Obama Set to Give Iran Another Gift
No matter what Iran does to threaten U.S. interests and our allies, the response by Obama/Biden/Kerry is always the same: more U.S. concessions to Tehran. The latest is a decision by Obama’s Treasury Department to give Iran’s financial institutions access to U.S. dollars. Doing so will inevitably lead to more European and Asian banks doing business with Iran. Why is this in the interest of the U.S.? As Iran continues to export subversion and support terrorism throughout the Middle East, the Obama Administration should be increasing pressure on them, not rewarding the mullahs in Tehran.
No matter what Iran does to threaten U.S. interests and our allies, the response by Obama/Biden/Kerry is always the same: more U.S. concessions to Tehran. The latest is a decision by Obama’s Treasury Department to give Iran’s financial institutions access to U.S. dollars. Doing so will inevitably lead to more European and Asian banks doing business with Iran. Why is this in the interest of the U.S.? As Iran continues to export subversion and support terrorism throughout the Middle East, the Obama Administration should be increasing pressure on them, not rewarding the mullahs in Tehran.
Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Mark Kirk (R- IL) sent a tough letter to Secretary of the Treasury Jacob Lew critical of the plan. The letter warned Lew that, “Any such effort would benefit Iran’s financiers of international terrorism, human rights abuses, and ballistic missile threats.”
The Genocide Continues
In March, the Obama administration, after much prodding from Congress, finally designated that the atrocities being committed by ISIS against Christians and other religious minorities in parts of Syria and Iraq constitute “genocide.” But simply declaring genocide does nothing to stop it. And this week brought more evidence that the persecution continues.
According to Breitbart News,ISIS has decreed that Christians living in their capital city of Raqqa, located on the Euphrates River in northern Syria, are forbidden from leaving the city. Why? Doesn’t ISIS want to eradicate Christians, cleanse Christianity from their homelands and establish an Islamic caliphate? Yes, yes and yes. But the terrorist group sees some value in keeping the Christians around, at least for a while.
There are only 43 Christian families left in Raqqa, according to one report. That’s down from as many as 1,500 Christian families before the war. ISIS wants to use the remaining Christians as human shields in case the city is attacked by the forces of Bashar al-Assad or those of Russia.
Once again, Christians are paying the price for Islamic extremism.
Democrat Decline
Most of the news this presidential campaign season has focused on the chaos in the Republican Party. But there’s also quite a bit of upheaval going on among the Democrats.
The Democratic primary was supposed to be a coronation of Hillary Clinton. The odds are still high that Clinton will win the nomination, but she is suffering considerable damage from Bernie Sanders. Sanders raised $44 million in March in small donations. [Thursday] he spoke at an event in the Bronx that drew 18,000 people. Sanders has won 14 states so far, and his campaign is clearly where the energy is in the Democratic Party.
There is a lot of dissatisfaction with Clinton, whom even large shares of Democrats view as untrustworthy. Sadly, Sanders’ rise shows that much of the dissatisfaction with Hillary has to do with her not being liberal enough. Democrats are rallying around a 74-year-old socialist who spent his honeymoon in the Soviet Union.
As conservatives bemoan the state of affairs in the Republican Party, they should take some solace knowing that the Democratic Party has nearly as many problems.
