Obama's Merry Christmas for Mosul

Bus driver was noting all extra tourists and traffic after Christmas here in old Santa Fe, having to be more watchful for people unsure of where they were turning on a nickel.

We were on our folding bikes headed to find a place to print our our car insurance forms and had to be careful for the steady stream of cars turning into shopping center parking lot.

Bad for millions out of work here in USA, worse 'over there' ? Obama's hits just keep on coming...

Meanwhile, in a country far far away...

What can be done, what should I be doing about this?

That's the question I ask myself after reading something like this. I guess that like many others I have about given up on doing anything to stop this. Pretty sad to face up to it, but there it is.

Talking with the homeless guy at the bus stop with a too light blanket wrapped around him against the wind and the cold reminds how many in this country have it tough.

But compared to these people?

'Never give up!' I coach myself. Find something to do, something to support.

Like a brand new congress?

Have to rededicate myself to get to work in 2017.

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divineorder's picture

building the myth of what a great President he has been.

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

Hillbilly Dem's picture

They got started with their myth building about 2 days after Raygun left office. I suspect that the Dems will do something similar. Sadly, the abysmal presidency that I expect from Trump will assist them in this effort, if nothing else than by comparison.

Edit: Remove 2X word

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"Just call me Hillbilly Dem(exit)."
-H/T to Wavey Davey

divineorder's picture

For weeks now have been seeing images/posters about how wonderful Obama/Obama with Family have been. Am sure we will be soon be seeing 'Miss me yet' posters like we did after Bush left.

###

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

Big Al's picture

The lack of outrage is disgusting. I have to call out most of the left on that.
Shit, at this point, it ain't Obama, it's us. WE have to stop this. Anyone supporting Obama and the democratic party is clearly part of the problem.

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divineorder's picture

what can we do to stop this?

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

Big Al's picture

I just don't see enough outrage. I see too many people reverting on a daily basis to follow the bouncing red ball instead of hammering on the important things. This kind of stuff, bombing hospitals, wedding parties, killing kids, has been going on for 15 years, not to mention what happened before that. I don't see enough outrage. If it was our own kids, then there would be outrage.
Maybe we just need more outrage, I don't know.

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My SDS buddies were gone. The draft was over. The war was over.

Nobody gave a damn about Iran, the Shah, or members of ISA (Iranian Student Association) who took real risks here to help bring down the Shah.
Nobody around Houston whose name didn't sound like Tooraj, anyway.
I began to suspect that maybe we new left "vets" had not evolved as far as we thought.

Maybe we should have tripped another 20 times and upped the dose.
USA was all over it. The Shah was our guy. 1953 CIA coup. SAVAK torture.
Weapons and jet planes. Medals and uniforms. The drill.

And nobody cared.

It was personal for me since I did know an Iranian named Tooraj. He told me a bit about life under the Shah.
The introduction was that his own father had been a journalist who said too much once and did 10 years in prison. "My father came back an old man." That was just the start.

So I don't know, Big Al. We just have to do better.

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I've been saying this for a long time. Once the draft was gone so was the left. I realized it when the nightly news showed our aircraft owned by Israel firing rockets into urban high rise buildings in Beirut. The images from Vietnam were bad enough but Beirut looked like ww2 carnage, yet where was the left? I don't remember a peep. Hey we can't be drafted anymore so why do I give a fuck.

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“The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us”
― Voltaire

but that is how i remember it..

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divineorder's picture

looks like a wish list for more wars next year...

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

Big Al's picture

matter of factly as the reason for the global military operations. Out in the open, it's not to keep us safe, it's to protect American interests. And what are American interests? Ya, we know what they are. They're the interests of the corporations and banks. But now they're getting away with this rationale out in the open.

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divineorder's picture

They're the interests of the corporations and banks. But now they're getting away with this rationale out in the open.

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

snoopydawg's picture

that our troops are dying for those special interests. How they continue to believe that they are defending our country and freedoms and continue to join up out of patriotism is just so damned mind boggling.
Yes I know that it's a poverty draft, but still. I don't get it.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

asterisk's picture

to Iraq came back asking why they had been sent. So did their family members. A lot of the right wing peasants are more knowledgeable about this type of thing than the left wing peasants. This is part of why they don't trust the government.

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Wink's picture

was Vietnam, the MIC ended the draft and ended MSM coverage to ensure there would be no more early-exit Vietnams. Wars would be run Their way, by God, and end, well, never.

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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.

it's not keep us safe, it's to protect American interests. And what are American interests? Ya, we know what they are. They're the interests of the corporations and banks.

People can get almost anything out of this setup.

Would be easy for an unscrupulous government to take advantage of the fear and confusion.

Thank Dog we live in the USA !

USA! USA! USA!
#1 #1 #1

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divineorder's picture

Would be easy for an unscrupulous government to take advantage of the fear and confusion.

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

PriceRip's picture

          I am an atheist, pure type, no bullshit, I don't get any points for expressing outrage. When I die nothing will reincarnate me into a better place. Nothing I have ever done has had a measurable impact on anything above a local level. After all these years I am slowly arriving at the conclusion that no significant number of people care to live in a more just and equitable society.

          On those occasions wherein I express outrage, I just get blank stares and/or anxious glances from bystanders.

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[Credit to the original JC, who lost it a few times himself.]

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PriceRip's picture

          I have been watching this damn déjà vu cycle for several decades, and I am tired.

          Not long ago I tried to enlighten a few young men, but they knew better · · · that is they thought me a fool until after they returned from the Middle East. Some people are not capable of learning sine personal experience · · · and that my friends will be the death of us all.

          We the people of the USofA will continue to kill, maim, and grind the less fortunate (domestic as well as foreign) into an early grave. When offered an opportunity to elect someone to actually represent our best interests we will piss it all away with petty bickering and empty rhetoric. I doubt I will live to see any real progress so, I do what I can in my own area of expertise and may the devil take the hindmost.

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I don't know how political missionaries do it year after year.

This whole thing with Ms. Faith here is just how it goes.

Pick any topic: kiddie porn to election hacking to drugs to drones.
Then do whatever you do to get Ms. Faith wound up, and loose her on the world.
It may be "the death of us all", as you say. That people are being used in this way makes correction of our course almost impossible.

I would like to think this is a one-timer where probability is not so clear . I have a young daughter- it's hard to say life won't be good for her. Please don't ask how I would bet. Has any species ever turned around as we must to survive here? I'm afraid it would be worse for me to know more in this case.

Best wishes for the New Year.

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I am slowly arriving at the conclusion that no significant number of people care to live in a more just and equitable society.

It seems that way, but almost anyone will say vehemently "That is exactly what I want!"

I mean, that's what I would say to you if you asked me.

I think I mean it. I hope that is why I am here. wtf

I feel like a real frustrated D. Duck. [Caught a smile. thx unca donald.] Best wishes. ik

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PriceRip's picture

          My perception is most commentators here care about living in a more just and equitable society. My experience in the real world is that most people do not care about living in a more just and equitable society.

          Many people are actually jealous of the fact that I, among others, grew up receiving public assistance, and completed advanced educational programs incurring zero debt.

          Consider the allegory of the long spoons.

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snoopydawg's picture

These 3 people have done a great job showing that who people think he is is just a myth.
I have tried to find a transcript of this podcast to no avail, but I'd like get these people's words out about how bad he has been for the country and the world.
It's long and I usually don't listen to them if they're that long but after the first 10 minutes I couldn't stop listening to them.
https://store.counterpunch.org/yvette-carnell-and-pascal-robert-episode-70/
Yvette Carnell and Pascal Robert for a retrospective look at Barack Obama's presidency: the lies and the crimes, the sell-job and the sell-out.
How people can be so blind about who he is and the massive amount of damage he has done is mind boggling.
Those countries in NATO better stop and think who would be the first countries hit if they do attack Russia.
They are seeing the blowback for helping the USA in the Middle East.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

divineorder's picture

Yes, bombing in 7 plus countries and leaving the drones for Trump's personal use. Meh.

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

'Never give up!' I coach myself. Find something to do, something to support.

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divineorder's picture

FWIW My wife and I recently participated with several hundred others in action in front of Bank of America and Wells Fargo, funders of the pipeline.

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

I am a little slow getting started.
thx.

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Alex Ocana's picture

From the cited article: "According to the Coalition, the hospital was being used “as a base of operations and command and control headquarters” by Daesh, though activists on the ground in Mosul criticized both the ISF and the Coalition for the attack due to the likely presence of civilians."

It is unfortunate that Daesh and other jihadi gangs has some habits you might only have learned about if you have followed the recent liberation of East Aleppo as seen by trusted independent western and local journalists such as Vanessa Beeley, Eva Bartlett, Carla Ortiz from Bolivia, Maytham and hundreds of recorded testimonies from evacuees as well as video and photographic evidence.

1). Daesh et al use hospitals and schools as warehouses for munitions, including propane tank Hell Canon bombs, suicide trucks and other light and heavy weapons, including production of homemade chemical weapons such as chlorine gas.

2). They use hospitals and schools as command headquarters and communications centers.

3). Daesh, with the acquiescence of western corporate police state media blow up hospitals and schools and blame whoever is opposing them.

4). And most importantly, Daesh uses hospitals not for civilians, who are denied medical treatment, but for their militant armed gangs and gangster families.

As you may remember MSM blamed the bombing of Al-Kendi Cancer Hospital in Aleppo on the Syrian Army. See the actual video of how it was blown up. The way this crock of bullshit ("Assad did it") got accepted is because the main sources used by MSM, Amnesty, HRW and even the UN were jihadi embedded journalists. We know who they are and how they work. How any independent western or Iraqi or Syrian journalists do you think are allowed to post twitter feeds from inside Al Nusra occupied Aleppo or Daesh occupied Mosul?

I will tell you the truth, I am sick to the top of my gills seeing hearing "Allah uh Ahkbar" being repeated after such atrocities as poisoning Damascus water supply nine days ago, crucifying "spies", training children as front line troops.

ARTICLE XXVII Laws and Customs of War on Land (Hague, IV), October 18, 1907

In sieges and bombardments all necessary steps must be taken to spare, as far as possible, buildings dedicated to religion, art, science, or charitable purposes, historic monuments, hospitals, and places where the sick and wounded are collected, provided that they are not being used at the time for military purposes.

Note: Anyone who has read my previous essays will know I am in no way an apologist for USA or anyone elses war crimes. But in this case it is likely that Daesh, as is their custom, committed the war crime by using a hospital as a military installation.

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From the Light House.