Monthly Archives: August 2016

Turkey moves against our Kurdish allies; U.S. sides with Turks

Featured image This past week, Turkey entered the fight in Syria against ISIS to much ballyhoo from the mainstream media. But according to Christoper Caldwell, who quotes the German weekly Der Spiegel, “ISIS is a pretext, the Kurds are the target.” Says Caldwell, Turkey’s strategic objective is not to “crush” ISIS. It is to crush the most effective part of the anti-ISIS coalition: the Syrian-Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) and People’s Protection »

Trey Gowdy: FBI didn’t ask Hillary about her intent

Featured image FBI director James Comey says he didn’t recommend indicting Hillary Clinton over her use of a private server to send and receive classified information because she lacked intent to mishandle such information. The relevant statutes didn’t require intent, but Comey read the requirement into the law based on what he said is the past practice of federal prosecutors in these sorts of cases. Before letting Hillary off the hook, one »

Why Isn’t the Economy the Issue?

Featured image At the New York Post, Carl Campanile and Danika Fears make a good point: “Hillary, Trump too busy insulting each other to focus on Obama’s weak economy.” Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are too busy trading barbs on hot-button topics like race and immigration to discuss the economy, which has slowed to a crawl under President Obama’s watch. “The numbers are bad. There should be a concern about the weakness »

Trump’s Doctor?

Featured image The Trump campaign has shopped around a letter from his long time physician, Dr. Harold Bornstein, which he apparently wrote in haste while Trump staffers waited out on the street in a limo. The letter has typos (“To whom my concern. . .”), and is very general about how Trump’s health is a great as everything else about him. “If elected, Mr. Trump, I can state unequivocally, will be the healthiest »

Back to the Bad Old Days

Featured image Sometimes it feels like we are re-living the worst of the 1960s. The latest headache-inducing news comes from Colin Kaepernick, a once-promising quarterback whose career now appears to be in decline. As explained by the National Football League, Kaepernick has decided not to stand for the National Anthem as a protest against America’s “oppression” of people of color: San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick has willingly immersed himself into controversy »

Greenfail Number–What Are We Up To Now? Ethanol

Featured image From the Telegraph, a report on a new study that finds “Biofuels are ‘worse than petrol’ for the environment.” “Green” biofuels such as ethanol and biodiesel are in fact worse for the environment than petrol, a landmark new study has found. This, of course, assumes that emitting CO2 is bad. The alternative energy source has long been praised for being carbon-neutral because the plants it is made from absorb carbon »

The Omar case: Curiouser and curiouser

Featured image The case of Minnesota DFL House candidate Ilhan Omar and her marriage to Ahmed Nur Said Elmi grows curiouser and curiouser. Is Ahmed Nur Said Elmi the brother of Ilhan Omar? Was the marriage entered into for dishonest purposes? These are the question we have raised in a series of posts over the past two weeks. I summarized the case yesterday in “Omar so far.” This much we know with »

The Week in Pictures: Shaky Foundation Edition

Featured image Funny how we haven’t heard much lately about the supposed scam of Trump University. Maybe that’s because compared to the Clinton Foundation, Trump University was a paragon of high ethics and straight shooting. Right now it is hard to know just what will prove Hillary’s undoing—her shaky email scandal that is not finished, her shaky husband, her shaky financial dealings, or her shakes. And finally. . . »

Another reason why liberals hate Trump

Featured image Steve has started a series called “Why do liberals hate Trump?” The first installment is here. I look forward to reading the subsequent ones. I think one reason why liberals hate Trump is the same reason why many conservatives dislike him: He’s not one of theirs and he’s an awful guy. Suppose Trump were the Democratic nominee running against, say, Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio. Might not conservatives hate Trump »

Memo sheds new light on Clinton-Russia uranium scandal

Featured image Of all the Clinton Foundation/Clinton cash scandals, the one I’ve always considered most disturbing involves the Russians gaining control over a large share of America’s uranium. Relying on a New York Times report, I wrote about this scandal here. Newly uncovered State Department documents shed additional light on this scandal. But before getting to the new material, I’ll summarize what the New York Times reported. What we knew already In »

Who Made America Hate Again?

Featured image I don’t think we have said much about Hillary Clinton’s speech in which she denounced Donald Trump as a racist of the “alt-right,” thereby confusing, no doubt, most of her audience. Much could be said about Hillary’s smears–a Republican racist running for president? Not again!–but I want to comment on just one aspect of it: her claim that “the billionaire businessman’s campaign [is] one that will ‘make America hate again.'” »

Why Do Liberals Hate Trump? (Part One)

Featured image Let’s notice something significant: Donald Trump is the most liberal Republican nominee since . . . well, it’s really hard to tell: Maybe Tom Dewey? In any case, recall that Trump embraces many positions popular with major factions of the Democratic Party coalition, such as trade and entitlement spending (Medicare and Social Security), and the Iraq War. He probably favors single-payer health care, and his conversion on abortion seems insincere. »

Inadvertent Truth from Hillary

Featured image There’s a joke in the boutique wine industry out here on the Left Coast: How do you make a small fortune in the wine trade? Answer: Start with a large fortune. This parable comes to mind with respect to yesterday unintentionally revealing headline about Madam Hillary: Here is how Hillary Clinton hopes to be the ‘small business president’ Hillary Clinton wants to be the “small business president” and according to her »

The Clinton bribery standard

Featured image Charles Krauthammer devotes his weekly column to “The Clinton bribery standard.” Charles is disgusted by the evidence of corruption that is revealed in the latest tranches of Clinton emails. He accurately states the defense advance by Hillary Clinton and her retainers: “There was no quid pro quo.” Krauthammer comments: “What a long way we’ve come. This is the very last line of defense. Yes, it’s obvious that access and influence »

Omar so far

Featured image Ilhan Omar defeated 22-term incumbent Phyllis Kahn for the DFL nomination to represent legislative district 60B in the Minnesota House. It was one of the biggest stories to emerge from our August 9 primary. The Star Tribune reported it in a page-one story under a banndr headline and a huge photo. Omar seemed to have a sense of herself as the party’s new star. That’s certainly how the Star Tribune »

Thoughts from the ammo line

Featured image Ammo Grrrll is thinking about DEFINING MOMENTS and a life-altering lesson. She writes: In every life there are watershed moments, often fraught with grief and peril. A parent dies young; a tragic accident destroys hopes and dreams; a baby is born with special needs. But, sometimes, defining moments are very small, yet life-altering things. Like that proverbial butterfly fluttering its wings in a far-off land and causing seismic changes elsewhere. »

U.S. women’s soccer scores a Solo own goal [UPDATED]

Featured image Hope Solo has for years been the goalkeeper for the U.S. women’s soccer team and one of the team’s high profile stars. She’s also the bad girl of the sport and, arguably, all of American women’s sports. At the 2007 World Cup, the U.S. coach foolishly benched Solo for a semifinal game against Brazil, which the United States lost 4-0. Solo blasted the coach and disrespected veteran U.S. keeper Briana »