Filed under: Bureaucracy, Canada, Capitalism, China, Cuba, Domestic Policy, Economics, Education, Europe, European Union, Islam, Israel, Latin America, Law, National Security, South America, The United States, United Kingdom | Tags: A Government That Works, Between Angry and Bloody, The Americas
Politics. Many of our friendly nations are currently embroiled in politics. Our Democrats are trying for a do-over of the previous election, because they simply cannot get over the fact that they lost the 2016 election to the hated Trump. Just why they hate President Trump so much remains a mystery, because he is doing a remarkable job of getting the economy back on track, which is what we elected him to do.
Canada is not entirely happy with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but he is going to keep his job and form a minority government. His Liberals are again the largest party, but have lost their parliamentary majority.
The British have a Prime Minister in Boris Johnson, but are embroiled in Brexit. From what I can tell, the people want out of the European Union, but the Parliament does not. The battle goes on, and on. Back in 2007, Valery Giscard d’Estaing was writing a Constitution for the European Union, and briefly looked at the American Constitution, but couldn’t handle all those freedoms, and rejected it outright as an example. Unfortunate.
The Israelis are having a crisis of sorts because Prime Minister Netanyahu could not form a government because of the (weird to Americans) way the Israeli government is formed. The Prime Minister gets elected, I think, and then has to create a government by getting all the other parties to agree to what he comes up with, or something like that. We all get accustomed to our own form of government and do not understand any other countries’ politics, which usually is just as complex as ours, and often more so.
South America is a mess, but since we don’t speak their languages, we don’t pay all that much attention. Odd, but I don’t know how many Americans could name the countries of South America on an unlabeled map. And of course, we always call ourselves “Americans” which undoubtedly annoys the citizens of Central and South, who are just as much “Americans” as we are.
Hong Kong and China are getting bloody. China is Communist, which works only for those at the top, and until they are overthrown. We have enough world history about what works and what does not to teach us all – how to go about doing government. The most passionate are always the least-informed, and sure that they have a better idea.
Apparently our colleges and universities are graduating a new class, sure that the answer to the problem of the rich is Socialism or Communism. They are, of course, tutored by professors who discover that there are successful entrepreneurs who without the qualification of a PhD in something or other receive enormous salaries and benefits for keeping a corporation healthy and thriving. No Fair! If you wondered why a college education costs so much today, there you go.
President Trump is beginning to move governmental agencies out of the “swamp” and closer to the people they are supposed to be serving. Thus the Farm Bureau is moving to farming country which is excellent, but those who are being moved from cosmopolitan D.C. to farm country are not happy. I think it’s a great idea.
Filed under: Blogging, Bureaucracy, Capitalism, Democrat Corruption, Domestic Policy, Economy, Education, Foreign Polidy, Freedom, Immigration, Israel, Latin America, Mexico, Middle East, Progressives, Regulation, The Constitution, The United States, Unemployment | Tags: Explaining The Politics, Trump's Accomplishments, Victor Davis Hanson
This was first posted in May, this year. I think it’s time to review it once again, because there is so much here and it is so valuable. Please watch the whole thing, you’ll be glad you did. It’s a long conversation, but you can spread it out over several days if need be.
Filed under: Capitalism, Democrat Corruption, Domestic Policy, Economics, Economy, Election 2020, Foreign Policy, Freedom, Israel, Law, Middle East, Politics, Progressivism, Socialism | Tags: Appeasing Haters, Elizabeth Warren's Errors, The Anti-Israel Crowd
Elizabeth Warren has reportedly been looking for ways to “establish her anti-Israel credentials with progressives who have come to see the destruction of the Jewish state as a non-negotiable cause.” And found it in targeting GOP fundraiser Elliot Broidy, and hiring anti-Israel radical Max Berger as an aide.
Berger helped to found the IfNotNow organization that has devoted itself to damaging Israel’s reputation in the United States in the guise of seeking an end to Israel’s “occupation” of Judea and Samaria and East Jerusalem. Pay no attention to Palestinian terrorism. Berger has previously said on Twitter that he “would totally be friends with Hamas” the Sunni Islamist fundamentalist group that engages in terror. This is a way to get support from radical anti-Israel groups? Well, so much for Ms Warren.
Look up Israel’s gifts to the world. The list is extensive. Did you know that we have cherry tomatoes (which have way better flavor that the ordinary tomatoes I get at the store) thanks to an Israeli kibbutz? Look for the Palestinian gifts to the world. Crickets.
I had no idea that the Democrat Party was so anti-Israel, nor why. Is it part of their weird Trump Derangement? Or have they always been bigots? They want to get rid of the private health insurance that covers 250 million Americans. They want to decriminalize illegal alien entry into this country. They want to provide health coverage to undocumented immigrants. They want open borders. The worst-run states in the country are run by Democrats. (Our Washington State Governor ranked dead last in fiscal management of his stat by the CATO Institute’s survey last year.) Democrat run cities are a mess. There’s a reason for that.
Filed under: Afghanistan, Asia, China, Democrat Corruption, Economics, Election 2016, Europe, European Union, Foreign Policy, Free Markets, Freedom, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Latin America, Media Bias, Mexico, Politics, Russia, Socialism, Syria, The Constitution, Venezuela, Vietnam | Tags: President Donld Trump, Pretty Darn Good, The State of the Union
Oh excellent, excellent and most excellent. President Trump gave his best speech yet. Democrats were all prepared to go on and on about his lying and bragging. Not going to work. He explained his accomplishments for the country, why they needed to be done, and how they are working. He explained his hopes for the country and for the world, and asked for their help in getting it done.
I saw Nancy Pelosi all in white, but it took a while to realize that all the Democrat women were in white, symbolizing something or other. I apparently missed the explanation. I thought they were imitating Cuba’s Women in White, with their usual lack of comprehension of Communism, but I understand that they were thinking of themselves as “suffragettes” who nobody remembers and have nothing to do with white clothes as far as I can remember. I’m female, but definitely not a feminist, and find them embarrassing. They seemed to have lot of trouble figuring out when to stand and when to sit, when to smile and when to scowl. Speaker Pelosi seemed to have big chunk of lemon in her cheek which she bit down on in the more stressful moments. (The cheering, the shouts of USA, USA!)
Chuck Schumer said that Stacey Abrams was a wonderful speaker, so I was interested but completely unfamiliar with her. I guess nobody checked on what she was going to say. Yea Unions! Boo depriving the people of their votes? Huh? Nice family stories, but utterly ill-informed about what is happening in the United States, except for Democrat propaganda. Little children in cages and all that. Seems like a nice lady. She tried to make a big deal out of the government shutdown, which was an inconvenience, but ruined no one’s life. I’m afraid that she was chosen as the first African-American woman to give the response to a State of the Union speech. Democrats think like that. The actuality of what is said isn’t that important.
Really funny to listen to the media’s comments pre-speech. Senator Schumer’s anticipatory comments were an absolute disgrace. He should be ashamed. There is really no place for that. Schumer has been in Congress since 1981. The venom of the Left knows no bounds.
Filed under: Bureaucracy, Capitalism, Domestic Policy, Economy, Free Speech, Health Care, History, Immigration, Israel, Law, Taxes, The United States, Unemployment | Tags: Democrat Power, Leftist Delusions, President Donald Trump
This seems to be Tucker Carlson Day at American Elephants, (I have two others on Free Speech waiting in the shadows). Of course illegal immigration is about power. But how did they come to the conclusion that everything is about their power? They were thrilled with Obama as president, yet he did a miserable job. Real good talker though.
What shifted? Was it that when Donald Trump made his campaign promises they sneered, and thought thank goodness we’re electing Hillary? And then when he was elected, it was a horrible shock Then, he began to fulfill his campaign promises, cutting taxes. That is unacceptable for Democrats. They need lots of taxes, big taxes, so they have the funds to dole out benefits to convince the deplorables to vote for them.
Is all the venom and hate because Donald Trump has cut taxes and the economy is booming as a result? Donald Trump has nominated outstanding Judges to the Supreme Court and successfully gotten them installed after all the work Democrats did to fight the nomination? Is it because he got out of the useless Paris Climate Accords, and celebrates it? Is it because right in the middle of the Craziness of the Left every day, President Trump (You’ll notice that they never call him President Trump — it’s just Trump.) is inclined to brag a little about his accomplishments? I think I may be onto something here.
Filed under: Capitalism, Domestic Policy, Election 2016, Free Markets, Free Speech, Freedom, Israel, Media Bias, Politics, Progressives, Socialism, The United States | Tags: Democrat Talking Points, Jerusalem is the Capitol of Israel, Opening the American Embassy
Democrats operate on “talking points” which are supplied by their wordsmiths. They depend on controlling the conversation, and if many speak in the same words, their “talking point” dominates. The more it is repeated, the stronger it becomes. It is, of course, all about power and control. It’s simply pure propaganda, a weapon in their political goal.
Whoever sends out the “talking points” managed to screw up rather badly yesterday, attempting to turn Israel’s celebration of the U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as the legitimate capitol of their country by moving our embassy there into a negative. Trump was wrecking the “Peace Plan.” President Trump has sent Jared Kushner and Ivanka to Jerusalem as his representatives. Of course Hamas, the terrorist organization that controls Gaza, arranged a major demonstration, hoping to breach the wall and kill large numbers of Jews. Hamas pays residents of Gaza to demonstrate, and women and children are forced into the forward ranks, so that if the Israeli army resists the attack, Hamas will have the dead or wounded women and children as evidence of the evil of the Jewish people of Israel.
Odd that no one mentions all the Palestinian children treated in Israeli hospitals, or for that matter, both Mahmoud Abbas, the president of Palestine and his wife have been treated in Israeli hospitals.
Israel gave the Palestinians Gaza, which is a prime piece of real estate with lovely beaches, and could be a major tourist destination, but Hamas is only interested in eliminating the Jewish State. The Associated Press has willfully and deliberately reported false casualty figures in Gaza out of fear of Hamas”s retribution. And the New York Daily News, spotting an opportunity to attack Trump, really went way too far. It was disgusting, and very deliberate. They knew better.
Filed under: Bureaucracy, Capitalism, Crime, Democrat Corruption, Election 2016, Foreign Policy, History, Humor, Intelligence, Iran, Israel, Law, Media Bias, National Security, north Korea, Politics, Progressivism, Russia, Socialism, The United States | Tags: Classified Information, Developing?, Revealed or Not
This Mueller investigation has become the soap opera of the century. Some new twist every day. The inspector general’s report on the activities of the FBI is due out soon. It is said to be devastating to the most executive floor of the FBI. The House Intelligence Committee has subpoenaed the founding document of the entire investigation and the FBI is refusing to turn it over.
We flip over and back to questions of law and constitution and who can do what to whom. A special counsel’s investigation is supposed to start with a crime to be investigated, but this one just started with the hope that they would find a crime in the process. They indicted Paul Manafort for things unrelated to the Russia thing, but although investigating collusion with the Russians to influence the election was the supposed reason for the whole mess, Paul Manafort was supposed to have done something illegal about something entirely different, at a different time.
Andy McCarthy who is invaluable for explaining matters of law in this kind of thing, said “The president’s job is more critical to the nation than Robert Mueller’s investigation.” And added:
That does not mean Mueller’s investigation is insignificant; it is crucial that we fully uncover Russia’s interference in the 2016 election (the aim of the counterintelligence investigation Mueller was assigned to conduct) so that we can thwart the Kremlin in the future. But it does mean that Mueller’s desire for investigative secrecy and the ability to interview every witness who might have relevant evidence has to give way to other priorities.
President Trump apparently feels that he has done nothing whatsoever wrong, and would like to answer Mueller’s questions to get this thing over with, and his advisors tell him no, that it’s just a trap for the Democrats hope for impeachment. But yes, he could fire Mueller, but it would be bad politics, and so it goes. As I said, the soap opera of the century. We cannot ignore the whole thing, because there might be developments, but… on the other hand we can’t sit around waiting for something that will clarify the entire mess. Ive been around for quite a few administrations, but I have never seen anything like this.
While our attention is fixed on Mueller, North Korea has released their American citizen hostages to the Secretary of State, and the President and First Lady went out to welcome them home at 3:00 clock in the morning. The Iran Deal has been fortuitously dumped, John Kerry is running around trying to get the other partners to the “deal” to do something, but it was never a signed treaty anyway. The Paris Climate Deal has also been fortuitously dumped, and the Left is having vapors over that, but it would do nothing whatsoever for the climate except transfer a lot of advanced countries’ money to the poor countries, which was the idea in the first place. Stay tuned for tomorrow’s show which will undoubtedly have some development that won’t clarify anything.
Filed under: Bureaucracy, Foreign Policy, Iran, Islam, Israel, National Security, Syria, The United States, United Nations | Tags: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Secret Files From Iran, They Lied Extensively
Not a Monday like most Mondays. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced to the world that Iran and Iran’s Mullahs and Presidents and spokesmen have all been lying about nuclear weapons, and their supposed rejection of any interest in nuclear weapons or a nuclear weapons program, lying through their teeth. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unveiled to the international community a cache of 100,000 secret files he said were obtained from inside a hidden Iranian site that clearly demonstrate that Tehran maintained a secret nuclear weapons program despite continuing declarations to the contrary.
Netanyahu explained that Iran was, from the beginning, deceptive in their descriptions of their previous nuclear work. After signing the nuclear deal in 2015, Iran’s leaders repeatedly denied ever pursuing nuclear weapons, Netanyahu said. “Tonight I’m here to tell you one thing: Iran lied.”
After they signed the nuclear deal, they intensified the effort to hide their secret files. In 2017 Iran moved its nuclear weapons files to a highly secret location in Tehran. Netanyahu said the secret files prove the following:
Iran lied about never having a secret nuclear program. Second, even after the deal it continued to expand its nuclear program for future use. Third, Iran lied by not coming clean to the IAEA. Finally, the nuclear deal is based on lies based on Iranian deception.
The prime minister’s speech was based on 55,000 pages of documents and 183 CDs that were smuggled out of an “atomic archive” painstakingly preserving Iran’s secretive nuclear program so that the country would have the option of restarting the program after the nuclear deal ends or in the case of Tehran dumping the agreement. Israel’s ability to acquire the archive marks a massive coup for the Jewish state.
It contains “incriminating documents, incriminating charts, incriminating presentations, incriminating blueprints, incriminating photos, incriminating videos and more.” Israel has shared the material with the U.S. and “the United States can vouch for its authenticity.”
The Plan, called Project Amad, aimed to design, produce and test five warheads, each with a 10 kiloton TNT yield, for integration on a missile. “That is like five Hiroshima bombs to be put on ballistic missiles.”
Netanyahu called on President Donald Trump to do the right thing for the United States, the right thing for Israel, and the right thing for the peace of the world. The May 12 deadline to recertify the nuclear agreement approaches.
Deafening silence from the usual suspects: John Kerry, Ben Rhodes, Samantha Powers, and former president Barack Obama. Here’s a collection of Ben Rhodes’ Tweets on Iran that got absolutely everything wrong. But there’s no pleasure in proving that they were way too gullible. We tried to tell them so, but they wanted to believe.
Filed under: Bureaucracy, Democrat Corruption, Foreign Policy, History, Islam, Israel, Law, National Security, The United States, United Nations | Tags: Jerusalem is the Capitol of Israel, Moving Our Embassy, UN Illegal Vote
Nikki Haley, our UN Ambassador, is doing a marvelous job. The UN, by an utterly meaningless vote, said they mostly disapprove of the Americans saying we will move our embassy to Jerusalem. The UN doesn’t get to decide where we or anyone else will open our embassy. Then, the Israelis say that Jerusalem is their capitol city, so it is. We can say that we are moving our embassy in Canada to Calgary and that would just make it awkward to travel back and forth to the capitol of Canada all the time. However a lot of nations who are quite dependent on American aid and good feeling chose to vote to condemn our move, or abstain, and that doesn’t go over so well. Ambassador Haley is taking names.
The U.S. Congress voted to move the embassy to Jerusalem unanimously in 1995. But it never happened because—cold feet—about the Peace Process. But there is no peace process. The Palestinians have no interest in peace, they just want the nation of Israel to disappear, and all the Israelis to be thrown into the sea. There is some tenet in Islamic doctrine that says that any territory once controlled or invaded by Islam is forever Islamic, never mind if someone else is living there now. History doesn’t matter. So everybody is expecting a big Islamic arousal of some sort, and they are nervous about it. That goes for nations of Europe who due to their own idiocy have chosen to accept all sorts of Muslim ‘refugees’ or ‘migrants’. They are having enough trouble with their refugees already, they don’t need more because America is being difficult. Sweden is becoming anti-Semitic because they have so many violent Muslims, and France has problems with anti-Semitism as well.
Nikki Haley’s performance is so impressive that Republicans are suggesting that she would be a splendid presidential candidate. At which point Democrats erupt in outrage. Having the first woman president was their idea and they go on from there, insulting everyone as is their wont. Politics is just so complicated.
ADDENDUM: Nikki Haley is giving a reception for those who voted with the U.S. on this obnoxious resolution. Not dropping anyone’s foreign aid, nor any other drastic modes. But we do a lot of foreign aid, because it is mostly in our own interest as well. A lot of nations resent the fact that we are big and powerful and may I add—free— which does make a difference. It is a bit startling to read foreign newspapers and see how much of their news covers what is happening here, with all the fake news the leftist media can produce. They do get an odd idea of what is going on here.
Filed under: Bureaucracy, Democrat Corruption, Foreign Policy, History, Islam, Israel, National Security, Politics, Regulation, The United States | Tags: Israel, Moving the U.S. Embassy, What Peace Process?
The nation of Israel designated Jerusalem as its capitol city in 1950. When President Trump announced that the U.S. government recognizes Jerusalem as the capitol city of Israel and would begin preparations for moving our embassy there, the international community instantly had the vapors. And this is 2017. Roundly condemned as injurious to prospects for Israeli-Palestine peace and detrimental to America’s interests. The Middle East Forum reports:
Thus, the intense anger expressed by Palestinian and Arab leaders toward the proposed relocation isn’t rooted in concerns that Palestinian claims to disputed territory will be compromised. Indeed, it doesn’t appear to be rooted in any concerns of ordinary Palestinians. According to a recent poll, just 12% of Palestinians in the West Bank and 25% in Gaza consider the location of the U.S. embassy a “very important” issue.
As Marshall J. Breger, a professor of law at the Catholic University of America, explained in a 1994 Middle East Quarterly article, Muslim religious and cultural attachments to Jerusalem are not very deep. Contrary to mainstream media depictions of the city as the “third holiest” in Islam, Jerusalem is not mentioned by name in the Qur’an, was never visited by the Prophet Muhammad, and was never the capital of any Arab-Islamic polity.
Daniel Pipes concluded that “the Muslim interest is not so much in controlling Jerusalem as it is in denying control of the city to anyone else. Islam carries the expectation that a land once under Muslim control (Dar al-Islam) is an endowment (waqf) that must inevitably revert to Muslim rule.”
It’s fairly clear that there is no “Peace Process.” The Palestinians simply want the nation of Israel dead with all its inhabitants. Well, except when they need a medical operation for a stricken child, or someone needs some other skilled operation unavailable elsewhere. Palestinian leaders have launched an aggressive campaign to delegitimize Israel in the International world, culminating in a Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign in the west. The Obama administration’s turn against Israel gave a burst of approval for the delegitimation campaign. A good many in the West just do not want the Jews to have full control over the “eternal city.” The growing Muslim population in Europe reflects the growing dependence of left-wing parties on the Muslim vote.
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi made an unprecedented visit to Jerusalem last July, and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s foreign ministry officially recognized Israeli sovereignty over West Jerusalem in April. President Trump’s action is simply a recognition of the real world. Israel is a sovereign nation, and Jerusalem is its capitol. The image at the top is the American embassy in Tel Aviv.
Filed under: Bureaucracy, Education, Freedom, Heartwarming, History, Islam, Israel, National Security, Terrorism | Tags: A World of Propaganda, Being an Israeli Arab, Israel and Palesting
From The Jerusalem Post:
“Sometimes we are privileged to meet rare and inspiring people, people whose life experiences are so different from our own that hearing about them provides us with a new understanding of the human spirit, a new way to see things, and a new way to think. Yahya Mahamed is one such person. Tall, dark and slim, the first thing one notices about him is his smile.”
“I grew up in Umm el-Fahm, the third-largest Arab city in Israel. It’s a very problematic place. The Islamic Movement runs the municipality. This means they have power over everything: schools, services, who gets hired… and they are very anti-Israel. ISIS logos and swastikas are common,” he says.
“Violence is the norm in Umm el-Fahm,” he continues.
“Bullets are shot into the air, and several people have been hit by them. The police aren’t where they need to be. If they were, it would greatly improve quality of life and safety for the city.” It would also help dispel the accepted view that the job of the police is to oppress the residents, he adds.Mahamed was raised to perceive Israel as an oppressive, evil regime. “I remember being a child and watching television with my mother. The only thing on was Palestine, Israel oppressing Palestine, Israelis killing Arabs, Arabs killing Israelis. Nothing else. My whole world was the conflict; in school, on TV, in the community. I was an Arab and therefore a
Mahamed’s story is a fascinating glimpse into the world of the Middle East. He identifies as a proud Israeli Arab. He was given the illusion that one could have either Israel or Palestine but not both. He was taught that Israel only existed because it took land from the Palestinians. That he was given no education, only propaganda. He was taught in school that Hitler did a good thing and left a small group of Jews alive so that the world would know why he killed the rest. In the Israeli town where he grew up, there is no one to give an alternative viewpoint.
Do read his whole story. He is only correcting what even Israeli Arabs are taught—with the facts. And he takes his story around the world with him in spite of the death threats and danger. He remains in his Arab-Israeli town, but he removes the ISIS graffiti and the swastikas because they normalize terror and hate.”We need to take away the hate” he says. An inspiring young man.
Learning what we don’t know is important.
Filed under: Bureaucracy, Foreign Policy, Free Markets, Freedom, History, Iran, Iraq, Islam, Israel, National Security, Syria, Terrorism, The United States, United Nations | Tags: A New Sheriff in Town, The United Nations, UN Ambassador Nikki Haley
Dan Senor, interviews the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley at the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) policy conference. The former governor of South Carolina has only been in her new job for two months, but she is making a real difference. This is a very impressive lady. Do watch. Another remarkable appointment by President Donald Trump.
American Elephants 