Obama: ISIS No Threat, Merry Christmas America!

Assertion
Russia Rearms for a New Era: Russia has asserted itself on the world stage with a forcefulness not seen since the Cold War, increasing tensions with the West. (New York Times, 12/24/2015)

Can someone please check. Is Hillary still citing the "Russian Reset" as one of her accomplishments?


Dissension
In a sign of deep political tension within the Taliban, a collection of religious leaders in the group’s headquarters in Pakistan issued a letter of rebuke this month to the new insurgent leader over his bloody crackdown on dissenting commanders....Instead, the letter was a sign that little was forgiven between Mullah Mansour and his biggest rival within the Taliban, Mullah Qayum Zakir, a former detainee at Guantánamo Bay and an aggressive senior military commander. (New York Times, 12/25/2015)

In a Christmas day news dump and hoping no one was paying attention, the Times slips this one in. Apparently former Gitmo prisoner Mullah Qayum Zakir is back in the game. Thanks Barack!


Patches
... Mr. Putin is playing chess, working to bring about NATO’s demise and restore a buffer of subservient European puppet states, while Mr. Obama is playing checkers, apparently content to keep things patched together until he leaves office. (Karl Rove, Wall Street Journal, 12/23/2015)

Obama has apparently been obsessed since he first took office with his legacy. So far we have Russian aggression, the Obamacare quagmire, capitulation to the Iranian mullahs, ISIS, and massive additions to the government debt, to name a few. And that climate change accord which will save the planet, don't forget that!


Marrying Game
These days, an investment banker may marry another investment banker rather than a high school sweetheart, or a lawyer will marry another lawyer, or a prestigious client, rather than a secretary. Whether measured in terms of income or education, there are more so-called power couples today than in the past, one manifestation of a phenomenon known as assortative mating, or more generally the pairing of like with like.

These matches are great for those individuals who can build prosperous and happy family alliances, but they also propagate inequality across the generations. Of all the causes behind growing income inequality, in the longer run this development may prove one of the most significant and also one of the hardest to counter. (Tyler Cowen, professor of economics at George Mason University, New York Times, 12/26/2015)

Using the scholarship of Professor Cowen, Democrat presidential candidate Bernie Sanders will soon issue a new policy proposal which would ban marriage between two wealthy individuals. Sanders is expected to say: "We now have vigorous academic scholarship which points to a leading cause of income inequality in this country. Under a Sanders administration the wealthy will not be permitted to marry, pool their wealth and propagate this inequity."