The Best Response to Trump: Report Well

Weekly Standard  "The president’s general attacks against the press are at the least obnoxious—and at the most untrue. There is no better way to demonstrate the latter point than to place facts above all else."

. . . "It is a flawed assumption that casual news readers make a distinction between a newspaper’s editorial board and its reporters such that they won’t hold the former’s opinions against the latter’s journalism. Ultimately, it is on consumers to make such a distinction, when they take editorials seriously at all. But editorial boards across the country were begging readers to do just that in this instance—and in unison. The Baltimore Sun's editorial board addressed the problem of the coordinated campaign in its editorial: “[A] coordinated response from independent—dare we say ‘mainstream’—news organizations feeds a narrative that we’re somehow aligned against this Republican president.” To put a point on it: It’s worth pausing before calling so much attention to yourself." . . .

Overthrow the Church of Leftist Guilt

Michelle Obama famously remarked, during her husband’s first presidential campaign, that it was the first time that she was proud of her country. 

American Greatness

"For the past couple of decades, Leftists have used guilt masterfully to convince Americans to vote against the interests of their country. They set forward some lofty and idealistic vision of what justice in America should be, typically using language generic enough to be palatable to both sides. Then they focus on all of the ways we have fallen short of this goal, ignoring the fact that we have gotten much closer than almost any other country or culture in history. And then they offer an opportunity for penance and salvation—keep voting for them and you will continue to be absolved of your sins.

"But Democrats still need the vague feel-good vision of America to appeal to voters’ patriotism—it’s hard to run a country that you hate. And so they use aspirational language effectively to campaign while hiding their overwhelming disgust with the nation. They have never been proud of America. They are only proud of what America could be if everyone capitulated to their demands.

"Mainstream liberals do not advertise this fact loudly, but they don’t hide it, either. John Kerry chose the slogan Let America be America Again for his presidential campaign—a phrase from a Langston Hughes poem that describes an idealized America, laments that it’s never fulfilled these lofty goals, and finally admits that “America never was America” to him." . . .

Spoof comic claims authorship of NY Times op-ed: 'How Can I Cure My White Guilt?'

Thomas Lifson  "I don't know if the New York Times was hoaxed by a by a comedian pretending to be ridiculously P.C. about collective "white guilt," and it almost doesn't matter.  The fact that the New York Times published this op-ed is simultaneously horrifying and hilarious ("horrifarious" in the useful neologism coined by talk show host Joe Getty):

"Tom Maguire of Just One Minute spotted a tweet raising doubt of about the authorship:

... is this for real, or has the NY Times flipped the keys to The Onion?

You know what?  Go with your gut and bet 'The Onion'.  As best I can tell, the Times writers and editors are serious.  Authorship of the letter however, is claimed by a spoof comic who – take a seat, please – mocks the eternally woke.

. . . 

Democrats In Disarray: Black Dem Apologizes For Racial Slurs Against Asian Dem

Legal Insurrection

"We’re all working hard to understand the very special SJW language of the regressive left.  Apparently, this special language makes “jokes” out of racism against white people because privilege, and we just don’t get the funny.  We aren’t sufficiently “woke” to see that we are a blight on the planet.

"The regressive left has encountered an entirely new beast now: a black female democrat racially slurring an Asian female democrat.  The mind boggles.  We can almost hear them scrambling to make sense of this in their bizarre SJW-land where intersectionality is the rule of the day and racism is the purview of those “fascist” white supremacists.

"What happens when The Narrative skews? When a powerful Democrat black woman calls upon voters not to vote for the Democrat “ching-chong” Asian woman?  Democrat Bettie Cook Scott is referring to her powerful female Democrat opponent, state representative Stephanie Chang.

"The Detroit Metro-Times reports:

Rep. Bettie Cook Scott has issued an apology for her remarks.

. . . .  More than a dozen community groups have called on Rep. Bettie Cook Scott (D-Detroit) to apologize for a series of racial slurs sources say she used to describe her primary election opponent, Rep. Stephanie Chang (D-Detroit).

Scott is alleged to have referred to Chang as “ching-chang” and “the ching-chong” to multiple voters outside polling precincts during last Tuesday’s election. She’s also said to have called one of Chang’s campaign volunteers an “immigrant,” saying “you don’t belong here” and “I want you out of my country.”

'Scott, in other words, has used “the language of white supremacy” to exclude and belittle Chang.  But Scott’s black and a woman, a black woman who apparently holds racist, anti-immigrant, xenophobic, exclusionist views against Democrat Asian-American women.

"The things that Scott said about Chang are objectionable by any standard.

"The Detroit Metro-Times continues:

“These comments are offensive to all Asian-Americans,” Chang tells Metro Times. “It isn’t about me. It’s about an elected official disrespecting entire populations, whether they be Asian-American, immigrant, or residents of Sen. District 1 or [Cook’s] own current house district.” . . .

John Brennan: Give It a Rest Already

Ian Macarlane

Elise Cooper  "John Brennan's security clearance has finally been revoked.  Now he is playing the victim card, but per usual, there is more than meets the eye.  American Thinker interviewed a number of former CIA directors while Obama was president.  Although they may have vehemently disagreed with policy, they did it in a civil manner, without the disgusting hyperbolic language and name-calling.  Brennan should take his own words and reflect upon them.

"The argument by a former CIA operative: "Traditionally, since 1947, former directors have kept their security clearances with the idea that the seniors could provide advice, counsel, and become red teams for the current director.  The benefit comes with the different perspectives as they sit in a room together offering a diversity of opinions about any strategic issues.  The only way they could have these conversations is having their clearance maintained." 

"Brennan served as President Obama's chief counter-terrorism adviser from 2008 until he was confirmed as CIA chief in 2013, holding that position until 2017.  Yet, since he did not do a very good job in keeping Americans safe, who would really want to consult with him?  Taking a stroll down memory lane, there were numerous terrorist attacks and attempts in the U.S. under his watch." . . .

TW offline till Friday evening, 8/17

So at least you'll get some late commentary. TD

Watch: GOP Releases Video Trolling Omarosa. Trump Finishes Her Off

I don't expect Hillary or Bill to find fault with all this. TD

Weasel Zippers "Via Daily Wire:  "The Republican Party released a video trolling disgruntled former White House employee Omarosa Manigault Newman on Wednesday and President Donald Trump wasted no time jumping in and throwing a jab at her.

"Newman, who has been trying to promote her new book about her time in the White House by making wild accusations about the Trump administration, has been widely criticized by anti-Trump figures who have called her “evil,” “a liar,” and “not credible.”

"In response to Omarosa’s claims, the Republican Party compiled multiple television clips of Omarosa expressing very different sentiments toward the Trump administration before she was fired earlier this year.   Keep reading…

Piers Morgan Says Omarosa Manigault Offered Him Sex to Win ‘Celebrity Apprentice’
. . . "I’ve met a lot of vile human beings in my life, from dictators and terrorists to sex abusers and wicked conmen,” Morgan wrote in a piece for the DailyMail on Tuesday, February 13. “But I’ve never met anyone quite so relentlessly loathsome as Omarosa; a vicious, duplicitous, lying, conniving, backstabbing piece of work.”

“ 'Which beggars the question: what the hell was she doing inside the world’s most powerful building for 12 months? The answer, as we can now see, was amassing a whole mass of damaging information to now use against President Trump and his administration on Celebrity Big Brother,” Morgan continued, referencing Manigault opening up about Donald Trump and Mike Pence on the CBS reality show on Monday, February 12." . . .

Omarosa's friend blows a gaping hole in her accusation of Trump using THAT word.

. . . "Patton said she spoke with the producer who flatly denied having such a tape. Patton went on to call the claim of the president using the N-Word a “baseless accusation and imaginary audio tape, as falsely claimed by a former friend.' ”
. . . 

"Today, the individual who Omarosa confirmed to me as having played the second-hand audio recording to her last year confirmed that they have no tape, never had possession of a tape, never claimed to have possession of a tape and never played such a tape for Ms. Manigault-Newman.

"Tonight, on the MSNBC program, Hardball, Omarosa revealed to the general public what she had told me last December: That former Apprentice producer, Bill Pruitt, was the original source of the “N-word” tape." . . .  OF COURSE, she appeared on MSNBC!

Even the anti-Trump channels condemn Omarosa for all this

Piers Morgan: Omarosa – Who Claims Trump Used A Racial Slur – Called Him A
Gay Slur  . . . "Regardless, Omarosa has her own accusations of language to deal with. Folks, I give you assertions by your favorite person…that’s right — ladies and gentlemen, Piers Morgan: 

*NEW: Omarosa offered me sex to win Celebrity Apprentice, then called me a ‘f***ing f*gg*t’, invented gay smears & threatened to punch me. Why the hell was this vile creature ever employed at the White House? http://dailym.ai/2EDuKDd” 

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.