Friday, March 25, 2016

A LOT of hot political news and opinion

Trump

Worth Reading: It’s the end of the line for GOP as we know it. Jonah Goldberg
Excerpt: Nominating Donald Trump will wreck the Republican Party as we know it. Not nominating Trump will wreck the Republican Party as we know it. The sooner everyone recognizes this fact, the better. ... And he’s right. Not about deserving the nomination even if he doesn’t have the delegates. That’s typical Trumpian whining. But he’s right that if he’s denied the nomination, many — not all, but many — of his supporters will bolt from the convention and the party. Left out of Trump’s unsubtle threat: Many anti-Trump Republicans will desert the convention and the party if he’s not denied the nomination. (I will not vote for a life-long liberal with an aversion to transparency, a contempt for the truth and a past record of shady dealings. Not Hillary and Not Trump. Not ever. I'm a lifelong Republican. ~Bob)

Exactly: Trump: Another Blank Screen on Which Voters Project Their. By David Davenport
Excerpt: The conventional wisdom is that Donald Trump is breaking all the political molds this year.  But he does fit one recent and disturbing trend quite well:  On issues, he is essentially a blank screen on which people are projecting their own views and preferences. Barack Obama was the pioneer of this trail in 2008.  As he wrote in his autobiography, The Audacity of Hope, “I serve as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views.”  Part of Obama’s blank screen was that he was a relative newcomer to national politics, serving in only his first term as a U.S. Senator. (What I've been saying. ~Bob)

Latest Head-to-Head Polls
Kasich 50%, Clinton 43%. Cruz 47%, Clinton 44%. Trump 38%, Clinton 49%. But the Donaldcrats won't believe it. ~Bob


Donald Trump is not beating Hillary Clinton in the polls, no matter how many times he says it

The Casual Lie: Trump: On Second Thought, I Never Said We Should Close Our Borders

Trump Prepares To Attack Cruz’s Wife. Here Are 5 Reasons That’s Ridiculous.


  From an anti-Trump PAC, not the Cruz campaign.
                        
Anticipating Disaster: The GOP donor class scrambles to insulate Congress from Trump.
Excerpt: "Republican leaders and their big-money allies are rushing to build a multistate defense system to protect Senate and House candidates, fearing the party could lose its hold on Congress if Donald Trump is at the top of the ticket in November."
The efforts are being driven by major players such as the Koch brothers’ political network, which has already begun laying groundwork in Colorado, Ohio and Pennsylvania, along with the Crossroads organizations and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

‘Stop Trump’ forces see an opportunity in Scott Walker’s Wisconsin
Excerpt: Wisconsin, home to the speaker of the House, the Republican National Committee chairman and a local GOP that has dismantled parts of postwar liberalism, has become the Masada of the "Stop Trump" movement. In the next 13 days, it is expected to absorb millions of dollars in anti-Trump ads, including at least $2 million from the Club for Growth, which officially endorsed Cruz this week. There is pressure on Gov. Scott Walker (R-Wis.) to endorse Cruz before the primary. And Cruz is hinting that he will barnstorm the state as Kasich and Trump look eastward.

Republicans hope the GOP base will save their Senate majority. But Trump might blow up that plan. By Greg Sargent
Excerpt: But there’s a potential problem with this strategy: Donald Trump may blow it to pieces. James Hohmann has some good reporting that clearly shows that keeping the base juiced up is the driving rationale behind refusing to even consider Merrick Garland. Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin — one of the most vulnerable GOP incumbents of the cycle — candidly confides to Hohmann that GOP base voters are more revved up over this battle than any other voters are, because they want to prevent the Court from tilting in a liberal direction, and that this is weighing on him. Hohmann concludes that even if independents and moderates might be disturbed by the GOP refusal to consider Garland, this probably won’t matter to GOP Senators, because Republican base voters are the most energized by the standoff: ...  One top GOP fundraiser told the Post that this dynamic could put GOP control of the Senate at risk: “If Donald Trump is the nominee, we could see a lot of people staying home.” (I won't stay home. But I  will not vote for a life-long liberal with an aversion to transparency, a contempt for the truth and a past record of shady dealings. Not Hillary and Not Trump. Not ever. ~Bob)

Another Trump Hosing of the little people: The Trump Network sought to make people rich, but left behind disappointment. By Ana Swanson 
Excerpt: Trump, whose presidential campaign is based in part on his reputation as a businessman, is well known for licensing his name to golf courses, hotels, clothing, wine and many other products. But in this case, he became involved in an industry that consumer advocates had long criticized as promising financial independence to sales recruits but rarely delivering it. Ideal Health had already faced complaints about its practices. Trump says he was not involved in the company’s operations. But statements by him and other company representatives — as well as a plethora of marketing materials circulating online — often gave the impression of a partnership that was certain to lift thousands of people into prosperity. 

BREAKING: Anti-Trump Protesters Admit They Were Hired on Craigslist – Being PAID to Protest

Donald Trump's Foreign Policy Plan Would Give Putin Exactly What He Wants
Excerpt: Putin’s moves throughout the world can be related to his major: keeping Ukraine on its knees. In what must have been music to Vladimir Putin’s ears, Trump stated that “Ukraine is a country that affects us far less than it affects other countries in NATO, and yet we’re doing all of the lifting. They’re not doing anything. And I say: Why is it that Germany’s not dealing with NATO on Ukraine? Why is it that other countries that are in the vicinity of Ukraine, why aren’t they dealing?”

Worth reading D.C.’s Foreign-Policy Establishment Spooked by ‘Bizzaro’ Trump Team
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/433187/donald-trumps-foreign-policy-advisers-skeptical-reviews
Excerpt: Donald Trump’s decision to release the names of five foreign-policy advisers on Monday may have been meant to dispel mounting anxiety over the GOP front-runner’s unfathomable worldview. If that was his intent, the move failed miserably. Far from assuaged, many in Washington’s foreign-policy crowd are now more apprehensive than ever about the people who have Trump’s ear. Most had never heard of any of the advisers, and what they have heard hasn’t exactly inspired confidence. Nearly all say that Trump’s move to surround himself with neophytes and fringe players suggests he doesn’t grasp how Washington’s network of decision-makers collaborate on important global decisions. Should he become president, most believe that lack of understanding would bode ill for America’s geopolitical future.

Scary: Please let Trump explain to you what China is doing in the S. China Sea
http://therightscoop.com/please-let-trump-explain-to-you-what-china-is-doing-in-the-s-china-sea/#ixzz43hy60B22
Excerpt: HIATT: So what do you think China’s aims are in the South China Sea?
TRUMP: Well I know China very well, because I deal with China all the time. I’ve done very well. China’s unbelievably ambitious. China is, uh… I mean, when I deal with China, you know, I have the Bank of America building, I’ve done some great deals with China. I do deals with them all the time on, you know, selling apartments, and, you know, people say ‘oh that’s not the same thing.’ The level of… uh, the largest bank in the world, 400 million customers, is a tenant of mine in New York, in Manhattan. The biggest bank in China. The biggest bank in the world.
China has got unbelievable ambitions. China feels very invincible. We have rebuilt China. They have drained so much money out of our country that they’ve rebuilt China. Without us, you wouldn’t see the airports and the roadways and the bridges; I mean, the George Washington Bridge is like, that’s like a trinket compared to the bridges that they’ve built in China. We don’t build anymore, and it, you know, we had our day. But China, if you look at what’s going on in China, you know, they go down to seven percent or eight percent and it’s like a national catastrophe. Our GDP is right now zero. Essentially zero.

Don’t Coddle Donald Trump. A nominee needs a majority. Abraham Lincoln played by that rule—so can the New York businessman
Excerpt: At the March 10 Republican debate in MiamiDonald Trump said “I think that whoever gets the most delegates should win”—meaning that if no candidate holds a majority at the GOP’s Cleveland convention, the nomination should go to whoever has a plurality. A majority, The Donald said, is an “artificial number that was set by somebody.” But decrying the use of what he called a “very random number” is not just whining; it is a demand for radical change. How radical? The rule that the Republican nominee must win a majority of the national convention has been in force for 160 years, since the party’s first convention in 1856 selected John C. Fremont as its standard-bearer. Five Republicans who went on to become president trailed in the convention when voting began.

Donald Trump can’t stop saying nasty things about women. It could cost him.
Excerpt: A nasty feud that escalated Thursday between Donald Trump and his chief Republican rival over their wives set off a new wave of alarm among establishment Republicans, who fear that the GOP front-runner would drive away female voters in a general-election fight with likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Trump’s gender problem flared again this week as he and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas traded insults while Cruz’s wife, Heidi, became the target of vitriol on social media from Trump and his supporters. At one point, the real estate mogul retweeted an unflattering image contrasting Heidi Cruz’s appearance with his wife, Melania, a retired model.

Worth Reading: Vocal Trump critics in GOP open to supporting Clinton
Excerpt: Members of the GOP foreign policy establishment are open to supporting Ted Cruz or even Hillary Clinton for president if that’s what it takes to prevent Donald Trump from becoming commander in chief.  In interviews with The Hill, prominent Republicans who signed a scathing open letter denouncing Trump said they aren’t wavering from their opposition to him.  “What’s happening is you have a lot of people who are desperate to get anybody in there other than Trump. ... People are going to go for Cruz, because at the end of the day they think he’s considerably less bad than Trump,” said Eliot A. Cohen, a former adviser to Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) who also served in the George W. Bush administration. Cohen, along with Bryan McGrath, organized an open letter opposing Trump that was signed by more than 120 members of the Republican foreign policy establishment. The letter declared that Trump is unfit to be president because his views of American power are “wildly inconsistent and unmoored in principle.” (I could never vote for Hillary for the same reason I could never vote for Trump: Both are life-long liberals with an aversion to transparency, a contempt for the truth and a past record of shady dealings. ~Bob)

New Islamic State video celebrates Brussels attacks by quoting Donald Trump
Excerpt: The video then incorporates the audio recording of comments made by Trump in a phone interview after news of the carnage broke, likely as propaganda to prove the success of the jihadists' plots. "Brussels was one of the great cities — one of the most beautiful cities of the world 20 years ago — and safe," Trump intones. "And now it’s a horror show — an absolute horror show."

CNN’s Kate Bolduan destroys Trump aide on boss’s sexist retweet. By Erik Wemple
Excerpt: As with most Trump stupidities, this one has a complicated backstory. An anti-Trump super PAC earlier in the week issued an ad showing a nude picture of Melania Trump. The Republican front-runner tweeted: “Wow @SenTedCruz, that is some low level ad you did using a picture [of] Melania in a G.Q. shoot. Be careful or I will spill the beans on your wife.” The response from Cruz: “Pic of your wife not from us. Donald, if you try to attack Heidi, you’re more of a coward than I thought. #classless.” It was in this context that Trump retweeted the side-by-side photos of the two wives — a presentation designed to mock Heidi Cruz.

Donald Trump’s shocking ignorance, laid bare
Excerpt: Donald Trump’s ignorance of government policy, both foreign and domestic, is breathtaking. The Republican Party is likely to nominate for president a man who appears to know next to nothing about the issues that would confront him in the job.
Such a sweeping condemnation may sound unfair. I wouldn’t be surprised if Trump were already busy tweeting that I’m a “dummy” or something. But if you read the transcript of Trump’s hour-long meeting with the editorial board of The Post, which took place Monday, I don’t see how you can come to any other conclusion.

Cruz

Interesting: Why Jeb Bush’s Endorsement Is a Game-Changer for Cruz. By Jeremy Carl
Excerpt: But Bush’s endorsement (like Mitt Romney’s endorsement before his) serves as a tremendous validation for Cruz that he is, at long last, beginning to unite the various strands of the mainstream GOP, both conservative and establishment, around him in opposition to Trump. Even more important, Bush’s unqualified endorsement is an unofficial blessing by Bushworld for GOP financiers that they can and should feel free to raise money for Cruz without apology and without any fear of “mainstream” backlash. To do otherwise, given Bush’s statements, would be to be “more royalist than the king.”

Cruz: "We Don't Need Another Lecture on Islamophobia." By Cortney O'Brien 
Excerpt: Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) spoke to the press in the nation’s capital Tuesday morning to address the horrific terror attacks in Brussels. He mourned with the victims’ families, then pinned the blame on failed leadership both at home and abroad.
“Today’s attacks in Brussels underscores this is a war,” Cruz said. “This is not a lone war. ISIS has declared jihad.” “It is way past time we have a president who will acknowledge this evil and will call it by its name and use the full force and fury to defeat ISIS,” he continued. “Until they are defeated, these attacks will continue. Their target is each and every one of us.”

BOOM! Ted Cruz ISSUES CHALLENGE to Donald Trump to debate on the BillO show
http://therightscoop.com/boom-ted-cruz-issues-challenge-to-donald-trump-to-debate-on-the-billo-show/#ixzz43rZ6zCDk

This should settle Cruz eligibility for the Trump Tribe
The Donaldcrats believe what they want. ~Bob

Hillary

Giuliani: Hillary Clinton Is A ‘Founding Member Of ISIS’ [VIDEO]
Excerpt: Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani says that “Hillary Clinton could be considered a founding member of ISIS.” Appearing on Fox News’s “The O’Reilly Factor” on Wednesday, Giuliani blasted Barack Obama, arguing that his attendance at a baseball game in Cuba in the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attack in Brussels “embarrassed me as an American.” (RELATED: President Obama Jokes About Baseball As Belgium Burns [VIDEO]) Turning to Clinton, Giuliani said the former secretary of state “had her chance” to develop a plan to fight ISIS, however, “She helped create ISIS.

Sanders

Sorry, Bernie supporters. Your candidate is not ‘currently winning the Democratic primary race’
I've been saying all along that the Hillary Wall Street Money Machine would crush him. Not as bad as it will crush Trump if he's the nominee, but enough to win. ~Bob

Other Political News

Worth reading: The hypocrisy behind the student renaming craze. By Victor Davis Hanson
Excerpt: University students across the country — at Amherst, Georgetown, Harvard, Princeton, Yale, UC Berkeley and dozens of other campuses — are caught up in yet another new fad. This time, the latest college craze is a frenzied attempt to rename campus buildings and streets. Apparently some of those names from the past do not fit students’ present litmus tests on race, class and gender correctness. Stanford students are demanding the rebranding of buildings, malls and streets bearing the name of Junipero Serra, the 18th-century Franciscan priest who some 250 years ago founded California’s famous chain of 21 coastal missions. The sainted Serra was often unkind to Native Americans and by our standards racist in his worldview. (A grievance-mongers work is never done. Once you remove the statues of Confederate leaders, there are Army bases, like Fort Bragg, Fort Stewart, and Fort Hood named for them. There is Washington DC, The Washington Post, and Washington State, plus any number of Jackson and Jefferson Cities, all named for slave owners. There is Oklahoma, which means "Red Man" in Choctaw, thus surely as offensive as "The Redskins," as both the Washington NFL franchise and the Red Mesa Navaho High School teams are called. There is Michigan State whose mascot is The Spartans. If Indian Names demean native Americans, surely this demeans Greeks. Not to mention that the historical Spartans held slaves, called "helots," in a far greater percentage than the old Confederacy. And of course The NFL Vikings are named after the Nazis of their time. They used to go on "hostings," raiding, pillaging, burning, murdering, and raping for the pure joy of it. Not to mention that they held "thrall," as their slaves were called. The term slavery came into use much later, as it is generally believed to come from the word "Slav," because so many of that people were captured and held as slaves during the Middle Ages. And of course, the Native Americans, south and north, held other Indians as slaves, raped captured women, and tortured captives, often just for entertainment, their Internet being down all the time. So Indian names of rivers, cities, states and places must go. Time to get to work, students! Don't forget your safe spaces. ~Bob)

Worth Reading: The Burden Of Health Insurance Premium Increases On American Families: An Update On The Report By The Executive Office Of The President
Excerpt: In September 2009, the Executive Office of the President (“EOP”)1 released a report entitled, “The Burden of Health Insurance Premium Increases on American Families,” which addressed concerns about “skyrocketing health care premiums” and the negative impacts they brought to American families. Six months later, the Affordable Care Act was passed with the promise of bending the cost curve down. This year marks the sixth anniversary of the Affordable Care Act’s passage, and the following report serves as an update of the very same data the EOP highlighted in 2009 and used as an impetus for its passage. The reality is that the law has failed to relieve families of the burden created by rising health care premiums. The EOP’s 2009 report bemoaned a 5.5 percent increase in premiums between 2008-092 , but the first year after Obamacare was enacted, premiums increased by 9.4 percent from 2010-11. Since that time, the upward trend in prices has continued. From 2014-15, the average annual family premium for employer-sponsored health insurance increased 4.2 percent to $17,545. (My wife had to change doctors and her premiums went up 24% this year. ~Bob)

‘Nonpartisan’ JoAnne Kloppenburg getting lots of help from partisan friends. By M.D. Kittle
Excerpt: During the last debate she insisted that “I am nonpartisan” on three separate occasions. A look at Kloppenburg’s aggressive fundraising schedule and the people she has surrounded herself with shows the lady doth protest too much.

There will be blood: The Death of the US Marine Corps. By Ray Starmann
Excerpt: The US Marines are the latest casualty in the Maoist Cultural Revolution being shoved down the throat of the military and incinerating the fighting spirit and readiness of the armed forces like a five alarm fire. As reported this week by Military.Com, Marines across the Corps will be challenged on their unconscious prejudices and presuppositions as women get the opportunity to become grunts for the first time. Unconscious prejudices and presuppositions defined as simple facts such as women lack the upper body strength, the aerobic lung capacity, testosterone for aggressiveness, are more prone to injuries, while possessing a myriad of hygiene issues in the field that men do not encounter. (Not death, exactly.  It's more like the Marines (and the Army) will be undead, zombie forces, things that walk as if alive but are really only a bullet or two from collapse. --LtCol Tom Kratman, USA, (Ret). Yes. The price will be in blood, but not the blood of the children of the PC elites pushing this. ~Bob. Starmann does a nice job on this.  Yes, this campaign amounts to imposing "realthink" on the Corps, you will listen, you will absorb, you will obey.  There will be no tolerance of any questions about how reality might actually not fit the fantasies being instituted by the PC geniuses. If you want to damage morale and have more of the best people decide this is no longer the Corps they meant to join and serve, this is indeed the way to accomplish those goals. --Del)

What a top Marine general just admitted makes me SO ANGRY. By Allen West
Excerpt: From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli they’ve been called Leathernecks, earned when Lieutenant Presley O’Bannon and his Marines landed at Derna, Libya to fight the Barbary Pirates. They’ve been called Devil Dogs, earned during World War I during actions in Belleau Woods. They are the few, the proud, our U.S. Marines, the men and women of the scarlet and gold. They live by a code, a motto: “Semper Fidelis” — Always Faithful. But is our modern United States Marine Corps, Semper Paratus, always ready and can they still be referred to as “America’s 911 Force?” Have we made the Marines, too few, while they strive to uphold their pride and honor? As reported by Stripes.com, “If the Marines were called today to respond to an unexpected crisis, they might not be ready, a top Marine general told the Senate Armed Services Committee on [this past] Tuesday." (Lt Col West does a nice job on this.  Everything he points out is spot on.  It becomes hard to believe that the weakening of all our military is just accidental, an unintended consequence of PC thinking taken out to extremes far past ridiculous. --Del)

OBAMA WINS HIS WAR ON U.S. MILITARY. Exclusive: Joseph Farah says president 'has done what no foreign enemy could'
http://mobile.wnd.com/2016/03/obama-wins-his-war-on-u-s-military/
Congratulations are in order for Barack Obama.
The American military has never been beaten on the battlefield by any foe in any war.
But Obama’s eight-year war on the U.S. military has been a total success. By stripping it of its resources, demoralizing its soldiers, sailors and airmen, by purging its best commanders, Obama has done what no foreign enemy could do in 240 years.
He’s destroyed it. (Yep, Mr. Obama and his appointees have done a bang-up job on this, you could not ask for a more effective, consistent campaign to tear the guts from our military.  That we have any decent, competent people left serving at all is a minor miracle.  It will take years to rebuild, assuming that starts next January.  If Hillary gets elected, we can just forget about it for four more years of neglect and PC trash being forced down the throats of anyone still serving. --Del)

Obama dances while Brussels burns: President and Michelle take to the floor to TANGO during glitzy state dinner in Buenos Aires as he ignores calls to come home in wake of terror attacks
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3507001/Maybe-advice-Barack-Obama-ignores-calls-come-home-wake-Brussels-attack-President-Michelle-attend-glitzy-state-dinner-Buenos-Aires.html

Worth Reading: BARACK OBAMA - DANCER-IN-CHIEF. By Col. Andy Weddington, USMC (Ret)

No, Mr. President, 1776 Wasn’t Anything Like Castro’s 1959 Putsch
Excerpt: Because the fact is, the American Revolution — whose courageous patriots pledged “to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our Sacred Honor” — wasn’t anything like the Castroites’ 1959 communist takeover. The latter was a gang of thugs’ brutal destruction of a weak democracy with the sneaky aim of installing a totalitarian tyranny. The American patriots of 1776 were all about a free press, a fiery and open interplay of ideas, and the bravely signed names of 56 men of liberty standing up for what they believed in. The bearded Castroite revolutionaries were a different beast altogether. They claimed to favor democracy as part of their Orwellian Newspeak, making use of willing media toadies such as New York Times correspondent Herbert Matthews to fool U.S. policymakers. But for those on the ground, the Castroite takeover was nothing but a brutal leftist oligarchy intent on installing a communist agenda and turning Cuba into a Soviet satellite. 

Marines Scrounge Yorktown Museum F-18 For Spare Parts; How Bad Is It? By Colin Clark

DHS Blows Off Senate Demand For Smeared Whistleblower Documents
Excerpt: On March 4, the Senate Homeland Security Committee asked Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson to provide all documents concerning the ICE whistleblower fired and secretly smeared after she ran afoul of Senator Harry Reid. The deadline was March 18. Now, it is March 23 and the documents do not appear to have been coughed up. Even though from a technological standpoint they would only take minutes or less to retrieve.

Excerpt: No private entity is more enmeshed with the Barack Obama administration than Google. This has been — in way too many ways for an allegedly free market economy — the Google administration. Google has met with the White House just about once a week, every week since President Obama took the oath.

VA Boss Promoted After Steering $4M Contract To Relative

Veterans Affairs Suspends Top Official in Relocation Scam. The head of the Veterans Benefits Administration has been suspended for allowing two lower-ranking officials to manipulate agency's hiring system.. By MATTHEW DALY
Excerpt: The Department of Veterans Affairs is suspending the head of the Veterans Benefits Administration for allowing two lower-ranking officials to manipulate the agency's hiring system for their own gain. Deputy VA Secretary Sloan Gibson says acting VBA chief Danny Pummill will be suspended without pay for 15 days for his role in a relocation scam that has roiled the agency for months. (Let me draw your attention to three things- 2\1. what the two women did was a form of fraud that got them a chunk of money and let them move closer to where they wanted to live. 2. notice the kind of money they were already making in the neighborhood of $180K per year, plus all the bennies of their jobs with vacations, personal time, sick time, and great retirement- this wasn't enough for them? 3. above all, notice that their big penalty was a 10% pay reduction, not getting fired as they should have been, and even that was overturned by a judge because he thought that others hadn't been penalized appropriately. How in hell is it the judge's job to start parsing who gets penalized and who doesn't, when the ones in front of him were give a minor penalty for a really serious, conscious crime?  This just gets crazier and crazier.  The statement about the civil service union is spot on, as I have been saying for a long time. --Del)

Obama Is Prosecuting Fewer Government Crooks Than Bush, Clinton. By Katherine Watson

Hormonal Contraceptives Are Not Health Care. Insisting hormonal contraceptives are health care is at the heart of the federal government’s case against the Little Sisters of the Poor. But hormonal contraceptives lead to worse health for women.

Protests in Vietnam as prominent blogger goes on trial
Excerpt:  A prominent Vietnamese blogger was handed a five-year jail term on Wednesday (Mar 23) on anti-state charges, a heavy sentence that was roundly condemned by lawyers and media watchdogs as a "travesty of justice".
Nguyen Huu Vinh, more commonly known as Anh Ba Sam, was arrested in 2014 and has been held in detention ever since, accused of disseminating anti-government articles on his wildly popular news site.

Putin’s long game has been revealed, and the omens are bad for Europe by Natalie Nougayrède
Excerpt: While European leaders believe they are edging towards a solution to the refugee crisis after securing a deal with Turkey, another power watches closely from afar: Russia. A tweet from its foreign ministry spokeswoman said much this week. “The migration crisis has been caused by irresponsible attempts to spread western-type democracy to the Middle East,” was the message from Maria Zakharova, hours before EU leaders were set to convene in Brussels. It didn’t just reflect Moscow’s well-known resistance to anything that smacks of western-driven regime change – it was also meant as a rebuke. Russia has been accused of “weaponising” the refugee crisis as a way of destabilising Europe – a claim recently reinforced by Nato’s top commander in Europe. That assertion may well be disputed. What is beyond doubt is the continuing need to know what Russia is thinking, and what goals it might pursue as it watches the EU confront multiple crises.

Sixth Circuit loses patience with the IRS

Punishing Climate-Change Skeptics. Some in Washington want to unleash government to harass heretics who don’t accept the ‘consensus.’ By DAVID B. RIVKIN JR. and ANDREW M. GROSSMAN
Excerpt: Galileo Galilei was tried in 1633 for spreading the heretical view that the Earth orbits the sun, convicted by the Roman Catholic Inquisition, and remained under house arrest until his death. Today’s inquisitors seek their quarry’s imprisonment and financial ruin. As the scientific case for a climate-change catastrophe wanes, proponents of big-ticket climate policies are increasingly focused on punishing dissent from an asserted “consensus” view that the only way to address global warming is to restructure society—how it harnesses and uses energy. That we might muddle through a couple degrees’ of global warming over decades or even centuries, without any major disruption, is the new heresy and must be suppressed. (Yup, Free Speech is really, really a cornerstone of Liberal thought, of American principles... until, of course, it becomes so odious to the right people that it really must be muzzled and the speakers penalized heavily.  Yep, that's the answer, just shut up those "wrong" people, after all, it's really for the good of everyone, and we have a lot of very smart people telling us so. And once you start on that, why next you can go after those scurrilous Far Right TV and radio shows, who only exist to spread bad ideas, false ideals, playing on fears and creating disharmony.  When you get through with them, then there are those pesky books still out there, but hey, they make a nice fire, and everybody enjoys a bonfire on a dark, cool night.  It's worked before, hasn't it? Yet the people in favor of criminalizing any dissent from the current PC fanaticism about Climate Change just can't begin to see what it is they want to start.  The blind righteousness just carries people along like a big, beautiful wave rushing the surfers in ecstasy towards the beach.  But that beach is one big collection of razor sharp rocks they won't recognize until after the water turns all red. --Del)

#PlumbingMatters! Why Emily’s List is spending big to defeat a progressive Democrat
Excerpt: Rep. Chris Van Hollen seems an unlikely target for a Democratic super PAC’s biggest-ever primary campaign. A rising star in the party, the Senate candidate is a longtime protege of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and a high-profile defender of liberal policies. But he’s also a man running against a woman for the Democratic nomination to succeed retiring Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.), the longest-serving woman in Congress. And so the pro-choice women’s group Emily’s List is committing at least $2.4 million from its super PAC — Women Vote! — to help Rep. Donna F. Edwards defeat him. (Progressive's not enough, you have to be the correct race and gender, Identity politics eats one of its own. He could just say he was Transgender, like Caitlin Jenner who all good liberals accept as a women. ~Bob)

Rolling Stone rape hoaxer doesn't want to answer questions anymore
I'm sure she doesn't. --Joe

Obama Downplays Difference Between Capitalism, Communism [VIDEO]
Excerpt: President Barack Obama downplayed the differences between capitalism and communism, claiming that they are just “intellectual arguments.” He urged those at a town hall event in Buenos AiresArgentina on Wednesday to “just choose from what works.”  Obama said, “So often in the past there’s been a sharp division between left and right, between capitalist and communist or socialist.” (Where is the John Birch Society when you need them?  If POTUS had ever visited the USSR when the command economy hadn't predicted how much toilet paper to produce for society and had to use a 1" shred of the Moscow Times to wipe his ass, he might have a different opinion about supply and demand economy of capitalism versus the dictatorial command economy of communism/Marxism. --Barb)

McAdams: ‘Academic freedom means nothing at Marquette.’ By M.D. Kittle 
Excerpt: MILWAUKEE, Wis. – Marquette University administrators are doubling down on their assault on academic freedom, and it could ultimately cost the Jesuit institution of higher education. On Thursday, Marquette University President Michael Lovell announced in a letter to Marquette community members that long-time political science professor John McAdams is suspended until January 2017 – without pay but with benefits. The tenured professor who has been in professional limbo for 16 months since writing a controversial blog post also faces a greater indignity. He is to apologize for doing what college educators across the country are allowed to do: publicly expressing thoughts. If McAdams doesn’t admit his “guilt” within the next two weeks, he will not be reinstated.

Nigeria targets 300 army officers, firms, in widening corruption probe
Excerpt: Nigeria has accused 300 firms and individuals, including army officers, of embezzling 48 billion naira ($241.45 million) through overpaid defense contracts or fraud, the presidency said on Thursday in a widening a crackdown on graft. (I think I got an email from them...~Bob)

Worth Reading: Obama’s ideological holiday in Havana. By Charles Krauthammer
Excerpt: The split screen told the story: on one side, images of the terror bombing in Brussels; on the other, Barack Obama doing the wave with RaĂºl Castro at a baseball game in Havana. On one side, the real world of rising global terrorism. On the other, the Obama fantasy world in which romancing a geopolitically insignificant Cuba — without an ounce of democracy or human rights yielded in return — is considered a seminal achievement of American diplomacy. Cuba wasn’t so much a legacy trip as a vanity trip, vindicating the dorm-room enthusiasms of one’s student days when the Sandinistas were cool, revolution was king and every other friend had a dog named Che.

MIGRANTS HAVE USED A BATTERING RAM TO BREAK THROUGH GREEK-MACEDONIAN BORDER

Religion of Peace News

WaPo Editorial: The horror in Brussels is a rebuke to Trump’s foreign policy

Worth Seeing: The Truth Hurts--Muslim Immigrants to Europe (see the picture)
"Men are in charge of women, because Allah hath made the one of them to excel the other, and because they spend of their property (for the support of women). So good women are the obedient, guarding in secret that which Allah hath guarded. As for those from whom ye fear rebellion, admonish them and banish them to beds apart, and scourge them. Then if they obey you, seek not a way against them."--Qur’an 4:34. ~Bob

At least 2 Americans killed in Brussels attacks, US official says

Man Detained in France Raid Was Convicted With Paris Attacks Ringleader Abdelhamid Abaaoud
And he was free Why? ~Bob

Obama On ISIS: ‘I’ve Got A Lot On My Plate’ … ‘They’re Not An Existential Threat’ [VIDEO]

Obama, in Argentina, rejects calls for change in strategy against Islamic State

AP: 400 Islamic fighters target Europe for 'maximum carnage'

Officials say Guantanamo transfers have killed Americans
Excerpt: Americans have been killed by prisoners released from the detention center at Guantanamo BayCuba, a senior Defense Department official told lawmakers  Wednesday, triggering sharp criticism from Republicans opposed to shuttering the facility in the wake of deadly attacks by the Islamic State group in Brussels and Paris. Paul Lewis, the Pentagon's special envoy for Guantanamo detention closure, declined to provide the GOP-led House Foreign Affairs Committee with details. He would not say whether the incidents occurred before or after President Barack Obama took office in January 2009.

What World War II Can Teach Us About Islamic Terror. We can start fighting Islamic terror by naming it. But that’s just step one. By Shireen Qudosi
Excerpt: On March 18, international counterterror authorities celebrated the capture of Salah Abdeslam, the ISIS-linked Belgium national heavily responsible for last year’s Islamic terror attacks in Paris. Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel awoke Tuesday morning to find ISIS had rocked Brussels again. Two explosions at the Brussels airport and a third at the city’s train station killed 34 people and injured hundreds. The escalating acts of Islamic terrorism in the last six months—with multiple attacks on Paris, attacks in Brussels, and even the far-reaching relatively unprecedented domestic attack in San Bernardino, California—show the deep-rooted hold of the greatest generational challenge of our time: radical Islam. ISIS has already devastated a Muslim population in the Middle East. Now, the most grotesque manifestation of radical Islam to date has its eyes deadlocked on the West.

Justice Department charges 7 people linked to Iranian government in 2013 hacking of NY dam
Excerpt: The Department of Justice has announced charges against seven people with ties to the Iranian government for computer hacking-related crimes in connection with the 2013 hacking of a New York dam, according to an indictment unsealed Thursday. 


CNN Guest: ‘White People’ Can’t Understand Islamic Culture [VIDEO]
Linking the BLM and BP black anarchists and the MB cells set up to explode....Barb

Europe Is Again at War
Excerpt: “It’s time to admit the extent of Europe’s problem with Islamic radicalism. This isn’t mere terrorism any longer, this is guerrilla war.” “Belgium’s chronically dysfunctional politics have played a toxic role, as has the general Western European tendency to avert eyes and hope for the best.”

FBI COUNTER-TERROR EXPERT SEES HISTORIC ISLAM PIVOT
'Shifting focus to West' but U.S. cities not prepared for attacks
Excerpt: Guandolo, author of the book “Raising a Jihadi Generation,” said the Muslim Brotherhood is teaming up with the Black Lives Matter movement to create violent events that will surprise many police agencies in cities across the U.S.  He said parts of the strategy leaked out at the annual convention of the Muslim-American Society on Dec. 28, 2015, in Chicago.  Nihad Awad, executive director of CAIR, was very upfront about the U.S. Muslim community’s embracing of Black Lives Matter. (Convention in Chicago!  Show me your shocked face.  Obama just had his picture taken in Cuba in front of a portrait of Che Guevara; however, when he had his picture taken with a crucifix in the background, that had to be covered so no one would assume sending a subliminal message.  --Barb)

Top ISIS leader killed, senior US official confirms to Fox News
Excerpt: Senior US official confirms to Fox News that the ISIS second in command has been killed.

Of Interest

Satire: Poll: Support for another Crusade at highest level since 14th century
http://www.duffelblog.com/2016/03/poll-support-for-another-crusade-highest-since-14th-century/#ixzz43qgdajGj
Excerpt: For the first time in seven centuries, support for a new Crusade topped all other economic, religious, and foreign policy concerns, according to yesterday’s Vatican/CNN survey of “self-identified” Christians in Europe and the United States.
Nearly 95 percent of respondents reported that they “strongly supported” the building of an army to place the entirety of modern day Israel, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon under the banner of the Holy See. Those polled indicated that though they “sort of” enjoyed the basic tenets of democracy, the terror attacks in Belgium made them willing to cede all political and military power to the Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church, Pope Francis.

"The Green Hills of Earth." By Robert A. Heinlein














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