[American Thinker] Sometimes an analogy is the best way to change minds. Commitment to one side in a debate can lock minds into a framework. But take the same principles and apply them to an analogous situation where the locked in prejudices don't apply, and the blinders can fall away.
That is exactly what Ms. Attkisson has done with a column in The Hill. She takes on the ridiculous reasoning applied to justifying the FBI spying on the Trump campaign and applies it to bank robbery. She begins:
Once upon a time, the FBI said some thugs planned to rob a bank in town. Thugs are always looking to rob banks. They try all the time. But at this particular time, the FBI was hyper-focused on potential bank robberies in this particular town.
The best way to prevent the robbery ‐ which is the goal, after all ‐ would be for the FBI to alert all the banks in town. "Be on high alert for suspicious activity," the FBI could tell the banks. "Report anything suspicious to us. We don't want you to get robbed."
Instead, in this fractured fairytale, the FBI followed an oddly less effective, more time-consuming, costlier approach. It focused on just one bank. And, strangely, it picked the bank that was least likely to be robbed because nobody thought it would ever get elected president ‐ excuse me, I mean, because it had almost no cash on hand. (Why would robbers want to rob the bank with no cash?)
Stranger still, this specially-selected bank the FBI wanted to protect above all others happened to be owned by a man who was hated inside and outside the FBI.
So, to protect this bank owned by the guy the FBI hated, the FBI secretly examined a list of bank employees and identified a few it claimed would be likely to help robbers ‐ or, at least, would not stop a robbery. How did it select these targets? By profiling them based on their pasts.
These particular bank employees, the FBI said, were chosen because they worked long ago with customers who might have known bank robbers in the past ‐ maybe not the particular robbers planning a bank robbery this time, but different people who knew people who were thought to have robbed banks in the past ... or, perhaps, people who thought of robbing banks at some point but never got around to it.
It gets even better, making the absurdities of the justifications for the spying obvious. Read the whole thing.
[Polygon] A new genre of horror has begun to emerge over the last decade: eco-horror, stories in which the planet itself is the monster. Prior to the early 2000s, when Nature was the monster in a horror movie, it was either animals run amok, like Jaws or The Birds, or plant-creatures, as in Invasion of the Body Snatchers or Little Shop of Horrors.
Except that the plants in question are actually aliens that just happen to look like plants.
That’s an important distinction, because until recently, we just assumed that if a plant were going to kill us, it must have come from outer space. Our trust in our own planet was so intrinsic, we never even questioned it.
But that’s been changing since 2006, when An Inconvenient Truth was released and raised climate change awareness across the planet. Since then, we’ve seen more and more eco-horror, such as The Happening, The Ruins, The Last of Us, The Girl with All the Gifts, and Annihilation. Each of these movies involves deadly plants that are ... just plants. They’re not aliens come to destroy us; they’re just terrestrial species that have evolved to target humans.
Eco-horror represents the new existential dread we feel about the irreversible damage we’ve done to the planet ‐ and the knowledge that Earth is increasingly less hospitable to us on a basic level. Watch the video above to learn more about the evolution of this new existential dread.
#2
In the 60s it was the horror of nuclear war which seemed to be concurrent with the anti-bomb, unilateral disarmament wing of the Left (and thus Hollyweird).
[Reuters] LONDON - Britain’s Brexit minister David Davis said on Tuesday there would be no reversal of the decision to leave the European Union whatever the outcome of divorce talks with the bloc.
British Prime Minister Theresa May faces a showdown in parliament with lawmakers later on Tuesday who want a "meaningful vote" on an eventual Brexit deal and to set the government’s "direction" if the house rejects the agreement.
"Whatever we do, we’re not going to reverse that (decision to leave the EU)," David told BBC radio. "A meaningful vote is not the ability to reverse the decision of the referendum."
When asked if May would lead the conservatives into the next UK election, Davis also said "I think so ... actually I hope so"
Last year, the German Foreign Office embarked on what two sources described to me as its first-ever effort to produce an America strategy aimed at answering that question, with the goal of producing a strategy document similar to those it has for adversaries. "Essentially, it’s an overhaul of German foreign policy," a senior German official told me, "since the key assumption being called into question is the total reliance we have on the friendship with the U.S." Work on the new strategy began after Trump’s Inauguration but accelerated last spring, after the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, returned from Trump’s initial foray into international summitry rattled by him and announced that "Europeans must really take our fate into our own hands." The painful realization, the senior German official said, was that "we might get to a situation where we see Americans not only as friends and partners but also as competitors and adversaries. We don’t want to do that. That is how we treat other great powers around the globe, like Russia and China." You already treat us as competitors and adversaries. Why else do you rip us off on trade? Why else do you freeride on American security guarantees and laugh all the way to the bank?
Constanze Stelzenmuller, the German debater on the panel, compared Trump’s foreign policy to Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel "The Handmaid’s Tale" and said the Europeans were the handmaids. As for Trump, she said, the American President seemed to be treating his allies like a girlfriend he could abuse, slapping her around as if that would make her more likely to accept his marriage proposal. We don't want a marriage, you assholes. We want a divorce. Trump already asked very nicely for you to stop cheating us and to start paying your fair share and you got into a snit, told him off, and outright refused.
Nowhere in Europe has that subconscious been more rocked than in Germany, where its close relationship with the United States has defined the country’s remarkable resurrection after the Second World War. "It took Germany the longest of all partners to come to terms with someone like Trump becoming President," the senior German official told me. "We were very emotional, because our relationship with America is so emotional‐it’s more of a son-father relationship‐and we didn’t recognize our father anymore and realized he might beat us." This is the one that showed me these people live on another planet. WTF? Father-son relationship? I have literally never heard this before. Germany and the rest of Europe looks down on America and Americans. Now suddenly we are the parent figure? WTF?
Inasmuch as that metaphor can be addressed, Dad is kicking his adult loser son out of the basement and the son is crying and suing Dad in court.
A recent poll found that only fourteen per cent of Germans now believe the United States is a reliable partner, compared with thirty-six per cent in Russia and forty-three per cent in China. Good! Excellent! Outstanding! Go partner with them instead. Please!
It's like none of these people realize, despite it being explained to them at length, that they are ripping us off on trade and free riding on NATO. Trump is putting a stop to this (finally!) and Europe is going to have to pay for itself.
"But that's not fair!" Yes, it is fair, and that's why you're objecting.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
06/12/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
From people I have talked to and what I have read: the Bavarians like us, the Prussians think we are a menace, and the Easterners are mad that the Cold War is over and the US is to blame for everything bad... Also, the Old Order aristocrats are still mightily pissed off that the Age of Colonialism is over and they suspect that the US had a large part in that, too.
We are their Father Figure...? How, bizarre!
#14
Building cars in the US was started by the Japanese after the big oil embargo in the 70s introduced Americans to quality construction, low gas mileage, one price (not a multi-window display of extra charges) cars. The threat of auto states and unions for tariffs and quotas was headed off by the Japanese agreeing to quotas (for which the cut out the cheapest cars and moved up in class cause the public were buying them anyway). They then started up plants across the country, just in case in the future the issue resurfaced. File under - smart business.
#15
Every second German car on U.S. highways is actually built in the U.S. and the percentage is rising.
About 70% of German cars built in the U.S. are exported. So where's the rip off?
EU tariffs on passenger cars are higher (10% vs 2.5%), but proposals to lower them have been ignored by the U.S. The U.S. charges 25% on imported trucks (EU 10 %).
TTIP would have abolished those tariffs completely. The U.S. walked away.
All that whining about being "ripped off" is ludicrous. Think Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft. No U.S. complaints about their dominating positions worldwide.
Germany will have to pay more for defense and is already on its way to do so. But this is not a trade issue.
These days the most brutal dictator in the world gets a warmer reception than America's closest allies.
Well it seems you can do without allies. Good luck. China is smiling.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
06/12/2018 18:30 Comments ||
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#16
We had to pull this "Father Figure" off of Europe twice.
#18
All that whining about being "ripped off" is ludicrous. Think Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft. No U.S. complaints about their dominating positions worldwide.
[The Hill] Fox News host Shepard Smith on Monday poked at President Trump's war of words with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, joking that the U.S. may need "a northern wall."
"The United States and Canada are in a fight, obviously," Smith deadpanned while introducing a segment on his show Monday afternoon.
"President Trump accusing the country's prime minister of making false statements, and the president's trade adviser saying there's 'a special place in hell' for the leader of Canada, our biggest trading partner in all of the world, our best friend from way back in World War II and every time in between. Canada," he continued. "Maybe we need a northern wall."
Trump and a pair of his top advisers slammed Trudeau over the weekend after the Canadian leader said that all members of the Group of Seven industrialized nations reached an agreement at the conclusion of their summit in Quebec on Saturday.
#2
The Canadians are starting the think about their own 'southernwall' . BTW, have we heard from our old Canadian troll about our treatment of illegals? /rhet
#3
So pleased that I don't pay for FoxNews and by extension I don't pay sheppie's salary...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
06/12/2018 7:18 Comments ||
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#4
It would be Canada's right to build such a wall if they wanted one. Defending borders is one of those things that define a soverign nation.
I think they might be sad when they notice few Americans care. We tend to go places legally, and even our millionaires that constantly harp about leaving never seem to go.
#7
Canada is Not the 51st state of the USA, got that and wish they would get over it, too! Wonder how much of that is the Quebecois feeling pissy and it just bleeds over to the general level of discourse...?
Remember, in America's Wars we are 0-2 against Canada. We have good stat's everywhere else, but the Canucks have handed us our ass in all of our squabbles up there.
#9
Canada's purchase of the still in work pipeline to feed Alberta oil to the west coast has all sort of Washington tree-humpers in fits....
lots of fun to watch.
#10
Remember, in America's Wars we are 0-2 against Canada.
As a major in American History, I remember things a bit differently. I remember the second one as a tie.
As far as a north wall goes, remember that one planeload of the 9/11 hijackers flew in from Canada. Several years earlier a terrorist tried to smuggle in a truck bomb from Canada. He was captured when an American border guard noticed he was sweating profusely.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
06/12/2018 13:45 Comments ||
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#11
Dixie staged an attack or two from Canada in the Civil War.
#15
Since I was a girl Canadians have been taught in school to define themselves in comparison to those dreadful Americans, just as once upon a time Germans were taught to define themselves in comparison to those dreadful, cosmopolitan Jews. Except without the genocide, of course.
And given the longstanding tradition of coming south illegally from Canada, a northern wall is not a bad idea — we could build it together with the Canadians as a joint project. A older Jewish lady in my writing group once told how her grandparents had emigrated to Canada, then a few years later the entire family drove across to Chicago, where they settled at the turn of the last century. Yes, it was quite illegal, she said, but so what? They eventually became good American citizens, even producing a famous novelist whose name I can never remember. “So what?” was also her attitude to the current illegals coming north from south of the border.
[DAWN] LAST week, Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, was in London as part of his campaign to persuade Germany, La Belle France and the UK to ditch the nuclear agreement with Iran, just as the United States has done. While no public commitments were given, it is clear that despite their brave words, the European signatories to the deal have few options but to fall into line with Washington.
The problem for them is that Trump has threatened to apply tough secondary sanctions on banks and companies doing business with Iran. Few corporate chiefs would risk losing the right to operate in America, the world’s biggest market. So even if the French, German and British governments would like to keep their side of the nuclear bargain, most companies would be reluctant to enter into contracts with Iran, or continue with existing ones.
This is a point Netanyahu made with some relish during an interview with Evan Davis, the lead presenter on Newsnight, the BBC’s flagship news programme. According to him, the deal was already dead: which company would forsake doing business in a one trillion dollar economy for trading with Iran, a country with an economy just 3-4 per cent of America’s?
When asked how he would prevent Iran from returning to its nuclear enrichment programme, Netanyahu replied "All options are open", a clear warning that he was still itching to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities. And while Obama had pre-empted him by signing a historic deal with Iran, there are no such restraints in place with Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... in the White House. If anything, his approach towards Iran is even more aggressive than his Israeli friend’s.
Davis went on to ask how the conflict with the Paleostinians would end if the Israelis were not prepared to make any concessions over Jerusalem, statehood and the return of land illegally usurped to create new settlements. Netanyahu made it clear that illusory sovereignty for Paleostinians wasn’t on the cards. "Call it what you like, autonomy or self-rule, but we will retain control over borders and security."
Citing the ineffectual, home-made rockets fired from Gazoo, he declared that Israeli borders had to be protected, making light of the scores of Paleostinians rubbed out by Israeli army snipers in recent weeks. Insisting that most of them were Hamas, the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood, "terrorists", he went on to claim that the civilians killed were being used as human shields.
Netanyahu’s trump card was saved for the end of the interview when he gloated over the fact that many Arab states now had good relations with Israel, and this shift in attitudes was a huge regional game-changer. It is true that Iran is more isolated than ever, and countries like Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... that partly funded Hamas, have withdrawn their support. Even the Paleostinian Authority under the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... has stopped paying Israel for supplying Gazoo with electricity, thereby causing further hardship to the beleaguered people forced to survive under siege in wretched conditions.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/12/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
beleaguered people forced to survive under siege in wretched conditions
You shit in your own nest. Wallow in it, bitches
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/12/2018 7:12 Comments ||
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#2
beleaguered people forced to survive under siege in wretched conditions
So inner city Chicago, Baltimore, et al? Break down those racist* housing regulations in San Fran!
*See - Disparate impact
you are not going to like it when we make you live by the rules you've imposed upon us
The 21st century is reminding of us of some uncomfortable truths. Abroad, recent controversies over the rise of Chinese mercantilism, the specter of Iranian and North Korean nuclear weapons, tensions in the European Union, the calcified Palestinian question, mass migrations, and the resurgence of Islamic terrorism all offer a number of lessons. At home, just as instructive is the strange juxtaposition between Obama’s suave progressivism and Trump’s coarse conservatism. Here are 10 takeaways from our current controversies.
...The Western world is in turmoil largely because of the widening gap between what the people see as true and the "truth" that their governing classes impose on them for the purported greater moral good. The result is a schizophrenia like that seen before the collapse of the Soviet Empire, in which no one believed that the reality they lived had anything to do with the reality delivered by the media and the state. Trumpism and popular movements in Europe are simply symptoms of another problem‐that what the ruling elite said was true was often a lie.
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.
[American Thinker] Sometimes an analogy is the best way to change minds. Commitment to one side in a debate can lock minds into a framework. But take the same principles and apply them to an analogous situation where the locked in prejudices don't apply, and the blinders can fall away.
[The Hill] Fox News host Shepard Smith on Monday poked at President Trump's war of words with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, joking that the U.S. may need "a northern wall."
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
