The Russians Stole the Election!

The leftwing media, unofficial arm of the Democrat Party, is proving once again why they’ve earned the disdain of Donald Trump and much of the American population.  Based upon interviews with anonymous sources in the CIA regarding unofficial, secret reports, the following headlines are breathlessly appearing on the front pages of “mainstream” news sites:

From CBSNews.com:  Clinton campaign supports briefing Electoral College on Russian interference

From ABCNews.go.com:  Trump Engages CIA in War of Words Over Russian Election Hacking

From Cnn.com:  Hacking Standoff.  U.S. Intel says Russia interfered with vote; not so, Trump says

From the Huffington Post:  CLINTON CAMP POUNCES: BRIEF ELECTORS ON RUSSIA HACKS!

(Emphasis theirs)

What is this new news of Russian hacking I wondered?  Well it seems it all stems from an article December 9th in The Washington Post which reported the earth-shattering revelations under the headline:  Bombshell Secret CIA Report Says Russia Aimed To Steal White House For Trump

What does this “bombshell” report say, you wonder?  Here it is:

“A shocking secret CIA assessment has concluded that Russia interfered with the U.S. presidential election expressly to help Donald Trump win, according to an exclusive report Friday by The Washington Post.  Until now, intelligence sources have indicated that Russian hacking throughout the campaign that repeatedly exposed information overwhelmingly embarrassing for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was an effort to undermine Americans’ faith in their government.”

So the “bombshell” news is not that the CIA has confirmed Russian hacking of the voting system or any other new allegation.  It’s the same old allegation about hacking into DNC and HRC emails.  But while we previously thought Russia merely wanted to undermine confidence in our government, now we think Russia wanted Trump to win.  Oh boy.  Apparently someone has finally crossed a red line that Obama is willing to defend, and our pacifist-make-love-not-war Democrats are ready to wage war with the Russians over it.

Moral to the story:  It’s all good until it happens to a Democrat.

Suddenly the Left is awash in patriotic feelings.    “How dare an outsider mess with our elections!” they cry.  Apparently foreigners can only mess with our elections if they sneak across our border first or funnel the money through the Clinton Foundation.  Hey – anyone remember Chinagate?

The Washington Post piece goes on to say:

“Though U.S. intelligence agencies were skeptical that hackers would be able to manipulate the election results in a systematic way, the White House feared that Russia would attempt to do so, sowing doubt about the fundamental mechanisms of democracy and potentially forcing a more dangerous confrontation between Washington and Moscow.”

The Obama Administration was worried that people would doubt the integrity of the election.  Isn’t that special?  Of course that was when they expected Hillary to win, so they didn’t make too big a deal about their purported concerns before.  But that was then and now that Hillary has lost, it’s okay to sow those doubts, you see?  It’s for our own good, I’m sure.

Look folks, the bottom line on this anonymous interview about a secret report is that we still don’t know for a fact who hacked into Hillary’s emails, but more importantly, the worst we can say so far is that if the email leaks brought Hillary down, she was ultimately done in by her own words as well as those of her colleagues.  Truth killed the Clinton campaign.  Furthermore, the people who are now righteously enraged over the leaking of authentic DNC emails are the very same people who routinely attempt to damage conservatives with false or misleading reporting, so all I can say is:  cry me a river.

And another thing (or two)!

Wasn’t it our Genius-in-Chief who told Mitt Romney that the 80’s wanted their foreign policy back when Romney suggested that Russia was our greatest geo-political threat?  Where – in all this outrage – is the apology to Governor Romney?  Wasn’t it Obama who whispered to Russian’s president, “Tell Vlad I’ll have more flexibility after the election.”  Come to think of it, why didn’t Obama just call his old pal Vlad and say, “Dude!  Cut it out!”  And lastly, wasn’t it our brilliant Secretary of State Clinton who oversaw the “reset” with Russia?  Oops.  Looks like the reset didn’t work, Hillary.

Where are the stories about what this says about our leadership if it happens to be true?

Whether the Russians are guilty or not, Democrats’ concern for the integrity of our elections is as phony as Obama’s “shovel-ready” jobs.  These are the very same Democrats who have proven time and again that the integrity of our election systems means nothing to them and winning means everything.

 

But hey, it’ll make a good movie for Oliver Stone.     

 ~CW

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Theft in the Name of “Student Loan Forgiveness”

This nation’s universities are money-making machines for the leftist elites.  From their bloated administrations run by liberals to the predominantly “progressive” faculty and staff, to the liberals who dominate the lecture circuit (a la Hillary and Bill) to those who write the pricey books that are intentionally obsolete after a semester, there is a vast network of people – mostly Democrats – who benefit greatly from the machine.  Consequently they have their cohorts within our government – again Democrats – working tirelessly to find ways to feed the machine more and more of our money.

A century ago the odds were against getting a college education unless you came from a family of strong financial means or you had a sponsor.  At some point people had the idea of borrowing money to attend college, but I’m guessing that this was back at a time when banks were still allowed to expect to be repaid and, consequently, were choosy about who they lent their depositors’ money too.  Naturally this would have left out poorer people who lacked a reliable source of repayment, and naturally this would have offended our liberal friends who, naturally, would look to the government (i.e. the taxpayers) to right this terrible wrong rather than reach into their own pockets and risk any of their own money.  So the federal government was brought into the business of guaranteeing student loans which thus enabled banks to be more generous with their lending policies and – eureka – the golden goose was born!  And all the liberals were happy…..for a while.

Liberals and greed have something in common:  neither one can ever be satisfied.  With a solid income source to tap into, the liberals sought to expand their empire and, of course, increase their salaries and benefits.  They advanced the idea that everyone should have a college education, and their government buddies enacted policies that kept the student loan money flowing.  When the economic crisis of 2008 hit, however, the cost of credit increased and private lenders who weren’t seeing a profit in student loans were getting out of the business.  Ruh-roh!  Government to the rescue!  The feds stepped in with a temporary plan to keep the loans coming by promising to buy the loans.  But the liberals were nervous about the future of their golden goose.  Enter Barack Obama and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010.  Democrats figured the passing of HCERA would be a great time to also solve the problem of the threat to the university welfare syndicate, as taxpayers were distracted by the even larger attack on their wealth known as ‘Obamacare.’  With the passing of HCERA the federal government essentially, and quiety, took over the student loan program that previously had worked in conjunction with private banks.

But then came yet another problem.  It seems there is a limit on a person’s appetite for debt when they understand that one day it will all have to be paid back.   So the leftists put their thinking caps on their pointy heads and they drummed their fingers on the tables at the coffee houses and think-tanks where they like to meet.  Hmmm….what to do, what to do….. Until one little liberal pounded his puny fist on the table and cried, “It’s just not right that these poor people, so many of whom can’t find jobs in their chosen fields, should have to pay back these loans!”  I wonder if it occurred to the liberals that it’s even less fair for taxpayers – already struggling with the burden of carrying every other leftwing socialist program on their shoulders – to be saddled with debts they didn’t incur or benefit from, but I digress.  And so was born the grand and noble agenda of student loan forgiveness.  Purely for unselfish reasons, you understand.  Now the socialists would not have to worry until they ran out of other people’s money (which will probably come much sooner than they think).  Tomorrow is another day, as Scarlett O’Hara famously said.

The students feel entitled to their subsidized education, because that’s what they’ve been taught in the leftist-run universities which benefit from their sense of entitlement.  No conflict of interest there, eh?   If little Mindy wants to spend $400,000 to go to law school and become a public defender so that she can make a difference and be happy with herself, who are we to selfishly expect her to repay her debts?  Or what about little Stephan, who racks up $100,000 in loans he can never repay to be a social worker who makes $35,000 a year?  Nancy Pelosi would tell us that people should be what they want to be without having to worry about the cost (or the cost of providing themselves with healthcare).  I guess if they just want to sit and watch the grass grow we should pay them to do that as well.  Why not? 

This is just the tip of the iceberg on this conversation, folks.  Anyone who wants to get into more of the nitty gritty should watch a little weekday documentary called ‘Judge Judy.’  There you’ll see infinite examples of what happens with the money loaned out given away under the student loan program.  “Student loan” is now a euphemism for “free money,” or at least the recipients think so.  These “students” lend the money to their deadbeat friends to buy cars, get caught up on their baby-mama support or be bailed out of jail.  Billions of dollars – perhaps trillions – is being transferred in this way.  I don’t like to say that it’s been “wasted” because this conjures up a picture of money being dumped down a hole or burned in a fireplace.  Alas that would be preferable.  The money has been transferred, with the vast bulk of it going to enrich the leftwing cabal running our universities and to fuel the nation’s growing addiction to other people’s money.

I pray that Donald Trump and his allies in the federal government will make righting this wrong one of their top priorities.  If that happens, you may see a battle like you’ve never seen.  What say you?

~CW

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What Should the Court do With Katie Couric?

In May of 2016 Katie Couric and her associates produced a “documentary” entitled, “Under the Gun.”  Its website describes the film as follows:

“UNDER THE GUN examines the events and people who have kept the gun debate fierce and the progress slow, even as gun deaths and mass shootings continue to increase. Through the lens of families impacted by the mass shootings in Newtown, Aurora, Isla Vista and Tucson, as well as those who experience daily gun violence in Chicago, the documentary looks at why politicians are finding it difficult to act and what is being done at the state and local levels. The film is executive produced and narrated by Katie Couric and directed by Stephanie Soechtig.”

The film’s anti-gun predisposition is clearly conveyed by that description.  Included in the “documentary” is a clip in which Katie Couric interviews the pro-gun rights group, Virginia Citizens Defense League.  Couric asks them, “If there are no background checks for gun purchasers, how do you prevent felons or terrorists from purchasing a gun?”  The group’s members are then shown looking around in silence for nine seconds, appearing stumped by the question.  But in reality it was later revealed that members of the group offered responses to her question immediately.  The edited version and a portion of the actual responses can be heard in this news segment on Fox News from May 26, 2016:

http://video.foxnews.com/v/4913171510001

What a devious and unfair thing for Couric and her friends to do.   Couric initially dismissed the criticism of the misleading editing, saying she was proud of the film; but she later (when the criticism wouldn’t go away, presumably) issued the following apology:

“As executive producer of ‘Under the Gun,’ a documentary film that explores the epidemic of gun violence, I take responsibility for a decision that misrepresented an exchange I had with members of the Virginia Citizens Defense League (VCDL),” she wrote. “My question to the VCDL regarding the ability of convicted felons and those on the terror watch list to legally obtain a gun, was followed by an extended pause, making the participants appear to be speechless.

“When I screened an early version of the film with the director, Stephanie Soechtig, I questioned her and the editor about the pause and was told that a ‘beat’ was added for, as she described it, ‘dramatic effect,’ to give the audience a moment to consider the question. When VCDL members recently pointed out that they had in fact immediately answered this question, I went back and reviewed it and agree that those eight seconds do not accurately represent their response….I regret that those eight seconds were misleading and that I did not raise my initial concerns more vigorously.”

http://variety.com/2016/tv/news/katie-couric-under-the-gun-apology-misleading-epix-1201785392/

So let me see if I understand this correctly.  The makers of this “documentary” thought it would be better to edit out what was actually said and substitute a version that was, in essence, fiction?  Sounds perfectly in keeping with how the Left approaches just about everything.  It is no exaggeration to say that there is always an attempt to mislead and misrepresent in whatever the Left produces, because that is what is necessary for the Left to advance its agenda.

The Virginia Citizens Defense League has filed a $13 million defamation suit and they are entitled to every penny, in my humble opinion.  This was no accident.  According to her own apology, Katie Couric knew that the film’s selective editing would give viewers a false and unflattering impression of the members of this group, and that is what it intended to do.  One can only imagine what Ms. Couric’s response would be if Fox News, for example, edited an interview with her so as to purposely leave viewers with the false impression that she was stumped for words; but then, fairness is something that leftists believe only they are entitled to.  No expense is too great for someone else to pay for the sake of advancing the Left’s agenda.

A panel of politically-mixed journalists on Fox’s ‘Happening Now’ this morning seem to think Couric’s apology was enough penance, even while they unanimously called the actions of Couric and her film associates “inexcusable.” This remark by Bill McGurn of the WSJ, however, really hit the nail on the head:

“We all know in our business that it’s very easy to skew things with just a little touch here, where we place things and so forth…”

Absolutely they all know.  That little perk is precisely why the Left gravitates to the field of media.

It’s time to send Couric and other elites a message that they aren’t at liberty to abuse anyone else to get what they want.  Give Virginia Citizens Defense League their $13 million.

~CW

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