Wisdom and the Smartest People Ever

"Seek wisdom, and she will protect you; love her, and she will watch over you.  Find wisdom.  Though it cost all you have, get understanding."
"Does not wisdom call out?"
"Choose my instruction instead of silver, knowledge rather than choice gold, for wisdom is more precious than rubies, and nothing you desire can compare with her." From the Book of Proverbs

David Prentice  . . . "Now, it's hard not to notice that the pinnacle of the left being smarter than everyone came to us with one Barack Obama, with his incredibly über-intelligent, superior group of advisers and administration.

"Nobody was ever smarter.  Ever.

"Except they really weren't.  For smart people, they actually did some of the dumbest things ever in public life.  The tragedy of so many believing they were the smartest people ever may haunt us for years.

. . . 

"The eight years of Barack Obama were the West at its low point.  My take: I never thought our culture could turn so wrong so fast.  Things happened in our government and culture during those eight years we never deemed possible even ten years ago.  Destructive trends, "destructive ideas, destructive social movements.  All at their peak through the Obama years:' " . . .  (Emphases added, TD)

*The worst race relations since the 1960s.  Race-baiting, straight from the top.*The worst foreign policy ever.  Iran.  Cuba.  ISIS.  Help our enemies.  Betray our friends.  Bolster Islamists; destroy American confidence and its military.*The most corrupt administration ever.  By far.  We're just now seeing how bad.*A turn in leftist immigration policy – its clear intent to replace the current electorate with a malleable, ignorant new electorate willing to believe the leftist siren songs so the left can have unchallenged power.*The worst of pay to play.  Leftists at the trough of government sucked deep.  The Clinton Foundation sucking the deepest.  Follow the money if you dare.*The moral preening of Hollywood and the media. . . .

I left my body waste in San Francisco

This was from 2009, so how has the city changed since then?

For a first world city, San Francisco is dirty. No, filthy. No, disgusting. Whenever I travel outside of San Francisco, I'm amazed at what a disastrous anomaly it is. Sidewalks are routinely covered in broken glass, trash, old food, and human excrement....... Aging hippies in the Haight argue about marijuana legalization and anti-war referendums when men and women are dying – visibly dying – on the streets of the Tenderloin. It's as if all parties don't occupy the same city...

 Clean up San Francisco’s streets, tourist industry pleads . . . "People injecting themselves with drugs in broad daylight, their dirty needles and other garbage strewn on the sidewalks. Tent camps. Human feces. The threatening behavior of some people who appear either mentally ill or high. Petty theft. 

“ 'The streets are filthy. There’s trash everywhere. It’s disgusting,” D’Alessandro said, adding he’s traveled the world, and San Francisco stands out for the wrong reasons. “I’ve never seen any other city like this — the homelessness, dirty streets, drug use on the streets, smash-and-grabs. 

“ 'How can it be?” he continued. 

“ 'How can it have gotten to this point?” Remember, this is the man whose job is to glorify San Francisco, which tells you something about how far the city has sunk." . . . 

Save The Earth: Chop Down Redwoods, Use Plastic Bags, And Eat GMOs

Daily Caller  "It’s Earth Day again, so prepare to be bombarded with platitudes from environmental activists droning at rallies and on TV — all while stuffing their faces with organic kale.

"But it’s 2018, so environmentalists may also complain how Earth Day is “too white” or a rehashing of apocalyptic predictions of ecological decay making the rounds for decades.

"What you probably won’t hear about are some of the actual great environmental threats Americans face or the unintended consequences of policies meant to go “green.” In light of this, The Daily Caller News Foundation put together a short list of things Americans aren’t likely to hear from most of the media on Earth Day." . . .  Full article

"At this point it’s hard to see how we will ever be rid of this loathsome sore loser short of locking her up . . ."

Downtrend

James Woods‏Verified account @RealJamesWoods Apr 20MoreYou couldn’t beat 1.) a dope-smoking block party organizer, 2.) a dandruff ridden old Commie from Vermont, or 3.) a reality TV host. It’s not “they” who stopped you, Honey Bunny, it’s YOU!

This was a beautiful home we wanted badly to have . . .

. . . but they didn't want me to have it!

GOP’s Top Midterm Strategy is All About Hillary

. . . "Of course it doesn’t help that Hillary doesn’t want to leave the spotlight. As the AP noted, “she launched a political organization designed to encourage Trump ‘resistance’ groups” and still makes appearances. She still won’t accept responsibility for losing the election and instead places blame everywhere else.

" 'But it still shocks me that the GOP has decided to take this route considering the Democrats and her former aides don’t want much to do with her. Hillary received a lot of backlash last month when she visited India and implied that us in flyover country hate black people and us women who didn’t vote for her did so because the men in our lives told us not to.

"Some of that backlash came from the Democrats and those around her. An interviewer asked Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) when Hillary would finally “ride off into the sunset” and the incumbent answered, “[N]ot soon enough.” Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) said that that’s not the way “you should talk about any voter.' ” . . .

Hillary’s Famous “Deplorables” Line Wasn’t a Slip of the Tongue

"How can anyone forget this? Hillary: Half of Trump Supporters Belong in a “Basket of Deplorables”

. . . "The moment was framed as a gaffe, something Hillary accidentally said out loud when she thought the only people listening were her supporters. A new book disputes this account, however.

"Phillip Wegmann reports at the Washington Examiner: . . ."

The ugly, elitist backstory behind Hillary Clinton’s ‘basket of deplorables’

Trump administration dumps another pro-Palestinian shibboleth*

*Shibboleth:  . . . "One-hit wonders prove particularly distinctive. Much the same is true of alumni of a particular school, veterans of military service, and other groups. Discussing such memories is a common way of bonding. In-jokes can be a similar type of shared-experience shibboleth." . . .

Israel Rising

Thomas Lifson  "So far, there has been little reaction because the change came so quietly. But on Friday, the US State Department issued an important document that refused to conform to the previously mandatory language that paid lip service to political correctness’s Palestinian Division. The Times of Israel reports:

The US State Department released its annual report on human rights violations around the world on Friday, and there was at least one discernible difference from past reports: It no longer refers to the West Bank as “occupied.”

Whereas previous iterations of the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices had a section on “Israel and the Occupied Territories,” this year’s document refers instead to “Israel, Golan Heights, West Bank and Gaza.”

. . .
"War and conquest is how pretty much every nation established itself as sovereign over whatever territory it rules. But for reasons as old as the World’s Oldest Hate, Israel is held to a different standard. Except that now, the Trump administration is signaling that it no longer will follow the Israel-only rules, at least in choice of labels. Exactly as it is doing with another phony-baloney Israel-only shibboleth: that one can be born in one country, and yet be a refugee from another country

"I want all those people who think Trump is Hitler to explain how this could possibly happen  with Hitler in charge."

No Democrat would do this, certainly not Obama. Yet why do so many Jews vote Democrat?

Democratic lawsuit will cost them in November

More importantly, the lawsuit will show Americans just who the Democrats are. The party will regret this lawsuit by November, if not by the end of the day. Americans are tired of Hillary, Jim Shady Comey, CNN, and the constant attacks on President Trump.

Don Surber  "Democrats suffered their biggest presidential loss in 28 years on November 8, 2016, as people in 30 states rejected them and the woman they nominated.

"And for the first time since 1860, there was no peaceful transition of power.

"Barack Obama set President Trump up with that Fake Russian Dossier that the Democratic Party purchased. Replete with tall tales of pissing prostitutes, Democrats used this to stick a special counsel on Trump.

"For more than a year, Democrats have used their operatives embedded in government to thwart the Trump administration. They slowed the confirmation process to a crawl.

"Nothing has worked. The economy roars. North Korea cringes in fear. Chairman Xi -- who made Obama use the servants entrance -- dined with the Trumps in the Forbidden Palace, the first foreign dignitaries to do so.

"Facing the increasing prospect of being a rare opposition party that loses seats in the midterm, Democrats decided to sue to overturn the 2016 election.

" 'The Democratic Party on Friday sued President Donald Trump's presidential campaign, the Russian government and the Wikileaks group, claiming a broad conspiracy to help Trump win the 2016 election," CNBC reported.

"Oh, let the litigation begin.

"Discovery will bring joy.

"All the news CNN and others kept to themselves will become public." . . .

This Fall, California Voters Could Decide Whether To Split Their State In Three

NY Times map

The Federalist

Some 600,000 Californians have signed a petition that would allow a vote on whether to split the state into three.

"Silicon Valley venture capitalist Tim Draper has come up with a scheme to split California into three states, and he’s collected twice as many signatures as he needs to get the proposition on the ballot in November. Some 600,000 Californians have signed his petition, which would allow a vote on whether to split the state into North California, South California and California.
"Personally, I would have named the third part Coastal California. Here’s what Draper has in mind:

"He has done one thing correctly. He has roughly equalized population among the three regions in his proposal. The effect, however, would be to syphon all the conservatives off into one state — South California — and create two progressive states. In other words, progressives would get four U.S. senators and conservatives just two." 
. . . 
What Happens if CAL3 Passes?  
"CAL3 can be passed by a simple majority in November, if it is put on the ballot. If it passes, the state legislature will have to approve the request to divide the state and the governor will have to sign the bill. After that the request must be approved by the U.S. Congress. I personally doubt that either party in Washington, D.C., wants to take a chance on upsetting the balance of power. But it wouldn’t be the first time the idea has been tried. 

"There have been seven previous attempts to break up the state. The first, the Pico Act of 1859, would have split off all of the state from (roughly) San Luis Obispo south. The legislature approved it, the governor signed it, and it got a whopping 75 percent of the popular vote in southern California. But the U.S. Congress is also required to approve splitting a state, and in this case an inconvenient event called the Civil War distracted the Union Government from the relatively minor matter.

"But the Jefferson Rebellion is far more interesting, if only because there have been repeated attempts to form the state of Jefferson. In late 1941, a group of ranchers from southern Oregon and northern California declared that the two regions would be joined to form the state of Jefferson. Both groups felt they were largely ignored in the capitals of each state."
The article also discusses the problems with universities, transportation, etc.

. . . "There are 114 campuses in the California Community College System. I leave it to readers with way too much time on their hands to perform those calculations.In sum: CAL3 is a dream come true for politicians, consultants, lawyers, and accountants. There would also be plenty of work for surveyors and experts on geographic information systems. Each of these professions would find their services in high demand if this proposal passes and is approved by the Congress.

Joe Biden Is 2020 Democrat Frontrunner; Progressives Are Not Happy (UPDATED)

UPDATE: Biden: "The Clintons Will Try to Destroy Me"

Chozick writes that the Clinton campaign, which she covered from the beginning, had reacted furiously to the prospect of a Joe Biden run, as floated first in an August 2015 Maureen DowdTimes column and then in a reported story by Chozick. In the book, she writes that “Biden had confided (off the record) to the White House press corps that he wanted to run, but he added something like ‘You guys don’t understand these people. The Clintons will try to destroy me.  Via PolitiChicks

Legal Insurrection

Biden is “a deeply flawed candidate who’s out of step with the mood of his party”

"The 2020 presidential election is a good way off and the pivotal 2018 midterms are this year, but it’s never too early for the regressive left to start griping about the 2020 Democrat frontrunner.   Former Senator (D-DE) and former Vice President Joe Biden is the Democrat voters’ early pick to go up against President Trump.

"This is great news for President Trump, but the Democrat base is less than happy that yet another elderly cis gender white male with a penchant for groping women and girls is in the lead in this #MeToo moment.  His being a bit gaffe-prone is apparently not a concern, but his leading role in and continued defense of the 1994 Clinton crime bill contributes to the disgruntled murmurings from the Democrat base.

"Earlier this week, Politico reported:

"Joe Biden, who leads the Democratic 2020 presidential field in early polls, has all the markings of a front-runner. He possesses a sterling résumé, access to a donor base, name recognition and eight years of loyal service to a president who’s loved by the party base. There’s just one problem: He’s also a deeply flawed candidate who’s out of step with the mood of his party.

"As we’ve noted here at LI, the Democratic Party has lunged so far left that it’s all but unrecognizable to many Americans, including traditional Democrat voters.

This leftward lunge is likely to create problems for Biden, should he decide to run." . . .

Only a hard left liberal would have liked Biden in his debate with Paul Ryan

Vice President Joe Biden's smiles and laughter during the vice presidential debate made him look bullying and deranged.

. . . Last night, Vice President Biden's task was to turn in the performance Obama supposedly had failed to deliver the week before. Well, yes, as I say, if weird laughs, inappropriate smiles shot to Raddatz and moments of unhinged fury comprise your idea of the performance that Obama should have delivered, Uncle Joe brought it all home. But the fact is that between the president's much-maligned performance of debate no. 1 and the vice president's last night, Obama was clearly stronger. Whatever his inadequacies, he didn't look bullying or deranged, as Crazy Joe did.  . . .

Hillary Clinton a bigger whiner than anyone realized

Yet, yet, yet, there was some big 'they out there that wouldn't allow it to happen.

Monica Showalter  " 'They were never going to let me be president," former presidential candidateHillary Clinton declared on election night, according to a new book about her campaign.

"Clinton's sycophants struggled among themselves to figure out who would break the news to 'first woman president,' the book, "Chasing Hillary: Ten Years, Two Presidential Campaigns, and One Intact Glass Ceiling," by New York Times staffer Amy Chozick, reports. Chozick had to travel with the woman for months as part of her traveling press corps, and knew all about what Hillary was like, up close.

"According to the Daily Beast, citing the book:

That’s when Robby [Mook,], drained and deflated, watching the results with his team in a room down the hall from Hillary’s suite, labored into the hallway of the Peninsula to break the news. Hillary didn’t seem all that surprised. ‘I knew it. I knew this would happen to me….’ Hillary said, now within a couple of inches of his face. ‘They were never going to let me be president.’”

"What a whiner. After denouncing half the country as 'deplorables,' failing to go to Wisconsin, refusing to answer any questions freely in press conferences, showing visible signs of failing health, there somehow is some some great 'they' out there, floating around, whose sole purpose was to prevent a woman president, or, more specifically, her.

"What it shows is that this woman is in far worse mental shape than anyone realized. Can you imagine what the news would be like if she were president? Can you imagine the whining we would have had to put up with had she won? No wonder she didn't win." . . .

From 'global warming' to 'climate change' to 'climate restoration'. (And remember your proper pronouns)

Thomas Lifson  "The increase in the atmospheric trace gas of CO2 has so far failed to deliver the catastrophic consequences predicted by the alarmists like Al Gore.  The headlines about "the end of snow" are now an embarrassment after a winter of abundant frozen precipitation.  At least a  decade ago, the fraudsters relabeled their purported peril "climate change," allowing any unusual weather to be blamed on mankind's use of fossil fuels.

"Now another rebranding is being proposed.  Michael Walsh noticed, at PJ Media:

"The Left, in the form of the think thank RAND, has gone full Luddite:

Text in the article, here replaced by this American Thinker 

cartoon from Logosandlettering.net

. . . "Of course, anyone even slightly familiar with the history of the Earth's climate knows there is no one climate to be restored.  We have had ice ages that covered much of the land on which Americans now live in glaciers.  Is that the climate we wish to be restored?

 . . .
" 'Climate restoration" is the "New Coke" of climate alarmism."

Chicken Fried Hate

Trevor Thomas  "As has been well documented, the left is hating on Chick-fil-A...again.  No one should be surprised by this, least of all Chick-fil-A.  Back in 2012, Chick-fil-A became a prime target of the left when its then-president and chief operating officer, Dan Cathy – son of founder Truett Cathy and now the chairman and CEO of Chick-fil-A – gave a benign interview to Baptist Press (the Cathys are longtime members of New Hope Baptist Church in Fayetteville, Ga.).

Cartoon added, TD

 . . . "And like it or not, part of this fight is political.  In spite of losing the electoral battle on marriage – in a landslide – the left fought on and eventually – as is so often the case in such things – got the court victory it lusted after.  Because leftists have made a god of government, the principal instrument for the left to spread its corrupt worldview is politics; thus, we must fight in the political realm.

"We are far past the moral crossroads Al Mohler referenced several years ago.  There is no room for compromise, and there is little to no opportunity for silence.  If high-profile Christian business-owners, athletes, entertainers, politicians, pundits, pastors, and so on won't boldly and loudly stand for the truth on something as fundamental as marriage and the family, what can they be trusted to stand for?  To whom much is given, much is required.

"Again, marriage is the oldest institution in the history of humanity – older than God's covenant with the nation of Israel, older than the Law, older than the church.  Marriage is one of the earliest truths revealed by God.  If anything is true, marriage as the union of one man and one woman is true.  On this, there can never be compromise, and there should never be silence."

I Was Once Transgender. Why I Think Trump Made the Right Decision for the Military. The Military Is a Fighting Force, Not a Gender Clinic

Intellectual Takeout

I think he made the right decision—and as someone who lived as trans-female for several years, I should know.

 

"When I discovered Congress voted earlier this month to not block funding for transgender-related hormone therapies and sex change surgeries, I wondered if it considered how devastating this will be to the fitness, readiness, and morale of our combat-ready troops.

"In July, the House of Representatives voted down Missouri Republican Rep. Vicky Hartzler’s amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, which would have banned the military from funding such treatments.

"Paying for transition-related surgeries for military service members and their families is beyond comprehensible.

"Perhaps they have forgotten that our military was forged to be the world’s strongest fighting force, not a government-funded, politically correct, medical sex change clinic for people with gender dysphoria.

"Gender dysphoria, the common diagnosis for one who feels at odds with his or her birth gender, develops from prolonged anxiety and depression. People are not born that way.

"The “proof” for a diagnosis of gender dysphoria is having strongly held feelings—but feelings can and often do change over time.

"The military is expected to prepare its members in warfare: to kill, destroy, and break our enemies. The most important factors in preparing a strong military are not hormone therapy, surgical sex changes, or politically correct education." . . .