Here We Go Again...

One would think Leftists would learn that one way to lose the next election is to disrespect voters in the last election.  Disrespect for the 2016 Brexit Referendum certainly hurt both Labour and the LibDems in last week’s UK General Election.  One would think that would be a learning experience.

One would think.

But no.  The day after the election, Leftists took to UK streets to protest . . . what? Voters? Free elections? Those sort of anti-democratic temper tantrums might have sold in the Weimar Republic, but last I looked, most British prefer democracy with their Queen, thank you.

Oh, and here’s where Leftist whining gets beyond satire. The founders of Fusion GPS, purveyors of lies used in the perpetual coup against Trump, these scumbags are blaming . . . Russia.  No I am not kidding:

The founders of Fusion GPS, the Democrat-backed consulting firm behind the famously discredited Christopher Steele dossier at the heart of the Russia hoax, are blaming Russia for the liberal Labour Party’s loss in the U.K. elections Thursday. Seriously….

“Britain needs its own Mueller report on Russian ‘interference,’” [Guardian] editors titled the article.

“The British political system has become thoroughly compromised by Russian influence,” Simpson and Fritsch declared. “In 2016, both the United Kingdom and the United States were the targets of Russian efforts to swing their votes.

But us in The Colonies had better not laugh too hard.  For Democrats and Leftists (But I repeat myself.) are already making it known ahead of time that they have no intention of respecting the 2020 elections should Trump get re-elected.  California Democrat Rep. Karen Bass, for one, says they just might impeach Trump yet again after 2020.  And Democrat House Judiciary Chairman Nadler is openly saying the 2020 election will be rigged if Trump is not impeached and removed.

Yes, Americans might collude by voting to re-elect Trump. How dare they!

All this may amuse, but it should also disturb as well.  For a major party again and again so to disrespect elections they don’t win is dangerous to a country.  And that is the situation in the US and UK today.

This Leftist impulse against democracy and against the rights of political opponents makes me fear what will happen if and when Democrats or Labour do win.  We must not let that happen at least until they transform themselves into parties that actually respect constitutional democracy even when they don’t win.

Trump Signs EO Against Campus Anti-Semitism

I’m in a slight rush this morning.  But something overlooked last week amidst the UK election and US shampeachment news is that President Trump signed an executive order directing and empowering the Department of Education to go after anti-semitism on college campuses.

I was very glad to see this.  It is much needed.  Two examples:

Harassment of Jewish and pro-Israel students has been going on for a long time. At Temple University in August 2014, SJP members called Daniel Vessal, a Camera on Campus fellow and a member of the Jewish fraternity AEPi, “kike” and “baby killer,” and punched him in the face. Vessal explained that he tried to engage SJP members in dialogue, but “people at the table were calling me a ‘baby killer’…And then this kid just rocks me in the face as hard as he can. My glasses flew off. After a two-second blur I had no clue what had happened. I couldn’t believe the kid actually hit me. When the police came over and were filing the report the kids at the table were screaming ‘You Zionist pig, you racist, that’s what you get.’” Police did not arrest the attacker.

In May 2016, Eliana Kopley, a sophomore at the University of California at Irvine (UCI), was trying to enter a screening of an Israeli documentary about the IDF called “Beneath the Helmet” when she was accosted by an angry mob screaming “Long live the Intifada!” and “F**k Israel!” The protesters prevented her from entering the building where the film was being shown and even chased her into a nearby building, where they pounded on the doors and windows while continuing to scream their slogans. Police ultimately escorted Kopley into the screening. The UCI chapter of the SJP was thrilled with this thuggery and praised the mob.

It will take more than an EO to bring justice, free speech, and sanity even back to U. S. campuses.  But Trump’s EO is an appreciated step in the right direction.

Boris Wins Big. Will History Echo?

I begin writing Thursday night under the influence of a bit of beer and a lot of schadenfreudein celebration of Labour and the LibDems getting their just desserts.  But I retain enough wisdom to review and rewrite this morning.  Still, I cannot resist wondering if history is, if not repeating, at least echoing.

No, it’s not just booze that has me pondering this.  I am barely old enough to remember Margaret Thatcher’s groundbreaking victory in 1979.  Labour had power for much of the 70’s thanks to the foolish and dishonest Edward Heath.  But Labour blew their chance with obnoxious Leftist policies that ground the UK economy into the ground.

Thatcher’s victory turned out to be a precursor for the election of Ronald Reagan the following year.  The Democrats had power since 1974 thanks to the foolish and dishonest Richard Nixon.  But the Democrats blew their chance with obnoxious Leftist policies that ground the US economy into the ground.  Reagan won in a landslide, and Republicans took the Senate.

Fast forward, in June 2016,British were fed up with the establishment of both major parties who did not listen to them but who were instead beholden to EU Brussels bureaucrats.  So in a shocking upset they voted for Brexit; they voted to leave the EU. 

In 2016, Americans were fed up with the establishment of both major parties who did not listen to them but who were instead beholden to the Washington establishment. So, after dispatching Jeb! and Co. mercilessly in the Republican primaries, they in a shocking upset elected Donald Trump as President of the United States.

In the years since, neither the Left nor the establishment of the UK and US have respected those 2016 votes and have worked tirelessly to undermine them.

So we get last night.  Yes, there are significant differences from Thatcher’s election and even Brexit, but Labour did have some power before the election thank to the weak and duplicitous Teresa May.  But they blew their chance with obnoxious Leftist policies with a strong dose of anti-semitism and, probably most importantly, by disrespecting the 2016 Brexit referendum result.  And the LibDems were even more all in on undoing Brexit.

And you know the result last night (with one seat undeclared): Labour loses 42 seats; the LibDems lose almost half their seats; Boris Johnson and the Tories gain 66 seats, a strong majority, and, barring any egregious foolishness, he will be PM for at least five years.  Contempt for Brexit and for democracy were thoroughly punished.

Here in the U. S. the Democrats have some power, holding the House, most cities, several states, the “news” media, and most cultural institutions.  But they are blowing their chance with obnoxious Leftist policies with a strong dose of anti-semitism and, probably most importantly, by still disrespecting the 2016 election of Trump, even to the point of the current absurd impeachment effort.

And . . . you can probably guess what I am hoping and praying for next year – the Democrats being thoroughly punished for their contempt for democracy.  Last night in the UK may yet again be a precursor for the US.  I am not quite yet to the point of expecting that.  But I did not entirely expect the 1980 Reagan landslide or Trump either.

So history may yet again echo.  We shall see.

Schiff Prohibits Witnesses Requested by Republicans

If there is any remaining doubt that the present impeachment inquiry is more an attempted coup than a lawful proceeding, it should be dispelled by Democrat Adam Schiff’s refusal to allow key witnesses requested by Republicans.   (I’ve read that he has denied all Republican witness requests, but I cannot verify that yet.)

Most telling is that he will not even allow Republicans to call the Fake Whistleblower to testify.  “The Whistleblower” is how the latest phase of the perpetual coup began – in public at least.  But Schiff will not allow Republicans to call even him as a witness.

I am at the point where I think someone has not to be paying attention to miss that this impeachment inquiry is part of the perpetual coup against Trump that began on Election night 2016 and even before. Democrats like Schiff have never respected that election, and they are not respecting basic principles of law and fair play in still  trying to overturn it.

But with hope I agree with the always colorful Senator John Kennedy (R-La): “The American people are going look at this and go, 'I get it. They're going to give the president a fair and impartial firing squad.'"

But how many are so un-American as to be fine with this unending attempted coup?

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BONUS USELESS PREDICTION:
So far every time accusations against Trump have been aired in public, they have been a bust.  See the Mueller Report, Mueller’s testimony, backstabbing lawyer Cohen, the creepy porn lawyer and Stormy Daniels, and . . . I can hardly remember them all anymore.

When the impeachment inquiry goes public beginning tomorrow, it will be a bust as well and may backfire on the Democrats.  We shall see.

Corbyn Still One of the Comrades of Evo Morales

I am among those thankful that the Leftist supposed President of Bolivia Evo Morales resigned under pressure after a fraudulent re-election. But look who is not thankful: the dictators of Cuba and Venezuela . . . and Jeremy Corbyn.

The Glorious Leader of the Labour Party tweeted:

To see [Evo Morales] who, along with a powerful movement, has brought so much social progress forced from office by the military is appalling. I condemn this coup against the Bolivian people and stand with them for democracy, social justice and independence. #ElMundoConEvo

Never mind Morales’ human rights abuses or his election stealing.

By the way, I wonder what Pope Francis thinks of Morales’ resignation.  Will the Pope miss him?  After all they’ve met at least six times, including as recently as last year when Francis surely knew well the nature of the Morales regime.  And remember Morales gave Francis that lovely Communist cross. So maybe Francis will invite his buddy to move into the Vatican where he will be right at home with any number of Leftist abusers.

Now we know who is the “Whistleblower” and why Democrats covered him up.

NOTE: Now the Whistleblowing Creep is using his lawyers to intimidate those who expose him and his partisan participation in the Coup against Trump and democracy. I don't want to deal with lawyers, so I've edited this post slightly.

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For weeks, a deep oh-so-important secret of the Democrats has been the identity of the “Whistleblower” against Trump. It’s for his protection don’tcha know.

Well, it is coming out that the secrecy was for the protection of the Democrats and their attempted coup. The “Whistleblower” by credible reports is [He Who Must Not Be Named].  And he is much more a back-stabbing, leaking, DemocRAT, Trump-hating little mole than a whistleblower:

Federal documents reveal that the 33-year-old [He Who Must Not Be Named]  a registered Democrat held over from the Obama White House, previously worked with former Vice President Joe Biden and former CIA Director John Brennan, a vocal critic of Trump who helped initiate the Russia “collusion” investigation of the Trump campaign during the 2016 election.

Further, [He Who Must Not Be Named] left his National Security Council posting in the White House’s West Wing in mid-2017 amid concerns about negative leaks to the media. He has since returned to CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.

“He was accused of working against Trump and leaking against Trump,” said a former NSC official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters.

And on the basis of this sleezy Obama boy’s hit job, House Democrats have been running a kangaroo court “impeachment inquiry.” No wonder Democrats have been hiding [He Who Must Not Be Named].

AND’s 2020 Presidential Election Statement – the Mask Slips

The AND Campaign is a new political group which winsomely portrays themselves as being consistently pro-life, as a non-partisan Christian middle way that has issues with both major parties.

Well, lets see how they do in their recently released 2020 Presidential Election Statement.  The first section after the preamble is “The Health of our Democracy”:

By disregarding standards of decency and good faith, the current administration has significantly lowered our nation’s discourse and endangered the political process. This president’s callousness—especially toward non-white Americans and vulnerable citizens—his fomenting of chaos as Commander-in-Chief, and his cavalier attitude toward rule of law and basic norms of civility all undermine social cohesion, civic trust, and our very democracy.

And that’s it.  This section on democracy is just Trump bashing.  I will leave aside the question of whether the bashing is justified and ask where is AND’s concern about the attacks on our democracy from the Democrat Party?  There has been a perpetual coup against Trump since the day after he was elected and even before.  The phony Hillary-financed Steele Dossier was used by Obama Administration officials to lie to FISA courts in order to spy on Trump.  Then Obama officials leaked and leaked and leaked the dossier’s lies to the “News” Media to try to affect the election.  In these and other ways, the Obama Administration abused the investigative and enforcement powers of the federal government to try to rig an election.  They did so to help re-elect Obama in 2012, too – remember the IRS Tea Party scandal?

After the election there was a campaign to influence and, yes, harass electors in the Electoral College.  Then there was the long Mueller investigation of the Russian Collusion that wasn’t, an investigation that should have been open-and-shut but was drawn out to influence the 2018 mid-term elections.  And now the perpetual coup continues with a secret faux impeachment investigation by the corrupt Democrat liar Adam Schiff, one notauthorized by the House of Representatives, and one in which Republicans and the President’s lawyers are shut out, all triggered by a politically motivated so-called “whistle blower.”

I could continue.  Hell, Obama’s CIA head Brennan was involved in the coup! (And here is a good chronology.) And more will surely come out with the probe of Obama officials having just become a criminal investigation. But I will sum up what has become quite clear: Democrats with a few RINOs are engaged in a perpetual coup against Trump.  They never have respected his election.  Heck, Democrats have hardly respected a Republican presidential victory this millennium!  That “undermine(s) social cohesion, civic trust, and our very democracy” far more than mean words from Trump. 

But the AND Campaign ignores all that and instead gets all weepy about Trump’s language.  It looks like they aren’t so non-partisan and principled after all. In the preamble, they say “Christians can hold both parties accountable,” but apparently AND is not among said Christians. 

That the AND Campaign does not care about and only enables Democrat Party attacks on our democracy is confirmed by the next section, “Race and Voter Rights”:

America was built by enslaved people and immigrant workers who brought the country closer to its founding ideals through their sacrifices and protests. And yet racial discrimination has pervaded American public policy and the law since our nation’s inception, and its effects continue today. People of color still haven’t fully recovered from the War on Drugs and a myriad of other government sanctioned efforts that devastated communities and weakened families. We must address racial disparities in education, poverty-levels healthcare, environmental quality, and the criminal justice system head on. Central to that effort must be the vigilant protection of voting rights. Voting should be fair, accessible, and convenient for all eligible American citizens, and enfranchisement should extend to former felons who have paid their debt to society.

Election fraud, which benefits Democrats more often than not, is not mentioned.  Efforts to stop election fraud are not endorsed.  Oh, but they want felons, who, yes, vote mostly Democrat, to get to vote.

So whether by intent or not, the AND Campaign enables corrupt Democrat designs on our democracy.

I may just end there for now.  For the rest of the statement is therefore hardly worth reading. So what if AND later makes nice sounding statements about abortion and religious freedom?  If the Democrats succeed in so rigging the system that pro-life and pro-freedom people can never gain power in Washington again and actually enact pro-life and pro-freedom policies, it will be open season on the unborn and on traditional Christians no matter how many nice statements AND makes.  Besides, what is the point of issuing such statements of moral posturing if one kisses constitutional democracy good-bye?

Or maybe that is the point.  It is putting a Christian veneer on backing the Democrat Party’s predations.

Again, I do not presume to know AND’s intentions.  But it is already clear that they are being used to make it more palatable for Christians to vote Democrat and further undermine our constitutional democracy.  That is their real purpose even if some of them are too idealistic and callow to know that.

Politicize All the Things!!

I do not know if I've noted it on this blog, but the Left has a tendency to try to politicize everything.  Some even demand everything be politicized.  This is part of their totalitarian streak.

Yes, yes, there are non-Leftist extremists that can be that way, too.  But it is much more frequent from the Left.

This morning, I see an example both annoying and amusing from an alumni group I am in.  One alum, who constantly makes political posts from the Left, replied to an admin’s very polite insistence that the alum group was not the place for political posts with the following:

With all due respect to you, there are no spaces that are inappropriate for politics. Doing politics is an ethical demand which must be carried to ALL spaces and the idea that there are or should be spaces in which politics are inappropriate is complicity with fascism.

It is precisely in spaces *like this* where doing politics is most important.

He followed it up with this:

Spaces where people feel uneasy about politics are the spaces in which doing politics is most important.

We dont have time to play around any more. The fascists are in power and the jet stream is collapsing. Theres no time for polite company. [Punctuation and logic his.]

Well there you go.  If you want a little space or time apart from politics, you are complicit with fascism.

But it seems to me that it is rather “fascist” and even totalitarian to insist all spaces be politicized.  But that’s just me.

And isn’t it funny that many of the same people, who insist you listen to them at all times and in all places, shout down and even assault those that dare disagree with them.

So I suspect I am right that Leftist attempts to politicize all the things come from a totalitarian streak.

Coup Update

Legal Insurrection has an excellent summary and update of the Democrat/Deep State Coup:

Using foreign-supplied fake intelligence, from a British spy who utilized Russian sources, to obtain surveillance of the Trump campaign and transition team didn’t work.

Intimidating Electoral College Electors to change their votes after the election didn’t work.

Having the Director of the FBI lie to, set up and try to entrap the president didn’t work.

Having that same FBI Director leak memos to the media to manufacture grounds for a Special Counsel didn’t work.

Trying to invoke the 25th Amendment to declare the president unable to perform the job didn’t work.

Two years of the Mueller Investigation didn’t work.

Three years of a permanent crisis news cycle meant to paralyze the administration didn’t work.

After all these failures to unwind the 2016 election, Democrats and the mainstream media are trying a new tactic: Create a Star Chamber “impeachment” process fueled by anonymous whistleblowers and selective leaks that is not so much designed to remove the president, though they would if they could, but to manipulate the 2020 election.

Yep. But there is more.  Do read the whole update.

I do want to note something else the article points out – that Democrats are less concerned about getting to the truth than they are about shutting out Republicans. That’s why the impeachment effort remains unofficial, and that’s why the latest accusers are working under the cloak of whistleblower rules.  House Republicans pretty much cannot cross-examine or do their own investigation.  It’s not fair play at all.

Ha! Fair play from Democrats and the Deep State.  Silly me.

Speaking of whistleblowers, last week I predicted more whistleblowers.  Right again.

Has the Deep State Coup Turned to “Whistleblowers”?

I posted yesterday about whistleblowing rules being changed to enable hearsay “whistleblowing.”  That story has now blown up as it should.  (Here is one good update.)  It is pretty much a smoking gun that the whistleblowing being used as a pretext to impeach Trump is manufactured by the Deep State.

Now that I’ve had time to digest this aspect of the ongoing and perpetual coup against Trump, something disturbing has occurred to me.  It is very possible that we will see more and more fake hearsay whistleblowers against Trump.  In fact, the Deep State is practically calling for that per former CIA director John Brennan’s tweet:

A reminder to federal officials: There is no limit on the number of individuals who can use the whistleblower statute. If you think you were involved in unlawful activity as a result of a directive from Mr. Trump or someone doing his bidding, now is the time to report it.

Thus the regs may have been changed to unleash not just one fake complaint but a wave of manufactured whistleblowing against Trump to create the illusion of massive wrongdoing.

If you think I am just being paranoid, I hope you are right. Trust me that I do.  If the ongoing coup is not abandoned but instead becomes more intense, I fear for this country.

The Big Picture

Hillary calling Trump’s election “illegitimate” and yesterday’s post about Deep State bureaucrats changing whistleblowing rules to enable hearsay whistleblowing against Trump prompt me to present the big picture of what is going on in American politics today.

That big picture was presented quite well by my alter ego and Daniel Greenfield in the first months of Trump’s presidency.  In short, the Left and the Democrat Party only accept election results when they win. You have to go back to 1988 to find a Republican presidential election victory that Democrats did not dispute.  And back then there were still some sane people in the Democrat Party or at least more than there are now.

And with the 2016 election of Trump, the first President since Reagan to actively oppose instead of enable Democrat designs on America, Democrats have doubled down on not accepting the result and, with the support of the Deep State, have been engaged in a continual coup against that election since before Trump’s inauguration.

If you want to get the really big picture, this is part of Leftist Democrats only accepting the Constitution and the Rule of Law when it serves their ends.

Obviously when a major political party does not accept elections, the Rule of Law, and the Constitution except when they serve the power of said party, you have a unhealthy situation.  After all, we have those institutions so we can peacefully rule ourselves.  We Americans prefer peacefully ruling ourselves to civil wars and dictatorships, thank you.

But instead of a political playing field we once all agreed on, we have the following choice thanks to today’s Democrat Party:

We can have a system of government based around the Constitution with democratically elected representatives. Or we can have one based on the ideological principles of the left in which all laws and processes, including elections and the Constitution, are fig leaves for enforcing social justice.

But we cannot have both.

Thus our country and our constitutional democracy itself are at stake.

I could say more, but that is the big picture.

Have a nice day.

Regs Changed to Enable Hearsay Whistleblowing … Right Before Hearsay Whistleblowing

Over the weekend Sean Davis of The Federalist revealed a bit of sneaky Deep State bureaucratic doings that merit more attention.  I will leave the details and documentation to Mr. Davis – for he does it very well.  But in short the rules for what sort of whistleblowing merits consideration were changed to no longer require that the whistleblower have direct knowledge.  So now hearsay whistleblowing, such as that now being perpetrated against Trump, is supposedly legit.

And when was this change secretly made?  Well that is a secret, however it apparently was done in May 2018 at the earliest.  And - now here’s where it really gets rich:

The internal properties of the newly revised “Disclosure of Urgent Concern” form, which the intelligence community inspector general (ICIG) requires to be submitted under the Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protection Act (ICWPA), show that the document was uploaded on September 24, 2019, at 4:25 p.m., just days before the anti-Trump complaint was declassified and released to the public. The markings on the document state that it was revised in August 2019, but no specific date of revision is disclosed.

August 2019.  Hmmm.  Well I’m sure that has nothing to do with…

The complaint alleges that President Donald Trump broke the law during a phone call with the Ukrainian president. In his complaint, which was dated August 12, 2019, the complainant acknowledged he was “not a direct witness” to the wrongdoing he claims Trump committed. [Emphasis mine.]

Just a coincidence I’m sure.

Actually I am with Ace on this.  What we have here is Deep State operatives changing the rules to broaden the weapons they can use in their continuing coup against Trump to include hearsay whistleblowing.  And, thanks to House Democrats and the Democrat “News” Media, the Deep State is getting some mileage out of that bureaucratic switch, are they not?

Yes, I am putting that nicely. 

An Odd Statement on Brexit from the C of E House of Bishops

First, I have to get credit where credit is due.  On its face, the statement on Brexit by the Church of England House of Bishops is commendable.  The result of the Brexit referendum should be respected.  And even Archbishop Welby of all people has called out the Remoaners for their “whingeing”.  And care should be taken in the language used in discussing Brexit.

But the statement has the air of a body that is above the fray when Church of England bishops have been anything but.  Church of England bishops are almost all Remainers, and quite a few merit being dubbed Remoaners.  Further, some of their language towards those who back Brexit has been *cough* uncharitable as the ashes of Cranmer notes.

You know if I were to give a sermon on the sin of unrighteous anger, I would feel like a pretentious hypocrite if I did not acknowledge during it that I struggle with anger.  So how can the House of Bishops give a statement like this without clearly acknowledging and, yes, apologizing for the very public Remoaning amongst them in the years since the referendum?

Nonetheless, the statement is a pleasant surprise.  Better late than never.

Your votes are respected only if you vote correctly. Just letting you know.

If you want a good summary of how democracy is disrespected by statists and globalists in the EU, the UK, and the US for that matter, this is a must read.

In short, your votes are respected only when you vote correctly. If you do something horrid like elect Donald Trump or vote for Brexit, then your vote must be nullified. And that is exactly what the establishment in the UK and the US has been trying to do for years.

And the Democrat, RINO, Remainer hacks claim to nullify your votes in the name of democracy, of course.

To understate the obvious, this is an unhealthy situation.  Americans and British are patient and tolerant peoples. But how long can and should we tolerate our votes being nullified by the establishment?

IMPORTANT NOTE: As I posted earlier this week, violence is not the answer even though the predations of Leftists and the establishment are certainly asking for it.

Leftists WANT Violence. Don’t Play Into Their Hands.

Two events prompt this post.  One is the report of a plot against Antifa and a major news organization and perhaps against a prominent Democrat politician as well.  The other is the Climate Strike people blocking traffic and creating gridlock in Washington D. C.

(By the way, Greg Gutfeld went yard on them yesterday at the opening of The Five.  And isn’t creating gridlock pollution an odd way of combating pollution?)

Yes, these two events seem very unrelated.  But what they have in common is the Hard Left’s desire for violence, namely a violent reaction to their provocations.  Provoking and/or making up violent reactions is one of the oldest Leftist tricks in the book. I saw it myself during my college days. We saw it in Charlottesville where Antifa perpetrated and provoked violence.  But, thanks to a compliant fake news media and the cowardly fool who drove his car into a crowd, all we hear about in hindsight is the violence from the right at Charlottesville.

Considering the provocations from the Left, I find it remarkable that there have been so fewinstances of violence from the Right.  The contrast with Antifa and Black Lives Matter is stark.  But when there is one, such as the apparent plot mentioned above, it plays into the Left’s narrative.  Such violence and attempts at violence are not only wrong; they are foolish.

Now I am not a pacifist.  There are times when violence in defense of oneself and one’s rights is justified.  See the American Revolution.  But now is not such a time. 

So what does blocking traffic have to do with this?  At first glance, about all blocking traffic accomplishes is getting attention.  But what awful attention!  My guess is that this is why Black Lives Matter stopped blocking traffic.  That tactic turned the majority of this country against them and strongly and rightly so.

But surely Leftists know how much traffic roadblocks antagonize people.  And that is intended. The hard Left hopes someone will have had enough and violently react with their pick-up, preferably with a Trump sticker.  The hard Left wants a violent reaction; they want to become “victims” for propaganda purposes.  Yes, most of those blocking traffic do not want to be run over.  Such are foolish fodder for the Left’s purposes.

Again, the Left wants violence and often tries to provoke a violent reaction to their outrages.  So again I strongly advise – do not play into their hands.  The Left and their predations must be opposed, but they must be opposed non-violently.  Otherwise, the Left wins.

Those right-of-center have a remarkable record of non-violence in the U. S.  But it is probably good for all of us to be reminded to stick to non-violent opposition.

Kavanaugh Accusations Say More About “News” Media & Democrats Than About Kavanaugh

I’ve discovered two handy rules for understanding current events:

1. If a “news” story smearing Trump or anyone supporting him or associated with him comes out, wait 36 hours before evaluating how true it is.

I’ve lost track of how many times such stories proved to be bunk.

2. Democrats lie.

Follow those two rules and you will be ahead of most people in understanding what’s going on.

Oh I should add one:

3. The “Mainstream” News Media lies.

Well . . . that is really a repeat of rule 2 actually.

Which brings me to the latest sordid accusations against Justice Brett Kavanaugh.  If you waited 36 hours after the story broke, you found out the supposed victim cannot recall the incident.  And you found out the source of the story, Max Stier, is a Clinton hack who was a lawyer for Bill.  These very pertinent facts were not mentioned in the original New York Times story.  Once again, the New York Times proves to be a Fake News smear sheet.

But that has not stopped Democrat candidates for President from calling for Kavanaugh’s impeachment.  These include: Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, Julian Castro, Pete Buttigieg, and of course, Beto.

Indict, convict, and sentence first and at once; evidence later.  It’s the totalitarian way.

Speaking of totalitarians, I’m old enough to remember Pravda, the state newspaper of the old Soviet Union.  They used to be a joke for being a slavish party mouthpiece.  But I am beginning to think Pravda was more professional than today’s New York Times and the rest of the Fake News media.

Yes, I am ranting a bit. These repeated smears against Kavanaugh and Clarence Thomas anger me.

By the way, if you want to follow a real journalist who debunks any number of Democrat lies, follow Molly Hemingway.  She has become a national treasure.  You may find two of her stories on this matter here and here.

But as I was saying, this episode demonstrates that Democrats and their “News” Media are not to be trusted, with the truth, with fair play or with just about anything…. 

Oh, well . . . you can trust them to lie.

San Francisco Declares the NRA a “Domestic Terrorist Organization” (And you may be next.)

Yes, it is easy to laugh it off as isolated Left Coast looniness. But I’m not laughing.  For San Francisco declaring the NRA to be a “domestic terrorist organization” should not be seen in isolation.  It confirms and demonstrates disturbing traits of the Left in the United States.

The resolution typifies the predatory hatred of the Left towards real Americans.  What is more American than a peaceful voluntary organization of millions of Americans dedicated to defending the 2^ndAmendment of the Constitution?  But San Francisco smears the NRA as domestic terrorists.  Meanwhile SF is a sanctuary city, not to law abiding citizens and Constitutional freedoms, but to illegals, including criminals such as the killer of Kate Steinle.

Oh, but they aren’t illegals; they are “undocumented immigrants.” And they aren’t criminals; they are “justice-involved persons” in San Francisco.  For the Left puts illegals and criminals above peaceful law-abiding American citizens.

And the Left has that totalitarian trait of abusing language to conceal and destroy.  Illegals and criminals are the natural allies of the Democrat Party and of the Left, so their evil is disguised, and they are protected clients.  On the other hand, real Americans who give a damn about the Constitution and its freedoms are the enemies of the Left. So just as Communist China smears Hong Kong demonstrators are terrorists, San Francisco smears the NRA as a “domestic terrorist organization.”

Again this is how totalitarians act.  It is not to be written off as irrelevant nuttiness. The Speaker of the House is a Congresswoman from San Francisco.  The Left demonstrates these traits wherever they are found in the United States.  And if we do not defeat the Left again and again, those of us who care about Constitutional freedoms will also be smeared, vilified, and targeted for banishment and worse.

To think this is just a San Francisco thing is to repeat the sadly mistaken false comfort many gave themselves before they were the victims of totalitarians in the 20^th Century – “It will never happen here.”

When “White Supremacy” Isn’t What You Think It Is II: Smearing Pro-Lifers

Earlier I noted that under Critical Race Theory and related Leftist ideologies, just about anything can make you a White Supremacist or in league with White Supremacy.  Heck, trying to stay out of politics puts you in the “Pyramid of White Supremacy”.  There’s no escape!

So it should not surprise – although it is profoundly illogical – that being pro-life makes you a target for those wishing to use “White Supremacy” to smear political opponents.  Yes, the Left is actually trying to link the pro-life movement with White Supremacy.  Never mind that real White Supremacists, such as Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger, want non-Whites to abort their children.

But pro-lifers instead defend children of all colors . . . which somehow gets twisted into “White Supremacy”, never mind the illogic.  A smear from Amanda Marcotte is especially blatant: “Not an exaggeration to say conservatives believe white women should be forced to breed in order to maintain white supremacy.”

So yes, trying to save children of all colors puts you in league with “White Supremacy”.  Just letting you know.

When “White Supremacy” Isn’t What You Think It Is

When most of us hear “White Supremacy,” we tend to think of the few Klansman and Neo-Nazis today, or the time of Jim Crow laws or of slavery in the past.  And we rightly oppose such.

The problem is when someone influenced by Critical Race Theory says “White Supremacy,” their definition is so broad as to encompass simply disagreeing with Leftists.  Further, opposing “White Supremacy” is actually used as a cover to promote and justify racism.

If you think I am being overwrought, examine this “Pyramid of White Supremacy” being used to teach “diversity”:

Let’s see.  If you oppose or claim reverse racism, you are about a third of the way to White Supremacist genocide.  Same for being color blind. So opposing racism is racism!

“Anti-Immigration Policies” – and we know that really means opposing illegal immigration and open borders – well that puts you two-thirds of the way to being guilty of genocide.  

Heck if you are just sick of all this racial division and politics and just want to be quiet and apolitical about it all, you too are part of the genocidal pyramid.

Oh, and a “Euro-Centric Curriculum” is about high way up the pyramid.  So if you educate about Western Civilization, that’s practically genocidal! (Have I mentioned totalitarians don't like history?)

I could go on but you get the picture: if you oppose a Leftist Critical Race Theory view of the world, you are probably a “White Supremacist”.

Now if you are thinking, “So what? It’s only loons who buy that silly pyramid,” then think again.  This ideology is being taught in schools and churches, including in the Southern Baptist Convention, which has now officially endorsed Critical Race Theory as an “analytical tool.”

I will leave aside for now the question of what should be done about this.  But at least be aware that those who talk and talk about “racism” and “White Supremacy” are probably using different definitions than you and other rational people.  Beware of the racialist division they are pushing.  And, yes, have the courage to oppose it.  It will take courage.

Democrats Go Deeper into Anti-Semitism

One would think it would be a no-brainer that a country has the right to bar from entry those who are publicly bigoted against its people and who are allied with those who oppose its very existence.  But if one’s brain is infected by anti-semitism, then apparently Israel has no right to bar from entry virulent anti-semites Ilhan Omar and Rachida Tlaib. (Israel did actually allow Tlaib entry to visit her grandmother, but she then refused the offer in what appears to be a set up designed to make Israel look bad.)

But for the rational, it is indeed a no-brainer that Israel is well within its rights to bar and defend itself from anti-semites like Omar and Tlaib. 

Now, of course, Omar and Tlaib are playing the victim – and lying to do so.  What astounds is that House Democrat leaders are backing them up and attacking Israel over this. Even relatively moderate Steny Hoyer has said Israel’s decision is “deeply disappointing,” “disrespectful,” and “unacceptable.”  And key House committee leaders are aiming to make life difficult for U. S. Ambassador to Israel and for Israel’s Ambassador to the U. S.

This anti-semitic double standard from Democrats is appalling. Heck, the U. K. has barred entry to people with less grounds.  Does only Israel not have the right to bar those hostile to its people, values, and even existence?

Early this year, I warned against the rise of anti-semitism in the West, here and while leading worship at my church.  That I was right to do so is sadly becoming more and more evident.

Child Trafficking Used by Criminals to Enter U. S.

Earlier this week in discussing the rampant child trafficking at the border, child smuggling used to game entry, I noted that rather suddenly men trying to enter are showing up with children.  I was skeptical about the motives, and I was right, of course: 

The Department of Homeland Security treats the expanded “Flores” decree like God’s word, releasing any illegal alien who crosses the border with a child, even if border personnel can’t confirm identities, criminal records, or whether they are threats to Americans or to the children they’re using as golden tickets.

Senator James Lankford, R-Okla., announced at yesterday’s Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing that border agents told him, on his recent trip to the border, that they found in two separate incidents that an alleged murderer and a convicted pedophile had each been released with a kid as part of the expanded Flores catch-and-release deadline of 20 days.

In one case, “they released an adult with a child and then found out two weeks later that that adult had a murder warrant in their home country, and they just released him into the country, and they could do nothing about it.” In another case, “they had released an adult traveling with a child and then found out after they were released when they got their criminal records in from home country that, that was a convicted pedophile from that country now traveling with a child somewhere in our country, and because we couldn’t detain them for longer than 20 days and we couldn’t get those criminal records, they’re released in the country, and they’re traveling with a child.”

When Lankford asked acting Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Mark Morgan whether border personnel were able to verify criminal status within the arbitrary 20-day deadline by the courts, he answered, “Not efficiently.”

So criminals are using child smuggling, combined with the 20 day deadline mandated by a California judge in the Flores decision, to be released into our country to prey on the rest of us.  And in case one thinks I am being alarmist about exceptional situations…

“In every single group, almost without fail, there is someone with a criminal record, typically males with single kids,” [an anonymous] agent said. “There is a wide misconception about the majority of these people being females. They are overwhelmingly male. While we try to prioritize referrals for prosecution based on criminal history, we only have so many computers we can utilize and so many staff members.”

When I asked him if that means there are those with confirmed criminal records, even with convictions in the U.S., who have been released, he said, “Absolutely. … They are given a notice to appear in court like anyone else.”

And we know that most do not show up for their court hearings.

Again, sentimental thinking about children and families at the border is enabling child trafficking and other criminality.  Yes, families (not the fake ones) showing up at the border should be kept together . . . by sending them back across the border immediately if they don’t have proper documentation.  If they want and merit a hearing, they can wait for it across the border.  We must stop policies which make children a golden ticket to get in and thereby make them targets of child trafficking.

Rampant Child Trafficking: Children Used to Game Border Entry

As is hard to miss, there is a lot of sentimental talk about keeping families at the border together.  (Strange that deporting them together is rarely suggested as a solution.)  This and other weaponized compassion about “refugees” and “immigrants” is enabling rampant child trafficking.  A lot of those families are fake: 

Homeland Security Investigations, a division of ICE, sent 400 agents to El Paso and Rio Grande Valley, Texas, in mid-April to interview families that Border Patrol suspected were fake. In the last eight weeks, HSI special agents have identified 5,500 fraudulent families—about 15 percent of all cases referred.

McAleenan said agents have uncovered 921 fake documents and 615 individuals have been prosecuted for trafficking or smuggling a child.

“That tells me that we might be scratching the surface of this problem and the number of children being put at risk might be even higher,” he said.

“Everybody knows that if they bring a child, they’ll be allowed to stay in the United States—they call it a ‘passport for migration.’ I heard that directly from a gentleman from Huehuetenango, the western-most province of Guatemala.”

Yes.  Smuggling children in order to gain entry into the U. S.

Do we want people who would do this in our country at all?

But you get more of what you reward.  And we are rewarding child trafficking at the border. If you have a child with you and get across the border, you are probably in.  For that we can thank . . .

The legal loophole that is fueling the sharp increase in family units was opened in 2015 by a California judge, [of course]who amended the Flores Settlement Agreement to prohibit the detention of families for more than 20 days. Previously, the 20-day rule was applied to unaccompanied minors only.

An immigration case cannot be adjudicated within 20 days, so families who cross the border illegally are now released by Border Patrol within days, with a future court date that most fail to honor.  [87% failed to show up by one study. – ed.]

One of the most telling statistics is that of men crossing the border with a child. In 2014, fewer than 1 percent of all men apprehended by Border Patrol in the Rio Grande Valley Sector had a child with them. That number now sits at 50 percent, according to Rodolfo Karisch, chief Border Patrol agent for that sector.

Wow! It’s so nice to see male illegals suddenly become so family-oriented!

Now at least some of those men are smuggling their own children, taking them through a dangerous journey, which is bad enough. Who knows how many of those men are smuggling other people’s children.

As for unaccompanied minors, most of them are smuggled as well in part to, yes, game the system.

McAleenan said it’s often a parent, who is already in the United States illegally, who pays a smuggler to deliver their child up to the border.

“I don’t think most people realize that most of these unaccompanied children are being released to parents or relatives in the United States who are also here unlawfully, who may not have permission to work in the United States,” McAleenan said.

New restrictions, placed by Congress in the latest round of appropriations, include a provision that illegal aliens in a household with an unaccompanied minor are now exempt from deportation.

Again, rewarding child trafficking and the violation of our borders.

I do not pretend to know the balance between compassion on the one hand and self-defense and not enabling criminal behavior on the other.  But we as a nation need to be realistic about who is entering the U. S. and how they are gaining entry, even if being realistic is smeared as racist or whatever.

And, for the sake of children and the God who loves them, we must stop enabling and rewarding child trafficking.

A Balance of the Tractarians – Learned Yet Not Over-trusting Learning

I’ve recently discovered a jewel of a book in my personal library – The Vision Glorious by the late, great Geoffrey Rowell.

Oh I have been aware of that prominent book on the Oxford Movement.  But I was unaware I already possessed a copy.  You see, about a third to half of my library was purchased from an Anglican priest a few years ago who was moving to England and realized moving his library was not practical.  And now and then, I discover things both new and old.

Anyway, I am reading The Vision Glorious now and have noticed an interesting paradox of the Tractarian leaders, particularly Pusey and Keble.   They were profoundly learned and had prestigious positions at Oxford that acknowledged and reflected that.  And, of course, their voluminous writings and lectures very well reflect that.  Yet at the same time they profoundly distrusted modes of thinking that placed too much trust in human reason, logic, and even learning itself as ways to comprehend the things of God.

Not that they did not value learning. Their production, including The Library of the Fathers and much more, showed they did greatly.  But they had the humility to realize learning and the human intellect had its limits.  And they were not shy in pointing out the errors that come from trying to dissect and explain the mysteries of God too much.

Keble felt that both prominent errant views of the Eucharist, transubstantiation and denial of the Real Presence, came from such over-trust in human reason and logic:

Transubstantiation on the one hand . . . the denial of Christ’s real presence on the other. . . .  The two errors in the original are perhaps but rationalism in two different forms: endeavors to explain away, and bring nearer to the human intellect, that which had been left thoroughly mysterious both by Scripture and tradition.

And he urged to avoid “slighting divine mysteries because we cannot comprehend and explain them.”

As for Pusey, Rowell finds he also admonishes, particularly in the unpublished Lectures on Types and Prophecies, that overreliance on human comprehension and reason impoverishes faith.  Pusey:

By striving over-much at clearness, and practically admitting only what they could make, as they thought, intelligible to themselves, men have narrowed [the Creed]far below that of the ancient Church, or of our own in former days.

For it is “not the things which we know clearly, but the things which we know unclearly [which] are our highest birth-right.”

Many of us from different churchmanships would do well to take these admonitions to heart.  I’ve seen a kind of very Reformed Bible Church mindset which rightly exalts study of scripture, but then falls into a pitfall of an inflated sense of one’s knowledge and a weakened respect of mystery. Thereby conceit oft gets inflated and faith constricted.  And, of course, those from liberal theological backgrounds tend to put human intellect as a judge over the things of God.  Such pretentious presumption becomes putrid.

Better is the approach of Pusey and Keble, to strive for the learning God allows to us while having respect and awe for the mysteries He has revealed yet veiled. 

In Praise of Molly at Oxford

With Molly Gibson-Mee having recently gotten excellent examination grades in Classics at Oxford – and Classics there is notoriously demanding – I think this a good time to congratulate her and to recommend her videos to anyone interested in Oxford.

Emeritus Pusey House Fellow Barry Orford once humorously complained in my hearing about Oxford, “They don’t tell you anything that’s going on around here!” And I have noticed it is sometimes difficult to tell what’s what at that university.  Molly has done yeoman work in unveiling Oxford mysteries, particularly for prospective students.

Personally, my favorite part of her YouTube channel is her college tours.  Although aimed mainly at potential students, I enjoy seeing things mere visitors like myself usually do not get to see.

So if you are the least bit interested in Oxford, I commend her channel to you.  And, since she intends to continue as a Masters student at Oxford, we can look forward to future contributions. 

Boris Johnson Off to a Roaring Start

Contra his many detractors, some of whom I greatly respect, I think Boris Johnson will prove to be a great Prime Minister. Both on politics and policy, he is brilliant. And I am pleased beyond even my expectations with his start. 

He has cleaned out most of the Wet/Damp/Remainer Tories from his cabinet and significantly upgraded.  Don’t take my word for it.  Scottish MP Pete Wishart has given a glowing endorsement:

Boris Johnson’s nightmare Tory government is shaping up to be the worst since Thatcher – packed full of extreme Brexiteers and rabid rightwingers who want to drag us back to a bygone era….

This is a Tory cabinet from hell, which Donald Trump or Nigel Farage would be proud of…

Sounds good to me! Labour Lefty John McDonnell also gives it a heartfelt endorsement, calling it “the most right-wing cabinet in my lifetime.” I am particularly pleased that Jacob Rees-Mogg is now on the front bench.  Watching him is already proving to be as fun as watching Boris.  If he is “Victorian values,” then we are amused!

Teresa May and her failure theatre has been a drag on the UK and has come precariously close to giving the world Prime Minister Jeremy Corbyn.  Boris Johnson is the remedy to pull the UK and the Tories out of the May morass. Granted, his margin in Parliament is so narrow thanks to May and treacherous Remoaner Tories, he may have to call an election.  But if he can’t pull off Brexit and a UK revival, I don’t know who can.

And, as a bonus, it will be great fun to watch.

Trump is Right – The Squad and Their Ilk Should Go

Although President Trump’s tweets are not all wisely worded (And maybe this post isn’t either, but I’ve had enough.), he is right to say that those who hate America and push Anti-American values have no place in Congress and would do well to consider getting out of the country. “America – love it or leave it” is not racist but is instead anger at those who take advantage of our freedoms to attack our freedoms.  This is anger I share regardless of the skin color of those who so attack us and our freedoms.

The Gang of Four, recently dubbed “The Squad,” are among these.  Take Rep. Ayanna Pressley . . . please.  She is the racist, having recently said in a prominent speech at Netroots Nation:

Because if you're going to come to this table, all of you who have aspirations of running for office. If you’re not prepared to come to that table and represent that voice, don’t come, because we don't need any more brown faces that don't want to be a brown voice. We don’t need black faces that don't want to be a black voice. We don't need Muslims that don’t want to be a Muslim voice. We don’t need queers that don't want to be a queer voice. 

So if you are in these demographics you must toe the Leftist line, or you’re not a good Black, or a good Hispanic, etc. THAT is racism and bigotry.

And then yesterday she pointedly refused to call Trump the President, instead calling him “the occupant of the White House.”  She thereby disrespects our elections and the Americans who elected Trump.  THAT is not just un-American, but anti-American.

(Have I mentioned Leftists only respect elections they win? Yes I have.)

Or take Rep. Ilhan Omar – heck, deport her as there is good reason to suspect she became became a citizen via a fake marriage, but anyway….  Yesterday, she not only repeated the lie that illegals under detention drink out of toilets, she not only repeated the lie that Trump colluded with foreign governments to rig the election among other lies, she refused to denounce Al-Qaeda.  That after earlier refusing to decry the terrorist Antifa attack on an ICE facility. Crap, that anti-semite refuses even to denounce murderous terrorism, and she and her backers bitch about Trump’s tweets??

If you give such noxious views and statements a pass because you agree with them, feel free to give that a good rethink or to get the heck of America.  You ARE un-American.  And there is a lot of the rest of the world to choose from.  If you give such noxious views and statements a pass because they come from “women of color,” YOU are racist, period.

Trump is right.  Those who hold the views of The Democrat Squad should consider improving America . . . by getting out.

Yes.  I said it.