Cruz's Common Sense Foreign Policy

In contrast to "War Everywhere!!!" Rubio, we have "National Interests Only" Cruz.  Rubio--like McCain--believes that the US is an empire which must enforce its imperial will on everyone, everywhere.

That worked out real well in Libya, ain'a?  And it's working just as well in Syria!!  It would also require a massive increase in Pentagon spending, which cannot be sustained given the Obozo debt-pyramid the next President will inherit.

Rubio also prefers Universal Spying on Citizens by the NSA--a position which the GOP (to its credit) did NOT support.

If Rubio thinks that 1984 and Brave New World are "the new America," he has another think coming.  Soon.

Sen. Cruz has described his views on foreign policy as a “third way” between the non-interventionism of Sen. Rand Paul and the neo-conservatism of Sen. Rubio. He rejects the “binary” choice of a foreign policy where “we want to retreat from the world and be isolationist and leave everyone alone, or we've got to be these crazy neo-con invade-every-country-on-earth and send our kids to die in the Middle East.”

Cruz’s believes U.S. foreign policy should narrowly focus on America’s interests, avoiding democracy-building abroad and staying out of conflicts where there is no clear reason for the U.S. to intervene.  Cruz warned that the Rubio – Clinton approach to Syria would make the same mistakes as in Libya.

“The enemy of my enemy is not necessarily my friend,” According to Bloomberg, Cruz said. “If the Obama administration and the Washington neo-cons succeed in toppling [Bashar al-] Assad, Syria will be handed over to radical Islamic terrorists. ISIS will rule Syria.”
- See more at: https://www.conservativereview.com/commentary/2015/12/rubio-v-cruz-is-heating-up-over-foreign-policy#sthash.VQjjLMBt.dpuf

Sen. Cruz has described his views on foreign policy as a “third way” between the non-interventionism of Sen. Rand Paul and the neo-conservatism of Sen. Rubio. He rejects the “binary” choice of a foreign policy where “we want to retreat from the world and be isolationist and leave everyone alone, or we've got to be these crazy neo-con invade-every-country-on-earth and send our kids to die in the Middle East.”

Cruz’s believes U.S. foreign policy should narrowly focus on America’s interests, avoiding democracy-building abroad and staying out of conflicts where there is no clear reason for the U.S. to intervene.  Cruz warned that the Rubio – Clinton approach to Syria would make the same mistakes as in Libya.

“The enemy of my enemy is not necessarily my friend,” According to Bloomberg, Cruz said. “If the Obama administration and the Washington neo-cons succeed in toppling [Bashar al-] Assad, Syria will be handed over to radical Islamic terrorists. ISIS will rule Syria.”
- See more at: https://www.conservativereview.com/commentary/2015/12/rubio-v-cruz-is-heating-up-over-foreign-policy#sthash.xxzTVQdQ.dpuf

Sen. Cruz has described his views on foreign policy as a “third way” between the non-interventionism of Sen. Rand Paul and the neo-conservatism of Sen. Rubio. He rejects the “binary” choice of a foreign policy where “we want to retreat from the world and be isolationist and leave everyone alone, or we've got to be these crazy neo-con invade-every-country-on-earth and send our kids to die in the Middle East.”

Cruz’s believes U.S. foreign policy should narrowly focus on America’s interests, avoiding democracy-building abroad and staying out of conflicts where there is no clear reason for the U.S. to intervene.  Cruz warned that the Rubio – Clinton approach to Syria would make the same mistakes as in Libya.

“The enemy of my enemy is not necessarily my friend,” According to Bloomberg, Cruz said. “If the Obama administration and the Washington neo-cons succeed in toppling [Bashar al-] Assad, Syria will be handed over to radical Islamic terrorists. ISIS will rule Syria.”
- See more at: https://www.conservativereview.com/commentary/2015/12/rubio-v-cruz-is-heating-up-over-foreign-policy#sthash.xxzTVQdQ.dpuf

Sen. Cruz has described his views on foreign policy as a “third way” between the non-interventionism of Sen. Rand Paul and the neo-conservatism of Sen. Rubio. He rejects the “binary” choice of a foreign policy where “we want to retreat from the world and be isolationist and leave everyone alone, or we've got to be these crazy neo-con invade-every-country-on-earth and send our kids to die in the Middle East.”

Cruz’s believes U.S. foreign policy should narrowly focus on America’s interests, avoiding democracy-building abroad and staying out of conflicts where there is no clear reason for the U.S. to intervene.  Cruz warned that the Rubio – Clinton approach to Syria would make the same mistakes as in Libya.

“The enemy of my enemy is not necessarily my friend,” According to Bloomberg, Cruz said. “If the Obama administration and the Washington neo-cons succeed in toppling [Bashar al-] Assad, Syria will be handed over to radical Islamic terrorists. ISIS will rule Syria.”
- See more at: https://www.conservativereview.com/commentary/2015/12/rubio-v-cruz-is-heating-up-over-foreign-policy#sthash.xxzTVQdQ.dpuf

Two Failures: Clapping Seals Over Guns

Owen has this right.

This is simply a couple of guys who are failing at their primary job of crime control in Milwaukee trying to pin the responsibility on something else.

Those failures would be Chisholm and Flynn.

The ObozoConomy, Part 3,467

Think Obozo's economy sucks?

You're RIGHT!!

Median household income fell by a significant margin in two-thirds of Wisconsin counties from 2009 to 2014, according to figures released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau.

In Milwaukee County, the median income fell by 10.3% to $43,385. Waukesha County, which had the highest median income in the state at $76,319, saw a 7.1% drop. Washington (-5.2%), Ozaukee (-7.7%) and Racine (-7.9%) counties all experienced declining incomes, as well.

The trend mirrors the nation, which saw median income decline by 7.5% to $53,482, after adjusting for inflation.

Correlation or causation?  I'll take causation for several hundred $billion.

IRS Wants to Know You Better

The corrupt, politically-driven IRS has another plan, because they want to know you even better!

They now want non-profits to (voluntarily--at this time) provide your Social Security number if you donate more than $250/year to that non-profit.

There is no good reason for this.  Non-profits send you a letter confirming your donations at the end of the year; you keep those letters with your tax filing papers as documentation for your deductions.

IRS could always ask NSA, of course--but that might be too much trouble for that large army of IRS employees.

Hey! Paul Ryan!! Let's SEE the Cromnibus!!

Gee.  Paul Ryan, the current Saint Hope of the Establishment, won't let any House Members see the 2300++ page Cromnibus spending bill--with less than 2 weeks to go before a vote is required.

Gee, Paul, that's real "transparency." 

And you're a schmuck, just like the drunk you replaced.

Hey, Paul Ryan! Speak for Yourself!

Paul Ryan (and Obozo) would like to give you a guilt complex.

Paul Ryan Tells Sean Hannity He Will Not Support Any Cuts To Muslim Immigration: ‘That’s Not Who We Are’

You have a vacant house in Janesville, Paul.  Invite a few Muslim Syrians to YOUR place.  Be sure to vet them, too.

Thanks!

US Foreign Policy: "War At All Times"?

Why did the Benghazi hearings go nowhere?

Because Republicans knew about--and blessed--the CIA's arming of ISIL/AlQuaeda, that's why.

...In Congress, the then-bipartisan group known as the “Gang of Eight,” at a minimum, knew of the operation to aid and abet America’s jihadist enemies by providing them with material support....

...“The Obama administration effectively switched sides in what used to be called the Global War on Terror [GWOT] when it decided to overthrow the sovereign government of our Libyan ally, Muammar Qaddafi, who’d been helping in the fight against al-Qaeda, by actually teaming up with and facilitating gun-running to Libyan al-Qaeda and Muslim Brotherhood [MB] elements there in 2011,” explained Lopez. “This U.S. gun-running policy in 2011 during the Libyan revolution was directed by [then] Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and [the late Libya Ambassador] Christopher Stevens, who was her official envoy to the Libyan AQ rebels.”...

So exactly how did this Obozo/Clinton treason remain operative?

...“The reason Benghazi is not the burning issue it ought to be is because so many at top levels of U.S. government were implicated in wrong-doing: White House, Pentagon, Intel Community-CIA, Gang of Eight, at a minimum, in Congress, the Department of State, etc.”...

That 'gang of eight' includes Boehner and McConnell.

Nice, eh?

On the Question of Church and State

A fifteen-year-old essay by Avery Cdl. Dulles remains pertinent today, not only addressing the 'church/state' question--which is becoming more germane as SCOTUS delivers the modern agenda--but as to the internal issue of e.g. liturgical praxis.

In the decade after Vatican II inculturation became a buzzword. Although popes have used the word only with caution, they have said on journeys to Asia and Africa that the Catholic Church in those continents ought not to be a slavish copy of the European church. As a consequence American Catholics began to conclude that Catholicism in this country should develop its own distinctive traits....

Dulles gives a brief analysis of the "American" culture which is bracingly clear, covering the Puritans, the Founders (Enlightenmentarians, so to speak), the Lockeans, and the current overlaying of technologism/consumerism on the above strains.

As to the Catholic response:

...In the Catholic literature on American culture published in the past 20 years or so, it is possible to detect four major strategies. For short they may be called traditionalism, neo-conservatism, liberalism and prophetic radicalism....

...Traditionalism is the posture of those Catholics who are highly critical of what they find in the dominant American culture, and who wish to restore the more centralized and authoritarian Catholicism of the years before World War II...The neo-conservative strategy rejects as unrealistic the restorationism of the paleoconservatives....Catholic liberals are primarily intent on showing how Americanism can help to modernize the church. They propose to reform Catholicism along the lines of participatory democracy.... While calling for the total conversion of church and society, radical Catholics seek to legitimate their positions by invoking historical precedents, both religious and civil....

That summary is as clear, concise, and accurate as any I have seen.

Dulles then compares the strengths and weaknesses of each group's position in several grafs which YOU SHOULD READ.

...The most fundamental question raised by the preceding discussion is whether the church in this country should become more countercultural, as the traditionalists and radicals would wish, or more accommodationist, as the liberals and some neo-conservatives propose. The tide since the Second Vatican Council has been running heavily toward accommodationism. Middle-aged adults constitute the last generation of Catholics raised with a strong sense of Catholic identity. Most younger Catholics look upon themselves first of all as Americans and only secondarily as Catholics. Their culture has been predominantly formed by the secular press, films, television and rock music. Catholicism is filtered to them through these screens. Catholic schools are becoming less numerous and less distinctively Catholic. Catholic colleges and universities, while in some cases expanding, have lost much of their religious character. A certain vague religiosity perdures among the young, but it is that of “communal Catholics” not strongly committed to the doctrines and structures of their church.

Under these circumstances parents and teachers, fearful of being rejected as old-fashioned, are understandably reluctant to confront the young with the challenge of official church teaching, especially in the area of sexuality. Religious educators often feel powerless in the face of the sexual revolution and the passion for affluence that possesses their students. Bishops and pastors find it increasingly difficult to shape the convictions and attitudes of the faithful. Apart from the issue of abortion, on which they are willing to risk a measure of unpopularity, the bishops increasingly shift their attention to social issues, adopting agendas that in many ways resemble those of the liberal intelligentsia, notably in their teaching on peace and on the economy. They seek to appeal to a broad public that includes non-Catholics, non-Christians, non-believers...

Dulles ends by proposing that all four of those factions work together in evangelization, not becoming hardened in their positions, but definitely not giving ground on doctrine.

Easier said than done, of course.

Cruz. 10 Reasons Why

Somebody did this very well right at PJMedia.

...He really knows economics--not the ideologically driven pablum dished out at universities, but the real battlefield of entrenched monopolies against entrepreneurial upstarts....

...He really knows foreign policy. He is a hardline defender of American interests, but wants to keep American politics out of the export business....  He is despised by NeoCons for exactly that reason.

...He really knows the political system. As Texas solicitor general, he argued nine cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and won five of them....

...He's an outsider, and America needs an outsider. The public thinks that Washington is corrupt, and it IS corrupt....  In every filthy nook and cranny, and oozing from the taps.

...Trump and Carson aren't serious candidates....An egomaniac and a very smart nice guy without a clue.

...Cruz is in but not of the system....

...He's got real grit--call it fire in the belly, but Cruz wants to be president...

...He knows how to run a real campaign as opposed to a flash-in-the-pan media event....

...He's a true believer in the United States of America....

...He can beat Hillary Clinton. Not just beat her, but beat her by a landslide....He's a quarter-century younger than Mrs. Clinton, smarter, sharper, and better prepared. He's also clean as a whistle in personal life and finances, while the Clintons could reasonably be understood to constitute a criminal enterprise.

More than you need.  Marco's another BushBoy, the rest....well....they're the rest (at best).

Is Turkey Really "an Ally"?

Our Establishment types are loudly and frequently proclaiming that "Turkey is a NATO ally" of the USA, therefore, if Putin slaps Turkey again--or harder--we are obligated to defend Turkey.

Well, the NATO part is true. 

But when your "ally" is financing ISIS, are they really an "ally"?

...even as Turkey's ties to the ISIS oil trade have been hiding in plain sight for the better part of two years, the Western media largely ignores the issue (or at least the scope of it and the possible complicity of the Erdogan government) because after all, Turkey is a NATO member.  Unfortunately for Ankara, Erdogan's move to shoot down a Russian Su-24 near the Syrian border on Tuesday prompted an angry Vladimir Putin to throw Turkey under the ISIS oil bus for the entire world to see....

Good ol' Vlad!

By the way, is it "the Western media" who ignores this little problem?  Or is it 'the Western governments' which tried to bury it?

McCarthy: The REAL Problem With Mohammedans

It ain't "terrorist connections."

...vetting only works if you vet for the right thing. Washington, in its delusional Islamophilia, vets only for ties to terrorism, which it defines as “violent extremism” in purblind denial of modern terrorism’s Islamist ideological moorings. As the deteriorating situation in Europe manifests, our actual challenge is Islamic supremacism, of which jihadist terrorism is only a subset....

 

And of course, "freedom of religion" applies to actual US citizens.  Ironically, it is emphatically denied by adherents of Mohammed.  Obama--a practiced liar in the Bill Clinton class of liars--would have you believe otherwise.

 

Fortunately, it will not be Obama's choice in the near future.  But how about those "Republicans"?

 

 

Chicago Gets What Rahm Deserves

Well, Rahm, you slimebag, you've got your crisis.

As Ticker observes, this is not about "race;" it's about cold-blooded murder one.

The Land of Sobieski III

The Poles, God bless 'em!!

...Under the last government, flags displayed at government events including press conferences were equally split between the Polish national, and the European Union. It was all change at Tuesday’s press conference with new Prime Minister Beata Szydlo, who appeared at her podium with Polish flags only....--quoted at  Vox

Remember Jan III Sobieski?

The Mohammedans do  So do the Poles..

L.A.: Not All Fruits and Nuts

"....from my cold, dead, hands...."--a favorite line from Charles Heston.

Evidently, that inspired a lot of Los Angeles residents.

Sixty days after the L.A. city council passed an ordinance banning all magazines holding more than 10 rounds, you’d expect them to be turned in by the hundreds, right? Not quite.

Actual number of mags turned in?

ZERO.

Land of the free!

HT:  Grim

Obozo Seeks War With States

Apparently MomJeansPissyPants wants a war with the States.

The Obama administration on Wednesday reminded state officials across the country that states do not have legal authority to refuse to accept Syrian refugees, reports The Associated Press (AP).

He's wrong, of course, keeping his record of wrong-ness intact. States have every right to nullify Federal decisions which are un-Constitutional.

Think There's an Iran Treaty? Think Again!!

Since that "Iran Nuclear Treaty" phrase has been used endlessly, I thought there WAS an "Iran Nuclear Treaty."

Wrong.

President Obama didn’t require Iranian leaders to sign the nuclear deal that his team negotiated with the regime, and the deal is not “legally binding,” his administration acknowledged in a letter to Representative Mike Pompeo (R., Kan.) --National Review quoted at RedState

 

Wait, wait!!  There's more!!

 

...Iranian President Hassan Rouhani discouraged his nation’s parliament from voting on the nuclear deal in order to avoid placing legal burdens on the regime....

 

So.  What IS the deal?

 

Short story:  Obozo allowed the UN sanctions to be lifted despite that fact.  Ergo, without a 'treaty,' Ayatollah Obozo gave away the store to the mullahs based only on the word of one Iranian Shi'ite politician.

 

And you know about the 'word' of a politician, right?

Turkey, Russia, Erdogan, Obozo: Is It the Money?

Interesting little rumor here, that President MomJeans' love for Erdogan has to do with a bit of graft, paid by ISIS to Erdogan.

Conveniently, MomJeans happens to like ISIS, too.

Of course, this may force the US to prop up Erdogan, a radical Muslim.

Chuck Todd, Establishment Lapdog

Now that Ted Cruz is gaining ground, he's the new target.  Fortunately for the (R) side of The Establishment, they do not have to do all the dirty work of smearing and sliming Cruz.

They have Chuck Todd at their back.

And yah, there's a word that rhymes with "Chuck," which fits perfectly before his name, used as an imperative verb.  Go ahead.  Use it that way.

The Donald Goes All Stupid

We're becoming convinced that the only thing The Donald has going for him is his hair.

"If somebody is on a watch list and an enemy of state and we know it’s an enemy of state. I would keep them away, [from gun purchases] absolutely."

If someone is "an enemy of the state," Donald, they should be arrested, charged, and tried.  IF found guilty, they lose their Constitutional right to bear arms.  (I will accept 'arrested, charged, tried, found guilty, and deported by air, being dropped into their home country without a parachute.)

See, Donald, Constitutional rights apply to every US citizen.  No convictions?  They still have rights.

We already have one jackass-in-chief.  No point electing another, Donald.

Now to lesser matters--but still Stupid Donald Tricks:

After the rally, one attendee shouted out to Trump as he was signing posters for supporters: “Mr. Trump, What do you think about ethanol?”

“I love it, I’m for it,” Trump said simply before exiting the stage.

You may--just like all the others--shove that corncob up your ass, Donald.  Not up mine.

Our Junior-League President's Stupid Decisions v. ISIS

Long essay from the Atlantic which, boiled down, tells us that Obama is a moron when he deals with ISIS.

That's not exactly a surprise, but the essay goes into excruciating detail about Pissypants's stupidity.