Ignore the source and focus on the message

U.S. President Barack Obama is not just the world’s best gun salesman, he’s also the world’s worst gun control spokesperson.

Despite immediately politicizing every single shooting event in recent years by using his bully pulpit to lecture the American public on why citizens must give up their rights to feel safe, his message has fallen on deaf ears. Why?

Mainly because a man who consistently orders drone strikes on women and children all over the world, intentionally bombs a Doctors Without Borders hospital into oblivion, and who launched more shady wars across the globe than George W. Bush, doesn’t exactly hold much credibility as a humanitarian pacifist looking to “save the children.”

I'm of the thought that our criminal justice system needs to be overhauled completely. It is open season on black people in many of our cities and towns. Do I feel safe around police? Hell no, aside from my friends on the force.

North Korea's hydrogen bomb? Not a good thing if they really do have the bomb. But it might be a hoax like last time.

Bernie Sanders was on Larry Willmore last night. Great showing.

Saudi Arabia...not a great move executing Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr.

Ben Carson is hilarious. I'm pretty sure he's really a cartoon character, like Judge Doom in Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

I was at the GOS during my holiday for bits and pieces. Wow, it got really nasty over there. I mean, 2004 was pretty nasty, but whoa--last week got close.

Christmas and New Year's was its usual crazy. I traveled to NYC with my mum. Got airsick on the way (forgot to take my pills)...and I sat near the rear of the aircraft. If I book tickets, I always sit on the wing in an aisle seat because of motion sickness issues. In the back, it was super wobbly (due to lots of turbulence) and I was a mess. Puked my guts out right before landing. Good times.

My brother hosted us and he kind of gets carried away with Christmas. My brother and I grew up poor after our parents split up in the mid-80's. There were some years where we barely had a Christmas, so my brother tends to overcompensate for that. Hence, 24 hours of Christmas music, movies, and tons of family time with the sister-in-law and the nieces (both girls, one is 13 and the other is 8--about to be 9 in about a week). It was also the first time I was in their new apartment in Kips Bay (between Gramercy Park and Murray Hill). Much roomier than their old place in Spanish Harlem.

I once again had an argument with my brother about Clinton versus Sanders. He's in the tank for Clinton. I tried to sway him with Sanders articles and videos, but he's unwavering. We even had a detailed discussion about both candidates' policies (we kind of nerded out on that hard core). He's a pure Democratic loyalist and a capitalist. I'm the dirty f***ing hippie and staunch Leftist. My mum supports Clinton as well, but she can be swayed. She's one of the people who thinks Bernie can't win. I blame network and cable news. That's all she watches, so she's bought into the "inevitable" meme.

My oldest niece is a Clinton fan because of her father and because she thinks it would be really cool to have a woman president. I even explained simple policy stuff with her but she didn't change her mind. She was like, "Bernie is too angry! Why is he always mad?" Yeah, I can't deal with a now-rebellious 13 year old girl. My youngest niece doesn't care. She's still an eccentric goofball who likes dolls, cars, robots (we watched a lot of Robotech and Transformers when she lived with me for a while), and FailArmy videos on YouTube.

We went ice skating at Bryant Park, which was basically a swimming pool because of the unusually warm weather--it was in the mid-50s till December 30th or so. I did some last minute shopping at Macy's--bad move, but I'd rather buy stuff for the kids there than have to worry about extra luggage. Some lady got into a shouting match with a guy on the escalator. Not a fun sight. We also went to the Lincoln Center (yeah, the Koch brothers have their name all over the place there) to watch an English language opera version of The Barber of Seville. It was absolutely hilarious. I think the show we saw there last year was better (an awesome black comedy opera of Hansel & Gretel), but overall it was a blast.

The kids convinced me to stay a few more days (through New Year's), and I decided to take my brother and sis-in-law out on the town for a bit. They almost never have time to go out because of the kids and my brother's work schedule (works for a private equity firm a distance north of Yonkers and his commute is ridiculous). NYE was spent in two places. We started off at The Mercury Bar, off of 3rd and 33rd. We had been there before and thought it would be a proper place to ring in the new year. Instead, it was full of at-their-throats Michigan State and Alabama fans. Suffice to say, the Spartan fans did not like the way that game went. And I think the NCAA might want to rethink scheduling college football games on the biggest party night of the year. The scene in there was not to our liking, so we left around 10pm.

The next joint we hit was a place my brother didn't want to go to initially. Since he's upper middle class now, and works for a private equity firm, he doesn't get to rub his elbows with the working people of the world. What I'm really saying is that he's a bar snob (food and technology snob, too, for that matter). If it's a dive bar, neighborhood bar, or someplace where he can't get those rich hipster mixology tour class drinks...he won't walk in the door unless dragged in, kicking and screaming. Since I was the party captain and we were running out of time to find a bar that didn't have a private party going on, he didn't have much of a choice when I suggested Paddy Reilly's Music Bar--the local Irish pub on 2nd and 29th.

Paddy's was my kind of a place. They had a $10 dollar cover, but that was for the 80's cover band that was on, so I didn't mind. The bartender, a blonde Irishwoman with the most attractive brogue ever, had my attention. Spent most of time blatantly flirting with her (which she was amused by), while my sis-in-law tried to convince me that I should get her phone number and ask her out for coffee or something. I almost never do that with bartenders--just a rule of mine. We're conducting a business transaction (they pour, I drink, I give money for drinks and hefty tip if they're awesome or if we're friends--which they usually are), nothing more, nothing less--unless they hand me their phone number. Then the rules change. I was just happy to flirt.

We danced, met a lot of interesting people, did a lot of shots (bartender comped us five rounds of shots at one point after I taught her how to make a red-headed slut--Jaegermeister, cranberry juice, & peach schnapps--my favorite shot on the planet), and I even got on the stage and sang with the band for a bit (some Darius Rucker and Journey). We also sat and reminisced about the past year and the pondered on the year to come. My bar tab should have been well over $200 dollars, but she hooked us up and charged me half. I guess holidays and flirting works. I tipped her pretty good in the end. We did the whole countdown thing and all was merry. Still can't sing Auld Lang Syne to save my life.

In the end, the trip was a fun time, a great time to get away from Orlando, and a wonderful reminder of how much I miss having my brother around. Heh, I really have to move back to NYC. It's basically my kind of city. Have to find a new job first, and for a guy like me who fell into the defense industry with no degree (dropped out of college four times--bad timing)...that's going to be tough. I'm also glad to be back into my routine--hanging out with friends, playing poker, and not living in a hotel room for three weeks like I did in December before I went on holiday (Killeen, TX is not the best of places to be in). Yeah, I really need to move...LOL.

…the underlying cause of the New Police Brutality in the US.

I thought this was settled science; a known known. Maybe the studies are being suppressed by the media.

There are dozens of papers investigating and explaining the phenomenon. There's a general agreement about the cause of the epidemic of police violence against Americans. Below are excerpts from one summary (with an excellent bibliography and live links):

Coming Home to Roost: American Militarism, War Culture, and Police Brutality

•• The soldiers who are lucky enough to return in one physical piece are often shattered into bits and fragments of mental and emotional distress. Often times, these soldiers face limited options - one of the most common of which is transitioning to a career in law enforcement.

•• Police training mimics military training, both physically and mentally. Transition programs that funnel soldiers to police forces have become common at all levels of government. The changing face of law enforcement is indicative of this process as forces that are traditionally advertised to "protect and serve" have become noticeably militaristic. Perhaps even more concerning is the fact that soldiers, many of whom carry the mental baggage of war, are being streamlined from the streets of Fallujah to the city blocks of the US.

•• In a recent article for "Police: The Law Enforcement Magazine," Mark Clark tells us that military veterans seeking employment in police ranks "is happening right now in numbers unseen since the closing days of the Vietnam War." To assist with job placement and transitioning, organizations like "Hire Heroes USA" works with "about 100 veterans each week" - at least 20% of whom are seeking law enforcement jobs.[37] Law enforcement agencies like the Philadelphia Police Department and San Jose PD, which boast of being structured as "a paramilitary organization," actively seek military veterans by awarding preferential treatment.[38] Many police departments across the country have added increased incentives and benefits, including the acceptance of military active duty time towards retirement, to acquire veterans.

•• An October 2013 edition of the Army Times reports that "more than seven in 10 (local law enforcement agencies) said they attend military-specific job fairs, and three quarters reported developing relationships with the Labor Department's local veterans employment representatives." Also, "Half said they work with military transition assistance programs, and half also said they develop relationships with local National Guard and reserve units."[39] Most local departments also have some type of veterans hiring preference, and "more than 90 percent reported having at least one vet in a senior leadership position."

•• The correlation between the mental baggage of war, the increased hiring of military combat veterans as police officers, and an observable escalation of aggressive and violent police brutality is difficult to ignore. Police departments have screening processes, but many are lacking. The lingering effects from being in a war zone are unquestionable, and signs and symptoms which often are suppressed during "downtimes" tend to surface and intensify under distress - a common occurrence for police officers.

•• A 2006 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that … the "mental health effects of combat deployment can manifest themselves in the daily activities of police work with more severity than perhaps other lines of work." Specifically, "Officers' combat experiences can affect how they use their weapons, their adherence to use-of-force policies, how they drive their police vehicles, and how they treat citizens with whom they come into contact." [43]

•• An extensive 2006 report by the United Nations Human Rights Committee concluded that, in the United States, the "War on Terror" has "created a generalized climate of impunity for law enforcement officers, and contributed to the erosion of what few accountability mechanisms exist for civilian control over law enforcement agencies. As a result, police brutality and abuse persist unabated and undeterred across the country."[79]

Add the deliberate militarization of domestic police forces to the mix and we have an alarming trend - one that is highlighted by the near-daily occurrence of indiscriminate police violence across the country.

•• Rather than seeing themselves as public servants, police officers have increasingly embraced the "us vs. them" mentality - anyone who isn't a cop is a potential threat. In doing so, they have become "mindless drones" void of any conscience amidst a world that is becoming increasingly unconscionable - the ultimate tool on an ever-intensifying class-war landscape. The collective baggage they bring with them - products of objectification, war culture, militarism, and combat-induced mental illness - serve as positive attributes in the eyes of those who use them as tools of oppression, while representing erratic triggers of violence to everyone else. The war has come home. The chickens are here to roost.

Americans will just have to adapt. I don't think it's going anywhere anytime soon.

link

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey marched across another line last week. Asked about his push for greatly enhanced executive powers, he told reporters that there was a precedent in “Hitler’s Germany.”

Police brutality, that's a sickness that's infected everywhere. I have stated what a pissant podunk Hellpeckersville( don't look for it on a map, that's just what I call it) is. Just 30 or so miles NW of Philly, and for years and years the cops were part of the community, in my town and all the little pissant backwaters surrounding. Over the past 20 years or so that has changed drastically and anybody who wanted to think differently got a rude awakening about four year ago when three cops who knew the man they were about to murder in the street was mentally ill, unarmed and off his meds. They didn't wing him, they didn't try to talk him down, they just shot him dead, and not a one lost a days pay over it. They all knew him, knew who he was, he'd done it before, been taken in before, for harassing people in town or in a store, what have you. I guess they were tired of being called out for such a tiresome chore. They said this unarmed man came towards the three of the armed officers in a threatening manner--case closed.

I thought perhaps you might like to see some of the prints I pull before I cut them up. Warm colors on plain paper. Tonight I'll print on sheet music.

GG, thx for covering this topic. Good to see that folks at C99 are staying on top of this topic.

good article

The Kurds are eager to fulfill their dream of a united Rojava along the entire northern border, and to deny them at least some progress toward that goal would be to stop the only effective ally against IS in northern Syria. If the West does not work with them on this objective, it will push them into the arms of Moscow, which has made clear to the PYD that it is quite willing to help; in fact, there is already clear Kurdish coordination with Russian forces in northern Aleppo province.

At the same time, allowing the PYD to seize the entire border is unacceptable to Turkey, and the West needs Ankara's assistance on several fronts, including the refugee issue and the fight against IS. Therefore, if the PYD offensive continues toward Manbij and perhaps even further beyond Turkey's Euphrates redline, the United States and its coalition partners will need to be careful in determining whether, where, and how to support the advance -- and what to say in response to Turkish protests.

For its part, Ankara will need to decide how far it is willing to go in enforcing that redline given the political and diplomatic risks of deeper intervention, especially against the only ground force making progress against IS in Syria. In that sense, the PYD's offensive is as clear a signal as Caesar's crossing of the Rubicon: the die is cast.