I have thought for a long time that the Neos want another Cold War. Cold Wars are great for business. We get to spend trillions of dollars on equipment that doesn’t even have to work. Heck, as we learned in the first gulf war when the Patriot Missiles didn’t work, all that happened was more spending to make them better. Cold Wars are good for the military. Lots of promotions for folks that never have to pay for their mistakes through losing wars or soldiers. Looks like the buildup in Europe is phase one of the new cold war. Of course the only problem with a cold war is what happens if it goes hot.

At the end of the day, it appeared that Saudi is politically less stable than Lebanon, something that has hardly ever been the case in modern history, let alone at a time when one would assume it is Lebanon that is about to be plunged into new chaos, not the formerly predictable Wahhabi regime. This is a very good analysis of both the Saudi Arabia and Lebanon actions in the past few days. As is all too often the case in the Middle East, the US has its fingerprints all over it. The authors present some possible outcomes.(1 comment)

The Neos heads are going to explode (we can only hope). The Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) is hosting its 25th annual meeting in Vietnam this week. President Trump and President Putin are scheduled to attend. The “leaked” story of the day is that the two of them actually plan to meet face to face and discuss some mutual issues, like North Korea. Imagine how the Neos feel to find out that we might resolve an issue with diplomatic relations instead of at the point of a gun.

Imagine you’ve been arrested and are going to court. As part of your defense, you share with your attorney all sorts of intimate details on your involvement of the crime. Your attorney shares defense strategies. Imagine if the prosecution had “bugged” the room you talked to your lawyer in. Of course the courts would punish the prosecution for violating the principle of attorney-client privilege. Well the bugging happened and instead of the prosecution being punished over this violation, the lead defense attorney was sentenced to 21 days in jail and fined $1000. The Guantonamo “trials” have been troubling for some time but this one is a major black eye for America. We’re supposed to stand for the rule of law. We claim to be the symbol of greatness in the world. When we destroy our principles in order to punish those who attempt to hurt us, we win nothing. In a flashback to the Vietnam war, where we had to destroy a village to save it, we’re destroying what America stands for in order to save America. What is so troubling for me is that these are Commissioned Officers doing this. The Officer Corps of the US Military is supposed to have more honor than mere politicians.(3 comments)

The Defense Department admits to the war on terror costing the taxpayers $250 MILLION a day for the past 16 years. The Defense Department being what it is, probably underestimates this by at least half. Of course, this only includes the war on Afghanistan and Iraq. It also does not include the costs of death benefits or veteran disabilities. It also does not include the costs of the intelligence world.(1 comment)

We all heard about how President Trump getting the US out of the Paris Climate Change agreement was the precursor to the end of the world. We heard how all those countries that did sign up were so much morally better than us. Well, imagine the latest, where the UN reports that the countries that tried to shame us haven’t even met the quotas that they agreed to. …

This is really old news. The headlines should be that the DNC rigged the deck for the candidate of choice of those who control the party. The so called “super delegate” system that the DNC has in place was a response to the 1968 Presidential Election, where George McGovern ran a grass roots campaign and got the nomination. Those who controlled the Democrat Party where stunned and of course the election was lost. They vowed not to let this happen again. So they created the super delegate system. The two political parties only control primary elections. They make the rules and the primaries work the way they want them to. That is the real way they protect incumbents and the major reason why we rarely have choices. Oddly enough, the RNC didn’t like the way we the people got Trump through the primaries. They are actually trying to figure out how to create a super delegate system of their own. This one actually is somewhat easy to influence, but most of us won’t. Local precincts elect county parties. The county parties select delegates to the district and state party conventions. The state party conventions select those who go to the national conventions and vote on the rules. It’s not easy or fun, but it can be done.

em>I’ve been a fan of Judge Napolitano for some time now. He has a unique way of analyzing legal issues in an objective constitutional war. A classical “knowledge” method instead of histrionics and popular opinion. Today he talks about the real rule of law. It’s about prosecuting foreigners in a foreign country with American laws. Clearly unconstitutional and wrong.(3 comments)

The notion of “secret” trials and witnesses being “squeezed” to tell things to prosecutors that they want to hear goes against everything that America stands for. Jurors should take everything that these snitches say with huge skepticism. A look at Papadopoulos’s role in Trumps campaign shows a very low level guy who seems to have gone out of his way to get the campaign involved in illegalities. He was regularly turned down. What “proof” can he possibly have other than innuendo? Was he possibly a deep state operative to influence the campaign? (1 comment)

The notion that there are two political parties representing different constituencies has been dispelled a long time ago. They’ve gotten away with it for so long because we haven’t recognized it. In reality, the Neo Cons and the Neo Libs are both the war party. The constitution says that only Congress can declare war for an extended time. We’ve been in the never ending wars for 16 years now, and Congress has yet to declare war. I guess that Congress has a different definition of “extended time” than you or I do. And they continue to defend it, even as the never ending wars expand into Africa, South American and if they get their way, North Korea and Iran.(1 comment)