Obama's Operation Choke Point finally unmasked

Ken Blackwell  "James Madison once wrote that “the rights of persons, and the rights of property, are the objects, for the protection of which government was instituted.” While in recent years our political leaders have not always lived up to Madison’s vision of government, rarely have they engaged in such blatant disregard for our constitutional rights as they did during Operation Choke Point — a secret program launched under the Obama administration to punish political adversaries.

"Operation Choke Point was a plot by President Obama’s Department of Justice, the Federal Deposit Insurance Commission, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and other government agencies to cut off banking and financial services for small businesses and industries that they deemed to be political enemies or otherwise undesirable.

"Some of these businesses included gun stores, ammunition shops, fireworks stores, small dollar lenders, and home-based charities.

"Some government officials tried to deny the existence of the program. That includes former CFPB director, Richard Cordray, who dodged questions from Sen. Mike Crapo in 2014 as to the CFPB’s participation in Operation Choke Point. Yet in that same year, Cordray warned banks against doing business with “… unscrupulous lenders and their payment processors.”

"Cordray was not alone in trying to hide the truth about this operation. Officials from the DOJ and FDIC all worked to keep the program’s existence from the public and to bury the truth. Finally, however, the truth is now being unmasked.

"Government documents were just unsealed providing evidence of just how far reaching and destructive Operation Choke Point really was to small businesses." . . .

Just a plain old white guy

The Daily Gouge
. . . "For those interested in further analysis of Warren’s latest effort to convince America she’s a bonafide Indian, we’d recommend the following memes forwarded from George Lawlor…"

The Beatification of [Robert Francis "Beto" O'Rourke];

But what’s fascinating is how the media looked at O’Rourke’s fairly mundane life and standard-issue national Democratic positions and convinced themselves they had found a transformational political talent…

National Review   "The coverage of the Texas Senate race has been driven by what the media yearned to see."

Between Cruz and O'Rourke, which would you say is the Hispanic?

"The media’s treatment of Texas Democratic candidate Beto O’Rourke wasn’t the most egregiously unfair coverage of the past year — that would be the treatment of Brett Kavanaugh — but it ranks among 2018’s most annoying. The endless glowing profiles of O’Rourke in every publication from Vanity Fair to Spin to Rolling Stone to Town & Country represent the national media’s worsening challenge in differentiating between what it wants to see happen and what is actually happening.

"The national media desperately want a Democrat who can win statewide races in the South and someday end up on a presidential ticket. That yearning drove the brief and otherwise unremarkable career of disgraced former senator John Edwards of North Carolina. Democratic statewide winners exist here and there, such as North Carolina governor Roy Cooper and Louisiana governor Jon Bel Edwards. Doug Jones won his Senate race in Alabama, though it helps to run against Roy Moore. 

. . . He genuinely doesn’t consult with pollsters when shaping his positions, which is how you end up with a Texas statewide candidate who is running on banning AR-15s, abolishing ICE, and impeaching President Trump." . . .

The World Keeps Not Ending

Kevin D. Williamson:  National Review

The angry partisan cannot believe that life is good, because he must then ask himself: If life is good, then why am I not enjoying it?

"We were not supposed to have made it this far. 

"George Orwell saw night descending on us in 1984. Orwell was, on paper, a radical, but in his heart he was an old-fashioned English liberal. He dreamed of socialism but feared socialists. He feared them because he knew them. I was in the sixth grade in 1984, but I remember the magazine covers and pundit panels, and the insistence that though we had not arrived at dystopia on "Orwell’s schedule, that eternal jackboot was sure to find our face soon enough. Tom Wolfe joked that “the dark night of fascism is always descending in the United States and yet lands only in Europe,” which wasn’t quite right: There’s Saudi Arabia, and China, and Burma . . . 

"But not here. And, increasingly, not there, either. As our friends at HumanProgress.Org remind us (to little thanks — nobody is less popular than an optimist) the world has in fact become more democratic and more liberal since 1984, rather than more autocratic and more illiberal. Orwell was the better writer and the more profound thinker, but Aldous Huxley was the better prophet. 

"On the other side of the political spectrum, Willi Schlamm offered a useful proverb: “The problem with socialism is socialism. " . . .

Via The Daily Gouge

Libs Attack Prince Charming for Kissing Snow White Without Permission

Western Journal

"Liberals are once again proving that there is nothing that won’t trigger them by being outraged over the classic Disney movie “Snow White.”"The left is on a mission to destroy every single enjoyable facet of entertainment and media by politicizing them to death."Previously, the left went after a video game placed in medieval Europe for having white characters. (That’s who was in medieval Europe.)"The left also recently attacked a Clint Eastwood film for not portraying an Islamic terrorist in a more sympathetic light."Now, progressives have set their sights on “Snow White.' ” "Hollywood actress Kristen Bell expressed her concern with the Disney movie according to an article by Parents Magazine."Bell said she reads the story to her daughters, then asks a question that must make sense to feminists in 2018.“ 'Don’t you think that it’s weird that the prince kisses Snow White without her permission?” Bell asks, according to the magazine.“ 'Because you can not kiss someone if they’re sleeping!' ” . . .

Kristen Bell Worries Disney Princesses Teach Her Daughters Bad Lessons "When it comes to stranger danger and conversations around consent, Frozen's Anna has a lot of questions for Snow White."

Bobby Fran O'Rourke enters the American Democrat culture

The Embarrassing Spectacle of Betomania

"Attention, journalists of America: Time is running out! You have under three weeks left to publish your last batch of over-the-top pre-election.

"It is here that we must face the difficult truth: Barring a GOP-related disaster of some sort, O’Rourke — he of that ineffable “cool factor” and “special sauce,” at least according to easily impressed columnists at the Washington Post — is likely to lose big. According to the latest polls, Senator Ted Cruz leads him by anywhere between seven and nine points. Tuesday’s debate between the two, meanwhile, was so mismatched that O’Rourke’s best moment might have involved a random deer-in-the-headlights story in which he described how he “got to meet this blind squirrel who is slowly regaining its sight.”
" In summary, this year’s Betomania — a somewhat weird phenomenon, as we’ll explore in a bit — seems set to disappear from view just as quickly as it arrived, at least in the Lone Star State." . . .

One opinion: Cruz "steamrolls" Bobby O'Rourke  "The televised debate on Tuesday between Ted Cruz and Beto O'Rourke was a massacre.  O'Rourke has been reluctant to debate Cruz from the beginning, and with good reason (ironically, as a rule, an incumbent shuns debate) – Cruz has successfully argued cases before the Supreme Court.

"O'Rourke was occasionally flustered and almost succeeded in hiding it, while Cruz was confident and occasionally laughed at some of his opponent's assertions.  But more than that, Beto relied on vague generalities about specific questions and on a couple of questions tried the politicians' tried and true tactic of avoiding answering a question by going off on a convoluted tangent.  Twice Cruz pounced on that, pointing out that he hadn't answered the panel's questions.  The specific subjects were how to pay for socialized medicine and how to secure the border (O'Rourke is on record on considering abolishing ICE).  Cruz countered with specific numbers.

"This is not to say that it was totally one-sided.  O'Rourke got in a couple of good hits, such as Cruz's absence from Senate affairs, but, again, he was unable to point to any achievement of his own as a congressman." . . .

Silvio Canto, Jr. says time is not on O'Rourk's side  . . . "A friend relayed a recent conversation she had with another friend, a Hispanic woman and social conservative, who was singing the praises of the congressman.  When my friend lamented that O'Rourke was not only pro-choice but held an extreme view on abortion (he voted against a 20-week ban), the response was complete surprise.  "I didn't know he supported abortion.  They never mention it on Spanish radio."

"They never do.  Abortion, Roe v. Wade, reproductive rights, or "it's a woman's body" is never heard south of Austin.  It's as if Democrats give two speeches, one that mentions abortion and another one that avoids the issue like the plague.
"Last night, Senator Cruz hit O'Rourke on "partial-birth abortion."  It was very effective.
"My guess is that it gave conservative women another reason to vote early for Senator Cruz." . . .

America's moral foundation: the pillar of education has rotted

Professor Patrick Deneen at Notre Dame says, "My students are know-nothings. ... Their brains are largely empty. ... They are the culmination of western civilization, a civilization that has forgotten nearly everything about itself, and as a result, has achieved near-perfect indifference to its own culture." Bruce Deitrick Price

K-12: Why So Little for the Mind?  "Many critics say our public schools are a train wreck.  In Charlotte Iserbyt's memorable phrase, we are all victims of "the deliberate dumbing down of America."  Is there any escape?  Perhaps, but only if we're candid about what has been done to us throughout the past century. 

"Here's how bad things are now.  Camille Paglia, popular professor and author, declares: "What has happened is these young people now getting to college have no sense of history – of any kind!  No sense of history.  No world geography.  No sense of the violence and the barbarities of history.  So, they think that the whole world has always been like this, a kind of nice, comfortable world where you can go to the store and get orange juice and milk, and you can turn on the water and the hot water comes out. ... They know nothing!' " . . .

From 2014: Camille Paglia: The Modern Campus Cannot Comprehend Evil

Current educational codes, tracking liberal-Left, are perpetuating illusions about sex and gender. The basic Leftist premise, descending from Marxism, is that all problems in human life stem from an unjust society and that corrections and fine-tunings of that social mechanism will eventually bring utopia. Progressives have unquestioned faith in the perfectibility of mankind. 

A look at a typical Texas local Republican Party and the consequences it could face Updated already!

These campaigns are going on across Texas as demographics in the state change and the next generation becomes more leftist. The generation for which many schools have replaced the love of our nation and her history with a passion for political correctness, for the lure of socialism. 
The American Republican Party, even in Texas, now must fight against a poorly taught population that seems to know nothing of what is happening to Venezuela; of the seven decades in the Communist USSR (do they even know what "USSR" means?), with barren store shelves tended by scowling employees; a population afraid to speak honestly for fear that something they say will bring  harm to them. As an Estonian tour guide once told our son when his group posed for a photo with her and asked her to smile, "You Americans like to smile, we do not".     
Is all this becoming more familiar to you here in America? The Democrat Party is no longer the party of my Democrat ancestors; it has become something America-loving citizens must learn to fear. 

Democrat voters, are they not?

 The Tunnel Dweller

Support your local Republicans.
Collin County, TX. GOP;  Collin County Elections
"Want to help keep Texas and Collin County Strong? Make sure you get out and vote in the upcoming election! Check out the Collin County Republican Party website for Collin County early voting locations, Collin County election day locations, and a Collin County sample ballot. 

Early Voting: October 22 – November 2; Election Day: Tuesday, November 6

Collin County, Texas Republican Party Principles

• Limited government: A government that promotes policies to unlock individual potential and unleash economic growth. Government that does not try to be all things to all people.
• Opportunity for all: A government that promotes policies to unlock individual potential and unleash economic growth. Government that does not try to be all things to all people.
• Strong Families: Families intent on giving their children the hope of a better tomorrow, the promise of a safe and secure today, and an appreciation and respect of yesterday.
• Personal Responsibility:  Individuals taking personal responsibility for their own actions and a criminal justice system based on this idea. With freedom comes responsibility.
•  Rugged Individualism:  The entrepreneurial spirit of the individual that continues to solidify Texas as a world economic power.
• Principled, Innovative Leadership: Principled leaders with an understanding of Texas’ heritage and a clear vision for Texas’ future. Leadership that is unwavering in the face of criticism, steadfast when confronted with adversity, and committed to building a better State.
• Honest Compassion: A society assisting those in need rather than a government trying to solve every problem by simply throwing more money at it.
• Quality Education:  An educational system that prepares children for tomorrow’s workplace regardless of race, wealth or geographical location. Education is the bedrock of freedom and the gateway to opportunity.

Finally this last. I ask you to copy and highlight every phrase in this next principle that you feel would anger many college snowflakes on the left, perhaps triggering them to anger:

Trigger alert:   

I warned you!

Here:

"Freedom: Freedom that is God given, affirmed by our Founding Fathers, articulated in the Declaration of Independence, and protected by the Constitution."

There has been a terrible price paid by conservatives in America. The news media attacks us, the entertainment industry propagandizes against us (which programs on TV can we sit and enjoy just to relax?). Our Republican offices across this nation are being vandalized by leftist Democrat supporters! Here are just three:

Laramie, WY:

North Carolina:

Racine, Wisconsin GOP headquarters vandalized

UPDATE: Two GOP Minnesota Candidates Assaulted in Separate Incidents;

Dem spokesman jokingly threatens violence

May we assume it was by registered Democrats? You know: those who like Kamala Harris, Chuck Schumer, Maxine Waters and scores of entertainment celebrities.

All this to say it takes no courage to be a leftist, just enjoyment of a good street riot while adoring press films it all.  Being a conservative takes moral courage. TD

Stand by our Republican Party, nationally and locally. TD

Voter Guide from a Red Lady in a Blue State

Victory Girls Blog

"A conservative living in deep-blue California isn’t given a lot of options when it comes to voting. It doesn’t help that our state Republican Party has wandered in the wilderness, sometimes in self-exile, for years. However, we muddle along, tilting at windmills and occasionally slaying a giant. So, dear voter, I’m here to give my recommendations, such as they are.

Governor

"I don’t know one Californian who isn’t aware of the open cesspit that used to be San Francisco. The third-world slum conditions are so bad that there’s even an app to track feces on the street. So to vote for former SF mayor Gavin Newsom is to approve of shoving the rest of California to Frisco’s level. Newson is so sure of his coronation, he didn’t even submit a candidate statement for the official voter guide. What a guy!

"Republican John Cox doesn’t exactly light up any stage when he appears, but he’s a successful businessman who was able to garner the 2nd spot in the jungle primary. He has an excellent grasp of California issues and represents a small roadblock to an out-of-control socialist legislature. Voting for Cox is the only intelligent choice.

Senator

"For any sane California voter, this race is like being asked “Do you want to die by fire or drowning”? On one hand you have Dianne Feinstein, old, corrupt & up to her jowls in the dirtiest attempt at character assassination lobbed at a Supreme Court nominee. On the other hand, there’s Kevin [de] Leon, a snot-nosed, puerile con-artist. A man who bragged that half his family was illegal and had used faked or stolen ID – and that was just a-ok. Even his name is fake. I cannot recommend voting for either piece of canine excrement. The only advantage of having Leon win is that as a Senate newbie, he won’t have any power as opposed to the old crone’s positions on several key committees.

Other Offices

"From Lt Governor to Congressional member down to your local Assembly member, Friends Don’t Let Friends Vote Democrat. You witnessed the Democrats’ unforgivable behavior during the Kavanaugh hearings. From Mad Maxine Waters to I-am-Spartacus Booker to Hillary Clinton herself, Democrats publically call for harassment, intimidation and physical violence against Republicans. My dear voter, is that the party you want to run the government?" . . .

"No honest American can cast a vote for any Democrat this cycle and not be at least partially responsible for any violence that follows." .  . .

by Darleen Click

Fake News Autopsy

Fake News: CNN’s Ana Cabrera lies about Trump, Trump Jr remarks, making them racist  

. . . "CNN anchor Ana Cabrera falsely claimed on Sunday that President Trump and Donald Trump Jr. made racial remarks over the last week that white men have a lot to fear.“ 'President Trump and his son Don Jr. said this week white men have a lot to fear right now,” Cabrera said during a CNN segment attempting to highlight that white people are calling the police on blacks."The problem is that the Trump duo never injected race into their remarks."Earlier this month Trump said it was a “very scary time for young men in America' ” . . .

Ann Coulter  "Whenever Donald Trump talks about fake news, there are howls of indignation from the establishment media. We're told that the very mention of "fake news" is a direct attack on our democracy, that the alternative is "darkness," that it led to the dismemberment and murder of Jamal Khashoggi, and that, yes, every once in a while there might be a typo, but if you mean the media intentionally report false information, that is dangerous demagoguery. 

Cabrera

I present CNN's Ana Cabrera.

     "On Sunday night, Cabrera launched a premeditated, vicious, racist lie about President Trump, then proceeded to discuss the false story with a black guest, primed to analyze the fake news.
     "We'll slow down the replay in order to follow the ball, so you can see every handoff in the creation of fake news.
     "A few weeks ago, when Judge Brett Kavanaugh was facing 30-year-old, completely uncorroborated accusations of sexual assault based on recovered memories in order to block his Supreme Court appointment, Trump said, "It's a very scary time for young men in America when you can be guilty of something that you may not be guilty of."
     "This statement was quoted by numerous news outlets, including CNN: "Trump says it's 'a very scary time for young men in America,'" Jeremy Diamond, Oct. 2.
Cabrera rewrote the president's quote, telling CNN viewers that Trump had said: "WHITE men have a lot to fear right now."
    "How did "white" get slipped in there?
    "If this were merely a mistake, there are lots of words in the English language that might have been inserted instead of "white." Why not "radial tire"? Why not "hangnail"? Why not the words "virtuoso" or "champagne"?
     "Dictionaries are heavy with all of the words that might have been inserted if this were an accident. How could the word "white" inadvertently get slipped into a Trump quote?

     "CNN intentionally told an ugly lie about the most incendiary issue roiling the nation: race. It wasn't a lie about Trump's position on tax policy, North Korea or school vouchers. The network deliberately pushed a racism narrative calculated to incite racial hatred that could get someone killed. " . . .

FAKE NEWS: A bad weekend for CNN, NBC News

Conrad Black  "As the position of ambassador to the United Nations is about to be vacant, from the retirement of the well-regarded Nikki Haley, former governor of South Carolina, and the president is considering alternatives, I wish to throw someone’s hat in the ring.
. . . 

"The United Nations is largely a debating chamber, and this is a field where Coulter has been very accomplished for many years. She is accustomed to being vastly outnumbered by mocking opponents of her unapologetic conservative views and would not be fazed in the slightest by the opposition of most of the 193 other countries in the United Nations. (It must be said that Haley has fought her corner very effectively also, though she does not have Coulter’s flare and oratorical virtuosity.)

"It would be a joy, and very entertaining as well, to see Ann Coulter disposing of America’s critics in her magnificently flamboyant and witty manner, as she tosses her long blond hair, and in a patrician voice that recalls, though it is more sonorous, the principal author of the widely ignored United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Eleanor Roosevelt.

"I always thought it was regrettable (and told him so) that William F. Buckley did not accept President Reagan’s offer of the embassy to the United Kingdom, as he would have dazzled the British. Ann Coulter would do the same to the preposterous congeries of the world’s representatives at the United Nations. The office seeks the lady.

. . . With that laborious prologue, I suggest that the next U.S. ambassador should be Ann Coulter. Her political views, unlike Ambassador Haley’s, have long been supportive of Trump, and although the president has overlooked some of Haley’s previous jibes at him when he was a candidate (she supported Marco Rubio for the nomination), Coulter would have a lot more preemptive sympathy in the White House.  . . .

O’Rourke Recycles Trump’s ‘Lyin’ Ted’ Nickname in Debate with Cruz

National Review

O’Rourke is “the only Democratic Senate nominee in the country who has explicitly come out for impeaching President Trump,” Cruz said, adding that if his opponent were to be elected, he would pursue“two years of a partisan circus” resulting in impeachment.

"Representative Beto O’Rourke (D., Texas) employed a combative approach in his debate with Senator Ted Cruz of Texas Tuesday night, repeating President Trump’s derisive nickname from the 2016 campaign, “lyin’ Ted.” 
"O’Rourke, a three term Congressman trailing slightly behind his incumbent opponent weeks before election day, went on the offensive immediately, employing hostile rhetoric reminiscent of that on display in the 2016 Republican primary debates.
“ 'This is what you can expect over the course of debate,” O’Rourke said after Cruz accused him of supporting a tax hike on oil. “Sen. Cruz isn’t going to be honest, he’s dishonest.”
“ 'That’s why [Trump’s] nickname stuck — because it’s true,” he added.
"Cruz, a former competitive debater, remarked on the palpable shift in his opponent’s strategy since their last debate.
“ 'Well it’s clear Congressman O’Rourke’s pollsters told him to come out on the attack,” Cruz said.
"The candidates’ position relative to President Trump emerged as a central topic of the debate as Cruz painted his opponent as unable to cooperate with the White House while O’Rourke cast the incumbent senator as a Trump puppet.
"O’Rourke is “the only Democratic Senate nominee in the country who has explicitly come out for impeaching President Trump,” Cruz said, adding that if his opponent were to be elected, he would pursue“two years of a partisan circus” resulting in impeachment." . . .