State Department spokesperson Marie Harf and White House Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes have launched an unprecedented effort to discredit, discount and deny the Times story that reports that “Tehran’s stockpile of nuclear fuel increased about 20 percent over the last 18 months of negotiations.”
Former South African President F. W. de Klerk, who shared the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize with Nelson Mandela for his role in steering South Africa from apartheid to democracy, has protested the way the current South African government is treating minority Afrikaners. In a speech at the Voortrekker Monument–an important Afrikaner symbol–De Klerk said that Afrikaners had been made to feel overly guilty for the past, and argued that apartheid had not been a “crime against humanity.”
On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal’s online edition promoted a June 2014 op-ed by Dr. Paul McHugh, former psychiatrist-in-chief at Johns Hopkins Hospital, which argues that transgender identity is a mental illness akin to bulimia and should not be treated with surgery, which can cause more harm than good. Though the article did not appear in the paper’s print edition, its promotion on the website coincides with the debate over former Olympian Bruce (Caitlyn) Jenner.
President Barack Obama recently told a synagogue audience that he was “the first Jewish President.” The remark was more than a joke: apparently Obama actually believes it. His former adviser David Axelrod told an Israeli television station this week that Obama had boasted privately: “You
The California State Senate voted on party lines Monday to raise the minimum wage to $13 per hour by 2017–a 44% increase from where it stands today, at $9 per hour. Just two years ago, Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill that increased the minimum from $8 per hour in 2013 to $10 per hour by 2016. The new bill, introduced by State Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) as a measure to reduce poverty and inequality, would amount to a staggering and unprecedented 62.5% increase in four years.
With one month left for talks, news has emerged that the P5+1–six powers negotiating with Iran (Russia, China, France, Britain, Germany and the U.S.)–have reached a deal on “snap-back” Iran sanctions–i.e. sanctions that would be removed as part of a nuclear deal but which would automatically be restored if Iran broke the agreement, due June 30. Reuters suggested that all that remained was for Iran to agree, and a major obstacle would be gone. Yet the snap-back “deal” has three fatal flaws.
The New York Times has published an op-ed by Palestinian soccer player Iyad Abu Gharqoud, demanding that FIFA kick Israel out of international soccer. The Times allows Gharquod to play the role of the aggrieved victim but ignores the fact that his
For decades, our global betters have been urging Americans to take more of an interest in soccer. And we have–though not the interest the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) had in mind. This week, the U.S. Department of Justice revealed that 14 FIFA officials had been indicted for corruption. In somewhat related news, FIFA is to vote this weekend on suspending Israel from international soccer because of security-related travel restrictions on some Palestinian players.
A new text message is going “viral”–in a bad way. The character string, composed of a mix of English, Arabic and other characters, causes Apple iPhones to crash.
The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) has arrested a suspect, Dawud Abdulwali, 56, on arson charges connected with the massive downtown fire last December that consumed the Da Vinci apartment complex. The Los Angeles Times reports that Abdulwali was arrested Tuesday morning during a traffic stop, and after a lengthy investigation.
President Barack Obama once dismissed ISIS (or “ISIL”) as a “junior varsity” outfit. As the terrorist organization has grown in size, wealth, and power, Obama’s allies on the left have moved from dismissing ISIS outright to blaming Republicans for its rise, arguing that it would never have emerged if President George W. Bush had not invaded Iraq. (Democrats’ support for the war is conveniently omitted.) Now, Sen. Rand Paul has joined the left in blaming GOP ‘hawks’ for the rise of ISIS.
California is enjoying another year of budget surplus–and the state’s Democrats cannot wait to spend the spoils. Though Gov. Jerry Brown’s new plans call for spending an additional $7.5 billion more than originally budgeted–an increase that is larger than the entire budgets of some states–Democrats in the state legislature are predicting a $2.5 billion surplus in the year to come, and bickering over which of the state’s generous social welfare programs will benefit from the new cash.
Covered California, the Golden State’s exchange for Obamacare, has announced that it will cap the price of prescription drugs for the 2.2 million Californians who have bought individual insurance plans.
There is no commitment to America’s fighting men and women that President Barack Obama has not broken. When he ran for office in 2008, he promised to leave a residual force in Iraq to secure that country against external meddling and internal collapse. When he took office, President George W. Bush handed over a relatively stable and secure Iraq, thanks to the “surge” Obama opposed, and thanks to the sacrifices made by thousands of Americans, killed and wounded in battle.
When President Barack Obama spoke to Congregation Adas Israel in Washington, D.C. on Friday, he invented a story about his past fascination with, and support for, the State of Israel.
A Field poll released Friday shows that potential presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) polls higher among Democrats than any Republican polls among likely GOP voters in California–albeit within a wide margin of error. Warren only polls at 13% among Democrats, far
While the women of Palmyra await their fate–which, in other ISIS-held regions, has included child sex slavery and worse–the young women of San Diego, California bared their breasts to protest unequal treatment of the male and female nipple.
The international diplomatic and military crisis sparked by Iran’s decision to send an “aid” vessel directly to Yemen–along with an escort of warships–rather than to the international coordinating point in Djibouti was the latest escalation in Iran’s attempt to assert its new dominance as a regional power. Notably, Iran’s tactics mirror those used by Palestinian activists, backed by Turkey, in the 2010 Mavi Marmara incident, when an Islamist “aid” ship challenged the Israeli navy off Gaza.
California’s powerful unions lost a key special election this week in an all-Democrat race for State Senate in the East Bay that pitted a reformist candidate, Orinda Mayor Steve Glazer, against a reliable Big Labor vote, Assemblywoman Susan Bonilla. The race took place on what was nominally Republican turf, after State Sen. Mark DeSaulnier resigned. Heavy spending by independent groups on both sides–and the state’s new “jungle” primary–helped Glazer win 55%-45%.
The media have finally extracted from Hillary Clinton the question they have pressing her Republican rivals to answer for several weeks now: knowing what we now know about Iraq–that it did not have the weapons of mass destruction (WMD) it was thought to have–should we still have invaded Iraq? The answer journalists wish to hear is “no,” because it is a way of excusing President Barack Obama for the predictable (and predicted) mess that transpired when he withdrew from Iraq.
The University of California has produced some of the most blatant cases of campus antisemitism in recent months, with Jewish students singled out for their faith–often by anti-Israel activists. That prompted 57 rabbis and 107 members of the UC faculty to write to the administration Monday, the Los Angeles Times reports, to ask that it adopt the State Department definition of antisemitism, which includes demonizing Israel, delegitimizing Israel, or holding double standards for Israel.
California Gov. Jerry Brown is to sign a “landmark climate change agreement” in Sacramento Tuesday, his office announced Monday. The surprise move comes just days after potential Democratic presidential contender Sen. Elizabeth Warren delivered a stirring address to the California Democrats Convention.
A report by Daniel J. McGraw in this weekend’s Politico brings rigorous data analysis–i.e. “quick back-of-the-napkin math”–to bear on the GOP’s demographic “problem”: namely, that Republican voters tend to be old, so more of them are dying. (If you are a Democrat, this is not a problem, as death has historically posed no real impediment to voting.) Yet the real demographic problem in 2016 is not the age of Republican voters: rather, it is the age of the Democratic candidates.
CORONADO — When Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina called California’s drought “man-made” earlier this year, blaming mismanagement by the state’s liberal politicians, Democrats mocked her. The Washington Post’s fact-checker even gave her two “Pinocchios” for the claim. However, on Sunday the New York Times appeared to agree that the drought is man-made, at least in its impacts–and blamed former Gov. Pat Brown, father of current Gov. Jerry Brown.
A leading Democrat is in trouble after mocking Native Americans at the California Democrats’ Convention on Saturday, whose keynote speaker was left-wing U.S. Senate Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), who claims dubious Native American roots.
