Cal Thomas: Razzle-dazzling ourselves

Liberals have exploited race and class for political advantage, deepening the divide between whites and blacks (and increasingly Hispanics), as well as the three classes—poor, middle class, and wealthy.

World  . . . "How do you explain the rise of Donald Trump? Look no further than the culture beast that is primarily responsible for the fundamental transformation of America, as President Obama once put it.

. . .  

"We have an education system that doesn't educate. Television spews out "reality shows" that have nothing to do with reality. Judges issue rulings that conform more to opinion polls than the Constitution.

"The strangest behavior is trotted out as the next civil rights movement and anyone who says "no" is branded a bigot. Many fallen nations collapsed not from war but from moral rot.

"We are consuming the intellectual equivalent of Pop-Tarts in a pop culture age, rather than food for the mind that produces sound reasoning and wise choices.

"It should not surprise anyone that such self-focus has fueled the rise of Donald Trump as a presidential candidate.

"On the other side of the political fence, Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton feed into the entitlement mentality that the government exists to give you stuff and take care of you. Liberals have exploited race and class for political advantage, deepening the divide between whites and blacks (and increasingly Hispanics), as well as the three classes—poor, middle class, and wealthy. " . . .

Cal Thomas:  Cal, whose syndicated column appears on WORLD's website and in more than 500 newspapers, is a frequent contributor to WORLD's radio news magazine The World and Everything in It. 

Clinton’s Laughable Claim: Petraeus Offense Was Worse

Of course, Hillary's words must be taken with a "willing suspension of disbelief"..

The warrior who must address Hillary as "Ma'am":

Andrew C. McCarthy  . . . "Now with Pagliano apparently poised to cooperate with the FBI, the claim that Mrs. Clinton is not a criminal suspect is untenable. So Clinton and her supporters are changing tack: instead of implausibly insisting there is no crime to investigate, they argue that there is no crime worth prosecuting.

"This narrative was first floated a few months ago. The story goes like this: retired General David Petraeus, the former CIA director, committed a classified information offense that -- according to Clintonistas -- was far more serious than Mrs. Clinton’s conduct, yet Petraeus was permitted to plead guilty to a single misdemeanor count. Ergo, a prosecution of Mrs. Clinton over her comparatively minor misconduct cannot be justified.

"When Camp Clinton first began spinning its Petraeus yarn, I explained that it relies on Anne M. Tompkins, the former U.S. attorney for western North Carolina who oversaw the prosecution against the general. Tompkins, who just happens to be a Hillary Clinton donor, exploits the aura of authority from her obvious familiarity with the Petraeus case to suggest that she is a reliable source on Clinton case -- which she dutifully portrays as weak. " . . .

Significant Civil War-Era Shipwreck Discovered Off N.C. Coast

Heritage Daily   "Another pearl in the form of a large iron-hulled Civil War era steamer has been discovered in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of N.C., near Oak Island. Researchers and archaeologists from the Underwater Archaeology Branch of the North Carolina Office of State Archaeology and the Institute of International Maritime Research made the discovery Saturday, Feb. 27 during sonar operations.

The vessel is believed to possibly be the remains of one of three blockade runners used to penetrate the wall of Union naval vessels blocking the port of Wilmington during the Civil War. 

Popular Science reports

Popular Science

. . . "Three blockade runners are known to have been lost in that area: the Agnes E. Fry, Spunkie and Georgianna McCaw. The Union blockade was nicknamed the 'Anaconda Plan' and designed to choke off supply lines to the Confederacy during the height of the war. Ships, including steam ships and sailing vessels tried to bypass the blockade, usually at night and at high speeds.

"It's not yet known how this particular vessel sunk, but it is far from alone in its watery grave. At least 53 blockade-running ships were lost in the area near Cape Fear during the Civil War. Then there are the sunken pirate ships, World War II vessels, and all the hapless crafts that have given this area off North Carolina the nickname the Graveyard of the Atlantic." . . .

She was a side-wheeler as most blockade runners were; the side wheels visible amidships, port and starboard

North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources

.@YouTube terminates Pal Media Watch channel documenting Palestinian incitement (UPDATE – It’s Back!)

Legal Insurrection
"YouTube apparently cannot distinguish reporting on incitement from incitement."

"Palestinian Media Watch is an indispensible resource for monitoring and documenting incitement on official Palestinian Authority and Hamas television.

"We often embed and link to its YouTube postings of Palestinian TV broadcasts. Because they are fluent in Arabic, they perform the function not only of pulling the video but also providing English language translation in the video captions.

"Pal Media Watch thus documents the two-sided statements of Palestinian leaders like Mahmoud Abbas, who preach peace to Westerners, but hate and violence to their own people."

Stabbing for kids: Palestinian girl gives demo

Reminding you what sort of person Hillary is... Tony Branco update

legalinsurrection.com

Twenty-five questions for Hillary Clinton at Fox’s town hall

1. When did you learn your husband was a sexual predator?. . . 

10. Do U.S. companies have the right not to hire persons who want to suspend working five times a day to pray?

11. Should the Department of Education end sex-segregated sports teams at the high school and college levels?. . .

16. When did you realize that the Obamacare Cadillac Tax was a bad idea?                                                                            

17. Why can’t someone have an Obamacare policy that doesn’t include childhood dental?                                                              

18. Why can’t someone have an Obamacare policy with a $12,000 deductible per individual?                                        

19. Do you feel that having 80 pounds of excess weight at age 26 is a pre-existing condition?                                      

25. Do you disavow support from Reverends Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson because of their anti-Semitic views?

I particularly liked number 20:

20. Has any law enforcement official read you your Miranda Rights in the last 180 days?

The last refuge of the scoundrel Hillary   "Samuel Johnson’s aphorism that patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel doesn’t apply to Hillary Clinton in her email scandal, because nobody – not even her die-hard supporters – would believe her if she said that she set up the private email server in the interests of the United States.  Rather, the last refuge of this scoundrel is to blame everybody else she dealt with at the State Department, in the process impugning not only her own close aides, but career diplomats and other nonpolitical professionals who deserve better. " . . . 

But besides the country itself, which is now enduring yet more Clintonian malfeasance in the midst of a critical election, are many individuals that Clinton is cold-bloodily demeaning in an attempt to exonerate herself with the “everybody did it” canard.

Here Are The 23 Classified Memos Sidney Blumenthal Sent To Hillary Clinton

German politicians campaign to make pork mandatory in public canteens after sausages and bacon were removed 'to prevent offending Muslims'

Deutsche Welle
Trigger warning: insensitive photo below.

. . . "Günther told local German newspaper "Lübecker Nachrichten" that at least one nursery in every voting district had stopped serving pork after taking Muslim children into consideration.

" 'The consumption of pork belongs to our culture," he argued, adding that those who didn't want to eat pork didn't have to.

" 'No one should be obliged to do so," he said. "But we also don't want the majority having to refrain from pork.' " . . .

" 'Wurst case scenario" - wurst being the German word for sausage  . . ."

Caitlyn Jenner: ‘Hillary Clinton Couldn’t Care Less About Women '

I think I'm about to be sick. How can we ever unsee this next photo?

Daily Caller  "During the season premiere of “I Am Cait” Sunday night, Jenner was on a bus tour with a group of transgender women when he said he didn’t want to stop at the Democratic debate. (RELATED: Caitlyn Jenner Fondly Remembers When Obama, Hillary Opposed Gay Marriage)

“ 'It’s the last place I want to be,” Jenner said. “But I’m open. We need both sides and if we’re unfortunate enough get Hillary as our next president, we need her on our side. Although she won’t be — she couldn’t care less about women.”

“ 'She cares about herself.' ”

At last a voice for women speaks out!

'I don't see a woman being attracted to me!' Caitlyn Jenner heads to party in form-fitting dress... after revealing she's ready to date a man

"From her form-fitting shimmering striped pencil skirt to her strappy sandals, the 66-year-old was perfectly put together."

 

Here Are Some Judges The White House Is Considering For The Supreme Court

Yeshiva World News  "The White House is considering nearly a half-dozen relatively new federal judges for President Obama’s nomination to the Supreme Court, focusing on jurists with scant discernible ideology and limited judicial records as part of a strategy to surmount fierce Republican opposition.

"As Obama prepares for what probably will be his last opportunity to try to shape the high court after the sudden death of Justice Antonin Scalia, the president faces an unprecedented hurdle, with the Senate’s GOP majority vowing to ignore any nominee he proposes.

"Based on interviews with legal experts and others, including some who have spoken in recent days with Obama administration officials involved in the vetting process, the president is leaning towards a sitting federal judge to fill the vacancy – and probably one the Senate confirmed with bipartisan support during his tenure. . These insiders, who insisted on anonymity to discuss private conversations, noted that the administration is winnowing its list of candidates – but could add more.

"The candidates under consideration include: . . .

Trump's first bad week; It also clarified that it may not be in his nature to become presidential.

American Spectator    "It was an ugly weekend for Donald Trump — his first in a primary election season that for Republicans has been somewhere between a surprise and an embarrassment. Not only did Ted Cruz win two of Saturday’s four primaries and caucuses, trouncing Trump in Kansas and Maine, but Trump barely beat Cruz in Louisiana and Kentucky. Trump consistently underperformed polls going into the contests.

"There was not a great deal of polling for these elections, but here are the results as compared to the RealClearPolitics average of polls in each state, with each candidate’s numbers representing his percentage of the vote received:

Kansas (caucus): Cruz 48.2, Trump 23.3, Rubio 16.7, Kasich 10.7 (Cruz +25 over Trump).Average of two recent polls: Trump +9, meaning Cruz beat the polls by 34 points.  Kentucky (caucus): Trump 35.9, Cruz 31.6, Rubio 16.4, Kasich 14.4 (Trump +4 over Cruz).RCP only had one poll on this race: Trump +13 over Cruz meaning Cruz beat the poll by 9 points.  Louisiana (primary): Trump 41.4, Cruz 37.8, Rubio 11.2, Kasich 6.4 (Trump +3.5 over Cruz).Average of three recent polls: Trump +15.6, meaning Cruz beat the polls by 12 points.  Maine (caucus): Cruz 45.9, Trump 32.6, Kasich 12.2, Rubio 8 (Cruz +23 over Trump).There was no poll of this race, but I’d bet money that a poll would not have shown this result, not least because Trump recently received the endorsement of Maine’s Governor Paul Le Page.

. . . "Could it be that Trump’s many unpresidential utterances (or silences) are catching up with him?" Read them all here.

Madonna, the diva of debauchery: Reaping what she's sown

Madonna will likely lose custody of a son who moved to another country to get as far away from her as possible and refuses to come home.  And so, as the woman who for 30-plus years has influenced millions of children to rebel and disregarded the wishes of their parents loses control of her own child, one can't help but wonder if Madonna likes how it feels.

Jeannie DeAngelis   "Anyone who does not believe in the Biblical principle of "sowing and reaping" – which is known as 'karma' in certain circles – should have a chat with aging 1980s pop icon Madonna.

"It seems the Diva of Debauchery is reaping the harvest of heartache that she has so diligently sown for almost thirty years.  Ms. Ciccone has negatively etched vulgar lyrics and images into the impressionable minds of children; purposely tainted the innocent; and, like a parasite, burrowed into the psyche and spirit of an entire generation. 

"It was Madonna who spent the greater part of the 1980s, and most of the '90s, expressing her sexuality at the expense of America's children.  When not parading around naked in pornographic picture books, Madonna Louise Ciccone defiled young minds by blaspheming via Christian symbols and extolling the merits of losing one's virginity.

"As we all know, "what goes around comes around," so it should be no surprise that the female exhibitionist who robbed millions of their innocence is currently being bitten by a very different, but equally painful, kind of karma." . . . Full article here.

Claim: White House adviser Valerie Jarrett once said she seeks "to help change America to be a more Islamic country."

Snopes says:
                                       FALSE

Sorry, I know many wanted to believe this. The claim:

. . . "Contrary to common rumor, however, neither Jarrett nor her parents are Iranian, nor (as far as we can tell) are any of them Muslim. " . . .

"Valerie was born in Shiraz (Iran) during the Bowmans' sojourn in Iran; she returned to the U.S. with her parents in 1962 (when she was five years old),. . . We've found no evidence Valerie Jarrett is (or ever was) Muslim, her only apparent connection to that religion being the incidental one that she temporarily lived in a predominantly Muslim country with her American parents for the first few years of her life. 

"The quote to attributed "Valerie Jarrett, Stanford University, 1977" about her "seek[ing] to help change America to be a more Islamic country" is an unfounded one that has no source other than recent repetition (primarily on right-wing web sites and blogs)." . . .

It hurts that the made-up rumor is attributed to the "right-wing" and probably accurately so. This comes not from intellectually conservative sources such as William F. Buckley, Victor Davis Hanson, National Review or many other dependable voices. In fact these rumors do damage to the reputations of great conservative minds and we on the right must not let rumor-mongers speak in our name. 

Enough empirical evidence of the damage done to our nation and allies exists without the need to manufacture any. As with Det. Mark Furman at the O.J. Simpson home, we do not need to frame the already guilty.

The Tunnel Dweller

Rush Limbaugh on Trump: Much Bigger Upside than Downside (Video)

By Jim Hoft at theGatewayPundit   "Rush gets it.

"Popular conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh admitted on FOX News Sunday that there’s a “much bigger upside than downside” with Donald Trump’s candidacy."

"Rush was been lukewar[m] for the GOP frontrunner in recent weeks but there is no denying his ability to expand the Republican base in this year’s election.

"The Hill reported:

Conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh said Sunday that there’s a “much bigger upside than downside” in the Republican presidential candidacy of real estate developer Donald Trump.

“I think with the case of Trump, there’s a much bigger upside than downside,” said Limbaugh while appearing on “Fox News Sunday.”

Limbaugh also said he believes that the divide between the Republican establishment and conservatives is “longer, broader, wider than I have ever seen it.”

Rush Limbaugh on Donald Trump’s Support for Planned Parenthood: He’s ‘Running a National Campaign’

"Limbaugh said:

“They do great health things for women!” He acknowledges abortion’s no way. “We’re gonna defund ’em because of that,” but he… Folks, he’s running a national campaign here, and he’s talking about broadening the base. Last night he said, “We’re gonna unify.” Last night he acknowledged a point that I’ve been trying to make everybody here for weeks now, and that is that he has put together a coalition that’s way beyond the Republican base. It’s way beyond a conservative Republican base.

. . . "Trump continues to say that – if elected president – he will eliminate Planned Parenthood’s taxpayer funding as long as it performs abortions. He has quoted Planned Parenthood as saying that only three percent of its services are abortions. Though that percentage has been debunked many times by others, Planned Parenthood’s own CEO and president – Cecile Richards – admitted last week, “The abortion part of Planned Parenthood is an important part of what we do.' ”