[The Nation] Manichaean Cold War myopia and ludicrous Russiagate allegations have produced one of the worst periods of American "geopolitical" thinking in recent decades. Consider President Trump’s recently announced withdrawals of US forces from Syria and Afghanistan. Instead of applauding these long-overdue steps, the bipartisan US political-media establishment has denounced them as "Trump’s gifts to Putin."
But why would Russian President Putin want to be without the United States as an ally in the fight against terrorists in these two countries, which Moscow has long regarded as its geopolitical backyard? In Syria, where, as Putin has repeatedly warned, thousands of jihadists with Russian passports have appeared and vowed, if they take Damascus, to return to Russia and wage the same war there? And why even more in Afghanistan, where ever since the Soviet invasion in 1979, Moscow has worried that victorious Afghan terrorists and their foreign allies‐by whatever name in whatever organized form‐will flow through Central Asia into Russia, along with the indigenous Afghan war-funding crop, opium poppy? (Heroin addiction, fostered by cheap Afghan opium, is already reaching epidemic proportions in Russia.)
Unlike a large segment of the US policy-media elite, Putin can think geopolitically in his nation’s clear national interests. For 17 years, he has sought a full anti-terrorist alliance with the United States‐first with President George W. Bush after 9/11, then with President Barrack Obama, always in vain. As a candidate and then as president, Trump has seemed to want to seize the opportunity, but has been thwarted by Russiagate zealots, primarily Democrats, though not only.
#6
Money laundering works both ways. Too many people in Washington, London and Moscow make money off opium for it to ever go away.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
01/31/2019 11:33 Comments ||
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#7
Pulling western witnesses out of the war zone sort of frees Putin do what Putin wants to do. Getting folks that fight back with B-52s and Arclights and a stack of F18 Superhornets out of the line of fire is probably also something Putin would like.
[Business Insider SA] Foreign direct investment into South Africa grew from $1.3 billion in 2017 to $7.1 billion (R98.6 billion) in 2018 - an increase of 446% - a new United Nations report found.
In February 2018, newly elected president Cyril Ramaphosa said he aims to attract $100bn, or about R1.4 trillion, investment to South Africa by 2023.
The UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Global Investment Trends Monitor report, released on Monday, said South Africa successfully managed to turn around the sharp declines in FDI since 2014.
It said FDI investments were predominantly devoted to mining, petroleum refinery, food processing, information and communications technologies, and renewable energy.
Last year, China committed to R193 billion in new investments in South Africa. One of the biggest Chinese investments in South Africa was the recently-opened $840 million (R11 billion) BAIC vehicle plant at the Coega harbour.
Saudi Arabia said it would invest $10 billion - specifically in the energy sector, including building refineries, petrochemicals and renewable energy.
Among the companies that announced they would pump new money into South Africa, was Mercedes Benz, which said it would invest R10 billion.
Despite the increase in FDI, the World Bank expects that the South African economy will grow by a meagre 1.3% in 2019.
#1
Ramaphosa is on the right track with his encouragement of foreign investment. A new middle class is certainly developing. His challenges will remain high crime rates, massive gov't corruption, illegal immigration, a disaffected minority sector, and socialism.
BLUF:
[Gray Zone] While Guaidó seemed to have materialized out of nowhere, he was, in fact, the product of more than a decade of assiduous grooming by the US government’s elite regime change factories. Alongside a cadre of right-wing student activists, Guaidó was cultivated to undermine Venezuela’s socialist-oriented government, destabilize the country, and one day seize power. Though he has been a minor figure in Venezuelan politics, he had spent years quietly demonstrated his worthiness in Washington’s halls of power. Sorry, graphic generator systems error.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. private payrolls increased solidly in January, pointing to sustained labor market strength despite a recent easing in consumer and business confidence that has suggested a loss of momentum in the economy.
The strong hiring shown in the ADP National Employment Report on Wednesday also suggested there had been minimal impact on the labor market from the just-ended 35-day partial shutdown of the federal government.
Other data showed contracts to buy existing homes tumbled to a more than 4-1/2-year low in December.
Amid growing uncertainty over the economy’s outlook, the Federal Reserve on Wednesday kept benchmark U.S. interest rates steady and said it would be patient in lifting borrowing costs further this year.
[Victory Girls] She’s like a flaming case of the herp ‐ the gift that keeps on giving, no matter how hard you try to get rid of it. Hillary Clinton is considering running for President again. "I’d like to be President," she said in a Q & A session last October, quickly listing off her "qualifications" for the office ‐ talking points she’s recycled so many times, they feel like so much used toilet paper.
Yeah, I bet you would.
The statement evoked a collective groan from Democrats, who are over the C-Hag and want to move on from her humiliating defeat in 2016, but her advisers apparently won’t quit, and Queen Pantsuit herself ‐ emboldened by the arrest of Roger Stone the other day ‐ won’t "close the door" to that idea.
Personally, I think another Hillary Clinton run is a great idea! After all, who doesn’t love a $12,000 Armani housecoat that looks like a worked over vacuum bag?
#1
F%$#ing hell. We're all trapped in a bad movie, Groundhog Day. Yes, HRC = Flaming case of herpes.
“You shoulda looked out for me a little bit. You shoulda taken care of me, just a little bit, so I wouldn't have to take them dives for the short-end money...I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am.” Marlon Brando in "On The Waterfront."
#3
victory girls is a pretty good blog - some talented writers
Posted by: lord garth ||
01/31/2019 14:49 Comments ||
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#4
Chelsea may never be ready. Lullaby. Duet.
"I told you, Co-President Bartlett,
Take care with the spawn not to startle it!"
"Hush. Grandma and C------
Are guarding your LZ...
Sleep soundly, my sweet little..."
[Townhall] He’s just a man, one who happens to be very wealthy. A very wealthy man who is considering using a slice of his substantial fortune to run for president of the United States. Not as a Republican or a Democrat, as an independent. That fact has progressive activists beside themselves with rage that this man, former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, could be the spoiler of their plans to win the 2020 election. The question is this: are their fears founded?
Schultz is worth in the neighborhood of $3.5 billion, which is a very nice neighborhood. I, like most people, would be happy to simply live in the same zip code as a neighborhood like that. The air there always smells like fresh flowers and some kind of food most of us couldn’t pronounce, let alone imagine tasting.
That sort of life lends itself to both delusions of grandeur and actual grandeur, provided you didn’t arrive at it through the luck of birth. People who earn great wealth through means not related to numbered balls falling out of a machine matching a $2 ticket tend to know the value of a dollar. They’ve worked for it, worked hard, and took risks to get it. That generally means they don’t set piles of it on fire on vanity projects or out of boredom.
This is why the idea of Schultz should concern everyone, not just Democrats. The same, by the way, goes for another progressive billionaire, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Unlike Schultz, Bloomberg, should he run, will run as a Democrat. It’s in no small part how Donald Trump became president, so it’s a model that has been shown to work.
#1
Given their current crop of nutter candidates, I can see why the Democrats might be worried.
Reminds me of the old Firesign Theater skit: Papoon for President - Not Insane.
Usually humorous satire - But not this time
[Babylon Bee] U.S.‐ In a rare moment of honesty this week, Democrats finally just came right out and admitted that they actually support infanticide.
After a Virginia lawmaker made an utterly repulsive defense of abortion during birth and the state's governor calmly discussed the killing of an already-born child should the mother so choose, the nation at least had to admit that Democrats were finally being honest about something.
"Usually, we try to hide behind the 'pro-choice' label or spew a bunch of crap about the mother's health or something," Virginia governor Ralph Northam said. "But we're going to part ways with our usual deceitful methods and actually just be upfront about our position here: infanticide? We're totally cool with it. We're all about being pro-choice, no matter if we're talking about a baby that's in the womb or one that's already been born, patiently standing by to see if their mother decides they're a person."
The nation agreed that this approach is preferable to the usual doublespeak exhibited by Democrats on the abortion issue.
"It's kinda refreshing, to be honest," said one man in Florida. "At least now we know what we're getting with the Dems---before I couldn't tell if their support for abortion really had to do with women's rights or if they secretly wanted to kill babies."
#2
Regardless of one's opinion of abortion, I find it disturbing that the dem's main beliefs hinge of death and infanticide.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/31/2019 15:21 Comments ||
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#3
Human Sacrifice - The act of killing one or more persons as part of a religious ritual, generally to appease the gods or spirits. (Medical Dictionary)
In fact, a number of dictionaries used that 'appease gods/spirits/diety(ies) line, so let's expand that line a bit.
Obviously, we don't want the gods mad at us. There are abundant stories of god(s) being cross with mortals. So appeasing the gods is to be in their favor, so that the gods grant us mortals a prosperous, or at least a non-pissed off god, future.
A woman finds she is pregnant, and finds the future somewhere between uncomfortable to impossible with a(nother) child. Child is sacrificed for a potentially better future. I use potentially because the future is the future until it happens. Always the chance the child is extraordinary, a millionaire at 20 and supporting the family. Alas, there are those whose desirous future is getting high instead of raising a child, even if guaranteed to be extraordinary; that perceived better future is very relative.
I personally can point to a situation where keeping the child would have been a disaster, and since she has become quite the success story. Still does not change the fact that the child had to be sacrificed so the rest of the family could have a chance. That's some Lifeboat shit right there, can't imagine making that decision and it was not come at lightly. It was done as early as possible.
I get the Lifeboat decision if the opportunity to improve is taken, yet immoral if the gal just goes back to same ol same ol lifestyle.
Purposefully gestating a human to, at the last second, have him or her chopped up and sold for parts is barbaric. Pure evil. Shit makes Apocolypto look like a kid's movie. Throwing a baby into a superheated bronze statue is disturbing. More disturbing is how clinical this is, all so tidy, with building lit and prepared congratulation made. Reminds me of the movie Conspiracy.
[TheBurningPlatform] Resolved: Millennials are the worst of all possible generations, and I say that as a baby-boomer (by a week). Unconvinced? Then check out one or both recent documentaries on Hulu and Netflix about their generation’s Woodstock, the infamous Fyre Festival, and watch how thousands of credulous millennials got suckered by social media "influencers" ‐ actors, rappers, models, whatevers ‐ who talked them into plunking down enormous wads of cash to attend a fabulous dream concert/party/rave in the Bahamas. The ads promised hot models frolicking, exciting musical acts like "Major Lazer" and whatever a "Migos" is, luxe accommodations, and gourmet food prepped by acclaimed chefs. What they got was drunken dudes and dudettes from the cargo shorts ’n backward cap set, no tunes, moist FEMA tents, and famously forlorn cheese sandwiches.
...And now these same knuckleheads are nodding their heads, jaws slack, in time with the beat of the rambling nonsense that they get from the tweets and videos of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Yeah, everyone who’s given socialism a spin in the last century has failed, at the cost of 100 million lives, but do you know who has the brains and savvy to pull it off this time and finally get it right?
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
"Gosh, my generation couldn’t manage to make a week-long concert happen, but I think I’ll hand them the keys to remake all of society because reasons and Kardashians!"
h/t Instapundit
Last week was an interesting week for Big Media.
First [Friday], we had the big story about how Michael Cohen had testified to the Mueller investigation that he had been directed by Trump to lie under oath during various investigations. Were it true this would indeed be a big story. It might constitute subornation of perjury, a violation of 18USC1622, good for potentially 5 years in prison, and pretty certainly an impeachable offense. You could practically see the legacy media drooling, and I'm still surprised they didn't have tissues and lotion on the desks and towels out for the chair seats.
...By Sunday, the legacy media was running with the story of the Covington racist kids surrounding and taunting an Elder of the Omaha Tribe who was peacefully chanting and drumming during the March for Life. Only, as the weekend went on we found out the story was more ‐ well, Brian Stelter of Reliable Sources thought it was complicated and no one really knew what happened. Everyone else knew that Big Media, including a lot of "but Trump is so crude and uncouth!" pinky-raising Big Media conservatives, had been taken for a ride by bunch of spam Twitter accounts, the "Black Israelites," an activist who can't keep his story straight, and a whole lot of "too good to check." Black Israelites believe Jews are fake Israelites, and Israelites were really blacks from West Africa they're descended from.
...But the weekend wasn't over: shortly, it was announced that Buzzfeed, Huffington Post, and Gannett were making massive layoffs, and closing entire categories. Instapundit's comment: NAH. THEY’RE INCAPABLE OF LEARNING
[NYP] Jewish conservatives get asked this question more than any other: "Why are Jews liberals?" The question eventually got so tiresome that my father, himself a prominent Jewish conservative, wrote an entire book about tracing the history back to Biblical times. You can still buy it on Amazon. So I’m not going to answer it here.
What we know is this basic fact: In national elections, Jews vote for Democratic candidates by a margin of 3 to 1. That number has been fairly consistent through four elections now. It suggests Democrats should have no concerns about keeping Jews in their coalition for another generation.
And yet they do have such concerns. And they should.
This week, prominent Democrats announced a new group called Democratic Majority for Israel, led by the pollster Mark Mellman. He told The New York Times: "Most Democrats are strongly pro-Israel, and we want to keep it that way. There are a few discordant voices, but we want to make sure that what’s a very small problem doesn’t metastasize into a bigger problem."
#6
Off the pile. Really stretching for that unstressed French pronunciation... and... splat. Cheap shot anyways.
A starry-eyed man of Saint-Moritz,
Observing his neighborhood's orbits,
Urged, over a sherry,
"Let's you and them marry!
I'm sticking with Mrs. P--------."
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.
