Friday, May 19, 2017

THIS JUST IN! IT WAS CARLOS DANGER!


BULLY BOY PRESS &   CEDRIC'S BIG MIX -- THE KOOL AID TABLE


LOOKING LIKE A CRACK ADDICT OR AN OVER-USED PORN STAR, DISGRACED PERVERT ANTHONY WEINER SHOWED UP IN COURT TO PLEAD GUILTY TO SEXTING WITH A MINOR.



ASKED BY THESE REPORTERS WHICH HURT WORSE -- REGISTERING AS A SEX OFFENDER OR GIVING UP THE IPHONE, PERV WEINER TOLD US IT WAS THE PHONE.

"PLEASE,"  HE TOLD US, "REGISTER?  I USED MY NOM DE PLUME CARLOS DANGER."





Day 211.


It was supposed to last mere weeks, remember?

But it was also supposedly launched to save the citizens of Mosul.


Not a lot of concern for those civilians these days.


Human Rights Watch notes:

 The Iraqi army and other local security forces have forced over 300 displaced families to return to west Mosul neighborhoods still under risk of attack by the Islamic State (also known as ISIS), Human Rights Watch said today. The families, who had fled to the Hammam al-Alil and Hajj Ali camps for displaced people, are severely short of water, food, electricity, and medical assistance.
Displaced residents, camp staff in Hammam al-Alil, and three federal police officers said that families were returned to certain west Mosul neighborhoods to make room for newly displaced people from more recently retaken neighborhoods of west Mosul. But aid workers involved in camp management and United Nations assessments of camp capacity indicated that the camps still have space for new arrivals.
“People from western Mosul fled some of the worst fighting there and finally found safety, only to be forced back to areas still under ISIS fire,” said Lama Fakih, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “These families should not be forcibly returned to unsafe areas and areas that lack adequate water, food, electricity, or health facilities.”

The UN Guiding Principles on internal displacement state that all internally displaced people should be able to choose where they live and have the right to be protected against forcible return to any place where their life, safety, liberty, or health would be at risk.



The Mosul Slog slogs along.  What happens after?

Muhanad al-Saleh and Qassim Abdul-Zahra (AP) remind:
 Sunni resentment over disenfranchisement and the rise of Shiite power after the 2003 ouster of Saddam Hussein fueled an insurgency and gave a foothold to al-Qaida. The U.S. military, backed by Sunni tribal fighters, largely crushed al-Qaida. But Sunni bitterness over continued discrimination by Shiites helped in the subsequent rise of the Islamic State group. Each time, the rise of militants only deepened Shiite suspicions that the Sunnis cannot be trusted.
U.S. officials backing Baghdad in the fight against IS have warned repeatedly that the same could happen again now unless the government is made more inclusive.

A prominent Sunni lawmaker, Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, said Iraq could fall apart unless a "historic compromise" is reached.

Former prime minister and forever thug Nouri al-Maliki oversaw the persecution of the Sunnis from 2006 to 2014.  He wants back in.  It's reported that he's attempting to state he's the only one who can prevent the partition of Iraq into three areas (Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurd).  Nouri did not want to step down in 2014.  It's interesting that he thinks he can be prime minister again, after two terms, considering the Iraqi Constitution.  But Nouri intends to stoke fear in an effort to be back as prime minister.



RECOMMENDED: "Iraq snapshot"




Tuesday, May 16, 2017

THIS JUST IN! MOORE'S MOOING AGAIN!


BULLY BOY PRESS
 &   CEDRIC'S BIG MIX -- THE KOOL AID TABLE


NOT WITH ACTORS BECAUSE REAL ACTORS COULD UPSTAGE HIM AND MOORE MUST BE THE STAR OF EVERY ONE OF HIS FILMS.

HE'S CALLING IT A "DOCUMENTARY" BUT HIS GRASP OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE HAS NEVER BEEN THAT STRONG.

REACHED FOR COMMENT BY THESE REPORTERS, MOORE INSISTED THE FILM WOULD BE MASSIVE AND THEN ASKED IF WE WERE PLANNING ON FINISHING OUR FRIES OR COULD HE HAVE THEM AND WHAT ABOUT THAT SLICE OF PIE?





Day 209 of The Mosul Slog. 
map update. Green= completely liberated. Orange= frontline clashes. White= control.






Back in October, when it began, it was supposed to take a few weeks.

209 days later, it still continues.

And it's not even the biggest issue in Iraq.


Let's again note Ben Connable, Natash Lander and Kimberly Jackson's "Beating the Islamic State: Selecting a New Strategy for Iraq and Syria" (RAND CORPORATION):


Root Causes Can Be Bypassed or Suppressed, But Doing So Ensures Lasting Instability

  • Failure to address root causes may mean that instability and violence will outlast any individual armed group. Yet there is little appetite for the effort required to address root causes in Iraq and Syria. Current strategy has thus taken a middle-ground approach that does not truly reflect U.S. understanding of irregular war.
  • The research centered on the two prominent theories about root causes in Iraq and Syria, disenfranchisement and the effects of ethnosectarian discord. While the latter does have an influence, but the deeper cause in these two countries is disenfranchisement from the central governments and from the protections they should be providing their entire populations.
  • Debate over what to do about disenfranchisement is growing; this report argues shifting toward political action while maintaining military pressure against IS. 


And among the key findings:


  • The best way to reduce and, eventually, end insurgency and terrorism is to address root causes or, at least, to establish legitimate and capable governance. Stability is most consistent and enduring when it emerges naturally from popular satisfaction with governance and other socioeconomic conditions, rather than from government oppression or military action by external powers.




  • Sectarianism is destroying Iraq.

    And has been destroying Iraq.

    And it's the issue that never gets dealt with.

    Remember the 18 benchmarks the White House created in 2007 to measure success in Iraq?

    Most people appear to have forgotten them.


    CNN noted in September 2007, "The benchmarks were created by lawmakers as part of a $120 billion war-spending bill passed in May, which asked the GAO -- the investigative arm of Congress -- to give a definitive answer as to whether each benchmark was met or not, instead of reporting partial progress."


    One of the benchmarks was national reconciliation.

    And ten years later, that's still not happened.

    Ten years later, it's still the biggest threat to security in Iraq.

    Ten years later, ISIS is being fought because of it and ISIS took root in Iraq because of it.





    RECOMMENDED: "Iraq snapshot"









  • The legitimated stability option acknowledges that the best way to reduce and, eventually, end insurgency and terrorism is to address root causes or, at least, to establish legitimate and capable governance. The aim of this strategy is to establish legitimate governments in Iraq and Syria. Each government would be capable of addressing Sunni disenfranchisement while protecting the rights of all other groups. Ultimately, strong and legitimate central governments — perhaps federated or confederated to address regional challenges within each state — will reduce the current, dangerous emphasis on ethnosectarian identity politics and violence.