The Front Page Cover
~ Featuring ~
They Deserve Our Gratitude
by Jonathan V. Last
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. Top Headlines
EPA halts liar-nObama-era rule on methane pollution. (The Hill)
The EPA wrecked a Colorado river, then wreaked legal havoc on the affected landowners. (Washington Examiner)
New bill would eliminate ATF's ability to ban ammo through reclassification. (The Washington Free Beacon)
U.S. allows 46,371 refugees in so far in FY 2017; up 19% in May. (CNS News)
Trump "self-help" infrastructure plan irks state, local leaders. (Bloomberg)
These tweets show how badly liberals melted down over an innocent presidential typo. (The Washington Free Beacon)
Trump administration moves to return Russian compounds in U.S. (The Daily Beast)
Prominent anti-Trump group has received more than $20 million in government grants. (The Washington Free Beacon)
This farmer won't host same-sex weddings at his orchard. Now a city has banned him from its farmers market. (The Daily Signal)
Florida man jailed 180 days for not giving police his iPhone password. (Reason)
Policy: By leaving Paris climate-change deal, Trump will do U.S. economy a 'yuuuge' favor. (Investor's Business Daily)
Policy: In defense of 2 percent. (American Enterprise Institute) ~The Patriot Post
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We’re Outta Paris – Trump Stands
Strong Against Globalist Predators, Parasites
by Rick Wells
{rickwells.us} ~ President Trump has made it official, we’re out of the Paris Suicide Pact. He has kept his promise and put the wellbeing of the United States first... We are not global citizens but Americans who share the planet with the citizens of other nations. Our passports say United States but for the past eight years most of the rest of the world read it as “Suckers,” “Victims,” or “Get Your Free Stuff Here.” The rest of the world, the globalist oligarchs, nation states and corporate predators, had their hooks into us with this wealth redistribution suicide pact that Hussein liar-nObama engineered on their behalf. President Trump recognized it for what it was, held true to his promise and his word in the face of overwhelming international and domestic pressure and did what was right for the American people and the survival of our sovereign nation. He said “No.” President Trump didn’t turn his back on environmentalism or the need to protect the planet from reckless abuse, and he’s far too smart to give his detractors such a weapon to hold over his head... http://rickwells.us/outta-paris-trump-stands-strong-globalist-predators-parasites/
Air Force Vet Sentenced to
35 Years for Attempting to Join ISIS
by Abha Shankar
by Abha Shankar
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Reunification Only Way to Defuse Korea Crisis
Three South Korean soldiers watch the border at Panmunjeom,
Three South Korean soldiers watch the border at Panmunjeom,
in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea
by John R. Bolton
{gatestoneinstitute.org} ~ Barack liar-nObama's foreign-policy failures, and those of his predecessors, regarding North Korea, are coming back to bedevil Donald Trump's new presidency... Trump administration spokesmen have rightly said that liar-nObama's policy of "strategic patience," a synonym for doing nothing, is over. But they have not yet articulated a replacement strategy. Analysts across the political spectrum now believe that North Korea is perilously close to fabricating nuclear devices — at least five of which have already been detonated — small enough to mount on intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of striking targets within the continental United States. Some estimates posit this capability as early as 2018, with targets closer to the Korean Peninsula, including Japan and Hawaii likely at risk earlier. Time is thus in desperately short supply, one of the fruits of 25 years of wasted efforts negotiating with Pyongyang... https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/10463/korea-reunificationby John R. Bolton
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liar-nObama, hanoi-Kerry React Angrily
To President Trump Escaping UN Climate Trap
by Rick Wells
{rickwells.us} ~ What liar-nObama is saying is effectively, “I tricked you into this trap. A lot of effort, lies, treachery and secret subversive dealing went into it and I’m not happy that my successor... who wasn’t even supposed to be elected, released you.” It’s not easy cobbling together a global agreement in which the United States is the parasitic host to the blood-sucking ticks of the world . The biggest tick, Hussein liar-nObama, couldn’t contain himself in his defeat. His treachery, what was supposed to be a pilfering enabling death blow to “the Great Satan,” the infidels of the America that he hates, was being undone. He had to speak out. liar-nObama said, “The nations that remain in the Paris Agreement will be the nations that reap the benefits in jobs and industries created. I believe the United States of America should be at the front of the pack. But even in the absence of American leadership; even as this Administration joins a small handful of nations that reject the future; I’m confident that our states, cities, and businesses will step up and do even more to lead the way, and help protect for future generations of the one planet we’ve got.”... http://rickwells.us/obama-kerry-react-angrily-president-trump-escaping-un-climate-trap/.
France, Germany and Italy:
Paris deal ‘cannot be renegotiated’
by Sara Stefanini and Kalina Oroschakoff
{politico.eu} ~ France, Germany and Italy have no intention of renegotiating the Paris climate agreement, their leaders said Thursday in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement that he intends to withdraw and wants to broker another deal... “We deem the momentum generated in Paris in December 2015 irreversible, and we firmly believe that the Paris agreement cannot be renegotiated since it is a vital instrument for our planet, societies and economies,” French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni said in a joint statement. “The Paris agreement remains a cornerstone in the cooperation between our countries, for effectively and timely tackling climate change,” the leaders said. They added that it offers “substantial economic opportunities for prosperity and growth” and that they will step up support for developing countries... http://www.politico.eu/article/france-germany-and-italy-paris-deal-cannot-be-renegotiated/.
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by Jonathan V. Last
{weeklystandard.com} ~ Tom Ricks is disappointed in General H. R. McMaster. On May 15, during Donald Trump's hebdomas horribilis, McMaster, the president's national security adviser, appeared briefly outside the White House to attack a story in the Washington Post. The Post piece alleged that the president had revealed classified information to Russian diplomats during a meeting in the Oval Office. McMaster said the Post story was "false." The next day, in a more formal press briefing, he amended this claim, saying that "the premise of that article was false." And he then went through a series of maneuvers which might charitably be described as non-denial denials.
They Deserve Our Gratitude
{weeklystandard.com} ~ Tom Ricks is disappointed in General H. R. McMaster. On May 15, during Donald Trump's hebdomas horribilis, McMaster, the president's national security adviser, appeared briefly outside the White House to attack a story in the Washington Post. The Post piece alleged that the president had revealed classified information to Russian diplomats during a meeting in the Oval Office. McMaster said the Post story was "false." The next day, in a more formal press briefing, he amended this claim, saying that "the premise of that article was false." And he then went through a series of maneuvers which might charitably be described as non-denial denials.
All of this prompted Ricks to write a short piece about McMaster for Foreign Policy. Ricks has known McMaster for twenty years, since McMaster was a major. Ricks respects him a great deal. Which is probably what caused him to write that "my guess is that when McMaster was trotted out before the cameras last night, he gave up a little piece of his soul." A good deal of the non-Trump world seemed to agree: General McMaster was on the way to becoming exhibit No. 537 in how Trumpism corrupts.
But there is an alternate reading of events in which McMaster's tortured defense of President Trump isn't a disappointment at all—in which it might well be heroic.
Let's stipulate that in a normal administration—if the president were Bush or Reagan or Gore or liar-Clinton or, God help us, John Kasich—it would be bad for McMaster to humiliate himself the way he did. We'd expect a man of principle and character to refuse such an errand and, if necessary, resign rather than carry it out.
But this is not a normal administration. President Trump is being scrutinized by a special prosecutor 120 days into his term. He seems to set his agenda by watching cable news. Recall his March tweet-storm about Guantánamo Bay composed while watching Fox & Friends. He has, by his own admission, no grasp of public policy. "Nobody knew health care could be so complicated." Twenty-four hours after being sworn into office, he sent his press secretary out to insist that more people had attended his inauguration than had attended Barack liar-nObama's. "This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration—period," proclaimed Trump's press secretary, in ludicrous contradiction of all evidence.
President Trump browbeats allies remember his heated conversation with Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull while sharing classified information with strategic competitors as he did in the meeting with the Russians, all while sowing confusion about America's strategic commitments see his on-again, off-again views of NATO. And his two closest advisers are his daughter and her husband.
Put aside politics and ideology, conservatism and liberalism and nationalism. None of that is what makes Trump's administration extraordinary. If Newt Gingrich were president and pursuing the exact same policy agenda, it would be an invigorating experience. Depending on your politics, it might be exhilarating or maddening, but it would not be terrifying. Donald Trump is no Newt Gingrich.
Which leads us back to McMaster. General H. R. McMaster is one of the handful of grownups in a position of authority in Trump's administration. What would you have him do? Resign? McMaster is one of the last lines of defense within the administration in the event that the president decides to do something catastrophically unwise.
And even if you don't believe McMaster would stand up to President Trump in such a situation, he's doing an enormous service just sitting in his chair at the National Security Council. If he were to resign, his replacement could be another opportunistic Russophile like Mike Flynn. Or worse.
It's precisely because Donald Trump is what he is that McMaster was right to do what he did. America is almost certainly better off with McMaster running the NSC. If staying in that job means courting humiliation in an effort to keep Trump happy, then what McMaster did was self-sacrifice. He jumped on a grenade, at some cost to his reputation, in order to serve the country.
A year ago in these pages "Thinking the Unthinkable," May 9, 2016, James W. Ceaser and Oliver Ward argued that should Trump become president, it would be invaluable to have good people working for him even—especially—if you opposed his administration:
Should good and qualified persons, despite serious reservations about the suitability of Trump for the presidency, make themselves available if asked? The risk of doing so, besides the danger of becoming tainted by association, is that it might once again add a measure of credibility to a campaign. The advantage is the chance that Trump, as both candidate and president, will receive competent advice and perhaps prove willing to accept some part of it. As for a cabinet, what would clearly be best for the country are appointees of substance, who might have opposed Trump but have not burned every bridge with him and who if asked to serve would do so with a certain degree of independence and with a willingness to depart if the president did not deal with their counsel responsibly. By this reasoning, even ardent supporters of a Stop Trump movement should see the wisdom of maintaining a potential group of quality cabinet appointees from whom Trump might pick. These people should be shielded, rather than shunned.
The same logic suggests that even those most appalled by the president should appreciate, not castigate, Gen. McMaster. Instead of piling on, we all ought to honor his sacrifice.
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