The Front Page Cover
The Events of the Week -- Featuring:
After a Mere 25 Years, the Triumph
of the West is Over
by Charles Krauthammer
.
Top Headlines
Democrats doubt "rigged" election and insist liar-Clinton has a "good chance" in the contested recount. (Hot Air)
Senators promoting full legal status for illegal immigrants — a.k.a. future Demo voters. (Washington Times)
The latest pollaganda: Only 1 in 4 want Trump to repeal liar-nObamaCare. Don't believe it. (CBS News)
Anti-Defamation League: Ellison's past remarks about Israel "disqualifying." (The Hill)
The Rainbow Mafia is ganging up on the Gaines family, but are silent on Democrat Rep. Keith Ellison and his anti-homosexual imam. (National Review)
Latest VA no-accountability incident — 600 veterans at risk of HIV and Hepatitis infection. (Miami Herald)
The Ohio State jihadi was taking a class about microaggressions. Either it didn't work ... or it did. (Reason)
Dakota Access pipeline protesters accused of destroying the environment — no irony here, move on... (Washington Times)
Congress ignores liar-nObama's threat, overwhelmingly passes new Iran sanctions. (Washington Free Beacon)
Disgraced French president Hollande is forgoing re-election. Has France had enough socialism?(Reuters)
~The Patriot Post
OPINION IN BRIEF
David Harsanyi: "Trump's crony bailout of Carrier Corp. is disturbing because it sounds a lot like the 'economic patriotism' agenda of the left. It's the standard cronyism in which we've seen one administration after the next indulge. Cronyism. Bullying. It's a bad deal for American workers in the long run, but sadly, 'picking winners and losers' is not outside the norm of big-government politics. If liar-nObama had pulled off the Carrier deal, the same people would have been complaining on opposite sides of the issue. Moreover, Trump's contention that giant infrastructure bills and government spending are economic drivers is also something conservatives should oppose. But that doesn't make this the era of Trump; it means we're still in the era of Washington, D.C. Freak out accordingly." ~The Patriot Post
.
Iran Denies Existence of 7% of Its Population
{clarionproject.org} ~ Five-million Iranians have simply disappeared. That’s if you believe the country’s latest report to the U.N. on its work with minorities within the country... The report’s authors chose to ignore the existence of one of the largest minorities, the five-million Ahvazi Arabs. The human-rights organization of the Ahvazi people noted the omission of the Ahvazi Arabs, and indeed the failure to mention the existence of Arabs in the country at all. This apparent neglect comes despite the fact that the vast majority of the Ahvazis are Shiites – which is the major religious denomination in the Islamic Republic of Iran... https://www.clarionproject.org/news/iran-denies-existence-7-its-population
.
Senate, in 99-0 Vote, Sends Iran Sanctions
Bill to liar-nObama’s Desk
by PATRICK GOODENOUGH
by PATRICK GOODENOUGH
{familysecuritymatters.org} ~ Despite Iranian complaints and administration arguments that the move is unnecessary, the U.S. Senate on Thursday approved legislation extending the Iran Sanctions Act (ISA) for another ten years - by a vote of 99-0... Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont did not vote. The Iran Sanctions Extension Act, which passed in the House in a 419-1 vote a fortnight ago, now goes to President liar-nObama's desk. Unlike other pending Iran-related legislation, the White House has not indicated that liar-nObama would veto the bill - the scale of support indicates a veto would be overridden in any case...
.
Can Trump Stop Muslim Brotherhood’s
‘Civilization Jihad’?
by LT. COLONEL JAMES G. ZUMWALT, USMC (RET)
by LT. COLONEL JAMES G. ZUMWALT, USMC (RET)
{familysecuritymatters.org} ~ Twenty years ago, we paid al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden's war declaration against America little heed. On 9/11, we suffered the consequences of doing so... Six years ago, not only did we pay Muslim Brotherhood leader Muhammad Badie's war declaration against America little heed, but President Barack liar-nObama openly embraced the group, inviting its leadership to the White House. Meanwhile, allies Egypt, Saudi Arabia and later the U.K. denounced Muslim Brotherhood for its Islamist ideology. Sen. Ted Cruz introduced legislation earlier this year declaring it a foreign terrorist organization for promoting radical Islam's Wahhabism via its various proxies. Approved by the House Judiciary Committee, referred to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, liar-nObama stalls the bill's progress. Despite Badie's 2010 war declaration, the Brotherhood initiated a secret war plan much earlier, discovered by accident in 2004, hidden in a Muslim activist's home during a warranted search...
.
How Trump will and won't transform
the Supreme Court
by BETSY MCCAUGHEY, PHD
by BETSY MCCAUGHEY, PHD
{familysecuritymatters.org} ~ The battle lines are forming over Donald Trump's anticipated Supreme Court nominee. A conservative advocacy group is running TV ads urging Trump to appoint a justice in the mold of the late Antonin Scalia... New Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer fires back that Democrats will try to block any nominee who isn't "mainstream." Trouble is, anybody who disputes the Democrats' left-wing definition of the Constitution as a malleable "living" document is outside their mainstream. Meanwhile, pro-choice groups are panicked about losing abortion "rights." For now, it's much ado about nothing. No matter whom Trump appoints this time, there are already five pro-choice justices on the court, counting Justice Anthony Kennedy. It would take a second Trump appointment to tilt the court the other way. During the campaign, Trump pledged to appoint justices who would uphold "the Constitution as it was meant to be." Trump's victory suggests the public agrees...
.
American Renewal
by Clifford D. May
{defenddemocracy.org} ~ Slowly and perhaps even surely, Donald Trump is pulling together a team he believes can help him achieve his goals. Which are what exactly? The most basic are given to him in Article II, Section One, Clause 8 of the U.S. Constitution... On Jan. 20, 2017, Mr. Trump will swear to “faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States,” and to the best of his “ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” Faithful execution implies a presidential obligation to enforce the laws of the land. What about laws he objects to as a matter of principle or policy? He can work with Congress to repeal them. But to disregard them as one might argue President liar-nObama has done is to violate his oath... http://www.defenddemocracy.org/media-hit/may-clifford-d-american-renewal/
..
After a Mere 25 Years, the Triumph
of the West is Over
by Charles Krauthammer
{freedomsback.com} ~ Twenty-five years ago — December 1991 — communism died, the Cold War ended and the Soviet Union disappeared. It was the largest breakup of an empire in modern history and not a shot was fired. It was an event of biblical proportions that my generation thought it would never live to see. As Wordsworth famously rhapsodized about the French Revolution, “Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive/ But to be young was very heaven!”
That dawn marked the ultimate triumph of the liberal democratic idea. It promised an era of Western dominance led by a pre-eminent America, the world’s last remaining superpower.
And so it was for a decade as the community of democracies expanded, first into Eastern Europe and former Soviet colonies. The U.S. was so dominant that when, on Dec. 31, 1999, it gave up one of the most prized geostrategic assets on the globe — the Panama Canal — no one even noticed.
That era is over. The autocracies are back and rising; democracy is on the defensive; the U.S. is in retreat. Look no further than Aleppo. A Western-backed resistance to a local tyrant — he backed by a resurgent Russia, an expanding Iran and an array of proxy Shiite militias — is on the brink of annihilation. Russia drops bombs; America issues statements.
What better symbol for the end of that heady liberal-democratic historical moment. The West is turning inward and going home, leaving the field to the rising authoritarians — Russia, China and Iran. In France, the conservative party’s newly nominated presidential contender is fashionably conservative and populist and soft on Vladimir Putin. As are several of the newer Eastern Europe democracies — Hungary, Bulgaria, even Poland — themselves showing authoritarian tendencies.
And even as Europe tires of the sanctions imposed on Russia for its rape of Ukraine, President liar-nObama’s much touted “isolation” of Russia has ignominiously dissolved, as our secretary of state repeatedly goes cap in hand to Russia to beg for mercy in Syria.
The European Union, the largest democratic club on earth, could itself soon break up as Brexit-like movements spread through the continent. At the same time, its members dash with unseemly haste to reopen economic ties with a tyrannical and aggressive Iran.
As for China, the other great challenger to the post-Cold War order, the administration’s “pivot” has turned into an abject failure. The Philippines has openly defected to the Chinese side. Malaysia then followed. And the rest of our Asian allies are beginning to hedge their bets. When the president of China addressed the Pacific Rim countries in Peru last month, he suggested that China was prepared to pick up the pieces of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, now abandoned by both political parties in the United States.
The West’s retreat began with liar-nObama, who reacted to perceived post-9/11 overreach by abandoning Iraq, offering appeasement (“reset”) to Russia and accommodating Iran. In 2009, he refused even rhetorical support to the popular revolt against the rule of the ayatollahs.
Donald Trump wants to continue the pull back, though for entirely different reasons. liar-nObama ordered retreat because he’s always felt the U.S. was not good enough for the world, too flawed to have earned the moral right to be the world hegemon. Trump would follow suit, disdaining allies and avoiding conflict, because the world is not good enough for us — undeserving, ungrateful, parasitic foreigners living safely under our protection and off our sacrifices. Time to look after our own American interests.
Trump’s is not a new argument. As the Cold War was ending in 1990, Jeane Kirkpatrick, the quintessential neoconservative, argued that we should now become “a normal country in a normal time.” It was time to give up the 20th-century burden of maintaining world order and of making superhuman exertions on behalf of universal values. Two generations of fighting fascism and communism were quite enough. Had we not earned a restful retirement?
At the time, I argued that we had earned it indeed, but a cruel history would not allow us to enjoy it. Repose presupposes a fantasy world in which stability is self-sustaining without the United States. It is not. We would incur not respite but chaos.
A quarter-century later, we face the same temptation, but this time under more challenging circumstances. Worldwide jihadism has been added to the fight, and we enjoy nothing like the dominance we exercised over conventional adversaries during our 1990s holiday from history.
We may choose repose, but we won’t get it.
That dawn marked the ultimate triumph of the liberal democratic idea. It promised an era of Western dominance led by a pre-eminent America, the world’s last remaining superpower.
And so it was for a decade as the community of democracies expanded, first into Eastern Europe and former Soviet colonies. The U.S. was so dominant that when, on Dec. 31, 1999, it gave up one of the most prized geostrategic assets on the globe — the Panama Canal — no one even noticed.
That era is over. The autocracies are back and rising; democracy is on the defensive; the U.S. is in retreat. Look no further than Aleppo. A Western-backed resistance to a local tyrant — he backed by a resurgent Russia, an expanding Iran and an array of proxy Shiite militias — is on the brink of annihilation. Russia drops bombs; America issues statements.
What better symbol for the end of that heady liberal-democratic historical moment. The West is turning inward and going home, leaving the field to the rising authoritarians — Russia, China and Iran. In France, the conservative party’s newly nominated presidential contender is fashionably conservative and populist and soft on Vladimir Putin. As are several of the newer Eastern Europe democracies — Hungary, Bulgaria, even Poland — themselves showing authoritarian tendencies.
And even as Europe tires of the sanctions imposed on Russia for its rape of Ukraine, President liar-nObama’s much touted “isolation” of Russia has ignominiously dissolved, as our secretary of state repeatedly goes cap in hand to Russia to beg for mercy in Syria.
The European Union, the largest democratic club on earth, could itself soon break up as Brexit-like movements spread through the continent. At the same time, its members dash with unseemly haste to reopen economic ties with a tyrannical and aggressive Iran.
As for China, the other great challenger to the post-Cold War order, the administration’s “pivot” has turned into an abject failure. The Philippines has openly defected to the Chinese side. Malaysia then followed. And the rest of our Asian allies are beginning to hedge their bets. When the president of China addressed the Pacific Rim countries in Peru last month, he suggested that China was prepared to pick up the pieces of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, now abandoned by both political parties in the United States.
The West’s retreat began with liar-nObama, who reacted to perceived post-9/11 overreach by abandoning Iraq, offering appeasement (“reset”) to Russia and accommodating Iran. In 2009, he refused even rhetorical support to the popular revolt against the rule of the ayatollahs.
Donald Trump wants to continue the pull back, though for entirely different reasons. liar-nObama ordered retreat because he’s always felt the U.S. was not good enough for the world, too flawed to have earned the moral right to be the world hegemon. Trump would follow suit, disdaining allies and avoiding conflict, because the world is not good enough for us — undeserving, ungrateful, parasitic foreigners living safely under our protection and off our sacrifices. Time to look after our own American interests.
Trump’s is not a new argument. As the Cold War was ending in 1990, Jeane Kirkpatrick, the quintessential neoconservative, argued that we should now become “a normal country in a normal time.” It was time to give up the 20th-century burden of maintaining world order and of making superhuman exertions on behalf of universal values. Two generations of fighting fascism and communism were quite enough. Had we not earned a restful retirement?
At the time, I argued that we had earned it indeed, but a cruel history would not allow us to enjoy it. Repose presupposes a fantasy world in which stability is self-sustaining without the United States. It is not. We would incur not respite but chaos.
A quarter-century later, we face the same temptation, but this time under more challenging circumstances. Worldwide jihadism has been added to the fight, and we enjoy nothing like the dominance we exercised over conventional adversaries during our 1990s holiday from history.
We may choose repose, but we won’t get it.
http://freedomsback.com/charles-krauthammer/after-a-mere-25-years-the-triumph-of-the-west-is-over/
Comments