Midweek roundup

The UK's Labour party has consigned itself to decades in the wilderness with the election of Jeremy Corbyn as its leader.  This seems to be yet another manifestation with the Western world's general recent enthusiasm for outsiders. The post-American version has brought such figures as Bernie Sanders (our equivalent of Corbyn), Donald Trump and Ben Carson to the fore. Which leads to the question: How viable is the possibility that Trump and Sanders would be our choices in November 2016?


After last month's ratcheting of tensions on the Korean peninsula was "resolved," the Hermit Kingdom once again disappeared from the radar screen - that is, until yesterday's threat to use nuclear weapons "at any time,"  backed up by its announcement that it had restarted all its nuclear-bomb production facilities.

Speaking of east Asia, a Chinese admiral offers this pronouncement  - while seated onstage alongside US Navy Rear Admiral Jeff Harley and Japanese Vice Adm. Umio Otsuka at a London security conference - for our consideration:

“The South China Sea, as the name indicated, is a sea area. It belongs to China,” said Vice Adm. Yuan Yubai, commander of the North Sea Fleet for the People’s Liberation Army Navy, Defense One reports.

About time for some good news, don't you think? Ben Carson is gaining fast on Donald Trump.

Okay, that was a nice little respite. Now back to the splashes of cold water. the Freedom-Hater party's agenda of planned decline is yielding palpable results:

 . . . a consortium of think tanks from nearly 90 countries has released its annual Economic Freedom of the World Report. The report has some good news for much of mankind — economic liberty increased slightly around the globe — but not such good news for the United States, which continues to tumble in the rankings. As recently as 2000, the United States had the second-freest economy in the world, trailing only Hong Kong. But throughout the Bush and Obama years, we have slipped further and further behind. Last year, we fell out of the top 10, ranking just 12th overall. And this year, we have fallen all the way to 16th. We now squeeze in between 15th-ranked Taiwan and number 17, Romania. Isn’t that wonderful? We are freer than Romania!

There's a tenth Center for Medical Progress video. It contains the characteristically grisly elements ("everything we provide is fresh") and also puts the lie to the idea that Planned Parenthood has nothing to be ashamed of and can be forthright and proud of what it does for "women's health":

A lot of the conversation centers around PP’s reluctance to let its baby parts business become public knowledge. “Big headlines would be a disaster” is one especially direct quote. They also talk about the fact that some affiliates have gotten quite a bit of income from the baby body parts business.

Now, go forth and have a nice day.

Stop back by for debate observations tonight.