Thomas Sowell's Random Thoughts

Townhall  ... "One of the best peace speeches I ever read was one delivered back in the 1930s -- by Adolf Hitler! He knew that peace speeches would keep the Western democracies from matching his military buildup with their own, or attacking him to prevent his buildup from continuing. Peace speeches by Iran today serve the same purpose of buying time -- until they can create a nuclear bomb.

"President Obama really has a way with words, such as calling the problems that millions of people have had trying to sign up for ObamaCare "glitches." When the Titanic sank, was that a "glitch"?
 ....

"Don't you love it when a politicians says, "I take full responsibility"? Translated into plain English, that says, "Now that I have admitted it, there is nothing more for me to do (such as resign) and nothing for anyone else to do (such as fire me)." Saying "I take full responsibility" is like a get-out-of-jail-free card in the Monopoly game."
 ....
"One of the reasons it has taken so long for some people to finally see through Barack Obama is that people do not like to admit, even to themselves, that they have been played for fools by a slick-talking politician."
 Emphasis added, TD

 

Washington’s Thanksgiving Proclamation, October 3, 1789

Heritage

Thanksgiving Proclamation

Issued by President George Washington, at the request of Congress, on October 3, 1789

By the President of the United States of America, a Proclamation.
Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and—Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me “to recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:”

Iran may be calling this their own Thanksgiving (UPDATED)

The non-deal Iranian deal faces bipartisan opposition in Congress

"To President Obama’s dismay, the Iranians are inconveniently candid about the interim deal they struck with the P5+1. Hossein Shariatmadari, the editor of Kayhan newspaper and voice of the Supreme Leader, bragged to the Wall Street Journal that “if the right to enrich is accepted, which it has been, then everything that we have wanted has been realized.” Oops. The Iranians claim the U.S. version of the deal is not accurate (although it’s not clear whether their complaint is limited to the enrichment issue)." 
kov Amidror claims concessions over uranium enrichment ‘meaningless’; Obama reportedly tells Netanyahu ‘to
UPDATE from the Times of Israel; Iran deal a failure, says ex-national security chief  "Yaatake a breather from his clamorous criticism’ "

 But Obama and Code Pink do not have the "skin in the game" that Israel -whose very existence is threatened - does.

Common Core third grade book goes full Dear Leader on Obama

Thomas Lifson  "I will be accused of all sorts of grievous offenses, from racism to judging too hastily, but I think it is becoming clear that Obama's two terms will be regarded as a failed presidency. His "signature achievement," Obamacare, is a mess, and it won't be fixed by any of the remedies proposed. The website problems are the least of it. The Big Lie on keeping your insurance and keeping your doctor now looks as though it will reach about half the population of the United States, once employers start dumping their insurance.

"It is axiomatic that a president who screws over half the population of the country in the most personal way cannot be regarded tenderly by history. "

 

The American Idol Electorate; Holding popularity contests is not the wisest way to select the leader of the free world.

I have a leftist (so he says, though I suspect he just likes to argue and taunt) relative who, when I asked him to name all the reasons Obama should be in the White House, said, "there are fifty million reasons why". That pretty well lines up with the fact that an incompetent electorate will elect an incompetent president.

Charles Cook  ...  "Meanwhile, 56 percent of the public say that he does not inspire confidence, the very same percentage has noticed that the president does not agree with them on issues that are important to them, and only 44 percent profess to “admire” him. His approval ratings, meanwhile, are hovering around the 40 percent mark — and moving in the wrong direction to boot.

"But here’s the kicker: Americans are still fond of him anyway."

The Front Man / President Obama is the nominal leader for permanent bureaucracy.

NRO   ..."Barack Obama did not invent managerial liberalism, nor has he contributed any new ideas to it. He is, in fact, a strangely incurious man. Unlike Ronald Reagan, to whom he likes to be compared, President Obama shows no signs of having expended any effort on big thinkers or big ideas. President Reagan’s guiding lights were theorists such as F. A. Hayek and Thomas Paine; Obama’s most important influences have been tacticians such as Abner Mikva, bush-league propagandists like the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, and his beloved community organizers. Far from being the intellectual hostage of far-left ideologues, President Obama does not appear to have the intellectual energy even to digest their ideas, much less to implement them. "

Thank Barack; he smiled down on us from above

 Obamacare Event Hands Out Condoms as Prizes  "The Obamacare event took place at the University of Central Arkansas last weekend. It was hosted by a group called the Living Affected Corporation, which apparently has received a grant from the federal government to educate the public about Obamacare."

Well, they have indeed done that.

 Hail to the Panderer-in-Chief  ... “Taken in sum, Obama’s list was a revealing document,” write the authors. “He believed that over the past three years his progressive impulses had too often been trumped by the demands of pragmatism. That he had trimmed his sails in just the way his critics on the left had charged.” ...

 

The President Who No Longer Feels Your Pain   ... "The problem for Democrats is that they head into a six-year-itch election with full ownership of Obamacare, following a president who is entrenched in a defensive political posture — a president who many voters believe no longer feels their pain."

Labor Relations Board OKs unions paying people to protest Walmart

Washington Examiner   "National Labor Relations Board lawyers okayed a major union's practice of paying people to protest against Walmart in a legal memorandum earlier this month. The federal labor law enforcement agency said the practice of paying workers $50 apiece to join protests “did not constitute unlawful … coercion of employees.”
"In a Nov. 15 memorandum from the NLRB's general counsel office regarding the so-called “Black Friday” protests staged by United Food and Commercial Workers against the nonunion retailer last year, the NLRB lawyers determined that the UFCW's offer of $50 gift cards to anyone who showed up to protest “was a non-excessive strike benefit.' ”
 

Is it Too Soon to Say "I Told You So?"

Ann Coulter

 

"Back in September, The New York Times promoted Bill de Blasio's mayoral candidacy with an editorial titled, "Don't Fear the Squeegee Man." The editorial informed readers that crime wouldn't get worse under de Blasio because "policing is far better than it used to be, thanks to innovations by Mayor David Dinkins." (Emphasis added -- the Times was not being sarcastic.)

"Under the policing "innovations" of Mayor Dinkins, the annual murder rate in New York City rose to an all-time high of 2,245 in Dinkins' first year in office. After four years of hard work, the murder rate had dropped by about 10 percent, to a merely astronomical 1,995 per year."....

Obama,US pull back from being the stabilizing force we once were

American Held Hostage For 444 Days In Iran Calls Nuke Deal ‘Foolishness’  “ 'It just hurts. We negotiated for 444 days and not one time did they agree to anything … and here they beg for us to negotiate and we do,” he said. “It’s hard to swallow. We negotiate with our enemies and stab our allies in the back. That doesn’t seem good.' ”

Via Drudge
Obama Signals a Shift From Military Might to Diplomacy  "For Mr. Obama, the shift to diplomacy fulfills a campaign pledge from 2008 that he would stretch out a hand to America’s enemies and speak to any foreign leader without preconditions. But it will also subject him to considerable political risks, as the protests about the Iran deal from Capitol Hill and allies in the Middle East attest."

 

Former Hostages React to Iran's Nuclear Deal   " 'It's kind of like Jimmy Carter all over again," said Clair Cortland Barnes, now retired and living in Leland, N.C., after a career at the CIA and elsewhere. He sees the negotiations now as no more effective than they were in 1979 and 1980, when he and others languished, facing mock executions and other torments."

 

Krauthammer on Iran Nuclear Agreement: 'It's The Worst Deal Since Munich'

Well, this didn't take long, did it? McAuliffe appoints scandal-tainted cabinet member

Thomas Lifson   "The signs are that corruption will be the byword of the administration of incoming Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe. Right Wisconsin reports:

The name Levar Stoney may not ring a bell to many in Wisconsin, but the new Secretary of the Commonwealth of Virginia and former Deputy Campaign Manager for Governor-elect Terry McAuliffe has some scandalous history in Wisconsin.

His First Bath, 1904

Charles Francis Murphy, Croker’s successor,

 brought reform and Progressivism to Tammany,

 bathing the tiger of corruption. How has progressivism

become so corrupted? 

 

VICTORY: Major retailer ditches political correctness, is saying “Merry Christmas” this year

Young Conservatives   "The American Family Association has made it its mission for nearly eight years to coordinate a major grassroots email campaign targeting retailers that replaced “Merry Christmas” messages with the politically correct “Happy Holidays.” But this year, the group is claiming a major victory.

"Bill Chandler, Gap Inc.’s vice-president for global corporate affairs, sent a personal letter to the association announcing its policy has changed this year for Gap and Old Navy stores:

As we near the holiday season I want to update you on how Gap, Inc.’s family of brands will celebrate the Christmas season. As a global retailer, we embrace the diversity of our customers and respect a variety of traditions and faith during the holidays, including Christmas.
Starting today, every Gap Outlet window will have signs that say “Merry Christmas” along with Christmas trees and wreaths throughout their stores.