Obama Quietly Signs The "Countering Disinformation And Propaganda Act" Into Law

Zero Hedge . . .  "But while the passage of the NDAA - and the funding of the US military - was hardly a surprise, the biggest news is what was buried deep inside the provisions of the Defense Authortization Act.
. . . 
 And so, with the likes of WaPo having already primed the general public to equate "Russian Propaganda" with "fake news" (despite admitting after the fact their own report was essentially "fake"), while the US media has indoctrinated the public to assume that any information which is not in compliance with the official government narrative, or dares to criticize the establishment, is also "fake news" and thus falls under the "Russian propaganda" umbrella, the scene is now set for the US government to legally crack down on every media outlet that the government deems to be "foreign propaganda."

Just like that, the US Ministry of Truth is officially born.

Obama’s unintended consequences: King of Bahrain openly celebrates Hanukkah with Jews

Jerusalem Post: Analysis: Obama sees himself as on the right side of history  "The president may personally dislike the prime minister – their relationship has been fractious for years. But more than simply sticking it to Netanyahu, Obama sought to codify in the clearest way he could a position he has always believed is in Israel’s long-term interests. Should the promise of a two-state solution survive Trump’s presidency, Obama hopes that Resolution 2334 will stand the test of time and remind his successors of a once-strong international consensus in favor of two states for two peoples.

Thomas Lifson   "President Barack Obama promised a fundamental transformation for America and its role in the world. But as the inept community organizer prepares to leave office, it is becoming clear that his clumsy overreach is backfiring on multiple levels. The election of Donald Trump is but one example of the changes that lie ahead, sparked by backlash to Obama’s policies.

"One minor yet significant example of President Unintendedconcequences: drawing together Arabs and Jews in the Middle East. Yes, you read that correctly. The president who stabbed Israel in the back at the UN Friday (as Alan Dershowitz put it this morning on Fox & Friends) has actually paved the way for peace between Israel an the Arabs of the Middle East. By scaring Arab leaders in the Gulf (Saudi Arabia plus the emirates) with his deal to allow Iran nuclear arms, he has reminded the potentates that Israel is no threat to their power, while Iran openly lusts for control over their oil and their citizens, many of whom are Shiites.

"Israel, as it happens, is believed to have excellent intelligences sources within Iran, and has the technological sophistication to pull off Stuxnet and other sophisticated attacks on the mullahs, who have sworn to wipe Israel “off the map.” . . .

2016: A year that will live in infamy for Obama and Israel.

CNN, of course: Obama's exit interview: Hope and change can still win elections/ 2016 at the U.N.   "Arguing that Americans still subscribe to his vision of progressive change, President Barack Obama asserted in an interview recently he could have succeeded in this year's election if he was eligible to run. 

" 'I am confident in this vision because I'm confident that if I had run again and articulated it, I think I could've mobilized a majority of the American people to rally behind it," Obama told his former senior adviser David Axelrod in an interview for the "The Axe Files" podcast, produced by the University of Chicago Institute of Politics and CNN." . . .

CNN

Obama’s UN Legacy: Whitewashing Iran’s Nuclear Cheating; Outlawing Jewish History  . . . "Eleven months after exonerating Iran, Obama put Israel in the penalty box by allowing a resolution that stated, “that Israel’s establishment of settlements in Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, had no legal validity, constituting a flagrant violation under international law,” meaning of course that the Jewish presence in the Old City of Jerusalem, (which Jews were illegally ethnically cleansed from by Jordan in 1948) is against international law." . . .

. . . "Hypocritically, the Obama administration is refusing to apply the Fourth Geneva Convention to rein in Iranian aggression resulting from the nuclear deal, but using it to vilify Israel.

"In short, what Obama has done is used the U.N. to give every benefit of the doubt to Israel’s enemies and to criminalize Israel for existing. This is Obama’s shameful Middle East legacy done with the connivance of the United Nations."

Perfidious Obama’s Last Betrayal  . . . "Israel was thus delegitimized and ordered to return to the borders it had before the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. 
"President Obama’s enmity toward Israel, though often denied, has been obvious since his inauguration. Through many meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his attempt to force a false peace between Israel and the Palestinians, and his nuclear weapons deal with Iran, Obama has made it clear to anyone who wanted to see that his hatred of Israel coincided with his intention to diminish our national security as well as that of the Jewish state." . . .

Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu accuses Barack Obama of creating and promoting UN resolution that denounced West Bank settlement operations  . . . " 'And, as I told John Kerry on Thursday, friends don't take friends to the Security Council. I'm encouraged by the statements of our friends in the United States, Republicans and Democrats alike. 

" 'They understand how reckless and destructive this UN resolution was, they understand that the Western Wall isn't occupied territory.'

Netanyahu also summoned the US ambassador for a meeting - a rare decision by an Israeli leader. 

The resolution, which condemned the occupation by Israeli settlers of parts of the West Bank that were seized by Israel in the 1967 Mideast War, passed 14-0 on Friday."

"Rumor has it more is coming. Bibi is turning to President-elect Donald Trump for help, although I’m not sure how much he can do before being sworn in. But if anyone can at this point, it’s Trump."

Obama’s Betrayal of Israel Is a Black Day for American Diplomacy

. . . "I italicize “armistice lines” to highlight that the demarcations, even back in 1967, were not national boundaries. They were disputed even before the Arab war of aggression. The armistice lines merely reflect the position of Israeli and Arab forces when the cease-fire went into effect. They were not accepted as final boundaries by the affected countries. As we shall see, they could not be accepted as final boundaries by Israel." . . .

Obama Leaves Another Hot Mess  "For eight years, countless liberal Jews and other supporters of Israel have insisted that Obama is resolutely pro-Israel. By refusing to veto the U.N. resolution today, Obama has just thrown all of them under the bus. Elliott Abrams has a more exhaustive take that is very much worth reading. I’ll just focus on a few points of my own." . . .

Roger L. Simon: Obama's Israel Vendetta Opens the Door for Trump to Defund the UN

Meanwhile, this "peaceful" organization that has had no effect whatsoever on ending war spends most of its working hours bashing the state of Israel.  In 2015 alone the UN General Assembly adopted 20 resolutions singling out Israel for criticism — and only 3 resolutions on the rest of the world combined.And what does the U.S. taxpayer fork over for participating in this global society for slanderous garbage?  $3.04 billion in 2015, to be exact.  Now admittedly that's not as much as Barack Obama has been shoveling to Iran's mullahs, but it's still a lot.

Cruz: No U.S. Money for UN Until Anti-Israel Resolution Reversed
.  .  . "Friday's abstention prompted a wave of criticism from Trump, Republicans and even members of the Democratic Party.

UPDATED: By allowing an anti-Israel Security Council resolution, Obama will hurt the U.N., and not help peace

Update: Israel accuses Obama administration of helping craft, push UN censure  "We have rather ironclad information from sources in both the Arab world and internationally that this was a deliberate push by the United States and in fact they helped create the resolution in the first place,” David Keyes, spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said on Fox News’ “America’s News HQ.”  

Obama 2015: Our commitment to Israel is ‘unshakable’ — Obama 2016: Time to shake things up a bit

"With Republican control of Congress and the White House, the avenues for pushback would be many. Trump could make an anti-settlements resolution a dead letter by moving the U.S. Embassy not just to Jerusalem, but to eastern Jerusalem."

Volokh Conspiracy  . . . "Obama’s goal with such a resolution would be to punish Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom he personally dislikes, and to create diplomatic facts on the ground to box in President-elect Donald Trump’s foreign policy. The folly of a such resolution has been underscored by both Hillary Clinton and Trump, as well as near-unanimous majorities in both houses of Congress and an array of Democratic foreign policy experts, including former Senate majority leader and Obama administration peace negotiator George Mitchell.

"Such a resolution would not cement any positive legacy for Obama. To the contrary, it would vastly magnify the actual obstacles to resolving the Palestinian issue. Moreover, by setting the U.N. against Israel, Obama may provoke a sharp conflict between Washington and the U.N. — one that would harm the latter much more than the former.

"The proposed resolution denounces any Jewish presence in eastern Jerusalem and the West Bank as illegal and demands that Israel immediately choke off such communities. These areas had been entirely cleansed of their ancient Jewish populations during the Jordanian invasion and occupation in 1949. The standard diplomatic position of the U.N. is that Israel, upon retaking these areas in 1967, was obligated to indefinitely forbid Jews from living in these areas (but the U.N. has amazingly avoided applying these supposed rules anywhere else).

"The legal effects of such a resolution would be murky — the Security Council is neither a court nor a legislature and cannot create rules of international law. Nor do the resolutions invoke the council’s power under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter to call for mandatory measures, such as sanctions. What is clear is that a Security Council resolution will reinforce all the dynamics that have made a solution more remote despite eight years of pressure on Israel by Obama." . . .
. . . 
Trump has consistently opposed Obama’s turning to the U.N. to create facts on the ground for U.S. policymakers or to avoid Congress — fromclimate change to the Iran deal to control of the Internet. If the Security Council becomes a forum for exonerating Iran and slamming Israel, President Trump could even embrace the idea, already popular among congressional Republicans, of cutting U.N. funding." . . .

Obama's legacy pictured

Christian References Removed From Christmas Carol in Sweden to Prepare Children for 'Inclusion'

Anugrah Kumar

"Protecting Swedish traditions is important, but raising their sights so that they have the courage to meet a changing world is another important task for the school and community to relate to," is said on the municipality's website.

A Swedish prosecutor recently ruled that flying the Islamic State's black flag is perfectly legal and does not constitute a hate crime.

Sweden is sometimes referred to as the "least religious nation in the western world." A 2014 study found that nearly eight out of 10 Swedes are either "not religious" or "convinced atheists," making the country one of the least religious nation in the Western world.

Read more at http://www.christianpost.com/news/christian-references-removed-from-christmas-carol-to-prepare-children-for-inclusion-in-sweden-172358/#RaY0f6gbTcfJwov1.99

"Protecting Swedish traditions is important, but raising their sights so that they have the courage to meet a changing world is another important task for the school and community to relate to," is said on the municipality's website.

A Swedish prosecutor recently ruled that flying the Islamic State's black flag is perfectly legal and does not constitute a hate crime.

Sweden is sometimes referred to as the "least religious nation in the western world." A 2014 study found that nearly eight out of 10 Swedes are either "not religious" or "convinced atheists," making the country one of the least religious nation in the Western world.

Read more at http://www.christianpost.com/news/christian-references-removed-from-christmas-carol-to-prepare-children-for-inclusion-in-sweden-172358/#RaY0f6gbTcfJwov1.99

. . . "The grandfather laments changes made to the carol, which includes the axing of lines such as “born of the Lord Jesus Christ”, and “a ray of God’s love’s light”, so as to remove references to the fact Christmas is a religious feast. He notes that even “star of Bethlehem” has been censored, and changed to “star over all of us”.

"The letter’s author suggests that schools “bring an end to this special treatment for newly arrived students”, and writes: “The idea was that [migrants] would be integrated into Swedish society and not vice versa.

“ 'We shouldn’t be afraid of our Swedish traditions. Soon we’ll have none left,” he notes, sadly.

"In a notice on its municipal website, Åmål’s education administration confirmed that the changes highlighted in the letter had taken place, and adding that an “appropriate selection of verses from different songs and hymns” were chosen for the celebration.

"The statement says the edits allow “all students regardless of nationality and religion” to participate. The replacing of “Bethlehem” with “all of us”, the school’s management insists, is “commendable”, as “the wording then allows the star to shine on all of us”." . . . Hat tip to Breitbart London

Netanyahu Shares Powerful Christmas Message Of The Bond Between Christians And Jews

Tell me again; why do so many in the world root for Islam to destroy these people?

Weasel Zippers

A Call For Trump To Derail Obama’s Midnight Regulation Express

Patterico's Pontifications  "The immensely ungracious exit of President Obama deserves this spot-on gutting: 
(Bullet points added by TD)

• Barack Obama isn’t known for humility, though rarely has his lack of grace been more on display than in his final hours in office. The nation rejected his agenda. The president’s response? To shove more of that agenda down the nation’s gullet.
• Notice the growing and many ugly ways the Obama administration is actively working to undermine a Donald Trump presidency. Unnamed administration sources whisper stories about Russian hackers to delegitimize Mr. Trump’s election. These whispers began at about the same time Hillary Clinton officials began pressuring electors to defy election results and deny Mr. Trump the presidency. How helpful.
• Trump transition-team members report how Obama officials are providing them with skewed or incomplete information, as well as lectures about their duties on climate change. (No wonder Mr. Trump is bypassing those “official” intelligence briefings.) The Energy Department is refusing to provide the transition team with the names of career officials who led key programs, like those who attended U.N. climate talks. Sen. Ron Johnson recently sent a letter to President Obama voicing alarm over “burrowing,” in which political appointees, late in an administration, convert to career bureaucrats and become obstacles to the new political appointees.
• But perhaps nothing has more underlined the Obama arrogance than his final flurry of midnight regulations. With each new proposed rule or executive order, Mr. Obama is spitefully mocking the nation that just told him “enough.”

 Rick Moran on "Obama's 'Midnight Regulation Express' " . . . "Trump's transition people are bitterly complaining about a lack of cooperation from the executive departments.  This foot-dragging is slowing the transition process, which makes it less likely that Trump can hit the ground running on January 21.  Instead, the new president will be forced to deal with a dizzying array of federal rules – most of which will end up in court anyway as businesses fight back against this federal government-wide power-grab.

"The bottom line: Obama and the Democrats do not recognize Donald Trump as the legitimate president of the United States and will do all in their power over the next four years to ensure the failure of his administration."

The 7 Worst Media Losers Of 2016

The Daily Wire  "The media was one of the biggest losers of 2016, as the election of Donald Trump to the presidency reflected how the American people no longer take the mainstream media seriously, as they have exposed their true, partisan colors.

"Here are the seven worst media losers of 2016.

1. Martha Raddatz. Raddatz of ABC News earns this distinction because her bias for Hillary Clinton was blatant to the point where she began to cry when it became clear that Clinton was going to lose to Trump:

"After moderating a presidential debate in which Raddatz actually began arguing with Trump for a period of time, there is a sense of justice in seeing her tear up when her precious Clinton lost."

Five Absolutely Awful Actions Taken by Obama In His Last Days

Independent Sentinel

"Obama is doing as much damage as he possibly can before he leaves and he still has a month to go. We listed five of his worst actions of late.

"ISRAEL DOESN’T HAVE LAND

"The Obama administration allowed the U.N. to pass a resolution that basically says Israel has no right to land or self-defense. Judea and Samaria were the Jewish homeland for 4,000 years, Mike Huckabee said on Fox News. He’s irate over the U.S. allowing the resolution to go through at the U.N. It says that Israel does not have land to negotiate with for peace. Even the Washington Post was against what this president and his minion Samantha Power did.

"Obama made peace far more difficult to achieve and he knows it.

. . . 

"WE CAN’T DRILL IN MILLIONS OF ACRES – EVER

"Obama banned oil and gas drilling in 115 million acres of the Arctic and 3.8 million acres of the Atlantic Ocean, a move that he thinks can’t be undone by an incoming president.

"He thinks he permanently banned the drilling. He’s a tinpot dictator depriving us of our resources." . . .

"WE WILL ENACT THE PARIS TREATY AKA AGREEMENT

"He did the same thing with the Paris climate agreement. He has, what he believes, are clauses making it permanent. To make the agreement happen, Obama colluded with the U.N. to distort and manipulate a prior treaty. He bypassed the Senate on what was obviously a treaty and the Senate allowed him to do it, even passing a law giving their treaty powers away.

"GOVERNMENT WILL DECIDE WHAT IS FAKE OR NOT

He signed the Countering Disinformation and Propaganda Act on the eve of Christmas and Hanukkah. There isn’t much that is more Orwellian than this Act. It was passed by Congress. Unfortunately, Trump wants to make America great again but members of Congress are still globalists.

"LET THOSE TERRORISTS FREE

. . . "Sanaa-born Muhammed al-Ansi had been held for years as a “forever prisoner,” described by U.S. intelligence as an al-Qaida loyalist who in his teens or 20s swore an oath of allegiance to bin Laden.

"This terrorist planned 9/11!!!

"What’s next? Obama isn’t done.

Bolton: Obama Rejected Israel Resolution to 'Box Trump In'

Newsmax  "The United States could have killed a key United Nations resolution that condemned Israel for its West Bank settlements by voting against it rather than abstaining, former U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said Friday night, but he thinks President Barack Obama took the action to "box the incoming Trump administration in."

" 'This was a stab in the back against the Israelis," Bolton told Fox News' "Hannity" show Friday night. "It was entirely predictable. I would say this for people in the pro-Israel community in the United States who defended Obama's Middle East policy over these last eight years: You should have seen this coming and this is what you get for supporting Barack Obama."  

"Obama has had a contentious relationship with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the years, Bolton conceded, but he thinks the administration's decision to abstain from the UN vote on Friday goes deeper than that.

" "I think this was an effort to box the in-coming Trump administration in, and it violates nearly 50 years of American bipartisan policy on the Middle East, going back to the iconic resolution 242 after the 1967 war." 

"The proposed resolution says Israel's occupation is "illegitimate," said Bolton, and "therefore it has no land to give back in exchange for peace. Contrary to what the Obama administration has said, this puts a huge thumb on the scale against Israel.' " . . .

What I learned about Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson after spending a week on jury duty with him

Dallas News  . . . "But during a recent news show, I heard the term "corrupt" applied to this man who I spent five days with back in 2007.

"All I know is that this man who holds one of the most powerful positions in the world and clearly has the means and ability to side-step his jury responsibilities, served as a normal citizen without complaint or pretense.

"I know that a scared little girl who was finally persuaded to come public with her account of abuse was inches away from a decision that would have sided with her abuser, yet this man put his negotiation skills to a noble use, and justice was served." 

Emily Roden is a small-business owner in Denton. This essay was adapted from a post that first appeared at rodenfordenton.com.