Friday, December 16, 2011

The Peanut Gallery

Statements, comments and forecasts that have no substance, but just might turn out to be relevant. 


1.Time Magazine man of the year Tayyip Erdogan: "Peace will not appear in the Middle East as long as state terrorism continues; as long as peace efforts are thwarted, and as long as bombs keep dropping on innocent children and people who are trapped in an open field, like prisoners in a penitentiary," he said, without mentioning Israel's name. PG: Perhaps the reason he does not mention Israel, is that he is talking about how Turkey systematically bombs the women and children of Kurdistan. The man is an ocean of morality.


2.The death toll from a blast in an Iranian steel factory has increased to eight, an Iranian news agency reported on Monday. Foreign media reports suggested earlier that the mysterious explosion was the result of sabotage in the plant, which is said to be processing North Korean steel used for uranium enrichment centrifuges. Iranian explanations for the explosion change by the day. PG: Third explosion in as many weeks. Fourth of July....


3.Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Hoseyni Khamenei has ordered the arrest of a number of senior members of the Revolutionary Guards he suspects of planning to assassinate him, pan-Arab news Channel Al Arabiya reported Tuesday.  "Some of those" detained had invited Khamenei to come and visit the same weapons depot near Tehran where a large blast killed 17 people, among them the head of Iran's ballistic-missiles program. PG:We wonder how these folks are sleeping at night?


4.DUBAI - Rights group Amnesty International has described as "deeply shocking" Saudi Arabia's beheading of a woman convicted on charges of "sorcery and witchcraft", saying it underlined the urgent need to end executions in the kingdom. Saudi national Amina bint Abdul Halim bin Salem Nasser was executed on Monday in the northern province of al-Jawf after being tried and convicted for practicing sorcery, the interior ministry said, without giving details of the charges. PG: "Informed sources" say she was caught in possession of Harry Potter books. Potter is banned in Saudi Arabia.


5.Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Friday that Turkey's recent, firm policies in the Middle East "have brought Israel to its knees" and isolated the Jewish state both regionally and internationally. PG: Leon Panetta seems to think that Israel isolated itself in the region. Obviously the Turks vehemently disagree with him. Even more obvious now is that the Mavi Mara incident that created the Israel/Turkey crisis was a deliberate Turkish provocation.


6.Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is refusing to pen an op-ed piece for The New York Times, signaling the degree to which he is fed up with the influential newspaper’s editorial policy on Israel. This might have something to do with the the fact that 19 of the paper’s 20 op-ed pieces on Israel since September were negative. And this after NYT columnist Thomas Friedman wrote that the resounding ovation Netanyahu received in Congress when he spoke there in May had been “bought and paid for by the Israel lobby.” PG: We are of the opinion that Thomas Friedman is a paid agent of the far left/Islamic coalition. NYT Shares are traded at the moment @ $7.50 a share, down from about $26 a while back. Looks like NYT will be joining CNN on that ride into the sunset. 


7.It has already been established that Fox News has 4 times the viewers than CNN. The top 5 newspaper circulations are 1.Wall Street Journal 2.2 million 2.USA Today 1.8 million 3.New York Times 1.2 million 4.LA Times 600,000 5. San Jose Mercury 600,000. PG: The numbers speak for themselves.


8.The cracks are starting to appear in the Syrian army. Some Sunni members of the army have broken away and are inflicting casualties on the Assad forces. These are still small groups but are growing by the day. Hate to be the party pooper, but this civil war is going to be vicious. Even if the rebels are eventually victorious, best case scenario is a government run by the Muslim Brotherhood. 


9. Before anyone gets too excited over the Russian election, the numbers tell a not too optimistic story. First of all, they show a strengthening of the right if one considers Putin to be the centre. Secondly, the minorities voted almost as one for Putin's United Russia Party. Consequently the "Russia for the Russians" parties strengthened. There appears to be a split between the Russian and non-Russian populations. So the demonstrations are from the left, but the electorate moved to the right. PG: This should be familiar territory to this administration. The Islamic spring had a similar format. Same mistakes...different day.


10.Time magazine person of the year was the "protestor". The Islamic spring, Occupy Wall Street and now the Russian Left. As it turns out, none of these protestors represent the majority of their populations (not even close). In fact, they do not and  did not represent the so-called 99%. PG: The question now is crying out to be asked. Why do/did the Obama administration support all these groups. Are they stoking the fires of revolution? Maybe mismanagement? Possibly long term brilliance? Any ideas?  


Always do sober what you said you would do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut - Ernest Hemingway



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