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JANUARY 25,  2015

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:55 P.M. ET: 

GREECE DESCENDS – Greece has elected a radical leftist government, probably the most leftist in the modern history of Western Europe.   From CBS News:  "Greece elected a leader from the far left on Sunday. Alexis Tsipras ran on promises he'll re-write terms of Greece's international bailout. His victory could impact economies across the globe.  It's been a while since the Greeks have had anything to celebrate. But the voters have spoken and their message: enough is enough with the austerity measures.  'People are fed up,' said Giorgios Cosmos. 'They're hungry, literally hungry. I'm 72 years old and all I have in my pocket is seven euros.'  Roaring to victory, leftist leader Alexis Tsipras, the 40-year-old firebrand who tapped into the pure fury shown by widespread demonstrations."  A dangerous moment.  The new government seems a bit nuts.  It cannot reverse Greece's austerity without running right into the European Union and financial reality.  This has to be watched closely.  Greece can damage the rest of the European economy, and, ultimately, ours.

IRAN HARDLINERS UPSET – The very people Obama trusts to carry out a nuclear agreement are upset that the Iranian foreign minister took a walk with John Kerry.  From Reuters:  "DUBAI - Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif is to appear before parliament following controversy over a promenade with his American counterpart during intense nuclear negotiations in Geneva, state media reported on Sunday.  Zarif, who leads Tehran's talks with 'P5+1' - the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China - had a 15-minute walk down Geneva sidewalks with US Secretary of State John Kerry during discussions on Jan. 14 aimed at reaching a settlement of the 12-year nuclear dispute between Iran and the West.  Media images of the top diplomats from old adversaries strolling together in a foreign land provoked an outcry among Iranian hard-liners deeply wary of rapprochement with the 'Great Satan."  And if those hardliners get nuclear weapons?  Obama doesn't want to think about that.  But it should keep him up at night.

OH PLEASE – "American Sniper" has been accused of just about everything.  Now it's accused of raising the danger for Muslims in America.  Somehow, I don't think so.  From Reuters:  "CHICAGO (Reuters) - An Arab-American civil rights organization has asked 'American Sniper' director Clint Eastwood and actor Bradley Cooper to denounce hateful language directed at U.S. Arabs and Muslims after the release of the film about a Navy marksman.  The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) said in a letter to Eastwood and Cooper that its members had become targets of 'violent threats' since early last week, before 'American Sniper' went into general release. The letter said Eastwood and Cooper, the film's producer and star, could bolster the ADC's message of tolerance."  Oh, come on.  There are always a certain number of threats.  This is just an attempt to co-opt some Hollywood personalities. 

January 25, 2015       Permalink 

YEMEN BECOMING A LEMON – AT 12:17 P.M. ET:  Ah yes, I remember it well.  It was only months ago when Field Marshal Obama was touting Yemen as an American success story.  Now the place has all the internal stability of a Hollywood marriage.  From Reuters: 

(Reuters) - No sooner had Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi announced his resignation than his country's tenuous political fabric began to disintegrate.

Provinces across a nation barely held together by a complex web of tribal and religious alliances said they would no longer take military commands from Sanaa after the Iranian-allied Shi'ite Houthi group besieged Hadi's home and palace this week.

The emerging fragmentation of the Arabian Peninsula country has sparked fears of the "Somalisation" of a state which is home to a revitalised al Qaeda insurgency as well as a neighbour to top oil exporter Saudi Arabia.

For Washington, Yemen's splintering would make it hard to carry out a counter-terrorism strategy against al Qaeda plotters who have targeted it and its ally Saudi Arabia and claimed responsibility for the Jan. 7 Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris.

Through Hadi, a supporter of U.S. drone strikes on al Qaeda, Yemen was a top U.S. ally in the Washington's fight against islamist militancy.

For Yemen's neighbours, especially Saudi Arabia, the rise of the Houthis resembles yet another fallen domino in capitals where allies of regional rival Iran have risen to power - including Damascus, Beirut and Baghdad.

COMMENT:  Won't you sleep better tonight knowing that Barack Obama is president?  Well...uh...you can get sleeping pills at Walgreen's.  That may help.

January 25, 2015       Permalink

UKRAINE IN FLAMES – AT 10:26 A.M. ET:  For some reason, this has become the forgotten front.  But Ukraine is at least as important as the Mideast.  It borders Russia.  It borders NATO countries.   And Russia wants to control it.  From The Los Angeles Times:   

Thirty civilians were killed and102 wounded in missile attacks Saturday on Mariupol, an industrial center and seaport in southeast Ukraine, officials said.

The Grad missiles struck a day after Donetsk region pro-Russia separatist leader Alexander Zakharchenko said his forces were launching a wide-ranging offensive.

“This is a crime against humanity to be tried by the Hague tribunal,” Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said in a statement condemning the attack.

U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry also denounced the assault. “It is reprehensible that the separatists are publicly glorifying this and other offensives,” he said in a statement. He said the attacks were “aided and abetted by Russia’s irresponsible and dangerous decision to resupply” the separatists in recent weeks.

Kerry has noticed that Russia is an enemy.  I wonder what the boss man thinks.

About 60 missiles landed in eastern Mariupol in a pair of attacks, one in the morning and the other about four hours later, Donetsk regional deputy police chief Ilya Kiva said.

“Several streets, many residential houses and two food markets were hit. This being a Saturday morning, many people were at home or outside,” Kiva said in a phone interview. “Whole families died either in their apartment or in the street strolling or going to the market.”

Kiva said he had no doubt that it was intentional, given the accuracy of the second salvo. “The nearest Ukrainian army checkpoint outside the city is about [3 miles] from the place, and the terrorists know well where it is, because they have already shot at it many times in the last three days.”

COMMENT:  If the situation deteriorates, the West may have a very grave decision to make – whether to intervene militarily.  We cannot accept a takeover by pro-Russian elements.

This has to be happening in part because the Russians and their allies see the West as unwilling to do anything much to save Ukraine.  The coming weeks may be critical.  The mess in the Mideast is drawing American attention away from Ukraine, and Putin knows it.

January 25, 2015       Permalink

OBAMA IN INDIA – AT 10:01 A.M. ET:  Obama has arrived in India for a state visit.  India, in recent decades, has been moving closer to the West.  I hope Obama doesn't ruin it.  From London's Daily Mail: 

President Barack Obama has paid his respects to civil rights icon Mahatma Gandhi during his state visit to India this weekend.

The President threw rose petals at Raj Ghat, the memorial for India's independence icon in New Delhi, after being given a warm welcome by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

President Obama opened a historic three-day visit to India by hugging Prime Minister Modi has he disembarked Air Force One.

COMMENT:  I'm sure Obama identifies with Gandhi.  They're cut from the same cloth.  Both are among the most overestimated leaders of the last century.  Gandhi is hyped (big time) as the father of modern non-violent resistance...but Gandhi was fighting the British for control of India.  Had he been fighting the Nazis or Communists he would have disappeared in a day, along with nonviolence.  He was lucky in his enemy.

Obama is the father of nothing.  But he, too, is a glorified child in his view of the world.  Well, maybe we can call him the father of leftist fantasies.

While India is warming to the West, its leaders must also be appalled by the weakness of the current American government. 

January 25,  2015     Permalink

JANUARY 24,  2015

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:56 P.M. ET: 

MAJOR EDUCATIONAL NEWS – From Hot Air:  "You know what’s wrong with you white people? It’s not just that you’re so darned white, but that you never even understand what a problem that is. But it’s probably not your fault.. you just never had anyone to make sure you knew better. It’s likely too late for you, but at least there’s hope for your kids. If you send them to Arizona State University, they can sign up for a course on The Problem with Whiteness."  I'm excited.  I'm checking to see if the course is available online.  I want to enhance my sense of guilt.

NO LOVE LOST – From The Hill:  "New tensions are emerging in the relationship between allies of President Obama and Hillary Clinton.  At issue is the fate of the political equivalent of gold dust — the enormous email list, comprised of many millions of supporters and donors, that the Obama team has compiled over the course of his two presidential campaigns.  The Clinton camp would dearly love to get its hands on the list, but there is no promise as yet that the president’s aides will comply.  There are 'large concerns' about the lists among Clinton supporters, one Hillary ally told The Hill.  To the Clintons and their friends, it’s near unthinkable that a Democratic president — who has plenty of reasons to want a member of his party to succeed him — would withhold such a valuable commodity."  Oh come on.  They despise each other.  Barack certainly doesn't want Hillary sitting at his desk.  And he doesn't want the Clintons taking back the Democratic Party. 

COMMON SENSE – We rarely find common sense in colleges and universities, so this is the exception.  From Fox:  "Nearly all campus police officers at public universities now carry guns, pepper spray and other weapons, according to a new Justice Department report, and experts say more private schools are looking to arm police.  The Bureau of Justice Statistics surveyed more than 900 four-year colleges with at least 2,500 students. Findings released Tuesday show that overall, about two-thirds of public and private campuses used armed officers during the 2011-12 school year. Officers at public universities were more than twice as likely as those at private schools to carry guns."  Clearly, if you fear an active-shooter event on campus, you need trained, armed police to stop it.  The same should be true at all schools. 

January 24, 2015       Permalink

ANOTHER ONE? – AT 11:58 A.M. ET:  One of the two Japanese hostages held by ISIS has been executed, according to an ISIS video.  The claim cannot yet be independently verified, but ISIS has never faked an execution report.  From CNN: 

(CNN) A picture and audio posted online Saturday purport to show that one of ISIS's two Japanese hostages has been killed after a deadline for ransom passed, and appears to relay ISIS's new demand for the other's freedom -- a prisoner exchange

The static image, posted by a known ISIS supporter, shows what appears to be surviving Japanese hostage Kenji Goto, alone, in handcuffs and dressed in orange, holding a photo of what appears to be beheaded compatriot Haruna Yukawa.

Saturday's posting came four days after an ISIS video demanded that the Japanese government pay $200 million within 72 hours for the hostages' release.

CNN cannot independently verify the post. Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani said Saturday that the government is checking the authenticity of the claim.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe acknowledged the post Saturday.

"It was outrageous, unforgivable violence," Abe said, adding that he demands Goto be released immediately.

Over Saturday's post, a man's voice claiming to be Goto's says in English that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is to blame for Yukawa's death.

COMMENT:  ISIS is upset with Japan's gift of $200-million to help refugees from ISIS-caused military clashes. 

CNN reported this morning that ISIS is also demanding the release of a terrorist held in Jordan. 

This new crisis occurs after the United States and a small number of allies launched air strikes against ISIS after the terror group came dangerously close to taking over Iraq and Syria.  The progress of ISIS has been slowed in Iraq, but not stopped, but ISIS continues to advance in Syria.

Oh, President Obama says the war on terror is over.  Pass it on.

January 24, 2015       Permalink

DETOUR – AT 11:16 A.M. ET:  President Obama, on his way to India, will cut short his visit to that critical country on Tuesday, to go to Saudi Arabia to pay respects to the new monarch.  It was immediately noticed that this is the same president who, two weeks ago, couldn't find the time to go to the huge anti-terror rally in Paris, which featured many world leaders.  He has now found the time to visit a country that has, historically, been one of the major financiers of terrorism.  Are you surprised?

Well, actually, it's important that he go.  Saudi Arabia, which shares none of our values, is one of our "allies" in the Mideast.  It also is a major supplier of oil.  It is also scared to death of what is happening around it, the dramatically increasing power of Iran, and the virtual collapse of the United States in the region. 

I suspect Obama will have one of those "reassurance" talks, which will never result in any serious American action. 

The need for a reassurance talk comes at a time of dramatic tension between Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu.  It also comes at a time of estrangement between the Obama administration and the new government of Egypt, led by Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who has given some of the most remarkable, and praiseworthy, speeches recently on the need for reform in Islam.  These speeches have been ignored by President Obama, who clearly prefers the Muslim Brotherhood version of Islam. 

That Obama – he sure has a way with allies.  If only he treated America's enemies that badly.  But, of course, as a leftist, he doesn't see them as enemies.

Happy landings, Barack.  Maybe you can get something right this time.

January 24, 2015       Permalink 

THE PAIN IN SPAIN – AT 10:52 A.M. ET:  There are terror arrests in Spain.  Spain suffered one of the worst terror attacks of the new century in 2004, when terrorists attacked commuter trains, killing 191 people and wounding 1800. 

Despite those attacks, the Spanish people, only weeks later, went to the polls and elected an anti-American, left-wing government that was decidedly pro-Muslim.  It hasn't done them any good.  Terrorists can't be appeased.  From Fox: 

MADRID – Spanish National Police arrested four suspected jihadis Saturday in the country's North African enclave of Ceuta who allegedly had formed a terror cell and were ready to carry out an attack, the Interior Ministry said.

Interior Minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz said investigators, working with their Moroccan counterparts, were struck by the similarities between the suspected cell members and the two French brothers who killed 12 people in an attack upon the Charlie Hebdo newspaper in Paris.

"These are two pairs of very radicalized brothers who are highly trained militarily, physically and mentally and are prepared to carry out an attack, and ready, according to the police, to blow themselves up in the act," Fernandez Diaz said.

Two houses in Ceuta were searched in Saturday morning police raids and four men, all Spanish citizens of Moroccan origin, were arrested, the agency said. Officers found an automatic pistol, ammunition, military fatigues, face-concealing hoods, Spanish vehicle license plates, large machetes, knives and documents.

The ministry said the four were following instructions given by the al-Qaida in Iraq leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, via what it called "a powerful and aggressive communication campaign" including jihadi Internet forums and websites.

COMMENT:  Maybe it's time to lose the term "lone wolf."  There's no such thing as a lone wolf.  As the interior minister said, these terrorists were radicalized and were "highly trained militarily, physically and mentally..." 

There were, just days ago, major arrests in Belgium, stopping what Belgian authorities called an attack about to be launched.

But, gee, I have to wonder why, right after the terror attacks in France, there is all this arrest activity throughout Europe.  Did all this information float down to authorities after Paris?  Or were they holding back on arrests, perhaps under political orders.  Just askin'.

January 24,  2015     Permalink