A Trip To Bhutan. Europe Beginning To Change Behaviour Towards Terrorists. Can Rabid "Despicable" Democrats Reverse Course And Become Mensches?.

I have been given permission to post this travelogue written by a dear friend and fellow memo reader.  She is a superb writer and she and her husband take off beat vacations so I believe you will find this fascinating. (See 1 below.)

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Europe finally fed up with radical Muslim Terrorists. About time. (See 2 below)

Radicalized women in America are going to wind up losing any degree of empathy if they continue expressing/fomenting their misguided rancor.

It is one thing to be heard another to be believed. Facts must support the accusation. This is still America.

Many radical protesters are being funded by the likes of Soros. (See 3 below)

America is gripped in rage and our adversaries have to be delighted. The Democrat Party is doing yeoman work on behalf of those who want to destroy our nation. It will eventually boomerang but will also result in permanent damage.

Now that Justice Kavanaugh has selected 4 women as law clerks. I am waiting for some nut case Democrat to attack him for that.

I firmly believe Kavanaugh will make a fine Justice, will stay true to the written word and intent of the Framers and will not wander off finding language and concepts not in the Constitution.  In time the "despicables," who trashed him and his family, will look like the pitiful mental partisan midgets they chose to be and most fair minded Americans will vote accordingly in the upcoming election.

There is much wrong with mankind and America has some mending to do as well but there is no nation on the face of the earth that has done more to make the world a better, safer place than America. There is no nation that has been more charitable and has changed its laws and attitudes than America.  We are a great nation and it would be nice for Democrats to rise above their hate and join their counterparts in helping Trump accomplish his agenda where such is prospectively positive and resist where their disagreements are based on rational philosophical disagreements and not  obstructionism and political pettiness.

I do not believe they are wise, capable or "mensch" enough to rise to the challenge because they are driven by an unquenchable thirst for power. They overplayed a bad hand and have presumably turned off votes they might otherwise have garnered. They are never willing to entertain the value of half a loaf and this is why I see them as Nympho-manic

Time will tell.

https://www.facebook.com/newtgingrich/videos/468729243620247/

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Dick

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1) Monday, Oct. 8, 2018

Greetings from Punakha, Bhutan.  This is the dawn of our third day in Bhutan.  A lot has happened, and this is the first minute I’ve had to start chronicling any of it.

We left Savannah Thursday, Oct. 4, and arrived in Delhi, India, 27 hours later, totally without incident.  Quite amazing – smooth flights, everything on time, and no problem at our favorite Charles DeCrawl airport. 

Once we arrived in Delhi, the fun began.  It didn’t take long to realize that we were now in India.  As soon as we stepped outside the airport, it was total chaos.  We needed to get a cab to our hotel.  There were plenty of them, but some were prepaid and some were not.  Jim blasted past the line for a non-prepaid and climbed into a prepaid one.  Then he got upset when the supervisor insisted that he pay because he didn’t realize what kind of cab he had chosen.  This resulted in some good Indian shouting, but eventually, Jim handed over the money, certain that he was being ripped off.  (And who knows?  After 27 hours of travelling, our minds weren’t working very well.) 

The hotel was beautiful.  An Andaz, but much larger and grander than the one in Savannah.  We had a big room with a view of the airport, but it was well sound-proofed.  It was about midnight, Delhi time, so we went right to bed.

Neither of us slept more than about ½ hour all night.  It was daytime, body-clock-wise, and I just couldn’t force myself to sleep.  We got up earlier than needed and headed down for breakfast.  And what a breakfast it was!  A buffet, but set up with stations of all types of cuisines.  First came juices, but not your usual orange and tomato.  I had pineapple-cucumber-mint and Jim had Tutti Frutti.  Other options included carrot-muskmelon-basil, matcha-mint lassi, coconut lassi, and coffee pista lassi.  Next was the pancakes/waffles/donuts station.  I had the first pancakes I’ve had in years, made with pistachio batter and raspberry coulis.  They had 10-15 different flavorings you could add.  Jim had a well-balanced waffle and donut.  Then we discovered, around the corner, the Northern Indian section, Southern Indian section, and European section.  Egads!  By then, we were too full to eat anything more, but I did taste some Indian soup that was sweet and milky and had little noodles in it.  Very nice.  I wish we could have stayed a few more days, just for the breakfast.

There were four young American men sitting near us.  They were dressed casually, but there was nothing casual about these guys.  They were extremely fit, with muscles popping out of their shirts in a “don’t even think of messing with me” kind of way.  Jim asked if they were in the service, and all he got was that they were with the Embassy in Delhi.  I think the Ambassador is very well protected.

We got a free ride from the hotel to the airport, and got there hours before our flight was due to leave.  We had been told to get there early to reserve our seats on the DrakAir flight to Paro, Bhutan, because we wanted to be on the left side of the plane to see Mt. Everest.  Even as early as we arrived, we were about the fifth people in line.  When the counter finally opened, I went up to the Business Class desk to see if we might be able to upgrade, and found that we could.   Great!  We were told the cost, and handed over a credit card. 

After standing there for quite a while, we were told that the credit card machine wasn’t working, so we would have to pay in cash.  We didn’t have enough rupees, so offered to pay in dollars.  No, they could only take rupees.  So Jim would have to go change some dollars, while I stayed there at the counter.  The man wrote down exactly how much we needed, and Jim trotted off to get the rupees.  (He wasn’t in as good a mood as “trotted” might suggest.)  When he returned, we paid and, after a great deal of waiting while they helped other customers, finally received our boarding passes.  We got through security and found the airline lounge.

About the time we were going to get ready to leave the lounge, two guys from DrakAir showed up and told us they had only charged us for one upgrade, not for two.  Of course, the credit card machine was still not working, and we didn’t have any more rupees, so what were we to do?  Old Grumpypants’ answer was that it was their mistake, and we were getting on the plane.  Their answer was that they would take our dollars and change them to rupees and pay for the other upgrade.  So we gave them the same amount of dollars that Jim had changed before.  (What he didn’t tell me or them was that he knew that wasn’t enough because he already had had some rupees in his wallet, so he had only changed enough to make up the difference.)  They went off to change the money, and we headed for the gate. 

A few minutes later, they arrived at the gate to tell us that the dollars had not been enough, and we owed another $60.  I gave them the $60, and they took my passport and boarding pass to go change the dollars into rupees.  (I’m leaving out a lot of the emotional outbursts from one of us here to save my marriage.) Meanwhile, I was worried that I had just given away my passport and would be here in the Delhi airport for the rest of my life.  Hello, Tom Hanks.

The one good thing we can say about DrakAir is that it doesn’t hold too closely to a schedule.  We were supposed to board at 11:30 and depart at 12:20.  The plane showed up about 12:30, and the man with my boarding pass and passport showed up at 12:35.  Then the most remarkable thing happened.  He apologized for all the confusion, gave me back the $60 AND a fistful of rupees along with my passport and boarding pass.  I was dumbstruck.  He talked a mile a minute and I only caught bits and pieces of what he said, but I did catch that he was apologizing and giving us some money back, so I was very happy.  Old Grumpypants just snorted.

The flight to Paro was under 2 hours, but they served us a lovely full lunch.  As you’ll see in the photos, the view of the mountains wasn’t very good due to clouds, but I clicked away with the camera anyway. 

The approach to Paro is one of the most, if not THE most, dangerous in the world.  Paro is in a valley in the midst of mountains, and the pilots have to wind their way around, between, and amid the mountains, making some steep banks at times.  It must be fun as a pilot if conditions are good.  (If conditions are bad, they just don’t fly.)   One time, I was afraid he was going to catch the wing on some power lines, but he just skimmed above them.  The runway is one way and short, so he jammed on the brakes as soon as we hit the ground, but we made it.   YouTube.com has several videos of approach and landing in Paro – take a look. 

Bhutan is known as having the happiest people on earth, but our customs agent did not seem to be among them.  Once she begrudgingly stamped our passports, Jim waited for the luggage and I found a cash machine to get some Bhutanese rupees.  100 rupees are worth approximately $1.35, so the 3000 rupees I got were about $40.50.  Bhutan recently changed its currency to be the same as the Indian rupee, so we only have to remember one exchange rate for most of this trip.

Our guide and driver, Ugyen and Sonom, were waiting for us, and Ugyen recognized us from our passport photos, so no crass sign was needed.  They both speak good English, although Ugyen’s is better.  Sometimes, though, Sonom laughs at my jokes and Ugyen doesn’t get them.

Let’s give you a few facts about Bhutan first. 

·         It is a tiny country, with a population of about 800,000.  It is landlocked, wedged in the Eastern Himalayas between India and China, but, miraculously, it has never been invaded by either of these giants, or colonized by anyone else.  Perhaps the terrain is the reason.  The elevation varies from 300 feet to 24,000, and 80% of the country is covered by forests. 

·         The official religion is Vajrayana Buddhism, and 80% of the population follows that.  It is described as deity-based, merit-based, and Karma-focused.  Ugyen has told us a lot about the religion over the last couple of days, and he seems quite devout.  He is especially devoted to a deity with eleven heads and 1,000 arms that is the god of compassion.  When I asked him what Buddhists believe about how the earth and life began, he said only the most advanced lamas would know and understand that. 

·         The national dish of Bhutan is called Chili-Cheese.  They had an article devoted to it in the DrakAir Magazine, so I figured I should try it when the opportunity arose at our very first dinner.  It can be made with cauliflower or potatoes or meat, but it must contain chilies and cheese.  It is extremely  hot.  Once was enough.

·         Most of the men wear the traditional garb, called a gho.  This looks like a plaid or solid-colored bathrobe, wrapped around them, stopping at the knees, paired with knee socks.  It is cinched at the waist. Forming a large pocket for carrying things.  It usually has wide, white cuffs. 

·         The women wear a kira – a full-length dress or skirt and jacket combination.  The skirt is plain, like the men’s gho, and the top is a solid color.  The skirt is straight and snug and looks good on tiny, young ladies.  I will not be bringing such an outfit home.

·         Bhutan has a king.  His name is Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck.  Also called the Druk Gyalpo or "Dragon King". His father, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, abdicated the throne in his favor in December, 2006. A public coronation ceremony was held on November 6, 2008, an auspicious year that marked 100 years of the monarchy.  He is the sixth king.  His papa abdicated at an early age,  feeling that it was important to be there to guide his son in the fine art of kingsmanship.  Papa had caused quite a stir in the 1990’s by tossing out a large population of Nepalese, creating what might have been the largest refugee migration of the decade.  Jigme Khesar has yet to take a stand one way or the other on that.

·         The current king did have to send troops to fight some Indian rebels who had crossed into Bhutan and refused to negotiate a peaceful outcome.   Ugyen, our guide, was a part of that mission, which succeeded within a couple of days at rousting the rebels and sending them back to India.

·         Getting back to that “Happiest People on Earth” description earlier:  the king decided, in a brilliant stroke of marketing and branding, that he could not compete with other countries in terms of Gross National Product.  The GNP of Bhutan was about $35 per person.  So, he devised another measure.  He does a survey every couple of years to show that his subjects are the happiest people in the world.  They have enough to eat, they receive a free education and free health care, things are moving along nicely, and they are focused on protecting their environment and ecology. 

·         Television and the internet were both introduced to Bhutan in 1999, so, until then, they had very little information from the rest of the world.  Now, however, they all want flat-screen hi-def TV’s and cars and houses, so more and more of them are moving to the cities.  This is causing some problems with food production, so the government is trying to figure out how to make rural life more appealing. 

·         Last but perhaps most interesting, Bhutan may be the only country in the world without a single traffic light.  They had one, but they took it down.

Here is the link to the first few (very few) photos.  They are keeping us very busy, so I haven’t had much time to work on this travelogue.  More time when we get to Kathmandu in a couple days, so watch out for a flurry of emails then, I hope.

https://www.mmemery.com/frame/slideshow?key=BStrwW&autoStart=1&captions=0&navigation=0&playButton=0&randomize=0&speed=3&transition=fade&transitionSpeed=2&clickable=1

If this link doesn’t work when you click on it, just copy it and paste it into your browser.

Melissa
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2)  Europe to Terrorists – It’s No More Monsieur Nice Guy
by Thomas Hegghammer
Long seen as weak, the continent in recent years has hardened its defenses against jihadists.

Jihadist terrorism until recently had Europe on the defensive. Now the continent is getting tough and fighting the threat with measures that would have been unthinkable six or seven years ago.

The old notion that Europe is weak on terrorism gained traction in the mid-2010s. Between 2015 and 2017, some 350 people were killed by jihadists across Europe. Terrorism rose to the top of polls of public concerns, and criticism of European counterterrorism capabilities grew explicit. A PBS “Frontline” investigation into the 2016 Brussels attacks revealed “a scale of dysfunction remarkable in the annals of modern counterterrorism.” Many wondered if Europe was up to the task of defending itself.

But the continent stepped up in a way that many observers, including me, didn’t foresee. European countries poured money into counterterrorism and improved intelligence sharing. They also initiated a qualitative overhaul involving radical new measures that had previously been considered politically off-limits.

Preventing citizens from going off to places like Syria to fight was once considered legally difficult. Many European law-enforcement agencies now prosecute anyone merely planning to go abroad to join a jihadist group. Jihadist recruitment organizations proliferated in Northern Europe until the early 2010s because authorities struggled to pin them to crimes. Around 2013, however, governments started cracking down. Firebrand clerics also found themselves treated more severely. Britain extradited the London-based sheikh Abu Qatada to Jordan in 2013 and shipped the hard-line Finsbury Park Mosque Imam Abu Hamza to the U.S., where he was sentenced to life in prison in 2015.

Censorship of extremist internet material, once seen as both unfeasible and authoritarian, is now common and has significantly reduced the availability of jihadist propaganda. A new European Union law imposes fines on internet companies that fail to remove extremist material within 60 minutes. The censorship may not be limited to digital materials. This year a European Parliament special committee recommended that member countries “ban and remove all religious literature within their territory that incites to violent and terrorist acts.”

France passed a law in 2017 making it easier to shut down radical mosques. Austria closed seven mosques and deported 60 imams this year. Italy has deported 313 extremists since 2015. Britain stripped more than 100 suspected Islamist militants of their citizenship in 2017. These measures come on top of a substantial increase in terrorism-related arrests and convictions across the continent.

Last but not least is the increased willingness to use military force against jihadist groups outside Europe. The anti-Islamic State coalition deployed to Iraq in 2014 had a large European component, and some countries have sent special forces to Iraq to detain or kill their own citizens fighting alongside Islamic State.

These new practices have been accompanied by more-aggressive rhetoric, reminiscent of the Bush administration after 9/11. In his speech after the Paris attacks in November 2015, then-President François Hollande declared that “France is at war,” and in 2017 Foreign Minister Florence Parly said: “If jihadists die in the fighting, then I’d say it’s for the best.”

This hardening of European attitudes toward terrorism didn’t happen overnight. It’s part of a longer trend that began after 9/11 and accelerated starting in 2012, when European foreign fighters started going to Syria in large numbers. We should not exaggerate its repressive character. Torture and other egregious practices aren’t on the table, and the hard measures have been accompanied by many soft programs to prevent and mitigate violent extremism. The hardening is also uneven, with France adopting a tougher approach than countries like Sweden. Still, the changes are substantial and amount to a paradigm shift in European counterterrorism.

It’s still early, but the new approach appears to be working. There are fewer European jihadists fighting on foreign battlefields. Domestic attacks and casualties are substantially down in 2018—not because plotting has decreased, but because authorities are foiling more attempts. For the longer term, the main challenge will be preventing militants who come out of prison from regrouping.

Europe’s struggle with jihadism is far from over. The new, more muscular approach poses serious questions about civil liberties, minority rights and radicalization in prisons. But Europe can no longer be described as soft on terrorism.

Mr. Hegghammer is a senior research fellow at the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI) and author of “Jihad in Saudi Arabia: Violence and Pan-Islamism since 1979.”

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3) George Soros’s March on Washington

By  Asra Q. Nomani

Saturday’s protests and unlawful disruptions were brought to us by a well-funded network.

Some 200 protesters march across the lawn of the U.S. Capitol to the foot of the south wing. Inside, the U.S. Senate is wrapping up its debate, hours before the Saturday afternoon vote to confirm Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Members of the crowd rush up the steps, unfurl professionally printed banners, stand defiantly, and pump their fists in the air.

“Whose house?” they shout.

“Our house!” they answer.

By the time of the vote, they’ve moved across the street to the Supreme Court building. After getting word of the vote, again they rush the steps. Two women climb the statues flanking the steps—“Contemplation of Justice” and “Authority of Law”—for more fist-pumps.

On the steps, Bob Bland, a co-founder of the Women’s March, silently sends a thumbs-up signal to another leader, later boasting: “We took the Supreme Court.” On Friday the Women’s March had tweeted out a photo of Sen. Susan Collins, who cast the deciding vote for Justice Kavanaugh, with “Rape Apologist” written across her image.

In a series of tweets and rally comments, President Trump described the crowd as “an angry left-wing mob” of “professional protesters who are handed expensive signs” and “paid for by [George] Soros and others.” Mr. Trump’s detractors accused him of engaging in conspiracy theories, and even of anti-Semitism against Mr. Soros, a billionaire donor to liberal causes. Yet he has a point. Many Americans genuinely oppose Mr. Trump and Justice Kavanaugh. I am a liberal feminist whose views on abortion and same-sex marriage align with the Democratic Party’s. Yet while most demonstrators are not paid for their efforts, the protests at the Capitol Saturday, and the ones that have included stalking lawmakers inside and outside their offices, are organized by groups of which Mr. Soros is an important patron.

I started following the money for the “resistance” when it was born, hours after Election Day 2016. I have organized my findings in a spreadsheet I have made public. At least 50 of the largest organizations that participated as “partners” in the Jan. 21, 2017, Women’s March had received grants from Mr. Soros’s Open Society Foundations or similar funds in the “House of Soros,” as his philanthropic empire was once called internally. The number of Soros-backed partners has grown to at least 80. At least 20 of the largest groups that led the Saturday anti-Kavanaugh protests have been Open Society grantees.

On Saturday I also studied the fine print on the signs as protesters waved them defiantly at the Capitol and the high court. They came from a familiar list of Democratic interest groups that have received millions from Mr. Soros: the American Civil Liberties Union, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, Planned Parenthood, NARAL Pro-Choice America, the Center for Popular Democracy, Human Rights Campaign and on and on. MoveOn.org, a Democratic organizing and lobbying group founded with Soros money, sent its army of partisan followers regular missives that led them to a Google form to ask for train tickets and places to stay.

Under a ginkgo tree on the East Lawn of the Capitol, Center for Popular Democracy field marshals put protesters through a “training” Saturday morning. “Are you ready to be arrested?” she asks. “Yes!” the crowd shouts, although one woman asks quietly: “For what?”

“If not,” the field marshal orders, “stand in line for the visitor’s gallery so an experienced protester can go inside and yell.” One organizer hands out tickets to the Senate visitors gallery for the express purpose of violating the law. That they did—the proceedings were repeatedly interrupted by shrieks from the gallery.

The agitators even have help with their handmade signs. Across the street from the Supreme Court, a woman uses supplies provided by UltraViolet Action to write, in Spanish: “No more rapists in power.”

Back on the Capitol lawn, people from Megaphone Strategies, a public-relations firm founded by former Obama adviser Van Jones, manage interview requests from USA Today and other news outlets. Women’s March lieutenants exchange T-shirts for completed “Legal Support Sheets” with information in case of arrest.

Suddenly everyone stands to walk in unison to the Capitol steps. When they arrive, the few Capitol Police officers on the scene silently watch them. The protesters walk up the stairs—though they don’t “storm” them, as the leaders have claimed. There are no barricades, no phalanx of armed police.

Rethink Media created a “social media strategy sheet” back in August for anti-Kavanaugh protesters. One talking point: “Kavanaugh was hand-picked by dark money groups and their billionaire backers.” Rethink Media is itself a Soros grantee, and Saturday’s protests and unlawful disruptions were part of a well-funded, orchestrated network that books buses, hotel rooms and churches for such agitation.

MoveOn.org wrote a guide, “How to Bird Dog”—harass officials in public places—in the spring of 2017, in preparation for town-hall meetings during a congressional recess. Over the past year, I have dialed in to MoveOn.org’s Sunday evening phone calls where they plan the operations and tell their “troublemakers” how to corner lawmakers. I still get alerts for their planning sessions. The last ones have been to #stopKavanaugh.

MoveOn.org announced that its call the night after Justice Kavanaugh’s confirmation would feature Ana Maria Archila, the Colombia-born sexual-assault victim who cornered Sen. Jeff Flake in a Senate elevator last month while a confederate screamed “Look at me!” She is co-executive director of the Center for Popular Democracy. Her salary was listed as $156,333, with a bonus of $21,378, in a recent Internal Revenue Service 990 form.

What I have pieced together is an open secret but one that journalists tend to avoid. Many (including me) sympathize with the liberal causes Open Society champions. Some have been paid Open Society Fellows or grantees. And many are put off by conservative anti-Soros rhetoric, which gets truculent at times.

Mr. Soros, much like the Koch brothers, funds causes he cares about. There’s nothing wrong with that, but democracy is better served if we follow the money on the right and left and find solutions where they are likeliest to lie: in the middle.

Ms. Nomani is a former Wall Street Journal reporter.

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