Candace Owens: Media commentary means nothing. It will not dissuade us from speaking out! This is a different time. We are audacious. We are standing up! Kanye has built up a runway, and we're not going to squander that opportunity! There is nothing that can stop this movement of black conservative thought! The Democrats are fearful that they are losing control of us. They are our oppressors. We will no longer let them oppress us! Liberals cannot bully me!
Friday, October 12, 2018
Good job Louisiana! You elected a Senator who has a spine!
Senator Bill Cassidy informs two children that their parent is using them as "tools."
Protester demands that GOP Senator @BillCassidy "apologize to my children for ruining their futures.”
— Benny (@bennyjohnson) October 12, 2018
Cassidy looks at the kids: “Guess what? Your parents are using you as tools. In the future if somebody makes an allegation against you & there’s no proof for it, you'll be OK." pic.twitter.com/y6WKtPhpYO
Simpson will plead the fifth
So Glenn Simpson will plead the fifth and avoid testifying before Congress. The place to go to understand all the intricacies of the Obama administration shenanigans is The Conservative Treehouse. Sundance continues to connect the dots for us.
Tommy Robinson versus British government officials who are afraid of Islam
Bruce Bower reports at PJ Media about the latest ugly discrimination of the British government toward Tommy Robinson. Several cars of British soldiers saw Tommy filling up his auto at a gas station and asked if they could have their pictures taken with him. He delightedly complied. Then various government officials came down hard on the soldiers. Read the whole thing here.
"A story-line that was ready to go!"
"Whatever they're accusing you doing, that's exactly what they're doing!"
"Those ill-behaved kids in the grocery store have now grown up."
From Oregon Muse at the Ace of Spades blog:
"You ever go to a grocery store and see a 2- or 3-year-old kid running around screaming and yelling, or sitting in a basket throwing a loud tantrum while the mom (or parents) are just standing around like potted plants? And you think, "Good heavens, what are those kids going to be like when they grow up?" Look at antifa. Look at the screaming loons outside the Kavanaugh hearings. Look at the howling mobs shouting down conservative speakers, or chasing public officials out of restaurants. Yes, I think we can now say, those ill-behaved kids in the grocery store have now grown up."
Thursday, October 11, 2018
Good for you, Ann Althouse!
She writes,
What if your child's teacher thought this about your son: "He was a loner and isolated and off by himself all the time"?Read more here.
Teachers want us to believe that they love children and care for and support them. They have — through the compulsion of the state — the opportunity to observe them and interact with them for long hours and many days in their formative years. To trust teachers in that role, we need to believe that if they saw that our child was a loner and isolated and off by himself all the time, their heart would go out to our poor little child, and they'd talk with us and try to help. Or maybe we would wonder whether the teacher understands psychological diversity. Why is she tagging our child as "a loner" rather than appreciating the introvert or trying to figure out if there's some unseen burden making the child withdrawn? The teacher shouldn't be like another one of the children, who decide that a kid is a weirdo and shun him. But imagine a teacher who remembers the children she thought about as a weirdo, waited decades, and when that fellow human being achieved some success in his adult life, she wrote a newspaper column to tell the world "He was a loner and isolated and off by himself all the time."
This is Nikki Fiske, Stephen Miller's Third-Grade Teacher. Stephen Miller is a Trump political adviser. Maybe Nikki Fiske was lured into "writing" this article. I put "writing" in quotes because the byline is "Nikki Fiske, as told to Benjamin Svetkey." I hope she's dreadfully sorry at her terrible breach of a teacher's moral responsibility toward a child. I was a teacher for more than 30 years, and my students were all adults, but I have never — in all the tens of thousands of blog posts I've dashed off and published impulsively — even considered naming one of my students and saying something negative I thought I observed about their personality.
Kanye West, Jim Brown, and Donald Trump
The Conservative Treehouse has the video and transcript of Trump's meeting today with Kanye West and Jim Brown here.
Walk Away!
Today's very eloquent guest is Brandon Straka, founder of the Walk Away movement. Brandon believes the Democrat strategy will be to recruit minorities to articulate their Socialist platform. Brandon is worried that black people, gay people and transgender people are going to think that they have to be Socialists because they are gay, transgender or black. The strategy will be that when people object to the platform Democrats will accuse them of being homophobic or racist.
Brandon is planning a march on Washington later this month. The march will begin at the Democrat National Committee headquarters and will Walk Away from there!
Brandon is planning a march on Washington later this month. The march will begin at the Democrat National Committee headquarters and will Walk Away from there!
A direct correlation between the destruction of the Earth and Al Gore's profit margins.
The satirical Babylon Bee reports,
SAN FRANSISCO, CA—Al Gore spoke at the Global Action Climate Summit in San Fransisco on Sunday and he didn’t parse words. “This world is headed for a global catastrophe of apocalyptic proportions if everyone doesn’t drop all other priorities and redirect all spending toward buying my books and seeing my movies,” Gore said.
“I am not messing around,” he added. “I am super serious.”
Gore went on to present numerous charts and graphs showing a direct correlation between the destruction of the Earth and his profit margins.
“Science deniers can scoff all they want,” he said while aiming a laser pointer at a chart showing his prediction that the Earth will end within five years if his new book does not make the top of the New York Times Bestseller List. “And even that could be too little too late,” Gore said. “To really guarantee that this environmental apocalypse doesn’t happen, my books need to outsell the Bible.”
Guess who was driving the Oldsmobile at Chappaquiddick?
Satirical blogger Manhattan Infidel has another scoop.
Shocking new evidence has recently been unearthed that explains why the feminist senator Ted Kennedy waited 10 hours to report the accident at Chappaquiddick: He wasn’t in the car!Guess who was driving? Brett Kavanaugh! Read the whole thing here.
"Americans are paying more to cover the costs of illegal immigrants having children in the United States than Congress plans to give President Trump in border wall funding this year."
Paul Bedard reports in the Washington Examiner,
Americans are paying more to cover the costs of illegal immigrants having children in the United States than Congress plans to give President Trump in border wall funding this year, according to an explosive new analysis of Census Bureau data.Read more here.
The new report reveals that women in the United States illegally had 297,000 children in 2014 at a cost of $2.4 billion.
That is $800 million more than the Senate has approved for Trump’s border wall this year and enough to pay for the wall over 10 years.
...The Center for Immigration Studies report also put a price on the likely Medicaid bill for childbirth and early care to illegal and legal immigrants combined, at $5.3 billion. That is one-fifth the total cost of building the border wall.
Kanye, Donald and Jim today
Kanye West is back in the White House today to talk about gang violence, jobs, prison reform and Chicago. And guess who he is bringing with him? The great Cleveland Browns running back Jim Brown!
Read more here.
Wednesday, October 10, 2018
Klavan on freedom
People do not want to be free. They want to be safe and they want you to take care of their problems. People also don't want you to be free. They want to control you. They want to tell you what to think and what to do. This is especially true with people in power. They love power. They want to use power.
The founders of America built something called the Constitution. It is a document for people to be free even though some people don't want it and other people want to take away from you. It is supposed to be a list of powers the federal government has. If it is not on the list, the feds do not have the power! The Constitution has had to be amended to clarify certain rights, such as freedom of speech.
Progressives like Woodrow Wilson have said that life has gotten too complex for you to be free; it has to be run by experts. FDR said this is a document from the horse and buggy days.
Every vehicle of communication is dominated by the Left. The Left creates the conversation we are having. 4% of the coverage by the media of the Kavanaugh hearings was pro-Kavanaugh. 96% was anti-Kavanaugh. 92% of media coverage of Trump has been negative. If you are surrounded by people who see things the way you do, you become more and more certain that your opinions are facts. These guys are not living and dying to bring you the news. They are living and dying to bring you Leftism! Every news story you hear is the story and the Leftism.
Every argument we are having could be had in a rational way. The only culture war that is going on is about the Constitution and freedom!
Andrew disagrees with Christians who say homosexuality is evil. Homosexuals fall in love just as heterosexuals do. Why deprive them of romantic love? Just because something is "off center" doesn't mean it's wrong. The table is open. The meal is for everybody!
Google, Facebook, Twitter: platforms or publishers? They say they are platforms that just hold speech that goes on there, but they actually are acting like publishers and deciding to censor some speech and favor other speech. As publishers, they can be sued! As platforms, they have no rights to censor people for political reasons. They should be made to behave like a platform and let everybody speak unless the speaker is committing a crime.
Most of the crowd was male. All of the people who asked questions were male.
The founders of America built something called the Constitution. It is a document for people to be free even though some people don't want it and other people want to take away from you. It is supposed to be a list of powers the federal government has. If it is not on the list, the feds do not have the power! The Constitution has had to be amended to clarify certain rights, such as freedom of speech.
Progressives like Woodrow Wilson have said that life has gotten too complex for you to be free; it has to be run by experts. FDR said this is a document from the horse and buggy days.
Every vehicle of communication is dominated by the Left. The Left creates the conversation we are having. 4% of the coverage by the media of the Kavanaugh hearings was pro-Kavanaugh. 96% was anti-Kavanaugh. 92% of media coverage of Trump has been negative. If you are surrounded by people who see things the way you do, you become more and more certain that your opinions are facts. These guys are not living and dying to bring you the news. They are living and dying to bring you Leftism! Every news story you hear is the story and the Leftism.
Every argument we are having could be had in a rational way. The only culture war that is going on is about the Constitution and freedom!
Andrew disagrees with Christians who say homosexuality is evil. Homosexuals fall in love just as heterosexuals do. Why deprive them of romantic love? Just because something is "off center" doesn't mean it's wrong. The table is open. The meal is for everybody!
Google, Facebook, Twitter: platforms or publishers? They say they are platforms that just hold speech that goes on there, but they actually are acting like publishers and deciding to censor some speech and favor other speech. As publishers, they can be sued! As platforms, they have no rights to censor people for political reasons. They should be made to behave like a platform and let everybody speak unless the speaker is committing a crime.
Most of the crowd was male. All of the people who asked questions were male.
Don't put all of your eggs in one basket!
In the Instapundit blog, Ed Driscoll writes,
Abandoning the decentralized Blogosphere for the walled gardens of Facebook and Twitter was a huge mistake, particularly for conservatives.Ed links to this article in Reason by Andrea O'Sullivan about the most recent discovery of Facebook being hacked.
Eric Holder fans the flame of anti-GOP violence
Thug Eric Holder keeps telling us he wants to run for president in 2020. Twitchy has the latest:
Wow. Eric Holder is apparently really committed to following in Hillary Clinton’s footsteps. Not only is he mulling a run in 2020, but he’s also fanning the flames of violence:Read more here.
Eric Holder: "Michelle [Obama] always says, 'When they go low, we go high.' No. No. When they go low, we kick them."https://t.co/RIBtvaEF5t
— Aaron Blake (@AaronBlake) October 10, 2018
This notably comes 2 days after Hillary Clinton justified Democrats not being civil. https://t.co/4HEOHmn4H4
— Aaron Blake (@AaronBlake) October 10, 2018
Who is Kermit Gosnell?
I plan to take the whole family to see the Gosnell movie Friday. In The Federalist, Jonathan Lang writes,
For years, his murders went largely unnoticed. Then, in 2010, the Philadelphia police, Drug Enforcement Administration, and Federal Bureau of Investigation raided his place of business. They were looking for evidence of an illegal drug operation. What they found was an office filled with corpses—more than 30 of them. They also found evidence of hundreds, perhaps thousands, more.Read more here.
For instance, an industrial-strength garbage disposal had been completely worn out. Evidently it was used to grind up bodies for disposal into the Philadelphia sewer system. A waste-disposal company had unknowingly hauled off countless more for incineration. Still others had been taken to the killer’s vacation home and used as bait in his crab cages.
...The name of America’s most prolific serial killer is Kermit Gosnell. He avoided the death penalty by waiving his right to appeal, and is serving life without parole. His story is told in the movie, “Gosnell: The Trial of America’s Biggest Serial Killer.” It opens nationwide this Friday, October 12.
It is a riveting story on several levels. Perhaps uppermost is the question: how was he able to perform so many murders without getting caught? He had numerous witnesses, with evidence literally piled up in the hallways, stored in freezers and refrigerators. How could all of this go unnoticed for decades?
Answer: he was hiding his murders in plain sight. This was possible because they took place in an abortion facility, giving him an almost impenetrable layer of protection. Nobody wants to scrutinize abortion facilities or think too carefully about them. They have become sacrosanct, so that their very mention freezes us in place.
...Words do powerful things to us, but none greater than this one. It does powerful things to politicians, too. Because of the “A-word,” Philadelphia authorities were reluctant—unreasonably reluctant—to inspect Gosnell’s office or follow up on numerous complaints. While nail salons receive health department inspections every year, Gosnell’s facility had not been inspected by Pennsylvania’s Department of Health for more than 17 years—not once.
The most sensational trial of a serial killer in the history of America had virtually no reporters in the court room. The biggest crime since 1893 could not be covered because the reporters could not say why it was wrong.
One of those who noticed was Mollie Ziegler Hemingway. At the time she was a reporter for GetReligion.org. Nearly three weeks into Gosnell’s trial, there had yet to be any mainstream media coverage. So, on April 7, she published a story about the blackout. She followed up with six more, published between April 10 and April 16.
Meanwhile, J.D. Mullane, a reporter for Calkins Media, snapped a picture of rows of empty seats that had been reserved for the press. The photo went viral, prompting Kirsten Powers of USA Today to break the media silence. She published a column subtitled: “We’ve forgotten what belongs on Page One.”
Once the dam broke, all the major networks and newspapers dispatched reporters to Philadelphia to cover the trial. This had a significant effect both on the strength of the prosecution and on American public opinion.
In the new Gosnell movie, Hemingway and Mullane’s roles are woven together into a fictional character named Mollie Mullaney. In many ways she is the heroine of the story, and a reminder of the vital need for an unflinching press corps. Only by forcing us to face our hidden inhumanities can the press help us regain humanity.
What Michael Bloomberg is up to
From Ace of Spades:
Ace links to an article in Real Clear Investigations by Jeff Patch.
Privately-Funded Prosecutions: Michael Bloomberg Paying "Fellows" to Embed Themselves in State and Local Government to File Lawsuits -- With the State's Authority -- Against the Left's Enemies
—Ace of Spades
These positions are not provided for by law, so there is no money budgeted for salaries.
So Michael Bloomberg just pays his anti-gun minions to serve in state and local government and harass energy companies.
Ace links to an article in Real Clear Investigations by Jeff Patch.
A New York University School of Law program funded by billionaire Michael Bloomberg is placing lawyers in the offices of Democratic state attorneys general and paying them to prosecute energy companies and challenge Trump administration policies on energy and the environment.Read more here.
Nine states and Washington, D.C., including New York, Illinois and Pennsylvania, are participating in the multimillion-dollar program funded by the media magnate and ex-New York City mayor, who re-registered as a Democrat this week amid expectations of a run for president in 2020.
"Yes, both parties are now more united and energized. But one did so by enticing the recalcitrant back into the fold; the other, by warning them to join the revolution or be guillotined."
In National Review Victor Davis Hanson writes,
When the Christine Ford saga finally ended with the confirmation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, a lot of truth had distilled out, along with the evaporation of prior pretensions and misconceptions.Read more here.
The hearing confirmed that the traditional JFK/Hubert Humphrey Democrat party, as once envisioned by a Bill Clinton, Gary Hart, or Jim Webb, is long kaput. In its place is being birthed a hard-left progressive movement that absorbs the ideologies and methodologies of its base and that now incorporates all sorts, from Ocasio-Cortez’s socialist hipsters to Black Lives Matters, Antifa, and Occupy Wall Street protestors.
The new progressives recently have come to believe that they gain traction by the theater of disrupting senate hearings, cornering senators in elevators, stalking them on the way to work, doxing their opponents on the Internet, and during the hearings throwing out the concept of due process. Any means is deemed permissible to enact visions of social justice, given legislative and executive power is lost for now — and as if proverbially ordinary Americans who watched the televised circus might applaud the performers.
Diane Feinstein, Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, and the Democratic fossils on the Senate Judiciary Committee may in their golden years try to lumber onto the departing progressive train, but their septuagenarian and octogenarian creaky efforts to get on board grow sad. Joe Biden was reduced to threatening to beat Trump up behind the locker room. Diane Feinstein staged a clumsy eleventh-hour ambush of the hearings that proved pure bathos. Even leftists such as Nancy Pelosi and Elizabeth Warren fear that they are suddenly pseudo- revolutionaries, compared with the new, far more radical Jacobins, who in cyclical French Revolutionary style call for massive repeals of all student debt, free tuition, packing the Supreme Court, Medicare for all, a specified end to fossil fuels, quotas based on identity politics, and an abolishment of Immigration and Custom Enforcement. No one quite knows how far this cannibalistic cycle will go.
The emotional powerbase of the new Democrats is now Corey “I am Spartacus” Booker, Kamala Harris, Kirsten Gillibrand, and thousands of state and local Ocasio-Cortezes. Barack Obama really did fundamentally transform the old Democratic party. Or rather from 2009 to 2017, he dismantled it at the congressional, state, and local levels while he was elected twice to the presidency. But even the now multimillionaire Obama appears to the new Democrats as a near has-been sellout. And in his fifties, he will have to hit the streets again, in his prior mode of “get in their face, bring a gun to a knife fight, punish our enemies,” to recapture his hard-left fides.
he hatred of Kavanaugh and the left-wing repudiation of due process and of Senate protocol and tradition united the Democrats by moving their party far more to the left rather than to the center. Apparently, Democrats must embrace or at least excuse Antifa-like tactics or they are no longer Democrats. Diane Feinstein’s reprehensible behavior must be seen in this context as seeking to be as radical as the unhinged expressions of Kevin de León, her election rival for the Senate seat.
Yes, both parties are now more united and energized. But one did so by enticing the recalcitrant back into the fold; the other, by warning them to join the revolution or be guillotined.
...Kavanaugh was not supposed to display too much anger at the Left that sought not just to thwart his confirmation, but destroy his person and his family as just deserts. At noon on the day of his final appearance, Kavanaugh was declared dead after the sympathetic but otherwise not credible testimony of Christine Ford. But by day’s end, Kavanaugh’s freelancing explosive defiance had saved the nomination, showing that conventional wisdom’s “judicial temperament” when smeared was merely a noble way to lose.
...Trump was for the nth time written off as crude, crass, and uncouth. But Trump haters so often let their venom blind them to Trump’s cunning: 1) He is reactive not provocative. All week Trump was demonized, and so his description of Ford and her enablers was seen as righteous retaliation not a bullying attack; 2) Trump has an uncanny sense of the pulse of public opinion. He waited to apply the coup de grace until Ford’s own narratives, which she changed numerous times, were being picked apart not so much as incomplete but as impossible to reconcile; 3) Trump realizes that it is his defiance as much as his message that wins him fealty. He never publicly flinched from his support for Kavanaugh and by doubling-down told his base that if Kavanaugh was going down, so would he. After eight years of perceived namby-pamby Republican contextualization, even mainstream conservatives seem to appreciate defiance. And they got it in spades with both Kavanaugh and Trump, whose both defied collective conventional wisdom of just letting it be.
The #MeToo movement is imploding. By its recent McCarthyesque excesses it is undoing a great deal of good that it had once done, in Hollywood and the media especially.
...A republic cannot survive any revolutionary movement that insist that its moral claims are so exalted that 2,500 years of Western jurisprudence must be jettisoned, as if “sincerity” established “believability” and believability in turn “credibility” — all without evidence, witnesses, or substantiated testimonies. The result of such ideas would be the nightmarish world of either a regimented Ninety Eighty-Four or the chaos of the Lord of the Flies.
The Kavanaugh hearing was the ultimate but logical continuation of the Duke Lacrosse and Rolling Stone travesties. The #MeToo excess was even likely to have pleased the ogre Harvey Weinstein — a sexual predator who for decades was exempted by liberal Hollywood enablers and appeasers either on the theory of “Well, he may be a predator, but he’s our predator” or “He’s bad, but not always bad for me.” Weinstein may now claim that what happened to the hated conservative Kavanaugh earlier had happened to him, the once beloved liberal, or he may say something like “See what happens when you lose liberal warriors like me.”
...“Fake News” is an overused phrase, but it proves a euphemism when describing the recent behavior of The New Yorker, the New York Times, and NBC.
...the progressive movement sought to use the Kavanaugh hearings to empower a larger race-and-gender identity-politics agenda, in which the perennial targets are old white guys. The operating theory is that women, the nonwhite, and young hipsters by their gender, race, or age — and their collective victimization — are innately preferable and more deserving people.
But once progressives drew up those insane rules, the subsequent spectacle was judged by their own standards. Mitch McConnell proved a far more adroit senatorial manager than Chuck Schumer. Chuck Grassley sounded more judicious and worried about the rules than did Diane Feinstein. Lindsey Graham was far more coherent and focused that Senator Spartacus. Prosecutor Mitchell was to the point, direct, and transparent in a way Christine Ford was not always.
More important, for millions of Americans watching the spectacle, the results did not play out so much as an old-white-guy melodrama as a class-and-gender psychodrama. Most men of all races and classes cannot accept a new reality that they can have their careers destroyed, without appeal to due process, at any moment by an unsubstantiated accusation dating from when they were 17 — all on the pretext that a destructive career inquisition “is not formally a criminal trial” and therefore not subject to the spirit of the U.S. Constitution. And if there was any stereotypical lesson to be had, it was that many on the senatorial panel and the legions of advisers and lawyers on the Ford Team, as well as Ford herself, by their class, education, and comportment, increasingly seem quite different, quite more privileged, and quite more self-absorbed than most average Americans of all backgrounds who have little sympathy for the psychodramas of a pampered and professional class.
Want to vote? Ya gotta tell us where you live!
The Supreme Court made headlines again this morning. Strieff reported last night at Red State,
From my point of view, ballot integrity, that is, ensuring that only eligible voters are allowed to vote in federal elections, is one of the major civil rights issues of our time. For reasons of political expediency, the Democrats have fought ballot integrity laws wherever they appear. Tonight they just lost one of those battles.Read more here.
Back on August 1, 2016, a federal court issued an injunction forbidding North Dakota officials from enforcing that state’s voter ID law. Undeterred, the state legislature passed, and Governor Doug Burgum signed into law, HB 1369, which reestablished the state’s voter ID requirement. This replacement law allowed for the use of alternative means of identification, such as utility bills. The sticking point in the law is that the ID must show a street address. This is critical in ensuring that voters only vote in the district where they are eligible. A claim was made that this disenfranchised American Indian voters who used post office boxes or rural route addresses.
...The positive turn of events here is that the voter ID issue is becoming settled, at least at the circuit court and Supreme Court level. Rogue district court judges still rule in lockstep with the Democrats but those decisions are being routinely overturned on appeal. The fact that this case couldn’t get the votes for a hearing is significant.
Tuesday, October 09, 2018
Having a fun time on Craig's List
Have you ever looked for a used car on Craig's List? It can be hilarious. Often you read several paragraphs praising the car's features, then buried in paragraph four it says, "Must tow," or "Car starts, but it don't move." or, "It got wet so we have to sell it." Those were not my three top choices!
Nikki Haley resigns
Nikki Haley has resigned her position as Ambassador to the United Nations. She has done a great job there in my opinion. Axios broke the news so I will link here to their follow up story.
Monday, October 08, 2018
The Babylon Bee gets an exclusive interview with Senator Kamala Harris
The Bee reports,WASHINGTON, D.C.—After conservatives began to express concern that Senate Democrats have been going too far in their relentless assaults on Judge Brett Kavanaugh's character, Kamala Harris held a conference Wednesday in which she hit back.
Harris said in no uncertain terms that "we would apply the same fair standards to any SCOTUS nominee whose life we were trying to destroy." She said that it was "nothing personal," and that Democrats' crusade to dig up every detail of Kavanaugh's life and turn it into proof that he is a monster is "just part of what we do when we're trying to smear a person for good."
"He should have thought about this before he decided to be a pro-life conservative," Harris added. "It's all part of the process around here—we turn you into a villain no matter what the facts are, and we rip apart your life piece by piece."
"We would have done it to any of the nominees who seemed to threaten our big cash cow, Planned Parenthood," she continued. "Kavanaugh shouldn't take this personally—It's just good old-fashioned American pastime of ruining a man's life."
Dems say it is time to be more ruthless!
After failing to stop Kavanaugh's confirmation, Democrats wonder if it's time to be more ruthless https://t.co/NyserWzlvR
— POLITICO (@politico) October 7, 2018
Sean Davis replies,
What will they do next? Accuse innocent people of gang rape or stage mock beheadings of the president or threaten to dox the children of GOP politicians or maybe even attempt to massacre a baseball field full of Republicans?
"Conservatism is about preserving the rule of law, having liberty and justice for all!"
Jenna Ellis is Andrew's guest. She is his favorite guest, it seems. She is in Washington to celebrate the Kavanaugh confirmation. Who are conservatives? Jenna says, "Conservatism is about preserving the rule of law, having liberty and justice for all!"
What else are the tech overlords supposed to do, allow us to think for ourselves?
Rich Cromwell writes in the Federalist about the Gosnell film which opens next Friday.
On May 24, Facebook expanded its dedication to providing content as it sees fit to boosted and promoted posts, that is posts made on an official page which the owner attempts to promote in an attempt to reach a wider audience. It’s under this policy that the movie “Gosnell: The Trial of America’s Biggest Serial Killer” found itself being censored by the tech behemoth.Read more here.
“Gosnell,” the story of infamous abortionist Kermit Gosnell, opens Oct. 12. Its producer, Phelim McAleer, naturally wants to publicize the film as much as possible. He told me why he made the film:
"We are journalists and filmmakers and this is an incredible story. I’ve spent 25 years as an investigative journalist and this is one of the biggest stories I’ve ever worked on and it went largely unreported. This is a true story that was not reported on by the mainstream media in a meaningful way. There are real victims here whose story deserves to be told and we’ve set out to shine a light on the crimes of Gosnell and how the government allowed him to operate for 17 years without protecting women and children, which is what journalism is supposed to do. We want to tell the truth because it is extremely important that people have the facts before they make a decision‒especially with so many partisan journalists believing they are part of a political movement‒not reporting the facts as they are supposed to do."
Even making the film was an uphill battle. McAleer noted the difficulties in getting it from concept to the screen. “The Silicon establishment do not want this story told,” he said. “Kickstarter refused to let us crowdfund to fund the film and NPR have just rejected us from advertising the movie on the taxpayer-funded station. Now Facebook is trying to censor the movie by preventing its creators from advertising on Facebook. They really, really don’t want this story told.”
...What else are the tech overlords supposed to do, allow us to think for ourselves?
...Facebook is censoring this story and destroying our attempts to get the news about this film out to the public. Facebook is essentially silencing these children and women whom Gosnell murdered. This is content journalists should be covering but Facebook is putting their thumb on the scale because they do not like the content. Audiences want to see this content and we’re willing to pay for the advertising but again they are demonstrating their bias against a true crime story. As independent filmmakers, we have a limited budget and Facebook was a mainstay of our outreach efforts.
...McAleer was never told why his posts were rejected. He said:
They simply state it’s not been approved and to check their standards, but it does not give you a specific reason why this post could be not be promoted at all to a wider audience. It’s clear it is the pro-life audience that they don’t want to encourage or provide content to. They really hate anyone who doesn’t subscribe to the liberal world view. They hate diversity of thought.
It’s hard to discover what’s going on in the world and to share and express what matters to users when Facebook is preemptively deciding which of those occurrences and opinions are copacetic, which thoughts are allowable and which aren’t, which movies can advertise and which cannot. Some might even say that there’s a word for that, though in 2018, it’s not a popular one to reference, especially when the fate of the republic supposedly rests with our tech overlords and not the citizenry, at least those citizens fortunate enough to be born.
the Stalinist mantra “to accuse is to be believed”
Victor DAvis Hanson writes in American Greatness,
In the end, the Christine Blasey Ford accusations collapsed. With them went the last effort to destroy Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the United States Supreme Court.Read more here.
After thousands of hours of internal Senate and FBI investigations of Kavanaugh, as well as public discussions, open questioning, and media sensationalism, Ford remained unable to identify a single witness who might substantiate any of her narratives of an alleged sexual assault of nearly four decades past.
To substantiate her claim, the country was asked to jettison the idea of innocent until proven guilty, the need for corroborating testimony, witnesses, and physical evidence, the inadmissibility of hearsay, the need for reasonable statutes of limitations, considerations of motive, and the right of the accused to conduct vigorous cross-examination. That leap proved too much, especially when located in a larger progressive landscape of street theater antics, including Senate disruptions, walkouts, and sandbagging senators in hallways and elevators.
...Thus far the consensus has been that Ford was sincere and empathetic, but not credible. But more and more, it appears that she was all at once not credible, quite insincere, and perhaps completely unfeeling, at least in saying so many things that were not only unprovable, but demonstrably false and sometimes quite hurtful to her friends—and all apparently for the progressive end of stopping a qualified right-leaning jurist by destroying his character and reputation.
...Finally, the new progressive Democratic Party was especially dense in all this. Senate Democrats kept clamoring for more testimonials to buttress Ford’s charges, but at each juncture of a new witness offering relevant knowledge, the very opposite effect followed of further eroding her veracity. And in a brave new world without evidence, in which “sincerity” and “empathy” mutate into “believability,” and “her truth” is synonymous with “the truth,” why would the counter-testimonies of a boyfriend or best friend be any less believable than Ford’s, much less required evidence of their own? Why call for a supplemental, one-week FBI investigation (months after Feinstein had prevented just that) when all knew that after a week a once-praised FBI would summarily be damned for not finding Kavanaugh guilty of something?
In the end, we were left only with the Stalinist mantra “to accuse is to be believed”—but, of course, not even the current accusers in the future would be exempt from the very nightmare they now would create for others.
Is powerlessness the American design?
Powerlessness. Both sides got a taste of it last week. Joel D. Hirst writes,
True power, let it be known (for all the “resisters”, because the faithful already know this) comes not from control of our sage chamber of magistrates or by who sits in an odd-shaped office in a stately mansion atop a swamp. True power comes from our own conscience, of what we teach our children when we read them a story at night, when we bicycle with them in the morning before breakfast and when they ask us questions about right and wrong. True power is control of our emotions; discipline to build a world from nothing, gamble it on an opportunity and lose and start again (yes, I think I read that somewhere). True power is standing naked before our God and admitting our true nature to Him and through that admission to ourselves as well. And then, true power is to take that understanding and turn it into a life lived more abundant; with faithfulness and restraint and kindness.Read more here.
And then passing these things on to our little boys through the stories of the also-powerless.
Because those are the important lessons. For if they are stories about wise men, kind women, and faithful families those kernels will be carried forward into the future. But if they are about hatred and violence and anger – let’s call it “resist” – well you might just get what you ask for; and it might resemble North Korea or Venezuela more than it does Atlantis; and you might not be in charge.
Kavanaugh's first day at the Supreme Court: Whom did he hire?
On his first day on the job, Brett Kavanaugh has hired as many black law clerks as liberal justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg has hired in her entire career at the Supreme Court. Kevin Daley reports at The Daily Caller,
With his first clerkship hires, Kavanaugh also set a gender composition record, an apparent attempt to buck the high court’s hiring patterns, which tend to favor white, male graduates of elite law schools.Read more here.
Since joining the high court in 1993, Ginsburg has hired over 100 law clerks, just one of whom is black.
Kavanaugh’s new clerks are Shannon Grammel, Megan Lacy, Sara Nommensen and Kim Jackson. These hires set a record in a second respect: Kavanaugh is the first Supreme Court justice to hire an all female class of clerks.
"You need a face of evil!"
In American Thinker Thomas Lifson links to a Wall Street Journal article explaining how groups funded by George Soros are involved in the mobs protesting Kavanaugh's confirmation to the Supreme Court. Lifson gives credit to Donald Trump for understanding Saul Alinsky's advice.
On Twitter, he followed Alinsky's last and possibly most potent law. The 13th entry in Rules for Radicals reads, "Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it."Read more here.
The very rude elevator screamers are paid professionals only looking to make Senators look bad. Don’t fall for it! Also, look at all of the professionally made identical signs. Paid for by Soros and others. These are not signs made in the basement from love! #Troublemakers
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2018
Sunday, October 07, 2018
The speech by Susan Collins
Was the speech by Susan Collins really a great one? That is what Scott Adams called it, and Ann Althouse agrees:
It was a great speech, but why did we hear this from her so late in the process she purports to decry? Why is she only willing or capable of saying these things when she's looking back on the wreckage?
Way before Columbus!
I know we celebrate Columbus Day as a national holiday tomorrow, but what about those people who walked across a sheet of ice to get to America? Don't they deserve some recognition? They were, after all, the first Americans! Melissa Hogenboom reports at BBC,
They probably came on foot from Siberia across the Bering Land Bridge, which existed between Alaska and Eurasia from the end of the last Ice Age until about 10,000 years ago. The area is now submerged by water.Read more here.
...The abundance of ice meant that sea levels were much lower than they are now, and a stretch of land emerged between Siberia and Alaska. Humans and animals could simply walk from Asia to North America. The land bridge was called Beringia.
During the last Ice Age humans could walk from Siberia into the Americas (Credit: Gary Hinks/SPL)
... In fact, about 80% of Native Americans today are direct descendants of the Clovis people, who lived across North America about 13,000 years ago. This discovery came from a 2014 genetic study of a one-year-old Clovis boy who died about 12,700 years ago.
...The team concludes that the ancestors of the first Americans came to Beringia at some point between 23,000 years and 13,000 years ago.
What's going on?
Maria Bartiromo's Sunday Morning Futures show always seems like one of the most substantial shows on television. This one today is no exception. Guests Larry Kudlow, Devin Nunes, and Darrel Issa are in the thick of important events, and they do not disappoint.
How will the Supreme Court be different?
Highly respected blogger and law professor Glenn Reynolds writes in USA Today to tell us what changes we might expect on Supreme Court rulings since Brett Kavanaugh has been added as the ninth justice.
Saturday, October 06, 2018
Some tweets on the Kavanaugh confirmation
Dinesh D'Souza tweeted,
Dinesh also tweeted,
Erick Erickson tweeted,
Scott Adams tweeted,
Scott also tweeted,
Safe to say Kavanaugh will never forget what the left tried to do to him. Thus he will assume his new lifetime position with the PERFECT judicial temperament
Dinesh also tweeted,
Hey Republicans! See how we win when we hang together? Much better than hanging separately
Erick Erickson tweeted,
Congrats progressives. You so overplayed your hand that you
(A) fired up the Republican base;
(B) pissed off Susan Collins; and
(C) Radicalized the newest Justice on the United States Supreme Court.
Scott Adams tweeted,
If men take Senator Hirono's advice to "shut up and step up" it's going to be an interesting midterm election. Be careful what you wish for.
Scott also tweeted,
Strongest argument I've seen from The Resistance today: The FBI only investigated the credible allegations.
Trump at age 33.
"I just want to keep busy and keep active and be interested in what I do. I'm looking to enjoy my life. If making money happens to go with it, that's fabulous!" Trump at 33.
The "doxer"
Have you heard of Representative Sheila Jackson Lee's staffer named Jackson Cosko? He faces up to fifty years in jail. Julie Gunlock reports in American Greatness,
Capitol Police on October 3 arrested 27-year old congressional staffer Jackson Cosko for posting on Wikipedia the private addresses of three members of the Senate Judiciary Committee—what’s known as “doxxing” (a word derived from the shorthand for “document”). Cosko is facing serious charges that include illegally posting private information of public figures, witness tampering, threats, identity theft, and unlawful entry.Read more here.
In the mainstream media, Cosko is being portrayed as a hapless overzealous intern who didn’t even have the smarts to cover up his criminal act. His former boss— Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-Texas) has denied she knew anything about Cosko’s activities. In a press conference held this week, Jackson-Lee explained that she fired Cosko and is cooperating with officials investigating the crimes. (Interestingly, cameras recorded Jackson-Lee passing an envelope to Christine Blasey Ford’s lawyer just before her testimony got underway.)
Many Questions, Few Answers So Far
Yet, Jackson-Lee still has some explaining to do. While she claims Cosko was an “unpaid intern” in her office, the Washington Post reports that Cosko was actually a “fellow.” This was confirmed by Cosko’s lawyer, who said his client was a “fellow” in Jackson-Lee’s office and that he was being paid by an “outside institution.”
What “outside institution” paid for Cosko’s fellowship? Did that entity know about his illegal activities? What other fellowships does this “outside organization” pay for? What other House or Senate offices are hosting fellows paid by this organization?
“Intern” and “fellow” are not interchangeable because they aren’t even close to being the same thing. While internships are reserved for inexperienced college students, fellowships are usually serious policy positions and are typically filled by professionals working within other federal agencies or the private sector who are brought to a congressional office for a short stint to help a member of Congress better understand the agency or business for which that member has oversight responsibilities.
...The latest media reports on Cosko are chilling. They detail how after sneaking into Senator Hassan’s office at 10 p.m. (an office he was not authorized to enter since he had been fired months earlier), he logged onto a computer using the login information of a still (for now) employed Hassan staffer. When he was discovered and shooed out of the office by another Hassan staffer who ostensibly was working late that night, he sent that staffer a threatening note: “If you tell anyone I will leak it all. Emails signal conversations gmails. Senators children’s health information and socials,” meaning Social Security numbers.
"Send me in, coach! I'll tell any lie you want!"
When someone asked who will challenge Senator Collins for the next Senate race in Maine, Susan Rice tweeted, "Me!" You remember Susan don't you? She was the one Obama and Hillary could always count on to cover for them.
Four Pinocchios for "Cocaine Mitch"
Do you, like me, wonder where Mitch McConnell got the nickname of "Cocaine Mitch?" The Washington Post gave it four Pinocchios here.
Mitch will have quite a legacy for all the conservative judges he has gotten approved during the Trump tenure.
Mitch will have quite a legacy for all the conservative judges he has gotten approved during the Trump tenure.
The cartoonist at the Leftist Washington Post inspired her!
Do you see a problem with any of these political yard signs? Anna Tinsley reports in the Star-Telegram,
A campaign sign in Central Texas this week drew the scorn of an elected state official — and then it was confiscated by police.https://www.star-telegram.com/news/state/texas/article219551530.html
At issue in the small community of Hamilton was a homemade yard sign featuring an elephant decorated in red, white and blue with its trunk up the skirt of a female saying the word “Help.” The sign said “Your vote matters.”
Other signs promoting Democrats from U.S. Senate candidate Beto O’Rourke to Agriculture Commissioner candidate Kim Olson were in the background.
This “is supposed to be Judge Kavanaugh’s young daughter,” Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller posted along with the photos on Facebook this week. “The Democrat sleaze knows NO bounds!”
Marion Stanford, who made the sign, told the Dallas Morning News she did paint it after watching Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh testify before Congress. But she said the female on the sign was not Kavanaugh’s daughter.
She said it was echoing a cartoon by Ann Telnaes of the Washington Post.
Opinion | The Republican National Committee flip-flops and announces support for Roy Moore's campaign https://t.co/5bNaFuDk5c pic.twitter.com/JC0954e5rR
— Ann Telnaes (@AnnTelnaes) December 5, 2017
Even so, Miller’s Facebook post drew attention to Stanford and her sign, prompting countless reactions, including those that called for her to be arrested.
Police did show up at her home.
Some say she was told to remove the sign or it would be confiscated. City officials said police visited Stanford’s home and she asked them to take the sign, the Dallas Morning News reported.
Friday, October 05, 2018
REALLY Important Things
Guest post by
by Suzann Darnall
There are important things and then there are REALLY important things. Important things include such happenings as the confirmation and appointment of Judge Brett Kavanaugh. REALLY important things include my family, my friends, my animals, my faith, and my life in general. So, while I am concerned about the shenanigans going on in Washington, DC, I am more concerned with what is happening right here in Texas involving my husband.
My husband has been having a few health issues, thus has undergone some surgeries and procedures. He is facing more in the near future. While the outlook is good, there are always possibilities that all is not so well as we believe. Consequently, I am a lot more worried about what is going on with my beloved than I am about even the importance of Judge Kavanaugh’s situation.
While I am praying that Judge Kavanaugh is confirmed and appointed, I am admittedly spending more time praying about my husband and what he is facing. I know the makeup of the Supreme Court of the United States can affect our country and its laws, but my husband’s health will affect our lives in ways far more personal and important than anything that ever happens in DC.
Therefore, if I seem somewhat disengaged at times from what is happening in DC and even in our more local elections, please be aware that life, at least for me, is more than politics. And, right now, it is life that concerns me most of all. Mainly my husband’s healthy and happy life.
While I will be praying that the Republicans win each battle up to and including the November elections, I will mostly be praying my husband is a winner in each and every surgery or procedure he undergoes over the next few months.
Now, I do not want anyone to think he is under some automatic death sentence. The prognosis is actually very good. However, there is a shade of gray that might be hiding a touch of black, so we are cautiously optimistic and not just free-n-clear happy. And, since I am sometimes a worrywart and pessimist about such things, I am a little more worried than him. But, he is in good hands. The Lord’s and the medicos at BAMC. Definitely my priority!
Nevertheless, I do want to remind all y’all that the health of our nation is also at risk. Its well-being is in the hands of the voters. President Trump has done much to revive our economy and many aspects of our societal freedoms, but he needs more help to get more done. Not only will Judge Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court give a vital boost to the rule of law according to our Constitution, but a lot more Conservatives in office all across this land will help keep our Constitutional rights a lot safer. So, vote “R” and give Trump the majorities he needs!
Our National Health depends on it!!!
by Suzann Darnall
There are important things and then there are REALLY important things. Important things include such happenings as the confirmation and appointment of Judge Brett Kavanaugh. REALLY important things include my family, my friends, my animals, my faith, and my life in general. So, while I am concerned about the shenanigans going on in Washington, DC, I am more concerned with what is happening right here in Texas involving my husband.
My husband has been having a few health issues, thus has undergone some surgeries and procedures. He is facing more in the near future. While the outlook is good, there are always possibilities that all is not so well as we believe. Consequently, I am a lot more worried about what is going on with my beloved than I am about even the importance of Judge Kavanaugh’s situation.
While I am praying that Judge Kavanaugh is confirmed and appointed, I am admittedly spending more time praying about my husband and what he is facing. I know the makeup of the Supreme Court of the United States can affect our country and its laws, but my husband’s health will affect our lives in ways far more personal and important than anything that ever happens in DC.
Therefore, if I seem somewhat disengaged at times from what is happening in DC and even in our more local elections, please be aware that life, at least for me, is more than politics. And, right now, it is life that concerns me most of all. Mainly my husband’s healthy and happy life.
While I will be praying that the Republicans win each battle up to and including the November elections, I will mostly be praying my husband is a winner in each and every surgery or procedure he undergoes over the next few months.
Now, I do not want anyone to think he is under some automatic death sentence. The prognosis is actually very good. However, there is a shade of gray that might be hiding a touch of black, so we are cautiously optimistic and not just free-n-clear happy. And, since I am sometimes a worrywart and pessimist about such things, I am a little more worried than him. But, he is in good hands. The Lord’s and the medicos at BAMC. Definitely my priority!
Nevertheless, I do want to remind all y’all that the health of our nation is also at risk. Its well-being is in the hands of the voters. President Trump has done much to revive our economy and many aspects of our societal freedoms, but he needs more help to get more done. Not only will Judge Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court give a vital boost to the rule of law according to our Constitution, but a lot more Conservatives in office all across this land will help keep our Constitutional rights a lot safer. So, vote “R” and give Trump the majorities he needs!
Our National Health depends on it!!!
Straight-up lying!
Ace of Spades writes,
...I'm getting a little tired of bending over backwards to claim "something certainly happened" to Blasey. I think she's straight-up lying.Read much more here.
"We are going to need more than tariffs to contain the dragon!"
Have you read about the discovery of a microchip the size of a grain of rice being implanted by China in secret American motherboards? Spengler writes in PJ Media,
Bloomberg/Business Week this morning broke the most disturbing spy story in years: Chinese cyber-spies embedded a secret back door onto computer motherboards intended for super-secret CIA cloud computing. The techies at Amazon Web Services discovered one particular back door in hardware built by Chinese subcontractors for Supermicro of San Jose California, one of the world's biggest suppliers of motherboards.Read more here.
Bloomberg reports:
Nested on the servers’ motherboards, the testers found a tiny microchip, not much bigger than a grain of rice, that wasn’t part of the boards’ original design. Amazon reported the discovery to U.S. authorities, sending a shudder through the intelligence community. Elemental’s servers could be found in Department of Defense data centers, the CIA’s drone operations, and the onboard networks of Navy warships. And Elemental was just one of hundreds of Supermicro customers.
One country in particular has an advantage executing this
kind of attack: China, which by some estimates makes 75 percent
of the world’s mobile phones and 90 percent of its PCs.
Let that sink in: the US Department of Defense uses Chinese computer components because they are NOT manufactured in the United States of America. US counterintelligence found one back door. We have no idea how many more back doors are out here.
...China manufactures 90% of the computers used in the United States. US companies like Cisco manufacture virtually all of their telecommunications equipment in China. There's no way to stop China from embedding secret points of access in hardware, except to produce it here.
...We tend to forget that beating the Russians in the Cold War wasn't easy. We were losing the Cold War during the 1970s. Russian surface-to-air-missiles decimated Israel's American-built air force during the 1973 war, and Russia was convinced that it had a technological edge that would enable it to win any conventional war in the world. The tide began to turn exactly 50 years ago when the US installed look-down radar in F-15's. By 1982, Israel demonstrated the power of American (as well as some Israeli) avionics when it destroyed most of the Syrian air force. But that required revolution in technology, including the invention of CMOS chip manufacturing at RCA Labs in 1976.
Back then, America spent double what it does now on federal R&D and major corporations maintained their own research labs -- Bell, RCA, GE, IBM, Hughes and many others. We had the only top-rate universities in the world for physics and computer science and we drew in the world's to talent. It's tougher today. We can win this one, but it won't be cheap or easy. It will require a national mobilization on the scale of the Eisenhower response to Sputnik, the Kennedy moonshot or the Reagan SDI. Failing that, China will win, just as Russia almost won before Ronald Reagan took office.
Teenagers home from school today.
Last year in November three teens were arrested and admitted to planning a school shooting. Yesterday a student saw a threat on social media and brought it to the attention of school administration.
Thursday, October 04, 2018
They are lucky we didn't show up with pitchforks! Instead, we sent in Donald Trump!
Andrew's 2-minute opening monolog is once again terrific.
Donald Trump has a magical ability to make his opposition destroy themselves. Remember Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Hillary Clinton?
The Left is lucky we didn't show up with pitchforks. Instead, we sent Donald Trump! The American people have been bullied by the Left: Obama and Holder, the Leftist media, Leftist Senators and Representatives.
The other thing that is a problem for Democrats is the amazing job Trump is doing with the economy. It was announced this week that female unemployment is at a fifty-year low at 3.9%. It has been cut in half since
a point in Obama's second term.
Dr. Sebastian Gorka is Andrew's guest today. He believes China is the biggest long term threat to us. Remember, Gorka was privy to top secret information during his time in the Trump White House. China uses non-kinetic means, pumping cultural messages into the United States through its Confucius Institutes. Dr. Gorka talks about it in his new book Why We Fight.We didn't lose the will to fight; it was buried under an ice layer of political correctness. Americans are now allowed to say that America is the greatest nation on earth!
What about the Islamic threat? Gorka agrees it is a threat but he points out that there is no homogeneity in the Islamic world (like the Beijing Politburo). In the People's Republic of China there are billions of people controlled by one party.
Andrew is bothered by the Kavanaugh hearings because of the virulent hatred of the Left and the dishonesty of the media. Gorka believes Trump has preternatural political skills. He knows what Kavanaugh is going through. He knows it from personal experience.
McConnell has made it happen when it comes to supporting Trump's nomination of conservative judges.
Donald Trump has a magical ability to make his opposition destroy themselves. Remember Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Hillary Clinton?
The Left is lucky we didn't show up with pitchforks. Instead, we sent Donald Trump! The American people have been bullied by the Left: Obama and Holder, the Leftist media, Leftist Senators and Representatives.
The other thing that is a problem for Democrats is the amazing job Trump is doing with the economy. It was announced this week that female unemployment is at a fifty-year low at 3.9%. It has been cut in half since
a point in Obama's second term.
Dr. Sebastian Gorka is Andrew's guest today. He believes China is the biggest long term threat to us. Remember, Gorka was privy to top secret information during his time in the Trump White House. China uses non-kinetic means, pumping cultural messages into the United States through its Confucius Institutes. Dr. Gorka talks about it in his new book Why We Fight.We didn't lose the will to fight; it was buried under an ice layer of political correctness. Americans are now allowed to say that America is the greatest nation on earth!
What about the Islamic threat? Gorka agrees it is a threat but he points out that there is no homogeneity in the Islamic world (like the Beijing Politburo). In the People's Republic of China there are billions of people controlled by one party.
Andrew is bothered by the Kavanaugh hearings because of the virulent hatred of the Left and the dishonesty of the media. Gorka believes Trump has preternatural political skills. He knows what Kavanaugh is going through. He knows it from personal experience.
McConnell has made it happen when it comes to supporting Trump's nomination of conservative judges.
What are our primary energy sources? Are we "transitioning" to wind and solar? Hardly.
John Hinderaker showed this chart at PowerLine. It was originally published at Watt's Up With That.
Click to enlarge.
Click to enlarge.
This chart is even more striking. It shows the contributions of various forms of energy in percentage terms.Read more here.
Obama admits to being a "thug!"
Obama on his adolescent years in a rare video of a 2001 interview:
— Ryan Saavedra 🇺🇸 (@RealSaavedra) October 3, 2018
-"I was a thug," a "mischievous child"
-"I got into fights."
-"I drank and did--and consumed substances that weren't always legal."
-"I might have drank a six-pack in an hour before going back to class" pic.twitter.com/fesvtAPtFH
Wednesday, October 03, 2018
Pendulum swinging the other way now?
Okay, now I understand the issue about helping people prepare for polygraph tests. A former boyfriend of Ford's claims he knows that Ford helped her best friend prepare for a polygraph test when the friend was applying to become an FBI agent. As Greg Gutfeld said, now the pendulum is swinging the other way: the uncorroborated allegations are now being aimed at Ford.
Sorry folks, I cannot listen to Juan Williams. I don't know what else happened on the show after he started talking.
Sorry folks, I cannot listen to Juan Williams. I don't know what else happened on the show after he started talking.
The chain of evidence, The stairs God has put in front of us to climb, How Leftists frame events
The New York Times, a former newspaper, has evidence that when he was five-years-old Brett Kavanaugh pulled a girl's pigtails.
Leftists paint events this way: There is the Left's version and there is the "haters" version. For example, "You have to believe women who say they have been raped." Andrew asked, "How many people are there in America who believe no women have ever been raped?" None! The point we are trying to understand in the kavanaugh case is "Did this man attempt to rape or molest this woman?"
In answer to a subscriber's letter in today's mailbag, Andrew says that he did a lot of terrible things when he was younger, but God put a stairway there for him to climb and become a better person. Is it too late for you and me? No! God knows where we have been and what we have done. If we walk up those stairs God has put in front of us, there will be more and more joy in our lives because we will be closer to God! It is never too late to begin! Just do the next right thing and take the next step up!
Leftists paint events this way: There is the Left's version and there is the "haters" version. For example, "You have to believe women who say they have been raped." Andrew asked, "How many people are there in America who believe no women have ever been raped?" None! The point we are trying to understand in the kavanaugh case is "Did this man attempt to rape or molest this woman?"
In answer to a subscriber's letter in today's mailbag, Andrew says that he did a lot of terrible things when he was younger, but God put a stairway there for him to climb and become a better person. Is it too late for you and me? No! God knows where we have been and what we have done. If we walk up those stairs God has put in front of us, there will be more and more joy in our lives because we will be closer to God! It is never too late to begin! Just do the next right thing and take the next step up!
"Defamation," "Substantial Liability"
Did you know that Melania Trump sued The Daily Mail, which settled out of court with her by paying her 2.9 million dollars in 2017? The same lawyer who won that lawsuit is now warning the New York Times about the tax story they published yesterday.
Should the Times state or imply that President Trump participated in fraud, tax evasion, or any other crime, it will be exposing itself to substantial liability and damages for defamation.Read more here.
What happened to the 68ers?
In Commentary, Sohrab Ahmari takes a look at how the 1968 radicals became today's technocrats.
...Though they imagine themselves forever locked in combat with authority, the 68ers have, in fact, wielded authority over Western culture for half a century. In that time, everything from advertising to family and sexual life to school discipline to even Christian theology has reflected 68er impulses, which have hardened into institutional orthodoxies.Read more here.
The orthodoxies were, paradoxically, anti-tradition and anti-authority. But in practice, the 68ers were far more ruthless than the supposedly “authoritarian” generations they overthrew. One need only look to the transformation of the university during their reign to see that they viewed academe not as a refuge from conformity, but as the space where they could most fully enforce their own brand of conformity. The 68ers knew how to discipline and punish: not with tear gas and the cane, but with the administrative hearing and the speech code.
What if the blue wave turns out to be a "moist, impotent trickle?"
Roger Kimball writes at PJ Media,
The ground is littered with dead and wounded ideals: civility, dead; basic decency, dead; the presumption of innocence, gravely wounded, ditto for the idea of due process. And this disgusting carnage is all on you, O ancient one, Dianne Feinstein, and your self-important, preposterous colleagues. You were desperate to keep Brett Kavanaugh off the Supreme Court so you abandoned any semblance of decency and respect. You travestied the processes of the United States Senate for the sake of a cynical grab at power. I’d say that you should be ashamed of yourselves, but, like the thugs that you are, you have no shame. You believe the acquisition of power is a magical antidote to shame. You are wrong about that, and one can only hope that you will one day reap some portion of the obloquy you have sowed.Read more here.
...The crime of Brett Kavanaugh is that he is Donald Trump’s nominee.
...Democratic jackals on the Senate Judiciary Committee, aided and abetted by their loyal public relations firms -- the mainstream media -- and hectoring unpleasant people funded by George Soros, heap mud on Brett Kavanaugh for weeks and then step back and say: “He’s got mud all over him! Let’s move on to a more pristine victim.”
...The travesty that was the smear campaign against Brett Kavanaugh is disintegrating. He will be confirmed, but the mephitic stench of the attack against him and the rule of law will linger. I wonder if the Democrats will remember it when the tallies come in on November 6 and their vaunted blue wave turns out to be a moist, impotent trickle.
Changing the subject from Kavanaugh to Trump's finances
Don Surber reports at his blog that The New York Times wants to change the subject. That Kavanaugh thing isn't working out too well for the Left. So now they want to change the subject to Trump's finances. Did you know Trump is rich? Read all about it here.
Tuesday, October 02, 2018
The Vaping Epidemic
My son Greg is a senior at Santa Fe High School. For his journalism class, he chose to write an article in the school newspaper The Demon Tatler about the vaping epidemic among students there. It was published today, and I am proud to include it here.
The extent of e-cigarette use at Santa Fe High appears to be much larger than teachers and staff think. Small, portable nicotine delivery devices are found in the hands and pockets of students in all grades, all across the school.
“I’d say that the vast majority of my friends will hit a vape if someone offers it,” said one senior. “Half of my friends own one.”
In New Mexico, people have to be at least 18 years old to purchase any vape related products. The price of vapes ranges from as little as $10 to hundreds, meaning that vaping is as affordable as the user wants it to be.
So how does an underage kid end up with a vape? One Santa Fe High student, Daniel Lowery, explained that “some kids will give money to a person that’s over 18, but some stores will sell directly to the underage kid. That’s how many vape shops stay in business.”
“Many students are in blatant disregard of the Code of Conduct,” said Stan Mascarenas, dean of students. During the 2017-2018 school year, Mr. Mascarenas recorded 28 e-cig cases and 41 cases of tobacco use on campus. He recalls that when parents were called, many were outraged, adding that most parents are completely unaware of their child’s nicotine use. “Some parents come pick the e-cig up, but most have them destroyed,” he said.
However, administration doesn’t seem to realize the full extent of e-cig use. In an informal class survey, out of 20 students, 18 said they had friends who vape at school.
Because vaping is a relatively new phenomenon, the health hazards are pretty unknown. A study published on the website of the journal Pediatrics found frighteningly increased levels of carcinogenic compounds in the urine of kids who vape. Certain vape products contain the chemical diacetyl, which is linked to extensive lung damage. For the time being, contents of vape products are “research chemicals,” meaning scientists don’t have a clear idea of the health risks. This makes an entire generation of teens guinea pigs.
The nicotine in vapes is packed in e-liquid, or “juice.” The two types of nicotine found in juice are “freebase” and “salt nicotine.” Freebase liquid is made for those who want big clouds and strong flavor, whereas salt nicotine is for those who just want the nicotine. Salt nicotine is stronger and delivers a more intense buzz; it can only be vaped out of smaller devices with weaker batteries. This means that the little e-cigs that so many students use daily are likely to have high amounts of nicotine.
The nicotine strength in both juices vary, from 0 to 50 percent. They also come in a variety of flavors, such as blue raspberry. The most popular brands have fun, enticing names, like “Mr. Salt – E” and “Vapor Chef.” All juice products are required to have warnings about nicotine addiction, but kids might be more concerned with what flavor they are trying than what habits they are buying.
E-cig juices have an aroma and taste that is more akin to dessert or fruit than carbon monoxide and tobacco. This is dangerous because often it is the flavor of the juice that draws kids in, but it is always the nicotine that keeps them hooked.
One of the most popular e-cigarette brands, Juul, is under heavy investigation by the FDA, according to The New York Times. Nearly one in five students nationwide report that they have seen a Juul or other device being used in school, according to surveys taken by “truthinitiative.org.” According to Truth Initiative, vaping has become a common demon in high schools and middle schools alike. School administrations are scared because their efforts don’t seem to be making a dent in the problem.
So once a kid does get hooked, is there any support at this school for how to quit? “Administration appears not to realize that taking away a student’s device doesn’t take away their addiction,” said one student.
An anonymous senior who vaped high amounts of nicotine every day for a year reported his process of quitting. He described tremendous withdrawal symptoms, such as anxiety, intense cravings and even vomiting. However, these effects lasted only three days. After that, it got easier. After two weeks, he had about two cravings for nicotine a day, and they only lasted around three minutes. He described feeling better and better each day, and feeling more like himself. “Being free of the grasp of nicotine addiction is worth the pain of quitting,” he said.
When students are caught with any kind of smoking device in school, they are offered a six-day anti-smoking program, given as a disciplinary precaution. However, this class is optional. To take the class, students need their parent’s permission. It is therefore fairly easy for a kid to simply not even ask their parents.
A student who attended the class two separate times said, “It didn’t teach me anything. I was on my phone the whole time, and they didn’t even notice.”
E-cigarettes are protected at SFHS by their absolute glorification. Students trying to fit in might find themselves addicted to nicotine for years.
It’s 2018, and kids are still getting addicted to nicotine for fun. The question is, what can reverse this trend?
Trump's huge trade victory,The case against Kavanaugh is falling to pieces, Grievance-organized mobs
The Left is shifting its emphasis away from Kavanaugh committing sexual malfeasance and now is emphasizing temperament and honesty and drinking.
A judge who isn't angry at the site of a lynch mob coming after him does not deserve to be a judge! That would not be a man who loves justice! He should be angry at the Left for stirring up the mob against due process and the rule of law.
Andrew shows how the Left is expert in using language. That is why Andrew is putting out the Leftese dictionary. Today's feature was "I is for Intersectionality."
Andrew notices how incredibly cool President Trump is being on this Kavanaugh controversy. Trump has fantastic political instincts. He is bouncing the leftist media down the street as if they were basketballs.
At the deadline, Canada said, "Er, ah, we'd like to be part of this US and Mexico trade agreement, too!" The deal has China worried.
A judge who isn't angry at the site of a lynch mob coming after him does not deserve to be a judge! That would not be a man who loves justice! He should be angry at the Left for stirring up the mob against due process and the rule of law.
Andrew shows how the Left is expert in using language. That is why Andrew is putting out the Leftese dictionary. Today's feature was "I is for Intersectionality."
Andrew notices how incredibly cool President Trump is being on this Kavanaugh controversy. Trump has fantastic political instincts. He is bouncing the leftist media down the street as if they were basketballs.
At the deadline, Canada said, "Er, ah, we'd like to be part of this US and Mexico trade agreement, too!" The deal has China worried.
"You can't unsee it!"
This is a very substantial Scott Adams podcast. First, Scott tells us about the overdose on Fentanyl that killed his stepson this week. He calls for the death of the Chinese and others involved in making and distributing Fentanyl. Thirty thousand Americans have now been killed by the drug.
I was happy to see him talk about the incredible success the Trump team has earned in completing trade deals with South Korea, Japan, Mexico, and Canada. The Kavanaugh hearings have overshadowed reporting on the trade successes. Trump made friends with our enemies and negotiated hard with our friends.
What did the efforts of previous administrations get us? Bad trade deals and a nuclear confrontation! If Trump appoints a second conservative to the Supreme Court and left office, and just said, "I like golfing," he would be seen as the most important president in the last 100 years! He brought a systems approach and business perspective to the job. Once you've seen it, you can't unsee it. We've never seen it before. Future presidents will be held to his standard!
Trump and Kavanaugh are accused of having bad temperaments. When have women ever been accused of having bad temperaments? Are "temperamental" as used in describing men, and "hysterical," as used in describing women sexist words that should not be used?
When the economy imploded in 2007, 2008, many young adults did not leave their homes. That is also when iPhones came out. Where is the pain that motivates them to improve their situations?
I was happy to see him talk about the incredible success the Trump team has earned in completing trade deals with South Korea, Japan, Mexico, and Canada. The Kavanaugh hearings have overshadowed reporting on the trade successes. Trump made friends with our enemies and negotiated hard with our friends.
What did the efforts of previous administrations get us? Bad trade deals and a nuclear confrontation! If Trump appoints a second conservative to the Supreme Court and left office, and just said, "I like golfing," he would be seen as the most important president in the last 100 years! He brought a systems approach and business perspective to the job. Once you've seen it, you can't unsee it. We've never seen it before. Future presidents will be held to his standard!
Trump and Kavanaugh are accused of having bad temperaments. When have women ever been accused of having bad temperaments? Are "temperamental" as used in describing men, and "hysterical," as used in describing women sexist words that should not be used?
When the economy imploded in 2007, 2008, many young adults did not leave their homes. That is also when iPhones came out. Where is the pain that motivates them to improve their situations?
How Leftist celebrities portray the Kavanaugh hearings
Here is how Saturday Night Live portrayed the Kavanaugh hearings on NBC. Notice just after the ten-minute mark how they portray Lindsey Graham as a "Queen." I guess being gay is something for the Left to mock.
Monday, October 01, 2018
Brett's bar fight in 1985
The New York Times has a police report from the New Haven police about a bar fight Brett got into while a Yale student in 1985. Brett threw his beer into the face of someone who was angry at Brett. Read more here.
Why is the GOP establishment mum on Feinstein's China connections?
Ben Weingarten writes in The Federalist,
...the only response by senior members of the GOP to the Feinstein-China revelations has been to highlight the double standard between the FBI tipping Feinstein off, for at least the second time, as to China’s efforts to influence her office, and its silence — not to mention embedding of spies within the Trump presidential campaign team — regarding Russia’s alleged efforts to influence then-candidate Trump. Relatedly, the president himself raised the broader hypocrisy of Feinstein’s pursuit of the Trump-Russia investigation while she herself appears to have had a foreign spy in her house.Read more here.
...The issue of a double standard in treatment between Feinstein and Trump by law enforcement is legitimate, and one can understand why Trump would highlight Feinstein’s hypocrisy.
But these claims concern secondary matters. The heart of the Feinstein-China issue are the dire national security implications of a high-ranking senator — with access to the most sensitive and highly classified information — potentially having her office penetrated by a Chinese spy, while she held sensitive assignments as chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
What does it say about our political class that as far as we are aware, the lone representative to inquire into the merits of the issue was Republican Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana, who sent a letter to the FBI — to little fanfare and as of yet zero major public amplification — posing the most basic of queries?
...If members of Congress do not care to pursue the truth purely because of 2018 political calculations — and incidentally, their investigation into Feinstein might only bolster her campaign (for a seat that will go Democrat regardless) by rallying her base in her defense — that is a sad commentary that they are prioritizing politics over national security.
...This is most devastating for our republican system of government. Of all the areas that must remain free from corrosive politicization, national security and foreign affairs sits right at the top alongside the justice system because it deals with matters of life and death.
While it was clear during the Obama years that politics was engulfing our institutions in chilling ways, such as in the weaponization of the IRS, the backlash by the institutions against Trump, lest he upset the status quo under which it retains power, has shown that politics has truly triumphed.
That Congress has shown zero desire to investigate the alleged Chinese spy in Feinstein’s office is another symptom of this politicization, an indictment of both parties and an indictment of the institution itself.
The silence on Feinstein-China is deafening.
Red Flags on Ford's testimony
Matt Margolis writes in PJ Media,
In the short time since Christine Blasey Ford testified, many have gone out of their way to equate her emotional testimony with credibility. But, there are several red flags that should inform reasonable people that she can’t be trusted.Read more here.
5. Her Bogus Fear of Flying Story
...She was lying about the fear of flying in order to delay the hearing, or she legitimately didn’t know because her lawyers never told her, which proves she’s been manipulated by them and the Democrats entirely for politics. Either option is devastating for her credibility.
4. All The Bizarre Demands
...Christine Blasey Ford is in no position to make any sort of demands about how the FBI investigation should be handled. This comes in the wake of prior demands, which were beyond absurd, asking, amongst other things, that Ford be allowed to testify after Kavanaugh and that GOP senators ask her questions. Despite extensive efforts to accommodate Ford, they were bashing the process as unfair. Ford and her lawyers seem more concerned about politics, optics, and delaying the process than the truth.
3. Her Incomplete Polygraph Results
John Hawkins previously noted weird issues with Professor’s Ford’s answers regarding the polygraph test she took, including her inability to say for sure when it happened and who paid for it. But, by her testimony, she sounded strangely ignorant of polygraphs, how they work, and was unable to say whether she was recorded, be it by video or audio. But, she said she was “asked a lot of questions” and described it as taking “much longer than I anticipated." She also said she“told my whole life story.” But, the committee was only provided with the results for two specific questions. Those two questions were based on a handwritten statement, and not multiple, specific questions about the incident. The statement also included revisions like cross-outs and added words. Did we only get the results for two questions that referenced her sloppy handwritten statement, because answers to questions regarding specific details were exculpatory?
2. Her Immediate Family Is Silent
Anyone in her immediate family could corroborate this happened during the summer she was fifteen but nobody has. Why not?
1. Her Claiming Privilege on the Therapist’s Notes
"I think most of the base would prefer the Thursday Graham GOP to the Friday Flake GOP. There's little I loathe more than twits who stage public bouts of conscience-wrestling."
Mark Steyn writes,
...Out there in old-school GOP Pantywaiststan, three Republican governors in blue states (included the wretched squishes in my neighboring jurisdictions of Vermont and Massachusetts) are calling for the Kavanaugh nomination to be mothballed indefinitely pending interminable ersatz investigation of whatever unprovable charges are leveled by whoever Creepy Porn Lawyer's next client is.Read more here.
But GOP voters saw yesterday the difference one or two stout-hearted men can make. Kavanaugh de-Borked himself, and Graham sealed the deal. That is a rare victory over the sewer divers. Minutes ago, the nomination passed the Judiciary Committee, but with the tepid and conditional support of the rather less stout-hearted Jeff Flake, who was behind the arras doing a side-deal with the Dems. We will see in the days ahead whether the Kavanaugh-Graham moment was merely that.
UPDATE: I think most of the base would prefer the Thursday Graham GOP to the Friday Flake GOP. There's little I loathe more than twits who stage public bouts of conscience-wrestling.
Ford’s allegations a “he said, she said” case that “is even weaker than that.”
Jessica McBride reports in Heavy
Rachel Mitchell, the veteran sex crimes prosecutor from Maricopa County, Arizona who was chosen by the GOP to question Christine Ford and Brett Kavanaugh, sent a memo to Republican senators calling Ford’s allegations a “he said, she said” case that “is even weaker than that.”
You can read the five-page memo and a four-page timeline at the end of it in full here.
Trump's team does it again!
Roger L. Simon writes at PJ Media,
Just a quick word about tariffs and the new NAFTA now known as the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement before I get back to my (much harder) day job finishing my novel. Call it procrastinating online - not a new phenomenon. Anyway, it seems to me as a non-economist (an asset?) that the success of this negotiation proves Trump was right about tariffs all along. They are the only way to change things. No other way has worked and despite the cacophony of criticism (from professional economists and just about everyone else) no one has even suggested another method. Already Trump has succeeded with South Korea and Europe in his negotiations and now North America. The speed of this is unbelievable. Is the Big Kahuna - China - next? The #NeverTrump crowd should wake up. This man is doing really good stuff at a breakneck clip.
Why he didn't get a date to the prom
For those of you who missed the Kavanaugh Senate confirmation hearings, Manhattan Infidel is breaking it down for us, part by part. Today is the part where Kavanaugh tries to help Senator Whitehouse understand why he did not get a date to the prom. Read it here.
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