Not Sure Why

Posted on 25 January 2022 by eehines

Finland and Sweden seem to be thinking about joining NATO in response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s overt aggression toward and threat of invasion of Ukraine.

Finland’s Prime Minister Sanna Marin:

We retain the option of applying for NATO membership. We should uphold this freedom of choice and make sure it remains a reality….

And

Sweden’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Anne Linde also asserted that Russia does not have a veto on whatever alliance Sweden chooses to join.

It’s hard, at this date, to see why either nation—or any other—would want to join NATO.

This is a preview of Not Sure Why. Read the full post (283 words, estimated 1:08 mins reading time)

Virtue-Signal Success

Posted on 25 January 2022 by eehines

Congressman Jamaal Bowman (D, NY) has finally arrived. He’s made the big time.

New York Democratic Jamaal Bowman was arrested Thursday alongside more than two-dozen other protesters at the U.S. Capitol as they demanded the Senate alter its 60-vote legislative filibuster pass key tenets of the lawmaker’s political party.
A Bowman spokesperson said the first-term congressman took part in a “voting rights non-violent direct action at the North Barricade of the US Capitol Building and was arrested by the US Capitol Police.”

Got his arrest record, now. He can put a star on his calendar and his arrest Certificate of Achievement on his hero wall in his office.

This is a preview of Virtue-Signal Success. Read the full post (168 words, estimated 40 secs reading time)

Talking Past Each Other

Posted on 24 January 2022 by eehines

Or one not taking the other seriously. The disconnect between President Joe Biden-Kamala Harris and Russian President Vladimir Putin—or the fact that Putin doesn’t take the Biden-Harris administration seriously—doesn’t get much more clearly demonstrated than by this lead image from a Friday Wall Street Journal article about continuing US-Russia “negotiations” regarding Ukraine.

This is a preview of Talking Past Each Other. Read the full post (110 words, 1 image, estimated 26 secs reading time)

NBC and “Perspective”

Posted on 24 January 2022 by eehines

NBC now says they’ll provide geopolitical context along with their coverage of the upcoming olympics [sic] doings in the People’s Republic of China.

…our coverage will provide perspective on China’s place in the world and the geopolitical context in which these Games are being held.

Tellingly, that claim comes only after prodding by members of Congress.

Sure, though. NBC will provide every syllable of the perspective the PRC government tells it to. And not a syllable else.

I’ll not be watching NBC while Beijing’s olympics are going on. Not during the coverage. Not during any other part of those days and weeks.

This is a preview of NBC and “Perspective”. Read the full post (227 words, estimated 54 secs reading time)

So What if it Is?

Posted on 23 January 2022 by eehines

Great Britain, in a move toward filling the vacuum left by President Joe Biden’s (D) dangerous timidity when facing Russian President Vladimir Putin, has sent serious arms into Ukraine to help that nation prepare for the coming Russian invasion. (It’s telling that Germany, dependent as it has sold itself into, on Russian energy, forced the British supply aircraft to fly around German airspace to get to Ukraine.)

Putin reacted to that and trotted out his Foreign Ministry’s spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, to object to plussing up Ukraine’s ability to defend itself. As cited by Fox News, she said that

This is a preview of So What if it Is?. Read the full post (202 words, estimated 48 secs reading time)

Flaw?

Posted on 22 January 2022 by eehines

The People’s Republic of China government requires everyone attending the Beijing Olympics next month to load a tracking app on their cell phones:

Those who attend the Olympics, including athletes and journalists, are required to download the app and upload their health and vaccination information to track potential outbreaks of COVID-19.

The Citizen Lab, based in the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, has identified what it terms a security flaw.

This is a preview of Flaw?. Read the full post (640 words, estimated 2:34 mins reading time)

Negotiating

Posted on 21 January 2022 by eehines

Ex-SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt Jr. had some thoughts on negotiating in his take on the relationship between the Biden-Harris White House and Congress. In one thought in particular, though, Levitt is badly…off.

Governance takes two. If a director opposed the CEO without proposing something better, he’d be ignored. In Washington, Republicans don’t seem interested in negotiating. … Republicans, you can oppose, but if you have an opportunity to shape policy, take it.

Levitt badly misunderstands. Progressive-Democrat Ocasio-Cortez openly hoped for Progressive-Democrat control of Senate explicitly so Party would not need to negotiate with Republicans.

This is a preview of Negotiating. Read the full post (295 words, estimated 1:11 mins reading time)

Visitor Logs

Posted on 21 January 2022 by eehines

President Joe Biden (D) refuses to release any visitor logs connected to visitors he has when he’s in Delaware—which is as much as a third of his time in office during his first year, just concluding. He’s defending that refusal, using the voice of his Press Secretary, Jen Psaki.

The president goes to Delaware because it’s his home. It’s also where his son and his former wife are buried, and it’s a place that is obviously close to his heart. A lot of presidents go visit their home when they are president.

This is a preview of Visitor Logs. Read the full post (203 words, estimated 49 secs reading time)

“It Depends on Uncle Sam”

Posted on 20 January 2022 by eehines

Without more help from Washington, electric-vehicle sales will struggle to live up to the stock-market hype.

That Wall Street Journal lede pretty much tells the tale.

And this:

If the new technology is to live up to high investor expectations, the global record suggests that the US will need to embrace subsidies.

It depends on Uncle Sam. As long as electric vehicles get subsidies of any sort—either on the manufacturing end or to buyers of them on the other end—these battery cars can never be mainstream. As long as they’re getting any sort of subsidy, battery cars are tautologically unready for market.

This is a preview of “It Depends on Uncle Sam”. Read the full post (160 words, estimated 38 secs reading time)

Inadequate

Posted on 20 January 2022 by eehines

Co-President Joe Biden-Kamala Harris are having trouble getting much of their political and (pseudo-)economic agenda passed. (Aside: failure isn’t a done deal; it would behoove the pundits on the right side of center to stop their crowing and predictions of landslide Republican elections in November.)

That’s not a failure of the agenda or of Biden-Harris or of Party managers in the House and Senate, though.

Not at all, insisted Paul Begala.

I think the problem for the Democrats right now is not that they have bad leaders. They have bad followers, okay?

And

This is a preview of Inadequate. Read the full post (314 words, estimated 1:15 mins reading time)

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Category Archives: politics

Not Sure Why

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Virtue-Signal Success

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Talking Past Each Other

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NBC and “Perspective”

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So What if it Is?

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Flaw?

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Negotiating

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Visitor Logs

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“It Depends on Uncle Sam”

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Inadequate

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