RUTHFULLY YOURS

Katie Pavlich’s new book, Assault and Flattery (Threshold 2014), flips the script on the creaky old War on Women narrative of the left. Her book would be a welcome addition in campus gender studies programs, where it would do the most good in rebutting the industrial-size narrative about the oppressed role of women and how Democrats bring deliverance.

Naturally, nobody in any gender studies program will be adding Assault and Flattery to the lists of required reading for “Gender, Sexual Violence and Empire” or the “Harlots, Dandies and Bluestockings” classes this fall at Harvard. (Yes, weep aloud, as they really exist.) That’s too bad, because Pavlich’s book lays waste to the false narrative that the modern feminist movement, working hand in hand with the Democrat Party, does any good for women. Quite the opposite is true.

Pavlich provides example after example where the Obama administration has mistreated female federal employees, most obviously, choosing to pay them far less than male counterparts.

Not many books start with a warning. Assault and Flattery does:

Due to the vulgarity of many Democratic Leaders as well as the so-called women’s rights groups that defend them, this book contains language suitable for mature audiences only, or at least those with strong stomachs.

Pavlich doesn’t disappoint, taking on David Letterman’s jokes about statutory rape and Bill Maher’s demeaning characterizations of women — narratives surely absent from gender studies gripe sessions on campus. Pavlich particularly roughs up a left-wing Hollywood culture that will take a back seat to no one in treating women like objects.

But a chapter entitled “Barack Obama: the Most Anti-Woman President Ever” makes the book worth the read. She details the inside story of women enduring employment in the Obama administration. Not only are they paid less, they are treated badly. “I felt like a piece of meat,” Obama’s former communications director said in describing the atmosphere inside the White House. The book goes on to describe the harassment of women employees by Obama political appointees.

This narrative usually remains bottled up and ignored. Gender studies programs, ABC’s White House reporter Ann Compton and any outlet on the left ignore these inconvenient and messy narratives.

WASHINGTON — The White House wouldn’t definitively say that it would extend the July 20 deadline for a nuclear agreement with Iran, but seemed to be laying a groundwork of justification by highlighting what it says was good behavior by the Islamic Republic during the six-month interim agreement.

In a brief statement to reporters early this evening, President Obama did a rapid-fire hit on four foreign policy areas: Afghanistan, Iran, Israel and Russia, the last of which is now eligible for new sanctions over the Ukraine crisis.

Reports emerged today that the P5+1 negotiators in Vienna were focusing on an agreement for an extension of the talks.

After admitting that “very real gaps” remain in nuclear negotiations, Secretary of State John Kerry traveled back to Washington from Vienna “to consult with the president and to begin consulting with members of Congress about the way forward,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said today.

Obama said he received Kerry’s update, after which “it’s clear to me that we’ve made real progress in several areas, and that we have a credible way forward.”

“Over the last six months Iran has met its commitments under the interim deal we reached last year, halting the progress of its nuclear program, allowing more inspections and rolling back its most dangerous stockpile of nuclear material,” Obama said. “Meanwhile, we are working with our P5+1 partners and Iran to reach a comprehensive agreement that assures us that Iran’s program will, in fact, be peaceful and that they won’t obtain a nuclear weapon.”

He said as the July 20 deadline approaches, “there are still significant gaps between the international community and Iran and we have more work to do.”

“So over the next few days we’ll continue consulting with Congress and our team will continue discussions with Iran and our partners as we determine whether additional time is necessary to extend our negotiations,” Obama said.

It’s been Congress’ complaint throughout the six-month process, though, that they’ve not received [1] the promised close consultations from the administration.

Earnest painted the talks in a positive light.

If you want to learn whether subsidizing wind turbines makes sense, just glance across the pond. Wind and solar subsidies have effectively doubled the cost of electricity in many European countries.Wind and solar sound good until you run the numbers.Every installation places an ongoing burden on tax and rate payers.At the end of 2013 the PTC, the production tax credit for wind power, expired.
The push is on for Congress to bring it back.Electricity from the wind and sun is anything but free.

Marita Noon argues effectively at CFACT.org that this would be a mistake.
The author of Energy Freedom, Marita Noon serves as the executive director for Energy Makes America Great Inc. and the companion educational organization, the Citizens’ Alliance for Responsible Energy (CARE). Together they work to educate the public and influence policy makers regarding energy, its role in freedom, and the American way of life. Combining energy, news, politics, and, the environment through public events, speaking engagements, and media, the organizations’ combined efforts serve as America’s voice for energy. – See more at: http://www.cfact.org/2014/07/08/the-ptc-extension-more-taxpayer-dollars-for-green-energy/#sthash.AeEMO8Kn.dpufMarita Noon argues effectively at CFACT.org that this would be a mistake.http://www.cfact.org/2014/07/08/the-ptc-extension-more-taxpayer-dollars-for-green-energy/
This tug-of-war is seen, perhaps most obviously, in the so-called renewable energy field. After Solyndra, and the more than fifty other stimulus-funded Green energy projects that have failed or are circling the drain, the public has grown weary, and wary, of any more spending on Green energy. The money isn’t there to spend, and the motive behind the 2009 rush to push billions of taxpayer dollars out through the Department of Energy has been tainted by corruption and illegal activity.
The Green-energy emphasis was sold as a job creator for unemployed Americans, as a cure for global warming, and as a way to slow a perceived energy shortage. It sounded so positive in the many speeches President Obama gave as a sales pitch to the American public.
Today, Americans know better.
They knew about Solyndra—which took over five hundred million dollars and then folded. Thanks in large part to my exposé, many now know about Abengoa and the Solana solar project—which took billions of taxpayer dollars and is now functioning and producing electricity but does so by breaking immigration and labor laws, giving foreigners hiring preference, and stiffing American suppliers.
Watching multiple predictions fail and proponents get rich, Americans instinctively know that the whole global warming agenda doesn’t add up—as evidenced by this week’s International Conference on Climate Change where more than 600 “skeptics” from around the world gathered to discuss real science and policy.
With headlines heralding: “North Dakota has joined the ranks of the few places in the world that produce more than a million barrels of oil per day,” people know there isn’t an energy shortage. And America’s new energy abundance is on top of our rich reserves of coal and uranium that can provide for our electrical needs for centuries to come.
Yet, the White House keeps pushing the Green-energy narrative and, on July 3, 2014, “The Energy Department Just Announced $4 Billion For Projects That Fight Global Warming,” as the headline reads at ThinkProgress.org.
Wind Energy and the Production Tax Credit

According to the latest opinion poll, published on July 16, President Putin’s approval rating among different segments of Russia’s electorate has risen to an unprecedented 66 percent. This may change quickly, however, if he comes to be perceived as weak and indecisive in handling the next stage of the Ukrainian crisis – the one that may entail heavy fighting in Donetsk and Lugansk, with fresh civilian casualties and further deterioration of the beleaguered insurgents’ military position.

Putin’s popularity is partly due to the improving living standards, but it also rests on the hugely important perception that he has managed to bring Russia back to major power status after the decade of domestic decline and international humiliation under Boris Yeltsin. His counterattack in Southern Ossetia in August 2008, his nifty defusion of the Syrian crisis last September, and his energy deal with China in May are widely seen as the key markers on the road to Russia’s geostrategic recovery.

The Russians are far more concerned about external security than their peers in Western Europe or North America, which is unsurprising in view of the historical record and the country’s absence of natural barriers to foreign invasions. The massive Golden Horde onslaught from the east (1237-1240), which destroyed Kiev and eventually devastated all of the Kievan Rus’ – save the forest belt-protected Novgorod and Pskov – coincided with the attack by the Swedes (1240) and the Teutonic Knights (1242) from the west. The latter two were defeated by Prince Alexander Nevsky, but the consequences of the two-pronged attack for the Russian collective psyche were profound and long-lasting.

The sense of insecurity was enhanced by the Polish invasions of 1610-1613. They occurred during the “Times of Troubles,” a period of domestic political turmoil which was overcome at the last minute by the joint early-modern patriotic appeal of a commoner and an aristocrat, Kuzma Minin and Count Dmitry Pozharsky. The long-term result was Russia’s conscious and continuous policy of territorial enlargement – most notably from Peter’s decisive victory at Poltava to Catherine’s participation in the partitions of Poland – which permanently brought Russia into the league of great European powers by the end of the 18th century. The two autocrats’ successful attempt to create defensible buffer zones on all sides – in Ukraine, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and Siberia – paid rich dividends in defending the heartland against Napoleon in 1812. In all key respects the same geostrategic principle applied to the existential struggle against Hitler in 1941-1945.

Below is a list of 267 protests against our porous borders and the open invitation by the Obama regime to people from all over the world to come to America and receive myriad social services and other incentives AT YOUR EXPENSE – our taxpayer dollars at work. This at a time when many Americans are unemployed and under-employed, government spending for entitlement programs is at an all time high, defense spending is dropping precipitously and domestic law enforcement is being militarized!
This travesty is already wrecking havoc by bringing DISEASE (tuberculosis, chagas, leprosy, scabies, lice, swine flu, etc), CRIME (human trafficking, drug smuggling, gangs, murder, property destruction), ISLAMIC TERRORISTS, etc., to our once great nation.
National sovereignty is fast becoming a concept of the past and the Constitution has been shredded. (Obama and his DOJ are publicly signaling impunity for anyone coming to America illegally – even criminals and Islamic terrorists)! The iconic phrase extolling our representative government as one that is “for the people, by the people, of the people” (Gettysburg Address) has been trampled on.
The days of our once great constitutional republic may be limited.
JANET LEVY, LOS ANGELES
http://www.alipac.us/f8/protest-times-locations-july-18-19-national-protests-against-amnesty-307111/

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued directives for expanded passenger screening at airports as a result of the turmoil and new threat intelligence coming out of the Middle East, especially in Syria and Iraq. DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson said that he’s told the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to put in place “enhanced security measures in the coming days.”

There are reports of new generations of bombs now being developed by terrorists that could present serious risk to commercial aviation. This could lead to enhanced scrutiny of U.S.-bound passengers, including more explosive-detection equipment and random screenings in the near future. The new challenge facing intelligence agencies, such as the DHS and particularly the TSA — the component of the DHS that runs airport security — is the growth of potentially radicalized terrorists or foreign fighters carrying valid U.S. and European passports. Syria and Iraq have become an incubator for terrorists that pose a similar threat to that of al Qaeda a decade ago.

Thankfully, airport security has come a long way since 9/11. We now have hardened cockpits, air marshals, more sophisticated screening equipment and better intelligence sharing among law enforcement. Although weapons and potential threats are uncovered almost every day by the TSA, we have been fortunate not to have experienced another major terrorism incident in recent years in the transportation arena.

The new warnings about new bombing capabilities being developed by terrorists are a signal that we cannot be complacent and that our own security capabilities must be constantly upgraded against growing and dangerous malicious intent.

The DHS, through the Transportation Security Lab and the Science and Technology Directorate, are dedicated to working together in research and development to ensure that a new generation of technology is incorporated into our transportation security posture. The DHS is pursuing layered defenses at airports and train stations, often referred to as “the checkpoint of the future,” that will help prevent attacks.

The president has been able to restore something that Barnum and Bailey abandoned back in 2006 — the three-ring circus. Every week there seems to be some new gimmick or act that is meant to entertain and distract from the reality that we face: that, by design or by incompetence, Team Obama has no clue what they are doing or trying to accomplish on the world stage – but the show must go on!

The president is able to keep the show going – with his global “big top,” there is always something to delight his base – as he and his minions poke and taunt the Republican elephants in the first ring, with his cabinet of high wire walkers who keep narrow control of the message over the top of the second ring, and the third ring the ever-present Vice President “Joseph the Great” Biden doing his dog and pony show. Oh, and did I mention the clowns?

Entering from stage left is his Clown Car of Freedom that contains an endless line up of clowns (also known as national security “experts”) to delight the global audience with a constant stream of hysterical antics. Ah, yes – Ambassador Susan Rice is quite the driver, weaving in and out and around the three rings – and that red rubber nose compliments her big red clown shoes!

Let’s look at a few of the recent acts that have come popping out of the Obama White House Clown Car of Freedom:

In a blog “Mountain Man- Casualty Equalization” HB Salomon points out:

“Once again, Israel appears to be the villain in this new drama. It seems that several media personalities, and now the Washington Post have decided that the death tolls resulting from the Israeli air strikes on Gaza are considerably higher than Israeli casualties coming from Hamas rocket attacks on Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Clearly this is unfair. In a war, the casualties on each side should be approximately equal.
Under the new rules of engagement, warfare will not be like soccer where, for example, Germany can roll up the score on hapless Brazil. In warfare, the death rates should be about equal regardless of who caused the war and irrespective of tactics, weaponry or other factors. If we’re in a war from now on, we must guarantee not to kill any more of our enemy than casualties we ourselves suffer.”

I would just add that a balance is important too. An equal number of civilians of all stripes- women, youngsters, oldsters- should be sustained by both sides. rsk

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/shocking-anti-semitic-hatefest-in-downtown-seattle?f=puball

http://mikereport.wordpress.com/2014/07/13/shocking-anti-semitic-hatefest-in-downtown-seattle/

JEWS DEPICTED AS EATING GENTILE BABIES AND DRINKING THEIR BLOOD.

As Hamas Rockets continued to rain down on Israeli population centers, a large anti-Israel rally took place in Seattle’s Westlake Center this Saturday, July 12. Protesters screamed anti-Israel slogans calling for the destruction of the Jewish state while waving signs and marching through the downtown sidewalks. But this was more than a rally in opposition to Israel or her defensive operations. The signs being waved and the chants hollered constituted a shocking public display of shameless Jew hatred right in the heart of Seattle.

Signs comparing Jews to Nazis were commonplace (see below).

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/talk-and-conduct-montaigne-redux?f=puball

Michel de Montaigne, the sixteenth century essayist, noted the difference between “supercelestial talk and subterranean conduct.” While the difference was obvious in the Renaissance, it rages as a virtual definition of this moment.

The former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in high dungeon, says to Boko Haram “Let our girls [the 276 kidnapped Nigerian girls] go free.” Alas, there aren’t sane people who would disagree, but how do we bring about this result? Is there a strategy, a military prescription? Wailing to the gods of good feeling doesn’t do the trick. In fact, it is little more than supercelestial talk.

At the moment, a newly minted celebrity Thomas Picketty, with his rehashed version of Marxism generating ink in the West, tells us capitalism produces inequality – a point so obvious I find myself embarrassed to comment on it. Churchill made the same case when he said that capitalism distributes wealth unequally, while socialism distributes misery equally. Of course capitalism produces inequality. If free markets prevail some will succeed by dint of hard work, innovation, imagination, intrigue and luck. It isn’t always fair, but life isn’t always fair. What capitalism has also produced is the greatest explosion of wealth the world has known. If your desire is equality, then free markets must be controlled. And if free markets are controlled – to continue the syllogism – wealth will not be generated and people will be impoverished. Here too Picketty speaks from the heavens, but his words don’t resonate on the ground.

In Geneva and now in Vienna, the western powers have engaged in conversation with Iranian representatives over its alleged nuclear weapons program. President Obama contends “jaw jaw is better than war war.” (words attributed to Churchill) But suppose talk leads to war. Suppose as well, the celestial talk effectively accelerates the day when “break out” occurs and Iran has sufficient fissile material to produce multiple new weapons.

In fact, Shia leaders have made it clear that Iran’s desire for nuclear weapons cannot be forestalled. According to Ahmed al Baghdadi, jihad to conquer the world in the name of Islam “will be launched when Global Islam has weapons of mass destruction.” In addition, the Iranian government has publicly declared “death to America,” in effect genocide, thereby breaking rule number one of the United Nations. Yet we talk and talk hoping for a result that is impossible. What is it about the words “death to America” our leaders do not understand?