Yes, we have no bananas

I'm reminded of an old song from the 1920's and 1930's.  It goes, "Yes, we have no bananas.  We have no bananas today."  When I heard Obama speak today about the ISIS issue what I heard was, "Yes, we have no plan.  We have no plan today."

Incredible!

How childishly naive.  When off the teleprompter he utters the bare truth.  He has no plan.  In my heart-of-hearts I have always thought the president of the United States would always have a strategy and a plan to deal with any number of contingencies as they emerged.  I was startled to hear a president say, "I have no plan."  And, if there is no plan, why would a president publicly reveal that to the enemy of all people?  I can't help but believe the ISIS terrorists think that utterance gives them carte blanche to do as they please with no repercussions.

The modern version of an old song:  "Yes, we have no plan.  We have no plan today."  

Blame Bush

Good grief!  Will the Obama administration and its minions ever accept responsibility for the state of the nation.

This morning I watched ABC This Week with George Stephanopoulos.  On his panel of "experts" were David Plouffe, former Senior White House Advisor to Obama, and Donna Edwards, Democrat congresswoman from Maryland.  Both laid the blame for the "mess in Iraq" on Bush, and that Obama "has had to clean up the mess."

Holy smokes!  Obama has had six and a half years to "clean up the mess." And, what has he done?  Mostly played golf and gone on vacations while the Middle East ("the mess") has transitioned from a JV status (as opined by Obama) to full-blown ISIS terrorists occupying large areas of Syria and Iraq all the while killing Christians by the thousands and beheading an American journalist.

America is pleading for a real leader.  I wonder when they will blame Bush for Ferguson.

Premonition

This may be strange, but with world events and domestic happenings spiraling out of control, and with  a political party hamstrung by its liberal socialistic ideology, and a president that is clueless and has absconded with his responsibilities, I have a strange premonition something, I don't know what, catastrophic with dire implications will happen before the end of his presidency.

Winnie Pooh & Johnathan Gentry

The following link is a passionate speech from Jonathan Gentry about the Ferguson riots and the responsibilities of the black community.  It pretty much hits the nail on the head.  Only a black man can say this.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=af2_1407944916

He is saying pretty much what Winnie the Pooh said when he said, "We have found the enemy and they is us!"  The black leaders perhaps should take note of what Pooh said and act accordingly.

 

Ferguson - A Media Event

The demonstrations, rioting, violence, and looting in Ferguson, Missouri, in the aftermath of the shooting of a young black man by a white police officer is perpetrated by the wall-to-wall coverage of the media seeking ratings.  This attracts the race pimps like Sharpton, Jackson, et al to rile up people and create a national media venue to spew their racial rhetoric and enhance their visibility of prominence on a national stage. This media attention also attracts all the outside riff-raff, rabble-rousers, and looters to incite violence and looting.  Ferguson is the looser

If all the media would fold their tents, take down their satellite dishes,  pack their microphones, and beat it out of town, things in Ferguson would quickly quite down.  There would no longer be a reason for the Sharptons, Jacksons, rabble-rousers, and looters to hang around in Ferguson.

Love for Humanity

This is a wonderful thoughtful message.  It's long but worth the read.  It's somewhat philosophical and theoretical.  Human nature being what it is I can't see the world embracing this philosophy any time soon.

Taken from the New York Village Voice blog by Andrew W.K., Aug. 6, 2014:

The world isn't being destroyed by democrats or republicans, red or blue, liberal or conservative, religious or atheist -- the world is being destroyed by one side believing the other side is destroying the world. The world is being hurt and damaged by one group of people believing they're truly better people than the others who think differently. The world officially ends when we let our beliefs conquer love. We must not let this happen.

When we lump people into groups, quickly label them, and assume we know everything about them and their life based on a perceived world view, how they look, where they come from, etc., we are not behaving as full human beings. When we truly believe that some people are monsters, that they fundamentally are less human than we are, and that they deserve to have less than we do, we ourselves become the monsters. When we allow our emotions to be hypnotized by the excitement of petty bickering about seemingly important topics, we drift further and further away from the fragile and crucial human bond holding everything together. When we anticipate with ferocious glee the next chance we have to prove someone "wrong" and ourselves "right," all the while disregarding the vast complexity of almost every subject -- not to mention the universe as a whole -- we are reducing the beauty and magic of life to a "side" or a "type," or worst of all, an "answer." This is the power of politics at it's most sinister.

At its best, politics is able to organize extremely complex world views into manageable and communicable systems so they can be grappled with and studied abstractly. But even the most noble efforts to organize the world are essentially futile. The best we can usually achieve is a crude and messy map of life from one particular vantage point, featuring a few grids, bullet points, and sketches of its various aspects and landmarks. Anything as infinitely complex as life, reality, and the human experience can never be summed up or organized in a definitive system, especially one based on "left or right," "A or B," "us or them." This is the fatal flaw of binary thinking in general. However, this flaw isn't just ignored, it's also embraced, amplified, and deliberately used as a weapon on the very people who think it's benefiting their way of thinking.

Human beings crave order and simplicity. We cling to the hope that some day, if we really refine our world view and beliefs, we can actually find the fully correct way to think -- the absolute truth and final side to stand on. People and systems craving power take advantage of this desire and pit us against each other using a "this or that" mentality. The point is to create unrest, disagreement, resentment, and anger -- a population constantly at war with itself, each side deeply believing that the other is not just wrong, but also a sincere threat to their very way of life and survival. This creates constant anxiety and distraction -- the perfect conditions for oppression. The goal of this sort of politics is to keep people held down and mesmerized by a persistent parade of seemingly life-or-death debates, each one worth all of our emotional energy and primal passion.

But the truth is, the world has always been and always will be on the brink of destruction. And what keeps it from actually imploding is our love for life and our deep-seeded desire not to die. Our love for our own life is inextricably connected to our love of all life and the miracle of this phenomenon we call "the world." We must give all of ourselves credit every day for keeping things going. It's an incredible achievement to exist at all.

So we must protect and respect each other, no matter how hard it feels. No matter how wrong someone else may seem to us, they are still human. No matter how bad someone may appear, they are truly no worse than us. Our beliefs and behavior don't make us fundamentally better than others, no matter how satisfying it is to believe otherwise. We must be tireless in our efforts to see things from the point of view we most disagree with. We must make endless efforts to try and understand the people we least relate to. And we must at all times force ourselves to love the people we dislike the most. Not because it's nice or because they deserve it, but because our own sanity and survival depends on it. And if we do find ourselves pushed into a corner where we must kill others in order to survive, we must fully accept that we are killing people just as fully human as ourselves, and not some evil abstract creatures.

A Social Oxymoron

Young black men kill other young black men at will, a daily occurrence on the streets of Chicago, and nary a word from the social police.  A black man can kill a white man and the silence from the social police is deafening .  Yet, let a white man kill a black man and the social police are all over it with demonstrations, riots and looting like what has occurred in Ferguson, Missouri.  It matters not that the shooting death occurred as the young black man struggled with a white police officer for his gun.

Containment and Turtles

President Obama and his spokesperson, Sen Cardin (D-MD), on FoxNews Sunday, say we have to achieve an inclusive government in Bagdad to "contain" the ISIS terrorists.  The operative word is "contain."  I ask, how is it you "contain" a strong active Islamic terrorist group hell bent on establishing a Caliphate in the Middle East and bringing terrorist attacks to the United States?  You don't.  You defeat them.  You destroy them.

Trying to engineer an inclusive government in Iraq to "contain" ISIS is like trying to contain a turtle to do what you want it to do.  You pick the darn thing up and put it on a post.

President Nixon and the Constitution

The past few days the national news media has been heralding the 40th anniversary of President Nixon's resignation.  There's been much ado about how Nixon caused a Constitutional crisis.  Woodward and Bernstein are held up as heros.  If there was a constitutional crisis it was created and perpetrated by the liberal news media.  Nothing is said about Nixon's many positive accomplishments.

The liberal national press will never let Nixon lie in peace.  He is one of their favorite whipping boys.  It's much like President Hoover.  He was blamed for the Great Depression and the liberal press has never let us forget it though President Roosevelt's policy initiatives actually did much more to cause and perpetrate the depression.  I know.  I lived it.  My father and millions of others were devastated by Roosevelt's National Recovery Act (NRA) which much later was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, but too late.

Our current president has done much more to trounce on the Constitution than Nixon ever did.  Yet, the liberal news media is silent.  Why?  Because he is a liberal Democrat, and the liberal press protect their own at all cost.  The Fourth Estate is a fantasy in today's news world.

ISIL as Seen by Obama

It's Saturday morning and I'm watching Obama speak to the press on the South Lawn in front of U.S Marine Helicopter Number 1 before departing for two weeks vacation at Martha's Vineyard.  He just described the ISIL terrorists as, "a group of Sunnis in Syria and Iraq that are dissatisfied with their governments."

That, my friends, is hogwash.

The ISIL leadership has made it abundantly clear through various news and social media venues that they are hell bent on establishing a Caliphate in the entire area of Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Israel and parts of Turkey.  And, just yesterday evening an ISIL spokesperson appeared on FoxNews and proclaimed the flag of ISIL will fly over the White House.

Is our leader naive, misinformed, inept, disinterested, or has a nefarious vision for America?

Humanitarianism and Mission Creep

The headline reads,  "President Obama authorizes airstrikes against Iraq militants if necessary to prevent potential genocide against religious minorities; says US conducted humanitarian aid drop."

Forty thousand Iraqis fled to a mountain top to avoid slaughter by the militant radical Islamic ISIS.  Their choice was death at the hands of ISIS or starve on the mountain top.  After much thought Obama opted for air drops of food, water, and supplies to the religious refugees as a humanitarian gesture.

Well and good.  Humanitarianism is a good thing.  However, this is how we have come to be militarily engaged in other peoples fights in the past.  What happens if a Russian made rocket shoots down one of the air cargo airplanes delivering goods to the suffering people?  What happens if the air strikes are met with resistance and one or more of our aircraft are shot down and the pilots captured by ISIS?  What happens if they are held as hostages?  Or worse, if they are publicly beheaded and the video shown on social media?  What happens if some of the 800 military personnel we already have on the ground in Iraq come under ISIS enemy fire?  What happens if one or more of them are captured?  The list of possibilities goes on and on.  Has our erst while leader considered all these potential events and what our reaction will be?

These are the kind of events that gradually increase our response to unforeseen and unplanned for circumstances causing what is known as "mission creep," the gradual escalation of military involvement until we are engaged in a full time military engagement, i.e. war.

Are we as a nation prepared for another round of full scale war in the Middle East?  Is Obama capable as a war time Commander-in-Chief?

Strange Kilter

It's really strange.

World wide Muslims kill each other by the thousands and the world takes little notice.  The most dangerous thing for a Muslim is another Muslim.  Their solution to everything is to kill the other guy.   Muslims kill Christians and not much is said.  Muslims kill Jews and not much is said.  Yet, let a Christian or a Jew kill a Muslim and the world wails at the atrocity.  It's much like in this country.  Young black men kill other young black men by the hundreds and the country is oblivious.  The most dangerous thing for a young black man is another young black man.  Yet, let a white man kill a black man and the nation wails at the racism of it.

Seems something is out of kilter here.

History of Gaza

I did a Google search on "History of Gaza."  I clicked on Wikipedia.  The first two sentences were:  "The known history of Gaza spans 4,000 years. Gaza was ruled, destroyed and repopulated by various dynasties, empires, and peoples."

I read further.  There was a lot to read.  That part of the world has had nothing but strife, hate, killings, and wars for 4,000 years.  In my lifetime I can not recall any periods of extended peace for those people.   They all hate one another.  The Sunnis hate the Shiites.  The Shiites hate the Sunnis.  They both hate the Jews.  So how is there ever to be peace?

In the 1960's I worked for an American oil company in the upper area of the Persian Gulf on the Shaat-al-Arab River, the old Euphrates River in Biblical times.  Iran and Iraq both claimed same parts of the river.  They constantly shot at one another across the river for the smallest of incursions or reasons.  They later fought a 10-year war with each other killing thousands.

So, what makes our leaders think they can broker a lasting peace in that part of the world?  All they can do is try to minimize the strife so it has minimum impact on us. Trying to reason with those people is like trying to reason with a rock.  They love their hate and are willing to die for it.  

Bewilderment

Are things going to hell in a hand basket, or does it just seem that way?  Is there too much information?  Is the federal government really out of control?  Or, has it always been that way?

I'm old enough to have a long term perspective.  Years ago our sources of information were the local newspaper, a couple of national magazines, newsreels at the local theater, and the three major networks on the radio.  Politics were mostly local except in presidential election years.  Up until about 1960 the two major political parties had there differences, but usually found ways to reach agreement.

Today, information abounds everywhere.  We have the Internet, social media, talk radio, multiple television outlets, etc.  Some is believable, some is questionable, and some is unbelievable.  We have information overload.  The two major political parties are so polarized we mostly have stalemate, finger pointing and name calling with very little truthful information.

So, where does this leave the ordinary citizen?  It can be answered in one word:  Bewildered.  When the populace is bewildered how can we hold government accountable for anything?  Thus, government runs amuck with little or no accountability for lies, illegal gun running, murdered ambassadors, lost emails, crashed computers, feckless foreign policy, and mass invasion by illegal alien children.

Our fervent hope is the pendulum will swing and bring some semblance of order and harmony out of the chaos.