Iran Harassed The US Navy Under Obama. Here's Why It Stopped Under Trump

Shortly after Trump's election, the incidents noticeably stopped despite Trump's open hostility towards Iran, compared to Obama's attempts to appease them

Task & Purpose  "Iran's navy made a point of harassing and humiliating U.S. Navy vessels in 2016 after then-President Barack Obama sealed the Iran nuclear deal, but the U.S. says Things have changed since August 2017.
"It seems like they've absolutely made a conscious decision to give us more space," Navy Cmdr. William Urban recently said. "That is definitely a change in their behavior."

"During Obama's presidency, Iran would charge Navy ships with fast attack craft, buzz fighter jets with drones, and even shine lasers at helicopters operating at sea.

"But the worst, most embarrassing incident occurred in January 2016, when Iran's navy seized two Navy riverine boats and the 10 sailors on board after the ship wandered into 

Iranian waters due to mechanical issues. They broadcast footage of the sailors, crying, in detention, on television across the country. Iran later announced plans to build a monument commemorating the event

"U.S. Navy riverine sailors detained by Iranian forces on Jan. 12, 2016 off Farsi Island in the Persian Gulf.Fars News Agency

"Later that year Iranian ships conducted "unsafe and unprofessional," and often taunting, maneuvers around Navy ships in the Persian Gulf five times in about a month.

"In September of that same year, Trump addressed Iran while on the campaign trail. "When they circle our beautiful destroyers with their little boats and they make gestures at our 

people that they shouldn't be allowed to make, they will be shot out of the water," Trump said." . . .

Navy commander surrendered to Iran to protect Obama's nuclear deal  . . . "The incident, which played out as President Obama was preparing his State of the Union address, proved deeply embarrassing to the U.S. military and roiled diplomatic relations between Tehran and Washington as they were trying to implement key measures in the deal to curb Iran’s suspect nuclear programs.

"Adm. John Richardson, chief of naval operations, said Thursday that the mishandling of the incident resulted from “the accumulation of a number of small problems” created by the U.S. sailors who strayed into Iranian waters all the way up to the senior commanders who led the Navy squadron and task force under which the unit served." . . .
"One sailor reportedly made “statements adverse to U.S. interests” during interrogation. As the Iranians videotaped their captives for later display on state television, another sailor encouraged the U.S. crew members to accept food offered to them.
"One unidentified sailor was said to have violated the code of conduct standards when he “acquiesced” in making an Iranian-scripted statement on camera in exchange for the crew’s release.
“It was a mistake that was our fault and we apologize for our mistake,” a U.S. sailor, identified as the commander of one of the patrol boats, said during the videotaped apology. “ 'It was a misunderstanding. We did not mean to go into Iranian territorial water. The Iranian behavior was fantastic while we were here. We thank you very much for your hospitality and your assistance.”

Democrats Drunk With Pandemic Power Could be Undercutting Themselves Come November

This governor, as we know, is hardly alone, as the petulant Pennsylvania tyrant is part of a widespread mob of Democratic governors who have been intoxicated by the sudden discovery of power they can impose on the citizenry.

Townhall  "Flexing unearned influence has exposed the thirst for control of their citizens.
"In Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf caught a whiff of his constituents working up the desire to step out and start living their lives once again. The idea of citizens exerting their freedoms and basking in the normalcy of liberty was too much for him to stand. On Monday he sent out a tweet storm, delivering a series of firm commands of how he intends to clamp down on those who might dare get the idea of doing things.
" 'Today I am announcing consequences for counties that do not abide by the law to remain closed,’’ said the Wolf cub in his opening salvo, the concept of federalism trickling down to the local level becoming an insult to him. He threatened to cut off non-compliant counties from federal relief aid if they dared defy his executive order and grant the voters the choice to decide for their own lives and livelihoods. He then extended his punitive promises further.
"He went on to threaten businesses that might open in defiance of his iron-fisted decree, telling them they could be cited, they might see their liability insurance threatened, and bars and restaurants might end up with their liquor licenses revoked. As threats go, Wolf could see this becoming a rather neutered one; if an establishment is facing foreclosure all together then running the risk of the governor’s tantrum-like wrath could be one worth taking." . . . 

Pandemic Panic Has Magnified The Worst Impulses Of The Power-Hungry Elite . . . 
"Media pundits, impervious to the suffering this crisis is causing Americans, persist in trying to use the pandemic to trap President Trump and instill panic. “How many deaths are acceptable, Mr. President?” “Why don’t you shut down the grocery stores, Mr. President?” The list goes on.  
"It’s time to stop pretending such folks have any interest in the public good. Let’s stop enabling them by taking their policy prescriptions at face value. Instead, I daresay we should confront them by questioning their motives and real goals. No matter how this pandemic ends, we owe it to ourselves and our posterity to put that mindset under a microscope and try to diagnose it." . . .

Astonishingly, they also want to ban hydroxychloroquine because it could prove to be an effective treatment for Wuhan virus symptoms as we wait for a vaccine. It’s an outlook that also hopes for a stock market crash, ruining the retirement plans of millions of Americans. Many of these folks also run cover for the totalitarian regime of communist China, which suppressed critical information about the outbreak in Wuhan, unleashing the virus on the world.

Obama made America's military the laughing stock of the Persian Gulf

‘A complete hit job’: James Woods notes that Michael Flynn was ‘openly wary of Obama’s love affair with Iran’   "Anytime anyone has any doubts about the Obama administration and its “special” relationship with Iran, look no further than President Obama’s Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes and his Twitter timeline any time President Trump criticizes Iran or threatens to impose sanctions. Or look at Secretary of State John Kerry, who pushed for the Iran Deal just as hard and was disheartened that President Trump had “rushed to confrontation” with Iran. As recently as 2018, Kerry has been engaging in some shadow diplomacy with Iran, and he reportedly told representatives from Iran to wait out the Trump presidency so eventually, the nuclear deal could be reinstated.

"James Woods notes that Michael Flynn was an expert on the Middle East and was no apologist for the largest state sponsor of terrorism." . . .

If you stand up to Iran, you will trigger these people!

The full Twitter thread here.

Under Obama, US ships were harassed by Iranian craft and buzzed closely by Russian jets.

Reporters Ask Kayleigh McEnany About The National Stockpile, Her Responses Were Epic

PJ Media

"I have to admit, of all of President Trump’s press secretaries, Kayleigh McEnany is my favorite. She’s regularly demonstrated her ability to handle the media’s gotcha questions and throw them right back in their faces.

"On Friday, she absolutely crushed it again when she was asked about the Strategic National Stockpile. Associated Press reporter Jill Colvin asked, “How come on January 2020, the stockpile was as low as it was on supplies like face masks and N95s?”

“ 'It’s a really important question,” replied McEnany. “Perhaps I should redirect your question to President Obama who left the stockpile empty.”

"McEnany went on to cite a USA Today fact-check that backed-up the claim that Obama left the stockpile empty.

"Colvin then pressed McEnany as to why, three years later, it wasn’t restocked.

“ 'We refilled that stockpile. We got the N-95 masks out — ventilators are another good example, not a single America died for lack of a ventilator — a hundred thousand ventilators in a hundred days, three-times what is produced in the average year. Three-times the amount of N95 respirators our health care industry uses,” she explained.

“ 'We have delivered,” she continued. “We have cleaned up the mess that was very clearly left by President Obama and we got that out.' ” . . .

Also here:  It’s Barack Obama's Fault There’s a Shortage of N95 Respirator Masks

. . . "President Trump has received criticism for blaming Obama for various deficiencies in the coronavirus response, and here we have the media tracing one particular deficiency back to the Obama years, and yet they avoid directly linking it by name to his administration. Obama had six years to restore that stockpile and even make it bigger. But he didn’t. Yet, the media today wants you to believe it’s Trump’s fault." . . .

Acting DNI Ric Grenell Announces Organizational Changes to National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC)…

The Last Refuge

. . . "Knowing the scale of intelligence weaponization for political purposes that we are now aware of; and accepting a nefarious intention on behalf of federal actors looking for unique ways to skirt laws, rules and regulations on domestic surveillance; the morphing of the “sister” agencies to exploit intelligence gathering makes sense.

"One approach of this nefarious intent would be “reverse targeting”, which is similar to the Flynn-Kislyak call issues.  Target a foreign person’s communication as an end-around to avoid the necessary warrant for the American on the other end of the contact.  In practice this would look like this:

The FBI (counterintelligence division) knows an American contacted a foreign person.  The FBI wants to know what the contact was about, but doesn’t have evidence to cut through the legal privacy protections.  So the FBI asks their ‘sister’ the CIA, to extract the foreign person’s information from the NSA intercepts (FBI gives specific date and time). The CIA then extracts the result and the NCTC is used as the hub where the resulting intelligence information is stored, then shared.

"Obviously we have no idea whether today’s realignment of NCTC priorities has any bearing on the system structure used to carry out prior corrupt intelligence exploits; but it’s possible this issue is a part of the underlying change." . . .

Biden reportedly has unmasking pal Susan Rice on his VP shortlist, she says she’d be all i

BPR  "It appears presumptive Democrat presidential nominee Joe Biden and Obama-era National Security Adviser Susan Rice are two sleazy unmasking peas in a pod of potential illegalities.
"On Thursday, a day after Biden and Rice were both outed as being among the Obama administration officials who’d sought to unmask then-incoming National Security Adviser Michael Flynn in late 2016 and early 2017, word emerged that Rice is on Biden’s VP shortlist.
" 'You’re on the list of one of the people to be considered for Joe Biden’s vice president,” PBS host Margaret Hoover revealed to Rice during an interview with her." .  .  .

“Tone at the top is hugely important,” @AmbassadorRice tells @FiringLineShow. Rice says she expects that Pres. Obama and VP Biden would have worn masks if in office during the #COVID19 pandemic but says instead there is currently a “false machismo” on display at the White House. pic.twitter.com/ElgJhUYhn7— Firing Line with Margaret Hoover (@FiringLineShow) May 14, 2020   Video

. . . "Isn’t that nice? Well, Flynn would probably disagree given as Biden and Rice were both among those who sought to unmask him for reasons that are just now starting to be investigated thanks to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“In light of General Flynn’s unmasking by the Obama Administration, the job of Congress will be to perform oversight of these unmasking requests to ensure the process was used for legitimate national security concerns, not reprisals or political curiosity,” chair committee Sen. Lindsey Graham said in tweets Wednesday.

Kayleigh McEnany Lays Out #Obamagate

Weasel Zippers  "Listen up, media. The questions you should be asking.",,,,,,,

Jeff Carlson@themarketswork

In a normal world, everything being said here by Kayleigh McEnany would be front page news.

Sadly, we don't live in that world.

This is a must listen. Please share. https://t.co/t0oW31wIh1

— Jeff Carlson (@themarketswork) May 15, 2020

‘The View’ Audience Applauds as Joy Behar Says Democrats Need To Lie To Get into Office

The David J. Harris Show

"'Joy Behar is constantly saying that Trump Is immoral and that Trump lies, which is ironic considering she is now telling Democrats to lie about their intentions until they get elected and then spring it on them.

"Worse still, the audience applauded when she said this. She was specifically talking about Beto O’Rourke and his gun confiscation proposals.

"Behar said he should have kept his mouth shut until he was elected and then enact the law.

"What she is saying is that many of the Democrat’s proposals are wildly unpopular with the voters, so they should lie about their support until they get into office.

"But, would that be immoral and lying? It is also true that Behar isn’t against President Trump for lying.

"She is opposed to Trump because once in office, he set about doing all the things he promised as a candidate.

"So, it is moral to lie to the voters and then drastically alter your positions once in office, but it’s immoral to carry out the things you promised. That’s why the Democrats need to be soundly defeated in 2020."

"From The Western Journal:

The Democratic Party has never been a stranger to liars, of course.But in the Trump years, the party has disgraced itself in ways that would have been unimaginable only a few years ago.The Alice-in-Wonderland ugliness of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings — an endless carnival of lies consciously propagated by the mainstream media — won’t be forgotten.The lengthy, expensive, fruitless Russia collusion hoax and now the utterly baseless “impeachment inquiry” (a kangaroo court under the leadership of congenital liar and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, no less) are just more lessons for the American public at large.No one, not even Democrats, believes Democrats much anymore.The difference between supporters of the parties now is that liberals, like Behar, are perfectly willing to let the Democrats lie if it means they have a chance of seizing power.

Ten million people are locked down at the whim of a very well paid SJW 'doctor'

Who can forget when Whoopi Goldberg raved about the (non) fact that Jill was "a hell of a doctor," "an amazing doctor" as the lemming-filled audience clapped along?

Carol Brown  "Barbara Ferrer, or "Dr. Barbara Ferrer," as she likes to be called, is the director of the Los Angeles County Public Health Department.  In this role, she dictates public policy on the endless lockdown that is destroying millions of lives in a city that's in a perpetual state of decay.

"You'd think that, at the very least, she'd be a medical doctor.  But she's not.  Per a Los Angeles Times article, at one point in her life, she thought about becoming a doctor, so I guess that's supposed to count.

"In any case, Ferrer is a doctor just as Jill Biden, doctorate in Education (Ed.D) is a doctor.  Who can forget when Whoopi Goldberg raved about the (non) fact that Jill was "a hell of a doctor," "an amazing doctor" as the lemming-filled audience clapped along?

"Ferrer has racked up a lot of useless degrees in fields of study such as her claim to be a doctor — a Ph.D. in social welfare from the notorious incubator of leftists, Brandeis University.  Via USC:

"Dr. Ferrer received her Ph.D. in Social Welfare from Brandeis University, a Master of Arts in Public Health from Boston University, a Master of Arts in Education from the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and a Bachelor of Arts in Community Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

"Say what?!  Not only do those degrees sound irrelevant to her current job, but they sound irrelevant to work of any kind.

"Of course, the Los Angeles Times doesn't see it that way.  The reporters there think she's quite a star in the health field while gushing over her social justice credentials, including being an "activist" and a "community organizer."  It's probably icing on the leftist cake that she was also born in Puerto Rico." . . .

CNN Buries Trump’s New Poll Stats

The Blacksphere 
Trump defies the odds so much that one must start to question those setting the odds.Yet again, Trump reigns supreme. In a time of Russian collusion, Ukrainian extortion, and a “pandemic”, Trump’s poll numbers remain high.

"President Trump continues to enjoy record approval among Republicans. And he slowly siphons off Democrats. But the real problem for the Party of Lynching of Negroes is how well Trump does with Independents.

"According to Gallup, “Most of the variation in Trump’s recent job approval rating is among independents.”

“In the current poll, 47% of independents approve of the job he is doing as president, the highest Gallup has measured for the group to date. 93% of Republicans and 8% of Democrats approve of the job Trump is doing.”

Trump Team Takes Aim at Adam Schiff

The Blacksphere 
"Here we go folks! I hope you have your ring-side tickets, because this one is gonna be a total knock out. There’s something quite hilarious about Adam Schiff trying to stare down Trump’s team with his crooked glare."

. . . Witnesses?  

"I can’t believe Democrats have the audacity to say Trump has no witnesses. First of all, the President is innocent until proven guilty, according to our constitution. Secondly, democrats spent the past three years investigating crimes that have no witnesses.
"If we rewind to the Russian collusion investigation, we are faced with lying Adam Schiff, and no witnesses to back him up. Isn’t that ironic? Actually, Schiff even blocked the testimony of those who could shed real light on the situation.
"Then, as soon as the Mueller report failed to sink Trump, Schiff showed his desperation. He immediately started looking for another way to get rid of the president.
"But what did we end up learning? That Schiff himself was tied to Fusion GPS, backers of the Steele Dossier." . . .