General Mattis; head and shoulders above Congressional Democrats (for starters)

"In this case with this group, I think you want to verify then trust. We have asked them –demanded – that they break with al-Qaida since the Bush administration. They have refused to do so. They murdered 3,000 innocent people, citizens of 91 countries on 9/11. We should never forget that. The Taliban hid those people among them, refused to break with them, and have refused to this day to break."

Newsmax  "Saying his deal-breaking stance against a full withdrawal in Syria might have helped the U.S. keep troops there – and slow the pullout in Afghanistan – former Defense Secretary James Mattis will let the "historians" weigh his lasting impact on the Middle East and Afghanistan peace deal talks with Taliban leadership.

" 'I'll let the historians sort that out," Mattis told CBS's "Face the Nation." "I don't know what all went into the decision to reverse that call to pull everyone out, but I can't answer that."

"Mattis, promoting his book "Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead," told host Margaret Brennan the Obama administration made a costly mistake with a full withdrawal in Iraq, and President Donald Trump has thus far avoided repeating that mistake.

Penguin Books

" 'I think President Obama's administration had made the decision to leave Iraq despite what the intelligence community was telling us would happen: They were very clear that an al- Qaida-associated group would rise, that the Iraqi government, the Iraqi people, Iraqi nation was in a post-combat, prereconciliation phase," Mattis told Brennan.

" 'We needed to keep our influence there a little longer and draw down year by year, not draw everyone out at one time. The intelligence community was very clear. They forecasted the rise of a group – you and I know it as ISIS – and we should have taken their advice on board.' " . . .

Mattis Slaps Down MSNBC On NATO: Uh, It's Stronger Under Trump  "Mattis is a professional. He won’t go scorched earth, even if that’s what many in the media want him to do". 

Mattis won't attack Trump in book 'Call Sign Chaos,' but you might want to go easy on him  "For the next two years, Mattis helped persuade Trump not to abandon allies, not to pull precipitously out of difficult military operations abroad just because they were messy and unappealing, and not to go to war in places like the Korean Peninsula.
. . . 
"Such criticisms are misguided. To be sure, Mattis' specific ideas and actions can and should be scrutinized and debated. But there should be no doubt, among Democrats or Republicans, about the quality of the leadership he provided this country in recent times, nor about the importance and timeliness of his new book's message." . . .

Andrew Johnson, Democrat, set the stage for today’s racial strife

What a replacement for Abraham Lincoln.

Bookworm Room

Democrat Andrew Johnson was one of America’s worst presidents, for he set the stage for the racial strife that today’s Democrats encourage and exploit.

" 'Yesterday afternoon, I joined a friend for a dog walking expedition. As we were walking along, we talked about the racial divisions the Left has stoked in America.
“ 'This is all Andrew Johnson’s fault,” I said.
“ 'Wah?” asked my companion.
“ 'Yeah, Andrew Johnson. The moment that Johnson, a Democrat, was sworn in as president after Lincoln’s assassination, he set about undoing the racial component of Reconstruction. The military hung onto its strength in the South, which is why there are so many military bases still operating there. Politically, though, Johnson and his administration backed away from every effort to reform Southern culture. This meant that the losers in the war got to continue their previous behavior of denying blacks all civil rights. In other words, Johnson enabled the defeated Southerners to reduce blacks to a perfect simulacrum of slavery, only this was arguably even worse than actual slavery, for it denied blacks the food and shelter (no matter how meager) that slave owners once provided, while adding in chronic racial terrorism.
“ 'When it came to Germany and Japan after WWII, we did something completely different: " 'We defeated them utterly and completely, and then spent 70 years making sure they renounced the racist, totalitarian cultures that led them to unspeakable brutality in their insane drives for world domination. Had he lived, Lincoln, a Republican, would almost certainly have understood that the Union had to control the south for decades to rework its racist slave culture. I bet that the Democrat Andrew Johnson understood the same, which is why he pulled the feds out of the South as fast as he possibly good.
“ 'Today, the South is probably the best integrated part of the whole United States –”
“– maybe because of the strong military presence,” quickly interjected my friend when I paused for a breath.
“ 'That sounds reasonable,” I said, snatching back the conversational baton. “But it’s also because the South is no longer a Democrat bastion. It’s Republican now.” . . .

The Breathtaking Arrogance Of Pete Buttigieg

"If, as some say, Pete Buttigieg is the face of the future Democratic Party, then that Party will be even more insufferable and intolerant than the current incarnation"

Pat Cross

Paul Mirengoff  "My conservative cousin formerly from New York (now from California) has closely followed presidential politics since the days of Dwight Eisenhower. He finds in Pete Buttigieg an arrogance he hasn’t come across before, not even from Barack Obama.

Pete Buttigieg may well be the most arrogant candidate ever to run for a major party’s nomination in American History. Start with his record as South Bend, Indiana Mayor.

Buttigieg admits to being a failure at managing this small city’s police department. In Mayor Pete’s view the lessons learned from this big fiasco make him the best choice for Commander-In-Chief. What arrogance!

Silly me, back in the day when I interviewed candidates for promotions I would look for people who performed well at previous jobs. Instead I should have learned from the Buttigieg school of management that failure is often a better recommendation for promotion than success.

What nonsense! What arrogance!

Then there’s his sweeping proposal to change the very nature of our Republic. Abolish the Electoral College. Pack the Supreme Court. . .End the Senate filibuster. . . .

Full article

Chris Matthews on Sanford Not Attacking Trump: ‘That’s What This Show Is For’

Weasel Zippers
"He admits the show’s purpose, outright." That's what MSNBCNN are for, not news.

Look closely and you will see Stacey Abrams is Matthews' next guest, naturally.

Don’t Waver, Deplorables! Washington Will Never Accept Trump

Rush Limbaugh

. . . "Well, I’m gonna remind you. For those of you new to the program, that’s not a sentiment with which I disagree. I just disagree with the timing. I don’t think the Republican Party lost its way with Trump. Trump is the result of the Republican Party having lost its way. And do you know when you can trace Republican Party having lost its way? Where do you think, Mr. Snerdley?

"If you were playing Jeopardy! right now and the big $25,000 prize hinged on you answering this question correctly, when did the Republican Party of the modern era lose its way? (interruption) Exactly right. In the post-Reagan era. And why did the Republican Party lose its way? (interruption) No, because they abandoned conservatism! They abandoned conservatism and pretended to be conservative and dibbled at it and dabbled at it. They talked about it, but they never implemented it — or rarely.

"They promised to during campaigns, but once they got elected there wasn’t any. It fooled people for a while, but that’s when you trace the Republican Party having lost its way. And it’s always been frustrating. Ronald Reagan shows the way: Straight-down-the-middle conservatism. He won two landslide elections in 1980 and 1984, proved a whole bunch of conservative theory that you can cut taxes and double the size of government.

"You [create] revenue that Washington would otherwise never get by cutting taxes, that you can create new jobs and lower the deficit and lower inflation by cutting taxes, eight years of it — well, six. It took a couple of months to get the tax cut passed and then another 18 months for it to kick in after it was implemented. But all during this time the Washington establishment, including both Republicans and Democrats, did not like Reagan because they didn’t like conservatism.

"They don’t like anything that deemphasizes the role of government on a day-to-day basis, and they don’t like anything that deemphasizes or shrinks the size of government. So they pretended to love Reagan and they all wanted to be in the spotlight. But privately, they were plotting how to take control of the party once Reagan’s two terms were over and get it back on track to where it was the Harlem Globetrotters… Well, the Republican Party was the Washington Generals to the Democrat Party’s Harlem Globetrotters." . . .

U.S. Air Force uses F-35s to bomb ISIS island

Jerusalem Post

The Spokesperson for Operation Inherent Resolve, the 81-member coalition to defeat ISIS wrote that this is what it looks like when CENTCOM Air Force jets bomb a “Daesh infested island.”

 "US Air Force F-35s and F-15s dropped 36,000 kilograms of bombs on an ISIS “infested” island in Iraq, leading to massive explosions and plumes of smoke that rose into the air just before dawn on Tuesday.

"In one of the most explosive videos to come out of the war against ISIS the US tweeted film of massive explosions rocking an island. Spliced between aerial shots of the same explosions, and video from the ground with Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Service members looking on, the island was pulverized. The Spokesperson for Operation Inherent Resolve, the 81-member coalition to defeat ISIS wrote that this is what it looks like when CENTCOM Air Force jets bomb a “Daesh infested island.”

"Video of the incident had circulated throughout the day with some wondering if it was real or was from today, but the tweet by spokesman Col. Myles Caggins III revealed the sheer massive firepower that was brought to bear on the ISIS enemy. There were so many explosions along the Z shaped island that it took wide angle lenses and multiple sweeps of the camera to record them all." . . .

NRA Sues San Francisco for Declaring It a “Domestic Terrorist Organization”

Slate "The National Rifle Association filed suit against the city of San Francisco Monday after the city declared the gun rights group a “domestic terrorist organization.” The city’s Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the resolution that was introduced six weeks ago after at least three people were shot and killed at a garlic festival in Gilroy, California. After its passage last week, the board acknowledged the nonbinding resolution had little practical effect beyond its portrayal of the NRA, which the board hopes will spur the city to curtail relationships with companies that do business with the NRA. A spokesperson for the NRA dismissed the resolution as a “sound-bite remedy,” but that hasn’t stopped the gun advocacy group from taking the fight to court.

"The NRA’s suit says San Francisco’s terrorist designation violates the group’s First Amendment right to free speech. The court filing called the label a “frivolous insult,” but that “San Francisco’s actions pose a nonfrivolous constitutional threat.” “[M]embers and supporters will suffer irrecoverable loss and irreparable harm if the members and supporters are unable to obtain government contracts because of their constitutionally-protected rights, or if the NRA is deprived of vendor, contractor, member or donor relationships when persons intimidated by the Resolution sever their NRA ties,” the suit said. A lawyer for the group said the designation was “an assault on all advocacy organizations across the country.' ” . . .

“ 'The NRA has been battling a number of challenges to its operations in recent months, including an investigation by the attorney general in New York, where its charter was formed, and the attorney general in Washington, D.C., where authorities are questioning whether its operations are in violation of its non-profit status,” the Associated Press notes. “There also have been internal battles over NRA leadership with the group’s then-president, Oliver North, and its top lobbyist, Chris Cox, stepping down, giving gun-rights activists pause about the NRA’s ability to hold sway in the upcoming 2020 presidential elections.' ” 

CNN to host LGBT townhall pertaining to homosexuality and transgenderism, Oct 11

Lifesite News  "Next month, CNN and the LGBT lobbying group Human Rights Campaign (HRC) will be joining forces to host a town hall marathon specifically for the 2020 Democrat presidential field to discuss issues pertaining to homosexuality and transgenderism, the two organizations announced this week.

"The event will take place on October 11 in Los Angeles, CNN announced, to coincide with National Coming Out Day. Consisting of a series of “back-to-back town halls throughout the evening,” it will be open to Democrat candidates who have won at least 2 percent support in four consecutive national polls, and received contributions from 130,000 unique donors, including 400 donors apiece from 20 states.

"Qualifying candidates to accept so far include former Vice President Joe Biden, openly-gay Mayor Pete Buttigieg, former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro, and Sens. Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, and Elizabeth Warren. The event will not be open to the public; the audience will consist of invited guests, “LGBTQ stakeholders,” and members of civic organizations, according to HRC.

“ 'Today, at a time when our most basic civil rights and democratic values are under attack, our work has never been more urgent,” HRC president Alphonso David claimed in a press release. “We are eager to hear from this field of Democratic presidential candidates about how they plan to win full federal equality, defend the fundamental equality of LGBTQ people, and protect the most vulnerable among us -- both here in the United States and around the globe -- from stigma, institutional inequality, discrimination, and violence.”

"All of the 2020 Democrat candidates are doctrinaire leftists on LGBT issues, from supporting the so-called Equality Act (which would impede the religious liberties and conscience rights of religious adoption agencies and businesses, as well as force women and girls to share sex-specific facilities with men) to opposing the Trump administration’s ban on gender-confused soldiers. Several have even added their “preferred pronouns” to their social media bios, in a show of solidarity with gender-identity activists." . . .

CNN's Climate Change Townhall -- An Affirmation of Faith

Alexander G. Markovsky  "George Bernard Shaw aptly wrote, “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself.” There couldn’t be a better description of the ten aspirants for the high office participating in the CNN-sponsored seven-hour climate change townhall.  

"The townhall was CNN’s contribution to the movement that has been characterized by a profusion of prophetic absolutism and fanatical devotion to the cause. Instead, it exposed the illiteracy and shallowness of the candidates who believe that the electricity comes from the outlet and money comes from the bank. CNN and the participants were trying to convince the viewers that the skies would soon fall under the weight of rising CO2, but the magnificent ten, like Atlantes and Caryatids, would hold up the skies while we reject the hydrocarbons and plastic straws, outlaw meat, install expensive light bulbs, enact population control, and blow trillions of dollars to fend off “the existential threat” to our civilization.  

This was an affirmation of faith, obligatory for believers intent on following the most farsighted stateswoman and formidable authority on the climate change, former bartender Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who put forward the Green New Deal as the key to salvation.  

"But my Eastern European suspicion tells me otherwise. Let’s make it clear --  climate change is real. Historical records confirm that the temperature on this planet was at some periods significantly lower and higher than we experience nowadays. 

"It has been well documented that the collapse of the Old Kingdom in Egypt and the Akkadian Empire in Mesopotamia around 2200 B.C. were brought about by a catastrophic rise in temperatures and subsequent droughts. It is well known that Romans grew grapes in northern England. Hence, temperatures on this planet were a lot higher then. At various times, the European continent was subject to prolonged ice ages.

"However, given the level of erudition of the presidential candidates, one may doubt that they are aware that neither the Bronze Age civilizations nor the Romans had internal combustion engines, oil refineries, or coal-fired power plants." . . .

One America News Network files $10 million defamation lawsuit against Rachel Maddow, MSNBC, and corporate parents

Thomas Lifson  "President Trump isn’t the only one who hits back. The parent of the scrappy conservative news outlet One America News Network (OANN), Herring Networks, has filed a lawsuit against Rachel Maddow, MSNBC, and its corporate parents for defamation. The entire statement by the plaintiff’s attorneys is embedded below, but this constitutes the heart of the matter, and goes beyond mere defamation:"
. . . 

"The concentration of ownership of our media is a major problem, particularly since studies consistently reveal that 90% of news reporting is hostile to President Trump. When a corporation like Comcast (and its parent AT&T) controls news providers like MSNBC and NBC, and also controls a major distribution system like Comcast’s cable operations, the exclusion of a competitor that offers a diametrically different viewpoint, that seems like a problem for which antitrust law is the solution." . . .

Maddow called OAN "a little boutique news outlet"  . . . “This is vile, sensationalistic reporting,” OANN’s lawyer, Skip Miller, said according to a previous press release. “These defamatory statements must be retracted immediately. One America News Network has no connection to the Russian government or any other government — no connection whatsoever, financial or otherwise.”

"Comcast is being sued for refusing to carry OANN as part of its cable programming because the network could go against liberal politics of MSNBC, according to the complaint. The lawsuit also alleges that Maddow and the other defendants knew her comment was false. It suggests the statement was intentionally made to hurt OANN because of the network’s conservative views."

Via Weasel Zippers

. . . "OANN’s lawyers gave Maddow and The Daily Beast until Aug. 15 to retract its statements, according to the cease-and-desist requests sent on July 29.
“ 'One America is wholly owned, operated and financed by the Herring family in San Diego,” Miller said according to a statement. “They are as American as apple pie. They are not paid by Russia and have nothing to do with the Russian government.”
“ 'This is a false and malicious libel, and they’re going to answer for it in a court of law.” . . .

Leftist philosophies both silly and dangerous, thanks to the media we allow into our homes

Buttigieg: Using a Straw or Eating a Burger Means You Are ‘Part of The Problem’

"Compares climate change to the Great Depression, World War II"

Al Thompson III at Kelli Katts!

Ignorance and silliness on display as Democrats race down climate change rabbit hole  . . . "Last week’s marathon CNN climate forum makes it clear: Dorian blew what remained of Democrat common sense right off the map.
. . . "Beto, who can often be counted on for comic relief, related telling his son that the family would move to Washington, D.C., in the unlikely event of his election (he may not have framed it exactly that way) – because that’s where the White House is and because, after all, El Paso was going to quickly become uninhabitable thanks to global warming.
. . . "Common-sense Americans won’t buy it, either. As Democrats tumble down the climate change rabbit hole, they may find the price of “owning” climate change is extremely high indeed."

Seven Times Hollywood Weasels Wished Death Or Other on Trump

Trump Supporting High Schooler Harassed, Threatened and Hounded Out of School by Liberal Classmates — Principal Tells Her “It Will Blow Over   . . . "And Jayne says the teachers were not helpful. She even had instances where the liberal teachers lowered her grades because she supported the president."

CNN spent seven hours this week with the Democratic presidential candidates, lecturing the American people about plastic straws, hamburgers, and airplanes.
. . . "Finally, CNN lost their minds over “Sharpiegate,” accusing President Donald Trump of committing a felony by altering a national weather map. However, they apparently didn’t notice that their own producers mislabeled a weather map, mistakenly marking Alabama as Mississippi." . . .

Media Meltdown over Trump’s Hurricane Predictions  " . . . 'CNN conveniently forgot their video from August 28 where they themselves told Alabama to “be on the lookout” for Hurricane Dorian. CNN went on to say, . . ."

Much more at the Tunnel Wall

Protesters Wave American Flags, Sing U.S. National Anthem in Push for Help to ‘Liberate Hong Kong’

Laughing at Stupid Things Liberals Say

CNS News

"Tens of thousands of Hong Kong residents, some waving American flags, marched to the U.S. Consulate Sunday, urging Congress to quickly pass legislation providing for U.S. responses to Beijing-instigated rights abuses or attempts to erode the territory’s autonomy.

“ 'President Trump, please liberate Hong Kong,” read a large blue banner and numerous posters held by demonstrators, some of whom also sang along to “The Star-Spangled Banner,” piped through loudspeakers.

“ 'Resist Beijing! Liberate Hong Kong! Democracy Now!” protesters chanted, alluding to concerns about an erosion of freedoms in the former British colony, which reverted to Chinese rule in 1997 with guarantees it would continue to enjoy a “high degree” of autonomy for at least 50 years." . . .

"Visible on some placards were words that drew parallels between Hong Kong residents’ appeals to the U.S. government and American colonists’ looking to France for support during the War of Independence. “We, Hongkongers and Americans, are united by our yearning for freedom and dignity,” they read."

 Meanwhile here in America: