Tag: ecuador

Visas, Hillary Clinton, and the Ecuadorean ‘alien smuggler.’

I wonder if the New York Times is not entirely comfortable with the idea of a Hillary Clinton candidacy: “The Obama administration overturned a ban preventing a wealthy, politically connected Ecuadorean woman from entering the United States after her family gave tens of thousands of dollars to Democratic campaigns, according to finance records and government officials.” Specifically, the woman (Estefanía Isaías) got a visa from Clinton’s State Department (the Times was very careful to note that) despite involved in, and I don’t know why I’m so surprised here, what was called ‘alien smuggling.’  Apparently the Isaias family is made up of very rich people with severe entitlement issues and at least two fugitives from Ecuadorean justice; but perhaps I’m being unfair about the ‘entitlement’ bit.  The article makes it clear that the Isaias family has bought a time-share in US Senator Bob Menendez (D, NJ)… and I have to admit that if I had this kind of access I’d be severely tempted to use it to fix parking tickets (or extradition requests), too.

Via @NoahCRothman, who feels that this news is ‘explosive.’ And, honestly, it should be.  But if it’s going to be explosive that’s going to be in the context of a primary campaign, and not, say, a federal corruption investigation.  The odds of that happening to Bob Menendez and Hillary Clinton during the current administration are somewhere between ‘not a chance’ and ‘are you high?’

Moe Lane (crosspost)

Simultaneous Volcanic Eruptions in Central, South America.

Coincidence?

In Guatemala, the Pacaya volcano began spewing lava, rocks and debris on Thursday, killing at least two people and injuring more than 50 others.

In Ecuador, the Tungurahua volcano forced the evacuation of seven villages and shut the airport and schools in Guayaquil, the country’s largest city.

There is no suggestion the upsurge in volcanic activity is related.

Interestingly, there’s a report that another volcano – this one, in Iceland – is showing signs of a possible eruption. It’s apparently going to be a Year of the Volcanos. Mind you, all of these are on different tectonic plates… which I fully expect to be told doesn’t matter, for various arcane scientific reasons. Ach, well, it saves me the time of spending four hours looking it up for myself.

Moe Lane