Headlines

All from Internet news sites. Guess which from Politico?

[Hawaii] Judge blocks Trump's latest travel ban order

Report: FBI sat on evidence tying Clintons to Russian bribery scheme

2,800 Huma gov't docs found on Weiner's laptop ...

Study: More immigrants in 2016 than ever before in American history

[Sens.] Alexander, Murray strike bipartisan Obamacare deal

Bob Weinstein has now been accused of sexual harassment

Alabama shock poll: Roy Moore tied with Dem ...

Trump tells McCain: 'At some point, I fight back'

Trump official halts abortions among undocumented pregnant teens

Kaepernick blames Trump for his unemployment

Anti-immigrant billionaire politician rises in Czech Republic ..?

[Jane] Fonda: 'I don't regret going to Vietnam' -- 'I'm proud'

Headlines

The following headlines are real. They all have been found Internet news sites. Guess which ones came from Politico?

Trump to tap Christopher Wray to head FBI

58 scientific papers declare 'global warming' a myth

China prepares for moon landing ...

Report: James Comey asked Jeff Sessions to not leave him alone with Donald Trump

SKorea suspends deployment of U.S. anti missile system ...

Czech Republic denies EU quota, refuses migrants

Ex-Intel chief Clapper: Watergate 'pales' in comparison to Russian probe

TV client sues celebrity attorney Gloria Allred for fraud, legal malpractice ...

Democrats take the first steps toward a Trump impeachment

ISIS claims dual attacks on Iran shrine and Parliament ...

Ethics office won't probe Trump's domestic emoluments issue

Evergreen State officials ask vigilantes to stop patrolling campus with baseball bats

Letter of the Law

Forty-seven Republican Senators sent a letter to the Ayatollah in Iran last week that undermines President Obama's negotiating position vis-a-vis the current nuclear talks ... only insofar as it pointed out the obvious Constitutional issue. And that is ... if the Obama administration strikes an executive deal with Iran to try to rein them in relative to acquiring atomic weaponry, that this deal does not have the binding status of a treaty unless 2/3rds of the United States Senate ratifies it.

And clearly, if this is a bad deal, then there is no chance that the Senate would so vote. This is the law of the land ... and a hard fact that the executive branch of the U.S. government seems to be ignoring in its infatuated dealings with the criminal regime in Tehran ... dealings so starry-eyed and desperate that a bad deal seems highly likely.

This letter unleashed a Democrat and fellow-traveler firestorm ... accusing these letter-signers of treason and sedition. The unfortunate part of this dust-up between the Democrats and Republicans is that, if these negotiations come up empty, then most of the media will once again blame the Republicans ... rather the naïveté of our Secretary of State John Kerry and the fecklessness of the current administration. Apart from this, my major issue with this letter is that not all 100 Senators endorsed it ... even after the fact. That would have been a noble and defining moment ... finally pointing out to Emperor Obama that we have a government of checks and balances.

And there is a parallel incident of an Obama executive nullification that all of these media talking heads (with their hair on fire) seem to have forgotten. That was when our fearless leader went back on the agreement that George W. Bush had struck with Poland and the Czech Republic to place anti-missile shields on their lands ... shields that would have helped to protect Europe and the United States against Russian and Iranian ICBM's. Alas, what short and convenient memories our lefty media always seems to have.

War Drums

One must pause to consider seriously what might transpire if Russia decides to go beyond even the Ukraine and invade a member of NATO … such as the Czech Republic, Poland, or perhaps Estonia.  The United States and the rest of the European NATO members (see: NATO Membership) are obliged by Article 5 of the NATO Alliance Treaty to respond in kind … see: NATO Article 5.  The question is would they or we? 

The combined standing European troops of the NATO countries number some five million … and including the United States, over six million.  This would be pitted against a well-trained, well equipped and brutal Russian Army of some 1.5 million.  Of course there is a major difference … these European NATO troops are composed of numerous social and gender experiments ill-equipped and ill-trained to shed blood for any cause let alone a serious tangle with the Russian bear … particularly if such a tussle is over a former SSR.

We have seen the reluctance of even the Ukrainian troops to respond to the recent Russian belligerency in the Crimea. Therefore I am just a bit dubious as to how these same Ukrainian troops might react to a full-scale Russian invasion of Western Ukraine.  And this zeitgeist may well be duplicated in other Eastern European countries which in fact are NATO members ... but which are not that far removed in time from the subservience they were forced to experience under the Soviet Union’s domination.  I hope I am wrong if such a situation transpires, but somehow I would not stake a lot of credence in the stalwartiness of such forces opposing such a Russian invasion.

Of course, I also do not have a lot of faith that President Barack “Another Red Line” Obama would also not go wobbly in such a situation. Let us not forget that, during the height of the Cold War, America’s major deterrent was atomic weaponry which we forswore to use to counteract a much more massive Soviet army if they were to invade Western Europe.  I am reasonably certain that this “mutually assured destruction” option is no longer an arrow in Obama’s quiver. If it were, I think he might have brought it up by now.

The consequences of a Russian invasion of one or more NATO members which were former SSRs and an inconsequential NATO response would not only begin to reassemble the Soviet Union …  it would also effectively kill NATO. This would be a disastrous legacy for Obama … not that I think he would take such a failing too much to heart.

This then is a dangerous game of chicken that Russian President Putin seems to be contemplating. But, if he is using his Barack Obama/Hillary Clinton/John Kerry interactions over the last five years as his measure of the resoluteness of the United States, I am afraid we may be in for some very bad times.

The Russian Connection

This blog has considerable readership in Russia … which has always puzzled me since my politics are mostly antithetical to the brand currently being practiced there.  Perhaps the KGB (its secret police whose famous graduate, Vladimir Putin, is currently attempting to restore the Bear to a much larger den) believes that my opinions are somehow representative of America.  Shh, don’t tell them how askew my political thinking is.

Nevertheless, Russia is in the process of taking back the Crimean peninsula and the warm-water Black Sea port of Sevastopol, … which Nikita Khrushchev so thoughtlessly gave to the Ukraine way back in 1954. This might cost Russia more on the world stage than it expects. Even our fearless leader, Obama, might throw a snit on his 19^th hole. This aggression is occurring despite the fact that both the United States and Russia had guaranteed the integrity of the Ukrainian borders (including the Crimea) back in both 1994 and 2009.  Oops!

So far the United State’s response has been subdued and rather wandering. As a result, talking heads and Op-Ed pundits are climbing over each other offering our “leadership” much and varied advice. Here are a few ossified opinions on this whole brouhaha (not that my opinions aren’t.)

Henry Kissinger believes that the Ukraine is not worth any hostilities and must become a “bridge” between Russia and the West  (I think kind of like Switzerland’s status during WW II) … for his specific recommendations see: Washington Post Op Ed.

Zbigniew Brzezinski (President Carter’s chief appeaser … err, adviser) thinks Russia may be trying to duplicate Hitler’s seizure of the Sudetenland before WW II.  He, surprisingly suggests that the West should risk hostilities and bolster the Ukrainian military with armaments ... but also simultaneously seek rapprochement with Russia over the Ukraine's future … see his suggestions here: Another Washington Post Op Ed

But the opinions that I respect the most swirl around that Diplomad blogster, W. Lewis Amselem, and those that comment on his writings … see: The Diplomad Blog

A few comments in this link that I particularly like are:

Putin of course knows what realpolitik is and uses it to advantage, act first, allow limited diplomatic discussion after. He has also perceived that a country that will not secure its own borders is unlikely to assist others to secure theirs (think UK, Germany, USA, the entire EU) -- "Cascadian" commenter 

"Despite his upbringing as a Communist, he is now devoutly religious and wants to see religion restored to Russian life. As the jihadis have discovered, they have in Putin a rival as ruthless and religiously committed as they, and not bound by the conventions of political correctness." I believe you [the Diplomad] have put your finger on Putin's next international gambit once the dust from the Crimea mess has settled. I've been wondering lately who, if any, is going to stand up for the persecuted Christians of the Middle East and Africa. It certainly won't be the pro-Islam Obama or the post-Christian leaders of Europe. I believe it will be Vladimir Putin. He will speak out on behalf of the persecuted Copts and Nigerians. He may even begin sending them aid and weapons. And Christians around the world will flock to his banner, bringing the idea of Moscow as the "Third Rome" to fruition. -- “Anonymous” commenter

My own simple suggestion would be for the United States to immediately reverse itself and place its anti-ballistic missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic ... to which we had previously committed (and Obama had reneged on).  This way Putin will quickly see a real cost to his colonial expansionism.

Star Wars

Ronald Reagan first proposed the anti-ballistic-missile Strategic Defense Initiative in 1983 … to which the liberal media promptly applied the mocking  pejorative “Star Wars” … and have ridiculed its tortoise-like progress ever since.  In 2009, President Obama, true to the Democrat tradition, abrogated existing agreements that we had with Poland and the Czech Republic to install these weapon shields on their soil (see: Swinging Gates) … much to these countries' annoyance and chagrin.  And he has just recently rubbed salt in these wounds by canceling what was to be the fourth phase of such installations … see: NY Times Story. (Remember Obama’s 2012 whispered aside to Russia's then-President Medvedev that he would have more disarmament flexibility after the next election. … see: Wink Wink Nudge Nudge).

Ah but here’s the rub … North Korea is now nuclear-saber rattling and the U.S.'s liberal West Coast is nervous.  So this Administration has decided that such a defense against nuclear-tipped ICBMs suddenly is a priority.  This is as a result of North Korea's Kim Jong-un threatening to press the nuclear-war button (Dennis Rodman notwithstanding).  So these defense weapons once destined for Eastern Europe will now be sited in Alaska.  One small problem … such a shield will not be operational until at least 2017 … see: US News/NBC News Story … hopefully not to late to matter.

Funny how oxen often get gored at the most inconvenient times.

Wink, Wink, Nudge, Nudge

The Monty Pyton players had a classic routine called "Wink, wink, nudge, nudge (enough said?)" in which Eric Idle confronts Terry Gilliam about his conjugal relations with his wife (for a good checkle, please view this video: Flying Circus Bit).  Although President Obama wasn't referring to sex, he was having a wink-wink-nudge-nudge moment with Russia's President Medvedev in South Korea recently when he, on an open mic, suggested that, after this fall's election, he would have much greater latitude in dismantling the U.S.'s missile defense system.  The Barry has already canceled the installation of this system in Poland and the Czech Republic (see: Maxi-Shield) and clearly has an animosity toward Ronald Reagan's missile defense shield in general.

Here is the actual open-microphone exchange:

President Obama: "On all these issues, but particularly missile defense, this, this can be solved but it’s important for him to give me space."

President Medvedev: "Yeah, I understand. I understand your message about space. Space for you…"

President Obama: "This is my last election. After my election I have more flexibility."

President Medvedev: "I understand. I will transmit this information to Vladimir [Putin], and I stand with you."

(Thanks to The Weekly Standard for these quotes.)

One could now draw a parallel between Terry Gilliam's relations with his fictional wife and Barack Obama's congress with the American public.

O-bomb-a

- Unemployment at 10.2%
- 2009 deficit at $1.88 trillion
- $820+ billion of stimulus down a rat hole
- Dithering on Afghanistan military policy
- Profligate government spending
- Ultra-liberal White House inner circle (czars)
- Increasing domestic terrorism
- Multitude of proposed higher taxes
- Deteriorating Iraqi situation
- Russia/Iran nuclear kiss-up ... producing nada
- Guantanamo terrorist prisoner fiasco
- Independent uncovering of ACORN's festering corruption
- Inept response to vast Midwest flooding and power outages
- Trillions of dollars of pork to financial institutions
- Screwing Poland and the Czech Republic on missile defense
- World speaking tours to poor-mouth the U.S.
- Tepid support of Iranian election protesters
- Attempted government takeover of healthcare
- Nationalization of 2/3rds of the U.S. auto industry
- Total lack of promised administrative transparency
- Amateurish delays in delivering H1/N1 flu vaccine
- Support of a constitutionally-deposed Honduran despot
- White House usurping control of the 2010 census
- Attacks on the non-liberal media (Fox News, Rush Limbaugh)
- Cambridge police "acted stupidly" comment

All in just ten months. Did I miss any?