Bill’s Commentary:
“Weekend comedy!”
Bill’s Commentary:
“3 years ago…”
Bill’s Commentary:
“Thanks to your tax dollars and the see eye ay!”
Syria, Mission Accomplished?
Remember all of the jubilation created in Baghdad by the CIA, who hired a crowd that stormed the center square and tore down the statue of Saddam Hussein? Remember the mobs looting the presidential palaces, banks and commercial outlets? Welcome to Damascus 2024. To quote Yogi Berra, “It is Déjà vu, all over again.”
I admit, I am surprised by how rapidly the Assad regime collapsed. This was not the result, primarily, of military pressure from the terrorist fighters of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). Something else was afoot. A deal was cut and Assad was persuaded to abandon his government and head for Russia.
I am sure there are champagne corks a popping at CIA Headquarters in McLean, Virginia and at MI-6 Headquarters in London. I think this operation surpassed even their expectations. But, if the subsequent events that unfolded in Iraq in 2003 and in Libya in 2011 are any guide, the celebrations should be tempered with trepidation. Why? Because Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham is now in charge. Instead of bringing peace and reconciliation, HTS will impose strict Sharia law and will punish those guilty of heresy — which means large segments of Syrian society are likely to be purged. HTS itself will become a target of terrorism. The most likely fate for Syria — at least for the next decade — is chaos and mayhem.
Who or what is HTS? According to the US Department of State Annex of Statistical Information, Country Reports on Terrorism 2018:
*Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) formed in January 2017 as a merger involving Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (formerly al-Nusra Front), the Ansar al-Din Front, Jaysh al-Sunna, Liwa al-Haqq, and the Nour al-Din al-Zenki Movement. In 2017, al-Nusra Front had 104 incidents, Liwa al-Haqq had 3 incidents, and HTS had 21 incidents directly attributed to them. This table represents the merged incidents and casualties of HTS and its member groups.
In the following year, 2019, HTS cemented its reputation as one of the “Top 10 Known Perpetrator Groups” in the world, and remained in the “Top 10” thru 2022 (the last year the report was released).
While it carried out a smaller number of attacks in 2019 compared to 2018, it killed a lot more people.
However, since its emergence in 2017, HTS has played second fiddle to ISIS, which has accounted for the overwhelming majority of terrorist attacks in Syria.
HTS is not a friend of Iran. It remains a fundamentalist Sunni Salafist movement. In terms of ideological extremism, it is a cousin of the settler groups in Israel, which are represented by Zionists like Bezalel Smotrich — they broker no compromise with anyone. Unlike Assad, who kept Christian Churches open and protected the Shi’a and Alawite communities, HTS is likely to persecute, if not outright murder, those groups. This means that floods of refugees will be headed back to Lebanon, north to Turkey, west to Europe and east to Iraq.
While the West is busy celebrating Assad’s downfall as a blow to Russia — and let me be clear, this is not an outcome that Moscow welcomed or wanted — Donald Trump and his advisors do not understand what happened. Trump issued the following on Truth Social:
Assad is gone. He has fled his country. His protector, Russia, Russia, Russia, led by Vladimir Putin, was not interested in protecting him any longer. There was no reason for Russia to be there in the first place. They lost all interest in Syria because of Ukraine, where close to 600,000 Russian soldiers lay wounded or dead, in a war that should never have started, and could go on forever.
Russia and Iran are in a weakened state right now, one because of Ukraine and a bad economy, the other because of Israel and its fighting success. Likewise, Zelenskyy and Ukraine would like to make a deal and stop the madness. They have ridiculously lost 400,000 soldiers, and many more civilians. There should be an immediate ceasefire and negotiations should begin.
Rather than acknowledge that an international terrorist organization has been allowed to seize control of the government of Syria, Trump indulges the fantasy that “Russia is in a weakened state right now.” I am sure that went over well with folks in the Kremlin. I bet they are shaking in their boots as the mighty colossus that is Donald Trump, strides the world stage.
Trump’s ignorant statement about Russia’s economy and its progress with respect to the war in Ukraine guarantees that Putin will be in no mood to sit down to negotiate with Trump or any of his water boys.
The chaos that is likely to consume Syria over the coming two months will cause more harm and danger for Turkey and Israel than for Russia and Iran. Yes, the fall of Assad was a diplomatic blow for both Moscow and Tehran, but managing the emerging security risks presented by an HTS-led government? Those hot turds are now the problem of Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Israel. Russia and Iran can sit back and watch or, through intelligence assets, help stir the pot.
Bill’s Commentary:
“The Greatest Depression!
OK, 2 things. First, mathematically we are already in a debt spiral. We will pay $1.5 trillion this year in interest alone versus $4.7 trillion in tax revenues. We add $2 trillion per year to the federal debt. At 130%, the US, who is the issuer of the worlds reserve currency, is a Banana Republic (not to mention the breakdown of the justice system). The Federal Reserve joins the party with negative equity on their balance sheet. Mathematically the whole thing is cooked.
Second, Let’s agree that DOGE can cut $2 trillion in spending. If they did this, GDP would be negative every year. $2 trillion is close to 7% of a $29 trillion economy. If it doesn’t get borrowed and spent, then it doesn’t make its way into the real economy and even the BLS could not jack with the numbers enough to spin positive. Not to mention the ripple effects of $2 trillion not entering the real economy each year.
Even though it is the right (moral) thing to do, if they are successful in cutting anywhere close to $2 trillion (not to mention massive tariffs that history shows do not work for either side), the result will be THE GREATEST DEPRESSION! If I wanted to pull the plug on the system with the least amount of political blowback, I would do exactly as proposed. The public wants it but has zero idea of how bad the consequences will be. Read “The Great Taking” if you have not already, and please take action because they are publicly telling you they are pulling the plug!”
There’s a rude awakening in store for the DOGE bros
Once upon a time, a brash outsider entered the Oval Office with a promise to “drain the swamp.” He brought in a posse of businesspeople, led by a leading industrialist, to work like “tireless bloodhounds” to root out inefficiencies in Washington’s vast bureaucracy.
It was 1982, and President Ronald Reagan’s Grace Commission began its quest to get rid of hundreds of billions of dollars in wasteful spending.
Much like President-elect Donald Trump’s “Department of Government Efficiency,” the advisory board led by entrepreneurs Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, the Grace Commission had no authority to implement changes, only to advise.
Bill’s Commentary:
“No comment necessary…”
Bill’s Commentary:
“At least they won’t be messing our kids up with our own tax dollars for the next four years.”
Biden Admin Cut Big Check To Activists Using Schools As Recruiting Grounds For LGBT ‘Family Therapy’ Program
A Michigan group received federal funds for a “family therapy” program that instructs parents to affirm their child’s gender confusion — and enlists public school districts in the effort.
A nearly $1.3 million federal grant awarded in early 2024 to Arbor Circle, a resource center that offers counseling and support for youth 10-18 who identify as LGBTQ, states that Kent County and Ottawa County school districts will partner with the organization to promote its Supportive Assistance for Families and LGBTQI+ Youth (SAFLY) program.
Arbor Circle’s SAFLY program provides LGBTQ-identifying youth and their families with “counseling and support programs that aim to reduce rejection and behavioral health risks,” according to the grant description.
Bill’s Commentary:
“I really liked Animal House, I guess that makes me a P I G pig?”
MAGA Animal House
We know folly and evil when we see it,” X-posted the great American novelist Walter Kirn last week. “That is why literature and drama speak across time and across cultures.” Cinema certainly qualifies. And comic cinema may have the longest, deepest reach of all. At least it used to before Hollywoke killed the genre and wounded the art form. And few films have been more prophetic of the Trump Effect than one of the best screen farces ever made, National Lampoon’s Animal House.
The 1978 monster hit shook the still pliant liberal order of the era, and retarded feminist-centric “entertainment” for more than a decade — by being hilariously brilliant. A single scene of John Belushi’s Bluto on a ladder peering into a sorority house window had more cultural power than anything in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, An Unmarried Woman, Maude, One Day at a Time, or the then fully Alan Alda-nized M*A*S*H. Another bit, where fraternity pledge Tom Hulce is torn between a little devil and angel over performing sex on a passed-out date, would trigger a riot in academia and multimedia today. Even without the losing devil’s insult, “Homo!”
BillHolter.com 
Thank you pamelamoves@gmail.com
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