Moved to Opinion
On Friday, in Geneva, Mexico signaled alarm at the treatment of its large Mexican minority in the United States, comparing American actions to prevent the use of Spanish to attempts in Ukraine and Estonia to prevent the use of Russian.
While Mexico's foreign policy has been generally benign toward the United States since hostilities in the Mexican-American War ended in 1848, the Latin-American country has been keeping a close eye on developing events in Ukraine's Crimea peninsula.
Russia has maintained that annexation of the Crimea peninsula is justified because it has the right to protect Russian speakers outside of Russia's borders
Mexican political leaders have taken note, perhaps sensing an opportunity to gain long-lost territory and increase the size of its economy by expanding northward into areas currently administered by the United States.
Mexico has begun enthusiastically supporting protections for linguistic minorities, a Mexico City diplomat told the United Nations Human Rights Council.
"Language must not be used to segregate and isolate groups," the diplomat said, according to details provided to The Daily Caller by the U.N. Mexico has officially expressed concern about "steps taken in this regard by belligerent elements in the United States."
#3
Mexico has begun enthusiastically supporting protections for linguistic minorities, a Mexico City diplomat told the United Nations Human Rights Council.
Except when it came to Mexicans of purer Spanish blood exploiting the indigenous local indian land and population down south.
#5
Awesome! In the 1930's and 1940's the US protected the border with 50 caliber machine guns. Now give us a reason to protect the border with machine gun nests again, gabacho.
#7
The military power in San Diego could take out Latin America. I really don't think Mexico is actually planning any land gambit. They know better, they are angling for payouts and bribes like usual.
For years the EU has been wooing Ukraine, with that "Association Agreement" as a step towards making it an eventual member. But by pushing its "soft power" right up to the Russian border, this strange organisation dedicated to eliminating national identity has finally run up against the rock of a national interest that will not give way.
And to what a pitiful state this has reduced our own supposed "leaders" in the West, Booker says. They haven't a clue what to do. They blether about how Russia is "isolated", and of those pathetic little "targeted" sanctions. Chancellor Merkel talks wildly of how the G8, of which Russia is currently president, "no longer exists". President Hollande calls on Britain to act against all those Russian oligarchs who have put 27 billion into London, when the UK knows it has 46 billion invested in Russia.
The EU's leaders can scarcely afford to be too aggressive when it imports from Russia 30 percent of its natural gas. They prattle instead about having to replace it with imports from the US which, thanks to fracking, has now replaced Russia as the world's biggest gas producer. But the US is only now building facilities to export some of it, and its preferred customer will not be Europe but Japan, desperate to make up for closing its nuclear power stations.
Squawking around like chickens panicked by a fox, the EU's politicians suddenly say, too late, that, to end our dependence on Russia, we must get on with fracking for shale gas ourselves. So it is that the Ukrainians are trapped between a rock and a place that turns out to be too soft to help them.
On Friday, when their acting prime minister Arseny Yatsenyuk came to Brussels to sign a truncated Association Agreement, the EU was so embarrassed that the ceremony had to take place behind closed doors, away from the eyes of the media. The poor man was not even allowed a microphone, but had to shout out his wish still to see Ukraine as an EU member.
Later, it was left to the foreign minister of the most powerful state in Europe, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, to go to Donetsk to meet Yatsenyuk, fresh from his "triumph" in Brussels. Ramping up the rhetoric, Steinmeier accused Russia of trying to splinter Europe, then warning that the continent's entire future was at stake.
Quoted by AFP, after meeting Yatsenyuk, he said, "The referendum in Crimea... is a violation of international law and an attempt to splinter Europe," words thought to be a show of diplomatic solidarity aimed at bolstering Kiev as it faces new rounds of pressure from Russia.
That pressure includes "threats to throw Ukraine's wheezing economy into convulsion by raising its gas rates and demanding colossal payments for disputed debts it could ill afford".
The EU knows it is powerless to prevent Mr Putin in due course absorbing Ukraine's Russian-speaking industrial heartland, leaving the EU to look after what remains of that bankrupt country, like a dismembered corpse.
But there is no sign, concludes Booker, that those impotent nonentities who pose as our leaders have yet realised that their ambition to take over Ukraine must now rank alongside the euro as the two leading examples of how their collective act of make-believe is finally hitting the brick wall of reality.
#2
What the Tranzis ignored in their assault upon nationalism is that very very few are willing to give that 'last full measure of devotion' to their creed. The alternative to nationalism isn't internationalism, but a return to tribalism.
#3
EU motto: If you need a festering bureaucracy, we've got one for every occasion.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
03/23/2014 9:56 Comments ||
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#4
The alternative to nationalism isn't internationalism, but a return to tribalism.
P2K, this may be the best summarization of the folly of transnationalism I have ever seen.
There is no such thing as "citizen of the world". Anyone who goes about spewing this type of nonsense is sufficiently mentally ill that they should be denied the right to vote.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
03/23/2014 13:04 Comments ||
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#5
nmu, you are correct but this transnationalist, CoW is nothing more than the follow on to the good old "New Soviet Man".
It's either self-delusional idiocy or a stalking horse for the power hungry......or both.
By Charles Krauthammer
Early in the Ukraine crisis, when the Europeans were working on bringing Ukraine into the EU system and Vladimir Putin was countering with threats and bribes, one British analyst lamented that "we went to a knife fight with a baguette."
That was three months ago. Life overtakes parody. During the Ukrainian prime minister's visit to Washington last week, his government urgently requested military assistance. The Pentagon refused. It offered instead military ration kits.
Putin mobilizes thousands of troops, artillery and attack helicopters on Ukraine's borders and Washington counters with baguettes, American-style. One thing we can say for sure in these uncertain times: The invasion of Ukraine will be catered by the United States.
Why did we deny Ukraine weapons? Because in the Barack Obama-John Kerry worldview, arming the victim might be taken as a provocation. This kind of mind-bending illogic has marked the administration's response to the whole Crimea affair.
Why, after all, did Obama delay responding to Putin's infiltration, military occupation and seizure of Crimea in the first place? In order to provide Putin with a path to de-escalation, "an offramp," the preferred White House phrase.
An offramp? Did they really think that Putin was losing, that his invasion of Crimea was a disaster from which he needed some face-saving way out? And that the principal object of American diplomacy was to craft for Putin an exit strategy? And that's it for me; I'm tired of manually adding links. Go to the original if you want to see the rest.
It's delusional enough to think that Putin -- in seizing Crimea, threatening eastern Ukraine, destabilizing Kiev, shaking NATO, terrifying America's East European allies and making the West look utterly helpless -- was actually losing. But to imagine that Putin saw it that way as well and was waiting for American diplomacy to save him from a monumental blunder is totally divorced from reality.
After Obama's Russian "reset," missile-defense retreat and Syria comedown, Putin had already developed an undisguised disdain for his U.S. counterpart. Yet even he must have been amazed by this newest American flight of fantasy. Putin reclaims a 200-year-old Russian patrimony with hardly a shot and to wild applause at home -- Putin's 72 percent domestic popularity is 30 points higher than Obama's -- and America's leaders think he needs rescue?
Putin made it clear that he preferred Sevastopol to good reviews from the "international community." Yet Obama and Kerry held off doing anything until the Crimean referendum -- after which, they ominously threatened, there would be "consequences."
Obama unveiled them Monday in a four-minute statement as flat-toned as a legal notice in the classifieds. The consequences? Visa denial and frozen assets for 11 people, seven of them Russian.
Seven! Out of 140 million. No Putin. No Dmitry Medvedev. No oligarchs. Nor any of Putin's inner circle of ex-KGBers. No targeting of the energy sector or banks, Russia's industrial and financial lifeblood.
This elicited unreserved mockery from the targeted Russians themselves. One wondered whether the president's statement had been written by a prankster. The Duma voted that it should be sanctioned -- all 353 members who'd voted for annexation. And the financial markets, which abhor disruptions and crave nothing but continuity, responded with relief: Russia's spiked 3.7 percent; the Dow Jones rose 1.1 percent (180 points).
Putin responded with appropriate contempt. Within hours he recognized Crimea's secession. The next day, he signed a treaty of annexation. (Two days later, Obama expanded the list of sanctioned Russians and added one bank. It will make no difference.)
Europe's response was weaker still, sanctioning a list of even lesser Russian functionaries. The irony is that for two decades we've encouraged Russia's integration into the world economic system -- including Obama's strong support for Russian accession to the World Trade Organization -- thinking those ties, and the threat of losing them, would restrain Russian behavior.
On the contrary. It restrained European behavior. Europe has refused to adopt any measure that might significantly affect its commerce and natural gas imports from Russia.
What's our excuse? We import no Russian gas and have minimal trade with Russia. Yet our president appears strangely disengaged. The post-Cold War order of Europe has been brazenly violated -- and Obama is nowhere to be seen.
As I've argued here before, there are things we can do: Send the secretary of defense to Kiev tomorrow to negotiate military assistance. Renew the missile-defense agreement with Poland and the Czech Republic. Announce a new policy of major U.S. exports of liquefied natural gas. Lead Europe from the front -- to impose sanctions cutting off Russian enterprises from the Western banking system.
As we speak, Putin is deciding whether to go beyond Crimea and take eastern Ukraine. Show him some seriousness, Mr. President. I'm afraid Dr. Krauthammer is laboring under the delusion that Obama cares. Obama's good at doing things he really cares about. like destroying what's left of Congress' budgetary authority (for instance). He offers nothing more than C-Rations because I don't think he really cares about the situation, but he has to keep up appearances. He can do more damage to his opponents this way.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain ||
03/23/2014 14:12 ||
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#1
It looks like the anti-ascii thought police got me. Funny, all the special characters don't show up on the comments page.
We have an elite that lives in its own virtual-reality world circumscribed by a failed ideology, unable to learn from its past mistakes (or even to admit that they were mistakes) and condemned to repeat the same blunders again and again....
What we will get in Ukraine, I might add, is something like what we got in Egypt... Ukraine isn't quite Egypt (it exports rather than imports food), but its economy is busted, and the West has sent the IMF in once again. That's a formula for chaos. Putin won't take over Donetsk or Karkhov. He doesn't have to. He'll wait for the West to make an unspeakable mess of Ukraine and then do whatever he wants.
Just fifteen years ago America was the world's only hyperpower. Now we're flailing. You can't simply lose that kind of power. You can only dumb it away.
#2
A few years ago, Mr Putin re-arrainged the borders around Georgia in the Caucasas and got away with a stern 'don't do it again'. He just took Crimea, and there will be no repercussions that aren't more embarrassing to us than anything.
Act Three, soon to come: The Baltics.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
03/23/2014 12:57 Comments ||
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#1
Small, unimportant things such as survival of Russia, etc... Really a very limited man---no consideration for the important things such as rights of the transgendered or the discrimination against women and minorities (unless they're asian who don't count) in math & sciences.
[DAWN] Top central government officials are hardly ever seen at places where there has been a kaboom, and only seldom visit the hospitals where the injured are left fighting for their lives.
Yet, 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... was quick to announce a visit to those areas of Thar that have been ravaged by a tragic famine.
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Posted by: Fred ||
03/23/2014 00:00 ||
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[Ynet] Israel must think carefully about who benefits the most from the recent escalation along its Golan border with Syria.
"We will respond at the appropriate time and place." Both Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor. If he'd stuck with it he'd have had a good practice by now... and Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah have made much use of this expression, but the threats made by this "axis of resistance" against Israel have become a laughing stock among Sunni jihadist organizations.
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the anti assad rebels may have a rhetorical point in their criticism of Hezbollah but the rebels are losing on the ground - mainly because they are killing each other
Posted by: lord garth ||
03/23/2014 0:07 Comments ||
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#2
I wish I had a swiss franc for every article I've ever seen urging restraint on Israel---for our own good.
#1
Besoeker, the problem is one that has existed in the West since at least the time of the Vikings and the Muslim conquest of MENA.
People who are pseudointellectuals and pretend polymaths, who have told themselves that they are the smartest and most informed and best intentioned, lack the ability to understand that there is not a mere single type of personality or a single outlook on life and politics. They also have taken up belief in something that is patently incorrect; that they have such amazing intelligence and salesmanship oratory skills and that their worldview is so awesome that they can convince anyone (because, remember, we are all pretty much alike underneath our skin) that "if I'm nice to you, you will be nice to me."
This, despite the fact that you can pick up a Kindle version of books on Meyers/Briggs for less than 5 bucks, which pretty much explodes that theory.
How smart can they actually be when they have this sort of data available and cannot put it into practical use?
The reality they never seem to understand is that for a certain personality type, if you are nice to them, it actually makes them view you as weak and it actually encourages MORE aggression, not less. So many example exist from history that it can only be incompetence or willful ignorance if they are unaware - Muhammed, the Vikings, Tamurlane, Alexander, Napoleon, Hitler, etc.
But for the faux intellectuals to admit that dynamic removes one of the basic foundations of their secular faith and worldview, so they refuse to believe until the bombs are going off in their face.
If it were only their faces that were blown up, that would be one thing. The problem is they'll get a lot of the rest of us killed too, and it's all so preventable.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
03/23/2014 6:25 Comments ||
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#2
Because he's a moron in charge of the World's strongest military?
The only thing I might add is a good dope dealer knows his neighborhood sales boundary. He tends to not disrespect his fellow dealer or become an interloper by invading another dealer's turf. He uses the same brutal enforcement techniques within his realm as the dealer in the adjacent neighborhood. He's essentially no different that the other dealers, he too is bent on control, but perhaps not as heavy handed as other dealers. Bottom line; he's the same animal, simply servicing a different clientele, hoping to get in a little golf, keep his lawyer on a healthy retainer, and survive.
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.
For years the EU has been wooing Ukraine, with that "Association Agreement" as a step towards making it an eventual member. But by pushing its "soft power" right up to the Russian border, this strange organisation dedicated to eliminating national identity has finally run up against the rock of a national interest that will not give way. 
We have an elite that lives in its own virtual-reality world circumscribed by a failed ideology, unable to learn from its past mistakes (or even to admit that they were mistakes) and condemned to repeat the same blunders again and again....
Nawaz Sharif
