Negotiate with Russia and Iran to get Bashar al-Assad out of Damascus

The dissension of fifty-one State Department underlings seeking military intervention in Syria shows a distressing dependence on force rather than persuasion by our diplomatic corps. It’s a notion blind to the elements in place to partition the country and thereby defuse the sectarian irreconcilability of the belligerents, something bombs can not do.  If State is hampered by the thought of Syria’s sovereignty then consider it a state that has ceased to function and thereby has no sovereign. Syria could logically split into three parts, an Alawite Shiite region to the west above Lebanon on the Mediterranean Sea, a Kurdish partition in the northeast and the remainder to the southeast for Sunni Arabs to self organize and settle. The first step for State would be to negotiate with Russia, whose primary motive in Syria is to protect its naval base on the Mediterranean, to isolate and protect their client Bashar al-Assad in his Alawite enclave by that very same base.  Iran may be persuaded that al-Assad doesn’t have the political muscle to bring back under his control the rebellious Sunni Arab regions of Syria so that his attempt to do so is hopeless and that they would be better served to consolidate with their Shiite brethren in the Alawite region as well.  Diplomatic success in getting al-Assad to back off and retreat to his enclave would allow the recent ceasefire to work,  certainly it’s more logical than lobbing in a few bombs at great humanitarian cost that settles nothing as long as Bashar remains in Damascus.

NRA cheer leads gun ownership for personal safety. How about responsibility?

As a Libertarian and true believer in our Constitution the bone I have to pick with the National Rifle Association (NRA) is their cheer leading for gun ownership as a means of personal safety. How about reverting back to their original purpose in forming the organization after the Civil War of promoting safe use and responsible ownership? The best that can be expected from the Connecticut Judge's ruling on a trial for the manufacturer of the AR-15 used in the Sandy Hook elementary school massacre is a detailed discovery of the promotional materials used for the sale of this weapon. The NRA should be front and center on disowning the message that is sure to come out in this material.

Russian entry into Syria precludes options? No it makes it apparent

"Russian entry into Syria has precluded many U.S. options" is a point of view from those who are blind to reality. Putin has volunteered to support his client Bashar al-Assad to protect the Russian naval base in the Alawite region of Syria by the Mediterranean Sea. Russia has no real interest other than that. John Kerry could practice some realpolitik by negotiating with Russia to force their client to move from Damascus to the Alawite region and so protect their asset and let them show their diplomatic effectiveness, just like they were able to to get al-Assad to turn over chemical weapons. Iran may also be enlisted to convince al-Assad to withdraw to the Alawite Shiite region since Sunni Arabs and Kurdish of Syria are not governable by a single sect and certainly not by Shiite Bashar. This line of thinking comes from the realization that Syria is to be balkanized into separate states because its too far gone among its separate sects to contemplate unification.        

Court's message on gun control: Keep it local

My Senator, Chris Murphy of Connecticut, in memory of the Sandy Hook elementary school massacre did a Jimmy Stewart "Mr. Smith goes to Washington" style filibuster and successfully had a vote put on some watered down gun control provisions, which were summarily defeated. Washington will not pass any sort of federal gun control legislation, its that simple. And what it has passed it actively works at sabotaging, such as requiring gun records to be maintained in paper not digital form and specifically instruct the CDC not to use funding allotted by Congress to study guns and health.  Yesterday Justices Refuse to Hear Challenge to Connecticut Ban on Semiautomatic Rifles, is a message by the court to keep it local. There is nothing stopping Connecticut to require gun records to be kept in digital form and for the State to share the data with other like minded states. Also there is nothing stopping States from forming a consortium to commission and fund the CDC's study on guns and health.

Classic call to meddle in convulsing dysfunction where best to do nothing

The New York Times Editorial Board's "Standing Up for Democracy in Venezuela" is the classic call to meddle in a convulsing dysfunctional state where there is nothing to do but watch.  Currently there is no lever in our economic, diplomatic or military mechanism to affect any change and its a reality even our most meddlesome types realize. So what is this stirring of the pot, a precursor to a call for action?

Rachell Madow makes the case for @LPNational's Johnson Weld ticket

Rachell Madow makes the case for the Johnson Weld ticket

Shameful that State would cede effective diplomacy to Defense's ineffective bombs

"Dozens of U.S. Diplomats, in Internal Memo of Dissent, Urge Strikes Against Assad” is distressing headline for how the State Department with effective diplomatic arrows in its quiver would cede these to the Defense Department’s guns and bombs which have proven to be singularly ineffective in a region of government dysfunction. The first arrow is to Balkanize Syria among its major sects of Sunni Arab, Shiite and Kurdish peoples to better isolate the bad actors and protect the good. Negotiate with Russia and Iran to put their client Bashar al-Assad in his Alawite enclave by the sea and then declare Damascus an open city.  2nd is to provide economic aid and support to Syria’s Kurdish in the northeast with the intent of partitioning it off. 3rd and finally promote the move of Jordan’s Syrian refugee camps back across the border into Syria’s southeast with the intent of aiding and protecting an enclave for the development of a functional Sunni Arab government that displaces ISIS.

European health accepts inevitability death, U.S.staves it off long and expensively

"Obamacare Premiums Rising, not just a Little"  and will do so until we as a society accept that health care is a good, not a right. Oddly the comparison with European health care is an acceptance that death is inevitable where in the U.S. we try to stave it off for as long and expensively as possible.  Europe is more hardhearted about costs and benefit weighed for those who will not pay personally.

Shame the NRA from being the cheerleaders of unfettered and irresponsible gun use

It was the National Rifle Association's position that the Sandy Hook elementary school tragedy could have been stopped by armed security people at the school.  But what about the deranged off duty security guard who takes out fifty people in Orlando in an explosion of self hate? The NRA, started after the Civil War by soldiers who were dismayed by the poor shooting and firearms handling skills of the public in general, needs to throttle back its current and dogged determination to defend the indefensible and go back to its roots of educating the public on the proper use of firearms rather than use its political muscle to test the outer edges of the Second Amendment.  The parents of the Newtown Connecticut shooting have a lawsuit against the manufacturer of the AR-15, the gun used in the massacre of children and teachers, where the Judge is ruling that the Pandora’s box of promotional materials and internal memos regarding the gun’s ego boosting Rambo qualities be made public and shame the NRA from being the cheerleaders of unfettered and irresponsible gun use rather than the responsible organization they started out as being.

Marie Antoinette: "let the poor eat cake" or retain a great tax attorney

Reading Jeff Sommers' gas tax proposal and found the usual: such and such tax is regressive so to compensate lets give the poor a tax credit. Tax credits are such a sop to the regressive tax argument, sure such and such tax is regressive so to make it fair let’s give the poor a credit for the taxes collected.  Okay let's see. A poor person looks over his credit card statement and calculates the gallons of gas bought and taxes paid which then he gives to his accountant to prove the credit being taken after have been advised that the credit is available. It’s pretty much like Marie Antoinette declaring “let the poor eat cake” and retain a really good tax attorney.

G.O.P.'s will to win at all costs will cost them the party

Peter Wehner's "The Indelible Stain of Donald Trump" exactly describes how the G.O.P.'s will to win at all costs will cost them the party.

If GOP had it's head screwed on right William Weld ideal nominee for President

David Brooks "The Unity Illusion"

The G.O.P. has in its unthinking denial of anything good of the Obama administration left untended its optimistic free market Milton Friedman’s “Free to Choose” economic philosophy that Ronald Reagan used to ride into office. The party has been negative for so long that it forgot what it’s about and so it’s establishment lost contact with the base and let the brat in the room take over to destroy the party’s conservative ideology. On the other hand the Libertarian Party candidates, former two term Republican Governors  Gary Johnson of New Mexico and William Weld of Massachusetts are the conservatives that Brook’s describes. Weld would have been an ideal Republican nominee for President if the party had its head screwed on right. It’s important that in this election conservatives establish the Libertarian Party because the G.O.P. may never recover from its loss of bone structure on which to hold political muscle.

G.O.P. from prudent stewardship economy to Chamber of Commerce nightmare

"G.O.P. seeks a subdued Trump" is an indication of the party's end because there is no changing him. This week's primary victory teleprompter speech was so flat that there is no chance of his continuing in that manner only to lose the interest of his marginalized base.  On other hand there is no getting rid of him by denying him the nomination and further sever their populist base, what ever that may be. It was thought to be conservative evangelicals but that was proved wrong by Ted Cruz's biblical Southern campaign which thoroughly lost to Trump, the devil incarnate.  The Republican Party is in danger of going the way of the Whig party as the Libertarian Party with two former Republican governors, re-elected with big majorities on their second terms that reaffirmed their prudent taxing, spending and budgeting stewardship of their state's economy without moralizing on personal liberties, who will establish a sensible center right alternative. In a different time Libertarian's Vice Presidential  nominee former Governor William Weld of Massachusetts would have been enthusiastically nominated Republican candidate for President but for the fact that he was run out of the party by North Carolina's Rush Limbaugh of the sixties and later Senator, Jesse Helms, who objected to Weld's pro choice and tolerant LGBT policy. It was Weld's being turned down as ambassador to further develop his Presidential credentials when the G.O.P. turned away from the being the party of business and prudent stewardship of the economy to the authoritarian personally intrusive and Chamber of Commerce nightmare that it currently is.    

@LPNational self organized for prudent budgeting at home less moralizing abroad

Tom Friedman's "Dump Trump for a Grand New Party"  :  "America needs a center-right party to support both free trade and aid to workers impacted by it. America needs a center-right party that appreciates how much more complicated foreign policy is today, when you have to manage weak and collapsing nations, not just muscle strong ones."

Tom is showing his bias for authoritarian preferences. His center right party already exists and it's called the Libertarian Party.  It's a self organized party of the right which best reflects American's preference for a government that is prudent in taxing, spending and budget keeping with less moralizing at home and abroad.  

Ser puta y no ganar nada, mas vale ser mujer honrada @AgoraLibertaria

Si la suma PP-Ciudadanos resuelve el Gobierno, ¿seguirá enrocada la formación de Rivera en su oposición a Rajoy? “Aquí el único enrocado estos meses ha sido Rajoy, haciendo la siesta, mirando el fútbol y despreciando al Parlamento. Si la gente quiere ver como un enrocamiento que pidamos caras nuevas para una nueva etapa...”, contestó ayer Juan Carlos Girauta, portavoz de Ciudadanos. “Las del Gobierno Rajoy no son esas caras. Tienen la responsabilidad política de la corrupción”, añadió. “No imaginamos a ese equipo humano liderando una etapa de regeneración”. “No puede ser”. Según este dirigente, que el PP asuma las primarias sería una condición de partida para Ciudadanos, que además no se plantearía aplicar soluciones que ya ha usado en otras administraciones, como Logroño, donde la alcaldesa, del PP, gobierna tras comprometerse a no volver a presentarse al cargo.

Corruption in Brasil has created an anarchy in government and politics from which there will be no good result because the rule of law has been trampled over so thoroughly that nothing good can arise from that garden.  Spain suffers from the same disease. Several years ago the center right PP, Partido Popular, swept into power over the left PSOE, Socialist, with a clean government and economy agenda but it soon was disclosed it too had the same corrupt system of party leaders with Swiss bank accounts. Ciudadanos, Citizens Party, recently developed on the right with a corruption free agenda and now finds itself having to ally themselves with the PP if they are to enter government.  Their leader Alberto Rivera fears that Citizens will develop the same cancer should they work with Mariano Rajoy and the Popular Party.

Rivera's is right to resist a short term gain if he then has to to sell his soul.          

@LPNational are the moderates and hollowed out Democrats and Republican Party the extreme

Nick Gillespies' recent interview on NPR

Memo to @GroverNorquist: @GovGaryJohnson @LPNational ideology for gig economy #legalizefreedom

Grover Norquist on ABC this morning countering Paul Krugman made a very telling comment about the gig economy and corporate taxes, which is that the current system based on old time businesses with staffs will stifle the new economy of independent contractors without bookkeeping and legal services keeping track of money and arcane regulation.  That Trump or Hillary are aware of the problem can not be said since Krugman is right about Trump; who knows what he is for?  On the other hand Presidential candidate Governor Gary Johnson and Vice Presidential candidate William Weld of the Libertarian Party come from an ideology that is tailor made for the gig economy.

Can Mr. Tax Avoidance lead us with a call for unity and sacrifice?

Both Romney and Trump suffer from unseemly private business lives that make them both unsuitable leaders of a country that prides itself in its exceptionalism of equal opportunity. If you know you are going to run for President then you have to be prudent about taking advantage of carried interest income and foreign tax havens for Romney and what is certain to be tax avoidance practiced to the edge of the envelope by Trump's tax accountants.  

Major Party nominates protest Candidate, Minor Party ones capable of governing

For disillusioned Republicans, then, the Libertarian Party and candidates represent credible alternatives to Trump’s GOP. It’s quite a role reversal: Usually one of the main impediments to third-party offerings is that voters just can’t imagine those candidates actually serving as president. Now it’s a major party that seems to have nominated a protest candidate, while a minor party has nominated candidates capable of governing.

Shia lead by General Waste More Land surround Falluja

"Near Falluja, Fear of a 'Catastrophe Unfolding'" shows an understanding finally that without the political union ready to inhabit and govern a city or region makes military action to conquer useless. It brings up memories of General Waste-More-Land as a policy that proved useless in Vietnam. A Shia operation obliterating a Sunni city will further divide Iraq's civil war between sects and leave a smoldering rubble of city behind declared as a glorious victory.