Who announces regulations on one of the top selling products of the year just before Christmas— the Obama Administration, of course! Donald Scarinci, PolitickerNJ Read more
Obama is the Drone Market Grinch
Tag: Obama
Obamanomics : Middle class Americans ‘no longer majority’
Middle class Americans ‘no longer majority’
Anmar Frangoul | Special to CNBC.com
CNBC.com
Middle class Americans are now outnumbered by those above and below them and are “falling behind financially”, according to new analysis of government data by the Pew Research Center.
The beginning of 2015 saw 120.8 million adults living in middle-income homes, compared with 121.3 million Americans living in lower and upper income households, a significant shift that “could signal a tipping point.”
According to Pew’s report, the 21st century has seen “middle-income Americans” fall behind financially. The median income of middle income households fell by 4 percent between the year 2000 and 2014, while median wealth – assets minus debts – fell by 28 percent between 2001 and 2013.
In 2015, 9 percent of Americans were seen as being in the highest income tier, “more than double the 4 percent share in 1971.” The percentage of American adults in the lowest income tier has also risen, from 16 percent in 1971 to 20 percent in 2015.
In 2015 12 percent of adults were living in the upper middle tier, up from 10 percent in 1971. Nine percent were seen as being in the lower middle tier, unchanged from 1971.
https://www.cnbc.com/2015/12/10/middle-class-americans-no-longer-majority.html
ATTORNEY GENERAL TELLS MUSLIM PRO-TERRORISTS SHE WILL CRACK DOWN ON ANTI-MUSLIM RHETORIC
Obama’s Attorney General stands with advocates for terrorists in support of censoring criticism of Islam
December 4, 2015
Daniel Greenfield
While in San Bernardino children wept for fathers who would never come home after the latest Muslim terror attack, Attorney General Loretta Lynch put on some chic clothes to gab with Muslim Advocates, a Muslim group that had become notorious for its aggressive obstruction of Justice Department investigations into Muslim terrorism.
Muslim Advocates, headed by Farhana Khera, who peppered a smiling Lynch with questions about “anti-Muslim rhetoric”, had played a significant role in crippling DOJ investigations of Islamic terrorism by eliminating training materials about Islamic terrorism.
Khera had vocally opposed the sorts of sting operations that had succeeded in capturing a number of ISIS terror plotters before they were able to act. A similar sting might have stopped the San Bernardino massacre. She had opposed the FBI recruiting informants and supported Muslim leaders linked to terrorism. She had even defended terror charities like the Holy Land Foundation.
And she and another Muslim Advocates figure had urged Muslims not to provide information to the FBI. “Any information you provide to the FBI can be used as the basis for further surveillance and investigation of your community,” a Muslim Advocates lawyer had said. “So you really don’t want to be putting yourself in a situation where you’re providing anybody with information about people in your community that the FBI is now gonna follow up and start investigating those people.”
But instead of showing respect to the American victims of terrorism, Attorney General Lynch went to a pro-terror group and promised to crack down on the real threat. Anti-Muslim rhetoric.
“Obviously the incidents in Paris were a tragedy,” Lynch conceded, but her focus was on Islamophobia.
“Certainly in the wake of Paris, which as a part of Europe has been grappling with anti-Muslim rhetoric for some time now because of smaller incidents, this large one is really their equivalent of 9/11, and certainly as we saw here in the US, an incredibly disturbing rise in anti-Muslim rhetoric,” Lynch said.
Murdoch unloads on Kerry, Obama, the left
By BLAKE HOUNSHELL
11/30/15 11:11 PM EST
News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch, in a discursive speech Monday evening, blasted Secretary of State John Kerry and attacked the left for creating an “identity crisis” that he charged has undermined American strength and fostered terrorism around the world.
And he drew a connection between U.S. foreign policy and domestic culture, arguing that “in recent years, there has been far too much institutionalization of grievance and victimhood.”
The Australian-born media mogul, a naturalized U.S. citizen, also touched on the Republican presidential primary, which he said “has articulated a deep distaste for the slow descent of our country.”
“Before delivering my modest message,” Murdoch joked at the outset of his address accepting the Hudson Institute’s Global Leadership Award, “I feel obliged to alert college students, progressive academics and all other deeply sensitive souls that these words may contain phrases and ideas that challenge your prejudices — in other words, I formally declare this room an ‘unsafe space.’”
After a few words of praise for former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who had just introduced him to the hawkish think-tank crowd, Murdoch quickly pivoted to a sweeping indictment of U.S. foreign policy under Barack Obama, though he did not mention the president by name.
“For a U.S. secretary of state to suggest that Islamic terrorists had a ‘rationale’ in slaughtering journalists is one of the low points of recent Western diplomacy and it is indicative of a serious malaise,” Murdoch said, referring to Kerry’s recent mangled attempt to draw a distinction between the assault on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and the more recent Paris attacks. “For America to be embarrassed by its exceptionalism is itself exceptional and absolutely unacceptable.” (Kerry quickly walked back those comments, remarking the next day that “such atrocities can never be rationalized, and we can never allow them to be rationalized.”)
Read more: https://www.politico.com/story/2015/11/henry-kissinger-rupert-murdoch-fox-216294#ixzz3t6CBwAIb
It’s time for Obama to make a choice: Lead us or resign
By Michael Goodwin
November 14, 2015 | 10:01pm
In any time and place, war is fiendishly simple. It is the ultimate zero-sum contest — you win or you lose.
That eternal truth is so obvious that it should not need to be said. Yet even after the horrific slaughter in Paris, there remains a distressing doubt about whether America’s commander in chief gets it.
President Obama has spent the last seven years trying to avoid the world as it is. He has put his intellect and rhetorical skills into the dishonorable service of assigning blame and fudging failure. If nuances were bombs, Islamic State would have been destroyed years ago.
He refuses to say “Islamic terrorism,” as if that would offend the peaceful Muslims who make up the vast bulk of victims. He rejects the word “war,” even as jihadists carry out bloodthirsty attacks against Americans and innocent peoples around the world.
He shuns the mantle of global leadership that comes with the Oval Office, with an aide advancing the preposterous concept that Obama is “leading from behind.” He snubs important partners like Egypt, showers concessions on the apocalyptic mullahs of Iran, and called the Islamic State the “jayvee team” even as it was beginning to create a caliphate.
https://nypost.com/2015/11/14/its-time-for-obama-to-make-a-choice-lead-us-or-resign/
Cruz: Obama is ‘not interested’ in protecting the U.S.
November 14, 2015, 05:04 pm
By Devin Henry
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) says he thinks President Obama is “not interested” in protecting the United States from terror attacks.
“I recognize that Barack Obama does not wish to defend this country. He may have been tired of war, but our enemies are not tired of killing us,” Cruz said in a “Fox and Friends” interview.
“They are getting stronger. Every region on Earth has gotten worse under the Obama-Clinton foreign policy.”
Cruz, a 2016 Republican presidential candidate, accused the president of ignoring the threats posed by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in light of a coordinated set of attacks in Paris on Friday.
He said Obama and Hillary Clinton, the leading Democratic presidential candidate, are “ideologues” who “don’t recognize that enemies of America want to kill us.”
Cruz’s interview came after an attack in Paris left at least 129 people dead Friday. ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Thousands set to protest Obama in Roseburg, Oregon, on Friday
October 9, 201512:01 AM MST
On Friday, President Barack Obama plans to visit the community of Roseburg, Oregon, home of Umpqua Community College, the school that has become “ground zero” in the most recent gun control debate. But the president’s visit has raised the ire of many who believe his trip is intended to advance his gun control agenda. As of late Thursday, nearly 7,900 people have said they intend to protest Obama’s visit. On Thursday, Seattle’s KING-5 said that multiple protests are planned for the day, with at least two being held by the Douglas County Tea Party to show support for County Sheriff John Hanlin.
Early Thursday, the Facebook event “Defend Roseburg — Deny Barack Obama” boasted over 6,500 possible attendees. That number significantly increased in the course of the day, with the event gaining support nationwide. It is uncertain exactly how many of those will actually show up, however, as a number have said they are coming from California and elsewhere.
Event organizers have also announced protests in two separate locations. They intend to stay away from the funerals and some may bring firearms, they added, suggesting that those who come armed carry handguns as opposed to rifles.
https://www.examiner.com/article/thousands-set-to-protest-obama-roseburg-oregon-on-friday
How 7 years of Obama brought the world from Kumbaya to chaos
By Post Editorial Board
October 3, 2015 | 6:27pm
Just three years ago, President Obama famously ridiculed GOP opponent Mitt Romney’s statement that Russia remained America’s main geopolitical foe by taunting: “The 1980s are calling to ask for their foreign policy back.”
Four years before that, Obama stood at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate to declare that once he became president, all people would join him around a global campfire, hold hands and put an end to the world’s evils and miseries.
Well, seven years into Obama’s presidency, the promised worldwide Kumbaya is instead global chaos — caused in large measure by his willful retreat from America’s position of leadership.
Washington’s traditional allies increasingly feel abandoned, its enemies emboldened. The United States isn’t even leading from behind — it’s cowering in weakness.
And no one is taking better advantage of this than Vladimir Putin, now storming headlong into the yawning chasm of American retreat and reasserting Russia’s global influence and power — just as Mitt Romney said.
Putin remains unchallenged in his invasion of Ukraine, leaving him free to intervene — again unchallenged — in the Middle East.
In Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, Obama’s outreach to the Muslim world hasn’t ended the threat of terrorism. On the contrary, it has seen the rise of “JV team” ISIS and new power for the Taliban. Israelis and Palestinians remain as far apart as ever — because only Israel has been targeted to make concessions.
This president accuses his political foes of wanting to wage war as their first option and warns of the limits of unilateral military power.
But in his eagerness to leave office as the president who ended America’s wars, he refuses to consider any use (or even a credible threat) of US force — even when hundreds of thousands are being massacred in Syria, many by the chemical weapons he claimed to eliminate.
Obama has turned Putin into the world’s most powerful leader
By Benny Avni
September 29, 2015 | 1:21am
The baton was officially transferred Monday to the world’s new sole superpower — and Vladimir Putin willingly picked it up.
President Obama (remember him?) embraced the ideals espoused by the United Nations’ founders 70 years ago: Diplomacy and “international order” will win over time, while might and force will lose.
Putin, too, appealed to UN laws (as he sees them), but he also used his speech to announce the formation of a “broad international coalition” to fight ISIS in Syria and Iraq.
“Similar to the anti-Hitler coalition, it could unite a broad range of forces” to fight “those who, just like the Nazis, sow evil and hatred of humankind,” he said.
And who’d lead this new coalition? Hint: Moscow has always celebrated the Allies’ World War II victory as a Russian-led fete.
Oh, and if anyone wondered which Syrian players the coalition would rely on as allies, Putin made it clear: “No one but President [Bashar al-]Assad’s armed forces and Kurd militia are fighting the Islamic State.”
That, of course, isn’t Obama’s view. America’s president said he opposed the “logic of supporting tyrants.” After all, Assad “drops barrel bombs on innocent children.”
But Putin has troops in Syria, is arming Assad to the teeth and signed a pact of anti-ISIS intelligence-sharing with Assad, Iran and the leaders of Iraq (the ones America fought to put in power).
https://nypost.com/2015/09/29/obama-has-turned-putin-into-the-worlds-most-powerful-leader/
PIPES: Obama: ‘My Muslim faith’
President uses pious expressions with Muslims
By Daniel Pipes – – Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Editor’s Note: In this third of a five-part series, Middle East and Islam specialist Daniel Pipes continues his documentation of Barack Obama’s close ties to the Islamic religion, focusing here on statements he made as an adult.
Several statements by Barack Obama in recent years point to his Muslim childhood.
(1) Robert Gibbs, campaign communications director for PresidentObama’s first presidential race, asserted in January 2007: “Sen. Obamahas never been a Muslim, was not raised a Muslim, and is a committed Christian who attends the United Church of Christ in Chicago.” But he backtracked in March 2007, asserting that Mr. Obama “has never been a practicing Muslim.” By focusing on the practice as a child, the campaign is raising a nonissue, for Muslims (like Jews) do not consider practice central to religious identity. Mr. Gibbs added, according to a paraphrase by Paul Watson of the Los Angeles Times, that “as a child, Obama had spent time in the neighborhood’s Islamic center.” Clearly, “the neighborhood’s Islamic center” is a euphemism for a mosque. Spending time there again points to Mr. Obama’s being a Muslim.
(2) He may have made faces and horsed around in Koran class, but Mr. Obama learned how to pray the salat, a form of ritual worship, in religion class. Pak Effendi, his former teacher at Besuki, his school in Jakarta, Indonesia, recalls that he would “join the other pupils for Muslim prayers.” Praying the salat in and of itself made Mr. Obama a Muslim. Furthermore, he still proudly retains knowledge from that long-ago class. In March 2007, Nicholas D. Kristof of the New York Times witnessed asMr. Obama “recalled the opening lines of the Arabic call to prayer, reciting them [to Mr. Kristof] with a first-rate accent.” Mr. Obama recited not the salat itself but the adhan, the call to prayer (typically chanted from minarets). The second and third lines of the adhan constitute the Islamic declaration of faith, the shahada, the very utterance of which makes one a Muslim. The full adhan in its Sunni iteration (skipping the repetitions) goes as follows:
God is the greatest.
I testify that there is no deity but God.
I testify that Muhammad is the messenger of God.
Come to prayer.
Come to success.
God is the greatest.
There is no deity except God.
In the eyes of Muslims, reciting the adhan in class in 1970 made Mr. Obama a Muslim then — and doing so again for a journalist in 2007 once again made Mr. Obama a Muslim.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/sep/11/obama-my-muslim-faith/?page=all
GALLUP: 75% in U.S. See Widespread Government Corruption
75% in U.S. See Widespread Government Corruption
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Three in four Americans (75%) last year perceived corruption as widespread in the country’s government. This figure is up from two in three in 2007 (67%) and 2009 (66%).
While the numbers have fluctuated slightly since 2007, the trend has been largely stable since 2010. However, the percentage of U.S. adults who see corruption as pervasive has never been less than a majority in the past decade, which has had no shortage of controversies from theU.S. Justice Department’s firings of U.S. attorneys to the IRS scandal.
https://www.gallup.com/poll/185759/widespread-government-corruption.aspx
Obama’s shameful appeasement of Iran
By Robert B. Davis
President Obama is implementing the Iran nuclear agreement, or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), with Machiavellian, unconstitutional stratagems. He circumvented the Constitution by not submitting the agreement as a treaty, whose ratification would require a two-thirds Senate majority. He enshrined the accord in international law at the UN Security Council, presenting Congress with a fait accompli.
Congress could only review the JCPOA and related agreements and accept or reject Obama’s waver of Iran sanctions. Congress never received the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)’s confidential agreements with Iran, containing the inspection regime, as required by the Corker-Cardin bill passed earlier in 2015. Congress opposed the agreement, but the President will uphold it, with the House of Representatives failing to achieve a veto-proof majority. Senate Democrats already defeated one cloture motion, likely denying Senators any vote at all.
These unsavory tactics were Obama’s only recourse. The one-sided deal is unpopular. Iran committed to cutting centrifuges by almost two-thirds, as well as reducing uranium enrichment from 20 percent to 3.67 percent and enriched uranium to 300 kilograms. It agreed to redesign the Arak heavy water reactor, designed to produce weapons-grade plutonium. However, only declared nuclear sites will be subject to 24/7 inspections. Secretary of State Kerry accepted Ayatollah Khameini and Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif’s refusal to delineate previous efforts to weaponize nuclear technology. Without baseline knowledge, assessments of the potential for nuclear break-out are problematic. Defense Minister Dehgen states he will not allow inspection of military sites.
The IAEA must petition Iran for access to undeclared sites, giving it 24 days to comply. Factoring in dispute resolution, this could mean two to three months. The lifting of sanctions and dispersal of over $100 billion in frozen Iranian assets is front-loaded. Kerry reassured Congress sanctions could be “snapped back,” but the JCPOA states a snap back releases Iran from its obligations. The Europeans are rushing to sign contracts with Iran, and these will be “grandfathered.” Snap back would only be invoked in extreme circumstances. No graduated penalties exist for lesser infractions, meaning no effective enforcement regime exists, encouraging Iran to engage in a “sneak out” strategy.
https://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/foreign-policy/253406-obamas-shameful-appeasement-of-iran
Trump: Iran deal makes us ‘look like fools’
By Mark Hensch
Donald Trump rallied opponents of the Iran nuclear deal at the Capitol on Wednesday, slamming President Obama’s diplomatic pact as an embarrassment to the country.
“We are led by very, very stupid people,” Trump told a crowd gathered on the Capitol’s west lawn.
“We are going to get nothing,” he said of the nuclear deal. “They rip us off, they take our money, they make us look like fools.”
Trump, who has become the front-runner in the GOP race for the White House, said the United States bungled the negotiations over the Iran pact, which will lift sanctions on Iran’s economy in exchange for limits on its nuclear program.
“Never, ever in my lifetime have I seen a transaction negotiated so incompetently,” he said.
“We will have so much winning if I get elected you’ll get bored of winning,” the business mogul added. “We are going to start winning big league.”
Trump wasn’t the only presidential contender on hand for the rally. He was preceded onstage by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), a rival for the 2016 nomination who has at times defended Trump from criticism.
Obama said to give Biden his blessing
August 25, 2015, 10:12 am
By Jesse Byrnes
President Obama has given Vice President Biden his “blessing” to launch a 2016 bid for the White House if he chooses to run, a senior Democrat told CNN on Monday.
Obama and Biden met for a private lunch at the White House on Monday, where the president gave Biden the green light for launching a 2016 bid, CBS News also reported.
While Biden does not need Obama’s permission, the president made it clear to Biden that he would not stand in the way or advise him against running, the senior Democrat told CNN.
https://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/251876-obama-said-to-give-biden-his-blessing
Sen. Menendez Comes Out Against Iran Deal
file photo by Boyd Loving
Will vote no
BY: Adam Kredo
August 18, 2015 12:59 pm
Sen. Bob Menendez (D., N.J.) came out against the recently inked Iran deal on Tuesday and said he would vote to reject it, dealing a major blow to the White House, which has been aggressively lobbying key Democrats to support the accord.
“I have looked into my own soul and my devotion to principle may once again lead me to an unpopular course, but if Iran is to acquire a nuclear bomb, it will not have my name on it,” Menendez said in a major address Tuesday afternoon, according to an advance copy of the text obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
“It is for these reasons that I will vote to disapprove the agreement and, if called upon, would vote to override a veto,” Menendez said.
Menendez joins a growing list of Democratic lawmakers expressing opposition to the deal. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) also has come out against the deal.
The senator, who has led the charge to impose harsh economic sanctions on Iran, said the deal would do little to rein in Iran’s nuclear weapons program and went on to lash out at President Barack Obama’s portrayal of the deal.
https://freebeacon.com/national-security/sen-menendez-comes-out-against-iran-deal/
