Friday Afternoon Roundup - Hold on to the Rope

ABOUT THIS WAR THING...

A few things to remember about what is going on in Israel. And this may sound cynical, but unfortunately recent history bears me out.

1. This is not a war. This is what happens when you cede territory to a terrorist group with plenty of eager Muslim regimes supplying it with weapons. This is what happens when that terrorist group is supported by Egypt and Qatar.

2. Israel ethnically cleansed its Jewish population from Gaza and pulled out, and we were told this would improve Israel's strategic position. Like every other withdrawal and pullout, it worsened it.

3. This is still not a war. What will most likely happen is that Israel will carry out some more air strikes and possibly even a limited ground operation. Some Hamas terrorists will die along with some Israeli civilians.

4. After some brief support for Israel's actions in the international community, there will be some incident, real or faked, the Hamas stooges will brandish some bodies for the camera, the media will cry about disproportionate force and Washington Post pundits will say that Israel overreacted and lost the sympathy of the world.

5. Phone calls from Washington and London will warn Netanyahu to wind down the operation. Turkey or Egypt will offer to negotiate a truce. Israel will pull out. Hamas will celebrate the usual victory of insurgencies, that of surviving the war they began. Israeli generals and politicians will boast that Hamas knows better than to try the same thing again, as they have after every such operation. Hamas will hold funerals for its martyrs and begin firing rockets again to show that they can. Egypt, Turkey and Qatar will smell Israeli weakness.

6. Western terrorist supporters will begin making the next set of documentaries about Israeli atrocities and distributing them on campus. Israeli politicians will blame Netanyahu's fumbling for losing the sympathy of the world. Israeli supporters will begin discussing new Hasbara methods to get Israel's message out.

The message: "Israel wants peace, but sometimes has to defend itself again attacks. Israel will happily withdraw from everywhere so long as it isn't being bombed."

7. Israeli and American newspapers will run editorials urging another round of peace negotiations and withdrawals to stave off another such conflict... even though their urgings, their negotiations and their withdrawals are why the conflict exists.

8. Every Israeli general who gets face time on television during the conflict will shortly retire and run for office in a party with a platform dedicated to security, negotiations and more withdrawals. All of them will butch up and growl that their experience will allow Israel to have peace with security.

9. Next time around Hamas' missiles will be bigger and better aimed.





THE MORE THINGS CHANGE...

This is Wilt Chamberlain I asked to join Richard M. Nixon' team be cause I truly believe that he is the one who will earnestly and sincerely work for equality for black men, brown and yellow men.

And, Mr. Nixon believes in black power the same as I do ••• Listen as the next President of the United States ••• Mr . Richard Nixon• •• tells why he believes in Black Power and how he hopes to help it grow;'

I don't know that this ever went beyond the planning change, but just a reminder that campaign consultants do not change.





THE BEST OF BENGHAZIGATE

The real star of this ridiculous affair may not be Paula Broadwell, who used poor judgement, but Jill Kelley, the Tampa Tramp, with a Middle Eastern background who acted as a "go-between" for central command officers and tried to suppress Koran burnings.

A military officer who is a former member of Petraeus’s staff said Kelley was a “self-appointed” go-between for Central Command officers with Lebanese and other Middle Eastern officials.

In March, Jill Kelley said U.S. Gen. John Allen needed her help.  In emails obtained by the Tampa Bay Times, she claimed Allen, commander of the U.S. war effort in Afghanistan, called and emailed her seeking assistance in tamping down a threat by disc jockey Bubba the Love Sponge Clem to “deep fat fry” a Koran.

I'm sure Bubba is having a good laugh now.

Meanwhile Petraeus shook off the blame for the phony talking points that were supposedly to blame for Rice's rampage of lies on Benghazi.

And of course it all comes down to racism.

What do all the sacrifices of the Civil Rights movement amount to if a black woman can’t serve as a UN Ambassador and then enjoy complete immunity from telling crazy lies to the rest of the country?

Obama lied and told the country that he had to invade Libya because there was going to be a massacre in Benghazi. And then he lied and talked about a video when the massacre actually did happen. So why isn’t he being impeached? It’s because he’s half-white, isn’t it?

TAKE AWAY THE FAMILY...


The Democratic Party is defined by the broken family in the same way that the Republican Party is defined by the family. It is a refuge for minority groups where fatherlessness leads to single mothers and government dependency and for white middle-class Julia types who use government dependency as a substitute for parental dependency.

Take away the family and millions of seniors have no recourse for their needs and even their survival, but to turn to the government. Take away the family, and single mothers raising children on their own have to turn to the government. Take away the family and children no longer look to their parents to help them get a start in life; they look to the government. Take away the family and you take away identity. You take away everything that makes us a country and a people.

Take away the family and you have ghettoes where men prowl, leaving behind the children of different mothers, and the mothers of those children wait in line to cash their welfare checks. Take away the family and a generation of boys and girls wait in public housing to repeat the same cycle where the rite of passage is a prison sentence for boys and a prenatal exam for girls.

...that's an excerpt from my article, Obama's Post-Family America




BUT WHOSE WAR IS IT REALLY?

Did the Hamas war begin because of the Israeli election or because of Morsi’s own growing political difficulties. The consensus in the media is the former, but in Egypt, it would seem to be the latter. Unable to make any traction at home, Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood appear to be very ready to loudly posture on Gaza to distract their own people from their economic failures.

It's an interesting question and I am beginning to suspect that this is really Morsi's war.




NO IT REALLY ISN'T

To understand why a sellout is not the solution, all we have to do is compare how the Democrats and the Republicans approached the 2012 elections.

The Democrats turned to their base, offering special favors to narrow constituencies, from a unilateral DREAM Act to gay marriage to mandatory abortion coverage. These positions were all extreme and some of them were unpopular, but they brought out the affected groups in large numbers.

The Republican Party neglected its base and rushed to the center in pursuit of the voters that it didn’t have. Romney made an effective case for being the one to fix the economy, but only in generalities, while Obama successfully made the case to groups within his base that he was going to take care of their special interests. While Romney won the macro argument, Obama took the micro and in a low turnout election used it to win.

...from my article, A Conservative Sellout is Not the Solution





GOOD NEWS AT HOME... BUT NOT REALLY

Obama Opens Mouth, Stocks Fall to 6 Month Low

The Dow industrials and the Nasdaq hit lows not seen since late June, while the broad S&P 500 ended at its lowest since late July. The pace of the U.S. stock market’s sell-off accelerated following President Barack Obama’s first press conference since re-election,

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 185.23 points, or 1.5%, to 12570.95, its lowest level since June 26. The blue-chip measure has fallen in five of the six trading sessions since Election Day, shedding 5.1% in that time frame.

Four Hamas Supporters on Gov. Christie’s Muslim Outreach Committee

Imam Mohammad Qatanani, whose deportation is sought by the Department of Homeland Security for not disclosing on his green card application that he was arrested and convicted by Israel in 1993 for his involvement with Hamas;

Eliminating Bush Tax Cuts Would Barely Cover October Deficit

The Obama tax hikes would add 42 billion dollars in revenue. Ending the Bush middle class tax cuts would bring in 179 billion dollars.  Meanwhile the deficit for October alone is 120 billion. We would have to find three times as many rich people for the Obama tax hikes to even cover a monthly deficit. And ending the Bush middle class tax cuts, would cover one month’s deficit. And next month we’re back in the hole.

Some Cold Water on the Illegal Alien Amnesty “Grand Bargain”

No one who wants amnesty for illegal aliens also wants to secure the border. If you believe in amnesty, then you’re not really sincere about border security. And vice versa. Anyone who believes in the virtue of legalizing millions of illegal Mexican aliens does not also believe that preventing more of them from entering the country is a good thing. That applies to Democrats and Republicans.

Raising Taxes on the Rich Wouldn’t Even Cover GM Bailout

What’s 42 billion? It’s the amount that taxpayers are still on the hook for from Obama’s 50 billion dollar crony bailout of GM.

A Blast from the 2008 Election Past

After discussions with his inner circle, which explains the delay in his speech, McCain decided not to pursue the voter fraud in PA and Ohio, despite his staff’s desire to make it an issue. He said no. Staff felt they could get a federal injunction to stop the process. McCain felt the crowds assembled in support of Obama and such would be detrimental to our country and it would do our nation no good for this to drag out like last go around, coupled with the possibility of domestic violence.

Is the Japanese Right About to Make a Big Comeback?

To understand who Ishihara is, imagine if Barry Goldwater had written Catcher in the Rye or if Jack Kerouac had somehow turned into Joe McCarthy. That Shintaro Ishihara combines both figures in one man, inspiring the Taiyo-zoku or The Sun Tribe, some of Japan’s first hippies, with his novel Seasons of the Sun, and then turning into an Anti-Communist crusader and right-wing nationalist with a habit of saying things that are right up there with the American left’s worst fantasies about Glenn Beck and Pat Robertson, is a testament to Japan’s eccentric and often unusual politics.

Worst Anti-Muslim Hate Crime in America was Committed by Muslim

When Shaima Alawadi was found beaten to death in her own dining room with a tire iron, CAIR and countless Muslim organizations rejoiced, and not just for the usual reason that Muslims rejoice when a woman is murdered, but because they had their own living dead proof that Islamophobia was the biggest problem in America since German Measles

Obama Administration Spent $180,000 on “Official Portraits” This Year

Now maybe if this were being done with NEA grants, I could almost get behind it. Give some talented fellow 20 grand to paint Lisa Jackson, Vilsack or Obama in elephant dung and we would at least get some value for our money.

What if we put the Commerce Secretary’s portrait in a jar of urine and called it, “Pissing Away our Money.” That would be real art. And it would only offend one religion. Liberalism.

WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR...

When it's wartime, it's time to turn to J.E. Dyer for analysis

But that seems to be the foreign-policy mode of the Obama administration.  Where will all this go?  My money is on an uneasy ceasefire in which Hamas continues to act up, but everyone sees that the longstanding Hamas-Israel dynamic is old and busted, geopolitical-transformation-wise.  New and hot is the nation-state dynamic for reordering the Middle East – and it’s not ready to tee up quite yet.

I’ve outlined the major actors in this dynamic before:  Egypt, Turkey, Iran, and shifting permutations of terrorist groups, with closer or looser ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, operating with or against them.  None of these actors is prepared today to achieve a strategic stroke out of the messes created by Hamas.  But they’re working on it.

DIVERSITY, IT'S NOT WHAT YOU THINK IT IS

Some have said the solution for the Republican Party is to nominate fewer old white guys. So let’s have some Hispanics, blacks, women, what-have-you.

Just one problem—have you noticed that any members of those groups who have an “R” after their names are required to turn in their diversity badges, at which point they become Honorary Old White Guys?

From Neo-Neocon. As long as the left controls the definition of diversity, no amount of GOP diversity will matter. The Dems will spend fortunes to destroy minority candidates like Allen West and then sneer about the GOP being a party of old white men.



WHAT YOU NEED TO READ

I've been saying for a while that dejected conservatives need a European perspective on the election and here's one from the Dissident Frogman, who I'm ashamed to admit I haven't read in too long. (via American Digest)

I am not going to lecture you on what Republicans and conservatives should or shouldn’t do—if you want patronizing political advice, ask any of the other 60 millions+ French, they’ll happily oblige—but in light of the rapid destruction of the French Right, I’ll just state the obvious: what you need to change isn’t your principles, it’s the narrative.

Some of you believe that societal collapse or civil war are coming soon hereafter, and advocate stocking supplies and ammunitions for the conflict they see ahead.

Truly, there isn’t such things as too much food and weapons, and yes, collapse and conflict could come to America. Yet it is not written.

The various flavors of Social Democrats who run Europe (into the ground, admittedly), and share so many features and aspirations with Obama have learned the mistakes of the less subtle autocrats who preceded them. If France can teach you one thing, it’s that Obama will never bleed you dry or push you beyond the threshold of revolt, only to the nearest edge of it: you are now more likely to bleed from a thousand cuts over a thousand years than to get a quick, if violent, resolution to the relentless assaults against your life, liberty and pursuit of happiness—snarky Libertarians who opted to let Obama squat in the Oval Office unopposed on the deluded notion that "it doesn’t matter" and will bring the fall of Leviathan sooner, may want to take notice.

Even the French have not yet managed to completely plunder and ruin their comparatively much weaker economy, and the good Lord knows they’ve been trying for the best of the last 80 years or so.

Just like in France, the rates of taxes, duties and fees unleashed upon the good folks of the US of A will not only augment, they will also metastasize over an incredibly varied and ever expanding range of products and services, in addition to your income and profits. You will suffocate under an unrelenting onslaught of new regulations, red tape and audits by a growing army of government agencies and bureaucrats all tasked with the mission of controlling that nothing passes through their nets, and punishing you ruthlessly for anything that does.

And still: you will live through it, and you will live well enough—for a given value of "well"—to never really have a legally and morally unquestionable motive to rise up in arms and go full scale de oppresso liber on the tyrant. This will not be, as many of you imagine when they think about France, North Korea only with more cheese, wine and broads who don’t shave their armpits. Instead, you will find yourself in a multi-generations limbo of "too late to work within the system, but too early to shoot the bastards"—as, ironically, a Libertarian once said.

Just like in France, this will turn you into a depressed, cynical and pessimistic people, until they finally manage to kill your spirit whole, and nearly everybody is on the dole.

That’s when they’ve won. They do not need to kill you, they just have to break you.

...and this is the truly important part

Hear this final prophecy America: only one man can kill the Republic, and it isn’t Barack Obama. The one man who will kill your Republic is the one man who will last give up and renounce it.

DOES THE FBI NORMALLY HACK INTO THE CIA DIRECTOR'S EMAIL BECAUSE HIS GIRLFRIEND SENT A FEW NASTY EMAILS?

Eric Holder is defending his decision (or alleged decision) not to inform President Obama of the investigation the FBI was conducting of General Petraeus. Holder says that his department conducted the investigation “the way it normally conduct[s] a criminal investigation.” Normally, the Justice Department does not share the facts of ongoing investigations outside the FBI.

...just seems like a question to ask. Is it standard procedure for the DOJ to smuggle thousands of guns to Mexican druglords?



ON THAT NOTE

The six contradictions of socialism in the United States of America

    America is capitalist and greedy - yet half of the population is subsidized.
    Half of the population is subsidized - yet they think they are victims.
    They think they are victims - yet their representatives run the government.
    Their representatives run the government - yet the poor keep getting poorer.
    The poor keep getting poorer - yet they have things that people in other countries only dream about.
    They have things that people in other countries only dream about - yet they want America to be more like those other countries.

....from The People's Cube, the site you should be reading, Old Soviet jokes become the new American reality



A SONG FOR THE END