Caught between Iraq and a Trump space.
Flanked by his Military Generals, like a true dictator, and after promising war crimes by attacking Iran’s cultural assets, Trump stumbled into his delayed speech like a drunk fat Uncle arriving at a amily event he hasn’t been invited to, so he could explain to the planet what the hell he thinks he’s doing assassinating Iran’s top General and what he had to say was his usual self justifying trash mixed with the promise that the leash has been put back on him and a de-escalation could occur.
Trump is not only re-writing history, he’s imposing his delusional reality on the rest of us – Iran started playing up after HE pulled out of the deal Obama negotiated and he pulled out of that deal just because Obama was the one who negotiated it! He’s a liar trying to justify the unjustifiable pettiness of his original decision.
His lie that America just handed over hundreds of millions in cash to Iran for shits and giggles has always been a favourite falsehood of his. America froze Irans assets at the time of the uprising against America’s coup, that was Iranian money and to move forward on an agreement, the Obama Administration had to pay the Iranians back that money that America froze.
That wasn’t just some sweetener to a flawed deal, that was returning stolen property so that a deal could occur!
This idiocy is best explained by the manner in which the decision to assassinate was arrived by.
As horrific as it is to write, since the September 11th terror attacks, the military always presents the President with an option that is far too extreme to actually enact and because of its extremeness helps direct the President to the option they want, in this case however Trump went with the most extreme option which shocked the establishment and led to Soleimani’s assassination.
That’s right, this entire murderous extrajudicial fiasco was caused by a failed Jedi mind trick the Military establishment use to direct the President’s actions.
I wish this wasn’t true but it fucking is…
Pentagon officials reportedly offered US President Donald Trump a list of options for dealing with escalating tensions with Iran. Trump ultimately chose to target a senior Iranian military official, Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a US airstrike late Thursday.
The New York Times’ Helene Cooper, Eric Schmitt, Maggie Haberman, and Rukmini Callimachi reported on Saturday that Trump was given a “menu” of choices for dealing with Iranian-led violence against American targets in Iraq.
The options included striking Iranian ships, missile facilities, or Iranian-backed militia groups in Iraq, The Times said.
The officials offered the option of killing Soleimani mainly to make the others seem more appealing, which The Times described as a common tactic for US officials advising presidents.
Trump initially elected to strike the militia groups. On December 29, the US military struck three locations in Iraq and two in Syria controlled by an Iranian-backed militia, The Times also reported.
But after protesters supporting the militia stormed the US Embassy in Baghdad on Tuesday, Trump went for what The Times said was the “most extreme” option of targeting Soleimani. The Times noted that Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama had decided against targeting Soleimani because it was “too provocative.”
…so he almost ignites a war because he’s in an imaginary pissing competition with previous Presidents and he’s selected an extreme option the Military didn’t even want him to take???
How the fuck is this how decisions are being made in the most powerful Office on the planet???
It’s like looking behind the scenes of Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory to see the Oompa Loompas chained in sweat shops while being sold into sex slavery.
You don’t want the chocolate after you see how it’s made, the way you don’t want the White House’s decisions after seeing how Trump’s arriving at that decision.
I argued this had all the tell tale signs of a temper tantrum President lashing out angrily at a situation rather than a Machiavellian genius secretly plotting war and everything we now know suggests that’s exactly what has happened here.
This orange dickhead is prepared to push the planet to war based purely on whatever tantrum is dominating his current revenge fantasy frontal lobes.
This de-escalation isn’t the wisdom of cooler heads prevailing, it’s the establishment reacting in shock at their idiot President swerving so wildly off the beaten trail begging him to pull back.
Trump is intellectually unsuitable for this job and he blunders from one self made crisis to another. All we’ve learnt from this sorry episode is just how dangerously erratic Trump’s impulses can be and for a man who can launch nuclear weapons, that is a vastly less safe planet for us all to cohabit on with him.
The sooner this circus freak is removed from Office, the safer we will all be.
Trump will definitely be gone .. in about 5 years. Until then we live in interesting times
Well, you know what?
It might teach the military advisors not to try to manipulate people quite so much.
Trump has been relatively quiet on the war front when compared to other presidents.
But we are in election year when he was looking for an option to act.tough for his base and this is the result.
I predict that Trump might do some other shit and then quiet down because he will have done enough to keep his base happy.
“Every military officer, and particularly those handling nuclear weapons, is subject to a mental health screen before they take their positions.” [In the US]
“Their commander in chief should at least be held to the same standards.”
Lee, a professor of psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine, continues:
“Implementing mental health screens would, in fact, eliminate most of the atrocities in history that have befallen nations because of a compromised leader.
“We have set up a non-governmental, independent expert panel with rigorous criteria that is ready to do fitness-for-duty tests of presidential and vice-presidential candidates, as well as the current president, any time we are called.” Full article from 4th January at Salon
Trump is not insane.
Utterly narcissistic and a truly shithouse person but not insane by any stretch of the word.
People voted for him because the alternative in their view was worse and given what a shit house person Hillary is, I can see their point.
An American mate of mine voted Trump and when I asked him why the hell he didn’t abstain (which I would have) he said he considered it his duty to vote.
When I asked why he didn’t just throw his vote away on one of the independents like Jill Stein, he likewise said he felt it was his duty not to waste his vote.
Well the US House of Reps have just voted to limit his war powers, anyway.
BBC link here
Good. But they should have done that decades ago.
Bill Clinton was bad, George Junior too but possibly the worst was Obama.
He practically used drone strikes to kill weeds in his garden.
Why people believe Obama was a good president is beyond me.
He spent trillions of tax payer money bailing out the wankers (oops I meant bankers) so they could turn around and foreclose on those same tax payers homes.
What a prick.
The only truthful thing happening between Iran and the U$A is capitalist profiteering and as everyone knows about capitalism, the many must lose for the sacred and obscene profits of the very, very few.
Someone who was a friend of mine once said and I paraphrase: ” The best way to express contempt for the capitalist is to not give them your money.
But wait? There’s more!
If capitalism INSISTS you give them your money for the goods and services they sequester by creating monopolies then engage in price fixing and supply disruption to put the squeeze on us, the public? That’s not capitalism, is it? What’s that, then? Fascism? Communism? Authoritarianism?
What the orange drumpho’s doing in Iran is on another level. What he’s just done is to simply murder a guy for a dollar.
That’s mafia shit. Drumph’s a greedy, murderous coward
and we AO/NZ’ers should expel the American ambassador then suspend all trading with the U$A. Particularly with regard to banking.
Oh, and while we’re at it? Lets rescind peter thiel’s citizen ship then boot the republicans out of Queenstown.
Of course, that’ll never happen. That’s why our biosphere’s on fire and we watch $5 billion of our hard earned dollars scooped up in Y-ankster net profit disappear off-shore annually while some of our people live in the gutters and NONE of our politicians are prepared to step up for us.
350 health professionals sign letter to Congress claiming Trump’s mental health is deteriorating dangerously amid impeachment proceedings. It is set to be submitted to Congress on Thursday (today… when today arrives in the US – still only Weds arvo there now).
“We are convinced that, as the time of possible impeachment approaches, Donald Trump has the real potential to become ever more dangerous, a threat to the safety of our nation,” said Drs. Bandy Lee, a Yale psychiatrist, Jerrold Post, a former CIA profiler, and John Zinner, a psychiatrist at George Washington University.
The petition was first reported by the British news outlet The Independent
Lee told The Independent that Trump appeared to be showing signs of delusion by doubling down on falsehoods and conspiracy theories. This article linked here
So speaketh ‘Middle East Expert’ MB, yeah right.
What the hell is your problem, ‘Marc’?
Nine out of ten of your snide little comments are just that! Vicious, negative, mean-spirited comments, designed to sabotage discussion and to create an atmosphere of mistrust. ..Devoid of any other point to them – no rhyme or reason. No depth, no substance, no humour, no goodwill.
What is it exactly that you hope to achieve by posting here, when you express so much hostility to everything? What’s going on with you?
Simply do not like censorship and stupid comments, thanks.
The irony of that statement is surely intentional(?). Please tell me it was intentional.
Are you perhaps also deluded?
Tried contacting TDB but as some have said the messages don’t go through. This is no longer an abstract exercise for me this is now now extremely personal. I’m coming for you Bradbury you arrogant prick. Johnny Overton
Censor is all over us
Yes, it gets worse by the day
I’ve noticed… every time you write something @ Marc you come across as ever more stupider.
I guess, at least you can be relied upon in that sense.
Hahaha, get the popcorn out.
And your the voice of reason and sanity??????
There’s always place for humour, CB is the top.
Humor?
Replied to your comment but been censored again. Pretty obvious TDB cult leader MB can dish it out but can’t take criticism when it comes back his way. This will also be censored by the Orwellian anti-free speech monster. Surprised your comment saw the light of day.
O.P, Please, don’t fall into the trap of that line of thinking. If you have a question about a comment that didn’t appear, take it up with the correct channel. Read the Terms of Service/ Use linked page; Read the Comments Policy linked page. If you still have questions, use their Contact page link. All these are at the base of each site page.
When those comments are out here among discussions it can drag everything down, the flow of thought and communication, the mood and atmosphere.
If only you knew what really goes on.
A bit naive, really.
Naive.
Contact messages never go through by my experience, or are ignored.
Much as i hate to agree with you on anything Marc i suspect you may be right. Any attempts by myself to engage through the contact facility have always been ignored.
I am absolutely right, as much as it may disappoint certain people here.
I know the tricks.
Wow, what distress.
They are us? Well, we will see…
Iran (99% muslim) calls on NZ to use its influence to promote peace
“Jon Stevenson, a New Zealand journalist who has spent years covering conflict and politics in the Middle East, felt that was not enough.
“I am concerned that there has been a lack not just of political leadership but of moral leadership by Western politicians. They need to step up now and make it clear to the Trump administration that they’re very concerned,” he said.
“It’s fine for [Justin] Trudeau, [Angela] Merkel, Boris Johnson and Jacinda Ardern to snigger behind Trump’s back at international meetings, but this is where it really counts.”
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2020/01/iran-calls-on-nz-to-use-its-influence-to-promote-peace.html
” “It amazes me that Iran has never attacked this country, never bombed or blew up anything in our country, never killed Americans on this soil, never tried to destroy us — considering what we have done to them,” Moore wrote ”
Michael Moore’s response too the Iranians and Americans regarding Trump’s lies.
https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/443944/Michael-Moore-asks-Americans-not-to-believe-Trump-s-lies-about
Very cool. Thanks for posting!
Excerpt:
Earlier on Monday, Moore published a Persian post on Tweeter and Instagram, apologizing to Iranians on behalf of Americans.
He also asked Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani not to respond to the assassination of commander Soleimani with violence.
“Let me and millions of Americans fix this peacefully by voting Trump out of office or for the Senate to remove him from office,” he said.
Kheala you’re welcome.
I try too get an idea of what the opposing side is saying ( or not ) in these situations as our corporate censorship of the real news with the facts seem too be MIA.
Like the media avoidance of reporting on Bernie Sanders !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqYp7iyij5I
Where i think it is pertinent i will post these articles on an appropriate blog.
Actually the kicker is Suleimani trolled Trump on Twitter and a month latter Trumo droned him.
“It’s fine for [Justin] Trudeau, [Angela] Merkel, Boris Johnson and Jacinda Ardern to snigger behind Trump’s back at international meetings, but this is where it really counts.”
Jon Stevenson on the weak response by western leaders for Americas murder of top Iranian’s
Iran’s embassy in Wellington is calling on New Zealand to promote peace and security in the Middle East after rockets fell on US bases in Iraq this afternoon.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/406940/iran-s-embassy-calls-on-nz-to-promote-peace-and-security
You think pres.TURNIP ‘selected the target’ ?? Eliminating the most effective fighter against ISIS/alQaeda ‘in the region’ ? The man responsible for defeating an ISIS created as fundamentalist-Sunni U.S. proxy fighting force against Iraq’s Shiites.
The man ‘most likely to succeed’ in IRAN ??
who benefits.
‘Effective assassination program’ identifiers get to decide the target.
63 Canadians reported on that Ukraine Boeing going down at Tehran.There are DOTS between Canada and Ukraine. But why Tehran?
maybe johnhelmer dot net can help us?
It is simply too easy to blame Orange_Whip for the most recent round of ME butchery, but nothing is that simple, one human cannot effect massive change as much as we have been taught otherwise. eg Many have been indoctrinated to believe that Adolf Hitler was the cause of what they call WW2 when the truth is more complex. Basically the Russian revolution in October 1917 followed by the failure of the german ‘push’ on the western front in March 1918 had led to a serious deterioration in morale right across europe. Most of all in Germany but also France which was still struggling with the horror of Verdun, plus the North of England which had suffered disproportionate casualties in the Somme & Paschendale.
Socialism was making major inroads into a formerly subjugated populace. Germany suffered this the worst as trump style sanctions had reduced the population to borderline starvation. Rupert Crown Prince of Bavaria who by 1918 was a senior military & political figure, convened a meeting of senior German leaders and argued for a truce, an armistice. lest the world ‘go red’. The Brits and amerikans accepted with alacrity, as they too were concerned at that prospect, while France hung out for reparations to demonstrate that all the bloodshed had gained ‘something’. The armistice was signed but as far as Germany was concerned this was just a hiatus, until the commies had been obliterated. It became obvious that this would require a counter-force, fascism, so the Nazis were fertilized.
It is the same in amerika today, all potential leaders are screened to ensure they support the imperial project, if they don’t eg Bernie Sanders, steps are taken to ensure they cannot win.
Oblamblam funded the Iraq ‘surge’ a coalition of tribes who had been strong under Saddam because amerika wanted Iraq a mess so the Iraq government would have to call amerika back into Iraq. As many know, ISIS Daesh whatever, is a direct legacy of that surge.
Of course that wasn’t all Oblamblam got up to, Hill the shill Clinton forced the destruction of Libya as Libya’s work in North Africa was judged to be antithetical to the empire’s expansion into that continent.
Yes orange moron is a loathsome figure but it is media delusion to imagine he is anything more than a willing pawn. TDS aka Trump Derangement Syndrome has become an effective way of distracting the masses from what is really going down.
There have been a few comments by bloggers here stating as fact that Iraq security forces shot at demonstraters in Iraq before Xmas. The fact that proof has been lacking hasn’t deterred corporate media across the world from running with that lie, so in the interests of justice I thought it may be useful for anyone not in the knowledge to hear what actually happened from Iraqi PM Mr. Abdul Mahdi.
The original text in Arabic is here:
https://ida2at.org/news/2020/01/06/4753/رئيس-الوزراء-العراقي-يكشف-المستور-في-جلسة-البرلمان-العراقي-501202
My friend Bernhard at Moon of Alabama has published a machine translation :
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2020/01/blowback-from-the-soleimani-assassination-increases-as-iraq-reveals-how-trump-tried-to-steal-its-oil.html#comments
which I paste below.
Al-Halbousi, Speaker of the Iraqi Council of Representatives, blocked the speech of Mr. Abdul Mahdi in the scheduled session to discuss the decision to remove American forces from Iraq.
At the beginning of the session, Al-Halbousi left the presidential seat and sat next to Mr. Abdul-Mahdi, after his request to cut off the live broadcast of the session, a public conversation took place between the two parties. The voice of Adel Abdul Mahdi was raised.
Mr. Abdul Mahdi spoke with an angry tone, saying:
“The Americans are the ones who destroyed the country and wreaked havoc on it. They are those who refuse to complete building the electrical system and infrastructure projects. They have bargained for the reconstruction of Iraq in exchange for giving up 50% of Iraqi oil imports, so I refused and decided to go to China and concluded an important and strategic agreement with it, and today Trump is trying to cancel this important agreement.”
The American President’s threatened the Iraqi Prime Minister to liquidate him directly with the Minister of Defense. The Marines are the third party that sniped the demonstrators and the security men:
Abdul Mahdi continued:
“After my return from China, Trump called me and asked me to cancel the agreement, so I also refused, and he threatened me with massive demonstrations that would topple me. Indeed, the demonstrations started and then Trump called, threatening to escalate in the event of non-cooperation and responding to his wishes, so that the third party (Marines snipers) would target the demonstrators and security forces and kill them from the highest structures and the US embassy in an attempt to pressure me and submit to his wishes and cancel the China agreement, so I did not respond and submitted my resignation and the Americans still insist to this day on canceling the China agreement and when the defense minister said that who kills the demonstrators is a third party, Trump called me immediately and physically threatened me and defense minister in the event of talk about the third party.”
end of paste
This is gangsterism pure & simple some will struggle to believe it, others versed in international relations, the polite name for this thuggery, will not.
I get why governments are reluctant to get their nation’s snout out of the murky trough of the amerikan empire, it requires sacrifice by an entire population, but when the alternative is a global conflict far bigger than the two ‘world wars’ that whitefella must inevitably lose, the maths is simple – get out now and suffer a bit, or stay in and be destroyed.
Of course for some of us ‘do the right thing’ is sufficient but for those who claim pragmatism is their jam, the best most pragmatic call is exactly the same – end all support of imperial oppression asap.
First of all multiple video sources over years confirm that dispersing Iraqi protesters with live rounds have been a tactic employed by Iraqi forces over decades and centuries: https://youtu.be/ONCF3ist7oA
I think we can say that definitions require a larger definition of empire which rather than organize a specific way of doing government, a 21st century definition relates to a larger idea that we have a ruling class over a global borderless structure where capital moves freely, and it’s not necessarily malicious or evil but it does obviously have many negatives and few positives like a the Comanche Empire.
A Native American empire is not something people think of when they think of empire. The Comanche was not ruled by an emperor or King or an authoritarian government structure but the definition immediately broadens the scoop of the empire we have right now.
The reason that we have these many connotations in our mind is because the definition of empire has changed. So I believe in worker cooperatives even though it’s not popular and others may believe in tax cuts even though the likely manifestations are unlikely. I think some one will say empire before they can name an empire which is a simplification but if you look back at history at things that are considered empires they have negative connotations but only when we look at it from the context of the present.
So these connotations that we’re talking about Yknow “Russian Revolution, Socialism, Nazi, Sanderisms, Trumpisms, XMAS” and so on are going to have a natural effect on what the word empire means. We have social media influencers now and historians who are people who write these dictionaries and feed into culture and make a living out of it.
Obviously all empires fall but I think it’s important to point out that when we say empire now we say it to point out the negative contexts but apart of the question is if you asked some one in the Roman Empire if it was really necessary to do all the wrongs they did because a lot of times now we have become a more aware society but we’ve also become a more restricted society as far as the freedom of people are concerned.
So gender isn’t just male and female anymore, the system we live in are producing definitions based on morality and how people feel about emotional attachments people have to words like empire is definitely one of those words where if you today in academia talk about the virtues of colonizations train systems with out talking about the restructuring of boarders and society and subjugation of locals then you’re going to have a lot of issues.
So there’s an immediate morality associated with words that I think are going to hurt people when they try and understand these concepts and connotations. When it comes to deeper ideas like these I think emotions actually closes the door on analyse because if you’re an individual who wants to control other people and don’t want them to find out something then the best way to do that is to call it racist or bigoted or evil and so on and it really does stop any further investigation.
Sorry anyone who uses that zionist fishwrap “the Guardian’ as any sort of evidence of anything especially to do with the ME has completely lost the plot.
Your tedious verbal meanderings about empire tell us little other than it is a subject you prefer to avoid.
An empire is best described as a transnational organisation where the needs of a few are met at the expense of everyone else. After the Roman empire had been up and running for a while, the average shitkicker in Rome had no more say in his/her world than a celt in Roman Britain had.
This is exactly the same model as we see about the world now. Amerika has military bases in 189 nations and no normal citizen in any country including amerika has the least ability to affect amerikan empire’s course which is always based around maximising benefits for the empire’s elite at the expense of everyone else.
amerikan elites believe they need to control the world’s energy market, not for the benefit of ordinary amerikans but because they believe that the security of what they have established as the world’s reserve currency, the US dollar can only be maintained through the petrodollar.
Ordinary amerikans are slowly coming to the realisation that their so-called democracy is a fraud. There are only two political parties, both of which are extensions of the empire’s elite.
It is practically impossible to create any other political movement for a variety or reasons the biggest being that the organisation of federal elections are a function of each individual state and over the last two centuries arcane electoral law makes it impossible to create a national movement which meets the requirements of all states is practically impossible.
Bernie Sanders an independent senator tried to do it by running as a democrat candidate, a cursory search of the web reveals the extortion threats and criminal activity the democrat party used to ensure he could not win.
After Clinton’s loss when Sanders was about to me made chair of the DNC by party rank and file, Oblamblam stepped in and foisted Tom Perez, a tool of the elite upon the democrats as the DNC chair. Perez is good at guarding the interests of the DC hacks who hang out in corporate funded think tanks, but doesn’t give a toss about the needs of ordinary amerikans.
No attempt was made to face the issues about why the dems lost, instead the party wasted so much energy on the Russiagate furphy and now we have IMPEACHMENT!.
That is a nonsense which can never get up and has alienated those voters the dems most need if they want to win in 2020.
In fact the real truth in the impeachment nonsense is that it reveals Joe Biden to be a crook on an equivalent scale to D Trump.
Faffing a word salad about empire reveals at the very least, an inability to think critically.
Debsisdead:
Now these guys know I love New Zealand and a lot of times this will get the attention of my fellow woke calling me rascist, bigoted and simultaneously a right wing leftie ninja. That’s just the extreme left and / or right projecting there self worth all the time. Especially when I’m talking about those god damn woke academics from Massey. This hasn’t really bothered me because you can’t really win over everyone especially the crazies.
In every society there’s always lost causes and human society always create fads to deal with them like chatterings and mouth guards to eliminate the crazies. But what does really worry me is when I see comments from other human beings claiming that some random human is the most evil and worst human that has ever existed. Now this is probably an emotional outburst from a human that probably hates themselves. The reality is despite all the terrible things we have done in the past our greatness and potential far outweigh all the bad.
The fact that we can look back and reflect on history makes us better than any other thing on this planet. Does anyone think that a lion feels remorse when it kills a poor bambi? It doesn’t because it’s an animal and we as humans should not try and give animals human virtue. Just because that animal is doing something a human might do does not make that animal human – that’s just loneliness and desperation trying to trick you, Deb.
Of course humans did evolve from animals like chimps but as our brains grew larger we had to give up our physical strength and our ability to sense our environment. For tens of thousands of years early man was weak and ineffective falling to predators and disease and we lacked any advantage until we started creating tools to increase our lethality. But far more important is the human ability to pass on knowledge to the next generation, animals can’t do that. Animals have to use evolution to weed out the weak genes in trial and error over millions of years.
So it really is this ability to acquire information over many generations that makes us better than everything else. So humans don’t really evolve. We could take a human from ten thousand years ago and raise them in today’s society to be an astronaut president very easily. This is why no other species can stand against the might of humanity. It’s like starting a game of Red Alert and having your base already built along with all your units. This is what every human in society has access to at birth. This is why we have to kill every dirty monkey who looks at us funny. But even more important than our ability to transmit information to the next generation are our social abilities. Back then it wasn’t just Neanderthal roaming around we had homo Erectus, homo Talpa, hobits, there was lots of early human. Today only homo sapien roam the surface of planet earth.
Who knows what’s going on beneath the surface but today’s man is definitely not the strongest early man so in a cage fight the average Neanderthal would probably defeat the average homo sapien. But Neanderthal lacked the social skills of homo sapien and lived in smaller groups. Hunting in packs across the Antarctic chasing Woolly mammoths 40,000 years ago early man would eventually cross the land bridge. In those days evolution rewarded those who took risks to explore new hunting grounds which is known as the adventurers gene. And I’m sure humans breaking out into space will carry the same explorers gene to reach the furthest distances of our solar system.
Another thing that humans are really good at is our ability to grasp abstract concepts. Take welfare for instance, formed in the midst of the Great Depression social security (welfare) is something most Americans pay into. They do it because they’ll get in trouble from the tax man. And we do it because we know when we get old we will be guaranteed a payment. Unless it’s just one big Ponzi scheme. Now imagine going up to the lion and taking a bambi from it every month and saying you’ll get an allowance when you get old. That would never happen the lion would just go back to violating bambi. Based on humanities ability to understand abstract ideas humans have created currency, laws, tradition, religion and empire.
Humanities ability to get along with each other had lead to the creation of wonderful arts like the pyramids and the All Blacks, toilet paper and cordless controllers and of course the ice wall that guards Westeros. As our trading and economics became more complex we started putting a price on the future. This idea that we would give our savings to someone else who would collect even more savings from more people has lead to an explosion of wealth and civilisation. As a species we are able to do wondrous things that one single man would never be able to do.
So humans are quite amazing and for the last 200 hundred years we’ve been on quite the roll. As humans become more connected we are able to achieve even greater things. And so our biggest flaw is not our desire to expand and grow, our biggest flaw is that our minds and body has not adapted to this crazy world we’ve created. We are still the same Homo sapiens that was chasing around woolly mammoth with spears, except now we have computers, iPhones, cars, planes, bombs, gins to make everything that much easier. But being a hunter gather back then was tough so we evolved drastic measures to stay alive. Back then when we made a kill we would eat as much as we could because we didn’t have a stable food supply but when we do that now we go to McDonalds and eat 4000 calories per serve. It’s completely unecessary but completely delicious and so completely unhealthy especially if you work in an office and sit on your ass all day. It’s the same reason we love fizzy drinks because our bodies and brains have evolved to crave all that sugar.
Despite all the crazy advances humans have made we are still beholden to our bodies chemistry and a lot of the structures we’ve created in society are there to counteract these instinctive impulses that we have but we are not quite there yet at creating a perfect human society. But that’s okay because humanities tens of thousands of years of development is what makes us such a great species and the longer we continue refining that formula the better it gets.
The final thing I want to talk about is the future first contact with ailiens. I say we should exterminate them all on first contact Ender Style and that really does piss off certain individuals in the comments section. They seem to want to go out of there way to defend aliens and Sir Peter Jackson is one of them. That really is a human trait to push human qualities on animals because that might give us insight in understanding them. But it’s actually dangerous to do this because it’s not scientific or truthful and it’s even more dangerous applying this to alien species from another world. The same people who would get angry at me for exterminating alien races are probably the people who would embrace any form of life because they assume there’s some kind of universal morale code and understanding that will some how allow us to get along with any form of life.
This is a very arrogant way of looking at life in the universe. There’s infinite ways life can form and probably even more ways advanced life can form a society that could make contact with us. Everything that we take for granted like our shared morale code, monetary system and laws are things unique to humans that have been informed thanks to our genetics and experiences.
So it’s a really bad idea to assume any and all species or cultures are inherently peaceful. They might just be hungry or thirsty and want what we’ve got and they might not even be able to communicate with us so we always have to be vigilant and put humanity first.
Your comment is LONG and hard to read.
I went that way because Debs comments only makes sense if we ignore 200,000 years of human history.
Yep.
Are you sure about all this?
I come here for a different perspective, but I just get more mainstream talking points. Quoting the pro war New York Times says it all. Am I alone here in feeling relieved by the de escalation between the US and Iran?
Trump clearly lacks respect for Iran and lacks military talent. Trump does respect how ever, how great Twitter is and is only in charge at a tactical level. In a fit of arrogance Trump approved an attack while grossly underestimating twitters ability to fight back. And from a business perspective the last thing Trump needs is Twitter declaring war on his marketing campaign.
Even though assassination is terrible starting a war with the USA severely jeopardises the entire planet. It should be noted that during recent conflicts America has used non-nuclear weapons but the events are traumatic for locals and radicalizes many others.
The Pentagon grossly underestimates the Middle Easts ability to regroup and counter attack. The reaction to the assassination of Soleimani makes it clear that the US will not conduct business in the Middle East as usual. Given the importance of middle eastern oil to the entire stability of the global economy it would have been an idea to invade and occupy Iran from the outset. With out American supremacy in the Middle East these small provocations only serve to weaken US interests in the region.
Iran of course are no more and no less evil than any other nation but the assassination of their top general will eventually lead to their more radical factions taking over Iran. IF that does happen Iran will begin quickly uniting other interests in their region. So it should have been a Pentagon priority to find and drone every known associate of Soleimani. Not only did Soleimani understand the ins and outs of every terror network in the Middle East he was also a human being.
Now Middle East terror networks lack the flexibility and initiative that Soleimani had. Soleimani was able to unite factions that no other human in history has ever done quickly uniting Middle East factions into one giant mob. Suddenly America find themselves confronted by this leaderless mob who outnumber US Middle East forces.
If the recruitment process is not halted ISIS numbers will quickly rise above pre Assade numbers and the flood of refugees will be poured onto Europe once again.
I doubt the NYT is ‘pro war’, and for the rest, yes, some commentary is lacking.
The revolution has been abandoned the ‘the left’ in NZ Inc, they rather focus on day to day political talking points that will not upset too many too much, certainly not Labour, the government and the whole system and establishment.
Slogan and petty wannabe lefty talk.
Marc said “I doubt the NYT is ‘pro war’ ’’
More diligent readers of the NYT than I know this statement is absurd. There are many examples but the first one that came to mind is the name ‘Judith Miller’.
A quick search of that name brought forth the following articles:
https://observer.com/2015/04/judith-miller-carried-water-for-the-usas-worst-debacle-since-vietnam/
https://www.mediamatters.org/new-york-times/how-iraq-war-still-haunts-new-york-times
last
http://phasezero.gawker.com/ask-judith-miller-about-iraq-the-new-york-times-war-re-1712555117
NYT editorial board was forced to give Miller the flick, that just meant they had to hire another deceiver for empire, David Sanger
see:
https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/11/23/the-nyts-david-sanger-the-boy-who-cried-nukes/
https://stephenlendman.org/2019/06/nyt-propagandist-david-sangers-war-on-iran/
The NYT has numerous other propagandists for empire in its employ and like the english Guardian it is an ersatz liberal newspaper which advocates for bloody conflict at every opportunity.
You do seem to ignore the NYT is a broad church kind of media outlet, where they have a wider spectrum of writers who hold diverse view points.
To label the NYT as being ‘pro war’ is like labeling all US Americans as being rednecks, or for that sake New Zealanders.
But some have selective views.
If or rather when there is a Third World War and if Trump is still the irrational and insane president of the US at the time we can all be assured of some things and they are: Not one Trump child will be sent off to battle/war. It will be the children i.e the sons and daughters of other lowly American families who will see their children off to fight a war on the other side of the world and it’s likely many parents will outlive their military serving children. American children will be lambs for the slaughter and all because Trump is itching for a war whilst he is president of the US.
Trump may weep crocodile tears at the loss off a young American service-person but again be assured his tears will be quickly cast aside whilst he pursues money, greed, ego, arrogance and of course denigrating those he deems as lesser beings than himself.
Perhaps Trump views all that is happening as being something out of the reality TV series the Apprentice where he fired anyone that didn’t meet his wants eg the female is not attractive enough or willing to spread her legs for him.
All in All Trump doesn’t care about anyone but himself. He enjoys being in the limelight. It, being the centre of attention, is like a drug addiction for him. He gets a high out of it. And whilst he appears to want to destroy the planet all because of his insanity etc I am so hoping the Americans that were stupid enough to vote him in will just as eagerly VOTE HIM OUT.
That however depends upon whether America and the rest of the planet still exists by the time of the next American General Election.
Maybe it’s time for Americans voted for a sane president at the next election and not a nutjob who gets an erection at the sight of an attractive female.
It is not surprising that “world governments” are petrified to intervene in the behaviour of a nation which is led by a man of questionable sanity and which holds as much military might as that of the next combined eight world nations.
We claim to be friends of the USA but friends are not too timid to speak on matters of concern to them all. The truth is that the USA defines ‘friends’ as nations that it can bully into submission and an ‘enemy’ is any nation that will withstand its aggression. By default the USA has become the modern Roman Empire (and Trump is Caligula?) while pretending to have no such ambition. World nations have given up their freedom without a struggle by policies of appeasement that have never worked in the past. Shame on world governments, including NZ, for being “too timid”.
Relax with some Persian music:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCiIpzu3N1w
More, great stuff:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbUZx_aud6g
NO Mullah to be seen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBHV59aUQ48
But there is this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGBZold3-qI
But do they want this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGr0IkxajlM
Thievery Corporation, El Pueblo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKNHfECZEaU
Thievery Corp:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCD99jMMuh0
Put the monkey back in the ZOO
Well. All I can say is that, Melania is thinking to herself,”that’ll be the first time that he’s ever pulled out of anything?”
Trumps welcome:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dP3nP8Cc3U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Md2r0Fmpps0
Maybe rest a bit
Good Guys:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Md2r0Fmpps0
Best song ever:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rr8ljRgcJNM
Trying to follow lengthy arguments which are constantly interrupted with facile one-liners by an attention seeking idiot callng himself Marc. Pathetic, irritating.
Strong points supporting Bomber’s position that Trump causes mayhem on a world scale, with the possibility of WW3 occurring. He makes Hitler appear rational. Perhaps Marc is playing an important role of a minor Trump, a little spoiler.
You are just jealous, are you not?
I am more important than your little stint here suggests.
Bradbury you’re an arrogant, fascistic, traitorous ego maniac. You embody everything that’s wrong with our nation. Watch your back you cancerous prick, we know your movements, we’re coming for you!! I bet you run to the cops when you get this you pathetic weakling.
Bullshit
I think he sees himself as this rugby player knocking out the ref
Sadly for him he sounds more like someone from Dad’s Army morphing into Mr Bean.
(If he’s recently gone off any meds, he needs to refill his prescription asap)
They got worse after whale oil got the arse.
Have you considered that Our Party could be the one that got the arse? The posts have got a familiar ring to them.
I honestly don’t know. It could just as easily be a copycat of the same shit flavour. But I can take it I guess.
That is rude, is it not?
Poster “Our Party” should be put on a watch list by the authorities, or better, referred for urgent psychiatric help.
Is Tiger Mountain in Soviet Russia? Some really sharp cookies have tried best to twist my synapses this way & that. They haven’t had much success. Not surprising really as I’ve been cursed/blessed with the deviant gene.
Tiger Mountain is a deluded leftist, solid brigade, not open minded
Perhaps that person is more normal than others here?
He is, but rubbing it in does not help. He needs to consult a psychiatrist.
The title for this article could be ” Orange dork will go down’
Our Party is Johnny Overton, go figure. You’ll never know this because your nasty little fuhrer prefers to keep you in the dark & keep blemish free. Good guys lie to themselves & others & they suck.
Hi Johnny, Kudos to you for introducing yourself.
I’m posting this link so that people will get that you are a a real person, who’s been stressed to the max somewhere down the line (join the crowd, mate).
johnny-overton-enters-mayoralty-race-on-localisation-party-ticket
I’d go so far as to say that if you were not feeling a bit depressed and stressed in the world today, you’d be sleepwalking. “I plead guilty” and the rest here
Just… yr hitting out at the wrong targets, mate.
Give him a break.
Our Party is Johnny Overton, go figure. You’ll never know this because your nasty little fuhrer prefers to keep you in the dark & keep blemish free. Good guys lie to themselves & others & they suck.
we got your message.
I still think a psychiatrist is the answer.
The censorship continues!! TDB is anti-free speech.
you at least get it, most do not.
Its interesting to see how gullible the yanks are that they could even consider voting for this idiot.
Then the UK did the same thing voting in Boris!
Its more like because their favourite party put up this clown or that clown, thats who you vote for regardless. One would hope they learn from this but I doubt it, sheep will always be sheep
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