Obama's obnubilation, obfuscation...

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Obama caught out being a rampant hypocrite...again. In a clear anti-Trump rant* Obama 'blamed' the media for not making presidential candidates more accountable. He seems to have forgotten their outrageously blind, partisan, entirely biased coverage of his own 2008** campaign (and to a large but not as great extent in 2012). I include the UK media in this too. Later, Obama promised "transparency would be a touchstone of his administration", and he has claimed to have the 'most transparent administration in history', bullshit on both counts.



However, back to this week: [LINK]. "Many believe that Obama’s call for us to probe and dig deeper and find out more has been made far more difficult by his administration than any in recent decades." (CNN reporter)...

"the Obama administration had used the Espionage Act to go after more leakers and whistleblowers than all previous White Houses combined."

"Obama hasn’t delivered... "In fact, FOIA has been a disaster under his watch." (Pro Publica reporter Justin Elliott". 'A recent analysis found the Obama administration set a record of failing nearly 130,000 times to respond to public records requests under the Freedom of Information Act.'

Elliot 'went on to write':

Newly uncovered documents (made public only through a FOIA lawsuit) show the Obama administration aggressively lobbying against reforms proposed in Congress. The Associated Press found last year that the administration had set a record for censoring or denying access to information requested under FOIA, and that the backlog of unanswered requests across the government had risen by 55 percent, to more than 200,000.

* If his awful dirge-like way of speaking could ever be a 'rant'; I have never understood how he is considered a master orator: I'm switched off after two sentences.


** And his nomination to run was completely rigged anyway (plus ca change) 

Obama's obnubilation, obfuscation...

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Obama caught out being a rampant hypocrite...again. In a clear anti-Trump rant* Obama 'blamed' the media for not making presidential candidates more accountable. He seems to have forgotten their outrageously blind, partisan, entirely biased coverage of his own 2008** campaign (and to a large but not as great extent in 2012). I include the UK media in this too. Later, Obama promised "transparency would be a touchstone of his administration", and he has claimed to have the 'most transparent administration in history', bullshit on both counts.

However, back to this week: [LINK]. "Many believe that Obama’s call for us to probe and dig deeper and find out more has been made far more difficult by his administration than any in recent decades." (CNN reporter)...

"the Obama administration had used the Espionage Act to go after more leakers and whistleblowers than all previous White Houses combined."

"Obama hasn’t delivered... "In fact, FOIA has been a disaster under his watch." (Pro Publica reporter Justin Elliott". 'A recent analysis found the Obama administration set a record of failing nearly 130,000 times to respond to public records requests under the Freedom of Information Act.' Elliot 'went on to write':

Newly uncovered documents (made public only through a FOIA lawsuit) show the Obama administration aggressively lobbying against reforms proposed in Congress. The Associated Press found last year that the administration had set a record for censoring or denying access to information requested under FOIA, and that the backlog of unanswered requests across the government had risen by 55 percent, to more than 200,000.

* If his awful dirge-like way of speaking could ever be a 'rant'; I have never understood how he is considered a master orator: I'm switched off after two sentences.
** And his nomination to run was completely rigged anyway (plus ca change) 

Obscurum per obscurius...

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"World Trade Collapses in Dollars, Languishes in Volume" by Wolf Richter (on Wolf Street). "World trade in goods is just one factor in the global economy..." but is currently at its lowest level in a decade. 

Obscurum per obscurius...

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"World Trade Collapses in Dollars, Languishes in Volume" by Wolf Richter (on Wolf Street). "World trade in goods is just one factor in the global economy..." but is currently at its lowest level in a decade. 

Opposing oecist odium...

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The New Zealand vote to keep or change their flag ended yesterday: the vote was a 56.6% in favour of NOT changing. Well done you Kiwis; there is no need to be ashamed of your history; the government spiel on the vote tried to play on the ex colony status as a downside (and many saw the vote merely as a 'wasteful vanity project' of unpopular PM John Keys).  I must admit to be slightly surprised. The alternative (on the left in image above) is actually a really good alternative - so much better than the pap that the South Africans now have to bear. The official result will be declared on 30th March. Voter turnout was an impressive 67.3%.





Once we escape form the evil clutches of the EU (but still trade with them) we can return to a focus on a much more mutually beneficial relationship with our antipodean cousins...as it should be. 

Opposing oecist odium...

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The New Zealand vote to keep or change their flag ended yesterday: the vote was a 56.6% in favour of NOT changing. Well done you Kiwis; there is no need to be ashamed of your history; the government spiel on the vote tried to play on the ex colony status as a downside (and many saw the vote merely as a 'wasteful vanity project' of unpopular PM John Keys).  I must admit to be slightly surprised. The alternative (on the left in image above) is actually a really good alternative - so much better than the pap that the South Africans now have to bear. The official result will be declared on 30th March. Voter turnout was an impressive 67.3%.

Once we escape form the evil clutches of the EU (but still trade with them) we can return to a focus on a much more mutually beneficial relationship with our antipodean cousins...as it should be. 

Objicient Owen on Obama...

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POTUS will visit London during a European visit to Germany this April (oh no, Ows thinks London is in Germany...). The EU is in meltdown, the immigration crisis is a growing serious threat and Obama will be visiting a 'Technology fair'? Really? Whatever. A source for The Independent , the newspaper that broke the story, has said "It would be pretty shocking if he didn't ask voters to stay in the EU" code for he will be telling the UK public to vote 'Remain'.

Lord Owen has said (Lord owen's response IN FULL is well worth a read). "As emotions mount in our referendum debate it would be better for the President to respect diplomatic courtesies and democratic conventions."...

..."It is not just the dysfunctional nature of the Eurozone that worries many of us in the UK. Many of us are lifetime Europeans and we are choosing to vote to leave so as to take the opportunity to counter balance the dysfunctional nature of the EU defence and foreign policies adopted since the creation of the Eurozone."

Owen suggests Obama should read Mervyn King's 'The End of Alchemy' who writes: "The crisis of European Monetary Union will drag on, and it cannot be resolved without confronting either the supranational ambitions of the European Union or the democratic nature of sovereign national governments. One or other will have to give way...".

Objicient Owen on Obama...

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POTUS will visit London during a European visit to Germany this April (oh no, Ows thinks London is in Germany...). The EU is in meltdown, the immigration crisis is a growing serious threat and Obama will be visiting a 'Technology fair'? Really? Whatever. A source for The Independent , the newspaper that broke the story, has said "It would be pretty shocking if he didn't ask voters to stay in the EU" code for he will be telling the UK public to vote 'Remain'. Lord Owen has said (Lord owen's response IN FULL is well worth a read). "As emotions mount in our referendum debate it would be better for the President to respect diplomatic courtesies and democratic conventions."...

..."It is not just the dysfunctional nature of the Eurozone that worries many of us in the UK. Many of us are lifetime Europeans and we are choosing to vote to leave so as to take the opportunity to counter balance the dysfunctional nature of the EU defence and foreign policies adopted since the creation of the Eurozone."

Owen suggests Obama should read Mervyn King's 'The End of Alchemy' who writes: "The crisis of European Monetary Union will drag on, and it cannot be resolved without confronting either the supranational ambitions of the European Union or the democratic nature of sovereign national governments. One or other will have to give way...".

Orban's Ottoman overture...

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Oncoming World War Z...

Oncoming World War 3...

"We have learnt that reality is that which does not disappear – even if we no longer believe in it. This is why we always measure everything against reality, and why we do not confuse reality with our desires." (Viktor Orbán**), quoted by John at The Slog: "Why the undecided Brits should listen to the radical realism of Viktor Orban – and Vote Leave" 

Radical realism, yes indeed: "Viktor Orban talks more sense in one paragraph than the entire Brussels-am-Berlin dystopians have managed during a decade of controlling, cloud-based, mendacious tosh." Excellent stuff: this week's Saturday Essay on The Slog covers the EU actions over current 'refugee' immigration ([this] isn’t crisis management, it is rank bad dictatorial top-down stubborn governance. Not only will it (like the euro) end in tears, it is rapidly unravelling what's left of the original myth of a borderless Europe."): ... "For me, it is the hypocrisy, bullying, amateur-night and anti-libertarian nature of Brussels that we need to get away from..." Amen to that.



More from John, regarding the multi-culti experiment in general: "This ocean of evidence about the dangers of multiculuralism bounces off the pc head in the manner of a featherlite pingpong ball. For three decades, they ignored public opinion about mass immigration, and engaged in a much-resented orgy of both positive discrimination on ethnic grounds, and appeasement of ideologico-religious attitudes utterly at variance with British tolerance and democracy." [sic]  [...]

"…the numbers involved being far less important than the cultural mismatch involved."

And more from Orbán: "We’ve seen the caliphate at work before, and once was more than enough."... This month there will be a referendum in Hungary 'in opposition to the new European immigration system’s compulsory resettlement quotas'. ..."Brussels must not overstep the boundaries of its own conceptions. It must not turn against the European people. The European Union must not be a kind of Soviet Union reloaded."



** From Hungary Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's State of the Nation Address, 28 February 2016, Budapest.

Orban's Ottoman overture...

---

Oncoming World War Z...

Oncoming World War 3...

"We have learnt that reality is that which does not disappear – even if we no longer believe in it. This is why we always measure everything against reality, and why we do not confuse reality with our desires." (Viktor Orbán**), quoted by John at The Slog: "Why the undecided Brits should listen to the radical realism of Viktor Orban – and Vote Leave" 

Radical realism, yes indeed: "Viktor Orban talks more sense in one paragraph than the entire Brussels-am-Berlin dystopians have managed during a decade of controlling, cloud-based, mendacious tosh." Excellent stuff: this week's Saturday Essay on The Slog covers the EU actions over current 'refugee' immigration ([this] isn’t crisis management, it is rank bad dictatorial top-down stubborn governance. Not only will it (like the euro) end in tears, it is rapidly unravelling what's left of the original myth of a borderless Europe."): ... "For me, it is the hypocrisy, bullying, amateur-night and anti-libertarian nature of Brussels that we need to get away from..." Amen to that.

More from John, regarding the multi-culti experiment in general: "This ocean of evidence about the dangers of multiculuralism bounces off the pc head in the manner of a featherlite pingpong ball. For three decades, they ignored public opinion about mass immigration, and engaged in a much-resented orgy of both positive discrimination on ethnic grounds, and appeasement of ideologico-religious attitudes utterly at variance with British tolerance and democracy." [sic]  [...]

"…the numbers involved being far less important than the cultural mismatch involved."

And more from Orbán: "We’ve seen the caliphate at work before, and once was more than enough."... This month there will be a referendum in Hungary 'in opposition to the new European immigration system’s compulsory resettlement quotas'. ..."Brussels must not overstep the boundaries of its own conceptions. It must not turn against the European people. The European Union must not be a kind of Soviet Union reloaded."

** From Hungary Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's State of the Nation Address, 28 February 2016, Budapest.