American Couple Believing 'Evil Is A Make-Believe Concept' Bike Through Territory Near Afghan Border. ISIS Stabs Them To Death.

Daily Wire

"A young American couple who took a year-long bike trip around the world, believing that evil was a make-believe concept, took a fatal route in Tajikistan near the Afghan border, where alleged ISIS terrorists stabbed them to death.

"Jay Austin and Lauren Geoghegan, 29, quit their jobs last year in order to make their trip. Austin was a vegan who worked for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development; Geoghegan, a vegetarian who worked in the Georgetown University admissions office.

"Austin had a personal blog on which he wrote in June 2017, “I’ve grown tired of spending the best hours of my day in front of a glowing rectangle, of coloring the best years of my life in swaths of grey and beige. I’ve missed too many sunsets while my back was turned. Too many thunderstorms went unwatched, too many gentle breezes unnoticed.”

"Their trip, which lasted 369 days, took them from the southernmost tip of Africa in Capetown, South Africa, to Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania, Egypt, Morocco, Spain, France, Italy, Croatia, Montengro, Kosovo, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and finally Tajikistan, where they were murdered along with two other cyclists, one from Switzerland and the other from the Netherlands." . . .

"The New York Times reported:

A grainy cellphone clip recorded by a driver shows what happened next: The men’s Daewoo sedan passes the cyclists and then makes a sharp U-turn. It doubles back, and aims directly for the bikers, ramming into them and lurching over their fallen forms. In all, four people were killed: Mr. Austin, Ms. Geoghegan and cyclists from Switzerland and the Netherlands. Two days later, the Islamic State released a video showing five men it identified as the attackers, sitting before the ISIS flag. They face the camera and make a vow: to kill “disbelievers.” . . .

Swedish Mass Arson Attacks — An Islamic State Connection?

Gates of Vienna

As a follow-up to yesterday’s post, here’s an update from our Swedish correspondent Svenne Tvaerskaegg with more information of the coordinated mass car-burnings that took place across Sweden the night before last.

. . . "The Swedish government has been put in an extremely difficult position by the arson attacks. The general election is less than one month away, and the main ruling party, the Social Democrats, are rapidly dropping in the polls as the nationalist and anti-immigration Sweden Democrats are rapidly rising. It was already likely the Sweden Democrats would emerge as the largest party in the Swedish parliament, and the arson attacks will only increase this probability. They have brought a new dimension to the pre-election situation and presented Prime Minister Stefan Löfven with an impossible dilemma. He has to be seen as strong and taking effective measures against the arsonists, but any large-scale police action in the ghettos will inevitably trigger riots on a scale not seen since the Stockholm ghetto riots of 2013. This would make a very bad situation even worse as the world’s eyes, and Swedish voters’ eyes, are on television images of pitched battles and burning cities. This is something Mr. Löfven definitely does not want, but may have to face up to.

"It is going to be a very interesting run-up to the election in Sweden."

Today in celebrities for violence against the president

Don Surber  "Kathy Griffin was only the first to push the narrative that it is OK to kill President Trump.
"Pearl Jam is the latest.
"The group held a rally for Democratic Senator Jon Tester in Montana. It used a poster of the White House in flames to promote the concert. Here it is.
"Republican Senate nominee Matt Rosendale told Breitbart News through a spokesman, “Once again, Jon Tester has shown he will stand with the far-left over Montanans. This poster from Pearl Jam is disgusting and reprehensible. It depicts a dead President Trump and a burning White House. It’s time for Jon Tester to denounce this act of violence and blatant display of extremism.”
"The local newspaper did not say how many people showed up, but it did quote Eddie Vedder of the band, who said, "There is one crowd size that we would be proud of, and that we would brag about. And that is if the state of Montana had the largest youth vote, the largest crowd, that came together in this upcoming election. That I would brag about all (expletive) day."
"So I am guessing that in a state that President Trump carried by 20 points, not many people are attracted to a concert advertised by killing the president.
"Democrats want to normalize this because they want him dead. They have convinced themselves that they are so right -- so principled -- so much better than the average American -- that they have the right and maybe duty to kill him." . . .

"The Washington Examiner took a shot at the band, noting, "Pearl Jam, whose cliche nature was already the subject of mockery 20 years ago, appears to have joined so many other celebrities calling for the death of President Trump.' " . . .

Et tu, Pearl Jam?
. . . "I was going to donate to their cause via the Starbucks (of course!) app on my Apple mobile phone, because, well, I love Pearl Jam.

"Then I see crap like this:

The press assault on President Trump

Certainly, this President can be irritating but do we really miss the feckless, meek leadership that Democrats - especially the self-absorbed celebrity-philic Barack Obama who let America's enemies eat our lunch - presented to the world? The same President whose tenure gave us the Black Lives Matter movement? The very people who rewarded dictators such as Iran and Cuba and turned against our allies in between appearances on TV talk shows? The Tunnel Dweller

A Journalist Reflects On His Profession’s Anti-Trump Collusion "A coordinated campaign by more than 100 newspapers Thursday will see publication of a wide variety of editorials, all condemning President Trump for his attacks on the press and pretty much anything and everything. (Update: Reported number now over 300.)"
. . .  And by the way, isn’t it strange how a billionaire from a New York high-rise could detect the heartland’s hurt better than those elected from that region?

"Trump did not invent many Americans’ visceral dislike of the media. He’s using it, exactly as these 100+ newspapers will use their readers’ visceral dislike of Trump to influence a large audience on this day. It’s all fair game in a free society, even one as bitterly splintered as ours these days." . . .

Participation comes after a push organized by the Boston Globe to run coordinated editorials against Trump’s attacks on the media  . . . "The Guardian has also joined the effort and has published an editorial alongside outlets around the United States.

“ 'Donald Trump is not the first US president to attack the press or to feel unfairly treated by it. But he is the first who appears to have a calculated and consistent policy of undermining, delegitimising and even endangering the press’s work,” the Guardian’s editorial says." . . .

UN human rights chief: Trump's attacks on press 'close to incitement of violence'

You mean like the violence black-clad Democrats use on pro-Trump people using bike locks and other weapons?

Desperate anti-Trump media elevate a strange trio to discredit the president  "In the media’s latest tactic to take down President Trump in the court of public opinion, anti-Trump journalists are pinning their hopes on a porn star, a corrupt lawyer and a reality TV star. It almost sounds like the beginning of a bad joke – except this is unfortunately our present reality. 
"While legitimate questions may exist for the president, trying to legitimize this shady trio by giving them a media makeover isn’t going to give them credibility with the general public. This may be the mainstream media’s “dream team,” but Main Street USA will be a much harder sell." . . .

That would be this Omarosa, who was "Fired or Tossed From Govt. Positions Under Clinton… FOUR Different Times".  This source called Omarosa "disruptive". 

Posted by Nancy Downs in Expose Liberals & Media Bias:

Why Does California Let Billions Of Gallons Of Fresh Water Flow Straight Into The Ocean?

Rich Terrell

2015 editorial in Forbes:  For years people have tried to address this issue, pro, and con:
. . . "It’s problematic because it causes us to look at solutions that are inappropriate for the city, the state, and for long-term sustainability. For example: there’s a growing drumbeat about desalination. But it’s well known that this won’t solve the problem, and it’s extremely expensive and energy intensive.

"Why make freshwater when we could collect the water that falls from the sky? Even on the driest year in recorded history in 2013, it still rained 3.6 inches in Los Angeles. An inch of rainfall in L.A. generates 3.8 billion gallons of runoff, so you’re talking about more than 12 billion gallons of water that could be captured, but that flows within hours down our concrete streets and into the ocean. There’s enough rainwater to be harvested to produce 30-50% of the entire city’s water needs.

"Ashoka: What does harvesting rainwater actually mean?

"Lipkis: It means capturing and then treating the water the flows off our roofs and down our streets each time it rains. There are a lot of ways to do so, including by removing concrete and replacing it with permeable earth to soak in the water like a sponge. And homes and businesses can install rain bins and cisterns to hold the water for later use.

. . . 

"Ashoka: Skeptics of the Governor Brown’s mandatory reductions argue that we won’t make a dent until we deal with agricultural water use, which accounts for up to 80% of statewide use. Are they right?

"Lipkis: They’re right that farming practices need to be improved and that the ag sector needs some reforms. But in a way these are two different conversations: on the one hand, everyone needs to bring their water use down; on the other, we need to be smarter about collecting the precious water that does fall in our state, and we need to do so in ways that don’t damage entire ecosystems like we did to the Owens River valley.

When you capture rainwater locally, you’re reducing how much you have to pump in from other parts of the state, and that saves money and electricity. Moving water is actually the single largest use of electricity in California!" . . .  Full article.

300+ newspapers publish the same anti-Trump editorial today

I fear America's adversaries, the Iranians and North Koreans will now smell blood in the water and realize the American press is taking away the power with which our victor over ISIS, Donald Trump confronted them. What now happens in our dealings with these rogue nations?President Trump's undisciplined tweets have made many question his sanity and maturity, but as Abraham Lincoln once commented on rumors of General Grant's alcohol problem, "I can't spare this man; he fights!". TD

Rich Terrell

Thomas Lifson  "Today marks another milepost on the funeral march of the American newspaper industry. Has there ever before been such a mass demonstration of self-unawareness as the collective expression of outrage this morning by the editorial boards of these ailing enterprises? Here is the editorial as it appears today in the Boston Globe, which no doubt will receive one or more journalism awards (journalists love to give each other awards for agreeing with each other) for their “courage” – as if howling mobs were outside their doors, and military vans on their way to seize the printing presses.

"The editorial, indeed, raises the fear of being shut down right up front, relying on a poll supposedly indicating a public ready to send storm troopers into the nation’s newsrooms. Ginning up polls is a standard operating procedure for the media, who are well aware that by careful wording and sequencing on questions, you can shape the public response into the direction you are hoping for. In this case, Trump-haters are anxious to manufacture a purported threat to shut them down, which is something that nobody in a position of authority has ever even hinted at." . . .

My friend Andrew Malcolm, a veteran journalist who made his career as a foreign correspondent of the New York Times has the best commentary on the pathetic effort at Hot Air* (read the whole thing):

*Posted separately in this blog.

Eyes on the Prize-Fighters

Professor arrested on suspicion of assaulting Trump supporters with metal bike lock in Berkeley Photos added by TD

Ann Coulter  . . .  "But according to the media, the entire Democratic Party and two-thirds of the Republican Party, only one side was to blame for the chaos and violence in Charlottesville last year. 

"We were all agreed: Antifa are heroes. To condemn "both sides" was to cozy up to white supremacists. 
"This past weekend, we got to test that theory. With a few dozen white supremacists surrounded by a phalanx of cops and unable to instigate anything, and morally pure "Antifa" and their supporters swarming the streets, Charlottesville and D.C. should have been like a field of puppies. 

"EXPERIMENT RESULTS: Masked, black-clad Antifa violently attacked the police, journalists and random passersby. They destroyed reporters' camera gear, hurled bottles and fireworks at cops and journalists, smashed cars and screamed obscenities.
"Among the popular slogans being chanted by Romney and Rubio's heroes were: 

"F--K THE PIGS!" 
"NO BORDER! NO WALL! NO USA AT ALL!" 
"COPS AND KLAN GO HAND IN HAND!" 
"ALL COPS ARE RACIST, YOU BETTER FACE IT!" 

"No hate there! Celebrating mass murder on a scale that dwarfs the (real) Nazis, the crowds waved hammer-and-sickle flags. They carried premade signs, such as: 

" 'Behind Every Cop, a Klansman" " 'Last Year They Came w/ Torches ... This Year They Come w/ Badges" " 'This system cannot be reformed, it must be OVERTHROWN!" " 'America was NEVER Great!" 

"A random guy on Twitter with a few thousand followers, Landon Simms, tweeted on Sunday night: 

<iframe width="1519" height="543" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/muoR8Td44UE" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>

" 'My grandfather is a 96-yr-old German. When seeing Antifa videos, he shakes his head and says; ' 'We didn't think it could happen in Germany either. These people (Antifa) act and sound like the NAZI party's Sturmabteilung. Stop them now or you'll regret it.'" 
"In short order, Simms' tweet had gotten a Kardashian-level number of retweets, well surpassing CNN's average viewership. (And you wonder why the left is fixated on ending free speech on the Internet.) " . . .

Eric Clanton, the professor who attacks with a bike lock.

Assaults with a bike lock while masked and hiding behind another demonstrator; gets three Years probation!

Below: the ethics professor, Eric Clanton

Media coordinate with each other to battle Trump this Thursday

Washington Examiner

"Members of the news media are increasingly working together as they try to turn up the heat on President Trump's White House.

"On Thursday, more than 100 newspapers around the country are set to publish editorials in a coordinated push back against Trump’s repeated complaints of “fake news” and his remark that many in the press are the “enemy of the people."

"The Boston Globe initiated the campaign, and contacted local and national papers around the country to get them to join the effort.

“ 'We have some big newspapers, but the majority are from smaller markets, all enthusiastic about standing up to Trump's assault on journalism,” Boston Globe’s deputy editorial page editor Marjorie Pritchard told CNN on Saturday.

"But coordination within the press is going beyond the staging of op-eds. Liberal New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman suggested last week that the media should work together on a new way to cover Trump's mega-rallies, where the president often ridicules reporters who are collectively covering the event, usually in an elevated pen so that cameras can get a clear shot.

“ 'No question that the press should not allow itself to be props at Trump’s rallies, and that can be dealt with by using a single pool camera that feeds all the networks, or reporters just sitting among the rally attendees, not in a special pen,” wrote Friedman." . . .

Mainstream Media 'REWRITES HISTORY' To Credit Obama For Trump ACCOMPLISHMENTS  . . . “ 'The stronger the economy gets under Trump, the more desperate his critics are to hand credit over to Obama. Even if that entails changing the past,” says an Investor’s Business Daily editorial. “A recent New York Times story says it all: ‘An economic upturn begun under Obama is now Trump’s to tout’.” 
"Things were not always thus.

“ 'We seem to recall that the economy was stagnating in 2016 after the weakest recovery from a recession since the Great Depression,” the IBD editorial noted. “In fact, The New York Times itself described Obama’s economy this way in August 2016: ‘For three quarters in a row, the growth rate of the economy has hovered around a mere 1 percent,” the IBD editorial recalled. “In the last quarter of 2015 and the first quarter of 2016, the economy expanded at feeble annual rates of 0.9 percent and 0.8 percent, respectively.”

"The editorial also cited similar coverage at CBS News." . . .

Unfake the News: Mainstream Media Glorifies Violent Antifa Protests  . . . “'Unfake the News” is a Daily Caller program dedicated to debunking the mainstream media narratives that dominate our news cycle.

"That’s where TheDC’s Vince Coglianese steps in to cut through the PC bull. Each week, Vince takes a closer look at how cable news outlets are telling the top story and then gives you his own unadulterated take." . . .

White House: Media Dividing Our Country More than Donald Trump  . . . “It wasn’t until this individual started to negatively attack this President and this administration, and try to tear this entire place down, that she received the type of platform and rollout that she’s getting,” she said.

"Sanders said it was “sad” that Manigault-Newman embarked on a “self-serving” media blitz, noting that she was never critical of the president when she was in the administration. She pointed the media to positive economic statistics, reforms on school choice, and prison reform as proof that Trump was helping African-Americans. 

“ 'This is a President who is governing to help all Americans,” she said. “And I think we’d all be better off if the media gave that just a little bit more attention.' ”

MRC  "More than 100 newspapers have promised to publish editorials Thursday condemning Trump’s anti-media rhetoric. All while conveniently ignoring the hundreds of left-wing Antifa idiots who spent the weekend assaulting journalists in the street, vandalizing their equipment and trying to destroy their cameras."

Is era of Ocasio-Cortez over? Candidate she backed gets 6% in Dem #HI01 primary

Legal Insurrection

"She’s still a media darling, so expect her to keep getting attention even though there is no Ocasio-Cortez wave."

. . . "Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a media darling. They love, love, love her. Her defeat of Joe Crowley in the NY-14 primary was to herald a new era in Democrat politics – a new, young Socialist face for the coming years.

"Ignored was that Ocasio-Cortez won her primary with only about 16,000 votes in a primary that had an abysmally low turnout (just under 12%). Crowley pretty much ignored her candidacy, allowing her to win with barely a 4,000 vote margin.

"Yet she was hosted on many of the anti-Trump cable and network shows. Her appearances were embarrassing. She had a degree in economics and international relations from Boston University. But her know-nothing talking-point responses on a wide range of issues is an indictment not just of Democratic Socialists, but also of our educational system." . . .

. . . "Ocasio-Cortez, nonetheless, drove the Democrat agenda, with numerous likely presidential candidates jumping on her Abolish ICE bandwagon. Ocasio-Cortez hit the campaign trail pushing the Democratic Socialist message for candidates all over the country.

"Anti-Israel activists were particularly heartened by Ocasio-Cortez’s willingness to criticize Israel, a sign that the anti-Israel Democratic Socialist agenda might be making a breakthrough. Ocasio-Cortez backing of Israel-hater Ihlan Omar in MN-05 must have heartened the anti-Israel community.

"But the results have been abysmal. There is no Ocasio-Cortez bump, and candidates she backed have lost, including recently in KS-03." . . ."

Sarah Jeong and the Media’s Alt-Left

Sultan Knish  "Ever since the New York Times decided to hire racist blogger Sarah Jeong, despite her history of hateful tweets about white people, “the world could get by just fine with zero white ppl and the thing stopping POC (people of color) is...a disinclination toward genocide?”, white women, men, heterosexuals and Christians, and then refused to part ways with her (unlike its treatment of previous hire, Quinn Norton, whom the left had accused of homophobia based on a few tweets, despite her being gay), the debate has been about all the wrong things. 

"Jeong isn’t really the issue. Her racism is typical of an influential subset of the left. 

"Some of the pro and anti Jeong essays briefly circle around the actual problem before quickly zooming away. Andrew Sullivan writes in his anti-Jeong essay of the “extent to which loathing of and contempt for ‘white people’ is now background noise on the left”. Vox's Zack Beauchamp, wrote in his pro-Jeong essay that comments such as hers in the "the social justice left" about "white people" are typical. 

"But what part of the “social justice left” or “left” is really producing Sarah Jeongs? 

"To answer that question we have to talk about what no one really talks about, the alt-left. Unlike the alt-right, a subject of numerous essays, news reports and investigative pieces, the internet culture of racism, misandry and heterophobia that is the millennial alt-left is mostly undocumented. 

"The alt-left’s norms of discourse are defined by the same harsh contempt and winking racism that appear in Sarah Jeong’s tweets. It’s an internet culture where “white people” is an inherently derogatory term and new slurs, such as “caucasity”, are coined. Ironic racism is defined as “resistance” to whiteness. And what better way to resist whiteness than with racial slurs aimed at white people? " . . .

Fighting socialism

John Scotto  "As wrong and warped as most leftists' views seem today, the reality is that most people on the left fight relentlessly for their cause.  Can the majority of conservatives look themselves in the mirror and honestly say they fight for their beliefs and principles to the same degree as the left does?

darkangelpolitics

"Our U.S. Constitution is the rock of America, the foundation for maintaining our way of life.  It is the main cog within the engine of freedom.  Freedom is fragile and needs to be cared for.  It can be sustained only through vigilance.  A secure U.S. border, a respect for law enforcement, and a belief in a strong U.S. military are some of the key conservative principles that keep all of us safe and free.  Individual liberty, limited government, lower taxes, and personal responsibility are among the many fundamental concepts we as conservatives need to continue to promote when confronting leftists.

"When conservatives are able to clearly communicate their logic-based beliefs and principles to others, conservatism inevitably wins.  It is imperative that we highlight the huge differences between conservatism and socialism.  When we are able to illustrate these differences, most people begin rejecting socialism.

"Individualism and critical thinking are integral parts within a free society, as opposed to collectivism and group thought, the two main components of socialism, which stagnate a society.  Diversity of thought is an important concept for people who value a free society.  Education and the encouragement of diversity of thought within our schools " produce critical thinkers and entrepreneurs.  The use of leftist indoctrination within our public school system ultimately creates a society inhabited by human drones, most of whom find contentment in becoming the parasites of society." . . .

Not a joke: The New York Times has an advice column about how to 'cure' white skin privilege

Rich Terrell

Monica Showalter  . . . "You can't make this stuff up:

Dear Sugars,

I’m riddled with shame. White shame. This isn’t helpful to me or to anyone, especially people of color. I feel like there is no “me” outside of my white/upper middle class/cisgender identity. I feel like my literal existence hurts people, like I’m always taking up space that should belong to someone else.

I consider myself an ally. I research proper etiquette, read writers of color, vote in a way that will not harm P.O.C. (and other vulnerable people). I engage in conversations about privilege with other white people. I take courses that will further educate me. I donated to Black Lives Matter. Yet I fear that nothing is enough. Part of my fear comes from the fact that privilege is invisible to itself. What if I’m doing or saying insensitive things without realizing it?

Another part of it is that I’m currently immersed in the whitest environment I’ve ever been in.

"Apparently, this is real, and not some joke put on by rightwing satirists. No satirist could make up something this bizarre in its minute self-loathing and expect to be believed.

"The panel of lefty columnists answer her with stereotypical soothingness -- there, there, dear -- and advise her to pick up the torch for social justice warrior-hood - to relieve herself of her white skin privilege affliction. Only by becoming a SJW will she be redeemed." . . .