The White House and the Trump Carrier deal strategy

Before our main article, remember this: Trump actually has had a bigger triumph than Carrier prior to taking office

. . . Trump appears to be more successful in getting a message across before he is president that Obama did in eight years as President.
We should all remember that Ronald Reagan, the greatest President in my lifetime, caused the Soviet Union to collapse and brought down the Berlin wall, not with starting a war, but with words and strength. It is a shame that Democrats learn so little from history.

Anyway, here is the main point: 
White House gets defensive about Trump’s Carrier win, steps in it BIG TIME…

"Over the last few weeks, we’ve watched liberals try and wrap their minds around how they blew the election, making up every excuse under the sun rather than accept the truth that their policies are out of touch with the majority of Americans in this country. 

"At the same time, we’re watching the Obama administration desperately try to prop up its failed legacy, even as President-elect Trump blows them out of the water even before he sets foot in office.

"The news of Trump’s saving more than 1,000 U.S. jobs from moving to Mexico has put the Obama administration on the defensive on multiple fronts. As if it wasn’t awkward enough that footage of Obama mocking Trump’s plan to save those jobs has resurfaced, Josh Earnest’s efforts to defend the president’s own jobs record only made matters worse." . . . Hat tip to M Fumie Craig

Thomas Lifson: The key to Trump’s Carrier deal: Next generation manufacturing  "In his speech at Carrier yesterday (video embedded below), Donald Trump revealed some information that should comfort those market purists worried about America insulating itself from global markets, and thereby falling behind overseas competitors. He revealed that the reported $16 million is likely to end up much higher figure because the company is committing to next generation manufacturing."

'They don't live here': Arkansas lawmaker wants to rename Little Rock's 'Bill and Hillary Clinton' airport

UK Daily Mail

"Arkansas State Sen. Jason Rapert doesn't believe his state's largest airport should be named after Bill and Hillary Clinton any more. 

"Rapert told the Hill newspaper that the election, and the former secretary of state's puny percentage in her husband's home state, proved that Arkansans were done with the Clintons, whose names appear on the airport in Little Rock. 

" 'The Clinton left Arkansas and do not reside here,' the lawmaker told the Hill. 'Many in our state do not want the first thing people see and last thing they remember about Arkansas being two of the most scandal-ridden politicians in American history.' " . . .

Things will be bouncing off the walls wherever Hillary is tonight.

Reports: Trump’s Pick for Secretary of Defense is Retired Marine General James Mattis

Trump picks retired General ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis for secretary of defense  "Donald Trump intends to nominate Gen. James Mattis, one of the most respected military men of his generation, to run the sprawling Department of Defense, it was reported Thursday.

"Citing people familiar with the decision, the Washington Post said the announcement from the president-elect is expected next week.

"But since a law prevents those on active duty within the last seven years from serving in a civilian post, Congress will not only have to confirm Mattis but also pass a law making an exception.

"Congress has done that just once, when Gen. George C. Marshall was appointed to the post in 1950.

"Mattis left the Marines in 2013 and has since been a think-tank scholar at Stanford’s prestigious Hoover Institution and a board member of several private companies." . . .

Legal Insurrection

. . . Mattis, 66, retired as the chief of U.S. Central Command in spring 2013 after serving more than four decades in the Marine Corps. He is known as one of the most influential military leaders of his generation, serving as a strategic thinker while occasionally drawing rebukes for his aggressive talk. Since retiring, he has served as a consultant and as a visiting fellow with the Hoover Institution, a think tank at Stanford University.

Like Trump, Mattis favors a tougher stance against U.S. adversaries abroad, especially Iran. The general, speaking at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in April, said that while security discussions often focus on terrorist groups like the Islamic State or al-Qaeda, the Iranian regime is “the single most enduring threat to stability and peace in the Middle East.”

Mattis said the next president “is going to inherit a mess,” and argued that the nuclear deal signed by the Obama administration last year may slow Iran’s ambitions to get a nuclear weapon, but won’t stop them.

“In terms of strengthening America’s global standing among European and Mid-Eastern nations alike, the sense is that the America has become somewhat irrelevant in the Middle East, and we certainly have the least influence in 40 years,” Mattis said.

"As for Israel, Mattis sees, “West Bank settlements turning Israel into an apartheid state” reports Haaretz:" . . .

Expect push-back from the left because of thoughts such as this.

When they do, keep this in mind:
. . . "While serving in Afghanistan as a brigadier general, he was known as an officer who engaged his men with "real leadership". A young Marine officer named Nathaniel Fick cited an example of that leadership when he witnessed Mattis in a fighting holetalking with a sergeant and a lance corporal: "No one would have questioned Mattis if he'd slept eight hours each night in a private room, to be woken each morning by an aide who ironed his uniforms and heated his MREs. But there he was, in the middle of a freezing night, out on the lines with his Marines." . . .

On Israel: "Mattis supports a two-state solution model for Israel-Palestinian peace. He says the current situation in Israel is “unsustainable” and argues that the settlements harm prospects for peace and could theoretically lead to an apartheid-like situation in the West Bank. In particular, he believes the lack of a two-state solution is upsetting to the Arab allies of America, which weakens US esteem amongst its Arab allies. Mattis strongly supports John Kerry on the Middle East peace process, praising Kerry for being "wisely focused like a laser-beam" towards a two-state solution."

Mattis' medals and ribbons are listed in this article as well.

Obama Fired This Top General Without Even a Phone Call

Gen. James Mattis criticizes Obama defense, security policies  . . . "Retired Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis, former commander of the U.S. Central Command, delivered a harsh critique of the Obama administration’s defense and national security policies this week — without ever mentioning the president or his security team by name.

"Gen. Mattis, in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, pulled no punches in criticizing policies and strategies ranging from confronting Chinese bullying in Asia and pulling U.S. troops out of Afghanistan to sharp defense cuts and putting women into combat roles." . . .

An ObamaCare Agenda For President-Elect Trump

Galen Institute  "Although it came late as a campaign issue, ObamaCare was on the ballot again on Tuesday.  And it lost big.

"According to exit polls, 45% said they thought the law had gone too far.  Only 18% said it was about right. That follows years of public opinion polls consistently showing approval of the law under water.

"Voters have opposed the law since before it passed.  Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other determined liberals ignored the hundreds of thousands of people who marched on the Washington Mall on September 12, 2009, to protest their agenda. After that, deep-blue Massachusetts elected Republican Scott Brown to the Senate in early 2010 in an effort to build a firewall against final passage of the law.

"That failed when the White House devised a tortured and narrow path to final passage in March, but Democrats paid a high price when 63 House Democrats who voted for the law lost their seats in the 2010 mid-term elections.

"In 2012, Mitt Romney was an imperfect opponent of the health overhaul law, having shepherded passage of a version of it when he was governor of Massachusetts.  In 2015, after Republicans won control of the Senate, both houses of Congress did pass a repeal bill, only to see it vetoed by President Obama.

"In 2016, voters had another, maybe last, chance, but for much of the campaign, ObamaCare took a back seat to immigration, trade, veterans, jobs, and an endless well of scandals.  But then former President Clinton criticized the law (“…the craziest thing!”), and Hillary Clinton and even President Obama acknowledged changes were needed to ObamaCare." . . .    By Grace-Marie Turner and Doug Badger

From HopeNChangeCartoons is this by Stilton Jarlsberg, who writes below:

All Rights Reserved  HopeNChangeCartoons.com © 2009-2013

. . . "Currently, we are receiving multiple email and telephone messages daily warning that our access to health insurance will be cut off soon unless we provide a host of documents to prove what our income will be in 2017. Documents which are pretty freaking hard to come by for self-employed cartoonists and gadabout authors.

"Adding to the fun, we have to change policies because Mrs. Jarlsberg has just started Medicare. Interestingly, taking one person off a two-person policy costs you 75% of your subsidy. Because, according to Healthcare.gov, "screw you."

"And speaking of Medicare, we just got a letter that Mrs. Jarlsberg's rates are being doubled before her first day of coverage because the same government which says they lack enough information about our income has simultaneously decided that we have an income of several hundred thousand dollars a year. A number which is only off by several hundred thousand dollars. And not in a good way." . . .

Donald Trump’s New World Order; What a Kissinger-inspired strategy might look like.

LESSONS FROM HISTORY

"Donald Trump therefore enters the Oval Office with an underestimated advantage. Obama’s foreign policy has been a failure, most obviously in the Middle East, where the smoldering ruin that is Syria—not to mention Iraq and Libya—attests to the fundamental naivety of his approach, dating all the way back to the 2009 Cairo speech.

Niall Ferguson   "Ten days after the election of Donald J. Trump to be the 45thPresident of the United States, there is a more or less complete lack of certainty as to which direction his foreign policy will take, but a great deal of speculation—much of it alarmist—based on things Mr. Trump has said in speeches and interviews. Yet few if any Presidents base their foreign policy strictly on campaign rhetoric. Few if any break entirely with the policies of their predecessors. And, indeed, few if any can be said, in practice, to have anything so coherent as a foreign policy doctrine, much less a grand strategy. Experience also suggests that the foreign policy of the Trump Administration will depend a good deal on who gets the key jobs—Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense, as well as National Security Advisor—and on who wins the interdepartmental struggle that will inevitably ensue: the battle for bureaucratic priority, the fight for regular access to the President, the war of leaks to the media." . . .

Good guy with a gun stops bad guy with a car and a wicked blade

On the OSU attack: Another knee-jerk response from the left over guns

On Castro, Obama Shrugs

http://www.americanthinker.com/cartoons/

Obama's Latest Shrug of the Shoulders  "We finally have an Obama doctrine. It is the 223 words of the White House statement on the death of Fidel Castro. It is blank of moral judgment, empty of indignation, blind to injustice, dismissive of history and indifferent to injury. A dictator has died and Barack Obama sent him off with lazy weasel words: "History will record and judge the enormous impact of this singular figure on the people and world around him." History will also record Obama's failure to condemn.

"Fidel Castro was a killer. He came to power in a revolution and so violence was probably inescapable. But he followed it with mass executions -- the guilty, the innocent, it hardly mattered. He imposed a totalitarian system on Cuba even harsher and more homicidal than the one that preceded it. He persecuted homosexuals, dissidents, critical writers and journalists. He would not tolerate a free press and his own political party was the only one permitted. In the end, he ruined his country's economy while at the same time exporting terrorism. Venezuela today is a quasi-police state run with the invaluable assistance of Cubans." . . .

Barack Obama Stoops To New Low In Honor Of Fidel Castro  . . . "That the President of the United States could stoop to such praise over a brutal, anti-American, Communist dictator is shocking to many. Obama seems to have a lot to say out of “respect” to Fidel Castro, but he offers total silence to his regime’s many victims."

Fixer Upper Stars Under Fire for Attending Evangelical Church. Updated

Todd Starnes

"One of my guilty pleasures in life is to watch Fixer Upper marathons on HGTV.

"Hosts Chip and Joanna Gaines have not only made Waco, Texas a tourist destination, but they’ve also educated us about the many uses of shiplap.

"If you aren’t a fan of the show, you might want to Google that.

"I also appreciate that Chip and Joanna are devout Christians. Viewers can see how their faith flavors not only their television program – but also their family life.

"But not everyone appreciates those Christian beliefs – especially the militant LGBT crowd.

"And now, they are on the warpath.

"The Mainstream Media and militant LGBT activists are unleashing their fury over reports the Gaines family attends Antioch Community Church, a non-denominational megachurch." . . .

My Faculty Values and Your White Privilege

legalinsurrection

Mike Adams  "Dear Professors Meinhold, Members of the UNCW Faculty Senate Steering Committee:

"I am in receipt of your brief 69­word statement, which was sent on November 23 rd , 2016 to the entire faculty, staff, and student population at the University of North Carolina – Wilmington. The statement, which was made in response to a recent free speech controversy, is problematic for a number of reasons.

"Let me begin by saying that I respect many of the members of the Faculty Senate Steering Committee. That is why I am so disappointed with your brief statement, which is predicated on a misapprehension of facts, wrought with political bias, and lacking in logic cohesion. I begin my critique by recapitulating your brief statement:

"The Faculty of the University of North Carolina Wilmington are committed to creating a positive learning environment for students to pursue academic excellence.
"Public remarks by professors about a student’s race, color, national origin, religion, sex, gender identity, age, disability, political afiliation, or sexual orientation are inconsistent with our values. Stephen Meinhold Professor of Political Science 

"The problems that flow from your statement are numerous. I will stick with five:"

And those five are:. . . 

Khalid Sheikh Muhammed: If Not For “Ferocity” Of George W. Bush’s Response To 9/11, Al Qaeda Would Have Been Able To Commit More Attacks…

So many of us were thankful that Al Gore was not president then. TD

Weasel Zippers  "Khalid Sheikh Muhammed was the principal architect of 9/11 for Al Qaeda. He basically is saying they did 9/11 believing that nothing would happen to them but a ‘law enforcement’ response, because that’s all Bill Clinton had done to attacks in the past. So Bush did stop further attacks and Bill Clinton’s ‘law enforcement’ approach encouraged them."

In defense of the Electoral College

"If anything, it was the Electoral College that made it possible to end slavery, since Abraham Lincoln earned only 39 percent of the popular vote in the election of 1860, but won a crushing victory in the Electoral College. This, in large measure, was why Southern slaveholders stampeded to secession in 1860-61. They could do the numbers as well as anyone, and realized that the electoral college would only produce more anti-slavery Northern presidents."  Refute that, if you can.

Weasel Zippers

"Here’s good recitation of the benefits of the Electoral College. And no, it wasn’t created to benefit slavery as liberal media has been claiming, a complete bastardization of history."

If the WaPo article won't open, try this.  . . . "Actually, there have been only five occasions when a closely divided popular vote and the electoral vote have failed to point in the same direction. No matter. After last week's results, we're hearing a litany of complaints: the electoral college is undemocratic, the electoral college is unnecessary, the electoral college was invented to protect slavery - and the demand to push it down the memory hole." . . .

Ohio State:Two of the nation's leaders speak out

"At the end of the day we will find out what happened," Gov. John Kasich (R), who graduated from Ohio State in 1974, said at a briefing. "We may never totally find out why this person did what they did or why they snapped. We may never find out."*

The People's Cube

Ed Straker   "The case of Abdul Razak Ali Artan, the Somali-born Islamic terrorist who ran over and stabbed 11 people with a butcher knife at Ohio State may be what President Obama calls a "teachable moment."  We can feel great sympathy for the victims, but it is also fair to point out that some of the policies advocated by said victims helped contribute to this tragedy.  And the fact is that a large number of Ohio State faculty and students are strongly pro-Islamic immigration.

"Hollie Nyseth Brehm, an assistant professor of criminology (ironically), and student ​Abd Al-Rahman Traboulsi created an organization at Ohio State called "Refuge," bringing in putatively victimized foreigners to get a free education in America." . . .

*Just look at what a failed presidential contender had to say about the terrorist attack:

Sheila Jackson Lee beclowns herself on the Ohio State terror attack   . . ."Thus, when a Somali "refugee" decided to maim or kill as many Americans as he could by driving his car into a crowd, following the instructions ISIS recently gave to Muslims seeking vengeance, Representative Lee followed the ready – fire – aim protocol of the stupid, issuing this tweet:

"Taken literally, the hero of the incident, Ohio State University police officer Alan Horujko is guilty of a "senseless shooting.' " . . .