RUTHFULLY YOURS

Democrats brag their Party is comprised of people from myriad and diverse backgrounds. They are, but then, for the sake of political convenience, individuals are compartmentalized into easily defined subgroups that are monotheistic in terms of thoughts. For example, if one is poor one must think like a poor person; if one is Hispanic, one must act Hispanic; if one is Black, do not think like a conservative; if one is a young, twenty-something female, one must behave like all other young, twenty-something females; if one is old, one must conform to the wants of the aged; if one is of the “99%”, one must stand against the venomous one percenters. Democrats assume that a young, Black, female conservative must be demented or brainwashed. Such attitudes may fire-up the electorate, but they are insulting to the individual and sanctimonious in the assumption that people cannot think for themselves.

The Republican Party, despite detractors’ claims, also includes people from across the spectrum. But, more important, it tends to be polytheistic in ideas and opinions. That gives it, at times, the cacophonous look of an asylum, but in reality it provides a forum for the sharing and free expression of ideas. But, for such apostasy the Party gets ridiculed by mainstream media. Tea partiers are racists, evangelicals are anti-gay, Midwestern blue-collar workers are narrow-minded and prejudiced, dopey, old white men are prejudiced, dopey, old white men.

Liberal Democrats – at least those in the highest elective offices – believe in a government of the elite by the elite, for the masses. It is only the elite that have the intelligence, empathy and sophistication to understand the needs of the less fortunate. “I feel your pain,” Bill Clinton might say to a medley of suffering poor, as he reaches for a plate of fried oysters and heads out to make another $200,000 speech. “We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America,” called out Barack Obama in rock-star fashion at the University of Missouri in late October 2008 to youth influenced by Mr. Obama’s charisma, but unconcerned as to his use of the word “transforming.” Recently, Black Democrat Representative James Clyburn chastised Black Republican Senator Tim Scott for not voting the color of his skin, inferring that Mr. Scott was an “Uncle Tom,” implying that he does not have a mind of his own and ignoring the fact that Mr. Scott represents all the people of South Carolina. Trust us, these political leaders are saying, just don’t ask us to explain.

Democrats claim to be liberal, but what is liberal about college students refusing to hear speakers that have views contrary to their own? Might not the students at Rutgers, Brandeis and Smith College have learned something from women like Condoleezza, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and Christine Lagarde? What moral turpitude the president and trustees of these universities expressed in giving in to a few students’ intolerant demands!

The Cancer of Common Core — on The Glazov Gang

http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/frontpagemag-com/the-cancer-of-common-core-on-the-glazov-gang/print/

This week’s Glazov Gang was joined by superstars Basil Hoffman, a Hollywood actor (“Rio, I Love You”), Ann-Marie Murrell, the National Director of PolitiChicks.tv and Ernie White, a Civil Rights Activist.

The Gang discussed The Cancer of Common Core,analyzing how Mao’s Cultural Revolution has now reached America’s public schools. Don’t miss it!

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The Ukraine crisis has created a catalyst for Sino-Russian rapprochement. Events in Ukraine have persuaded Russia that it cannot rely on Western Europe as its primary market for hydrocarbon exports. Consequently, after decades of negotiations between Moscow and Beijing for a long term natural gas mega-contract, it seems that Russia has finally relented to China’s terms, with China becoming the senior partner in a lopsided China-Russia relationship.

There is broader context to the struggle over sovereignty in the Ukraine, and China may emerge as the victor. After a decade of negotiations between Moscow and Beijing for a long-term natural gas supply contract, it appears that Russian President Vladimir Putin is likely to sign a 30-year deal during his state visit to China next week. Events in Ukraine appear to have persuaded Russia that it cannot rely on Western Europe as its primary market for hydrocarbon exports. It has therefore chosen to turn towards China. Evidently, Russia is willing to make price concessions that China has long demanded and Russia has long resisted.

China’s “New Silk Road” investment program is one of the most ambitious undertakings in world economic history. Beijing plans to build high-speed rail and broadband networks from China through to Turkey, with major spurs to Southeast Asia in the South, and through Israel and Egypt in the West. China will spend $7.3 billion to build a 3,700 kilometer pipeline from Turkmenistan, as well as shorter energy pipelines through Pakistan and other areas.

China’s economic presence in Russia’s Central Asian “near abroad” now dwarfs that of Russia. According to a report by GlobalRiskInsights,

Due to its proximity and reliability, Central Asian energy is increasingly important to Beijing. Turkmenistan is already China’s largest natural gas supplier, and Beijing invested $45 billion in energy projects in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, including oil, gas and uranium deals. Chinese-built pipelines have helped CA countries reduce their energy dependency on the Soviet-built pipelines running through Russia for oil and gas distribution. In addition, China overtook Russia as the region’s largest trade partner in 2010, with deals reaching $46 billion in 2012, compared to Russia’s $27 billion.

http://carolineglick.com/our-world-letting-go-of-abbas/ What makes PLO chief and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas tick?   In 2008, when Abbas rejected then prime minister Ehud Olmert’s expansive offer of Palestinian statehood, he did so for the same reason that Yassir Arafat rejected then prime minister Ehud Barak’s expansive offer of Palestinian statehood at Camp David in 2000.   […]

Since Business Week was bought by the Bloomberg corporation (yes..that Bloomberg), it has taken a sharp turn to the left. They recently published an editorial that called for America to welcome rapists, murderers, thieves and dope dealers to our shores.

In “Exporting Mayhem Across The Border” the magazine calls for a halt to deportations of illegal aliens (called “unauthorized immigrants” by the magazine)-especially deportations of violent criminals.

The magazine reasons deportation of these criminals is making lives rougher in the countries where these criminals are sent. The nations are being de-stabilized and weakened by the influx of the deportees with records of violent crime.

What did the U.S. expect would happen when it dumped more criminals into countries already notorious for their high homicide rates, thriving made-in-the-USA gang networks, and weak judiciaries?

Well…maybe those countries should beef up their own crime-fighting or take measures to boost their economies.

The magazine does exhort America to send funds to Latin American economies to do so and justifies this spending by blaming America for the problem.

Never mind the immorality of the U.S. outsourcing the drug war to those least capable of prosecuting it and U.S. culpability in incubating Central America’s gangs

The magazine should send a crew to chip Emma Lazarus’s poem (“The New Colossus”) off the Statute of Liberty and replace it with it:

“Give me your criminals, your thieves, your rapists, yearning to hook kids on drugs, commit crime and mayhem on Americans”.

THE MONICA VOTER
There are two types of victims. There are those Americans who consented to have a political relationship with Bill and Hillary. Twice. And there are those who didn’t.

There are the Monica Lewinskys and the Juanita Broaddricks.

There are Americans who were raped by the Clinton Administration. And there are Americans who chose to be abused by it and would still be willing to be abused by it all over again.

Obama and Clinton voters have much in common with Monica Lewinsky. They caused their own problems and yet, like Monica, they whine about being unable to find work. They blame Republicans for humiliating them by revealing their disgusting relationship with a politician who is a serial liar.

And they act as if the whole thing is someone else’s fault.

Monica Lewinsky Wasn’t a Victim —- America Was

Saudis Protest Camel Kissing Ban by Kissing Camels

CURTAINS FOR OBAMA
Dr. Richard Krugman, former associate chief of staff at the Veterans Affairs health care system based in Harlingen, Texas, said his boss implemented a policy in 2010 that colonoscopies would only be approved if the patient tested positive in three successive screenings for bloody stools.

“By the time that you do the colonoscopies on these patients, you went from a stage 1 to a stage 4 [colorectal cancer], which is basically inoperable,” said Krugman.

“That was done because of dollars and cents. For the VA, they have to be bleeding out of their rectum before they would authorize a colonoscopy. That was the standard of care,” he said.

The VA has spent a total of $489 million to upgrade conference rooms, buy draperies, and purchase new office furniture during the past four-and-a-half years.

To make the office makeovers complete, draperies, roller shades, and cornice boxes were also purchased. The VA spent $10.7 million in the past five fiscal years on curtains and draperies.

Obama’s VA Bosses Blew $500 Mil on Office Furniture While Vets Died

http://www.andrewbostom.org/blog/2014/05/16/from-jewess-sol-hachuel-to-christian-meriam-ibrahim-200-years-of-sharias-brutal-injustice-for-non-muslim-women-of-faith/

The striking cover art which adorns my 2008 The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism, Alfred Dehodencq’s “Execution of a Moroccan Jewess” is based upon the actual execution of a Jewess from Tangier, Morocco, Sol Hachuel, believed to have occurred in 1834.

Accused, falsely, of having become a Muslim, upon adamantly and steadfastly maintaining her Jewish faith—“A Jewess I was born, a Jewess I wish to die,” the 17 year-old Sol was beheaded publicly for this contrived “apostasy” from Islam.

Fast forward nearly two centuries to a Sharia court in Khartoum, where on May 15, 2014, Meriam Ibrahim stoically refused to forsake Christianity, her lifelong faith, and the religion of the mother who raised her. Agence France Presse (AFP) described how just prior to her sentencing, “an Islamic religious leader spoke with her in the caged dock for about 30 minutes,”—likely one last ditch effort to convince Meriam to renounce her Christian faith, and become a Muslim. But despite the possibility of having her sentenced reduced, perhaps even annulled by “accepting Islam,” Meriam refused this coercive conversion, and calmly told the presiding Sharia judge the objective truth:

I am a Christian and I never committed apostasy.

In response, Judge Abbas Mohammed Al-Khalifa, addressing Meriam by her father’s Muslim name, Adraf Al-Hadi Mohammed Abdullah, rendered his Sharia-based punishment sentence:

We gave you three days to recant but you insist on not returning to Islam. I sentence you to be hanged.

Judge Khalifa also sentenced Meriam to 100 lashes for “adultery.”

Vladimir Putin has a portrait of Peter the Great prominently displayed in his office. Peter, a 17th century “czar of all the Russias,” is best remembered – at least by Putin – for having made Russia an empire by military conquest.
In the Oval Office, before President Obama sent it back, there was a bust of Winston Churchill. Now, the only counterpoint in the president’s office to Putin’s portrait of his favorite czar is probably the “selfie” the Danish prime minister took of herself and Obama at Nelson Mandela’s funeral.
The benchmark of the Obama administration’s foreign policy has been ineptitude. It is comprised of the rejection of allies, the embrace of adversaries and the failure to give the most important crises the most urgent attention.

There is an underlying narcissism and immaturity that gave rise to it all. Instead of dazzling the Queen of England with his understanding of world affairs, Obama presented her with an iPod containing some of his speeches. When then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton presented Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov with a toy “reset” button to illustrate the supposed resetting of the two nations’ relationship, it had the wrong Russian word on it. Instead of “reset,” it said “overcharge.” That was long before former National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor, in answering a Brett Baier question on Benghazi, said, “Dude, that was, like, two years ago.”
In an equally risible example, last week first lady Michelle Obama made a plea to rescue the 276 Nigerian schoolgirls kidnapped by the Islamic terrorists of Boko Haram. She posed with a “#BringBackOurGirls” sign which is as significant an act as the latest Tweet from Jennifer Lopez.

1. Intel is investing, additional, $6bn in its Israeli research & development centers and manufacturing plants, which currently employ 9,800 persons, expecting to add 1,000 employees, mostly in R & D. The current $3.5bn annual export by Intel – out of Israel – is expected to rise by $1bn-$2bn annually. Intel’s annual operation cost in Israel is $1bn (Globes Business Daily, May 1, 2014). The California-based pharmaceuticals giant, Hyperion, is acquiring Israel’s Andromeda for $570mn, which consists mostly of milestone payments (Globes, April 25). Pratt & Whitney (a subsidiary of the $108bn United Technologies) acquired 51% of Israel’s Lehavim – thus controlling 100% of the company – for a few hundred million dollars (Globes, May 2). Germany’s media tycoon, Axel Springer, acquired Israel’s Yad2 for $230mn (Globes, May 8). The San Diego-based giant, Qualcomm, is expected to acquire Israel’s Wilocity for $300MN. Currently, Qualcomm owns 13% of Wilocity, along with the Silicon Valley’s Tailwood Venture Partners (19%), Benchmark Capital (19%) and Sequoia Capital (19%), Cisco (4%), etc. (Globes, May 12).

2. The fiscal responsibility and growth of Israel’s economy is attested by the continued declining ratio of public debt to GDP: 66% in 2013, compared to 67% in 2012, 82% in 2006, over 100% in 2002. The 2013 OECD’s ratio was 108.5%, G20 – 115%, USA – 106%, Japan – 243.5%, Britain – 92%, Germany – 80%. Israel’s budget deficit during the year ending in April, 2014 was 2.5%, the lowest in five years (Globes, May 14). Israel’s unemployment rate during the first quarter of 2014 – 5.8%, compared to 6.2% and 6.7% during the same period in 2013 and 2014, and compared to the OECD average unemployment of 7.5% (Globes, May 1). According to the OECD, Israelis’ life expectancy is 82, 8th among the developed countries, higher than the OECD average of 80 (Israel Hayom, May 7).

Republican governors and state legislatures across the country are under pressure to accept Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion, and the Obama administration and health-reform liberals are excited to announce their latest victory: Indiana governor Mike Pence has announced he’ll take the money and buy into the law he’s supposed to want to repeal.

Well, not so fast: Pence isn’t doing what, say, governors John Kasich and Chris Christie (Republican governors of bluer states) did, and decide to expand their state’s Medicaid programs basically as-is. Pence wants to use federal funding to expand an altered form of Healthy Indiana, a program the state’s run since 2008 for people with incomes up to 200 percent of the poverty level. Pence isn’t really “expanding Medicaid,” and the Obama administration can’t really claim that he’s going along with the law — he’s trying to bend it as much as possible.

But that doesn’t mean what he’s doing is a great idea, because there’s only so much he can bend it. Healthy Indiana was praised by many conservatives but criticized by others, and now Pence’s proposal both supersizes it and waters down in order to have a chance at approval from federal health-care bureaucrats. What did he have to do to it?

A brief explanation of the original Healthy Indiana (“HIP”) program: Everyone earning under 200 percent of the poverty line not already eligible for Medicaid could apply, though the number of spots were limited. HIP enrollees to make contributions between 2 and 5 percent of income every month to a health-savings account, called POWER, which the state would subsidize so that the contributions equaled $1,100 each year. The deductible for their plan was equivalent to that, $1,100, after which they had catastrophic coverage paid at Medicare (not Medicaid) rates. Preventative care was totally free — which is a good thing for the unhealthy population Medicaid serves — and were required if enrollees wanted to roll over their HSA contributions from year to year. (A good simple explanation of the program can be found in this FAQ.)

Before the ACA, lots of states around the country chose, like Indiana, to expand Medicaid beyond its standard federal eligibility categories with their own funds, but HIP was probably the most conservative and most consumer-driven. It certainly was much better than ordinary Medicaid: It required contributions from the enrollees and incentivized them to use the right care and avoid the emergency room, while ordinary Medicaid has almost no cost-sharing at all. It also got them much better access to care because its reimbursement rates were much higher than standard Medicaid’s. It was expensive — more expensive than expected — but getting health insurance for poor Americans is never going to be cheap. It was extremely popular, and though health outcomes weren’t yet clear, preventative care use was up and emergency-room use was down versus normal Medicaid.