Memo #68 that required after WW II that the U.S. intervenes in EVERY conflict. All, totally, all the time, 24/7/365. We FINALLY have a president that respects other nations’ sovereignty and has ended the U.S. Cold War imperialist mentality – and he’s accused of being incompetent or looking bad or something.

Listen up whiners Left and Right – you GOT what you wanted. We no longer send bundles abroad nor do we wage war and dominate every single internal action everywhere.

Now that we have what both sides wanted (though never for the same reasons) QUIT WHINING. And that includes Gene Robinson who damned well OUGHT to know better.

President Obama is doing good and hard things – he’s governing without dominating, and that should be totally supported by us, however we can.

» Posted By choicelady On August 16, 2013 @ 4:03 pm

Fracking, Droughts and Bottling – The Evaporation of Public Water

Hi AdLib – I know Gasland, and I also learned that the geology of that area should NEVER have been tapped. It’s qualitatively different from Marcellus Shale that does not emit methane. You’re so right about that.

I just read a report from (mumble – can’t remember who but a good source) that electric cars are LESS green overall than hybrids because of the production issues and the emissions from electrical generating facilities. They contribute more carbon by a fraction than do hybrids. My money is on solar – saw a student group once hauling one that had tested very well at a competition, and save for the obvious places such as Seattle that has too little sun to make them reliable, they may be our best answer.

I once followed a car with a huge wind-up key in the back, and a web site printed on it (I no longer recall what it was) leading people to info on this very real, not a joke, mode of propulsion. I suspect it’s the Farragut principle – there are flashlights that work just by shaking them, and this may be similar. I will try to find the web site again. Looked very silly, but it was for real.

So we don’t HAVE to be trapped in dirty and unreliable modes of energy extraction and consumption. We must make good choices now – time is, indeed, running out.

The water wars though…it chills me to the bone that Monsanto just bought Blackwater (now Xe). It is my belief that the single biggest thing we need to observe is the creation of private mercenary armies to push multinational corporate take overs in underdeveloped nations. Water will be front and center in those issues. It started decades ago and was well documented in John Perkins’ horrifying book, “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man” about his role in water and land theft as a CIA undercover operative. Add in a rogue private organization enforcing corporate takeovers, and it’s a recipe for disaster.

We can see why the Chinese think the saying, “May you live in interesting times” is a curse.

» Posted By choicelady On August 14, 2013 @ 11:44 pm

kes – see if you can get the film, The Water Front, about the Highland Park fiasco in Michigan. (www.waterfrontmovie.com) The private company blew it big time, and the city fought back against them and won. Worth showing around Toledo to be a clear warning statement. I’m sure the good sisters would be only too happy to air it for community groups.

» Posted By choicelady On August 14, 2013 @ 9:12 pm

Good summary, AdLib!

Nestle is here in Sacramento. They bottle our TAP WATER and then sell it for profit. I invite anyone wishing to drink Nestle’s water to come to my house – I will give it to you for free.

I have HUGE mixed thoughts about fracking because back east, in an entirely different geological zone, some of the major players are doing a relatively decent job of fracking without ruining water supplies. The people of parts of Ohio are getting needed jobs, and gas IS what runs most of the West’s public transit bus system. The issue for me is what geology is OK (Gasland is a very fragile environment that never should have been fracked), what companies are reliable, where will we get natural gas without fracking? These are complex issues that defy the NO Fracking vs All Fracking All of the Time scenarios. I just don’t know yet if it can be done well, without destroying the water resources, setting off earthquakes, contaminating the environment. For me the jury is out because the data are not in. I reserve judgement and demand FACTS that will either make or break this issue.The corporate support for fracking is just not a reliable source!

But as for privatizing water? NOT ON. The absurdity is most obvious here – the mayor, the ever ridiculous basketball player Kevin Johnson – has sold our water for pennies to Nestle while letting them profit from it.

Anyone buying bottled water on a regular basis seems ridiculous to me. Unless you live in a known contaminated place, tap water is fine. We have excellent sources, good quality wherever cities have decent filtration, and there is simply no justification for buying it. THAT is how it gets stopped on the market – don’t buy it. But what then of the rush to privatize SUPPLIES when municipalities sell out to private sources for TAP water. THAT is a huge problem looming for us all. One has only to look at the debacle of Highland Park, MI where the municipal water system was sold to a private company that began turning OFF water to people struggling to pay bills and that failed to staff the water company making three employees work 7 days a week, no relief at all. The company finally ditched the effort because the community pushed back – and pushed the company OUT. But it was the signature effort that is now almost universal in MI. Nothing succeeds like a really bad idea.

MAJOR complexities. The rush and relentless drive to privatization of natural resources must end, period. Whether it’s the gormless Johnson or other pernicious elected officials looking for a quick fix to budget shortfalls, water must remain a public not private right. There is no excuse for selling out EVER.

» Posted By choicelady On August 14, 2013 @ 9:09 pm

Boehner’s Got the Worst House on the Block

I hope people won’t be fooled again into supporting lazy ass Baggers who do nothing, contribute nothing, are nothing.

I hope.

» Posted By choicelady On July 30, 2013 @ 1:49 pm

Wow, AdLib, this is mind boggling. Not being a congressional scholar at all, I still cannot remember a time in our nation’s history when so little was accomplished by Congress. Boehner’s ingenuous disclaimer that their job is NOT to pass legislation but to undo it simply is unprecedented as far as I can tell.

I wonder how passing a bill making flu vaccinations a taxable entity squares with existing ACA requirements to make preventive care free? Maybe this is what you have to do if you’re privately insured or not insured at all? And where is the logic to this – when flu shots are an observable good in keeping the fragile out of the ER? For an anti-tax group of nut jobs, this is definitely contradictory in nature.

I would wonder how they think this will “play in Peoria” if I did not know that the message for the Bagger home teams will be “Death Panels and High Cost Medical Care are Comin’ fer Ya!” I keep wanting to say to citizen Baggers – look out for that man behind the curtain. He is NOT the Great and Powerful Oz but merely Mr. Orange who in this story is the one with the Winged Monkeys: Congress.

Another urban myth got exploded today:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/07/29/what-affordable-care-act-really-means-job-growth?utm_source=email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=073013-text1&utm_campaign=healthcare

Affordable Care is NOT costing jobs at all, not shortening hours for most employees, not causing businesses to collapse. But this won’t be what Congress will say – at least not the Bagger Brand.

Elected reps who are lazier than their VP choice in 2008, spending two days a week doing NOTHING then going home are the scourge of society, the “ripoff takers” with NO self perception or honor. If this is the best they can do, then let’s dock their pay for poor performance? That’s what would happen to them in the private sector – their own, much-vaunted standard of good.

I hope every single person who has needed assistance from the government and who believes in democracy will help others GET voter ID then take people to the polls and vote themselves. We have to change the House and keep the Senate in the hands of those who really believe in the nation, not just their own special privilege. It’s important! VOTE!!!

» Posted By choicelady On July 30, 2013 @ 1:25 pm

My 10 Year Old Daughter’s First Go at Political Humor

OMG – that’s simply wonderful! That’s amazing political savvy for one so young! She has a GREAT future ahead should she decide to give Sally fodder for the Sunday funnies someday not too long from now! She could easily contribute to the Daily Show, too! Clearly a chip off the old (merely a saying) block, AdLib. Give her our best, our thanks, and tell her to keep on keeping on with such great talent!

» Posted By choicelady On July 25, 2013 @ 10:13 pm

GOP to Merge With Al Qaeda and The Taliban

AdLib – I just want to know how you got them all together for that photo op…

» Posted By choicelady On July 26, 2013 @ 7:00 pm

OMG – may this never come to pass, though, now I think of it, it already did. When Reagan made his secret deal with Shia extremists, all that was left out were the specific players’ names.

With the majority of 9/11 perpetrators from Saudi Arabia and the Big Guy part of the royal family, Bush inched us that much closer, too.

So horror of horrors – this may not be fiction at all, AdLib! You may be on to something! Yikes!

» Posted By choicelady On July 25, 2013 @ 4:39 pm

Rallies in St. Louis for Peace, for Justice, for All the Trayvons

Gosh Bourne – I’m sorry you felt that way. I did not take any of your comments as inappropriate and am sorry you thought that of mine. It’s the mayor at whom I am furious, not you. I apologize if that anger seemed directed at you since it was not.

» Posted By choicelady On July 25, 2013 @ 7:11 am

Hey bourne – this is a very powerful statement, but I’d like to weigh in with more (to me anyway) positive things that came from all of this. In WI the specific recall of Walker did not work – but they did recall two Senators thereby ENDING the relentless attacks on labor. The protests did not fizzle – they were no longer needed, and the state has stopped even trying to kill off state workers. To me that is a win.

OWS really did not do much, but out of the whole movement against the rampant excesses we got the consumer protection agency, Cordray was confirmed, and I’m hearing more and more prosecutions, civil AND criminal, of individuals who created the fresh hell of the housing collapse. Not front page headlines because they are being handled as these things are in DOJ district areas that don’t light up the NY Times when they occur in other states or even outside Manhattan. But various hedge fund people are being prosecuted, and people are finally being called to account.

The ONLY place where trouble occurred during the demonstrations on behalf of Trayvon was Oakland. What I see across the country are stronger communities that no longer have to riot because they no longer feel disengaged. The empowerment of people of color is hardly perfect, but it IS happening as local efforts are spawning real change. Black on Black crime is WAY down because communities ARE doing what ignorant white people have sneered at – they are demanding accountability, getting prosecutions, stopping violence before it starts. Massive programs to take back cities are popping up all over including an amazing program of ‘legal squatting’ in Chicago’s decimated housing where families are settling in vacant home, paying the taxes and fixing the property that under common law allows them, after two years, to own this small piece of real estate. In cities across the nation “Nobody out” actions to stop foreclosure are saving homes. Community programs on many fronts including the growth of employee ownership opportunities, local food sources in previous food deserts, health care and employment chances – all good.

It’s not evenly occurring, but it IS happening. I no longer look to street action as the litmus test. That is what we did when we had nothing else to do. But we made changes, and if we had NOT, if we had not changed laws and made local control more possible, we’d still be marching over the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Nope – I see much more than street action today. And what I see gives me the most hope I’ve ever had – EVEN in the days when there were tens of thousands in the streets. We’re still in the streets, OK – building, fixing, growing, voting, changing policy and changing practice. And that matters hugely to the lack of need for marching anymore.

» Posted By choicelady On July 23, 2013 @ 10:12 pm

Murph – today at the hate crimes task force, the FBI agent whom I know said that one route into a civil rights prosecution could be the gun if – IF – it came from out of state. That is always a route in for federal jurisdiction. However, one (the only one I could find) source stated the gun was manufactured in Coca Beach, FL thus probably ruling that aspect out. So I’m still not sure whether the DOJ has an entry point at all. The FBI agent was very unsure there was standing. We will just now have to wait and see. Wish I had more to report.

» Posted By choicelady On July 23, 2013 @ 9:58 pm