Saturday, December 31, 2016
2016 was the year of the deplorables
My father was a member of the Silent Majority and had
he been alive he would’ve cast his vote for Donald J. Trump. He
would’ve been one of those people Hillary Clinton called a "deplorable."
I’ve lived in New York City for more than a decade now – and I’ve seen firsthand the contempt for country folks like my father – people from rural America.
Click here to pre-order Todd’s new book, “The Deplorables’ Guide to Making America Great Again”!
As I write in my new book, “The Deplorables’ Guide to Making America Great Again,” I feel like a "Duck Dynasty" guy living in a "Modern Family" world – where right is wrong, wrong is right – it’s as if our values have been turned upside down.
President Obama called us "bitter." He said we were the kinds of people who cling to guns and religion.
Time and time again he stood on foreign soil and apologized for our nation. And to this day it remains unclear whether he believes the United States is the most exceptional nation on Earth.
And how can we forget what Miss Hillary said?
"To just be grossly generalistic, you can put half of Trump supporters into what I call the 'basket of deplorables. Right? Racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic, you name it."
The only thing deplorable was Hillary Clinton's basket of grossly generalistic comments.
"And unfortunately, there are people like that and he has lifted them up," she went on to say. "He has given voice to their websites that used to only have 11,000 people, now have 11 million. He tweets and retweets offensive, hateful, mean-spirited rhetoric."
Her campaign portrayed conservative Catholicism as a “bastardization of the faith” and seemed to imply that Evangelicals are a bunch of impoverished country bumpkins.
We were mocked by Hollywood and dismissed by academics. We were marginalized by the media – bullied and belittled by sex and gender revolutionaries.
But all that changed on Election Day – when Donald Trump became a champion for the Silent Majority. He gave us a voice. And now the Silent Majority is silent no more.
We the People have decided that it’s time to drain the swamp.
It’s time to restore traditional values. It’s time to protect the Constitution. It’s time to defend our sovereignty. It’s time to save unborn babies.
It’s time to stand up for the American working man (and woman) and bring jobs back from China and Mexico. It’s time to eradicate the scourge of ObamaCare.
And that, my friends, is the top story of 2016.
Todd Starnes is host of Fox News & Commentary, heard on hundreds of radio stations. His latest book is “The Deplorables’ Guide to Making America Great Again.” Follow Todd on Twitter @ToddStarnes and find him on Facebook.
I’ve lived in New York City for more than a decade now – and I’ve seen firsthand the contempt for country folks like my father – people from rural America.
Click here to pre-order Todd’s new book, “The Deplorables’ Guide to Making America Great Again”!
As I write in my new book, “The Deplorables’ Guide to Making America Great Again,” I feel like a "Duck Dynasty" guy living in a "Modern Family" world – where right is wrong, wrong is right – it’s as if our values have been turned upside down.
President Obama called us "bitter." He said we were the kinds of people who cling to guns and religion.
Time and time again he stood on foreign soil and apologized for our nation. And to this day it remains unclear whether he believes the United States is the most exceptional nation on Earth.
And how can we forget what Miss Hillary said?
"To just be grossly generalistic, you can put half of Trump supporters into what I call the 'basket of deplorables. Right? Racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic, you name it."
The only thing deplorable was Hillary Clinton's basket of grossly generalistic comments.
"And unfortunately, there are people like that and he has lifted them up," she went on to say. "He has given voice to their websites that used to only have 11,000 people, now have 11 million. He tweets and retweets offensive, hateful, mean-spirited rhetoric."
Her campaign portrayed conservative Catholicism as a “bastardization of the faith” and seemed to imply that Evangelicals are a bunch of impoverished country bumpkins.
We were mocked by Hollywood and dismissed by academics. We were marginalized by the media – bullied and belittled by sex and gender revolutionaries.
But all that changed on Election Day – when Donald Trump became a champion for the Silent Majority. He gave us a voice. And now the Silent Majority is silent no more.
We the People have decided that it’s time to drain the swamp.
It’s time to restore traditional values. It’s time to protect the Constitution. It’s time to defend our sovereignty. It’s time to save unborn babies.
It’s time to stand up for the American working man (and woman) and bring jobs back from China and Mexico. It’s time to eradicate the scourge of ObamaCare.
And that, my friends, is the top story of 2016.
Todd Starnes is host of Fox News & Commentary, heard on hundreds of radio stations. His latest book is “The Deplorables’ Guide to Making America Great Again.” Follow Todd on Twitter @ToddStarnes and find him on Facebook.
North Carolina gov.-elect sues over law stripping his powers
North Carolina's incoming Democratic governor sued Friday over a new law passed by Republican legislators to limit his powers as he prepares to take office.
In his lawsuit, Gov.-elect Roy Cooper asks a Wake County judge to block a law that ends the control governors exert over statewide and county election boards from taking effect Sunday, when he'll be sworn in.
The lawsuit says the Republican-led legislature's radical changes two weeks ago to the administration of election laws are unconstitutional because they violate separation of powers.
The changes convert the state elections board from one that governors have controlled into a bipartisan body with equal numbers of Republicans and Democrats. County election boards would have two members from each party, rather than the current three members with a majority from the governor's party.
On Friday afternoon, a judge was hearing arguments by lawyers representing Cooper who are seeking an emergency ruling to halt the law from taking effect.
In a statement, Cooper argued that the new law could create longer lines at polling places, less early voting and general difficulty for voters.
"This complex new law passed in just two days by the Republican legislature is unconstitutional and anything but bipartisan," he said. "A tie on a partisan vote would accomplish what many Republicans want: making it harder for North Carolinians to vote."
But the Republican leader in the state Senate, Phil Berger, released a statement saying Cooper was trying to preserve his own power, not do what's best for voters.
"Given the recent weeks-long uncertainty surrounding his own election, the governor-elect should understand better than anyone why North Carolinians deserve a system they can trust will settle election outcomes fairly and without the taint of partisanship," he said.
Cooper's lawsuit makes good on his previous threats to take Republicans to court over laws passed during two December special sessions. Another of the laws requires Cooper's Cabinet choices to be confirmed by legislators. The state constitution gives the Senate the ability to "advise and consent" to the governor's appointees by a majority vote, but that provision hadn't been used in at least several decades.
Cooper won the November election against outgoing Republican Gov. Pat McCrory by about 10,000 votes. The transition was made bumpier by a protracted debate over vote-counting. McCrory didn't concede until a month after the election.
Obama's full-blown, year-end temper tantrum
Let’s be honest: President Obama is throwing a good old-fashioned foot-stomping world class temper tantrum. He is just beside himself that the stupid American voter elected Donald Trump. How could the country willfully dismiss the erudite recommendation of nearly every news organization in the nation – as well as Obama’s personal plea that not electing Hillary would be a personal insult to him? How could young people not respond to Obama’s call to “bend the arc of history in a better direction?” It is beyond comprehension.
But it happened, and Obama is having an extremely difficult time dealing with what may be his first-ever serious setback. This is a man described by his closest advisor, Valerie Jarrett, as “just too talented to do what ordinary people do.” More flattering, Jarrett noted that “I think Barack knew that he had God-given talents that were extraordinary. He knows exactly how smart he is. …” He is so smart, said Jarrett, that “he’s been bored to death his whole life.”
Very few people surround themselves with people capable of such uncompromising adoration. It isn’t healthy. But Obama is different. He has been told over and over – even by the Nobel Committee that awarded him their coveted Peace Prize on spec– that he is extraordinary. So when a man like The Donald bests him, a man Obama clearly considers a joke, he is undone.
That is certainly the way he is behaving. Not for Obama the normal gracious withdrawal into political stasis; no, he wants to prove in these waning weeks of his presidency that he was right all along. That his agenda is what The People want, even if they don’t know it. That putting America’s valuable natural resources permanently off limits is the correct thing to do, because only Obama can see the future. That taking over vast swatches of the west is in the best interests of the reluctant residents there, because only Obama will protect our environment. That publicly confronting Russia for cyber misbehavior after years of looking the other way is called for, even if it complicates diplomacy in a number of theaters. Because Obama knows best.
He also knows what is best for Israelis. Upending long-standing tradition, he has allowed our only true ally – and the only democracy -- in the Middle East to be further isolated and compromised, in the interests, we are told, of seeking a meaningful peace. The reality is that Obama fully expected that by dint of his winning personality, superior insight and sympathy for the Muslim people, to conquer the divides in that region.
He was shocked that his Cairo speech did not cause the waters to part, and the wounds to heal. And he is angry that, in his mind, Bibi Netanyahu has stood between him and fulfilling this key legacy achievement. As he revealed in 2010 to an interviewer with Time magazine, “[Getting peace in the Middle East] is just really hard”; notably, this came as a surprise.
Make no mistake: we do need to rein in Russian misbehavior. Putin is a dangerous adversary and should never have been allowed out of the penalty box inflicted by drooping oil prices. But, Obama gave him running room by putting him in charge of the Syrian debacle and making him a key figure in the Iran nuke deal. So important were those quests to Obama that our president chose to ignore Moscow’s serial aggressions and misbehavior. Indeed, after the conclusion of the Iran accord, Obama called Putin to thank him for his help. Is it any wonder that an emboldened Putin felt he could act out his hostility to Hillary Clinton?
Obama is having a difficult time passing the baton, because he thinks the baton should be his in perpetuity. Unlike most of his predecessors, Obama intends to stay involved in his party’s politics, and to continue living in the nation’s capital, better to keep his finger on the pulse. Whether Democrats want him involved, since after eight years of his leadership the party’s pulse is barely discernible, remains to be seen.
Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin has once again outfoxed President Obama. His response to Obama’s eviction of 35 diplomats and other grave-sounding but ultimately unimportant retaliatory measures? Instead of engaging in traditional diplomatic tit for tat, the Russian leader has invited the children of U.S. diplomats to the Kremlin for a holiday party. Who looks like the adult in the room?
Trump praises Putin over response to US sanctions, calls him 'very smart'
President-elect Donald Trump took to Twitter Friday to praise Russian President Vladimir Putin for not retaliating against new penalties imposed by the Obama administration for Russia's alleged interference in the U.S. election – going so far as to call Putin “very smart.”
“Great move on delay (by V. Putin) - I always knew he was very smart!” Trump tweeted.
The tweet comes after Putin announced earlier in the day that he would not kick out American diplomats despite President Obama’s announcement Thursday that his administration will expel 35 Russian intelligence operatives and close down two Russian compounds in Maryland and New York, among other actions.
Trump later sent another tweet that criticized two major networks while prasing Fox News.
While the Russian premier condemned the sanctions imposed on his country, calling them “unfriendly,” he said he would not retaliate and was instead looking to rebuild Russian-U.S. relations with the incoming Trump administration.
"We will not expel anyone. We will not prevent their families and children from using their traditional leisure sites during the New Year's holidays. Moreover, I invite all children of U.S. diplomats accredited in Russia to the New Year and Christmas children's parties in the Kremlin," Putin added.
Trump has taken heat for not criticizing Putin, and for doubting U.S. intelligence suggesting the Russians interfered in the election to sway the vote Trump’s way. Trump called for the U.S ”to move on to bigger and better things” in a statement Thursday in response to the Obama sanctions.
The restrained response from Putin was a marked contrast from noises from the Kremlin earlier Friday, when Putin’s deputies pushed for a stronger response. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called for Russia to kick out a group of U.S. diplomats, and suggested blocking the Americans from using their summer retreat on the outskirts of Moscow and a warehouse south of Moscow. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev charged earlier in the day that the outgoing administration has become immersed in "anti-Russian death throes."
Trump has said he is keeping an open mind on the issue, and will meet with leaders in the intelligence community next week in order to be updated on the issue.
Obama also announced Thursday that the U.S. had sanctioned the GRU and the FSB -- two of Russia's intelligence services as well as other entities and individuals associated with the GRU. The cybersecurity firm hired by the Democratic National Committee to investigate the hack of its emails earlier this year concluded the hacking came from the Fancy Bear group, believed to be affiliated with the GRU, Russia's military intelligence agency.
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