#thehashtagsiege

For a country that I've always thought of as West Virginia with beaches, Australians' response to the hostage-taking in downtown Sydney has been inspiring.  Australian Muslims wasted no time in condemning the attacker and the phoney ideology he presented, while white Australians have publicly taken a stand against anti-Islamic backlash.  Combined with the bravery and professionalism shown by emergency responders, Australia has shamed the rest of the world by showing us that it's people are stronger and wiser than the corrosive us-vs-them mentality that the terrorists try to implant in us.  An unexpected bright spot among the terror and the tragedy across the globe.

David Cameron is a Filthy Fucking Socialist

David Cameron is a filthy fucking socialist.  After his predecessors fought so hard for so long against the forces of socialism, the British PM shames their hard-won victories by coming out against freedom of movement, a pillar of global capitalism.  Free trade is not just about tearing down barriers to the free exchange of goods, services, and capital, but also to the free flow of labor, a vital component of the market.  If an aspect of the market is artificially constrained, the “invisible hand” is shackled.  Indeed, immigrants from the 10 EU member states added in 2004 contributed a net total of 5 billion pounds ($7.85 billion) to the British economy by 2011.

Economic and political isolationism failed more than 50 years ago.  Socialism was defeated a few decades later.  Democracy and global capitalism are the engines that we all agree now drive humanity forward, and the European Union makes these ideals manifest.  David Cameron needs to either pay his ticket and enjoy the ride, or get out of the way, and the UK needs to decide if it wants to go with him.

2014- Year of the Irregular

Though they predate the professional military unit, irregular troops- be they militias, mobs, self-defense groups, paramilitaries, gunmen, terrorists, or “armed pro-Russian activists”- have rarely been more visible than in 2014.  Such armed association have, at times, seemed more relevant than many nation-state actors.  Irregulars toppled Gidaffi, irregulars threaten the political unity of Iraq, and irregulars fight on both sides of the Syrian civil war.  Further north, Russian forces recently used irregulars to capture the isthmus of Crimea, and Ukranian Army forces continue to battle against armed separatists in the East of the country.

Mobile, cheep to field and easy to deny, irregular forces are the ideal tool for applying force in today’s information-centric world.  Had uniformed Russian soldiers stormed the Crimean Parliament in February, the global response would have been swift and strong.  No one would have blamed Ukraine for shooting back.  The confusion caused by the lack of identification bought pro-Russian forces in Ukraine the time they needed to consolidate their gains, and shielded them from a military response (paradoxically, so did their obvious association with Moscow).  Political dissidents and non-Russians faced intimidation and violence.  Ethnic Tartars have been especially vulnerable.  Now, similar groups openly battle government forces in the East of the country, while Russia sits behind its cloak of outrageous deniability.

In Iraq, the young post-war regime has continued to destabilize, as Sunni militants seize control of city after city from the Iraqi security forces, many of whom seem to have withdrawn in advance of the militants’ assault.  Sunni militant group ISIS is leading the charge in an apparent attempt to crate a Sunni state which straddles the boarder of Iraq and Syria.  Local police have also fled the affected cities, leaving them completely in the hands of ISIS and their allies.

The Shiite-dominated government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has shown it’s self less than equal to the task of confronting the insurgency which they have provoked.  The consistent brutality of the Iraqi security forces towards Sunni communities has undone the diplomatic work that the Pentagon and the State Department did in getting Sunni leaders on side after the civil war of the mid-2000s, and now they are paying for it.

The response from Bagdad thus far has been to call on young Shiite men to volunteer in Shia militias, deepening sectarian divisions and making it more likely than ever that Iraq will be split into Kurdish, Sunni, and Shiite zones.  The Shia Mahdi Army, which fought against US forces in the early days of the Iraqi occupation, is on parade in the streets of Bagdad as they prepare to join the fighting on the side of the government.

The threat from ISIS, disowned by the Al Qaeda network earlier this year, has been incubating in the lawlessness of the Syrian civil war.  Their success and territorial gains in Syrian’s Eastern frontier have brought them resources and recruits.  Funded by a mix of smuggling and oil revenue from captured fields in Syria, ISIS is building a legitimate proto-state, and meeting with success on the battlefield.  If they can offer a legitimate alternative for Sunni communities the same way that the Kurdish militia networks do for Kurds, then the governments of Iraq and Syria may face a true existential threat.  If these states are to survive, they must find a way to transition into inclusive, multi-cultural institutions where consensus among stakeholders can be reached through political processes, rather than forced on the battlefield.

Where ever these institutions and these process fail to achieve consensus, however, we will again see the irregular, reminding us all of the fragility of our civilized society.

Keep your hands up and protect yourself at all times, this has been Rabbit Punch Politics!

Bring it up Again and We’ll Vote on It!

Assad, Al-Sisi and pro-Russian Separatists in Eastern Ukraine have all shown us what GOP strategists have known for years; that democracy still works, so long as you only let the right people vote.  Meanwhile, the military government of Egypt sentences pro-democracy demonstrators to death by the hundreds, while everyone from liberals to scholars to journalists to TV characters are dragged off the streets.  The army is firmly back in control.

In Syria, the situation looks to be well in hand for the Assad regime.  While rebels still control large swaths of the country, they are retreating on several fronts, and are advancing nowhere.  The critical mass has come and gone, and Syria’s foreign allies made sure that Assad survived until the wave crested, and began to recede.  It will be a long, brutal process, and the insurgency will never disappear altogether, but the armed uprising is in recession, and I don’t see how the momentum can possibly change again.

Don't try to Google this in Europe

How do you, Rabbit Punch Nation, feel about the "right to be forgotten?"

I'm of two minds (at least). Initially, I thought that any tampering with Google's algorithm-based search results was a bad idea. By doing so, you take away the vital impartially of the algorithm, and you make Google the arbiter of what people see. Also, if the information is publicly available and we can't block a website from posting it, then why can we block a search engine from showing us what's already out there?

But then I thought that Google already sort of is the arbiter, since they designed and control the algorithm.  Even though they're just showing you what's out there, the results of a search on Google (or other search engine) determines what the vast majority of people actually see.  Does that make it more important that it be impartial? Was it impartial in the first place?

Finally, does the ruling apply to other search engines, or just to Google? If this is something that we think is a good idea, I don't see how it's smart or fair to single out the largest search engine, while allowing yahoo/ask/bing etc to go about their business. Aren't we all supposed to play by the same rules?

Wow, that's a lot of question marks! Do y'all have answers? No? Then I'll settle for your opinions :)

Privatizing Education

Charter Schools are a scam. These schools receive taxpayer money and/or public resources, but have no obligation to take in all students. They achieve higher outcomes by barring or expelling low-achievers and vulnerable populations. They drain resources from our public schools while leaving them with the biggest challenges, then they have the gall to say that their system works better.

Free, appropriate public education is not only a right of every American, it is one of the pillars upon which our nation's strength is built. Charter schools are bad for students, and bad for America.

F-ck the EU, Vladimir Putin is Still the Most Powerful Man in the World

The West thought that we had the Russians pressed up against the cage.  We thought that we had worn them down, that their side had nothing left.  But when we tried to hook the leg, Putin pulled a quick reversal and took the dominant position.  All of a sudden, Kiev was no longer the brass ring, and Putin had Ukraine in a killer Crimea-lock.  Now we’re shrimping and squirming, desperately searching for a maneuver that won’t give Russia the chance to cinch their hold even tighter, while Putin calmly continues to improve his position.  Soon, Ukraine must tap.

Russia is in a very stable position in the Crimean Peninsula.  The new Ukranian government does not have the military capacity to dislodge pro-Russian troops, and any attempt to do so will give Putin the shooting war that he knows he will win.  The West does not have enough vital interests at stake to engage an enemy as dangerous as the Russian Federation.  All Putin has to do is stay the course, and Crimea is his.

I have been saying for a long time that Vladimir Putin is the single most powerful man in the world, and the son-of-a-gun keeps proving me right.  Just like in Georgia, South Ossetia, and Syria, the Russian Federation is winning out over Western goals.  Within their geographic sphere of influence, they are almost impossible to resist.  They may often be less relevant than their Western rivals further afield, but no Western leader has the same level of direct control over their government and society.  From Superbowl Rings to former Soviet Republics, what Vladdie wants, Vladdie tends to get.

The Light Brigade lost 156 souls trying to wrest Crimea from Mother Russia, with total Allied deaths closing in on 400,000.  Putin is on course to capture the peninsula with barely a shot fired.  From sport to war to politics, when the stakes are high enough, the rules are all the same.

I’d also like to take a moment to recognize Vicky Nuland for keeping things gangster.  The women is a serious BAMF, and I hope that she spends all day exchanging fist-bumps with Eric Holder and Hill-dawg.

Elsewhere in the news, the Danes have taken a rather. . .broad view of “basic human rights,” and are now safe from the tyranny of municipal construction.  Citizens in the small Danish village of Copenhagen have won their claim that the noise pollution from the construction of local metro tunnels is a violation of their human rights under international convention, causing physical and psychological suffering, depression, learning disabilities, concentration difficulties, difficulties of motivation and communication, difficulty reading, awkward gait, lisping, lazy eye syndrome, sexual herpies, and the Human Immunodeficiency Virus.  Alright, alright, I made some of those up, but everything before “difficulty reading” are their words, not mine. 

The ruling tribunal has declared that the Danish capital must both finish the new transit line on time and avoid bothering the residents with noise.  The government’s tentative reply to this catch-22 has thus far been two-pronged; resettlement, and compensation.

Come on, Danes, how many more of the government’s krone do you really need?

That about wraps it up for today.  Remember to keep your hands up and to protect yourself at all times, and keep looking out for the next Rabbit Punch!

State of the Union 2014 Reaction, Reaction

Welcome back to Rabbit Punch: Politics, the only news & politics blog that will throw you off the balcony and break you in half.  Like a boy.

The SOTU by the POTUS has come and gone, and the GOP are firing on all cylinders.  Trouble is, they’re all running in different directions, and no one appears to be gaining any traction.  If the party can’t get themselves on the same page for the 2016 election season, we’re going to see a repeat of 2012’s sad carnival of weak candidates and public bickering.

The tribes had looked ready to unite under the banner of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, but the presumptive GOP front runner proved to be too. . .big of a target, his white house chances dieing the death of a thousand tiny cuts.

In 2012 he was too fat.  In 2014, too corrupt.  Too bad.

The GOP has other governors in their stable of potential candidates, as well as a few well-knowns in Congress.  Whoever steps up will have to find a way to play to the conservative base without scaring off women, which is why the party is losing Virginia.  I know that the GOP is making another push for the minority vote, but they’ve said the same thing for the last 10 years, and nothing has come of it so far.  Most likely because they keep trotting out Cubans in order to drum up the “latino” vote, as if everyone south of the boarder had the same monolithic culture.  Mexicans and Salvadorians don’t identify with Cubans any more than Irish or Germans do.

As far as the “black” vote goes, the GOP seems to have given up, and are focusing on making sure that as few of them get to vote as possible.

Christie was a strong choice for 2016.  He was charismatic, loved by the business community, and still able to play to the center.  He appears to have been hamstrung early in this election cycle, but 2016 is still a long way off.  It remains to be seen if the big man can make a big comeback.

Alright, everyone still in one piece?  Good, then you just might be man enough for the next Rabbit Punch!  Until then, keep your hands up and protect yourselves at all times, and be sure to check our sister blog, Rabbit Punch: Sports for a Super Sunday post later today.

Rabbit Punch Politics Year-End Wrap-Up

We have a lot of topics to hit as the calendar turns over once more, so let’s jump right into it.  From the heavy to the light, these are the stories which have jumped out at our staff at the end of 2013:

Al-Qaeda Takes back Fallujah. . .Sort Of?

Over the past few weeks we have been hit by terrifying and sensational headlines informing us that Al-Qaeda has “retaken” the Iraqi cities of Fallujah and Ramadi, cities which have been made synonymous with the US war effort in Iraq.  Most of the reporting has been focused on the terrible injustice done by the new Iraqi government by allowing what our troops fought so hard for to fall back to “the enemy.”  We are told that Al Qaeda is firmly in control of the city, that their flag is flying freely, and that they are on the verge of overtaking Baghdad.  The situation on the ground, however, looks a lot more complicated than that.

Al Qaeda looks to be in control neither in Ramadi, where local security forces are fighting alongside the Iraqi army in order to expel them, nor in Fallujah, where local Sunni communities are taking up arms to defend their city from the Shia-controlled central government.

The conflict in Fallujah stems from the Maliki government’s persecution of Iraq’s Sunni minority.  The Iraqi security forces under the new US-approved regime are no less heavy-handed than in Saddam’s days, and have a tendency to break up any public gathering with bullets.  Now, many of the same tribal leaders who threw their support behind the initial US invasion are fed up with Maliki’s betrayals, and are no longer playing nice.  ISIS has tried to insert themselves into this resistance, but has been largely sidelined by tribal authorities.  A much-reported ISIS flag which was raised in the city was ordered down 5 minutes later by tribal leaders, an order which ISIS quickly obeyed.

Rather than Al Qaeda undoing the work of our warfighters, it looks like our guy Maliki has undone our state-building efforts, and is pushing his country back into civil war.

In Ramadi, the situation looks different.  ISIS-linked fighters have launched a major offensive in the city, hoping to inspire an uprising like the one in Fallujah.  However, they appear to have failed to convince local authorities that the central government is the enemy, and local police and security forces have joined with Iraqi army units in battling the militants.

The tide seems to be turning against Al Qaeda and ISIS across the Arab world.  Across the boarder in Syria, al-Nusra fighters have joined with Free Syrian Army forces in attacking ISIS positions, hoping to prevent the foreign fighters from hijacking their local struggle.  The Arab Spring looks to have left the Islamic world with a greater sense of nationalism, in contrast to the internationalist philosophies espoused by terror groups such as Al Qaeda.


Egyptian Military Comes for the Liberals!

When the Egyptian military stepped in earlier this year to depose the democratically elected civilian government, they were able to do so only because a group of liberal activists known as the Tamarod had opened the door for them.  When General Abdel Fata al-Sisi initiated a bloody crackdown on “Islamists,” most of society locked their doors tight and muttered “good riddance.”  And now that the military has hamstrung the most credible threat to their power, they are ready to turn their attention towards their short-lived allies, the liberals.

Activists, bloggers, lawyers, journalists and even a TV puppet have been detained, arrested, or prosecuted in the run-up to Egypt’s upcoming Constitutional referendum, a vote which promises to be neither free nor fair.  Egyptian army units patrol the streets in order to “get out the vote,” and people have been arrested for campaigning for an “against” vote.

Al-Sisi plans to ride his bloody massacres all the way to the Presidency, jailing and “disappearing” anyone who talks of freedom, transparency, or voting against the army.  And Egypt seems ready to let him.


Duck Dysfunction!

You know that affluent, suburban duck call salesman who pretends to be a redneck on TV?  The one who got everyone so upset with his anti-gay bigotry?  He said some pretty shitty things about black people, too.  No one seemed to get too worked up about that.

The whole thing is looking more and more like a publicity stunt.


Eff you, Dolphin!

I'm sick and tired of all the sensationalist and xenophobic reporting on the Japanese fishing industry.  Western society has no place wagging a finger at Japan, with all the cows, sheep and pigs that we torture, slaughter, and eat every day.  How come I never see anyone harassing and endangering European whale fishermen the way they go after the Japanese?

If you are not a complete vegetarian, you really have no place opening your mouth about Japan's dolphin fishing.  Even if you are, you still need to realize how much animal and human suffering goes into almost every aspect of the things you enjoy, and spend less time pointing the finger at others.


Nuke Commander Sacked!

A few months back Navy Vice Admiral Tim Giardina was fired from his post as the No. 2 officer at US Strategic Command after he was found to have passed counterfeit chips in a poker game at the Horseshoe Council Bluffs Casino, a popular destination on the World Series of Poker circuit.

  I understand how this kind of thing leaves the man open for coercion, but am I the only one who wants a guy like this in my corner if things ever go tits-up?  Who better for such a high-stakes position as No. 2 Nuke Commander?


And that’s the last word on 2013!  Keep those hands up and protect yourself at all times as we move into 2014, and keep and eye out for the next Rabbit Punch!