It’s painful to see newly-minted House Speaker Paul Ryan’s imprint on the irresponsible trillion-dollar omnibus spending bill, because he used to be one of the GOP’s most effective spokesmen for fiscal responsibility.
Trump said nice things about Putin, after Putin said nice things about Trump, and all the people who thought it was ridiculous to portray Russia as America’s geopolitical adversary during Obama’s re-election campaign are beside themselves. Several of Trump’s Republican rivals thought his comments about Putin went far beyond diplomatic efforts to constructively build a positive relationship with the Russian strongman, especially since Trump not only failed to mention Putin’s repressive ways, but actively disputed the allegations against him.
Phyllis Schlafly predicts Trump will win because grassroots voters are outraged over such “betrayals” as the omnibus spending bill, in which Republicans used their historic midterm election victory – under the leadership of a Speaker who made his bones as the math-wizard archenemy of irresponsible government spending – to deliver a trillion-dollar bag of Christmas goodies to Democrats, funding almost the entirety of the Obama agenda without a fight.
A U.S. special forces mission into Libya ended in confusion and embarrassment after the Libyan Air Force posted photos of the American commandos on their Facebook page.
Holman Jenkins at the Wall Street Journal took a look at Donald Trump’s finances over the weekend, and suggested the outspoken billionaire might not be able to afford to keep a serious national campaign going past the first few states:
If politics is the fine art of getting people to approach important issues emotionally, instead of rationally, then immigration is the masterpiece example of that art.
Former Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel gave an interview to Foreign Policy, billed as his first public interview since he was forced out of office in February. He said the White House sought to personally “destroy” him during his final days.
In a segment from this Sunday’s 60 Minutes interview broadcast on Friday’s edition of CBS This Morning, Apple CEO Tim Cook reiterated his stance in favor of unbreakable encrypted communication for consumers, dismissing concerns that terrorists and criminals can use such systems to evade law enforcement.
An entire school district in Virginia is closed Friday, after the backlash against an assignment which forced students to write the shahada, the Muslim oath that declares “There is no God but Allah. Mohammed is the messenger of Allah.”
Much discussion of encrypted online communications after the Paris terror attack has transpired, though no evidence existed that the ISIS operatives, who killed 130 people, employed such techniques–until now.
China summoned U.S. envoy Kaye Lee in Beijing on Thursday to complain about the sale of $1.83 billion in arms to Taiwan, and threatened to impose sanctions on all companies involved, accusing the United States of breaking international law and compromising China’s sovereignty.
The Administration is finally willing to describe the shooting that killed four Marines and a sailor in Chattanooga, Tennessee as a terrorist attack, and the Navy has announced that the victims will receive Purple Hearts.
The revolting $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill Republicans dumped on their astonished voters has one – possibly only one – bright spot: the bailout corridors for ObamaCare remain blocked. If Democrats were able to soak taxpayers to keep Obama’s health care disaster floating, they’d do it in a hot second.
Pastor Hyeon Soo Lim, a Canadian citizen with a church in Toronto who was born in South Korea, has been sentenced to life in prison with hard labor by the North Korean regime.
It can be taken as a sign of both ideological exhaustion and propaganda success that liberals still paint Republicans as the party of the Evil Rich, when it’s patently obvious there are plenty of big-money interests backing the Democrat Party.
Secretary of State John Kerry formally accepted Russian demands during talks in Moscow this week to keep Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in power.
The Islamic State already controls eighty percent of the oil in Syria, but it’s looking for more… and it is sizing up the oil fields of Libya and Egypt for conquest.
The much-touted seven-day cease fire in Yemen began on Tuesday afternoon and lasted maybe an hour, before there were reports of both Saudi warplanes dropping bombs on Houthi insurgents, and the Houthis shelling a loyalist stronghold. Naturally, each side blames the other for breaking the agreement.
The interesting discussion is all on the Republican side, and there were some strong exchanges in Las Vegas. Contrary to Chris Christie’s dismissal of the debate over surveillance between Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio as so much senatorial jibber-jabber, there are serious questions of liberty, security, and privacy to discuss. (Having said that, Governor Christie’s tone will probably appeal to voters who want strong leadership and decisive action on national security, as will Donald Trump’s.)
Widespread outrage greeted Department of Homeland Security director Jeh Johnson’s revelation that immigration officials have been secretly barred from looking at the social media posts of prospective immigrants, due to political correctness and fears that such investigations would result in “bad public relations.”
The Egyptian government still maintains it has found no evidence that the crash of a Russian Metrojet passenger plane in Sinai was caused by a terrorist attack, according to a statement from the Egyptian civil aviation ministry released on Monday.
“We will not leave this nation at the mercy of YouTube and Facebook!” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan thundered in the spring of 2014. “We will take the necessary steps in the strongest way.” Now, he has come out in praise of Facebook.
Mohamed Elshinawy, a 30-year-old Maryland resident originally from Egypt, has been charged with soliciting some $8,700 from Islamic State operatives and plotting a terrorist attack in the United States.
No “fixes” to ObamaCare should be permitted – full repeal is the only answer, and Democrats must be forced to accept it. Until then, they and their union allies should be made to feel every second of the agony they deserve, without release or reprieve. It is sheer political madness for any Republican to intervene on their behalf, especially when so many of the GOP’s constituents are suffering from lost insurance plans, soaring premiums, exploding out-of-pocket costs, and lost access to their doctors.
After working all night to save the leg of an 18-month-old boy wounded by a Palestinian terror attack in Jerusalem, doctors at the Hadassah University Medical Center were reportedly forced to amputate his leg below the knee.
