War Games -- January 9, 2016

We used to call these emergency meetings, "war games." The Wall Street Journal is reporting:

Saudi Arabia on Saturday accused Iran of not acting like a nation state and said it is considering further measures against its regional rival, as tensions between the two countries escalated further over the kingdom’s execution of a dissident Shiite cleric.

“Iran has to make a decision whether it is a nation state or a revolution. If it’s a nation state, it should act like one,” Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said following an emergency meeting in Riyadh with his Gulf Arab counterparts to discuss the crisis with Iran. “Sectarianism wasn’t heard of in the region before the Iranian revolution.”

“We are looking at additional measures to be taken against Iran if it continues with its current policies,” he said.

The foreign ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council—a six-country bloc comprising Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman—met amid concerns that the spat between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran may lead to serious repercussions for other conflicts in the region.

That was from a hastily-called, "emergency" meeting called by Saudi Arabia.

Wow, talk about President Obama/SecState John "I served in Vietnam" Kerry and Saudi Arabia being on different pages in the Mideast.

Different pages? They aren't even reading the same book. Saudi Arabia says Iran is not acting like a nation state and the US can't wait to lift sanctions on Iran as a reward for delaying their nuclear missile program until after the president is out of office.

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After All That Noise

The article has been pulled from the front page of the on-line edition of The Los Angeles Times; I'm still looking for it. [Don provided this link which is probably the article, or google President Obama vows to take gun debate to the ballot box.] The LATimes reported this morning that after all that crying and all that talk about executive orders, the president will end his attack on the 2nd Amendment by simply "issuing some memos warning gun dealers to do more background checks." That's it. Some memos warning gun dealers to do more background checks.

Something tells me his Attorney General warned him, that, "yes, sir, what you are proposing is unconstitutional" and his political adviser warned him that, "yes, sir, Trump's numbers are going up every day you talk about this issue." 

President Obama has admitted defeat on this issue according to the New York Magazine, in a story released Friday afternoon:

President Obama openly crying at a press conference will be the most memorable image of his failure to pass new gun-control legislation, but in another depressing sign, this week he openly admitted that he won't make any significant progress on the issue during his presidency.  

Rumors are that he placed a foreign substance in his eyes -- "menthol"? -- to induce the tears.

Oh, in addition to those memos he did write an op-ed. 

San Bernardino? Not even mentioned. A colossal screw-up by his own agencies on so many levels. It had nothing to do with background checks. The most recent cop killing by a "radicalized" Muslim? The gun was stolen from a police station. There is no law that requires those who steal guns to go through a background check before using the gun; maybe that's where we should start. Steal a gun? Go to jail if you don't initiate a "selfie" background check before using the gun to shoot a cop.

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The Joy Of Winning

... or at least being the first to get rid of all your dice.