22 Replies to “Reader Tips”

  1. The Berlin Wall fell, and the communists took over the west. We should never have let that wall come down.

  2. The last couple of threads do provide an interesting juxtaposition:
    The contrast between two creations from the human mind that could not be farther apart; the sublime beauty of the 9th symphony and a couple of threads later compare that with the ugly ideas that infect the minds of the communist thugs protesting in Portland.

  3. “The Death Rattle of Obama’s Reputation”
    “The members of Barack Obama’s administration in exile have become conspicuously noisy of late—even more so than usual.”
    “It’s no coincidence that these overheated condemnations accompany abundant evidence that the Trump administration is finding its legs. As the last administration’s undeserved reputation as sober-minded foreign policy rationalists is dismantled one retrospective report at a time, its jilted members are lashing out.”
    “Even as early as March of 2017, it was clear that the Obama administration’s foreign-policy professionals were quite insecure about how posterity would remember their stewardship of American interests abroad. They had every reason to be.”
    https://www.commentarymagazine.com/foreign-policy/the-death-rattle-of-obamas-foreign-policy-record-susan-rice/

  5. AGW RIP.
    Today’s AGW word: “Extreme” “Extreme” “Extreme”.
    …-
    “Global temperatures could drop next year as ash clouds from volcanic eruptions help cool the atmosphere, claims the Met Office
    Volcanic eruptions could bring down global temperatures, the Met Office says
    Forecasters have said that 2018 will be cooler than 2017 due to the La Nina event
    La Nina means cooler than average sea temperatures present in the south Pacific
    Volcanoes could bring this temperature down further due to the ash they emit” (dailymail)
    …-
    “Extreme Cold Warnings” (wawanews)
    “Extreme Cold Warning in Effect… Again” (NipawinNews)
    “Extreme cold warning issued for Calgary and southern Alberta” (ctv)
    …-
    “Coldest Christmas on record for Manitoba?”
    https://www.theweathernetwork.com/ca/weather/manitoba/winnipeg

  6. I remember a cartoon from the 25th anniversary of the Berlin Wall (1986).
    Two East German guards are in a watchtower looking out over the wall when one says to the other:
    “Just think, comrade, the wall has been a complete success! In 25 years, not one Western capitalist lackey has even dared to break through it into our beloved German Democratic Republic!”

  7. As the new year approaches I am hard pressed to determine the one moment that stands out as the one most pivotal to defining the year that was.
    In lieu of a final determination I offer:
    If trudeau is our Obama does that make Trump their Harper?
    Dec 2012
    https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/harper-honoured-in-ny-as-statesman-of-the-year-aims-to-snub-un/article4536110/
    Dec 2017 https://www.ctvnews.ca/mobile/politics/canada-abstains-from-un-jerusalem-vote-1.3731238

  8. “Explosion Occurs in Pipeline to Libya’s Biggest Oil Terminal”
    “Waha Oil output said to drop by 60,000 to 70,000 barrels a day
    OPEC nation’s production was about 1 million barrels a day”
    “Libya’s oil industry revival had a setback Tuesday as a pipeline carrying crude to the OPEC nation’s biggest export terminal had an explosion. Oil rallied.”
    …-
    “America’s Hottest Oil Play Just Needs a Few Thousand Truckers”
    “Permian Basin needs another 3,000 drivers as output surges
    Western edge of Permian has most acute trucker shortage”
    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-12-26/america-s-hottest-oil-play-just-needs-a-few-thousand-truckers

  9. That’s not so far-fetched.
    Many years ago, when I was an active shortwave listener, I sent a verification report to Radio Berlin International, which was the the GDR’s external broadcaster.
    I received a verification card along with some souvenirs. Among them was, understandably, some leftist/communist literature. If I recall correctly, they referred to “die Mauer” as an anti-fascist barrier. I had a good laugh when I glanced at the stuff.

  11. The Berlin Wall fell, and the communists took over the west. We should never have let that wall come down.
    My parents and I left Berlin several years before “die Mauer” was built. Since we were in the British sector, we had no problem coming over to Canada. And, no, none of us were communists.
    It was built to keep people from escaping to the west and its construction in 1961 nearly led to WW III. It was one of the few times in history that American forces were at DEFCON 2.
    Long before it opened, the west was already under the influence of communism. We, of course, had PET as PM and we know what his political leanings were. The French were enamored with socialist governments, the British elected a number of Labour PMs, and Sweden was left-leaning.
    Several countries in Latin America were socialist during the 1960s and ’70s. One example was Chile, with Salvador Allende being overthrown in the September 1973 coup.
    After the Portuguese government fell through a coup in 1974, it abandoned its African colonies. Mozambique turned socialist. The Angolan civil war was between communists backed by Cuba and forces supported by South Africa. Rhodesia went through its own civil war in the late 1970s, resulting in the left-leaning Robert Mugabe eventually taking power.
    Haile Selassie was overthrown in a coup early in 1974. A few years later, Ethiopia and Somalia (both of which were supplied with arms by the Soviet Union) fought each other for control of the Ogaden region of the horn of Africa.
    None of that can be attributed to the events in Berlin of November 9, 1989.

  13. Liberalism: choking on its own vile bile.
    …-
    “Mark Lilla tried to save liberalism from itself. Instead he became a punching bag, the Harry Potter-style, glasses-wearing personification of smug bourgeois centrism…” (aldaily)
    “Democratic Congressional Candidate Indicted in $803,000 Fraud, Embezzlement Case” (bbart)
    “The Tragedy of Liberalism” (hedgehog)
    …-
    “Tough Times for Liberals Mean It’s Time to Toughen Up
    Treasured institutions are reeling. Fixing them will require more than a pledge drive.”
    “The U.S. president, who turned out to be more vile and duplicitous than they even had imagined, may or may not be indicted within a year’s time. Meantime, the U.S. Congress is run by conservatives who, spurred by the greed of their donors and the fears of their base, are growing ever more comfortable telling blatant lies, preparing cover-ups and counter-narratives and overhauling the nation’s tax code in the manner of a Vegas caper — hidden from view with the cash to be divvied among the plunderers.
    So the federal government is hostile territory. Meanwhile, liberal safe havens, the places where a certain class of liberals goes for succor and strength, or even for a thoughtful diversion from a world teeming with Orcs, are in tumult.
    Everywhere, institutions that liberals rely on are drowning beneath a progressive wave of #metoo.”
    https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-12-26/tough-times-for-liberals-mean-it-s-time-to-toughen-up

  15. Trudeau does not have business meetings. He has “relationship sessions”
    Ah, but in a post-national state, relationship sessions are a necessity, aren’t they? After all, the budgets balance themselves and the economy is built out from the you-know-what.
    (Considering the way he’s going about it, I think his version of the economy is being built from another anatomical feature, but that’s another story.)

  16. AGW RIP.
    “smashing both local and state snowfall records”.
    …-
    “Another positive feature of global warming – less record breaking cold”
    “From the INSTITUTE OF ATMOSPHERIC PHYSICS, CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES and the “cold kills” department.” (WUWT)
    “Extreme Cold Warning in Effect For… Well… Almost Everywhere!” (nipawinews)
    …-
    “Lake-effect snow buried Pennsylvania’s fourth largest city under more than four feet of snow over Christmas, smashing both local and state snowfall records while hampering holiday travel around the Great Lakes.
    With snow falling at a rate of up to three inches per hour, the National Weather Service reported Erie, Pa., picked up 53 inches in a 30-hour period ending Tuesday morning.”
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/12/26/record-setting-christmas-storm-buries-pennsylvanias-fourth-largest-under-more-than-4-feet-of-snow/?utm_term=.034a5d4c174c

  17. The regulars at the Washington Post must all be on holidays. There is hearty endorsement of Trump invoking the Magnitsky Act to pursue international criminals.
    “There was understandable skepticism that the Trump team would enthusiastically enforce the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, signed by President Barack Obama in his final days in office, which authorizes the president to block visas and sanction individuals and entities from any country that abuses human rights or engages in “acts of significant corruption.” But the first-ever list of 51 such targets, announced by the State and Treasury departments on Dec. 21, was a clear sign the Trump administration is supporting the law and implementing it in good faith.
    The world’s worst crooks and killers should be running scared. The law and the executive order President Trump issued make it much easier for the U.S. government to single out and punish egregious cases of abuse.”
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/trump-puts-the-worlds-worst-crooks-and-killers-on-notice/2017/12/24/a4726488-e753-11e7-a65d-1ac0fd7f097e_story.html?utm_term=.24343107dff5
    Conservatives are pointing out that many of the individuals named have ties to the Clinton Foundation and/or pedophile/sex slave organizations. (could be why Schmidt is leaving Alphabet/Google).

  20. Simple: the Muslims “revere” Jesus as a Prophet; we Christians believe he is the Son of God. To them, our belief is blasphemy, as they believe in Allah alone.

  21. Both Moses and Christ are regarded as prophets in Islam and, yet, Jews and Christians are regarded as kaffirs.

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