Big Brother at Work

There have  been a number of interesting government 'interventions' in otherwise 'small potatoes' over the past wee while.  Some of them are worth a look


Anti-Israel boycotts.  A number of western governments have recently enacted legislation to 'outlaw' any 'boycott Israel' activities in organizations or institutions that receive government funding.  Canada passed such a law after a McGill University Student group moved to boycott Israel. Obama signed similar legislation in the USA. Similar laws have been passed in Britain, France and Germany.  All to stop support for Palestinians and the boycott of goods manufactured in Israeli West Bank 'settlements',  but imported as 'Products of Israel'.

The boycott was instituted to have such products labelled accurately.  One of the most notorious products was a soft-drink flavoring system (Soda Stream) manufactured in the Jewish West Bank using 'Palestinian labour'.  The company has now gone out of business completely, after  relocating to the Sinai area of Israel and hiring 'bedouin tribesmen'.

It remains to be seen what penalties will be incurred for failing to adhere to the laws.

The Brexit - Brexception:  Prime Minister Cameron campaigned his last election on the notion that Britain could do better outside the EU and should have a better deal inside it.  He has recently concluded a round of trade negotiations that, he claims, make 'staying in'  in Britain's best interests. Some commentators liken it to the Munich agreement that gained a breathing space before the inevitable bad times to come.  In Cameron's mind there will be no 'Brexit' from the EU - and so all the other is bumpff.  What nobody has noticed, yet, is that Britain has gained no special dispensation from EU control over its economy, or other important affairs of state. Britain is as 'tied' to  the EU this week, as it was a month ago, and will be in the future. Cameron got little more for his troubles than he already had.  And, should he win the up-coming referendum,  Britain will be more tightly attached to Europe than it has ever been. All this does is 'shut-up' the vocal rump who've been complaining since last the lion roared. And that isn't the British banks and financial system - which let its mind be known by devaluing the pound - citing the 'upset'.

Ukraine - on going:  The EU was had 'Ukraine Week' at the Parliament a few weeks back (shows how long I've been procrastinating)  - celebrating all things Ukrainian with socializing and canapes. The purpose was to 'keep Ukraine high on the EU agenda' - as if Ukraine and its sad state could be ignored. The Dutch were preparing to 'ratify' their EU agreement with Ukraine (they didn't- but this is 'no longer important') - something that had been bruited to fail when put to the Dutch, even after a government plan to 'manage' the dissonance was revealed last week. Ukrainian ministers were doing their world tours of western capitals, 'selling' the struggle against Russia for the 'defense of civilization'.  Western governments bought it, at least insofar as maintaining, or as in the case of the US, extending,  the sanctions program against Russia.

In the meantime,  the imminent collapse of Russia is postponed, again, while Ukraine 'gears-up' for the only option to doing nothing, trying to 'provoke' the rebels into the 'attack' that would justify one more, hopefully successful,  "tooth-breaking offensive" to regain 'the east.'  There was a minor dust-up related to this when somebody in the EU parliament  noticed the 'nazi' tattoos on the portraits of some wounded Ukrainian servicemen displayed for the edification of the Euros.  The photos were hastily removed from display but also appeared  on an AV presentation.  (So have any references to this minor fiasco.  But I shall keep on looking - they were there - video and all - on Ukrainian government sites.)

The east China Sea continues to focus the lights of the great defender of most things, as the Chinese continue to tun reefs into desert islands from which they can 'threaten' international shipping or something like that.  One would think that building a landing strip in the middle of a sea would be a good idea.  Ir's a pretty virtual certainty that international, indeed any kind of shipping, which might have avoided a submerged reef, would certainly avoid an emerged islet built on top of it.  But the Chinese building anything, without somebody's say-so,  not inside China,  is a threat to American interest somewhere, somehow.

Syria continues as Syria has continued since 'the US led coalition' showed up to fight the ISIS thing the  Saudis and Gulf States  created for them.  Correct that: things actually started to change after the Russians showed-up. Things are still changing, how is not yet clear.

Muammar Row the Boat Ashore

The world media is, all of a sudden,  focussed on the middle eastern refugee problem.  Given that the middle east hasn't seen a peaceful day since the 40's and that 'refugee camps' are now geographic fixtures, how could it come to pass that the world gets blindsided by 'them' shifting their focus to a walk to Europe?  The last time there was such a migration, occurred in the 12th century and went in the opposite direction - the People's Crusade.

We 'knew' there were a lot of refugees - after all hasn't Assad been killing so many of his own people that the West has been 'honour-bound' to get the UN to introduce sanctions and  a little humanitarian bombing? Obama almost got his wish, but Putin 'interfered' to make a deal that (maybe) stopped an 'act of Congress' from adding to the rubble that is modern Syria. The Syrians have been moving out of the line of fire since Ambassador Geoff Pyatt declared the street riot  a legitimate attempt to remove a tyrannical government. That being said, the Gulf States immediately introduced a 'carte blanche' for weapons while the US called for, and trained, 'rebel forces'. Even the perennial bushwhacker John 'the Admiral' McCain  flew over to glad-hand 'the heroes'.  Little was anybody to know these were wolves in camo duds, more affiliated with the kind of  Islamic state that hates our freedoms than the kind of guys who would 'roll over' for a golf cart and a pair of new balance sneakers for each of 'the staff'.

John was shaking hands with the devil himself - Al Baghdadi the Killer.

In less than a year Obama's militias turned into ISIS, and then ISIL. Not only did the clear Assad's forces out of eastern Syria , they launched an invasion of America's second best friend , (well,   third), in Asia and drove the Iraqi government out of the northern half of the country. Then they allied themselves with the Iraqi Sunni 'insurgency ' and drove the Shiite government out of even more territory.  Lately ISIS/IL is only 34 miles from Baghdad. And the 'driving-back' seems stalled, while Europe girds its 'lions' for the fray.

 Needless to say  between the beheadments, and the bombing campaign, anybody with an iota respectable self-preservation made tracks for the nearest neutral ground. In northern Syria that was Lebanon on the west, Turkey to the north or 'Kurdistan' to the east. Anywhere else was into the fire.
And so things remained until Turkey declared itself into the War on Terror. All of a sudden southern Turkey - where the camps were - started to look like places a refugee could get confused with a Kurd. That's right, the Turks declared a 'war on terror' and  promptly attacked the Kurds. The Kurds returned the favour - inside Turkey - and the 'shivaree' was on.  For refugees,  all of a sudden Europe, at a distance, started to have some 'Clampett appeal'.

And so the latter-day 'descent of the Helvetii into Gaul' commenced.  But these weren't Swiss they were mostly Moslem refugees and they descended via Greece and  the Balkans onto south-central Europe. And there were thousands upon thousands of them - taking open boats to the Greek Islands, 'hopping'  the mainland, walking through Greece and the parts of former Yugoslavia to the border of Hungary. There the EuroHans Briker stuck his finger in a Dyke and  tried to stem the tide. But some broke through heading for Germany and even the Scandinavian countries. The Hungarians tried 'defending ' Europe against a tide of 'seekers' -  who  had actually started six months ago and had the Hungarians fencing-off their border. But this time they overwhelmed the border -a number of times. They 'hijacked' (metaphorically) the railway system in order to get to Germany. To-day we have the Austrians volunteering to man the ramparts with their old 'ally'. Holding Europe as they used to do a half a millennium ago.

Now the Euros are just like any other redneck who doesn't want to be forced into Sharia courts or to have to wear baggy pants, smoke the dope of pray eighty-five times a day - even if they do legitimize teen-aged sex slaves. They wanted to keep everybody out. But a kid drowned and a foolish photographer had his reputation made, taking a picture that mobilized the kind of sympathy rednecks save for their pets.  All of a sudden there is a groundswell to stop this or take refugees in. Today another half-dozen babies drowned, and while the patriots claim they shouldn't have taken their kids into danger, they still think that bombing them only hurts 'the bad guys'. And if these people are hurting,  it IS because they are 'bad guys' - in disguise! Those unpowered life rafts are the 'invasion rowboats' we've been told would bring Al Qaeda, or the Taliban, or, now, ISIS, ISIL and all the unholy killers of pandemonium.