The Remains of an Administration
Obama’s policies are in tatters, and the worst scandals of his White House are coming to light
By Victor Davis Hanson
National Review Online
Each day that the Obama administration fades into the past, its wrongdoings manage to wander back into the present.
After years of suppression, all sorts of strange events keep popping up to remind us of what little is left of the Obama years — the Susan Rice memo, Christopher Steele deleting his computer records, FBI-doctored and lost 302s, text messages wiped clean, the bizarre Obama January 5, 2017, Oval Office meeting, the ambush interview of Michael Flynn, the unmasking and leaking of redacted names swept up in reverse-targeting surveillance operations, the administration fraud perpetrated on the FISA courts.
The list is so overwhelming and bizarre that it ensures that anything at any time can now appear. And the result keeps reminding Americans of how corrupt were the years between 2009 and 2017 and how untruthful was the coverage of such institutionalized wrongdoing.
Feet of Clay
Emeritus Barack Obama now and then ventures out to go through the motions of an enfeebled defense for what is becoming an increasingly discredited administration. But his heart is not in it. His mind is elsewhere. His cause is no longer social activism and community organizing, if it ever was, but lucre and the perceived well-earned good life. The arc of his moralizing universe is long, but for the anointed like him, it apparently bends toward the just deserts of riches and material bounty.
First lady forever and bestselling memoirist Michelle Obama sometimes takes a hiatus from making millions to offer a half-hearted progressive warning about the sudden heartlessness of the country — reminiscent of her transitory 2008 warnings about a downright mean country and one of which she had previously not been especially proud.
The remains of the Obama team (Susan Rice, Ben Rhodes, Hillary Clinton, John Brennan, James Comey, Samantha Power) are not offering much of a defense for the Obama years — they are now too busy scrambling to hide their own legal culpability and exposure. The bending arc of the 2009 dream team finally ends in the platitudes of “I can’t remember” and “Not to my knowledge” that will eventually find their way from CNN and MSNBC into the court room.
Obama entered office to gushes that he was a living god and the smartest man ever to enter the White House. He quickly won the Nobel Peace Prize and was courted internationally through a series of overseas tours. His brand was that he was not so much a citizen of an unexceptional America as a citizen of the now globalized world.
Obama entered with a supermajority in the Senate and a large majority in the House, with the likelihood of remaking the Supreme Court. When he left eight years later, he had lost both houses of Congress, lost the Supreme Court for a generation, and lost more than 1,000 state and local offices.
Showing posts with label Obama. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Obama. Show all posts
Saturday, 15 August 2020
Saturday, 30 May 2020
But What About Obama . . .?
The Remains of an Administration
By Victor Davis Hanson
National Review Online
Obama’s policies are in tatters, and the worst scandals of his White House are coming to light.
“One is not struck by the truth until prompted quite accidentally by some external event.”
— Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day
Each day that the Obama administration fades into the past, its wrongdoings manage to wander back into the present.
After years of suppression, all sorts of strange events keep popping up to remind us of what little is left of the Obama years — the Susan Rice memo, Christopher Steele deleting his computer records, FBI-doctored and lost 302s, text messages wiped clean, the bizarre Obama January 5, 2017, Oval Office meeting, the ambush interview of Michael Flynn, the unmasking and leaking of redacted names swept up in reverse-targeting surveillance operations, the administration fraud perpetrated on the FISA courts. The list is so overwhelming and bizarre that it ensures that anything at any time can now appear. And the result keeps reminding Americans of how corrupt were the years between 2009 and 2017 and how untruthful was the coverage of such institutionalized wrongdoing.
Feet of Clay
Emeritus Barack Obama now and then ventures out to go through the motions of an enfeebled defense for what is becoming an increasingly discredited administration. But his heart is not in it. His mind is elsewhere. His cause is no longer social activism and community organizing, if it ever was, but lucre and the perceived well-earned good life. The arc of his moralizing universe is long, but for the anointed like him, it apparently bends toward the just deserts of riches and material bounty.
By Victor Davis Hanson
National Review Online
Obama’s policies are in tatters, and the worst scandals of his White House are coming to light.
“One is not struck by the truth until prompted quite accidentally by some external event.”
— Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day
Each day that the Obama administration fades into the past, its wrongdoings manage to wander back into the present.
After years of suppression, all sorts of strange events keep popping up to remind us of what little is left of the Obama years — the Susan Rice memo, Christopher Steele deleting his computer records, FBI-doctored and lost 302s, text messages wiped clean, the bizarre Obama January 5, 2017, Oval Office meeting, the ambush interview of Michael Flynn, the unmasking and leaking of redacted names swept up in reverse-targeting surveillance operations, the administration fraud perpetrated on the FISA courts. The list is so overwhelming and bizarre that it ensures that anything at any time can now appear. And the result keeps reminding Americans of how corrupt were the years between 2009 and 2017 and how untruthful was the coverage of such institutionalized wrongdoing.
Feet of Clay
Emeritus Barack Obama now and then ventures out to go through the motions of an enfeebled defense for what is becoming an increasingly discredited administration. But his heart is not in it. His mind is elsewhere. His cause is no longer social activism and community organizing, if it ever was, but lucre and the perceived well-earned good life. The arc of his moralizing universe is long, but for the anointed like him, it apparently bends toward the just deserts of riches and material bounty.
Serious Corruption
Obamagate Is Not a Conspiracy Theory
By David Harsanyi
National Review Online
There’s no reason to ignore the mounting evidence that Obama administration officials were corrupt in their handling of the Trump–Russia investigation.
Those sharing #Obamagate hashtags on Twitter would do best to avoid the hysterics we saw from Russian-collusion believers, but they have no reason to ignore the mounting evidence that suggests the Obama administration engaged in serious corruption.
Democrats and their allies, who like to pretend that President Obama’s only scandalous act was wearing a tan suit, are going spend the next few months gaslighting the public by focusing on the most feverish accusations against Obama. But the fact is that we already have more compelling evidence that the Obama administration engaged in misconduct than we ever did for opening the Russian-collusion investigation.
It is not conspiracy-mongering to note that the investigation into Trump was predicated on an opposition-research document filled with fabulism and, most likely, Russian disinformation. We know the DOJ withheld contradictory evidence when it began spying on those in Trump’s orbit. We have proof that many of the relevant FISA-warrant applications — almost every one of them, actually — were based on “fabricated” evidence or riddled with errors. We know that members of the Obama administration, who had no genuine role in counterintelligence operations, repeatedly unmasked Trump’s allies. And we now know that, despite a dearth of evidence, the FBI railroaded Michael Flynn into a guilty plea so it could keep the investigation going.
By David Harsanyi
National Review Online
There’s no reason to ignore the mounting evidence that Obama administration officials were corrupt in their handling of the Trump–Russia investigation.
Those sharing #Obamagate hashtags on Twitter would do best to avoid the hysterics we saw from Russian-collusion believers, but they have no reason to ignore the mounting evidence that suggests the Obama administration engaged in serious corruption.
Democrats and their allies, who like to pretend that President Obama’s only scandalous act was wearing a tan suit, are going spend the next few months gaslighting the public by focusing on the most feverish accusations against Obama. But the fact is that we already have more compelling evidence that the Obama administration engaged in misconduct than we ever did for opening the Russian-collusion investigation.
It is not conspiracy-mongering to note that the investigation into Trump was predicated on an opposition-research document filled with fabulism and, most likely, Russian disinformation. We know the DOJ withheld contradictory evidence when it began spying on those in Trump’s orbit. We have proof that many of the relevant FISA-warrant applications — almost every one of them, actually — were based on “fabricated” evidence or riddled with errors. We know that members of the Obama administration, who had no genuine role in counterintelligence operations, repeatedly unmasked Trump’s allies. And we now know that, despite a dearth of evidence, the FBI railroaded Michael Flynn into a guilty plea so it could keep the investigation going.
Monday, 18 May 2020
The Biggest Political Scandal Of Our Time
‘Obamagate’ Isn’t A Conspiracy Theory, It’s An Actual Conspiracy
And the media know it.
John Daniel Davidson
The Federalist
When former president Barack Obama told supporters last week that the Justice Department’s decision to drop the case against former White House National Security Adviser Mike Flynn is a “threat to the rule of law,” he was relying wholly on the fiction, willingly propagated for years by a pliant media, that the Russia-Trump collusion probe launched by his administration was lawful and legitimate.
But of course it wasn’t. A string of recently released documents have confirmed that the entire Russia-Trump investigation, which eventually entrapped Flynn and forced then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions to recuse himself, was an unprecedented abuse of power that amounted to organized effort by the Obama administration to nullify the results of the 2016 presidential election. It was in effect an attempted coup.
If you haven’t picked that up from the news media, it’s not your fault. Instead of grappling with the implications of newly released details about what Obama officials were doing to undermine the incoming Trump administration during the transition, the mainstream media have fixated on Trump’s use of the term “Obamagate,” dismissing it as a conspiracy theory.
A Brief History of the Flynn Case
This is to be expected. For years now the media have done everything they can to push the Trump-Russia collusion hoax—even after a years-long special counsel investigation by Robert Mueller turned up nothing—using the complexity of the scheme to hide the greatest political scandal of our time in plain sight.
And the media know it.
John Daniel Davidson
The Federalist
When former president Barack Obama told supporters last week that the Justice Department’s decision to drop the case against former White House National Security Adviser Mike Flynn is a “threat to the rule of law,” he was relying wholly on the fiction, willingly propagated for years by a pliant media, that the Russia-Trump collusion probe launched by his administration was lawful and legitimate.
But of course it wasn’t. A string of recently released documents have confirmed that the entire Russia-Trump investigation, which eventually entrapped Flynn and forced then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions to recuse himself, was an unprecedented abuse of power that amounted to organized effort by the Obama administration to nullify the results of the 2016 presidential election. It was in effect an attempted coup.
If you haven’t picked that up from the news media, it’s not your fault. Instead of grappling with the implications of newly released details about what Obama officials were doing to undermine the incoming Trump administration during the transition, the mainstream media have fixated on Trump’s use of the term “Obamagate,” dismissing it as a conspiracy theory.
A Brief History of the Flynn Case
This is to be expected. For years now the media have done everything they can to push the Trump-Russia collusion hoax—even after a years-long special counsel investigation by Robert Mueller turned up nothing—using the complexity of the scheme to hide the greatest political scandal of our time in plain sight.
Saturday, 16 May 2020
Well Beyond the "Conspiracy" Charge
Obamagate Is Not a Conspiracy Theory
A Corrupt Presidency And Its Useful Idiots
David Harsanyi
National Review Online
There’s no reason to ignore the mounting evidence that Obama administration officials were corrupt in their handling of the Trump–Russia investigation.
Those sharing #Obamagate hashtags on Twitter would do best to avoid the hysterics we saw from Russian-collusion believers, but they have no reason to ignore the mounting evidence that suggests the Obama administration engaged in serious corruption.
Democrats and their allies, who like to pretend that President Obama’s only scandalous act was wearing a tan suit, are going spend the next few months gaslighting the public by focusing on the most feverish accusations against Obama. But the fact is that we already have more compelling evidence that the Obama administration engaged in misconduct than we ever did for opening the Russian-collusion investigation.
It is not conspiracy-mongering to note that the investigation into Trump was predicated on an opposition-research document filled with fabulism and, most likely, Russian disinformation. We know the DOJ withheld contradictory evidence when it began spying on those in Trump’s orbit. We have proof that many of the relevant FISA-warrant applications — almost every one of them, actually — were based on “fabricated” evidence or riddled with errors.
A Corrupt Presidency And Its Useful Idiots
David Harsanyi
National Review Online
There’s no reason to ignore the mounting evidence that Obama administration officials were corrupt in their handling of the Trump–Russia investigation.
Those sharing #Obamagate hashtags on Twitter would do best to avoid the hysterics we saw from Russian-collusion believers, but they have no reason to ignore the mounting evidence that suggests the Obama administration engaged in serious corruption.
Democrats and their allies, who like to pretend that President Obama’s only scandalous act was wearing a tan suit, are going spend the next few months gaslighting the public by focusing on the most feverish accusations against Obama. But the fact is that we already have more compelling evidence that the Obama administration engaged in misconduct than we ever did for opening the Russian-collusion investigation.
It is not conspiracy-mongering to note that the investigation into Trump was predicated on an opposition-research document filled with fabulism and, most likely, Russian disinformation. We know the DOJ withheld contradictory evidence when it began spying on those in Trump’s orbit. We have proof that many of the relevant FISA-warrant applications — almost every one of them, actually — were based on “fabricated” evidence or riddled with errors.
Friday, 3 January 2020
Amazing Grace Versus Stunning Disgrace
Bowing The Knee to Baal and Molech
The following provides an excerpt from a much longer piece, entitled Something Wicked This Way Comes: The de-Christianization of America and What a Post-Christian America Will Look Like Without Revival written by Larry Taunton.
The entire article is an excellent piece and warrants repeated reading. The excerpt below gives a sense of the much longer piece. We have reproduced the excerpt in part because of the arresting insights it gives to former British PM, Tony Blair vs Barack Obama. Taunton writes:
In the secular European model, as in the Roman Pantheon, all religious “truths” are declared to be equally valid, provided all bend the knee to the ultimate truth, the State. And just as with Rome, Christianity, by its very nature, subverts any government with these ambitions. One finds this rebellious spirit in the Decalogue: “That shalt have no other gods before me.” As I explained in an interview with Fox News’ John Stossel, in the biblical worldview, the state is a temporal institution meant to serve man, an eternal being. In the progressive model, this is reversed: man, a temporal being, serves the eternal state.
Nowhere have I seen these two diametrically opposed worldviews on display more than at the National Prayer Breakfast (NPB) in 2009.
Saturday, 2 November 2019
What Grey Hair Will Do To You
Growing Up
There was a time when Barack Obama was the idol of youth. Now, however, he is found criticizing the mental indolence of the teenage set. Does this mean that Barack is growing up?
Barack Obama Lambasts 'Politically Woke' Younger Generation
Alle McMahon
news.com.au
People who think they're "politically woke" and who cast stones at others for petty mistakes need to get over themselves, according to former US president Barack Obama. Speaking at the Obama Foundation's annual summit in Chicago, America's 44th leader was quizzed about the state of politics and activism in the country and the trouble with its growing 'woke' culture.
Being 'woke' — or being aware of and attentive to all the injustices in society — became somewhat of a catchphrase in the lead up to the 2016 presidential elections. But Obama said those who believed being woke made them superior and untouchable were kidding themselves. "This idea of purity and you're never compromised and you're politically woke, and all that stuff — you should get over that quickly," he said.
"The world is messy. There are ambiguities. People who do really good stuff have flaws. People who you are fighting with may love their kids and share certain things with you."
Obama said he was particularly concerned by young people thinking they could spark change by calling out people in power for petty mistakes, such as spelling and grammar errors.
"One danger I see among young people particularly on college campuses is that I do get a sense among certain young people, and this is accelerated by social media, that the way of me making change is to be as judgemental as possible about other people and that's enough," Obama said.
"Like if I tweet or hashtag about how you didn't do something right, or used the wrong verb, then I consider that I can feel pretty good about myself because, 'man did you see how woke I was, I called you out'," Obama said, prompting laughter in the crowd. That is not activism, that is not bringing about change.
"If all you're doing is casting stones, you are probably not going to get that far."
Thursday, 24 October 2019
Another Win For Righteousness
Judge Overturns Obama Rule
OUT: Forcing Doctors to Perform Abortions, Gender Transition Procedures
Daniel Payne
DISRN
A federal judge on Tuesday vacated a mandate imposed by the Obama administration forcing doctors to perform abortions and gender transition procedures.
Judge Reed O’Connor held that the rule, which had expanded anti-discrimination law to include both “gender identity” and “termination of pregnancy,” violated the Administrative Procedures Act as well as the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
O’Connor remanded the policy for further review, noting that the Trump administration has proposed an alternative rule that would lessen the burden on physicians’ religious freedom.
One of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs in the case called O’Connor’s ruling “a major victory for compassion, conscience, and sound medical judgment.”
OUT: Forcing Doctors to Perform Abortions, Gender Transition Procedures
Daniel Payne
DISRN
A federal judge on Tuesday vacated a mandate imposed by the Obama administration forcing doctors to perform abortions and gender transition procedures.
Judge Reed O’Connor held that the rule, which had expanded anti-discrimination law to include both “gender identity” and “termination of pregnancy,” violated the Administrative Procedures Act as well as the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
O’Connor remanded the policy for further review, noting that the Trump administration has proposed an alternative rule that would lessen the burden on physicians’ religious freedom.
One of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs in the case called O’Connor’s ruling “a major victory for compassion, conscience, and sound medical judgment.”
Monday, 28 January 2019
Douglas Wilson's Letter From America
A Few Brief Words on Behalf of Karen Pence
Douglas Wilson
Blog & Mablog
INTRODUCTION:
Some might wonder why I am not writing about Martin Luther King today. It is actually one of my initial forays into intersectionality.
I do need to grant at the outset that Karen Pence has done a great deal to bring on the enmity that is currently being aimed at her. After all, she has a husband who loves her and is faithful to her, and who will not put himself into situations that are potentially compromising. Not only does she have a husband like this, but they have had the effrontery to hold to these “devoted-to-one-woman” standards throughout the entire course of the #MeToo era, which threw hurtful shade on our leading lechers who wanted to lecture us all about the necessity of moral probity. And this is not to mention the women who can’t remember whose bed they were in a month and a half ago, as they were trying to act offended and appalled by the behavior of their men.
It turns out that the sexual revolution, like all revolutions, devours its own. But the Pences, because of their consistent personal standards, have been for the most part indigestible. That’s bound to irritate all kinds of notable and important people.
THE SCANDAL OF ELEMENTARY ART:
So the most recent ruckus started the other day when it was revealed that Karen Pence is teaching an art class at a Christian school that does not permit all the de rigueur LGBTQ+ shenanigans. All teachers must agree to abide by the school’s code of conduct, which Karen Pence has agreed to do, and among other things it follows that the school will have no LGBTQ+ faculty or students. Sounds like yet one more moral atrocity, right?
So Twitter went nuts, as might be expected.
THE INDIGNATION MOUNTED:
And then there was another thing that went and happened. A gent named Clay Cane, a leader among the indignati, wrote a piece for CNN called “Karen and Mike Pence’s astonishing moral hypocrisy.” I will say something about the hypocrisy charge a bit later on, but we should begin by noting the high wickedness that the Second Lady has inexplicably fallen into.
Douglas Wilson
Blog & Mablog
INTRODUCTION:
Some might wonder why I am not writing about Martin Luther King today. It is actually one of my initial forays into intersectionality.
I do need to grant at the outset that Karen Pence has done a great deal to bring on the enmity that is currently being aimed at her. After all, she has a husband who loves her and is faithful to her, and who will not put himself into situations that are potentially compromising. Not only does she have a husband like this, but they have had the effrontery to hold to these “devoted-to-one-woman” standards throughout the entire course of the #MeToo era, which threw hurtful shade on our leading lechers who wanted to lecture us all about the necessity of moral probity. And this is not to mention the women who can’t remember whose bed they were in a month and a half ago, as they were trying to act offended and appalled by the behavior of their men.
It turns out that the sexual revolution, like all revolutions, devours its own. But the Pences, because of their consistent personal standards, have been for the most part indigestible. That’s bound to irritate all kinds of notable and important people.
THE SCANDAL OF ELEMENTARY ART:
So the most recent ruckus started the other day when it was revealed that Karen Pence is teaching an art class at a Christian school that does not permit all the de rigueur LGBTQ+ shenanigans. All teachers must agree to abide by the school’s code of conduct, which Karen Pence has agreed to do, and among other things it follows that the school will have no LGBTQ+ faculty or students. Sounds like yet one more moral atrocity, right?
So Twitter went nuts, as might be expected.
#Pencewife must resign from teaching at her school or #Pence must resign as VP. There is no justice for her actions!!!!!
#Pence What kind of @VP makes it clear thru the #SecondLady’s employment that a large bloc of #Americans & allies who don’t believe in treating their #kids as a disease if they feel they may be #LGBTQ aren’t entitled to #education or #art? #ExposeChristianSchools—#Evangelicals
Does @VP know how deeply offensive it is to us that 2nd lady is so prejudiced, insensitive and disrespectful of American values that she took a job at a school that discriminates against #LGBTQ students, employees & families? #Pence is offensive!
THE INDIGNATION MOUNTED:
And then there was another thing that went and happened. A gent named Clay Cane, a leader among the indignati, wrote a piece for CNN called “Karen and Mike Pence’s astonishing moral hypocrisy.” I will say something about the hypocrisy charge a bit later on, but we should begin by noting the high wickedness that the Second Lady has inexplicably fallen into.
Saturday, 27 October 2018
The War Against Trans-genderism
The End of Beginning?
When the Allies defeated Rommel's forces in North Africa, it prompted Churchill to observe:
"Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning." A similar observation could be made with respect to transgenderism. No doubt the ideological and spiritual war will continue to rage, but it is possible that we have won the initial skirmishes. We may have come to the end of the beginning.The US Federal government via the Justice Department is apparently going to insist upon biology when deciding upon the gender of a human being. Now we know that this is absolutely radical stuff. Who would have thought that the Justice Department would be that extreme. Former President Obama's trans-genderist ideology appears about to face the equivalent of a Tobruk breakout. And if so, may that be the "end of the beginning".
Feds Draft Plan to Discard Obama’s Transgender IdeologyThis FBI-enforced-federal-right was and remains a wave of the wand by former President Obama. It was a human rights matter, he loftily declared. The coruscating, brilliant President Obama determined from on high that human will and wish must be recognized as the highest, most absolute authorities when it came to questions of human rights. Whatever one wanted was an automatic, de jure human right.
Neil Munro
Breitbart News21 Oct 2018
President Donald Trump’s Justice Department will soon decide if agencies must follow biology when they document the legal sex of American women and girls, men and boys, according to a document leaked to the New York Times.
The policy would protect Americans’ civil rights from the transgender ideology which insists that everyone has an FBI-enforced federal right to switch their legal sex — regardless of their biology — when entering sports competitions, K-12 bathrooms, hospitals, gym showers, the military, or single-sex civic society groups. This transgender ideology was promoted in 2016 by former President Barack Obama and is being imposed by many federal and state judges, despite visceral public opposition and scientists’ criticism.
If this sounds mad, you would be right. Nevertheless, it is pure Obamianism, and as Shakespeare would have put it, "President Obama has said that human volitional choices are de facto human rights, and the President is an honourable man." But we digress.
Thursday, 31 May 2018
Rolling Back Obamian Idiocy
Ending Obama’s Mixed-Sex Prison Policy
Neil Munro
BreitbartNews
Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ deputies are ending President Barack Obama’s last-minute decision to impose the transgender ideology in federal prisons. Obama’s January 2017 transgender policy directed prison officials to allow men to move into women’s prisons if the men claim a female “gender identity.”
Sessions’ revised policy says officials “will use biological sex as the initial determination” when assigning people to either male or female prisons, according to the policy document published May 11 by Buzzfeed.
Critics said Obama’s transgender policy would have created huge risks of rape because few people who say they are transgender have undergone genital cosmetic surgery, and few can pass as members of the opposite sex. For example, Obama’s policy would allow male criminals into women’s prisons and pressure women-who-say-they-are-men to live in men’s prisons.
Sessions’ new policy marks another step in reasserting the normal biology-based legal distinctions between female and male. Those distinctions were being scrubbed from the law by Obama’s pro-transgender policies. Trump has already begun reversing Obama’s pro-transgender policies in K-12 schools, in health care, and the military which now says it classifies soldiers’ sex by using the “bright line based on biological sex.”
Neil Munro
BreitbartNews
Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ deputies are ending President Barack Obama’s last-minute decision to impose the transgender ideology in federal prisons. Obama’s January 2017 transgender policy directed prison officials to allow men to move into women’s prisons if the men claim a female “gender identity.”
Sessions’ revised policy says officials “will use biological sex as the initial determination” when assigning people to either male or female prisons, according to the policy document published May 11 by Buzzfeed.
Critics said Obama’s transgender policy would have created huge risks of rape because few people who say they are transgender have undergone genital cosmetic surgery, and few can pass as members of the opposite sex. For example, Obama’s policy would allow male criminals into women’s prisons and pressure women-who-say-they-are-men to live in men’s prisons.
Sessions’ new policy marks another step in reasserting the normal biology-based legal distinctions between female and male. Those distinctions were being scrubbed from the law by Obama’s pro-transgender policies. Trump has already begun reversing Obama’s pro-transgender policies in K-12 schools, in health care, and the military which now says it classifies soldiers’ sex by using the “bright line based on biological sex.”
Friday, 25 May 2018
Obamacare Abortion-pill Mandate Struck Down
Cannot Force Christian Universities To Fund Abortions
Obama HHS Abortion Mandate Suffers Another Defeat
LifeNewsCom
May 16, 2018
A federal district court issued an order Tuesday that permanently prevents the federal government from enforcing the Obamacare abortion-pill mandate against four Christian universities in Oklahoma represented by Alliance Defending Freedom. The order also declares that the mandate violates the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
The Obama-era mandate forces employers, regardless of their religious or moral convictions, to provide abortion-inducing drugs, sterilization, and contraception through their health plans under threat of heavy penalties. The Department of Justice, under the Trump administration, abandoned its defense of the flawed mandate, which the Department of Health and Human Services implemented during the previous administration.
“Religious organizations have the freedom to peacefully operate according to their beliefs without the threat of punishment by the government. Today’s order fully affirms that freedom and provides permanent protection from the mandate,” said ADF Senior Counsel Gregory S. Baylor.
“These universities no longer have to fear being forced to pay fines for simply abiding by the Christian beliefs they teach and espouse, and they are no longer required to fill out forms authorizing coverage for abortion-inducing drugs,” Baylor explained. “The government has many other ways to ensure access to these drugs without forcing people of faith to violate their deepest convictions.”
Obama HHS Abortion Mandate Suffers Another Defeat
LifeNewsCom
May 16, 2018
A federal district court issued an order Tuesday that permanently prevents the federal government from enforcing the Obamacare abortion-pill mandate against four Christian universities in Oklahoma represented by Alliance Defending Freedom. The order also declares that the mandate violates the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
The Obama-era mandate forces employers, regardless of their religious or moral convictions, to provide abortion-inducing drugs, sterilization, and contraception through their health plans under threat of heavy penalties. The Department of Justice, under the Trump administration, abandoned its defense of the flawed mandate, which the Department of Health and Human Services implemented during the previous administration.
“Religious organizations have the freedom to peacefully operate according to their beliefs without the threat of punishment by the government. Today’s order fully affirms that freedom and provides permanent protection from the mandate,” said ADF Senior Counsel Gregory S. Baylor.
“These universities no longer have to fear being forced to pay fines for simply abiding by the Christian beliefs they teach and espouse, and they are no longer required to fill out forms authorizing coverage for abortion-inducing drugs,” Baylor explained. “The government has many other ways to ensure access to these drugs without forcing people of faith to violate their deepest convictions.”
Wednesday, 14 February 2018
When "Narratives" Become Official "Truth"
Chutzpah and Hypocrisy on Steroids
One of the most egregious cons of the present time in the United States is the con Democrats are trying to foist on the historical record. The proposition being pushed is that President Trump and his administration have been all cosied up to the Russians. This is bad, bad, bad.
Ah, but the truth can be a stubborn and difficult opponent when you are trying to weave a web of deceit. It turns out that the Obama regime, controlled by ideologies of globalism and internationalism, cosied up to the Russians frequently. Now, in a move which shows just how far deceit, lies, and falsehoods control Barack Obama and his Democrat Party, Trump is now accused of that self-same cosying up to Russia, whilst they soundly and roundly condemn him for it.
Rebecca Heinrichs, writing at The Federalist, gives five instances of Obama trying to embrace Putin and Russia in his globalist dreams. Now, with chutzpah which is hard to credit, Obama and the Democrats are publicly accusing Trump and his administration (falsely, it would seem) for doing what they consistently worked at for eight years--cosying up to Russia. Fortunately, the Potemkin plot alleging Trump's collusion with Russia is becoming more ephemeral with each passing day.
One of the most egregious cons of the present time in the United States is the con Democrats are trying to foist on the historical record. The proposition being pushed is that President Trump and his administration have been all cosied up to the Russians. This is bad, bad, bad.
Ah, but the truth can be a stubborn and difficult opponent when you are trying to weave a web of deceit. It turns out that the Obama regime, controlled by ideologies of globalism and internationalism, cosied up to the Russians frequently. Now, in a move which shows just how far deceit, lies, and falsehoods control Barack Obama and his Democrat Party, Trump is now accused of that self-same cosying up to Russia, whilst they soundly and roundly condemn him for it.
Rebecca Heinrichs, writing at The Federalist, gives five instances of Obama trying to embrace Putin and Russia in his globalist dreams. Now, with chutzpah which is hard to credit, Obama and the Democrats are publicly accusing Trump and his administration (falsely, it would seem) for doing what they consistently worked at for eight years--cosying up to Russia. Fortunately, the Potemkin plot alleging Trump's collusion with Russia is becoming more ephemeral with each passing day.
Monday, 9 October 2017
Thicker Than Two Short Planks
In The Silliness Stakes, Michelle O. Trumps Trump
Michelle Obama Says Conservative Women Can's Think For Themselves
The Federalist
Michelle Obama believes the 42 percent of women and 53 percent of white women who voted against Hillary Clinton only did so because someone—presumably our patriarchs—told us to.
“Any woman who voted against Hillary Clinton voted against their [sic] own voice,” the former first lady declared, speaking at a conference in Boston. Believe it or not, the pomposity only got worse from there.
“What does it mean for us as women that we look at those two candidates, as women, and many of us said, that guy, he’s better for me, his voice is more true to me,” Obama said. “Well, to me that just says you don’t like your voice. You like the thing you’re told to like,” she continued, apparently unaware of the cognitive dissonance evident in telling 125 million adult women what they must think about a presidential candidate while simultaneously encouraging them to find their own voices.
Michelle Obama Says Conservative Women Can's Think For Themselves
Imagining that women on the Right are mere sock puppets for their husbands, sons, and fathers is a crucial illusion for an ideology that has constructed a political paradigm entirely upon identity.
Inez FeltscherThe Federalist
Michelle Obama believes the 42 percent of women and 53 percent of white women who voted against Hillary Clinton only did so because someone—presumably our patriarchs—told us to.
“Any woman who voted against Hillary Clinton voted against their [sic] own voice,” the former first lady declared, speaking at a conference in Boston. Believe it or not, the pomposity only got worse from there.
“What does it mean for us as women that we look at those two candidates, as women, and many of us said, that guy, he’s better for me, his voice is more true to me,” Obama said. “Well, to me that just says you don’t like your voice. You like the thing you’re told to like,” she continued, apparently unaware of the cognitive dissonance evident in telling 125 million adult women what they must think about a presidential candidate while simultaneously encouraging them to find their own voices.
Michelle Obama--the proud product of elite US schools. Smarter than the average bear. An expert in convoluted self-contradictions.
Thursday, 1 June 2017
Correcting Obama's Overreach On The Much Vaunted Climate "Treaty"
Submit the Paris Treaty to the Senate
The American Conservative
The so-called Paris “Treaty” has all sorts of grounds for complicated lawsuits to restrict America’s new found energy independence and growing massive natural-gas production. We need to get out from under it. Yet a weakened President Trump is hesitating while the global-warming lobby tries desperately to confound the issues.
There have recently been stories raising concerns about how South Pole ice might one day melt and raise sea levels. But this because ice has been increasing at the South Pole. (See my earlier article for details on South Pole ice and new cold weather records in Asia.)
It is seldom mentioned that the “Treaty” received nearly unanimous support among developing nations because they were promised billions per year to pay for cutbacks on their energy production. As Bloomberg verified, “many poor nations signed up to the treaty largely because of a promise of $100 billion a year of ‘climate aid’ from rich nations, starting from 2020.” Of course, most of this money is supposed to come from Washington and Obama committed a billion for it before leaving office.
It’s the best way out of the climate morass.
By Jon Basil UtleyThe American Conservative
The so-called Paris “Treaty” has all sorts of grounds for complicated lawsuits to restrict America’s new found energy independence and growing massive natural-gas production. We need to get out from under it. Yet a weakened President Trump is hesitating while the global-warming lobby tries desperately to confound the issues.
There have recently been stories raising concerns about how South Pole ice might one day melt and raise sea levels. But this because ice has been increasing at the South Pole. (See my earlier article for details on South Pole ice and new cold weather records in Asia.)
It is seldom mentioned that the “Treaty” received nearly unanimous support among developing nations because they were promised billions per year to pay for cutbacks on their energy production. As Bloomberg verified, “many poor nations signed up to the treaty largely because of a promise of $100 billion a year of ‘climate aid’ from rich nations, starting from 2020.” Of course, most of this money is supposed to come from Washington and Obama committed a billion for it before leaving office.
Saturday, 22 April 2017
Trump's War Doctrine
Bombast, Money, and Technology
With the advent of Donald Trump "wartalk" has suddenly assumed much greater weight. Jehu drove his chariot furiously, as does Trump. This represents a radical change from Barack Obama, who appeared to like the blood and guts, but only cerebrally, you understand. Obama, we suspect, was the ultimate arm-chair general. He pondered extensively over the minutia of the matter. He insisted (we were told) on personally authorizing each drone strike against Islamic mujahideen, He thought himself into a blue funk over Syria, announcing a "Red Line" which overnight morphed into an "Invisible Line drawn with Fading Ink".
Meanwhile, he struck great blows for human rights within the military. He recognised homosexuality in the ranks, striking down "don't ask, don't tell"; he strove to achieve gender equality; he wanted the military to resemble a modern liberal arts campus. Obama was a feckless president. He was also ideologically blinded. He refused to see any real threat in Islam, preferring instead to see the whole matter as little more than a Marxist struggle on the part of Islamic nations for self-respect and independence. His role, as he saw it, was not to make things worse, but to cut the mujahideen lots of slack. Hence, he forbade calling terrorist attacks upon the US "Islamic"terrorist acts. He proclaimed that Afghanistan was a war the US had to fight (as opposed to finishing the job in Iraq); within months the Afghan war morphed into "nation building", requiring a time frame of over twenty-five years.
Donald Trump is none of these things. But this does not make him right.
With the advent of Donald Trump "wartalk" has suddenly assumed much greater weight. Jehu drove his chariot furiously, as does Trump. This represents a radical change from Barack Obama, who appeared to like the blood and guts, but only cerebrally, you understand. Obama, we suspect, was the ultimate arm-chair general. He pondered extensively over the minutia of the matter. He insisted (we were told) on personally authorizing each drone strike against Islamic mujahideen, He thought himself into a blue funk over Syria, announcing a "Red Line" which overnight morphed into an "Invisible Line drawn with Fading Ink".
Meanwhile, he struck great blows for human rights within the military. He recognised homosexuality in the ranks, striking down "don't ask, don't tell"; he strove to achieve gender equality; he wanted the military to resemble a modern liberal arts campus. Obama was a feckless president. He was also ideologically blinded. He refused to see any real threat in Islam, preferring instead to see the whole matter as little more than a Marxist struggle on the part of Islamic nations for self-respect and independence. His role, as he saw it, was not to make things worse, but to cut the mujahideen lots of slack. Hence, he forbade calling terrorist attacks upon the US "Islamic"terrorist acts. He proclaimed that Afghanistan was a war the US had to fight (as opposed to finishing the job in Iraq); within months the Afghan war morphed into "nation building", requiring a time frame of over twenty-five years.
Donald Trump is none of these things. But this does not make him right.
Friday, 31 March 2017
Obama Is Joe McCarthy Redivivus
Vast Overreach
President Obama did much more to undermine free speech than the infamous Senator Joe McCarthy. Senator Joe focused upon Hollywood, attempting to destroy those whose opinions he disagreed with. Obama perverted the office of the Presidency and issued Executive Orders willy nilly, threatening non-compliants with destruction of livelihoods. Most of his regal decrees had the objective of forcing the nation into a "wunnerful Progressive Paradise".
The Federalist recently carried a piece with an example of how far command and control has been asserted over US citizens.
For hundreds of years, the meat-packing industry bore the responsibility for transforming Bessie the Cow into carnivores’ favorite source of protein, and more recently the Food Safety and Inspection Service inspectors of the U.S. Department of Agriculture ensured that the finished product was “safe, wholesome, and correctly labeled and packaged.”No, this is not a joke. FSIS inspectors have been directed and empowered to regulate the speech of anyone in a meat processing facility. The speech in these institutions has to comply with what the government has certified as "respectful" or "non-insulting" speech.
Not so anymore. Due to agency rules issued during the Obama era, FSIS inspectors enjoy expanded duties, including monitoring facilities for any “disrespectful” or “insult[ing]” communication (no, not among the animals). Should they uncover any such communication, inspectors are empowered to take “corrective action,” even if that involves slicing and dicing fundamental freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment.
"What in the world does speech (written or verbal) in a meat processing plant have to do with cleanliness or hygiene?" we hear you ask. Well, to be frank, we find that question to be impertinent, and impertinence is definitely disrespectful. So there. Our great and noble President Obama decreed it so. Eat them apples.
Take the case of Don and Ellen Vander Boon, the owners of West Michigan Beef Company.
The breakroom at West Michigan Beef includes tables that essentially serve as a repository for newspapers, magazines, articles, and other forms of literature that employees or the owners wish to share with those who care to read them. Think of it as a pre-technological Facebook. . . .We will destroy your business if you fail to comply! Welcome to the wonderful world of Obamian liberty and freedom. Be reminded, dear reader, that this is going on in the "Land of the Free".
In 2015, following the Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges that purported to redefine marriage for the entire country, various employees shared articles and information related to the decision. Don participated by sharing an article that expressed the traditional Christian view that God designed marriage as a union between a man and a woman and set forth reasons for that position.
When a USDA public health veterinarian, the on-site inspector, saw the article in the breakroom, well, he had a cow. He removed the article and reported it to his USDA supervisor. The pair stampeded into Don’s office and threatened to remove USDA inspectors—effectively shutting down the facility—if Don returned the article to the breakroom, stating the article was offensive and harassing under expanded agency rules.
This ban on Don’s speech appears to have been grounded on the USDA’s “Anti-Harassment Policy Statement” issued in July 2015, which prohibits written or oral communications that USDA officials consider “disrespectful” or “insult[ing]” on the basis of sexual orientation.We trust that the Trump Administration will lead all such perversions to the slaughterhouse.
Notably, the feelings about which the USDA is concerned are not those of Don and Ellen’s 45 employees, but rather those of the handful of USDA inspectors working in the Vander Boon’s federally regulated plant. So much so that the company’s breakroom for company employees must be intellectually sterilized, lest an inspector catch a glimpse of an “insulting” article while walking through the breakroom.
Monday, 30 January 2017
Presidential Power
Schmoozing Whilst Carrying a Big Stick
Way back in the late 1960's we were "forced" to read Richard Neustadt's, Presidential Power and the Modern President. As we recall it was required reading in the freshman class of Political Studies at Auckland University, presided over by one memorable Prof Robert Chapman.
[For American readers, note that the title "Professor" in the English academic setting means not just "teacher"--and thus a title given to all teaching college or university personnel--but a senior department member, and most usually, the Head of a Department. But we digress. As memory comes flooding back, we recall the unforgettable image of Prof Chapman wandering into the lecture theatre puffing on his ubiquitous pipe, commencing his lecture by putting the pipe in his pocket, and ending his discourse, not with a peroration, but by taking his pipe out of his pocket, lighting it up, and wandering out of the lecture room. Ah--the good old days. But we digress again.]
Anyway, the point is that we have never forgotten Neustadt's thesis--that in the American political system of checks and balances, the essence of the power of the President viz a vis the other branches of government, is the power to persuade. Doubtless, since that time, Neustadt's thesis has come under criticism, largely because the presidency has become more imperial with the growth of federal power.
For most of his presidency, Obama justly deserves the sobriquet, imperial.
Way back in the late 1960's we were "forced" to read Richard Neustadt's, Presidential Power and the Modern President. As we recall it was required reading in the freshman class of Political Studies at Auckland University, presided over by one memorable Prof Robert Chapman.
[For American readers, note that the title "Professor" in the English academic setting means not just "teacher"--and thus a title given to all teaching college or university personnel--but a senior department member, and most usually, the Head of a Department. But we digress. As memory comes flooding back, we recall the unforgettable image of Prof Chapman wandering into the lecture theatre puffing on his ubiquitous pipe, commencing his lecture by putting the pipe in his pocket, and ending his discourse, not with a peroration, but by taking his pipe out of his pocket, lighting it up, and wandering out of the lecture room. Ah--the good old days. But we digress again.]
Anyway, the point is that we have never forgotten Neustadt's thesis--that in the American political system of checks and balances, the essence of the power of the President viz a vis the other branches of government, is the power to persuade. Doubtless, since that time, Neustadt's thesis has come under criticism, largely because the presidency has become more imperial with the growth of federal power.
For most of his presidency, Obama justly deserves the sobriquet, imperial.
Saturday, 21 January 2017
Letter From America (About Obama's Messianic Pretensions)
Obama’s Unforced Errors on Foreign Policy
By George Will
National Review Online
When Barack Obama moves two miles from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to 2446 Belmont Road in Washington’s Kalorama neighborhood, he will live half a mile from 2340 S Street, where Woodrow Wilson spent his three post-presidential years. Wilson’s embittering foreign policy failure was the Senate’s rejection of the U.S. participation in the embodiment of Wilsonian aspirations, the League of Nations. Obama leaves office serene because “almost every country on Earth sees America as stronger and more respected today than they did eight years ago.”
Two seemingly unimpressed nations are Russia, which is dismembering a European nation (Ukraine) and China, which is shredding international law by turning the world’s most important waterway, the South China Sea, into militarized Chinese territory.
Obama’s policies that brought America to a pinnacle of admiration, as he sees it, were an amalgam of Wilsonian and anti-Wilsonian elements. Wilson’s grand ambition for America was to reorder the world in a way that would make it unnecessary for America to have grand ambitions. He thought America could lead a restful life after strenuous diplomacy had written rules for the game of nations.
In Syria and Libya, human nature has proven to Obama that ‘history’ does not have a mind of its own.
By George Will
National Review Online
When Barack Obama moves two miles from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to 2446 Belmont Road in Washington’s Kalorama neighborhood, he will live half a mile from 2340 S Street, where Woodrow Wilson spent his three post-presidential years. Wilson’s embittering foreign policy failure was the Senate’s rejection of the U.S. participation in the embodiment of Wilsonian aspirations, the League of Nations. Obama leaves office serene because “almost every country on Earth sees America as stronger and more respected today than they did eight years ago.”
Two seemingly unimpressed nations are Russia, which is dismembering a European nation (Ukraine) and China, which is shredding international law by turning the world’s most important waterway, the South China Sea, into militarized Chinese territory.
Obama’s policies that brought America to a pinnacle of admiration, as he sees it, were an amalgam of Wilsonian and anti-Wilsonian elements. Wilson’s grand ambition for America was to reorder the world in a way that would make it unnecessary for America to have grand ambitions. He thought America could lead a restful life after strenuous diplomacy had written rules for the game of nations.
Saturday, 14 January 2017
The Obamian Legacy
Codswallop Was The Major Achievement
Recent history is being rapidly re-written amongst the Democrats in the United States. It's the old story--narratives about the past are merely tricks which the living play upon the dead. And so Obamians are rapidly attempting to gloss the presidency of Barack Obama, re-writing history with the febrile intensity of a Gatling gun.
What can be left to salvage after an anticipated four years of Democratic control? Obama's signature "reform" (by his own declaration) was Obamacare. It is looking likely that few of the 33,000 pages of the Affordable Care Act, with its rules, regulations, directives, and mushrooming bureaucracy will survive. Meanwhile, Obama's foreign policy is in tatters. It's hard to identify one triumph or success. His incessant humanitarianism and progressivism has fallen on deaf ears. The majority of his countrymen don't appear to want to march to the beat of that particular out-of-step drummer--nor does the rest of the world, it would seem..
What can revisionist historians seize upon to trumpet the significance of President Obama? Here it is: the signature achievement of the Obamian era was there were no scandals during the time of President Obama's tenure in the Oval Office. Presumably that includes achievements like Obama not committing adultery whilst in office. Which is a small kind of achievement. But it gets pretty desperate when adherence to fundamental ethical standards that bind most human beings must needs be trumpeted as a major success. What a world we have come to.
Sadly, however, the claim that there were no scandals under Obama's watch is a pure fabrication. It is make-believe codswallop. The perpetrating of the codswallop is itself scandalous. Columnist John Hayward has been keeping score and reckons there were at least 18 scandals attaching to the Obamian era.
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