Many Unhappy Returns

Hope n' Change

"Not everyone enjoys April 15th as much as Bernie does, which we presume is good news for the nation's dry cleaners. In fact, the day is hated by the approximately 50% of Americans who have to fork out money to go to the other 50% of Americans who pay nothing at all.

"But even though the IRS is collecting more revenue in fiscal 2016 than in any previous year, free-spending, class-envying Democrats say that it's not enough.

"For instance, Bernie Sanders recently bellowed that American corporations aren't paying their "fair share" and cited the flagrant example of tech giant Verizon, claiming "they haven't paid a nickel" in taxes. 

"And he's right. They haven't paid a nickel. They've paid $35 Billion in taxes in the last two years alone." . . .

Bernie again showcases his economic ignorance and disregard for data

“The senator’s uninformed views are, in a word, contemptible.”

Bookworm Room

 . . .."I just read the most ungodly economically ignorant article I have ever read. . . . It even beats out the $15 an hour minimum wage arguments, which at least are based on rational fantasy.  [Bookworm here:  Or maybe not so rational.*]

"Let me set this up:  Bernie goes to Brooklyn, where he rails against all of the evil businesses he means to destroy, starting with Verizon. Bernie claims that Verizon has paid nothing in taxes, and that it is time for Verizon to pay its “fair share.”  (I am starting to become violent every time I hear the word “fair” at this point.)" . . .

* Democrats have lost their minds over the minimum wage

. . . The left's minimum wage obsession dovetails with a shifting academic consensus that until the 1990s considered such hikes a recipe for killing jobs, especially for low-skilled workers. For a long time, the generally accepted rule of thumb was that, all else remaining equal, every 10 percent increase in the minimum wage would decrease low-skilled employment by 1 to 2 percent, since the more employers had to pay these employees, the fewer jobs they could afford to provide. . .

Putin eats Obama's lunch. Where is Hillary with her reset button?

Not like the Coyote vs. the Roadrunner; at least the coyote was in the fight.

Russia rejects criticism of fly-by near US Navy destroyer  . . . " Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, spokesman for the Russian defense ministry, said Thursday that the pilots of Russian Su-24 jets saw the ship and turned back "while using all measures of precaution." Konashenkov said he was baffled by what he described as the "distressed reaction of our American counterparts.' "

Since last year, the Russian press has spoken of Obama's disrespect for Putin.

"All of this is due to Obama’s weak, pathetic foreign policy."

Putin’s Gun vs. Obama’s Pen   . . . "Putin is so confident in President Obama’s weakness that he gambles with the lives of U.S. military personnel without fear." . . .

We’ve come . . .  180 degrees from 2008, when President Bush deterred Russian escalation in Georgia by parking U.S. military transport planes at Tbilisi airport. Eight years later, as Putin continues to double down against Obama’s anti-realism, our adversaries, from Europe to Asia, are sensing the vacuum. We must face Putin down. This weekend, President Obama should suspend U.S. participation in the Geneva talks and immediately provide — rather than have aides anonymously discuss the possibility of providing — advanced weapons to rebels aligned with the Free Syrian Army. Doing so would confront Putin at his own game, and make it clear the U.S. understands that power is vested in action, not in words.

WH: Obama Not “Meddling” In Clinton Email Investigation By Saying She’s Innocent

"Not a smidgen of influence – you hear me Loretta?"
Merely a "security review"

https://earloftaint.com/

Branco Cartoon – Ready for Hillary

Who on earth would choose Hillary over any Republican?

Tony Branco at Legal Insurrection

AFTERBURNER: Bernie Sanders And The Politics Of Envy

"Bill Whittle paid a visit to a high school full of leftist Bernie Sanders fans, and after an hour he thinks he managed to give many of them at least something to think about."

The Hayride

"Bill Whittle paid a visit to a high school full of leftist Bernie Sanders fans, and after an hour he thinks he managed to give many of them at least something to think about.

"And mainly, the subject of that thought is envy – which is the renewable fuel socialism runs on."

"Jesus Lunches" — free lunch and talking about Jesus, in the city park next to the high school.

Althouse  . . . "A city park is a traditional speech forum where free-speech rights are at their strongest. And what's wrong with "incentivizing participation" with free food? It sounds like nothing more than objecting to the message. These are private citizens, not government employees, and they're speaking on a subject of their choice with their own point of view. That's plain old freedom of speech. You can't discriminate against it because the religious message is making some people uncomfortable or because you're reminded of things like prayer in the classroom that would present a problem under the Establishment Clause." . . .

TOLERANCE TURNED ON ITS HEAD

"Shoulda done it long ago."

American Spectator "Sexual lefties don’t have policy merits on their side. But they’re clearly winning the communications battle, using their usual tactics of distorting and demonizing reasonable, traditional positions on public policy, and simply assuming the moral high ground.

"Evidence for this is the considerable public opposition to religious freedom laws, such as those that have lately created kerfuffles in North Carolina, Georgia, and Mississippi. These laws do not, as the left cynically asserts, inconvenience gays or other of the left’s constituencies. But their absence does allow the left to do great damage to the First Amendment, and to traditional Christian believers with deep and sincere religious objections to parts of the left’s brave new sexual agenda." . . .

"But the sexual left doesn’t want to accommodate those whom they viscerally dislike. Sexual politics is flowing their way just now, and they wish to rub traditionalists’ noses in it. The animus against religious freedom laws in The Movement is not motivated by a desire for fairness and respect, but by plain meanness."

Emphasis added, TD 

Clintonism, RIP

Charles Krauthammer  . . . "Other pillars of her husband’s internationalism were already toppled, pre-2016, by the Obama presidency, often with her active collaboration. At the core of Bill Clinton’s foreign policy lay the notion of America as the “indispensable nation.” It is today quite dispensable, indeed a nation in retreat—from (Hillary’s) reset with Russia to the Iranian nuclear negotiations (which Hillary initiated with secret meetings in Oman in 2012) to the disastrous evacuation of Iraq in 2011.
"As has happened with another of Bill’s major achievements: welfare reform. President Obama has essentially dismantled its work requirements (with Bill Clinton’s acquiescence, a sign of things to come). No need for Hillary to repudiate her husband’s legacy. It has been done for her.

"How far has the party moved left? Under Bill Clinton, it gave up on gun control after stinging defeats in the 1994 midterms. Today, Hillary Clinton delights in attacking Sanders for being soft on gun control. Malleable she is. And she sure knows her party." . . .

Forget Russia and Iran! Global warming is our biggest threat!

Taking Down the Stop Sign  . . ."America sheltered behind Red Lines during the Cold War, put in place by a generation who knew at first hand the high price of removing them. Yet in a generation since the fall of the Berlin Wall that lesson has been forgotten even in those who style themselves as intellectuals. President Obama's willingness to negotiate every "Red Line", which he regards as smart diplomacy, as proof of his intellectual superiority and confirmation of his status as the only adult in the room, is in fact nothing but an ignorant repetition of every error in the last hundred years; the action of a man who seems to have forgotten, indeed never having bothered to learn the lessons his nation's history has to offer.

"Captain Rick Hoffman correctly observes that the USS Cook provocation by itself is not worth a fight.  It's the one that comes after, and the one after that, and after that which you really have to worry about.  And they will come. For the challenges either stop somewhere or continue until they can't go on any more." 

You started it! Russia claims its fighter jets only buzzed US Navy warship because it was ‘in proximity’ of nearby Baltic base . . .

A rising Russia’s fighters buzz U.S. ship as Obama declares ISIS decline   "But that’s not all of the international provocations that go unanswered. North Korea and Iran continue ICBM tests despite promises and sanctions. China continues militarization of artificial islands in the South China Sea. Iran continues shipping arms to terrorists, has fired near U.S. ships and boasts of accelerated development of its nuclear program, despite a nuclear deal with Obama."

On to more ominous things:
Obama: "No greater threat" than climate change

When he was first elected, these were the expectations in 2009:
President 'has four years to save Earth'  "Barack Obama has only four years to save the world. That is the stark assessment of Nasa scientist and leading climate expert Jim Hansen who last week warned only urgent action by the new president could halt the devastating climate change that now threatens Earth. Crucially, that action will have to be taken withinObama's first administration, he added." . . .

Al Sharpton Tells Megyn Kelly To ‘Calm Down’ After She Questions His Race Baiting Actions In Ferguson…

Weasel Zippers

Mediaite  "Megyn Kelly scored a pretty big interview today, speaking with MSNBC host Reverend Al Sharpton about #BlackLivesMatter and why he hasn’t apologized for his role in ginning up outrage over Ferguson.

The interview started out lighter, with Sharpton talking about the black vote and President Obama and Donald Trump, but Kelly pivoted to the issue of race relations and “more controversial aspects” of the #BlackLivesMatter movement, such as “pigs in a blanket, fry ’em like bacon” chants.

Sharpton said he doesn’t condone that kind of rhetoric.

Kelly asked him briefly about Baltimore before going in hard on Ferguson. She asked him, “Do you feel bad about what you said?”

Sharpton seemed a bit confused as to what she meant, affirming that he “stated what I believed” and expressed the sincere outrage of many. Kelly pointed out that the DOJ report found no reaso

Video of the Day: This Is How to Confront Campus Crybabies

NRO  "Perhaps campus administrators are starting to learn their lesson. From Ohio State University comes the video of the day — an “actual grownup” (to borrow Ed Driscoll’s words) ordering campus protesters to end their unlawful “occupation” of the university’s administration building:

. . . "I never thought I’d say this, but I’m proud of the Big 10 and ashamed of the SEC. Cowardly Missouri continues to pay the price for last year’s craven capitulation. The university has actually closed two dormitories because of enrollment declines and is battling through a $32 million budget shortfall." . . .