news of the world

I saw a map, it's just a little peninsula of Iraq maybe a couple miles wide that juts into Syria.  I thought Jeez, couldn't the Turks just have let that one go by.   On the other hand people are tetchy about their borders and that Turkish/Russian enmity goes way back.  And then there's that thing where if you warn somebody not to do something (there is some controversy about that, but it seems likely that the Russkies would know what frequency the Turks were using) and they just ignore you it kind of gets your back up. 

And just now I am hearing that the Russkies are saying that it only took like 17 seconds for their plane to traverse that peninsula and the Turks are saying this wasn't the first time it happened.  I guess my takeaway is how hard would it have been for the Russkies to go around that peninsula, but even then the Turks should have made a big complaint, fired some warning shots, something short of shooting the plane down.

But either way it's done.  I expect there will be some backing away now (though with Putin you never know) because the first Crimean war didn't go so well for anybody.  I mentioned the Crimean war because it was between the Russians and the Turks and a couple other nations, but now that I mention it, it was fought in the Ukraine, which is not so far away from the current mess.  Perhaps it could be dragged in.

I think there is some big conference in the wings with all the powers from Iran to ISIS.  Maybe we need something like the Paris peace conference after WW 1, the powers drawing lines on maps, and then calling it done.  That didn't turn out too well either.  Maybe they ought to get out a big Risk game and roll the dice and however it turns out that is how it turns out.

Now Trump is claiming that he saw the cheering (yes by Muslims, I assume he could see their bathrobes and funny hats) from his apartment four and a half miles away.  No wait a minute maybe that was the towers falling and people jumping out, it's hard to keep track sometimes.  I am sure he has the greatest eyesight in the world.  The thing about these latest two whoppers (the first one about the thousands and thousands cheering from the rooftops he saw on national tv), is that they are so easily disproved, and yet Trump does not back down.

And you know reasonable men like me, and even you, after every Trump rant we say, this will surely be the end of him and every time he comes back bigger.  And last night I watched them interview his legions of fans, and when it was pointed out that what he said couldn't possibly be true, they were like if he said it, it must be true, or it didn't matter whether it was true or not, it might as well be.

You complain about the Republican party having so many candidates and yet you are backing a guy who doesn't have a snowball's chance.  The problem with the Republican party is guys like you who are voting in the primaries but feel no fealty to the GOP.