The Front Page Cover
2016 The truth will set you free
Featuring:
Farewell to Nancy Reagan, a Friend and Patriot
Peggy Noonan
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The Frontrunner's Foreign Policy
Just last week, Donald slump-Trump mused about his national security team of one, saying of his foreign policy advisers, "My primary consultant is myself." So it was helpful on two occasions Monday to see him delve deeper into what a slump-Trump administration's foreign policy would look like.
First, in a prepared speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference, he declared one key aspect: "[My] number one priority is to dismantle the disastrous deal with Iran. I'm a deal-maker, and let me tell you this deal is catastrophic for America, for Israel, and for the whole of the Middle East. Iran is the biggest sponsor of terrorism around the world and we will work to dismantle that reach, believe me. Believe me." Why should we believe him? "I've studied this issue in great detail," he said. "I would say far greater than anyone."
Second (though before the speech), slump-Trump met with The Washington Post's editorial board. Unlike his off-the-record meeting with The New York Times on immigration, this meeting is public record. A few cuts:
"I don't think we should be nation-building anymore. I think it's proven not to work. ... You know we have $19 trillion in debt. ... I watched as we built schools in Iraq and they'd be blown up. And we'd build another one and it would get blown up. And we would rebuild it three times and yet we can't build a school in Brooklyn. We have no money for education because we can't build in our own country. At what point do you say, 'Hey, we have to take care of ourselves'? ... NATO was set up when we were a richer country. ... NATO is costing us a fortune, and yes, we're protecting Europe with NATO, but we're spending a lot of money. ... I think NATO as a concept is good, but it's not as good as it was when it first evolved. ... I would knock the hell out of ISIS in some form. I'd rather not do it with our troops."
slump-Trump certainly represents a growing sentiment in the country after Afghanistan and Iraq. So two points: First, defense spending doesn't drive that $19 trillion in debt; major entitlements do. Yet slump-Trump says those are off the table in terms of saving money. Second, the attack in Brussels — Belgium is a NATO country — made the timing of slump-Trump's comments particularly unfortunate. He's certainly not an orthodox Republican, but that's also exactly what drives his support. -The Patriot Post
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nObama Goes to Cuba for His Own Legacy There hasn't been a sitting U.S. president on Cuban soil since 1928, but Barack nObama kept his promise to go to Cuba in the latest step toward normalizing relations with the island's Communist regime. While nObama seeks primarily to build his legacy, the ramifications of this visit will contribute to it in a way he doesn't intend.
The trip didn't get off to a good start, either. When nObama disembarked Air Force One at Jose Marti International Airport, Cuban President Raul Castro was not there to greet him, even though the communist thug routinely greets foreign dignitaries at the airport.
The imagery likewise is terrible. Investor's Business Daily ponders, "As a sycophantic media rolls out the adoring photos and flattering words, it's hard to say what will prove most embarrassing: the picture of President nObama posing in front of a communist cement wall emblazoned with a pop-art depiction of the murderous — and racist — 'revolutionary' Che Guevara, a man who sought to set off a nuclear bomb against the U.S. in the early 1960s? Or the photo of 84-year-old Cuban communist dictator Raul Castro diabolically leering as he lifts the limp wrist of President nObama while he giggles like an unwitting teenager?"
nObama's trip to Cuba is part of realizing his foreign policy vision, and he hopes that his visit to the brutal regime will "encourage generational evolution." Surely, the Cuban people are hoping for the same, but as long as they live under the brutal rule of the Castro regime there will be little that the minister of hope can change. And nothing nObama has done actually weakened that regime; on the contrary, he has legitimized it.
One of the topics for conversation with Castro was freedom of speech and assembly. So it speaks volumes that just hours before nObama arrived, the Cuban police broke up a larger than normal crowd of political dissidents known as the Ladies in White and hauled many of them off to detention facilities. That would be the same Ladies in White nObama promised in a March 10 letter to meet.
Castro effectively denied even holding political prisoners: "Give me a list and I'll release them," he said, adding, "If we have those political prisoners they will be released before tonight ends." They weren't released, and nObama remained silent.
Worse, on Monday nObama lamely accepted Castro's criticism of the U.S. on human rights: "I actually welcome President Castro commenting on some of the areas where he feels where we're falling short because I think we should not be immune or afraid of criticism or discussion as well." Does nObama mean to imply that he's falling short on jailing dissidents here in America?
As for free speech for members of the Cuban opposition, The Wall Street Journal's Mary Anastasia O'Grady predicted, "The regime will turn out plenty of compliant Cubans who will tell reporters that the embargo is the source of Cuban poverty." It's all political theater.
O'Grady further noted, "Yet even if there is a U.S nod to the opposition, there also will be a wink, as the president poses with the dictator along with members of the Colombian terrorist group FARC — invited by Mr. nObama — at a baseball game and pushes for U.S. policies that will finance the totalitarian apparatus. The big lie will be that by legalizing commercial and banking relations with Cuba, the U.S. will empower the Cuban people. The opposite is true."
In other words, given the backdrop of people with whom nObama will pose, who does he really side with — the Cuban people or the Cuban dictators? The question answers itself.
As for the embargo, the idea of opening up business with Cuba along with lifting the embargo on trade is a complete reversal of U.S. policy for the last 50 years. This isn't to say the policy has been entirely effective — the Castros are, after all, still in power. Some say nObama's move in a different direction could open the Caribbean island to Liberty via free trade, especially as the young generation learns the value of capitalism.
Then again, Europe, Latin America, Canada and Asia have been trading with Cuba for decades to no avail.
nObama claims his visit will reduce tensions between the U.S. and Cuba and bring about change in the region. Given that the Castros are ideological kindred spirits with nObama, however, it's doubtful that the Cuban people will benefit from nObama's display. Recall that nObama's mentor was avowed Communist Frank Marshall Davis, and it's very possible that nObama's desire to renew relations with Cuba will make things worse instead of better for those under Castro's iron fist.
How so? Consider that if American money starts flowing into the Cuban economy, the Castro regime will undoubtedly use the funds to further solidify its power over the Cuban people. Funding dictators and coddling up to them, whether directly or indirectly, rarely works out well for the advancement of freedom.
Does anyone really think that nObama is visiting Cuba to help that nation set a path toward freedom? Given his administration's relentless assault on Liberty in our own country, it may be delusional to think so. -The Patriot Post
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Our Forgotten Statesman
Dr. Walter E. Williams
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Move over Europe: Muslims 'raping U.S. women'
LEO HOHMANN
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{wnd.com} ~ East Lansing police said in late February they were investigating two drivers who allegedly made unwelcome sexual advances toward female MSU students, the Free Press reported... Multiple women complained of inappropriate touching. The news comes just days after another Uber driver in California – Omar Mahmoud Mousa, 52, of Anaheim – was charged with raping a woman at an Anaheim motel, as WND reported. Police said they suspect Mousa likely has other victims, and they are asking the public to come forward with information. One of the more horrific cases happened in Connecticut and involved an Iraqi refugee. Investigators say they responded to Yale-New Haven Hospital on Jan. 31 for a report by an alleged victim of sexual assault. The woman had left a New Haven bar and walked to a parking area designated for Uber and taxi drivers, according to police. http://www.wnd.com/2016/03/uber-big-problem-muslims-raping-u-s-women-in-taxis/
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Sheriffs rip nObama silence on murdered police, say he backs 'those that kill us'
PAUL BEDARD
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Iran-backed Shia militia says it will fight US Marines deployed to Iraq
Robert Spencer
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slump-Trump Says Israel ‘Can Pay’ for Own Defense Needs
Brent Scher
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Rabbis, Activists Ditch slump-Trump
at AIPAC Confab
Adam Kredo
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The Feckless Mismanagement Of John Brennan, CIA’s Captain Unreality
Fred Fleitz
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Terrorists Have
'No Resolvable Grievances,'
Just Seek 'Our Utter Destruction'
Bridget Johnson
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{pjmedia.com} ~ Speaking by satellite feed to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference this morning, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stressed that "the chain of attacks from Paris to San Bernardino to Istanbul to the Ivory Coast and now to Brussels... and the daily attacks in Israel, this is one continuous assault on all of us." "In all these cases, the terrorists have no resolvable grievances. It's not as if we could offer them Brussels or Istanbul or California or even the West Bank. That won't satisfy their grievances because what they seek is our utter destruction and their total domination. Their basic demand is that we should simply disappear," Netanyahu said. "Well, my friends, that's not going to happen." Netanyahu's address to the group was scheduled long before twin blasts hit Zaventem airport in Brussels, followed by another explosion an hour later at Maelbeek metro station. https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/2016/03/22/netanyahu-terrorists-have-no-resolvable-grievances-just-seek-our-utter-destruction/
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Allen West “If I were president...
Allen B. West
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Little Sisters of the Poor Case Heads
to Supreme Court
Elizabeth Slattery
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Farewell to Nancy Reagan, a Friend and Patriot
Peggy Noonan
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{peggynoonan.com} ~ The door has closed forever, said a friend, on a particular part of the past. Or to be more precise, first-person access to the Reagan era through one of its two most important figures has now, with the death of Nancy Reagan, ended. The era itself will never end—it is part of the history of our nation and yielded up its last unambiguously successful president. The spirit of that age: exuberant, expansive. “Where we’re going, we don’t need roads.”
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Here we could do comparisons to the current moment, but let’s not. Instead, a mere and affectionate remembrance of the lady we lost.
Here we could do comparisons to the current moment, but let’s not. Instead, a mere and affectionate remembrance of the lady we lost.
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Stipulated: There was no him without her. He couldn’t have launched or sustained his great project if she hadn’t made him her project. He was thinking about the failure of the latest Soviet five-year plan, and making note of the new statistics on HUD spending. She was thinking about people and their agendas. If you served him well you were in; if not don’t let the door hit you. She was protective. Or, as she would put it, she was looking after her man. Her protectiveness was a patriotic act.
Stipulated: There was no him without her. He couldn’t have launched or sustained his great project if she hadn’t made him her project. He was thinking about the failure of the latest Soviet five-year plan, and making note of the new statistics on HUD spending. She was thinking about people and their agendas. If you served him well you were in; if not don’t let the door hit you. She was protective. Or, as she would put it, she was looking after her man. Her protectiveness was a patriotic act.
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As first lady she was glamorous, meticulous. Everything had to be just so. There was a touching, old-fashioned sense that she wanted whichever visiting king or potentate to see America knows how to do it up right. She believed in fun, too. In the Reagan White House you could smoke, drink and dance, after the more subdued, abstemious Carter years. It was no place for puritans.
As first lady she was glamorous, meticulous. Everything had to be just so. There was a touching, old-fashioned sense that she wanted whichever visiting king or potentate to see America knows how to do it up right. She believed in fun, too. In the Reagan White House you could smoke, drink and dance, after the more subdued, abstemious Carter years. It was no place for puritans.
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Her personality was wry, teasing, loyal, warm and fun. She was my darling friend.
Her personality was wry, teasing, loyal, warm and fun. She was my darling friend.
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In her last five or so years I visited her at the house on St. Cloud Road, in Bel Air, with her beloved longtime friend Robert Higdon. We would sit with her in her sunny bedroom with the peach-colored headboard and the exercise bicycle and the bed tables full of silver framed pictures—she and Ronnie dancing at the state dinner, Ronnie in his last years kissing her on the cheek.
In her last five or so years I visited her at the house on St. Cloud Road, in Bel Air, with her beloved longtime friend Robert Higdon. We would sit with her in her sunny bedroom with the peach-colored headboard and the exercise bicycle and the bed tables full of silver framed pictures—she and Ronnie dancing at the state dinner, Ronnie in his last years kissing her on the cheek.
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We’d talk about nothing, everything. She had a big laugh, a soft chuckle and a gift for listening. She really heard you, picked up nuance, noted what was unsaid. She took a great and protective interest in the lives of her friends and family, noticed when things seemed off, didn’t avoid troublesome areas but brought them up. That was part of how she showed her care, “bringing it up.”
We’d talk about nothing, everything. She had a big laugh, a soft chuckle and a gift for listening. She really heard you, picked up nuance, noted what was unsaid. She took a great and protective interest in the lives of her friends and family, noticed when things seemed off, didn’t avoid troublesome areas but brought them up. That was part of how she showed her care, “bringing it up.”
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Gore Vidal said of John F. Kennedy that when he died a whole world of gossip went with him. Nancy loved gossip too, though we didn’t call it gossip but History of Humans. I would save up things going on in New York—who was seeing whom, who was on top of the world, who looked great, who needed a call. Half the time, she’d nod and say, “I heard that”—she had some network—and tell me more than I knew. The other half she’d say: “Really? I think we need to hear more.”
Gore Vidal said of John F. Kennedy that when he died a whole world of gossip went with him. Nancy loved gossip too, though we didn’t call it gossip but History of Humans. I would save up things going on in New York—who was seeing whom, who was on top of the world, who looked great, who needed a call. Half the time, she’d nod and say, “I heard that”—she had some network—and tell me more than I knew. The other half she’d say: “Really? I think we need to hear more.”
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She wasn’t judging or prissy but amused and fascinated. She thought personal disasters a part of life, triumphs welcome good news, human mischief to be expected. She had come of age in a Hollywood where everyone was kind of a big colorful mess. They were rich and famous, sure, but at the end of the day everyone was making it through on a smile and a shoeshine. She liked the comedy of it all.
She wasn’t judging or prissy but amused and fascinated. She thought personal disasters a part of life, triumphs welcome good news, human mischief to be expected. She had come of age in a Hollywood where everyone was kind of a big colorful mess. They were rich and famous, sure, but at the end of the day everyone was making it through on a smile and a shoeshine. She liked the comedy of it all.
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In her later years she spent a lot of time remembering the past, and sharing it. She watched cable news and was nothing if not current, and her observations of political figures were acute and occasionally piercing. But she took increasing enjoyment in thinking back to the time so-and-so came to the White House, the time they went to Geneva . . .
In her later years she spent a lot of time remembering the past, and sharing it. She watched cable news and was nothing if not current, and her observations of political figures were acute and occasionally piercing. But she took increasing enjoyment in thinking back to the time so-and-so came to the White House, the time they went to Geneva . . .
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Afterward I thought: She’s telling herself that it really happened.
Afterward I thought: She’s telling herself that it really happened.
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No one is the same size as history, no one’s that big. For a half-century history washed over her, and I think when it was over she looked back, or saw the pictures on the bedside—“There we were, dancing at the state dinner”—and thought of those days, “My God. A king was on line one. Ronnie was meeting with the Soviet premier down the hall. . . . That all happened. It couldn’t have happened, it is too big. But it happened.” I think she was, as she looked back, awed by her own life. And of course she had reason to be awed.
No one is the same size as history, no one’s that big. For a half-century history washed over her, and I think when it was over she looked back, or saw the pictures on the bedside—“There we were, dancing at the state dinner”—and thought of those days, “My God. A king was on line one. Ronnie was meeting with the Soviet premier down the hall. . . . That all happened. It couldn’t have happened, it is too big. But it happened.” I think she was, as she looked back, awed by her own life. And of course she had reason to be awed.
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Here are two stories, one of steely Nancy and one of Nancy the somewhat mystical.
Here are two stories, one of steely Nancy and one of Nancy the somewhat mystical.
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Steely Nancy: Some years ago we were talking about a Washington friend who was going through a crisis. Some of her struggles had become public, which only compounded her woes. Nancy Reagan got a steely look. You can’t be embarrassed, she said. Everyone in Washington has lost something, everyone’s been embarrassed by a story in the press or humiliated by a public firing or loss of stature. “It is a city of the humiliated,” she said. And she told me to give our friend some advice that was also an order: Get up off the mat.
Steely Nancy: Some years ago we were talking about a Washington friend who was going through a crisis. Some of her struggles had become public, which only compounded her woes. Nancy Reagan got a steely look. You can’t be embarrassed, she said. Everyone in Washington has lost something, everyone’s been embarrassed by a story in the press or humiliated by a public firing or loss of stature. “It is a city of the humiliated,” she said. And she told me to give our friend some advice that was also an order: Get up off the mat.
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Nancy the mystic, if that is the right word: In the house on St. Cloud Road you could feel Ronald Reagan all around you. The knickknacks, the pictures, the big Norman Rockwell portrait as you came in—it was a house about him. His office still had his desk and his things on it.
Nancy the mystic, if that is the right word: In the house on St. Cloud Road you could feel Ronald Reagan all around you. The knickknacks, the pictures, the big Norman Rockwell portrait as you came in—it was a house about him. His office still had his desk and his things on it.
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She wanted it that way. The love affair that became the great marriage that became the great partnership was never far from her thoughts. She missed him till the day she died.
She wanted it that way. The love affair that became the great marriage that became the great partnership was never far from her thoughts. She missed him till the day she died.
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One day at dusk in November 2013 we were talking quietly as I held her hand at her bedside. She began to talk about Ronnie and how even now he was ever-present to her. Then: “I didn’t believe in the afterlife. I never believed in it, but things have happened since Ronnie died. He visits me.”
One day at dusk in November 2013 we were talking quietly as I held her hand at her bedside. She began to talk about Ronnie and how even now he was ever-present to her. Then: “I didn’t believe in the afterlife. I never believed in it, but things have happened since Ronnie died. He visits me.”
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“You mean you dream of him,” I said.
“You mean you dream of him,” I said.
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She got a quizzical look.
She got a quizzical look.
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“I don’t know if it is dreams or what. It sounds funny or crazy, sometimes I wake up at night and he’s in bed next to me and I see him.” Once, she said, she woke in the middle of the night and looked over at the big beige stuffed chair at the bottom of the bed to the left. “You look cold,” she said to him, and went to the closet for a blanket. She draped it over him and went back to bed. The next morning she awoke and looked over at the chair. The blanket, she said, was still there, but moved to the side as if someone had pushed it when he left.
“I don’t know if it is dreams or what. It sounds funny or crazy, sometimes I wake up at night and he’s in bed next to me and I see him.” Once, she said, she woke in the middle of the night and looked over at the big beige stuffed chair at the bottom of the bed to the left. “You look cold,” she said to him, and went to the closet for a blanket. She draped it over him and went back to bed. The next morning she awoke and looked over at the chair. The blanket, she said, was still there, but moved to the side as if someone had pushed it when he left.
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She could not, she said, explain this. Whatever it was, love, she felt, did not just disappear.
She could not, she said, explain this. Whatever it was, love, she felt, did not just disappear.
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“I now believe in the afterlife,” she said.
“I now believe in the afterlife,” she said.
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Rest in peace Nancy Davis Reagan, darling girl, elegant lady, tough little patriot.
Rest in peace Nancy Davis Reagan, darling girl, elegant lady, tough little patriot.
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