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Friday, February 19. 2016

Remains at a Swedish fort tell a story of bloody Iron Age warfare

Eiffel Tower “copyright”

Hating Israel at Vassar

Rutgers Students Hold Group Therapy Session After Milo Yiannopoulos Visit

Good grief

The Environmental Progection Agency is perched to become the nation’s zoning board

The Justice Department’s Shakedown Of Morgan Stanley

Believe it or Not, The Republican Obamacare Replacement Plan Might Come Together

OUR INABILITY TO CONFRONT OUR IMMIGRATION CRISIS - What America’s immigration infrastructure lacks – with a dire cost.

Z Man: Buckley conservatism is dead

Fox News poll has Sanders ahead of Clinton nationally, and both ahead of Trump

New York Times Editorial Board Urges Hillary to Back $15 Minimum Wage, Leaves Economic Reality Behind

Clinton’s Secret Tax Plan Emerges in Debate With a 69% Top Rate

Trump: Fishtown’s Champion Against Belmont

Trump Responds To Pope: “You’ll Wish I Was President When ISIS Attacks The Vatican”

Pope’s call for immigration leniency unlikely to change debate - Vatican has most restrictive immigration policy

And a high wall

Marine: New U.S. Commander in Afghanistan Threw Us Under the Bus

It is hard to believe that in thirty years the United States has managed to go from top dog to a country whose military might is weakening.

Russia has just deployed its most advanced spyplane to Syria

The War of Western Failures: Hopes for Syria Fall with Aleppo

Between Alliance and Rivalry: Egyptian-Israeli Relations Remain Solid, If Not Particularly Warm

The Arab Attitude toward Israel’s 2005 Unilateral Disengagement: - A First-Hand Account from an Israeli Insider

South African Students Loot University Buildings, Torch Portraits Of White People

Crunch Time for Washington and Beijing in the South China Sea

Posted by Bird Dog in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 06:38 | Comments (24) | Trackback (1)

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re: EPA

One side-effect of the gridlock and the partisan fighting in Washington is that the executive branch agencies lack proper oversight. They're not just going to sit there and do nothing, they're going to push to expand their jurisdiction. There's an interesting article at NRO - http://www.nationalreview.com/article/376053/united-states-swat-john-fund - concerning the fact that a lot of these agencies are getting their own enforcement arms as well. Once upon a time, if an agency like the EPA or the DoL wanted to enforce their rules they had to depend on the DoJ and the White House to back them up which may have restrained their reach a little bit. Give them their own enforcement arm and their own judicial system through the administrative appeals process and they've become a law unto themselves, their own little kingdom. The President may feel smug about his executive order issuing power - who needs Congress if I have executive branch agencies to effect whatever laws I want to make? - but what happens when the heads of the executive branch agencies ask themselves why they need a President?

#1 Jerryskids on 2016-02-19 08:01 (Reply)

Re FOX Poll with Trump losing to either of the Proggy Frauds.....

ROTFLMAO! Note that this poll also had a question regarding Obama's performance, with 49% of those polled having a favorable opinion of Obama!!! Where was this poll taken? In Harlem?

Fox News is establishment GOPe all the way. Faked polls like this are just more evidence of that and of their frenzied hatred for the true winner, the Donald.

#2 OLd Codger on 2016-02-19 08:35 (Reply)

It remains to be seen if Trump can will in a general election, but to think that a President Trump will govern as a republican, much less as a conservative, is naive.

His proclamations are empty rhetoric - much like Obama's when he was running. "My xxxx plan is going to be great." "We're going to do great things."

What does that mean? Other than having Mexico build a wall and instituting a trade war with China, he never gives any concrete answers about his programs. The reason is that he doesn't have any conservative solutions for any of the problems. He doesn't really understand conservative principles because he's spent his life as a big government, liberal Democrat and has never seriously thought about issues from a conservative - or even a religious - perspective.

I might forgive a young whippersnapper for being fooled by Trump, but it's sad to see an old codger fall for his deception.

#2.1 Mike M on 2016-02-20 00:21 (Reply)

The problem is that none of the Republican candidates backed by the GOPe will adhere to conservative or even traditional Republican standards either. It has become painfully obvious that Rinos have taken over the Republican party and their goal, their entire purpose in life is to retain personal power and enjoy the benefits that power provides them. Where are the conservatives? Cruz is a conservative but the GOPe would rather have Hillary than elect Cruz. The Republican in congress have played Lucy to the Charlie Brown voters; once every two years they bring out the conservative football and tempt us once again to kick it only to yank it out knocking us on our asses. We have had it with the Rinos. Look at what they did with our budget, or should I say didn't do. We don't have a budget we have an open checkbook and the likelyhood of our national debt exceeding $20 trillion by the time our next president takes office. Look at what the president is doing at Gitmo. Congress could stop him but they do nothing. It will not surprise me if Obama pulls a Jimmy Carter and gives Gitmo back to Castro. It also wouldn't surprise me if Castro then allows Russia to use Gitmo to threaten the U.S. This is a very real possibility and our Rinos in congress do NOTHING. I will bet you right now that our Rinos in congress will in fact agree to hold hearings on an Obama replacement for Scalia AND I will bet that a few Republicans will actually vote for the replacement and it will be passed. THAT is why Trump is winning and why Bush looks like a fool. The Republican party is little better than the communist Democrat party of thugs. Why should we support them?

#2.1.1 GoneWithTheWind on 2016-02-20 11:05 (Reply)

National match ups are notoriously inaccurate at this stage in the primary process. Early match ups of Romney vs. Obama in 2012 had Romney ahead. We all know how that turned out.

The national election is a state-by-state race. Not a popularity vote. These early polls are useless.

#3 MissT on 2016-02-19 11:14 (Reply)

Holy crap - they made that lying piece of trash Nicholson the Commander in Afghanistan? Wow.

#4 NJSoldier on 2016-02-19 11:15 (Reply)

This Pope seems to really want to demonstrate the great advancement of humanity that the Reformation was.

Back when the Catholic church had the exclusive representation status between Christians and God, the union boss could just decide you weren't a Christian. But the more egalitarian Protestantism is more a right to worship movement and promotes a direct relationship between God and sinner.

To the point, many [not in the bag journalists] knew exactly what Scott Walker meant in this exchange

QUOTE:

Not only does Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) not know whether President Barack Obama loves America, he also appears to be unaware that the president is a Christian.

“I don’t know,” the potential 2016 candidate told The Washington Post at the winter meeting of the National Governors Association in Washington, D.C.

“I’ve actually never talked about it or I haven’t read about that,” Walker said of Obama's faith. “I’ve never asked him that. You’ve asked me to make statements about people that I haven’t had a conversation with about that. How [could] I say if I know either of you are a Christian?”

The president has spoken publicly about his faith numerous times. He also frequently cites Bible scripture in his public remarks.

Speaking publicly of your faith, quoting Bible scripture nor the pontifications of the Pontiff does not a Christian make.

#5 JK Brown on 2016-02-19 11:25 (Reply)

"[The] more egalitarian Protestantism is more a right to worship movement and promotes a direct relationship between God and sinner."

But then a Protestant would say that.

#5.1 JJM on 2016-02-19 12:19 (Reply)

Jesus is now our High Priest and direct intercessor with God. (Hebrews)

#5.1.1 Jim on 2016-02-19 14:57 (Reply)

Trump Responds To Pope: "You’ll Wish I Was President When ISIS Attacks The Vatican"

You'll wonder where the yellow went when you brush your teeth with Pepsodent.

#6 JJM on 2016-02-19 12:21 (Reply)

Russia has just deployed its most advanced spyplane to Syria

The Russians have been very, very busy on the high-tech military development side. It has taken their operations in Syria for the West to start paying attention.

#7 JJM on 2016-02-19 12:27 (Reply)

They may be developing (or duplicating others'
developments), however, they are still broke. So most of their army is still using the same junk as the Iraqis we beat easily a could of times.

#7.1 NJSoldier on 2016-02-19 12:40 (Reply)

I applaud your bravado!

#7.1.1 JJM on 2016-02-19 12:44 (Reply)

Not Bravado, just reality. Russia is a big, broke, failure of a country. They can field some cool prototype weapons systems. What they can't do is buy enough to equip their entire force - nor do they bother training their mostly conscripted army with the good stuff.

Been like that since WWII - they have some good special forces and a couple of first rate divisions - complimented by a horde of half-trained draftees with old junk equipment. Part of their freak-out and collapse in '91 was seeing there doctrine and equipment obliterated by American and British forces.

#7.1.1.1 NJSoldier on 2016-02-19 12:51 (Reply)

Hmm...

We're not actually talking about a Cold War confrontation here. We're talking about Syria.

And there, the Russians are operating with great élan and considerable éclat in the vacuum ceded to them by the West.

#7.1.1.1.1 JJM on 2016-02-19 13:01 (Reply)

Moscow on the Tigris: Russia Joins the Terror Nexus

http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/article/moscow-tigris-russia-joins-terror-nexus

#7.1.1.1.2 feeblemind on 2016-02-19 15:27 (Reply)

And speaking of being broke, US debt: $19 trillion and counting!

Hooray!

#7.1.2 JJM on 2016-02-19 12:46 (Reply)

The War of Western Failures: Hopes for Syria Fall with Aleppo

Here, let me rewrite that for you:

"The Syrian opposition is losing the civil war and the West let it lose because everybody just assumed Assad's demise was a given."

#8 JJM on 2016-02-19 12:33 (Reply)

They basically had the same plan for Syria as Libya - hope it would be easy to push over the strongman, then nothing.

No plan for how the country would be governed or who would lead it after the fall. No idea how we would keep it from becoming part of ISIS or something similar. No way of preventing it from becoming a source of endless hordes of refugees and immigrants.

#8.1 NJSoldier on 2016-02-19 12:44 (Reply)

We simply convinced ourselves that Evil Dictator Assad would be gone in a flash and all those liberal-minded Syrian luvvies would be enjoying low-fat lattes at the Damascus Starbucks in no time.

#8.1.1 JJM on 2016-02-19 12:50 (Reply)

Oh, I think there is a plan and it involves creating a caliphate with the muslim brotherhood in charge, but to accomplish that they need to be rid of the old line dictators. There was an attempt at this with the United Arab Republic back in the day but everyone wanted to be chief and no one wanted to be the indian.

#8.1.2 indyjonesouthere on 2016-02-19 18:24 (Reply)

Crunch Time for Washington and Beijing in the South China Sea

Look on the bright side: at least this time your president will be able to rightly claim it's hard to draw a red line in the water.

#9 JJM on 2016-02-19 12:36 (Reply)

Yes. It is hard to see how this will matter much to China.

After all, how big a navy does The Hague have? Do those parasitic bureaucrats actually believe their decree will have China quaking in their boots?

#9.1 feeblemind on 2016-02-19 12:53 (Reply)

"New York Times Urges...$15 Wage." Obviously none of their staff have anyone who owns or runs a small - or even a not-so-small business. They all focus on the minimum wage earners; no one thinks of the upward pressure on the "just above" minimum wage earners, and the consequences to their employers.

You raise minimum wage to $15; the worker who previously was content with that now thinks $20 is fair wages, and so up the pike. Reality is, a lot of small businesses will go under because they will no longer be able to survive given the new wage demands. So who benefits? Certainly not the employees whose businesses are now closing. And not the owners who risked their all.

The only beneficiaries of such a proposal are those - essentially politicians who can capitalize on the rhetoric of caring, with perhaps some civil service acolytes who get to administer the new rules - who can trumpet their caring without ever having been in the position of having to meet payroll, let alone being in the position of not being able to cash the pay cheque until cash flow is better at the business.

#10 Frances on 2016-02-20 01:36 (Reply)

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Friday, February 19. 2016

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