Monthly Archives: January 2023

It’s Global?

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HHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told the crowd at a DC conclave of city mayors that “global migration” is a…global…thing.

The challenge of migration is not unique to the United States nor to the border communities that confront it every day….
Around the world, there are more displaced people than at any time since World War II. Mass migration has gripped our hemisphere.

So, just suck up and deal. Tell that to the Progressive-Democratic mayors of Chicago and New York City, Lori Lightfoot and Eric Adams, though.

And, no. Migration may be global, but the hugely broad illegal alien flow into our nation is a national problem. Hiding behind global-ness is either dishonest or cowardly. Or both.

Time to Cut Turkey Loose

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Turkey—its President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, anyway—objects to the Swedish government decision to not investigate a Kurdish protest in Stockholm over the protestors having committed no crime. Erdoğan has been threatening to block Sweden’s accession to NATO (which requires unanimous consent of the members) if Sweden doesn’t treat the Kurds IAW Erdoğan’s demands, Swedish law be damned. The present case is no exception. Erdoğan’s panties are especially wedgied because the protestors hung his effigy from a lamppost in central Stockholm.

It’s time to be done with Erdoğan’s preciousness and his hurted feelings. Turkey needs to be removed from NATO altogether. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has shown himself, for long enough, to be no friend and to be an unreliable ally and NATO member. NATO needs figure out how to expel Turkey from NATO, and get it done.

And don’t worry about Turkey’s control of the outlet from the Black Sea and Erdoğan’s sub rosa support for Russia. The straits at both ends of that outlet are narrow and easily plugged if needs be.

Not Charismatic Enough

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…to be President. That’s the Left’s journalism take on Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R).

For instance:

Politico columnist Jonathan Martin quoted Republican donor Francis Rooney calling DeSantis “a little reserved and dry” compared to past presidents….

The horror.

CNN‘s John King:

One of the questions for Ron DeSantis is he’s not a backslapper. He is not a glad-handler [sic].

Oh, my.

And so it goes on the Left. They do like President Joe Biden’s (D) charisma, though. He’s possessed of sufficient charisma that he reads his answers to press questions, he stumbles over his teleprompter prompts, he smirks and refuses to answer questions from the press. And this:

President Biden said Thursday he has “no regrets” about his handling of classified documents that were discovered at his home and former Washington, DC, office.

Because it’s charismatic to deliberately mishandle classified documents.

That’s the Left’s charisma.

Be Fair, Guys

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Even Jonathan Turley is misunderstanding President Joe Biden’s (D) Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre’s situation.

It is increasingly painful to watch Karine Jean-Pierre as she argues that they have been “transparent” by being transparently unwilling to answer any questions.

White House Press Secretaries are not free agents. Jean-Pierre is only saying what she’s been instructed beforehand to say by her boss. Her own failing, significant as it is and disqualifying as it should be, is that she stands up there and repeats her boss’ lies rather than have the moral strength of character to resign in lieu of repeating them.

It’s Time to Move Away…

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…from any reliance on Germany as a weapons supplier to allies. Or as an ally.

Germany is continuing to stonewall sending serious weapons to Ukraine and is openly blocking its fellow NATO members from sending those weapons they bought from Germany to Ukraine.

Germany won’t allow Poland and other allies to give those tanks [Leopard tanks that Germany sold Poland and so many others] until Washington agrees to provide Ukraine with a US-made equivalent, specifically M1 Abrams, aides to Mr Scholz said.

This is Scholz still terrified of Vladimir Putin looking angrily at him. It’s time for the rest of us to move on from the German arms industry. German weapons, no matter how good they might seem on the training grounds, are worthless if they cannot be passed on to those who need them in war. It’s time to move on from Germany as an ally. Skilled, industrious, and technologically and economically advanced as they are, they’re of no use in an alliance when those factors are not available to the rest of us, or to a nation fighting for its very existence on the German border.

Japan has a very excellent and skilled work force with a modern industrial base that can be plussed up to produce and sell modern, capable weapons systems for itself and allies and for nations like Ukraine and the Republic of China.

The Republic of Korea has a similarly excellent work force and modern industrial base. It also can ramp up and produce and sell modern, capable weapons systems. It’s also fully capable of developing its own nuclear weapons systems, and it’s starting to think seriously about that in light of Baby Kim’s rhetoric and weapons testing.

The Republic of China has an even greater technological capability to go with its own highly capable industrial capability.

Closer to the current front, Great Britain has extant the industrial and technological base and already is offering alternatives to the German Leopard to Ukraine.

Poland has an industrial base and labor force on which to build easily.

Any of the Baltic States have the technological chops to meld with Poland’s industrial production.

American arms are very good, but they’re overpriced—see the F-35 and F-22, especially vs the newly developing F-15EX. They’re also very fragile, with excessively extensive maintenance tails—see the M1 Abrams tank.

Germany can’t be taken seriously as an arms supplier or an ally, and it can’t be taken seriously under any guise vis-à-vis Russia (or the People’s Republic of China, come to that). It’s time to walk away from them.