Vintage Obama - Destroying Our Foreign Relationships and Sucking Eggs!

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Sweet Tammy's taking Holiday orders.  Just back from Pittsburgh. Local demand for their products is growing.

I probably gained a few pounds eating their oatmeal raisin cookies and challah!

They are re-introducing their rugallah!
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The Saudis are ticked at Obama.  How will he finesse it or will he?

Another opportunity for Russian inroads in Middle East?

Obama's suspension of some foreign aid to Egypt was simply another blow to our standing in the area. Was it calculated to appease The Muslim Brotherhood?  Perhaps.

And then there is Obama's sucking eggs with Iran!

Obama's handling of our foreign policy has caused us a great deal of reduced influence at the very least. That is stating it mildly! Will it lead to another major war that was avoidable were he not so naive?

Stay tuned.  (See 1 and 1a below.)
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This logic and his own corrupt ways caused Dodd not to run again for his  Senate seat: In a bid to stem taxpayer losses for bad loans guaranteed by federal housing agencies Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac, Senator Bob Corker (R-Tenn)  proposed that borrowers be required to make a 5% down payment in order to qualify for a loan.

His proposal was rejected 57-42 on a straight party-line vote because, as Senator Chris Dodd (D-Conn) explained, "Passage of such a requirement would restrict home ownership to only those who can afford it."
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This from a Yoga friend: 

"In case you are having a rough day, here's a stress management technique recommended in all the latest psychological journals.   The funny thing is that it really does work and will make you smile.

1. Picture yourself lying on your belly on a warm rock that hangs out over a crystal clear stream.

2. Picture yourself with both your hands dangling in the cool running water.

3. Birds are sweetly singing in the cool mountain air.

4. No one knows your secret place.

5. You are in total seclusion from that hectic place called the world.

6. The soothing sound of a gentle waterfall fills the air with a cascade of serenity.

7. The water is so clear that you can make out the face of the Congressman you are holding underwater.

See it worked. You're smiling. You feel better already."

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Dick
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1)Wanted: Patron For Hire

October 20th, 2013 - 1:22 am

Walter Russell Mead muses over what kinds of payback the Saudis might inflict on US foreign policy now that they’re in open breach with Washington. “Saudi Arabia, frustrated with how things have been going in Middle East, is showing its displeasure by foregoing its seat on the UN Security Council.” Meads counts the ways in which the Kingdom can gum up the works.

All the signs point to this being decided at the very top of the Saudi government pyramid … it would be a mistake to not see in this a growing Saudi rage mixed with horror at the Obama administration. … there is at least the possibility that the White House hasn’t really thought through just what the Saudis could do that would make us unhappy. That would be a mistake. The Saudis have a lot of weight in Pakistan and could make things easier or harder for us there. They have a lot of influence particularly among the hard core Islamists and in the nuclear program. It’s worth thinking about what that could mean. Also, as US dependence on Middle East oil decreases, China looms larger as a customer for the Saudis, and there are a number of favors those countries could do for each other that would make life more complicated for American foreign policy. The Saudis could move more aggressively to fund the kind of jihadis we don’t like in Syria and perhaps elsewhere; they could switch to a more aggressive price policy in OPEC; they could cut the legs out from under the Palestinian moderates on the West Bank; they could aggressively promote radical Salfism in Egypt to take advantage of the Muslim Brotherhood’s eclipse. With Saudi help, however quiet and in the background, Israel’s calculations about an attack on Iran could change, and a conflict could start that the White House might not be able to stay out of.

Would the Saudis really do anything so hostile? That depends on how deeply betrayed they feel by Obama administration’s rapproachment with Iran. Tom Phillips, a former UK Ambassador to Saudi Arabia and Israel thinks the Kingdom is very worried about the unreliability of its patron:

Not far below the surface there is also a sense of Saudi vulnerability. The Kingdom is, after all, an ally of the West, especially when it comes to anything connected with Iran…. From a Saudi perspective, the message the West and above all the Americans have sent through their handling of the chemical weapons crisis is that it is has lost the will to get tough (a message which they think will not have been lost on the Iranians); that it lacks consistency (not all that long ago Western spokesmen would say that Assad was toast, and now even Kerry is praising his government for its cooperation with the OPCW inspectors); that it is not concerned about the strategic consequences of the conflict and the risk of refugee flows and other pressures destabilizing Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq; and that it lacks morality. Surely, they would argue, the signal conveyed to Assad is that it is acceptable to shoot protesters, but not to use sarin against them. They remain to be convinced that the West will put in a serious effort to achieve a result at the Geneva II conference now scheduled for late November. They worry too — inevitably, and ironically like Israel — that Western limpness on the Syrian agenda prefigures a willingness to accept a less than satisfactory deal with Iran, cutting Tehran too much slack in the regional strategic equation.

What Phillips fails to convey is the sense of betrayal the Saudis must feel, recalling that up until a few weeks ago the President was all set to bomb Syria with or without Congressional approval. Up until that point it is safe to assume Riyadh believed they had a deal with Obama, an arrangement he reneged upon in order to save his own political hide.

Viewed in the context of Obama’s about-face it’s hard not to conclude Saudis feel he folded out of weakness and convenience. From their point of view Obama is either unable or unwilling to do the Patron’s job. They bought a kind of international Obamacare insurance policy from him and now find it entitles them to nothing but hospice care — and three free haircuts at Moe’s. He took the Saudi insurance premium and ran.

Their refusal to take the UN Security Council seat must signify a management decision that they cannot double him back. 

Whatever that insurance represented — gold, silver or bronze — it’s gone now.  So they are cutting him loose in the most public way possible.

The Russians have piled in on the Saudis, calling their refusal to play the UNSC game “strange”. The Russian foreign ministry issued a statement.

“We are surprised by Saudi Arabia’s unprecedented decision,” the statement read. “The kingdom’s arguments arouse bewilderment and the criticism of the UN Security Council in the context of the Syria conflict is particularly strange,” the ministry added.

One thing the Russians may not have to worry about is the $10.8 billion worth of US arms that might have wound up in the Kingdom’s hands. Though it is not yet clear the diplomatic dust-up may have put the kibosh on a proposed sale.

Notice yesterday of the planned sales of advanced weapons made by Boeing Co. (BA:US) and Raytheon Co. (RTN:US) sends a message of support from the Obama administration to two close allies in the Middle East as the U.S. and five other nations are engaged in talks to curb Iran’s suspected nuclear weapons program. … The proposal includes the first U.S. sales to Middle East allies of new Raytheon and Boeing weapons that can be launched at a distance from Saudi F-15 and U.A.E. F-16 fighters. The Boeing Expanded-Response Standoff Land Attack Missile and Raytheon Joint Standoff Weapon give those nations new capabilities to strike at air defense sites and radar installations, such as those possessed by Iran, from beyond the range of enemy air-defense systems so pilots aren’t put at risk. The Boeing missile, a derivative of the Harpoon anti-ship missile, can be launched more than 135 nautical miles from a target and be redirected in flight. The Navy says the Raytheon missile can fly 12 to 52 nautical miles and attack industrial facilities, logistics systems and “hardened tactical targets.”

The sales package sounds like a kind of do-it-yourself deterrence kit the Saudis were offered in lieu of American action against Iran. A kind of consolation prize, as in “I can’t buy you a car, but here are the parts. Go build it yourself”.

The Saudis however, have no talent for conventional warfare and may have regarded the advanced armaments, correctly, as fundamentally useless in their hands. Therefore losing the arms package only punishes Boeing and Raytheon. The Saudis themselves probably lose nothing.

But maybe the Russian’s quizzical attitude is also a wonderment about what happens next. The Kingdom’s way of defending its interests has been by getting others to do it. It hires help. Given that track record, what is more probable is that Saudi Arabia will cast around for another patron or geopolitical partner in the Middle East to replace Obama. The Saudi refusal to take a seat in the UNSC is equivalent of his pink slip, the House of Saud’s way of announcing it is now hiring.

In this connection its worth remembering that in the runup to the Syrian crisis, Prince Bandar reportedly made a secret offer to Moscow. The Telegraph reported that in late August the Kingdom made an extraordinary proposal.

Prince Bandar, head of Saudi intelligence, allegedly confronted the Kremlin with a mix of inducements and threats in a bid to break the deadlock over Syria. “Let us examine how to put together a unified Russian-Saudi strategy on the subject of oil. The aim is to agree on the price of oil and production quantities that keep the price stable in global oil markets,” he said at the four-hour meeting with Mr Putin. They met at Mr Putin’s dacha outside Moscow three weeks ago.

“We understand Russia’s great interest in the oil and gas in the Mediterranean from Israel to Cyprus. And we understand the importance of the Russian gas pipeline to Europe. We are not interested in competing with that. We can cooperate in this area,” he said, purporting to speak with the full backing of the US.

The talks appear to offer an alliance between the OPEC cartel and Russia, which together produce over 40m barrels a day of oil, 45pc of global output. Such a move would alter the strategic landscape. …

As-Safir said Prince Bandar pledged to safeguard Russia’s naval base in Syria if the Assad regime is toppled, but he also hinted at Chechen terrorist attacks on Russia’s Winter Olympics in Sochi if there is no accord. “I can give you a guarantee to protect the Winter Olympics next year. The Chechen groups that threaten the security of the games are controlled by us,” he allegedly said.

In other words the Saudis asked the Kremlin to sell out Assad and make a deal with them. That deal did not fly. But it suggests what the Saudis might do. Given the rising power of American oil and gas in the world markets and the Obama administration’s inability to do the Patron job, one wonders whether the Saudi refusal to sit in the UNSC is merely the prelude to a Saudi rapproachment with Moscow.

1a )Bibi and Obama Growing Apart on Iran while Rouhani Is All Smiles

 Iran will receive between $50 and $75 billion, tax free, not for eliminating its nuclear weapons program, but for merely slowing it down. 

By: Yori Yanover

This story is vintage Rouhani – the man was the architect of Iran's winning strategy of fooling the world while flashing many winning smiles. He's finding a willing suitor in Obama. The Associated Press reported that Israel and the U.S. have been growing apart on the Iran nuclear threat, so much so that there appears to be a rift between them these days. Essentially, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to sound the alarm tirelessly and at a high pitch, while the West sees genuine Iranian compromises in the Geneva talks. 

The different views are only growing more so, threatening to leave Israel in isolation, as the talks between six global powers and Iran appear to be gaining steam, the AP surmises. western negotiators were upbeat after last week’s talks, going into the next round of negotiations, Nov. 7.

 If you wanted a Munich moment – this is it, with the Czech ambassador sitting nervously in the waiting room while the British and French prime ministers and the Axis brutes decided his country’s fate. 

Most references to the Munich moment usually show PM Neville Chamberlain waving a piece of paper and announcing “peace in our time.” But the really scary Munich moment took place hours earlier, when these dubious characters signed on to the deal. It was about the West’s willingness to knowingly embrace the lies of the thugs it was dealing with, leaving Czechoslovakia to pick up the tab. From left to right, Chamberlain, French PM Daladier, Hitler, Mussolini and Italian Foreign Minister Count. 

In fact, the louder Netanyahu cries out, the more shrill he is bound to sound in the face of the smiling Iranian president Hassan Rouhani. 

“I think that in this situation as long as we do not see actions instead of words, the international pressure must continue to be applied and even increased,” Netanyahu told his Cabinet on Sunday. “The greater the pressure, the greater the chance that there will be a genuine dismantling of the Iranian military nuclear program.” 

The statement may reflect more how out of touch Bibi is with the winds blowing in Washington DC right now, than a practical strategy. Over the weekend, U.S. officials said the White House was going to offer Iran a chance to recoup billions of dollars in frozen assets—sitting there since the 1979 Islamic revolution—if it scales back its nuclear program. The sanctions will stay in place for now, but Iran would suddenly receive a windfall. In other words, Iran will receive between $50 and $75 billion, tax free, not for eliminating its nuclear weapons program, but for merely slowing it down. 

This is vintage Rouhani, incidentally – the man was the architect of Iran’s winning strategy of fooling the world while flashing many winning smiles. One gets the feeling the Rouhanis wanted their boy to go into modeling for toothpaste ads, instead of running one of the three most evil regimes on the planet, but one thing led to another. 

Speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said it was “premature” to talk about easing sanctions, but he did not endorse Netanyahu’s tough line, saying the U.S. is planning a more “incremental” approach in response to concrete Iranian gestures.

 It’s 2005 revisited, and Rouhani knows he’s already won this round. He managed to separate Netanyahu from his American benefactors, and isolate Israel which now looks like it’s frothing at the mouth while Iran is all pleasantries and pragmatism. All he has to do from this point on is keep talking, host a couple UN inspectors, mess with their inspections a little, nothing serious, make it impossible to get a real read of what goes on in those plants – but keep on smiling, denying, and never say anything hostile or aggressive against israel or the West.

 Bibi cannot win this one, any more than Czechoslovakia could win the diplomatic war against Hitler. Few people know today that on paper the Czechs were superior militarily to the Germans. If they had decided to strike against the Germans, they could have altered world history. They didn’t need British or French protection, they were completely self sufficient in manufacturing their military arsenal. Indeed, it was his bloodless conquest of Czechoslovakia that turned Hitler unstoppable.

Haaretz yesterday cited an unidentified senior Israeli official who heard from the Americans that Iran is ready to stop all uranium enrichment of 20 percent, limit lower-level enrichment of 5 percent and scale back the number of centrifuges it is operating for enrichment. 

Not destroy them mind you, just turn them off for while.

 Iran also expressed willingness to reduce the operations of its most controversial nuclear facilities, and maybe, in the future, even open them to unannounced inspections. 

That’s skillful negotiations, that’s how it’s done – and Bibi looks so unappealing with the yelling and the warning and the bomb cartoons, he’s so passe, so behind the times, like a man caught wearing last year’s tie length. 

Yoel Guzansky, an Iran expert at the Institute for National Security Studies, and a former national security aide in the prime minister’s office, told the AP there will always be a gap between the U.S. and Israel due to their different military capabilities and the level of threat they face.

 Truer words have not been spoken. So, according to Guzansky, Bibi is going to keep his shrieking level at 11, hoping to collect a response around the 7 or 8 mark. But there’s no way Israel will act alone against the Iranian facilities. It’s just not in the cards. 

“Israel really only has one option,” said Guzansky, meaning it will accept whatever America dishes out. “The chance it will act alone after the Americans make a deal is miniscule.”

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