Friday, August 31, 2018

Trump's tweet got South Africa to back down



Don Surber  "I knew President Trump was onto something when I read this headline in The Hill yesterday: "Trump's South Africa tweet is false, counterproductive and dangerous."
"The author was Judd Devermont, an Obama administration appointee who is the director of the Africa program for the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
"In short, an expert.
"South Africa's black president is re-establishing apartheid with whites as the victims this time. The government is seizing farms from white farmers, and Antifa-style hooligans are attacking them.
"A week ago, President Trump objected:
I have asked Secretary of State to closely study the South Africa land and farm seizures and expropriations and the large scale killing of farmers. “South African Government is now seizing land from white farmers.”
 "Today, the Daily Mail reported, "South Africa withdraws white farmland redistribution bill six days after Trump warned he was closely studying the situation."
"One tweet.
"One tweet got South Africa to stop.
"One tweet that Obama's expert on South Africa denounced." . . .
You Won't Believe What Obama Did in South Africa  . . . "Then, worst of all, he praised the president who presides over a country stealing white-owned land, murdering whites and threatening genocide.
"This could be the most disgraceful speech ever by a former U.S. president. Yet the media said nothing. 
"President Trump calls Don Lemon of CNN "dumb" on Twitter. It creates a media firestorm. Trump "must be a racist." 
"Obama praises the president of a nation murdering and robbing white people because of their race. No one says a word.
"What Obama did in South Africa should the biggest news in America. The fact that you never even heard about it tells you everything about the fraud, deceit and fake news of the mainstream media."

Obama's legacy: Transvestites monkeying up US Navy

Cagle
Ed Straker  "The Navy Times had a propaganda article yesterday featuring a sailor who likes to get dressed up as a woman and "perform" for the troops.  Why is this newsworthy?  It's all part of the liberal propaganda effort to increase acceptance of the so-called "transgendered."
"This is sick brainwashing of the worst kind.
Years before he became a yeoman 3rd class in the United States Navy, Joshua Kelley was entertaining exuberant crowds under his drag name, "Harpy Daniels."The 24-year-old Berwick, Pennsylvania native, who currently serves as an administrative supervisor aboard the forward-deployed aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan, brought Harpy along for the ride when he decided to join the Navy in February 2016[.]
 "I think he should have left Harpy in the closet.
"With drag being my number one passion, it [dressing up as a woman] quickly became costly," he said.  "On top of just struggling to make ends meet and then pay college loans, the Navy became a great option to get myself situated in life."
 "The Navy is subsidizing perversion.
Within his first year in the Navy, Kelley ... became the public affairs officer for the carrier Reagan's Gay, Lesbian and Supporting Sailors association[.]
"Did you ever think you'd see the words "Reagan" and "Gay, Lesbian and Supporting Sailors association" in the same sentence?  Now that homosexuals can serve openly in the military, they have formed their own associations to promote homosexuality in the service.  Next to the priesthood, it's probably the best way to meet a lot of men in confined quarters.
"Kelly says his father was "confused" at first when he dressed up as a woman, but now, after seeing him perform, he cries "tears of joy."
Kelley, who was named the pageant queen in 2015's Miss Gay Harrisburg, continues to find joy in performing drag and as a sailor aboard the Reagan. 
"Our popular culture has been infused with perversion, and now so has the military – so much so that this insanity is promoted by "The Navy Times."  I just hope that while sailors are making out and trying on tutus, they are still ready to do the other function of the military – you know, war-fighting."

The Democrats: not our grandparent's party anymore

Then again, maybe it is. Read your history of the American Civil War and learn how the Democrats wanted to end the war at any cost, allowing the South to be a separate nation and still bolstered by slavery. Democrats, after hundreds of thousands of dead from the war, were ready to stop it and render the costs meaningless. Even up to our recent history America's allies could not count on Democrat's support no matter how worthy their cause might be. TD


American Spectator
Radicalized Democrats: Destroying the Country and Their Own Party  "From the wee hours of the morning on November 9, 2016, as they grappled with the sting of President-Elect Donald Trump triumphing over the anointed Queen of the Swamp, Democrats have been radicalizing by the minute.


"Objective Americans have witnessed the transformation of JFK-style classical liberals into Marxist protégés even the namesake himself would be proud to call his pupils, not to mention the hostile takeover of the Democratic Party by the"three home-owning multi-millionaire," Bernie Sanders, and "I'm not an expert on American-Israeli policy, but let me comment on it anyway" Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
"The Democratic Party is soon to be more aptly referenced as the DemocraticSocialist Party.
"And it's not as if the Democrats don't have the resolve to combat such a monumental shift to the left.  They've certainly been known to fight when something has truly mattered to them – like the times when they fought tooth and nail to unanimously oppose the 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution, giving citizenship to freed slaves and an equal right to vote for all, respectively.  Or the time when they overwhelmingly opposed abolishing slavery by fighting to kill the 13th Amendment.
"If Democrats really opposed the radicalization of their own party, they would fight it, but the quiet truth is that they welcome it." . . .
Then, of course, there is the case of Democrats against In-N-Out Burgers, posted separately today

Dem rep threatens immigration agents; 'You will not be safe'  "Rep. Ruben Gallego of Arizona tweeted out a threat to immigration agents, warning them that if Democrats take over the House, 'you will not be safe because you were just following orders.' " 
If you are a US government official and you are deporting Americans be warned. When the worm turns you will not be safe because you were just following orders. You do not have to take part in illegal acts ordered by this President's administration.

De Blasio: Progressive Wave Is Just Dems 'Acting Like Real Democrats'
. . . " 'I think you see something happening all over the country, and the reason I say that is I think that is the pertinent reality is what's going to move people in their hearts emotionally to come out and vote," de Blasio told MSNBC this morning. "That energy is on the Democratic and on the progressive side right now, and that's what I think can't be tracked. You know, polling's not picking it up; the reality of turnout is something that is beyond the reach of traditional polling to analyze.' " . . .




Campus Identity Politics Are Leading To Racially Self-Segregated Dorms And Parties

The Federalist
Race-based dorms emerging across the country keep people in their cultural comfort zones. The result is higher education that’s never been more diverse, yet still deeply divided.

"Do you remember Harambe? He was the gorilla that got killed at the Cincinnati Zoo This hypersensitivity and political correctness is commonplace at colleges across the country, so you’d think campuses would be full of racial acceptance and cultural fusion. Nothing could be further from the truth. Ironically, a campus culture rampant with identity politics has only reinforced social divisions and discouraged integration.

"At UMass, in the liberal bastion of Western Massachusetts, walk into any dining hall and you’ll see some students socializing across racial lines — but most often, black students will be sitting together, while nearby tables are filled with white students. This is all voluntary, but it’s sad to see such self-segregation. Campus housing isn’t much better, as many Asian students choose to live in one area together on campus, for no real reason.

"In 2016, California State University stirred up controversy when the college unveiled a special “Black Living-Learning Community,” not formally segregated, but thematically designated as a space for mostly black residents. The University of Connecticut boasts something similar, a “ScHOLA²RS House” where African American students will be prioritized in selection.

"It’s long been standard practice to structure student housing around common interests, like engineering-focused floors, language study immersion wings, or fraternity houses. But that type of housing can bring people of different backgrounds together, whereas the race-based dorm structure emerging across the country keeps people in their cultural comfort zones." . . .

Head of Calif Dem Party foolishly asks people to choose between party loyalty and In-N-Out Burgers

We ate there just yesterday; if only we had known! And they had plastic straws; plastic straws, I tell you!  TD


OK, no more In-N-Out for me, starting maybe tomorrow
Thomas Lifson  Trump Derangement Syndrome blows up in the face of Democrats, once again.  
"California’s far left progressives dominate the Democratic Party, and love to ban things: foie gras, plastic straws, and large containers of sugary soda, RE examples of food and beverage-related matters. But, asking Californians to forego In-N-Out Burgers is a bridge too far.
"Late Wednesday night, Eric Baumann, chair of the California Democratic Party, read an article in Los Angeles Magazine informing him that In-N-Out Burger had donated $25,000 to California’s Republican Party, and tweeted out a call for a boycott: . . ."
. . . 
"Another thing that I love about In-N-Out that is apparently of no concern to the Democratic Party’s chair: they pay and treat their employees very well. Hourly employees receive more per hour than competitors pay, and are chosen for their ability to handle service with courtesy and a smile, part of what makes going there so enjoyable. Their managers are promoted from within, and restaurant industry gossip has it that the manager of an In-N-Out store who started on a cash register or grill with a high school diploma earns well into six figures for keeping the restaurant spotless, efficient, and friendly. It is well-known as a great place for a teen to work, too.
"The Chick-fil-A boycott has flopped spectacularly, as will this effort.
"I want readers to know that such is my devotion to reporting that I will heading to In-N-Out today to check on the crowds – and incidentally eat a Double-Double Burger (two patties, two slices of cheese) protein style (lettuce substituted for the bun). It'sone of those off-the-menu "secret" items that everyone knows about. No sacrifice too great!
"It’s a clear case of Love (for In-N-Out Burgers) Trumping Hate (of Trump)."
Time to get my black outfit on! Where's my mask? Watch out for leftists with bike locks at In-N-Out!

PROTECT Political SPEECH From the TECH OLIGARCHS With The CIVIL Rights Act of 2019

Socio-Political-Journal...
We have a historical template for the solution, or at least a major part of the solution, to the once creeping, now galloping, repression of free speech in America.
"If you haven't noticed that freedom of political speech in America is under increasingly effective assault by the left, you haven't been watching. Over the internet, over lunch with colleagues, in every university classroom, indeed, everywhere in America, the wrong word, the wrong thought, can spell banishment or professional and personal destruction, or both.

"Among the worst aspects of this crisis is that high-tech forums, access to which is now essential to disseminating political argument and appealing for electoral support – Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube – increasingly bar or obstruct the sharing of conservative views. Without a dramatic statutory restatement of Americans' First Amendment right to free expression, the nation is in the fast lane to an Orwellian world where "correct" thoughts and public statements are mandatory and "incorrect" ones lead to exclusion from polite society and personal destruction.

. . . "The Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery, and its close relatives, the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, supposedly prohibited government denial of equal protection of the laws or discrimination in voting rights against former slaves.

"But nothing in the Civil War constitutional amendments protected minorities from private discrimination. In consequence, there followed one hundred years during which private racial discrimination, and not merely in the South, constituted a major barrier to full and fair participation in American society for the former slaves and their descendants.

"The solution the nation found for this problem in 1964 was that year's great Civil Rights Act, which, among other things, prohibited discrimination on the basis of race by private employers and all places of public accommodation.

"The First Amendment's protection of free expression is a limitation only on governmental action. The Founders never dreamed that the major private institutions of the Republic they were establishing would seriously limit freedom of speech for Americans. But beyond any dispute, the day has come when exactly that evil is occurring.

"We have a historical template for the solution, or at least a major part of the solution, to the once creeping, now galloping, repression of free speech in America. It is high time for a new Civil Rights Act extending First Amendment freedoms to major private actors – to internet forums, large employers, and the entire K-12 and university systems. 

"If conservative leaders and Republican office-holders had pushed back consistently against the 30-year process that has brought America to this sorry point, perhaps we could have avoided the necessity of a statutory cure. But, as on so many other fronts, they failed their voters and the nation.

"Now, nothing less than a great new reaffirmation of First Amendment freedoms by Congress and the president can restore the unfettered right to open public inquiry and political discourse on which the United States was founded." . . .

Keep reading...

Thursday, August 30, 2018

China's Navy Is Studying the Battle of Guadalcanal. Here's Why It Matters.

National Interest
In lieu of real wartime experience, the PLAN is drawing from history.

"China's military has not had much combat experience in recent decades, and this is recognized among Chinese military leaders as a potentially serious problem. The reasons for this scarcity of battlefield know—how are obvious and might even be praise-worthy. It has been nearly four decades since Beijing undertook a significant military campaign, so how would its armed forces have attained this knowledge? As I have argued many times before in this forum, nearly four decades without resorting to a major use of force represents very impressive restraint for any great power.

"By contrast, the U.S. military has been at war almost continuously since 2001 and fought several smallish wars during the 1990s as well. But for all the innovations that these recent American wars have spawned (e.g., aerial drones, heavily-armored vehicles), it remains unclear that the lessons learned from small, counter-insurgency wars, such as Afghanistan, are actually applicable to high-intensity warfare of the type that might occur in a great power showdown.

"China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has sought to remedy its lack of actual combat China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has sought to remedy its lack of actual combat experience by the careful study of military history, including the bloody Pacific War as I have noted in other Dragon Eye columns. August is steamy in the South Pacific and so the Guadalcanal campaign that began in August 1942 was hell. It was through that campaign that the fate of the Pacific was decided. While the dazzling miracle of Midway gets infinitely more attention, the grinding attrition battle just a few months later of Guadalcanal, which could be termed the “Verdun” of the Pacific War, ultimately proved to be the turning point. Losing 38 ships and perhaps over 700 aircraft proved devastating for Japan, although these losses were quite similar to those suffered on the American side. The difference, of course, was that America could replace these losses quite easily." . . .

Lyle J. Goldstein is a research professor in the China Maritime Studies Institute (CMSI) at the United States Naval War College in Newport, RI. In addition to Chinese, he also speaks Russian and he is also an affiliate of the new Russia Maritime Studies Institute (RMSI) at Naval War College. You can reach him at goldstel@usnwc.edu. The opinions in his columns are entirely his own and do not reflect the official assessments of the U.S. Navy or any other agency of the U.S. government.

CNN caught red-handed fabricating fake news, fake sources

The upshot of all this is that once again, CNN confirms it is not merely “fake news” but deliberately deceptive fake news. The network routinely fabricates fake sources and fake “facts,” and when it gets caught, it attacks the accusers rather than leveling with its own audience and admitting to its serious violations of journalistic standards.

Intellihub  "In a bombshell media scandal that’s growing by the hour, the tag-team of CNN and Watergate-fame journalism legend Carl Bernstein have been caught red-handed fabricating utterly fake news in a desperate effort to cast criminal blame upon President Donald J. Trump.

"The scandal is exploding across the media, with the Washington Post and other media outlets now retracting their original reporting based on CNN claims — now proven false — that attempted to assert the President had prior knowledge of a Trump Tower “meeting with the Russians,” an event that now appears certain to have been a deep state setup to ensnare Trump associates.

"The journalistic lies of CNN and Carl Bernstein are so blatant and disturbing that even Glenn Greenwald, who helped break the Edward Snowden story, has published a scathing piece exposing the gross journalistic misconduct that now appears to be routine at CNN and other Trump-hating “news” outlets." . . .

Talk about cross-checking our press sources!

"All puppets reading the same scripts !!!  This has been extremely dangerous to our REPUBLIC !!!!"   Video link.

Did Sarah Palin really deserve that?

But just the fact that Palin is being excluded pretty well puts the lie to the idea that McCain was all in for civility and inclusiveness, let alone gratitude.  Despite his distant war heroism, which was real enough, McCain also comes off as spiteful, petty, and mean in his treatment of his former running mate, the worst aspects of him out there. 
Monica Showalter  "I can't think of anything more spiteful or "mean-spirited" than the exclusion of former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin from the funeral of the late Sen. John McCain.
According to Breitbart News, not only was she not asked to come to any of the numerous McCain events where she could have been present, but she was actually asked to stay away.
"Who the hell did that?
"Since the Breitbart report, the McCain camp has backtracked a bit and now says Sarah would not be bounced by the security guard at the door if she actually came.  According to People Magazine, the exclusion of this woman, who was so significant in the career of John McCain, was the decision of Cindy McCain, not John McCain.  But its sourcing was anonymous, and that sounds like a possible attempt to paper over a public relations disaster, which would tell us that that is what it is, a black mark on McCain, who, up until now, has been drawing a lot of praise.
"What supports this theory is that the New York Times reported earlier that McCain planned every aspect of his funeral beforehand, every single aspect, every detail, meticulously excluding President Trump and featuring his opponents for effect, all of whom would praise "civility" in contrast to Trump.  The Times didn't get around to asking about Palin, but something tells me this Palin exclusion was McCain's doing and the family wanted to honor it, so they're letting Cindy take the flak.  Sarah Palin is the only one who really knows, and she's not saying." . . .

Pretty much all the liberal media has become CNNed.

Rick Moran  . . . "In 1932, there was a presidential election in Germany.  More than a million brown-shirted storm troopers took to the streets to "battle communists" and "protect democracy," they said.  One can imagine Lemon rationalizing the behavior of these "protectors of democracy" for the same reason he rationalized Antifa violence.

"Did you get what t[CNN's Don Lemon] is saying?  Because "anti-fascist" is in its name, Antifa, the group can pretty much beat up whomever it wants, destroy as much property as it wishes.  Because "no organization is perfect."
Holy mother.
"The left immediately praised Lemon for his "rational" defense of violence." . . .
 . . . "Besides, Antifa's loose definition of who is a "fascist" includes just about anyone it disagrees with politically.  That Lemon doesn't point out that basic fact of Antifa's existence – its misidentification of political opponents as "fascists" – proves that he, too, is unable to grasp opposition as legitimate. 
"I would say this would ordinarily disqualify any journalist from holding a job, but this is CNN we're talking about.  He'll probably get a promotion and a raise." 

Who's coordinating the sudden loony leftist lionization of Stormy Daniels?
. . . "But following the Times, the lionization spread to CNN, which is praising Daniels in its broadcasts with a straight face.  Look at this gush:
The pair spent over five minutes dubbing Daniels as merely a "fun," "working mom" who posed for Vogue "like you have never seen her" as she grapples with "the psychological and personal toll" of being President Trump's "perfect adversary" but a "beacon of The Resistance."
Washington Post uses despicable old MSM trick to falsely impugn Trump
. . . Thanks to eagle-eyed Mike Brest, writing in the Daily Caller, we have a classic example of this technique in the Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post:
The Washington Post published an article about the U.S. government choosing not to renew the passports of people born near the border, as they are skeptical that those people were actually born in the country.  It's not until the ninth paragraph that the article begins to address that the policy began under the Bush administration and continued under Obama.
"Everyone in the news business knows that a large portion of readers never make it nine paragraphs into a story.  Many glance only at the headline and a subhead or two.  Another big group reads the first few paragraphs.  These two groups account for a big majority of newspaper readers, unless the topic in question is of highest concern – say, an epidemic breaking out locally." . . .

Hall Monitor Nation

It's not as if the left has ever shown any particular commitment to free speech. They love "transgressive" ideas and "controversial" speech -- but only when they're in the minority. As soon as they get control, no more free speech for you! Just look at the universities. 

Ann Coulter  "Apart from building the wall, President Trump's most important act as president so far was his attack on internet censorship this week. 
   "The left controls all the cultural institutions -- the establishment media, corporate America, Hollywood, Silicon Valley, public schools and universities. The only breach in their total dominion of the flow of information is the internet. 
   "So now they're fixated like a laser beam on private citizens talking to one another online. 
   "Why can't people accept the officially certified news as delivered by respected truth-tellers like Brian Williams, CNN and NBC -- the network that censored Juanita Broaddrick and illegally leaked the "Access Hollywood" tape? 
   "Liberals assessed the situation and correctly concluded: People are learning facts on the internet that we've been withholding from them, so now they don't agree with us. THIS MUST BE STOPPED! 
   "The media relentlessly lied to the public about Hillary's health, denouncing conservatives as "conspiracy theorists" for mentioning it. Then an alert citizen with an iPhone captured Hillary having to be carried to her car at the 9/11 memorial service in 2016. 
   "Mainstream media outlets painted a cherubic picture of Michael Brown after he was fatally shot by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. He was a "gentle giant," gunned down like a dog as he plaintively cried, "Hands up! Don't shoot!" 
   "HEY! Wait a second! How did that video get out of Brown manhandling a tiny Indian man while robbing a convenience store? That should have been suppressed like the Broaddrick interview! 
   "Would we ever have known about Monica Lewinsky, but for the Drudge Report publishing the blockbuster story that Newsweek had killed? 
   "Currently, the establishment media are in a rage that the public has found out about the modern genocide being waged against white South African farmers." . . .