Wednesday roundup

How clueless is the State Department? This clueless:

Obama administration officials disclosed Tuesday that Iran has been granted access to about $3 billion in unfrozen assets in the months since the nuclear agreement was implemented, but it remains unclear to the administration if the Islamic Republic has spent any of this money to fund its global terrorism enterprise, according to top officials.

In the four months since Iran and world powers began to implement the comprehensive nuclear agreement, Iran has been able to recover around $3 billion in funds that were unfrozen as part of the deal. Iran is expected to be given access to another $50 billion to 55 billion in the coming months.

However, the Obama administration was not able to say if Iran has spent any of this money to fund terrorism campaigns.

“We don’t know” if Iran has spent this money on terror activities, State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters. “We don’t know. We don’t have a way.”

Yes, indeed, there is no reprehensible regime that the Most Equal Comrade's nomenklatura won't rush to normalize relations with:

Weeks after President Barack Obama’s historic trip to Cuba, officials from the Communist island have ramped up their attacks on the U.S.

On Monday, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez called Obama's visit "an attack on the foundation of our history, our culture and our symbols."

"Obama came here to dazzle the non-state sector, as if he wasn't the representative of big corporations but the defender of hot dog vendors, of small businesses in the United States, which he isn't," Rodriguez said.

The foreign minister’s response came days after Cuba President Raul Castro said that the United States is "the enemy" and warned Cubans to be vigilant about the United States' efforts to undermine the Communist revolution, according to Reuters.

The remarks came at the Cuban Communist Party's twice-a-decade congress, held over the weekend, where some of Cuba's most powerful officials criticized the creaking inefficiency of its state-controlled economy, tarred its vibrant private sector as a potential source of U.S. subversion.

Guess he needs to strive harder to get them to understand that he's one of them.


That Whole Foods store in Austin that was the target of an attempted wedding-cake-with-anti-gay-slur-on-it hoax is suing the slug posing as a human being who cooked the scheme up.  For cryin' out loud, the bakery staff member he dealt with was other than hetero.

Speaking of people with abnormal sex lives, Target saw fit to make a public statement saying that transgendered people can use whatever restrooms at their stores that they mentally identify with.

Brazil's Chamber of Deputies pulls the trigger:

It's been a tough week for leftist President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil. The Chamber of Deputies voted to impeach her: 

Impeachment supporters netted 367 votes in the lower house of Congress, well above the 342 they needed.
The "no" camp took 137 votes, seven deputies abstained and two did not show for the ballot.

We move on to the Senate, or upper house, and let's see what happens there.

Post-impeachment will be uncharted waters for Brazil. In other words, Latin America does not have a history of replacing leaders by impeachment. Instead, they get overthrown by the military or escape at midnight to avoid justice.

Remember when there was so much excitement over the BRIC countries, Brazil Russia, India and China, how they were said to be a model for "developing" nations to come on board as economic powerhouses and world-stage leaders?