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Liz Sheld:
“…Night two of the Democrat presidential debate delivered as expected. There was no Spanish but mucho loco. During the first debate, the candidates were just trying to get some attention because many of them were unknown. On night two, the candidates attacked the president more explicitly and attacked one another because they are jockeying for a bump in the polls. G-d help us.
Biden was the big target because he’s the front runner and was mostly defending himself against his lack of wokeness. Back in his day, what the woke police considered woke was actually considered madness or mental illness. Times, they are a changin’…
…One thought that crossed my mind is how openly radical the Democrats have become compared to the 2016 campaign. Bernie was regarded as an extremist back then but they are all Bernie now. Free healthcare, free college, no borders, healthcare for illegal immigrants, radical economic policies to combat “climate change,” minimum wage hikes (sorry small businesses!), gun control (brain teaser: would the U.S. deport an illegal alien involved in a gun violence crime?), back into the Iran deal, back into the Paris Accords. Sounds like paradise. But how do you win a general election once you’ve come forward with these crazy policies?…
…The Democrats are in a bind: if they don’t nominate a nutter, their base will attack and won’t turn out to vote but unless they moderate their political positions, a large chunk of voters will be turned off. Good luck….”
You won’t know this fact.
Access to western markets and technology has not caused China to liberalise. On the contrary, the Chinese government lies, steals, takes advantage, and uses technology to suppress its people.
Gary McWilliams:
“…Huawei had sued CNEX in U.S. District Court in Sherman, Texas, for misappropriation of trade secrets involving a memory control technology and for poaching its employees. The jury rejected those claims, while finding a CNEX founder failed to notify the company of his patent filings.
CNEX filed a counter suit, alleging Huawei sought to steal its technology by posing as a customer and calling the original claims part of a pattern by Huawei to obtain others’ secrets. The jury found Huawei had misappropriated CNEX’s secrets but awarded no damages.
“This is a victory for the rule of law and for global standards of ethical corporate behavior,” said CNEX General Counsel Matthew Gloss. “This case was never about money.”
The United States has effectively banned its agencies from buying Huawei telecommunications equipment and barred U.S. companies from doing business with Huawei, claiming the firm represents a threat to national security…”
VIRGINIA KRUTA:
“…Actress Nancy Lee Grahn cropped the time and date from a photo she posted Friday to blame Trump for something that actually occurred during the Obama administration.
Grahn, best known for her roles on “Santa Barbara” and “General Hospital,” tweeted photos of children wrapped in aluminum emergency blankets and huddled together in an immigration detention center, claiming that their “torture” was the result of President Donald Trump’s immigration policies…”
There are so many headlines nowadays that occupy the gray area between crazy-town and just-possibly-true that it is becoming harder and harder to tell the difference between satire and truth. Another example of this phenomenon is below.
Soldiers from A Co, 116 Brigade Engineer Battalion, position their M1150 Assault Breacher Vehicle during a live-fire training exercise at the National Training Center (NTC) in Fort Irwin, Calif., June 12, 2019. The M1150 is a U.S. military mine and explosives clearing vehicle, equipped with a mine-plough and line charges.
Victor Davis Hanson:
“…The latest American–Iranian standoff is not like that of 1979–1981, when theocratic revolutionaries removed the Shah, stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran, and took American hostages for 444 days — and humiliated America.
Iran fears there are now no such American liabilities. Forty years later, America has no presence in Iran. It has long since given up on bringing Tehran back into the Western fold.
There are no Americans in Iran to be kidnapped, and no Iranian allies inside Iran to be saved. Iran has no leverage over the United States, at least not as it did in 1979.
Nor is the current confrontation reminiscent of the 2003–2011 tensions in the region. The United States is not fighting a ground war in the Middle East, much less one on the border of Iran.
The U.S. no longer believes in nation-building the autocratic Middle East into Western-style democracies. American troops are not in jeopardy from Iranian ground attacks. Americans have no financial or psychological capital invested in liberalizing Iraq, much less Iran and its environs.
Nor is the situation like the chronic Iranian tensions of the last 40 years, in which an oil-dependent U.S. feared Iran’s closing the Strait of Hormuz, or the sudden cutoff of imported oil, ensuring Nixon-era gas lines.
America is now the largest producer of gas and oil in the world, soon to be the largest exporter as well. The U.S. economy is booming. Iran’s is imploding.
The economies of China, Japan, and Europe depend on the free flow of Middle Eastern oil. But China is currently in a trade war of nerves with the United States. An appeasing Europe doesn’t have the desire to help ramp up sanctions on Iran to prevent its nuclearization, nor is it eager to accede to U.S. entreaties to increase defense spending and enhance the NATO alliance. Japan is trying to deny Iranian aggression in fear that the global oil market might spike on news of Persian Gulf tensions.
In other words, both allies and enemies expect the United States to ensure that their shipping and their oil are safe.
Nor are we too concerned for our longtime ally Israel with regard to Iran. An impoverished Iran is bereft of allies and remains an international pariah, desperate to sell its embargoed oil to any rogue autocracy shameless enough to buy it. Israel is nuclear and has never been militarily stronger. It is now self-sufficient in oil and gas.
Israel has forged new ties with China, Russia, and the European Union, and renewed its traditionally close relationship with the United States. Iran’s neighbors in the Arab world are either in a mess or clandestinely allied with Israel. The Palestinian Authority and Hamas have never been weaker vis-à-vis Israel.
Time is on the American side. Each day Iran grows weaker and poorer, and the U.S. stronger and richer…”
Does a trans-female have a womb? Is this borderline insane? This from a democratic candidate for President of the United States during a televised national debate.