Thursday, June 16, 2016

Hillary Clinton Fundraising Off the Orlando Jihad Massacre, Demonizing Donald Trump

This is in the mail this morning, from the Hillary Clinton campaign. These people are freakin' shameless:

 photo clinton_cash_for_tr_zps7ur4is8c.jpg
Donald --

In the wake of the deadliest mass shooting in United States history, the GOP nominee for president didn't pledge to stand with the LGBT community, didn't make a distinction between Muslims and jihadists, didn't lay out a measured and thoughtful plan to prevent tragedies like this from happening again.

Instead, he said I told you so. He took to the internet and fired off a tweet: “Appreciate the congrats for being right on radical Islamic terrorism, I don't want congrats, I want toughness & vigilance. We must be smart!”

We don’t need your self-congratulatory victory lap at a time of mourning, Donald. Our nation needs time to heal and reflect. We need a leader who can calmly and rationally lead us out of the darkness we find ourselves in -- not one who creates light with kerosene and a match.

Donald, the only thing standing between Donald Trump and the White House is you and this team. Today of all days, I need to know if you're in. Our country needs this campaign, and this campaign needs you:

Thanks,

Christina

Christina Reynolds
Deputy Communications Director
Hillary for America 
The bold highlighting is in the original.

On the Verge of Collapse: Falling Demand for Carbon Permits in California's Failing Cap-and-Trade Program

It's not working.

Unexpectedly!

At the Los Angeles Times, "California's cap-and-trade program faces daunting hurdles to avoid collapse":

The linchpin of California’s climate change agenda, a program known as cap and trade, has become mired in legal, financial and political troubles that threaten to derail the state’s plans to curb greenhouse gas emissions.

The program has been a symbol of the state’s leadership in the fight against global warming and a key source of funding, most notably for the high-speed rail project connecting San Francisco and Los Angeles.

But the legality of cap and trade is being challenged in court by a business group, and questions are growing about whether state law allows it to operate past 2020. With the end of the legislative session in August, Gov. Jerry Brown, lawmakers and interest groups of all stripes are laying the groundwork for what could become a battle royal over the future of California’s climate change programs.

Unless the state acts, “the whole system could fail,” said Senate leader Kevin de León (D-Los Angeles). “If that happens, we could lose an entire stream of revenue to make our communities more sustainable.”

California received an unwelcome reminder of cap and trade’s precarious situation last month.

The program functions by capping how much greenhouse gas can be emitted into the atmosphere and requiring companies to obtain permits, each allowing 1 metric ton of emissions. Those permits can be purchased at auctions or traded in a market, a system intended to provide a financial incentive for businesses such as power plants, oil refineries and manufacturers to reduce emissions.

By selling the permits, the state generates revenue that can be spent on other initiatives that reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, such as weatherizing homes and helping low-income residents buy cleaner cars. The bullet train is the biggest recipient, getting 25% of the cap-and-trade funds.

During the most recent auction in May, only 11% of the permits offered for sale were purchased.

Analysts suggested that legal uncertainty around cap and trade has damaged faith in a system that, like other markets, requires investors’ confidence to operate smoothly. They also said corporations and speculators are holding more permits than currently needed to cover the amount of greenhouse gas emissions in the state, a supply-and-demand problem that has been growing in every auction over the last year and could continue to choke revenue through 2017...
Oh, it's a "supply and demand" problem. Who could have predicted that? Not California's Marxist economists, who no doubt ignored neoclassical economic theories in their statist models of environmental regulation. Note though, when you get the fundamentals wrong, it's likely you'll get the entire state-led regulatory structure wrong. Actors in the economy respond to signals and incentives, and when they see the system's built-in disincentives to participation, they'll exit the program, sit on the sidelines, and wait for better business opportunities.

That's how markets work, come to think of it.

Still more.

Britain at the Breaking Point

The Guardian blamed Nigel Farage and the British nationalist party for fueling "hate" in the murder of Jo Cox.

But reports indicate that the suspect was non-political and that witnesses denied the he shouted "Britain First" before the murder.

I'll have more on this throughout the day.



Labour MP Jo Cox Dies After Being Shot and Stabbed in West Yorkshire (VIDEO)

So much bad news of late. Evil news. It's sickening. And depressing at the same time.

But I do think that in times likes these, in times of mass alienation from elites, and hyper-partisanship, we'll be seeing more and more resorts to violence to settle conflict and express outrage and disgust at opponents. It's terrible it's come to this, but it's happening.

At the Telegraph UK, "Live: Labour MP Jo Cox dies after being shot and stabbed in her West Yorkshire constituency."

Also, at the BBC, "LIVE Latest updates on killed MP."

Video from the police press conference, "Labour MP Jo Cox dies after gun and knife attack."

More, from Ed Driscoll, at Instapundit, "BREAKING: LABOUR PARTY MP JO COX MURDERED IN BRITAIN."

Some witnesses are saying the suspect did not scream "Britain First!" before the attack.

UPDATE: The leftist "remain" forces have viciously exploited the murder. See, "Britain at the Breaking Point."

Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Obama's Continued Denial About the War We're In

From, Marc Thiessen, at WaPo, "After Orlando, Obama continues to be in denial about terrorism":

After the Islamic State began releasing videos of American citizens being beheaded, White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett reportedly told President Obama that Americans were worried that they would soon bring this violence here to the United States. Obama was unfazed.

“They’re not coming here to chop our heads off,” the president promised.

Now a terrorist pledging allegiance to the Islamic State has murdered 49 Americans in Orlando. What inspired him? CNN reports that “analysis of Mateen’s electronic devices showed searches for jihadist propaganda, including . . . ISIS beheading videos.”

Obama dismissed Omar Mateen as a “homegrown” terrorist who had announced his allegiance to the Islamic State “at the last minute” and declared that “there is no evidence so far that he was in fact directed by ISIL.” That distinction (if it turns out to be true) is irrelevant. Last month, the Islamic State commander responsible for external attack plotting, Abu Mohammed al-Adnani, gave a speech calling on supporters to carry out killings in the United States during the holy month of Ramadan. “The smallest action you do in the heart of their land is dearer to us than the largest action by us, and more effective and more damaging to them,” he said.

Mateen answered al-Adnani’s call, Orlando is awash in blood, and the Islamic State claimed credit for the attack and declared Mateen “one of the soldiers of the caliphate.” He was an Islamic State terrorist. This was an Islamic State attack. And Obama’s stubborn refusal to see this is part of a larger pattern of downplaying or dismissing terrorist dangers. According to the Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg, who spent hours interviewing Obama about his foreign policy doctrine, the president “has never believed that terrorism poses a threat to America commensurate with the fear it generates” and “frequently reminds his staff that terrorism takes far fewer lives in America than handguns, car accidents, and falls in bathtubs do.” That’s right, our commander in chief sees the mass shooting of 49 people in Orlando as akin to a slip in the tub.

In his 2016 State of the Union address, Obama blithely dismissed the Islamic State as “fighters on the back of pickup trucks” who he said, in typical strawman fashion, “do not threaten our national existence.” In a 2015 BBC interview, he said , “If you look at the number of Americans killed since 9/11 by terrorism, it’s less than 100.” In other words, no big deal.

After his anti-Islamic State strategy came under withering criticism following the Brussels terror attacks in March, Obama said “my top priority is to defeat ISIL.” But he has admitted elsewhere that is untrue. Obama has openly declared that climate change is a much higher priority for him than terrorism because “ISIS is not an existential threat to the United States. Climate change is a potential existential threat to the entire world if we don’t do something about it.” Indeed, Goldberg writes, Obama “gets frustrated that terrorism keeps swamping his larger agenda” and “his advisers are fighting a constant rearguard action to keep Obama from placing terrorism in what he considers its ‘proper’ perspective, out of concern that he will seem insensitive to the fears of the American people.”

The “proper” perspective. No wonder the president keeps getting the terrorist threat wrong...

OMG! Donald Trump Tweeted Story of Obama Administration's 'Secret Memo' on Support for Islamic State!

There's no "there" there at this made-up controversy at Memeorandum.

The Patrick Howley story stated precisely what the issue is: The Obama White House was shown in a routine "intelligence information report" to have cultivated diplomatic and military ties with Muhammad Al Adnani, formerly of the notorious jihad terror organization al-Qaeda in Iraq, and now is the senior spokesman for the Islamic State.

It's important precisely because it shows the convoluted lines of alliance and counter-alliance in the administration's poorly-conceived anti-Assad policy on rebel support in Syria. The deaths in that conflict have long ago passed over 200,000, and history will show that it's the Syrian civil war, not regime change in Iraq, that has been the most horrific and destabilizing blunder in the Middle East in the post-Cold War era.

So, Donald Trump tweeted it, as well he should. This kind of thing is the tip of the iceberg in the catastrophe of America's retreat from global power and leadership.

More, at the Hill, "Trump tweets story claiming 'secret memo' shows Obama supports ISIS."

We're long past the point in the campaign where everything Donald Trump does or says is THE WORST CLUSTER IN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION HISTORY, whereas everything that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton do or say represents all that's good and righteous in the postmodern Democrat collectivist universe of THAT'S NOT WHO WE ARE socialist identity politics America.

And that's why, despite polls showing an "unfavorability spike" for Trump following Orlando, we're going to continue to see an extremely tight presidential horse race over the next few months, with the trends on support for Trump vs. Clinton heavily influenced by leftist media news coverage of the key milestones in the campaign (post-convention bounce, traditional post-Labor Day campaigning, the "debates," etc.).

The leftist establishment press has been wrong about Donald Trump's political prospects since he first entered the race last June. There's nothing that's likely to change the left's inaccuracy in reporting on the Trump phenomenon. Americans are unhappy with the direction of the country, both candidates have the highest negatives for any major-party nominees in history, and both the economy and terrorism will be the leading campaign issues heading into the fall. The Democrats are desperate and on the defensive. It doesn't look good for them.

Sophie Tweed-Simmons, Gene Simmons' Daughter, at Premiere of 'The Neon Demon' in Hollywood

Hey, I guess this is sexy celebrity daughters week at AmPow, lol.

At London's Daily Mail, "Gene Simmons' stunning daughter Sophie displays some SERIOUS side-boob as she steps out in a patterned sleeveless dress at The Neon Demon premiere."

She's on Twitter as well.

Very beautiful young lady.

Deal of the Day: Save Up to 36% on Select Lotos Metalworking Products

At Amazon, Lotos LT5000D Plasma Cutter 50Amps Dual Voltage Compact Metal Cutter 110/220V AC 1/2" Clean Cut, and Lotos set of Nozzle Electrode and Cup 40-Piece PCON40.

Also, Delsey Luggage Helium Aero 3 Piece Spinner Luggage Set.

And, 3M WorkTunes Hearing Protector, MP3 Compatible with AM/FM Tuner (90541-4DC).

More, Samsonite Syndicate Checkpoint Friendly Laptop Backpack.

BONUS: From Dana Loesch, out next Tuesday, Flyover Nation: You Can't Run a Country You've Never Been To.

Hillary Clinton Received Secret Memo Stating Obama Administration 'Support' for Islamic State

From Patrick Howley, at Breitbart:

WASHINGTON, DC — Hillary Clinton received a classified intelligence report stating that the Obama administration was actively supporting Al Qaeda in Iraq, the terrorist group that became the Islamic State.

The memo made clear that Al Qaeda in Iraq was speaking through Muhammad Al Adnani, who is now the senior spokesman for the Islamic State, also known as ISIS. Western and Gulf states were supporting the terrorist group to try to overthrow Syrian dictator Bashar al Assad, who was being propped up by the Russians, Iranians, and Chinese.

In August 2012, a “SECRET” classified memo was sent to various top Obama administration officials and agencies, including to the State Department and to Clinton’s office personally.

“The document is an IAR, an intelligence information report,” said Christopher J. Farrell, who serves on the board of directors of Judicial Watch, which obtained the document. “It is produced by somebody within the Defense intelligence agency (DIA). It is reporting from the field by an intelligence agent” who could be a U.S. government agent, a defense attaché, or a source.

“It’s a report from the field back to headquarters with some intelligence that somebody is willing to bet their career on,” Farrell said.

Farrell confirmed that the report was sent to Clinton’s office, based on the recipient marking “RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHINGTON DC.”

The report identifies Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) as being one of the principal elements of the Syrian opposition, which the West was choosing to “support.”
The enormity of the lies and deception of the Obama years have only begun to be unfolded. We're going need and national truth and reconciliation commission under the Trump administration, and that still will only scratch the surface of the left's evil war on the U.S. over these last few years.

The document's at the link.

More at Memeorandum.

Obama's Failed Feadership

From Michael Goodwin, at the New York Post, "Obama's tantrum a striking display of failed leadership."


Political Correctness to Blame for Orlando Massacre

From Kenneth Timmerman, at the Hill:
The FBI placed Orlando shooter Omar Mateen, 29, on its terrorist watch list in 2013 after co-workers reported that he had made “inflammatory comments” they felt showed his sympathies for terrorist groups.

When agents questioned him, they determined that Mateen “had not broken any laws,” and closed the investigation. In Obama’s America, it’s not illegal to declare your sympathies for radical Islamic terrorist groups - even repeatedly and vehemently, as Mateen’s co-workers claim was the case - because radical Islamic terrorism doesn’t exist. So the FBI took him off the watchlist.

In 2014, the FBI came back for a second try. This time, they found that Mateen had been in contact with an American who had traveled to Syria, joined ISIS and volunteered for jihad, blowing himself up in a homicide bombing.

An FBI official told reporters that they closed that investigation “because they concluded the contacts with the suicide bomber had been minimal.” Once again, they took him off the terror watchlist.

Now, obviously no rational American wants the FBI arresting people because of their opinions, even though the Obama Justice Department and several Attorneys General are trying very hard to criminalize as “hate speech” anyone who cites scientific data showing that man-made global warming isn’t happening.

But when the FBI investigates the same individual for suspected terrorist ties twice in two years, you would think they might conduct an undercover investigation to learn more.

Remember: they hadn’t investigated Mateen twice because he was a Muslim. They investigated him because he exhibited behavior that suggested he might pose a potential threat. Despite this, they were not allowed to push that investigation further, because of political correctness.

This is not the first time that innocent Americans have died because of political correctness.

Just days after the San Bernardino shootings last December, we learned that the Department of Homeland Security had shut down an intelligence-based screening program that had identified the mosque shooter Syed Farook attended as a recruitment center for jihadis.

Had DHS been allowed to continue using that screening program and pursue its investigation of the mosque, they would have stumbled upon Syed Farook and arguably could have prevented a massacre of American innocents.

Instead, they fired the intelligence analyst who devised the program, Phil Haney, and ordered all the data he had uncovered about jihadi recruiting centers destroyed because it offended President Obama’s Muslim Brotherhood advisors, who worked hard to eliminate all such law enforcement programs on the pretence they were “offensive” to Muslims.

Political correctness kills.
More.

And ICYMI, from yesterday, "Dana Loesch Comments on the Orlando Terrorist Attack (VIDEO)."

Donald Trump: 'I watched President Obama today and he was more angry at me than the shooter...' (VIDEO)

Polls show that Americans dislike both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump's response to the Florida attack. But it's not even close for me. Trump nailed it.

At the Hill, "Trump: Obama ‘more angry at me’ than Orlando shooter."



Guns Occupy a Critical Space in the Culture Wars

Here's a great piece, from Jason Willick, at the American Interest, "How to Tear a Nation Apart" (via Instapundit):
Guns occupy a critical space in America’s increasingly acerbic culture wars, a manifestation of the broader social convection currents taking place below the surface. For Jacksonians who are losing faith in the ability of established institutions to preserve order, the Second Amendment is a bulwark against totalitarian movements, like Islamism, that would undermine American liberty. Under this deeply held view, attacks by ISIS-enthusiasts strengthen, rather than weaken, the case for gun rights. But for cosmopolitan liberals, gun rights are an anachronism—a symbol of all the wrong-headed views espoused by working class whites. Set these two warring camps against each other in the context of an ongoing terror threat, and you push an already divided society even further down the path of tribalism and fracture.
More.

Obama and Clinton Say Donald Trump is Out to Destroy American Values (VIDEO)

I teach politics, so I'm literally obligated to keep up with the news. But I don't remember a campaign this nasty, and it's not the surrogates who're dragging everything down into the mud. It's the left.

I'm inclined to tune out more than I normally do in the summertime, but it's something that needs to be monitored. We're in a very unusual period of Democrat demonization. Citizens' vigilance is now more vital to freedom than any time in my lifetime.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Obama accuses Trump of 'doing the terrorists' work for them'":

President Obama and Hillary Clinton conducted an extraordinary joint attack on Donald Trump on Tuesday, with the president accusing the presumptive Republican nominee of “doing the terrorists’ work for them” and Clinton excoriating him as a liar and a “pathological” personality who is temperamentally unsuited to be president.

Their remarks, made at simultaneous speeches in Washington and Pittsburgh, came the day after Trump revived insinuations about Obama’s loyalty to the U.S. and vowed that as president he would ban immigration not only by Muslims but people from any country with a “proven history of terrorism against the United States, Europe or our allies.”

The harsh exchanges between the two sides, with the election still five months away, underscored the brutal nature of the campaign to come, with its focus on intertwined issues of race, ethnicity, terrorism and immigration.

In his remarks, delivered after a meeting with national security advisors at the Treasury Department, Obama said that the proposals by Trump, whom he referred to as the “presumptive Republican nominee,” would undermine American values.

“Where does this stop?” Obama demanded, noting that the shooter responsible for the killing of 49 people in Orlando was born in the U.S., as were the attackers in several previous terrorists acts. “Are we going to start treating all Muslim Americans differently” than other citizens? he asked. “Are we going to start discriminating against them because of their faith?”

If the U.S. were to go down that path “we would have betrayed the very things we’re trying to protect,” the president said. “And then the terrorists would have won, and we cannot let that happen. I will not let that happen.”

Groups such as Islamic State want to present themselves as the leaders of a “war between Islam and America,” Obama said. “They want us to validate them.” Proposals such as the ones Trump has offered are “doing the terrorists’ work for them,” he said.

Trump, in a statement emailed to the Associated Press, responded that Obama "continues to prioritize our enemy over our allies, and for that matter, the American people."

"When I am president, it will always be America first," he wrote.
Keep reading.

Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Alligator Drags 2-Year-Old Boy Into the Water at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort (VIDEO)

It's in Orlando, of course.

What a terrible, terrible story.

At the Orlando Sentinel, "Alligator attacks 2-year-old boy at Disney's Grand Floridian":
[Orange County Sheriff Jerry] Demings said the Nebraska family of five was relaxing on the shoreline when the alligator attacked the boy. The father entered the water and tried to grab the child from the gator, but was not successful. He had scratches on his hands after the ordeal.
Reporter Christal Hayes tweets, "#Orlando has turned into a media circus with all this terrible news lately. This is the scene as we wait for info."

More, at FOX 5 News Atlanta:



Noor Salman, Wife of Orlando Jihadist Omar Mateen, Could Soon Face Federal Charges

Megyn Kelly just announced it on Fox News.

And at the website, "WIFE ACCESSORY TO MURDER? Feds convene grand jury to launch probe into Orlando shooter's spouse."

Dana Loesch Comments on the Orlando Terrorist Attack (VIDEO)

Following-up, "Gun Control Didn't Stop Orlando Terrorist Attack."



Ava Sambora Shows Off Enviable Bikini Body in Malibu

It's Heather Locklear's 18-year-old daughter.

At London's Daily Mail, "Ava Sambora puts on an eye-popping display for sizzling photo shoot as she parades her enviable bikini bod in Malibu."

Poll Shows Boost for Donald Trump Over Hillary Clinton After Orlando Jihad Attack

It's the Reuters/Ipsos poll, conducted from Friday to Tuesday.

Not a huge bounce, but definitely contradicts the NBC News poll out today saying Clinton's "eating away" at Trump's lead among men and white voters. (Via Memeorandum.)

See, "Trump gains slightly on Clinton after Florida attack: Reuters/Ipsos poll" (via Memeorandum):

Hillary Clinton's lead over Donald Trump in the U.S. presidential race has narrowed since late last week, according to the results of the first Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted since the Orlando shooting rampage on Sunday.

Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for the Nov. 8 election, has blamed Democratic policies for the worst mass shooting in U.S. history and doubled-down on his pledge to ban Muslim immigration, while Clinton has warned against demonizing Muslim-Americans.

The poll, conducted from Friday to Tuesday, showed Clinton with an 11.6-point lead - 44.6 percent to 33.0 percent - over Trump, down from the 13-point lead she had in the five days that ended Saturday.

The Florida attack, in which a gunman killed 49 people at a gay nightclub and wounded 53 could have a lingering impact on the presidential race, mixing concerns about immigration, gun violence and religious tolerance into what has already been a volatile and sharply negative campaign.

The shooter, Omar Mateen, 29, the U.S.-born son of Afghan immigrant parents, called authorities during the massacre to pledge allegiance to the Islamic State militant group.

Federal investigators have said Mateen, who was killed by police, was likely self-radicalized and there was no evidence he received any instruction or aid from outside groups such as Islamic State.

Trump seized on the attack to accuse Democratic President Barack Obama of failing to address "radical Islamic terrorism," to warn that Clinton's policies on immigration would allow more potential attackers into the country, and to fine-tune his call for a suspension of Muslim immigration.

In a speech on Monday, Trump said he would suspend immigration from countries with a “proven history of terrorism” against the United States, Europe and allied countries "until we fully understand how to end these threats."

Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, said Trump's response to the attack was disturbing...
More.

Frankly, Trump's numbers have yet to take off, especially now that the Democrats are playing desperate defense on national security. O's terrorism speech today was an absolute disgrace, attempting to justify his administration's refusal to clearly identify our enemies.

The public's not going to be forgiving. We're having regular jihad attacks, inspired by Islamic State. The blood's on the hands of the Democrats in the White House, and Hillary Clinton too.

FLASHBACK: From last December, "Poll: Heightened Fear of Terrorism is Rippling Through the Electorate."

Somali Muslim Mohammad Moghaddam Killed in Hostage Situation at #Amarillo Walmart (VIDEO)

"Workplace violence."

At Creeping Sharia, "Texas: Muslim employee took hostages at Amarillo Walmart, killed by police."

And Ricochet, "Police Kill Suspect in Apparent Hostage Situation at #Amarillo Walmart."

And watch, at ABC News: