Bernie Sanders, confronted with socialism's failures, cannot defend his economic policies

https://earloftaint.com/

Thomas Lifson   "Edgar Portela of Newsbusters reports:

When asked to explain the failure of socialist governments in Venezuela, Argentina and Brazil, Sanders completely clammed up, saying he has an opinion on the subject, but was unwilling to share it, as he is “focused on my campaign.”

Sanders, Radio Hosts Get Into Testy Exchange Over Whether A Left Wing Agenda Can Work When Government Is So Bad  . . . "The hosts noted that Sanders platform is far left, dotted with items like free college and universal health care. But they’re main question was how is this going to work, let alone garnering more support for these programs, when you hear stories about the inexcusable waiting times (and appalling care) at Veterans Affairs, along with the pervasive failure over at the Transportation Security Administration. Some of these security lines have resulted in travelers waiting hours to be screened prior to boarding. Airlines are not happy with the deteriorating situation. Recently, a top official dealing with was removed from his position as head of security for the TSA, though he had collected $90,000 in bonuses despite no improvements with the security line situation.

Ronald Reagan vs. Barack Obama’s Legacy Brilliantly Compared

The Federalist Papers

, , , "Robert Gehl reports that there’s one part of Barack Obama’s letter to all public schools and universities about “transgender accommodation” that the media – and the rest of us – have overlooked.

"It has nothing to do with bathrooms or locker rooms, either – but something much worse. Obama’s federal “guidance” requires that:

1) School districts must allow males and females to spend the night together in the same hotel on school field trips.
2) Colleges must let men who claim to be transgender room with women.
3) School officials are not permitted to tell the women (or their parents) that their new roommate is a man.

"It’s crystal clear and plainly worded in the letter:

Housing and Overnight Accommodations. Title IX allows a school to provide separate housing on the basis of sex. But a school must allow transgender students to access housing consistent with their gender identity and may not require transgender students to stay in single-occupancy accommodations or to disclose personal information when not required of other students.

Obama's naive idealism has caused havoc as America makes the same mistakes over and over again

Charles Krauthammer's column was carried thus in this British publication

UK Telegraph

. . . "Barack Obama is a classic case study in foreign policy idealism. Indeed, one of his favorite quotations is about the arrow of history: "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." He has spent nearly eight years trying to advance that arc of justice. Hence his initial "apology tour," that burst of confessional soul-searching abroad about America and its sins, from slavery to the loss of our moral compass after 9/11. Friday's trip to Hiroshima completes the arc." . . .

The Hiroshima Bombing Was Right and Necessary

 

Here is the true message of Hiroshima: So long as America remains a great nation, it will rise to defeat great evil, and it will do so with its full power and deepest conviction. That message has been indispensable to keeping our nation — and the world — out of another global conflict for more than 70 years. David French

David French at NRO

It defeated great evil and inaugurated a period of peace.

. . . "No, Mr. President, in the image of the mushroom cloud, were are starkly reminded of the horrific evil of Imperial Japan and the ingenuity and resolve of the American people to defeat one of the most genocidal forces the world has ever seen. Americans have short memories, and to the extent they think about World War II, they tend to think of Hitler and the Holocaust — and justifiably so. His attempt to exterminate an entire race of people was among the worst crimes in world history. But in remembering Hitler, we cannot forget Japan. It killed an estimated 14 million Chinese citizens in its invasion of China. And during the course of that invasion, its forces acted much like Hitler’s SS, conducting mass-scale rapes, grotesque human experimentation, and enslaving countless men, women, and children.

The bomb prevented many more scenes like this:

John Bolton  Obama's "penchant for apologizing is central to his legacy. He may not often say “I apologize” explicitly, but his meaning is always clear, especially since he often bends his knee overseas, where he knows the foreign audiences will get his meaning. It is, in fact, Obama’s subtlety that makes his effort to reduce America’s influence in the world so dangerous."

Professor Claims ‘Neo-Nazi’ Ben Shapiro’s Campus Lecture Left Students ‘Brutalized’

Tré Goins-Phillips  "Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro held a lecture at California State University, Los Angeles, in February. One week ago, university President William Covino hosted a “healing space” meeting to brainstorm ways CSULA can block speakers like Shapiro from visiting the school in the future.

"In the newly-released video obtained by the Young America’s Foundation, Covino can be seen emphatically saying he would “never” invite Shapiro to speak on campus, adding that it was students who invited the conservative personality and funded the event.

. . . "Abdullah went on to say she is hearing from students who feel “traumatized” and “brutalized, physically, emotionally and mentally” by Shapiro’s months-old lecture, which is ironic because during Shapiro’s talk, many protesters rallying against his him reportedly became violent." . . .

They promised never to hire a conservative speaker again!

. . . "During the same session, professor Melinda Abdullah, chair of the college’s Pan-African Studies department, told Covino that she found Shapiro to be an advocate of “anti-blackness,” even calling him a “neo-Nazi,” which she said is “ironic” because she knows he’s Jewish.

“I get he’s Jewish, so that’s ironic that I’m calling him a neo-Nazi,” she said, “but that’s basically what he is. A neo-KKK member — let’s call him that.”

Abdullah went on to say she is hearing from students who feel “traumatized” and “brutalized, physically, emotionally and mentally” by Shapiro’s months-old lecture, which is ironic because during Shapiro’s talk, many protesters rallying against his him reportedly became violent.

“It seemed more like brutality when students were being assaulted and hustled into my lecture two at a time through back entrances, when I required a phalanx of cops just to get on and off campus, and when the students were trapped in a room for fear of violence just for wanting to hear me speak,” Shapiro told TheBlaze.

But the protests against him aren’t quelling his willingness to go back to the college.

. . . 

"Interestingly, though the university leadership apparently wants to keep people like Shapiro out of the school’s lecture circuit, they just hosted Angela Davis, a convicted criminal and 1960s Communist Party USA leader." . . .

MSNBC’s Devastating 10 Minutes On Hillary Clinton Where Lifelong Democrats Take Her Apart

Weasel Zippers  Video at the link.

Shaun King 

✔‎@ShaunKing

Far and away the most devastating 10 minutes on@HillaryClinton you will EVER see. From lifelong Democrats. It's bad

12:31 AM - 27 May 2016

 
•  1,9941,994 Retweets
 
•  2,4952,495 likes

"Notice the parting kicker at the end, even more emails have been found, despite Grandma’s claim that “I turned over 55,000 pages”."

The Nation's Pulse: Mr. Boorish vs. Mrs. Boring

“Every nation has the government which it is fit for.”  Joseph de Maistre

"We’re getting what we evidently deserve, and how."

The American Spectator   "The quadrennial national popularity contest underway pits the host of one of America’s longest running reality shows against a woman whose husband won election to the presidency. The vote always tells us at least as much about the electorate as it does the elected.

"Like the homecoming king and queen in high school, the presidential nominees turn out to lack genuine popularity when you discreetly inquire with the subjects.

"In the NBC poll released Tuesday, Clinton voters pick “opposition to Donald Trump” as the most compelling reason (33 percent) to cast a ballot for their candidate. Trump voters pick “opposition to Hillary Clinton” as the most compelling reason (36 percent) to cast a ballot for their candidate. Voters, wrong on so much in this election cycle, don’t err here.

"The NBC survey finds that 58 percent of Americans say they either dislike or hate Mrs. Clinton. For Mr. Trump, the negative response comes from 64 percent of respondents. Americans vote against a candidate, and much else, this election.

"This negativity favors the candidate of change, not of the status quo. Trump’s positions on trade, immigration, foreign policy, and much else represent a clean break from the dogmas of both parties’ elites. After an American Century in which the U.S. dominated economically, the Americant Century struggles in the face of annual GDP growth averaging below two percent and an ominous cloud of debt approaching $20 trillion.

"The national palate understandably entertains the idea of a more exotic plate." . . .

Another Obamacare co-op bites the dust

http://terrellaftermath.com/

Rick Moran  "Ohio's Obamacare co-op will be shut down over the next 60 days despite efforts to keep it afloat.

"Nearly 22,000 customers will be forced to find alternatives for their health insurance. The meltdown marks the 13th out of 23 Obamacare co-ops to go under.

"The Hill:"  More at the link
. . ."As the pool of insurers continues to shrink, competition disappears as well. With companies likely to demand double digit increases in insurance rates this year, even fewer options will become available for consumers in the future. The end of Obamacare is on the horizon, killed by stupidity and incompetence. So much of what was sold to the people about what Obamacare would do has been shown to be wrong that its death will be welcomed by most."

UPDATE:Thanks to Jimmy Kimmel Trump will debate Sanders for Charity. Oops...NO?

UPDATE: Trump Says No To Debate With Bernie: ‘Inappropriate’ To Debate ‘Second Place Finisher’
“ 'Based on the fact that the Democratic nominating process is totally rigged and Crooked Hillary Clinton and (Debbie) Wasserman-Schultz will not allow Bernie Sanders to win, and now that I am the presumptive Republican nominee, it seems inappropriate that I would debate the second-place finisher,” Trump said in a statement."
More on this here.

Althouse  "Great for Trump because it shows — in addition to the instinct to toward charity — that he's unafraid and not inclined toward the passive role of standing back and letting his opponents beat each other up.

"Great for Bernie because he's shown his readiness to debate and Hillary turned him down. She turned him down the day after she said — on "Meet the Press," when asked if she'd do the debate Bernie had accepted — "You know, I haven't thought about it." I wrote at the time: "How is that possible? That's an unforced lie." When she declined the debate the very next day, I thought it was ridiculous. She never bothered with the pretense of taking the idea of the debate seriously.

"But Trump is game. And so is Bernie "Game on!" Sanders.

It's go time! We know Trump has the brains for the debate, but is he educated enough? A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, you know.

Krauthammer: The arrow of history

Charles Krauthammer  . . . "Barack Obama is a classic case study in foreign policy idealism. Indeed, one of his favorite quotations is about the arrow of history: "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." He has spent nearly eight years trying to advance that arc of justice. Hence his initial "apology tour," that burst of confessional soul-searching abroad about America and its sins, from slavery to the loss of our moral compass after 9/11. Friday's trip to Hiroshima completes the arc.

Unfortunately, with "justice" did not come peace. The policies that followed — appeasing Vladimir Putin, the Iranian mullahs, the butchers of Tiananmen Square and lately the Castros — have advanced neither justice nor peace. On the contrary. The consequent withdrawal of American power, that agent of injustice or at least arrogant overreach, has yielded nothing but geopolitical chaos and immense human suffering. (See Syria.)

But now an interesting twist. Two terms as president may not have disabused Obama of his arc-of-justice idealism (see above: Hiroshima visit), but they have forced upon him at least one policy of hardheaded, indeed hardhearted, realism." . . .

Politically Incorrect Cartoon Exposes Obama’s Foreign Policy For What it REALLY is

THE BIG UNEASY; What’s roiling the liberal-arts campus?

The New Yorker  "At Oberlin, it started in December, when the temperatures ran high, although the weeping willows and the yellow poplars that had flared in the fall were bare already. Problems had a tendency to escalate. There was, to name one thing, the food fight: students had noted the inauthenticity of food at the school’s Afrikan Heritage House, and followed up with an on-site protest. (Some international students, meanwhile, complained that cafeteria dishes such as sushi and bánh mì were prepared with the wrong ingredients, making a mockery of cultural cuisine.) There was scrutiny of the curriculum: a student wanted trigger warnings on “Antigone.” And there was all the world outside. A year earlier, a black boy with a pellet gun named Tamir Rice was killed by a police officer thirty miles east of Oberlin’s campus, and the death seemed to instantiate what students had been hearing in the classroom and across the widening horizons of their lives. Class and race mattered. Power in a system would privilege its authors. After a grand jury declined to indict Rice’s shooter, the prosecutor called the death a “perfect storm of human error.” . . .  H/T to Althouse

Who and what caused the big housing crisis and economic tailspin? (Updated)

How Democrats Were Responsible For Mortgage Crisis That Led To Great Recession  . . . "The New York Times reported on this in 1999:

Fannie Mae, the nation’s biggest underwriter of home mortgages, has been under increasing pressure from the Clinton Administration to expand mortgage loans among low and moderate income people and felt pressure from stock holders to maintain its phenomenal growth in profits. 

In addition, banks, thrift institutions and mortgage companies have been pressing Fannie Mae to help them make more loans to so-called subprime borrowers. These borrowers whose incomes, credit ratings and savings are not good enough to qualify for conventional loans, can only get loans from finance companies that charge much higher interest rates — anywhere from three to four percentage points higher than conventional loans.

"Even back then, there were skeptics. Specifically, the American Enterprise Institute raised alarms, saying if all these “low-income” mortgages fail, there would be a crisis." . . .
The one that Obama continually refers to to explain his own economic issues.

Rush brings us an economics lesson  Pay attention to this man; he is not some silly hack, but knows what goes on in government.

. . . "What really happened was in the nineties Bill Clinton ordered these loans to be made, and Janet Reno, who was the attorney general at the time, threatened these banks with investigations, open-ended investigations into whatever they might be doing if they didn't comply.  And so they did, just like they were all called into a room during the financial crisis and told they were going to take loans or subsidies or buyouts or whatever, $25 billion, even the banks that didn't need it.  This was TARP.  

"So that's what led to the subprime mortgage.  It was a disaster brought to you by the United States government as presided over by Bill Clinton at the time.  It's inarguable, this is what happened.  Your average Democrat doesn't know it.  They have bought hook, line, and sinker a total different story, including elected Democrats."  . . . 

. . . " "Last year," it says here, which would have been 1998, "44% of loans Fannie Mae purchased are from moderate and low income."  It was expanding.  The pressure was on.  Janet Reno was out demanding these banks lend the money or we're gonna investigate you for whatever we can find. " . . . 

. . . "George W. Bush was governor of Texas.  George W. Bush had nothing to do with any of this.  In fact, the truth of the matter is, George W. Bush and the inspectors general, the investigators, tried to shut it down, and Barney Frank told the investigators to go pound sand. " . . . 

Some mud wrestling on the subject: