The Front Page Cover
"I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened"
.
Featuring:
Signs of Decline
Tom McLaughlin
.
"Know who you are standing with"
"Show me your friends and I'll show you your future"
~~~lll~~~
.
Iranian Nuclear Deal Isn't Exactly Peace in Our Time
After two years in the works and numerous missed deadlines, the P5+1 — United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Russia and China — and the Islamic regime of Iran reached a formal nuclear agreement. But, as expected, the deal is "mutually beneficial" for all the wrong reasons: nObama can punt the issue to the next administration; meanwhile, Iran —which is expected to abandon its pursuit of nuclear weapons for a decade — will quietly continue its operations underground. The Washington Free Beacon reports, "In one of the most controversial concessions made by the nObama administration, a United Nations embargo on arms will also be lifted within around five years as part of the deal, according to multiple reports. A similar embargo on the construction of ballistic missiles, which could carry a nuclear payload, also will expire in around eight years under the deal. Initial readings of the deal also indicate that Iran will be given the right to veto so-called 'anywhere, anytime' inspections of Iranian nuclear sites." Congress will have to give the deal the go-ahead, but that likelihood increased significantly thanks to the legislative compromise crafted by Sen. Bob Corker. As National Review's Andrew McCarthy explained, "[I]nstead of requiring the president to convince a two-thirds super majority of the Senate to approve the Iran deal, it requires opponents to convince a two-thirds super majority of the full Congress to defeat the deal." -The Patriot Post
.
.
County Clerk Refuses Marriage Licenses
In the days since five members of the Supreme Court endorsed redefining marriage, essentially creating a constitutional "right" to same-sex marriage out of thin air, the question has been what rights trump other rights when the inevitable conflict happens. Actually, it's not so much a question as it is seeing where Christians are assaulted next. It isn't just bakers, florists and photographers, but, among others, churches, religious schools and county clerks. In Kentucky, the question of religious liberty and marriage is back in court after Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis refused to comply with the SCOTUS ruling. In fact, Davis wouldn't issue any marriage licenses. "It's a deep-rooted conviction," Davis said. "My conscience won't allow me to do that. It goes against everything I hold dear — everything sacred in my life." U.S. District Judge David L. Bunning heard arguments Monday. Several county clerks around the nation have resigned rather than violate their own beliefs, and others are pondering what moves to make. The root of the problem is that the "right" to same-sex marriage requires endorsement, whether or not it's against conscience. -The Patriot Post
.
.
NYC Gives Garner Family $5.9 Million
On July 17, 2014, several white New York City police officers, under the supervision of a black NYPD police sergeant named Kizzy Adoni, were involved in a takedown of a belligerent black man, Eric Garner, after he resisted arrest for selling "loose" cigarettes. One of the officers, Daniel Pantaleo, used a modified choke hold as part of the effort to get the 350lb Garner to the ground. That choke hold had been previously barred by NYPD policy because it caused prior injuries and deaths. Indeed, Garner died shortly after the takedown, though Pantaleo was not indicted. In part because the incident was caught on video it became a primary anecdote in the narrative about racist police enforcement. On Monday, New York City settled with Garner's family for $5.9 million, just days before the anniversary of Garner's death and the deadline for filing suit. The family had given notice of a $75 million suit, and the settlement is obviously the city's effort to close the book on the story and to save taxpayers potentially many millions more dollars. The book isn't closed across the country, however, as citizens and police departments grapple with what effective and proper law enforcement looks like in a very racially charged America. -The Patriot Post
.
.
Hilly Blames Republicans for nObama's Economy Hilly Clinton finally laid out a platform for her campaign Monday, focusing on her plan to solve America's economic woes. Just kidding. She didn't really propose anything new so much as complain about the state of an economy that “still isn’t delivering for most Americans,” while inciting a little class warfare along the way. Of course, she's done quite alright for herself, thank you very much, but that's beside the point, right?
"Previous generations of Americans built the greatest economy and strongest middle class the world has ever known on the promise of a basic bargain: If you work hard and do your part, you should be able to get ahead," Hilly said. "But over the past several decades, that bargain has eroded. Our job is to make it strong again."
That bargain has indeed eroded over the last six-plus years of Barack nObama's "recovery" (eight years if we include Democrat control of Congress beginning in 2007), during which the government spent $1 trillion it didn't have in "stimulus" money, took over the health insurance market, institutionalized "too big to fail" through financial regulations and raised taxes on small businesses. Those policies only served to harm the middle class by undermining job and wage growth. -The Patriot Post
.
.
Why Palestinians Cannot Make Peace with Israel
{Khaled Abu Toameh} ~There are two main reasons why Palestinians will not sign a real and meaningful peace agreement with Israel -- at least not in the foreseeable future... The first is a total lack of education for peace. The second is related to the absence of a leader who is authorized -- or has the guts -- to embark on such a risky mission. Americans and Europeans who keep talking about the need to revive the stalled peace process in the Middle East continue to ignore these two factors. They continue to insist that peace is still possible and that the ball is in Israel's court. The Americans and Europeans fail to acknowledge that in order to achieve peace, the leaders must prepare their people for compromise and tolerance. But now the deal with Iran makes it a lot harder for peace.
.
Radical British Islamist Hid In Plain Sight – On Government Payroll
{investigativeproject.org} ~ The British government saw "Abdullah al Andalusi" as a trusted adviser, someone qualified to help oversee Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC), which supervises UK police counter-terrorism policy and reactions to attacks... Andalusi may have enjoyed access to classified information in that role. That stopped when someone in the HMIC hierarchy recently saw Andalusi on television, defending extremist ideology offered by the Saudi-financed Muslim Debate Initiative, theSunday Telegraph's Andrew Gilligan reported. Andalusi's Islamist activities were done under his real name, Mouloud Farid, while government officials failed to realize he secured government work with a fake name. Farid is close with the radical Hizb ut Tahrir, a global Islamist movement that has been described as a "conveyor belt" for jihadist terror.
.
If Every American Saw Video, Hilly Clinton Wouldn’t Stand A Chance
{Randy DeSoto} ~ National Review just released a video compiling in less than three minutes some of the main reasons Hilly Clinton is not a trustworthy choice for the highest office in the land... The video, which is entitled Who is Hilly Clinton?, opens with various high profile Democrats offering their reasons why Clinton is the best choice for president. She is the “most qualified,” they all appear to mimic. http://www.westernjournalism.com/watch-if-every-american-saw-this-3-minute-video-hillary-clinton-wouldnt-stand-a-chance/
Video: https://youtu.be/pOWebCMpSio
.
Iran Nuclear Deal is Sealed
{Keith Koffler} ~ The United States and other world powers this morning announced a deal addressing Iran’s nuclear weapons program for about ten years, and perhaps a bit longer. The agreement restricts Iran’s nuclear programs in exchange for the lifting of sanctions against the country... However, the agreement may be flawed. According several reports, many people are planning to live longer than ten years and could become adversely affected if they do. The “breakout” time to a nuclear weapons is supposedly reduced to one year. But the breakout time would begin to decline after only ten years. However, in a key concession that is sure to fuel opposition to the deal in Congress, access to Iran’s military sites is not guaranteed, possibly prevent a full view into what Iran is up to and preventing an accounting of what it has done. Iran will be able to challenge inspections of such sites, and the issue will be decided by some kind of panel that will include Iran. That means inspections will at the very least be delayed.
.
Iran Officially Done: Final nObama Capitulations Really Stink!
{Jeff Dunetz} ~ Somewhere around 2:30AM my cell started dinging with the new that a P5+1 deal with the rogue regime of Iran has been completed. While few details have been released (more will be released soon) word of the final American concessions to Iran are leaking out and I can say with confidence... this deal stinks to high heaven (or as we say in the mamaloshen-Yiddish) it isfarshtunken and or even worse shtinken. You will hear that the final issues have been solved in favor of the U.S. position , in most cases it is only a victory for the wordsmiths. The nObama/hanoi Kerry team will say that Iran as agreed to anytime/anywhere inspections, not exactly true because according to Reuters the deal will allow Iran to have a voice in which/when Iranian sites get inspected. Therefore while everyone is busy "consulting" (perhaps indefinitely) Iran is cleaning up the site the U.N. wants to inspect. So the inspections are worthless.
.
Alan Grayson Lies In His Announcement Video: Gets Nasty
{Jeff Dunetz}If Alan Grayson becomes the next U.S. Senator from Florida, I promise will break NY State law and refuse to move to Miami when I am 65. We are talking about a scumbag who is trying to prove is wife of over twenty-five years and mother of his four kids was a bigamist so he wouldn't have to pay her alimony... Funny how he didn't think about that twenty-four and a half years ago. As reported by Adam Smith, of the Tampa Bay Times, on his video where he announced his candidacy Senate (embedded below), Grayson "falsely claimed to have founded a group called the Alliance for Research in Aging. You can hear it at about 2:55: 'After I finished school I founded the Alliance for Aging Research."
.
nObama's Iran Deal May Throw Middle East Into Regional War
{Jeff Dunetz} ~ The United States and the other P5+1 negotiators hurdle toward a deal with the Iranians which will do little beyond allowing Tehran to hide their weapons program but this time with the support of the western world... As that is happening the Middle East is inching closer to war as Egypt and Saudi Arabia are looking to purchase nuclear weapons, and Israel is reminded once again that it cannot rely on any other nation but itself for its protection. This time however, the Jewish State may receive some tacit help from some of its Arab "enemies." As talk continues of an imminent deal between Iran and world powers, along with the American concession which may see Tehran receive all of its demands, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is saying Israel will not not bound by the deal. Speaking to the a meeting of the Likud faction in Knesset Monday the Israeli Prime Minister made it clear that Israel will not allow Iran to go nuclear deal or no deal: http://yidwithlid.blogspot.com/2015/07/obamas-iran-deal-may-throw-middle-east.html?utm_source=The+Lid+List&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=435f21c58b-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_term=0_597b72c01c-435f21c58b-291705165&goal=0_597b72c01c-435f21c58b-291705165
.
Defiant Netanyahu Lays Down the Law: Israel not bound by Iran deal
{Ari Soffer & Gil Ronen} ~ What a stunning historic mistake,’ says Prime Minister. ‘This deal repeats the mistakes made with North Korea.’... Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu delivered his official reaction tothe deal signed between Iran and world powers over Tehran’s nuclear program. “The world is a much more dangerous place today than it was yesterday,” Netanyahu said, speaking at the start of an emergency security cabinet meeting he convened following news of the deal, which was officially announced Tuesday morning. http://gopthedailydose.com/2015/07/14/defiant-netanyahu-lays-down-the-law-israel-not-bound-by-iran-deal-will-defend-itself/.
HILLY: SAME OLD '90S CLINTON DEMAGOGUERY
{David Limbaugh} ~ Hilly Clinton is a walking, talking cliche who spouts decades-old sound bites that were bad enough when her husband first delivered them but are painfully anachronistic today. Same old material, same old demagoguery... You would think a self-styled “progressive” would be less regressive and reactionary, but this woman apparently believes that the Clinton magic of the ’90s can be dusted off and resurrected without the slightest rhetorical modification. The problem with that is that Clintonomics only works on the heels of Reaganomics, and liberals have been squeezing every last ounce of Reaganomics out of our system. In her first major economic policy speech at The New School in New York, Hilly made clear that she wants to revive the shamefully populist Clinton-Gore trope of “trickle-down economics.” This hackneyed slogan is grounded in the lie that Republicans believe that only by stacking the deck in favor of the wealthiest people will the rest of America be able to do better, and then only by catching their breadcrumbs as they trickle down into the general economy.
.
Daniel Pipes: A sea of Horrors, Butwisps of hope in the Middle East
{Daniel Pipes} ~ Daniel Pipes: I'd like to start by bearing down, boring down a little further into what Bret Stephens said last night. I'm in basically total agreement with what he said. But he spoke globally, and I'll speak regionally... To begin with, he called the essence of nObama's foreign policy coddling enemies and scolding friends. I wrote some months ago, the essence of the nObama foreign policy is to snub friends, downgrade US interests, seek consensus, and act diplomatically. I would add to this that I see him as a standard-issue American leftist. I do not see him as particularly original. And in particular, although I have studied in depth his early life and concluded that he was born and raised a Muslim, and that he has not told the truth about his own background; nonetheless, I do not see any particular influence of this background on his policies. I've had many debates on the subject, but I don't see it. I seem him as a cookie-cutter leftist American. http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/259452/daniel-pipes-sea-horrors-wisps-hope-middle-east-frontpagemagcomVideo: https://vimeo.com/132264835
.
Signs of Decline
Tom McLaughlin
.
{tommclaughlin.blogspot.com} ~ “Vote For Your Grandchildren,” proclaimed the bumper sticker I’d walked by many times. Thinking about what that might mean, I considered our growing national debt of $18 trillion+, which is expected to equal our entire Gross Domestic Product soon, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Others claim we’re there already, but that isn’t a campaign issue I’ve heard anything about in the 2016 race for president. Why is that?.
Some of my grandchildren
.
Rather, we’re hearing about Greece’s national debt. Greek debt to GDP was at 100% ten years ago, but now it’s 175% and Greece is telling the world two things: One, that it has no intention of paying it back, and two, that it wants to borrow more money. Talk about brazen! Greeks want to retire at fifty with full benefits and they want the rest of Europe to pay for it because they don’t like paying taxes. Quoted in the Wall Street Journal: “Greeks consider taxes as theft,” said Aristides Hatzis, an associate professor of law and economics at the University of Athens. “Normally taxes are considered the price you have to pay for a just state, but this is not accepted by the Greek mentality.” Taxes are also the price of civilization. It’s not accepted by nearly half the US population either, who pay no federal income taxes..
.
.
Wife Roseann and her niece Christina on Athens Street
.
Traveling around Greece last year, what I remember most is graffiti. In Athens, it was everywhere! There were layers and layers of it on virtually every vertical surface reachable by a human hand holding a can of spray paint. There were countless acts of people using someone else’s property as an easel, as a billboard, to display whatever notion was in their mind at the time. Owners of the property must then expend time, energy, and money to clean it up. It was evident that they couldn’t keep up. It’s vandalism, plain and simple, not unlike that of the original Vandals who assaulted Rome and helped bring down Roman civilization with their wanton pillaging..
Off Congress St. Portland, Maine
Attempting to clean up
.
Layers of spray paint don’t bring down a civilization. Rather, they’re a symptom of the underlying decay that brings it down. They’re a sign that those who work to maintain a semblance of order are losing out to those who spread anarchy. As I travel around North America and Europe, the presence or absence of graffiti is my way of taking the temperature of whatever city or country through which I’m traveling. Presence of graffiti is a measure of decline. Lack of effort to clean it up is a measure of cultural despair. Greeks thinking they can live the good life on someone else’s nickel, and thinking they can spray whatever they want on someone else’s property are similar. There’s a connection..
Congress St. Portland, Maine
.
I’m seeing graffiti in more and more places around Portland and it worries me. First it was on boxcars. Watching a train covered with it pass by depressed me. Clearly the railroad company had given up. I used to see it here and there along Forest Avenue and Congress Street, but it wouldn’t remain long before someone cleaned it up or painted over it. Now, however, it’s staying on longer and even being added to. I’ve been seeing the same graffiti for nearly a year and that’s not good. Property owners are responsible to remove it and if they don’t, they’re subject to penalties and fines. But, the will to remove it or to enforce penalties is clearly waning. As the saying goes: The handwriting is on the wall..
..
Comments