Exclusive: Senior Cruz Campaign Official Outlines the ‘Why’ Behind Decision to Tap Fiorina as VP | TheBlaze.com

Exclusive: Senior Cruz Campaign Official Outlines the ‘Why’ Behind Decision to Tap Fiorina as VP | TheBlaze.com:

"The combination of Cruz and Fiorina is enough to best Clinton in November, the official told TheBlaze — something they don’t believe businessman and front-runner Donald Trump will be able to do.

The timing of the announcement is highly unusual as no presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan in 1976 has named a running mate before officially earning their party’s nomination."

The Left's hatred of Jews chills me to the bone

The Left's hatred of Jews chills me to the bone:
"As a young boy, I used to think my grandma very strange.
In her bedroom she kept a suitcase, packed and ready for use at a moment’s notice.
“Just in case,” she’d tell me when I asked where it was that she was always waiting to go to.
“You never know when they’ll turn on the Jews.”
Her house in Northwood was epitome of suburban comfort, and I couldn’t understand what on earth she meant.
Until, that is, I learned some history – including the history of the Jews.
Which is, in short, that pretty much everywhere, they have turned on the Jews.
...the "Red/Green Alliance"; the phenomenon by which a swathe of the Left has linked up with radical Islam, leading to the bizarre spectacle of Leftist feminists supporting Islamists who would cut off the hands of women who read books.
With "anti-Western-imperialism" as part of the glue binding the alliance, everything else falls into place.
So Hamas and Hezbollah might have as their defining goal the elimination of an entire people from the face of the earth, but that unfortunate consequence for Jews is by the by, because Hamas and Hezbollah are freedom fighters.
...And because Israel is part of the Western imperium, as well as a key target for Islamists, it is also enemy number one for progressives. 
So an obsessive preoccupation with the Jewish state becomes the default position of the Left.
China, Zimbabwe, Saudi Arabia – pah! 
The focus must be on Israel and Israel alone.
From that springs an entire worldview that encompasses "Zionist" control of the media, of business, of everything.
And we can’t be accused of targeting Jews because we don’t use the word.
We say Zionist, not Jew..."

Is the White House Getting Too Friendly with Google?

Is the White House Getting Too Friendly with Google? | Intellectual Takeout:
"If you’ve ever been bombarded with web ads on a topic shortly after Googling or sending an email on the same topic, you’ve probably had an uneasy feeling that Google knows more about you than you’d like to think.
Unfortunately, that uneasy feeling may be destined to grow worse given new information released by the Campaign for Accountability.
Billing itself as a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, the Campaign for Accountability recently took an in-depth look at Google’s relationship with the government.
During Obama’s tenure in office, representatives from Google or Google-related companies have had a total of 427 meetings with the White House. 
Over 100 of these meetings have been with Google lobbyist Johanna Shelton.

According to the Campaign for Accountability, this high number of meetings is concerning because:
“Top lobbyists' activities serve as a bellweather for their employers' level of influence in Government. 
Visitor access records for these 50 political influencers make clear that Google's access to the White House is unique among corporations and industry associations.”
Furthermore, the Campaign for Accountability notes that in the last several years, Google and Government have acted like a revolving door of job opportunities, with 61 important Google employees going to work in top Government positions and nearly 200 Government employees heading the other way. (Click here for the interactive version of the below chart.)..."

Lunch video-----Steven Crowder Delivers Most Epic Smackdown of Leftist Protestors Ever

Steven Crowder Delivers Most Epic Smackdown of Leftist Protestors Ever » Louder With Crowder: "Our own Steven Crowder headed to the University of Massachusetts (UMass) yesterday to co-panel an event called “The Triggering” with Christina Hoff Sommers and Milo Yiannopoulos.
Steven had hopes of telling a few jokes.
You know, those words that form sentences with punchlines at the end?
Well as bad luck would have it, a leftist protester, or social justice warrior (SJW) was having none of that. Crowder put him through the figurative meat grinder. 
Yeah, the bad luck wasn’t for Crowder so much of the formerly standing SJW who’s now vacuumed sealed.
Buy him at your local deli.
Language warning…"

Noon-toon

New Documents Give More Insight into What Clinton Knew the Night of the Benghazi Attacks | TheBlaze.com

New Documents Give More Insight into What Clinton Knew the Night of the Benghazi Attacks | TheBlaze.com:

"On the night the Benghazi compound was attacked a call sheet was sent to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stating “armed extremists” were behind the attack, according to documents released Monday by the ethics group Judicial Watch.

Clinton also met with then-United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice days before Rice went on Sunday morning news program claiming the attack resulted from a spontaneous demonstration, according to the documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit."

More Evidence that America’s Education System is Getting Worse

More Evidence that America’s Education System is Getting Worse | Intellectual Takeout
The 2002 No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law set the bar high. 
It’s goal was for 100% of American students to be proficient in reading and math by 2014.

When the class of 2015 entered kindergarten, the implementation of NCLB was just beginning. Because NCLB largely focused on subjects such as math and reading, it seems reasonable that 2015 graduates should be ahead of the pack in these areas, right?

Au contraire, say the latest results from The Nation’s Report Card.

The 2015 version of The Nation’s Report Card focused on 12th grade reading and math. 

As the charts below show, only 1 in 4 high school seniors achieved proficiency in math, while 37% achieved proficiency in reading. 
According to The Nation’s Report Card, these results show a slight, short-term decline in math, and a larger, long-term decline of five points in reading.

Read on see more proof of government's consistent failure to achieve even the most modest goals.

Public university admits to burying study finding no damage to water quality from fracking because funders ‘disappointed’

The College Fix - Hearing a different viewpoint? How novel!:
A three-year study undertaken by the state-funded University of Cincinnati will not be released to the public, because it found no damage at all.  This direct contradiction of the goals of many environmentalist groups had to be suppressed.  As the lead researcher said:

I am really sad to say this, but some of our funders, the groups that had given us funding in the past, were a little disappointed in our results. They feel that fracking is scary and so they were hoping this data could be a reason to ban it[.]

This is a scandal that goes to the heart of the relationship between science and public policy and the reliability of global warming doomsayers.  The scandal was broken in a small town newspaper, the Free Press-Standard of Carroll County, Ohio and only gradually made its way to the national media via Jeff Stier of theNational Center for Public Policy Research, Newsweek, and Jazz Shaw of Hot Air.

As Stier wrote at Newsweek:

 Geologists at the University of Cincinnati just wrapped up a three-year investigation of hydraulic fracturing and its impact on local water supplies.

The result? There’s no evidence—zero, zilch, nada—that fracking contaminates drinking water. Researchers hoped to keep these findings secret.

Read on! 

Lavrov: Baltics show no gratitude for Moscow letting them go

Lavrov: Baltics show no gratitude for Moscow letting them go | Daily Mail Online:
"STOCKHOLM (AP) — Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says the Baltic countries have shown no gratitude to Moscow for letting them "go in peace" after the Soviet Union collapsed.
In an interview published Friday in Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter, Lavrov singled out Lithuania as the "most aggressive, Russophobic country" and said it is pushing NATO in an "anti-Russian direction."
He said NATO colleagues once told him Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania would "calm down" once they joined the alliance in 2004.
"They joined NATO but there was no calm, especially not with our Lithuanian neighbor," Lavrov was quoted as saying.
He defended the actions of Russian warplanes this month as they buzzed a U.S. Navy destroyer in the Baltic Sea, saying they decided to take a look at the ship "from a safe distance.""

The U.N. Has ‘Alternative’ Ideas for Getting More Syrian Refugees Into the U.S. | TheBlaze.com

The U.N. Has ‘Alternative’ Ideas for Getting More Syrian Refugees Into the U.S. | TheBlaze.com:

"United Nations officials advocating for more Syrian refugees to be let into the United States assert there are alternative methods — such as boosting college scholarships and allowing extended family members to be brought into the country — when the refugee admittance process moves too slowly.

Alternative pathways could bring the United Nations High Commission for Refugees closer to its goal of 480,000 resettled refugees over the next three years, wrote Nayla Rush, senior researcher for the Center for Immigration Studies. But there is a potential for legal issues."

Obama’s Justice Dept. Now Calls Young Criminals ‘Justice-Involved Youth’

Obama’s Justice Dept. Now Calls Young Criminals ‘Justice-Involved Youth’ | Stock News & Stock Market Analysis - IBD: "4/27/2016
PC: The Justice Department announced a plan to throw $1.75 million at young criminals in hopes that they don’t become adult criminals.
But you’d never know that given the linguistic fog the DOJ has conjured up.
A press release issued earlier this week describes a new $1.75 million grant program as designed “to help young people involved in the justice system find jobs and housing.”
Wait, you ask, if these young people are “involved” in the justice system, doesn’t that mean they already have jobs?
Like, say, as a trainee in the dispatcher’s office, or a desk clerk in the attorney general’s office, or maybe a janitor at the local courthouse?
Not exactly.
In this case, “justice-involved youth” is what we’re now supposed to call juvenile delinquents, also known as young criminals..."

AM Fruitcake

History for April 29

History for April 29 - On-This-Day.com:
William Randolph Hearst 1863 - American newspaper magnate, newspaper publisher, Duke Ellington (Edward Kennedy) 1899 - Composer, pianist, big band leader, Hirohito (Emperor Showa) 1901 - 124th Japanese emperor, emperor from 1926 to 1989


Jerry Seinfeld 1955 - Comedian, actor ("Seinfeld"), Daniel Day-Lewis 1957 - Actor, Michelle Pfeiffer 1957 - Actress


1429 - Joan of Arc led Orleans, France, to victory over Britain.


1852 - The first edition of Peter Roget's Thesaurus was published.


1913 - Gideon Sundback patented an all-purpose zipper.


1945 - In a bunker in Berlin, Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun were married. Hitler designated Admiral Karl Doenitz his successor.


1945 - The Nazi death camp, Dachau, was liberated.


1990 - The destruction of the Berlin Wall began.


1998 - The U.S., Canada and Mexico end tariffs on $1 billion in NAFTA trade.

King of Common Core: 4 Key Things to Know About the New Education Secretary | TheBlaze.com

King of Common Core: 4 Key Things to Know About the New Education Secretary | TheBlaze.com:

"John King Jr., a leading advocate of the controversial Common Core education standards and student databases, will have a ceremonial swearing in Wednesday by Vice President Joe Biden.

He will likely be serving less than a year in the job, taking over from former Education Secretary Arne Duncan, after narrowly being confirmed by a plurality of the U.S. Senate in a 49-40 vote. Here are the key things to know about Obama’s newest Cabinet member."

DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE: Relax, it’s OK for cheerleaders to look hot

Instapundit » Blog Archive » DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE: Relax, it’s OK for cheerleaders to look hot: The news …:
DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE: 
Relax, it’s OK for cheerleaders to look hot:

The news hit hard on the University of Washington campus. The students can’t believe it. I can’t believe it. Can you believe it?

Cheerleaders, it turns out, are expected to have a certain look.
“U-Dub” students (hey, that’s just one letter away from U Dumb!) were unloading on social media, crying to counselors and fleeing to safe spaces after the cheer team posted an infographic describing the look to strive for if you’re planning to try out for the squad. (In the routinely craven manner of all universities, the UW spirit program ordered the graphic removed and called in nine tons of smelling salts for those affected.)

I repeat: The graphic was aimed only at young women seeking to be cheerleaders. Pasty-faced Womyn’s Struggles majors attending rallies in shapeless sweatshirts, and black-clad Emily Dickinson fans emoting agonized coffeehouse verse were not the target audience. It takes all kinds to make up a student body: dimpled, flirty blond girls with Southern accents and sour, achy ones who cut themselves among them.

“I can’t believe this is real,” Jazmine Perez, the student government’s director of programming told the Seattle Times. “One of the first things that comes to mind is objectification and idealization of Western beauty,” she harrumphed.

C’mon colleges, go all the way; ban your sports programs, or make this the look of your cheerleaders!

U.S. plots with United Nations to expand Syrian refugees from 10,000 to 200,000

U.S. plots with United Nations to expand Syrian refugees from 10,000 to 200,000 | Washington Examiner:
"In a move around the standard refugee settlement process in America, the United Nations and the administration are scheming to find other ways to boost the number of Syrians entering the country, from 10,000 this year to possibly 200,000.
U.S. officials, meeting with United Nations human rights officials in Geneva, joined in a project that looks to "alternative safe pathways" to setting Syrian refugees in America and Europe that include pushing colleges and universities to offer tuition programs and encouraging Syrians already in the country to open their homes to those who've fled the war-torn Middle East nation.
The plan already has one victory.
Last week, the University of Southern California revealed that it is offering five free tuition programs for Syrian refugees, including one in the school's journalism program.
..."Refugees and government officials are expecting this crisis to last 10 or 15 years.
It's time that we no longer work as business as usual ... UNHCR next month is convening a meeting to look at what are being called 'alternative safe pathways' for Syrian refugees.
Maybe it's hard for the U.S. to go from 2,000 to 200,000 refugees resettled in a year, but maybe there are ways we can ask our universities to offer scholarships to Syrian students..."

Obamacare disaster will be Obama’s enduring domestic legacy - The Washington Post

Obamacare disaster will be Obama’s enduring domestic legacy - The Washington Post:

"With Obamacare, Obama wanted to restore America’s faith in big government. Instead, the opposite has happened. Today, 69 percent of Americans say big government is “the biggest threat to the country in the future” (ahead of big business or big labor).

This Is The End: Venezuela Runs Out Of Money To Print New Money

This Is The End: Venezuela Runs Out Of Money To Print New Money | Zero Hedge
Back in February, when we commented on the unprecedented hyperinflation about the be unleashed in the Latin American country whose president just announced that he would expand the "weekend" for public workers to 5 days...

... we joked that it is unclear just where the country will find all the paper banknotes it needs for all its new physical currency. 
After all, central-bank data shows Venezuela more than doubled the supply of 100-, 50- and 2-bolivar notes in 2015 as it doubled monetary liquidity including bank deposits. 
Supply has grown even as Venezuela has fewer U.S. dollars to support new bolivars, a result of falling oil prices. 

This question, as morbidly amusing as it may have been to us if not the local population, became particularly poignant recently when for the first time, one US Dollar could purchase more than 1000 Venezuela Bolivars on the black market (to be exact, it buys 1,127 as of today).

And then, as if on cue the WSJ responded: "millions of pounds of provisions, stuffed into three-dozen 747 cargo planes, arrived here from countries around the world in recent months to service Venezuela’s crippled economy. 
But instead of food and medicine, the planes carried another resource that often runs scarce here: bills of Venezuela’s currency, the bolivar.

The shipments were part of the import of at least five billion bank notes that President Nicolás Maduro’s administration authorized over the latter half of 2015 as the government boosts the supply of the country’s increasingly worthless currency, according to seven people familiar with the deals.

More planes were coming: in December, the central bank began secret negotiations to order 10 billion more bills which would effectively double the amount of cash in circulation. That order alone is well above the eight billion notes the U.S. Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank each print annually—dollars and euros that unlike bolivars are used world-wide.

Where things got even more ridiculous for the government where the largest bill in denomination is 100 Bolivars, is how much physical currency it needed, and the cost to print it..."

Texas school district grapples with refugee influx, 75 student languages

Texas school district grapples with refugee influx, 75 student languages | EAGnews.org: "AMARILLO, Texas – Amarillo Mayor Paul Harpole wants state lawmakers to know his city has more than its fair share of refugees, as evidenced by the dozens of different languages spoken in Amarillo schools.
“We have 14 different refugee languages that we report to the state,” Christina Ritter, ESL Program Supervisor for the Amarillo Independent School District, told the Amarillo Globe-News.
Ritter said with all dialects considered, “We have 75 different spoken languages in our schools.”
The myriad of different languages of refugees flooding into the city’s schools puts a massive financial burden on the district to educate the students and quickly meet federal mandates..."