What? I Stepped In What? With just three weeks to go, Israel’s national election has turned into a real nail-biter. The governing Likud party of Benjamin Netanyahu is in a dead heat tie with the rival Zionist Union party, each of which stands to collect 24-seats according to the latest
Continue readingTag: Obama
The Disaffected Lib: Obama Vetoes Congressional Go Ahead on Keystone XL
It’s said to be Barack Obama’s first veto of any significant legislation since he took office. It comes as no surprise. He said he would do it. It doesn’t decide the fate of the Keystone XL pipeline one way or the other. Congress forwarded a bill authorizing the construction of
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Is Netanyahu Being Targeted for Regime Change – By the White House?
Barack Obama may have had enough of Benjamin Netanyahu’s stunts. It might just be time for Bibi to go. Foreign Policy’s Aaron David Miller writes that Obama is pursuing regime change in the upcoming Israeli elections. Welcome to regime change, Obama-style. There are few opportunities to change the mullahcracy in Tehran.
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Obama Comes Clean. Putin Didn’t Plot to Seize Crimea.
Go Ahead, Pick One. Oh my, my, what comes out of the mouth of that man! The Western narrative we’ve been force fed by liars like Harper and his collaborators on the other side of the aisle, is that Vlad Putin plotted to use the unrest in Ukraine to seize
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: The Hypocrisy is Blinding
One of these people is Not Happy to Be Here Barack Obama cuts short his state visit to India, after lecturing his hosts on tolerance and women’s rights, so that he can kiss the slippers of the new Saudi king, Salman. So, Barack, how do you explain that one? “Sometimes
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: How’s That City On The Hill?
From Barrett Brown, a wrongfully jailed journalist… in the USA. He’s imagining speaking to the founding fathers about the country’s progress: Benjamin Franklin: “It was among my fondest dreams that my beloved Philadelphia would someday grow into one of the world’s great centers of high culture, and become a by-word
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Is Raul Castro’s Cuba the First Big Winner in Cold War II?
Now that Washington and Havana appear to be on the road to kissing and making up, it’s worth considering whether the timing is really that spontaneous? Cuba was always the Soviet’s toe hold in the Americas. It was over Soviet designs in Cuba that the world was brought to the
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Arms Race Update – US to Spend a Trillion Dollars on Upgrading Nukes
US Defense Secretary, Chuck Hagel, put it bluntly. “No other mission we have is more important.“ The mission Hagel was referring to was a trillion-dollar, 30-year programme to upgrade America’s nuclear weapon arsenal. A trillion dollars. Even today that’s serious money. According to the Associated Press, Hagel told the Pentagon
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Why the Obama-Xi Emissions Deal is Window Dressing.
The CO2 emissions deal reached this week by the presidents of the US and China is a positive step, no doubt about that. It’s also far too little, much too late, although it’s reflective of how inflexible our global society has become even in matters of our very survival. Even
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Washington, Kabul Kiss & Make Up. US Troops Stay in Afghanistan Until 2024.
Hamid Karzai talked tough about getting Western forces out of Afghanistan immediately if not sooner. Afghanistan, however, is under new management that means America’s longest war ever will be extended for another decade. Barack Obama, elected president in 2008 on a wave of anti-war sentiment, will pass off both
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Gasland Part II – Fracking Hell
Watched “Gasland Part II” [9/10] on HBO on demand, and it is something you have to see. The case it makes against fracking is a very strong one, and it shows the depths of corruption in the US system that has allowed the poisoning of water tables across America. ==
Continue readingdrive-by planet: Washington’s war to ‘destroy’ ISIL: what is ISIL and who is the real security threat?
In recent weeks Western media has been sounding the alarm over the speedy territorial gains made by the Islamic State – also known as ISIL and ISIS – with warnings of the threat it poses to the West. In some of the more alarmist commentary you would think ISIL had
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Why Getting Our Arab Allies Off Their Fat, Pampered Asses Matters
Since Obama started this ‘get ISIS’ coalition-building business, the Sunni Arab world has been conspicuous by its absence. The Sydney Morning Herald’s chief foreign correspondent, Paul McGeough, weighs in on Australian prime minister Tony Abbott’s decision to jump in with both boots. The smart thing for Western leaders in the
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Obama Doesn’t Have a Clue
Barack Obama has a mess on his hands in Iraq and has no idea what to do to clean it up. And so he falls back on neo-America’s default option – bomb it. Retired US Army commander turned academic, Andrew Bacevich, offers some insights that reveal how hapless – and
Continue readingdrive-by planet: Obama’s Estonia claim that ‘Russia trying to reclaim lands lost in the 19th century’ funny and wrong
Since the crisis in Ukraine made the headlines Russia has been cast as the villain with predictable stereotypes and misconceptions about things Russian showing up on MSM. From a Russian perspective a lot of it must seem clueless, tiresome or outright offensive but such “insights” add to a tabloid narrative
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: In Case You Missed It, the Nuclear Option is Back
Vlad Putin is going for his nukes and we need to grasp our role in getting him there. Russia is re-arming with a new class of nuclear submarines, a new and possibly illegal inter-continental ballistic missile and a new strategic bomber. Our sanctions against Russia over the Ukraine are working.
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Oh, Crap! Sorry, I Meant the Ukraine.
Vlad Putin, it seems, has a response to the hectoring recently from the likes of Sideshow Steve Harper and John Baird and others – “meet me in the Arctic.” The Guardian reports that Putin has had enough of Western criticism of Russian involvement in the Ukraine whose government he likens to
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Police Violence Rages in Ferguson, MO
The out-of-control police response to protests against the killing of Michael Brown in a St. Louis, MO suburb, continues. Our reporter @rdevro was shot with rubber bullets/beanbags by police last night, spent night in jail. Is due to be released w/o charge soon.— The Intercept (@the_intercept) August 19, 2014 Yesterday
Continue readingdrive-by planet: U.S. analysts on MH17 – ‘Ukrainian forces to blame’: Ron Paul – Obama ‘hiding truth’
Following the downing of Malaysian Airlines MH-17, anti-Russian rhetoric was hard to miss on MSM. The rhetoric has toned down of late. The Obama administration has also been noticeably quieter on the subject of MH-17. For former rep Ron Paul the ratcheting down of the volume in itself raises questions,
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