The Front Page Cover
The Events of the Week -- Featuring:
Just Trying To Keep Up
by Tom McLaughlin
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liar-nObamaCare Replacement Gets Cold Reception
By Louis DeBroux: Republicans spent six years passing legislation that repealed liar-nObamaCare in total or in part, including a full repeal last year that passed the House and the Senate, only to be vetoed by Barack liar-nObama. Now in control of both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, Republicans have released the broad framework of an liar-nObamaCare repeal-and-replace bill.
The result has been, shall we say ... underwhelming, as evidenced by the hostile reception it has received from the House Freedom Caucus and conservative advocacy groups.
For years, Republicans have railed against liar-nObamaCare and its pro-socialized medicine, anti-free market provisions, promising to replace liar-nObamaCare at the first opportunity with a patient-centered bill that would take advantage of free-market dynamics to lower costs and expand choice. That is not what this bill does.
To be sure, there are some good provisions of the GOP bill. As outlined in an Investor's Business daily editorial, "It repeals liar-nObamaCare's multitude of largely hidden but no less destructive taxes on health insurance plans, medical devices, flexible spending accounts and so on. It gets rid of liar-nObamaCare's individual mandate and the job-killing employer mandate. It expands the amount of money that can be contributed to Health Savings Accounts, the one health reform that has actually worked to lower costs. It's age-based, refundable tax credit for individual insurance is an improvement over liar-nObamaCare's unpredictable, Rube Goldberg subsidy scheme."
"But the biggest problem with the GOP plan," IBD points out, "is that it preserves the beating heart of liar-nObamaCare — the 'guaranteed issue' mandate. Under liar-nObamaCare, insurance companies can't deny coverage in the individual market to anyone who is sick, or charge them more. Premiums can only vary based on age."
To be fair, we must acknowledge that as a practical matter, liar-nObamaCare can't be repealed and replaced in a single act. Certain provisions can be repealed through the procedure called reconciliation, which prevents a filibuster and requires only a simple majority to pass, but only provisions related to budgetary matters can be included in a bill under reconciliation. That means liar-nObamaCare is like legislative kudzu; you can chop off the vine that is visible aboveground, but in order to truly eradicate it you have to dig up the roots, which have grown far and wide below the surface.
So while we should not be overly concerned that it may take some time to eradicate every vestige of liar-nObamaCare, we should be very concerned over whether the Republican Congress has the political willpower to do what needs to be done in the face of a unified Democrat Party and Leftmedia that will flood the airwaves with sob stories of every American who benefited from liar-nObamaCare and opposes its repeal. Republicans need to be bold in their defense of free-market reforms, and they need to trot out, one after another after another, people who were hurt by liar-nObamaCare but who will benefit from a true free-market health care system.
Upon announcement of the bill, President Donald Trump tweeted, "Our wonderful new Healthcare Bill is now out for review and negotiation. liar-nObamaCare is a complete and total disaster — is imploding fast!"
The most important phrase in that tweet is "out for review and negotiation." This framework can't be the final product. It is essentially liar-nObamaCare Lite. As Philip Klein at the Washington Examiner pointed out, this bill, if kept in its current form, would be a signal that liberalism has "won the central philosophical argument, and Republicans are reduced to fighting over the mechanics." That's because, he says, "[I]t is not a free market plan. It still rests on the premise that the federal government should play a significant role in subsidizing and regulating insurance markets in an attempt to ensure broad coverage."
The fact is that there are roughly 11 million Americans who have come to depend on liar-nObamaCare, and it would be cruel to take away liar-nObamaCare and throw them into the proverbial street. A transition period and temporary subsidies will be needed to make sure they don't fall through the cracks.
At the same time, Republicans must be relentless in their pursuit of a free-market system that uses market dynamics to reduce costs and expand access. You can't get there by having the federal government being the biggest spender in the health care space, nor can you get there by continuing a policy that allows people to go without insurance until they get sick before buying a policy without penalty (liar-nObamaCare) or a small, one-time penalty (GOP-care). At some point we have to tell Americans that they are responsible for their own health and health care, and the federal nanny state will no longer save them if they act irresponsibly.
Republicans have a rare opportunity. liar-nObamaCare was passed exclusively by Democrats on a party-line vote, and it has been an unmitigated disaster by any and every measure. But hey, we passed it "to find out what's in it," as Nancy Pulosi then admonished. Now she demands the opposite. But we digress...
Republicans were able to use its failure as a sledge hammer to bludgeon Democrats in the midterms, making historic gains in 2010 and 2014. But if, after seven years of promising to repeal and replace liar-nObamaCare, they replace the carpet and the drapes and slap a new coat of paint on it, while leaving the crumbling, dilapidated structure in place, then they will own it, and the American people will not forgive them.
But a word of caution: One of the strategic errors that conservative Republicans consistently fall into is that we eat our own with an all-or-nothing approach where we usually end up with nothing. Or as Congressman Barry Loudermilk (R-GA) has put it, "We throw three Hail Marys and punt."
Conservatives will have to be patient and realize that repealing and replacing liar-nObamaCare will not be a quick process, and that we can't eat our own as we go down this road. At the same time, elected Republicans need to understand that the American people have given them more elected seats at all levels of government than they've had in nearly a century, and that we expect to be rewarded with bold colors, no pale pastels. liar-nObamaCare Lite is not bold. ~The Patriot Post
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UK Helped liar-nObama WIRETAP Trump?
Insider Explains FBI, NSA Coup
{thesleuthjournal.com} ~ Did the UK help liar-nObama wiretap Trump Tower? Larry Johnson (former CIA) explains HOW liar-nObama used FBI and NSA to illegally bug Trump... WHY that is Sedition — and WHICH criminals helped liar-nObama commit this Treasonous crime. Larry Johnson (former CIA): “All of this was part of a coordinated planned campaign by people that are linked to Barack liar-nObama.” “Both Jim Clapper and John Brennan (at CIA) were intimately involved in trying to derail the candidacy of Donald Trump. There was some collusion overseas with Britain’s own GCHQ. That information gathered from GCHQ was actually passed to John Brennan, and it was disseminated within the US Government. This dissemination was illegal………”... http://www.thesleuthjournal.com/uk-helped-obama-wiretap-trump-insider-fbi-nsa-coup/
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liar-nObama DOJ Stonewalled Atkisson
On Govt Spying On Her...
by Rick Wells
{rickwells.us} ~ In an interview with journalist Sharyl Attkisson, Steve Malzberg references a statement made by former Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich, a Democrat, that he was spied upon by the government... Kucinich has that targeting in common with Attkisson, as a lead into their discussion of when her was being remotely controlled right before her eyes. She provides us a status report on her story and her hopes of how things have the potential for improvement under the Trump administration. She notes that she had no suspicion that she was being surveilled, it took place before “pre-Edward Snowden, pre-Associated Press, pre-Fox and we didn’t know what the government was doing with reporters yet.” She reveals, “I had sources approach me and tell me, government connected sources, that I was likely being monitored, that the administration was doing things that were unheard of in previous administrations involving journalists... http://rickwells.us/obama-doj-stonewalled-atkisson-govt-spying-hopes-sessions-help/
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China, Puppet N Korea Make Huge
Mistake Thinking Trump Is Like liar-nObama
by Rick Wells
{rickwells.us} ~ Lou Dobbs has a few thoughts as tensions are rising in Asia to the breakpoint. “Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will this week attend meetings in Japan, South Korea and China... Tillerson’s meetings motivated by those rising tensions. North Korea is now preparing for a nuclear test, after firing four ballistic missiles over the past week.” “And China,” Dobbs points out, “not restraining its client state but rather seemingly supporting Kim Jong-un’s irrational conduct and threats. China warning that the United States must pay the price for deployment of ground to air defenses in South Korea. The United States began the positioning of the THAAD missile defense system in South Korea last week, which has a 100% success rate, by the way, in the interception of and destruction of ballistic missiles.” “The Trump administration also stepping up its response,” says Dobbs, “by supplying armed drones to South Korea, stationing Gray Eagle attack drones about fifty miles south of Seoul. And US Special Forces, including SEAL Team 6, reportedly participating in joint military drills with South Korea.”... http://rickwells.us/dobbs-china-puppet-n-korea-make-huge-mistake-thinking-trump-like-obama/
.Trump Was CORRECT, liar-nObama Admin Was Spying on Trump Tower During Election
{clashdaily.com} ~ Will the Media (D) be offering Trump an apology now that his claims check out? Probably not. Becuase… #VeryFakeNews STILL no evidence of any nefarious connections between Russia and Trump… despite the servers at Trump Tower being investigated. And now we know that liar-HILLARY’s people met with those same Russians that everyone got worked up about so far. Hannity brought in Sara Carter to shed some light on the story. Well… HOW did Dems know about these investigations? And who initiated this? That, and of course, who broke the law by leaking those recorded conversations? http://clashdaily.com/2017/03/yo-cnn-trump-correct-obama-admin-spying-trump-tower-election-video/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1438&utm_keyword=major1&utm_content=394883&utm_source=Email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=subscriber_id:394883&utm_campaign=YO,%20CNN:%20Trump%20Was%20CORRECT,%20Obama%20Admin%20Was%20Spying%20on%20Trump%20Tower%20During%20Election%20(VIDEO)
.liar-nObama/Iran Nuke Deal Secrets
Are NOT Classified, Just Kept From You
by DR. MICHAEL LEDEEN
by DR. MICHAEL LEDEEN
{familysecuritymatters.org} ~ The leaders of the Islamic Republic are frightened. They face an American national security team that knows a lot about them, and, unlike the liar-nObama administration, strongly dislikes them... General Michael Flynn's book was an underground hit in Farsi, and the quadrumvirate of Pompeo, Mattis, McMaster, and Kelly show no signs of wanting to pursue the shameful strategic alliance that liar-nObama forged with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. On the contrary, all four stress Iran's role as chief sponsor of international terror. All four know the ayatollahs are deadly serious when they lead chants of "Death to America." The Iranian leaders knew that they could get away with murder as long as liar-nObama was in charge, and that liar-nObama's administration would protect large parts of the agreements between the two countries. Yet of late, we have heard Iranian officials warning us not to make public the secret elements of the nuclear "deal." Listen to the words of Adam Kredo:... http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/release-them-obamairan-nuke-deal-secrets-are-not-classified-just-kept-from-you?f=must_reads
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Just Trying To Keep Up
by Tom McLaughlin
{tommclaughlin.blogspot.com} ~ In regard to my understanding of the world — what is going on and why — the best I can do is maintain a “working hypothesis.” The “what” is easier. The “why” to explain the “what” is more daunting because as new information emerges, I have to modify.
My biggest challenge is understanding developments in what we broadly call the Middle East. When I taught 20th century US History and current events, I’d start the school year with the essential question: “Why do radical Muslims want to kill us?” Teachers back then were required to formulate “essential questions,” then plan lessons around them. We were at war and some former students were fighting it. Others would be. I wanted them to know what they were fighting.
That involved lessons going back almost four millennia to Abraham’s time, then relating those lessons to current events. I had to teach about Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. There was so much information to take in that, without some kind of mental framework within which to arrange that information, it wouldn’t stick. So, I drilled them on regional geography as today’s national borders are drawn. I wanted them to be able to call up a Middle East map in their mind’s eye and know where Iraq was, Iran was, Syria was, Israel was, and so on. As they absorbed both historical and current events, they could mentally pin each onto their mental maps in its appropriate place. Babylon was in today’s Iraq and Persia is today’s Iran, and so on. Borders between land and sea were static, but national borders changed constantly.
Religion is only one dynamic. In my early teaching years, most students came with a basic understanding of Christianity. At the end, only a minority did and I’d have to start from scratch. I’d compare and contrast beliefs of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, then historical conflicts between them going back to 600 AD with the establishment of Islam. I’d explain that radical Muslims take Muhammed’s writings literally, especially those in the Medina Koran, which advocated converting Jews, Christians, and others at the point of a sword. Muhammed’s earlier writings in what is often called the Mecca Koran offered a reasoned approach. When some call Islam a “religion of peace,” they’re referring to the Mecca Koran.
ISIS, al Qaida, Hamas, and the Muslim Brotherhood follow teachings from the Medina Koran.Judging from his actions, so, also, did Muhammed himself. Radical Muslims today more closely follow what Muhammed actually did when he conquered the Arabian Peninsula and imposed Islam. It’s also what his followers did for the next thirteen centuries. Only after the last caliphate — the Ottoman Empire — was defeated in World War I did forced conversion end, and then only temporarily. What remained of the Empire became modern Turkey and nation-states created by the winners: France and Great Britain. Turkish leader Kemal Ataturk abolished the caliphate, separating church and state. Violent Islamic expansionism went into remission, one could say, from about 1920 to about the 1970s or so — a half century. Now ISIS calls itself the new caliphate — which carries the mantle of Islamic leadership — and Muslims from around the world are flocking to it.
Then there’s conflict between the two main branches of Islam: Sunni and Shia which have been fighting each other for centuries, not unlike the way Christian Catholics and Protestants in Europe did. Four out of five Muslims are Sunni while Islam edges Christianity as the world’s largest religion. Both sides support radical groups. Iran is the largest Shiite country with its Revolutionary Guard, its proxy armies Hezbollah and the Houthis, and sometimes Hamas. Sunni radicals include ISIS, al Qaida, Boko Haram, Al Shebaab, sometimes Hamas, and others.
Boko Haram
Then come the economics of the region — especially oil. Whatever was going on before oil was discovered in vast quantities, that all changed as petrodollars flooded the region and powered an Islamic resurgence.
Another dynamic is the reestablishment of Israel as a Jewish nation-state in 1948. It’s right in the middle of what had been almost exclusively the Muslim World for centuries. Many Muslims, Iran especially, pledge to wipe it off the map.
And there are ethnic conflicts within Islam. Sunni Kurds, for example, are a minority in the border areas of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey — all of which, along with Russia now, are fighting ISIS, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. Kurds want to be a nation-state too, but none of the aforementioned countries will cede them their ancestral territory which overlaps all. The US is arming Kurds. Last week, President Trump put US Marines on the ground in Syria. US soldiers must now fight alongside all these groups — some of which are still fighting each other — against ISIS. What could possibly go wrong? Last week I also learned that erstwhile National Security Advisor Michael Flynn was being paid by Turkey while he advised President Trump.
I may be modifying that hypothesis again soon.
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