The decline and fall of NBC News

Politico

"When Comcast acquired NBCUniversal in 2011, Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts called NBC News "the crown jewel" of his new empire. With good reason: At the time, the news division was dominant on all fronts. 'Today' was number-one in the morning, 'Nightly News' was number-one at night, and 'Meet The Press' was number-one on Sunday."

. . .

"All things considered -- the failure to right the ship at 'Today', the public humiliation of David Gregory, the failure to back Brian Williams (at least initially), the severe ratings declines at NBC, MSNBC and CNBC, and the Horowitz fiasco -- many industry insiders are wondering how much more time Fili-Krushel will have at the helm."

Israel and Egypt forewarned of synchronized ISIS-Sinai assaults in both countries

Egyptian forces build up in Sinai to battle Islamists

DEBKAfile  "Intelligence gathered by Egypt and Israel attest to the former Ansar Bait al-Maqdis - now reborn as the Islamic State’s operational arm in Sinai – being well into advanced preparations for a large-scale terrorist offensive targeting Israel forces manning the Egyptian frontier, along with a string of Egyptian targets across Sinai up to and including the Suez Canal and Cairo.

"According to DEBKAfile’s counter-terrorism sources, the Islamist group was so elated by the outcome of its multiple attacks on Jan. 29, which left at least 40 Egyptian soldiers dead and more than 100 injured in Sinai and Suez towns, that it is determined to keep going.

"Using different types of rockets, including Grads, as well as mortars and car bombs, terrorist squads then broke into military bases in four cities in Sinai and two on the Suez Canal and set them on fire. Others killed all the personnel aboard military and police convoys before putting them to the torch.

"The ISIS Sinai arm is planning to target Israeli forces with a similar type of multiple offensive. Appropriate precautions for fending off this attack are in place.

"Cairo banned Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, as a terrorist organization in the wake of the support the Palestinian extremists extended to ISIS for this wholesale assault, supplying the terrorists with rockets and intelligence.

"In addition to Hamas, DEBKA’s sources report that Ansar Bait al-Maqdis has entered into operational collaboration with a newly-established Egyptian Islamist group, which calls itself “Agnad Misr” – Soldiers of Egypt. This group first broke surface on Jan. 24 with a communiqué bearing the motto “Retribution is Life.”  It turns out to be made up of Salafi extremists mixed with former members of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, one of the forerunners of the original Al Qaeda. Its terror agenda focuses on Cairo and its environs.

The Scorching of California; How Green extremists made a bad drought worse

Victor Davis Hanson  "In mid-December, the first large storms in three years drenched California. No one knows whether the rain and snow will continue—only that it must last for weeks if a record three-year drought, both natural and man-made, is to end. In the 1970s, coastal elites squelched California’s near-century-long commitment to building dams, reservoirs, and canals, even as the Golden State’s population ballooned. Court-ordered drainage of man-made lakes, meant to restore fish to the 1,100-square-mile Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta, partly caused central California’s reservoir water to dry up. Not content with preventing construction of new water infrastructure, environmentalists reverse-engineered existing projects to divert precious water away from agriculture, privileging the needs of fish over the needs of people. Then they alleged that global warming, not their own foolish policies, had caused the current crisis.
. . .
"Could California still save itself? . . .there may be only two things left for California farmers to do: pray for the recent wet weather to continue; and, if it does, pray further that environmentalists do not send the precious manna from heaven out to sea."

Striking Photos Show Struggle Of Farmers In California Drought  . . . "In images from the western San Joaquin Valley, photographer Randi Lynn Beach shows the plight of farmers aching for more water -- a need she says folks in urban areas sometimes fail to grasp." ...

Dead almond trees. Firebaugh, Calif.

Dramatic Photos of California's Historic Drought  "According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, 82 percent of the state of California currently falls in the "Extreme Drought" category. The years-long dry spell has tapped groundwater reserves and left reservoirs at record lows. Shasta Lake and Lake Oroville are both down to 30% of full capacity, exposing steep shorelines that were formerly under hundreds of feet of water. Marinas are crowding into ever-smaller coves as the water recedes, and ramps and roads no longer reach the shoreline. Getty Images photographer Justin Sullivan traveled to a number of these reservoirs last month and captured dramatic images, evidence of the severity of the water crisis in California."

Some glimpses of what the world press refers to as "youths"

Coexist graffiti artist badly beaten by Muslim 'youths'  "Every time I see a “Coexist” bumper sticker (and I see a lot of them in Berkeley), I think of soft-headed liberals who don’t understand the first thing about jihad. One of those Coexist fans just got mugged by reality (in Irving Kristol’s famous words), not in Berkeley, but in Paris. "  

. . . 

"Jihandists have no interest at all in coexistence. They want domination. That’s pretty simple, but beyond the understanding of people who pride themselves in their sophistication.  Cobo is lucky to be alive. Let’s hope he wises up."

Islamist Fan-Boys   . . . "For a significant group of young, disaffected, and psychologically malleable Muslim men and women, this video and others like it are undeniably effective recruiting tools. Many young men are easily tempted by promises of adventure, risk, violence, sex, and finally, justice.  ISIS offers it all, at least in theory, and videos like the execution of Lieutenant al-Kassasbeh play to those yearnings. 

Brutal VIDEO from the Netherlands: Muslims  "Youths" beat, kick non-Muslim girl
Stills only as YouTube has removed the video

http://legalinsurrection.com/2015/02/branco-cartoon-tongue-tied/

MSNBC solidifies its standing as the clown version of cable news

Thomas Lifson  "I suppose you call this another historic first for Eric Holder: the first attorney general asked by a TV interviewer to quack like a duck on air. The incident came toward the end of a fawning interview by Melissa Harris-Perry (no stranger to clownish and embarrassing stunts, some of which caused tearful on air apologies).

. . .

"Compared to Al Sharpton, also an MSNBC mainstay, Harris-Perry has a bigger vocabulary, but less excuse for idiotic hijinks. She is, after all, a professor at Wake Forest University, and was recently named director of something called the Pro Humanitate Institute:" . . .

Two more arguments for not trusting the climate change advocates.

Rick Moran- Report: 'Wholesale Manipulation of the Temperature Record'  "Even for those of us who follow the climate change debate fairly closely, this is a shocker.

"A noted researcher has discovered huge discrepancies in the published and actual temperatures at weather stations around the world. Not surprisingly, almost all of the discrepancies show an increase in temperature.   Full article

Alan Caruba- Lukewarm About Climate Change

"In short, climate change is not worse than we thought,” wrote Bjorn Lomborg in a recent issue of The Wall Street Journal. He is best known as the author of “The Skeptical Environmentalist” and his skepticism is welcome, but insufficient.

. . . 

"The problem with Lomborg’s commentary is that he confuses climate change with global warming, the hoax concocted in the late 1980s by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in order to have an international tax imposed on “greenhouse gas emissions”, primarily carbon dioxide (CO2), that the IPCC guaranteed was going to heat up the Earth in a few decades unless greatly reduced. Lomborg even cites the IPCC which has grown notorious for its lies."

Maybe Obama will suggest Christians pay reparations to Muslims for the Crusades

NRO:Let’s leave the Middle Ages out of discussions of modern Islam.
. . . "Protestants and Catholics follow different versions of Christianity, but we would strongly reject a president who tried to tell us which was right. By the same token, the president has even less authority to discern true from distorted Islam. ISIS is barbaric, but there is no denying that its adherents believe they are true followers of Islam. And they can point to medieval Muslim rulers who were just as bloody." 

Ralph Peters: Jihadis 14, Crusaders 2; The president perverts history (again).  . . . "The president knows as little about history as he does about warfare, and even less about religion. But he’s not alone. With the Left’s successful destruction of history instruction in our schools and universities, even “well-educated” creatures of Washington accept the Arab fantasy that the cultural incompetence, practical indolence, and spiritual decay of the entire Middle East stems from Richard Coeur de Lion’s twelfth-century swordplay.

"Stop it! All of you! And try reading a book or two on the subject. Meanwhile, here’s a starter course in the vast tragedy jihad has posed for every civilization it’s touched for the past 14 centuries — while the Crusades mythologized by Islam’s apologists were a two-century blip whose only practical legacies are a few ruined castles." . . .

Chip Bok: Man on a high horse  . . . "Our philosopher king’s prayer breakfast lecture on Thursday could have been mistaken for talking points straight out of the Islamic State. He called on Christians to get off their high horse about man burning ISIS jihadis. He then reminded them that Crusaders did bad things in the name of Christ. A thousand years ago." . . .

comicallyincorrect.com

Dr. Ben Carson Reacts to Obama’s Prayer Breakfast Speech: “Perhaps We’re Being Betrayed”  . . . "In response to how he reacted to the president’s remarks as a Christian, Carson said, “obviously, it makes me feel that perhaps we’re being betrayed. perhaps we don’t have a leader who feels the same about things as most of us do, but the good thing is, we have a system in place, that has allowed us to take control."

Pat Condell on the rise of anti-Semitism in Europe

Pat Condell; A Special Kind Of Hate  "It is only been 70 years since the Holocaust and now Europeans and liberal professors and students have gone to the streets screaming:  "Jews to the Gas!".  Muslim anti-Semitism in Europe."

New weapon in our war against radical Islam: "Strategic Patience"

This feckless president Obama has spent the past 6+ years blaming the previous administration for his own failures. If he just keeps voting "present" till 2017, Obama can live out his life blaming the next president for botching the foreign policy triumphs he passed on. TD 

https://scottthong.wordpress.com/tag/obama-surge/

Rick Moran: Forget 'lead from behind'; now we have 'strategic patience'

"President Obama released his new national security blueprint on Friday that was rehash of most of his previous policies.  He cited progress against the Islamic State and identified Russia as a major concern.

"But foreign policy experts are raising an eyebrow over the president's call for "strategic patience" and warning against American "overreach."
. . .
"This sort of inattentiveness to potential crises has been a hallmark of this administration since 2009.  It's no secret that the president would like foreign crises to go away so he can devote all his energies to transforming America.  We all had better hope that the world doesn't go to hell in the next two years."  Read more.

Obama's "strategic patience" draws criticism amid ISIS threat  . . . "The 29-page document is meant to serve as a blueprint for Obama's final two years in office. The strategy cast the U.S. as an indispensable force in combating global challenges -- including terrorism, climate change and cyber threats. ' . . . 

[Susan Rice] defended the administration's pursuit of a international negotiations to roll back Iran’s nuclear program: "We must give diplomacy a chance to finish the job," she said

The king of Jordan wasn't into "strategic patience"   "Swift Action vs. No Action; I applauded late last night when I heard the news that Jordan had executed by hanging two Islamic terrorists in retaliation for the horrific murder by fire of the pilot Mouath al-Kasaesbeh. Jordan didn't talk about measured responses, or restraint, or a backlash -- they took decisive action. It made Obama look even worse."

Jordan's hand is strengthened by not having Code Pink or Michael Moore in the country.

Teacher quits French school over ‘insidious Islamism’

France24

. . . "Zitouni, who is of Algerian descent and began teaching philosophy (which is compulsory for all high-school students in France) at Averroès in September, wrote that he could no longer tolerate the school’s alleged contradictions with France’s strictly secular “Republican values”.

“ 'The reality is that Averroès Lycée is a Muslim territory that is being funded by the state,” he wrote. “It promotes a vision of Islam that is nothing other than Islamism. And it is doing it in an underhand and hidden way in order to maintain its [80 percent] state funding.”. . . 

You stand against Islam, you better be prepared to pay the price:

The school’s director, El Hassane Oufker, told FRANCE 24 the school’s staff and student body were “hugely shocked and upset” by Zitouni’s comments and said that he would be suing him for defamation.

The Week in Pictures: Fraudcast News Edition

Power Line  "Did I ever tell you about the time I was hanging with Pablo Picasso, quaffing espresso at a Parisian cafe, and how I helped him conceive Guernica?  Oh, wait—no, I didn’t do that.  I had Picasso confused with my kid’s kindergarten finger painting project, and we were in McDonalds.  So easy to get these kind of things confused when you’re a busy newsman.."

The world award for congeniality goes to...

http://www.gocomics.com/patoliphant/2015/01/08

Charlie Hebdo, Muslims, and Satire  ". . . All this awfulness is seemingly the cause of some obnoxious satire by a French weekly. The West has a long tradition of satirizing both society and government: Aristophanes, Plautus, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Rabelais, Pope and more have all served in the unappreciated satirist’s role. . . .Despite the ire it may draw, satire plays an important role in society: when a society takes itself too seriously, its members are liable to become sensitive to the slightest insult and seek revenge upon anyone who makes them feel belittled or insulted.. . . "