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March 2016

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 25, 2016 7 Comments
In all the noise regarding The Thing, I missed this Reuters report from Thursday night, Role of tech who set up Clinton's server unknown to bosses at State:
Soon after Hillary Clinton's arrival at the State Department in 2009, officials in the information technology office were baffled when told that a young technician would join them as a political appointee, newly disclosed emails show. The technician, Bryan Pagliano, was running the off-grid email server that Clinton had him set up in her New York home for her work as secretary of state. But even as years passed, Pagliano's supervisors never learned of his most sensitive task, according to the department and one of his former colleagues. Pagliano's immediate supervisors did not know the private server even existed until it was revealed in news reports last year, the colleague said, requesting anonymity because of a department ban on unauthorized interviews....

Posted by Leslie Eastman on March 25, 2016 8 Comments
Six years ago this week, President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law...with all the arrogance and pomp we have come to expect! Obamacare is still the gift that keeps on giving...fiscal pain, budgetary heartbreak, and unfulfilled expectations. For this magic anniversary, Patrice J. Lee f the Independent Women's Forum walks us down Memory Lane:
During the debate over ObamaCare, President Obama promised –among many things- that the average family premiums would decline by $2,500. Let’s just see if that held up. According to the Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, Americans in most states face higher healthcare premiums this year under ObamaCare. In 17 of those states, the deductible increases are 20 percent or higher. As for deductibles, those too have spiked. Forty-one states saw average deductibles for ObamaCare plans increase and 17 of them experienced double-digit increases.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on March 25, 2016 5 Comments
In 1983, President Reagan recorded a radio address to the country on the observance of Easter and Passover. "This is a time of hope and peace, when our spirits are filled and lifted. It's a time when we give thanks for our blessings-chief among them, freedom, peace, and the promise of eternal life," he said.

Posted by Jonathan Levin on March 25, 2016 1 Comment
In another demonstration of President Obama's inability to formulate a coherent policy in the face of fresh Iranian violations of missile test bans, the United States both imposed new sanctions on and eased trade with Iran on the same day on Thursday. Iran's renewed aggression is unmistakable even to those whose willful blindness wrought the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action ("JCPOA").

New Sanctions In Response to Iranian Missile Tests

Earlier this month, Iran conducted two days of tests in violation of UN resolutions.  At least one of the missiles had "Israel must be wiped of the face of the earth" written on it.  These violations prompted many lawmakers to call for new sanctions on Iran, including Hillary Clinton and a number of Republican Congressmen.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 25, 2016 254 Comments
By now you likely have heard of The Thing. I've waited for some public comment from people allegedly involved in The Thing before posting anything about it, even though a couple of our commenters have done so in the comment section to other posts, and it's going wild on Twitter. The thing is about The Thing is that I don't want to spread what might be false rumors, on the other hand, The Thing is now a thing on TV and elsewhere, so it can't be totally avoided. In the age of Bill Clinton, John Edwards, and many others, I'm hesitant to say The Thing is not a thing because even the National Enquirer has gotten someTHING right in the past. The National Enquirer, though, carefully couched its reporting as there being rumors into which investigators are looking, not actually having evidence. It may have evidence, and it may just be doing a slow baited roll out getting people to commit publicly before revealing the evidence. Or it may have nothing but rumors, and is hoping the publicity draws out witnesses and other evidence.

Posted by Mike LaChance on March 25, 2016 6 Comments
A makeshift memorial to the dead in Brussels has taken shape in recent days as people have left flowers, candles, flags and other items to mourn the loss of the victims. Two recent incidents however have marred the memorial, both involving the flag of Israel. Here's the first, via the New York Post:
Woman in hijab rips up Israeli flag at Brussels memorial Video emerged Thursday of a hijab-wearing woman tearing up an Israeli flag at a makeshift memorial for victims of the Brussels terror attacks.

Posted by Mike LaChance on March 25, 2016 13 Comments
University of Missouri student Mark Schierbecker was one of the student journalists on the scene when former Mizzou professor Melissa Click famously called for some muscle. Yesterday, he published a story with additional details at the College Fix. It seems Click had a second incident with a student reporter that day, a charge she initially denied. Here's part of Schierbecker's report:
VIDEO: Mizzou’s Melissa Click grabbed another journalist’s camera at racial protest Instructed protesters ‘Do not talk to the press’ The University of Missouri communication professor who was fired this month for her role in fighting with student journalists at a racial protest in November has denied her actions then represented a pattern.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on March 24, 2016 96 Comments
Yet another attempt to end Senator Cruz's White House bid was shut down in courts Thursday afternoon. A New York appellate court upheld a lower court's decision to dismiss a case involving Senator Cruz's birthright. Reuters reports:
The New York Appellate Division agreed with the lower court ruling that the suit should be thrown out because it missed the deadline for filing an objection to Cruz's appearance on the April 19 ballot. Lawyers for Cruz successfully argued that the objectors had filed their petition nearly three weeks late.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on March 24, 2016 26 Comments
The University of Iowa has an interesting take on Disney's latest animated feature. Evidently, Zootopia is laced with racist, coded language.
Zootopia is a film about a young rabbit, Judy Hopps, and her dream to join the police force in the world populated by anthropomorphic mammals. Judy is denied a high position in the police force and is assigned meter-maid duty. All animals are bipedal regardless of their species. The animals that are usually prey in the animal kingdom are the dominant force and look down upon the predators. Throughout the whole world of Zootopia, the predators are bullied by the prey, and this is an amazing shift from reality. There is a strange occurrence happening in the film that involves many predators disappearing and going “savage.” Going savage includes going back to their natural state, which means going back on all fours and attacking prey. I believe the message present in the film is an allegory to the current status of the white population in contemporary society. The majority of the people who were involved in the writing of this film were white. This aligns with my idea of the allegory present in the movie. The prey are akin to minorities of the world, in the way that they get preyed on by the predators, which are white people.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on March 24, 2016 6 Comments
The Obama Administration issued a federal indictment charging seven Iranian officials with cyber crimes. Adam Kredo of the Washington Free Beacon reports:
The Obama administration unsealed a federal indictment Thursday charging seven Iranian government-backed hackers with cyber crimes as the result of multiple attacks in recent years on several U.S. banks and a New York dam, according to officials. The indictment accuses the Iranian government and its Revolutionary Guards Corps of orchestrating and conducting a years-long cyber attack on at least 46 U.S. financial institutions and a dam based outside of New York City.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 24, 2016 24 Comments
The latest in the NRA's Freedom's Safest Place video series features Charlie Daniels, who starts out with a provocative statement: "You might have met our fresh-faced flower-child president, and his weak-kneed Ivy League friends." Good thing he limited "weak-kneed Ivy League" to "friends" of Obama. Otherwise I'd take great offense. Here is the full text:

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on March 24, 2016 31 Comments
A series of bomb attacks that rocked Belgium’s capital on Tuesday, targeting Brussels airport and subway system, has now claimed more than 34 lives. Police are still hunting for suspects and just like November’s deadly Paris terror attacks, the trail once again leads to the notorious Molenbeek district of Brussels. Just last week, the Belgian Police nabbed Salah Abdeslam, the suspect of November’s Paris Attacks from this very suburb of Brussels. The fact that Europe’s most wanted terrorist could be hiding in the heart of Europe without being detected for 4 month, highlights the extend of the problem Belgium and Europe face in combatting Islamist terrorism. Belgium, with a population of 11 million, has send 440 Islamists to fight on behalf of Isis in Syria and Iraq -- highest per capita in Europe. Most of these Isis recruits come from Molenbeek district.

Posted by Jonathan Levin on March 24, 2016 4 Comments
Illinois has become the first U.S. state to identify specific companies it will no longer invest state assets in because they engage in the Boycott, Divest and Sanction ("BDS") campaign.  LI has discussed various state anti-BDS laws here. The Illinois Investment Policy Board included eleven companies on its new "Prohibited Investment List" because those companies boycott Israel.  The list also includes five companies for their business in or with Iran and dozens of companies for their activities in Sudan. The listed companies have a grace period before the state actually begins divesting.  Under Illinois General Statute 1-110.16:
(e) The Illinois Investment Policy Board shall adhere to the following procedures for companies on the list of restricted companies:

Posted by Mike LaChance on March 24, 2016 35 Comments
A writer for the Huffington Post named La Sha has found an upside to the story of the American college student being imprisoned in North Korea. He's finally been stripped of his white male privilege. I wish I could say this is parody, but it isn't:
North Korea Proves Your White Male Privilege Is Not Universal “That’s what the hell he gets. Good for him!” My mother had uttered those words in her typical matter-of-fact tone one morning as she watched the news. “He” was Michael Fay, an 18-year-old from Ohio who had confessed to vandalizing cars in Singapore, and was subsequently sentence to six lashes from a rattan cane. I was in sixth grade and all I could imagine was how horrible the pain would be. My mother was unmoved at the thought, remarking, “He earned that.”
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