$99,999,999.99

Two days after it paid Iran $400M in cash to release four American hostages, the Obummer administration made 13 wire transfer payments of $99,999,999.99 to the salivating mullahs there ... theoretically paying off the rest of $1.7B that some international agency said we owed Iran ... see: NY Sun Articl e. Now there are at least five things seriously wrong with these transactions. You, dear reader, are now challenged to list these travesties (hint -- one is that we still might owe Iran 13 cents). First reader to get them all right wins a "Black Lives Matter" tee shirt.

Against the Grain

Crosscut Saw

One thing (among many) that really bugged and bugs me about the Clinton and Obummer administrations was/is when they would say, "the American people think (or want or believe)" ... primarily because I consider myself as part of "the American people" and often I do not think (or want or believe) what looney idea was being attributed to me.

Rather than being dissuaded by this prejudice, I will now violate my own taboo and propose that the American people do not want a lot of what Obummer has been doing these last seven years and so many months. But, in this case, I obviously mean only the majority of the American people ... not them all ... like James Carville and Valarie Jarrett so often have loved to claim.

How has Obummer been governing against the grain of the majority of Americans?

One obvious action has been his blatant encouragement of legal and illegal immigration ... even after being slapped down by the U.S. court system. This American aversion to both legal and illegal immigration in general includes both Latinos and the thousands of unvetted Muslims often from strife-torn countries. Being forced to train your foreign replacement does not often sit well with Americans. And clearly every horrific terrorist attack by "Muslim extremists" ... and the stealthy and very costly insertion of needy immigrants into unsuspecting U.S. communities solidifies this growing aversion.

Yes, those few million indigents who are getting free or cheap healthcare as a result of Obamacare are pleased with our president. But the much greater tens of millions who have seen their healthcare deductibles, co-pays and premiums skyrocket with the Democrats' [Un]affordable Care Act are not quite so happy ... particularly when they were promised the exact opposite.

The Black Lives Matter demonstrators clearly like it when Obummer claims that our police "act stupidly" or when he suggests that a black victim "could have been his son." Somehow he never has a balanced approach to the inequities between law enforcers and law breakers. But I know that the vast majority of Americans, both black and white, support our thin blue lines, despite a few bad eggs, as the only bulwark against urban anarchy.

And every day that an American factory closes or moves off-shore because of poorly negotiated or unenforced trade agreements creates more disgruntled members of the struggling working class in Obummer's fiefdom. Watching Chinese and German economies soar while ours languishes suggests that something is not right on the free-trade front. The true measure of the cost of "free trade" is our ballooning negative balance of payments, our shrinking middle class, and our thousands of shuttered factories across America.

And there are other middle finger salutes that Obummer has been lifting in haughty defiance of the interests of the many who elected him ... but he often does it with such confidence and aplomb that he escapes their wrath. But in truth, Obummer has been governing so much against the will of the American people and against the grain of our society's ethos that his nickname could easily be "Crosscut."

Misdirection

The Obummer administration does one thing really very well ... changing the subject of course. This is with the sleazy cooperation of the elite media and those peevish parolees in the House of Representatives.  It was a mere ten days ago that the self-declared ISIS supporter, Omar Mateen, killed 49 patrons of the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.

And how has this story been portrayed? Not as an Islamic terrorist act nor as an anti-gay hate crime by a Muslim? No, it is another random act of violence somehow perpetrated by guns alone. Our increasingly political Attorney General, Loretta Lynch, even retreated into Clintonian legalese when she said that we may never know the "precise" reason for this massacre.

And the media are co-conspirators in this political misdirection. They have been running banner headlines and op-eds blaming the guns used by Mateen, even though both were obtained legally. And a small Pack N Play group of militant Democrats staged a tantrum yesterday on the House floor to do what? To change the subject once again away from the embarrassment caused by the blatant incompetence and/or subterfuge of Obummer and his band of Muslim Brotherhood wannabes.

Common sense be damned! This misdirection is comparable to a pickpocket who elbows you in the side as he slips your wallet out of your back pocket.

Never mind that the Republicans have offered multiple fair gun laws that might help curb gun violence ... all of which were filibustered by the Democrats ... for it is not really the laws that the Democrats and elite media want. They want the issue ...  and to be able to change the subject away from radical Muslim extremism.

The reason for this misdirection is beyond adult understanding ... given that Muslim jihadism is being papered over ... putting everyone, even these truculent Democrats, in peril. Is it that winning elections is more important than our lives?

I Lied

I lied to my granddaughter yesterday. I told her that the police came to arrest her because she was screening bloody murder out in our back yard and the neighbors were complaining. I told her I told the police it was OK ... that I would take care of it. My granddaughter had been  having a meltdown because her grandmother wouldn't let her dig in an area of the garden that she had just planted with seeds.

For whatever reason my six-year old granddaughter was screaming to high heaven over this conscription and it was disturbing me and my wife to no end. So I lied. And this expeditious lie was even more effective because there was a cop car down the street at a baseball game going on in a nearby park. I pointed to this car and said that those were the police I had talked out of arresting her. This made my falsehood even the more believable and effective. Wide-eyed, this calmed her down.

This question is ... should I have deceived my granddaughter like this? Is it OK to fabricate a story in order to achieve something in an expeditious manner? Could I play President Obummer's Deputy National Security Advisor (and former Hellery Clinton State Department aide), Ben Rhodes, and blatantly lie to the American people in order to get the Iran nuclear deal done ... because if I told the truth, the American people would throw a hissy fit? To better understand this comparison read the following New York Times Disclosure. It has obviously caused a Congressional dust-up and some embarrassment for the Obummer administration.

The answer... I think it would be all right for me to play Ben Rhodes if the American people were all six-year olds.

Green Fertilizer

Farmers will often plant a green crop such as alfalfa or timothy and then, after a month or so, plow it under in order to enrich the soil. It's called green fertilizer. Apparently our federal government has similar notions about their environmental, or "green," investments ... only the appropriate word is not fertilizer. It's the s-word. It is "green s-word" and the Department of Energy under the Obummer administration has produced tens of billions of dollars of such s-wordy investments ... no, wrong word ... these were basically give-aways ... otherwise known as crony capitalism. And now the shame of this evil largess is keeping the Department of Energy from releasing key documents to Congress investigators that chronicle these insider deals ... see: Daily Caller Article. Of course this withholding of key documents is illegal ... but when has this been a consideration of one of the most corrupt administration's since Richard M. Nixon.

I have commented on this cringe-worth crony capitalism before ... see: Crony Capitalism and Crony Capitalism Redux. Read 'em and weep.

Buy High, Sell Low

The United States just has it backwards (again). It is now planning to sell off millions of barrels of oil from its Strategic Petroleum Reserve just when oil prices are at rock-bottom levels ... see: Daily Caller Article. With the backing of Republican lawmakers, the Obummer administration plans to sell off 266 million barrels of oil starting in 2018 to help fund our bloated government. This is about 40% of these reserves, much of it bought at much higher prices when OPEC had turned down the spigot on this commodity and we were panicked.

Of course the signaling of this intention can do nothing but keep oil prices low ... just when this pressure on prices is savaging the oil industry in the United States. Donald Trump actually has it right on this count ... our government is stupid. Obviously we should be buying oil to put in this reserve when prices are low ... and selling it when prices are high. But no, we are doing just the opposite ... and helping to kill off a major domestic industry in the process.

Perhaps if Obummer or any of his lickspittles had just taken a course in free-market economics in college instead of  Socialism 101?

Blood on their Hands

President Obama's Svengali, Valarie Jarrett, recently met with the leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement in the White House ... see: Breitbart Story. Apparently, the Obama administration, being in their waning days, feel that the slimy optics of such get-togethers can no longer hurt them ... or that the media will not cover such outrageous indiscretions. For the White House to lend prestige to this ragtag bunch of anti-police chowder heads does nothing but encourage more violence against our thin blue lines.

Yes, I believe that President Obama and his quislings have blood on their hands every time an officer of the law is gunned down by a radical racist who has been encouraged or abetted by this sick antisocial movement. The Black Lives Matter mob is based upon a lie and supported by slope-headed anarchists ... and to welcome them into the White House does nothing but display this administration's blatant disregard for the President's oath of office. He did twice swear to protect the American people from all enemies foreign and domestic ... wrong on both counts. Ms. Jarrett, such seditious actions really do matter ... shame on you!

UN Inspections in Iran UPDATED

The analogies are obvious. Under heretofore secret codicils, the United Nations will let Iran use its own people to inspect and report on suspected site violations under the proposed Iran nuclear pact that the Obama/Kerry team has negotiated ... and is now trying to sell to Congress ... see: Associated Press Story for the disturbing details.

Although we are now fairly inured to its chicanery, can the Obama administration get even more duplicitous?

Afterward: Here is a link to the original text of the side agreement referred to in the Associated Press article ... Side Agreement. As Scott Johnson of the Powerline blog, who posted this link states, "The side deal shows President Obama and administration officials to be voluble liars on critically important matters inherent in the deal with Iran." If you want to go to the referenced Powerline post, here it is: Scott Johnson Posting.

Verklempt

I am verklempt ... how can the United States' national debt remain at slightly more than $18.1 trillion for 150 days? ... see: CNS News Story ... just under the official debt limit as established by Congress? And how can our treasury secretary, Jack Lew, say that it will remain so until the end of October? This assertion by the Obama administration that our official national debt has not increased for five months is beyond credibility.

This is clearly financial skulduggery. As such then how can we trust any of the "official" numbers that this Washington bunch of bunco bozos publishes ... unemployment rates, number of illegal immigrants, tax receipts, number of Ebola victims, Obama's vacation costs, etc.? I guess we need seriously to reassess our reliance on all the statistics that our government publishes ... an unnerving revelation.

Does anyone believe that the United States is not spending substantially more than it is taking in? Of course not. So how are these illusory numbers being manipulated at our Treasury Department? I herein offer the prize of a bagel with a schmear of chived cream cheese for the first person to unravel the smarmy secret behind this government financial slight of hand.

Hit Pieces

First the New York Times ... see: New York Times Story, then the New York Magazine ... see: New York Magazine ... have written hit pieces on the Clinton's ... with the obvious intent of submarining Hillary's chances of being the Democrat candidate for president in 2016. There can be only a few motivations for such chicanery; either they are concerned that Hillary has so much smelly baggage that will come out during the actual campaign and cause a Republican to win the White House ... or they (read the Obama administration) would prefer a different candidate heading up the Democrat ticket ... say Elizabeth Warren. There is actually a third, far less likely motivation ... and that is to air these scandals early enough so that, come next year, they can be called "old news," But the current coverage is so vitriolic that this option seems far fetched.

If this controlling Democrat inner-circle gets its way and Elizabeth Warren eventually gets the nod, will they then be able to cover up her scandals too? Or perhaps the Clinton campaign might beat them to the punch?

Tax and Spend

The Democrats are nothing if not consistent. It seems that, in the first half of fiscal 2015, the Obama administration kept true to form ... taxing its peons to the hilt while still spending $430 billion more than it took in (which we will now go hat in hand to the Chinese for) ... running up a bigger deficit than this same period last year ... to the tune of an additional $17 billion ... see: CNS News Story. This is all as reported by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

Seems to me I recall that President Obama was bragging not too long ago about how his economic policies were continuing to put our nation on a firmer financial footing. But at this rate the United States will accumulate a national debt of over $20 trillion before our fearless leader leaves office. It has been estimated the a national debt of $25 trillion would be so large that it would suicidal. Kinda like the United States of Greece.

Are you worried?  I am ...

Sad if True

Lemmings

A Washington Post/ABC news poll indicates that, by close to a 2 to 1 margin, Americans think that the nuclear deal taking shape with Iran is a good thing ... see: Washington Post Article. Although there are a few bright spots in these poll results (almost 60% feel that such a deal won't prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon), the poll shows why the Obama administration is hell-bent on this bit of insane appeasement. Fortunately, Congress seems not quite so lemming-like.

Teddy Roosevelt claimed that the president has a "bully pulpit" to get his ideas across. Can we revise this thought just a bit?  Apparently, the president can also bully the American people into sealing their own sad fate.

For a much more rational assessment of these negotiations, read Paul Mirengoff's thoughts in the Powerline Blog.

God, I hope we walk away from this insanity ... even though John Kerry is beseeching a different almighty for a different result ... see: The Gateway Pundit.

So There!

Apparently in a snit, the Obama administration has just released highly classified information about Israel's nuclear program ... see: Pamala Geller Revelation. Yes, it's an open secret that Israel has had atomic weapons for about fifty years, but the formal acknowledgement of this fact by the United States government ... along with the covert details ... just throws more grease on the fire of the Iranian nuclear talks.

I have long suspected that our fearless leader's motivations surrounding his very lightly-disguised attempts to allow Iran into the nuclear club were because of this capability on Israel's part. After all, it's only fair that Iran should be on a military par with that country it has vowed to annihilate. This kind of infantile thinking on Obama's part is what may cause the next big war to start in this region of the world.

But, following this same churlish logic, it doesn't seem likely that this conflagration would reach Hawaii.

Afterward: For more detail on what was released, see: Israel National News.

Foxy

Fox News did our nation an important service last night when it aired an exclusive interview by its anchor, Bret Baier, with Egypt's president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi (see: Fox News Story), in which the Egyptian leader said many things that American citizens should find encouraging:

1) He called for an "Arab-ready" force to battle the Islamic State (ISIS),

2) He asked Muslims around the world to stand up to the more radical elements of Islam in a religious revolution. (I have called it a reformation ... see: A Modern Crusade.)

3) He hinted that the United States may not be on Egypt's side in that it had suspended arms shipments to his country after the coup that ousted that Muslim Brotherhood dictator, Mohammed Morsi ... and still is holding back on critical needed materials.

4) When asked how his Arab allies view America's (read Obama's) leadership in the region, he responded, "Difficult question."

This interview was continually (and strangely) interrupted by transmission difficulties and didn't touch on other issues that would have been revealing ... such as Egypt's offer to the Palestinian Authority to extend the Gaza Strip lands with a huge chunk of the Sinai peninsula ... see: The Impossible Dream.

Clearly the Obama administration is still on the outs with Egypt over el-Sisi's removal of the Muslim Brotherhood from its government, but, in doing so, it is failing to recognize one of the real hopes to counter radical Islam encroachments around the world.

If el-Sisi continues on his current tack, I am convinced that history will treat him with more kindness than Obama. George Will has even gone so far to suggest that el-Sisi should win the Nobel Peace Prize. I concur.

Mock Attack

Rudy Giuliani, the mayor who brought New York City back from the brink, was just on television asking how we can be negotiating with Iran over nuclear weapons at the same time it is bombing a mock-up of a United States aircraft carrier ... see: CBS News Video. He went on to say that if Secretary of State John Kerry, representing the United States in these talks, didn't walk out as a consequence, he should be fired.

Funny how clear thinking has a way of cutting through the Obama administration's cerebral clutter.

Homesick

That snively traitor and pop-hero, Edward Snowden, apparently is homesick and would like to return to the United States from his exile in Russia ... see: New York Times Story. He is currently negotiating through his Russian lawyer with the U.S. authorities as to the terms of his return.

Knowing what bad deal makers the Obama administration is, I would not doubt that he is holding out to get his old job back at the NSA.

With Friends ...

like the United States, who needs enemies. Last year Israel revealed to the Obama administration, through Secretary of State John Kerry, it's plans to attack Iranian nuclear facilities in order to slow down that country's rabid race to the atomic bomb. Rather than then coordinating plans with Jerusalem, the U.S. threatened to shoot down any attacking Israeli planes ... see: Israel National News Revelation. Shoot them down! Let me repeat ... the United States would shoot down Israeli planes if they tried to destroy Iran's atomic weaponry facilities! Wow!

The Obama misadministration is so invested in trying to woo Iran ... now not even to the point of making it renounce and destroy its path to becoming an atomic power ... see: Charles Krauthammer's Analysis, that it is willing to attack just about our only "ally" in the Middle East.

This clearly is not a happy circumstance ... as I hope we all find out in detail when Bibi Netanyahu speaks to a joint session of Congress this Tuesday. I realize that, if the Israeli Prime Minister lays it all out then and there, that his speech might be a wake-up call to any Americans who still have an open mind. Yes, Netanyahu may well be burning his last bridge to the Obama administration, but, at this point, I don't see that his country has much more to lose ... given what we threatened to do to them last year.

See also: a more reflective Powerline Take.

Mouthpieces

In a way I pity the poor Obama administration's mouthpieces ... for they clearly are living under rigid constraints about what they can and cannot say ... even when they are constantly beaten up in the process. Josh Earnest, the administration's press secretary (and his predecessor, that common streetwalker, Jay Carney), Bernadette Meehan, the National Security Council spokeswoman, the State Department's Spox, Marie Harf (you know, the blond bomb-shell wannabe) ...  and even some of the Defense Department shills.  All of them must embrace the tortured and often inane language that is obviously imposed from above when they are issuing statements about the latest ISIS atrocities ... saying 21 Egyptian citizens instead of 21 Coptic Christians were beheaded in Libya ...required to say that Islam is a religion of peace ... and pointing to the gang affiliation of the latest Copenhagen gunman and not his Muslim motivations.

Can we say that these language constraints come directly from the president? It is not a stretch to so conclude ... since he himself goes to remarkable lengths to call the shooting at a Kosher deli in Paris "random" ... to say that ISIS is not Islamic ... and will only use the term "radical extremism" when we all know the source of 99.9% this blood-lust is some of the teachings of Mohammad.

Carried Interest Redux

Hedge-fund managers, for whatever obscure reason, were and are paying taxes on their billions of ordinary income as though it were interest income ... at a rate equivalent to the long-term capital-gains rate. This is called a "carried interest" tax rate and has enraged the Obama administration and many ordinary citizens ... including myself. I have blogged about this in the past ... see: Carried Interest. A few years ago the highest capital-gains rate was 15% and this was why Warren Buffet's secretary was paying taxes at a higher rate than her boss.

The solution to this imbalance from our heads-up-their-tushes government was to increase the maximum capital-gains rate to 20% ... and not to eliminate this carried-interest tax treatment. And now the Obama administration, still in a snit, is suggesting that we raise the maximum capital-gains rate to 28% ... again treating the symptom and not the disease.

The result of course is that, in order to extract meaningful income taxes from hedge-fund managers, some non-millionaire ordinary investors are being punished  ... perhaps this is because of many hefty Wall Street political donations?

This is plainly stupid! Fix the problem ... don't paper over it!

Aphorism Agenda

Dog Whistle

The Obama administration has the enviable knack for establishing imaginative vernaculars for their chief executive as a way of pushing his agenda. These bon mots are sometimes insults cloaked in a velvet glove. Here are a few examples with translations:

Degrade ISIS -- we will not send them any more Ramadan good-wishes cards.

Settled science -- Al Gore says it is so.

Bitter clingers -- a way of dissing "white folks" to non-whites and getting away with it.

Dog whistle -- white folks' way of referring to blacks in a oblique way so as not being called racists ... for examples "inner city" or "Detroit" ... i.e., a silent sound that only other whites can hear.

New car smell -- a suggestion that tired, old politicians (such as Hillary and Mitt) are not what America wants in the next election ... rather we need a fresh face like Elizabeth Warren.

Hope and change -- an oblique way of suggesting that President George W. Bush took this country in the wrong direction without saying exactly where we need to go. (We have unfortunately found out.)

You folks -- a way of seeming to belong to a group liking hamburgers while consuming copious quantities of waygu beef.

Dreamers -- the wrapping of illegal immigrants in a term that presupposes they are all young, ambitious and benign.

Let me be clear -- this may be a lie but I am saying it forcefully.

I won --- shut up you losers and let me do my silly stuff.

Islam is a religion of peace -- except for that scallywag, Osama ben Laden,