National November Writing Month Competition

(This post is really for a limited audience. Regular political commentary could resume some day since I've closed my other political-letters-to-a-Persian-Gulf-leader blog after giving it more attention than this one.)

I've begun considering themes for NaNoWriMo again this year, having stopped last year's novel-writing race when my 90 year-old Mother had the first of several health issues. (She's much better now.) My daughter told me a couple days ago that she plans to join the November novel-writing month challenge again this year, but I didn't mention my own plan and she didn't ask.

The last two of my NaNoWriMo November novels were not fiction at all, but I chose to call them fiction for purposes of the competition. My family moved from the Seattle area to Bahrain in the summer of 1965. It was my senior year of high school, spent falling in love, a star-crossed romance with a side of politics, intrigue and well-known players. That was book one. 

The second covered the next 17 years and included wars in between rendevous with my lover up to the minute I saw him last. That was the minute when I found out the extent of personal danger into which he'd allowed me to be unwittingly placed.

The next book may explore those dangers and maybe a bit about the 1981 fictional terrorist operation so quaintly called a coup attempt. There has been a recent surprising development in my life which begs my attention to historical details of events and relationships on the island and in other countries, so NaNoWriMo is a disciplined approach and the time is right. 

November is just a few weeks away, so I've got decisions to make if I want to have the trilogy finished this year!



#NaNoWriMo #NaNoWriMo2019 #Bahrain #Seattle #Politics #StarCrossedLovers

Double-edged Swords

Did Trump collude with the government of Saudi Arabia, specifically with the Saudi war criminal Mohammed bin Salman in his money-grabbing, so-called anti-corruption purge of wealthy (and corrupt) members of the Al Saud family and businessmen?

In August, Trump rolled back anti-corruption and bribery regulations in the energy industry, taking bribery (fees, baksheesh) for oil and energy contracts off the books.

It's a double-edged sword. MbS uses the fat fees previously garnered as a reason to grab the bank accounts of those who received them under negotiations with their U.S. and other foreign partners. Word is getting out of the names of his prey, some of the biggest Saudi players in the industry. It's terribly convenient for American companies -- who provided the "fees" to Al Saud family members and business people and will be exposed during this purge -- will escape the rule of law here.

Is the threat of a new refugee crisis in Europe a double-edged sword? If Israel, the U.S. and Mohammad bin Salman continue with the belligerent chatter about attacking Lebanon, then it appears to be so.

Anybody else notice that Bahrain is shaped like a dagger? 

It seems that Bahrain's dictator and his family are whoring for Bonesaw, kissing the forehead that ordered the bombs to drop on Yemen's poorest children in their schools and buses, bowing to Israel's greed for all of Palestinian land and resources and support by clown foreign minister for Israeli bombing of several fellow Arab countries on phony security grounds. 

Supposedly, Bahrain needs the money from the blood-soaked hands of two men, of Bonesaw and his brain in Abu Dhabi, Mohammed bin Zayed. Why? Because the ancient unelected prime minister and all the "royal" women have socked away billions of unearned income and corruption is endemic. The island is poor. The rulers won't use their ill-gotten gains to improve the lot of the whole island.

It could be amusing in the Bahrain dagger could be used to cut that dirty, dirty connection, then bring back the assets abroad that aren't making income for the state and remake itself until global warming puts it under water.

#Bonesaw #Bahrain #SaudiArabia #MohammedbinSalman #MohammedbinZayed #Palestine #Bribery #Corruption #Baksheesh #Dagger #ComedianForeignMinisters #Lebanon #Yemen #Israel #PalestinePeacPlan #Kushner #Adelson #Trump #Refugees #WarForIsrael

Next Up.

Who wants to guess what's up for Balochistan?

Dunces, Dukes and Princes talk to Trump

what a great photo by Saudi Press Agency

Dunce hats on a few of the Persian Gulf autocrats.

Dunces. Dunces who managed to get U.S.dunces to kill a lot of Iraqis, Syrians and Yemenis, among others, on their behalf. Petrodollars buys killing to save their dunce necks.

photo copied from John Duke Anthony & Fahad Nazer piece:

http://ncusar.org/aa/2016/12/gcc-us-relations-under-trump-administration/

National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations - home of a lot of paid flacks including Anthony himself, disgraced-leaker-of-secrets Petraeus, three Saudi princes including neocon Sunni-terrorist fanboy Turki, professional apologist Nawaf Obaid, and at least one Al-Jubair not Adel, Jubeir spelled both ways, plus Michael Hudson, Raghida Dergham and others.

======================

I found the piece to be distasteful and shameful, let alone one-sided P.R. meant to sway the dunces without flags over their heads, namely, the uninformed. Well, it's paid. Those pundits get paid to do the shameful deeds, participate in repression of truth for money, spread false stories and propaganda for money. When the money sits in the same room with the pen, money talks. Money has the room as well as the floor.

1) Anthony wrote about anticipation that President-elect Trump will take seriously the GCC’s deep concerns about Iran’s policies in the Arab world. 

My question is logical and different and deserves to be asked. Will Trump take seriously Iran's deep concerns about GCC member's disturbing, sectarian war-mongering, terrorist-supporting policies in the Middle East, indeed, in the world?

 With Generals Flynn and Mattis each speaking into one of Trump's ears, he hears some anti-Iran this, anti-Iran that talk. He hears it's good for business. Yeah, yeah, the defense industry can continue to sell arms to Gulfies, billions and billions worth.

    But the Saudis can try to cut off the head of their own snake. Obama's Pentagon has assisted the Saudis and their lousy coalition in the disastrous Yemen war, and maybe Trump will continue to support bombing and starving people for Mo Salman to prove his manhood, for occasional swipes at Al Qaeda or ISIS, for military bases and pipelines from deserts to seas. It'll take guts to end the U.S. part in that dreadful war. Trump has a big mouth but I don't know if he's got any guts.

 Fortunately for Iran, Trump will also hear Rex Tillerson, with both ears, whether he gets the Sec. State post or not. He's already got a pipeline to Trump's ear and that's not going away. I have a strong feeling that Tillerson feels strongly about, say, the facilities at Ras Tanura and Jubail and thinks about where Iranian rockets could land That's the kind of money that I think will talk to Trump.      

2) Pity no dunce hat for JD Anthony who calls Iraqi PMUs non-state actors. They're under control of the Iraqi Prime Minister. Period. U.S. wasn't in favor of Iraqi parliament approval of placing the PMUs in with the regular armed forces for campaigns, but it's happened. PMUs are not going to be allowed to enter with some other Iraqi and Kurdish forces in some places specifically to avoid sectarianism and the appearance thereof. 

So far the reports even from U.S. general in major news media have been positive to the PMUs' effectiveness and speed. They've gone where they were ordered to go and not further. 

There's plenty more in the piece which runs counter to facts and would make lousy policy. Think-tankery public relations is going to be getting more publicity about its funders and the extreme views they propagate. The Saudis multi-million dollar handouts to those chaps aren't going to be enough to cover up their evil deeds. They deserve dunce hats. 

Think Tank

I'd like to set up a think tank in the Emerald City. You might find it in your interest to fund it. What do you think about that?

The Stench

So the Saudis host one of their favorite terrorist children, Ahrar Al-Sham, in Riyadh after telling the lousy Jordanian wimp not to put that group of terrorists on the so-called List of Arab Sunni Terrorist Groups he's supposedly compiling. Al Nusrah Front is deliberately kept off the list, too, as it's also preferred by the Saudis, Qataris, Turks, the Israelis and the warmonger and so-called R2P elements of the U.S. decision-making apparatus. The long-prevailing explanation to the low-information public is that ousting Assad is necessary to get rid of ISIS, ISIL, DAESH. The fact that the so-called coalition didn't have much success against the terrorists fed that notion. Then the Syrian state got some serious help from its friends against the Sunni Wahhabist goons and their various backers who want to destroy the state for their various and well-known reasons amongst those who pay attention.

No matter the aroma of Mo Nayef and Mo Salman, the stench of Bandar bin Sultan wafts widely.

A Valentine's Wish

So long ago that I cannot recall the date, but sometime in the 70s while Johnny Carson was still hosting The Tonight Show, he made a joke that I've told every year to somebody, only altering the names of the two leaders.

This year, 2016, the King of Jordan sent a card to the Prime Minister of Israel, some pretty red hearts on the front tied together with some pretty pink ribbon. Inside, the message:

                               I will be your Valentine
                             if you'll pull out of Palestine.