I love the idea of this theory: U.S. Navy Suckers Iran into Shooting Down Surplus Drone: Scores Big Intelligence Coup

Free Range International

. . . "I’m not sure, but here is a theory. That platform was sent to be sacrificed in an effort to fine tune our intelligence of Iranian anti air order of battle. The drone was headed for demobilization anyway; what is the downside to using it for a baited ambush?

"The Iranians shot down a drone for which the United States had no further use. The Iranians contend that we flew the drone into their airspace; we say we didn’t. I say what would you do with the most sophisticated, disposable drone in history? One that is designed to run well below the normal Global Hawk mission profile I might add. One that is so damn big it looks like a jet on radar. What would you do with an asset like that?

"I’d run that asset right into the teeth of the Iranian air defense system and record exactly what they do,  how long it takes for them to scramble, and how quickly they acquire and shoot me down.  Let me explain how valuable that intelligence is. Suppose you had very high confidence in your ability to launch a cyber-attack another countries missile control system and take them all out. Very high confidence would be what? 80 -90%? How could you get your confidence level up to almost 100%? Run a drone at the air defense system to watch how it responds.

"We then stage a raid saying we will not tolerate any state shooting down our drones. At the last second the President decides to turn the planes around, he doesn’t want to spill blood over a drone. He says any further provocations will be dealt with harshly and is immediately criticized for his indecision. How much intelligence did that feint of a raid generate?" . . .

"No Bernie, the Police and Fire Departments Are Not Socialism"; A Primer on Socialism VS. A Free Society

The Epoch Times

"In their incessant propaganda war to move the United States leftwards, leftists often claim that this country already is partly socialist. And they are partially correct. But in their urgency to fool us all, they often stretch their argument to include many institutions that are decidedly not socialist.
"In the war of ideas, it’s important that those of us who love liberty and oppose socialism actually understand the difference.
"Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who knows socialism better than anyone, often plays this deceptive game. As he recently said: “When you go to your public library, when you call your fire department or the police department, what do you think you’re calling? These are socialist institutions.”
"Yes, no, no, Bernie. I’ll concede your point about public libraries, but the police and fire departments are most definitely not socialist institutions.
"Why is a public library socialist, but police and fire departments aren’t?
"Socialism is about redistribution of wealth. People pay taxes and the government then gives it to others, whether they have contributed toward the cost of the service or not. That’s a library, a public school, food stamps, or any form of “universal basic income.” These are often termed “transfer payments.” The government takes money from individuals and corporations and gives it those it wants to support—or get votes from. This is, of course, completely immoral and antithetical to the principles of a free and just society." . . .

The Amazing Deflatable Buttigieg

. . . Buttigieg's articulation and folksy mien demarcates him from the Xeroxed personalities of his faux outraged rivals.  He nicely fills the niche of the Leftist Christian who blames all of America’s ills on other Christians who don’t fill the cobwebbed pews of his finger-to-the-wind branch of Whateverist Christianity.  . . .

American Thinker . . . "In his charming hometown of South Bend, Indiana, a white police officer shot a black car burglar Eric Logan who, ignoring the officer’s verbal instructions to halt, came at him with a knife.  In a move he now certainly regrets, Buttigieg took a break from his presidential campaign to return to South Bend to chaperone a grotesque orgy of racist invective, during which was made evident that his constituents have determined the officer’s guilt solely based on his skin color (as well as Logan’s innocence, for the same reason).  There was zero interest in factual evidence, and even less in the presumption of innocence.  Not one to get hung up on such trivialities, Buttigieg made clear from his more passionate ripostes that his sole interest was placating the mob.  Everyone, it’s all my fault.  I might as well have pulled the trigger myself.  I’ll try to do better.  I’m calling in everyone from DOJ to Scotland Yard to come investigate.  The Stasi?  Yeah, I can call them too.  Your wish is my command, but please just stop yelling at me.  (I paraphrase, but that was basically the gist).  From the opening gambit he allowed the inmates to run the asylum, and with every panicked concession he gave, the circling sharks simply grew more frenzied at the scent of blood."... 

 A black infant takes a bullet, and the city collectively shrugs.  No protests.  No town halls.  But a black criminal is shot by a cop acting in self-defense, and we’re suddenly one city hall coverup away from genocide.

. . . "It must have grated his soul to sit through that town hall and pander to those raucous dullards.  Or maybe he longed for the days in Afghanistan when illiterate Pashtun goatherds offered comparatively more insightful conversation.  But regardless, he should know better, both intellectually and ethically.  Mob politics are a threat to all our civil liberties.  The Little Sisters of the Poor are not.  If Buttigieg didn’t sense the ambush he was walking into and have the courage to speak truth to it, he has neither the ability nor the right to be president of the United States.' "

Snopes Admits Obama Built Cages for Immigrant Children

PJ Media

"The left-wing bias of popular “fact-checking” sites like Snopes or Politfact has been well documented for years. So when Snopes took on the task of fact-checking the claim “The Obama administration, not the Trump administration, built the cages that hold many immigrant children at the U.S.-Mexico border,” I expected them to, at the very least, rate it as “Half-True” or “False” and come up with some longwinded explanation with some absurd standard for why the Obama administration was in the clear. Last year, FactCheck.org couldn't bring itself to admit that family separations happened under Obama, even though their research proved it did.  But alas, Snopes couldn’t find a way to clear the Obama administration on this one, and had no choice but to rate the claim as true.

But then Trump stated, “Obama built the cages. I didn’t build them. Obama built them.”

That portion of Trump’s commentary is true. Images of children behind chain-link fencing were widely seen at a site in McAllen, Texas, that had been converted from a warehouse to an immigrant-detention facility in 2014. Social media users who defended Trump’s immigration policies also shared a 2014 image of Obama’s Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson touring a facility in Nogales, Arizona, in 2014, in which the fencing could be seen surrounding migrants there, too. That image was taken during a spike in the number of unaccompanied children fleeing violence in Central American countries.

. . .
 Obama Built The ‘Cages’ for Illegals, Not Trump, Says Obama ICE Chief 
"It was only a few months ago that Democrats were dismissing the crisis at the border as manufactured by Trump, and now they’re comparing migrant detention centers to concentration camps and blaming Trump for “putting kids in cages.”
"But for those still trying to blame President Trump, Barack Obama’s former ICE chief, Thomas Homan, has a reality check for them. Speaking at a conference hosted by the Center for Immigration Studies, Homan explained that the “cages” Democrats are blaming on Trump were the product of the Obama administration:" . . .

Democrat's awkward icon Farrakhan speaks in Iran

True then and true now

Louis Farrakhan Chants ‘Death to America’ During Visit to Iran  "Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan led chants of “death to America” on Sunday and derided American conceptions of democracy and freedom during a visit to Iran, planned as a show of support for the regime ahead of the re-implementation of U.S. sanctions.

"Farrakhan, a notorious anti-Semite who has been embraced by prominent liberal activists and lawmakers, railed against American policymakers for harassing the Iranian people and siding with Saudi Arabia in its proxy war with Iran in Yemen.
“ 'I understand how the enemies have plotted against the Iranian people and I would like to stay alongside you to stop their plots,” he said during a meeting with the secretary of Iran’s Expediency Council, Mohsen Rezaei, according to state-owned news agency Mehr. “Satan seeks to divide Muslims and wants them to kill each other, while God tells us in the Quran to be united.”
"During a subsequent speaking appearance at the University of Tehran law school, Farrakhan mocked America’s founding ideals while praising the Islamic conception of women’s rights and Iran’s strict enforcement of female modesty." . . .

If he didn't chant "Death to America!", this is how close he came to it

In the midst of a speech at Tehran University on 4 November 2018, Farrakhan, the controversial leader of the Nation of Islam, invoked the phrase “death to Israel” in Farsi and then asked his audience if he was pronouncing it correctly. As audience members demonstrated how to pronounce the words, he repeated the phrase, but the audience responded by substituting “America” for “Israel”:

. . . "The controversy came on the heels of another statement by Farrakhan in which he seemingly likened Jewish people to “termites” on Twitter. Although that remark was widely condemned, Twitter did not remove the tweet, which was posted a few weeks before an anti-Semitic gunman killed 11 people inside a synagogue in Pittsburgh on 27 October 2018."

Democrats take their next step to destroy the USA

If today's crop of Democrats have their way, virtually anyone and everyone in the world will be encouraged to circumvent the law and migrate to America.  "Come for the free health care; stay for the income redistribution!"  That is, self-evidently, a recipe for utter collapse.

American Thinker  . . . "Illegal aliens certainly pose absolutely no threat to progressives' hold on power, but, no matter how well intentioned they might be, they do pose an existential long-term threat to the nation, particularly if existing citizens have to pay for their health care, etc.

"This was the second time O'Rourke has met with migrants in Ciudad Juárez.  He went there in December, prior to announcing his candidacy for president.  During that visit, he told a group of Guatemalans, "We're here to understand your story and to see how we can help you seek asylum in our country."

"Where is O'Rourke going to "campaign" next?  Honduras?  Somalia?  There are many places in America that he hasn't visited, even once.  This is yet another example of the disdain Democrats have for the citizens of their own country, especially those denizens of the heartland who dare to differ with their "progressive" policy prescriptions and proscriptions.  (As was O'Rourke's choice of the Spanish language to answer a question posed to him during the recent democratic debates.)" . . .

Biden: Russia Election Interference Wouldn’t Have Happened ‘On My Watch and Barack’s Watch’ UPDATE: Joe Dirt!

Still trolling for an Obama endorsement.

Breitbart  "Friday on CNN’s “New Day” 2020 presidential hopeful, former Vice President Joe Biden said Russia would not have gotten away with interfering in an election under his or President Barack Obama’s watch.

Biden said, “Look at what’s happening with Putin. While Putin is trying to undo our elections, he is undoing elections in Europe. Look at what’s happening in Hungary, look what’s happening in Poland, look what’s happening. You think that would happen on my watch or Barack’s watch? You can’t answer that, but I promise it wouldn’t have, and it didn’t.”

This from the man who calls AOC "bright and brilliant". That might be because if Obama won't endorse him, perhaps AOC, the valley girl will. TD

Joe gets mocked for this declaration  

. . . "Biden's remarks were swiftly rejected on social media -- given that the intelligence community determined Russia did try to interfere in the 2016 election, during the Obama administration when he was vice president. Then-Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe was launched the following year with the mission of determining whether Trump associates colluded with Russia as part of that effort, though the investigation did not turn up evidence of a criminal conspiracy. "NewsBusters managing editor Curtis Houck panned Biden's statement by declaring, "Pants On Fire"." . . .

UPDATE:  Biden warns Democratic rivals he's got 'all this information about other people’s pasts'  "Joe Biden let slip that his campaign was collecting dirt on his rivals for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.

“ 'I mean, I get all this information about other people’s pasts, and what they’ve done and not done. And you know, I’m just not going to go there. If we keep doing that — I mean, we should be debating what we do from here," Biden told CNN in a Friday interview, referring to the crowded field of two dozen White House hopefuls.

"In May, Biden, 76, promised not to attack his rivals, saying: “I will not speak ill of any of the Democratic candidates, I will not do it.' " . . .

Dirt? Like Bernie being a communist? That Kamala slept her way to the top? Mayor Pete is a homosexual? That any of them attacked Trump supporters with bike lock chains or were seen hugging Farrakhan?  What evil could any Democrat commit that would get them rejected by the voters who love Maxine Waters and Hillary Clinton? 

Well, maybe supporting border control would be political suicide for them. TD

On Debating Trump, Biden Says He Would ‘Smack’ Bullies

Biden's debate style:

Daily Caller  "Former Vice President Joe Biden compared President Donald Trump to a childhood bully he would “smack” in the mouth during a CNN interview airing Friday.

“ 'The idea that I’d be intimidated by Donald Trump,” Biden told CNN’s Chris Cuomo. “He’s the bully that I knew my whole life. He’s the bully that I’ve always stood up to. He’s the bully that used to make fun when I was a kid that I stutter, and I’d smack him in the mouth.”

"Cuomo called Democratic presidential rival Kamala Harris’ attack on Biden for his position on busing “friendly fire,” then asked how Biden would deal with a much more aggressive Trump. 
“ 'You walk behind me in the debate.*Come here, man,” Biden said, apparently referencing Trump standing behind Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton during a 2016 debate."...

Robert De Niro will back you up, Joe. On the other hand, as you advised, buy a shotgun; buy a shotgun:

* I fear Joe behind me, not Trump:

Antifa Shatters Mirror In Attempt To Punch Nazi

The Babylon Bee; one notch above MSNBC and CNN

"PORTLAND, OR—A member of Antifa, Dustin Day, injured himself over the weekend while attempting to punch a nazi he spotted.

“ 'So I had my mask on and was ready to fight any nazis that came to Portland -- because I guess the city is full of them -- and then I saw one,” explained Day. “You could tell from just one look at the guy that he was a crazed sociopath looking for any excuse to get violent.” That’s when Day said he ran up and attempted to punch the nazi, but instead his fist hit some sort of “invisible shield.” He then screamed, “Advanced nazi technology!” and ran away.

"Further investigation of where Day says he encountered the nazi revealed only a broken mirror hanging on the wall.

"This all comes on the heels of three Antifa members looking down into a lake, saying they saw three nazis in the water, and promptly drowning in the confrontation."

Tony Branco toon added by TD

Gold Star Mom Slams Colin Kaepernick, Honors Hero Son: ‘He’s Given More Than Any Athlete Has Ever Given’

Breitbart Politics  "Gold Star Mom Amanda Jacobs spoke at the pro-freedom, anti-socialist “Rally for Freedom” in the nation’s capital Independence Day morning and honored her heroic son, who lost his life fighting for liberty. She reminded everyone that he — along with other fallen heroes — has given more than any athlete has ever dreamed of.

“ 'And when I look at this country today — and I wanted to say this loud so many times: Colin Kaepernick was getting paid $14 million a year to throw a ball. My son died for $14,000 a year, and he’s given more than any football player, any athlete has ever given,” she said at the rally through tears.

“ 'These two children right here can look at a flag and say, ‘That’s uncle Jacob,’” she said, pointing to her two grandchildren who were there alongside her.

"She continued:" . . .

"She ended quoting powerful words from her hero son: “My son’s words were, ‘Mom, I’m not fighting for the ones in the White House. I’m fighting for you and my brothers in this yellow house.'”

“ 'And that’s what it’s about so let’s keep America free,” she closed.

"Her son, Lance Cpl. Christopher Phoenix-Jacob Levy, was killed December 10, 2011. She described the moment he told her he wanted to fight for liberty. It was on 9/11. The then-11-year-old looked at his mother and told her he wanted to get the people responsible for the attack.

“ 'I’m going to get him. I want to be a Marine,” he told her.

"He did just that.

"He was deployed to Afghanistan in late 2010 for combat, and it was during that deployment that Osama Bin Laden was killed. He came home on Mother’s Day the following year, 2011, and showed his mother a map, revealing his proximity to Bin Laden during the successful mission.

"He ultimately went back as a combat replacement and, tragically, died two months later in early December with a gunshot wound to the head. Jacobs boarded a plane as fast as she could and saw her son one last time before he passed away.

"He made the ultimate sacrifice."

Tony Branco, Townhall<

The Curious Mystical Text Behind Marianne Williamson’s Presidential Bid

NY Times  "In the living room of an apartment near Wall Street last month, a group of supporters huddled around a large television watching as their candidate, Marianne Williamson, made her debut on the debate stage. The host pulled her hair nervously.
"Ms. Williamson’s start had been shaky, but there were some breakout moments. Then her dramatic closing. “Mr. President, if you’re listening, I want you to hear me, please: You have harnessed fear for political purposes, and only love can cast that out.”
"She went on, building now: “I’m going to harness love for political purposes. I will meet you on that field. And, sir, love will win.”

"It was exactly what her supporters were waiting for. The host sprung up and gave three short shouts. “Woo-woo-woo!”

"Ms. Williamson’s debut may have appeared offbeat, a not-so-serious collection of truisms about love. But more was happening here. She was, in fact, drawing directly from a homegrown American holy book called “A Course in Miracles,” a curious New York scripture that arose during the heady metaphysical counterculture of the 1960s." . . .

Ms. Williamson at an AIDS charity event at the Los Angeles
Center for Living, which she founded. 

Will the last CNN viewer please turn off the TV?

http://www.terrellaftermath.com/

Silvio Canto, Jr.  . . . "The latest ratings report is not good for the three-letter network known as CNN.  It's hard to believe that things are this bad, but they are:

The far-left fake news outlet CNN came in 15th place in primetime during the previous quarter and lost nearly 20 percent of its already pathetic viewership.

"On one hand, I know that many of us want to say "yes"!
"On the other hand, CNN is such a waste of energy and talent.
"CNN never exploited the middle and reported seriously about the news.
Imagine if we had a network that did not tilt right like FOX or left like MSNBC.  Wouldn't you love to turn on the TV on prime time and not get opinion shows?
"Yes, CNN is a victim of its own bias and irresponsible journalists like Jim Acosta.
"Maybe a stockholder will stand up and say something like this: "You are terrible at the anti-Trump stuff.  Why don't you try news?  Maybe we can convince advertisers to buy time with us."
"In the meantime, I find myself watching less and less cable news."

Jim Acosta of CNN, an embarrassment to village idiots

. . . "CNN should strip him of his press credentials. He should be forced to file as a registered lobbyist for the Democrat National Committee or whatever committee handles this virulent strain of Trump Derangement Syndrome. Someone needs to change his diaper and shove a pacifier in his suckling lips.
"Responding to this unserious nitwit, Mr. Trump answered the way a parent answers a crybaby having a temper tantrum.
“ 'Yes, I do. I think it’s horrible,” Mr. Trump replied flatly.
"Mr. Trump has witnessed enough drama and theatrics from Jim Acosta to know what he is in for whenever Mr. Acosta gets a question. Yet the president calls on him anyway.
"So much for this whole ridiculous lie that Mr. Trump wants to shut down the media. He doesn’t even shut down the fake media, the true Enemy of the People. Not only that, he calls on them." . . .

But why is CNN on everywhere I go? And I understand CNN is the only US "news" channel available in the UK.