We're not laughing at Rachael Maddow; we're laughing WITH her.

The real world of Obamacare repeal

Charles Krauthammer  "The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away, but for governments it’s not that easy. Once something is given — say, health insurance coverage to 20 million Americans — you take it away at your peril. This is true for any government benefit, but especially for health care. There’s a reason not one Western democracy with some system of national health care has ever abolished it.

"The genius of the left is to keep enlarging the entitlement state by creating new giveaways that are politically impossible to repeal. For 20 years, Republicans railed against the New Deal. Yet, when they came back into office in 1953, Eisenhower didn’t just keep Social Security, he expanded it.

"People hated Obamacare for its highhandedness, incompetence and cost. At the same time, its crafters took great care to create new beneficiaries and new expectations. Which makes repeal very complicated." . . .

Obama's legacy

The mentee of America-hating Bill Ayers and the white-america-hating Jeremiah Wright left behind all we who voted against Barack Obama expected. TD

What the Obama era's memorial to veterans looks like  . . . "Rosebrock is set to stand trial with his co-defendant: the American flag.  Obama's VA took a swing at this veteran for displaying national flag, and as a result, Old Glory will have to prove it is not "a placard."

"So after decades of unmasking corruption and cronyism, Captain Rosebrock has "finally" committed a "crime" so serious that he is threatened with six months in jail?  Betcha local swamp dwellers would prefer to commemorate Bob with a golden statue, too, to dealing with him alive and kicking. 

"What is the final message of Obama's VA to American veterans about this flag trial?  "You will be jailed if you love your Old Placard"?" . . .

conservatoons

U.S. airlines flee Castro's island hellhole  . . ."Doing business in Cuba is so dodgy and money-losing that just doing it now involves reputational risk, according to Control Risks consultancy.

"No wonder airlines don't want to be there – the U-turn they are making is rather visible.  And they are not alone.  According to the FT:

... about 60 per cent of the businesses established here by foreigners since the fall of communism in eastern Europe have closed, according to government statistics. Some of them – analysts and diplomats say – were forced out by the Cuban government.

"What a dump. Best thing out there is to just say no to the hellhole so touted by President Obama."

whatdidyousay.org

President Trump should abandon his predecessor’s feckless policy toward the Castro regime  . . . "It is precisely a continuation of Obama’s feckless Cuba policy that would help lock the Cuban people into a North Korean–style dynasty. President Trump would do well to explore a different path, a more principled stand, on behalf of democracy and human rights, that would empower the Cuban people and give them more opportunities than merely the opportunity to persevere."

Russian Cartoons On Obama’s Legacy  The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) published Russian Cartoons addressing President Obama’s legacy.  

"The following are cartoons published in pro-Kremlin media outlets on U.S. President Barack Obama’s legacy and future after the U.S. elections. The cartoons envision Obama inter alia working as a waiter at McDonald’s and as a pizza delivery, once his term of office as U.S. president expires."

. . . "Caption: What will Obama work at after he retires from office?"

Choice No. 1: A waiter at McDonald’sChoice No.2: A gangster Choice No.3: A poker playerChoice No.4: A farmer

Suppose the Russians know who Joe Wilson is? 

Much more here.

Parts of Los Angeles ethnically cleansed of white people have a new look

Ed Straker

"The heavily Hispanic neighborhood of Boyle Heights in Los Angeles declared victory recently when they managed to drive a "white" art gallery from the neighborhood.  Community groups have been battling to drive out art galleries out of fear of "gentrification," the code word for white people. 

Almost from the moment it opened its doors last year Pssst, a nonprofit gallery, and its creators, have been the focus of protests and criticism on social media.

Last month, they announced they could no longer tolerate it. They were closing up shop.

"This persistent targeting, which was often highly personal in nature, was made all the more intolerable because the artists we engaged are queer, women, and/or people of color," they said on their website. "We could no longer continue to put already vulnerable communities at further risk."

Defend Boyle Heights, one of the activist groups that has called for a boycott of the galleries, said that it considered the closing a victory and that it hoped other galleries would soon follow suit." 

 . . . "Questions for discussion:

1) Having driven out the art gallery, do you think Latinos will come to regret losing a convenient source of "queer art"?

2) Can a "queer art" gallery coexist with check-cashing places and taco trucks?

3) How come businesses in English-speaking neighborhoods don't have bars on their windows?  Is this a cultural thing?

4) Do you think residents of Boyle Heights were right to be alarmed about what an influx of white people might do to their beautiful neighborhood?

Rachel Maddow Blames Her Viewers For Her Tax Reveal Dud

Van Jones: Tax Return Leak a ‘Good Night for Donald Trump’   "The White House soon preemptively released Trump's 2005 taxes ahead of Maddow, showing that the president earned $153 million and paid $36.5 million in income taxes that year."

Weasel Zippers
"How dare the viewers assume that she had anything important given this breathless tweet:" . . .

From MRCTV:  "If only it'd been true.

"What Maddow and the fine folks over at MSNBC actually managed to do was get part of a copy of Trump’s 2005 tax return. Which was already 12 years old. And which the White House had already released.

"And which the Wall Street Journal had already reported on – a year ago.

"Needless to say, the Twittersphere wasn’t all too happy as Maddow droned on...and on...and on during her open monologue, bashing Trump (and throwing out all manner of random, unsubstantiated speculations regarding his finances) without actually giving anyone any new information. Here are a few of the best reactions we found from the less-than-enthused:" . . .

When Obama Compared Slaves to Immigrants, He Got Applause; Carson Gets Called 'Uncle Tom'

Larry Elder



"Dr. Ben Carson, in a speech before employees of Housing and Urban Development, the department he now runs, likened slaves to "immigrants": "That's what America is about, a land of dreams and opportunity. There were other immigrants who came here in the bottom of slave ships, worked even longer, even harder, for less. But they, too, had a dream that one day their sons, daughters, grandsons, granddaughters, great­grandsons, great­granddaughters, might pursue prosperity and happiness in this land." 
"Carson got hammered." . . .
. . . 
"Why the silence over Obama's many slave­equals­immigrant comments versus the desk pounding by the same critics when Carson says the same thing? Carson represents an existential threat to the left. He is deadly to their cause ­­ a black man, raised in poverty by a hardworking, welfare­abstaining single mom who taught her children to embrace hard work and education. The left believes that blacks are perpetual victims of slavery, Jim Crow and racism. It is vital for the existence of the Democratic Party to convince blacks to vote like victims in need of protection from the racist, sexist retrogrades known as Republicans. So black conservatives like Carson, who argues that welfare creates dependency, who demands choice in K­12 education and who believes hard work wins, must be attacked, marginalized and dismissed as "against their own people."

When the violent campus reflects a sordid culture

Scorning Middlebury is easy, but rioting students reflect a civilization in chaos

Suzanne Fields

"Middlebury College, a symbol of violent rioting in the name of tolerance, is easy to scorn and disdain. Nice boys and girls, sons and daughters of nice moms and dads, get caught acting out on intolerant impulses, and a “disturbance” sends a professor to the hospital. (At Ole Miss this would be called a “riot.”)

"Middlebury College is nestled on 350 bucolic acres in the Champlain Valley of Vermont, and the college Web page says all the right things about being welcoming and diverse, and showing respect and resilience to differing viewpoints to train “thoughtful and ethical leaders able to meet the challenges of informed citizenship.”

"But citizenship and challenges ain’t what they used to be, either in the groves of academe or in the culture where we all live. Student riots are not new, of course (almost nothing is), and in the Middle Ages adolescent boys in England and Europe banged their mugs of ale on mess hall tables and repaired to the streets of the town to break things and teach the unwashed townies a thing or two about civilized behavior." . . .