Soft Tyranny

Governments, it seems, cannot resist the temptation to centralize their power at the expense of their citizen's basic freedoms. Just in the last few years we have seen this grab obviously occur in Egypt, Turkey, Russia, Greece, United States and now in Germany. (And I am sure there are others, less obvious ones.)

I just added Germany to this list because Merkel's clueless administration is now looking to suppress growing popular dissent to the massive immigration of Muslims into the country ... see: Breitbart Article. This is exactly the wrong path to take ... for over time it becomes increasingly narrow and therefore more difficult to perform a U-turn.

Funny how installed governments, once they start to govern against the will of their peoples, suddenly want to suppress dissent ... usually with an iron fist inside a velvet glove. We saw how Morsi in Egypt, once freely elected, greedily grabbing power too rapidly ... only to be ousted by the military. Erdogan in Turkey is trying the same power grab ... only at a slightly more leisurely pace. Ditto, Putin in Russia. And here at home we have seen Obummer disregard our Constitution as he would yesterday's newspaper.

Germany's Chancellor Merkel, after a series of boneheaded statements favoring the acceptance of Muslim "refugees," is beginning to realize that she has created a massive problem not just for her country, but for just about the entire European Union. So she is having a few second thoughts ... see: Hot Air Story ... yet still while suppressing dissent.

And, although Angela Merkel has cultivated a right of center image, I think her basic politics are Euro-weenie liberal and, under stress, her true tyrannical instincts seem to be taking over. If her German voters don't shortly turn against her, they might not get another chance so poignant. I'm sorry to say that I just don't trust her.

reddit Gallery CCCXLIX

Another excursion into the world of reddit Pictures. See: reddit Pics for sources.  Do yourself a favor and click on pictures to enlarge them.  Enjoy!

Impressive House

Dew on a Fiddlehead Fern 

Light Pillars in Alaska

Commuters

Blue Laced Red Wyandotte

Hellery

Hellery Clinton is up to her horns in hot e-mails ... despite her vexatious denials. The State Department is refusing to release twenty-two of the hundreds of classified e-mails from her private (bathroom) server as being too sensitive to reveal even in redacted form ... see: New York Times Article. This is on top of the revelation that it is quite likely that foreign governments such as China, South Korea and Germany (probably also Russia and Iran) had hacked into this unsecured server and now have more knowledge about the secret workings of our administration than does our Congress ... see: Politico Story.

Also some four discovered Sidney Blumenthal e-mails reveal that Hellery was running her own independent intelligence operation separate from the CIA ... see: Daily Caller Article. You have got to give this woman credit ... she lives her life like there are no rules or protocols whatsoever ... and the only people who really count are her family and Huma Abedin. Just imagine what it would be like if she were the grand poobah ...

Pettifogger

Donald Trump loves to insult his foes ... calling them losers or maniacs or psychos or worse. But these single-word slights are very American ... as opposed to the English who, over the centuries, have developed rapier-like grandiloquent digs that send their adversaries quivering into the corner. As an homage to this British tradition, I herein offer some refined jibes that could be directed toward The Donald.

He is a:

Vainglorious varleto
Plutocratic pettifogger
Repetitious rapscallion
Bumptious bilious blowhard
Hirsute horse petute
Fatuous fliptwiddle
Braggadocios blatherskite
Flag-waving fruitloop
Cringe-worthy charlatan
Malicious montebank
Pandering pecksniffian

Marco or Rand or Jeb or Carly or Chris or Ted ... feel free to use any of these British brickbats without attribution whenever Trump tickles you.


Afterward: Also please note the following Trump veteran revelation: The Federalist Story. Is this a taste of our future? And visit; Powerline Blog.

Quote of the Day

"The Republican party is the moth and Donald Trump is the open flame." -- Anon.

Settled Science

Obummer has repeatedly quoted that false narrative that 97% of scientists think that there is man-made global warming and therefore "the science is settled" ...  a quote meant to be echoed in the main-stream media in order to shut up the deniers of this clap trap. Such drivel drives true scientists up the wall because they know that there never is any science that is truly "settled." This is not the true nature of science. New information continually causes science to review previous axioms to see if they still hold up ... which often they don't.

Now 300 scientists and economists have signed a letter to NOAA, the keeper of  the primary global temperature data, demanding that it release their undoctored data. This is so other unbiased scientists can use this data use to check the results of the inner circle of those claiming that the Earth is warming ... see: Daily Caller Article.

And this is also because it has recently been revealed that this data has been corrupted by these government "scientists" who felt that they needed to "adjust" this data so that it would agree wth their foregone conclusions. These  conclusions are being refuted by actual results which are not agreeing with their computer models. In other words, if the data does not support the "science," change the data. This is a profound corruption of the scientific method and hiding the original primary data from the rest of the scientific world corrupts this corruption.

More interestingly, since 288 of these 300 letter signers are true scientists, if they perhaps were the full contingent of the 3% deniers in Obummer's oft-repeated quote, the the other 97% would represent 9,600 other scientists who unequivocally support this global warming fiction. It would be very nice and very scientific if Obummer would produce a list of these 9,600 "settled" scientists.

Playing to the Peanut Gallery

I think Donald Trump realizes he might have made a mistake in dropping out of the Republican debate in Iowa tomorrow night. So what to do? He obviously can't eat crow and asked to be taken back ... his ego would not permit. Alternatively he is going to stage his own charity event for the benefit of the Wounded Warriors Foundation ... hoping to draw attention and audience away from the debate ... see: Military Times Article.

The choice of this charity is to deflect criticism away from his petulant fight with Megyn Kelly and Fox News who are also big supporters of veterans' causes. In other words, Trump, as he most often does, has assessed the maturity of the Iowa voters and found them wanting ... in that he can pull off this obvious misdirection.

It is clear Trump thinks he will be playing to the peanut gallery in Des Moines during the time of the Republican debate. Somehow I suspect he may be underestimating the maturity and perspicacity of the evangelical voters there ... and they should easily be able to see through this righteous ruse.

If I am right, then the Iowa caucuses on Monday will tell the tale.

Out to Pasture

The following people have had their day in the spotlight. Now they're over the hill  ... and should be put out to pasture:

- Jane Fonda
- Bernie Sanders
- The Grinch
- Woody Allen
- Clint Eastwood
- Jimmy Carter
- Matt Lauer
- Donald Rumsfield
- Angela Merkel
- Bill Clinton
- Ted Turner
- Mitch McConnell
- George Soros
- Nancy Pilosi
- Charles Grassley
- Ayatollah Khamenei
- Waldo
- Harry Reid
- John McLaughlin
- George Potts

Maybe not that last one ...
- 

Prediction

If Donald Trump skips the Fox News Republican debate in Des Moines, Iowa this Thursday ... he will not win the Iowa Caucuses next Monday. In fact, he may not even come in second.

Afterward: Apparently Trump has formally withdrawn from this skirmish with Fox's Megyn Kelly in a typical bit of ego-driven grandstanding. If Trump won't stand up to Ms. Kelly, will he be able to stand up to the Ayatollah Khamenei?

More Silliness

This photograph of a potato has sold for 750 thousand pounds ... probably in Great Britain ... see: Sydney Morning Herald Article for the details of this transaction. This inanity reminds me of a similar arty-farty purchase of a unmade bed for 2.54 million pounds ... also in England ... see: Silly Brits.

If you wish to display this photo on your IPhone, it should be for the donut ...

The British Dichotomy

In an uncharacteristic non-Dartmouth-related post, Joseph Asch recounts Winston Churchill's courageous words and deeds in resisting Nazi Germany's aggressions leading up to the Second World War ... contrasting them with President Obummer's appeasing actions surroundong his Iranian nuclear capitulation ... see: Dartblog Posting.

I suppose we now have a clue as to why Obummer, in one of his first actions as president, had Churchill's bust removed from the Oval Office,

And, on a more personal level, even as a young boy, I can still recall my dismay as the British electorate jettisoned Churchill from the office of Prime Minister shortly after the war was over in favor of that twit, Clement Attlee and then later that fop, Anthony Eden. The national psyche of Britain exhibits a clear dichotomy ... rising to greatness in times of crisis ... only to mortgage it all as soon as leisure permits.

Do we see a parallel psyche here in the United States?

reddit Gallery CCCXLVIII

Another excursion into the world of reddit Pictures. See: reddit Pics for sources.  Do yourself a favor and click on pictures to enlarge them.  Enjoy!

Red Crested Pochard

Sailboat and USS Iowa

Permanent Top Hat

Dracma from 350 BC

Sunrise over Denver

Consequences

It is unclear if the ultimate consequences of Obummer's nuclear pact with Iran were intended or unintended, but it did not take Saudi Arabia long to respond to this deal's opening of the way for Iran to have nuclear weapons. It is now believed that the Saudi's are negotiating with Pakistan, its Sunni partner in the Muslim faith, to acquire one or more nuclear weapons ... see: The Daily Caller Story. It had been predicted that Iran's diplomatic high five with the United States would start an arms race in the Middle East ... and now it seems to be happening. Of course, this development should do nothing but then incentivize Iran itself to disregard the terms of its recent nuclear pact even faster ... and return to its previous nefarious path to its own atomic bomb.

And as a result of the international sanctions lifting, Iran has all those billions of dollars ... not only to recruit more terrorists around the world ... but also the ways and means to deep six the terms of this pact .... and to go shopping for the big banger ... say from North Korea. It's bound to happen.

Good work Botox John and Barry Soetoro!

The Audacity of Hope

                  "Hope is not a strategy" -- Rudy Giuliani

Except for his father abandoning his mother when he was but an infant, Barack Obummer has seldom experienced serious disappointment. In many ways he has led a charmed life ... getting into the best schools despite questionable aptitude, becoming the Law Review editor at Harvard without the usual credentials, getting a mediocre book published to rave reviews, never suffering any consequences for his extensive drug use, easily being escorted into his series of political offices, winning a Grammy, Time's Person of the Year, the Nobel Peace prize ... and beating the former First Lady to win the highest political office in the land ... on and on.

Why would this man-child not believe that he has the Midas Touch? And so he, unfortunately, has come to believe that he can do no wrong ... despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Apparently none of this evidence makes it through his phalanx of toadies and his halo of self-righteousness to shake his confidence in his own infallibility. Self confidence is obviously a requisite for holding such a position as the presidency ... but when this audacity blocks out the searing sun of continued failure, it can bring eventual havoc upon this office and its constituency  ... even if its holder never has to atone for or even recognize his failures.

It is long past the time that Obummer needs to do a serious reappraisal of his audacity of hope. He obviously has yet to learn that mere hope and audacity are not enough to succeed long term.

Coming Around ...

Secretary of State John Kerry has confessed to the obvious -- Iran will use some of the tens of billions of dollars released under the recent nuclear agreement he negotiated with it to support terrorism ... see: Powerline Blog Entry. Obummer's and Kerry's rationale for abetting such terrorism is that Iran will not get the atomic bomb for ten more years. This "greater good" is clearly an illusion because Iran has always been duplicitous ... and will be so again. This fanciful expectation of Iran changing its ways is a victory of hope over rationality.

If even one American soldier ends up wounded or killed by these American carom-shot-funded terrorists, the proponents of this pact with Iran clearly will have blood on their hands. Enabling such acts, even by proxy, is worse than despicable ... it is traitorous.

Kerry's candid yet, to me, mind-numbing confession stands with his early hate-America testimony to Congress during the Vietnam war. This man clearly cannot see when he is pissing on the American flag ... and on all of our young men and women who carry it into battle. Yet he is honored by his party and by his Genghis-Khan of a president. How low can we sink?!

What once was going around is now coming around ...

Reparations

Hillary Clinton, if she loses the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary to Bernie Sanders ... which now seems likely, she will need to stop the bleeding in the South Carolina primary. This means that the black vote there is very critical ... sooo, what better way to energize this voting block than to promise them something. What might this bribe be? How about money channeled through the age-old political promise of slavery reparations ... see: Breitbart Article?

Now I don;t know how the polling goes for reparations, but, if Hillary embraces this cause like she has gun control and Obummer's record, she will be lucky to carry two states if she is the Democrat nominee.

As far as reparations are concerned, Abraham Lincoln,when confronted with the huge causalities occurring in the Civil War, believed that this bloodshed would continue until there was an equivalence to the prior suffering of the slaves in his country. If this was enough reparations for Lincoln, it is so for me too.

Eating Their Children

The Republicans are getting vicious. Jeb Bush is doing his best to eviscerate Marco Rubio ... a strategy that makes Jeb look petty. Ted Cruz and Donald Trump are finally in a cage match ... talk about being petty! Chris Christie is a little gentler with his brickbats for his fellow Republicans ... preferring to save most of them for Hillary Clinton. Even a former candidate, Lindsey Graham, offers zingers for Cruz and Trump. The bystanders to this mayhem, Carly Fiorina, Ben Carson, Mike Huckabee, Rand Paul, John Kasich and Rick Santorum, all have been relatively pacified ... primarily I believe due to lack of advertising funds, Maybe after all the smoke clears, one of them will have a chance to shine ... but this is doubtful.

The media talking heads like to paint this fight as a competition between the establishment candidates -- Bush, Rubio, Kasich and Santorum ... and the outsiders -- Trump, Christie, Carson, Huckabee, Fiorina and Cruz. Rand Paul seems somewhere in the middle ... maybe that is his grand strategy. And so it seems that the major skirmishes are within these camps ... the semi-finals so to speak. The expectation then is that the final Republican internecine contest will be between the outsiders and the establishment standard bearers ... possibly Trump and Rubio.

I would love the winner in the finals to be Rubio, but I am afraid it will be Trump ... a lot having to do with Jeb's vicious attacks on Marco.

If the Republicans are eating their children, the Democrats may be eating their children and grandchildren ... but that is for another time.

Another Boycott

Michael Moore is supporting the black boycott of the all-white Oscars award ceremonies ... see: Breitbart Article. But he is also upset because there are no obscenely obese nominees in any of the Oscar categories ... just kidding.

Has anyone commented on the unfortunate linguistic slight when blacks " boycott" the  Oscars? (I could have been more au courant and used the modern, clumsy term "microagression" instead of the older, elegant term "slight").

Equal Pay ...

... for equal work. It seems that Hillary Clinton may be humping up the wrong leg ... anyway as far as the smut industry is concerned. Female porn actresses often earn much more than their male counterparts ... see: CNBC Article ... and still the males have to bring their own equipment. (Besides, I'm not really sure that we can call this vocation "work.") But the fact is that men are forced to take a lower-paying, but more rigorous role in these wrestling matches. This suggests to me that we need to have a Congressional investigation into this gender-based disparity.

Perhaps Donald Trump ... or even Bernie Sanders ... could get some young child to ask Hillary a well-rehearsed question at one of her next meet-and-greets as to why this sexist-based income disparity is allowed to persist and what she plans to do to redress this bare discrimination.

Jack of All Trades

In a stunning revelation on this morning's TV program "Morning Joe" on MSNBC, Robert Gates, our former Secretary of Defense under both Bush '43 and our current president revealed that, at one of his large staff meetings, Obummer bragged that he could do everyone's job in the room better than they could. Wow! Double wow! This kind of selfie-stick monster ego ... colored by delusion has got to be a first for any president (except maybe Slick Willie).

If this were truly what had been said, then our regal leader has done one of two things ... either surrounded himself with doofuses ... or been ego-massaged to the point of the vainest of vainglory. My guess is that it is a little bit of both. If I could have but one wish that was sure to come true, I would love that this bigger-than-life man-child would be able to read what historians have to say about him in about fifty years. I kinda doubt that they might view him the same way he sees himself today ... in front of his preening, self-loving mirror.

(Perhaps jack-off of all trades?)

A Disconnect

The straight skinny coming out of the run-up to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland is that five million jobs will be lost in the developed world by 2020 due to the rapid advances being made in artificial intelligence and robotics ... see: Breitbart Story. Compound this with the vast migration of cheap labor and hanger-ons from the third world into the developed world ... this creates an employment disconnect that will be very difficult to reconcile both structurally and politically.

One of the reasons that China has had such dramatic economic growth over the last twenty-five years has been its vast supply of cheap and effective labor. Developed nations, in order to counter this economic advantage, have been (possibly somewhat unconsciously) opening their borders to the underdeveloped nations for immigrant labor ... with the result of reducing their national average personal incomes ... striving for wage and productivity parity with China.

Back to the Davos forecast ... a distinction needs to be made in the forces that are being pointed to for these expected employment reductions. Artificial intelligence mainly is of the mind ... allowing quicker and more effective decisions to be made. This does not necessarily remove the need for labor. (except when these decisions make robots or workers more effective.) It just improves the quality of generic decision making. However, robots in fact do replace physical laborers and thus will reduce actual employment (yet improve productivity.)

If in fact these Davos predictions are accurate, what does it mean for the American economy? Well, clearly the current administration will likely not back off its packing this country with immigrants. And if jobs are indeed drying up, this suggests an even higher percentage of these immigrants receiving government assistance ... with even fewer taxpayers funding these doles for the unemployed ... resulting unfortunately in much higher government deficits. Ouch!

There is only one possible solution in my mind ... start collecting taxes from the robots ...

My Confession

For a number of years I have been an outspoken champion of carbon dioxide as an essential gas that supports all life on Earth ... and which cannot be shown to have any important role in increasing global temperatures ... for example, see: I Told You So, Lighting One Candle, Science Dunces, The End Is Near, Damn!, Record Warming and Balderdash! among others. In other words, I am against the alarmist hysteria that is now at the center of this climate-change mania. I am therefore a classic "denier."

Now my confession: I have never received any form of recompense, directly or indirectly, from the hydrocarbon industry ... nor have any of my foundations.

Sports Betting

Anyone who wagers large amounts of money of the outcome of a sporting event is clearly foolish. This is because humans are involved ... and, has been repeatedly shown, humans can be influenced through rewards or threats to alter ... sometimes ever so subtly ... their performance to change the outcome of a game. If anyone has ever watched a jai alai "game," one can easily understand this indictment. Perhaps this is why fontons are rapidly disappearing in America. Now a game similar to jai alai, that previously had been unsullied, tennis, has been implicated ... see: BBC News.

One can readily extend this warning to the sport of kings, horse racing. Over the years numerous clever ways have been revealed as to how these animals have been tweaked to improve or degrade their performance ... see: Vice Story.

So we see that trying to make major money from how humans or even animals perform in the sports arena is a fool's errand ... no matter how many safeguards are in place. That is, of course, unless you are one of the fixers.

I Agree with Bernie

In last night's Democrat debate, Bernie Sanders made a few points with which. I concur:

- Wall Street was mainly responsible for the housing and financial collapse in 2008. The fact that no one has been indicted for this travesty proves that Washington ... in particular the Obama administration ... is beholden to Wall Street money.

- The repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act in the late 1990's (under Bill Clinton's presidency) is the primary reason that America's big banks have gotten too big to fail and required huge government bailouts in 2008 and 2009. Glass-Steagall needs to be reimposed.

- The Dodd-Frank financial reform bill has not fixed this problem ... in fact, these banks have even gotten bigger since the collapse and would require another bailout the next time around.

- Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have taken huge campaign contributions and speaking fees from the Wall Street banks ... particularly Goldman Sachs ... and this is why things are so cozy between these parties. Hillary Clinton cannot be relied upon to sever her relationship with Wall Street.

Now, am I a Socialist because I agree with Bernie? Not hardly, in fact what Bernie didn't and couldn't say was that the Democrat party ... in particular Barney Frank and Chris Dodd ... are another primary reason for the financial collapse in 2008 ... because they forced banks to give sub-prime mortgages to poor credit risks and then had these mortgages purchased by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two Democrat-controlled honey pots.

reddit Gallery CCCXLVII

Add caption

Stone Face

Italian Restaurant

Sheepish

Bora Bora

Elevator Message

Back when I was seeking venture capital, I was told to condense my pitch into what could be sold in a short crowded elevator ride. Hillary Clinton was asked on "Morning Joe" yesterday by Mika Brzezinski to give the essence of what she would do if elected president. In an around-the-barn rambling she offered a disjointed series of platitudes that did not sell me ... or, I doubt, very many in her TV audience ... see if you can figure out what her core message is: Powerline Blog Entry. The elevator she would have to have been on would have been empty and in the Empire State Building.

As a contrast, Donald Trump obviously knows how to craft a terse message ..."Make America Great Again."

(Of course, if Hillary or Bernie Sanders were totally candid, they might just say, "Tax and spend.")

The Trump Bandwagon

Let's admit the obvious ... Donald Trump is surging all across the country. He is leading a bandwagon that is big and brash and bold and is not to be denied. Why? Simply because he is saying things that speak to the fears and desires of a great many Americans ... on immigration ... on government corruption ... on the gutting of our military ... on America's diminished status in the world ... on the terrorist threat ... on gun control ... on our poor economy ...  on just about everything. Everything that Obummer has done to try to "change" this country into a third-world hellhole (our just desserts for our evil past) has sparked the blue-collar anger and resentment that is producing those overflow crowds at the Trump rallies all across the country ... see: Breitbart Article ... even in the bluest of blue states, Vermont ... Bernie Sanders' stronghold.

Yes, Bernie Sanders is also speaking to a large audience ... mainly younger Americans who also have been disenfranchised by the cronyism that is rampant in D.C. ... but this audience is not really angry. They are more envious and desirous of a piece of this crony pie ... not the loftiest of ideals. Sanders is playing to this Socialist greed and may well out-promise Hillary. But, in the end, he is just a Pollyanna extension to the failures of Obummer.

Just as Obummer was elected due to the mistakes of Bush '43 ... so Trump is leading his surge based upon the many more mistakes of Obummer. Not the best way to govern a country ... from ice floe to ice floe ... but, unfortunately, the pattern in which we find ourselves. If Trump is elected, will he make mistakes? You betcha! He will likely unleash a racial and class polarization that may well pave the way for a Bernie Sanders-type to take the presidency in eight of twelve years. The suspicions and visceral hatred that the liberal elites feel toward Trump are not all hogwash. Trump is likely to go overboard with many of his fixes to Obummer's excesses ... paving the way for the next political charlatan to fix the fixes.

Such, it seems, is our destiny.

Webbed Feet

Water World (starring Kevin Costner) was a stink bomb of a movie ... it was nicknamed Fishtar. It dealt with our world when all land had disappeared below the waves. Now scientists have returned to this panicky ending of civilization  ... as a result of ... you guessed it ,,, global warming. And when we all will need to deal with these rising waters (I thought Obummer was going to fix that), we will have evolved physically with webbed feet, gills and cat's eyes ... see: Climate Depot Bit of Hysteria. Another stink bomb.

I think that many "scientists" these days somehow have lost their way ... and, like most people in our social-media world, are just interested in making headlines.

Nose Tweaking

For the second time in two weeks Iran is tweaking the nose of the United States just days before we are scheduled to release $100 billion of its funds that have been been frozen for years. First it shot rockets across the bow of the U.S. aircraft carrier, Harry S. Truman in the Gulf of Hormuz ... see: NBC Story. And then on the eve of Obummer's State of the Union address, this band of militant mullahs took hostage 10 U.S. sailors after their two boats wandered into Iranian-claimed waters in the Persian Gulf ... see: Washington Post Article. And even more, last Fall, Iran tested a ballistic missile in violation of United Nation's sanctions ... see: Reuters Article. All these nose tweaks are conveniently ignored and swept under the carpet so that the so- called nuclear agreement with Iran is not compromised. (An agreement, by the way, Iran has yet to sign.)

Afterward: See also: Breitbart Revelations for more U.S. humiliations emanating from our friends in Iran.

If I Won the Powerball

When  I was a youngster I dreamt of having a million dollars. Today this amount is but a piffle ... if you don't have at least a billion, you are a nobody. So this Wednesday's Powerball drawing has given me a chance to upgrade my dream ... and go for being a billionaire. If I'm so lucky on Wednesday, the issue then would become ... how to spend all this dough? Let me suggest some interesting ways:

- Set up the Potts Foundation to combat global warming ... fund it with 500 million dollars

- Get some new wheels ... perhaps a Rolls

- Like many of the Silicon-Valley billionaires, spend money to live forever

- Hire Jim Cramer to manage my money

- I might emulate Rupert Murdoch ... get divorced and marry a young chippie ... see: Daily Mail Article

- Buy a 200 foot yacht and park it off of St. Barts for the winter

- Buy a gun for every registered Republican voter who doesn't already own one

- Provide full-ride college funding for all my grandchildren

- I might even purchase a sports team

Success!

When Obummer first took office, Rush Limbaugh issued that famous quote, "I hope he fails." Well, unfortunately, Rush was wrong ... and Obummer, over seven years, has experienced fairly wide-ranging successes with his objectives ... many, I am sure, we will hear about this Tuesday night.

He has pulled our troops out of Iraq. He has orchestrated a surge of troops in Afghanistan, "the good war." He has gotten his health care reform, Obamacare, passed and now implemented. He has opened our borders to many tens of thousands of "dreamers," or young illegal Mexican and Central American immigrants. He has also admitted tens of thousand of legal Muslim immigrants. Through the Muslim Brotherhood, he helped spawn the Arab Spring and all the changes it caused in the Middle East. He overthrew the Kadaffi government in Libya. ዕብያ።With the generous help of the Federal Reserve Bank , he has reduced the national unemployment rate to 5 %. He has drawn attention to possibly illegal police shootings throughout the country.  He has waged a relentless war on domestic "assault weapons." He has negotiated a nuclear limitation agreement with Iran. At the Paris Climate Conference he has focused world attention on global warming. He has gone a long way toward closing the Guantanamo Bay prison. He has championed a new free-trade pact with the Far East. He has gotten his most recent $1.1 trillion omnibus budget passed ... funding most of his residual objectives.

All this while enjoying himself immensely and playing hundreds of rounds of golf all around the United States.

Of course many of these successes have also had a dark side ... but we will leave them for another time.

Contest

How many times will Obummer refer to himself in his upcoming State of the Union address this week? (Guesses below 50 will be deemed ineligible.).

 Contestant closest to the actual number will get a carton of Trump campaign buttons that say, "I'm Very Rich" Decision of the judge (me) will be final.

Booby prize: Guess whether he will refer to guns or global warming more times and what the difference between the two will be.

Booby prize will be a gross of Hillary Clinton bumper stickers that say, "You Hope I Change"

Immigrant Vetting

The immigrant vetting process ... that has been claimed to be so effective in screening out Muslim terrorists ... apparently has not been that effective afterall. We know how it failed in San Bernardino and now an additional forty-one such Islamist immigrants have been uncovered and arrested ... see: Free Beacon Story ... bringing the total to 113 just since 2014.  And the Obummer administration is hiding the immigration screening details of these new arrests ... so as not to diminish its previous shame-faced falsehoods about how good its vetting process has been.

Are we surprised?

reddit Gallery CCCXLVI

Another excursion into the world of reddit Pictures. See: reddit Pics for sources.  Do yourself a favor and click on pictures to enlarge them.  Enjoy!

Surf's Up

Storm Approaching Brisbane

Vietnam Dogtag Memorial

Nile Perch

Migrating Baluga Whales