If The Saudis Want to Fight Iran, the US Should Stand Back and Watch

According to breaking news, the Saudis severed ties with Iran after protesters in Tehran set fire to the Saudi embassy in riots over the execution by Saudi Arabia of the Saudi Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr. The Saudis are leaning on the Gulf States to break relations with Iran also.

Remember that Iran is a Shiite nation while the Saudis are majority Sunni, as are the Gulfies.

We don’t know if the Saudi charges and verdict against al-Nimr were trumped-up, or if his execution was a deliberate provocation, but, why didn’t Iran do a better job of guarding the Saudi embassy? Wrongo’s first thoughts went back to the 444 days that the US embassy was held by Iran. Was there a better way for Iran to remind America of that historic black eye?

Was Iran dumb, or simply ready to flex their new, post-sanctions muscles against Saudi Arabia?

And what about the new king in Saudi Arabia? Are these executions more about internal House of Saud politicking rather than a direct message to Iran? Is it more important for the Boy Prince Saud to establish his anti-Shia cred with his opponents in the ruling family? A secondary effect may be to rile the Iranians, since the Boy Prince is currently losing his wars in Yemen and in Syria. Perhaps a provocative execution is just what he needs to shore up public support.

The Saudis have now accused Iran of supporting terrorism. At the same time, some US lawmakers want to move the goalposts and make recent Iranian missile firings an issue, even though those missiles were never were part of the deal between the US and Iran.

Expect to see these two issues – Iranian support of terrorism and the Iranian missiles – to be dominant themes in the GOP primaries in an effort to tarnish Obama and Clinton while hoping to stall implementation of the Iran Nuclear deal. The GOP posturing about the Saudi execution continued with Republican presidential hopefuls failing to condemn the executions, while highlighting the strong alliance between Washington and Riyadh on the Sunday bobble head shows.

The fun then went full Sharia with Ben Carson suggesting that the nuclear deal struck last July between Iran, the US and five other world powers pushed Saudi Arabia to violently repress its Shiite population:

The Saudis have been one of our strongest allies in the Middle East, and I think it’s unfortunate that we put them in the position we have by showing the support to Iran that we have with this foolish deal…There’s no reason for the Saudis to believe that we’re really on their side when we do things like that.

And when you hear a medical doctor making excuses for mass executions, you gotta just change channels. And since you know he is vehemently pro-life, you have to cringe while you do it.

Carly Fiorina dismissed Iran’s reaction to the death of the leading anti-government protester:

I take the Iranian condemnation with a huge grain of salt…This is a regime that tortures citizens routinely, that thinks nothing of executions, that still holds four Americans in jail. Saudi Arabia is our ally, despite the fact that they don’t always behave in a way that we condone…Iran is a real and present threat.

You’ve got to hand it to these GOP candidates. It’s nearly impossible to be on the wrong side of nearly every geopolitical issue, but these folks are actually nailing it!

Wahhabism is the state-sponsored form of Sunni Islam in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia’s export of Wahhabism throughout the Middle East is without question a greater threat to ME peace than Iran’s missiles.

In 2015, Saudi Arabia executed 158 people. They justify the executions as part of its strict interpretation of Sharia law. Punishing government protesters with death while citing Sharia law has led The New York Times editorial board to compare the kingdom’s judicial system to that of ISIS. Yet, unlike ISIS, Saudi Arabia currently sits on the United Nations Human Rights Council and, as both Fiorina and Carson noted, Saudi Arabia is considered a key US ally in the fight against the Assad regime in Syria.

Because of this, even our State Department did not fully condemn the Saudi executions, only voicing “concerns” over the practice. Here is empty suit spokesperson John Kirby:

We have previously expressed our concerns about the legal process in Saudi Arabia and have frequently raised these concerns at high levels of the Saudi Government…

Weasel words from the State Department.

We should see this as a time to re-balance our ME policy, and be less pro-Sunni.

We shouldn’t have a dog in this fight.

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Los Estados Banditos

Today, let’s consider the bombshell dropped by the Wall Street Journal. Apparently the NSA spied on the efforts of the Netanyahu government to purchase win support in Congress when they were considering approval of the Iran Nuclear Deal. A US intelligence official familiar with the intercepts said Israel’s pitch to undecided lawmakers often included such questions as:

How can we get your vote? What’s it going to take?

There’s more. The Hill reported: The NSA helped the White House figure out which Israeli government officials had leaked information from confidential US briefings our government gave to the Israelis:

The NSA’s snooping allegedly found Netanyahu and his aides leaked details of the negotiations gained through Israeli spying, coordinated talking points with Jewish-American groups against the deal and asked those lawmakers who were undecided on the deal how it could get their vote…

So, the WH knew that the NSA was spying on both Netanyahu and certain Congress critters. Some will say that the Executive Branch was spying on Congress. But there are two other ways to look at this.

• The NSA was spying on an ally, which we have done in the past (Merkel, Hollande).
• And that spying revealed that members of Congress were apparently working with Israel.

Either way, some in DC will be outraged. In fact, Rep. Devin Nunes, (R-CA) has already started an investigation into the allegations in the story. That is hilarious, since that spying is authorized by NSA procedures, procedures that Rep. Nunes has said are more than adequate to protect the privacy of US persons. You know, in his role as Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. From Emptywheel:

If NSA’s minimization procedures are inadequate to protect US persons, the first thing Nunes should do is repeal [the] FISA Amendments Act, which can expose far more people than the tailored…tap placed on Bibi…

However, you could also return to the basic question from last fall: Why are members of Congress working to help a foreign government derail a major foreign-policy initiative of the US? And be outraged yourself.

This is the reason that allowing lawmakers’ communications to be incidentally collected is such a risk — because it inevitably collects details about the legislative process. That can also disclose an untoward quid pro quo by foreign governments to members of Congress. Finding that is within the purview of the Executive branch’s mandate.

Maybe more privacy protections, including for Members of Congress, are needed. But wiretapping the communications with foreign leaders is solidly within the parameters of Congressionally-approved NSA spying, even if it incidentally collects information about members of Congress. Congress itself has deemed these actions may sometimes be important to protect the US.

And didn’t Congress approve all of this spying to catch terrorists? Or, was it just to get intelligence to assist our drone attacks. Or, to assist in the war on drugs, so that we can play catch-and-release a few more times with El Chapo. The problem is, when you build an intelligence gathering system this big and this technologically capable, it will inevitably intrude into domestic politics. Or vacuum up not-so-innocent information that is incidental to its intended target.

As for surveillance of members of Congress, surely everyone in Congress knows how that game works, THEY VOTED TO IMPLEMENT IT!

There’s a substantive difference between direct surveillance of members of Congress, and surveillance of a foreign ambassador’s reporting back to his government about communications with those Members.

If Nunes, et. al were simply trying to hang on to the remnants of our Constitution like the rest of us poor schlub voters, maybe the poutrage would be understandable.

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Resolved: Have a New Year

Calvin & Hobbes meditating on 2016:

COW Calvin New Year

 

 

Personal Note:
The Wrongologist doesn’t like New Year’s resolutions. People should change whenever they feel a need for self-improvement, but few of us carry through, and achieve real change.

The one catalyst for change that works for Wrongo is to ask: “Why am I here?” and “What do I want to do with the time I have left?” These days, the answer is the same as it was in my twenties; to tell people about important things they may have missed, and put them in a context that has meaning to their journey through life.

But like many, the intervening 50 years between Wrongo’s twenties and today were largely spent being accountable to whoever was signing the paychecks. That didn’t leave time to look carefully at the issues that threaten our world, much less talk about them to whoever would listen. So the answer to the annual “Why are you here?” question became rationalizations that had little true meaning.

That’s now in the past.

I am an incredibly fortunate person: I have someone who loves me, I live in an awesome place, and have family and friends who seem to love me for who I am. I don’t have to worry about if I’ll be able to pay the mortgage, or concern myself with other difficulties so many others face.

So, last year, I posted 243 columns about what’s wrong in our country and our world. A few people read all of them, while most read just a few. I’m happy to have found any readers at all.

The objective remains to speak about issues that have a big meaning in the lives of my readers, and to place them in a context that may lead the reader to take political action.

In recognition of the fact that it took Wrongo 40 years to return to his life’s work, here is Bob Dylan and the Band playing “Forever Young”.  Although this song gets most play these days at funerals, Dylan wrote the song as a lullaby for his son, Jesse. In 1973 when he first recorded it, he did a fast and a slow version on the album “Planet Waves”. The song has been covered many times, but here is Dylan and the Band playing it live in the movie, “The Last Waltz” with Robbie Robertson on the guitar solos:

Sadly, this great video does not include the second stanza of the lyric to the song, which is Wrongo’s favorite. So here it is:

May you grow up to be righteous
May you grow up to be true
May you always know the truth
And see the lights surrounding you
May you always be courageous
Stand upright and be strong
May you stay forever young
Forever young, forever young
May you stay forever young

Those who read the Wrongologist in email can view the video here.

Let’s promise each other to stay forever young, to stay open to new ideas and to remain forever hostile to intolerance and greed.

Here’s to 2016, a year in which the Wrongologist blog hopes to make its content as rich, meaningful and enjoyable as possible. That’s my resolution – not just for the Wrongologist blog − but for myself, and for you.

May your 2016 be filled with joy and peace, and may you strive to live your life in as authentic and meaningful way as possible.

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What’s the Matter with Kansas? Part Infinity

From the WaPo:

In April 2012, a Kansas SWAT team raided the home of Robert and Addie Harte, their 7-year-old daughter and their 13-year-old son. The couple, both former CIA analysts, awoke to pounding at the door. When Robert Harte answered, SWAT agents flooded the home.

Read more:

The family was then held at gunpoint for more than two hours while the police searched their home. Though they claimed to be looking for evidence of a major marijuana growing operation, they later stated that they knew within about 20 minutes that they wouldn’t find any such operation. So they switched to search for evidence of “personal use.” They found no evidence of any criminal activity.

It started when Robert Harte and his son went to a gardening store to purchase supplies to grow hydroponic tomatoes for a school project. A state trooper in the store parking lot had the job of collecting license plate numbers of customers, compiling them into a spreadsheet, and sending the spreadsheets to local sheriff’s departments for further investigation.

They were looking for folks who grow marijuana.

Yes, buying gardening supplies could make you the target of a drug investigation in Kansas. Naturally, the family was cleared of any wrongdoing. The Hartes wanted to know why they were targeted. What probable cause did the police have for sending a SWAT team into their home? But that information was difficult to obtain.

Under Kansas law, the sheriff’s department wasn’t obligated to turn over any information related to the raid. They spent more than $25,000 in legal fees to learn why the sheriff had sent a SWAT team into their home. Once they finally had that information, the Hartes filed a lawsuit.

And they lost the case. Last week, US District Court Judge John W. Lungstrum dismissed all of the Hartes’s claims. Lungstrum found that sending a SWAT team into a home first thing in the morning based on no more than a positive reading by an unreliable field test and spotting someone at a gardening store was not a violation of the Hartes’s Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable search and seizure.

Think about this:

The Hartes are a white, financially sound couple who both used to work for the CIA. Most people on the receiving end of these raids aren’t white, aren’t middle-class, didn’t once work for a federal intelligence agency and don’t have $25,000 to fund a fight in court…you can imagine the long odds faced by the typical victim of a botched raid.

Another brick is removed from the wall of Constitutional rights that protects you from your government. By the way, the people who support this kind of thing also like to talk a lot about freedom and liberty.

News you can’t use, Trump edition:

Trump says US wages are too high. (Business Insider)

Trump says US Wages are too low. (CNN)

Former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke says that Donald Trump speaks “a lot more radically” than he does. (Reader Supported News) David Duke is now a GOP “squish”, since Trump has gone even further right than the KKK.

Personal Note:

Today is the Wrongologist’s birthday. He remembers a time when to be a liberal was to be heroic. It seems that time has returned. Wrongo’s wish for 2016 is an election that provides Americans with the opportunity to debate US policies. However, our politics also provides entertainment to voters along the way to the election.

My prediction is we will see/hear far more ludicrous posturing than serious policy conversations in 2016.

Yet, think about the rest of the world’s politics compared to ours: We peacefully change presidents, elect new congresses, and 50 new state governments.

We do it via the ballot box, not with guns and tanks. This is the strength of our society.

So, PLEASE VOTE IN 2016!

And remember that your vote in a primary election has huge value. That is where the candidate choices are made.

Best wishes for a healthy New Year.

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News You Can’t Use – December 30, 2015

Merchandise returns take a new turn:

COW Drone Return

News you can’t use:

The Cop who shot Tamir Rice was not indicted:

Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Tim McGinty said it was “indisputable” that the boy was drawing the weapon from his waistband… He called it “a perfect storm of human error” but said no crime was committed.

2016 will see more of these controversies. It may be that a year from now, the failure to indict police for killing Tamir Rice will be a seen as a turning point in community/police relations, but don’t count on it.

This tweet captures an interesting thought about the Tamir Rice shooting:

FireShot Screen Capture #075 - 'Parker Molloy on Twitter-page-0

 

Tamir Rice had not committed a crime. Ohio is an open carry state, where an adult is entitled to be carrying a REAL weapon. Rice did not have a gun and as far as we know, he never did anything wrong. How are people in open carry states supposed to walk around in such a way that does not seem to ‘threaten’ the police? Sure, being white helps a lot, but no one should rely on that.

A few 2016 predictions:

2016 predictions: the emoji edition. (Wired) Article states the obvious using emojis. And provides translations. Didn’t know the emoji for Thanksgiving.

The 2016 Fortune Crystal Ball. (Fortune) They think Apple will buy Tesla. So does most of the world.

Five Tech Predictions for the Year Ahead. (WSJ) Chris Mims says that predictions are worth what you pay for them. We all agree.

Cybersecurity predictions for 2016. (USA Today) One that seems completely scary is this:

The health care industry will remain the largest segment of the economy to be victimized by data breaches both because, as an industry, it does not provide sufficient data security and because the sale of medical insurance information on the black market is more lucrative than selling stolen credit and debit card information.

So, who are the buyers for black market medical insurance information?

China’s economy: Seven predictions for 2016. (LA Times) One prediction worth following in 2016:

“One Belt, One Road”, also known as “OBOR,” is a new development strategy initiated by China in 2015 to promote its economic connectivity and cooperative relationship with nations in Eurasia by helping them develop infrastructure. These initiatives should also help Chinese exports.

2016 will a big year for OBOR as the three institutions lined up to fund its projects, the Silk Road Fund, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the New Development Bank, will be in full operation by 2016.

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News You Can’t Use – December 28, 2015

A view of Santa’s rowing down the Grand Canal in Venice:

COW Venice Santas

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

News you can’t use:

Fortune reports that Americans born after 1980 lag behind their overseas peers in literacy, numeracy and problem-solving in technology-rich environments. Researchers at the Princeton-based Educational Testing Service (ETS) conducted the study, which was a test called the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), to measure the job skills of adults in 23 countries. Our kids didn’t fare so well:

Top 5 countries in literacy:
1) Japan
2) Finland
3) Netherlands
4) Australia
5) Sweden
(The US placed at #17 out of 23)

Top 5 in numeracy:
1) Japan
2) Finland
3) Belgium
4) Netherlands
5) Sweden
(The US placed at #21 out of 23)

Top 5 in Problem Solving in Technology Rich Environments:
1) Japan
2) Finland
3) Australia
4) Sweden
5) Norway
(The US placed at #18)

The results were shocking to researchers, since American millennials are supposedly the most educated generation ever, according to the study. Madeline Goodman, an ETS researcher told Fortune:

We really thought [US] Millennials would do better than the general adult population, either compared to older coworkers in the US or to the same age group in other countries…But they didn’t. In fact, their scores were abysmal.

Millennials with college credentials did score higher on the PIAAC than Americans with only a high school diploma (yet less well than college grads in most other countries). The study concluded that a more expensive and expansive education “may not hold all the answers.” At least not to questions that are not about the Kardashians.

The Worst People of 2015. (GQ) Making the top 5: Kim Davis, Cameron Crowe, David Cameron, Sepp Blatter, and Hillary Clinton. Several could have been rated higher, like Martin Shkreli @ #28, or Jared Fogle @ #8, just behind Bill Cosby. Why should Hillary be ranked ahead of Shkreli or Fogle?

Never a Dull Moment: A Look Back at 2015. (WSJ) Joe Queenan takes a funny look at 2015. Sample of the writing:

…shockers came right out of nowhere. First, the new, less weepy Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, grew a beard, something no one holding that lofty position had done since 1925. That man’s name was Gillett.

Political Dark Money Just Got Darker. (Editorial Board, NYT):

For two years, President Obama has dithered and withheld the one blow he could easily strike for greater political transparency: the signing of an executive order requiring government contractors to disclose their campaign spending.

Wow. It’s almost like Democrats aren’t fully committed to campaign finance reform.

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2015 Is On The Run

Time to put our boot on the throat of 2015:

COW New Year

Perhaps Toles means “shred of dignity”. It was certainly an indecorous year.

News you can’t use:

The Onion’s 2015 Year in Review. This sends 2015 off with all due respect.

2015 in mass shootings (Rolling Stone). There have been 353 mass shootings in the US to this point, according the Mass Shooting Tracker, a crowd-sourced database. (The tracker defines a mass shooting as one in which at least four people are killed or wounded; the FBI uses three dead or wounded as its criteria.)

10 of the Worst Cable News Moments of 2015 (MoJo). We’ve barely survived another 12 months of cable news. Mother Jones gives you a few of the best of the worst the M$M had to offer in 2015.

Lower Jobless Claims Don’t Point to A Robust Labor Market (WSJ). less than 15 million American made first-time requests for government assistance this year, about half as many claims as were made in 2009, and far fewer than the number filed during the 1980s and 90s when the economy was expanding at a strong clip. The greatest concern in the labor market isn’t those who recently lost their jobs, it is the persistently large number out of work for months or years, and those stuck in low-paying and part-time jobs.

Heavily redacted Benghazi emails released on Christmas Eve (The Hill). Politicians release bad news on slow news days because they think the opposition isn’t listening, but the GOP ALWAYS listens to Hillary.

Meet a Koch-like family working to influence State Legislatures (Political Research Associates). The DeVos family (Amway) is one of the most influential families in conservative politics. Though they share the Kochs´ commitment to corporate welfare, the DeVoses also promote a Christian Right cultural and social agenda.

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Christmas Heading Towards the Rear-view

Hope that your Xmas was all that you wanted it to be. Here at the house of Wrong, there were good presents, good fun and good food. Scotch at the fire pit, and awesome desserts.

Fear abounds in the Homeland:

COW Bullet Proof Vests

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

News you can’t use:

A list of people who filed to enter the 2016 Presidential race: As of Sunday, 1,446 people have filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to run for president next year. Among them are: Emperor Frederick Lindsey Lohan Goku (Independence Party), Elsa Is Bae (Unaffiliated), and Rarest Pepe (supported by the Committee to Make Pepe the Rarest). If you are over the age of 36, you can run, even if your name is Anus the Goat (D).

Last year, 848 million people boarded airplanes within the US. Here are 14 behind-the-scenes secrets of TSA agents.

Kentucky Fried Chicken is a Christmas tradition in Japan. Christmas wasn’t celebrated in Japan until recently. There was no food associated with Christmas in Japan. According to KFC, fried chicken became a traditional Xmas food in the 1970s, when the chain’s Aoyama store (in Tokyo) observed that in a land bereft of the customary turkey for a celebratory dinner, fried chicken was the next best thing.

DC’s hottest gift this year is weed. This Christmas is the first since DC’s marijuana legalization, called Initiative 71 went into effect. This means DC residents can legally give skunky-smelling Christmas presents to each other. Ya can’t sell weed in DC, but if you’re giving it away, that’s not a problem. Spark ‘em up!

The list of the top 30 most-played Christmas songs of all time, as compiled by ASCAP shows that nearly two-thirds of these songs were written in the 40s and 50s, when baby boomers were small children. No holiday songs from later than the 2000s crack the top 30. The closest is Mariah Carey’s 1994 hit “All I Want for Christmas is You“. Kill all the Boomers.

You may like this faux interview with the Donald, in which he says that Santa is stupid:

Those who read the Wrongologist in email can view the video here.

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Christmas Eve, 2015

Christmas Eve. Deer fencing is up, despite 60° weather and lots of other things for deer to eat just now. The fence makes the deer sad, and Ms. Oh So Right so very happy. Decorations are in place, presents are wrapped. Now we await the arrival of kids, grand-kids, family and friends over the next few days. Merry Christmas to all who read the Wrongologist!

No room at the inn, or even at the shelter. Maybe some room in your hearts:

COW No Room for MaryNews you can’t use:

Earlier this month 59 Senators put their political differences aside for a Secret Santa gift exchange. (Fiscal Times) It was the fifth annual Secret Santa exchange since Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) brought the tradition to the Senate. Like at most offices, the gifts were lame.

More than 50 police officers involved in fatal shootings this year had previously fired their guns in deadly on-duty shootings. (WaPo) For a handful of officers, it was their third fatal shooting. For one officer, it was his fourth. Nothing to see here.

Republican Poverty: 93 of the poorest 100 counties in America are in red states. (Addicting Information) The overwhelming majority of the poorest counties in America are located in Republican controlled states, subject to Republican economic policies. Most of these Republican controlled states have an overwhelming Republican Senate and House majority, many even have a supermajority. Yet, despite Republican claims of superior economic policies, poverty is rampant where they rule.

Sued over old debt, and blocked from suing back. (NYT) Loan agreements force people into arbitration, but the banks and finance companies do not have to arbitrate, they can sue. This denies debtors access to the courts to contest the seizure of their property. That should be an unconstitutional denial of due process. But unfortunately, SCOTUS ceded that important bit of the US Constitution to the private sector in ATT v. Concepcion. Another knot in the noose that Capital should hang by.

Remember “reshoring”? Manufacturing jobs were supposedly returning to the US from Asia. Not so much. In fact, Offshoring has outpaced On-shoring in every year since 2004 except for 2011. (Global Economic Analysis)

CBGB, the mecca of punk music in the 1970s, closed this year, only to now be revived as a restaurant at Newark Airport. When Hilly Kristal opened CBGB OMFUG on the Bowery in 1973, he served his special chili—cooked in the presence of the chef’s pet rat. Rumors were that “Hilly’s Chili” contained unsavory seasonings like cigarette ashes and (occasionally) bodily fluids. But you went there for the music, not the food. Surely the food at the CBGB’s at EWR will contain better ingredients. And chili is on the new menu.

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