Foreign Follies: A Roundup Of Things We Might Want To Pay Attention To

Smaller than a LinkSwarm, here’s a list of foreign hot spots that we might want to pay more attention to than we are right now. And by “we,” I mean “The U.S. Department of State,” which seems to be run by feckless, corrupt Obama Administration retreads. So I doubt they’re up to the task.

Here goes nothing:

  • Cartel gunmen stormed as prison in Tula, Hidalgo, central Mexico and broke out Pueblos Unidos cartel leader Jose Artemio “El Michoacano” and “La Rabia” Maldonado Mejia, plus his brother and a whole bunch of gunmen. Cartel violence in Mexico is nothing new, but the brazenness of the jailbreak suggests continued weakness on the part of the criminal justice system.
  • Remember how our chattering classes got their knickers in a knot over Marine La Pen? Well, Eric Zemmour, reportedly a self-styled Gaullist and (get this) Bonapartist just declared he’s running for President of France.

    PARIS — Éric Zemmour, a polarizing far-right writer and television star, announced on Tuesday that he was running for French president in elections next year, ending months of speculation over a bid that upended the race before he had even made it official.

    Mr. Zemmour, 63, is a longtime conservative journalist who rose to prominence over the past decade, using prime-time television and best-selling books to expound on his view that France was in steep decline because of Islam, immigration and leftist identity politics, themes he returned to in his announcement.

    “It is no longer time to reform France but to save it,” Mr. Zemmour said in a video with dramatic overtones that was published on social media, conjuring images of an idealized France and then warning about outside forces that threatened to destroy it.

    He has fashioned himself as a Donald J. Trump-style provocateur lobbing politically incorrect bombs at the French elite establishment — saying, for instance, that the law should require parents to give their children “traditional” French names — and rewriting some of the worst episodes from France’s past. He has been charged with inciting racial or religious hatred several times over his comments, and twice convicted and fined.

    Mr. Zemmour spoke over 1950s footage full of men in hats and vintage Citroën cars, contrasted with recent clips of crowded subways, crumbling churches, burning cars and violent clashes with the police.

    “You feel like a foreigner in your own country,” Mr. Zemmour said, reading from notes at a desk in front of old bookshelves in a way that seemed intent on replicating Charles de Gaulle’s posture when he issued a call to arms against Nazi Germany from London in June 1940.

    Mr. Zemmour said he was running “to prevent our children and our grandchildren from experiencing barbarity, to prevent our daughters from being veiled and our sons from being subdued.”

    He accused elites — journalists, politicians, judges, European technocrats — of failing France, which he said was represented by a long list of illustrious men and women, including Joan of Arc, Louis XIV and Napoleon.

    “We will not be replaced,” added Mr. Zemmour, who has espoused the theory of a “great replacement” of white people in France by Muslim immigrants.

    Oh, he’s also bigger on Russians than Americans. Which seems strange for a Bonapartist, given that whole “invasion of Russia” thing.

    Given the notorious unreliability of our media in reporting on any figure considered even mildly right of center, it’s hard to tell whether Zemmour is indeed a radical extremist, a conservative populist, or something in-between. We’ll find out if he’s a real Bonapartist if he invades Germany and crowns himself Emperor. As a pre-TDS National Review once said about Jean Le Pen, “we have no frog in this fight.”

  • Turkey appears to be sliding into hyperinflation and is doing all the wrong things to avoid it:

    Minutes before President Tayyip Erdogan delivered a speech renouncing high interest rates once again, the Turkish central bank said it was selling dollars to support the lira. The bank has $25 billion of net reserves as of November, down from $28 billion the month before. But that includes another $48 billion of swaps from local banks, without which reserves are firmly in negative territory.

    It’s a flawed bid to support Erdogan’s ultra-loose monetary policy, which has caused the lira to fall more than 40% versus the dollar this year. Propping up the currency might slow Turkey’s descent into hyperinflation, but the country’s pot of dollars risks running out. The bank sold some $128 billion to steady the lira in 2019-2020 and still had to hike rates. When net reserves were at $28 billion in August 2020, it took just five months to run them down to $11 billion – the lowest since at least 2003. The lower reserves fall, the more likely another depreciation becomes.

    I’m not an international economic expert, but usually you raise interest rates to stem inflation. The timeless meme protocols call for posting this:

    Erdogan even sacked the finance minister who disagreed with this strategy. I’m going to go out on a limb and predict that this doesn’t end well for the Turkish people.

  • Uganda may be losing control of its only international airport to China as part of a loan default. Of course, both nations are now denying this.
  • Now that the Taliban control Afghanistan, they’re getting frisky with Iran:

    Iranian border guards clashed with Taliban forces along the Iran-Afghanistan border on Wednesday after the Taliban opened fire on Iranian farmers, according to reports.

    Local journalist Reza Khaasteh shared unverified video of the scene on Twitter, which appeared to show Iranian soldiers using heavy artillery to push back against the Taliban militants.

    Khaasteh tweeted that the Taliban managed to capture several Iranian border posts; however, other reports citing unnamed sources claimed that was false.

    OK, the Mullahs and the Taliban is maybe less of a “worry” story and more of a “sit back and watch the fireworks” one…

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    6 Responses to “Foreign Follies: A Roundup Of Things We Might Want To Pay Attention To”

    1. Jim says:

      Stories in Mexico are endless. We only know the half of it.

    2. Geo says:

      “Oh, he’s also bigger on Russians than Americans. Which seems strange for a Bonapartist, given that whole “invasion of Russia” thing.”

      That’s not really surprising. The looked to Russia to balance Germany as long as their has been a Germany, and before that Nappy looked for a Russian assist against Britain. He only attacked when Alexander decided not to go along.

    3. Rollory says:

      “Bonapartist” does not mean militarism. Bonapartism, as defined by Nap1 himself, reaffirmed by his nephew Nap3, and agreed upon by most subsequent historians, was a cut-the-Gordian-knot approach to domestic politics, putting together a broad coalition based on actual issues facing most of the middle and working class, and completely disregarding attempts by the upper class and elites to manipulate the issue of the day for short-term tactical benefit.

      For, of course, the tactical benefit of the guy on the top; and, coincidentally, that of the country as a whole.

      This had a very big deal to do with why both Nap1 and Nap3 were hugely popular domestically for a long time.

    4. JAL says:

      Ethiopia – Tigray

      Not a big American presence/interest (?) there but the President – Nobel Peace Prize winner – doesn’t seem to be dealing with the troubles peacefully.

      https://youtube.be/nOb4zUKwGCl

    5. Greg The Class Traitor says:

      This had a very big deal to do with why both Nap1 and Nap3 were hugely popular domestically for a long time.

      Leaders who are “hugely popular domestically” while they’re in charge don’t need to have a secret police to keep the dissidents down

      Since I know that Nap1 had that, I find your claim unlikely to be true

    6. Rollory says:

      Seizing on one data point in isolation, disregarding context and any and all data points, and saying “see? SEE? THAT DISPROVES EVERYTHING” is something moon landing denialists also do.

      To pick precisely one other point, it is also a matter of documented historical fact that Nap1 would, during the Consulate, go out trawling bars in disguise and bad-mouthing the First Consul (himself) to see what would happen, and was quite pleased when he’d get thrown out. Yes, this happened.

      While his popularity and opposition varied with time and precise geographical regions (the Atlantic coast was hit hard by the embargo of Britain) my statement is, on balance, correct.

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