What to do after the next Islamic terror attack: a RedStateVT Primer

Inevitably there will be another jihadist-inspired attack on American soil. Our mailbox here at the RedStateVT command post has been flooded with questions from worried readers wondering how they should respond in the aftermath. One reader summarizes the concerns as follows: "I am worried that I will come to fear Muslims and be labeled a hater." Our editors have prepared the following guide to aid in just these circumstances.

After the incident:

1) Loudly proclaim that it was probably a case of work-place violence and demand tougher gun control laws. If this is subsequently disproved, blame right-wing militias and demand tougher gun control laws. If it is neither work-place violence nor a right-wing militia, demand tougher gun control laws.

2) Immediately call for increased immigration from Muslim countries.

3) Remind everyone that Islam is "the religion of peace."

4) Publicly state your concerns that this will lead to a backlash against Muslims.

5) Visit a mosque (recommended). 

Readers who follow these simple steps are likely to survive the aftermath of the next attack and, importantly, avoid being labeled anti-Muslim.


Your Tax Dollars at Work
How Kricket Nimmons Seized the Transgender Moment: Kricket Nimmons became one of the first New Yorkers to undergo gender reassignment surgery paid for by Medicaid. (New York Times headline, 12/12/2015)

A moment of silence, please, as we contemplate this historic moment. There is now NOTHING that Liberals can conjure up that society will not be forced to pay for. Abortion, endless intergenerational welfare and food stamps, free meals and day care for kids, birth control, weight loss surgery, you name it. And no opt out for you haters!

Here is one minor concern, though. Suppose that Kricket realizes at some point down the road that he/she made a mistake. Are we on the hook for paying for the reversal surgery as well? Just wondering....


Devil in the Details
But as details of the plan emerged, some developing nations expressed consternation. Poorer countries had pushed for a legally binding provision requiring that rich countries appropriate a minimum of $100 billion a year to help them mitigate and adapt to the ravages of climate change. (New York Times, 12/12/2015)

And therein we have the essence of what the climate warming/cooling/chaos argument is all about. Wealth transfer to poor countries. That and nothing more.


Notional
Echoes of that notion reverberated on the campaign trail and at the events of candidates who condemned Mr. Trump’s harsh language. (New York Times, 12/12/2015)

The New York Times and Liberal media do not even wait anymore to rewrite history. They rewrite events as they happen. "Mr. Trump's harsh language?" Trump called for 'a temporary halt to Muslim immigration until we can figure out what is going on.' This is harsh language according to thin-skinned Liberals. Perhaps Trump should have said instead: 'We should still allow Muslims to flood America, but temporarily reduce the publicly funded benefits that we give them.'

Obama Unveils Post Paris Strategy: Attack Republicans

Unsettling Science
A panel of prominent scientists debunked one of the most popular global warming arguments ahead of a major United Nations climate summit to take place in Paris later this month.

The scientists slammed policies to reduce carbon dioxide emissions as “nonsense,” and they criticized politicians and activists for claiming the world was on the path for catastrophic global warming.

“The most important thing to keep in mind is — when you ask ‘is it warming, is it cooling’, etc.  — is that we are talking about something tiny (temperature changes) and that is the crucial point,” Dr. Richard Lindzen, a veteran climate scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. (Dailycaller.com, 11/20/2015)

So is climate change settled science or not? Someone better get to Dr. Lindzen and warn him that funding will dry up if he does not toe the Liberal line. Meanwhile, the Liberal media will ignore this.


Zero
Mr. Sanders zeros in on Wall Street donations to Mrs. Clinton in an aggressive new television commercial that started running in Iowa and New Hampshire on Saturday: “The truth is, you can’t change a corrupt system by taking its money,” he warns. (New York Times, 11/22/2015)

That's fine if Bernie wants to knock Hillary around on Wall Street donations. Nothing could make us happier. But if Bernie were truly honest (hint: he is not) he would remind everyone that Obama was also a major benefactor of Wall Street money. Guess that is an inconvenient truth. Liberal amnesia.


Fighting Evictions, a Single Mother Draws Strength From Her Children (New York Times headline, 11/21/2015)

Today's New York Times Victim of the Week: Gardenia Valerio. Here is what we learn about Gardenia: She has three kids, but apparently never married. Her "partner" walked out, possibly when she was pregnant. The kids play on tablets. She has a smartphone. The Times then goes on to list the various public and private benefits she collects. 

Nothing is going to change for the better until society begins to hold people accountable for their own poor decisions. 


That Thing They Do
What progressives love is to be the mediators who decide which companies to reward (e.g., alternative energy providers) and which to punish via the tax and regulatory code. (Wall Street Journal, 11/21/2015)

And they usually get it wrong. (See Solyndra).

How NOT to Convince Someone That Climate Change is Real

For the third time in the last few years, Al Gore, founder and chairman of the Climate Reality Project, spoke at the festival on Friday. Naturally, his interactive discussion focused on addressing the climate crisis. The former vice president focused on the need to “punish climate-change deniers, saying politicians should pay a price for rejecting ‘accepted science,'” said the Chicago Tribune.

Gore said forward-thinking investors are moving away from companies that invest in fossil fuels and towards companies investing in renewable energy. “We need to put a price on carbon to accelerate these market trends,” Gore told the Chicago Tribune, referring to a proposed federal cap-and-trade system that would penalize companies that exceeded their carbon-emission limits. “And in order to do that, we need to put a price on denial in politics.” (Ecowatch.com, 3/16/2015)

If you want to convince RedStateVT that man-made climate change is real...

...here are some things that you should not do or say:

Please do not insult us or call us names.  If we are "climate-deniers" then you are "climate-truthers."

Please do not threaten to punish us (see above). That just makes us dig in our heels.

Please do not tell us that the answer to climate change is a tax. How does that make sense? Plus we think Americans pay too much in taxes already.

Please do not announce that climate change is "settled science." You can't say "accepted science" either. We have studied the issue and come to a different conclusion.  Plenty of people, including many scientists, disagree with you.

Please do not blame oil companies. No one, including you can live one day without fossil fuels. Oil is legal. Thank God for oil.


...here are some things that you should do or explain:

Please explain Climategate. Remember when scientists were found to have been colluding on the "science" of climate change? We do. Please explain.

Please explain exactly how Federal and state grant money flows to scientists and others who believe in man-made climate change. Just how much does Bill McKibben pull in?

Please separate out what you believe to be man-made climate change from naturally occurring climate change. 

Please factually refute just one thing found on Climatedepot.com. 

Please tell Al Gore to shut up. Really, do you want this phony to be your spokesperson? By the way, please ask Al Gore how many millions of dollars he has personally made from ginning up this issue.

Obama: For gay marriage before he pretended to be against it

Name Calling
In the long-running political battles over climate change, the fight about what to call the various factions has been going on for a long time. Recently, though, the issue has taken a new turn, with a public appeal that has garnered 22,000 signatures and counting.

The petition asks the news media to abandon the most frequently used term for people who question climate science, “skeptic,” and call them “climate deniers” instead. (New York Times, 2/13/2015)

We suggest calling those who do not question "climate science"...."climate truthers."


In The Name Of
Why does Obama have no problem declaring that “people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ,” yet he has never once said that terrorists have “committed terrible deeds in the name of Allah” or “in the name of Islam”? In his prayer breakfast speech, Obama bent over backward to avoid using the word “Islamic” in reference to the terrorists. He will not even call it the “Islamic State,” the name that virtually every U.S. news organization uses. He said that “ISIL” killed “in the name of religion.” So the Islamic State kills “in the name of religion,” but Christians killed “in the name of Christ”?

Obama is willing to condemn by name what he considers Christian radicalism, but he still to this day refuses to condemn “Islamic radicalism” by name. You can’t defeat an ideology if you are unwilling to even name it. When the president of the United States watches Islamic terrorists burn a man alive in a cage and responds by saying we should not “get on our high horse” because “people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ” it is a propaganda victory for the terrorists and a loss for persecuted Christians struggling to survive under the Islamic State’s brutal rule. (Marc A. Thiessen, Washington Post, 2/10/2015)

Why indeed. We have pondered this long and hard and a possible answer is beginning to dawn on us.... Obama is a Muslim. 

Could it be true? (After all, Obama famously declared he was a Muslim in an interview with George Stephanopolous years ago. Stephanopolous bailed him out by saying: "You are a Christian." If you haven't heard about this, no surprise as it was largely suppressed by the State Media.) 

We are not yet certain, but how else to explain his constant reminders of American and Christian sins coupled with his soft apologies for Islamic terrorism.


Long Ago
Months ago, Mrs. Clinton’s top advisers encouraged the three pro-Clinton super PACs — Ready for Hillary, Priorities USA and Mr. Brock’s American Bridge 21st Century — to combine efforts. Mr. Brock’s organization would provide opposition research to Priorities, which would eventually raise high-dollar donations to pay for attack ads. (New York Times, 2/11/2015)

Three Super PACs. High dollar donations. Attack ads.

Kind of makes the Koch brothers look genteel ...

Obama: I Have Fixed the U.S. Economy. You're Welcome America.

Virtuous
If there was a virtue in Mr. Obama’s speech, it’s that we can now retire the lectures on “responsible governing.” (Wall Street Journal, 1/21/2015)

Score!


Unification
But climate is a continuous process of incremental change. A unified theory of media idiocy on climate is beyond the scope of this column, but even someone with the apparently parched intellect of an AP editor should be able to look at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration charts and notice that cool years are grouped with cool years, warm years with warm years, and in-between years with in-between years. (Holman W. Jenkins, Jr., Wall Street Journal, 1/20/2015)

Did you read that 2014 was the warmest year in the history of the solar system and it is all the fault of Republicans who will not let us stop using fossil fuels? You probably did if you were breathing a couple of days ago.  What you probably did not read were the science-based rebuttals. Here is one, you climate change-denier, you!


Zero
The cost of community college isn’t being lowered to zero, the costs will simply be shifted elsewhere. The AP estimates it would cost “an estimated $60 billion over 10 years to the treasury.” Furthermore, the plan would require states to contribute a quarter of tuition, and not all students would qualify. (Breitbart.com, 1/21/2015)

Finally, someone besides RedStateVT calls out President Clueless on the "free" concept. Nothing is free! Someone always pays. If you are a taxpayer then guess what? You pay for "Free!"


Unreal
MITCHELL: I think that on foreign policy, his projection of success against terrorism and against ISIS, in particular, as I said, is not close to reality. They have not come up with a strategy, and they’ve built a global coalition, but again, he’s talked about Ukraine, he’s talked about Putin being isolated. Yes, Putin is isolated economically and the falling oil prices have hammered his economy. But at the same time, there’s renewed fighting in Donetsk, and we haven’t figured out Ukraine, we haven’t figured out how the NATO alliance can push back. Sanctions have not really worked, and Ukraine is going to need more weaponry, and they have not reached that point. So you’re right, Chris, it doesn’t match the reality. (Hotair.com, 1/21/2015)

Andrea Mitchell and Chris Matthews from MSNBC (the Obama administration's in-house television network) practice a random act of journalism....


Messed Up
So here was Gov. Charlie Baker yesterday, confronting a totally predictable (except by the previous governor) budget deficit of $765 million, and he still couldn’t bring himself to mention who created the mess the Commonwealth now finds itself in. (Howiecarrshow.com, 1/21/2015)

The budget deficit in Vermont (a state with less than one million people) approaches $100 million. Now what do the governments of Vermont and Massachusetts have in common? 

Yes, both governors were males and both had the letter "P" in their names. 

Think harder, reader!

Of course, both states were run by Democrats! Deval Patrick and Peter Shumlin.

Democrats should not be entrusted with managing the finances of an ice cream truck.

Eric Holder Resigns, Nation of Cowards Rejoices!

Allowances
President Obama has put America at the center of a widening war by expanding into Syria airstrikes against the Islamic State, the Sunni extremist group known as ISIS and ISIL. He has done this without allowing the public debate that needs to take place before this nation enters another costly and potentially lengthy conflict in the Middle East. (New York Times editorial, 9/24/2014)

New York Times editors lambaste President Obama over the decision to bomb terrorist groups in Syria. Which is definitive proof that it is the right thing to do.


Demonized
Also in keeping with past practice, he acknowledged that the United States is wrestling its own demons. “In a summer marked by instability in the Middle East and Eastern Europe,” he said, “I know the world also took notice of the small American city of Ferguson, Mo., where a young man was killed, and a community was divided.” (New York Times, 9/25/2014)

Why does he constantly do this? In a vastly under-reported story Obama goes to the U.N. and delivers a tough talk on terrorism. Good job. And then he cannot leave it there. He has to pander to the world audience by criticizing America. What is the moral equivalency between ISIS beheadings and Putin's military takeover in the Ukraine and a contested police shooting in the U.S.? Obama has always been and continues to be a classic Blame America Liberal.


Pause Button
During the 1980s and 1990s, new all-time record-high anomalies were occurring about every 3-4 years. But then, we hit the “hiatus.” The rise in the Earth’s average surface temperature basically stopped, “global warming” morphed into “climate change,” and it has been 16.5 years since the last all-time all-month record monthly temperature anomaly was set.

Just-published research from University of Guelph’s Ross McKitrick pegs the length of the hiatus, or “pause”—the period of no statistically significant rise in the earth’s average temperature—at about 19 years. Looking back even further, the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) shows that since the mid-20th century, observed global warming has been less than expected....Global warming is not proceeding as planned.  The climate appears less sensitive to our emissions of greenhouse gases than expected. The urgency to grant the government the authority to limit energy choice is not justified. (Paul C. “Chip” Knappenberger, Assistant Director of the Center for the Study of Science at the Cato Institute, Foxnews.com, 9/23/2014)

To which climate change liars responded.... 

Just kidding! They did not respond because they refuse to take their fingers out of their ears.

Speaking of climate change liars, we noticed that Peter "Burger Boy" Shumlin is bowing to pressure from head Vermont scare-monger Bill McKibben and threatening to divest state funds of oil and gas companies. (There is apparently no place in the portfolio for companies engaged in the legal business of fossil fuels. Which will lead to lower investment returns, by the way.) 

All of which validates RedStateVT's contention that Bill McKibben runs the state.

Fitful Echoes

Just Because
The president thinks people are depressed because they don't understand how good the economy is. Actually right now they are depressed because he is president. (Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal, 9/18/2014)

Loyal readers know that RedStateVT holds Ann Coulter in high esteem for her brilliant political analysis and superb wit. Here she gets a run for her money from Peggy Noonan. 


Great Moments from the Obama Presidency
If you like your health plan you can keep it

The 1980s wants their foreign policy back

There is not a smidgen of scandal at the IRS

Tell Vladimir I will have more flexibility after the election

I did not set a red line on Syria

ISIS is a JV team

We do not have a strategy yet

No boots on the ground


Shutdown
Nearly a year after its bungled rollout subjected thousands of Vermonters to a state mandated health insurance marketplace that was more expensive, nearly impossible to navigate and never fully functional, Governor Shumlin today announced that Vermont Health Connect will be shut down for repairs until after the November elections. (VTGOP.org, 9/16/2014)

In the private sector, you get fired for this level of incompetence. In Vermont, Burger Boy Shumlin will get re-elected.


Declaration
Gov. Peter Shumlin declared $721,445 in income on the 2013 federal income tax return he filed last spring. Nearly half the money came from real estate income. Shumlin also released a list of $10.3 million in assets that includes 16 properties valued collectively at $3.86 million. (Burlington Free Press, 9/19/2014)

Another Liberal 1%er!

Occupy Shumlin!


Unsettling
...the climate lobby should return to the climate science and explain the hiatus in warming that has now lasted for 16, 19 or 26 years depending on the data set and which the climate models failed to predict even as global carbon dioxide emissions have climbed by 25%. Their alibi is that the new warming is now hidden in the oceans, an assertion they lack the evidence to prove. (Wall Street Journal, 9/22/2014)

To which climate liars (i.e. the opposite of climate deniers) say...what?

Spear in Hand

Shock and Awe
Coulter, “Outnumbered” and the puckish sections of the Free Beacon all function in similar ways. The provocations they put out into the world are not untethered from real thinking and emotions. But they exist primarily to evoke shock and then to deny that those provocations were in earnest. It is an awfully clever sort of trap, one that lures critics into spending time and emotional energy refuting seemingly outrageous propositions before it’s revealed that the only people really engaging in the exchange were the critics themselves. (Alyssa Rosenberg, Washington Post, 6/26/2014)

Although her by-line does not say so, we assume that Rosenberg is a board-certified psychologist given her pronouncements on the ulterior motivations of Ann Coulter and other conservative thinkers. Per Dr. Rosenberg, Coulter and others just want to be provocative and drive up their click counts. Well, after - what is it eight? ten? New York Times best sellers - we doubt Coulter is overly focused on how many people read her weekly column.

And then there is: "...to deny that those provocations were in earnest." One of the truly wonderful things about the lithesome Coulter is that she never backs down from anything she writes or says. Ever. RedStateVT does not call her the toughest conservative out there for no reason. 

The provocations that Dr. Rosenberg attributes to Coulter fall well within the mainstream of conservative thinking. A few examples:

• Abortion is the taking of a life.
• If we don't get control of our borders we will all be speaking Spanish in ten years. 
• Ted Kennedy was a drunk who murdered a woman.
• Bill Clinton is a sex pervert.
• Barack Obama is an incompetent buffoon. 

Again, well within the mainstream and hardly controversial positions. Finally, Coulter just happens to be hysterically funny, all while she is carving up Liberals. In political commentary, only Rachel Maddow comes close. Although, of course, people are laughing at Maddow, not with her. 


Optional
The Obama administration has developed three options for further actions, according to government officials: banning any interactions with some of Russia’s largest banks; cutting off technology transfers to Russian energy and defense firms; and shutting down business with Russian defense companies. (New York Times, 6/25/2014)

A fourth option still under consideration: Obama calls Putin up and expresses his profound disappointment. 


Warmly
About 10,000 years ago, temperatures warmed sharply, by eight to 10 degrees Fahrenheit. By that time, the European ice sheets had melted, but the much thicker North American sheets took much longer. While the climate had warmed to today’s levels, allowing mixed oak woodland to grow and humans to recolonize Britain, the sea level remained some 130 feet lower for another 3,000 years.

When it did rise, it would have been traumatic for the population, wiping out whatever settlement there was, and eventually the forest of Borth. The displaced humans of the time, Dr. Bates said, were prehistoric refugees from climate change. (New York Times, 6/24/2014)

Man-made climate change is settled science. Man-made climate change is settled science. Man-made climate change.....


Over Par
On June 14, Sunni rebels threatened Baghdad after seizing much of Iraq — and President Obama fearlessly played a round at the Sunnylands Golf Course in Rancho Mirage, Calif.

The next day, the militants posted pictures of their mass execution of Shiite members of Iraq’s security forces — and Obama boldly teed off again, at Oracle founder Larry Ellison’s Rancho Mirage estate.

These split-screen scenes were reminiscent of the weekend in March when Russia was about to annex Crimea. Obama played golf both Saturday and Sunday at Key Largo, Fla.’s Ocean Reef resort with former NBA star Alonzo Mourning and former NFL player Ahmad Rashad. (Dana Milbank, Washington Post, 6/24/2014)

When Liberals revolt!


Already Against the Next War
If you like the unfolding disaster in Obama-abandoned Iraq, you are going to love Obama-abandoned Afghanistan.

Just two weeks before Iraq descended into chaos, President Obama stepped into the Rose Garden to announce his plan to withdraw all U.S. forces from Afghanistan by the end of 2016. “It’s time to turn the page on more than a decade in which so much of our foreign policy was focused on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq,” Obama declared. “Americans have learned that it’s harder to end wars than begin them — but this is how wars end in the 21st century.”

If Iraq is how wars end in the 21st century, we’re in big trouble. (Marc A. Thiessen, Washington Post, 6/23/2014)

Obama has squandered the blood and treasure of America. He deserves his eventual fate as the president who lost both Iraq and Afghanistan, who re-energized the Islamic jihad and who put American lives at risk.

The Perplexing Search for Proof of Obama's Brilliance

Possibilities
But while it sure is possible to move those 1700 unsold ELRs, Cadillac will need about two years to finish the job if it can’t find more than 60 people a month who want a $76,000 two-door plug-in hybrid. Cadillac, in the AN report, attributes the inventory buildup to a heavy production cycle ahead of a summer and fall slowdown. (Caranddriver.com, 5/19/2014)

We recently wrote about the Cadillac ELR, extolling its ability to travel a full 37 miles on a single charge. Others have taken notice which explains the fact that GM now has only a two year backlog. Go green!


The Hype
“This is not a hypothetical thing for governors on the West Coast — this is fire alarms and floods,” Mr. Inslee said Monday in a telephone interview. “It’s not a next-century issue. This is a next half-hour issue.” (New York Times, 5/20/2014)

Liberal sages such as Al Gore have - in the past - told us that we have only (fill in the blank) years to save the planet. Now things have apparently reached crisis proportions. We are down to mere hours. If RedStateVT does not publish again, you will know that it is because time has run out. Go green!

Full Swing

They Can See Clearly Now
In the midst of all the turmoil in health care these days, one thing is becoming clear: No matter what kind of health plan consumers choose, they will find fewer doctors and hospitals in their network — or pay much more for the privilege of going to any provider they want. (New York Times, 5/12/2014)

The New York Times makes a startling discovery about Obamacare! Such discovery that was predicted months - if not years - ago by EVERY single Republican who opposed Obamacare.


The End is Near
A large section of the mighty West Antarctica ice sheet has begun falling apart and its continued melting now appears to be unstoppable, two groups of scientists reported on Monday. If the findings hold up, they suggest that the melting could destabilize neighboring parts of the ice sheet and a rise in sea level of 10 feet or more may be unavoidable in coming centuries.

Global warming caused by the human-driven release of greenhouse gases has helped to destabilize the ice sheet, though other factors may also be involved, the scientists said. (New York Times, 5/12/2014)

Ah yes, "other factors."

Let's read further:

Scientists said the ice sheet was not melting because of warmer air temperatures, but rather because relatively warm water that occurs naturally in the depths of the ocean was being pulled to the surface by an intensification, over the past several decades, of the powerful winds that encircle Antarctica.

And while the cause of the stronger winds is somewhat unclear, many researchers consider human-induced global warming to be a significant factor.

'Naturally occurring warm waters' and stronger winds, the cause of which is "somewhat unclear."

This is the "science" of climate change. 


Navel Action
His preference for navel gazing over action was on full display last week. As Russia and China menaced their neighbors and Islamist terrorists set off bombs in a half-dozen countries, Obama accepted an award from Hollywood pal Steven Spielberg for fighting genocide. Passing up a chance to give a full-throated defense of freedom and Western civilization, the president lapsed into what The New York Times called a “meditation” on the limits of his power. (Michael Goodwin, Foxnews.com, 5/12/2014)

The single most powerful man in the world unilaterally disarms......creating chaos on the world stage. 

Imperial Templates

Obama Motors
With a full battery charge, the ELR has an E.P.A.-estimated driving range of 37 miles — roughly the average American round-trip commute — in all-electric mode. That charge takes from 12.5 to 18 hours with a standard 120-volt outlet, and about five hours at 240 volts. (New York Times, 5/9/2014)

Liberals' favorite car company announces the Cadillac ELR. You read that right, it can go 37 miles on one charge. Which takes one-half day. 

Why can't conservatives get behind these wonderful green energy initiatives?


Sound the Trumpets
President Barack Obama on Friday trumpeted new executive actions and public- and private-sector commitments aimed at cutting carbon pollution and improving energy efficiency, saying that climate change is real and must be addressed now.

In a speech at a Wal-Mart store in Mountain View, Calif., the president laid out a list of clean-energy objectives he can accomplish without Congress's help and touted corporate pledges to expand the deployment of solar power. He lamented the lack of cooperation from lawmakers on clean-energy issues but said he would make sure the federal government does its part. (Wall Street Journal, 5/9/2014)

No humility, none at all when it comes to wasting more taxpayer dollars on these green energy sinkholes. Obama and his Legitimate Media sycophants do not even remember what Solyndra was all about. 


Dress Rehearsal
The reasons Benghazi is important do not have to be rehearsed here. An American outpost, virtually undefended, was attacked by armed and organized al Qaeda-associated militants on the anniversary of 9/11 and four were left dead, including the U.S. ambassador. It happened eight weeks before the 2012 presidential election. From day one White House management and leadership focused on spin and an apparent fiction. Did they deliberately mislead and misdirect? Why was there no military response? Who is responsible? (Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal, 5/9/2014)

Good piece by Noonan which is incorrect only in the first line above. Democrats apparently do have to be reminded. 


Neither Nor
Yet others—until now not often quoted in news accounts—see Mr. Snowden as neither a hero nor a whistleblower. Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testified to the House Armed Services Committee on March 13, 2014, that "The vast majority of the documents that Snowden . . . exfiltrated from our highest levels of security had nothing to do with exposing government oversight of domestic activities." (Edward Jay Epstein, Wall Street Journal, 5/9/2014)

Epstein posits that the Snowden case is really more about espionage. We were fascinated to learn the information above: the bulk of what Snowden stole were national security secrets. Which means that when we get him back in the U.S. and he is tried and found guilty, the proper sentence is either life imprisonment...or execution. We would support either. 

Turn Like a Wheel Inside a Wheel

Write Off
Ukraine has already been written off. But Eastern Europe need not worry. Obama understands containment. He recently dispatched 150 American ground troops to Poland and each of the Baltic states. You read correctly: 150. Each. (Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post, 5/1/2014)

If Obama reads Krauthammer's devastating piece on his foreign policy failures and if he had any humility, he would resign the presidency. 

Obama has no humility and he will not resign. Whether it is Syria, or the broader Middle East, or the Ukraine, he thinks he is winning. Obama's solution to these issues is to "pivot" to Malaysia.


Feelings
The effects of human-induced climate change are being felt in every corner of the United States, scientists reported Tuesday, with water growing scarcer in dry regions, torrential rains increasing in wet regions, heat waves becoming more likely and more severe, wildfires growing worse, and forests dying under assault from heat-loving insects.

Such sweeping changes have been caused by an average warming of less than 2 degrees Fahrenheit over most land areas of the country in the past century, the scientists found. If greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane continue to escalate at a rapid pace, they said, the warming could conceivably exceed 10 degrees by the end of this century. (New York Times, 5/7/2014)

George Will had a wonderful piece a month or so ago. He related how a hundred or more German scientists, supported by the Nazis, denounced Albert Einstein's work. Will quotes Einstein as saying "if I were wrong, they would only need one." And so it is with climate change, or whatever Liberals are calling it now. The gist of the Liberal argument is that XX% of scientists agree. Of course, no mention is made of the conflicts of interests, e.g. the funding received by these scientists, their political affiliation, etc. 

Oh, and then there is this:

According to the RSS satellite data, whose value for April 2014 is just in, the global warming trend in the 17 years 9 months since August 1996 is zero. The 212 months without global warming represents more than half the 423-month satellite data record, which began in January 1979. No one now in high school has lived through global warming. (Climatedepot.com, 5/4/2014)


Projectile
Premiums were soaring, they declared, when they have actually come in below projections. (Paul Krugman, New York Times, 5/5/2014)

Krugman declares victory for Obamacare. And shame on those Republicans who do not acknowledge it! 

Note his deceit, however. "Premiums have come in below projections." Not, premiums are lower because of Obamacare and everyone is paying less for healthcare. If Krugman was honest he would say that premiums are higher, but not as high as was feared. 


Non-Qualified
As I’ve argued before, Benghazi doesn’t qualify as a scandal because the Republican allegations, even if true, don’t amount to much. (Dana Milbank, Washington Post, 5/5/2014)

Well, the Republican allegation is that the Obama administration sought - immediately before the 2012 presidential election - to deflect attention away from their claim of success in dealing with Al Qaeda by blaming an Al Qaeda attack (that cost the lives of four Americans including an ambassador) on an internet video and "not a foreign policy failure." In doing so, Republicans allege that the Obama administration misled the American people...again immediately before the presidential election.

Dana Milbank believes that this does not "amount to much." 

What price, we wonder, does someone like Milbank place on his journalistic integrity?

Thanks for Waiting

Cold Day
In Cold War Echo, Obama Strategy Writes Off Putin (New York Times headline, 4/20/2014)

As others have noted, Candidate Obama got off a (rehearsed) line during the last campaign at Mitt Romney's expense saying something to the effect of 'the eighties wanting its foreign policy back.' And so - adding to a list which includes George Bush and Dick Cheney - Obama now owes an apology to Romney. Of course, all three are smart enough to know that they will never get one. 


Runaway
Even as Mr. Obama announced that eight million Americans had enrolled in the program and urged Democrats to embrace the law, those in his party are running from it rather than on it, while Republicans are prospering by demanding its repeal. (New York Times. 4/20/2014)

And why is this? Can some Democrat please explain why the party's candidates are running away from its signature legislative accomplishment?


Bent
That’s daunting enough, but here’s the key finding: The world has only about 15 years left in which to begin to bend the emissions curve downward. Otherwise, the costs of last-minute fixes will be overwhelming. “We cannot afford to lose another decade,” says Ottmar Edenhofer, a German economist and co-chairman of the committee that wrote the report. “If we lose another decade, it becomes extremely costly to achieve climate stabilization.” (New York Times editorial, 4/21/2014)

Climate change deniers (yes, that includes RedStateVT) have a ball with these predictions of impending doom, particularly when they come with a specific date attached. Back in 2006, Al Gore (remember him?) predicted that the end would come in ten years. And so the ever clever Rush Limbaugh took the Gorey One up on it and posted a countdown clock on his website. It is still there today and reminds us that - according to Gore - we are down to the final two years!


Over and Over
In his opening statement, Obama asserted that "the repeal debate is and should be over. The Affordable Care Act is working." He said the same thing on April Fool's Day, though the repetition is beginning to feel like "Groundhog Day." The assertion, and especially the reassertion, that the debate is over is self-refuting, for it is simply a statement of Obama's position in the debate. (James Taranto, Wall Street Journal, 4/18/2014)

Liked this one from Taranto. In essence, if the debate is over, why is Obama still talking about it? RedStateVT has a similar observation that when Liberals are unwilling to debate an issue any longer (usually when they are losing that debate!) they simply declare the debate to be over. It's settled science!


RIP
Weeping before a polished wood coffin at her wake this past Saturday, they described Ms. Onyango, the half sister of the president’s father, as “the spirit of the Obama family” and talked about raising money to send her body back to Kenya. Mr. Obama helped pay funeral expenses and sent a condolence note, Ms. Onyango’s family members said, but the president did not attend, as he was golfing. (New York Times, 4/23/2014)

The New York Times declares that Obama's relations with his extended family are, well, "complicated." We will have to research how the Times described Ronald Reagan's relations with his children. We do not recall them saying "complicated."

Test of Conformity

THANK YOU FOR 20,000 PAGEVIEWS!

Costly
From a White House podium late Friday, Obama told the Russian government that “there will be costs” for any military foray into Ukraine, including the semiautonomous region of Crimea, a strategically important peninsula on the Black Sea.

Within hours, Putin asked the Russian parliament for approval to send forces into Ukraine. The vote endorsing his request was unanimous, Obama’s warning drowned out by lawmakers’ rousing rendition of Russia’s national anthem at the end of the session. Russian troops now control the Crimean Peninsula. (Washington Post, 3/1/2014)

Vlad the Impaler teaches Obama something about "red lines." Namely the RED LINE he drew around Crimea. 


Off Base
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) implored President Obama to stop going on television and making baseless threats against Vladimir Putin or other dictators Sunday on CNN.

“It’s not your strong suit, every time the president goes on national television and threatens Putin or anyone like Putin, everybody’s eyes roll, including mine,” he said. (Freebeacon.com, 3/2/2014)

A pretty funny line from Graham.


Mainly
Mr. Obama came to office with little foreign-policy experience and has been repeatedly tested by a new world in which the main threats are Islamic extremism and civil war. (New York Times, 3/3/2014)

We remember well the concerns that the New York Times expressed in 2008 and again in 2012 in numerous articles, essays and editorials about Obama's weak foreign policy credentials. Just kidding!


Moving Violation
A movement with confidence in its scientific theories would be able to admit there are many climate factors beyond carbon dioxide that are not yet well understood, and that some climate models have been shown to be unreliable. Such a movement would not downplay or whitewash leaked emails evincing the possibility of massaged data. When it criticizes its skeptics as hired guns of the fossil-fuel industry who are influenced by money, it would be willing to acknowledge that it thrives on government and private funding that would shrink if its research did not continue to say warming is here and getting worse. And there would be more confessions such as Al Gore's belated acknowledgment that his support for ethanol was misguided. (Pete du Pont, Wall Street Journal, 2/27/2014)

If you are a global warming skeptic, Liberals call you a denier. If you believe that voters should be required to show an I.D., Liberals call you a racist. If you do not agree with gay marriage, Liberals call you a homophobe. This is how Liberals defend their positions. 


Be A Lert, We Need More Lerts
Gov. Jerry Brown (D., Calif.) said he wants to wait to see how experiments with marijuana legalization play out in Colorado and Washington before expanding access to pot in California.

“How many people can get stoned and still have a great state or a great nation?” Brown asked on NBC’s Meet the Press. “The world’s pretty dangerous, very competitive. I think we need to stay alert, if not 24 hours a day, more than some of the potheads might be able to put together, ” Brown added. (Freebeacon.com, 3/2/2014)

The original Governor Moonbat occasionally says something sensible. And so the question posed to Liberals is this: "How does legalizing another mind altering substance make America a better nation?

When the pin is pulled, Mr. Grenade is not your friend...

Grapplers
As Democrats approach the 2014 midterm elections, they are grappling with an awkward reality: Their president’s health care law — passed almost entirely by Democrats — remains a political liability in many states, threatening their ability to hold on to seats in the Senate and the House.

As a result, party leaders have decided on an aggressive new strategy to address the widespread unease with the health care law, urging Democratic candidates to talk openly about the law’s problems while also offering their own prescriptions to fix them. (New York Times, 2/17/2014)

The Democrat party: "We screwed up your healthcare. We can fix it!"


Globally Speaking
The White House science adviser, John P. Holdren, said in a briefing last week: “Scientifically, no single episode of extreme weather, no storm, no flood, no drought can be said to have been caused by global climate change. But the global climate has now been so extensively impacted by the human-caused buildup of greenhouse gases that weather practically everywhere is being influenced by climate change.” (New York Times, 2/17/2014)

So, in other words, climate change does not cause storms, floods or droughts; storms, floods and droughts are caused by climate change. The White House position is now clear. 

Dime Dancing

Egged On
The more honest Obamacare advocates are, in effect, admitting that to make this omelet you have to break 8 million eggs — roughly the number of people with individual plans who are expected to lose them. Obama, however, goes on as if he can conjure omelets out of thin air.

This rather bizarre belief in the unlimited power of the speech arises from Obama’s biography. Isn’t that how he rose? Words. It’s not as if he built a company, an enterprise, an institution. He built one thing — his own persona. By persuasion. One great speech in 2004 propels him to the presidential level. More great speeches and he wins the White House.

But then comes governance. (Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post, 11/4/2013)

Krauthammer nails it. Obama is an empty suit with a teleprompter and a so-so speechwriter. He has proven monumentally inept at governing. His signature legislative accomplishment was passed solely because at one brief moment in time he had full control. Now it turns out to be a national joke that even Democrats are running from. 


Emitted
Developing countries want the West — historically responsible for emissions, for the most part — not only to take the lead in reducing the use of fossil fuels, but to put up huge amounts of money to help poorer countries adapt to climatic changes that have already become inevitable. Western governments, which in some cases are already starting to consider their own adaptations to climate change, agree in principle that they should help poor countries. (NYT, 11/12/2013)

And so now we have it in writing. The whole climate change nonsense is nothing more than a wealth transfer scheme. It is designed to work on a large scale as described above and an individual scale (see McKibben, Bill). 


Consumed
Americans are growing more comfortable with marijuana, with 58 percent favoring legalization, according to the latest Gallup poll. At the same time, some researchers believe they have identified a side benefit to increasing availability of the drug: It could lead to decreased consumption of alcohol among young people. (New York Times editorial, 11/3/2013)

Sheer brilliance from the geniuses at the Times. Legal dope will result in fewer drunk teens. 

(Of course, there will be more stoned teens....)

Point Blank

We Did a Little Digging
In 2012, the percentage of people without health insurance decreased to 15.4 percent from 15.7 percent in 2011. The number of uninsured people in 2012 was not statistically different from 2011, at 48.0 million.

Both the percentage and number of people with health insurance increased in 2012 to 84.6 percent and 263.2 million, up from 84.3 percent and 260.2 million in 2011.

The percentage of people covered by private health insurance in 2012 was not statistically different from 2011, at 63.9 percent. This is the second consecutive year that the percentage of people covered by private health insurance was not statistically different from the previous year’s estimate. The number of people covered by private health insurance increased in 2012 to 198.8 million, up from 197.3 million in 2011.

The percentage and number of people covered by government health insurance increased to 32.6 percent and 101.5 million in 2012 from 32.2 percent and 99.5 million in 2011.

The percentage and number of people covered by employment-based health insurance in 2012 were not statistically different from 2011, at 54.9 percent and 170.9 million.

The percentage and number of people covered by Medicaid in 2012 were not statistically different from 2011, at 16.4 percent and 50.9 million. 

The percentage and number of people covered by Medicare increased in 2012 to 15.7 percent and 48.9 million, from 15.2 percent and 46.9 million in 2011.  (Statistics come from the U.S. Census Bureau)

Liberals are fond of quoting the statistic of 48 million people without health insurance as the raison d'etre for Obamacare. Well, let's look at it another way: 265 million Americans representing some 85% of the population DO have health insurance! (And - truth be told - many of the 48 million CHOOSE not to have insurance.) However - bringing a sledge hammer to the problem - Liberals have decided to blow up the entire health care system in order to solve a problem affecting a minority. It is as though they wanted to change the definition of marriage because .01% of the population representing gay couples decided they wanted to get married. Oh wait, that happened!


Glitched
Nevertheless, disarray has distinguished the project. In the last 10 months alone, government documents show, officials modified hardware and software requirements for the exchange seven times. It went live on Oct. 1 before the government and contractors had fully tested the complete system. Delays by the government in issuing specifications for the system reduced the time available for testing. (NYT, 10/21/2013)

This from one of Obama's major media supporters. Occasionally journalism happens.


Surged
Over the weekend, the administration announced a “tech surge” that would bring in “the best and the brightest from both inside and outside government” to fix the Web site. (NYT, 10/22/2013)

Which raises the inevitable question: why weren't the "best and brightest" working on the website from the start?

You know the answer. It was (somehow) because of the Republicans!


Cancellation Policy
Insurance companies are also already sending out notices to millions of consumers cancelling individual policies because they are non-compliant with ObamaCare's new mandates. Kaiser Health News, usually a cheerleader for the law, reports that "Florida Blue, for example, is terminating about 300,000 policies, about 80 percent of its individual policies in the state." Kaiser Permanente in California has sent notices to 160,000 people, Highmark in Pittsburgh is dropping about 20% of its individual market customers, and Independence Blue Cross of Philadelphia is dropping about 45%.

Remember when Mr. Obama said you could keep your policy if you liked it? (WSJ, 10/21/2013)

Liar, liar. Pants. On. Fire. 


Exceedingly
"The point is the essence of the law, the health insurance that's available to people, is working just fine. In some cases, actually, it's exceeding expectations." (President Barack Obama)

"Keep in mind the insurance doesn't start until Jan. 1." (President Barack Obama, same day)

Kudos to James Taranto (WSJ, 10/21/2013) for highlighting this Obama gem.


Seriously
Obama’s pitch sounded a bit desperate and perhaps it should. The product he rolled out three weeks ago was seriously defective. (Dana Milbank, Washington Post, 10/21/2013)

Highlighting a Liberal columnist (there have been a few) who at least is telling the truth. Others have tried to feed America the sham line that the problem with Obamacare is that it is working TOO well.


Declined
Several donors declined to speak for attribution because they did not want to anger the president. One called Mr. Obama’s White House holiday events “cuckoo clock parties,” because “he comes down, gives a speech, poses for some photos and pops back inside.” (NYT, 10/22/2013)

Interesting article contrasting the styles of Bll and Hill Clinton and 'Too Cool for School' Obama. The Legitimate Media has already begun the inevitable pivot to the next President Clinton.


Collapsed
Experts have long pondered the cause of the crisis that led to the Late Bronze Age collapse of civilization, and now believe that by studying grains of fossilized pollen they have uncovered the cause.

In a study published Monday in Tel Aviv: Journal of the Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University, researchers say it was drought that led to the collapse in the ancient southern Levant.

Theories have included patterns of warfare, plagues and earthquakes. But while climate change has long been considered a prime factor, only recently have advances in science given researchers the chance to pinpoint the cause and make the case. (NYT, 10/23/2013)

Amazing....3000 years ago civilization in a portion of what is now the Middle East suffered catastrophically due to climate change. Must have been all those SUVs...or camels.


Issued
Lawyers and advocates take issue with the Vermont Department of Mental Health’s proposed rules for emergency involuntary procedures, saying they would violate the law and the civil rights of psychiatric patients. (VTdigger.org, 10/21/2013)

And as to the civil rights of mentally healthy citizens to be safe from the mentally ill?

Government Shutdown Edition

Breaking News from RedStateVT: Federal Government Shuts Down, World Does Not End


Links
After being criticized by the Senate once again, House Republicans emerged Monday afternoon from their closed-door meeting with their latest distinctly political offering to the Senate, a bill that would link further government spending to a one-year delay of the new insurance requirement for individuals, as well as a proposal to force members of Congress, their staff, and White House staff, to buy their health coverage on the new exchanges without any government subsidies to offset the cost. (NYT, 9/30/2013)

Well, what is wrong with a one year Obamacare delay for individuals? The same deal given to corporations. 

And what is wrong with requiring that Congress get the same deal as the rest of America?

Liberals will never say. 


Black and White
A closer look at the shooting shows it was not about race. One of the three suspects was white, another had a white mother and a third had many white friends, including a girl he had been dating. “It was not a black-on-white crime,” District Attorney Jason Hicks of Stephens County said. (NYT, 9/30/2013)

Immediately and preemptively the New York Times announces that there was no racial element to the murder of a white Australian. This after Liberals at the Times immediately concluded that Hispanic George Zimmerman (he who tutored black youths) murdered Trayvon Martin out of racial malice. 

Logic is never the strong point of Liberal thinking.


Pumped Up
Between 1998 and 2012 the global economy more than doubled in size—to some $71 trillion in GDP from $30 trillion. That's the good news. Over the same period the world pumped more than 100 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. That is supposedly the bad news. Yet global surface temperatures have remained essentially flat. That's the mystery: If emitting CO2 into the atmosphere causes global warming, why hasn't the globe been warming? (WSJ, 9/30/2013)

Nothing to see here, folks. Climate change is settled science. Evidence to the contrary is, dare we say, inconvenient. And Bill McKibben will continue to get standing ovations in Montpelier.

Long On The Facts

Off Limits
With the recent comments on rape from a Colorado congressman - this time a Democrat - we have another topic that the Legitimate Media can no longer define as the exclusive domain of Republicans and use as a battering ram against them. Here is a partial list:

• Stupid comments on rape
• How many vacation days the president takes
• How much golf the president plays
• Detention of foreign jihadists
• How many press conferences the president has
• Unemployment
• The bad economy

Mr. Science
We just finished reading "The Universe Within" by Neil Shubin whose earlier book, "Your Inner Fish", we have also read and enjoyed. A dean at the University of Chicago, Shubin writes science in a manner that makes it entirely accessible and enjoyable for the layman. "The Universe Within" takes the reader on a broad tour of paleontology, biology, evolution, genetics and cosmology. In recounting the history of Earth, Shubin spends a lot of time talking about one of the prime shapers of the planet: climate. We have no idea where Shubin comes down on the issue of climate change as it is currently being argued. He wisely does not discuss it at all. His focus is the long view of how climate shaped the world that we know today. It has long been the opinion of RedStateVT that a better understanding of the historical patterns of climate can both help to educate people and to call into question the validity of the point-in-time focus of McKibben, Gore and the current crowd of climate alarmists. Here are some excerpts worth considering:

For most of its history, Antarctica was a paradise of life. Then, starting 40 million years ago, the entire continent went into the freezer and with it Antarctica witnessed the greatest and most completion extinction of any continent in the history of the planet. (pg. 144)

Volcanoes typically release huge amounts of water vapor, carbon dioxide, and other gases; by some estimates they send over 120 million tons of carbon dioxide into the air each year. (pg. 147)

In times on the order of thousands of years, Earth's orbit will wobble and change, thereby influencing the amount of sunlight that warms the planet. (pg. 164)

Climate at the end of the last glacial period, about 12,500 years ago exemplifies one of the riffs. At this time, when by all accounts things should have continued to warm, there was a dramatic shift to a sharp cold spell that happened in the blink of an eye in geological terms - over decades. The record from pollen, oxygen atoms and other markers implies a climate that changed 15 degrees in as little as a decade. (pg. 174)

Palms trees in the Antarctic, massive carbon dioxide emissions from volcanoes, a wobbly Earth, and a 15 degree temperature change in ten years....all before man showed up! There is a little "science" for the climate chaos crowd who claim to have science on their side. 


Fighting The Good Fight
It has been an unnerving time for Senator Robert Menendez, a usually self-assured and even brash politician who prides himself on his long, hard climb through the brutal machine-style politics of New Jersey. (NYT, 2/20/2013)

The New York Times pens a thirty-one paragraph article on Democrat Menendez, the subject of possible ethics violations. We learn that the Senator is "shaken and angry." Not to worry though because he has "survival skills" learned from his "working class" upbringing. A fellow Democrat talks of Menendez's "internal strength." We learn that earlier in his career he ferreted out corruption in New Jersey. Also, he has the ability to "outlast his enemies." Other Dems call him a "diligent worker" and "adept at fighting." Twenty-six paragraphs in we finally get a few details about the nasty things that Menendez might have done. (Minor things like selling his influence...) The article closes with dark hints at the source of the accusations against Menendez: Cuban Communists!

To show our support for this righteous public servant in his fight against the commie scourge, RedStateVT will break with our long-standing policy and accept contributions for Menendez's legal defense fund.