A Democratic ‘Blue Wave’ In 2018? Not So Fast

Tony Branco

The Federalist   "A string of recent GOP defeats suggest a 'blue wave' in next year's midterms. It's a nice theory, but Democrats simply aren't up to the task."

. . . "But the main problem with the blue wave theory of 2018 is that it asks too much of the Democratic Party, which is riven by as much division and confusion as the GOP is, if not more. As Ed O’Keefe and Dave Weigel reported recently in The Washington Post, Democrats “can’t agree on what the party stands for. From immigration to banking reform to taxes to sexual harassment, many in the party say it does not have a unified message to spread around the country.”

"The left-wing base of the Democratic Party seems content to go out and run on a promise to impeach the president on some grounds or other, even as centrist Democratic candidates that don’t toe the Bernie Sanders-Elizabeth Warren line on everything from health care to Wall Street regulations are left to fend for themselves. What’s worse, they have no economic message. (Remember the Democrats’ “Better Deal” rollout back in July? Sort of had to do with the economy? Me neither.) 

"Anti-Trump Sentiment Won’t Be Enough For Democrats"

"Democrats might do well next year in certain swing states and districts, but they won’t sweep Republicans out of power simply by being against Trump — especially since Trump, despite his inveterate tweeting, actually has some legitimate accomplishmentsto point to at the end of his first year in office. If they want to win in deep-red states next year, Democrats will have to offer a positive vision for the country. There’s no sign so far they have one to offer." . . .

Obama's obstruction of Hezbollah drug-trafficking investigation to not offend Iran

The following posts are following up on the Politico story by Josh Meyer: The secret backstory of how Obama let Hezbollah off the hook

By David French at National Review: How Obama Appeased Iran by Turning a Blind Eye to Hezbollah’s Crimes  . . . "It all seems so quaint now. When Obama pulled back, our enemies surged. When he gave them an inch, they took a mile. There was no good-faith response, only the gleeful exploitation of newfound strategic advantage. When Obama finally re-engaged, American force was able to stop our enemies’ advance. But by then, the damage was done, and we’re still learning the extent of it today. We already knew that Obama gave Iran piles of cash, prisoners, an immense economic stimulus, and access to international arms markets in exchange for signing the nuclear deal. We now know — thanks to Politico — that the administration’s mercies extended even to Iran’s vicious terrorist allies.

"And for what? Obama’s defenders cling to the hope that Iran’s nuclear program has been delayed (a hope that relies a great deal on trusting Iran, which has never proven wise in the past), but in the meantime we’ve merely strengthened our enemy." . . .  Keep reading.

Now, this is presidential obstruction

(At the time of this posting we find nothing about this on NBC, nor CBS, ABC.)

. . . "The message the task force received was that their work could not interfere with a diplomatic charm offensive directed at Iran and Russia. By the time Trump took office, US efforts to stop Hezbollah had been derailed. Worse than that, as it became clear that Obama had zero leverage in the negotiations, there was little he wouldn’t do to keep the ayatollahs happy.

"In order to win the release of US citizens being held hostage by Tehran after the nuclear deal had been concluded, the United States was no longer just turning a blind eye to Hezbollah transferring criminal profits there. In 2016, Obama sent $400 million packed onto wooden pallets as part of a ransom payment to Iran of unfrozen assets." . . .

Hezbollah, narco-terrorism, and the Awans  "Yesterday, Scott called attention to the blockbuster story in Politico about how President Obama derailed a law enforcement campaign targeting drug trafficking by the Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah. Obama did so because he was desperate to secure a nuclear deal with Iran.

"I agree with Scott that the Politico story is well worth reading in full, despite its length. The report is, as Scott says, “incredibly rich.”

"I want to call attention to one small potential nugget. Part I of the story is called “A global threat emerges.” It is subtitled “How Hezbollah turned to trafficking cocaine and laundering money through used cars to finance its expansion.”

"The “used cars” reference made me think of a post I wrote about the Awan scandal. This scandal, readers may recall, involves House staffers, most notably staffers of Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, with ties to Pakistan who are accused of stealing equipment from members’ offices without their knowledge and committing serious, potentially illegal, violations on the House IT network.

"In my post, citing George Raisley of Richard Viguerie’s Conservative HQ, I wrote:" . . .

Mainstream media silence on Politico report that Obama allowed Hezbollah drug running to appease Iran

Legal Insurrection   "Meanwhile, Trump is vigorously going after Hezbollah’s criminal networks, particularly in Latin America."

"So far there is near silence from the mainstream media about the blockbuster Politico Magazine investigative report on how the Obama administration from the top down interfered with U.S. law enforcement efforts to take down Hezbollah’s drug running of cocaine into the U.S. in order to facilitate the Iran nuclear deal.

"I summarized the Politico findings in my post, Obama allowed Hezbollah cocaine running into U.S. in quest for Iran nuke deal.

"I cannot find any mentions of the Politico story in any of the major newspapers or networks (except for Fox News). The same people who endlessly repeat shoddy reporting by other mainstream outlets when it comes to anti-Trump conspiracy theories, don’t feel the need to report on the Politico story. My hunch is that they are devoting resources to try to question the Politico story.

They don’t know what to do because this reflects so badly on the person they spent 8 years defending and covering for. Obama sacrificed Americans addicted to and dying from cocaine in order to appease Iran. That should be on the front page of every major newspaper and on every major newscast, but it’s not." . . .

Obama protected Hezbollah drug ring to avoid ‘rocking the boat’ on Iran deal: Report  "A Drug Enforcement Administration team says they were tracking a $1 billion per yer drug-and-weapons ring run by Islamist terrorists, only to have the Obama administration kneecap them to avoid “rocking the boat” with Iran.

"U.S. officials told Politico for a report Monday that a 2008 task force called “Project Cassandra” was undermined by the former president as he tried to seal a nuclear deal with Iran." . . .

Communism-loving journalists shaping our news accidentally outed themselves UPDATED

Thomas Lifson  "Two decades after the fall of the USSR and the rejection of communism throughout Eastern Europe, where captive nations were virtually enslaved by Stalin and his Soviet successors, major media institutions employ jornalists who admire the monstrous system. Communism was every bit as viciously bloody as its socialist brother Nazism, and by most reckonings has been even more lethal in its death toll, at roughly 100 million.

No remotely influential media organ would employ an open Nazi, but Buzzfeed seems to have a soft spot for admirers of communism.  Buzzfeed’s UK Science editor Kelly Oakes foolishly exposed her inner totalitarian on Twitter: “All I want for Christmas is full communism now,” only to withdraw the tweet when the monstrousness was exposed.

James Woods, however, captured it, and passed it along to his many followers:

. . . "So far, Buzzfeed has not responded to the incident, and so far as we know, Ms. Oakes remains in her position, where she influences coverage of many issue related to science. She, evidently, escaped inclusion in the list of 100 Buzzfeed employees laid off recently." . . .


Socialism is crushing and killing Venezuela's poor  . . . "What we are seeing here is the most obvious thing in the world: not only does socialism fail every time it's tried, eventually running out of other people's money when there's nothing left, but it has a special way of targeting and harming the poor, first taking away their freedom, then taking away their food, and then lying about it.  It's effectively violence reinforced by lies and lies reinforced by violence, as Aleksander Solzhenitsyn once wrote." . . .

Some ask, could the Seattle train wreck be terrorism?

Apparently not, but the  terrorist warning is necessary. Anyway, here is the latest on the train: Train Was Going 80 MPH In A 30 MPH Zone According To The NTSB

Brian C. Joondeph  . . . "Al Qaeda has its own magazine. Call it Vanity Fair for the jihadist. The magazine is called Inspire. Check out the cover of issue number 17."

. . . "They devoted an entire issue to teaching followers how to derail trains in the U.S. and Europe. Detailed instructions. From Business Insider:

The magazine also features a detailed 18-page-long guide on how to build a "derail tool" with cardboard, an empty plastic container, part of a rubber tyre, pipes, iron wires, screws, sheet metal, and cement. The apparatus does not require any electronic or construction tools so followers can "remove any traces for suspicion."

When placed on train tracks, the tool is expected to interfere with the train's movement and cause it to divert from its tracks.

As the perpetrator does not physically need to be on the train during the derailment, the operation "is not a martyrdom op" and "can be repeated," the magazine said. It will also be "easy to hide your tracks from forensics" after the attack, it boasted. . .

 UPDATE: Immediately Following Amtrak Derailment, The Conspiracy Theory Trolls Began Their Campaign . . . "Whether the cause for the increased speed was operator error or some mechanical malfunction is one of those questions we’ll have to wait on the answers to.

"Whatever the case, the conspiracy theorists – Russian bot accounts and mindless purveyors of “fake news” – were out in force, cooking up social media tales designed to exacerbate the masses." . . .

Still, this is still doable as a terror tactic, but let's not go into detail.

Muslim “Feminist” Beloved By The Left “Supervised” Sexual Assault Of Other Muslim Women

DC Whispers  "Linda Sarsour has become something of a feminist celebrity here in the United States in recent years, most notably because she is Muslim and for her willingness to repeatedly attack Donald Trump publicly. This celebrity has allowed her to raise tens of millions of dollars for her Arab American Association, travel the world giving interviews and leading “feminist” marches like the ones that followed Mr. Trump’s inauguration early last year. Third-tier celebrities like Alyssa Milano have repeatedly applauded Sarsour’s efforts. 

"Well, guess what? Apparently Linda Sarsour is no feminist but rather a stooge working for Muslim men who see her as merely a tool to further enact anti-women/anti-gay/anti-American policies here in the United States. Sarsour’s duplicity even goes so far as her allegedly overseeing the mistreatment of women she worked with by Muslim men who Sarsour then defended as “God-fearing.' ”  .

.

. . . Fathelabab recounts how she came to Sarsour after being repeatedly sexually assaulted by a Muslim man who lived in the same building as the Arab American Association. Sarsour called her a liar, saying that the Muslim man was God-fearing, told her to stop complaining and threatened to write her up for disciplinary action.Sarsour further regularly body-shamed Fathelabab, saying that “something like this didn’t happen to women who looked like me” and threatened legal action against Fathelabab if she went public with the story. . . .

Linda Sarsour accused of enabling sexual assault  "Arab-American activist Linda Sarsour has been accused by a former employee of enabling sexual assault and harassment against her.

"Sarsour, who forever endeared herself to feminists for inspiring the Women's March on D.C., has now put women's rights activists in the uncomfortable position of either supporting her or throwing her under the bus.

. . . 

"The pretzel logic it takes for feminists to embrace a woman whose religion excuses and even promotes unwanted sexual advances from men would be mystifying if we didn't know better.  A faith that denies women personhood, identifying them as property and sexual objects, cannot be compatible with feminism under any circumstances.

. . . 

"Sarsour needn't worry.  This story – with the exception of Fox News and a couple of other outlets – has already disappeared down the rabbit hole.  Asmi Fathelbab becomes perhaps the first woman who was sexually assaulted to be disbelieved and, moreover, whose story has been deliberately squelched to advance the political agenda of feminists.  Inconvenient facts like this will not disturb the narrative of a heroic Arab-American woman battling oppression and the white male hierarchy. "

Trump’s Doctrine: ‘Principled Realism’ Comes to the Fore

Roger Kimball  "Congress requires every administration to submit an outline of its national security strategy. This is usually a behind-the-scenes exercise, carried out by the national security team. But with his speech at the Reagan Building today, Donald Trump put his administration’s ideas about foreign policy and national security under klieg lights at center stage. The lodestar: “principled realism.” More fully: Putting America First is the best strategy not only for the United States but also for the civilized world.

"President Trump’s speech, and the nearly 60-page document that lays out his administration’s strategy in detail, is a model of moral clarity and forthright Realpolitik. It is appropriate that the speech was delivered in the Reagan building. Just as Reagan had the courage to describe the Soviet Union accurately, as an “evil empire,” so President Trump’s America First strategy distinguishes sharply between “those who value human dignity and freedom and those who oppress individuals and enforce uniformity.” He explicitly places China, Russia, and North Korea, along with jihadi terrorists and “transnational criminal organizations” in the latter category.

"Leading, Period:   Pragmatism is a signature element of President Trump’s approach to solving problems, foreign and domestic. As his chief of staff John Kelly noted in an October press conference, Trump’s agenda is simply “what’s good for America.” His approach is governed not by ideology but by “outcomes,” by what works to advance America’s interests.

"Barack Obama famously sought to “lead from behind.” Donald Trump seeks to lead, period. Undergirding that ambition is the clear-sighted recognition that American principles are based on a respect for individual rights, economic dynamism, and limited, accountable government.

"Again, where Obama sought to let a little air out of the idea of “American exceptionalism,” Trump offers a full-throated endorsement of the idea. “Our founding principles,” he said, “have made the United States among the greatest forces for good in the world.” . . .

SO MUCH FOR THE MORAL HIGH GROUND: Top Democrats Change Their Minds On Franken, Want Him Not To Resign

Daily Wire

"Two weeks ago, when it appeared that Alabama Senate Republican candidate Roy Moore could cruise to victory despite credible allegations of molestation of a 14-year-old girl and a 16-year-old girl, Democrats went all-in on their #MeToo strategy: they decided to dump Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) on the side of the road to grab the moral high ground on sexual abuse. Franken reluctantly announced his resignation, all the while indignantly maintaining his innocence.

"Then the voters of Alabama cast Moore out into the darkness. And the Democrats have no ability to claim the moral high ground — Moore isn’t around to use as a whipping post. Which means, of course, that top Democrats now want to walk back Franken’s resignation.

"Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) stated, “What they did to Al was atrocious, the Democrats.” He called Democratic attempts to oust Franken, “The most hypocritical thing I’ve ever seen done to a human being — and then have enough guts to sit on the floor, watch him give his speech and go over and hug him? That’s hypocrisy at the highest level I’ve ever seen in my life. Made me sick.”

"Sen. Pat Leahy (D-VT), who called for Franken’s ouster, has secretly told Franken he regrets doing so, according to Politico. Two other senators who sided against Franken apparently told Politico the same thing.

"Why? Because Democrats aren’t interested in wiping out sexual abuse. They were interested in the political hay to be made by pretending to care about doing so."  . . .

conservativedailynews

I Turned My Coworker Into HR When She Gave Me A Christmas Card, And She Changed My Heart

The Federalist

A person who gives a gift featuring his or her sacred religious iconography is reaching out, showing kindness and sharing his or her faith with others.

Greene

. . . "It is so easy to be offended, so easy to feel hostility and suspicion. Victimhood is attractive because it gives people permission to be judgmental without consequence and feel superior in doing so. It creates a sense of being special, enlightened, and above it all. But this merely traps people in a cycle of bitterness and loneliness as they fight the urge to simply enjoy the holiday season with everyone else. Ironically, the fact that they receive the same gift as everyone else demonstrates their inclusion in the group rather than highlighting their difference.

"As a Jew, I can say that I appreciate Christians’ gestures during this time of year. Although it has become more risky over time, I encourage Christians to continue providing them. That kind woman could have ignored me after the first year when I threw her card in the trash in open sight. But she didn’t, and that matters.

"Kindness matters. Even when the objects of your kindness reject your efforts, just know that deep down you are touching a part of them that they will hopefully come to appreciate in time. Not everyone will, but just enough of us can be rescued to be worth the effort. Your small act of generosity means more than you know.

Chad Felix Greene is a political and social writer focusing on truth in media, conservative ideas and goals, and true equality under the law. He has written and illustrated Jewish children’s books and writes for online publications.

Move over ‘white privilege’ — now there’s ‘centrist privilege’

The College Fix  "In this politically “polarized-more-than-ever” era, one might think being a moderate — or centrist, if you will — would be something of a badge of honor.

"Not a chance, says Chapman University’s Matthew Q. Joy — it’s actually a privilegeakin to that best known of all privileges, “white privilege.”

"And the reason it’s a privilege is because the Republican Party has become soconservative as to make “recognizing opposing viewpoints and reaching compromises” impossible.

"Oh. Of course!

"In an op-ed in the student paper The Panther, Joy chides even President Barack Obama for utilizing his centrist privilege; instead of keeping his promise of universal healthcare, he dared to compromise with Congressional Republicans on his landmark legislation … which left millions still uninsured.

"Obama “never faced significant backlash for this,” Joy says, and “society lauded him a liberal icon.”

"In addition, during last year’s presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton balked at emulating Bernie Sanders’ call for a $15-per-hour minimum wage, instead opting for $12 … which “still wouldn’t allow any minimum wage worker to afford rent.” Yet, she too was was lauded as a “Democratic hero” and “allowed to mask herself as a progressive.” . . . 

The secret backstory of how Obama let Hezbollah off the hook

. . . An ambitious U.S. task force targeting Hezbollah's billion-dollar criminal enterprise ran headlong into the White House's desire for a nuclear deal with Iran.

Politico  Part 1: A Global Threat Emerges  
"How Hezbollah turned to trafficking cocaine and laundering money through used cars to finance its expansion." 

"In its determination to secure a nuclear deal with Iran, the Obama administration derailed an ambitious law enforcement campaign targeting drug trafficking by the Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah, even as it was funneling cocaine into the United States, according to a POLITICO investigation.

"The campaign, dubbed Project Cassandra, was launched in 2008 after the Drug Enforcement Administration amassed evidence that Hezbollah had transformed itself from a Middle East-focused military and political organization into an international crime syndicate that some investigators believed was collecting $1 billion a year from drug and weapons trafficking, money laundering and other criminal activities.

"Over the next eight years, agents working out of a top-secret DEA facility in Chantilly, Virginia, used wiretaps, undercover operations and informants to map Hezbollah’s illicit networks, with the help of 30 U.S. and foreign security agencies.

"They followed cocaine shipments, some from Latin America to West Africa and on to Europe and the Middle East, and others through Venezuela and Mexico to the United States. They tracked the river of dirty cash as it was laundered by, among other tactics, buying American used cars and shipping them to Africa. And with the help of some key cooperating witnesses, the agents traced the conspiracy, they believed, to the innermost circle of Hezbollah and its state sponsors in Iran." . . .

Why I Quit Teaching/ Universities are morphing into Clown College . . .

Most of my colleagues were rote members of the left-liberal orthodoxy: pro-Islam, pro-unfettered immigration, pro-abortion, pro-feminist, anti-conservative, anti-Zionist, and anti-white.

Cartoon addded by TD

David Solway  . . . "Three reasons determined my course of action.  For one thing, administration had come to deal less with academic issues and more with rules of conduct and punitive codes of behavior, as if it were a policing body rather than an arm of the teaching profession.  Woe betide the (male) student accused of sexual assault or misconduct; the administration will convene an extra-judicial tribunal to punish or expel the accused, often with a low burden of proof.  It will find ways to shut down conservative speakers.  It will browbeat faculty and students to attend sensitivity training sessions on matters of race and gender.  It will strike task forces to deal with imaginary issues like campus rape culture and propose draconian measures to contain a raging fantasy.  The administration is now beset by two basic compulsions: to expand its reach at the expense of the academic community and to ensure compliance with the puritanical norms of the day.  I thought it prudent to take early retirement rather than wait for the guillotine to descend.

"For another, colleagues were increasingly buying into the politically correct mantras circulating in the cultural climate.  The dubious axioms of "social justice" and equality of outcome, the postmodern campaign against the Western tradition of learning, and the Marxist critique of capitalism now superseded the original purpose of the university to seek out truth, to pursue the impartial study of historical events and movements, and to remain faithful to the rigors of disciplined scholarship." . . . 

Thomas Lifson writes: Universities are morphing into Clown College before our eyes (content warning)  "Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey shuttered their world-famous Clown College in 1997, twenty years before America’s largest circus closed for business this year, after almost a century and half of entertaining us. But, fortunately for connoisseurs of the absurd, America’s progressive academics have stepped into the breach, beclowning themselves with fields of study so deranged that they seem comic, at best. The endless search for new reasons to declare personal oppression has met the infantile fascination with private bodily functions, and the results are as absurd as any sideshow attraction." . . .