Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Remember Corporal Louis LeBeau of Hogan's Heroes?


Summing up his Holocaust experiences: "The whole experience was a complete nightmare, the way they treated us, what we had to do to survive. We were less than animals. Sometimes I dream about those days. I wake up in a sweat terrified for fear I'm about to be sent away to a concentration camp. But I don't hold a grudge because that's a great waste of time. Yes, there's something dark in the human soul. For the most part human beings are not very nice. That's why when you find those who are, you cherish them." Robert Clary, above, right,

Actor, author, survivor: the resilience of Robert Clary


. . . "A tattoo on his left arm left him marked as prisoner A5714. Clary was later transferred to the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany. Upon his liberation from Buchenwald on April 11, 1945, Clary learned that 12 other members of his immediate family, including his parents, had been sent to the Auschwitz death camp in Poland and did not survive the Holocaust. Three of his siblings had not been deported and instead survived the Nazi occupation of France.
"Clary reflects on how he survived the Holocaust, revealing that he sang to SS soldiers at Buchenwald every week with an accordionist. He believes that singing and entertaining along with his youth and good health allowed him to make it through the ordeal. Clary also notes that due to his age he did not fully understand the severity of the concentration camps.
"His experiences during the Holocaust and the loss of his loved ones affected him deeply. What especially troubles him is that he feels that he and others in his situation were not viewed as human beings by the Nazis, and that they were usually treated as even less than animals. Upon arriving at the Buchenwald camp, Clary and his fellow prisoners had to spend the first night in a shower room. They were terrified that they would actually be gassed to death since Nazi SS officers often used fake showerheads in concentration camp gassing chambers. Clary did not receive food for his first eight days at the camp, and he and other prisoners slept on top of one another only to wake up next to the corpses of those who did not make it through the night."

NEW RULES? TRUMP’S EPIC STRUGGLE WITH THE LEFT

Political Cartoons by Bob Gorrell

PowerLineBlog  "It is evident that the left, with the active cooperation of the news media, wishes to drive Trump from office. Nothing will sate the left or get them to calm down into a recognizably responsible opposition force.

"And why shouldn’t the left think this can succeed? It has worked before. They bagged two presidents in succession back in the 1960s and 1970s—Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon. “In a sense,” Daniel Patrick Moynihan wrote of Lyndon Johnson’s decision not to run again in 1968, “he was the first American President to be toppled by a mob. No matter that it was a mob of college professors, millionaires, flower children, and Radcliffe girls.” The night Johnson announced his decision, leftists took to the streets to sing “We have overcome.”
"Now the leftist mob is larger and even more ferocious. The risk for Trump is that, like Nixon, he will commit some dreadful blunder that, as Nixon put it himself later, hands the left a sword that they can run right through him." . . .
 ". . .from the very end of FDR’s speech:
The people of the United States have not failed. In their need they have registered a mandate that they want direct, vigorous action. They have asked for discipline and direction under leadership. They have made me the present instrument of their wishes. In the spirit of the gift I take it.
"Sounds just like Trump doesn’t it? No wonder the left is freaking out. He’s using the playbook they wrote, but adding a new chapter of his own in all caps and boldface type. Sad! for the left."

Justice Gorsuch ...Updated


A Supreme Successor to Justice Scalia  . . . "In his grief over the death of a justice he deeply admired and emulated, Judge Gorsuch could hardly have imagined the series of events that would lead to his being selected today to fill the Scalia vacancy. And while he has rightly recognized that no one could ever replace Justice Scalia, there are strong reasons to expect Justice Gorsuch to be an eminently worthy successor to the great justice. 

"Gorsuch is a brilliant jurist and dedicated originalist and textualist. He thinks through issues deeply. He writes with clarity, force, and verve. And his many talents promise to give him an outsized influence on future generations of lawyers." . . .

Neil Gorsuch: A Worthy Heir to Scalia  . . . "That Judge Gorsuch’s judicial philosophy is similar to Justice Scalia’s is evident from a tribute the former gave after the latter’s death. In that tribute, Gorsuch summarized and endorsed Scalia’s method of legal interpretation:" . . .

5 Things You Should Know About Supreme Court Nominee Neil Gorsuch  "On Tuesday, President Donald Trump nominated appellate judge Neil Gorsuch to serve on the Supreme Court. Trump fulfilled his pledge to select a nominee "in the mold of Antonin Scalia," for Gorsuch seems cut from exactly the same cloth.

"Like Scalia, Gorsuch is both a texualist and an originalist — he interprets legal provisions as their words were originally understood, and not according to doctrines like the "Living Constitution." This is important, and points to how he will rule on pivotal cases if confirmed by the Senate." . . .

Will Trump's Supreme Court battle go nuclear?  . . . "The president has acknowledged that he expects McConnell to overturn the filibuster for a Supreme Court nominee if the Democrats continue to be "obstructionists," while Senator McConnell for his part has said he does not plan to kill the filibuster but has also said he is "going to get this nominee confirmed.' " . . .
Given that McConnell paved the way for a Trump nominee by successfully blocking Obama's attempt to replace Antonin Scalia after Scalia's death last February, McConnell gets some credit as a master Senate tactician and thus the benefit of the doubt in this case.
UPDATES, with much thanks to Lucianne:
Former Sotomayor law clerk, and a Kagan attorney praise Gorsuch
. . . "As Gorsuch was nominated by President Trump, his nomination earned high marks from multiple people who clerked for Gorsuch on the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals before working for justices President Obama selected to serve on the Supreme Court."

From Law Nuze: Here’s Why It Would Be Very Stupid for Dems to Block Neil Gorsuch
. . . "But as fun as it would be to watch Democrats tantrum their way into blocking Judge Neil Gorsuch‘s Supreme Court nomination, it’s a bad idea and would follow in the Republicans dangerous precedent." . . .

NY Times: Why Liberals Should Back Neil Gorsuch   It is accompanied by a counterpoint on why liberals should oppose Gorsuch.

The selective will of spontaneous rioters


Muslims Occupy Dallas Airport Baggage Claim  "I'd like for TSA to explain why it's okay for Muslims to take over a baggage claim area in a major American airport -- while the rest of us are getting manhandled and groped for having a bottle of water in our carry-on luggage." . . . 

Former President Obama Supports National Temper Tantrums
. . . "These next four years are going to be so.freaking.long if we have to hear from Mr. “get to the back of the bus” every time a few ill-informed protesters whip out their posterboard and markers."

Remember the crowds protesting when Obama banned immigrants?
"Crowds, crowds, crowds!  Or, in some cases, are they a mob of useful idiots?  As Ed Lasky noted, the hysterical reaction of the anti-Trump crowd, erroneously called civil and human rights defenders, to President Trump (R)'s executive ordertemporarily banning visitors and immigrants from a few Muslim-majority terrorist countries (not a ban on Muslims) is hypocritical.  (The Women's March and the airport mobbers all look alike – all sound and fury, signifying nothing but moral narcissism.)
"Below is a photo from the massive crowds in Chicago protesting former (thank goodness!) President Barack Hussein Obama (D)'s 2011 order banning Iraqi refugees for six months.

"Or maybe this is the large, angry crowd reacting to Obama's decision in the final weeks of his administration banning desperate Cubans fleeing failing Communist Cuba from entering the U.S. without a visa." . . .

Why Johnny Is Only “Personally Opposed” to Abortion

Reasoning: . . . "Presently, I support the legality of abortion not because I am Libertarian but because I am libertine. I am sexually active and unwilling to take responsibility for my own conduct. I hope that if I impregnate a woman who knows I am personally pro-life she will just slip away and take care of the problem without me knowing about it."         

Mike Adams
Why Johnny Is Only “Personally Opposed” to Abortion

"Last week, a pro-life reader from Pennsylvania wrote to me in frustration. As a young man, he is finding that many of his peers are young libertarian males who say they are “personally opposed” to abortion but nonetheless “pro choice” as a matter of public policy. My frustrated pro-life reader wanted to know how best to engage the contradiction between being personally pro life and politically pro choice. The answer, as usual, lies in learning how to ask the right questions in order to probe the inconsistency. When dealing with this particular contradiction, five questions are usually in order:

"1. As a preliminary matter, you have to ask the personally pro-life pro choicer (hereafter: pro-life/PC), “Why are you personally opposed to abortion?' ” . . .

Monday, January 30, 2017

If only Obama had held up Muslim-dominated countries immigration instead. It would have been OK

trump-immigrant-ban
Jewish press
Protester To Daily Signal: Obama's Temporary Iraqi Ban In 2011 Was Fine Because I Love Him
Interviewer: In 2011 President Obama banned people from Iraq—did that not concern you?

Protester: No because I loved President Obama. pic.twitter.com/q2ehPVUCwh
              — The Daily Signal (@DailySignal) January 30, 2017
So did Obama.

Is It a ‘Muslim Ban’?  . . . "Yet the only reason there is an EO is the threat posed by sharia-supremacism, which we inexactly refer to as “radical Islam.” You can’t have radical Islam without Islam. Therefore, the people the EO seeks to exclude are, of necessity, Muslims — not all Muslims, of course, but a significant subset of them nonetheless." . . .

Political Cartoons by Bob Gorrell

Trump's orders on immigrants bring hypocritical and hysterical uproar

"Did Lady Liberty cry over the Americans mangled and killed over the years by Muslim immigrants (San Bernardino massacre, Boston Marathon bombings and other murders)?"
Ed Lasky  . . . "Lady Liberty is shedding a tear, Democrats declare.  Absurd comparisons are made between this temporary order and Roosevelt’s exclusion of Jews facing genocide. This is not a permanent ban and is geared towards tightening vetting procedures that Barack Obama’s own security officials, FBI head James Comey and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, had declared, during his presidency, were weak and exposed Americans to peril. The outcry also ignored the fact that immigrant refugees into Europe have led to increased violence and murder and that ISIS has repeatedly boasted of its plans to infiltrate into America its killers via refugee resettlement programs." . . .

California Shouldn’t Secede from the U.S.; It should divide in two.

One's first reaction to this is often "good riddance".



John Fund at National Review  "Liberals used to hate secession, the notion that states could leave the Union as they did before the Civil War because they didn’t agree with the policies of the federal government. But with Donald Trump’s election, many California liberals suddenly have warm words for a budding ballot initiative that has just begun collecting signatures in order to place secession, or “Calexit,” on the ballot. At the height of the tea-party movement, Texas governor Rick Perry merely hinted at the thought that Texas might react to President Obama’s executive overreach by reclaiming its one-time status as an independent republic. " . . .

Now we read about a “virtual secession". 
. . . "Let the sprawling, diverse state divide up into two or more states to ease tensions between farmers and coastal types, defuse the war of ideology between Left and Right, and allow more policy experimentation."
. . . 
"Of course, it’s unlikely that California will ever be divided. It’s even more unlikely that it would cut its ties to the rest of the nation and become a separate country. But the debate on both ideas is healthy. To what extent should we let arbitrary political boundaries established many decades ago curb our imagination and prevent us from creative solutions to our problems?" . . .

Hoping to escape the oppression of left-wing California would be the citizens of the State of Jefferson  "The State of Jefferson just got one step closer to becoming a reality. On Tuesday California Secretary of State Debra Bowen announced that the secession proposal known as “Six Californians” could move forward and petitions be circulated for signatures.


"For Northern California to split from the rest of the state, State of Jefferson supporters would have to garner at least 800,000 valid signatures and be placed upon the ballot for vote. Even if the Six Californians movement wins on election day, supporters still face an uphill secession battle." . . .


You can buy your own Jefferson flag!


new flag in loleta

Oh, one more thing:  We will have a real World Series if California secedes  . . . "Second, California may find out that all of those military bases, and the jobs that they create, will start packing east the minute California leaves the rest of us*.

. . . 
"So it won't happen.  California will remain a state, and that is a good thing for them and the rest of us.
"However, one good thing about California being a foreign country is that an L.A. Dodgers vs Texas Rangers final would literally be a World Series.  The winner will finally be the actual world champ."
* And the launch sites at Vandenberg Air Force Base?

How to Live Under an Unqualified President

Haven't we been doing that for the past eight years? TD

John Piper

. . . "The linking of the Christian church with the ruling political regime is not essential to the life and fruitfulness of Christian faith. On the contrary, such linking has more often proven to corrupt the essential spirit of Christ, who typically uses the weak things of the world to shame the strong (1 Corinthians 1:27), and whose life-saving weapons do not consist in media monopolies, commanding wealth, or civil laws.
"Followers of Christ are not Americans first. Our first allegiance is to Jesus, and then to the God-inspired word of Scripture, the Bible. This is our charter, not the U.S. Constitution." . . .

PJ Media commentary on the Piper column  . . . "Finally, America's founders emphasized that virtues make a republican form of government possible. It is important for an American leader to exemplify those virtues — and Trump's character certainly does not.
But this is no excuse for Christians to protest and wave "Not My President" signs, Piper added. Far from it. Even though Trump is morally unqualified for the presidency, he is still president, and Christians should respect his authority and pray for his good.

. . . "Some Trump supporters have conceded the president's bad moral character, but argued that it doesn't make a difference for public leadership. They've said they weren't looking for a choirboy. But John Piper laid out concrete reasons why morality matters for leadership." . . .

A Free Media, Unfettered by Integrity

Tornado

Liberal Daily Beast blames ‘white supremacists’ for Quebec mosque shooting, then retracts  
"Notice that the name on the tweet is “Reuter,” not “Reuters.”  How careless does one have to be to not notice this obvious evidence of a fake news operation? "
The Beast even names names and publishes photos of those -they hoped- were the perpetrators. But....

. . . "In the eagerness to confirm a narrative that would indirectly blame President Trump for an outbreak of anti-Islam violence in the wake of his seven-country entry pause, evidently, no one at The Daily Beast noticed.  Actually investigating whether this was true, or whether Reuters has reported it anywhere else, was a bridge too far for the Beasts who publish daily “news” (including fake news). " . . .

Wait!...What?...Local media reports identify two Quebec mosque shooters, one with first name ‘Mohamed’  "Given the volume of fake news flying around about the Quebec mosque shooters, one must be cautious until the Canadian authorities speak out on the record.  Nonetheless, given the reports blaming “white supremacists” and President Trump for the shooting, it is worthwhile considering what local outlets in Quebec and the U.K. Daily Mail are reporting.
"From the Montreal Gazette:
According to Radio-Canada and LCN, the two suspects in Sunday’s terror attacks in Quebec City are Alexandre Bissonnette and Mohamed Khadir.
"The Daily Mail:
Two students including one of 'Moroccan origin' have been arrested for the slaughter of six people at a Quebec mosque on Sunday which came a day after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau condemned Donald Trump's Muslim travel ban. 
Witnesses said one shooter yelled “Allahu akbar!”

 The media's Trump fail . . . "Even the media’s corporate overlords seem strangely indifferent to the market forces that come from insulting half their potential customers and seeing their product approval drop to the level of exploding cell phones." . . .

Why Hollywood as We Know It Already Over...

Vanity Fair via Drudge
"With theater attendance at a two-decade low and profits dwindling, the kind of disruption that hit music, publishing, and other industries is already reshaping the entertainment business."

"A few months ago, the vision of Hollywood’s economic future came into terrifyingly full and rare clarity. I was standing on the set of a relatively small production, in Burbank, just north of Los Angeles, talking to a screenwriter about how inefficient the film-and-TV business appeared to have become. Before us, after all, stood some 200 members of the crew, who were milling about in various capacities, checking on lighting or setting up tents, but mainly futzing with their smartphones, passing time, or nibbling on snacks from the craft-service tents. When I commented to the screenwriter that such a scene might give a Silicon Valley venture capitalist a stroke on account of the apparent unused labor and excessive cost involved in staging such a production—which itself was statistically uncertain of success—he merely laughed and rolled his eyes. “You have no idea,” he told me." . . .

Sunday, January 29, 2017

How Obama and Kerry Betrayed Israel at the UN

"John Kerry insists that the U.S. abstention was motivated by friendship for Israel, but by weakening Israel as it does, the abstention is more a violation than a fulfillment of the obligations of friendship." We did it because we love you?
Image result for arab israeli conflict pictures

Joseph S. Spoerl  "The "United Nations announced the passage of UN Security Council Resolution 2334, which condemns Israeli settlements east of the 1949 armistice line, that is, in the West Bank and East Jerusalem (including the Old City with its ancient Jewish Quarter). Passage of this resolution was only possible because of the deliberate refusal of the U.S. to exercise the veto power it wields as one of the five permanent members of the Security Council.  Secretary of State John Kerry insisted that in refusing to veto the resolution, the Obama administration was simply conforming to long-standing U.S. policy in favor of the “two-state solution” of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a policy that has also included U.S. condemnation of Israeli settlement building in the West Bank. In fact, however, UNSC Resolution 2334 is a departure from past precedent, both for the Security Council and for the U.S., and one that creates big problems for Israel. Moreover, the Trump administration will probably not be able to reverse this new state of affairs, since the other permanent members of the Security Council would presumably use their veto power to protect Resolution 2334. It is therefore important to understand the impact of this resolution." . . .
The UN Security Council is now on record as stating that Israeli occupation of these sites “has no legal validity and constitutes a flagrant violation under international law.” Palestinian negotiators can now use this small patch of earth to extract much bigger concessions from Israel. Imagine a Palestinian negotiating team saying to their Israeli counterparts, “Oh, so you want us to give you the Western Wall. Well, how much is it worth to you?” 

Saturday, January 28, 2017

"What the hell has all this Muslim propaganda got to do with women’s rights?"

"Are they marching for the girl in Pakistan who was recently burned alive by her mother for shaming the family? . . .  No, they were marching because they support all women, especially Muslim women, but not those who are pro-life, which is all Muslim women."


Taki's Magazine  "If you’re baffled by a women’s march that excluded thousands of women and was run by an extremist Muslim, well then you “literally just can’t even,” which is basically, like, WHATEVER! This was not a women’s march with any kind of logic behind it. It was an anti-women march, and women participated because they fell for a steaming-hot pile of platitudes. These useful idiots were duped by Islamist Linda Sarsour, who is determined to normalize her extremist culture. It was one of the stupidest marches in the history of modern politics, and it says a lot about where we are as a country. In short, we are a bunch of spoiled ingrates who are so desperate to complain, we will demand rights we already have."
. . . 
"There was also a strange anti-white undertone to the whole thing. I saw a black woman with a sign that said “Don’t forget, white women voted for Trump' ”
 Publisher Taki Theodoracopulos ; Editor-in-Chief Mandolyna Theodoracopulos



obama, obama jokes, political, humor, cartoon, conservative, hope n' change, hope and change, stilton jarlsberg, lefty lucy, vagina costume, women's march, taco
HopeNChangeCartoons

Trump orders Joint Chiefs to plan ISIS destruction

President Donald Trump signs an executive order on extreme vetting during an event at the Pentagon in Washington, Friday, Jan. 27, 2017. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Washington Times  "President Trump signed executive action Saturday ordering the Joint Chiefs of Staff to immediately develop a plan to defeat the Islamic State, sending a message to the world that obliterating the terrorist army is a top priority for the U.S.
“ 'This is the plan to defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, in other words, ISIS,” he said as he signed the document in the Oval Office. “I think it’s going to be very successful. That’s big stuff.”
"The president issued the order in the form of executive action to send a message, said a senior administration official.
“ 'Obviously that executive order will represent a profound statement on the part of the United States that we are committed to ending this atrocity,” said the official.
"The Joint Chief will have to present options for the destruction of ISIS to Mr. Trump within 30 days. Anticipating the order, military leaders reportedly have already begun to devise new strategies. Mr. Trump signed two other executive actions.
" He signed an order to reorganize the National Security Council. Mr. Trump said it would make the council more efficient and enhance the security of the U.S.
“ 'People have been talking about this for a long time, like many years,” said Mr. Trump" . . .

Kangaroo Kourts for Men on Kollege Kampuses; Part of the Campus War on Men

College Insurrection  "Universities, protected by law and compelled by a directive from the Obama Department of Education, have established a kangaroo campus court system in which young men regularly face life-changing quasi-judicial proceedings based on accusations of sexual misconduct at which they have little due process protection.
. . . "Another chilling account comes from attorney Judith Grossman: A Mother, a Feminist, Aghast (h/t @jpodhoretz):
I am a feminist. I have marched at the barricades, subscribed to Ms. magazine, and knocked on many a door in support of progressive candidates committed to women’s rights. Until a month ago, I would have expressed unqualified support for Title IX and for the Violence Against Women Act.
But that was before my son, a senior at a small liberal-arts college in New England, was charged—by an ex-girlfriend—with alleged acts of “nonconsensual sex” that supposedly occurred during the course of their relationship a few years earlier.
What followed was a nightmare—a fall through Alice’s looking-glass into a world that I could not possibly have believed existed, least of all behind the ivy-covered walls thought to protect an ostensible dedication to enlightenment and intellectual betterment…
Follow-up:
Due Process Group Seeks End to Campus Kangaroo Courts


https://youtu.be/o1jfy7yVeP8

. . . "To make matters worse, conduct codes at many schools have been altered to greatly expand behavior which counts as sexual misconduct, including so-called “affirmative consent” requirements. In an essay for TimeChristina Hoff Sommers, author of The War on Boys, vividly portrayed the problem facing male students in the “rape culture” environment:
"On January 27, 2010, University of North Dakota officials charged undergraduate Caleb Warner with sexually assaulting a fellow student. He insisted the encounter was consensual, but was found guilty by a campus tribunal and thereupon expelled and banned from campus.
A few months later, Warner received surprising news. The local police had determined not only that Warner was innocent, but that the alleged victim had deliberately falsified her charges. She was charged with lying to police for filing a false report, and fled the state." . . . 

President Obama and the bust of Churchill

"Why did the British P.M. give President George W. Bush a bust of Churchill after 9/11?  America was attacked by Islamic extremists.  Sir Winston Churchill had a colorful history dealing with the Muslim world.  He was more famous for several quotes on the scourge of Islam than he was on white British exceptionalism.  If Obama was irked that a bust of Churchill was in the Oval Office, then Churchill's quotes on Muslims and Islam would have sent him over the cliff." 

Mark A. Hewitt  "On Inauguration Day, President Trump entered the Oval Office and welcomed a familiar friend: the bust of Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill.  During President Trump's first meeting with a foreign leader, Prime Minister Theresa May, the pair posed in the Oval Office in front of the bust of Winston Churchill.  "This is the original, folks, in many, many ways," the president told the press.  "It's a great honor to have Winston Churchill back."

"The bronze by Sir Jacob Epstein had enjoyed a special place in the White House after the September 11, 2001 attacks during President Bush's tenure.  However, when the newly inaugurated President Barack Obama discovered the Epstein bronze of Churchill in the Oval Office, he had the bust packed and shipped out of the White House faster than the speed of hate. 
"The Obama White House rejected the notion that the Churchill bust had ever been returned.  "The bust is still in the White House.  In the Residence.  Outside the Treaty Room."  A ridiculous staged 2010 photo was circulated to prove there was a bust of Churchill in the White House with the caption "President Barack Obama shows Prime Minister David Cameron of the United Kingdom a bust of Sir Winston Churchill in the private residence of the White House."  According to the White House archives, the White House has had a bust of Winston Churchill since the 1960s. 
"Diplomats were reluctant to admit or discuss the whereabouts of the Churchill bronze after its ejection from the seat of American power.  But " . . .

International Holocaust Remembrance Day, January 27th

Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day  "Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day (Yom Hashoah in Hebrew) is a national day of commemoration in Israel, on which the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust are memorialized. It is a solemn day, beginning at sunset on the 27th of the month of Nisan and ending the following evening, according to the traditional Jewish custom of marking a day. More...

Internet results on the Shoah: the Holocaust  First page only linked here.

Yad Vashem


Frieda Levinson lived in Riga with her husband Zelik, their nine-year-old son Zalman, Frieda's mother Sara Lohak and other relatives. Her sister, Agnes Hirschberg, immigrated to Eretz Israel (Mandatory Palestine) in 1936, but remained in contact with her family in Riga.  Zalman also sent his aunt letters and drawings.  In April 1941, Frieda sent Agnes a short postcard from Riga.  This was the last sign of life from Agnes's family. The names of her family members appear on the lists of inmates in the Riga ghetto.  After the war, Agnes was informed that her mother Sara, her sister Frieda, her nephew Zalman and her brother-in-law Zelik had been murdered.  Her brother, Misha Lohak, survived.

. . . Most of the Jews of Europe were dead by 1945. A civilization that had flourished for almost 2,000 years was no more. The survivors – one from a town, two from a host – dazed, emaciated, bereaved beyond measure, gathered the remnants of their vitality and the remaining sparks of their humanity, and rebuilt. They never meted out justice to their tormentors – for what justice could ever be achieved after such a crime? Rather, they turned to rebuilding: new families forever under the shadow of those absent; new life stories, forever warped by the wounds; new communities, forever haunted by the loss. . .

The Righteous  (Non-Jews who risked all to save Jews from the Nazis.)  "Attitudes towards the Jews during the Holocaust mostly ranged from indifference to hostility. The mainstream watched as their former neighbors were rounded up and killed; some collaborated with the perpetrators; many benefited from the expropriation of the Jews property.

"In a world of total moral collapse there was a small minority who mustered extraordinary courage to uphold human values. These were the Righteous Among the Nations. They stand in stark contrast to the mainstream of indifference and hostility that prevailed during the Holocaust. Contrary to the general trend, these rescuers regarded the Jews as fellow human beings who came within the bounds of their universe of obligation.

Oskar Schindler  "Oskar Schindler was a German industrialist, former member of the Nazi Party and possibly the most famous "Righteous Gentile" who is credited with saving as many as 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust. His story was brought to international acclaim by the 1982 novel Schindler's Ark and the 1993 film, Schindler's List." . . .

"Not long after acquiring his “Emalia” factory - which produced enamel goods and munitions to supply the German front - the removal of Jews to death camps began in earnest. Schindler's Jewish accountant put him in touch with the few Jews with any remaining wealth. They invested in his factory, and in return they would be able to work there and perhaps be spared. He was persuaded to hire more Jewish workers, designating their skills as “essential,” paying off the Nazis so they would allow them to stay in Krakow. Schindler was making money, but everyone in his factory was fed, no-one was beaten, no-one was killed. It became an oasis of humanity in a desert of moral torpor." . . .
When the war ended, Schindler fled to Argentina with his wife and a handful of his workers and bought a farm. In 1958, he abandoned his land, his wife and his mistress to return to Germany. He spent the remaining years of his life dividing his time between Germany and Israel, where he was honored and taken care of by his “Schindlerjuden.”

Music of the Holocaust  "The songs that were created during the Holocaust in ghettos, camps, and partisan groups tell the stories of individuals, groups and communities in the Holocaust period and were a source of unity and comfort, and later, of documentation and remembrance." . . .
"The collection also includes two songs written after the Holocaust by Kaczerginski that portray the mood and ideology of the survivors. All the songs are presented here in the original Yiddish." . . .



REPORT: Hard for Trump to Surpass Obama Record of Chilling Press Freedom...

Grabien

Thumbnail

. . . "The Obama Administration began with lofty promises of being "the most transparent administration in history." Instead it ended up setting a record, by the Associated Press's count, for denying the most Freedom of Information Act requests.
"As the administration's popularity began tumbling early into its first year, the Obama White House declared war on Fox News. The White House director of communications, Anita Dunn, warned they would henceforth treat Fox News "like an opponent," insisting, "we don’t need to pretend that this is the way that legitimate news organizations behave."
"The Obama administration made good on that threat. Soon thereafter, the administration sought to deny Fox News' participation in executive branch news-making events -- which only failed after other networks admirably refused to participate if Fox News were excluded.
"As you'll see in the montage above, President Obama blamed Fox News and talk radio for virtually every problem his administration encountered, warning in his waning days that these "domestic propagandists" were far more damaging to America than any interference from hostile powers like Russia. 
"When Fox News's State Department correspondent, James Rosen, reported accurate information about North Korea leaked by a member of the Obama State Department, Eric Holder ordered his movements to be tracked, his phone records seized, and went "judge shopping" until he found one willing to grant such a warrant without telling Rosen himself. Holder even told Google to not notify Rosen that the government was monitoring his email. " . . .