I got six of six. And anyone who doesn’t know who the Kurds are since no later than 1991 shouldn’t be President…
(Hat tip: Ace of Spades.)
Do You Know More Foreign Policy Than Donald Trump? Take This Quiz
September 5th, 2015For Labor Day Weekend: A Look Back At Solidarity
September 4th, 2015For Labor Day weekend, here’s a look back at the birth of Solidarity in Poland.
Bottom Ranked Film on IMDB is a Turkish Government Propaganda Film
September 2nd, 2015I take a look at the Internet Movie Database Bottom 100 List from time to time. Recently I was surprised to see a film called Kod Adı: K.O.Z. shoot to the top (it’s currently ranked the third worst film ever made), wince I had never heard of it. Turns out it’s a propaganda film by Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s scumbag Islamist government in Turkey.
Let’s look at a few user reviews:
This is presumably the worst propaganda film ever shot in the entire history of cinema. It gives a highly biased and re-written account of the recent political corruption scandals in Turkey; the so-called 17-25 December corruption and bribery investigations in the year of 2013. What happened in reality was that, despite obvious evidence, the barefaced government officials including the back-then prime minister (the current president of the republic) insisted to call the investigations as a coup d’etat, and produced a surrealistic storyline to cover the allegations. The film intends to prove the unbelievable and mind-blowing theses of the government.
If anybody is curious about this movie and wonders why there are so many negative comments about it, that’s because it’s the “WORST” movie ever, I mean it. It’s completely waste of time, don’t even spend your time to watch it if you still haven’t. This movie itself is the proof of how much Turkey resembles Nazi Germany nowadays.
Dear IMDb! please add a no star option cause if I give this film one star this will be an insult for the films which deserve one star. This is the worst and most disinformatic film I ever watched in my life. Please surf on facebook chatting with friends or what instead of watching this film cause it really really full of lyings and I and the people of Turkey is sure that this film is ordered by the current government of Turkey ruled by dictator Erdogan and the government even can put you in prison if you have a poll company and the resutl of you poll is against the gov. There are a lot of journalist are in prison in Turkey that there sine is to write against the gov. And there are hundereds of legal sound and video recording of Erdogan and his ministers that are particpiating in the Turkey’s big corruption in the history, instead of answering for their corruption they put the polices in jail. and the government bought more than 90% of the media and even republic media are used actively against the people in Turkey and in this situation how can you believe this film that when asked the director about the film that is biased, he answered that I have chosen my side. Long Live Tolerance, dialogue and peace in the world.
It’s obvious that English is not the first language of many reviewers (which makes sense, since it’s a Turkish film), but they seem united in pronouncing it and incompetently made and a wretched piece of propaganda for a brutal, corrupt dictatorship.
Hillary Clinton’s Email Server: Worse Security Than Apu’s Kwik-E-Mart
September 1st, 2015So Hillary’s Super Secret Secure Server was actually hosted on the same server as the not secret and not particularly secure Clinton Foundation email system.
Which means any hacker that could pwn the Clinton Foundation server (and why wouldn’t they?) could almost certainly pwn Hillary’s private e-mail server, chock full of illegal classified national security information, through any number of exploits or privilege escalation attacks.
And evidently she was running her emails off an Exchange 2010 Server, which meant it was running on top of Windows, which means there were no end of exploits by which a dedicated hacker could gain control.
“Oh hey! I’m hosting this list of ISIS secret agents on my Doom III deathmatch server! I’m sure there’s no way that could possibly backfire on me!”
Or to put it in non-computer terms, she was storing classified information in an unlocked tin box under her bed that everyone in her neighborhood also knew contained bundles of unmarked $100 bills, and she was just hoping no one broke in.
She’s a major security risk that should never, ever be in the oval office…
Welcome Cal Watchdog to the Blogroll
September 1st, 2015Keeping with with California’s ongoing descent into a failed state is a never-ending task. That’s why I’m adding Cal Watchdog to the blogroll, a long overdue move.
Do check them out if you like the Texas vs> California roundup…
LinkSwarm for August 31, 2015
August 31st, 2015Welcome to the final week of traditional summer. Of course, it used to be that everything (school, football, the new TV year, etc.) started after Labor Day Weekend, but that’s not the case any more…
What Damon Linker Leaves Out About the Immigration Debate
August 28th, 2015So Damon Linker has penned a one-eyed-liberal-in-the-land-of-the-blind piece on how cultural elites have brought opposition to immigration (and Donald Trump) upon themselves by their failure to enforce border controls.
These institutions have been sluggish to respond to this discontent because two (sometimes overlapping) factions of our political and economic elite strongly support high levels of immigration — or at least oppose doing very much to stop it.
One of the factions — the business class and its neoliberal champions in government, think tanks, and NGOs — believes in a free-flowing international labor market that treats borders as superfluous.
The other faction — liberal lawyers, activists, intellectuals, journalists, academics, members of the clergy, and (once again) NGO staffers — has a deep-seated moral suspicion of nations and political boundaries in general. Why should an American count for more than a Mexican who crosses the border into the United States? Shouldn’t a refugee fleeing violence in North Africa enjoy full political rights upon setting foot in the European Union? Don’t all human beings deserve to be treated equally under the law? Isn’t opposition to such equality an example of bald-faced racism?
He’s not entirely mistaken, as these things go, but he’s leaving out one important factor: crass self interest.
Univeralism is all well and good as an explanation, but it’s crass self-interest that underlies most of the opposition to enforcement of existing immigration laws. Yes, crass self interest from business lobbies who want cheaper labor, but also crass self interest from left wing parties to construct a new electorate more to their liking. Tony Blair’s Labour Party did precisely this in the UK.
The Democrats believe (probably correctly) that a legalizing a massive influx of illegal aliens from Mexico and points south can help make them a permanent majority party, which is why they continue to support Obama’s unconstitutional and deeply unpopular illegal alien amnesty. It is this crass self interest that is why the Obama Administration refuses to deport illegal aliens who are taking entry level unskilled and manual labor jobs from the poor black and white Americans that used to make up their base. Indeed, for the Democratic Party it’s a twofer: they get a new voter from Mexico and they make an American more dependent on the big government welfare statism that is the bread and butter of their business model.
Illegal aliens may be bad for America, but they’re good for the Democratic Party. And that’s why Democrats in general, and the Obama Administration in specific, refuse to enforce border controls.
Wallace Hall/Joe Straus Update
August 27th, 2015Got a bunch of links building up concerning Wallace Hall, Joe Straus and related topics that I’m just going to shotgun out here:
Let the Texas Racing Commission Die
August 26th, 2015The Texas Racing Commission is tasked with overseeing and regulating horse and greyhound racing in Texas. In 2014, the commission decided to legalize “historical racing”.
What’s historical racing, you ask? That’s where bettors use a machine to wager on already-run races whose distinguishing characteristics have been stripped out. In other words, betting real money on imaginary digitized horses, the horses on which they have are theoretically based being, in most likelihood, long dead.
So what law passed by the legislature enabled them to legalize this entirely new form of gambling in Texas?
None. They just made it up after the gambling lobby asked them to. Race tracks say that without historical racing they’ll have to close up shop.
One tiny little problem: Not only has the legislature not approved historical racing machines, they say that the machines violate Texas laws against gambling machines. “‘These rules appear to be an attempt by the Racing Commission to circumvent the Legislature’s authority to decide what types of gambling are and are not legal,’ stated a letter sent at the time by [Texas Sen. Jane] Nelson, [Texas Sen. Craig] Estes and others in the Senate GOP Caucus. ‘This is not an appropriate decision for the Racing Commission.'”
Indeed, they stripped funding from the Texas Racing Commission until such time as they were willing to obey the law.
And the Legislative Budget Board is enforcing that decision.
So how did the Texas Racing Commission respond to being told to obey the law? “Screw you, we’re legalizing historical racing anyway.”
Personally, wearing my libertarian hat, I think more forms of gambling should be legal, regulated and taxed in Texas. However, at this point it’s become clear that the Texas Racing Commission has been captured by the very industry it was created to regulate. At this point it’s better for the LBB to let funding for the Texas Racing Commission lapse entirely. A short special session would be called creating a new agency to regulate horse racing and letting Governor Abbott choose commissioners who serve the interests of Texas citizens rather than the gambling lobby.
And if Texas race tracks close (either temporarily or permanently), that’s acceptable collateral damage for a marginal industry that captured its own regulatory agency and pushed it into promulgating illegal regulations not authorized by the legislature.
So focused has the Texas Racing Commission been on imposing historical racing, if I were Attorney General Ken Paxton, I’d take a serious look at investigating the possibility that current commissioners received payoffs from the gambling lobby to do so.
But you know who would probably profit the most from letting historical racing and slots machines appear at Texas race tracks? Texas speaker Joe Straus, who stands to rake in millions due to his and his family’s connections to gambling interests.
Edited to Add: Cahnman’s Musings notes that two of the commission members who voted for historical racing are holdovers that Gov. Abbott can replace at moment’s notice. Sounds like that should be the strategy going forward…