Goodbye, appeasement; Obama's foreign policy was as much a product of his own vanity as anything else.

How can Obama still be worshipped so when his fecklessness and cowardice were on display for eight full years?

Hat tip to Monty Python

Elad Hakim  "When we were in school, most of us probably knew several kids who always “talked tough.” They were bullies and threatened “consequences” if their demands were not met. However, when they were confronted, or when someone stood up to them, they backed off, ran away, and hid until it was safe to come back. On the other hand, when those who were bullied continued to give in to their demands, their losses became more significant over time. While not all bullies are the same, one thing is clear: you can’t defeat a bully by running away or by appeasement.

"The policy of “running away” or appeasing others was implemented by some of our previous presidents. Red lines were laid out, yet quickly “forgotten” although they were clearly and blatantly violated. For example, in or about 2012, President Obama made the following statement:

"We have been very clear to the Assad regime, but also to other players on the ground, that a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized. That would change my calculus. That would change my equation." 

"Notwithstanding President Obama’s designated “red line,” Bashar al-Assad, the president of Syria, subsequently ordered a devastating chemical attack against his own people. With his credibility on the line, and with the whole world watching, President Obama took no decisive action" . . .

Victor Davis Hanson discusses The Roots of Obama’s Appeasement

. . . President Obama currently is convinced that his singular charisma and rare insight into human nature will convince the Taliban to peacefully participate in Afghan politics. Obama will supposedly also win over the Iranian theocracy and show it how nonproliferation is really to everyone’s advantage.“Reset” diplomacy with Putin was supposed to lessen tensions — if, after the 2012 election, Putin just had more exposure to a flexible statesman of Obama’s wisdom.Throughout history, without the vanity of the conceder, there would never have been appeasement.Appeasement also always subordinates the interests of vulnerable third parties to the appeaser’s own inflated sense of self. When Chamberlain and the French prime minister Edouard Daladier signed the 1938 Munich Pact, they worried little about the fate of millions of Czechs who lost their country — and less about millions of Poles who were next in line for Hitler’s Blitzkrieg.Reset diplomacy with Russia in 2009 was not much concerned about the ensuing danger to Crimeans or Ukrainians. When the Taliban takes over, hundreds of thousands of reformist Afghans will die.

The most offensive Holocaust-denier

Jacqueline Saper  "On Thursday, April 11, 2018, millions of people solemnly observed Yom Ha Shoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day, or Day of the Inferno in Hebrew).  Yet many people still deny the existence of this most terrible of tragedies.

Photo added by TD

"It is important to acknowledge that Holocaust denial is a cause embraced not just by fringe ideologues.  Holocaust-deniers exist in all shapes and sizes throughout the world.  Most egregiously, certain foreign governments affirmatively support this denial.

"For me, international holocaust denial is personal, since one of the most widely reported deniers is my homeland: Iran.  Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the former president of Iran, has called the Holocaust a "lie and a mythical claim."  Ayatollah Khamenei has said, "No one in European countries dares to speak about the Holocaust[.] ... [It] is not clear whether the core of this matter is a reality or not.  Even if it is a reality, it is not clear how it happened."  An Iranian newspaper holds an annual Holocaust (Denial) Cartoon contest. * The cartoonist who best mocks the Nazi genocide is awarded $50,000.

"Such rhetoric has presented a negative image of Iran and Iranians around the world.  But before the founding of the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1979, there was another Iran.  This Iran not only acknowledged the holocaust, but even assisted Jews during World War II." . . .
*Still awaiting racism condemnations from the left...waiting...

Photo added by TD

Jacqueline Saper is an author whose forthcoming book, From Miniskirt to Hijab: A Girl in Pre- and Post-revolutionary Iran, is scheduled to be published by the University of Nebraska Press – Potomac Books in spring 2019.

Astonishing California bill would shut down free speech, require fact-checkers. Updated

Personal Liberty

This originally appeared at Jon Rappoport’s blog, NoMoreFakeNews.com, on April 9, 2018.

"California used to be trumpeted as the cutting edge of American culture."It still is, except the culture is now all about censoring free speech."California Senator Richard Pan, who was behind the infamous 2015 law mandating vaccinations for schoolchildren (SB277), has stepped up to the plate and introduced another bill."This one would clamp down on criticism of any Official Story."The bill is titled “SB1424 Internet: social media: false information: strategic plan.”"It targets social media based in California. But as you read the bill, you see it appears to define social media as any internet blog, website or communication.

"SB1424 is [in] brief. Read it: . . .

UPDATE: Sheryl Attkisson Reveals Who Facebook Would Have Judge What ‘Fake News’ Was

UT Professor Threatened By Armed Antifa Group Found Dead

Zero Hedge  "A controversial University of Texas professor who was repeatedly threatened by Antifa over a domestic violence incident from 2016 was found dead in his home on Thursday. The cause of death is unknown. 

"Richard Morrisett, 57, pleaded guilty to a felony charge of strangling his girlfriend off campus, which prompted outrage from a coalition of UT parents. In response to the incident, UT President Greg Fenves announced in a Thursday letter that employees who commit crimes off campus could face discipline, even if found not to pose a threat to campus safety, security or other operations. 

"Armed extremist Antifa group, "Revolutionary Student Front" repeatedly threatened Morrissett following the incident, defacing the door of his lab with graffiti reading "GET Out Morrisett OR ELSE" and "WATCH YOUR BACK RICHARD.' " . . .

. . . 

New York Times Writer Attacks Pompeo and Bolton for Opposing Jihad

PJ Media

"The New York Times is immensely frightened by President Trump’s appointments of Mike Pompeo as secretary of State and John Bolton as national security advisor, and that’s a very good sign. But the paper has definitely put its smear machine into high gear.

"In a risible article entitled “Pompeo and Bolton Appointments Raise Alarm Over Ties to Anti-Islam Groups,” the Times’ Laurie Goodstein excoriates Pompeo for denouncing Muslim leaders in the U.S. for their silence after the Boston Marathon jihad bombing. “In fact,” writes Goodstein, “more than half a dozen American Muslim organizations had issued statements condemning the bombing within hours of the attack.”

"But as always, condemnations are easy, action is hard. What are Muslim organizations in the U.S. doing to prevent the next jihad massacre? Where are the programs teaching young Muslims to reject the al-Qaeda/ISIS understanding of Islam, and indeed, to reject jihad terror altogether, as well as the aspects of Sharia that contradict American law?

"Nowhere.

"The article goes on to engage in the familiar Leftist media tactic of presenting statements that are demonstrably true without refutation, as if they were self-evidently false:" . . .

Forget the Confederacy, Now Social Justice Warriors Go After Union Statues

The Resurgent

"Anyone who thought last year’s war on Confederate statues was a passing phase doesn’t know Social Justice Warriors very well at all. They are continuing to push us into an era where if you aren’t feeling aggrieved, offended, or persecuted, you aren’t doing your part for “justice.”

"And now, the statue of a former Union Civil War soldier and one of America’s more effective presidents, William McKinley, is meeting the same fate as stone Robert E. Lee did just months ago:

• "No other city has taken down a monument to a president for his misdeeds. But Arcata (California) is poised to do just that. The target is an 8½-foot bronze likeness of William McKinley, who was president at the turn of the last century and stands accused of directing the slaughter of Native peoples in the U.S. and abroad.
• "Put a rope around its neck and pull it down," Chris Peters shouted at a recent rally held at the statue, which has adorned the central square for more than a century.

"By “directing the slaughter of Native peoples,” the left-wing activists in Arcata don’t mean that McKinley was intimately involved with killing anyone, but that he was a proponent of westward settlement which they say resulted in natives being “savaged, raped and killed.”

"You might be like me and find that to be a tenuous stretch at best, an unfair and inaccurate accusation at worst. But the notoriously liberal enclave of Arcata (their city council is majority Green Party) has already made up their minds:" . . .

OPINION Dreamers In The News

Ann Coulter

"With all the tender concern President Trump and Nancy Pelosi have been heaping on "Dreamers" of late, you'd think the media would notice and pepper us with stories about these "incredible kids," as Trump calls them. Alas, no. Our tedious media drones refuse to provide us with moving human interest stories about the Dreamers.

"Journalists and politicians love to give us archetypes: the DACA soldier, the DACA valedictorian, the DACA grandmother. But there are so many other roles they fill!

"To make up for the Fourth Estate's failure, this week, I'll highlight five Dreamers who have done noteworthy things just in the last month. "

The Bounceback Child Rapist
A few weeks ago, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement caught up with Dreamer Anastacio Eugenio Lopez-Fabian, 24, in a courthouse parking lot in Oregon. Police in Seaside, Oregon, had arrested Lopez-Fabian for multiple rapes of a girl "younger than 14," assault and harassment.

"Law enforcement then released Lopez-Fabian the day of his arrest, without notifying I.C.E., despite the fact that he had already been deported twice to his native Guatemala, in 2013 and 2014. " . . .

The Butterfingered Gun Slinger
Also two weeks ago, Dreamer Jaime Melchi-Sigas, 22, pleaded guilty to the federal offenses of unlawful possession of a firearm and unlawful possession of a counterfeit alien registration card. Melchi-Sigas was already serving time in a state prison for reckless homicide and tampering with physical evidence.

His convictions stemmed from an incident last year when Melchi-Sigas was sitting in the back seat of a car, examining an illegal gun he intended to purchase, and accidentally shot and killed the man in the front seat.

This item appeared in one small local Bowling Green, Kentucky, newspaper.

The Oppressed Rapist

Three weeks ago, Dreamer Alejandro Perez-Cortez, 26, appealed his five-year sentence for attempting to anally rape a woman, pointing out that he was drunk at the time and barely made enough money to live on, much less send back to his wife and two children in Mexico. 

The appeal was denied, on the grounds that being drunk and poor did not constitute evidence of good character -- and also that Perez-Cortez was an illegal alien. (Until Trump has his way on Dreamers!)  . . .

The Fleet-Footed Drunk Driver

Dreamer Ivan Gerardo Zamarripa-Castaneda, 26, killed 57-year-old John Anderson in Denver at around midnight on March 3, when he smashed his pickup truck into Anderson's truck, setting off a fiery explosion and shutting down I-70 for hours. This poor Mexican who was driving drunk on an interstate -- through no fault of his own -- fled the scene.
. . .

The May-December Rapist
"Dreamer Juan Vazquez Cornelio, 38, was recently charged with raping a 10-year-old girl and sending her to the hospital. The reddest state in the Union -- Alabama -- gave Kardashian-level media coverage to the arrest: THREE local news stories. The Tuscaloosa News lavished 100 words on the child-rapist before turning to another topic: "Severe weather possible Monday in state -- Tuscaloosa County could experience severe weather beginning Monday afternoon, according to the National Weather Service."

"The illegal alien Mexican Dreamer was charged with rape in the first degree, the girl was hospitalized and it's going to rain on Monday. "

In Trump we trust

In Trump we trust 

The office of the special counsel, so-called, is an anti-constitutional monster and always has been.  If the special counsel is ever brought before the Supreme Court, it will have to discredit or ignore any action from that office.

 "On the surface, it looks as if Trump is losing the battle against Mueller.  I'm not so sure.  Mueller has had to attack Trump by giving away his own credibility.  He's way off his original target of the phony-baloney Russian collusion and is now attacking Trump's attorney, Michael Cohen.  Even Democrats who hate Trump have to know this.  Even Alan Dershowitz is publicly outraged on behalf of the bar association, and that means millions of lawyers around the country are feeling scared, too.

"Trump has also cast a skeptical spotlight on the biggest Yellow Press Baron of these times, Jeff Bezos, who everybody now knows is trying to destroy the president of the United States behind the front of the WaPo.  The moment Bezos drops the mask for 50 million people, he's losing.  Then this fight looks personal, and it is." . . .

I would suggest to President Trump: sit tight and keep tweeting.  The Yellow Press is killing itself.

Thomas Lifson: Former Federal Election Commission chairman debunks pretext used for raid on Trump lawyer

. . . And this is with Republicans in power.  The Deep State is for real." 

 Liberal Lawyer: If Hillary Clinton's Lawyer's Office Was Raided By The FBI, The ACLU Would Go Ballistic

The Death of the DOJ and the FBI   . . . "But this raises another question: Where the hell were the FBI and DOJ when it came to Hillary Clinton? Trump himself has been enraged by the disparity between law enforcement's treatment of Clinton and its treatment of him. He rightly points out that the FBI and DOJ worked to exonerate Clinton, with former FBI Director James Comey going so far as to change the definition of existing law to avoid recommending her indictment for mishandling classified material. And not only did then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch meet with former President Bill Clinton on a tarmac in the middle of the election cycle and the investigation of his wife; Lynch's Department of Justice allowed Cheryl Mills, Hillary Clinton's top aide, to claim attorney-client privilege." . . .

The New York Times Blasts Trump; Excuses Obama for Carnage in Syria

Legal Insurrection

The Times can’t acknowledge that it championed the policies that brought such destruction to Syria

. . . "Enabling Assad Enabler, Iran

"In an editorial taken (I think) from Obama’s rhetoric, the Times praised An Iran Nuclear Deal That Reduces the Chance of War. Now if you’re Syrian, or are aware of what’s gone in Syria, Yemen, Iraq and Lebanon since July 2015, you know that the deal by releasing billions of dollars to Iran, intensified wars already going on.

"But the Times saw no bad in this deal either.

As described by Mr. Obama and other officials, the deal seems sound and clearly in the interest of the United States, the other nations that drafted it and the state of Israel. In return for a phased lifting of international economic sanctions, Iran will reduce by 98 percent its stockpile of low-enriched uranium, which can be processed further into bomb-grade fuel, and reduce the number of operating centrifuges used to enrich that fuel by two-thirds, to 5,060. These limits mean that if Iran ever decides to violate the agreement and make a dash for a nuclear bomb, it will take a year to produce the weapons-grade fuel needed for a single bomb, compared with a couple of months now.

. . .

Guess Whose House Wasn't Raided by the FBI

Yet there are no raids of the offices of the Clinton Foundation.  Mueller is not interested in justice or in fighting Russian meddling in our elections.  He is on a mission to get Donald Trump, the truth and the evidence be damned.

Daniel John Sobieski  . . . "Can't find any collusion between Trump and Russia?  Hey, why not look for collusion between Cohen and professional whore and porn star Stormy Daniels?  Was she paid to go away with campaign funds?  Even so, that's an FEC violation punishable by a fine and something that does not require a SWAT team.

"It certainly does not compare with money funneled by Team Hillary and the DNC though a law firm to Fusion GPS and British foreign agent Christopher Steele to put together a fake dossier on Trump using Russian sources.  But where were the raids on the offices of the DNC, the Hillary Clinton campaign, and Fusion GPS?

"This is the FBI of Andrew McCabe, Lisa Page, and Peter Strzok, whose mission was to keep Hillary Clinton out of prison and Donald Trump out of the White House.  They never raided the home and office of Cheryl Mills, did they?  They never raided Hillary's house or seized the acid-washed server, did they?  But Michael Cohen is a threat to our democracy warranting brute force?  Why wasn't Michel Cohen offered the immunity deal given to Cheryl Mills and other Clinton cronies?" . . .

"Let us get this straight.  Clinton's attorney (Cheryl Mills) gets immunity and is allowed to decide which of Hillary's emails to delete and which to hand over, but Michael Cohen has his office raided because he might be hiding something?  If they were worried Cohen might be destroying evidence, then what about the 33,000 emails destroyed by Team Hillary?  Michael Flynn was convicted of false statements to investigators, but Andy McCabe, who, according to Rep. Jim Jordan, lied four times to investigators, walks?

Maybe The United States Is Heading For A “Divorce”

Jazz Shaw

“This is almost entirely a cultural divide. You can easily pick out the issues of the day and see how the various state legislatures have divided into two camps, lined up across from each other in a (thus far) strictly verbal war. Gun rights, abortion, illegal immigration and border security… the list goes on. So what happens if the differences are so intractable that no common ground seems possible and the losers of a series of increasingly closely divided elections simply refuse to continue being governed by the winners?”

. . .
Now, from The Federalist: It’s Time For The United States To Divorce Before Things Get Dangerous 
. . . "We are a nation hopelessly divided. We are more divided now than we have ever been in our history. And before you start screaming at me about the Civil War, keep in mind that bloody conflict was fought over one major issue. In those days, take ten families from New York and ten families from Alabama, put them all in a room, and you’d find they mostly had the same values (and bad accents).

Now, fast-forward to today and do that same thing. Those families have virtually nothing in common. We as a nation have polarized and separated from each other." . . .

Debate.org discussed this during the Obama Administration:  Is America headed for another civil war?  88% say yes; 12% say no.

ANALYSIS: The FBI Raid Means Michael Cohen Should Be Really, Really Scared He’s Next

Rich Terrell

Rachel Stockman  "The news Monday afternoon that the FBI raided President Donald Trump‘s attorney’s office strongly suggests that Michael Cohen should be very, very concerned that he may be next to face criminal charges or is at the very least in serious legal jeopardy.  For one, this appears to be a part of an entirely separate investigation looking into Trump’s world that is different from the Russia probe. The New York Times cites Cohen’s attorney who claims this raid was part of a referral from Robert Mueller‘s Russia probe. However, even Cohen’s attorney  Stephen Ryan admits the New York action is, in part, a referral by the Office of Special Counsel, Robert Mueller. (Emphasis ours).

"This looks to be part of an ongoing probe in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District— meaning the investigation was likely already ongoing, or had been based on another tip. It also appears to go much further than allegations surrounding Cohen’s payment to Stormy Daniels.

“ 'This kind of coordination in multiple searches, in conjunction with news reports that investigators had been looking into Cohen’s business dealings, leads me to believe there is more here than campaign finance violations, but that is impossible to know without seeing the search warrant affidavit, which remains sealed,” explained Daniel Goldman, a former federal prosecutor with the Southern District." . . .