Showing posts with label Democrats. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Democrats. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

FBI: Uhm, remember Obama’s pre-election claim that 'mass shootings are up'? Yeah, that was a lie.

By Warner Todd Huston

Just before last year’s midterm elections, the Obama administration widely distributed an FBI “report” that claimed that mass shootings had increased. Obama used this “report” to flog his gun control ideas and to “prove” that Republicans were wrong on gun control in the wind up to the midterms. Now the FBI has been forced to admit that the report was “imperfect.”

The report was all over the news in September and October last year, only a month or so before the Nov. 4 election. At the time the authors claimed, “The findings establish an increasing frequency of incidents. During the first 7 years included in the study, an average of 6.4 incidents occurred annually. In the last 7 years of the study, that average increased to 16.4 incidents annually.”

But now that the elections are over, now the FBI can admit that the whole thing was a pile of lies.

But late last week, J. Pete Blair and M. Hunter Martaindale, two academics at Texas State University who co-authored the FBI report, acknowledged that “our data is imperfect.” They said that the news media “got it wrong” last year when they “mistakenly reported mass shootings were on the rise.”

Mind you, the authors did not issue this mea culpa in the major news outlets that supposedly misreported the original findings. Instead, the authors published it in ACJS Today, an academic journal published by the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences. “Because official data did not contain the information we needed, we had to develop our own,” wrote Messrs. Blair and Martaindale. “This required choices between various options with various strengths and weaknesses.” You don’t say.

Another of Obama’s "Dreamers" caps off a life of crime with mass murder

By Mark Krikorian

The Washington Times reports that Immigration and Customs Enforcement has flagged Darron Wint for deportation, should he ever be released from prison. That’s unlikely, since he murdered four people, including a 10-year-old boy who was tortured first, in the Washington, D.C., “Mansion Murders.”

Though ICE’s action is a necessary formality, to call it a day late and a dollar short is a ghoulish understatement. Little has been reported about how Wint got here, other than he came, legally, from Guyana in 2000 at age 20, probably under one of the family categories.

But the relevant question here is why this depraved monster was allowed to remain in the United States?

It’s been obvious for a decade that Wint was an undesirable alien who should have been sent back. “Wint has had more than 30 brushes with the law, including serious charges starting in 2005 as well as minor charges,” according to a news report. He had two restraining orders filed against him, in 2005 and 2006, for threats of violence against others, including his father, stepmother, and younger sister. Since then he’s had several assault convictions, plus multiple arrests for beating his girlfriend, stabbing a man, assaulting a woman at a nightclub, burglary, theft, vandalism, and showing up at his workplace with a machete and a BB gun. He should have been escorted back to Guyana years ago, long before he capped off his life of crime with mass murder.

PIC O’ THE DAY: Clinton vs. Rubio Edition

Looks like Hillary's swimming pool is bigger than Marco's entire house.


Oh, but Democrats are for the little people, right.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.
 

Tuesday, June 09, 2015

BALTIMORE: Liberal City of the Future

By Richard Larsen

Culpability for the events in Baltimore over the past couple of weeks has perhaps inappropriately been directed exclusively at the police department. In all likelihood, the charges against the police involved in the tragic death of Freddie Gray are only symptomatic of the greater underlying problems of the once booming city. The greater tragedy is the destructive policies of over fifty years of liberal governance, which created the environment of disparity, poverty, and victimhood.

The city has been hemorrhaging jobs at an alarming rate for decades. And the most hard-hit have been the city’s black youth. Over 37% of 20-25 year-old black males are unemployed, versus 10% for white males of the same age. Black household median income is nearly half what it is for white households, at $33,610 and $60,550, respectively.

City policies have shrunk the population of the city by heavily penalizing the productive and earning households. Steve Hanke and Stephen Walters of Johns Hopkins University wrote in the Wall Street Journal earlier this week, “Officials raised property taxes 21 times between 1950 and 1985, channeling the proceeds to favored voting blocs and causing many homeowners and entrepreneurs — disproportionately Republicans — to flee. It was brilliant politics, as Democrats now enjoy an eight-to-one voter registration advantage.”

The result is a declining population, declining business enterprise, declining jobs, and severe blighting of the infrastructure. The city now has an estimated 16,000 vacant buildings and over 14,000 vacant lots. In the area of Sandtown-Winchester and Harlem Park, where Freddie Gray lived, more than 25% of the buildings are now vacant.

REVEALED: How the IRS Rewards Illegal Aliens for Their Crimes

By Ronald W. Mortensen

Whether intentional or otherwise, the Internal Revenue Service all too often sides with illegal aliens who routinely commit multiple employment-related felonies that do terrible harm to American citizens. The favoritism that the IRS extends to illegal aliens includes the following:

  • The IRS turns a blind eye to felony Social Security fraud committed by an estimated 75 percent of all illegal aliens who use fraudulently obtained Social Security numbers (SSNs) to obtain jobs and to pay taxes. When the IRS receives taxes paid by illegal aliens using an American's Social Security number, it ignores the crimes being committed — identity theft, Social Security fraud, forgery, and perjury on I-9 forms. And, rather than turning the illegal aliens over to law enforcement authorities, the IRS protects the illegal aliens because, as a former IRS Commissioner said: "We want your money whether you are here legally or not and whether you earned it legally or not."

  • The IRS allows illegal aliens to file income tax returns that include income earned on both a fraudulently obtained Social Security number and an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) in spite of the fact that, according to the IRS website, "By law, an alien individual cannot have both an ITIN and a SSN."

  • The IRS refuses to notify American citizens when illegal aliens use their and their children's Social Security numbers to earn income and pay payroll and income taxes. When citizens try to get information about illegal aliens using their Social Security numbers, the government accuses them of invading the illegal aliens' privacy.

Panic Before the Herd Does

By Jim Quinn

For the lazy people who don’t like to slog through Hussman’s entire data laden weekly tome, I’ve picked out the most pertinent sections. For the really lazy, I’ve bolded the most important sentences. When everyone on Wall Street is using the same algorithms in their HFT supercomputers, and John Q. Public isn’t even in the market, who will these supercomputers sell to when they all get the sell signal at the same time? When that time comes, and it won’t be long, I’ll be munching popcorn and watching the festivities unfold. The talking heads, government apparatchiks, and Ivy League educated big swinging dicks on Wall Street will declare a national emergency and demand another bailout. Will we be stupid enough to fall for it again, or will we start hanging bankers?

The higher the price an investor pays for a given stream of expected cash flows today, the lower the return that an investor should expect over the long-term. As detailed below, investors have responded to zero interest rates by driving stock valuations up to the point where expected market returns over the coming decade are also zero. Given that outcome, one is quite free to say that stocks are reasonably valued “relative” to zero interest rates, but one should still expect zero 10-year returns on stocks.

My impression is that’s not how investors are thinking. Particularly at market peaks, investors seem to believe that regardless of the extent of the preceding advance, future returns remain entirely unaffected. The repeated eagerness of investors to extrapolate returns and ignore the Iron Law of Valuation has been the source of the deepest losses in history.

Current valuations are above the 2007 peak, and are now within about 15% of the 2000 extreme.

Monday, June 08, 2015

The important message sent by the depraved crimes depicted in Game of Thrones and Outlander

The last couple of weeks on cable television's most popular shows have featured a smorgasbord of stunning violence.

Heiress to Winterfell Lady Sansa Stark is brutally raped on her wedding night by the psycopathic Ramsay Bolton.

Preteen Princess Shireen is lashed to a stake and burned alive -- by her father, Stannis Baratheon.

Highlander Jamie Fraser is viciously tortured and then raped by Captain "Black" Jack Randall.

The outcry from each fictionalized incident was as predictable as it was pathetic.

Not because the depictions weren't shocking and cruel: they were.

Because true outrage should be reserved for the very real, very depraved actions that are occurring not in some mythical setting but on our planet, now.

In today's Middle East, crimes against humanity are occurring on a daily basis with nary a murmur from Hollywood, the Democrat establishment, the feminists or the progressive movement.

In the ongoing Muslim civil war, children are crucified on a regular basis.

Girls as young as eight years old are routinely raped and sold as sex slaves in open markets.

Other children are buried alive or beheaded.

An estimated 30 million human beings around the world are currently living in slavery.


In its ongoing civil war, Syria employs chemical weapons on a routine basis. The death toll from the Syrian conflict alone is approaching a quarter of a million. Another four million Syrians have fled the warzone and are living as refugees.

The left may be capable of marshalling a Twitter campaign in a show of short-lived, faux outrage (remember last year's #BringBackOurGirls?), but when it comes to real action they are AWOL.

So the faux outrage over Hollywood's treatment of Sansa Stark and company rings hollow.

Truth is indeed stranger than fiction.

And for the left, fiction is more real than truth.


Related: Ameritopia.
 

HEARTBREAKING: Carol Bowne Needlessly Dead Thanks to New Jersey and Chris Christie’s Unconstitutional Gun Laws

By Rob Morse

Carol Bowne is dead. The petite hairdresser was murdered by her ex-boyfriend.. and by the state of New Jersey.

Bowne had received threats from her ex-boyfriend. She did everything a law-abiding citizen could do in New Jersey. She obtained a protective order. She installed security cameras inside and outside her home.

Sadly, the restraining orders and cameras are only useful for collecting evidence and bringing charges against an assailant after she was attacked. These measures didn’t matter.

Carol was stabbed to death as she drove home and stepped onto her driveway.

Ms. Bowne tried to get a firearm for self-defense. She started the long process to be allowed to buy a gun in New Jersey. The state delayed her application and Bowne ran out of time. Her ex did not honor the protective order to leave her alone, just as New Jersey bureaucrats did not honor the right of self-defense. Carol Bowne died defenseless.

It takes honorable citizens who obey the law up to nine months to buy a firearm in New Jersey. It can be done in an hour if you buy an illegal gun.

DEVIL’S PACT: Treasonous ObamaTrade Bill Sets Stage for Global Governance, Which is Why You Can’t Read It

By Labor Union Report

It is a rarity that I agree with today’s union bosses. However, in this instance, as unions are currently doing to Democrats supportive of fast-tracking ObamaTrade, Republican lawmakers who have bending over (backward) to appease transnational corporate lobbyists by backing the secret trade pact called the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) need to hear from voters—and fast.

According to the Detroit News, fast-track will be voted on in the House of Representatives this week.

In the House, nearly all Democrats oppose the measure, which may have the support of fewer than 20 Democrats. The White House will rely on Republicans to get the 218 votes needed to approve the bill.

Although unions have dubbed ObamaTrade “NAFTA on steroids,” it is more than that.

Here are some of the things that ObamaTrade does, according to one source:

Sunday, June 07, 2015

Anti-American Nutjob Father Pfleger Emerges From Under His Rock

By Springer's Blog:

AWR Hawkins, Breitbart, 6 June 2015

Rev. Michael Pfleger: NRA 'Will Pay for the Murder' of Chicago Children

On June 6, Reverend Michael Pfleger listed recent shootings in heavily gun-controlled Chicago then said the NRA “will pay pay for the murder of our children.”

He was joined by Reverend Jesse Jackson and the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence president Dan Gross... Pleger, Jackson, and Gross rallied outside of Chuck’s Gun Shop, where Jackson recently rallied for the ban of guns already banned in Chicago.

...Pleger said we need to “make gun ownership responsible,” that we need to “title guns like cars.”

He ended his speech by calling out the NRA specifically, saying:

At the end of the day you can argue with us [and] you can call us names, but you got to deal with God. And the blood of our children is on your hands. And you will pay for the murder of our children.


This is incitement, plain and simple.

Pfleger won't dare name the real culprit for the epidemic of crime in America's inner cities: big government. Big government incentivizes fatherless families, so we get fatherless families. We get educational blight and failed public schools protected by the diabolical alliance of Democrats and Teachers Unions.

We get high rates of crime and imprisonment.

We get Chicago.


Related: How we lost the war on poverty.
 

BUMMER: Islam in "Existential" War With Itself

Dan from New York:

12: And he shall be a wild ass of a man: his hand shall be against every man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell in the face of all his brethren.'

                  - Genesis Chapter 16

Islam's debilitating internal contradictions, presaged in the Torah, are working against the ambitions of its radical elements in the Middle East. Far from readying a war against Israel, Islamists in the region are preoccupied with a higher priority: saving themselves from each other. Still, Israel is taking nothing for granted and is keeping its powder dry.

Distress Signals By Hizbullah Leader Nasrallah And Pro-Hizbullah Media Reflect Growing Sense Of Existential Danger, Crisis Of Confidence Between Hizbullah And Its Supporters


Recent statements by Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah regarding the existential danger faced by his organization and the resistance axis in the war against ISIS, and regarding the possible need for a general mobilization of Hizbullah members, reflect the deep crisis currently afflicting the organization and the deep distress felt by its leadership. This distress stems from the situation in Syria, namely the heavy losses sustained by Hizbullah in the fighting there and the defeat of the resistance axis in many areas, especially in the north and south of Syria. It also results from a decline in Hizbullah's standing among the Lebanese Shi'ites, who, according to many reports, have begun expressing a lack of confidence in Hizbullah and are reluctant to join its ranks.

Saturday, June 06, 2015

TRAVESTY: DOJ Brings Charges Against Soccer Federation FIFA But Not the Clintons

By Richard Larsen

It was not much of a surprise to some to see the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) bring corruption charges against the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) this week. After all, the granting of World Cup hosting rights to Russia (2018) and Qatar (2022), appeared highly suspect, along with several other apparent “pay to play” coincidences. Considering the nature of the charges against FIFA, it seems only logical to wonder if, or when, such charges will be levied against Bill and Hillary Clinton, and the Clinton Foundation.

The DOJ indictment alleges that FIFA officials “abused their positions of trust to acquire millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks,” according to Attorney General Loretta Lynch. The graft is alleged to have influenced World Cup host nation selection, marketing rights for sports marketing companies, and broadcast rights for television coverage of FIFA events.

Prima facie, it doesn’t appear that FIFA did anything more legally dubious than did the Clinton Foundation. According to Hillary Clinton last year, the First Family of the 1990’s left the White House “dead broke,” in 2001. They made up for their White House poverty years from 2001-2006, when, according to Mrs. Clinton’s Senate disclosures, the couple made $87.3 million, from book deals to speaking fees. As long as none of those paydays bought influence, that’s just fine, unless of course one’s ideology requires disdain and class-envy of those who are financially successful, for the Clintons are clearly “one per centers.”

The Clinton’s financial waters become much more murky when their Foundation is brought into the picture. The Clinton Foundation is classified under IRS Code 501(c)(3) as a “non-profit” foundation, comprising several separate “initiatives,” or areas of focus, including health, economic opportunity, and climate issues. In just over 13 years, the Foundation has raised nearly $2 billion from U.S. corporations, especially Wall Street firms, political donors, and foreign governments.

SEN. TED CRUZ TO UNITED NATIONS: Don’t Even Think About Adding Israel to the List of Terrorist Nations

Among the current crop of Republican presidential candidates, there is no more staunch defender of Israel than Sen. Ted Cruz. And, of course, with the possible exception of Rand Paul, all of the GOP candidates reject Barack Obama and the Democrat Party's deep, open hatred of Israel. This week Cruz directed a formal letter to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, slamming the corrupt organization for its threat to add the State of Israel to the the U.N.’s list of “parties to conflict who commit grave violations against children”.

June 3, 2015

His Excellency Ban Ki-moon
Secretary-General of the United Nations
United Nations

First Avenue at 46th Street
New York, NY 10017

Dear Mr. Secretary-General:

I write to you to convey my outrage that the State of Israel may be added to your list of “parties to conflict who commit grave violations against children.”[1] This designation would falsely and shamefully equate Israel with some of the most barbaric terrorist organizations around the world. The decision to add Israel is solely your decision to make and, therefore, is entirely in your power to prevent from taking place.

As you are well aware, this list is part of your annual report on Children and Armed Conflict.  It is my understanding that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) may be added for the alleged violations described below.  The 2014 report on Children and Armed Conflict listed more than 59 parties including terrorist organizations such as Boko Haram, Taliban, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), and Al Qaeda who “recruit or use children, kill or maim children, commit rape and other forms of sexual violence against children, or engage in attacks on schools and/or hospitals in situations of armed conflict.”[2]

HILLARY’S AWFUL WEEK: By the Numbers

Related by James:

20,000:

Minutes Since Clinton Has Taken A Question From The Press. (Philip Bump, "Here's A Clock That Counts The Minutes Since Hillary Clinton Answered A Press Question," The Washington Post , 5/12/15)

$10,000:

The Monthly Amount The Clinton Foundation Paid Blumenthal While He Was Providing Intel To Clinton At The State Department. (Ben Kamisar, "Clinton Foundation Paid Blumenthal $10,000 Monthly Salary," The Hill , 5/28/15)

At Least 100:

More Questions Sanders Has Answered Than Clinton.

58:

Percent Of Americans Are Dissatisfied With The Way Clinton Handled Benghazi. (CNN/ORC Poll, 1,025 A, MoE 3%, 5/29-31/15)

57:

Percent Of Americans That Do Not Believe Clinton Is Honest And Trustworthy. (CNN/ORC Poll, 1,025 A, MoE 3%, 5/29-31/15)

54:

Percent Of Independents That Have An Unfavorable View Of Clinton. (CNN/ORC Poll, 1,025 A, MoE 3%, 5/29-31/15)

52:

Percent Of Americans That Do Not Believe Clinton Cares About People Like Them. (CNN/ORC Poll, 1,025 A, MoE 3%, 5/29-31/15)

50:

Percent Of Americans That Have An Unfavorable Opinion Of Clinton. (CNN/ORC Poll, 1,025 A, MoE 3%, 5/29-31/15)

36:

Clinton Attends Nearly One Fundraiser Every 36 Hours. (Palmer Gibbs, "PT Round-Up: Hillary Clinton Headlines 8 Fundraisers, Sen. Marco Rubio Keynotes A Party In Connecticut, Democrats Throw Their Support Behind Ted Strickland And Sen. Joni Ernst Makes 'Em Squeal At A Pig Roast," Sunlight Foundation , 6/1/15)

At Least 24:

More Questions O'Malley Answered This Week Than Clinton.

14:

Years Since Clinton's Favorability Was This Low. (Nick Gass, "Hillary Clinton unfavorable numbers highest in 14 years,"Politico, 6/2/15)

8:

Fundraisers This Week. (Palmer Gibbs, "PT Round-Up: Hillary Clinton Headlines 8 Fundraisers, Sen. Marco Rubio Keynotes A Party In Connecticut, Democrats Throw Their Support Behind Ted Strickland And Sen. Joni Ernst Makes 'Em Squeal At A Pig Roast," Sunlight Foundation , 6/1/15)

1:

Voter That Was Told By Clinton To "Go To The End Of The Line." (David Weigel, "Whoa, If True: Hillary Clinton Blows Off Autograph-Seeking Voter," Bloomberg , 6/3/15)

0:

Meetings This Week With Average Americans.

Read more at BadBlue News.

Friday, June 05, 2015

There Goes the Fake "Housing Recovery"

By Jim Quinn

It seems the mainstream media is giddy with excitement over the 280,000 jobs supposedly created in May. The markets aren’t so happy, as good news is actually bad news. What excuse will Yellen and her fellow Wall Street puppets at the Federal Reserve use to not increase interest rates from emergency levels of 0.25%? The ten year Treasury rate immediately skyrocketed to 2.43% in seconds. It was at 1.64% in February. That’s a 46% decline in price in four months. Do you still think bonds are a safe investment? Guess what is tied to the 10 Year Treasury rate? Mortgage rates. There goes the fake housing recovery. Artificially high prices, higher mortgage rates, and young people unable to buy sounds like a perfect recipe for collapse.

The MSM is cackling about the 280,000 new jobs, but you won’t hear them mentioning that the number of unemployed people went up by 125,000 as 208,000 people the BLS classified as not in the labor force last month decided they were in the labor force this month. What a crock. At least 20 million of the 93 million classified as not in the labor force can or will work, therefore they are unemployed.

One month does not make a recovery. Let’s see what the YTD numbers show:

  • Since January, 594,000 more Americans are employed, an average of 149k per month. Considering the working age population has gone up by 732,000 since January, why is anyone crowing?
  • The BLS drones actually expect you to believe the unemployment rate has fallen from 5.7% in January to 5.5% today, because 442,000 Americans decided to voluntarily exit the labor force. That’s a hoot.

The really good stuff is buried in Table A-9 of the BLS data dump. See for yourself:

Elderly female mob boss tries race- and gender-baiting while studiously avoiding questions from press

Hypothetically speaking, if I'd amassed $150 million through a massive racketeering and money-laundering operation, I'd be avoiding the press as well. But I wouldn't be running for president.

Hillary Clinton closed a three-day campaign fundraising swing through Texas and New Mexico on Thursday with a rare public appearance at Texas Southern University in Houston and a stemwinder on voting rights.

She took no questions and spoke with no reporters, but angrily complained that Texas voters can present their concealed-carry gun permits as a voter ID, but not their college student identification cards.

Clinton was received with wild applause at the historically black college, but organizers arranged the 8,100-seat basketball arena so that three-quarters of the seats were roped off and empty.

They added rows of chairs on the floor, but 15-foot-tall blue curtains draped all around blocked the view of entire sections of empty seats, leaving the impression that Clinton couldn't fill the room.

The university didn't provide a crowd count, but an arena security official estimated that there were 2,200 in attendance.

Granny Clinton looks very tired and quite depressed.

If she can only avoid indictments, debates and questions from the press until Election Day 2016, she could have a chance.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.
 

Media Dimwits Celebrate "Courage" of Caitlyn Jenner While Ignoring True Hero Chris Kyle

By Daniel John Sobieski


One gets the impression that if Amir Hekmati, the former United States Marine still imprisoned in Iran were gay, transgendered or a deserter, President Obama, who tweeted to the former Olympic champion and now Vanity Fair cover girl Bruce/Caitlyn Jenner: “It takes courage to tell your story.”

BizPac Review noted how quickly and for what reason President Obama sprung into action after Caitlin’s cover:

“It takes courage to share your story,” the president tweeted in response to Jenner, who broke the president’s record for fastest new Twitter account to reach 1 million followers.

Never on to miss an opportunity to push the progressive agenda, Obama tweeted three minutes later, asking other lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders people to tell their tale (because they’re not in the news enough these days).

“Your story matters in the fight for LGBT rights—share it here:” Obama tweeted with a link to a page on barackobama.com.

As Investor’s Business Daily noted, courage is defined by people like Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi, who languished in a Mexican jail after serving his country for taking a wrong turn after being confused by traffic signs in a construction zone, ignored by his Commander-in-Chief who takes time out to congratulate gay basketball players for their “courage”:

Jill Tahmooressi, Andrew's mother, has never been invited to stand by the president on the White House lawn. Nor has she ever received a phone call from President Obama, as she testified Wednesday before a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee. Presidential calls of support are reserved for basketball players like Jason Collins, whom Obama called to say "he was impressed by his courage," according to a White House spokesperson, for announcing that he was gay.

Thursday, June 04, 2015

BOND COLLAPSE: "The main event is still coming, and it is going to be extraordinarily painful"

By Michael Snyder

Is the financial collapse that so many are expecting in the second half of 2015 already starting? Many have believed that we would see bonds crash before the stock market crashes, and that is precisely what is happening right now. Since mid-April, the yield on 10 year German bonds has shot up from 0.05 percent to 0.89 percent. But much of that jump has come this week. Just a couple of days ago, the yield on 10 year German bonds was sitting at just 0.54 percent. And it isn’t just Germany – bond yields are going crazy all over Europe. So far, it is being estimated that global investors have lost more than half a trillion dollars, and there is much more room for these bonds to fall. In the end, the overall losses could be well into the trillions even before the stock market collapses.

I know that for most average Americans, talk about “bond yields” is rather boring. But it is important to understand these things, because we could very well be looking at the beginning of the next great financial crisis. The following is an excerpt from an article by Wolf Richter in which he details the unprecedented carnage that we have witnessed over the past few days…

IT’S COME TO THIS: Obama Hysterically Attacks New York Times for Reporting on Iran’s Aggressive Nuke Expansion

By The Tower

Administration officials have spent the last two days attacking a Tuesday report in The New York Times that Iran’s stockpile of low enriched uranium (LEU) is now 20% greater than when it signed the Joint Plan of Action (JPOA) in November 2013. The Times article noted that the growth of that stockpile contradicted the administration’s claim that the JPOA had “frozen” Iran’s nuclear program. The article also noted that Iran will not only have to reduce its stockpile to 7,650 kilograms by the June 30 JPOA deadline, but will likely have to reduce it significantly further—to just 300 kilograms—in the coming months as part of the reported terms of a final deal.

The problem, is as the Times reported:

The overall increase in Iran’s stockpile poses a major diplomatic and political challenge for President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry, who flew back to the United States from Geneva on Monday for treatment of a broken leg he suffered in a bicycling accident, as they enter a 30-day push to try to complete an agreement by the end of June. In essence, the administration will have to convince Congress and America’s allies that Iran will shrink its stockpile by 96 percent in a matter of months after a deal is signed, even while it continues to produce new material and has demonstrated little success in reducing its current stockpile.

Wednesday, June 03, 2015

REALITY DENIAL SYNDROME: Obama, Islam and the Rise of ISIS

By Michael Rubin

On September 10, 2014, against the backdrop of the Islamic State (ISIL, ISIS, Daesh)’s murder of American journalists, President Barack Obama addressed the nation. “Our objective is clear,” he declared, “We will degrade, and ultimately destroy, ISIL through a comprehensive and sustained counterterrorism strategy.”

Recent Islamic State victories in Ramadi, the capital of the al-Anbar province, and in Palmyra, a central Syria town straddling strategic crossroads and home to ancient ruins, show that almost nine months later, the U.S. objective is not on track to being met. Talk of an offensive against Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, common just a few weeks ago, now seems fantastic. Indeed, it seems more likely that the Islamic State will move this summer against Kirkuk, an oil-rich and multi-ethnic city in northern Iraq or try to strike at pilgrims or shrines in the Shi’ite holy city of Karbala, than retreat from Iraq as American policymakers hoped just a few weeks ago.

Clearly, the President’s stated strategy is not working. Questions to consider are why, and what policies could strengthen the fight against the Islamic State.

A Strategy Based on False Assumptions