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April 2016

My formerly home State of Rhode Island and [do you remember the rest of the official state name?] recently mourned the loss of Robert Healey, founder and perennial candidate of the Cool Moose Party:
Robert J. Healey Jr. was a fixture at Rod’s Grille in Warren — so much so that words became unnecessary. With a nod of his head and a playful look to the kitchen staff, he’d have his breakfast ordered: french fries with a cup of black coffee. Healey, who ran for governor four times and lieutenant governor three times, went largely unnoticed to other customers, hiding behind his long, curly hair and thick beard, said owner Ray Rodrigues. But that was him, “a low-key kind of guy.”

Hillary's "I am so sick" rant yesterday is understandable. The lady is under pressure. Not only are the feds circling her, Bernie just announce a huge March cash haul. The NY Times reports:
Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont raised $44 million in March, his campaign announced Friday, beating his previous best monthly haul. The strong fund-raising numbers followed a string of victories in Democratic voting contests last week in Idaho, Washington, Alaska, and Hawaii. They also hint at the seemingly limitless well of small dollars that Mr. Sanders has been able to tap, even as his chances of winning enough delegates to take the Democratic nomination appear to be waning. Should the Democratic front-runner, Hillary Clinton, post a lower number, it would be the third consecutive month that Mr. Sanders raised more money than the former secretary of state.

RNC Chairman Reince Priebus joined Fox News Thursday night to discuss the state of the GOP presidential race. Though Trump is the only candidate to outright denounce the GOP loyalty pledge publicly, both Cruz and Kasich have danced around the issue, alluding to their waning support for the eventual Republican presidential nominee. When asked about candidates walking back their support for the soon to be determined nominee, Priebus repeatedly claimed candidate threats were nothing more than disingenuous "posturing." He went on to suggest that candidates are obliged to support the nominee because of the assistance they've received from the RNC throughout their campaigns.

Last July, we responded to President Barack Obama's challenge to read the nuclear deal he made with Iran and concluded that it was awful. One of the worst parts of the deal was language (appearing twice) that said, "Iran has stated that if sanctions are reinstated in whole or in part, Iran will treat that as grounds to cease performing its commitments under this JCPOA in whole or in part." Or in the words of Mark Dubowitz, executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, this is Iran's "nuclear snapback."

President Obama has long refused to concede that modern terror attacks are largely perpetrated by radical Muslims. But has the White House taken the terrorism white washing a step further? MRCTV reported that a video posted by the White House appears to edit out "Islamist Terrorism" from a recent speech given by French President Francois Hollande. While the words are in the speech transcript, they've been noticeably scrubbed from the video.

The Republican Party of Florida (RPOF) is having a little fun at Hillary Clinton's expense this April Fools' Day, posting several news releases highlighting her problems with the investigations into her email server and unfavorable polling. In a mock press release obtained by Legal Insurrection, RPOF shared several fake news articles. One announced that Clinton had won an Academy Award "for her portrayal of an honest candidate," including a quote from DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Shultz praising Clinton's "ability to pretend she hasn’t changed her position on a range of key issues, and dedication to sticking to her talking points regarding her secret email server and Wall Street speeches." Other articles included one claiming that former President Bill Clinton would be endorsing Bernie Sanders instead of his wife "due to Hillary’s lack of transparency with voters" and another purporting to have a video showing Clinton actually "wiping her server clean" by physically wiping her Blackberry with a small cloth.

Rebel Pundit (aka Jeremy Segal) and Andrew Marcus have filmed some great videos of anti-Trump protesters. They filmed Bill Ayers and other wack jobs at the Chicago protest to shut down the Trump rally. The blond woman screaming about white male privilege is a haunting image of post-intellectual America. Language Warning

When his second term comes to its inevitable conclusion, the final list of President Obama's policy failures will be ponderous. And few items on this list will place higher than his "Green Energy Initiatives." One of his gandest schemes involved backing Solyndra LLC, a solar-panel maker. Presidential aides pressured White House budget officials to complete a review of a $535 million U.S. loan guarantee to the firm, which subsequently filed for bankruptcy protection. Now comes news of a failure 5-times larger. Late last year, another Obama-based green energy company was poised for bankruptcy:

A young woman who was pepper sprayed at a Trump rally in Wisconsin this week is facing charges because video from the incident shows she punched an older man in the face. Some liberal media outlets have been advancing a false narrative that she was sexually assaulted. Professor Jacobson addressed this issue in a prior post. The Hill reported the police recommendation:
Police recommend charges for teen pepper-sprayed outside Trump rally The 15-year-old pepper sprayed at a Donald Trump rally earlier this week may face charges of disorderly conduct for allegedly punching a man in an altercation captured on video.

Gerard Robinson is a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he works on education policy issues including choice in public and private schools, implementation of K–12 standards, innovation in for-profit educational institutions, and the role of community colleges and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in adult advancement. Karen Branan is a veteran journalist who has written for newspapers, magazines, the stage, and television for almost fifty years. her work has appreared inLife, Mother Jones, Ms., Ladies’ Home Journal, Good Housekeeping, and on PBS, CBS, ABC, CBC, BBC, and CNN. Her recent book is entitled, The Family Tree: A Lynching in Georgia, a Legacy of Secrets, and My Search for the Truth.