The vacant presidency

Charles Krauthammer

 

"The president’s demeanor is worrying a lot of people. From the immigration crisis on the Mexican border to the Islamic State rising in Mesopotamia, Barack Obama seems totally detached from the world’s convulsions. When he does interrupt his endless rounds of golf, fundraising and photo ops, it’s for some affectless, mechanical, almost forced public statement.

"Regarding Ukraine, his detachment — the rote, impassive voice — borders on dissociation. His U.N. ambassador, Samantha Power, delivers an impassioned denunciation of Russia. Obama cautions that we not “get out ahead of the facts,” as if the facts of this case — Vladimir Putin’s proxies shooting down a civilian airliner — are in doubt.

 

"The preferred explanation for the president’s detachment is psychological. He’s checked out. Given up. Let down and disappointed by the world, he is in withdrawal.

 

"Perhaps." ... More...

Israel must use restraint!

International community urges IDF restraint in Gaza   "United Nation Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday urged Israel to “do far more” to spare Palestinian civilians after it launched itground offensive in Gaza.

...

"The UN chief described as “appalling” the death of four boys killed by Israeli strikes Wednesday on a Gaza City beach."

 

Comically Incorrect

Tunnel Vision: Terrorists and the Media

Too many in the media fixate on finding fault with those who fight terrorists.

PJ Media

... "When it comes to terror, many in the media avoid the hard and dangerous work of investigating terror groups and focus almost monomaniacally on one thing: alleged bad behavior by the West/Israel in fighting terror.

"The terrorists have their fixation on destroying something or someone (Israel, U.S., Britain, Western democracy etc.) and all too many reporters, editors and producers fixate on finding fault with those who fight terrorists.

"That’s why  many journalists miss the story — and not for the first time.

"In post-9/11-Iraq, many in the news media built a case that the U.S. went into Iraq and Afghanistan in order to torture Muslims. That’s a distorted view from the tunnel.

"Here’s the big picture: the U.S. deposed a sadistic despot who gassed Iraq’s citizens and wanted to gas and bomb Israel and Iran. The US flubbed finding weapons of mass destruction, but that also happened in the 1991 Iraq war. Still, one thing is sure: Saddam used WMD, but he will not build any more bombs anymore." ...

Alan Caruba: Should the Government Tell You What to Eat?

Warning Signs

 

"Given the successive scandals and monster laws like Obamacare that have been imposed on Americans, the federal government’s efforts to control and determine what you eat doesn't receive the attention that it should. The ultimate question is whether the government should tell you what to eat and then seek to enforce their views about it? The answer is no.

"The Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee is one of those federal entities that should have no role in determining what is on your plate, but among its recommendations is the promotion of “a plant-based diet, reduced meat consumption, and only eating fish after reading up on which are good for you.” Meanwhile the food police have been warning against the natural element of mercury in fish even though it is so small as to constitute no health threat."  ...  More

Caroline Glick on the Israeli-Hamas war

Caroline Glick    "On July 22, I was on the Steve Malzberg show discussing the new Palestinian war against Israel and Secretary of State John Kerry’s contempt for Israel. Click on the picture below to go to the interview."
 

 

Caroline Glick (born 1969) is an American-born Israeli journalist, newspaper editor, and writer. She writes for Makor Rishon and is the deputy managing editor of The Jerusalem Post. She is also the Senior Fellow for Middle East Affairs of the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Security Policy.

 

More articles by Ms. Glick

Corroboration of a claim made above by Glick: Soldiers: Terrorists charge IDF soldiers holding babies  

"UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon  called Israel's actions in defending itself, "atrocious." I wonder what he'd call this?
"This little tidbit of information will not be widely disseminated. And Hamas knows it. Every Palestinian civilian casualty will be chalked up to Jewish bloodlust, or Israeli negligence and not a deliberate tactic of Hamas to gain world sympathy."

To go with "jumbo shrimp", "government intelligence" and "living dead", here comes "Islamist cartoons"

 

 

 

Townhall

The Amoral Nature of the Pawn Strategy

Victor Davis Hanson   "The humanitarian crisis on the border derived from four callous parties who used illegal immigrants as pawns for their own self-interested agendas: (a) Central American governments wanted to export “excess” population, in hopes of soothing domestic social tensions and gaining remittances from loyal expatriates in the United States; (b) Central American parents weighed the risk of sending their youth unescorted to the border, versus the upside of getting money sent back home and/or an anchor for possible citizenship, and thus were willing to take the subsequent risk with their own children’s lives;

(c) Mexico for a brief spell suspended its Draconian immigration laws to ensure Central Americans passed through rather than stopped in their country, and it sort of got a strange sense of payback at our ensuing border chaos; (d) a while ago the Obama administration signaled that most immigration laws concerning children, DREAMers or not, would not be enforced, and that insinuation green-lighted the current influx. The cynical administration hoped to soothe Latino feelings, and to create pressures for “comprehensive immigration reform” before the 2016 election, as part of a long-term strategy of altering the demography of the American southwest to favor a liberal agenda. All four groups then called any who objected and wished to enforce existing federal law callous, nativist, racist, xenophobic, etc. The apparent logic is that no one will remember the self-interested actions that brought thousands to the border, only the ensuing humanitarian crisis that must steamroll through the agendas of the selfish groups on the backs of exploited children."    More...

Emphases added. TD

Thomas Sowell on this topic: Bordering on Madness   ... "Questions about immigration and citizenship are questions about irreversible decisions that can permanently change the composition of the American population and the very culture of the country -- perhaps in the direction of the cultures of the countries from which illegal immigrants have fled. " ...

The Incoherent Excuses for Hating Israel

Bruce S. Thorton     
"Israel’s military operation to degrade Hamas’ ability to rain rockets down on Israeli cities has stirred up the usual noisy and nasty protests in Europe. We need not dwell on demonstrations by Muslim immigrants, whose genocidal Jew-hatred has been an Islamic tradition for 14 centuries. More revealing is the hatred of Israel by so many Europeans, ranging from leftover leftists and idealizers of the dark-skinned “other,” to far-right xenophobes and morally addled Christians. Whatever its origins, one thing their bitter hatred of Israel does not have is any foundation in coherent principle."

Will Obama Snatch Defeat from the Jaws of Victory Over Hamas?

Andrew C. McCarthy  
"Important columns by former attorney general Michael Mukasey and Caroline Glick make the point that in Israel’s defensive war against Hamas, the main thing to focus on is not the missiles; it’s the tunnels. Perhaps more significantly, they demonstrate that the Obama administration, in its mulish appeasement of the Muslim Brotherhood-Sunni supremacist axis that even Islamic governments (indeed, even the Saudis) are shunning, is subverting a golden opportunity to achieve decisive victory over Hamas – the necessary precondition if there is ever to be a stable Israeli-Palestinian settlement." ...

What to think of the Obamacare court decision?

 

This Circuit Court’s Obamacare Decision Could Have Huge Consequences    " [Tuesday] the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals dealt a blow to the Obama administration, ruling that the language of the Obamacare law only established federal subsidies for individuals enrolling in state-run health care exchanges, not for individuals enrolling in federal-run state-level health care exchanges.

Since 36 states (the administration might deem it 27 states based on nine states’ cooperation with federal exchanges) have opted not to run their own exchanges, this ruling has significant implications for the practical implementation of Obamacare.

How easy is it for fake applicant to get Obamacare subsidy?    "That's a question asked by the Government Accountability Office, who sent investigators out to test the system.
The results are astonishing." ...

Drafting error vs. poor draftsmanship    ... " But it doesn’t matter whether the provision appears in Obamacare because Congress was half-witted or too clever by a half. The provision exists, and it is illegitimate for a court to nullify it."

Althouse:  Nothing to see here! Move along! That Obamacare case is nothing — nothing, I tell you!

Tear Down This Law

 

 

... "Because of the conflicting rulings, a smug Josh Earnest says that the White House will ask for the whole hot mess to be reviewed by a higher appeals court with 11 members - 7 of whom were appointed by Democrats. Guess how that body will rule." ... 

HBO, Beyond the Pale

Power Line    "HBO has done some good things, like Rome and Game of Thrones. But this is one of the most appalling things I have seen in a long time. There is an HBO program called “True Blood” that apparently is about vampires–way to be cutting edge, right? In its most recent episode, it featured a Ted Cruz fundraiser at the George W. Bush presidential library. In the clip below, you can see the characters discussing the fact that only “a--holes” are going to the Ted Cruz event, while a woman, having dressed for the event, describes herself as a “Republicunt.” The clip concludes with a vampire saying that of all the horrible things he has seen in the last 100 years, the Ted Cruz fundraiser is the worst."
 

Pic of The Day: Code Pink Leader Gets Photobombed By Israel Supporter While Giving Anti-Israel Speech…

Weasel Zippers

 

Yair Rosenberg

 

"Oh man, @zhanover CODEPINK'd @medeabenjamin, the head of CODEPINK, during an anti-Israel speech: pic.twitter.com/e0ZW36sZlh