The Front Page Cover
"I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened"
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Featuring:
Hilarity with Hilly
Burt Prelutsky
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"Know who you are standing with"
"Show me your friends and I'll show you your future"
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WITH YOUR SECOND CUP OF COFFEE
The long, cold winter covered much of Lake Michigan with sheets of ice, but now that the ice has retreated the water is remarkably clear. (The cold held back seasonal algae blooms that make the water murky in warmer weather.) As a result, the many shipwrecks that dot the floor of the second largest of the Great Lakes are visible through the blue waters. NPR reports: “Photos from the flight out of the Coast Guard’s Traverse City, Mich., air station show a variety of ships resting on the lake bottom, including the James McBride, a 121-foot brig that sank in 1857. … ‘An estimated 6,000 vessels were lost on the Great Lakes with approximately 1,500 of these ships located in Michigan waters,’ according to the state Department of Environmental Quality, which calls the wrecks ‘irreplaceable records of our cultural history.’” -Fox News
The long, cold winter covered much of Lake Michigan with sheets of ice, but now that the ice has retreated the water is remarkably clear. (The cold held back seasonal algae blooms that make the water murky in warmer weather.) As a result, the many shipwrecks that dot the floor of the second largest of the Great Lakes are visible through the blue waters. NPR reports: “Photos from the flight out of the Coast Guard’s Traverse City, Mich., air station show a variety of ships resting on the lake bottom, including the James McBride, a 121-foot brig that sank in 1857. … ‘An estimated 6,000 vessels were lost on the Great Lakes with approximately 1,500 of these ships located in Michigan waters,’ according to the state Department of Environmental Quality, which calls the wrecks ‘irreplaceable records of our cultural history.’” -Fox News
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First Quarter GDP Is a Harsh Reality Check
Other than the first quarter, last year was a better year for the economy. After contracting 2.1% to start off 2014, GDP jumped to 4.6% in the second quarter and 5% in the third quarter before slipping to 2.2% to round out the year. So, how's 2015 looking so far? Well, chilly — literally, according to Democrats. TheCommerce Department released initial numbers for the first quarter of 2015, and, at a sluggish 0.2%, GDP once again tempered America's level of economic enthusiasm. And the "worse-than-expected" downtrend is inevitably being blamed on winter weather woes. Jason Furman, Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, said this latest estimate "was likely affected by notably harsh winter weather" — interesting considering we're supposedly coming off the warmest year on record and had a record warm start to 2015. It's also the same recycled excuse they used last year.
Moreover, as Nick Timiraos of The Wall Street Journal reminds us, revisions knocked last year's initial first quarter growth down by a staggering two percentage points — from 0.1% to -2.1%. Is a repeat in the offing? Yesterday's report continues a familiar trend under the nObama recovery — a roller coaster ride that features some signs of life along with harsh reality checks. Stability and sustainability are still lacking in the economy, which will continue through at least 2017. -The Patriot Post
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Bernie Sanders Challenges Clinton for Democrat Nomination
At least the Democrat presidential primary got interesting. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), the politician who described himself as a "democratic socialist" and who was described by the New York Times as an adherent to "that old-time religion" of populism, announced he is campaigning to win the Democrat Party's nomination as its presidential candidate. The politician that was once too far to the Left for the Democrat Party told the Associated Press, "People should not underestimate me. I've run outside of the two-party system, defeating Democrats and Republicans, taking on big-money candidates and, you know, I think the message that has resonated in Vermont is a message that can resonate all over this country." Right out of the gate, Sanders challenged Hilly Clinton's succession to the throne by bringing the progressive rhetoric that splits rich versus poor and capitalizes on income inequality. "What we have seen is that while the average person is working longer hours for lower wages," Sanders said, "we have seen a huge increase in income and wealth inequality, which is now reaching obscene levels." Between the two candidates, Clinton still seems the greater threat. Sanders appears more harmless than calculating, and a Sanders nomination will pull the Democrat Party further from middle America. -The Patriot Post
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Did Freddie Gray Try to Injure Himself in the Police Van?
If true, the death of Freddie Gray may not have anything to do with police brutality and more to do with an irrational man bent on self-harm. This in from The Washington Post: "A prisoner sharing a police transport van with Freddie Gray told investigators that he could hear Gray 'banging against the walls' of the vehicle and believed that he 'was intentionally trying to injure himself,' according to a police document obtained by The Washington Post." This story has the ring of truthiness about it, but is it really? Jazz Shaw writes at Hot Air that the prisoner could be an unreliable witness — similar to the witnesses that said Michael Brown had his hands up. Furthermore, Investigative Reporter at Baltimore's NBC affiliate TV station Jayne Miller said the Post's account contradicts what the Baltimore Police Commissioner said a week ago. At the time, he said the prisoner described Gray as "mostly quiet." The timeline is still being reconstructed. When we do get the complete and truthful story, what will happen if the rioters, who already destroyed much of Baltimore, do not get the conclusion for which they demanded? -The Patriot Post
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No, Riots Are Not a 'Legitimate Political Strategy' Reading the liberal media, you'd think the Baltimore rioters are the reincarnation of Lexington and Concord's minutemen, bravely facing tyrants to defend their freedom. Well, Paul Revere might disagree. Somehow, ruining businesses and running off with condoms doesn't quite equate to Patrick Henry's speech "Give me Liberty or give me death." But the Left wants America to think it does.
A particularly absurd Salon headline this week reads, "Baltimore's violent protesters are right: Smashing police cars is a legitimate political strategy." The author's argument is that non-violence is "a tactic, not a philosophy" and that black communities are struggling against "premeditated economic exploitation." Riots are simply "reasonable responses to generations of extreme state violence, and logical decisions about what kind of actions yield the desired political results."
According to Fordham University sociology professor Heather Gautney, "Riots like the ones we are seeing in Baltimore … should be viewed as rational responses to injustice. Riots highlight the injustice and violence that's prevalent in impoverished neighborhoods in this country."
And BuzzFeed's Adam Serwer writes, "Violence — as harmful and self-destructive as it is — sometimes works." Serwer claims that, for 80 years, the "recipe for urban riots" has been largely the same: "(a)n impoverished and politically disempowered black population refused full American citizenship, a heavy-handed and overwhelmingly white police force, a generous amount of neglect, and frequently, the loss of black life at the hands of the police." -The Patriot Post
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Hilly Says "Every Life Matters" Not Unborn Babies
(Philip Hodges) - Recently, we reported about Hilly’s statement on people needing to change their religious beliefs to make way for abortion rights. She has quite a record when it comes to supporting abortion. According to LifeNews.com...Most recently, Hilly Clinton pushed abortion at a fundraising event in March. One year to the date after she received an award from the radical pro-abortion group Emily’s List, presidential candidate Hilly Clinton gave the keynote address last night at a fundraiser for the organization. Clinton’s speech came at the Emily’s List 30th Anniversary Conference and Gala in Washington, D.C. and she applauded the work of the abortion activists, who strongly support taxpayer funding of abortions and strongly oppose banning late-term abortions. http://lastresistance.com/11414/hillary-says-every-life-matters-but-supports-murdering-unborn-babies/
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"Hidden" mortgage fee paying for payroll tax cut
(Sharyl Attkisson) - Just before Christmas, American workers got a rare gift from Washington politicians - the current payroll tax cut would be extended for two more months...At the time, both President Barack nObama and House Speaker backstabber John Boehner lauded the move to avoid a tax increase for millions of working Americans. But there's something the politicians weren't bragging about - the fact that they're paying for the two-month tax cut with what has turned into a brand new fee on home buyers. The new fee is a minimum of one-tenth of 1 percent on Fannie Mae- and Freddie Mac-backed loans, and is likely to go much higher. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/hidden-mortgage-fee-paying-for-payroll-tax-cut/
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JW Sues on Clinton Cover-Up
(Tom Fitton) - Revelations this week lead one to wonder not so much whether Hilly Clinton can win the Democratic nomination for president, but whether she can stay out of jail...Last week, we learned about apparent Clinton, Inc. tax fraud, bribery and money laundering to help Putin corner America’s uranium market, and abuse of office to reward funders of the Clinton Cash Machine – not to mention Judicial Watch’s bombshell of untoward Saudi influence and corruption in Hilly Clinton’s State Department. This week, we received more news about apparent money laundering out of India; lies by Clinton, Inc. about more Putin-connected contributions out of Canada; and more cover-up from another Hilly operation that focused on health care. JW’s chief investigative reporter brought us up to date with more reporting about yet another Clinton front: http://www.judicialwatch.org/press-room/weekly-updates/jw-sues-on-clinton-cover-up/
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Media Bears Responsibility for the Violence
(leanrightamerica.org) - Tuesday morning, 23-year-old Jeremiah Matthews allegedly entered a Houston Wal-Mart, walked up to a female off-duty police officer, and attacked her with a knife...By the time bystander Abe Baker intervened, Matthews had stabbed April Pikes 14 times, leaving her alive but in danger of losing her right arm. According to investigators, he had carried out the attack “because police are oppressive.” Pikes was moonlighting as a security guard for the superstore when Matthews came at her with what witnesses described as a hunting knife. At a press conference that afternoon, a community activist spoke on behalf of the Matthews family. He confirmed that the assailant had a history of mental illness, and he also admitted that Matthews may have taken his cues from the situation in Baltimore surrounding the death of Freddie Gray. Investigators say that Matthews told them that brutal treatment from the police had driven him to the deed. Without question, Matthews deserves the blame for his actions. Anyone who engages in violence must accept responsibility for the consequences. That said, the media should take a close look at this case and turn the camera on themselves. When rioters destroy Ferguson, when “thugs” burn Baltimore, when a deranged individual kills New York City cops…the media bears some of the responsibility. http://www.leanrightamerica.org/uncategorized/media-bears-responsibility-for-the-violence/
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House Votes Down D.C. Pro-Abortion 'Discrimination' Law
(Tad Cronn) - Lawmakers in the House got up the nerve to strike down a law that pro-abortion groups want very badly...The law in question is the Reproductive Health Non-Discrimination Amendment Act, and as you can figure from the euphemistic title, it’s about cramming the abortion agenda down Americans’ throats. The Left portrays the law as protecting pro-abortion workers (now there’s a class I never thought of as discriminated against) from discrimination in hiring because of their political views. It’s the old Left Wing tactic of infiltrate and change from within: Once you pack an opposing group with enough of your own people, just change the sign on the front door and complete the purge. It would almost be funny if it weren’t so serious. Think about it. Pro-abortion groups are advocates of the most serious and final form of discrimination, taking a child’s life simply for being an inconvenience. http://politicaloutcast.com/2015/05/house-votes-down-d-c-pro-abortion-discrimination-law/
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Hundreds of Muslim refugees headed to Idaho
(Leo Hohmann) - The multicultural transformation of Idaho will continue with a planned infusion of hundreds of refugees from Muslim countries over the next one to three years...A local newspaper in Twin Falls reported that city will receive 300 mostly Syrian refugees over the next fiscal year starting Oct. 1. But WND has learned the numbers will be much larger statewide and include refugees from Syria, Iraq, the Democratic Republic of Congo and possibly Somalia. Sources tell WND that community leaders learned of the plans for up to 2,000 refugees at a recent conference at Boise State University attended by church groups, social services providers and other “stakeholders.” http://www.wnd.com/2015/04/hundreds-of-muslim-refugees-headed-to-idaho/
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Republicans Are Making a Big Mistake Trying to “Fix” nObamacare
(Onan Coca) - The Supreme Court may very well rule against nObamacare this summer, ending government subsidies for millions of Americans and forcing them to pay full cost for their healthcare needs...This would be a massive blow to the nObama administration and to the Democrat Party, but don’t worry, the GOP is trying to step in and save the day. For the Democrats that is. A group of Republicans Senators are planning to use the possible victory as leverage against the nObama administration in an effort to push the President to end the employer mandate and the individual mandate. At first blush, this seems like a great idea…. Except all this does is salvage nObamacare for another day. The GOP doesn’t think they can end nObamacare while nObama is still President, but a ruling that negates subsidies will end it for them. If the Supreme Court rules against nObamacare this summer, it will destroy any positive impact the nObama administration hoped it might have. The Democrats will scramble to come up with quick fixes to patch the holes, but to get those “fixes” passed into law, they’ll need Republican votes. http://eaglerising.com/18005/republicans-making-big-mistake-trying-fix-obamacare/
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(fixthisnation.com) - According to a new report from the Associated Press, the nObama administration will deport fewer illegal immigrants this year than at any time in the last decade...As of April 20, immigration officials have deported only 127,378 illegals in 2015. If that pace continues, fewer immigrants will be deported this year than at any time since the George W. Bush administration. According to Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, there are perfectly reasonable explanations behind the drop. He told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday that factors such as changing demographics and fewer arrests at the border have contributed to the decline. “With the resources we have,” he said, “I’m interested in focusing on criminals and recent illegal arrivals at the border.” In other words, he’s interested in carrying out President nObama’s executive actions, even though those actions have been frozen by a federal judge. This doesn’t have anything to do with changing demographics or fewer border arrests; it has to do with serving the president’s wishes. http://www.fixthisnation.com/conservative-breaking-news/deportations-plummet-as-officials-stop-enforcing-law/
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nObama’s Kenyan Family Has Disowned Him
(Bradford Thomas) - According to reports, President nObama’s Kenyan family has now completely “disowned him.”...The much-chronicled “complicated” relationship between nObama and his Kenyan family has reportedly utterly collapsed in the last few years, the family accusing him of turning a blind eye to them and only touting his Kenyan heritage for “political expediency.” As the NY Times noted in April 2014, though nObama consistently “distanced” himself from the family as president, his Kenyan heritage was a “powerful element” of his first presidential campaign, when he sold himself as “a candidate who connect different worlds,” even inviting a delegation of his African relatives to his 2009 inauguration. The relationship really melted down last year when nObama allegedly stonewalled the family over the funeral of nObama’s aunt Zaituni, which the president skipped in order to play another round of golf. This country should do the same. http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/report-obamas-kenyan-family-has-disowned-him
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FBI Links Chinese Government to Cyber Attacks on U.S. Companies
(Bill Gertz) - Computer hackers linked to the Chinese government used two Chinese telecom companies and the Baidu search engine to mount mass data disruption attacks on American websites involved in circumventing Beijing’s censors...According to a confidential FBI Flash alert sent to U.S. companies on Thursday, investigators determined with high confidence that since the middle of March Internet traffic entering China was used in a data-denial attack against two websites involved in defeating Chinese-based web censorship. The traffic was “manipulated to create cyber attacks directed at U.S.-based websites,” the notice said. http://freebeacon.com/national-security/fbi-links-chinese-government-to-cyber-attacks-on-u-s-companies/
Hilarity with Hilly
(burtprelutsky.com) - I know that a lot of people are waiting to hear Mrs. Clinton answer tough questions from reporters, but I’m not one of them. I’m pretty old and I’m not sure I have the time to sit through too many of her answers.
For instance, Morton Michaels reminds me that in 2014, when asked about her accomplishments as Secretary of State, she responded: “Well, I’m glad you asked me that! My proudest accomplishment in which I take the most pride, mostly because of the opposition it faced early on, you know…the remnants of prior situations and mindsets that were too narrowly focused in a manner whereby they may have overlooked the bigger picture and we didn’t do that and I’m proud of that. Very proud. I would say that’s a major accomplishment.”
The scariest thing of all is that tens of millions of Democrats would listen to that incoherent drivel, nod and say, “Yep, she’s the smartest woman in the world.”
Pundits never tire of pointing out that Hilly has a frosty relationship with the members of the media. Well, I know why I despise them, but I can’t figure out her attitude. It strikes me that theirs is one of the great tales of unrequited love, taking its place alongside “The Great Gatsby” and “Cyrano de Bergerac.” The members of the media, after all, wear their hearts on their sleeves when it comes to liberals, but it’s as if Hilly takes it as an affront that they seem to adore Nancy Pulosi, Barbara Boxer and Elizabeth Warren, every bit as much as they love her.
Because Hilly treated the members of the media with the contempt they deserve, the twerps were forced to read great meaning into the fact that in Iowa she visited a Chipotle restaurant and ordered a burrito bowl with a side of guacamole, as if they were reading tea leaves or Tarot cards. Was she reaching out to the Hispanic population or perhaps the avocado growers of America? Or perhaps this woman of the people simply had no idea what a burrito was and thought she was ordering a donut.
How can one not enjoy her attempts to pass herself off as just a typical granny in spite of having $200 million in the family checking account? She can’t even say something as non-partisan as referring to “all the truckers I saw on the I-80 as I was driving here” without reminding us that this self-proclaimed champion of the middleclass hasn’t even driven a car in 25 years.
I expect when she is finally forced to answer for those millions of dollars that flowed into the Clinton coffers even while she was serving as Secretary of State, she’ll channel her inner Bill, and respond in typical Clintonian fashion: “It all depends on what the meaning of ‘bribery’ is.”
In the meantime, her utter contempt for journalists is the only thing about her I like.
♦ If the media didn’t see its mission as being the propaganda arm of the Socialist Party, someone would ask nObama why, if Islamic terrorists are not really Islamic, he continues to supply Gitmo inmates with Korans, a Muslim diet and prayer mats, and why he insisted that the Navy provide Osama bin Laden’s carcass with a religious send-off at sea.
♦ Even I know that as soon as the Federal Reserve stops keeping the economy afloat by printing funny money and maintaining interest rates at zero, the Stock Market will crash and burn. It’s inevitable, just as it was in 2008. How could it have been otherwise, thanks to sub-prime mortgages?
The banks were happy to cash in, but it was the Democrats who got the ball rolling. They assumed that allowing people with lousy credit to buy homes with no money down would provide them with a windfall on Election Day. After all, on page one of their playbook, it says the best way to win elections is to buy votes with other people’s money.
Of course one reason the Democrats were able to carry it off is because people like Barney Frank, Chris Dodd and the bureaucrats at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac lied about the actual number of sub-prime loans, waiting like time bombs to go off. They told us there were six million. Turns out there were 31 million.
♦ Here in California, Jerry Brown and his stooges blame the drought on the lack of rainfall without mentioning that we are never more than a few years away from the next drought. What they fail to mention is that they haven’t built a new reservoir in 40 years or even considered taking advantage of a 700 mile coastline by building desalinization plants.
They even have the audacity to accuse farmers of wasting water, never once blaming the environmental lobby for denying water to farmland in order to safeguard such after-thoughts of Mother Nature as the delta smelt, the spotted owl and the flaky self-important members of the Sierra Club.
In the ongoing debate, even without knowing any of the pertinent facts, who would you imagine to be the more responsible stewards of the earth: rich San Francisco snots who gather regularly to drink white wine spritzers and nosh on brie or the San Joaquin farmers who depend on the earth for their livelihood?
♦ In other news, when the PBS documentary series, “Finding Your Roots,” discovered that an ancestor of uberliberal Ben Affleck had been a slave owner, Affleck persuaded the show to conceal the fact. Naturally, PBS obliged him, explaining, once the story broke, that it wasn’t censorship; they had merely come up with a more interesting ancestor.
Pardon my cynicism, but would PBS have cut a conservative celebrity, someone like Jon Voight, Pat Boone or Pat Sajak, the same slack? Not likely unless the more interesting ancestor turned out to be Benedict Arnold.
♦ Over the course of the past week, I have received a few more questions addressed to Dear Burt, everyone’s favorite seer.
“Dear Burt: What do you think of presidential debates as a way of deciding on a Republican candidate? Curious in Chicago.”
“Dear Curious: If they actually proved anything, we’d probably be better off electing members of high school or college debating teams. Which, considering some of the candidates we’ve come up with, might not be the worst idea in the world. A better process would involve arming the combatants with long knives and placing them all in a deep pit. The person who finally climbed out would then be in a better position to run against Hilly.”
“Dear Burt: What did you make of the melee that recently took place when a large group of demonstrators carrying signs reading “Captivity is Slavery,” “Animals are Innocent” and “Stop the Injustice,” got into a scuffle with employees of the Ramos Brothers Circus? Anxious in Augusta.”
“Dear Anxious: Frankly, I don’t enjoy seeing elephants being forced to parade around the ring like a bunch of showgirls. But the only surprising thing about watching liberal pinheads brawling with circus clowns is that for once it took place in San Bernardino, CA, and not in Washington, D.C.”
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