Friday, May 8, 2015

Today's political news and opinion--last for awhile

Update

To add to the week we have been having, we learned today that Bonnie's birth mom has died in southern Illinois (Bonnie was adopted by her grandparents). So we are off Saturday for the funeral, probably no blogs until Thursday of next week at the earliest.

Please hold all non-personal email until you hear I'm on line again. Thanks. ~Bob

General News and Comment

Important: Landslide: British PM Cameron, Tories trounce Labour party
Excerpt: British Prime Minister David Cameron and his Tory party scored a decisive victory over the opposing Labour Party, left far-left and far-right parties in the dust and defied pre-election polls with a resounding election triumph he called "the sweetest victory of all."
Aided by the Scottish National Party's rout of Labour in Scotland, Cameron and the Tories left opponents on the right and left in tatters. The Labour Party lost 24 seats in Parliament according to early returns, and party leader Ed Miliband resigned from his role. Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg resigned after acknowledging a "cruel and punishing defeat," in which his left-of-center part suffered its worst-ever defeat - dropping from 57 seats to just 8. On the right, UK Independence Party Leader Nigel Farage, a thorn in Cameron's side, failed to win a seat and resigned as party leader.

The British Election. By Jonah Goldberg, The Goldberg File
Excerpt: I should add that George Galloway (the bigoted carbuncle of idiocy who until today represented Bradford West in parliament) is certainly right, “Zionists” are celebrating his defeat -- but so are non-Zionists. (It’s hardly the case that you have to believe in the right to a Jewish homeland to think Galloway is a hateful buffoon.) Still, it’s no surprise that a man who’s done all he can to keep his district Judenfrei would believe the authors of his downfall must be the Jews. For gnostics of a certain bent, the demiurge is Jewish in nature and therefore responsible for all the evils of this earth. Who’s responsible for paper cuts? The Jews! Why won’t this toilet flush? The Jews! Why is Steve Gutenberg a star? The Jews! (The Stonecutters are just a front!) (One of my distant ancestors is Alan, Lord of Galloway, so I'm delighted that this slander on the good name of "Bonnie Gallawa" will be less in the news. I would note that The Goldberg File also has a long piece today on Bureaucrats. It is free and worth subscribing to. ~Bob)

David Cameron victory also a win for gay marriage. By Jonathan Capehart
Excerpt: Waking up to news that British Prime Minister David Cameron and his fellow Tories roared to a resounding victory in Thursday’s general election was thrilling. No, I’m not a closet conservative. I’m a marriage-equality supporter and Cameron’s victory is a major validation of his support of it. Civil partnerships, the United Kingdom’s answer to civil unions, started in 2005. That’s the year Cameron became leader of the Conservative party. In 2010, he became prime minister. The following year, Cameron’s coalition started looking at ways to legalize same-sex marriage in the U.K. Using his conservative credentials to make the case, Cameron succeeded. In 2013, same-sex couples began to wed.

Axelrod Frustrated In Israel & UK So Far This Year (But He Won Nigeria). By Ivan Plis
Excerpt: Thursday’s overwhelming victory for Britain’s Conservative Party proved the second major international disappointment of 2015 for former President Barack Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod. Axelrod served as a special adviser to the Labour Party’s failed campaign, whose embarrassing rout led to party leader Ed Miliband’s resignation Friday morning. Obama’s 2012 campaign manager Jim Messina was also involved in the election — on the side of Labour’s Conservative rivals.

Clinton 'fact-check' under fire. By Sarah Westwood
Excerpt: A Kazakh official involved in brokering a controversial mining deal for a major Clinton Foundation donor is behind bars for his role in the transaction, undercutting a Clinton campaign "fact-check" that attempted to dismiss ethical questions about the former president's ties to the lucrative contract. Hillary for America and the Clinton-aligned group Media Matters pushed back on allegations that the Clintons had used their political clout to drum up millions in foundation donations and speaking fees by furthering the financial interests of friends in the wake of Tuesday's publication of Peter Schweizer's Clinton Cash.

Quote From The Patriot Post
"The multiplication of public offices, increase of expense beyond income, growth and entailment of a public debt, are indications soliciting the employment of the pruning knife." —Thomas Jefferson, beloved founded of the Democrats.


Worth Reading: Mrs. Clinton. By Bill Shuey
Excerpt: Many people who may vote in the democratic primary election, if there is one and the general election in 2016 have no real knowledge of Mrs. Clinton or her accomplishments. As a public service, I thought I would provide some input regarding her triumphs for consideration. When Bill Clinton was president, he allowed Hillary to assume authority over a health care reform. Even after threats and intimidation, she couldn’t even get a vote in a democratic controlled congress. This fiasco cost the American taxpayers about $13 million in cost for studies, promotion, and other efforts.

If You Want More Money and More Freedom, Move to a Red State
Excerpt: Americans are voting with their feet to keep more of their income. The nine zero-income-tax states gained an average of 3.7 percent of their population from domestic in-migration from 2003 to 2013, while the highest-income-tax states lost an average of 2.0 percent of their population during the same period. The jobs growth rate was more than double in the zero-income-tax states than in the high-income-tax states, on an equally weighted basis. Of the four largest states, from 1990 to June 2014, the jobs growth rate in red states Florida (46 percent) and Texas (65 percent) has been almost triple the jobs growth of blue states California (24 percent) and New York (9 percent). Interstate migration has resulted in the zero-income-tax states gaining more than 14 percent of their 2009/2010 adjusted gross income from the rest of the nation between the tax filing years 1992/1993 and 2009/2010. Meanwhile, the nine highest income tax states lost 8.8 percent of their 2009/2010 adjusted gross income over the same period. (As they lose productive people and jobs, they will have to raise taxes to keep the benefits flowing. Then more taxpayers will leave. It's called a death spiral. ~Bob)

Economic Growth Slowest in Estate Tax States
In addition to the federal estate tax (which is fourth highest in the OECD), many U.S. states levy their own estate and inheritance taxes. While estate taxes are charged against the estate regardless of who inherits the assets, inheritance taxes are levied on the transfer of assets to heirs, based on the relationship of the inheritor to the deceased. In the case of inheritance taxes, spouses, children, or siblings often have different exemptions. 

Excerpt: $10 billion here, $10 billion there...soon you're talking big money! Good morning boys and girls. Here's your friendly personal tax expert urging you to go to your local post office and get yourself a 1040X and submit an amended tax return! I can guarantee your tax bill will be less...or your tax rebate check will be more! Here's how: The USA Today just reported this morning that the IRS has been awarding $5.6 billion in fraudulent tuition tax credits....to people who never set foot in a class room! It's seems the tax cheats, always ahead of our porn watching, conservative-persecuting IRS clerks have no way of knowing if you attended college and thus rightfully claim tuition tax credits! Haven't a clue! So file that 1040X and save big, people!


Kate Harding Is Voting with Her Vagina; She's An Idiot
Excerpt: An informed electorate is essential to a functioning republic. Once the scale is tipped by the uninformed or the deliberately destructive, we cease to be a republic, and we become an idiocracy. There have always been imbeciles who vote with their feelings rather than their intellects, but I’d like to zero in on one particular type of imbecile: One who votes based on gender and race.

Worth Reading: The Left's Inconsistent Stance on Provocative Art. By Jonah Goldberg 
Excerpt: Why aren’t liberals offering Pamela Geller a federal subsidy? Geller is the blogger-activist who organized the “Draw Muhammad” exhibition in Garland, Texas, which inspired some DIY jihadists to attack the event. The would-be terrorists chose poorly: They were cut down by Texas lawmen shortly after wounding a security guard. ... In 1986, the National Endowment of Arts paid about $20,000 for Andreas Serrano’s “Piss Christ.” Serrano peed in a glass, plunked a plastic icon of Jesus on the cross into it and then snapped a picture. I will say the lighting was lovely. But, as strange as it seemed to the “arts community,” some people were offended. In 1989, the Corcoran Gallery of Art agreed to host a Robert Mapplethorpe exhibit. Mapplethorpe’s work was edgy, particularly going by the attitudes at the time. There were the obligatory sexual bondage scenes, urine-drinking (artistic urine: is there anything it can’t do?) and, of course, his most famous work: a self-portrait showing a bullwhip going someplace the sun reportedly does not shine.

The Antidote To Soft. By Virginia Marshal
Excerpt: “We’ve become soft. Like Jell-O. You. Me. Everyone...Our edges have been beaten away by trophies handed out just for showing up; schools that no longer make kids memorize multiplication tables; doctors who pass out brain meds like Skittles; and therapists who indulge the public’s every impulse to whine and wallow in self-obsession. 

Paternity Test of Twins Reveals Shocker for Dad. By Liz Klimas
Excerpt: A New Jersey mother seeking child support for her twin girls took a man she thought to be the father to court. The proceedings in the paternity case though took an unusual twist when the mother revealed she had sex with another man during the time when the children were conceived. The end result wasn’t a straight forward paternity test determining one man as the father and the other not. The New Jersey Law Journal reported that Karl-Hans Wuzinger, a director at Laboratory Corp. of America, testified the man brought to court was almost certainly the father of one of the twins born in January 2013 but wasn’t the father of the other.

Important: May Day demonstrators clash with police in Pacific NW; other marches address police brutality
Excerpt: Demonstrators clashed with police in two cities in the Pacific Northwest late Friday after earlier May Day marches in support of more rights for workers and immigrants and an end to police brutality. In Seattle, police said black-clad marchers threw wrenches, sticks and rocks at officers in the city's Capitol Hill neighborhood Friday evening, injuring three officers, two of them seriously. Police responded with pepper spray and pepper balls and arrested a half dozen people. Several dozen vehicles were damaged, police said. (I hope I'm wrong, but I think this is only the mild start. Imagine if the government's credit collapses and the checks cannot go out. ~Bob

Russia's new Armata 'super tank' gets tow off Red Square after breaking down during parade rehearsal


Mitt Romney convenes 2016 contenders, donors for Utah retreat. By Robert Costa
Excerpt: Mitt Romney, who earlier this year decided against a third presidential bid after briefly flirting with a run, will jump back into the national political scene next month when he hosts GOP presidential hopefuls and some of the party’s biggest donors in Utah. Romney’s 2015 E2 Summit will take place June 11-13 in Deer Valley, a ski resort east of Salt Lake City, according to an invitation obtained Thursday by The Washington Post.

Why Fiorina connects. By Jennifer Rubin
Excerpt: If Carly Fiorina keeps sounding prepared, sensible and appropriately aggressive, she is going to get some votes, maybe a lot of votes. She is demonstrating that “outsider” is not synonymous with rash or ill-informed or inexperienced. And that should be a lesson for all conservative grassroots activists: Aim high. It is not a virtue to be unpolished, unrealistic or unknowledgeable.

VIDEO: Carly Fiorina doesn’t back down at all as Katie Couric tries to shame her for criticizing Hillary Clinton
Excerpt: I’m still all in for Ted Cruz, but I’m liking Carly Fiorina more and more. Katie Couric on the other hand is a blatant Hildebeast sycophant and Fiorina exposes her nicely. She doesn’t take any crap from the likes of Couric. Fiorina is right… titles mean nothing. What you have done and what you stand for are everything. I can’t believe that Couric has the nerve to question why anyone would think Hillary isn’t trustworthy…

Punk Pulls Knife in College Library After Being Told He’s Talking Too Loudly. Little Did He Know He Was Going Up Against an Experienced Soldier. By Dave Urbanski
Excerpt: But little did he know that Valle, 30, is also an Army soldier with 12 years of experience in the service and ROTC and has been trained to handle such situations. “He’s screaming out he’s going to kill us and slit people’s throats,” Valle told WOWT-TV. He said that once he “knew it was a threat and this person had crossed a line, it was time to do something about it.

Excerpt: AUTHOR’S NOTE: This article was written for the primarily civilian readership at American Thinker. Judging from their comments, the citizens of this nation are so distrusting of the Obama administration that they are willing to believe our military would turn its guns against them on Obama’s orders. That is very sad. I’ve been writing for American Thinker for more than a decade and never have I been so vilified as I was for this article. We live in interesting times. We’ve been getting concerned e-mails from friends in Texas as to whether or not the long-ago announced and now being staged large-scale military operation, called Jade Helm and taking place in several western states, is some sort of federal testing of the ability of the Obama government to seize control of our nation and use our military forces to disarm and subjugate our citizenry. The short answer is no, Operation Jade Helm is not some sort of scheme by Obama to seize control of those red states that reject his socialist views for the future of this nation.

That Figures: Big Three Devote 6 Times More Airtime To Alleged Police Misconduct Than ISIS. By Matt Vespa
Excerpt: In the aftermath of the Garland shootings in Texas, ISIS has come the United States. Blessedly, no one was killed, except for the two would-be attackers who sought to kill attendees of a Muhammad cartoon drawing contest hosted by Pamela Geller, blogger and President of the American Freedom Defense Initiative. Now, while the media frivolously tries to say how hate speech ? free speech–let’s not forget that it’s the police who you should be truly worried about, or at least; that’s what the newsrooms of the Big Three think. The Media Research Center analyzed media coverage for the entire month of April from the Big Three–ABC, NBC, and CBS–and found that these networks devoted 6x more coverage to alleged instances of police misconduct than the terror activities of ISIS.

Excerpt: Nary days after Beyonce was slammed by PETA for her ownership of PMK shoes crafted from four different animals, and a few weeks after she was criticized for her Superbowl bodysuit of iguana and python, her hubby is now taking heat for perhaps the most egregious of their fashion stunts at the expense of animals. Paparazzi photos show Jay-Z on many occasions proudly sporting PMK Brooklyn Zoo Air Jordans which are made from ten animal skins, including elephant. The bespoke sneakers, which run about $2,500 a pair, are aptly titled, as their materials listing reads like an exotic menagerie: Stingray, anaconda, ostrich, crocodile, calf, alligator, boa, python, lizard, and perhaps most maddening of all, elephant. (Note the red/black "code" or "mark." --Barb)

VA claims living veteran is dead, sends burial check, cuts benefits
Excerpt: A North Carolina veteran very much alive is fighting for his life following a clerical error that resulted in his family getting a document from the departments of Veterans Affairs and Defense stating he had died. The notices, along with the government's condolences, came with two checks to help pay for burial costs for Robert Pressley -- but because the system now says Pressley is deceased, his benefits reportedly have been terminated. Pressley, who supports a small family and is unable to work due to combat-related injuries, cannot afford to lose his benefits, he told WECT-TV.

I Support Free Speech, But... 

Rising Dragon News

Defense Department warns of China’s ‘extensive,’ expanding island-building
Excerpt: China's mysterious campaign to build artificial islands in disputed waters of the South China Sea has grown to cover roughly 2,000 acres, a senior defense official said Friday, as the Pentagon issued a report warning the sites could be used to bolster the country's military infrastructure. The assessments provide an unprecedented level of detail on what China is suspected of pursuing with its so-called "land reclamation" project, which the Defense Department now describes as "extensive." The U.S. military initially called out China for the project in March, explaining that the country was "pumping sand on to live coral reefs" and then paving over them with concrete. (The Chinese are leftists and the environmentalists are leftists, so China can do no wrong. ~Bob)

Gun News

Excerpt: Firefighters said Chad Barker pulled up to the crowded fire station parking lot full of children and firefighters, got out of his car, and began firing in the air and at his vehicle. They say he also pointed the firearm at individual firefighters for lengthy periods of time. "I came out of the office, saw the man with the gun, told everybody to leave out the back quickly that there was a man in the parking lot with a gun, and I was not kidding,” said Gary Knoll, a firefighter for New Holland. Knoll said he and another firefighter who have concealed weapons permits pulled their guns on the gunman

Race Card News


‘WHITE APPRECIATION DAY': Mexican Restaurant Owner in Colorado Gives White People Their Own Day of Discounts

Top Investigator for Team Mosby Demoted, Tased by Baltimore PD in 2009
Excerpt: A major conflict of interest has arisen in State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby’s already highly problematic investigation into the death of Freddie Gray. Avon Mackel, one of Team Mosby’s top investigators, reportedly has a checkered past as a former high-ranking officer with the Baltimore Police Department....A Baltimore Sun report said police in the district were accused of classifying serious crimes as lesser in order to log lower crime rates.


Dorian Johnson, key witness in Michael Brown case, arrested
Excerpt: Police have arrested Dorian Johnson, the man who was walking with Michael Brown when he was fatally shot by an officer in Ferguson, Missouri. Officers arrested Johnson on Wednesday after he allegedly interfered with an arrest, St. Louis County Police spokeswoman Leah K. Freeman said.

This is news? Vast Majority of Baltimore Teens Raised in Fatherless Homes. By Leah Barkoukis 
Excerpt: While there were certainly peaceful protesters in the wake of Freddie Gray’s death in police custody, the rioters who looted, burned, and generally wreaked havoc throughout Baltimore stole the limelight. And one couldn’t help but notice that the vast majority of individuals partaking in such behavior were young African-American men.

Undocumented Democrat News

Obama’s Latest Lie – Mexicans Vital In Winning WW2, Cinco De Mayo Is Our Way of Saying Gracias. By Rick Wells
Excerpt: While acknowledging that the United States has made Cinco de Mayo a celebration of our own, he completely fabricates the reasons behind it. Mexican food tastes great, as do margaritas. It is an opportunity for restaurants and bars to have big days and for Americans to partake. That’s all there is to it, but Obama had to assign a deeper meaning, whether it’s true or not makes no difference. He must have borrowed some of the UN writers for today’s whopper, a tale of a grassroots effort by grateful Americans for the assistance of Mexico in fighting World War 2, “when states and cities across the country sought to recognize Mexico and Mexican-Americans for their contributions to the war effort, recognition of Cinco de Mayo in the United States took off.”

"You're Greener than Gore" News

Worth Reading: Hollywood's Climate Hypocrites. By L. Brent Bozell and Tim Graham
Excerpt: Hollywood and global-warming panic have always been a natural match. After all, who can tell you better to cut back on your wasteful ways better than a high-flying multimillionaire movie star with the carbon footprint of a Tyrannosaurus rex? It’s never mattered that the stars have all the scientific expertise of Pee-wee Herman. They’re just so good-looking and famous, who cares? PBS broadcast a 10-hour series in 1990 entitled “Race to Save the Planet.” The show’s host was Meryl Streep, who proclaimed: “By the year 2000 … the Earth’s climate will be warmer than it’s been in over 100,000 years. If we don’t do something, there will be enormous calamities in a very short time.”

Religion of Peace News

Where is Nadir Soofi Buried?
Excerpt: The funeral for one of the two jihadis killed by police in Garland, Texas last Sunday – Nadir Soofi – was held at the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood’s Islamic Society of Greater Kansas City (ISGKC) this week. Soofi’s father has been a member at the ISGKC for over five years and was “very close” to his son. Similar to his accomplice Elton “Ibrahim” Simpson, whose ties to the MB’s Islamic Community Center of Phoenix were detailed in Wednesday’s Understanding the Threat (UTT) article, Soofi’s funeral in Kansas City raises questions because the ISGKC is ground zero for the Muslim Brotherhood in that part of the country.

The Terror Strategist: Secret Files Reveal the Structure of Islamic State
Excerpt: But when the architect of the Islamic State died, he left something behind that he had intended to keep strictly confidential: the blueprint for this state. It is a folder full of handwritten organizational charts, lists and schedules, which describe how a country can be gradually subjugated. .... They reveal a multilayered composition and directives for action, some already tested and others newly devised for the anarchical situation in Syria's rebel-held territories. In a sense, the documents are the source code of the most successful terrorist army in recent history.

Obama's partners in negotiation: Dr. Zarif or: How I learned to stop worrying and love the Iranian bomb. By Clifford D. May
Excerpt: Tehran’s largest cemetery, Behesht-e Zahra, contains the graves of thousands of Iranians killed in battle. There’s also a polished stone monument bearing this inscription: “To the memory of two Muslim Lebanese youths who on the morning of Sunday October 23, 1983, in two simultaneous martyrdom operations, with trucks carrying explosives, attacked the headquarters of American occupiers (in South Beirut) and headquarters of French occupiers (in West Beirut) killing 241 American marines and 48 French paratroopers. Their names we do not know, but we will continue their path.”

Military posts put on elevated alert level amid recent ISIS warnings
Excerpt: The U.S. military has raised its alert level for bases in North America to its highest since the 10th anniversary of 9/11 in the face of mounting threats from Islamic State sympathizers on American soil. The move, which officials said is not based on a specific threat, was “informed by recent events,” a spokesman for U.S. Northern Command told Fox News. The level, known as "Bravo," is the third of five levels of alert and means increased security at military posts across the country. (If ISIS attacks a base, I assume liberals will say the military provoked it by being armed and having fought the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. ~Bob)

FBI sent alert about gunman before Texas shooting
Excerpt: The FBI had warned Texas officials several hours before a provocative Prophet Muhammad cartoon contest that a suspected extremist could show up at the event. But FBI Director James Comey said on Thursday the agency had no indication that the attack on Sunday was planned.

*****
Robert A. Hall is a Marine Vietnam Veteran who served five terms in the Massachusetts State Senate. He is the author of The Coming Collapse of the American Republic. http://www.amazon.com/Coming-Collapse-American-Republic-prevent/dp/1461122538/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1304815980&sr=1-5 For a free PDF of Collapse, e-mail him at tartanmarine(at)gmail.com. Hall’s eleven books are listed here:

No comments:

Post a Comment