The stakes were upped Thursday when the US military dropped a MOAB on ISIS forces in eastern Afghanistan. Nicknamed the “Mother Of All Bombs,” the MOAB is the largest non-nuclear weapon ever used in combat, weighing 22,000 pounds and filled with 18,700 pounds of H6 explosive.
The MOAB creates explosive shockwaves through overpressure, especially in caves and canyons. Waves of pressure enter the narrow spaces, killing people and collapsing tunnels. This made the bomb ideal to use against the ISIS tunnel complex in the Nangahar province. Gen. John W. Nicholson Jr., US commander in Afghanistan, said, “This is the right munition to reduce these obstacles and maintain the momentum of our offensive.” But what do generals know about military tactics compared to our nation’s journalists?
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 Washington reacted to President Trump’s proposed budget with horror. EPA funding would be cut by 31%. Agriculture and labor were down 21%. He would eliminate all funding for the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. He wants to increase spending only for Defense, Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D–N.Y., said, "It kills the middle class. It cuts education funding. It cuts transportation and infrastructure funding. It cuts money for scientific research." “It is clear that this budget proposed today cannot pass the Senate," Sen. John McCain, R–Ariz., said, while Sen. Lindsey Graham, R–S.C., added, "It's dead on arrival– it's not going to happen.”  I’m a transgressive artist. I created a billboard with Obama’s glowering face in the middle, mushroom clouds on either side of it, and ISIS flags on the far ends. Really makes you think. Sure, my art installation might not sound revolutionary, but check this out: I drew clown faces in the mushroom clouds and replaced the Arabic script of the flags with swastika-looking dollar signs. Because money is bad. The design took less than 20 minutes to slap together in Photoshop, but the purpose of art isn’t to demonstrate skill. It’s to provoke a reaction. Angry protesters shouted down an eminent scholarand sent a female professor to the hospital. A crazed gunman entered a D.C. public policy shop and shot an employee before being disarmed. Someone mailed a suspicious white powder to a Scottsdale advocacy group, partially closing the office while a Hazmat team tested employees who had been exposed. The victims in each case were targeted by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The SPLC is a non-profit heralded for its noble history defending civil rights. Founded in 1971, the Montgomery, Ala. legal advocacy organization sued the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist groups in the South on behalf of victims. Big settlements and harsh sanctions were levied against the racist organizations, successfully shuttering some and scaring off many others. The traditional public school model is a taxi fleet in an Uber world. It provides less options and worse service, often at a higher price. We see schools consistently fail kids across the country, but Arizona has been somewhat insulated. Instead of locking parents and teachers into the rusty old industrial model, the Grand Canyon State remains at the forefront of school choice. Ever since the legislature approved charter schools more than two decades ago, opportunities for students have exploded. They can attend their neighborhood public school, a college prep academy, or focus at an arts, STEM or vocational school. Homeschooling has a long tradition while the far more modern distance learning is as close as your keyboard. Add in private school scholarships, granted by individuals and corporations, and our state serves as a model for education reformers across the country. But perhaps Arizona’s most important innovation is the Empowerment Scholarship Account.  Donald Trump’s press conference Thursday was the worst political failure in presidential history. And the presser was the most deft performance by a President ever witnessed. Wait … which of the above sentences is true? Depends who you ask. First, let’s look at the response of Trump’s detractors. It’s been a bit over week since President Donald Trump's inauguration, but it’s still a bit surreal. Not only did this unorthodox Republican take control of the White House, but the GOP retained the House and the Senate. And considering the vacant seat on the Supreme Court and the advanced age of a few current justices, Republicans will likely take over the judicial branch in the near future. Thus 2017 begins with no ordinary party flip, but a stark about-face from Obama’s progressive era.  On Election Day 2008, many Democrats welcomed a new post-racial America. The hideous blight of slavery and Jim Crow could never be forgotten, but our first African-American President would in some small way help atone for those sins and ultimately transcend them. Even Republicans shared the emotions of Grant Park, where thousands crying elderly blacks finally saw that America could elect a person of color. Despite these bipartisan hopes, the nation is more racially obsessed than it has been in 25 years. In a recent Washington Post-ABC News poll, 63 percent of Americans think race relations are “generally bad.” Shortly after Obama took office, that number was 22 percent. In the same time period, those who think race relations are “generally good” plummeted from 66 percent to 32 percent. Of course, Obama fans assert that this increase in racial division is due to white contempt for a black president. This is illogical since months after he took office, the American people thought racial harmony was higher than it had ever been. So what changed? Flip on your TV and the news is grim. Wall Street soars while small towns shutter Main Street stores. Our government’s computer systems are regularly hacked, the IRS is targeting citizens instead of just (over)taxing them, and the VA is killing the veterans they’re supposed to heal. Racial tensions are through the roof, with another city going up in flames every few months. Our leaders blame the heavy hand of police instead of mobs hurling Molotovs. Syria, Iraq and Libya are in ruins as ISIS inspires terror around the globe. The Russian bear is on the prowl, and China continues to expand its military influence in Asia and beyond. As our enemies slap each other on the back, our allies weep at our incompetence. The American people had gotten so angry at the record of our so-called elites that they elected outsider Donald Trump to “drain the swamp” and “burn it down.” But close your lying eyes and take a step back. Barack Obama’s eight years in office have actually been fantastic. Don’t believe it? Just ask the president himself.  Between jeremiads decrying “fake news,” the mainstream media has created and advanced the biggest fake news story of 2016: That the presidential election was hacked.
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