What We Saw At The DNC...

Matthew N.

Matthew's Week End Commentary

 The Lunatic's Asylum

It's finally over. The great big jamboree for the preternaturally stupid, the aging hippies, the Welfare Pimps, and the Professional Poor and Aggrieved is done. The City of Charlotte can now relax, even if it will take several days from the cloud of pot smoke and the aroma of bullshit to dissipate upon the eight winds. The moans and groans that I have heard over the last few days from those friends who live in my adopted Second City were the sort one usually only associates with someone dying of a very painful, and terminal, disease.

The people of Charlotte are damned happy this morning to have this three-ring circus, this travelling bordello of politics, this concentration of the worst elements of American society, finally gone.

I watched a great deal of the coverage of the DNC, mostly because I was interested to see what new form of as-yet-unidentified mental disorder they managed to invent, and then turn into a campaign rally cry. I was quite disappointed, to tell the truth, for the most obvious mental deficiencies on display were plain, old, garden-variety denial and pathological lying.

These people do not inhabit the same reality as the rest of us, and you get the distinct impression that some of them actually realize that their comrades are in this state of hallucination, but they must -- probably because there's a paycheck in it for them -- pretend to play along, and if the pretenders are at least halfway decent folks to begin with, the deceit shows all too readily on their faces. The faces they have to glue on before the television cameras while their mouths tell you complete lies, and their eyes betray the fact that even they don't believe a word they're saying..

The only thing that came out this confab of douchebags in Charlotte was more of the same, only with lessened expectations. I guess a certain someone has learned his lesson about making promises he either couldn't, wouldn't, or had the foggiest idea of how, keep.

 Here's a synopsis of the last couple of days of the DNC:

The Ghost of Neville Chamberlain

by Jonathan S. Tobin

"The deal that President Obama has struck with Iran has very little chance of actually stopping them from reaching their nuclear goal. Their centrifuges remain intact and will, at best, delay them from “breaking out” to full nuclear capability by a few weeks. It will reward them for a decade of lies and deceptions and effectively normalize a rogue regime that continues to sponsor international terrorism and spew anti-Semitism while also starting the process of unraveling sanctions. But to all this Secretary of State John Kerry has what he thinks is a devastating answer: what’s the alternative?

The point of this question is to not-so-subtly imply that the only other choice was a war that no one wants. But this favorite rhetorical device of the president’s in which he poses false choices is a deception. There was an alternative to surrendering to Iran’s diplomatic demands that we effectively recognize their “right” to enrich uranium and scrapping the president’s campaign promise that his goal was to force it give up its nuclear program–and it didn’t mean war. All it required was for him to tighten sanctions and enforce them to the point where Iran’s elites, rather than the common people, started to feel the economic pain. But by wasting five years during which he opposed sanctions, stalled on their enforcement and then started to scale them back at the first hint of an Iranian willingness to negotiate, the president has discarded all of America’s leverage.

Kerry’s assumption and that of others who advocated appeasement of Iran is based on the idea that it was not reasonable or realistic for the West to demand that Iran dismantle its nuclear program as the president demanded in his foreign-policy debate with Mitt Romney last year. They say that asking for the dismantling of the centrifuges that will continue to spin and enrich uranium even after the president’s deal is in place was just too much, as was the demand that the nuclear facilities that are openly discussed and covered in the deal (as opposed to the secret underground Iranian nuclear facilities that even the New York Times concedes that the CIA, the Europeans, and the Israelis believe exist) be decommissioned or that its stockpile of enriched uranium be shipped out of the country...."

Read More

Let Me Get This Straight....

Weekend Rants
July 31, 2010


It seems the Federal Government sued the State of Arizona in order to make the following points:

1. The Executive Branch has reserved the power and right to decide NOT to enforce laws passed by the Legislative Branch ,and deemed Constitutional by the Judicial Branch, if it finds doing so to be politically troublesome.

2.  That the Executive Branch, having made a decision upon which laws are to be followed and which can be chucked for political purposes, can declare that since it won't uphold the laws it is Constitutionally-required to enforce, that no one else can assume that responsibility in it's stead.


Good going guys!

Once again the Administration, it's naked partisanship and political tin ear evident because it has taken yet another unnecessary action that two-thirds of the country disagrees with, has finally laid to rest some of the myths about the political left that have been repeated for at least a century; These people are not evil little conspirators, playing at romantic revolutionary. They are not sublimely intellectual souls who simply see the world differently in subtler shades of grey than we mortals. They certainly aren't champions of the Common Man, fighting for his rights and freedoms, rising to the defense of personal liberties.

They're just a bunch of self-serving political retards. Smart people (defined as: having just enough sense not to shave your own ass with a cheese grater, and a bottle of Witch Hazel) simply don't do things like this. The amazing thing is that they're all lawyers, the President has even taught Constitutional Law, (so they say) but apparently none of them has bothered to read the document in question, and if they have, they possess this ability to misunderstand the English Language to such an extent that I'm surprised they haven't "discovered" the right to stand in your front yard, completely naked, with three barking dachshunds and a light bulb jammed up your butt while saluting the swastika.

For all the Harvard, Yale and Princeton graduates in the Administration, none of them seems to be able to find their own asses with both hands and a flashlight. The next time someone tells you the Ivy League schools are the best, you should point out to them that the Obamabots and the MBA's who ran Freddie, Fannie, Lehman Brothers, and AIG, were mostly Ivy Leaguers.

That should shut em up.

........And  John Kerry. Got ya self a 7 Million dollar yacht sailboat do ya?
 Had her custom-built in New Zealand, and moved from Massachusetts to Rhode Island, allegedly to avoid paying luxury taxes on it. Hummm?

Nothing like making sure you Buy American,  making sure you put some folks in Massachusetts (where I'm told they DO make some pretty spiffy luxury yachts) to work, and leading by example in a time of financial crisis, where the American people are being asked to sacrifice and give Uncle Sam just a Little Bit More (Little Bit More defined as: the Lion's Share of the 50% of your income we don't already tax) to pay for all the"Change you Can Believe In"...and you don't even make a show of sharing that sacrifice. In fact, you tried to find a way to circumvent the law.  And I'll bet you still lay awake at night trying to figure out just how it was that you lost to that boob George W. Bush.  It seems your only real talent is for marrying wealthy widows. Frankly, we're incredibly fortunate to have been spared the unmitigated disaster that would have been a Kerry Administration, Senator.

I gotta go, the gumbo is almost ready!
.

Kerry Sustains Wounds In Switzerland

 Middle Finger News Correspondent Earl of Taint Reporting:

Lausanne, Switzerland - Secretary of State John Kerry was pulled out of the Iranian nuclear negotiations on a stretcher today after he was reportedly “bitch-slapped” severely by the Iranian delegation and then de-pantsed. Additionally, his latest injuries mark his third time to be wounded in-theater*, earning him his (world record) sixth self-awarded Purple Heart and a golden ticket back to the States. - READ EARL'S FULL REPORT HERE

The Earl of Ketchup takes to the Senate Floor and Channels the Founding Fathers.

If The Founding Fathers Were Here Today They Would Vote Against Balanced Budget Amendment.

  

“As I have said in the past, the most compelling argument against this amendment doesn't come from me or from anyone on the floor. It actually comes from the real experts, the people who framed the Constitution of the United States. If they were here on the Senate floor today, they would against this amendment because it violates the Constitution's basic tenet which is major rule” .......Senator John Kerry Heinz

-snip-

No Mr. Kerry, if the founders were here they would be tar and feathering politicians like yourself and parading you down Pennsylvanian Ave. in the back of a wagon for all to see! And only that after they had run out of rope.

_________________________________ 

 

We Have A Pure Idiot for Secretary of State

Kerry sees 'rationale' in Charlie Hebdo murders,

unlike Friday's attacks in Paris.....

Secretary of State John Kerry suggested on Tuesday that there was a “rationale” for the assault on satirical French weekly Charlie Hebdo, unlike the more recent attacks in Paris.

"There’s something different about what happened from Charlie Hebdo, and I think everybody would feel that. There was a sort of particularized focus and perhaps even a legitimacy in terms of — not a legitimacy, but a rationale that you could attach yourself to somehow and say, OK, they’re really angry because of this and that."

"This Friday was absolutely indiscriminate. It wasn’t to aggrieve one particular sense of wrong. It was to terrorize people." 

The attack on Charlie Hebdo, which took place in January, killed 12 people and was perpetrated by radical Islamic militants with ties to al Qaeda's affiliate in Yemen. An al Qaeda statement claiming responsibility for the murders said they were retribution for the magazine's decision to run cartoons mocking the Prophet Mohammed, and to avenge the drone strike that killed Yemeni-American cleric Anwar al-Awlaki.

So, would there be a rationale on his part  to "aggrieve one particular sense of wrong"  if a Christian was to murder an artist for a cross in a jar of urine, or a picture of the Virgin Mary and child done in feces?  Does this man hear what he's saying when he says it? How did we fall so far to the point of being governed be narcissists, idiots and Douchebags who would have once been hung for treason?

Mystery Tweeter Turns Out to be National Security Official

Man, the Obama administration sure knows how to pick some winners, don’t they? The White House just fired National Security department director Jofi Joseph for tweeting administration secrets and insults to the the President and his staff under a pseudonymous account with the handle @natsecwonk.

Joseph was the director in the non-proliferation section of the National Security Staff at the White House and had apparently been at his mischievous deed for over two years. His actions were described as “tormenting to the foreign policy community with insulting comments and revealing internal Obama administration information,” by The Daily Beast’s Josh Rogin, who broke the story.

As @natsecwonk, Joseph often insulted the appearance and intellectual rigor of his White House superiors, including Secretary of State John Kerry.  

Politico reported that Joseph is thought to be behind another controversial Hill account, @dchobbyist, though he did not respond for comment. Reactions on the Hill are still pouring in, but most in the foreign policy community were shocked to learn of Joseph’s antics as @natsecwonk, mostly because he was well-regarded by his peers.

His wife, Carolyn Leddy, is also a well-respected staffer on the GOP side of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. 

Of course, the administration is a little bummed about being thrown under the bus in 140 characters or less.  

Have No Fear Europe

While Vladimir Putin  plots the next move in his scheme, the United States is trying to reassure our European allies that we intend to protect them with all of our resources if and when Putin pushes for further demands on old USSR territories, including mandatory shirtless horseback riding. 

In an effort to calm the nerves of the EU, we sent the best weapon in our arsenal. The man who can make any woman melt like an ice cream cone on a hot summer day. The man to whom pudding is a legitimate part of the food pyramid. The man for whom the Firebird was engineered and for whom REO Speedwagon still does reunion tours.

We sent Joe F***ing Biden. 

"Vice President Biden arrived here Tuesday to reassure a set of allies anxious over Russia’s move into Crimea, denouncing the impending Russian annexation of the region as a “blatant, blatant disregard of international law.”  

He’s probably over there so that he’ll stop trying to offer his advice over here, but it’s not as though he can do any worse than John Kerry. Hopefully.

(NDC)

Looks like the Democratic Establishment Have Been Googling 'Joe Biden'.

There is so many Democrats running for the nomination it's hard to notice when they drop out. It's like raking leaves. They seem to just keep falling out of the trees. Even that crazy woman from the hamlet of Chappaqua NY claims "she is being urged by many, many, many people to run in 2020."  But for now, Joe Biden is the perceived front-runner, and that excites no one, not even his wife. He is the non-threatening choice, known to us on the right as Obama's Court Jester. And according to an article in the New York Times, the "movers and shakers" in the Democrat party are having second thoughts about Uncle Joe.

"Since the last debate, just anecdotally, I've had five or six people ask me: 'Is there anybody else?'" said Leah Daughtry, a longtime Democrat who has run two of the party's recent conventions."

The "anxious" Democratic establishment reportedly think Lizzy Warren isn't "viable" in a general election because she comes off as a crazy commie college professor. They're probably also more afraid of Bernie winning than losing. It bothers them that Mayor Pete is leading in Iowa, and that the dem's plantation black voters aren't high on voting for a little white fudgepacker, especially one from a mostly white state in the midwest. They've found Biden's debate performances "lackluster" and they haven't even seen his latest town hall. 

Former Senator and Secretary of State John Kerry (he fought in Vietnam you know) has "wondered aloud" if he should've run again. He must've "wondered aloud" in an empty room because if he'd "wondered" this within earshot of anyone alive in 2004, he would've heard a reflexive "hell no."

Eric Holder, the former attorney general, was apparently considering a "last-minute" entry but he admits it's too late now. He's right. There's never a good time for this crooked bastard's presidential campaign. He should be in prison. 

There was talk yesterday of Deval Patrick, the long forgotten former Massachusetts governor, entering the race. He's another answer to a question no one's asked. Spartacus Booker doesn't need an understudy for the role of unqualified, bald brother who loves them some Wall Street money. And someone for some reason known only to them convinced Michael Bloomberg to run for president. He's likely going to spend a lot of money to lose like a common Julio Castro. Unless public humiliation is his jam, he might find it cheaper to just pay Warren's wealth tax and go play golf. 

Obama's boy David Axelrod explained the party's current dilemma:

"With Trump looming, there is genuine concern that the horse many have bet on may be pulling up lame and the horse who has sprinted out front may not be able to win." 

Wait... did Axlrod just call Sen. Lizzy a horse?? Oh My.

The "safe" candidate is not always the best. But the establishment has already taken their chosen candidate out of his original packaging. They can't return him now. Pass the popcorn.......

~ Thank You Liz@RightNation and 
Larwyn's Linx@ Doug Ross Journal for the Linkage ~

North Korea Spies on Obama's Martha's Vineyard Arrival

EXCLUSIVE PHOTOS:

(Pyongyang) -The North Korean News Agency announced moments ago that the DPRK Navy had successfully completed a secret spy mission purposely directed at the  arrival  of the Presidential entourage on Martha's Vineyard. Nork News said the mission involved the DPRK Navy's first long voyage of their newest secret weapon, a propane/electric hybrid long range "Dung Class" submarine. (photos below)

A Military spokesman said the submarine was able to penetrate the Nantucket Sound under the cover of darkness Friday morning and navigate in daylight the coastal waters of Martha's Vineyard by running shallow while towing a cardboard cutout of Secretary of State John Kerry on a windsurfing board, assuring no one would pay any attention or come near.

The newest addition to the DPRK arsenals secret voyage was commanded by the North Korean Supreme Leader himself, 1st Admiral Kim Jong Un. The mission included spending 18 hours off Cape Cod Friday to gather intelligence and two undetected passes through the Vineyard Sound in daylight on Saturday.

The major news agencies remain skeptical of the story, but MFNS have obtained exclusive Nork Naval photos taken on the mission as proof the North Koreans did indeed pull off the spy mission undetected.

{Photos Courtesy of North Korean Navy}

North Korean Sub 001 surfaces the morning of Aug 8 off the coast of Cape Cod near the
Kennedy Compound to check for intelligence (sources said none was found)

Under the cover of thick early morning fog Aug 9, waiting the arrival of the mission target,   
Kim Jung un discusses the days mission strategy with his officers.

Trolling the coast of  Vineyard Sound at periscope depth, Admiral Kim observes President Obama's arrival on the Vineyard and later practicing his golf swing at the presidential retreat before hitting the links. Kim was heard to giggle "He swing club like girl 6 year old"

Periscope reconnaissance photo of First Lady Michelle Obama 
as she leisurely wades in the surf of Martha's Vineyard beach

Periscope reconnaissance photo of who the DPRK Naval Intelligence
believes to be Barack Obama. Debate rages in the North Korean
intelligence community as to whether this is really the President,
or just some goofy looking skinny black guy with no balls wandering
around the golf course near the Presidential retreat

Stay Tuned to Middle Finger News for any developments 

on the latest taxpayer funded Obama Vacation.

Bulletin: U.S.State Department 01/13/2016

"US. Secretary of State John Kerry telephoned counterparts in Tehran, convinced the Iranians that the ships' movement was an accident and was not an intentional violation of Iran's territorial waters." - @NBCNews

UPDATE: James Taylor in route to Tehran with written apology, the newest porn releases and will serenade Iranian Military Commanders........ Developing.

Hey Iran, you have exactly 300 days left to push a US president around. Enjoy it while you can. After that, there will be hell to pay.

— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) January 12, 2016

Beware! Are Lefties in Hollywood Messing with the Classic Movies?

Diogenes - Sunday 6/16

One of my favorite things is curling up late at night and watching old classic movies. First, they just had to colorize some classics, but recently, I noticed something I'd never seen before.

Things started appearing in the background of some old movies that weren't there before........

LOOK FOR YOURSELVES

AND SEE WHAT I MEAN.

Here's a shot from David Butler's 1930's 
futurist classic 'Just Imagine'  

...and a scene from a classic silent horror movie 
from the 1930s

....a shot from Charlie Chaplain's
'Little Dictator '

....this from 'Picture of Dorian Grey'

Not even the foreign movies are safe from these guys
....this from an old Ingrid Bergman flick.

a scene from Fritz Lang's
silent epic 'Metropolis'

a scene from  
'Bride of John Kerry Frankenstein'

.....and they're even messing with the
freakin' 'Phantom of the Opera'!

Have these people no shame!!!!!

___________________________________________

That Time Kim Jong Un Visited Martha's Vineyard.

Back before he became a permanent resident of the island, Barky Obama was known to bundling his extended tribe, advisors, 82% of the Secret Service and sympathetic journalist and swoop in and disrupt the beleaguered island known as "Hollywood East" during August.  It was 8 nightmarish days and nights of shut down roads and restricted movement for inhabitants of Martha’s Vineyard, who, from previous visits residents had come to liken the Obama vacation/birthday invasion to an Outbreak of Herpes.

In 2014, there were other uninvited guests to the area and our own DMF/MIDDLE FINGER NEWS SERVICE INTERNATIONAL broke the exclusive story:

MFNS Archives August 9, 2014

North Korea Spies on Obama's Martha's Vineyard Vacation

EXCLUSIVE PHOTOS:

(MFNS Pyongyang) -The North Korean News Agency announced moments ago that the DPRK Navy had successfully completed a secret spy mission purposely directed at the  arrival  of the Presidential entourage on Martha's Vineyard. Nork News said the mission involved the DPRK Navy's first long voyage of their newest secret weapon, a propane/electric hybrid powered long range "Dung Class" submarine.  (photos below)

A Military spokesman said the submarine was able to penetrate the Nantucket Sound under the cover of darkness Friday morning and navigate in daylight the coastal waters of Martha's Vineyard by running shallow while towing a cardboard cutout of Secretary of State John Kerry on a windsurfing board, assuring no one would pay any attention or come near.

The newest addition to the DPRK arsenals secret voyage was commanded by the North Korean Supreme Leader himself, 1st Admiral Kim Jong Un. The mission included spending 18 hours off Cape Cod Friday to gather intelligence and two undetected passes through the Vineyard Sound in daylight on Saturday.

The major news agencies remain skeptical of the story, but MFNS have obtained exclusive Nork Naval photos taken on the mission as proof the North Koreans did indeed pull off the spy mission undetected.

{Photos Courtesy of North Korean Navy}

North Korean Sub 001 surfaces the morning of Aug 8 off the coast of Cape Cod near the
Kennedy Compound to check for intelligence (sources said none was found)

Under the cover of thick early morning fog Aug 9, waiting the arrival of the mission target,   
Kim Jung un discusses the days mission strategy with his officers.

Trolling the coast of  Vineyard Sound at periscope depth, Admiral Kim observes President Obama's arrival on the Vineyard and later practicing his golf swing at the presidential retreat before hitting the links. Kim was heard to giggle "He swing club like girl 6 year old"

Periscope reconnaissance photo of First Lady Michelle Obama 
as she leisurely wades in the surf of Martha's Vineyard beach

Periscope reconnaissance photo of who the DPRK Naval Intelligence
believes to be Barack Obama. Debate rages in the North Korean
intelligence community as to whether this is really the President,
or just some goofy looking skinny black guy with no balls wandering
around the golf course near the Presidential retreat

Stay Tuned to Middle Finger News for any developments 

on the latest taxpayer funded Obama Vacation.

~ Thank You WHATFINGER NEWS for the Linkage! ~

Obama Snub: Refuses to Attend Thatcher Funeral

Denise McAllister- 

When he first entered office, President Obama sent back the bust of Winston Churchill. Now he is refusing to attend former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s funeral, and no one serving in his Administration will be going either. Not Vice President Biden, not Michelle, not even Secretary of State John Kerry.

The decision was made before the bombing in Boston.

Who is going? George Shultz and James Baker; both served as Secretary of State while Thatcher was prime minister.

Obama’s snub hasn’t gone unnoticed in Britain. Sir Gerald Howarth, chairman of the Thatcherite Conservative Way Forward group of MPs and peers, said, “The bonds forged between the UK and the US through Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher was instrumental in ending the Cold War and liberating millions of people. That the present administration feels unable to be represented as the world marks the extraordinary contribution Margaret Thatcher made will be a source of disappointment to those who served with her in that great endeavor.”

Former defense secretary Liam Fox, a close ally of Thatcher, said, “I think it would be both surprising and disappointing if after President Obama's fulsome tribute to Lady Thatcher, the American administration did not send a senior serving member to represent them.”

The Republican Party is sending three members of the House of Representatives: Marsha Blackburn, Michele Bachmann, and George Holding. Newt Gingrich will also be attending, along with Dick Cheney and Henry Kissinger. None of the former presidents will be going, including George W. Bush.

As Obama stays home, other world leaders will be in attendance: Stephen Harper of Canada, Italy’s Mario Monti, and Donald Tusk from Poland.

When President Ronald Reagan died in 2004, Margaret Thatcher attended his funeral as did Prince Charles, UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, Mikhail Gorbachev, Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin, French President Jacques Chirac, and Russian President Vladimir Putin, among many others.

John Kerry Travels Back in Time

via Earl of Taint

Top Presidential Experts call Obama 'Overrated' and One of the Worst By 3-1

Word is He's a Pretty Crappy Golfer Too....

Just weeks after Foreign Policy magazine announced the results of its 2014 Ivory Tower survey of 1,615 international relations scholars from 1,375 U.S. colleges naming John Kerry the Least effective U.S. Secretary of State of the past 50 years, the Liberal think tank The Brookings Institution  issues a survey naming Barack Obama as one of the non-great Presidents.

This should not come as news except to your typical mouth breathing progtard....  

Washington Examiner

He’s still viewed as a nice guy, but less than two years before he wraps up two terms in the Oval Office presidential scholars don’t believe President Obama ranks anywhere near history’s greats, making him a mediocre 18th in the line of best to worst.

According to a Brookings Institution survey of American Political Science Association scholars, they put Obama on the worst, not best, list by a margin of nearly three-to-one. Here's how Brookings wrote it: “Those who view Obama as one of the worst American presidents outnumber those who view him as one of the best by nearly a 3-1 margin.”

And, the friendly think tank added, “nearly twice as many respondents view Obama as over-rated than do those who consider him under-rated.”

Overall, Brookings said, “Few think of Obama as an excellent president, while many more rate his presidency quite low, with the bulk of experts appearing to give him a passing grade but not one that would get him on the Dean’s list.”

The survey was sent to 391 members of the American Political Science Association’s Presidents & Executive Politics section, the premier organization of experts of the American presidency, and 162 participated online.

Brookings noted that the polls on Obama’s greatness have never been high, and their survey of presidential experts helps to explain why.

First, they find Obama polarizing. “One area where there is significant expert consensus about the president, however, concerns how polarizing he is viewed as being — only George W. Bush was viewed as more a more polarizing president,” said the blog post.

They also have a muddled view of his military, legislative and diplomatic skills, a far fall from the praise he received early in his first term when he won the Nobel Peace Prize.

“It could be worse for Obama,” adds Brookings. “Barring unforeseen scandal, he’s unlikely to become significantly less popular, and as he enters his post-presidency, he is likely to experience the same slow rise up the greatness polls George W. Bush has had. Whether that is a sluggish climb or more noteworthy, as the case has been with Truman and George H.W. Bush, remains to be seen, but there is still plenty of time left in his presidency to lay the foundation for future claims on the empty spot to the right of Lincoln on Mount Rushmore’s granite façade.”

I know I'm not alone by saying I'm not holding my breath on the Mt. Rushmore thing..... 

Reuters Tells Reporters to Be Honest and Above Board and Just Cover Trump Like Any Other Tin Horn Dictator

The powers that be at Reuters sent their Reports and Reporterettes a staff a memo called "Covering Trump the Reuters Way"outlining how the organization should cover the Trump administration: Pretty much the same as it would any other authoritarian regime where you'd be ridiculously naive to take the government at its word.

How do you cover someone who declares journalists “among the most dishonest human beings on earth” and whose  Pres Sec. called the New York Times to label the press the “opposition party” and to warn the media to “keep its mouth shut and just listen”? So what's the answer? Avoid the administration? Oppose it? Trade flattering coverage for access?  Heck no: Just cover Trump’s America like you would a bunch of the other places Reuters works from.

"Reuters is a global news organization that reports independently in more than 100 countries, including many in which the media is unwelcome and frequently under attack. I am perpetually proud of our work in places such as Turkey, the Philippines, Egypt, Iraq, Yemen, Thailand, China, Zimbabwe, and Russia, nations in which we sometimes encounter some combination of censorship, legal prosecution, visa denials, and even physical threats to our journalists."

Not that he’s saying the Trump administration is anything like those places. (Wink Wink) Just reminding reporters that they're there. Duh! And even in those difficult environments for reporting, which are not being directly compared to the Trump White House, oh, certainly not, the basics of good journamalism still apply: Get solid facts and report fairly.

So The Powers That Be at Reuters offer some Do’s and Don’ts for reporting on the Trump regime. Here are some of the Do’s:

*Become ever-more resourceful: If one door to information closes, open another one.

Or as they say in the business, make it up and use "Unnamed Sources" 

* Give up on hand-outs and worry less about official access. They were never all that valuable anyway. Our coverage of Iran has been outstanding, and we have virtually no official access. What we have are sources.

Yeah, we remember their coverage about how great Barky and John Kerry handled the Iran Nuclear deal, don't we?

* Get out into the country and learn more about how people live, what they think, what helps and hurts them, and how the government and its actions appear to them, not to us. Find out what the ordinary American thinks. If you're assigned a government “minder,” be careful to avoid putting the ordinary folk you interview in peril of retribution. Try to find chances to speak to people when you're not under surveillance. Be aware that in the course of pursuing ordinary journalism you may be arrested and executed for espionage. 

Washington, Tehran, not really that different.

And then there are the Dont’s:

* Don’t pick unnecessary fights or make the story about us. We may care about the inside baseball but the public generally doesn't and might not be on our side even if it did. 

* Don’t vent publicly about what might be understandable day-to-day frustration. In countless other countries, we keep our own counsel so we can do our reporting without being suspected of personal animus. We need to do that in the U.S., too.

* Don’t take too dark a view of the reporting environment: It’s an opportunity for us to practice the skills we’ve learned in much tougher places around the world and to lead by example — and therefore to provide the freshest, most useful, and most illuminating information and insight of any news organization anywhere.

Translation: Yes, the weather's nicer in Mombasa this time of year, but you can still do good reporting without whining about how Sean Spicer never answers your questions. Remember people, we have to set a good example for the rest of the journalists. Maybe there's even hope for CNN (Just kidding!).  And no, you can't put the necessary bribes for access to disenchanted left over Obama administration appointees and potential Trump back stabbers on your expense account. Okay, if you do, just be sure and log it as “office supplies.”

Obama Flexes His Muscle

During a telephone call with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Secretary of State John Kerry "made clear" that if Russia did not take steps to de-escalate in eastern Ukraine and move its troops back from Ukraine's border, there would be additional consequences.  

The Consequences? Obama is sending Joe Biden  to Ukraine later this month. 

Biden's visit is meant to signal to Vladimir Putin the latest developments in eastern Ukraine, where pro-Russian separatists with the support of Moscow continue an orchestrated campaign of incitement and sabotage to destabilize the Ukrainian state, is unacceptable. 

Wonder if they will paint a red line down the middle of Biden's face......

Obama Proving an Embarrassing Amateur on the World Stage

The Telegraph - Nile Gardiner
"George W. Bush was widely mocked by the Left during the Iraq War, with liberals jeering at the “coalition of the willing,” which included in its ranks some minnows such as Moldova and Kazkhstan. Michael Moore, in his rather silly documentary Fahrenheit 9/11, went to great lengths to lampoon the Iraq War alliance. But the coalition also contained, as I pointed out in Congressional testimony back in 2007, Great Britain, Australia, Spain, Italy, Poland, and 16 members of the NATO alliance, as well as Japan and South Korea. In Europe, France and Germany were the only large-scale countries that sat the war out, with 12 of the 25 members of the European Union represented. The coalition, swelled to roughly 40 countries, and was one of the largest military coalitions ever assembled.

 As it stands, President Obama’s proposed military coalition on Syria has a grand total of two members – the US and France. And the French, as we know from Iraq, simply can’t be relied on, and have very limited military capability.
It is a truly embarrassing state of affairs when Paris, at best a fair weather friend, is your only partner. John Kerry tried to put a brave face on it at his press conference today, by referring to France “as our oldest ally,” but the fact remains that his administration is looking painfully isolated.

There can be no doubt that David Cameron’s defeat in the House of Commons was a huge blow to President Obama, and has dominated the US news networks this morning. The absence of Britain in any American-led military action significantly weakens Obama’s position on the world stage, and dramatically undercuts the Obama administration. The vote reflected not only a lack of confidence in the Commons in the prime minister’s Syria strategy, it also demonstrated a striking lack of confidence in Barack Obama and US leadership.

In marked contrast to Obama, President Bush invested a great deal of time and effort in cultivating ties with key US allies, especially Britain. The Special Relationship actually mattered to George W. Bush. For Barack Obama it has been a mere blip on his teleprompter...." - Read More 

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