With this being an election year here
in the US our news media has been focused primarily on the political
scene. One can hardly blame them I suppose considering the fireworks
in this election. But while we have been so distracted there has
been the start of the long awaited battle to retake the Iraqi city of
Mosul from Daesh (ISIL). I thought perhaps I should take a moment to
consider the significance of this event.
It has been approximately two years
since the advent of Daesh in the city of Mosul. It was what one
could say an accidental invasion. From all accounts they did not
intend to stay, but merely to harass. But the collapse of the Iraqi
Army allowed the seeds that were planted years previously to find
ground and take root. From Mosul they spread to other Iraqi cities,
smothering what small pleasures there were to be found after years of
war. Daesh was more than just a terrorist organization, it was a
symptom of the divisions within Iraqi society. What we see now is
more than just a battle for one city, but a battle for an entire
nation, a battle for a unity of a people that have not yet healed
after years of war.
This video has a good panel discussion
on the various nuances of this battle. While it is Iraq's battle to
fight, it has a significance beyond one nation or one region of the
world.
Some realities of the situation on the
ground.
While we consider the various
candidates in this election it would be wise to understand that our
choices affect others and that the situations in Iraq, Syria and
Europe are extremely delicate. This battle will have consequences
for years to come, as will our choices on November 8.
49 comments:
I noticed the first clip was a half-hour long, and I don't have time for that right now (I'll get to ‘em later; I will), so this may be redundant information…. But, in case it's not…. You wrote that:
"From all accounts they did not intend to stay, but merely to harass."
From what I gathered at the time, they intended to stage a jailbreak at the local prison, free some of their buddies, but the Iraqi Army just up and ran away. So, they made an adjustment on the fly as it were, and decided to stay on.
You should watch the half hour video. I know it is longer than I usually post when doing multiple videos, but you will understand when you watch it. They delve a little into the Turkish involvement, which as you mentioned before, could cause problems in the future.
As to what Daesh really came for, my point was simply that they had not pre-planned a takeover of the city. It was only when they found it inadequately protected that they changed their plan. I won't argue the point about jailbreak or harassment. You are probably right. (Although one could consider a jailbreak to be harassment.) :)
Btw, I did kind of put the videos in order. Watching them that way tells the story better. Timeline wise.
When it pays to be low income
For the 85% of enrollees with lower incomes, federal subsidies make the premiums somewhat more affordable. Those even closer to the poverty line can get additional subsidies that reduce the deductibles, which can run into the thousands of dollars.
But for many middle class Americans -- a single person earning more than $47,520 or a family of four with an income of $97,200 -- the pricey premiums and deductibles mean health care coverage remains out of reach.
"Although one could consider a jailbreak to be harassment."
Okay. I won't object.
―――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――
"For the 85% of enrollees with lower incomes…"
It was the inability to fix the subsidy glitches that Bill Clinton was referring to when he called the sytem ‘crazy’.
An account by Arwa Damon of a firefight she and her cameraman were caught in.
For more than 28 hours, CNN senior international correspondent Arwa Damon and photojournalist Brice Laine were with Iraqi special forces during their push into ISIS-held Mosul. It was a new phase of the liberation operation -- switching from villages and open terrain to a dense city that a well-equipped ISIS is determined to defend.
It was the inability to fix the subsidy glitches that Bill Clinton was referring to when he called the sytem ‘crazy’.
It appears that it has been left up to the middle class to foot the bill for those who have to actually use their health insurance. There are no subsidies for them, as their incomes are too high. In Minnesota, before the ACA, there was an insurance of last resort for those with serious pre-existing conditions who could not find insurance in the private market. Now those people have been tossed into that private pool and it is making premiums sky high for everyone. In the end there should be some kind of national health insurance for those with expensive health care needs. What we are seeing now is really more of a free market system at work, which seems to me to be what the Republicans have been advocating. There should also be an effort made to cap health care costs.
There's very little room to navigate any fixes to ObamaCare so long as the Republicans hold either chamber in the Congress.
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Syrian Kurds of the YPG (operating as the ‘Syrian Defense Forces’ in conjunction with a few Syrian Arab units) have announced the opening of operations to take Raqqah away from Da’esh. They're getting American support, including air cover. (BBC) Erdoğan will not be pleased; neither will Putin. Screw Erdoğan, and Putin too for that matter.
Just a reminder for Marcus and Petes:
"RCP averages are 4.3% and 3.4% (two-way and four-way
respectively, [on Sun 30 Oct ‘16 @ 10:34 am] ). Trump's not
gonna win. He's probably not gonna get within 4.3%."
Lee C. @ Sun Oct 30, 10:34:00 am (prior thread)
Fareed Zakaria
"Donald Trump is a cancer on American democracy, and that is why I will vote against him next Tuesday."
Well said.
I'm worried that the Republican Party will attempt to stave off their internal conflicts with attempts to investigate and impeach President Hillary Clinton. Actually, I'm worried that they will be at least partially and briefly successful in such efforts, to the extent that they will pursue those goals to the exclusion of other, more productive, ends. (What they need to be working on is figuring out how the Hell they came to nominate Donald Trump in the first place, and how to fix that.)
(By the way, in the end, Paul Ryan rolled over, dumped his pride, and offered to campaign with Donald Trump. (Madison, Wis. News) Trump rewarded Ryan for this grovel by canceling the scheduled rally and Trump supporters in the House of Representatives have demanded Ryan postpone the vote on his efforts to gain another term as House Majority Leader. Workin’ out just great for Ryan there.
FBI Director James Comey today has sent a notification to Congress that the ‘new’ e-mails discovered on Anthony Weiner's laptop computer did not change the FBI recommendation that there was no legal case against Clinton.
The Trump campaign (in the person of Newt Gingrich), predictably, is claiming that Comey ‘caved’ under pressure from whom they do not name.
(Personally, I don't think there's anything Comey can do at this point to save his job. I think he's toast no matter who wins the election. He's managed to piss off everybody, in addition to having breached established protocols, several times, and making a general mess of things.)
And, Obama is claiming that someone in the Trump campaign has taken away his Twitter access, snagged his Twitter phone and won't giv it back; presumably this would be either Kellyanne Conway (by stealth), or maybe Ivanka has the balls to do it openly.
I was just looking over this morning's ‘Meet The Press’, which I had recorded on account of I missed watching it. Nicole Wallace, a Republican Party ‘analyst’ as they call it (Communications Chief in the Dubya administration), quote:
"These people who talk of a hidden Trump voter must not have parents
who support Trump. These Trump voters are loud and they are proud."
I'm worried that the Republican Party will attempt to stave off their internal conflicts with attempts to investigate and impeach President Hillary Clinton.
If Hillary Clinton is elected President I think there may be those in the Republican Party who would pursue that idea. However, there are some very powerful people within the Republican Party who have come out and, if not endorsed Hillary, made it clear they were concerned enough about a Trump presidency to "silently" back her presidency. And I suspect that she has enough experience in her years of service to be smart enough to try to work with those "silent" supporters.
rump rewarded Ryan for this grovel by canceling the scheduled rally and Trump supporters in the House of Representatives have demanded Ryan postpone the vote on his efforts to gain another term as House Majority Leader. Workin’ out just great for Ryan there.
And if Trump is elected President a sign of what his and his followers behavior would be like to anyone who opposed his presidency, Democrat or Republican. There is little real chance that they would be inclined to work across the aisle. At minimum we would see even more gridlock and at maximum a possible vindictive backlash against anyone Trump took a dislike to.
Oh dear, I seem to have cut off the start of that quote. That should read Trump, not rump. A most unfortunate typo.
Personally, I don't think there's anything Comey can do at this point to save his job.
I'm not so sure. I have read that people within the Clinton campaign are suggesting that Hillary would not be so hasty. Comey himself has mentioned that whoever is elected will make his position rather awkward. Yet he has no intention of resigning.
Apparently that server of Anthony Weinder's was a decade old and the emails were, for the most part, personal or duplicates of ones already found.
"Comey himself has mentioned that whoever is elected will make his
position rather awkward. Yet he has no intention of resigning."
I don't think Clinton has any intention of trying to force him out. He's a good diversion for the Dedicated House Republican Congressional Hillary Investigation Committee (I'm assuming there'll be one of those soon ‘nuff). They've already threatened to investigate the Hell outta him as well as her. He makes a very good diversion for Clinton.
No, I'm thinkin’ of his subordinates, who've discovered they can roll ‘im. That's real bad news for him; real bad news for anybody running a bureaucracy; those subordinate aren't gonna let up now. Some of them want his job; some of them just want rid of him. Some of them are gonna wanna help out those Dedicated Congressional Investigators, and then it'll go all over everywhere--they've never managed to wrap one of those committees up without wanderin’ ‘round all over everywhere, lookin’ for somethin’. They very well might wind up wandering way away from Hillary.
I recall the Republicans once investigated the White House Travel Office (which arranged schedules and tickets and such for the President's domestic travels) This was an entirely ‘spoils’ political job--who got the job is/was entirely at the whim of the President, but Bill Clinton was still new enough to Washington DC that he didn't know what to do when they investigated him giving that job to his political creditors, guys to whom he owed favors. He should have told the Congressional investigators to pound sand, but he didn't know enough to do that at the time. (He learned later.)
Hell, no; she won't try to force Comey out; that'll be the subject of investigations for 20 years. But, he's got other, bigger problems. And he's got no friends anymore.
"Ever since Jimmy Carter’s early concession in 1980 was blamed
for losses to down-ballot Democrats in Western states, both politicians
and media outlets have been religious about not reporting the results
until everyone’s voted.
But that’s all about to change, starting early Tuesday morning.
***
"Slate and Vice News have partnered with Votecastr, a company
helmed by Obama and Bush campaign veterans, to provide real-time
projections of how the candidates are faring in each state throughout
the day. They expect to begin posting projections at 8 a.m. Eastern
time on Election Day…"
Politico.com
Okay, here is why Clinton will not try to oust FBI Director Comey. We have here a Wall Street Journal editorial, not an Op-Ed, but an official WSJ editorial, attacking Comey as a partisan hack, a shill for Hillary Clinton.
She can't buy this sort of madness on the part of the Republicans, even with all that money she and Bill have raked in these past few years. This is too good to lose.
All she has to do is issue a few vaguely condemnatory statements to the effect that she'll forgive him for his transgressions, and they Republicans will make public fools of themselves at some distance from her, so she won't have worry ‘bout gettin’ any of it on her.
ADL has condemned Trumps latest ad as anti-semitic. It can be seen here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaYdFMhEBmk&feature=youtu.be
I dunno. Soros, Yellen and Blankfiend may all be jews but they are also high profile representatives for various parts of the globalised economy. I saw the ad and while I recognized the persons in it I never thought "them there jews" or something like that. I didn't think of them as jews at all, but saw them in their professional roles, until the critizism came along.
What do you think? Is an intentional jab at jews, or coincidental and nothing to be bothered about, or coincidental but careless, or what do you make of it?
Lee: "Personally, I don't think there's anything Comey can do at this point to save his job. I think he's toast no matter who wins the election. He's managed to piss off everybody, in addition to having breached established protocols, several times, and making a general mess of things."
I don't know much about established protocols but you're most likely right, he's toast. Pissed off both sides first of all. No friends left in high places due to that. And it does look like you're also correct in that he let his underlings run him over, and like you say when the genie is out of the bottle in that department there's no putting it back inside. So he'll be taking flak from below with no protection from above and there's only so much of that he'll be able to withstand before he's done. I'll give him 6 months at the most.
"Soros, Yellen and Blankfiend may all be jews but they are also high
profile representatives for various parts of the globalised economy."
I believe the criticism was predicated on the theory that there are many possible ‘high profile representatives’ he could have selected, and he managed to pick three Jews (and Blankfiend and Soros are not known by sight to most Americans, most folks would not have been able to pick out who they were). The idea is that the Jewish connection, the Jewish selection, would be picked up by those kinds of people who'd recognize Soros, Yellen and Blankfiend from their images (well, Yellen had her name up there). It's commonly called a ‘dog whistle’; the dogs can all hear it, but the mass of people moving calmly along the sidewalk would have no idea that the whistle had been blown, but the dogs all know; they all heard it.
Six months may be a little short--I'd reckon it probably closer to a year, maybe even a little longer. (He's got 7 years left on his term.)
(He does, after all, make a good diversion for Clinton; she'll prop ‘im up just enough to keep ‘im takin’ hits for a while, if she's smart anyway--damn him with faint praise and no support.)
Lee:
"and Blankfiend and Soros are not known by sight to most Americans"
OK, so Yellen is a given since she heads the FED. Wanna rail against Globalism the head of the FED is bound to be there.
But to my knowledge Goldman Sachs is basically the most dispiced investment bank there is and Blankfied runs it. Can you name an investment banking firm more infamous? Plus the scene with him was when he was coming onto a podium with a "Clinton...." print on it. So that too I think was no stretch. It was a clear tie between Goldman Sachs and Clinton.
And Soros for that matter. I KNOW I have railed against him here before. The arcetypical economic leach. Behind the hammering of the UK Pound, made a killing speculating against the swedish Crown and thus impounding on our 90's financial crisis and almost singlehandedly taking down the Thai Bath later in the 90's Asian crisis. Are americans really ignorant of him? Man, what a dumb an uninformed nation you must be then.
Who would YOU have selected to outdo Soros, Yellen and Blankfield Lee? In that sort of ad.
I'd say one clear candidate would be the Koch brothers but I don't think the Donald would like to point them out. And in any case they're more industrualists than financialists.
"But to my knowledge Goldman Sachs is basically the most dispiced investment
bank there is and Blankfied runs it."
Most Americans don't recognize Blankfied by his image (nor his name for that matter, Goldman-Sachs is always careful to put forward goyem spokesmen). Very few Americans know that Goldman-Sachs is run by Blankfied (Robert Rubin was high profile; Blankfied is definitely not.)
"And Soros for that matter. I KNOW I have railed against him
here before."
Doesn't mean most Americans outside of the Radio-Right-Wing fever swamps would recognize the name (definitely wouldn't recognize the face). I've mentioned before that you're something of a conspiracy nut--that fact that you recognize those images doesn't prove much.
Who I'd pick is an entirely different question than your original ask. I'd probably have to think awhile on whom to use to to best rile up the conspiracy nuts. (I ‘spect they thought on it awhile before pickin’ out three Jews.)
I was reading an article on, well, on an election related matter and a question occurred to me: ‘What happens if the election is contested in court, and it goes to the Supreme Court (visions of a repeat of the 2000 election) and there's a 4-4 tie?)
Lee: " Very few Americans know that Goldman-Sachs is run by Blankfied ... I've mentioned before that you're something of a conspiracy nut--that fact that you recognize those images doesn't prove much."
I might be but not in that particular arena. But since you say most Americans wouldn't have real idea on the ethnicity of those three (three among many others BTW) then I think it's safe to assume you don't deem the ad anti semitic either.
That "dog whistle" crap would in any case only be relevant to very, very few, right?
You haved to forgive me a bit Lee. I sometimes forget how fucking dumb and uninformed Americans really are, usually. The indoctrinated youth especially.
"Ooooh Madonna said she would suck the cocks of Hillary voters and my Teacher who reads "das Capital" on her lunch break says Trump's a Nazi and by the way there's only one 3:d gender bathroom in our school and not even one for the 4:th gender students - so we must vote for Hillary and WW3!!! Safe-space safe-space safe-space! There's a white somewhere abouts!"
Lee, you cucked sorry ass wanker, I just hope for your sake you have no kids. And I kinda get the feeling you don't.
"… any case only be relevant to very, very few, right?"
I don't get cable TV. So I don't know how broadly Soro's image is played to the FoxNews crowd.
Neither am I sure that ‘very few’ and ‘very, very few’ are the same number in your head, or maybe they're different numbers. You're gonna havta do that count for your own self.
Little early in the day for you to be drunk ain't it?
Let's see if I got Marcus' theory right here. Trump's an obvious bigot, misogynist, and racist. That part is almost undeniable. But it's virtually impossible for Marcus to think that Trump might want to also court the anti-semitic vote. That idea just won't go down with him. I'm pretty sure I got all that correct. (Logic of that one kinda escapes me though.)
"I sometimes forget how fucking dumb and uninformed Americans
really are, usually."
Very few Americans have any incentive to keep track of who can or cannot crash inconsequential currencies from tiny countries.
Little early in the day for you to be drunk ain't it?
I must say that he seems to be doing that more frequently of late.
Probably easier to support Trump when he's drunk.
Obama's job approval rating is running at a 5 year high of 57% in the latest Gallop tracking poll.
The Republicans had once been running on the idea that Hillary would effectively be a third term for Obama's policies. With his favorable ratings on the increase, that disappeared from their play-book over the summer, and they came to concentrate on the generalized ‘corruption’ theme (avoiding specific charges so far as possible; as we have seen, the Republicans do better when they don't actually allege anything specific).
I believe history will be fairly kind to Obama, give him credit for what he did get done in the face of a Republican policy of creating gridlock for the sake of having gridlock.
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The House Judiciary Committee is already prepping to investige FBI Directory James Comey.
Wonder if we'll be graced with an appearance from Petes all primed and ready to explain his special secret Catholic science that proves Trump's gonna win? (He's only got a few hours before he's gonna havta pretend instead that Trump did win, but nobody can count ballots right, or whatever it's gonna be.)
Pope Francis visited Sweden, became "immigration realist":
https://cruxnow.com/commentary/2016/11/04/sweden-pope-francis-becomes-immigration-realist/
"Pope Francis visited Sweden, became ‘immigration realist’:"
Probably aren't enough Catholics in Sweden for that to make a big difference, considering that Catholics are outnumbered by Muslims and what Catholics there are probably tend to follow the ‘other’ wing of Catholic theology, the one that kinda frowns down on Pope Francis when they think the Protestants aren't looking.
No there aren't many here but catholics in other nations will be listening. Poland springs to mind as a country that will be very ready for this.
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