John Bolton: bureaucratic tapeworm
Then the Greenwald interview.
Blog
Elijah J. Magnier: Iran And Trump On The Edge Of Abyss
Elijah J. Magnier reports that the Iranians have sent Trump a clear message.
The first message is that Iran is ready for an all-out war, no matter what the consequences. The second message is that Iran is aware that the US President has cornered himself; the embarrassing attack came a week after Trump launched his electoral campaign.
This is unbelievable if true.
According to well-informed sources, Iran rejected a proposal by US intelligence – made via a third party – that Trump be allowed to bomb one, two or three clear objectives, to be chosen by Iran, so that both countries could appear to come out as winners and Trump could save face. Iran categorically rejected the offer and sent its reply: even an attack against an empty sandy beach in Iran would trigger a missile launch against US objectives in the Gulf.
Moon Of Alabama responded:
And Elijah recommends:
Iran and the US are already at war economically. A way out of this crisis would be for Trump to close his eyes while allowing Europe to work to lift the economic pressure on Iran, without sanctioning the European companies concerned. Otherwise, there may be no escape from a regional and global catastrophe.
Daniel McAdams also mentioned on The Liberty Report that Trump could ease tensions by lifting oil sanctions on a few select countries.
The Libertarian Presidential Candidate We Need
Keith Preston at Attack The System wants a candidate that might actually be a libertarian. He argues they need to run on a platform of ending the federal government for real.
Not “enforcing the Tenth Amendment, ” not “going back to the Constitution,” not “reducing the size and scope of the federal government,” not “tax cuts and deregulation” or any other mainstream conservative/neoliberal-libertarian bullshit.
He likes what Adam Kokesh has to say but doesn’t think he is the right guy. He is thinking strategically.
The ideal revolutionary leader would have a clean image and one that exhibits uber-competence, and not have a personal history of instability.
Anybody come to mind?
USA Almost Attacked Iran Tonight
I had a tip at 8 eastern that they were going to attack in one hour. Then the Tucker show started. Then the attack was called off. I’m willing to bet it was Tucker and Macgregor who stopped a war tonight.
The New York Times says Trump had authorized the strike and planes were in the air before he changed his mind and called it off.
Pompeo, Bolton and Bloody Gina Haspel were pushing him to do it.
Senate Votes to Block Trump’s ‘Emergency’ Saudi Arms Sales
Resolutions blocked $8.1 billion in sales
In a 53-45 vote, Senators approved the first of multiple resolutions of disapproval aimed at blocking US arms sales to Saudi Arabia, sales which President Trump had been trying to push through circumventing Congress with an emergency declaration. A second resolution passed with the exact same numbers. A final resolution encompassing the other 20 objections passed 51-45.
Trump declared the emergency in late May, intended to bypass a 30-day review period by Congress. There was no sign that any of the arms would actually be shipped within 30 days, but rather Trump just wanted to avoid Congressional votes, which had been leaning toward opposing the sales.
Debate on the floor heavily focused on the murder of Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi Arabia, and the large number of civilians being killed in the Saudi bombing of Yemen. Opponents argued that the Saudi kingdom needs these arms because of hostility toward Iran, and also argued that the new arms are so good they’d likely reduce civilian deaths.
The passage of the resolutions to block the sales are likely to set up a battle with the White House, as President Trump will almost certainly veto them. Though the votes at this point do not appear to support an override in the Senate, opposition to the Saudi arms sales seem to be growing by the day, and a successful override cannot be ruled out.
In addition to blocking sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the resolutions also mentioned related transfers to Italy, Spain, Britain, and Northern Ireland. Jordan was also mentioned, by way of the UAE intending to buy 500 missiles to give to Jordan as a gift as part of this emergency.
Talk of blocking Saudi arms sales over the Khashoggi murder has been under discussion since the October killing. The use of an emergency to try to bypass Congress seems to have given particular impetus to this round of resolutions, however, and blocking arms sales to the Saudis after today may well be the new normal, instead of the rare outlier.
Year Zero: Manufactured Predators
In Episode 48 Tommy takes a look at the docuseries The Killing Season, a 2017 A&E series that featured two documentary filmmakers in a cross country journey to find the Long Island Serial Killer. As he watched the series Tommy was taken aback by statistics and obstacles that continued to pop up.
Since 1976 there have been 700,000 reported murders nation wide. 220,000 of those murders have gone unsolved. In 2017 only 61% of 21,000+ murder investigations led to an arrest (convictions unknown). That’s over 8,000 unsolved murders in 2017. While police across the US failed to solve several thousand murders they managed to funnel 10’s of billions of tax dollars into pursuing nonviolent offenders. 1,632,921 citizens were arrested for drug offenses. Of these, 1,394,515 were simple possession charges, and 659,700 were strictly Marijuana related. On top of these numbers, every year between 70,000 and 80,000 women are arrested for prostitution. It stands to reason that if the police weren’t so enthusiastic about extorting and punishing victimless crimes they’d have many more people and resources in solving unsolved murders.
Listen to Year Zero Here
Neocons Never Die
They just keep writing for the New York Times.
Via Andrew Bacevich, check out the ever blood-thirsty Bret Stephens get over Iraq War II with hardly any effort at all. The fight against the Sunni insurgency in the Anbar Province might continue to rage in 2019, but to Stephens it’s all just ancient history:
“A Pew survey from last November found that only 31 percent of Americans believed that “promoting and defending human rights in other countries” should be a leading foreign policy priority.
“Promoting democracy? Seventeen percent.
“Much of this is the hangover from Iraq, just as a previous generation’s disenchantment with foreign-policy idealism was a hangover from Vietnam. Americans have always wrestled with the question of whether we have the means, wisdom or moral right to be anyone’s liberator. Rightly so: Heady idealism untempered by realism can be as destructive in its consequences as a cold realism unmoved by humane sympathies.
“But how long should the hangover last?
“Bashar al-Assad and Vladimir Putin have resumed their offensive in Syria’s holdout province of Idlib with another gruesome campaign of indiscriminate bombing. The world no longer winces. Trump says he and Kim Jong-un, the world’s most sinister dictator, ‘fell in love’ over the latter’s ‘beautiful letters.’ Conservatives shrug. The socialist catastrophe in Venezuela takes an ever-greater toll in lives and misery. Progressives can hardly seem to form a coherent thought about it other than that America should stay out.”
You might as well love it. Why must Americans get over their Iraq “hangover”? Well, because someone has to save al Qaeda in Syria from the Syrian state; because Trump is trying to finally end the Korean War after 67 years; because someone has to invade and overthrow the government of Venezuela, and of course, because someone — the U.S. — needs to “sink Iran’s navy,” i.e.: start another massive regional war.
Carpet-bombing Iran, by dropping all the neoconservatives on them from B-52s at 40,000 feet, would be a good start. Think of it as one severe limited strike on the road to peace.
Year Zero w/ Pete Raymond: Drunk ‘n Documentary
In Episode 47 Tommy took on the challenge of recording an episode while on vacation and enjoying a few pops. Pete was kind enough to endure the scatter shot conversation while discussing his documentary, and the challenges that come along with working on such a large project.
Listen to Year Zero Here
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