Throwing Down the Oil Card

14 Friday Nov 2014

Posted by commart in Iran, North America, Politics, Russia

Tags

“In the issue of oil, the economy has not been the sole important factor,” Rouhani said. “International politics and plots” have also affected prices, he said, without elaborating.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-10-29/iran-oil-revenue-shrinks-30-percent-on-price-drop-rouhani-says.html – 10/30/2014

NCRI – The Iranian regime is facing a deepening financial crisis as the price of crude oil plunges on international markets.

The regime’s budget deficit was reported by the state-run Ebtekar daily newspaper on November 8 issue as totalling 1.5 billion dollars. But economists believe the true figure is much higher.

http://www.ncr-iran.org/en/news/economy/17510-iranian-regime-s-cash-crisis-as-oil-price-plunges – 11/12/2014

Russia, whose economy is forecast by the central bank to run zero growth next year, is struggling under the weight of a plummeting ruble and sanctions imposed over the conflict in Ukraine. Brent crude, the grade that underpins prices for Urals, Russia’s main export blend, is set for a record losing streak amid speculation that OPEC will refrain from cutting production to ease concern of a supply glut.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-11-14/putin-says-russia-preparing-for-catastrophic-oil-slump.html – 11/14/2014

A pressing question lies in determining what effects considerable cuts in the price of oil, the glut in oil supplies, and the remarkable growth of the U.S. oil industry, has and will have on international politics as well as on the global economy. Almost certainly, the United States and Western countries will benefit both politically and economically, while most of the members of OPEC, and countries including Russia, Iran, and the Islamic State of Iraq, and Syria, will be hurt. More broadly, there will be a global economic benefit as lower energy costs will help both producers and consumers.

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2014/11/oils_well_for_american_energy_independence.html#ixzz3J2wnCdTE – 11/13/2014

Abductions, beheading, mass slaughter — headline grabbers!

Commodity pricing?

Squint.

While post-feudal North America has been working on greater achievement in energy independence, it appears some oil cash flow addicts have puffed and bluffed their way into an anticipated but unaddressed cash crunch with consequences looming on the near horizon, this perhaps despite deep pocket brags.

# # #

Attacks – Ottawa, Jerusalem

22 Wednesday Oct 2014

Posted by commart in Canada, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Islamic Small Wars, Israel, Politics

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

attacks, death by car, Jerusalem, Ottawa, shootings, terrorism

The “different kind of war”, the “war for detectives and poets”, the “Islamic Small Wars” — singular or plural — have not been impeded at their low-intensity simmer.

The impetus for this post came with a phone call, a heads-up on the Ottawa incident —

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/parliament-hill-attack-1-gunman-dead-after-soldier-shot-at-national-war-memorial-1.2808710 – 10/22/2014

The violence is not confined to Parliament. Police say that there could be multiple shooters and that there are three shooting incidents in the capital.

Ottawa police, whose buildings were also locked down, provided details on Twitter about multiple shootings: “Incidents occurred at National War Memorial, near the Rideau Centre and Parliament Hill.”

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/10/22/world/americas/canada-ottawa-shooting/index.html – 10/22/2014.

So far, according to the CNN piece, no links with Islamic violence have been made in the Ottawa shootings.

Related on Reuters:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/22/us-canada-attacks-shooting-idUSKCN0IB1PY20141022 – 10/22/2014.

Related on Fox

The shooting at the government complex came after witnesses said they saw two men jump out of a Toyota Corolla and run toward the memorial, where one opened fire on the soldier, who later died at Civic Hospital. Officials did not identify the guard pending notification of his family, but The Ottawa Sun said he was a member of Hamilton’s Argylls of Canada – 91st Canadian Highlanders who were on tour guarding the memorial.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/10/22/soldier-shot-at-war-memorial-near-canadian-parliament/ – 10/22/2014.

Now cited in comments:

OTTAWA—Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s office says two scheduled events today in Toronto with Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai have been cancelled.
The last-minute announcement comes amid an ongoing emergency in Ottawa, where several shootings have occurred on or near Parliament Hill.

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2014/10/22/malalas_honorary_citizenship_ceremony_cancelled_pmo.html – 10/22/2014.

The latest follows an apparently attempted murder by car in Quebec:

(Reuters) – A Canadian man who was killed by police on Monday after trying to run over two soldiers in Quebec “had become radicalized,” the government said after the first such incident in Canada since the country joined the fight against Islamic State militants.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/21/us-canada-military-idUSKCN0I927020141021 – 10/20/2014

From Jerusalem:

A baby girl was killed and eight people were injured Wednesday, after a terrorist hit them with his car outside the Givat Hatachmoshet (Ammunition Hill) Light Rail stop.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/186461#.VEfv0iLF98E – “Baby Murdered in Jerusalem Terror Attack” – 10/22/2014.

# # #

FTAC – RANT – Pakistan – Bleating Hearts

13 Monday Oct 2014

Posted by commart in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, foreign aid, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Pakistan, Political Psychology, United States of America

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

America, Far Left, hate, political, politics, rhetoric

Americans are not victims of America.

We own America.

We work for America as Americans and whether in private industry or government, we and every neighbor is in one or the other, Main Street to Wall Street, police station to military barracks in the far reaches of the world.

Hate America, undermine America, blame America — look in the mirror.

When aid to Pakistan, domestic and military, reaches Pakistan, it’s in Pakistani hands to spend. If much of that spending gets lost, goes without audit, does not make it to The People of Pakistan, does not improve security or domestic qualities in living, we didn’t spend it: we gave it.

Secrets-keeping governments naturally inspire conspiracy thinking and paranoia. Knowing this, in the U.S., we divulge our secrets, many, most, and all across time. Some decades may pass between act and acknowledgement but the truth (here) always surfaces. Our real armies don’t wear uniforms. Sometimes they don’t even get out of their jeans and sweatshirts, but they’re up to their elbows in historical research that may be and will be examined by peers and third parties and very possibly by God Almighty himself. That knowledge tends to make everyone responsible.

Such as ISIS love ambivalence, doubt, and weakness in targets, and the degree to which the same will sacrifice others not for God but for plunder and the merciless dominance of others is breathtaking.

If you think Iraq was a mistake, look over Saddam’s palaces built on the backs of his people. Ask the Marsh Arabs about the destruction of their timeless way of life. Ask the Kurdish people about what it’s like to be gassed en masse by an implacable tyrant. Speak to the Shiite about serving the Baathist “cause”.

Really hate the west: stop taking our money, time, resources, ingenuity, and available spending. The “west” for its part could and should do better to encourage better ecological and labor practices in its trading partners plus greater insistence on democracy and human rights. Beyond that, we give — Pakistan spends. If the state has problems with itself, swap out the politicians in the next round of elections.

Whether through the sewage pumped out by the solidarity movements are loose souls wandering in the shadows of one fascist past or another, there are global “Hate America First” crowds.

When cozy, they talk, inventing words that never existed, but it makes some feel good to have a central fixture for pelting with verbal stones.

Sound like something of which you may be aware?

Well, that’s language for you. It has echoes, ghosts, mirage, murmurs, and reminders, and while it may be easy to go with so many programs that create ideas and relationships in our heads, we sometimes stop to think a moment about Iraqi poverty in the age in which Saddam Hussein maintained his palaces, and then we say “wait a minute — let’s have a closer look at how that works.”

That’s all it takes sometimes: a closer look at gross inequality, injustice, implacable will, and the numbing cruelty that accompanies them.

# # #

From Correspondence – A White House At Play With the Muslim Brotherhood?

15 Monday Sep 2014

Posted by commart in Anti-Semitism, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Islamic Small Wars, Politics, United States of America

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Elibiary, Muslim Brotherhood, Obama

From correspondence:

Yours Truly: Obama has given MB plenty of room for operating and for being observed. As he is not a President for Life, the stronger elements that comprise our government will survive him and probably be able to use the knowledge gained during his tenure. I would fear as much a flip toward the extreme Right in America. We really need a central, progressive, and prudent politics, and the zealots in politics have really skewed the conversation away from the middle ranks. That needs fixing, so I am becoming a Passionate Moderate Liberal.

Correspondent: Unfortunately, your fears aren’t baseless. After the communist revolution in Russia in 1917 and many other countries 1919, 1920 where it failed, extreme right came to power, including Nazis in most devastated Germany. That’s why from the very beginning the idea of European Union was not to go separate ways, to keep together, thereby not allowing a fascist regime to surface in a singly taken country. Still, fascists raise their head in Hungary, Greece… I think drastic economic changes bring drastic political changes and false expectations… Only the ability to realistically analyze them, or rather inability, can bring extreme regimes into power. Once installed they cannot be peacefully removed, that has to be remembered. The main lesson of WWII perhaps should be that many countries that could do something to prevent the appetites of the Nazi Germany did simply nothing for wanting to be left in peace. Want to be left in peace, from many lazy western countries, isn’t that what helps bring all sort of criminals to power nowadays? If the progressive world media would together denounce Hamas and ISIS, what chance of survival would they have? Close to none, I think.

My correspondent had started here:

http://conservativetribune.com/hillary-obama-terrorists/ —

The Muslim Brotherhood, who took power in Egypt following the Arab Spring, were recently ousted by the Egyptian military and declared a terrorist organization.

Even still, they have been embraced by President Obama, invited into his administration, placed on a “hands off” list protecting them, and are even setting up their own official political party here in the United States.

I leave room for the Obama Administration to have been adventurous, curious, experimental, observing in attempting to integrate into the democratic process such as Mohamed Elibiary, who has been enjoying this week his share of “right-side” press for tweeting remarks about the inevitability of the global Islamic caliphate, for example:

Mohamed Elibiary was until last week a senior member of DHS’ Homeland Security Advisory Council (HSAC). After years of controversy about his status at DHS, Elibiary announced his final day with the department on Twitter earlier this month and said he would remain close to the agency.

Media outlets have raised questions about the circumstances surrounding his departure, speculating that his provocative comments about the “inevitable” return of the Muslim “caliphate” may have played a role.

http://freebeacon.com/issues/controversial-dhs-adviser-let-go-amid-allegations-of-cover-up/ – 9/15/2014.

Although organizing Arab support in the fight against ISIS in Iraq and Syria may amount to showbiz with an Administration and within an international political environment deeply invested in image — the wars for detectives and poets may turn out one day to have been wars for psychologists too, lol — the institutional memory Elibiary will leave behind will also inform this and successive governments in regard to the al-Qaeda-type assortment of Islamist challengers bent on acquiring power beneath the banners of Islam and with themselves conflated — by themselves — with God Almighty.

Related Reference

http://www.libertynewsonline.com/article_301_36189.php – “OBAMA’S RADICAL MUSLIM AND PRO-MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD HOMELAND SECURITY ADVISOR RESIGNS – 9/9/2014.

# # #

Link

31 Sunday Aug 2014

Posted by commart in Anti-Semitism, Canada, North America, United States of America

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

anti-Semitism, Canada, on campus, United States

Temple is a major university in the USA, home of the brave, land of the free-where Lady Liberty holds her light high inviting all who are in need to her shores. And yet, and yet, a Jewish student, Daniel Vessal, was physically and verbally attacked-for being Jewish, at this place of higher learning.

It isn’t that he was sucker-punched and verbally abused. It was that it was treated… lightly.

Bederman, Diane Weber. “The Normalization of Jew-hatred at Temple University and Around the World.” Times of Israel, August 31, 2014.

# # #

Link

21 Thursday Aug 2014

Posted by commart in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Islamic Small Wars, North America

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Islamic imperialism, sharia financing

Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, President of American Islamic Forum for Democracy states: “Sharia-compliant finance only empowers Muslim Sharia Law leaders whose real long term vision is to impose Sharia Law on the world and recreate an Islamic Empire. These leaders want to overpower capital free markets and create their version of an Islamic economy. Bankers and business leaders are being duped.”

What about the rest of us?

http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/65454 – 8/21/2014. “Different types of Jihad-including an attack on our economy.” Diane Weber Bederman.

# # #

Iran Smiles, Hamas Beats the Drum, and Kerry Wears a Pink Tie

26 Wednesday Mar 2014

Posted by commart in Anti-Semitism, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Israel, Political Psychology, Politics, United States of America

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Hamas, Iran, Israel, Kerry, political, politics

According to the IDF caption beneath the above video:

Published on Mar 24, 2014 — Yesterday the Prime Minister of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, gave a feverish speech in front of thousands of supporters at Saraya Square in the Gaza Strip. The message: Palestinians should not and will not stop fighting through terrorist acts against the State of Israel. Haniyeh encourages Palestinians to attack innocent Israelis and he explicitly outlines a new plan to use tunnels on an offensive against Israel. His speech also refers to striking Tel Aviv as thousands of supporters cheer him on.

Never mind that.

Take another look at the crowd and the lime-vested crowd controllers.

Listen again to the voice of the “Great Leader” Ismail Haniyeh.

Attend also the beating of the drum.

* * *

Behind the scenes:

“Of course, the developments in the region have accelerated the return of relations between Hamas and Iran,” the source added. “Perhaps the most important [of those developments] is Hamas’ harsh break with Egypt after the coup and the tension between Qatar and Saudi Arabia. The [tension] has helped warm the relationship between Doha and Tehran, and that has cast a shadow over Hamas in a positive way.”

Yes, sir, Iran’s resumed doling out major moolah to Hamas and, ta da, Hamas is back in business!

* * *

Last week, Washington Post conservative blogger Jennifer Rubin suggested the State Department’s Wendy Sherman do some institutional soul searching with a few questions foremost:

Has Iran made a single concrete concession since the interim deal?
Why, if Iran is still seeking contraband, are additional sanctions not warranted?
Why is the Iran economy recovering all of the sudden?”

* * *

CNN: John Kerry Comments on Iran Deal – November 24, 2013.

You heard him, but just in case you prefer reading (0:00 –> 0:16):

This is only the first step, but it is a first step that guarantees that while you take the second step, and move towards a comprehensive agreement, Iran’s fundamentals of its program are not able to progress.”

Up top: Palestinian Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh rouses his controlled crowd to a murderous pitch. “Hamas is the canon and we are the ammunition!”

Down below in the blue sport coat and the pink tie, Mr. Kerry on the deal with Iran, which statement his mouth turns out in gobbledygook: ” . . . while you take the second step . . . Iran’s fundamentals of its program are not able to progress.”

The hell you say!

Nice hair, Mr. Kerry.

Nice tie.

# # #