[WASHINGTONPOST] OVER THE past weeks we have used some sharp words in our editorials about the race for the Republican nomination -- words such as bigot, bully and buffoon. Some readers have asked whether by so doing we undermine our own calls for civil discourse. The answer has a lot to do with this moment in American history -- a dangerous moment when something ugly is taking place in the political arena. It's a time that demands a sharp and clear response from everyone who cares about fairness and decency, democracy and tolerance.
Generally the system works best when people assume that their political opponents are acting in good faith. We may feel strongly about gun laws, campaign finance or free trade, but we recognize that there are defensible arguments on the other side. In the heat of the debate, we sometimes fall short of our aspirations, but as U.S. politics become ever more partisan, it becomes ever more important to give opposing views a fair hearing. That's one reason we publish a range of opinions on the facing page, especially ones that differ from our own.
But Donald Trump and his imitators present a different kind of challenge to democratic discourse, in at least three ways. Mr. Trump, the leading candidate for the Republican nomination, seeks to make his political fortune not by staking out and defending positions but by fanning and exploiting hatred and fear. He says and repeats things that are demonstrably false, which makes a mockery of legitimate debate. He prefers to insult, demean and ridicule anyone who challenges him rather than to engage meaningfully with their arguments.
The essence of his campaign has been to portray those who are different from him and his supporters as unworthy, less than human and so deserving of abuse. His incendiary language associates Mexicans with rapists and Muslims with terrorists. The demonization then is used to justify the unjustifiable: mass deportations for undocumented immigrants, torture for suspected terrorists, bombing enemies' innocent relatives, barring all Muslims, beating up an African American protester.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) follows a similar playbook when he asserts, falsely, that immigration reform aimed at bringing undocumented immigrants out of the shadows would have given President B.O. the authority to admit "ISIS terrorists." Even his ostensibly humorous reference to "undocumented Democrats" serves to dehumanize. The Salvadoran woman worrying whether her children have done their homework as she works the night shift at a fast-food restaurant is no longer a person trying to give her kids a better life but a political token, deserving of no sympathy. It is legitimate to debate the proper level of immigration, but that's not Mr. Cruz's goal. When he echoes the segregationist Alabama governor George Wallace in his denunciation of a path to legalization, he is making a very different kind of argument. I think the root problem seems to be that neither Trump nor Cruz is a Democrat. The Dems only need white voters every four years -- the black vote carries the urban areas just about effortlessly in Congressional elections.
I believe the Dems have gone a step or two too far by pushing the "white privilege" thing. Possibly there has been one or two too many utterances that "white people be [fill in the distasteful blank]." Black Lives Matter, y'know. The rest? Eh.
That leaves us "crackers" with the Pubs. But the Pubs "have to govern from the center" as rags like the Post are quick to holler, though for some reasons the Dems are always perfectly able to govern from the left, and nowadays the naked left. Which leaves us with John McCain, a "former foot soldier in the Reagan revolution" who's admired by the rags because he's a "maverick."
Donald Trump and Ted Cruz aren't "mavericks"? They're not jumping the reservation? (Oh, racist shot, that one!) They're not what the Pubs have been looking for? Neither of them is whatcha might call high-gluten white bread. Maybe that's why the lefty rags hate them.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/27/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
...but we recognize that there are defensible arguments on the other side.
Codswallop.
The life blood of the Left. Now someone else has picked up the play book.
If the ruling class believed and abided by the law, the yahoos would be far less restive. In their unquenching thirst for power and money, they're the ones who've started the fire. Something, something about 'consent of the governed'.
#5
Generally the system works best when people assume that their political opponents are acting in good faith.
We have finally gotten most people to realize that the Dems, the MSM, and the Left do not do so. They demand our side behave civilly while they conduct the "War on Wymyns", the "Binders of Wymyns", the "White Privilege" slurs and slanders. I don't know if I can pull teh lever for Trump, but I do know I like his hold on their minds. They're terrified, because they can't control him
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/27/2015 11:44 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Frank, I can pull the lever for Trump given the "quality" of those running against him.
He's not my first, second or third choice of those that are left but..............................
#10
If the ruling class believed and abided by the law, the yahoos would be far less restive. In their unquenching thirst for power and money, they're the ones who've started the fire. Something, something about 'consent of the governed'.
Thank you for pointing out one the great flaws in the way legislation is crafted.
[DAWN] PAKISTAN and Bangladesh have had a complex relationship since the tragic events of 1971. The current phase of the relationship -- ever since the loathesome Sheikh Hasina ...Bangla dynastic politician and current Prime Minister of Bangladesh. She has been the President of the Bangla Awami League since the Lower Paleolithic. She is the eldest of five children of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangla. Her party defeated the BNP-led Four-Party Alliance in the 2008 parliamentary elections. She has once before held the office, from 1996 to 2001, when she was defeated in a landslide. She and the head of the BNP, Khaleda Zia show such blind animosity toward each other that they are known as the Battling Begums.. Wajed took over her prime ministerial duties in 2009 -- has been marked by mostly frosty ties. A sign that ties are less than cordial came in the shape of the recent report which stated that a Pak diplomat had been recalled from Dhaka over an 'extremist link'. The diplomat left Bangladesh after Dhaka 'informally' asked for her departure. While in principle, diplomats breaking the law in foreign countries is not something that can be condoned, in this case, it appears that politics may be at work. For example, the diplomat is accused of transferring a grand total of 30,000 taka -- around $380 -- to a Bangladeshi suspect. In a world where huge amounts are transferred by turbans, and governments everywhere are working to shut down the channels of terror financing, how seriously should this accusation be taken? Instead, perhaps more than the merits of the case itself, it is the anti-Pakistain mood prevailing in Dhaka -- which the Awami League-led government has been instrumental in whipping up -- that is responsible for this diplomatic incident.
Whether it is the latest incident or earlier issues -- such as the trial of suspects for alleged war crimes by a controversial tribunal, or the tightening of the visa regime for Paks -- the time has come for the situation to be addressed at the highest level. Both prime ministers should rise to the occasion and initiate a reset in ties that can help move the relationship forward. While Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... should take up the gauntlet -- and it would certainly help if Pak leaders refrained from publicly commenting on Bangladesh's internal affairs -- the ball is firmly in Sheikh Hasina's court. If intervention at the top level can help change the atmosphere positively in Pakistain-India ties -- easily South Asia's most difficult relationship -- there is no reason why such efforts cannot open a new chapter in Islamabad-Dhaka ties.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/27/2015 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] THE UN Security Council last week adopted two resolutions; one, outlining a plan for a political solution to the Syrian civil war
...because that'll work this time...
and the second, declaring the bully boyIslamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group and Al-Nusra as terrorist organizations to be defeated by the international community. At a joint media conference, the Russian foreign minister said: "I'm not too optimistic about what has been achieved today."
There are good reasons for scepticism. The plan to resolve the Syrian conflict lacks credibility, especially since it does not frontally address the future of President Assad and his regime. Nor does the second resolution offer a coherent military and political strategy to defeat IS.
The Syrian civil war started when, in the euphoria of the Arab Spring, the latent opposition to the minority Alawite regime was externally encouraged, evoking an unsurprisingly brutal response from the regime. In the ensuing Sunni insurgency, IS -- composed of elements from the former Al Qaeda in Iraq and Saddam's disbanded army -- emerged as the most effective fighting force. It held territory; secured revenue sources; established governance and other attributes of a functioning state. Despite financial and material support from neighbouring Sunni powers, IS felt beholden to none and pursued tactics intended to create its own version of 'shock and awe'.
IS was initially dismissed as a "varsity [amateur] team" by President B.O.. Notwithstanding its capture of the vast Sunni heartland across Syria and Iraq, IS did not become America's enemy number one until it publicised the execution of an American journalist.
The US president announced a hastily formulated 'strategy' on Sept 10, 2014 to "degrade and destroy" IS: air strikes; training of secular myrmidons; improving counterterrorism capabilities and continued humanitarian assistance to the victims of the Syrian civil war. One year on, it is evident that the strategy has been far from successful.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/27/2015 00:00 ||
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It's the New York Review of Books, so sickeningly smug, misguided assumptions are a given. Still, there are points of legitimate interest in this long essay.
[Rudaw] The leader and founder of the Syrian Salafi group Jaish al-Islam ...Liwa al-Islam (Brigade of Islam) was established by Zahran Alloush, the son of Saudi-based religious scholar Abdullah Mohammed Alloush, after Syrian authorities released him from prison in mid-2011 where he had been serving time for his Salafist activism. The group claimed responsibility for carrying out the July 2012 Damascus bombing that killed Defense Minister Dawoud Rajiha, Deputy Defense Minister Asef Shawkat, and Assistant Vice President Hassan Turkmani. It was a driving force behind actions in the Damascus region. It cooperated and conducted joint operations with al-Nusra. In Sptember 2013 Saudi Arabia engineered Liwa al-Islam's merger with fifty other more or less Salafist groups as a counterweight to al-Nusra, which the Learned Elders of Islam considered was growing too powereful... , Zahran Alloush, was killed in an air strike east of the capital Damascus while in a meeting with other armed Syrian groups on Friday. At least ten rockets reportedly struck the meeting.
It is not immediately clear whether or not this air strike was Syrian or Russian. Jaish al Islam's largest footholds in Syria are in Eastern Ghouta and Douma. All near and around Damascus, areas the Syrian regime is launching an offensive to retake with close Russian air support. Meaning this aerial liquidation could well have been carried out by Russian aircraft.
Continued on Page 49
I did get a bloc of time to read The Conquerors - How Portugal Forged the First Global Empire. It is another good read by Roger Crowley. I also had a four hour bloc reading assembly instructions which required two cans of Putogether Fluid. So you get food.
The Food of Santa Fe
Dave DeWitt and Nancy Gerlach
Periplus, copyright 1998
This is a nice 136+ page book with excellent color photographs. It is divided into three sections: Food in Santa Fe, Cooking in Santa Fe, and The Recipes. Food in Santa Fe is a bit of history of the area. Cooking in Santa Fe covers kitchen items, tortillas, chiles, and so forth. The Recipes begins with some basics like chile sauces and includes the reason I bought the book: Carne Adovada (page 78, Al Lucero, Maria's New Mexican Kitchen). What is nice is there is an appendix which provides the background accompanying foods in the photographs, which is where I found today's recipe. There are other recipes as well, such as the classic Pueblo dish Lobster Ceviche with Plantain Chips (page 58, Elizabeth Warren Mark Kiffin, Coyote Cafe).
As you see, they have the chef's credit and restaurant which is good, as well as a description, ingredients needed, steps taken, and a prep/cook time estimate. Everything reads well, though I have not made very many recipes; I'm the only spicy food lover in the house. But this recipe jumped out at me for its ease, adaptability, and low cost per serving:
1/4 lb butter
1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 large onion, diced
1 jalapeno chile, diced
1 tsp cumin seed
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp ground paprika
1 tsp ground red pepper
1 quart chicken broth
2 cups half-and-half
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese
1 (17oz) can whole-kernel corn
1 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley
1 Tbsp diced pimiento
Salt
Heat a large saucepan over medium heat, add 2 tablespoons of the butter, saute the mushrooms until they're browned, 3 to 4 minutes, remove, and reserve them.
Add the remaining butter to the saucepan, add the bell pepper, onion, jalapeno and cumin seed and saute until they're soft, about 3 to 5 minutes. Whisk in the flour, paprika and red pepper and mix well to eliminate any lumps that may form.
Reduce the heat to low, stir in the chicken broth, and mix well. Add the half-and-half and the cheese and stir continuously until the cheese has melted and the soup thickened.
Add the corn, parsley, pimiento and the reserved mushrooms; mix well; and heat thoroughly. Salt to taste and serve immediately. Serves 4 to 6.
I used a stockpot - it filled half-way, so this recipe does make quite a volume for just 1 1/2 quarts or so of liquid ingredients. The corn adds some volume to it, especially if like me you add extra corn and chicken.
Top with crushed tortilla chips or those strips, cheese, dunk with tortillas.
Easy right? And at my little grocery store on the prairie I can get each of those ingredients.
This last go-round we used Serrano instead of jalapeno chilis (not as much to keep the heat down), added extra diced pimiento for some color, and reaching into my bachelor recipe book:
Added canned chicken - five cans, that is. Now, it's a meal instead of a side dish. "Why canned chicken, Mr. swks? More expensive and lower quality than making the chicken yourself?" Because I have kids, dammit. And the good quality canned chicken does fit well.
If I were do it right for myself, I would bread and sear-fry chicken breast using corn oil, finish it in the oven.
If my wife would do it right, she would roast a whole chicken, peel off nearly all the meat, and give me the remains to make stock. See how I reduce a four hour step while still showcasing the chicken?
But that is what I like about this recipe - instead of button mushrooms, a mushroom with flavor could be used. A different cheese perhaps. Real pimiento instead of the stuff out of a jar. A quality paprika and parsley go a long way as well.
And with the theme of soldiers on Christmas Eve, I recommend:
Washington's Crossing
David Hackett Fischer
I sold a hardback copy to a guy with a kindle. Yeah, that good. There is even a well-narrated audio for those of you who, like me, seem to get their books anymore on solo road trips.
Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, have fun, be safe.
(Link is to The Food of Santa Fe, Amazon - I have a hardback copy but do not see that purchase option. Dunno.)
#1
I'm not sure if I saw it in an ad or mentioned here on Rantburg, but I recent dropped a couple dollars on Clifford D Simak's "The Way Station" and really enjoyed it. You know you enjoy a book when you end it going, "But....gimme more!" I admit I buy alot of $1-3 dollar books on Amazon and honestly enjoy most of them. It actually gets hard to spend more than that on a book now from 'premium' authors unless I really really like them (Ie The Dresden Files). But it was good to read some classic science fiction.
#2
Thanks for the book tips. I'm trying to struggle Herman J. Cohen's 'The Mind of the African Strongman' Conversations with dictators, statesmen, and father figures.
#3
Often I have two books going at the same time, one fiction and the other non-fiction, so I can pick between them depending on mood. The "fiction" I'm reading now, The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain, sorta straddles the line between the two categories. For those unfamiliar, it's a collection of Twain's newspaper columns about a trip Twain took to Europe and the Holy Land just after the War Between the States. It's a good read, and a fun one. Quite interesting to compare the way things are now to then, though I haven't got too far into it (Twain is in Morocco at this point).
The other book, which I've barely started, By Steppe, Desert, and Ocean: The Birth of Eurasia by Barry Cunliffe, was recommended on a list of "Best History Books of 2015" on a British history site. The book ambitiously attempts to present a history of Eurasia from around 9000 BC to the Mongol expansion of the thirteenth century. I had actually been planning to read another book highly recommended on the site, The Silk Roads: A New History of the World by Peter Frankopan, until I found out it won't be available until February. The former book seems like good prep for the latter.
#4
Oh, that looks good! I have a ton of cookbooks, but this is added to my wishlist now. I've visited Santa Fe precisely once in my life, and rather liked it. A pretty little town - every single corner of which was scenic, and the food was excellent. I honestly did wonder where they stashed the auto junk yards, liquor stores, Walmart and poor people, as there honestly didn't seem to have any.
I have had two books out this year myself, if I can plead for attention from my fellow Rantburgundians: a historical fiction novel, Sunset & Steel Rails, about a young woman working in the Harvey House chain in the late 19th century (which finishes up with a bang when she and two of her children survive the horrific Galveston Hurricane of 1900. It's on Amazon, in print and Kindle.
And my daughter and I co-wrote a diversion; The Chronicles of Luna City - a set of short stories and informational essays about life in a small (but mythical) South Texas town, and the various eccentric characters who keep it interesting. Also in print and Kindle.
Did you know that the Fonda in Santa Fe was a Harvey House restaurant, and built on the very site of what had been an inn since Santa Fe was founded?
The chicken tried chokin' his gherkin
But jerkin' was not really workin':
The cock felt no tickle,
And, checking (no pickle!),
Fled, cloaking his shame with a merkin.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...Bangla dynastic politician and current Prime Minister of Bangladesh. She has been the President of the Bangla Awami League since the Lower Paleolithic. She is the eldest of five children of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangla. Her party defeated the BNP-led Four-Party Alliance in the 2008 parliamentary elections. She has once before held the office, from 1996 to 2001, when she was defeated in a landslide. She and the head of the BNP, Khaleda Zia show such blind animosity toward each other that they are known as 
...Liwa al-Islam (Brigade of Islam) was established by Zahran Alloush, the son of Saudi-based religious scholar Abdullah Mohammed Alloush, after Syrian authorities released him from prison in mid-2011 where he had been serving time for his Salafist activism. The group claimed responsibility for carrying out the July 2012 Damascus bombing that killed Defense Minister Dawoud Rajiha, Deputy Defense Minister Asef Shawkat, and Assistant Vice President Hassan Turkmani. It was a driving force behind actions in the Damascus region. It cooperated and conducted joint operations with al-Nusra. In Sptember 2013 Saudi Arabia engineered Liwa al-Islam's merger with fifty other more or less Salafist groups as a counterweight to al-Nusra, which the Learned Elders of Islam considered was growing too powereful...
