Will Unfinished Train Overpasses Become California’s Stonehenge?

Victor Davis Hanson

The misbegotten project, now stalling, should never have been started.

"Nobody quite knows who built Stonehenge some 5,000 years ago in southern England. The mysterious ring of huge stone monoliths stands mute.

"Californians may leave behind similarly enigmatic monuments for puzzled future generations. Along a 119-mile pathway in central California, from Bakersfield to Madera, there are now huge, quarter-finished concrete overpasses. These are the totems of the initial segment of a planned high-speed-rail corridor.

"Californians thought high-speed rail was a great idea when they voted for it in 2008. The state is overwhelmingly progressive. Silicon Valley reflects California’s confidence in new-age technology. Californians are among the highest-taxed citizens in the nation. They apparently are not opposed to borrowing and spending for ambitious government projects — especially to alleviate crowded freeways." . . .Read more

The Women Movement’s Embrace of Rape-Torturer Psychopath Donna Hylton

The Women Who Speak for Women  . . . "During this interview with the psychologist, Donna Hylton lied and said she was nowhere near the man who died. Evidence disputes this:

Once arrested, Hylton and her friends were put in a holding pen. “I told [the police] these people were going to kill my daughter, we had to find my daughter. I was having nightmares and couldn’t sleep. And it was in all the papers, and people would point to me and say. “There she is,’ like I was some kind of morbid overnight celebrity, the leader of this girl gang. When they told me the victim was dead I just broke down. I didn’t believe it. Look, I know I did something wrong, but I didn’t kill anybody and I didn’t want anybody killed. I wasn’t out for anything evil, maybe love, maybe acceptance.”

Hylton’s signed statement, and the recollections of Detective Spurling, tell a different story. “All the girls’s hairs were on the bedsheet they wrapped him in,” recalled Spurling, “so they were all on the bed with him, or maybe having sex with him.” Rita and Theresa recalled hearing Hylton reading the ransom statement, while Vigliarole’s captors held a knife to his throat and tried to force him to repeat it after them into a tape recorder. She was indeed sighted as the deliverer of the ransom note and tape. [Emphasis added.] . . .

Snopes: Women’s March Speaker Donna Hylton Served Time for Murdering a Man

Life as we know it.

Rich Terrell

Trump: 'Fake news' to say I tried to fire Robert Mueller

Tony Branco

Washington Examiner  "The Times' report said Trump ordered Mueller to be fired, and was stopped by White House counsel Don McGahn, who said firing Mueller in the middle of his probe into Russian meddling in the election would be a political disaster for Trump.

"McGahn later said the idea of firing Mueller has "never been on the table, never."

"Trump was set to deliver remarks to the World Economic Forum Friday morning at 8 a.m. EST." . . .

Journalists boo and astonished billionaires gasp in Davos as Trump attacks 'nasty' press for 'fake news  . . . "Some journalists in the back of the room let out unmistakable 'boo's, others said, while billionaires who came to hear Trump preach his prosperity gospel gasped in astonishment. 

"Others laughed and applauded. A few directed their booing to the media, according to an eyewitness in the room." . . .

Did Trump Really Try To Fire Bob Mueller Last June?   . . . "Is there any evidence to corroborate this spectacular claim? The best argument that it really is FAKE NEWS! is that it’s hard to believe TrumpWorld, which leaks like a sieve, could have kept a secret this sensational for six months. As it turns out, though, there *is* a bit of corroboration, right here in our own archives. On successive days, June 13 and 14, I wrote about new rumblings that Trump was preparing to can Mueller. His friend Chris Ruddy, the head of Newsmax, went on PBS and confirmed that Trump was thinking of firing him. (The White House denied it.) The next day, the Times reported that the president lately had begun “entertaining the idea of firing Mr. Mueller even as his staff tried to discourage him from something they believed would turn a bad situation into a catastrophe, according to several people with direct knowledge of Mr. Trump’s interactions.” Something obviously leaked to the paper at the time, but not solidly enough to justify the story they finally were able to publish last night." . . .

Is Kamala Harris the Future of American Politics? "We should all hope not."

 But there’s no question that on the strength of these hearings, she can lay claim to a style that is the future of American politics: Her combination of incivility, bullying, and victimhood makes her the perfect reflection of our current moment. 

Her rock star pose

Jonathan S. Tobin  "Democrats may not have gotten everything they wanted out of a series of recent televised Senate Intelligence Committee hearings that ostensibly concerning Russian interference in the 2016 election. But as the party of the ‘resistance’ shifted its focus from alleged collusion between Moscow and Republicans to President Trump’s alleged obstruction of justice, the hearings also produced a new heroine for the anti-Trump Left. 

"Senator Kamala Harris emerged from confrontations with the three national intelligence chiefs and Attorney General Jeff Sessions with her reputation enhanced. Her manner of attack was praised and she was acclaimed as a victim of sexism on the part of her colleagues. Harris may lack the talent to fulfill her not-so-secret desire to emulate Barack Obama by parlaying a single unfinished term in the Senate into a successful presidential bid. But there’s no question that on the strength of these hearings, she can lay claim to a style that is the future of American politics: Her combination of incivility, bullying, and victimhood makes her the perfect reflection of our current moment. 

"Harris’s new celebrity stems from two incidents in which Republicans criticized her manner of questioning witnesses during an Intelligence Committee hearing. Her rapid-fire interrogation of Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein prompted Senator John McCain and then committee chair Richard Burr to reproofs in which she was cautioned to allow the witnesses to answer her questions. Harris clearly tried to bully both Sessions and Rosenstein, cutting them off as they spoke and not giving them a chance to speak before she moved on to a new insinuation. But you wouldn’t know it from reading the mainstream media or the liberal Twittersphere. As the New York Times headline on the incidents put it: “Kamala Harris Is (Again) Interrupted While Pressing a Senate Witness.”
 Read more.

Harris carries the Obama's torch of racial division  

Harris portrayed blacks as marginalized and oppressed across America, describing Republicans as seeking to deny “persons of color” the ability to vote.

Mark Levin took particular issue with the “disrespect” shown by Harris in a hearing with DHS secretary, and decorated veteran, Gen. John Kelly.  . . . "Levin described Harris as a “know-nothing, pathetic, left-wing kook from California who they’re now promoting as another presidential candidate.' ” . . .
Californiaitis is metastasizing

If you’re not familiar with Senator Kamala Harris, think Maxine Waters about 20 years ago.  . . . " The junior senator from California supports Black Lives Matter, and she’s as arrogant and entitled as her mentors Barack and Michelle Obama. The rabid Trump-hater was on Capitol Hill for the Intel hearings, where she totally disrespected Admiral Mike Rogers when he wouldn’t say President Donald Trump had done anything wrong." . . . 

Lester Holt, the cream of journalism

American Thinker

NBC host duped by North Korea after reporting from 'staged' ski resort

"An NBC News host was reportedly duped by North Korean propaganda after he delivered an upbeat news report from a ghost town in the secretive state that had been transformed into a ’busy’ ski resort.

"Lester Holt reported from the Masikryong resort on Monday, a facility that was personally ordered by Kim Jong Un and is typically empty.

"But as Holt delivered the TV report, he failed to notice that the North Korean government appeared to have drafted in skiers who wore identical outfits in an attempt to give the impression of a busy and progressive ski resort.

"During the report, Holt claimed that the the resort is a ‘source of immense pride for a country trying to present a new and modern face to the world’.

. . . 

"Throughout the trip, critics slammed Holt’s coverage for being sycophantic, with The New York Times accusing him of filming ‘propaganda’.

" ‘Yes, NBC is eager to promote next month’s Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. But that hardly required anyone to travel north of the DMZ to film propaganda for a regime that enslaves 25 million people — and holds another 50 million southerners as quasi-hostages, under constant (if low-grade) threat of war’, a damning editorial claimed.

"Holt is yet to directly respond to the criticism."

National Review Editors:Holt’s Assist to Hillary , Sept, 2016:  . . . "If Holt didn’t rappel into the debate Candy Crowley–style, it was because he didn’t need to. Antagonistic questions were directed toward one candidate and one candidate only. Donald Trump was asked about his tax returns, his role in promoting the birther controversy, whether he flip-flopped on the Iraq War, and what he meant when he said recently that Clinton does not have a “presidential look.” Clinton, by contrast, was not asked about her private e-mail server, the Clinton Foundation, Benghazi, or any one of the many topics about which voters have rightly expressed concerns. Instead, she was asked open-ended policy questions and permitted to dilate about renewable energy and the sundry misdeeds of George W. Bush. 

"The institutional slant of the media being what it is, the Republican nominee is always at a disadvantage when it comes to debate moderators, and should prepare accordingly." . . .Read more.

Wow: 'Journalist' Reveals 2005 Photo of Obama and Racist Farrakhan, Kept Secret to Protect Obama's Career

"[Farrakhan] also hurled venom at white people -- calling them the "race of devils," the "anti-Christ, and "worthy to be hated" -- as well as the LGBT community.  He is the moral equivalent of Duke, to whom Trump was linked because of Duke's praise of his candidacy, and Trump's opaque and dishonest responses to resulting challenges from reporters.  By contrast, Obama said he opposed Farrakhan's spasms of hateful ideology, but hey, who was he to tell the guy to stop saying nice things about him? . . .  

Guy Benson

"Now they tell us.  More than a year after President Obama left office, a journalist is finally revealing a photograph he deliberately hid from the American public for well over a decade, for the explicit purpose of shielding Obama from political backlash.  Talking Points Memo has the details, including the story of a 'panicked' phone call placed by a Congressional Black Caucus representative, who was desperate to prevent the photo from going public:" . . .

Evidence mounts of Obama involvement in Dinesh D'Souza's selective prosecution

"There was prioritization all right and it had nothing to do with best use of resources. It had everything to do with what was politically best for himself. And lastly, it validates the truth about D'Souza's claims made in his movies that Obma had a fascistic streak. He was not only like Benito Mussolini, he acted like Mussolini, given his "priorities.' "

Monica Showalter  "Would President Obama have been that petty to target a critic for draconian law enforcement over a movie? The way the Soviet KGB might have targeted a dissident?

Well, given the common thread of socialism in both, it shouldn't be a big surprise that he would.

It now comes to light that apparently, yes, he did. Dinesh D'Souza reports that he seems to have been in that unlucky category, targeted for any violation however minor, after making a couple of richly textured, artistically good and very popular critical movies about Obama. When a minor campaign finance violation was finally found after all that looking, D'Souza got the book thrown at him.

He now tweets that there is evidence for it:

Dinesh D'Souza

✔@DineshDSouza

My file—obtained by the House Oversight Committee—shows FBI red-flagged me as an Obama critic & allocated $100 K to investigate a $20 K caseTwitter Ads info and privacy

and that quite a few government resources went into ensuring he got arrested for something, anything. Here's what he thinks might have been done, given the taxpayer cash that went into pinning something, anything, on him :" . . .

Lindsey Graham, the Uninvited Guest

"Let's see, what's the stupidest way we could do this? Every single day of Trump's campaign he promised everyone a wall and mass deportations. What if we DON'T build a wall, but take the person who got zero votes, was the earliest and most vociferous in attacking Trump -- and involve him centrally in the negotiations on immigration? "

Ann Coulter  "Why does Sen. Lindsey Graham have a seat at the table on immigration? Are Jorge Ramos and Vicente Fox unavailable?

"Graham's claim to fame is: 1) having twice negotiated a voluntary surrender for the GOP on immigration; and 2) winning 0.00 percent of the vote when he ran for president two years ago.

"You could run for president on the platform that we should kill babies and eat them, and you'd get more votes than Lindsey Graham. Who designated this most remote of back-benchers, thoroughly rejected by the American people, as the principal negotiator on Trump's central campaign promise?

"Graham's thought process seems to be: We had an election, I ran for president; literally no one voted for me, so my views should prevail over the guy who won an Electoral College landslide.

"How about getting Dennis Kucinich in there? Has anyone asked Martin O'Malley for help in the "DACA" negotiations?

"To a rapturous media, Graham has been peddling the lie that President Trump blew up a beautiful bipartisan deal on immigration. It wasn't "bipartisan," except in the sense of being "angrily rejected by the voters."

"It's the same deal that has gone down in flames at least twice before. It's the same deal that has already destroyed the careers of Sens. John McCain, Marco Rubio, Jeff Flake, Bob Corker, Kelly Ayotte, Mark Kirk and Gov. Jeb! Bush.

"It's the same deal President Bush tried to push through Congress in 2006 -- with Graham's support! -- leading directly to the Republican wipeout in the midterm elections later that year. (Innumerable polls showed that the public hated Bush's proposed amnesty even more than it hated the Iraq War.)

"It's the same deal that voters repudiated for approximately the 87th time when they made Donald Trump president (and -- again -- gave Lindsey Graham zero votes). " . . .  Read more...

Lester Holt sides with Kim Jong-un, mass murderer

John Dietrich   (Cartoons added by TD) "Lester Holt's travels in North Korea have given a favorable view of that dictatorship.  This is unfortunate.

"NBC's Lester Holt traveled to North Korea in advance of the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea in order to inform the American public about the situation there.  North Korea is possibly one of the most tragic examples of what 21st-century despotism is capable of.  The Human Rights Watch World Report 2017 claimed, "North Korea remains one of the most repressive states in the world."

"Holt's report can be described only as despicable.  He follows a long line of Western reporters who have been willing tools of leftist dictators.  They were and are accomplices in the mass murder of millions of people.  Pulitzer Prize-winner Walter Duranty is perhaps the best example of this, as he tried to minimize the impact of Stalin's policies in Ukraine.  These policies led to the deaths of millions of people.

"Holt reported from a Potemkin ski resort as apparently happy North Koreans were enjoying their time on the slopes.  Holt also interviewed "people on the street."  To everyone's surprise, they all mimicked the party line.  Had he interviewed someone with suicidal tendencies who wanted to tell him the truth, the tape would never have gotten out of the North.  Holt claimed, "It's impossible to know what people on the street really think."

"Holt's report covering the Olympics has the added benefit of attacking President Trump.  It was an opportunity to portray North Korea in a favorable light while accusing the U.S. president of giving an adolescent response to the North Korean dictator's threats.

"In response to Kim Jung-un's threat Trump tweeted, "North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the 'Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times.  Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!"  This "mine is bigger than yours" technique may sound undiplomatic, but it might just be a language Kim Jong-un understands.

"Were previous professional diplomatic efforts successful?  The 2008 Congressional Research Service report claimed that the U.S. provided North Korea with over $1 billion in assistance between 1995 and 2008.  This does not include aid provided by the U.N. and NGOs.  Much of that aid originated in the U.S.

In addition to billions in financial aid, former U.S. secretary of state Madeleine Albright gave Kim Jong-il, Kim Jong-un's father, a basketball signed by Michael Jordan.  This aid comes from ordinary American taxpayers.  This money is going to a man whose net worth is reportedly $5 billion.  The need for aid was necessitated by a climatic phenomenon that seems to frequently attack socialist countries.  North Korea claims that it has been hit by its worst drought in a century.

"Holt's mission was important to NBC.  The network  did not want any mistakes.  Holt is not the sharpest knife in the drawer.  It was important enough to be supervised by NBC News president Noah Oppenheim.  Oppenheim is playing the role played by CNN's former head, Eason Jordan.  Jordan wrote an op-ed in the New York Times entitled "The News We Kept to Ourselves."  In it, he explains how CNN intentionally distorts the news.  In order to maintain access, a reporter must not offend his source.  This is understandable.  However, when the source is responsible for mass murder, moral considerations enter the equation.  NBC apparently has decided to take the side of the mass murderers. "

John Dietrich is a freelance writer and the author of The Morgenthau Plan: Soviet Influence on American Postwar Policy (Algora Publishing).  He has a Master of Arts degree in international relations from St. Mary's University.  He is retired from the Defense Intelligence Agency and the Department of Homeland Security.

Bradley Manning to the Rescue...of Republicans? Updated

By Taylor Lewis . . . "Manning is many things to many people.  To veterans and current military personnel, he is an unrepentant traitor who carelessly handed over classified information to WikiLeaks, putting active-duty troops in danger.  To leftists and libertarians, Manning is a whistleblower who bypassed traditional media outlets to warn the world about America's war crimes.

"Even the government is split on what Manning is.  For indiscriminately sending 700,000 military field reports and diplomatic cables to a Russia-friendly foreign entity, . . .

 "Manning was charged with numerous crimes, including espionage.  But, after serving seven years of his 35-year sentence, former president Barack Obama commuted his sentence." . . .

. . . "There are innumerable reasons why Manning is unfit for public office.  His previous crimes, however well intentioned, were recklessly treasonous.  He has a known history of attempted suicide attempts, which, if the science is to be believed, is driving his current gender dysphoria.  Then there is the obvious question: why should Manning be a senator?  What experience does he bring to the table, besides spending countless hours in the brig?" . . .

Traitor Chelsea Manning calls for dismantling ICE, no borders, no prisons: ‘Let everyone go’  . . . "Translation: Manning wants hordes of illegal criminals marauding through America’s streets murdering innocent people willy-nilly with no enforcement whatsoever.  Moreover, Manning wants to erase our borders, and apparently wants to close all of our prison, letting criminals run loose on our streets." . . .

Chelsea E. Manning‏ Verified accountMoreno more compromises no more deportations no more prison camps no more borders dismantle @icegov let everyone go #WeGotThis #DACA #DACADeal

. . . " This. by the way, is the modern Democrat Party.  One could hope that the adults in Maryland put an end to this charade, but sadly, it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen." . . .

Update,related: 'Harold' the vulture shocks staff by laying an egg after they thought 'he' was male for 20 years

Psychologist’s Explanation Why ‘Right Not to Be Offended’ Is Absurd Silences Media Host

Western Journalism  Video   "Dr. Jordan B. Peterson, a clinical psychologist and University of Toronto professor, takes a methodical and calculated approach to debates with adversaries who often times become flustered by his stoic demeanor.

"Peterson, who has been a notable crusader for the protection of free speech in Canada, sat down with Channel 4 News host Cathy Newman to discuss his rise to prominence after opposing Canada’s controversial law that “amends the Canadian Human Rights Act to add gender identity and gender expression to the list of prohibited grounds of discrimination.”

"“Why should your right to freedom of speech trump a trans person’s right not to be offended?” Newman asked the University of Toronto professor of psychology, The Washington Times reported.

“ 'Because in order to be able to think, you have to risk being offensive,” Peterson stated. “I mean, look at the conversation we’re having right now.

“ 'You’re certainly willing to risk offending me in the pursuit of truth. Why should you have the right to do that? It’s been rather uncomfortable.”

" Peterson continued: “You’re doing what you should do, which is digging a bit to see what the hell is going on. And that is what you should do. But you’re exercising your freedom of speech to certainly risk offending me, and that’s fine.
“More power to you, as far as I’m concerned,” he added. " . . .