Showing posts with label World. Show all posts
Showing posts with label World. Show all posts

Sunday, April 07, 2013

Sharia vs. Freedom: Qantas Edition [Dan from New York]

Dan from New York writes:

Islam means "Submission." Now notice who is obliged to submit in this purely secular relationship.


Telegraph (UK), 4/7/2013

Pigs can't fly - Qantas bans pork on in-flight menu to respect Islam


Saturday, April 06, 2013

HEH: Kim Jong-un Joins Swedish Morning Show

North Korea's pudgy, psychopathic, mass-murdering dictator Kim Jong-un appears to have a hobby:

Steven J. Gibbons points us to this “Unfortunate background graphic on Swedish morning TV.”


Un speaks Swedish? Who knew?


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

Friday, April 05, 2013

PARTY ON, BARTH: Kim Jong-un targets Japan and U.S. with ballistic nukes as Obama parties and fundraises

Say, do you remember Hillary Clinton's anti-Obama commercials that depicted a hypothetical President Barack sleeping through a 3am emergency call?

Here's the President's schedule this week interspersed with some minor, inconsequential events like a foreign power declaring nuclear war on the U.S.


Back to Hillary Clinton's 3am commercials. Hell, she could have depicted the phone ringing at 3pm or any other damn time of day.

This president couldn't care less. His priorities are sleeping, partying, giving speeches, fundraising, and destroying the country -- starting with the Bill of Rights. Pretty much in that order. As the assassination of our ambassador to Libya proved and this week's troubling events confirm.


Hat tip: BadBlue Uncensored News.

Thursday, April 04, 2013

1933: American Cyprus

It's hard to believe that Franklin Delano Roosevelt was able to pull this off without an insurrection.

While people around the world may be appalled at the actions of the Cyprus government to close their banks and confiscate a portion of certain accounts, many in America claim it “will not happen here.” Perhaps they are correct for at least the immediate future, but far worse was done to Americans in 1933 and it could happen again.

On April 5, 1933, approximately one month after first taking office, Franklin D. Roosevelt commanded, via Executive Order No. 6102, “All persons are hereby required to deliver on or before May 1, 1933, to a Federal reserve bank … all gold coin, gold bullion and gold certificates now owned by them or coming into their ownership on or before April 28, 1933[.]”

By his executive order Roosevelt deprived Americans of their property “without due process of law” under the Fifth Amendment. To add injury to insult, he also ordered up to a $10,000 fine or ten years in prison or both for anyone who willfully violated any provision of his executive order.

America was deep into a financial crisis of its own at the time, known as the Great Depression, and his executive order was his chosen method for resolving it...

...In 1933, US paper currency, the Federal Reserve Note (FRN), was backed by gold, which required by law all banks to provide gold on demand to their depositors in exchange for FRNs. Since banks did not hold enough gold to meet the demands of the depositors who had lost confidence in the banks, the banks would have to liquidate their business to pay back the gold they owed.

By making it illegal for American citizens to own gold after May 1, 1933, Roosevelt gave the banks a “legal” recourse to default on their contractual agreements. Roosevelt saved the banks by confiscating the gold from American citizens and having Fort Knox built, at tax payer expense, ... store the gold he stole. His decree, in effect, made the normal, unavoidable uses of money a justification for “the seizure of that money from its rightful owners, in order supposedly to “protect the currency system” of the people based on”[1] the money he was confiscating.

Roosevelt used the term “hoarding” to describe the actions of people who lost confidence in their banks and withdrew the gold they had deposited in them. “What Roosevelt actually had in mind, but did not dare say in so many words, was that as a practical matter “hoarding” meant “withdraw[ing] and withholding” gold from the banks – and that therefore [our] gold could be confiscated in the bank’s interests...

If any of this sounds vaguely familiar, it is because similar actions were taken in the 2008-2009 bank bailouts in the United States. The only difference is that instead of gold confiscated from American citizens, the national government confiscated future earnings via liabilities placed against future tax revenue to bail out the banks.

Why should you care?

Well, earlier today Japan opened up a new front in the currency wars by announcing it will print money at a rate unseen since the days of the Weimar Republic.

The easiest prediction I've ever made? This won't end well.


The Run on Italy's Banks Has Officially Begun

The CEO of UniCredit, Italy's largest bank, says that Cypriot-style "haircuts" on bank deposits are "acceptable". Oh, and that said practice should become a model for salvaging banking executives' seven-figure bonus payments. You know, the same bankers whose investments have literally destroyed the balance sheets of countless financial institutions.

And how have Italians reacted?

Curious why so little has been said about cash flowing out of Italy's banks, especially when even UniCredit's CEO today proudly warned everyone he is all for confiscating uninsured deposits as long as "everyone else is doing it" - and no, he is not kidding, so when it does happen, nobody will be able to say they weren't warned ... Maybe it is because Italian cash is actually not leaving the country at all. Instead, real "wealth" is departing the boot-shaped nation, quietly and under the radar, as fast as it can in another form: gold...

As we can see illustrated in this example of capital flight.

Italian finance police had a lucky find on Easter Sunday during a routine check of a family car crossing into Switzerland: they discovered gold ingots worth about €4.5 million (CHF5.5 million) concealed in false compartments... The car was driven by a 53-year-old Italian resident of the Swiss canton of Ticino, described by the police as the legal representative of a Swiss company.

He was travelling with his wife and three children, apparently going for an Easter trip.

The police decided to examine the car more thoroughly when they saw how nervous the family looked. They found 12 gold bars wrapped up in newspaper hidden under the seats.

The driver “was unable to provide an explanation or to show a legitimate source for this large quantity of precious metal”, the police in Ponte Chiasso said. He and his wife gave “evasive answers”.

The man was immediately charged with money laundering. The ingots and the car were seized. Investigations are continuing into the source and destination of the gold.

There has been an upsurge in the smuggling of gold from Italy to Switzerland in the past few months since the Italian authorities launched a campaign against tax evasion and money laundering.

Truly portable wealth comes in very few forms. Gold has served in that role since the beginning of recorded history. And it has the added benefit of escaping the banksters' clutching fingers, seeing as they're admitting that QE-Infinity has about as much chance of succeeding as Obamacare.

Tyler Durden summarizes with the rhetorical question, "did we mention the confiscated product was gold: not euros, not Cypriot euros, not dollars, not palladium, not bitcoin... gold?"


A Growing Jihadist Threat in Europe [Stratfor]

By Scott Stewart, Stratfor Research Vice President of Analysis, and Sidney Brown

On March 26, the Belgian federal police's counterterrorism force, or Special Units, conducted a felony car stop on Hakim Benladghem, a 39-year-old French citizen of Algerian extraction. When Benladghem reacted aggressively, he was shot and killed by the police attempting to arrest him. The Special Units chose to take Benladghem down in a car stop rather than arrest him at his home because it had intelligence indicating that he was heavily armed. The authorities also knew from their French counterparts that Benladghem had been trained as a paratrooper in the French Foreign Legion.

Additional intelligence showed that Benladghem had traveled extensively and that, through his travels and email and cellphone communications, he appeared to be connected to the international jihadist movement. Rather than risk a confrontation at Benladghem's apartment, where he had access to an arsenal of weapons as well as a ballistic vest and helmet, the police decided to arrest him while he was away from home and more vulnerable. The Belgian authorities did not want to risk a prolonged, bloody siege like the one that occurred in April 2012 in Toulouse, France, when French police attempted to arrest shooter Mohammed Merah.

The intelligence regarding Benladghem's arsenal was confirmed when a search of his apartment revealed several weapons, including an assault rifle, a submachine gun and a tactical shotgun. He also possessed a large collection of tactical equipment, including a ballistic vest, a Kevlar helmet, a ballistic shield and two gas masks. With such equipment and training, Benladghem would have been well-equipped to not only handle an assault on his apartment but also to conduct an armed assault -- intelligence indicating that he was preparing to conduct such an attack March 27 is reportedly what led the police to try to arrest him. Authorities are still closely guarding the identities of Benladghem's targets, but given France's involvement in the case, it is likely they were transnational in nature; there are a number of such targets in Brussels, which houses NATO and EU headquarters.

Belgian authorities are now undoubtedly working with their European and other allies to investigate Benladghem's contacts in order to determine the scope of the network he was a part of and what threat his associates still pose. This potential threat is a reminder of the challenges that radicalized European Muslims present for European authorities.

Wednesday, April 03, 2013

THE CAUSE OF NORTH KOREA'S BELLICOSITY? Two of Kim Jong-un's Attack Submarines are Missing

Wondering why North Korea, after decades of low-level trouble-making, has escalated its rhetoric to "Condition Red"?


Perhaps two missing attack subs might explain it.

Chosun TV is reporting that South Korean military have lost contact with two North Korean submarines that left their naval base in Hwanghae Province a few days ago.


There has obviously been a lot of changes between last week and now and South Korean military officials suggested that while maneuvers in February were nothing meaningful, now it is provocation.

The two 'torpedo' subs are small 130-ton, 30-meter, 10-man machines that can stay submerged for three-to-four days.

If the situation wasn't so dicey, it would be hilarious. The same Democrats who condemned missile defense for decades -- beginning with ridiculing Reagan's SDI as "Star Wars" -- are now scurrying around trying to find Patriot-style systems to keep their own skins safe.

Pathetic, unpatriotic pond-scum. Which is why the Democrat Party is not-so-fondly known as the Party of Weakness.

Reports: ING Bank Accounts Suffering From Catastrophic Errors

Twitter was ablaze earlier today with reports that global super-bank ING was suffering from catastrophic accounting errors, with some Dutch accounts incorrectly showing negative balances and others registering millions of Euros.


Several of the comments (translated by Google):

• "Problem solved. Before you look through - €1.3M"

• "Say # ING, where the f * ck is my money now gone?"

• "Balance for the third time changed today # ING"

• "Thanks ING from € 500, - to € 2,317,650 in the bank. - on the couch! Hope it also remains after jam! # ing # error "


Unconfirmed reports claim that the errors -- along with banking problems at the Netherlands' Rabobank -- are the result of a cyber-attack:

From top level sources I can confirm to you what you are seeing is an emerging pattern of various beta-tests using Stuxnet like algorithms to affect the banking networks the world over.

Although unsubstantiated, the reports have some level of credibility as the global banking system has been under a concerted series of attacks for the last several weeks.


Sunday, March 31, 2013

North Korean Deklaration of Konflict Kaption Kontest

North Korea announced Saturday that it has entered a state of war against South Korea. In a special statement, the North said it will deal with every inter-Korean issue in a wartime manner.

Therefore Zero Hedge is running the obligatory caption contest with this gem:


The best captions thus far?

• "...and the last nuke is for Florida Gulf Coast University for busting my NCAA bracket."
• "Why would I want billions, when I can have millions? How do you spell 'War'?"
• "For the love of God, where's Rodman?"

• "Anyone notice the iMac on his desk!? Long live Jobs!"
• "...and clam chowder, and a large bowl of chili con carne, and a side order of bacon, with sour cream, and cream-filled doughnuts, ice cream with marshmallow topping, and chocolate syrup, and..."
• "Wasn't he the guy that made that Gangnam Style video?"

• "Dear Un, if you are going to take a shot, aim at the District of Criminals."
• "Hory shit! According to my carcurations, I rost f---ing errything in Cyprus! Damn you, Deeser-broom!!! Damn you straight to herr!!!"
• Is that a Bic pen he is using to plot the overthrow of western civilization?

• "Dear Pen Pal, I was so happy to get your letter. I have just returned home from a trip to threaten the world powers. I am 30 years old and have worked really hard to destabilize the region. It has been very difficult to carry on ever since my father died..."
• "Dear Steve, My dogs and I were working on this new nuke project plan, but every time I try the save on iCloud, I get 'Server not found - check your internet connection'. What is going on? Also what is this yellow cable for? Un"

• "Hmmm... So I can save money if I use FedEx"
• "It took me like three hours to finish the shading on your upper lip. It's probably the best drawing I've ever done."
• "Let's see ... they have three longbowmen to my two horse archers. They get additional strength for city defense. I'm going to need the war elephants."


Related: Don't miss The 15 Funniest Staged Kim Jong-un Military Photos.


The Hegemony of the U.S. Dollar as the World's Reserve Currency Coming to a Quick and Untimely End [Cary]

Guest post by Lee Cary:

It’s happening incrementally – the unwinding of the U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency. We're seeing trading countries strike reciprocal alignments to exchange each others currencies and not deal in the USD. And it’s picking up speed. Not overnight – but the end of the USD’s dominance is coming faster than we’re prepared for as a nation. And the media is largely silent on the topic. Go figure.

Thanks, World Reserve Currency, But No Thanks: Australia And China To Enable Direct Currency Convertibility

Over the weekend, Australia appears to have come to the same conclusion, with the Australian reporting that the land down under is set to say goodbye to the world's "reserve currency" in its trade dealings with the world's biggest marginal economic power, China, and will enable the direct convertibility of the Australian dollar into Chinese yuan, without US Dollar intermediation, in the process "slashing costs for thousands of business" and also confirming speculation that China is fully intent on, little by little, chipping away at the dollar's reserve currency status until one day it no longer is.

That said, this latest development in global currency relations should come as no surprise to those who have followed our series on China's slow but certain  internationalization of its currency over the past two years. To wit: "World's Second (China) And Third Largest (Japan) Economies To Bypass Dollar, Engage In Direct Currency Trade", "China, Russia Drop Dollar In Bilateral Trade", "China And Iran To Bypass Dollar, Plan Oil Barter System", "India and Japan sign new $15bn currency swap agreement", "Iran, Russia Replace Dollar With Rial, Ruble in Trade, Fars Says", "India Joins Asian Dollar Exclusion Zone, Will Transact With Iran In Rupees", and "The USD Trap Is Closing: Dollar Exclusion Zone Crosses The Pacific As Brazil Signs China Currency Swap."


Last week, it was China and Brazil.

China and Brazil agree currency trade deal

China and Brazil have agreed to trade the equivalent of up to $30 billion per year in their own currencies, moving to take almost half of their exchanges out of the dollar zone.

The three-year swap line agreement, signed before the start of a BRICS nations summit in South Africa, marked a step by the two largest economies in the group to change global trade flows long dominated by the US and Europe.


It was suggested as a goal early in the first Obama term when Tim Geithner let it slip (then backed off) that it wouldn’t be a bad thing to happen.


15 Funniest Staged Kim Jong-un Military Photos

I don't know where these photos came from (they were emailed to me without attribution), but my guess is they don't do what they're supposed to do. That is, if the intent was to strike fear into the hearts of imperialistic running-dog lackeys otherwise known as Americans.

"So if you hit the asteroid with one of your missiles, it breaks apart like this."

"I'll be damned!  It is David Hasselhoff!"

"Hey, schmucks: does the lack of tread-marks anywhere on this field mean what I think it does?"

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Your Amusingly Juxtaposed Illegal Immigration Headlines o' the Day

For your consideration:

Napolitano Expects Fees to Cover Immigration Reforms: "[The DHS head] said the costs of some of the key reforms backed by the administration would not be borne by taxpayers, but by the immigrants who opt to pursue any new pathway to citizenship enacted into law..."

Most Illegal Immigrant Families Collect Welfare: "Census Bureau data reveals that most U.S. families headed by illegal immigrants use taxpayer-funded welfare programs [and even] before the recession, immigrant households with children used welfare programs at consistently higher rates than natives."

Border security in exchange for immigration reform? Napolitano says no deal: "Napolitano’s comments were one more bit of evidence, if Republicans needed any, that the Obama administration does not intend to make enhanced border security a precondition of immigration reform."


Obama Leaves Border Open and Guardless After Sequester: "The border is about to become 25% less secure. Agents will no longer work a full ten hour shift. Thereby leaving the border unattended, naked, for up to two hours at a time during each shift change."

As if to highlight this egregious and criminal behavior, an illegal alien climbed an 18-foot fence right in front of the nitwit "Gang of Schmucks" (which is the phrase they prefer, I hear) who happened to be visiting.


By the way, the fact that illegals can waltz into the country without any sort of scrutiny does not mean you can fly from Dallas to Des Moines without getting a fondlectomy.


Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Stratfor warns: "Any solution [to the European financial crisis] will involve the loss of depositors' money"

By George Friedman, Founder and Chairman, Stratfor Research

The European economic crisis has taken different forms in different places, and Cyprus is the latest country to face the prospect of financial ruin. Overextended banks in Cyprus are teetering on the brink of failure for issuing loans they cannot repay, which has prompted the tiny Mediterranean country, a member of the European Union, to turn to Brussels for help. Late Sunday, the European Union and Cypriot president announced new terms for a bailout that would provide the infusion of cash necessary to prevent bankruptcies in Cyprus' banking sector and, more important, prevent a banking panic from spreading to the rest of Europe.

What makes this crisis different from the previous bailouts for Greece, Ireland or elsewhere are the conditions Brussels has attached for its assistance. Due to circumstances unique to Cyprus, namely the questionable origin of a large chunk of the deposits in its now-stricken banking sector and that sector's small size relative to the overall European economy, the European Union, led by Germany, has taken a harder line with the country. Cyprus has few sources of capital besides its capacity as a banking shelter, so Brussels required that the country raise part of the necessary funds from its own banking sector -- possibly by seizing money from certain bank deposits and putting it toward the bailout fund. The proposal has not yet been approved, but if enacted it would undermine a formerly sacred principle of banking in most industrial nations -- the security of deposits -- setting a new and possibly destabilizing precedent in Europe.

Monday, March 25, 2013

Department of Education Quotes Genocidal Maniac on its Website

But there's nothing to cut in the federal government!

The Department of Education has come under fire for showcasing an ‘inspirational quote’ from the Chinese dictator Mao Zedong on its site ‘Kids Zone’ which is produced by it’s auxiliary organization the National Center for Education Statistics.

‘Our attitude towards ourselves should be ‘to be satiable in learning’ and towards others ‘to be tireless in teaching.”


Red State, a conservative blog, took to Twitter to point out that Mao Zedong ‘murdered 65 million people...'

After a ruckus was raised, the quote was quickly expunged.

You may recall that former Obama Communications Director Anita Dunn was also an unabashed admirer of Mao. Whether she found his human rights record or his commitment to religious tolerance most appealing is currently unclear.


Hat tip: BadBlue Uncensored News.

Sunday, March 24, 2013

The Next Phase of the Financial Meltdown in Cyprus: an "Unimaginable" and Vicious Policy is Being Considered

The editor-in-chief of the Greek newspaper Ekathimerini asserts that an "unimaginable" solution is on the table.

The main question surrounds the future of the island’s largest lender, Bank of Cyprus. If unsecured deposits (above 100,000 euros) at all Cypriot banks are taxed then large savings at Bank of Cyprus are likely to be taxed between 20 and 25 percent. If the levy is not imposed on deposits at other lenders, the haircut for Bank of Cyprus customers will be much larger.


The option of a full bail in of Bank of Cyprus depositors is still on the table. As with the Popular Bank of Cyprus (Laiki), which is to go through a resolution process, the full bail in option could lead to deposits above 100,000 euros being lost. The only compensation for unsecured depositors will be shares in the “good” bank that will be created by a possible merger between the "healthy" Laiki and Bank of Cyprus entities.

Just a week ago the entire financial world shuddered when Cypriot banks were to "tax" (i.e., steal) 12 to 15 percent of deposits.

Now the act of total confiscation of these accounts is on the table.

This is lawlessness. And Statist cheerleaders like Henry Blodget and Paul Krugman support the policies that will bring Cyprus to our shores.


Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Drug Cartels Now Control the Southern Border So Thoroughly That U.S. Media is Too Scared to Report on Border Crime

JudicialWatch reports that the U.S. southern border is so porous -- and violent illegals so prevalent here -- that American media has been frightened into submission.

Mexican, U.S. Media Too Scared To Cover Border Crime


Violence along the southern border has gotten so out of control that both Mexican and American journalists have stopped reporting it out of fear that drug cartels will retaliate against them and their families.

This means Americans will be kept in the dark about the crisis along the porous and increasingly dangerous Mexican border. We certainly can’t expect the truth from the government. Remember that the nation’s Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, insists that the region is “as secure as it has ever been.” This delusional assessment has been repeated by Napolitano over and over again in a seemingly desperate effort to make people believe it.

...First Mexican journalists dropped like flies, either as victims of drug-cartel violence or out of fear, and stopped reporting crime in the region. U.S. journalists located in American border cities soon followed and have stopped reporting on drug-related violence.

“Mexican journalists, because of fear for their own lives and the safety of their families, are increasingly reluctant to cover drug cartels’ violence and mayhem,” according to Lee Maril, the director of the Center for Diversity and Inequality Research (CDIR)... "What has occurred in recent months is that American reporters located in American border cities also have stopped reporting on drug-related violence across the border for the same reasons as their Mexican counterparts.”

That means no one really knows the true magnitude of the violence, though it’s apparent that the U.S. government is downplaying it. “It would seem that drug violence only stops at the Mexican border in the imaginations of Washington politicians,” Maril says, offering a recent example in Reynosa, the twin border city of McAllen in south Texas. A small local newspaper reporter dared to publish this: “Fear and panic filled the streets as rival gunmen battled during a three-hour firefight that saw automatic weapons and grenades used.”

Judicial Watch has for years reported on the discrepancy between reality and the administration’s line that the Mexican border is secure. The truth is that overwhelmed federal agents are increasingly attacked by heavily armed drug smugglers and the U.S. Border Patrol has ordered officers to avoid the most crime-infested stretches because they’re “too dangerous” and patrolling them could result in an “international incident” of cross border shooting.

The violence has inevitably spilled into U.S. communities near the southern border, forcing local law enforcement agencies to create special units dedicated to combating criminal activity related to illegal immigration and Mexican drug cartels. In the absence of federal action, border crime has risen sharply in the last decade and will only get worse, according to statistics provided to congressional leaders by frustrated Arizona authorities.

To sum things up:

• The Obama administration is preventing states like Arizona from enforcing immigration laws and reducing attendant violent crime.

• It is also trying to prevent states like Arizona from enforcing voter ID laws to ensure only legal citizens are able to cast ballots.

• And now that millions of illegal aliens are here -- including tens or hundreds of thousands of violent gang members -- the White House is letting them loose on our streets and insisting we put them on a path to citizenship (while keeping the border wide open).

Is it okay to question the Democrats' patriotism yet?


Image hat tip: PoliceMag.com.

White House Approves Program Allowing Saudi Citizens To Bypass Normal Airport Security, Wounded Marines Not So Much

As Weasel Zippers observes, "Because only 15 of the 19 hijackers on 9/11 came from the Wahhabi kingdom:"

Special Travel Benefit for Saudis a "Slap in the Face"


Saudi Arabia, the nation which produced 15 of the 19 hijackers in the 9/11 attacks, is about to become one of a handful of countries whose travelers can bypass normal passport controls at major U.S. airports. Sources tell the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) that this will mark the first time that the Saudi government will have a direct role in vetting who is eligible for getting fast-tracked for entry into the United States.

An agreement to accept Saudi Arabian applicants into the Global Entry trusted traveler program drew little notice when it was announced in January. Now, some officials question why the country merits such a benefit – which is similar to a theme park “fast pass” to avoid long lines – when other allies like Germany and France are not yet included...

Travelers approved for the program can skip the normal Customs and Border Protection (CBP) lines starting next year and enter the country after providing their passports and fingerprints at a kiosk. Only Canada, Mexico, South Korea and the Netherlands currently enjoy the benefit...

Would that the White House have as much concern for our military personnel:

TSA agents 'humiliated' wounded Marine with aggressive inspection: report


Transportation Security Administration inspectors forced a wounded Marine who lost both of his legs in an IED blast and who was in a wheelchair to remove his prosthetic legs at one point, and at another point to stand painfully on his legs while his wheelchair was examined, according to a complaint a congressman has registered with the TSA.

Rep. Duncan Hunter said in his letter Monday that the Marine, who is still on active duty and showed TSA agents his military identification, was still forced to undergo that scrutiny.

“A TSA office asked the Marine to stand and walk to an alternate area, despite the fact that he physically could not stand or walk on his own. With numerous TSA officers sitting and unwilling to assist, an officer then made him remove his legs, then put them back on, only to advance to a secondary screening location where he was asked again to stand, with extraordinary difficult, while his wheelchair was examined for explosives,” Mr. Hunter said.

He also said TSA officers initially directed the Marine to the wrong line, then made him move lines but made no effort to help him. The incident occurred at Phoenix’s Sky Harbor airport last week, as a group of Marines was returning to San Diego.

Mr. Hunter included two photos of the inspection in his letter that appear to show a TSA agent patting down the Marine’s arm and examining the prosthetic leg.

It's all about priorities with this administration.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

RESET: White House Map of Israel Uses Pre-1967 "Holocaust Borders"

How many wars have been fought and tens of thousands of Israeli lives lost fighting for the tiny strip of land that is the last bastion of Western Civilization in the Middle East? Not enough, it would seem, for the Obama administration that has decided to travel back in time to the early 20th century.

The map of the Middle East displayed in an Obama administration video released days before President Barack Obama’s visit to Israel shows the Jewish state dispossessed of substantial parts of its current territory, including its capital.

The map of Israel, displayed repeatedly during the video, shows the Golan Heights, Jerusalem, northern Israel, and areas surrounding what is currently the West Bank as non-Israeli territory...

The Golan Heights is shown as part of Syria; Jerusalem is shown as part of the West Bank; and northern Israel is shown as part of Lebanon... The itinerary on the White House website also implies that Jerusalem is neither Israel’s capital nor even part of Israel.

The president’s schedule lists two stops in “Tel Aviv, Israel” and one in “Amman, Jordan” but his activities in Israel’s capital city are identified as taking place only in “Jerusalem” — with no country name attached.

If the Obama administration wants to return the Middle East borders to those of the early 20th century, I say: let's start with Saudi Arabia!


Hat tip: Mark Levin.

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

A New Reality in U.S.-Israeli Relations [Stratfor Research]

Guest post by George Friedman, Founder and Chairman of Stratfor Research

U.S. President Barack Obama is making his first visit to Israel as president. The visit comes in the wake of his re-election and inauguration to a second term and the formation of a new Israeli government under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Normally, summits between Israel and the United States are filled with foreign policy issues on both sides, and there will be many discussed at this meeting, including Iran, Syria and Egypt. But this summit takes place in an interesting climate, because both the Americans and Israelis are less interested in foreign and security matters than they are in their respective domestic issues.

In the United States, the political crisis over the federal budget and the struggle to grow the economy and reduce unemployment has dominated the president's and the country's attention. The Israeli elections turned on domestic issues, ranging from whether the ultra-Orthodox would be required to serve in Israel Defense Forces, as other citizens are, to a growing controversy over economic inequality in Israel.

Inwardness is a cyclic norm in most countries. Foreign policy does not always dominate the agenda and periodically it becomes less important. What is interesting is at this point, while Israelis continue to express concern about foreign policy, they are most passionate on divisive internal social issues. Similarly, although there continues to be a war in Afghanistan, the American public is heavily focused on economic issues. Under these circumstances the interesting question is not what Obama and Netanyahu will talk about but whether what they discuss will matter much.

GULP: Nigel Farage to Europeans: "Get Your Money Out While You Can"

Nigel Farage is a conservative British politician and an elected member of the European Parliament. Farage has been a longstanding critic of the EU and its fragile monetary structure, but even he was taken aback at the announcement that they would seize Cypriots' bank deposits.

What's really happening here is that we have an irreconcilable split between the north and south of Europe. In particular I'm thinking about Germany, the Netherlands, and Finland and there are very strong political voices saying, 'We do not want to go on bailing out southern European countries.' And bear in mind that Cyprus is now the fifth country out of 17 that's needed to be bailed out. And that is why the Germans extracted the terms that they did...

Even in my direst predictions of this parliament over the years -- about the way the EU bosses were behaving -- never did I think that they would resort, in an unprecedent manner, to stealing money from people's bank accounts...


[The EU] can't afford Cyprus to fail, it can't afford Greece to fail, Portugal, Spain, or Ireland. They know that if one country goes, the whole house of cards will come tumbling down. And countries like Germany will realize vast losses, possibly as much as one trillion Euros. So they are prepared now to do anything -- literally anything -- to try and keep the Euro afloat and that is why they've now resorted to, as I say, as what can only be described as theft.

And now they've done it one country, they're quite capable of doing it in Italy, Spain, Portugal, or anywhere else. And the message that sends to people with savings in banks in those countries is, certainly if I was them, get your money out while you can...

What the British government needs to do is to say to the hundreds of thousands of pensioners living in Spain is, for goodness sake, get your money out of that country and have a monthly transfer to pay your bills...

[The message is] Don't invest in the Eurozone. Do. Not. Invest. In the Eurozone. You've got to be mad to do so, because it's now run by people who don't respect democracy, don't respect the rule of law, don't respect the basic principles upon which Western Civilization is supposed to be based.

They are propping up a Eurozone that is, in the end, going to collapse in a disastrous failure and they're prepared to do anything to do so. I think this decision... the German-dominated nature of this decision... is the worst decision we've seen so far in this whole Eurozone crisis.

In what is perhaps a simple coincidence, Germany's Commerzbank has helpfully suggested a 15 percent wealth tax in Italy to drive government debt down to "acceptable" levels.