Okay, but before the misogyny, Donald Trump made a surprisingly accurate allusion to Greek mythology.
Turkey’s Erdogan demands total information awareness
Arsenal Bolt: Quick updates on the news stories we’re following.
BGN News: “Turkey’s Erdoğan asks village administrators to spy on citizens for him”
“In order to continue its operations in a determined and forceful manner, the state has to determine what is going on in every house via intelligence gathering,” Erdoğan said during a meeting on Wednesday. “Who is in which home? What is going on inside? My muhtar will calmly, and in an appropriate manner, come and notify the district governor or the police chief.”
[…]
The last time muhtars were instructed to gather intelligence for the state was during the period of martial law following the 1980 military coup, a bloody period marred by severe state repression and severe infringements of the rule of law.
August 12, 2015 – Arsenal For Democracy 138
Posted by Bill on behalf of the team.
Topics: Key news stories from Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and Iran (and how it all relates to or affects U.S. policy in the region). People: Bill, Kelley, Nate. Produced: August 10th, 2015.
Discussion Points:
– Syria: The U.S. bombs fictional terror groups and Turkey bombs the Kurds.
– Iraq: On air conditioners and nation-building.
– Yemen: Saudi Arabia’s war and a horrific humanitarian crisis.
– Iran: Will the Iran Deal survive Congress? Will it change US-Israeli relations?
Episode 138 (56 min):
AFD 138
Related Links
– AFD: Syria Archives
– AFD: Iraq’s air conditioner uprising
– AFD: Yemen War Archives
– AFD: Iran Archives
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NYT editorial against Pentagon’s new journalist rules
Arsenal Bolt: Quick updates on the news stories we’re following.
“The Pentagon’s Dangerous Views on the Wartime Press” – The New York Times Editorial Board:
The manual warns that “Reporting on military operations can be very similar to collecting intelligence or even spying”
[…]
Authoritarian leaders around the world could point to it to show that their despotic treatment of journalists — including Americans — is broadly in line with the standards set by the United States government.
[…]
Even more disturbing is the document’s broad assertion that journalists’ work may need to be censored lest it reveal sensitive information to the enemy. This unqualified statement seems to contravene American constitutional and case law, and offers other countries that routinely censor the press a handy reference point.
You can also read much more at the recent post CPJ: “In times of war, Pentagon reserves right to treat journalists like spies”
AFD Micron #11
There is absolutely such a thing as a fake geek. You can’t be a geek these days without noticing them! Most of them are dudes complaining about casting, though.
Make peace, not war, easier in Congress
The anti-Iran hawks will get to vote against the nuclear deal, without sinking it – The Globalist:
To nix the deal, the Senate must ultimately be able to vote through a resolution against it by a veto-proof majority. And that would require 67 out of the 100 US senators coming out to vote against it (along with 290 U.S. House members).
[…]
As a general principle, of course, this is probably not a strategy to be recommended. The people’s representatives should, after all, be taking meaningful votes on most international agreements.
But for a particularly delicate multilateral negotiation involving war and peace, it is an ideal setup to stack the deck against the former and in favor of the latter.
Remarkably, even the United States Constitution did not set a two-thirds threshold for Congress in making declarations of war – a feature seemingly rendered moot since World War II. A mere majority in each chamber could plunge the country into war.
It has been far too easy for the United States to choose the path of war casually. The structure of the Congressional role on the Iran Deal fortunately makes it much harder in this one instance – while still letting the “bomb bomb bomb” caucus formally register its hawkish preferences.
It might not look it to the rest of the world, but by U.S. political standards in 2015, that’s a win-win.
GOP’s The Walking Red
Former Texas Governor Rick Perry’s 2016 presidential campaign, drifting around near the bottom of a field of 17 and struggling to escape the shadow of a badly bungled 2012 effort, is reportedly out of money and has puts its entire staff on unpaid “volunteer” status, nationwide.
Watch as a super PAC keeps this zombie walking…
The Perry campaign reported raising $1.14 million in the second quarter of this year and on July 15 reported having $883,913 on hand.
But a group of Opportunity and Freedom super PACs promoting Perry’s candidacy was in far healthier state financially, having raised nearly $17 million by the end of June.
Austin Barbour, senior adviser to the super PAC, said the group would step up “to aggressively support the governor in a number of different ways.”
Never before in modern American political history has it been easier for a completely dead and broke major party presidential campaign to keep going for no discernible reason and with virtually no chance.
Super PACs are like cult of personality worship machines for the excessively wealthy cult faithful.
I guess they’re creating a lot more consulting and media buying jobs though, maybe? There’s that trickle-down we’ve all been promised for so long… trickling all the way from the 0.1% to the 1% and back to the media companies owned by the 0.1%. That’s what passes for social mobility these days: Money moving around the hands of those within sub-tiers the top tier.
