Briefly

Middle East
Islamophobic?  Not Tr*mp!  The biggest difference between Sunni and Shi'a, it seems, is $110 billion in military contracts.  Okay, absolute despots who quietly finance radical jihad may not be the nicest people in the world, but why let a few little human rights get in the way of a sweet deal? Meanwhile, the Iranians were putting unprecedented pressure on their own religious radicals in a exercise of something that looked a hell of a lot like democracy.
     (Breaking fake news!!! The "prayer note" Tr*mp slipped into the Wailing Wall said, "No politician in history, and I say this with great surety, has been treated worse or more unfairly.")

Budget
The President's budget proposal is understood as an opening bid in a negotiation, designed to lower the adversary's expectations and leave room for expected "giveaways." The Tr*mp document is so extreme that a "compromise" could wind up looking like Paul Ryan's wet dream. The objective of every Republican since Reagan has been to further fatten the fat cats while thoroughly screwing everybody else.  Tr*mp, the alleged "populist," continues the tradition — in spades.

Turkey
Even Erdogan's goons attacking Kurdish and Albanian protesters in downtown DC failed to draw press attention to the extension of "emergency powers" in Turkey in the service of political repression. One can only hope that a criminal investigation into Michael Flynn's employment by Turkey will draw a little more attention to the ongoing decimation of Turkish democracy.  Erdogan paid Flynn a lot more than the Russians did.

Some Catch-up

Bowe Bergdahl

No, he wasn't a hero.  Also, he wasn't a traitor.

How emotionally disturbed does a young man have to be to walk off a base in a very active war zone, leaving his weapon, armor, and night vision goggles behind?  Maybe it was some sort of psychotic episode.  Maybe it was moral outrage.  Maybe the two are not mutually exclusive.

The five Taliban "leaders," out of the loop for thirteen years, are not likely to present much of a problem to the USofA.  Their successors will not be inclined to step aside to accommodate their return.  Maybe they are propaganda victories, but I suspect their only other use will be as suicide bombers — and I'm pretty sure they won't be volunteering any time soon.  Suicide bombing is for kids.

The Palestinian "Merger"

Bibi is jumping up and down like Yosemite Sam.  I am amused, of course.  Bibi wants the USofA to end all contact with the Palestinians now that Hamas has reconciled with the PLO, but that's not happening.  Abu Masem is a sly old bastard, and I think he's making some good moves right now.

Obama's "War on Coal"

Let the wild rumpus begin!  Okay, it's not Obama's war on coal — the real war is being waged by the natural gas industry.  Natural gas is a much cheaper means to generate electricity than, at the very least, Appalachian coal.  Montana's coal is even cheaper than that, but mostly exported to China, where it brings higher prices.

I guess the "War on Coal" might have some small impact on the midterm elections, but I don't think it will matter all that much.  Employment in the coal industry already has been decimated by natural gas and heavy equipment mountaintop removal.

On and on...

When the world gets especially depressing, as it is now, it is very hard for we chronic depressives to update our blogs.  I guess it's time for more "short subjects."

Cliven Bundy and Donald Sterling

Two racists in the news, one a hero to Fox commentators and the other a recipient of awards from the NAACP, are a lot less depressing than some of the other shit going on.

Bundy has stolen over a million dollars in grazing fees from the American public over the past ten years, but because he's stolen it from the government, it was okay by Fox.  When he started blowing off about how blacks would be better off in slavery, Fox thought it best to back off.  Oops!

Sterling, who changed his name from Tokowitz, probably is a self-hating Jew as well as a racist.  Well, who cares?  It's just sports, after all, and the NBA has kicked him to the curb.  It took a little too long for the NAACP to suspend his latest recognition after the shit hit the fan, but he'd given the group a hell of a lot of money.  Gag me with a spoon.

Apartheid

John Kerry's use of the work "apartheid" was right as rain.  All Mahmoud Abbas has to do is dissolve the Palestinian Authority, and leave Israel in total control.  That would be apartheid, no matter what AIPAC has to say about it.

Ukraine

Honestly, I'm not sure why the Kiev "authorities" should have any more authority than than the pro-Russian "groups" in the east.  Neither bunch was elected, and they're both occupying government buildings.

That is not to say that the Yanokovich kleptocrats were especially legitimate, given how they  looted a couple of billion bucks from a country that didn't have it to spare.  Well, money is money, and nothing else much matters.

Wrapping up March

It's been a pretty depressing month.  That mudslide out in Oso, Washington, is heartbreaking, and every developer who built a house in that known danger area should be financially wiped out.  It won't happen, of course.

Then, there was the Malaysian Airlines flight.  I can't pretend to have any clue as to what happened, albeit I suspect depressurization had some role — but, then, what do I know?  In both Washington and Peking, there are hundreds of people suffering, wondering what became of their loved ones.

As usual, though, there was more crap.

Crimea

It's part of Russia again, and won't be undone.  In the meanwhile, Ukraine is a mess, economically, and probably about to get worse, thanks to the IMF.  Look forward to shitloads of austerity, Ukrainians.  It's been six years of hell for Greece, and it will be worse for you.  Maybe you can overcharge the Crimeans for water, and make the Russians absorb some of the pain.

Israel and Palestine

Abbas will not agree that Israel is a "Jewish State," because that will accept the second-class status of Arab-Israeli citizens.  I no longer believe in the "two-state solution," if I ever did.  It's time for Israel, the settlements, and the rest of the West Bank to become a single state, with equal rights for all.  The Hassidim and the Arabs can compete to see who will reproduce more like the proverbial rabbits to see who stays in control.  Too bad for the secularists, but that's how the sperm splatters.

Barack and Francis

Okay, they've met, and sort of seem to agree that some degree of income redistribution is needed.  The big difference (apart from differences regarding abortion and birth control) is that Obama's perspective is political and the pope's interest is moral.  (My interest, by the way, is sociological.)

Greece

Supposedly, Greece now has a balanced budget.  Unfortunately, it still has a 25% unemployment rate.  If it experiences any GDP "growth," ordinary Greeks won't see any of it.

More depressing crap.