Thanks to Ward Sutton -- and it had been quiet all weekend.
Noise is on the Eastern Front today:
"Iranian lawmakers shout ‘Death to America,’ pledge to boost defense spending" by Thomas Erdbrink New York Times August 13, 2017
TEHRAN — Iranian lawmakers voted overwhelmingly Sunday to increase the country’s budget for its ballistic missile program and foreign operations by the Revolutionary Guards, a direct challenge to new US sanctions against the Islamic republic.
Every which way you turn the pre$$ is pushing for war.
Some lawmakers shouted “Death to America” after the outlines of the bill “to counter America’s terrorist and adventurist actions” were passed by an overwhelming number of votes in Parliament, state television reported.
The increase in the defense budget and other measures came in retaliation to legislation passed by Congress and reluctantly signed by President Trump this month to impose new sanctions on Iran over its missile program.
They lumped in sanctions against Russia and North Korea with them -- as if preparing the battlefield for future events. I'm noting it for the narrative described by the NYT. Trump is reluctant and Iran is defending itself.
Trump’s lack of commitment to the nuclear accord has led to rising frustration in Iran, where the plan was hailed by ordinary citizens as a fresh start after years of sanctions. It was also seen as a counterweight to hard-line forces in the country.
The Parliament bill obliged the new government of President Hassan Rouhani to prepare a strategic plan for confronting the “threats, malicious, hegemonic, and divisive activities of America in the region.”
It also seeks to sanction the entire US administration and all CIA personnel.
Everyone should do that, and Trump should scatter them to the winds.
Of course, we know what happened the last time a guy tried that.
And it is no surprise Iran should feel that way. The CIA's Operation Ajax overthrew a democratically-elected government because they nationalized the oil industry against the wishes of BP -- who just happens to be the largest fuel supplier to the U.S. war machine.
That isn't taking their side, or any side (save that of the antiwar side). It is simply recognizing that other people may see things differently than through the prism of the pre$$ through which I receive my wisdom.
Rouhani has been seeking détente with the United States since his first term. The bill proposed by Parliament needs the approval of an oversight watchdog, but that seems like a technicality, experts say.
Iran’s total defense budget increase is less than $800 million, a fraction of the cost of the latest arms purchase by Saudi Arabia, Iran’s regional nemesis, from US defense companies. The Saudis ordered $110 billion worth of US arms in May.
And yet their force is so much more effective than the bogged-down-in-Yemen Saudis.
Iran will spend $260 million on its ballistic missile program and around $300 million on activities by the Quds brigade, the international arm of the Revolutionary Guards Corps, which is advising Iraq and Syria. The rest of the money will go to other defense and intelligence projects, state media reported.
Although the resolution does not directly prohibit such ballistic missile tests, Iran says it does not want to make nuclear warheads, something the International Atomic Energy Agency verified during continuing inspections.
The Iranian establishment, even hard-liners who have criticized the agreement, say they want the agreement to stay in place. And they certainly do not want to be blamed for its failure, politicians say.
History has proven that the Iranians practice forbearance very well, too. They don't shoot back in the Gulf, and false flag accusations are usually worthy of laughter. Someone setting them up. They have no motive for war, and haven't attacked anyone in over 2000 years.
Responding to the vote, the deputy foreign minister, Abbas Araqchi, told members of Parliament that the government backed the bill, which he said “was designed wisely” so that it did not violate the nuclear deal and “provide excuses for opposing sides,” state news agency IRNA reported.
Iran’s armed forces, controlled by hard-liners, have been responding to US pressures with more, not fewer, missile tests — just as North Korea has.
I knew they were tied into this somehow!
The top commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps, Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari, accused the United States on Sunday of actively seeking to weaken Iran’s armed forces, ever since the nuclear agreement was signed.
Before, too.
Speaking at a ceremony for an Iranian soldier executed by the Islamic State in Syria, Jafari said that enemies had been “recently seeking to undermine these capabilities, and since the deal, they have been imposing defensive and missile sanctions to weaken the country’s armed forces.”
Analysts said that although Iran is standing by the nuclear agreement, it will continue to confront America in the Persian Gulf and legislatively.
‘‘They want to show that the pressure that the US is exerting on Iran, they can respond with similar measures,’’ Adnan Tabatabai, an Iran analyst based in Germany, told the Associated Press.
‘‘It’s not that important that those measures may not hurt the US in the same way. . . . They want to show they are not just standing still and watching this happening,’’ said Tabatabai, who heads the Center for Applied Research in Partnership with the Orient.
The bill also imposes financial sanctions, as well as a visa and travel ban, on US military and security organizations and their commanders who have provided financial, intelligence, military, logistic and training support to terrorists in the region, naming the Islamic State and the Syrian branch of Al Qaeda.
Oh, they know about U.S. creation, support, and direction for the very same terrorists they claim to be fighting?
As for the sanctions on individuals, that is a tit-for-tat move among equals in my eyes.
Lawmakers gave government authorities three months to give them names of people to put on a sanctions list, which will be updated every six months.
Iranian officials often accuse the United States of being involved with both extremist groups. Washington is actively involved in a massive military campaign against the Islamic State and has struck the Al Qaeda affiliate as well.
The bill also includes banning visas for American officials involved with the Iranian exile group called the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq. Prominent US lawmakers and politicians have met with the group and spoken at its rallies. The MEK has paid one of Trump’s Cabinet members in the past for giving such speeches.....
Those are AmeriKa's mercenary terrorists, and thus are to be called freedom fighters.
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That's where they left it? Who those politicians and Trump Cabinet members (I'll bet McCain is one), and where do they get their funding?
Going to start moving west now:
"Two American soldiers killed in Iraq" Washington Post August 13, 2017
IRBIL, Iraq — Two American soldiers were killed Sunday during combat operations in northern Iraq on Sunday, but initial findings indicate the deaths were not caused by enemy fire, the US military said.
So what does that mean, not combat related?
Wouldn't be dead if they hadn't been sent because of the never-ending lies.
The US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State said five other soldiers were injured in the incident. It did not provide any further detail of the casualties, which were being investigated.
A separate statement released by the Islamic State on Sunday, apparently referring to the same incident, said it had carried out a rocket attack on US positions east of the Iraqi city of Tal Afar that the group claimed killed four US soldiers and injured six.
Colonel Ryan Dillon, a spokesman for the US coalition in Iraq and Syria, called the Islamic State claim false.
The Islamic State is increasingly on the defensive in Iraq and Syria after its defeat in the Iraqi city of Mosul and as US-backed forces advance in the militant group’s onetime stronghold in the Syrian city of Raqqa.
American officials have touted accelerating gains against the militants in the past six months while crediting their success to policies adopted by the Trump administration, including the delegating of decision-making authority to commanders in the field, but the Islamic State retains control of several towns in both countries that are populated by tens of thousands of civilians, and their safety has become a growing concern.
Yeah, somehow they never go away and when "defeated" start expanding in other places.
US officials have said that they expect a difficult battle in Tal Afar, where 20,000 to 40,000 civilians remain in what has been a busy hub for Islamic State leaders.
Once they took Mosul coverage dwindled.
At least 6,000 US troops remain in Iraq. The vast majority of US troops operate within heavily guarded bases, collecting and sharing intelligence with Iraqi forces and providing logistical support, but as the fight has evolved over the past three years, more and more US troops are operating close to the front lines. In addition to the two troops killed Sunday, five other US troops have been killed in Iraq in the fight against ISIS, including two in the battle to retake the northern city of Mosul.
That is what I said would happen when Obama escalated just before he left office. They were only "advisers" back then.
Related: "The recent exhumation of an Army Vietnam veteran’s body from the Connecticut State Veterans Cemetery was a rare invocation of federal laws aimed at keeping murderers and rapists out of veterans burial grounds, federal and state officials say....."
Better start going over those graves in Arlington.
More than 1,200 Iraqi forces were killed in the battle for Mosul and more than 6,000 wounded, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said earlier this month.
Iraq’s prime minister declared victory against ISIS in Mosul in July, and Iraqi forces are preparing to retake the ISIS-held town of Tel Afar, to the west.
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Plowing through like a Panzer division:
"Russia says Syrian government doubled territory it controls" Associated Press August 14, 2017
BEIRUT — The Syrian government has increased the size of the territory under its control by 2½ times in just two months, said the Russian defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, on Sunday.
Syrian government forces backed by regional allies and the Russian air force seized thousands of square miles from the Islamic State in the center of the country.
The Syrian forces supported by Iranian-organized militias and the Russian air force have recaptured much of the country’s central Homs province from the Islamic State this year. Most of the province is desert. It contains several energy fields as well as phosphate minerals.
They are driving toward the city of Deir el-Zour, kept under siege by ISIS militants since 2015.
Shoigu, in an interview on Russian state-owned Rossiya 24 TV, said recapturing Deir el-Zour ‘‘will say a lot, if not everything, about the end of the battle with’’ the Islamic State group.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group reported Sunday that government forces killed at least 25 ISIS militants in a commando operation in the desert region. It said the soldiers rappelled down from helicopters to ambush the militants, under the cover of Russian air strikes.
Russia has provided air support for Syrian forces combating rebels and the Islamic State group since 2015.
Elsewhere, a rebel faction said it killed 20 army soldiers outside the Syrian capital in a tunnel blast as the battle for Damascus’s northeastern suburbs showed no signs of letting up.
Wael Olwan, spokesman for the Failaq al-Rahman faction, said the operation took place before dawn Sunday. The government has leaned on its air force and its ground-to-ground missile systems to push rebels out and away from the capital. Several neighborhoods and towns have been destroyed. The opposition does not have an air force.
Now the terrorists are simply the opposition.
Also Sunday, the Al Qaeda-linked Hay’at Tahrir al Sham — Arabic for Levant Liberation Committee, and also known as HTS — said through its Ibaa news agency that it had secured the release of 104 prisoners, among them 24 women, from government jails.
It said the release was negotiated as part of an agreement for the HTS to give up its positions in the Qalamoun Mountains, near Damascus, next month. The Observatory said HTS released several of its own prisoners in exchange. They included soldiers and progovernment fighters.
In a separate development, the international animal charity Four Paws said it transported 13 animals, including five lions, two bears, and two tigers, from a Syrian zoo to Turkey and then to Jordan.
The animals, which barely survived under harsh conditions in the Syrian city of Aleppo, were in cages during the three-week journey.
I'm surprised no one ate them.
They arrived at the al-Ma'wa reserve in northern Jordan on Friday.....
The sad thing?
Those animals are being treated better than humans in Syria. Such is the nature of regime change operations and the reaction against it.
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Turning South now:
"Venezuela dominates Pence’s Latin American trip" by Jill Colvin Associated Press August 13, 2017
CARTAGENA, Colombia — Vice President Mike Pence’s visit to Latin America comes amid unrest in Venezuela and concern by its neighbors about a possible American military role.
The timing is disturbing, that's for sure.
Pence met Sunday with Colombia’s president, Juan Manuel Santos, at the start of a weeklong trip likely to be dominated by conversations about the crisis in Venezuela. The United States has accused Venezuela’s president, Nicolas Maduro, of a power grab that has sparked deadly protests and condemnation across the region.
President Trump said Friday he would not rule out a ‘‘military option’’ in response to Maduro’s moves.
The truth is, he's more likely to move there than against Korea where all the attention has been focused. Maybe that is the point of the bluster.
That statement drew quick condemnation, including from the Colombian Foreign Ministry, which said it opposes any ‘‘military measures and the use of force,’’ and said efforts to resolve Venezuela’s breakdown in democracy should be peaceful and respect its sovereignty.
And they don't want a worse refugee problem than they already have. When you think it through, it could become the Western Hemisphere's migration crisis.
The Colombians would also be intricately involved in providing support for the U.S. -- or they could find themselves Maduroed!!
Pence and his wife, Karen, were greeted by a military honor guard on the tarmac when they landed in Cartagena. They were met by the Colombian minister of foreign affairs, the US ambassador to Colombia, and the Colombian ambassador to the United States, among other officials.
CIA Director Mike Pompeo said Trump, by raising the prospect of possible military action, was trying ‘‘to give the Venezuelan people hope and opportunity to create a situation where democracy can be restored.’’
It's the usual buzzwords, and talk of military action fills people with dread.
Pompeo said on ‘‘Fox News Sunday’’ that Venezuela ‘‘could very much become a risk’’ to the United States if it descended into further chaos.
Why?
Yet a Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee who calls himself ‘‘a pretty hawkish guy’’ expressed skepticism about the idea of American troops in Caracas.
‘‘I have no idea why we would use military force in Venezuela. I’m open-minded to a reason, but at the end of the day, our military should be deployed when there’s a national security interest that can be articulated to the American people,’’ South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham said on the Fox program.
That means where Israel wants it.
‘‘I don’t see one in Venezuela in terms of the military force,’’ Graham added.
Trump’s national security adviser said the Trump administration wants to get a handle on the current situation under Maduro’s embattled government and ‘‘understand better how this crisis might evolve.’’
‘‘When you look at contingencies, when you look at what if — what if the suffering of the Venezuelan people increases by orders of magnitude — what more can we do with our partners in the region to protect the Venezuelan people and prevent an even greater humanitarian catastrophe?’’ McMaster said on ABC’s ‘‘This Week.’’
(Long sigh)
I'm tired of the wars of destruction for humanitarian purposes, sorry.
‘‘The president never takes options off the table in any of these situations and what we owe him are options,’’ he said.
Well, Trump IS just like any other president, huh?
The last guy that wanted to take nukes off the table?
Took care of that in Dallas.
McMaster said the United States would ‘‘continue a series of actions against the Maduro regime which aim to strengthen the opposition and to reach out to those who are members of this oppressive regime to tell them it’s time to reconsider your actions and your support for this dictator.’’
In other words, the covert subversion and coup operation will continue. Nothing to see here.
The United States has imposed sanctions against Maduro and more than two dozen current and former officials in response to a crackdown on opposition leaders and the recent election of a progovernment assembly given the job of rewriting the country’s constitution.
Venezuela’s chief opposition coalition issued a restrained criticism of Trump’s talk of using a ‘‘military option.’’ The coalition rejected ‘‘the use of force or threats of applying the same in Venezuela on the part of any country.’’ But the coalition’s statement didn’t directly mention Trump’s remarks.
Pence has scheduled other stops in Argentina, Chile, and Panama, giving speeches and meeting with leaders. He will tour the newly expanded Panama Canal.
In Colombia, Pence was expected to highlight trade, business investment, and other ties between the nations.
As well as round up support, if any, for U.S. military action.
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And out West?
"Security, CIA officials say confrontation with North Korea is not imminent" by Richard Lardner Associated Press August 13, 2017
WASHINGTON — Senior US national security officials said Sunday that a military confrontation with North Korea’s is not imminent, but they cautioned that the possibility of war is greater than it was a decade ago.
Wait a week?
CIA Director Mike Pompeo and Army Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster, President Trump’s national security adviser, tried to provide assurances that a conflict is avoidable, while also supporting Trump’s tough talk.
They said the United States and its allies no longer can afford to stand by as North Korea pushes ahead with the development of a nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missile.
Why not? He fires one off, we obliterated his country.
‘‘We’re not closer to war than a week ago but we are closer to war than we were a decade ago,’’ McMaster said on ABC’s “This Week,’’ adding that the Trump administration is prepared to deal militarily with North Korea if necessary, but he stressed that the United States is pursuing ‘‘a very determined diplomatic effort’’ led by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
Ah, the nostalgia for the peaceful years of Bush.
(Blog editor gags)
Appearing on “Fox News Sunday,” Pompeo said the United States has a ‘‘pretty good idea’’ of North Korea’s intentions, but Pompeo declined to provide specifics. The CIA chief described Kim as ‘‘rational’’ and responsive to ‘‘adverse circumstances.’’
Yeah, well, I would really, really, really like to believe that but the CIA is usually wrong. I'm hoping this is the one time where the blind squirrel found the acorn.
General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is traveling in Asia and expected to meet with leaders in South Korea, Japan, and China.
Dunford told reporters traveling with him that he aims to ‘‘sense what the temperature is in the region.’’ He also will discuss military options in the event the ‘‘diplomatic and economic pressurization campaign’’ fails.
‘‘We’re all looking to get out of this situation without a war,’’ Dunford said.
China’s president, Xi Jinping, made a plea for cool-headedness in a phone conversation with Trump on Saturday, urging both sides to avoid words or actions that could worsen the situation.
I was told it was going to be hard to reach them this weekend!!!
The call came after Trump made fresh threats against North Korea on Friday. State-run China Central Television quoted Xi as telling Trump the ‘‘relevant parties must maintain restraint and avoid words and deeds that would exacerbate the tension on the Korean Peninsula.’’
But Trump on Friday appeared to set another red line — the mere utterance of threats — that would trigger a US attack against North Korea and ‘‘big, big trouble’’ for Kim.
North Korea’s Minju Joson newspaper said in an editorial Saturday that the North’s army is ‘‘capable of fighting any war the US wants.’’
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I'm about ready to blow up at this bulls**:
"North Korea’s threats aren’t keeping tourists away from Guam" by Grace Garces Bordallo and Tassanee Vejpongsa Associated Press August 14, 2017
HAGATNA, Guam — Tourists haven’t been deterred from visiting the tropical island of Guam even though the US territory has been at the center of North Korean and US threats during the past week.
Won Hyung-jin, an official from Modetour, a large South Korean travel agency, said several customers called with concerns, but they weren’t worried enough to pay cancellation fees for their trips.
‘‘It seems North Korea racks up tension once or twice every year, and travelers have become insensitive about it,’’ Won said. His company has sent about 5,000 travelers to Guam a month this year, mostly on package tours.
You have to live life. If it all goes up in a ball of fire, Que Sera, Sera. It's not like we have control of the events. We are all along for the ride.
Guam has a population of 160,000 but attracted 1.5 million visitors last year. One third of Guam’s jobs are in tourism. The island’s sandy beaches and aquamarine waters make it a popular getaway for travelers from Japan and South Korea.
The number of South Korean travelers in particular has been growing because five low-cost airlines started flying to Guam from South Korea, said Antonio Muna, the vice president of Guam Visitors Bureau. This helped boost arrival figures to a 20-year-high in July, Muna said.
Guam is also a key outpost for the US military, which uses it as a base for bombers and submarines.
An island of patriots.
The threats came in a week in which longstanding tensions between the countries risked boiling over. United Nations sanctions condemning the North’s rapidly developing nuclear program drew fresh ire and threats from Pyongyang. President Trump responded by vowing to rain down ‘‘fire and fury’’ if challenged. The North then threatened to lob missiles near Guam.
The Guam Visitors Bureau has heard reports of cancellations, but officials are still expecting a strong August. The agency has been relaying assurances from the governor and defense officials that Guam is protected and safe, he said.
Trump told Guam’s Republican governor the global attention would send more tourists to the island. ‘‘You’re going to go up like tenfold with the expenditure of no money,’’ he told Governor Eddie Calvo in a conversation Calvo posted Sunday on Facebook. Trump said he’d been watching scenes of Guam on the news, and ‘‘it just looks like a beautiful place.’’
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Looks like he was right about the tourists, huh?
It is time to get away from this shit.
"The ‘‘Conjuring’’ spinoff ‘‘Annabelle: Creation’’ scared up an estimated $35 million in North American theaters over the weekend, making it easily the top film. It came close to matching predecessor ‘‘Annabelle,’’ which opened with $37.1 million in October 2014. Warner Bros. could celebrate not only the month’s biggest debut but also having the week’s top two films. Christopher Nolan’s ‘‘Dunkirk’’ was second with $11.4 million in its fourth weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday. Last week’s top film, the poorly received Stephen King adaptation ‘‘The Dark Tower,’’ slid dramatically. The Sony Pictures release, starring Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey, toppled nearly 60 percent in its second weekend with an estimated $7.9 million. The week’s other new entry, the Open Road animated film ‘‘Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature,’’ edged ‘‘Dark Tower’’ for third place with $8.9 million. In limited release, the A24 crime thriller ‘‘Good Time,’’ starring Robert Pattinson, debuted with a robust $34,000 per-screen average. That was bettered, though, by the $47,000 screen-average of Neon’s ‘‘Ingrid Goes West,’’ with Aubrey Plaza . Both films expand in coming weeks. "
I can't remember the last time I checked ticket sales.
