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January 2016

Posted by edgeofthesandbox on January 24, 2016 5 Comments
Warning: Spoilers I can't call myself an aficionado of action flicks, so I'm not sure where where 13 Hours falls within that genre.  I did find the movie intense, the lead parts were masterfully played and it offered plenty of food for thought. It might be red meat for the conservative base, but in terms of pure propaganda value, in terms of effect on those who don't study politics closely, 13 Hours falls short. The movie follows six veterans, now contractors, providing security for the CIA outpost in war-torn, terrorist-infested Libyan town of Benghazi.  On one hand we have bravery, camaraderie and leadership of men like Jack Silva and Tyrone Woods, played by John Krasinski and James Badge Dale respectively, and on the other --stupidity and indifference bordering on betrayal everywhere they turn.  The American team was abandoned by the key local allies, denied adequate resources by its own country and when they needed rescue, help was too slow to come -- you know the story.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 24, 2016 45 Comments
From the moment the Hillary email server scandal broke, there have been conflicting reports and claims about if and how the server was "wiped" clean. At an August 2015 appearance, Hillary famously said she didn't know if it was wiped:
“Did you try to wipe the hard drive?” “I have no idea… that’s why we turned it over … “You were in charge of it, did you wipe the server?” “What, with a cloth or something? …. No”
Since then there are reports that the most sensitive, highest-levels of classified information were found in emails, including human source intel. The material is so sensitive that lawmakers are not even permitted to view the intel that was on Hillary's home server.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on January 24, 2016 18 Comments
Democratic presidential frontrunner, Hillary Clinton recently co-opted Obamacare. In spite of her criticisms of President Obama's hallmark healthcare legislation, Clinton told supporters that the Affordable Care Act, affectionately known as Obamacare, was "HillaryCare" first. The Hill reported:
Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton is out with a new defense of her healthcare record — rival Bernie Sanders may have helped write ObamaCare, but it was her idea first. "It was called HillaryCare before it was called ObamaCare,” Clinton told a crowd of supporters at a country club in Vinton, Iowa. “I don't want to start over."

Posted by Mike LaChance on January 24, 2016 108 Comments
The next Republican debate is coming up this Thursday and will be hosted by FOX News. Based on their back and forth the last time FOX News hosted, Donald Trump asked the network to take Megyn Kelly off the moderator desk. Unfortunately for Trump, the network is doing no such thing. USA Today reports:
Fox to Trump: Megyn Kelly will be a debate moderator Fox News has a message for Donald Trump: Megyn Kelly will be a moderator for next week's Republican debate, despite the businessman's call for her removal.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 23, 2016 43 Comments
Author Ta-Nehisi Coates is hot, hot, hot in progressive circles. His demand for Reparations published in The Atlantic pushed him into the stratosphere. But it was an empty, amateurish effort, as I wrote at the time, The dead-end Case for Reparations:
Coates never gives the answer as to who gets what and how. And that’s ultimately the problem with reparations arguments that are not based upon the people causing the harm paying the people directly harmed by specific conduct soon after the conduct is remedied. If you can’t answer the question of why a Vietnamese boat person has to pay reparations for the conduct of white plantation owners more than a century earlier, then you can’t make the argument. If you can’t answer the question of why two successful black doctors living in a fashionable suburb should get reparations paid for by the white children of Appalachia, then you can’t make the argument.

Posted by New Neo on January 23, 2016 39 Comments
A recent Politico article talks about how Trump might defeat Clinton. The article's lede focuses on potential support among black voters:
If Donald Trump becomes the next president of the United States, there will be plenty of surprises along the way. One of the biggest will be the help he gets from black voters. According to Republican pollsters and Trump’s allies, the GOP poll-leader — who has been dogged by accusations of racism, most recently for tweeting out a chart that exaggerated the share of murders committed by blacks — is poised to out-perform with this demographic group in a general-election matchup with Hillary Clinton.
However, although it quotes pollsters, the article doesn't link to any actual polls that show Trump's support from black voters. Nor do those pollsters mention any poll numbers that would support the contention that black voters support Trump.

Posted by Anne Segal on January 23, 2016 19 Comments
Common Core education standards, which use the "Race to the Top" grant program to enjoin states to adopt national education standards, is the mechanism through which the federal government is taking control over K-12 curriculum. Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) recently referred to it as the "Obamacare of education." From Cato's Neal McCluskey:
...While Washington did not outright order states to adopt the Core, it did require that they promise to adopt standards common to a majority of states — a description fit only by the Core — to get maximum points in the $4 billion Race to the Top competition, held at the nadir of the Great Recession. After the vast majority of states had made that promise — but many had not won money — the Obama administration declared that, to get waivers from the hated No Child Left Behind Act, they would have to either adopt the Core most had already promised to use, or standards certified “college- and career-ready” by a public university system. Washington also selected and paid for Core-aligned tests — including the Smarter Balanced assessment used by California — that would be plugged into NCLB’s testing requirements.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on January 23, 2016 8 Comments
Time's 2015 "Person of the Year" is facing increasing criticism for her handling of the Middle Eastern refugee crisis and her open borders policy. Now, in the wake of numerous assaults across Germany alone, including the New Year's Eve mass sexual assaults by immigrants in Cologne, and increasing crime and unease among the German people, the German government admits that it cannot account for 600,000 of the 1.1 million refugees Angela Merkel let flood into the country over the past year or so.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on January 23, 2016 13 Comments
With Hillary's cratering poll numbers, the far left "feeling the Bern," and the right tearing itself apart over Trump and the other candidates, former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg reportedly sees an opening and is seriously considering an independent run for president. The New York Times reports:

Michael R. Bloomberg has instructed advisers to draw up plans for a potential independent campaign in this year’s presidential race. His advisers and associates said he was galled by Donald J. Trump’s dominance of the Republican field, and troubled by Hillary Clinton’s stumbles and the rise of Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont on the Democratic side.

Mr. Bloomberg, the billionaire former mayor of New York City, has in the past contemplated running for the White House on a third-party ticket, but always concluded he could not win. A confluence of unlikely events in the 2016 election, however, has given new impetus to his presidential aspirations.

Bloomberg is not only willing (and able) to spend $1 billion in his own money on his campaign, but he's also set a deadline for his decision for early March.

The NYT continues:

Posted by Mike LaChance on January 23, 2016 4 Comments
From the beginning of his campaign, Jeb Bush has tried to portray himself as his own man who can run on his own merits. His campaign logo of Jeb! even lacks the Bush name. Yet as time grows short and the polls fail to rise, he is increasingly turning to members of his family for support and using the last name which comes with it. Yahoo News reports:

Posted by Mike LaChance on January 23, 2016 10 Comments
Speaking to CNN's Wolf Blitzer this week, Hillary Clinton sought to paint her opponent Bernie Sanders as part of the establishment and she has a valid point. Bernie has served in congress for years which makes him part of the establishment. Hillary Clinton on the other hand is not just part of the establishment, she is the walking embodiment of it. Here's how the conversation went, via CNN:
Hillary Clinton pins 'establishment' label on Bernie Sanders Hillary Clinton on Thursday sought to turn Sen. Bernie Sanders' "establishment" attack right back on him -- saying he served in Washington much longer than she did.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on January 23, 2016 11 Comments
May I suggest taking a moment to step back from the bitter election news cycle and enjoy watching the snow fall? It's quite lovely. Speaker Ryan is livestreaming the D.C. snow storm all weekend long. They've even included a little background music. From the Speaker's blog:
Here's something from Washington, DC, that won't make you want to throw your phone across the room. No speeches. No politicians. No media pundits. It's just a pure, uninterrupted livestream of the snow falling on the National Mall, as seen from the Speaker's office in the U.S. Capitol. Give your Netflix a break and check out the snowfall for a few minutes. Or a few hours. It'll be here all weekend long.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on January 22, 2016 164 Comments
Speaking to a crowd in Las Vegas Thursday night, Donald Trump said he'd be part of the establishment if elected; a bit odd considering he's spent the majority of his campaign portraying himself as the ultimate political outsider. But standard rules don't apply this election cycle. Apparently. The abbreviated version of Trump's remarks:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 22, 2016 21 Comments
Once again, there is buzz about former San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro as a possible VP pick for Hillary. Castro was given the position of Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services as part of grooming him for the national stage:
2016 identity politics: We’ll meet your Marco Rubio, and raise you a Julian Castro.
And prepping was what Castro needed, since as we pointed out in May 2014, Mayor Julian Castro of San Antonio had less responsibility than Mayor Sarah Palin of Wasilla since his position was part time and the city was run by a manager, not the Mayor:

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on January 22, 2016 6 Comments
We've become accustomed to hearing from the increasingly shrill fringe left about the greedy evils of the top 1%.  However, it's important not to lose sight of the fact that Americans are a generous and charitable people . . . including the most wealthy among us. The Washington Examiner reports that of the world's charitable donations an entire third comes from America's top 1%.
Americans are a charitable group, in fact the most generous in the world, according to the new Almanac of American Philanthropy. In a first of its kind survey, the Almanac found that Americans out-donate Britain and Canada two-to-one and nations like Italy and Germany 20-to-one. What's more, more than half of every single income class except those earning less than $25,000 donate to charity. The much maligned top 1 percent in the U.S. economy fork over one third of all donations made. Even in death.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on January 22, 2016 33 Comments
Earlier this week, Fox News reported Hillary Clinton's emails contained information from the most secretive, classified sources. Their report was based on a letter obtained from the Intelligence Community Inspector General, Charles McCullough III.
Fox News exclusively obtained the text of the unclassified letter, sent Jan. 14 from Intelligence Community Inspector General I. Charles McCullough III. It laid out the findings of a recent comprehensive review by intelligence agencies that identified “several dozen” additional classified emails — including specific intelligence known as “special access programs” (SAP). That indicates a level of classification beyond even “top secret,” the label previously given to two emails found on her server, and brings even more scrutiny to the presidential candidate’s handling of the government’s closely held secrets.
Blown off as an attack by the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy, Clinton's campaign ignored the specific accusations outlined in the OIG's letter. Friday afternoon, Fox News reported classified information in Hillary's emails exposed intelligence from human spying.
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