Open Thread

A couple of entitled Westerners – from UK and USA – go to a nail salon in Bali, get into an argument…and then forget that they aren’t in the UK or USA where white guilt protects them. Nice to see these sort of people treated as they should. Pro tip: in no civilized society are you allowed to get into a shouting/shoving match with the staff because of a dispute over the price. I think we’re all tired of these savages – and they do come from all ethnic backgrounds in the West. I mean, other than straight, white and male – those guys aren’t Protected. But everyone else is and so go off is the norm.

Until you arrive in a civilized nation. Like Bali.

Given Gaza, we were inundated with “Jesus was a Palestinian” over the Christmas Holiday. Do keep in mind that the lies are almost never meant for you. They are almost always designed for Democrats and the more mindless/ignorant part of the American population. The people who watch those bachelor reality shows and such. The people the lies work on have, at best, only a hazy idea of where Israel even is and have no knowledge of what happened more than a year ago. They just believe what the TV tells them…and so “Jesus was a Palestinian” is said to them and they nod their heads and are thus primed to show up in the streets and in polling calling for a ceasefire.

The next GOP President should take a trip to one of the Nigerian villages attacked by Islamists. Perhaps the one attacked just this Christmas? Any of them will do; there are a lot of them. And when he gets there and he makes himself available to the press, he should ask them: “why haven’t you told the American people what’s been happening here for years?”. The purpose isn’t to get an answer from them – but to start implanting in the low-info people that they are being systemically deceived.

Iranian-backed forces have been targeting American military forces since the Gaza War started – apparently, Pudding Brain’s people told Congress that we’re going to hit a few sites in Iraq over it. This is doing something to make it look like you’re doing something. We’re not going to hit anything serious because these are Iranian assets and our foreign and military establishments abhor doing anything that offends Iran. This is over and above all other considerations – that they kinda hate Israel plays a role, but not decisive here. Our establishment is just convinced that peace in the Middle East is dependent upon us selling the area to Iran. Sure, its stupid – but its what they believe. At least, it is what we must assume they believe considering their actions.

The bad news here is that Iranian-backed forces are threatening to halt seaborne trade in the Red Sea – basically closing the Suez Canal. There was a reason it was built, guys; because transiting via South Africa takes a huge amount of time and money. Already major shippers are rerouting their trade – and this is going to add massive cost to everything humanity does. You really have to understand how much of the world’s goods transit through Suez – either directly or in parts that go to make the whole. Don’t fuss about oil as some are – most of the largest tankers haven’t been able to fit in Suez for ages. Can’t fit through Panama, either. They’ve already been taking the longer route and that was long ago priced it…it is everything else that the problem will come in on. Brace for some bad economic shocks.

Islamist Mob Breaks in to Israeli Embassy

From the AP:

Protesters broke into the Israeli Embassy in Cairo Friday and dumped documents out of the windows as hundreds more demonstrated outside, prompting the ambassador and his family to leave the country. The unrest was a further worsening of already deteriorating ties between Israel and post-Hosni Mubarak Egypt.

Egyptian police made no attempt to intervene during the day as crowds of hundreds tore down an embassy security wall with sledgehammers and their bare hands or after nightfall when about 30 protesters stormed into the Nile-side high-rise building where the embassy is located…

This is the end of the peace treaty – the Egyptian government either will not or cannot enforce the terms, which would include the security of the Israeli embassy in Cairo.  What form of government will finally emerge in Egypt remains unknown…but until that government does emerge and indicates its policies, no reliance can be placed on agreements made under the Sadat/Mubarak regime.  A new peace treaty will have to made – and only if the new Egyptian government indicates a willingness to have true peace with Israel.

The ultimate lesson here is to place no reliance on deals with  tyrants – Sadat was, indeed, a great and wise man…but he was a tyrant, and his successor was a tyrant, and only as long as the tyranny remained in power would any agreement be honored.  Tyrant gone, so is deal…better to have never made the deal, as if there hadn’t been a peace treaty Israel would be on the Suez, not worrying about attacks from the Sinai in to southern Israel.

Back to square one in the middle east…except now there is an even more virulent spirit abroad in the Muslim world.