Posts Tagged ‘Foreign Policy’
Tuesday, January 5th, 2016
I hope everyone else has had a happier New Year than I, since my father passed away after a long battle with cancer Sunday.
On the plus side, I saw the new Star Wars and the Texans made the playoffs. Doesn’t quite balance out, though…
Remember: It’s OK to rape 13-year olds as long as you’re a well-connected Democratic Party donor. Remember, this is the case that had Bill Clinton taking the Lolita Express to Pedophile Island.
“Nobody needed criminal convictions to drop Cosby – just multiple accusations of sexual assault and some out-of-court payouts. But multiple accusations of sexual assault, out-of-court payouts and the loss of his law license are apparently not enough to bar Bill Clinton from another eight years in the White House.”
Hillary Cliton’s many conflicts of interest:
At Hillary Clinton’s confirmation hearing for secretary of state, she promised she would take “extraordinary steps…to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest.”
Later, more than two dozen companies and groups and one foreign government paid former President Bill Clinton a total of more than $8 million to give speeches around the time they also had matters before Mrs. Clinton’s State Department, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis.
Fifteen of them also donated a total of between $5 million and $15 million to the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation, the family’s charity, according to foundation disclosures.
Six things a Washington Post reporter found out following Ted Cruz around. “The majority of the undecided voters I have spoken with have said they were very impressed after hearing Cruz speak. Many of them said they were undecided coming into a rally and supported him when it was over.”
Obama to judicial branch: “Screw you, I’m going to give work permits to illegal aliens you’ve ordered deported.” (Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)
“Unfortunately, 2016, the little of it that we have so far seen, is already beginning to look like another year of Grim Slide, of a world stumbling down a slippery slope to become less secure, less stable, and less free.”
People are forgetting what an awful festering hellhole the Soviet Union was.
Iran and Saudi Arabia have severed diplomatic relations over Saudi execution of a Shiite cleric, and Kuwait has recalled their ambassador from Tehran; don’t be surprised if the other Sunni nations follow suit. Good thing we have a Nobel Peace Prize winner in the White House…
Turkey’s Prime Minister: Hey, you know who was a model of effective leadership? Adolf Hitler.
Swiss General: Europe “On The Verge Of Civil War,” Citizens Must Arm Themselves.
Oslo police: “We Have Lost the City.”
It looks like Karachi, Basra, and Mogadishu all rolled into one. People sell drugs openly just next to the Gronland subway station.
It’s not Norway or Europe anymore, except when there is welfare money to be collected. The police have largely given up. Early in 2010 Aftenposten stated that there are sharia patrols in this area, and gay couples are assaulted and chased away.
Mass sexual assaults involving up to 1,000 Arab men on New Year’s Eve in Cologne.
“IRS Employee Whose Job Was Assisting Victims Of Identity Theft Charged In $1 Million Identity Theft Tax Fraud.” (Hat tip: Instapundit)
Rahm Emanuel’s failure in Chicago is emblematic of the blue model failure in America’s cities. “The city’s bloated pension obligations have already forced Emanuel to make severe education cuts. It will continue to force cuts in city services in various cities, making it harder and harder for mayors to govern, and increasing the antagonism among various constituencies.”
“Murder rates drop as concealed carry permits soar.” Plus this: “Between 2012 and 2014 the number of black permit holders increased from 10,389 to 17,594, according to the report.”
Mississippi Democratic City Councilman urges constituents to hurl rocks and bricks at the police.
Armed mother successfully defends home and children against three armed thugs. But gun-grabbers want to disarm her…
Bahamas resort project gives in to Chinese demands to secure more construction loans. Result: Bankruptcy.
Ben Carson’s campaign staff quits. There’s a reason president of the United States isn’t an entry-level job…
Former feminist now a pro-life activist who is disillusioned with feminism. (Hat tip: John C. Wright.)
Confessions of a social justice warrior white knight. “Their communities thrive on self loathing disguised as elitism…SJWs insist their goal is to make everyone equal, and for a long time I believed it, but their communities actually enforce factionalism and division.” (Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)
Wendy Davis: Still digging.
Tags:2016 Election, 2016 Presidential Race, Bahamas, Ben Carson, Bill Clinton, Chicago, China, Cologne, Communism, Crime, Democrats, Elections, Europe, feminists, Foreign Policy, Germany, Guns, Hillary Clinton, Hitler, Iran, IRS, Islam, Jihad, Mississippi, Norway, Obama Scandals, pension crisis, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Saudi Arabia, Social Justice Warriors, Soviet Union, Ted Cruz, Texas, Turkey, unions, Wendy Davis
Posted in Border Control, Communism, Crime, Democrats, Elections, Foreign Policy, Guns, Jihad, Obama Scandals, Republicans, Social Justice Warriors, unions | No Comments »
Sunday, December 13th, 2015
An explosion has ripped the facade off a townhouse in the Belgian town of Verviers. While it’s possible it was a gas leak, the town “has recently appeared in the headlines in connection with the mastermind of the Paris terror attacks in November. Abdelhamid Abaaoud was one of the leaders of a terrorist cell in the town. During a raid on the cell in January 2015, two of its members were killed.” Which makes me think that radical Islamic terrorism is yet again the culprit (either intentionally, or via premature detonation of an IED), rather than, say, radical Flemish separatists. (Mutters) Stupid Flanders…
No report of casualties yet, and there’s a dearth of news on the topic.
Update 1: Seeing Twitter reports of 13 people injured but no fatalities. Still no cause listed.
Tags:Belgium, explosion, Foreign Policy, Jihad, terrorism, Verviers
Posted in Foreign Policy, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Tuesday, December 8th, 2015
It turns out that 100% inflation, widespread repression and corruption and endemic shortages of basic consumer goods are not a recipe for electoral success:
Electoral authorities in Venezuela say the opposition coalition won a key two-thirds majority in the National Assembly in legislative voting.
The National Electoral Council has published on its website the final tally of results from Sunday’s elections showing that two previously undecided races had broken in favor of the opposition, giving them 112 out of 167 seats in the incoming National Assembly. The ruling socialist party and its allies got 55 seats.
The supermajority gives the opposition a strong hand in trying to wrest power from President Nicolas Maduro after 17 years of socialist rule. It now has the potential votes to sack Supreme Court justices, initiate a referendum to revoke Maduro’s mandate and even convoke an assembly to rewrite Hugo Chavez’s 1999 constitution.
Sooner or later, socialists always run out of other people’s money.
Though Maduro is still President, there are a lot of things the new government can do to improve the lives of their citizens:
To end food shortages, the new congress can immediately lift price controls so entrepreneurs have an incentive to produce or import. The only way to strengthen the “strong bolivar,” as the late Hugo Chávez named the currency, is to make it valuable enough for people to hold. That means lifting capital controls and ending the central bank’s multiple exchange-rate system so business can get access to dollars. On current course Venezuela will run out of international reserves and face default in 2017. Restructuring debt now with creditors would make that prospect less painful.
Which brings us to oil. Chávez used the country’s energy wealth to buy permission in Latin America—and Massachusetts; remember Joseph Kennedy’s Citgo PR campaign—for his many human-rights violations. As long as governments in the Caribbean were getting low-priced petroleum from Venezuela, they voted with the military government in Caracas at the Organization of American States.
Chávez and Mr. Maduro have also traded oil for security help from Cuba’s intelligence apparatus. Putting an end to these trades would retain more resources inside Venezuela and send a signal that the days of government repression are numbered. Meanwhile, rejoice that one of this hemisphere’s lost countries has a chance at revival.
Tags:Economics, Elections, Foreign Policy, Hugo Chavez, hyperinflation, Latin America, Nicolas Maduro, socialism, Venezuela
Posted in Communism, Economics, Elections, Foreign Policy | No Comments »
Friday, November 27th, 2015
Here’s a Black Friday LinkSwarm you can while away your time with while waiting 5 hours in line to save 78¢ off a turkey baster:
Obama’s greatest legacy: downsizing the Democratic Party:
In January, Republicans will occupy 32 of the nation’s governorships, 10 more than they did in 2009. Democratic losses in state legislatures under Mr. Obama rank among the worst in the last 115 years, with 816 Democratic lawmakers losing their jobs and Republican control of legislatures doubling since the president took office — more seats lost than under any president since Dwight D. Eisenhower.
“Republicans have more chambers today than they have ever had in the history of the party,” said Tim Storey, an analyst at the National Conference of State Legislatures. “So they are in a dominant and historic position of strength in the states.”
Which of the GOP’s candidates beat Hillary? All of them.
Cruz is surging,
No, Ted Cruz did not support illegal alien amnesty (unlike Marco Rubio).
Ted Cruz’s plausible path to the Presidency.
More ObamaCare rate hikes coming down the pike. Houston has zero PPO plans through ObamaCare, and Dallas is suffering the largest rate hikes.
This month’s victims getting specially reamed by ObamaCare are (rolls dice)…graduate students, who by law can no longer be covered by university insurance programs. Oh, the irony…
Crimea power grid knocked offline.
Russia to seek economic revenge against Turkey over downed jet. Ukraine says “Cry me a river.”
The Antarctic has been cooling the last six years.
Black America’s addiction to conspiracy theories.
Spy Jonathan Pollard released. His supporters want Obama to rescind the conditions of his parole so he can move to Israel. It’s a tough case for Obama: He loves letting traitors off easy, but he hates Israel…
Hillary Clinton may be soft on terrorism, but she’s tough on the real threats to our nation: comedians making fun of her:
In what appears to be a first for a serious presidential contender, Hillary Clinton’s campaign is going after five comedians who made fun of the former Secretary of State in standup skits at a popular Hollywood comedy club.
A video of the short performance, which is less than three minutes, is posted on the website of the renowned club, Laugh Factory, and the Clinton campaign has tried to censor it. Besides demanding that the video be taken down, the Clinton campaign has demanded the personal contact information of the performers that appear in the recording. This is no laughing matter for club owner Jamie Masada, a comedy guru who opened Laugh Factory more than three decades ago and has been instrumental in launching the careers of many famous comics. “They threatened me,” Masada told Judicial Watch. “I have received complains before but never a call like this, threatening to put me out of business if I don’t cut the video.”
Crew member on radical feminist “campus rape epidemic” film The Hunting Ground alters Wikipedia to conform to film’s skewed view of events, in violation of Wikipedia policy.
Eric S. Raymond examines a recent police shooting a lot of people are talking about: “I would have said this was what cops call a ‘good shoot’ if it had stopped at the first two bullets. It didn’t. I don’t think this was murder one, but it was at least criminally negligent homicide and those who covered it up should be prosecuted along with Van Dyke.” Unlike, he points out, the fully justified Michael Brown shooting. Also this: “And that racial spin? Plain bullshit. Those cops were facing an angel-dusted thug brandishing a weapon; that was pretty much bound to end badly whether the thug was black, white, or purple polka-dotted.”
The “red mercury” scam is back. And the Islamic State is the latest patsy to fall for it. Plus some loony local embellishments:
‘‘Red mercury has a red color, and there is mercury that has the color of dark blood,’’ he said. ‘‘And there is green mercury, which is used for sexual enhancement, and silver mercury is used for medical purposes. The most expensive type is called Blood of the Slaves, which is the darkest type. Magicians use it to summon jinni.’’
Andre Glucksmann dies.
What War on Christmas?
Winners and Losers from Houston’s election (better late than never).
Refugio Mayor Joey Heard arrested on drug charges. Refugio is a town between Victoria and Corpus,
Texas Democratic State Ron Rep. Reynolds convicted of barratry.
Annals of criminal genius: Trying to assault someone while in the courtroom for your third attempted murder trial. “At some point in time, you’ve got to stop shooting people.”
The Bring Back Mystery Science Theater 3000 kickstarter not only hit their goal, the just passed $3 million and are bringing on Felicia Day as the next mad scientist.
I laughed.
Tags:2016 Election, 2016 Presidential Race, Andre Glucksmann, Antarctica, black, comedy, Crime, Dallas, Democratic Party, Democrats, Eric S. Raymond, feminism, Foreign Policy, Global Warming, Hillary Clinton, Houston, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, Israel, Jihad, Jonathan Pollard, Laugh Factory, LinkSwarm, Marco Rubio, MST3K, ObamaCare, red mercury, Republicans, Russia, Social Justice Warriors, Ted Cruz, Turkey, Ukraine, victimhood, War on Christmas, Wikipedia
Posted in Crime, Democrats, Elections, Foreign Policy, Global Warming, ObamaCare, Republicans, Social Justice Warriors, Texas | 1 Comment »
Saturday, November 14th, 2015
Current news from Paris: the death toll is now at 128 and the Islamic State has claimed responsibility for what French President Francois Hollande calls (correctly) an “act of war.”
A few tweets about the Paris attacks and reactions to it:
Tags:11/13 Paris Attacks, Border Controls, Europe, Foreign Policy, France, Francois Hollande, Jihad, Paris, Twitter
Posted in Foreign Policy, Jihad | No Comments »
Friday, November 13th, 2015
The big story this week has been the Children of the Corn running amok in Missouri. I hope to have a longer piece on that by and by. In the meantime, enjoy your Friday LinkSwarm:
ObamaCare’s Medicaid expansion is blowing holes in state budgets across the nation.
How the Clinton Foundation money-laundering machine works.
Maryland’s “bullet fingerprint” database cost $5 million to set up and maintain. Number of criminals caught by it? Zero. (Hat tip: Instapundit.)
How much money each state is sending to the Presidential race. Texas is number one in SuperPAC money, and number two (behind California) in hard money.
Kurdish Pesh Merga forces retake Sinjar from the Islamic State.
China makes tiny under-reporting error on coal usage. Any by “tiny,” I mean “equal to entire U.S. coal use.” (Hat tip: Ace of Spades.)
Sell books critical of the Chinese government in Hong Kong? Prepare to be disappeared.
Secret Service agent arrested in child sex sting. The country is in the best of hands. (Hat tip: AceofSpadesHQ.)
Kafkatrap vs. Honeytrap. “If you are any kind of open-source leader or senior figure who is male, do not be alone with any female, ever, at a technical conference.”
Woman starts making documentary about Men’s Rights Movement. Funny things happens: When she starts making an actual, even-handed documentary, the funders who wanted a feminist hit piece drop her like a hot potato, but Kickstarter backers step up to the plate after a plug from Milo Yiannopoulos.
UT academic critics of open carry should step out of their ivory tower and take a look at the real world.
Dear Formula 1: If your race requires subsidies to survive in Austin, I’m happy to see you fold.
An inside-baseball look at the Ted Cruz super PAC ad buy that wasn’t.
Tags:2016 Election, 2016 Presidential Race, California, China, Clinton Foundation, Communism, Crime, Democrats, Foreign Policy, Guns, Hillary Clinton, Iraq, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, Kurds, LinkSwarm, Milo Yiannopoulos, ObamaCare, Pesh Merga, Sinjar, Social Justice Warriors, Ted Cruz, Texas
Posted in Austin, Communism, Crime, Democrats, Elections, Foreign Policy, Guns, Jihad, ObamaCare, Texas | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 28th, 2015
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before:
Germany’s Suddeutsche Zeitung reported that just two (or is it three, this past summer is one big blur) months after Greece voted through its third bailout, one which will raise its debt/GDP to over 200% on a fleeting promise that someone, somewhere just may grant Greece a debt extension (which will do absolutely nothing about the nominal amount of debt), its creditors have already grown tired with the game and are refusing to pay the next Greek loan tranche of €2 billion.
Specifically, the payment of the first €2b tranche of €3b is now sait[sic] to be delayed because Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras failed to implement reforms on schedule, Sueddeutsche Zeitung reports, citing unidentified senior EU official.
And evidently one of the latest sticking points is that Tsipras wants to prop up deadbeat home loans for houses worth as much as $331,185.
Greece edges close to default. Greece’s creditors demand reform. Greece agrees to reforms at last minute. Greece gets bailout. Greece fails to implement reforms.
Rinse. Repeat.
Tags:Alexis Tsipras, Economics, EU, Euro, European Debt Crisis, Foreign Policy, Germany, Greece, Welfare State
Posted in Elections, Foreign Policy, Welfare State | No Comments »
Tuesday, October 27th, 2015
This seems to be a week for cracks in the EU’s facade of democratic unity to start appearing all over the place. First Portugal finds out that they’re not allowed to have democracy when it conflicts with EU mandates, and now Polish elections have thrown a spanner into the works.
The Law and Justice Party has won 38% of the vote, and looks to have won enough seats (232 seats out of 460) to form a parliamentary majority without including any other party, marking the first time since Democracy was restored in 1989 that no left-wing party will have a role in the ruling government. Law and Justice is described as “Euroskeptic” and “Right Wing” because it opposes the EU’s current pro-Muslim immigration policies and seeks closer ties to the U.S. (among other reasons), but is also “promising to raise the minimum wage and increase welfare spending,” which is hardly a “right wing” (or smart) policy.
But the area where Law and Justice could have the biggest influence is in wrecking the EU’s global warming policies. “Law & Justice generally opposes wind and solar energy and favors an energy policy that emphasizes tariffs targeted at Russian natural gas.” Poland also generates 90% of their electricity from coal, which bodes ill for meeting the EU target of 27% “green” energy by 2030.
Law and Justice is also markedly more wary of Germany, and less willing to appease Russia, than their centrist Civic Platform predecessors, almost as if they had some sorts of historical reasons for their views.
One wonders where the next EU crack will appear…
Tags:Civic Platform, Elections, EU, Foreign Policy, Global Warming, Law and Justice Party, Poland, Welfare State
Posted in Elections, Foreign Policy, Global Warming, Welfare State | No Comments »
Monday, October 26th, 2015
Portugal has decided that EU economic mandates trump that pesky Democracy:
Anibal Cavaco Silva, Portugal’s constitutional president, has refused to appoint a Left-wing coalition government even though it secured an absolute majority in the Portuguese parliament and won a mandate to smash the austerity regime bequeathed by the EU-IMF Troika.
He deemed it too risky to let the Left Bloc or the Communists come close to power, insisting that conservatives should soldier on as a minority in order to satisfy Brussels and appease foreign financial markets.
I’m not entirely unsympathetic to Silva’s plight. As in Greece, the anti-austerity movement is an economically illiterate coalition of looters who insist that the welfare state gravy train can never come to an end, ever, even when the country is dead broke. (Though note that author Ambrose Evans-Pritchard never once mentions “welfare state” in his piece.) Remember that Portugal has never practiced real austerity (cutting budget outlays to match receipts), never once having balanced its budget in the last decade. And if the commies (who are, thankfully, only a minority coalition partner) had actually promised to set up a dictatorship of the proletariat, I’d be cheering Silva’s intransigence.
But Democracy is the theory that the people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard. If Portugal thinks they can take cues from Greece’s anti-austerity tantrum and somehow not get slapped down just as hard, let them try. And in fact the leftwing’s coalition’s promises “to abrogate the Lisbon Treaty, the Fiscal Compact, the Growth and Stability Pact, as well as to dismantle monetary union and take Portugal out of the euro” are entirely rational and in Portugal’s self-interest.
The EU has always been an explicitly antidemocratic union, one designed to prevent mere voters from overruling their bureaucratic betters. The fact that this time they’re opposed by idiots who think they can keep voting themselves goodies from other people’s wallets doesn’t change the problem of the EU’s deficit of democracy.
Two of modern Europe’s central foundations (a monetary union and a cradle-to-grave welfare state) are not only unsustainable, they are incompatible with each other, and corrosive to both stability and democracy. And the EU leaders have no idea what to do about it.
Tags:Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Anibal Cavaco Silva, Communism, Elections, EU, Euro, Fiscal Compact, Foreign Policy, Greece, Growth and Stability Pact, Lisbon Treaty, PIIGS, Portugal, Welfare State
Posted in Communism, Elections, Foreign Policy, Welfare State | 1 Comment »