Merry Christmas
The Front Page Cover
The Events of the Week -- Featuring:
Trump's Mad Dog is the sane warrior we
need to make the world safer
by Niall Ferguson
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Top Headlines
Time's Person of the Year: Donald Trump. Who else? (Time)
liar-nObama's top labor arbiters have overturned a cumulative 4,500 years of legal precedent over the past eight years, in 91 decisions without a Republican vote. (Washington Free Beacon)
GOP leaders reveal stopgap spending bill that includes path for Mattis confirmation. (The Hill)
Medicare looms over Trump-Ryan alliance. What will the pair do to reform it? (The Hill)
liar-nObama's IRS commissioner evades impeachment. (The Daily Signal)
Trump announces Japanese telecom company will invest $50 billion and 50,000 jobs in the U.S. (Hot Air)
liar-nObama sent rep to Castro's funeral, but not Margaret Thatcher's funeral... (The Daily Signal)
Congress objects to secret liar-nObama deal for 2,400 Middle Eastern refugees rejected by Australia. (The Washington Times)
Angela "Let the Refugees Come" Merkel calls for a ban of full facial veiling — i.e., Islamic burkas. (NBC News)
liar-nObamaCare shutters Texas restaurant. (The Washington Times)
Ukraine peace deal delayed by liar-nObama's confusion and obfuscation. (Reuters)
Policy: Fake news is not a technology problem. (Tech Policy Daily)
Policy: Trump's realistic thinking on climate change. (InsideSources) ~The Patriot Post
https://patriotpost.us/digests/46318
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https://patriotpost.us/digests/46318
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Michelle Malkin – Paul Ryan Is
Not Donald Trump’s Friend
by Rick Wells
{rickwells.us} ~ Lou Dobbs characterizes it as the false flag being cut from the yardarm, the skull and cross bones are flying and here we go – “Kevin McCarthy and Speaker Ryan are going to be obstructionists again.”... Michelle Malkin agrees, saying, “Yes, as they always are. These people have learned nothing in the same way that so many of the establishment Democrats and the establishment liberals in the media have learned nothing.” “And they will double down,” says Malkin. “I believe that this current GOP so-called leadership is going to pose even more headaches and will be a bigger threat to Donald Trump and his American sovereignty agenda than the outright liberals will be. And that’s always been the case as long as I’ve covered politics over the last twenty-five years. It’s these Republicans who pretend and pay lip service to American workers, the American economy, strong borders, again and again and again. They’ve been shown to be phonies and liars and we’re going to go through it all over again...
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Veterans See Potential Advocate for
Afghan Visa Program in Mattis
by Morgan Chalfant
{freebeacon.com} ~ Veterans pressing Congress to allocate more visas for Afghan interpreters see a potential ally in retired Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis, who is likely to become secretary of defense in the Trump administration... Members of Veterans for American Ideals have been pushing for more visas under the State Department’s Special Immigrant Visa program, arguing that the 1,500 new visas allocated by Congress for fiscal year 2017 are not enough. The veterans recently held several dozen meetings with lawmakers to lobby for more visas for Afghan interpreters who worked with the U.S. military. The veterans see potential allies in military generals who have been floated as possible choices to fill out Trump’s cabinet, particularly Mattis, given his service in the Middle East. Retired Gen. David Petraeus, a former CIA director, has also been rumored as a potential pick for secretary of state... http://freebeacon.com/national-security/veterans-see-potential-advocate-afghan-visa-program-mattis/?utm_source=Freedom+Mail&utm_campaign=359d72fa2b-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2016_12_06&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b5e6e0e9ea-359d72fa2b-45611665
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Homeland Security Just Got Real – Trump
Announces Gen Kelly For DHS Secretary
by Rick Wells
{rickwells.us} ~ The USA men’s Olympic Basketball team that was the original definition of a dream team has nothing on the group of capable individuals that Donald Trump is surrounding himself with... The more he gets into the process of cabinet selection the more obvious it becomes, he’s serious about his campaign promises and assembling a group that can produce some serious results and is capable of hitting the ground running. That reality was reinforced today with his announcement of General John F. Kelly to head the Department of Homeland Security. That incessant whining sound we hear in the distance is the banks of shredders the current occupant of that position is employing to “pull a Lerner” or a “liar-Clinton,” destroying the evidence that would be used to prosecute him for treason. Johnson can’t be feeling too comfortable right now. He can be sure that Kelly will, at a minimum, take him up on his oft-repeated mantra of “if you see something, say something” once he is engaged in his new duties... http://rickwells.us/homeland-security-just-got-real-trump-announces-gen-kelly-dhs-secretary/
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liar-nObama’s Terrorism Claim Hides
an Inconvenient Truth
by David Inserra
{dailysignal.com} ~ On Tuesday, President Barack liar-nObama stated that “Over the last eight years, no foreign terrorist organization has successfully planned and executed an attack on our homeland.”... Talk about something actually deserving of being labelled as “fake news.” liar-nObama’s statement obscures the reality that the U.S. has faced 66 Islamist terrorist plots against the U.S. homeland during liar-nObama’s time in office, 13 of which were successful... http://dailysignal.com/2016/12/07/obamas-terrorism-claim-hides-an-inconvenient-truth/?utm_source=TDS_Email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=MorningBell&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiWm1ZeFptVmpNamswWkRGayIsInQiOiJ5NE1FTWRreHY5VUdyTkpoTFZVSFZ1WGk1bjQ2RDZ1Q2hMZG9VUElaaTJZRHZraDVJelltbTdnMHJJMHNhSDlOWms1M0VjeGRFcE9nM1p0WDdPeDFPQnh5b2s2UmlMVmFZMW5SaGg0NXZOTT0ifQ%3D%3D
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Shari'a Law Meets the Internet
by Denis MacEoin
by Denis MacEoin
Haitham al-Haddad is a British shari'a council judge, and
sits on the board of advisors for the Islamic Sharia Council
{gatestoneinstitute.org} ~ The UK has for several years faced problems with its growing number of shari'a councils often misleadingly called courts. These councils operate outside British law, yet frequently give rulings on matters such as divorce, child custody, inheritance and more... which are based on Islamic law and in contradiction of the rights of individuals usually women under UK legislation. Many Muslim communities in cities such as Bradford, Birmingham, Luton, or boroughs such as Tower Hamlets in London are both sizeable and close-knit; individuals in them are made to live lives in accordance with Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Islamic traditional norms. This means that contact with British life at large is often restricted, with a lack of assimilation that traps many women and girls into lives very close to the lives of their sisters in Muslim countries...This is what is called, 'taking over a country.'
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Trump's Mad Dog is the sane warrior we
need to make the world safer
by Niall Ferguson
{jewishworldreview.com} ~ "The press takes Trump literally, but not seriously. Voters take him seriously, but not literally." This, by Salena Zito, was the smartest thing written about the 2016 election and deserves a place in every dictionary of quotations.
Now let me give you some advice about General James Mattis, who has been named Donald Trump's secretary of defence. Take him both literally and seriously.
The new defence secretary is not only a fearsome soldier, he is deep strategic thinker.
Mattis is a dictionary of quotes in his own right. I like the way he meets and greets. "Do not cross us. Because if you do, the survivors will write about what we do here for 10,000 years." Or: "I come in peace. I didn't bring artillery. But I'm pleading with you, with tears in my eyes: if you f*** with me, I'll kill you all."
With Mattis, however, you get much more than just words. You get deeds. As the commander of the 1st Marine Division in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Mattis earned a daunting reputation as a master of kinetic warfare. During the push to Baghdad, he relieved a colonel of his command for not advancing fast enough.
In 2007 he wrote, with General David Petraeus, the Counterinsurgency Field Manual, the template for the successful "surge" in Iraq. So fond of combat was Mattis that the marines' affectionate nickname for him was "Mad Dog". Full disclosure: Jim Mattis and I are both fellows of Stanford University's Hoover Institution. I admire him and consider him a friend. In person he is neither deranged nor canine, but softly spoken and erudite. Mattis is not only a fearsome warrior, he is a deep strategic thinker, a soldier-scholar in the mould of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, whose Meditations he carried with him in Iraq and Afghanistan.
You might have expected such an inspired appointment to receive a warm welcome. Dream on. The liberal media, humiliated by Trump's triumph, have sought to misrepresent his transition as chaotic. As it happens, Mattis's nom de guerre was "Chaos". In both cases it is the kind of chaos you inflict on your enemies. Trump is not re-enacting Celebrity Apprentice; he is assembling what would once have been called "a ministry of all the talents".
True, the choice of Mattis is unorthodox. He will be the first general to run the Pentagon since Harry Truman appointed George Marshall in 1950. All other defence secretaries have been civilians, reflecting a long-standing American belief that "brass hats" need to be reined in by "frock coats".
Trump has decided to ignore that convention, as well as to ask Congress to waive the rule that a general must spend seven years in retirement before he can take the defence secretary job. Cue flapping frock coats. But I think this is the best decision Trump has taken since his historic victory three weeks ago.
Not that the others have been bad. For Treasury secretary Trump has nominated Steven Mnuchin, who has been almost as successful financially as Mattis has been militarily. Cue liberal lamentations that "Government Sachs" is back in business.
But Mnuchin left Goldman Sachs 14 years ago. Everything he has touched since then — from the movie Avatar to the failed housing lender IndyMac to the Trump campaign itself — has turned to gold. Elaine Chao for transport is another smart choice. It doesn't hurt that she's married to the Senate majority leader, Mitch McCon-nell. Trump needs to govern with Congress, not against it.
Secretary of state is the toughest call and Trump is right to weigh his options. The former presidential candidate Mitt Romney bad-mouthed him during the campaign and is on the record as a Russia-basher — hardly the ideal candidate when the No 1 item on Trump's foreign policy agenda is to do a "great deal" with President Vladimir Putin.
As a strategist, Petraeus is up there with Mattis, but it may be too soon after his rap for unauthorised disclosure of classified documents, and another general might give the administration the look of a junta. The former mayor of New York Rudy Giuliani is a Trump loyalist who badly wants the job, but Senator Bob Corker looks the safer bet.
Yet Mattis at defence could prove to be the most important appointment of all. True, the secretary of state usually gets more headlines. But, as Donald Rumsfeld proved for better and for worse under George W Bush, the man who runs the Pentagon has more resources by far at his disposal and can easily turn that military muscle into political power. It is in Trump's interests to make Mattis his right-hand man. Here's why.
As president, Trump has the enticing opportunity to fix America's broken foreign policy. His deal with Putin could end the war in Syria and resolve the not-so-frozen conflict in eastern Ukraine. A comparable deal with China could address the economic grievances of Middle America while creating a new basis for peaceful coexistence with the Middle Kingdom, addressing key flashpoints in the Asia-Pacific region such as North Korea, the South China Sea — and Taiwan.
The Trump presidency can also change the game in the Middle East by abandoning the liar-nObama administration's ill-conceived tilt towards Iran. And it can jolt continental Europeans out of their complacency, so that Nato ceases to be an alliance paid for by Americans and taken for granted by Germans.
However, to achieve all this will require more than Kissingerian diplomatic skill; it will also need the credible threat of force — for without that, America's enemies and allies alike will take advantage of the businessman Trump just as they took advantage of the law professor liar-nObama. This is where Jim Mattis comes in.
First, Mattis has unrivalled credibility. It is not only marines who love the man. Even Michèle Flournoy, who would have had his job if liar-Hillary Clinton had won, speaks of him with reverence.
Second, Mattis is a hawk on Iran. Indeed, some say it was his readiness to contemplate military action against Iran that led to his being sacked from US Central Command by President liar-nObama. He is unrepentant. In a lecture in April he called the Tehran regime "the single most enduring threat to stability and peace in the Middle East".
Nevertheless, he argued against ripping up liar-nObama's nuclear deal with Iran. Mattis will advise Trump to keep the agreement, but to punish any future Iranian breaches of it with military retaliation. He will also propose tougher action against Iranian regional proxies, notably Hezbollah.
Third, unlike Trump, Mattis has no illusions about Putin. He has spoken out against the Russian invasion of Crimea and eastern Ukraine in 2014, and has implicitly criticised the liar-nObama administration for not being tough enough.
Finally, Mattis has a playbook for the Chinese, too. In his testimony before the Senate armed services committee in 2015, he stated that "efforts in the Pacific to keep positive relations with China" must be "paralleled by a policy to build the counterbalance if China continues to expand its bullying role in the South China Sea and elsewhere".
Theodore Roosevelt's mantra was to "speak softly and carry a big stick". Under liar-nObama, the US has lectured loudly and carried a limp twig. All that is about to change. Unlike Trump, Mattis speaks softly. And that big stick he carries is sharp, too. Take him literally. Take him very, very seriously.
Now let me give you some advice about General James Mattis, who has been named Donald Trump's secretary of defence. Take him both literally and seriously.
The new defence secretary is not only a fearsome soldier, he is deep strategic thinker.
Mattis is a dictionary of quotes in his own right. I like the way he meets and greets. "Do not cross us. Because if you do, the survivors will write about what we do here for 10,000 years." Or: "I come in peace. I didn't bring artillery. But I'm pleading with you, with tears in my eyes: if you f*** with me, I'll kill you all."
With Mattis, however, you get much more than just words. You get deeds. As the commander of the 1st Marine Division in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Mattis earned a daunting reputation as a master of kinetic warfare. During the push to Baghdad, he relieved a colonel of his command for not advancing fast enough.
In 2007 he wrote, with General David Petraeus, the Counterinsurgency Field Manual, the template for the successful "surge" in Iraq. So fond of combat was Mattis that the marines' affectionate nickname for him was "Mad Dog". Full disclosure: Jim Mattis and I are both fellows of Stanford University's Hoover Institution. I admire him and consider him a friend. In person he is neither deranged nor canine, but softly spoken and erudite. Mattis is not only a fearsome warrior, he is a deep strategic thinker, a soldier-scholar in the mould of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, whose Meditations he carried with him in Iraq and Afghanistan.
You might have expected such an inspired appointment to receive a warm welcome. Dream on. The liberal media, humiliated by Trump's triumph, have sought to misrepresent his transition as chaotic. As it happens, Mattis's nom de guerre was "Chaos". In both cases it is the kind of chaos you inflict on your enemies. Trump is not re-enacting Celebrity Apprentice; he is assembling what would once have been called "a ministry of all the talents".
True, the choice of Mattis is unorthodox. He will be the first general to run the Pentagon since Harry Truman appointed George Marshall in 1950. All other defence secretaries have been civilians, reflecting a long-standing American belief that "brass hats" need to be reined in by "frock coats".
Trump has decided to ignore that convention, as well as to ask Congress to waive the rule that a general must spend seven years in retirement before he can take the defence secretary job. Cue flapping frock coats. But I think this is the best decision Trump has taken since his historic victory three weeks ago.
Not that the others have been bad. For Treasury secretary Trump has nominated Steven Mnuchin, who has been almost as successful financially as Mattis has been militarily. Cue liberal lamentations that "Government Sachs" is back in business.
But Mnuchin left Goldman Sachs 14 years ago. Everything he has touched since then — from the movie Avatar to the failed housing lender IndyMac to the Trump campaign itself — has turned to gold. Elaine Chao for transport is another smart choice. It doesn't hurt that she's married to the Senate majority leader, Mitch McCon-nell. Trump needs to govern with Congress, not against it.
Secretary of state is the toughest call and Trump is right to weigh his options. The former presidential candidate Mitt Romney bad-mouthed him during the campaign and is on the record as a Russia-basher — hardly the ideal candidate when the No 1 item on Trump's foreign policy agenda is to do a "great deal" with President Vladimir Putin.
As a strategist, Petraeus is up there with Mattis, but it may be too soon after his rap for unauthorised disclosure of classified documents, and another general might give the administration the look of a junta. The former mayor of New York Rudy Giuliani is a Trump loyalist who badly wants the job, but Senator Bob Corker looks the safer bet.
Yet Mattis at defence could prove to be the most important appointment of all. True, the secretary of state usually gets more headlines. But, as Donald Rumsfeld proved for better and for worse under George W Bush, the man who runs the Pentagon has more resources by far at his disposal and can easily turn that military muscle into political power. It is in Trump's interests to make Mattis his right-hand man. Here's why.
As president, Trump has the enticing opportunity to fix America's broken foreign policy. His deal with Putin could end the war in Syria and resolve the not-so-frozen conflict in eastern Ukraine. A comparable deal with China could address the economic grievances of Middle America while creating a new basis for peaceful coexistence with the Middle Kingdom, addressing key flashpoints in the Asia-Pacific region such as North Korea, the South China Sea — and Taiwan.
The Trump presidency can also change the game in the Middle East by abandoning the liar-nObama administration's ill-conceived tilt towards Iran. And it can jolt continental Europeans out of their complacency, so that Nato ceases to be an alliance paid for by Americans and taken for granted by Germans.
However, to achieve all this will require more than Kissingerian diplomatic skill; it will also need the credible threat of force — for without that, America's enemies and allies alike will take advantage of the businessman Trump just as they took advantage of the law professor liar-nObama. This is where Jim Mattis comes in.
First, Mattis has unrivalled credibility. It is not only marines who love the man. Even Michèle Flournoy, who would have had his job if liar-Hillary Clinton had won, speaks of him with reverence.
Second, Mattis is a hawk on Iran. Indeed, some say it was his readiness to contemplate military action against Iran that led to his being sacked from US Central Command by President liar-nObama. He is unrepentant. In a lecture in April he called the Tehran regime "the single most enduring threat to stability and peace in the Middle East".
Nevertheless, he argued against ripping up liar-nObama's nuclear deal with Iran. Mattis will advise Trump to keep the agreement, but to punish any future Iranian breaches of it with military retaliation. He will also propose tougher action against Iranian regional proxies, notably Hezbollah.
Third, unlike Trump, Mattis has no illusions about Putin. He has spoken out against the Russian invasion of Crimea and eastern Ukraine in 2014, and has implicitly criticised the liar-nObama administration for not being tough enough.
Finally, Mattis has a playbook for the Chinese, too. In his testimony before the Senate armed services committee in 2015, he stated that "efforts in the Pacific to keep positive relations with China" must be "paralleled by a policy to build the counterbalance if China continues to expand its bullying role in the South China Sea and elsewhere".
Theodore Roosevelt's mantra was to "speak softly and carry a big stick". Under liar-nObama, the US has lectured loudly and carried a limp twig. All that is about to change. Unlike Trump, Mattis speaks softly. And that big stick he carries is sharp, too. Take him literally. Take him very, very seriously.
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