Fox News star Charles Krauthammer reveals he has weeks to live in heartbreaking letter

"This is the final verdict. My fight is over.”

Fox News

"Charles Krauthammer, the beloved and brilliant Fox News Channel personality who gave up a pioneering career in psychiatry to become a Pulitzer Prize-winning political analyst, on Friday revealed the heartbreaking news that he is in the final stages of a losing battle with cancer.

"The 68-year-old’s incisive takes on politics of the day have been missing from Fox News Channel’s “Special Report” for nearly a year as he battled an abdominal tumor and subsequent complications, but colleagues and viewers alike had held out hope that he would return to the evening show he helped establish as must-viewing. But in an eloquent, yet unblinking letter to co-workers, friends and Fox News Channel viewers, Krauthammer disclosed that he has just weeks to live.

“ 'I have been uncharacteristically silent these past ten months,” the letter began.

 “I had thought that silence would soon be coming to an end, but I’m afraid I must tell you now that fate has decided on a different course for me.' ” . . .

"It was in the nation’s capital that Krauthammer trained his mind and talents on political analysis and began penning columns for The New Republic, Time magazine and finally the Washington Post. In 1985, he won journalism’s top prize for his weekly political commentary. In his sobering farewell, Krauthammer said he is “grateful to have played a small role in the conversations that have helped guide this extraordinary nation’s destiny.”

“ 'I leave this life with no regrets,” Krauthammer wrote. “It was a wonderful life – full and complete with the great loves and great endeavors that make it worth living. I am sad to leave, but I leave with the knowledge that I lived the life that I intended.' ”

The End of Merit; Liberalism brings "sanctioned mediocrity"

Everywhere we look, the principle of merit is compromised or regarded as the worst form of unfairness.  Sanctioned mediocrity is now the order of the day. 

David Solway  . . . "Standards of achievement are diluted, hard work goes unacknowledged, and the desire to excel in one's field or to accept responsibility for one's actions and even for one's failures is in abeyance.  Individual talent, intelligence, entrepreneurial success, and personal discipline are dismissed as unjust advantages deriving from the exploitation of the dispossessed.  "You didn't build that," as Obama notoriously proclaimed.  The inevitable result is the devitalizing of political, intellectual, and professional life to the point where a society finds itself in a state of "progressive" deterioration.

"Examples abound.

"The American (and Canadian) university system is in precipitous freefall, filled with students largely incapable of scholarly ability and civil decorum, professors who do not or cannot teach, gender studies mavens who pollute the curriculum with feminist groupthink, administrators infected by political correctness who propagate "hate speech" laws and shut down controversial debate, and so-called "diversity officers" inimical to diversity of ideas.  In effect, the university has opened its doors, in the name of affirmative action, student empowerment, and equity hiring, to a cohort of self-righteous incompetents and mischief-makers.  The consequence is predictable.  The weak and the undeserving profit at the expense of the shrinking cadre of the committed and the qualified, and society is the worse for it." . . .

The lawless, porn-respecting , MS-13-loving, humorless American left

As the brilliant Salena Zito wrote during the campaign, the left takes Trump literally but not seriously.  His supporters take him seriously but not literally.  Guess who is the smarter group!

American Spectator

Patricia McCarthy  "How does one explain how the party of FDR and JFK now supports all manner of law-breaking by illegal immigrants?  These people defend aliens' illegal entry into the United States and give them sanctuary even after they have committed violent crimes that have taken the lives of innocent American citizens.

"They also love Stormy Daniels and celebrate her ridiculous, attention-seeking, money-grubbing stalking of President Trump.  After Rudy Giuliani dared to say he did not have the same level of respect for her as he would a "woman of substance," the denizens of CNN, NBC, and MSNBC went ballistic.  Apparently she is very much a woman of substance.  The women of The View, including Meghan McCain, defended her "work" (performing a variety of sex acts on film for money with numerous partners).  To hear them sing Stormy's praises, one would think each of them would be proud if her own daughter chose such a profession.  But, as Mark Steyn observed, at the same time, the Miss America Pageant will no longer have a swimsuit or evening gown segment because these are demeaning to women.  Stormy is a woman to be admired for her work ethic, but the bathing suit portion of the Miss America contest is degrading.  The Democrats have boxed themselves into a corner so fraught with hypocrisy that it is stupefying.

"As for Nancy Pelosi's defense of the "spark of divinity" within the members of MS-13, those drug-dealing, sex-trafficking, machete-wielding murderers, she was not alone among her tribe of Democrats.  There is no miscreant, no matter how vile and murderous, whom they will decline to vindicate, to endorse. " . . .

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) Named One of the Most Corrupt Members of Congress

CREW: Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington  "In the midst of a national financial catastrophe, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) used her position as a senior member of Congress and member of the House Financial Services Committee to prevail upon Treasury officials to meet with OneUnited Bank.  She never disclosed that her husband held stock in the bank.  This outrageous conduct has led Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) to include the congresswoman as one of the Most Corrupt Members of Congress.  Click here to read the full report on Rep. Waters.

“By contacting then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to request a meeting, allegedly for a group of minority-owned banks, but then arranging for only one bank – OneUnited, in which she had a financial interest – to attend, Rep. Waters violated House conflict of interest rules,” said CREW Executive Director Melanie Sloan.

"Around the same time Rep. Waters asked the Treasury Department to hold the initial meeting, Rep. Waters spoke to Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) about OneUnited, telling him that her husband previously had served on the board.  Rep. Frank advised her to stay out of matters related to the bank. Nevertheless, Rep. Waters’ chief of staff and grandson, Mikael Moore, continued to actively assist OneUnited representatives in their quest to receive bailout funds, and worked to craft legislation authorizing Treasury to grant OneUnited’s request.

"Rep. Waters was scheduled for an ethics trial on November 29, 2010, but the House Ethics Committee postponed the hearing.  Inconsistent reports have emerged suggesting both potential new evidence and serious misconduct by two of the committee’s attorneys and improper conduct by committee members. In July 2011, the committee hired respected D.C attorney Billy Martin as outside counsel to investigate both the case against Rep. Waters and the committee itself."

Think of the damage this woman and people like Sharpton, Ellison, Kamala Harris and so many others have done to race relations in our society. In meeting a good number of African-Americans I know they have better people than Waters, but what of those who elect her? TD

Some quick hits:

Trump takes action to improve veterans’ health care via Weasel Zippers . . . "The new law empowers veterans to have more control over their health care and provides more quality choices within their own communities.
"The VA Mission Act takes the first step in delivering what our veterans desperately need: faster and better-quality health care for all who have honorably served our country.
"The new law expands health-care options by removing the barriers in the current Choice Program that requires veterans to have waited 30 days or to live more than 40 miles from a VA health-care facility to qualify for government-funded health-care outside the VA system." . . .

This Maryland Democrat Just Cut The Most Absurd Political Ad In Recent Political History  "Trump doesn’t even know you exist, dude. And he couldn’t give a darn about your sexuality."  Via Daily Wire:

Pelosi Dismisses Low Unemployment Rate Because Consumer Confidence Is Low. Chaser: Consumer Confidence Near 18-Year High… video

"It’s not easy being this clueless." 

Is this what concerns you, Nancy?  
The US Economy Suddenly Looks Like It's Unstoppable [Watch]

Bill Clinton's safe space: Stephen Colbert and, well anyone else who loves Democrats

But the Colberts and Todays of the world continue to shy away from even asking Clinton about the credible and detailed rape allegation made by Juanita Broaddrick — much less subject him to sustained questioning about it. Given what we know about Bill Clinton, how likely is it that Broaddrick is lying? Why is she the one woman on earth whose rape allegation is simply dismissed out of hand by feminists? *

Stephen Colbert To Bill Clinton: You Want A Do-Over On That Trainwreck NBC Interview On Monica Lewinsky?  . . . "Normally an acidic satirist, Colbert is scrupulously polite here, even agreeing with Clinton co-author/sycophant James Patterson on what a wonderful person Bill is, his treatment of women notwithstanding. That’s the way of the world with America’s late-night heroes: Ivanka Trump’s a “feckless c*nt” while Clinton, one of the most notorious #MeToo malefactors in modern American history, receives the warmest of welcomes because his politics are Correct. But watch and you’ll see that Colbert deserves a little credit, first politely challenging Clinton’s suggestion that this is all in the past and then uncorking this, which made me simultaneously smile and cringe at its bluntness: “You seemed offended to be asked about this thing [in the NBC interview] when, in all due respect sir, your behavior was the most famous example of a powerful man sexually misbehaving in the workplace of my lifetime.” As a matter of basic human nature, it’s hard to sit across from someone whom you respect for other reasons and remind them, with the whole world watching, that they’re one of the most infamous workplace harassers you’ve ever encountered." . . .

National Review: Did the 1998 impeachment set up the domino path leading to the 2016 election?  . . . "If Democrats had abandoned Bill Clinton in early 1998, they and the country would have been way better off. There was no “higher principle” at stake during the national debate about Clinton’s fate after the revelation of the Lewinsky affair, and blind partisan spite prevented Democrats from recognizing that they had been tricked into defending the indefensible." . . .

Bernie Sanders won't cast judgment on Clinton

MSNBC, NBC Anchors Push Back on Bill Clinton’s Attacks on Interview: ‘Baffling,’ Making ‘False Allegations’  . . . "Clinton said he didn't like Melvin's questioning because it began with the "assertion" he had never apologized for his conduct. Clinton also told the New York Times Tuesday "that young man,"  referring to Melvin, "aggressively" said he never apologized. However, Melvin merely asked Clinton whether he had personally apologized to Lewinsky.

Bill Clinton told the Today Show Monday he paid dearly for the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal twenty years ago. Clinton got angry at the reporter and revealed that the affair with Lewinsky cost him sixteen million bucks. No wonder Stormy Daniels feels so insulted by a hundred and thirty grand.   Comedian Argus Hamilton

*Time’s Up, Democrats. Throw Bill Clinton under the Bus.  . . . "Stop making him the guest of honor at your parties and fundraisers. Stop treating him as an amusing celebrity instead of a despicable human being on your talk shows, stop giving to his foundation, stop attending his speeches, stop being deferential. Denounce him publicly and without equivocation. Exile him. You’ve exiled actors and newsreaders and comedians for doing less than he did. I picture them all commiserating somewhere together, on an Island of Misfit Boys — Matt Lauer and Garrison Keillor and Kevin Spacey and Charlie Rose and Al Franken and Louis C.K. Meanwhile the Big He is still everyone’s darling. All this time, liberals and the media, you’ve been applying a lower standard of character to a former president than you apply to chat-show hosts and jesters." . . .*

Swimsuits and other offenses

Richard Jack Rail  "The Miss America pageant announces it has dropped the swimsuit competition and will no longer judge on looks. Might as well just drop the competition altogether. While women may watch for the clothes, the jewelry, the makeup, the hair styles, men watch for the swimsuit competition.
. . . 

. . . " Rather than develop other sides of themselves, doing interesting things and becoming interesting as creative human beings -- a real form of beauty in itself -- they sink into self-pity and despair.

"And pettiness*. They don’t want anyone else enjoying, much less strutting, their fine, uh, assets. And not just petty, but spiteful. You don’t want to ogle me, you don’t get to ogle anybody. And not just spiteful, but downright hateful. We rid the West of the wolf whistle and we’ll make ogling against the law. Right now, we’ll take away your enjoyment; soon we’ll take your eyes."
*Note this does not say "prettiness"

There She Was    . . . "Miss America follows in the footsteps of Miss World. In 2013, the Miss World finale was held in Bali, Indonesia. In response to terrorist threats, the pageant canceled the swimsuit portion of the competition. To the astonishment of many, the Miss World people decided to make the swimsuit ban permanent the following year. I don’t think Miss World has been heard of since." . . .

Astonishing photos of the Normandy landings, June 1944

Argunners Magazine:  12 Amazing Aerial Photographs of D-Day

Then and now photos of SS-Sturmmann Otto Funk of the 12th SS Panzer Division in Normandy 
Sixteen to eighteen-year-old boys in the Hitler Youth Division already had the thousand-yard-stare from combat


Wrecked panzers in Normandy

Collecting the wreckage of battle:

Many tanks didn't make it to shore.

Unique photographic record of D-Day by Cambridgeshire veteran

Carter

ITV  "A D-Day veteran from St Ives in Cambridgeshire has his own unique record of the Allied landings in Normandy 70 years ago.

"When Sub Lieutenant Brian Carter from St Ives led his troops onto the beaches at the age of 19, he was carrying a camera and the pictures he took tell their own fascinating story."

D-Day 70 years on: The region remembers

I Have a Dream … About Gay Wedding Cakes

"Still, I believe the greatest insult black Americans have had to endure from liberals was when they called Bill Clinton the "first black president.' " 

Ann Coulter  "The Supreme Court's recent decision on whether a Christian baker can be forced to make a wedding cake for a gay marriage (no) arriving on the same day that Bill Clinton reared his syphilitic head on NBC's "Today" reminded me how liberals always use black people as props. 

"Midway through the last century, bedrock legal principles about property rights and freedom of association were abrogated to deal with a specific, intractable problem: We could not get Democrats to stop discriminating against blacks.

"So Republicans, with very little Democratic help, passed a slew of laws saying: No, even though you own that restaurant, you cannot discriminate against black customers. And no, even though we are a free people, you cannot refuse to associate with black people in your clubs, universities or sports teams.

"This should have been a one-time exception to the law for one specific group of people based on an emergency.

"But Democrats, never wild about freedom in the first place, saw "civil rights" as a great gig. Instead of civil rights being used to remedy historic injuries done to a specific group of people, they'd use "civil rights" as a false flag for all their pet projects.

"Just six years after passage of the historic 1964 Civil Rights Act, Democrats in New York had dropped black people from the equation and moved onto legalized abortion. State senator Manfred Ohrenstein of Manhattan explained why killing the unborn was a "right": "It was the end of the civil rights era, and we viewed [abortion] as a civil right."

"In the 1991 case Kreimer v. Morristown, a Carter-appointed federal district judge, H. Lee Sarokin, ruled that a public library's discrimination against smelly, frightening homeless people violated the equal protection clause because it had a "disparate impact" on people who refuse to bathe compared to those who bathe regularly. Three years later, President Clinton promoted him to an appellate judgeship. (The judge, not the homeless person.)" . . .

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.