Posts Tagged ‘Afghanistan’
Friday, February 10th, 2017
Welcome to another Friday LinkSwarm! Here in Texas it’s looking a lot like Spring.
This LinkSwarm is heavy on border control and jihad issues.
“The 9th Circuit’s dangerous and unprecedented use of campaign statements to block presidential policy.”
By accepting the use of preelection statements to impeach and limit executive policy, the 9th Circuit is taking a dangerous step. The states’ argument is in essence that Trump is a bigot, and thus his winning presidential campaign in fact impeaches him from exercising key constitutional and statutory powers, such as administering the immigration laws.
This would mean that Trump is automatically disbarred, from the moment of his inauguration, of exercising certain presidential powers, not because of his actions as president, but because of who he is — that is, how he won the presidency.
(Hat tip: Instapundit.)
When Judge James Robart stated that “no” terrorists had attacked America from the countries on President Trump’s travel ban, he was engaged in the rhetorical device known as lying his ass off. “At least 60 people born in the seven countries had been convicted — not just arrested, but convicted — of terror-related offenses in the United States since Sept. 11, 2001.” (Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)
Trump’s sanctuary city and terrorist-supporting state travel bans are his most popular executive orders. To quote Mark Steyn yet again, “‘divisive’ appears to be elite-speak for ‘remarkably popular.'” (Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)
“Rotherham sex abuse gang shout ‘Allahu Akbar’ as they are jailed for total of 81 years for sexually abusing girls.”
Most Europeans oppose further Muslim immigration. Can’t imagine why…
Among them: this Swedish cop:
Here we go; this is what I’ve handled from Monday-Friday this week: rape, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, rape-assault and rape, extortion, blackmail, assault, violence against police, threats to police, drug crime, drugs, crime, felony, attempted murder, rape again, extortion again and ill-treatment.
Suspected perpetrators; Ali Mohammed, Mahmod, Mohammed, Mohammed Ali, again, again, again. Christopher… what, is it true? Yes, a Swedish name snuck in on the edges of a drug crime. Mohammed, Mahmod Ali, again and again.
Countries representing all the crimes this week: Iraq, Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Afghanistan, Somalia, Somalia, Syria again, Somalia, unknown, unknown country, Sweden. Half of the suspects, we can’t be sure because they don’t have any valid papers. Which in itself usually means that they’re lying about their nationality and identity.
Scott Adams abandons all support for UC Berkeley in the wake of the Milo riot:
I’m ending my support of UC Berkeley, where I got my MBA years ago. I have been a big supporter lately, with both my time and money, but that ends today. I wish them well, but I wouldn’t feel safe or welcome on the campus. A Berkeley professor made that clear to me recently. He seems smart, so I’ll take his word for it.
I’ve decided to side with the Jewish gay immigrant who has an African-American boyfriend, not the hypnotized zombie-boys in black masks who were clubbing people who hold different points of view. I feel that’s reasonable, but I know many will disagree, and possibly try to club me to death if I walk on campus.
Yesterday I asked my most liberal, Trump-hating friend if he ever figured out why Republicans have most of the Governorships, a majority in Congress, the White House, and soon the Supreme Court. He said, “There are no easy answers.”
I submit that there are easy answers. But for many Americans, cognitive dissonance and confirmation bias hide those easy answers behind Hitler hallucinations.
Just in case you were unclear: President Trump is not Hitler. (Hat tip: Scott Adams, IBID.)
#Winning.
House Democrats are going on a retreat in Baltimore where they’ll go over an autopsy of the election. Will they learn from their many mistakes? “The Baltimore retreat, which will take place at the scenic Inner Harbor, will focus on the party’s fight for all Americans and feature speeches from top Democrats and various celebrities, including Kareem Abdul Jabbar and Chelsea Handler, as the party looks to get back on track.” Signs point to “No”… (Hat tip: Director Blue.)
Both Steve Bannon and Reince Priebus want you to know that they are not bitter enemies fighting for influence in the Trump White House. The truth is that they are “rather chummy.” (Hat tip: Ann Althouse.)
President Trump’s chess game:
In the end it would appear that Trump is playing the kind of game that I was taught to play by my coach. His opponents are never given time to mount an attack. Their queen – the MSM has been removed from the board and their favorite piece – the Celebrities are locked in a war of attrition while Trump gets the rest of his pieces on the board. Remember, these are all Tactics but Strategy flows from Tactics. Sooner or later the Left will find itself in some terrible position and the Strategy to drain the swamp will present itself.
(Hat tip: Zero Hedge.)
“Leftists said if Trump won, that there’d be violent mobs of hate, and intolerant fascists would try to silence those with whom they disagree. And they were right. It just was by a group of people from which they didn’t expect it: themselves.” (Hat tip: Director Blue.)
NSA contractor allegedly stole over 500 million documents. The news came out October last year (I guess reporting yet another giant classified data breach was something the media wasn’t too wild about digging into in the election homestretch), but he was just indicted yesterday. (Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)
Concision. (Hat tip: Director Blue.)
“Well, with Trump, Modi, Brexit, and now France, there are some similar problems in those countries. What you are hearing is people getting fed up with the ruling class. This is not fascism. It has nothing to do with fascism. It has to do with the faux-experts problem and a world with too many experts. If we had a different elite, we may not see the same problem.”
Nikki Haley’s first speech at the UN blasts Russia over their continued occupation of Ukraine. (Hat tip: Instapundit.)
Secretary of Defense Mattis was a big hit in both Japan and South Korea.
Quitaly seems increasingly likely.
Is Russia helping the Taliban?
“Meet Denmark’s new anti-Islam, anti-immigration, anti-tax party.”
Gun sales finally dip. Obviously gun owners don’t feel like NRA-endorsed President Trump is a threat to take their guns, unlike “World’s Greatest Gun Salesman Obama.” It also suggests that those of us in the Vast Right Wing aren’t even remotely worried about that mythical leftwing “resistance” launching an actual civil war. (Hat tip: Ace of Spades.)
Whistle-blower reveals that, yes, the NOAA lied about climate data.
Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) shares some of that vaunted liberal tolerance that’s been sent his way:
American feminists: Rich White Girl Problems. (Hat tip: Instapundit.)
Texas Senate passes sanctuary city bill.
Tennessee bill: Get off the road, you leftwing lunatic!
Can an average engineer earn more in a lifetime than an average NFL player? The study says yes, but I think the engineering pay average ($125,418) is probably a bit on the high side (I suspect California companies were oversampled).
Anonymous takes down a ton of child porn sites.
Pizza parties for abortion quotas.
Infosys sued for descriminating against Americans. (Hat tip: Director Blue.)
Twitter lost $457 million last year:
Twitter had decided, in an election year, to surrender control of its platform to a crew of feminist social justice warriors (SJWs) designated the “Trust and Safety Council.” This secretive group of Soviet-style commissars included the notorious anti-male hatemonger Anita Sarkeesian, and soon Twitter began purging conservative accounts…. Jack Dorsey had made his company part of the Democrat Party’s campaign team and four months later, when Twitter banned popular commentator Milo Yiannopoulos, the partisan nature of “Trust and Safety” became transparent. Banning conservatives from Twitter was Dorsey’s contribution-in-kind to the Democrats.
And that’s the 10th consecutive quarter of declining revenue for Twitter.
Twitter suspends a cartoon, presumably for offending SJW types.
FYI: He He Silly Comics are still on Gab. I really should activate my account there…
Marvel to knock it off with the Social Justice Warrior bullshit that’s been costing them sales.
This lawsuit goes to 11.
So Blizzard is worried that the user experience on consoles isn’t shitty enough.
“I didn’t say I had mice in my cellar, I said I had moose.”
Tags:2016 Election, 85th Texas Legislature, 9th Circuit Court, abortion, Afghanistan, Anita Sarkeesian, Anonymous, Baltimore, Berkeley, Blizzard Games, Border Controls, Chelsea Handler, chess, Democrats, Department of Education, EU, Euro, feminists, Gab, He He Silly Comics, Hitler, Italy, Jack Dorsey, James "Mad Dog" Mattis, James Robart, Japan, Jihad, LinkSwarm, Marvel, Milo Yiannopoulos, Minnesota, Muslim, Nikki Haley, Quitaly, rape, Reince Priebus, Republicans, Rotherham, Russia, Scott Adams, Social Justice Warriors, South Korea, Steve Bannon, Sweden, Taliban, Tennessee, terrorism, Texas, Twitter, UK
Posted in Border Control, Crime, Democrats, Elections, Foreign Policy, Global Warming, Guns, Jihad, Media Watch, Military, Republicans, Social Justice Warriors, Texas | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, June 21st, 2016
This is more like “this last two months in Jihad,” it’s been so long since I did an update. But there’s a whole host of Orlando updates, and a lot of other jihad-related news, so let’s dig in.
“My name is I pledge of allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.” I’m reminded of Gene Wolfe’s The Citadel of the Autarch, where there’s a character named Loyal to the Group of Seventeen.
And of course, this is after the Obama Administration’s FBI initially tried to release a censored transcript of Omar Mateen’s 911 call removing all mention of the Islamic State.
They even tried to change “Allah” to “God”. (Hat tip: Sarah Hoyt at Instaundit.)
“The Obama administration and the liberal media have decided that when a radical Islamic terrorist kills Americans, the one thing the narrative cannot be about is radical Islamic terrorism….In fact, the reason that the administration and the media are so intent on downplaying the role of Islam is because they are afraid that if they told the truth, people might vote Republican in November.”
An early entry in the timeline on just how badly the FBI farked up the Mateen investigation.
Evidently the FBI dropped the investigation immediately after Mateen played the Islamophobia card.
And that was even after Mateen threatened to have al-Qaida kill a sheriff’s deputy and his family. Mateen didn’t have warning signs, he had warning billboards…
If you hadn’t already heard, Mateen was at the very least bijihad curious.
He also checked Facebook to see if he was trending during the massacre.
London’s new mayor and Muslim child rape in the UK. Zero Hedge offers a month of UK jihad news.
“At some point we’ll have a president who cares about destroying ISIS.” Clearly we don’t have one now… (Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)
Bahrain strips Sheikh Isa Qassim, the country’s leading Shiite cleric, of his nationality for being too cozy with Iran. Is this something? Maybe. Bahrain’s royal family is Sunni, they’re not quite the scumbags the Saudi and Qatar royal families are, and there’s a significant American military presence there.
Muslims attack Radiohead listening party in Istanbul. Cause I’m a creep…
Facebook bans gay magazine critical of Islam.
Speech by Milo Yiannopoulos at University of Central Florida in Orlando cancelled because police couldn’t guarantee his safety. One wonders if police in Orlando are capable of protecting anyone at all…
From here on down it’s mostly old news, but maybe you didn’t read it the first time around.
Two month old Mark Steyn column on Germany’s cowardice in prosecuting that comedian who made fun of Turkey’s scumbag Islamist president? Yeah, because it’s still worth reading if you haven’t already.
Islamic State’s brutality makes Kurds abandon Islam for Zoroastrianism. (Hat tip: Instapundit.)
Taliban kill over 60 in Kabul. They were evidently targeting Kabul’s VIP security team. (Hat tip: Jihad Watch.)
Woman hitchhiking to prove Muslims are peaceful raped and murdered in Turkey. (Hat tip: Director Blue.)
Muslims riot in Greece.
The Islamic State is openly recruiting members at the employment office in Malmo, Sweden. (Hat tip: Blazing Cat Fur.)
Is Saudi Arabia reigning in their religious police?
Tags:Afghanistan, al Qaeda, Bahrain, Democrats, Facebook, FBI, Florida, Germany, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, Jihad, Kabul, Kurds, London, Mark Steyn, Media Watch, Milo Yiannopoulos, Muslim, Omar Mateen, Orlando, rape, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Taliban, Turkey, UK
Posted in Democrats, Foreign Policy, Jihad, Media Watch | No Comments »
Monday, June 13th, 2016
More information about radical Muslim Omar Mateen’s gay nightclub murder spree continues to trickle out.
Mateen was quite religious and regularly attended Mosque.
“Gilroy, a former Fort Pierce police officer, said Mateen frequently made homophobic and racial comments. Gilroy said he complained to his employer several times but it did nothing because he was Muslim.”
Zero Hedge has some background on Mateen and his employer:
Omar Mateen – who as we reported earlier was licensed as a security guard and also holds a firearms license – was employed by the US subsidiary of G4S plc, a British multinational security services company, whose US-headquarters are located in Jupiter, Fla, and which also happens to be the world’s largest security company by revenue….
But where it gets more disturbing is that as Judicial Watch reported several days ago, in a post titled, “DHS Quietly Moving, Releasing Vanloads Of Illegal Aliens Away From Border”, border patrol sources said that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was quietly transporting illegal immigrants from the Mexican border to Phoenix and releasing them without proper processing or issuing court appearance documents. As a reminder, the government classifies them as Other Than Mexican (OTM) and this week around 35 were transferred 116 miles north from Tucson to a Phoenix bus station where they went their separate way. Judicial Watch was present when one of the white vans carrying a group of OTMs arrived at the Phoenix Greyhound station on Buckeye Road.
And this is where the Mateen-G4S link emerges: as JW reported previously, a security company contracted by the U.S. government is driving the OTMs from the Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector where they were in custody to Phoenix, sources said. The firm is the abovementioned G4S, the world’s leading security solutions group with operations in more than 100 countries and 610,000 employees. G4S has more than 50,000 employees in the U.S. and its domestic headquarters is in Jupiter, Florida.
Islamic State radio calls Mateen ‘a soldier of the caliphate.’
Mateen’s father, Seddique Mateen, hosted a “shoestring” talk show in which he regularly unleashed anti-U.S. tirades and once praised the Taliban.
The timeline of the shooting shows, at the very least, massive misjudgment on the part of the police. The shooting started at 2:02 AM, but police don’t call in the SWAT team until 3 AM? And it’s another two hours before they storm the club? And all this after the shooter had called 911 to pledge allegiance to the Islamic State?
Reddit’s main news group evidently decided to censor mentions of the shooting once it became known that the shooter was a radical Muslim. They even censored posts providing information on blood donations.
Schindler’s pissed:
For years, too many Americans – including the lion’s share of our elite media and most of our politicians — have been content to deny the obvious, namely that quite a few Muslims espouse beliefs that are deeply at odds with what the vast majority of Americans believe. Some of those Muslims openly advocate violence and, if they are otherwise maladjusted, the odds they may murder in the name of Islam increase commensurately. We need to have a robust national debate on this important issue. Donald Trump has opened the door to that discussion, in his customary brusque, ham-handed way. More tact is required, but we cannot put off talking about radical Islam and jihadism any longer.
After the Bataclan massacre last autumn, the French government in effect went to war with radical Islam, pledging a “merciless” response to terrorism. This wasn’t just talk. Mass arrests of suspected radicals followed, dealing a serious blow to ISIS networks in the country. Paris meant business, finally.
In the aftermath of our own Bataclan, President Obama has offered his usual platitudes about “hate” and “guns.” This is escapism-as-counterterrorism-policy. Americans must demand better, including a reality-based assessment of our terrorism threat, from our next commander-in-chief. If we cannot name our enemy, we are already halfway to losing the war.
(Hat tip: Instapundit.)
Milo Yiannopoulos weighs in: “The Christian Right may not be totally down with homos, and Trump may say things that hurt our delicate feelings, but they aren’t going to kill us or put us in camps. Only Islam would do that — the same Islam that, bizarrely, now stands at the top of the left’s hierarchy of victimhood.”
More quotes from the Koran and various hadiths condemning homosexuality and sodomy.
Tags:Afghanistan, Border Controls, Crime, Florida, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, Jihad, John Schindler, Milo Yiannopoulos, Omar Mateen, Orlando, police, Seddique Mateen, Social Justice Warriors, Taliban, victimhood
Posted in Border Control, Crime, Jihad, Social Justice Warriors | No Comments »
Friday, April 22nd, 2016
As today is a made-up celebration called “Earth Day,” be sure to have beef for dinner…
Reminder: “Officials at VA’s Phoenix hospital manipulated wait-time data to make it appear they were connecting doctors and veterans seeking appointments much faster than they actually were. This was done so VA managers at the Arizona facility could keep getting generous performance bonuses. They got their bonuses but dozens of waiting veterans died.” So how did the VA address the problem? They hired someone accused of doing the exact same thing at another hospital.
Huge ObamaCare premium hikes are coming down the pike in 2017. (Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)
“The largest health insurer in the U.S. has started pulling out of select Obamacare exchanges.” (Hat tip: Instapundit.)
Eight more ObamaCare co-ops are about to bite the dust.
Meanwhile, ObamaCare is helping enourage opioid addiction.
Thanks to Obama’s supergenius management, the Taliban are now winning in Afghanistan.
“The National Labor Relations Board suspended a top-ranking Philadelphia official after receiving complaints that he helped raise money from unions for his pro-union charity.” (Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)
Following a congressional subpoena over Benghazi, Hillary’s state department staff hid requested files in another department. (Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)
Is Rhode Island closing 66% of polling places for next week’s presidential primaries? Something smells.
How Ted Cruz could beat Hillary Clinton. “Clinton is entering the general election with glaring vulnerabilities of her own. Her image is toxic to Republicans and independents, and her popularity among Democrats is now at an all-time low as a presidential candidate, according to Gallup’s polling. It won’t take a top-tier Republican candidate to win.” Also: “Cruz consistently runs far more competitively against Clinton than Trump does.”
“It’s not just Wall Street banks. Most companies and groups that paid Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to speak between 2013 and 2015 have lobbied federal agencies in recent years, and more than one-third are government contractors, an Associated Press review has found. Their interests are sprawling and would follow Clinton to the White House should she win election this fall.”
Donald Trump jumps on the social justice warrior tranny bathroom bandwagon.
Evidently accused pedophile Terry Bean is the one whose organizations are pushing tranny bathroom bills down America’s throats. (Hat tip: Director Blue.)
Trump convention manager Paul Manafort engages in the time-honored traditional rhetorical device know as “lying your ass off.”
Thomas Sowell on campaign lies and dodgy statistics.
“Although our panel’s original estimates had Trump finishing with 1,175 pledged delegates, my revised deterministic projections have him at 1,155, and the probabilistic version has him at 1,159.”
Ted Cruz has done heavy organizing in California.
Man indicted for selling school supplies to Detroit schools he didn’t actually deliver…with the connivance of several principles receiving kickbacks. Now, remind me: Which party has controlled Detroit for half a century?
Venezuela instituting four hours of blackouts a day, in addition to the previously mentioned three day weekends. That socialist paradise just keeps
Brazil impeaches their President.
Won’t someone please think of poor, penniless Boeing?
When low-fat dogma trumped science: hamburger study data showed exact opposite of study’s conclusions.
Navy chief starving Marine air corps.
“What Women Really Want Is The Patriarchy.”
“‘White Privilege’ Is a Racial Slur.”
“Walden is less a cornerstone work of environmental literature than the original cabin porn: a fantasy about rustic life divorced from the reality of living in the woods, and, especially, a fantasy about escaping the entanglements and responsibilities of living among other people.”
Mexico’s Popocatepetl volcano erupts. Popocatepetl is less than 50 miles from Mexico City…
Goldman Sachs pays $5 billion fine to “settle claims that it misled mortgage bond investors during the financial crisis.” (Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)
Pratt & Whitney pushing a B-52 engine upgrade.
The woman who can’t remember her own past. (Hat tip: Bill Crider.)
Lileks: “Who wouldn’t want to lounge around in a set from a 1970s failed Gene Roddenberry pilot?” (Hat tip: Ed Driscoll at Instapundit.)
Son, that’s no way to treat steaks. (Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)
Tags:2016 Election, 2016 Presidential Race, Afghanistan, Atkins, B-52, Benghazi, Boeing, Brazil, California, Crime, Democrats, Detroit, Donald Trump, Goldman Sachs, Hillary Clinton, Hillary Clinton Scandals, James Lileks, Libya, Mexico, Mexico City, Military, National Labor Relations Board, Obama Scandals, ObamaCare, Oklahoma, Popocatepetl, Rhode Island, Social Justice Warriors, Taliban, Ted Cruz, Terry Bean, Texas, Tranny Bathrooms, unions, Venezuela, Veterans Administration
Posted in Crime, Democrats, Elections, Military, ObamaCare, Republicans, Social Justice Warriors, Texas, unions | No Comments »
Tuesday, September 22nd, 2015
My contract technical writing position ended, so I’ve been busy looking for a new job (if you know of one, drop me a line). As such, this LinkSwarm is a bit out of band. I’ve been busy.
Ted Cruz is sitting pretty. And that piece came before Scott Walker’s exit from the race…
Gun Owners of America endorses Cruz.
Scott Walker’s implosion. Namely Trump and burn rate.
All glory is fleeing. Especially when it comes to polls this time of the year.
Man pushing RICO lawsuit against global warming skeptics has raked in more than $5.6 million in taxpayer money for himself and his wife since 2001.
“Free of the pension costs and union contracts that weighed down its previous owners, Hostess has nurtured retail sales of its products nearly back to their pre-liquidation level of more than $1.3 billion in 2012, with a fraction of the workers. The old Hostess—which included other brands—employed some 19,000 people. The Twinkies purveyor these days has just 1,100.”
While Europeans wring their hands over Muslim illegal aliens, Egypt floods Gaza smuggling tunnels.
“From the 1970s to the present day, organised pedophilia has been a recurring problem for the supposedly progressive movement.” (Hat tip: Instapundit.)
When do leftists object to a gay pride parade? When it marches through Muslim areas.
Moody’s downgrades France.
“The fences are going up all over Europe, we shall not see them torn down again in our life-time.”
Documented case of Islamic State fighters trying to enter Europe as refugees.
More than 100 girls poisoned in Afghanistan for daring to go to school, but details seem scanty.
Robert Spencer has a new book out: The Complete Infidel’s Guide to ISIS.
America’s Unbanked.
Larry Correia fisks that idiot Lorraine D. Wilke piece about how writers shouldn’t write fast, where Correia discusses greedy desire that his children wear shoes.
Heh: “Extension Cord On Stage Steals Spotlight From Jeb Bush During Campaign Rally.”
Congressman John Carter getting a primary challenger?
Brain, brain, what is brain?
Tags:Afghanistan, Anthropogenic Global Warming, Border Controls, Donald Trump, Egypt, Elections, Gaza, Global Warming, Gun Owners of America, Guns, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, Jeb Bush, Jihad, Milo Yiannopoulos, pedophilia, Republicans, Scott Walker, Ted Cruz
Posted in Border Control, Democrats, Elections, Foreign Policy, Global Warming, Jihad, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
Friday, August 14th, 2015
Austin had a very, very wet spring, but August is shaping up in normal fashion: Bone dry and hot as hell. Try to keep cool and enjoy a Friday LinkSwarm:
“There is no real distinction between today’s Democrats and socialists.”
Democrats have an America problem.
The email scandal could very well sink Hillary:
Politicized or not, the DOJ will be increasingly boxed in by the FBI and intelligence community investigations. Normally, when the intelligence community finds classified materials in unauthorized locations, it seeks felony prosecutions. Gen. David Petraeus was sunk for keeping his own personal calendars in an unlocked drawer at home. The calendars were deemed classified, even if they lacked an official stamp. President Clinton’s CIA Director, John Deutsch, lost his job and security clearance for using his portable computer at home. It had classified material on it. Those violations are trifling compared to Hillary Clinton’s exposure.
(Hat tip: Instapundit.)
Longtime Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin may be joining her in the big house
Bernie Sanders up over Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire? #WhiteVotesMatter
Ohio Democrats continue their youth movement by recruiting 74-year old Ted Strickland for a Senate race.
Someone spilled millions of gallons of toxic waste into a river! Call the EPA! Oh wait, it was the EPA.
Islamic State executes 300 electoral civil servants in Iraq. Good thing we’ve got Nobel Prize winner Barack Obama sowing peace and stability to the Middle East rather than that warmongering bungler Bush… (Hat tip: Jihad Watch.)
So why did the Obama Administration pretend Taliban-head Mullah Omar was still alive when he’s probably been dead 2 years? (Hat tip: Prairie Pundit.)
And why is the Obama Administration siding with the terrorists and against the Americans who have already won legal judgments against them?
A whole bunch of gun myths debunked. (Hat tip: Borepatch.)
Just why did the University of Minnesota think it needed grenade launchers? (Hat tip: Say Uncle.)
China devalues the Yuan. This is Big Freaking News, but hard to conceptualize, since China’s economic statistics are have not even a nodding acquaintance with reality, and haven’t for at least a decade. So is China’s current bubble bad, or super mega world-shatterling bad?
Your guide to global black market pricing.
Islamic State Worse off than Greece?
Brazil: Super-Duper boned.
“Great Cthulhu emerges as surprise front-runner in Labour leadership contest.”
Tianjin, China Blows Up Real Good.
Jihadis kill four, kidnap six from hotel in central Mali. That’s really going to crimp your vacation plans. (Hat tip: Jihad Watch.)
Cop-killing inmate dies in prison riot. Alas, my electron microscope is being recalibrated, so I won’t be able to find the proper sized violin to commemorate this sad occasion… (Hat tip: Dwight.)
Social Justice Warriors continue their war on comedy on campus.
Man arrested for shooting at police in Ferguson was completely unarmed. Except for his guns.
Cool World War II radio intercepts story, via Instapundit.
Florida Man has been busy.
Tags:2016 Election, 2016 Presidential Race, Afghanistan, Bernie Sanders, black market, Brazil, China, Crime, Cthulhu, Democrats, environmentalism, EPA, Florida, Foreign Policy, Hillary Clinton, Hillary Clinton Scandals, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, Italy, Jihad, Mali, Mullah Omar, Obama Scandals, Palestinians, PIIGS, Social Justice Warriors, Ted Strickland
Posted in Crime, Democrats, Economics, Elections, Foreign Policy, Jihad, Military, Obama Scandals, Social Justice Warriors | No Comments »
Saturday, June 7th, 2014
I was queuing up a LinkSwarm for Monday when it occurred to me that I have more than enough links on the fallout from the Bergdahl swap to put up a separate post, so here it is:
The entire Obama Administration seems shocked at the fact that those bitter, gun-clinging freaks from Jesusland who make our military actually have values. “The bitter criticism of Kerry in 2004 and Bergdahl today would carry no force if it came from mere ‘right-wingers.’ It comes, instead, from servicemen and veterans who see the two men as having behaved dishonorably. Once again the left is being undone by its failure to comprehend the centrality of honor to military culture.”
“Instead of just bringing Bergdahl back, they had to do the full kissy-huggy announcement with mom and dad figuring this good news would push the VA mess off the front page.”
For many in the military, the stupidity of thinking behind the Bergdahl swap (and how it was accomplished) was the last straw. “They have lost all respect for their commander in chief.”
“Perhaps President Obama stumbled into an announcement of the release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl that was ignorant and insulting to those who serve our country in uniform, but his subsequent reaction to the criticism it has provoked is a disgrace.”
“Millions for defense, but not one red cent in tribute…except for paying off the Taliban for hostages.”
Taliban commander released in the Bergdahl swap says of course he’ll go back to fighting Americans.
What role did Pakistan play in the Bergdahl swap? Never forget that the Taliban are a creation of the Pakistani Inter-Service Intelligence.
The eight stupidest things being said about the Bergdahl swap.
For a dissenting opinion on the right, Charles Krauthammer says he would have done the Bergdahl deal. Though I doubt he would have had the Rose Garden photo op, or been as sanctimonious about his own unerring judgment.”
Tags:Afghanistan, Bowe Bergdahl, Charles Krauthammer, Media Watch, Military, Obama, Obama Scandals, Pakistan, Pakistani ISI, Taliban
Posted in Media Watch, Military, Obama Scandals | No Comments »
Wednesday, June 4th, 2014
If you want to see how quickly consensus wisdom can change as the facts come to light, take a look at the 180º turn in opinion on the five Taliban leaders for Bowe Bergdahl exchange.
First “President Obama hailed Bergdahl’s recovery as a triumph of years of high-wire diplomatic efforts” in a Rose Garden ceremony with Bergdahl’s parents.
UN Ambassador Susan Rice also hailed the exchange, saying that Bergdahl’s poor health was a factor in making the swap and that he had “served the United States with honor and distinction.”
All in all, it seemed like the perfect media event to distract public attention from the VA scandal. Republicans were criticized for complaining that swapping five high value Taliban commanders for one soldier was a mistake.
Then it came to light that Bergdahl was not universally loved among his comrades in arms, to put in mildly. “Bergdahl was a deserter, and soldiers from his own unit died trying to track him down.”
The revelation of Bergdahl’s desertion seemed to blindside the Obama Administration. It shouldn’t have. Never mind that it should have been able to find that out before the swap from its own internal military reports. (If not, then there’s a “thermocline of truth” in the chain of command even more serious than previously suspected.) For an Administration that claims it first learns of its own scandals from the media, it should have learned about Bergdahl’s desertion no later than June 7, 2012, when Rolling Stone published an extensive profile on Bergdahl and his status as a prisoner of war:
Bowe Bergdahl had a different response. He decided to walk away.
In the early-morning hours of June 30th, according to soldiers in the unit, Bowe approached his team leader not long after he got off guard duty and asked his superior a simple question: If I were to leave the base, would it cause problems if I took my sensitive equipment?
Yes, his team leader responded – if you took your rifle and night-vision goggles, that would cause problems.
Bowe returned to his barracks, a roughly built bunker of plywood and sandbags. He gathered up water, a knife, his digital camera and his diary. Then he slipped off the outpost.
Even those notorious right-swing shills at The New York Times report that Bergdahl “slipped away from his outpost.”
Soldiers say that after Bergdahl was captured, “over the next couple of months, all the attacks were far more directed.”
Now stories have come to light that soldier’s in Bergdahl’s unit were instructed to lie about how he came into the Taliban’s hands.
No wonder there was such an outrage among our troops over the exchange.
Team Obama and its base cannot comprehend the values still cherished by those young Americans “so dumb” they joined the Army instead of going to prep school and then to Harvard. Values such as duty, honor, country, physical courage, and loyalty to your brothers and sisters in arms have no place in Obama World. (Military people don’t necessarily all like each other, but they know they can depend on each other in battle — the sacred trust Bergdahl violated.)
As for Rice, Ralph Peters noted “At least she didn’t blame Bergdahl’s desertion on a video.”
Then footage emerged of the Taliban handing over Bergdahl, which did not seem to indicate he was in particularly frail physical health. (Mentally? Well, Blinky McDeserter obviously has some issues…)
Even Obama’s usual defenders in the media are questioning the exchange:
Now Obama’s State Department (and liberal Administration defenders) are saying that “there are a ton of conflicting reports”. This is such a general purpose cop-out I’m surprised we don’t hear it from the Obama Administration more often. “Did the IRS target conservative groups?” “There are a ton of conflicting reports…”
The fact that liberal opinion has swung from “This was a triumph for Obama and Republicans look petty for raining on his parade” to “we don’t have enough information to judge yet” tells you all you need to know about the optics…
Also: Oh, nice job Mad:
Tags:Afghanistan, Bowe Bergdahl, Jihad, Military, Obama, Obama Scandals, Susan Rice, video
Posted in Jihad, Military, Obama Scandals, Uncategorized, video | No Comments »
Tuesday, December 20th, 2011
I spent a few minutes on the phone yesterday and today with Dr. Joe Agris, who recently filed as a Republican for the Texas Senate race.
As previously mentioned, Dr. Agris is a plastic surgeon who has done numerous good works, many in association with late Houston broadcasting legend Marvin Zindler (who frequently made use of Dr. Agris services). Dr. Agris waged a campaign for Texas House District 134 in 2008, losing in the general election. “That was Obama’s year. All Republicans in Harris County lost.”
I asked why he was running. He said that voters will “trust a doctor” more than politicians, who he accused of having “constipation of thought and diarrhea of words.” He said his biggest issue was the budget deficit. “The federal government needs a balanced budget amendment.”
ObamaCare was also a particular target of the doctor’s ire: “This Obama medical bill is just an atrocity. We have to get rid of it. The medical care in this country is just going downhill.”
He also had some stinging criticisms of the current state of American healthcare, noting how rules might require a patient to undergo an increasingly expensive series of tests, when only the first and last may be necessary. “If you don’t do things step by step, Medicare and insurance won’t pay for it. 50% of the doctors in my hospital don’t take Medicare. If these cuts go through in February, it will be closer to 100%.”
Dr. Agris also complained about the short-sighted nature of the federal government. “China is our biggest threat. They have plans out to 100 years, and we can’t plan out two weeks. We just have knee-jerk responses. We need 1-year, 2-year, 5- or 10-year plans.”
Given his concern over the deficit, I asked him which programs would he cut. That gave him pause. He finally named foreign aid and military deployments overseas.
He was particularly critical of our efforts in an area he’s visited many times. “I just got back from Afghanistan and Pakistan. We’re not doing any good over there. They just want to take our money.”
Dr. Agris said he had the financial resources to wage a serious senate campaign. “I’ll self-fund some, and we’ll raise some.”
Dr. Agris sounds like an interesting guy, and might have more resources to campaign with than some other longshots. But he’s entered the race very late indeed, he’s virtually unknown outside of Houston, he’s facing three well-organized, well-funded candidates who have been running hard most of the year (plus a fourth, Craig James, who has much higher name recognition than Dr. Agris), and so far it does not sound like he’s thought through the intellectual and organizational demands it takes to run a serious Senate campaign in state as large as Texas. And the good doctor’s Brooklyn accent may not play well statewide.
But I do thank Dr. Agris, both for his many previous good works and for taking the time to speak with me.
Tags:2012 Election, Afghanistan, Dr. Joe Agris, Elections, Marvin Zindler, ObamaCare, Pakistan, Republicans, Texas, Texas Senate Race
Posted in Budget, Elections, Republicans, Texas | 1 Comment »
Sunday, November 20th, 2011
Sometimes different stories you’re following twine together in weird and unexpected ways. Today it’s news from MEMRI that former mujahideen commander, Islamic radical, and all-around-asshole Gulbuddin Hekmatyar is taking credit for inspiring Occupy Wall Street.
If you don’t remember Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, he first rose to prominence as commander of the Hezb-i islami faction of the mujahideen fighting the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s. Fighting the Soviets was pretty much the last decent thing Hekmatyar ever did, and he wasn’t very good at it, especially compared to his chief rival, Ahmed Shah Massoud, commander of Jamiat-i Islami, who was one of the greatest guerrilla warfare commanders of the 20th century. If “Hezb-i islami” sounds an awful lot like “Hezbollah,” that’s because they’re both different branches of the same transnational affiliation of radical Shia Islamic fundamentalism. Hekmatyar the sort of guy who thought the Ayatollah Khomeini was too much of liberal softie. Hekmatyar spent almost as much time fighting Massoud as he did fighting the Soviets, and after the Soviets left he changed sides so many times in the various Afghan civil wars that followed (in the government, out of the government, with the Taliban, against the Taliban, etc.) that it’s hard to keep track. He was also one of Osama Bin Laden’s drinking buddies in the 1990s. Pretty much anytime he showed up was bad news for Afghanistan, and now he’s one of the head jerks fighting the Afghan government.
Now he’s taking credit for “inspiring” Occupy Wall Street. Yeah, right. I think you would be hard-pressed to find anyone at Occupy Wall Street that had even heard of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar (or even any foreign political figure before Bush43 that isn’t featured on a t-shirt).
Tags:Afghanistan, Ahmed Shah Massoud, Ayatollah Khomeini, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Hezb-i islami, Jihad, MEMRI, mujahideen, Occupy Wall Street, Taliban
Posted in Foreign Policy, Jihad, Military | No Comments »