The Redical In The White House

He leaves today. Not soon enough.

Charles Krauthammer --

"Commuting the sentence of Chelsea Manning, one of the great traitors of our time, is finger-in-the-eye willfulness. Obama took 28 years off the sentence of a soldier who stole and then released through WikiLeaks almost half a million military reports plus another quarter-million State Department documents.

The cables were embarrassing; the military secrets were almost certainly deadly. They jeopardized the lives not just of American soldiers on two active fronts — Iraq and Afghanistan — but of locals who were, at great peril, secretly aiding and abetting us. After Manning’s documents release, the Taliban “went on a killing spree” (according to intelligence sources quoted by Fox News) of those who fit the description of individuals working with the United States.

Moreover, we will be involved in many shadowy conflicts throughout the world. Locals will have to choose between us and our enemies. Would you choose a side that is so forgiving of a leaker who betrays her country — and you?

Even the word “leaker” is misleading. Leak makes it sound like a piece of information a whistleblower gives Woodward and Bernstein to expose misdeeds in high office. This was nothing of the sort. It was the indiscriminate dumping of a mountain of national-security secrets certain to bring harm to American troops, allies, and interests.

Obama considered Manning’s 35-year sentence excessive. On the contrary. It was lenient. Manning could have been — and in previous ages, might well have been — hanged for such treason. Now she walks after seven years.

...This is Obama being Obama. He leaves office as he came in: a man of the Left, but possessing the intelligence and discipline to suppress his more radical instincts. As of November 9, 2016, suppression was no longer necessary.

We’ve just gotten a glimpse of his real self. From now on, we shall see much more of it."

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/444044/barack-obama-exit-reveals-true-colors

Though it wouldn't nearly make up for the Manning commutation, Trump could do a backatcha with a pardon of Clinton / Obama gadfly Dinesh D'Souza.

Media bias and stupidity continue...Mollie Hemmingway gives four examples from just the last few days. --

https://thefederalist.com/2017/01/19/4-recent-examples-show-why-no-one-trusts-media-coverage-of-trump/

And this will never get old. Smug, condescending, arrogant, obtuse, unfunny leftists making fools of themselves. --

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahkMA6JPOHU

Anyone seen a spaceship filled with dinosaurs wearing red capes lately?

Scandal

Kevin Williamson shreds the myth of a scandal free Obama administration --

"Not only was the Obama administration marked by scandal of the most serious sort — perverting the machinery of the state for political ends — it was on that front, which is the most important one, the most scandal-scarred administration in modern presidential history.

For your consideration: Under the Obama administration’s watch, the Internal Revenue Service and other federal agencies from the BATF to the NLRB were illegally used to target and harass the president’s political enemies. The IRS targeting scandal was the most high-profile of these, but others are just as worrisome. Federal investigations and congressional oversight were obstructed, and investigators were lied to outright — a serious crime. The administration protected the wrongdoers and saw to it that they retired with generous federal pensions rather than serving federal sentences for their crimes.

...Having an IRS that sorts nonprofits by their political stances in order to facilitate the harassment of political rivals is in real terms far worse than anything Bill Clinton got up to with Monica Lewinsky, and far worse than the shenanigans that Gordon Liddy and the rest of the Nixon henchmen got up to in the Watergate. The BATF harassment of True the Vote and other Obama-administration enemies is the stuff of which banana republics are made. Using the machinery of the state to seek political power and to aggrandize the political power one holds is the most destructive form of political corruption there is. A sane society would prosecute it the way we prosecute murder or armed robbery. It is a scandal and more than that: It is an assault on the foundations of a free society.

The fact that the same people at CNN who were colluding with the Clinton campaign cannot see a scandal in the Obama administration does not mean that no scandal was there.

For the Democrats and their media partisans, scandals — like homelessness and war casualties — are something that happens to other people."

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/443911/obamas-many-scandals-abuse-government-power-worse-sex-scandals

And KW declines to applaud --

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/443868/obama-last-day-clap-out-applause-free-society-stalin-tom-price

Betrayal

Yesterday, Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. was ordered by Barack Obama to abstain in the vote for a resolution that condemns Israel for its West Bank settlement policy, thereby ensuring its passage. Power wrote a book on the abdication of responsibility by the U.S. in preventing genocides. Then she proceeded to help her boss abdicate his responsibility in preventing the genocide in Syria. She has now augmented that disgrace with this vote empowering terrorists at the expense of the only democracy in the Middle East and her nation's staunchest ally.

Some Twitter commentary --

Arthur Schwartz -- Barack Obama just spat in the face of Israel & sided with a bunch of terrorists. That's his legacy. He's a worthless piece of garbage.

Kurt Schlichter -- Obama is a fucking disgrace.

Groups who have stood against the Jewish people:
Rome.
The Nazis.
USSR.
The Obama Administration.
All consigned to the ash heap of history.

Michael Goldfarb -- Obama just tore up the rule book on his way out the door. Good…let’s gut the UN and create our own facts on the ground.

Richard Kemp -- A day of infamy in the UN Security Council: Obama stabs Israel in the back, increases likelihood of violence, reduces prospects for peace.

Philip Klein -- Obama cool with Syrian use of chemical weapons and Iran building nukes. But Jewish housing construction MUST BE STOPPED!

Khaled Abu Toameh -- Palestinian Islamic Jihad praises UN resolution, says it will pave way for isolating and boycotting Israel.

Omri Ceren -- Organization statements praising Obama admin screwing Israel at UN:
- jstreetdotorg
- Hamas
- Palestinian Islamic Jihad

neontaster -- Maybe if Israel threw more homosexuals off roofs and funded proxy attacks against American troops then Obama would be more sympathetic.

Yair Rosenberg -- If not for the United Nations, where would we be able to hear Venezuela lecture the Jewish state about upstanding moral conduct?

Katie Pavlich -- Hey Congress, it's far past time to defund the UN.

When Obama leaves office, it will be a good day. So sick of this crap.

Ben Shapiro -- On behalf of Jews who care about Israel, Mr. President, let me just say, GFY.

Sean Davis -- Obama hates Israel as much as he loves ceding control of the Middle East to Iran.

Brad Thor -- From sending the Churchill bust back, to stabbing Israel in the back - it ends as ignominiously as it began...

Victoria Coates -- Today, POTUS, John Kerry and Ambassador Power joined the long line of cowards who stood by and did nothing while a mob attacked the Jews.

Larry Elder -- Mr. Obama, it's not complicated. Palestinians lay down their arms=peace. Israelis do so=genocide. Any questions?

Benjamin Haddad -- Obama could have used his last weeks in office to finally confront Russia over Syria, and the hacking. Instead he chose to go after Israel.

Seth Mandel -- While Israel is helping the Syrians that Ambassador Power has abandoned, she votes with despots against Israel. For shame.

Today explained.
 

A lengthier explanation is provided by Stanley Kurtz in an essay he wrote for National Review five years ago (5/26/2011). Note this prophetic passage --

The continuing influence of Obama’s pro-Palestinian sentiments is the best way to make sense of the president’s recent tilt away from Israel. This is why supporters of Israel should fear Obama’s reelection. In 2013, with his political vulnerability a thing of the past, Obama’s pro-Palestinian sympathies would be released from hibernation, leaving Israel without support from its indispensable American defender.

A truly clarifying piece. Read it all.

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/268159/pro-palestinian-chief-stanley-kurtz

Donald Trump -- As to the U.N., things will be different after Jan. 20th.

THAT DAY CAN'T ARRIVE SOON ENOUGH.

Added 12/24 -- Fox News Panel (Goldberg, Hemmingway, Lane, Krauthammer) discuss Obama's disgrace.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3xLZnfwEMM

Inconsequential Action

An appropriately scathing critique of Barack Obama's Syria policy from Leon Wieseltier of the left leaning think tank Brookings Institution, writing for the Washington Post.

It is a shameful and incontrovertible fact of our history that during the past eight years the values of rescue, assistance, protection, humanitarianism and democracy have been demoted in our foreign policy and in many instances banished altogether. The ruins of the finest traditions of American internationalism, of American leadership in a darkening world, may be found in the ruins of Aleppo.

...It would be incorrect to analyze our delinquency in Syria in the dichotomously simple terms of action and inaction. The administration creatively pioneered a third option, which it pursued not only in Syria but also in Ukraine and elsewhere: Between action and inaction, it chose inconsequential action. There is the Obama doctrine! We backed moderate Syrian rebels, but not as seriously or as generously as the immoderate Syrian rebels were backed. We sent in small numbers of special operators. The CIA ran a few programs. We acted, in sum, only in ways certain not to affect the outcome. We were strategically feckless. I suspect that the president believes that the United States has no moral right to affect an outcome in another country. I suspect that he regards such decisive action as imperialism, or at least as Iraq-like. What this means in practice is that we will not help people who deserve our help. In the spirit of respecting other societies, we will idly gaze at their destruction. How would disrespecting them be worse?

As a direct or indirect consequence of our refusal to respond forcefully to the Syrian crisis, we have beheld secular tyranny, religious tyranny, genocide, chemical warfare, barrel bombs and cluster bombs, the torture and murder of children, the displacement of 11 million people, the destabilization of Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, the ascendancy of Iran in the region, the emergence of Russia as a global power, the diminishment of the American position in the world, the refugee crisis in Europe, the resurgence of fascism in Europe and a significant new threat to the security of the United States. It is amazing how much doing nothing can do, especially when it is we who do nothing.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/aleppos-fall-is-obamas-failure/2016/12/15/5af72640-c30f-11e6-9a51-cd56ea1c2bb7_story.html?utm_campaign=Jolt%2012/16/2016&utm_medium=email&utm_source=jolt&utm_term=.6ff8c1fa5f61&wpisrc=nl_daily202&wpmm=1

Even If...

Climate change realist Christopher Monckton (circa 2008) --

Even if temperature had risen above natural variability, the recent solar Grand Maximum may have been chiefly responsible. Even if the sun were not chiefly to blame for the past half-century’s warming, the IPCC has not demonstrated that, since CO₂ occupies only one-ten-thousandth part more of the atmosphere that it did in 1750, it has contributed more than a small fraction of the warming. Even if carbon dioxide were chiefly responsible for the warming that ceased in 1998 and may not resume until 2015, the distinctive, projected fingerprint of anthropogenic “greenhouse-gas” warming is entirely absent from the observed record. Even if the fingerprint were present, computer models are long proven to be inherently incapable of providing projections of the future state of the climate that are sound enough for policymaking. Even if it were possible that the models could ever become reliable, the present paper demonstrates that it is not at all likely that the world will warm as much as the IPCC imagines. Even if the world were to warm that much, the overwhelming majority of the scientific, peer-reviewed literature does not predict that catastrophe would ensue. Even if catastrophe might ensue, even the most drastic proposals to mitigate future climate change by reducing emissions of carbon dioxide would make very little difference to the climate. Even if mitigation were likely to be effective, it would do more harm than good: already millions face starvation as the dash for biofuels takes agricultural land out of essential food production: a warning that taking precautions, “just in case”, can do untold harm unless there is a sound, scientific basis for them. Finally, even if mitigation might do more good than harm, adaptation as (and if) necessary would be far more cost-effective and less likely to be harmful.

In short, we must get the science right, or we shall get the policy wrong. If the concluding equation in this analysis (Eqn. 30) is correct, the IPCC’s estimates of climate sensitivity must have been very much exaggerated. There may, therefore, be a good reason why, contrary to the projections of the models on which the IPCC relies, temperatures have not risen for a decade and have been falling since the phase-transition in global temperature trends that occurred in late 2001. Perhaps real-world climate sensitivity is very much below the IPCC’s estimates. Perhaps, therefore, there is no “climate crisis” at all. At present, then, in policy terms there is no case for doing anything. The correct policy approach to a non-problem is to have the courage to do nothing.

https://www.aps.org/units/fps/newsletters/200807/monckton.cfm

Weather Channel founder John Coleman --

Perspective is key.  Earth has vacillated between ice ages and interglacial periods for ever. Warming and cooling is natural, not man-made.

Charles C. W. Cooke observes that the left is looking to embrace conservative principles - federalism, separation of powers, decentralization - in countering Trump.

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-cooke-left-embraces-conservatism-20161213-story,amp.html

This is very funny. Sonny Bunch explains how James Comey cost Hillary Clinton the election --

http://freebeacon.com/blog/clinton-campaign-blames-james-comey-for-losing/

Signs of degradation. First, getting it right. A NY Times editorial from 1987, arguing for a minimum wage of $0.00. --

The idea of using a minimum wage to overcome poverty is old, honorable - and fundamentally flawed. It's time to put this hoary debate behind us, and find a better way to improve the lives of people who work very hard for very little.

http://www.nytimes.com/1987/01/14/opinion/the-right-minimum-wage-0.00.html

And then from 2012, mocking Mitt Romney (as Barack Obama did), for Romney's spot-on assessment of Russia as our number one geopolitical foe --

Two decades after the end of the cold war, Mitt Romney still considers Russia to be America’s “No. 1 geopolitical foe.” His comments display either a shocking lack of knowledge about international affairs or just craven politics. Either way, they are reckless and unworthy of a major presidential contender.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/29/opinion/the-never-ending-cold-war.html

Democratic consultant and former Clinton advisor Paul Begala --

When President Obama mocked Romney in 2012 for saying Russia was top threat, I cheered. Obama was wrong. I was wrong. Mitt was right.

Sean Davis --

Iran is using enriched uranium it bought from Russia which obtained it from the U.S. in a deal that lined a Clinton Foundation donor's pockets.

David French --

I've been in the military and I've taught in the Ivy League. The military is far, far more ideologically diverse than the "elite" academy.

Mark Steyn on John Glenn --

John Glenn was a man of boundless courage and determination: he strapped himself in and stared not just death in the face but death in hideous and unknown ways. Yet he was also an ordinary man, who was called upon to do extraordinary things and rose to the challenge. Today we are unmanned in more than merely the sense of that Luna 2 expedition.

...John Glenn must surely have wondered, as all the astronauts weathered into geezers, how a great nation grew so impoverished in spirit.

Our heroes are old and stooped and wizened, but they are the only giants we have. Today, when we talk about Americans boldly going where no man has gone before, we mean the ladies' bathroom. Progress.

http://www.steynonline.com/7627/the-abandoned-frontier

I can't get enough of these. A woman writes (in the Washington Post!) that her romantic life has been ruined by Donald Trump's election. It takes a heart of stone not to laugh at what, amazingly, is not a parody.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/soloish/wp/2016/12/05/trumps-election-stole-my-desire-to-look-for-a-partner/?utm_term=.f237a5a8ba4c

Jonah Goldberg's response to the preceding piece  --

This kind of thing is why the conservative/libertarian view of politics as just one part of life is healthier.

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers --

Betsy DeVos actually said, "gay marriage is wrong because “children need a mother and a father to love and care for them”

Regarding Weingarten's comment, David French responded --

When truth is treated like an outrage.

And here is Hillary Clinton in 2004, agreeing with DeVos' view of marriage --

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6I1-r1YgK9I&feature=youtu.be

From George Will - France tries to mitigate the potential for guilty feelings among those who aborted children by censoring expressions of love and support for those with Down Syndrome. 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-right-to-be-spared-from-guilt/2016/12/02/2d5adc2c-b7ed-11e6-959c-172c82123976_story.html?tid=hybrid_experimentrandom_2_na&utm_term=.aa145d8a8e52

A Muslim tells how he was taught to hate Jews. This video was initially banned by You Tube, because...reasons, but it's since been reinstated. --

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCQEmeGfFmY

Kevin Williamson --

Conservatism -- the belief that the state of your life may not be your fault, but it is your problem -- was never going to be popular.

Added 12/15 -- Andrew McCarthy scoffs at the "Russia Hacks Election" narrative.

Here’s the reality: Everyone knows the Russians meddle in our elections, just as they nefariously meddle in much else. That is why it was so reckless of Clinton to keep our nation’s most closely guarded defense secrets on a private, non-secure e-mail system. Up until November 8, Democrats told us there was no reason to be alarmed about such vulnerabilities in the face of likely Russian hacking. Now, hacking is suddenly a crisis — not because the Russians are doing anything different, but because Hillary lost.

Even if the Russians did want Trump to win, what difference, at this point, does it make? The United States is the world’s most consequential nation, so lots of countries figure they have a stake in the outcome of our elections — and some, if they have the requisite capabilities, try in various ways to influence the outcome . . . just as the Obama administration has tried to influence the outcome of Israeli elections, the Brexit referendum, and other foreign contests.

The fact that they think one side or the other would be better for them does not make it so. More to the point, unless there is evidence that the meddlers have fiddled with the vote count, who cares? Under our law, it is permissible to sway the outcome of an election based on false information — just ask Harry Reid. What’s the Democrat-media complaint? That there was too much true information?

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/443034/russia-election-hacking-charge-vladimir-putin-influence-american-elections

And Kevin Williamson laughs at the Left's obsession with Ayn Rand --

Bring up your undying love of Atlas Shrugged at the typical conservative gathering and people will smile at you and try very hard not to roll their eyes. Some people think of her novels as a kind of guilty adolescent enthusiasm now grown out-of-date, an intellectual mullet, a stage one goes through between the ages of 14 and 20. Some people use Atlas Shrugged as a totem — it had a moment at the cresting of the Tea Party phenomenon. But it is rare to meet actual adult human beings who organize their politics views (or, for pity’s sake, their lives) around Ayn Rand and her views. I don’t think National Review has a single Randian in the house; I’d be surprised if the Weekly Standard did, and if one showed up at Commentary then John Podhoretz would simply mock him out of existence.

Strangely, our progressive friends insist that the Right is entirely in thrall to the ideas of Ayn Rand. Left-leaning writers in places such as New York and Washington tend to be culturally insular — parochial, even — and many of them do not know very many conservatives. I cannot tell you how many times I have met some well-meaning lefty who tells me (thinking it is a compliment!) that I do not seem like one of those people. A young woman once insisted that, as a conservative, I simply must hate homosexuals. At the time, I was living in TriBeCa and working as a theater critic, which is not a very good gay-evasion strategy. People know what they know.

...Strange that a Randian cabal would take Donald Trump as its mascot. Trump, an incompetent casino operator and hotelier who boasted of buying political favors, is practically a Rand villain. He even has the name for it.

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/443033/progressive-ayn-rand-obsession-misguided

"The Only Good Communist..."

Confirmation that conservatives are on the correct side of the ideological divide is emphatically confirmed by comparing the Left and Right responses to the death of one of history's most notorious tyrants, Fidel Castro.

Barack Obama --

At this time of Fidel Castro’s passing, we extend a hand of friendship to the Cuban people. We know that this moment fills Cubans - in Cuba and in the United States - with powerful emotions, recalling the countless ways in which Fidel Castro altered the course of individual lives, families, and of the Cuban nation. History will record and judge the enormous impact of this singular figure on the people and world around him. 

For nearly six decades, the relationship between the United States and Cuba was marked by discord and profound political disagreements...

...Today, we offer condolences to Fidel Castro's family, and our thoughts and prayers are with the Cuban people. In the days ahead, they will recall the past and also look to the future. As they do, the Cuban people must know that they have a friend and partner in the United States of America.

Compare this to Donald Trump's statement --

Today, the world marks the passing of a brutal dictator who oppressed his own people for nearly six decades.

Fidel Castro’s legacy is one of firing squads, theft, unimaginable suffering, poverty and the denial of fundamental human rights.

While Cuba remains a totalitarian island, it is my hope that today marks a move away from the horrors endured for too long, and toward a future in which the wonderful Cuban people finally live in the freedom they so richly deserve.

Though the tragedies, deaths and pain caused by Fidel Castro cannot be erased, our administration will do all it can to ensure the Cuban people can finally begin their journey toward prosperity and liberty.

I join the many Cuban Americans who supported me so greatly in the presidential campaign, including the Brigade 2506 Veterans Association that endorsed me, with the hope of one day soon seeing a free Cuba.

With this statement, Trump has already shown himself superior to Obama in his understanding of good vs evil.

Austin Yack compiled a ten worst list of responses to Castro's death - Jimmy Carter, Jeremy Corbin, Michael Higgins, Jesse Jackson, Jean-Claude Juncker, Ban Ki-moon, Enrique Pena Nieto, Barack Obama, Jill Green, Justin Trudeau --

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/442527/fidel-castro-dead-ten-most-outrageous-reactions

Some notable tweets marking the occasion --

Jeff B/DDHQ (@EsotericCD) tweeted at 10:05 AM on Sat, Nov 26, 2016:
The passing of a totalitarian Communist dictator is a great occasion to observe which people are morally decrepit and which are not.

Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) tweeted at 8:57 AM on Sat, Nov 26, 2016:
Seeing who's fawning over a dead dictator and who's not is a good guide to which political leaders & commentators to respect, and which not.

Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) tweeted at 8:24 AM on Sat, Nov 26, 2016:
Jimmy Carter, Justin Trudeau, Jeremy Corbyn, Ken Livingstone. All who we thought they were.

Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) tweeted at 10:22 AM on Sat, Nov 26, 2016:
Impossible to take seriously people who think Trump is a threat to freedom when they praise Fidel Castro.

Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) tweeted at 9:17 AM on Sat, Nov 26, 2016:
My eight-month-old just looked up at me and said, “Daddy, why are people making excuses for one of history’s most egregious monsters?”

(Cooke is making a parody of the leftist notion that children are fountains of innate knowledge).

Ana Navarro (@ananavarro) tweeted at 10:54 AM on Sat, Nov 26, 2016:
Cuba's got great health care facilities for foreigners and gvt officials. Regular Cubans...they're SOL. Ask Miami relatives to send aspirin.

Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) tweeted at 10:47 AM on Sat, Nov 26, 2016:
President Obama issued a pathetic statement on death of dictator #FidelCastro with no mention of thousands he killed & imprisoned.

David Burge (@iowahawkblog) tweeted at 10:56 AM on Sat, Nov 26, 2016:
Cuba Libre- official drink of the #CastroDeathParty!
4 oz Coca-Cola
2 oz Bacardi 151
1 oz lime juice
mix with ice while dancing

Dr. Jill Stein (@DrJillStein) tweeted at 7:46 PM on Sat, Nov 26, 2016:
Fidel Castro was a symbol of the struggle for justice in the shadow of empire. Presente!

And some responses to Stein's despicable comment --

Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) tweeted at 9:39 PM on Sat, Nov 26, 2016:
GFY

Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) tweeted at 10:33 PM on Sat, Nov 26, 2016:
Fidel Castro was a symbol of the fact that people of other countries would be better off if America were more committed to liberal empire.

Michael C Moynihan (@mcmoynihan) tweeted at 8:09 PM on Sat, Nov 26, 2016:
While you're at it, you should ask for a recount of the last Cuban election. 100% for the incumbent seems a bit fishyTruly amazing how the Communist Party of Cuba won so many elections with 98 or 99% of the vote. They must have been really popular.

Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) tweeted at 11:00 AM on Sat, Nov 26, 2016:
We know those (Cuban) elections are legitimate because Jill Stein never demanded a recount.

Matthew Continetti (@continetti) tweeted at 2:37 PM on Sat, Nov 26, 2016:
The American Left: Praising a ruthless dictator while undermining democracy with fatuous recalls almost 3 wks after election.

David Freddoso (@freddoso) tweeted at 1:59 PM on Sat, Nov 26, 2016:
I just got around to reading PM Trudeau's statement, and I'm suddenly a lot less embarrassed about my country electing Trump.

GregGutfeld (@greggutfeld) tweeted at 7:00 PM on Sat, Nov 26, 2016:
What we've learned is you can never judge a country by its horrid leader. But enough about Trudeau - so I hear Castro croaked.

Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) tweeted at 10:27 PM on Sat, Nov 26, 2016:
Media re: Stalin in 1934: we've seen the future and it works!
Media re: Castro in 2016: we've seen the past and it works!

Kevin D. Williamson (@KevinNR) tweeted at 11:30 AM on Sat, Nov 26, 2016:
Nothing says "People's Revolution" like that trademark two-Rolexes-at-once thing Castro favored.

Andrew Klavan (@andrewklavan) tweeted at 0:56 PM on Sat, Nov 26, 2016:
You should never say bad things about the dead, only good. Fidel Castro is dead. Good.

Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) tweeted at 9:37 PM on Sat, Nov 26, 2016:
Fascinating to find out that so many liberals support sending homosexuals to labor camps.

Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) tweeted at 9:47 PM on Sat, Nov 26, 2016:
The only tragedy in Castro's death is that it happened several decades too late and that his legacy of terror and cruelty lives on.

Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) tweeted at 9:03 PM on Sat, Nov 26, 2016:
Obama's statement on Castro's death is a travesty, and reveals the moral emptiness that links American radical leftism and communism.
 
Ross Douthat (@DouthatNYT) tweeted at 5:55 PM on Sat, Nov 26, 2016:
Today is a reminder that deep within some social democrats lurks a fear that they are wimps and compromisers and the Communists were right.

Andrew Klavan (@andrewklavan) tweeted at 10:21 PM on Sat, Nov 26, 2016:
Donald Trump demonstrated more moral clarity today than any current world leader. Welcome to bizarro world.
nly tragedy in Castro's death is that it happened several decades too late and that his legacy of terror and cruelty lives on.The only tragedy in Castro's death is that it happened several decades too late and that his legacy of terror and cruelty lives on.The only tragedy in Castro's death is that it happened several decades too late and that his legacy of terror and cruelty lives on.

This and That --

Kevin Williamson wants Hillary Clinton where she belongs - in prison.

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/442412/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-case-prosecution-lock-her-up

And he looks at the Pelosi model of arrogance politics.

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/442362/nancy-pelosi-moral-crisis-model-politics

Williamson on Castro --

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/442517/fidel-castro-cuba-librarians-literature-samizdat-united-states-first-amendment

Lee Habeeb writes about Cuban dissident Armando Valladares. Required reading for Castro sycophants. --

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/442517/fidel-castro-cuba-librarians-literature-samizdat-united-states-first-amendment

National Review editors take on Castro's death. From its style, this piece was almost certainly fully written by Jay Nordlinger.

 http://www.nationalreview.com/article/442491/fidel-castro-death-tyrant-cuba-dictator-justin-trudeau

Andrew McCarthy gives a thumbs up to Jeff Sessions as Attorney General.

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/442411/jeff-sessions-attorney-general-nomination-justice-department-should-enforce-law

Conrad Black trashes the Obama legacy.

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/442386/barack-obama-david-remnick-wrong-legacy

The cure for our polarized electorate is federalism --

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/442376/american-political-polarization-federalism-cure

Progressives' moral certitude blinded them to the possibility of a Trump victory --

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/442361/progressivism-rebuked-donald-trump-2016-presidential-election

And speaking of moral certitude...Hamilton Actor and VP lecturer Brandon Victor Dixon reveals his moral degeneracy with this tweet (just one of several)  --

St. Patty's day weekend is like Christmas for black dudes who like white chicks. Happy holidays boys.

Boys, huh?

Finally, Rep. Tom Price, Trump's choice for HHS secretary and a forceful opponent of Obamacare writes this about one of the health care law's pernicious effects --
 
In his 2008 campaign for president, then-candidate Sen. Barack Obama repeatedly promised to cut annual health insurance premiums by $2,500. When he took office in 2009, annual family premiums for employer-provided coverage, the most common of private insurance coverage, cost $13,375 according to Kaiser. In 2016, those premiums are $18,142. That’s an increase of $4,767.

With Enemies Like This...

As someone who didn't vote for Trump (or Hillary, of course), I have to admit he's looking a lot better post election. Some of this is due to his team's competent management of the transition (contra MSM reports), but much of it is related to the meltdown by the left over the results of the election. Anti-Trump riots, academic cry-ins, whining about the unfairness of the electoral college, and condescending lectures from Broadway actors are making the PEOTUS look mature, calm and in control by comparison. As several commentators have pointed out, the left's collective tantrum is having the unintended effect of cementing Trump's support, as well as shifting former NeverTrumpers over to his side. (On the other hand, the Clinton campaign supported violent anti-Trump demonstrations during the primaries, were intended to firm up his support. And they did).
If this keeps up, Trump can look forward to an easy re-election with (at the very least) Virginia, Colorado, New Hampshire, Nevada, Minnesota, Maine and New Mexico moving into his column in 2020. And then it's Pence in 2024. As David Burge recently tweeted,

Those who forget the lessons of histrionics are doomed to repeat them.

Matt Walsh --

Dear Liberals, don't lecture us about Trump when you nominated #GalCapone 

Stephen Miller --

"Gosh I'd love to fly to NYC & see a $850 a ticket musical but I have an Obamacare penalty to pay" - Every union voter in Wisconsin

Erick Erickson --

Don't be too hard on the Hamilton cast. Smug lectures while Pence undoes Obama's legacy is all they have left.

John Schindler --

I can't believe POTUS will be an inexperienced, media-created fraud who's supremely self-confident but unqualified.

But enough about 2008.

Note - All the guys quoted above were strongly anti-Trump.

In his latest G-File, Jonah Goldberg celebrates the demise of the Clintons. Joyous schadenfreude. (I guess that's redundant, isn't it?)

http://www.nationalreview.com/g-file/442319/bill-clinton-hillary-clinton-house-clinton-finished

Haha. A rude comeuppance for a would-be Trump sign stealer. --

https://twitter.com/Daniel_Ohana/status/795436627665518592/video/1

Larry Elder -- Why we need vouchers --

Think Obama or the Clintons would ever do this? Mitt Romney waiting in line in a NY airport for a cab to take him to his meeting with Donald Trump.



For that matter, think Obama or the Clintons would forego their $400K annual presidential salary as Trump has said he will? Even when that sum is a mere pittance compared to the Crooked Couple's usual hourly rate?

CNN --

Hillary Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, combined to earn more than $153 million in paid speeches from 2001 until Hillary Clinton launched her presidential campaign last spring, a CNN analysis shows.

London Daily Mail --

Bill Clinton was once paid an astonishing $1.3 million for two days worth of speeches, an analysis of Clinton's finances published today shows.

Don't feel too bad for Hillary. She didn't go away completely empty-handed --