CNN/ORC poll: Most Americans oppose Netanyahu invite

A large majority of Americans believe that Republican congressional leaders should not have invited Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak to Congress … shows 63% of Americans say it was a bad move for congressional leadership to extend the invitation without giving President Barack Obama a heads up that it was coming … Americans overall believe the U.S. should stay out of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with 66% in the new poll advocating the U.S. remain neutral … 56% of those age 50 or older believe the U.S. should stay out of the Israeli-Palestinian fight, that number skyrockets to 75% of Americans under age 50.

The worm has turned. The immediate cause for the collapse of apartheid Israel’s support in the US will go down as Boehner’s Boner … but Netanyahoo deserves most of the credit for making Israel the despised, genocidal pariah it has become, now even in the US of A.
And of course … that view already obtaining in every country BUT the US of A … it’s the end for Israel. Netanyahoo and Boner have killed the goose that laid the golden egg.
As Noam Chomsky is fond of pointing out, apartheid South Africa could ignore the opprobrium of the entire world just as long as it had the US of A on its side … but fell in about 1 NY minute once it lost US support. There are probably about 50 seconds left in apartheid Israel’s 1 NY minute now.
Well, Chomsky was speaking about ‘real’ US support – arms and UN vetos – and Israel still has that.
But it won’t take long now that popular support for the apartheid state has disappeared in the polls for ‘real’ support to disappear as well. So although the official minute has not started to be consumed … but the countdown has officially started now.

Posted by: jfl | Feb 18 2015 7:55 utc | 103

@101
US-NATO war games prepare massive military escalation in West Africa

US and NATO forces launched massive war games Monday in West Africa, in tandem with a slate of African militaries.
Participating militaries include Mauritania, the Netherlands, Burkina Faso, Denmark, Belgium, Sweden, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Senegal, Spain, Great Britain, Mali, Czech Republic, Estonia, Lithuania and the US.
Asked about possible clashes between participating forces and Boko Haram, Special Operations Command Africa representative Bardha Azari said, “Our troops are fully prepared to handle everything.”
“Nothing is being ruled out or ruled in. These discussions are really just starting,” US Rear Admiral Kirby similarly commented Friday in response to questions about new US troop deployments to Nigeria and surrounding countries.
The launch of massive US-led war games in West Africa comes just days after Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan called for US troop deployments to Nigeria, home to the second largest proven oil reserves in all of Africa, after Libya.

No doubt they’ll have recourse to the US biowarfare ‘labs’ in West Africa if they feel they need them. Again.

Posted by: jfl | Feb 18 2015 8:08 utc | 105

Obama’s Legacy: Permanent War and Liberal Accommodation?

The fact that the U.S. President could launch military attacks in Syria, supposedly a sovereign state and member of the United Nations, for six months without any legal justification and not face fierce criticism in the U.S. and internationally demonstrates the embrace of lawlessness that characterizes the current epoch of Western imperialist domination.
And the acquiescence of much of the left in the U.S. and Europe on the issue of Syria and the U.S. supported coup in Ukraine reveals the moderating and accommodating forces within the faux left that attempts to bully and intimidate anti-imperialist critics.

The Norwegians certainly got their $1.4 million dollars worth.
WAR IS PEACE!
You’d have thought it would take more than a measly million four to make that ring ‘true’, wouldn’t you?
They did it though. Barack the Nihilist Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Obama, a man who should be in prison and the key to his cell thrown away, is instead still in the Whitehouse! And still devastating countries and killing their peoples.
WAR IS PEACE! … FREEDOM IS SLAVERY! and IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH!

Posted by: jfl | Feb 18 2015 17:05 utc | 107

Former Panther Minister of Defense Speaks on Malcolm X’s Legacy

He [Malcolm X] was very into resident organizing, in the community, around community control. He talked about organizing after the republicans and the democrats, but independent source to control the community, but he also talked about having the ability to protect the community, to defend the community. And use the community’s resources to strengthening and enhance the community, I think today it’s protest, and the young people engage in that kind of activities.
They need to take a page from his book and move forward to building the foundation and broadening this particular face of the struggle into an international effort, take this issue to UN as some people had already done, and at the same time reach out into the Caribbean, and African Americans, but also activists, environmentalists, etc… and form and develop allies and move forward.
–Marshall “Eddie” Conway, the former Minister of Defense of the Baltimore Chapter of the Black Panther Party

As the Assembly of the Poor here in Thailand wrote on the assassination of Thai farmers by Thai agribusiness using the Royal Thai Army …
Statement of Assembly of the Poor Condemning the Use of Violence against the Poor to Protect the Capitalists’ Interests

We do not have any demand to NPCO. We would only like to call on to people from all walks of life to oust the NPCO if the NPCO does not immediately return the sovereignty back to people.

The NPCO or NCPO, some oxymoron like the National Council for Peace and Order … the Dictatorship headed by the most recent coupster, Prayuth Chan-o-cha, is crushing the Thai people, has invaded and occupied Isaan, is illegally projecting and protecting an American gas company’s drilling rigs there and grabbing the peoples’ land and dispossessing the peoples in doing so.
In southern Thailand they are assassinating local farmers protesting the smash and grab tactics of local palm-oil goons, like Suthep Thaugsuban, the ‘Democrat Party’ thug who orchestrated the overthrow of the last elected government by the Royal Thai Army knuckle draggers, the present gang in possession in Thailand.
Asking for change is fruitless. Effecting change on the ground, in the precincts, is essential.
I read a week or so ago that in Ferguson there were council seats unclaimed in the the last election there. No one ran.
What would Malcolm say? What would Malcolm do?

Posted by: jfl | Feb 19 2015 1:13 utc | 109

@106
Ebolagate … at first I thought it was a verb … to devour by virus, like an alligator … snap, snap … and we four more birds disappear down it’s gullet. Now I cannot shake that image. Ebolagator, ebolagated, ebolagation … we humans are visually oriented creatures. Thanks for the image. It haunts me. It’s apt.

Posted by: jfl | Feb 19 2015 1:27 utc | 111

Phase I of the plan now completed. The Kyiv Post has Poroshenko’s statement from earlier today. He is shocked, shocked to find a cease-fire violation.

I can inform now that this morning the armed forces of Ukraine together with the National Guard completed the operation on the planned and organized withdrawal of a part of units from Debaltseve. We can say that 80 percent of troops have been already withdrawn….
We can assert that the armed forces of Ukraine have fulfilled their tasks completely….
We were asserting and proved: Debaltseve was under our control, there was no encirclement, and our troops left the area in a planned and organized manner with all the heavy weaponry: tanks, armored personnel carriers, self-propelled artillery and vehicles….
As I promised, they repelled those who tried to encircle them and left Debaltseve pursuant to my command, which I gave yesterday….
We are holding the new defense lines. In the course of my negotiations with leaders of the United States and the EU, I demanded a firm reaction from the world to Russia’s brutal violation of the Minsk agreements, the ceasefire regime and the withdrawal of heavy weaponry. We will prepare organized and coordinated actions together.

Mind you, KP has a link on this page to Escape from Debaltseve: Ukraine’s soldiers tell how they got out alive. Photo caption sums it up: “Ukrainian soldiers retreat from Debaltseve on Feb. 18. President Petro Poroshenko said he gave the order to retreat on Feb. 17, but soldiers on the ground claim they were simply left in a trap under the fire of Russian troops.”
Sounds like Poroshenko has a plan, perhaps one conveniently provided to him by his patrons. “Firm reaction… coordinated actions together.”
Phase II — Washington reacts. Round up the usual suspects. Excoriation by the hired help, aka, journalists & policy wonks. Money thrown at friends, cronies, contractors. Has a red line been crossed? Well, time to “raise the cost” for Russia. Training is already in the pipeline, fresh arms would complement that nicely, no?

Posted by: rufus magister | Feb 19 2015 2:21 utc | 113

Looks like ol’ Wesley “Loose Lips” Clark finally admits that ISIS was created by “our friends and allies” to destroy Hezbollah.

Posted by: guest77 | Feb 19 2015 3:29 utc | 115

Another – just after:

Bombing ISIS…okay! But should the west not be looking for the sources from whence ISIS acquire their armaments? When identified…that’s where the bombs need to go! The first thing to do surely, is to dry-up the arms supply. Some international armament manufactures are making a mint out of this! Who are they? Where are they? Put them out of business….or is that against the ‘fair trade’ rules or the TPP partnership?? Constructive comments please!!

And the reply:

Man on a Soapbox, London, United Kingdom, 13 hours ago
Turkey, Russia, China.

WTF. Is there a campaign underway to convince idiots that black is white? Obviously so.

Posted by: guest77 | Feb 19 2015 3:54 utc | 117

Sorry if someone has brought this up before. I found out about it at a Russian news site.
Breitbart: CIA Headquarters in Langley Reportedly on Lockdown
That is very strange, as Inspector Clouseau would say.

Posted by: Demian | Feb 19 2015 6:18 utc | 119

mcohen at 82 —
I had a look at the Wiki on Bolano’s life and work, fascinating character. I don’t read a lot fiction, but I do like short stories and novellas, so I might pick something up.
I cued up “Caravanserai” on YouTube. All quality fusion, more of an edge than Pat Metheny. “Just in Time to see the Sun,” “Every Step of the Way,” esp. nice. I think my favorite was Song of the Wind. There’s a live version from Edinburgh, this had better visuals over the original album cut.

Posted by: rufus magister | Feb 20 2015 3:12 utc | 121

There is an interesting document being peddled by Novaya Gazeta, purportedly a memo from Konstantin Malofeyev, a Russian oligarch with connections to the Orthodox Church and likely “voentorg” contributor. I came across it first at Kyiv Post, which has a semi-abridged version posted. It could pass for the hard-boiled prose of a typical foreign policy/national security flunky.
Reporting by The Daily Beast and on what’s left of Newsweek is recommended for informational purposes only. No warranties, expressed or implied.
I would note two points, however. This is from The Daily Beast’s account. I personally do not find this reassuring as to authenticity, which assuredly will become an item of some media speculation. “According to the paper’s deputy editor, Sergei Sokolov. Novaya Gazeta does not have conclusive material evidence but does have ‘a strong sense’ from its source that Putin reviewed the document in February 2014.”
And that Newsweek reports that the purported author, through a spokesman “‘categorically denied’ his alleged involvement… Malofeev’s representative told the paper [Novaya Gazeta] he will pursue legal action because of their claims he is linked to the document.”

Posted by: rufus magister | Feb 26 2015 3:50 utc | 123

Benu at 124 — Quite droll, and very much on point. The choreography is great, the soundtrack could be better though, too much Wagner. Our little dancer has no doubt been caught by the MSM by now. Cue the outrage, enters in great agitation from stage right.

Posted by: rufus magister | Feb 26 2015 5:21 utc | 125