[Huffpoo's World Post] What do you do after you brought your party’s control of government to a dramatic end? You become an international scold and blowhard, blaming the world’s problems on everyone else--who have no ability to solve any of them.
In fact, has-beens and once-weres often are brought in as decorations for international gatherings, meant to add gravitas to the proceedings. A few years back I shared an elevator with former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who was speaking at Qatar’s Doha Forum. He said nothing of note either in private or public, but exuded the air of a man who still mattered.
It turns out he’s the UN Special Envoy for Global Education, which must be as superfluous a position as exists. People recognized the importance of schooling long before there was a UN. And there’s not much the global organization can do for a service that can only be delivered locally. Indeed, in poor countries schools tend to get worse the more the national government is involved. Inexpensive private schools often are the only hope for the most disadvantaged and marginalized people in the most impoverished and oppressed nations.
However, Brown unburdened himself in the Huffington Post, and the subject wasn’t education. Rather, he said we all are responsible for the depredations of Nigeria’s murderous Boko Haram. Really. "The World Should Be Ashamed of the Failure to #BringBackOurGirls," he titled his article.
It’s been more than two years since the group--which has attributes of both insurgency and terrorism--kidnapped 276 girls from the town of Chibok. Boko Haram is an Islamist-jihadist group; its name roughly means "Western education is forbidden." The militants kill moderate Muslims but typically target Christians, as in Chibok. They usually slaughter male students, but often capture girls for sex slaves, child wives, and suicide bombers. Despite promises from the Nigerian government, proffers of Western assistance, and a twitter campaign led by First Lady Michelle Obama, none of the girls have been rescued.
#2
Of course "the West" is responsible. If "the West" didn't feed and doctor them, their populations wouldn't exceed the carrying capacities of their natural habitats.
#3
I'm delighted you see it my way g(r)om. I'm shunning meds, but I would consider a guilt recovery group for seniors. I realize it's a private matter, but how are you managing to cope ?
#5
I, for one, am totally surprised and devastated that a hashtag war on an Islamist Militia by a bitter greedy racist grifter didn't succeed.
#Whodathunkit?
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/09/2016 9:25 Comments ||
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#6
The girls from the school in Chibok were far from the only girls stolen by Boko Haram to sell as wives and concubines, not to mention the boys taken to be made into fighters. The number rescued over the past few months must be heading into the multiple thousands by now.
#9
I haven't the patience or forgiveness I used to have for those who've established a pattern of choosing to be obnoxious, though this time it was not I that deleted the comment in question.
[Right Wing] There’s nothing more amusing than seeing the Obama Media Lapdogs spin things to protect Dear Leader. Obama will be the first president to never see a year of 3% GDP growth. And guess whose fault it is? The Washington Post’s Fred Hiatt tells blames us
The economy’s real drag: Us
American consumers aren’t what they used to be -- and that helps explain the plodding economic recovery. It gets no respect despite creating 14 million jobs and lasting almost seven years. The great gripe is that economic growth has been held to about 2 percent a year, well below historical standards. This sluggishness reflects a profound psychological transformation of American shoppers, who have dampened their consumption spending, affecting about two-thirds of the economy. To be blunt: We have sobered up.
...Can Trump mislead much more than did Obama, who assured Americans that they would never lose their doctor or health plan but rather save money and have better care, and that pulling peacekeepers from Iraq would ensure a stable and self-reliant country? Obama, remember, also bragged abroad that he had all but closed Guantanamo within a year and would stop the Bush habit of piling up more debt? After Ben Rhodes and Jonathan Gruber, what exactly are the presidential standards on veracity that we must hold Trump to?
...Can Trump act any less constitutionally than has Obama? Will he scan existing law, and order his attorney general to enforce some statutes but ignore others? Will he boast that "I won" and thus has a pen and a phone to sign treaties with foreign countries without Senate ratification? Will Trump, in Obama fashion, threaten to cut off federal funds to cities that believe in biologically identified male/female restrooms, while encouraging other cities to defy federal immigration law? Sanctuary cities in California, but not in North Carolina? Are we back to 1860 and state nullification of federal law if and when the president wishes it?
...Trump certainly has wacky ideas. But will he promise to ensure that the coal industry goes out of business, or electric rates will skyrocket, or will his energy czar hope that our gas prices reach European levels? Does he plan to double the national debt in eight years or dismantle the existing health care system? Will Trump praise and subsidize a failing coal company as iconic of the country’s future in the manner that Obama coronated the soon-to-be-bankrupt Solyndra? Will he brag that setting and then ignoring red lines for Syria were among his greatest foreign policy moments?
...The point is not to whitewash Trump’s crudity and outlandishness, but to explain why it so far has not eliminated him as a candidate. Obama’s outright destruction of presidential protocols created candidate Trump. The media, which in Faustian fashion mortgaged its soul to empower Obama, has now lost all credibility as a legitimate critic and arbiter of the dangers of narcissism, half-educated pop knowledge, polarizing politics, and demonization of one’s critics.
Sadly, nearly every gross thing Trump says or does has had an antecedent in the Obama administration. "Hope and Change" begat "Make America Great," in a tit-for-tat way that Trump’s likely garish convention props will mimic Obama’s Styrofoam Greek columns. After Obama dismissed ISIS as jayvees by invoking Kobe Bryant and the Lakers, we should not be too outraged that Trump cited an endorsement from Mike Tyson.
#1
This reminds me of the "it's Bush's fault" crowd. It's not obama's fault and the press can just keep looking until they figure out what Main Street America is pissed about. The entire congress is a rats nest of corruption, insest, greed. We see it, like being naked in the street, they know we now see them in their true skin of greed and self serving corruption.
Posted by: 49 pan ||
05/09/2016 18:14 Comments ||
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[Breitbart] Breitbart Tech editor Milo Yiannopoulos sat down with "America’s Toughest Sheriff" Joe Arpaio last week to discuss pink underwear, sanctuary cities, and the size of Donald Trump's heart
Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona discussed the intersection of his career in law enforcement with his career in politics. Arpaio, who has introduced Donald Trump at several of his campaign rallies, is considered to be one of the Republican front-runner's closest allies.
Arpaio is perhaps most famous for his decision to force the inmates of Maricopa County to wear pink underwear, a change he implemented to combat an issue with prisoners stealing underwear upon their release. According to the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office website, Arpaio's decision to move to pink underwear drastically reduced theft and saved county taxpayers over $70,000 in the first year that the change was implemented.
Yiannopoulos pressed Arpaio about the immigration issues facing America and asked how his experience as the Sheriff of Maricopa County has influenced his perspective on the subject. He claimed that sanctuary cities "[cover] up violations of the law," and claimed that "it sets a bad example" for other types of criminal violations to be excused. He condemned Sen. Ted Cruz's plan to take away federal funding from sanctuary cities, and instead suggested cutting off foreign aid to the home countries of offending parties.
#3
Cruz's plan to take away federal funding from sanctuary cities
I firmly believe services offered by sanctuary cities should be funded through mandatory local donations rather than tax-seized capital.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.