Random ramblings from an amateur rock-n-roll historian and critic,self-professed bourbon aficionado, blackberry growin', jam makin', sometime tie-die shirt makin', ex hippie wannabe, turned punk rock lovein', blues festival going, middle aged pudgy bald white guy who loves to wear Hawaiian shirts in the summertime and happens to be more Stax than Motown, more Alman Brothers than Skynard, more Stones than Beatles, more NASCAR than Baseball, more freeware than license keys...
"The fast-shifting geopolitical sands have already handed huge territorial gains to the pro-Moscow Assad government who opportunistically forged a new alliance with US-abandoned Kurds over the weekend.
The unfolding events in northern Syria come after Moscow stayed the course with its ally Assad despite international criticism and sanctions, leaving it as the only force willing and able to protect the Syrian Kurds from a Turkish onslaught. With the US withdrawal increasingly seen as a betrayal of the Kurds, it is the Russians who look like the only reliable allies in this fight.
It was against this backdrop that Putin toured the capitals of two key Gulf states -- the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday and Saudi Arabia on Monday.
You think this all wasn't planned out well in advance?
"Speaking after the meeting, King Salman said he appreciated "Russia's effective role in the region and around the world," according to remarks reported by Saudi state media.
The statement underlines that this state visit was a well-timed diplomatic coup, placing Putin at the center of the region's geopolitics.
It's what Putin has been pushing for all along."
Oh this, access to control the Bosporus straight, lots of things.
"But criticism and concern about US commitment to the region is causing Saudi Arabia to look elsewhere, perhaps to more reliable and less judgmental friends.
The "days of a single strategic partner for the kingdom," one senior Saudi official told me, "are already gone".
And just like in northern Syria, Russia is ready and willing to step in.
"...it counts as one of the dumbest moves an American president has ever made in the Middle East."
(Abandoning the Kurds)
"in addition to withdrawing support for the Kurds, he would deliver them into the hands of their worst enemy, who fully intends to kill them in large numbers."
Who didn't know this?
It's just insane.
It's exactly what they are doing.
"Let’s not forget, the very ground we’re speaking about in northern Syria, down the Euphrates River Valley, is the same location to which survivors of the Armenian genocide fled, having become the first victims of Turkish nationalism."
That is a very important point.
"Why would the Ottomans be considered "The Beast" mentioned in Revelation 17 8-11?
Oh, I don't know, maybe for the genocide of the Armenians, many of them Christians."
"Erdogan’s past enablement of the Islamic State is well documented. He shares certain goals with them, including military defeat of the Kurds, and Assad’s ouster. In any case, there are no ISIS fighters in Syrian Kurdistan, except for the 11,000 or so whom the SDF has locked up in a string of prisons that will now go over to Turkish control.
"That is cause for alarm, because to speak of Turkish forces in this context is to refer to an auxiliary militia known as the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army, or TFSA. This is a hard-bitten assortment of Sunni survivors of the long jihad against the regime, a rabble of defeated rebels, foreign fighters, mujahedeen from abroad, Nusra Front veterans, and other takfiri mercenaries. No small number of men now fighting under the Turkish flag are former ISIS, who went over to the TFSA after the fall of Raqqa. Erdogan has already used the TFSA to take over the Kurdish enclave known as Afrin, where they were filmed executing civilians"
This guy?
Turkey's President Erdogan?
Has bought military hardware from Russia.
Has militias of Islamic Radicals committing genocide in Northern Syria.
He's gonna do everything he can to get kicked out of NATO.
He doesn't care.
Puzzle pieces on the chessboard are starting to move. Who's next?
I love this from that article:
"Instead, last Sunday, four-dimensional chess-master Donald Trump, after a call with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan"
"four-dimensional chess-master Donald Trump"
I bout fell out of my seat.
:-).
"The last last Sunni Islamic caliphate? The Ottoman Caliphate, under the Ottoman dynasty of the Ottoman Empire. (I'm not counting ISIS here, however they did bring back the idea of a Caliphate ruling over the area) I watched and interview with Jake Sullivan the other day. He said there were twenty five million Sunni Muslims living between the Shia strongholds of Baghdad and Damascus. They are displaced militarily, socially, politically and economically. We may very well defeat ISIS, but this is just going to keep reforming and reconstituting until it eventually results in a new Islamic caliphate."
they could not have any insight into nor foresight of."
Thats from Matthew Henry's commentary on Joel two, verses 28-32:
"The effect of this blessing: They shall prophesy; they shall receive new discoveries of divine things, and that not for their own use only, but for the benefit of the church. They shall interpret scripture, and speak of things secret, distant, and future, which by the utmost sagacities of reason, and their natural powers, they could not have any insight into nor foresight of. By these extraordinary gifts the Christian church was first founded and set up, and the scriptures were written, and the ministry settled, by which, with the ordinary operations and influences of the Spirit, it was to be afterwards maintained and kept up
Thing is?
I don't care if other people think so or not.
I know I'm/were being used.
I know who I am.
I know what I've come to do.
I know who I am supposed to be with.
And it's all gonna happen.
Brother Joe is right.
Christians shouldn't be scared of the times we are living in.
The book is being proved right.
Turning our back on the Kurds empowers Putin and Russia, and to a lesser extent Iran and Assad.
We just helped speed up the process.
"We may very well defeat ISIS, but this is just going to keep reforming and reconstituting until it eventually results in a new Islamic caliphate."
"Never trust a cheeseburger you can't take the bun off of."
"Never trust a rock-n-roll band that can't play at least five Chuck Berry songs."
"Satisfying more desperate housewives than the spin cycle."
"she's not drunk, she's just mean!"
"swampadelic!!!"
"We self medicate the depression that is a direct result of the obsessive compulsiveness"
"what's crackalackin?"
"Your curse is my blessing"
Quotes from the 09 WC Handy Blues Fest
"We're an army and we're growing"
"Thats award winnin strutin' right there"
"That's shakin' it like the pros do"
"It's just Jimi passin' by"
"I walked in the door and saw hubert and my old lady doing the funky chicken right down in the middle of the floor"
"I spent $500 to save you $300, thats almost half off"
"I hate loud music, blues music and Heat"
"I don't know, that might be Jimi and Stevie"
"I don't buy enough shit to try and talk people down to start with"
"as long as you don't have that 38 it's all cool!"
People Of The WC Handy Blues fest
Ol' Dancin' Couple
Freaky Lookin' Dude
Mother and Daughter
Purple Hat Lady
Old Soldier
Got Grey Hair Now Duse
Subnet.com People
T- Shirt Guy
Quotes from "Porch Night Out"
"...are there any ding dongs left?..."
"...are those the Cheetos?...
"...can a brother get a lil ananimity?..."
"What was I supposed to be writing?..."
"YEAH!!......I'm sorry what?..."
"...there aint no dope on Bowling Green..."
"...somebodys got to drive my fat ass to Philpot..."
"...snapper shit..."
"...18 to 80, blind, crippled, or crazy..."
"...higher than a hippie on a helicopter ride..."
"...Whiskey Dicked..."
Quotes from Bowling Green Trip
Andrew, "Look a trailer with Christmas lights on it". "Thats not a trailer, thats a school bus!, and it doesn't have Christmas lights on it", Dave
Andrew, "Is the computer on?". "No you have to turn it on for it to be on", NA
"Well, it is getting toward wintertime", NA on Big breasted women.
"She wont get horny, she'll just get pissed off", BC
"Now do you want to smoke paper or do you want to smoke...", NA
"I'm squinting, everything s blurry..."Andrew
"I might just gateway across the spectrum", Dave
Overheard in Hancocok County
Criminal Girl, "oh shit, that wasn't the ash can!, that was my purse!!, Preacher Man, "If you go messing around with a skunk, you ought naught be surprised when you end up a little smelly.""If your clean, you aint eating it right", guy eating barbq.Country Boy, "I think those jerks on first shift were trying to poison us."Country Boys' Date, "Well, you didn't have to eat it now did you?"Country Boy, "But it was pizza". Big Guy to Clerk: "look at me, does it look like I want cheese sauce?"Overheard from phone: "Why the hell are you watching that?" Reply "Because it's on." Country Boy, "She got fired for doing some guy in the parking lot. Typical Tell City Chick..." Country Boy, "It done dried!"
Overheard at Work
"Has anybody seen the hemostats?"
"How are you?" "I'm doing well. It's early."
"I aint in any hurry."
"I am the queen of 8:15"
"I don't care if she takes over a Russian satalite with it..."
"I don't know anything, I'm just a suit"
"I plan on being reasonably functional for most of the day"
"I tried to reformat it, but it takes a frigin' act of congress or somethin'..."
"I'm like a brownie at a weight watchers meeting, I'm gone..."
"I'm not their boss, and I'm not their moma..."
"It would help to have your mouse over the link, yes..."
"It's a vortex of evil down there"
"It's not that I'm not listening to you, it's that I am having trouble comprehending you"
"Just click it with your mouth."
"Man, it's fried", "Like chicken..."
"The only thing I'm handy with is a doughnut"
"Why don't you go troubleshoot a Network Printer or something?"
"You are starting to scare me with your new found caffinefreeness..."
"You might not want to mess with me, I have a bladder infection"
Great Music Quotes
"If they wanted to name rock-n-roll something else, they could have called it Chuck Berry", John Lennon."Tune low and play hard", Stevie Ray Vaughn "What do I want a pick for, I got five of them on my hand." Gatemouth Brown "The Grateful Dead should be sponsored by the government -- a public service." Jerry Garcia "Rhythm is something you either have or you don't have, but when you have it, you have it all over." Elvis Presley "Free your mind and your ass will follow." George Clinton
Great Guitarists
Jimi Hendrix, Chuck Berry, Tab Benoit, SRV, Pete Townshend, Eddie Van Halen, Pete Anderson, Steve Cropper, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, James Burton, Ron Wood, Jimmy Page, Keith Richards, Carlos Santana, Freddie King, Albert King, B.B. King, John Lee Hooker, Robert Cray, Prince, The Edge, Duane Allman, Dickey Betts, Slash, Joe Walsh, Joe Lewis Walker, Bo Diddley, Muddy Waters, Kim Thayil, Albert Collins, Lonnie Mack, Buddy Guy, Bonnie Rait, "Gatemouth" Brown, Johnny Winter, Tinsley Ellis, Lightnin Hopkins, Jimmy Reed, Robert Johnson, T-Bone Walker, Tommy Castro, Hubert Sumlin, Tom Morello, Elmore James, Brian Jones, Jeff Beck, Mike Campbell, Steve Via...
Great Keyboardists
Jerry Lee Lewis,
Little Richard,
Johnie Johnson,
Booker T. Jones,
Ray charles,
Billy Preston,
Fats Domino,
Roy Bittan,
Pinetop Perkins,
Bernie Worrell,
Benmont Tench,
Sly Stone
Great Bass Players
Duck Dunn, Jaco Pastorius, John Entwistle, John Paul Jones, Bill Wyman, Jack Bruce, Robbie Shakespear,
Bootsy Collins, Tony Levine, Willie Dixon, Les Claypool, Noel Redding, Flea, Adam Clayton
2 Turtles, (1 released, I think it was a she and she was preggers) 4 Frogs (1 of them a Tree Frog, 1 of them about as big as thr tip of my index finger), 2 salamanders, countless worms and lightning bugs, 1 big ugly lookin' thing with wings on it...