What Rex Tillerson's Nomination Means for Russia Policy

"Putin, we’re told, is bent on reviving a Russian empire that dissolved 25 years ago this month."

The National Interest

"In nominating Rex Tillerson as his secretary of state, Donald Trump is attaining one of his major political goals: he is putting a distinctive personal stamp on U.S. foreign policy at a time when Washington’s relations with Russia are fraught with the possibility of a hot war from Ukraine to Syria. Not that Tillerson’s confirmation is guaranteed: Democrats and Republicans are suspicious of his ties to Vladimir Putin, and they will subject the ExxonMobil chief executive to intense scrutiny during next month’s Senate hearings.

"But Trump has an idea of where he wants to go in dealing with the Kremlin and he is going there. The skeptics attribute his ambition to some sort of bromance with the Russian autocrat. Few recognize the substance of what he is trying to do; and those who do run the risk of being denounced as Putin apologists." . . .

A new victim in the war on small-biz bakeries

Michelle Malkin  "It is not enough for family-owned pastry shops to bow to the gay marriage mob. Now, they’re being targeted by the social justice mafia.

"At my alma mater, radical Oberlin College in Ohio (which boasts hapless Baltimore mayor and rioters’ champion Stephanie Rawlings Blake and bizarro feminist actress and fake rape accuser Lena Dunham as graduates), the operators of a small-business bakery are under siege by vengeful students and administrators trying to crush them under the wheels of the race-baiters’ bandwagon. The true victim in this latest tale of political correctness run amok is Gibson’s Bakery — a quaint shop founded in 1885 that still bakes all its goods using original recipes.

"On Nov. 9, according to the city police report I obtained, shop employee Allyn Gibson caught a 19-year-old Oberlin College student allegedly stealing two bottles of wine and hiding them under his shirt. As officers approached the area, Oberlin Police Sgt. (Victor) Ortiz, and Officer (Raymond) Feuerstein both stated they observed Gibson lying on his back with several individuals kneeling over him punching and kicking him with several other individuals in the immediate area. Officers attempted to gain control of the situation and were met several times with resistance from several different individuals.' ” . . .

Obama's legacy as not recognized by his supporters

Faith Based Universities See Trump’s Win as a Reprieve  

“when it came to faith-based convictions he [Obama] didn’t share, he showed no mercy.”

. . . "President Obama threatened crippling fines if a college refused as a matter of conscience to make contraceptive services, including sterilization and abortifacient drugs, available in the health plans offered to its employees and students. The government’s foreign-assistance apparatus required a pledge of allegiance to the LGBT and “reproduction freedom” agendas as a condition for grants. Indeed, early on the administration sent a message to faith-based groups by yanking a grant to the U.S. Catholic bishops, a proven provider of quality refugee services, because they would not forsake their views on abortion and contraception. "

'He’ll look back in deep sorrow and some shame': Retired admiral says Obama will regret ignoring his own 'red line' in Syria
. . . "Obama likely will be judged by history as much for what he did not do as for what he did, as Stavridis demonstrated today.

"He first called on Assad to leave power in 2011. But the two-term president never supplied moderate rebels with enough firepower to topple him or force him to the negotiating table. 

"His failure to carry out threatened air strikes to enforce the 2012 'red line' over dealt a heavy blow to U.S. standing, including by some of his staunchest regional allies." . . .

Could the Education Department’s Title IX overreach be nearing an end?  . . . "Attendees praised the 66,000 investigations conducted during the Obama administration and the 34 “policy guidance documents” issued in the past eight years. The documents mandated rules for sexual interactions, gender segregation as it relates to bathrooms and transgender students and racial equity in disciplinary cases." . . .

Obama Tries to Get Arms Trade Treaty Ratified as a Parting Shot  "Barack Obama is still working on his soon-disappearing legacy and is hoping to add prohibitive gun control to it by getting the Arms Trade Treaty ratified. It’s too late for one of his fiats. He tried to get this approved for Christmas 2014 and now, here we are again in time for Christmas 2016."

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reverses course

"More Fracking Lies from the EPA"= Fake News

Watts Up With That?

. . . "A government report on the safety of fracking released Tuesday deleted a draft assessment’s conclusion that the process has no national “widespread, systemic impact” on drinking water.

"Instead, the EPA determined that fracking can have an impact on drinking water under certain circumstances, a change in position that drew backlash from the drilling industry." . . .

"Anti-Voter-ID Agitators Are Racists — Or Ignorant."

I put quotation marks on the title because of distaste over calling statements and people we dislike "racist".

Always On Watch  "In the video below, the filmmaker first interviewed liberals, then blacks in Harlem. Please watch the video to the end (hat tip to DC Statesman):"

"Excerpt from one of the comments at YouTube:

..."The things that come out of the liberal snowflake's [sic] mouths are just like Wow...seriously???? Freaking idiots! They want so badly to paint everyone that doesn't agree w/them a racist they just pop ---- off at the mouth without even knowing what they're talking about."

Why Do Liberals Keep Calling Trump a Racist?  "On November 29, while speaking about flag-burning on MSNBC's Hardball, former U.S. representative Barney Frank said the late Justice Antonin Scalia was "the leading advocate of fag-burning."  The interviewer, Chris Matthews, reacted to the hideous expression with amusement." . . .

Leftist Rag Daily Kos: “Be Happy” If Coal Miners Lose Health Insurance, Getting What They Deserve For Voting Trump

Weasel Zippers

"These are sick people. Despite the claims that they care about ‘working people’, it’s really only about “will they get us into power”. And if not, then screw you. “How dare you abandon us, you yokels”.

"The Daily Kos writer seems to forget there’s a very good reason that coal miners went with Trump and not Clinton. That little thing about Hillary promising to put them out of work kind of made them believe that the Democrats didn’t really care very much about their jobs and coal. That and the constant efforts against the coal industry in general.

"But yes, insult them. That’ll surely work for 2018…

"Via Daily Kos:

. . . Yes, this will be a terrible outcome for a group of people who have really drawn a shitty lot in life. But how sorry should we be for this crowd? Coal country swung hard for Donald Trump, winning 70 to 80 percent of the vote in some of these counties.
Don’t weep for these coal miners, now abandoned by their GOP patrons. They are getting exactly the government that they voted for. Democrats can no longer offer unrequited love and cover for them. And isn’t this what democracy is all about? They won the election! This is what they wanted! . . .

Top 10 MSM #FakeNews Stories

I'd have to say that #6 has done the most damage to American society when coupled with Obama's incitement:  "6. U.S. Epidemic of Police Shooting Unarmed Black Men"

PJ Media

"You gotta love our liberal media. Their entire modus operandi for at least the past two decades has been to shamelessly disseminate false left-wing narratives to the masses in their ongoing effort to discredit conservatism and further a progressive agenda. It's what they do.

"But since the election of Donald Trump, they have been obsessed with a new pet narrative: that a so-called "fake news" epidemic is occurring on the right.

"This is partly because, I'm convinced, they resent the fact that some people on the alt-right are making inroads on their turf. But the "fake news" excuse also functions as a soothing balm for their wounded egos after their devastating 2016 election losses. It helps them deal with the uncomfortable fact that the electorate just rejected the hell out of the candidates for whom they blatantly shilled.

"This happens every time the mainstream media's favored party suffes a massive defeat at the polls, by the way. In 1994, they blamed their losses on the "angry white male." After the 2010 "shellacking," they attributed it to a menacing "climate of hate," as personified by Sarah Palin and the Tea Party." . . .

"Here is a list of ten memorable fake news stories from the mainstream media." . . .

The one thing you must understand about the unfolding media-Democrat Electoral College coup attempt

Legal Insurrection

"Operation Flip The Electors, Part 2, is thoroughly dishonest"

"We are witnessing nothing short of an attempt to steal the election by some Democrats and a very supportive mainstream and leftwing media, by causing Electors in the Electoral College to go rogue and vote for Hillary, or at least not vote for Trump.

"The first excuse for this tactic after the election was made by people like Prof. Lawrence Lessig. At least he was honest in his call to have the Electors stop Trump because he didn’t like the result and thought Trump would be a horrible president on a host of issues.

"Honest, but severely misguided.

"Call that Operation Flip the Electors, Part One.

"As it became obvious that the recounts demanded by Jill Stein and supported by Hillary would fail to change the outcome, a new and thoroughly dishonest media narrative developed — that Trump could not be allowed to take office because Russia “hacked the election.”

"By hacked the election, they don’t mean that the vote count was corrupted, but that alleged Russian hacking of the DNC and John Podesta influenced the outcome. A variation on that theme is that Trump has some potential Russian connection that makes him potentially disloyal to the United States.

"The claim is that this new information is so serious post-election, that the Electors must fulfill some alleged duty to protect the country from Trump. Call that Operation Flip the Electors, Part Two.

"None of these allegations, however, are new. They were all aired to and considered by the voters. Here are just a tiny fraction of the major media headlines BEFORE the election:

• Investigating Donald Trump, F.B.I. Sees No Clear Link to Russia (NYT)
• How Russia Pulled Off the Biggest Election Hack in U.S. History (Esquire)
• Private Security Group Says Russia Was Behind John Podesta’s Email Hack (NYT Times)
• Reasonable doubt in Russian hack: Column (USA Today)

Trump, Hillary, Jill Strein, and Fake News

Rick Brasche posited that greenie Stein must be added to the post title as well. Obviously.

Lloyd Marcus:  Hillary’s done it now  "Hillary's post-election speech about fake news was beyond the pale, the height of arrogance and deceit.  Her wickedness makes my skin crawl.

"Blaming fake news for her loss, this deplorable woman had the chutzpah to say:

... it’s now clear that so-called fake news can have real-world consequences. Lives are at risk, lives of ordinary people just trying to go about their days to do their jobs. Its a danger that must be addressed.

"So we are supposed to believe that Hillary cares about ordinary people.  Remember the leaked emails exposing Hillary's team’s disdain for Catholics, Southerners, needy Latinos, and common folks?

"Knowing how the Democrats roll, Hillary saying fake news is “a danger that must be addressed” is yet another attack on free speech, justifying government censorship and regulations.  Why are leftists called liberals when they are power-obsessed control freaks?

Indystar

"Meanwhile, Hillary and her leftist minions planted, watered, and nurtured fake news that continues to reap them a bountiful harvest of racial hate and division.  Hillary and Company's fake news has painted a bright red bulls-eye on the backs of America's police, our brave men and women in blue." . . .

John Dietrich : The Big Lie: Russia Stole the Election

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.” - Joseph Goebbels

. . . "Naturally Donald Trump does not believe the Russians interfered in his favor.  He criticized the CIA, saying, “These are the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.”  He pointed out that the hacking, ‘‘could be Russia. And it could be China. And it could be some guy in his home in New Jersey.’’  The guy from New Jersey is a real possibility." . . .

Has Trump ever been overheard saying this?

Trying to overturn a free and fair election  "The world has turned itself upside down. Only yesterday the liberals and the left (the “progressives,” as they want to be called) regarded the CIA as the locus of evil, the gang that couldn’t shoot straight, forever poisoning gentle minds with a diet of conspiracy and tall tale.

"In those gloomy days of the Cold War, where every day was seasoned with a sharp wind and a cold rain, it was the Democratic intellectuals who were forever chiding the rest of us that the Soviet Union was not so bad, the Russians just wanted to be understood and maybe deserved an occasional cuddle. It was the Republicans and other conservatives who were mindless rubes who imagined there was a mad Russian under everybody’s bed.

"Now the CIA, in the liberal/left’s fevered dreams, is the last bulwark of the republic, the last remaining hope to turn the 2016 election result on its head and deprive Donald Trump of the victory he won. The Russians, it now turns out, are just as bad as the conservatives said they were." . . .

ACLU: Sight of cross on public tree inflicts 'irreparable harm'

Robert Knight  "Joseph Tompkins is an "irreparable harm" survivor.  He's the guy who got the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to force a small Indiana town to remove a cross from atop its municipal Christmas tree on Monday. 

"Mr. Tompkins, who must be blessed with remarkably selective eyesight, was "forced to come into direct and unwelcome contact" with the cross on top of the tree in the public square as he drove through Knightstown, causing him "irreparable harm," said the ACLU lawsuit filed on Dec. 8 on his behalf.

"While Mr. Tompkins may have won his legal battle, he's lost the culture war, as local residents have responded by displaying hundreds of crosses on everything from buildings to car antennas.  

"Now, instead of one cross on a stationary tree, an army of crosses is crisscrossing the city on public streets paid for with Mr. Tompkins's very own tax dollars.  Plus, the town Christmas tree is still there, awash with lights and ornaments.  City officials can "Christianize" it with a star on top or an angel if they're so inclined. " . . .

Wisconsin Recount Ends, Trump Picks Up 162 Votes

Wisconsin Recount Ends, Trump Picks Up 162 Votes  . . . "Suspicion of a hacked Pennsylvania election “borders on the irrational” while granting the Green Party’s recount bid could “ensure that no Pennsylvania vote counts” given Tuesday’s federal deadline to certify the vote for the Electoral College, wrote Diamond, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, a Republican.

“ 'Most importantly, there is no credible evidence that any ‘hack’ occurred, and compelling evidence that Pennsylvania’s voting system was not in any way compromised,” Diamond wrote. He also said the lawsuit suffered from a lack of standing, potentially the lack of federal jurisdiction and an “unexplained, highly prejudicial” wait before filing last week’s lawsuit, four weeks after the Nov. 8 election." . . .

Cuban torture of American POW's in Vietnam, and the American left that supported it.

CASTRO’S TORTURE OF AMERICAN POWS IN VIETNAM An untold story.  From Hoàng Sa Paracel

     "The death of communist tyrant Fidel Castro has yielded much-deserved coverage of the monstrous nature of his tyrannical rule.

     "What has gone virtually unreported, however, is the direct and instrumental role Castro played in the torture and murder of American POWs in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. The story of Castro’s atrocities against American soldiers in this conflict is rarely ever told, least of all by our mainstream media.

     "During the Vietnam War, Castro sent a gang of his henchmen to run the “Cuban Program” at the Cu Loc POW camp in Hanoi, which became known as “the Zoo.” As Stuart Rochester and Frederick Kiley have documented in their book Honor Bound in a chapter entitled “The Zoo, 1967–1969: The Cuban Program and Other Atrocities,” one of the primary objectives of this “program” was to determine how much physical and psychological agony a human being could withstand." . . .

2003: Officials searching for men who brutalized Americans in Vietnam  "A special criminal investigations unit in the U.S. Department of Justice is pursuing reports that two notorious Cuban nationals suspected of participating in a brutal torture program conducted against American POWs in Vietnam are hiding somewhere in southern Florida,
WorldNetDaily has learned." . . .

Cuban War Crimes Against American POWs  "Cuban officials, under diplomatic cover in Hanoi during the Vietnam War, brutally tortured and killed American POWs whom they beat senseless in a research program "sanctioned by the North Vietnamese."(1) This was dubbed the "Cuba Program" by the Department of Defense (DOD) and the CIA, and it involved 19 American POWs (some reposts state 20). Recent declassified secret CIA and DOD intelligence documents, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, reveal the extent of Cuba's involvement with American POWs captured in Vietnam. A Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) report states that "The objective of the interrogators was to obtain the total submission of the prisoners..."(2)
According to former POW Air Force Colonel Donald "Digger" Odell, "two POWs left behind in the camp were 'broken' but alive when he and other prisoners were released [1973 Operation Homecoming]. ... They were too severely tortured by Cuban interrogators" to be released. The Vietnamese didn't want the world to see what they had done to them."(3)
POWs released during "Operation Homecoming" in 1973 "were told not to talk about third-country interrogations." .... 

Why The Left Loves Totalitarians Like Fidel Castro  . . . "Rational and moral people, however, will rightly ask, “How would anyone aware of Castro’s more than 50 years of human rights abuses mourn the death of a tyrant who was both an intellectual and moral idiot, much less praise his legacy?' ”

Fidel: Hollywood’s Favorite Tyrant  Read about some of these Hollywood "intellectuals" here.


By Erika Holzer: An American Traitor: Guilty as Charged   Since [Jane Fonda's] conduct in wartime Vietnam continues to inflame Americans — vets harassed and even spat on her during her book tour — and to dog her heels at every turn, one might have expected her to put some substance into her account of this period in her life. Instead, the public is served up with lies that are transparent and omissions designed to bury the truth.

Photo: she is remembered unto this generation: