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The twelfth season of American Idol premiered on January 16, 2013, as part of the mid-season of the 2012–13 network television season. Ryan Seacrest returned to host. Randy Jackson returned for his twelfth season as judge and was joined by new judges Mariah Carey, Nicki Minaj, and Keith Urban, who replaced Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler.

The season was the third to have four judges, after the eighth and ninth seasons. It was also the first season in the show's history where all the finalists of one gender (male) were eliminated before any finalists of the opposite gender, thus making it the first to not only have an all-female top 5, but also the first season since the sixth to produce a female winner, as well as the first season since the third to have a finale consisting of two women. It was also the first season where the judges did not use the "Judges' Save" since its introduction in the eighth season. This was the third season where both finalists were in the bottom three or two at some point in the competition.

On May 16, 2013, Candice Glover was announced the winner of the twelfth season of American Idol, making Kree Harrison the runner-up. Glover also became the third African-American female behind Fantasia Barrino and Jordin Sparks to win the show. Glover was also the last female contestant to win the competition in the show's run on Fox. In a series first, Glover's debut album, Music Speaks, was available for pre-order immediately following the finale broadcast. This was the only season to feature Carey and Minaj as judges, who both decided to leave the show in May 2013 to focus on their music careers.

Show changes
After a sharp drop in ratings during the eleventh season, Fox entertainment president Kevin Reilly announced that the show would undergo "some creative tweaking" for the following season. After two seasons, judges Steven Tyler and Jennifer Lopez announced their exits from the series on July 12 and 13, 2012, respectively. On July 23, Mariah Carey was announced as a judge for the twelfth season. On September 16, returning judge Randy Jackson and new hires Nicki Minaj and Keith Urban were confirmed to be serving on the panel. On December 31, 2012, it was announced that Ryan Seacrest has signed on to remain the host for at least two more seasons.

Producer Nigel Lythgoe indicated on January 9, 2013, that during the Hollywood rounds, the girls and boys would perform on separate weeks. Each gender would have equal number of eliminations right up until the Top 10 live shows. He also announced that there will be no wild cards, instead replacing a brand new "Sudden death" round in which the top 40 already had to perform in front of a live audience, then the judges picked five out of the ten contestants per show to proceed to the top 20. The number of finalists was limited to ten which last occurred in the inaugural season.

This season also introduced the SuperVote where viewers were able to cast fifty votes at once online or through the new American Idol App, in addition to all the regular voting methods. Voters are able to allocate any number of votes for one contestant or multiple contestants, for a total of fifty votes, across all online voting destinations.

This season also showcased an "Idol Update" segment by bringing back many Idol alumni to perform on the result shows or as a guest in the audience. Such performers were Kelly Clarkson, Clay Aiken, Fantasia Barrino, Jennifer Hudson, Carrie Underwood, Katharine McPhee, David Cook, Adam Lambert, Lee DeWyze, Scotty McCreery, Lauren Alaina, Phillip Phillips, Jordin Sparks, Colton Dixon and Jessica Sanchez. In addition, three former judges made appearances on this season. Paula Abdul returned to the show briefly on the Top 5 result night, Tyler appeared dressed up posing as a contestant during the audition rounds and Lopez performed the night of the finale.

Regional auditions
In an attempt to refresh the show's audition process, new ways to audition were announced.
First is the "American Idol Small Town Audition Bus Tour", a ten town nationwide tour that will give hopefuls who couldn't make it to one of the large audition cities a chance to try out. The cities are Idaho Falls, Idaho; Billings, Montana; Casper, Wyoming; Rock Rapids, Iowa; Iowa City, Iowa; Bowling Green, Kentucky; Clarksdale, Mississippi; Joplin, Missouri; Dodge City, Kansas and Grand Junction, Colorado. Idol is also starting the "Nominate an Idol" program, which will let friends and family of individuals they think could be the next American Idol nominate said person in secret by filling out an online form and existing video or URL of their nominee—they must be singing solo and a cappella. The chosen auditions will then be surprised on location by a film crew and given an opportunity to advance to the next round. Finally, online auditions for season 12 were open from August 1 to 14, 2012, and October 12 to November 4, 2012.
Auditions took place in the following cities:

 The number for San Antonio audition was not revealed and this is the number of contestants from that city profiled in American Idol official website, and may not represent the true number.

Hollywood week
For the first time, the Hollywood rounds were held in the Valley Performance Arts Center in Northridge, California. The contestants were separated by gender, with the male contestants performing in the first week, and the female the next.  There were three rounds in each week – the a cappella, the group, and the solo rounds. Unlike previous seasons, the groups in the group round were chosen by the producers, although each group was able to select a song from a list of twenty songs to perform. The males performed February 6 and 7 and the females performed February 13 and 14. The contestants sang a cappella solos in groups of eight and the judges chose only a few of them to move on to group round that same night and for the first time, the producers picked the groups. On the second night, the contestants performed solos. They were then divided into groups of eight, and only a few of them moved on. The judges picked 20 males and 20 females to perform in front of a live studio audience at The Beatles Love by Cirque De Soleil at The Mirage. Five were eliminated, while five advanced.

Vegas semifinal rounds
The semi-finals round took place at The Beatles Love by Cirque De Soleil at The Mirage.  The forty people who made it then faced the "sudden death" Las Vegas round and only twenty moved on. The contestants were divided into four gender-separated groups of ten, with the female groups airing on Wednesdays and the male groups airing on Thursdays between February 20 and 28. Each group performed in front of the judges and a studio audience, singing a standard ninety-second solo with the judges critiquing them at the end. After all the performances had done, they were called out one at a time, to face the judges, who in turn, decide whether to move on to the second semi-finals round or send home.

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Group 1

Group 2

Semi-finalists

The following is a list of Top 20 semi-finalists who failed to reach the finals:

Semi-finals
The Top 20 semi-finals continued at The Beatles Love stage in Las Vegas. The three-night event marked the first week viewers were allowed to cast votes. The females performed on the first night and the males thereafter the second night; on the third night, the show moved back to Los Angeles and only five contestants per each gender were announced on who will advance and who were eliminated. A new format was introduced for the revealing of the results: Seacrest walked backstage into the green room and, one by one, announced the contestant who would advance to the finals. The live studio audience and judges were not aware on the results until the contestants walked out on stage. Each of them sang their victory song. After the results were announced, Seacrest revealed that there will be a sing-off next week during the finals between the sixth placing male and female contestant who did not make the top ten. They would compete to join the American Idol tour.

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Semi-finals

Cleland and Askew did qualify for the Sing-off, but, like the other four semi-finalists from each respective gender group who failed to reach the finals and were eliminated, did not compete in the finals.

Victory songs

Finals
In this season, there were ten weeks of the finals and ten finalists, with one finalist eliminated per week based on the American public's votes (exception includes the Top 4-non-elimination week). Previous season's winner Phillip Phillips recorded the song "Gone, Gone, Gone" as the song played during the contestant's montage. Jimmy Iovine reprised his role as a weekly mentor to the contestants, frequently assisted by guest mentors.

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Top 10 – Music of the American Idols
The contestants performed a song that a previous American Idol winner performed while on the show, including their winning singles, or a song they recorded in their post-Idol career.

American Idol tour 2013 Fan Save
Before the results were announced, two more acts who finished sixth in the semi-finals rounds for the respective gender, Aubrey Cleland and Charlie Askew, were presented on the Top 10 results show, both vying for an 11th place in the Idol tour 2013. The results were announced the next episode, which Cleland won.

Top 9 – The Beatles
The contestants performed a song from the hit band The Beatles.

Top 8 – Music of Motor City
The contestants sang songs with performers composed in Detroit. Duets and trios were also introduced during this week. Smokey Robinson served as the week's guest mentor.

Top 7 – Rock
The contestants sang songs within the rock genre; a caveat was added that ballads were off-limits this week.

Top 6 – Burt Bacharach and Hal David / Songs They Wish They'd Written
Contestants performed two songs, one song which was composed by either Burt Bacharach or Hal David, and one song which they would have liked to write about. With the elimination of Arbos, this was the first (and to date, the only) season in American Idol history in which all of the contestants of one gender were voted off before anyone of the opposite gender, thus this also became the second season since season three to guarantee an all-female finale, and the first female winner since season six.

Top 5 – Year They Were Born / Divas
The top 5 rounds marked the final week where the judges can exercise their "Save"; Arthur was eliminated during the result show while the Save is still valid, making it the first (and to date, the only) time since the introduction in season eight the Save is forfeited without ever using it.

Top 4 (first week) – Contestant's Choice / One-Hit Wonders
The second song performed this week, One-Hit Wonders, was selected by the viewers.

Top 4 (second week) – Songs from Now and Then
Each contestant performed a hit song of 2013 and a song from the Great American Songbook standards. Harry Connick, Jr. served as the week's mentor. With the previous week's being non-elimination, votes were accumulative on both last week and this week shows and the contestant receiving a lower count of votes at the end of this round was eliminated.

Top 3 – Jimmy Iovine's Choice / Judges' Choice / Producers' Choice
Each contestant performed a song chosen by mentor Jimmy Iovine, the judges and the producers.

Top 2 – Simon Fuller's Choice / Winner's Single / Favorite Performance
Each contestant performed a song chosen by creator Simon Fuller, their debut single and a reprisal of one of their previous favorites.

Elimination chart

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Results show performances

Finalists
All of season 12's finalists participated in the American Idols LIVE! Tour 2013. Semifinalist Aubrey Cleland participated in the tour.

Candice Glover (born November 22, 1989) is from Beaufort, South Carolina. She lives in St. Helena Island, South Carolina. She auditioned in Charlotte, singing "Syrup & Honey". She previously auditioned in the ninth and eleventh seasons, where she made it to the Las Vegas round during the eleventh season and grouped with that season's finalists DeAndre Brackensick and Jessica Sanchez. She performed Alicia Keys's "Girl on Fire" in her final solo in the Hollywood rounds. Glover performed "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" at the sudden death round which received high praises from the judges. She performed "Ordinary People" at the semi-finals. At Top 6 Week Glover performed "Lovesong" her performance earned high praise and was called the best performance in the show's history. Her musical influences are Christina Aguilera and Jazmine Sullivan. Glover was announced as the winner on May 16. Her debut album, Music Speaks was released on February 17, 2014.

Kree Harrison (born May 17, 1990) is from Woodville, Texas, but lives in Nashville. She auditioned in Oklahoma City. Her father died in an airplane crash when she was 12, and her mother died in a car accident after Kree turned 19. She also signed a deal with Lyric Street Records when she was twelve but was dropped after creative differences. She has also had a song publishing deal. She performed "Sin Wagon" at the group round in Hollywood. Harrison performed "Stars" as her final solo in the Hollywood rounds which received praises from the judges. Then, she sang "Up to the Mountain (MLK song)" in the sudden death rounds. She sang "Stronger" at the semi-finals. She stated that her musical influence is her family. Harrison was the runner-up.

Angie Miller (born February 17, 1994) is from Beverly, Massachusetts. She auditioned in New York City singing "Mamma Knows Best." She stated at her audition that she is partially deaf, with twenty percent hearing loss in her right ear and forty percent in her left ear. Prior to auditioning for American Idol Miller established a successful YouTube channel gaining over 3.7 million views. Miller performed her original composition "You Set Me Free" for her final solo in the Hollywood rounds receiving standing ovation from the judges. She sang Jessie J's "Nobody's Perfect" at the Vegas sudden death rounds and she sang "Never Gone" at the semi-finals. Her personal musical influences are Jessie J and Beyoncé Knowles. Miller was eliminated on May 9 coming in third place. Prior to her elimination, Miller had never been in the bottom group. During the season finale, she sang a duet with her idol Jessie J, singing "Domino". After the performance Jessie J invited her to go on tour in Europe with her to perform her original song "You Set Me Free". "You Set Me Free" was also released on iTunes the night of the season finale.

Amber Holcomb (born March 17, 1994) is from Houston. She originally auditioned in the eleventh season, but was cut in the Las Vegas round, where she grouped with Curtis along with the eleventh season finalists Shannon Magrane and Joshua Ledet. She performed "My Funny Valentine" in Vegas sudden death rounds which received standing ovation from the judges. Holcomb performed "I Believe in You and Me" at the semi-final voting round receiving standing ovation from all of the judges. Prior to Idol, she graduated from Dekaney High School in 2012. Her musical influences are Celine Dion, Karen Carpenter and Whitney Houston. Holcomb was eliminated on May 2 coming in fourth place.

Janelle Arthur (born December 12, 1989) is from Oliver Springs, Tennessee. She auditioned in Charlotte, where she sang "Where the Blacktop Ends". She has auditioned twice before, in seasons the tenth and eleventh seasons. In the tenth season, she was cut in the group round, and in the eleventh season she made it to the Las Vegas round. Arthur performed "I Told You So" at the Hollywood rounds. Then, she performed "Just a Kiss" at the Vegas sudden death rounds. She sang "If I Can Dream" at the semi-final round. Prior to Idol, Arthur was a Zumba instructor. Her musical influences are Vince Gill and Eva Cassidy. After singing, "When I Call Your Name" and "Dumb Blonde", Arthur was eliminated on April 18 coming in fifth place.

Lazaro Arbos (born December 27, 1990) is originally from Cuba but has lived in Naples, Florida, since he was ten years old. He auditioned in Chicago, where he sang "Bridge over Troubled Water". He sang "The Edge of Glory" at the Hollywood rounds as his final solo. Arbos performed "Tonight I Wanna Cry" at the Vegas sudden death rounds. He performed "Feeling Good" at the semi-finals. When Lazaro was six, he began stuttering to the point where he could barely talk. He has gone through speech and language therapy, but it never improved his stutter. His musical influence is Selena. He was eliminated on April 11 coming in sixth place.

Burnell Taylor (born April 14, 1993) is from New Orleans. He auditioned in Baton Rouge, singing "I'm Here" which received standing ovation from the judges. He sang "Jar of Hearts" at the Hollywood rounds. Taylor performed "This Time" at the Vegas sudden death rounds. He also performed the same song at the semi-finals. He stated in his audition that he and his family were survivors of Hurricane Katrina. His musical influence is India.Arie. After his performance of "You Give Love a Bad Name", he was eliminated on April 4 coming in seventh place.

Devin Velez (born April 22, 1994) is from Chicago. He auditioned in Chicago as well. Velez sang "What a Wonderful World" at the Hollywood rounds. Then, he sang "Listen" at the sudden death rounds. Velez performed "Somos Novios (It's Impossible)" at the semi-final round. He draws his musical influences from artists including Israel Houghton, Cece Winans, Smokie Norful, Donnie McClurkin, Beyoncé Knowles, and his mother. After his performance of "The Tracks of My Tears", he was eliminated on March 28 coming in eighth place.

Paul Jolley (born January 27, 1990) is from Palmersville, Tennessee. He auditioned in Baton Rouge, singing "I Won't Let Go". He sang Carrie Underwood's "Blown Away" at the Hollywood rounds. He sang "Tonight I Wanna Cry" at the Vegas sudden death rounds. Jolley performed "Just a Fool" at the semi-final round. His musical style came from his family. He dubbed himself as the male version of Carrie Underwood. After his performance of "Eleanor Rigby", he was eliminated on March 21 coming in ninth place.

Curtis Finch, Jr. (born August 19, 1988) is from St. Louis, Missouri. He has previously auditioned in the fourth and eleventh seasons, where he made it to the Las Vegas round, where he grouped with Amber along with eleventh season finalists Shannon Magrane and Joshua Ledet. He had performed "Jar of Hearts" as his final solo in the Hollywood rounds. Finch sang "Superstar" at the sudden death rounds. He performed "I Believe I Can Fly" at the semi-final round. His personal musical style is his gospel background. He was the first finalist eliminated on March 14 coming in tenth place.

Mariah Carey–Nicki Minaj feud
A video was leaked to TMZ in October 2012 which showed Minaj erupting in a tirade against Carey during the audition in Charlotte, North Carolina. It was also claimed that Minaj was heard saying off-camera, "If I had a gun, I would shoot that bitch."  Minaj however denied that she had made the threat.  Ryan Seacrest said that the dispute "went a little too far", while Keith Urban jokingly said "I was the UN", and the feud elicited a comment from President Barack Obama that Carey and Minaj will "sort it out". In an interview with Barbara Walters on The View aired on January 7, 2013, Carey said that, due to Minaj's threats, it "felt like an unsafe work environment," and claimed that she had boosted her personal security. Minaj has stated that Barbara Walters never attempted to contact her for comment regarding her side of the story. Carey also said that she has since made up with Minaj. Carey's then-husband Nick Cannon claimed that the feud was used by American Idol producers to generate interest and ratings. Producer Nigel Lythgoe however denied that he was responsible for leaking the video or that it was a publicity stunt, and said that he had no plans to use the footage in advance of or during the season.  Fox executive Mike Darnell described the buzz due to the feud as being great. The aired episode of the Charlotte audition did not show the tirade and what was shown  appeared to have no real linear connection with the leaked footage.

In April 2013, Carey noted during an episode of American Idol that Minaj had not had a number-one song on the US Billboard Hot 100. The next day, Minaj took to Twitter to post what have been described as "extremely harsh" insults against Carey. She labeled the singer "insecure" and "bitter", while also referencing a widely spread rumor that the producers of American Idol wanted to bring Jennifer Lopez back to the panel after a significant decline in ratings this season; "All dem #1s but JLo phone ringin? Lol. I guess having a personality, being a secure woman, and giving genuine critique still trumps that", Minaj tweeted. In November 2013, Carey stated that "American Idol was like going to work every day in hell with Satan".

U.S. Nielsen ratings
The Wednesday episodes had an average viewer number of 15.04 million with a 4.6 rating in the 18/49 demo, while the Thursday episodes had an average viewer number of 14.64 million and a 4.3 in 18/49 demo. The average figure represents a 23% drop from the previous year.

References

American Idol seasons
2013 American television seasons

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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NO MORE MR NICE GUY - IS A WOMAN CANDIDATE THE ONLY FIRST WE FACE THIS ELECTION?
Here is something we really need to think about my friends. We often differ over ideological issues or partisan positions. That is what politics and campaigns should be concerned with deciding. But this time it is very different. This time it is about human beings and basic human decency.
Despite an overwhelming distaste for W and Cheney, being repulsed by Nixon, knowing that things said and done by Ronald Reagan made my skin crawl and a serious dislike for Bush the elder – none of these candidates induced fear for the future in the sense that we might not survive their Presidencies because of their mental and emotional make up. All of them were reasonably sane people who loved this country and all at least believed they put America before their own selfish interests. Their statements and speeches were in the main based on what they believed was truth.
My differences with them were based on ideology and issues – not their basic humanity, intelligence (even W), essential veracity, or their sanity. I felt all of them would react with some caution and rationality confronted with a crisis, and they would not deliberately put us at unnecessary risk or act out in a way that was totally embarrassing to us as a country. All of them would suffer some sense of personal pain and emotional torment prior to putting our troops in harms way. If Tony Blair could get along with W then W could not be completely abhorrent to world leaders. They were all presentable men with hearts and feelings for their fellow human beings to some degree.
But now we are faced with a FIRST - an unprecedented unique situation in Presidential politics. Donald Trump lamented with dismay that Hillary did not call to congratulate him after he accomplished something "no one had ever done in the history of our nation". What could that be I wonder?
My online friend Digby outlines it here:
LOCK HER UP
"He's just losing it. He started off his rally yesterday morning pissed off at the fire marshal for refusing to let too many people into the room because these people "don't know what the hell they're doing" --- and they might be Hillary people. The fire marshal.
Then there was this when the lock her up chant started:
"I've been saying let's just beat her on November 8th. But you know what, I'm starting to agree with you," Trump said.
The comments, which came in his first public appearance since Clinton ripped him in her speech at the Democratic National Convention Thursday night, marked an about-face for Trump, who in the last week has resisted joining in on his supporters' chants and instead urged them to channel their anger at the ballot box.
"You know it's interesting. Every time I mention her, everyone screams 'lock her up, lock her up.' They keep screaming. And you know what I do? I've been nice," Trump explained to his supporters in this evangelical bastion of Colorado Springs. "But after watching that performance last night -- such lies -- I don't have to be so nice anymore. I'm taking the gloves off.
Needless to say he's lying. His Nuremburg rally speech at the RNC was the first time he ever said "lets beat her in November." He's been saying for months that she should be in jail: After months of insisting that Clinton was "guilty as hell," Trump argued in June that Clinton should "go to jail" over her email use, which Trump and Republicans allege may have compromised national security. Meaningless, I know, to point such things out anymore. It's actually more useful to point out the rare times when he isn't lying or bragging or otherwise being a cretin
I WANT TO HIT HIM IN THE FACE SO HARD HIS HEAD WILL SPIN
Yes, he also said he wanted to hit someone (Bloomberg) for saying mean things about him and he says he takes these insults personally.
But nothing, nothing comes close to this batshit crazy comment:
"I was curious to see whether she'd do a class act and not mention my name," the Republican nominee said at a rally with supporters in Colorado. "Or mention it with respect, like, say, 'I'd like to congratulate my Republican opponent for having done something that nobody has ever done in the history of politics in this nation.'" "See, I thought she might do something like that. I thought she'd give me a big fat beautiful congratulations. If she did that, would that have been cool? Would that have been great?,"
Yes, he actually said that. And it wasn't a joke. That's the weirdest projection I have ever seen. Twisted, bizarre, freakish. He thinks he's the one who has "done something that nobody has ever done in the history of politics in this nation." And he's angry that Clinton didn't congratulate him for it.
The mind boggles." Thank you for that Digby
The mind boggles indeed. Think about this for a minute or two. Did Trump put in a call to Hillary to congratulate her on becoming the first woman to ever achieve this historic position? Did he even consider it? NO
His reaction was to complain that somehow he was slighted because she did not call him with congratulations because he had "done something that no one had ever done in the history of our nation". What was that we have to wonder.
What does he think he has done that is a first in history?
I think I've got it and you probably will not like it. I believe he is the first clinically diagnosed narcissist and pathological liar to get to the nomination for President of a major political party
Am I losing my mind? Have I possibly missed some similar incident or something in our past 60 years of Presidential campaigns that has it's analogue in this situation? Yes there is some element akin to narcissism in most who aspire to high office. It comes with the territory but has there ever been a Presidential candidate who displayed such utter contempt for his opponents, total disregard for truth, and such a complete narcissistic view of his own value?
How do we identify narcissism that rises to the level of a clinical disorder? Well I find it helpful to recall these portrayals in film:
Mary Tyler Moore character in Ordinary People,
Zaphod Beeblebrox in Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Annette Benning in American Beauty
Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell) in Anchorman
Joan Crawford in Mommie Dearest
Michael Keaton in Pacific Heights
Meryl Streep in Osage County
Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale) in American Psycho
Kathleen Turner in Body Heat
Nurse Ratched - Louise Fletcher One Flew Over the Coocoo's Nest
and Scarlette O'hara (Vivian Leigh) in Gone With the Wind
Surely one of these characters will resonate with you and bring the Trump personality into clear focus.
Symptoms - see if this doesn't describe Trump to a T
Narcissistic personality disorder is one of several types of personality disorders. Personality disorders are conditions in which people have traits that cause them to feel and behave in socially distressing ways, limiting their ability to function in relationships and other areas of their life, such as work or school.
If you have narcissistic personality disorder, you may come across as conceited, boastful or pretentious. You often monopolize conversations. You may belittle or look down on people you perceive as inferior. You may feel a sense of entitlement — and when you don't receive special treatment, you may become impatient or angry. You may insist on having "the best" of everything — for instance, the best car, athletic club or medical care.
At the same time, you have trouble handling anything that may be perceived as criticism. You may have secret feelings of insecurity, shame, vulnerability and humiliation. To feel better, you may react with rage or contempt and try to belittle the other person to make yourself appear superior.
Narcissism is a less extreme version of Narcissistic Personality Disorder.
Narcissism involves cockiness, manipulativeness, selfishness, power motives, and vanity-a love of mirrors. Related personality traits include: Psychopathy, Machiavellianism.
Narcissists tend to have high self-esteem.
Narcissistic rage is a reaction to narcissistic injury, which is a perceived threat to anarcissist's self-esteem or self-worth
We are dealing with an insane person at the top of a political ticket this election. Knowing that should put all thoughts of ideology and partisan position aside. The danger of having a pathological liar and narcissist in control of the nuclear arsenal and our treasury should be evident to even the most rabid partisan.
By the way, here's what John McCain did when Obama won his nomination in 2008. The same John McCain who was disrespected by Trump who called him "no hero" because he was captured.
Posted by Barry Bozeman at 2:20 PM
Labels: Dick Cheney, Donald J. Trump, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Narcissistic Personality Disorder., Pathological Liar
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION TIME = TIME TO GET BACK ONLINE
The ascension of one DONALD J. TRUMP to the point of standard bearer for the once off-putting but essentially mainstream REPUBLICAN PARTY is both mystifying and terrifying. Despite a constant barrage of Republican contender ads worth over 25 Million Dollars detailing the constant lies of "The Donald" we have come to the 100 days to go mark with polls (not as of today reflecting the DNC "bounce") showing a virtual dead heat in National votes and Hillary Rodham Clinton with a lead in states that give her 206 Electoral Votes to 154 for Trump. Current trends show a final EV tally of HRC 322 to 216 Trump.
This election is one of historic firsts:
Number One being the woman as a major political party nominee - the "glass ceiling" that makes history on top of the history of Barack Obama as the first black American candidate and President of the USA. And
Number One A being a candidate who lies with almost every statement. A candidate labeled PATHOLOGICAL LIAR by opponents both Republican and Democrat. A candidate David Brooks –the Conservative voice of the New York Times – calls "a morally untethered, spiritually vacuous man who appears haunted by multiple personality disorders."
But the extremist fringe that threatens to take over the Democratic Party seems less menacing than the lunatic fringe that has already taken over the Republican one.
This week I left the arena here each night burning with indignation at Mike Pence. I almost don't blame Trump. He is a morally untethered, spiritually vacuous man who appears haunted by multiple personality disorders. It is the "sane" and "reasonable" Republicans who deserve the shame — the ones who stood silently by, or worse, while Donald Trump gave away their party's sacred inheritance.
The Democrats had by far the better of the conventions. But the final and shocking possibility is this: In immediate political terms it may not make a difference.
This Brooks description of Trump is not the usual political posturing and name-calling of past campaigns. There are literally 100's of sites and youtube videos online devoted to an attempt to keep up with the sheer number of blatant lies the candidate knows are lies and knows we know are lies. Verifiable lies, documented lies, lies about unimportant things and big YUUGE lies concerning serious issues that are central to competent government in a dangerous World that requires a serious honest person holding the reigns of power of the most powerful country on Earth.
This development is so far beyond the bounds of anything ever seen in a modern political contest, it has baffled a media seemingly unable to get a grip on how to handle the problem. With hundreds of media outlets and even more weblogs like this one, there has been a dedicated effort to detail the lies – but there seems to be a minimal effect. This list of 101 OF TRUMPS GREATEST LIES is a good example. A favorite of mine in this list of 101 is #45:
45. February 7 and constantly after that: "If we competitively bid drugs in the United States, we can save as much as $300 billion a year." As the Washington Post pointed out,"Total spending in Medicare Part D (prescription drugs) in 2014 was $78 billion. So Trump, in effect, is claiming to save $300 billion a year on a $78 billion program. That's like turning water into wine."
Trump incorporates lies like this in his stump speech and delivers it with conviction week after week. Despite being told repeatedly that only $78 billion a year is spent on the drug prescription plan he continues to insist that he will save US $300 billion a year on that alone.
Most candidates for public office are actually fearful of being caught in a lie. Trumps plan seems to be to tell so many lies so often that the charge of "LIAR" will lose any meaning. And the awful truth is that it seems to be working.
And so it begins - 100 days to do what I can online to stop the horrifying possibility of a TRUMP Presidency.
Labels: David Brooks, Donald J. Trump, Election Polls, Electoral Votes, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Pathological Liar

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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text:
Speeding tradie fights off deadly snake with knife
Thread starter cagey
AussiePythons Supporter
A tradie pulled over for speeding has stunned police with his outrageous – but true – excuse.
A speeding tradie told police he couldn't have slowed down his car because he was fighting off a deadly brown snake with a knife as he drove along the Dawson Highway in northern Queensland last month.
In outrageous, but real, vision, the tradesman, named "Jimmy", is pulled over by police for driving 123km/h in a 100km/h zone.
"A brown snake or a tiger snake, it's in the back of the ute," he says. "It was in the ute with me, I think it's bitten me."
The officer moved to the back of the ute, where a large brown snake was bleeding and laying across the back tray.
Jimmy said the snake had slithered into his car through the gear stick before wrapping around his legs.
"The more I moved my legs … it just started to wrap around me.," he said.
"Its head just started striking at the (driver's seat) chair, between my legs."
Jimmy used a seat belt and a work knife he had nearby to fight off the snake and then began driving towards the hospital, believing he had been bitten.
Paramedics were called to the scene and determined he had not been bitten, but was suffering from shock.
https://www.news.com.au/national/qu...e/news-story/ad7c91c675a6da00afe6c0e35ebd76f1
CF Constrictor
What a load of crap , think ill try something similar next time i get fined for speeding.
Flaviemys purvisi
Very Well-Known Member
I got let off once years ago when pulled over by a cop for speeding... he was setup with a hand-held radar on a suburban street and I came across an intersection through an orange light, up over a crest and across a railway line straight into the path of his radar... he waved me down and walked up to my windows and said "Son, I've been waiting for you all day" .... without even thinking about my response it literally just came out of my mouth, I replied... "well I got here as fast as I could"... the cop was doubled over laughing so hard, he reckoned it was the funniest reply he'd ever heard, told me to have a good afternoon and sent me on my way...
On December 5th last year I was rushing my mum to hospital and was detected by a police vehicle radar travelling in the opposite direction doing 94 in an 80 zone... I knew I was speeding, I was literally about 70m from the end of the 80 zone where it changed to 100... I argued saying "the 100 sign is literally right there, I was speeding up for the speed limit change", told him "I'm trying to get my mum to hospital" he didn't want a bar of it, got a $260 fine and 3 demerits. So it all depends on the cop and the day.
Reactions: Pythonguy1, Rob, Harpo and 1 other person
Not so new Member
One Christmas Day many years ago in the ACT, my sister fell on a glass and gashed her thigh, and I put her into the car with another bloke in the back with him holding a towel to her to stem the bleeding. Drove my Dad's old 308 VK Commodore at 220kms per hour along the main road toward the hospital with an ambulance rushing to meet us halfway, and a cop chased me and pulled me over. One look at the blood in the back and he ran back to his car and escorted us into the hospital, where we actually beat the ambulance to. Got my sister inside and they operated straight away and saved her life.
I was 18 at the time and never heard another word about it afterward from the police. Still freaks me out a bit when I stop to think of it.
Reactions: -Adam- and Harpo
Pythonguy1
cagey said:
Saw this last night. I think I'll just drive around with a dead snake in the car. That way when the cops pull me up for speeding I'll make up a similar story
-Adam-
Flaviemys purvisi said:
Yup - I have observed the same thing. I saw a driver speed up in an 80 within 100m of the 100 zone, and a cop came of the rise from the other direction. Lights on, and u-turn after him.
Since then I have always been paranoid not to increase speed until I pass the speed sign, or to ensure that I'm doing the speed before crossing a restriction.
Reckon it came close to saving my license one day. Coming into a town I wasn't familiar with came over a rise and down hill to notice a 60kph sigh. (Went from 100 to 60, no 80kph). I hit the brakes harder than should be necessary to ensure I was doing the limit by the time I crossed the sign, to see a HWP car parked off to the side just out of view until after you got past the 60 sign. Very nasty! (Both of these in Vic).
[doublepost=1594276429,1594276317][/doublepost]
Lurker said:
Sigh - those were the days of common sense. No way that would be allowed these days. Cop would be too worried about being liable if the driver had an accident at excess speed. Here in Vic I heard of a story of a bloke who cut his finger off and was being rushed to hospital. Through a camera car doing 30 over the limit. Loss of license. Judge empathized with the driver but said his hands were tied because the new Vic laws do not allow for any discretion at all with speeding. If you speed - even to save a life - the courts can not let you off.
Kyle Hamilton
This guy should get a job at disneyland in fiction and creative writing. Ive actually had two adult browns escape from a bag when i was driving ,seen them cruising around on the passengers side.Was going to release them along heathcote road ,drove a few hundred metres pulled up and tailed them out of the car.
Reactions: CF Constrictor
Queensland girl wakes up to snake disappearing under her bed
Wolfgang5
Massive python 'drags' young boy in terrifying attack
Farmer captures incredible moment falcon catches deadly snake
Snake bite spike in Queensland hospitalises nine in a day
Brown snake spotted on ute windscreen by mum picking kids up from school


text:
End of the Bush Political Line
Stephen Lendman - The modern-era Bush family dynasty goes back four generations and was connected to the military-industrial complex of its day during and after WW I much like the most recent two Bush generations are to the present one. It began with George H. Walker and Samuel Prescott acting as duel founding fathers of what turned out to be a criminal enterprise run under the family name much like it is under a local Godfather except for much bigger stakes and with the government of the United States acting as protector, benefactor and enforcer.
wwwsjlendman.blogspot.com
The End of the Bush Dynasty
sjlendman.blogspot.com
The Bush family has been characterized in various ways including the Bush dynasty, crime family or syndicate. George Bush is just the latest in a line of unsavory characters but clearly the bad or worst seed and, in the eyes of most honest observers, the least worthy of an unworthy lot. He was supposed to be the latest in the Bush family line chosen to lay another golden egg for the dynasty but turned out instead to be an ugly duckling who's just been an embarrassment and much worse because of the course he chose and his rigid ideological obstinacy to change even in the face of failure.
The Bush family considers itself among the special chosen ones if based only on its royal heritage. The family is connected by blood to every European monarch on and off the throne including every member of the British House of Windsor. That relationship is more than familial and extends to the president's father having close business dealings with Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip who themselves are connected to the notorious Carlyle Group that also employs GHW Bush as a "senior consultant" and master-rainmaker/fixer-arranger at a very high price for his services.
George W. Bush, of course, is in the bloodline and is a distant cousin of the Queen and Prince Charles. This American "royal" family traces its heritage back to 15th century Britain at the time of Henry VIII or earlier, but its royal connection is not unique to Washington politicos as both Al Gore and John Kerry also have familial ties to the British crown, and ironically Gore is a distant cousin of his former presidential rival from having been a direct descendant of Charlemagne when he was emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. Truth is indeed stranger or at least more ironic than fiction.
The modern-era Bush family dynasty goes back four generations and was connected to the military-industrial complex of its day during and after WW I much like the most recent two Bush generations are to the present one. It began with George H. Walker and Samuel Prescott acting as duel founding fathers of what turned out to be a criminal enterprise run under the family name much like it is under a local Godfather except for much bigger stakes and with the government of the United States acting as protector, benefactor and enforcer.
Walker was a St. Louis financier who later went to work for Averell Harriman as president of WA Harriman & Company, a banking business that invested in railroads, shipping, aviation and commodities like oil. Samuel Prescott Bush, the current president's other great grandfather, was a major Ohio industrialist and ran the Buckeye Steel Castings Co. that produced armaments. He later went to Washington to run the small arms, ammunition and ordnance section of the War Industries Board and became a close advisor to Herbert Hoover.
The president's grandfather Prescott Bush, Sam's son, had a varied career as a US Senator, Wall Street investment banker with Brown Brothers Harriman (BBH and same Harriman) and as a director of various companies involved in war production including Dresser Industries where his son, the president's father, later worked for a time. A hundred years ago, the Bush family was also connected to John D. Rockefeller and Standard Oil and later with a number of Wall Street firms as well as with the US intelligence community since WWI.
Above all, this is a family that formed strong ties to the institutions of power that began in industry and Wall Street and was parlayed to become a powerful political dynasty that included a US senator, two governors, a congressman, vice-president, CIA director and two presidents (the current president's father, of course, having been a congressman, CIA director and vice-president before being elected president in 1988).
Prescott, the president's grandfather, had a particularly unsavory connection as recently declassified documents show. He was a director of New York based Union Banking Corporation (UBC) that was a holding company for the Nazis and represented the German steel industrialist Fritz Thyssen who was intimately involved with the Nazi regime. He was also a director and shareholder of various other companies involved with Thyssen. UBC bought and shipped millions of dollars of gold, oil, steel, coal and US treasury bonds to Germany that helped build and support the Nazi war machine. Prescott was also with Brown Brothers Harriman (BBH) when the firm did business with the Nazis during the 1930s that continued during the early years of WW II until the company's assets were seized in 1942 under the Trading with the Enemy Act.
What BBH did and paid a price for, many other US corporations did as well, prospered from and were never held to account for their lawlessness. Charles Higham documented much of it in his 1983 book called Trading with the Enemy in which he showed evidence of how major companies in America like the Rockefellers' Chase Bank and Standard Oil, Ford, General Motors and other corporate giants had no political or ideological problem doing business routinely with Nazi Germany during the war. It was just business with another good customer, no matter what the customer's business was.
Particularly heinous was the role of IBM Headquarters System Engineering, Design Automation and Management (not covered in the Highman book) when it was run by Thomas Watson. The company used IBM tabulation equipment to set up a system for the Nazis to locate all the Jews of Europe and then sort, file and categorize them for extermination in the death camps using the company's equipment and whose camp personnel IBM employees trained. All the while this went on, IBM managed to fend off US War Department probes into its illicit activities so it could continue to profit handsomely from the Nazi genocide the company knew was taking place and was facilitating - all for the big "blood money" profits involved. Current shareholders of the company's stock might wish to take note of this and reconsider their investment choice.
BBH had no problem cashing in either, and by the late 1930s claimed to be the world's largest investment banking firm in business like all others to make money, and like most others, as willing to do it with regimes like the Nazis as with any other customer. George Herbert Walker and Averell Harriman, who later became a prominent politician and diplomat serving under four US presidents, have been characterized by some as two evil geniuses who saw no difference in dealing with the Bolsheviks in Russia as with Hitler and the Nazis. For them, business was business just the way it is today and in the 1980s when GHW Bush as vice-president and president was willing and eager to be part of the scheme to arm Saddam Hussein who then became public enemy number one to be demonized for using the weapons supplied him by US and other western corporations when he was an ally.
Before his son succeeded him in the Oval Office (8 years removed), GHW Bush was involved in a long laundry list of criminal activities he never could have gotten away with under a system of law and order with those violating it held to account. He never was. As CIA chief in 1976 under Gerald Ford, the elder Bush was in charge of covering up the Agency's involvement in coup d'etats and assassinations of foreign leaders including its connection to an earlier September 11 - the one in 1973 ousting and murdering democratically elected President Salvador Allende in Chile that established the 17 year fascist dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet who, despite his despotism, became a close US ally.
The president's father was also deeply involved in the secret, illegal negotiations with Iran in the 1980s, when he was vice-president, that led to the Iran-Contra arms-for-hostages scandal that broke in 1986. With the help of friends in the Congress, including Dick Cheney who served then in the House and the corporate media that always looks the other way, he was able to escape investigation and scrutiny. They helped him get away with a strategy of lies and aggressive cover-ups to stay untarnished. It freed him to pursue and secure the Republican presidential nomination in 1988 and the highest office in the land he always wanted to hold, maybe because he felt his royal blood entitled him to it.
In 1992, Iran-Contra special prosecutor Lawrence Walsh (who took his job seriously unlike his successors) uncovered evidence linking the president to the illegal operation and lying to the public about it, but "trickier-than-Nixon" Bush pardoned six indicted Iran-Contra figures shortly before he left office to bury the evidence against himself and slither away unscathed again. He's now seen as an esteemed elder statesman, his past buried, forgotten and above rebuke. No matter the truth is quite another matter that went down "the memory hole" and is no longer part of the "official" historical record. That judgmental error paved the way for a member of the next Bush generation to ascend to the nation's highest office, a move not turning out as planned.
A Dynastic Success Story Now on Shaky Footing
A Bush family tradition of lying with impunity, operating freely outside the law and getting away with it was no obstacle for the next family member in line, George W. Bush, to be chosen by his party to enter the presidential race in 2000. He got the nomination after serving six years as Texas governor distinguished only by a record of indifference to the public and a total dedication to the business interests in the state. It meant giant corporations were salivating at the thought of having a man like this in the White House serving them in that capacity the same way he did it for the business community in Texas. Thanks to a fraud-laden election, he got the job the old-fashioned way - his influential friends and family stole it for him as arranged by family consigliere and master-fixer Jim Baker securing the necessary 25 Florida electoral votes helped along by the complicity of five friendly Supreme Court justices who had to be in on the scheme.
The corporate interests got their main man in Washington, and for a short time seemed to be in "good hands" with him. But lying and getting away with it only works when the schemes lied about go according to plan. Bumps aside, the rise of the Bush dynasty to prominence and power, went well through the ascendency and tenure of George Herbert Walker Bush, the president's father, which included the election and reelection George W. Bush's younger brother Jeb as governor of Florida after an initial failed bid for the office in 1994 and George W's time as Texas governor.
Nothing lasts forever though, and as best laid as the plans were, they went awry with the misguided selection of the younger George to carry the family banner as the rightful successor to assume the position of supreme leader of the free world and lord and master of the universe. He wasn't the family's first choice and only got bumped up to that spot in line after brother Jeb's initial gubernatorial defeat - one the family must now look back on as a major turning point in the family's political fortunes that going forward may be irreversible.
It should have been an omen of things to come when if it hadn't been for the intervention of Jim Baker and those five arrogant High Court justices, in an election Al Gore clearly won, George Bush would have had to have found another line of work. The justices chose to rewrite the law giving themselves the power to annul the vote of the electorate to install their preferred candidate in the office they gifted to him the same way he's gotten everything else in his privileged life he never deserved and never had to work for. It's the way it's always been for a man of questionable ability and dubious character going back to his days as a youth when at best his behavior could only be charitably described as mischievous and without significant achievement. This is a man who rose to the top the way former Texas governor Ann Richards described it - as "someone born on third base (thinking) he hit a triple."
Six disastrous years later, this man now must not only choose a new career path in two more years, he must also employ a good legal defense team at the ready for the inevitable law suits sure to be filed against him once he leaves office in January, 2009 - a time that can't come soon enough for most and that many wanting him impeached and ousted aren't willing to wait for and may press their demands he go a lot sooner and face the music for his high crimes of war, against humanity and against the people of the United States.
As the current holder of the nation's highest office, George Bush is not unique. As Noam Chomsky rightfully observes: "If the Nuremberg laws were applied, then every post-(WW II) American president would have to be hanged (like the worst of the Nazi war criminals found guilty)." Other than the Vietnam era (that family influence let him bypass in a comfortable Texas National Guard slot he rarely showed up for), and arguably the Korean war one as well, the only difference about George Bush as president is the immensity of his crimes and his hard line arrogance and indifference about them and toward the people he's harmed at home and abroad. He's undeterred and committed to press on with what he sees as a messianic mission, or even royal prerogative, and that makes him stand out as a special rogue who's already surpassed all others before him holding the nation's highest office.
Plans to Save the Bush Administration and Its Disastrous Misadventure in Iraq
With a lot of help from the Congress and complicit corporate media that continues to shield him, George Bush not only took the nation to war against two countries that never threatened us based on lies, deceit and cover-up, he's determined to push on to a victory that can't be won and is listening to sinister advice from the wrong people telling him to do it. Proposals of what happens going forward are showing up in a number of reports (related to the work of the Iraq Study Group - ISG) including one on November 16 in the London Guardian and a later one on November 30 discussed below. They follow a meeting George Bush, the vice-president and key administration officials had with the ISG, or Baker Commission, that was formed in March to draft a new course in Iraq because the current one isn't working, and it's led many high level business and political figures to believe it's leading the country to an inevitable disastrous train wreck unless redirected. It's also trying to rescue the family's reputation ad presidency of the current incumbent, but it will be hard-pressed to do either.
The Guardian reported that the president told his senior advisors (or more likely Dick Cheney and other hard liners told him) the US military (with any help it can get) must make "a last big push" to win the war in Iraq and instead of beginning a drawdown in force strength, he may send an additional 20,000 more soldiers into this cauldron even against the advice of his Central Command (CENTCOM) commander-in-chief on the ground General John Abizaid who testified before Congress the same day the president was ignoring his advice that now may be changing after hearing what his boss had to say.
Whatever is said publicly or is released in the ISG report, all that matters is what, in fact, will happen going forward and that may be a clear example of a clinical definition of insanity - continuing to do the same things (more or less) that have failed, expecting a different result. It may also be more evidence that was first reported in Capitol Hill Blue on September 5 that Bush has gone over the edge and that Republican and Bush family insiders, including the president's father, are worried George Bush may be heading for a "full-fledged mental breakdown" judging by his bizarre or irrational behavior.
Jeffrey Steinberg writing in Executive Intelligence Review said GHW Bush fears his son is obsessed with his messianic mission and is "unreachable" even by some of his closest advisors like Secretary Rice. That view was also stated by prominent psychiatrist Dr. Justin Frank, who wrote Bush on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President. He said: "With every passing week, President Bush marches deeper and deeper into a world of his own making. Central to Bush's world is an iron will which demands that external reality be changed to conform to his personal view of how things are." Dr. Frank added that George Bush needs psychiatric help.
The US military and the public along with all Iraqis better hope it comes soon before he inflames the entire Middle East and a lot more with it. That's what the Baker Commission and president's father are determined to avoid even though the plan they draft, or what we're told about it, will likely have no better solution in the end than the one Bush and his hard liners are now pursuing.
According to the Guardian report, the ISG is circulating its recommendations in a four-point "victory strategy" developed with help from Pentagon officials advising them. It's also getting lots of advice from a number of influential conservative think tanks whose members are part of "working groups" dealing with issues of the military and security, the economy and reconstruction, the political structure, and fine-tuning geostrategy that includes no change in the country's imperial agenda meaning the US military is in Iraq to stay whatever the final ISG report says.
Point One - calls for an initial increase in force size that may be the 20,000 George Bush is calling for to "secure Baghdad" where along with most all of al-Anbar province is where most of the country's violence is.
Point Two - stresses the importance of regional cooperation that will have to include Iran and Syria along with Iraq's other immediate neighbors. It could involve convening an international conference requesting diplomatic, political and financial help - the latter mostly from the Saudis and Kuwaitis.
Jim Baker knows without Iranian and Syrian cooperation, any hope for conflict resolution in Iraq is impossible, and even with it it's doubtful at best. Unspoken in the report and commentary is the one player with all the trump cards that's left out of the high-level consultations - the Iraqi resistance and great majority of Iraqi people who'll settle for nothing less than what the Baker Commission will never propose and George Bush and the neocons will never agree to - a full and unconditional withdrawal, no strings attached with reparations for the damage done that's almost incalculable. That reality is what all the high-level thinkers and planners are up against. Jim Baker surely knows this whatever his final proposal is. In another article on the ISG, this writer characterized Baker's efforts as a job for Superman and then some, and any hope for success is even more than the redoubtable Jim Baker and his high-level insider team are likely to achieve. Making it even harder will be the influence of th powerful Israeli Lobby that wants the US to press on at least with an attack against Iran and surely not engage the Iranians or Syrians in constructive dialogue about Iraq or anything else.
Point Three - focuses on an effort toward reconciliation among the sectarian ethnic and religious groups to win over consensus among them. The report cited the belief that doing this is crucial to convincing neighboring countries that Iraq can again become a fully functioning state, but conflicting reports about this idea are now surfacing days ahead of the ISG report's release.
If these ideas end up being adopted, they'll violate everything the Bush administration did since March, 2003 when the strategy was, and still is, to destroy all the institutions of a modern secular society in the country along with its historical treasures to transform this once modern and prosperous nation into an impotent desert kingdom populated by easily controlled serfs. It will take more than just a major effort, if one is even intended, to put that "Humpty Dumpty" back together again.
Oddly, or maybe in just a momentary case of bad judgment, the Guardian writer said neocon ideas about "imposing" western-style democracy will have to be set aside. It's hard to imagine the writer doesn't understand that's the one thing US imperial strategy never tolerates and was never part of the plan for "the new Iraq." A nation of serfs is not one of democracy, and predatory capitalism and democracy go no better together than fire and water.
The report goes on to say that partitioning Iraq into a tripartite loose federation won't be recommended as it would only lead to a large-scale humanitarian crisis. It's hard to imagine anything worse than the US-created one now on the ground that's out-of-control by any measure.
Point Four - calls for increased resources to be allocated for additional troop deployments and to train and equip an expanded Iraqi army and police. It will also call for efforts to stem corruption that reportedly has involved the theft of billions, most of which has been pilfered by US contractors like Halliburton and Bechtel Corporation (closely tied to the White House) that either did shoddy work they were assigned (other than for US installations) or little or none at all but still pocketed many billions of US taxpayer dollars with nary a wink or nod of disapproval from the Bush administration that effectively gave them and others a license to steal.
This point also will call for improving local government and curtailing the power of religious courts and mentions that Bush may be mesmerized by the "Svengali" or "Rasputin" advice of fellow war-criminal Henry Kissinger who believes winning in Iraq is just a matter of "political will" - just the way it worked for Henry in Vietnam. Bush echoed that advice ironically while visiting the capital of the country's last "Waterloo." When arriving in Vietnam for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, he was asked about comparisons of Iraq to Vietnam and said: "We'll succeed unless we quit. We tend to want there to be instant success in the world, and the task in Iraq is going to take a while."
It's taking quite a long while as the US has now been at war in Iraq against a guerrilla resistance longer than it took the country to defeat the Nazis and Japanese in WW II, and those countries had a lot more going for them than car and roadside bombs to fight us. That reality and Bush's remarks show how in denial this man is just like the country's leadership was in the 1960s and 70s believing (in their public statements at least) staying the course would achieve the victory beyond their reach.
But hold on - Bush's "Svengali" seems to be advising him one way and commenting another in a BBC November 19 interview where away from the US media spotlight he said he now believes military victory in Iraq is no longer possible, the administration's policy failed and is headed for "disastrous consequences (to haunt the world) for many years....we have to redefine the course ("stay" is now "redefine")....I don't think the alternative is between military victory....or total withdrawal," and there should be a regional conference of the permanent members of the UN Security Council and Iraq's regional neighbors including Iran to work out a way forward - meaning the Bush administration got us into this mess so will Iraq's regional neighbors and other world powers please help get us out of it. Now which way is it Henry - will the real Henry Kissinger please stand up and show us who the real one is.
He may or may not be helped by a November 30 report in the New York Times, Washington Post, online in Capitol Hill Blue and elsewhere. It cites a well-placed source saying the ISG decided to recommend a major withdrawal of US forces from Iraq in a process of transitioning from a combat to a support role over the next year or so but with no specific timetable recommended. It all depends "on a series of conditions and qualifications" governing the drawdown in language suggesting as much smoke and mirrors backside-covering fudging as any real substantive change of policy.
That's apparently the message from national security advisor Stephen Hadley in a November memo to George Bush saying (the ISG report) "is neither 'cut and run' nor 'stay the course.' " It's also what an unnamed senior Pentagon military officer involved in crafting Iraq policy likely meant when he said: "The question is whether it doesn't look like a timeline to Bush, and does to (Iraq prime minister) al-Maliki." It's another example of what the New York Times calls "a classic Washington compromise" - meaning "now you see a change of policy, and now you don't."
In harsher terms, it's what Newsweek magazine writer Michael Hirsh calls "A Bust in Bakerville" in his November 29 article subtitled "Iraq can no longer be won or lost. Why the study group won't solve anything." But Hirsh spoils his article toward its end by suggesting Iraq is "manageable" and what's needed, instead of consensus, is a "no-nonsense negotiator who can grapple with the reality of the American failure....and seek the most honorable way out (like a) Richard Holbrooke or Henry Kissinger....(or) the best hope for....an adult solution (from Defense Secretary-designate) Robert Gates."
It all seems surreal at this point, but what it comes down to is an attempt to pacify the US public and critics of the war. It's to buy more time for a failed Bush presidency looking more all the time like a house of cards nearing collapse, hoping to save it along with the family's name and reputation. By couching recommendations in terms of possibilities to be decided later depending on conditions in the country, the ISG report apparently will be "much ado about nothing" signaling no real change at all and a faint hope at best to rescue George Bush from the fate he deserves.
There's no hiding from the fact that conditions in Iraq are deplorable and out-of-the-control of the US military looking pathetic against an opponent it can't even see and impossible to subdue. It's not likely to fare much better going forward than it has up to now in the face of a determined resistance and mass Iraqi opposition to an occupation they want to end and will keep fighting against it until it does whether the US military stays in the streets or is hunkered down in its self-contained permanent super-bases.
Still, with a brave face, the report apparently will recommend that US forces redeploy to its key bases inside the country and elsewhere in the region and turn over more responsibility to Iraqi security forces for frontline operations when and if they can handle them. So far they can't and aren't likely to do much better ahead as many recruited into them are from the very resistance forces the US military is fighting and most others joined up for a paycheck with no ideological commitment to the occupying power offered in return for it - not the best set of circumstances for building an effective satrap security force.
The report will also call for convening a regional conference of Iraq's neighbors that will have to include Iran and Syria which the Israeli Lobby is fighting to prevent and so far the Bush administration has preconditions for unacceptable at least to the Iranians.
Further, the report mentions recommendations being considered by the Pentagon Joint Chiefs who seem to be leaning toward a brief increase in force size followed by a partial drawdown and a shift, like the ISG plan, from a combat role to one involving training, advising and backup. The Pentagon option is called "go long" and apparently calls for a large US military presence in Iraq for five to ten years which sounds very much like cover saying there will be no exit strategy just the way it turned out in South Korea still occupied by about 30,000 US forces a half century after the war there ended, and there are no hostilities or threats unless the US provokes one. The Times and Post said the ISG report (said to be about 100 pages) will be released on December 6, at least whatever portion of it the public gets to see.
One other supposedly "classified memorandum" on the war showed up on pages of the New York Times on December 3. It's from former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld sent to the White House on November 6, two days before he was sacked from the job he showed he couldn't handle long ago. On the one hand, it's a rather surprising admission of personal failure and need for a change of course, but on the other it may more of a thinly-veiled, late-in-the-game attempt to burnish an image too tarnished for any public relations makeover at this stage. But you can't blame the guy for trying, and he'll probably get some media-directed help ahead for what little good it may do.
In language trying to convey an image of elder statesman but dripping with mea culpas, Rumsfeld acknowledges "In my view it is time for a major adjustment....Clearly, what US forces are currently doing in Iraq is not working well enough or fast enough." Of course, they're doing what he ordered them to do, and he, more than anyone else, bears the most responsibility for all that's happened in Iraq since the war began - but you won't hear that in the media-directed attempted makeover.
The former secretary then lays out the policy changes he recommends in a set of attractive "Above the Line Illustrative Options" and less attractive "Below the Line" ones. Some of it sounds much like what the ISG will propose and the "new" direction the Pentagon seems to be leaning to in its planning. But Rumsfeld can't resist suggesting a lot of the blame goes to the Iraqi puppet government that must "pull up (its) socks" and change its "bad behavior." This kind of talk is now coming out of the White House and echoed in the corporate media - a shameless attempt to shift blame for what US forces have done and bear full responsibility for to an installed Iraqi government with no authority and no power to do anything more in the country than clear away the daily carnage on the streets caused by the US presence there. Mr. Rumsfeld and his administration allies planned, directed and lied their way into this mess, and now he and they are trying to lie their way out of it by shifting the blame to the Iraqis tat had nothing to do with it with a lot of help from their corporate media allies. It's a classic example of Washington-spin dutifully picked up and echoed in the mainstream hoping to make the victim look like the responsible party.
Cheerleading 101 - It's What the Dominant Corporate-Controlled Media Does Best, and They're At It Again
When in trouble, as the Bush administration clearly is, it can count on its corporate media allies to step up and help out just as they did it during the Johnson-Nixon years when they backed their "stay the course" and "Vietnamization" agendas. They're always out in front delivering the "proper message" and leading the cheerleading as they are now for what's highlighted above and the new Bush rhetoric of "success" however Henry Kissinger and others define it. It's highlighted in a November 16 article by media critic and columnist Norman Solomon titled The New Media Offensive to Prolong the Iraq War posted on Counterpunch. In it, he says the pro-war cheerleading is being featured on the front page of the New York Times (as it always is) by columnist Michael Gordon just like it was in the run-up to March, 2003 by the now-disgraced Judith Miller in her daily hawkish screeds practically pleading for hostilities and echoing the propaganda handed her by the White House and Pentagon.
This is the same Michael Gordon today who was the lead reporter on the Times front page in the lead-up to the Iraq war who wrote the false and discredited story (he never apologized for) about the threat of Saddam's aluminum tubes. Michael's back now and again doing what's expected of him as a paid propagandist for "the newspaper of record" that never met an act of US aggression it didn't support even when it turned out to be a hopeless debacle as is true now.
The Gordon piece on November 15 is certain to be followed by more. It's another in a long line of thinly-veiled NYT empire-supportive kinds of "journalism" leading the media pack with its cheerleading even when war crimes are committed or the public interest is being ignored or harmed. The Times, as always, knows what it's role is, and no journalist need apply for work there without being willing to be part of the same dirty business that includes supporting all imperial wars the nation pursues. So it is now. And Solomon goes on to say many other journalists are joining the chorus against the pullout option in Iraq the same way they did during the Vietnam era. They go even further warning Democrats that, despite strong public opinion to the contrary, not to go that far "if they know what's good for them," and, right or wrong, it's the president's call in all cases whether to go to war or continue one, and the Congress should stay out of it - even if they have lie to the public to do it the way the New ork Times does.
These journalists need a lesson in constitutional law as that view is fraudulent on it face and contradicts what the founders stood for and put in the Constitution for those who care to read it. It's a further reckless endangerment of a democratic republic scarcely able to draw breathe anymore. It's the result of corrupted government officials and complicit corporate media journalists ignoring what Thomas Jefferson helped codify, teach us, believed in passionately and said: "The most effectual means of preventing the perversion of power into tyranny are to illuminate, as far as practicable, the minds of the people....Light and liberty go together.....Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day."
Jefferson added no nation can ever be free if it's kept ignorant, and no part of the corporate-controlled media is more guilty of that sin than the "paper of record" that's the closest thing in the country to an official ministry of information and propaganda that's leading the way for all the others. It functions to serve the interests of wealth and power violating the Jeffersonian spirit and the constitutional law of the land he helped draft in 1787.
It allows George Bush to sell his war agenda knowing it'll be supported in the echo chambers of major front page dailies and headlined on TV newscasts. It may be his last gasp, but he's at it again calling for a "last push" strategy for victory in Iraq in a futile attempt to refurbish his image and give Republicans time to regroup from their drubbing in the mid-term elections and prepare for the 2008 presidential campaign. It's hard to imagine how continuing what hasn't worked up to now and won't will accomplish anything more than raise the level of public anger wanting change and not getting it.
The Real State of Things in Iraq the Corporate Media Won't Report
To learn what's really happening in Iraq just read unembedded independent journalist Patrick Cockburn's November 28 column in the London Independent (and all his others there) called Slaughter House Iraq. In it he says "Iraq is rending itself apart. The signs of collapse are everywhere. In Baghdad, the police often pick up more than 100 tortured and mutilated bodies in a single day. Government ministries make war on each other." He goes on to explain the country is in an "ominous stage of disintegration" and may be approaching what the Americans call "the Saigon moment" when it's plain as day "the government is expiring."
Covering the region, freelance journalist and author Nir Rosen is just as ominous in his latest article in the Boston Review on November 27, 2006 called Anatomy of a Civil War - Iraq's descent into chaos. Rosen says: "Shia religious parties such as the Iran-supported Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) controlled the country, and Shia militias had become the Iraqi police and the Iraqi army, running their own secret prisons, arresting, torturing, and executing Sunnis in what was clearly a civil war. And the Americans were merely one more militia among the many, watching, occasionally intervening, and in the end only making things worse."
Almost everyone in Washington and Whitehall know all this except Bush and Blair and their most loyal acolytes who've lost all touch with reality and are in a state of denial that the longer the occupation continues the worse things will get. The human toll, according to Cockburn, is 1000 Iraqis killed each week and 1000 US forces killed or wounded every month, and these may be low estimates of even greater numbers unknown or carefully concealed preventing people at home from knowing how desperate things really are, what the human cost is, that the war in Iraq is lost, and the longer US forces stay in the country the worse things will get.
And consider what publisher and editor Bob Chapman writes in his November 29 edition of his long-running, well-respected online publication The International Forecaster. He says "the insurgency in Iraq is now self-sustaining financially, raising millions of dollars a year from oil smuggling, kidnapping, counterfeiting, connivance by corrupt Islamic charities and other crimes the occupation has been unable to prevent." He believes they raise $70 - $200 million a year from these activities and concludes with the dramatic observation that the resistance groups can hold off the most powerful military in the world with that amount of money compared to $100 billion or more spent by the Pentagon with all their super-weapons trying and failing to defeat them. It can't and won't no matter how many more billions are spend or for how long.
That's the dilemma mandarins like Jim Baker and the heavyweights on his Commission have to deal with. The spillage of six disastrous years under the younger Bush is so immense, and the fallout from it so beyond repair, that two years from now or sooner the rule and influence of a family dynasty will end and whatever succeeds it will inherit less power than any US administration since WW II as the American empire heads into an irreversible decline that didn't begin under George Bush but was measurably accelerated under his discredited leadership that turned out to be none at all.
The Price of Imperial Overreach
After a mediocre start to his presidency, fate, or more likely a sinister master-plan, handed George Bush and his allies their chance to be untethered from any restraint and be able to go for the big prize they wanted all along but needed public support to do it. It was the gift of the 9/11 tragedy his administration ruthlessly exploited as a launching platform to pursue an imperial agenda of permanent war against enemies invented for the enterprise including former CIA asset against the Soviets in Afghanistan Osama bin Laden in the lead role.
With the help and complicity of round-the-clock daily corporate media fed invented terror threat warnings, color-coded on television for added impact, it scared the public enough and made the Congress willing enough to go along with the scheme the administration had in mind all along and had envisioned from the work of the right wing Project for the New American Century think tank (PNAC) document called Rebuilding America's Defenses: Strategies, Forces and Resources for a New Century. Conceived by future key Bush administration officials, it was a grand imperial plan for US global dominance to extend well into the future to be enforced with unchallengeable military power - a blueprint for the current "war on terror" now rebranded as a "long war" against "Islamic fascism" with goals spelled out in the May, 2000 Department of Defense (DOD) Joint Vision 2020 calling for "full spectrum (world) dominance" that was code language meaning total control over all land, sea, air, outer space and information with enouh overwhelming power to defeat any potential challenger or adversary with no restraint on the use of any weapons, including nuclear ones.
This "Vision" was one of several imperial documents looking ahead that included the Nuclear Policy Review of 2001, the FY 2004 Air Force Space Command Strategic Master Plan, the Pentagon's 2006 Quadrennial Defense Review and the National Security Strategy of 2002, updated in 2006. Together they laid out a "grand imperial strategy" that included the notion of "preventive war" updated to a "long war" against "Islamofascists" that was set in motion by the trigger of the 9/11 tragedy to target those parts of the world of greatest strategic value like the oil-rich Greater Middle East including Central Asia and its Caspian Basin riches.
These plans were embellished on October 6, 2006 when George Bush quietly signed the National Space Policy superceding a September, 1996 version of the same directive. The plan lays out US space policy goals that include implementing an "innovative human and robotic exploration program" to extend the presence of humans in space. It calls on NASA to "execute a sustained and affordable human and robotic program of space exploration and develop, acquire, and use civil space systems to advance fundamental scientific knowledge of our Earth system, solar system, and universe." It supports the use of nuclear power systems and implies without so stating that includes nuclear weapons that will be deployed there to use when and if necessary. That's very much the message from the language that this policy is designed "to ensure space capabilities....to further US national security, homeland security, and foreign policy objectives (that include defending) our interests there....(and having The Director of National Itelligence) provide a robust foreign space intelligence collection and analysis capability....to support national and homeland security."
With all the pieces of its grand imperial scheme in place, the best-laid plans, nonetheless, don't always go as designed especially when they encompass more than can be digested and the forces against them are determined enough to resist and do it effectively. What began with world support for a global "war on terror" began to unravel in the wake of the Bush administration's notion of endless wars and its unilateral intent to invade and occupy Iraq in spite of growing opposition to it that was ridiculed, spurned and arrogantly defied. Even the world's only superpower should have known no nation, no matter how powerful, can challenge the rest of the world and get away with it without enough support, especially when the two adventures it undertook in Iraq and Afghanistan unravelled so fast and the economic and political costs incurred from them are so enormous and increasing they've made visible fissures in the hegemon's superstructure making it vulnerable.
The cost of Bush administration go-it-alone adventurism accelerated a decline of US imperial power that began, according to some astute observers, with its futile losing gambit in Vietnam. It's now repeating it and then some in the Greater Middle East and as a result lost its stature as a failed model of a once democratic state flaunting the rule of law and ignoring the values it claims to stand for while doing just the opposite in reckless pursuit of its own interests. It's now seen for what it is - an out-of-control rogue state threatening all others wanting no part of it and a growing number of them willing to challenge its supremacy in the process.
This behavior fits the definition of what Noam Chomsky calls a "failed state" in his 2006 book titled Failed States while explaining the notion of what this means, in fact, is imprecise at best. It may be a nation unable to protect its citizens from violence or destruction but could also be one that flaunts the rule of international law and acts as an aggressor. The US uses this term for nations seen as potential threats to our security we feel justified intervening against in self-defense. Chomsky says if we evaluate our own agenda by that definition "we should have little difficulty in finding the characteristics of 'failed states' right at home."
Blame much of it on how noted historian and author Gabriel Kolko characterizes the Bush administration - "the worst set of incompetents ever to hold power in Washington. It 'shocked and awed'....itself." Winston Churchill called himself an optimist and once remarked that "the United States invariably does the right thing, after having exhausted every other alternative." Not a chance as long as George Bush is president and neocons are in charge. That's a hurdle even Churchill's optimism couldn't have cleared.
It shows how a once proud country lost its legitimacy and with it the power to face down a growing number of nations willing to confront its authority and get away with it, even small players that once wouldn't have dared. In the hemisphere, Cuba has been joined by Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua on November 7 with the reelection of Sandinista FSLN leader and former US nemesis Daniel Ortega, and now in Ecuador on November 26 with the impressive election of populist candidate Rafeal Correa in the run-off presidential election against the Washington-backed billionaire oligarch.
Elsewhere in Asia, China and North Korea have defied US authority as has Russia in Eurasia and Iran and Syria in the Middle East. Resistance groups everywhere have now learned the lessons from Iraq, Afghanistan and Hezbollah in Lebanon. These groups have asymmetrical guerrilla-tactic power that when used effectively can hold their own against the most powerful nation on earth beating it at its own game by outlasting it or rendering its super-weapons useless against an opponent that can't be seen until its bombs go off and bullets start flying and often not even then. They've also inspired the courageous people of Mexico and their epicenter of resistance in Oaxaca taking to the streets in their courageous fight against electoral fraud and an end to decades of abuse and injustice and doing it with little more than their bodies and a redoubtable spirit that won't quit.
Add to this the growing unease and discontent of an aroused and angered public at home. It sent a powerful message of disgust and contempt for six failed years of imperial madness and corrupted right wing neocon Republican rule by drubbing its candidates in the mid-term elections. It wants change in Washington even though there's little chance to get it when the new leadership takes control of the Congress in January. Beyond the usual post-election continuation of campaign-style rhetoric, already it's clear the Democrat party mission is to move the ship of state forward with its agenda largely intact but with them in charge including in the White House if they can prevail in the 2008 election. It's the way things always work in the nation's Capitol where those holding power owe their allegiance to the interests of wealth and power that put them there, and, in the end, the people be damned and "let 'em eat cake" but the language is more subtle.
It won't work for the new congressional leadership any more than it did for the president who brought down the house of Bush ending the family dynasty's reign while turning the nation's imperial dreams into its death throes by his arrogance and ineptness. He'll now live in infamy as the man who accelerated the American empire's decline. His imperial madness buried it in the caves and rubble of Afghanistan and the burning sands of the Middle East financing it with an unrepayable mountain of Federal Reserve-created debt in an age of aberrant capitalism gone wild and transformed into a fiscal weapon of mass-destruction that may end up throttling the US and world economies. It's what out-of-control greed and delusions of grandeur always lead to - self-aggrandizing excess that eventually undermines the "irrationally exuberant" dreams of fools and despots that go well beyond the limits of reason or any hope for success.
If George Bush lasts another two years, it'll be thanks to the kindness of his dwindling number of hard core friends and strangers who still think they can pick something from the bones of his tenure before payment for his imperial overreach comes due. When it does, it'll be high, painful and inevitable just like it always is the way it was for that French queen of "let em eat cake" fame who along with her husband, King Louis XVI, lost their heads for their misdeeds. "King" George may keep his, but the family dynasty has been undone and defrocked by the sins of the unworthy scion ill-chosen to carry its reign forward to pass on to the next in line after him. It wasn't to be as the dominance of another powerful family passes into history, never to be trusted again with the seat of power in a nation accelerating in decline in the new century that was planned to be an American one but already is not six years into it.
Whereto from here with a disgraced head of state and unindicted war criminal already an artifact or relic of an era past, his power ebbing and marking time going through the motions despite the same bravado, smirk and all, that resonates less with each public appearance. It's intended to keep his weakened presidency from collapsing that may just take one more good shove to do it. Despite desperate efforts to save it, in the end who but the family will care if it does and who will ever again believe a serial liar once exposed and disgraced making him unwelcome in the halls of power that once embraced him. Success, as they say, has many parents and friends, but failure is an unwanted orphan, and it's showing up as some of the hard core faithful voice their displeasure openly and walk away.
It now remains for his final exit that can't come soon enough for most who want him out now and may act to force it if the Congress won't act as a majority of the public demands. Whatever happens from here, the king is dead (even with his head in place), and with it the power and influence of a family dynasty brought down by the poisoned chalice of its ill-chosen successor, unworthy and unable to wear the crown and pass it to the next in line. Henceforth, all will know what should have been clear all along. Behind every "Bush," there's a crime, and some of them are too great to hide, make up for or overcome. So it is with the lesson of George Bush, a very bad seed and a president only a mother can love. And even that's in doubt in a family that doesn't take defeat very well. Give them time, they'll acclimate.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.
Last Updated on Sunday, 03 December 2006 23:04


text:
Adrian Zmudzinski
Can Bitcoin Benefit From New 'Impossible to Crack' Encryption Chips?
A team of researchers claims that the prototype silicon chip that they developed enables encryption that is impossible to break.
A team of researchers claims that the prototype silicon chip that they developed enables encryption that is impossible to break. According to an article published on Dec. 20 by scientific paper publication outlet Nature, the system uses chaotic wavepackets in conventional Silicon-based semiconductors.
The chip was developed by scientists from the U.K.-based School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of St. Andrews, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia, and the Center for Unconventional Processes of Sciences in California.
The paper explains that conventional encryption standards — that cryptocurrencies rely on — could soon become obsolete due to developments in quantum computing.
It is widely believed that quantum computers would be able to break traditional encryption algorithms in a short period of time. This is seen by many as a major threat to cryptocurrencies.
In November Xinxin Fan, head of cryptography at privacy and IoT-focused blockchain platform IoTeX, said that the crypto community should work to address this threat immediately.
A new take on an old solution
The system envisioned by the researchers is based on the idea of a one-time pad (OTP), patented by engineer Gilbert Vernam in 1919 after being conceived in 1882. OTPs are famous because they cannot be cracked, but require sharing one-time use keys the same size or longer than the data being sent before it is sent.
Despite the system's security, OTPs are not adopted because of the absence of a practical and safe way to exchange the keys. However, the chip developed by the researchers tries to make a practical OTP implementation, who claim to:
"Develop a physical realization of the OTP that is compatible with the existing optical communication infrastructure and offers unconditional security in the key distribution."
The chips use traditional physics and the classical laws of physics, including chaos theory and the second law of thermodynamics. The keys that are used to decrypt the data are never stored or communicated with the message.
As Cointelegraph reported in October, author of "Mastering Bitcoin" Andreas Antonopoulos said that recent advances in quantum computing on Google's part are not an immediate concern for the Bitcoin (BTC) community.
#Encryption
#Cybersecurity
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