HIDDEN CHINA III
Last February, we had our adventure to Hidden China II. Like Hidden China I the previous September, it was absolutely extraordinary. Breathtakingly memorable. So much so that Hidden China III is similar to its predecessor - similar, but not the same. It's been upgraded, and includes a visit to the tribal peoples of North Vietnam - the young ladies above are Red Zao - plus a luxury overnight cruise in the World Heritage Site of Vietnam's spectacular Ha Long Bay. In fact, all told we go to six World Heritage Sites. Our primary focus is China's most stunning and fascinating region, Yunnan. It has a multitude of incredibly colorful ethnic cultures who are not Han Chinese and have preserved their traditions. And it has places that will completely blow you away - like Tiger Leaping Gorge, the Luoping Rapeseed Fields, or the thousand year-old Hani Rice Terraces pictured above, clearly one of the great wonders of the world. We go in early March, the best time to see them in 2015, when the crowds from China's National Holiday have vanished and the weather is perfect. Note, however, this is an adventure. We stay in the best hotels and dine in the best restaurants when we can - but that's not always. We're going to places where tourists aren't. And our schedule is demanding so we can see them all in two weeks. Let's get started. And yes, the pictures are real.
HALF-FULL REPORT 10/03/14
WHAT’S WRONG WITH THE SECRET SERVICE IS WHAT’S WRONG WITH THE ENTIRE GOVERNMENT
On September 19, Omar Gonzalez, 42, scaled the fence in front of the White House. The incident happened two weeks ago, but was in the news this week because the Secret Service has been less than forthcoming. After a whistleblower leaked details, the House Oversight Committee had some questions for Secret Service Director Julia Pierson at a hearing Tuesday (9/30). "I take full responsibility," Ms. Pierson said, which is what bureaucrats say when they don't expect to be held accountable. But because Democrats are as upset as Republicans at this latest in an appallingly long list of Secret Service screwups, Ms. Pierson actually was held accountable. She resigned the next day. This was just, because the Secret Service got more dysfunctional on her watch, and she misled Congress. But as Ms. Pierson cleaned out her desk, no one could blame her for thinking it unfair. The Secret Service is no more dysfunctional than the Veterans Administration, Holder Justice, the IRS, or HHS, which after spending $2 billion still can't make the Obamacare web site work. Ms. Pierson didn't lie as often or as egregiously as have many others. But only she has had to walk the plank.
THE UMBRELLAS OF HONG KONG EXPOSE CHINA’S CATCH-22
China's Xi Jinping cannot make any serious concessions to Hong Kong's democracy movement. The Umbrella Revolution spreading from the affluent Island to the poorer quarters of Kowloon is an existential threat to the Chinese Communist Party. "If he were to give way, it would set off contagion across the mainland," said George Walden, a veteran British diplomat who survived the Cultural Revolution inside China and later negotiated Hong Kong's future with Deng Xiaoping. "The authorities see this as a matter of life and death, a fuse that can take down their world," said Zhao Chu, a Chinese columnist and star on Weibo - China's Twitter. For China's Communist Party, the Hong Kong drama exposes its Catch-22, the impossible contradiction of its policies. Yet the crisis comes at a treacherous moment for Hong Kong as well. The enclave is up to its neck in China's credit bubble, channeling $1.2 trillion in hard currency loans to Chinese companies. The International Monetary Fund said the "extreme tail event" of a credit shock in China would "entirely wipe out capital in Hong Kong's banking system."
OBOLA OBAMA
It's too soon to answer the question the IBD is asking this morning: "Is Ebola Obama's Katrina?" Yet the Zero Administration's malfeasance makes the question already worth asking. Thomas Eric Duncan is a Liberian citizen with a Liberian passport, living in the capital city of Monrovia. On Monday, Sept. 15, he helped carry (was in physical contact with) a family friend sick with Ebola to her home, who died early the next morning. With him at the time was the lady's brother, who then died of Ebola the day after his sister, Wednesday the 17th. On Friday the 19th, knowing that he had been doubly exposed to Ebola, he left for the United States. It is hard not to conclude that he came here for the medical treatment that he would die without if he remained in Monrovia, and could care less who he infected along the way. Thanks to this, people are freaking out everywhere, especially in Dallas with parents pulling their kids out of schools, as five of their schoolmates were exposed to Duncan after he reached Dallas. The London Daily Mail reports that over 100 people were in contact in Dallas with Duncan, many of whom are now quarantined. So - how does all of this make Zero "Obola Obama"? Try this on. Yesterday (10/01), Josh Earnest, the pathetic dweeb who recently replaced the pathetic dweeb who's name I can't bother to remember as White House Spokesman, announced that the Zero Government has no intention of preventing Ebola carriers from entering the United States. Obola Obama.
ARAB CIVILIZATION HAS COLLAPSED
With his decision to use force against the violent extremists of the Islamic State, President Obama is doing more than to enter a quagmire. He is doing more than play with the fates of two half-broken countries-Iraq and Syria-whose societies were gutted long before the Americans appeared on the horizon. Obama is stepping into the chaos of an entire civilization that has broken down. Arab civilization, such as we knew it, is all but gone. The Arab world today is more violent, unstable, fragmented and driven by extremism-the extremism of the rulers and those in opposition-than at any time since the collapse of the Ottoman Empire a century ago. Every hope of modern Arab history has been betrayed. The promise of political empowerment, the return of politics, the restoration of human dignity heralded by the season of Arab uprisings in their early heydays-all has given way to civil wars, ethnic, sectarian and regional divisions and the reassertion of absolutism, both in its military and atavistic forms. With the dubious exception of the antiquated monarchies and emirates of the Gulf-which for the moment are holding out against the tide of chaos-and possibly Tunisia, there is no recognizable legitimacy left in the Arab world. Is it any surprise that, like the vermin that take over a ruined city, the heirs to this self-destroyed civilization should be the nihilistic thugs of the Islamic State? And that there is no one else who can clean up the vast mess we Arabs have made of our world but the Americans and Western countries?
ERIC HOLDER’S DEMONIZATION OF HONEST ELECTIONS
[TTP has long maintained that voter fraud is a primary means by which Democrats win elections - which accounts for their fanatical opposition to Voter ID laws. Here, Ronald Reagan's Attorney General, together with the former Ohio Secretary of State, explain the fraud of Eric Holder's opposition. ---JW] Attorney General Eric Holder, who announced his resignation last Thursday (9/25), leaves a dismal legacy at the Justice Department. Of all his legal innovations, one was especially pernicious: the demonizing of state attempts to ensure honest elections. As a former U.S. attorney general under President Reagan, and a former Ohio secretary of state, we would like to say something that might strike some as obvious: Those who oppose photo voter-ID laws and other election-integrity reforms are intent on making it easier to commit vote fraud. That conclusion is inescapable, given the well-established evidence that voter-ID laws don't disenfranchise minorities or reduce minority voting, and in many instances enhance it, despite claims to the contrary by Mr. Holder and his allies. As more states adopt such laws, the left has railed against them with increasing fury, ascribing racial animus to people who are trying to safeguard democratic integrity. But there's something even worse than name-calling:
THE ECONOMICS OF BLUEBERRIES
Blueberries are healthier than bread, so why don't people eat more blueberries and less bread? Perhaps it's because blueberries cost roughly 15 times more than bread (depending on the time of year) for the same number of calories. Blueberries are a labor-intensive crop and are costly to harvest (as are many healthy fruits and nuts), unlike wheat and corn. There are those who want to increase the minimum wage, and there are those who want to further restrict the use of foreign, seasonal farmworkers. Both fail to think clearly about the consequences of such actions. Let's do some clear thinking for them.
THE OBAMACARE SLEEPER DISASTER FOR DEMS IN NOVEMBER
In the Kaiser Family Foundation's tracking poll for September, 47 percent of registered voters had an unfavorable opinion of Obamacare; 35 percent approved. In a poll for the liberal webzine Politico last month, 44 percent of likely voters said the law should be repealed; 38 percent said it should be "modified." Only 17 percent want to keep it as is. Throughout the summer, dissatisfaction with Obamacare has risen across the political spectrum, among all age, ethnic and income groups, the monthly Kaiser surveys indicate. This is because "more and more people are having personal experience with the law," said Byron York of the Washington Examiner. In September, 44 percent of Kaiser's respondents said Obamacare has affected them personally, up from 38 percent in May. Twice as many said they'd been hurt by the law as said they'd been helped by it. Yet, says Politico, Obamacare has become "background noise" in the midterm elections. It's the "incredible fading issue," says U.S. News & World Report. It's "fizzled," said the Christian Science Monitor. This may be the oddest bit of political spin ever. It's true many Americans tell pollsters they're concerned more about illegal immigration, Islamic terror, the faltering economy. But liberal journalists believe - or expect you to - that it's somehow good for Democrats that other issues now work even better for Republicans than Obamacare does. Good luck with that.
HALF-FULL REPORT 09/26/14
Obviously, the HFR's glass is more than half-full this week with the announcement yesterday (9/25) that the racist scumbag running the Department of Injustice is quitting. The disgusting tearful hypocrisy of his goodbye to Zero aside, this is an event to be savored. Here's a sample of the Congressional goodbyes to the most corrupt, criminal, and law-destroying AG our country has ever had the misfortune to endure... Yet there is more to celebrate than his resignation - it's the timing. There's lots of speculation on why he chose this moment, but the bottom line is he announced it a scant 40 days before the election... Let's squelch the latest nightmare rumor on Holder - that Zero plans to nominate him for the next Supreme Court vacancy. There's as much chance of that as Hillary being able to fly to the moon on her broomstick... We're taking a break here for an important public service announcement. The headlines regarding the Ebola epidemic in West Africa are becoming ever more dire. That of Forbes yesterday (9/25) was: "Ebola - It's Far, Far Worse Than You Thought." TTPers asked our Forum's resident genius, Skye, what could be done. Here is his response. Our suggestion is that you copy and paste it into an email sent to your Congressman, Senator, and any friend who is a health professional. Who knows how many lives you could save by doing so... How many times have you been subjected to flashing website ads blaring about the "coming collapse of the dollar"? Two of the best conservative economic minds put the kibosh on this blather Saturday... On Wednesday (9/24), Zero gave a speech at the UN. The link is to the full text. It was roundly ridiculed and denounced by many conservative pundits. But believe it or not, there was a lot in it that is praiseworthy... We close with a tribute to one of the world's most admirable women...