Greece Is the Word

George Friedman writes for RealClearWorld about the bailout deal forced on Greece by the Germans. It is his view that both sides felt backed into a corner and, as the stronger state, Germany prevailed.

This is as far from what Germany wanted as can be imagined. But Greece could not live with German demands, and Germany could not live with Greek demands. In the end, the banking crisis gave Germany an irresistible tool. Now the circumstances demand that the Greeks accept austerity and transfer key elements of sovereignty to institutions under the control or heavy influence of the Germans.

The Greeks remember German occupation during WW II, and not with fondness. This deal could still come unraveled. The whole aricle is good, the situation is not.

The Fetal Tissue Issue

The conservative media is going nuts over Planned Parenthood supposedly selling organs from aborted fetuses, or wishing to do so. This seems to be missing the point, even if technically illegal.

Terminating a human life involuntarily is murder and abortion does terminate a fetus without its permission. Since abortions are legal (the Supremes say they are), the law must hold a fetus isn't human. Arguably Planned Parenthood selling fetal parts is no different than a barber selling swept-up hair trimmings. Or a manicurist selling fingernail trimmings, icky but not horrid.

If a fetus isn't human, then it is similar to hair or fingernails. Something grown by a human which that person chooses to have severed and disposed of. Whether it be incinerated or dumped in a landfill or used in research and/or medicine shouldn't matter very much.

That we don't feel the same about fetal parts is that we recognize their incipient humanity. The real argument is when does humanity begin? At conception, at heartbeat start, or whenever?

This question poses a slippery slope. If you pick "at conception" several forms of birth control become unlawful as they prevent a fertilized egg from implanting on the uterine wall, causing it to die.

I don't have an answer to when life begins but I believe how to dispose of fetal tissue is the wrong question. For that already dead, never-independently-human-in-the-eyes-of-the-law tissue the decision is essentially irrelevant.

No Fruit & Vegies Please, We're Americans

RealClearScience reports few Americans eat a dietitian's idea of enough fruits and vegetables. Some 13.1% eat enough fruit and 8.9% eat enough vegetables.

The article finds so-called "food deserts" do exist. These are places where fresh fruits and vegetables are scarce or nonexistent in markets.

The probable reason for their absence is a lack of demand by the region's residents. Stores don't carry produce for which there is little or no demand. Too much would be thrown away unsold as overripe, or spoiled. They conclude:

Even states with fantastic access to fresh food, such as New York and California, still exhibit pathetically low rates of fruit and vegetable intake. The reality, it seems, is that most Americans prefer to eat an unhealthy diet, even if other choices are available.

We are mostly a meat, potatoes and snack food nation. Happily so, if not healthily so.

Snark Award

Daniel Greenfield, writing for FrontPage Magazine, dumps on Secretary of State John Kerry who is bragging about his deal with Iran.

The latest worthless agreement with a murderous dictatorship is being brandished by John Kerry, a man who instinctively seeks out dishonor the way a pig roots for truffles.

I conclude Greenfield doesn't much care for Kerry. He wins our Snark Award for July to-date.

The Primary Horserace

The Suffolk University/USA Today poll is out ranking the GOP presidential nomination aspirants. Trump is in the lead with 17%, followed by Bush with 14%.

New entrant Walker has 8%, trailed by Cruz with 6%, Rubio with 5%, while Carson, Paul, and Huckabee all have 4%. Christie gets 3% and everyone else gets less than 2%.

In addition to the highest positives, Trump also has the highest negatives, with 61%. It is worth noting that 30% of GOP voters have yet to select a favorite.

War Clouds Gather in Asia

Asia is engaging in the sort of military build-up often is a precursor to war. China's activities in the South and East China Seas, building island bases and claiming the entire area as within their self-defense zone, are well-known. Japan is reported adding naval warships and aircraft to its armaments.

Less well-known are India's activities in building military capabilities in the Nicobar and Andaman islands. The Indian military is lengthening runways on air bases, improving harbors, and adding a second brigade of troops to the islands' garrison. See a Reuters story at Yahoo News.

The Philippines have their own military moves underway, and Vietnam is buying submarines. Plus Taiwan continues to seek military equipment. Tiny but wealthy Singapore is well-armed, flying up-to-date jets and operating high-tech naval patrols.

Vic Hanson, in the post below, says he'd not be surprised if there was shooting in the region a year from now. Sadly, we agree.

This is Calm?

National Review's Victor Davis Hanson examines the four international challenges facing the U.S. today: Russia, China, Iran, and ISIS. About Iran he wisely notes:

It is a self-proclaimed revolutionary theocracy, with periodic fits of end-of-days rhetoric. Whether these are genuine expressions of a looming twelfth-imam apocalypse or simply feigned bouts of lunacy that are useful strategies in nuclear poker, no one quite can be sure.

We dismiss religious leaders as not believing the dogma they preach; whether this is true of Iran's ayatollahs is unknown, perhaps unknowable. Nation-as-suicide-bomber is a bizarre concept, but not beyond possibility. About the four threats, he concludes:

All the threats are distinct but also opportunistic and interrelated. A phony red line, an empty step-over line, a serially repeated deadline against any one threat only encourages the other three to become bolder. In contrast, firmness against one aggression lessens the likelihood that there will be further aggrandizement elsewhere.

If this administration is not careful, by next year it may find ISIS at the gates of Baghdad, Russian forces massing on the border of Estonia, Japan and China shooting at each other over disputed air and sea space, and Iran stockpiling its growing enriched-uranium supplies for a not too distant multi-bomb nuclear rollout. We think the world is growing tense; in fact, it is only the calm before the storm.

Normally downbeat Hanson is a super-jeremiah in this column.

Walker's Announcement

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel carries the complete text of Governor Scott Walker's speech tonight announcing his candidacy for the GOP nomination for President. It's too long and too discursive, but I didn't see much there with which I disagreed. No deal breakers.

If you are a glutton for punishment, read the whole thing. If not, see the summary in a paper in whose reportage you have at least some faith, perhaps the Wall Street Journal or the Orange County Register.

Obama's Deafening Silence on the Steinle Murder

We cited a quote a day or two ago to the effect that the White House was complicit in the Kate Steinle murder. Noting Obama's heartfelt laments for Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and Freddie Gray, Marc A. Thiessen writes in The Washington Post:

After Kathryn Steinle was killed July 1, allegedly by an illegal immigrant with seven felony convictions, Obama said . . . nothing.

No promises of “justice.” No calls for “soul-searching.” His silence has been deafening.

On May 28, Sarah Saldana, director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, admitted in a letter to Sens. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) that between fiscal years 2010 and 2014, the Obama administration had released “121 unique criminal aliens who had an active [deportation] case at the time of release and were subsequently charged with homicide-related offenses.”

Think about that: 121 times over the past four years, the administration has released an illegal immigrant with prior criminal convictions who went on to be charged with murder. That is one every 12 days.

No wonder Obama is silent.

All of that, plus Steinle was white. Obama's behavior suggests only "black lives matter" to him. Our president is a racist.

Walker Is In

The Associated Press (and other outlets) report Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has announced his expected candidacy for the Republican nomination for the presidency in 2016. With a public union-busting record and successful championship of a state right-to-work law, he is a candidate with formidable conservative accomplishments.

If today I was forced to choose one of the gaggle as the GOP nominee, Walker would get the nod. We'll see how the primary season plays out for him, and for the others too.

The Untouchable Issue

Glenn Reynolds, who blogs as Instapundit, writes a weekly column for USA Today. This week he finds Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump fulfilling similar roles in their two parties - speaking for the interests of substantial blocs of voters for whom mainstream candidates will not speak.

The GOP establishment likes open borders because its big corporate donors want cheap labor. (The Democratic establishment likes open borders because immigrants usually vote Democratic.) But many ordinary Americans — mostly, but not at all exclusively, Republicans — wonder what's in it for them. More immigrants means more competition for jobs, pushing wages down, whether it's at entry-level unskilled jobs, or at the higher-level tech jobs where employers abuse H1B visas to bring in cheap foreign labor.

Most GOP pols won't touch this issue, which pairs the risk of scaring off immigration-dependent donors with the added danger of being called racist by Democrats. Trump doesn't care, so he is willing to raise the issue anyway. And he has done so effectively.

For us non-oligarchs, the cheap labor prized by big GOP donors is just unwanted competition in the labor markets. Their interests and ours, if not diametrically opposed, are at least in conflict. They, however, pay the piper and call plenty of tunes, hence Jeb Bush's fabulous fund-raising.

Meanwhile my nephew, drawing a six figure salary, is just about the only non-Indian in his IT unit in CA. Talk about H1B abuse. It is a real thing.

Don't Flee to Canada

Canada is no longer a haven for military deserters, reports the Associated Press. Deserters are being sent back to the States to face trial and imprisonment.

The Canadian change in policy makes absolute sense. Where formerly Canada was a place for those choosing not to be drafted to be soldiers, now there is no draft to escape.

Today's deserter is a military volunteer who changed his or her mind. Presumably he or she wanted a military career that didn't include going to war, or at least a particular war the individual finds offensive.

Contract law suggests both parties were willing participants. The enlistee agreed to go where sent, often into harm's way - where the military earns its pay.

Unwilling to go in harm's way? Don't enlist or reenlist. End of story.

Fiorina: Secure the Border

Instapundit Glenn Reynolds quotes presidential candidate Carly Fiorina on the subject of illegal immigration:

Donald Trump taps into an anger that I hear every day. People are angry that a commonsense thing like securing the border or ending sanctuary cities is somehow considered extreme. It’s not extreme, it’s commonsense. We need to secure the border.

When Fiorina says we need to secure the border, it doesn't sound extreme or reprehensible. You go, girl.

Hillary Defenestrated, Donald Defended

The nearly always quotable Mark Steyn, writes about the presidential race at his blog, SteynOnline. Some choice tidbits:

Hillary is a wooden charmless stiff who supposedly has enough money to be carefully managed across the finish line. But that requires Democratic electors to agree to be managed, too, and the Sanders surge is a strong sign that, while they're relaxed about voting for an unprincipled arrogant phony marinated in ever more malodorous and toxic corruption, they draw the line at such a tedious and charisma-free specimen thereof.

The same media that dismiss Trump as an empty reality-show vanity candidate are now denouncing him for bringing up the only real policy question in the race so far. What he said may or may not be offensive, but it happens to be true: America has more Mexicans than anybody needs, and then some. It certainly has more unskilled Mexicans than any country needs, including countries whose names begin with "Mex-" and end in "-ico". And it has far more criminal Mexicans than anybody needs, which is why they make up 71 per cent of the foreign inmates in federal jails.

Kate Steinle is dead because the entire Democratic Party, two-thirds of the Republican Party and 100 per cent of the diseased federal-state-municipal bureaucracy prioritizes myths over reality. Yes, it's distressing to persons of taste and discrimination that the only person willing to address that reality is Donald Trump.

Mark seldom pulls his punches. The rest of the column is worth your time as well.

Never a President Trump

Also in the Miami Herald, Carl Hiassen writes that Trump will never be president, and Carl is probably correct. And that raises the question, why are so many saying they like Trump?

The probable answer is that he's the only presidential candidate talking first and foremost about stopping illegal immigration. It's something the Republican base cares much more about than most other GOP candidates seem to realize or be willing to acknowledge. Other than the immigration issue, Trump is merely a celebrity, a personality, someone famous for being famous.

The obvious solution to the GOP's "Trump problem" is for one or more feasible candidates to take a similar, if less crudely stated, position on immigration. Then Trump fades away, I believe.

Oppenheimer: Greece ≠ Argentina

With considerable insight, Andres Oppenheimer writes about Latin America for the Miami Herald. Here he responds to pundits comparing the economic crisis in Greece to that Argentina went through in recent years. He agrees with parts of this comparison.

Greece and Argentina have a lot in common, including a tradition of living beyond their means, massive corruption, and a failure to improve their education and innovation systems to become competitive in the new global knowledge economy.

COTTonLINE adds the two countries also share a post-WW II history of military coups brought on by the sort of dysfunctional civilian governments both countries "enjoy" today. Oppenheimer disagrees with the similar outcomes predicted:

But Greece can’t expect to benefit from the same external headwinds (sic) that helped Argentina emerge from its 2001 default. There is an odd chance that Greece could be rescued by bankrupt Russia, but it would be difficult. Most likely, barring a realistic agreement with its EU partners, a Greek decision to cut itself loose from the Eurozone would deepen its current crisis.

Actually, I believe Oppenheimer meant "tailwinds." They are generally thought helpful by both sailors and pilots. It is easier to move with the wind than fight it.

Falling From the Sky

The Week reports the Russian Air Force has been flying its planes hard to harass the U.S. and the various U.S. allies around its borders. In the past week several have crashed fatally.

Yes, the planes have been busy, and as the article says, they tend to be old planes, dating from the Soviet days. I suspect another factor not mentioned in the article is also to blame.

Several years ago the other DrC and I did a river cruise in Russia - St. Petersburg to Moscow, stopping at a couple of cities along the way. Something we noticed in Moscow and the other Russian cities we visited - apartment buildings apparently receive nearly zero maintenance.

Everything from the Soviet era looked immensely run down. It would appear nobody ever paints a building, or washes a window or ... you name it. Broken windows get fixed, but beyond that, just about zip.

If what we saw represents the standard Russians apply to keeping up their assets, I expect their aircraft aren't much cared for. I can imagine it is easier (and cheaper) to bribe an inspector than to actually do the required and recommended maintenance on aircraft. Remind me not to fly Aeroflot.

Brother Putin is trying to run a world power on the cheap, particularly in this era of low oil prices. New planes seem not to be in the Russian budget.

L.A. Crime Up

Reacting to Ferguson and complaints about broken window policing, Los Angeles changed a number of property and drug crimes from felonies to misdemeanors. Plus, the Police Commission overruled the Chief's conclusion an officer-involved shooting was justified.

As a result, the number of people in prison is down, as is police morale. See a City Journal article by a pseudonymous LA cop.

Would you guess crime is up? Of course you would, as would I. And we'd both be correct.

When the brass don't support the police they start playing it safe, ignoring suspicious stuff and people, responding only to 911 calls. This does little to disincentivize criminals who default to their normal behavior and, viola, more crime.

Presumably the people of LA will need to tire of the ugliness and demand better law enforcement. No one knows how long this process will take or how many of their fellows will have to die who otherwise would have lived.

A Misguided War on Suburbs

COTTonLINE's favorite demographer, Joel Kotkin, writes for RealClearPolitics about the Democrats and planning community's war on the suburbs, and on those who would live there. Kotkin concludes attacking present and future suburbanites is Democrat political suicide.

Contrary to those who would Europeanize us, Kotkin shows Americans don't want to live with urban densities. Suburbs are no longer lily white, many successful minorities have happily moved there. And suburbs tend to be less unequal economically than urban centers.

When your opponent is shooting himself in the foot, the last thing you want to do is yell "stop." I hope Democrats keep beating up on suburbs. Every suburbanite they tick off is a winnable voter for conservative causes. It may be how the GOP finally attracts minority voters.

We Are the JV Team

Ralph Peters comments on defense for the New York Post. In today's column, he asserts that in the battle with ISIS, the U.S. is the JV team and they are the experts, we're losing and they're winning.

He defends that claim by showing how we are playing patty-cake while they are playing hardball. With all our technological prowess, we can't keep them from using electronic media to reach recruits, advertise their conquests, and terrorize those in ISIS' path. See Peters' description of their recruiting pitch:

While our “elites” no longer comprehend religious zeal, ISIS lives it — and wields it on impressionable young Muslims around the globe.

Its recruiting campaign is brilliant — cheap and effective — offering young misfits entry into the ultimate boys’ club, where Allah gives you a license not only to kill, but to torture, rape and enslave.

If you’re killed, you go to paradise. Our counter-offer is minimum-wage jobs.

And if you can’t make it to the ruins of Syria or Iraq, you get full points for terrorist acts at home.

In other words, ISIS jihadis are latter-day Crusaders. They have God in their hearts, blood on their swords and lust in their jeans. We worry about killing Arab civilians; they worry about finding more victims - military or civilian - to kill, rape or enslave.

ISIS uses a unique mix of asymmetric warfare and regular military tactics, in combination. Quite often suicide bombers soften up targets before regular troops and armor attack. Plus, publicizing the torture/murder of prisoners generates mass enemy desertions before a battle begins.