Monday, April 18, 2016

When Obama Leaves Office What Will Be Left of America? Tony Center!


 Freedom of speech  on Federal Highway signs!




I have not seen these signs but am told they are Northbound on I-95 (88 miles south of DC ).  The federal government is now petitioning to have these signs removed, or Virginia  will be denied additional monies for interstate highways.

 When Obama is finally out of  The White House, the America he will leave will be the weakest since before the 2d World War, the least feared and respected post the 2d World War and the entire world be the least safe since Ronald Reagan.

 Domestically speaking, America is the most divided  it has been since Viet  Nam.

 One can argue about whether this is purposeful but one cannot deny the consequences of his 8 years in office.

 I was always opposed to his election from the git go but I also could not defend the confused and ineffectual campaign of his opponents notwithstanding the fact that, on a personal match-up, they stood heads and shoulders above this glib untested community organizer .

 Now we are reaping the consequences of 8 years of Obama and I believe the next president, whomever they may be, will be so hamstrung by Obama's incompetency and the accumulation of the torturing of our Republic that little positive can be accomplished unless we are willing to make sacrifices and making sacrifices is no longer an American trait on a voluntary basis.  It will take an enormous crisis to weld this nation back to being united.

 I admit, I tend toward pessimism but much of what I have feared has come to pass, much of what I have predicted has come to pass. I have been documenting my concerns through memos since the early '60's. 

 I am not clairvoyant and certainly not a genius but I am logical and when you continue to spend above your means it has consequences.  Then, when you run your military down that creates vacuums which are generally filled by "evil doers."  When you give people everything they ask for it makes them dependent and eventually you weaken the entire populace and create discord. Finally, when you allow expanded government to control everything  the more likely it is to fail.  Thus, a disconnect and eventually an unhealthy distrust can allow political demagogues to gain power by pressing  wedge 
issues.

 This seems to me where we are as we enter a presidential election whose various candidates reflect all of this and for anyone who has a modicum of awareness if should be worrisome.
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Are  American Muslims in Houston beginning to speak out and do they see the light?  

 Then, (See 1 below.)
ttp://dailysignal.com/2016/04/17/houstons-muslim-led-plan-to-protect-the-homeland/?utm_source=TDS_Email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=MorningBell&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiWm1GbE16WXhZMkl6T0RZeCIsInQiOiJVdG1ObEUyUVZLRUppeXc3S0x6UHlGZDM2clpWdExKUWs0ejNNdjlqWCtxaE1DN2NDMUxzb2VHdG9EaERCWGNZM2h0QWRKZ1dqNjJtMWRKaFJZbkdXVlQyTlMxNFd4c3N0cVwvcFpKcjN4aDg9In0%3D
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So what's new? 
And who sues the Supreme Court if they get it wrong and destroy the Constitution as a meaningful guide by which we conduct ourselves? 

 Is it time to limit terms of all Federal employees? (See 2 and  2a below.)
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The IDF is learning how to detect Hamas' tunnels.  (See  3 and 3a below.)
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And now for some straight talk regarding climate change if anyone cares to listen.

 Click here: Climate Change: What Do Scientists Say? | PragerU
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Do records count any more or are we willing to keep winging it? (See 4 below.)
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As a Board member of The SIRC it might appear incongruous that I am supporting  a Democrat when it comes to the special May 24 election for the position of Chatham County Chairman.   It really is not because there are no Republicans running and the choice is between Tony Center and the incumbent - another Democrat.

In my view Tony Center would be far more positive for folks living in The Landings Community. Tony is known to a large number of Landings Residents and is actively supported by many who also tend to vote Republican.


Tony is a good listener and commands the respect of the current Republican Commissioners and you can discuss this with our representative, Helen Stone.

He served his own district well during his 4 year tenure as a Chatham County Representative and is now running for the Chairmanship..

So when you go to vote in the upcoming May 24 election, there are no significant decisions/candidates on the Republican ballot and I encourage  you to select the Democrat Ballot and consider voting for Tony Center.
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Dick
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1)WHERE MUSLIM REFUGEES RESETTLED IN YOUR TOWN IN 2015 and they are all on Welfare!
Listing by state, city, and numbers:
STATE AND CITY REFUGEE RESETTLEMENT 2015 
AK Anchorage 125
AL Mobile 125
AR Springdale 10
AZ Glendale 895
AZ Phoenix 1,459
AZ Tucson 935 
CA Anaheim 175
CA Fullerton 10
CA Garden Grove 150
CA Glendale 1,420
CA Los Angeles 490
CA Los Gatos 144
CA Modesto 250
CA Oakland 615
CA Sacramento 1,276
CA San Bernardino 65
CA San Diego 3,103
CA San Francisco 5
CA San Jose 142
CA Turlock 120CA Walnut Creek 90
CO Colorado Springs 138
CO Denver 1,690
CO Greeley 150CT Bridgeport 100
CT Hartford 285
CT New Haven 205
DC Washington 15DE Wilmington 5
FL Clearwater 200
FL Delray Beach 95
FL Doral 160
FL Jacksonville 895
FL Miami 1,056
FL Miami Springs 133
FL Naples 115
FL North Port 30
FL Orlando 360
FL Palm Springs 150
FL Pensacola 20
FL Plantation 75
FL Riviera Beach 50
FL Tallahassee 50
FL Tampa 660
GA Atlanta 2,100
GA Savannah 100
GA Stone Mountain 685
HI Honolulu 15 
IA Cedar Rapids 55
IA Des Moines 585 
ID Boise 720
ID Twin Falls  300
IL Aurora 190
IL Chicago 1,595
IL Moline 200
IL Rockford 300
IL Wheaton 2,660 
IN Fort Wayne 200
IN Indianapolis 1,285 
KS Garden City 80
KS Kansas City 200
KS Wichita 510
KY Bowling Green 310
KY Lexington 410
KY Louisville 990
KY Owensboro 135
LA Baton Rouge 125
LA Lafayette 30
LA Metairie 185 
MA Boston 300
MA Framingham 8
MA Jamaica Plain 100
MA Lowell 275
MA South Boston 260
MA Springfield 230
MA Waltham 10
MA West Springfield 340
MA Worcester 443
MD Baltimore 775
MD GlenBurnie 150
MD Rockville 39
MD Silver Spring 845 
ME Portland 350 
MI Ann Arbor 80
MI Battle Creek 140
MI Clinton Township 650
MI Dearborn 640
MI Grand Rapids 740
MI Lansing 617
MI Troy 1,215 
MN Minneapolis 730
MN Richfield 340
MN Rochester 130
MN Saint Paul 695
MN St. Cloud  215
MO Columbia 140
MO Kansas City 540
MO Saint Louis 725
MO Springfield 75 
MS Biloxi 5
MS Jackson 20 
NC Charlotte 655
NC Durham 380
NC Greensboro 385
NC High Point 405
NC New Bern 165
NC Raleigh 475
NC Wilmington 80
ND Bismarck 45
ND Fargo 270
ND Grand Forks 90NE Lincoln 335
NE Omaha 990
NH Concord 245
NH Manchester 445
NJ Camden 100
NJ East Orange 6
NJ Elizabeth 300
NJ Jersey City 506
NM Albuquerque 220
NV Las Vegas 640NY Albany 360
NY Amityville 20
NY Binghamton 40
NY Brooklyn 55
NY Buffalo 1,442
NY New York 240
NY Rochester 643
NY Syracuse 1,030
NY Utica 410 
OH Akron 575
OH Cincinnati 140
OH Cleveland 510
OH Cleveland Heights 190
OH Columbus 1,300
OH Dayton 210
OH Toledo 40
OK Oklahoma City 170
OK Tulsa 395
OR Portland 995
PA Allentown 95
PA Erie 625
PA Harrisburg 200
PA Lancaster 480
PA Philadelphia 750
PA Pittsburgh 470
PA Roslyn 20
PA Scranton 150
PR San Juan 5 RI Providence 210
SC Columbia 160
SC Spartanburg 220
SD Huron 90
SD Sioux Falls 490TN Chattanooga 85
TN Knoxville 190
TN Memphis 200
TN Nashville 1,225
TX Abilene 200
TX Amarillo 442
TX Austin 930
TX Corpus Christi 5
TX Dallas 1,765
TX El Paso 35
TX Fort Worth 1,503
TX Houston 2,605
TX San Antonio 750
UT Salt Lake City 1,126VA Arlington 500
VA Charlottesville 250
VA Falls Church 450
VA Fredericksburg 120
VA Harrisonburg 140
VA Newport News 300
VA Richmond 243
VA Roanoke 177
VT Colchester 325WA Kent 985
WA Richland 230
WA Seattle 714
WA Spokane 510
WA Tacoma 276
WA Vancouver 127
WI Green Bay 20
WI Madison 90
WI Milwaukee 890
WI Oshkosh 135
WI Sheboygan 35 
WV Charleston 50
TOTALS  76,972 
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2)

‘I Am President. I Am Not King’

The Supreme Court turns to Obama’s lawless immigration order.


One reason American politics is so polarized is that President Obama has been so cavalier about his constitutional duty to faithfully execute the laws he dislikes. On Monday the Supreme Court will hear a challenge to one of his worst abuses, his 2014 order that rewrites U.S. immigration law.

In United States v. Texas, 26 states sued to block Mr. Obama’s executive diktat that awards legal status, work permits and other government benefits to some 4.3 million illegal immigrants, with no consent from Congress. A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction stopping this ukase last year, and the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed. Those were narrow rulings, but the Justices enlarged the case to reach constitutional questions and will hear an unusual 90 minutes of oral argument.

We support humane and economically rational immigration reform, but Texas isn’t about the policy merits. The case implicates the Constitution’s separation of powers and the basic precepts of self-government. The Anglo-American legal tradition began as the English rebelled in the late 1600s against the Stuart kings who claimed the power to suspend or dispense with laws passed by Parliament. The first two grievances against the Crown in America’s Declaration of Independence concerned such “Abuses and Usurpations.”

The Framers wrote Article II’s Take Care clause to prevent the President from claiming the same lawmaking powers. The executive shall—not “may”—execute Congress’s laws faithfully, in one of the Constitution’s most specific instructions.

Congress has debated a more generous immigration policy during the Obama years, and all the while Mr. Obama insisted he couldn’t act alone. “I am President. I am not king,” he told Univision in 2014. “I can’t do these things just by myself. We have a system of government that requires the Congress to work with the executive branch to make it happen.”

But reform failed, and two weeks after the 2014 midterm election Mr. Obama decided he could act like a legislature: “I take executive action only when we have a serious problem, a serious issue, and Congress chooses to do nothing.” He has no such authority.

Under the order, aliens who satisfy certain criteria—such as having a child who is a citizen—will receive a “deferred deportation” certificate that nominally lasts for three years but in practice will last indefinitely. This dispensation classifies as “lawfully present” people whom the Immigration and Nationality Act defines as “unlawfully present,” and makes them eligible for social-welfare benefits.

The Obama Administration claims this is nothing more than the routine exercise of prosecutorial discretion, as if it is merely conceding that immigration officers can’t hunt down the millions of illegals in the country. Better to use scarce resources to deport criminals or people who threaten public safety, move along.

Prosecutorial discretion is a vital legal concept. But such forbearance applies to individual prosecutors who make a judgment about the facts and circumstances of a particular case, such as the nature and seriousness of the offense. Discretion cannot justify a refusal to enforce the law for entire classes of people.
Even the Administration concedes in its brief that Mr. Obama created a “blanket policy,” not mere guidance to law enforcement. And a choice not to prosecute doesn’t typically come with a benefits package that includes ObamaCare and the Earned Income Tax Credit.

The Administration claims it can do whatever it pleases on immigration because of the Arizona v. U.S. precedent. In 2012 the High Court overturned a law that allowed state officers to arrest illegals for deportation because it “violates the principle that the removal process is entrusted to the discretion of the federal government.” The feds are supreme on immigration law—but only when Congress passes a statute. The Arizona ruling was not an open-ended grant for the executive branch to rewrite the law, but rather to look at “the equities of an individual case.”

The Texas court ruled, and the Fifth Circuit agreed, that the states have the “standing” to sue because they incur costs as a result of Mr. Obama’s order, such as the financial burden of issuing driver’s licenses to former illegals. But the more consequential damage is to democratic norms.
If Presidents can use “enforcement discretion” to suspend laws, the next one may choose to lower the capital gains rate by informing taxpayers the IRS won’t collect tax-evasion penalties over 15%. Environmental regulations could be ignored through a similar trick.

This should deeply trouble the liberal Justices as much as the conservatives. This case gives them an opportunity to reset the political system for the post-Obama era. His lawless integration of the executive and legislative functions deserves a rebuke before the practice becomes a permanent feature of U.S. politics.

2a
The Candidates Ignore Rising Military Dangers

Obama is weakening U.S. defenses and credibility, but there’s little debate about the growing risk of war.

By Mark Helprin

In this powerful nation with founding principles and latent capacities second to none, politics have become fit for the fall of Rome, the culture is sick with self-destruction, and the rule of law is routinely perverted. Though politics, culture and law are the arch of the nation, the keystone without which they cannot hold is defense. For war transforms whole peoples and threatens their sovereignty and national existence more decisively than any other force.

You would hardly know this from the current presidential campaign. Most candidates seem unaware that the prospects of catastrophic war in the not-so-distant future are burgeoning because of a fundamental change in the international system, driven by accelerating adjustments in relative military power.

Russia, China and Iran have been racing ahead, stimulated by a disintegrating Europe that neither spends sufficiently on its defense nor defends its borders; and by an America, strategically blind in the Middle East, that failed to replenish and keep current its military under President George W. Bush, and now surrenders, apologizes, bluffs, “leads from behind,” and denigrates its military capacities and morale as President Obama either embraces enemies or opposes them only with exquisite delicacy.

As the U.S. allows its nuclear forces to stagnate and decay into de facto unilateral disarmament, Russia has been modernizing its own. The Kremlin has added systems, such as road-mobile, intercontinental ballistic missiles with independently targetable re-entry warheads, that we neither have nor envision. In the absence of “soft-power” parity with the U.S., Russia dangerously relies on a permissive nuclear doctrine and promiscuously rattles its atomic sabers. Its nuclear adventurism, naval and land force modernization, unopposed reintroduction into the Middle East, invasion and annexation in Ukraine, and the ability to recapture the Baltic states in an afternoon, are yet another impeachment of “the end of history.”

With little resistance, China incrementally annexes the South China Sea while embarked on a naval buildup inversely proportional to the smallest U.S. fleet since 1916, and further aggravated by China’s ability, once its naval technology matures, to surge production in its 106 major shipyards as opposed to America’s six. More importantly, China is expanding its nuclear forces to what extent we do not know, because the Chinese program’s infrastructure is hidden within 3,000 miles of tunnels largely opaque to U.S. intelligence. As if China were not a major rival, the Obama administration, ever infatuated with accords, has made no effort to include Beijing in a nuclear arms-control regime. Why not?
We pay Iran for allowing us to stabilize its acquisition of nuclear armaments, and discount both the North Korean threat and missile defense, the only means of opposing it. As North Korea and Iran work up to minimal nuclear capacity, this administration works down to it, thus (in a mistaken conception of nuclear sufficiency) encouraging proliferation and eventual parity among a large number of nuclear states. Nothing could be more dangerous.

Should these trends continue unaddressed, the world will see three great powers—China, Russia, the U.S.—each with a complex and shifting system of alliances in unstable areas subject to proxy wars and opportunistic territorial expansion, the beginnings of which are now apparent in Ukraine, Syria and the South China Sea. As Wilhelmine Germany was either unwilling or unable to restrain Austria from invading Serbia despite the latter’s abject submission, thus precipitating World War I, no single power will be able effectively to discipline its allies.
With rapid shifts in the correlation of forces among near equals, nations seeking protection will migrate among the blocs and arm to protect themselves, provoking their neighbors to do the same. Such conditions, absent since World War II, will be remarkably unstable, especially given the emergence of semi-medieval crazy-states armed with nuclear warheads on ICBMs.

To prevent or weather these dangers, the next Congress and administration must rearm America and insist that our allies follow suit. The American nuclear deterrent must be refreshed and augmented. China must be brought into a nuclear arms-control regime. The U.S. and its allies must take a much harder line and accept greater risks to halt proliferation, starting with our greatest failure to date, Iran.

In Europe, U.S. forces in divisional strengths must combine with similar British, French and German formations to deploy in France and Germany, like a movable piston, subject to advance or retreat governed by either the provocative or reasonable behavior of Russia. The varying rotation and basing of detachments on the periphery would work as a similar means of signal and deterrence. We send weak forces eastward now as a message, but behind them is virtually nothing of force or will.
In combination with Japan, India, Vietnam and the Philippines newly armed with long-range antiaircraft and coastal-defense missiles, an American fleet at least half-again its present size, and the F-22 tactical fighter brought back from the dead, can frustrate Chinese claims to the South China Sea. Those claims are as much a portent and even less legitimate than the Third Reich’s claim to the Sudetenland.

The U.S. 2015 base budget defense appropriation (excluding overseas contingency spending) was just less than 3%, as opposed to 5.7% in the peacetime years during the period 1940-2000. Though, embarrassingly, it would take Churchillian statesmanship to return merely to the norm, doing so would help arrest the slide toward a perilous international system such as existed before World War I. But in a presidential campaign in which most candidates and their partisans see only what is at their feet, perhaps it is too much to expect that they look toward the horizon.

Mr. Helprin, whose novels include “In Sunlight and in Shadow” ( Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012), is a senior fellow at the Claremont Institute.
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IDF uncovers Hamas tunnel stretching from Gaza into Israel
By YAAKOV LAPPIN
"We have proven our ability to detect deep tunnels and strike them," senior IDF source says.

The IDF detected a deep Hamas cross-border tunnel in recent days, stretching from the southern Gaza Strip into Israel. The discovery of the tunnel was kept under a media ban until Monday morning.

The tunnel is 30 meters deep, and was likely dug after the 2014 Operation Protective Edge, according to IDF assessments, though this has not been fully verified.

A senior security source said a "systematic, intelligence-based, technological, engineering, and operational" approach resulted in the finding of the tunnel. "We have to turn this event, of finding a tunnel, into a technique, and find more tunnels," he added.

"The challenge is very big. The tunnels are very deep. We have capabilities that do not exist anywhere else in the world. We can detect, at depths of 30 to 40 meters," the source said. "It is a very complex process." He declined to discuss the technological detection techniques, which remain classified, saying only that "we have developed all sorts of capabilities in recent years, and they have reached the fruition stage." According to defense sources, prior to Operation Protective Edge, the defense establishment was able to find tunnels through randomly drilling holes next to each other along the Gaza border.

"This [the discovery] was not random, but the result of a pattern. It is a technique that identified their tunnel," the source added.

A second defense source said Israel is "in a different place" compared to where it was prior to the 2014 conflict when it came to finding tunnels.

The Israeli defense establishment assesses that Hamas is digging several additional attack tunnels, and that these have likely come to within a few meters of the border, but have not yet crossed it.

Diggers could be ordered to tunnel under the Israeli border when an escalation looks imminent. With Israel's new detection capabilities in place, however, it remains unclear how worthwhile it is for Hamas to continue to invest millions of shekels and hire thousands of diggers for its tunnel networks.

The IDF's Gaza Division, which belongs to the Southern Command, has placed counter-tunnel measures - detecting and destroying them - as its number one priority in 2016. Many units, some of them technical, have been engaged in overt and covert capabilities as part of the effort.

"The tunnels are a very serious threat," the source said, though he added that it "is not a strategic threat." "In this case, we proved our ability to identify a deep space and to strike it. We know how to strike it, and this is a huge challenge," he added.

He described a process that fused intelligence, engineering, and operational capabilities to locate and destroy the subterranean threat from Gaza. "If we can do this, detect and destroy them, and achieve it without reaching an escalation, that is our set mission. If this does lead to an escalation, it will not deter us either," the source said.

"Or enemy is sophisticated. Hamas is not a group of idiots," the officer warned. "Hamas draws lessons." He added that the IDF is "always operating under the severe assumption that there are more intrusive tunnels out there." The latest tunnel is similar to the "family of tunnels" the IDF exposed in Operation Protective Edge, the officer said.




3a





Ya'alon: Israel will deliver 'very hard hit' if Hamas seeks escalation in South
By YAAKOV LAPPIN,JPOST.COM STAFF
Israeli politicians and officials respond to the announced discovery of a cross-border Hamas tunnel dug from Gaza into Israeli territory.
Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon on Monday warned Hamas against seeking a new confrontation with Israel after it was revealed that a tunnel crossing the Gaza border was found in Israeli territory.

"We have no illusion when it comes to Hamas's intentions. Even before Operation Protective Edge, during the operation, and of course, after it, we dedicated many efforts - technological, intelligence, and operational - to discovering tunnels from the Gaza Strip," he said. 

Ya'alon added that throughout the years, Israel discovered "many tunnels," adding that "we are continuing to focus huge efforts toward that."

In tunnel detection missions, most of which are hidden from view, the best of the state of Israel's forces are involved, from the IDF, the Shin Bet, and defense industries." 

Tunnel detection is at the top of the defense establishment's priorities, Ya'alon said.

In recent months, Hamas has suffered from the collapse of a number of tunnels, the defense minister noted, saying that "diggers were killed during their work. And now a tunnel has been detected. Nevertheless, we do not delude ourselves that Hamas will draw the lesson and stop dealing with this, and that it will turn to assisting and improving the fabric of life in the Gaza Strip, or tend to the welfare of residents there." 

Israel is not seeking a confrontation, Ya'alon said, "but if Hamas tries to challenge the State of Israel, or disrupt the lives of Gaza border residents, it will be hit very hard. We will not tolerate such attempts." The defense minister called on southern residents living near the Strip to "continue with their daily routines," and urged the remainder of Israeli citizens to "visit the south of the country during the coming holiday."

Education and Diaspora Affairs Minister Naftali Bennett also responded to the discovery, saying: "Like we warned, Hamas was not deterred from building itself up in the two years that have passed since Operation Protective Edge." 

"Hamas defined tunnel-digging a 'national project,' with the goal of infiltrating into Israel," he said. "It's a national goal for them, and it's time we internalize that."

The minister continued, saying that Hamas strives to strike Israel with "a surprise multi-faceted attack - a sort of 'Yom Kippur' scenario of terror," which would weave in elements of infiltration, kidnapping, and murder.

"It is Israel's duty to restore a sense of security to citizens of the South, and prevent this from happening - at any price," Bennett said. "Israel can't count on the assumption that Hamas is deterred."

In addition, Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman responded to the reports that a cross-border tunnel from Gaza to Israel was uncovered by the IDF.

"The recently uncovered tunnel is a hard hit to Israel - and further proof that the leadership of Netanyahu and  Ya'alon enables Hamas to continue building up its resources and grow stronger, endangering the lives of citizens of the south and the security of Israel." 

"This probably isn't the only cross-border tunnel that infiltrates into Israel," he added. "If our policy doesn't change, Hamas will continue digging and arming themselves - threatening our security."

Yesh Atid MK Haim Jelin, who formerly served as the head of the Eshkol Regional Council and is a resident of the Gaza border community of Nahal Oz, called on Israel to work to destroy such tunnels, while also advancing a diplomatic initiative on a parallel track.

"This tunnel must be destroyed immediately, we shouldn't wait, we should destroy every tunnel that enters Israel. To destroy every tunnel that we know they  have started to build, just as we assassinate terror cells that are set to fire rockets into Israel."

Jelin said that Hamas must be stopped from digging tunnels, calling on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to take action. "Mr. Prime Minister, this is your responsibility. We are strong and prepared to take a lot, on one condition: that there will be a diplomatic horizon for the whole region."

"You need to hit them before they come out of the ground, and at the same time to initiate a long-term  'hudna' agreement with the moderate Arab states, the US and Europe," he said, using the Arabic word for truce.
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4)

Winners or Whiners?

By Thomas Sowell
 If there is one pattern that is emerging from this year's political campaigns, it is that rhetoric beats reality -- in both parties.
The biggest surprise among the Democrats is Bernie Sanders, and among the Republicans is Donald Trump. Although they are each seeking to be put in charge of the nation's government, does anyone know -- or care -- what their actual track record in government has been?
Trump of course has no track record at all in government. If Sanders has anything to show for his many years in Congress, no one seems to know what it is. But both are great at rhetoric.
Hillary Clinton's biggest selling point is that she has lots of "experience" in government, having been a Senator and a Secretary of State. But what she actually accomplished in those roles gets remarkably little attention.
The foreign policies under Secretary Clinton have led to one disaster after another, whether in the Middle East, in Ukraine, or in North Korea. Where are her successes?
The Republicans began this primary election campaign with a number of candidates who did have track records as governors that could have been examined, debated and critiqued. But Donald Trump's rhetoric and antics got the lion's share of the attention. Governors Scott Walker and Bobby Jindal were gone before most people knew much of anything about their track records.
Partly this was due to the media's obsession with Donald Trump. But the public shares responsibility for the triumph of glitter over substance, because polls repeatedly showed that the public was far more attracted to the glitter.
The current angry outcries because there was no primary vote in Colorado to choose delegates, supposedly because "the system" was "rigged" against Donald Trump, is only the latest sign of a widespread lack of interest in facts.
The Colorado rules were there before the time for delegates to be chosen. If Donald Trump did not bother to learn those rules, or to hire people to keep on top of such things, that was his fault. But it is all too typical of Trump to cover up his own lack of knowledge or understanding by making wild accusations against others and inciting the gullible.
The convention rules that require a candidate to get a majority of the delegates, in order to become the party's nominee for President, are also nothing new. But, here again, Trump and his followers are raising an outcry by saying that it would not be "fair" or "democratic" to "steal" the nomination from Trump and give it to some other candidate.
First of all, it is not Trump's nomination until after he has earned it, under the rules that apply to all candidates. Nobody can "steal" what was not his in the first place.
The rules are the rules. As an old New York Yankees fan, I still have a painful memory of the 1960 World Series, where the Yankees scored 53 runs and the Pittsburgh Pirates scored 27. But the Pirates won the World Series, because the rules go by how many games were won, not how many runs were scored.
As for "undemocratic," institutions do not exist to exalt some principle, but to carry out whatever the missions of those institutions are. In even the most democratic countries, undemocratic institutions abound.
Families are one of those institutions. In a family with 3 children and 2 adults, the children do not run the family. In a military unit, democratic decision-making on a battlefield can cost a lot more lives.
Political parties are private institutions. They exist to choose candidates they think can win elections. How they do it is their business. Nobody has a Constitutional "right" to vote to choose a party's nominees.
A party may decide to have voters in the primaries elect delegates. But, if that method fails to turn up anyone capable of winning a majority of the delegates' votes on the first ballot, the party can then turn to Plan B, as has happened before, long before Donald Trump came along.
The time to change rules is before the game starts. If the current rules need changing, there will be four long years before the 2020 elections in which to try to create better rules. The 1960 Yankees never whined that the World Series had been "stolen" from them. They were adults who knew the rules in advance.
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