John Kerry…Shook His Finger

Russia is increasing its military (and thereby political) aid to Syria’s Bashar al Assad by sending him Russian tanks for use against the Syrian rebels.

State Department spokesman John Kirby said Kerry called Lavrov for the third time in the last 10 days. Kerry “made clear that Russia’s continued support for President Assad risks exacerbating and extending the conflict, and undermining our shared goal of fighting extremism if we do not also remain focused on finding a solution to the conflict in Syria via a genuine political transition,” the State Department said in a written statement.”

Sharp talk. Yeah, that’ll show those Russkis.

Timid Democrats

Forty-two Democratic Party Senators on Thursday voted to block a cloture vote on the Corker-Cardin-mandated resolution concerning President Barack Obama’s nuclear weapons agreement with Iran. A successful cloture vote would have allowed a floor vote on a resolution disapproving the agreement, forcing Obama to veto the resolution, and that would have set up a veto override fight.

These 42 Democrats were too timid to have to actually vote on the resolution, and they were too timid to have to actually vote on the resolution a second time in that veto override fight. These 42 Democrats were timid enough, too, to protect their timid President from having actually to veto something.

These 42 Democrats, too, had voted unanimously to have exactly this floor vote—demanded this floor vote, not a cloture vote—when they voted, every single one of them, to pass Corker-Cardin.

We can’t afford such timidity or duplicity any longer. Remember this palpable fear with its duty-shirking and the dishonesty inherent in them in 14 months. Remember those 42 Democrats.

Every single one of them.

Her Latest “Apology”

I should have used two accounts. One for personal, one for work-related emails. That was a mistake. I’m sorry about that. I take responsibility.

More of Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s empty words. What is Clinton actually doing about the responsibility she’s…taking…besides just talking about it?

Too Desperate for Diplomacy

In July 2012, [then-Secretary of State] Clinton’s closest foreign-policy aide, Jake Sullivan, met in secret with Iranian diplomats in Oman, but made no progress in ending the dispute over Iran’s nuclear program. In a string of high-level meetings here over the next six months, the Secretary of State and White House concluded that they might have to let Iran continue to enrich uranium at small levels, if the diplomacy had any hope of succeeding.

The beginning of this administration’s decision to let Iran develop nuclear weapons behind the fig leaf of the JCPA.

Her diplomatic legacy, and President Barack Obama’s diplomatic legacy, are more important than the safety of Israel. More so than the safety of the United States, too, since the same fig leaf fundamentally removes barriers to Iran’s parallel intercontinental ballistic missile development program.

Remember this in 18 months. Remember this even if Senator Bernie Sanders (I, VT) is the Democrats’ nominee for the Presidency: these are Democrats who’ve perpetrated this. Remember this even if Vice President Joe Biden is the Democrats’ nominee: as the number two guy in Obama’s White House, he’s in this travesty up to his neck.

Bad Tactics

On the subject of removing Federal funding from Planned Parenthood, there’s no shortage of bad tactics floating about.

The conservative (note: small “c” conservative) wing of the Republican Party want to shut down the Federal government until they get the President to sign a defunding bill, whether in stand-alone or as part of the Federal budget. Never mind that they have no plan whatsoever for selling the shutdown to the public, they want to have their toddler’s temper tantrum.

On the other side of the question, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R, KY) seems excessively timid even to try.

The way you make a law in this country (is) the Congress has to pass it, and the president has to sign it.

The president’s made it very clear he’s not going to sign any bill that includes defunding of Planned Parenthood—so that’s another issue that awaits a new president hopefully with a different point of view.

It may be true that it’ll take a different President to sign a bill that defunds Planned Parenthood. One important step on the path to getting a different President is for Congress to defund Planned Parenthood and force President Barack Obama to veto it. And then use that plain, immoral obstruction to get a decent President elected.

One wing of the Republican Party needs badly to grow up. Another wing of the Republican Party needs just as badly to grow some backbone.