Howdy All, a few Interesting Items for your information. Enjoy –
In this issue:
- AOC
- Dragon
- Romney
- Meds
- Moon
- Language
- Rainbow
- AOC. Since O’Bama was elevated out of political obscurity in Illinois, put into the US Senate and shortly thereafter elevated into office as President, I pay close attention to whomever the democrats and their media enablers are building into the Next Big Thing. We saw two of these in the 2018 election cycle with Alexandra Occasio – Cortez (AOC) and Beto O’Rourke. They are both young, photogenic, command a near rock star presence in the media. And both are busily positioning themselves as future national leaders. Finally, both are dangerous. Look where AOC came from. She is a 20-something former bartender, economics grad out of Boston University. She is also a self-professed socialist. If you look at before and after photos of her, she got a Hollywood-class, very expensive makeup and clothing makeover for her campaign for the US House. And from the looks of it, support for her new look continues. Someone selected what was originally a pretty little airhead and turned her into a political rock star, a horse she is riding for all that’s worth. The makeup and clothing are very expensive. And as she does not have the resources to get that for herself, meaning someone has to be paying for it, backing her nascent political career. We know why. What we need to figure out is who. As for Beto O’Rourke, he is a democrat congress critter from the El Paso area. He is Irish through and through, though he changed his first name to pander to local Latinos. He tried hard to emulate the Kennedy rock star shtick, including a 1998 DUI which his father, a county judge helped him avoid punishment. He ran for US Senate against Ted Cruz, with most of his money coming out of Hollywood and is now being touted as a 2020 presidential candidate for the democrats. I think both of these people are examples of a concerted effort to create the next O’Bama, this one aimed at the Latino community. O’Bama benefited mightily from the myth of the Magic Negro, someone who was a blank slate, with the unspoken notion that if you voted for him, 150 years of national racial animus would somehow be absolved. It didn’t work that way as O’Bama specialized in race baiting and fanning the flames of racial hatred, instructed by the Right Reverend Wright in his church for two decades. And he was very good at it as he was and continues to be a smart guy. I think AOC and O’Rourke will try to do something similar. Figure out who is backing these people and you figure out who is in charge of the democrat party. Final point. As much fun as it is to poke fun at these two airheads and call them well-deserved names, never, ever dismiss them out of hand. They are the pleasant faces of a very dark, evil movement that has more money than they know what to do with and will devastate our nation and liberties if and when they get anywhere close to power. And the media is positioning itself to make sure they do. When I look at AOC, I think of Evita Peron or perhaps Cristina Kirchner of Argentina, very good looking women who devastated their nation. This is the future the democrats and their big-money backers have in store for us. http://time.com/money/5323399/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-career/
- Dragon. Beware the Smiling Dragon. One of the vehicles that the ChiComs has used over the last few decades is to make development and construction deals with other nations. The initial terms are usually favorable. But if you miss payments, they end up owning that facility for the upcoming century. Former Alaska Governor Bill Walker played with ChiComs funding his natural gas pipeline. Terms of the deal were such that if Alaska could not sell sufficient gas to pay for the pipeline, the ChiComs would either get their hands on $43+ billion of Permanent Fund to pay for it, but decades to as long as a century of product shipped through it. Walker never brought the deal before the legislature, though he tried mightily to make it so. Latest example of the Smiling Dragon comes from Kenya, where China is poised to take control of the Mombasa Port in Kenya after Kenya defaults on payments for its loan from the Exim Bank of China. In return for the loan, Kenya waived its sovereign immunity on the Kenya Ports Assets when signing the loan agreement. This exposed the Kenya Port Authority to foreclosure and confiscation by the Exim Bank. This is yet another example of China’s ambitious use of loans and financial aid to gain influence and then to play hard ball to collect. In Sept. 2018, Zambia lost an international airport over failure to repay a Chinese loan. These are not the only African nations signing away their sovereignty to ChiCom loans, and have been at the heart of growing ChiCom influence in Africa. Beware the Smiling Dragon. Note that I do take what I read in Zero Hedge with a grain of salt, as they are well connected with Putin’s Russia and have been described as one of its disinformation outlets. But I find it interesting when the Russians are not saying friendly things about their ChiCom rivals. https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-12-26/china-take-over-kenyas-largest-port-over-unpaid-chinese-loan
- Romney. Incoming freshman US Senator from Utah, Mitt Romney penned a Wash Post op-ed blasting away at President Trump for style more than anything else. He was not even sworn in as a US Senator yet. Romney, who famously lost the 2012 election to O’Bama because he chose not to fight, now picks a fight with a Republican who does. With this article, he becomes (or hopes to become) the go to Republican for media who want to publish something uncharitable about President Trump. This is the very same media that spent eight months tearing him to ribbons, something he apparently forgot. Reaction was swift and blunt among Republicans both in the Senate and nationwide. The kindest thing said was some variation of sit down and shut up, boy. The reaction sent Romney into full crawfish mode, backing up as fast as humanly possible. But the larger Republican world was not Romney’s target. It was the Republican presence in the swamp, as Romney may be positioning himself as an alternative to Trump should the left be successful in chasing him out of the WH. Last one that did this were the Rockefellers, who managed to turn decades of Nixon hatred into a short stint as VP under Gerald Ford. Romney may end up as the Republican version of Hillary Clinton, constantly reinventing herself with the goal of occupying the WH, never to get there. If Romney is interested in serving the nation and his state, he will sit down and shut up. If he is interested in himself, expect the hits to just keep on coming. https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/01/02/trump-mitt-romney-team-player-win/
- Meds. A medical resident in Cleveland was fired last week for anti-Semitic media posts over the last seven years. She worked in the clinic for only three months during late summer. Dr. Lara Kollab was a supervised resident. There was a 2012 tweet that claimed “Ill purposely give all the yahood the wrong meds…” Yahood is the Arabic word for Jews. It appears in the Koran in connection with Uzair. Kollab is a Palestinian immigrant who attended medical school at a college associated with the Jewish community. She unleashed a series of anti-Semitic tweets 2011 – 2017. Her excuse was the suffering of the Palestinians under the Israeli occupation in her ancestral land. No explanation from her on the continual warfare visited on Israel by the Palestinians. Kollab disabled her social media accounts to disappear the evidence, but many of them were preserved in screenshots, yet another reminder that the Internet is forever. Initial reaction by the Cleveland Clinic was to fire her and not comment about the tweets. They reconsidered and described her termination as now based on her posts. In response, Kollob did all the expected groveling, apologies, and used all the magic words of tolerance and inclusion. Who knows, it may even work. But this story does remind us all of a larger problem: What does this nation do with a large number of people who we have invited in but have no intention of assimilating into our culture as Americans? This Palestinian has brought every ounce of her old hatreds across the Atlantic Ocean with her. And she embraces a religion that tells her it is perfectly acceptable, even demanded, to lie, cheat, steal, and even murder anyone who does not believe in Islam the way she does. How is this compatible with a civil society? And as Kollob has self-selected out of the employment as a doctor, how many more of them are there? I would think that profiling is in our future. Unfortunate, but I am at a loss as how to handle this sort of thing in the future without that as a starting point. Kollob was not the first and she most certainly will not be the last. https://www.timesofisrael.com/dismissed-ohio-medical-resident-sorry-for-vowing-to-give-wrong-meds-to-jews/
- Moon. The ChiComs successfully landed a rover on the dark side of the moon last week. The Chang’e 4 last week. This flight is an interesting demonstration of China’s growing competence in space, as it not only requires a successful lander, but also spaceborne communications that allow the lander to be monitored and controlled on a continuous basis. This requires either some number of orbiting communications satellites or a one at the L2 libration point on the far side of the moon to maintain a visible link with the controllers. The ChiCom government is touting the mission as the first of what they promise to be many steps to put themselves permanently into space as the dominant player on the world stage. And it appears they are putting the resources into getting the job done. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/china/china-lands-spacecraft-on-dark-side-of-moon-in-world-first/articleshow/67376501.cms
- Language. The Clown Show that is the new House democrat majority got itself off to a fine start last week with a newly elected Michigan democrat Rashida Tliaib who is also a Palestinian sympathizer telling a roomful of cheering friends, family and supporters that she was going to go to Washington to “impeach the MF-er.” The triggered all the expected faux outrage and reactions from both sides. Trump called her language disgraceful. Pelosi said she was not in the censorship business. Conservative media wrapped itself nicely around the axle tut-tutting the language. Newly minted democrat rock star AOC defended her. And Tlaib announced herself as Trump’s match in Washington. This is shaping up to be a LOT of fun, as there are at least 40 newly elected democrat House members who ran as moderates and / or conservatives who will be put on the line to defend this. I expect more, a lot more in short order. They will aim their hatred against gun owners, the rich, Trump supporters, Israel, Jews, and anyone and everyone else who gets in their way. And if they start tossing F-bombs around the first week after being sworn in, they are going to run out of verbal ammunition sooner rather than later. Clown show. Get your tickets before they are all sold out. https://nypost.com/2019/01/04/trump-congresswoman-dishonored-herself-by-calling-him-a-motherf-ker/
- Rainbow. Will close this one with happier news, as least for old guys. The Greenpeace boat, Rainbow Warrior was cut up for scrap at a beaching yard in Bangladesh. Greenpeace used the original Rainbow Warrior, a diesel powered sail boat to protest French nuclear weapons tests in French Polynesia in the mid-1970s. The technique was to show up and stay in the test area, forcing the French to cancel the shot. The boat was also used to protest whaling and fishing. Eventually the French got tired of the game and sent Special Forces to sink it while in a port in New Zealand in 1985. Greenpeace replaced it and continued to operate as part of their protest operation until it was retired in 2011. It was given to Bangladesh and turned into a floating hospital. The agreement on turnover allowed Greenpeace veto rights over how it was disposed of. The Bangladeshi company sold it to a beaching yard where it was cut up and scrapped in a method that Greenpeace had been protesting against for decades (concern over diesel fuel in the water and on the scrapping yard beach). Greenpeace apologized for allowing a 61-year old ship with asbestos, PCBs, and other toxic chemicals to be disposed of in this manner. Greenpeace tried to purchase the boat back but that deal failed because the salvage yard wanted too much money. They fervently promise to do better next time around. https://dailycaller.com/2018/12/30/greenpeace-rainbow-warrior-ship/
More later –
– AG