The bin Laden documents

It turns out Hillary isn't the only one of Obama's inner circle sensitive about hard drives, cell phones, etc. He is, too. It was about a year ago I heard that the Navy seals had captured the bin Laden documents, but with all the other scandals hovering over this administration plus the run up to the primaries, it went from the back burner to under the rug.

As it turns out, there's enough information to fill a small college library, but the Obama administration doesn't want them released because they conflict with the narrative that he had weakened them, they were decimated--the justification for his disastrous pull out that birthed ISIS (aka ISIL). Now they may have to be subpoenaed. 

"There are enough documents to fill a "small college library," [Devin] Nunes (R) wrote -- but only a fraction is public. The letter goes on to describe that documents "came from the information on over 100 thumb drives, hard drives, cell phones, paper files and other documents." 

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/09/22/house-intel-chairman-threatens-to-subpoena-bin-laden-files.html 

 http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-bin-laden-papers-1442272895

 http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/21/world/asia/bin-laden-bookshelf-list-released-by-us-intelligence-agency.html?_r=0

Is it 1914 or 1939 all over again?

"Human nature is unchanging and remains irrational. Evil is eternal. Unfortunately, appeasement is often seen by thugs not as magnanimity to be reciprocated but as timidity to be exploited.

Someone soon will have to tell the North Koreans that a stable world order cannot endure its frequent missile launches and nuclear detonations.

Someone could remind Putin that the former Soviet republics have a right to self-determination.

Someone might inform the Chinese that no one can plop down artificial islands and military bases to control commercial sea lanes.

Someone might make it clear to radical Islamic terrorists that there is a limit to Western patience with their chronic bombing, murdering and destruction.

The problem is that there is no other “someone” (especially not the United Nations or the European Union) with the requisite power and authority except the United States. But for a long time America has done more than its fair share of international policing — and its people are tired of costly dragon-slaying abroad.

The result is that at this late date, the tough medicine of restoring long-term deterrence is as almost as dangerous as the disease of continual short-term appeasement.

Obama apparently assumes he can leave office as a peacemaker before his appeased chickens come home to roost in violent fashion. He has assured us that the world has never been calmer and quieter.

Others said the same thing in the last calm summer weeks of 1914 and 1939." Victor Davis Hanson

Clinton outspends Trump

"Hillary Clinton spent $645,000 more a day than her opponent Donald Trump last month, but even with her $50 million campaign outlay, she has not been able to pull away from him in the race for the White House.
Clinton's campaign had its most expensive month to date in August, eclipsing its previous monthly high by more than $12 million. And combined, Clinton and the national Democratic Party paid out $78 million in August, while Trump and the Republican National Committee spent about $47 million.

While both candidates are raising huge sums from donors, their lopsided spending lays bare the difference in the two major party presidential campaigns. Clinton is running a conventional operation featuring multimillion-dollar ad buys and expansive voter outreach. Trump has kept spending down by enjoying seemingly limitless free media coverage and outsourcing the guts of his voter contact duties to the Republican Party."

There are some rich, greedy capitalists who seem to love the Democrats. Banks, unions, Big Pharma, probably. They’ve invested so much the last 8 years, probably don’t want to lose momentum. It’s good to cut out the competition like EpiPen did. Trump’s donors tend to be the little guy—the deplorables. And still she’s talking to airport parking lots and empty gyms. Trump usually has more people in line outside than they can get inside. I’m afraid all those ads are ending up in Ohio. But they are so repetitive. I don’t think she’s getting her money’s worth here. Really unimaginative.
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/e80b356a03204fff8b260618cb458017/clinton-campaign-raced-through-50-million-last-month

Derrion Albert

Seven years ago, on Sept. 24, 2009, Derrion Albert, a 16-year-old black student, was walking home from Fenger High School in Chicago and was beaten and stomped to death during a fight between 2 rival groups. The rest of the nation heard about it only because someone caught it on video. That put pressure on Obama, and later the President sent Holder and Duncun. Jesse Jackson also showed up. Then the money began to flow. Eventually, a $65 million dollar two year federal grant for "Safe Passage" was funneled to Chicago Public Schools to reduce youth violence. As I understand it grants went to local organizations and faith communities to hire and train people to ensure safety along the routes taken by school children. Kids in Chicago are still dying, but money was found to extend the program. The next year there were over 260 murders, but none on video. Eventually, Derrion's name was forgotten. Six young men over time were arrested, tried and sentenced in the Albert death, the last one in 2015. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/derrion-albert/

Who benefits from the race riots?

As I noted earlier, statistically, both in number and rate, more whites in the commission of a crime are killed by police than blacks. Whites also kill each other--about 84% is white on white because most crime is intraracial, gays kill each other, too, and many who kill know the victim. Only women and children don't fit that mold. When children are murdered, it's most likely one of the parents or her boyfriend, and a gun isn't used. In central Ohio right now we have a grisly serial murderer of women (again), a white man with white victims, unfolding and they're just finding the bodies. But it doesn't seem to make the national news, cause riots, or stick to the news cycle.

Why is that? Money and power.

Racialists, politicians, and media outlets can't make money or get votes by stirring anger over a mother suffocating her baby, or a white man kidnapping and killing white women. No one breaks windows and steals Air Jordans over a child killed by its parents. Racist alarmists and poverty pimps like Dyson, Jackson, Sharpton, Black Lives Matter and hundreds of academics on the government grant teat would have to cut back on their extravagant life style if riots like Charlotte, Dallas, Ferguson and Tulsa didn't happen.

Connecting the EpiPen dots

 David Meyers continues to look at the EpiPen story.  He's a Columbus writer about local historical sites and cultural events.

NOTHING TO SEE HERE, FOLKS.
 

FACT: Heather Bresch is the CEO of Mylan Specialty, the drug company that raised the price of EpiPens 450% over the past dozen years. She rose to that position in 2012, after starting out in the mail room in 1992. She received a $16M pay raise for her efforts.

FACT: Heather Bresch lied that she had obtained an MBA from West Virginia University. The school then faked documents to support her claim. In 2008, WVU President Mike Garrison was forced to ...resign as a result of the scandal.

FACT: Heather Bresch’s mother is Gayle Manchin. She became head of the National Association of State School Boards of Education in 2012. She spearheaded the effort to require schools to purchase EpiPens – a possible violation of anti-trust laws.

FACT: President Obama signed the EpiPen in 2013. Mylan provides a discount to schools, but only if they agree not to purchase products from a competitor. A year and a half later, Mylan moved its headquarters to the Netherlands, cutting its tax rate from 16.2% to 7.4% It now pays no U.S. taxes.

FACT: Heather Bresch’s father is Joe Manchin, senior Democratic senator from West Virginia. When he ran for the senate in 2010, Mylan Pharmaceuticals donated $127,000 to his campaign. However, he was not one of the 27 Democratic and 10 Republican sponsors of the bill. Obviously, he didn’t need to be because, well, they all look out for each other.

FACT: People will die because of the high cost of EpiPens.

Unfortunately, this is the norm in Washington. Politicians use their influence to feather their own nests all the time. And keep in mind that Joe Manchin is considered one of the good guys. Thinks of what the bad guys are up to.

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2016/08/24/ceo-at-center-of-epipen-price-hike-controversy-is-sen-joe-manchins-daughter/

 https://theintercept.com/2016/08/24/epipen-uproar-highlights-companys-family-ties-to-congress/

 http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/25/business/mylan-epipen-senate-manchin.html?_r=0

Clinton on the shootings

Was it just a few days ago in her best zombie impression, Clinton chastised Trump for jumping to the conclusion that an exploding trash can could be a bomb in NYC? The police hadn't announced it she solemnly intoned. One of the major media sources edited her statement after she called it a bombing. Yet yesterday at a fevered pitch she literally screamed through the airwaves about the Tulsa case, rushing to judgement condemning the policewoman before there had been any investigation and poisoning minds across the nation about the police. "We have got to tackle systemic racism," Clinton said. "This horrible shooting again. How many times do we have to see this in our country?" So she condemned the police as racists, I guess tossing them in the deplorable basket, and ignoring that most of these shootings involve whites, not blacks, but she doesn't worry about them--no political advantage.

New York bomb--be very cautious.  Might be terrorism.  Bad for campaign.

Tulsa shooting--act outraged.  Might be racism.  Good for campaign.

Tulsa and Charlotte shootings

Statistically, both in number and rate, more whites in the commission of a crime are killed by police than blacks, but it doesn't seem to make the national news or cause riots. Why is that? And how often do I hear about it in Columbus, Ohio? In incidents involving police and felons, 2/3 were the same race. For citizens killing felons, 3/4 were the same race. I'm not suggesting that in Charlotte or Tulsa the victim was a felon (news flash for Hillary: there hasn't been an investigation yet), only that the perception created by media is that it's only race. We're expected to believe that an officer with 9 years experience who has saved many lives, all of a sudden goes crazy and starts shooting the people she's been protecting all these years.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/20/us/oklahoma-tulsa-police-shooting/index.html

I was so impressed by the press conference of the city government of Charlotte today. Black, white, men, women, old, young. Female mayor, black police chief. The south has a lot to teach this country. Then the black Muslims had a press conference, with the same old same old.

"According to Chief Putney, Officer Brentley Vinson was not wearing a body camera, but other uniformed officers on scene were. Vinson was reportedly wearing plain clothes and a clearly marked CMPD vest.

"I can tell you a weapon was seized, a handgun," Putney said, "I can also tell you we did not find a book that has been made referenced to."

 http://www.wbtv.com/story/33146501/watch-live-charlotte-officials-speak-on-deadly-police-shooting

States with the most integrated Hispanic populations

In our society, usually assimilation and integration of immigrants and minorities are goals--at least it was until our big "diversity" and "multi-cultural" push by liberals. So how are the states doing? West Virginia has been the most successful with Hispanics who have adapted to mainstream American society relative to where they live, and Massachusetts is #51. The study uses 17 indicators, everything from English language to home ownership. Massachusetts has super majorities in both houses for Democrats, and has only voted twice since 1960 for a Republican president. Only two progressive NE states are even in the top 30. Democrats favor keeping immigrants in little cultural boxes speaking the language of their grandparents so they can be a voting block; Republicans encourage full integration of immigrants taking advantage of all this country can offer. 

 https://wallethub.com/edu/states-with-the-most-integrated-hispanics/15591/

 

Geography lesson

I keep my clothes so long, I have stuff in my closet, "Made in the U.S.A." But getting something new (for my birthday) is always an opportunity to study geography. Try it. Made in China is so yesterday.

Today's outfit (lavender, purple and beige print on white cotton) was made in Malaysia. What an interesting country--tiny, multi-ethnic and multi-cultural. About half are Malays, and the others, although citizens, are ethnically Chinese, Indians, and indigenous peoples. Its politics are race based. They have a British style government with both a king and a prime minister, and the state religion is Islam. It's been in its current configuration of various states since 1965. This tiny country has a GDP rate of 6.5% that makes us look like we're over regulated and run by socialists! It's the descendants of the Chinese and Indians that really drive the economy, although they aren't the "real" Malay (must be Muslim), and there's friction (Wikipedia).

I see nothing wrong with global companies, some based in the USA, to look for the best deal for their investors elsewhere. (Nor did Donald Trump when he had his clothing line.) The cotton may actually be grown in the U.S.--it travels all over the world. Same for the fabric dye. The machines may be American made, and possibly the ships and crews (although that's probably not the case anymore). The designers and marketers and retailers are probably Americans. If we could get the corporate tax rate under control (highest in the world making us non-competitive), the actual cutting and sewing of the shirt might come back.

According to 2014 data from the OECD, the combined federal and state statutory corporate tax rate for the United States is 39.1 percent. The average of the other 33 members of the OECD is 24.8 percent — 14.3 percentage points lower than the U.S. rate. (Forbes)

 

Washington Post, pure bias

Just looked through Washington Post. Five opinion pieces on campaign; all anti-Trump.  One news item on campaign, anti-Trump. It's called the Fourth Estate, meaning it's supposed to keep our government honest, sort of a fourth branch, but should be called propaganda.  So how do you trust anything else in the paper? It's always been left leaning, can't recall a time it wasn't.  But these past eight years it's gone around the bend.

Elect Trump to get a vigilant press

Every day I glance through the Washington Post political stories. If there are eight about the campaign, seven will be anti-Trump, with no attempt to even hide it. But yesterday's beats all. Moaning and weeping that the mainstream media are perceived as biased, liberal and elitist. And it's all the fault of the mean old GOP of 40 years ago. Agnew and Nixon.

I watched a montage of Obama reporting "lone wolf" for many of the attacks on Americans by disaffected Muslims yesterday. This is probably the most common, liberal view, and heavily promoted by the media. The latest guy who planted bombs in New York and New Jersey--Ahmad Khan Rahami--well, I swing back and forth for him. Yes, he had a long running feud (many years) with the city over the family's "American fried" chicken restaurant, so perhaps he just had a grudge. But then he also had several trips back to Afghanistan and Pakistan and a lot of suspicious behavior and personal changes in lifestyle. Lots of dysfunctional family behavior, as well as being a dead beat dad. And he was outspoken about gays, which is why Chelsea area was targeted.  If the media says much about the gay connection, we know how that will be spun, and it won't be how homosexuality is a crime in Muslim countries.

Although I hadn't intended to watch Trump's Florida speech yesterday, I postponed fixing dinner to sit down and watch it. He was amazing. The audience was huge, but respectful and attentive. Then this morning I caught a brief clip of him and Clinton both mentioning the NYC bomber (the latest one)--I think hers was a press conference or speech to an empty parking lot. I could see that his very weakest, throw away line and her strongest were juxtaposed. It's not that I don't realize how every word and phrase are spun, but I do know, if Trump is elected, we will again have a vigilant, adversarial press to be our watchdog, as it should be. If Clinton is elected, we'll never know anything.

Hillary was speaking at an airport on Sunday in the same zombie voice and blaming Donald Trump for recruitment of terrorists. She stated it as fact. Again, his off the cuff words are more important than her carefully planned actions which helped create ISIS and the explosive situation in Syria from her days as Secretary of State. She even said she has "contributed to acts" and current strategy. Not a good recommendation. Stop when you're ahead, lady.  Trump has done nothing to create ISIS. I hope his ad writers are using her own words. After the 9/11/2012 Benghazi attack, Glenn Beck was scribbling all over his black board with maps on how guns were being moved to Syria to help the rebels (which didn't turn out well). But who listened to him? It's now been confirmed many times what she was doing, and that she lied under oath. Others go to jail for much less.
 
We don't have the details yet on the motivation of the young man who slashed people in the St. Cloud, Minnesota Mall, first asking his victims if they were Muslims. The New York and New Jersey bombings sort of pushed that to the back burner. We know ISIS has claimed him as one of their own, whether or not they trained him. But you can almost envision the headlines, "Off duty cop kills young black college student." All would be true, but without the rest of the story, which we seldom get with the hate stories about police, our media are contributing. I wish this young man really understood the terrible deeds going on within his country of birth, Somalia, where the killing isn't ethnic, isn't religious, but just about power and greed. The very movement he joined in a free country where every opportunity to live peacefully was available to him.

Anyone between DC and California

Monday Memories--Happy Birthday to me

What a great birthday dinner Saturday night. I set the table with china, and my daughter and son-in-law brought in a fabulous lasagne dinner from Bravo (I'd never eaten there) with appetizers, salad, garlic bread and wine. There were enough left overs for Sunday night. Then on to my presents, and updating my fall wardrobe with 3 shirts and 2 vests in mix and match. These two love to shop, and spent a lot of time on colors and outfits, and I get the benefits. She knows my skin color and tastes better than I do, because I usually just shop by price. Even an OSU Buckeye colors outfit, scarlet and gray; set for me to wear on game days (I'm not much of a sports fan but I did watch a football game about 5 years ago).

Pitiful, paltry Clinton Foundation

According to tax returns filed by the Clinton Foundation, only 5.7% of the funds raised actually went to charitable organizations. The rest went to salaries and benefits for employees and "other expenses." It was about $5.2 million out of the $91 million it took in (2014). There's no law against this, and all the donors got tax benefits, but according to news stories about meetings with important people and access, they weren't donating to rebuild Haiti, or fight AIDS or reduce climate problems. Our vigilant press corp are busy investigating Donald Trump's foundation, so you can rest easy knowing they're on the job.

Hillary's joke about her health

I really laughed when I heard her say this when she got back on the campaign trail. "The good news is my pneumonia finally got Republicans interested in women's health."  Big whoop.  It's going around the internet as a clever meme.  "Women's health" is code for abortion. I doubt too many of us were thinking that for a 69 year old.

Make America Great Again

Our investigative journalists did nothing to correct Obama's bio in his publisher's guide of 1991 that stated he was born in Kenya.  Back in the old days, that gave a young author a lot of gravitas.  It was corrected in 2007, around the time he decided to run for president. That doesn't mean he was born in Kenya; just that it was a convenient lie that came back to bite him.  A bit like Elizabeth Warren's heritage as an American Indian.  Some glamor for her being a minority--which she wasn't.

But our sharp eyed press did discover Mitt Romney's great-grandfather was a polygamist who had fled to Mexico to protect his family, although they said little about Obama's polygamist father who had fled his family responsibilities leaving a pregnant teenager and gone back to Africa.

Someone, or maybe it was social media, or maybe "real" press corps, was outraged that the Romney's dog traveled in a carrier outside of the car many years ago. That was an important story in the 2012 election.

Let's make America great again with the kind of in depth discovery we've come to expect from our media giants. NOT.

Why charges of racism will never end--it's too lucrative

When Barack Obama was elected in 2008, I wasn't happy because I'd heard his policies during the campaign and didn't like them. There's no way to put a pretty face on socialism. The one positive, I thought, was he could finally put to rest we were a racist nation, a theme the Democrats constantly played up when civil rights laws prevented them from doing more blatant things, like supporting the KKK. We'd shown the world and all the haters in our own country that we were so over that. 

I was so wrong, as were millions of well meaning people, even Republicans, friends and family, who used that as a reason to vote for him.  He has so damaged our country, and really, Hillary's "basket of deplorables" could have been written by his speech writers (and it wasn't the first time she'd said it). In addition to racism, he's added other isms or phobias most of us had never heard of in a never ending scheme to divide and conquer. Instead of feeding the poor and visiting the sick, churches can now figure out how to use limited funds to add gender neutral bathrooms thanks to this president.

Millions and millions of dollars were at stake and both poverty and race are BIG business supporting millions of jobs, government grants and untold numbers of politicians.  If that gravy train ended, what would happen?  Never fear.  The Democrats do not want this country to become great again. Even Hillary's talk today in front of black women was a blatant appeal to keep old racial rumors and divisions alive and favoring her.  So Trump said to blacks last week,  "what have you got to lose?"  Think about it, ladies.  She offered the same old, same old hate in a basket, gift wrapped.

The fallout--for Hillary or Trump?

I didn't watch Fox all summer but was aware of the meltdown there.  Really good reporters and opinion speakers have left.  But the noon program called Outnumbered is still worth watching. Today the Ladies (of the Outnumbered on Fox) were screaming at each other over the Trump press conference this morning. No one who has decided to support either candidate will change their minds. But it was a masterpiece of political theater. He got more news coverage--it was an brilliant infomercial for his campaign for President. (And a YUGE plug for his new hotel). He also used the public forum at no cost to his campaign to show his impressive support from retired military. It's like the primaries. He sucked the air out of Hillary's room. I think all the media are mad at him.

Trump plays fast and lose with the truth, he manipulates his audience.  But we've got 30 years of her lies, and her footprint is all over Syria.  Donald Trump can fly high above all her scandals and mistakes.

Lie, deny, revise, claim not to remember specifics, stall for time. It's her M.O.

PEGGY NOONAN: "They were in shock. So were members of the press, who knew Mr. Dale [Billy Dale who had worked at the White House for 30 years] and his colleagues as honest and professional. A firestorm ensued.

Under criticism the White House changed its story. They said that they were just trying to cut unneeded staff and save money. Then they said they were trying to impose a competitive bidding process. They tried a new explanation—the travel office shake-up was connected to Vice President Al Gore’s National Performance Review. (Alm...ost immediately Mr. Gore said that was not true.) The White House then said it was connected to a campaign pledge to cut the White House staff by 25%. Finally they claimed the workers hadn’t been fired at all but placed on indefinite “administrative leave.”

Why so many stories? Because the real one wasn’t pretty." All along Mrs. Clinton publicly insisted she had no knowledge of the firings. Then it became barely any knowledge, then barely any involvement. When the story blew up she said under oath that she had “no role in the decision to terminate the employees.” She did not “direct that any action be taken by anyone.” In a deposition she denied having had a role in the firings, and said she was unable to remember conversations with various staffers with any specificity. So—that was the Clintons’ first big Washington scandal. It showed what has now become the Clinton Scandal Ritual: lie, deny, revise, claim not to remember specifics, stall for time. When it passes, call the story “old news” full of questions that have already been answered. “As I’ve repeatedly said . . .” More scandals would follow. 

They all showed poor judgment on the part of the president, and usually Mrs. Clinton. They all included a startling willingness—and ability—to dissemble.

People watched and got a poor impression.The point is it didn’t start the past few years, it started almost a quarter-century ago. You have to wonder, what are the chances it will change?"