Cows in Miraculous Hurricane Escape

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/nov/13/cows-outer-banks-hurricane-dorian-swept-away

Quote of the piece:

"Cows are recognized as adept swimmers comfortable with covering a few hundred yards. But swimming miles of open water in a hurricane is outside their general range of expertise."

Can't wait until they make a moo-vie of this. 

Beggar thy Neighbour

https://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2019/jul/15/china-growth-slow-trade-war-bank-of-england-50-note-business-live

I'm not even going to go into Trump's deliberate insulting of his female professional colleagues in the most public and racist way. The man showed long ago that he lacks any sense of human decency or empathy and this most recent crassness fits the bill.

Instead, how short term must Trump's thinking be if he counts a Chinese slowdown as some sort of victory. The global economy is, get this, interconnected and a problem for one large economy is likely to rapidly become a problem for other countries.

This is even more true of the Sino-American relationship. Economists have long feared such a slowdown could trigger a global recession. The Chinese own a large amount of US debt and despite recent diversification are a primary manufacturer for the consumer goods that Americans enjoy on a massive scale.

Trade wars only 'work' if you draw your margin for victory so widely that it includes risking total economic collapse and great suffering for petty nationalist goals.

Johnson's bow to Trump

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/jul/10/kim-darroch-resigns-as-uk-ambassador-to-us-after-leaked-trump-comment

Good to see that Boris Johnson is showing his signature spinelessness before he even becomes prime minister.

The heir apparent of the Conservatives has been loudly trumpeting a US trade deal as a solution for the self-inflicted economic catastrophe that his Brexit policy will cause. How we can trust him to negotiate with the US when he lacks the self esteem to even back experienced British diplomats in a meaningless spat with Trump.

Bet you anything that, if he gets in, he'll be willing to show the same callous attitude towards the rest of the British population in any future trade negotiations. Get ready to say goodbye to competitive NHS bargaining with private company suppliers and hello to chlorinated battery chicken imports. 

It would be unfair to blame this entirely on Boris though. The 2017 resignation of Sir Ivan Rogers illustrated that this whole Tory administration is incapable of working with its own experts as it is tugged by its lunatic fringe towards a no deal Brexit.

Trump vs the World

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/apr/26/trump-nra-united-nations-arms-treaty-gun-control

Good on you, Trump. God forbid that the American public might be denied the right to purchase combat aircraft by an international arms treaty. I didn't think you could top your neutering of a UN measure aiming to protect women raped during conflict but you always deliver.

Broadcasting from Orbit

The world is always stranger than you can imagine. Just stumbled across these two linked astronomical stories courtesy of the Guardian:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2012/sep/13/buzz-aldrin-communion-moon

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/entertainment-arts-19407396/william-song-broadcast-by-nasa-s-curiosity-from-mars

Trump continues to blunder through the Israeli-Palestinian china shop

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/03/trump-threatens-cut-aid-palestinians-peace-talks

Personally I wouldn't be doubling down on such an idiotic decision if I was Trump (god forbid). Unpredictability and threats to cut aid might seem like a quick fix to a failed businessman but a constructive intermediary has to maintain good relations with both sides.

His current policies simply mean that the US will become not only an irrelevance but an active obstacle to peace in Israel (and the surrounding countries with Palestinian refugees). 

Trump fumbles in Middle East

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/06/trump-to-plunge-middle-east-into-fire-with-no-end-with-jerusalem-speech

I'm starting to think that Trump must be competing with somebody for the title of worst American president/ international leader in living memory.

I mean surely nobody could be so stupid as to think that this will have any positive effects beyond massaging the egos of hardliners in Israel and maybe giving him a slight electoral boost.

Meanwhile he reignites an issue that has eluded settlement for decades and regularly leads to costly and deadly wars in a sensitive area of the globe.

Total and complete imbecile.

Saying it how it is ...

At last something said by the current US administration that I agree with!

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/oct/04/rex-tillerson-trump-moron

Clowns vs Trump Supporters

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/sep/16/insane-clown-posse-trump-juggalo-march-on-washington

I'm not even going to touch this - too easy!

Trump shows his true colours

Swell job defending  the killers and bigots in Charlottesville, Mr President, way to alienate a solid proportion of the population that you purportedly govern.

If you could just alt-right out of office we'd all feel a lot more comfortable.

RIP America's war on drugs

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-31618389

Funny how such pragmatic and sensible legislation as that enacted by certain US States, Uruguay and (most recently) Jamaica had to wait until the end of the vaunted 'War on Drugs'.

You might almost think that strong arming Latin American states and sending in American troops was having a negative effect, perish the thought,

The Economist vs the socialists

Having picked up this week's Economist I have made an amazing discovery. A disinterested observer might be tempted to think that oil-producing countries are nearly certain to struggle during an oil glut especially following OPEC's decision to not curtail production.

This is evident in the cases of Russia, Venezuala, Brazil and even Nigeria. America should be treated as something of a special case. The shale gas producers are certainly being squeezed be low oil prices but the size of the US economy and its central position in world investment means that the boost to economic endeavour given by the low prices helps to offset damage to the exporting energy industry.

However, if you read the Economist it becomes clear that these failings are due to the number one suspect. Venezuala is suffering for decades of, unfathomably, attempting to fund social progress with oil profits rather than stakeholder dividends. Brazil could have avoided this crisis entirely if it had nipped corruption and state control in the bud with a healthy dose of market forces.

I'm not saying that this is entirely a fabrication. The corruption in Brazil's Petrobras company is abominable (although it wouldn't look out of place in the modern state capitalist China). What seems unfair is the special pleading that the same journalists would apply in analogous cases for devout capitalists. The Coalition are heaped with praise for staying the course with austerity even though it is clear that low oil prices (over which they had little control) are responsible for much of the recent upturn in economic growth.

Checks and balances

So Snowden's revelations continue to show what the American intelligence services are getting up to in their strenuous efforts to protect us from all those pesky terrorists.

I especially like the NSA's response to the Guardian in response to the latest information about XKeyscore, a program that allows them to browse huge databases of online activity. Reassuringly the NSA stated:

"Allegations of widespread, unchecked analyst access to NSA collection data are simply not true. Access to XKeyscore, as well as all of NSA's analytic tools, is limited to only those personnel who require access for their assigned tasks … In addition, there are multiple technical, manual and supervisory checks and balances within the system to prevent deliberate misuse from occurring."

The first and second sentences may well be true, although in the wake of the Wikileaks scandal and Snowden's inconvenient honesty the Americans should perhaps be learning that even those they trust with their powerful gadgets and technological toys may have their own thoughts and agendas.

However, the last claim really made me seethe and froth at the mouth. So they had checks and balances in the system that they didn't even reveal to the people that they supposedly protect and serve? We have our own set of checks and balances in the form of representative democracy. Covert operations that breach rights to privacy are clear attempts to circumvent such democratic responsibility and the perpetrators shouldn't try to tell us that they know better when they are caught out.

School shooting in California

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/10/us-usa-shooting-california-idUSBRE90910H20130110

Another American school shooting on the news this evening. A student in California shot another with a shotgun before being persuaded to give up the gun by a brave teacher.

The National Rifle Association and other gun lobbyists should be ashamed that they are prepared to see such events become a monthly occurrence rather than accept sensible gun control.  

Hollande's aggressive condemnation of Mali rebellion

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/11/france-intervene-mali-conflict

So predictably it is France that answers the calls of Mali's current rulers for assistance against the rebels who have seized the North of the country. France has a long history of intervention in Francophone nations and former colonies. Further the Islamic platform of the rebels and their background in the Libyan conflict have alarmed international observers and led to a low-level, condemnatory media buzz around potential damage to the historic city of Timbuktu.

However, these statements are illustrative in showing Hollande's foreign policy priorities and how his government will interact with the non-European world. His support for withdrawal from Afghanistan is shown to be tactical rather than ideological. By contemplating intervention in Mali, Hollande shows that his left-wing government is not committed to a more peaceful foreign stance than his predecessor but was merely keen to cut unpopular and unwillingly adopted positions in support of American wars.

It will be interesting to see how this impacts on the war in Mali and whether Hollande follows through on his statements of support for the government of this embattled state.

[Edit] - Now that was quick. Hollande has confirmed that French troops are already in the country and are supporting the Mali army. No mention of how many or what they are up to yet.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-20991719

American official recommends caution on Europe referendum

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-20961651

The Americans are now being more sensible on the question of British membership of the European Union than our elected Conservative prime minister. I never thought I'd see the day.

Still, what else can we expect from a man who has to share a party platform with Douglas Carswell? The Clacton M.P's insighful comment on Twitter being, "A US official believes UK should continue to be ruled by EU officials. Hardly surprising - it's how officials think.".

Politicians should always be wary of advocating collective blame - which they have a tendency to attract themselves. Further while Philip Gordon can blandly be described as an 'official' he could just as easily be referred to as a respected academic and published author.

The dangers of mixing nuclear power and submarines

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-19940049

Maybe time for a rethink about the whole putting dangerous nuclear reactors in submarines idea? Germany and Japan have taken admirable steps in the direction of cutting down usage of civilian nuclear power but neither are nuclear states or are well known for their outgoing defence policies. If such prudent policies can be adopted in regards to civilian power use, which has the potential to be an economic and workable alternative to fossil fuels, then surely the US and British naval forces could give up the use of these submarines that simply allow for provocative militaristic posturing and risks environmental and diplomatic disaster?

http://www.usnwc.edu/getattachment/187a93e1-db4c-474e-9be8-038bb7a64edb/Drowning-Stability--The-Perils-of-Naval-Nucleariza

Similarly the prevalence of the even more terrifying nuclear capable submarines is shown by this article in the American Naval War College Review journal which focusses on the ubiquity of such marine armaments in the deterrence policies of nuclear armed nations. A very interesting read about naval diplomacy between India and Pakistan, a simmering conflict that seems to have barely warranted any mainstream news coverage in recent years.

Conspiracy theorists in the Middle East

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/sep/29/republicans-obama-chris-stevens-libya

The Republicans really are completely nuts.

Taiwan: Between the US and China

Disengaging From Taiwan – Should Washington Continue Its Alliance With Taipei?

Foreign Affairs, Vol 90, no 4.

In 'Misreading China's Intentions', Shyu-Tu Lee (President of the North America Taiwanese Professor's Association - just in case you were expecting neutrality) argues against Charles Glaser who has called for a drawing back of the US commitment to and arms trade with Taiwan.

Lee's arguments has a lot of holes to say the least. It is claimed that the rise of China poses grave challenges to US security. Among other things China keeps its currency low to promote exports and this has the consequence of creating a large trade deficit for the US. It may just be me but this isn't actually China's fault. While America can complain about China's manipulation of currency value it is not being forced to buy Chinese goods and is within its rights to stop or raise tariffs if it doesn't like the terms. At a time when America is relying on Chinese credit to help support its ailing economy it seems provocative to say the least to call Chinese economic development a risk to American security.

Lee also threatens that Glaser's policy could increase the chance of a nuclear attack on the American homeland. Correct me if I'm wrong but wouldn't this be incredibly counter-productive since a) America has a far bigger nuclear stockpile with which to retaliate and b) China is benefiting from the aforementioned trade deficit. Nuking your debtors does not make good business sense.

Finally Lee claims that once in control of Taiwan the Chinese would quickly turn South Korea and Japan into vassal states forcing a US retreat to Hawaii. Are people really still relying on the domino theory to make their points? Sheesh.

Of course I'm not saying that Taiwan should be left to fend for itself. No country should be allowed to engage in aggression against a sovereign rival based on 70 year old territorial claims. However, this article is frankly a piece of alarmist scaremongering that if credited would guarantee a rise in tensions between China and the USA.

Don't feed the Orcs

http://www.sbnation.com/london-olympics-2012/2012/7/28/3197979/boring-olympic-opening-ceremony-should-bar-london-from-hosting-again

Wow, this seems to have provoked a response! An American journalist takes the Olympic ceremony apart piece by piece and says what he thought about it. I wouldn't comment on this one if you paid me but I would really like to frame the comments section. An amazing amount of raw hostility condensed into a single thread (and with a much higher literacy than most Youtube comment threads!).