This blog is looking for wisdom, to have and to share. It is also looking for other rare character traits like good humor, courage, and honor. It is not an easy road, because all of us fall short. But God is love, forgiveness and grace. Those who believe in Him and repent of their sins have the promise of His Holy Spirit to guide us and show us the Way.
An oil refinery in Texas City, Texas. PHOTO: LUKE SHARRETT/BLOOMBERG NEWS
Alison Sider reports in the Wall Street Journal,
Gasoline prices surged to a two-year high at the pump Thursday after the owner of the largest pipeline in the U.S. reported that shipments are being sharply curtailed, spreading the economic pain from Hurricane Harvey throughout the nation.
Retail prices for gasoline approached $2.49 a gallon by Thursday evening, according to the Oil Price Information Service, up about 14 cents from a week ago. Prices in some cities have climbed much more than that and could keep rising toward an average of $2.60 to $2.75 a gallon in the next 10 days, said Tom Kloza, global head of energy analysis at the price-data tracker.
Since Harvey made landfall on Friday, the storm has knocked out more than 20% of U.S. refining capacity, analysts said.
...Major refiners are telling customers that they would only supply their own branded outlets because they don’t have enough gasoline to supply wholesale customers as well, analysts said. That’s leading to an unusual situation in which unbranded gasoline is becoming more expensive than the fuel sold at stations affiliated with major oil companies.
U.S and South Korean fighter jets fly over the Korean Peninsula on Thursday. PHOTO: SOUTH KOREA DEFENSE MINISTRY/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Jonathan Cheng reports at The Wall Street Journal,
SEOUL—The U.S. sent four of its most advanced jet fighters and a pair of B-1B bombers over the Korean Peninsula, alongside Japanese and South Korean jets, as a show of force in direct response to North Korea firing a missile over Japan.
The flyover Thursday, which included a bombing drill on a range in South Korea, came at the end of annual joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises that have angered Pyongyang.
It is the first time the F-35B jets have been used in such a mission with the B-1B bombers over the peninsula, the U.S. Air Force Pacific Command said in a statement. It said the flyover—which also included two Japanese F-15 and four South Korean F-15K jet fighters—emphasized an “ironclad commitment” to the defense of allies and the U.S., and maintained a readiness to give leaders “viable and ready military options.”
...Environmental Protection Agency is temporarily suspending some rules about gasoline production in an effort to minimize shortages around the southeast
Leslie quotes from a Wall Street Journal article by Timothy Puko who reports,
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is temporarily suspending some of its rules about gasoline production in an effort to minimize shortages around the southeast after Tropical Storm Harvey swamped several big fuel-making plants in Texas.
States from Maryland to Texas can sell winter-grade gasoline held in storage now, even though normally that type of fuel wouldn’t become available until fall, according to a federal waiver issued Wednesday. Refineries that continue to operate can also start churning out winter-grade gasoline, which emits more pollution than summer-grade gasoline when combusted in engines.
The waiver, which covers 12 states and Washington, D.C., allows refiners, fuel wholesalers and gas stations in those areas to manufacture and sell high-volatility fuel normally kept off the market during summer months to limit ozone pollution.
Harvey has hobbled the Gulf Coast refining complex, knocking out nearly 4 million barrels a day of fuel-making capacity, or more than 22% of U.S. refining capacity.
The EPA noted that nearly a dozen refineries are shut in the wake of the storm and several more are operating at reduced rates. Weather-related pipeline problems and port infrastructure damaged by Harvey are also limiting shipments of gasoline on pipelines, barges and tankers.
The EPA waiver lasts until September 15 and applies to Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Texas, Louisiana, Florida and Washington, D.C.
This article in Time appears to have very good news for coffee drinkers. I just wish we could find out whether or not funding for the research has any ties to the coffee industry.
Rush notices that the first responders to Hurricane Harvey's devastation are usually private individuals.
There was a hurricane in Galveston, Texas in 1900. Thousands of people died. What did they not have? Rescue air, land, and sea vehicles powered by fossil fuels!
Thanks to the USDA and the Texas Department of Agriculture, all 218,000 thousand students in Houston will be eating free breakfasts, lunches, and suppers this year!
At The Daily Caller, Jim Treacher has a few choice words to say to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
I’ve been skeptical of the Southern Poverty Law Center ever since August 2012, when their “Hate Map” (shown below) inspired a man named Floyd Lee Corkins to try to murder the employees of the Family Research Center in DC and smear Chick-fil-A sandwiches in their dead faces. (Why Chick-fil-A? Because it’s “hate chicken,” of course.) Corkins specifically pointed to the “Hate Map” as his inspiration. The SPLC told him exactly where to go and exactly why he should hate those people.
Corkins’ attempt at political mass murder was thwarted by a brave security guard named Leo Johnson, which certainly saved the SPLC a lot of embarrassment. Pointing out ideological targets for angry gunmen to attack isn’t a good look for a “civil rights” organization. Fortunately, they have the media on their side, so they get a pass from the same people who blamed Sarah Palin for the Gabby Giffords shooting.
But how does the SPLC afford to keep harassing people who say things they don’t like? How do they pay their bills? As it turns out, they have more money than they know what to do with.
...Well, I’m sure it’s all above-board. I’d ask questions about it, but then somebody might call me a racist or a homophobe or something awful like that. I wouldn’t want to impede the SPLC’s very important work, like… um… going on TV and slandering conservatives? I’m not sure what else they really do.
But hey, they’ve found the solution to southern poverty. Just take the huge stacks of cash you make by fear-mongering and lying about people, and stash it even farther south!
At The Washington Free Beacon, Joe Schoffstall reports,
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a liberal, Alabama-based 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charitable organization that has gained prominence on the left for its "hate group" designations, pushes millions of dollars to offshore entities as part of its business dealings, records show.
Additionally, the nonprofit pays lucrative six-figure salaries to its top directors and key employees while spending little on legal services despite its stated intent of "fighting hate and bigotry" using litigation, education, and other forms of advocacy.
The SPLC's chief trial counsel Morris Dees / Getty Images
..."I've never known a US-based non-profit dealing in human rights or social services to have any foreign bank accounts," said Amy Sterling Casil, CEO of Pacific Human Capital, a California-based nonprofit consulting firm. "My impression based on prior interactions is that they have a small, modestly paid staff, and were regarded by most in the industry as frugal and reliable. I am stunned to learn of transfers of millions to offshore bank accounts. It is a huge red flag and would have been completely unacceptable to any wealthy, responsible, experienced board member who was committed to a charitable mission who I ever worked with."
"It is unethical for any US-based charity to invest large sums of money overseas," said Casil. "I know of no legitimate reason for any US-based non-profit to put money in overseas, unregulated bank accounts."
"It seems extremely unusual for a ‘501(c)(3)' concentrating on reducing poverty in the American South to have multiple bank accounts in tax haven nations," Charles Ortel, a former Wall Street analyst and financial advisor who helped uncover a 2009 financial scandal at General Electric, told the Free Beacon.
...The SPLC has also been hit with a number of lawsuits over "hate" defamation claims in recent days.
According to new transcripts released by the Senate Judiciary Thursday afternoon, former FBI Director James Comey made the decision not to refer then Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton for prosecution long before ever interviewing key witnesses. Members of the Committee allege Comey made the decision months before FBI agents were finished with the criminal investigation of her mishandling classified information during her time as Secretary of State.
The transcripts were revealed in a letter sent to current FBI Director Christopher Wray, in which lawmakers are demanding an explanation and more documents surrounding the case.
"According to the unredacted portions of the transcripts, it appears that in April or early May of 2016, Mr. Comey had already decided he would issue a statement exonerating Secretary Clinton. That was long before FBI agents finished their work. Mr. Comey even circulated an early draft statement to select members of senior FBI leadership. The outcome of an investigation should not be prejudged while FBI agents are still hard at work trying to gather the facts," the letter, signed by Chairman Chuck Grassley and Committee member Lindsey Graham states. "Conclusion first, fact-gathering second—that’s no way to run an investigation. The FBI should be held to a higher standard than that, especially in a matter of such great public interest and controversy."
Who are AntiFa? "The Leftwing agitators who fight against oppression by violently oppressing those who oppose them!"
Laura Ingraham wants to classify AntiFa as a terrorist group (there is a petition on line for you to sign). Laura points out that, once again, Berkeley police did not do their job. They allowed these masked cowards to enter this park. The police stood back and left! Laura labels this action by police "a reckless disregard for human life." AntiFa intimidated and violently attacked prayerful people who were there to pray for peace for all sides.
Trace Gallagher reports that a 70 mile stretch from Port Arthur to Beaumont he flew over in a Blackhawk helicopter looked like lake-after-lake-after-lake. His crew filmed several rescues by the helicopter.
An ABC reporter, Tom Llamas, was attacked by liberals on Twitter for observing looters looting and reporting it. Dan Bongino explains that liberalism is built around nihilism.
Fifteen professors from Harvard, Yale, and Princeton have written a memo to students urging the students to "think for yourself!" The professors do not want students to fall into groupthink and conformity and to just sign on with the dominant orthodoxy. Professor Robert George of Princeton came on as a guest to answer Tucker's questions. "Pursue the truth," he advised students! "Be a lifelong truthseeker!" "You cannot seek the truth if you are a conformist, a dogmatist, and ideologue." "Epithets like bigotry far too often are used to shut down debate!" "Don't allow yourselves to be intimidated and bullied!"
Mark Stein joined Tucker to discuss a new report by Luke Rosiak of the Daily Caller on Debbie Wasserman Schultz and her Pakistani IT aide, Imran Awan. The report revealed that Awan had a second House of Representative email account still active yesterday, an account he was banned from as a security risk. Steyn points out that Awan owned at least four homes in the Washington area. "Being a devout Muslim, he had at least two wives to support." But Debbie Wasserman Schultz alleges she was protecting this guy from America's white supremacy! Debbie, on camera, demanded her laptop back from the Capitol police, or else!
Hillary is out promoting her new book, What Happened? You can see her in New York or Toronto for $125! For $2400, you can meet her! Steyn says some Saudi princes and Sudanese warlords are saying, "Wait a minute, I had to pay $4 million to the Clinton Foundation and sit for a speech by Chelsea Clinton on diarrhea in Africa before I could get a meet and greet with Hillary Clinton!"
Over 30,000 people slept in shelters in Texas Tuesday night.
Greg Gutfeld: "We aren't what the media says we are: divided, hateful, evil. Americans are what those rescue pictures show: selfless, color-blind, inspiring.
Jesse Watters points out the importance of video. You see what is happening. No chance for the media to spin some yarn about how divided we are.
Jesse reminds us that President Obama golfed during the BP oil spill; he golfed during the flooding in Louisiana.
Of course, Juan Williams made his sarcastic comments about President Trump.
Greg asks, "Who wears masks? Kids on Halloween and cowards like the KKK and AntiFa, whom Greg described as the new KKK.
I have been both amused and angered by the constant harping of the media and fashion police on Melania Trump’s wardrobe choices. These same people were fine with Michelle Obama’s gosh-awful ruffled skirt that made her look like a birthday cake and her Halloween-ish black widow dress.
The most recent attack on Mrs. Trump was for wearing high heels as she got on the plane to head to Texas. They then attacked again when she got off the plane wearing white tennis shoes after arriving in Texas. Well, what did they expect her to have on? Muck boots???
My husband and I did wear muck boots every time we went outdoors for the entire weekend. We live in the Texas Hill Country and got the outer edge of Hurricane Harvey’s rain all day Saturday AND Sunday. Obviously, nothing to compare to the devastated areas, but we did have standing water and squishy mud, so muck boots were the footwear choice for the weather conditions.
I am quite sure muck boots and hip-waders have been the “shoe” of choice for numerous folks across the Texas storm area since Harvey decided to come ashore. I am just as sure that Melania Trump does not likely own a pair of either muck boots or hip-waders. And, it really would not matter if she did ‘cause the Trump haters would then bash her for not being elegantly attired as befits the First Lady.
How much better it would be if the haters had just given her a thumbs up for accompanying her husband on his visit to Texas in our time of trouble. Oh, wait. My bad! They are just as busy bashing President Trump. His crime? Praising and thanking those who are helping people through this dangerous time of disaster.
Ummm . . . seems to me they bashed him approximately a year ago when his crime was delivering a truckload of supplies for those in storm-ravaged Louisiana. I remember in particular the media and liberals complained about him handing out toys along with more serious necessities. Well, you know what? A toy in the hands of a child who has lost everything is important. Just ask a mother or father whose child has nothing.
Obviously, POTUS and FLOTUS Trump will never be able to please the Liberals and the leftist media. But, you know what? I like them. A lot of folks I know like them. President Trump shows again and again that he cares about America and Americans. Mrs. Trump has repeatedly shown she is gracious, kind, and pro-America. After eight years of the American-hating Obamas, I really don’t care what shoes Melania wears to a hurricane and I am just happy that The Donald is out amongst the people in need rather than off on a golf course!
Lee Ho Fuk reports for the satirical blog Duffleblog,
FT LEAVENWORTH, KS — An administrative error has been blamed for a mix-up in sentencing involving the cases of convicted Fort Hood shooter Maj. Nidal Hasan and Bradley Manning, the Army private convicted of leaking classified documents to the website WikiLeaks.
After sentencing concluded last Wednesday in Fort Hood, Texas, it was reported Hasan would undergo gender reassignment surgery and change his name from Nidal to Nahid Hasan. Nahid is an Arabic name meaning “one with full, round breasts.”
Not long after it was revealed, the traitor formerly known as Chelsea had been transferred to death row where he awaits execution by lethal injection.
Leavenworth officials announced that both gender reassignment and execution have been approved by fiscal offices. Due to end of fiscal year funding constraints, changing these allocations will be too costly in the final quarter.
Sequestration and work furloughs were also cited as possible contributors to the errors, which are now fiscally and administratively impossible to correct. Administrative offices in Leavenworth were unavailable for comment due to a “training holiday.”
Hasan, who had declined to speak on his own behalf previously, is reportedly now quite vocal concerning this turn of events.
“This is egregious,” the former Army psychiatrist said of the mix up. “I’m supposed to get 72 virgins, not turn into one. My mullah screwed me!”
At press time, Manning was unavailable for comment, throwing a hissy fit in his cell. This despite fellow inmates having assured him they would still call him girls names.
Al Jazeera America has reported Al Qaeda rumblings of possibly facilitating an arranged marriage between Hasan and Ayman al-Zawahiri. Since the announcement or the error, Hasan has received multiple proposals of marriage from various Afghan jihadis, including Zawahiri.
“A woman who used to be a man? That’s the best of both worlds,” remarked one jihadi. “Every day will be man-love Thursday!”
Some in the media say, "It's not fair to call looters "looters." They are just "trying to survive!"
Jim Rutenberger of the New York Times told a bar association meeting that there is a campaign to undermine and discredit the media. Rush said it was the other way around: "The purpose of the Left, of which the media is the functioning leader, is to discredit all credible opposition, because you can't beat us in the realm of ideas!"
Rush played one of his famous montages of the media attacking Trump as he and Melania went to Texas. The word of the day was "empathy." Trump doesn't have it, said the media and #NeverTrump conservatives. We have a president who is a builder! What do the people of Texas need? Building and rebuilding!
Rush notes that John King of CNN actually was critical of the media getting into the muck with bias against Trump!
Rush said the media told outright lies about all three Trump statements after Charlottesville. Rush said, "There are people in the media who know this. Are there any people in the media who are troubled by this?"
In answer to a listener's question, Rush talked about the effect of the modern feminist movement on boys and young men. He mentioned the prescribing of drugs for diagnoses of ADD and ADHD. Young men are greatly outnumbered now by young women in colleges. He mentioned the made-up stories about the prevalence of rape on campuses.
AntiFa is Obama as violence.
Rush believes the Republican Party is breaking up. Rush gives some recent history of the Republican Party. The Tea Party came along and got the Republicans in the majority in both houses of Congress. No one in the Establishment thought Republicans would win the presidency. Trump did. Now Republicans have to govern. So now the excuse is we don't have 60 votes in the Senate, so we really can't do anything. This cannot continue. Who is going to vote for a Republican excuse-maker? Luckily, the Dems are in an even bigger mess. Rush sadly notes that party affiliation comes second. Being a member of the Establishment comes first.
We learn that the economy actually grew at a 3 percent rate in the second quarter. We never saw this in Obama's entire eight years, but we are seeing it in the 7th month of Trump.
Existing immigration laws are being enforced, and it is having a tremendous effect in slowing illegal immigration.
A group of researchers from Germany and the United States have published a study which concludes that doping ‘xenophobic’ populations with massive quantities of the estrogen-linked hormone Oxytocin will cure nationalism – making native citizens more accepting and generous towards migrants who simply want free handouts from Western taxpayers while Islamic extremists peacefully rape and murder infidels.
In the big picture – economic strength is an outcome of the ability of a nation, any nation, to support itself first and foremost. If a nations’ economy is dependent on other nation for itself to survive it is less strong than a nation whose economy is more independent.
Most Americans don’t realize it, but China is an extremely dependent nation.
...American culture specifically is based around freedom of thought and severe disdain of government telling us what to do; THAT freedom is necessary for innovation. That freedom actually creates innovation.
Again, broadly speaking Chinese are better students in American schools and universities because the Chinese are culturally compliant. They work well with academics and established formulas, and within established systems, but they cannot create the formula or system themselves.
...The Chinese Planning Authority skipped the economic cornerstone. When China planned out their economic entry, they did so from a top-down perspective. They immediately wanted to be manufacturers of stuff. They saw their worker population as a strategic advantage, but they never put the source origination infrastructure into place in order to supply their manufacturing needs. China has no infrastructure for raw material extraction or exploitation.
China relies on: importing raw material, applying their economic skill set (manufacturing), and then exporting finished goods. This is the basic economic structure of the Chinese economy.
...It takes a population of young avg-skilled workers to do the hard work of building a raw material infrastructure. Mine workers, dredge builders, roads and railways, bridges and tunnels etc. All of these require young strong bodies. The Chinese cultural/population decisions amid the economic builders precluded this proactive outlook; now they have an aging population and are incapable of doing it.
This is why China has now positioned their economic system as dependent on them being an economic bully. They must retain their supply chain: import raw materials – export finished goods, at all costs.
This economic structure, and the reality of China as a dependent economic model, also puts China at risk from the effects of global economic contraction. But more importantly it puts them at risk from President Trump’s strategic use of geopolitical economic leverage to weaken their economy.
...U.S. President Donald Trump and the U.S. economic team fully understand this dynamic and fully understand the inherent needs of China. When you are economically dependent, the ‘bully plan’ only works until you encounter a ‘stronger opponent’. A stronger opponent is an economic opponent with a more broad-based stable economy, that’s US.
President Trump, Commerce Secretary Ross, Treasury Secretary Mnuchin and U.S. Trade Representative Lighthizer, represent the first broad-based national team of economic negotiators who know how to leverage the inherent Chinese economic vulnerability.
Willis L. Krumholz goes into great detail at The Federalist to show that the media and Democrats have produced zero evidence of any collusion between the Trump team and Russia.
Tonight Trump is scheduled to make a major speech in Missouri about tax reform. CNBC is worried that the speech may have been written by a "nationalist," Stephen Miller, instead of ex-Goldman Sachs executives. Heaven forbid someone who places America first would write a speech for Trump!
Remember yesterday when a fashion writer criticized Melania Trump for boarding the plane for the trip to Texas while wearing heels? Milo Yiannopolous provides us with a photo of the critic.
The Trump administration moved Wednesday to reimpose work requirements for Americans on welfare, revoking an Obama-era policy that had urged states to apply for waivers exempting the poor from having to show they were either getting job training or looking for work.
Requiring work was a key part of the 1996 welfare reform law enacted by a GOP-led Congress and signed by then-President Clinton, and Mr. Trump’s move restores the law as written.
“The waiver option offered by the Obama administration is being replaced today by an expectation that work should always be encouraged as a condition for receiving welfare,” said acting Assistant Secretary for Children and Families Steven Wagner.
At the Gatestone Institute, former UN Ambassador John Bolton explains how we can get out of the Iran deal.
Steve Bannon asked me in late July to draw up just such a game plan for the president — the option he didn't have — which I did.
Here it is. It is only five pages long, but like instant coffee, it can be readily expanded to a comprehensive, hundred-page playbook if the administration were to decide to leave the Iran agreement. There is no need to wait for the next certification deadline in October. Trump can and should free America from this execrable deal at the earliest opportunity.
I offer the paper now as a public service, since staff changes at the White House have made presenting it to President Trump impossible. Although he was once kind enough to tell me "come in and see me any time," those days are now over.
"I want to know why antifa, black bloc, BLM, Women's March, and all of the other groups who love to brag about how 'love trumps hate' aren't down there in Houston slogging through the floodwater helping people. And also, why none of the crack reporters in the MSM are asking this question."
At Fox News Opinion, Richard Manning of Americans for Limited government explains why Trump should fire General McMaster.
President Donald Trump has a defining question before him in the decision on whether to fire National Security Adviser H. R. McMaster and sweep the entire National Security Council clean.
The latest leak, from those who are sworn to protect the nation’s secrets, is perhaps the most damaging of them all. When the Washington Post published annotated transcripts of President Trump’s Oval Office telephone conversations with the presidents of Mexico and Australia respectively, citing an NSC controlled transcript as the source, inestimable damage was done to the United States’ ability to conduct foreign policy.
Yesterday Nancy Pelosi did what Paul Ryan, Marco Rubio, and Mitt Romney have not done: condemn AntiFa!
Read her statement here.
CZ455 replies on Twitter:
Hold on
Antifa would not have been there
If Nancy Pelosi had not called the Patriot Prayer Event/Organizers Nazi's & White Sumpremacist
At The Conservative Treehouse, Sundance shares his insights regarding Trump's team, North Korea, and China.
He writes,
China’s objective is conquest. China’s tool for conquest is economics. President Trump’s entire geopolitical strategy, using economics in a similar way, is an existential threat to China’s endeavor. Communist Beijing calls the proverbial DPRK shots.
President Trump is putting on a MASSIVE economic squeeze.
♦Squeeze #1. Trump and Mnuchin just sanctioned Venezuela and cut off their access to expanded state owned oil revenue. Venezuela now needs more money. China and Russia are already leveraged to the gills in Venezuela and hold 49% of Citgo as collateral for loans outstanding. Now China and Russia will need to loan more, directly.
♦Squeeze #2. China’s geopolitical ally, Russia, is already squeezed with losses in energy revenue because of President Trump’s approach toward oil, LNG and coal. Trump, through allies including Saudi Arabia, EU, France (North Africa energy), and domestic production has driven down energy prices. Meanwhile Russia is bleeding out financially in Syria. Iran is the financial reserve, but they too are energy price dependent.
♦Squeeze #3. Trump and Tillerson just put Pakistan on notice they need to get involved in bringing their enabled tribal “extremists” (Taliban) to the table in Afghanistan. Pakistan’s primary investor and economic partner is China.
♦Squeeze #4. China’s primary economic threat (competition) is next door in India. President Trump has just embraced India as leverage over China in trade and pledged ongoing favorable trade deals. The play is MFN (Most Favored Nation) trade status might flip from China to India. That’s a big play.
♦Squeeze #4. President Trump has launched a USTR Section 301 Trade Investigation into China’s theft of intellectual property. This encompasses every U.S. entity that does manufacturing business with China, particularly aeronautics and technology, and also reaches into the financial services sector.
♦Squeeze #5. President Trump, Secretary Ross, Secretary Mnuchin and USTR Robert Lighthizer are renegotiating NAFTA. One of the primary objectives of team U.S.A. is to close the 3rd party loopholes, including dumping and origination, that China uses to gain backdoor access to the U.S. market and avoid trade/tariff restrictions. [China sends parts to Mexico and Canada for assembly and then back-door entry into the U.S. via NAFTA.]
♦Squeeze #5. President Trump has been open, visible and vocal about his intention to shift to bilateral trade renegotiation with China and Southeast Asia immediately after Team U.S.A. conclude with NAFTA renegotiation.
♦Squeeze #6. President Trump has positioned ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) as trade benefactors for assistance with North Korea. The relationship between ASEAN nations and the Trump administration is very strong, and getting stronger. Which leads to…
♦Squeeze #7. President Trump has formed an economic and national security aliance with Shinzo Abe of Japan. It is not accidental that North Korea’s Kim Jong-un fired today over the Northern part of Japan. Quite simply, Beijing told him to.
Add all of this up, and you can see the cumulative impact of President Trump’s geopolitical strategy toward China. The best part of all of it – is the likelihood China never saw it, meaning the sum totality of all of “it”, coming.
The UK Daily Mail is leading the charge today against the Trumps. Apparently, Melania was wearing five inch heels when she boarded the plane to Texas. I guess the Daily Mail thought she would be walking around flood-ravaged areas in those heels.
Meanwhile, the Left has not slacked off whatsoever in their effort to destroy Donald Trump and his presidency.
Rush points out that Trump now has two people in his administration undercutting him (Tillerson and Cohn). He also points out that the Southern Poverty Law Center is one of the biggest hate groups on the left. All you have to do is disagree with them, and you are called a hater. The CEOs of Apple and JP Morgan have recently written huge checks to SPLC. If your conservative group raises money, then the Southern Poverty Law Center is out to destroy you. Do these CEOs not know this? By the same token, does Gary Cohn really not know what AntiFa is? AntiFa is devoted to violence, they are a hate group. You can't placate them. You cannot support their cause and reduce their violence.
Unlike Mitt Romney and George W. Bush, Trump does not sit there and take the lies and abuse from the media. After his speech in Phoenix, the word among the pundits in the mainstream media was "unhinged!" They were referring to Trump, but describing themselves and the Democratic Party.
James Clapper has now been hired by CNN. He worked for Barack Obama, who pandered to the enemies of the United States, but now he is worried about Donald Trump having access to nuclear weapons! Clapper and Obama enabled the Iranians to ramp up their nuclear program! We elected someone who believes in the United States and wants to make it great again, and these people question his fitness for office!
President Trump and Melania have landed in Corpus Christi. They will also go to Austin later today and then return on the weekend. Vice President Pence and his wife will also be going to southeast Texas. Here is coverage from Fox News.
Andrew Klavan points out that summer is the time when political news slows down, so journalists have time to really dig deep into meaningless incidents in order to scare us, make us hate one another, and blame Donald Trump.
Andrew says the Justice Department got conned into appointing a Special Counsel who is sure to get to the bottom of who didn't hack anything and who was responsible for the fact that the vote was accurate!
It's too bad autumn is on the way and there will be real news taking place and we'll be too busy to blame Trump for something that never happened which he wasn't involved with anyway.
They are not AntiFas, they are Fas!
Does it take a catastrophe like Hurricane Harvey to bring us together? Andrew says, "No it doesn't! All you need to do is turn off CNN, and you will see people working together all over this country!"
James Mattis talks to the troops. "We don't frickin scare! We're going to keep on fighting until they're sick of us and leave us alone. You're a fine example for our country right now. Just hold the line until our country gets back to respecting each other and showing it. We've got the power of inspiration (we'll get it back) and the power of intimidation (that's you!)." Andrew agrees: "They are keeping the enemy at bay, while we learn not to be enemies of ourselves!"
Klavan does not like Joe Arpaio. He thinks it is wrong and inhuman to humiliate people who are in jail. At the same time, however, he believes the Obama open borders policy was insane.
Sebastian Gorka's father fought the Nazis, then the Communists in Hungary. The last straw for Gorka was Trump's Afghanistan speech, which did not mention radical Islamic terrorism even once!
Andrew brings on Michael Knowles, who also has a Daily Wire podcast. Michael is the guy who wrote Reasons to Vote Democrat, a blank book that became a best seller. Michael covered the two events in Berkeley over the weekend. One was the "Patriot Prayer" event. The other was "No Marxism in America!" Both events were canceled after organizers received death threats from the fascist group called AntiFa. Joey Gibson of the Patriot Prayer group was pepper-sprayed immediately by AntiFa and ran to the cops for protection.
AntiFa chanted, "No Trump, No Wall, No USA at all!"
Michael believes that AntiFa is the logical conclusion of mainstream leftwing thought. It is the suppression of speech, intimidation by coercion. Andrew says, "It's Google!" Michael agrees, and points out that in the last three days Google has launched a crackdown on rightwingers on YouTube. Google is working with the Southern Poverty Law Center to redirect you when you Google a rightwing site to a leftwing site that would debunk the claims made by the rightwing site. Orwellian! Dennis Prager's video series on the Ten Commandments has been restricted by YouTube! They have "gone to war with conservatives." Andrew says Jeff Sessions should take a look at anti-monopoly action against Google. He says Google is a business with the power of government. The whole point of government is to stop the mighty from hurting the small!
Fox News reports on North Korea's firing of an unidentified missile over northern Japan today.
North Korea fired a missile over Japan for the first time in eight years, the Pentagon confirmed on Monday, as the rogue nation sent a message of defiance to the U.S. and its allies in the region.
"We are still in the process of assessing this launch. North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) determined the missile launch from North Korea did not pose a threat to North America. We are working closely with Pacific Command, Strategic Command and NORAD and will provide an update as soon as possible," the Pentagon said.
A senior U.S. official said that there had been some movement suggesting an intermediate missile was being prepped.
The South Korean military said the missile flew about 1,700 miles with a height of 341 miles. That's lower than the 2,300 miles into space an intercontinental ballistic missile traveled in late July. North Korea’s July 4 ICBM traveled some 1,700 miles into space.
The missile was fired from the area of Sunan in Pyongyang shortly before 6 a.m. and flew east, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said, according to Yonhap News Agency. It traveled over the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido and appeared to be the first to soar over the country since 2009, South Korean officials added.
Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga labeled it an "unprecedented grave threat."
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency said that the Japanese government alerted the public to take cover in northern areas of Japan but that the Japanese military did not attempt to intercept it.
South Korea's presidential office convened a National Security Council (NSC) session quickly after the missile was fired.
The move came after North Korea fired three short-range missiles on Saturday -- all deemed successful despite initial reports suggesting failure, according to the U.S. military.
Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff said the projectiles fired during the weekend from North Korea's eastern coast flew about 155 miles. North Korean missile launches have been happening at an unusually fast pace this year, and some analysts have said the North could have viable long-range nuclear missiles before the end of President Donald Trump's first term in early 2021.
U.S. and South Korean forces began annual military exercises last week, an effort that Pyongyang claimed was a rehearsal for war.
Japan's military has been practicing deploying anti-missile batteries at three U.S. bases in Japan. The U.S. military says the drills will test the ability of Japanese and U.S. forces to work together and assess firing locations at the bases. They will also allow Japan to practice rapid deployment of its PAC-3 anti-missile system.
Earlier this month, Trump claimed that the North would be met with "fire and fury like the world has never seen" if threats from the rogue regime continued.
North Korea has conducted a series of test launches to develop its missile capability and recently threatened to send missiles over western Japan and into waters near the U.S. territory of Guam.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had recently said that he was "pleased to see that the regime in Pyongyang has certainly demonstrated some level of restraint that we've not seen in the past."
Asked to address those comments on Fox News Sunday, Tillerson said he wanted to continue a "peaceful pressure campaign."
The missile was the 18th to be launched this year by North Korea. This is the third time North Korea has fired a missile over Japan. The last time was in 2009.
A missile was also fired over Japan in the 1990s.
Japan will deploy Patriot missile systems to “several” U.S. military installations in the next few days, the U.S. military said.
Laura began her show today talking about how AntiFa is celebrating in California. "We defeated the police," as AntiFa beat up groups of people on at least five different occasions, while the police did little or nothing to stop them.
Then, Laura shifted the focus to Newt Gingrich's record as Speaker of the House in the nineties. Craig Shirley has written a book entitled Citizen Newt documenting how Newt drained the swamp by going after corrupt Congressmen.
Dr. Sebastian Gorka was the next guest. He said little, in my opinion. He did say most of the people left in the White House now would have been there if Hillary had won! Still, he boasts, "We will win!" I think the truth is both he and Bannon lost!
Laura believes the people Trump has brought in to deal with trade issues are the best any president has ever brought in.
Laura is not so excited about Rex Tillerson. Gorka answered, "No comment," when Laura asked him to comment on Tillerson's recent actions comparing his values to those of Trump. Gorka emphasized the three planks of Trump's 2016 victory: the wall, unleash the economy, defeat Islamists, and suggested Tillerson should go back and remember them.
So, who is left in the White House? Gorka counted four people left at the senior level! He bemoaned the loss of good people at the National Security Agency, where McMaster has "cleaned" house.
Texas Lt. Gv. Dan Patrick is "flooded in" at his house in Houston. He pointed out that Harvey now has a 200-mile breadth. 85% of Houstonians are flooded in. Never before have we had a hurricane followed by a tropical depression and so much rain. Trump is coming tomorrow. Patrick said Texans have come together as one in this time in which the nation is so divided. Laura pointed out that in time of deep suffering people need to grab onto the Cross and come closer to Christ. She sees it as a huge redemptive moment that we need to embrace.
Laura noted that the Left is already using the hurricane as a political weapon, saying that Trump can either build the wall or help people in Texas rebuild their lives. Patrick emphasized that this is going to be a long process. First is rescuing people, second is recovery, and third will be rebuilding lives and businesses.
John Kasich is the go-to trash Trump guy who is always available to the media. Would a Kasich-Hickenlooper ticket be a unifying ticket in 2020? Laura characterized it as a snoozity ticket!
Last, but not least, Laura has Sheriff Joe Arpaio as a guest. She says what happened to him was an example of the criminalization and defamation of politics. Arpaio talked about his deep respect for President Trump, whom he called a tough winner. He pointed out that George Soros poured in four million dollars into Maricopa County to defeat Joe in his last race for Sheriff. He said that Speaker Ryan ought to be opening an investigation into the corrupt judges who convicted him before Trump's pardon, instead of the "garbage" Ryan is espousing now. The pardon was done on the birthday of Joe's wife of 60 years!
At Ace of Spades Weird Dave posts pictures and videos of Berkeley, California and the state of Texas. In Berkeley, the cops are doing little, while the fascists AntiFa do their Marxist thing. In Texas, cops and citizens of all colors are helping their fellow humans.
U.S.—In a move designed to improve the accuracy of the name of the movement, a gathering of leaders of the Antifa protest group voted Monday to change its name to just “Fa,” better reflecting its fascist ideas and methods.
The new name is short for just “Fascist,” according to the group of often violent protesters.
“We were called ‘Antifa,’ but let’s be honest here, we’re using violence to advance our cause, we forcibly suppress those who oppose us, and we’d all be okay with a totalitarian Communist regime,” an Antifa spokesperson clad in all black said in a press conference. “We still want to punch Nazis and stuff, but we’re going to be a little more honest going forward about what we support.”
“If we’re gonna be shutting down the free speech of people we disagree with, it’s just a lot more accurate to call us fascists, to be honest,” he added.
Well, here’s a peculiar thing about the Justice Department’s indictment of Imran Awan and Hina Alvi, the alleged fraudster couple who doubled as IT wizzes for Debbie Wasserman Schultz and many other congressional Democrats: There’s not a word in it about flight to Pakistan. The indictment undertakes to describe in detail four counts of bank-fraud conspiracy, false statements on credit applications, and unlawful monetary transactions, yet leaves out the most damning evidence of guilt. In fact, the indictment appears to go out of its way not to mention it.
...To summarize, the indictment is an exercise in omission. No mention of the Awan group’s theft of information from Congress. Not a hint about the astronomical sums the family was paid, much of it for no-show “work.” Not a word about Wasserman Schultz’s keeping Awan on the payroll for six months during which (a) he was known to be under investigation, (b) his wife was known to have fled to Pakistan, and (c) he was not credentialed to do the IT work for which he had been hired. Nothing about Wasserman Schultz’s energetic efforts to prevent investigators from examining Awan’s laptop. A likely currency-transportation offense against Alvi goes uncharged. And, as for the offenses that are charged, prosecutors plead them in a manner that avoids any reference to what should be their best evidence. There is something very strange going on here.
Manhattan Infidel has good news! Here is his headline: Notorious Alt-Right Woodpecker Nationalist Killed in Hail of Gunfire!
History’s greatest monster is dead, never again to terrorize America with his alt-right thoughts and anti-environment actions.
Long known and feared for his destruction of trees, local animal life and aggressive, binary sexual expression the evil woodpecker was surrounded and taken out by SWAT teams from the Departments of Interior, Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Read more here.
A bill that passed the California state senate and is now moving through the Assembly could threaten jail time for anyone who refuses to use a transgender person’s preferred pronoun.
The law is currently limited in its effects to nursing homes and intermediate-care facilities, but if passed, those who “willfully and repeatedly” refuse “to use a transgender resident’s preferred name or pronouns” could be slapped with a $1,000 fine and up to one year in prison, according to the California Heath and Safety code. The state senate passed the bill 26-12 at the end of May. Since then, the Assembly Judiciary committee recommended the bill unanimously and the General Assembly held its first hearing on the legislation Wednesday.
“How can you believe in free speech, but think the government can compel people to use certain pronouns when talking to others?” Greg Burt of the California Family Council testified in July. “This is not tolerance. This is not love. This is not mutual respect. True tolerance tolerates people with different views. We need to treat each other with respect, but respect is a two-way street. It is not respectful to threaten people with punishment for having sincerely held beliefs that differ from your own.”
Titled the “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Long-Term Care Facility Residents Bill of Rights,” the legislation also requires nursing homes and care facilities to allow residents to use the bathroom of their choice, regardless of biological sex. The bill’s author, state Sen. Scott Weiner, argues that religious views don’t hold weight in public areas.
US News ranks the states on health care, education, crime and corrections, infrastructure, opportunity, economy and government. Go here to see how your state ranks.
Mark Steyn Club member David Elstrom left a comment here that deserves to be more widely distributed:
Mark,
I notice that the left media and even Fox News talk about the "discussion" on statues, or opine on the "conversation" concerning public monuments.
This Newspeak is apparently supposed to con the plebes into thinking something civil or democratic is happening. All I've seen is politicians or other apparatchiks rushing to remove statues (fearing the wrath of the mob) or actual mobs tearing things down.
If this is discussion, or conversation, then rape must be a "social event," and sticking up the local convenience store a "financial transaction."
Here is an unlikely duo: Milo Yiannopolous interviews Alex Jones! I had never listened to Alex for more than a couple of minutes. Something about his gravelly voice.
Both men have in common defiance, determination, and leadership.
Alex says he tries to look at the story behind the story.
Alex is interested in the Seth Rich murder. He was the leaker to Wikileaks, Alex believes.
Alex believes the mainstream media has collapsed. They are now just a disruptive force being propped up by big bank accounts.
He believes the Left actually wants to kill Trump. He muttered something about "hit teams."
Asked by Milo if he has a political hero, Alex answers, "Donald Trump." Why? Because he absorbs the hate. He also mentions George Washington, Martin Luther King and the people in England who ended slavery.
Milo is impressed by Alex's apparently limitless energy. Alex admits he loves being attacked.
Apparently, Megyn Kelly did an interview with Alex. He tells how she sucked up to him to get the interview. "It was tart-level!" He feels sorry for her, believing that NBC used her for a political stunt.
Did you know that taxpayer dollars are funding Islamism both here in America and abroad? Sam Westrop explains at National Review how extremist movements disguise their activities as schools or charities.
As the total solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 comes to an end, we have seen an unprecedented surge in claims for government support based on the premise that people are now blind. We all know that this was, in fact, a racist solar eclipse, since there were a disproportionate number of non-whites outside of the path of totality.
While the ACLU files discrimination lawsuits against the sun, the masses are overwhelming the People’s Department of Labor. The sun was not equally blocked for all people, as it should have been. This, combined with not being given solar-filtered glasses for eclipse-viewing has caused a systemic eye-damage problem resulting in blindness for everyone outside the path of totality. Therefore no one but those in the path of totality are required to work again.
Let’s start by noticing the obvious. The biggest hate group in America - by a wide margin - is the anti-Trump chorus, which has advanced from calling him “unfit to be president” to accusing him (in the words of CNN’s Ana Navarro) of being “unfit to be human.” In between are malignant accusations that he is a “neo-Nazi,” a “white nationalist” and a “white supremacist” – all revelations about Trump’s character that somehow remained hidden during the thirty years he was a public figure and before he ran against Hillary Clinton.
If you don’t try to get healthier, you get sick as you age.
The creatives, the ones who practice, avoid the failure of the non-creatives.
It’s easy to try something. Decide if it makes you a better person or not. And then either continue or go back to “Creativity”.
Delegate the details if you have to. But the person who takes care of every detail will always beat the person who lets details slip.
Focus is not about doing one thing. It’s about doing many things that connect and combine in ways nobody ever thought of before.
Focus is about connecting the dots so that one vision emerges.
...to get knowledge you need PLUS, EQUAL, MINUS: people to learn from, people to bounce ideas off of, people to teach so you can keep beginner’s mind and learn more.
If you don’t improve your relationships, you start serving their time in the prison of this lifetime instead of serving your own time.
...Shifting…reinventing myself…I have to do every day. It’s not one day. It’s not “This day!” It’s every day. Looking around. Reinvention is hidden in the cracks of every day life that most people ignore.
The person who is reinventing walks into a room and says, “what is weird about this?” The people who can’t reinvent tries to control every situation in life and asks, “why are things going wrong?”
The world is mentally ill. The wrong question to ask someone who is mentally ill is “why?”
APPLE FUNDS LEFT-WING HATE GROUP
I suppose this is a dog-bites-man story, given the crazy politics of Silicon Valley. But the Associated Press reports that Apple’s CEO Tim Cook, a politically ignorant lefty, has pledged $2 million “to help lead the fight against the hate that fueled the violence in Virginia during a white-nationalist rally last weekend.”
So is Apple coming out against Antifa? Just kidding:
Cook also told Apple employees in the memo that he strongly disagrees with President Donald Trump’s attempts to draw comparisons between the actions of the white nationalists and protesters opposing them.
Like so many others, Cook misrepresents what President Trump has said. Maybe he did it intentionally, or maybe he was relying on pundits, including a number of conservatives, who have shamefully misrepresented Trump’s words. Trump said that white nationalists and violent Antifa thugs–not “protesters,” who Trump said were “fine people”–both bore responsibility for violence in Charlottesville. I don’t know how anyone who has seen the videos of those events can dispute the truth of that assertion.
Apple is giving $1 million apiece to Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League. It will also match employee donations to those two groups and other human rights organizations on a two-for-one basis.
As has been documented many times, the Southern Poverty Law Center is a left-wing hate group that has blood on its hands. [Update: Much more here and here.] I don’t know whether Cook shares SPLC’s hateful agenda, or whether he is just a naive stooge. Either way, Apple has aligned itself with some very bad actors. And either way, it is time to sell my Apple stock.
Here is a Muslim man from UK who is suing SPLC for defamation.
Milo Yiannopolis sees Google memo writer James Damore as "the first moment in a new wave of resistance to the stifling, politically correct culture in corporate America." When it became clear that James had support, Google needed to squash it immediately. James learned the hard way that when you are really stressed, you start seeing threats everywhere. In fact, one person told him he/she would "hunt you down!"
Milo explained that being very Left wing comes at no personal risk. Being very right wing comes at personal risk. One uses emotion; the other uses fact, reason, and logic.
Milo does challenge or confront James on one point. Apparently, James said something in his memo about society pushing men to be more masculine than females are pushed to be more feminine. Milo said, "The problem is not too many men are masculine; the problem is too many men are feminine! Women are not too happy about it.
This refusal to treat people with different points of view as human beings is one reason Trump got elected!
Milo says, "There is an outpouring of maudlin self-pity and fact-free emotional drivel!"
In his now famous Google memo, Damore just summarized a few studies. Milo says, "That's why they're so mad! Because they know you are so right and so reasonable about it!" Then he adds from his personal experience, "You don't have to be reasonable to make them mad, but you do have to be right! There is nothing that makes people angrier than when the person is telling the truth!"
Milo criticizes conservatives for their "hands off, blind adherence to free market principles when it comes to free speech. As a result, conservatives have lost the academy, the media, Hollywood, and the tech industry. One side is asking for debate, and the other side refuses to show up!"
Milo says for himself he asked "Why appease them, like Marco Rubio and Paul Ryan? Just go to war," like Trump!
Leftists rule by threat of professional disaster as a way of enforcing conspiracy theories. Milo believes that what James Damore has done is a major moment in an inevitable resistance against the scolds, nannies, social justice warriors who believe they are entitled to dictate what we believe and how we live.
Breitbart News Saturday has Dr. Sebastian Gorka as a guest today. Gorka admits that he and Bannon have been replaced with people who are not nationalists who want to Make America Great Again. He is asked what are Trump's major accomplishments. He cites the 80 percent reduction in illegal immigration, the revitalization of NATO, ISIS being annihilated in the Middle East, and reversing the course of the last 8 years with Israel.
If you are going to watch this episode of Hannity, prepare to be exhausted, as Steve Harrigan reports from Corpus Christi as Hurricane Harvey hits landfall. The worst hit was on Rockport, Texas, which is about 30 miles down the coast from Corpus Christi.
When is the last time you’ve stilled and listened to your heart?
When have you last stilled and listened long to the rhythm of your life?
When have you last listened to your body speak to your life?
Sometimes you aren’t listening to your body because you’re listening to everybody else’s expectations.
Running yourself down because you’re trying to keep up is one way to trip your priorities upside down.
Laying there under a thin hospital sheet in the dimmed room, listening only to the stillness and my heart beat echoing off walls, there it is:
The only way you can listen to your body — is not to be afraid of silence.
By silence, sanity is found. By silence, sense is made of things. By silence, Satan is silenced and lives can listen to their Maker. Why — had I waited till literal heart failure to sit in a long, long stretch of clarifying silence?
...Maybe I hadn’t been fully hearing God — because I hadn’t been fully listening to what was happening in my own heart?
...Maybe I had needed to fall into literal heart failure — so my life wouldn’t fail?
...Come home to your life and listen to the mystery of it and press your ear up against the Word-voice of God and witness the very growing of your own soul and be still long enough to drink down all this ordinary glory and hear your heart keep beating how all is grace.
At The Federalist Mollie Hemingway quotes from Dr. Sebastian Gorka's resignation letter:
“[G]iven recent events, it is clear to me that forces that do not support the MAGA promise are – for now – ascendant within the White House,” Gorka wrote. “As a result, the best and most effective way I can support you, Mr. President, is from outside the People’s House.”
Gorka’s letter expressed unhappiness with the direction the Trump administration’s foreign policy has taken, as signaled by the president’s recent speech on Afghanistan:
“Regrettably, outside of yourself, the individuals who most embodied and represented the policies that will ‘Make America Great Again,’ have been internally countered, systematically removed, or undermined in recent months. This was made patently obvious as I read the text of your speech on Afghanistan this week…
“The fact that those who drafted and approved the speech removed any mention of Radical Islam or radical Islamic terrorism proves that a crucial element of your presidential campaign has been lost…
“Just as worrying, when discussing our future actions in the region, the speech listed operational objectives without ever defining the strategic victory conditions we are fighting for. This omission should seriously disturb any national security professional, and any American who is unsatisfied with the last 16 years of disastrous policy decisions which have led to thousands of Americans killed and trillions of taxpayer dollars spent in ways that have not brought security or victory.”
In his letter, Gorka made clear that he believes in the promise of the Trump presidency despite being concerned about its present direction.
“Your presidency will prove to be one of the most significant events in modern American politics. November the 8th was the result of decades during which the political and media elites felt that they knew better than the people who elect them into office. They do not, and the MAGA platform allowed their voices to be heard,” he wrote, adding, “Millions of people believe in, and have chosen, you and your vision of Making America Great Again. They will help eventually rebalance this temporary reality.”
Hurricane Harvey was about to hit landfall as Tucker Carlson's excellent show ended tonight. It is now Category 4, which means uprooted trees, houses without exterior walls, winds of 135 to 150 mph. They expect at least five days of rain, topping four feet in places! $40 billion worth of damage is expected. One-half of oil refineries have been shut down, as well as all natural gas. Catastrophic flooding is expected. It is the most powerful storm since 1961!
Trump pardoned Sheriff Arpaio! "Sheriff Joe" had disregarded a court order in which he had been ordered to stop detaining illegal immigrants.
Colin Kaepernick, who had collected $39 million, opted out of his contract, but no other NFL team has picked him up. The Georgia branch of the NAACP is protesting the fact that none of the 32 teams want him. You may remember him taking a knee last year in disrespect of our national anthem. 70 percent of NFL players are black even though blacks are less than 15 percent of America's population.
North Korea fired three missiles today. All three failed.
I admire Tucker for his reporting on the Leftist group Southern Poverty Law Center. SPLC is being sued by a Florida Christian group alleging SPLC defamation for labeling the group a hate group because it has opposed gay marriage. Dr. Frank Wright of the group describes SPLC as loathsome, deeply dishonest, fallacious.
Dana Rohrabacher is a Congressman from Orange County, California who has been libeled by Leftist groups because he is collaborating with Russia to coordinate anti-Jihad efforts in his role as chairman of a House committee.
The mayor of San Francisco and Nancy Pelosi have succeeded in getting a Patriot Prayer group to cancel a free speech prayer rally in San Francisco. An organizer of the event, Joey Gibson, was a guest on the program. He said the event was to promote love, peace, and letting go of politics. AntiFa was planning to protest the event, so Gibson and friends canceled the event so as not to give Pelosi and the mayor the pleasure of allowing AntiFa thugs to do their violent thing.
Of course, the big story tonight on Special Report is Hurricane Harvey. As I type this, the storm is 50 miles east-southeast of Corpus Christi with sustained winds of 125 mph. The amount of rainfall expected is unbelievable, not to mention the flooding from the sea. Texas has not issued evacuation orders! Although Democrats have not confirmed key Homeland Security officials, the Trump team appears to be doing good public relations work, holding multiple briefings for the press. This is the first major hurricane since Katrina! People fleeing may have to go inland more than 100 miles to find safety!
Now the media is off on a new tangent, questioning Trump's mental health.
Australia has not had a recession in over fifteen years. How do they fund infrastructure? By letting citizens invest in ports and airports, which then actually pay taxes that cities and counties use to build infrastructure! Why wouldn't that also work here?
Reuters is reporting that North Korea fired an unidentified projectile into the sea!
Are we seeing a confluence of Charlottesville and Kaepernick? That is a question Ann Althouse explored at her blog yesterday.
A new football season is about to begin, and it looks as though kneeling during the anthem will persist (even without Kaepernick), and the protest that was originally premised on police brutality and racial oppression gains momentum — cascades — by incorporating other subjects of protest, such as the problem of Civil War monuments. There's a confluence of Kaepernick and Charlottesville.
I'm trying to think of other times we've seen cascading like this. The "Free Speech" protests of the 60s cascaded into Vietnam War protests. More recently, here in Wisconsin, we saw the anti-Scott-Walker protests merge with Occupy Wisconsin and Black Lives Matter. But I'm especially interested in how a protest inspires counter-protest that changes the nature of the original protest.
Readers of this blog know that I am a fan of Mark Steyn. I will admit, though, that I didn't get as enthralled by this interview as I usually am when Mark hosts the Rush Limbaugh Show. Mark interviews FH "Frank" Buckley, an author I had not heard of, but one who has written three books that Mark likes. I don't know why "Frank" does not take his hat off, but I hope he overcomes his fear soon.
Toward the end of the interview, it started to get more interesting to me. They discussed the Left's rigidity and Puritanism. They are the killjoys of the modern world. They pronounce, "Only we can be offended!" Nowadays it seems that the power to be offended determines politics, which is why Mr. Buckley compliments Mark and says "It is really important to offend!"
The opposite of virtue signaling is outrageousness signaling. Every time Trump does something outrageous his supporters are encouraged that he is not going to back down and be a wimp. Frank likes the fact that he doesn't apologize or explain.
...Traditional morality, grounded in Christianity, is being discarded. Half of all marriages end in divorce. Four-in-10 children are born out of wedlock. Unrestricted abortion and same-sex marriage – once regarded as marks of decadence and decline – are now seen as human rights and the hallmarks of social progress.
Tens of millions of us do not speak English. Where most of our music used to be classic, popular, country and western, and jazz, much of it now contains rutting lyrics that used to be unprintable.
...So, what still unites us? What holds us together into the indefinite future? What makes us one nation and one people? What do we offer mankind, as nations seem to recoil from what we are becoming, and are instead eager to build their futures on the basis of ethnonationalism and fundamentalist faith?
If advanced democracy has produced the disintegration of a nation that we see around us, what is the compelling case for it?
A sixth of the way through the 21st century, what is there to make us believe this will be the Second American Century?
At American Greatness, Angelo Codevilla is not impressed with Trump's Afghanistan "strategy."
By far the most worrisome aspect of the speech that came forth from Mr. McMaster’s McMansion is the promise of alignment with India against Pakistan. The U.S. government has countless good reasons to put pressure on Pakistan regarding matters of interest to America. But the India-Pakistan quarrel touches a thousand items, 999 of which are irrelevant to America. Not only does preemptive engagement in them misdirect us, it also pushes Pakistan—by far the weaker of the contenders—to find another source of great-power support. Alas for all of us, one is readily available: China.
We may well find that the Trump generals’ lasting legacy will have been to bring China to the Indian Ocean’s shores. In sum, these tough-looking, tough-talking professionals give us reason to regard them as sorcerers’ apprentices.
