Things were so bad for the Chumph’s visit in Poland, they had to go back to the time when the communists ran the country and hire people to cheer him!
A few protesters were allowed on the route…
The ladies in red are taking a cue from the Handmaiden’s Tale to protest the Chumph’s war on women’s rights.
My personal favorite?
Can’t wait for the fool to step foot in Germany!
If you don’t think Putin’s b*tch has been committing Treason and that the Russians aren’t still our enemies – you might want to take a look at this,
Since the end of the Cold War, the U.S. has been drawing down its military presence in Europe. But at the main docks in Bremerhaven, in northern Germany, that’s no longer the case. In fact, CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Palmer reports, quite the reverse is the order of the day.
All the massive hardware of a U.S. combat brigade arrived in Germany over the weekend, and started rolling east toward Poland, where 4,000 American soldiers will be waiting for it.
It is the first build-up of American troops and weapons in Europe in almost 30 years, and as Palmer reports, the impressive display of military might is meant, in large part, to reassure America’s nervous allies in Europe that the U.S. military will be there, standing with them, against any Russian aggression.
Aggression, and land grabs, like the 2014 invasion of Crimea, when Russian troops landed in what had been Ukraine and seized the ground for the Kremlin.
America’s response, manifested with the new deployment, has been to increase both its own force in Europe, and its support of NATO.
However, incoming U.S. President Donald Trump has suggested NATO is obsolete, and said he wants to restore good relations with Russia.
Palmer asked Major General Timothy McGuire how quickly the new president could, as a gesture of good will towards Russia, turn the whole deployment to eastern Europe around and pull them out.
“I’m not going to speculate on what the incoming president may or may not do, but I will tell you this is in the interests of the United States Army, to build readiness,” McGuire replied.
The new commander-in-chief could reverse it all, of course, but Palmer says that would take months, or even years.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin has already indicated that he views the American build-up as pointless.
It’s “stupid and unrealistic,” he said, to think that Russia would attack anyone. But the American military and its NATO allies believe a little extra deterrence won’t hurt.
Once all the troops and equipment of the combat brigade reach their final destinations, at various places in eastern Europe, they will start a series of big multinational exercises with other NATO armies.
The Kremlin said Monday that discussions would begin with Mr. Trump’s administration after his inauguration to determine a time for his first meeting with Putin.
The seat of Russian power also said it was looking forward to putting the current period of tension behind it, suggesting Mr. Trump would usher in “more sober experts.”
If you have a chance to travel to Europe, check out the local TV. The Ads, particularly on British TV are 10 cuts above most of what you will see in America. This is the new British Stansbury Christmas Ad which is making waves felt in the US already – If you are a cat owner, you probably will recognize a little of Mog in your own cat.
Department Store John Lewis is known for some of the best ads annually. This certainly beats the hell out of the jingle driven drivel presented on US TV –
This one from the Lottery company in Spain. It engages the watcher by telling a story in one minute –
And this from German Grocer LIDL and it’s “Christmas Class”
Apparently, the concept of grabbing the audience with quality over quantity sailed over our advertiser’s heads. As advertisers on cable now chew up 20 minutes of an hour program – maybe these clowns could learn something about why folks are increasingly buying ad blockers and watch commercial free on the Internet. Familiarity, in terms of ceaselessly being bombarded with the same poorly constructed information indeed breeds contempt.
One of the reasons Republicans avoid the issue of what to do against ISIS – other than to sabre rattle for the easily mislead low intelligence base, and Democrats have a hard time enunciating a strategy is that the only way to actually end the ISIS threat involves a number of politically unpalatable choices. And I don’t mean toesies on the ground type stupid.
ISIS, like Al Qaeda is a creation of the wahabi sect. Said sect is financially supported and provided cover throughout the Middle East by (gasp) our “friend and ally” Saudi Arabia.
There are two basic ways to end Middle East Terrorism:
#1 is executed by raising the level of terror, regardless of civilian casualties to the level nobody in the Middle East will ever want to consider attacking the West again. Red Army/Roman obliteration of enough folks, everyone else is too busy hiding under a rock to cause any more trouble. Think WWII and Dresden or Hiroshima type destruction. Make it clear that in any further terrorist attack the home cities, or cities in which they trained will be leveled. It may take Hitler/Stalin level carnage to get the message through.
#2 is to go after the source. Ergo, pick a Holy Day, and declare a drone free day simultaneously bombing each and every Mosque and Madrassa in the Middle East where Wahabi Witch Doctors spew their hate. Within 24 hrs, completely shut down all Saudi (and Turkey) international holdings, whether gold, property, or money, and deport all Saudi Citizens from the US (and Europe). Cut the entire financial string. Seize all ships, businesses, and other assets. Pick the hometowns of the current ISIS and Al Qaeda Leaders, Send a few dozen B-52’s and obliterate it – whether they are there or not. Declare null and void all treaties, toss Turkey out of NATO, and declare them Pariah States until such time as the Governments take substantive action to end the support of, and financing the proselytization of Wahhabism worldwide, and material or other support for ISIS and Al Qaeda.
Of course such will likely cause the collapse of the tottering House of Saud…And possibly an internal revolution in Turkey. Let them fight each other, with the understanding that should the fundamentalist crazies win – the only thing they have done is to provide hard targets.
And lastly…Learn to live with ourselves afterward.
How ISIS pacifies an area
At this point, there are important components to events which are not clear: Were the plans for the downing of the Russian airliner in Sinai, last week’smultiple suicide attacks in Beirut and the bombings in Paris, conceived within the Islamic State leadership and the operations executed according to the wishes and directions of the ISIS leadership in Raqqa or Mosul?
President François Hollande implied a connection to Raqqa, but gives no evidence. But if this indeed is so, and let us presume it is, it signals a major shift in strategy by ISIS. The consequences imply that the West may no longer be able to fend off acknowledging the Wahhabist origins of movements such as ISIS and Al Qaeda, nor ignore their umbilical connection to Saudi Arabia, which has succored them — even as the House of Saud now fears that its monstrous progeny is intent on “cleansing”Arabia of the Al Saud themselves, and returning it the pristine Wahhabism on which Saudi Arabia originally was founded — the “one, true Islam” that ISIS insists upon.
In the wake of 9/11, the fact that 15 of the 19 attackers were Saudi citizens was airbrushed out from the landscape in favor of claims that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction — which Washington wished the world would focus on more. It will not be so easy to ignore the historic dimension now.
America may have to take a deep breath and fundamentally reconsider the nature of its alliances with the likes of Turkey and Saudi Arabia, which both openly proclaimedtheir intent, in Syria today, to go on aiding the gamut of these Caliphate forces (ISIS, Al Qaeda and Ahrar al-Sham). Recall that ordinary Syrians have been living Paris’ Friday terror on a daily basis, for five years now. It is hard to see how the West can continue its ambiguous game of footsie with such forces, in the wake of what may have happened in Sinai, in Beirut and Paris.
So, what can have prompted this major strategic shift by ISIS? Well, there has always been one major point of dissent between Al Qaeda and ISIS: Al Qaeda’s leadership hassaid, openly, that it believes that ISIS had erred by proclaiming the Caliphate, the Islamic State. The ISIS proclamation was premature and the conditions were not propitious, Al Qaeda’s leaders stated.
Al Qaeda military operations focus on the “vexation and exhaustion” of America and its Western allies, which would eventually lead to an overextension of Western forces in many ways: morally, militarily, politically and economically. A reflection of this different approach to ISIS has been Al Qaeda’s willingness to work and cooperate with other insurgent forces in Syria; whereas ISIS rejects cooperation, demanding instead absolute allegiance and obedience.
ISIS opted for the absolute: an all out push to establish God’s “Principality” (a Caliphate), here and now, on physical territory, with borders, administration, Sharia law and a system of justice. The big difference between the two movements in effect, is “territoriality.” Al Qaeda is global, ephemeral and virtual, whereas ISIS is territorial.
But what if ISIS fears to lose this territoriality? Strange things are happening in Syria. Villages that have been held by ISIS for two years are falling to government forces in hours. Everywhere small gains are being made by the Syrian army or its allies, across contested areas. It is too early to say that ISIS is collapsing — but a part of it may be.
And if ISIS begins to lose its distinguishing feature — that it is a territorial power in Syria and Iraq — then perhaps its leadership might conclude that Ayman al-Zawahiri was right: Al Qaeda was right, and ISIS, if it faces losing its territoriality, must adopt Al Qaeda strategies (Al Qaeda has already called for a united stand with ISIS against the Russian and Iranian interventions in Syria).
But what, on the other hand, if this is not a strategic decision by the ISIS leadership, but rather that the bomb on the Russian aircraft and the suicide bombings in Beirut and Paris were spontaneous, copycat attacks by local elements and not conceived, ordered and operationally initiated in Raqqa or Mosul?
In this case, Europe has a different problem — but one no less serious. In some ways, the public evidence does not lean towards a Raqqa-led initiative. It leans the other way. From what we know to date, all of those involved in the Paris attacks were European citizens. In short, it was a case of European on European war. It is not clear that any of the perpetrators were returnees from the conflict in Syria (the authenticity of the Syrian passport found at the scene has been questioned).
And if there was no direct order from the ISIS command, there is prima facie in Europe, a shadow Al Qaeda-like structure taking shape: the attacks in Paris were well-planned, prepared and executed. The claims of responsibility are not definitive: there have been examples where Islamic leaderships have accepted responsibility andclaimed an attack even when they did not order it — and whereby claiming it, severely damaged the movement.
Robert Fisk has noted:
Omar Ismail Mostafai, one of the suicide killers in Paris, was of Algerian origin — and so, too, may be other named suspects. Said and Cherif Kouachi, the brothers who murdered the Charlie Hebdo journalists, were also of Algerian parentage. They came from the five million-plus Algerian community in France, for many of whom the Algerian war never ended, and who live today in the slums of Saint-Denis and other Algerian banlieues of Paris.
If this is so then not just France, but other European states, too, will need to take a deep breath and wonder how their policies have metamorphosed, from ostensible multiculturalism, into a “soft apartheid” in which Europe’s Muslim citizens feel the discrimination and contempt of many of their fellow citizens… Read the rest here…
It is difficult to travel through many urban areas without seeing the seemingly ubiquitous food truck. From their humble origins supplying Hot Dogs and Burritos to construction workers and tourists – some entrepreneurs have branched out into quality foodstuffs, covering a variety of tastes. Ergo – the Food Truck has gone upscale!
So upscale in fact, that the humble trucks have gone international – now invading the streets of the urban epicurean center of the world – Paris.
So are the French buying cheap eats? Throw a little Camembert on that burger, and a slice of truffle in that soup, and voila!…
You Betcha!
They even have the Chile pepper averse French (Hot sauce ain’t on the menu in France) eating Tacos… Which is amazing.
An artisanal taco truck has come to Paris. The Cantine California started parking here in April, the latest in a recent American culinary invasion that includes chefs at top restaurants; trendy menu items like cheesecake, bagels and bloody Marys; and notions like chalking the names of farmers on the walls of restaurants.
In France, there is still a widespread belief that the daily diet in the United States consists of grossly large servings of fast food. But in Paris, American food is suddenly being seen as more than just restauration rapide. Among young Parisians, there is currently no greater praise for cuisine than “très Brooklyn,” a term that signifies a particularly cool combination of informality, creativity and quality.
All three of those traits come together in the American food trucks that have just opened here, including Cantine California, which sells tacos stuffed with organic meat (still a rarity in France), and a hugely popular burger truck called Le Camion Qui Fume (The Smoking Truck), owned by Kristin Frederick, a California native who graduated from culinary school here.
“I got every kind of push-back,” said Ms. Frederick, 31. “People said: ‘The French will never eat on the street. The French will never eat with their hands. They will never pay good money for food from a truck.’ ” (Her burger with fries costs 10 euros, about $13.)
“And, ‘You will never get permission from the authorities.’ ” Read the rest of this entry »
If I have any readers from Romania…. Could you send me a box of these?
I think the little guy is cute!
As to some of my American counterparts complaining about this as racist… Forget it.
The little guy has a Superman Cape for goodness sake. The only thing this manufacturer, in Romania is concerned with…
Is selling cookies. I am categorizing this one under…”Giant Negroes”.
Wow! This is much less productive than that annual Filene’s Basement “Running of the Brides” sale every year that results in a hoedown or two between the ladies (and unfortunately this year several tramplings) –
Veil Ripped off in French ‘Burka Rage’
The first known case of “Burka rage” has erupted in France where a furious female lawyer ripped the veil from a Muslim woman in a clothing store in the town of Trignac. The lawyer made “snide remarks” about the other shopper’s burka and said she couldn’t wait until France enacted a burka ban now winding through the legislature, according to cops. The attorney compared burka-wearers to the fictional French horror demon Belphegor, who haunts the Louvre and wears a black face mask to hide his hideous features. Suddenly, the women were scuffling, and the veil ripped off, reports the Telegraph.
The store owners broke up the pair, and they were hauled in by cops. The Muslim woman has accused the lawyer of racial and religious assault, and the attorney has accused her fighting partner of assault. The veil ban measure before the French legislature declares burkas and other forms of Islamic dress to be “an affront to the nation’s values.” Such a ban has already been enacted in Belgium. Critics say the bill unfairly targets women, who are often ordered to wear the veil by their husbands.
Damn! Ripping off her veil?
After checking out our new Miss USA Rima Fakih, it might just be worthwhile to cop a seat on the beach in the French Riviera…
And wait for a Bikini-Burkini fight!
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, Indeed!
Scientists Find New Proof of the Neanderthal Within Us
It turns out there really is a little caveman in a lot of us.
An international team of scientists has for the first time decoded the complete Neanderthal genome, and the results, to be reported in the May 7 issue of Science, offer new insights into our closest evolutionary relatives and an exciting new way to explore the genetic basis of what makes humans unique. But the big news? The scientists also found evidence that humans and Neanderthals interbred. And the results of that prehistoric coupling can be found in most people’s DNA.
By comparing the Neanderthal genome with those of five present-day humans from different regions across the world, the scientists found that roughly 1 to 4 percent of the genomes of non-African people derive from our extinct relatives. “It’s a small but very real proportion,” says Harvard geneticist David Reich, one of the paper’s co-authors. Read the rest of this entry »
Some of you may remember Dee Dee Bridgewater from the 70’s. Little gal, with a powerful voice – thought to be the successor to the Great ladies of Jazz, Ellah and Sarah…
Dee Dee Bridgewater and China Moses: a diva, her daughter and jazz’s first ladies
Dee Dee’s voice is comparable to many of the great ladies of Jazz
Their first joint appearance was an awfully long time ago. China Moses was not even born when a heavily pregnant Dee Dee Bridgewater struck a tastefully naked Earth Mother pose on the cover of her album Just Family. Thirty-two years later mother and daughter — both beautiful, both charismatic — have been living on different continents, yet their bond seems as strong as ever.
They come together tonight for what promises to be a captivating double bill, Bridgewater presenting her celebration of Billie Holiday, while Moses opens with her tribute to Dinah Washington. The hard-living Washington was only 39 when she succumbed to an accidental overdose. Holiday was only 44 when she died, four years earlier, in 1959. Read the rest of this entry »
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