An engine breakdown that said it all

"Again, it was not a perfect country and politics had always been challenging to Cuba. But let me tell you about two things that did not happen in pre-Castro Cuba:
1) People were not taking homemade rafts to the U.S.; and,
2) Funeral cars did not break down on their way to the cemetery

Silvio Canto, Jr.  "Over the years, Cubans, in the U.S. and the island, have come up with some rather amazing jokes about the death of Fidel Castro.   

"For example, Cubans have joked about the inefficient Cuban bureaucracy by saying that Castro died years ago but they are still doing the paperwork.

"Another joke going around is that refugees from hell will soon show up in Florida's shores. Fidel's newest exiles from hell!

"Another joke is that Che greeted him in hell and then lit him up.    

"However, no one could have foreseen what we saw in Cuba over the weekend. Yes, the car taking Castro's remains to his resting place broke down:

The vehicle hauling the trailer carrying Castro’s remains broke down on the road near the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba during Saturday’s procession.

"Please don't blame the U.S. embargo because this is not a 1950s car. This is probably a small truck built in the USSR or somewhere in the old Soviet bloc. Maybe the Castro government forgot to pay the Russian equivalent of road assistance.

"Overall, it was a reminder of just how much harm Castro did to Cuba." . . .

Castro wasn’t funny in life. In death, perhaps he will become something of laughingstock.  "How symbolic! What could be more fitting, given the broken down nature of the antique Cuban state produced by Castro?

There have been plenty of choice comments on Twitter. Here’s the obvious take in the form of an old joke:
NOTHING in Cuba works. Except the prostitutes.
Here’s my favorite:
Even hell doesn’t want him.
I also liked this one:
For anyone who thinks the embargo didn’t work, show them this picture [of the hearse being pushed] and laugh. YES.

Sorry Hillary, but Obama is the true Santa Claus

Why Obama Likely is Secretly Glad Hillary Lost  "Am I the only person who thinks that in Barack Obama’s heart of hearts lies a glimmer of glee now that the Clintons won’t be moving into the White House when he moves out?  Roll your eyes in skepticism, if you will. But hear me out before launching a barrage of Bronx cheers.

"Yes, yes, I know.  Obama took time out from his busy presidential schedule to campaign for Hillary.  On the other hand, he’s taken time out to play golf, fly off to vacations, fund-raise, and do other things unrelated to the business at hand.  Face it: the garrulous guy has always loved being on the stump.  In fact, he delivers speeches better than he delivers the promises in them.  And even if he isn’t allowed by law to run for a third term, he has sufficient conceit to believe that he could handily have whipped both Hillary and The Donald.

"Obama would be the first to remind us that the longer the contentious 2016 presidential campaign dragged on, the higher his approval ratings rose, if only because he was not actually a candidate.   Still, our sitting president is vain enough to take this as a sign of his enduring popularity, of which he intends to take full advantage when he leaves office.  In a way, it will help him that Secretary Clinton was defeated, since there now appears to be no other Democrat who is capable of reminding the world how he won two elections and did much good." . . . 

The DNC Has a Political Death Wish

G. Murphy Donovan

. . . "The great divide in America is not between socialism and capitalism, male and female, black and white, or upper and lower classes anymore.  Demographic schism is a choice: choice between free man and slave, choice between producer and consumer, choice between maker and taker.  For the moment, urban America, those Democrat sinecures, are mired in a swamp of red ink, race-gender pandering, and hostile dependencies – a toxic mix, indeed.
. . . 

"Democrats are also fond of claiming to be on the "right side of history."  By what twist of logic is Marx or Mohammed right about anything relevant to freedom, democracy, or human rights?

The secular left confuses the passage of time with progress, while Islam is simply frozen in time.  Indeed, too much of ersatz Islam is rooted in a theosophy where the clock stopped in the 7th century.

. . . 

"Liberals lost the American political middle in 2016 and now appear to be in a foot race to the ideological fringes.  Collusion between American liberals and Islamic zealots is surely popular with campus sophomores and aging academic tokers, but not necessarily the choice of a nation seeking civilized futures."

National Review: A Problem Like Keith Ellison  "Republicans should take a minute to simply enjoy all this before getting on to the serious business at hand. If they cannot have Debbie Wasserman Schultz organizing opposition to them, former Farrakhan fanboy Keith Ellison of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor party is a great second choice."

Dem Rep. Keith Ellison: House Democrats Will Do Nothing But “Vote No” While Trump Is President…
"Dems  claimed this was racist when Republicans made similiar statements."

Meanwhile Democrats lead the assault on Christian bakers and public figures who attend Bible-based churches.

The Obama Years in the rear-view mirror

HopeNChangeCartoons

"Here at Hope n' Change, we find that we're filled with radiant happiness each time Barack Obama does anything as president for the last time. It's a delightful reminder that his days in office - and our days of misery - are literally numbered."

Obama Family’s 2015 Hawaii Vacation Cost Taxpayers $4,823,206.88

. . . "The records obtained by Judicial Watch for Obama’s Secret Service travel to Hawaii reveal the following expenses totaling $1,234,316.67:

• Hotel and lodging costs totaled $1,000,458.63
• The Secret Service spent $165,893.88 on car rentals.
• Air and rail expenses totaled $67,964.16.

Netanyahu Plans To Team Up With Trump To Rip Up Iran Deal
" . . .Trump called the deal a “disaster” on numerous occasions throughout the campaign, terming it “the worst deal ever negotiated.” . . .

Obama Did Not Save The Auto Industry, He Saved The UAW

The Left's Coming Counter-Attack

"The last eight years have been a dumpster fire, with the foundational timbers of our republic as fuel.  You can't leave glowing embers behind.  By debating the demonstrable fantasies of the left, we grant them legitimacy, leaving them as glowing embers in the minds of successive generations." 

American Thinker  "When the Soviet Union fell, all the little commies didn't wake up the next morning and say, "You know, those wacky Americans were right all along!  Let's go do some freedom and liberty stuff!"

"No, they woke up bitter and furious...spreading out among the intelligentsia of western Europe; Great Britain; and, to a lesser extent, the United States.  They were welcomed by their fellow travelers: first and foremost, the misfit toys inhabiting the islands of academia – who were already busily nurturing bitterness and envy among their charges with the care of a master gardener.

"They threw themselves into plotting and agitating, insinuating themselves into every possible position of influence they could manage – all to keep the flame of statist oppression lit, though necessarily hidden.

"They found suitable vehicles in the international environmentalist movement and newly created issues that could be weaponized for use against that evil hegemon of economic and individual liberty, the dreaded victor of the Cold War, the United States.

"The "crisis creation" machine went into high gear, fueled by alarmist junk science and billions of federal research dollars." . . .

U.S. Christians Brace For Brutal Onslaught Of ‘Happy Holidays’ Attacks

The Babylon Bee

"U.S.—As Christmas season arrives, Christians across America have begun intense preparations to withstand the vicious attacks they expect to face during the month of December as coworkers, store employees, and even random passersby ruthlessly wish them “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas,” according to reports.

“ 'It’s brutal,” complains Dave Coleman, who has celebrated Christmas his entire life. “People I don’t know, who may not even believe in Jesus, think they can just insult me in the street by invoking an all-encompassing phrase that acknowledges multiple faith traditions? How is that freedom of religion?”

“ 'What has this country come to? It’s too much for me to handle,” he added.

"Open Doors, a watchdog group that monitors the global persecution of Christians, reports that “Happy Holidays” attacks are already up 400% this season. In response to this disturbing trend, Christians around the world have organized prayer vigils to support the victims.

"One North Korean believer spoke to reporters from an underground church meeting, on the condition of anonymity, out of concern for government threats on his life for practicing Christianity. “We stand with our American brothers and sisters during this barbaric onslaught of persecution. We pray for God’s strength to endure the torture you will encounter during your shopping trips, winter festivals, and holiday parties.”

"According to sources, Christians nationwide have formulated a strategy to lovingly respond to their tormentors by loudly screaming “And a Merry Christmas to you!” at anyone who threatens to wish them a Happy Holiday."

Angry Jill Stein Got GRILLED By Chris Wallace Over Recount Attempt!

Wayne Dupree  "Green candidate Jill Stein seemed angry and out of touch when she got grilled by Fox News Chris Wallace on her recount attempts. This was one of those times you probably sided with Chris because he was on point the entire interview. She seemed lost and continued to repeat and overtalk Wallace."

Jill Stein's Michigan recount starts at noon TODAY after judge ordered officials to start sifting through ballots immediately

ObamaCare's effects upon Physician's practices

“Due to years of mounting regulations, the solo practice in which patients stayed with the same physician for 20 to 30 years is most likely a thing of the past. That, in and of itself, is interference with the practice of medicine.

The Galen Institute: PRIVATE PHYSICIAN PRACTICE TAKES ANOTHER BLOW FROM A NEW 2,400-PAGE GOVERNMENT RULE   "Just before former House Speaker John Boehner handed the gavel to Paul Ryan, he shepherded legislation that eliminated a despised Medicare payment formula under which physicians faced a 21.2% pay reduction.

"Congress could not allow the pay cut to take place and take the risk that physicians would turn away their Medicare patients. But the “Sustainable Growth Rate” payment policy for Medicare was law—passed as part of the Balanced Budget Act in 1997 to restrain government spending.

"Physician groups swarmed Capitol Hill every year for more than a decade to oppose significant cuts, and the physician payment reductions had been averted 17 times by congressional patchwork.

"Finally, last year, the SGR was eliminated with MACRA—the Medicare Access & CHIP Reauthorization Act that passed Congress with bipartisan support and was signed into law by President Obama.  It called for physicians to receive a 0.5% payment update (instead of a 21.2% pay cut), but the price was creation of a new payment program to reward quality performance.

"The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) was tasked with writing the implementing rules for how MACRA would work.  Its proposed rule spelled out the details of how Washington would pay for “value” not “volume” under the fee-for-service payment system.  Physicians and other clinicians would now be financially rewarded or penalized based upon how well they satisfy a complex new system of government rules meant to improve quality of patient care and control costs." . . .

Grace-Marie Turner is president of the Galen Institute, a public policy research organization that she founded in 1995 to promote an informed debate over free-market ideas for health reform. 

Apathy in the Executive. Opportunity or problem?

Weekly Standard    . . . "Six years later, many conservatives again hope that an incoming Congress will set the agenda, but this time with an important twist. In 2010, conservatives wanted a Republican House to undo some of the worst policies pushed by a committed and ambitious progressive president. Now, conservatives are thinking not of defense but offense. They see a peculiar opportunity created by an incoming president who appears unusually uninterested in policy details and is notorious for a short attention span. 

"Indeed, for many on the right, Donald Trump's inattentiveness presents not just a possible silver lining to his tenure but a best-case scenario. An unengaged president who is vaguely amenable to conservatism on the policy front could make it possible for congressional leaders, working with administration appointees and mobilized activist groups, to achieve many of the goals conservatives have been pursuing for years (far longer than Trump has been a Republican)." . . .

Trump and U.S. foreign policy vis-à-vis Iran

Over 100.000 supporters of the Iranian resistance, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and the People's Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI) gathered in Villepinte, north of Paris to call for a Democratic change in their Country in the largest ever known gathering organised by an opposition outside of the territory of its own country.  The Clarion Project

Shahriar Kia  "The election of Donald Trump as President of the United States has wreaked havoc among the regime in Iran. Iran’s lobbying groups in Washington are going the distance to influence Trump’s foreign policy vis-à-vis the mullahs in Tehran.

"This is an effort to have the appeasement policy of current U.S. president Barack Obama continue under a new administration. This campaign is bent on convincing Trump and his cabinet that an Iran regime-change policy will strengthen the “hardliners” and weaken the “moderates.”

" 'If Trump adopts a hostile policy towards Iran or scraps the deal, hard-liners and particularly the IRGC will benefit from it," Reuters posted,citing a former Iranian “reformist” official.

"This is the core argument put forward by the Tehran lobby to deceive Washington and fashion U.S. foreign policy based on rapprochement with Iran. Eight years of engagement by the Obama administration not only rendered no change in Iran and its meddling policies, in fact, the mullahs were encouraged to further continue inflaming the region and increase domestic crackdown." . . .

Shahriar Kia is a press spokesman for an Iranian oppositionShahriar Kia group housed at Camp Liberty in Iraq. Kia says the group, the People’s Mujahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI, also known as MEK), advocates for a democratic, secular Iran with separation of church and state and gender quality that is nuclear-free. He graduated from North Texas University and currently resides in Iraq. 

Sharyl Attkison on The new age of propaganda

Clarice Feldman  "The video embedded below of a TED talk by Sharyl Attkisson deserves to be viewed by American Thinker readers. In it she discusses astroturf groups, the fake grass roots movements funded from above in order to influence media coverage of a political issue. It is a bit over 10 minutes, not an outrageous investment of your time compared to the valuable information it provides." 

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed shows anti-war leftists were playing into Al Qaeda’s hands.

"Al Qaeda didn’t have a masterful plan to lure us into Afghanistan, as the left liked to insist, instead it expected President Bush to follow in Clinton’s footsteps by delivering an empty speech and then writing it off as a law enforcement problem. Much as Obama had done with Benghazi. It wasn’t expecting the roar of jets over Kandahar."

Daniel Greenfield  "The left aided Islamic terrorists most not with street protests, but by embedding counterintuitive narratives into the framework of counterterrorism. These narratives turned reality on its head.

"In counterterrorism, counterintuitive narratives transformed inaction into a virtue.

"One of the most pervasive myths was that Islamic terrorists actually wanted us to fight them and that we could only defeat them by ignoring them. The irrationality of the myth that terrorists wanted us to bomb and kill them was exceeded only by its persistence among experts and political officials.

"Popularly known as “Playing into their hands”, the goal of this counterintuitive narrative was to make the ostrich approach appear prudent and masterful while flipping around patriotism by accusing national security hawks of playing into the hands of the terrorists by killing them.

"Only the appeasers had the secret to defeating Islamic terrorism while the patriots were truly traitors.

"Trump faced repeated accusation from Hillary and her proxies that he was playing into the hands of ISIS with calls to get tough on Islamic terrorism. And you can expect the smear that he’s playing into the hands of the terrorists by bombing and killing them to recur throughout his administration." . . .