[ABC] President Donald Trump started off his first day of Thanksgiving vacation by resuming his taunts of the father of a UCLA basketball player detained for shoplifting in China, saying Wednesday that he was an "ungrateful fool."
In a series of tweets fired off before dawn, the president complained yet again that LaVar Ball, father of LiAngelo Ball, hasn't given him credit for the release of his son and two other UCLA basketball players from detention in China.
Tweeting from his Florida vacation home, Trump said: "It wasn't the White House, it wasn't the State Department, it wasn't father LaVar's so-called people on the ground in China that got his son out of a long term prison sentence - IT WAS ME."
"Too bad! LaVar is just a poor man's version of Don King, but without the hair," he said, referencing the flamboyant boxing promoter whom Trump once saluted as "a phenomenal person" despite a conviction for manslaughter.
#2
La Var seemed to be trying to use his new-found celebrity to pitch stuff from his Bill Baller Company. He is trying to sell his over-priced company and over-priced BB shoes. Big Baller.
h/t Instapundit
The collapse overnight of negotiations to form a new German government is yet another shock to the liberal world order, not of the same magnitude as the Brexit vote or the U.S. presidential election, but of the same character. Chancellor Angela Merkel's tenure in office is now in jeopardy. After failing to form a coalition between the odd trio of Christian Democrats, Free Democrats and Greens, Merkel may have to call new elections, which are likely to produce the same intractable stalemate as before. There are many ways in which the deep division in German opinion about the migrant flood might be papered over--Merkel's partners in the outgoing government, the Social Democrats, could change their mind and remain in a coalition with the Christian Democrats--but the crack in German society has been exposed and will only deepen in the future.
The migrant issue is the elephant in Merkel's parlor. The Christian Democrat-Social Democrat coalition was Germany's equivalent of Washington's Swamp Fusion Party and tolerated no criticism of Merkel's decision to let almost a million and a half migrants (some of whom actually were Syrian war refugees) into Germany during 2016 and 2017. A protest vote brought smaller parties into the Bundestag on an anti-migrant platform; in Germany's eastern half, the Alternative fur Deutschland swept the ballots, and in the West, the small Free Democrats won votes on a platform of tax cuts, reducing immigration, and skepticism about Euro bailouts of Greece and Spain. The Social Democrats imploded while the Christian Democrats lost ground.
...A great deal of the present problem is the result of Merkel's incompetence. Nearly 300,000 Bulgarians and Romanians entered Britain in 2015 right after their countries joined the European Community. That explains a great deal of the Brexit vote. The Germans suffer from a massive labor shortage, especially in the construction industry, and the Eastern Europeans might have helped. The Germans would not have objected to European immigrants who can assimilate into their society as much as they do to Muslims who cannot. The European Community's blanket policy of free migration among its members makes it extremely difficult to manage immigration even when it might be beneficial rather than burdensome.
Now Germany is split between ordinary citizens who want to hold on to some notion of German-ness, even if they are not quite sure what that means, and those who want to liquidate German culture as a remedy for war guilt. A natural conservative majority exists in theory, but does not exist in practice because no German party can articulate a coherent, let alone an acceptable, message of German particularism. I do not anticipate a good outcome from this polarization. It is nonetheless instructive that even the long-suffering Germans do not want to be Guinea pigs for globalism.
#2
Oh, come on now, the Germans are more than happy to let Polish workers come in and work the asparagus fields. Why would a self-respecting German want to work in such conditions?
#3
When "fascists" go Trump in the night,
The Teutons take terrible fright,
But, laying their ghosts,
They'll play tolerant hosts
To the Volks that think Hilter was right.
#4
My vote for Z's most trenchant rhyming analysis of 2017...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
11/22/2017 19:17 Comments ||
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#5
"The European Community's blanket policy of free migration among its members makes it extremely difficult to manage immigration even when it might be beneficial rather than burdensome."
To Whom? People moving from different rent and income areas who have never paid in a penny are not "free" movement, they are beneficiaries of subsidized movement.
[DAWN] THE democratic right to protest has been hijacked and the federal capital and the country’s fourth most populous city, Rawalpindi, have virtually been held hostage. It ought to have been an unacceptable state of affairs. But a misguided protest by far-right religious parties, led by the freshly minted Tehrik Labbaik Ya Rasool Allah, and a mishandled response by the federal government have snowballed into a full-fledged political and law-and-order crisis. Leave aside for a moment the reason for the protest and the demands of the protesters who have made life miserable for hundreds of thousands of commuters between Rawalpindi and Islamabad for over two weeks now. If it were any other group of citizens ‐ nurses, teachers, babus government employees or farmers ‐ would their protest have been allowed to disrupt the lives of the denizens without any end in sight? Why, then, is this impunity afforded to a gathering that has threatened violence, made extreme demands and undermined the democratic order in the country?
To be sure, the democratic right to protest must be protected against undesirable and illegal encroachment by the state. However, if you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning... the core of the TLY’s complaint has already been addressed by parliament and demands such as the sacking of federal ministers cannot be countenanced; it would set a terrible precedent and encourage future protests. Just as clearly, the protesters must not be evicted in a violent manner. The clumsiness of the state security apparatus could trigger violence that may spiral out of control. A negotiated settlement, with all institutions of the state firmly lined up to bring a peaceful end to the protest at the earliest, is the only sensible path out of the crisis. The failure to do so until now is a reflection of the lack of coordination and communication among state institutions. A firm, united message from all major institutions has not been in evidence so far.
The problem, however, clearly goes beyond the latest siege of Islamabad. Whether it was the PPP and PML-N’s ’long march’ politics or the PTI’s several attempts to paralyse life in the capital, the democratic right to protest has morphed into dangerous demonstrations of street power. There is a line between legitimate democratic protests and protests that destabilise democracy or are anti-democratic ‐ and it appears that line has been crossed in Pakistain. Quite how new rules can be negotiated among the political class is unclear, but it is apparent that this new phase of politics of sieges is unsustainable. Making parliament the locus of political activity could be one way of pulling back from the brink. Another possibility is that the mainstream parties determine new rules for protests in Islamabad that allow protesters to make their point without massively disrupting daily life. If the danger of escalation is not addressed, some kind of dreadful violence may materialise sooner than later.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/22/2017 00:10 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
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[DAWN] IT all started with just few hundred zealots blocking Islamabad’s main highway. Now into its third week and with thousands more joining in, the blockade has virtually brought the administration to its knees. Pampering and pleading have failed to move the defiant holy mans; even the court order to end the siege has fallen on deaf ears. The paralysis of the state has given the fanatics a greater sense of empowerment.
What is more troubling is that the flames of bigotry are sweeping across other parts of the country creating a dangerous confluence of religion and politics. The controversy over the missing oath that has apparently been exploited by the newly formed Tehrik Labbaik Ya Rasool Allah (TLY) to whip up religious sentiments has turned into more of a political issue bringing the beleaguered government under severe pressure.
It is the fear of a blowback that seems to have limited the option of using force. The repeated extension of deadlines and seeking the help of religious leaders to end the stand-off demonstrate the helplessness of the administration in a midst of a political crisis. The political fallout of the 2007 Lal Masjid
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
11/22/2017 00:00 ||
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#1
creating a dangerous confluence of religion and politics.
There's got to be an alternative other than dangerous holy men or atheism. How about a 1st Amendment?
h/t Instapundit
There is lots of talk about a new nationalist populist worker movement.
Supposedly, something quite new would institutionalize, define, and solidify the Trump base of aging Reagan Democrats, old Ross Perot independents, Tea Party remnants, newly disaffected Democratic workers, and a few returning libertarians and paleocons. Certainly, together they helped to swung the election in 2016.
But what exactly would be the formal agenda of the proverbial deplorables and irredeemables? And how would it differ all that much from conservative Republicanism of generations past?
After all, despite a much-hyped conservative civil war, a bitter primary, and a NeverTrump movement that won’t quiet, 90 percent of the Republicans in 2016 still voted for Trump. These voters assumed, like deplorable and irredeemable Democrats and Independents, that Trump would push conservative agendas. And they were largely proved correct.
After 10 months of governance, Trump’s deregulations, a foreign policy of principled realism, energy agendas, judicial appointments, efforts at tax reform and health care recalibration, cabinet appointments, and reformulation at the Departments of Education, the EPA, and Interior seem so far conservative to the core.
...So what drives deplorablism?
It is not so much an ideological or even political movement as it is a spiritual and psychological frame of mind that is fed up with hypocrisies of the proverbial establishment, bicoastal cultural elites, and the deep administrative state.
[Free Beacon] A group of deep-pocketed progressive millionaires seeks to "fundamentally reset" America's ideology and economy and "expose the dogma of free enterprise, limited government, and traditional family values," according to a brochure obtained by the Washington Free Beacon at a secretive progressive dark money donor conference.
The group, called Patriotic Millionaires, is a Washington, D.C.-based organization that consists of wealthy liberals with an income of at least $1 million. The organization initially formed in 2010 to "demand an end to Bush tax cuts for millionaires" and has launched a recent campaign against the Republican tax cut plan.
Patriotic Millionaires's newest organizational overview, which is not the same brochure that is currently available on its website, was obtained by the Free Beacon at the Democracy Alliance's fall investment conference held last week at the swanky La Costa Resort in Carlsbad, Calif. Each Democracy Alliance member vows to steer hundreds of thousands in funding to approved left-wing organizations the group supports.
#7
"Patriotic Millionaires" sounds so much better than "First Against the Wall When the Revolution Comes."
Posted by: Matt ||
11/22/2017 9:33 Comments ||
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#8
Haven't heard from Tom Steyer on TV lately. It seems that his advertisements for the petition to impeach Trump have stopped. I don't exactly when they stopped. It's kinda like a headache. You don't really notice the moment when it stops, you just start feeling better.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
11/22/2017 12:12 Comments ||
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#9
You know, I've read "Connecticut Yankee" at the age of 15 and was shocked that Twain justifies French Terror. No more.
#14
Want to ‘Fundamentally Reset' America's Ideology and Economy... These jokers should fund the Peace Corps and get millennials to sign up to help the third world. Let them see the corruption up close and not just in a tourist drive-by from a five star hotel.
#16
Steyer can waste his money all he wants. He's a insincere creepy clown and it comes across in his videos. Billboards haven't really changed anyone's minds....ever
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/22/2017 20:33 Comments ||
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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.
[Free Beacon] A group of deep-pocketed progressive millionaires seeks to "fundamentally reset" America's ideology and economy and "expose the dogma of free enterprise, limited government, and traditional family values," according to a brochure obtained by the Washington Free Beacon at a secretive progressive dark money donor conference.
