On Foreign Policy, Obama’s Crown Has Proved Too Heavy for Him

NRO . . . "A common thread runs through these arguments: The president resents the demands of global leadership. For him, America’s role as the global superpower generates not grave responsibilities but unacceptable burdens. Obama castigates the putative failures of his allies and partners because he seeks to reduce America’s own footprint in the world. For the American-led international order that has prevailed since the Second World War, he wishes to substitute a multipolar international order. 

"The trouble with this approach is that global politics operates by different rules. Nations conduct their affairs not in isolated pockets of activity but as part of a broader equilibrium. Weaker countries, by their nature, gravitate to superpowers to obtain not only military backing but also diplomatic cover on the international stage. The United States, by virtue of its unrivaled strength, can afford to alienate individual countries as circumstances require. For other nations, however, the margin of error is thinner. If rogue regimes conclude that the Leviathan has abandoned its allies, their aggression will increase, and a seemingly localized conflict may emit aftershocks that reverberate far beyond its borders." . . .

I see Obama as the school weakling, anxious to please the bullies to avoid the cost of standing up to them. Obama gives in advance to our adversaries what he knows they will push for. It saves face to give in ahead of time so he will not look like a coward. He began this with giving
up missile defense sites promised to Poland and the Czech Republic.
This was followed by his video plea to the the Iranian government. And for sheer amateurish humiliation, who can forget the "reset button"?

Dave Barry’s 2015 Year in Review

Miami Herald  "Sometimes we are accused — believe it or not — of being overly negative in our annual Year in Review. Critics say we ignore the many positive events in a given year and focus instead on the stupid, the tragic, the evil, the disgusting, the Kardashians.

"OK, critics: We have heard you. This year, instead of dwelling on the negatives, we’re going to start our annual review with a List of the Top 10 Good Things That Happened in 2015. Ready? Here we go:

1. We didn’t hear that much about Honey Boo Boo.2.

"OK, we’ll have to get back to you on Good Things 2 through 10. We apologize, but 2015 had so many negatives that we’re having trouble seeing the positives. It’s like we’re on the Titanic, and it’s tilting at an 85-degree angle with its propellers way up in the air, and we’re dangling over the cold Atlantic trying to tell ourselves: “At least there’s no waiting for the shuffleboard courts!”
. . . 

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/entertainment/arts-culture/article51910755.html#storylink=cpy

"In political news, The New York Times runs the following actual headline: “Hillary Clinton to Show More Humor and Heart, Aides Say.” Clinton reportedly will display 17 percent more humor and 23 percent more heart, according to anonymous Clinton aides who were briefed by anonymous Clinton strategists who had direct access to what one source, who asked not to be named, described as “a high-level Clinton confidante.” The source said the Clinton team is also considering having her “directly engage selected voters in banter.' ”
. . . 

"This was the year when the “selfie” epidemic, which was already horrendous, somehow got even worse. Of the 105 billion photographs taken by Americans this year, 104.9 billion consist of a grinning face looming, blimplike, in the foreground, with a tiny image of something — the Grand Canyon, the pope, a 747 crashing — peeking out in the distance behind the person’s left ear." . . .

(Ed: Following cartoons posted by the Tunnel Dweller.)

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/entertainment/arts-culture/article51910755.html#storylink=cpy

. . . "But November is not just a time for fear: It is also a time, as Thanksgiving ushers in the holiday season, for all Americans, regardless of ethnicity, religion or political views, to be deeply offended. Nobody is more offended than college students, who stage a series of protests over the racism, sexism, fascism, heteronormism and (trigger warning) insensitive Halloween costumes that constitute the festering hellhole of hurtful things that is the modern American college campus and THERE IS NOTHING FUNNY ABOUT IT.". . . 

Obama Knew About Benghazi Terror Attacks 90 Minutes After They Began… Went to Bed (Video)

The Gateway Pundit   "Barack Obama knew about the Benghazi Consulate terror attacks 90 minutes after they began on 9-11. The attack in Benghazi took place in two waves at the consulate and lasted several hours. Libyan “looters” found the body of Ambassador Chris Stevens hours after the attack began.

"FOX News Special Report said the president knew about the attacks three hours after they began.

"Obama went to bed without knowing the status of the US Ambassador."

Obama Still Pushing Refugees After Brussels Attacks

Legal Insurrection

"Despite the attacks in Brussels just days ago, Obama is still pushing for the U.S. to accept thousands of refugees from Syria and other countries.

"In his four minute weekly address which you can watch below, Obama spends the first two and a half minutes talking about the Brussels attack and his efforts to defeat ISIS. He uses the remaining time to argue that if we don’t accept refugees, the terrorists have somehow won.

"ISIS has vowed to infiltrate the refugee population in order to commit further acts of terror and may have already done so in Paris but Obama refuses to let go of this issue.

"Here’s a partial transcript from the FOX News Insider:

Giving America The Bird

HopeNChangeCartoons  "Bernie Sanders' supporters, an easily entertained group if there ever was one, were sent into waves of ecstasy when a tiny bird recently alighted on his podium mid-speech, perhaps hoping to enjoy a refreshing bath in his impassioned flecks of flying spittle. Or maybe it was trained by someone not really clear on the whole idea of sending political "tweets."

"In any event, it might as well have been the blue bird of happiness auguring a happy turn of events for Bernie: on Saturday, he kicked the former first lady's formidable rump in caucuses held in Hawaii (the warmest state), Alaska (the coldest state), and Washington (the most presidentially-named state).

"Seriously, he won by absolutely crushing margins - not that Democrat superdelegates will much care. But a little bird told us that Hillary herself might not be too happy about it..."

Who do we root for: Trump or the liberal media

Will I vote for his candidacy? Yes indeed! Every vote not cast for the Republican is an uncontested vote for the Democrat.

"Hillary Clinton ripped the GOP candidates for going overboard in their rhetoric against ISIS terrorists. You never know. Last weekend, ISIS included a clip of Donald Trump in their recruiting video and since then ISIS recruiting is down forty percent but real estate income is up sixteen percent." Comedian Argus Hamilton

Destroying the libelous claim that “Trump supporters are racist”  . . . "It’s true that the majority of Trump supporters are white men, although a lot of other people support him too.  But about that racist bit?  Let’s dig into that more deeply, because it’s a slander by which Leftists manage to avoid looking at their own appalling racism." . . .

" . . .Translated, what the Democrat is really screaming inside is “I hate blacks.  I think they’re stupid, lazy, uneducable, and that they deserve to die.  Indeed, the only reason I keep them around is because, as LBJ said when he embarked on the whole Great Society welfare program, ‘I’ll have those n****rs voting Democratic for the next 200 years.’”. . . "

Bookworm Room gives us this point which we must consider:

"If the media promotes a Republican candidate, is it doing this because its members think that candidate can win?  (No.  The MSM aggressively promote weak candidates in the primaries.  Ted Cruz has reasonably posited that, if Trump wins the primaries, the MSM will instantly release long-held information that will utterly destroy him.)"

 Trump's popularity continues to sink despite closing in on GOP nomination  "The most recent polls show that Donald Trump's support in the Republican party is inching toward 50%. But overall, his favorability rating makes him potentially the most unpopular major party candidate in history.

"Looking at it another way, the Republican party makes up about 25% of the electorate and Trump is supported by about half of that number. Clearly, the candidate is going to have to garner a huge share of independents while stealing some Democratic voters in order to win the White House." . . .

Lawsuits Piling Up Against Obama EPA

Heartland

. . . "On March 3, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts [Ed: Again!] declined to halt an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule regulating mercury emissions from power plants. The rule is currently under review in the Washington, DC Court of Appeals.

"In February, the Supreme Court placed a temporary stay on the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan while an appellate court considers the case. Twenty states fighting against the federal mercury emissions standards hoped the Court would grant a similar stay in their case while EPA worked to finish a cost-benefit analysis mandated by the Supreme Court in June 2015.  

"Supreme Court Considers Property Rights Case

"The Court heard oral arguments on March 30 in U.S. Army Corps of Engineers v. Hawkes, a case that will determine when landowners can challenge a government agency’s judgment that private property contains “wetlands,” which are subject to federal regulations." . . .

Obama's love affair with communism

 

Such extreme leftists as Obama are bound to ignore history and the mountains of evidence that render a verdict against socialism as a destroyer of prosperity and an enslaver and slayer of mankind.

David Limbaugh  "Conservatives and other Obama critics are entitled to a big “I told you so,” after Obama’s stunning admission that he doesn’t believe there’s that much difference between communism and capitalism.

"Actually, it’s not that stunning to people paying attention. Many of us warned about Obama’s Marxist sympathies before he was first elected president, and we’ve repeatedly pointed it out during his presidency. Obama was raised and mentored by communists and spent many years engaged in community organizing (radical leftist activism). He established himself as the most liberal member of the Senate. Yet our warnings were met with cries of extremism, irrationality and, of course, racism. I wonder what these scolds would say now."  . . . 

"Such extreme leftists as Obama are bound to ignore history and the mountains of evidence that render a verdict against socialism as a destroyer of prosperity and an enslaver and slayer of mankind. Their worldview compels them to advocate economic and political control over the masses for the ends they seek, and they shut themselves off from all information indicating that to exercise such control over markets prevents the very results they profess to seek." . . .

Dr Thomas Sowell: Supreme hypocrisy on display

Thomas Sowell compares his experience as presidential appointee to today's battles  . . . "The Democrats complain, and the media echo their complaint, that it is the Senate’s duty to provide “advice and consent” on the president’s appointment of various federal officials. Therefore, according to this claim, the Senate is neglecting its constitutional duty by refusing even to hold hearings to determine whether the nominee is qualified, and then vote accordingly.

"First of all, the “advice and consent” provision of the Constitution is a restriction on the president’s power, not an imposition of a duty on the Senate. It says nothing about the Senate’s having a duty to hold hearings, or vote, on any presidential nominee, whether for the Supreme Court or for any other federal institution. The power to consent is the power to refuse to consent, and for many years no hearings were held, whether the Senate consented or did not consent.

"Nor have Democrats hesitated, when they controlled the Senate, to refuse to hold hearings or to vote when a lame-duck president nominated someone for some position requiring Senate confirmation during a presidential election year.

"When the shoe was on the other foot, the Republicans made the same arguments as the Democrats are making today, and the Democrats made the same arguments the Republicans are now making." . . .

Brussels is what happens when liberals don’t push immigrants to integrate

With their state designed across communitarian lines, the Belgians did not encourage integration, doing everything possible to prevent the immigrants from losing their original “identity.”

NY Post

. . . “ 'Islam,” she said, “holds a place in our Western societies. Islam belongs to Europe … I am not afraid to say that political Islam should be part of the picture.”

"Mogherini’s statement offers an insight into the mentality that has helped produce the situation in Western European societies, where fear is woven into the fabric of daily life. It is a world of illusions and false identities.

"In Mogherini’s world, the sufferings of Syrians, caused by a savage regime, are on par with the sufferings of inhabitants of European capital cities such as Madrid, London, Paris and now Brussels that have come under attack from jihadists who kill at random.

"In that world, political Islam, far from being an adversary dedicated to your destruction, becomes part of the family.

"The envoy fails to see the logical conclusion of her analysis: If Islam is no longer a religion but a political ideology, why shouldn’t it be subjected to the same treatment, including criticism, as any other political ideology, and, if it poses a present and clear danger, face outright suppression?". . .Via Rush Limbaugh

galliawatch

More on Hillary

Los Angeles Times previews Hillary’s strategy to dispute a criminal referral on email scandal   "Hillary Clinton’s allies are carefully implementing a strategy to deal with a possible criminal referral to the Justice Department by the FBI.  Unfortunately, I have to take serious issue with my colleague Rick Moran’s interpretation of a Los Angeles Times story* on the FBI’s move to begin formal interviews with Hillary’s aides, and probably with Hillary herself, as the probe moves toward its final phase.
Rick writes:

It appears that federal prosecutors are setting a very high bar when it comes to criminal behavior by Hillary Clinton. 

Thomas Lifson

*Clinton email probe enters new phase as FBI interviews loom

FBI readies crucial interviews of Hillary and her aides
. . . "This doesn't mean that Clinton is off the hook.  Her aides, especially, may be vulnerable, given that they were the ones who sent the emails in the first place.  But prosecutors may publicly be laying the groundwork to give Clinton a pass, or at worst a slap on the wrist. " . . . 

Sheik Yusuf al-Qaradawi: Theologian of Terror; Islam vs. civilization

dailystormer.com

The Anti-Defamation League

. . . "On October 12, 2010, through a recorded message played by the Hamas-affiliated Ministry of Religious Endowment in Gaza, Qaradawi told guests at the meeting that Palestinians must continue to raise arms against Israel. According to Gazan Radio station Al Aqsa Voice, Qaradawi stated: "Not one inch of the land of Islam must remain in the grasp of infidels and occupiers. We must irrigate the tree of freedom with our blood. We must not leave the Palestinians alone. Every Muslim fulfill [sic] his role supporting our brothers in Palestine until they obtain their rights." He reiterated even more clearly, "Arms must not be laid down”he who wants freedom must pay the price."

"Several days later, on his weekly "Shariah and Life" television show on the Al Jazeera network, Qaradawi was asked by the interviewer if Muslims should attempt to acquire nuclear weapons "to terrorize their enemies." Qaradawi, noting his pleasure to learn Pakistan had such a weapon to defend itself, replied that this goal would be permissible for Muslims and provided religious justification for "terrorizing the enemy.' " . . .

ISIS Celebrates Brussels Attacks, Belgian Members Vow to Drink Infidels’ Blood, Paint White House Black

A cautionary tale of terror, surrender  

"And then the pressure will begin, and under the new arrangement, other accommodations will be made in the West. Pork products really shouldn’t be sold or served because of health reasons, and alcohol sales, well, wouldn’t it be healthier for all if it weren’t readily available anymore?"

 . . . "American and British military commanders will be told, “Well, it’s nice you want to bomb A, B, or C, but there’s too much risk of hurting civilians. After all, we don’t want to help recruit more terrorists, now, do we?” Other counter-terrorism initiatives will be discussed and then discarded, because who wants to be called a racist, fascist or hatemonger?

"Then another attack will take place, and everyone will fall into his or her respective roles. Politicians will step forward to promise more of this or that, and the opinion makers and commentators will say we shouldn’t overreact, because these things happen in today’s world. We need to focus on the real threats, such as climate change, one’s carbon footprint, or the rise in ocean levels." . . .