The Supreme Court oral argument that cost Democrats the presidency

"In short, many religious Christians of a traditionalist bent believed that liberals not only reduce their deeply held beliefs to bigotry, but want to run them out of their jobs, close down their stores and undermine their institutions."

Volokh Conspiracy

"The presidential election was so close that many factors were “but-for” causes of Donald Trump’s victory. One that’s been mostly overlooked is Trump’s surprising success with religious voters. According to exit polls, Trump received 81 percent of the white evangelical Christian vote, and Hillary Clinton only 16 percent. Trump did significantly better than the overtly religious Mitt Romney and the overtly evangelical George W. Bush. He likely over-performed among other theologically conservative voters, such as traditionalist Catholics, as well. Not bad for a thrice-married adulterer of no discernible faith.

"To what can we attribute Trump’s success? The most logical answer is that religious traditionalists felt that their religious liberty was under assault from liberals, and they therefore had to hold their noses and vote for Trump. As Sean Trende of RealClear Politics noted, since 2012:" . . .

How to Answer a False Accusation of Racism

Mike Adams

"Yesterday, a student contacted me with a concern that is common among those taking courses in the social sciences and humanities. This particular student is enrolled in an online criminology class taught by a leftist professor. During a discussion of the Black Lives Matter movement, one of the more conservative students in her class used the phrase “all lives matter.” Predictably, the leftist professor objected. But he went even further by repeatedly accusing the student of racism. To make matters worse, the ad hominem attacks were made in front of all the students enrolled in the course. It was part of an online class “discussion.” 

"Although the student who contacted me was not the one attacked, she wanted to know how to confront the professor who was so clearly out of line. She was understandably reticent to express her own views after seeing a fellow student attacked in the middle of class discussion. Given the importance of the issue, I am printing my response to the student to help other students who are similarly attacked or intimidated in the classroom: " . . .

Mike Rowe Questions Campus Culture and the Higher Ed Bubble

Legal Insurrection  "Television host Mike Rowe spoke with Tucker Carlson about the value of college, hard work, and alternate paths to a four year degree last night.

"Their conversation began with the social justice warrior from Hampshire College who recently appeared on the show but quickly moved on to other topics.

"One of the most fascinating aspects of their discussion was when Rowe brought up the massive amount of student debt in America today and pointed out how that affects all of us, not just students.

From the FOX News Insider:

Old Glory was taken down from a flagpole and burned around Veterans’ Day and Daniel Vogel defended the flag’s removal to protest discriminatory behavior in America and to show his support for perceptively underprivileged workers.

“Nobody’s disputing the right to do any of this stuff,” Rowe said, asking rhetorically whether it was persuasive to desecrate a symbol that so many people care so much about." . . .

Mr. Rowe took particular aim at university President Jonathan Lash, who explained at the time that the decision to remove the flag would allow the school to “focus our efforts on addressing racist, misogynistic, Islamophobic, anti-immigrant, anti-Semitic, and anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and behaviors.”“I couldn’t help but wonder if President Lash was unaware that billions of people around the world are routinely subjected to horrific levels of racism, misogyny, and bigotry that far exceed any injustice in modern-day America,” Mr. Rowe wrote. “Furthermore, I was curious to know if President Lash really believed that removing our flag is a better way to assuage the fears of his frightened students, than simply educating them about the undeniable fact that no country on the planet affords its citizens more liberty than this one?

One more example of Trump thinking two steps ahead of the Trump-haters

"The fact that Trump was able to talk Governor Branstad out of continuing to break the record for longer-serving governor shows me that big plans are afoot with China. This appointment did not occur to Trump after the Taiwan phone call.Once again, Trump is thinking at least two chess moves ahead of the haters."

 

Thomas Lifson  "Remember when Trump supposedly blundered into a diplomatic minefield he had no comprehension of by taking a phone call from the President of Taiwan? The same media that dismissed his presidential run as comedy were dead certain that disaster lay ahead in a complex and delicate diplomatic relationship.

"So committed are Trump haters to the idea that he cannot possibly have outsmarted them that they never bother to consider that a plan may be at work.  Average Americans understand that the devastation of our manufacturing sector is in large part the result of that delicate diplomatic balance, and the notion that it might be disrupted sounds as satisfying as watching stuffy rich lady Margaret Dumont receive her comeuppance at the hands of Groucho Marx.

"Yesterday, Donald Trump revealed a brilliant choice for Chinese ambassador on Facebook, bypassing the media once again.

President-elect Donald J. Trump today announced his intent to nominate Governor Terry Branstad of Iowa, the longest-serving governor in American history, to serve as the U.S. Ambassador to China.

Gov. Branstad's relationship with President Xi Jinping dates back to the mid-1980s, when President Xi was a young county official seeking a closer relationship with Iowa's robust agriculture sector.

. . .

 "Gov. Branstad is the longest serving governor in American history, having served from 1983 to 1999 and again from 2011 until the present. Since leading his first delegation to Hebei Province in 1984, the Governor has led six trade missions to China meeting with numerous provincial governors, ministerial leaders and local officials.
"Gov. Branstad is considered an “old friend”, a culturally significant title, by President Xi and has a long-standing relationship with the Chinese Ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai." . . .

China and Donald Trump  . . . "Trump must counter the Chinese challenges, especially in the South China Seas and the Spratly Islands, more than 100 small islands or reefs, 500 miles from the Chinese mainland, where China is building and expanding reefs to provide radar and military facilities, and where it claims almost all the potentially resource rich waters.

"Trump must also consider a shift in diplomatic relations with Taiwan, strengthening its democratic character, and also expanding the U.S. Navy in the East and South China Seas. This will take more than a 10-minute phone call. " 

After a mere 25 years, the triumph of the West is over

Charles Krauthammer

"Twenty-five years ago — December 1991 — communism died, the Cold War ended and the Soviet Union disappeared. It was the largest breakup of an empire in modern history and not a shot was fired. It was an event of biblical proportions that my generation thought it would never live to see. As Wordsworth famously rhapsodized (about the French Revolution), “Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive/But to be young was very heaven!”

"That dawn marked the ultimate triumph of the liberal democratic idea. It promised an era of Western dominance led by a preeminent America, the world’s last remaining superpower.

"And so it was for a decade as the community of democracies expanded, first into Eastern Europe and former Soviet colonies. The U.S. was so dominant that when, on Dec. 31, 1999, it gave up one of the most prized geostrategic assets on the globe — the Panama Canal — no one even noticed.

"That era is over. The autocracies are back and rising; democracy is on the defensive; the U.S. is in retreat. Look no further than Aleppo. A Western-backed resistance to a local tyrant — he backed by a resurgent Russia, an expanding Iran and an array of proxy Shiite militias — is on the brink of annihilation. Russia drops bombs; America issues statements.

Devious plot grows to 'shut down' Trump's inauguration

According to the London Express, ISIS has threatened to target Inauguration Day and has declared it will be a “Bloody Friday.”Also, as WND reported, a self-avowed Marxist member of the Seattle City Council who is part of the George Soros-funded Occupy Wall Street movement has called for a “massive protest” against Trump and a “nationwide shut down” on Inauguration Day.

WND

"A group of leftist activists is plotting to “shut down” the inauguration of Donald Trump on Jan. 20 – forcing the president-elect to take his oath of office “behind closed doors” – “if Trump is to be inaugurated at all.”

"The group, known as the D.C. Counter-Inaugural Welcoming Committee, or #DisruptJ20, says it calls on “all people of conscience to shut down the ceremonies.”

"It continues, “If Trump is inaugurated at all, let it happen behind closed doors, showing the world that the vast majority of people in the U.S. do not support his presidency or consent to his rule.”

"Lacy MacAuley, a spokeswoman for #DisruptJ20, told WND the group is anticipating a “massive presence in Washington, D.C., during the inauguration.”

“ 'We cannot yet say how significant this disruption will be,” she said. “We are creating a framework to support mass protests and direct action to shut down the inauguration of Donald Trump.”

"MacAuley said the group is providing housing, food and legal assistance to protesters who join the effort." . . .

Our two favorite people: George Soros and Michael Moore.

Movie About Political Correctness on Campus Accused of Not Being PC

Legal Insurrection

"Adam Carolla and Dennis Prager are making a documentary about political correctness on college campuses but they’re running into problems because they’re not politically correct.

"The Hollywood Reporter has the story:

Adam Carolla Off to a Rocky Start Filming Movie About Political Correctness at Universities

A funny thing happened to some right-leaning filmmakers trying to make their case that conservatives aren’t welcome on college campuses: They weren’t allowed on a college campus.

At least that’s according to a letter that their lawyers fired off to California State University, Northridge in southern California.

Comedian Adam Carolla and radio host Dennis Prager are touring the nation’s universities while making their documentary film, No Safe Spaces, and their first stop, scheduled at CSUN, was canceled, according to lawyers, because the content of a talk they were to give was deemed politically incorrect.

The presentation was supposed to consist of Carolla interviewing Prager at the Campus Theater on Dec. 1. The topic was rather vague, but it invariably was to focus on the duo’s assertion that the political left has a stranglehold on most colleges, and it was to be filmed so that some portions would have presumably ended up in No Safe Spaces.

But while negotiating for the use of the venue, the filmmakers, Justin Folk and R.J. Moeller, say they were informed that “people higher up the food chain” at CSUN weren’t happy about the “content” of the planned presentation, and their lawyers say laws may have been broken.

comicallyincorrect

The Obama military: Sickening Class Taught To US Troops Makes Us Laughing Stock Of The World

The academy’s Center for Teaching and Learning is holding two events on Friday, one for faculty and staff and another for midshipmen. The hour and a half-long workshops will be hosted by Marnie Florin and Kevin Perry, who are “transgender trainers” for Google.
Midshipmen and staff who take the training course will get the opportunity to display cards outside their door that show they are allies of the LGBT community.

Mad World News  "One of Barack Obama’s main goals during his presidency has been to cripple our military by taking away key assets necessary for America to defend herself. While deteriorating our forces to pre-World War II capabilities, Obama continues to implement his ridiculous policies into our military, as it has become his pet project for social experimentation. However, the latest ridiculous thing this president is doing proves that he’s intentionally trying to make us the laughing stock of the world." . . .

. . . "As this crisis rages on, Obama has also gone straight after our premiere fighting force, the US Marine Corps, where they’re now being forced to lower their standard in order to allow women into combat positions, in order to meet this president’s demands. Unfortunately, this has only been the beginning of Obama’s strategy to destroy our military, as disturbing news about what our soldiers are now being taught was just revealed.

"Like it or not, when you sign up to join the military you become a killing machine for the US government. Your sole mission in life is to defend America at all costs, and sometimes that means blowing someone’s head off who poses as a threat to our country’s freedom.

"However, Obama wants everyone to forget about that. Rather than our soldiers being taught how to slaughter military targets, they’re now being taught a series of courses about safe spaces, with one of the courses titled “Transgender 101,” which will instruct these millennial recruits on how to provide “safe spaces” for anyone who might get their tiny feelings hurt." . . .

Welcome to Jihadi land! Iran opens theme park where children get to dress up as soldiers and pretend to attack Israel and other Western enemies

UK Daily Mail  "A new theme park has been opened by the Iranian government, where young children learn to be revolutionaries and fight against the country's enemies.

"Youngsters as young as eight are able to don military uniforms and fight 'battles' against the US and Israel at the new attraction in the city of Mashad. 

"The park is named The City of Games for Revolutionary Children." . . .

"Some of the stages which the children pass through at the theme park: 

• Stage one - Youngsters are taught about the Mahdi, the Shi'ite messiah
• Stage two - They are taken to the station of the Rule of the Jurisprudent
• Stage three - The children are taught about the Islamic Revolution and how the Shah's dictatorship was vanquished
• Stage four - They enter the first station of the Holy Defence, where they simulate fighting the enemy and learn about combat methods, including firing plastic bullets. They shoot at effigies of the Israeli Prime Minister and the US flag.
• Stage five - The children go to the station of defence of the Shrine of Zaynab and learn about the fighting in Syria against ISIS
• Stage six - Children have a contest throwing balls at effigies of ISIS and the Saudi royal family
• Stage seven - They watch a video about the defence of the Shrine of Zaynab
• Stage eight - The children receive a souvenir gift
• Stage nine - Children are blindfolded and asked to stage thow a ball at an Israeli flag in the form of a puzzle and knock it down, and then assemble a puzzle of an Israeli flag

Sheriff Clarke: You Kill A Cop, You Should Receive Death Penalty!

Wayne Dupree.com  "Sheriff David Clarke gave a stern opinion to those who have decided killing cops is ok. Clarke thinks you kill a cop; you should face the death penalty. Now liberals will be pissed off at that sort of thinking because most are against killing someone who has decided to kill others.

"Clarke’s position is very tough and will open up dialogue."

Senate Dems, powerless to stop Trump nominees, regret 'nuclear option' power play

CNN

. . . "But there is little they can do about it -- and some top Democrats are now coming to regret it.

"That's because Senate Democrats muscled through an unprecedented rules change in 2013 to weaken the power of the minority party to filibuster Cabinet-level appointees and most judicial nominees, now setting the threshold at 51 votes -- rather than 60 -- to overcome tactics aimed at derailing nominations.

"With the Senate GOP poised to hold 52 seats next Congress, some Democrats now say they should have thought twice before making the rules change -- known on Capitol Hill as the "nuclear option."

" 'I do regret that," said Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware, a Democrat who voted for the rules change three years ago." . . .

Kathy Griffin Heckles Megyn Kelly's Speech at THR Event

Hollywood Reporter  . . . "There's room for the loyal opposition in this country," Kelly continued as the room quieted. "As women, we must reject the urge to fight with pigs — which gets us dirty and the pigs enjoy. But if a fight is unavoidable, then fight ... with composure, and grace. And we let our children see us do it — standing tall and sometimes playing hurt."

Kathy GriffinVerified account‏@kathygriffin

Wellll, I just HAD to boo the mention of Prez d bag. Middle finger up! RT @THR: @MegynKelly re @RealDonaldTrump