War #3 Threatened by Trump

The Trump administration has begun detailed planning for a new mission to send U.S. troops and intelligence officers into Mexico to target drug cartels, according to two U.S. officials and two former senior U.S. officials familiar with the effort.

The early stages of training for the potential mission, which would include ground operations inside Mexico, has already begun, the two current U.S. officials said. But a deployment to Mexico is not imminent, the two U.S. officials and one of the former U.S. officials said. Discussions about the scope of the mission are ongoing, and a final decision has not been made, the two current U.S. officials said.

The "no moar foreign wars" guy sure seems to be hot on invading every country that he sees on Fox News.

The United States is going to end up with no friends south of the Rio Grande, other than those that we have bought, like Argentina. Latin American countries are going to look for a counterweight and the most likely choice is China, which is going to be increasingly interested in overseas basing rights.

People in other countries have a better sense of history; they haven't forgotten when American Latin Policy was "send the Marines" to every country that the United Fruit Co. was beefing with. This threat to send in the military is going to ring a lot of chimes.

The Trump Administration is disintegrating American power and influence around the world. We will be cleaning this up for a lifetime, if even that quickly.

Mexico to Trump: Fuck Off and Die

For now, at any rate:

Mexico denied a U.S. military plane access to land Thursday, at least temporarily frustrating the Trump administration's plans to deport immigrants to the country, according to two U.S. defense officials and a third person familiar with the situation.

Two Guatemala-bound Air Force C-17s, carrying about 80 people apiece, flew deportees out of the U.S. Thursday night, the sources said. The third flight, slotted for Mexico, never took off.

Just What I was Thinking.

Let's sue Mexico.

Seriously. There is little doubt that the Mexican government is basically a narco-corrupted construct. The Mexican government has largely abandoned its citizens to the cartels. A result is a continuous flow of drugs across our borders, which results in crime, corruption and violence here.

Sue the bastards. Sue every living president of Mexico, every living justice minister, and anyone else that you can think of. Maybe the Mormons have standing. If you have a relative who has suffered from drug addiction or drug-related virus, maybe you do, as well.

Give a Toddler a Hammer and Everything Becomes a Nail

In a surprise announcement that could derail a major trade deal, President* Donald Trump announced Thursday that he is slapping a 5% tariff on all Mexican imports, effective June 10, to pressure the country to do more to crack down on the surge of Central American migrants trying to cross the U.S. border.

He said the percentage will gradually increase — up to 25% — “until the Illegal Immigration problem is remedied.”

This smacks of something dreamed up by both the World's Oldest Toddler and his Office Nazi.

As many articles have pointed out, one of the things Trump is proudest of is ripping up NAFTA and replacing it with his version. That agreement has not been ratified by either the Mexicans or the U.S. Senate. And now, there's a better chance that it won't be.

Tariffs are a form of economic warfare. Using them against a friendly nation strikes me as being a not-terribly bright idea.

Using them against Mexico is not at all smart. I believe that internal Mexican politics will not look favorably on a government that is seen to be bending a knee to the Colossus of the North. I would not be at all surprised if there was talk in Mexico of allowing migrants to ride in boxcars (instead of on top of them) from the central Mexican railheads to the border.

It can get much worse. The Central American nations could implement a policy of "we don't accept anyone being deported from the US." The could claim that any papers are forged, that any admissions of citizenship in the origin country was obtained by psychological torture.

From there, they could make it legal to manufacture cocaine, crack, and Schedule 1 drugs for exportation-only. Legalization of production might have the side-effect of reducing the amount of crime and violence associated with the production of such drugs.

Another step would be to invite the PLAN to make a port visit.

Trump may think that he's the only person on the global stage who is willing to play hardball. He may find out that he is grievously in error.

Truth in Satire

President* Donald Trump has declared a state of emergency on the U.S. border with Mexico and is deploying thousands of National Guard troops there to masturbate, eat MREs, and play with personal knives, sources confirmed today.

The soldiers will also be tasked with playing card games and generating PowerPoint briefing slides for generals in Washington, according to defense officials, who added the slides will likely lead to questions of overall government capacity on counter-narcotics operations and DEA/SOUTHCOM institutional dynamics, as if they give a shit about any of it.

I am not certain, though, how Trump's order works. He can't order the National Guard to do anything related to law enforcement. But the state governors can, because unless a Guard unit is "federalized", they obey the orders of the governor.

More to the point of the worry of the Pentagon is the fact that soldiers are not cops. Their job, when it comes to guns, is to go places, break things, and kill people. That's what soldiers do. In a civil setting, as was found nearly fifty years ago, shit can go sideways when soldiers are used for police functions.

Given Spanky's bellicosity, it's possible that if he insists on the Guard troops conducting armed patrols, that the Mexicans will deploy armed troops to watch. It takes very little thought to realize that may not go so well.

But rational thought is one thing that nobody has ever accused Spanky of doing.

UPDATE: As I suspected, Trump can't order jack-shit in regards to the Guard. He has to ask the governors. At least one has said "no".

Betcha Trump Says Nothing

A magnitude 7.1 earthquake rocked central Mexico on Tuesday, killing at least 44 people as buildings collapsed in plumes of dust and thousands fled into the streets in panic.

The quake came less than two weeks after another quake left 90 dead in the country's south, and it occurred as Mexicans commemorated the anniversary of a 1985 quake that killed thousands.

There won't be a single tweet of sympathy from Trump. His Duty Liar, Sara Whazerface, will not say a single kind word about Mexico from the Spicer Memorial Podium.

Trump vs. Mexico

The Mexican government will no longer offer aid to Texas and Louisiana to help with recovery efforts in the wake of Hurricane Harvey, Mexico’s foreign ministry announced Monday, instead redirecting that aid to portions of its own nation damaged by a powerful earthquake and Hurricane Katia.

The 8.2 magnitude earthquake struck central Mexico last week near the city of Oaxaca, killing 95 people and injuring hundreds more, the Mexican foreign ministry said. Separately, Hurricane Katia’s landfall inflicted “significant damage” on the Mexican state of Veracruz, the foreign ministry said.

That's reason enough, they're probably strapped for resources. But this, a little later in the same article, was telling:

But while homeland security adviser Tom Bossert said President Donald Trump was “deeply touched” by a phone call from his Mexican counterpart offering aid and assistance, the federal government did not officially accept Mexico’s aid. The Mexican government noted in its statement that its offer had been accepted by the state of Texas, which said it could use the logistical support offered by Mexico.

Trump, who has not publicly offered condolences to Mexico in the wake of its earthquake and hurricane landfall, has made getting tough with America’s southern neighbor a key part of his political agenda, pledging to either renegotiate or tear up NAFTA and to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border that Mexico will pay for.

Really? An earthquake and a hurricane hit our neighbor and Trump can't be bothered to take notice? Is he that afraid that his sheet-wearing neo-nazi base is going to suffer butthurt if he says even one kind word about Mexico?

The Mexicans don't like us very much. That might not matter to you, but it'll matter to Mexican politicians. The room that they have to maneuver to negotiate changes to NAFTA or other matters will be narrowed considerably because of Trump's verbal/Twitter diarrhea.

Trump is heedless of reality. His fecklessness has a potential to cause some real problems with Mexico. If they wanted to, they could set up trains to quickly ferry migrants from Central America to the border.

And that's just for starters.

The Powder Magazine of Europe is Getting Warmer

The news from Kosovo, the mini-republic located northeast of Albania, is consistent with the atmosphere in the Western Balkans these days. Kosovo, Macedonia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, all part of former Yugoslavia, have spent years waiting to become members of the European Union, but it seems in the early summer of 2017 as though they have almost been forgotten. And people there are beginning to lose their patience. The result: increasing numbers of people leaving the region, accelerated Islamization and rising nationalism. Violent protests recently in the Macedonian capital of Skopje along with ranting about a Greater Albania in both Tirana and Pristina, the capitals of Albania and Kosovo respectively, have served to demonstrate just how tense the situation has become.

Forgotten in the EU's fixation with whatever-the-hell-it's-been-doing is the rationale behind having a European community in the first place: Intertwining the nations of Europe with one another so closely that another European war becomes almost unthinkable.

This should not be a problem for the United States to have to work, other than possibly providing support of some kind or another. But you know that if the Europeans can't get their act together and people begin going for their guns, it will become America's problem to fix.
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Meanwhile, on this side of the pond, the Mexican government is spying on political opponents and reporters. They are using software sold to them by the Israelis, who, when it comes to spy tools, are pretty much the primo Merchants of Death in the world today.

Except maybe the NSA, but their shit was stolen from them.

Defund UNESCO

Congress should make it a top priority to ensure that not a cent of American money goes to UNESCO. This is why:

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization voted 24 to 6 to approve a resolution denying the historical connection between Jews and sacred sites in Jerusalem, drawing strong rebukes from leaders in Israel who said Jews will continue to visit the areas.

Jerusalem is home to sites significant to Judaism, Islam and Christianity, with the Temple Mount area and adjoining Western Wall considered the most holy site in the Jewish religion. The UNESCO resolution refers to the area by names used in Islam only, and does not acknowledge any link between Jews and the sacred sites.

I'm not exactly observant in my practice of Judaism, far from it. Yet I've been to the Western Wall and I did put a written prayer in the cracks between the giant stone blocks.

So yes, I take this personally.

Those who supported the motion included Algeria, Bangladesh, Brazil, Chad, China, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Iran, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mauritania, Mexico, Morocco, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Russia, Senegal, South Africa, Sudan and Vietnam.

Nations that abstained from the vote were: Albania, Argentina, Cameroon, Cote de’Ivoire, El Salvador, Spain, France, Ghana, Greece, Guinea, Haiti, India, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Nepal, Uganda, Paraguay, South Korea, St. Kits and Nevis, Slovenia, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Togo, Trinidad and Ukraine.

Absent countries included Serbia and Turkmenistan;

Those who opposed the resolution were: the US, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Germany and Estonia voted against the motion.

Most of the "for" list are islamic nations, and to be frank, I'd expect that sort of historical nonsense from them. To the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua: Next time either of your nations gets hit by a hurricane or an earthquake, go ask your friend the Palestinians for help. To Brazil: Fuck you and may the Zika virus reach a 100% infection rate.

And to Mexico: If Trump wins, I'll cough up to help build his wall, especially if he promises to install a bunch of SM-70s.

As for the abstaining nations: Thanks for nothing, you gutless cocksuckers.

Because It's Friday

Mexican steam

NSA, the Fuckery Continues

To be honest, though, I don't know if much of this really qualifies. Sure, it's kind of amusing that the NSA seems to think that all of North America comprises "the Homeland".[1]

But outrage that the NSA is spying on France, Germany and Mexico? How is that surprising? They're foreigners and spying on foreign nations is what spies are supposed to do. In the last hundred years we've fought two wars with the Germans and the Germans tried really hard to get the Mexicans to come in on their side in the first one. As for the French, well, enough said.

The point is that yesterday's enemies can be today's friends and today's friends can be tomorrow's enemies. I'd be shocked if our spooks weren't spying on every other nation around.[2]

By the way, the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, denies that the NSA has engaged in massive wiretapping of French citizens. But since ol' Jimmy is a noted perjurer, you can decide whether or not you believe him.[3]
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[1] I cannot begin to tell you how much "Homeland" sounds like a term used by a Fascist nation.
[2] Except maybe Chad. The "Chadian threat" is probably not a term you'll see in our press anytime soon.
[3] I regard every statement released by his office to be a complete lie, including the commas and periods. Clapper got a pass on perjury charges and Roger Clemens didn't, probably because there's no lying in baseball.

Now It's "Grenade Walker"

The Justice Department knew that a man was smuggling grenade parts into Mexico, but they let him go, twice, because "grenades are novelty items".

So, BATF Was Directly Giving Guns to Criminals?

Apparently the boyos at the BATFE wasn't just letting smugglers buy guns and funnel the guns to Mexico. The ATF agents were using their authority as law enforcement officers to directly buy the guns that they then gave to the Mexican cartels.

Wouldn't that be like the FBI buying high-speed getaway cars for bank robbers?

What was the point of all of this, other than to make sure that American firearms were given to the cartels' gun thugs? And having done that, was all this done so that the BATF could then say "see, we need more gun control and more authority for our agents and more agents and a bigger budget"?

Was all of this, including the murders of Border Patrolmen, done just so the BATF could prevail in the Annual Battle of the Budget?

If so, can anyone posit a reason why the BATF's budget should not receive something like a 25% haircut?

(H/T)

ATF and the "Peter Principle"

The ATF has promoted three key supervisors of a controversial sting operation that allowed firearms to be illegally trafficked across the U.S. border into Mexico.

Snark would be superfluous.

The Unquestioning Swallowing of Bullshit By "Reporters"; Firearms Edition

From a story on Project Gunwalker:

In the meantime, three Democratic senators have released a report finding that an overwhelming majority of the firearms used in crimes in Mexico originated in the US.

According to the report, released last week by Sens. Dianne Feinstein of California, Charles Schumer of New York, and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, an ATF study of 2009 and 2010 crimes in Mexico involving firearms found that 70 percent of the traced weapons have a US source.

Think that one through for a second and you'll see the bullshit. The only weapons that are going to be submitted for a trace are those that they might think came from the US. They won't trace weapons that were "stolen" from the Mexican army or police. They won't trace fully-automatic weapons. So of a selection of confiscated weapons, among those that the Mexicans thought came from the US, 70% did.

That is a far, far cry from the implications proffered by Schumer, Feinstein and Whitehouse, which is 70% of all guns confiscated by the Mexicans came from the US.

How many of the guns confiscated are submitted for tracing? Your guess is as good as mine, but I've seen no numbers above 30%. So, 70% of 30% is 21% overall, at best. It could be as low as 12%.

But "70% of all guns seized in Mexico are from the US" is what the gun-control freakazoids will scream, the press will parrot it, but it is a bald-faced lie. Anyone who says that is either a liar or a fool.

Thought Experiment

As you may already know, there are many Mexicans who hold to the view that we essentially stole California, Arizona, Texas, Nevada, New Mexico, and parts of Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado and Wyoming from them through the annexation of Texas, the Mexican-American War and the Gadsten Purchase.

Now let's suppose that there is a movement to recover those territories. Suppose that a large number of unarmed Mexicans massed on the border, proclaimed that they were going to take back what was their land and began moving to cross over into American territory.

Would that not be an invasion and would the United States not be justified in responding to it as such?

You're the president. All you have is the military with their standard weapons. Your options are essentially limited to (a) let them come, or (b) shoot them.

What do you do and why?

ATF Has Been Arming the Mexican Cartels

The gunnie blogs have been all over the story of "Project Gunwalker" for months, now. In short, ATF let dubious sales of weapons proceed in the hope that they could see where the guns went. This wasn't just a few weapons, but thousands of them. Gun shop owners were encouraged by ATF to sell large quantities of firearms to the smugglers. Street-level ATF agents protested the program and asked what would happen if a gun the AT let be smuggled into Mexico was used to kill a cop.

And then Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was shot to death by a rifle that had been smuggled south with the tacit permission of ATF.

The news media is starting to pay attention to the story.

Is the ATF Running Guns Into Mexico?

That's the allegation, that the ATF is having its snitches buy guns and then smuggle them into Mexico for the drug cartels. That way, when the weapons are eventually confiscated by the Mexican cops, the ATF has something to trace.

Nothing surprises me about the ATF. It's pretty well established that both the Waco and Ruby Ridge messes were grounded in the ineptitude of the ATF, so one could argue that without the ATF's blundering, there would have been no Oke City bombing.

Mexican Border Security

Interesting paragraph from a WikiLeaks cable:

The final border crossing only served to re-inforce the concerns that emerged from the first two sites the group visited. One of the most memorable images of the day was the steady flow of rafts transporting people and goods across the river illegally within sight of the legal border crossing.

Not our border, but the one between Mexico and Guatemala.

Guns, drugs and illegal migrants are flowing across that border. And if you think that those weapons were first bought in Texas, I have a bridge to sell you, assuming that an intrepid editor from the Washington Post doesn't buy it before you.

Tough Musicians in Mexico

So there is this wedding reception going on. Fights break out, some guy pulls a pistol and rips off several shots and the band just keeps on playing.

(H/T to Sebastian)