Friday, June 30, 2017

Deal!

"They'll never change us!"

Mark Steyn says that the view of bureaucrats is that they are the permanent government. Yes, politicians come and go, but the bureaucrats hang on for life. Steyn has also noticed that the bigger the government, the more likely it is to lean Left. He also talks about how Obama weaponized two of our most important bureaucracies: DoJ and IRS.

We have been in Afghanistan now for 16 years. Mark believes that 24 hours after the last Western soldier leaves Afghanistan, it will be as if we had never even been there!

After each terror attack, our leaders say, "They'll never change us," as we dramatically change more and more.

There are over 100 Sharia courts in the UK, all of them run by men.

Trump team meets with South Korea president

Sundance writes at The Conservative Treehouse,
...It is worth noting and emphasizing the Paris Climate treaty specifically exempted China, India, and SEAN (South East Asia Nations) from compliance with standards within the treaty. This was by design of the multinational interests who constructed their economic global control mechanism under the auspices of ‘climate change’. The climate was never the driver of the Paris treaty, it was always about multinational economic control.
Read more here.

Stay on message! Trade imbalance with South Korea, missionaries in Uganda, Syria, Iraq, and Burma

Laura admits that media like MSNBC and CNN have been obsessed with ridiculing Trump since the day after he was elected, but she begs Trump not to give them oxygen. Joe and Mika are desperately trying to get attention. They lied to their viewers about their relationship, all the while having an affair cheating on their spouses.

Anyway, the media branding machine has been seeking to Get Trump since the day after he was elected. Trump's team should thwart their efforts by staying on message. Focus on what you are doing for the American people.

Laura notes that words matter, actions don't. By that she is referring to the behavior of the impeached Bill Clinton, who took action against many women. Trump uses words to tear down Mika, and the press goes berserk! What did the press and Democrats do with Bill Clinton's sexual escapades?

Trump has the South Korean president in DC today, and he is telling him that the trade imbalance has got to end.

Laura ends the program with interviews with a former special ops guy who is now a missionary to the people of Burma, Iraq, and Syria.

Her final guests are Christians working in Uganda, which has taken in hundreds of thousands of refugees. Uganda is 86% Christian.

Who will stand up to Pelosi?

She has raised more money for both parties than anyone else. Since 2006 Nancy has raised $568 million for Democrats. Since 2008 they have steadily lost all elections except city governments. Everybody in the Democrat caucus in the House owes her something.

Maxine Waters says the "Trumpcare" bill will eliminate 700 billion people from health care!

There are 7 billion people on the planet.

Thursday, June 29, 2017

This interview will not put you to sleep!

The list



Hat tip 90 Miles from Tyranny

Donald Trump's tweets, Wonder Woman, Women keeping fit to please their husbands

Here is a podcast featuring Mollie Hemingway and David Harsanyi, both of whom are senior editors as The Federalist, which is one of the best websites on the internet. Mollie is clearly one of the most knowledgeable people analyzing politics. I have enjoyed following David since his days at the Denver Post. I am sorry David is having such a hard time appreciating the Trump presidency, although he does like the Gorsuch nomination. I like his sense of humor.

On this podcast they discuss Donald Trump's tweets and the bad way the media has functioned for many years. Now every Republican will be asked by the media to comment on Trump's tweet about Mika's facelift mishap. My reaction was to immediately chuckle when I saw the tweet. However, it detracts from the other things Trump is doing, such as today's immigration legislation.

A woman named Inez wrote a story at The Federalist about the importance of married women keeping fit to please their husbands. We are supposed to pretend that sex itself doesn't exist. The media has had a big fit over the Inez article.

Mollie liked the Wonder Woman movie!

"Be lovers of freedom and anxious for the fray!"

https://cms.megaphone.fm/channel/PPY7423728105?selected=PPY1424426314

Today's number one news story



Hat tip Diogenes' Middle Finger

Illegal immigrant criminals day in Congress

Trump gives voice today to victims of illegal immigrant crime. We actually have a president who wants to protect American citizens from criminals! Two bills are coming up for vote in Congress today. One is Kate's Law, and the other is No Sanctuary for Criminals. Bill O'Reilly is a guest on Laura's program, as is Eric Bolling. Both cannot see how any politician would be able to vote against either of those laws and still be re-elected.


I have noticed that every time Rand Paul meets in private with the president, he comes out in praise of how open Trump is to his ideas. Rand Paul is obviously very sharp. He has suggested that the healthcare bill be divided into two parts. One would be repeal of Obamacare, which would get support from Republicans. The other would be spending, which would get support from Democrats.

Even though the two bills on illegal immigration are going to be big winners for Trump, he spends time this morning talking about Mika Brzezinski's face lift. Laura believes the White House, from Trump on down, needs more message discipline. When she worked for Reagan, they agreed on a "message of the day," which was enforced at every cabinet department.

When brain wiring goes haywire to cause persistent pain. How to fix it!

Beth Mole reports at Ars Technica,
Chronic, aching pain after an injury or operation may be all in your head. Researchers now think they’ve figured out exactly how brain wiring goes haywire to cause persistent pain—and how to fix it.

In mice with peripheral nerve damage and chronic pain from a leg surgery, a broken circuit in a pain-processing region of mammalian brains caused hyperactive pain signals that persisted for more than a month. Specifically, the peripheral nerve damage seemed to deactivate a type of interconnected brain cells, called somatostatin (SOM) interneurons, which normally dampen pain signals. Without the restraints, neurons that fire off pain signals—cortical pyramidal neurons—went wild, researchers report in Nature Neuroscience.

But the circuitry could be repaired, the researchers found. Just by manually activating those pain-stifling SOM interneurons, the researchers could shut down the rodents’ chronic pain and keep the system working properly—preventing centralized, chronic pain from ever developing.

“Our findings suggest that manipulating interneuron activity after peripheral nerve injury could be an important avenue for the prevention of pyramidal neuron over-excitation and the transition from acute postoperative pain to chronic centralized pain,” the authors, led by neuroscientist Guang Yang at New York University School of Medicine, conclude. Yang and his colleagues envision future drugs or therapies, such as transcranial magnetic stimulation, to tweak the activity of the interneurons to prevent malfunctioning pain signaling.
Read more here.

She's "values-ist"

Bookworm links to a new Prager U. video by Andrew Klavan discussing fake news.


Then Bookworm adds,
What Klavan missed is that there is a type of fake news that the media consistently uses that goes beyond what he identified. Klavan identified two primary tactics: (1) assigning relative values to stories (e.g., front or back page status) and (2) using emotionally colored adjectives (e.g., calling Tea Partiers racists or Occupy people heroes).

In addition to the above tactics, the mainstream media also perverts langauge itself to create out-and-out lies or, to use the modern term of art, fake news. To explain what I mean, lets turn to illegal entry into the country, which is framed (wrongly) as an “immigration” issue. And speaking of framing it as an immigration issue, conservatives, as they always do, have fallen into the Progressive nomenclature trap.

In the old days, when there was a societal consensus that it’s a bad thing for people to sneak into a sovereign country without that country’s permission, those sneaky people were called “illegal aliens,” which was a perfect descriptive term. They were here illegally and, being illegal, they could not be “immigrants.” In a sovereign nation with border control laws, an immigrant is someone whom the government welcomes into the country through its legal process; an alien is a non-citizen who has no right to be in the country.

Progressives, with their push to use newly arrived people, whether here illegally or not, as ballast for permanent Democrat party votes, fully understood the accurate import of the term “illegal alien.” That’s why they started calling those people “illegal immigrants.” Yeah, sure they’re illegal, but they’re still immigrants, just like all the rest of the teaming masses who arrived at Ellis Island legally and gazed up at the Statue of Liberty. (And to anyone wondering, Emma Lazarus’s nice poem at the statue’s base is not the law of the land. It’s just a nice poem that was written with one group especially in mind: those Jews who escaped the pogroms in Poland and Russia and came legally to America.)

By changing the language, Leftists shifted the argument from illegality to immigration. And once having down that, they used two tiers of guilt on Americans. Tier one is that we’re all descended from immigrants in one way or another, unless we’re Native Americans (who also immigrated here, albeit in prehistoric times). Who are we, then, to sneer at the latest crop of immigrants? Tier two is about those native Americans. Because we immigrated here illegally as to them, and stole their land, we have no moral standing to argue about the latest crop of illegal immigrants.

Once Progressives had milked the “immigrant” language shift dry, they attacked the illegality part. For some time now, those former “illegal immigrants” (who actually are “illegal aliens”) are referred to as “undocumented immigrants.” (And again, conservatives too often have blindly accepted this change in language.) With this new phrase, the subliminal message is that these people aren’t actually here illegally. They just forgot to do the paper work. It can happen to anybody.

I’ll add here, as I always do, something that’s important to the next part of my discussion: I am not anti-immigrant. As the child of immigrants, I’m not that hypocritical. I’m also fully aware that America’s vitality stems in significant part from the new blood constantly flowing in and revitalizing stultifying institutions. I’m also not racist. Provided that people newly arrived in America work hard, stay out of trouble with the law, and embrace American values (at least in the metaphorical town square), I couldn’t care less about race or country of origin.

What I am, rather than racist, is “values-ist.” If you come here and attempt to destroy American values, I don’t like you. Again, I don’t care where you’re from, what race you are, or what creed you espouse. I care deeply, though, when you attempt to force Americans to practice your faith, rather than accepting American pluralism. When Muslims take over New York streets, they’re forcing their faith on us. When Muslims successfully insist that stores selling sex appeal hire hijab wearing women, they’re forcing their faith on us. (I hate Abercrombie, but Progressive Supreme Court ruling notwithstanding, I believe it has a right to enforce an image. I would therefore also reject an Orthodox Jewish girl trying to force her way in — although the nice thing about Orthodox Jews is that they don’t do that kind of thing. They understand the correct important of the First Amendment, which is their right to be left alone and not to be deprived of basic civil rights in their dealings with the government.) Values-ist, not racist or homophobic.

The Left doesn’t just lie by reclassifying a whole group of people who, by their daily existence in America, are an offense to law and order. They also lie by mis-describing those who say, as I do, that the issue is not immigration, but illegal immigration.
Read more here.

"The single payer calls the shots."

Abe Hawken reports at Mail Online about a baby diagnosed with a rare genetic defect, who is on life support. The parents live in the UK, and they want to bring their son to America for an experimental treatment. But, as Stephen Green says at Instapundit, the single payer calls the shots." Read about the case here.

A "parentectomy"

Here is a story by Michelle Malkin about a medical kidnapping.

The Jewish Shindler

Why does it take a Jew to have the courage and compassion to rescue Christian girls being forced by ISIS to become sex slaves? Where are Christians? Bradley Martin writes at The Federalist,
At a high-end car and motorcycle dealership in Montreal, a Canadian-Jewish businessman has made it his mission to save Christian and Yazidi girls from ISIS.

Read more here.

From Breitbart: China’s National Oil Company Suspends Sales to North Korea

John Hayward reports at Breitbart,
Reuters reported on Wednesday that China’s state-controlled National Petroleum Corporation has suspended fuel sales to North Korea for an undetermined period of time. CNPC is the primary supplier of fuel to North Korea.

Hayward looks at many angles to explain what is going on. This excerpt may explain:
“It is a wrong perception that North Korea is completely dependent on China,” said defector Ri Jong-ho.

He said dictator Kim Jong-un’s plan to replace Chinese oil with imports from Russia has been moving ahead at full steam since 2014, when a visit from Chinese President Xi Jinping to South Korea “infuriated” Kim and prompted him to begin viewing China as an “enemy state.”

If Ri’s assessment is correct, then some of the public confusion from the Chinese government over suspended fuel sales to North Korea might be due to the reluctance of Chinese officials to admit they have lost much of their leverage over Pyongyang. China has traditionally profited greatly from selling itself as the last resort for curbing the worst excesses of the Kim regime. If that posture is now a bluff, Beijing will not want it to be called, and the current suspension of fuel sales might really be best understood as apprehension over North Korea’s willingness and ability to pay.
Read more here.

Wednesday, June 28, 2017

South Korea President coming tomorrow, Zuckerberg is now a welfare rights organizer

Someone is claiming that because of Artificial Intelligence, 40% of all jobs in the US will be replaced by automation by 2030. Mark Zuckerberg proposes a guaranteed annual income. Elon Musk says 12 to 15 percent of the workforce will be obsolete within 20 years.

Supposedly this idea has already been tried on a small scale in Canada, Finland, and the Netherlands. Senator Moynihan and President Nixon proposed it in 1970, but it failed to pass the Senate.

You think we have it bad? Venezuela had 700% inflation last year.

The new South Korea President is coming to the White House tomorrow. Did you know that 20 million people live in Seoul? I didn't.


Unmasking Americans, repealing and replacing Obamacare

On The Story with Martha MacCallum, we learn that Susan Rice is toying with the identity politics excuse for why she is being subpoenaed. They're coming after me on the crimes I committed (unmasking American citizens) because of my gender and my race.

Rand Paul and Donald Trump have discussed proposing an idea: break up the healthcare into two parts, a spending bill and a repeal bill. The repeal bill would please Senators like himself because it would lower taxes, regulations, and premiums, and also reform Medicaid. The spending part would get support from Democrats. He thinks it could be passed as early as Friday.

Then Martha had on John Barrasso, a Senator from Wyoming, who is, like Senator Paul, a doctor. He was enthusiastic about several aspects of repealing and replacing Obamacare.

No Sanctuary for Criminals!

Do we want good relations with all countries? Of course, but is Trump being hampered by the media from establishing a good relationship with Russia? The G-20 conference is coming up in Germany. Will Trump be inhibited by the Mueller investigators in establishing a relationship with Putin there?

Laura is critical of the supposed legislative genius Mitch McConnell for not producing a good bill for the president to sign on healthcare.

Congressman Andy Biggs is a guest on today's show. He is from Arizona and is one of the people trying to get good legislation preventing criminal aliens from coming into America. There is a bill entitled No Sanctuary for Criminals. Other bills are coming out this week named after people who have been victimized by criminal aliens.

We are meant to be where we are. What do we do with this opportunity?

Andrew plays an audio clip of Jum Acosta of CNN demanding that the cameras be turned on at the White House press briefing. It reminds Andrew of Dan Rather, "the father of fake news."

On Tucker Carlson's show, Brit Hume said, "No reporter should be relying on White House Press Briefings to get news. If you have a good question, you don't want your competitors to know what story you are working on."

Andrew said when the media really disgraced themselves was during the Obama administration eight years. Trump walks through the doors and suddnely he's a Russian spy!

God, Family, Country

Guest post by Suzann Darnall

My husband and I just got home earlier this week from a visit with my parents. We are now in the process of preparing for a visit from one of his older sisters. So, family is very much on my mind. And, with thoughts of family always comes thoughts of how much my family has been blessed, so God comes right along for the ride on my brain-train!

As we are heading into the start of July, I naturally think of Independence Day, too. A visit to my folks was a definite preparatory event for celebrating the Fourth of July! Mom and Dad have a home bedecked with antiques, art, family history, military memorabilia, Christian keepsakes, various collectibles, and Americana. It is like going to a miniature museum. There is something fascinating in pert near every corner of just about any room. Even the front porch and backyard are bedecked with mementos and crafts. There are so many memories and new experiences each time I walk through their door. But, above all else one is reminded of God, family, and country.

We are a very patriotic bunch. My family very much values freedom. It is freedom that allows us to worship our God as we will. It is this great country and its founding which allows us the freedom to live where we chose and raise our families as we wish. Our family literally spreads from coast-to-coast of this beautiful and bountiful land. We have a niece who lives in Maryland and I have a brother who lives in Oregon. My husband has siblings who reside in West Virginia and I have family living in Colorado. We then have more siblings, nieces, and nephews scattered about, as well as our children and grandchildren living right here in Texas.

My parents are preparing to celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary. I made them a quilt as our gift. Its theme is “Somebody in Texas loves you.”. I included pictures of my husband, our daughters, our sons-in-law, our grandchildren, and myself. I also had each member of the “Texas contingent” share a message for my folks. The quilt has pictures on one side and messages on the other. It is done in all red, white, and blue Texas or western-themed fabrics. It reminds me of family and freedom.

Why? ‘Cause not only do my husband and I now live in Texas, as well as both our daughters, but two of my brothers were born in Texas, as well as all of my grandchildren. Also, as I grew up, we lived in Texas three times when the Air Force stationed my father here. And, I can never think of Texas without being reminded of the Alamo, another fight for freedom from oppression. It strides side-by-side in my mind with the American revolution. People willing to give their all to achieve liberty. Not just the men, but the women and children sacrificed as well. We must never forget that families lived where battles were fought on American soil and families were inside the Alamo walls. The cost of freedom is a family expense. Always!

So, as I savor the memories of my recent visit with my parents in their home which is such a charming and interesting tribute to God, family, and country, I will also be sharing Texas and our family with my sister-in-law and her oldest grandson. We will do lots of familial visiting, go see the Alamo, and celebrate Independence Day a bit early by attending the Annual Wimberley VFW July 4th Pro Rodeo. We will attend church together on Sunday. We will, in short, celebrate God, family, and country! We will just do it a tad more Texas-style!

Fanning the flames of the culture wars

Some excerpts from a column written by William McGurn at the Wall Street Journal:
...What makes issues such as abortion and marriage so contentious is that the opposing moral positions cannot be reconciled. The beauty of democratic politics, however, is its recognition that what free people want and what they will settle for as reasonable are two different things. Justice Kennedy’s unfortunate legacy on these hot-button issues is to take compromise off the table and thus ensure anger and ill will.

...Anthony Kennedy is an educated man who writes in the smooth tones of Stanford and Harvard Law. The effect, alas, is no less noxious. Next time America’s corrosive politics comes up, it’s worth remembering that the justice so often hailed as a “moderate” or “centrist” has done as much as any to fan the flames of America’s raging culture war.
Read more here.

Arresting child sex predators


Read more here.

Why is Trump publicly threatening Assad over chemical weapons use?

Another important article by Sundance today at The Conservative Treehouse. He analyzes what Trump is up to in publicly threatening Assad over chemical weapons use.
Read the whole thing here.

Teachers performing monthly mental health exams on your child!

Susan Goldberg reports at PJ Media,
On paper it reads like a not-so-vague attempt to socially engineer your child’s behavior. In reality, teacher-led mental health assessments coming to a growing number of public schools are a bureaucratic "nightmare. One that will no doubt further clog our nation’s public education system with increased paperwork and administrative costs while putting your child's future at serious risk.

Thanks to Dr. Aida Cerundolo's piece in The Wall Street Journal, we are beginning to understand the real-life ramifications of these dangerous educational ideas. Want the Cliffs Notes version? Head over to the excellent summation by Emmett McGroarty and Jane Robbins, detailing the ramifications of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), a federal bill focused on the buzz-phrase “Social Emotional Learning” (SEL), the latest craze in public education. Schools in states that have ESSA legislation on the books can use the Devereux Student Strengths Assessment (DESSA) to fulfill ESSA paperwork requirements.

...every month the teacher must answer 72 questions about each of the perhaps dozens of students in her class. She must assess whether the student “carr[ies] himself with confidence,” whatever that means for a 5-year-old, and whether he can “cope well with insults and mean comments.”
… Dr. Cerundolo’s alarm at the imposition of DESSA is shared by at least some New Hampshire teachers. One of them contacted Ann Marie Banfield, Education Liaison for Cornerstone Action in New Hampshire, to express her objections to completing the DESSA forms on her students. The teacher was especially troubled that the school neither sought parental consent nor even notified parents that their children were being screened by amateurs for mental-health issues. As the mother of public-school students, she worried that other teachers were completing this assessment on her children.

You read that right: if you live in an ESSA state, your child’s mental health will be assessed by a non-medical professional in a non-medical context. The paperwork will not be protected by HIPAA laws, which means that the sch!ool district can share a teacher’s assessment of your child’s mental health with literally anyone. Parents are not asked for permission before the DESSA is administered, nor do they have any say over where the records go once they are obtained.
Read more here.

A chain of communications between the baseball field Democrat terrorist and Senator Dick Durbin


JJ Sefton writes at Ace of Spades,
the Democrat-inspired terrorist attack that left Rep. Steve Scalise and several others gravely wounded has been nothing-to-see-here-move-along'd way too quickly. The Daily Caller is reporting that there is evidently a chain of communications between the terrorist and the office of Dick Durbin and that office is refusing to let reporters from that outlet have access to them. Considering the fact that the Left has essentially blamed the President and the victims for the act of a lone wolf, it's kind of puzzling (read: alarming) that these communications exist in the first place, let alone the refusal to release them. Couple all this with the FBI's (don't laugh) bizarre press announcement that the attack was spontaneous, random and had no specific target, despite mountains of evidence to the contrary, and the complete politicization of its leadership that is in open revolt against the President and his political allies, and you know something is terribly wrong here. Either I'm insane or there is something being covered up is truly explosive.

Tuesday, June 27, 2017

Two New Mexico women in Santa Fe County have the plague!

Circa News reports,
The New Mexico Department of Health (NMDOH) on Monday announced it had confirmed two new cases of human plague in the state’s borders.

The agency reported that a 52-year-old woman and a 62-year-old woman in New Mexico’s Santa Fe County are sick with the bacterial disease.

The NMDOH added that there are now three human plague instances in the county this year, with all requiring hospitalization but none resulting in death.
1 of 8
“Pets that are allowed to roam and hunt can bring infected fleas from dead rodents back into the home, putting you and your children at risk,” Dr. Paul Ettestad, public health veterinarian for the NMDOH, said in a statement Monday.

“Keeping your pets at home or on a leash and using an appropriate flea control product is important to protect you and your family.”
Read more here.

"That moment when you convince yourself that the monsters under your bed are real!"

Here is tonight's Tucker Carlson Show.

The first part of the program is devoted to the news about CNN's fake news. I have an idea: how about not using anything from sources that wish to remain anonymous?

MRC did a study. Since May 17 there have been 353 minutes on evening newscasts about Russia or Comey. 29 minutes have been devoted to terrorism. 5 minutes on the economy. 5 minutes on trade!

Chris Murphy, a Democratic Senator from Connecticut, takes the bus home. He talks to his constituents. He says wages, education, and public safety are the three subjects people on the bus talk to him about most.

Charles Murray says what he would have liked to talk about at Middlebury College is how the new elites are screwing America's working class. He says the majority of students are cowed, especially those in the social sciences and humanities.

Raheel Raza is a Muslim American who I wish could be heard by a larger audience. Maybe a job with the Trump Administration? She said Trump's travel ban is about region, not religion. She notes that five of the six countries are failed states.

Kevin Jackson is a black radio talk show host who says that any black who speaks out against violence and other problems in black communities "catches a lot of grief."

Sarah Palin is suing the New York Times for defamation

Peter Hasson reports at The Daily Caller that
Sarah Palin is suing The New York Times for defamation, according to documents filed in federal court Tuesday that were obtained by The Daily Caller.

The lawsuit has to do with an editorial the NYT ran on June 14 that falsely smeared Palin as inciting the 2011 shooting of Democratic Rep. Gabby Giffords by a mentally ill man. There is no evidence to support the NYT’s implication that Palin played a role in inciting the Giffords shooting. (RELATED: NYT Uses GOP Shooting To Falsely Attack Sarah Palin With Debunked Conspiracy Theory)

“Mrs. Palin brings this action to hold The Times accountable for defaming her by publishing a statement about her that it knew to be false: that Mrs. Palin was responsible for inciting a mass shooting at a political event in January 2011,” Palin’s suit states.

“Specifically, on June 14, 2017, The Times Editorial Board, which represents the ‘voice’ of The Times, falsely stated as a matter of fact to millions of people that Mrs. Palin incited Jared Loughner’s January 8, 2011, shooting rampage at a political event in Tucson, Arizona, during which he shot nineteen people, severely wounding United States Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, and killing six, including Chief U.S. District Court Judge John Roll and a nine-year-old girl.”

The lawsuit states that the paper “published and promoted its Editorial Board’s column despite knowing that the linchpin of its ‘sickening pattern’ of politically-incited shootings was the false assertion that Mrs. Palin incited Loughner to murder six people, among them a child and federal judge, and seriously wound numerous others.” (RELATED: NYT Has Been Pushing Palin-Giffords Falsehood For Years)

It goes on to state: “As the public backlash over The Times’ malicious column mounted, it responded by making edits and ‘corrections’ to its fabricated story, along with half-hearted Twitter apologies–none of which sufficiently corrected the falsehoods that the paper published. In fact, none mentioned Mrs. Palin or acknowledged that Mrs. Palin did not incite a deranged man to commit murder.”

Palin claims the editorial “exceeded the bounds of legality, decency and civility by publishing the false and defamatory column.”
Read more here.

Can we have honest debate?

Another good Andrew Klavan podcast today, in my opinion.

As he focuses on the upcoming national holiday, Andrew wonders aloud if we have created a generation of Americans who do not appreciate America. That was part of his focus in his opening monolog.

He has much to say about the media living in a sealed environment sequestered among people who agree with them.

Of course, he mentions the CNN debacle in which three reporters have been fired for fake news. Project Veritas adds to CNN's woes by using a hidden camera to interview a supervising producer, who admits that all the Russian collusion stories are bulls##t! I wonder how long that guy will remain at CNN!

Programs like Hannity on Fox and Rachel Maddow on MSNBC are not the shows that bother Klavan, because each is honest about where they are coming from: Hannity from the right, and Maddow from the left. President Trump points out that the dishonest ones are the ones who pretend to be objective but produce fake story after fake story (ABC, NBC, CBS, New York Times, and Washington Post).

Andrew makes the point that if we do have an honest debate, then we are more likely to be able to compromise. He believes our present divisive climate started with the Roe v. Wade decision, in which a 5-4 Supreme Court decision pretended to find constitutionality of abortion. None of us had a chance to debate the issue. It just became the law of the land.

That same thing is happening now with Bernie Sanders and Al Franken painting the opposition as wanting people to die.

So, how can we come together? The media constantly slants the news, so that there are two opinions, the Left, and Hate!

Andrew ends by talking about Athens, Sparta, the Persians, World War II, and freedom.


The Russians run the White House and they want you to die!.

That headline supposedly summarizes this week's fake news.,

Laura Ingraham has been studying the Senate version of the new health care bill, and she sees the fingerprints of lobbyists from big pharma, hospitals, and insurance companies all over it.

After yesterday's Supreme Court activity, Laura is prouder than ever for having clerked for Justice Thomas. He and Gorsuch opposed the law-making provisions of the travel ban, in which the Court ruled that persons from the six countries could still come to America if they have family or business connections. Laura says Andy McCarthy weighs in on this today over at National Review.

Senator James Risch of Idaho, the man who asked Comey if anyone has ever been criminally charged for hoping something, was a guest. I thought Risch did the best job of questioning Comey, so I was glad he was on Laura's program today. He is a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and also Foreign Relations. He says obstruction of justice and collusion are both off the table now. Laura told him that Mueller and Comey have in the past called each other "brothers in arms."


Favors, money, and access

Monday, June 26, 2017

Some humor and some patriotism

Andrew is getting warmed up for Fourth of July. He opens the show with a hilarious monolog, featuring Senator Elizabeth Warren.

Michael Knowles comes on the show to talk about the American revolution, especially about George Washington, a man of boldness, faith, and confidence.

Mel Gibson's famous speech from Braveheart is brought up to date by Steven Crowder, reminding us who we have become.

The hail storm has ended, and so has my windshield!

The criminalization of political differences

Another really good Laura Ingraham Show today.

Trump has learned that Obama was briefed by the CIA that Russia was attempting to meddle in our election. Trump wants to know why Obama did nothing!

Is there a reason the health insurance and pharmaceutical companies stocks all went up after the Senate bill on health care was announced?

Laura goes after Ohio Governor Kasich, who says, "Neither party cares about poor people." Kasich is a globalist who favors policies that help China's poor people while hurting America's poor and creating a $360 billion trade deficit. Republicans and Democrats have spent over 6 trillion dollars to help poor people since the beginning of the Great Society programs in the sixties. Kasich is all for giving amnesty to low-wage illegal immigrants, thereby hurting low-wage Americans. Kasich was also one of the Lehman Brothers brass. When he was with Lehman Brothers, did he care about poor people?

Laura is critical of Republicans' messaging on health care reform. They need to fan out across the country and talk about premiums coming down, prescription drug costs coming down, choosing plans across state lines, and cutting regulations.

Liberal former Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz is against the criminalization of political differences.

Andy McCarthy has a new piece out that Laura talked about. In it he argues that Trump demanded the exposure of a false narrative.


Who governs? Who elects?



hat tip Rico at Theo Spark

Change of heart

Carolyn Glick writes in the Jerusalem Post,
Earlier this month Norway, Denmark and Switzerland did something surprising.

Norway announced that it was demanding the return of its money from the Palestinian Human Rights and Humanitarian Law Secretariat, for the latter’s funding of a Palestinian women’s group that built a youth center near Nablus named for PLO mass murderer Dalal Mughrabi.

Denmark followed, announcing it was cutting off all funding to the group.

And last week, the Swiss parliament passed a resolution directing the government to amend Swiss law to block funding of NGOs “involved in racist, antisemitic or hate incitement actions.”

For years, the Israeli government has been urging these and other European governments to stop funding such groups, to no avail. What explains their abrupt change of heart? In two words: Donald Trump.

For years, the Obama administration quietly encouraged the Europeans to fund these groups and to ratchet up their anti-Israel positions. Doing so, the former administration believed, would coerce Israel to make concessions to the PLO.

...If the US administration keeps moving forward on this trajectory, it can do far more than suspend funding for one terrorism-supporting Palestinian NGO. It can shut down the entire BDS industry before Trump finishes his current term in office.

To understand what can and ought to be done, it is first important to understand the nature of the BDS movement. Under the catchphrase BDS, two separate campaigns against Israel and against Jews are being carried out.

The first BDS campaign is a campaign of economic warfare. The focal point of that campaign is Europe. The purpose of the campaign is to harm Israel’s economy by enacting discriminatory, anti-Israel trade policies and encouraging unofficial consumer and business boycotts of Israeli firms and products.

...The second BDS campaign being carried out against Israel is a form of political and social warfare.

Its epicenter is US academia. Its purpose is to erode US support for Israel, by making it politically unacceptable and socially devastating to publicly voice support for Israel on college campuses and more generally in leftist circles.

As is the case with the economic BDS campaign, the best way to defeat political BDS is through state and federal government action. If state and federal governments withheld funding to universities and colleges that permit BDS groups to operate on their campuses, campus administrators, who to date have refused to lift a finger against these hate groups, would be forced into action.

If the US Education and Justice departments opened civil rights investigations against major BDS groups for antisemitic bigotry, campus administrators would finally begin banning them from their campuses.

...to the extent that the Trump administration and the Republican-controlled Congress take action to defeat BDS on campuses and in Europe, they won’t be answering the call of their Jewish constituents. American Jews vote overwhelmingly for the increasingly anti-Israel Democratic Party. And while making up a mere 2% of the US population, American Jews contributed 50% of the donations to the Democratic Party in the 2016 elections.
Read more here.

Supreme Court rules: State cannot discriminate against you because you are one of those icky religious persons

Richard Wolf reports at USA Today,
The Supreme Court ruled decisively Monday that religious institutions should be eligible to receive public funds for purely secular purposes.

Like, for instance, playgrounds.

The justices ruled 7-2 that Missouri stretched the constitutional separation of church and state too far by declaring a Lutheran church ineligible to receive a competitive state grant for playground resurfacing. The decision could have implications for more than 30 states that block public funds from going to religious organizations.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the decision. Only Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor dissented.

Even though the state's denial of funds likely would lead only to "a few extra scraped knees," Roberts said, "the exclusion of Trinity Lutheran from a public benefit for which it is otherwise qualified, solely because it is a church, is odious to our Constitution all the same, and cannot stand."

Sotomayor took the unusual step of dissenting from the bench, something justices rarely do. The high court, she said, "has never required a state to turn over taxpayer funds to a house of worship."

"Today's decision discounts centuries of history and jeopardizes the government's ability to remain secular," Sotomayor wrote in her 27-page dissent, almost twice the length of Roberts' opinion.

It was perhaps the marquee case in a lackluster Supreme Court term dominated by the search for a ninth justice rather than landmark jurisprudence. Finally bolstered by the confirmation of Justice Neil Gorsuch in April, 14 months after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, the court clearly sided with the church during oral argument.

"It does seem as though ... this is a clear burden on a constitutional right," liberal Justice Elena Kagan said then, in reference to the state's refusal to treat Trinity Lutheran Church equally to other non-profits seeking state grants. The church had met all the neutral criteria for the program.

Gorsuch and Justice Clarence Thomas would have gone further than Roberts, who suggested in a footnote to the court's decision that the case "involves express discrimination based on religious identity with respect to playground resurfacing. We do not address religious uses of funding or other forms of discrimination."


Gorsuch wrote: "The general principles here do not permit discrimination against religious exercise -- whether on the playground or anywhere else."

The case dates back to 2012, when the Columbia, Mo., church applied for a state grant to replace the unforgiving, pea gravel surface of its child learning center's playground with material made from recycled tires. It placed fifth among 44 applicants, 14 of which were awarded grants, but the church was passed over based on a provision in the state constitution.

The church's lawsuit soon became a cause célèbre among supporters of religious freedom, led by the Alliance Defending Freedom, which represented Trinity Lutheran in court. It lost at the federal district and appellate court levels, but the Supreme Court's decision in January 2016 to hear the case was seen as a positive sign. Then Scalia died the following month, prompting the justices to delay hearing the case — presumably because they feared a 4-4 deadlock.

Gorsuch's confirmation wasn't the only late-breaking event. Missouri's new Republican governor, Eric Greitens, reversed the state policy and said churches will be eligible for such grants in the future. That led some justices, as well as liberal interest groups, to wonder if Trinity's challenge was unnecessary.

The church raised two central claims in court papers. It said the exclusion violates the First Amendment’s protection against policies prohibiting the free exercise of religion, as well as the 14th Amendment's promise of equal protection for all. "This is clearly singling out a religious organization with no justification to do so," David Cortman, senior counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom, said during oral argument.discrimination against religion

Supporters of the church had warned that a negative ruling could give states justification to deny funds for other services, ranging from police and fire protection to soup kitchens and battered women's shelters. The conservative Institute for Justice said 1.3 million students in school-choice programs could be affected.

Justice Samuel Alito, one of the court's staunchest defenders of religious freedom, cited a series of examples to illustrate that Missouri's exclusion of religious groups would extend to programs that protect against school violence or acts of terrorism.

Ace of Spades writes,
Gorsuch strikes twice.

The case involved grants made generally available to all schools in the state for the refurbishment of run-down playgrounds. But then the state ruled that, while these funds were appropriated for all schools, religious schools nonetheless had to be affirmatively discriminated against, because you can't have government money ever going to icky religious schools (even if the money is not specifically to advance religion, but is just another state boondoggle of taxpayer cash for hard-to-argue-against feel good spending programs).

Gorsuch and six other justices said Nah, brah.

Broadband access for all?

Dani Deahl reports at The Verge,
FCC chairman Ajit Pai has released a statement announcing that the commission has granted OneWeb approval for US market access to launch a network of internet-beaming satellites into orbit. OneWeb, which is backed in part by Richard Branson, has been working on providing broadband internet via satellite since 2000, when it acquired the satellite spectrum formerly owned by SkyBridge.

OneWeb plans to launch a constellation of 720 low-Earth orbit satellites using non-geostationary satellite orbit (NGSO) technology in order to provide global, high-speed broadband. The company’s goal has far-reaching implications, and would provide internet to rural and hard-to-reach areas that currently have little access to internet connectivity. Additionally, OneWeb has a targets of “connecting every unconnected school” by 2022, and “bridging the digital divide” by 2027.

Other companies are currently planning similar “space internet” satellite constellations, including Boeing, ViaSat, Telesat, and Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which has been meeting with the FCC for months. Tom Sullivan, chief of the FCC’s International Bureau, says the additional applications range from “as little as two satellites to as many as 4,000,” and are still under review by the bureau.

According to OneWeb, the company plans to launch an initial 10 production satellites in early 2018, which, pending tests, will then be followed by a full launch as early as 2019.

While Pai’s statement grants access, it is still only a first step. FCC commissioner Michael O’Rielly said in a statement that the “scope of these systems has raised many issues, such as preventing in-line interference and orbital debris, which will need to be considered further.” Additionally, “there are also multiple conditions on OneWeb’s approval. For example, access to some frequencies could be restricted by future Multichannel Video Distribution and Data Service (MVDDS) proceedings and our action today is conditioned on the outcome of the larger NGSO rulemaking.”

Even with hurdles, this news puts OneWeb well on the way toward creating space internet, making broadband access for all a more tangible reality.

"Perhaps there is a happy medium somewhere between bitter division and blasé complacency."

Peggy Noonan writes in the Wall Street Journal,
I was traveling this week for work, in Europe.

When we arrived at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, passport control was closed down. Many hundreds of people milled about confusedly. An airline worker said two unattended bags had been found and security personnel were on the scene. Officials might have to explode the bags where they are. Will there be any warning? Yes, I was told, they’ll tell us before and we’ll hear it. Does this sort of thing happen often? “A few times a day,” an attendant said.

There was no air of alarm, and everyone around us was pleasant. After 35 minutes passport control opened, without an explosion. The attitude was that this was par for the course, just another day at the office.

Two hours after I got to my hotel, word came of a terror attack three blocks away, on the Champs Élysées. I asked the woman at the desk for directions and she said, in low and measured terms, “I’m sorry madame, there has been a terrorist occurrence. You should not go there.” I said, “Yes, I’d like to go see it.” She brightened: “In that case, go left, left, then final left!”

...My editor discerns this theme: Perhaps there is a happy medium somewhere between bitter division and blasé complacency.
Read more here.

"Bias is boring. It’s predictable, rote, is an audience-limiter. What has value at a time like this is playing it straight and presenting the facts."

MJ writes at Ace of Spades,
Our civic debate and the intellectualism surrounding it has become boring. We all know the prism through which Charles Blow (racism), Thomas Friedman (globalism), or any left leaning publication will present its view. Everything the Left does is predictable.

The Right is oftentimes similarly rote, although there exists a stronger willingness to debate an issue beyond the merely emotional. It's more about the construct than the destruct; the depth and breadth.

Whereas speech is the hallmark of the Right, it is anathema to the Left. Their adherence to a limited cadre of acceptable words has led directly to their stunted and sheltered views.

I believe this unwillingness for honest diagnosis is leading to a growing, if not already fatal wound in Europe; the pinnacle of Leftism.

Peggy Noonan writes at The Wall Street Journal,
Dislike of Mr. Trump within the mainstream media is unalterable. It permeates every network, from intern to executive producer and CEO.

...media bias now is in part a financial decision, instead of what it used to be, a good old-fashioned human and institutional flaw.

...I add only that it’s not only cynical and destructive, as a business strategy it’s stupid. Bias is boring. It’s predictable, rote, is an audience-limiter. What has value at a time like this is playing it straight and presenting the facts. That’s what they ought to do instead of taking a side.

Escaping Leftist nannyism

Cumberland Astro writes at Ace of Spades,
Since Donald Trump was elected I have seen a spate of local news stories about companies building, expanding, or investing in manufacturing plants within a 50-mile radius of Chattanooga. With these new plants, there will be hundreds of new manufacturing jobs. Although pundits in Washington who are much smarter than me (just ask them) keep saying that manufacturing in America is dead, I'm observing a multitude of companies behaving otherwise, including several foreign companies. I don't think the Acela crowd is aware that manufacturing is expanding in business-friendly states.

A semi-skilled worker could live fairly well in Dayton, TN for $45k per year, especially if his spouse is also bringing home a paycheck. Even better, Dayton is so far from DC that the factory's employees can work at their factory job without hearing Democrats call them "deplorables" or having Acela Republicans shrieking at them "YOUR JOB IS NOT COMING BACK!" Donald Trump wants these working class Americans employed, but it genuinely seems that a lot of politicians in both parties want to see them contrite, broken, and out of work. Many Republicans would rather a Chinese peasant be lifted out of poverty by one of these jobs than have it stateside so a small-town Alabaman can live a middle-class life.

Below is a sample of what I am referring to.

400 new jobs coming to Dayton, TN as Nokian Tyres opens plant

LA-Z-BOY INVESTING $26M, ADDING 115 JOBS AT TENNESSEE PLANT

Mohawk creating 380 jobs, investing $70 million in new Alabama fiber operation

Walmart to invest in 442 textile jobs at Renfro Corp. in Fort Payne, AL

Mohawk building new Tennessee plant, creating 245 jobs

Wacker starts work on $150 million plant expansion in Bradley County (Cleveland, TN)

Aerotek to hire over 200 more production workers for VW plant (Chattanooga)

My wife and I (age early 50s) moved from Austin (our hometown) to Chattanooga in 2016 in part because we could no longer tolerate the suffocating left wing nannyism of the Austin ruling class. The evangelists of the Sustainable Organic Church Of The Carbon Apocalypse have taken control of Austin city government and were closing roads, evicting Uber, criminalizing grocery bags, downsizing parking spots, and engaging neighborhood volunteers to train/spy on residents' recycling and composting compliance. There is another whole story about how Americans are self-segregating themselves into politically compatible locales. I've ceded Austin to the fascist left, and I want to live in a community where I can fight to preserve the conservative-liberty culture.

Supreme Court rules on Trump's travel ban

The Supreme Court has ruled on Trump's travel ban. Ace of Spades summarizes:
The only limitation the court is permitting on the travel ban is for those who have a bona-fide pre-existing close relative in the country or bona-fide, established-previously business in the country. Such persons may visit the country.

But for all others, the Trump ban is back on.

The resistance's greatest legal victory has been gutted, and not even Ruth Bader Ginsburg accepted its most extreme arguments.
Incidentally, the opinion doesn't even mention Trump's campaign statements, suggesting that the Court views this entire line of argument to be so illegitimate as to not even be worth a rebuttal.

Another week of winning?

Sunday, June 25, 2017

Chickens watching horses watching goats watching the sunset!

For some reason, the horses like to hang out with the chickens. Many of the chickens also like to watch the horses. In this picture there are also two black goats hanging out between the two horses.

Time for tonight's sunset!

I think Orange County, California might need a new coroner.

Circa News reports,
"Hi Dad," Frank M. Kerrigan said over the phone to his father.

Sounds pretty normal, right? Well, that wasn't the case for Kerrigan's 82-year-old father, Frank J. Kerrigan.

That's because Frank J. Kerrigan had laid his son to rest 11 days before receiving that call, or so he thought.

It's unclear exactly what led Orange County coroner's officials to misidentify the body of a man who was found dead behind a Verizon store in Fountain Valley, California, in early May -- but they did.

Frank J. Kerrigan received a call from the coroner's office and was told the body belonged to his 57-year-old son who is mentally ill and had been living on the street.

When the grieving father asked whether he should come identify the body, an official said his son's body had been identified through fingerprints.

"When somebody tells me my son is dead, when they have fingerprints, I believe them," Kerrigan said. "If he wasn't identified by fingerprints I would been there in heartbeat."


Frank J. Kerrigan holds onto a funeral card for his son Frank, near Wildomar, Calif. Kerrigan, who thought his son had died, learned he buried the wrong man. (Andrew Foulk/The Orange County Register via AP)

On May 12, the family held a $20,000 funeral that drew friends and family from as far away as Washington State.

"We thought we were burying our brother," said Frank's sister, Carole Meikle. "Someone else had a beautiful sendoff. It's horrific."

The body was interred at a cemetery in Orange, near where Frank J. Kerrigan's wife was buried.

Then, on May 23, the grieving father received likely the most unexpected phone call of his lifetime. Frank J. Kerrigan's friend, Bill Shinker, called to say the 82-year-old's son was standing on his patio.

Kerrigan's attorney, Doug Easton said the coroner's office wasn't able to identify the corpse's fingerprints through a law enforcement database so they used an old driver's license photo. When the family notified authorities that Frank M. Kerrigan was, indeed, alive, they were able to match the prints to someone else.
5 of 6
A spokesman for the coroner's office has since apologized to the Kerrigan family "for any emotional stress caused as a result of this unfortunate incident."

The Orange County Sheriff's Department is conducting an internal investigation to determine what led to the mix-up and to prevent something similar from happening again.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

No collusion, no obstruction, so now what? Nancy Pelosi: "My decision about how long I stay as leader of the Democrats in the House is not up to the members!"

Like Hannity, Watters World comes at us from the right side of the spectrum. On his show last night, though, Jesse Watters had a liberal guest in Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz. Jesse asked him, "Since there is no collusion and no obstruction, What will be the focus of Mueller's investigation? Dershowitz said "whether or not General Flynn failed to put on his application form various meetings he participated in."

How about this comment from Nancy Pelosi: "My decision about how long I stay as leader of the Democrats in the House is not up to the members!"

Jesse goes to a convention of people advocating for recreational marijuana legalization. Jesse Ventura was there, so Jesse Watters asks him if he was high when he sued Chris Kyle's widow. Ventura says that is the kind of bullshit question he expects from Fox News. Jesse Watters explains when he safely returns to the Fox set that the case was "tossed," and Ventura never got any money from Chris Kyle's widow."

Another bad week for the #NeverTrumpers!

If you missed last night's Greg Gutfeld Show, here it is. It is a really good one. From Johnny Depp to Donald Trump, Greg and crew cover the whole scene with rapier sharp wit. Enjoy!

"Informal rule-making"

Oregon Muse recommends two other books that seem importantly relevant in today's America.
Liberty's Nemesis: The Unchecked Expansion of the State

...a dense work that will never be a bestseller but that nonetheless offers the most enduring conservative criticism of the Obama years. “Liberty’s Nemesis” (2016), edited by Dean Reuter and John Yoo and featuring some three dozen contributors, mixes scholarship, ideology and activism to argue that Obama has presided over an enormous and dangerous expansion of the administrative and regulatory state. “Its operations are so vast and its reach so sprawling that it lies beyond the control or comprehension of any one man or group of men,” Yoo writes, making “rational management impossible.”
Which is ironic, because the origin of the "administrative state" can be traced back to Woodrow Wilson who thought that government had grown too complex and technical for Joe Sixpak voters and politicians and instead, had to be managed by experts. So now apparently it has grown too complex even for the experts.

I'm glad to see that this issue has picked up a bit of traction. One of Glenn "Instapundit" Reynold's recent columns mentions The Administrative Threat by Philip Hamburger who traces the origins of adminstrative law back ever further:

Hamburger explains that the prerogative powers once exercised by English kings, until they were circumscribed after a resulting civil war, have now been reinvented and lodged in administrative agencies, even though the United States Constitution was drafted specifically to prevent just such abuses. But today, the laws that actually affect people and businesses are seldom written by Congress; instead they are created by administrative agencies through a process of “informal rulemaking,” a process whose chief virtue is that it’s easy for the rulers to engage in, and hard for the ruled to observe or influence. Non-judicial administrative courts decide cases, and impose penalties, without a jury or an actual judge. And the protections in the Constitution and Bill of Rights (like the requirement for a judge-issued search warrant before a search) are often inapplicable.

"A wee bit hypocritical?"

Bookworm writes about the abuse of gays in the seven countries from which President Trump sought a temporary travel ban. California opposed the president's actions. Now California has instituted a travel ban on state-funded and state-sponsored travel to states in America that do not have laws to California's liking on LGBTQ issues.
In June 2017, California announced that it was banning all travel to states that it identifies as having policies discriminating in any way against LGBTQer conduct. This list currently includes Texas, Alabama, Kentucky, South Dakota, Kansas, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Tennessee. Each of those named states has passed one or more laws holding that First Amendment religious liberty and freedom of association means that people whose faith disapproves of homosexual conduct cannot be forced to provide personal services for LGBTQ weddings, provide adoption services to LGBTQ couples, and share bathrooms with individuals who claim to be transgendered.

It is important to note that in none of those states are there official or unofficial policies calling for the physical abuse, imprisonment, or execution of people on the LGBTQ etc. spectrum. None of these states have laws preventing people in the LGBTQers from marrying or adopting children. Nevertheless, even as California extends an unlimited, un-vetted welcome to people coming from countries in which the law and the culture actively attack, imprison, and murder LGBTQers, it cannot bear to be in the same country as states that honor everyone’s First Amendment freedoms.

Is it just me or is California being a wee bit hypocritical here? Even worse than hypocrisy, it’s practicing a dangerous form of “soft” secession that would justify firing shots, just as Lincoln did against the South:

As we noted when California inaugurated this policy, American federalism is based on the agreement that different states can pursue different policies (within Constitutional bounds) while retaining equal status within the union. California’s decision to escalate the culture war with “sanctions” against states with different political orientations represents a direct challenge to America’s federal structure.

This new order could have a major symbolic impact—for example, by making it difficult or impossible for University of California sports teams to compete against the University of Texas. And could lead to retaliatory measures by the targeted red states: They could, for example, up the ante not only by enacting reciprocal travel bans but also by refusing to cooperate with California’s government in criminal investigations, declining to share tax data, or prohibiting companies from selling products to California’s state government. How long before a coalition of liberal states begins to collectively and systematically impose sanctions on conservative ones, or vice versa?

To say that Democrats don’t play well with others is an understatement. What’s worrisome is when this immature playground behavior extends to matters of core constitutionalism.
Read more here.

Why it took Hitler's troops so long to send supplies and reinforcements to Normandy

Did you know that Winston Churchill had a Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare? Oregon Muse tells us here about a book entitled
Churchill’s Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare: The Mavericks Who Plotted Hitler’s Defeat by Giles Milton.

Saturday, June 24, 2017

What is the new way to be clever and virtuous?

I was only able to listen to 41 minutes of this Mark Steyn interview with author Douglas Murray, but I enjoyed it, and I plan to finish it ASAP.

Politicians in Europe are totally changing the societies they are supposed to be looking after!

Murray says Europe suffers from thought diseases. "It's about us! It is about Islam, but it could have been anything that is assertive." Europeans need to "shake off the guilt!" No one predicted any of this. No one asked any of the serious questions.

Europeans are indulging in masochism. "The great problem for masochists is what happens when they meet a real sadist! We are meeting our sadists. You're in the bondage section, and you suddenly realize there is no safe word!"

"On the minus side, we've got a bit more gang rape and beheading than we used to have, but on the plus side, we've got a wider range of cuisine!"

The way millennials are persuaded to look at the world, everything is about "I'm great, you're Hitler! I'm good, you're evil. Hear me roar!"

What happens when two things thought to be virtues are in competition? Take mercy and justice. In the search to be merciful, we've grown up on the idea that there should not be any justice for the people of Europe. You've inherited something that is not being passed on. You've destroyed the whole thing for your short-term misunderstanding gains.

Traditions? Our students are taught mainly how to war on traditions. That is the new way to be clever and virtuous.

American youth do not think free speech matters.

Once you recognize there is a hole inside you, you don't necessarily turn back to what you've lost!

Democrats now the party of the rich and those who take care of them, and nobody in between?

What would Tucker Carlson have to talk about if there were no Democrats? Elizabeth Warren talks about political differences as moral crimes. Hillary Clinton says Republicans are the "party of death."

Tammy Bruce points out that the Left is all about getting and maintaining power. In the 20th century, three regimes killed 70 million people who opposed them: the Soviet Union, Communist China, and the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. The Left has been funding groups like #Black Lives Matter, setting the stage for violence.

Congress wants to call Loretta Lynch to testify again. In July 2016 she declined to answer questions about the Hillary Clinton email case more than 70 times. This time Congress wants to know if she blocked the FBI investigation.

John Moore has written an article in PJ Media about the catastrophic effects of an EMP attack. That would occur if there were a nuclear explosion above our atmosphere that would destroy our electrical grids. It would take civilization back to the 1800s. We have not stockpiled electric power, water, or gasoline, so we are not protected!

Seattle passed a $25 dollar gun tax in 2015. Murders have doubled since then. Shootings are way up. A guest says it is because of two criminal gangs operating there. Gun sellers fled to the suburbs, and the city is less safe.

Jeff Sessions has rescinded an Eric Holder memo to soften sentencing of persons convicted of drug crimes.

An obstetrician from Illinois talked about a law there that would require him to provide clients with a list of nearby abortion providers. He says as an obstetrician he has two clients, the mom and the baby. The law would require him to have one of his clients executed, and the other to be mortally wounded with regret for the rest of her life.

Hasbro no longer sells toys for boys and girls.

Bill Cosby, who has been accused of sexual assault by over 50 women, is going to be offering free seminars beginning next month on how to avoid sexual assault charges!

Tucker concludes by saying that the Democratic Party is now for the rich and those who take care of them, and nobody in between!

'The Clintons are the acid reflux of the Democratic Party," Using speech to hide truth, the Hollywood left's assassination fetish, why North Korea did not keep Dennis Rodman.

Greg Gutfeld says the Clintons are the acid reflux of the Democratic Party. Hillary may lose her security clearance. Greg points out how Democrats use speech to hide the truth. Investigation? No, "matter." Terror? No, "man-caused disaster'" or "workplace violence."

Considerable discussion about Johnny Depp's remarks that "maybe it's time" for an actor to assassinate a president again. Greg pointed out that if Depp really wanted to say something dangerous in Hollywood, he could say something good about Trump! Kimberley points out that Depp does have a history of domestic violence, including throwing his phone at his wife. His threat should be taken seriously.

Dennis Rodman also got a lot of air time on last night's program. Greg wondered aloud why North Korea didn't keep him. Probably because it wouldn't have been possible to put him in a coma. Get it? You have to have a brain to be put in a coma.

Jesse Watters gets under Jesse Ventura's skin. That will be on tonight's Watter's World.

"the FBI has failed to cooperate with congressional investigators seeking documents."

Paul Sperry reports at the New York Post
...The Senate Judiciary Committee is also investigating whether the FBI has wrongly relied on the anti-Trump dossier and its author, Christopher Steele — the old spy who was hired by Fusion GPS to build a Russia file on Trump — to aid its ongoing espionage investigation into the Trump campaign and its possible ties to Moscow.

The FBI received a copy of the Democrat-funded dossier in August, during the heat of the campaign, and is said to have contracted in October to pay Steele $50,000 to help corroborate the dirt on Trump — a relationship that “raises substantial questions about the independence” of the bureau in investigating Trump, warned Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa.

Senate investigators are demanding to see records of communications between Fusion GPS and the FBI and the Justice Department, including any contacts with former Attorney General Loretta Lynch, now under congressional investigation for possibly obstructing the Hillary Clinton email probe, and deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe, who is under investigation by the Senate and the Justice inspector general for failing to recuse himself despite financial and political connections to the Clinton campaign through his Democrat activist wife. Senate investigators have singled out McCabe as the FBI official who negotiated with Steele.

Like Fusion GPS, the FBI has failed to cooperate with congressional investigators seeking documents.

"The Secret Service should take this seriously"

Ace writes about actor Johnny Depp's threats to assassinate our president. Some excerpts:
The name "Johnny Depp" is synonymous for "late in age one-note formerly famous person who is broke and is now making even more awful movies than he used to.

So now he's musing about the last time an actor killed a president, and wondering if it isn't time for another one to do the same.

The Secret Service should take this seriously -- Johnny Depp has been alleged to have a history of violence, though usually against women even smaller than himself.

...Depp accidentally severed the tip of his finger when raging about his suspicions that Heard was having an affair with much-more-manly actor Billy Bob Thornton. So he "dipped the stump" into blue ink and wrote "Billy Bob" and "Easy Amber" on a mirror.

Which isn't crazy or worrying at all, and the Secret Service should definitely not take a long look at this "volatile," drunk, financially distressed asshole.

We have nothing to fear from broken drunks with Nothing Left to Lose.
Read more here.

"mule-headed willful stupidity"

Ace has a piece up about the media being wrong again and again. Some excerpts:
Don Surber coincidentally has a piece demonstrating that they're literally always wrong about everything, noting that they have learned absolutely nothing since November.

That's not just laziness. Even a lazy person learns by osmosis.

To actively reject all information is a purposeful exertion. They're remaining proudly ignorant as a demonstration of mule-headed willful stupidity.

"Run in the opposite direction!"

Matthew Continetti writes at The Washington Free Beacon about media getting it wrong. Some excerpts,
Conjectures and guesswork continue to dog Trump in the form of "the Russia thing," the belief that the president, his "satellites," or his campaign worked with the Russians to influence the election in his favor. Months after the FBI opened its investigation into whether such collusion occurred, no evidence has been found. The charge itself is based on an unverified and gossipy and over-the-top memo prepared by a former British spy for Democrats.

Compounded by Trump's own mistakes, the Russia story has now traveled so far afield from the original suspicions that we in Washington are no longer all that interested in the underlying charges. What concerns us instead is the possible obstruction of justice in the investigation of a crime that seems not to have taken place. And yet Russia continues to dominate the headlines, command the attention of pundits, generate rumor and insinuations from people who ought to know better.

...So much more fun to pretend to be in the know, to assert with absolute confidence one's theory about the world, proclaim one's virtue, despite all evidence to the contrary.

"Like a bearded nut in robes on the sidewalk proclaiming the end of the world is near, the media is just doing what makes it feel good, not reporting hard facts," Michael Crichton once said. "We need to start seeing the media as a bearded nut on the sidewalk, shouting out false fears. It's not sensible to listen to it."

...But please, please, please be wary of the supposedly nonpartisan and objective experts who have looked at the DATA and determined which course history will take. In fact, be more than wary. Run in the opposite direction.
Read more here.

How public faith in our institutions collapses

At The Federalist, Ben Domenech writes about our federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies. Here are some excerpts.
These institutions are as dysfunctional as all the others, with their own internal politics, defects, aspiring people, and conflicting forces that often cross the lines of law and ethics in pursuit of their goals. Not losing faith in them at that juncture is a difficult thing indeed.

...There’s no reason to beat around the bush here: what the FBI is claiming is mind-boggling when they claim the shooter had no target in mind. Consider the number of accidents of circumstance you would have to believe were going on here to not have the shooter doing what seems obvious from every piece of evidence we have: researching and planning for an attack on Republicans of some kind, particularly looking for an opportunity when security will be low and vulnerability will be high. This was an attack, not an “anger management” problem.

Step back, though, and think on the institutional conclusions here. Considering how ludicrous the FBI’s conclusions are as it relates to an attack on the third-ranking member of the House of Representatives, you might reconsider whether to trust the FBI’s conclusions in other areas, as well. And this is how our faith in institutions is degraded: steadily, gradually, with incident after incident where men in suits stand in front of microphones and make claims we know are not the whole truth.

At Ace of Spades, CDR M adds,
If CIA contractors are willing to hack vending machines, what else do you think they're willing to do with capabilities they have access to in their official capacity? No one has really been punished at the IRS for their political shenanigans and the DOJ obviously interfered with the Hillary private server investigation. Until big name folks are held accountable for their violations, public faith in these institutions will continue to crater.

Friday, June 23, 2017

The problems with Islam, Leftists hate racism almost as much as they hate Jews! Is someone trying to prepare us for a post-human world?

Here are the last two Andrew Klavan Shows (Wednesday and Thursday). Here are some of the ideas I thought were highlights. You will just have to listen to both to find out which one I am remembering!

The problems with Islam boil down to two, in Andrew's estimation. One, the words in the Koran are supposedly written by God (Allah), so change will not be easily forthcoming. And secondly, the Islam is a state religion. Jesus told us never to have a theocracy ("My kingdom is not of this world!") During the time of Constantine, Christianity had become very popular, so Constantine made it the state religion. that did not work out well. Saudia Arabia is planning to modernize under their new Crown Prince, but Islam will still be the state religion.

Andrew played a clip of a recent interview Sean Hannity conducted with Camille Paglia. Though she is and intends to remain a Democrat, she is very critical of the Democratic Party and the press. Democrats nowadays believe in nothing but fantasy, words, hallucinations, and Hollywood. Then she asks, what has happened to journalism? "My party has destroyed journalism. Journalists have turned themselves over to their childish fraternity and buffoonish behavior! It will take decades to recover! Camille is a professor of media studies, as well as being a professor of humanities.

Ted Cruz is trying to help get a good healthcare bill. Although Trump treated him badly in the primaries, he praises many things Trump has done, especially the appointment of Gorsuch and a conservative Cabinet. Trump, too, has been a better person in office than he was as a candidate. Let him learn! Give him a chance!

Every summer the blockbuster movies are either Marvel or DC Comicbook characters. When do we put aside childish things? Are we being prepared for a post-human world? Must you insist that I lie when you tell me you are a woman but your DNA says you are a man?

Andrew notices that Leftists hate racism almost as much as they hate Jews! Leftists hate racism almost as much as they hate Jews


"There might be tapes," Nancy Pelosi is not going to go silently into the night, the big issue with healthcare is cost

Laura Ingraham loves how Trump outfoxed Comey by saying, "There might be tapes."

Was Mother Theresa right when she said, "Americans have too many things?" Do we all need to set aside quiet time every day for prayer and meditation?

A judge stopped the deportation of some Iraqi Christians.

Nancy Pelosi, "I'm an ardent Catholic," is not going to go silently into the night. The Dems don't have enough votes to get rid of her as party leader. She is very good at fundraising, and what is more important to politicians? Trump is having fun saying, "let her stay!" He also wants "Cryin Chuck" Schumer to stay.

We the people want good jobs, rule of law, secure borders, the pursuit of happiness!

Senators Ron Johnson of Wis., Mike Lee, Ted Cruz, and Rand Paul are holding back on endorsing the health care "reform and replace." Laura had as a guest a Cardiologist who writes for Lifezette. He says the big issue is with cost. If you own stock in health insurance companies, pharmaceuticals, or hospitals, then you are happy with this bill. It is just one indication of how corrupt our government has become.

Obamacare did absolutely nothing to address the cost of healthcare, and neither does this repeal and replace bill.

Larry Sabato was Laura's last guest. He notes that at age 77 Nancy Pelosi is actually middle age when comparing her with her peers in Congress! He also notes that between the time when they are elected and being sworn in, Congress people have already had to do lots of fundraisers!

Sabato also thinks there will be a third party candidate who will be a force in 2020.

"She led with a controversial, hard-to-defend statement, and then, when pressed, retreated to a safe, no-sane-person-can-be-against-this platitude. And then pretended the two are the same."

Oregon Muse reports at Ace of Spades,
I Never Knew This Had A Name
—OregonMuse

Feminist: All men are rapists.

OregonMuse: What, are you high? You know that's complete bullshit.

Feminist: No, it's not, it's why we need feminism -- to smash the patriarchy.

OregonMuse: Feminism is bullshit.

Feminist: You're obviously a h8r. "Feminism is the radical proposition that women are people, too." How could you be against that?

-----

Do you see what the feminist did there? She led with a controversial, hard-to-defend statement, and then, when pressed, retreated to a safe, no-sane-person-can-be-against-this platitude. And then pretended the two are the same. I've seen this in one form or another for years and it's just infuriating. But I never knew until about an hour ago that it has a name.

Ladies and gentlemen, behold, the Motte and Bailey trick:


Motte and Bailey (MAB) is a combination of bait-and-switch and equivocation in which someone switches at will between a "motte" (an easy-to-defend and often common-sense statement, such as "culture shapes our experiences") and a "bailey" (a hard-to-defend and more controversial statement, such as "cultural knowledge is just as valid as scientific knowledge") in order to defend their viewpoint. Someone will "support" the easy-to-defend (motte) temporarily, to ward off critics, but does not actually believe what they're saying. The "difficult" (bailey) version always remains the desired belief, but is never actually defended. For all intents and purposes, the MAB'er is defending a "ghost" belief.
So MAB is a specie of the genus "bait and switch."

"a politically motivated exercise in weaponized government."

Ace of Spades reports,
Court Dismisses 14 of 15 Charges in the Persecution of Those Who Exposed the Trade in Organs of Aborted Babies
—Ace

When you charge someone with 15 counts, and 14 of them are so obviously without merit a judge dismisses them pre-trial, it shows the prosecution to be a politically motivated exercise in weaponized government.
Read more here.

Thursday, June 22, 2017

"Kill, Rape, Control"

Edwin Mora writes at Breitbart about how sanctuary cities block ICE from deporting members of the MS13 gang back to El Salvador after they commit violent crimes in the US.
Currently, there are “more than” 10,000 MS-13 gang members — accused of extortion, murder, and rape, among other crimes — operating in “at least” 46 states and the nation’s capital, according to the federal government.

“The MS-13 threat is everywhere in the U.S.,” warned Kenneth Blanco, the acting assistant attorney general at the Department of Justice (DOJ), while testifying alongside Albence.

Asked by Sen. Kennedy, “I want to make sure I understand. These are evil people…If they’re arrested and they’re in a local jail, there are some cities in the United States that would prevent you from coming in and talking to them, interviewing them?”

“Correct,” responded ICE’s Albence.

The gang’s motto is known as “kill, rape, control.”

MS-13, primarily based in El Salvador, has taken advantage of the flow of illegal immigrants in the last few years, particularly unaccompanied alien children (UACs), to bolster their ranks within the United States.

UACs refer to illegal aliens under the age of 18.
Read more here.

Liberal boycotts backfire

Don Surber writes,
On Wednesday night, President Trump held a rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

CNN and MSNBC boycotted the news.

Only Fox News carried it live.

Guess who viewers watched.

From TV Newser, the results:
8 PM Fox News 3,298,000, CNN 821,000, MSNBC 1,534,000
9 PM Fox News 3,362,000, CNN 963,000, MSNBC 2,337,000
For two hours, it was like the old days, with Fox News gathering as many eyeballs as CNN and MSNBC combined.

Oh, and in the demo -- those 25-54 -- Fox News was No. 1 in both hours.

What have I been saying? From Chick-Fil-A to Ivanka, liberal boycotts backfire.

Conservative boycotts hurt. Ask the Susan Komen breast cancer foundation. Revenues down 40 percent since conservatives discovered six years ago it helped fund Planned Parenthood.