Category Archives: Foreign
TikTok and Microsoft Art of the Deal
TikTok is a hot property. It’s the world’s 7th biggest social-media company and popular with the under 25 group. It’s also owned by Chinese company ByteDance and that’s a worry to the feds. They’re afraid China will get access to TikTok user data. And that caused President Trump to threaten to ban the app in the U.S. But along comes Microsoft with an offer buy TikTok. And now Trump wants a finders fee.
Cognitively Certified and Proud of it
President Trump is cognitively certified and bragging about it. Not only did he test negative for Covid-19, his brain tested positive on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, or MoA.
As achievements go the test is a low bar. Passing it simply means you don’t have dementia. For now. But Trump seems to think Joe Biden couldn’t pole vault over the the bar and he’s trying to provoke him out of his basement to take the test.
Joe’s Cognitive abilities may serve him well. He said he didn’t know anything about the Michael Flynn investigation. But former FBI agent Peter Stzrok’s notes from a Jan 2017 meeting say Biden recommended prosecuting Flynn under the Logan Act.
Obama deputy AG Sally Yates says she doesn’t remember if Biden brought up the Logan act but she testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee that he didn’t influence the Flynn Investigation.
As far as I know she hasn’t been tested either.
Russian Bounty Hunters in Afghanistan
The last big bounty scandal in the news involved the New Orleans Saints. But there are no saints in this story. The NYT reported that Russian President Putin paid the Taliban to kill American soldiers. A WSJ editorial questioned the need for bounties, considering the Taliban already whacks Americans for the religious thrill of it. But considering Putin’s record killing journalists in his own country it sounds plausible.
And inquiring minds want to know what Trump did about it. Nothing. Though he did kill a couple hundred Russians in Syria in 2018, but that was before the story broke.
Or maybe 1980s are calling to get back their Stinger missiles that President Reagan gave to the Taliban to shoot down Russian helicopters.
Anyway, Catherine Herridge at CBS says the CIA and NSA are split on the bounty story, and the president claims he was never briefed.
American Taliban Re-writing History Again
The American Taliban set out to remake the world 20 years ago. John Walker Lindh graduated from high school, converted to Islam and made his way to Afghanistan where he joined the Taliban. However, his adventure ended abruptly after 9/11/2001. U.S. forces captured him during fighting in a prison uprising near Mazar-e Sharif. The American Taliban then went on to serve another 17 years in an American prison.
In addition to harboring Osama Bin Laden, the Taliban was best known at the time for blowing up buddhist statues. Coming from Marin County, California, I would have figured Lindh to be more suited for the Buddhist side of things.
Election Hopes and Conspiracy Theories
President Trump’s election hopes probably weren’t helped Saturday night. He spoke to a lot of empty seats at the BOK (Bank of Oklahoma) center in Tulsa.
Joe Biden’s having better luck in his basement. A New York Times / Sienna College Poll put’s him ahead of Trump by 14 points.
Peter Nicholas fantasizes in the Atlantic about life if Trump goes all “resistance” and refuses to accept the election results..
And Politico takes a deep dive into Trumpian conspiracy theories. The Steele Dossier pee tape didn’t make the cut.
