Posts Tagged ‘Hosni Mubarak’
Friday, February 28th, 2020
Welcome to a Friday LinkSwarm! There are five Saturdays in February this month, something that won’t happen again until 2048.
Giant water main break in Houston shuts down lots of schools and streets. The pipe, which is 8 feet across and supplies 40-50% of Houston’s water, burst during repairs. There’s a boil notice in effect for Houston for the next 24 hours. (Hat tip: Kemberlee Kaye.)
Why we need to secure the border to fight coronavirus: “U.S. Border Patrol agents apprehended 1,155 Chinese migrants this fiscal year after they illegally entered from Mexico, Canada, or coastal boundaries. More than 95 percent came over the southwestern border between October 1, 2019, and January 31, 2020.”
Kurt Schlichter covers the Gathering of the NeverTrumpaloos:
Woke Rule No. 1 is that anything with “Principles” in its name is a grift. Now, something called “Principles First” – ugh – is trying to shoehorn into CPAC’s spotlight with its “National Summit on Principled Conservatism” to be held in D.C. on February 29th, and for the low, low, almost certainly lib tech tycoon-subsidized price of $10, you can attend this sexless Never Trump Freaknik.
It’s an opportunity to get one-on-one with all your favorite relevancy-challenged B-list MSNBCNN guests for a full day of complaining about Donald Trump and having them show you on the doll exactly where Trump hurt them. Brace yourselves for impassioned pleas by impotent weirdos to vote for the crusty commie curmudgeon because Trump sends mean tweets, plus plenty of “Oh well I nevers” and “We’re better than thats” as Pearl Clutchfest 2020 gets well and truly lit. Just don’t be surprised if the marquee outside reads “Puppet Show and Never Trump.”
From political consultants who are no longer consulted to writers who are no longer read, this is the Woodstock for conservatives who never actually conserved anything.
Excited? Worried you might miss out? Calm down. There are plenty of tickets left. And I hear they’ve got loads of Doritos and Zima at the buffet, if you can squeeze in between the ravenous Bulwark staffers stuffing their talk holes.
Who’s coming to this soiree? Well, just imagine the universe’s worst county fair dino-rock concert line-up, and this is its political equivalent. Mona Charen! Bill Kristol! David Frum! It’s basically the Swamp’s version of Bachman Turner Overdrive, Blue Öyster Cult, and Average White Band – except this band of totally white people are well below-average, though I’m sure we’ll get a fussy email reading “Excuse me, but we have a/an __________.” The closest thing to diversity I could detect in their line-up was the aptly named Heath Mayo – he’s diverse because he’s a younger kind of white person. I’m sure Mayo is ready to unleash the full benefit of his life experience upon the eager crowd – he can explain how learning about Reagan in high school in 2008 totally changed his life.
Sadly, Ana Navarro isn’t on the bill, but she probably has important work to do completing Dr. Stephen Hawking’s string theory research. And there’s no sign of Jennifer Rubin, probably because the event occurs during the hours of daylight.
Former Texas state Senator Don Huffines has some sobering behind-the-scenes look at Texas government.
- Abolished an obscure quasi-educational agency: “A rats nest of crooks.”
- “We uncovered the biggest political corruption scandal in the history of the state of Texas.”
- “We discovered these people were stealing a lot of money.”
- “Over 3000 employees.”
- At least 5 employees are currently in prison, with more potentially coming soon.
- “I didn’t get a lot of help in Austin.”
- “I didn’t get any support of the Governor.”
- “I got nothing but opposition from the speaker of the house.”
- The Lt. Governor wasn’t particularly helpful, but didn’t actively work against him either.
Trump campaign to open storefronts in black neighborhoods in swing states.
China lases U.S. Navy plane in international waters.
The “Green New Deal” “would cost a typical household a minimum of $74,287 in the first year of implementation…for the subsequent four years, the average annual costs per household for 10 of the 11 states is $47,755, decreasing to $40,706 for ever after.” (Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)
Young Turks founder fights unionization. “In the staff meeting, the network’s co-founder and influential host, Cenk Uygur, urged employees not to do so, arguing that a union does not belong at a small, independent outlet like TYT, according to two workers who were present. He said if there had been a union at the network it would not have grown the way it has.” See, it’s always different when they do it…
Bad: Zyxel announced security bug in their NAS products. Worse: It was also in their firewall products.
There’s a California bill that would require porn stars to get a license. Inspector: “Yeah, I’m going to need to see your license.” Porn star (opens blouse): How about these licenses?” (Bowchickawowow…)
Hosni Mubarak dead at age 91. Of all the strongmen who have ruled Egypt, Mubarak falls in about the middle; less brutal than Morsi or Nasser, but more corrupt than Sadat or Sisi. His real downfall came from trying to install his son as a dynastic successor, at which point the army let the popular revolt oust him, leading eventually to the Muslim Brotherhood’s brief reign. He kept the peace with Israel, was a fairly reliable US ally for the region, and suppressed the Muslim Brotherhood (obviously not well enough).
Today’s elite facepalm: “Immigration to America is down. Wages are up. Are the two related?” Hey, you just might be on to something with that radical ‘supply and demand’ theory there, Einstein… (Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)
With Harvey Weinstein’s rape conviction, let’s remember what a huge Democratic Party donor he is. Also: “He faces an L.A. criminal trial soon, where 90 women have filed complaints against him, including well-known actresses Gwyneth Paltrow, Uma Thurman, and Salma Hayek.”
How a treasure trove of aviation drawings was saved from destruction thanks to a single engineer, including those for the P-51 and the B-25.
Scientist: Here’s a journal article. Editor: Think you could provide the raw data? Scientist: (Hissses, holds up arm to shield the crucifix from it’s sight, withdraws paper.)
The garbage world of corporatespeak.
“Recently Listed $1.5 Million Home In San Francisco Just Soggy Cardboard Box Full Of Used Needles.”
Tags:#NeverTrump, 2020 Presidential Race, aircraft, B-25 Mitchell, black, Border Controls, California, Cenk Uygur, China, Dallas, Dallas County Schools, data security, Democrats, Don Huffines, Egypt, Green New Deal, Harvey Weinstein, Hosni Mubarak, Houston, Kurt Schlichter, LinkSwarm, Military, P-51 Mustang, Republicans, Taxes, Texas, unions, Young Turks, Zyxel
Posted in Border Control, Democrats, Republicans, Texas, unions | No Comments »
Thursday, June 20th, 2019
I missed this news a few days ago: Mohamed Morsi, the leader who briefly and disastrously lead Egypt as its first (and hopefully last) Muslim Brotherhood President, died of a heart attack in a Egyptian court room at age 67. He’d been under a death sentence since 2015.
Following widespread protests that forced previous strongman President Hosni Mubarak out of office, Morsi came to power in arguably Egypt’s first free elections in 2012, then promptly began the process of trying to install a one-party Islamic state on Egypt at top speed, casting aside the rule of law and using widespread violence against political opponents and religious minorities like the Copts. He was deposed in a widely popular coup in 2013 following constant corruption, violence and unrest. This ushered in the presidency of former General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, a mildly repressive strongman who marked a radical improvement over Morsi, who immediately set about the necessary task of crushing the Muslim Brotherhood like a bug.
Morsi’s mistake was in trying to Islamicize Egypt all at once rather than gradually taking over the country’s institutions, as his ally Recep Tayyip Erdogan did in Turkey. Having witnessed life under a radical Islamist regime, Egyptians are both sadder and wise and probably won’t try it again for at least another generation. Meanwhile, an actual functioning democracy in an Islamic nation in the Middle East is as elusive as ever.
Ironically, the deposed Mubarak was released from prison in 2017, and as far as I can tell (and despite briefly being declared “clinically dead” in 2012) is still alive at age 91…
Tags:Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Copts, Egypt, Foreign Policy, Hosni Mubarak, Jihad, Mohammed Morsi, Muslim Brotherhood, Obituary
Posted in Foreign Policy, Jihad | No Comments »
Friday, March 31st, 2017
Welcome to April Fool’s Eve! Don’t believe anything you hear tomorrow. Especially if it’s from CNN…
Representative Moe Brooks of Alabama offers up a one sentence repeal of ObamaCare: “Effective as of Dec. 31, 2017, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is repealed, and the provisions of law amended or repealed by such Act are restored or revived as if such Act had not been enacted.” Get on it, GOP… (Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)
Why not give CruzCare a try?
Single-payer’s future is Venezuela’s present: “The communist model for healthcare will result in everyone having a right to healthcare and no one getting any of it. There will be black market health care for those who can afford it, a lovely parallel system for the politically well connected, and a crumbling system of overworked, over-regulated providers working to give some care to all the rest of us.”
Scott Adams: “With the failure of the Ryan healthcare bill, the illusion of Trump-is-Hitler has been fully replaced with Trump-is-incompetent meme.”
CrowdStrike, Patient Zero in the “Russia hacked the Democrats” vector, backtracks key claims.
“Filibustering Gorsuch might be a pointless exercise when it comes to keeping him off the court, but it would have the advantage of giving angry Democratic activists something they desperately want: an opportunity to lash out in fury at Republicans.” (Hat tip: Instapundit.)
Democratic senators Joe Manchin (WV) and Heidi Heitkamp (ND) announced they will vote for Gorsuch.
Leftists are taking this fact with their usual grace and tact:
Yeah, I have no idea who Mr. Checkmark Who Has Fewer Followers Than Me is either…
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) has seven facts for Democrats to consider before filibustering Gorsuch. “There has never been a successful partisan filibuster of a Supreme Court nominee.”
Hosni Mubarek freed in Egypt. But I mainly want to talk about the Times piece of an example of sins of omission by the newspaper of record. “The first democratic election, in 2012, brought to power a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mohamed Morsi. But he lasted only a year, making a series of political blunders that cost him the support of the military, crucial parts of the security apparatus and millions of Egyptians, who gathered in the streets in June 2013 to call for his removal.” Yes, one might call “engineering a murderous rampage and instituting a dictatorship in order to fully Islamicize Egyptian society” a “blunder”…
So how’s that boycott against North Carolina over the tranny bathroom law panning out? Not so hot. “Tourism has thrived: Hotel occupancy, room rates and demand for rooms set records in 2016, according to the year-end hotel lodging report issued last week by VisitNC, part of the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina.” (Hat tip: Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s Twitter feed.)
“Former Obama Official Describes Last-Minute Rush to Spy on Trump Team, Conceal Intel Sources.” (Hat tip: Director Blue.)
“Someone in a small circle of Obama intelligence officials who knew the identity of that American No. 1 committed a felony by leaking Flynn’s name to media.” (Hat tip: Instapundit.)
Chicago follows in Detroit’s footsteps.
Journalists who exposed Planned Parenthood’s baby parts selling scheme indicted on felony eavesdropping charges in California. By an amazing coincidence, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra received donations from Planned Parenthood. What are the odds?
There’s an actual Wikipedia article for a list of grenade attacks in Sweden, which have exploded (ha) since 2012. Many occurred in Malmo. Gee, what could possibly be driving all these grenade attacks?
Euroweenie to campaign for independence of the People’s Republic of Austin. Good luck with that. (Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.
Trump as The Mule from Isaac Asimov’s Foundation and Empire. (Hat tip: Director Blue.)
President Trump reverses four Obama regulations. (Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)
$15,000 of Soros money a month per team to fight Trump.
You know that “1973 Manhattan was a nightmare of smog” picture your liberal Facebook friends have been posting? Debunked.
Behind the scenes of 2016’s wipeout of Republicans in Harris County.
Texas Senate votes to end automatic union payroll deductions.
Attorney General Ken Paxton’s trial venue is being moved, which is a victory for the prosecution. Given the dismissal of the SEC charges the case is based on, I still think the long-term prognosis points to acquittal or dismissal.
Homeowner 3, Robbers 0.
Are your sexual fetishes social justice warrior approved, comrade? If not, then expect to be fired…
“Spiders could theoretically eat every human on earth in a year and still be hungry.” Obviously this cries out for a research grant and a pilot program…
Internet Security issue: “Typosquatting programming language package managers.”
Troll level: Godlike.
Five-year old suspended for imaginary gun.
An obituary for the author of The Anarchist’s Cookbook.
McSweeney’s on packing the liberal go-bag. (Hat tip: Gay Patriot’s Twitter feed.)
Don McLean’s “American Pie” added to the National recording registry. “I’m really delighted that the government has taken notice of me in this way, and not by tapping my phone or something.” (Hat tip: Dwight.)
Want. (Hat tip: Instapundit.)
Hakeem Olajuwon: Better than Jordan.
Speaking of shocking statistics: “Steven Seagal released seven films in 2016. Seven.” (Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)
“Oh no! Not the bees! They’re in my eyes!”
Tags:Austin, Buzzfeed, California, Chicago, data security, Democrats, Donald Trump, Egypt, Foreign Policy, Guns, Hakeem Olajuwon, Harris County, Heidi Heitkamp, Hosni Mubarak, Isaac Asimov, Jean Claude Juncker, Jihad, Joe Manchin, McSweeney's, Moe Brooks, Mohammed Morsi, Neil Gorsuch, North Carolina, ObamaCare, Planned Parenthood, Social Justice Warriors, spiders, Steven Seagal, Supreme Court, Sweden, Ted Cruz, Texas, Xavier Becerra
Posted in Austin, Democrats, Guns, Jihad, Social Justice Warriors, Supreme Court, Texas | No Comments »
Tuesday, August 20th, 2013
There’s a lot of Egyptian news going on, much of it of the classic Middle East Problem Solving variety. In particular, the Egyptian government seems to be doing most of the “solving,” so expect to see some 50-100 members of the Muslim Brotherhood develop acute lead poisoning every day for the foreseeable future.
Beyond that, I can’t tell you. My knowledge of Egypt is basically that of a one-eyed, myopic man who can at least see shapes in strong sunlight. Here’s an Egypt news roundup in mini-LinkSwarm form.
The Muslim Brotherhood’s supreme leader is arrested. That’s going to be a big blow to them, and probably indicates the Egyptian military is fairly confident they’ll not only win the current test of wills with the Brothers, but win it decisively.
The Muslim Brotherhood isn’t dead yet, but they are severely weakened. “The army seems determined to decapitate the Middle East’s oldest and arguably most resilient Islamist movement, to prevent it from preparing a political comeback.”
Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss?
The Coptic Kristallnacht.
Hosni Mubarak has been found innocent and should soon be released. Don’t expect to see him return to power, as the military opposition to his turning the country into a dynastic fiefdom by anointing his son Gamal as his successor is the reason they let him get toppled in the first place.
Egypt’s burning, Obama’s golfing.
Is Obama secretly suspending aid to the Egyptian government? If so, he’s once again superbly crafted a policy to please no one and accomplish nothing.
Thomas Sowell on Obama’s (and America’s) illusions about democratizing the Middle East.
“The President and his team have been taken in by two very old American mistakes about the rest of the world. One is to confuse the end of history with the morning news. The other is to exaggerate America’s importance to the rest of the world. ”
Evidently the rest of the Arab world is pissed at Qatar (and Qatar-owned Al Jazeera) for backing the Muslim Brotherhood.
I’ve been seeing a lot of very dubious reports about Obama secretly giving the Muslim Brotherhood $8 billion. Look, as much as I think Obama is an incompetent failure whose Administration has played footsie with the Brotherhood, I don’t buy this for a minute. Setting aside the why, not even President Trillion can conjure $8 billion from thin air to hand out on his own.
Tags:Al Jazeera, Copts, Egypt, Foreign Policy, Hosni Mubarak, Jihad, LinkSwarm, Media Watch, Muslim Brotherhood, Obama, Qatar, Thomas Sowell
Posted in Foreign Policy, Jihad | No Comments »
Tuesday, June 19th, 2012
It looks like last week’s post was only slightly premature, as doctor’s have declared Mubarak clinically dead after suffering a stroke.
My previous comments still largely apply, although given the Egyptian High Court’s invalidation of parliament, a Muslim Brotherhood takeover is looking a lot less likely.
Tags:Egypt, Foreign Policy, Hosni Mubarak, Jihad, Muslim Brotherhood, Obituary
Posted in Foreign Policy, Jihad | No Comments »
Tuesday, June 12th, 2012
I’m seeing Twitter reports (including one from what appears to be the Egyptian Minister of the Interior) that former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has died. Waiting for confirmation.
Mubarak was right around the 50-yard line for brutality and corruption for Arab dictators, more a symptom of the sickness in Arab politics than a cause. He actually observed the treaties his country signed. He was notably worse than Anwar Sadat, but almost certainly better than whoever ends up following him.
Updated to add: That Twitter account is pretty new, so this could well be a hoax. Also, why would the official Twitter feed for the Interior Minister of Egypt be following 320 accounts less than a day of starting up?
I would try to find confirmation on the official Egyptian Interior Ministry webpage, but their server doesn’t feel like working right now…
Update 2: NBC reporter Richard Engel says the interior ministry has denied that Mubarak has died. So I think we can update his status to “I’m getting better.”
Tags:Egypt, Foreign Policy, Hosni Mubarak, Jihad, Middle East
Posted in Foreign Policy, Jihad | No Comments »
Monday, February 14th, 2011
And they’re every bit as warm as those for Spiderman: Turn off the Dark:
Mary Steyn: “For the last three weeks, the superpower has sent the consistent message to the world that (as Bernard Lewis feared some years ago) America is harmless as an enemy and treacherous as a friend.”
Niall Ferguson in Newsweek (yes, it’s evidently still being published):
“Last week, for the second time in his presidency, Barack Obama heard those footsteps, jumped up to grasp a historic opportunity … and missed it completely….This failure was not the result of bad luck. It was the predictable consequence of the Obama administration’s lack of any kind of coherent grand strategy, a deficit about which more than a few veterans of U.S. foreign policy making have long worried….The defining characteristic of Obama’s foreign policy has been not just a failure to prioritize, but also a failure to recognize the need to do so. A succession of speeches saying, in essence, ‘I am not George W. Bush’ is no substitute for a strategy.”
Michael A. Walsh in the New York Post: “No matter how things shake out in Egypt, one thing has become depressingly clear: Something is very wrong with the American intelligence services.”
Investor’s Business Daily:
“As our once-stable ally Egypt hurtles down a path leading into the dark unknown, the U.S. can blame itself. The White House apparently did little after our intelligence agencies warned late last year that President Hosni Mubarak’s government was wobbly. Like Jimmy Carter’s handling of Central America, the U.S. backed a revolution, hoping it would make the revolutionaries our friends.”
Victor Davis Hanson in National Review: “For nearly three weeks, the Biden/Clinton/Obama policy concerning the tottering Mubarak regime was contradictory, incoherent, and predicated entirely on the perceived pulse of the demonstrations.”
Like Julie Taymor’s production (which I have not seen, but I have seen enough of Ms. Taymor’s previous work to trust the reviews of it I’ve read), Obama’s foreign policy is far more concerned with flash and spectacle than the boring matter of actual substance. Unfortunately, there’s no chance that Obama’s foreign policy will fold in previews, and we can’t make things better by getting Bono and The Edge to write us a few new tunes…
Tags:Egypt, Foreign Policy, Hosni Mubarak, Jihad, Mark Steyn, Michael A. Walsh, Middle East, Niall Ferguson, Obama, Spiderman: Turn off the Dark, Victor Davis Hanson
Posted in Democrats, Foreign Policy, Jihad | No Comments »
Thursday, February 10th, 2011
Despite the predictions of all the Usual Supects, Mubarak isn’t stepping down. I guess my low opinion of the sagacity of Leon Panetta has been borne out.
In email, Stratfor is saying that Rather than letting protesters storm the Presidential Palace, or firing on them to prevent same, the Egyptian military will replace Mubarak in a coup. I remain skeptical; except for a couple of signs early in the crises, they has been no hard evidence that the army has ever wavered in its support of Mubarak.
It is hard to tell at this remove how effective the calls for a general strike have been. Those claiming the strike is widespread have tended to be left-leaning publications that celebrate just about any strike.
The Magic 8-Ball has the same answer it’s been giving since unrest began: ANSWER CLOUDY, ASK AGAIN LATER.
Tags:Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, Leon Panetta, unrest
Posted in Foreign Policy, Jihad | No Comments »
Thursday, February 3rd, 2011
All eyes are still on Egypt, but that’s not the only hotspot for jihad:
Suicide bomber prematurely detonates thanks to spam text message. (Via Slashdot)
“Barack Obama has endorsed a role for the Muslim Brotherhood in a new, post-Mubarak government for Egypt.”
The current unrest in Egypt makes makes things look pretty grim for the Copts: “I’ve pored over every news report I can find, and have seen no sign that local Christians are involved in this uprising against Mubarak. This tells me all I need to know about the calls for ‘democracy’ and ‘reform’ in Egypt. They know that Mubarak’s fall would mean to them what Hussein’s fall meant to Iraqi Christians: the end.”
More from JihadWatch’s indefatigable Robert Spencer on the Muslim Brotherhood’s involvement in the unrest in Egypt. The amount of writing and analysis keeps up on the topic of jihad is positively dizzying. It’s hard to keep up just summarizing him…
Egyptian blogger Sandmonkey (whom I linked to a few days ago), has been arrested and then released by the Egyptian government. “I am ok. I got out. I was ambushed & beaten by the police, my phone confiscated , my car ripped apar& supplies taken”
While everyone was paying attention to Egypt, Hamas fires rockets into Egypt.
Fifteen-year old Bangladeshi girl whipped to death in Koranic punishment for fornication.
Tell a Muslim their food smells bad and lose your house in Canada. This decision was overturned, but it proves Mark Steyn’s point that all Canadian “Human Rights Tribunals” need to be eliminated as threats to free speech…
Add New York City building code to the list of rules that are no longer applicable to Muslims.
A white Vietnam Veteran jihadi?
More reports of an al Qaeda dirty bomb.
Tags:al Qaeda, Bangladesh, Canada, Egypt, Hamas, Hosni Mubarak, Jihad, New York City, Robert Spencer, Sandmonkey, This Week in Jihad, Wikileaks
Posted in Foreign Policy, Jihad | No Comments »