Trump Isn’t Repeating Obama’s Middle East Mistakes

Jonathan S. Tobin

Contrary to mainstream-media reports, the new president is already taking a tougher stance on Iran and a friendlier stance toward Israel than his predecessor.

"By the end of his second week in office, President Donald Trump has discovered it is actually possible for him to do something that garners applause from the mainstream media. Though Democrats seem more interested in futile gestures of “resistance” to his government than in normal opposition, all Trump had to do to gain a modicum of respect from the New York Times and other denizens of the liberal echo chamber was to preserve rather than reject the policies of his predecessor. Or at least that was how the Times and the talking heads on CNN and MSNBC perceived the new administration’s statements about Israel, Iran, and Russia this week. In reality, the claim that, as the front-page headline in Friday’s Times put it, “Trump Reverts to Pillars of Obama Foreign Policy,” is actually dead wrong when applied to the Middle East." . . .

Iran holds military exercises in response to U.S. sanctions

WaPo  "Iran on Saturday began massive military exercises in a defiant response to a week of warnings from the Trump administration, including new sanctions, with a senior Iranian military commander calling the actions “futile” and threatening to “rain” missiles down on the country’s enemies. 

"The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iran’s most influential security institution, said it would test missile and radar systems as part of the drill, according to the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency. And a statement on the IRGC website said that the aim of the exercise was “to showcase the power of Iran’s revolution and to dismiss the sanctions,” Reuters reported. 

“ 'Should the enemy make a mistake, our roaring missiles will rain down on them,” IRGC Air Force commander, Gen. Amir Ali Hazjizadeh, told the semi-official Tasnim news agency." . . .

Iraq archbishop: Where were all those protesters while ISIS committed genocides?

Hot Air  "We’ve heard plenty of horror stories over the past few days about Donald Trump’s executive order pausing entries into the US for nationals of seven high-risk nations, many of which could have been avoided with a little more planning and coordination within the administration. What do others living in these countries think about Trump and his new policy, especially those who have been the targets of terrorism and genocide? Catholic Archbishop Bashar Warda of Irbil tells Crux that Iraqi refugees see it a lot differently than we do — and wonder where the protesters were in 2014:"

. . . From my perspective in Iraq, I wonder why all of these protesters were not protesting in the streets when ISIS came to kill Christians and Yazidis and other minority groups. They were not protesting when the tens of thousands of displaced Christians my archdiocese has cared for since 2014 received no financial assistance from the U.S. government or the U.N. There were no protests when Syrian Christians were only let in at a rate that was 20 times less than the percentage of their population in Syria.

I do not understand why some Americans are now upset that the many minority communities that faced a horrible genocide will finally get a degree of priority in some manner.

"That last part is aimed at Americans objecting to Trump’s plan to prioritize minority communities for expedited clearance — primarily Christians, but also Yazidis:" . . .

Conway: Media inciting mob violence

Rick Moran  "Somebody prominent on the left must call out the media and the "activists" who are getting close to actually inciting violence against President Trump and Republicans.

"Trump aide Kellyanne Conway told Sean Hannity yesterday that this "lack of respect" was inciting the mob in the street to commit violent acts, despite not even knowing what they were demonstrating against."

. . . 

Here's the sitting senator from Virginia, Tim Kaine, encouraging street protests against Trump:

Then, people coming out in protest of these orders. So, the way we get outside the bubble is we take advantage of this tremendous public outcry against the administration. What we've got to do is fight in Congress, fight in the courts, fight in the streets, fight online, fight at the ballot box, and now there's the momentum to be able to do this. And we're not afraid of the popular outcry, we're energized by it and that's going to help us do our job and do it better.

 Robert Reich's ridiculous rumor quote to a docile Don Lemon
You do remember CNN's Don Lemon and the "black hole" don't you?
. . . "Find me thousands of young, angry, black-clad violent conservatives in the Bay Area, and I'll eat my pussy hat from the Women's March we also orchestrated."

Berkeley riot: this is so 1930s again!

J'accuse!

Now we’re learning that this group of domestic terrorists was funded and bussed in by Communist and Hillary backer George Soros.

Look Who Funds The Group Behind The Call To Arms At Milo’s Berkeley Event  "The left-wing group that helped organize the violent shut down of the Milo Yiannopoulos event at the University of California, Berkeley on Wednesday is backed by a progressive charity that is in turn funded by George Soros, the city of Tucson, a major labor union and several large companies."

Andrew J. McCarthy: Prosecute the Rioters

. . . "it is standard operating procedure among the most influential, most allegedly mainstream Democratic politicians to rationalize rioting as mere “protest.” In their alternative reality, violence in the name of sedition is “free speech” — a passionate expression of political dissent — while the actual political speech they so savagely suppress is the atrocity."

"There is no mystery about how we got to this dark place. Violent rampaging was the coming-of-age rite of the New Left. That would be the Sixties Left that eventually won the battle for control of the Democratic party and, in its extremism, has estranged that party from its traditional working-class base, and thus from much of the country. " . . .

The rioters found fertile rioting soil in California:  California Politicians Ignore Berkeley Riot Violence In Tweets; Blast Trump Instead

. . . "Most of the California electorate was silent on the matter, including Republicans. Gov. Jerry Brown, state Attorney General Xavier Becerra and U.S. Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris. Feinstein did have time to tweet kudos to the Affordable Care Act and Harris tweeted support for refugees entering the U.S."

Legal Insurrection found nothing from "national leader" Kamala Harris  . . . "After this massive disturbance, I was curious what our leading California politicians would have to say in regard to the rioting. While Senator Kamala Harris loved being part of the #WomensMarch, there was no statement on her thoughts about conservatives being denied their free speech rights. I couldn’t locate formal statements from Governor Jerry Brown or Senator Dianne Feinstein decrying the violence, either." . . .
Bear in mind, Harris supports radical causes including cop-killing Black Lives Matter

Hollywood Director Tweets Threat To Trump Supporters After Berkeley Riot

 This is not the first time this week a prominent Hollywood figure has championed violence against political opponents.

Notice the Soviet flag:

Most ironic sign: "freedom of speech"!

Berkeley riots, in photos, from Zombietime  . . . "Such images, taken without the filter of a toadying media, serve as a historic record to show the left as it really is.  They also illustrate Glenn Reynolds's arch-analysis – to wit: want More Trump?  This is how you get More Trump."

A Love of Hate: The Addiction of the New American Left
"Leftists are outraged all the time because they love being outraged."