Merry Christmas
The Front Page Cover
The Events of the Week -- Featuring:
Tweets and theater entertain,
but Congress is the main event
by Charles Krauthammer
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Democrats Hypocritically Play the Victim
Self-reflection, self-criticism and self-correction are foreign concepts to Democrat leaders. They continue to throw out every possible excuse for why they lost the election — except the primary reason that many Americans just didn't buy their rhetoric or prescription of continuing failed policies. The latest blame-game play for Democrats is to self-identify as the victims of a masterful Russian hacking plot designed to swing the election to Donald Trump. While there is no solid evidence to support this claim, the Leftmedia fakery machine quickly rushed to bolster the narrative with reports that unnamed U.S. intelligence sources have concluded that the Russians intervened and helped Trump's campaign. (And some RINOs)
What is so disingenuous about this current charge is that those responsible for creating the climate for Russia's aggression are Barack liar-nObama and liar-Hillary Clinton. Remember, it was liar-nObama who chided Mitt Romney in 2012 for his "1980s" foreign policy concerns regarding the threat of Russia's growing geopolitical power. And there was Secretary of State liar-nClinton's infamous "reset" with Russia, providing it with greater opportunity to continue exploiting the administration's feckless foreign policy. Perhaps the greatest hypocrisy of all is liar-Clinton deciding to break the law in using an unsecured personal server that undoubtedly was hacked, probably by the Russians. In other words, it is Democrat leaders, not Republicans or Trump, who are responsible for creating the mess in which they now find themselves.
But, again, the concerns over the integrity of the U.S. electoral system seem a rather hypocritical charge for the Democrats to make given their history. In the early 1990s, it was discovered through the release of Soviet-era documents that Sen. Ted Kennedy had secretly asked the Russians to interfere on behalf of the Democrat Party in the 1984 elections. And now after losing, Democrats are wringing their hands over the integrity of the U.S. electoral system? While they clearly are seeking to delegitimize Trump's presidency and even the whole American electoral process, they are playing right into Putin's hands.
Being frustrated over losing is understandable. Seeking to destroy the legitimacy of your opponent's victory is vindictive. ~The Patriot Post
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Tillerson's Challenge
It's not official yet, but multiple "sources" in Donald Trump's transition team say he's going to nominate ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson as his secretary of state. Tillerson was a dark horse candidate while most of the media speculation centered on Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney, with whom Trump would have had to bury a "yuge" hatchet. If it's true that Trump went with the dark horse, what are the takeaways?
Basically, two things. Tillerson's business acumen, like Trump's, is an asset. Thanks to his being the chief of the world's largest energy company, he's clearly a proven negotiator and will have connections around the world to go with his understanding of geopolitics. As Trump put it, “He's in charge of an oil company that's pretty much double the size of his next nearest competitor. It's been a company that's been unbelievably managed — and to me a great advantage is he knows many of the players, and he knows them well. He does massive deals in Russia — for the company, not for himself.”
According to The Wall Street Journal, Tillerson has "close ties to Vladimir Putin."
Which leads to Tillerson's biggest negative, and the story of Russia allegedly influencing the election is just an example of it. Close ties to Putin aren't exactly an asset right now, given the Leftmedia's incessant work to paint Trump as Putin's stooge. Key Senate Republicans John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Marco Rubio have voiced concerns. And as they have done with Trump, Democrats and their Leftmedia super PAC are going to turn everything Tillerson says or does into some sort of corporate conspiracy to enrich Big Oil. Like it or not, that isn't going to help American foreign policy.
At the same time, one of our major national interests is energy, and if anybody knows how to protect that it might just be Tillerson. ~The Patriot Post
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ACLU suing Indiana town
over Christmas decorations
by Stefan Gleason
{libertyheadlines.com} ~ The Indianapolis Star reported that the ACLU’s Indiana chapter and Knightstown resident Joseph Tompkins argue that the Christian symbol on display in the Knightstown town square violates the First Amendment... The lawsuit is seeking for removal of the cross, monetary damages and declaration that the cross display violates the First Amendment. CBS affiliate WTTV reported that the suit alleges that the Latin cross “is the preeminent symbol of Christianity, representing the instrument of the crucifixion of Jesus.” So if the display is religious, the suit argues, it has no business on town property. Court documents say that the illuminated cross is atop a large evergreen tree and has for a number of years. The documents say there are no other holiday decorations on the square...The ACLU and Mr.Tompkins will be going to hell for sure. http://www.libertyheadlines.com/aclu-suing-indiana-town-over-cross-display-on-christmas-decorations/?AID=7236
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Government reaches agreement on Amona
Government reaches agreement on Amona
by Uzi Baruch
{israelnationalnews.com} ~ During a special government meeting, Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit approved moving Amona's residents a few meters away, using the absentee property solution... It was reported earlier that the Attorney General's office was blocking the deal reached between Prime Minister Netanyahu and Minister Bennett for the "Regulation Package" agreement. The position of the Attorney General could have forced the complete evacuation of the hill. The agreement reached in Monday's meeting will prevent that scenario from occurring if the residents of Amona approve of the solution... http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/221607
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Request To Recount Pennsylvania Paper
Ballots Rejected By Federal Judge
by Andrew Kerr
{westernjournalism.com} ~ Jill Stein’s request to recount paper ballots in Pennsylvania’s presidential election was rejected Monday morning by a federal judge... The rejection by U.S. District Judge Paul Diamond is the latest in a series of setbacks for the Green Party presidential candidate’s recount efforts in Pennsylvania. Diamond rejected the lawsuit in part because Stein presented no evidence of hacking in Pennsylvania’s election...
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2nd Amb. Comes Forward… EXPLODES CIA Election Claims… Says He Knows Where
Info Came From… Not Russia
{conservativetribune.com} ~ The liberal media have been playing up a report by the Central Intelligence Agency that hackers aligned with the Russian government had allegedly provided Julian Assange with the hacked emails... his website WikiLeaks published during the fall, but a former British ambassador to Uzbekistan is going public again to blow the story out of the water. “As WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has made crystal clear, the leaks did not come from the Russians,” former Ambassador Craig Murray wrote on his blog Monday morning, adding that he had direct access to the original source. “As I have explained countless times, they are not hacks, they are insider leaks — there is a major difference between the two …“Now both Julian Assange and I have stated definitively the leak does not come from Russia. Do we credibly have access? Yes, very obviously. Very, very few people can be said to definitely have access to the source of the leak. The people saying it is not Russia are those who do have access.”... http://conservativetribune.com/ambassador-comes-forward/?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=PostUp&utm_campaign=CTBreaking&utm_content=2016-12-12
.Saudi Arabian Family at Center of
Domestic Violence Scandal Gave
Keith Ellison Thousands
by Brent Scher
{freebeacon.com} ~ The four sons of a Saudi Arabian billionaire—including one who was recently convicted for assaulting his wife—have all contributed thousands to Rep. Keith Ellison (D., Minn.), who is one of the frontrunners to become the new chairman of the Democratic National Committee... The family of Nasser Al-Rashid, an adviser to the Saudi royal family who has been listed as one of the world’s wealthiest men, came under increased scrutiny in the past year due to political spending in the United States. Al-Rashid himself has given millions of dollars to the liar-Clinton Foundation and his children have poured nearly $600,000 into campaigns for Democrats across the country...
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Tweets and theater entertain,
but Congress is the main event
by Charles Krauthammer
{freedomsback.com} ~ The most amusing part of the Trump transition has been watching its effortless confounding of the media, often in fewer than 140 characters. One morning, after a Fox News report on lefty nuttiness at some obscure New England college — a flag-burning that led a more-contemptible-than-usual campus administration to take down the school’s own American flag — Donald Trump tweets that flag burners should go to jail or lose their citizenship.
An epidemic of constitutional chin tugging and civil libertarian hair pulling immediately breaks out. By the time the media have exhausted their outrage over the looming abolition of free speech, judicial supremacy and affordable kale, Trump has moved on. The tempest had a shorter half-life than the one provoked in August 2015 by a Trump foray into birthright citizenship.
Trump so thoroughly owns the political stage today that the word “liar-Clinton” seems positively quaint and Barack liar-nObama, who happens to be president of the United States, is totally irrelevant. liar-nObama gave a major national security address on Tuesday. Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn’s son got more attention.
Trump has mesmerized the national media not just with his elaborate Cabinet-selection production, by now Broadway-ready. But with a cluster of equally theatrical personal interventions that by traditional standards seem distinctly unpresidential.
It’s a matter of size. They seem small for a president. Preventing the shutdown of a Carrier factory in Indiana. Announcing, in a contextless 45-second surprise statement, a major Japanese investment in the U.S. Calling for cancellation of the new Air Force One to be built by Boeing.
Pretty small stuff. It has the feel of a Cabinet undersecretary haggling with a contractor or a state governor drumming up business on a Central Asian trade mission. Or of candidate Trump selling Trump Steaks and Trump wine in that bizarre victory speech after the Michigan primary.
Presidents don’t normally do such things. It shrinks them. But then again, Trump is not yet president. And the point here is less the substance than the symbolism.
The Carrier coup was meant to demonstrate the kind of concern for the working man that gave Trump the Rust Belt victories that carried him to the presidency. The Japanese SoftBank announcement was a down payment on his promise to be the “the greatest jobs president that God ever created.” A slightly dubious claim: After all, how instrumental was Trump to that investment? Surely a financial commitment of that magnitude would have been planned long before Election Day. And Boeing was an ostentatious declaration that he would be the zealous guardian of government spending that you would expect from a crusading outsider.
What appears as random Trumpian impulsiveness has a logic to it. It’s a continuation of the campaign. Trump is acutely sensitive to his legitimacy problem, as he showed in his tweet claiming to have actually won the popular vote, despite trailing significantly in the official count. His best counter is approval ratings. In August, the Bloomberg poll had him at 33 percent. He’s now up to 50 percent. Still nowhere near liar-nObama’s stratospheric 79 percent at this point in 2008, but a substantial improvement nonetheless.
The mini-interventions are working, but there’s a risk for Trump in so personalizing his coming presidency. It’s a technique borrowed from Third World strongmen who specialize in demonstrating their personal connection to the ordinary citizen. In a genuine democracy, however, the endurance of any political support depends on the larger success of the country. And that doesn’t come from Carrier-size fixes. It comes from policy — policy that fundamentally changes the structures and alters the trajectory of the nation.
“I alone can fix it,” Trump ringingly declared in his Republican National Convention speech. Indeed, alone he can do Carrier and SoftBank and Boeing. But ultimately he must deliver on tax reform, health care, economic growth and nationwide job creation. That requires Congress.
The 115th is Republican and ready to push through the legislation that gives life to the promises. On his part, Trump needs to avoid needless conflict. The Republican leadership has already signaled strong opposition on some issues, such as tariffs for job exporters. Nonetheless, there is enough common ground between Trump and his congressional majority to have an enormously productive 2017. The challenge will be to stay within the bounds of the GOP consensus.
Trump will continue to tweet and the media will continue to take the bait. Highly entertaining, but it is a sideshow. Congress is where the fate of the Trump presidency will be decided.
An epidemic of constitutional chin tugging and civil libertarian hair pulling immediately breaks out. By the time the media have exhausted their outrage over the looming abolition of free speech, judicial supremacy and affordable kale, Trump has moved on. The tempest had a shorter half-life than the one provoked in August 2015 by a Trump foray into birthright citizenship.
Trump so thoroughly owns the political stage today that the word “liar-Clinton” seems positively quaint and Barack liar-nObama, who happens to be president of the United States, is totally irrelevant. liar-nObama gave a major national security address on Tuesday. Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn’s son got more attention.
Trump has mesmerized the national media not just with his elaborate Cabinet-selection production, by now Broadway-ready. But with a cluster of equally theatrical personal interventions that by traditional standards seem distinctly unpresidential.
It’s a matter of size. They seem small for a president. Preventing the shutdown of a Carrier factory in Indiana. Announcing, in a contextless 45-second surprise statement, a major Japanese investment in the U.S. Calling for cancellation of the new Air Force One to be built by Boeing.
Pretty small stuff. It has the feel of a Cabinet undersecretary haggling with a contractor or a state governor drumming up business on a Central Asian trade mission. Or of candidate Trump selling Trump Steaks and Trump wine in that bizarre victory speech after the Michigan primary.
Presidents don’t normally do such things. It shrinks them. But then again, Trump is not yet president. And the point here is less the substance than the symbolism.
The Carrier coup was meant to demonstrate the kind of concern for the working man that gave Trump the Rust Belt victories that carried him to the presidency. The Japanese SoftBank announcement was a down payment on his promise to be the “the greatest jobs president that God ever created.” A slightly dubious claim: After all, how instrumental was Trump to that investment? Surely a financial commitment of that magnitude would have been planned long before Election Day. And Boeing was an ostentatious declaration that he would be the zealous guardian of government spending that you would expect from a crusading outsider.
What appears as random Trumpian impulsiveness has a logic to it. It’s a continuation of the campaign. Trump is acutely sensitive to his legitimacy problem, as he showed in his tweet claiming to have actually won the popular vote, despite trailing significantly in the official count. His best counter is approval ratings. In August, the Bloomberg poll had him at 33 percent. He’s now up to 50 percent. Still nowhere near liar-nObama’s stratospheric 79 percent at this point in 2008, but a substantial improvement nonetheless.
The mini-interventions are working, but there’s a risk for Trump in so personalizing his coming presidency. It’s a technique borrowed from Third World strongmen who specialize in demonstrating their personal connection to the ordinary citizen. In a genuine democracy, however, the endurance of any political support depends on the larger success of the country. And that doesn’t come from Carrier-size fixes. It comes from policy — policy that fundamentally changes the structures and alters the trajectory of the nation.
“I alone can fix it,” Trump ringingly declared in his Republican National Convention speech. Indeed, alone he can do Carrier and SoftBank and Boeing. But ultimately he must deliver on tax reform, health care, economic growth and nationwide job creation. That requires Congress.
The 115th is Republican and ready to push through the legislation that gives life to the promises. On his part, Trump needs to avoid needless conflict. The Republican leadership has already signaled strong opposition on some issues, such as tariffs for job exporters. Nonetheless, there is enough common ground between Trump and his congressional majority to have an enormously productive 2017. The challenge will be to stay within the bounds of the GOP consensus.
Trump will continue to tweet and the media will continue to take the bait. Highly entertaining, but it is a sideshow. Congress is where the fate of the Trump presidency will be decided.
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