The Dangers of Elite Groupthink

Victor Davis Hanson

Knowledge can be found at all ages, and in all places. And ethics has nothing to do with degrees or pedigrees.

"The Washington Post recently published a surprising indictment of MSNBC host, Stanford graduate, and Rhodes scholar Rachel Maddow.
"Post media critic Erik Wemple wrote that Maddow deliberately misled her audience by claiming the now-discredited Steele dossier was largely verifiable — even at a time when there was plenty of evidence that it was mostly bogus.
"At the very time Maddow was reassuring viewers that Christopher Steele was believable, populist talk radio and the much-criticized Fox News Channel were insisting that most of Steele’s allegations simply could not be true. Maddow was wrong. Her less-degreed critics proved to be right.
"In 2018, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Devin Nunes (R., Calif.), and the committee’s then-ranking minority member, Adam Schiff (D., Calif.), each issued contrasting reports of the committee’s investigation into allegations of collusion between Russia and Donald Trump’s campaign team and the misbehavior of federal agencies.
"Schiff’s memo was widely praised by the media. Nunes’s report was condemned as rank and partisan.
"Many in the media went further. They contrasted Harvard Law graduate Schiff with rural central Californian Nunes to help explain why the clever Schiff got to the bottom of collusion and the “former dairy farmer” Nunes was “way over his head” and had “no idea what’s going on.”
"Recently, the nonpartisan inspector general of the Department of Justice, Michael Horowitz, found widespread wrongdoing at the DOJ and FBI. He confirmed the key findings in the Nunes memo about the Steele dossier and its pernicious role in the FISA application seeking a warrant against former Trump-campaign adviser Carter Page.
"In contrast, much of what the once-praised Schiff had claimed to be true was proven wrong by Horowitz — from Schiff’s insistence that the FBI verified the Steele dossier to his assertion that the Department of Justice did not rely chiefly on the dossier for its warrant application." . . .

Integrity and the American press

Stilton's Place

No Benghazi here; Trump is not Obama or Hillary

Image by Oleg Atbashin of The People's Cube

"This is not a warning, it is a threat"   . . . "Progressive groups are trying to call the Baghdad attack President Trump's Benghazi.  That is disingenuous at best.  There is no equivalence at all.  There are indeed significant differences.  President Trump provided immediate assistance, and no one, most assuredly not the ambassador, has been murdered and dragged through the streets.  The president and his administration have not sought to blame the violence on some nonsensical event like an obscure video, but rather placed the blame squarely on those who perpetrated the act and their supporters.  The president is not running from pillar to post holding meetings and press conferences.  He has mobilized a huge response force and let the identified belligerents know that if they keep it up, they will meet this force personally.  Said the president, "This is not a warning.  It is a threat." 

"That is how a leader keeps Americans safe and protects American interests. " 

Thanks Obama! How American Tax Dollars AGAIN Financed the Attack of Our Own Embassy  "Crazy Uncle Joe claims there were absolutely no scandals with he and Barry at the helm.

"There certainly are plenty now Joe, as if there weren’t before.
"It turns out that American tax dollars likely financed the attack on our own embassy in Baghdad." . . .

PICTURES: US sends first wave of 750 paratroopers to the Middle East in response to attack on embassy  . . . "The official account for the 82nd Airborne, America’s Division tweeted on Wednesday: ‘Early this morning more than 650 All American Paratroopers and equipment began their deployment to the @CENTCOM (U.S. Central Command) area of operations.

" ‘This is why we exist. Your @Strike_Hold (1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division) Paratroopers have trained and prepared for events like these. @OIRSpox (spokesperson for Operation Inherent Resolve), they are on the way.’ "

Robocalls get Trumped

Judge awards $229,500 for robocall harassment. Should you sue?  "For millions of Americans, robocalls are a barely tolerated nuisance. But when one Texas woman received 153 robocalls from a cable company, she didn't tolerate it, she complained – and was awarded almost a quarter of a million dollars. 
US District Judge Alvin Hellerstein in Manhattan has ordered Time Warner Cable to pay Araceli King of Irving, Texas, $229,500 for harassing her with more than 100 robocalls even after she complained about them, behavior the judge called "particularly egregious."
"According to the ruling, Time Warner Cable violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991, a law meant to curb robocall and telemarketing abuses." . . .

Trump signs the bill that ought to ensure his re-election "There is an excellent reason why the media largely are ignoring the bill that President Trump signed on Monday: when voters hear about it, they will want to vote for him out of sheer gratitude.

"Simply put, one of the most annoying aspects of life at home, robocalls, are now subject to federal legal sanction.  S. 151, the Pallone-Thune TRACED Act:

This bill implements a forfeiture penalty for violations (with or without intent) of the prohibition on certain robocalls. The bill also removes an annual reporting requirement for enforcement relating to unsolicited facsimile advertisements.

The bill requires voice service providers to develop call authentication technologies.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) shall promulgate rules establishing when a provider may block a voice call based on information provided by the call authentication framework, but also must establish a process to permit a calling party adversely affected by the framework to verify the authenticity of their calls. The FCC shall also initiate a rulemaking to help protect a subscriber from receiving unwanted calls or texts from a caller using an unauthenticated number.

This bill requires the Department of Justice and the FCC to assemble an interagency working group to study and report to Congress on the enforcement of the prohibition of certain robocalls. Specifically, the working group will look into how to better enforce against robocalls by examining issues like the types of laws, policies, or constraints that could be inhibiting enforcement.

The bill requires the FCC to initiate a proceeding to determine whether its policies regarding access to number resources could be modified to help reduce access to numbers by potential robocall violators.

"Thanks, President Trump!  You've got my vote."   Thomas Lifson

2020 and Democrats: what do they have in store for us?

In 2020, Democrats again plan to mess with the military  . . . "In addition to the psychological risks associated with allowing so-called transgender people into the military, the actual costs are high too. During the Obama era, the military (i.e. you, the American taxpayer) was paying for sex reassignment surgeries and hormone therapy. In addition, the after-effects of surgery and hormones create their own problems, problems that must inevitably affect the service-readiness of many who have had taxpayer-funded surgery and treatments.

"The Democrats’ dogged focus on messing with military readiness should be at the forefront of every voter’s mind during both primaries and general election."

Newly-Elected Democrats Let Their Masks Slip, Revealing The Fascists Beneath
"Liberals, and Democrats in particular, are great at creating false equivalencies.  Their latest attempt at this is to equate the heinous 2012 attack on U.S. facilities in Benghazi, Libya, and the feckless response of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama with the recent attack on the U.S. embassy in Baghdad and President Trump’s no-nonsense response.

"Without replaying the whole sordid Benghazi event, suffice it to say that a coordinated, orchestrated, and deadly attack against two U.S. facilities in Benghazi claimed the lives of four U.S. personnel including a U.S. ambassador.  The response before during and after the attack was shameful.  No additional security was provided to the sites prior to the attacks despite repeated pleas from the ambassador, no help was forthcoming during the attack and there was no response after the attack other than a disgraceful press tour.

"Contrast this with President Trump’s defense of Americans.  On Friday, an Iranian-backed militia attacked a U.S. base and killed an American contractor and wounded many others. On Sunday, U.S. fighter jets attacked and demolished five militia bases in Iraq and Syria, killing 25 people." . . .

Hollywood Not Sending Us Their Best

Thank heaven we have "Law & Order: SVU" to expose NRA members!In the brain of a “queer, Jewish feminist,” the thought process is: I personally don’t enjoy this perfectly traditional, masculine, Anglo-Saxon sport of hunting; therefore, I will portray American male hunters as butt-raping their own sons.

Ann Coulter   "America’s apparently unstoppable gusher of mass Third World immigration is on track to deliver a sick, dystopian future, where some people will do very well -- cheap maids and all -- but women and children will fare quite poorly.

"(Finally! A story where women and children really ARE “hit hardest.”) (That’s Joe Sobran’s gag on a typical New York Times headline.)
"With the major media actively covering up the crimes of immigrants, and big tech companies censoring people who point out the peculiarities of other cultures, there seems to be a major campaign on to prevent Americans from noticing.
"Luckily, we have “Law & Order” to tell us the truth -- technically to prompt me to tell the truth by correcting their scripts, in which sex traffickers, little boy rapists and women-hating mass shooters are invariably Trump-supporting white American males.
"Beautiful actors and actresses spout dialogue written for them by “queer Jewish feminists” -- according to one writer’s self-description in response to my recent “Law & Order: SVU” column.
"I had pointed out that sex traffickers of 9-year-old illegal alien girls -- while prevalent in our new “diverse” country -- have never, ever, ever been what the show advertised: married white American businessmen.
"Celine Robinson responded on Twitter:

“I could not be more proud that ann coulter hates an episode of TV that I wrote. Nothing makes my heart sing like a fuming racist all-capsing about the progressive messaging she cannot stop due to her eternal and total irrelevance.

"Yours,"A half French, queer, Jewish feminist”

"I can’t help but notice that they don’t let viewers get a gander at Celine. No, they use hot actors and actresses -- pretty much the molecular opposite of a “queer, Jewish feminist” -- to express the multiple hatreds of a “queer, Jewish feminist” to the TV viewing public.

"You can view Celine’s photo here: . . . "
"It's always Opposites Day at “Law & Order: SVU”!

"Today, I will review another totally believable episode, from Season 20, titled “Man Up/Man Down.” In this show, a blond, blue-eyed married American man anally rapes his teenaged sons when he takes them ... hunting. Yes, hunting. The only thing missing was the MAGA hat.
"Checking my research on child rape in America, I see this has happened NEVER.

Obama and his Democrat friends love the happenings in Baghdad

Stilton's Place checks in: "In yet another effort by the "non-candidate" to get her face on the news, Hillary Clinton announced that she, along with daughter Chelsea Hubbell Clinton, was creating a new film production company which would "plan to focus on stories by and about women," as if the Hallmark Channel hadn't already beaten that estrogen-heavy genre to death." . . .

No matter how you look at it, the Left's ferocious bias against President Trump, one unleavened by a smidgen of objectivity, leaves them incapable of understanding events playing out in real time – and means that the media is incapable of intelligently or accurately reporting on the news of the day.   Andrea Widburg 

Andrea Widberg 1:  Baghdad shows the Left can't keep its stories straight  "President Trump continues to make Leftists decompensate in ways that can be worrisome but also are occasionally refreshing.  In the latter category, Leftists are so desperate to diminish President Trump's actions in the wake of the attack on the American embassy in Baghdad, they are abandoning their long-held narrative that President Obama's response to the Benghazi attack in 2012 was virtuous or, at least, unremarkable.

. . . In other words, while Benghazi became a watchword to conservatives for President Obama's malignant negligence, America's Democrat establishment, whether in politics or the media, held that it was just a case of bad things happening that were not President Obama's fault.  . . .

Andrea Widberg 2: Trump stands tall against Iranian attacks in Iraq

Let’s hope that Trump is able to avoid an embassy takeover or similar disaster. And if there is an embassy takeover, let’s hope that Trump handles it a whole lot better than Jimmy Carter did 40 years ago.

He was here at the White House with Prime Minister Maliki because he’s a transportation minister, yeah, transportation minister

RussiaGate Was 100% Fake SpyGate Is 100% Real

Threader  "Because Democrats and DNC Media won't tell you the truth about it, here's what actually happened the last 4 years.

1) The SpyGate plotters started spying on Donald Trump and his team back in 2015. They claim they started in late July 2016 is 100% a lie.

2) To launch their counterintelligence investigations of FOUR SPECIFIC INDIVIDUALS close to Trump, the FBI fakes its probable cause to the FISA Court, alleging it has good, solid verified evidence that Carter Page, Gen Flynn, Papa D and Manafort are Russian agents.

3) To get a FISA warrant to spy on the Trump campaign, then after Trump won the election, his transition team, and then after Trump entered the White House, his Presidency itself, the FBI used a fake Trump/Russia dossier that came from a Clinton political operative, Steele.

4) The FBI then renews the Page warrant 3 times, so they were doing 'legal' electronic spying on Trump & his close associates for 11 months, from Oct '16 to Sept '17.
All during this time, the FBI keeps STUMBLING OVER EXCULPATORY EVIDENCE it hides from the FISA Court.

5) Kevin Clinesmith, the FBI lawyer in charge of handling the FISA warrant renewals, gets caught by DOJ IG investigators having tampered with a CIA email.

The FBI had asked the CIA if Page's claims of being a CIA contact in communication with then was true.
"CIA said YES. . . .

Much, much more here  

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If only Trump had been president when Benghazi was attacked:

How on earth can the liberals not see the comparison between Trump in this case and Obama-Hillary with Benghazi?

President Trump’s ‘Benghazi’ Has Ended Much Better Than Hillary Clinton’s Did

". . . (READ: Trump Administration Pummels Iranian Proxy Militia in Retaliation for the Death of a US Defense Contractor)

"As I wrote at the time, this placed Iran in the position of having to carry out some sort of retaliatory action, or they would lose face with their proxies, but, at the same time, they had to calibrate it so they would not set off an overt military confrontation with the US. That reaction is now underway. This is RedState’s coverage of the action so far

BREAKING: US Embassy in Baghdad Is Under Attack, Gunshots Heard

NY Times and AP Call Iranian-Backed Militia Attacking U.S. Embassy ‘Iraqi Mourners’

Oh Please, Take a Seat! Obama Adviser Ben Rhodes Attacks Trump Policy on Iran as Iran-Backed Militia Attack Our Embassy

Overwhelming Proof Emerges That Iran Is Behind the Attack on the U.S. Embassy in Iraq

This Is How It’s Done: Apache Helicopters And Marines Respond to Protect Personnel at US Embassy in Baghdad

"The Washington Post reports today on the men leading the mob action directed against the US Embassy. This one stands out:

Also in attendance Tuesday was Hadi al-Amiri, a former transportation minister, who is considered Tehran’s man in Baghdad. Amiri heads the Badr Organization, which is one of the largest pro-Iran militias in Iraq and is part of the PMF. It was originally founded in the 1980s to fight for Iran against then-President Saddam Hussein as part of the Iran-Iraq war.  . . .

More that you did not see at Benghazi:
82d Airborne Division Reaction Force Is En Route to Support Baghdad Embassy

. . . "This is the statement issued by Defense Secretary Mark Esper:

“At the direction of the Commander in Chief, I have authorized the deployment of an infantry battalion from the Immediate Response Force (IRF) of the 82nd Airborne Division to the U.S. Central Command area of operations in response to recent events in Iraq.

Approximately 750 soldiers will deploy to the region immediately, and additional forces from the IRF are prepared to deploy over the next several days.

This deployment is an appropriate and precautionary action taken in response to increased threat levels against U.S. personnel and facilities, such as we witnessed in Baghdad today. The United States will protect our people and interests anywhere they are found around the world.”

And the liberal anti-Trumpers call this "Trump's Benghazi"!
Trump not just a "new sheriff in town; we finally have a sheriff, period.

. . . This is how things are done and it is a clear sign that professionals, not the Ben Rhodes story hour crew in the Obama National Security Council, are in charge. A major incident was prevented through prior planning, the US demonstrated that it will not hesitate to kill Iranian-hired militias when they kill Americans, the deployment of additional US forces to the US embassy was timely and the measured response told the militias that it was time to wind their street theater down, and we avoided the public affairs disasters of either a US embassy being sacked and Americans killed and taken hostage or US troops stacking up dead, unarmed demonstrators inside the embassy compound.The next time people make snide remarks about wanting adults to be in charge, you can remind them that they are.

Meanwhile Biden wants to challenge the President to a push-up competition. 

Iran Dominates in Iraq After ["Barack and I"] Handed the Country Over’  From the NY Times yet.

Impeachment Fallouts

Victor Davis Hanson  "Impeachment is shaping up as unpredictably explosive, but not in the way imagined. There are lots of things that we do know about the present impeachment of Donald Trump — and we know that there are even more areas that remain unknown. Quietly, the approval ratings of Trump have been rising to pre-impeachment levels and are nearing a RealClearPolitics average of 45. Support for impeaching Trump and/or removing him is not increasing as the House Democrats expected. It is essentially static, or slowly eroding, depending on how polls phrase such questions. Apparently, an exhausted public did not see “Ukrainian” impeachment as a one-off national crisis akin to the Nixon inquiry and the Clinton impeachment and trial that merited national attention. The impeachment vote instead is being confirmed in the public mind as part of a now boring three-year impeachment psychodrama (from impeachment 1.0, the Logan Act, the emoluments clause, the 25th Amendment, and Michael Avenatti/Stormy Daniels comedies to Robert Mueller’s “dream team” and “all-stars”). The progressive logic of the current jump-the-shark monotony is to become even more monotonous, the way that a driller leans ever harder on his dull and chipping bit as his bore becomes static."' . . .

Ted Cruz Demolishes Mayor Pete's Malicious Lie About the Founders and Slavery

Buttigieg should know these things — he majored in history and literature at Harvard. Yet the identity politics narrative simplifies the complex history of the Founders, painting them as evil rich old white oppressors. Perhaps Mayor Pete has allowed himself to get infected by a little too much "woke"ness.

Buttigieg tells kids the writers of the Constitution didn’t realize slavery was bad 
"Has anyone had enough of condescending moralist St. Pete Buttigieg, one of our more imperious Democrat candidates for president? Recently, he said Jesus would have likely been fine with abortion, late-term, whatever. He continuously claims he is the great Christian and appears to want to show the rest of us how to live as Christians. What he is preaching is not anything I learned in catechism classes.
"St. Pete told school kids in a video today that “the people who wrote the Constitution did not understand that slavery was a bad thing.” Aside from his condescending attitude towards the great men who wrote our Constitution and fought for freedom at great cost, Buttigieg didn’t even bother to learn a little about how the Founding Fathers felt about slavery." . . .

Ted Cruz Demolishes Mayor Pete's Malicious Lie About the Founders and Slavery 
. . . "Ted Cruz rebuked Buttigieg by posting a string of direct quotes from the Founders.
"Slavery is an evil of Colossal magnitude & I am utterly averse to the admission of slavery into the Missouri Territories. It being among my first wishes to see some plan adopted by which slavery in this country may be abolished by law," Cruz quoted from John Adams, a Founding Father and the second president.
" Freedom is not a gift bestowed upon us by other men, but a right that belongs to us by the laws of God and nature," he quoted from Benjamin Franklin, who was a member of an abolitionist society. "Neither my tongue, nor my pen, nor purse shall be wanting to promote the abolition of what to me appears so inconsistent with humanity and Christianity."
. . . 
" 'Who talks most about freedom and equality? Is it not those who hold a bill of Rights in one hand and a whip for affrighted slaves in the other?" Cruz quoted from Alexander Hamilton, an abolitionist and the first secretary of the Treasury.
" 'It is much to be wished that slavery may be abolished," John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, wrote. "The honor of the States as well as justice and humanity, in my opinion, loudly call upon them to emancipate these unhappy people. ... To contend for our own liberty, and to deny that blessing to others, involves an inconsistency not to be excused. ' "

New York’s Bail Reform Policies Are Setting Anti-Semitic Attackers Free to Attack Again

Legal Insurrection  "In the aftermath of the horrific machete attacks at a Monsey, New York synagogue that left five Jewish people injured Saturday night, Democrats are predictably pointing fingers at President Trump, who they blame for the stabbings.

"Prominent New York Democrats in particular have done much of the finger pointing, as NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio demonstrated during an interview with Fox News’ Ed Henry on Sunday.

An atmosphere of hate has been developing in this country over the last few years. A lot of it is emanating from Washington and it’s having an effect on all of us,” he said.

When asked if he was blaming Trump, he said, “not just the president,” but said “we need a different tone, starting in Washington … that encourage this country to actually find some unity and some common ground” that he does not think the country has had in recent years.

"Governor Andrew Cuomo also didn’t waste any time blaming the president for the recent spate of anti-Semitic attacks on Jewish people in New York state, first in a quick situational update given Sunday morning to reporters – without directly mentioning Trump by name:" . . .

Hanukkah stabbing suspect was kicked out of US Marine Corps boot camp in 2002 'fraudulent enlistment' one month after joining

Military law defines fraudulent enlistment as a 'knowingly false representation or deliberate concealment as to' a recruit's qualifications. That could involve a recruit failing to disclose certain medical conditions, past drug use or an arrest record, including cases that are sealed because the recruit was a juvenile or for other reasons.