That escalated quickly!
I totally did NOT see this coming.
One day the Qatar/Saudi rivalry wasn't even on the map.
The next day this happened.
In a meeting with Kuwait’s Emir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, who was in Jeddah to mediate in an ongoing rift between Doha and a number of Persian Gulf Arab states, Qatar was given a one-day ultimatum to fulfil ten conditions set by the Al Saud regime.
Saudi Arabia gives #Qatar 24 hr ultimatum to fulfill 10 conditions that have been sent to #Kuwait https://t.co/OpWGvvDY7r #Iran #QatarCrisis
— Reza H. Akbari (@rezahakbari) June 6, 2017
Maybe something is being lost in the cultural translation, but 24-hour ultimatums usually end with "...or else you are a dead man."
On Monday, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Bahrain, the Maldives and a number of other Muslim states cut off diplomatic ties with the Doha government, saying they will suspend air, sea and land transport with Qatar. They have accused Qatar of supporting terrorism and destabilising the region.
ROTFL! Saudis are denouncing Qatar for supporting terrorism and destabilising the region?
Pot meet kettle. You are black!
Qatar is the location of a huge U.S. military base, so if a conflict happens, we 'll be in middle of it.
Diplomatic channels have already been cut off.
Guess who is to blame for this crisis? Putin!
US investigators believe Russian hackers breached Qatar's state news agency and planted a fake news report that contributed to a crisis among the US' closest Gulf allies, according to US officials briefed on the investigation.
Blame Russia!
In an interesting and ironic twist, those great allies, KSA and UAE are in open conflict in Yemen.
Comments
The Insane Orange Clown tweets
What is that supposed to mean?
Trying to decipher Trump's semi-literate tweets, and to distill from them anything resembling a coherent policy, is impossible. Die-hard Trump supporters continue to imagine that he has some consistent policy objectives in mind, but to me he seems to be just flying by the seat of his pants, having no clear idea whatsoever of what the hell he's doing.
On the other hand, Trump's whacky version of "leadership" may turn out to be at least preferable to the well-organized machinations of America's entrenched MIC, which has hardly been notable for its FP successes over the past few preceding decades.
native
Definitely agree with your first paragraph
The second part I have trouble with, although I have to agree it is possible it could somehow turn out to be a good kind of crazy in the long run, I'm also very anxious that he's going to take it all right over the cliff. It's like having a drunk 10-year-old at the wheel. Yikes.
I hope someone has this talk with him soon.
For the Knopfler lyrics
which he could have written yesterday, see this link http://www.metrolyrics.com/dont-crash-the-ambulance-lyrics-mark-knopfler...
This has always been my best hope
said..
I've said from the beginning that if forced to choose between incompetent evil and competent evil, I'll take the incompetent one every time. Obama and Hillary both scare me in ways Trump never could. Trump is a child playing with 7200 nuclear warheads. Hillary is a well-informed and carefully calculating individual who has concluded that war with Russia is a good thing.
A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard
@SnappleBC With you.
With you.
I can't begin to tell you how much it terrifies me that Hillary Clinton and Teresa May both think nuclear war is a fine idea.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
It's like "covfefe"
No one can figure out its true meaning.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/05/31/life-covfefes-fast-donald-tru...
I prefer tRump's No
Clue to "governing" to Pence's I-Actually-Know-How-to-Govern approach.
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
Ultimately the insane kings and emirs (clowns with crowns)
bear full responsibility for their own ideology, policies, and actions.
Along with the Western elites who have built up and cultivated these dictators for generations.
https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/saudi-arabia-western-leaders-mourn-...
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-30962740
http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/dozens_of_top_us_officials_s...
https://www.yahoo.com/news/saudi-hungary-sign-nuclear-pact-181746528.html
Many observers seem to be operating according to a moral calculus that puts the dysfunctionality of KSA and Gulf politics all on Trump, with no responsibility on the actors themselves. That, at the very least, would bear more explaining.
@lotlizard What's more interesting
What's more interesting than the establishment's use of Trump as a scapegoat is that apparently it's now A-OK to criticize Saudi Arabia for their human rights violations. Whereas they previously were rarely mentioned except in the most neutral terms. Our power structure here used to do everything possible to protect the power players in Saudi Arabia. What has changed?
Could it be that Trump has actually managed to do an end-around and cut a deal with the Saudis that shuts out the Bushes and Clintons?
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Even the Austrians gave the Serbs more time,
with regard to the demands made after the demise of AD Franz Ferdinand in 1914.
I see Trump has weighed in via Twitter. God help us all.
(Edit)
I see also that the Austrians had ten demands. Let's hope things don't spin out of control that far.
(Edited)
Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.
i wonder how long...
before the first coup attempt is launched.
Absolutely!
That's precisely what this is, a coup attempt.
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
Yes the second front
In the war of Shia aggression. Ha! Blockade cept for American ships of course. Gutter (Qatar) been stepping out on its BFF's. Still like my solution to all the horror the best. That's for Israel to make glass of the whole Middle East and the North America axis, the Euro Zone and the Russia/China Confederacy can divide up the oil. Nothin left but a few pumping stations and some feral goats.
That's not nice.
Actually Qatar is about the best of the Gulf states, and given some time, what they've started (liberalism, albeit slowly) will spread.
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
Ok I take it back
In any sensible world we would be friends with a mostly secular Iran and at war with KSA. But no we had to engineer a coup that removed Mossedeq.
I don't get the anti-Iran thing at all
They are some of the greatest people, and their government, while problematic in some ways, is far less so than the Gulf states, and if Qatar is edging towards liberalism, Iran is certainly out-pacing them. It makes no sense to not embrace normalized relations with Iran... Oh, except that Israel says no.
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
♪♫ Muslims & the Christians & the PLO / And Israel still says no
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApDAgCEgnS8]
that is just in from Iran
Selbstmordanschlag am Khomeini-Mausoleum, Schüsse im iranischen Parlament
Im iranischen Parlament haben Männer mit automatischen Waffen auf Sicherheitskräfte geschossen. Am Mausoleum von Ajatollah Khomeini fielen ebenfalls Schüsse, ein Selbstmordattentäter sprengte sich in die Luft.
Google translation:
Suicide attack at the Khomeini mausoleum, shots in the Iranian parliament
In the Iranian parliament, men with automatic weapons shot at security forces. At the mausoleum of Ajatollah Khomeini also shots were fired, a suicide bomber burst into the air.
Iran shootings: Parliament and Khomeini shrine attacked
https://www.euronews.com/live
Arabnews report, Daesh claims responsibility
thanks, my unfortunate immediate thought bubble was CIA, because I can't keep up with who is and who isn't causing enough terror these days.
Several killed in attacks on Iran parliament, shrine as Daesh claims responsibility
I guess Daesh is their word for ISIL? I don't know. Iran is helping Iraq and Syria, does that mean they're U.S. enemies or allies? I don't know. It's all about peak oil and how the transition is made for them as well as us, that's what I think.
I think Trump is a disaster as Precedent, but I'm very glad Clinton is not in the White House right now. Very glad.
@eyo I should be
I should be more understanding about, at least, the rank and file of Daesh/IS, because they're probably tormented souls who have lost family or friends in the U.S.' constant bombing campaign, punctuated by black sites, which has turned the whole area into a shitshow. But I'm really really angry at the organization.
I think my anger is not solely the product of USGov propaganda, because most of the people in the ME seem to give Daesh no credibility either. They are not well-liked. That's why they need US forces in the region fighting them; it's the only way they can establish credibility, by fighting the US.
If you're fighting the most hated villain, you start to look like a good guy. That's the same mechanism Hillary and the Dems are attempting to use with Trump--not entirely successfully.
Daesh are run either by a bunch of fanatics who are attempting to murder everyone not like them while simultaneously erasing history, or by a bunch of cold-eyed CIA recruits doing same.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
The trouble is
there's a lot of groupthink in the ME. It's common enough to walk through a Sunni neighborhood in Lebanon for instance, and see Daesh flags (you won't see that in Beirut though).
My experience is that most partisans of that line of thought aren't actual victims. Yes, they are outraged at US aggression and the slaughter of civilians, as are we all, yet they channel this anger through the extremely rigid and authoritarian lens of Salafism and terror-culture. By the latter, I mean the culture of people who get off on that stuff, it's a thing. They watch these creepy terror videos, which typically start off deceptively with cheesy harmonizing songs, then segue into beheadings.
People go along with a lot of crazy stuff.
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
@dervish Guess it
Guess it depends on whether you're a Salafist to begin with. Pick your team, then whatever your team says is right!
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
@dervish This is overly
This is overly simplistic. But one reason is that Iran didn't stay told.
We overthrew their government in the 50s. They overthrew it right back in the 70s, and pretty much stayed out of our control from then on. That's not allowed.
There's a lot more to it than that, including the creation of both Israel and Saudi Arabia (both ill-advised colonial bullshit, IMO, and there must have been another, better way to help Jewish victims of the horrorshow that was Nazi Europe), but that's definitely part of it.
Hell, even I remember the Iran hostage crisis with a residue of grief and shock. Of course, those of us who were ordinary people in the U.S. didn't understand that the US had overthrown their government in the 50s, so to us it came out of the blue.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
The legacy of Gulbenkian's pen
is all over the middle east, and is heavily responsible for the amount of continued instability there.
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
@dervish I had to look
I had to look up who that was. I knew what had happened, but not who had personally done it.
Just as bad was the Eisenhower Admin's idea of how to keep the Middle East from turning Communist.
The things that have been done in the defense of capitalism...
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Yeah, Old Calouste was known
as "Mr. 5%" because he talked his way into getting a 5% royalty on all oil revenues from the region, for his trouble in all of that strenuous pen-work. That's some heavy lifting there.
My favorite theme from the Ike administration is when they would run off a copy of the US Constitution, and basically just graft it onto newly independent countries all over. No nod to local culture, history, institutions or traditions. We have the magic bullet, and now we'll give it to you.
Idiots.
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
@dervish Apparently
Apparently it was their idea to stoke up the religious fundamentalism to keep the ME from going Communist.
What a great idea.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
We can do fundamentalism a different way
We can make it benign, but the Masters of the Universe don't want to hear about it. They want to back the Wahhabis, specifically. Bunch of nihilist fruitcakes.
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
I've always pronounced it "Catarrh"
If we're really behind the isolation of Qatar as we seem to be bragging, how long before they kick us out of the airbase there? They're surely within their rights.
They say that there's a broken light for every heart on Broadway
They say that life's a game and then they take the board away
They give you masks and costumes and an outline of the story
And leave you all to improvise their vicious cabaret-- A. Moore
You are correct
Qatar starts with a "Qaf", sometimes described as a hard K, but it it's a very guttural K, and some border that into G, but it's really more K than that, just enunciated deeper in the throat. Kah-tar, emphasis on the first syllable.
There is no set standard on Arabic to English transliteration, but pretty much every time you see a "Q" without a "U", you know that they are transcribing the letter Qaf.
It's good to see you here in the free-speech zone, JohnnyQ!
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
I think the Arabic sounds more like "Cutter" than "Catarrah"
(Based on pronunciation of Arabs from Lebanon and Jordan living in Doha for many years.) As for the beginning of the word, often tranliterated as q'
, most Americans will never get closer than the hsrd c sound of "cutter."
I've heard people only hear the sounds of
their own language. Speaking another's language you may not hear the subtle differences, but THEY do. Is why clicks and whistles of some languages aren't noticed and have heard why some Asians have trouble with Ls and Rs.
Substitute teaching several years ago I had a ME girl constantly giving me a hard time because I wasn't pronouncing her name right. So I told her to say my name, which is middlin' easy German surname with only a couple weird consonant combinations. After a dozen failed attempts I told her it ain't easy is it?
There is no such thing as TMI. It can always be held in reserve for extortion.
I noticed that the "terrorist support"
that KSA et al is calling out includes support for Bahraini dissidents and the people in Qatif, eastern Saudi Arabia, where the oil and the Shia are. A real tell is that one of the ten demands is that Qatar shut down al Jazeera and the rest of the Qatari media that have at times cautiously expressed support for these.
Qatar is slightly liberal, with a freer press than anywhere else in the Gulf. KSA can't stand this. It's interesting that criticizing what happened to Nimr al-Nimr now constitutes support for terrorism. This is every bit about squashing an independent and critical press and foreign policy, and has absolutely nothing to do with real terrorists.
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
Unless you're one of the many members of the House of Saud
The Kingdom is a blight upon the rest of humanity. I wonder if they're concerned about the suppressed British report. Should Corbyn win, it would make interesting reading.
(Edited)
Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.
What you're witnessing
is a last ditch grasp for power from the House of Saud. Their day is mostly done, and they know it. They are sitting on a powder keg.
Qatar is demonstrating a slow and easy way out, if the Saudis quash that, expect that they will fall the hard way.
I don't envy Prince Tamim's position, he has always had a real tightrope to walk.
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
Full disclosure:
I've met HH Prince Tamim, and attended his (first) wedding.
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
Dervish
Given that the Gulf states all want to retain their various monarchies (so say the various monarchs), who would they be happy with in Qatar?
Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.
Prince Tamim
hands down. If there's a coup, they'll likely still install an al-Thani, possibly Tamim's older brother Jasim, or a cousin, but the people will want Tamim. I have the utmost respect for his father, Hamad. What he started was a slow and steady transformation and modernization of Qatar. Other Gulf states just bathed in the money, Sheikh Hamad brought universities, and slow liberalization of society. This bit of openness is addictive and contagious, and I doubt that Qataris could revert to the sort of society that exists in KSA, or even the UAE.
Tamim was chosen as heir specifically because he's on board with his father's program, Jasim was side-lined because he wasn't. I had my doubts about Tamim, specifically about his support for Syrian rebels, but I also understand the enormous pressure he was under. Qatar is unlikely as an independent state, because of its size. I think he was maintaining as much independence as he could get away with.
The independent path he's trying to cut is being challenged now, and if he falls, Qatar will become just another minor Gulf state satellite, orbiting (and aping) the the KSA. If he maintains the throne, expect big changes across the Gulf, as each state asserts its will more rigorously. I'm praying for his success.
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
Thanks Dervish
Reminds me a little of Zog of Albania having to navigate the demands of his fellow Albanians with the demands of Mussolini's fascist Italy, prior to 1939.
Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.
That's a good analogy n/t
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
How was the band?
Did you hit on any of the bridesmaids?
The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?
The band was great!
I did the sword dance, but actually brandished a spear... I'm always a little odd.
The women were in the palace, we were outside with campfires and tents. They serve roasted sheep (whole) on a mountain of rice and vegetables. The platters are probably 1.75 meters in diameter, and hefted by about eight guys.
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
Sounds awesome.
Did it look anything like this?
The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?
That's exactly the type of tray
Though they were piled higher, and there were many of them. People cluster around the trays and eat in shifts.
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
Qatar paid 1 billion$ ransom
Those darn Russians
I have got to keep my dawgs from watching tv or reading the internet. I came home today and found my dawgs had pooped in my house.
Russia has interfered with the investigation of Seth Rich's murder.
And Russia wants to go to war against the US and have been building their military bases close to our borders.
As we know, Russia is one of the reasons Hillary lost the election to Trump.
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
Here's another. Enjoy
Changed video.
The whole region treats their guest workers poorly, including
Americans and Europeans. My former brother-in-law worked in Qatar (involved in horse racing) and then in UAE. One of his daughters did/does work for Emirates Airline, nice travel opportunities with guest workers (who apparently never flew before) shitting in the aisles. And falcons getting their own seats in First Class. Many Africans as guest workers, in both countries.
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
They frequently treat guest workers poorly,
but then again don't we all?
If the poorest Nepali guest worker falls ill in the Gulf, he'll receive first class medical care promptly, and without limits, and he has a legal status that grants him certain rights. Illegals in the US have none of that, they are intentionally put into a legal "gray area", where they may or may not be able to receive what they need.
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
@dervish Guest workers, hell.
Guest workers, hell. Those of us who are born here have little or no right to care.
We'll get taken to the emergency room if we collapse, sure. Then we'll be charged so much for it that it bankrupts our families. Not what I would see as a human-rights-driven policy.
Of course we don't treat guest workers better than we treat ourselves. They get worse treatment, but it's in the form of even lower wages and a constant terror of law enforcement.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver