Category Archives: Barack Obama

What’s In The Iran Deal For The US?

Barack Obama, Iran, WMD

So accustomed have we become to a ruling class that gives away what is not its to give—that we don’t even examine the wonderfully Trumpian angle of the deals we allow the traitors to sign on our behalf: What’s in it for the US? In this case, how does the Iran deal benefit and protect Americans; the people to whom the US government is beholden?

American prisoners still languish in Iranian jails. The despicable Barack Obama has not bothered to secure their safe return. And as Donald Trump puts it,

Iran will receive notice before any inspections take place. Iran can block inspection of certain facilities. Iran will soon be able to continue expanding its conventional arms and guided missile programs without facing snapback sanctions. Iran can keep American prisoners, including one former U.S. Marine and, very sadly, a Christian minister. Iran can continue to operate about 6,000 centrifuges. Other countries will be free to invest in Iran.

Note the words “very sadly.” Affronts to Americans Trump takes very personally.

Below is a CNN interivew with Harvard Law Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz, whose perspective is, as always, decidedly Israel-centric. I have highlighted Dershowitz’s admission of Obama’s sleight of hand in passing the deal.

[09:42:43] SMERCONISH: The day after the proposed nuclear arms deal with Iran was announced, famed attorney and Harvard Law professor emeritus, Alan Dershowitz, woke up, so incensed that he wrote a book condemning it which he finished in 11 days, I guess, on the twelfth day you rested, right?

It’s titled, “The Case Against the Iran Deal”. And check out the die that are on that cover, one with a nuclear symbol and one with a peace sign.

Professor Alan Dershowitz joins me now.

Congratulations on the book.

ALAN DERSHOWITZ, AUTHOR, “THE CASE AGAINST THE IRAN DEAL”: Thank you.

SMERCONISH: … Let’s switch to Iran. Is it all over now, except for the voting?

DERSHOWITZ: Oh, no, no, no. I think why I subtitled my book, “How Can We Now Stop Iran from Getting the Bomb?” — I anticipated this vote, because the president manipulated it undemocratically, so that all he needed was one third plus one house, or the Senate. Majority of Americans were opposed to the deal, majority of the Senate, majority of the House. Now, we have to figure out how to stop Iran from getting the bomb.

The problem with the deal it only postpones it for 10, 12, 13 years. I have a proposal, and my proposal is we take seriously what Iran commits to in the preface to the deal, where they say Iran reiterates that it will never ever under any circumstances seek to develop nuclear weapons. Congress sort of passed a law now making that American policy.

SMERCONISH: Making it that we will take military action.

DERSHOWITZ: That’s right.

SMERCONISH: To the extent there’s a sign. We will act, we will strike.

DERSHOWITZ: We need deterrence. We need to have that sword of Damocles hanging.

I wish the president had started a negotiation by saying, look, Iran, you’re never going to be allowed to develop nuclear weapons. We will stop. So, why do you have to suffer from these sanctions, let’s negotiation now, under the specter of American military power. But we eliminated the military option, realistically, we allowed them to bargain with us as equals, which no superpower should ever do, and they are the guys who invented chess and we were playing checkers against them.

SMERCONISH: Your good friend is Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu.

[09:45:01] DERSHOWITZ: That’s right.

SMERCONISH: Any prospect of a first strike by him?

DERSHOWITZ: I hope not, but if Israel is ever confronted with the situation, the alternative of a nuclear armed Iran or a military strike, they will take a military strike. This makes that more likely. It also makes it much riskier for Israel. I think it makes war more likely, I think it makes the inevitable development of nuclear weapons by Iran more likely.

That’s why even the senators who are voting with the president, many of them don’t like this deal. We need to give them legislation now that will toughen the deal without changing its words. But tell the Iranians for sure, we will not tolerate their developing nuclear weapons.

SMERCONISH: I’ve never seen anything like this. Bob Casey, senior senator from my home state, 17-page explanation as to why he’s voting this way, and I guess he felt compelled to explain himself. Let me ask you this question. In retrospect now, a mistake for Bibi to have attended that joint session of Congress at Boehner’s invitation.

DERSHOWITZ: Absolutely not.

SMERCONISH: Did he not overplay his hand?

DERSHOWITZ: I don’t think so. The prime minster of Israel must defend the people of Israel. He must say what he thinks is in the best interest of his country. He was invited by the head of the legislative branch of the United States government. The president should have invited him in, there should have been much more correlation between the legislative and executive branch. I mean, you cannot blame the prime minister of Israel for not doing what Czechoslovakia did in 1938, just laying there and letting their country be dismantled.

Israel has the absolute right to defend itself and its people against the threat of nuclear weapons. Remember, Rafsanjani said, if we ever get nuclear weapons, we will destroy Israel because it’s a one-bomb state. And even if they retaliate, Islam will survive, but the Jewish state will disappear. As Elie Wiesel once said, we always take the threats of your enemies more seriously than the promises of your friends.

SMERCONISH: I have a friend in Philadelphia, smart trial attorney, Shane Specter (ph), I’ll give him a shoutout. He said, you know, this is really an acknowledgement that when an advanced country seeks a nuclear weapon, you can’t prohibit them from getting it. If they want it, they’re going to be able to get it.

DERSHOWITZ: Dead wrong.

SMERCONISH: Wait a minute. And what this is really about is bringing Iran into the family of nations, the world community to try to put manners on them.

DERSHOWITZ: That’s not going to work. They’re going to get more money to repress dissent. You can stop them. Israel stopped Iraq. It stopped Syria. The United States stopped Libya.

You can stop an advanced country from getting nuclear weapons if you maintain a firm military option coupled with tough sanctions. But if you negotiate with them as equals, they will beat you every time. And that’s what happened.

SMERCONISH: Could there be a realignment among American Jews toward the Republican Party based on this issue, away from the Democrats?

DERSHOWITZ: Israel must always remain a bipartisan issue. I’m remaining a Democrat. I’m going to try to push the Democrats hard to maintain their support for Israel. I don’t think this will be in the end be as divisive as it appears to be now. SMERCONISH: The case against Iran, the Iranian deal, how we can stop

Iran from getting nukes.

Alan Dershowitz, thanks.

[SNIP]

Via CNN.

Sovietizing the Suburbs: Rule By Bureaucracy

Barack Obama, Communism, Liberty, Private Property, Race, Racism, Regulation

A critical media ought to be withering about Barack Obama’s plans to sovietize any American suburb deemed too white (barring his abodes, his vacation spots and the schools his daughters attend). Instead, pages upon pages of a Google search yield zero criticism of this racist, racialist and tyrannical infringement upon freedom of association, property rights and federalism.

What can one expect from a female “writer” at The Atlantic, reporting on the regulation called “Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing”? A surfeit of affection and approval:

… Obama administration issues a new rule—and a mapping tool—that are designed to help communities address segregation. …

… On Wednesday, HUD took a big step toward fixing its own ineffectiveness, releasing a new rule that requires that cities and regions evaluate the presence of fair housing in their communities, submit reports detailing the presence of segregation and blight, and detail what they plan to do about it. Communities will be required to hold meetings or otherwise solicit public opinion about housing planning and integration every five years, and will have a new trove of resources to assess their progress.

“This important step will give local leaders the tools they need to provide all Americans with access to safe, affordable housing in communities that are rich with opportunity,” said HUD Secretary Julian Castro.

Parts of the new rule will take effect in 30 days.

By law, communities are expected to affirmatively further fair housing through the way they use federal funds, including Community Development Block Grants (used for a variety of development initiatives), public-housing-authority programs such as Housing Choice Vouchers and housing complexes, and HOME grants, which fund the development of affordable housing.

Since our local shysters vie for federal funds; they will be diligent about shattering established communities by busing in problem residents. Once again, middle-class Americans will bear the brunt of Obama’s bureaucracy.

The Atlantic‘s idiot “writer” seems to think that the neighborhood creates the individual, rather than the opposite: Individuals acting together create their neighborhoods. She solicits official vapor about “neighborhoods and communities marked by conditions of slum and blight,” [that] exclude people from well-resourced neighborhoods and communities” …

MORE.

TPA (Updated: 4/22/016): Republicans Cede Some More American Sovereignty

Barack Obama, Federalism, Labor, Outsourcing, Republicans, Trade

“Some” would call it treason. OK, I would call it treason. Republicans—who boast of their respect for the republican value of limited authority, and who vowed to keep Obama in his Constitutional place—banded together to give President Barack Obama yet MORE executive authority. “[T]he Senate voted 60-38 to grant final approval to the fast-track bill, reports the Washington Post.

… The trade promotion bill now heads to Obama’s desk for his signature. It gives the executive branch additional powers for six years and authorizes the president, and his successor, to present trade deals to Congress for a vote on a specified timeline without lawmakers being able to amend the terms.

What is the TPA? Also via the WaPo:

… Trade Promotion Authority, or TPA. This is also known as “fast-track” authority because it gives the president the ability to negotiate a deal that will receive only an up-or-down vote in Congress. Without fast track, Congress can amend the terms of the deal. You can remember that TPA is “fast track” because when you T.P. a house, you are on the “fast track” to juvenile delinquency. Or you can just call it fast track, which is easier.

Fast-track authority doesn’t apply to only one agreement. In the past, it has spanned presidencies, beginning in 1974 and lasting until the Clinton administration. It also existed during parts of both terms of George W. Bush’s presidency. From the president’s standpoint, fast-track authority is critical to negotiating agreements because he can negotiate in good faith — what he says to his negotiating partners he’s confident will be part of the final deal (if Congress approves it).

Broadcaster Mark Levin, who exulted in the Republicans’ mid-term victory only to find himself needing to trash these traitors daily—spoke to Sen. Ted Cruz on voting against the fast track deal.

“Enough is enough,” Cruz had written at Breitbart.com. “I cannot vote for TPA unless McConnell and Boehner both commit publicly to allow the Ex-Im Bank to expire—and stay expired. And, Congress must also pass the Cruz-Sessions amendments to TPA to ensure that no trade agreement can try to back-door changes to our immigration laws. Otherwise, I will have no choice but to vote no.”

As commendable as a Cruz vote against the Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) is—Levin failed to point out the following:

No bit of legislation should ever cede US sovereignty to signatory nations—not on immigration, not on self-defense, not on sentencing, not on anything.

UPDATE (4/22/016):

UPDATED: War Party Inc. Welcomes WikiLeaks Trade/Treason Revelations

Barack Obama, Conservatism, Neoconservatism, Regulation, Technology, The State, Trade

The War Party Inc. is forever raging against WikiLeaks and its heroic founder Julian Assange. Lo and behold, I heard Mark Levin approvingly mention the “secretive Obamatrade documents” uncovered by Wikileaks. Hmmm.

So, the liberty to scrutinize what tyranny is up to is not so bad after all?

Via Breitbart.com:

Discovered inside the huge tranche of secretive Obamatrade documents released by Wikileaks are key details on how technically any Republican voting for Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) that would fast-track trade deals like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal would technically also be voting to massively expand President Obama’s executive authority when it comes to immigration matters.

The mainstream media covered the Wikileaks document dump extensively, but did not mention the immigration chapter contained within it, so Breitbart News took the documents to immigration experts to get their take on it. Nobody has figured how big a deal the documents uncovered by Wikileaks are until now. (See below)

The president’s Trade in Services Act (TiSA) documents, which is one of the three different close-to-completely-negotiated deals that would be fast-tracked making up the president’s trade agreement, show Obamatrade in fact unilaterally alters current U.S. immigration law. TiSA, like TPP or the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP) deals, are international trade agreements that President Obama is trying to force through to final approval. The way he can do so is by getting Congress to give him fast-track authority through TPA.

TiSA is even more secretive than TPP. Lawmakers on Capitol Hill can review the text of TPP in a secret, secured room inside the Capitol—and in some cases can bring staffers who have high enough security clearances—but with TiSA, no such draft text is available.

Voting for TPA, of course, would essentially ensure the final passage of each TPP, T-TIP, and TiSA by Congress, since in the history of fast-track any deal that’s ever started on fast-track has been approved. …

MORE (if you can unstick this website.)

TiSA Annex on Movement of Natural Persons.

TiSA Annex on Movement of Natural Persons by breitbartnews

UPDATED (6/15): “The secretive wheeling and dealing on the massive 29-chapter draft [of the Trans-Pacific Partnership] (kept under classified lock-and-key and only a tiny portion of which have been publicly disclosed through WikiLeaks) make the backroom Obamacare negotiations look like a gigantic solar flare of openness and public deliberation. Fast-track Republicans, who rightfully made a stink when Nancy Pelosi declared that ‘we have to pass the [Obamacare] bill so that you can find out what is in it,’ now have no transparency legs to stand on. …”

Michell Malkin On “Why America Hates the GOP-Obamatrade Deal.”

And if “America” doesn’t yet hate the TPP, it certainly should.

My position: all legislation is bad unless it is legislation to repeal legislation.