Clarice Feldman: Never Say Never and Obama’s Waterloo

American Thinker  "Ms Feldman tells us: James Taranto "takes issue with Bret Stephens, Bill Kristol, and George Will, who think we can just wait out a Hillary presidency. His particular aim is at Stephens who argues that in the Wall Street Journal. He notes that the Republican Congress presently was unable to hold in check Obama’s overreaching and ask how they could possibly undo the foreign policy wreckage of this administration and do better against her than they did against Obama. He reminds readers that she was secretary of state when “we abandoned Iraq”, “supported the overthrow of an American ally in Egypt and its replacement by the Moslem Brotherhood, the fountainhead of al-Qaeda and Isis”; “colluded in the overthrow of an American ally in Libya”. To this list he reminds us that she was behind the scheme to run guns to al-Qaeda in Syria, denied our ambassador in Libya security, and then lied about the cause of his murder. The capper, of course, is that her willful mishandling of classified information on an unsecured server violates the Espionage Act. He concludes:

This is not serious stuff, yet it is being peddled by first-rate conservative intellects and the fate of our nation may yet hang on it. The greatest obstacle to a Republican victory in November is the fratricidal war now being waged by the “Never Trump” crowd against the only person who might prevent the disaster awaiting us if the party of Obama and Kerry and Hillary and Sharpton prevails in November. Their Trump hysteria notwithstanding.

"Feldman lists these conservative accomplishments of Donald Trump:

He helped on Reagan's campaigns.
He endorsed McCain and Romney.
He contributed 136 times to the GOP and 86 times to Dems since 1999; exclusively GOP since 2010.
13 of his 17 five figure contributions were to the GOP; exclusively GOP since 2008.
He has stated a number of conservative opinions through the years.
He is not particularly conservative but cherry picked or simply wrong assertions are not convincing.
The amusing thing is seeing quasi-conservative neocons like Kristol, the very essence of their movement being dissatisfaction with and turning away from their Dem roots, speaking in high dudgeon and declaring anathema a quasi-conservative guy who became dissatisfied with and turned away from his Dem roots.

One wise man arises from the Politically Correct jungle

Clarence Thomas tells graduates to simply be good citizens

. . . "I resist what seems to be some formulaic or standard fare at commencement exercises, some broad complaint about societal injustice and at least one exhortation to the young graduates to go out and solve the stated problem or otherwise to change the world," he said. "Having been where you are, I think it is hard enough for you to solve your own problems, not to mention those problems that often seem to defy solution. In addressing your own obligations and responsibilities in the right way, you actually help to ensure our liberty and our form of government." . . .

Why could Justice Thomas not have been asked to speak these words on a major, state-controlled university; one of those schools designed to challenge the thinking and preconceptions of student?

It's cool when your daughters don't have to worry about sharing bathrooms with boys

We learned that the Obama administration has sent a letter to public schools regarding bathrooms:

"The Obama administration will send a letter to every public school district in the country telling them to allow transgender students to use bathrooms and locker rooms that match their chosen gender identity, as opposed to their birth certificate.

"The letter, which is signed by officials at the Justice Department and the Department of Education, will be sent out to the districts on Friday. 
"While the letter does not have the force of law, it does warn that schools that do not abide by the administration’s interpretation of civil rights law may face lawsuits or loss of federal aid.
"There is no room in our schools for discrimination of any kind, including discrimination against transgender students on the basis of their sex," Attorney General Loretta Lynch said in a statement.

"Welcome to insanity and double standards.

"First, the Obama girls, who have never attended a public school, won't have to worry about any of this. They get to enjoy education the old-fashioned way, or when bathrooms were for boys and girls.  

"Second, this is another example of executive overreach, such as rewriting laws to distract your base from high black youth unemployment rates or sending troops to Iraq.

"The Obama administration is using Title IX rather than going to Congress or public opinion for a new law. I guess that they don't want to put Democrats in the uncomfortable position of voting "yes or no" on this issue. So they expand Title IX like they did with ObamaCare. 

"At some point, I'd love to see a Democrat stand up and say this: My fellow liberals, do we want these executive powers in the hands of President Trump?    

"In the meantime, it must be nice to write letters that affect parents but do not apply to your own kids.". . .    

Denmark says wind energy too expensive

Michael Bastasch

. . . “ 'We can’t accept this, as the private sector and households are paying far too much. Denmark’s renewable policy has turned out to be too expensive,” Lilleholt said.

"Denmark gets about 40 percent of its electricity from wind power and has a goal of getting half of its electricity from wind by 2020. But that goal has come up against a stronger prevailing headwind: high energy prices.

"Danes have paid billions in taxes and fees to support wind turbines, which has caused electricity prices to skyrocket even as the price of actual electricity has decreased. Now, green taxes make up 66 percent of Danish electricity bills. Only 15 percent of electricity bills went to energy generation.

"Electricity prices have gotten so high, the government has decided to slash green taxes on consumer energy bills.

Bruce Springsteen’s Silly Stand for Bathroom Rights; What’s Behind Obama’s Transgender Push and his bathroom wars?

Bookworm Room

"The Obama administration has announced that from this day forward, all public schools in America must let children choose their bathroom and locker room based upon a child’s feelings about his or her gender on any given day.  This means that, if a male sexual predator (or simply a sexually curious boy) feels that today is a good day to be a girl and watch the girls’ volleyball team strip off in the bathroom, that is his right and the school is obligated to comply:

"The guidance from leaders at the departments of Education and Justice says public schools are obligated to treat transgender students in a way that matches their gender identity, even if their education records or identity documents indicate a different sex.“There is no room in our schools for discrimination of any kind, including discrimination against transgender students on the basis of their sex,” Attorney General Loretta Lynch said in a statement accompanying the directive, which is being sent to school districts Friday." . . .

Obama's bathroom wars: Too familiar

. . . "My transgendered fellow citizens, don't buy the left's product.  Don't be their tool.  They will betray you as quickly and thoroughly as they betray everyone they use.  Look what they did to Juan Williams.  Look what they did to the women of Cologne, Germany.

"When you, the transgendered, are no longer useful to them, you will be out in the cold again.  They will denounce you as decadent, as they have done in the past.

"I appeal to you: reject this fascism.  Come to terms with the rest of us.  Let's work on a solution that respects everyone."

Bruce Springsteen’s silly stand for bathroom rights

. . . "And rock stars also routinely performed in the totalitarian Soviet Union, believing that was incredibly constructive.

"One wonders: Will these people ever stop complaining?" . . .

On this issue, Springsteen is at his most ridiculous: ‘‘Taking all of this into account, I feel that this is a time for me and the band to show solidarity for those freedom fighters . . . Some things are more important than a rock show, and this fight against prejudice and bigotry — which is happening as I write — is one of them.”

 . . . "Springsteen’s not alone. This past Sunday, 80s rock star Bryan Adams canceled a show in Biloxi, Miss., due to the state’s new religious freedom legislation. The hypocrisy is delicious. It was quickly revealed that Adams performed in Egypt just last month.

"And he toured other predominantly Muslim destinations in 2010, including Damascus, Doha, Dubai, and Beirut. We’re pretty certain those sites don’t have transgender bathrooms either." . . .

On Clinton Cash, Or, It’s Always Worse Than You Think

"Clinton Cash should outrage not only conservatives but also supporters of Hillary Clinton’s Democratic opponent Bernie Sanders. Despite its thriller-like scenarios, this brilliant documentary is not a partisan melodrama. It is a public service."

PJ Media

. . . "Clinton Cash, the documentary film which I watched in previews yesterday, is based on the best-selling exposé of the same name by Peter Schweizer, the tireless investigative journalist who has devoted himself to confronting political corruption and crony capitalism regardless of the political affiliation of the perpetrators. Produced by Breitbart’s Stephen K. Bannon and directed by M. A. Taylor, Clinton Cash is crisply narrated by Schweizer and provides a relentless and devastating portrait of brazen financial venality in exchange for political favors.

"I read through Clinton Cash quickly when it came out last May. This was no right-wing hit job (as the Clinton campaign asserted) but rather a methodical and exhaustively sourced chronicle of how the Clintons parlayed Bill’s celebrity, Hillary’s position as secretary of State, and her possible future tenure as president of the United States into a veritable Niagara of cash.

"Eye-popping speaking fees for Bill -- $250,000, $500,000, even $750,000 a pop -- and millions upon millions directed to the Clinton Foundation and its offshoots. Where was the money coming from? Did they actually find his "wisdom" that valuable?

. . . 

"Last year, following up with independent investigative research based on revelations in Clinton Cash, the Times published a long and devastating story about the how the Clintons sold out some twenty percent of American uranium assets to a Russian company controlled by Vladimir Putin. “At the heart of the tale,” the Times reported:

... are several men, leaders of the Canadian mining industry, who have been major donors to the charitable endeavors of former President Bill Clinton and his family. Members of that group built, financed and eventually sold off to the Russians a company that would become known as Uranium One.

. . .  Since uranium is considered a strategic asset, with implications for national security, the deal had to be approved by a committee composed of representatives from a number of United States government agencies. Among the agencies that eventually signed off was the State Department, then headed by Mr. Clinton’s wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Clinton Cash - Official Trailer

Columnist Worries Trump's 'Crooked Hillary' Moniker Could Stick

"Fairly or not, Clinton can't shed her history."

. . . “Fairly or not?” Clearly, the liberal media see any focus on her past ethical scraps -- "ancient" or recent -- as unfair. They know her numbers on trust are terrible. They just hope Trump’s are worse.

President Obama on the Wrong Side of History

"And if Obama had his way, Muslim refugees would be pouring into America as they are in Europe, and with the same painful consequences. Obama too would want to be on the right side of history, and to him that means transforming our culture by transforming America’s population demographics."

The American Spectator

. . . "Trevor Phillips, one of the leading proponents of Muslim migration to England, has publicly proclaimed that his vision of Muslim integration into British society was a grave mistake.

"President Obama could not find the right side of history if it were drawn for him by Rand McNally on a historical map of the world.

"His administration abandoned President Mubarak of Egypt who promoted stability and kept the peace with Israel. Instead, it supported the brutal Muslim Brotherhood who unleas[h]ed such a reign of tyranny on the Egyptian people that millions stood in the street to demand their removal from power.

"When the military overthrew the Muslim Brotherhood, the Obama administration did not breathe a sigh of relief for the rectification of its error. Instead, it sought to pressure the military to bring the Muslim Brotherhood back.

"There was the premature withdrawal from Iraq, the “pink line” in Syria, and the overthrow of Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi that transformed Libya into the breeding ground for terrorism and chaos that contributed to the flood of refugees washing up on Europe’s shores.

"If that were not a sufficient number of blunders, there was Obama’s early engagement with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on whose tyrannical shoulders Obama again mistakenly hoped to bring stability to the region.

"But nothing put Obama on the wrong side of history as much as the Iran deal, which has freed up hundreds of billions in assets that are being funneled to terrorist groups in the region." . . .

Harvard’s Blacklist: A Faustian Bargain

Mike Adams

. . . "Some will recall that the Christian Legal Society brought its case to the Supreme Court after campus officials told them it was “discriminatory” to have belief and behavioral requirements for its members. The Court sided with the university because their administrators claimed to have an “all comers” policy, which forced all university clubs to have membership open to everyone regardless of belief or behavior.When Ginsburg suggested that clubs that did not like the policy could simply meet off campus she was effectively telling them to go sit in the back of the bus.

 Despite its narrow application to schools with all comers policies, CLS v. Martinez was dangerous for at least two reasons: 

     1). The ruling allowed public university administrators to violate student free association rights – provided they did it to everyone, rather than targeting certain groups. With one stroke of the pen, the Supremes stated that it would be wrong to violate the free association rights of just one group. With another stroke of the pen, the Supremes ruled that it would somehow be better if universities did it to all groups “equally.” This is legal nonsense. The law may be an ass. But it should never be that much of an ass.
     2) Perhaps the most dangerous aspect of the Martinez ruling is that it undercut our nation’s longstanding tradition of respect for freedom of association as a cultural value. (Does anyone remember Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville?). 

Head of Iran’s hate cartoon fest equates Holocaust with Israeli actions in ‘Palestine’

Times of Israel

"US Holocaust museum debunks Tehran regime’s claim not to support the competition; WJC says Iran making a mockery of itself and of the world community"

A drawing submitted to a Holocaust denial cartoon contest
sponsored by Iran in 2015.

. . . "Masuod Shojai-Tabatabai said Saturday that organizers have no interest in denying the Holocaust or “ridiculing its victims.”

"He claimed, however, that the world was witnessing a similar massacre “by the Zionist regime in Gaza and Palestine.”

"Some 150 works from 50 countries are on display at the contest, which began Saturday and is running for the next two weeks. The works mainly criticize what they consider the use of the Holocaust by Israel to distract from the Palestine issue." . . .

Hat tip to Bad Blue

They say Israelis did this same thing to Arabs? Really? If Arabs conquered Israel they hope to do this to Israel; they even teach it on Palestinian children's TV.

The Selling of the Iran Deal

Weekly Standard

. . . "It would be hard to overstate how little reason the media had to trust the Obama administration on Iran. Initially, officials lied about even the existence of bilateral talks with Iran. The official narrative was that negotiations were keyed to the election of the "moderate" president of Iran Hassan Rouhani in 2013. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki would later confirm reporting that talks with Iran actually began in 2011.

"As for why journalists would carry so much water for the Obama administration, the simple answer is that they shared the administration's passion for a deal with Iran. Rozen's slavish devotion to Obama's Iran policy, for one, has been something to behold . . .

"That's just the beginning. When the Iranian Revolutionary Guard leader Qassem Soleimani, responsible for killing American soldiers in Iraq, began violating sanctions against Iran by visiting Europe, Rozen asserted his travels were lawful. In January, when Iran boarded an American vessel in the Persian Gulf, she responded to a photo of the Americans being held captive by tweeting, "looks like they are making friends." (In Samuels's piece, Rhodes is quoted lamenting the fact that the leaked news of American sailors being taken captive—Rhodes was trying to keep it a secret—would overshadow Obama's State of the Union address later that same day.)...

Obama aide Ben Rhodes stirs ill will at home, abroad with series of gaffes  . . . "Ben Rhodes, the talkative aide who is in charge of “strategic communications” for President Obama’s national security team, by Monday had managed to revive opposition to the president’s Iran nuclear deal, alienate journalists supposedly rooting for the president, raise hackles in Israel and even trigger a White House swipe at Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton." . . .

Attn: Bruce Springsteen! Man accused of choking girl, 8, in restroom of South Loop restaurant

Chicago Tribune

Reese M. Hartstirn, of the 500 block of North Racine Avenue, was charged with a felony count of aggravated kidnapping and a felony count of aggravated battery to a child under 13,

 (Cook County Sheriff)

"A West Town man is accused of choking an 8-year-old girl until she passed out inside a bathroom of a restaurant in the South Loop neighborhood last weekend.

"The girl was inside J[a]son's Deli in the 1200 block of South Canal Street with her mother around 1:15 p.m. Saturday when the two became separated, according to police.

"The girl went into the bathroom. At some point, Reese M. Hartstirn, 33, came into the bathroom and started choking the girl with his hands, causing her to become unconscious, according to the Chicago Police Department.

"He then picked up the unconscious girl and carried her into a bathroom stall, closing the door so she couldn’t leave, according to the release.  Hartstirn pushed the girl’s mother when she came into the stall to rescue her daughter, police said." . . . Via Rush Limbaugh

Somebody please forward this on to Bruce Springsteen, will you? TD

Obama 'obsession' allows men to choke girls in bathrooms  

“ 'Gretchen Flores remembers how, as a 10-year-old girl, her male swim coach talked her into letting him ‘help’ massage the cramps out of her legs in the locker room. His assistance turned into sexual abuse, and a secret that burned a hole in her memory. “As far as I know, he was never arrested,” Flores says.

"The report continued, explaining Emory University psychiatrist Dr. Gene Abel found that the average male pedophile who abused girls “had victimized 52 girls over the course of his lifetime. Another study discovered that pedophiles harm 12 victims before being caught.”

"The Daily Signal reported that sexual assault survivors have little concern over the motives for a male in a women’s room, whether he identifies as transgender or not.”The presence of a male of any variety, whether he’s somebody who identifies as a trans or not, whether he has deviant motives or not, that’s irrelevant to the reality that for survivors of sexual trauma to just turn around and to be exposed to that is an instant trigger,” said Kaeley Triller, a sexual trauma survivor." . . .

Related video at Alliance Defending Freedom

TV Politics vs. Movie Art

"Clooney’s cheap Money Monster and Davies’s rich Sunset Song."

NRO

. . . "Lacking the currency of those Seventies Vietnam/Watergate reflexive dramas, Money Monster partakes of the fashionable thralldom to television as the ultimate communicative medium, but it sentimentalizes the intellectual and spiritual damage TV does to those — including social elites — who bow down to it. Foster directs in that HBO style people mistake for cinema, but her emphasis on close-ups and shrill emotional manipulation (as when show hijacker Jack O’Connell is publicly humiliated and then pitied by big shot Gates and his tough female studio director, played by Julia Roberts) is all for lovers of the boob tube. Foster’s low point comes when, once the crisis is resolved, she does a Family-of-Fed-Up-Man montage of average faces. Thank God for Terence Davies’s Sunset Song, or else this week’s moviegoers might have had no idea what a real movie looks like.