(Updated) Obama Arrests Navy Sailor for a few photos, Hillary’s tens of thousands of illegal emails ignored

Thank God for President Trump who sought justice for this man and publicly recognized the hypocrisy of Hillary Clinton’s numerous alleged felonies.

The Hayride

. . . "President Trump denounced the government’s handling of Saucier’s case, calling it “a political move that contrasted with the velvet-gloved response to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s mismanagement of classified information through a private server.”

“ 'The president has pardoned Kristian Saucier, a Navy submariner,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a press briefing. “Mr. Saucier was 22 years old at the time of his offenses and has served out his 12-months sentence. He has been recognized by his fellow service members for his dedication, skill and patriotic spirit.”

“ 'While serving, he regularly mentored younger sailors and served as an instructor for new recruits. The sentencing judge found that Mr. Saucier’s offense stands in contrast to his commendable military service. The president is appreciative of Mr. Saucier’s service to the country.' ” . . .

Now Private Manning is a whole nuther story:

April 15, 2014: Bradley Manning named honorary grand marshal of San Francisco Pride parade

Bradley Manning's Sentence Fits the Crime  . . . This is not to say that Manning didn't have legitimate grievances in life. Though most notorious criminals throughout history have too.
"But to "get even" with everyone who may have slighted him by stealing some 700,000 diplomatic cables, military reports and combat videos and sharing them with our adversaries is the epitome of treachery.
"While on balance, the treasure trove showed the U.S. as an honest broker advancing freedom and democracy, some material was taken out of context and used for enemy propaganda. The so-called "Collateral Murder" video is case in point. From afar, it's easy to condemn the Apache helicopter crew over Baghdad as they killed two Reuters crew carrying camera sticks resembling a rocket launcher, though this omits the fact that rocket-propelled grenades had been fired at friendly forces in the vicinity.
"Yet that's just that type of distortion, one designed to wound U.S. legitimacy that Manning sought and achieved. His guilty verdict in most of the 21 charges against him and resulting potential 138 years in prison, fits the crime."

UPDATE:  Pardoned Sailor Kristian Saucier Says Obama DOJ Used Him As A Hillary ‘Scapegoat’
. . . “ 'It was a clear attempt by the Department of Justice under President Obama to use me as a scapegoat to take the heat off of Hillary Clinton for mishandling classified information,” he added." . . .
I tend to doubt that because this case has instead magnified Hillary's issues. TD

Hillary and 'What Happened' in India

Jeannie DeAngelis

Thinking back on one of her more ignorant comments, the only explanation for such an awkward misstep is that the ghost of activist Mahatma Gandhi, the guy she once joked ran a gas station in St. Louis, Missouri, shoved her from behind.

. . . "How is Hillary's opinion that white women should have voted for her merely because they're white and women any less sexist and racist than the belief that domineering white males control white females?

"Either way, according to Hillary Clinton, it's subservient white women who are responsible for her not having the opportunity to slip and fall down the Grand Staircase in the White House!

. . . 

. . . "Aroon Purie probed the matronly seer by bringing up Trump and Russian collusion.  Purie asked, "Do they have something on him?"  Clinton, whom they have lots on, and who has a trail of money behind her that reaches to India and back, replied: "Follow the money."

"Speaking of "following the money," Hillary "Uranium One" Clinton amused the audience when she expressed the opinion  that "Trump [has] quite an affinity for dictators."  Hillary said, "He really likes their authoritarian posturing and behavior.  He does have a preexisting attitude of favorability toward these dictators, but I think it's more than that with Putin and Russia."

"Then, two days after saying the United States does not "deserve" the presidency of Donald Trump, indefatigable Hillary, looking a lot like Trump-critic and U.S. skier Lindsey Vonn, wound down her "What Happened" tour of India by sliding down a flight of stairs." . . . Much more at the link.

Hillary ’08 Campaign Manager: Her Latest “Deplorables” Comments Were Pretty Bad, Huh  "A stinging comment about the latest Clinton trainwreck from lefty Matt Stoller after Conor Lamb’s apparent victory last night:" . . .

Even some of Clinton’s own former aides and surrogates say the former Democratic presidential nominee should back away from the discussion about her failed campaign because it’s harmful to the party…
“She put herself in a position where [Democrats] from states that Trump won will have to distance themselves from her even more,” said one former senior Clinton aide. “That’s a lot of states.”…
“She’s annoying me. She’s annoying everyone, as far as I can tell,” said one 2016 Clinton surrogate. “Who lets her say these things?” . . .

UPDATE: Hillary Clinton Injures Hand in Fall During India Visit, Cancels Scheduled Events – Doctors Advise Her to Rest

. . . She was staying at the Umaid Bhawan Palace here and a team of doctors from a private hospital nearby was sent there to examine her.The doctors said the Democratic Party candidate in the 2016 US presidential polls had a sprain in her hand and was given required treatment. They advised her rest.

Lady Lex: A brief reminder of how great America is

Lady Lex, late 1930s-early 40s

Below: Lex at the Battle of the Coral Sea:

Peter Skurkiss  "Earlier this month, the research vessel (R.V.) Petrel of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen located and filmed the wreckage of the American aircraft carrier USS Lexington, also affectionately known as Lady Lex.

"This is both a historic and a technical event.  Lady Lex was sunk in the Battle of the Coral Sea on May 8, 1942, a dark time in WWII, nearly a month before the tide-turning Battle of Midway.  The Lady went down about 500 miles off the northeastern coast of Australia and took over 200 U.S. sailors with her.  She rests about two miles deep in the ocean.  The tears have long dried for those lost, but this locating of the wreckage gives us the opportunity to again remember the service and sacrifice of those men.   

"There is no need to rehash the Battle of the Coral Sea; there are multiple sources for that.  What should be noted is that this achievement of Paul Allen shows what is possible when the technical prowess of America is coupled with free-market initiative.  Finding Lady Lex is an example of both.  But it pales in significance to things like the fracking oil and gas revolution and the emergence of private space launching companies like Elon Musk's SpaceX, which is planning to send a space vehicle to Mars by 2020." . . .

(The 1944 film, "The Fighting Lady" was filmed aboard Lady Lex's sister ship, the USS Yorktown)

Federal Budget in Pictures

"Now, more than ever it’s critical that we understand the nation’s spending, taxes and debt."

Heritage Two of many graphs.

Take the budget quiz:

• What is the root cause of growing federal deficits and debt?
• Which federal programs spend the most money per year?
• What is the share of the public debt for every American in 2017?
• Who pays how much of the federal tax burden?

Nearing retirement? Not good:

PragerU: Dear Celebrities, No One Cares What You Think

Legal Insurrection  "Celebrities have misconstrued the public’s appreciation for their talent for the public’s willingness to be lectured about politics and rightness.

"PragerU has a message for celebrities that should help clear up any confusion here:

We adulate celebrities so much, it’s no wonder they’re under the impression that we care about their political opinions. The truth is, we don’t. In this video, Candace Owens, Director of Urban Development for Turning Point USA, lets unaware celebs in on the reality: no one cares what they think.

Trump’s CIA Director Pick Gina Haspel Will Likely Face Questions About Role in Torture

Obama and Eric Holder would have sought her prosecution after taking office.

Legal Insurrection

Haspel ran secret CIA prison in Thailand that used “enhanced” interrogation methods.

"President Donald Trump fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson this morning and nominated CIA Director Mike Pompeo to take over that role. He also nominated CIA Deputy Director Gina Haspel to lead the spy agency.

"If confirmed, Haspel will become the first woman CIA director. However, she may face a rocky road to confirmation due to her role in torture sessions at a secret prison in Thailand.

"The Republicans have a one seat majority in the Senate. That incredibly slim lead may dissolve with Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) who has always been one of the leading voices against these “enhanced” interrogation techniques the government has used." . . .

CNN will love this.

“Cultural Appropriation” May Have Finally Crashed And Burned

Hot Air  "You’re surely familiar with the “cultural appropriation” outrage running around liberal social media sites these days, right? It’s when one particular demographic group (and their inevitable supporters who take up every progressive cause on the planet) lays claim to an entire genre of performing arts and then chooses to scold anyone who isn’t “authentic” enough and dares to be creative in that field. And as I’m sure you already know, by “authentic” they refer to the color of your skin.

"Another episode of this annoying kvetching broke out this week. It wouldn’t have been worth a mention were it not for the target. Rather than going after yet another white artist, this time the forces of progressive fury fixed their sights on none other than Bruno Mars. Now, to be honest here, I wouldn’t even know the man’s name had he not played at the Super Bowl a while back, but I did hear him perform there and he’s got an impressive set of pipes. But, as it turns out, he’s singing the wrong kind of music."

"Here’s the episode of The Grapevine in question."

"Normally this would be the end of the story. After being appropriately shamed by his progressive betters, the artist would shuffle up to a microphone to deliver some sort of apology and then slink off stage, promising to try to do better. (Or at least that’s how it works if they are marketing their work to a largely liberal audience.)" . . .

Opinion Rex Tillerson: hapless, hopeless and tragic. Now his time is up

“There is strong sense of relief at State. The last year has been traumatic to put it mildly."

"That’s the other way in which State’s influence grew today. It’s not just a matter of Trump being more amenable to persuasion by Pompeo, it’s a matter of Pompeo potentially being more amenable to persuasion by career diplomats at the Department. "

The UK Guardian

“I told Rex Tillerson, our wonderful secretary of state, that he is wasting his time trying to negotiate with Little Rocket Man,” his wonderful boss tweeted in October. “Being nice to Rocket Man hasn’t worked in 25 years, why would it work now? Clinton failed, Bush failed, and Obama failed. I won’t fail.”

"Rex Tillerson was a part-time truth-teller. In one national security meeting, he had the piercing insight and honesty to call Donald Trump “a moron” – possibly an Anglo-Saxon kind of moron. Yet, like his boss, he lacked the self-awareness to know that the same critique applied to himself, as the moron’s secretary-of-state.

"There were clues along the way, many of them spotted by the man he so openly disdained. It was the moron-in-chief who challenged the moron-of-state to an open contest of intellectual power. “I think it’s fake news,” Trump told Forbes magazine, dismissing the moronic comments. “But if he did [say] that, I guess we’ll have to compare IQ tests. And I can tell you who is going to win.”

Trump fires Tillerson: president swings axe after series of policy clashes

 

Read more

"Genius. At some point, you just have to surrender to this kind of brainpower.

. . . 

"Sadly all those executive skills did not include the ability to retain or build a senior staff at the state department, where the exodus of experience and talent has been a diplomatic blowout. He refused briefings from senior staff and refused to talk to the press. He hollowed out the senior ranks with no rhyme or reason, leaving critical posts unfilled, while others simply quit or retired. Among them was the leading foreign service official on North Korea, who retired just two weeks ago.

"Tillerson’s tenure was so bad, it prompted some rare bipartisan agreement. “America’s diplomatic power is being weakened internally as complex global crises are growing externally,” warned John McCain and Jeanne Shaheen, the Republican and Democratic senators, in a letter to Tillerson late last year." . . .

Teacher and students beat Trump piñata in HS Spanish class … this is a US public school, folks

Liberals love to speak out against inciting violence, but seem to be okay with it as long as the violence is being incited against Republicans.

BPR  "Students and teachers in a Spanish class at Laguna Hills High School were allegedly filmed beating a piñata resembling President Trump during class time, prompting the school district to investigate, CBS 2 reports."

The video showed teachers and students taking turns hitting a yellow-haired, red tie-wearing piñata that featured a photograph of the president’s face. A representative of Saddleback Valley United School District told CBS 2 that the incident was investigated and “immediate action” was taken.

‘Backwards’:"Mother of the Country" Hillary Clinton Apparently Still Has No Clue Why She Lost

The "mother of the country"?

The Federalist

Her condescending words targeted voters in states that twice voted for Obama, and show she still doesn't understand why Americans didn’t vote for her.

"Hillary Clinton isn’t ready to let go of her election loss to President Trump. Clinton is in Mumbai, India, at the India Today Conclave, a “a meeting point for the best minds from India and around the world to map the geopolitical and economic future of the country.” But instead of keeping her focus on the complex and numerous problems facing India, Clinton took aim Monday at Americans who voted for Trump. Her patronizing and condescending words targeted voters in states that twice voted for Obama, and show she still doesn’t understand why Americans didn’t vote for her.

"Clinton compared herself to the mother of the country, trying to enforce something wholesome that the children aren’t fond of. She said, “She ran the presidential campaign like a mother who was telling the kids to eat spinach because it was good for health while the other guy was asking them to go eat fast food and have ice-cream,” India Today reported. Clinton may not have realized it, but this also sheds a lot of light on how she sees the average American. She views them as short sighted, more interested in junk than substance, and in her words, they’re “backwards.' ” . . .

Hillary Nearly Falls Down Stairs Twice In India
. . . "Clinton is in the country to participate in the India Today Conclave, where she claimed President Donald Trump only won the election because [she got] the support of people she famously called “deplorables.” . . .

No wait! It was because of this:

Clinton Blames Her Loss on White Women Listening to Their Husbands

Brendan Tevlin’s Jihadist Killer Pleads Guilty

Legal Insurrection

"The murder has received precious little national media coverage."

. . . "In September 2014, we asked, Why is the Brendan Tevlin murder so underreported?

On June 25, 2014, 19 year-old Brendan Tevlin hopped into his car to return home after spending the evening at a friend’s house. Minutes later, Ali Muhammad Brown approached the vehicle as it was stopped at a red light and fired ten rounds into the car, killing Brendan.

Originally, the teen’s murder was labeled an attempted robbery, allowing the media to remain silent.

Now, court documents have revealed that Brown’s motivation for killing Tevlin had less to do with thievery, and more to do with America’s pushback against Jihadist terrorism in the Middle East….

Whether or not Brendan’s murder was part of a systematic plot to introduce jihad to our shores or a self-directed act, is beside the point.

What’s important here is that an innocent American is dead because of Jihadist violence, and the media is keeping it relatively quiet.

The Obama policies that have put us all in danger

Jack Hellner  . . . "For the last 25 years, Presidents Clinton, Bush, and Obama have been toyed with by North Korea while the North Koreans continually built up their nuclear weapons, and the media go to the very people who let this happen for analysis on Trump."
. . . 
"When has appeasement ever worked?

"Obama, Hillary, and Kerry, surrounded by experts (lifers), came up with the "smart" foreign policy of leading from behind, and we got policies that:

• Had us pulling all of our troops out of Iraq, which allowed ISIS and Iran to build up their power in the region.
• Had us pull out of our commitment to put missile defense in Poland and the Czech Republic which certainly pleased Putin.
• Had a gun-running operation to Mexico where we lost track of the guns. 
• Had us watching North Korea as it expanded its weaponry – but we kept telling them to stop.  (It is a good thing we didn't use rough language on Rocket Man, because then he would have really gotten dangerous.)
• Had us watch as Putin invaded Crimea and Ukraine, and our smart policy-makers told him to stop, but we wouldn't even give Ukraine defensive weapons, even though we are obligated to defend that nation.
• Had our president promise Putin we would be more flexible if he was re-elected.
• Had us leave our diplomats vulnerable to attack in Libya, and then pretended a video was responsible in order to protect the political power of Obama.
• Had us allowing NATO countries to pay less than their treaty obligations.
• Had us kowtowing to the U.N.
• Had us negotiate secretly with Iran, the biggest sponsor of terrorism in the world; give them hundreds of billions of dollars; and even pay them ransom.  They lied throughout the process and then signed a deal with the devil to pretend the world was now safer.  Now we have Iran, which continues to sponsor terrorism and continues to threaten death to America with more money, which continues to build more weapons.  The Iranians are also helping Assad in Syria.  Thank goodness for the "experts" Obama surrounded himself with to get this "smart" policy!
• Had the U.S allowing  the terrorist group Hezb'allah to have a drug-running operation to appease the tyrants in Iran.
• Had Obama's wife respond with a "Bring Back Our Girls" hashtag when 276 girls were kidnapped in Nigeria by terrorists.
• Had us saying climate change is more dangerous than terrorism.  Some even told us the crisis caused by Syrian and other refugees escaping was because of a potential couple-of-degrees rise in temperature rather than because tyrants were killing and raping them.
• Had the president draw a red line in Syria over chemical weapons use and, when Syria used chemical weapons, essentially did nothing.  He and Kerry did pretend Assad got rid of all his chemical weapons.
• Had us sign the Paris Climate Accord, which would have cost trillions and slowed down the U.S. and world economies to pretend that government officials could adjust temperatures downward by one degree forever.  Does that sound smart or true?
• Had the State Department spending taxpayer money to interfere in Israel's election.  Why didn't the media do an investigation of that if collusion in elections is so dangerous?  Where was Adam Schiff?
• Had the president and agencies under his control refusing to enforce immigration laws Congress passed in violation of their oath of office and the Constitution.
• Had a purported 17 out of 17 intelligence agencies blame Russians for the DNC computer hack, without ever examining the computer.  Is it smart to claim that you can analyze a computer based on a piece of paper from someone else?

"Not once do I remember the media caring about any of the above disastrous and dangerous policies.  But now I am supposed to believe that things are more dangerous because Trump doesn't know what he is doing?" . . .