Ellen Degeneres gets a taste of her own medicine and I am not offended at all.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ My previous memo had several typing errors for which I apologize.
===
Syntax a bit mis-stated: (See immediately below.)
Did I read that sign right?
“TOILET OUT OF ORDER. PLEASE USE FLOOR BELOW.”
------------------------------ ------------------------------ ------------------------------ -
In a Laundromat:
AUTOMATIC WASHING MACHINES: PLEASE REMOVE ALL YOUR CLOTHES WHEN THE LIGHT GOES OUT.
------------------------------ ------------------------------ -----------------------------
Outside a second-hand shop:
WE EXCHANGE ANYTHING - BICYCLES, WASHING MACHINES, ETC. WHY NOT BRING YOUR WIFE ALONG AND GET A WONDERFUL BARGAIN?
------------------------------ ------------------------------ ------------------------------ ------------------------------ --
Notice in health food shop window:
CLOSED DUE TO ILLNESS...
------------------------------ ------------------------------ ------------------------------ ------------
Spotted in a safari park:
(I sure hope so.)
(I sure hope so.)
ELEPHANTS, PLEASE STAY IN YOUR CAR.
------------------------------ ------------------------------ ---------
Seen during a conference:
FOR ANYONE WHO HAS CHILDREN AND DOESN'T KNOW IT, THERE IS A DAY CARE ON THE 1ST FLOOR.
------------------------------ ------------------------------ --------------------------
Notice in a farmer's field:
THE FARMER ALLOWS WALKERS TO CROSS THE FIELD FOR FREE, BUT THE BULL CHARGES.
------------------------------ ------------------------------ -----------------------
On a repair shop door:
WE CAN REPAIR ANYTHING. (PLEASE KNOCK HARD ON THE DOOR - THE BELL DOESN'T WORK.)
Proofreading is a dying art, wouldn't you say?
------------------------------ ------------------------------ ------------------------------ --
Man Kills Self Before Shooting Wife And Daughter
This one I caught in the SGV Tribune the other day and called the Editorial Room and asked who wrote this. It took two or three readings before the editor realized that what he was reading was impossible!!! They put in a correction the next day.
------------------------------ ------------------------------ ------------------------------ ----------------------
Police Begin Campaign to Run Down Jaywalkers
Now that's taking things a bit far!
------------------------------ ------------------------------ ------------------------------ ---------------------
Panda Mating Fails; Veterinarian Takes Over
What a guy!
------------------------------ ------------------------------ ------------------------------ ---------------------
------------------------------ ------------------------------ ------------------------------ ---------------------
Miners Refuse to Work after Death
No-good-for-nothing' lazy so-and-so's!
------------------------------ ------------------------------ ------------------------------ ---------------------
Juvenile Court to Try Shooting Defendant
See if that works better than a fair trial!
See if that works better than a fair trial!
------------------------------ ------------------------------ ------------------------------ ----------------------
If Strike Isn't Settled Quickly, It May Last Awhile
Ya' think?!
------------------------------ ------------------------------ ------------------------------ --------------------
Red Tape Holds Up New Bridges
You mean there's something stronger than duct tape?
------------------------------ ------------------------------ ------------------------------ --------------------
New Study of Obesity Looks for Larger Test Group
Weren't they fat enough?!
****************************** ****************************** ********************
Local High School Dropouts Cut in Half
Chainsaw Massacre all over again!
****************************** ****************************** ****************************** *****
And the winner is...
Typhoon Rips Through Cemetery; Hundreds Dead
Did I read that right?
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Republicans have done a lousy job of getting their message out to minority voters.
Trump should offer tickets to those who will see this movie and actually do so. How you monitor it could be worked out with planning.(See 1 below.)
===
The Left has betrayed the black community yet, blacks still vote for them like slaves.
Republicans avoid black voters because they assume their vote is beyond their reach yet, they never try and make the effort.
This disconnect is stupid on both sides.
You would think they would begin to understand they have been sold down the river but far too many have become trapped by their culture which has never allowed them to embrace Western values which would elevate them out of their misery, ie. education, a work ethic, a dress code and a desire to better themselves.
Far too many have become compromised by the negative impact and message of dependency.
Trump means what he says though many cynics say he is simply reading words written by others in order to denigrate him and to keep black voters beholden to Democrats, who play them like a violin.
Whether purposeful or not, programs designed by liberals have crippled so many blacks. Their spirit has been crushed. Their plight gives employment to community organizers and other such human ticks who see to it their charges remain impoverished . If you want a parallel look at what UNRWA's U.N. employees have perpetrated upon 5 million Palestinians who, for over 60 years, remain in refugee camps (UNRWA's 33,000 person staff are Palestine refugees themselves.) (See 1a below.)
+++
Those Obama lies are getting more valuable and costly. (See 2 and 2a below.)
===
Let's assume, for the sake of discussion, Hillary has serious medical issues and denies them. Would you be willing to believe her after so many lies? If so, I assume you would be willing to buy the bridge I have for sale.
===
A nation that does not uphold its laws and cares not about order or protecting its borders but is more interested in defending radicals while it erodes free speech and tolerates terrorism within its shores because it is driven more by politically correct attitudes and actions than logic is why everyone who wants this should vote for Hillary. (See 3 below.)
+++
Dick
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++1)Many Republicans are America heroes. While Democrats called for slavery, Indian removal, forced sterilization, and fascism, Republicans always stood for human dignity, individual rights, limited government, and true equality under the law.
Here are just a few Republican heroes you should know:
Did you know these people were all Republicans? The Democratic Party has co-opted much of Republican history, and it's time to take it back. Hillary's America blows the lid off the progressive version of "history." Which is really the party of justice and equality? Get tickets now and find out!
1a) The Left’s Betrayal of Our Inner Cities
By Newt Gingrich
The riots that occurred in Milwaukee last week followed a disastrous pattern that has played out across the country in the past few years.
2a) Saudi Arabia Strikes Back
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
3) Law and Order: Trump Unit
1a) The Left’s Betrayal of Our Inner Cities
By Newt Gingrich
The riots that occurred in Milwaukee last week followed a disastrous pattern that has played out across the country in the past few years.
In a poor African American neighborhood with few job opportunities and even less hope, a young black male was killed by police. Locals, joined by professional agitators, began to riot, causing even more violence, bloodshed, and destruction of the neighborhood.
Americans have watched a similar set of events play out in Ferguson, in Baltimore, in Baton Rouge, and now in Milwaukee. And as the violence continues, the anger has grown.
Yet the solutions we too often hear from our political leaders remain inadequate and superficial: Gun control, body cameras, disarming the police, decriminalizing drugs. These are the kinds of policy proposals our elites are discussing. And yet none of the proposals has much to do with the underlying causes of violence, poverty and despair.
Thankfully, there has been at least one voice of clarity and reason about the urgent challenge.
Speaking after the riots this week, Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke offered one of the most thoughtful analyses of what has led to the “frustration, anger and resentment” that Americans in many poor communities feel.
“Here's what causes riots,” Sheriff Clarke said:
We have inescapable poverty in the city of Milwaukee. Milwaukee's like the sixth poorest city in America. You have massive black unemployment. I think it's at 32%. You have a failing K-12 public education system. It's one of the worst in the nation. You have questionable lifestyle choices...All of these kids with no fathers around, father-absent homes. When fathers aren't around to shape the behavior of young men, they oftentimes grow up to be unmanageable misfits. Those are the ingredients. Milwaukee has all of them.
“Stop trying to fix the police,” Sheriff Clarke said at the press conference. “Fix the ghetto.”
Certainly, most Americans share the goal of extending opportunity to our inner cities. But the Sheriff is right that many don’t want to talk about the real problems. The police are catching the brunt of the criticism. But they are not the real cause of the despair.
Instead, the problem is more fundamental. When people are trapped in poverty--when they see no chance of getting out, when they are told to take food stamps, to live in public housing, and to stagger along as best they can--they lose hope, and they despair.
When people despair, anger and resentment can follow.
Millions of Americans have been left behind in poverty. In the inner cities, their neighborhoods aren’t safe, and the schools have failed them. For many, the path of college and a four-year degree--the middle class route to a good job--is not even an option.
America’s inner cities urgently need a bridge to the Middle Class for those the system has left behind. Above all, that means a learnable skill that pays good money and offers a chance at a good career. Providing a system to train poor Americans for good jobs is one of our most urgent social challenges.
Indeed, opportunities for skills training and career-focused education programs are a far more serious and practical response to the problems of the inner city than the calls for “national conversations” we hear time and again on cable news networks.
And yet, as Sheriff Clarke noted in his comments after the Milwaukee riots, instead of strengthening the bridge to the middle class--a good job to help support a family--government is doing everything it can to weaken it.
We have a welfare system that too often punishes work and rewards choices which destroy lives.
We have a tax and regulatory system that makes it harder for small businesses to hire people, even when they’re willing to take the risk of setting up shop in a dangerous neighborhood.
And as recently as this month, we were reminded that bureaucrats in Washington are trying to kill the very job training and career education programs that help people learn the skills they need.
In fact, in the same month that Milwaukee was rioting and the problems of the inner-city were dominating headlines, the bureaucrats at the Department of Education were sifting through comments submitted on their proposed “defense-to-repayment” regulation, which would require all schools to set aside funds to forgive student loan debts for those who claim there were “misrepresentations” made to them about their programs.
Because the proposed rule requires schools to set aside vast funds each time a lawsuit is filed--even before the claims are subject to the scrutiny of a court of law--merely the threat of lawsuits would likely drive many small, independent career schools out of business.
Of course, that is precisely the point. Ideologically driven bureaucrats are pushing burdensome regulations that will bankrupt private career education schools and certificate programs.
And yet the programs they’re trying to put out of business are the very ones that focus on training people in the skills they need to have careers as welders, nurse practitioners, and IT professionals. In other words, the kind of practical skills that can help people in our poorest neighborhoods get the jobs they need to enter the middle class.
Both Republicans and Democrats should be for accountability in higher education. But a regulation that leaves the schools serving poor Americans vulnerable to being put out of business by trial lawyers and meritless lawsuits? That’s not accountability. That’s extremism. It’s an assault.
Even the Washington Post editorial board has labeled the latest proposed regulation an “overreach,” and the Post understands exactly who it’s targeted at. “The Obama administration has made no secret of its dislike” for private sector schools, the Post notes, before going on to criticize the administration’s “zeal to disable” these institutions.
“A cottage industry already is forming with law firms and loan-consolidation companies trolling for students with borrower defense claims,” the Post editors write. The result would be to put taxpayers “on the hook for billions of dollars in student loan discharges.”
In their war against private-sector education, the bureaucrats should be honest about who they’re fighting for--the trial lawyers and the ideologues--and who they’re fighting against. They aren’t just attacking the schools, but also their students--the millions of Americans, many from the inner cities, who lack the skills they need to get a good job, and who’ve taken the responsibility to learn those skills at a program of their choice.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
2)U.S. Held Cash Until Iran Freed Prisoners
An Iranian cargo plane left Geneva with $400 million in cash after a flight with Americans aboard took off from Tehran in January
By JAY SOLOMON and CAROL E. LEEWASHINGTON — New details of the $400 million U.S. payment to Iran earlier this year depict a tightly scripted exchange specifically timed to the release of several American prisoners held in Iran, based on accounts from U.S. officials and others briefed on the operation.U.S. officials wouldn't let Iranians take control of the money until a Swiss Air Force plane carrying three freed Americans departed from Tehran on Jan. 17, the officials said. Once that happened, an Iranian cargo plane was allowed to bring the cash back from a Geneva airport that day, according to the accounts.
President Barack Obama and other U.S. officials have said the payment didn’t amount to ransom, because the money was owed by the U.S. to Iran as part of a longstanding dispute linked to a failed arms deal from the 1970s. U.S. officials have said that the prisoner release and cash transfer took place through two separate diplomatic channels.
But the handling of the payment and its connection to the release of the Americans have raised questions among lawmakers and administration critics.
The use of an Iranian cargo plane to move pallets filled with $400 million brings clarity to one of the mysteries surrounding the cash delivery to Iran first reported by The Wall Street Journal this month. Administration officials have refused to publicly disclose how and when the cash transfer authorized by Mr. Obama took place.
Executives from Iran’s flagship carrier, Iran Air, organized the round-trip flight from Tehran to Geneva where the cash—euros and Swiss francs and other currencies stacked on shipping pallets—was loaded onto the aircraft, these people said.
“Our top priority was getting the Americans home,” said a U.S. official.
Once the Americans were “wheels up” on the morning of Jan. 17, Iranian officials in Geneva were allowed to take custody of the $400 million in currency, according to officials briefed on the exchange.
The payment marked the first installment of a $1.7 billion settlement the Obama administration announced it had reached with Tehran in January to resolve a decades-old legal dispute traced back to the final days of Iran’s last monarch, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. His government paid $400 million into a Pentagon trust fund in 1979 for military parts that were never delivered because of the Islamic revolution that toppled him.
Mr. Obama said on Aug. 4 that it was necessary to procure the cash for Iran because of economic sanctions on the country.
One other U.S. citizen freed in the January prisoner exchange was released separately.
Republican lawmakers have charged that the $400 million payment equated to a ransom paid by the White House to gain the release of the Americans.
Republican leaders said they are preparing to hold hearings on the $400 million transfer once Congress returns from its summer break in September. Rep. Sean Duffy (R., Wis.), chairman of a House investigative body, sent letters to the Justice and Treasury Departments, as well as the Federal Reserve, on Aug. 10 requesting all records related to the Iran exchange.
Mr. Duffy asked Attorney General Loretta Lynch to identify all “persons within the Department authorizing or otherwise taking steps to carry out the payment.”
Senior Justice officials objected to the $400 million cash transfer due to fears it would be seen as a ransom payment, according to people familiar with the discussions.Lawmakers have focused on the mechanics of the $400 million cash transfer to try to back their allegations that the delivery of the money was in exchange for the return of the jailed Americans.
One of the Americans released in January as part of the prisoner exchange, a Catholic pastor named Saeed Abedini, said he and other American prisoners were kept waiting at Mehrabad airport for more than 20 hours from Jan. 16 to the morning of Jan. 17. He said in an interview that he was told by a senior Iranian intelligence official at the time that their departure was contingent upon the movements of a second airplane.
Mr. Abedini said he was asked to testify next month before the House Foreign Relations Committee.
State Department officials have rebutted Mr. Abedini’s comments, saying the delay in his plane’s departure wasn’t related to a second plane or the payment of the $400 million. They said the delay was solely tied to U.S. efforts to locate the wife and mother of another imprisoned American, the Washington Post’s former Tehran bureau chief, Jason Rezaian, and ensuring they were allowed to board the Swiss plane as well.
The U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Iran Air in 2011 for allegedly ferrying weapons and supplies for Tehran’s elite military unit, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.Treasury said in its designation that “IRGC officers occasionally take control over Iran Air flights carrying special IRGC-related cargo.”
Lawmakers are concerned the IRGC may have gained control of the cash once in Tehran. U.S. officials said they are not certain how Iran has used the $400 million that was returned.
The Treasury Department lifted sanctions on Iran Air on Jan. 16—the day before the cash and prisoner transfers—as part of the landmark nuclear agreement reached between Iran, the U.S. and other global powers. The U.S. has maintained sanctions on a second Iranian air carrier, Mahan Air, for its alleged role in facilitating arms shipments for the IRGC
.Obama administration officials have confirmed that they have paid the remaining $1.3 billion to Iran as part of the settlement reached in January on the failed arms deal. This marked the interest accrued over the past 37 years on the original $400 million paid by Iran.
U.S. officials, however, have refused to disclose how the Obama administration made this additional payment. Lawmakers are seeking to determine whether this money was also paid in cash or if the Treasury Department was able to wire it electronically.
2a) Saudi Arabia Strikes Back
· BY
·
For those concerned about the fallout from President Barack Obama and his administration’s nuclear deal with Iran — the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA — the hits just keep on coming. The recent revelation that the United States handed over $400 million in cash to Iran on the same day that it was releasing four American captives is but the latest disturbing detail in the saga that has become Obama’s extended experiment in appeasing the mullahs. Add it to the long list of other threatening post-deal developments, including the intensification of Iran’s ballistic missile program, the continuation of its efforts to illicitly procure nuclear materials, and the expansion of its aggressive and destabilizing activities across the Middle East. Oh, and don’t forget the detention of three new American hostages, of course.
Somewhat less noticed in the JCPOA’s aftermath, but potentially no less consequential for regional security, has been the steadily escalating confrontation between Saudi Arabia and Iran. This was not a wholly unexpected development. Many analysts warned that the Saudis would not look kindly on a U.S.-Iranian agreement, negotiated largely behind their backs, that ended up leaving the country’s arch-enemy, the Shiite theocracy across the Gulf, with a large nuclear infrastructure, hundreds of billions of dollars in sanctions relief, and a more or less open field to indulge its quest for regional hegemony. The Saudis, inevitably, would read it as America abandoning its historical role as the guarantor of Gulf security in favor of some new dispensation with an unreconstructed Iran — one that threatened to irreversibly alter the region’s correlation of forces in Iran’s favor.
Obama’s penchant for stoking Saudi paranoia and fears has no doubt made matters much worse: Declaring, for example, that his aim was to establish an “equilibrium” between the Saudis, a longstanding U.S. ally, and Iran, a revolutionary power that has systematically attacked U.S. interests for four decades. Or publicly complaining about the fact that he’s “compelled” to treat Saudi Arabia as an ally at all. Instead, Obama has opted to diss the Saudis repeatedly as free-riders who seek to exploit American muscle for their own narrow, sectarian purposes. In Obama’s telling, the Iranians — handmaidens to the Bashar al-Assad regime’s multi-year campaign of war crimes and mass murder — have legitimate “equities” in places like Syria that deserve to be protected (Could he mean the land bridge via Damascus by which Iran supplies its Lebanese client, the terrorist group Hezbollah, with tens of thousands of missiles and rockets that will be used in its next war with Israel?). Rather than seeking to counter Iran’s revisionist agenda, Obama’s view is that the Saudis need to accommodate themselves to “sharing” the Gulf with the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism.
Needless to say, the Saudis beg to differ. Confronted with a newly empowered Iran and a retrenching America, the kingdom is striking back, not rolling over. It believes Obama’s policies have purposefully created a dangerous vacuum in the region, one that is primarily being filled by an Iran bent on sowing chaos and destruction, ultimately targeting the downfall of the House of Saud itself. No longer able to rely on Pax Americana, and unwilling to watch passively as the mullahs slip the noose over their collective neck, the Saudis have increasingly taken matters into their own hands, especially since the ascension of King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud in 2015, adopting a much more assertive and high-risk, even provocative, national security posture with a single-minded mission to challenge and confront Iran.
The opening shot (literally) in Salman’s new anti-Iran campaign was fired even before the JCPOA was finalized in July 2015. In March of last year, the Saudis intervened in Yemen to stop Iran-backed Houthi rebels from taking control of the country. The Obama administration subsequently supported the effort, reluctantly, by supplying intelligence and military equipment. Though the Saudis — and a handful of Sunni allies, led by the United Arab Emirates — succeeded in rolling back rebel gains in southern Yemen, the war has been bogged down for months, with the Houthis still entrenched in the capital, Sanaa, as well as their strongholds in the north, including strategic positions on the Saudi border. Peace talks and ceasefires have come and gone. Prospects for a political settlement appear dim. Desperately poor and dysfunctional even before the war, Yemen has largely been laid to waste, a failed state that — already home to one of al Qaida’s most dangerous affiliates — appears destined to be a fertile breeding ground for jihadism, sectarian conflict, and regional instability for years to come.
The Saudis have also been active participants in Syria’s civil war, supplying weapons to Sunni rebels seeking to topple the Iranian-backed Assad regime. While the Saudis have worked closely with the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency in this effort, the kingdom has persistently pushed for a more aggressive strategy to remove Assad from power and sever Iranian influence in Syria — including by supporting a number of radical jihadist groups, some with close links to al Qaeda. Following the large-scale intervention by Russia’s air force to bolster the Syrian regime in the fall of 2015, the Saudis, with CIA cooperation, increased the flow of weaponry to the rebels, helping to inflict significant casualties on pro-regime units — including leading elements of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) that, together with Iranian-backed Shiite militias, have served as the vanguard of Assad’s army. And even as the Russian/Iranian-led offensive has turned the tide of battle decisively in the regime’s favor, the Saudis have not eased their pressure. In February 2016, the kingdom even announced that it was willing to commit its own ground troops to an international force should the U.S.-led coalition decide it was useful. The offer allegedly remains on the table. More recently, a surge of Saudi weapons to a jihadist-led rebel coalition helped foil, at least for now, the Syrian government’s efforts to reconquer the strategic city of Aleppo.
Importantly, the post-JCPOA Saudi pushback against Iran extends well beyond the active battlefields of Yemen and Syria. Indeed, the list of initiatives is long and varied, with the Saudis increasingly seeking to flex their muscle across the security, diplomatic, economic, and even religious spheres. To recount the highlights in some detail helps to underscore the sustained and comprehensive nature of the current Saudi campaign:
— In August 2015, in an unprecedented operation for Saudi intelligence, Saudi agents captured the planner of the 1996 bombing of the U.S. military barracks in Khobar, Saudi Arabia. Ahmed Ibrahim al-Mughassil, a Saudi Shiite with deep links to Iran and Hezbollah, was detained in Beirut as he was exiting a flight from Tehran and immediately rendered to the kingdom for interrogation. At the time, the United States had a longstanding bounty of $5 million for any information leading to Mughassil’s arrest.
— Last December, King Salman’s son, Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s deputy crown prince and defense minister, announced the formation of an anti-terrorism coalition of 34 Sunni states that would be headquartered in Saudi Arabia and focused in particular on thwarting Iranian-backed aggression throughout the region. Only a few months later, more than 20 of the coalition’s members conducted large-scale military exercises in northern Saudi Arabia, near the Iraqi border — coincident with the kingdom’s public offer to commit ground forces to Syria.
— In January, the Saudis executed a prominent Shiite cleric, Nimr al-Nimr, despite Iranian warnings not to do so. When Iranian mobs sanctioned by the regime responded by burning down Saudi diplomatic facilities, the kingdom severed diplomatic relations with Iran. Several of Iran’s Arab allies also withdrew their ambassadors or otherwise downgraded ties, while the Arab League quickly condemned.
3) Law and Order: Trump Unit
For global and domestic disorder, Trump’s answer looks better than Clinton’s answer.
By DANIEL HENNINGER
Richard Nixon, law and order’s most famous practitioner, used the reality of domestic unrest to defeat Hubert Humphrey in the annus horribilis, 1968. President George W. Bush persuaded voters in 2004 that John Kerry would provide uncertain leadership in the post-9/11 war on terror.
Donald Trump, always willing to test the limits of any thought, is campaigning for law and order on a global scale. He’s accusing Hillary Clinton of being soft on crime at home and soft on terror everywhere in the world. It’s “Law and Order: Global Victims Unit,” Donald J. Trump producer.
Tuesday in Milwaukee, which last weekend looked a lot like Baltimore’s 2015 street riots, Mr. Trump said: “The Hillary Clinton agenda hurts poor people the most. There is no compassion in allowing drug dealers, gang members and felons to prey
In Monday’s foreign policy speech he pledged to do a reverse- Obama by keeping Gitmo open and trying accused terrorists in military tribunals. Likening his strategy to “the effort to take down the mafia,” he said “this will be the understood mission of every federal investigator and prosecutor in the country.”
With most of the battleground states looking more like Republican burial grounds, it may be pressing the membrane of believability to say the Trump law-and-order strategy just might work. That said, Mr. Trump’s naming this week of the adept Republican political strategist Kellyanne Conway as his campaign manager means he may yet give his supporters a competitive presidential campaign.
Democrats deserve to have a Trumpian version of “law and order” unloaded on them. I don’t think the Democrats are soft on crime and terrorism. They’re just ambivalent. Ambivalence can get you killed, especially around people with guns and bombs.
Asked after every primary to rank four issues, Democrats nearly always put terrorism fourth. It hardly came up in the Clinton-Sanders debates.
And whether the domestic shooters are San Bernardino’s terrorists, Orlando’s nut or Chicago’s gangs, the Democrats’ offer the same silver bullet: gun control.
The problem with how they’ve teed up the cops has been the nonexistence of any Democratic alternative beyond patrolling the toughest streets with a blue version of Casper the Friendly Ghost.
On national security, an example of progressive foreign policy’s half-in, half-out attitude was former Attorney General Eric Holder’s remark in May that the traitorous Edward Snowden “actually performed a public service by raising the debate that we engaged in and by the changes that we made.” No, it was not worth anything.
In a Journal article last month, an administration official summarized the Obama anti-terror policy. It reads like aggression with footnotes:
“Not just in Afghanistan, but in Iraq and Syria, it’s very evident what his approach is, which is to make sure we’re doing everything necessary to disrupt and ultimately defeat terrorist networks while significantly reducing the role of the U.S. military in terms of the ground presence and also reducing the resources associated with that presence.”
There is a specific, well-known reason for a Democratic policy of “reducing the resources associated with that presence,” one that 50 former Bush officials should have thought about before unfurling their Hamlet-like statement last week on the election and national security.
The reason is guns versus butter, military spending versus always unsated domestic needs. The liberals’ battle for butter began in the 1960s, when they vilified Lyndon Johnson for spending on Vietnam and the Cold War rather than the Great Society.
Right now, foreign-policy liberals and some conservatives are pushing sotto voceassurances that Hillary will “get it right” on national security. They had better go line-by-line through the economic-policy speech she gave last week in Michigan. After the greatest outlay on infrastructure spending “since World War II,” tuition-free college for the middle class and “debt-free for everyone,” plus uncountable tax credits, anything Mrs. Clinton gets right will be on the cheap. Like her “intelligence surge.”
This isn’t Bill Clinton’s center-left Democratic Party. It’s the left-only party of Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Barack Obama. What they want is butter, lakes of it. Anti-terrorism gets to tread water, alongside the cops.
Defeating Islamic terror is a rare unifying issue for conservatives and indeed for the world. Unlike any conceivable Democratic president, Donald Trump is at least willing to lead this battle, reflecting the truth that it won’t happen without active, unrelenting U.S. leadership.
No doubt this is yet another issue with which voters have to struggle, wanting an alternative to the Obama-Clinton Democrats but burdened with misgivings that are of Mr. Trump’s own creation.
But Donald Trump didn’t create the law-and-order issue. Cities and nations under assault did that. Just now, his answer for both looks better than her answer.
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