Trump’s High-Wire Act of Reestablishing Deterrence without War

The more Obama appeased Putin — dismantled missile defense in Eastern Europe, blamed the Bush administration for the tensions that were to be relieved by the reset, and in a hot-mic exchange offered to become more malleable with Putin if Putin would behave while Obama was up for reelection — the more Putin detested Obama.

Victor Davis Hanson
"Trump’s opponents at home and abroad would love to see him get the U.S. into a messy intervention right before the election."

"Donald Trump inherited a superficially stable world from Barack Obama that, in fact, was quite volatile. There had been no tense standoffs with North Korea, but also apparent intercontinental ballistic missiles with possible nuclear warheads now pointed at the United States. Obama more or less punted on North Korea, by declaring it a problem — and hoping that Pyongyang’s missile and nuclear testing did not get too out of hand before 2017.

"Then there was the “Iran deal.” It was an appeasing agreement that almost surely guaranteed that Iran would soon have nuclear weapons, along with a revived economy liberated from sanctions and empowered with American cash. Iran’s terrorist surrogates were the greatest beneficiaries of U.S. naïveté. At best, Obama assumed that when Iran went nuclear, it would be on someone else’s presidential watch and therefore not his fault. At worst, Obama, in delusional fashion, believed that empowering Iran would balance Sunni states and bring justice to historically oppressed Shiite and Persian minorities who would take their rightful place in the Islamic world." . . .

Obama took lying to new heights with the Iran deal

Washington Post  "When it comes to the Iran nuclear deal, the Obama administration increasingly appears to have been a bottomless pit of deception.
"First, President Barack Obama failed to disclose to Congress the existence of secret side deals on inspections when he transmitted the nuclear accord to Capitol Hill. (They were only uncovered by chance when then-Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.) and Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) learned about them during a meeting with International Atomic Energy Agency officials in Vienna.) Then, we learned that the Obama administration had secretly sent a plane to Tehranloaded with $400 million in Swiss francs, euros and other currencies on the same day Iran released four American hostages, which was followed by two more secret flights carrying another $1.3 billion in cash.
"Now, in a bombshell revelation, Republicans on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, led by Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), have revealed in a new report that the Obama administration secretly tried to help Iran use U.S. banks to convert $5.7 billion in Iranian assets, after promising Congress that Iran would not get access to the U.S. financial system — and then lied to Congress about what it had done. (Full disclosure: My wife works for Portman).
"In July 2015, Obama Treasury Secretary Jack Lew assured the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that, under the nuclear accord, Iran “will continue to be denied access to the [U.S.] financial and commercial market” and that “Iranian banks will not be able to clear U.S. dollars through New York, hold correspondent account relationships with U.S. financial institutions, or enter into financing arrangements with U.S. banks.” A few weeks later, one of Lew’s top deputies, Adam Szubin, used the exact same words in testimony to the Senate banking committee.
"But Senate investigators found that on Feb. 24, 2016, the Obama Treasury Department “granted a specific license that authorized a conversion of Iranian assets worth billions of U.S. dollars using the U.S. financial system” — exactly what Lew and Szubin said would not happen — including unlimited future Iranian deposits at Bank Muscat in Oman until the license expired." . . .

Obama's war on his opponents, well, actually...his enemies

When Barack Obama declared war on Donald Trump  . . . "President Obama's actions were neither humorous nor malicious but were an egregious abuse of power of the Executive.  To say that what happened to President Trump was a coup d'état, an overthrow or a type of revolution, or an illegal and overt seizure by the military or other elites within the state apparatus, isn't adequate, either.

"President Trump's enemies declared war on him for one reason and one reason only: vindictiveness.  Vengeance.  Who dares question the mighty O? " . . .

"Obama's army were the heads of the intelligence and law enforcement communities at the CIA, FBI, and DOJ.  Their weapon was counterfeit papers that cut as sharply and deeply as any executioner's knife.  The Clappers, Comeys, and Brennans knew exactly how to have secondary and tertiary sources plant stories in the media. 

"This is exactly what enemies of the nation can expect when the intelligence community and law enforcement agencies are on them.  Destroy your reputation; ruin your life by leaking a story to the media.  And once a story is in the media, then law enforcement can "do their job" and investigate.  By the book." . . .

Joe DiGenova blows the lid off the real scandal: The Russia hoax was a cover-up effort for Obama's political spying since 2012  "Hold on to your hats.  At last, we are on the verge of getting to the bottom of the weaponization of the nation's top law enforcement and spy agencies to spy on political opponents, and it is far bigger than obtaining bogus FISA Court warrants to spy on Carter Page.  Barack Obama's minions have been spying on his political opponents since before his 2012 re-election, and the entire Russiagate hoax was an effort to cover up that ongoing spying." . . .

This is your FBI under Obama.  "[Eric Felten at RealClearInvestigations] wrote, "There are a growing number of indicators that the leading players in the 2016 election drama are turning on one another, making a mad dash for the lifeboats to escape being dragged under with the political Titanic that is Christopher Steele and his dossier. These are many of the same people who had been eager to exploit the dossier, that collection of memos paid for by the Clinton campaign and supposedly sourced from Russia. Once treated like the Rosetta stone of collusion, the Steele documents now seem even to Trump antagonists more like the Howard Hughes diaries.' "

Think Obama Democrats would not engage in acts like these? Let's look at Joe The Plumber.
An Obama-supporting IRS official researched this citizen:
Ohio IG Report: Joe the Plumber's Records Were Improperly Searched   "The director of an Ohio human services agency has been suspended for a month without pay and faces review by a county prosecutor for using confidential state databases to find personal information on "Joe the Plumber." She will also face review for using her state e-mail address to help Barack Obama's fundraising by identifying potential contributors and offering her own $2,500 donation." . . .

Plundering the Plumber's Records "If Joe the Plumber were Jawad the Suspected Terrorist, civil liberties activists would stampede the halls of Congress on his behalf. Liberal columnists would hyperventilate over the outrageous invasions of his privacy by Ohio state and local employees. The ACLU would demand the Big Brother snoopers' heads. And Democratic leaders would convene immediate hearings and parade him around the Beltway as the new poster boy/victim of unlawful domestic spying." . . .

"But . . ."
The press serves the Deep State

. . . "The Washington Post said, "President Trump's new executive order giving the attorney general broad authority to declassify government secrets threatens to expose U.S. intelligence sources.""That is from the newspaper that published the Pentagon Papers. The story won a Pulitzer." . . .

Ex-CNN Contributors: Network 'Openly Despises Conservatives,' Has Become The 'Hate Trump' Network

Daily Wire

"According to several former contributors to the cable news network, CNN has increasingly become the anti-conservative, "hate Trump" network that allows only Republicans critical of the president on their airwaves and has systematically "squeezed out" conservative voices.
. . . 
" 'CNN used to pretend it accepted right wing voices for balance, but now it openly despises conservatives who are pro-Trump," Sexton told Mediaite. "Today the entire enterprise clings to a fundamental dishonesty: that it has no political agenda. Taking down Trump is obviously the agenda. And in this regard, some of CNN’s ‘hard news’ anchors are the biggest journalistic frauds of all.' " . . .

One of my all-time favorites of CNN reporting:

2011; CNN Reporter Dan Lothian asks Obama this challenging, insightful question: 

O Bernie, Where Art Thou?

So...all Democrats wear that permanent frown, do they not? That angry scowl; so troubled! 

Truthfeed

The American Spectator
                                            Bernie Sanders’ magic has gone pfft! 

"Bernie Sanders wears a permanent frown. It’s the kind of face an individual pulls after stepping in canine excrement. Now, the Vermont native has a genuine reason to look unhappy. The self-described Democratic socialist continues to drop in the polls. According to the latest Fox News survey, Sanders has dropped 6 percentage points since March. He now stands at 17 percent.

"Furthermore, according to the the latest Quinnipiac poll, in a little over a year, Bernie’s favorability has dropped significantly, from 48% in January 2018 to 41% in 2019. Even among Democrats, according to the poll, Sanders has a 20% unfavorable rating.

Photo added by TD

"Oh, how times changed. Just a few years ago Sanders was a darling of the left. The old dog was breathing new fire into a party overly reliant on the “wisdom” of Hilary Clinton.

"Bernie was an evangelical progressive at a time when this was still somewhat of a novelty. This was his Unique Selling Point.

"Free healthcare. Free education. You name it, Bernie was giving it away. However, in the space of just three years, everything has changed. Bernie is no longer the only progressive.  . . ."

NBC polling data shows Bernie Sanders with a lock on 'low information voters'

The Joe Bidenest of all the Joe Bidens

Richard A. Rail  "An article in the New Yorker appears to go to extreme pains to explain why Barack Obama hasn't endorsed Joe Biden yet.  Tradition.  Respect for the other candidates.  Waiting a bit longer to see what happens.

"The real reason, which will go unsaid, is that Obama doesn't want Biden popping off with some stupid comment that will embarrass not only Obama, but all of Demworld.  That sort of thing was manageable back in the halcyon days when Barack was in the saddle and thinking he was soaking up all the attention so that nobody would even notice old Joe.  Joe wasn't interesting then, and he's not interesting now, the thinking went, but now there's nobody running interference.

. . . 

"Back to old Joe.  He's been lying low recently to get a feel for which way the winds are blowing.  For a while there, they were blowing chaotically for the Left, with Joe saying something stupid and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez saying something impossible and Nancy saying something ludicrous and Tlaib saying something racist and Maxine saying something all tough guy and, and, and...  It's not easy playing elder statesman when you're surrounded by nincompoops whose nincompoopery might rub off on you.  No wonder Barack's keeping quiet.

"Joe at least used to be the Joe Bidenest of all the Joe Bidens.  Now he's got fierce competition for that."

"The post FLASHBACK: Biden Likes to Swim Naked, Which Female Secret Service Agents Found ‘Offensive,’ Book Claimed appeared first on The Gateway Pundit."

From the Babylon Bee: Joe Biden Sneaks Up Behind Nation's Women To Whisper In Their Ears How He's Going To Be More Respectful

. . . "Other women have come forward to share their stories of getting apologized at, too. “I was standing in line to buy a latte,” said Maria Aguilar, a nurse, “and then Biden was just on me, telling me he will try harder in the future to treat women appropriately. And I didn’t know what to do; it was very heartfelt.”

"When asked why Biden is sneaking up behind women to apologize for his behavior, he explained that if women see him coming, they tend to run away."

Flanders Field: Remembering Their Sacrifice

Smithsonian  . . . "But why poppies? The answer is half biology, half history. The common or “corn” poppy, also known as Papaver rhoeas, grows throughout the United States, Asia, Africa and Europe and is native to the Mediterranean region. Its seeds need light to grow, so when they're buried in the earth, they can lay dormant for 80 years or even longer by some accounts, without blooming. Once soil is disturbed and the seeds come to light, poppies nobody knew existed can then bloom. 

"During World War I, this beautiful phenomenon took place in a Europe decimated by the first truly modern war. In Belgium, which was home to part of the Western Front in its Flanders provinces, the soil was torn up by miles of trenches and pocked by bombs and artillery fire. The Battles of Ypres, which took part in a portion of Flanders known as Flanders Fields, were particularly deadly and took a toll on the physical environment, too. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers, many of them British, breathed their last on soil laid bare and churned up by the mechanics of war." . . . Read more.

Turns out Obama was the real Russian stooge

Rich Lowry From 2017, since updated
. . . "Accommodating the illicit nuclear ambitions of a Russian ally? Welcoming a Russian foothold in the Middle East? Refusing to provide arms to a sovereign country invaded by Russia? Diminishing our defenses and pursuing a Moscow-friendly policy of hostility to fossil fuels?
"All of these items, of course, refer to things said or done by President Barack Obama.
"To take them in order: He re-set with Russia shortly after its clash with Georgia in 2008. He concluded the New START agreement with Moscow that reduced our nuclear forces but not theirs. When candidate Mitt Romney warned about Russia in the 2012 campaign, Obama rejected him as a Cold War relic.
. . . 
"Obama didn’t expect any rewards when he asked then-Russian President Dimitri Medvedev during a hot mic moment at an international meeting to relay to Vladimir Putin his ability to be more “flexible” after the 2012 election; he was, to put it in terms of the current Russian election controversy, “colluding” with the Russians in the belief it was a good strategy. His “kompromat” was his own foolishness.

Toon added by TD

"The cost of Obama’s orientation toward Russia became clearer over the last two weeks. When he pulled up short from enforcing his red line, an agreement with the Russians to remove Bashar al-Assad’s chemical weapons became the fig leaf to cover his retreat." . . .

Pardons for Memorial Day?

NY Sun

"So much hogwash has been written about the President’s pardon power that it’s hard to know where to start. One place, though, would be the New York Times’ editorial on President Trump’s use of pardons in military cases. It ran last week under a headline suggesting Mr. Trump’s general approach to pardons “may be lawful, but it is in no way normal.” In other words — blam! — before the Times even gets down to business it runs off the rails.

"That’s because there is no “normal” way to pardon. If the Framers had wanted to specify norms for using the pardon, they were perfectly capable of doing so. They did that for, say, treason.  . . ."

. . . " The American Civil Liberties Union is quoted as saying that the pardon represented “a presidential endorsement of murder.” That’s no more true than is the idea that the ACLU’s famous defense of the brownshirts who marched in Skokie was an endorsement of the Nazis. It turns out that there are doubts about the court-martial of Mr. Behenna. The ex-GI argued that he feared the prisoner was going for his gun; Mr. Trump may simply believe him — or nurse doubts." . . .

Did It Start With Israel?

Power 

PowerLine  "On Friday, PJ Media headlined: “Report: Declassified Docs Will Show That Samantha Power’s 2016 Unmasking Efforts Were Related to Israel.”

Government documents that will soon be made public will reveal stunning information about former U.N. ambassador Samantha Power’s voluminous unmasking efforts in 2016, according to multiple sources.

On Thursday, President Trump gave Attorney General William Barr the authority to declassify documents from multiple agencies related to surveillance of the Trump campaign in 2016.
***
As PJ Media reported in September of 2017, Power was unmasking people at a “freakishly rapid rate.”

The former U.S. ambassador moved at such a rapid pace that she ended up “averaging more than one request for every working day in 2016,” multiple sources told Fox News at the time. And she continued to seek identifying information about Americans caught up in incidental surveillance right up to President Trump’s inauguration.

"This is really extraordinary. Power was not an intelligence official, she was the U.N. Ambassador. Why was she unmasking anyone, let alone making hundreds of such requests? And why would she keep up this feverish pace right up to the moment she departed the White House?" . . .

Cartoons by Henry

Hillary Clinton Talks About Herself 106 Times During High School Graduation Speech…

She out-Obama'd the king of the first-person pronoun, Barack - "I. Me. Mine" - Obama.

Weasel Zippers  From the American Mirror   "Most graduation speeches are filled with optimistic anecdotes and bits of advice for young people ready to take on the world.
"At the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts commencement on Saturday, it was all about Hillary Clinton, because, after all, she had the microphone.
"During the roughly 28-minute address, Hillary talked about herself 106 times, or once every 16 seconds." . . .

Trump tweets video of Pelosi stammering through press conference

The American Mirror  "Now even President Trump is wondering what is wrong with Nancy Pelosi.

"The president tweeted a video montage of the House Speaker “stammering” through a press conference on Thursday." . . .