He is getting things right, both large and small. And, as always, CNN can be expected to mis-report the news. Here is the title, Trump Pentagon names the enemy: It’s ISIS, not ISIL, and this is not what it’s really about.
ISIL has been vanquished — at least as an acronym in the administration of President Donald Trump.
The Pentagon has issued a directive that officials now use the more common term ISIS to refer to the terror group.
ISIL, which stands for Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, was the preferred acronym of the Obama administration. Some senior State Department officials and military commanders in the field preferred to use the Arabic acronym Daesh, but ISIL appeared in all official documents and statements.
This is not a pot-ah-toe/pot-ay-toe moment. This has surprisingly genuine implications. CNN goes on with this:
Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis said the military “views ISIS, ISIL and Daesh as interchangeable terms for the same thing.”
But he added: “ISIS is the term most known and understood by the American public, and it is what our leadership uses. This memo simply aligns our terminology.”
Here’s the deal. The IL stands for Iraq and the Levant. The latter IS in ISIS stands for Iraq and Syria. The first, therefore, claims to represent the entire Middle East. The second is only Iraq and Syria. The group itself prefers ISIL which is why, no doubt, Obama preferred it himself. The switch actually does make a difference in how America’s intentions are viewed where it really matters.
One day the media will actually hit on a genuine scandal and we will never hear the end of it. They are trying as best they can and have gone through Russia hacked the election, then Mike Flynn, and now yesterday’s non-terrorist non-horror in Sweden. So far, not only have they come up with nothing they have tended to harden the Trump side of the political divide. The Swedish example is an interesting one since it is impossible not to know the problems its immigration and refugee programs have caused. But a loose word and the jackals of the press are there in pack numbers.
There is then this, going back to Mike Flynn which has led to this article, President Trump Has Been Far Too Nice To The Mainstream Media, in this instance in relation to the electronic eavesdropping on Trump’s National Security Advisor prior to his appointment.
Here’s the real story – the intelligence community under the Obama administration was obviously eavesdropping on Trump’s campaign in violation of practically every law ever written. Whether it was direct tapping of phones and emails, or illegally accessing the communications swooped up by the NSA in its nets, it’s clear that Obama’s people were spying on Obama’s political opponents. The transcript excerpts of Flynn’s phone call with the Russian diplomat leaked because it could be played off as targeting the Russian, though this was still an outrageous disclosure of American spying capabilities. What these criminals can’t do is release the communications between Americans that they possess because doing that confirms what we all know – that Obama’s people spied on his political opponents like his IRS persecuted them. The only question really is what did Obama know, and when did he know it – interestingly, on his way out the door, Obama made it easy to hide the source of the leaks by opening up access to the information across a bunch of agencies. There’s your story, a scandal that makes Watergate seem microscopic, and the mainstream media will not touch it because it would destroy the media’s political allies.
That is true, and everyone understands it perfectly well, but where are the media hounds when we have a story bigger than Watergate?
The true measure of each story’s significance is that the media – meaning the left – still get to decide what is and what is not news, what is and what is not a scandal, and it is still able to enforce what it decides on our daily conversations. And while the left never relents and never appears to learn, the right has its traitors who would do anything for a favourable mention on the news tonight.
This is number five in an article on H.R. McMaster: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know. McMaster is being nominated for National Security Advisor and as the article notes, is a student of military history. Economists, on the other hand, think history is bunk, which explains a lot about what’s wrong with economics. This, for me, is quite reassuring.
In a 2012 interview with McKinsey & Company, McMaster said that his interest in military history has been an influence on his career. Even though part of his current job is about looking to the future, there are factors of war that never change.
McMaster said in 2012 that one of the failures of the Iraq and Afghanistan policies was planning for “a sustainable political outcome that would be consistent with our vital interests, and it complicated both of those wars.”
He also noted that war is “an inherently human endeavor,” and that no matter how technologically advanced the U.S. is, there is still a human factor.
“We assumed that advances in information, surveillance technology, technical-intelligence collection, automated decision-making tools, and so on were going to make war fast, cheap, efficient, and relatively risk free—that technology would lift the fog of war and make warfare essentially a targeting exercise, in which we gain visibility on enemy organizations and strike those organizations from a safe distance. But that’s not true, of course,” McMaster explained to McKinsey & Company.
During an interview with TBO.com in April 2015, McMaster stressed the importance of knowing how people act and interact when predicting the future of war.
“What we have to do is really develop the ability to think clearly about future war,” McMaster explained in 2015. “And what we have to do is identify changes in the so-called human domain and understand what is fundamentally driving conflict, which is human in nature.”
Of course, you should now read the other four as well
It’s important to understand that identity politics creates paranoia.
It divides society into categories based on personal characteristics like race, gender and sexuality. It then labels some of those groups as oppressors and some as victims, and teaches that all interactions between the members of different groups must be interpreted in terms of a hierarchy of power.
It also teaches that the personal is political. This is a natural consequence of defining the political factions in society in terms of their personal characteristics. But it means that every aspect of life then has to be interpreted in political terms, and in the framework of identity politics that means that every single thing in the world must be seen as an expression of the power relationships between the oppressors and their victims.
Now imagine what it means to really internalize that worldview. For example, a woman who has come to believe that men are her oppressors will come to see all men as a threat. She will become acutely conscious of the presence of men and will feel unsafe when there are any males nearby. She will begin to believe that she is surrounded by predators who want to do her harm and who have society’s permission to do so. Every social interaction will begin to seem dangerous and loaded with hidden messages about power and privilege. Political disagreement becomes intolerable because if the personal is political there is no difference between political disagreement and a personal attack.
In other words, the logic of identity politics naturally leads to paranoid thinking, and the more seriously a person takes it the more paranoid he, she or xe will become.
This results in a demand for “safe spaces” from which the designated oppressor groups are excluded. It also leads to rage, because people who feel that they are constantly under threat will come to hate the thing that threatens them even if the threat is largely or wholly imaginary. This in turn leads to outbursts of violence and hysteria as a means of releasing the psychological pressure of living under constant siege.
Now imagine how Donald Trump would appear to someone with that mindset. He’s a rich, white, alpha male Republican. Their ideology teaches them that a man like him is the apex predator of oppression, and the paranoia that it induces will make them feel that all this terrible danger is aimed at them personally. Even if they could somehow bring Donald Trump down they would soon feel just as threatened as they did before, because they cannot let go of their own self-image as victims without admitting that the whole conceptual framework of identity politics is fundamentally wrong.
But when the personal is political, changing your opinion on anything becomes a matter of changing part of your identity and that is never easy for anybody, so don’t expect the left to calm down anytime soon.
This was followed by a second comment by Anonymous also along the same theme:
Leftism and paranoia — correlation or causation? This post argues that leftism induces a persecution complex. Perhaps. But I think it is even more insidious than that. Naturally, paranoid people will tend towards leftism because it promises — falsely — the protection of a paternalistic state. We all know how well that works. But our gloriously failing educational bureaucracy from nursery school through college now actively teaches students to become paranoid. Yes, the main function of contemporary education in America is to induce a sense of persecution in all students. This causes them to become lefties. So, I think the most critical problem is that we are now breeding generations of cry-babies who will fundamentally alter the character of the nation. To make leftism work, you must create paranoids. This is, I believe, the most important link in the correlation-causation chain.
What sort of syndrome is it to be fearful of the known and totally welcoming of the unknown even though everything you do know about this particular unknown will wreck everything about the life you are presently leading?
Here’s the real story – the intelligence community under the Obama administration was obviously eavesdropping on Trump’s campaign in violation of practically every law ever written. Whether it was direct tapping of phones and emails, or illegally accessing the communications swooped up by the NSA in its nets, it’s clear that Obama’s people were spying on Obama’s political opponents. The transcript excerpts of Flynn’s phone call with the Russian diplomat leaked because it could be played off as targeting the Russian, though this was still an outrageous disclosure of American spying capabilities. What these criminals can’t do is release the communications between Americans that they possess because doing that confirms what we all know – that Obama’s people spied on his political opponents like his IRS persecuted them. The only question really is what did Obama know, and when did he know it – interestingly, on his way out the door, Obama made it easy to hide the source of the leaks by opening up access to the information across a bunch of agencies. There’s your story, a scandal that makes Watergate seem microscopic, and the mainstream media will not touch it because it would destroy the media’s political allies.
That is true, and everyone understands it perfectly well, with the true measure of the story’s significance in that the media still decides what is and what is not news and is able to enforce what it decides.
Here’s the title from The Diplomad, Madness and Chaos: the Left in the Time of Trump with the stress in the article on madness. Others are certain to start picking on this, since it gets truly nerve wracking to live in an asylum, even if the inmates are no longer in charge. This is the quote that matters in which the he is Donald Trump and the them is the left:
He has, in short, exposed them as, no other word for it, crazy. Yes, crazy.
He then asks the question I have asked. My way of asking it is to wonder what will become worse by the lights of the left if Trump pursues his agenda. Here the question is put about what the left is in favour of, but you will see the point.
So they hate Trump but what are these protestors and their media enablers for?
As far as I can tell they are for children but also for killing unborn ones with no restriction, no apology, and no need for a fee. They are for LBGT and women’s “rights,” but ally themselves with Muslims who practice FGM, oppose abortion, treat women like cattle, and promote and engage in honor killings, and advocate death for LBGT people. They are for women’s rights, but want men who think they are women to use women’s washrooms. They are for free speech, but shut down anybody who disagrees with them, and, of course, ally themselves with Muslims who oppose freedom of speech and thought as part of their core dogma. They are against racism but try to stir up old racial animosities and conflicts that had long been resolved, buried, and forgotten. They are for poor working people, but oppose the tax and the regulatory structures that create jobs. They are for poor working people but favor unrestricted immigration that drives down wages, crowds out jobs, and absorbs the funds of public welfare schemes. They want free education for all, but oppose letting poor and middle class people have the right to choose their schools, unlike the rich people who do. They shout “Love Trumps Hate!” as they bash opponents with bricks and poles. They have spent decades denouncing the military, the CIA, the NSA, and the FBI as oppressors of the people, but now want those agencies to sabotage an elected president. The wealthy ones denounce gun ownership and walls but live behind protective shields of men with guns and walls around their exclusive properties. Hollywood stars who made millions living in the land of make-believe denounce non-existent Trumpian “brownshirts” and bravely proclaim their resistance! They are for the environment and prove it by flying to environmental rallies in their private jets. They, well . . . you can go on with this sad litany.
And at the end he comes back to the same point that he began with:
I think when all is said and done we have to conclude that there is a large element of mental disturbance. Facts don’t matter. Logic is absent and even abhorred and shouted down. The emotion is the thing. The posturing is the thing. The slogan is the thing.
They are crazy.
They are psychotic.
And they are not just fruit loops but dangerous as well.
“We’ve got to keep our country safe. You look at what’s happening in Germany, you look at what’s happening last night in Sweden. Sweden. Who would believe this?”
The real point is not these examples, which can be multiplied many times over, but the refusal of the left side of the political spectrum to treat these as genuine problems that need to be dealt with.
But more generally, does the left seriously not think that Sweden ought to be an example to the rest of us on which path not to follow?
#NEVERTRUMP COMMENT It’s not just the left, it seems. What do you do with nitwits like this, supposedly on our side: Trump Mocked Mercilessly for Claiming Imaginary Terror Attack in Sweden. Insufferable, but corrected in the comments thread. The following dozen are selected from among the Top Comments:
1)Those who mock Trump on this topic only demonstrate their ignorance. Check out Paul Joseph Watson’s interview of “The Angry Immigrant” – a Bosnian blogger living in Sweden. Sweeden’s media and gov’t are colluding to quash info on horrific crime in that nation. Just another case of Trump being more informed than the Fakestream media.
2)I’d suggest that before these clowns bash the “uninformed” Trump, they actually check what he said, along with his follow-up. Powerline covers it nicely ( http://www.powerlineblog.com/a… ). I saw an article today that started (and I paraphrase) – Now that Trump’s MAGA dream is going down in flames and his administration continues to be wracked with scandals …. Dream on folks, while Trump continues to get things done in spite of all your efforts.
3) Rick Moran officially becomes a member of the Fake News Media.
4) 1) Malmo has no go areas.
2) Jews are leaving Sweden.
3) Firemen are asking for bulletproof vest in Stockholm.
4) The Turks rightly pointed out that Sweden is a rape capital.
The Swedes are lucky in that ISIS is under sever pressure and Jihadis would rather go for France, Britain, Germany before Sweden. With ISIS gone from Iraq and Syria in 2 years, it does not mean that people in Europe will be safe from jihadi attacks, sexual violence of ‘ordinary’ crime going up or sharia law zones.
5) “They took in large numbers. They’re having problems like they never thought possible.” – Trump on Sweden. He did not mention a terrorist attack in Sweden. Big problems would be a large upticks in rapes and sexual assaults. There is that in Sweden. . . .Sweden has 49% increase in sexual violence. Are you pro-sexual assault?
6) Trump never said “terror attack” with regard to Sweden, Moran, you stupid piece of dung. YOU and the Fake Media have conflated Trump’s comments to signify terror attacks purely to ridicule Trump. Not one week ago, a native Swedish woman was abducted and gang raped by 3 muslim “refugees” that was LIVESTREAMED ON FACEBOOK. I am sure that poor lady considers her ordeal to have been a terrorist attack. Have you not seen the official reports that shows Sweden to be the Rape Capital of the WORLD? Did you not see the TV crew that set out to prove there were no muslim “no-go” neighborhoods in Malmo, only to be attacked by muslims? This picayune fake fact checking of Trump to ridicule him has got to stop! Show me where you ridiculed Obama for saying there are 57 states, that islam helped build the US, that Austrians speak Austrian language, or when he said his “Islam religion.”
7) I would consider the multiple gang rapes a form of terror attack. I don’t know if that was what Trump was referring to or if someone else has already mentioned it, but that’s my take.
8) I’m sorry—this reads like a criticism of an ER surgeon doing triage and getting criticized for his cheap cologne. Sweden is turning into a hell hole and everyone knows it but the MSM, apparently.
9) Well Rick Moran, we in the real world know what Pres. Trump is referring to. It’s too bad your intelligence overwhelms your common sense, or you would know also.
10) Um, maybe you should go to your friend at Instapundit – where you could see that the Friday night “event” Trump was referring to was an interview Tucker Carlson did on the rape and crime problem in Sweden. . . . And Google “immigration problems Sweden” and you’ll see that yes there are all kinds of problems in Sweden. Seriously Mr Moran – time for an update or retraction.
11) “Sweden’s Muslim problem: Half a million women sex attacked in a year. This now puts Sweden in the top position for sex crimes in the world. Put this into perspective to see how horrific these figures truly are: The total Swedish population is only 9.6 million people. In 2009 a US report stated that there are 450,000 to 500,000 Muslims in Sweden, around 5% of the total population. Out of the 500,000 Muslim migrants in Sweden, half or less are men. In other words, there is roughly an equivalent to two sex attacks to every Muslim male in Sweden. These sex attacks are not committed by the natives”. “Sweden’s interior minister, Anders Ygeman, visited Malmö on Monday, just a day after another man was shot dead in the southern Swedish city”. A 23-year-old man died in hospital after being shot outside a restaurant on the central Möllevången square at 6.40pm on Sunday. The man was known to police, with a series of previous convictions. He is the latest person killed in a spate of gun violence in Malmö this year. On January 3rd a 22-year-old man was shot dead in the Fosie district, just a week before a 16-year-old boy was killed in Rosengård”. “Jews have been abandoning the city over the past few decades as it becomes more unwelcoming and anti-Semitic. Italian journalist wrote in a piece earlier this year for Israel National News: In the seventies, the community had more than 2,000 members: today there are less than 500. The others left for Stockholm or for Israel. The Simon Wiesenthal Center issued a warning to all Jews who visit Malmo, “Hide public religious signs and do not speak Hebrew.”
12) We don’t have to guess what Trump was talking about. He tweeted to say he was referring to a Fox news report from the previous night regarding the problems Sweden is having with immigrants. Of course the pro immigrant Swedes are upset if someone notes they’re destroying their own country with uncontrolled immigration of muslims. PC is rather more important than the women of Sweden enduring a few thousand rapes and the occasional murder.
And will finish with the picture that may put the case as clearly as it can be put.
Law of Markets 