News of the Week for August 30^th, 2015

• Obama Scandals
• Gun Rights
• Hide the Decline
• Obamacare
• War & Terror
• National News
• Economy & Taxes
• International News
• Opinion

 

Obama Scandals

 

Surprise! IRS “Finds” Another Secret Lois Lerner Email Account
The most transparent administration ever seems to be dragging their feet on this nearly three-year-old Obama scandal, don’t you think?

Inspector General Slams Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy’s Embassy as Amateur Hour
Having a celebrity socialite run the huge embassy was as foolish as it looked.

Obama’s Brass Pressured Us to Downplay ISIS Threat
U.S. intelligence analysts keep saying that the American-led campaign against ISIS isn’t going so well. Their bosses keep telling them to think again about those conclusions.

 

Gun Rights

 

Secretary Kerry Will Sign UN Arms Trade Treaty
Obama administration officials say Secretary of State John Kerry will sign the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) “during annual United Nations General Assembly meeting this week.”

Vox: The Web Site For Dummies
This is hilarious: Vox.com, the web site into which NBC is about to pour $200 million, tweeted this earlier today. It’s a screen shot because Vox deleted the tweet in response to intense ridicule.

 

Hide the Decline

Environment &
“Green Energy”

 

Billionaire “Green” Activist at Center of EPA Power-Grab
Hearings demanded for climate change crusader’s “green jobs” rules!

Environmental Waste
Tom Steyer’s $1 billion “green-jobs” initiative is a bust.

Obama’s Wind-Energy Lobby Gets Blown Away
A California judge rules in favor of bald eagles and against 30-year permits to shred them.

 

Obamacare

Government in Healthcare

 

Topping Turmoil: Big Pizza fights ObamaCare menu mandate
The pizza lobby is mounting a double-extra-large battle against looming government regulations that would force their franchises to post a dizzying array of calorie counts on their menus.

 

War & Terror

 

Forbes: Russia inadvertently posts its casualties in Ukraine: 2,000 deaths, 3,200 disabled
There are no Russian troops in Ukraine, according to the official Kremlin

Report: Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal could become the world’s third-biggest
A new report by two American think tanks asserts that Pakistan may be building 20 nuclear warheads annually and could have the world’s third-largest nuclear stockpile within a decade.

Is Turkey Going Nuclear?
Ankara’s take on the Iran deal isn’t what the superficial analysis of geopolitics suggests.

Obama’s Policy on Arms Sales to Taiwan Needs Credibility and Clarity
Why has the United States failed to sell arms to Taiwan since 2011? After trotting out four explanations that are popular, logical and wrong, the Pacific Forum CSIS’ Shirley Kan then provides three more realistic ones, all of which speak ill of US policy-making and could in fact be illegal.

Is It Time to Bring Back the Battleships?
For decades, naval architects have concentrated on building ships that, by the standards of the World Wars, are remarkably brittle. These ships can deal punishment at much greater ranges than their early 20th century counterparts, but they can’t take a hit. Is it time to reconsider this strategy, and once again build protected ships? This article examines how these trends came about, and what might change in the future.

Iranian Pres Doesn’t Want Nuclear Deal Binding On Iran
Why do Dems support a deal that binds the U.S. but makes Iran’s commitments voluntary?

 

National

 

Rutgers to Students: No Such Thing as Free Speech, We Are Watching You, “Think Before You Speak”
Wants students to spy on each other, file reports, provide private information.

Facebook Says It Didn’t Censor Content Undermining Zuckerberg’s Immigration Agenda, Was “Error”
Facebook claims it wasn’t censoring its users who wished to post studies using government-data job reports that demonstrate how mass migration has impacted the U.S. labor market—information that undercuts the political stance of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

Ferguson Mom Rants Against #BlackLivesMatter and the Beatification of “Criminals and Thugs”
Peggy Hubbard, a former Navy woman, and a mom and grandmother, is incensed is that a nine-year-old girl, Jamyla Bolden, was shot in the chest and killed in a mistaken drive-by-shooting while she was in her own house, doing her homework.

Mozilla CEO threatens to fire person responsible for anonymous hate speech on Reddit
“If they are an employee, they will be fired.”

Planned Parenthood Baby Parts Buyer StemExpress Wants “Another 50 Livers/Week,” Financial Benefits for Abortion Clinics
The eighth video in the ongoing controversy over Planned Parenthood’s sale of aborted fetal body parts shows the CEO of StemExpress, LLC, a major buyer of fetal tissue from Planned Parenthood, admitting the company gets “a lot” of intact fetuses, suggesting “another 50 livers a week” would not be enough, and agreeing abortion clinics should profit from the sale.

Illinois Democrats in a civil war over race to challenge Mark Kirk
As we’ve discussed in the past here, Senator Mark Kirk (R – Illinois) has a battle on his hands if he wants to hold on to his seat next year. Illinois is always somewhere between competitive and contested in the best of years for the GOP and purplish blue most of the time. But if the Democrats can’t find a way to get their house in order in the next few months that job may become significantly easier. In a story which sounds like an odd parallel to what happens regularly in the GOP, there is still a battle raging out there between the establishment Democrats and the SJW. We first talked about this a couple of months ago, but at the time I thought it looked like more of a generic, early stage primary scuffle which any state or district can run into, but now it seems to be turning into an all out war.

North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple’s retirement puts Sen. Heidi Heitkamp in quite the pickle.
Short version: Gov. Jack Dalrymple, a Republican, will not seek another term (North Dakota is one of the states that elects Governors in Presidential election years). Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, a Democrat, wants to be governor of North Dakota. This, then, would be a heavy temptation for her.

Union Organizer Tweets Support For Dead Carjacker Who Shot Two Cops
A union organizer in upstate New York has landed in hot water after tweeting support and prayers for an armed carjacker who opened fire on two local police officers.

Duke Students Say No to Lesbian Porn
Christian students at Duke University are refusing to read a recommended lesbian comic novel they and others around the country say is pornographic and propagandistic.

Regionally Encoded Toner Cartridges “to Serve Customers Better”
Xerox uses region coding on their toner cartridges AND locks the printer to the first type used.

Va. TV Crew Shooting Suspect Shoots Himself on Interstate Outside D.C.
The suspect in a shooting that left a TV reporter and cameraman dead while they were doing a live news report in Franklin County, Virginia, Wednesday morning has shot himself on I-66, police tell WDBJ-7 in Roanoke.

California crime wave follows criminal justice reform
In November 2014, California voters approved Proposition 47, which downgraded drug possession and many property crimes from a felony to a misdemeanor. As Debra Saunders reminds us, proponents argued that lesser punishment for low-level offenders would enhance public safety.

Yes, Really: 141 Counties Have More Registered Voters Than People Alive
As a prerequisite to lawsuits, a legal foundation has put all 141 counties on notice that their voter rolls are in violation of federal law, not to mention a national embarrassment.

NLRB rules against business in pivotal joint-employer decision
The National Labor Relations Board on Thursday handed down one of the biggest decisions of the Obama presidency, ruling that companies can be held equally responsible for labor violations committed by their contractors.

Obama’s NLRB just redefined the word “employer” and it’s going to be bad
You can rightly complain about the things which go on inside the White House, the State Department, the Justice Department or the EPA and all of the headline grabbing controversies which erupt from them. None of them, however, may be up to nearly as much mischief as the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) though it doesn’t seem to catch the attention of the media nearly as much.

Clinton Camp Claims It’s Already Secured One-Fifth the Delegates Needed for Nomination
As Vice President Joe Biden considers a potential run, Hillary Clinton’s campaign is seeking to project dominance at the Democratic National Commitee meeting in Minneapolis.

Behind Science Fraud, Chapter 10
Time to update our series on science fraud from a few months ago, with news of a blockbuster research review effort that is making waves this week.

School bans Wonder Woman lunchbox for violating dress codes
Superheroes are often fodder for lunchbox covers, but one school considers the do-gooders nothing more than “violent characters.”

“Sister Wives” family cites gay marriage ruling in polygamy case
A polygamous family says the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage shows that laws restricting consensual adult relationships are outdated, even if certain unions are unpopular.

Top Jeb fundraisers leave campaign amid troubling signs
The move comes amid weak poll numbers and concerns that Bush’s torrid fundraising pace has slowed.

University of Tennessee tells staff and students to stop using ‘he’ and ‘she’ – and switch to ‘xe’, ‘zir’ and ‘xyr’ instead
Gay rights official at Knoxville campus wrote new language instructions

Public university offers transgender voice lessons
UConn group meant for individuals “pursuing vocal and communication changes related to gender identity”

Californians increasingly can’t get into state’s public colleges
Once envied, the state system of higher education is seen as a warning to others

Full, Unedited 8th Video Confirms Planned Parenthood Sells Fully Intact Aborted Babies
Today, the Center for Medical Progress released the full, uncut video of the conversation between undercover investigators form CMP and top officials with StemExpress, which buys aborted babies and their body parts from Planned Parenthood. The full footage is of a shorter video that summarized the meetings earlier this week.

MI6 Spy Found Dead in Bag in Bath Had Hacked Clinton Data
The MI6 spy who was found dead inside a holdall bag in his bathtub in London hacked into secret data held on former U.S. President Bill Clinton, The Sun newspaper has sensationally claimed today.

Professors threaten bad grades for saying “illegal alien,” “male,” “female”
Washington State students risk a failing grade in one course if they use any common descriptors professor considers “oppressive and hateful language.”

 

Economy & Taxes

 

Law of Unintended Consequences: New EU Tax Laws Force Thousands of Businesses to Close in Just Six Months
New European Union tax rules introduced in January have already driven thousands of small companies out of business, with thousands more set to follow as awareness of the change in the VAT law grows. Research has shown that incompetence on the part of collecting agencies has further added misery to the situation.

Printing Money Goes Haywire in Venezuela
Venezuela seems to be hovering on the edge of tipping into hyperinflation. Or perhaps it has already fallen into the abyss.

 

International

 

There Is (Still) No Alternative
In Venezuela, the same lessons as Cuba, North Korea, USSR . . .

U.S. Convenes First UN Security Council Meeting on Gay Rights
The Obama administration lauded as “historic” Monday’s first-of-its-kind meeting at the UN Security Council on gay rights, organized by the U.S. Missions at the UN and Chile.

UK Wants Google To Remove Links To Stories About Removing Stories
As you might be aware, Google in Europe is entertaining “right to be forgotten” requests, where basically if it meets the requirements, Google will remove links about a particular person from its search results in a bid to give them privacy. Sounds good, right? However when Google removes these links, they also inform the websites who have been removed.

The Socialist Dream, Venezuela Version
We have chronicled the long, painful decline of Venezuela’s socialist economy. It was kept afloat for a while by Venezuela’s extraordinary oil reserves, but nothing, not even vast natural resources, can keep a socialist economy going for long. Toilet paper is a thing of the past, and many Venezuelans are now confronting the possibility of starvation, due to government-imposed price controls.

South Sudan Ends Two-Year-Old Civil War Share article on Facebook
South Sudan, a largely Christian area of East Africa, broke away from the Arab-dominated Sudan and became the world’s youngest state in 2011. Despite much international good will and a wealth of oil reserves, the new nation descended into civil war in 2013, a conflict that has forced 2.2 million of its 12 million people from their homes.

China detains 12 over Tianjin blasts, accuses officials of dereliction
China has formally detained a dozen people over explosions in the city of Tianjin this month that killed at least 145 people, and has accused 11 officials and port executives of dereliction of duty or abuse of power.

Venezuela’s Food Shortages Trigger Long Lines, Hunger and Looting
Violent clashes flare in pockets of the country as citizens wait for hours for basics, such as milk and rice

Indian sisters told they will be repeatedly gang-raped as punishment for their brother’s crime launch appeal at Supreme Court
Two sisters who have been told they will be repeatedly gang-raped as a “punishment” for the crimes committed by their brother have pleaded with the Supreme Court to be protected.

University bans native headdresses, fake dreadlocks from frosh week because of “cultural appropriation”
Leave your native headdresses and fake dreadlocks at home. And don’t bother with the Mohawks, bandanas, tank tops or short shorts, either.

Study: Women In Their 20s Earn More Than Men
A new study has shown that for people in their 20s the so-called gender pay gap is not only non-existent but completely in reverse. Figures compiled by the Press Association reveal that between the ages of 22 to 29 women typically earn £1,111 a year more than men.

ISIS Releases “Return Of The Gold Dinar” – Says Jews Created Federal Reserve As Means of Capitalist Financial Enslavement
They Dig Rand Paul.

 

Opinion

 

Tech oligarchs tightening their grip on Democrats
The current state of the Republican Party may seem like a demolition derby, but there’s an equally fascinating, if less well-understood, conflict within the Democratic Party. In this case, the disruptive force is largely Silicon Valley, a natural oligarchy that now funds a party teetering toward populism and even socialism.

The Hugo Awards: Why The #WaronNerds Is A War on Art
The utter destruction of the Hugo Awards is a warning not just to nerds, but to Western Civilization that social justice cannot be tolerated.

Why Do de Blasio and Cuomo Hate Women’s Equality?
In case you haven’t noticed, there’s a big war on women going on in the progressive paradise of New York City as the hapless mayor and governor look to take us back to the 1950s and force women to cover up.

National Fronts
Trump’s rise is mirrored on the European right.

Why Same-Sex Marriage Will Never Measure Up To The Real Thing
According to American icon and signer of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson, “The care of human life and happiness and not their destruction is the first and only legitimate object of good government.”

Like The Gulag Archipelago, the Planned Parenthood Videos Show Us the Victims of a Utopian Dream
Millions of highly-educated Americans still defend Planned Parenthood. Forty years ago, the same kind of people defended Communism. They might have regretted its excesses, and cringed at some of its methods, but its astronomically high ideals inspired them, especially next to the gritty reality of free competition under law.

GOALS OF COMMUNISM List From 1963 Looks Awfully Familiar Today
Way back in 1963, a list of communist goals was given to congress. Certain parts of the list seem like they were tailor made for what’s happening in America today.

Did any Leftist initiatives ever actually benefit the poor people, women, and minorities?
My son has a hard time waking up in the morning and, over the years, I’ve fallen into a bad habit: When he doesn’t emerge from his room, I head up the stairs to remind him to wake up. Last Friday, I got my exercise heading up those stairs five separate times. This morning, I thought to myself, “My God! I’m acting precisely like a Leftist, depriving my child of the opportunity to take responsibility for himself.”

Problem: Passive Right, Activist Left
Solution? Get Activist.

The Socialist Dream Will Never Die
Not long ago I was listening to one of Russ Roberts’s archived “EconTalk” podcasts with the great Thomas Sowell (and if you don’t listen to EconTalk you’re missing one of the top podcast artists of our time—subscribe for free here), and was completely stunned by something Sowell said. When he was assigned Friedrich Hayek’s seminal essay “The Use of Knowledge in Society” as a graduate student, he didn’t get it. Sowell found it too abstract and dense. Russ Roberts, another fine Chicago-school economist, said he had the same reaction to it the first time he read it, and, moreover, that Vernon Smith (a Nobel Prize winner) also found the essay opaque at first reading.

North Dakota’s governor is retiring and why you should care
North Dakota’s Republican Governor Jack Dalrymple has announced that he will not be seeking reelection next year when his current term expires.

Immolation for the Hugos
Those of you who, like me, have been paying attention to the whole Hugo Awards corner of the culture war, are probably aware by now that the (mostly) old, grey and left-wing members of science fiction Fandom burned down the Hugos in order to save them* this past weekend, choosing No Award in the novella and short story categories, as well as Related Works and both Editor categories. Not coincidentally, these were categories in which the Sad Puppies and their Rabid Puppy co-belligerents had swept the nominations.

Backlash: Black Killer of White Reporters Sent Manifesto Declaring that Murders were a Response to Charleston
I’m a bit mystified here — while I can accept the idea of “backlash” and I can further accept the media’s extreme trepidation in reporting Muslim on non-Muslim crimes, I cannot accept the media then taking the position that they can gin up as much hatred of white people as Ratings May Demand without any need for similar cautiousness.

In Defense of Offensive Speech
Off-Campus Tomfoolery Should Not Be Regulated By Overzealous Administrators

10 Key Ways To Break The Mass Delusion Machine
Here’s how to resist the Left’s culture control, one conversation at a time.

Republican Party, R.I.P. (1854 – 2016)
More and more polling shows the biggest group of voters who hate the Republican Party are the Republicans’ own conservative voters. In growing numbers they have driven down the popularity ratings of Congress. Instead of trying to recover popularity with their base, the Republicans have convinced the Chamber of Commerce to spend millions of dollars defeating conservative Republican “troublemakers” in the 2016 primary cycle. Why join the base when the GOP thinks it can beat its base?

A Reminder for “Male Feminists”
They hate you, too

No, Cupcake, there is no right not to be offended!
I swear… our society has become this bizarre caricature of itself, where everyone is searching for something to be outraged about, anything that will allow them to whine and claim racism… or offense… or microaggression… or some other perceived offense.

Are You on the Wrong Side of History?
Are you on the wrong side or the right side of history? Is there even a “wrong side” or a “right side”? What do those terms mean and why do politicians and pundits use them? Nationally syndicated columnist and best-selling author Jonah Goldberg explains

Dear Feminists: You Think Too Much
Not everything has meaning. Not everything requires critical analysis. Not everything is in need of a theory to explain it.

At War with Reality
Characterizing the opposition as insane is a favorite tactic of the Left. To question their latest fatwa is for them an indicator of mental derangement on the part of the inquirer.

ACLU suit over education savings accounts is a challenge to parental rights
Many of the news stories about the ACLU suing to block implementation of Nevada’s education savings accounts (ESAs), approved by this past Legislature as Senate Bill 302, mention that such accounts were declared unconstitutional in Colorado recently.

Fauxtrage
Fully expecting the MASSIVE and AMAZING brains on the other side would come back and tell me Ancillary Pronoun is a great novel, a work of genius, a… blah, blah, blah, to which I would answer with the respect I reserve for leftist lectures, which are the same things they ALWAYS say

Why Modern Men Must Become Aristocrats Of The Soul
If one were to compare the men of the traditional world to those of the modern world, certain differences in constitution would become readily apparent. While institutions and environment will alter the spiritual constitution of men if allowed to become influential enough, in the grand sense, a people’s men will actually find more influence going in the opposite direction.