Friday, July 29, 2022

Trump was Right About the Wall

The Biden administration on Thursday authorized completion of the Trump-funded U.S.-Mexico border wall in an open area of southern Arizona near Yuma that has become one of the busiest corridors for illegal crossings.

Biden had pledged during his campaign to cease all future wall construction, but the administration later agreed to some barriers, citing safety. The Department of Homeland Security said Thursday the work to close four wide gaps in the wall near Yuma will better protect migrants who can slip down a slope or drown walking through a low section of the Colorado River.

The agency said in a statement that Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas authorized completion of the project near the Morelos Dam, reflecting the administration’s “priority to deploy modern, effective border measures and also improving safety and security along the Southwest Border.” It was initially to be funded by the Defense Department but will now be paid for out of Homeland Security’s 2021 budget.

The Border Patrol Yuma sector has quickly emerged as the third busiest of nine sectors along the border, with much of the traffic funneling through the Morelos Dam. Migrants arrive in the small town of Algodones and walk unencumbered across a concrete ledge on the dam to U.S. soil, where they wait for Border Patrol agents to take them into custody.

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Completion of the wall was at the top of former President Donald Trump's agenda, and border security remains a potent issue for candidates of both parties going into this year's primary elections. President Joe Biden halted new wall construction after he took office, but he has since made closing the gaps just south of Yuma a priority.

Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, who is seeking his party nomination's next week to defend the seat in November, has pressed the Biden administration to close the gaps, calling them a challenge for officials trying to secure the border.

Agents stopped migrants more than 160,000 times from January through June in the Yuma sector, nearly quadruple from the same period last year. The only other sectors with more traffic were Del Rio and Rio Grande Valley in South Texas.

The area has been especially attractive to Colombians, Venezuelans and others who have flown to Mexicali, Mexico, and taken a short bus or taxi ride to Algodones to walk across the border before being released into the United States.

 

 

Thursday, July 28, 2022

Get Over it China, Taiwan is a FREE COUNTRY

The oft-repeated dictum about Taiwan’s territorial status was not widely held within China in 1895, the year that the Qing Dynasty ceded Taiwan, which it had annexed in 1684, to Japanese colonization. When Qing officials received Japan’s territorial demands in the wake of the First Sino-Japanese War, they ardently defended the Liaodong Peninsula, in Manchuria, as essential imperial territory, but viewed Taiwan as a shield that could be surrendered. Although some individuals insisted that Taiwan must be retained, or at least not surrendered to Japan, most viewed it as less important than Liaodong.

Taiwan’s relative standing reflected the fact that knowledge within the Qing government of Taiwan’s geography was so limited that it was not until the 1870s that serious efforts began to govern the majority of the terrain. Similarly, an official handbook for Fujian Province from 1871 presented a vague description for the location of Diaoyutai – today a hotly contested site that also often gets the label of “an integral part of Chinese territory since ancient times” – and described it as a place where “over a thousand large ships” could berth.

These opinions and depictions do not suggest that Taiwan and its environs rose to the level of integral territory for Qing-era Chinese. Historians have shown that popular and official discussion of Taiwan as a part of China, and formal efforts to gain control of Taiwan by the government of the Republic of China (ROC) and its ruling Nationalist Party, originated in the 1930s and 1940s, within the context of anti-Japanese sentiment and war.

Within Taiwan itself, officials and elites expressed strong opposition to the act of incorporation into Japan’s empire and launched a number of rhetorical, diplomatic, and military endeavors to prevent this colonial occupation. However, some attempted to avoid colonization only by Japan and were amenable to annexation by Britain or France instead. More significantly, at the end of a two-year period in which, as stipulated by the Treaty of Shimonoseki that ended the war, all Qing subjects residing in Taiwan had the opportunity to decide if they would stay there or live in China, less than 10,000 out of roughly 2.5 million inhabitants had crossed over the Taiwan Strait. Thereafter, although both violent and non-violent resistance to the Japanese colonial regime remained a recurring feature of Taiwan’s history, it was couched in terms of preventing either encroachment into indigenous lands or the eradication of social and religious practices, and rarely if ever in the language of reunification with China. Taiwanese remained interested in China, of course, but as a source of inspiration for local cultural and political movements, an ancestral homeland to be visited, or a site for lucrative business activities. However, as the Taiwanese author, Wu Zhuoliu, highlighted with the main character in his novel, “Orphan of Asia,” many of the Taiwanese who went to China felt unwelcome there and disconnected from it.

In more historical terms, a number of scholars, including myself, have demonstrated the creation of distinctive Taiwanese identities during the years of Japanese rule. Far from following the intentions of Japanese assimilation policies, residents of Taiwan drew upon their cultural heritage, new professional and labor associations, globally circulating ideas of self-determination and participatory politics, and modern cosmopolitanism to forge new identities. They displayed their new consciousness in calls for independence from Japan, drives for voting rights and an autonomous legislature for Taiwan within the Japanese Empire, and a wide range of social and cultural behaviors, from local politics to social work to religious festivals. Some inhabitants focused on nationalism and political independence, whereas others concentrated on ethnic community within a pluralistic political entity. All of these behaviors clearly distinguished them from the Japanese settlers and the colonial government that attempted to transform them into loyal Japanese subjects. Instead, a majority of the population became Taiwanese, albeit in ways that excluded Taiwan’s indigenous peoples.

That they had not remained Chinese – at least not as people and the government in China defined that term during the early 20th century – became very clear to everyone on the scene soon after the end of World War II. Although the rhetoric of the ROC government stressed reunion and recovery, and used the term “retrocession” (guangfu) to describe Taiwan’s incorporation into its territory, government officials looked upon the Taiwanese as people who had been tainted by Japanese influence and needed to be remade as Chinese citizens.

Those Taiwanese themselves displayed genuine enthusiasm for the end of Japanese rule and the arrival of Chinese civilian and military representatives in October 1945, but quickly realized the vast distance between how they saw themselves and how they were perceived by the new governing regime. They had forged their identities in burgeoning modern metropolises and in relation to modern capitalist industries, and yet the Chinese government described them as backward. Those with roots in China had centered religious practices in their new identities to resist Japanese assimilation, and now the ROC government targeted those practices for suppression as pernicious traditions. Even though many Taiwanese learned the new national language of Chinese, as they had Japanese before, they felt no connection to the national struggles and heroes that they were now told to embrace.

All of these markers of separation were evident before 1947, when the divergence between Taiwanese and Chinese came into high relief during the 2-28 Uprising and its brutal suppression by Nationalist Chinese military forces, and the White Terror that began soon thereafter. Political opposition to the Nationalist Party and pro-independence sentiment went underground or overseas, but Taiwanese identities intensified. Although sharp divisions continued to exist between indigenous and non-indigenous populations, by the 1990s many defined “Taiwanese” to include both groups. Decades of single-party rule under martial law by Chiang Kai-shek’s regime did not effectively instill most of Taiwan’s residents with a new sense of Chinese national identity. Indeed, most of the roughly 1 million people who left China for Taiwan, and their descendants, came to identify themselves with Taiwan, not China.

The ROC nevertheless successfully continued Taiwan’s condition of political separation from China, a fact that has been in existence now for almost all of the past 126 years, and it has maintained full sovereignty for about seven decades. Chinese insistence on the idea of Taiwan as a part of China has failed to convince the roughly 23 million Taiwanese.

Tuesday, July 26, 2022

The Time is Coming, I was Told 50+ years ago to be ready

Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) expressed severe agitation over a poll that found one-third of American voters think US citizens may have to take up arms against the government to protect their rights and country.

The sobering poll is from the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics.

In addition, the poll showed that a whopping two-thirds of Republicans and independents alike believe the government is “corrupt and rigged against everyday people,” while a slim 51% majority of liberal voters feel the same way.

“What?! One-third of Americans say it’s time to take up arms against our government? I know EXACTLY who is inspiring the treason curious,” Swalwell chirped and of course, blamed Republicans for the mess Democrats have made in government.

According to the poll, 28 percent of all voters, including 37 percent of gun owners, agree that “it may be necessary at some point soon for citizens to take up arms against the government.” That’s a sentiment held by approximately 35 percent of Republicans and about 35 percent of Independents. One in five Democrats also feels that way.

The rift between the left and right is growing. Fifty-six percent of Americans allegedly believe elections are fair, according to the poll. But only 33 percent of Republicans feel that way.

Over 70 percent of Republicans and more than 70 percent of Democrats agree that the other side “are generally bullies who want to impose their political beliefs on those who disagree.” And fake news seems to be at the heart of it all in one way or another.

Swalwell is typical of those widening that gap and blaming the other side for what his party is doing. Witness his unhinged Twitter attack on Republicans after seeing the poll.

“Could it be this winner? @RonnyJacksonTX recently threatened @POTUS Biden to try and take his big gun,” Swalwell tweeted taking the first in a series of pokes at Republicans over the right to bear arms. This one was aimed at Ronny Jackson, who is an American physician, politician, and retired United States Navy rear admiral and a U.S. representative for Texas’ 13th congressional district.

“What about this ‘sharp’ shooter? @RepMTG threatened to execute Speaker Pelosi,” the California Democrat tweeted taking a jab at outspoken Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA).

 

Tuesday, July 19, 2022

These folks need to be Replaced by Stronger Freedom Loving People

In April, Massie, Greene, Cawthorn and Roy joined with four progressive lawmakers in opposing a measure urging President Biden to seize assets from sanctioned Russian oligarchs and use the money to help Kyiv amid its battle with Moscow.

Also in April, 10 GOP House members — including Massie, Greene, Biggs, Bishop, Davidson, Gaetz and Norman — voted against the Ukraine lend-lease bill, which sought to make it easier for the U.S. to send military assistance to Ukraine during Russia’s invasion.

Eighteen House Republicans objected to the measure: Reps. Andy Biggs (Ariz.), Dan Bishop (N.C.), Lauren Boebert (Colo.), Madison Cawthorn (N.C.), Ben Cline (Va.), Michael Cloud (Texas), Warren Davidson (Ohio), Matt Gaetz (Fla.), Bob Good (Va.), Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.), Morgan Griffith (Va.), Thomas Massie (Ky.), Tom McClintock (Calif.), Mary Miller (Ill.), Ralph Norman (S.C.), Matt Rosendale (Mont.), Chip Roy (Texas) and Jefferson Van Drew (N.J.).

Thursday, July 7, 2022

Picture of an Idiot


 

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday called on all parties in the world to make efforts to protect international laws as "the world is evolving in a complicated manner."

Lavrov was speaking though a translator at a meeting with his Vietnamese counterpart Bui Thanh Son in Hanoi.

His comments come as Russia has been accused by Western countries of breaching international law through its invasion of Ukraine. European Union leaders have urged Moscow to abide by an order by the international court of justice telling Russia to withdraw from Ukraine.


The Staff: The idiot doesn't know you aren't supposed to invade countries, destroy towns and murder thousands. 

Pencil Dick, Putins Butt Boy Speaks

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told the United States on Wednesday that attempts by the West to punish a nuclear power such as Russia for the war in Ukraine risked endangering humanity.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has triggered the most serious crisis in relations between Russia and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, when many people feared the world was on the brink of nuclear war.

Medvedev cast the United States as an empire which had spilled blood across the world, citing the killing of Native Americans, U.S. nuclear attacks on Japan (to save millions) and a host of wars ranging from Vietnam (yep, we followed France) to Afghanistan (where Russia got kicked out like we did).

Attempts to use courts or tribunals to investigate Russia's actions in Ukraine would, Medvedev said, be futile and risk global devastation. Only a Moran would make a statement like this and he fits that.

"The idea of punishing a country that has one of the largest nuclear potentials is absurd. And potentially poses a threat to the existence of humanity," Medvedev, who now serves as deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, said on Telegram.


The Staff: Russia or anyone else will not start a Nuclear Exchange as no one wins and everyone knows it. Putin can run his mouth, His BOY Medvedev can run his also but Nucs won't happen. Putin it just a smarter Hitler but just as disgusting a person. Putin will down in history as just another mass murder.

Verstappen

 Remember everyone, he was awarded one victory by the stewards when they changed the rules and took the victory from HAMILTON. Nice he has w...