Today's news

A departure for me as I will offer brief(ish) comments on current stories in the news rather than my normal lengthier piece.

David Cameron and the EU
It seems like Cameron has decided to get a little serious with his negotiations for Britain's continued membership of the European Union.  He is apparently going to tell our EU partners that if he can't get what he wants, for Britain, then he will campaign for Britain's exit, the so called Brexit.

Before you jump up an exclaim 'about time!' consider that Cameron isn't really asking for much.  And his partners will hold firm on their core desire for 'ever closer union' and pull Britain further and further into their orbit.  This is what the Euro-elite want.  Not the people of Europe, or more accurately the European Union (note to the BBC Europe and the European Union are not same thing) but for those folks, democracy is an over-rated luxury.

If Cameron really wants to demonstrate that he means business, here is a tip.   Have the UK Civil Service start a process of planning for Brexit.  I can't think of a better way of showing that you mean business, than showing you are prepared for all outcomes.  Have Civil Servants start negotiations with the UK's key trading partners - those outside the EU.  Start with China and India and then other Commonwealth countries.  The upcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting, in Malta, would be the perfect launchpad!  Develop and publish the replacement for the Common Agriculture Policy.  Same for the Fisheries policy.  Start to withdraw from cooperation on the ludicrous European Union Foreign Service.

Does anyone think that this won't concentrate the minds of the EU bureaucrats and the so-called political masters.

Obama and Keystone
So Obama decided to pay back his big financial sponsor - Warren Buffet.  This was entirely predictable.  Buffet's Burlington Northern Santa Fe railway is booking an alleged $2 billion a year in profits from transporting oil, at $30 a barrel from Canada to the southern US versus the $10 a barrel that it would cost to send it down via the Keystone XL pipeline.

The US Presidential race

As a non-US voter, can I say - enough already.

Let's start with the Democrats - surely this can only be seen as a fight between Clinton and Saunders?  I appreciate that this is a most unpalatable choice but let's get real.  Without Biden, there is no one else.  Unless of course, some of the RINOs show their true colours, and change parties?  Jeb, Marco?
So will the other Democrat candidates please leave the stage.  Then we can have 'looney-Left tunes' Saunders slug it out with the not so much Teflon coated as media-untouchable Hillary.   Then we just might see the Dems and their media supporters having to choose between the spend like crazy Saunders and the make no hostages to the future Clinton.  Things might get interesting!

Now the Republicans.

'Elephant in the room time' - make that elephants.  Jeb, Marco, Kasich and the others, except for Ted Cruz, Donald Trump and Ben Carson, need to leave the field.  George Dubya needs to take his brother to one side and say 'save your money and give it up'!

The GOP needs to focus on the real candidates.
Carson may have been wounded by the latest revelations concerning West Point, or he may brush past that.  To me it sounds like the media trying to make a story out of next to nothing - so Carson bragged a little, haven't we all?

Trump will I think, start to fade.  He has done the GOP a great service by daring to say things that some others, like the ones who should now bow out, have steered away from.   While he is a populist, I think that he has to have something more substantial in his policy pocket than just being anti-immigration.  Plus he has had past cosy relationships with the Dems.

That just leaves Ted Cruz.  Most say that he is by far the best qualified, intellectually but perhaps more importantly, he has displayed a rare consistency in his following truly Republican policies.  Some say that this tars him with a Tea Party brush but he would be the most formidable opponent against Hillary.  Who knows, if he chose Trump as his running mate, then he might get some of that Donald magic!

Refugees 
Too late for me to say too much, tonight, I will come back on this tomorrow.  I sense that this issue will still be in the news!

Have a good night!

Obama's friends

If you are not a Ukranian, consider yourself very lucky, as you wake up, this morning. 

Ukranians have President Obama as a friend and ally.  They know how lucky that is, because you can always count on a friend, right?

Except........

When that friend is President Obama.

Germany counted the USA and most particularly President Obama, as a friend.  Remember that big Obama love-fest before he was elected as President?  The one where he had the rock-star stage?  That was in Germany. 

So how does Obama repay this adulation?  Well his security services, in the relentless pursuit of America's terrorist enemies, bug the phone of German Chancellor Merkel.  Now Merkel, having grown-up in the old East Germany, probably knows a thing or two about being bugged, so she is unlikely to have said too much that was incriminating, on any of the calls that Obama's spies listened-in to.  Or maybe she did.  Maybe she thought, friends don't spy on friends.  Hmm!

So to Ukraine.  President Obama and his ineffectual Secretary of State, John Kerry, are threatening all sorts of sanctions against Russia.  Now call me naive but what was the result of ever increasing sanctions against Iran?  Oh yes!  Iran is currently enjoying a sanctions vacation, courtesy of the Obama administration and still able to pursue its goal of obtaining a nuclear capability.  Iran's number one enemy after the USA?  Israel, another friend of the USA that is being treated to Obama's own, very special, interpretation of friendship.

President Hosni Mubarak also thought of America and Obama as a friend and then his friend 'threw him under a Muslim Brotherhood bus!

Take it closer to home.  Christopher Stevens was appointed US Ambassador to Libya by President Obama and the then Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.  It would be wrong to question the naivete of a person that cannot defend themselves, but surely Stevens could have done some homework on Clinton.  She was thrown off of the Watergate inquiry because of her having a very loose affiliation with the truth - that should have made him wary.  However, in Stevens' defence he probably thought that he could rely on his friends in Washington and the White House.  That didn't work out so well though! 

The US consulate in Benghazi was attacked by well-armed militants and Stevens and three other  US personnel were brutally killed.  Even in death though, Obama and Clinton's special notion  of what friendship means, had to be played out.  So the airwaves rang-out with stories of a spontaneous mob that were protesting about a video.  This mob were so spontaneous, they came very well armed, including carrying Rocket Propelled Grenades because that's kind of spontaneous, right?  Then Obama and Clinton go through the public expressions of sympathy that is called for, when 'friends' are taken from us.  Except, we have since learned, this was for show.  As said this was no spontaneous demonstration.  This was a well-planned attack and it was sustained but in a stunning display of friendship, Obama ordered the military to stand down and not to go to the aid of the beleaguered consulate.  Indeed, if the twittersphere is to be believed, the US General in charge, in that theatre of operations, was relieved of his command when he indicated an intention to send military personnel to rescue Americans that were in danger. 

I don't know about you but Obama's idea of friendship doesn't match anything that I recognise.

So back to the poor Ukranians.  If you believe in karma and that sort of stuff, then Ukraine must have been really bad in a former life.  In addition to having the highly dubious honour of the friendship of Obama they also have the European Union as an ally.  Now if you want to know how the European Union treats its friends, consider how it treated Greece, Ireland, Spain, Portugal and Italy during the recent economic crisis.  Ask the people of Cyprus, that saw their life savings stolen at the whim of the EU, if they think this was the act of a friend. 

Say what you like about the United Kingdom but when Ireland needed help, the UK provided it - because that's how friends treat friends!  Of course there was likely some self-interest involved but still!

If I was a political leader in any of the current hot-spots, I would be seriously reconsidering my country's friendship with the USA.  If I was the president if the Philippines, would I really believe that my American 'friends' would come to my aid, if the Chinese continued their South China Sea expansionist activity?

In closing, I need to bring some balance to this piece.  Plainly the foregoing is somewhat slanted against Obama and just shows how he mis-treats his friends.  In truth though it isn't always that way.  The successful investor, Warren Buffet is a big supporter of Obama.  This is one friend that Obama does consider or so it would seem.  The Keystone Pipeline Phase 4 has been awaiting US government approval for all of Obama's presidency but this can has been repeatedly kicked down the road and no decision made.  One  has to wonder if the fact that Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway group owns the rail company called Burlington Northern, has anything to do with it.  Is it a coincidence that BN rail cars are currently transporting the oil that would otherwise flow through the pipeline?  If I was on 'Who wants to be a millionaire' I would have to 'ask a friend' but I would make sure that it wasn't America's president!

Yes, if I was a Ukranian, I would be seriously considering what friendship means!

 





   

The US election - a foreigner's perspective

I can't vote in Tuesday's presidential election in the US but if I could, my vote would go to Mitt Romney.

Why?

Well, on the economy, I just think that Obama really doesn't understand America or Americans. All those Americans that I have ever met are aspirational.  They look at the (failed) European social model and say ' that's not for us, that's not the American way'.  This isn't restricted to WASPs or successful professionals, Americans want success and view it, not as something to be despised but to be admired.

On foreign affairs, what has Obama achieved?  Okay, so he got the Nobel Peace Prize.  Hmmm!  I can't help thinking that that was some kind of tokenism from the Norwegians!  Otherwise, what?  His softly softly approach with Iran?  How has that worked out?  All indications are, that Iran has used the last four years to advance its nuclear capabilities - and I mean its military capabilities.  Africa?  A much vaunted visit to Egypt and a big speech in Cairo, doesn't really cut it (especially since his Cairo speech seems to have fallen on deaf ears).  Asia Pacific?  Well he upset some Europeans when he told them that the future defence focus would be on the Pacific rather than Atlantic but then he proceeded to allow China to run rampant and bully its way through the South China Sea, with America abandoning its allies long the way.

Energy?  All that talk about 'alternative sources' and renewable energy'.  Net result?  Dubious dealings with companies that can only survive on US government backing.

Unemployment?  However you cut the numbers, employment is at the same level as when he took office.  How's that pump-priming working out?  What happened to all of those 'shovel-ready projects' that were just crying out for government (as in US taxpayer) money?

Deficit?  Need I say anything?

So that's Obama then.  What about Romney?

Well, firstly he offers a change and, something that Obama doesn't - a way forward that isn't another wasted four years.

On the economy - tax cuts - that is similar to Obama's quantitative easing but instead of just printing money and bailing out banks, puts the money into the pockets of the US taxpayer.  Or more accurately, doesn't take it out, in the first place!  It isn't just that 'trickle down' works, it's how do you get money being spent in local businesses -  by individuals or by federal or state governments?

Foreign Affairs?  Has a no nonsense approach to Iran.  Unequivocal.  Will not let Iran obtain a nuclear military capacity.  That clarity alone should win him the election!  His stance on China and their managed currency rates as well as their other trade policies are very encouraging. 

Healthcare - repeal of Obamacare will remove an additional tax from ordinary people and give people freedom.  Take a look at social healthcare systems like the failing British NHS - is that really what Americans want?  A vast beast with an insatiable hunger for more and more money?

Energy - Would promote an energy policy that realistically approaches energy independence.  So, doesn't exclude offshore continental shelf deposits and allows the Keystone pipeline from Canada.  Doesn't exclude 'alternative' energies but makes them compete, fairly.


So, Romney for change and hope, Obama for a slide towards the chaos and despair that is Greece.