Trump vs. the Norks: Could this be a red line as it should be?

North Korean military presents plan for Guam strike  . . . "Kim's comments, however, with their conditional tone, seemed to hold out the possibility that friction could ease if the United States made some sort of gesture that Pyongyang considered a move to back away from previous "extremely dangerous reckless actions." This might be difficult as the United States and its ally South Korea plan next week to start annual defensive military drills that the North claims are preparation for invasion." . . .

Rich Terrell

North Korea backed down Monday from a threat to fire missiles at the U.S. territory of Guam, according to a North Korean state media report cited by the Wall Street Journal.  . . . "Trump was roundly criticized by politicians from both parties and by the media for his responses to North Korean intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launches, and to news that the regime could miniaturize a nuclear warhead. Trump threatened “fire and fury” and declared that U.S. military plans were “locked and loaded.” His critics, including former Obama administration National Security Adviser Susan Rice, accused him of escalating the situation. Rice even suggested appeasement: “[W]e can, if we must, tolerate nuclear weapons in North Korea.”

"However, Trump’s method of one-upping Kim-Jong-un’s belligerent rhetoric seems to have worked, as Trump cast himself as even more unpredictable than the infamously impetuous tyrant. He also pressured China diplomatically to squeeze North Korea, which also worked: the Chinese suggested last week that they would not defend North Korea if it attacked the U.S., as long as the anticipated U.S. retaliation did not actually try to end the regime itself."

Of course he was criticized by Obama Democrats; standing up to bullies is the last option they will consider. People who are ashamed and embarrassed over their country find no price to defend it worth paying. TD

earloftaint.

Sec. Mattis Issues Warning, North Korea Decides Not To Launch Missiles At Guam

. . . "Secretary of Defense James Mattis issued a strong warning to North Korea Monday: “If they shoot at the United States, I’m assuming they’ve hit the United States. … If they do that, then it’s game on.”

“ 'You don’t shoot at people in this world unless you want to bear the consequences,” Mattis told reporters at the Pentagon.

"Soon after Mattis issued his warning, state-run North Korean media outlet KCNA reported that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had inspected his military’s plan to launch missiles at Guam and discussed the possibility of a strike with his top commanders." . . .

Kim, you drive a hard bargain so I'll turn this over to "Mad Dog" for his advice if you don't mind.

Ken Ham’s Noah’s Ark Will ‘Take Back the Rainbow’ for God

"Christians need to take back the rainbow as we do [at] Ark Encounter — God owns it — He decreed it's a sign of His covenant with man after the Flood," 

PJ Media   "A Christian ministry has unveiled a permanent light display to "take back the rainbow" from the LGBT movement, which adopted the symbol in 1978. The ministry pointed to the Genesis 9 account of God giving the rainbow as a sign after the flood of Noah.

" 'The Ark Encounter is lit permanently at night with a rainbow to remind the world that God owns the rainbow & is a sign of His covenant," tweeted Ken Ham, president of the Christian ministry Answers in Genesis (AiG). His ministry launched an "Ark Encounter," a life-size Noah's Ark theme park, in July 2016. Ham's tweet included a picture of the Ark." . . .

. . . "While some Christians argue that the Bible is not incompatible with the LGBT movement, it clearly condemns homosexual activity and teaches that God made people male and female. Ken Ham may not be right on science, but his suggestion that Christians reclaim the rainbow for God is a solid one, no matter how much LGBT activists mock it."

Oh, and  . . .

Ohio LGBT Group Announces Plans to Target Churches for Homosexual Weddings

Democrats and their race card

 Instead of proving Trump a racist, more than anything else, the events in Charlottesville again reveal the depths of corruption of the left-wing media.  Trevor Grant Thomas*

comicallyincorrect

Trump Denounces Bigotry, Violence, Neo-Nazis, and Hate in Statement  CNN was unimpressed, naturally.   "Outright denounces KKK, neo-Nazis, and white supremacists"

White House Acts to Stem Fallout From Trump’s First Charlottesville Remarks  From the CNN-like entity, the NY Times.

The Democrats always play the same game   "President Trump clearly condemned all hate groups, including the white supremacist groups in Virginia, as he should have, but that wasn't good enough for the media, Democrats, and many Republicans.  The race card has again been pulled out, as it always is, to imply that somehow Trump is a racist. 

"It reminds me of what Democrats, via the NAACP, did to George W. Bush right before the 2000 election.  They put out an ad that was meant to show that Bush somehow supported or was sympathetic to lynching because he didn't support hate crime legislation.  John M. Broder described it in the New York Times:" . . .

Some Perspective on the President's Condemning Racial Violence * . . . "I hope that President Trump has more to say on this matter, but then again, U.S. Presidents have often disappointed when it comes to matters involving the hate-filled violence and rhetoric of a small number of their supporters. Take the last President, for example. Whether Ferguson, Missouri (more than once),Baltimore, St. Paul, Baton Rouge, Dallas, Oakland, and so on, time and again, President Obama refused to condemn the violent racists of Black Lives Matter (BLM). On the contrary, Obama and the Democrat Party regularly encouraged the perverse cause of BLM and gave them political cover.
". . . Of course, eager to paint anyone on the right as a racist, describing the Virginia fools as “Trump’s people” has been a regular refrain from pundits on the left. In spite of all of the evidence linking Obama, the democrats, and BLM, as far as I can recall, the liberal mainstream media never sought to label black racists as “Obama’s people.' ”

Why Trump Was Right to Condemn Both Sides For Violence in Charlottesville

PJ Media

. . . "Trump should have condemned the white nationalists more harshly than the other protesters — they started the violence and their actions killed someone. The white supremacy pushed by these groups is utterly vile and without excuse.

But Trump was right that hatred and violence emerged on both sides. Heather Heyer has been hailed as dying "while protesting against hate," but there was violence and inexcusable behavior on both sides in Charlottesville this weekend.

The anger and violence in video after video from Charlottesville shows two sides striking at one another, two sides attempting to inflict harm on one another.

"Americans should not forget that this is the latest in a string of political violence. Last year, a man inspired by Black Lives Matter killed five police officers in cold blood in Dallas, Texas. Just a few months ago, a politically motivated shooter targeted Congressman Steve Scalise (R-La.) and other Republicans at a Congressional Baseball Game practice.

"This isn't the only recent instance of violence caused by white supremacy, either. The Charleston church shooting in 2015 poignantly comes to mind. America has a problem, and trying to determine who is most to blame will only make the problem worse.

"Not to excuse the white supremacists in any way, but it is worth exploring the reasons why this group has felt increasingly marginalized in recent years. Calls for a national "conversation about race" have focused on whites as oppressors and minorities as victims in every case."

Trump calls for peace after Charlottesville violence — but doesn’t condemn white nationalist groups

So many of us were disgusted when Obama did not condemn the anti-police rioters during his administration and when Maxine Waters dignified the LA riots as a "rebellion". Please President Trump, we must be better than people like that. TD

NY Daily News
. . . "Trump blamed all sides for the hatred that “has been going on for a long time in our country.' ”

"His failure to single out the fascists was condemned.

"Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring tweetedthat the "violence, chaos, and apparent loss of life in Charlottesville is not the fault of 'many sides.' It is racists and white supremacists."

"Even Republicans condemned the President's failure to condemn the driver.

" 'This is nothing short of domestic terrorism & should be named as such," Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) said in the first of two tweets."

Former KKK leader David Duke attended the rally and mentioned the President as an inspiration.
The demonstration, he said, is “to fulfill the promises of Donald Trump.”

Oh, Lord no! What a gift to the left.  

Trump Was Right to Condemn Violence on ‘Many Sides’ in Charlottesville
     "The critics are guilty of a double standard, and of exploiting the violence for political gain, widening America’s divisions at a time when national unity is the only proper course.

     "First of all, as a factual matter, it is self-evident that there was violence on both sides on Saturday, though the attack in which a car plowed into a crowd of left-wing protesters stands apart as a despicable act. Two groups who have been fighting all over the country — white supremacists and so-called “anti-fascists” — went to Charlottesville to do the same, just as they did last summer in Sacramento, and just as they have elsewhere. Condemning one side alone would essentially have given the other side a pass for its tactics — and a political victory that neither deserved.' "

Ohio man, 20, identified as suspect accused of driving car into Charlottesville protesters

"An Ohio man is accused of driving a car into a crowd of people protesting a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., killing a 32-year-old woman and injuring 19 others, police said late Saturday.
James Alex Fields Jr., 20, was booked into the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail on one count of second-degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding, and one count of failing to stop at an accident that resulted in a death.

Charlottesville rally organizer spat at, chased from press conference by protesters; 1 arrested  Video

NBC Lashes Out at President Trump After Charlottesville Attack

CNN's Jim Acosta Attacks Trump, Blaming Him for Deadly Events in Charlottesville

Mandatory Leftism Week in Higher Education

Your weekly report on campus news.

Legal Insurrection  "Progressive ideas are so popular, students have to be forced to learn them. Oregon State Imposes Mandatory “Diversity Education” for Students Who Live on Campus

• Microaggression Sensitivity Training Mandated for New Students at Rutgers

"Here’s one administrator who gets it. Professor on Campus Life: ‘I would claim my industry created this monster’

"That was quick. Southern Methodist U. Relocating 9/11 Memorial to Avoid Upsetting People

• Southern Methodist U. Rethinks Decision to Move 9/11 Memorial After Backlash

"Trump on campus.  Prof Who Said “Trump Must Hang” Relieved of Fall Teaching Duties

• Clemson Prof: Trump Military Trans Ban is Like the Nazis or Something

• Princeton Prof Seeks Submissions for ‘Trumplandia’ Course Project

"Outstanding.  Conservative UNC-Wilmington Prof expertly trolls colleagues with “resignation” letter
"This helps no one.North Carolina State Administrator Wants Segregated Housing for Black Women

• Social Justice Journalism Grant at Brandeis U. Excludes White Men

• Vanderbilt U. Prof Claims Math Education is Sexist

"Of course.First Person in U.S. to Get Gender Neutral Driver’s License is American U. Prof
"You don’t say…Professor Warns Social Justice Warriors are Ruining the Study of Engineering" . . .

Cartoon added: 

 

Obama's Legacy: North Korea's Nuclear Weapons

"Talk will no longer cut it; it is time for action.  A bully will not listen to reason; he is going to take your lunch money every day until he gets that punch in the nose. Why do you think Barack Obama is so thin?"

William L. Gensert  "Today, without China's help, America has no other choice but to respond militarily to North Korean provocations.  War will be catastrophic and bloody, but inaction may be even more so.

"Progressives are always talking about Barack Obama's legacy.  Well, this is his true legacy: the needless deaths of perhaps hundreds of thousands of innocent people because he refused to take action before the clock ran out.

"Obama wanted to be known as the president who stopped wars and not one who started them, which he did anyway when he thought it would enhance his stature.  Because of this, he withdrew from Iraq, birthing ISIS; waffled in Syria, resulting in the death of a half a million people; and did nothing about North Korea.  He played golf and threw parties in the White House.  With North Korea, it is now probably too late for effective action short of war.  Wait a couple of years, when the bill for his appeasement of Iran will come due.

"Small leaders like Obama don't understand that we live in a dangerous world.  This is not new; it has always been that way.  As treacherous as it may be, it is not really that complicated.  The Democratic Republic of North Korea (DPRK) has a visceral loathing for the United States of America.  The destruction of America has been official policy for decades, and regardless of how much "strategic patience," Obama's non-strategy, we show the DPRK, that will not change. "

When a Bernie Sanders supporter attempted to assassinate Republicans, the media were quick to disassociate a politician from his radical supporters

"There was more media effort to discredit the critics of Sanders than to draw the lines connecting progressive rhetoric to violence.Compare and contrast the media reaction."

Thomas Lifson    "We’re all so used to double standards from the media that we barely notice them.  But right now, the unfairness is so acute that we must take a step back and remember something hideous that happened only this year. President Trump is being roundly criticized by most of the media for failing to criticize one side over the other in the Charlottesville riots, even before the exact sequence of events is understood, such as who initiated the violence. The verdict in this case must precede the evidence.

"So let’s take a short trip down memory lane and recall how the media treated the attempted assassination of House Republicans by a Bernie Sanders supporter. James Hidgkinson, who evidently put a lot of thought and planning into his massacre. He had a prolific history of outspokenness in support of Sanders and was known to be fanatical.  No one on the left raised a peep about him. " . . .

Google THIS!

"For years, the peddlers of diversity have been feeling good and self-righteous by denying reality and the differences between men and women.  They run organizations that mock anyone who dares to challenge the groupthink they impose on their employees. "

I searched Google and Bing for this:  “Google’s Ideological Echo Chamber.”
Searching Bing, this came up.
Searching Google got this

American Thinker has numerous columns discussing this:

Intolerance? Just google Google!  "By now, we've been exposed to a lot of intolerance from the left.  We are often called "racists" just because we voted for Trump. 

On the sanctuary city debate, I've been personally called a "racista" because I believe that cities should follow federal laws. 

"And there is "homophobe" for believing that marriage is between a man and a woman. 

"Iit's all a big intimidation technique reminiscent of anti-Castro Cubans being referred to as "CIA employees" whenever we challenged the regime's failure to hold the promised elections.

"And now there is Google, the company that has put it all out there for all to see. " . . .  Silvio Canto, Jr.

The reason Google is useless for conservative searches  "How many [American Thinker] readers have found that they can no longer do a useful Google search on any news topic?  The only hits that come up are liberal.  Even the Wall Street Journal does not make it, although minor liberal papers like the Christian Science Monitor do.  To find interesting commentary and reporting I trust, I have to go to my list of favorite websites and search on their pages. " . . .

"Bokhari asks if Google will listen to user outrage about P.C. censorship.  The whistleblower's reply:

Google is quite good at listening to both their users and their customers, with one exception: when what the users want is at odds with ideological dogmas widely held at Google. In that case, users don't count. No one does.

Is diversity unsafe for Googlers? "The Brave New World, 1984 bizarre diversity preaching but diversity fearing Google circus continues.

"Less than an hour before a Google Town Hall meeting for Google personnel on...well, you guessed it: diversity, or the consequences of firing a Google engineer whose diverse ideas deviated from the approved Google thought on diversity, boom...it was canceled. " . . .

From other sources:
Rebels of Google: Softball Interviews for Ivy Leaguers and ‘Underrepresented Minorities’

. . . "Chuck believes that the reason that white and Asian males from non-Ivy League schools do so well at Google is that they have to face a tougher interview process. On average, says Chuck, an employee who does not have the advantage of being either an Ivy Leaguer or an underrepresented minority is likely to be of a higher caliber than other candidates, as they alone are able to beat a recruiting system that’s biased against them." . . .

Expect Google to tighten the ideological echo chamber  "Some interesting developments in the case of James Damore, the Google Senior Software Engineer who now is a former Google Senior Software Engineer. He was fired after Google reacted badly to Damore’s memo challenging explanations for the relative lack of women in software engineering.

The memo was grossly misrepresented as being anti-diversity and anti-female in both the mainstream and tech media.

"The most senior Google executives joined in that tactic. One of the worst posts was by the CEO of Google’s YouTube, Susan Wojcicki, who used her daughter as a prop to attack Damore:" . . .

Jonah Goldberg: Another Manufactured Diversity Spat  "In a sane world, James Damore’s memo to Google colleagues wouldn’t have been controversial at all."

"In 2005, the Los Angeles Times hired me as a columnist. That was great news (for me). But the best part was when Barbra Streisand canceled her subscription in protest."

Eric Bolling Suing HuffPo Journalist Over Lewd Photo Allegation

Legal Insurrection

"Eric Bolling has been suspended from FOX News, as we mentioned in a recent post: FOX News Suspends Eric Bolling for Allegedly Sending Lewd Texts

"The whole thing is based on a report from the Huffington Post by Yashar Ali which used multiple anonymous sources. Now Bolling is suing Ali.

"Ashley Cullins and Jeremy Barr write at the Hollywood Reporter:

Fox News Host Eric Bolling Sues Journalist for $50M Over Lewd Photo Allegation

Recently suspended Fox News host Eric Bolling is suing journalist Yashar Ali for defamation and is seeking $50 million in damages.

The lawsuit comes just days after Ali wrote an Aug. 4 story for HuffPost claiming that more than a dozen sources told him Bolling sent “an unsolicited photo of male genitalia via text message to at least two colleagues at Fox Business and one colleague at Fox News.”

On Saturday, Fox News suspended Bolling — recently a host on the talk show Fox News Specialists and Cashin’ In and formerly of The Five — amid an investigation into the claims. He has worked at Fox News since 2008.

Ali wrote Wednesday on Twitter that he has received a summons from Bolling and says he stands by his reporting and will protect his sources. In the initial story, Ali says he spoke to 14 sources on the condition of anonymity because they either currently work at the networks, can’t speak to press without permission or signed confidentiality agreements.

The summons, which was filed Wednesday in New York state court, says Bolling is seeking both damages and injunctive relief arising from Ali’s efforts to injure his reputation through “intentional and/or highly reckless publication of actionable false and misleading statements” about his conduct and character.

"Bolling seems eager to get this cleared up:" . . .

Kamala Harris: the left should be ready to accept a flawed politician for the Democratic Party's 2020 presidential candidate.

I thought that was Hillary, er, the Reverend Clinton.

Katelyn Caralle  "A New Republic opinion piece published Friday outlined Sen. Kamala Harris's (D., Calif.) "deeply troubling record," but argued the left should be ready to accept a flawed politician for the Democratic Party's 2020 presidential candidate.

"Many have speculated that Harris could be the Democrats' presidential candidate, but leftist progressives have been quick to point to her spotty record before she became a senator. The New Republic‘s Sarah Jones wrote an op-ed noting the "legitimate points" that concern progressives, but said these were "grounds for criticism, not dismissal."  

"Jones pointed out that while Harris was district attorney, she implemented a law that penalized the parents of truant children with a fine of up to $2,000 and a year in jail. The op-ed also noted that as attorney general, Harris fought against a transgender prisoner attempting to access the health care necessary for transitioning. "The piece also accused Harris of having a poor past in prosecuting financial crimes, including her "decision to refrain from going after OneWest Bank for allegedly breaking foreclosure laws."

"But Jones suggested leftists should be flexible with potential Democratic candidates like Harris who have a spotty record if they hope to win the presidential election. Jones said because the left has always prided itself on policy over personality, it should have no qualms with a candidate with a worrisome past who "checks the necessary boxes and pledges to do the necessary work."

"The op-ed noted Harris is for universal health care, a $15 minimum wage, and free college tuition." Emphases mine, TD

US, North Korea Diplomats Talk in Private as Trump Threatens in Public

Newsmax

"The Trump administration has been quietly engaged in back channel diplomacy with North Korea for several months, addressing Americans imprisoned in the communist country and deteriorating relations between the long-time foes, The Associated Press has learned.

"It had been known the two sides had discussions to secure the June release of an American university student. But it wasn't known until now that the contacts have continued, or that they have broached matters other than U.S. detainees.

"People familiar with the contacts say the interactions have done nothing thus far to quell tensions over North Korea's nuclear weapons and missile advances, which are now fueling fears of military confrontation. But they say the behind-the-scenes discussions could still be a foundation for more serious negotiation, including on North Korea's nuclear weapons, should President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un put aside the bellicose rhetoric of recent days and endorse a dialogue.

"The contacts are occurring regularly between Joseph Yun, the U.S. envoy for North Korea policy, and Pak Song Il, a senior North Korean diplomat at the country's U.N. mission, according to U.S. officials and others briefed on the process. They weren't authorized to discuss the confidential exchanges and spoke on condition of anonymity." . . .