How Turkey treats famous novelists like Asli Erdoğan

Asli Erdoğan

 
How shocking this is: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/30/turkish-novelist-asli-erdogan-reveals-detention-ordeal 

Iranian dissidents write to President-elect Trump

President Obama studiously ignored Iranian dissidents; maybe President-elect Trump will listen: http://taghato.net/article/30837

The Tsar and the Sultan

http://quadrant.org.au/

Here is my latest piece for Quadrant Online: http://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2016/12/tsar-sultan/

Zomblog: "Trump's victory is a pivotal turning point in human history"

Here is an interesting read: http://www.zombietime.com/zomblog/?p=2143

Operation Euphrates Wrath

The bestial rule of the Islamic State in Raqqa could soon be coming to an end    

The YPJ (Women's Protection Units) have played an important role in the increasingly successful Operation Euphrates Wrath: http://aranews.net/2016/12/kurdish-female-fighters-playing-key-role-in-battle-for-raqqa/

Vale George Michael (1963-2016)

Wikipedia on George Michael: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Michael

Once upon a time - around 1984 - George Michael was my favourite living musical performer (John Lennon having died in 1980). I particularly liked the song by Wham! called "Freedom". It was a good listen then and a good listen now. A lot happened since those days, and I am not sure George Michael himself took those lyrics seriously, but maybe he should have: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ff7IY1kPafM
Here's a different film clip - based around their tour of China in the mid-1980s - of the same song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFwOs-jy53A This setting, of course, gives another meaning to the song.      

Have we survived eight years of Obama's "radical realism"?

Barack Obama's latest anti-Israel move at the United Nations tells us what we should already know - the man is a dangerous New Left radical who wears the mask of reasonableness: http://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-officials-us-abstention-exposes-true-face-of-obama/

I have written about Obama's duplicity many times, including in 2013: https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2013/01-02/barack-obama-v-the-party-of-lincoln/

And in 2014: https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2014/09/radical-realism-barack-obama/

And also in 2014: https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2014/06/obamas-bad-bargain/

And in 2015: http://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2015/09/obamas-munich-moment/

And in 2016: https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2016/09/obama-great-divider/

And also in 2016: https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2016/09/obama-great-divider/

Habid Dabashi's slur: Zionism and anti-Semitism are related

Hamid Dabashi is a professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University (Seriously?)

Could Hamid Dabashi really be a professor at Columbia University? http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2016/12/stephen-bannon-disarming-israel-161221121415851.html The argument mounted in Dabashi's "indepth opinion" for the Muslim Brotherhood mouthpiece Aljazeera is based upon the Holocaust Inversion slur - i.e., that the modern-day State of Israel has real and/or allegorical connections with anti-Semitism. My refutation of this malicious lie is to be found in this educational work unit: http://darylmccann.blogspot.com.au/2014/03/holocaust-denial-inversion-education.html Educators are free to use this unit, although it is nice to be informed when and if they do.   

Trump the revolutionary

This is my take on Trump's Economic Nationalism: http://spectator.com.au/2016/12/trump-revolutionary/

Erdogan continues to burn down the house

Erdogan is destroying Turkey

If Erdogan is a "populist" then he must be the totalitarian version of a populist in the tradition of Mussolini and Hitler: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/12/turkey-istanbul-bombing-outrage-takes-anti-kurdish.html He will "unite" Turkey only by turning on the secularists, the Kurds and unorthodox Muslims. His medium-term goal has always been to destroy parliamentary democracy in the Republic of Turkey. He is succeeding: http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2016/12/14/turkish-parliament-brawl-arrest-pro-kurdish-deputies/

"The future of feminism" now plays the victim card

Camille Paglia: "Madonna is the future of feminism" (1990)

If you read between the lines of this YouTube piece you will see why Madonna, who was given an academic/intellectual boost by Camille Paglia in the early days of Madonna's career, has now turned on Paglia.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hehyzlwafKQ Paglia loved Madonna and what she represented. She said so much about her at the time. But Paglia, though a lifelong Democrat, was weary of the feminist movement turning into an arm of the Democratic Party & PC rectitude. Now Madonna has become 'political' in the narrow, pro-Democratic Party sense, it is only logical for her to turn against Paglia. Shame. Camille Paglia is is right to defend herself: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-4029528/Feminist-Camille-Paglia-hits-Madonna-s-claims-rebuffed-female-peers-start-career.html It is travesty that the Madonna we knew is now playing the victim card. 

Trump = Economic Nationalism NOT White Nationalism

Here is  great article on the subject written by James McCann ages ago: https://noisey.vice.com/en_au/article/make-kanye-great-again-how-trump-and-ye-are-manipulating-call-out-culture 

Here is a prescient blog by me ages ago: http://darylmccann.blogspot.com.au/2016/11/you-say-goodbye-and-i-say-hello.html

ODNI does not embrace CIA's assessment

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence takes a different view from the CIA: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-intelligence-idUSKBN14204E?il=0

The Russians are coming!

Courtesy of Bizpac Review

Craig Murray's piece is well worth reading: https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2016/12/cias-absence-conviction/

The New York Times goes tepid on New McCarthyism

The New York Times does not seem to have come up with much to give Brian Fallon's New McCarthyism accusation a kick along: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/01/us/politics/fbi-russia-election-donald-trump.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0

Say it ain't so Stephen Colbert

Hard-hitting satirical Stephen Colbert tells it like it is (or maybe not) 

Stephen Colbert tells truth to power or is it sucks up to power? http://www.thepoliticalinsider.com/hillary-wikileaks-show-aides-coordinating-stephen-colbert/

President Obama & the Eternal Blame Game

Every new development of International Jihad has come as a total surprise for the 44th President 

Barack Obama is always blaming somebody for his endless mistakes: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/dec/8/obama-says-us-intelligence-missed-the-rise-of-the-/

This is not fake!

Newsweek does not do Fake News

Hillary Clinton has just insinuated (to put it nicely) that "Fake News" might have cost her the 2016 election. The sites of Fake News, we might assume, include Drudge Report, Briebart, Fox News and Gateway Pundit. Clinton insisted that her claim was nothing more than an objective observation: "This is not about politics or partisanship." She is 180 degrees wrong. Briebart etc are not the purveyors of Fake News but political and partisan media outlets. They are no different from CNN, Time, Newsweek, MNBC, Huffington Post or the Guardian, to name just six "progressive" sites. They did not get the whole US election wrong because they are "fake" but because they are ideological. Right now, I should think, every prominent media outlet, Left or Right, is political and partisan, though some offer space for a contrarian voice. The trick, for the consumer of the site's point of view, is to realise that media outlets are political and partisan before reading their opinion. Here, for instance, is somebody in the Guardian explaining Hillary's "Fake News" accusation: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/dec/08/hillary-clinton-fake-news-consequences-pizzagate It is basically sympathetic, which is fine if you build that into your reading. For instance, it leaves out the fact that Hillary Clinton of "right-wing conspiracy" fame would say that, wouldn't she? And particularly about the Drudge Report because Drudge was right about Monica all those years ago when Clinton first used the expression "right-wing conspiracy". Here, to give a very different point of view, is a story I have lifted from the Drudge Report: https://theintercept.com/2016/12/09/a-clinton-fan-manufactured-fake-news-that-msnbc-personalities-spread-to-discredit-wikileaks-docs/
Here is another piece that is interesting on the "Fake News" of Vladimir Putin interfering in the US election: http://www.globalresearch.ca/mainstream-media-blames-russia-for-fake-news-while-pushing-neo-mccarthyism/5559136
Fake News, apparently, is in the eye of the beholder.

Does Time Magazine know it's become a joke?

If only we could name Time "Magazine of the Year"... 

Not just a joke but a nasty joke: http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2016/12/time-mag-names-donald-trump-man-year-vicious-hit-piece/

Are anti-Semites a danger to Jewish people? Is the sky blue? The ocean wet?

Abandon Orwellian PC orthodoxy, Lefty, and begin to think. Yes, thinking for yourself can lead to "thoughtcrime" but it does have its rewards:http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/218925/helping-anti-semites-immigrate   

Three tragedies at the New York Times

The first tragedy is that the delusional Christopher Suprun would take it up himself to betray the voters of Texas. The second tragedy is that the New York Times would publish Christopher Suprun's "op ed". The third tragedy is all the lefty commentators at the end of the piece who are so full of hubris they no longer believe that the voters in Texas should be allowed to have their votes count: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/05/opinion/why-i-will-not-cast-my-electoral-vote-for-donald-trump.html   

Update: Ha! Ha! Ha! http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2016/12/busted-texas-rogue-electoral-delegate-chris-suprun-linked-van-jones-think-progress/

Mark Steyn: "Make Kellogg's gr-rr-rr-rr-rreat Again!"

Here is Mark Steyn on the Kellogg's boycott: http://www.steynonline.com/7620/make-kellogg-gr-rr-rr-rr-rreat-again

I hope don't sound immodest, but this is Mark Steyn mentioning me four years ago: http://www.steynonline.com/4619/after-down-under Admittedly, it was on account of yours truly giving his After America a lengthy and favourable review:  https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2011/11/the-role-of-the-state-in-the-ruin-of-america/

Castro is dead. Long live freedom!

Enough said...

Now the tyrant is gone maybe Cuba will have a real revolution: https://ca.news.yahoo.com/castros-death-dissidents-see-changes-ahead-152055284.html

PC-compliant school pulls "To Kill a Mockingbird"

TKAM:hate literature or the original anti-hate novel?

The madness of PC ideology rolls on: http://www.bizpacreview.com/2016/12/02/county-school-system-bans-classic-american-novels-parent-complains-racism-419010?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter Perhaps the PC brigade find it too hard to read?

The ABC and I

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, as I argued yesterday in A spittoon's worth of bigots, is not racist: http://spectator.com.au/2016/12/bigots/ The problem with the ABC is its bohemian-style socialism - that is, its ideology. Some will want to argue that a consequence of its identitarian ideology is racism but that, as I say in the article, is to borrow from the PC playbook. You call me a racist and I call you a New Racist and there is the end of the discussion across the great divide.

It also does not get to the root of the problem which, again, is ideological. This morning I looked up something I wrote about the ABC in June 2015 for Quadrant Online, titled The ABC's Distorting Prism, and found it was consistent with yesterday's piece: https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2015/06/abcs-distorting-prism/

An interesting - though not necessarily connected - development occurred not so long after that article appeared in June 2015. An editor at the ABC's Drum Online invited me to contribute a piece to his site. A number of the resultant articles are collected here: http://www.abc.net.au/news/daryl-mccann/6773340

I found all the editors and line-managers involved very professional and polite. We all sensed, I assume, that giving me a voice on the ABC was a win-win. I got to speak to a different audience (often but not always antagonistic) and the ABC showed its "diversity" policy stretched to providing a forum for the occasional libertarian-conservative. Alas, in the middle of 2016 someone higher up at the ABC - not anybody I worked with - decided that the days of hosting contesting opinions at Drum Online were over, confirming my argument about the ABC made back in December 2013: http://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2013/12/taxes-abc/

The solution is simple: the ABC can prove it believes in ideological and intellectual diversity by finding a forum for a contrarian like me. There is my challenge to Aunty.

       
 

A spittoon's worth of bigots

http://spectator.com.au/category/flat-white/

Here is my latest article: http://spectator.com.au/2016/12/bigots/ 

Erdogan's invasion of Syria will have catastrophic consequences...for Turkey

There are too many balls in the air in Syria: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2016/12/turkey-is-on-a-collision-course-with-the-syrian-regime-and-its-backers.php

Obama excludes Turkey from Raqqa operation

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Raqqa_offensive_(November_2016)

Only when it is almost too late does President Obama appear to realise that Turkey is less freedom's friend than its enemy: http://aranews.net/2016/12/turkey-excluded-from-raqqa-operation-coalition-official/

The Britishness of Australia, Salisbury Review, Winter 2016

 http://salisburyreview.com/

Here is 'The Britishness of Australia', my article in the just issued Winter 2016-17 edition of the Salisbury Review: 

There is nothing more traditional than an agricultural show in an Australian town, and nothing more British than a horse showing event. It’s a 3-ply-wool jacket and always the right handkerchief in the right pocket, even if the day’s a scorcher and birds are dropping from the sky. The accents of the competitors are broad Australian but the saddles are handmade English leather; the boots, the jodhpurs, the breeches all imported from Old Blighty. Even the riding ponies have their origins in England, with bloodlines that can be traced back to the original homeland. You might call it ‘Hot Britain’, although these days things have become a little more complicated in the Land of Oz.

Why does Erdogan admire Belarus?

Erdogan and Lukashenko

Well, for a start Erdogan admires the existence of the death penalty in Belarus: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/11/turkey-erdogan-admire-belarus.html

Castro's daughter: "Strictly speaking, Fidel is a tyrant"

Castro's life of despotic luxury: http://nypost.com/2016/11/27/inside-fidel-castros-life-of-luxury-and-ladies-while-country-starved/

Cuban heroes in the War of Freedom

Power to the People!

The Left has lost the moral high ground on every front. I am still saddened by all the positive tributes to the late Fidel Castro: http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2016/11/28/5-cuban-dissident-artists-watch-post-castro-era/

Comrades, you have betrayed humanity for a useless ideology: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_dissident_movement 

Making sense of Stephen K Bannon

Even this writer for the Economist accepts that Bannon is not Russian-style nationalist: http://www.economist.com/blogs/erasmus/2016/11/america-russia-and-new-right

This is also worth reading: http://www.jta.org/2016/11/15/news-opinion/opinion/bannon-and-breitbart-friends-of-israel-not-anti-semites

What are they thinking?

How could this happen in 2016?

This is terrible: http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/tv/reality-tv/russias-version-of-dancing-with-the-stars-features-a-pair-dressed-as-jewisih-concentration-camp-prisoners/news-story/a2d3d48fb156f69a26f0daa3559adfd0

The content of her character

Hillary Clinton making her fake concession speech 

Surely,  even if you thought Donald J. Trump had a character problem, you now realise that Hillary Clinton's character is catastrophic: http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2016/11/revealed-hillary-clinton-schemed-since-day-election-steal-presidency-donald-trump/

Castro dead: Cuba's nightmare draws closer to an end

The two of them nearly turned the Cold War into Armageddon in 1962

Here is a surprisingly sharp summary of the life of a communist dictator: http://www.breitbart.com/news/fidel-castro-has-died-at-age-90-brother-says/

Yeah! Australia ceases multi-million dollar donations to the Clintons...sorry, Clinton Foundation

U is for Australia

Great news: http://www.news.com.au/finance/economy/australian-economy/australia-ceases-multimilliondollar-donations-to-controversial-clinton-family-charities/news-story/219577919ed8dfbd79cf808321234eba

Whew! The Nazis aren't marching on Brooklyn

Liel Leibovitz, in a slightly patronising way, entreats reasonable people to remain reasonable: http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/218451/nazis-arent-marching-on-brooklyn

Tawfik Hamid: Trump needs multiple strategies against Radical Islam

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tawfik_Hamid

An important read: http://www.newsmax.com/TawfikHamid/islam-mideast-obama-radical/2016/11/23/id/760354/

A Trump administration would be wise to keep Muslim Brotherhood's Erdogan at arm's length

Hopefully President-elect Trump will not repeat the same mistake as President Obama and treat Islamist Turkey as an ally: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/11/turkey-united-states-erdogan-trump-bromance.html
The "genius" of Barack Obama is to back both Turkey and the "moderate terrorists" of northern Syria and the Syrian Democratic Forces, enemy of Turkey and the "moderate terrorists" of northern Syria: http://ekurd.net/turkey-syrian-clash-kurdish-2016-11-23? American foreign policy cannot get any more stupid than that can it? 

Identity Politics = Dangerous Liaisons

Jeff Ballabon makes the case against Keith Ellison: http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/218385/keith-ellison-bds-farrakhan-dnc

Long live the Great Bohemian Cultural Revolution!

Afore ye go...

Actors have a right to say whatever they want: http://nypost.com/2016/11/20/the-real-problem-with-the-hamilton-shout-out-to-pence/ That said, perform your play for a paying audience and then get out of their face. Soviet actors would have loved the American possibility of putting on a show without having to bend the knee to a totalitarian ideology. Art for art's sake! Now these particular American actors can't stop themselves from giving an audience the benefit of their soft-totalitarian PC ideology. Besides, if you can't make your point with your art form  - be it poetry, music, fiction or whatever - don't delay us from the fresh air with your prosaic explanations. Last year I watched the NT's "live" version of Hamlet at a local cinema before vainly attempting to escape as Benedict Cumberbatch hectored us, post-production, with his views on the state of the world. Save it for the Graham Norton Show, my friend. While we're at it, here's a review of Cumberbatch's performance (before the hectoring): http://adelaidereview.com.au/arts/cinema/review-hamlet/         

The Return of Tony Blair? Yeah?

Some mischievous tabloids are suggesting that Blair might be returning to British politics: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3954246/The-Tories-screwing-Brexit-Jeremy-Corbyn-s-nutter-m-returning-politics-Tony-Blair-hunts-Westminster-office-set-new-Brexit-lobbying-group.html

 Here is my 2011 review of Tony Blair's autobiography: https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2011/01-02/the-great-salesman/

The final paragraph of my review summarises the hurdle Tony Blair would have to jump were he to return to domestic politics:  "The dream has soured for the man who once upon a time was as popular as Princess Diana. At this moment, in his book, it seems a little churlish not to feel sorry for him. But maybe our sympathy is better spent on the nation he misruled for ten long years."

God bless the Kurds

The Cross returns to Bashiqa in northern Iraq

The return of Christianity to Bashiqa is a wonderful moment to cherish in the War of Freedom: http://www.kurdistan24.net/en/news/792cc469-7868-4d94-a828-e94b1f16f94a/Christians-want-Bashiqa-to-remain-under-KRG-control-?

The Times of Israel Muddle

The next US ambassador to Israel?

I have found The Times of Israel an interesting read during the US election cycle. So often a columnist or an associated blogger blasts the populist insurrection in America as a scapegoating, bullying and intolerant phenomenon reminiscent of the brownshirts. Here is the latest instalment from Aliva Gersh: http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/i-dont-care-if-trump-is-better-for-israel-and-im-not-convinced-he-is/

On the other hand, every day brings news of more pro-Israel decisions coming out of DC: http://www.timesofisrael.com/mike-huckabee-said-set-to-be-us-envoy-to-israel-tasked-with-moving-embassy-to-jerusalem/

And: http://www.timesofisrael.com/trumps-cia-pick-pompeo-anticipates-rolling-back-the-disastrous-iran-deal/

I would recommend, with all modesty, that those who believe Trump = intolerant = fascist = Nazi might read this article: https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2014/05/lethal-ideology-holocaust-inversion/

And for those who believe that PC rectitude will keep everybody safe, maybe this article: https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2012/11/how-the-left-became-anti-semitic/

And, also, for anyone who still thinks President Obama has had a helpful foreign policy: https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2016/10/obamas-war/

Finally, maybe this: https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2015/09/obamas-munich-moment/
  

Erdogan & Mordor

Read this latest shocking development in Erdogan's Turkey: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/11/18/turkey-bill-to-pardon-statutory-rape-if-perpetrators-marry-victi/

You say goodbye and I say hello

Lennon & McCartney  

Politically speaking, at least, John Lennon was always ahead of the curve, with Paul McCartney valiantly trying to catch up. Well, 48 years later Paul has finally caught up...only to find the caravan has moved on.

Goodbye 1968: http://societyofrock.com/paul-mccartney-is-asked-to-perform-hey-jude-at-the-white-house-but-no-one-expected-this-ending/

Hello 2016: http://deadline.com/2016/11/donald-trump-kanye-west-endorsement-announces-candidacy-2020-1201856986/

While we're at it...how much did Paul McCartney (illegally?) pay to dance with Hillary Clinton in August of this year? http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2016/08/did-brit-paul-mccartney-just-let-slip-he-made-illegal-contribution-to-hillary-clinton/

Is the half-century-old PC tide turning? The case of Jeff Sessions this time

Jeff Sessions...the next US Attorney General

The Left Power Elite doubles down on its attack on 'Deplorables'. But is that such a smart idea? Here Tucker Carlson easily exposes a would-be PC hit man as a total fraud: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hp7jyFzflW4

More on Jeff Sessions: http://www.weeklystandard.com/in-alabama-jeff-sessions-desegregated-schools-and-got-the-death-penalty-for-kkk-head/article/2005461

Rod Liddle - "2016 is 1968 in reverse"

Here is Rod Liddle's interesting piece on the significance of 2016's Year of the People and Trump's victory: http://www.spectator.co.uk/2016/11/donald-trump-represents-the-new-normal-on-both-sides-of-the-atlantic/

Keith Ellison: PC Identitarianism vs Freedom

Keith Ellison

Peter Kotz argues, wrongly I think, that the issue with Keith Ellison is that he is a Muslim per se. Even then, Kotz acknowledges that Ellison has a radical Islamic past: http://www.citypages.com/news/mild-mannered-keith-ellison-is-about-to-become-americas-scariest-muslim/401316426

My opinion, at least, is that the Democratic Party - like so many Progressive entities in the West - has been co-opted by PC Identitarianism. Their idea "diversity" is entirely flawed. They cannot help themselves: https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2016/11/gloriously-unhinged-president-trump/

Everybody who belongs to their Rainbow of Discontents (Ellison et al) gets a free pass; everybody who opposes them (Steven Bannon et al) is an anti-Semite, racist, fascist, white supremacist, mysoginist, xenophobe.

Here, by the way, is a critique of Ellison very different from Kotz's. It was written in 2010 and comes from the Middle East Forum: http://www.meforum.org/2756/keith-ellison-stealth-jihad

This might be interesting, too: http://freebeacon.com/politics/jewish-leaders-question-chuck-schumers-endorsement-of-keith-ellison/