Patrick K. O’Donnell on Veterans Day: ‘So Many Fake Heroes in Society Today,’ Real Heroes ‘Sacrifice Their Lives for This Great Country’

Rich Terrell

John Hayward  . . . "'For instance, the entire Middle East was created from a flawed treaty from World War One,” he noted. “The rise of communism, international finance, America’s rise to the world stage, all begins in World War One, the modern military. It’s an incredibly important event.”

“Very few people know about it. It’s kind of a lost generation in many ways. That generation of doughboys that fought World War One is an incredible generation that’s largely been lost to time. To this generation, we don’t even know about them and what they fought for, why they fought for liberty and freedom, in one of the most brutal wars of the 20th Century where millions died,” O’Donnell said.

“The sacrifice that these individuals made for America is really staggering. This is a time when America was completely unprepared. The size of the standing army in 1917, 1916 was on par with, like, Belgium. That’s how small it was. It had to grow to nearly four million men overnight. That in itself is an incredible story of how we mobilized, and really the United States made the difference in World War One,” he said.

“One of the most deadly battles of World War One was at the Meuse-Argonne, which took place beginning on September 26th, and it spans all the way to November 11th. Some of the most deadly combat occurred after the armistice was effectively signed. On November 10th, men were still crossing the Meuse river,” he recalled." . . .

Amazing then and now photos of WW1 battlefields  

1916: a French soldier walks in the ruins of Verdun after German bombing. 11 March 2014: a car is parked near the former Episcopal Palace. Verdun was the site of one of the bloodiest, longest and most costly battles of the entire conflict. The attack on the city was conceived by the German chief of the general staff, Erich von Falkenhayn, who initiated a massive offensive to break French troops. After months of bombardment, the French managed to hold the line against the Germans. There were an estimated 700,000 casualties.

Site of Sutherland Springs church shooting will be demolished, pastor says

MySA   "After raising a family in the San Antonio area, Farida Brown moved to LaVernia about 20 years ago and found a community at the First Baptist Church, as so many others have.

"It was the type of place where congregants had developed an unofficial seating chart and greeted each other by name each Sunday.

"But that building will soon be gone.

" 'Pastor Frank Pomeroy told leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention it would be too painful to continue using First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs as a place of worship and he plans to demolish the building.

. . . "The group's spokesman, Sing Oldham, said Pomeroy expressed hope he could turn the site into a memorial for the more than two dozen people who were killed last Sunday and build a new church on property the church owns.

 Brown was attending services on Sunday, as she's done for the past 10 years, when a man marched in with a rifle and shot nearly everyone inside. He killed 26 people and wounded 10 more.

When David Brown got word his 73-year-old mother was shot during church services, he didn't know what the protocol was.

"This is my first disaster of this sort that was so close to home," he told mySA.com.

Doctors were amazed Farida Brown's blood vessels were not struck by one of the bullets and pieces of shrapnel that hit her body. Bullet shrapnel struck her left hip, under her kneecap and above her left knee, traveling up to the top of her femur bone, David Brown said.

"The floors, all the pews and the walls are splattered with blood," David Brown told mySA.com. "The flooring is completely covered with blood."

"I heard it was so bad that it was almost raining out of the church."

RELATED: A church family tries to process the good and the evil

"Rod Green, 71, an elder at the First Baptist Church, said he went to a yard sale Sunday morning instead of attending services. He learned about the tragedy over a series of phone calls.

"Green recalled how, at the beginning of each service, everyone would stand up in the pews and greet each other. It was a chance to reconnect with each other, each week, Green said."

"I shook every hand in that church," he said. "Let them know that it's good to see them."

"The church didn't have a seating chart, but after years together everyone had settled into their particular spot. Green said Dennis Johnson, one of the victims, always sat in the row next to him, across the aisle."He said he won't be able to stomach seeing empty seats without thinking of their former occupants.

" 'I don't think it's going to be possible to get back in that building, Green said. "I know myself and my wife Judy don't want to use that building."

Southern Baptists offer to pay for the funerals of all 26 victims of the Texas church massacre as group says 'lots of healing needs to take place'

UK Daily Mail . . . " 'In addition to that, there is a company that has come forward that has agreed to donate all their caskets to all of the victims, and we are grateful for that person and their service to our community,' Wilson County District Attorney Audrey Louis told KXAN.

"Sherri Pomeroy, the wife of Pastor Frank Pomeroy, said Tuesday on Facebook said her husband is working with the attorney general to handle the funds that have been raised.

" 'Frank is at the bank now under the direction of the AG's office to try to consolidate the funds that people have started with good intentions,' she wrote. 

" 'For the time being, there has always been online giving on our church website.

'A second account with more options and a greater level of security is being set up now. 

" 'Thank you all for wanting to give so generously, but we are trying to make sure everything is done lawfully and carefully, so your generosity will not be compromised in any way.'

The victims pictured at the link:

Youngest victim: Danny's baby girl Noah, aged just one, pictured with
her dad, died in the gunfire; the gunman was said to be deliberately
 targeting crying babies

Sisters six-year-old Brooke (left) and eight-year-old Emily Garza (pictured, right, sitting on the right, next to her sister Rihanna) were killed in the shooting according to her family. Nine-year-old Rihanna (sitting next to Emily) had her glasses shot off her face but survived

Report: Trump Bodyguard Testifies Russian Offered ‘Five Women’ To Trump, Was Rejected

Daily Caller

"A Russian associate of Donald Trump’s attempted unsuccessfully to send “five women” to the real estate tycoon’s hotel room in Moscow in 2013, his longtime bodyguard reportedly told the House Intelligence Committee this week.

"The offer was made after Trump attended a meeting ahead of the Miss Universe pageant, Keith Schiller told the committee in four hours of closed-door testimony, according to NBC News.

"Schiller, who left a job at the White House in September, told the committee that he rejected the offer, saying, “we don’t do that kind of stuff.”

"Schiller’s testimony, if true, would undercut a major allegation made in the infamous dossier compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele. The document, which was funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign and DNC, alleges that Trump used prostitutes during a visit to Moscow in 2013 for the Miss Universe pageant." . . .

Man With the Supposed ‘Dirt’ on Hillary Disappears

Legal Insurrection  "On October 30, I blogged how President Donald Trump’s former foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos pled guilty to making false statements to the FBI about contact with Russians.

"Well, the man who supposedly possessed “thousands of emails” on failed Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has disappeared.

"CNN reported Maltese academic Joseph Mifsud vanished last Thursday “from the private university in Rome where he teaches.” From CNN:

An associate also told CNN that he repeatedly bragged about how Moscow had “compromising material” on the Clinton campaign in spring 2016, contradicting Mifsud’s assertion that he never talked about Russian “dirt” on the Democratic presidential bid.

At that time, according to US officials and independent analysts, Russian agencies or proxies were rummaging around the stolen emails of both the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee. The intrusion would not become public for several months.

The associate, who spoke to CNN at length, also said that Mifsud told him that he had been interviewed by the FBI while on a visit to the US earlier this year. That chimes with Mifsud’s own account — in an interview last week with Italian newspaper La Repubblica, he refers to a discussion with the FBI.

Mifsud was in Washington in February — he spoke at an event organized by Global Ties, which describes itself on its website as a non-profit partner organization of the US State Department.

"However, he told Italian publication La Prepubblica last week that claims “he knew about Russia’s material on Clinton” was just “baloney.” He stated that he excludes “the fact that I spoke of secrets regarding Hillary Clinton.”

"That’s the last time he has spoken." . . .

Senator Paul's neighbors contradict media narrative about 'landscaping dispute'

Rick Moran   "The unprovoked attack on Senator Rand Paul at his Kentucky home last week was not politically motivated, according to the current media narrative.  Instead, the perpetrator, Rene Boucher, went after the senator because of a "landscaping dispute."

The Hill:

A feud that allegedly resulted in Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) being assaulted at his home last weekend started due to a dispute over landscaping, The New York Times reported.

Paul and his longtime next-door neighbor had disagreements over yard care, according to the newspaper, which cited neighbors and three Kentucky Republicans familiar with the issue.

Paul was reportedly mowing his lawn and wearing ear plugs when he was attacked.

"Rand never saw him coming or heard him coming," . . .

 "The stories of a 'landscaping dispute' or a dispute of any sort between Rand Paul and Rene Boucher are erroneous and unfounded. The reason for Mr. Boucher's bizarre attack is known only to him. Statements to the contrary are irresponsible and unnecessary," said neighbor Travis Creed.

"That leaves a mental breakdown by Boucher or a political motivation for the attack.  The fact that Boucher was a huge fan of Bernie Sanders and expressed a virulent hatred for Donald Trump is a far more probable motivation for his assault than any nonexistent "landscaping dispute."

"But the media are desperate to absolve Democrats and their rhetoric of inspiring such attacks on Republicans.  As the number of unhinged attacks on Republicans continues to climb, Democrats don't want to lose their ability to wildly exaggerate and lie about Donald Trump and Republicans.

"It certainly motivated a lot of Democrats to go to the polls on Tuesday."

The media certainly does blast Paul, here, here - and of course Paul's assailant was the model neighbor, GQ, a pro-Obama sycophantic publication for sure, just to name a few.

New Democratic Spin Cycle: Launders Money, Gets Out The Toughest Sleaze!

Ann Coulter  "The Democrats have two very different profiles. One is their public face of absolute moral purity. They're just better people than Republicans. 

"That's what you're buying when you walk into the Democratic store: pure virtue. They've got nothing else on the shelves. No beef jerky, no wiper fluid, no Gatorade. 

"The other profile is reality: In the backroom, where the employees eat lunch, the Democrats and their fat-cat donors are committing unspeakably sleazy and immoral acts. 

"Everyone on the left knows this. That's why, the moment Harvey Weinstein was exposed as a sexual predator, his reflexive response was not to apologize. Accused of the kind of rapes you'd usually need a gang to commit, he put up a virtue shield by attacking the National Rifle Association. 

"As we recently discovered, first with Weinstein and then with the Hillary campaign paying for the Russian dossier, the left has an all-new trick that exponentially multiplies the Democrats' sleaze factor. 

"It used to be that Democrats like Bill Clinton would deploy FOBs -- Friends of Bill -- like James Carville and Sidney Blumenthal to smear his victims. Now, they run their Watergate-style "ratf---ing" through law firms. 

"Ronan Farrow writes in this week's New Yorker that Weinstein deployed a raft of spies to befriend and deceive his accusers in order to collect information that could be used against them. 

"A spy with the Israeli private investigations firm Black Cube used a fake name and fake foundation to meet actress Rose McGowan. Then, pretending to be a deeply sympathetic women's rights advocate, the agent secretly tape-recorded the actress, hoping to get incriminating evidence against her. 

"At a minimum, this is unspeakably repellent and possibly illegal. 

"And who hired the spies? Not Weinstein! The law firm of David Boies, prominent Democratic attorney." . . .  Read more...

David Boies Takes Responsibility For Enabling Harvey Weinstein

(Photo by Larry Busacca/Getty Images for TIME)

"There are lots of reasons why Harvey Weinstein was able to allegedly sexually harass and abuse so many women for so long. His money and power provided a natural defense to women speaking out against him, but more and more details are emerging that he also used those tools to go on the offensive against women who might dare to tell their stories. He used Big law firms and non-disclosure agreements to silence some. And now comes a story from Ronan Farrow writing for the New Yorker, about Weinstein’s network of “spies” — Kroll, a corporate-intelligence company, and Black Cube, an investigative company run by former Israeli intelligence agents — and respected litigator David Boies’s role in keeping the allegations against the Hollywood mogul under wraps." . . . 

From this leftist magazine comes: American hyper-capitalism breeds the lonely, alienated men who become mass killers

Salon

"Economically, he was one of the growing millions without a secure, meaningful, socially approved, well-paid job. He had previously amassed money by buying and selling real estate, but had no ongoing job. He lacked the relationships that flow from working with others to accomplish a shared goal where each person has a part to play. The stability of a daily job and the people to whom that job connects you are bulwarks against loneliness and mental instability.

"Stephen Paddock’s last family contact was with one of his brothers whom he telephoned three years before the shooting. He had not contacted other family members for 20 years. He and his live-in girlfriend kept their blinds closed. They socialized with no one.

"Paddock had been told throughout his life that the U.S. was a special place, an exceptional place. Each generation, if its members studied and worked hard, would live better than the one before. Progress and prosperity awaited him. He would raise a family and provide his wife and children with more than had been provided to him and to his family of origin. Both of his marriages soon ended in divorce.

"As millions of secure jobs disappeared, especially after the 1970s, Paddock became unemployed often for long periods. He became a real estate dealer buying and selling buildings for profit. He amassed some wealth, an American dream most men do not achieve, but it did not connect him to other human beings. Paddock had failed to achieve the promised dream of the connections and family that money was supposed to accompany. He lost his moorings." . . .

Again it's America's fault! That's the opinion of a man of whom it has been said that he went to the Soviet Union on his honeymoon and never came back.

Pot Calls Kettle, um, well... you know... as Al Sharpton Blames Trump for ‘Toxic’ Race Relations

OK, so it's Downtrend, but who can disagree that Rev Al has become a multi- millionaire being a demagogue?

"When it comes to those who depend on keeping racism alive largely because doing so is in their best personal business interests, there are few bigger grievance pimps that the Reverend Al Sharpton.

"Since exploding onto the national scene in the 1980s due to his exploitation of a number of high profile New York City criminal cases, Sharpton has managed to make a nice living for himself as one who can find the tint of race in pretty much everything.

"It not only pays the bills but he has risen to become one of the lown gig on Democrat propaganda network MSNBC.

eft’s greatest voices and even landed his

"A loud, overbearing, and flamboyant gadfly, Sharpton must be in his true glory now that Barack Obama and the Democrats have set race relations back decades and despite his advanced age, he remains relevant.

"But Big Al is a chronic bull manure spreader and in a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black, he is blaming President Donald Trump for making race relations “more toxic” going back into his heyday to rip off the scabs of wounds that will never be allowed to heal thanks to Sharpton and his ilk." . . .

Anti-whiteness has torn our nation apart.

Mocking prayer after the massacre

WND

Washington Times

"We learn a lot about ourselves and others in the midst of a crisis. Hollywood and liberals had no problem revealing themselves for what they are (again) in the aftermath of the horror of the Texas church massacre. Liberals, these worshippers of failed big government, decided to condemn people of faith by mocking those who prayed on a day when 26 Christians were murdered.

"But it was more than mocking prayer. The insistence that prayer is useless implies God does not exist, and only government can make the difference. Some of the more venal comments make this implication clear.

"Actor Wil Wheaton, best known for being typecast as the smug and irritating Wesley Crusher on “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” responded to House Speaker Paul D. Ryan’s tweet for prayers. Mr. Wheaton tweeted, “The murdered victims were in a church. If prayers did anything, they’d still be alive, you worthless sack of [expletive].”

"Actor Michael McKean, currently on AMC’s “Better Call Saul,” chimed in on Twitter as well: “They were in church. They had the prayers shot right out of them. Maybe try something else.”

"Mocking people who pray in response to shock and suffering is obscene and corrupt. And while it is not the only answer, prayer is a foundational part of change, and is a powerful and important act. It also must be paired with action, because the divine is not encumbered by the human interest in micromanaging our daily lives.

"The irony of the reaction by liberals to maniacs who use guns is to call on their God of Government for more gun control. We now know that government bureaucracy failed us in Texas. It failed us in Charleston. And it failed us at Virginia Tech." . . .

Revelation 20:4-6 New International Version (NIV)4 I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheadedbecause of their testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God.They had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reignedwith Christ a thousand years. 5 (The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.) This is the first resurrection.6 Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years.

"Children’s literature: as didactic* as ever, only with Progressive goals"

*Didactic:  1. Intended to instruct. 2. Morally instructive. 3. Inclined to teach or moralize excessively.

Bookworm Room

Children’s literature once taught children to avoid danger and be good boys and girls; now it primes young people to accept a Progressive political agenda.

. . . "None of the books were my cup of tea because they were all “quality literature.” Or put another way, they were all the kind of books that would end up in Oprah’s Book Club. My rule of thumb is that I will never read an Oprah-recommended book. Her taste in books and mine are so diametrically opposed that it’s a given that, if she likes it, I’ll hate it.

"Oprah likes books that are artsy, meaningful, politically correct, and written in high-brow language. I like thrillers, murder mysteries, romances, and non-fiction. We do not intersect.

" . . .Fairy tales may not seem obviously didactic, but they are — or at least some are. Don’t talk to strangers says Little Red Riding Hood. Don’t sleep with “a prick” when you’re still young says Sleeping Beauty. Be a hard worker of good cheer says Cinderella. Don’t accept food from strangers says Snow White. Throughout the world, fairy tales urge girls to be meek and chaste while urging boys to be brave and adventurous. Those aren’t politically correct messages, but history is what it is." . . . 

"As you may have guessed, I didn’t particularly enjoy the evening. The virtue signalling was constant, the disdain for America and Americans manifest, and the attacks on Trump predictable, boring, and distasteful. But I did at least get to see the books that serve as warm-ups for a future in which these kids grow up and go to an American college or university. Once there, when their professors start revealing the full Leftist panoply that’s the core curriculum of every college course, they are teaching to children who have been made primed and ready by a lifetime of children’s literature churning out Progressive propaganda."

TNT’s ‘Major Crimes’ Smears Priests and Catholic Church

Of course, such a show wouldn’t be complete without having an angry white male who hates illegal immigrants and wants them dead living next door to one of the missing boys:

Newsbusters  "When a show begins with a main character looking at Jesus on a crucifix in a Catholic Church while snidely saying to Him, “Thanks for nothing,” and then remarks, “We found Lucas Garza's body at a Catholic church. You know who hangs out at Catholic churches? Priests,” you know right away that there is a clear anti-Catholic bias and that things will all be downhill from there.

"TNT’s Major Crimes spent most of their Tuesday, November 7 episode, “Sanctuary City: Part 2” bashing priests and the Catholic Church with similarly offensive remarks, and made a priest a prime suspect in the disappearance of three teenage boys, referred to as the “St. Joseph’s Three,” who went missing while on a field trip with their Catholic church and school.

"Father Jonas is a teacher at St. Joseph’s and a mentor to the three boys, one of whom has already turned up dead at the church in a flower bed. One detective notes, “Father Jonas just can’t stop telling us enough how close he was to these boys.” Father Jonas further tells the detectives that he had an “intense” relationship with Ryan, and that doesn’t sit well with them.

"Ryan came from an abusive home and was neglected, which leads main character Sharon (Mary McDonnell) to suggest during Father Jonas’s interrogation, “Neglected kids make better targets for exploitation.” Another detective, Camila Paige (Jessica Meraz), asks Father Jonas, “If you knew that Ryan was getting knocked around, why didn't you report it?” “Apart from the Church's little habit of covering up abuse,” District Attorney Andrea Hobbs (Kathe Mazur), watching the interrogation from another room, adds in another dig.

"When Father Jonas storms out of the room after the interrogation, one detective states, “At least we have a pretty good idea he’s hiding something.” To which another one remarks, “Well, he’s a priest. Of course he’s hiding something.”

"Other characters, such as Ryan’s estranged father, join in insinuating an improper relationship existed between Ryan and Father Jonas, and he’s referred to as “that freaky priest,” and “that asshole priest.”

"Finally, detectives get a tip from an intern working at the Office of the Archdiocese that makes it appear that Father Jonas may indeed be guilty:" . . .