Archive for the ‘Foreign Policy’ Category
Monday, December 29th, 2014
Just because the European Debt Crisis hasn’t been in the headlines much as of late doesn’t mean it’s gone away.
Greece’s government has fallen again and they’ll be holding general elections next month. “Opinion polls point to a victory by the radical leftist Syriza party, which wants to wipe out a big part of Greece’s debt, and cancel the terms of a bailout from the European Union and International Monetary Fund that Greece still needs to pay its bills.”
The problem is that Greece wants to continue spending other people’s money to prop up a bankrupt welfare state, and the rest of Europe has decided they would really prefer to stop pouring money down that particular rathole. Syriza is against “austerity,” which is to say they oppose the Greek government even pretending to practice fiscal restraint. Because pretending is all they’ve done.
Remember, real austerity is reducing outlays until they match receipts. All those “austerity” street protests were over lowering Greece’s budget deficit from 9% of GDP to 7.5% of GDP. The rest of Europe didn’t ask them to stop digging their own grave, they just asked them to dig more slower. And this year, Greece’s budget deficit stood at 12.2% of GDP. Evidently even fake austerity is too much to ask of them; even the illusion of fiscal restraint is intolerable. This is why all news that Greece has “balanced” next year’s budget should be taken with several grains of salt.
So we’ll see another election, and if Syriza wins we’ll see another round of demands for more bailouts and debt writedowns, with Greece threatening yet again to exit the Euro. We’ve seen this movie before. The most likely outcome is that another cabal of EU-phillic insiders in the Greek government will engineer a last-minute cave-in to demands from Brussels and Frankfurt, ram another toothless austerity measure through parliament in exchange for still more credit (and perhaps even a small symbolic measure of debt forgiveness), dissolve the government again following the inevitable public outrage, then have the Greek bureaucracy ignore even those woefully inadequate reforms, setting the stage for the farce to repeat itself in another 12-18 months, or until mean old Aunt Angela finally cuts up the credit card.
Europe has had several years to acclimate itself to the fact the Greece might exit the Euro, and the possibility of a “grexit” has been priced into the markets for some time now. I do not pretend to understand the intricacies of the European banking system, but my impression is that much of the “stress testing” of European banks this year was to prepare for one or more of the PIIGS leaving the Euro. I suspect that the European elite have minimized their own exposure to a Greek default (which is really all they care about), and that the EU and the European Central Bank has found new, sneaky ways to put taxpayers on the hook for any possible sovereign defaults, strengthening the banking system without addressing Europe’s long-term economic problems (unsustainable levels of debt to support cradle-to-grave welfare states for shrinking populations).
It would be great if Greece actually undertook real structural reforms of their bloated, dysfunctional government, but I see precious little evidence that they’ve actual done so. Expect more pain ahead, and at least one more bailout…
Tags:Budget, Economics, Euro, European Central Bank, European Debt Crisis, Foreign Policy, Greece, PIIGS
Posted in Budget, Economics, Foreign Policy | 1 Comment »
Friday, December 26th, 2014
A tiny post-Christmas LinkSwarm:
Russia’s perfect storm of fail.
“We would have 3 million more jobs if employment had grown at the Reagan pace.”
“If Vermont can’t make it work, single-payer can’t work anywhere in the country.”
“Islamic State beheads 150 women, some pregnant, for refusing to marry jihad terrorists.”
“Minus rape, feminism is rather too obviously a list of trivial complaints by comfortable yet hysterical semi-affluent white women.”
LAPD to investigate if officers witnessed a thoughtcrime.
“Bill de Blasio gives every indication that, left to his natural instincts, he’ll just make things worse.” Clip and save this sentence for future reuse.
You might want to consider removing your logo when selling a truck, just in case ISIS gets ahold of it.
Heh. “Oberlin has a rich legacy of allowing students to vocalize opinions everyone around them already agrees with.”
Tags:Crime, Foreign Policy, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, Jihad, LAPD, LinkSwarm, NYPD, ObamaCare, Russia, Social Justice Warriors, Socialized Medicine
Posted in Crime, Democrats, Foreign Policy, Jihad, ObamaCare | No Comments »
Friday, December 19th, 2014
I trust everyone reading this has already heard about Sony Picture’s spinelessness in cancelling their release of The Interview, and Paramount’s even more-spineless refusal to allow theaters to show Team America: World Police in its place. This would be good reason to avoid paying for any Sony or Paramount products any time in the near future. And Cuba is a topic for another time. So here’s a quick look at the rest of what’s been happening the week before Christmas:
Obama’s taunting political opponents over how impossible it will be to overturn his illegal alien amnesty actually increases the chances it will be overturned.
Vermont can’t afford to pay for its socialist health care system.
Voters “prefer dysfunction to the alternative scenario of Democrats running both the White House and Congress.”
Democrats accept bribes to oppose Voter ID laws. (Hat tip: Instapundit.)
It may be too late for investor’s to move money out of Russia in the wake of the ruble’s collapse, mainly because they already have.
Here are eight campus rape hoaxes that bear remarkable similarities to the Rolling Stone UVA rape hoax.
Was the entire hoax fabricated because one of “Jackie”‘s friends rebuffed her romantic overtures?
And the entire sad affair seems to have moved into farce now that it appears “Jackie” actually copied a Dawson’s Creek script for some of her catfishing.
The “campus rape epidemic” is “a male demonizing Gothic fantasy nurtured by several decades of hardline feminist theory”:
Meanwhile, in the real rape culture, the Islamic State hands out brochures on how jihadists are allowed to rape prepubescent girls.
The ex-wife of the Sydney gunman sought refugee in the U.S. right before she was murdered. “He was abusing her, having her wear the hijab, did not want her to talk with anybody.”
“Executive director out at Texas Democratic Party.” Really? After such a swell job? (Hat tip: Push Junction.)
Amongst the Wikipedia editors.
I am not exaggerating when I say it is the closest thing to Kafka’s The Trial I have ever witnessed, with editors and administrators giving conflicting and confusing advice, complaints getting “boomeranged” onto complainants who then face disciplinary action for complaining, and very little consistency in the standards applied. In my short time there, I repeatedly observed editors lawyering an issue with acronyms, only to turn around and declare “Ignore all rules!” when faced with the same rules used against them.
Pro-gun control Austin City Council candidate defeated.
Wonder why so many UT insiders went after Wallace Hall when it was obvious Hall was right? Maybe it’s because they’re involved in the scandal up to their eyeballs. (Hat tip: Push Junction.)
Science fiction writer Jerry Pournelle has suffered a strike. Best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Tags:Austin, bribes, Democrats, feminism, Guns, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, Jerry Pournelle, LinkSwarm, Media Watch, rape, Rolling Stone, Russia, Texas Democratic Party, UVA, Voter ID, Wallace Hall, Wikipedia
Posted in Austin, Border Control, Crime, Democrats, Elections, Foreign Policy, Guns, Jihad, Media Watch, Texas, video | No Comments »
Thursday, December 18th, 2014
After pointing out that mass jihadist violence was common two days ago, Nigeria’s Boko Haram decides to underscore my point:
Boko Haram insurgents kidnapped at least 185 women and children, and killed 32 people in a raid in northeastern Nigeria this week, local officials and residents said.
Gunmen in pickup trucks attacked the village of Gumsuri, just north of Chibok, on Sunday, shooting down men before herding women and children together.
“They gathered the women and children and took them away in trucks after burning most of the village with petrol bombs,”
This actually happened a few days before the Peshawar school attack, but the village was remote enough that word is only trickling out now.
And speaking of the Peshawar massacre, a Taliban spokesman said killing women and children is just fine and dandy with Islam:
“The Mujahideen were instructed to only kill the older children. The Peshawar attack is in complete accordance with the Prophet’s teachings because when the Prophet killed the Jewish Tribe of Banu Qurayza, he put the same guideline, that only the children who have hair below their belly button (pubic hair) are allowed to be killed. Killing of women and children is also in accordance with the teachings of the Prophet.”
Got that? “Killing of women and children is also in accordance with the teachings of the Prophet.” Any questions?
(Hat tip: Jim Treacher’s Twitter Feed.)
Tags:Boko Haram, Islam, Jihad, Nigeria, Pakistan, Taliban
Posted in Foreign Policy, Jihad | No Comments »
Tuesday, December 16th, 2014
If you answered “two,” thinking of the Sidney siege, BZZZZPP! I’m sorry, you don’t win the microwave.
The answer would be “a minimum of 143,” given that the Taliban killed some 141 (a death toll that continues to rise) at a school in Pakistan yesterday. They burned a teacher alive and beheaded children.
You know: the usual.
And I wouldn’t be surprised if I missed a dozen or more jihad-related killings the barely made local international papers, much less the ones not reported on.
If that happened in the U.S., the freakout would go on for weeks on end. But pretty much a week doesn’t go by that Jihadists don’t carry out a school killing somewhere in Nigeria or Kenya or wherever. Indeed, attacks on schools are part of the standard Jihadest blueprint for terror.
Blow-back must be a bitch for the Pakistani Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), who played a key role in creating the Taliban and supporting various jihadist activities. (Remember where Osama Bin Laden was found?)
Tags:Foreign Policy, Islam, Jihad, Pakistan, Pakistani ISI, Sydney seige, Taliban
Posted in Foreign Policy, Jihad | No Comments »
Thursday, December 11th, 2014
There’s been a lot of talk of how low oil prices are screwing Russia, but Venezuela is, if anything, more screwed thanks to the Magic Power of Socialism™:
U.S. currency is vital to Venezuela, which imports as much as 80% of what it consumes; 96% of its exports are petroleum products…In effect, the one-third decline in the price of oil means that the state oil company must either raise or divert enough production because Venezuela effectively owes China 67 million barrels of oil, roughly 27 million more than it did before, for this loan alone. And there are billions of dollars in other loans to consider.
And the outlook for the immediate future is equally grim:
Venezuela’s economy is expected to contract in 2014 and 2015, and even though it’s already recognized as the 14th least competitive economy in the world (according to the World Economic Forum) and the eighth-worst economy for doing business (according to The World Bank), [President Nicolas] Maduro’s laws seem to discourage private investments even more. The new laws reinforce bureaucracy and the difficulty of doing business in the country, particularly in the area of taxes.
“Increasing numbers of low-income Venezuelans are souring on Maduro as they suffer a declining economy, the highest inflation in the Americas, chronic shortages of basic goods and one of the world’s highest murder rates.”
If Venezuela’s economy collapses, they might take Cuba down with them, since the Castro brothers are so heavily dependent on Venezuelan oil subsidies to prop up their own moribund economy.
Compounding Venezuela’s crises is the fact that it’s probably going to default on its bonds. So they’re finally reaching the point in socialism where the run out of other people’s money. Next to that singular problem, U.S. sanctions on government Venezuelan officials for killing protestors are a trivial irritation…
Tags:Cuba, Economics, Foreign Policy, hyperinflation, inflation, Nicolas Maduro, socialism, Venezuela
Posted in Budget, Communism, Foreign Policy, Welfare State | 1 Comment »
Friday, December 5th, 2014
Let’s jump into it:
IRS cites taxpayer confidentiality in defying a federal judge by refusing to hand over documents showing it violated taxpayer confidentiality by sharing that information with the White House.
By 2020, some 90% of Americans will be forced onto ObamaCare exchanges.
So left-wing stalwart magazine The New Republic just let several long-time editors go, reduced their publishing schedule from 20 issues a year to 10, and put a former Gawker-person in charge as editor, which is just short of putting up a sign reading “Dead Magazine Walking.” John Podhoretz traces their decline to the age of Obama:
I think the answer is that there never was any Obamaism to champion; there was no serious vision of America and the world being laid out by the administration that provided fertile ground out for intellectual cultivation, for voices on the outside to make sense of that serious vision and help it cohere into an argument. (In the 1980s, ironically, it was the New Republic‘s own Charles Krauthammer who did just that in explicating the “Reagan Doctrine,” though even more ironically, he did it in the pages of Time Magazine rather than in TNR.)
What there was, instead, was the increasing reliance on the cheap-shottery of the Internet era—in which TNR and others were driven more by a kind of grinding loathing of the Right than by an effort to create a more effective and serious Center-Left. The magazine foundered because liberals foundered, because Obamaism was a cult of personality that demanded fealty rather than a philosophy that demanded explication.
Also: I was unaware that The Weekly Standard had twice the circulation of The New Republic. And you should check out the rest of that piece, not least for the perfect title…
And speaking of Podhoretz, his New York Post piece on why Hillary’s supposed cakewalk to the Democratic nomination is a sign of party weakness is well worth reading: “Hillary Clinton has no natural claim to her party’s nomination. She’s not even an especially gifted politician. Aside from the spectacular incompetence of her 2008 campaign, she is as gaffe-prone as Dan Quayle and as awkward as Bob Dole.”
For the left, the truth no longer matters. “For the Left, this is all tribal, white hats vs. black hats. Fraternity members and police officers are, in their view, by definition on the wrong side of every dispute.”
Mary Landrieu isn’t just going to get beat in Saturday’s runoff, she’s primed to get slaughtered, trailing in the latest polls by 24 points.
European “austerity” isn’t.
The European economic crisis has gotten so bad that traditional left-wing and right-wing parties are thinking of teaming up to thwart newly ascendent Euroskeptic parties.
Fracking is kicking Putin’s ass. (Hat tip: Instapundit.)
Battles with jihadists kill 20 in Chechan capital of Grozny. I guess December is rerun season in Russia as well…
Wisconsin might be getting ready to pass right-to-work legislation. Hey Wisconsin unions: How’d that whole “recall” thing work out for you? “You come at the king, you best not miss.”
Evidently teenage boys have too many cooties to be taken in at the Salvation Army. (Hat tip: Instapundit.)
How PBS lied about Ferguson.
The Rolling Stone story of an alleged gang rape at a University of Virginia fraternity continues to unravel. If there was an actual gang rape, the perpetrators should be arrested and tried. If not, Rolling Stone has some editorial house-cleaning to perform…
Breitbart demolishes Lena Dunham’s “raped by a Republican” story. Plus this nugget from a liberal college administrator “‘Asking whether or not a victim is telling the truth is irrelevant,’ Ms. Hess proclaimed. ‘It’s just not important if they are telling the truth.'”
On the same theme:
Andrew Klavan on #GamerGate and the immense gozangas on display in Soul Caliber. Nice shirt! (Hat tip: Instapundit.)
The UK announced they’re finally going to pay off their World War I debt. Governments come and go, but sovereign debt is almost immortal…
Another day, another 36 people killed by jihadists in Kenya.
In Denmark, “27 percent of male descendant of immigrants from non-Western countries aged 20-24 years were convicted of an offense in 2013.”
Shakespeare First Folio found.
Newly discovered Ayn Rand novel to be published.
And speaking of Rand, her longtime disciple/lover Nathaniel Branden died at age 84. I’m sure he would be deeply offended at the suggestion he’s gone on to the afterlife…
Detroit man steals ambulance to go to a topless bar.
I have no joke here, I just like typing Vegan Strip Club Riot.
Tags:#GamerGate, 2014 Election, 2016 Presidential Race, Andrew Klavan, Ayn Rand, Chechnya, debt, Democrats, Denmark, Detroit, European Debt Crisis, Grozny, Hillary Clinton, Jihad, John Podhoretz, Kenya, LinkSwarm, Media Watch, Nathaniel Branden, Russia, Social Justice Warriors, The New Republic, unions, video, Wisconsin
Posted in Democrats, Elections, Foreign Policy, Jihad, Media Watch, Obama Scandals, unions, video | 1 Comment »
Friday, November 28th, 2014
Here’s a small LinkSwarm to tide you over for Black Friday:
62% of voters oppose Obama’s illegal alien amnesty.
Barack Obama: Troll in Chief.
“If you want to see the end point of Barack Obama’s shining path, visit Detroit.”
The Democrats, if they had any remaining intellectual honesty, would hold their convention in Detroit. Democratic leadership, Democratic unions and the Democratic policies that empower them, Democrat-dominated school bureaucracies, Democrat-style law enforcement, Democratic levels of taxation and spending, the politics of protest and grievance in the classical Democratic mode — all of these have made Detroit what it is today: an unwholesome slop-pail of woe and degradation that does not seem to belong in North America, a craptastical crater groaning with misery, a city-shaped void in what once was the industrial soul of the nation. If you want to see the end point of Barack Obama’s shining path, visit Detroit.
“The group toward whom [Obama]’s shown the greatest contempt, however, is low-skilled American workers, particularly blacks.”
“At what point do we stop enabling the grievance industry to override our core constitutional protections?”
Did Obama prevent Missouri from deploying the National Guard to prevent Ferguson rioting?
“Communist agitators stirring up a civil rights protest sounds like a bad ‘60s flashback, but that’s just what happened last week in Ferguson.”
Jim Webb’s career show’s how badly Democrats have been hollowed-up in the Obama era:
Consider: There will be only five red-state Senate Democrats left in the next Congress if, as expected, Sen. Mary Landrieu is defeated in next month’s runoff. Even more striking, there will be only five House Democrats left representing districts that Mitt Romney carried in 2012. The once-influential Blue Dog Caucus of fiscally hawkish Democrats is all but extinct. Republicans now boast twice as many blue-state senators (10) and five times as many blue-district representatives (25) than their Democratic counterparts in red territory.
While lots of ink has been spilled charting the GOP’s drift rightward, the Democratic Party’s move toward ideological homogeneity has been shorter and swifter.
(Hat tip: Instapundit, who notes “The Democratic Party has become an aging, regional party with a diversity problem.”)
It’s not that the Vietnamese communist leadership is good, it’s just less bad than all the other communist leaderships.
Ann Althouse is right: They really did choose a superbly illustrative picture for this Chuck Hagel resignation piece.
Only 50% of climate scientists think climate change is human induced.
Who should be Secretary of Defense? “America needs Dick Cheney. Now more than ever.”
You could read this Penny Arcade as a parable about Islam. Or trusting Obama.
Tags:Anthropogenic Global Warming, Blue Dog Democrats, Border Controls, Communism, Democrats, Detroit, Elections, Ferguson, Global Warming, LinkSwarm, Vietnam, Welfare State
Posted in Border Control, Communism, Democrats, Elections, Foreign Policy, Global Warming, Welfare State | No Comments »
Friday, November 14th, 2014
There’s been so many people offering up so much information on “GruberGate” that I assume anyone reading this blog has seen coverage of it already. The fact that Jonathan Gruber not only lied to the American voters he called “stupid” about ObamaCare, but also got paid $400,000 to do it certainly adds insult to injury. As does the fact that both Nancy Pelosi and members of Obama’s MSM praetorian guard like Vox’s Sarah Kliff are now lying about Gruber’s central involvement in ObamaCare despite having cited him in that capacity earlier.
In other news:
Some really interesting nuggets of midterm statistical analysis from Sabato’s Crystal Ball. (Hat tip: SooperMexican’s Twitter feed.)
Republicans did very well picking up governorships, including some in deep-blue states.
Scott Walker just keeps winning.
More on the theme: “Does Walker sizzle? Not exactly. Is he a particularly charismatic speaker? No, he isn’t. But does he sit upon a throne made of the skulls of his enemies? Yes, yes he does.” (Hat tip: Moe Lane.)
Britain is poised to silence “extremist” speech. And who gets to determine what’s “extremist”? Why, the government, of course!
Last month, May unveiled her ambition to “eliminate extremism in all its forms.” Whether you’re a neo-Nazi or an Islamist, or just someone who says things which betray, in May’s words, a lack of “respect for the rule of law” and “respect for minorities”, then you could be served with an extremism disruption order (EDO).
Why do I get the impression that people pointing out Pakistani Muslim involvement in the Rotherham child rape scandals will be among the first targeted by this new law?
It’s not just the British who fail to investigate sex crimes: New Orleans police only investigated 14% of sex crimes.
“Professional feminists have spent more time and energy denouncing video games than the sale and rape of girls in Nigeria and Iraq.”
“Honest, decent and intelligent people rightly perceive feminism as a limitless doctrine of fanatical hatred….Feminism isn’t about equality. Feminism is about hate.”
“Twitter has empowered leftist feminists to have a censorship field day.”
Just when the authoritarian left thought they had finally won the culture wars along came #GamerGate.
Time has a poll on which word should be “banned” in 2015. “Feminist” not only gets the most votes, it pretty much gets as many votes as all the rest combined.
Ted Cruz was right about the shutdown. It turns out that showing Republicans are opposed to horribly unpopular Democratic programs is popular with voters. Who knew?
Fake Maine hate crime ends up with accuser charged with “reckless conduct with dangerous weapon and driving to endanger.”
Democratic state Rep. Ron Reynolds’ barratry case has been declared a mistrial.
Islamist suicide bomber kills 50 at a high school in Nigeria.
Via Dwight of Whipped Cream Difficulties comes this Jim Schutze piece on how The Texas Tribune’s vaunted independence meant bupkis when it came to the Wallace Hall case.
“China Vows To Begin Aggressively Falsifying Air Pollution Numbers.”
Price manipulation in the gold market?
Correction: Last week I gave the impression that Republican Carl DiMaio had won his California U.S. congressional race. That is what the early returns indicated, but he ended up losing a close race.
Here’s a dog story that will make your blood boil.
Tags:#GamerGate, 2014 Election, Carl DiMaio, China, Crime, Democrats, dogs, Elections, feminism, Iraq, Jihad, Jim Schutze, Jonathan Gruber, Maine, Nancy Pelosi, New Orleans, Nigeria, ObamaCare, Ron Reynolds, Sarah Kliff, shutdown, Social Justice Warriors, Ted Cruz, Texas, Vox.com, Wallace Hall
Posted in Crime, Democrats, Elections, Foreign Policy, Jihad, Media Watch, ObamaCare, Republicans, Texas | No Comments »
Wednesday, November 12th, 2014
In a follow-up to my previous pieces, protestors have set fire to the ruling PRI party’s building in the state of Guerrero. Also, I missed this earlier, but the U.S. state department has warned Americans away from most of Guerrero.
Violent clashes between police and protestors in Acapulco:
Here’s author Alfredo Corchado on the situation is Mexico. “I think what happened in Guerrero confirms everything. The situation is very clear. There’s corruption among the authorities with the drug cartels, the organized crime.”
And here’s a photo gallery. Ignore the dumbass Ferguson comparison.
More than isolated incidents, less than a revolution…
Tags:Acapulco, Crime, Guerrero, Mexico, PRI
Posted in Crime, Foreign Policy | No Comments »
