Month: September 2015
A Next Generation Captain For A Trek Classic Kind Of World
Obama vs. Putin:
An out-of-his-depth desk jockey from Star Fleet parleys with Klingons (while Kirk convalesces in Sick Bay).
CLICK-CLICK-CLICK-CLICK-CLICK-CLICK-CLICK-CLICK-CLICK-CLICK-CLICK-CLICK-CLICK-CLICK-CLICK-CLICK-CLICK-CLICK
— Barack Obama desperately hitting Reset Button
The 1930s called. They want their foreign policy back.
Overheard at the Pentagon: "Right now, we are Putin's prison bitch."
— Nancy Youssef, نانسى (@nancyayoussef) September 30, 2015
China Post: “What Taiwan’s Government Really Needs Is Less Transparency”
Taiwan’s China Post argues that the only point of democracy is to give people the illusion of having control over their own lives.
(Did 500,000 Taiwanese students protest in favor of MORE or LESS governmental transparency last year? Follow the link to find out!)
UPDATE (Oct 1 / 2015): What’s truly ironic is that the China Post continues to push a policy which is responsible for the KMT’s current abysmal showing in the polls.
It’s as if they’ve learned absolutely nothing this past year-and-a-half.
UPDATE (Oct 16 / 2015): The China Post bases its call for less governmental transparency upon Obama’s Iran deal, which it characterizes as “much-praised” and “presentable”.
If by “much-praised” the China Post means that 47% of the American public favor it while 49% disapprove, then yes, it is “much-praised”.
(But then, given those polling numbers, it would be more accurate to describe it as being “much-condemned”.)
And of course, 69% of Israelis condemn it as well…
ייִדיש משלי With a fairy tale and with a lie you can lull only children to sleep. #Jewish #Quotes #Yiddish #Proverbs
— Yiddish Proverbs (@YiddishProverbs) October 1, 2015
UPDATE #3: Whoops! Barack Obama’s Iran deal violates U.S. federal laws.
So sorry. Didn’t you know laws are only for the little people?
UPDATE #4: Shazam! Iran tests ballistic missile in violation of UN sanctions.
Nice work, chump.
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Looks Like I Don’t Have To Praise The Devil After All
@20committee Our new partner against ISIS. Wait, what… https://t.co/hF8ipw94rg
— gandalf greybeard (@gerrydogma) September 30, 2015
#Russia seems to have bombed Ltamenah, Zaafrana and Talbeseh, all of which are held by groups not affiliated to #ISIS …
— Michael Horowitz (@michaelh992) September 30, 2015
@20committee ISIS who? First wave of targets included HQ's of western backed FSA https://t.co/DnKtGHg1I7
— gandalf greybeard (@gerrydogma) September 30, 2015
BREAKING: #Russian airstrikes targeted #FSA HQs in #Hama suburb, FSA tells Al Arabiya News Channel http://t.co/xv2vZEUZ1z
— Al Arabiya English (@AlArabiya_Eng) September 30, 2015
Of course they did. You didn't actually think Putin has any intention of fighting #ISIS, did you? https://t.co/7J0t614ip4
— John Schindler (@20committee) September 30, 2015
Russia reportedly hit a CIA-vetted Syrian rebel group that was receiving US anti-tank missiles. https://t.co/p7vKfsr99Z
— DavidKenner (@DavidKenner) September 30, 2015
Let's help Russia bomb the rebels we spend $500 million to train, and call it a win https://t.co/c9DxYrcOxV
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) September 30, 2015
The U.S. is considering cooperating with Russia in Syria http://t.co/AoAYtxKDbK | Getty pic.twitter.com/SdNEFBlUg4
— POLITICO (@politico) September 30, 2015
UPDATE: Russia's war for Assad.
But Russia went straight for Free Syrian Army (FSA)-branded, American-supported, nationalist rebels. One explanation is that…Putin intends to humiliate the United States and leave no room for doubt that this is a Russian victory at America’s expense.
That Is Why You Fail, Part San
[Hung Hsiu-chu] said on a political talk show on Monday night that if she loses by a landslide in the Jan. 16 election “it would not look good for [KMT Chairman] Eric Chu (朱立倫) either.” [emphasis added]
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As Good An Explanation As Any For The KMT’s Nomination Of Hung Hsiu-chu
The American Interest on why Jeremy Corbyn took the top spot of the British Labor Party. But this sounds like a good working theory for why Hung Hsiu-chu is the Kuomingtang's presidential pick in Taiwan as well:
“If you are doomed to lose whatever you do, you might as well let your freak flag fly.”
Sure, nominating kooks politicians of dubious electability might feel good if they promote views hardcore elements of the party strongly adhere to. But as I see it, the problem with "letting your freak flag fly" is two-fold:
First, nominating radicals poses the danger of splitting a political party — something we're already hearing murmurs of in both Britain and Taiwan.
And second, in doing so, a political party sends the electorate the message that the party in question is fundamentally unserious and not to be trusted near the levers of power.
Not being either a British Laborite or a Chinese Ultranationalist, I'm entirely comfortable with both of those consequences.
POSTSCRIPT: The Taipei Times, suggesting that Hung's goal isn't to win the presidency at all, but merely to change the terms of the debate within the KMT. (That is to say, she wishes to marginalize the KMT's "Taiwanese" faction, and strengthen the party's Chinese unification faction.)
“I want to make changes to the party I belong to,” Hung said with tears in her eyes on Saturday.
[…]
…there is no room (and no need) for Hung to step back, especially if her goal is to foil the growth of the local factions within the party, which could lead the KMT away from its “core [unificationist] values.” She has little to lose, too, except a KMT founded on expedient coalitions, and she is obviously willing to trade a big KMT for a smaller one with stronger faith. [Emphasis added]
How America’s Response To Nork, Russian And CHINESE Aggression Prevented World War III
Will The KMT Tap Comrade Historian Joe Hung To Revise Taiwanese Textbooks?
Joe Hung, the veteran China Post columnist goes full Maoist in his latest. He used to try to dance around it a bit more, but he's not gettin' any younger, and #YOLO:
"Then, Mao sent his Army to resist U.S. aggression and aid Korea to fight the Americans in the Korean War…" [Emphasis added]
If it's a Joe Hung column, one expects bizarre Sinofascist Big Lies, and Hung fails to disappoint:
"…rising China…may turn out to be the true caretaker of the United States to keep world peace." [Emphasis added]
Yeah sure, Comrade Historian. That could happen.
But only if Beijing can exercise enough self-control to abandon its belligerent threats against its neighbors and drop its illegitimate territorial claims against Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia and India.
Oh, and resist the temptation to manufacture any NEW territorial claims…
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What We Have Here Is A Failure To Communicate
‘Fancy some role play?’ she said, in her nurse’s uniform. ‘OK’ he said. ‘You see a three-headed dragon. Do you run or use your magic sword?’
— 50 Nerds of Grey (@50NerdsofGrey) September 24, 2015