Archive for January, 2019

The Covington story and hatred of Catholics.

Sunday, January 27th, 2019

The past week has been occupied with the story of the boys from Covington Catholic high school in Kentucky. These boys came to DC in a bus to attend the 2019 March for Life, an event in which hundreds to thousands demonstrate against abortion in the streets of Washington DC. This event is usually ignored by the American press. This year,. two small activist groups planned to demonstrate. One was called The Black Hebrew Israelites, A small fringe group.

groups of Black Americans who believe that they are descendants of the ancient Israelites. Black Hebrews adhere in varying degrees to the religious beliefs and practices of both Christianity and Judaism. With the exception of a small number of individuals who have formally converted to Judaism, they are not recognized as Jews by the greater Jewish community. Many choose to identify themselves as Hebrew Israelites or Black Hebrews rather than Jews in order to indicate their claimed historic connections.

The group that collected near the Lincoln Memorial, was a particularly obnoxious group that shouted slurs at the teenagers waiting for the bus to take them home.

“They called us ‘racists,’ ‘bigots,’ ‘white crackers,’ ‘faggots’ and ‘incest kids.’ They also taunted an African-American student from my school by telling him that we would ‘harvest his organs.’ I have no idea what that insult means, but it was startling to hear,” Sandmann wrote.
The remark about harvesting organs may reference Jordan Peele’s horror-satire “Get Out,” a 2017 movie in which the black boyfriend of a white girl discovers her family is harvesting the organs of blacks.

The other “activist” group present was The “Indigenous Peoples March” made up of American Indian protestors.

We stand together to bring awareness to the injustices affecting Indigenous men, women and children as Indigenous peoples and lands from North, Central and South America, Canada, Pacific Islands, Oceania, Asia, Africa as well as the Caribbean diaspora are a target of genocide.

“We are lagging far behind comparable countries in overcoming the disadvantages Indigenous people face.” – Malcolm Fraser

This is certainly true of those who live on reservations and maintain the primitive practices of pre-Columbian aboriginals.

That certainly was not true of Ely S Parker, who was the Colonel on US Grant’s staff who wrote out the surrender documents at Appomattox Courthouse which ended the Civil War.

Parker was born in 1828 as the sixth of seven children to Elizabeth and William Parker, of prominent Seneca families, at Indian Falls, New York (then part of the Tonawanda Reservation).[1] He was named Ha-sa-no-an-da and later baptized Ely Samuel Parker. His father was a miller and a Baptist minister.[2] The Seneca are one of the Six Nations of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois Confederacy). Ely had a classical education at a missionary school, was fully bilingual speaking Seneca as well as English, and went on to college. He spent his life bridging his identities as Seneca and a resident of the United States.

The confrontation between Indian activist Nathan Phillips and Nick Sandmann was staged with a cameraperson behind Phillips recording Phillips’ version of the incident. The result was a national uproar that has not settled down yet.

Fortunately for the boys, the Black Israelites had been recording their own video for an hour. It showed that Phillips approached the boys and precipitated the confrontation, which was peaceful.

The blogosphere has been correcting the record while the MSM spreads lies. That may change as the boy’s family has hired a libel attorney. Apologies are starting to roll in. I expect there will be quite a few although some media sources are doubling down.

Part of this story is the media’s war on Catholics. It might just be related to the next Supreme Court nomination.

An excellent discussion this incident has appeared today and makes some additional good points.

Mark Steyn has anatomized with his customary insight.

There is, Steyn noted, a “strange need of the right to virtue-signal to their detractors—as in the stampede of congressional Republicans to distance themselves from their colleague Steve King over an infelicitous interview with The New York Times.” Just so. And here is the kicker: “Democrats never do this; Louis Farrakhan and his Nation of Islam declare that the Jews are pushing defective marijuana on black men in order to turn them gay—which would appear to be a prima facie slur on at least four Democrat constituencies: blacks, gays, Jews and potheads. Yet Clinton, Obama et al speak not a word against Calypso Louie.”

What is it with the cringing right ?

More on Catholic hate from Howie Carr.

Here are a few recent public statements by Democrats and their media pals about Roman Catholics. Consider the reaction if they’d made the same comments about, say, Muslims.

“A bunch of racist (expletive) Catholic kids … Indian Country has dealt with enough (expletive) from racist Catholics.”

“I’m a New York Times reporter writing about #exposechristianschools.”

What if you ranted of Muslims, “I just want these people to die. Simple as that. Every single one of them. And their parents.”

Okay, all of the above vitriol was written by pampered pajama boys from, respectively, BuzzFeed, the Times and something called Vulture.

What are the chances the drug cartels have bought the Democrats ?

Tuesday, January 15th, 2019

We learn today that the drug cartels may have bribed the Mexican president with $100 million.

Former Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto took a $100 million bribe from Joaquín Guzmán Loera, the infamous crime lord known as El Chapo, according to a witness at Mr. Guzman’s trial.

The stunning testimony was delivered Tuesday in a New York courtroom by Alex Cifuentes Villa, a Colombian drug lord who worked closely with Mr. Guzmán from 2007 to 2013, when the kingpin was hiding from the law at a series of remote ranches in the Sierra Madre mountains.

“Mr. Guzmán paid a bribe of $100 million to President Peña Nieto?” Jeffrey Lichtman, one of Mr. Guzmán’s lawyers, asked Mr. Cifuentes during cross-examination.

“Yes,” Mr. Cifuentes said.

Was anyone else bribed by the drug cartels?

Paul Ryan is now worth millions more than when he was entering Congress.

The 48-year-old has been married to former tax attorney Janna Christine Little since December 2000, and a significant chunk of his net worth comes from her side of the family. Following the May 2010 death of his wife’s mother, Prudence Little, Ryan’s net worth jumped from about $1.5 million to more than $5 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks politicians’ financial disclosure forms.

And here is more about the Mexican drug cartels and the Democrat Party.

#Maricopa County recorder Adrian Fontes is a native of Nogales, Arizona, a border town where #ArizonaMafia #4, Marco Lopez, my former friend and business partner, grew up with Fontes…Fontes handled vote count in Kyrsten Sinema’s election where a “last minute surge” was seen
Considering the way #ArizonaMafia members work, their influence on the U.S. #Democrat party and otherwise, they are a hard charging, aggressive group. They use scorched-earth tactics themselves and through others … everything they do is brute force.

And:

What we are seeing now in the U.S. is unprecedented in history in terms of Mexico’s growing influence over American politics. Dems were already having trouble with money — trust me I know, having been in the apparatus — and the #Mexico #PRI money flows freely to them #TRUTH
Democrats choose to take the easy money that flows up to them from south of the border because it’s (1) easy and (2) abundant. In return they push #Mexican #PRI political objectives and that is why you are seeing Dems *REFUSAL* to Build The Wall, it’s #Mexican influence. #TRUTH

Hmmm.

Meanwhile, there French protests continue, in spite of US media ignoring them.

In response to a growing number of assaults on journalists, the left-leaning newspaper Le Monde recently asked ‘why do the gilets jaunes hate the media’? The answer is because for many in France the media and political class are indistinguishable; the latter are out of reach but reporters are not. For years the white working-class have had their lives lampooned and been smeared with a multitude of ‘isms’ and ‘phobias’ by politicians and journalists who, simultaneously, champion open borders because they believe Europe owes it to the third world. They don’t understand that the misery and poverty they think exists only in Africa and the Middle East is also found closer to home. The victims of globalisation are everywhere.

My question is whether the Mexican president was the only politician bought by the drug cartels.?

How is the shutdown going ?

Friday, January 11th, 2019

We are now in week three of the partial government “shutdown” over the refusal of Democrats to fund any of Trump’s wall. They see this as another “Read My Lips” situation which, if they can make Trump back down, it will kill his re-election campaign just as it did to Bush in 1992.

But Trump’s base takes the wall itself seriously, and, like George H.W. Bush’s 1988 campaign pledge on taxes, the wall has become the president’s “read my lips” albatross. His supporters may not abandon him over it, but Trump’s re-election hinges entirely on their enthusiasm. Yes, they will vote for him, but will they engage in the get-out-the-vote activities that drive to the polls enough additional voters to put Trump over the top?

How is that going ? Even Texas Monthly, no friend of Republicans agrees.

Jet skis dropping off pregnant women. Chinese border crossers in fancy workout attire. A park full of could-be spies. These sights of the Rio Grande are almost hallucinatory, but they don’t seem to alarm Spratte. They seem to fatigue him. Not long ago, he says, agents’ mouths would drop open when they’d hear about a group of fifty immigrants getting caught. Now, he says, “if you tell me, I’ve got a group of fifty, I need help, I would laugh at you. If you said, I’ve got a group of three hundred, now that would be cool, because that would be a new record. And the records are only going to keep increasing.” (According to Spratte, agents in the Valley have had a single pickup of around 280 immigrants.)

Trump visited the wall yesterday and CNN’s Jim Acosta gave Trump a hand at making his case.

I know this might be hard for you to comprehend Jimbo, but the reason why all of Twitter has been mocking you today is because you were at a part of the border WITH A WALL. So yes, of course it was working. Replicate that across the border & we’ll all be safer. #RealNews #ByeBye

It did not look too good for Acosta to brag about how safe it was near a wall. OR fence, if you prefer.

The Democrat strategy was also questioned by their own side.

But that doesn’t mean the Democrats won’t blow it.

The surest way for them to do so would be to keep on their present path of emphasizing that the government must be reopened because of how the shutdown is hurting federal workers.

Government employees are not the most sympathetic figures in the present controversy. The “shutdown” has inconvenienced few citizens as the Obama tactic of trying to inflict as much pain as possible is not in use this time.

Then, of course, anything that detracts from the narrative is excluded. KUSI anchors revealed on air that CNN requested, then declined, to use their border reporter after finding out his coverage of a broadly successful San Diego border barrier didn’t match their preferred narrative.

Whoops !

The final act is yet to open but probably is related to this. The Ninth Circuit once again ruled that the injunction against deporting DACA recipients should stand. This happened before and the Supreme Court had only 8 members at the time, who tied 4 to 4. Now there are 9 Supreme Court justices.

In an opinion issued today, a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit upheld a federal district court’s order requiring the government to keep the DACA program in place. Although the 9th Circuit’s ruling went against the government, the decision likely helped the government’s cause at the Supreme Court, because the justices rarely grant petitions for review before the courts of appeals have ruled; the justices prefer to have the benefit of those courts’ opinions, even if they often do not follow them.

The challengers’ response to the government’s petition is currently due on December 5. Assuming that the court does not extend that deadline, the justices could announce as soon as mid-January whether they will take up the dispute.

The last time this happened, the Democrats were negotiating with Trump. AS soon as the ruling was upheld, they stopped. Why legislate if the Courts will do it for you ? Remember, Obama himself said his DACA ruling was unconstitutional.

“Flying Rambo” joins the yellow vests in France. All over France !

Monday, January 7th, 2019

Although the US media are not talking about the French protests anymore, they are getting worse and more violent.

paris-riots-3

The Champs Elysees is not the only location these days. They are all over France.

PARIS (Reuters) – Emmanuel Macron intended to start the new year on the offensive against the ‘yellow vest’ protesters. Instead, the French president is reeling from more violent street demonstrations.

What began as a grassroots rebellion against diesel taxes and the high cost of living has morphed into something more perilous for Macron – an assault on his presidency and French institutions.

The anti-government protesters on Saturday used a forklift truck to force their way into a government ministry compound, torched cars near the Champs Elysees and in one violent skirmish on a bridge over the Seine punched and kicked riot police officers to the ground.

And

Generally the protests seem loosely organized, but nationwide around 50,000 to 80,000 people today according to Reuters. The protests are generally peaceful; then, later in the day, the police arrive to remove them and things turn confrontational and violent.

By the time dusk arrives most of the ordinary Yellow Vest protesters have returned home; and that’s when it seems like smaller agitating groups start burning things.

Macron may not survive this. There seem to be few of any Muslims involved. This is global warming policy at the street level

Robert Kaplan agrees with me on Afghanistan.

Wednesday, January 2nd, 2019

Today, Robert Kaplan wrote a piece in the New York Times saying we need to get out of Afghanistan.

The decision by President Trump to withdraw 7,000 of the roughly 14,000 American troops left in Afghanistan, possibly by summer, has raised new concerns about his impulsive behavior, especially given his nearly simultaneous decision to pull out all American forces from Syria against the advice of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. But the downsizing of the Afghan mission was probably inevitable. Indeed, it may soon be time for the United States to get out of the country altogether.

Naturally, the anti-Trump lines are obligatory in the NY Times. He has the right decision and, of course, it is the one Trump announced but Trump hatred is a necessary ingredient in anything an author expects the Times to publish.

I have been saying this since 2009.

During Afghanistan’s golden age which consisted of the last king’s rule, the country consisted of a small civilized center in Kabul while the rest of the country existed much as it did in the time of Alexander the Great. I have reviewed Kilcullen’s Accidental Guerilla, which explains much of the Afghan war. He is not optimistic about it and neither am I. Aside from the fact that Obama is a reluctant, very reluctant, warrior here, Pakistan is a serious obstacle to success.

Today, Andy McCarthy calls our attention to an explosive editorial in Investors’ Business Daily on the links between the Taliban and Pakistan’s army and intelligence services.

it’s an open secret the Taliban are headquartered across the border in the city of Quetta, Pakistan, where they operate openly under the aegis of Pakistani intelligence — and the financial sponsorship of the Saudis.

Of course, Osama bin Laden was living in Pakistan and sheltered by them. Kaplan does have a few crazy ideas.

It did not have to be like this. Had the United States not become diverted from rebuilding the country by its invasion of Iraq in 2003 (which I mistakenly supported), or had different military and development policies been tried, these forces of division might have been overcome. According to the Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid, there was simply too much emphasis on the electoral process in Kabul and not nearly enough on bread-and-butter nation building — in particular, bringing basic infrastructure and agriculture up to the standards that Afghans enjoyed from the 1950s until the Soviet invasion of 1979.

This is insanity. There is no “nation” to build. Afghanistan was never a nation. The King was called “The Mayor of Kabul” and had no rule outside its limits.

The CIA seems to have done no better in Afghanistan than the military.

The movie “Zero Dark Thirty” described the maneuvers of the CIA and the incident of the suicide attack.

The one reliable reporter, Michael Yon, was kicked out of the country in 2010.

Michael Yon: The disembed from McChrytal’s top staff (meaning from McChrystal himself) is a very bad sign. Sends chills that McChrystal himself thinks we are losing the war. McChrystal has a history of covering up. This causes concern that McChrystal might be misleading SecDef and President. Are they getting the facts?

McChrystal has recently been criticizing Trump. I wonder if he has political ambitions ? He is a Democrat.

The United States’ special adviser to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, is trying to broker a diplomatic solution that allows the United States to draw down its forces without the political foundation in Kabul disintegrating immediately.

That may be the real reason the United States keeps spending so heavily in Afghanistan. The Pentagon is terrified of a repeat of 1975, when panicked South Vietnamese fled Saigon as Americans pulled out and North Vietnamese forces advanced on the city. The United States military did not truly begin to recover from that humiliation until its victory in the Persian Gulf war of 1991. An abrupt withdrawal from Afghanistan could conceivably provide a new symbol of the decline in American hard power.

I think Kaplan has a good point here. Evacuation from Afghanistan will have to be by air and may be chaotic, especially as the last troops leave. Pakistan is no friend. It is going to be a mess but the sooner ewe get at it, the better