It’s Friday, January 15th, 2016…but we before we begin, a few brief thoughts on the latest Dimocratic-inspired Iranian hostage crisis:

Absent the facts (which given the Navy’s complete subservience to The Obamao and his ineptitude we’ll likely never learn), we hesitate to pass judgment on the actions of the sailors involved in this clusterf*ck…except for this…

…which we were taught violated the Code of Conduct unless the individual uttering it had suffered pain and torment beyond their endurance.  Absent any evident bruising, blood or bowel leakage (i.e., he got the sh*t beat out of him!), we’re left to conclude LT David Nartker either willingly cooperated with the enemy contrary to his training by allowing himself to be used for propaganda purposes; or, even more inexplicably, despite having graduated in 2011 from the U.S. Naval Academy, failed to receive the training necessary to understand the implications of his conduct.  So much for…

Either way, Nartker’s conduct bespeaks a lack of combat readiness in the Navy specifically, and our Military in general, we couldn’t have imagined…that is, before we learned, like his Commander-in-Chief, Nartker too…

…hails from Chicago!

Here’s the juice: just like Chicago politics, this entire affair stinks like a whorehouse at low tide.  Consider the following: (1). If BOTH boats somehow suffered simultaneous GPS failure, why weren’t they warned by whoever was monitoring their positions?  (2). If one of the boats experienced a propulsion problem, why didn’t the other boat either take them in tow or transfer the crew of the stricken boat and di-di?  By the way, international law provides vessels rendering assistance to ships in distress wide latitude, even when such assistance violates another nation’s territorial waters.  (3). When the boats were first approached by the Iranians, why did they not radio for, and subsequently receive either surface or air support?  (4). Given the uniform appearance of LT Nartker’s face, what unspeakable means did the Iranians use to elicit his apology: harsh language?

Last but not least, if The Dear Misleader’s amazing diplomacy was responsible for the quick release of ten sailors, why can’t he secure the freedom of the five Americans still languishing in Iranian custody?!?

As we said, this entire, sordid affair bespeaks a lack of combat readiness and military preparedness we couldn’t have imagined seven years ago.

Now, here’s The Gouge!

First up, in honor of our good friend Stilton Jarlsberg and courtesy of Freedom Partners, we provide truth to one of the greatest lies ever perpetrated upon a free people:

2016 Obamacare Premium Increase Tracker

“Across the country, Americans are facing substantially higher costs under the Affordable Care Act.

In most states, health insurance premiums on the individual marketplace are rising by double digits under Obamacare. 17 states will face average premium increases of 20 percent or more. Iowans, for instance, will see their premiums spike by 22 percent this year. In Minnesota, Alaska, Tennessee, and Hawaii, rates will rise by 30 percent or more.

Want to know where your state ranks? Type a state into the search bar to view the average rate hike and the range of premium changes individuals purchasing insurance on the individual market will face…”

Click on the link above to check out how much ObamaScare is costing you this year!

Next up, in what can only be described as a related item, writing at Truth Revolt, David Horowitz details the innumerable…

Treasons of the Democrats

“The Bolshevik leader Leon Trotsky once described Stalinism as “the perfect theory for glueing up the brain.” What he meant to dramatize was the fact that a regime as monstrous as Stalin’s, which murdered 40 million people and enslaved many times more, was nonetheless able to persuade progressives and “social justice” advocates all over the world to act as its supporters and defenders. These enlightened enablers of Stalin’s crimes included leading intellectuals of the day, even Nobel Prize winners in the sciences and the arts like Frederic Joliot-Curie and Andre Gide. Brilliant as they were, they were blind to the realities of the Stalinist regime and therefore of the virtues of the societies they lived in.

What glued up their brains was the belief that a brave new world of social justice – a world governed by progressive principles – existed in embryo in Soviet Russia, and had to be defended by any means necessary. As a result of this illusion, they put their talents and prestige at the service of the totalitarian enemies of democracy, acting, in Trotsky’s words, as “frontier guards” for the Stalinist empire. They continued their efforts even after the Soviets conquered Eastern Europe, acquired nuclear weapons and initiated a “cold war” with the West. To the progressives seduced by Stalinism, democratic America represented a greater evil than the barbaric police states of the Soviet bloc. Even half a century later a progressive culture still refers to the formative phase of the Cold War as years of a “Red Scare” – as though the fifth column of American progressives whose loyalties were to the Soviet enemy, whose members included Soviet spies, was not a matter of serious concern, and as though a nuclear-armed, rapacious Soviet empire did not pose a credible threat.

How were these delusions of otherwise intelligent and well-intentioned people possible? (We STRONGLY dispute they were “well-intentioned”!) How were otherwise informed individuals able to deny the obvious and support the most brutal and oppressive dictatorship in history? How did they come to view a relatively humane, decent, democratic society like the United States as evil, while regarding the barbarous communist regime as its victim? The answer lies in the identification of Marxism with the promise of social justice and the institution of progressive values, which will take place in a magical socialist future. Defense of the progressive idea trumped recognition of the reactionary fact.

Once the Stalin regime was identified with the imaginary progressive future, everything followed – its status as a persecuted victim, and its adversary’s role as a reactionary force standing in the way of the noble aspiration. Every fault of the Stalin regime, every crime it committed if not denied by progressives was attributed to the nefarious actions of its enemies, most glaringly the United States. Once a promise of redemption is juxtaposed to an imperfect real world actor, all of these responses become virtually inevitable. Hence the glueing of the brain.

The Soviet Union is gone, and history has moved on. But the Stalinist dynamic endures as the heritage of a post-Communist left, which remains wedded to fantasies of an impossibly beautiful future that bring it into collision with the flawed American present. This left is now the dominant force in the Democratic Party. Its extreme disconnect from real world realities is encapsulated in its support for the transparently racist movement called Black Lives Matter, which attacks law enforcement and defends street predators, excusing their crimes with the alibi that “white supremacists” create the circumstances that make them commit criminal acts. This extremist movement has the “strong support” of the entire spectrum of the “progressive” left (including 46% of the Democratic Party, according to a Wall Street Journal/NBC news poll)…”

And nothing bespeaks this treason like their continued, unwavering support for the Islamofascist responsible for the last seven years of America’s incomparable suffering. 

And if you don’t believe us, at least believe the WSJ:

Obama’s Terror Sangfroid

The threat isn’t ‘existential,’ unless you’re at Starbucks.

“President Obama took pains in his State of the Union speech Tuesday to warn Americans not to exaggerate the threat from terrorists. “As we focus on destroying ISIL,” he said, using an alternative acronym for Islamic State (ISIS), “over-the-top claims that this is World War III just play into their hands.”

On Monday ISIS murdered 51 people in suicide attacks in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities. On Tuesday an ISIS suicide bomber in Istanbul killed 10 German and one Peruvian tourists. On Thursday two people were killed and 23 injured by an ISIS suicide bomber near a Starbucks coffee shop in Jakarta.

This bloody spate follows last month’s murder of 14 office workers in San Bernardino by an ISIS husband-and-wife team, November’s Paris massacre by ISIS of 130 people, the killing a day earlier of some 43 people in Beirut, and October’s downing by ISIS of a Russian jetliner over Egypt, in which 224 civilians perished. Last June’s attack at a Tunisian beach resort, in which 38 mainly British tourists were murdered, is already beginning to feel like a distant memory.

It isn’t clear what Mr. Obama means by “World War III,” but mass-casualty attacks against Western targets on four continents in the space of a few months probably sounds global to the victims…”

But hey, it’s not like ISIS is reaching Michelle and the girls…

…ungrateful as they are returning from their latest multi-million taxpayer-funded vacation!

Moving on, courtesy of The Daily Signal and Balls Cotton, Hawkeye Chuck Grassley lists..

10 Myths About Guns

Make that 11!

“Myths“?!? “Myths” are popular legend; “lies” are purposefully misleading statements deliberately intended to deceive.

And here’s one which will certainly solidify your support for The Obamao’s Syrian refugee syllabus:

Report: The UN, Not the State Dept, Makes First Pick About Which Syrian Refugees Can Come to America

Hey, look what they did for Cologne, Germany?!?

All of which leads us to agree with the conclusion of the incomparable Kimberly Strassel, who forecasts…

The Democratic Crack-Up

Barack Obama’s political legacy may be the dismantling of the party’s center.

“The nation tuned in to Round Six of the Republican debate mashup Thursday night, and the media is busy micro-covering every last rift between the GOP candidates. In the process reporters are ignoring the far more interesting party crackup going on.

You might not know it, but the Democratic Party is in the middle of an internecine battle that potentially dwarfs that of conservatives. On one side is a real but weakened mainstream Democratic movement that has its roots in Clinton centrism. On the other is a powerful, ascendant wing of impatient and slightly unhinged progressive activists. This split has been building for years, but The Donald has been so entertaining that few have noticed.

Now it’s getting hard to ignore. Polls this week show Bernie Sanders tying or beating Hillary Clinton in Iowa and New Hampshire. Put another way, a self-declared socialist, a man who makes many think of their crazy uncle Bob, is beating a woman who spent eight years planning this run, who is swimming in money, and who oversees the most powerful political machine in operation...”

Not to mention an ass…

…the size of Nebraska!

Finally, we turn to The Lighter Side…

Magoo