Saturday

MAGA My Ass

Trump's Russian Gas Sanction Strategy Blows Up Two Ways - So much winning

Making Allies Nervous -  Japan's naval dispatch to Middle East a 'product of compromise' between Iran and U.S., experts say

"Takahashi said the United States should be blamed for the rising tensions, noting that it has broken a 2015 nuclear agreement signed between Iran and major powers.

“So I understand the feelings of other countries that they didn’t want to participate in the U.S.-led coalition,” he said.

Last year, the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from the multinational deal aimed at curbing Iran’s nuclear program, re-imposing economic sanctions on the country. In the end, the coalition was formed by only seven countries.

Takahashi described the government’s decision as an “agonizing choice.”

He said Japan had to do something because so many oil tankers operated by Japanese firms pass through the Strait of Hormuz."

On the Economy

Economic Errors: Right Wing edition - Corporate media and our elite leaders realized long ago that Americans as a whole don't really understand much and generally believe what they are told so they just throw out anything to make their current point and then move on.

R's figured it out first and are better at it than the D's but both do it.  Trump has made a career of it.



2020

Is shaping up to be a year for the ages. 3 Ways the 2020 Election Could Go Very Wrong



War - Beating the Drums

US contractor killed, forces reported wounded in Iraq rocket attack

"More than a dozen similar rocket attacks have targeted bases in Iraq, where US forces have been located since May. Most have been blamed on Iranian-backed militias, although ISIS could also be a culprit." 

Trump in a corner after rockets kill US contractor, wound forces

Iran, Russia, China stage joint naval drill in Sea of Oman

I get the feeling we are the red-coats in the Middle East with Trump and Netanyahu as our mad King George.



Terrorism

This, Michael Bloomberg’s Blatant Lies About Terrorism Show That He’s a Mainstream Politician, includes something you rarely hear from US media. Why they hate us.....

In reality, Osama bin Laden had published a “Declaration of Jihad Against the Americans Occupying the Land of the Two Holiest Sites” in 1996. In it, he did not decry American freedom of religion or speech. Instead, he spoke of how, due to America and Israel, “the people of Islam had suffered from aggression, iniquity and injustice.” Bin Laden went on, “Muslims’ blood became the cheapest and their wealth and assets looted by the hands of the enemies. Their blood was spilled in Palestine and Iraq. The horrifying pictures of the massacre of Qana, in Lebanon, are still fresh in our memory.”

All signs are that this was indeed what was behind Al Qaeda’s actions. According to the 9/11 Commission report, Khalid Sheik Mohammed originally wanted to pilot one of the planes himself — so that he could land it at a U.S. airport, kill all the male passengers, and “deliver a speech excoriating U.S. support for Israel, the Philippines, and repressive governments in the Arab world.”

Bush’s claims so irritated bin Laden that he specifically responded to them in 2004. “Oh American people,” he said in a taped broadcast on Al Jazeera, “I am speaking to tell you about the ideal way to avoid another Manhattan, about war and its causes and results. … Contrary to Bush’s claims that we hate freedom, let him tell us why we did not attack Sweden, for example.”