Monday, October 26, 2015

You think Kissinger was heartless? What about Obama?

Niall Ferguson: Think Kissinger was the heartless grandmaster of realpolitik? What about Obama?

Henry Kissinger, Le Duc Tho

. . . "Having spent much of the last decade writing a life of Kissinger, I no longer think of the former secretary of State as the heartless grandmaster of realpolitik. (That's a caricature.) But after reading countless critiques of his record, not least the late Christopher Hitchens' influential "Trial of Henry Kissinger," I also find myself asking another question: Where are the equivalent critiques of Obama?" . . .

"There is disenchantment with Obama's foreign policy these days. In recent polls, nearly half of Americans (49.3%) disapprove of it, compared with fewer than 38% who approve. I suspect, however, that many disapprove for the wrong reasons. The president is widely seen, especially on the right, as weak. In my view, his strategy is flawed, but there is no doubting his ruthlessness when it comes to executing it.

"As Hitchens surely would observe if he were still around, a great many liberals today apply a double standard when they judge the foreign policies of Nobel Peace Prize laureates Henry Kissinger and Barack Obama. If you think Kissinger didn't deserve his Nobel, then neither did Obama."

Niall Ferguson is a professor of history at Harvard University and senior fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford. He is the author, most recently, of "Kissinger 1923-1968: The Idealist."

"Fings Just Ain't Wot They Used T'Be"

Mark Steyn  "Christian bakers have to bake gay wedding cakes, but Muslim truckers don't have to transport alcohol. Gotcha.
"I'm sure Anthony Kennedy can explain it, but wouldn't it be quicker just to load America onto the truck and drive it off the cliff?". . .

But here is Steyn's money question:
"Well, maybe. But he shouted "Allahu Akbar!" and "Itbah al-Yahud!" ("Kill the Jews!") So how exactly do you tell the difference between a "mentally unstable" "drunk" and a healthy, well-adjusted Jew-hating Muslim? Ask Germany's "security experts":
Germany's security experts have rounded on the country's leader, Chancellor Angela Merkel, warning that her immigration policy will "produce extremists", and stating that the country is importing "Islamist extremism, Arab anti-Semitism, [and] national and ethnic conflicts of other nations".
"For the most part, the Continental media are content to downplay stabbed Jews. But what happens when all the Jews are dead or fled, and there's no one left to stab but Pierre and Fritz?"

Woodward: It better bother us that Hillary told such conflicting stories to the committee

Liars
http://terrellaftermath.com/ 

Hillary Clinton in House testimony Thursday cited her trips as Secretary of State to Israel and the West Bank as examples of her successful tenure. For four years she lectured Palestinians and the Israelis on how to live side by side, even though they hate each other. No one has more experience.
Comedian Argus Hamilton

Bob Woodward: It better bother us that Hillary told conflicting stories on Benghazi
"Bob Woodward disagrees with Judy Woodruff of taxpayer funded PBS and most of the Democratic Party, and thinks that it matters when a secretary of state and prospective commander in chief says different things publicly and privately over a major terror attack." . . .

Hillary's Worst Crime Was Against the 'Filmmaker'  . . . "It would be as ethically bankrupt for the Democrats to nominate Hillary Clinton after Benghazi as it would have been for the Republicans to nominate Richard Nixon after the Watergate hearings.


"More bankrupt actually. No one died at Watergate, and the only people who went to prison were the ones who committed the crimes. At Benghazi, of course, four Americans died, and the only American who went to prison did so to help Hillary sell a lie." . . .

Hillary Clinton: American Royalty 2015 Style  "Not since Senator Ted Kennedy went on prime time television in a neck brace to spin the reasons for the Chappaquiddick accident have I felt so manipulated by a politician as I did by Hillary Clinton in her testimony before the House Benghazi Committee. As it turns out these two incidents have more in common than one might think." . . .

A Dane schoolteacher tells us about her life under socialism

Sunday, October 25, 2015

Tim Allen and Jay Leno take on Obama

Via I Never Surrender   "Watching TV nowadays has been made much tougher than it used to be thanks to LIBERALS. Many shows that could be really good are ruined by political correctness and a blatant liberal agenda. Some shows are just un-watchable from the get go for the same reason. The extreme foulness of libs in general." . . .


----
. . . "Back in November of 2012 Allen’s character took on a group of controversial issues in a single joke. In the episode, Mike explains to his daughters, “Let me put this in perspective with the inheritance tax. Now, one day I am going to die and I will split things up and give it to you guys, right? The Democrats will tax that inheritance and probably use that money to throw gay weddings for illegal aliens . . . if the Democrats win, the only thing you will inherit is a $16 trillion debt.' ” . . .
-----

Hey, we had to endure decades of "Law & Order" trashing Republicans by name, so tough toenails. TD

Fiorina: Benghazi hearings confirm Hillary lied

MSN News

Fiorina: Not time for campaign ads yet

. . . “ 'I think anyone who listened to those Benghazi hearings realizes that she knew this was a terrorist attack in Benghazi and she nevertheless lied to the American people about it,” Fiorina told host John Catsimatidis on “The Cats Roundtable” on New York’s AM-970.

"Fiorina also said Clinton’s only strength in the presidential election is her gender.

“ 'I think it’s worth remembering, though, that Hillary Clinton is running on a platform of being the first woman president. That is her platform,” she said.

"The former Hewlett-Packard CEO said she is the best candidate to take on Clinton in a general election because she will force her to run on the issues.

“ 'If I am our nominee, I will force her to have to run on her track record, or lack thereof,” Fiorina said. “She’ll have to run on her policy. She’ll have to run on her mistakes, for which I am prepared to hold her to account.”

“ 'And if we can force her to play on that ground, then we can win.' ” . . .

Hillary's bacon has been saved

Patriot Retort
All commentary from American Thinker today:

Accused rapist affirms Hillary Clinton is 'honest and trustworthy'  . . . "Mr. Clinton, who Kathleen Willey said fondled her breasts and placed her hands on his genitals, is thought to be a good character reference for Mrs. Clinton, given his popularity with women and Mrs. Clinton's "wimmen wimmen wimmen" campaign focus."

Hillary covered up a terror attack, Nixon a burglary . . . "The bottom line is as follows.  1) Hillary left her top envoy vulnerable to attack because she was more interested in Libya opinions from her privately paid hack than from her envoy on the ground.  2) Hillary tried covering up a terror attack as it took place – an attack that killed an ambassador.  3) Hillary then tried deleting evidence of the cover-up." . . .

She got the media, but what about the military moms?  . . . "Why lie to a mother or widow standing next to her loved one's casket?  Why not say that we don't know and need to do more research?  Of course, we know why she said it.  They had to cover for the Obama re-election message that al-Qaeda was on the run, Osama was dead, and the U.S. is out of Iraq." . . .

Do Hillary's Lies Matter?  . . . "My campaign video would be short -- it would be Hillary before the caskets of the four Americans slaughtered in Benghazi blaming an obscure video and its maker for the incident; Hillary telling the father of one of the deceased, Ty Woods, that the video maker would be arrested (“we are going to have the film maker arrested who was responsible for the death of your son"), and her testimony before the committee that she never blamed it on the video. The ad would take just a couple of minutes. .  Message at end -- are you ready for a president who lies over the bodies of dead American patriots?" . . . 
"The Clinton strategy -- in case you slept during her husband’s administration -- has always been to delay and obfuscate and when the truth finally comes out to blame those who expose it as partisans dredging up old news. " . . . Read the rest of this excellent Clarice Feldman article here.

Saturday, October 24, 2015

British WW2 tank veteran discusses the movie "Fury"


"Bill Betts, now 91, was a radio operator on Sherman tanks during the second world war. He talks about the memories reignited by Fury, which stars Brad Pitt as a Sherman tank commander leading his team through Germany in 1945."

The Fury crew: Wardaddy (Brad Pitt), Grady Travis (Jon Bernthal), Boyd Swan (Shia LaBeouf), Norman Ellison (Logan Lerman) and Trini Garcia (Michael Pena).

I was in the Essex Yeomanry, a territorial regiment. All the crew were from Essex except me. It took us a while to get along but then I trusted them implicitly with my life. We fought along side the Americans in their Sherman tanks and I found them to be very brave. We didn't write the name of our tank on the barrel like they did in Fury or plaster the inside with photographs but we were just as proud of our tank. Ours was called Beverley and her name was written on the turret.

. . . "As the film makes clear, a Sherman tank was a lightweight in comparison to a Tiger. The Sherman weighed 33 tonnes and had a 75mm gun, compared to the Tiger's 54 tonnes and a 88mm gun. A Tiger also had 3.9 inch thick armour, so shells from a Sherman literally bounced off it. In response to an attack from a Tiger, Wardaddy yells: "It will end soon. But before it does, a lot more people gotta die." Again, says Bill - quite right. Though the film can't go far enough." . . .
Fury shows just how vulnerable you were fighting in a Sherman tank. There is a lot of blood and gore in the film but nothing can really come close to the true horrors of tank warfare. I saw people being blown up and burnt alive. Going to see Fury you don't get that dreadful, nauseating smell of burnt flesh. That will stay with me forever.
 Bill Betts in front of a tank - Fury

The corpses certainly mount up in Fury, particularly in the final scene. This was the only part Bill felt lacked credibility.
I thought the film showed accurately how tough life could be in a tank, but the final scene where the crew hold out against a battalion of Waffen SS troops was too far fetched. The Germans seemed to be used as canon fodder. In reality they would have been battle-hardened and fanatical troops who would have easily taken out an immobile Sherman tank using Panzerfausts (an anti-tank bazooka). They also seemed to have an inexhaustible supply of ammunition and fuel. A Sherman tank only does five miles to the gallon so I think they would have run out long before the final showdown.

Here's How They Made Fury's Fiery Tank Scenes Look Real
"When you see the exterior of the Fury in Brad Pitt's new World War II movie, out today, you're seeing the real thing. But shooting the interior of a tank required a little more creativity."

The angry Queen Hillary still rules

Michael Ramirez Cartoon
"Hillary Clinton testifies in Congress today on Benghazi, for which she’s denied all wrongdoing and deleted e-mails. Life’s a circle. You start out your career on a House committee investigating Richard Nixon and you end up your career in front of a House committee channeling Richard Nixon." Comedian Argus Hamilton 
 

More commentary on the Benghazi hearings

qmeme_1445700829731_257
clashdaily

Lies Hillary Got Caught on at hearing
. . . "Jim Jordan of Ohio asked her about the story she spread for almost a week after the attack that the attack was because of the 12 minute video and the protests that arose thereafter.  Hillary blamed mixed signals from intelligence.  But no sooner than she let loose with that lie than Jordan charged in with emails and communications Hillary had with the President of Libya, the Prime Minister of Egypt and her daughter Chelsea.  She told each one right out that the attack was planned by terrorists.
"The email to Chelsea (Diane Reynolds, her alias) is most telling:

. . . "Hillary tried to distance herself from Blumenthal before Gowdy pointed out that at the time that Blumenthal was working for the Clinton Foundation, collecting a siz figure salary. He also worked for Media Matters, the propagandist site founded by David Brock and Hillary Clinton and Correct the Record, another propaganda site that spins the truth about Hillary in a way her undereducated voters would love." . . .

Post-Benghazi Hearing narrative: “I think that put her in the White House.”
"Democrats are are gleeful over Hillary Clinton’s performance at the Benghazi hearing on Friday. Her fundraising is up, she’s received a big labor union endorsement and two of her Democratic rivals have dropped out of the race."

Looks like Biden didn't like Hillary very much after all

"Warm in Public, Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton Have Been Intense Rivals in Private"

NY Times


. . . "Meetings with his foreign policy aides veered into lengthy discussions about Mrs. Clinton’s hawkish stance. At dinners with donors, Mr. Biden expressed astonishment at her handling of the controversy over her private email server. Those close to him say the mere mention of her name could make him fume, and he viewed her family’s potent, sometimes punishing political machinery with growing resentment."  Continue reading the main story            

Islam comes to Kansas; US destinations for Muslim immigrants UPDATED

Muslim immigrants being shipped into heartland locales ... like Wichita


. . . "Wichita is a “preferred community” for “refugee resettlement,” which makes it an epicenter for invaders. (To see who the outside contractors are who rake in money as they facilitate this disaster, see here.)
"So let me give you a brief tour of Wichita, Kansas, in the heartland of America.
"As reported at World Net Daily:
The Wichita school district…is now trying to cope with a new influx of immigrants from Central America and the Middle East. The new arrivals don’t speak English or Spanish, requiring costly interpreters and tutors to be brought in to help the immigrants learn. (snip)
Because federal law requires schools to provide information to parents in their preferred language, an Arabic speaker is on call to help teachers and others communicate with families….
…students speaking languages from Africa and the Middle East have increased dramatically in recent years…refugees from camps in central Africa, Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan.

We want very much to see Islam this way and to welcome them as such. . .


Yet somehow this is the image of our fears:


And it will take more than some self-righteous liberal leftists to erase this from our thoughts.
The Tunnel Dweller
"It can be hard to visually imagine the kinds of numbers involved here.  So I invite AT readers to view some short videos that depict scenes of this mass invasion, otherwise known as hijra.  The videos are recent footage of young Muslims males invading Slovenia like an army.  Slovenia is a small country sandwiched among Austria, Croatia, Italy, and Hungary.