Don't ask me; I don't know

American Thinker

Political Correctness Taliban Claims Another Scalp as Trump Army Secretary Nominee Withdraws

Also: The Hill is reporting “Trump Army secretary nominee withdraws amid fierce opposition”:

Downtrend  "The fanatical left can now add another scalp to their trophy case. The blood was still dripping from the pelt of Army Secretary nominee Mark Green who was forced to withdraw from consideration over allegedly mean things that he said about transgender folks.

"Green had the temerity to blaspheme the left’s unchallengeable dogma over throwing women’s restrooms open to weirdos, transvestites and possible sexual predators looking for child victims. It was a huge boost to the zealots who have fully embraced the culture wars as a means to intensify their anger over losing an election.

"A number of House Democrats had sent a letter calling for the Senate to reject Green and once the man who according to his influence may be the real POTUS – John McCain – gave Green a thumbs down it was all over but the formalities." . . .

52 Congressman to Trump: Recognize Jerusalem in Israel

Middle East Forum  "Over 50 U.S. Congressman have sent a letter to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson calling on the Trump administration to reverse a longstanding policy that prohibits Americans born in Jerusalem from listing Israel as their birthplace on official American documents.

"The letter called on President Trump to reverse the policy followed by his predecessors, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, who claimed that recognizing Jerusalem as part of Israel interferes with Arab­Israeli diplomacy.

" 'We write to urge you to revise the State Department's policy regarding the birthplace designation on passports and consular reports of birth abroad for American citizens born in Jerusalem," the 52 lawmakers wrote. " . . .

What You Need to Know About Climate, In One Chart

"As the chart reflects, we are currently living in a relatively cool period. Global temperatures change over time, and while there are various theories, no one really knows why. If the alarmists were real scientists they would go back to the drawing board."

Power Line  "From Andy May at Watts Up With That, a chart that contains an enormous amount of information relevant to the climate debate. It shows global temperature as inferred from proxies (tree rings and the like), carbon dioxide and methane concentrations, and temperatures as predicted by the alarmists’ models for the Holocene epoch, the time since the end of the last Ice Age.

May comments:

In the figure below (source Javier, here) proxy global average temperatures for the whole Holocene (last 11,500 years) are shown in black. Computer model temperatures calculated by Liu, et al. (2014) are shown in green, carbon dioxide and methane concentrations from ice cores are also shown. For the Neoglacial Period, temperatures go down, but the computer model temperatures go up, so does the carbon dioxide level. Quite obviously, for the Holocene, neither CO2 nor the computer models are predictive of temperature.

 

"As the chart reflects, we are currently living in a relatively cool period. Global temperatures change over time, and while there are various theories, no one really knows why. If the alarmists were real scientists they would go back to the drawing board.".

Hillary Clinton, Sorest Loser in History

"Notwithstanding her rhetoric and blame shifting, Clinton did not lose because of outside influences; she lost because she was a horrible candidate with an unpleasant personality. She does not exude warmth or empathy like her husband, in fact, she has a reputation for being the “Queen of Mean.” For example, numerous security officers who served in her protection detail in both Arkansas and the White House claim she is a nasty person with a horrible temper. This anger and selfishness was also apparent on the 2016 campaign trail."

Townhall

. . . "This week, in an interview with Christiane Amanpour of CNN, Clinton blamed the loss on “the combination of Jim Comey's letter on October 28 and Russian WikiLeaks.” 

"Obviously, Hillary Clinton prefers fantasy to the harsh political reality of her disastrous campaign. She said, "I was on the way to winning” until these supposedly disastrous circumstances united to derail her candidacy. It is quite convenient for Hillary to blame everyone else but herself. 

"Hillary claimed that Comey’s letter and WikiLeaks disclosures were critical factors that “raised doubts in the minds of people who were inclined to vote for me but got scared off," For good measure, she also blamed misogyny, using the sexism card once again. 

"Of course, this is pure nonsense, a web of fantasy woven by a sore loser. The day after the interview, President Trump tweeted “FBI Director Comey was the best thing that ever happened to Hillary Clinton in that he gave her a free pass for many bad deeds!” Comey could have recommended an indictment of Clinton, but he refused to pursue charges, even though he castigated her for “extremely careless” handling of top secret email communications." . . . 

The media, talk shows and the anti-Trump fad.

Weekly Standard: How Trump-hatred warps the judiciary.  "Something ugly is happening to the First Amendment. It is being contorted to enable judges to protest Donald Trump's presidency. The perennial impulse of judges to manipulate the law to achieve morally and politically desirable ends has only been exacerbated by the felt necessity to "resist" Trump. The result: Legal tests concerning the freedoms of speech and religion that in some cases were already highly dubious are being further deformed and twisted.
. . . 
"Those who try to police the relentlessly transformational projects of constitutional progressives had much to dread from the Obama administration, an inveterate ally of the legal left that did what it could to graft the aspirations of progressives onto the Constitution. But Trump's presidency may be even worse, because too many judges now feel called to "resist" Trump and all his works—no matter the cost to the law's authority and to the integrity of the judicial role." . . .

Variety: FCC to Investigate Stephen Colbert Over Controversial Donald Trump Joke  To call it all "homophobic" I find ridiculous and just the sort of claim used to shut down any dialogue on the subject as the left does; conservatives should be better. I prefer societal pressure against this silly man and his bullying ways against conservatives as he did against President Bush. Like that's going to happen. TD

William Sullivan: FCC: Hands off Stephen Colbert Quoting the Constitution:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or of the right of the people to peaceably assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. [Emphasis added]

. . . "It is important that we conservatives be consistent.  How can we tell our children about the virtues of unabridged freedom of speech, only to selectively apply it in principle?  How can any conservative argue against a revival of the “Fairness Doctrine,” which the Democrat left has pursued in recent years to define what is “fair” coverage by media outlets, without first recognizing and acknowledging unequivocally that the federal government has no such right?" . . .

Look at Berkeley and realize we must be better than that. TD

Brian C. Joondeph: Jimmy Kimmel Left Out Some Important Bits About Obamacare  . . . "History aside, and politics aside, one can’t help but feel empathy for Kimmel and his family. But unfortunately, politics wasn’t aside in his monologue. As Rahm Emanuel once said, “You never let a serious crisis go to waste.” And Kimmel did not.

"In the second part of his monologue he pivoted from family health crisis to typical late night comedy show shtick, bashing Donald Trump, Republicans, conservatives and all things not liberal. Kimmel made a pitch for preexisting condition coverage under Obamacare and for National Institutes of Health funding which Trump threatened to cut in his proposed budget." . . .

Wishing our President could speak in coherent sentences

I so want President Trump to succeed, but fear when it seems he is setting himself up for failure in view of the contemptible, demagogic left. TD

Volokh Conspiracy

. . . "I’m sorry, but I cannot get used to the fact that our president cannot speak in coherent sentences. It is inexcusable — unacceptable in a 14-year-old. “Premiums will come down, and deductibles will come down”; good deal! Is there anyone — anyone — who thinks that President Trump understands health-care markets, and the impacts of this bill on those markets, remotely well enough to say that? Does anybody care anymore about little things like that? I guess that when you have a president whose campaign officials are under FBI investigation on the basis of evidence that they may have collaborated with a foreign power to disrupt the U.S. presidential election, all this is just a small blip on the radar. But it appalls just the same." . . .

Can George Soros be Charged with Treason and Sedition?

capitolhilloutsider

Blog: The Constitution.  "This columnist spent most of last night researching the law to learn if George Soros could be charged with Sedition and Treason for the damage he is causing the U.S. The goal was to discover if someone living in another country meddles into the affairs, security and destabilization of another country, specifically, The United States, could they face criminal charges based on that law? 

"The definition of Sedition is “to speak or organize for the purpose of insurrection against established order.” It also lists, “subversion of a Constitution.” Sedition compliments treason. Then there is Seditious Conspiracy, which Webster defines as: “The crime of saying, writing, or doing something that encourages people to destroy the government.”

"The Law Dictionary states that sedition is: “The crime of creating a revolt, disaster or violence against lawful civic authority with the intent to cause overthrow or destroy.” Read this one carefully. George Soros is attempting to deconstruct the constitutional government of the United States and replace it with a Communist Controlled One World Order, destroying the structure of America that was legally put in order.

"This is precisely what it taking place in America today under the direction of this billionaire Hungarian Jew, who betrayed his own people during the Holocaust, for profit. He is a leader of the One World Order campaign, in partnership with Communist Party USA (CPUSA), that provided the protest signs used in the riots of Ferguson, Baltimore and the other locations, plus paying the “protesters,” known to Stalin as, “Useful Idiots,” to do their dirty work for them." . . .

What To Do About North Korea

Power Line Blog  "Here’s very interesting news item—if true—from The Independent in the UK:

China ‘tells citizens to leave North Korea’ as tensions with U.S. escalate

The Korea Times reports that the Chinese embassy in North Korea began advising Korean-Chinese residents to return to China last month, over fears the country’s military provocations could lead to retaliation from the US.

"If true, this could perhaps be an expression of China agreeing to put pressure on the Norks to behave. Or it could be much more serious than that.

"Our pal Herbert Meyer has offered up a typically astute and creative analysis of the situation over at The American Thinker that is worth taking in. He says: Let’s turn North Korea into East Germany. I know—that may sound odd: isn’t North Korea waaaayy beyond East Germany in a totalitarian awfulness? Yes, but let Herb explain more fully:

Here’s one possible objective that would defuse this crisis and perhaps even bring a few decades of stability: to turn North Korea into a modern version of East Germany.

. . .
 "In other words, we need an active strategy to subvert the regime from within. Read the entire piece for Herb’s walk through the four crucial questions about what would need to be done to make the Norks decide to change their own regime, but I’ll just give you his conclusion:

Don’t bother asking the usual Washington policymakers whether turning North Korea into a modern version of East Germany might actually be possible. They will reply — in unison, within two-billionths of a second — No, this is impossible! Kim Jong-un is crazy, and the North Koreans will never give up their nukes or agree to stop threatening South Korea and the U.S. Well, they may be right. On the other hand, these are mostly the same geniuses who told us, also with 100 percent confidence, that it was impossible to win the Cold War, and impossible for Donald Trump to get elected president. Impossible things sometimes do happen, even in politics — especially in politics. Given the risk we face of nuclear war, this is worth a shot.

State Dept. Ordered to Release Clinton Emails on Obama’s Response to Benghazi

Weasel Zippers

Honorable?

"Watch Hills throw a fit over this…

"Via Free Beacon:

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson has ordered the State Department to turn over previously redacted material in Hillary Clinton’s emails that immediately followed the terrorist attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi to Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group.

Judicial Watch announced on Friday that the State Department will need to turn over “eight identical paragraphs” of redacted documents from Clinton emails sent on September 13, 2012, detailing phone calls made by then-President Barack Obama to the Egyptian and Libyan leaders after the Benghazi terror attack two days earlier.

The two Clinton emails, which were housed on the former secretary of state’s unsecured private server, were the same: “Quick Summary of POTUS Calls to Presidents of Libya and Egypt.”

Keep reading…

I'd hate to be in range of her arm right now. 

Barack Obama, international man of interference and manipulation; dispenser of personal pronouns: I, me, mine.

Vanity, thy name is Obama.

Tony Branco

Ethel C. Fenig  "After successfully interfering to deny former FLOTUS and former senator of New York Hillary R. Clinton (D)'s destiny to smash a glass ceiling by becoming the first spouse to become president all by her valiant self in 2008, but endorsing her in her hapless campaign eight years later, after failing to prevent Britain from leaving the European Union despite his desperate trip there to warn them he would be really mad if they disobeyed him, after ignoring his own bloody red line warnings to Syria so Syria did the same, after unsuccessfully spending over $350,000 to twice defeat Israeli prime minister Netanyahu, you'd think former president Barack Hussein Obama (D) would have learned his lesson about manipulating others' election races and just shut up.  You'd think wrong.  (But of course, you knew that!)

"The vain president has once again, via Twitter, informed French citizens he supports Emmanuel Macron in the upcoming race for president of France.  Flattering the always vain French that the outcome of the election will affect not only France, not only Europe, but the world, Obama stated:

I'm not planning to get involved in many elections now that I don't have to run for office again. But the French election is very important to the future of France and the values that we care so much about[.]" ... "I admire the campaign that Emmanuel Macron has run. He stood up for liberal values, he appeals to people's hopes. And not their fears.

. . .  

Ex-next president Hillary joins the resistance. We dodged a bullet.

americanthinker.com/cartoons

Assessing President Rodham Clinton's first 100 days   . . . " 'The era of the American military being used to intimidate and assault the freedom-loving people of the world is over," Clinton is alleged to have proclaimed." . . .
. . . "Due to the untimely death of Justice Antonin Scalia and the precipitous retirement in February of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Clinton has been given her golden opportunity to railroad through her picks for the Supreme Court.  As a result, Elizabeth Warren is on track to become the first Native American female justice, with Loretta Lynch not far behind (with the competing double-credential of first black woman – which will triumph?).  Those irritating challenges to the constitutionality of the administration's agenda from freedom of speech to gun control will all be DOA." . . .
. . . "And of course, Obamacare is on the point of being repealed and replaced...with a single-payer system run exclusively by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), in close consultation with the Veterans Administration and the Bureau of Indian Affairs: "America (finally) Cares.' " . . .
. . . "Regardless of any failing of the Trump administration, "bullet" is far too feeble a word to describe what we as a nation have dodged."

Charles Krauthammer sees it differently: Trump: ‘normalized’ but still scary

. . . "Trump is orchestrating a worldwide campaign to pressure North Korea on its nukes and missiles. He dispatches (finally) the USS Carl Vinson strike group to Korean waters and raises the possibility of a “major, major conflict” with Pyongyang. Meanwhile, we are working furiously to complete a THAAD anti-missile system in South Korea to intercept North Korean rockets.

"At which point, out of the blue, Trump tells Reuters that Seoul will have to pay for the THAAD system. And by the way, that five-year-old U.S.-South Korea free trade agreement is a disaster and needs to be torn up." . . .

The Donald's best pals: Barack and Hillary   . . . "It is a relationship that benefits Trump, because every time Obama or Clinton open their mouths, America is reminded of what was rejected in 2016 — Clinton's presidential hopes and Obama's dreams that she'd keep his legacy intact." . . .

"Here's how the Obama Temple should be built: 

"With a series of reflecting pools, and along the edges, statues of Obama at different stages of his life, so that he might stare into his reflection for all of eternity.

"But outside the Obama Temple, Chicago remains a violent bloodbath, innocents and thugs dropping every day in the city's street gang wars. He did nothing about it as president for eight years. There was talk, yes, but no real development, no real jobs, nothing.

"There should be a sign out front: Obama helped Iran more than he helped Chicago." . . .   Emphasis added by TD