It makes me sad.
Regards — Cliff
THINK OF THEM AS DEMOCRATIC PARTY OPERATIVES WITH LAVALIER MICS AND IT ALL MAKES SENSE: CNN covered Republican Ted Stevens’ corruption trial 6 times more than Democrat Robert Menendez: Study.But then it turned out that the DOJ was railroading Ted Stevens, and prosecutors got their hands slapped.
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
The article is at the link, above.
The two things to remember are one, once legal there will be pressure for folks to follow through and die. Second, after they come for the terminally ill they will come for the worthless eaters and then they will come for those with birth defects. Just ask those who actually follow history.♠
This is an old idea.♥ And a slippery slope.
This is wrong and for members of our society not to recognize it is disturbing.
Regards — Cliff
♠ Think about the poem by German Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984), "First they came …".
♥ The Germans had a term for it back in 1939. It was Gnadentod. You can get a Kindle version of the 1920 book Permitting the Destruction of Life Unworthy of Life for $4.99.
"Satellite broadcaster will let at least some customers get refunds for its Sunday Ticket package of NFL games if they cite players’ national anthem protests."
The Wall Street Journal has three Reporters on this, Joe Flint, Amol Sharma and Andrew Beaton. The dateline is 26 September 2017. The full story is behind a paywall, but here is an excerpt:
DirecTV is letting at least some customers cancel subscriptions to its Sunday Ticket package of NFL games and obtain refunds if they cite players’ national anthem protests as the reason, customer service representatives said Tuesday.While there has been, in the media, a lot of weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, I think that Mr Trump either chose his target wisely or is incredibly lucky. The National Football League is in some degree of economic trouble and this protest action isn't helping.Sunday Ticket’s regular policy doesn’t allow refunds once the season is under way. But the representatives said they are making exceptions this season—which began in September—in response to the protests, in which players kneel or link arms during the national anthem.
Spokesmen for DirecTV-parent AT&T Inc. and the National Football League declined to comment.
The shift is the latest twist in a controversy that has divided the nation after President Donald Trump blasted players who took a knee during the anthem and said they should be fired. He has called on people to walk out of stadiums when players are kneeling.
“For people to disrespect that by kneeling during the playing of our national anthem, I think is disgraceful,” Mr. Trump said on Tuesday.
Several teams have issued statements defending the rights of their players to express their opinion. The NFL also has shown solidarity with the players.
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
"My 96-percent increase in premiums is a useful, unvarnished look at Obamacare’s effects."
Writer and Analyst Mary Katherine Ham tells us why she isn't all that enthusiastic for the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare).
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
From the Associated Press, Friday, the 22nd of September of this year:
The White House says President Donald Trump has spoken with the governors of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.Then there is this item from The Wash Post, Reporter Ed O'Keefe, on 24 September 2017.Trump said earlier Thursday that Puerto Rico was "absolutely obliterated" and the Virgin Islands were "flattened" by recent hurricanes Irma and Maria.
Rosselló said he has had “great collaboration and communication” with FEMA and the Department of Health and Human Services, which have been on the island since the morning after the storm assessing damage and setting up shelters.However,But after several intense days of preparation, response, rescue and cleanup, Rosselló said, local law enforcement agencies are strained and hampered in their ability to reach far-flung areas that may still need relief. Even as he asked for more assistance from the Defense Department, he stopped short of requesting that the Trump administration declare martial law.
If the situation isn't addressed in the coming weeks, there could be “massive migration to other states, which will bring a whole host of other problems to Puerto Rico and the states. It is within everybody’s interest that we handle this situation for what it is — an unprecedented situation, where two hurricanes back-to-back hit Puerto Rico on an island that was under fiscal turmoil. Those considerations need to be taken into consideration when Congress puts together its aid bill.”The Governor of Puerto Rico, Mr Rosselló, is worried about Congress as well as the Executive Branch.
Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló is warning that his government needs broader assistance from the federal government, calling on the Pentagon especially to provide more aid for law enforcement and transportation.Did you pick up on “massive migration to other states"?Rosselló said he's also worried that Congress will shortchange his island once the initial wave of emergency relief is gone.
“We still need some more help. This is clearly a critical disaster in Puerto Rico,” he said on a shaky cellphone connection Sunday night from San Juan. “It can’t be minimized and we can’t start overlooking us now that the storm passed, because the danger lurks.”
What is our Commonwealth doing to prepare for a possible influx of American Citizens from Puerto Rico? The population of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico is 3.4 million. If 1% came here it would be 34,000, who would have to be dispersed to various Cities for shelter and support. I don't think Otis AFB, down on the Cape, is big enough to meet all the needs of these Americans. Just think of schools alone.
Regards — Cliff
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
This is an Associated Press story in The Boston Globe, by Reporter Catherine Lucey, 23 September 2017.
Here is the lede plus two:
SOMERSET, N.J. — The NFL and its players’ union on Saturday denounced President Donald Trump for suggesting that owners fire players who kneel during the national anthem and that fans consider walking out in protest ‘‘when somebody disrespects our flag.”Poor Donald Trump. He tries to give some good marketing advice to the NFL and he gets disrespected for it.“Divisive comments like these demonstrate an unfortunate lack of respect for the NFL, our great game and all of our players,’’ the league commissioner, Roger Goodell, said in a statement.
DeMaurice Smith, executive director of the NFL Players Association, tweeted: ‘‘We will never back down. We no longer can afford to stick to sports.’’
Regards — Cliff
From the blog L'Ombré L'Olivier, by Guest Blogger Jason Garik, 22 September 2017.
LANGUAGE WARNING. Some people never grow up.
Here are a couple of excerpts:
C. Manafort has publicly stated that the feds can release the information from the wiretaps and he has nothing to hide. Considering that the feds stopped tapping him at some point, this probably means he’s calling their bluff. It’s not a good look for the feds, and it doesn’t look like Manafort has something to hide.Over at The Spectator we have some musings about how the wire tapping that never happened, did. They compare it to Watergate, where, after the CIA said no, the Committee for the Reelection of the President hired former operatives to do the job. Today the FBI cooperates with the Administration in spying on political opponents.
Will we be looking an another Ray Donovan moment? "Which office do I go to to get my reputation back?" Probably not the FBI or Robert Mueller's law firm or the Obama Presidential Library. Maybe Ms Susan Rice will step up, or Mr Ben Rhodes?
Then there is this question about the Clinton Camapign.
D. Look at this from Manafort’s side. Why the hell would he be gallivanting around saying “Russia! Russia! Russia!” for the feds to maaaaaagically listen in on him? It’s too f___ing cute, and too amateur hour from a guy who’s been working in the game as long as he has. Also, the John Podesta—a Clinton consigliere also worked as an advisor with many of the same Russian/Ukrainian figures. Why aren’t the feds checking him out?On top of this there is the whole "raid" on Mr Paul Manafort's home. Is that just Special Counsel Robert Mueller playing the tough guy, or was it FBI Agents out of control? Really, picking the lock before dawn, while the person was still in bed? What if he had greeted them with a shotgun? On the other hand, shouldn't the FBI Agents have been wearing leather trench coats for this kind of operation?
Maybe the agents were in a contest with the US Congress, since "agents appeared the day Manafort was scheduled to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee". "Appeared" is a euphemism for "broke into the home".
Here is how The Old Gray Lady wrote the lede:
Paul J. Manafort was in bed early one morning in July when federal agents bearing a search warrant picked the lock on his front door and raided his Virginia home. They took binders stuffed with documents and copied his computer files, looking for evidence that Mr. Manafort, President Trump’s former campaign chairman, set up secret offshore bank accounts. They even photographed the expensive suits in his closet.Is Washington so out of control that the Special Counsel feels he needs "shock and awe" tactics? Is the swamp that wide and deep and fetid? And if it is, is Special Counsel Robert Mueller the person to drain it?
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
♠ If it comes to pass in January 2019 that the Democrats control at least the Lower House, then you can probably thank Senator John McCain, who campaigned on a promise to repeal Obamacare (PP &ACA).
If I understand this correctly, we are all blue eyed, but normally people have an additional factor in their genes which gives them another eye color. Blue eyes themselves are a genetic defect. That is interesting.
The other interesting thing is that I had understood the blue eye problem to come from the south shore of the Black Sea. The graphic has it coming out of Africa.
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
And this is why Venezuela is in trouble.
Regards — Cliff
The sub-headline is:
Here are the first three paragraphs. Here is a link to a discussion of FGM.
More than 48,400 women and girls in the state of New York are at risk of or have undergone FGM, estimates the Population Reference Bureau.Shouldn't folks be speaking out?And the AHA Foundation — a global activist group fighting for an end to violence against women — says these terrifying and brutal procedures are happening right under our noses.
Senior director Amanda Parker told Metro US: ‘With that number of at risk women and girls from communities where FGM is practiced in the state, with a large concentration in New York City, we are deluding ourselves if we think it’s not happening right in Manhattan.
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
The IRS used the political views of conservative "tea party" groups trying to get nonprofit status as a reason for extra scrutiny and continued delaying applications until 2013 — long after they said they'd stopped — new federal court filings allege.Hat tip to the InstaPundit.The new accusations counter previous IRS claims that agents did not consider political beliefs when slowing down tax-exempt applications from right-leaning groups in the months leading up to the 2012 presidential election.
The IRS had instead argued that it was merely monitoring whether the groups were conducting more political activity than was allowed.
The filings by conservative groups suing the IRS also state the agency continued the practice after IRS officials said it had stopped in 2011. …
"By trying to make this about whether this was done to help Obama win is setting the goalpost artificially too high," Eddie Greim, a lawyer representing conservative groups in the class-action suit, said in an interview with The Enquirer. "All we have to prove is whether they had the intent and if they indeed treated a set of groups differently based on their ideology."
Regards — Cliff
I ripped this off from Guido Fawkes at the Blog Site Order-Order.♠
Two interesting quotes on Newsnight suggesting that at least some Europeans are pushing Barnier and the Commission to take a more reasonable negotiating stance. Geert Bourgeois, the head of the Flemish government, stressed the need for trade talks: “I’ve met twice Barnier. I brought him to Zeebrugge. 45% of the trade of the export from Zeebrugge is to the United Kingdom, so that’s why I do my best to influence all the people, the ambassadors of the surrounding countries, to work together”. Xavier Bertrand, the influential French politician who runs the Hauts-de-France region, says Brussels’ tone should change:You say, so what. The so what is that a too arrogant approach on the part of the European Union toward Brexit would mean a disruption of trade, with resulting reductions in jobs and wages in both the EU and the UK.“I know one thing for sure – nobody has the right to punish the UK and the British people. It was a sovereign choice… punishing and looking to punish is a terrible mistake. It would be a bad message to send. It was the will of the people who voted, regardless of the consequences. It would give rise to the feeling that there’s something with more power than the will of the people, or wanting to go against the will of the people. That would be a terrible error.”The suggestion in today’s papers is that May’s speech will aim to go over the head of Barnier and appeal to the EU27 to break the deadlock. Clearly it is in the interests of EU politicians like the two above to do that.
Selfishly, I hope it means that the US capitalizes on this EU faux pas and develops stronger relations with the United Kingdom.
Hat tip to Order-Order.
Regards — Cliff
♠ When the Speaker of the House of Commons wishes to bring order back to an unruly house she or he says "Order, Order". The best in my living memory was The Right Honourable Betty Boothroyd, MP for West Bromwich West
The lede plus two:
BERLIN (Reuters) - Fears that apathy could boost the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) in an election on Sunday have driven Chancellor Angela Merkel and her main rival to urge their backers to go out and vote.Here is part of the reason for Chancellor Angela Merkel's concern:With many voters viewing a fourth term for Merkel as almost inevitable and put off by a turgid campaign - occasionally punctured by heckling and tomato hurling in protest at Merkel's refugee policy - pollsters say turnout may be low.
A GMS poll on Thursday said 34 percent were not planning to vote or were undecided, higher than the 29 percent who did not cast ballots in the last election in 2013.
Remember, Chancellor Merkel has been very pro-immigration, very pro-refugee settlement.
And here is one vignette within the article:
On September 14, CNN's website ran a story about gays in Germany who are supporting the Alternativ für Deutschland (AfD). A middle-aged Bremen couple interviewed for the piece had been violently gay-bashed by “two locally known Muslim extremists” who “were never arrested and later fled to Syria.” After failing to receive justice from local prosecutors and the mayor's office, the couple had cast their lot in with AfD.If betting I would be on Chancellor Merkel, but I think I would not be surprised if she ended up like Ms Clinton.“I don't like everything they say,” admitted one of the two gay men, a longtime leftist and former Green Party voter, “but this is too dangerous for gay people to live openly here, if we get attacked like that. We need a party that's talking openly about this.” Like FN, AfD opposes same-sex marriage – but also has gay people in its leadership, and is supported by a higher percentage of gays than of straights.
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
Here is the lede plus one:
The recent kerfuffle over Clay Travis and his trademark phrase “I like the First Amendment and… boobs” has flooded social media these last few days. And it brings up a fascinating amount of cognitive dissonance. Keith Reed, who immediately white-knighted on behalf of poor, offended Brooke Baldwin, posted frequently on the subject of boobs, ass, and attractive women on his public social media pages. Brooke herself frequently wears things that accentuate her breasts and has ‘suffered’ references to boobs many times before. The outrage over the mere mention of boobs is all fake.This seems to be a modern version of a Kulturkampf.The thing of it is, today people often take things out of context deliberately in order to feel the rush of being offended; to get attention and sympathy from others. Being offended supplies a person with increased social status. Being offended makes them powerful for a moment. So any opportunity that presents itself, even if deliberately taken out of context or obviously exaggerated, is quickly embraced. Brooke and Keith both saw golden opportunities to be offended by Clay Travis mentioning boobs.
Wikipedia bios:
• Clay TravisHat tip to the InstaPundit.
• Keith Reed
• Brooke Baldwin
Regards — Cliff
When we last saw him, a few weeks ago, he was still up and about and chipper, reading a novel about Nazi Occupied France.
Mic lived a full and productive life. He was from Janesville, Wisconsin, and graduated from Purdue University as a Pharmacist. He had a career in drug sales with Eli Lilly, including an assignment at their "staff college". Later he helped form a startup company that tested blood gases during operations. The company sold to 3M and Mic bought a trawler, Pendragon, and Summered in Seattle and Wintered in Laguna.
Mic is survived by his wife and two daughters, and, of course, my wife.
Regards — Cliff
Here is the lede plus three:
According to a new report from CNN, Paul Manafort, who for a time last year was the Trump campaign chairman, was indeed wiretapped by the federal government, both before and after the election.Don't you wish Richard Nixon was still in the White House? If he was this would are a major scandal.Manafort, it ought to be noted, had an apartment inside Trump Tower at that time, so it is virtually certain that surveillance of him would have included other members of the Trump campaign staff, maybe even Trump himself. In other words, it looks like Trump's tweet may have been right. So why did three top members of Congress from both parties, and the country's top law enforcement officers all assure us that the surveillance didn't happen? That there wasn't a shred of evidence to suggest it had happened? Were they lying or did tey simply not know?
Neither answer is comforting.
Either the intelligence agency has gone rogue, pursuing its own goals without meaningful oversight from elected officials, or, our elected officials are colluding with each other to lie to the public, apparently for political reasons.
Here is the long form version of the story.
From Front Page Magazine and Writer Daniel Greenfield, it has a dateline of 20 September 2017.
The lede and a few:
Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical left and Islamic terrorism.I am hoping the current Ken Burns series on Viet-nam will talk about the Domestic Spying that went on in the 1960s and early 1970s. Things covered by the Church Committee. Then there was the veneer of national security. Today it is just politics.♠Last week, CNN revealed (and excused) one phase of the Obama spying operation on Trump. After lying about it on MSNBC, Susan Rice admitted unmasking the identities of Trump officials to Congress.
Rice was unmasking the names of Trump officials a month before leaving office. The targets may have included her own successor, General Flynn, who was forced out of office using leaked surveillance.
While Rice’s targets weren’t named, the CNN story listed a meeting with Flynn, Bannon and Kushner.
Bannon was Trump’s former campaign chief executive and a senior adviser. Kushner is a senior adviser. Those are exactly the people you spy on to get an insight into what your political opponents plan to do.
Now the latest CNN spin piece informs us that secret FISA orders were used to spy on the conversations of Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort. The surveillance was discontinued for lack of evidence and then renewed under a new warrant. This is part of a pattern of FISA abuses by Obama Inc. which never allowed minor matters like lack of evidence to dissuade them from new FISA requests.
Desperate Obama cronies had figured out that they could bypass many of the limitations on the conventional investigations of their political opponents by ‘laundering’ them through national security.
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
♠ I wonder if Mrs Clinton thinks back to her time on the Senate Watergate Committee as a staffer and thinks about how wrong President Nixon was, or if she thinks that he was just wrong to get caught.
Here is the lede plus a few paragraphs:
After last month’s violent clashes in Charlottesville, Va., that left one woman dead and many others injured, the left has focused not on some sort of national healing but on destruction — specifically, of old statues of long-dead men.There is no telling where this may go. What will be needed to please the crowd next time. It is almost like the Roman Circus, but without the animals being involved.And it doesn’t much matter what those men stood for. America’s culture of idol worship and public defenestration has come for anything set in stone.
Last Tuesday, a statue of Christopher Columbus in Central Park had its hands painted red and a sinister message warning “#somethingscoming” was spray-painted on the statue’s base. That same day, protesters covered a Thomas Jefferson statue at the University of Virginia with a black sheet. On Wednesday in Baltimore, a monument to Francis Scott Key, author of “The Star Spangled Banner,” was defaced with the words “Racist Anthem.” On Thursday, Wall Street’s “charging bull” was covered in blue paint.
Conservatives and President Trump warned the vandalism of Confederate monuments was a slippery slope. Liberals scoffed.
. . .
The differences were so obvious, we were told, that common sense would prevail. It was the triumph of hope over experience. Anyone who doesn’t line up with current progressive social mores is out. The war isn’t on history; it’s on anything that isn’t specifically leftist — now, today, subject to change tomorrow.
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
Here is how the Blog Post starts:
As ever, Paris was the place to see really hot models, but you have missed your chance. A couple of years ago they were basking in the admiration of the world. Now, they are looking a little old. However you can still read about them in today’s Times:Here is how it ends, with a bit of snark:We were wrong — worst effects of climate change can be avoided, say scientistsCatastrophic impacts of climate change can still be avoided, according to scientists who have admitted they were too pessimistic about the chances of limiting global warming.
The world has warmed more slowly than had been predicted by computer models, which were “on the hot side” and overstated the impact of emissions on average temperature, research has found.
New forecasts suggest that the world has a better chance than claimed of meeting the goal set by the Paris Agreement on climate change of limiting warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.
The study, published in the prestigious journal Nature Geoscience, makes clear that rapid reductions in emissions will still be required but suggests that the world has more time to make the necessary changes.
Michael Grubb, professor of international energy and climate change at University College London and one of the study’s authors, admitted that his previous prediction had been wrong.
He [Professor Grubb] said that too many of the models used “were on the hot side”, meaning they forecast too much warming.Another approach may be that this is mainly an engineering problem, in which the engineering has to stay ahead of the climate changes.See, I promised you hot models and here are so many hot models, you may even get tired of hot models.
Regards — Cliff
From The Wall Street Journal, an OpEd from Professor Carol M Swain, 11 September 2017.
From the article:
Richard Cohen, president of the Southern Poverty Law Center, was to testify before the House Homeland Security Committee about threats posed by domestic extremist groups. The hearing, scheduled for Tuesday, has been postponed because of Hurricane Irma. As a black conservative who has been smeared by the SPLC, I recommend against reinviting Mr. Cohen.Hat tip to the InstaPundit.When Morris Dees and Joseph J. Levin Jr. started the SPLC in 1971, it was needed and it had noble goals. In recent years, however, it has become a tool of the radical left. Domestically, it uses its influence to paint with a broad brush that smears immigration restrictionists, orthodox Christian churches and pro-family organizations as “hate groups.”
What landed me in the SPLC’s crosshairs was a Sept. 10, 2009, Huffington Post blog entry titled “Mission Creep and the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Misguided Focus.” I pointed out the SPLC’s silence about video footage released after the 2008 elections showing members of the New Black Panther Party, decked out in full paramilitary regalia, patrolling a polling precinct in Philadelphia where they were clearly intimidating white voters.
Although several news organizations covered the story, the SPLC ignored the incident. At the time, the law center was spending an inordinate amount of time attacking then-CNN host Lou Dobbs for his relentless focus on illegal immigration. It demanded that CNN fire the anchor. After CNN and Mr. Dobbs parted ways, the SPLC took credit for getting him off the air. I ended my post with a one-liner that raised the ire of the organization and had a devastating effect on my life. I wrote: “Rather than monitoring hate groups, the Southern Poverty Law Center has become one.”
The SPLC’s retaliation was vicious and effective. On Oct. 17, 2009, my photo appeared on the front page of my local newspaper, the Tennessean, with the headline “Carol Swain is an apologist for white supremacists.” That was a quote from Mark Potok, at the time the SPLC’s national spokesman. The context for Mr. Potok’s attack was a review I gave for a film titled “A Conversation About Race.” I endorsed it for classroom use because it offered a perspective on race rarely encountered on university campuses. Mr. Potok argued that the filmmaker was a bigot. I felt then and now that the perspective needed to be heard.
I stand with Ms Swain.
Regards — Cliff
The lede plus one:
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — An Oregon parent wanted details about school employees getting paid to stay home. A retired educator sought data about student performance in Louisiana. And college journalists in Kentucky requested documents about the investigations of employees accused of sexual misconduct.This is just flat wrong.Instead, they got something else: sued by the agencies they had asked for public records.
The General Court should act to ban this kind of thing.
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
I am reluctant to quote a big swath of some blog, but this is too good to not drag you into it. Ms Scalia has dummied up an intro to her own future autobiography, based on the recent offering of Ms Hillary Clinton. Here it is:
When she was pregnant with me, my mother gained 70lbs and her doctor was convinced she would be giving birth to twins. In the instinctive way of knowing that predated sonograms, my mother assured him, “there’s just one baby.”Hat tip to the InstaPundit.“I don’t know, you’re pretty huge,” he told her as he lit a cigarette for himself, and one for her.
His conviction held until several minutes after my birth. The way my mother told it, she had just enjoyed a plate of spaghetti and meatballs when her labor began and, “I walked right into the delivery room with my coat still on.”
A few minutes later the doctor limped in. “He only had one leg,” my mother always made sure to add, “because the other one got blown off in World War II, so we called him Doctor Pegleg.”
This was a lie. He wore no prosthetic at all and lumbered around on crutches, but my mother relished little flourishes like that, so Dr. Pegleg he remained.
“After he delivered you, he kept reaching around and even ordered a sandbag to be put on my stomach! I said, ‘what are you doing?’ and he said, ‘I’m looking for the other baby.’
‘There is no other baby!’ I told him, and when he finally got the placenta out he believed me. Then, standing on the one leg, he lifted you up in both of his hands, like he was making an offering to the sun, and started to sing ‘When Irish Eyes are Smiling.’”
“I always tell people I threw away the baby and kept the afterbirth,” she would add.
From there, things went downhill pretty quickly.
Regards — Cliff
Here is the lede:
When Donald Trump announced his decision to end DACA—former president Obama’s program to protect the so-called Dreamers from arrest and deportation—in six months and threw the issue to Congress, he pleased his core supporters. However, it turns out that for many Americans, the issue of keeping or cancelling DACA is not the same as the question of what to do about the Dreamers.So, what we are seeing is that supporters of President Trump may be more nuanced in their views than they are given credit for. Yes to the 800,000 illegal immigrants under DACA, but no to any further immigration. The appears to be President Trump's position.
What is Congress's position?
Regards — Cliff
The lede;
CHICAGO — Attorney General Jeff Sessions can’t follow through — at least for now — with his threat to withhold public safety grant money to Chicago and other so-called sanctuary cities for refusing to impose new tough immigration policies, a judge ruled Friday in a legal defeat for the Trump administration.Remember, back in your history lessons in school, how all those Democratic Party controlled Southern States used to defy the Federal Government?♠ It is the same old game, except it has shifted from Democratic Politician controlled states to Democratic Party controlled cities and now they are suing in Federal Courts where they hope to get favorable rulings.
Regards — Cliff
♠ One time President Eisenhower Federalized the Arkansas National Guard to turn them from defying the order of a Federal Judge to enforcing it.
The date is 13 September 2017.
In this week’s politics chat, we talk about Hillary Clinton’s new book. The transcript below has been lightly edited.Regards — Cliff
Here are two paragraphs from well down in the OpED:
The travesties of justice carried out under the new Title IX guidelines have been the subject of some excellent books and superb journalism, none better than Emily Yoffe’s in The Atlantic. And yet the response of the progressive left has been indifferent or worse."Hackneyed" due process? Ms Siskind is ignorant. Due process is what keeps the law on the rails. And the Government, with its vast powers.On Thursday, the social activist Amy Siskind tweeted that the conservative writer David French should “ST🁢U with your hackneyed due process talking point” after the latter pointed out that “campus kangaroo courts violate fundamental rights.”♠
In the 1966 play A Man for All Seasons, the case is well put by Sir Thomas, talking to his Son-in-Law, Mr William Roper, MP.
William Roper: So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law!This is the kind of understand totally lacking on the part of the Antifa movement, and by Progressives who adhere to them and their approach to freedom.Sir Thomas More: Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?
William Roper: Yes, I'd cut down every law in England to do that!
Sir Thomas More: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned 'round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man's laws, not God's! And if you cut them down, and you're just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
♠ "Hackneyed" is a term used when legitimate arguments are not working. It is a weak response.
This is a report from The Federalist, written by Mr David Harsanyi, 14 September 2017.
Very disappointing, although I suppose she thought she was protecting the family jewels of US Intelligence by not revealing the "unmasking" of members of the Trump Team, post election.
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
Why destroy an artist's work of art when you can gather people around it and talk about it and the background of the person or event being remembered by the piece of art?
I wonder how many of those opposed to the statues of Confederate soldiers♠ refuse to drive on US Route 1 because part of it goes through Virginia, where it is known as Jefferson Davis Highway? Or refuse to drive over the Woodrow Wilson Bridge where Interstate 95 crosses the Potomac River?
Hat tip to my buddy Neal.
Regards — Cliff
♠ What about Confederate Sailors?
Check the first item, by Ms Debra Heine.
How did the trial of a Democrat US Senator from New Jersey (Bob Menendez) turn into an issue in Massachusetts? Big, corrupt, PAC funds.
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
What more needs to be said?
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
Here is the lede plus three:
Calls to punish global warming skepticism as a criminal offense have surged in the aftermath of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, but it hasn’t discouraged climate scientists like Judith Curry.Well, it sounds like hyperbole, but this kind of talk has resulted in some nasty outcomes in the past.A retired Georgia Tech professor, she argued on her Climate Etc. website that Irma, which hit Florida as a Category 4 hurricane on Saturday, was fueled in large part by “very weak” wind shear and that the hurricane intensified despite Atlantic Ocean temperatures that weren’t unusually warm.
That is the kind of talk that could get policymakers who heed her research hauled before the justice system, if some of those in the climate change movement have their way.
“Climate change denial should be a crime,” declared the Sept. 1 headline in the Outline. Mark Hertsgaard argued in a Sept. 7 article in the Nation, titled “Climate Denialism Is Literally Killing Us,” that “murder is murder” and “we should punish it as such.”
Do we really want to control what people think? If we think they are thinking wrongly we do not vote them into positions of power. If they have the majority behind them, then we have to rethink how we are presenting the data.
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
The House and Senate have unanimously passed a joint resolution urging President Trump to denounce racist and anti-Semitic hate groups, sending a blunt message of dissatisfaction with the president’s initial, equivocal response to the white nationalist violence in Charlottesville, Va., last month.I will grant you the President was not particularly articulate after the demonstrations in Charlottesville, Virginia. On the other hand, he was not wrong to suggest that the Antifa protestors were just as bad as the folks they were protesting, the Klan, the Neo-Nazis, the White Supremacists. Relax for a moment and remember that the Antifa come from the line of Stalin and his ilk.
Sure, there is Prime Minister Winston Churchill's famous line "If Hitler invaded hell I would make at least a favorable reference to the devil in the House of Commons", referring to the German invasion of the Soviet Union, but the point was that Germany was the near threat and the Soviet Union the far threat.
Let us not be making any pacts with the Stalinists. If Mars invades, then yes. But, not before. Remember, these are the people who thought the Weimar Republic should be destroyed, which, in the event, resulted in the rise of Adoph Hitler and his National Socialist Party.
This isn’t the GOP majority I was hoping for, but it is the one I’ve come to expect.Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
From The Washingtonian, one of at least two outlets with this story. The writer is Micheelle Cottle and the dateline is 27 Aug 2017.
Here is the second paragraph:
It’s a gorgeous spring morning, and Sally Quinn—the hotshot journalist turned wife of legendary Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee turned gatekeeper of Washington society turned religion columnist and about-to-turn evangelist for mysticism, magic, and the divine—is tucked into a wicker settee behind her Georgetown mansion, awaiting the arrival of an ABC News crew.Folks, this is not Christianity, or Judaism, or even Islam. This is about the embrace of the other side. To quote from the article, Ms Quinn is:
...a believer in the occult and as an erstwhile practitioner of voodoo...The thing is, it is probably real, and it is for sure wrong. Remember, Samuel, now deceased, is very grumpy about being summoned by the Witch of Endor (First Samuel, Chapter 28:3–25). King Saul should not have been doing such things. And it turned out poorly for him.
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
The relatively low loss of life in both Texas and Florida underscores advances in prediction technology and citizen preparedness. But property destruction is growing, experts say, as the US places more people and more wealth in vulnerable areas.This is from The Christian Science Monitor, Staff Writers Patrik Johnson and Harry Bruinius.
Better forecasting and better construction and better Second Responder response.♠ Also, sufficient people in a given area to allow for First Responders, you and your neighbors, to effectively help one another.
Of course we could ban people from living anywhere except the Progressive Lillypads of America.
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
♠ You know, the Government. The real first responders are you and your neighbors.
Talk about twisting the English language into a pretzel. The Associated Press on Tuesday hyped fear about the end of DACA as it referred to “undocumented citizens” in Chicago.Here is the quote Mr Whitlock pulled from the Associated Press:
[Rahm] Emanuel spoke as Chicago Public Schools marked the first day of classes Tuesday. The mayor told students at Solorio Academy High School they “are welcome in the city of Chicago.” The Chicago Sun-Times reports that school officials say about a third of the school’s students are undocumented citizens. Emanuel said Chicago schools “will be a Trump-free zone.”Frankly, the only undocumented Citizens I know of are little babies who haven't had their foot print taken and their Birth Certificate cranked out. All others are in this country illegally. You are either a Citizen, a legal Immigrant, a refugee, a legal Migratory Worker or a Tourist (like those Canadians who will be driving to Florida soon to check in their mobile homes. All others are law breakers, trying to jump the queue and thus disadvantaging those seeking to come to this nation through legal processes.
And, as a side note, one third of the students in Chicago's Solorio Academy High School. That suggests a breakdown somewhere in the Immigration System. A third.
Hat tip to the Conservative Review.
Regards — Cliff
Yesterday, Hanscom AFB, all flags at half-staff.
Regards — Cliff
Here are the pertinent paragraphs:
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has gained traction in recent weeks, but contrary to media reports, the group does not exist to "monitor hate groups" but to destroy groups that it targets for "strictly ideological" reasons. In light of large donations from Apple, J.P. Morgan, and George Clooney, and CNN's favorable coverage of the SPLC, Americans should learn the real motivations behind this far-left organization.And, they get to decide who is a "hate group." Sometimes they protect one side of an argument against another side. See, for example, Ayaan Hirsi Ali. As you may recall, the person she was collaborating with on a film on Islam, in the Netherlands, Theo van Gogh, was brutally murdered on the streets of Amsterdam. The murderer, Mohammed Bouyeri, left a note on the body, pinned by a knife, threatening Ms Ali with death. But, to SPLC, Ms Ali is the bad person, the hateful person, the oppressor. Go figure.In the words of SPLC former spokesman Mark Potok (who spent 20 years as a senior fellow at the SPLC and only retired this year, according to LinkedIn), the group does not exist to monitor hate groups.
"Sometimes the press will describe us as monitoring hate groups, I want to say plainly that our aim in life is to destroy these groups, completely destroy them," Potok declared at an event in Michigan in 2007.
So, who are the haters?
And why can't the ACLU see it?
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
Here is how it goes (lede plus five):
The big video clip breaking from the sneak preview of this weekend’s Charlie Rose interview of Stephen K. Bannon on 60 Minutes consists of Bannon claiming the Catholic Church only supports DACA and other lenient immigration policies for money and to fill their churches.I actually feel sorry for Ms Nancy Pelosi. Maybe her public and private positions are the same, but maybe not. Maybe she is pulled, and I say that I am sorry for her if that is the case.“They need illegal aliens. They need illegal aliens to fill the churches, it’s obvious on the face of it. That’s what the entire Catholic bishop’s condemning. They have an economic interest in unlimited immigration, unlimited illegal immigration.”
It’s a sexy sound byte and it’s completely understandable that it’s getting the attention it deserves. I take issue with Bannon’s take on this, but that’s better argued by brilliant Catholic writers like Ed Morrissey at Hot Air. Frankly, I’m much less interested in Bannon’s words and behavior in this exchange (as a former Breitbart employee I am more than familiar with the executive chairman’s view of the Church) than I am in Rose’s badgering of Bannon on his faith.
“I remind you, a good Catholic,” Rose intoned severely, “that Cardinal Dolan is opposed to what’s happened with DACA.” Rose then leaned in and repeated, for Catholic guilt-ridden emphasis: “Cardinal Dolan.”
Amazing.
Like many conservative Catholics, I so look forward to Rose pressuring Catholic Democrats on their abortion-on-demand policies in a similar way. In fact, isn’t it fair to ask why this kind of questioning hasn’t already taken place between the numerous exchanges between Rose and the California Democrat? Strangely, I can’t seem to find it. In the transcript of an interview in 2010, abortion is only raised by Pelosi while talking about backlash on Obamacare. No follow-up from Rose.
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
Here is the lede plus three:
More than 6,500 people registered to vote in New Hampshire on Nov. 8 using out-of-state driver’s licenses, and since then the vast majority have neither obtained an in-state license nor registered a motor vehicle.If they film this, I envision a shot of a congo line of buses heading north on US Route 3, with Burt Reynolds in the blocker. On the sound track we hear Jerry Reed singing:Conservatives say the state’s same-day registration is an invitation for fraud because of loose proof-of-residence rules.
New Hampshire House Speaker Shawn Jasper, a Republican, issued the numbers Thursday based on inquiries he made to the Department of State, which oversees elections, and the Department of Safety.
Since Election Day, Republicans have charged that a significant number of nonresident Democrats, principally from Massachusetts, flowed into New Hampshire to vote illegally, tilting a close race to their party.
We're going to do what they say can't be done.Because we have been assured by Democrats that voter fraud just does not happen.
The nums?
Ms Clinton, at 47.6% (348,521 popular vote)The dif?Mr Trump, at 47.2% (345,789 popular vote)
2,732 votesHat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
It is a fairly complex examination as Bloomberg's Megan McArdle dives down the rabbit hole, chasing why the Ruth Institute is listed as a hate group. This is a report from 7 September 2017.
After the SPLC finishes up with the Ruth Institute they could be coming for you. Remember what Pastor Martin Niemöller said:
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Because I was not a Socialist.Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
Regards — Cliff
From The Daily Mail (UK), based on an 8 September 2017 Associated Press story.
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
How would it be if we questioned Dianne Feinstein's ability to serve as a senator because she is Jewish? After all, "You know, dogma and law are two different things. And I think whatever a religion is, it has its own dogma. The law is totally different." So said the senator in her recent questioning of Notre Dame law professor Amy Barrett, a Trump nominee for the Seventh District Court of Appeals, and a believing Catholic. Of course, Senator Feinstein's hostility to Catholic dogma — including the divinity of Christ — might be seen as an expression of her own Jewish dogma, denying Christ's divinity. We might say to the senator what she said to Professor Barrett: "the dogma lives loudly within you, and that’s of concern when you come to big issues that large numbers of people have fought for years in this country." As a liberal Jew, for instance, the senator might deny that our founding guarantees of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," apply to children in the womb — a principle large numbers of people have indeed fought for for years.If this an organized effort or just a smattering?But of course — of course — it would be despicable, disgusting and deeply unAmerican to question Senator Feinstein in this way. Not because religious dogma can't be questioned. All ideas can be questioned and attacked. And it's not because there isn't a danger of dogmatic religious people imposing their dogma on our secular government. I for one wouldn't allow a Muslim who believed in the abomination of Sharia to come anywhere near an American bench because the very idea of Sharia is antithetical to the underlying principles of American law.
No. It would be disgusting and unAmerican to attack Senator Feinstein on the basis of her Jewishness because it violates the very principles of our founding, so deeply connected to Judaeo-Christian thought. Article Six of the Constitution explicitly states that all public servants, including judges, "shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States." In other words, once it is established that a candidate for public office does not hold beliefs that prevent him from swearing allegiance to the Constitution (as a belief in Sharia would), his religion is none of your damn business.
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
To be frank, it often looks like The Cipher Brief is part of the "take down Trump" crowd, but this item seems fairly balanced.
This look at how China may view the United States was provided by Mr Michael J Morell, former Acting Director of the CIA, speaking as the mythical Mr Wang Yong, an Analyst at the Chinese Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, the analytic arm of the Ministry of State Security,.
It is a pretty interesting look at both the US and China.
Regards — Cliff
A patriotic number.
Hat tip to W Magaine's In & Out.
Regards — Cliff
I am in favor of this replacement, Harriet Tubman.
Wikipedia says:
Harriet Tubman (born Araminta Ross; c. 1822 – March 10, 1913) was an American abolitionist, humanitarian, and an armed scout and spy for the United States Army during the American Civil War. Born into slavery, Tubman escaped and subsequently made some thirteen missions to rescue approximately seventy enslaved people, family and friends, using the network of antislavery activists and safe houses known as the Underground Railroad. She later helped abolitionist John Brown recruit men for his raid on Harpers Ferry, and in the post-war era was an active participant in the struggle for women's suffrage.Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
A panel from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, in a split decision, stayed the district court’s granting a permanent injunction against enforcement of certain sections of the Texas Voter ID law. Those protesting the law, claimed it was unconstitutional because it would prevent, or at least deter, voters without a “valid form of ID” from voting. The Fifth Circuit, in a surprising turn, not only applied the law to the issue before it but they also applied common sense.Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
♠ Nice airplane pics
The sub-headline says:
As a former manager, now retired, I don't think it is a great idea. Workers rubbing up against each other is a good way of generating ideas and efficiencies. That said, time lost in commuting isn't helping either the employee or the employer.
That said, I currently have a (volunteer) position, three or more hours a day, seven days a week and it is all on the internet. I get together with my boss a couple of times a year and the "audience" (some of them) once a year. It works very well.
Since our legislators are not likely to spend money on new highways, maybe it is time to ask them about improving the information highway in our Commonwealth, as a way of encouraging telecommuting and thus reducing road congestion.
Thanks to Reporter Kurt Snibbe, of Southern California News Group.
Regards — Cliff
Nota.
Regards — Cliff
From Uber Progressive Nation of Change, by Reporter Ashley Braun, 2 September 2017.
Here is how it starts out:
Environmental groups place a lot of attention on trying to stop new oil, gas, and coal development since current fossil fuel projects would likely already blow us past the less-than 2°C upper limit for warming laid out in the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement. In fact, there’s a whole movement, known as “Keep It in the Ground,” predicated on this idea.So President Reagan was correct?But when faced with a resurgence of support for fossil fuels from the White House, perhaps just as important is talking about how to “Keep It in the Cow,” according to some reports. Right now, experts predict agriculture is set to eat up half the greenhouse gas emissions the world can release by 2050 and still stay below 2°C (3.6°F) of warming.
That is, unless the world takes a big bite out of its meat consumption, especially from cattle and other livestock that chew their cud, say researchers at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden. Raising these ruminants produces a lot of methane, a much more potent but shorter-lived greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.
While “Meatless Mondays” is one approach to this problem, their studies show that it’s not necessarily how much meat people eat that’s linked to the climate impacts of their diet. Instead, it’s the amount of beef, lamb, and dairy.
A 2017 Chalmers study concluded that: “A switch from diets rich in ruminant meat to diets with meat from monogastric animals (pork, chicken) reduces [methane] emissions by almost the same amount as a switch to an entirely vegan diet.” Researchers at the University of Oxford in 2016 found similar benefits, concluding that shifting to a vegetarian diet could lessen greenhouse gas emissions by two-thirds.
Regards — Cliff
A young British girl swimming at a lake in the United Kingdom believed to hold the legendary King Arthur’s famous sword happened upon a shiny sword herself.OK then, England is to be saved by a woman. Works for me.Matilda Jones, 7, was swimming with family at Dozmary Pool while on vacation last Tuesday, when she discovered a shiny sword beneath the water, The Sheffield Star reported.
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
Here is the lede:
On The Tracinski Newsletter, the always accomplished Robert Tracinski has a post about Moral Equivalents. It is his look at the "Antifa" riots in Berkeley, following up on his coverage of the upheaval in his own town of Charlottesville. Also take a look at his take on what happened, President Trump's reaction, and how the event unhinged the left and made the Confederate statue controversy even more nonsensical.Regards — Cliff
Here is the key section:
In the tenth century… the Grand Vizier of Persia, Abdul Kassem Ismael, in order not to part with his collection of 117,000 volumes when traveling…"The larger discussion is here:
"... had them carried by a caravan of four hundred camels trained to walk in alphabetical order.
Recently, a factoid has begun popping up in my universe that makes me feel even worse. According to Alberto Manguel, author of A History of Reading,Perhaps it is the invention of writing that has led to Scientific progress and greater Economic wellbeing and, most important, Democracy.In the tenth century… the Grand Vizier of Persia, Abdul Kassem Ismael, in order not to part with his collection of 117,000 volumes when traveling, had them carried by a caravan of four hundred camels trained to walk in alphabetical order.Manguel goes on to explain that the camel drivers effectively served as librarians, each responsible for retrieving volumes from his camel at the vizier’s command.At first, I found the factoid charming: a lovely illustration of the importance of books in the early Islamic world. Then I felt a little jealous at the idea of owning 1117,000 books. Now I just feel inadequate at my inability to keep control over a couple of thousand books without the added complication of moving camels.
Hat tip to Ann Althouse.
Regards — Cliff
Third paragraph:
In interviews, more than three dozen leading Democratic donors, fund-raisers and operatives agreed that it was the earliest start they had ever seen to the jockeying that typically precedes the official kickoff to the campaign for the party’s presidential nomination. It is a reflection of the deep antipathy toward President Trump among Democrats, and the widespread belief that the right candidate could defeat him, but also of the likelihood that the contest for the nomination could be the longest, most crowded and most expensive in history.At least they are beginning to figure out that Antifa just generates more Trump voters. And Senator E Warren is highlighted in Sunday's Boston Globe in a puff piece on her religion,because some of those votes needed are out in Fly Over Country.
Mentioned in the NYT article were:
Hat tip to the Drudge Report.
Regards — Cliff
