Tribute to San Francisco

🎥BROUGHT TO YOU BY....@SpeakerPelosi & @GavinNewsom pic.twitter.com/9HzLRR1irm

— Dan Scavino (@DanScavino) December 28, 2019

Grieving

From the satirical Babylon Bee:

U.S.—The nation's media outlets announced they were grieving today as an armed citizen stopped a mass shooting.

"We grieve that this tragedy we could have exploited for weeks on end was stopped by a good guy with a gun," said one teary-eyed MSNBC reporter on the scene. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the shooter."

"We are absolutely heartbroken and in shock over here," said one New York Times journalist. "What could have given us weeks and weeks of frothing-at-the-mouth stories about gun control will now have to be suppressed since it does not align with our agenda."

News outlets also reminded the nation that they reserve the right to immediately bury mass shooting stories that don't help push their agenda.

Outlets like CNN, MSNBC, and ABC News confirmed that they carefully look over the facts of a given case to see if it lines up with the correct opinions before deciding to push it incessantly for weeks on end.

"While we usually would exploit a tragedy like this to push our gun control agenda, in this case, the facts don't really help us," said CNN reporter Bob Costanza, after a recent shooting was shut down by a citizen with a gun. "It's tragic that it ended that way, because we really could have gotten a lot of mileage out of that bad boy."

The media didn't even try to find children who were present during the shooting to parade around talk shows and put on the covers of magazines for a full year this time around.

Go here to view the photo of the hero killing the murderer.

"Irrational!"

“...with all do respect to the governor of Texas, it’s irrational what you’re doing, loosening access to have guns, being able to take them into places of worship...” - @joebiden

His policies would have killed dozens today

pic.twitter.com/upIo1kvvmG

— John Cardillo (@johncardillo) December 30, 2019

Optimistic for ourselves and our communities, but less so for our country

Ace of Spades posts,

Poll: Americans Very Optimistic for 2020, Citing the Economy, and Often Crediting Trump
—Ace
Most elections in which the country is feeling good about the current situation and expecting even better in the future go to the incumbent party, of course.

A USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll this month asked Americans if they thought things would get better or worse in their own lives in 2020. By an overwhelming 80% to 11%, they predicted their lives would be better. That optimism stretched across demographic lines, although men had a more positive outlook than women (83% vs. 76%) and Southerners a more positive outlook than Midwesterners (84% vs. 74%).
...

By about a 3-to-1 ratio (63% vs. 22%), those surveyed also predicted things would get better next year for their communities.

One bit of data is less optimistic: only 54% expect things to get better for the country.

But that makes sense to me, actually. You'd have to be blind not to notice the country is disintegrating. But that's not really something most voters will say is Trump's fault; I think most people realize the left has gone insane and intends to destroy the country if they're not permitted to rule it.

And meanwhile: Trump has previously come in second in Gallup's poll of most admired men in America.

In the current poll, he ties Obama.

Barack Obama and Donald Trump are tied this year as the most admired man. It is Obama's 12th time in the top spot versus the first for Trump. Michelle Obama is the most admired woman for the second year in a row.
Each year since 1948, Gallup has asked Americans to name, in an open-ended fashion, which man and woman living anywhere in the world they admire most. This year's results are based on a Dec. 2-15 poll.

"Impeachment was never about Trump’s failures, but about fears of his perceived successes."

Victor Davis Hanson writes in American Greatness,

...To move toward what the Economist believes is an existential redefinition of the border, the president has gone to court to fight constant lawsuits, scraped together almost $10 billion from previous allocations, as well as siphoning and redirecting funds from various agencies, shutting down the government from December 22, 2018 through January 25, and prompted a near crisis with the Mexican government—and yet so far built only 66 miles of replacement walling and about nine miles of new barriers.

...After all that fighting, the money and the momentum are turning in Trump’s favor, as border crossings have dived over the last six months. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection predicts that by the end of 2020 there will be 450 miles of new walling and another 60 miles started. The Left is beginning to worry that its intersectional doctrines cannot address increased job opportunities for entry-level African American workers when deportations of illegal aliens proceed.

...We currently are in the midst of a high-risk, radical recalibration with China, of which trade deficits are central, but not all that is at stake.

The United States is dealing with a number of Chinese-related crises: in Hong Kong, the reeducation-camps, the Orwellian nature of the Chinese government, and the growing imperialism of the Silk Road network abroad. Under Trump, there is at least the chance that China will be forced to curb its predatory trade practices.

In contrast, the prior bipartisan orthodoxy that concessions would win Chinese favor, enrich its population, and soon lead to liberalization of 1.4 billion affluent consumers was unhinged—to the degree it was sincere and not just a hackneyed circumlocution for corporate outsourcing production to China.

What “America First” Looks Like
U.S. energy production continues to rise, given even more federal lands have been opened up to leasing. Frackers and horizontal drillers no longer feel that they are enemies of the people, but are recognized as saviors who provide America with flexibility in foreign policy and inexpensive energy for the middle classes. In 2017, the United States became the largest producer of oil in the world. Gas prices in real dollars remain low.

Abroad, most of the traditional talking points of conservatives have been reified. The U.S. embassy to Israel is now in Jerusalem. The Golan Heights are not going back to the murderous Assad regime. Hundreds of millions of dollars less in U.S. aid not being rerouted through the United Nations to a corrupt Palestinian authority. The Iran nuclear deal is toast. Iran is not growing its tentacles over Syria and Iraq, but is broke and reeling.

The only irony is that those who used to demand such action blast Trump as a failure for actually turning their parlor talk into reality.

...For better or worse, we are now fundamentally recalibrating the United States—not just redressing the prior Obama transformation, but the policies of past Republican administrations as well. And no one quite knows where it will end, given that almost all our experts who swore in January 2017 that the economy would tank were wrong. They were wrong again with their prediction of a late summer 2019 recession. And they may well be wrong again that confronting China would ensure a global trade cataclysm. Never underestimate how greatly the hatred of Donald Trump can warp the mind of a Ph.D.

Fear of Trump’s Success Underneath It All
So we are watching a great experiment, as all of our past de facto assumptions about regulations, immigration, identity politics, trade, workers’ wages, manufacturing, the Middle East, China, Russia, and overseas interventions are all at once under sometimes chaotic reexamination.

...But the idea that Trump has “failed,” when the economy is booming, the United States is energy independent, the border is becoming a border again, China is on notice that the past 30 years of appeasement are over, the military is far stronger, and U.S. foreign policy is being radically recalibrated is absolutely absurd.

...The Left, far better than the NeverTrump Right, grasped that Trump is succeeding, and that it has little traction in demanding economic, energy, immigration, trade, and regulatory alternatives. Its lunatic multi-trillion-dollar proposals ensure that it cannot attack Trump on the deficit where he is weakest.

As a result, the Left rightly concluded that its only hope to save the progressive agenda is to destroy Trump before the people can vote on his agenda, which they rightly fear is succeeding.

Impeachment was never about Trump’s failures, but about fears of his perceived successes.

Read more here.

"It doesn't mean anything if they don't do anything with it. The House vote, as it stands, is just an 'Orange Man bad!' hissy fit."

In the Ace of Spades blog, Oregon Muse writes,

"After the House voted in favor of the articles of impeachment, do you realize there were people who thought that this meant that trump was no longer president?
"It's true. Where I live, they actually had a celebratory protest at the usual location where all of the other 'F* Trump' protests were held, and these idiots were jumping up and down, tooting little horns, and waving signs that proclaimed how great it was that the Bad Orange Man was finally gone.

"And this is a college town. Which should be full of smart people, or so they keep telling us, what with all of the perfessers and academic geniuses and gender studies majors boosting our collective IQ up into the stratosphere.

"So with all of our rocket scientists, you'd think that at least some of them would have taken a basic civics class in high school, so they would know at least something about the impeachment process.

"But no, apparently nobody around here has. And *we're* supposed to be the ones who are dumb.

"And does anybody believe that Pelosi is going to formally hand off the articles of impeachment to the Senate? She's already making a bunch of excuses why she might not, I mean, essentially, she won't do it unless she is guaranteed a guilty verdict. That's what all of her demands boil down to.

"But with their go/no-go waffling on impeachment, it is becoming clear that the progressives have hollowed out the impeachment process and are now wearing its skin and demanding respect. That is, they're insisting that the House with Pelosi sitting on the articles is solemn and momentous. They get mad when you point out that they've reduced it to just another species of political theater.

"It doesn't mean anything if they don't do anything with it. The House vote, as it stands, is just an 'Orange Man bad!' hissy fit.

"And those dimwits who were celebrating because they think Donald Trump is no longer in office? They're in for the mother of all hangovers."

"Make sure your vote is on target!"

In the Washington Examiner, Madison Dibble reports,

The man who fired back and saved the lives of his fellow churchgoers in Texas is running for office with the campaign slogan: “Make sure your vote is on target.”

Jack Wilson, 71, shot and killed a gunman who opened fire in West Freeway Church of Christ in Tarrant County, near Fort Worth, Texas. Wilson was on duty as the volunteer security officer at the time of the shooting. He drew his weapon and killed the assailant within seconds.

Wilson’s aim wasn’t surprising, given his background. He was president of On Target Firearms Training Academy until 2016, worked as a deputy sheriff, and is currently running to be a county commissioner for the third precinct.

Read more here.

How can anyone watch this and still be opposed to churches or schools employing armed security guards?

BREAKING: Video shows gunman open fire at West Freeway Church of Christ in White Settlement, Texas before being shot dead by armed security; the service was being live-streamed on YouTube pic.twitter.com/58YcB8ODT1

— GrantB911 (@GrantB911) December 29, 2019

No hope.

In American Thinker, Clarice Feldman has some suggestions from Mary Poppins Perfect Piercing for a rant you can use while attending a New Year party. You can also read Ann Althouse's thoughts on Bret Stephens advice to his New York Times readers on how to defeat Trump in 2020, read what Eric Wemple had to say to Rachel Maddow, and analyze the exercise in futility of Pelosi's shampeachment. Clarice concludes that she can't think of anything the Democrats can do to help their cause.
Read it here.

One of the best writers in America

Glenn Beaton is a writer in Aspen, Colorado. I have followed and enjoyed his writing for several years. This week he was fired on Christmas Eve by the snowflakes who run the Aspen Times newspaper. On December 15 he had written a column about Jesus entitled, "Here's what I know, Jesus is not our mom." Read it here. Then, on December 29 he wrote in his blog his 2020 vision here. He will soon be writing about his firing, and that will be a must-read!

The Intended Consequences Of Enforcing Immigration Law: More Jobs For Americans

In the Ace of Spades blog, CBD reports,

African Americans are taking back jobs that were stolen from them by illegal immigrants. In August, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers swept up 680 illegal immigrants during raids on seven food processing plants in Mississippi. Without the cheap labor, the companies were forced to hire Americans to do the work.

The best part of this is the monumental struggle to find something bad in increased employment for Black Americans. But rest assured, the NYT and the NAACP are on the job!

The president of the local NAACP compared the raids to slavery, proving once again the NAACP has become nothing more than an arm of the Democratic Party that stopped advancing the interests of African Americans a long time ago.
And...
The raids were believed to be the largest statewide immigration crackdown in recent history and a partial fulfillment of President Trump’s vow to remove millions of undocumented workers from the country. The impact on Mississippi’s immigrant community has been devastating. For nonimmigrant workers, the aftermath has forced them into a personal reckoning with questions of morality and economic self-interest: The raids brought suffering, but they also created job openings.

Amazing, isn't it! Their tortured manipulation of the vernacular carefully avoids the salient data; these people were in the country illegally, therefore they were employed illegally. This is not some ethical conundrum. This is the law. But "the law is a ass" when it conflicts with the NYT world view that the most important goal of the modern era is the subsuming of America in a sea of unwashed illegals, so finally..FINALLY...their progressive utopia can be achieved. And if that destroys their old and tired weapon of choice (Black America)? Then so be it.

The poorest of the poor

Alexander Hammond reports in Foundation for Economic Education,

...in 1820, 94 percent of the world’s population lived in extreme poverty (less than $1.90 per day adjusted for purchasing power). In 1990 this figure was 34.8 percent, and in 2015, just 9.6 percent.



...of those who live in extreme poverty, over 40 percent resided in just two nations: India and Nigeria.

Read more here.

Something to add to Trump's list of accomplishments?

AP is reporting,

The Taliban’s ruling council agreed Sunday to a temporary cease-fire in Afghanistan, providing a window in which a peace agreement with the United States can be signed, officials from the insurgent group said. They didn’t say when it would begin.

A cease-fire had been demanded by Washington before any peace agreement could be signed. A peace deal would allow the U.S. to bring home its troops from Afghanistan and end its 18-year military engagement there, America’s longest.

There was no immediate response from Washington.

The U.S. wants any deal to include a promise from the Taliban that Afghanistan would not be used as a base by terrorist groups. The U.S. currently has an estimated 12,000 troops in Afghanistan.

Read more here.

Oh, I'm sure it is not bias!

You go, Max!

Thousands of AT&T workers hunting for new jobs

Axios has a story about how

AT&T is poised to send thousands into the new year hunting for new jobs after assigning them to train their own foreign replacements, according to conversations with current and former workers and documents obtained by Axios.

Many have worked for the company for over a decade. They aren't being offered severance or early retirement, and may not easily find a comparable job elsewhere with similar pay.

...Blackwell said past contracts she's seen lead her to believe that as many as nine in 10 of those impacted by AT&T's outsourcing may end up training foreign replacements.
It's a common business model that's been used by other U.S. companies, including Disney, Verizon, Bank of America, Toys 'R' Us and Southern California Edison.

...How it works: Workers may be assured their job will not change when they are "rebadged" to work for a contractor. "The sad reality is you’ve just been terminated without your severance," said one worker Axios interviewed. "You’re at the mercy of a company that doesn’t really want you."

Workers described shock and confusion when they were told during a scripted phone call that after a decade or longer at AT&T, they'd have to work for a contractor or resign. Some were told they could not apply for other jobs inside AT&T.
Some were told they were needed for a "knowledge transfer" — then tapped to train people on work visas or overseas who would replace them.

A presentation obtained by Axios outlining the knowledge transfer process for AT&T and Accenture includes a slide on how to interact with Indian workers.
Go deeper: Trump administration denied almost a third of new H-1B visas in Q3

Read more here.

Leaderless

Don Surber looks at the messages coming to America from the Democratic candidates. For example, Mayor Pete said last week he is for the decriminalization of all drugs.

For a half-century, Democrats argued that pot isn't any worse than booze. Now that they have finally won that argument in some quarters, they have moved on to it is OK to do any drugs, any time, anywhere!

Marijuana turned out to be a gateway drug after all as it will lead to legalizing cocaine. Never mind how this destroys communities and how it will eventually destroy our country. Democrats believe saying they will legalize everything may flip Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin back to blue, and so they say it.

...Democrats have no quality candidate for president. What person of any integrity wants to lead the party of poop? Even Hillary won't run. This is why their leading candidate is Joe Biden, who finished fifth in Iowa in 2008 with less than 1% of the vote. I won't say they are scraping the bottom of the barrel, but they are.

Read more here.

Will Trump end the Afghanistan War?

In his blog, Don Surber speculates,

Having fixed the economy, won a trade war battle with Red China, appointed 1/4th of the appellate judges, rolled back regulations, and cut taxes, what is next for President Donald John Trump?

My guess is he will end the Afghanistan War next.

Business Insider reported, "Months after taking office in 2017 and hoping to get a better understanding of America’s longest war, President Donald Trump began taking meetings with enlisted US service members who deployed to Afghanistan.

"'I want to sit down with some enlisted guys that have been there,' Trump told advisers, according to the national security journalist Peter Bergen’s latest book, Trump and His Generals: The Cost of Chaos.

"'I don’t want any generals in here. I don’t want any officers,' Trump added, according to Bergen’s book, which was sourced from dozens of interviews with current and former White House officials and military officers. 'I just want enlisted guys.'

"The meetings were intended for candid discussions about the war in Afghanistan, which was nearing its 16th year at the time, with US troops who served on the front lines."

It's Sun Tzu.

He said 2,500 years ago, "Treat your men as you would your own beloved sons. And they will follow you into the deepest valley."

It also is Washington. In eulogizing him, Henry Lighthorse Lee said, "First in war — first in peace — and first in the hearts of his countrymen, he was second to none in the humble and endearing scenes of private life; pious, just, humane, temperate and sincere; uniform, dignified and commanding, his example was as edifying to all around him, as were the effects of that example lasting.

"To his equals he was condescending, to his inferiors kind, and to the dear object of his affections exemplary tender: correct throughout, vice shuddered in his presence, and virtue always felt his fostering hand; the purity of his private character gave effulgence to his public virtues."

...After continuing his analysis, Surber concludes with caution, Afghanistan is halfway around the world. We went there based on deep state lies. It cost us thousands of our best men and women, as well as trillions of public treasure.

I had hoped 2019 would end North Korea's nuclear program. Negotiations continue -- and they continue in Afghanistan. Patience is a large part of the Art of the Deal.

As well as the Art of War.

Read more here.

Tucker Carlson reveals what he believes

Tucker says the divide in America is a religious and theological one. It is a spiritual debate. Do you think you are in control of the universe or don't you?

We are hardwired for faith. Are you going to worship God, or are you going to worship man?

You know you are going to die. Only faith in God answers what happens next.

The one thing that powerful people can never admit is that their power is limited.

Are you God? Can you decide when life ends (abortion)? The only time you get to take a life is in self-defense.

Hubris is the great killer (thinking you are in charge). Do you think you're God?

Our free will is the essential ingredient in the formula! God gives that to us! No one but ourselves can control what we believe. That is what is being challenged...your freedom to believe what you want to believe! We are facing evangelists who seek to convert by force! They want you to not just believe different things, but do different things!

All of us are capable of changing and being forgiven for what we have done wrong. Christians know they are flawed. They know they are not in charge of judging. There is someone else who is. That's God! Tucker's wife tells him he doesn't have to win or judge when he gets in debates with guests on his program.

Whatever you are hiding is known! We live in a world of deception. What do we need? Honesty, forgiveness, truth. To love God and to love people like God loves them!

Whose job is it to put Humpty-Dumpty together again?

In the Epoch Times, Roger L. Simon writes,

Reading the inspector general’s report and the many intimations of what is going on with John Durham’s investigation, it is clear that Trump was ganged up upon in an unprecedented, and quite likely illegal, way even before he was nominated, let alone elected.

He also writes about Trump's

opposition in the Democratic Party, the FBI, the CIA, and the media—not necessarily in that order but all working in tandem. (Entertainment and the academy helped too.)

Yet, Simon makes the case that

The unfortunate result of this, despite its being inherently unfair, is that Trump alone can and must lead the way in curing this condition. No one else is in a position to do it and he cannot expect his enemies to help him if past performance is any indication.

...But he should keep Humpty-Dumpty always at the forefront of his mind. The nursery rhyme character has clearly fallen from the wall. The president’s biggest job in his second term is to put him together again. If he can do that to a reasonable extent—even making a dent won’t be easy—America could be greater than it ever was.

Read more here.