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."

Visualizing a Permanent Government Shutdown

Why is RedStateVT the Only Major Media Outlet Reporting This?
Two weeks ago Saturday Night Live, that ultra hip purveyor of New York Liberal thought, actually did a skit mocking Obamacare. Obama administration officials accustomed to watching SNL to get their yucks when Sarah Palin and John Boehner are maligned must have had seizures. You know your second term is in trouble when you are a Liberal president and SNL begins making fun of your signature policy issue. We at RedStateVT took extra satisfaction in SNL's swipe at the Obamacare provision which allows deadbeat 26 year olds to remain on dad's health insurance. 


Blow Back
This is bigger than Obamacare. This is about rich conservatives seeking to exert unlimited influence on our political system, and employing far-right Republicans who are animated, to varying degrees, by an innate hostility to this president, fear of diminishing influence and a disavowal of disagreeable truths.

This is about the fragility of our democracy: the possibility that a government by the people may swiftly give way to a government dominated by dark money and dark motives. (Charles M. Blow, NYT, 10/9/2013)

Writing about the McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission case before the Supreme Court, humorist Charles M. Blow dusts off his "Evil Republicans: Big Money in Politics" column. How can any serious columnist write an article on this subject which mentions the Koch Brothers, but fails to mention George Soros? 

Answer: Blow is not a serious journalist. 


Blue
This moment is reminiscent of Mr. Obama's bungling of the December 2010 Simpson-Bowles Commission report. He didn't just fail to act on its blueprint for righting the nation's finances—he acted as if he'd never heard of the commission that he appointed. (Karl Rove, WSJ, 10/9/2013)

Good reminder from Rove. Of course, the Legitimate Media gave Obama a pass on this. 

Too.

Knocking Round the Zoo

Asking the Questions That No One Else Will Ask About the Boston Marathon Bombing

Will Joker Tsarnaev be charged with vehicular homicide and leaving the scene of an accident in connection with the death of brother Timberland Tsarnaev?

If not, why not?


Reflections
As I have written before, I remember sitting next to Bush when we were in the same residential college at Yale (Davenport -- he graduated a year after me). I recall an evening when a group of us was sitting in the common room outside the college dining hall after dinner and a fellow Yale student walked by who was known to be gay, but in those days was not "out." Someone said some ugly homophobic slurs. I didn't like it, but sat silently. But Bush snapped, saying something like "Hey, knock it off. Why don't you walk in his shoes awhile and feel what he feels?" (Huffington Post, 4/24/2013)

Bush, however, lacks irony ..... or something. Another man in his position might stare at the ceiling at night, seeing the number 4,486 — the number of American dead in Iraq — blinking on and off. The death toll for Iraqis is much less exact — maybe as high as 1 million, maybe as low as about 100,000, still a pretty big number. (Richard Cohen, Washington Post, 4/22/2013)

For example, Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid would phone the White House after he had insulted the president—such as in 2005, when he called Mr. Bush "a liar" and "a loser." He said he didn't know that his speechwriters had slipped "loser" into his remarks until he delivered them, so he wanted to apologize for using that word (but not for calling the president a "liar"). Mr. Bush didn't take umbrage. I did. The president felt he had better things to do, starting with handling threats foreign and domestic. (Karl Rove, WSJ, 4/24/2013)

A sampling of comments about W on the occasion of the dedication of his presidential library. Kudos to Democrat Lanny Davis for his gracious comments. A class act, for sure. And then there is WaPo's Richard Cohen who takes us down a different path. We get to hear again about the WMDs that W (and Hillary Clinton) thought were in Iraq. Cohen is mean-spirited and petty. Shame! Rove's anecdote reminds us of two things: 1) how comfortable Bush is in his skin and 2) how Harry Reid is a despicable person. 


Hoboland
Last year California lawmakers approved a "homeowner's bill of rights." Now in the spirit of social and legal equality, Democrats have proposed a "homeless bill of rights."

The bill's Assembly sponsor Tom Ammiano, who hails from San Francisco (also known as the hobo capital of California), says state legislation is needed to stop businesses and local governments from discriminating against poor people merely because they can't afford housing. (WSJ, 4/25/2013)

Have you BEEN to San Francisco?

Never mind the rights of families to walk down the street without being accosted, San Fran Liberals want to protect the bums.