KoKo
KoKo's JournalThey Just Can't Stop Themselves--Washington’s Military Addiction
And The Ruins Still to Come
By Tom Engelhardt
There are the news stories that genuinely surprise you, and then there are the ones that you could write in your sleep before they happen. Let me concoct an example for you:
“Top American and European military leaders are weighing options to step up the fight against the Islamic State in the Mideast, including possibly sending more U.S. forces into Iraq, Syria, and Libya, just as Washington confirmed the second American combat casualty in Iraq in as many months.”
Oh wait, that was actually the lead sentence in a May 3rd Washington Times piece by Carlo Muñoz. Honestly, though, it could have been written anytime in the last few months by just about anyone paying any attention whatsoever, and it surely will prove reusable in the months to come (with casualty figures altered, of course). The sad truth is that across the Greater Middle East and expanding parts of Africa, a similar set of lines could be written ahead of time about the use of Special Operations forces, drones, advisers, whatever, as could the sorry results of making such moves in [add the name of your country of choice here].
Put another way, in a Washington that seems incapable of doing anything but worshiping at the temple of the U.S. military, global policymaking has become a remarkably mindless military-first process of repetition. It’s as if, as problems built up in your life, you looked in the closet marked “solutions” and the only thing you could ever see was one hulking, over-armed soldier, whom you obsessively let loose, causing yet more damage.
How Much, How Many, How Often, and How Destructively
In Iraq and Syria, it’s been mission creep all the way. The B-52s barely made it to the battle zone for the first time and were almost instantaneously in the air, attacking Islamic State militants. U.S. firebases are built ever closer to the front lines. The number of special ops forces continues to edge up. American weapons flow in (ending up in god knows whose hands). American trainers and advisers follow in ever increasing numbers, and those numbers are repeatedly fiddled with to deemphasize how many of them are actually there. The private contractors begin to arrive in numbers never to be counted. The local forces being trained or retrained have their usual problems in battle. American troops and advisers who were never, never going to be “in combat” or “boots on the ground” themselves now have their boots distinctly on the ground in combat situations. The first American casualties are dribbling in. Meanwhile, conditions in tottering Iraq and the former nation of Syria grow ever murkier, more chaotic, and less amenable by the week to any solution American officials might care for.
And the response to all this in present-day Washington?
Continued at......
http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/176139/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_they_just_can't_stop_themselves
Here’s the Thing So Many Americans Can’t Grasp About Bernie Sanders
Here’s the Thing So Many Americans Can’t Grasp About Bernie Sanders
The U.S. likes to brand itself 'the land of opportunity'—yet our poster boys for innovation go to Harvard
By Pete Ross • 04/25/16 2:30pm
Watching this year’s presidential nomination process from Australia has been a very interesting affair. I can’t say I’ve followed every single speech or piece of news, but I’ve certainly kept abreast of what is going on and have seen plenty of articles and commentary from people on my feed putting their opinions forward. What interests me the most are the people and media pundits who emphatically denounce Bernie Sanders and his supporters. The reasons all generally boil down to the fact that he is the reincarnation of Karl Marx and he wants to turn the U.S. into a communist state. That he is so far left of centre that he’s basically off the chart.
For those people, here’s a reality check.
Around the rest of the world, Mr. Sanders represents a point on the political spectrum that is mildly left of centre. His “wacky” ideas of free (and we’ll get to that term a bit later) education, free healthcare, regulating banks and corporations and so on are all actually staple ideas of many of the happiest and most prosperous countries in the world. Don’t believe me? Take a look at the happiest countries in the world index for 2016. The U.S. doesn’t make the top 10—but almost every single country that does has the kind of policies Mr. Sanders is promoting at some level. Looking at the other candidates, Hillary Clinton would in most countries be considered right of centre, not left. Donald and Ted? Man, those guys are so far right of centre you couldn’t plot where they exist—they’re pretty much off the spectrum.
But back to Bernie. Throughout the nomination process, Bernie’s critics always seem to be asking the wrong questions. The most common one I see is “how is he going to pay for all of this?” This question misses the point entirely. Even if economists say that he can’t, does that really invalidate everything he’s aiming to achieve? If he can’t pay for all of it and the only thing that actually gets passed is universal college education and a reinstatement of Glass-Steagall, is that such a horrible thing? Why does it have to be so all or nothing? That’s why it also baffles me when people say that they don’t want the kind of revolution Mr. Sanders is pushing—the reality is that even if he is swept to victory, the amount of change he’ll actually be able to implement won’t be half of what he wants to do.
Continued at:
http://observer.com/2016/04/heres-the-thing-so-many-americans-cant-grasp-about-bernie-sanders/
Three Voices of the Democratic Divide Discuss: What Are Hillary's Negatives:
CrossTalk: Hillary's Negatives: Three Voices of the Democratic Divide
Three Voices of the Democratic Party's Divide:
Published on May 13, 2016
Few have run for the presidency with the kind of name recognition as Hillary Clinton. She has an established name and is also the establishment’s trusted candidate. Though among many voters she has significant negatives. Barring an upset she is positioned to win her party’s nomination. The question is - can she win the hearts and minds – and votes of the American people?
CrossTalking with Don DeBar, David Swanson, and Richard Goodstein.
Renowned Pollster, Ann Selzer, says Bernie "Makes a Very Fair Point" on General Election Argument
05/10/16 05:53 PM EDT
Renowned pollster J. Ann Selzer said Bernie Sanders "makes a very fair point" when he says he would do better in a general election against Donald Trump than Hillary Clinton.
Selzer, the president of Iowa-based public opinion research group Selzer & Company, said on Bloomberg's "With All Due Respect" on Tuesday that the polling backs Sanders' claims.
"I think he makes a very fair point, which is that in these polls, our polls have shown it as well, that when you do a head-to-head with Hillary Clinton versus the field or Bernie Sanders versus the field, Bernie Sanders' numbers are uniformly higher than Hillary Clinton," Selzer said. "It certainly tells us that this is an electorate that is in a mood for a change."
She added that she thought it would be interesting to look at whether Sanders supporters would be willing to vote for Trump over Clinton because "he's the change guy."
"But it makes sense that the mood of this electorate, which has been the strongest predictor of how these primaries have played out, have landed on Bernie Sanders and landed on Donald Trump, two people that a year ago we would have thought had no chance, that they represented such a different path, but people want a different path," Selzer said.
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/05/bernie-sanders-polls-selzer-223027
Bill Clinton's Rough Day on the Trail...Politico
Friday the 13th was an unlucky date for the former president.
By Annie Karni
05/13/16 07:32 PM EDT
PATERSON, N.J. — Bill Clinton’s name was splashed across the front page of the New York Post Friday morning. “Blonde Bombshell,” the sneering headline read, detailing how the former president steered $2 million of Clinton Global Initiative funds to a company of a very attractive “friend.”
He was more than an hour late to a rally at Passaic County Community College in Paterson, New Jersey, because he got stuck behind a truck accident on the Tappan Zee Bridge.
And when he finally arrived at the organizing event where he dutifully touted his wife’s record and the significance of winning the June 7 New Jersey primary, he was heckled by a Bernie Sanders supporter for his passage of the 1994 crime bill.
“Why did you put more people in prison?" the heckler yelled out from the crowd.
It wasn’t an easy day — and it hasn’t been a smooth ride — for the Big Dog. Over the past few months, Bill Clinton has kept up a frenetic, cross-country campaign schedule almost as packed as Hillary Clinton’s. Along the way, he’s drawn huge crowds in small towns unaccustomed to seeing a former leader of the free world. But he also has been criticized for having lost his "magic" on the stump, knocked by loyal foot soldiers for talking more about his own record than about his wife, and left by his wife’s campaign to defend himself against a steady drumbeat of criticism of the 1994 crime bill, a significant part of his legacy. He’s also emerged as a prime target for Donald Trump, who has branded him an "abuser" of women.
Yet for all his drawbacks, Clinton is still viewed by his wife’s campaign as an inimitable surrogate, one who allies believe will be second only to President Barack Obama in his ability to get out the Democratic vote in a general election.
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Despite his downsides, he remains a critical surrogate in a state like New Jersey, where Clinton allies want to end primary season with a decisive victory. “We have to win convincingly enough in New Jersey and California that all but the most extreme Sanders voters will say, ‘We lost fair and square,’” Rendell said. “If we lose, the Sanders people will say, ‘It was stolen from us, we had all the momentum.’”
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But as Clinton took the stage Friday in New Jersey, his foundation was busy putting out fires. The foundation pushed back on the report that the Clinton Global Initiative had awarded money to a for-profit company that was part-owned by a Clinton friend, saying the original Wall Street Journal report — the one that sparked the tabloid headlines — “misleads readers.”
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Clinton did not address the unflattering headlines. Instead, he tried to find a bright side to the ragged day. “I left right on time and a truck fell over on the Tappan Zee Bridge,” he explained to the crowd. “But if you go over the Tappan Zee, you see our biggest new construction project, the new Tappan Zee — that’s what we need in America.”
Continued at:
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/05/bill-clinton-new-jersey-campaign-223178
MSNBC's Chris Matthews and the Clinton Foundation--A Re-Visit!
Now that the WSJ's "False Flag" article re: Clinton Foundation, has come out today with crap reporting...let's revisit when that Book "Clinton Cash" came out which got the media attention until it was disputed. But, was all of it fabrication or has what has been revealed about "CGI" that's come out in the last year caused more information to be revealed?
MSNBC's Chris Matthews describes scope of "Clinton Cash" reporting
Published on Apr 23, 2015
Hardball hosts notes Clinton Cash revelations have "hit every major news organization in America."
...And Chris reveals his Son worked for Clinton Foundation in Rawanda...as he hits "Clinton Cash Book" which was coming out in May, 2015. A Good watch for Background and an interesting Panel that Discusses.
Our Weekend Watch...was "All the President's Men" (Watergate) & Godfather I & II...
It was a revisit after all these years.
Kind of goes with our times and revisiting put some pieces together...
Top Trump ally on Capitol Hill: He snubbed us! --- Politico
Didn't they figure out already? "The Donald" has never been and never will be ...A Team Player! Now they've got big troubles... 
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Top Trump ally on Capitol Hill: He snubbed us
By Rachael Bade
05/12/16 02:33 PM EDT
One of Donald Trump's top allies in Congress slammed the presumptive GOP nominee after he failed to meet with rank-and-file lawmakers backing his campaign during his ballyhooed trip to Capitol Hill on Thursday.
Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) told POLITICO that Trump refused multiple requests to meet with members of Congress working to round up support for him in Washington.
“I think it would have been good of him" to meet with "the first endorsers," Hunter said, as well as those who've gotten on board more recently, Hunter said. “There is no reason not to have as many people on your side as you can … and he missed a real opportunity here.”
Trump met with House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and several others in leadership during a series of meetings on Thursday morning.
His most ardent congressional backers, however, asked his campaign several times for a few minutes with the candidate, too. They thought it would energize the team running traps to whip support for him in Washington. They also wanted Trump to meet with a core group of committee chairs they thought would make for powerful future allies.
Hunter said the complaint isn't about his ego, contending that face time with rank-and-file lawmakers would actually have helped Trump in the long run by making it easier for them to vouch for the candidate with voters in their districts.
“If they endorse him, then go back to their districts to say they’ve met him and he’s not crazy, it goes a long way,” Hunter said. “It helps if you can say, 'I met the guy' ... and can be beneficial for Trump, too.”
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/05/duncan-hunter-trump-snub-223126
Purged, Hacked, Switched: On Election Fraud Allegations in Hillary Clinton vs Bernie Sanders
Purged, Hacked, Switched: On Election Fraud Allegations in Hillary Clinton vs Bernie Sanders
by Doug Johnson Hatlem--Counter Punch
Antonio Gonzalez of the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project (SVREP) is no stranger to exit polling misses. Gonzalez ran a national exit poll of Latino voters in 2004 that proved more correct than Edison Research’s polling for the National Election Pool, but has defended Edison against claims that they misread the Latina and Latino vote in the Nevada caucuses on the Democratic side in 2016. Last week I asked Gonzalez why exit polls are missing so badly for primaries between former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Senator Bernie Sanders. “The exit polls,” he believes, “were accurate in who actually turned out, in who tried to vote.”
A woman named Chloe (whose personal information is otherwise redacted below) describes registering as a new voter more than a week before New York’s deadline with the Department of Motor Vehicles. In spite of persistent efforts, including a record of more than a dozen calls and emails stretching to page fifteen of Exhibit A in Election Justice USA (EJUSA)’s lawsuit filed in New York City, Chloe still has not been registered as a Democrat.
Included in well over a hundred of pages of similar proofs in the Exhibits, another denied voter named Daniel provided a copy of an email sent by Debbie Wasserman Schultz to registered Democrats on April 19, the day of the New York election, encouraging them to get out and vote. Daniel’s registration was purged or switched in the 24 hours before he tried, and was denied, the right to vote.
While Gonzalez attributes much of the trouble in New York and Arizona to confusion over who was eligible to vote, CounterPunch has reviewed details and supporting evidence from databases of voters wrongly denied the right to vote in closed primary contests between Clinton and Sanders. Three databases with records of over a thousand cases show that would-be voters who followed proper procedures to register as Democrats were disenfranchised – either denied the right to vote or forced to vote provisionally or by affidavit.
For those who did vote provisionally or by affidavit, the vast majority of their votes have not counted. This includes 91,000 uncounted affidavit ballots in New York City alone and 20,000 uncounted provisional ballots in Maricopa County, Arizona. For Arizona, CounterPunch reviewed each individual record in a 151 person database collected and published by the online collective Anonymous. Details of 716 entries in a denied-voter database are summarized in Exhibit I of EJUSA’s New York City lawsuit. The third database includes records from would-be voters experiencing registration problems in a wide variety of states from California (which does not vote until June 7th) to Pennsylvania as well as more than one hundred cases, from counties throughout New York, that have not yet been incorporated into EJUSA’s lawsuits. EJUSA gave us limited access to the databases for verification purposes.
The impacts of registrations denied or switched and of voters improperly purged from voting rolls, even when they followed stated laws and procedures, goes well beyond those 100,000+ uncounted ballots, however. Thousands more voters appear to have been denied ballots altogether or simply stayed home when online State records told them they would not be allowed to have their vote counted. The only available conclusion is that forces supporting the campaign to elect Hillary Clinton were willing to use any means necessary – legal, gray, or flatly illegal – to put down the Bernie Sanders insurgency that threatened to upend Clinton’s coronation as the presumptive Democratic nominee.
CounterPunch has obtained a copy of the lawsuit filed by EJUSA in New York City and the accompanying Exhibits. Together with the databases and emerging story, they paint a picture of a Democratic machine every bit as corrupt as the Tammany bosses of the 1920’s and 1930’s who opposed Franklin Delano Roosevelt at every turn.
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More of long article describing latest findings of Election Tamperings in Arizona and New York:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/05/12/purged-hacked-switched-on-election-fraud-allegations-in-hillary-clinton-vs-bernie-sanders/
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