Obama's love affair with Iran hasn't worked out so well

IRAN CONTINUES NEEDLING U.S. OVER NAVY BOAT SEIZURE
"It is likely that we have not heard the last from the Iranians on this humiliating saga. In fact, Razmjou said that the IRG will publish a book about the incident. The Iranian bombast stands in marked contrast to the Pentagon’s demurred, almost docile stance. The reasons for the Pentagon’s silence are not hard to fathom. Something happened in the Arabian Gulf on January 12 that if revealed, would likely cause considerable embarrassment to the Obama administration."

The next non-Democrat President will be loathed whan he or she tries to clean up Obama's mess 
. . . "The Iran deal would be laughable if it were not so tragic. What Obama calls the Iranian violation of the “spirit” of the agreement— from shooting missiles near carriers and hijacking and humiliating Navy seamen, to unleashing cyber war on the U.S. and issuing daily promises of war against the U.S. and Israel—is a precursor of more to come in the next 10 months. If Iran is not to become a nuclear power, the next president will have to re-impose sanctions and reassemble a coalition to prevent its nuclearization. That effort too will be difficult, and it will outrage many and be caricatured as saber-rattling." . . .
 ". . . History in the short term adores appeasers. They pontificate and pose as sober and judicious humanitarians who will do anything to avoid confrontation on their watch, even as they light the fuse of Armageddon for their successors. The restorers of deterrence are always smeared as war-mongers—and only praised as Churchillian largely when they are dead. So it will be for the next president if he or she chooses to stop the decline and restore the American-led postwar order."


Obama Foreign Policy Under Fire From His Former Defense Secretaries

. . . "As we have repeatedly reported, both Obama and the press regularly try to bolster President Obama’s legacy at the expense of the truth. The truth is that President Obama’s signature legacies, such as his deals with Iran and Cuba, involved reaching out to totalitarian regimes, and making deals that were terrible for the U.S., but great for Cuba and Iran.

"In fact, there is no signed deal with Iran, and the Iranian regime has repeatedly made clear that they have no intention of abiding by what the Obama administration claims are the terms of the deal. Iran has shown complete contempt for Obama and the U.S. since collecting more than $100 billion of previously frozen funds. In an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Ambassador to the U.S., Yousef al Otaiba arguedthat “Since the nuclear deal, however, Iran has only doubled down on its posturing and provocations. In October, November and again in early March, Iran conducted ballistic-missile tests in violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions.” He added that “It is now clear that one year since the framework for the deal was agreed upon, Iran sees it as an opportunity to increase hostilities in the region., " . . .

Born To Run (to the Ladies Room)

HopeNChangeCartoons

"Rocker Bruce Springsteen has cancelled a concert appearance in Greensboro, North Carolina to protest the state's law which segregates bathroom privileges based exclusively on an individual's God-given plumbing rather than their current (and sometimes flexible) gender self-identification. Moreover, in an additional show of solidarity for the "whichever damn bathroom we choose" crowd,  Springsteen has changed the name of his backup group to "The P Street Band.' " . . .

Comment to the article:

"Springsteen is trying to punish the government. He’s only succeeding in hurting the local business, the concert promoter and what few fans he has left and his bottom line*. Not a very smart businessman is he. There are many ways he could have made his point without shooting himself in the foot. I see him as a fool."

*Sorry, but The Boss has many, many fans. We can only hope that not all  like his politics and are as I am: "Shut up and sing!"
However all this tantrum belies Bruce's constant tributes to the working people he sings about.  TD

About the Trump campaign's ignorance in Colorado

Before we get to the Trump flop in Colorado:
Ann Coulter  "Before we begin, can we stop referring to Wisconsin as "Midwestern nice"? That's all we've heard since Ted Cruz beat Donald Trump there: Wisconsinites are just so nice, they couldn't abide Trump's rough style. 

"Does anyone remember the whole taking over the capitol thing? How they nearly recalled a sitting governor a few years ago? Remember the protesters fighting with cops, rounds of arrests in the rotunda, the drum circles and chanting? How about themidnight raids on citizens for supporting the "Wisconsin Budget Repair Bill"? 

"Wisconsin is a lot of things, but "nice" is not one of them. "Soviet" is more like it. It was always a bad state for Trump because there are virtually no immigrants in Wisconsin, and peevish Wisconsinites refused to believe the rest of the country about the cultural mores we're bringing in." . . .

But to get onto the main point of this article, which is Trump's poor organization and lack of political savvy:

"Another misconception sweeping the nation is that when state Republican parties disregard the voters and give all their delegates to Cruz, they are merely following THE RULES, and Trump is an idiot for not knowing THE RULES. " . . .

But Coulter holds no brief for Sen. Cruz personally:
"Imagine what nightmare a Cruz presidency would be! This is now the second time Cruz has forced me to research something his supporters were lying about -- the last time was on Cruz's alleged eligibility to be president, despite being born in Canada. (He's not a "natural born citizen," but I enjoyed reading all those Supreme Court opinions!) 

"Instead of fun stuff like building a wall, bringing manufacturing home and getting tired of winning so much, we'll have to keep reading through centuries of British common law and RNC rulebooks until, out of exhaustion, we give in, and let Cruz run for student council president."

She is still a Trumpist.

On Transgender Restrooms and All Similar Matters, Let Property Owners Decide

" . . .Whether the law bans associations, as it did under Jim Crow, or compels associations, as it does today, it uses force to deprive human beings of their fundamental rights. We should abide neither."

PJ Media

. . . "When you open a business, the theory goes, you yield your authority over the venue where it is housed. You must, under the force of law, do business with people you may not want to do business with, and on terms that you may not agree to. Why? Because discrimination is bad.

"But is it? Discrimination is choice. That's it. When you choose between this thing and that, you discriminate. When you choose where to live, whom to love, how to earn a living, what to believe, you discriminate against the alternatives. How is that bad? More to the point, what right does anyone else have to tell you what choices you should make?

"Many in today's culture claim that there exists some mystical distinction between discrimination in personal affairs, such as whom you marry or where you live, and matters of "public accommodation." Somehow, and no one has been able to rationally articulate how, you lose the right to choose when you offer products and services to the public." . . .

Walter Hudson advocates for individual rights, serving on the board of theRepublican Liberty Caucus of Minnesota, and as president of the Minority Liberty Alliance. He hosts a daily podcast entitled Fightin Words, proudly hosted on Twin Cities Newstalk Podcast Network. Walter is a city council member in Albertville, MN. 

COMMON CORE LESSON PLAN PORTRAYS OBAMA AS MESSIAH TO THIRD GRADERS

Daily Insider

"At this point, Obama’s fanbase has shrunk to a small, fanatical group that persists in believing the lies he spouts. This wouldn’t be a problem except for the fact that this much of this small group is spread through very influential places.

"Everybody and their grandma knows that Common Core is a half-baked scheme to increase the government’s control over education, but new information shows that the plan goes even deeper than previously thought. It isn’t just meant to expand the already bloated bureaucracy running our schools: it’s meant to brainwash American kids into blindly following Obama." . . .

Hillary NOT Happy When Asked About Transcripts to Wall Street Luncheon Speeches

Legal Insurrection  "Hillary Clinton does not like being asked to release transcripts from her pricey paid Wall Street lunch speeches. Clinton was paid a whopping $675,000 for three speeches to Goldman Sachs.

"In an interview with the editorial boards of two Philadelphia-based newspapers, Clinton got nasty when asked if she would release her speech transcripts. True to form, she shifted to the matter of tax returns and bemoaned double standards rather than answering the question." . . .

Mr. Springsteen, is this a fight worth having? (Updated.)

"There’s no way to make everyone happy about transgender bathrooms and locker rooms. So the priority ought to be finding a way to keep everyone safe."

VIDEO: Sexual predators take advantage of transgender laws  "It may not have been intended, but it was predictable.  This video spells out case after case of sexual predators entering women's locker rooms and dressing rooms and other private places that are speedily becoming "unprivate," demanding to shower and change with them." . . .

. . . "So the laws that permit males to invade that space simply have to be stopped, and any law that has already been implemented must be repealed.

"Enough is enough."

Bruce Springsteen cancels NC concert citing anti-trans law  . . .North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory signed HB2 into law last month. It prevents municipalities from raising their own minimum wages and repeals any municipalities' nondiscrimination ordinances, replacing them with a statewide ordinance that doesn't protect individuals based on sexuality. 

"The most controversial portion of the bill focused on bathrooms. It requires people use the bathrooms matching the sex on a person's birth certificate, regardless of their gender identity, while in public buildings.

"Backlash has been rolling in ever since. Springsteen was scheduled to perform April 10 in Greensboro, and announced Friday he wouldn't perform because of the law." . . .

Michael Moore joins Springsteen in a N.C. boycott  "In a message posted to his Twitter account Tuesday, the 61-year-old liberal documentary filmmaker said that he has asked the distributor of his latest film, Where to Invade Next, to withhold the film from theaters in North Carolina due to the state’s “bigoted law against LGBTQ” people."

In the liberal search for causes, how many more letters will be added to "LGBTQ"?

Hollywood loves Springsteen's boycott.  There are, of course other issues beside bathroom use that might have merited discussion, but transgender rest rooms have been the spoiler.

Lucianne

UPDATE: North Carolina Governor McCrory Signs Executive Order To Protect ‘Privacy And Equality’…

"Nothing is stopping a private business owner from installing a gender neutral bathroom, but a business owner’s choices must not be mandated by government." . . .

UPDATE: A Rape Survivor Speaks Out About Transgender Bathrooms  "There are countless deviant men in this world who will pretend to be transgender as a means of gaining access to the people they want to exploit."

World's largest private coal company declares bankruptcy

American Thinker  "The Obama administration's war on coal claimed its most significant victim as Peabody Coal, the largest private coal company in the world, filed for bankruptcy today, citing several factors, including "ongoging regulatory challenges."  CNN Money: . . .

. . . "Would Peabody be bankrupt if the government had kept its nose out of the energy business? It's a seductive theory but market forces appear to have played a larger role than government interference.

"The fact is natural gas, mostly obtained from hydraulic fracturing, is booming and utility companies see the writing on the wall regarding the cost of coal going up as a result of the goverment's "war on carbon." Even without the price increase, natural gas would still be the winner given the oversupply for the foreseeable future. "

Mr. Springsteen, no, It’s Not Okay to Allow Men in the Women’s Bathroom

" . . .but these feelings of empathy take a distant second place to my desire to keep my 12 and four year-old daughters safe."

Dan Bongino

"No, it’s not okay in a civil society to allow biological males into the women’s bathroom. 

"Even in the increasingly dystopian far-left vision for tomorrow, this is still a sick, yes SICK, proposal. The far-left has grossly overestimated their battlefield strength in their never-ending war on our culture, and their new front, the battle for bathroom privacy and safety, is going to be a major loser for them. Here’s why. The far-left thinks they are fighting a savvy public relations battle in the culture war. But the majority of Americans, not aligned with the increasingly deranged far-left, are fighting a totally different battle. They are fighting for the dignity, the privacy, and most importantly, the safety, of their daughters and their wives. And this is a battle they are unwilling to forfeit or lose, REGARDLESS of the legal penalties, or the division-politics labels the far-left will disingenuously throw at them." . . .

I sincerely do not wish emotional pain on anyone conflicted over which bathroom they should use, but these feelings of empathy take a distant second place to my desire to keep my 12 and four year-old daughters safe. For all of the far-left bluster about what these new bathroom rules are and aren’t, they cannot run, or hide, from the FACT that a man, with all of his male physiology intact, can claim on any given day that he identifies as a woman and follow my daughter into a bathroom. 

Bigot.

Hat tip to  Clash Daily:

But wait! There's more!

Networks Style Bathroom Bills ‘Legal Protection’ for Transgenders
Words mean everything.

"Transgender bathroom bills were a hot topic and a favorite of the media including NBC, ABC, and CBS this past year.

"The networks have made clear where they stand as state after state decides whether it will require transgenders to use the bathroom corresponding with the gender indicated on his or her birth certificate." . . .

Here’s Your Disturbing Social Commentary Meme Of The Day…  "This is obviously brought on by the fights now going on in states like North Carolina, which is being threatened with economic terrorism by the likes of PayPal and a number of banks, who are purporting to pull investments of jobs and capital out of the state in retaliation for passing a law that, among other things, makes women’s bathrooms for women and men’s bathrooms for men.

"Somehow that’s controversial. Most of us are puzzled by why – your sex is determined by the plumbing you were born with, and while you might well “identify” as something else, that’s your problem."

Obama improperly leaps to Hillary’s email defense again

Legal Insurrection

"President Obama has a history of publicly defending Hillary Clinton on her email scandal, and he did it again today on Fox News Sunday.

'"Such public statements in and of themselves are improper political interference in agencies that report to the President.

"In a 60 Minutes interview in October 2015, Obama pretty much signaled Justice to lay off Hillary (emphasis added):

. . .

"Perhaps now we know why Hillary is so confident nothing will happen to her.

"On Face the Nation on March 7, 2016, Hillary rejected the suggestion that she might be indicted:

John Dickerson, host of CBS’s “Face the Nation,” told Clinton he has “talked to Democrats and they worry that somebody is going to get indicted.”

“Well, there is no basis for that,” Clinton responded.

"Worse still, Clinton blamed the State Department for the classification problem, making light of the situation."

Obama tells Loretta Lynch not to prosecute Hillary on classified email crimes

Thomas Lifson  'Interviewed by Chris Wallace of Fox News (transcript here, video embedded below), President Obama pulled down the blindfold on Lady Justice and signaled that there was no crime at all when Hillary Clinton set up an unsecured private server and left classified information vulnerable to hacking by the world’s intelligence services.  He also created a new category of classification: “top secret top secret” as opposed to mere “top secret,” which he averred to Chris Wallace might be information that could be gleaned from public sources."
. . . 

"Nope.  The fix is in.  If the FBI makes a criminal referral, and Lynch declines to prosecute, we are headed for a crisis that will echo Watergate.

"Side note: The left has a new tactic for minimizing misdeeds that are inconvenient for it to confront.  Naming the issue once is now a way of trivializing it.  Only when repeated is it real.  Thus, we need to worry about only “top secret top secret” or, as Whoopi Goldberg put it, “rape rape.”

"Of course, none of this applies to conservatives.

"Video of the complete interview:

Embrace the Chaos, Excuse the Dust

Jack Cashill   . . .“I'm getting questions constantly from foreign leaders about some of the wackier suggestions that are being made,” echoed President Barack Obama. “I have to emphasize that it's not just Trump's proposals. You are also hearing concerns about Cruz's proposals.”

"The operative word about the primaries among the naysayers is one that Kerry uses frequently, “embarrassing.” The Republicans are embarrassing themselves before the nation and embarrassing the nation before the world.

'"Hogwash.

"This year, the Republicans have defied their own party mandarins, the high priests of political correctness, and a complicit and corrupt media to stage the most exciting and energetic primary process since they nominated underdog Abraham Lincoln on the third ballot during a tumultuous Chicago convention." . . .