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JED BABBIN: TRANSFORMATIONAL TRANSITIONS

Posted By on November 21st, 2016

Trump’s transition has to transform the government. Obama’s people are deeply embedded and have to be replaced to restore our government’s ability to function properly. As Reagan taught us, personnel is policy.

Presidential transitions smooth the way for the peaceful transfer of power that has always characterized our democracy. When a transition passes power within a political party it changes little but the names on the door. Even when power passes between the Democrats and Republicans a transition isn’t necessarily transformational.

President-elect Donald Trump’s transition will and must be transformational because it not only passes power between the parties but is passing power from a president and administration that have intentionally and greatly weakened America to one that has as its principal objective completion of the daunting task of rebuilding America’s economic, military and political influence at home and abroad to restore its greatness.

From the beginning of his presidency, Mr. Obama has reduced our military, our intelligence capabilities and our influence abroad to such a degree that we are no longer a superpower. We are no longer able to influence the world’s important events.

Mr. Trump has to rebuild our powers and influence to regain the superpower status. It can be done, but only with the right sort of transition. As we learned in the Reagan era, personnel is policy. That’s why Mr. Trump’s team has to create a transformational transition.

The media — having done everything it could to prevent Mr. Trump from being elected — is now in full voice trying to prevent him from selecting the kind of people he needs to fill his cabinet. Consider former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, whose name is being floated as a possible secretary of State.

On Nov. 15, The New York Times published an editorial proclaiming that Mr. Giuliani should never be secretary of State. The Times said he had no experience as a diplomat, that his international security firm had earned millions from foreign governments and that he was insensitive at times.

The editorial reminded me of one incident that disproved all of the Times’ principal arguments.

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SYDNEY WILLIAMS: RECONCILABLE DIFFERENCES

Posted By on November 21st, 2016

In the aftermath of the election, with protests led by violent and professional protesters and a cast member of “Hamilton” peremptorily lecturing the newly elected Vice President, it may seem unrealistic to suggest that differences we have are reconcilable. But I believe they are.

In the heat of a political campaign, urged on by extremists from both Parties and encouraged by a biased press, we forget that all Americans ultimately want the same things: We all want a society that is fair, civil and free; one in which success is determined by meritocracy, not based on one’s parents. We want the rule of law, and we want justice meted out by a jury of one’s peers. We want peace and prosperity. We want hope for the future, and security at home and abroad. These wants are an expected part of the American experience.

Nevertheless, it is common, at times like these, to confuse means with ends – to focus on where we are most different, rather than on what we all share. That could be seen Friday evening when Brandon Victor Dixon, who plays Aaron Burr in the Broadway hip-hop musical “Hamilton,” felt the need to instruct Vice President-elect Michael Pence – a man who spent a dozen years in the House of Representatives and four as Governor of Indiana – on the meaning of democracy. Mr. Dixon is free to speak as he wishes; however, his remarks were disrespectful and unfair to audience members who disagreed, but were compelled to listen to his harangue. For those who voted for Clinton his words may have provided a momentary sense of schadenfreude, but for those who voted for Trump he came across as pompous and sanctimonious.

It is in how to achieve common objectives that we differ. At its most fundamental, Democrats place more faith in government, while Republicans rely more heavily on free-market capitalism. Democrats prefer redistribution over lower taxes; tighter, rather than looser, regulations. But Democrats understand the need for the private sector, and Republicans recognize that government is essential to education, commerce and civility. It is in emphasis where there is disagreement.

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Donald Trump and the Return of European Anti-Americanism by Soeren Kern

Posted By on November 21st, 2016

European anti-Americanism — which was on the wane during the presidency of Barack Obama, who steered the United States on a course of globalism rather than nationalism — is back with a vengeance.

Europe’s media establishment has greeted Donald Trump’s election victory with a vitriol not seen since the George W. Bush presidency, when anti-Americanism in Europe was at fever pitch.

Since the American election on November 9, European television, radio and print media have produced an avalanche of negative stories, editorials and commentary that seethe with rage over the outcome of the vote.

European criticism of Trump goes far beyond a simple displeasure with the man who will be the next president. The condemnation reveals a deep-seated contempt for the United States, and for American voters who democratically elected a candidate committed to restoring American economic and military strength.

If the past is any indication of the future, European anti-Americanism will be a pervasive feature of transatlantic relations during the Trump presidency.

Although European opinion-shapers have focused much of their indignation on the threat Trump allegedly poses to global order, the president-elect will inherit a world that is significantly more chaotic and insecure than it was when Obama became president in January 2009.

The primary cause of the global disorder is the lack of American leadership — leading from behind — at home and abroad.

A series of feckless decisions by Obama to reduce American military influence abroad have created geopolitical power vacuums that are being filled by countries and ideologies that are innately hostile to Western interests and values. China, Russia, Iran, North Korea and radical Islam — among many others — have all been emboldened to challenge the United States and its allies with impunity.

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MY SAY: JAMES MATTIS AN AMERICAN HERO

Posted By on November 21st, 2016

My inbox is loaded with warnings from fellow Zionists about statements made by General Mattis against Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria in 2013. I share their concern and bow to no one in my support for Israeli sovereignty from the Mediterranean to the Jordan River with Jerusalem and Hebron as capitals of Israel. Americans for a Safe Israel, on whose executive committee I serve, has been the only….repeat only…. Israel support organization that opposed any inch of territorial concessions by Israel since 1973. Read OUTPOST our publication, where I contribute a monthly column for evidence.

Now, as to General Mattis. As a conservative and defense minded conservative I have gratitude to General Mattis for his service and his lifetime commitment to a strong and exceptional America. He will not set Middle East policy and as Secretary of Defense will rebuild our sagging military, restore aging ordnance and inspire recruitment. Support for Israel will come from the top- Donald Trump and Mike Pence, and be implemented by the State Department.

Our bigger problem is the Jewish left that engages with the anti-Semites on campuses and seeks to delegitimate Israel .

Please take the time to read this:

The Meaning of Their Service By James N. Mattis April 2015

A retired four-star Marine Corps general on the clarifying effect of combat experience, the poison of cynicism and how veterans can help revive American optimism.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-meaning-of-their-service-1429310859

This article was adapted from remarks for the fourth annual salute to Iraq and Afghanistan veterans at the Marines’ Memorial Club in San Francisco on April 16:

Our country gives hope to millions around the world, and you—who knew that at one time your job was to fight well—kept that hope alive. By your service you made clear your choice about what kind of world we want for our children: The world of violent jihadist terrorists, or one defined by Abraham Lincoln when he advised us to listen to our better angels?

I searched for words to pay my respects to all of you here tonight and had to turn to others more articulate than I to convey what our service meant. Someone once said that America is like a bank: If you want to take something out, then you must be willing to put something in. CONTINUE AT SITE

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The Unrepentant: Hillary, Libya, and History The debacle that will really haunt Clinton’s legacy. C. Gambill and Teri Blumenfeld

Posted By on November 21st, 2016

Reprinted from the American Spectator.

Although Hillary Clinton lost her bid for the White House in part because of lingering public resentment over the 2012 terror attack that left four Americans dead in Benghazi, history will judge her even more harshly for her decisive role in the preceding U.S.-led military intervention in Libya.

In fact, then-Secretary of State Clinton was instrumental at three critical junctures in convincing President Obama to green-light and escalate the war to oust Libyan leader Moammar Qaddafi.

First was her decisive role in the initial U.S. decision to lead a NATO air campaign in Libya. Under intense pressure from European and Arab governments to stop Qaddafi’s forces from stamping out the incipient rebellion, Obama administration officials were deeply divided. Those opposing intervention included Vice President Joe Biden, National Security Advisor Tom Donilon, and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates. Those in favor included Samantha Power, a senior aide at the National Security Council, and UN Ambassador Susan Rice.

Although Secretary Clinton ostensibly took no position at first, she worked to pave the way for the intervention Power and Rice were urging by brokering an Arab League resolution calling for an internationally enforced no-fly zone. With that in hand on March 12, she flew to Paris to meet with European officials and Libyan opposition leader Mahmoud Jibril, after which she pressed Obama heavily to intervene. Gates later said that Clinton’s advocacy “put the president on the 51 side” of a “51-49” decision to intervene.

So what if the Obama administration had allowed regime forces to win? Qaddafi’s Libya was no democracy, but it was an occasional partner in the war on terror and its human rights record was steadily improving. Indeed, one of the reasons radical Islamists were so well poised to seize control of the revolt is that Qaddafi (unlike other Arab dictators) had freed the large majority of them from his prisons.

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Caroline Glick, Oleg Atbashian and the War on Israel on Campus Daniel Greenfield

Posted By on November 21st, 2016

Caroline Glick had her UT-Austin appearance aborted under pressure from the Jewish left that now controls much of campus life. Oleg Atbashian, a former Soviet dissident, was threatened with 5 years in jail at George Mason University, for putting up posters critical of an anti-Israel conference.

The anti-Israel left likes to claim that it’s constantly being censored. The truth is that it’s the one doing the censoring. And the ordinary student, the one whose career and future depends on the approval of their professors and the loud campus organizers who can destroy a reputation in 24 hours on twitter, is far more powerless and far less able to have their voice heard.

There are always excuses and justifications in all the individual cases. But more and more people are seeing a pattern.

The pattern is censorship. Sometimes it’s exclusionary. Speakers are disinvinted. The students and faculty who proffer the invitations are intimidated into backing off. Other times the suppression is more violent. There are assaults and arrests.

For the most part the suppression is quiet. Dissenting voices are purged. A climate of hate goes unchallenged. The Freedom Center is determined to challenge that silence.

And it’s when you push back again, that the real ugliness is revealed. That’s what happened when Caroline Glick sought to speak at UT-Austin. It’s what happened when Oleg did the same things that a thousand propagandists and advertisers do on campuses on a regular basis.

Totalitarian systems can appear placid from the outside. As long as no one resists. It’s when resistance happens, that we can see the true ugliness within.

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McCain warns Trump on waterboarding By Mallory Shelbourne see note please

Posted By on November 21st, 2016

If they do forbid waterboarding, they could broadcast McCain speeches 24/7…..prisoners would beg for waterboarding…..rsk

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) pushed back on President-elect Donald Trump’s past praise for waterboarding Saturday, maintaining that the U.S. wouldn’t use it as an interrogation tactic.
“I don’t give a damn what the president of the United States wants to do … we will not waterboard,” McCain said at the Halifax International Security Forum, according to reporters.

“I don’t give a damn what the President of the United States wants to do… We will not waterboard.” – @SenJohnMcCain #HISF2016
— Josh Rogin (@joshrogin) November 19, 2016

McCain: “I don’t give a damn what the [POTUS] wants to do, we will not waterboard… we will not torture people… It doesn’t work.” #HISF2016
— Michael Crowley (@michaelcrowley) November 19, 2016

“If they started waterboarding, I swear to you that we’d have them in court in a New York minute,” McCain added, according to TalkingPointsMemo.

McCain, who was held prisoner for more than five years during the Vietnam War, has long been a vocal opponent of waterboarding.

Trump expressed support during the campaign for authorizing any means necessary for interrogating terror suspects, including the use of waterboarding, saying in March that “waterboarding would be fine.”

McCain criticized Trump for his rhetoric on torture during the campaign. In June, McCain said there was no place for waterboarding in this country, noting it is considered a war crime and is ineffective.

“It’s not the United States of America. It’s not what we are all about. It’s not what we are,” McCain said then.

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Iranian Imams Insult Americans and Threaten Trump The Mullahs’ message for the president-elect. Dr. Majid Rafizadeh

Posted By on November 21st, 2016

After the presidential elections, the mainstream media have ignored reporting on recent attacks, insults, accusations and threats from leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran against the American people and Donald Trump.

The agenda behind this is to hide the truth from the American public so that Tehran-Washington ties will be maintained and the White House appeasement policies towards Iran will continue.

According to DW Farsi, Ayatollah Ahmad Alam Al Hoda, one of Iran’s prominent Imams and the key representative of the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, insulted the American people, saying that Americans are totally ignorant people who have taken an un-Islamic path leading to loss.

In addition, the Imam of Tehran threatened Trump that if the president-elect continues the path of other Republican Presidents, he will deeply regret it.

Addressing a large group of people on Tehran University campus on Friday, the notorious Ayatollah said, “[Trump,] be careful to not give the lion’s tail [referring to Iran} another twist; I hope you will hear these words and realize that the Islamic Iran has a manner and a motto and that is: we will resist until our last breadth.”

This is a hardball tactic that Iranian leaders are playing. They played it with President Obama and it paid off well. Iran received billion of dollars, it did not have to dismantle any of its nuclear facilities, and will be legally allowed to develop nuclear weapons after the nuclear deal expires. In addition, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) are freely operating in various countries and harassing US navy ships.

Iranian leaders are hoping that Trump will give in to Iran’s threats and that he will abandon his previous promises and statements.

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Attorney General Sessions: Civil Rights Hero Leftist racists shamefully smear a public servant who has steadfastly fought for civil rights — and against racist abuses. Daniel Greenfield

Posted By on November 21st, 2016

The last lynching in the United States began when Michael Donald, a 19-year-old African-American man, was kidnapped by two Klansmen. They forced him into the car at gunpoint, beat him, tied a rope around his neck, cut his throat three times and left him hanging from a tree on Herndon Street in Mobile, Alabama.

The search for justice ended two years later when U.S. Attorney Jeff Sessions announced that the killers had been arrested. Local authorities had botched the case badly. But Sessions was determined to see that justice would be done. Federal and State resources were combined for a successful outcome.

The case brought an end to lynching culture and broke the KKK. But the man whose office investigated the case, who helped send one of the killers to the electric chair, would be smeared as a racist despite his history of fighting for civil rights and against racist abuses in dozens of court cases.

And it was those radical activists smearing him as a racist who had been exploiting black people.

The man named by President-elect Trump as his nominee for Attorney General of the United States had always played fair. Unlike so many on the left, he didn’t come wielding a racial double standard.

And that made him enemies.

When black voters complained about voter fraud being perpetrated, Sessions stepped in. The voter fraud was being committed by black activists. Among them was an influential figure whose past made him a hero to some. Ballots had been altered after voting. The defendants were caught mailing hundreds of absentee ballots by FBI agents. Others had been searching hospitals and nursing homes for the names of patients whose names could be forged on absentee ballots.

The abuses were truly despicable. In one case an African-American resident complained that her blind husband’s ballot had been altered and when she complained, she was warned to change her testimony.

The last best defense for voter fraud by the exploiters and abusers of black people was to cry racism.

The White House was racist. The FBI was racist. Sessions was racist. But the despicable lie was quickly shot down by the African-American public officials who had fallen victim to the fraud.

African-American Perry County Commissioner Reese Billingslea said, “It’s not a black-white issue — race has nothing to do with it.”

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Bureaucratic Tyranny in Trump’s Crosshairs By Karin McQuillan

Posted By on November 21st, 2016

Federal bureaucrats have been in a frenzy of activity in Obama’s last months of office, pushing through 4,000 new regulations that will cost consumers more than $100 million. As liberal website Politico proudly reported, “Obama’s executive agencies are intent on pushing through the president’s priorities without congressional interference[.]”

Trump has promised to rein in our overreaching bureaucracy through attrition. His rival in the primaries, Jeb Bush, suggested three bureaucrats retire for each new hire. That might save some money, but it will not get the job done of ending corruption and bureaucratic tyranny.

We have elected a man famous for two words: “You’re fired!” For Trump to legalize that simple act, as necessary in the government as in business, will be nothing less than a revolution.

We have a VA that purposely lets vets die without medical care.

We have an EPA at war with the energy industry.

The Department of Education threatens public schools with loss of federal funds and mandates progressive lies about American history, teaching generations of schoolchildren to be ashamed of America and ignorant of our Constitution and our forefathers. Universities are forced by the DOJ to hire feminist and racialist thought police under an Obama bureaucrat’s interpretation of the Civil Rights Act.

We have an IRS that has a political enemies list its employees punish at the behest of Democrats.

Homeland Security and FBI are under a gag order that forbids them to use the term jihad or Islamic extremism.

Everywhere we look, regulations are strangling business, intruding into the personal lives and property rights of ordinary citizens. The cost to families is crushing. One among the hundreds of Obama’s new global warming regs: fuel-efficient furnaces will raise the price of furnaces almost $500.