Normandy, 1944; then and now photos

The aftermath of D Day
6 Juin, 1944  Our previous emphases on Omaha Beach gave short shrift to the other landing sites. This should do a bit to fill in some of those gaps with photos. Click on some of the WW2 photos of a site and you will also see that location as it is today.  Don't you love stuff like that? TD

Omaha Beach - Vierville Draw
The beach depicted in "Saving Private Ryan".

This is the view from a post-war pier off of Vierville Draw. High tide is shown here, which is not historical. The date and time of the invasion was set for the lowest possible tide, so that German beach obstacle would all be above water and of little threat to the landing craft. At the time of the initial landings, about 6:30am, the waterline was approximately 300 to 400 yards out. The invasion plan was for Company C of the 2nd Rangers to land to the right of the draw in two LCAs. Company A of the 116th would land from six LCAs with three boats on either side of the draw. To the left of Co A, it was intended that Companies G, F, and E of the 116th would simultaneously land on the next mile of beach and advance inland along with Co A and the 743rd Tank Bn. In reality, poor visibility from brush fires (caused by the bombardment) along with strong currents took Companies G, F, and E far off course. Co E was a full mile off course and fought with the 1st Division. Companies F and G landed near Les Moulins Draw, the next beach exit. This left Co A, 116th and Co. C, 2nd Rangers to attack Vierville Draw alone. Bad luck continued as one of the six boats transporting Co A sprung a leak and sank, resulting in one man drowning and the rest of the men struggling to stay afloat before being rescued. The remaining five boats continued on and beached." . . .
Typos corrected, TD
Much more here.

California water update: No, Californians, you won't be fined $1,000 if you shower and do laundry the same day

Sacramento Bee   "No, Californians, it's not against the law to shower and do laundry on the same day — even though loud voices in the conservative blogosphere are claiming it is.

"Taking aim at two water-conservation laws signed last week by Gov. Jerry Brown, a conspiratorial far-right financial blog called Zero Hedge reported Sunday that Californians could be fined $1,000 a day if they bathe and wash their clothes on the same day.

""If you don't plan to comply it's going to be way cheaper to move," the blog post stated.

"The bogus information, which appears to have originated on a site called "The Organic Prepper," was widely disseminated on Twitter and Facebook, and cited by several conservative websites, including the Federalist Papers and Breitbart.

"Joe Walsh, a conservative radio host and former congressman with 139,000 Twitter followers, shared a link to the blog post Monday and added: "California is awful. Just awful."
                    Joe Walsh@WalshFreedom

How much is the fine if you dare to take a shower, do laundry, AND run your sprinklers all in the same day?
California is awful. Just awful. https://twitter.com/InezFeltscher/status/1003692481324740608 …

. . . 

Twitter Ads info and privacy

"Republican U.S. Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Tulare, didn't link to the post, but he expressed his frustration on his blog that Californians would face "draconian" showering and laundry restrictions because of "environmental extremists and the Democrats."

" 'Californians don't want to have to choose between doing their laundry and taking a shower," he said.

"Those claims, however, aren't true. The shower and laundry police won't be knocking on doors anytime soon.

"The two bills, AB 1668 and SB 606, set general guidelines for water agencies to follow in California's post-drought era.

"Water agencies will be encouraged to have their customers limit indoor water use to an average of 55 gallons a day per person, declining to 50 gallons by 2030.

"But that's just a target a water district will be asked to meet across its ratepayer base, as part of a broader "water budget" strategy.

"Assemblywoman Laura Friedman, D-Glendale, author of AB 1668, accused Zero Hedge, Nunes and others of spreading "pure fiction.' "

It is within the parameters of what we expect from California. If a state elects people like Nancy Pelosi, Kamala Harris and a governor called "Moonbeam", the default opinion of that state would be scorn and ridicule.  The Tunnel Dweller.

Press in 2016: If Indicted, Hillary Could Pardon Herself

Don Surber  " 'If Hillary Is Indicted, President Clinton Could Pardon Herself and Congress Might be Helpless," Law and Crime reported on October 28, 2016.

"The piece came as Jimmy the Weasel Comey re-opened Hillarygate v7.0.

"Presidential pardoning is in the Constitution.

"Chris White wrote, "Based on the language of Article II, Section 2, the only limits placed on the power are that pardons may only be issued for federal offenses (not civil or state crimes), and a pardon cannot override the Congress’ impeachment power. Presidents have used this power to issue pardons in a wide range of matters throughout the country’s history. However, no president has ever attempted to pardon himself."

"Ah, but she could have been impeached and impeachment trumps pardon.

" 'In Clinton’s case, however, the conduct underlying this hypothetical indictment occurred prior to her taking office. The House of Representatives, as far back as 1873, has determined that a person cannot be impeached based on conduct prior to them holding office. In other words, House precedent says a President Hillary Clinton could not be impeached as president for crimes related to the e-mail server or the Clinton Foundation," White wrote.

"Hmm.

"The election occurred before Trump's presidency. This limits Mueller's witch hunt to anything post-inauguration.

"Bummer."

Bill Clinton tries a do-over as book publicity tour nightmare looms, helped by a late-night TV host

Thomas Lifson   'Last night with the help of Stephen Colbert, known for his vicious attacks on President Trump, Bill Clinton desperately tried to recover from his disastrous Today show interview peddling the thriller novel he purportedly "co-wrote" with James Patterson.  Colbert began the interview openly admitting his intent of helping Clinton out of the hole he has dug for himself, beginning the exchange with this statement:

I noticed you didn't enjoy that entire [Today show] interview. I want you to enjoy this one.

"I don't think Colbert's hopes were realized, but not for his lack of effort.  Clinton obviously realizes he has no way out from the trap that has sprung on him, now that #MeToo reigns on the left and he and Hillary are unable to deliver any power.  He is still blaming NBC ("They had to distill it, and it looked like it said I didn't apologize and had no intention to, and I was mad at me."), and the most he will say is that he already apologized: "But the important thing is that was a very painful thing that happened 20 years ago and I apologized to my family, to Monica Lewinsky and her family, to the American people.  I meant it then; I meant it now.  I have had to live with the consequences every day since.' " . . .

The Late Show

✔@colbertlateshow

TONIGHT: Stephen offers @BillClinton the opportunity for a do-over regarding a question he was asked in an interview earlier this week. #LSSC #BillClinton

Today, Al Gore still bristles when asked about his relationship with Hillary Clinton – who many characterized as Bill Clinton’s co-president, diminishing Gore’s role as veep.

NY Post  "Tipper Gore was more enraged about Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky than even Hillary Clinton, according to a new book.

"“Tipper Gore was furious at Bill Clinton, angrier than Hillary Clinton was,” author Kate Andersen Brower told The Post. Her new book, “First in Line: Presidents, Vice Presidents and the Pursuit of Power,” comes out Tuesday. 

"With Lewinsky being the same age as the Gores’ eldest daughter, Karenna, Tipper “felt personally offended by the scandal,” said ex-Gore aide Jamal Simmons. The White House intern was 22 when the affair with Bill Clinton began.

“ 'In Gore’s case there’s no way he would have gotten to such a dark place if Tipper hasn’t been so mad,” another aide told the author.

"That “dark place” was Al Gore’s decision not to campaign with Bill Clinton during Gore’s 2000 run for the presidency, which – like Hillary Clinton – he lost because of the Electoral College math.

"Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, used her husband’s White House record to vault into a US Senate seat in 2000, representing New York, becoming the first first lady to ever hold elected office." . . .

#Spygate and Leftists' Lack of Patriotism

Leftist lies about the impact of Russia on the election and Trump's supposed collusion with Russia to steal the election have done far more damage to American's trust in our electoral process than anything the Russians actually did.  

Tom Trinko  "Leftists, despite their continual condemnation of America's values and their steadfast insistence that all international problems are due to America, become incensed if their patriotism is questioned.

"The reality is that all that matters to leftists is obtaining the power necessary to control the lives of all Americans.  If you doubt that leftists feel they have the right to control the rest of us, remember that when they have the chance, leftists are eager to tell us how much soda we can drink. 

. . . 

"One of the few actual events the leftists can point to is the leaking of the DNC emails.  The first thing to note is that we don't really know if the Russians were behind that.  The DNC refused to turn the targeted computer over to the FBI or the CIA, which means that claims by any government agency that the Russians were behind it are based on secondhand information.  Given the well established political bias of the FBI and the historical liberal bias of the CIA – the CIA is staffed mainly by graduates of liberal east-coast colleges – it's absurd to simply believe any claims by them when they couldn't conduct an independent forensic analysis on the targeted computer." . . .

The Trump-Mueller Show never ends

"Wrapping It Up" (so it is said).  "How long will the "Russian collusion" circus continue imploding before it reaches critical mass and leaves nothing but wreckage across the liberal D.C. landscape?

"At this point, no other outcome is conceivable.  Any hope that the investigation would land a glove on Donald Trump has been long abandoned by any rational onlooker.  This conclusion became inescapable when Robert Mueller humiliated himself in a court of law by attempting to indict individuals and companies that didn't exist (when life begins to look like metaphors, it's time to quit).  We can throw in the pitiful May 18 Washington Post op-ed by former agent Asha Rangappa claiming that the spies were emplaced in the Trump campaign to "protect" him.  (As an editor, I would have gone with a different title – something like "Please Don't Hit Us.")  The attempt to valorize Comey as a national hero through his book "Hustler's Honor," or whatever it was titled, fizzled out in the midst of a failed book tour." . . .

Celebrity quiz: check your knowledge!

American Thinker

These Haunting Photographs Of Auschwitz Prisoners Are Even More Harrowing In Color

Perfect Life "Black and white photos often make events and moments in recent history feel older than they really are. As a result, we usually don’t relate to them as we do with a photo that is in color. So what happens when you take old black and white photographs, and colorize them? Take a look at these photographs and see if you feel any different about them…"

WATCH: Sarah Sanders Destroys Philadelphia Eagles Over ‘Political Stunt’

Daily Wire  White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders slammed the Philadelphia Eagles during Tuesday's press briefing, accusing the team of engaging in a "political stunt."
"During the briefing, ABC News’ Jon Karl asked if President Donald Trump was aware that not a single player from the Eagles team had taken a knee during the national anthem all season long.
""There were 80 members of the Eagles' organization that RSVPd and committed to attend this event as recently as Friday as well as over 1,000 fans of the Eagles' organization," Sanders said. "The Eagles, are the ones that tried to change their commitment at the 11th hour and the president frankly thinks that the fans deserve better than that and therefore we changed the ceremony to be a focus on celebrating our great country."
"Karl persisted in obnoxious fashion, interrupting another reporter that Sanders had called on, suggesting to Sanders that something bigger was going on as Lebron James and Stephon Curry have indicated their NBA teams will also not travel to the White House.
" 'Look, if this wasn't a political stunt by the Eagles' franchise then they wouldn't have planned to attend the event and backed out at the last minute," Sanders replied. "If it wasn't a political stunt then they wouldn't have attempted to reschedule the visit when they knew the president was going to be overseas and if this wasn't a political stunt they wouldn't have waited until Monday, well after 1,000 of their fans had traveled and taken time out of their schedules to offer only a tiny handful of representatives to attend the event.' " . . .

Why Masterpiece Cakeshop Is a Win for Religious Freedom

SCOTUS didn't touch the First Amendment issue, but Kennedy's decision smacked down anti-Christian hostility

Mark Hemingway at Weekly Standard   . . . "The court ruled that the government has an obligation to act neutrally with regard to religious beliefs when evaluating whether forcing someone to violate those beliefs is ultimately in the public interest, and that that the commission did not do so in regard to Phillips. The majority opinion written by Anthony Kennedy, the court’s swing vote and author of Obergefell majority opinion, really hammered this point home:

The commissioner even went so far as to compare Phillips’ invocation of his sincerely held religious beliefs to defenses of slavery and the Holocaust. This sentiment is inappropriate for a Commission charged with the solemn responsibility of fair and neutral enforcement of Colorado’s antidiscrimination law—a law that protects discrimination on the basis of religion as well as sexual orientation. The record shows no objection to these comments from other commissioners. And the later state-court ruling reviewing the Commission’s decision did not mention those comments, much less express concern with their content. Nor were the comments by the commissioners disavowed in the briefs filed in this Court. For these reasons, the Court cannot avoid the conclusion that these statements cast doubt on the fairness and impartiality of the Commission’s adjudication of Phillips’ case. . . .

The Supreme Court Pushes Back Against the Rising Tide of Anti-Religious Animus

The Supreme Court took an important step in recognizing that the First Amendment remains in force. It also confirmed what I have said for years, namely, that LGBT activism is the principle threat to freedoms of religion, speech, and conscience in America. May the pushback against this extremism continue.

A Progressive's Guide to Political Correctness