Strap In – Romney Didn’t Wake Up This Morning and Haphazardly Write an Op-Ed to Attack The President of His Own Political Party…

Conservative Treehouse  "Don’t get so caught up in a furor over Senator-elect Mitt Romney writing a political hit piece against the President of the United States that we forget to look at the big picture.

"Senator-elect Mitt Romney’s niece is Ronna McDaniel, Chairwoman of the Republican National Committee (RNC). Senator Romney didn’t just wake up on New Year’s Day and haphazardly write a specifically constructed character assassination against the President of the republican party; who is currently the President of the United States.

"No, this attack was done with forethought and specific intent."

"Think rationally and logically.  Why write the op-ed at all?  What is the purpose behind writing the op-ed?  What does the author have to gain by writing the op-ed?…

Cartoon added by TD

"And specifically, given the nature of the familial relationship between republican Senator Romney and RNC Chairwoman McDaniel, not to mention the political profession therein, with the senator writing something highly damaging; well, there’s obviously a larger intended purpose on Romney’s end of the equation.

"Likely many will believe Ms. Ronna McDaniel was generally unaware that her uncle was going to take such a position of expressed opposition.  She didn’t know?  Mitt Romney wouldn’t, given the circumstances, tell his niece of his intention?

"Let’s presume Romney didn’t tell his niece.  What does that tell us about the character of Mitt Romney; his obvious self-interest; and, in the bigger picture, what does that tell us of his relationship to republican party objectives, writ large?" . . .

"What exactly is this ‘republican party‘, Romney’s frame-of-reference (under such a presumption), all about?  Who would Mitt and Ann Romney believe is operating it?

If Mitt Romney felt his current DC entry point, constructed by his specific intent, would leave him entirely isolated from any influence and/or affluence from his position – he wouldn’t do it.  Right?  But he did…. so he doesn’t view this adversarial starting point as damaging to his political objectives." . . .

Timeline: Mitt Romney’s History of Backstabbing Donald Trump

Romney’s op-ed re-ignited speculation that he intends to run for president again, perhaps against Trump himself. An observer at Romney’s speech in March 2016 said: “This is just Act One” for Romney. Clearly, he was right.

I'm sure Harry Reid will endorse Romney.
Breitbart Politics

. . . "Here is a brief summary of Romney’s history of backstabbing Trump — often after seeking, and receiving, his help:

• • February 2012: Romney seeks, and receives, Trump’s endorsement in the Republican presidential primary, beating several other contenders who wanted the billionaire’s backing. The Romney campaign proudly touted Trump’s nod. CBS News reported at the time, “Romney’s campaign formally unveiled the endorsement at an event in Las Vegas.”
  • March 2016: Romney delivers a speech in Utah devoted entirely to trashing Trump: “Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud. His promises are as worthless as a degree from Trump University. He’s playing the members of the American public for suckers. He gets a free ride to the White House and all we get is a lousy hat.” However, with the primary still undecided, Romney declined to support any of Trump’s rivals, meaning the speech amounted to little more than abuse. (Some of those present at the time speculated Romney was laying the foundation for a political comeback.)
  • November 2016: Romney, humbled by Trump’s victory, offers to join President-elect Trump’s cabinet, and seeks the job of Secretary of State. After meetings at Trump Tower, Romney fails to win the job — but issues a statementpraising Trump and thanking him for the opportunity: “It was an honor to have been considered for Secretary of State of our great country. My discussions with President-elect Trump have been both enjoyable and enlightening. I have very high hopes that the new administration will lead the nation to greater strength, prosperity and peace.”
  • February 2018: Romney receives Trump’s endorsement in the GOP primary for U.S. Senate in Utah and accepts it — despite having declared in 2016 he would not have accepted Trump’s endorsement if given the choice again.

Donald J. Trump

✔@realDonaldTrump

.@MittRomney has announced he is running for the Senate from the wonderful State of Utah. He will make a great Senator and worthy successor to @OrrinHatch, and has my full support and endorsement! . . .  

As is often said, if you want a friend in Washington, get a dog. 

Self-Appointed Nemesis Romney Blasts Trump in Washington Post Op-Ed

Next stop for Romney: guest spots on TV talk shows.

MSN

"Two days before he is sworn into the United States Senate, incoming Utah Senator Mitt Romney is blasting President Donald Trump's character. 

"In an op-ed for the Washington Post, Romney criticizes the president, saying that he hoped when Trump was elected in 2016 that he would "rise to the occasion" as leader of the free world. 

" 'On balance, his conduct over the past two years, particularly his actions this month, is evidence that the president has not risen to the mantle of office," Romney wrote. " . . .

Mitt Romney bids to become Trump's Senate nemesis now that Flake and Corker are leaving  . . . All other things being equal, it would be nice to have a president who is an inspiring moral leader.  But in the swamp of D.C., people may praise such a person while slipping the stiletto in the back.  It takes a street fighter to keep one's back safe.  And get things done.

"I fear that the favorable attention Utah's Senator Mitt Romney will receive in the media is only going to encourage him in his disparagement of President Trump.

"I fear that as he joins the Senate, Mitt Romney is going to adopt the role of NeverTrump scold.  I'd ask him to think clearly about what a defeat for President Trump in the 2020 election would mean for the United States.  Whomever the Democrats choose as their nominee, it will be someone who wants a bigger government, higher taxes, limits on the Second Amendment, CO2 regulation and taxes, and more racial favoritism by entities under the sway of the federal government."   Thomas Lifson

Romney arrives in DC. Attacks President Trump  "After allowing Barack Obama to walk all over him in 2012, Mitt Romney finally made it to Washington, and immediately attacked President Trump.
"In a column in the Washington Post Romney could not argue facts -- “it is not that all of the president’s policies have been misguided” -- so he took the low road.
. . . "Never mind the appointments to the judiciary that he made. Never mind that voting for Romney and McCain got me Justices Kagan and Sotomayor, while voting for Trump got me Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh.
"No, no, no." . . .

Trump fires back after incoming U.S. Senator Romney blasts president  Romney certainly checked all the liberal boxes here:  "I will speak out against significant statements or actions that are divisive, racist, sexist, anti-immigrant, dishonest or destructive to democratic institutions," he wrote."   

Would Romney have freed our hostages or kicked ISIS out of their conquered territories?

Determined House Democrats put forward bills to re-open government WITHOUT Trump wall funding . . .

UK Daily Mail  "House Democrats unveiled a package of bills Monday that would re-open the federal government without approving funding for President Donald Trump's border wall with Mexico, establishing an early confrontation that will test the new power dynamic in Washington.

"The House is preparing to vote as soon as the new Congress convenes Thursday, as one of the first acts after Democrats take control, according to an aide who was not authorized to discuss the plan and spoke on condition of anonymity.

"Meanwhile, the American Federation of Government Employees, a union which represents federal employees, sued the Trump administration on Monday, according to USA Today.

The union says it is illegal for the government to force workers to work without pay. 

"Democrats under Nancy Pelosi are all but certain to swiftly approve the two bills, making good on their pledge to try to quickly resolve the partial government shutdown that's now in its second week. 

Why was a Muslim doctor who vowed to poison Jewish patients working at the famed Cleveland Clinic?

Monica Showalter  "Is there any profession that merits the esteem that doctors have?  I don't think so.

"What doctors do not only requires significant brains, but requires professionalism, because patient trust is so critical.  Without that trust, how would a doctor be able to get a patient to take his or her clothes off, bend over for an exam, or accept a medical treatment with bad side effects?  Trust is what makes the whole profession work.

"This is why this story out of Cleveland is so chilling.

Medical resident at Cleveland Clinic Lara Kollab, who published antisemitic statements on Twitter regarding her Jewish patients at the hospital, was dismissed from the hospital, the Cleveland Clinic reported on Monday. 

Both Canary Mission and StopAntisemitism.org called attention to Kollab's tweet from 2012, in which she wrote "ill purposely give all the yahood the wrong meds..."

"Here's a screenshot of her vile tweet (Hat tip: GatewayPundit):

" . . . How on Earth did this person get a medical license, and why hasn't it been pulled?  Did no one check her ethics?  She has a long history of vile anti-Semitic tweets, loaded with homicidal ravings and musings, which are there for all to see on Twitter.  This wasn't someone who just whispered her anti-Semitism, she broadcast it.  This person shouldn't just be fired; she should be de-licensed, and maybe jailed for such vile threats, which not only bring great dishonor to the medical profession, but erode the trust that patients must have in doctors.

"After reading a story like this, Jewish patients (and Cleveland has 80,000 Jewish residents) will now have to start wondering if they've got another one like her, and that will extend to other patients, too." . . . 

This did not escape the notice of Pamela Geller over at BareNakedIslam: 

"NEVER use a Muslim doctor…especially if you are Jewish "

"Her many Jew-hating tweets, as you can see below, finally caught up with her and got her fired. But one could conclude that it was this tweet below that put the final nail in her coffin.

"Translations of the Arabic words are in RED on each tweet: ' . . . Info from:

Israellycool  Founded in 2003 by Aussie Dave, Israellycool has become one of the largest English-language blogs in Israel, and probably the best known. We strive to remain original, entertaining and informative.

FBI Rewrites Federal Law to Let Hillary Off the Hook

Andrew C. McCarthy  "There is no way of getting around this: According to Director James Comey (disclosure: a former colleague and longtime friend of mine), Hillary Clinton checked every box required for a felony violation of Section 793(f) of the federal penal code (Title 18): With lawful access to highly classified information she acted with gross negligence in removing and causing it to be removed it from its proper place of custody, and she transmitted it and caused it to be transmitted to others not authorized to have it, in patent violation of her trust. Director Comey even conceded that former Secretary Clinton was “extremely careless” and strongly suggested that her recklessness very likely led to communications (her own and those she corresponded with) being intercepted by foreign intelligence services.

"Yet, Director Comey recommended against prosecution of the law violations he clearly found on the ground that there was no intent to harm the United States.

"In essence, in order to give Mrs. Clinton a pass, the FBI rewrote the statute, inserting an intent element that Congress did not require. The added intent element, moreover, makes no sense: The point of having a statute that criminalizes gross negligence is to underscore that government officials have a special obligation to safeguard national defense secrets; when they fail to carry out that obligation due to gross negligence, they are guilty of serious wrongdoing. The lack of intent to harm our country is irrelevant. People never intend the bad things that happen due to gross negligence." . . .

Nobel secretary regrets Obama peace prize

BBC

"Awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to US President Barack Obama in 2009 failed to achieve what the committee hoped it would, its ex-secretary has said.

"Geir Lundestad told the AP news agency that the committee hoped the award would strengthen Mr Obama.

"Instead, the decision was met with criticism in the US. Many argued he had not had any impact worthy of the award.

"Mr Lundestad, writing in his memoir, Secretary of Peace, said even Mr Obama himself had been surprised.

""No Nobel Peace Prize ever elicited more attention than the 2009 prize to Barack Obama," Mr Lundestad writes.

"Even many of Obama's supporters believed that the prize was a mistake," he says. "In that sense the committee didn't achieve what it had hoped for". . . .

Another Nobel winner was PLO chairman Yasser Arafat:

In an amusing anecdote, Mr Lundestad relates how he found Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who won the award in 1994, watching an episode of the Tom and Jerry cartoon in his hotel with other Palestine Liberation Organisation members. "It was made very clear that they intended to watch until the end," he said.

Titania McGrath: Satire in the Age of Poe’s Law

Poe's Law is an Internet axiom which states that it is difficult to distinguish extremism from satire of extremism on the Internet unless the author clearly indicates his/her intent. This notion is most frequently observed with highly polarized discussion topics, such as gender equality, religious or political fundamentalism and other social justice-related issues.  KnowYourMeme

Think of TMcG  as the Babylon Bee of current events. TD

Moonbattery  "According to Poe’s Law, “it is difficult to distinguish extremism from satire of extremism on the Internet unless the author clearly indicates his/her intent.” Visit the
Titania McGrath  Twitter page and see how long it takes before you are sure it is not on the level.

"This one almost gives it away:

All schools should be co-ed because segregating people according to their sex is a form of apartheid.

Except in mosques, where it’s empowering.

— Titania McGrath (@TitaniaMcGrath) September 2, 2018

"A good point snarkily expressed, right? Except that fans of Linda Sarsour may truly believe that Islam is empowering for the women it enslaves. Since Islam opposes Western Civilization, everything about it must be good.

"Titania proclaims that newborns should be given numbers rather than names until they have determined their own “gender identity,” that women are as physically strong as men, that men fear menstruation because women are “blood-sisters of the sacred moon witch,” and that “EVERYTHING is offensive” because this is “a heteronormative patriarchy.” None of this is too crazy to be taught in a college classroom." . . .

A reading of TM indeed makes one wonder, would a vegan breastfeed her baby?

The Climate Change Watermelon Juggernaut & The Prescience Of Michael Crichton

Bookworm Room

The late Michael Crichton figured out 15 years ago that the climate change juggernaut is a Leftist faith, intended to rework the economy, not true science.

. . . "With virtually unlimited money and power at stake, the watermelons (green outside, red inside) are pushing harder than ever to put the U.S. on a path to green Nirvana, where ostensible mitigation of anthropogenic climate change justifies every conceivable regulation, law, and tax, as well as the reordering of our economy and Constitution.

"Before starting up this post, some facts many of you might not know.  The US has been reducing carbon emissions for years, more so than any other country.  In 2017, we produced less carbon than we did in 2005.  Indeed, we produced 40,000,000 metric tonnes of CO2 less than we did even in 2016.  We accomplished that without regulation — for all those Obama regs were rolled back by 2017 — and without implementing authoritarian government.  Yet you will hear no progressive acknowledge those facts in any of the numerous links below.   Those are inconvenient facts, and the climate change push is faith based.

"The average American is not very concerned with the climate change issue.  According to NBC, climate change did not even register as a concern among voters in 2018.  But understand that the climate change movement is a juggernaut.  It is the single most important issue for progressive left politicians, both foreign and domestic, and their cronies in the private sector, public sector, and academia, all of whom stand to benefit beyond the imagining from the most lucrative scam in history.

"Within the past two weeks, once and future Speaker of the House, Crazy Nancy, announced that House Democrats will establish a “Select Committee on the Climate Crisis” as soon as they are seated as the majority.  The NYT is running near daily editorials on climate change as the world’s most pressing issue, claiming Trump is evil and everyone who does not embrace the Paris Accords, a carbon tax, and every other thing the left demands to save us from climate-ageddon is mentally and morally defective.  On his latest edition of Meet The Press, NBC’s Chuck Todd devoted the entire hour-long show to anthropogenic climate change, though the panel ONLY included those pushing the canard and demanding government action.  As justification for the completely stacked panel, Todd stated:

“We’re not going to debate climate change, the existence of it… Human activity is a major cause, period. We’re not going to give time to climate deniers. The science is settled, even if political opinion is not.”

"And the Democrat’s newest and shiniest, Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, with the support of Bernie the Red, recently published her plan for a Green New Deal, as part and parcel of reforming of our nation into a socialist utopia.   Bottom line, this is the number one issue for the progressive left, and we ignore it at our extreme peril.

"I say extreme peril because once you can tax and regulate carbon dioxide produced by man (which is only about 10% of the total amount produced naturally every year, as the earth is responsible for the rest), AND once you establish it as the greatest moral issue facing mankind, the dam breaks.  The proggies will have their hands in a bottomless cookie jar with no one to stop them from gorging short of a civil war." . . .

As For Me And My House

Noisy Room

. . . "New York city has legalized a “third gender” on birth certificates. https://bit.ly/2QUtlhM Not that long ago, over 40 states passed resolutions supporting God’s definition of marriage – between one man and one woman. According to the Public Religious Research Institute, a majority of Democrats, Republicans, blacks, whites, Latinos, Catholics and white mainline Protestant denominations support same sex marriage. https://nbcnews.to/2ri3mmD The majority of evangelical Millennials support redefining marriage.
"Years ago, LGBTQ activists claimed openly homosexual leaders admitted into the Boy Scouts had no intention to change the organization from its founding on Christian principles. As it turned out, first on the LGBTQ agenda was to remove “morally straight” for the Scout Oath. 

“ 'On my honor, I will do my best. To do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law; To help other people at all times; To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight.”
"We are living in a pretty sick time when morally straight is deemed hateful and offensive.
"Recently, “Boy” has been removed from the name of the organization, changed to “Scouts BSA” to appeal to girls. The Girl Scouts are in a huff. They are suing the Boy Scouts because they feel the Boy Scouts is now in competition with them for girls. https://read.bi/2RZarDJ The Girl Scouts has also been changed, infected with radical feminism – promoting transgender-ism, lesbianism and abortion. Girl Scouts of Western Washington returned a $100,000 donation, a fourth of their annual fund-raising goal, because the donor requested that their gift not be used to support transgender girls. https://bit.ly/2GrvMEO
"Leftists’ war on gender includes absurdly claiming that having separate organizations for boys and girls is hateful and discriminatory." . . .

‘Angry White People with Money’; “fascists styled as antifascists”

National Review:  "NR’s roving correspondent discusses Portland and the Antifa movement, the subjects of his latest cover story."

Pictured: how a mob with money can look.

. . . "The thing about places like Portland and San Francisco is that they aren’t nice. They have a reputation for being wooly and hippieish and silly, but they are in fact very angry places, full of very angry people. They are also highly segregated places in ways that the South and Southwest really aren’t. Angry white people with money make the world go ’round, apparently.

Madeleine Kearns: Do you think this behavior is a microcosm of polarized America? Or is it peculiar to certain environments, like what we see on college campuses?

Kevin D. Williamson: I think you get bad behavior where bad behavior is tolerated. In Portland, the blackshirts aren’t a tiny schismatic fashion. There were Democratic-campaign staffers standing out in front of Democratic-campaign events on Election Night chanting along with them." . . .

Madeleine Kearns: In what way were the anti-fascist protesters you saw fascists?
Kevin D. Williamson: They are the American Left’s answer to the Milizia Volontaria per la Sicurezza Nazionale, down to the penchant for black shirts. They perform the same function: using violence and intimidation to silence political opposition and to terrorize the political opposition. “Fascist” is a notoriously difficult word to define, but they are as close to a textbook case as you are going to find.

. . . "Kevin D. Williamson: Their defining characteristic is a behavior, not an ideology or factional plumage. Violence is violence." . . . (Emphasis added, TD)

They Shall Not Grow Old Is the Movie of the Year

National Review

Yet what is most striking about They Shall Not Grow Old is how many grins there are. The vets, who were just kids at the time, say that they joked constantly. Really, what else were they going to do, except try to make the best of it? 

"What the director of the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies has done with his World War I documentary, They Shall Not Grow Old, is more than restore archival film; he has restored the humanity of men caught up in one of history’s great cataclysms.

"This is an aesthetic achievement of the highest order, and a great service to history. 

"World War I has always had more than its share of historiography, novels, poems and feature films. Until now what it lacked was video (at least watchable video), the single most powerful medium of the modern era. 

"It took Jackson and his team five years to make They Shall Not Grow Old. They had to painstakingly remove scratches and other damage from old film belonging to the Imperial War Museum, and slow down the primitive footage. 

"Then it was colorized, with loving accuracy. Forensic lip readers recovered what soldiers were saying on the film, and actors provided the voices. Finally, it was made 3D.

"The effect is to transform the men originally caught on choppy black-and-white film to relatable, individual human beings, just like anyone else we watch on a screen today. 

"World War I was such an industrial-scale event that it tends to become impersonal, the men who fought it reduced in our minds to cannon fodder. " . . .

. . . This lends an astonishing cinematic intimacy to life on the front. We hear about soldiers’ preferences in cigarettes, how they fried bacon on the front line, their method of warming up water for tea via machines guns, how they went to the bathroom (the less you know, the better), and their astonishment at the prostitutes in French villages. There are plenty of hellish details. The constant smell of death. The lice that, after their eggs are meticulously burned off uniforms, return the next morning. The rats that, fat from eating corpses, infest the trenches. The sucking mud of winter that is potentially fatal with the wrong step.  . . .