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Suppressing debate on campus

Recent events at a Yale University free speech conference conjured images of the worst aspects of China’s “Cultural Revolution,” in which independent thought of any sort that differed even minutely from official party doctrine was harshly restricted and severely punished.

The event, which came at a time when conservative-minded students have been substantially pressured to remain silent on many campuses, discussed the necessity of unrestricted discourse and debate. This enraged “progressive” students, who attempted to storm the building where it was being held. When their attempt to do so was halted by security guards, the furious leftist youth, as reported by Jack Fowler of the National Review Institute, resorted to noise-making tactics in an effort to prevent the conference from proceeding. The meeting attendees were forced to leave the premises, and were subjected to a gauntlet of hate-filled rants. The protestors spat on several unlucky participants.

The incident is not an isolated example.

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) conducted three consecutive national surveys which found that “the majority of our nation’s colleges and universities violate students’ and faculty members’ right to freedom of expression. Of the 364 institutions surveyed … approximately 270 of them—74 percent—maintain policies that clearly restrict speech that would otherwise be protected by the First Amendment. FIRE’s annual report is based on a comprehensive analysis of the policies restricting speech maintained by colleges and universities. In researching school policies for the past seven years, FIRE attorneys have noticed that nearly every speech code—that is, nearly every regulation prohibiting expression that would be constitutionally protected in society at large—is an example of one of several commonly made mistakes in policy language or application.”

According to The College Fix, students who differ with the prevailing leftist views are frequently “smeared, attacked and harassed by the very peers who demand tolerance, inclusion and diversity.”

Socially conservative students are the hardest hit. The Family Foundation  notes that “As academia has embraced the progressive liberal agenda, students who are socially conservative have felt less and less welcome on college campuses. We’ve all heard the horror stories about professors failing students for refusing to back down from their beliefs, but the problem runs deeper than that. The conservative shaming on college campuses has trickled down from the academia and into the brains of the students themselves…Basically, if you are a college student who holds politically conservative beliefs, and in particular social conservative beliefs, you are considered less intelligent than your fellow peers. There aren’t any professors involved in this one: this is all students shaming other students.”

The best way to save your marital relationship when you suffer ordine cialis on line http://mouthsofthesouth.com/cialis-5269 from ED is communication. Minimum payment pill viagra is 10 via paypal. The person who will teach may not know all the traffic rules and regulations. order viagra uk There are offers such as purchase viagra from canada when buying online which allows customers to get discounts of up to 45% on bulk purchases. As a result of the dramatic loss, both on campus and elsewhere, more traditional Democrats are beginning to break ranks with their progressive colleagues. The Hill reports: “The blatant attacks on free speech seen recently on college campuses pose a special challenge to Democrats and liberals. This, because the illiberalism inherent in the conjuring-up by campus progressives of things like “trigger warnings,” “microaggressions” and “safe spaces” is an outgrowth of the identity politics and victim culture that have been promoted by Democrats and liberals generally…the campus challenge is great and growing, and will require a much more principled effort by liberals and Democrats if they are to rescue their party and their ideology from what Alan Dershowitz recently characterized, with perhaps no more than a skosh of hyperbole, as a descending “fog of fascism.”

At least one university has also moved to counter the rising Fascism of the progressive movement on campus. The Committee on Freedom of Expression at the University of Chicago was appointed in July 2014 “in light of recent events nationwide that have tested institutional commitments to free and open discourse.”

The result was a statement of principles in support of free speech, which noted:

“…It is not the proper role of the University to attempt to shield individuals from ideas and opinions they find unwelcome, disagreeable, or even deeply offensive. Although the University greatly values civility, and although all members of the University community share in the responsibility for maintaining a climate of mutual respect, concerns about civility and mutual respect can never be used as a justification for closing off discussion of ideas, however offensive or disagreeable those ideas may be to some members of our community…

“n a word, the University’s fundamental commitment is to the principle that debate or deliberation may not be suppressed because the ideas put forth are thought by some or even by most members of the University community to be offensive, unwise, immoral, or wrong-headed. It is for the individual members of the University community, not for the University as an institution, to make those judgments for themselves, and to act on those judgments not by seeking to suppress speech, but by openly and vigorously contesting the ideas that they oppose. Indeed, fostering the ability of members of the University community to engage in such debate and deliberation in an effective and responsible manner is an essential part of the University’s educational mission…

“Although members of the University community are free to criticize and contest the views expressed on campus, and to criticize and contest speakers who are invited to express their views on campus, they may not obstruct or otherwise interfere with the freedom of others to express views they reject or even loathe. To this end, the University has a solemn responsibility not only to promote a lively and fearless freedom of debate and deliberation, but also to protect that freedom when others attempt to restrict it. As Robert M. Hutchins observed, without a vibrant commitment to free and open inquiry, a university ceases to be a university.”

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China Must Take Responsibility for North Korea’s Nukes

There is a great deal of debate on how to respond to North Korea’s ongoing nuclear weapons and ICBM development.  The irrationality and belligerent attitude of the “Hermit Kingdoms’” leadership make the issue all the more urgent.

The Congressional newspaper The Hill reports that “Senators from both parties are pushing for stronger sanctions against North Korea after the country said it detonated a hydrogen bomb.”

The problem with almost all the proposed responses is that they are aimed at the wrong target, or at the very least, a target that is beyond reasoning with.

A glance at the history of arms control deals with Pyongyang indicates that the North Koreans will only use negotiations as a bargaining chip to gain concessions, then violate the terms of any agreement after getting what they want. China is the only nation with any real influence in the matter, and it has absolutely no intention of using its position to stop the weapons program.

The Arms Control Organization notes that  “For years, the United States and the international community have tried to negotiate an end to North Korea’s nuclear and missile development and its export of ballistic missile technology…The United States has pursued a variety of policy responses to the proliferation challenges posed by North Korea, including military cooperation with U.S. allies in the region, wide-ranging sanctions, and non-proliferation mechanisms such as export controls.

“The United States also engaged in two major diplomatic initiatives in which North Korea [agreed] to abandon its nuclear weapons efforts in return for aid. In 1994, faced with North Korea’s announced intent to withdraw from the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), which requires non-nuclear weapon states to forswear the development and acquisition of nuclear weapons, the United States and North Korea signed the Agreed Framework. Under this agreement, Pyongyang committed to freezing its illicit plutonium weapons program in exchange for aid.

“Following the collapse of this agreement in 2002, North Korea claimed that it had withdrawn from the NPT in January 2003 and once again began operating its nuclear facilities.

“The second major diplomatic effort [was] the Six-Party Talks initiated in August of 2003 which involved China, Japan, North Korea, Russia, South Korea, and the United States. In between periods of stalemate and crisis, those talks arrived at critical breakthroughs in 2005, when North Korea pledged to abandon ‘all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs’ and return to the NPT, and in 2007, when the parties agreed on a series of steps to implement that 2005 agreement. Those talks, however, broke down in 2009 following disagreements over verification and an internationally condemned North Korea rocket launch. Pyongyang has since stated that it would never return to the talks and is no longer bound by their agreements. The other five parties state that they remain committed to the talks, and have called for Pyongyang to recommit to its 2005 denuclearization pledge.”
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Writing in Space Daily, Giles Hewitt reports that “There is room to increase pressure by imposing the sort of extensive economic sanctions that helped bring Iran to the negotiating table over its nuclear programme. But to be effective, these would impact Chinese companies and financial institutions that account for the lion’s share of North Korea’s overseas business. China is likely to balk at any such move and Washington would be wary of pushing Beijing at an already sensitive time for relations between the two powers.” [Hewitt declines to note that the Iran deal fails to forbid Tehran from eventually getting atomic weapons, and that Iran has already violated portions of the agreement]… China, meanwhile, is unlikely to back any moves that could genuinely destabilise the regime of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, given its overriding fear of a reunified, US-allied Korea directly on its border.

‘China, no matter how strong the language it uses in its criticism on the North, will not join any Security Council punishment that may have a real impact on the North’s regime,’ said South Korea’s former national Security Adviser, Chun Young-Woo.’And North Korea knows that,’ he added.”

Ben Dooley, also writing in Space Daily, believes “China is unlikely to take strong action in response to North Korea’s claimed test of a hydrogen bomb, according to experts who say Beijing prefers the devil it knows to the uncertainty that could follow a confrontation. And whether Pyongyang would even listen is highly questionable, they say… Beijing’s support for Pyongyang gives it particular influence over the hermit kingdom.

“But that is ever less true, experts say… ‘China’s influence on North Korea is becoming weaker and weaker, the main issue is that the North’s leadership do not listen, they are very stubborn’, said Zhu Feng, an expert on international relations. Pyongyang, he added, may believe it can ‘exploit’ its relationship with its main diplomatic protector while Beijing is distracted by tensions with other neighbours and the US in the South China Sea. Beijing — which regularly calls for calm on the Korean peninsula — has become increasingly frustrated with its neighbour’s antics, a feeling undoubtedly exacerbated by its fourth nuclear test.”

Government officials, arms control experts and many pundits are too eager to give a pass to China in their belief that Beijing has no influence.  The facts clearly say otherwise. China could literally bankrupt and starve North Korea with ease, and that gives Beijing enormous influence. Claims that the Chinese leadership fears a unified Korea are accurate, but if that is what keeps Beijing from urging the North from stopping its nuclear program, that could be addressed by using its enormous influence to threaten internal regime change within the North’s Communist Party.

North Korea’s nuclear program helps China. First, it detracts from Beijing’s own enormous strategic weapons development program. Second, it makes China a wanted partner in arms control negotiations in the region. The third reason is speculative, but must nevertheless be carefully considered. If Beijing eventually chooses to damage Japan, the Philippines, or even the United States, a nuclear attack that comes from North Korea would achieve that objective while giving Beijing a way of avoiding blame—and retaliation.

While diplomatic attempts to halt Pyongyang’s atomic program should continue, the US must also strengthen missile defenses for itself and its allies. Further, Washington should inform China that any use of nuclear weapons by North Korea against America or its allies will be construed as an act encouraged, supported, and aided by Beijing.

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Importing Unemployment

In another example of why many Americans believe that elites are not concerned with the average citizen, The White House, supported by academia and big business, is loosening restrictions on noncitizens holding Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM)  jobs.

The controversy concerns H-1B visas, described by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)  as being used “to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations that require the theoretical or practical application of a body of highly specialized knowledge, including but not limited to: scientists, engineers, or computer programmers.”

In a press release strategically timed during the holidays to avoid much attention, DHS said that the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Agencies (USCIS) has proposed a rule “that would modernize and improve certain aspects of employment-based nonimmigrant and immigrant visa programs. USCIS is also proposing regulatory amendments to better enable U.S. employers to hire and retain certain foreign workers who are beneficiaries of approved employment-based immigrant visa petitions and are waiting to become lawful permanent residents (LPRs).”

According to The Hill, “The agency said the rules are primarily aimed at helping high-skilled foreign workers who have been approved for a permanent work visa but are still waiting for their green card because of the backlog.’ Simply put, many workers in the immigrant visa process are not free to consider all available employment and career development opportunities,’ DHS said in the proposed rules.”

The Hill reports that DHS believes the change is necessary to “allow certain temporary workers who are on track to become permanent residents to stay beyond the 6-year limit of the H-1B program. The changes would also allow those temporary visa holders and certain other foreign workers to more easily change jobs without fear of losing their spot in line for a green card. The DHS says the current backlog can delay permanent residency for high-skilled workers from a few months to as much as a decade. Because of country-based caps, the delays have hit foreigners from China and India the hardest, where demand is high.”

The move is supported by powerful interests. Zerohedge reports that “High-tech titans like Bill Gates, Steve Case, and Mark Zuckerberg are repeatedly quoted proclaiming a dearth of talent that imperils the nation’s future. Politicians, advocates, and articles and op-eds published by media outlets—including The New York Times, Forbes, CNN, Slate, and others—invoke such foreign-born entrepreneurs as Google’s Sergey Brin or Yahoo’s Jerry Yang, as if arrival from abroad (Brin and Yang came to the US as children) explains the success of the companies they founded . . . with partners who are US natives. Journalists endorse studies that trumpet the job-creating skills of these entrepreneurs from abroad, while ignoring the weaknesses that other scholars find in the research.
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“Meanwhile, The National Science Board’s biennial book, Science and Engineering Indicators, consistently finds that the US produces several times the number of STEM graduates than can get jobs in their fields. Recent reports from the National Institutes of Health, the National Academies, and the American Chemical Society warn that overproduction of STEM PhDs is damaging America’s ability to recruit native-born talent, and advise universities to limit the number of doctorates they produce.”

The Columbia Journalism Review reports that “President Obama supports bringing more foreign STEM workers to the US, despite high unemployment among US workers…Figures from the National Institutes of Health, the National Academies, the National Science Foundation, and other sources indicate that hundreds of thousands of STEM workers in the US are unemployed or underemployed. But they are not organized, and their story is being largely ignored in the debate over immigration reform.”

Reaction has been harsh. Breitbart  contends that “ Industry executives and university advocates have successfully duped nearly every reporter, editor and anchor nationwide about the scale and purpose of the H-1B professional outsourcing program. The journalists–and Americans—have been kept in the dark while universities and many allied name-brand companies have quietly imported an extra workforce of at least 100,000 lower-wage foreign professionals in place of higher-wage American graduates, above the supposed annual cap of 85,000 new H-1Bs.Less than one-sixth of these extra 100,000 outsourced hires are the so-called ‘high-tech’ computer experts that dominate media coverage of the contentious H-1B private-sector outsourcing debate. These white-collar guest-workers are not immigrants — they are foreign professionals hired at low wages for six years to take outsourced, white-collar jobs in the United States. Many hope to stay in the United States, but most guest-workers return home after six years.”

An analysis from Zerohedge reveals that “since December 2007, according to the Household Survey, only 790,000 native born American jobs have been added. Contrast that with the 2.1 million foreign-born Americans who have found a job over the same time period.”

Writing for the Center for Immigration Studies, Steven Camarota asks “Does it make sense to continue to admit a million new permanent immigrants each year, along with several hundred thousand guest workers, given the enormous pool of people not working or trying to find full-time work?”

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The Failed State of Mexico

Much attention has been paid to crises on distant continents, and rightfully so. The Middle East is tinderbox about to go up in blaze; Russia’s aggressiveness has brought the Cold War back to life, and China seems to be pursing the same belligerent role played by Japan that led to Pearl Harbor.

However, one needs look no further than America’s own southern border to find a significant crisis with major implications for the U.S.  Yesterday’s review examined how terrorists appear to be using Mexico as a launching pad to enter the American homeland. They are able to do so because Mexico is on the verge of being a wholly failed state.

That dire situation seems counter-intuitive. World.Silk   describes the nation in fairly glowing terms: “Mexico has one of the world’s largest economies, and is considered both a regional power and middle power… [it is considered to be] an upper-middle income country by the World Bank,  a newly industrialized nation, and an emerging power.It has the fourteenth largest nominal GDP and the eleventh largest GDP by purchasing power parity.” Additionally, it is one of the world’s most visited countries.

Last week, a Congressional Research Service study  on U.S.-Mexican security cooperated noted that  “Violence perpetrated by a range of criminal groups continues to threaten citizen security and governance in some parts of Mexico, a country with which the United States shares a nearly 2,000-mile border and more than $500 billion in annual trade…analysts estimate that it may have claimed more than 80,000 lives between December 2006 and December 2014. Recent cases—particularly the disappearance of 43 students in Guerrero, Mexico in September 2014—have drawn attention to the problems of corruption and impunity for human rights abuses in Mexico….

The danger to the U.S. from the power of Mexico’s organized criminal gangs, which far too frequently and in far too many locations exercise more power than the government, was noted in another Congressional study, “Terrorism and Transnational crime”  “criminals and terrorists have shared similar tactics to reach their separate operational objectives. Such tactics include acts of violence; involvement in criminal activity for profit; money laundering; undetected cross-border movements; illegal weapons acquisition; and exploitation of corrupt government officials. • Organizational Evolution and Variation: A criminal group may transform over time to adopt political goals and ideological motivations. Conversely, terrorist groups may shift toward criminality. For some terrorist groups, criminal activity remains secondary to ideological ambitions. For others, profit-making may surpass political aspirations as the dominant operating rationale.”

Infopirate bookmarks blogs unique copyrighted worldwide 80 adshare 10 referral adshare infopirate has morphed into a revenue cialis india price sharing bookmarking website. Igdalsky said the track was reviewing its records of check over here generic viagra prices how many announcements were made but conceded some fans didn’t hear it. sildenafil viagra generico Also consume the medicine with the help of water and try to take it in an empty stomach. In such a condition, if psychological well-being issue is left untreated then it might bring about price levitra huge issue and in the greater part of the cases, pain is mellow as well as vanishes all alone. A study by the National Interest noted that “Mexico has long been afflicted by pervasive corruption, with drug cartels and other criminal organizations easily penetrating governmental institutions. But developments …suggest that some of those institutions do not merely exhibit mundane corruption, but may be compromised in horrific ways. The most troubling incident took place in September 2014, when students from a teachers college disappeared in the western state of Guerrero. The students had shown the temerity to conduct a protest demonstration against the mayor of Iguala and his wife. Evidence soon emerged that the students were likely murdered and their bodies burned. Worse, there are strong indications, including eyewitness accounts from two individuals who survived the attack, that elements of both the police and the army, along with enforcers from a local drug cartel, were responsible for the massacre.”

An analysis by Stratfor emphasizes

“There comes a moment when the imbalance in resources reverses the relationship between government and cartels. Government officials, seeing the futility of resistance, effectively become tools of the cartels. Since there are multiple cartels, the area of competition ceases to be solely the border towns, shifting to the corridors of power in Mexico City. Government officials begin giving their primary loyalty not to the government but to one of the cartels. The government thus becomes both an arena for competition among the cartels and an instrument used by one cartel against another. That is the prescription for what is called a “failed state” — a state that no longer can function as a state.

“It is important to point out that we are not speaking here of corruption, which exists in all governments everywhere. Instead, we are talking about a systematic breakdown of the state, in which government is not simply influenced by criminals, but becomes an instrument of criminals — either simply an arena for battling among groups or under the control of a particular group. The state no longer can carry out its primary function of imposing peace, and it becomes helpless, or itself a direct perpetrator of crime. Corruption has been seen in Washington — some triggered by organized crime, but never state failure.”

A key symbol of the imbalance between Mexican governmental authority and  criminal organizations can be seen in an analysis by Vocativ  “At least 100 mayors have been murdered in the past 10 years in connection with organized crime, the Association of Local Authorities of … Mayors have been killed by decapitation, pummeled by stones, gunned to death and dismembered, according to local reports.”

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What President Obama Couldn’t Say

What would a truly candid State of the Union address contain? The New secretworldchronicle.com levitra 40 mg This results in long lasting and stable erection during the process. After the age of 40 and certainly by nearly 50, the penile rise slower, and become less firm and this condition sildenafil rx becomes frequent. Pills getting viagra without prescription and creams are often used for diabetes. Some people experience this pain in one or both arms, nausea or vomiting, sweating, lightheadedness, or fatigue. tadalafil canadian York Analysis of Policy & Government reveals that today in the article, below.

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U.S. Workers Suffer in Obama Economy

As the President delivers his State of the Union address tonight, Americans will reflect on the state of their own personal situations. Despite diligent attempts by federal agencies to paint a rosy picture, the reality is average citizens are enduring difficult times. Employment and wages are faring poorly.

Let’s start with wages.  Marketwatch reports that wages have recently declined. “Average wages fell a penny to $25.24 an hour.” Normally, after the end of a recession, wages are expected to rise, leading to further belief that our economy, rather than recovering, is heading in the wrong direction.

Those workers with declining pay may still consider themselves fortunate, however, since they, at least actually have jobs. Despite the fact that the White Houses claims that unemployment has been reduced, a closer look reveals a far more troubling picture.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics,

“Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 292,000 in December, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 5.0 percent…Employment gains occurred in several industries, led by professional and business services, construction, health care, and food services and drinking places. Mining employment continued to decline. The number of unemployed persons, at 7.9 million, was essentially unchanged in December, and the unemployment rate was 5.0 percent for the third month in a row…Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rate for blacks declined to 8.3 percent in December, while the rates for adult men (4.7 percent), adult women (4.4 percent),teenagers (16.1 percent), whites (4.5 percent), Asians (4.0 percent), and Hispanics(6.3 percent) showed little or no change…The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) was essentially unchanged at 2.1 million in December and accounted for 26.3 percent of the unemployed.The number of long-term unemployed has shown little movement since June…”

Digging deeper reveals troubling specifics.  As the New York Post noted,
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“… those numbers don’t reflect what is happening on the Main Streets of American. There, life is a lot tougher. For example, the broader measure of unemployment, called U-6, which measures Americans working in part-time jobs because they can’t find a 40-hour-a-week job, finds 6 million people, or 9.9 percent of the workforce, not able to find a full-time job…Plus, if you add in all the discouraged workers who want a job but have given up looking, the number of unemployed could reach 20 percent of the population. There were some other strange things in Friday’s glowing employment report. For instance, why did construction jobs increase by 45,000 last month? Labor says it had nothing to do with the unusually warm weather in most of the nation, but how could that not have had an impact? There were also 39,000 new health-care jobs, which was about average for every month in 2015. But most of these jobs are probably related to the continued rollout of ObamaCare. A change in the law like that has nothing to do with economic vitality. ..Another noticeable oddity in Friday’s report is this: “Food service and drinking places added 37,000 jobs in December,” Labor said. For 2015 there were 357,000 new jobs in this category. Really? How many new bars were added to your town?”

Dr. Paul C. Roberts, writing in Global Research,, is also harshly critical of the optimistic jobs picture. He notes that “the alleged job growth always takes place in non-tradable domestic services, that is, in areas that do not produce exports and have no competition from imports. This is the job profile of a Third World country…the US labor force participation rate has been declining. In December, 2015, there are 1,185,000 fewer Americans in the labor force than in December 2014; yet, the working age population is higher today than a year ago. The reported unemployment rate does not include “discouraged workers,” that is, workers who unable to find jobs have ceased looking for work. The reported unemployment rate of 5% only counts non-discouraged workers who are still expecting to find a job. The actual unemployment rate, that is, the rate that includes Americans who have given up hope of finding employment, is 23%… let’s look at the make believe jobs that the BLS claims. Almost all of them are in lowly paid domestic services, such as waitresses, bartenders, couriers and messengers, employment services, social services and health care (primarily ambulatory health care services).”

The New York Times provides this analysis: the strongest employment growth during the sluggish recovery has been in low-wage work, at places like strip malls and fast-food restaurants. In essence, the poor economy has replaced good jobs with bad ones. That is the conclusion of a new report from the National Employment Law Project, a research and advocacy group, analyzing employment trends four years into the recovery… Higher-wage industries — like accounting and legal work — shed 3.6 million positions during the recession and have added only 2.6 million positions during the recovery. But lower-wage industries lost two million jobs, then added 3.8 million… With joblessness high and job gains concentrated in low-wage industries, hundreds of thousands of Americans have accepted positions that pay less than they used to make, in some cases, sliding out of the middle class and into the ranks of the working poor.

The Washington Times outlines another key employment issue: “Two-thirds of those who have found employment under President Obama are immigrants, both legal and illegal.”

The Obama Administration’s high corporate taxes, lax immigration policies, poor international trade policies, excessive regulations, environmental extremism and disincentives on hiring from programs such as the Affordable Care Act have devastated the middle income job market.

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Obama’s Failed Cuba Policy

It has been a year since the White House’s opening of relations with Cuba. Mr. Obama’s policy may soon be broadened, as the President considers travelling to the island nation in the near future.

A review of the results indicate that the move was a significant error. Havana, Instead of responding to the White House’s embrace with a less belligerent foreign policy and enhanced human rights at home, has doubled down on the worst aspects of the Castro family regime.

It didn’t take long for Cuba to rebuke Obama’s bid for friendship. Foreign Policy noted:

“Indeed, no sooner had Castro met with Obama than he took to the floor of the U.N. General Assembly to unleash a typical jeremiad against the United States, chockfull of hoary Cold War rhetoric denouncing the embargo, demanding reparations (to the tune of $1 trillion) for the embargo, ordering the return of the U.S. naval facility at Guantanamo Bay, and calling for Puerto Rican independence (which Puerto Ricans do not even want.)”

The Washington Post  has reported: President Raúl Castro’s regime… “seems to have done little beyond reopening its Washington embassy…Mr. Castro’s son-in-law, an army general, still controls the dollar-earning tourist industry, the Internet largely remains unavailable to ordinary Cubans, and, most important, dissidents remain subject to arbitrary arrest and detention — including several snatched off the streets for daring to approach Pope Francis during his recent visit.”

According to information from The Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies (ICCAS) at the University of Miami, originally shared with the Panama Post, “General Leopoldo Cintra Frías, head of the Cuban Armed Forces…is leading a group of Cuban military personnel … in support of Syria’s dictator Assad and, in Cold War fashion, the Russian contingent…two Russian-made planes arriving in Syria carrying approximately 300 Cuban soldiers. They further detail that the Cuban soldiers will man Russian tanks that have been provided to Syrian head-of-state Bashar al-Assad. Their duty will be to fight Islamic State forces and others who threaten Assad’s grip on power.”

The Castro family regime has not limited its aggressive and disturbing foreign policy moves to areas far from the Western Hemisphere. Capitol Hill Cubans outlined several examples that indicate Havana is continuing its threatening practices, which have included arms deals with North Korea and South American terrorists:

“- Russian intelligence ship, Yantar, targeted a U.S. nuclear missile submarine base and underwater transit routes off the eastern seaboard, as it headed for safe-harbor in Cuba. Throughout the year, the Castro regime has continued to host and harbor Russian spy ships tasked with monitoring sensitive U.S. defense networks

“- As Russia restores military-industrial cooperation with Cuba, it may soon reopen the Lourdes signal intelligence center near Havana, announced a senior member of the State Duma Security Committee.
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“- “We intend to continue cooperation in supplying the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces with modern weapons and military hardware,” Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said at a meeting in Moscow with Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Cuba Ricardo Cabrisas.

“- A Russian spy ship, The Viktor Leonov, returned to the Port of Havana during a visit by European Union’s foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini. Her visit to Cuba also ‘coincided’ with a visit by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

“- A Russian spy ship docked in central Havana on the eve of a visit to Cuba by the first U.S. delegation for “normalization” talks. The Viktor Leonov, an armed intelligence-gathering vessel that monitors US communications, arrived at a passenger cruise terminal in full public view for what a Russian embassy official called a “friendly” three-day stay.”

Internally, Cuba a remains as repressive as ever. The Heritage Foundation reports:

“Cuba is further than ever from becoming a democracy where people enjoy normal civil liberties; it is in fact closer to becoming what China specialist have identified as a rival model, a ‘resilient authoritarian regime’… the Castro regime thumbed its nose at the world by arresting between 150-200 dissidents on Human Rights Day…regime-organized mobs have blocked a brave group of middle-aged women known as the Ladies in White from marching after church service. These women are always insulted, often beaten and occasionally arrested.”

“Meanwhile, Castro has put family members in charge of a corrupt regime that can now expect to have durability after the two Castro brothers pass from the scene. Castro’s son-in-law, Gen. Luis Alberto Rodriguez, controls an estimated 90 percent of the Cuban economy through the holding company he leads, GAESA. As Bloomberg put it recently about would-be foreign investors, “wait until they learn all roads lead to Raul Castro’s son-in-law.”

“The island’s defenseless dissidents have bitterly denounced what they term Obama’s betrayal of their movement.”

The Wall Street Journal ‘s Bret Stephens reports that, since Obama’s opening to Havana last year, 8,000 cubans have been arrested for political reasons.

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President Obama vs. the Pentagon

Many across the world have been startled by President Obama’s minimal response to national security threats, including expanded terrorist attacks within the United States, Russia and China’s increases in both military spending and aggressiveness, and the nuclear ambitions of Iran and North Korea.

Unlike prior debates on how much to spend and what defense policies to pursue, the concern expressed by many, including Republicans, some Democrats, and a number of retired generals and admirals—as well as at least one former secretary of defense—is that President Obama ignores and distrusts the military to an unprecedented degree.

According to a Government Accountability Institute report, “[During] the president’s first 2,079 days in office, running from January 20, 2009 through September 29, 2014… Obama attended a total of 875 Presidential Daily Briefs for an overall 42.09% attendance rate. Additionally, GAI compared the attendance rate during the first term to the attendance rate in the second term… First Term: President Obama was inaugurated on January 20, 2009 and was re-elected in November 2012. Between January 20, 2009 and January 19, 2013, President Obama attended 620 PDBs over a possible 1,461 days for a 42.43% attendance rate. • Second Term: President Obama was inaugurated for his second term on January 20, 2013. Between January 20, 2013 and September 29, 2014, President Obama attended 255 PDBs over a possible 618 days for a 41.26% attendance rate.”

The President’s apparent disdain for military advice and disinterest in national security matters has created significant concern in Washington. According to the Washington Times,  “Key lawmakers from both parties say frustration with the White House among the top military officers is at its highest level in decades, the product of President Obama’s cautious approach to the wars in Syria and Iraq and an indecisive inner circle of White House advisers who, critics say, have iced the Pentagon out of the policymaking process.”

It’s not just uniformed officers and GOP elected officials that are concerned. The Washington Times also quotes Rep. Adam Smith, the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee. “Frustration among the uniformed service is real… does keep things in the White House and has not been more inclusive in the decision-making process.”
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Breitbart  reports: “Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates said President Obama distrusted the military, and “this was particularly true in Afghanistan  I think there were people in the White House, and I don’t want to name any names, who were constantly goading him and saying the military is trying to box you in. the military is trying to trap you. the military is trying to bully you. The military is trying to make you do something you don’t want to do.”

When asked if Vice President Joe Biden was one of these people, Gates answered, “I think so. And I was told so. And I think — but he was not alone, and you can argue with the options that they were putting forward, as President Bush did.  You can disagree with them, as President Bush did. That’s totally fair, in my view. But, to think that they are trying to mousetrap you, I think is a — if I were the president and I truly believed that, I would replace those commanders that I felt were trying to trick me. So, I just — I worried a lot that he was hearing from people, things that made him worry that the military was consciously trying to thwart his will, consciously trying to be insubordinate, and I never believed any of that for a second.”

The Fiscal Times notes:  “pushback from military commanders has been silenced by a distrustful White House that’s jealous of control and willing to penalize those who stray from the Oval Office narrative … Our military is being interfered with and directed by President Obama and a national security team that one retired general has described as ‘pathetically weak.’ …The Obama White House is remarkably devoid of ex-soldiers; that’s not an accident. The president’s contentious relationship with the military is well known.

“Confronting President Obama is risky. Senior military commanders who have gone public with their disagreements can find themselves facing early retirement. Sir Hew Strachan, a senior defense strategist in the U.K., cites the ouster of General Stanley McCrystal as a case in point… Senator John McCain has accused the White House of pushing out both Marine General James Mattis from U.S. Central Command and Army Lt. General Michael Flynn from the DIA for having contradicted Obama’s policies. Joint Chiefs Chairman Martin Dempsey also broke with Obama numerous times, citing Russia as a major threat, for instance, and saying we might need boots on the ground to defeat ISIS. Dempsey retired in September.”

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Russia, China, North Korea aid Iran’s nuclear and ICBM development

Much attention has been paid to Iran’s nuclear program. The issue that concerns most is that the deal doesn’t prevent the development of atomic weapons in the future, and doesn’t appear likely to even stop ongoing such development in the present. However, other deadly military efforts have been largely overlooked.

The Russian news source RT reports that the Tehran government is expanding its ballistic missile program.  Iran carried out a missile test in October, violating a UN Security Council resolution forbidding the construction of missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads.

The Wall Street Journal noted at the close of 2015 that “Iranian President Hassan Rouhani ordered his defense minister to expedite development of the country’s ballistic missile program in response to new U.S. sanctions set to be imposed on Iranian defense companies. Mr. Rouhani’s comments, made on his official Twitter account…cast fresh doubts on the prospects for the U.S. and Iran to successfully implement the landmark nuclear agreement reached last July.” The new American sanctions were proposed in response to two Iranian ballistic missile tests  over the past three months.

Even before the new advances, research from the United States Institute of Peace  revealed that “Iran has the largest and most diverse ballistic missile arsenal in the Middle East. (Israel has more capable ballistic missiles, but fewer in number and type.) Most were acquired from foreign sources, notably North Korea. The Islamic Republic is the only country to develop a 2,000-km missile without first having a nuclear weapons capability. Iran is still dependent on foreign suppliers for key ingredients, components and equipment, but it should eventually be able to develop long-range missiles over time, including an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile or ICBM.

Currently, Iran fields a sophisticated medium range ballistic missile that has a range of 1,200 miles. The weapon, known as the Shahab-3, is based on the North Korean “NoDong 1” missile. But has been improved to provide longer range and better accuracy, according to the Iran Intelligence  source. Iran has been the world’s third most active missile testing nation, topped only by Russia and China.
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The American Foreign Policy Council Task Force reported in October that “Willing foreign suppliers exist at both the state and non-state level. At the state level, Iran’s ongoing – and extensive – strategic alliance with the North Korean regime poses considerable future risks, insofar as nuclear and ballistic missile cooperation between the two countries has a long history and is ongoing. Similarly, multiple private entities involved in Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs continue to operate within the People’s Republic of China, and have been estimated to provide as much as 90 percent of the necessary “goods and technology” for both. As such, nonproliferation experts have warned that “[t]here is considerable risk that Tehran could covertly procure nuclear materials from Chinese brokers and circumvent a nuclear deal by secretly creating a new parallel nuclear program.” At the same time, Iran will have both greater incentive and greater capability to engage in “offshore” development of a nuclear capability, relying on its existing strategic partnerships abroad to continue nuclear development outside of territorial Iran. Here, too, Iran’s contacts with North Korea represent a source of serious concern, with one or more of the nuclear tests carried out by the DPRK over the past decade believed to have been carried out at least in part to test Iranian capabilities.”

The International Business Times reports that “Russia currently has a deal in place from April to supply Iran with the S-300 missile defense system. It’s yet to be seen how it will be completed given that Iran is now banned from buying missile technology for eight years.”

The Rand organization notes that  “Over the past few decades, China and Iran have developed a broad and deep partnership centered on China’s energy needs and Iran’s abundant resources as well as significant non-energy economic ties, arms sales and defense cooperation, and geostrategic balancing against the United States. This partnership presents a unique challenge to U.S. interests and objectives. In particular, China’s policies have hampered U.S. and international efforts to dissuade Iran from developing a nuclear weapons capability…China has aided Iran’s efforts to modernize its military hardware and doctrine through the transfer of military technology and sales of small arms and tactical ballistic and anti-ship cruise missiles. China has assisted in the development of Iran’s nuclear program via the transfer of technology and machinery.”

The Russian-Chinese-Iranian-North Korean axis presents the world with a significant threat, both in terms of total military strength (exceeding that of the U.S.-NATO alliance) as well in the proliferation of nuclear power and ICBM technology.

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2015’s Major policy errors

Every year has its share of bad policies, incidents of poor judgment, and significant missteps by government, the media, and other centers of power. However, 2015 had more than the usual amount of extremely serious errors.

  1. “The Shadow of the Crisis of Terrorism has passed.” –President Obama, 2015 State of the Union Address. Throughout 2015, it became increasingly clear that the White House had lost its grip on reality concerning the threat of terrorism. The statement continued a woeful record of stunning missteps in the Administration’s Middle East policy, including the President’s “Apology tour,” support for the pro-extremist “Arab Spring” movements, the alienation of close ally Israel, and the one-sided Iran nuclear deal which has already been dishonored by Tehran. The stunning lack of perception or concern was repeated by Mr. Obama shortly before the San Bernardino attack, when he again stated his belief that the U.S. was not in immediate danger, and in its aftermath when the President, in a rare Oval Office address, essentially claimed his policies were working and instead issued comments concentrating on his beliefs about anti-Moslem bias and stock comments on gun ownership. Adding to the problem has been the unilateral nature of the White House’s actions in  Mideast matters. The Senate has largely been denied its’ rightful role in foreign affairs, particularly in the Iran nuclear deal, through the Administrations’ continuing tactic of labelling treaties—which the Constitution mandates Senate approval for—as agreements, or other labels.
  1. “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot!” It turns out there wasn’t any wrongdoing by the police in Ferguson in this incident, but that didn’t stop left-wing spokespersons and racial profiteers from using it as an excuse to gin up support for progressive candidates and issues throughout the nation. The Black Lives Matter movement has become a major source of disruption throughout the U.S., setting back years of improvement in racial relations. Police have become targets.  While isolated incidents of police misconduct undoubtedly exist, the portrayal of American law enforcement as having major problems with bigotry is patently false. The shameful conduct of the U.S. Justice Department, which has exhibited a shoot first, ask questions later in its actions targeting police officers and exploiting incidents, real and otherwise, for political purposes, is a textbook example of unprofessionalism.
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  1. White House continues to stonewall Benghazi investigation. “What does it matter.” –Hillary Clinton in testimony before Congress, January 23, 2013. Hillary Clinton certainly wishes the Benghazi incident be forgotten, but the evidence became increasingly clear in 2015 that the State Department acted inappropriately and possibly illegally before and throughout the attack on the U.S. facility that resulted in the death of U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, Information Officer Sean Smith, and operatives Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods on September 11, 2012. In 2015, A number of sources indicated that the State Department was running guns out of Benghazi to forces opposing Syrian dictator Bashar al Assad. Although the cause may have been worthy, those forces appear to be associated with Islamic extremists, who are even more eager to attack Americans. Providing weapons to them is forbidden by federal law and punishable by very substantial prison terms.  It’s no wonder Ms. Clinton is eager to put the incident behind her. Making matters even worse, it’s clear, based on emails obtained by Judicial Watch at the end of 2015 as a result of a Freedom of Information lawsuit, that the U.S. military was ready, willing, and fully capable of mounting a rescue mission, but was told to stand down by the State Department. The outright lies that came from both the White House and the State Department about the role of a video continued to force Americans to doubt the integrity of both the White House and the State Department throughout 2015.
  1. The Paris Climate Agreement. Whether one believes in man-made global warming or doubts human activity plays much of a role at all, the Paris Climate Agreement was a mistake.

First, of course, there is that familiar Obama Administration problem—calling an important international treaty an “agreement” in order to avoid the Constitutional role of the Senate.  You don’t have to be a Republican to see the issue here.  Presidents are not the whole government—the Founding Fathers set up three branches of government in order to prevent anyone from gaining excessive power. Mr. Obama has consistently run roughshod over that safeguard.

Second, if one agrees with the concept of global warming, the Paris Agreement does not go far enough to make any significant difference in deterring future warming, while costing upwards of $100 billion, and jeopardizing the economic health of developed nations by mandating the substantial reduction of some energy sources long before any truly effective substitutes can be found.  If one disagrees with the concept of man-made global warming, then the intentional refusal to consider the views of a significant percentage of the scientific community, along with the numerous reports of falsified data and politically-motivated warping of research by warming theory advocates makes this deal an insult to the whole concept of the scientific process. And there is this: A number of astronomers specializing in studying the sun maintain that for the next half century or so, global cooling, not warming, may be the biggest challenge to our environment.