Deep State: First, the attempted coup. Now, the political prisoner ...

Monica Showalter  . . . Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez "gets a day off the idiot list for this principled political opposition. And whether she knows it or not, she's taking on a very sick political situation quite correctly."
. . . 

"Well, it's going on now, and Russia's Putin administration must be smiling in disgust at the U.S. hypocrisy, doing to Manafort exactly what the Russians did to Magnitsky and then haughtily placing sanctions onto the Russians as a human rights issue. And they didn't even know Manafort, Manafort's earlier crimes involved Ukraine, not Russia. 

"We are looking at a travesty of justice here, based on a deep state still way out of control. Ocasio-Cortez has put her finger on something important and for once, she's right."

Thomas Lifson: Dems need to be careful what they wish for

"It’s always dangerous to call for a standard for President Trump that you cannot live up to yourself. With Nancy Pelosi reportedly out to imprison President Trump, and House Oversight Committee chairman Elijah Cummings claiming that he “deserves the mark of impeachment, top Democrats seem to be calling for serious penalties for misconduct.  Real law & order fanatics?

"Maybe they should think that over, as Andrew Kerr of the Daily Caller News Foundation reminds them:" . . .

House Oversight Chairman Elijah Cummings’s wife has funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars from her charity to her private for-profit organization, according to a previously undisclosed cost-sharing arrangement that multiple experts said raises red flags.
Maya Rockeymoore Cummings’s charity, the Center for Global Policy Solutions (CGPS), paid her for-profit venture, Global Policy Solutions LLC, over $250,000 in “management fees” between 2013 and 2015, according to the charity’s audited financial statements covering those years. The management fees were paid in addition to a cost-sharing agreement where the charity pays for its share of equipment, personnel and other expenditures.
Rockeymoore Cummings’s charity is funded by companies with interests before her husband’s congressional committee, according to the Washington Examiner.

. . .

Townhall

The Electoral College: America's newest "brain trust" wants to abolish it

How can people think that Hillary Clinton was ever, ever worth doing this damage to our nation and our Constitution? This has all been generated because of her bitterness, you know?
Do we want our nation's President chosen by the same people who elected Gavin Newsom and NY Mayor Bill de Blasio?  TD

Wreck the Electoral College, Destroy the Country

"While you were sleeping, the Democrats (abetted by some deviant Republicans) have been working on a plan that would destroy the diversity of the American political system and bring the nation to the brink of civil war. The plan is called the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, and tens of millions of dollars have already been spent over several decades trying to implement it. Fourteen blue states and the District of Columbia have already joined the Compact, which means they are 70% on the way to making their proposal the law of the land." . . .
. . . "The Democrats’ plan is designed to eliminate the influence of the Electoral College in choosing the nation’s president, no doubt because while Hillary won the popular vote she failed win necessary votes in the Electoral College. Eliminating the influence of the Electoral College would end the diversity now embodied in the federal system with its division of powers between Washington and the fifty states. The fact that a party which presents itself as a defender of diversity should be leading the charge to eliminate the nation’s most powerful source of diversity should be all that is required to understand the threat their agenda poses to what has been the nation’s constitutional way of life for 232 years." . . .

What appears to deprive the populace of its power to decide a president is the very mechanism that preserves its power. The Electoral College works that way because the United States isn’t a pure democracy.  . . . "The purpose of the Electoral College is to balance voting power across states so no one region of the country can gain too much control. If a president is elected by a simple majority of votes, a candidate who is wildly popular in one region (e.g., Ted Cruz in Texas, Mitt Romney in Utah) can ignore smaller regions and campaign only where large majorities are possible. Or a candidate who kills in California and New York can write off “flyover country” completely.
"If, however, the Electoral College elects a president, a candidate who is wildly popular in one region must also prevail in a number of sub-elections to win. The Electoral College ensures a better result for the country as a whole than the democratic power play wherein 51 percent of us matter and 49 percent of us don’t." . . .

Her Majesty, the Queen of England honors America with her remembrance of WW2

Rich Terrell

We should honor the British and Prime Minister Winston Churchill for their courage and resolve as a nation. They were in the war from the very first day till the very last, suffering one disaster after another while seeing their beautiful, ancient cities reduced to rubble all the while.

The great landing ships used in the Pacific were largely of British design and theirintelligence  services saved many, many allied lives by knowing what the Nazis were planning even before their own commanders did. 

Could our two nations be capable of all this again? Could we have done it then with the type of elected government people we vote for today?  
Winston Churchill himself feared a conquest of Britain would be aided by some of their people in government who were sympathetic to the Nazis, just as many of ours are kindred spirits with countries that hate us. The Tunnel Dweller
Queen Elizabeth, then Princess Elizabeth served alongside the forces of England in the war:
As a mechanic:

My Father’s D-Day Memories

By Karin McQuillan at American Greatness

". . . A Quintessentially American Story "Here are the roots of my Dad’s optimism.  He was born in a small house with a dirt floor in the Jewish Pale of Settlement in the Soviet Union. His father escaped the Communists, made his way to America, and after several years, had earned enough to bring the family to join him.

"My Dad was 9 years old. He excelled in public school and won a place in the Bronx High School of Science, but had to drop out during the Depression to help his family. He never finished school. He did serve in the Civilian Conservation Corps in Oregon as a firefighter and a logger. Back home, he was a self-taught photographer with his gang of Jewish friends in the Bronx, taking girlie pictures and selling them to cheap magazines for a few dollars.

"When America entered World War II, my father, armed with his portfolio of photos, signed up immediately.  He was assigned to be a combat photographer with the Army Signal Corps.

Phil Schultz with his camera. (Photo courtesy of the author.)

"He soon shipped out to England, to prepare for the Allied invasion of Northern Europe. He was with the 165th Signal Photo Company, 29th Infantry Division. This was the “Band of Brothers” division that took Omaha Beach, the lead troops in the invasion that began on June 6, 1944.

"Being a combat photographer meant he served on the front lines of World War II from Omaha Beach to the liberation of Paris, including the Battle of the Bulge, as well as the battle to take the Remagen Bridge that led into Germany and ultimately Berlin.

"His films of the action are in the Library of Congress. During the war, they were edited by the Army and shown as newsreels in cinemas across America. . . "

. . . "And I know, experienced already, that if a tank is firing, someone is going to shoot back. I get my pictures and I leave, go around the corner. And my officer, he went to the spot where I was and got killed. You get that streetwise—battlewise. You are there, you do a job, and get out" . . .

The Whole Folk Tale and Nothing But the Folk Tale

If any confederate cavalryman had behaved like King, Lee would have had him shot. American folk tale version-cum-Revealed Truth: Lee is Hitler. King is a saint.

Ann Coulter  "New York City public school teachers recently revealed that they have been instructed to reject “objectivity,” “written documentation” and “perfectionism” by Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza, as part of his effort to “dismantle racism.” Carranza identified these values as tools of the “white-supremacy culture.”

"Our cultural overlords are way ahead of Carranza. With lightning speed, we've abandoned old, hidebound, Anglo-Saxon facts-and-evidence standards in deference to new, fresh African folk tale standards. (According to J. Bekunuru Kubayanda, writing in the Afro-Hispanic Review, even Latin America and the Caribbean got their oral history traditions from Africa.)

"Thus, for example, Gen. Robert E. Lee has been re-invented as a white genocidal lunatic. Meanwhile, actual tape-recorded evidence of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. engaging in sex orgies will not put a dent in his hero status.

"Michael Korda, a lion of the New York literary set, published an admiring biography of Lee just five years ago, Clouds of Glory: The Life and Legend of Robert E. Lee. His book received a favorable review in The New York Times, which chirped that Korda portrayed Lee as a "master strategist" who was "physically fearless."

"How can it be that the longtime editor-in-chief of Simon & Schuster and author of dozens of books -- not to mention The New York Times itself -- totally missed that Lee was a vicious racist, with no redeeming qualities whatsoever? Thank God Nikki Haley's parents emigrated here from India so she could set Korda straight on this country's history!

"(Here's an interesting fact about Lee: After graduating second in his class at West Point, he spent several decades overseeing the construction of fortifications on our borders. He rose to fame during the war with -- GUESS WHO? -- Mexico! Wasn't it great when our military defended our country?) 

"Two weeks ago, David Garrow, the Pulitzer Prize-winning King biographer, revealed shocking facts about the civil rights leader, based on extensive FBI notes on the wiretaps of his hotel rooms. In addition to King's endless orgies with prostitutes, lesbians, ministers and parishioners, Garrow reports that King "looked on, laughed and offered advice" as one minister forcibly raped a parishioner.

"If any confederate cavalryman had behaved like King, Lee would have had him shot. American folk tale version-cum-Revealed Truth: Lee is Hitler. King is a saint. " . . . Full article

The bravery of D-Day as seen like never before: Colourised images show fearless Allied heroes storming the beaches of Normandy 75 years ago

UK Daily Mail  "Dramatic images have shone fresh light on what it was like for Allied troops storming the beaches of Normandy on D-Day after being rendered in colour for the first time. 
"They show American troops tending to the wounded on one of the beachheads and British troops digging defensive fortifications before moving ashore.
"Others, taken in the aftermath of the battle, show US Rangers relaxing on a captured beach while others stand among the ruins of a German defensive position at Pointe du Hoc. 
"American military hardware and troops are also seen being brought ashore as the Allies begin to expand their toe-hold in Europe after an intense day of fighting." . . .

. . . "Approximately 10,000 allies were injured or killed, inlcuding 6,603 American, of which 2,499 were fatal.
"Between 4,000 and 9,000 German troops were killed - and it proved the pivotal moment of the war, in the allied forces' favour." . . .

British woman stabs Trump baby balloon while shouting he 'is the best president ever'

The Hill  "The Trump baby blimp, which took flight in London on Tuesday to protest the president’s U.K. visit, was reportedly stabbed by Trump supporter Amy Dalla Mura, also known as “Based Amy.”

"In a video posted to Twitter, Mura films herself walking up to the nearly 20-foot-tall orange, inflatable baby blimp and stabs it with a sharp object, prompting shouts from surrounding protesters.

“ 'That’s a disgrace,” Mura shouts. “It’s a national disgrace. The president of the United States is the best president ever!' ” . . .

Updated already: Thomas Lifson hits Biden with a one-two punch

Townhall

Joe Biden is too stupid to win the nomination (#1)  "The purported frontrunner of the Democrats' presidential field is certain to self-destruct before the Democratic National Convention votes on a nominee more than a year from now, because he loves to talk and is too stupid to avoid making fatal mistakes.  Exactly a month ago, I predicted he would not get the party's nod, and I stand by that.  But secretly, I hope I am wrong, because he would fall apart when faced with Donald Trump.

"The latest example of Biden's stupidity: downplaying China's threat to us on the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre.  No, I am not kidding!  Only 30 seconds of your life are required to savor the stupidity.  Biden ends with "What are we worried about?"  That's uncomfortably close to "What, me worry?"

"This statement is all the worse, given his son Hunter's financial involvement with China, a can of worms Biden would be well advised to leave unopened.  But the problem is that he has a microphone in his hand and an inability to filter what comes out of his mouth with anything approaching good judgment." . . .Video

Imagine Biden giving Mr. Trump the same treatment he gave Paul Ryan in their VP debate.  (Chris Wallace expressed his contempt for Biden's actions in the debate)

. . . "Biden is an incorrigible ham. On the split-screen, while Ryan spoke, he could be seen grinning, chuckling, shaking his head, throwing his hands to the skies or hanging his head in exaggerated disbelief, a widely varying sequence of gestures that all amounted to "can you believe this guy?' " . . .

Next: What does it say about a "world leader" that he would use the adolescent words of AO-C?

Joe Biden is too stupid to win the nomination (#2)  "Since plagiarism killed an earlier Biden run at the presidency and dogged him in law school, the first rule of a rational Biden campaign this time would be: nothing that even vaguely looks like plagiarism.  But evidently, the subject never came up when Joe Biden assembled his presidential campaign staff.  But it looks as though the Biden campaign panicked when Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted that his lack of a radical plan to restructure our thriving economy so as to emit less CO2 was a "dealbreaker."
. . . 

"What kind of presidency would Biden conduct?  One with key staff too stupid to avoid obvious issues — the kind that have come up again and again.  The criticism of President Trump as impulsive and undisciplined pale in comparison to Biden's recklessness and lack of prudence.  Ultimately, Biden's pander failed to persuade Ocasio-Cortez:

Ocasio-Cortez told The Hill that she prefers Inslee's plan our of all this that have been introduced thus far: "I do think that Jay Inslee's plan is a phenomenal blueprint and example of where we need to go. It's got the scale, the jobs and justice," she said.

"An utter and complete failure.  Imagine this clown as president."

Johnny Carson had Biden nailed back in 1987:

Fox News’ Shepard Smith Hasn’t Been Fired

FactCheck.org As is obvious, this story has been going round and round for some time.
Q: Is Fox News Channel anchor Shepard Smith being fired because of “his hate” for President Trump?

A: No. That debunked claim has been circulating online since last year.

. . . "Longtime Fox News anchor Shepard Smith wasn’t fired from the network in 2017, as some dubious websites claimed at the time. He also wasn’t terminated at any point this year, as reports recycling the falsehood, and shared on Facebook, have stated.

Smith

“ 'BREAKING: Shep Smith To Be Canned Because He Can’t Control His Hate For Donald Trump,” reads the headline posted in recent days on donaldtrumpforusa.comand NewsTodayInUsaUpdate, a website powered by the blogging platform blogspot.com.

"That false headline prompted applause in some circles on Facebook, including on the page of a group called DRAIN THE SWAMP.

“ 'GREAT !! GET RID OF HIM ASAP!!!” one user wrote.

"Some Fox News viewers have grown frustrated by Smith, whose reporting has at times been critical of President Trump and conservatives. But the cable channel has denied the persistent rumors of Smith being fired.

"Fox News directed us to previous statements, including one in a February Associated Press report in which a network spokeswoman called Smith’s supposed termination “completely false.”

"In reality, Fox News announced in March that Smith had signed a “multiyear deal” to stay with the network. In a statement, Fox News Executive Chairman Rupert Murdoch praised the anchor, who has been with the network for more than two decades." . . .

Smith's first newscast:

Bernie promises others will provide us with free stuff; CEOs strike back; others have questions.

Snowflake's Safe Space & Buttercup Ranch

Fox Business  "Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is letting it rip on America's most powerful CEOs. In return they're ripping right back.
"FOXBusiness.com took a look at the war of words between the Democratic Presidential hopeful and America's Corporate Chieftiens(sp) over capitalism vs. socialism.

. . . Icahn, who doesn't mince words, fired off his defense posted on carlicahn.com stating, “Bernie Sanders has received support from the UniteHere union and has made several remarks tying me to the difficulties facing Atlantic City — without even bothering to give me a call to hear my views and the real facts. “. . . 

. . .  Iger wrote, "To Bernie Sanders: We created 11,000 new jobs at Disneyland in the past decade, and our company has created 18,000 in the U.S. in the last five years. How many jobs have you created? What have you contributed to the U.S. economy?".  . . .

Toon added by TD

Free University Nirvana?  . . . Who decides who would go to which university?  Would the structure be similar to secondary education? Would students be relegated to universities in their area only?  Would private universities exist?  What about universities such as Harvard?  Would the endowments continue to pour in from alumni or industry? 

"Would everyone be on a Pass/Fail system or simply state “present” like a former community-organizing Senator from Illinois and now uber-rich ex-president?  Would each student select his/her desired discipline of study or would the government?" . . .

CNN Announces 'Substantial Job Cuts' At London Office

Much, much more of Don Lemon for the world to see. Fox has Juan Williams and sometime guest Leslie Marshall who are both liberals, but we get reasoned discussion from them (most of the time from Juan). But Brazile is a pure Democrat hack of the type you hear in some post-event spin room, having, I find, little of substance to say. I rank her with past all-star panel guests such as Sally Kohn and Marie Harf. TD

Zero Hedge   

"After notching its worst monthly ratings in years last month, CNN's parade of job cuts - once dismissed by a senior executive as a "crazy rumor" - is continuing with 'substantial' cuts to its London-based TV News operation, the Guardian reports.

"CNN President Jeff Zucker reportedly made the announcement at a company "town hall" meeting on Tuesday held at CNN's office in central London.

"CNN's prime-time ratings dropped 26% in April - the worst month for total viewers since October 2015, according to Nielsen Media Research."

"Saturday on Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends,” Donna Brazile said the reason Hillary Clinton was not president was because “the country was attacked” by Russia.

"Brazile claimed that “she was the main victim of that attack.”

"When asked about Hillary Clintion being the keynote speaker of a cybersecurity summit, Brazile said, “Let me just say this, she understands the threat. I’m sure she will talk about the remedies and what we should do going forward. As a former secretary of state she understands part of our arsenal to defend our nation is not just having bombs and all this other stuff. We have to have a good cybersecurity strategy.' ” . . .

All emphases in the original, TD

He was in Normandy on D-Day. 75 years later, a former German soldier is worried for Europe.

Golz said they had no choice but to surrender. He said they were forced to march for two hours to a market hall where about 100 other German prisoners of war were being held. He recalled that the black GI guarding them rebuffed a furious French man who wanted to shoot all the Germans.
“The American had a duty to guard us, and that is what he did,” Golz said.

 MNNofA  "Paul Golz, 95, has a clear memory of being on guard duty in the early morning hours of June 6, 1944 — and realizing the invasion was underway when the skies over the Normandy coast were illuminated by flares, known as “Christmas Trees,” dropped by Allied planes to mark paratroop landing areas." . . .

  . . . "But Golz said he was not aware of what his fellow Germans had done to the Jews and Poles and countless others until he saw the footage. He said his captors were surprised when he told them he did not know what happened in places like Auschwitz, Dachau or Sachsenhausen.

“ 'I told them I did not know about this because in Germany we did not get to see or hear this,” he said. “Those who had taken part, had been a guard there, did not say anything.”

Golz said he was released in 1946 and when he returned to what was left of Germany he began to realize how lucky he was to have been captured by the Americans. In addition to losing his home, he learned that his sister had been raped by Russian soldiers and became pregnant.

“The worst I did not get to see because I was in the United States at the time,” he said.

In the years that followed, Golz said he became a student of the war he had taken part in. He began returning to Normandy on the significant anniversaries and meeting with American soldiers who were once his enemies. He recalls being deeply moved the first time he went to the American cemetery.

“They were all shot in the water on June 6,” he said. “That was on my mind when I saw the many graves. The Germans sat in a big bunker with big machine guns and just aimed at them.”

Golz said he was also asked several times to speak to French schoolchildren about the war and his small part in it. He showed a reporter the words he used to read to the classes when he made his presentation.

“These many, many young men, most of them between 18 and 25, have given their lives for our peace, for today’s Europe,” part of it reads. “Remember that and preserve this peace.”

. . . Like many Germans, Golz also takes a dim view of the thousands of Syrian refugees who have recently found shelter in his country.
“Nobody wants them, we also do not want them to stay,” Golz said. “We rebuilt our country, the Syrians also have to go back and rebuild their own country. There is no other way.”
Never mind that Golz himself became a refugee after the war when Pomerania, a region on the southern Baltic coast where his family ran a farm, was returned to Poland and the Germans were expelled.
What remains undimmed by the passage of time, however, is Golz’s belief that the invasion that spelled the end of the Third Reich saved Europe — and his life. . . .

German POW asks: 'Why did America give their young men for us?'  . . . Golz spent two years at Camp Patrick Henry, where he had “a good time” as a POW in Newport News, Va.

"He worked in the kitchen and grew vegetables in the garden. He learned how to bowl, listened radio shows, mowed the lawn, played football and made friends with Americans.

"But Golz and the other Germans were also confronted with reality of Nazi crimes against humanity when the camp showed the movie “Factories of Death” about the concentration camps.

"Golz said that after the movie was shown to the prisoners, they were punished and given only bread and water for a week." . . .