Long ago, Aristotle pointed out that courage is the most important virtue because without courage we are are unable to practice any of the other virtues. Courage has been in notably short supply in Western countries in recent months as people have allowed petty bureaucrats to turn them into sheep who obediently quiver in place and refuse to be seen out-of-doors without a mask.Read more here.
Hooligans and anarchists, seizing on the spurious excuse of the death of a black man in police custody, have rampaged across the country destroying property, attacking the police, and terrorizing ordinary citizens.
A statue of Teddy Roosevelt or Abraham Lincoln has nothing to do with the death of the unfortunate George Floyd, neither, for that matter, do statues of Robert E. Lee or Andrew Jackson.
Sunday, June 28, 2020
Courage gone missing
In the Epoch Times, Roger Kimball writes,
Superb interview!
SECOND TERM @POTUS will "finish what he started" Bring supply chains and jobs home. End ENDLESS WARS. Build that beautiful wall. Lead the SpaceX ECONOMIC revolution to a country to busy to hate. stand up/stop Chinese Communist Party's SEVEN DEADLY SINS.https://t.co/ddEgRl7O7N
— Peter Navarro (@PeterNavarro45) June 28, 2020
Iranian "earthquake"
In the Daily Wire, Emily Zanotti reports,
An “earthquake” that rocked northeastern Iran late last week may have been a blast from a suspected nuclear silo, experts tell the Associated Press and is likely associated with a “fireball” that could be seen over the country’s capital city, Tehran.Read more here.
“n explosion that rattled Iran’s capital came from an area in its eastern mountains that analysts believe hides an underground tunnel system and missile production sites, satellite photographs showed Saturday,” the AP reported Sunday, adding that the blast’s location is suspiciously close to where Iran has tested powerful nuclear weapons triggers before.
The blast is the second concerning, potentially nuclear event in as many days. On Saturday, Russia denied that one of its nuclear power stations was suffering a meltdown, despite Swedish authorities saying they detected a rise in at least three different types of radioactive emissions, Financial Times reports.
"Woke generally eats woke!"
In the Ace of Spades blog, Oregon Muse writes about
how much of the prog-left worldview is based on crap books.
...My only consolation is that woke generally eats woke, so I hope I live to see the day when DiAngelo's book is consigned to the flames for being insufficiently woke.
Saturday, June 27, 2020
Prominent tweets June 27, 2020
George Papadopoulos tweeted,
Jason Howerton tweeted,
Andy Ngo tweeted,
Marjorie Taylor Greene tweeted,
Kayleigh McEnany tweeted,
Joseph Mifsud’s phones are in the hands of the DOJ. There is a kill shot coming for Comey/Brennan’s counter-intel trap and Mueller’s attempt to clean it up. It’s coming. Italy is cooperating.
Jason Howerton tweeted,
How much do y'all wanna bet the media starts subtly pushing for canceling the presidential debates for the "safety" of the candidates?
Putting Biden on the stage is a massive liability and they know it.
Andy Ngo tweeted,
Antifa rioters in north Portland are throwing things into their street fire to make it grow bigger. @PortlandPolice stand back and watch from a distance. Rioters have a huge banner that reads, “Every city, every town, burn the precinct to the ground.”
Marjorie Taylor Greene tweeted,
Due to the rise in COVID cases, we ask that “protesters” work from home and destroy their own property.
Kayleigh McEnany tweeted,
President
@realDonaldTrump
is prosecuting individuals tearing down our statues to the fullest extent of the law!
“Four Men Charged in Federal Court for Attempting to Tear Down Statue of Andrew Jackson in Lafayette Square Amid Protests”
The vandals are even in Salt Lake City!
Why are these vandals all white kids with $2k bikes? https://t.co/HIQnlHduHl
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) June 28, 2020
The left comes after Andy Ngo
Those who feel threatened by my work are repeating the same falsehoods from last year. It’s the same playbook with the same bad actors. They failed to bring me down before & will fail again. pic.twitter.com/TVewaxQqad
— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) June 28, 2020
Unexpected!
Not saying it's right
— Jim Hanson (@JimHansonDC) June 27, 2020
But I understand https://t.co/9fVKKlkEgO
"As soon as statues are pulled down, the pigeons turn toward the nearest available target: angry rioters."
From the satirical Babylon Bee:
U.S.—With more and more statues across the country being pulled down, pigeons are being forced to redirect their payloads to different targets.
As soon as statues are pulled down, the pigeons turn toward the nearest available target: angry rioters.
"Yes! Down with racism--AHHHHH!!!!" screamed one rioter just after pulling down a statue of Christopher Columbus. The pigeons immediately turned on him, with a squadron of the birds divebombing him to unload hundreds of pounds worth of excrement. "Run!!!"
Rioters frantically tried to put the statues back up as they were attacked by the feral flocks. "Put Christopher back! Quick!" cried one Antifa group as they were swarmed by a whole fleet of pigeon bombers. But try as they might, their weak liberal arms could not lift the statue and they were forced to flee the scene.
So which is it?
Vivek Saxena writes in BizPacReview,
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci better pray he never meets this guy.Read more here.
This week Los Angeles-based conservative radio talk show host John Ziegler chewed out the Ventura County Board of Supervisors for being as full of bullschiff as Fauci.
He specifically slammed them for believing every claim by Ventura County Public Health Officer Dr. Robert Levin, a man who’s been as wrong about everything as Fauci.
“After waiting for two hours and now getting two minutes, I’ll get right to the point,” Ziegler’s rant began. “This board is pretending that for the last three months, your emperor, Dr. Levin, has not been against a mask declaration. Now all of a sudden we’re pretending that masks are everything, even forcing speakers to use masks.”
Last week the city voted to mandate that masks be worn “inside businesses and government offices, on public transit and in most indoor venues that are open to the public,” according to the Los Angeles Times.
This despite Dr. Levin having refused — just like Fauci — in times past to mandate masks in the county.
“With no mask order here in Ventura County, we’ve done a really good job of flattening the curve,” he reportedly said in late April. “That’s not to say people aren’t wearing masks and electing to do that on their own, but there’s no order.”
So which is it?
Democrats' "pure race politics at its worst!"
In USA Today, Glenn Reynolds has written an opinion piece asking and answering the question, Do Black lives matter to Democrats?
Do Black lives matter to Democrats? As Tim Alberta recently reported, a lot of Black voters think the answer is no. That may explain why the Democrats are blocking the GOP justice reform bill in the Senate: With Black voters already discouraged, Democrats don’t want them to get the idea that Republicans may have something to offer.
Alberta’s reporting, in Politico, is striking. At the invitation of a local African-American politico, he spent an afternoon with a bunch of middle-class Black voters outside Detroit. He found they were disappointed in the Democrats, thought nothing much had changed for them during the Obama presidency, and expected Trump to win even though they planned to vote for Biden themselves.
As a woman named Ursura Moore observed: “Some people thought just because we had a Black president, he was going to make things better for Black people — he was going to free Black prisoners, wipe out Black debt. That was just ignorance. But the disappointment some of us felt with Obama — more so with the Democratic Party —that was real. And it hasn’t gone away. So, people start to wonder whether the outcome even matters. They wonder whether they should bother voting at all.”
Eric Benjamin commented: “Biden’s a politician, same as the rest of them, same as Trump. But at least with Trump you know where he stands,” he said. “If we were sitting here, me and you, and you’re pretending we’re friends, but then behind my back, you act like you don’t even know me, that’s the worst. I’d much rather you just tell me to my face that we’re not friends. That’s Trump. I respect that. The Democrats always be acting like we’re friends.”
And, most damningly, Sherry Gay-Dagnogo said: “We’re always the f------ help! And I’m tired of being the help!” she cried. “Don’t wait until it’s an election year, until you’re in trouble, to come to us and ask for help saving your a--. They always say it will be different after the next election. But it never is. And we’re sick of it.”
Even activists like Shaun King are noticing that “systemic racism” seems to happen mostly in Democratic-controlled cities and states: “Democrats, from top to bottom, are running the cities with the worst police brutality in America right now. We voted for them.”
So now comes President Donald Trump — who’s already successfully pushed a criminal-justice reform package, the First Step Act, with Kim Kardashian and Kanye West, and already issued an executive order limiting police chokeholds and other abusive behavior that won praise even from Van Jones — and the Democrats are terrified that he might deliver a major reform bill in Congress before the election, and they can’t have that. Better that nothing should happen than that Black voters might see Trump as performing where the Democrats — even when they controlled the White House and had a supermajority in Congress — never did.
In the words of Black Republican Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina: "They cannot allow this party to be seen as a party that reaches out to all communities in this nation.”
So Scott’s bill can’t pass. The bill would make lynching a federal crime. It would also place stringent reporting requirements on so-called “no-knock” raids, and tie federal grants to the elimination of police chokeholds like the one that killed George Floyd. It would also use grants to encourage the use of police bodycams.
As Washington Post columnist Mark Thiessen put it, If Democrats cared about police reform, they would have advanced Tim Scott’s bill. He called the Democrats’ move “shameful,” and observed: “If Democrats cared about getting something done, they would have allowed the Senate to move forward and sought to amend Scott’s bill on the floor. There was plenty of basis for compromise. Scott’s legislation had already incorporated a number of Democratic proposals.” Yeah, it could do more — I’d favor an end to “qualified immunity” from lawsuits for police officers and other government officials, but I very much doubt that would command a majority, even among Democrats. And the Democrats’ motives are not pure. As Scott notes, they're ”pure race politics at its worst.”
And there’s more. Not only did the Democrats block debate on the bill, but Scott has been subjected to racial slurs — Sen. Dick Durbin used the word ”token” to describe Scott’s bill, a racial code word that Scott called out. And Democrat-supporting callers to Scott's office are subjecting him to racial slurs and threats and calling him a “sellout.” That for pushing a revolutionary piece of reform legislation.
So do Black lives matter to Democrats? Not if there are votes at stake, apparently. Bear that in mind between now and November.
Friday, June 26, 2020
The Supreme Court's redefining of sex
I have been struggling to understand why there has been such a negative reaction by conservatives to Gorsuch's recent Bostock decision. I understood the issue of Supreme Court legislating. Now Amy Contrada, writing in American Thinker, provides an articulation of the issues of concern.
On June 15, the Supreme Court issued its Bostock opinion redefining "sex" in discrimination law. Beyond the word's common biological meaning – linked to an innate and unchangeable characteristic – the Court says "sex" can now be used to protect homosexual behaviors and transgender delusions. By acknowledging "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" as valid concepts (while leaving them essentially undefined), the Court has embraced sexual-radical dogma.Read the whole thing here.
What will be the consequences?
"Democratic governors immediately used the pandemic to punish people who didn't vote for them. Christian churches and small businesses were locked down. Weed shops and abortion clinics stayed open!"
Then came the George Floyd riots. Who did the mobs choose to go after? Local police departments, but not the FBI.
The mob burned independent local businesses to the ground, but they didn't say a word about destroying those businesses' global competitors, Google, Facebook and Amazon. All of those companies were funding the destruction!
Then came the George Floyd riots. Who did the mobs choose to go after? Local police departments, but not the FBI.
The mob burned independent local businesses to the ground, but they didn't say a word about destroying those businesses' global competitors, Google, Facebook and Amazon. All of those companies were funding the destruction!
Does Trump lack the discipline and self-awareness to explicitly state initiatives he wants to tackle in a potential second term in the White House?
In the Daily Caller, Christian Datoc reports,
The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board issued a scathing critique of President Donald Trump on Thursday evening for failing to explicitly state initiatives he wants to tackle in a potential second term in the White House.Read more here.
“As of now Mr. Trump has no second-term agenda, or even a message beyond four more years of himself,” the board writes. “His recent events in Tulsa and Arizona were dominated by personal grievances. He resorted to his familiar themes from 2016 like reducing immigration and denouncing the press, but he offered nothing for those who aren’t already persuaded.”
The editorial says that “Mr. Trump’s advisers have an agenda that would speak to opportunity for Americans of all races—school choice for K-12, vocational education as an alternative to college, expanded health-care choice, building on the opportunity zones in tax reform, and more.”
Still, The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board suggests that “Mr. Trump lacks the self-awareness and discipline to make this case.”
“If that’s true he should understand that he is headed for a defeat that will reward all of those who schemed against him in 2016,” the board concludes. “Worse, he will have let down the 63 million Americans who sent him to the White House by losing, of all people, to ‘Sleepy Joe.'”
Interpreter
From the satirical Babylon Bee:
U.S.—The Biden campaign is facing a real communication problem as Joe Biden's speeches are growing more and more nonsensical. In order to overcome this challenge, aides have hired an interpreter to translate everything he says into normal, human-style English.
"My fellow Americans, pickle hamster meatloaf. The thing. Potato!" Biden began.
"My fellow Americans, thank you for being here this evening," the interpreter translated.
Biden continued: "This pandemic has cost us more than 85,000 jobs as of today. Lives of millions of people. Millions of people. Millions of jobs." He then nodded at the translator to interpret that into something resembling plain English.
"Uh... the, uh, pandemic has cost us tens of millions of jobs, and 85,000 have tragically lost their lives," she interpreted frantically.
But she struggled to keep up as his speech got less and less coherent.
"Peanut butter M&Ms and my fellow U.S. Americans in the Iraq. Platypus!" was translated as "We must make sure Donald Trump does not continue to rob America of its future," while "Farley farley farley farley farley hufaaaaaaaar!" was translated as "I am the best choice to beat Donald Trump."
As Biden's speech concluded, he said farewell: "Ekki-Ekki-Ekki-Ekki-PTANG. Zoom-Boing. Z' nourrwringmm!"
"God bless you, and God bless America."
Schumer and Pelosi refer to George Floyd as Floyd Taylor, George Taylor, and George Kirby!
.@SpeakerPelosi & @chuckschumer, you are doing such an honorable job of honoring Floyd Taylor, I mean, George Taylor, um I mean, George Kirby...... pic.twitter.com/14ilSGrrtH
— Jason Howerton (@jason_howerton) June 26, 2020
Untouchables
In American Greatness, Julie Kelly writes in part,
...Barack Obama still calls the shots and pulls the strings while his goombahs in the news media, federal government, and Democratic Party carry out his orders.Read more here.
“If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun,” Obama said in 2008, cribbing Connery’s line, during his first campaign for president. It was a warning that the Chicago-machine raised politician would use any weapon at his disposal to defeat his foes—which is exactly what he did.
And it’s the reason why to this day, Obama and his consigliere, Joe Biden, escape any culpability for the biggest shakedown in U.S. political history—the attempted hit on Donald Trump. After getting away with what would have been presidency-ending scandals for anyone else—illegal gun-running in Mexico, intimidating Tea Party activists with the IRS, shipping billions to Iranian mullahs, and lying about a terrorist attack to avoid losing re-election—Obama and Biden knew they could pull off one more caper. But this time, Obama’s lackeys didn’t just ignore or excuse his bad behavior, they were in on it. Now they are trying to hide the evidence.
...Obama is feared, not loved; no one dares to cross him. That approach, to borrow another line from “The Untouchables,” is the Chicago Way. Given current political and cultural realities, however, it is unlikely that Obama’s day of reckoning will ever arrive as Capone’s did.
Thursday, June 25, 2020
Steven Green tries to understand what Biden is saying to Obama
In PJ Media, Steven Green plays a recent video of Biden talking to Obama. Steve writes,
If you’ve ever experienced the sheer awfulness of watching a friend or family member suffer any kind of dementia, then you know the drill. They have many things to say, often all at once. It’s your unpleasant duty to maintain a pleasant disposition while trying to pluck a coherent thought out of the jumble so you’ll have something, anything you can reply to.Watch the videos and read more here.
"We won’t cure what is wrong with society by further empowering those who have sickened it at the expense of our own liberty."
Kurt Schlichter writes in part in Town Hall,
...The politicians we support should be aggressively pushing regulation and legislation to protect our rights. “BUT CONSERVATIVES ARE SUPPOSED TO HATE REGULATION!” Yeah, maybe, but we definitely hate being oppressed. After all, any principle that is construed in a manner that makes us second-class citizens, unable to speak without the threat of retaliation, is not a principle worth having.Read more here.
...As I have pointed out before, there are three scenarios in descending order of preferability.
Option 1: We all live freely and say what we wish and no one gets canceled.
Option 2: Conservatives get canceled, but liberals get canceled too.
Option 3: Conservatives get canceled, but liberals never get canceled.
My preference is Option 1, everyone says whatever they want and no one gets canceled. This seems like the best arrangement, and until recently it seemed to be the one that we had adopted as a society. If we can’t have Option 1, then we will take Option 2, mutually assured destruction. But Option 3, liberals do whatever they want and we get gagged, is a non-starter. They do not get to win.
Principles are nice things to have. They are a marker of a healthy society. But today our society is not healthy, and we are not morally obligated to pretend that it is by observing to our own detriment norms and rules that are not universally applicable. And we won’t cure what is wrong with society by further empowering those who have sickened it at the expense of our own liberty.
My principle is freedom, and any principle that doesn’t make me freer is not a principle worth having.
"Why is it only the criminals and terrorists who get their voices heard in Washington? "
In Conservative Review, Daniel Horowitz has some suggestions worth reading.
Funding for states that prosecute violent criminals: Rather than threatening states with a carrot and stick through federal grants to make police more like social workers, how about dangling funding to states that work on prosecuting violent criminals? There is an epidemic of repeat violent offenders who continuously violate probation and are out to murder and harm people. Congress needs to condition grant funds to states meeting benchmarks in prosecuting repeat offenders and probation violators. While there has been swift justice for George Floyd, there is no justice for people like 3-year-old Mekhi James, who was killed in a drive-by shooting in Chicago this past weekend in one of over 100 shootings. Chicago has gone beyond soft on gun felons and probation violators, and now the police are standing back and taking a hands-off approach to violent criminals. Do Republicans want their federal legislation focused on incentivizing more of these shootings or disincentivizing them?Read more here.
Defund states that are sanctuaries for criminal aliens and anarchists: Defund sanctuary cities and states. These are the same jurisdictions that are allowing rioters and anarchists to take over city streets. Ignoring federal law was the first step toward today’s breakdown of order. It’s time to condition any law enforcement grants, including existing programs, on cooperation with federal law. Also, Congress should focus on the forgotten victims of illegal aliens by allowing citizens to sue sanctuary officials who release criminal aliens. Congress should also create a fund for victims of illegal aliens out of the money saved from denying grant programs to sanctuaries.
Increase funding for court systems to expedite cases: The governing elites have made it clear that they will not spend another penny on enforcement and convictions. As the population grows and they throw endless funding at public education or other poplar services to keep up with the growth, a decision has been made in most states to stop building more prisons and jails and not to add funding to the court system. Doing so conveniently provides them with the talking point that prisons are overcrowded and that trials are backlogged for too long, so it’s unfair to hold people in jail either. As such, there is an epidemic of career criminals out on bond (or with no bond) who await their trial for years and commit heinous crimes intermittently and are often still not locked up. Congress should grant more funding for state court systems to expedite court cases so that the guilty will be taken off the streets.
Tough
Toughen mandatory minimums for gun felons: Felons possessing firearms is a federal crime. The courts gutted the mandatory minimums in the 2005 Booker decision. They need to be reinstated and strengthened. This will box the Left in on the issue of gun control.
A real anti-lynching bill: Republicans included in their bill an anti-lynching provision that would set the mandatory maximum sentence (not minimum) for lynching at 10 years. First, the crime must be premediated. Also, it actually lowballs the punishment for any murder, much less a horrific murder. A 10-year maximum is nothing. We have all seen horrific attacks posted on the internet in recent weeks, with entire mobs beating individuals severely. We need mandatory minimums against any serious bodily injury that results from one of these pack attacks on individuals, regardless of their race or whether it was premeditated.
Anti–gang bill: Gang violence is the elephant in the room when it comes to violent crime and is responsible for thousands of black homicides in inner cities every year. According to the FBI, “Criminal gangs commit as much as 80 percent of crimes in many communities.” We need a backstop of a federal anti-gang statute that provides federal prosecutors with a tool to prosecute someone who commits a violent crime in furtherance of gang activity. This will open an avenue for the feds to take all of the most dangerous career criminals off the streets when states let them off with a slap on the wrist.
Close court loopholes letting off violent criminals: The Armed Career Criminal Act was one of Reagan’s great legacies, which led to a generation-long decline in crime. Four years ago, in Johnson v. U.S, the Supreme Court ruled that the “crime of violence” provision in the ACCA is unconstitutionally vague. That has allowed thousands of the worst career gun felons and other violent individuals to get out of jail early or escape reasonable sentencing to begin with. Just this year, in v. Davis, Justice Gorsuch joined with the four liberals in expanding the assault on the ACCA, this time by saying that 924(c)(3), the statute that prohibits using or carrying a firearm during a federal “crime of violence,” is unconstitutional and therefore vetoed out of existence. It is simply astounding that the GOP-controlled Senate has not tried to fix this law, especially in light of Democrats supporting gun control. Now, armed robbers pointing short-barreled shotguns at store clerks avoid tougher sentencing at the same time liberals claim they want to “do something!” about gun violence.
Federalize the National Guard to protect interstates and property: When states fail to protect citizens, public monuments, and roadways, it is the responsibility of the federal government to step in. Trump should call the National Guard into federal service under Title 10 to protect people on interstates being blocked, monuments from being destroyed, and entire swaths of public areas from being violently occupied. Trump promised, “There will never be an ‘Autonomous Zone’ in Washington, D.C., as long as I’m your President.” But he is not the mayor of D.C.; he is the president of the United States. He must use 10 U.S.C. 253 to put down any occupied insurrection anywhere, including in places like Seattle.
Prosecute ANTIFA/BLM violent organizers and financers under anti-terrorism statutes: 18 U.S. Code 2339A provides for federal prosecution of those who provide material support to terrorists — foreign or domestic. Subsection C provides for prosecution against those who finance terrorists. 18 U.S. Code § 2384 makes it a crime under seditious conspiracy to “prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States, or by force to seize, take, or possess any property of the United States contrary to the authority thereof.” This applies to many of the rioters, especially on federal lands. It’s time to ratchet up those prosecutions and direct all intelligence agencies to work on identifying those behind the violent insurrection.
Reimburse business owners for property damage: The media is not reporting on the extent of the damage done by the rioting. Black business owners have been disproportionately harmed. Republicans should focus on law-abiding citizens rather than the looters by offering to reimburse those businesses damaged by the riots, with the exception of any businesses that donated to the organizers of these riots.
Wednesday, June 24, 2020
Some quotes and tweets June 24-2020
Elizabeth Harrington tweeted,
Ed Driscoll wrote in Instapundit,
Kevin McCarthy tweeted,
Marsha Blackburn tweeted,
The former president and vice president of the United States were just implicated in a plot to sabotage and overthrow their successors
Seems newsworthy
Ed Driscoll wrote in Instapundit,
Every Republican president is Hitler, until he leaves office, and then he is magically rehabilitated by the DNC-MSM as a distinguished and wise statesman to bash the current Hitler.
Kevin McCarthy tweeted,
The President tweets that people should stop breaking the law and Twitter moves to censor him.
The left is uncomfortable that in a vibrant democracy, citizens have a right to hear directly from their President and decide for themselves what to think about it.
Marsha Blackburn tweeted,
Handwritten notes from a top FBI official show that Barack Obama and Joe Biden used the FBI to target Michael Flynn.
They devised it, managed it, and oversaw it.
Because of Governor Cuomo...
The Daily Caller has a lengthy report about criminals in New York benefiting from bail reform.
...The Empire state under the direction of Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo approved sweeping bail reforms across the state in April 2019. These rules, which took effect in January, forbade judges from imposing bail on anyone not arrested for a violent felony — a broad list of over 90% of criminals walked out of a jail cell shortly after being booked, according to City and State New York.Read about some of the criminals and their crimes here.
Reasonable measures to lower police officers' use of force
On June 10, Heather MacDonald of City Journal spoke to the House Judiciary Committee.
...No police critic has ever suggested a benchmark for evaluating the number of officer use-of-force incidents. Ideally, officers would take no one’s life in the course of their duties. But in light of the number of arrests that officers make each year—around 11 million—and the number of deadly weapons attacks on officers—27 a day in just two-thirds of the nation’s police departments—it is not clear that 1,000 civilian deaths, the vast majority occurring in the face of a potentially deadly attack, show a law enforcement profession that is out of control.Read more here.
...What about unarmed victims of fatal police shootings? As of June 1, the Washington Post’s data base of fatal police shootings showed nine unarmed black victims and 19 unarmed white victims of fatal police shootings in 2019. That number of black unarmed victims is down 76 percent from 2015, when the Post began keeping its data base. The Post defines “unarmed” loosely to include suspects who have grabbed an officer’s gun or who are fleeing from a car stop with a loaded semi-automatic pistol in their vehicle. Those nine allegedly unarmed black victims represent 0.1 percent of all black homicide victims, which number about 7,500 a year—more than all white and Hispanic homicide victims combined.
...Nevertheless, there are reasonable measures to further lower officer use of force—above all, more hands-on tactical training, practice in de-escalation, and techniques to control stress. Federal support should go to such practical training, not to implicit bias sessions, which are an insult to officers’ intelligence and street knowledge. Nor should police hiring be based on race. A 2015 Justice Department analysis of the Philadelphia Police Department found that white police officers were less likely than black or Hispanic officers to shoot unarmed black suspects. Existing efforts to boost minority hiring in many departments have already resulted in the elimination of a clean criminal record requirement and in lowered standards for reading comprehension and writing. These changes risk increasing disciplinary problems, rather than reducing them.
...There are bad cops of all races who must be removed. But the overwhelming majority of officers are motivated by a desire to help the most vulnerable among us. Though many officers work under unimaginable conditions, encountering the worst consequences of pervasive family breakdown, they continue to believe fervently in the good people who support them. If this mania of cop hatred is not quelled, those good people will suffer further and the nation’s cities will become places of fear and decay.
Third CHOP shooting in four days
Nicholas Fondacaro reports in Newsbusters,
The west was wild again. With the so-called “Capital Hill Occupy Protest” (CHOP) being the source of numerous accounts of arson, assaults, burglaries, property destruction, a rape, and three shootings, it’s no wonder that Seattle’s mayor, Jenny Durkan (D) had finally had enough of the “summer of love” and vowed to dismantle the “autonomous zone.” But all of that went unnoticed by ABC, CBS, and NBC on Tuesday, even though the latest shooting occurred before their morning shows went to air.View video and read more here.
"Why the silence?"
Dennis Prager writes in American Greatness,
So, why the silence? Why aren’t all rabbis, priests and pastors telling their congregations and telling America—in tweets, on Facebook, in letters to the editor, on television and radio, in opinion pieces—that there is one race, the human race, and that the only antidote to racism is to deny that race determines our worth, not to affirm its significance?Read more here.
...So, how are we to explain this tragic failure of religious Jews and Christians—and their clergy—to speak up against looting (aka stealing) and for freedom, for America, for Western civilization and for being colorblind?
The answer to this question also goes to the core of what it means to be religious. At the center of our two religions is the notion of fear of God: “Fear God, and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man” (Ecclesiastes 12:13). But what is now apparent is that most Jews and Christians fear the left, fear The New York Times, fear being shunned by “friends” on Facebook and mobbed on Twitter more than they fear God.
That’s what this moment comes down to. Jews and Christians who fail this test will not only lose their freedom, lose the great American hope for mankind and lose the West; they will have also lost their souls.
Who is the angriest?
In the Daily Caller, Victor Davis Hanson writes in part,
...The people’s energy, tranquilized by a two-month national quarantine and terror of the coronavirus, has suddenly exploded in both massive protests and silent seething at the lawlessness.Read more here.
...The angry and the demonstrating are loud and visible; their opponents are angry and quiet.
The election will reveal not just who is more numerous — but sadly also who is the angriest.
Quotes and tweets 6-24-20
Lori Hendry tweeted,
President Trump tweeted,
Trump also tweeted,
Ace of Spades headline 6-24-20:
John Adams wrote,
Jim Jordan tweeted,
Racism was almost dead before Obama.
President Trump tweeted,
I have authorized the Federal Government to arrest anyone who vandalizes or destroys any monument, statue or other such Federal property in the U.S. with up to 10 years in prison, per the Veteran’s Memorial Preservation Act, or such other laws that may be pertinent.....
Trump also tweeted,
There will never be an “Autonomous Zone” in Washington, D.C., as long as I’m your President. If they try they will be met with serious force!
Ace of Spades headline 6-24-20:
DC Circuit Court of Appeals Rules in Favor of Flynn, Directing Rogue #Resistance Judge Sullivan to Grant the Government's Motion to Dismss the Charges
John Adams wrote,
"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."
Jim Jordan tweeted,
May 2020: Joe Biden says he knows “nothing” about the Flynn investigation.
June 2020: Peter Strzok’s notes reveal it was BIDEN’s idea to invoke the Logan Act against Flynn.
Biden lied!
The courage to be sane
Human beings are very keyed into the moment. These moments of madness we are experiencing will pass. The economy is starting to look good. The Chinese flu seems to be losing some of its mojo as we come out of lockdown. What the press cares about is defeating Donald Trump. Trump seems to be coming around to the reality that he has got to talk to the people. When he tells the truth there is nothing the media can do to stop people from hearing it. Twenty million people watched his Tulsa speech.
Biden is a dishonest person. Trump has been slack. Andrew Jackson was the founder of the Democratic Party. Why should we have this conversation with Marxists?
Jesus may come back a little faster than Shaun King can imagine. King is the guy who wants to tear down all statues of Jesus.
When the madness clears, people will start asking what happened. Don't sign on to cancel culture. This madness is induced psychopathology! When the madness passes we will remember who said what. Who stood up for whom. Klavan praises Matt Gaetz, Tom Cotton, Kayleigh McEnenany and others who have stood up during this mayhem. I would include Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens.
You want to talk with Andrew Klavan? You have to "love freedom, love democracy, love America, love republicanism, then we can talk."
Biden is a dishonest person. Trump has been slack. Andrew Jackson was the founder of the Democratic Party. Why should we have this conversation with Marxists?
Jesus may come back a little faster than Shaun King can imagine. King is the guy who wants to tear down all statues of Jesus.
When the madness clears, people will start asking what happened. Don't sign on to cancel culture. This madness is induced psychopathology! When the madness passes we will remember who said what. Who stood up for whom. Klavan praises Matt Gaetz, Tom Cotton, Kayleigh McEnenany and others who have stood up during this mayhem. I would include Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens.
You want to talk with Andrew Klavan? You have to "love freedom, love democracy, love America, love republicanism, then we can talk."
More bad news for the Obama gang
In the Federalist, Mollie Hemingway and Sean Davis report,
Newly released notes confirm President Barack Obama’s key role in surveillance and leak operation against Michael Flynn, the incoming Trump administration national security adviser. The handwritten notes, which were first disclosed in a federal court filing made by the Department of Justice on Tuesday, show President Obama himself personally directed former FBI Director James Comey and former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates to investigate Flynn for having routine phone calls with a Russian counterpart. He also suggests they withhold information from President Trump and his key national security figures.Read more here.
...Following an appeal by Flynn, the top federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday ordered the judge to dismiss all charges against Flynn. That court also vacated his appointment of a shadow prosecutor to target Flynn.
A warning
Why you should care about statues coming down. Sound advice from a Venezuelan who lived through a socialist revolution. pic.twitter.com/GCTgIcrryd
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) June 23, 2020
Tuesday, June 23, 2020
"These are not protests. This is a totalitarian political movement and someone needs to save the country from it!"
I, for one, would vote for Tucker Carlson in a heartbeat!
"Big tech poked the bear, and has now learned just how big his claw is."
Don Surber writes in his blog,
All I know about bears is you don't poke them.Read more here.
That puts me ahead of Jack Dorsey and Zuckerberg. They run Twitter and Facebook, respectively, and they have been poking at Donald John Trump throughout his presidency.
Monday, he didn't poke them back. He sucker-punched them in the gut.
The New York Times reported, "President Trump on Monday temporarily suspended new work visas and barred hundreds of thousands of foreigners from seeking employment in the United States, part of a broad effort to limit the entry of immigrants into the country.
"In a sweeping order, which will be in place at least until the end of the year, Mr. Trump blocked visas for a wide variety of jobs, including those for computer programmers and other skilled workers who enter the country under the H-1B visa, as well as those for seasonal workers in the hospitality industry, students on work-study summer programs and au pairs who arrive under other auspices."
A Turning Point!
Trump introduces two North Carolina State students. The first one talks about the lack of support for conservative students at North Carolina State and other colleges. Trump responds and suggests defunding the university. He goes on to praise them for their toughness, honor, and dignity.
Then he brings forward a young woman graduate from Northwestern State University in Louisiana who was fired from her job after standing up for Christianity. Trump praises her for not submitting to the left.
Then he brings forth a young black woman from Minnesota who tells about her college's discrimination against conservative students. She tells the truth about #Black Lives Matter. She praises Trump for not pandering but achieving real results. He tells her and the audience that he appreciates their spirit.
I was glad to see him speak to this audience of young patriots.
Links found here.
Then he brings forward a young woman graduate from Northwestern State University in Louisiana who was fired from her job after standing up for Christianity. Trump praises her for not submitting to the left.
Then he brings forth a young black woman from Minnesota who tells about her college's discrimination against conservative students. She tells the truth about #Black Lives Matter. She praises Trump for not pandering but achieving real results. He tells her and the audience that he appreciates their spirit.
I was glad to see him speak to this audience of young patriots.
Links found here.
Trump speech to young people at the Turning Point Action Convention in Arizona
President Trump is live right now speaking to young people at the Turning Point Action Convention in Phoenix, AZ. Very enthusiastic and responsive crowd. Louder than the one in Tulsa. Link available here.
Textualism versus originalism
Many conservatives are upset with a recent Supreme Court ruling authored by Neil Gorsuch. In American Thinker, Selwyn Duke explains,
The only part of this controversy that I understand is that the Gorsuch side was legislating, which is what Congress is supposed to be doing.
...Now, the contrast between textual tomfoolery and sound judicial theory can be illustrated with a simple analogy: 10-year-old twins Timmy and Oliver and five-year-old Malcolm are siblings. One day mom hears Malcolm crying wretchedly, investigates, and learns that the two older boys had been punching him.Read more here.
After scolding the twins, the mother warns, “Now, stop hitting Malcolm! If you hit him again and I come in here and find him bawling, you’re gonna’ be in big trouble!”
Yet an hour later Malcolm is crying his eyes out, again. The mother learns that Oliver understood not to hurt his kid brother and that Timmy is the culprit. Instead of being contrite, however, Timmy says, “Mommy, you said not to hit Malcolm; you didn’t say anything about not choking him and twisting his arm…and that’s all I did!”
Then too-clever-by-half Timmy adds, “The limits of your imagination, mommy, are no reason to ignore your rule’s demands. Only what you said matters — and I’m entitled to the rule’s benefits!”
In the above analogy, Oliver is the originalist, understanding and accepting his mother’s command’s spirit. Timmy is the textualist, doing things not expressly forbidden by her rule’s language even while knowing it contravenes her intent.
The problem with this “philosophy” is that insofar as you don’t consider what was intended, you increase the chances of experiencing the unintended. Gorsuch’s approach is every bit as maddening as Timmy’s (because it’s the same), as it places an unrealistic burden on legislators. If their laws are to meet Gorsuch’s textualist standard for being applied as intended, the legislators must have godlike capabilities: They must see into the future so they can craft language covering every social innovation, bizarre fashion or collective insanity that may eventually, one day, manifest itself.
So, it’s bad enough we have the “law of unintended consequences.” Now we have textualists turning the law of unintended consequences into a legal philosophy and legislating it from the bench.
The only part of this controversy that I understand is that the Gorsuch side was legislating, which is what Congress is supposed to be doing.
Legacy Conservatism: Surrender Cons
In American Greatness, Julie Kelly writes harsh criticism of establishment conservatives at National Review, the Heritage Foundation, and the American Enterprise Institute. She refers to them as Surrender Conservatives.
...Surrender Cons will do what they always do: Pretend a debate about Confederate statues is actually about Confederate statues and not about the inexorable destruction of our country’s history that eventually leads straight to the Founders and the Constitution. Placate the Left with meaningless canards about race and social justice that feed the flames of racial division the Left has been seeking to stoke in order to burn down the country. Bend the rhetorical knee before Black Lives Matter for fear of being called a racist while hanging your own supporters out to dry. Assign weakness to Donald Trump rather than own up to their own failures.Read more here.
...if legacy conservatism had its own statue, it would be one big slippery slope curving left and capped with a white flag.
The careerists in the establishment Right can surrender if they want; that’s their prerogative. Just don’t expect the rest of us to join in bending the knee.
Monday, June 22, 2020
June 22 tweets and quotes
Ace of Spades headlined,
President Trump tweeted,
Mark Levin wrote,
Roger L. Simon wrote,
Benny tweeted,
San Francisco Allows Antifa and BLM Rioters to Topple Statue of President Ulysses S. Grant, Who Won the War Against the Confederacy
President Trump tweeted,
RIGGED 2020 ELECTION: MILLIONS OF MAIL-IN BALLOTS WILL BE PRINTED BY FOREIGN COUNTRIES, AND OTHERS. IT WILL BE THE SCANDAL OF OUR TIMES!
Mark Levin wrote,
It turns out that Bolton is a self-aggrandizing, narcissistic fraud who turned on his country for a big payday. Not surprisingly, the Democrat Party-press promote him as it promoted Stormy Daniels, Michael Avenatti, Michael Cohen, Russia Collusion, and all the rest.
Roger L. Simon wrote,
Black Lives Don’t Matter to Black Lives Matter
Benny tweeted,
Chicago this weekend:
103 shot
14 dead including a 3-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl.
https://chicago.suntimes.com/crime/2020/6/20/21297470/chicago-fathers-day-weekend-shootings-homicide-gun-violence-june-19-22
How the bribes lobbying funds work
Sundance writes in part in the Conservative Treehouse,
...There is increased speculation, based on a pattern in other international activities and U.S. participants, the Iranian deal included return payments to U.S. officials for the release of billions in funds and the loosening of sanctions. It is possible the return payments to the Obama team held a timing mechanism and the payments were stopped after President Trump withdrew from the deal and re-instituted sanctions. Thus the severity of opposition from western politicians who were scheduled to remain wealthy via Iran.Read more here.
U.S. senators write foreign aid policy, rules and regulations thereby creating the financing mechanisms to transmit U.S. funds. Those same senators then received a portion of the laundered funds back through their various “institutes” and business connections to the foreign government offices. Example Ukraine [Burisma to Biden]
"The looters are not grieving over the stomach-churning arrest and death of George Floyd; they are having the time of their lives."
Heather MacDonald wrote in part in City Journal,
Savagery is spreading with lightning speed across the United States, with murderous assaults on police officers and civilians and the ecstatic annihilation of businesses and symbols of the state. Welcome to a real civilization-destroying pandemic, one that makes the recent saccharine exhortations to “stay safe” and the deployment of police officers to enforce outdoor mask-wearing seem like decadent bagatelles.Read more here.
...Facts don’t matter to the academic victimology narrative. Far from destroying the black body, whites are the overwhelming target of interracial violence. Between 2012 and 2015, blacks committed 85.5 percent of all black-white interracial violent victimizations (excluding interracial homicide, which is also disproportionately black-on-white). That works out to 540,360 felonious assaults on whites. Whites committed 14.4 percent of all interracial violent victimization, or 91,470 felonious assaults on blacks. Blacks are less than 13 percent of the national population.
...Once the violence began, any effort to “understand” it should have stopped, since that understanding is inevitably exculpatory. The looters are not grieving over the stomach-churning arrest and death of George Floyd; they are having the time of their lives. You don’t protest or mourn a victim by stealing oxycontin, electronics, jewelry, and sneakers.
...It was a signal accomplishment of both politics and science to banish humanity’s millennia-long fear of darkness. That city dwellers are now reexperiencing that fear with each fall of night is a measure of how rapidly we are losing our hard-won progress.
"Black Lives Matter is what happens when you reduce civil rights to the rights of criminals."
Daniel Greenfield writes in part in FrontPage Magazine,
...Black Lives Matter is what happens when you reduce civil rights to the rights of criminals. And redefine the black experience around interactions with police and the criminal justice system.Read more here.
...Every group has its criminals and they prey, first and foremost, on members of their own group. Organized crime depicts its predation as a service to the community. Its thugs provide protection, offer loans, and can arrange all sorts of favors and dispensations. Disorganized crime rarely bothers. The best its members can do is pretend that they’re heroes and victims.
...Civilizations are built by people, good or bad, who make things. Criminals don’t make, they take. And if organized crime occasionally provides services and can evolve into the stationary bandits who become governments, disorganized crime is a purely parasitic and destructive enterprise.
And the crime in the black community is defined not by organized, but by disorganized crime.
When disorganized crime is at the wheel, nothing gets built, only broken. One generation passes its failures on to the next. The moral codes that make civilization possible come apart.
...Leftists act as enablers for criminals, both physically and philosophically.
Their racialization of crime is an evil and racist idea. The agenda is not social justice, but an attack on social morality. The aim, like that of the welfare state, is the destruction of the black community as anything except a captive voter bloc in a permanent state of dysfunction that can be used to extract money for the corrupt agendas of the Democrats and their allies.
Republicans should reject the myth that law enforcement is racist, that the justice system is a tool of oppression, and that the best thing we can do for the black community is to dismantle both. The simple fact that this is what the Democrats want should be telling us that it will cause pain and suffering, rather than help make the inner city or the country a better place.
There’s a whole lot more to black lives and black futures than street thugs. The majority black police forces in places like Atlanta make that clear. If Democrats choose to view black people as criminals, Republicans should stand with black police officers and small business owners.
The Democrats have racialized crime. Republicans should deracialize it.
The Reign of Terror will end...then what?
In American Greatness, Victor Davis Hanson writes in part,
...Governors and mayors can demand masks and all sorts of social distancing measures. But once they declared that only those not demonstrating—the non-looting and nonviolent—were subject to their rules, while millions both peacefully protesting and violently looting were exempt, then their words meant nothing. It will be impossible for them ever to be seen as credible again. Virus or no virus, crowded freeways, and busy malls will soon be referenda on the bond of governors like Gavin Newsom and Gretchen Whitmer.Read more here.
...Recently, there was murder in the CHAZ/CHOP-shop summer of love, and more random violence. Soon average Seattle citizens will want their city’s core back if only to reclaim their full 911 response. When the police begin not showing up for assaults, thefts, and break-ins, and criminals do what criminals do without consequences, the proverbial victims and vulnerable will have had enough and either move away or organize.
...If a revolution is based on the untruth that blacks are daily violently terrorized by whites, what happens when data reveal facts contrary to that narrative? What happens when people come to understand that in those relatively rare interracial crimes, blacks are far more likely than whites to commit interracial violence? Or when people discover that more than 7,000 blacks are murdered per year by other blacks? When the hysteria fades, such data reasserts the truth that there is not currently a white racial war against blacks.
...The Reign of Terror will end and the Thermidor reaction is on the horizon. Today’s opportunist virtue-signaler will be tomorrow’s gullible fool. Tonight’s brave looter and edgy arsonist will be tomorrow’s matter-of-fact felon. This morning’s memo-writing social justice executive and administrator will be seen as tomorrow’s rank abettor of McCarthyite persecutions. And the coveted and esteemed racial arsonist of the moment soon will become the ostracized segregationist.
Sunday, June 21, 2020
Quotes and tweets from 6-21-20
Julian's Rum tweeted,
Michael Knowles tweeted,
Jenna Ellis tweeted,
Quoting Glenn Reynolds today in Instapundit:
Another quote from Glenn Reynolds today: THE LESS VIRTUE, THE MORE SIGNALING
Phil Kerpen tweeted,
Michael Knowles tweeted,
Unawareness of and/or disbelief in evil lies at the core of sheepdom.
Michael Knowles tweeted,
Say what you will about Trump’s crowd-size in Tulsa, there were more people at that rally than have shown up to watch Joe Biden drool in his basement.
Jenna Ellis tweeted,
President Trump made VERY clear last night this election is about a single issue: protecting the future of our great country, American way of life, freedom for ALL.
Joe Biden & the extreme left are okay with burning down buildings, CHAZ “block parties” and defunding the police.
Quoting Glenn Reynolds today in Instapundit:
Anyone who thinks that only women do emotional labor in a relationship, has never been in a relationship with a woman.
Another quote from Glenn Reynolds today: THE LESS VIRTUE, THE MORE SIGNALING
Phil Kerpen tweeted,
The United States reported a total of 297 COVID deaths today, the lowest daily total since March 24.
Banner headlines tomorrow?
Michael Knowles tweeted,
Don't tear down Robert E. Lee.
Don't tear down Thomas Jefferson.
Don't tear down George Washington.
Don't tear down Christopher Columbus.
Definitely don't tear down St. Junipero Serra.
Tear down rioters, throw them in prison, and leave them there for a long time.
"One side will say, “Just give us more power and we will create heaven on earth.” The other says “Why would anyone wish to take their road to an Orwellian nightmare?” The 2020 election is that simple."
Victor Davis Hanson wrote in part in American Greatness,
...the Democratic Party as we have known it, is extinct for now. It has been replaced since 2016 by a radical progressive revolutionary movement that serves as a touchstone for a variety of auxiliary extremist causes, agendas, and cliques—almost all of them radically leftwing and nihilistic, and largely without majority popular support.Read more here.
...Like it or not, 2020 is going to be a plebiscite on an American version of Orwell’s Nineteen-Eighty-Four. One side advocates a complete transformation not just of the American present but of the past as well. The Left is quite eager to change our very vocabulary and monitor our private behavior to ensure we are not just guilty of incorrect behavior but thought as well.
The other side believes America is far better than the alternative, that it never had to be perfect to be good, and that, all and all, its flawed past is a story of a moral nation’s constant struggle for moral improvement.
One side will say, “Just give us more power and we will create heaven on earth.” The other says “Why would anyone wish to take their road to an Orwellian nightmare?” The 2020 election is that simple.
"When only white people are shown as mascots, cartoon characters, and brand logos, we will have truly arrived at our diverse, racism-free future."
From the satirical Babylon Bee:
U.S.—Activists are fighting racism by demanding that people of color be removed from all media, brands, logos, mascots, and anywhere else they might pop up.
"Anywhere we see a person of color, we see racism. So we must end racism by making sure people of color are not depicted anywhere," said white liberal activist Petunia Faucett. "We will not rest until all pop culture icons of color are eliminated. Then, racism will be over."
Activists across the country cheered as another pop culture icon of color was removed this morning. "We worked hard to achieve this goal, and the day is finally here," Faucett said. "But our work is not done. We must be vigilant to hunt down people of color on butter tubs, syrup bottles, cartoons, and bags of rice, and take them out of the public consciousness."
"When only white people are shown as mascots, cartoon characters, and brand logos, we will have truly arrived at our diverse, racism-free future."
"The Silent Majority is being roused again."
In Town Hall, Kurt Schlichter writes in part,
The libs’ plan to win in November corresponds to Trump’s plan to crush them yet again. Skeptical? Consider this. In the five years since he rode down that escalator bringin’ hell with him, how many times have they come at Trump and won? Zero. He’s spent half a decade on the edge of doom and he’s still here. Why would you think that the walls are suddenly closing in now? You shouldn’t.Read more here.
...Many of us cons are furious that Trump is “doing nothing.” This is the wrong thing to think. Trump is only doing nothing if this is a kinetic operation; because this is an information operation, not going kinetic (sending in the troops) is doing something. And in fact, Trump is employing the law enforcement component of his kinetic assets by having the feds wait and arrest Antifa types after the protests end, and hitting them with hardcore federal rioting-related charges. Previously, they would get ticketed and released; now, looking at a five-to-ten stretch, the lawyers their daddies hired to get these sunshine anarchists out of their beefs are going to be advising them to roll over so they can start back up at Cornell in September and not at Leavenworth.
Trump can and should let Seattle’s problem be Seattle’s problem. A small-scale riot in a peripheral city known for coffee, drizzle, and droning, garbage music is the very definition of a local problem. Why would Trump interject himself into it and relieve the mayor and governor of the consequences of their failure to keep order? Why would he stop them from showing the electorate exactly what the reeking cesspool they could expect after Gropey Joe defunds the police looks like?
Scumbagistan is a giant zit on the face of liberalism, and why should Trump pop it? He’s letting it fester for all of us to see – and winning the information war.
Understand that the leftist establishment would like nothing better than for Trump to go kinetic. That’s why it is baiting him, and hoping that those of us who are sick of these Lil’ Red Guards will pressure him into dropping in the paratroopers to bust some heads and – oh please, oh please, oh please – get caught on video Kent Stating up a batch of fresh new martyrs. Trump’s too smart for that, and frankly the establishment is too dumb and undisciplined to carry it out. The media shot its wad on the hyperbolic reaction to clearing out the park in front of the White House, demonstrating that even the most gentle and restrained of kinetic actions was going to get transmogrified into Hitler’s blitz across the Low Countries. And those generals screwed-up too, bad. They should have waited to wring their hands over Trump’s violent and dangerous employment of the military until he actually violently and dangerously employed the military. A bunch of allegedly (but not actually) neutral and nonpartisan military figures with heaps of establishment street cred coming down on POTUS in the wake of a bloodbath could have had a devastating political effect, but they pulled the trigger too early. Mattis and Milley and the rest of the medal men we’re supposed to think are superb strategic operators, but who still haven’t won the war against a pack of turbaned banditos after about 20 years, screwed-up yet again. They were supposed to deliver an info op kill shot to define Trump to the masses as a bloody tyrant and instead got just one news cycle of play with the Twitter blue checks. The only casualty was not Trump’s rep, but their own credibility with anyone outside of the Beltway.
...Trump is winning this information battle. Conservative Americans – and moderate Americans who want law and order – can’t wait to vote against defunding the police, rioting and appeasement. The Silent Majority is being roused again.
"The experts say after votes are cast in the 2020 election, politicians will no longer have a need for the black community, and everything will go back to normal."
The satirical Babylon Bee reports,
U.S.—A team of political experts released its latest prediction on the Black Lives Matter movement today, saying the group’s current surge will likely only last until early November. The experts say after votes are cast in the 2020 election, politicians will no longer have a need for the black community, and everything will go back to normal.
The team of experts out of UCLA has been following Black Lives Matter since it emerged back in 2014 when an unarmed black man was killed by police in St. Louis. The popular civil rights group also made headlines in 2016 and 2018.
"We have to pander to them to see if they will matter," said Nancy Pelosi. "We stand committed to elevating black voices when we need their votes and not a moment after."
“It’s a strange phenomenon,” said UCLA professor Azad Khanna. “Every few years Black Lives Matter comes onto the scene for a couple of months and then just sort of disappears in November. I’ve never seen anything like it.” Khanna paused for a moment, noticing a young white woman who had kneeled before him. The woman asked his forgiveness for her white privilege and her years of racism toward African Americans and then started kissing his feet. Khanna kindly informed her that he is from India.
Experts believe the Black Lives Matter movement will re-emerge sometime in 2022.
"An exchange, not a giveaway"
In American Greatness, Dinesh D'Souza writes about LBJ, the man behind the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
by every account, LBJ was a nasty, bullying, crude, selfish, mean-spirited, and abusive individual. These are not qualities that we associate with a moral exemplar undergoing a crisis of conscience. There was the time he gave dictation to a female secretary while urinating in a corner washbasin. In the account of a Senate aide, on another occasion, while sitting next to a woman in his car with his wife Lady Bird on the other side, “Johnson made a point of placing one of his hands under the woman’s skirt and was having a big time, right there in front of Lady Bird.”Read more here.
There is much, much more in this vein in Caro’s biography. I don’t need to go into LBJ’s serial infidelities, even in the Oval Office, his chronic boasting about the women he had conquered, the name that he gave to his penis, his boasting about its size, and so on. Suffice to say that Johnson would not survive five minutes of scrutiny by the #MeToo movement. LBJ, like JFK and Bill Clinton, reflects the priapic aggression of the prototypical plantation boss.
Yet even more than the other two, he liked to lord it over people, not just women but everyone. As Caro shows on page after page, he derived pleasure from degrading and humiliating others. He was known to converse with aides in his office bathroom while emptying his bowels, which Marshall Frady interprets as a sign of his “Rabelasian earthiness” but which less charitably reveals an ugly demonstration of his power over subordinates.
LBJ was a pervert in every sense of the word; if I can pursue the excremental theme, he was into this shit. As LBJ himself put it, he wanted the type of person working for him “who will kiss my ass in the Macy’s window and stand up and say, ‘Boy, wasn’t that sweet!’” Surely many Democratic plantation bosses of the 19th century could have said pretty much the same thing.
...In the mid-1960s, LBJ nominated African-American lawyer Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court. When an aide suggested to LBJ that there were other qualified black jurists he could have chosen, suggesting as an alternative possibility Judge A. Leon Higginbotham, LBJ responded, “The only two people who ever heard of Judge Higginbotham are you and his momma. When I appoint a nigger to the court, I want everyone to know he’s a nigger.”
Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, in an otherwise positive biography Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream, cites LBJ telling Senator Richard Russell during the debate over the Civil Rights Act of 1957, “These Negroes, they’re getting pretty uppity these days and that’s a problem for us since they’ve got something they never had before, the political pull to back up their uppityness. Now we’ve got to do something about this, we’ve got to give them a little something, just enough to quiet them down, not enough to make a difference.”
Think about why Martin Luther King, Jr., encountered so little intellectual resistance to his challenges to segregation. Fifty years earlier, he would have. This is not to deny that local officials, like Birmingham Sheriff Bull Connor, unleashed dogs and hoses on civil rights protesters. King himself served time as a political prisoner in the Birmingham jail, an experience that strikes a chord with me. But by this time the intellectual fight had been won. The local segregationist establishment, not King, was on the defensive. That’s because popular opinion in America had shifted dramatically between the time FDR died in 1945 and the 1960s.
So what caused the shift? The obvious answer is Adolf Hitler. In the end, the horrific crimes of Hitler overthrew the doctrine of white supremacy. Once American troops entered the concentration camps, once people saw those ghostly emaciated figures emerge out of the camps, they could not longer subscribe to theories of Nordic superiority they might once have held. Those doctrines were now permanently discredited.
Here’s the bargain that LBJ offered African Americans. We Democrats are going to create a new plantation for you, this time in the towns and cities. On these new plantations, unlike on the old ones, you don’t have to work. In fact, we would prefer if you didn’t work. We are going to support you through an array of so-called poverty programs and race-based programs. Essentially we will provide you with lifetime support, just as in the days of slavery. Your job is simply to keep voting us in power so that we can continue to be your caretakers and providers.
...Here’s the part LBJ did not say. We are offering you a living, but it’s going to be a pretty meager living. Basically, you get public housing, food stamps, retirement checks every month, and medical care for the poor. If you have children we will subsidize them, provided they are illegitimate. More than this we cannot offer you, because we have to make sure that you stay on the plantation. This means that we need you to remain dependent on us so that you keep voting for us. Your dependency is our insurance policy to make sure that this an exchange, not a giveaway.
...LBJ knew that if the government were to employ blacks on a large scale it would draw blacks out of fields like teaching, preaching, and small business. Teachers, pastors and entrepreneurs would now become administrators, service providers, and social workers. In sum, they would lose their skills for succeeding in the private sector and learn only how to administer the agencies of government. They too would become captives of a sort, fatally dependent on the Democratic plantation. They too would have no way to leave.
Also as a consequence of LBJ’s deal, Democrats became the new champions of blacks voting. From LBJ on, Democrats wouldn’t merely advocate that blacks vote; they would in many cases supply the buses to take them to the polls. In her book on the great migration, Isabel Wilkerson writes, without irony, “Suddenly the very party and the very apparatus that was ready to kill them if they tried to vote in the South was searching them out and all but carrying them to the polls.” If LBJ were around to read this, I’m sure he would have found it hilarious.
That’s why LBJ “converted” from a racist Democrat who sought to keep blacks down on the old sharecropping plantation to a racist Democrat who sought to create a new type of plantation where blacks would now willingly vote for their Democratic providers. That’s why LBJ pushed the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act and the Great Society. That’s why progressives lionize LBJ even though they know what a vile scumbag he was. He’s their guy; he is the creator of their urban plantation in its most modern and most recognizable form. And that’s why blacks have become, as a group, the lifetime servile dependents of the Democratic Party.
“Toxic Masculinity Awareness Day”
This satirical post from the Babylon Bee is two years old but remains relevant for those men who have yet to attend a male reeducation camp.
WASHINGTON, D.C.—In a special session called to order Friday, Congress voted unanimously to do a complete overhaul of Father’s Day, renaming the holiday “Toxic Masculinity Awareness Day” and redefining the day’s meaning to encourage citizens to heap shame and disgust on all fathers, current or potential.
Americans across the country excitedly prepared to celebrate the updated holiday designed to shame fathers and all things masculine as the weekend approached.
“It was just time,” said House Speaker Paul Ryan, citing the high numbers of depression and anxiety among men as “a good sign things are progressing in the right direction, but we still have a lot of work to do before all men, everywhere do the right thing and hate themselves with the appropriate level of vehemence.” The new initiative seeks to have all men wailing in the streets in sackcloth and ashes, flagellating and weeping with shame and regret for their harmful, problematic masculinity.
The rewritten holiday guidelines suggest cancelling any gift orders for cigars or plans to take dad out for steak and instead sitting dad on the floor in the living room and repeatedly shaming him for being part of the problem, saying things like “Take that money you were going to spend on a beard trimmer and instead donate it to women’s rights.” The government also established an associated website, ToxicFathersDay.gov, where you can download a free card to give your father that reads, “This isn’t your day any more. Do better.”
Other gift suggestions include an endangered fish donation in your father’s name, pouring out beer for those affected by toxic masculinity, and tickets to a male reeducation ceremony held deep in the Cascade mountain range.
Symptoms of Dehydration
Maggie O'Neill and Linda Melone report in Health,
Dehydration does more than just make you thirsty—it can actually be quite dangerous to your health. Here's how to know when your body is telling you to drink more water, so that you don't let it get to the later stages of dehydration.
Bad breath
Notice your breath smelling the opposite of minty fresh? It could be because you haven't drank enough water lately, Marshall Young, DDS, a dentist in Newport Beach, California, tells Health. "Saliva has important antibacterial properties," he says. "When dehydrated, the decreased saliva in the mouth allows bacteria to thrive, resulting in bad breath."
Also, while we're talking about your mouth, dehydration can cause it to feel dry, for obvious reasons. So drink up for your own sake—and for the people around you, too.
Sugar cravings
Dehydration can mask itself as hunger, or more specifically as sugar cravings. This is more likely to happen if you've been exercising, Amy Goodson, RD, a sports dietitian, tells Health. "When you exercise in a dehydrated state, you use glycogen, or stored carbohydrates, at a faster rate, thus diminishing your stores more quickly." So once you finish exercising, you will likely crave carbs (aka sugar) to help you replenish those glycogen levels. Pro tip: Before reaching for a chocolate bar, drink a tall glass of water and wait five minutes. You might not be as hungry as you think. (After that, if you're still craving something sweet, go ahead and have it.)
Dry skin
Your skin will let you know if you haven't been drinking enough water, Anne Marie Tremaine, MD, a dermatologist at Skin Wellness Physicians in Naples and Marco Island, Florida, tells Health. Dehydrated skin will feel tight and appear dull when you look in the mirror. You may even notice more exaggerated wrinkles or darker-than-usual under eye circles.
A quick test if you're feeling less than hydrated: Pinch your cheeck; if it wrinkles with gentle pressure instead of holding its shape, it's begging you for water. For smooth, moisture-rich skin, Dr. Tremaine also suggests keeping showers short (less than five minutes) and using only lukewarm water, as hot water can dry your skin out even more.
Tiredness
That mid-afternoon slump may have more to do with dehydration than you think. A number of the symptoms of dehydration can make you feel sleepy, Luga Podesta, MD, a sports medicine specialist at Bluetail Medical Group in Naples, Florida, tells Health. Physical tasks may also feel more difficult and tiring because your muscles are lacking H2O, which is necessary for them to function properly.
Irritability
If you're feeling cranky, drink a glass of water and your mood may change. "Neurological effects of dehydration can cause irritability," Dr. Podesta says. A small 2011 study published in the Journal of Nutrition tested mood and concentration in 25 young women who were either given enough fluids to remain properly hydrated, or who became mildly dehydrated by taking diuretics and exercising. The dehydrated women—who were at a hydration level that was just 1% lower than optimal—reported headaches, loss of focus, and irritability.
Chills
It may seem counterintuitive, but dehydration can bring on chills. "This occurs because your body starts to limit blood flow to the skin," Dr. Podesta says. In addition, water holds heat, so if you become hydrated it can be more difficult to regulate your body temperature, which can make you get chilly faster, even when you're not in a cold environment.
Muscle cramps
When your body isn't getting enough water, it slows down blood circulation, which can make your muscles cramp up, Ray Casciari, MD, a pulmonologist in Orange, California, tells Health. "The body will protect its vital organs, so it shifts fluid away from muscles and anything that's not vital," he says. Changes in sodium and potassium through sweat loss can also contribute to cramping. Cramps can be extremely painful and make muscles feel harder to the touch.
Lightheadedness and confusion
Along with your muscles, your brain also gets less blood circulation when you're low on water, which can make you dizzy, Dr. Casciari says—and this can constitute a situation when dehydration can warrant medical attention.
When a person becomes so dehydrated that they're taken to the emergency room, doctors usually try to get water back into their body very quickly, Dr. Sutton-Oliver explains. "We would give them a liter over an hour" via an IV, she says.
Headache
Dehydration can cause headaches in a couple of different ways. "Lack of water affects your body's serotonin levels, which can give you headaches," Dr. Casciari says. In addition, small blood vessels in the brain respond quickly to hydration levels (which is also the culprit behind those nasty hangover headaches), leading to dull aches and even full-blown migraines.
Try downing a glass or two of water the next time you have a headache and you may find it disappears. You could also eat fruit, which contains a lot of water, Dr. Casciari suggests.
Constipation
Your body needs water to keep things moving through your colon. When you're not getting enough H2O, your body compensates by withdrawing more fluid from stool, making it harder and more difficult to pass. That said, it's worth noting that drinking more water when you're already properly hydrated won't necessarily relieve constipation caused by other factors, like the medications you're taking, medical conditions, or a lack of fiber in your diet.
Dark-colored urine
One telltale sign of dehydration is dark yellow urine. "A lot of people will notice their urine starts to get concentrated or dark in color," Dr. Sutton-Oliver says. When you're dehydrated, your kidneys, which filter waste, tell your body to retain water. That means you'll have less water in your urine, causing it to become more concentrated with waste products and, therefore, darker. If you notice your urine is darker than usual, reach for your water bottle.
Excessive thirst
It might seem obvious, but being thirsty is a big hint that you're not as hydrated as you should be, Dr. Sutton-Oliver says. When you get dehydrated, you'll naturally be thirsty, so listen to your body's signals and rehydrate until you've quenched your thirst.
Low blood pressure
While not drinking enough water can cause a plethora of symptoms, one in particular, low blood pressure, can be especially dangerous, Eric Goldberg, MD, an internal medicine physician at NYU Langone tells Health. But low blood pressure can manifest in a few different ways, including nausea, dizziness, and blurred vision, so it's important to be aware of those, as many of us don't have blood pressure cuffs at home.
Low blood pressure can be especially dangerous, as it means your blood isn't getting properly sent to critical organs, including your brain, Dr. Goldberg adds. Certain blood pressure medications act as diuretics, which make the body urinate fluid out of it much faster. People who take these medications are more susceptible to becoming dehydrated, per Dr. Goldberg. The good news? "Most people can fix that simply by drinking water," he explains.
Saturday, June 20, 2020
How not to spill water on your silk necktie!
Trump made several references to the people outside who came to disrupt the rally. Many people were prevented from entering because the thugs blocked the area around the metal detectors.
Priorities I heard Trump mention as I walked around doing kitchen and laundry work:
rebuilding military
Helping veterans,
Enacting fair trade deals,
largest tax cuts in history,
regulation cuts,
I shut down travel from China, then Europe: saved hundreds of thousands of lives from Covid-19.
We are now an energy superpower,
Chinese virus: I shut down travel from China, then Europe: saved hundreds of thousands of lives; let's open the schools! (I only saw one mask-wearer tonight).
Riots and looters: I got Minnesota to take 8000 National Guard troops.
Seattle and their radical left governor: I have offered to straighten things out there in a very short time, but no response and it is probably a good idea to just let them continue to mess up.
I saluted 600 cadets at West Point, two at a time. Then the ramp story in which the fake news media wondered if I had Parkinson's Disease, and the water glass story becomes the story promulgated by the fake news.
The left-wing anarchists tore down Thomas Jefferson's statue, then George Washington's.
Joe Biden has surrendered to his party and the left-wing mobs.
Very violent people came to Tulsa today. That is what 2020 is about! They want to punish your thoughts, abolish ICE, dismantle our police forces.
China wants me to lose. They will own the USA if I lose. Iran wants to make a deal but Kerry tells them they will own the US if Trump loses.
Better schools, better jobs, 212 miles of the wall have been built. We will keep America out of ridiculous foreign wars. We have now captured 100% of the ISIS caliphate. We will be the first nation to land on Mars. We will defend free speech, religious liberty, the Second Amendment. Faith and family, not government bureaucracy. In God we trust! We are returning the power to you, the American people. The best is yet to come.
Some Early Tweets 6-20-20
Marisa Rickerson tweeted,
Laura Ingraham tweeted,
Tom Fitton tweeted,
Sharika Soal tweeted,
Andy Ngo tweeted,
Defund the UN!
Defend the USA!
ZERO USA taxpayer money should be going to the UN Marxist communist organization. They've lifted the veil to show who they really are. Enough is enough!
Laura Ingraham tweeted,
I have only one question for Dr. Fauci, Gottlieb or anyone else hitting Trump rallies: "Do you believe that state and local officials should prevent the type of protests that we've seen in recent weeks?"
Either go after the protestors or leave the rest of America alone.
Tom Fitton tweeted,
BREAKING: Federal Court Opinion: Bolton "stands to lose his profits from the book deal, exposes himself to criminal liability, and imperils national security."
Sharika Soal tweeted,
I'm a survivor of black on black crime. I was born in chicago in 1984 to a 14yr old.
I cannot believe I am forced to live in a world where I'm bullied for saying what black on black crime did to my life was horrible and doing what I can to expose it
I'm not the issue
Andy Ngo tweeted,
Exclusive: My sourcing tells me that Seattle Police have been hampered from carrying out a homicide investigation because they were not allowed to enter CHAZ. When police went to Harborview Medical Center, where a victim was transported, they were met by CHAZ's armed people.
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