Steve's barking; break up the NSA

Break up the NSA.
A major corporation has been hacked ( Sony ) reportedly by a not very tech savvy country North Korea including shutting down it's computer operations for two days.
One of the top priorities of the agency is to stop  cyber attacks against the US and companies in it.
After billions was spent on the agency they didn't do one if not the primary function.
Break up the NSA.
Woe is me, and the rest of the world.

Steve's barking; Who's responcible for ISIS?

Who's responsible for ISIS? I hear commentators on the boob tube and even in the e magazines and newspaper that I read blaming the current president. He's not doing enough. We should have staid in Iraq. We should give arm to the Kurds and the Syrian rebels who aren't allied to our enemies.
Who's to blame for ISIS, that easy, my country. Specifically the events that took place prior to the current president taking office.
Whose weapons are they using? US weapons that were given to Iraq after the war.
Who are the best soldiers and commanders in ISIS? The soldiers and commanders who were part Saddam Husain's military that we ignored and didn't let them protect their country when it was heading toward chaos.
There really isn't much this administration can do except give air support to people on the ground.
If we give weapons to the Kurds how would we make sure they wouldn't be used against our ally Turkey?

We interfered in Libya which is a disaster. Egypt, didn't turn out too well. Tunisia? Syria, still a civil war going on.2 million refuges and counting.
So in conclusion stay out of the Middle East, we only make things go from bad to worse.

Steve's barking: Are bombings really incentives for people to join terrorist?

The question  for the day is bombing and fighting monsters in the Middle East a good tool for recruiting of terrorist as has suggest by so many on the idiot box?
When one see the inhumanity of Isis on the tube isn't that a good recruiting tool for those who are prejudice against Arab, and Muslims?
Isn't a greater recruiting tool fantasy of doing something for the greater good?
Doesn't history show that winning or being on the winning side brings out the desire to join a warrior group?
Isn't there a large group of people who enjoy inflicting pain? Isn't that a great recruitment incentive?
My best guess is that those who want to act as terrorist will do it whether we have a military involvement or not. Sorry experts.

Steve's barking at trying to understand the fear of the freed Taliban

I'm trying to understand the fear of the the five freed Taliban members in a 5 for 1 prisoner swap for (Sgt) Bergdahle.
Let me try to understand from what I do know.
Afghanistan was ruled by the Taliban in 2001.
The Taliban harbored Al Qaeda.
Al Qaeda was the terrorist group that attacked us on 9/11/2001.
To reiterate Al Qaeda (People of Mid Eastern Extraction, not Asian) attacked us.
To retaliate we (rightfully) invaded Afghanistan.
Is it the suggestion of those who are afraid of the freed Taliban that they will attack Americans on our soil?
( Our soil includes Embassies and military bases).
They haven't done so before, so they're going to start now?
Is it the suggestion that we're never leaving Afghanistan so they create a risk for our men and women over there? Is that the problem?

Steve's barking for Crimea out loud Gas and oil vs electricity

Talk is what would happen if Russia would to cut gas and oil to the West because of the sanctions the West put on the Russians. My question is what would the Russians do if the Ukrainians would reduce the electricity to Crimea after it left Ukraine to joining Russia.
Krushchev gave Crimea to the Ukraine because the Ukraine had the power dams for the electricity. (My understanding that is what Krushchev grand son claims).
Will there be a war over electricity? (There has been a build up of Russian troops on the border between Russian and Ukraine).
Another question will the Tartars turn to terriorism?
The Russian people are happy today, will they be happy in the future?

Steve's barking Russia the new Prussia,

Russia rushes into the Ukraine the way Germany rushed into Czechoslovakia. The justification for Germany was to protect the Germans who were in Czechoslovakia just as the justification of the Russians are to protect the Russians in the Ukraine..
It seems to me that Russia was well prepared to takes the steps that it took to move into Crimea, and that she has contingency plans with the rest of the Ukraine, the Western counties look clueless.
I don't think that the Russians had planed to move into the Ukraine if Mykola Azarov was prime minister, but they had contingency plans, the West is just playing it by ear.

I'm now going to state something that will be hard for the readers to understand, economic sanctions against Russia by the West will hurt the West in the long run, economic sanctions in retaliation by Russia will bring havoc to the Russian economy. Economic war between East and West is a destabilizing event especially with the fragil world economies.

Now what can the West do to with what appears to be naked agression by the Russians?
I'm not sure, perhaps ignor Russia in places that aren't close to the Russian border.
We've ended the cold war, because we didn't want a hot one, and we make get a hot one anyway if were not carefull.

Steve's barking the more things change

The more thing have changed in the US the more they remind me of the past.
Our new Senator McCarthy is Ted Cruz
Our new Nixon is Ran Paul.
Our new Roy Cohen is Russ Limbaugh.            
And the the good people of the Republican Party who refuse to stand up to them.

Money still shouts drowning out the voice of the people.

Steve's barking at the world in revolt

Every time I turn on the news it seems that an other country is having an insurrection with in it hborders. It doesn't matter if the country had an revolt three years ago and had a democratic elected, like Egypt. It doesn't matter if there is strong leadership or weak leadership.
It wouldn't surprise me if Western nations with strong democratic traditions are in the lines for violent  
demonstrations.
When and if this happens the explanation  from some will probably be income inequality.
Me, I'll just say promises not kept. I'll leave the other explanations to those smarter then me.

Through out history there has been violet upheaval, some good has come from it some times bad, even though just after the upheaval there has been bad. (Some of you who just read this probably have no idea what you just read).

Steve's barking at the attack on the nation's printing press

Just recently anyone who shopped at Target and Burdoff Goodman had their credit card compromised.
I don't know how this was known, or how the hacking into the computers of these stores were done, all I know is what I read in the paper. I also know that any compromise on plastic is an attack on the economic system. Using credit cards and debit cards is like printing money ( though most people don't understand this principle).
A danger of compromise of credit  and debit cards to the point that they are not trusted anymore is like nobody trusting  or taking a nation money.

Steve's barking at Stalinst Americans

Ok, what the f*** are Stalinist Americans? Let me start over , who the f*** are Stalinist Americans?
To answer that question let's start out with those blokes who complain about that woman or man who they claim was buy candy and soda ( beer, cigarettes) with food stamps. Let's do away with food stamps because there are people who misuse the system. That statement goes along with Stalin's statement better nine innocents be jailed then one guilty be free.
Who else can be called Stalinist? How about those people who keep say a big lie over and over again till the lie becomes excepted as the truth, kinda like those anti Affordable Healthcare Act people.
Would you believe that I heard on the boob some capitalist sound like Stalinist. How may you ask can a capitalist be a Stalinist? Well if they say the same lie over and over again they too can be a Stalinist. If you want to do away with most rules because a few rules are wrong and stupid, then you too can be a Stalinist.
If you bully your way to get what you want (like some Tea Party favorites) politically then you too can be considered a Stalinist.

Steve's barking at Woolie Bullies

In America we now have a war on bullying of youths against other youths, unfortunately we don't have this same anger of adult bullying. We do frown upon the bullying that's called sexual harassment, but what about the person who sits next to you and makes your life a living hell. Or what about the boss who's constantly berating you. What about in school were a few adult teachers bully a few of their students. When was the last time one heard of adult bullying yet it happens all the time?

In American politics there's bullying all the time, the Tea Party just recently tried to bully the country to do things that the majority in the upper house felt was wrong. Then blamed everyone else for not bargaining in good faith.

What about those bullies on television who have (masochistic) people come to their shows and berate them and their viewers love it.

Question of the day; How do we stop our children from bullying when the adults all around them are bullying?

Steve's barking, US budget deficit going down----bad

I've been reading some bad news US budget deficit is being reduced in the time of the great sequester.
Any time a budget is reduced on the back of people, that's not good. I can not rejoice, the budget deficit is going down the budget deficit is going down, were spending less and the the private sector isn't picking up the slack and there's less money in the economy.Now I don't know what economist thing that's a good thing. Maybe the economist who doesn't put his money in a bank, for banks run the same kind of deficit spending that the government does only they can't print (?) money the way the Federal Bank can.
Now in case a person reading this doesn't understand how I can compare the US deficit to a bank, think of it this way, the bank borrows my money as a depositor and lend it out with interest hoping there aren't too many defaults, the government (lends?) out money to people such as farmers, the poor in the form of food stamps and housing subsidies. ( Some of you who read this may not comprehend, for this is an abstract idea). The government can make up this money in the form of higher taxes and or inflation.

Question: Did the great sequester hurting the housing market and perhaps the banks?
Question: Was borrowing from credit cards going up due to the sequester
Question: Are delinquecies in paying on time cable and telephone bills going up due to the sequester?
Question: How are car sales, especially in areas with high government worker and in areas with companies that have government contracts?

Steve' barking at world wide defaults

While no one has ever written or talks about it countries that lessen their pensions that are taken from taxes that the workers pay are in a technical default. Those counties that pay their bond holders first, broke an implied contract with their workers. If you pay your taxes we will give you x amount per month when you retire not the lesser amount y. Even though bond holders might be paid in full counties that lessen their pensions are in default.
 The US is even worse, the pensioners better know as Social Security recipients paid a. dedicated tax for expected payment of  Social Security (pension) which actually bought bonds.
Retirement age when I started working was 65, when I retired it was 66, and now there's talk of changing the  formula for cost of living adjustments, I may not be the brightest guy in the room, but I know when a implied contract isn't being payed, and yes the US is in default to its Social Security recipients and even it's present ones.

Steve's barking at Hurrcane Debt Ceiling

Us of the Northeast remember Hurricane Sandy and how we laughed at it before it hit shore, after all wasn't it just the year before that a Hurricane called Irene turned out to be a dud. We were warned that this Hurricane was going to be a disaster, but many of us just laughed and said remember Irene. Now that we were under water and led a miserable life of which some of us still do.
Now were being told by many that a terrible financial storm is coming called the debt ceiling. There are many among us who say no way this will be very  damaging, just like those persons in the Northeast stated that Hurricane Sandy wasn't going to be very damaging. There are those people who make financial decisions who say hay that thing called the sequester was to bring this country to it's knees, didn't happen. No budget no big deal, were muddling through. Raising the debt limit is something we don't have too,after all were taking in enough money from taxes each month to pay our debts. What is not being said is that we will not have enough money to pay our employees ( including our Arm forces, our boarder guards, congress people (hip hip hooray) and the people who make the payments for our debt. Of cause these people can work for free, yea right their going to work for free.


Treasury can make a billion dollar radium coin and sell it to the Federal Reserve negationg the need to raise the debt ceiling.
Then again the President can invoke the 14 amendment to the constitution to pay off the counties debt by any means possible with the on going fight in the supreme court if this is what the writer of this amendment intended.

Steve's barking at democratic minority rules

One would think that in a democratic society that the majority rules.
I'm not so sure about that. The fact of the matter I know that in a parliamentary system with many parties, majority rule gets the short shift unless one party wins a solid majority. Think of Israel, don't those  extremist parties have way too much sway?
What about that well oiled machine Germany? Even though the Christian Democratic took much more of the vote then any other party ( possibly at the expense of their previous coalition partners) they have to make deals to govern(?).
Now we come back to the good old US of A, which isn't a parliamentary government yet the Republican party has too make deals with the lower house to stay in charge, thus the undemocracy of the great democracy of the United States. Unfortunately for the Republican Party (re Tea Party) the lower house doesn't rule like in European Parliaments were no confidence votes can change the government.

There are people in the US who are nostalgic for James Buchanan and the weak ineffectual presidency.

Question: Do democracies want democratic really want democratic rule in other counties, especially when the citizens of that county what things that may be at odds with those countries?

Steve's barking It's a budget stupid

I maybe not know that much about budgets, but I do know that a counties budget has everything to do with money that a the counties government is going to spend. Question; how do you hold up a budget on money that you're not going to spend. Maybe I'm putting it wrong let's ask how can you insist on not paying for something that your not suppose to pay for anyway?
Now in case anybody is reading this I'm writing about the affordable health care act. Now I'm no lawyer but you can't insist that on refunding or holding up a portion of a law that the government isn't funding.
Now I haven't seen the funding bill, but if my gut feeling is right the senate could except the money part of the bill and change the wording.
Now I know that the budget bill is a zillion pages long and nobody really knows what in it anyway, but (and g-d forgive me) if medicaid spending is X plus Y (for the affordable health care) don't fund Y.  Even if that money is from saving on the amount of money not being paid to doctors and hospitals, just deduct the savings.


Thank goodness progressives don't read my blog and neither do the fruitcakes.
A person must take this particular blog with a grain of salt, for I get all my information from the news.

Steve's barking at winning national elections by beggering thy fellow counties

The German elections are over. The Christian Democrats have won.
Merkel did a great job in making the Greeks, Spanish, Portuguese and Irish poorer.
The German people rewarded her and her party with the largest number of seats in parliament because she stood her ground and made the Southern tier of the Euro Zone and Ireland pay with austerity.
Now I know that Germany has low unemployment, but my gut feeling is that Gernany is in an employment bubble that's on the verge of blowing up. I don't see how businesses can keep exporting to counties that can't afford their exports, and no I don't believe that there is an export pixie that will help the German economy in the next three years.
The German economy is the economy that the United States should emulate. How do I know? I heard a pundit on the boob tube say so.

My suggestion to all countries out there, there is no country that can be your guide as to handling your economy, as we all do screwy things.

Steve's Barking Putin on the Ritz

The other day Russian President wrote an op-ed piece in the New York Times.
At the end of this op-ed piece the President of Russia complaint that President Obama of the United States shouldn't call America exceptional. Now just who does Putin think he is? An American?
Well you know he can't defect now and run for any office in America..
Now I've said that some times America ain't that special, but nobody gives a sh*t what I say.
Now I'm sure that many of President Putin's country men think that he's special for writing that in an important American Newspaper.
I have no idea what the pundits on the cable news networks were saying for they all sound like chirping birds.


Let me put my two cents in on Syria.
Neither sides is our friend. Even our friends our not our friends.
I fell sorry for the refuges, but an attack on Syria will not help them.
Assuming that the Syrian government used gas on its civilians (which is the most despicable act that they could do) how is a limited attack going to punish a war ravaged regime?
I maybe wrong but the best we can do is all pray for the civilians in Syria.

Steve's barking who's speaking up for the Isrealis who come from Arab countries

I hear on the boob tube and read in the paper about this group and that who want to boycott Israel because of what they call Israel and the occupation of Palestine land. There is even an ex-president who calls what's happening in Israel apartheid. It seems that everybody speaks for the Muslim Arab, the Christian Arab, and every other Arab who has a religion except the Jewish Arab.
Now the Jewish population of Israel is over 50% of those coming from Northern Africa.
Didn't they come because they were second class citizens in their old countries?
Didn't they come out of fear for their lives?
Weren't they afraid of what happened in Nazi Germany would happen to them?
It would appear to me that those who criticize Israel are really talking about European Jews (Askenizey) and when you take sides in a conflict were you're not involved one should look at the whole story.

I used to hear the stories of the Russian Jews, very rarely did I hear of the Iraq Jews, or Syrian Jews or for any of the Arab countries. I heard some stories after they escaped.
I read about them now from the Jewish agency only when they what to rebuke the claims of the Palestinians.
There should have been  ongoing information blitz from the beginning of the state of Israel till now.

I have the desire to boycott the boycotters of Israel because of there ignorance of the plight of the Arab Jew and if they didn't call Jordon and Egypt occupiers.

If Aljzeera wanted to win points on honest reporting they would report on the Arab Jews of Israel and how they were treated in their counties of origin.

Steve's barking privacy and an open government?

Why are those who a complaining that government is listening in on American secrets are in general the same people who demand open government?
In a democracy they say there should be no secrets from the people.
In a free society government shouldn't know what the people are saying to one another.
Question is a free society exclusionary from a democratic society?
Question does a majority rule society a free society because those in the majority hold back the rights  of the minority ( think of the old segregation in the south)?
Question how can a press question the government about privacy of it's citizens when at the same time dumpster dive and hound celebrities ( who just so happen to be private citizens) all in the name of freedom of the press?
Why do some people complain about violation of the fourth amendment for listening in on conversation and even government reading e mails and think it's alright to stop some one on the street
and frisk them ( which by the way we have the fourth amendment according to most American history books is because the British employed stop and frisk in colonial times)?
Maybe the US government should use the Terry ruling to explain why they can legally obtain e mail records and telephone conversations.

There is a Motown record of the way I feel- Ball of Confusion.