COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

European Nationalism - Voting Today in Netherlands - Growing in Italy

Fearing Migrant Crime, Italians Go Vigilante

When Liliana Demedicis finishes washing the dishes, she glances at the kitchen clock: 9 p.m. sharp — time to go on patrol. She puts on a bright pink raincoat and cap, grabs her smartphone, flashlight and pepper spray, and heads to a nearby park, where she meets up with a half-dozen other members of the Pink Guardian Angels. For the next four hours, these middle-aged women roam the streets of Novara, a medieval town in northern Italy, on the lookout for sexual predators, vandals or thieves, especially ones from the overflowing migrant camp on the outskirts that houses more than 500 refugees, primarily from sub-Saharan Africa. The Pink Guardian Angels are united in their conviction that where migrants go, crime — and maybe even terrorism — will surely follow.

In the past six months, civilian patrols have flourished in some 20 northern Italian towns where angry, frightened residents don’t think law enforcement is doing enough to protect them from migrants, whom they see as a threat to law and order. Their anxiety continues to ratchet up as the number of undocumented foreigners surges. Since 2014, nearly 500,000 asylum seekers have descended on Italy; last year set a record, with 171,000 refugees reaching the boot. Most migrants are housed in camps, with the highest concentrations in southern Sicily and in the northern tier of the country, where the vigilante movement is strongest. Many of the camps, like the one in Novara, are fenced, but refugees can move in and out freely, day and night. Residents are reacting by organizing civilian patrols and taking safety into their own hands.

It’s a tense situation and being afraid has nothing to do with being a racist. We just feel safer if we look after ourselves.…

Marco Demedicis, patrol volunteer, Novara, Italy
Liliana Demedicis’ shift is three times a week; her husband, Marco, a retired butcher, takes over for the remaining four days, including weekends. The men call themselves City Angels and wear primarily green clothing. “It’s a tense situation and being afraid has nothing to do with being a racist,” claims Marco, who is proud of his wife’s activism. “We just feel safer if we look after ourselves, calling the police at the right moment. Of course we refrain from using violence unless we get attacked.”

Are the good citizens of Novara and other Italian towns and cities with DIY patrols safety-conscious realists or paranoid racists? Certainly, many Italians feel as though they’re under siege. There are TV reports of clashes between civilians and migrants on almost a daily basis in the north. So perhaps it’s not surprising that Italian anti-racism organizations and police data reveal that hate crimes — verbal and physical — have risen from 156 incidents in 2011 to 1,500 in 2016, and a big slice of those have ended in violent confrontations between locals and new arrivals. Populist parties are exploiting such fears with anti-migrant policies that appeal to people’s darkest, innermost terrors. “Xenophobic politicians love to talk to the stomach rather than to the reason of voters,” says Giovanni Orsina, a professor of contemporary history at LUISS Guido Carli University in Rome. 
Even though these so-called rondes, or military patrols, have a slightly fascist echo, they’re supported not only by far-right groups but by democratic parties as well. In many towns mayors sponsor the squads, even in left-wing and communist ones like Bologna, which has long been pro-migrant. “When we supported the patrols a couple of years ago, everyone attacked us,” says Matteo Salvini, head of Italy’s populist Northern League party. “But now even traditional left-wing parties recognize their added value, which says it all about the undeniable rising social and ethnic tensions.” 

One exception is Comerio, a tiny town not far from the Swiss border whose provocative mayor has outsourced patrols to the migrants themselves. Similar new vigilantes trends are playing out across northern Europe too, where refugees arrived en masse in 2016. Norway and Estonia boast far-right Odin’s Warriors, while in Germany and Switzerland, city patrols are organized via the internet.
So, is there actually a migrant-fueled crime wave in Italy? According to a December poll conducted by Confcommercio, Italy’s largest business association, in the past two years the proportion of native-born Italians convicted of a crime is 4.3 out of every 1,000 citizens. The rate nearly doubles for legal immigrants: 8.5 per 1,000. And for illegal immigrants, the figure ranges from 148 to 247 per 1,000. The survey identifies the majority of migrant-committed crimes as vandalism, robbery, theft and counterfeiting. According to government data, 33 percent of all inmates in Italy are migrants, yet they make up a mere 7 percent of the population. In Europe, only Greece’s proportion of migrant convicts — 75 percent — is higher.

What do the cops think of all this unbidden help? A police commissioner, who spoke with OZY on the condition of anonymity, complains that many police forces focus on drug trafficking and other crimes committed inside the camps and on apprehending those on the lam — priorities that divert officers and other resources from assisting the local community. Although the commissioner stresses that DIY vigilantes should never take justice into their own hands, he believes that “they are a good deterrent for migrants who know that locals are closely monitoring the territory where they live.”

Even though these unarmed monitors won’t replace the police, they’re doing what some Italians do best: looking after each another like one big family.

106 comments:

  1. The liberal alt-left mouthpieces sure are quiet this morning regarding Trump's 2005 tax records. Trump paid a higher percentage than Sanders and Obama combined. A higher percentage than MSNBC (the go to news source for some here). I mention percentage only because a person who once commented here thought the percentage was more important than the actual dollar amount. I think he may be curled up in a ball sucking his thumb somewhere, fantasizing about Madam President.

    Instead, they (liberal alt-left) are back to their usual character assassinations of anyone who disagrees with them. Great comedy and very entertaining.

    ReplyDelete
  2. From Jack Murphy SOFREP

    Has anyone else picked up on how every movie portrayal of Special Operations personnel that they always got our guys wearing a kafiya? You know those local neck scarves that they sell in the souk but people don’t actually wear that often in the Middle East? The look has become so ubiquitous that I’ve even seen hipsters in Brooklyn wearing the classic black and white checkered kafiya made famous by Yasser Arafat, not that any of these kids would know who that is.

    I’m not sure why Hollywood producers think we all wear kafiyas when we get overseas. As if we are weighed down in all our go-to-war gear but then for a splash of indigenous culture we rock a kafiya around our neck. One of the funnier instances of mandatory operator kafiya was in the recent Netflix film called Spectral. It was a good movie, but the Delta Force team in it is conducting operations in Eastern Europe and yet several of them are still sporting their kafiyas.

    Delta gonna run some barely legal ops south of the border? Don’t worry bro, mandatory operator kafiya has got your back. In Sicario a number of Delta operators are wearing kafiyas while on a mission in Mexico. Why exactly? We don’t know.

    The mandatory operator kafiya is an aspect of local culture that some soldiers adopted for themselves, using it out of necessity to cover their face during a sandstorm or simply to wipe sweat off their forehead. Hollywood then took it as some kind of military fashion statement, which the public then sees as the cool new thing. I wrote about this phenomena before, how hipsters hijacked the operator beard. Good lord, you would not believe the foaming at the mouth rabid anger that article stirs up inside the tormented souls of so many people on the internets.

    But the mandatory operator beard and kafiya are not even my biggest pet peeve in movies about Special Operations. Back in the day, movies about soldiers didn’t have to be politically correct. Remember the Dirty Dozen where Lee Marvin would smoke, drink, and use words like “god damn?” Maybe he was a badass because Lee Marvin actually fought the Japs in World War Two as a Marine and received a purple heart after getting machine-gunned and shot by a sniper.

    These days we get a bunch of sissies in movies like Transformers, GI Joe, and god knows how many other awful movies I watched in airplanes. Every crew is exactly the same. We got our mandatory black dude on the team, but he isn’t nearly as cool as Mac in Predator. This dude has huge muscles, has a shaved head, and never talks. Then we got our commo guy, he’s just some nerd wearing glasses and we hope he dies in the first twenty minutes of the movie. Then we have the commander. He is always a Captain or a Major. He is always charismatic, handsome, and caucasian.

    Personally, I’m gunning for a job as technical advisor in Hollywood just so I can get into the system and fuck things up from the inside out. With me on the set, you will see our Hollywood operators wearing penis gourds, loin clothes, and turtle shell helmets. After Sam Jackson wore a cape and a beret into the field in one of his movies, I really feel the need to push the audience to the point that they throw a brick at their television set.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Perhaps the alt-left greenies should study up on this guy so they know what a real Nazi is and looks like:

    WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland will seek the arrest and extradition of a Minnesota man exposed by The Associated Press as a former commander in an SS-led unit that burned Polish villages and killed civilians in World War II, prosecutors said Monday.

    Prosecutor Robert Janicki said evidence gathered over years of investigation into U.S. citizen Michael K. confirmed “100 percent” that he was a commander of a unit in the SS-led Ukrainian Self Defense Legion.

    He did not release the last name, in line with Poland’s privacy laws, but the AP has identified the man as 98-year-old Michael Karkoc, from Minneapolis.

    “All the pieces of evidence interwoven together allow us to say the person who lives in the U.S. is Michael K., who commanded the Ukrainian Self Defense Legion which carried out the pacification of Polish villages in the Lublin region,” Janicki said.

    The decision in Poland comes four years after the AP published a story establishing that Michael Karkoc commanded the unit, based on wartime documents, testimony from other members of the unit and Karkoc’s own Ukrainian-language memoir.


    ReplyDelete
  4. The commie Bernie did pretty good. He paid far less percentage wise than the wicked capitalist pig Trump. Bernie ended up after the campaign buying another great vacation spot and on a private island on a lake, too.

    The money for this came either from his tax savings, or skimming money from the donations of his supporters, or both.

    However precisely he came by it, Bernie isn't exactly rubbing elbows with the hoi polloi like Smirk out there on that isolated private island estate.

    After what I went through with the bankers yesterday, I'm thinking of becoming a commie, and a politician like Bernie.

    If I can talk Quirk into becoming my campaign manager I'm certain the both of us would finally be on our way to the good life that Bernie enjoys. Think of the fun to be had a an isolated private island with the likes of Dada Le Boeuf, That Gal Sal, Felicity, Chin Chin, Maria and all the others.

    You guys from the Bar would be invited too.

    Finally, we'd all be living the good life....and all by contributing exactly zero to society.

    Such a deal !

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have often criticized Quirk, and for many things, but never have I criticized Quirk for his talents when it comes to such things as embezzlement, skimming money, faking financial statements, false advertising, those sorts of things that are so necessary for a winning and thinking political team.

      Such a team knows it is not the getting elected that counts but how much bucks one can pull in....THAT is winning....and Quirk is my 'turn to' guy....

      Delete
    2. In this sense The Donald is a poor politician, as he self financed much of his Primary and Presidential campaigns, and he got elected.

      This is the definition of a political loser.

      It's not about getting elected, it's about the money.

      There's a term of art in high political circles in the USA for this type of money, the 'left over' money after the campaign.

      It's called skim milk.

      Delete
  5. Go Geert !

    Alas, the latest polls for Geert aren't going so well, but we'll know today. I was hoping he'd get towards 20% but it's looking like that isn't going to happen.

    I think there's something like 9 political parties in this political melee.

    ReplyDelete
  6. ART leads to THINKING and FEELING and LOVE and THE GOOD, THE TRUE, AND THE BEAUTIFUL, AND WE CAN'T HAVE THAT


    Egypt: All art is “immoral,” says top cleric, known as a “moderate” around the world

    MARCH 14, 2017 10:32 AM BY RAYMOND IBRAHIM



    Art has a largely negative impact on human morality. So says Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, the grand imam of Egypt’s Al Azhar madrassa and arguably the “most influetial Muslim in the world.”

    In a recent televised interview, Tayeb was asked “To what degree does art influence the morals of the youth.” The sheikh responded that art — presumably all forms and expressions of art, as no particular form was specified — has a 90 percent influence rate on the morality of the youth; and all of it is bad.

    What is of note here is that, once again, Tayeb responds in a way that one is hard pressed to differentiate from the “radical” response. For we are constantly hearing that it is the “radical Muslims” — the ISIS types — who condemn all forms of art. Yet here is the “moderate” making essentially the same claims.

    But of course, this is nothing new. As documented here, Tayeb agrees with any number of “radical” views: he believes that Islam is not just a religion to be practiced privately but rather is a totalitarian system designed to govern the whole of society through the implementation of its (otherwise human rights abusing) Sharia; he supports one of the most inhumane laws, punishment of the Muslim who wishes to leave Islam, the “apostate”; he downplays the plight of Egypt’s persecuted Christians, that is, when he’s not inciting against them by classifying them as “infidels” — the worst category in Islam’s lexicon — even as he refuses to denounce the genocidal Islamic State likewise.

    One can go on and on. Tayeb once explained with assent why Islamic law permits a Muslim man to marry a Christian woman, but forbids a Muslim woman from marrying a Christian man: since women by nature are subordinate to men, it’s fine if the woman is an “infidel,” as her superior Muslim husband will keep her in check; but if the woman is a Muslim, it is not right that she be under the authority of an infidel. Similarly, Western liberals may be especially distraught to learn that Tayeb once boasted, “You will never one day find a Muslim society that permits sexual freedom, homosexuality, etc., etc., as rights. Muslim societies see these as sicknesses that need to be resisted and opposed.”

    Also not new is how important Western and Christian institutions ignore all this and continue to portray Tayeb and Al Azhar as “moderates.” Thus, despite all the above — despite the fact that Al Azhar encourages enmity for non-Muslims, and has even issued a free booklet dedicated to proving that Christianity is a “failed religion” — it was recently announced that “the Vatican and Al-Azhar University, one of Islam’s most renowned schools of Sunni thought, will be joining forces to discuss how to fight religious extremism that uses God’s name to justify violence.”

    Such are the mockeries of our time as ugly reality continues marching unopposed.

    https://www.jihadwatch.org/2017/03/egypt-all-art-is-immoral-says-top-cleric-known-as-a-moderate-around-the-world

    Islam lives in hell, is hell....

    ReplyDelete
  7. Maybe, maybe not....

    WILL WILDERS WIN?
    The Dutch go to the polls.
    March 15, 2017 Bruce Bawer


    Here's one perverse consequence of Europe's insane immigration policies: international election campaigns. Case in point: there are now so many Pakistanis who hold Norwegian citizenship (and collect Norwegian benefits) but who spend most of their time in Pakistan (where they can live like kings on those benefits) that Norwegian politician now routinely travel to Pakistan – this is not a joke – to campaign in a part of the that has come to be known as “Little Norway.” But it works the other way, too. So many Turks live in the Netherlands that President Tayyip Ergodan, in advance of a forthcoming referendum on expanding his powers, sent some of his flunkies to Rotterdam the other day to court votes. To the surprise of many, however, the normally docile Dutch government pushed back: it banned a scheduled pro-Erdogan rally, expelled one Turkish cabinet minister, and denied entry to another.

    It was a small but cheering action. For too long, European elites have viewed their own countries as “humanitarian superpowers” (yes, seriously) whose mission is to give a leg-up to the downtrodden of the Muslim world. The elites in the Muslim world, however, regard European nations as colonies in the making, whose treasuries are annually drained of colossal sums in welfare handouts that end up juicing up Muslim economies, and whose leaders are docile, appeasing patsies who dare not breathe a negative word about anything Islamic.

    The Dutch government's response to Erdogan, then, marked a major departure from standard practice. It was a shocker, in fact, and perhaps a game-changer. Erdogan, accustomed to European bowing and scraping, clearly wasn't prepared for it. He went ballistic, comparing the Dutch to the Nazis and blaming them for the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, in which Serb units murdered 8,000 Muslims while Dutch UN peacekeepers stood passively by. Turks in Rotterdam went ballistic too, holding massive riots that drew participants from as far away as Germany. Dutch authorities declared a state of emergency.

    Ergodan's slam at the Dutch will probably boost his support among his own people. But what impact will this imbroglio have on today's Dutch elections? The Netherlands, which despite its small size has an extraordinary number of parties represented in its parliament, is currently governed by the center-right People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) in coalition with the social-democratic Labor Party (PvdA). But a great deal has changed since the last elections, which took place in 2012. The PvdA, which won 38 percent of the vote in 2012, is now down to around 10 percent in polls. The VVD, which received four out of ten votes in 2012, now stands to earn only one in four.



    The other key player here, of course, is Geert Wilders's Party for Freedom (PVV), which, after getting 15 percent of the vote in 2012 (making it the fifth largest party in parliament), is now more or less tied in the polls with the VVD. Wilders owes this boost in popularity mostly to concern about Muslim immigration – a concern that has spiked in the wake of the so-called Syrian refugee crisis and the recent terrorist atrocities in Paris, Nice, Munich, Brussels, and elsewhere. Of all the parties, only PVV has promise radical action to undo the disastrous changes inflicted upon the Dutch people by their leaders' preposterous immigration policies.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Those policies have been in place for decades – and for most of that time have been quietly if uncomfortably accepted, by most Dutchmen, who, while inclined to be combative about politics in pub conversations, are not the type to take to the streets to dispute their leaders' wisdom. But more and more Dutch voters who until recently remained on the fence – clinging, perhaps, to the hope that Muslims would eventually assimilate, that their wives and daughters would eventually be liberated from hijabs, and that their sons would eventually stop committing rapes and other felonies – have given up hope. They may once have strongly supported the idea of helping out poor people from elsewhere, but they balk at the fact that those newcomers are routinely given preferential treatment in housing and other sectors, that they prefer collecting welfare benefits to working, and that, despite having come to the Netherlands (in many cases) as refugees, they regularly return to the countries from which they “fled,” where many of them have used Dutch taxpayers' money to build palatial homes and support their extra wives in lavish style.

      Many Dutch people have also come to recognize that many of their neighbors from Turkey, Morocco, and elsewhere don't view them as kindly patrons and protectors but as inferiors who, by giving them handouts, are only fulfilling the obligation imposed upon infidels by the Koran to pay jizya to their Muslim betters. I would imagine that for some Dutchmen who have hesitated all these years to align themselves with Wilders because of his combative rhetoric, the riots in Rotterdam may be a last straw, a wake-up call – a vivid, unignorable demonstration of the contempt in which many Muslims in the Netherlands hold their benefactors.

      Prime Minister Mark Rutte, of the VVD, has sought to fend off Wilders's challenge by talking tough – or, at least, tougher than usual – on immigration. But through most of the campaign, that tough talk hasn't worked: voters, quite simply, know that Wilders means it and Rutte doesn't. So the events of recent days may well work to Wilders's advantage. Then again, the breathtaking way in which Rutte's government shot down Erdogan's effort to campaign in the Netherlands may be just what it takes for him to hold on to power. Those voters who are fed up with their country's Islamization but who are made uneasy by Wilders's strident, Trump-like style (which violates a long tradition of Dutch government by meek, colorless technocrats) may well grab on to Rutte's last-minute gutsy move as a reason to give him another chance.

      https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/266106/will-wilders-win-bruce-bawer

      Delete
    2. Remember Theo van Gogh !

      Murder[edit]

      Place where van Gogh was killed

      Ten years after the murder, the bullet holes are still visible in the bicycle lane in front of Linnaeusstraat 22 (picture taken 2 November 2014)

      Demonstration at the Dam square after Van Gogh was killed

      Demonstrators. The sign, translated, says "Theo has been murdered".

      Van Gogh was murdered by Mohammed Bouyeri while cycling to work on 2 November 2004 at about 9 o'clock in the morning, in front of the Amsterdam East borough office (stadsdeelkantoor), on the corner of the Linnaeusstraat and Tweede Oosterparkstraat (52°21′32.22″N 4°55′34.74″E).[8] The killer shot Van Gogh eight times with an HS2000 handgun. Bouyeri was also on a bicycle and fired several bullets, hitting Van Gogh and two bystanders. Wounded, Van Gogh ran to the other side of the road and fell to the ground on the cycle lane. According to eyewitnesses, Van Gogh's last words were "Don't do it, don't do it" or "Have mercy, have mercy, don't do it, don't do it".[9] Bouyeri walked up to Van Gogh, who was on the ground, and calmly shot him several more times at close range.[10][11]

      Bouyeri cut Van Gogh’s throat with a large knife and tried to decapitate him, after which he stabbed the knife deep into Van Gogh's chest, reaching his spinal cord. He attached a note to the body with a smaller knife. Van Gogh died on the spot.[12] The two knives were left implanted. The note was addressed to and contained a death threat to Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who went into hiding. It also threatened Western countries and Jews, and referred to ideologies of the Egyptian organization Takfir wal-Hijra.[13][14]
      The killer, Mohammed Bouyeri, a 26-year-old Dutch-Moroccan citizen, was apprehended by police after a chase, during which he was shot in the leg. Authorities have alleged that Bouyeri has terrorist ties with the Dutch Islamist Hofstad Network. He was charged with the attempted murder of several police officers and bystanders, illegal possession of a firearm, and conspiring to murder others, including Hirsi Ali. He was convicted at trial on 26 July 2005 and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole.[15]

      The murder sparked a violent storm of outrage and grief throughout the Netherlands. Flowers, notes, drawings and other expressions of mourning were left at the scene of the murder.[16]


      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theo_van_Gogh_(film_director)

      Delete
  8. Just checking a few headlines this morning from the usual liberal rags:

    CNN seems to be fixated on the Jorge Ramos racist rantings about the US and Trump. Ramos, an Atheist, hates white people, apparently. He is what my late father would call a PISS-ANT.

    The Puffington Host is all caught up in a tweet from Mark Hamill and his daily insults towards Trump. World hunger?? I think not.

    Time Magazine (are they still in business?) seems to think there is a Dutch Trump and an Australian Trump. That of course would be Geert Wilders and Clive Palmer respectively. I wonder if Snoop Dog is the Californian Obama? In 2012 he voted for Obama because "He's a black Nigga, He's BFF with Jay Z, and Michelle's got a fat ass." His words, not mine. All 3 are as good a reasons as any to have voted for Obama, I'll give him that.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks. Good to have someone checking the MSM once in a while.

      "He's a black Nigga, He's BFF with Jay Z, and Michelle's got a fat ass."

      What better reason to vote for a man ?

      If O'bozo had been an albino Nigga, the vote goes, obviously, to the Republicans.

      Delete
  9. .

    The commie Bernie did pretty good. He paid far less percentage wise than the wicked capitalist pig Trump. Bernie ended up after the campaign buying another great vacation spot and on a private island on a lake, too.

    The money for this came either from his tax savings, or skimming money from the donations of his supporters, or both...



    :o(

    You have been corrected on this at least three times and you still continue to persist in the lie.

    The Sanders bought this property only after selling a property in New England Sanders wife inherited from her parents. Had Sanders used any of the campaign money he collected for personal use (such as buying a friggin house) he would be in jail because of the strict campaign finance laws that exist.

    In continually repeating this phony story, you prove yourself to be either a flaming ass or a colossal prick.

    .


    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You actually believe The Sanders ?

      Do you think Maddow is going to jail for leaking The Donald's tax returns ?

      How many people can you name who are in jail today for violating our nation's strict campaign finance laws ?

      Are you in jail ?

      I rest my case.

      Delete
    2. Well if that's the case, Quirk, Sanders should practice what he preaches. He should have given that money to the needy. What a hypocrite.

      Delete
    3. b00bie shit everywhere on this blog and that is exactly what it is - shit.

      Delete
    4. Just think of the many snowflakes he could have sent to college where they could participate in daily protests, hide in safe places and not have to worry about tuition. What a hypocrite.

      Delete
    5. .

      How many people can you name who are in jail today for violating our nation's strict campaign finance laws ?

      You friggin moron. Did it ever occur to you that there isn't widespread voter fraud BECAUSE there are strict campaign finance laws and reporting requirements?

      Oh, sorry, I forgot who I was talking to, the guy who brags about his crimes.

      .

      Delete
    6. .

      Well if that's the case, Quirk, Sanders should practice what he preaches. He should have given that money to the needy. What a hypocrite.

      You are way too subtle for me, Mome. I can never tell when you are joking around or just seriously obtuse.

      .

      Delete
  10. .

    As for the percentage Trump paid, there is an interesting factoid that should be remembered (at least according to tax experts). Trump paid 25% because of the alternative minimum tax. Had it not been for that, he would have paid 4%. The AMT is one of the taxes on the chopping block in the GOP tax reform package. Trump has railed against it in the past.

    The AMT has lost its popularity over the years because it was never indexed for inflation and it now hits people of more modest means rather than the millionaires/billionaires it was designed to force to pay at least some tax on the vast amounts of money they accumulate. Instead of fixing the AMT and returning it to its original purpose, the GOP plan to get rid of it altogether, another bonus package to the rich and SOP for the GOP. Trumpcare redux.

    It's also interesting to note that while Trump earned $150 million in 2005, he also wrote off over $100 million, an indication of the way I've mentioned he operates.

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are just drooling, drooling with jealousy, peasant.

      That's all it is....a huge display of your lower self once again.

      Quit it.

      Delete
    2. .

      I'll leave the exposing of the lower parts to you, ol' hoss.

      .

      Delete
    3. You got the parts of a hoss, boss, from the looks of your ring finger, so you properly da exposer.

      Delete
    4. You friggin moron. Did it ever occur to you that there isn't widespread voter fraud BECAUSE there are strict campaign finance laws and reporting requirements?
      Quirk

      Calling Earth Proxima, calling Earth Proxima....

      Did it ever occur to you, friggin Dunce, that voter fraud is not the same as violating campaign finance laws ?

      I can provide the answer for Quirk :

      'Naw, never occurred to me'

      Delete
  11. Comey coming up on The Donald's wiretap claims.

    Time to head into town.

    Comey is a liar.

    0 cred left.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      Then evidently so is Nunes, GOP Chair of the Intelligence Committee and long-time Trump supporter, and Jeff Sessions, the AG, who both this morning indicated there is no evidence to back up Trump's claim regarding Obama.

      See if you can pick up a spare brain while you are in town.

      .

      Delete
    2. Nunes and Sessions don't watch Fox.

      Doesn't mean they are liars like Comey.

      Delete
  12. .

    Day of the long knives

    The GOP knives are coming out this morning regarding the healthcare plan.

    Word is Trump insiders are trying to pin this on Ryan. Ryan went on Laura Ingrahm's show and said, hey, this was a team effort and the White House as well as price and McMulvey have been there from the get go. Graham is saying, hey we are moving way too fast. Rand is saying, the current plan is merely a giant sop to the insurance companies and contains nothing to control costs.

    And so it goes...

    Not a pretty site.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  13. .

    The Trump budget will be the next shitstorm that hits.

    It's all in the details. For, instance word is that to pay for his wall the Trump budget will see big hits in the Coast Guard and Ice, symbolism over substance.

    Count on there being major battles.

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "word is" "word is"

      The new code phrase for "fake news."

      Delete
    2. Trump's already paid for the wall in a way by the decrease in illegal immigration since he took over.

      Money won't have to paid out to deal with these people.

      Got any Syrian refugees living at your place yet ?

      Keep us informed. We'll all be interested in your reports.

      Delete
    3. "word is" "word is"

      The new code phrase for "fake news."


      Not even an unnamed source.

      Word is, though, Quirk is relying on Dada Le Boeuf.

      Which makes sense, as she knows more than Quirk knows.

      So does Me-Me.

      Delete
    4. .

      It was my mistake. It was the Coast Guard and TSA that would.

      There were numerous stories on this a short while back.

      http://www.syracuse.com/politics/index.ssf/2017/03/mexico_wall_cost_trump_coast_guard_fema_airport_security.html

      Try and keep up boys.

      The only 'fake news' is that put out by Trump.

      How's that investigation going on the Obama wiretap?

      How about Pence's commission on those 3-5 million illegal votes?

      .

      Delete
    5. .

      In the future, I'll try to keep in mind that you fellas have limited reading list. The story was also in places like Politico, the WaPo, Bing's news, MSN news, yahoo.news. I would have thought you would have seen it somewhere even if it was in the Altrightnews.com.

      :o)

      .

      Delete
    6. Great sources you got there, bunny brain.

      Delete
    7. You're a Washington Compost kinda guy !

      Delete
    8. By the way, why aren't you out marching in the streets with your weed whacker demanding the scalp of Rachel Maddow ?

      Delete
    9. .

      I haven't watched MSMBC in years. Never could stand Maddow.

      That said why should I be after her scalp?

      .

      Delete
  14. I was confused by the title of this column, "Maddow's 38 Million Dollar Man." When I first saw it, I thought it said Man Maddow, which caused me to blow coffee thru my nose. Anyway, Man Maddow now has a new nick name.

    By James Freeman, WSL

    Opinions differ on whether President Donald Trump is a great businessman, but when it comes to tax avoidance he’s not even in the same league with Warren Buffett. Contrary to political myth, it turns out that Mr. Trump paid more federal taxes in one year than all but a relative handful of Americans will pay in their entire lifetimes.

    Last night, just before a heavily promoted MSNBC report on the subject, the White House disclosed that in 2005 Mr. Trump paid $38 million in federal taxes on $153 million in income.

    Across social media, Americans of all creeds and colors are joining together to laugh at Rachel Maddow. But they should give the MSNBC host a break. So what if her Tuesday segment revealing Mr. Trump’s 2005 tax return was over-advertised and under-produced? Night-time cable news tends to be a mixture of entertainment and information, and is often criticized for featuring too much of the former. If Ms. Maddow’s show failed as entertainment, it certainly seems like news when the television headquarters of the anti-Trump resistance reports that Mr. Trump has paid a ton of taxes.
    .
    And did he ever pay. The Journal reports that because of losses in previous years, Mr. Trump’s adjusted gross income in 2005 was just $48.6 million. MSNBC may have just produced the greatest argument ever against the Alternative Minimum Tax. Does anyone this side of Bernie Sanders—or come to think of it, Rachel Maddow—think that the Internal Revenue Service should confiscate 78% of someone’s adjusted gross income?

    We learned last night that Hillary Clinton’s claims about Mr. Trump’s taxes were off target. But another person who should be feeling at least a little embarrassed is the American media’s most beloved billionaire, Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett. In the heat of the campaign last year Mr. Buffett, a Democratic donor, released his 2015 tax returns and challenged Mr. Trump to do the same.

    Mr. Buffett is estimated by Forbes to be worth around $78 billion, or roughly eight times Mr. Trump’s most optimistic assumptions about his own wealth. Yet in October Mr. Buffett revealed that he paid just $1.8 million in federal taxes in 2015, less than 5% of what Mr. Trump had paid a decade earlier, not even adjusted for inflation. Of course this is just one year of tax data on Mr. Trump and as a businessman who’s had his share of failures, he may have paid little or nothing in other years. But $38 million is a big tax bill for anybody, at any time.

    Along with putting to rest the canard that the President doesn’t pay taxes, perhaps last night’s MSNBC show will finally persuade media folk like Charlie Rose to stop treating Mr. Buffett as the conscience of American business. Many journalists have fallen for Mr. Buffett’s folksy pitch for higher tax rates because he creates the impression that he is representative of a much larger group of people who are unfairly denying Washington its needed revenue. While it’s true that our complicated tax code benefits people rich enough to hire the brightest accountants and tax attorneys, Mr. Buffett is in a class by himself.

    Whether rates go up or down is largely irrelevant to the sage of Omaha, because he manages to report a remarkably small income for someone with such gargantuan assets. Maybe Mr. Trump should ask him how he does it.

    If journalists start applying the same standards to Donald Trump that they apply to Mr. Buffett, that would absolutely count as news. Well done, Ms. Man Maddow.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. "word is" "word is"

      What Quirk learned from the MSM today.

      Delete
    2. .


      Ah, the third amigo finally shows up and announces himself with his usual pithy redundancy.


      .

      Delete
  15. FED raises it's lending rate .25%.

    ReplyDelete
  16. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgbZ1uiwKKU

    ReplyDelete
  17. There is nothing like a butt in the head, Quirk, to make you become aware of the goat.


    The goat doing the butting, Quirk, that goat is yourself.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. (we'll see if we can get Quirk to scratching his noggin)

      Delete
    2. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    3. .

      Bob, everything you say has me scratching my noggin. If nothing else you are consistently opaque.


      .

      Delete
  18. Wilders gains....4 more seats than last time

    ReplyDelete
  19. ObamaCare enrollment down once again....

    ReplyDelete
  20. One of Quirk's favorite 'sources' full of shit yet again -

    Politico’s story on Trump sabotaging Obamacare is a mess
    POSTED AT 1:21 PM ON MARCH 15, 2017 BY JOHN SEXTON

    http://hotair.com/archives/2017/03/15/politicos-attempt-to-blame-trump-for-obamacares-failure-is-a-mess/

    ReplyDelete
  21. .

    Just saw Trump on TV talking about his Obama tweets. Paraphrase: 'Don't believe what I said believe what I meant. Wire tap doesn't necessarily mean wire tap.'

    Trump aides then passed out booklets titled Doublespeak for Dummies pub. 2017 Doubleday.

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      Trump also mentioned that we 'might be surprised by some of the things that might come out over the next two weeks.'

      This was an unforced error on Trump's part.

      Some have suggested that by stonewalling this issue instead of getting it behind him, Trump continues to give the story legs. In doing so, he allows it to dominate the news. In doing so, he allows the credibility of his staff to be questioned as they try to keep up with the latest party line. In doing so, it saps his energy in other areas where he is trying to push his agenda.

      Still others have speculated that in light of his latest comments, we shouldn't be surprised if we are in a shooting war with North Korea in order to get the Obama tweets out of the news without Trump having to apologize.

      :o)

      .

      Delete
    2. .

      Dark State?

      Trump has gone dark on the issues of healthcare and tweets. nary a word unless forced into it.

      .

      Delete
  22. .


    Federal district judge in Hawaii puts temporary hold on Trump travel ban.

    More to come...

    .

    ReplyDelete
  23. Some have suggested...

    Still others have speculated...

    Some soak it up like a sponge.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    2. .

      I was one of that some. In fact, I was the only one in the some on the second part about NK, thus the smiley face.

      On the first, do you want to argue with the substance of what I said or are you simply going to sit there all night whining and nitpicking with your picayune bullshit?

      Now, I can see where you might be upset with the comments on war with NK but while I made the comment tongue in cheek, the more I re-read it and ponder on the nature of our president the less I would be surprised.

      .

      Delete
  24. "In doing so, he allows it to dominate the news."

    Indeed.

    Otherwise, the news would have been fair and balanced.

    As always.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      Please, explain to us, what has not been fair and balanced about the news of this story.

      If you can't quit moaning like a little girl.


      .

      Delete
  25. In doing so,
    In doing so,
    In doing so,

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      That's it? That's all you got to contribute tonight?

      Well, at least you are keeping it short.

      .

      Delete
    2. Doug is mimicking and mocking you, Q-tweeter.

      Delete
  26. What would you do about North Korea, Commander-in-Chief Quirk ?

    They are shouting missiles directly at Japan.

    They say they are going to nuke us.

    They have nukes.

    Many have tried to buy them off, all have failed.

    What is the next move you recommend for USA and our allies, Commander-in-Chief Quirk ?

    You are in charge of keeping the hicks safe. What are you going to do ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. (the word on the street is you haven't a clue, sources in buildings and homes all across USA say the same)

      Delete
    2. Take a stand on some real issue, Quirk.

      Quit with the calling of everyone else dicks.

      Asking Kim politely to see a shrink isn't going to work.

      Delete
    3. Your 'comments' are the same genre but worse than Trump's tweets.

      Delete
    4. .

      I'd keep the pressure up on China, military, political, economic if needed.

      They have the most leverage with NK.

      I certainly wouldn't start a war with NK.

      .

      Delete
    5. .

      BobWed Mar 15, 08:48:00 PM EDT
      Your 'comments' are the same genre but worse than Trump's tweets.


      Trump is the friggin president.

      I'm not.

      What don't you get about that?

      Accusing the former president of a crime, denouncing the judiciary system in this country, denouncing the intelligence agencies, denouncing the national media, etc. does this country no good either here or abroad. The guy is incapable of accepting responsibility for his own mistakes, he is so thin-skinned he can't let the slightest criticism go by without turning into a drama queen. The man is a child. He's never grown up, yet, now he's the president of the US and what he says matters.

      I don't delude myself that my words have any importance beyond the satisfaction I get from saying them. However, sadly Trump's do.

      .

      Delete
    6. What pressure on China ?

      We might try economic pressure in the form of cutting off their imports to USA, but we've hardly done it yet.

      I don't see how we've been putting any pressure on China at all, though it's a good idea to start.

      I expect next to nothing would come of it.

      So, then what ?

      Delete
  27. It's time for Congress to defund the Federal Judiciary, and stop the rolling coup.

    Fuck the Judges.

    Simply put them out of business.

    A perfectly proper move.

    They have ZERO business doing what they are doing, trying to run the foreign policy of the USA.

    Some asshole Judge in Hawaii worrying about the tourist industry, and the 'feelings' of Moslems....

    It's insane.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Read the Constitution, the Legislation, study past practice, and get back to us, Tweetster.

      Delete
    2. Does anyone here have a preference for Tweetster over Q-tweeter, or the other way around ?

      I wish to please.

      Question not directed to The Tweetster aka Q-tweeter.

      Delete
    3. .

      Why are you getting upset about this at this point. There are 2 possibly 3 more judges at the district level that have yet to rule on this. There's an appeals process and finally the Supreme Court. From the appeals level on the Hawaiian judge's ruling can be overturned.

      Trump's got a strong legal case. If the judge's ruling was upheld through SCOTUS it would probably set a new precedent.

      .

      Delete
    4. .

      I called you insane because of this...

      It's time for Congress to defund the Federal Judiciary, and stop the rolling coup.

      I've seen calls in this place to get rid of the media (well at least the legitimate media), the judiciary, those parts of the Constitution people here don't like. Trump meets all the characteristics of a fascist. You people take it beyond that.

      .

      Delete
    5. The Judges should have simply ruled they don't possess the authority to monkey around in foreign policy and defense matters.

      Congress has the power to stop the whole farce of Federal Judges getting big egos.

      They should do so.

      Trump doesn't fit any of the characteristics of a fascist.

      Neither do I.

      Fascist don't want to be left alone, like I do.

      You shove all your nasty little comments and tweets up your puckered old asshole.

      Delete
    6. I don't think you're a fascist, Quirk.

      First, you're way too lazy.

      This is a strike in your favor when it comes to politics.

      You do have a definite anti-semitic tinge, and a strange soft spot in your heart for muzzies.

      Your main and abiding sin is your o so high opinion of yourself, the entire world being divided into Quirk, on the one hand, and dicks on the other.

      AND, you are often quite humorous, sometime intentionally, sometimes not.

      You are almost of the angels.

      All you need is a little hellfire, and you'll straighten right out.

      Since it is a certainty you are going to get it, your future is bright !

      Delete
  28. McCain on Rand Paul: The senator from Kentucky is now working for Vladimir Putin by objecting to Montenegro joining NATO
    Mar 15, 2017 6:41 PM by Allahpundit

    http://hotair.com/archives/2017/03/15/mccain-on-rand-paul-the-senator-from-kentucky-is-now-working-for-vladimir-putin-by-objecting-to-montenegro-joining-nato/

    ReplyDelete
  29. Replies
    1. Trump meets all the characteristics of a fascist. You people take it beyond that.

      The Tweetster

      You're worse than a fascist, Doug.

      Just remember that.

      Delete
  30. Pro-Trump radio host Michael Savage claims he was assaulted while having dinner with his toy poodle Teddy
    Savage, 74, says he was having dinner in Tiburon, California, with his 12-year-old pooch when a man began taunting him by saying, 'weener, weener'
    Heckler was apparently referring to Savage's legal name, Michael Alan Weiner
    Man then allegedly knocked Savage to the ground and punched another diner who tried to intervene
    Both men had placed each other under citizen's arrest, but police let them go
    Last month, Savage had an hour-long meeting over dessert with Trump, which concluded with president declaring, ‘I wouldn’t be president without this man'
    By Snejana Farberov For Dailymail.com
    PUBLISHED: 17:01 EDT, 15 March 2017 | UPDATED: 22:23 EDT, 15 March 2017

    A conservative radio host whom President Donald Trump has credited with being instrumental to his upset victory claims he was assaulted outside a California restaurant Tuesday night.

    Michael Savage, the 74-year-old host of the nationally syndicated talk radio show Savage Nation, was dining solo at Servino Ristorante in Tiburon, with his toy poodle, Teddy, keeping him company, when another patron allegedly began taunting him by saying, 'weener, weener.'

    The heckler was apparently referring to Savage's legal name, Michael Alan Weiner.

    Michael Savage is posing with his dog and Donald Trump
    +6
    Savage, 74, claims he was assaulted at a California restaurant Tuesday night
    +6
    'Godfather of Trumpmania': Radio talk show host Michael Savage, who is known as a staunch support of Donald Trump (pictured together, left), claims he was assaulted at a California restaurant Tuesday night

    Dinnertime fracas: Savage and his poodle were at Servino Ristorante when he said another patron began taunting him by saying, 'weener, weener,' referring to his legal name
    +6
    Dinnertime fracas: Savage and his poodle were at Servino Ristorante when he said another patron began taunting him by saying, 'weener, weener,' referring to his legal name

    As Savage was heading out the door, the verbal abuse allegedly turned physical when the jeerer knocked the septuagenarian to the ground, according to the talk show host's attorney, Daniel Horowitz.

    When another diner tried to step in between the brawlers, he was punched in the face, Horowitz told the Mercury News.

    Savage's beloved 12-year-old pooch also got shoved after getting caught in the middle of the scuffle.

    The disturbance at the Italian restaurant at a shopping center on Main Street has been confirmed by the Tiburon Police Department.

    When police officers arrived at the scene at around 8.25pm Tuesday, they found that Savage and his attacker had each placed the other under citizen's arrest.

    The 74-year-old radio personality was allegedly knocked to the ground and his 12-year-old dog was shoved in the melee. Another diner who tried to intervene was punched

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Both men accused one another of starting the scrap. After listening to Savage and the other man, officers let both go.

      A report of the incident will be sent to the District Attorney’s Office, which will determine whether or not to file charges in the case.

      Horowitz, Savage's high-powered lawyer, said the popular right-wing radio presenter called him from the restaurant, sounding furious.

      'He said, "This guy can't get away with that,"' the lawyer told the paper.

      Savage, whose program draws up to 10million listeners per week, claimed that his unnamed assailant knew who he was and had some type of 'beef' with him.

      Savage is known as a staunch ally of President Trump, earning him the nickname ‘Godfather of Trumpmania.’

      Love-fest: Last month, Savage had an hour-long meeting over dessert with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate, which concluded with the president declaring, ‘I wouldn’t be president without this man.’ The photo above was taken on that occasion
      +6
      Love-fest: Last month, Savage had an hour-long meeting over dessert with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate, which concluded with the president declaring, ‘I wouldn’t be president without this man.’ The photo above was taken on that occasion

      During the bruising presidential campaign, the real estate mogul was a frequent guest on Savage's show, which the host used as a bully pulpit to clobber Hillary Clinton and whip up support for the Republican candidate.

      Last month, Savage made headlines when he had an hour-long meeting over dessert with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, which concluded with the president putting an arm around his guest and declaring to the room, ‘I wouldn’t be president without this man.’

      On the day of the alleged attack in California, Savage’s 31st book titled, ‘Trump’s War: His Battle for America,’ went on sale.



      http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4317798/Pro-Trump-radio-host-Michael-Savage-claims-attacked.html#ixzz4bSWgBr2Q

      Delete
  31. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  32. *

    *

    Q-Tweet ought to be placed under citizen's arrest for inciting hatred, and for libel !!

    Then send him to a Kangaroo Court !!!

    <:O)=>

    *

    *

    *

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Then sentence him to a new experience:

      Hard labor !

      Let him drive a tractor for six months....

      Delete
  33. As far as Malacañang is concerned, there is no basis for the first impeachment complaint against President Rodrigo Duterte.

    “No treason, betrayal of trust, bribery, graft, and corruption, high crime and culpable violation of the Constitution has been committed,” said Presidential Spokesman Ernesto Abella on Thursday, March 16, during a Palace news briefing.

    ...

    He was dismissive about the Magdalo Party’s ability to influence other lawmakers or the Armed Forces into supporting any efforts to impeach the President. The party is composed mainly of military personnel and is led by Duterte critic Senator Antonio Trillanes IV.

    ...

    Duterte counts at least 267 allies in the House of Representatives. There are 292 total members of the House.

    ReplyDelete
  34. Good news, but doots about 'Mad Dog' remain -

    Mattis withdraws Obama stooge and terror supporter Anne Patterson as choice for undersecretary of policy
    By Pamela Geller - on March 15, 2017

    Western Journalism has this: “The level of antipathy to Patterson was illustrated in an article appearing on the website of anti-jihad activist Pamela Geller. ‘Is Mattis nuts? As ambassador to Egypt, Patterson was instrumental in Obama’s backing of the Muslim Brotherhood Morsi regime in Egypt. And the Egyptians knew it,’ she wrote.”

    That is true: pics of Egypt

    Could you imagine if Patterson were a Republican and this was how the Egyptians felt about her? The media would have been plastering this all over the place. But in this case, you never heard boo.

    It is good that she is gone, but disquieting that he chose her in the first place.

    “Defense Secretary Mattis withdraws Patterson as choice for undersecretary for policy,” by Karen DeYoung, Washington Post, March 14, 2017 (thanks to Todd):

    Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has withdrawn retired senior diplomat Anne W. Patterson as his choice for undersecretary for policy after the White House indicated unwillingness to fight what it said would be a battle for Senate confirmation.

    U.S. officials said that two members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sens. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), were strongly opposed to Patterson’s nomination because she served as U.S. ambassador to Egypt from 2011 to 2013, a time when the Obama administration supported an elected government with ties to the Muslim Brotherhood that was ultimately overthrown by the Egyptian military.

    The withdrawal leaves Mattis with a bench still empty of Trump-appointed senior officials, a situation that stretches across the administration as Cabinet secretaries have not chosen or the White House has not approved nominees. Although Obama administration holdovers remain in a few jobs, after eight weeks in office, President Trump has not nominated a single high official under Cabinet rank in the Defense or State departments….

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The White House plans this week — perhaps as early as Tuesday — to announce a handful of approved nominees proposed by Mattis for senior Defense Department positions, but Patterson will not be among them, according to officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity about internal decision-making.

      Mattis’s acquiescence to Patterson’s withdrawal came after he fought and won a major battle with the White House to remove Iraq from the list of majority-Muslim countries whose citizens are barred from U.S. entry under Trump’s executive order on immigration.

      Although he reportedly insisted that he be able to select his own team when he accepted Trump’s offer to head the Defense Department, Mattis has skirmished repeatedly with the White House over appointments. His initial choice for deputy secretary, Michèle Flournoy, withdrew from consideration after meetings with White House officials. Flournoy served as the department’s undersecretary in the Obama administration….

      Patterson retired from the State Department in December as assistant secretary for Near East affairs, the top official on the Middle East, with the highest rank, career ambassador. She also served as ambassador to Pakistan, Colombia and El Salvador.

      But it was primarily her service in Egypt, as the public face of Obama’s support for the Muslim Brotherhood-backed government of then-President Mohamed Morsi, that led to her rejection by the White House, officials said….

      Although Patterson was said to be supported by Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) and was seen as likely to have garnered a majority of votes from Republicans and Democrats, the Trump administration has voiced strong support for Sissi as a strong counterterrorism ally and largely dismissed criticism of his repression of human and civil rights.

      While the administration has denounced the Muslim Brotherhood, its plans to issue an executive order designating it a terrorist organization appear to have fallen at least temporarily by the wayside as a number of Middle East experts and U.S. allies in the region have warned against such a step….

      http://pamelageller.com/2017/03/mattis-withdraws-patterson.html/

      Delete
    2. Mattis withdraws pro-Muslim Brotherhood Obama-era Mattis pick for undersecretary for policy

      MARCH 15, 2017 8:25 AM BY ROBERT SPENCER 27 COMMENTS

      This is good. It is unfortunate that Mattis wanted Patterson in the first place. The Egyptian people knew what Anne Patterson was all about. She figured prominently on the signs that protesters against the Muslim Brotherhood regime carried as they ousted the Brotherhood regime in 2013. Free Egyptians roundly criticized her and Obama for supporting the Muslim Brotherhood oppressors.



      “Defense Secretary Mattis withdraws Patterson as choice for undersecretary for policy,” by Karen DeYoung, Washington Post, March 14, 2017:

      Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has withdrawn retired senior diplomat Anne W. Patterson as his choice for undersecretary for policy after the White House indicated unwillingness to fight what it said would be a battle for Senate confirmation.

      U.S. officials said that two members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sens. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), were strongly opposed to Patterson’s nomination because she served as U.S. ambassador to Egypt from 2011 to 2013, a time when the Obama administration supported an elected government with ties to the Muslim Brotherhood that was ultimately overthrown by the Egyptian military.

      The withdrawal leaves Mattis with a bench still empty of Trump-appointed senior officials, a situation that stretches across the administration as Cabinet secretaries have not chosen or the White House has not approved nominees. Although Obama administration holdovers remain in a few jobs, after eight weeks in office, President Trump has not nominated a single high official under Cabinet rank in the Defense or State departments….

      The White House plans this week — perhaps as early as Tuesday — to announce a handful of approved nominees proposed by Mattis for senior Defense Department positions, but Patterson will not be among them, according to officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity about internal decision-making.

      Mattis’s acquiescence to Patterson’s withdrawal came after he fought and won a major battle with the White House to remove Iraq from the list of majority-Muslim countries whose citizens are barred from U.S. entry under Trump’s executive order on immigration.

      Although he reportedly insisted that he be able to select his own team when he accepted Trump’s offer to head the Defense Department, Mattis has skirmished repeatedly with the White House over appointments. His initial choice for deputy secretary, Michèle Flournoy, withdrew from consideration after meetings with White House officials. Flournoy served as the department’s undersecretary in the Obama administration….

      Patterson retired from the State Department in December as assistant secretary for Near East affairs, the top official on the Middle East, with the highest rank, career ambassador. She also served as ambassador to Pakistan, Colombia and El Salvador.

      But it was primarily her service in Egypt, as the public face of Obama’s support for the Muslim Brotherhood-backed government of then-President Mohamed Morsi, that led to her rejection by the White House, officials said….

      Although Patterson was said to be supported by Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) and was seen as likely to have garnered a majority of votes from Republicans and Democrats, the Trump administration has voiced strong support for Sissi as a strong counterterrorism ally and largely dismissed criticism of his repression of human and civil rights.

      While the administration has denounced the Muslim Brotherhood, its plans to issue an executive order designating it a terrorist organization appear to have fallen at least temporarily by the wayside as a number of Middle East experts and U.S. allies in the region have warned against such a step….

      https://www.jihadwatch.org/2017/03/mattis-withdraws-pro-muslim-brotherhood-obama-era-mattis-pick-for-undersecretary-for-policy

      Delete
    3. This country was well and truly fucked up long before Anne W. Patterson was chosen for undersecretary for policy by Mattis, so Sens. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), the Trump Administration, and all the racist Muslim haters here can take a hike.

      If we're already headed downhill, there's no reason in Hell to try to stop, I say.

      Signed,

      Quirk, esq.

      Delete
    4. aka Q-Tweeter aka The Tweekster aka Q-Nit....

      Delete
    5. You're a fascist, Doug.

      So am I.

      It must be true, cause Q-Tweeter said so, even though it isn't.

      The Tweetster has become a bent nail.

      Delete
    6. Christians in Iraq couldn't qualify as refugees.

      For the same reason they couldn't from Syria:

      "
      No room in America for Christian refugees
      © Getty Images
      At the end of World War II, the Jewish survivors of Europe’s Holocaust found that nearly every door was closed to them. “Tell Me Where Can I Go?” was a popular Yiddish song at the time. Decades later, the Christians of the Middle East face the same problem, and the Obama administration is keeping the door shut.

      America is about to accept 9000 Syrian Muslims, refugees of the brutal war between the Assad regime and its Sunni opposition, which includes ISIS, Al Qaeda, and various other militias. That number is predicted to increase each year. There are no Christian refugees that will be admitted.

      Why? Because the Department of State is adhering with all the rigidity of a Soviet era bureaucracy to the rule that only people at risk from massacres launched by the regime qualify for refugee status. The rapes of Christian women and the butchery of Christian children do not count. No matter how moved Americans were this Christmas season by the plight of their fellow Christ followers in Syria and Iraq, no matter how horrific the visuals of beheadings, enslavement, and mass murder, the Christians fleeing death do not engender the compassion of this president.

      The Christians are being raped, tortured, and murdered by militias, not by the Syrian government.

      This technicality condemns them to continue to be victims without hope.

      And this technicality is being adhered to with all the tenacity with which President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s State Department manipulated quotas and created subterfuges to keep out the Jews fleeing the oppression of Nazi Germany.

      Obama no more wants the Middle East’s Christian refugees than Roosevelt wanted Europe’s Jewish refugees."

      http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/foreign-policy/228670-no-room-in-america-for-christian-refugees

      Delete
    7. But there are not even such constraints when it comes to the Middle East’s Christians fleeing the brutality of ISIS and Al Qaeda. The Department of State chooses to adhere to a definition of refugees as people persecuted by their own government. What difference does it make which army imperils the lives of innocent Christians? Christians are still be slaughtered for being Christian, and their government is incapable of protecting them. Does some group have to come along—as Jewish groups did during the Holocaust—and sardonically guarantee that these are real human beings?

      The Christians would barely have to be vetted for ties to terror organizations, which by their very nature do not take Christians. Meanwhile, there is the uncomfortable issue that among the Sunni refugees there are some in league with the Sunni terror militias. And beyond that there is the equally uncomfortable question of the acculturation of segments of the Muslim community.

      That our Muslim neighbors are as worthy of being good Americans as anyone else is not an issue.

      That a highly active and prominent minority in the Muslim community seeks to transform America is an issue and one that cannot be overlooked, when taking in Muslim refugees. Will they be vetted for seeking the transformation of America through jihad?

      Delete
    8. BobThu Mar 16, 04:03:00 AM EDT
      aka Q-Tweeter aka The Tweekster aka Q-Nit....


      Tweekster should read Tweetster

      Delete
  35. Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar was also quick to refute claims that his movement was headed toward accepting the two-state solution. Calling for stepping up the “intifada” against Israel, Zahar said that Hamas’s goal was to “liberate all of Palestine.”

    ...

    Some reports have suggested that Hamas leaders Khaled Mashaal and Ismail Haniyeh are the ones pushing for the changes in the movement’s charter. However, even if Mashaal and Haniyeh succeed in their mission, there is no guarantee that Hamas’s military wing would comply.

    ...

    Let’s remember, for a moment, the annual rallies held by Hamas’s military wing in the Gaza Strip. At these rallies, masked Hamas terrorists remind the world that their true goal is to “liberate all of Palestine.”

    ReplyDelete
  36. Wilders' party, PVV, increased by 7 seats, not 4.

    VVD lost 10 seats but came out on top with 34.

    Rutte's VVD junior partner in the outgoing coalition, Labour, suffered its worst ever result at the election, winning just nine seats, down from 38 last time.

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4315374/Europe-braced-NEXIT.html#ixzz4bTQNZfI7
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    1. So Wilders is stronger but probably not strong enough to form a Government, and VVD is weaker but probably will be able to form a Government.

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