What a fine kettle of fish

George Rebane

[This is the transcript of my regular KVMR commentary broadcast on 21 July 2016.]

It’s convention season and in our dear land the political fur is flying.  Tonight the Republicans will hear Donald Trump, their roughly anointed candidate for the presidency, accept his nomination and promise to sally forth to a November victory.  And next week we will witness the same song and dance as the recently and tentatively exonerated Hillary Clinton accepts her mantle to lead the Democrats to the White House without appearing to detour too far to the left.

But what should impress all of us in this election season is the state of the world that our new president will inherit.  Overseas our brittle and feckless foreign policy has given rise to a world overfilled with countries and movements that have elevated America into the top slot on their lists of enemies.

Russia, facing a huge demographic contraction of its aging workforce, has again solidified into a corrupt dictatorship that must once more seek internal stability by conquering neighbors to acquire wealth generating capacity.  In the opposite direction China’s demographics generate more people than it can gainfully employ as advancing technology and its east Asian neighbors underbid the increasing costs of its own workers.  And China too sees adventurism beyond its borders as the tried and tested means for autocracies to divert attention from their internal problems of economic mismanagement and corruption that has resulted in a stubbornly undersized middle class.

And the middle east has again settled into a permanent state of war motivated by our predictably tepid involvement on the side of our so-called allies.  Iran’s program to become the region’s nuclear powered hegemon is funded and on course after being abetted by one of the most disastrous capitulations led by the United States.  Islamist extremism, unrecognized by our leadership, has boiled out of its former confines and now regularly inflicts acts of terror around the world slaughtering hundreds of innocents every week.  Meanwhile we and our European allies continue to import hordes of terrorist-embedded Muslim refugees into our lands.

NATO’s southern flank is unraveling as Turkey roils internally on its determined path to shed its secular government and become yet another Islamic state to contend with Iran for the region’s dominant hegemon, while the belt reaching from the Levant to northern Africa is aflame with a variety of metastasizing ISIS and Al Qaeda factions.  All take strength from America’s withdrawal from the world scene and our existential demonstrations that we no longer understand that naked diplomacy is only a cover for bad actors to expand and achieve their own geo-strategic objectives while they paint us into a tighter and ever more dangerous corner.

At home we are a nation purposely divided by classes, ethnicities, and the even the gainfully employed within an historically stultifying economy in the grip of an unforgiving government.  Over the last years the middle ground of compromise between federalism and progressivism has literally disappeared.  Our Constitution is being crushed between the coordinated jaws of judicial legislation and end-run executive orders.  Vote buying, through expanded entitlements, amnesty bamboozles, and manufactured racial tensions, has been raised to a new form of political artistry.  Unfounded and federally uncontested statistics about blue-on-black killings today unravel race relations which had been improving for decades.  Some observers even see us being on the verge of open racial warfare (more here).

In light of all this we voters will have to decide which of the two highly debatable candidates will lead America through the tangles and minefields which we must navigate to retain our sovereignty and way of life, while we try to revive the American dream.  One candidate is a volatile newcomer, unpracticed in politics, who promises to take us in radically new and untested directions.  The other is a corrupt, distrusted, and scandal riven apparatchik of demonstrated incompetence who promises to stay the current course of which she is one of the proud architects.

My name is Rebane, and I also expand on this and related themes on Rebane’s Ruminations where the transcript of this commentary is posted with relevant links, and where such issues are debated extensively.  However my views are not necessarily shared by KVMR.  Thank you for listening.

Comments

[Bill Tozer]

Pretty hard to find a silver lining in there Dr. Rebane, win, lose, or draw.

[Jon Dozer]

Best of luck Dr. Rebane with the candidate of your party. A blowhard and inexperienced autocrat who has stated his intention to leave your family and homeland in Estonia out to dry if they don't cow-tow exactly to his NATO conditions. The party of Lincoln and Reagan? Not exactly.

[George Rebane]

JonD 912pm - Trump's gripe re Article 5 is with NATO nations who have not met their own defense commitments and troop contributions as members of NATO. Estonia is one of the few and first countries to meet and exceed all such commitments. We shall see.

[Jon Dozer]

OK great, Estonia meets the 2-3% of GDP Drumpfian Metric. Lets say Latvia and Lithuania linger at 1% due to current internal politics, is that a valid reason to ignore the most basic of NATO treaty obligations? The most important alliance in the world. This is a guy who has stated he would concede Russian expansion in NATO Baltic states if budget metrics are not met in a particular point in time. INSANE.

[Gregory]

If the Baltic states ignoring their obligations really think he is insane enough to allow Russian expansion if they continue to sit on their hands, they will move in the direction the insane guy is pointing.

Sometimes there is method to madness. Very Reaganesque, another Republican I never voted for.

If they think you won't pull the trigger they won't respect you. Michael Brown, in Ferguson, reportedly told the cop he was "too much of a pussy to shoot". Bad call.

[Account Deleted]

"OK great, Estonia meets the 2-3% of GDP Drumpfian Metric."

No - there are agreed upon responsibilities among the member nations. A lot of them are slacking and expecting Uncle Sugar to pick up the tab for everyone.
Trump is telling them there will be no more free-loading off of the US tax payers. What a concept.

[Bill Tozer]

You have to pay to play. What a concept.

[Bill Tozer]

"Over the last years the middle ground of compromise between federalism and progressivism has literally disappeared".....especially in the realm of sunshine laws.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/dnc-host-committee-asks-court-keep-donor-list-162137853--election.html

[Jon Dozer]

Scott, perhaps those nations don't really care what a former real estate developer wants. Not that it will happen.
The President of the US cannot actually dictate and order around other NATO members. Perhaps you didn't realize that.

[Jon Dozer]

A little lunch-and-learn for Scott:

http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/topics_49178.htm

[Don Bessee]

The US has been nudging our NATO partners to meet their treaty obligations for years, albeit off the publics radar. Events in recent years have helped refocus our friends on that commitment. A number of countries had reversed their trend and moved back toward their obligations especially this year ahead of the recent NATO summit in Poland. Every NATO member must pull its weight as agreed in the NATO charter. That's a problem for you?

Had to laugh at the story about CNN suppressing its own poll on Trumps acceptance speech. 76% of respondents viewed the speech positively and 56% said they were MORE likely to vote for Trump after the speech. ;-)

[Bill Tozer]

Money talks, bull pucky walks.

Aha! I have found a silver lining in Dr. Rebane's "dark" (dark is today's buzzword) list of what the next President will face, whomever he may be. Found in that disappearing line "between federalism and progressivism."
The Globalists have no name, no country, no nationalality, race, creed, or orgin. The Globalists also have no face. They are simply citizens of the world.....thus we don't have to have our meal ruined by catching a glimpse of their ugly faces. Faceless progressive Globalists are good for our digestive systems. Always, always, always a silver lining.

[Gregory]

A former Haberdasher dropped atom bombs on Japan, and there's nothing "former" about Trump's business.

The President, even if a former real estate developer, can do a great deal to get NATO members to move in the direction the President wants.

[Bill Tozer]

More news about the kettle of fish.

Lordy, Lordy. The war on fast food continues unabated. At least we know know that the blonde haired blue eyed killer was not a pediphile.. Pediphiles do target children, but don't slaughter them. The target of this latest non-news event were children and children only....so far. It was a Zionist plot to discredit the Regilion of Islam. So transparent.
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2016/07/munich-shooting-update-shooter-screamed-allahu-akbar-targeted-children/

Obama should work on his timing. While Trump was on stage, Obama was addressing the Islamic Community, displaying Islamic doctors and lawyers and other hard working normal folks.
Helpful hint: Everytime O reads that old speech, best to stay indoors for 16-24 hours.

[Bill Tozer]

From the kettle of fish.
Breaking news! The Virginia High Court just slapped down former Clinton Campaign co-manager and Virginia Governor Terry Mc (currently under FBI investigation). Court says no way, Jose. You cannot register felons to vote.p, with or without their consent. You must deregister 200,000 of them...now. Violation of the law.
Federalism strikes back and wins the battle, but probably will lose the war to progressivism...eventually.

[Bill Tozer]

Link
http://wtop.com/virginia/2016/07/virginia-court-strikes-down-order-giving-felons-voting-right/