Chris Hedges … has … worked for The Christian Science Monitor, National Public Radio, The Dallas Morning News and The New York Times …for 15 years.
And that’s all I need to know to NOT believe anything he says or writes–his touching eulogy for a deceased “progressive” notwithstanding.

Posted by: Some Guy | Aug 26 2015 19:00 utc | 3

@Some Guy #3
“Chris Hedges … ….The New York Times …for 15 years….And that’s all I need to know to NOT believe anything he says or writes–his touching eulogy for a deceased “progressive” notwithstanding.”
Did you know why he left (or kicked out) New York Times? I too hated him and soon came to realized he’s indeed a human and caring person. Please do find out more before you condemn him
The New York Times as a foreign correspondent and bureau chief. Hedges left the Times shortly after they issued him a formal reprimand for publicly denouncing the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
http://billmoyers.com/guest/chris-hedges/.
Chris Hedges Booed off the Stage as He Delivered a Graduation Speech on War and Empire (2003)
https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2010/12/27/chris-hedges-booed-off-the-stage-as-he-delivered-a-graduation-speech-on-war-and-empire-2003/
The Real News
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=14180

Posted by: Jack Smith | Aug 26 2015 20:03 utc | 5

The new European Feudalism is here!

Posted by: nmb | Aug 26 2015 20:17 utc | 7

Have a few of the know-it-all-haters migrated over from the Zero hedge blog today ??!?
Chris Hedges has always told more truth than the vast majority of self-serving fools in the media….OR the paid spooks & trolls who frequent these places more & more….
Compassion is the basis of all morality.
-Schopenhauer
Hedges reflects this…..most dont….particularly all the RightWing-nuts , the spooks & the trolling paid whores for the 1% have NO morality.

Posted by: Cracklier | Aug 26 2015 22:56 utc | 9

A big thanks to Cracklier, juannie and Jack Smith!

Posted by: slirs | Aug 27 2015 0:27 utc | 11

I think Philip K. Dick is one of the most important writers/philosophers America has ever produced. I haven’t delved too deep into the fantastic life and oracular work of Philip K. Dick, but I think the opening is a good tease:

Eleven years after his removal to a Colorado graveyard, Philip K. Dick is among the busiest of American writers. New novels arrive regularly from the tomb; box office smashes (Total Recall) and Hollywood classics (Blade Runner) are spliced from his work; young writers of diverse persuasions sit raptly at his icy feet. A science fiction journeyman, ardent bohemian and restless observer of suburban life, Dick never discovered a place for himself while he lived. He was dismissed as a crackpot and hailed as a “visionary among charlatans”; and like most visionaries, he had a hard time finding a publisher. Today his published work could fill a small bookstore. To enter a novel by Philip K. Dick is to enter a zone of disappearing worlds, nested hallucinations and impossible time-loops. This domain is inhabited by lonely repairmen, egotistical entrepreneurs and hapless housewives, and strewn with slant humor and menacing paradox. Although the books vary, their inspiration is always the same: they are governed by a passionate apprehension of appearances.

for what it’s worth, PKD got popular in France long before Hollywood figured it out. I think that speaks well of his work.

Posted by: lizard | Aug 27 2015 1:41 utc | 13

amen, jfl

Posted by: lizard | Aug 27 2015 3:16 utc | 15

Talking about what passes for journalism (and that popular oxymoron Investigative Journalism) these days, there’s a 2015 hit-piece doco on Putin, concocted by Dateline (USA) called Putin’s Way which I recommend to any student of Official, but idiotic, claptrap.
It is based on a quite comprehensive list of everything that’s rotten about the AmeriKKKanised West, and accuses Putin of perpetrating all of the same sins on Russians. It even finishes with blaming Putin for MH 17 but “forgets” to mention that the “investigation” of MH 17 is even more opaque than the CIA/FBI “investigation” of TWA 800 (during which inconvenient witnesses were harassed, threatened, and excluded from the witness hearings). It also forgets to explain why Putin is as popular with Russian citizens as Western leaders are unpopular with theirs.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Aug 27 2015 3:59 utc | 17

The US/EU/NATO together deal death, devastation, and destruction to Syria and the Syrians and then, when the Syrians have become refugees fleeing the US/EU/NAT DD&D … Hungary to Deploy ‘Border Hunters’ Against Refugees Fleeing War

Hungary is seeking to ramp up repression against refugees fleeing war and attempting to cross into Europe after showering hundreds of them with tear gas at a detention center on Wednesday.
Police launched tear gas at around 200 refugees, who were refusing to be fingerprinted and tried to leave a detention center at Roszke near the Serbian border, AFP reported.
The Hungarian government has since announced it will deploy 2,000 “border hunters” to toughen repression tactics against refugees after a reported 2,500 people rushed over the border with Serbia on Tuesday.

It’s not just Hungary, of course, Arson suspected in fire at planned refugee shelter in Germany

Germany scrambled Tuesday to quell a wave of anti-foreigner violence, as a new case of suspected arson hit a planned refugee shelter just hours after Chancellor Angela Merkel described xenophobic protests as “vile.”
A week before 130 refugees are due to move into a temporary shelter in a sports hall in Nauen, a town near Berlin, the building went up in flames.
Police said the speed of the flames ripping through the site suggested arson was the cause, as authorities vowed tough action against perpetrators if the fire was targeted at refugees.

And in Italy, and in Greece, … . The people … ok, the governments … who created the situation with their institutionalized program of DD&D now treat the results of their program, their very own victims, as the problem. Yet the European people remain as ‘unconcious’ as we Americans are of the results of their governments’ actions. And just as doggedly irresponsible.

Posted by: jfl | Aug 27 2015 4:32 utc | 19

Try this:
http://thesaker.is/

Posted by: ben | Aug 27 2015 4:38 utc | 21

I consider folks like Chris Hedges similar to Paul Krugman. I call them Border Routers and their positions work similarly to the network type.
In a sophisticated network Border Routers are design to handle specific types of traffic and basically be the face to a certain type of network traffic. Paul Krugman is the economics Border Router. He keeps the “progressive” minded ignorant about the structure/impact of private finance and centuries of inheritance while tilting at the social consequences of such. The study of economics is the myth of capitalism that keeps on giving cover for the centuries old plutocratic families that own private finance and all that accumulated property…..and ultimately control all “economic” direction and activity.
Chris Hedges is another social Border Router but of a more generalized variety. Hedges is allowed to rail against our world as long as he doesn’t call for evolution of any sort……death by a thousand little fixes to a world requiring structural change.
My opinion is that the global plutocrats have made, and continue to make a point of taking out all the potential humanistic leadership around the world as part of Empire management. What is left is the Chris Hedges and Paul Krugman types that tell us that we just need to tweak the existing system a bit and all will be wonderful……and don’t pay any attention to the global plutocrats and those owners of private finance moving the real levers of our political economy.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Aug 27 2015 5:57 utc | 23

“For Terry, simple human kindness, divorced from creeds or freed from ideology or religious doctrine, kindness that does not ask if the recipient deserves this kindness…”
Very rarely Chris mentions “god” in his writings or videos. I don’t believe in gods after GW Bush embarked into Iraq and will refuses to go to heaven even if it exists.
Sorry if I had started heated arguments. I have enough of the endless wars, prejudices, hates, lies including Obama, The Clinton, Bernie, Elizabeth and all Repug and…. I really don’t think he is preaching but writes about his former divinity school classmate, close friend and family members – about kindness, caring and love. It touches my heart and wish to share with other here.

Posted by: Jack Smith | Aug 27 2015 6:55 utc | 25

“It is obvious that Bernie Sanders functions as the political ‘sheepdog’ of the 2016 presidential election. The sheepdog makes certain that otherwise disillusioned Democrats are energized enough to stay in line and support the eventual candidate, in this case Hillary Clinton.”
I wonder why people believe such a nonsensical assertion, which has appeared at Counterpunch and now BAR. Enthusiasm about Sanders obviously doesn’t translate into support for Hillary. In fact the opposite. As common sense truths about inequality and the rich screwing everyone else get told and Sanders’ poll numbers rise, people realize there is an alternative egalitarian economic perspective that has popularity with a very large percentage of voters. This hurts Hillary, who’s a glaring anti-populist one percenter. In fact, scuttlebutt now is that the Democrats will have to replace her with someone less obviously anti-populist. (Faux good ol’ boy Joe Biden, come on down!)
Also, think chronologically. Let’s say Bernie gets wrecked in March of next year, in the ostensibly big money dominated primaries after New Hampshire and Iowa. March, eight months before the election. So, the concept of ‘sheepdogging’ is that Democrats who hate Hillary, after Bernie is destroyed, are somehow, after defeat, going to be “energized enough to stay in line and support … Hillary.” Hillary, a candidate of the 1% who they know is lying to them and has just defeated Bernie with her mountain of 1% money and lies. Wha-a-a-at?
And the defeated followers of Bernie are going to ‘energetically’ support Hillary over those eight long months, even as Hillary turns right as soon as Bernie is disposed of? And the crushing defeat of a guy they believe in will definitely NOT lead them to turn perhaps very enthusiastically toward a third-party candidate who isn’t lying to them, whose positions on economic issues are close to Sanders’ positions, and who is much better than Bernie on anti-militarism and anti-imperialism?
At least two unfortunate things about this Bernie sheepdog nonsense. First it damages the credibility of two of the best sites out there, Black Agenda Report and Counterpunch. Second, it diverts left analysts and activists from the the real problem for left voters. That won’t be Sanders’ campaign, because there’s plenty of time to coalesce behind a replacement after he loses (if he loses). It will be the ‘mainstream’ third-party candidate(s) who we turn to. That dude or gal will likely tell left voters to vote for the horrible Democrat “if it’s close.” What we need is some hard-ass vetting of third party candidates and exclusion of and resistance to any who are likely pro-Democrat capitulators. Hope that important work gets done before March/April of next year.

Posted by: fairleft | Aug 27 2015 9:33 utc | 27

@ 13: “Of course it’s always the ideas being discussed and not the persona discussing.”
Unless of course, you’re a paid troll.
Posted by: ben | Aug 26, 2015 11:47:29 PM | 15

Or a proven liar, as in your case, ben.

Posted by: BLOCKQUOTE | Aug 27 2015 10:44 utc | 29

Posted by: fairleft | Aug 27, 2015 5:33:21 AM | 26

I wonder why people believe such a nonsensical assertion

Because they’ve been played like a fiddle many times before.

Enthusiasm about Sanders obviously doesn’t translate into support for Hillary … who’s a glaring anti-populist one percenter.

Strawman. Your focus on ‘enthusiasm’ is misleading. Enthusiasm for Sanders blocks alternatives. He now ‘owns’ that space. The establishment Democrat may not get the ‘enthusiasm’ but will be the beneficiary of many of those votes.

… eight months before the election…. Democrats who hate Hillary, after Bernie is destroyed, are somehow, after defeat, going to be “energized enough to stay in line and support … Hillary.” …[won’t they instead] turn perhaps very enthusiastically toward a third-party candidate…[?]

No, they won’t because:

1) Your 8-months estimate is probably optimistic.
2) Hillary will say things that seem to agree with Sanders. There is already talk about how the best thing about a Sanders candidacy is the influence it has on Hillary/the Democratic Establishment candidate.
3) The likely Republican candidate will start to emerge and Sanders supporters will be urged to not help the Republicans by breaking away.

First it damages the credibility of two of the best sites out there, Black Agenda Report and Counterpunch. Second, it diverts left analysts and activists from the the real problem for left voters.

(1) Damages their credibility? You seem to believe that their theory makes no sense. But it does.
(2) “left analysts and activists” would not be able to prepare (by vetting possible alternatives as you suggest) if they blindly accepted Bernie.
it’s never made any sense. Enthusiasm about Sanders obviously doesn’t translate into support for Hillary . . .
You answer your own implied question Fairleft,
. . . vote for Democrat “if it’s close.”

…there’s plenty of time to coalesce behind a replacement after he loses (if he loses)

Of course the Democrats will declare the race to be close and call upon Sanders supporters to back the mainstream candidate because otherwise the batshit crazy, reactionary republican will win(!!).
There will NOT be time to build an alternative. Movements need time to build. And the Republican candidate – no doubt a repugnant reactionary – will represent a clear and present danger that makes rallying around an alternative very difficult, if not impossible.
What part of ‘your being played’ don’t you understand?
=
Furthermore, if one accepts that the populist to Hillary’s left is ‘playing’ for a Democratic Party/Hillary victory, what should one think of the populist on Hillary’s right (Trump) who has previously held many Democratic views, has been friendly with the Clintons, and had Roger Stone as campaign manager(known for running third-party candidates to disrupt the other Party)?
Things that make you go hmmm…
Sanders is a sheep-dog because he appeals to the left/far left in a way that seems authentic. If Democratic loyalist Sanders didn’t run, someone less loyal might be building a real third-party alternative. Hillary may be hated – but most on the left hate the Republicans more (even if they have to ‘hold their nose’).
Sanders run creates the _possibility_ that some of Sanders’ supporters go third-party. That _could_ be dangerous but Trump’s (surprise!) run covers this risk nicely. And its win-win for Trump: publicity plus helping a powerful friend + possibility (though unlikely) of winning the Presidency.

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Aug 27 2015 14:35 utc | 31

Commentary: U.S. cannot dodge EU refugee crisis

Refugees originating from Libya, Syria and Iraq have been fleeing war in their countries where the U.S.-led military intervention caused sustained turbulent security situation and humanitarian crisis. However, their dreams for peaceful life cannot be realized easily.
First, Europe’s economy remains weak. Greece is undergoing the worst economic crisis in its history while Italy also sees soaring government debt.
Second, the European countries still have no aligned asylum policies. Countries that bear the brunt like Greece and Italy were struggling to deal with mass arrivals while countries behind the front line stepped up border patrol and to keep refugees away.
Third, with an increasing number of refugees and migrants arriving in Europe, many social and political problems began to appear as demonstrated by a series of anti-migrant protests in Germany and Italy. The refugee issue has increasingly become a sensitive topic for politicians.
Europe is swallowing the bitter pill of its own make as it closely followed the United States in almost all its military actions in Africa, South Asia or the Middle East.

First, the US had its European Unit ‘sanction’ itself to hurt Russia.
Now its European Unit is beginning to notice the people fleeing its and its feudal lord’s crusade against the Islamic states bordering the ‘European Sea’.
Perhaps they ought to throw of the bans of vassalage to their feudal lord across the Atlantic?
Could the Europeans do any worse on their own?

Posted by: jfl | Aug 27 2015 15:11 utc | 33

jfl@33.. the europeans have their head up usa’s ass.. not sure if they are capable of getting it unstuck any time soon..

Posted by: james | Aug 27 2015 19:08 utc | 35

In my comment @34, I cited comment 26, when it should have been comment 27 (fairleft).

Posted by: Martin Finnucane | Aug 27 2015 20:00 utc | 37

First, the US had its European Unit ‘sanction’ itself to hurt Russia.
Now its European Unit is beginning to notice the people fleeing its and its feudal lord’s crusade against the Islamic states bordering the ‘European Sea’.
Perhaps they ought to throw of the bans of vassalage to their feudal lord across the Atlantic?
Could the Europeans do any worse on their own?
The Oligarchy apparently has a little black book on every EU Leader which would devastate their careers.

Posted by: fast freddy | Aug 27 2015 23:04 utc | 39

I have to agree w/ Hoarsewhisperer on the nukes (including, though, the thank you for the pics – the drovne vids were very cool).
Its just sort of silly, but thats the MO of Veteran’s Today I’m afraid…. for reasons which are beyond me. Maybe for reasons of ad revenue? It must serve some purpose – unfortunately, I don’t know what it is. Though I have seen more wild, false claims there than sensible ones on that site.
But that’s just, like, my opinion, man.

Posted by: guest77 | Aug 28 2015 5:42 utc | 41

Fort Russ has a report of intensified shelling in the Donbas.
And an interesting inteview with DPR’s Zakharchenko. Asked what is the program in the event the junta attacks again, he replies that at a minimum, DPR will recover the whole Donetsk oblast. With defeat will come “‘Maidan’ in Kiev and different people will come to power.” They may or may not be willing to negotiate with DPR.
The interviewer presses, saying “You know this, but I want to repeat. Not only Mariupol and Slavyansk await you. Kharkov and Odessa await you. Nikolaev and Kherson. Even Tiraspol is waiting for you. What would you like to tell us all? What can we do to help?”
Zakharchenko responds by saying, with many from Mariupol and Slavyansk in the ranks, liberation there is assured.

As for the rest of so-called Ukraine, I can say one thing. It’s not needed to sit and wait idly by. If you want to get rid of the illegal government, destroy the fascists, and make it so that Ukraine ceases to be a puppet in the hands of the American puppeteers, then you should take a more active position. Nobody will make your life better for you…. Victory is not served on a silver platter; victory is produced by sweat and blood. And think further for yourselves – sit and wait or take the situation into your own hands.

And what is Pravyi Sektor doing over their summer vacation? Right Sector Destroys Memorial Plaque for Slain Journalist, Puts up One for His Murderers.
Glory to the heroes….

Posted by: rufus magister | Aug 28 2015 12:15 utc | 43

Chipnik @ 44: Thanks for the article. Explains totally, why, ” it’s just business, get over it,” resonates.

Posted by: ben | Aug 28 2015 13:53 utc | 45

@ 46: Good post. IMO, the challenge is to get relevant issues out to the Sheeple. Not an easy task, with the Corporate Empire’s chokehold on Media.
Bread and Circus, almost always trump information.

Posted by: ben | Aug 28 2015 14:56 utc | 47

Posted by: fairleft | Aug 28, 2015 10:38:52 AM | 46
Most of them WILL be bowled over by the “Republican is wose” argument. With messages like: “The Supreme Court is at stake!”
The fact is, Hillary is in trouble due to her emails. If that were not the case, we might have different story in New Hampshire and in the race in general.
The establishment will either find someone else (Biden?) or rally around Hillary (her email problem goes away). Whomever that person is, will get all the money/support. I’d bet on the latter because: the Obama Administration must have known that Hillary was using her own email server. But a Biden-Warren ticket (if Warren is game)* would mean Hillary is thrown under the bus.
* The Obama Administration approached Warren long ago. Apparently she didn’t care to make the assurances required of the Obama cabal. With Biden at the head of the ticket, she might not be asked to sell her soul as much as she would if she herself were at the head of the ticket(??).
=
Lets say, for the sake of argument, that the establishment saw Sanders as a sheepdog but they misjudged the mood of the country and the ability for the establishment candidate to overcome the lefty radicals (in their view). Lets say, that Sanders looks likely to WIN the nomination. What does that mean for the race?
Firstly, I very much doubt that the Democratic establishment would be accepting of a Sanders nomination. The way the system works now greeces too many hands (why ‘rock the boat’ with a ‘socialist’). They will try to trip him up in many ways. One of these is to question whether Sanders can win in the general election.
If Sanders might be the Democratic nominee, that might influence who is ‘selected’ as the Republican nominee. I guess that he/she might be more mainstream and like-able. And I’d guess that Trump would NOT run as a third-party candidate because that would make it more likely that Sanders wins the general election.
=
Lastly, does Sanders religion suggest that he is a sheepdog? While I myself don’t care about his religious affiliation, I wonder if Sanders himself and the establishment in general would find it to be problematic. Could a Jewish President bomb an Arab country? Could a Jewish President effectively police the Iran agreement? Could a Jewish President bailout out Wall Street (again)? Etc.

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Aug 28 2015 17:58 utc | 49

Thanx for all the info doods but I’d still rather read Infoshop or Counterpunch or this site or even the WSWS than the Nation. Liberals give me the willies.

Posted by: Some Guy | Aug 28 2015 19:11 utc | 51

@48 Noirette
Thanks for the rundown on actual numbers. And on the manipulation of the populace – a la Trump and the Mexicans in the US – by the European masters. But whether they’re ‘flooding Europe’ or not the US/EU/NATO machine is definitley destroying their countries and forcing them from their homes in the Middle East, and none of us Americans or Europeans care enough to do anything about it. Like stop our govenments’ rampage. Instead we all seem to eat up the ‘traditional’ demonization of the other, at home and abroad, and to continue to allow our governments’ rampage to proceed.

Posted by: jfl | Aug 28 2015 22:01 utc | 53

With Bernie Sanders as bait, troll phishing is tooooo easy.

Posted by: ben | Aug 29 2015 0:31 utc | 55

Bernie Sanders is the new hopium for lesser-evil Democrat apologists queasy over Hillary. criticizing Sanders got me booted from the “progressive” blog that I used to contribute to.
Sanders comments to Wolf Blitzer about more Saudi intervention in the ME were ridiculous for those of us paying attention, but most commenters here understand how little the American public groks about foreign policy. that’s why not many will notice the conspicuous lack of foreign policy focus coming from the Democratic establishment, and that’s by design.
Donald Trump may just be a Clinton ploy, but maybe TPTB will be surprised that America is ready for a fascist dictator earlier than anticipated. could a Clinton gambit to disrupt the GOP primaries take on a life of it’s own?

Posted by: lizard | Aug 29 2015 1:09 utc | 57

70 people found suffocated dead in a truck after a failed smuggling op thru Hungary.. I can’t process the magnitude of such an absurd tragedy

Posted by: aaaaa | Aug 29 2015 1:32 utc | 59

@ 58: “I think the mood of the country is such that many are ready to support a candidate or movement that is anti-establishment. Sanders loyalty to the democrats means that he will try to channel the discontented back into the Democratic fold. That is why he is described as a sheepdog.”
Yes, Sanders has already stated he’ll drop out if he can’t win any primaries. Can he drag any votes to Clinton? Probably. A different question would be do any votes really matter?
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=14545
On computer voting in America.

Posted by: ben | Aug 29 2015 4:11 utc | 61

@fairleft

…the only evidence that I’ve found that Sanders might be a sheepdog…. is his insistence on calling himself a socialist…

Pandering to voters might be evidence except that of these voters would know that it is not authentic. That would defeat the purpose of a ‘sheepdog’.
The Democratic Party now represents the Center (some might say the Center-Right) though they pay lip-service to the left. With discontent high, that means there is an opportunity for a third party to enter at the left. But the ‘sheepdog’ prevents this from happening and then leads the sheep back to the fold.
I’m not sure that there is any evidence that you would find convincing. There is only indirect evidence, which has been discussed in the comments. No ‘sheepdog’ will admit to being one, and no political party leader will admit to encouraging a strategic run. There is no smoking gun, and no reasonable person would expect for there to be one.
But a ‘sheepdog’ is logical device for the Democrats to employ. Someone that appears to genuinely engage with the issues that concern this segment of voters, while being loyal to the Party/Party leadership. Sanders has proven that he fills this role because he:

>> categorically dismisses running as a third-party;
>> refuses to criticize the leading candidate (Hillary) – despite the fact that she is vulnerable due to her establishment ties (he calls her a “friend” that he’s “known for 30 years”) and that her record on inequality and other issues is poor.

This is why is has been called a sheepdog. His loyalty is to the Democratic Party, not the cause – despite his life-long socialism and his age (74). Many would be thinking of retirement and legacy at his age, not loyalty to a Party that has veered to the right during his lifetime. But he enjoys many perks as a Democrat, like being on important committees. He is a ranking member on the Senate Budget Committee (as of January 2015!).
Some might hope that Sanders will become more committed if he thinks he can win the nomination. But that is unlikely. Because winning the nomination would likely mean angering the Democratic establishment for no good reason because he’s likely to lose the Presidential election. Sanders is a play-it-safe kinda guy.
So we end up with NO movement or third-party that can build to an independent force in American politics. Just like the duopoly likes it.

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Aug 29 2015 4:49 utc | 63

ben at 62 —
Thanks. The masses have to take power, it will not be given to them. It’s slow, it involves multiple steps, and it requires organization, persistence and clarity. “Not building a wall, but making a brick.”
Politics has always contained an element of theatre — you have to attract and keep a crowd. But we of course have long lived in an era where “the medium is the message.” Maybe The Donald does have a point about banning Teleprompters….

Posted by: rufus magister | Aug 29 2015 14:32 utc | 65

re 66

This is all propaganda and unadulterated BS. Ppl just come away with “France is sheltering persecuted Christians” (read for the F, Catholics.)

You are right that the French only talk about the Christians. Laicisation hasn’t got far in the policy.
However, on the ground, things are not quite like that. In the low-level bureaucracy, a high proportion of the people actually dealing with refugees or immigrants are themselves Maghrebis, and thus Muslims. In my business, it’s like that. The Maghrebi staff won’t go beyond the rules, but if there’s a delicate decision…. a Muslim case may be easier to get through.
In any case, France has not treated Muslim refugees badly. All of my Syrians have succeeded in staying in France, with or without my help. I’ve still got one who foolishly returned to Damascus last year, and I don’t know yet how I’m going to get her out.

Posted by: Laguerre | Aug 29 2015 21:03 utc | 67

@66, @77 Noirette, guest77
I’m far away and don’t know what’s up back home … but from here it looks as though the Israeli whips are getting their Donkeys in line and they are going to override Obama’s veto of the Iran agreement, or whatever it’s called.
The Europeans are certainly not going to be held accountable to the Israeli/US Congress’ decision when there’s money to be made in Iran, as you’ve pointed out long since, Noirette.
Obama tried to run to the head of the parade and lead it, but it seems now he might not be able to, and if not this will be the flat out defeat for the USA he was presumably trying to avoid – and unlike the AIIB, this one is absolutely self-inflicted.
The Israeli 5th column is exactly as deep as it needs to be. If it sinks Obama on this one, it will have proved once and for all it is the boss. That it holds the reins of power – such as it is – in the USA – and smile when you say that, Americans.
So the sands are shifting beneath Uncle Sam’s feet. In ‘isolating’ others he seems only to have holed up himself on his desert island.
Well the island is pretty good size … and he can play Friday to Bibi Crusoe, who might not kick sand in his face when he’s in a good mood … But the rest of the world … the other 95% of the world … is going to move on.
And Sam looks closer than ever to the edge and out in the cold altogether. Except for his ‘good friend’ Bibi Crusoe, of course, and the less than one-tenth of one percent of the world’s population that he represents.
Now … about those Russian sanctions … and do you think it might be time to short US stocks and make some really big money? I’ll bet the Berkshire Hathaway guy and G.Soros are thinking right along those lines themselves right about now. And heading to Russia with the proceeds.

Posted by: jfl | Aug 30 2015 8:23 utc | 69

jackrabbit @58:

Your hope that Sanders’ supporters turn to a third-party is a pipe-dream.

You realize you’re completely off-topic here? Because I was discussing whether or not Bernie is a sheepdog, I was pointing out that supporting Sanders will not block people from turning to a third party EIGHT months before the election, if that’s what they want to do. Anyway, if Sanders’ supporters are stupid sheep who can easily be led to the slaughter, why even strategize or discuss at all? And why have a sheepdog, just have the wolf come by and talk nice.

Pandering to voters might be evidence …

You didn’t seem to get my effort to help out your side of the argument. It’s not about pandering, it’s about talking the language of American voters. When most Americans hear ‘socialist’ they think Soviet Union and government ownership of nearly all property. If Sanders simply called himself a ‘social democrat’ — which is what he in fact is within the American discourse/language — he wouldn’t lose votes over being a ‘socialist’. Whenever a leftist loses votes over something like semantics, I get suspicious he/she might be a sheepdog.
Jackrabbit @63: Maybe he chooses to run as a Democrat because he thinks in the two-party system it is the only option.
Anyway, the main reason I’m making one more comment is because of this: Sanders closes to 7 points behind Clinton in new Iowa poll. That’s not sheepdog.

Posted by: fairleft | Aug 30 2015 9:31 utc | 71

Ballast at 70 —
I’d much rather sit through an entertaining political speech than a boring one. There is high drama and low comedy, life needs both.
Our age seems to have gone a little heavy on the latter, IMHO.

Posted by: rufus magister | Aug 30 2015 15:41 utc | 73

Posted by: fairleft | Aug 30, 2015 5:31:51 AM | 71
Its really not worth discussing this anymore as you seem determined to view the speculation that Sanders is a ‘sheepdog’ as a whisper campaign against Sanders. It is not. And there is a logical basis for such informed speculation that you refuse to engage with.
Sanders bonefides as a socialist (though marred by his close association with the Democratic Party) and the support he has garnered (crowds, polling) does not disprove the theory that Sanders acts as a ‘sheepdog’.

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Aug 30 2015 19:32 utc | 75

Good piece by Ilargi at theautomaticearth–
The Real Refugee Crisis Is In The Future

That is the future. It will no more go away by itself, and by ignoring it, than the present crisis, which, devastating as it may be, pales in comparison. Europe risks being overrun in the next two decades. And as things stand, it has no plans whatsoever to deal with this, other than the military, and police dogs, barbed wire, tear gas, fences and stun grenades
This lack of realism on both the political and the humane level will backfire on Europe and turn it into a very unpleasant place to be, both for Europeans and for refugees. Most likely it will turn the entire continent into a warzone.

Throw in the Ukraine and you have to wonder if it’s all going according to plan.

Posted by: Nana 2007 | Aug 31 2015 14:36 utc | 77

further to 78 —
What’s summer in Kiev like without a protest by the fascists?
If Pat Bateman’s link on the armed demonstration on the Maidan has too much spin, Fort Russ has distilled some local reporting.
As their article notes, the proposed measures do not comply with Minsk-2, they do not provide real local autonomy worked out with local, Novorossiyan authorities. They are widely seen as a Potemkin village, simulating compliance.
Yet a Pravyi Sektor spokesfascist describes the bill as an “anti-constitutional coup. This is an attempt of usurpation of authority. Each deputy, who today vote for the laws proposed by Poroshenko, is a traitor to the public and must be held accountable….” [Emphasis added.]

Posted by: rufus magister | Aug 31 2015 23:30 utc | 79

Posted by: jfl | Sep 1, 2015 8:58:44 AM | 80
The route goes via Izmir, Turkey. Some informed persons – in German – claim that the human traffickers are the same as ISIS human, weapons traffickers.
The EU shedding crocodile tears on dead refugees in the Mediterranean is incredibly disingenious – all that is needed is a safe land route from Izmir.
I think that the refugees arrive in Germany via train from Budapest, Greece and Italy – via Austria, is a revolt of the EU periphery. Germany will have to take the refugees or give the periphery an equal vote.

Posted by: somebody | Sep 1 2015 13:24 utc | 81

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Aug 30, 2015 3:32:53 PM | 75
Adding for clarity: It is the nature of the Democratic Party and the duopoly that is in the spotlight. Sanders himself is secondary.
And fairleft, you are not the first to call for the left to prepare for Sanders (inevitable) capitulation to the establishment candidate. That was discussed within days of Sander’s entry into the race. Why? Because Sanders Party-loyalty was recognized immediately as sheepdog behavoir.
I should also note that BAR’s political analysis and willingness to ‘call a spade a spade’ has been noteworthy. They originated the term ‘black misleadership class’.

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Sep 1 2015 14:43 utc | 83

@84 ruralito
‘… the bomb violates a 2010 Obama administration pledge …’
Is there a single pledge made by the Obama administration left unviolated?
This bomb is truly monstrous, dialed in for a mere 0.3 kilotons to 50kt … it’s made to be used.
Made to be used. They’re going to build 4 or 5 hundred of them, for 11 billion dollars. Made to be used.

Posted by: jfl | Sep 2 2015 23:46 utc | 85

32 killed in US drone strike in eastern Afghanistan

The Afghan army’s 203rd Military Corps said in a statement that the drone hit Gharak area in the province’s Ahmadabad district, situated 200 kilometers (124 miles) southwest of the capital, Kabul, on Thursday.
On August 26, an aerial assault against an area in Afghanistan’s eastern province of Nangarhar claimed the lives of at least three members of one family.
In a similar incident, local authorities said at least seven people were killed after US drones pounded the Chak and Day Mirdad districts of Maidan Wardak Province.
The CIA spy agency regularly uses drones for airstrikes and spying missions in Afghanistan as well as Pakistan’s northwestern tribal belt near the Afghan border, among other places.
Washington has been conducting targeted killings through the remotely-controlled armed drones in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen.
The US says the airstrikes target members of al-Qaeda and other militants, but according to local officials and witnesses, civilians have in most cases been the victims of the attacks.

The Nobel Peace Prize Laureate’s endless sequence of more or less random assassinations continues. Makes you proud to be an American, doesn’t it – or jealous if you’re not? How many other countries have a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate for a president! War is Peace.

Posted by: jfl | Sep 4 2015 1:40 utc | 87

Could this actually be about to happen?
Ignoring the quite astoundingly ludicrous comments made by the White House yesterday that such action would be “destabilising and counter-productive”, which followed a pattern of US condemnation for attacks against IS when Syrian jets were reported to have bombed IS targets in Iraq, is Russia preparing an end game?
Though perhaps lost through translations and interpretations, to me the article’s title is only misleading in the sense that Putin didn’t say it was premature to talk about future Russian intervention against IS, but that it was premature to say they were stationed to start the fight. Hardly a ringing rebuttal of a quiet flurry of recent media reports that Russia had entered the fray.
Note, too, Putin’s opinion that the effectiveness of US airstrikes against IS was low. If he wants a job done well, is he about to do it himself?
I thought it strange for Lavrov to recently tour the middle-east trying to drum up support for a coalition against IS if such a coalition was to exclude Russian participation.
Though largely ignored, Egypt’s Sisi made his first foreign trip as head of state to Russia, it’s an alliance in full bloom, and I think they are up to something. The Egyptian military’s despair when Morsi urged jihad against the Syrian army was in no small part the man’s downfall. Sisi visited Russia again last week (third time as president), where the coalition against IS was discussed. They met again yesterday during China’s victory day celebrations. It was interesting too that Egypt came out to warn against the violation of Syria’s sovereignty when Turkey began to recently intervene unilaterally.
Putin today announced that snap elections could be held in Syria, thereby forming a power sharing deal. After nearly 5 years, is Putin about to seize the opportunity for intervention in Syria? To sure up the Syrian Government and its military under the anti-IS banner, and put down this “Arab Spring” once and for all. At a time when so many are fleeing the threat of IS, who could argue against it?

Posted by: Pat Bateman | Sep 4 2015 10:03 utc | 89

Putin: Syria’s Assad Ready to Hold Snap Election, Share Power

“[T]he Syrian president agrees with … holding early elections, let’s say, parliamentary ones, establishing contacts with the so-called healthy opposition, bringing them into governing,” President Vladimir Putin told journalists at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Russia.
“We really want to create some kind of an international coalition to fight terrorism and extremism,” “To this end, we hold consultations with our American partners – I have personally spoken on the issue with U.S. President Obama.”
Putin also said he had spoken about the coalition with leaders in Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and others. He added that international support for rebuilding the statehood of the countries which have suffered at the hand of ISIS [Islamic State group], such as Syria, Iraq and Libya, should only occur with full respect for history, culture and local traditions.
“We in Russia, and me personally a few years ago, said it straight that pervasive problems would emerge, if our so-called Western partners continue maintaining their flawed … foreign policy, especially in the regions of the Muslim world, Middle East, North Africa, which they pursue to date.”
The Russian leader also noted that the US was not facing a refugee crisis of the same magnitude as the EU, despite blindly following Washington’s “shortsighted” orders.

Hmmm … I imagine he has spoken to all the people he says he has … is Europe scared enough by the ‘millions of refugees’ to give peace a chance?

Posted by: jfl | Sep 4 2015 12:38 utc | 91

One paragraph in the Saker’s recount of the parade in Beijing stood out …
The Moscow-Beijing Express: From May 9th in Moscow to September 3rd in Beijing, the Anti-West Order Comes Full Circle

Mrs. Park speaks quite good Chinese and the Korean press was calling this visit her “sixth summit” with Xi, both of whom were elected as presidents in the spring of 2013. Like Putin, Park is known to have a very good working relationship with Xi and they like and respect each other. The Korean media supported her visit. It was announced that Park and Xi discussed de-nuclearizing the Korean peninsula and restarting the 6+1 talks, which are always constituent pleasers back home. I wonder if that includes any US atom bombs on Korean soil or in Korean waters, along with North Korea’s? Given that South Korea is an occupied country, with almost 30,000 US soldiers squatting in nine military bases, and whose American commander even has authority over South Korea’s military, we will never know. But the fact that President Park stood up to America’s mafia diplomacy, surely warms the hearts of both Xi and Putin, whose two countries border North Korea and its keep-you-guessing diplomacy.
Japan and the Philippines were not so courageous.

It’s hard to feel solidarity with someone named Park from South Korea, but it is easy to feel solidarity with the Koreans, North and South. Great to see anyone standing up to the Wicked Witches of the West. It would be great if China could help broker a reunited Korea.

Posted by: jfl | Sep 6 2015 6:10 utc | 93

‘UK parliament to vote on air raids against Daesh in Syria’

Cameron has already suggested that he would like to ask Britain’s parliament to vote to join the so-called US-led campaign against the militants in Syria, after UK lawmakers rejected military strikes in the Arab country in 2013.
However, he announced on Friday that he would seek general consensus before putting the proposal before the parliament.

It used to be the anti-Democrat Party in Thailand that tried to emulate the Tories, but now it’s the Tories in the UK emulating the military dictatorship in Thailand. No vote if the British electorate vote in the ‘wrong’ people.
I don’t know how it works in the UK, but can’t the opposition table a bill forbidding the government to wage war against ISIS (wink wink, nod nod : Assad)?

Posted by: jfl | Sep 6 2015 10:45 utc | 95

DWS’ backing the deal means that – independent of the ‘goodness’ or ‘badness’ of the deal itself – the TNCs in the US have decided that they want a shot at the Iranian economic action they anticipate coming into play, the US’ histrionics regardless. Trump has said he’d back the deal as POTUS, which would be the traditional Republicrat position. DWS and the Donald agree not to fly in the face of international decisions they cannot control, but to try to benefit from them rather than shoot off their own feet … that is benefit and not shoot off the feet of their backers.
The Iranians have no illusions about the US or this ‘agreement’. But they do see that trade opportunities are opening up as a result of it, no matter the words on the paper. And having seen their opportunities, they’ve took ’em. Ditto DWS and the Donald, although it’s the downside of not takin’ ’em that’s prevailed in the latter case.
As well, the US would look like the foolish dupe of Israel that it is, had it not run around to the head of this parade, marching off without it, and ‘led’ it – as the ‘leader’ of the ‘free world’, or whatever is the current media epithet for the moribund USA.

Posted by: jfl | Sep 6 2015 20:55 utc | 97