So I haven’t done a Greek update in a while, since after Greece caved into the inevitable (Newsflash: broke people generally do not have leverage over those lending them money), it was all over but the shouting. Now that Greece and its creditors supposedly have a third bailout deal inked, and Greece settles into its clearly defined misery, let’s take a look at exceptionally bankrupt Greece these days, shall we?
Greece: Dispatches from the Boned
August 13th, 2015Sixth Planned Parenthood Video Drops
August 13th, 2015Haven’t watched the whole thing yet, but evidently Planned Parenthood actual has a price sheet for baby parts. Or, as they call them, “products of conception.”
Russian Tank Flipping Over in Victory Square
August 12th, 2015Judging from the stats on my previous tank flip video, there are few things blog readers love more than watching Russian tanks flip over.
Because I’m A.) Here to serve, and B.) Feeling incredibly lazy right now, here’s another Russian tank flipping over:
Looks like an old T-34 to me…
Why Did Obama Back Jihadists in Syria?
August 10th, 2015This piece in Foreign Policy Journal is certainly eye-opening:
In Al Jazeera’s latest Head to Head episode, former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency Michael Flynn confirms to Mehdi Hasan that not only had he studied the DIA memo predicting the West’s backing of an Islamic State in Syria when it came across his desk in 2012, but even asserts that the White House’s sponsoring of radical jihadists (that would emerge as ISIL and Nusra) against the Syrian regime was “a willful decision.” [Lengthy discussion of the DIA memo begins at the 8:50 mark.]
Amazingly, Flynn actually took issue with the way interviewer Mehdi Hasan posed the question—Flynn seemed to want to make it clear that the policies that led to the rise of ISIL were not merely the result of ignorance or looking the other way, but the result of conscious decision making:
Hasan: You are basically saying that even in government at the time you knew these groups were around, you saw this analysis, and you were arguing against it, but who wasn’t listening?
Flynn: I think the administration.
Hasan: So the administration turned a blind eye to your analysis?
Flynn: I don’t know that they turned a blind eye, I think it was a decision. I think it was a willful decision.
Hasan: A willful decision to support an insurgency that had Salafists, Al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood?
Flynn: It was a willful decision to do what they’re doing.
The deeply puzzling thing about Obama’s Middle East policy is it’s sheer incoherence (except, of course, his unwavering dislike of Israel). His fixation on taking out Bashar Assad (a bad actor, to be sure, but not in the same league as the Iranian Mullahs who back Assad, and who Obama evidently has no qualms negotiating with) makes no strategic sense. In light of the above, he’s evidently funding the Islamic State in Syria, fighting it (in the most desultory manner possible) in Iraq, giving in to Iran on nuclear weapons, alienating allies Israel and Saudi Arabia, and has no discernible policy for a post-Morsi Egypt. Obama’s moves only make sense if he wants to promote a Sunni/Shia civil war, or as Obama’s personal fits of pique where he feels slighted. (Screw Syria for ignoring his red lines. Screw Israel for daring to reelect Netanyahu. Screw Iraq for Bush succeeding.)
The only certainty about Obama’s foreign policy is that future administrations will be dealing with the repercussions from his feckless, aimless foreign policy for decades to come.
(Hat tip: Jihad Watch.)
Russian Tank Driver Manages to Roll a T-72
August 8th, 2015This appears to be from some sort of Russian tank proving ground. Skip to 1:46 for the really interesting stuff.
Honestly, until I saw this I was unaware it was even possible to roll a T-72 on level ground.
That’s some might fine driving you’ve done there, Ivan…
Update: Comments below and elsewhere seem to indicate this is a Kuwaiti driver managing to roll the tank.
LinkSwarm for August 7, 2015
August 7th, 2015Time for the traditional Friday LinkSwarm!
The news, like Hollywood, became trapped in creating and fawning over celebrities. Getting Anderson Cooper publicized became more important than breaking the big story. When you have celebrity reporters telling you how they feel about being in Iraq instead of reporting on how our troops are doing you begin to lose perspective. With guns, instead of going to gun ranges, gun-owner’s homes, instead of interviewing women who’d stopped an attacker, and instead of really trying to understand the world such women live in and what they’re going through, they just tell us how they feel.
Ted Cruz Makes Bacon With a Machine Gun
August 6th, 2015OK, now he’s officially the front-runner…
(Although to my sight, it looks a lot more like an assault rifle like (Maybe an HK MR556A1? The glimpse is pretty brief.) than a machine gun.)
(Hat tip: Ann Althouse.)
Texas vs. California Update for August 5, 2015
August 6th, 2015Time for another Texas vs. California roundup:
“Thanks to our low-tax, low-regulation environment that allows all businesses to thrive, the State of Texas has become the national leader for technology job creation, and we continue to attract tech companies from around the country and around the world,” [Governor Greg] Abbott said. “On behalf of the State of Texas, I am pleased to welcome LiveOps to the Lone Star State as the company seeks to transform cloud-based customer service. With their help, the State of Texas can, and will, continue to lead the nation in job creation within the technology sector.”
Not News: Hillary Clinton Unpopular. News: Among White Women
August 5th, 2015This doesn’t sound like good news for Team Inevitable:
Many Democrats have long hoped that Hillary Clinton might expand Barack Obama‘s electoral coalition by drawing in more white women voters.
A new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll suggests she may have a tough time pulling it off. Mrs. Clinton is losing ground with white women and many other important slices of the electorate, the poll shows, amid a spate of reports about her email practices, speaking fees and foreign donations to the Clinton Foundation.
In June, 44% of white women had a favorable view of Mrs. Clinton, compared to 43% who didn’t. In July, those numbers moved in the wrong direction for Mrs. Clinton: Only 34% of white women saw her in a positive light, compared to 53% who had a negative impression of her, the poll found.
Gee, turns out women voters aren’t wild about an inept politicians with anger and entitlement issues who consistently breaks both ethics guidelines and the law for personal gain. Who knew?
Good thing for Hillary that white women aren’t an important part of her voting coalition…
Team Shrimp Boy Chow Says San Francisco’s Mayor Took Bribes
August 5th, 2015Though California Democratic state senator Leland Yee has plead guilty to one charge of racketeering, the trial of confederate Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow is still pending. And his lawyers have dropped a bombshell of a charge:
In an explosive court filing, lawyers for a former Chinatown gang leader said Tuesday that federal authorities shielded San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee from prosecution despite evidence from the FBI that he had taken bribes, funneled through two members of the city’s Human Rights Commission.
The two alleged go-betweens, Nazly Mohajer and Zula Jones, both told undercover federal agents that “Ed Lee knew he was taking money illegally,” attorneys for Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow said in federal court papers.
Snip.
“The FBI alleged in discovery that Ed Lee took substantial bribes in exchange for political favors and that Human Rights Commissioners Nazly Mohajer and Zula Jones hustled in these bribes for the mayor,” defense lawyer Curtis Briggs said in a filing seeking dismissal of the charges against Chow. Briggs is a law partner of noted attorney J. Tony Serra, who has been representing Chow in court.
Lee “took over $20,000 from federal agents in his first four months in office,” Briggs said. He said the government “successfully engaged both (state Sen. Leland) Yee and Mayor Ed Lee in bribery scandals, yet only indicted Yee,” who had run unsuccessfully against Lee for mayor in 2011.
Assuming these charges are true, why would the FBI charge one corrupt California Democratic politician taking bribes, but not another?
A good question…