Friday, October 29, 2021

If Taiwanese Won't Row Should We Oar? At Some Point Beating Up On Trump Will Not Win Elections. As Keane Warned. Sick Ilhan. Opening The Spigots.


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Reports indicate Taiwanese are indifferent when it comes to serving in the military, spend less of their GDP on preparedness than they should in view of the threat from China and many do not believe there is a threat.  That said, as strategically and psychologically critical as Taiwan is, if they are unwilling to do what is best for themselves why should we continue to spill American blood and expend billions on nations that are unwilling to put their own oar in the water.

Furthermore, will corporate America's controlled mass media beat the drums for war in order to make money off reporting more death and tragedy ?

US Troops Active in Taiwan
China Threat US Military 


Spc. Angela Warden of the 1st Battalion, 143rd Infantry Regiment (Airborne), provides security on the airfield after unloading from a C-17 “Globemaster” during a training mission at North Texas Regional Airport in Grayson County. The Austin-based Soldiers conducted the Assault Landing training at the civilian airport near the city of Sherman on March 28th, 2015. (36th Infantry Division photo by SSG Mark Scovell)

Taipei, Taiwan (CNN) – The leader of Taiwan, the island thrust into the center of rising tensions between the United States and China, said the threat from Beijing is growing “every day,” as for the first time she confirmed the presence of American troops on Taiwanese soil.

Speaking with CNN in an exclusive interview Tuesday, President Tsai Ing-wen said Taiwan, which is located fewer than 200 kilometers (124 miles) away from China’s southeastern coast, was a “beacon” of democracy that needed to be defended to uphold faith worldwide in democratic values.

“Here is this island of 23 million people trying hard every day to protect ourselves and protect our democracy and making sure that our people have the kind of freedom they deserve,” she said.


“If we fail, then that means people that believe in these values would doubt whether these are values that they (should) be fighting for.”

Read more at CNN
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Will Democrats continue their strategy of beating up on Trump as the way to wining elections? 

This might work in ultra liberal states, where voters are brainless, but it is hardly an effective strategy that has legs across most of America.

The Only Thing Biden Has Left Is Trump

David Harsanyi

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Cheaper if Biden gives them one of Hunter's paintings:

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/victoria-taft/2021/10/28/report-joe-bidens-insane-plan-to-pay-1-billion-to-illegal-aliens-separated-by-trumps-border-policy-n1527814

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Just as Gen. Keane said:


Iran's bellicose message to US, Israel


The ball is now in the Washington's court. Failure to respond militarily to the attack on the US military base in Tanf will be interpreted as weakness and will invite further Iranian attacks.


Iran's Oct. 20 attack on the United States' military base in Tanf, Syria, succeeded in surprising both Washington and Jerusalem. There were no casualties, but the damage was apparently heavy.


Tanf base houses about 400 US troops and civilians as well as Syrian opposition forces. It is located in Syrian territory on the border triangle with Jordan and Iraq. The Pentagon confirmed the strike and said that the US reserves the right to respond at the time of its choice.


According to Syrian officials, this is the first time that this base, established to fight Islamic State, has been attacked by Iran or its proxies. The barrage was carried by pro-Iranian militias in the region, using five drones. The attack was highly coordinated, with three of the drones having been launched from Syria while the remaining two came from Iraq.


According to various assessments in the US and Israel, the attack was an Iranian response to two raids last week on Iranian targets in Syria attributed to Israel. Israeli security officials estimate that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force under Brig. Gen. Esmail Ghaani is responsible for the attack.


The Iranian strike is an "escalation," and the question is whether the Biden administration will contain the new development or signal its refusal to change the rules of the game that have been practiced so far.


Iran appears to be changing its strategy with regard to Israeli attacks on Iranian targets in Syria. The Iranians claim that the Israeli Air Force is using the Tanf base and that Israeli drones are occasionally launched at Iranian targets in Syria and Iraq. Iran, Syria and Russia oppose the presence of the Americans on Syrian territory, and the attack was intended to send messages to Israel and the US and to expedite the American military withdrawal from Syria.


What messages does Iran want to convey?


Firstly, it will no longer remain silent about Israeli airstrikes in Syria, and if the US does not stop them, its base in Tanf will become the target of Iranian attacks.


Secondly, with the Pro-Iranian militias in Syria and Iraq having the operational capability to attack with drones, the US will have difficulty to deal with such weapons, especially considering the apparent lack of US air defense systems in the region.


Finally, the message to Israel is that the bombardment of the Tanf base is only a prelude.


The Iranian action against the Tanf base comes as Russia and Turkey continue political efforts to bring about a full US withdrawal from Syria. Turkey claims that the US military in Syria protects the Kurds, while Syria claims that the US military presence is an "occupation."


In a recent television interview, Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal al-Mekdad said that the US military presence in Syria was "an act of occupation." Because, he continued, "all free countries support the war against the occupation, we have many ways to convince the US to withdraw from our country."


The ball is now in the US court: failure to respond militarily to the rocket and drone salvo against the Tanf base will be interpreted as weakness and will invite further Iranian attacks because Israel does not intend to stop airstrikes against Iranian military targets in Syria.


Following the attack on the Tanf base, Washington must carefully consider the policies it has adopted recently, which have eased the economic sanctions imposed on Syria.


Yoni Ben Menachem, a veteran Arab affairs and diplomatic commentator for Israel Radio and Television, is a senior Middle East analyst for the Jerusalem Center. He served as director general and chief editor of the Israel Broadcasting Authority.


Featured on JNS.org, this article was first published by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.

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Israeli officials believe Iran misleading world, wants to use talks to buy time


Israeli conventional wisdom is that the recent Iranian readiness to commence another round of talks is designed to cement gains in nuclear program so that deal would be reached at time and state of Iran's choice.

Despite Iran's repeated assertions that it is ready to start another round of talks aimed at restoring the 2015 nuclear deal, Israel Hayom has learned that the assessment in Jerusalem is that this is nothing more than an Iranian tactic aimed at buying time.


After analyzing Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani's statement on Wednesday – in which he said Iran and the EU have agreed to resume talks by the end of November – the conventional wisdom within the Israeli national security and diplomatic circles is that Iran does not truly want to reach a deal [now] with the US and the other world powers that would contain its nuclear program. Instead, it would use the talks to maintain its rapid pace of uranium enrichment and other gains in its nuclear program.


The US envoy on Iran Robert Malley has recently said the talks are in a "critical phase" because "the window for negotiations on a return to the JCPOA will not be open forever," due of the technological advancement in Iran's nuclear program since it began breaching it. "You can't revive a dead corpse," he said, stressing that the United States had not reached that point yet. But Malley also said that the US "will continue to pursue diplomacy, even as we pursue other steps if we face a world in which we need to do that."


The Israeli assessment is that Iran would seek to continue breaching the deal as the talks continue in the coming months, unlike the optimistic view in the US that a deal could be struck rather quickly not long after another round commences. "The Iranians will ultimately reach a deal with the US and the world powers but only at a time and state that is convenient for them," an Israeli official told Israel Hayom, adding that Iran would most likely try to deceive international inspectors even after a deal is concluded.

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Hypocrisy, though name is Ilhan.  You gotta be a radical or plain dumb to vote her back in unless you don't care about what government we have.:



Ilhan Omar Blames Minneapolis Crime Spike on ‘Dysfunctional’ Police



JACOB BLISS Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), the Defund the Police sympathizer from the so-called “squad,” said during a recent town hall that the Minnesota crime surge is due to the “dysfunctional police department” that has “chosen to not fulfill their oath of office.”


“What we must also recognize is that the reduction in policing currently in our city and the lawlessness that is happening is due to two things,” the Democrat congresswoman said when she was caught on camera during a town hall on Saturday. “One, the police have chosen to not fulfill their oath of office and to provide the public safety they are owed to the citizens they serve.”


According to the Uniform Crime Report, violent crime in the city increased 17 percent in roughly the past year. Minneapolis Police Department has seen problems in their community since former officer Derek Chauvin killed George Floyd in May of last year.


In addition, the National Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) announced earlier in the year that overall, in 2020, “60 law enforcement officers were shot in 48 separate ambushes, and 12 died as a result of being ambushed.”


“The Minneapolis Police Department is the most dysfunctional police department in our state and probably in our country,” Omar added during her rant about the police department.


“And I do believe that the current charter that we have does tie the hands of those who want want to have that accountability,” Omar continued. “We are mandated to have a specific amount of policing. We are mandated to have this kind of union contract that you have right now.”


Despite blaming the “dysfunctional police department,” the Minnesota congresswoman last year also called the Minneapolis Police Department “rotten to the root, in addition to saying that “defund the police” is “not a slogan but a policy demand.”


Her latest third-quarter FEC reports showed that the congresswoman spent more than $22,000 on private security from two firms: Aegis Logistics LLC and Lloyd Security Services. This means that her campaign pays for her private security. So, her donors are supporting private security while she calls for police to be defunded.

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Don't ever say or believe it cannot happen.

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When Democrats, liberals and progressives are not spending/wasting money on unproven science claims and other sensational demands they are an unhappy and miserable lot.  They truly believe they must find fault with everything and their reason for living is to save the world.

Obama sought to transform America, not because he had solutions that made sense, simply  because he believed America needed to improve so he set about making most everything worse.  

Biden has proven he does not know what he is doing, if judged by the consequences of his stupidity, but he remains undeterred and keeps on trying that the battery bunny.

Biden voters and his mass media mavens have so much emotional energy invested in Biden they dare not admit it their poor judgement. Consequently, trillions of no cost dollars are up for for grabs in order to paper over their stupidity.

Even the Dutch were smart enough to dam the rising tide. Americans just keep opening the public spigots and one can only ask when and where will this nonsense end?
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The Left’s Climate Humiliation
They were expecting mandates, but they’ll have to settle for more corporate welfare.
 
By Kimberley A. Strassel
  

President Biden promised progressives that his budget bill would finally deliver them their long-sought climate stick. What they’re getting instead is the same old carrot: corporate welfare.

Mr. Biden’s newest framework promises $555 billion to combat climate change. A White House fact sheet boasts this is the “largest single investment” in U.S. history, and the Beltway press is dutifully propagating that message. Outlets assured that this “massive” new spending on green-energy subsidies would give the president credibility as he arrives at next week’s climate summit in Glasgow.

In fact, the climate deal is a humiliating loss for both the president and congressional progressives—as further-left media organizations acknowledged over the past week. “The Centerpiece of Biden’s Climate Agenda Is All But Dead,” Mother Jones railed. “Progressive lawmakers seem resigned to losing their clean energy program,” Jacobin complained. “Biden’s Incredible Shrinking Climate Plan,” the New Republic groused. Several activists from the Sunrise Movement, an originator of the Green New Deal, are staging a hunger strike outside the White House.

Climate warriors have insisted for decades that the subsidies the U.S. uses to coax companies toward green energy, and consumers toward energy-efficient products, aren’t enough. The only way to reduce U.S. carbon emissions sufficiently, they say, is via a federal enforcement mechanism—a program that imposes mandates or pricing policies that require carbon cuts.

They’ve labored for decades to get one. Sens. John McCain and Joe Lieberman introduced “cap and trade” climate legislation in 2003. A similar bill passed the House in 2009 (and helped Nancy Pelosi lose her majority the following year). Democrats have since then introduced all manner of climate legislation, with provisions ranging from clean-energy standards to carbon pricing and taxes. It all went nowhere, as Republicans and centrist Democrats alike understood their potential to jack up prices, undermine the reliability of the electricity supply, and destroy U.S. jobs and energy competitiveness.

The Biden presidency was supposed to be the climate crowd’s opportunity. The original climate portion of the reconciliation package was built around the Clean Electricity Performance Program, which would require utilities to buy or generate a certain additional amount of renewable energy every year. Companies would get federal payments if they hit the mark and face steep fines if they didn’t. Natural gas wouldn’t count as “clean.” Democratic leaders explained again and again this enforcement mechanism was necessary, the primary way Mr. Biden would achieve his promise of reducing U.S. carbon emissions 50% by 2030.

Some Democrats—including Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and several Texas representatives—said no to CEPP, and they meant it. Activists tried cajoling them with promises to make the program friendlier to coal-and gas-producing states, but they failed. Progressives then suggested a carbon tax. No dice. They turned to other enforcement replacements, including a border-adjustment tax (a fee on carbon-intensive imports), a methane fee, and a tax on industrial pollution. The White House briefing sheet on this week’s framework made no mention of these changes.

What it does include is a boatload of pork for corporate America. In an effort to claim climate victory, the White House ramped up its top-line number for climate tax credits and subsidies. The bill is now an even bigger pig trough for any business, big or small, that claims even tenuous involvement in producing solar or wind power or electric vehicles. The White House brags that money will even go to companies that aren’t in the renewable sector, via “grants, loans, tax credits and procurement” for “existing industries like steel, cement and aluminum” to help them with “decarbonization.” Progressives want to tax billionaires like Elon Musk. This bill would make them richer.

The White House claims that its souped-up subsidies will largely make up for the loss of enforcement mechanisms. They won’t, though they stand to do real damage to energy reliability and the economy. It also promises progressives a raft of executive actions and agency regulations that will force companies into carbon compliance. At least some congressional Democrats are playing along, proclaiming the framework a climate victory.

But behind closed doors they are unconvinced—and steaming. They know the huge risks of attempting to impose any enforcement mechanisms by executive fiat. President Obama tried the same thing with his Clean Power Plan, only to get blocked by the Supreme Court. Thanks to Donald Trump’s judicial makeover, appellate courts will look skeptically on White House attempts to pre-empt Congress.

All this explains why progressives like Sen. Bernie Sanders aren’t yet signing on to the framework. The question is whether climate will prove a deal breaker. Progressives have said repeatedly they’d never agree to a bill that didn’t give them their climate demands, and they got rolled. We’ll now see if they meant it.
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