Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Important and Interesting Political New and Opinion

Biden announces he will not run for president in 2016

New York City police officer dies after being shot in East Harlem
Black cop. #BlackLivesMatter protests coming? Probably not. ~Bob

Proof that Donald Trump is your drunk neighbor

Quote from Jon Stewart
The Oscars is really I guess the one night of the year when you can see all your favorite stars without having to donate any money to the Democratic Party.

Important: Canada election: networks call victory for Liberals and Trudeau. By Robert Spencer, JihadWatch.org
Excerpt: That’s it for freedom, worldwide. Justin Trudeau is a wholly owned and operated subsidiary of Islamic supremacists. Harper’s Canada was the last outpost, the last place where government was reasonably sane regarding the jihad threat. Now it is up to individuals to stand, no matter how much it costs them, against the forces of oppression and authoritarianism that will become increasingly aggressive, and soon. Many who were thought to be true have already been proven false, and this will continue: these are and will increasingly be the times that try men’s souls. The cowardice of many will be exposed, and it will surprise those who thought they were standing tall. But the human spirit, the spirit of freedom, will never be wholly extinguished — despite the best efforts of the forces of authoritarianism and oppression.

Justin Trudeau elected as Canada’s next prime minister
Excerpt:  Canadians voted for a sharp change in their government Monday, resoundingly ending Conservative Stephen Harper’s attempt to shift the nation to the right and returning a legendary name for liberals, Trudeau, to the prime minister’s office.

Canada to withdraw fighter jets from Syria and Iraq strikes

Webb drops Democratic presidential bid, weighs possible independent run
The other conclusion from last week was that Jim Webb didn’t belong in the Democratic party of 2015. ...  To paraphrase another old-fashioned New Democrat, I feel his pain. Still, how can Webb seem so surprised by this turn of events? Is he just now recognizing that the Democratic party is functionally pacifist and isolationist? Is he just now realizing that when he discussed the potential threats from China, Democratic audiences check their watch and tune out? Is he just noticing that Democrats will never get past racial grievances, never take much interest in rural America or poor whites, and that the party’s elites are intractably opposed to gun ownership? Did he somehow miss the rise of Elizabeth Warren, “you didn’t build that,” Thomas Piketty, and the torrent of economic envy flowing through the party? --Jim Geraghty, Morning Jolt.

Jim Webb Considering Independent Run for Presidency, Campaign Says

WaPo Fact Checker: Donald Trump’s baseless claim that the Bush White House tried to ‘silence’ his Iraq War opposition in 2003
Excerpt: We previously awarded Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) Four Pinocchios for making an incendiary claim about Mitt Romney’s taxes without any evidence to back it up. We hold Trump to the same standard. The burden of proof is on Trump, and he has not followed through. He earns Four Pinocchios.

Interesting: Democrats are in denial. Their party is actually in deep trouble. By Matt Yglesias, Vox.
Excerpt: The presidency is extremely important, of course. But there are also thousands of critically important offices all the way down the ballot. And the vast majority — 70 percent of state legislatures, more than 60 percent of governors, 55 percent of attorneys general and secretaries of state — are in Republicans hands. And, of course, Republicans control both chambers of Congress. Indeed, even the House infighting reflects, in some ways, the health of the GOP coalition. Republicans are confident they won’t lose power in the House and are hungry for a vigorous argument about how best to use the power they have. Not only have Republicans won most elections, but they have a perfectly reasonable plan for trying to recapture the White House. But Democrats have nothing at all in the works to redress their crippling weakness down the ballot. (It’s easy to suspect that Democrats think more about the presidency because (1) it’s simpler than keeping track of oodles and oodles of legislative races and (2) during the Obama era, they’ve fallen in love with the idea of the all-powerful executive branch, to the point where Democratic members of Congress are writing up legislation in the form of executive orders to work around the GOP majorities. If the president can use executive orders to unilaterally rewrite immigration, Iran sanctions, the wage, and possibly tax law and gun laws, why worry about state legislatures or Congress? --Jim Geraghty, Morning Jolt.)

Of course: Senate Dems block anti-sanctuary city bill
So a Kentucky town clerk should go to jail for not upholding marriage law as determined by the Supreme Court, but Democrat officials of hundreds of "sanctuary city" for illegals should be protected for not upholding federal immigration law. ~Bob

Worth Reading: Why Socialists Shouldn’t Cite Sweden as Success. By Rich Lowry
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/425800/bernie-sanders-socialist-success-sweden
Excerpt: There are a couple of things wrong with the Left’s romance with these countries, as Swedish analyst Nima Sanandaji notes in a recent monograph. It doesn’t fully appreciate the sources of Nordic success, or how Scandinavia has turned away from the socialism so alluring to its international admirers. 

Excerpt: Since at least 1950, all but two public mass shootings in America have taken place where general citizens are banned from carrying guns. In Europe, there have been no exceptions. Every mass public shooting — and there have been plenty of mass shooting in Europe — has occurred in a gun-free zone. In addition, they have had three of the six worst K–12 school shootings, and Europe experienced by far the worst mass public shooting perpetrated by a single individual (Norway in 2011, which from the shooting alone left 67 people dead and 110 wounded). Mass killers have even explicitly talked about their desire to attack gun-free zones. The Charleston, S.C., church shooting in June was instead almost a college shooting. But that killer changed his plans after realizing that the College of Charleston had armed guards.

COMPARING DEATH RATES FROM MASS PUBLIC SHOOTINGS AND MASS PUBLIC VIOLENCE IN THE US AND EUROPE
Mr. Obama has made a bunch of statements about gun violence and how we need more laws in the USA to curb our horrible record of mass killings by gun.  He delivers these statements with the calm aplomb of an expert, but in fact he is very far from expert when it comes to guns and laws and mass killings in the world over. This is an outstanding, detailed article about the real facts, and attached is a study done at Harvard about guns and violence.  Both of them come out with tons of hard facts that lead to quite different conclusions than the anti-gun people love to jump to.  Please feel free to circulate. --Del

By who? The government? ~Bob

Transgender Student “Diversity Officer” Now Loses Job for Being A White Male…
http://louderwithcrowder.com/transgender-student-diversity-officer-now-loses-job-for-now-being-a-white-male/#ixzz3p3qCoaIp

Now we know why they love us so...~Bob

Australia’s 1996 Gun Confiscation Didn’t Work – And it Wouldn’t Work in America
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/425021/australia-gun-control-obama-america

The Working Rich: The wealthiest Americans work for their money, and the poor could learn from them. By Kevin D. Williamson
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/368869/working-rich-kevin-d-williamson

Ambassador sought security staffing before Benghazi attack, cable shows
He was not supposed to be protected.  He was supposed to be kidnapped and exchanged for Blind Sheik; Muslim Brotherhood had been demanding BS release weeks before in lunch at WH with POTUS.  But the Islamists found out he was gay.....Barb

Worth Watching: Can We Rely on Wind and Solar Energy?

The Freedom Caucus Is a Rebellion That Could Change the GOP’s Future
A NC Representative, Mark Meadows, is a founding member of the Freedom Caucus.  He voted months ago against Boehner, and was punished for it by losing position on a committee, the normal revenge a Party leader takes on any mavericks.  Meadows and the other who are called Tea Party electees get slandered by the media and others as being the "Far Right" extremists who mess things up.  This is stupid politics, by and large the Tea Party electees want conservative principles stated, supported, and fought for as needed.  Being seriously about being conservative is not at all the same as being some kind of extremist, and acknowledging that at times you must be ready to go into conflict for your cause, win or lose, is just good sense. The GOP leadership needs to back off their continual backing off when it comes to bills and programs that the bulk of Americans don't like, don't approve of, that are being rammed through by Obama and the Democrats.  The American people need to see the GOP stand up strong for at least something once in a while!  Border security is an example, and really going after the IRS and EPA when they defy Congress and do whatever the Administration likes is another.  A real fight about the Iran Deal with very public discussion of what's wrong with it might be another good idea.  Going after the whole Sanctuary City nonsense and defiance of the law could be another.  There are plenty of things to go to bat for, they need to pick at least a couple and then really prepare for the fight, and finally go in with guns blazing for it.  Win or lose, at least the people will know what they stand for and that it was a good thing to vote them in. --Del

CIA boss John Brennan's personal email 'hacked'
Excerpt: He was described by the New York Post newspaper as "a stoner high-school student" who was angry about US foreign policy. (But Hillary's home server was secure...~Bob)

Behind Sweden’s warm welcome for refugees, a backlash is brewing

Sears stops selling “Infidel” hats after Muslim complaints

TROUTITUDE. By Col. Andy Weddington, USMC, (Ret)

‘BLACK LIVES MATTER’ FORCES L.A. MAYOR GARCETTI TO FLEE TOWN HALL
The Democrats unleashed the forces of anarchy and they are turning on them. Too bad they were ignorant of history. ~Bob

Inquisition?
Excerpt: CFACT senior policy advisor Paul Driessen reports at CFACT.org that Senator Elizabeth Warren drove liberal economist Robert Litan out of his "position as a scholar with the liberal Brookings Institution, for having the temerity to criticize financial rules she was championing," while Senator Sheldon Whitehouse wants to use the RICO law to prosecute those who disagree about climate as organized criminals! (Can't fix stupid! --JB. And if conservatives capture the congress and White House and used RICO against liberals for disagreeing with them? ~Bob)

Correcting Political Correctness: '72 fallen cop gets his 'way'
Excerpt: NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton issued a mea culpa for the city Monday during an emotional street-renaming ceremony for slain Patrolman Phillip Cardillo in Queens. Standing before hundreds of police cadets and Cardillo’s weeping son, Bratton apologized for the way then-Mayor John Lindsay and Police Commissioner Patrick Murphy botched the handling of the investigation into Cardillo’s murder by Nation of Islam radicals at a Harlem mosque in 1972.

Excerpt: Still, in an interview on French TV, Will Smith said he strongly supported income redistribution. “I have no issue with paying taxes and whatever needs to be done for my country to grow,” he said. “ I’m a black man who didn’t go to college, yet I get to travel around the world and sell my movies, and I believe very firmly that America is the only place on earth that I could exist. So I will pay anything that I need to pay to keep my country growing.” Then he was told that France’s top tax rate was, at the time, 75%. His response: “Seventy-five! That’s different. Well, God bless America.” (It’s beautiful when a casual liberal experiences a head-on collision with reality. -Jim Geraghty, Morning Jolt.)

Important: New research shows raising the top income tax rate won’t reduce inequality. By Alison Burke, at the liberal Brookings Institute
Excerpt: What they discovered was that increasing the top marginal tax rates for those in the 95thpercentile and up had a “trivial effect on overall income inequality,” only lowering the Gini coefficient modestly. ... So raising taxes for top earners didn’t move the needle on inequality, but what if these new taxes were redistributed equally to the bottom 20 percent of all American households? According to their model, that, too, had surprisingly little impact on improving inequality — though it would appreciably increase the incomes of those at the lower end: Re-distributing revenue from the 50 percent tax rate would result in $1,760 in additional post-tax income for households in the lowest quintile of earners. (For the op-ed Robin Hoods, that’s kind of like your own Little League coach telling you you’ll never make it to the pros. Peter Orszag, President Obama’s former Office of Management and Budget chief, was one of the study’s authors. Oof. --Kyle Smith)

WHITE HOUSE TURNS TO THREATS AS OBAMACARE ENROLLMENTS STALL

I Feel Sorry For Real Men In The Millennial Generation
Interesting commentary on where society has been drifting the last 20+ years.  Yes, it's time for the total chauvinist to pack up and go away, but there's nothing wrong at all with being a man of strength, who takes responsibilities seriously, and doesn't apologize for being who he is.  It's quite possible to do that and treat women decently, and take part in relationships that have some balance in them.  Society doesn't need every man to be some kind of sensitive soul with a delicate self image, nor will every woman be happy with such. So let's not give up on John Wayne and others like his characters who were strong, decent men, apologetic about damn near nothing. --Del. I have read that 97% of the workplace fatalities are men, that men work longer hours than women on average, and that women live seven years longer than men on average. When will the gender inequality end? We need a national campaign. Oh, and women get to have multiple organisms as well! #MaleLivesMatter ~Bob

Worth Reading: Syrian Refugees, How Lucky They Aren’t Jews. Bu Jack Engelhard 
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/17523
Excerpt: During WWII, the Times put the Holocaust atrocities on page 36. The Syrians are on page one. Somehow, the Jewish refugees always had the wrong papers and were always standing in the wrong line. The refugee tsunami coming out of Syria may well be genuine. But here’s something to ponder. “We are deliberately ignoring the issue as a strategic maneuver. If these refugees go and settle in the West then they will take with them the beacon of light that is Islam,” an official from the Saudi government said. So whatever the result, by accident or by design, the West, beginning with Europe, is being gifted by “the beacon of light that is Islam. (How bitterly ironic. In the 1930s virtually all Jews in Germany wanted nothing more than to be accepted as full German citizens. I can say for sure, that many German Jews who survived WWII still identified as Germans. Now the Germans are accepting swarms of Muslims whose desire to become German is suspect, to say the least. German culture, under the onslaught of demographics and the feeble multiculturalism they espouse, will be adulterated in a way that its Jews would never have countenanced. Is this the sorry revenge of history? Cordially, Larry Greenberg)

STATE DEPARTMENT SUDDENLY DISCOVERS 1,300 PAGES OF AMB. STEVENS’ EMAIL


The Insiders: The Obamacare calamity can’t be swept under the rug
Excerpt: While most of the media have tuned out and the chattering class has mostly moved on, a recent article by Megan McArdle in Bloomberg View, “Obamacare delivers. Just not very much,” reminded me that the calamity that is Obamacare can’t be swept under the rug. It is clear nothing will keep President Obama from declaring victory on every front, but the fact is, Obamacare is a bust. As a result, the next president will be confronted with the reality that at the end of the day, all Obamacare amounts to is a convoluted expansion of Medicaid that we can’t afford.

Kenyan President on Obama’s Push for Gay Rights: Africans ‘Have More Pressing Issues’
Kenyan President lectures POTUS on the right of the people to choose the type of society in which they live, versus having an agenda crammed down their throats. --Barb

Kerry Urges Israelis to ‘Restrain from Any Kind of Self-Help’
Let US allies lend a hand to direct you...just watch for the knife in the back. --Barb

Kerry: Climate Change Greater, Easier to Solve Than ‘Mind-Bending False Assumptions About Islam’

Emails Show White House Pressured Health Agencies To Highlight ‘Tenuous’ Childhood Obesity Research

NEW BOOK EXPOSES OBAMA, CLINTON’S ROLE IN LIBYAN DISASTER
Excerpt: A new book by former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Pete Hoekstra exposes how an inexperienced president and politicized State Department turned relative stability in Libya into unmitigated chaos. Titled “Architects of Disaster: The Destruction of Libya,” Hoekstra documents how the Obama administration and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton upon taking office in 2009 reversed decades of bipartisan and successful U.S. foreign policy. They embraced and legitimized “moderate” Islamists such as the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and the mullahs in Iran with no preconditions.

Worth Reading: Commitment Issues. The War-Light approach to fighting terrorism continues to keep victory beyond America’s grasp. By Ethan Rocke
Excerpt: When Afghanistan became the first U.S. target in the war on terror in the fall of 2001, there wasn’t much of a war plan. With winter approaching and Afghanistan’s well-known history as “the graveyard of empires,” President George W. Bush was averse to committing large numbers of ground troops. He opted instead for a strategy that minimized the number of U.S. troops deployed, relying primarily on the CIA and small teams of U.S. Special Forces who advised and funded anti-Taliban militias such as the Northern Alliance.  “The view prevailing among senior American military leaders was that overwhelming air power, suitcases full of cash and surrogate militias could win the war,” wrote Mary Anne Weaver in The New York Times Magazine in 2005.

Quiz on Canada
I was 17/20. ~Bob

White People’s Fruit Isn’t Good Enough Anymore
Excerpt: This month the USDA announced that it is investing $16.8 million to help food-stamp recipients increase their purchase of fruits and vegetables. In this particular allocation the agency is emphasizing the importance of providing “culturally-appropriate fruits and vegetables for a target group of consumers.”  ... It doesn’t matter to the administration that this pricey government initiative to change the nutritional habits of poor minorities is failing miserably. In fact, an academic study published last year found that it’s a huge waste of taxpayer dollars. The probe focused on Philadelphia, an area that’s received a large chunk of cash to eradicate “food deserts.” Besides getting money from the First Lady’s measure, the area has also received generous grants from a $15 billion fund tied to the president’s disastrous healthcare law as well as stimulus money to combat obesity.

Excerpt: Even now — as we live in the free state of Tennessee — when friends come over and ask where we put our recycling, we just say “In the trash” and revel just a tiny bit in our ancient rebellion. But now — thanks to the New York Times, of all publications — I feel vindicated. This month, John Tierney revisited his 1996 critique of recycling, and what he found was fascinating indeed (h/t AEI’s Mark J. Perry):

Hillary Admits It, Finally. By Jonah Goldberg
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/425777/hillary-admits-it-finally-jonah-goldberg
Excerpt: A few of us grind our teeth every time Hillary Clinton says “it was allowed” in reference to her stealth server. And since she’s been saying it so much, I’ve ground my teeth down to nubs. For instance, a few weeks ago, I wrote in the G-File: “She constantly says her system was allowed but never says who allowed it . . . because the person who allowed it was Hillary Clinton. She might as well have hung a banner over her desk that read, ‘Le département d’État, c’est moi!’”

Worth Reading: Why Do American-Trained Militaries Fail? By David French
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/425831/why-do-american-trained-militaries-fail-david-french
Excerpt: You simply can’t take masses of poorly-educated troops, hand them over to incompetent, corrupt commanders (the corruption has to be seen to be believed), and expect even years of engagement with small groups of American trainers to make a meaningful cultural difference. While local army units can fight reasonably well supported by American air power with American troops either embedded in their units or close by to render immediate support, the instant you remove the American or allied presence all but the most “elite” local units have a disturbing tendency to drop their weapons and run in the face of a determined attack. We’ve had success working with Kurds, but that merely reaffirms the importance of ethnic/tribal affiliation in creating an effective fighting force. (An important question, one that really needs to be answered and then acted upon to do things much, much better.  Or don't go there at all, since you'll spend blood and billions for nothing. --Del)

Worth Reading: Obama: Nihilist or Just Incompetent? Who knows; the only mystery left is how much damage will the last gasp of 2016 bring? By Victor Davis Hanson  
Three things so far have saved Obama’s otherwise unfortunate tenure; all came over his own objections. One, after the 2010 midterm tsunami, the newly elected House Republicans put a lid on spending — ratified by the wins of 2014. Sequestration is a crude blunderbuss and slashed defense, but it at least slowed down Obama’s disastrous serial $1 trillion-plus budget deficits. In spending terms, it certainly has vastly reduced the government’s share of GDP. We know that because Obama occasionally brags of falling deficits, as if to say, “Thank you for not letting me be entirely myself.” When he leaves office, we will have $20 trillion in debt and nearly 100 million permanently out of the work force, as well as uncontrolled and unaddressed entitlement spending on life support through zero-interest rates. But we will still be alive for now, thanks to sequestration. Shutting down the government may have been politically unwise (or not —given the 2014 midterm elections), but it kept the debt financeable. (This is not the first time that Hanson has teed off on the Obama reign, but this time he really covers so much of what we've seen and are suffering through that it's a worthwhile read.  The only thing he didn't mention I can think of, at least not directly, is what the push for CO2 "control" is costing us now and will cost us in the future.  But he does mention the EPA as out of control, so maybe that covers it. And he's right, the only thing left to worry about, and perhaps worry a lot, is what else he's going to drop on the nation in the next 14th months.  That's a very long time for a man who's decided to use his phone and pen to do whatever the hell he feels like, and clearly cares nothing at all for the horrific mess that he's made of foreign policy and the future terrible threats to this country from Iran and others.  We can only pray the damage isn't all irreversible, and the next President and Congress get their act together in turning things around. --Del)

Worth Reading: The Politics of Distrust. What explains the weird unpredictability of the 2016 presidential race? An anemic economy that has Americans questioning incumbents, doubting experts and worrying about their own prospects. By Jay Cost
Excerpt: We live in extraordinary and distressing political times. The elected branches of the U.S. government seem paralyzed, incapable of governing except to avert crises. The president accuses his opponents in Congress of virulent opposition to even the most common-sense measures, while they accuse him of trampling the Constitution. Voters outside the Beltway are totally dispirited, and insofar as they are engaged in the political process, they are increasingly drawn to flamboyant populists of the left and the right, who make wild promises that cannot possibly be fulfilled.

Interesting: The Decline and Fall of Congress. The GOP Freedom Caucus is part of the atomized politics that has eroded most U.S. institutions. By CHRISTOPHER DEMUTH
Excerpt: The key is to recognize that the members of the Freedom Caucus are not stupid or deranged; they are smart and calculating. They do not actually imagine that closing down the government over the debt ceiling or Planned Parenthood or the particulars of another continuing resolution will extract policy concessions from President Obama. Instead they are avid for Promethean drama and opportunities for personal display—even if, or especially if, they are crushed in the process and the Washington establishment emerges stronger than ever. ... But for most, the spectacle of unbending opposition is not a means. It is an end in itself.

Parent Rebellion Brewing In Tennessee Over Islam-Centric Educational Standards
The involvement of Pearson Education is particularly controversial since its parent corporation, London based Pearson PLC, is partially owned by the Libyan Investment Authority. With 3 percent of Pearson’s outstanding stock, the Libyan Investment Authority is one of its largest shareholders.  The Washington Times recently  reported there is a financial connection between the Libyan Investment Authority and the Council on American-Islamic Relations: According to the Financial Times, the Libyan Investment Authority was founded by Muammar Gaddafi’s son, Seif al-Islam; more than five Gaddafi family members own shares. The Council on Islamic Relations (CAIR, a recently designated terrorist organization by the United Arab Emirates), TurkeySaudi Arabia, and the Muslim Brotherhood invested in Pearson Education through the Libyan Investment Authority. (They have to be carefully taught. --Barb)

WaPo Op-Ed: Gun Control Will Pass When Whites Become A Minority.
They left out Bible totin'. --Barb

NASA Supervisors Charged in Chinese Spy Case
Excerpt: Two NASA supervisors were criminally indicted Tuesday under U.S. espionage laws for “willfully violating” national security regulations while allowing a visiting Chinese foreign national to gain “complete and unrestricted access” to the space agency’s Langley Research Center, according to the U.S. Attorneys office for the Eastern District of Virginia. The indictments of NASA Langley supervisors Glenn A. Woodell and Daniel J. Jobson cap a federal investigation into the two supervisor’s decision to permit Bo Jiang unrestricted access for two years at Langley. Bo Jiang was deported back to China in 2013.

Important: In rare foreign trip, Assad flies to Moscow to meet with Putin
So much for Obama's red lines and Hillary's reset button. ~Bob

Excerpt: I came across two news items this morning I thought were interesting.  The first was an alert to spanking new Social Security/Medicare enrollees; seems that some convoluted policy in the Obamacare plan entails a 52% hike in Medicare premiums for new enrollees.  That impressive "premium gouging" ought to really make a few million enrollees happy, huh? The other news flash was even worse.  Obama has upped his game by instituting a new policy that rewards doctors for holding off on expensive medical tests for seniors on Medicare.  I find that quite ironic; Obama and his "Dim"-ocratic minions seem not to believe in capital free markets until it benefits them!  In this case Obama will pump more money into the doctor's wallet if he decides Granny's gonna die soon anyway, from something....so let's save that government money and fund a few hundred health clinics to treat illegal Mexicans...potential Obama supporters.  Got to keep those illegals healthy so that when they're granted amnesty and citizenship, they'll know who to vote for!

Clock boy Ahmed Mohamed meets Obama, decides to move to Qatar

Sweden: Protesters in Malmo chant ‘slaughter the Jews’

CHINA HACKS AMERICANS’ COMPANIES ONE DAY AFTER OBAMA DECLARES NO-HACKING DEAL
Iran, Putin and ISIS aren't the only ones who have Obama's number. ~Bob













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