PrairiePundit

streiff: ... It is here Congress must step in. Under existing law, Congress can disapprove any regulation. This system is nuts as it makes Congressional will subordinate to the actions of federal bureaucrats. But repealing these regulations is only the first step. The real objective should be to amend the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act to require any regulation produced in regards to those laws receive positive Congressional assent. Non-controversial regulations will breeze through Congress. Regulations classifying your backyard mud puddles as “waters of the United States,” not so much. ... The problem will be dealing the obstruction from Democrats in the Senate.  I think the way to persuade them is to make it clear that Trump appointees will be writing regulations now that they may not like either.

NY Times: Obama Works to Cement Legacy With Eye on Trump With three weeks left in office, President Obama is using all his powers to cement his legacy and make undoing it that much harder for his successor. Every step Mr. Obama takes requires President-elect Donald J. Trump to overcome one more hurdle. This is like stealing the computer keys on steroids.  It is the kind of bad faith we have come to expect from the guy who was willing to lie blatantly to get his terrible health care plan passed and his lack of transparency on his bad Iran deal.  He appears to be determined to go out with a lack of grace.

Stephen Moore: The day after the presidential election the executive director of the Sierra Club glumly called the Donald Trump victory "deeply disturbing for the nation and the planet." Well, yes, if you're a climate change alarmist who hates fossil fuels, you're in for a bad four and maybe eight years. Greenpeace Executive Director Annie Leonard was even more apocalyptic, saying: "I never thought I'd have to write this. The election of Donald Trump as President has been devastating. … There's no question, Donald Trump's climate denial is staggering. He wants to shut down the EPA, cancel the Paris Cimate Agreement, stop funding clean energy research and drill baby drill." Ah, but if this is so crazy, why did he win? The short answer is that Americans went to the polls and rejected environmental extremism among other things. The biggest loser on election night was the Big Green movement in America dedicated to the anti-prosperity propositio...

Naureen Shah: ... People like me — ordinary Americans with Muslim names and ancestry from Muslim-majority countries — fear being put on a watchlist, barred entry into the United States, even banned because of who we are. Many people — African Americans, Jewish Americans, Muslim Americans, immigrants who’ve spent most of their adult lives here — spent the holidays swapping stories of threats, harassment and even violent attacks by fellow Americans who think the election has given them license to act on hatred. ... Kelly must not revive NSEERS (the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System). He is a smart man — he knows that a special registry would make for bad counterterrorism. Law enforcement officials need people to trust them and tip them off, not fear and avoid them. A special registration would send shockwaves through immigrant communities, inviting uncertainty and anxiety, more fear of law enforcement and less safety. ... The program is country specific and woul...

Washington Post: Russian hack of Vermont utility shows risk to power grid, officials say The utility detected malware code associated with the Russian hacking operation dubbed Grizzly Steppe by the Obama administration. The Russians did not actively use the code to disrupt operations of the utility, according to officials, who say they aren't sure what the intentions of the Russians were. I think the Russians' intentions could not be more clear.   At a minimum, they are exposing the US vulnerability to having the power grid shutdown without having to launch and EMP attack.  It is also likely they were practicing for just such an attack should the US ever be in a hot war with the Russians. The "No drama Obama" administration has failed to create a coherent defense to such attacks, and its response to the alleged hacks of the DNC and John Podesta are unlikely to be seen as a deterrent to future cyber attacks on US infrastructure.  The government s...

NY Times: Tim Spell has noticed a peculiar condition that affects Texans’ mental, physical and automotive well-being. “I call it ‘truck-itis,’” said Mr. Spell, the former automotive editor for The Houston Chronicle. “People in Texas will buy trucks even if they’re not going to haul anything heavier than raindrops. I was interviewing one guy. He had a 4-by-4. I said: ‘You live in Houston. Why do you have this 4-by-4?’ He said, ‘Well, I own a bar, and 4-by-4s are higher, and I can climb up on the cab and change out the letters of my marquee.’” Whether for high-up urban letter-switching or more rural and rugged purposes, pickup trucks are to Texas what cowboy boots and oil derricks are to the state — a potent part of the brand. No other state has a bigger influence on the marketing of American pickup trucks. Texas is No. 1 in the country for full-size pickup trucks. More of them were sold in 2015 in the Dallas and Houston areas than in the entire state of California, according to ...

Fuel Fix: The shale boom has made Texas oil land some of the most sought-after in the world. Texas deals account for almost one-quarter of the total money spent on oil-and-gas acreage this year, according to year-end figures gathered by the energy research firm IHS Markit. Texas hasn’t represented such a large portion for 20 years, at least. “Texas and the Permian Basin have proven to be a prime location,” said Chris Sheehan, IHS’s director of transaction research. “But the shale revolution has really unlocked additional resources.” The driving force this year, Sheehan said, was economics. After oil prices crashed in February, U.S. drilling ground to a halt. As they slowly recovered, companies sent rigs to oilfields with the lowest costs and highest returns. West Texas’ Permian Basin became the hottest in the U.S. because its layers of underground hydrocarbons allowed companies to drill efficiently and access vast swaths of oil. Companies wanted into that field. But, since th...

BBC: Israel warns of New Year terror threat in India ... In an unusual move, the warning was published on Friday evening in Israel, after the start of the Jewish Sabbath when government offices close for business. The Counter-Terrorism Bureau urged Israeli families to contact their relatives in India and tell them of the threat. ... India is apparently a popular tourist destination for Israelis, especially those who have just finished their service obligations.  While the Israelis did not mention the source of their warning message, I suspect their intelligence service probably intercepted enemy communications.

NY Times: In a Brutal Year in Venezuela, Even Crime Fighters Are Killers The deaths of people arrested in anti-crime raids point to an alarming aspect in the wave of violence gripping the nation. Along with the failures of its command economy is the utter breakdown of the rule of law.  This is not surprising when the government acts more like a kleptocracy.  It steals fro warehouses and oil companies to feed its government greed.  There should be courses in college showing the evils of socialism using Venezuela as an exhibit.

Washington Examiner: Before moving into the White House, President-elect Trump needs to double check the Oval Office for trip wires. His predecessor has spent the last month springing traps to ensnare the new administration. President Obama has more on his mind than an effort to solidify a legacy and nail down policy. He has adopted a guerrilla strategy designed to defame and debilitate. Inherently political, it's administrative sabotage by extra legislative means and it threatens to hobble Trump. Obama has prepared what looks like a classic episode from Mad Magazine: Executive vs. Executive. Instead of delivering on his own agenda, Trump will be forced to deal from his predecessor's final binge. They could consume a notable portion of Trump's first 100 days, but if left unaddressed would stain his administration long term. To avoid that hazard, an examination of President Clinton's final days in office is helpful. After all, Obama didn't develop these tacti...

Selena Zito: One of the most underreported stories of this year's election cycle was how darn close the race finished in Minnesota for Donald Trump. Yes, Minnesota. The president-elect did not win the North Star State on Election Day, but he was 44,000 votes shy in a state he was supposed to lose by a predicted 8 percentage points. That near-miss shows how red Minnesota has become and illustrates how much the entire Great Lake Rust Belt has changed. Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania all flipped their support from President Obama to Trump. Underreported, too, is how muscular the Republicans have become in the state legislature. The GOP expanded its Minnesota state House majority and won control of the state Senate for the first time in six years. Minnesota is definitely on the same path that Wisconsin was in 2009 when Reince Priebus took over as state party chairman, explained Brad Todd, a Republican strategist and founding partner of OnMessage. "A lot of ...

Daily Mail: The UK Government today launched an unprecedented attack on the US, its closest ally, over John Kerry's condemnation of the Israeli regime as the 'most right-wing in history'. In a highly critical speech on foreign policy yesterday the US Secretary of State criticised Irsaeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu for undermining the two-state solution with his settlement policy in the West Bank. Britain backed a UN Security Council resolution calling for an end to Israel's construction of settlements in the hotly-disputed region but Mr Kerry went further with his strongly-worded personal attack on Mr Netanyahu and his government. A spokesman for Prime Minister Theresa May said it was inappropriate of Mr Kerry, America's top diplomat, to attack the make-up of the democratically-elected Israeli government – a key ally of both the US and Britain. Downing Street also rebuked Mr Kerry for focusing on the single issue of Israeli settlements and not the whole confli...

Express: Rampaging Syrian migrants KICK BABY on bus, then attack paramedics trying to treat child MIGRANTS kicked a one-year-old baby on a bus then attacked paramedics with BELTS as they tried to treat the infant. These people are unworthy of having refugee status and should be deported or air dropped back into Syria.  Germany made a serious mistake in opening its doors to these barbarians.

Louie Gohmert is serious about dealing with the horrible UN resolution on Israel and will also not allow US aid to any country that recognizes a Palestinian state.

Washington Free Beacon: Senior Obama administration officials are scrambling to provide explanations after multiple reports, including in the Washington Free Beacon , identified the White House as being a chief architect of a recent United Nations resolution condemning the state of Israel, according to conversations with multiple former and current U.S. officials. On the heels of the hotly contested resolution, which condemned Israel for building homes in its capital, Jerusalem, senior Obama administration officials, including Secretary of State John Kerry and Vice President Joe Biden, have been identified as leading the charge to ensure the anti-Israel measure won approval by the U.N. Security Council. The administration’s denials of this charge broke down during the past several days as multiple reporters confirmed the Obama administration worked behind-the-scenes to help shape and forward the resolution. The Free Beacon disclosed on Monday that Vice President Joe Biden phone...

Karl Rove: In two interviews over the holidays, President Obama signaled how he’s likely to conduct himself once out of office: whiny, self-justifying and bursting with excuses. ... To illustrate his point, the president claimed that “the whole debate about Obamacare” was framed as “He’s trying to take something from you to give free stuff.” That isn’t what happened. Googling “Obamacare, free stuff” produces about a half a million hits. Searching “like your plan, keep your plan” generates nearly 1,000 times that number. ... The president rarely accepts that people have honest disagreements with his policies. Instead, he insists they are putting party above country and intimates that racism is at the core of much of the opposition of white Americans. Fox News (to which I contribute) may upset Mr. Obama by covering both sides of issues that much of the media ignores. Mr. Limbaugh may discomfort him by entertaining and educating millions. But neither is what led 47% in this electi...

Eli Lake: ... But 2016 is not 1999. In the 1990s and the 2000s, the Middle East had plenty of problems. But its governments remained largely in charge, even after the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Back then the establishment view was that a two-state solution was the key to unlocking stability for the region. The late Israeli leader Shimon Peres used to call this the "new Middle East," where collaboration replaced conflict. Arab allies would finally cooperate with the U.S. if the Palestinians and Israelis could just share Jerusalem. Nobody believes this anymore. Today the Middle East is coming unglued. Syria is no longer much of a state at all. Wars rage in Iraq, Libya and Yemen. Iran is meddling. Russia has entered the region for the first time since the 1970s. The jihadist Islamic State has suffered setbacks, but it still has its caliphate in Raqqa. These conflicts are complex, but they have nothing to do with settlements in the West Bank. ... To think that a two-state solu...

Reuters: After years of running flat out, U.S. Gulf Coast refiners are lining up repairs to plants in 2017 - but facing a severe labor shortage that could delay work, drive up costs and raise accident risks. Fuel producers such as Marathon Petroleum Corp (MPC.N: Quote) and Valero Energy Corp (VLO.N: Quote) have delayed routine work in the past 24 months amid high margins. Those margins collapsed this year in a global fuel supply glut, providing an incentive for refiners to undertake the shutdowns necessary for maintenance. But refiners are now competing for pipe fitters and ironworkers with a host of billion-dollar energy projects, including Cheniere Energy's (LNG.A: Quote) liquefied natural gas export terminals and a new petrochemical unit for Dow Chemical (DOW.N: Quote). Without undertaking the work they need, refineries run the risk of more unscheduled outages at plants. Plant shutdowns can disrupt fuel supplies and are closely tracked by oil traders because they directl...

Washington Post: U.S. takes action against Russia for election hacking The measures include the sanctioning of agencies and individuals tied to the hacks and the removal of 35 Russian government officials from the United States. The administration's announcement culminates months of vigorous internal debate over whether and how to respond to Russia’s unprecedented election-year provocations, ranging from the hacks of the Democratic National Committee to the targeting of state electoral systems. What the hacks of the DNC and John Podesta showed was the rigging of the Democrat primary for Hillary Clinton's benefit and the cynicism at the heart of her campaign.   The material that was presented was not "fake" and has not been really denied as truthful.  It is hardly worth a tit for tat expulsion episode. What should be done is the US needs to get much better at defending itself against cyber attacks, especially ones that have much more potential harm to national s...

John Phillips: ... She also deflected blame of her loss onto James Comey and the FBI, stating, “Swing-state voters made their decisions in the final days breaking against me because of the FBI letter from Director Comey.” And then in a speech at the retirement ceremony for outgoing Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., Clinton theorized that people didn’t like her because they couldn’t tell the difference between fact and fiction while reading their Facebook feed. “It’s now clear that so-called fake news can have real world consequences. This isn’t about politics or partisanship. Lives are at risk,” she theorized. Rank and file Democrats appear to be buying into this narrative. Nothing says owning your loss like blaming The Onion. I can just picture the opening benediction at the next DNC meeting. “Dear Lord, please give us the strength to blame those who did this to us and accuse those who didn’t.” Amen. ... He points out that Clinton was not the only Democrat who ...

NY Times: A Majority Ruled It Rape. That Isn’t Enough at Stanford. Stanford has an uncommonly high bar for sexual assault cases, so a football player was never punished despite two panels ruling in favor of the accuser. Allegations of criminal acts should be referred to the local district attorney for prosecution.  They would also give the accused a better chance of getting a constitutional due process that is being denied on many campuses where these cases resemble a Star Chamber proceeding. Using Title IX as a cudgel to force schools to become sex cops is a mistake and that portion of the law needs to be repealed.  To be fair to the alleged victims and the accused, the matter needs to be in the hands of a real prosecutor.

Gregg Roman: ... Although administration officials have been reluctant to explain the precise reasoning behind their last-minute series of attacks on Israel, as near as I can tell it rests on three assumptions. The first, as Kerry outlined in his speech, is that a freeze on Israeli settlement growth makes it easier for Palestinian negotiators to make painful compromises at the negotiating table. It supposedly does this by easing Palestinian suspicions that Israel either won't make major territorial concessions at the negotiating table, or won't implement these concessions once made. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu put this assumption to the test in November 2009 when he imposed a 10-month moratorium on new housing construction (East Jerusalem excepted) at the urging of the Obama administration. What happened? Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas refused to return to talks until the very end of the moratorium and remained every bit as intransigent as ...

Times of Israel: Transcript claims to show US worked with Palestinians on UN resolution Report published in Egypt has Kerry and Rice advising senior Palestinians on strategy at UN and after Trump takes power ... The transcript showed Kerry and Rice advising the Palestinians not to make any provocative moves when US President-elect Donald Trump takes office on January 20, calling him dangerous. They warned against such steps as ending security cooperation with Israel, pursuing legal action against Israeli officials in the ICC, or dissolving the Palestinian Authority. They also said Trump’s administration was likely to adopt a policy on the Israel-Palestinian conflict that would be totally different to that of previous administrations going back to 1967. When asked how the Palestinians would react if Trump carried out his promise to move the US embassy to Jerusalem, Erekat reportedly said the Palestine Liberation Organization would rescind its recognition of Israel and ask A...

Ben Shapiro: 10 Lies Secretary of State Kerry Told During His Big Middle East Peace Speech Read them all.  When a politician has to resort to this many lies to justify their policy you know how bad it is.

The UN is such a dysfunctional organization that it has lost a sense of history and reality.  Those who think their resolution makes sense appear to have lost touch with reality.

Politico: Sens. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz came out with blistering statements on Wednesday denouncing Secretary of State John Kerry for his speech on the White House’s vision of Mideast peace and his defense of its move to allow a United Nations resolution condemning Israeli settlements to pass. Rubio, a Florida Republican, accused Kerry of catering to “the demands of freedom’s enemies” in a statement. Kerry devoted “an entire speech to disparaging a country that is one of our closest allies,” he said. Cruz, a Texas conservative, called the speech “disgraceful” and charged that “history will record and the world will fully understand Obama and Kerry as relentless enemies of Israel.” He also accused the Obama administration of having a “radical anti-Israel agenda.” ... Cruz rejected Kerry’s argument that “Israel can either be Jewish or democratic,” but not both, and accused him of drawing a false equivalence between the Israeli settlements and attacks carried out by Palestinians....

Houston Chronicle: Pipeline and drilling opponents will open three camps in the high desert north of Big Bend National Park over the next week or so, hoping to attract hundreds of protesters to West Texas to block a pipeline and the development of recently discovered oil and gas fields. The organizers aim to follow the example of the hundreds of people who traveled to North Dakota, camping out and demonstrating for months to stop -- at least for now -- the completion of the Dakota Access pipeline, which would have carried oil from the Bakken Shale in North Dakota to Midwestern pipeline networks that connect to the Gulf Coast refineries. The Obama administration decided not to grant the permit needed to finish the project; the incoming Trump administration, however, has pledged to give the pipeline the green light. An environmental advocacy group began working three weeks ago on the first West Texas camp, near Alpine, to protest a pipeline being built for Dallas-based Energy Trans...

Kerry gets to his conclusion by ignoring the facts and pushing a fantasy that the Palestinians would actually deliver peace.

Real Climate Science: 100% Of US Warming Is Due To NOAA Data Tampering It is a long piece with numerous charts and graphs showing how NOAA "adjustments" account for the warming.  If they had used the raw data it would have shown no warming.

Washington Free Beacon: Congress is already setting the stage to cut off U.S. funding to the United Nations in the wake of a contested vote last week in which the Obama administration permitted an anti-Israel resolution to win overwhelming approval, according to congressional leaders, who told the Washington Free Beacon that the current administration is already plotting to take further action against the Jewish state before vacating office. Other punitive actions by Congress could include expelling Palestinian diplomats from U.S. soil and scaling back ties with foreign nations that voted in favor of the controversial measure, according to multiple sources who spoke to the Free Beacon about the situation both on and off the record. The Obama administration is still under bipartisan attack for its decision to help craft and facilitate the passage of a U.N. resolution condemning the construction of Jewish homes in Jerusalem, a move that reversed years of U.S. policy on the matter. The ...

Michael Goodwin: The most telling hot-mic moment of Barack Obama’s presidency came in March of 2012 when he told Russian President Dmitry Medvedev: “This is my last election. After my election, I have more flexibility.” The topic then was missile defense, but America and the world now see the full ramifications. Whether it’s dusting off an obscure provision to block oil drilling or using the United Nations to betray Israel, this is what maximum flexibility looks like. This is Obama being Obama. Liberated from the pretense of respecting public consent and no longer forced to calculate the impact on Hillary Clinton’s campaign, Obama is rushing to settle scores and tie Donald Trump’s hands. It is an infuriating exit. It is also a revealing one. The last-ditch actions help explain not only why Trump won, but also why a course correction was absolutely necessary for the nation. Obama’s cynical schemes are variations of “you can keep your doctor,” and Americans were right to show Dem...

Washington Post: White House prepares covert action, sanctions to punish Russia for election hacking The Obama administration is close to announcing measures to punish Russia for alleged meddling in the 2016 presidential election, which are expected to include covert action that will probably involve cyber-operations, according to U.S. officials. A serious person does not announce a "covert action" against and adversary.  Russia is already under sanctions and it will be surprising if any new survive long after Obama leaves office.   Obama's claim is that the Russians apparently released undisputed information about activities of the DNC and the Clinton campaign.  It is the kind of information that would get US media companies a Pulitzer. The current mainstream media is so far in the tank for Democrats that they would only be interested in the information if it made disclosures about Republicans.  But we saw the same media that publishe...

NY Times: Kerry to Outline a Vision of Mideast Peace, in Final Plea Secretary of State John Kerry will lay out the Obama administration’s vision of a final accord in a speech Wednesday. It is the latest salvo between the United States and Israel amid bitterness over a United Nations resolution condemning settlement building. Kerry will start off by ignoring the bad faith of the Palestinians in reaching an agreement and heap all the responsibility on the Israelis.  He will also have to ignore the fact that the Palestinians have nothing of value to offer Israel to make a deal.  They can't deliver peace because too many of them would prefer a genocide of Israelis and will not abide by any "agreement."   He will also have to ignore how the Middle East has changed since the "two-state" proposal was pushed by the international community.  Much of the momentum for that in the West was to ensure the free flow of oil from the area.  Now OPEC...

Daily Caller: The Environmental Protection Agency has based its most onerous air pollution regulations on junk science meant to further political goals, says the author of a new book. Lawyer-statistician Steve Milloy’s new book, “Scare Pollution,” shows readers how EPA has distorted the science behind air pollution regulations to hamper politically incorrect industries, from coal to logging to manufacturing. “I have worked on EPA science controversies for 25 years,” Milloy told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “EPA doesn’t use science so much as it abuses it for its political ends.” Milloy is referring to EPA regulations that rely on the shaky claim that fine particulate matter, or PM2.5, kills people. That claim alone has allowed EPA to claim billions of dollar worth of supposed benefits from regulating coal plants, factories and automobiles. PM2.5 science has been a major driver of regulations targeting the coal industry, including the EPA’s Clean Power Plan (CPP). That ru...

James Taylor: Trump's Energy Policy: 10 Big Changes Getting rid of the "Clean Energy Plan" should be at the top of the list followed closely by opening federal control sites to energy development.

Houston Chronicle: In the age of climate change, carbon dioxide emissions produced by burning fossil fuels present a liability that many investors fear might one day bring down oil companies. But scientists and policy makers are asking what would happen if carbon dioxide had a value the same way oil, gold and coffee do. What if it could be used to produce goods and even fuels - the way plants and trees use carbon dioxide to keep themselves alive? It's not an entirely new concept. For decades, industries from oil to soft drinks have bought small amounts of carbon dioxide, piped in from underground caverns where it was trapped eons ago. But now the outgoing Obama administration, along with partners from both environmental groups and the oil and gas industry, are hoping to create a much larger market that will not only keep carbon out of the atmosphere but create a new engine for the U.S. economy. "They need scientific breakthroughs, but this is a very important research ...

NY Times: California Prepares to Fight Trump on Climate Change Gov. Jerry Brown and legislative leaders said they would work with other nations and states to strengthen already aggressive policies to fight climate change. Knock yourself out Jerry, just don't make the rest of us go along with your suicidal economic policies.

NY Times: A Newspaper Tries to Recover From Its Clinton Endorsement An editorial in Enid, Okla., opposing Mr. Trump brought a spate of canceled subscriptions and pulled ads, showing the raw power of partisanship in small-town America. Some larger publications also experienced blowback for endorsing Clinton.  The Dallas Morning News suffered a similar response.  While many in the media found Trump unacceptable,  many in their audience found Hillary Clinton unacceptable.  They were rejecting the evils of liberalism as experienced in the Obama years and also angry that a corrupt government let her get away with mishandling classified information.

NY Times: Defying U.N., Israel Prepares to Build More Settlements Undeterred by a defeat at the United Nations, Israel’s government said that it would move ahead with thousands of new homes in East Jerusalem. It warned nations against further action, declaring that Israel does not “turn the other cheek.” The absurdity of the UN resolution is resulting in more homes being built by Israel on land that the Palestinians are trying to claim.  The UN is likely to be permanently damaged by this resolution as the US Congress and President Trump also respond to this bad policy. With many of its member nations siding with the terrorist the organization is losing its moral authority at a time when meany of them are also besieged by Islamic terrorists.  The [problem in Israel is not that different from the one European countries are dealing with now.  Islamic religious bigots are trying to take over and spread their poisonous ideology. Obama may have aimed at Is...

Express: Christians face 'Nazi-style extermination' blasts author in scathing attack on Merkel A LEADING French academic has blasted German Chancellor Angela Merkel saying if she can't "see the difference between Jews exterminated by the Nazis, and Muslims threatening to exterminate Christians, she is even more clueless than it seems". A friend of mine once said of the Germans, "They do not seem to have much middle ground between Nazis and pacifism." But being passive in the face of an Islamist invasion is deadly for the Germans. ... In a recently published essay, Dr Millière says just 34,000 of the 1.2 million migrants who arrived in Germany in 2014 and 2015 are now settled and in employment. And scathingly he insisted that the threat from ISIS is akin to the Nazi movement, which sparked the second world war and killed 60 million people, adding that in many other countries "Merkel might have been shamed into resigning" appearing to b...

Daily Mail: Hundreds of people gathered outside Tunisia's parliament to protest against letting jihadists who fought overseas to return to the country. Protesters in Tunis chanted 'no to freedom for terrorist groups' while others held placards saying 'lock the door to terrorism' and 'no tolerance, no return'. Organisers said 1,500 people attended the rally. It was held on the same day authorities said they had arrested three alleged jihadists connected to the suspected Berlin Christmas market attacker, Tunisian Anis Amri. Protestors slammed Rached Ghannouchi, head of the Islamist Ennahda party, who has in the past supported the idea of allowing Tunisian jihadists who 'repent' and renounce violence to return home. President Beji Caid Essebsi said earlier this month that Tunisia would refuse to pardon Tunisians who fight for jihadist organisations. ... More than 5,000 Tunisians are fighting for jihadist groups abroad, mainly in Iraq, Syria o...

Wall Street Journal: ... It is important, though, to see this U.S. abstention as more significant than merely Mr. Obama’s petulance. What it reveals clearly is the Obama Administration’s animus against the state of Israel itself. No longer needing Jewish votes, Mr. Obama was free, finally, to punish the Jewish state in a way no previous President has done. No effort to rescind the resolution, which calls the settlements a violation of “international law,” will succeed because of Russia’s and China’s vetoes. Instead, the resolution will live on as Barack Obama’s cat’s paw, offering support in every European capital, international institution and U.S. university campus to bully Israel with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. ... For Donald Trump, meet your State Department. This is what State’s permanent bureaucrats believe, this is what they want, and Barack Obama delivered it to them. Tweets won’t change this now-inbred hostility to America’s oldest democratic al...

Politico has a long piece on the Perry nomination and raising questions about his fitness for office compared to recent PhD nuclear scientists.  What you should know about Perry is that he is an excellent manager with great people skills. In explaining how Texas became to be a leader in attracting business locations to the state under Perry, he told about an initial failure in that regard.  I think it was when Boeing was looking for a new corporate headquarters.  They eventually settled on Chicago, of all places, and Perry's reaction was to call his staff together and tell them that the state really sucked at making the case for a move to Texas.  He went to work overhauling the approach and Texas became the leader in attracting corporate moves. I think he will prioritize making energy industry more efficient by reducing the regulatory burden and finding ways to incentivise it.  I suspect he will help build infrastructure to increase LNG exports. ...

Weekly Standard: Iran was given secret exemptions allowing the country to exceed restrictions set out by the landmark nuclear deal inked last year, some of which were made public this week by the United Nations nuclear watchdog and others that are likely still being withheld, according to diplomatic sources and a top nuclear expert who spoke to THE WEEKLY STANDARD. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Friday posted documents revealing that Iran had been given exemptions in January that permit the country to stockpile uranium in excess of the 300 kilogram limit set by the nuclear deal, experts said. The agreements had been kept secret for almost a year, but recent reports indicated that the Trump administration intended to make them public. TWS reported earlier in December that top Democratic senators also supported releasing the documents. Some details of the exemptions had previously been leaked. The Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) revealed ...

Washington Post: Trump in position to reshape judiciary with more than 100 vacancies In addition to an open Supreme Court seat, openings throughout the federal circuit and district courts will allow Donald Trump to quickly make a wide array of lifetime appointments. The new Republican president will have nearly twice the number of vacancies to fill than President Obama had when he took office. Liberals view judges as their opportunity to imposes policies that they know they could not get through the democratic process.  Putting conservatives in place in the judiciary allows the country to avoid the tyranny of liberal activism from the bench.

NY Times: No Food, No Medicine, No Respite: A Starving Boy’s Death in Venezuela The story of a teenager who had gone searching for wild roots to eat but poisoned himself instead seemed to embody everything that had gone wrong amid a national economic crisis. This is a self im[osed crisis by those who support socialism over common sense.  It should be held up as an example of the failure of the command economy model and not some random tragedy.   The evils of socialism are on display in Venezuela and they are even much worse than the bread lines in the old Soviet Union.  Yet many in academia remain blissfully ignorant of the consequences of a solution they are teaching young people.  They should at least be exposed to a point of view more grounded in reality.

NY Times: With Claims of ‘Fake News,’ Conservatives Take Aim at Media The term once referred to fabricated accounts intended to deceive, but many on the right have turned it against news they see as hostile to their agenda. The news media's job is to put facts in perspective. The problem comes when the liberal agenda is substituted for perspective. See the post below on the Dakota Access Pipeline fiasco.  It is hard to imagine a more botched presentation of the facts.  This isn't just hostile to a conservative agenda, it is hostile to the truth, and the media did a poor job of exposing this politics of fraud operation.

Susan Wright: Senator Cruz: No Funding For The U.N. As Long As The Decision Against Israel Stands That is a good starting position.  As long as the UN is in the US there will probably be more ideas.  Perhaps the UN headquarters should be moved to Aleppo so its members can get a first hand look at what they should really be worried about..

Craig Stevens: ... We saw fake news play a critical role in the public's outcry in opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline. From my perspective, it was astounding that individuals and even elected officials were so loose with the truth and so unaffected by the facts . The Dakota Access Pipeline is a 1,170 mile project extending across the Midwest from North Dakota's Bakken region in to Illinois. For the past four months, its completion has been delayed and now halted, despite being fully permitted by four states and the federal government, validated by two federal courts, sited along the path of preexisting energy infrastructure, avoids the Standing Rock Sioux reservation, and yet, the public protest effectively stopped the project in its tracks. And much of the protest, and its coverage in the mainstream media, has been based on falsities. For example, in September, an image of a young girl whose face was supposedly mauled by private security dogs made the rounds on ...

Breitbart: Samantha Power Watched Half a Million Arabs Die — Then Slammed Israel All our Ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, is missing is a fiddle. For the duration of the seemingly endless Syrian civil war, she has figuratively fiddled while that country burns. Now, with one foot out the door from a tenure that has all but obliterated her once formidable reputation as an anti-genocide activist, she’s decided to kick Israel in the teeth. ... This is another huge screw up on Obama's rather lengthy list of them.

Reuters: ... Netanyahu put his personal imprint on Israel's show of anger by repeating at the weekly cabinet meeting what an unidentified Israeli government official contended on Friday - that the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama had conspired with the Palestinians to push for the resolution's adoption. The White House has denied the allegation. "According to our information, we have no doubt the Obama administration initiated it (the resolution), stood behind it, coordinated the wording and demanded it be passed," Netanyahu told the cabinet in public remarks. Another official said Netanyahu had ordered that for the coming three weeks, until President-elect Donald Trump takes office, cabinet ministers refrain from traveling to or meeting officials of countries that voted in favor of the resolution. ... I suspect that the Israelis have been intercepting communications at the UN that are tied to the resolution.  They were the ones who first rai...

Washington Post: Trump plans to dissolve his charity after months of scrutiny The president-elect said he had decided to shutter his charitable foundation, but it was not clear when that could happen, given an ongoing investigation in New York. The Donald J. Trump Foundation has come under intense scrutiny this year after reports in The Washington Post detailing its practices, including cases in which Trump apparently used charity money to settle lawsuits involving his for-profit businesses. It was always a much smaller operation than the Clinton Foundation, but the mainstream media seem unconcerned about the pay for play scheme the Clinton used and the use of foundation money to pay for their daughter's expensive wedding.  Trump is probably better off without the hassle.

NY Times: Obama, Trump and the Turf War That Has Come to Define the Transition A Security Council vote on Israeli settlements in the West Bank is just the latest example of diverging opinions between President Obama and President-elect Donald Trump. It also demonstrates how out of touch Obama is with the country and with Congress.  The vote will also do great damage to the UN which was already in low regard, as its funding is cut and it loses what little prestige it has.  By coming down on the side of Palestinian ethnic and religious bigots the UN made a critical mistake and the transnational liberalism will be lucky to survive it.

NY Times: Alaskans’ Cost of Staying Warm: A Thick Coat of Dirty Air When temperatures drop around North Pole, Alaska, wood smoke that goes up comes down again, causing dangerous pollution to hover at lung level. It would also probably help if the Big Green movement would stop blocking new fossil fuel production in Alaska.  Natural gas would give them cleaner air.  More efficient wood stoves would also probably help.

Merry Christmas From PrairiePundit

Washington Post: Netanyahu: U.N. resolution part of ‘old-world bias against Israel’ Benjamin Netanyahu expressed optimism that the world order is about to change, especially with Donald Trump’s inauguration on the horizon. The prime minister said Israel will fight to cancel the resolution condemning settlement activity. Besides showing they are not an honest broker, it also demonstrates they failed to comprehend what is behind the Palestinian intransigence.  The Palestinians do not have a leader strong enough to make the compromises needed to get a deal.  That is why they keep on demanding unrealistic preconditions to negotiation.  If the current leadership reached a deal it would likely result in their death sentence as the terrorists who make up a significant portion of their population would turn their fury on them. When you get right down to it, the Palestinians have nothing of value to offer the Israelis.  They can't deliver on peace because too many of t...

NY Times: Intent on Unsettling E.U., Russia Taps Fringe Elements Moscow is cultivating an array of far-right extremist groups, spreading disruption and hoping that a few will develop into important and disruptive players. Russia does not have to do much since people like Merkel and the leadership in several European governments have followed a fail policy of inviting in unvetted migrants and putting them on the dole while many of them engage in rape and pillage.  It si as if they had responded to the Vikings by offering them a home. Russia's government may be enjoying the problems the liberal governments have created for themselves, but they can mostly stand back and watch. It is also somewhat misleading when the media refers to the conservative opposition as "the far right."  They use that term like an epithet to try to delegitimize those who do not agree with liberalism.

Anne Bayefsky: The vicious condemnation of Israel at the UN Security Council on December 23, 2016 is a watershed moment in U.S.-UN relations – albeit not as President Obama hoped. Following the vote of fourteen in favor and one American abstention, Palestinian representative Riyadh Mansour and American Ambassador Samantha Power exchanged a telling handshake. Evidently, President Obama believes that he has put one over on Israel, Prime Minister Netanyahu and the incoming Trump administration. But here’s another possibility: treachery at the UN will not be cost free. Let’s be absolutely clear about what has just happened. The Palestinians have completed the hijacking of every major UN institution. The 2016 General Assembly has adopted nineteen resolutions condemning Israel and nine critical of all other UN states combined. The 2016 Commission on the Status of Women adopted one resolution condemning Israel and zero on any other state. The 2016 UN Human Rights Council celebrated ten ye...

Washington Post: Europe may face a grim future with terrorism as a fact of life Even as security officials say they’re foiling big plots, Europeans are beginning to resign themselves to a new era in which attacks may no longer be exceptions to their way of life. The Europeans have largely facilitated the Muslim invasion that has seen the rape of women increase dramatically at the same time mass murder for Allah attacks have also increased.  The invasion appears to be a deliberate attempt by ISIL and other radical Islamists to impose their weird religious beliefs on the continent as part of their scheme to do the same worldwide.  The liberal establishment has largely botched its response to this invasion. Radical Islam is causing the collapse of the Muslim culture in North Africa and the Middle East.  The attempt to ignore the obvious religious aggression has been a disaster for the victims in Europe and the liberals running the EU and some of...