Archive for 2021
July 23, 2021
NOTHING TO SEE HERE, MOVE ALONG: Chip Shortage Leads to ‘Dead’ Cars On Factory Lots, GM Halts Truck Production.
THEY’RE WELCOME TO IT: China Risks Being Pulled Into Afghanistan’s Civil War.
The U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan has intensified the civil war between the Afghan government and the Taliban, which has caused substantial anxiety amongst Chinese policymakers. This concern can be traced to two reasons: First, Afghanistan is an appealing target for Chinese investment. Already, China has invested billions of dollars into the infrastructure of countries surrounding Afghanistan through its massive Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and Afghanistan—due to its strategic location along the land route from China to the Middle East and Europe—has long been an appealing target for Chinese development. Afghanistan also has an abundance of resources such as gold, platinum, silver, lithium, and aluminum, which China’s vaunted mining industry would be well-poised to develop.
More importantly, China seeks stability in the Central and South Asian countries that border Afghanistan. Chaos in Afghanistan could spill over to these border regions and into China itself, imperiling Chinese economic and security interests.
Beijing got big into the neocolonialism business with the Belt and Road Initiative so now they must bear what used to be called the white man’s burden.
NEWS YOU CAN USE: Expensive vs. Budget Ammo: What’s the Difference? In my experience, the cheap stuff shoots a lot less cleanly.
IT’S GOOD TO BE THE NOMENKLATURA: Jeff Richetti, Top Biden Staffer’s Brother, Lobbying WH on China Issues for General Motors.
On August 8 the White House chief of staff, Ron Klain, turns 60 years old. It is, writes Mark Leibovich of the New York Times, a much-anticipated event on the D.C. social calendar. Klain, you see, has commemorated earlier “round-numbered birthdays” by throwing large, sumptuous “blowouts,” including a fête at a Maryland farm in 2011 where hundreds of VIPs gathered to eat deep-fried Oreos and deliver “tributes to the honoree.”
Everyone who was anyone in Barack Obama’s Washington was there. One’s absence signified one’s exclusion from the tribe. To know Ron Klain, then, is to have entered the power elite. “Plans for his 60th,” Leibovich continues, “have become such a source of Beltway status anxiety that a small universe of Washington strivers is angling for details: Some have asked White House contacts whether a celebration is in the works and if invitations have gone out.”
Needless to say, I don’t expect to be invited. Nor is there anything wrong with Klain throwing himself a bash: Having just celebrated a “round-numbered” birthday myself, I can attest that there is nothing more fun than gathering a bunch of your family and friends in one place for an evening of food and drink (and more drink).
What struck me instead as I read Leibovich’s slightly tongue-in-cheek profile was the distance between the bourgeois comfort of Klain’s personal and professional life and the facts, as they say, on the ground. One cannot finish reading the Leibovich piece without coming to the conclusion that, all in all, things have worked out pretty darn well for Ron Klain. For America? Not so much.
Let the man enjoy his 60th birthday party in peace — he is the president of the United States, after all.
CANCEL CULTURE IS ALL IN YOUR MIND: Educators FIRED for Opposing Transgender Orthodoxy and the Equality Act.
TIME FOR SUPREMES TO RESTORE COMMONSENSE ON RELIGIOUS FREEDOM: When a Washington state public school district ordered a football coach six years ago to stop praying for or mentioning religious faith to his players before, during or after a game, it started a long journey to what should be an opportunity for the Supreme Court to put common sense and historical context back into church/state separation jurisprudence. (Whew! That’s the longest sentence I’ve composed in months.)
ANOTHER LOOK AT THE ASSAULT ON PARENTAL RIGHTS: Katy Faust of the Colson Center offers, among much else, an interesting three-part test of whether a particular claim to a right is valid.
REALDUMMEPOLITIK: Biden Tried to Silence the Ukrainians but They’re Exposing the Threat He’s Created.
Not only did Biden reverse America’s longstanding opposition to the completion of the pipeline by waiving sanctions on the Russia-controlled company involved, but as I reported a few days ago, the Biden team had been leaning on the Ukrainians and folks in Eastern Europe to keep quiet and not voice their objections to the deal that Biden has worked out with Germany to allow the completion.
Politico reported that they’ve been told by four people “with knowledge of the conversations” that the U.S. has been telling Ukraine to shut up about any opposition, not to go public with it, and not to talk to Congress about their concerns, unless they want to “damage” the relationship they have with the Biden administration.
But to Ukraine’s credit, they’re refusing to shut up, despite the threat by Biden to go along to get along.
Good for them.
WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: An autonomous system to assemble reconfigurable robotic structures in space.
FILLING THE VOID: Texas Gov. Abbott Begins Arresting Illegals for Trespassing at Border.
THE WASHINGTON POST THINKS 55 RACIALLY INTIMIDATING NOOSES HAVE BEEN HUNG AT CONSTRUCTION SITES IN THE LAST FEW YEARS: I guess it’s possible. But I would bet against it. In this Dissent to the Commission on Civil Rights’ report on hate crimes, I have a footnote that lists quite a few false “noose” alarms (e.g. a fishing knot and a shoelace) as well as several purposeful “noose” hoaxes (remember Jussie Smollett?). The piece also gives a little history behind the Southern Poverty Law Center that you might not know about.
AT HELEN’S PAGE: You can get signed copies of Kurt Schlichter’s new book The Split.
WE WANT ACTUAL INFRASTRUCTURE, NOT NEW LABELS AND MORE MONEY FOR DEMOCRAT PET CONSTITUENCIES: Americans Want Better Roads and Bridges More Than Untraditional Infrastructure, Poll Finds. “President Joe Biden and a bipartisan Senate group compromised on a $973 billion infrastructure plan in June, but Democrats are working to pass a $3.5 trillion reconciliation package that allocates funding for child care, tax credits, schools, climate change, and more.”
GAINING DEPTH ON GAIN OF FUNCTION.
ROGER SIMON: Van Morrison and Eric Clapton Take Back the Culture for Freedom.
But has Clapton gone too far? From the BBC of only a few hours ago:
“British rock icon Eric Clapton has said he will not perform at venues that require concertgoers to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19.”
Opinions differ, of course, but in an allegedly free society like ours, it should be up to the citizen to decide for him or herself what they put in their body. What did we used to say— “Our bodies, ourselves”? (How times have changed!)
The BBC continued:
“UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said proof of vaccination must be shown at clubs and venues from September.
“Clapton said he will not perform anywhere there is a ‘discriminated audience present’. …
“In May, Clapton said he had experienced a ‘severe’ reaction to the AstraZeneca vaccine.”
As it happens, Clapton and Morrison will be playing together, far from the authority of Boris Johnson, at the Bridgestone Arena in my hometown of Nashville, Sept. 11.
I plan on being there, sans mask. I wouldn’t want to be part of a “discriminated audience.”
As William F. Buckley once said, “Liberals claim to want to give a hearing to other views, but then are shocked and offended to discover that there are other views.” The left cannot process that a superstar like Clapton disagrees with their style of Fauci-worship, and are reduced to repeating Clapton’s pre-Hazelden drunken 1976 reference to Enoch Powell, to try to cancel his half century-plus body of work.
WELL, DEMOCRATS: Colorado’s prosperity ranking has slipped in the last decade. “Colorado saw large drops in two pillars: Safety/security and economic quality. Safety/security measures ‘the degree to which mass killings and injuries, violent crime, and property crime destabilize the security of individuals,’ the study says. Economic quality quantifies how well the state’s economy generates wealth.”