The death of the Republican Party

Republicans have stopped Trump. Only they had the power. Democrats are toothless, starving kittens looking for a meal of racism and Russian hackers to chase.

BRENT BOZELL: "In January of this year, they formally controlled both houses of Congress and the executive branch. Every single thing they’d ever promised was now possible. They now had the power to enact every single spending cut they’d ever solemnly pledged. All those wasteful programs designed to fill the liberal sandbox — PBS, NPR, Planned Parenthood, NEH and the rest of the alphabet soup; all the hundreds of billions of dollars in corporate welfare to multi-billion-dollar corporations; all of the hundreds of billions of dollars directed toward leftist social engineering — poof! All of it could come to an end with a stroke of a pen. They now had the power to restore fiscal tax sanity too. Remember the flat tax? The fair tax? Slashing the highest corporate taxes in the world? Giving you a tax break? All of it could be done with a snap of the fingers.

Repeal Obamacare? Check. End illegal immigration? Check. Build the wall? Check. Crush the Deep State? Done, by God, done! There was not a damn thing the Democrats could do to stop them from draining the swamp. Except the Republican leadership didn’t mean it. With the exception of the Freedom Caucus in the House, and literally a handful in the Senate, the rank-and-file didn’t either. Not one word of it."

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/08/27/exclusive-brent-bozell-the-slow-death-of-the-republican-party/

It's not what you think

Jobs? Border Security? North Korea? Graduation rates? Student loan debt? Zilch. Nada. Just monuments and flags, and next it will be WWII monuments and the U.S. stars and stripes. If you thought this was about slavery or the Confederacy, wake up.

Yet so many are naïve.  How many people were subjected to vague references to bigotry or "the last 7 months" with a big sigh in today's Sunday services? The Democrats are leaderless and Republicans spineless.

“I want to talk to you about the manufactured moral crisis in this country right now, because that’s truly what’s going on,” said Buck. “We’re in the midst of a moral panic. A manufactured moral crisis and while a lot of us could just ignore it, it will have ramifications. It should be met on the battlefield of ideas and blown to smithereens.”

“This is very dangerous stuff, he added. “This notion that we have to go back and erase, eliminate, re-write, pave-over, whatever it may be, different parts of history has got to stop. It feels incredibly soviet –because the soviets did exactly this kind of thing. It feels very totalitarian –because totalitarian regimes are quite concerned with the past as a means of controlling the future.”

http://bucksexton.com/buck-liberals-creating-manufactured-moral-crisis-in-america/

President Trump condemns bigotry

Why is the left so unhappy with Trump's public denounciation of the activists in Charlottesville? I've highlighted (in caps) the problem. He blamed them all.

"I just met with FBI Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The Department of Justice has opened a civil rights investigation into the deadly car attack that killed one innocent American and wounded 20 others. To anyone who acted criminally in this weekend’s racist violence, you will be held fully accountable. Justice will be delivered.

As I said on Saturday, we condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry, and violence. It has no place in America.

And as I have said many times before: No matter the color of our skin, we all live under the same laws, we all salute the same great flag, and we are all made by the same almighty God. We must love each other, show affection for each other, and unite together in condemnation of hatred, bigotry, and violence. We must rediscover the bonds of love and loyalty that bring us together as Americans.
Racism is evil. And those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, AND OTHER HATE GROUPS THAT ARE REPUGNANT to everything we hold dear as Americans.
 
We are a nation founded on the truth that all of us are created equal. We are equal in the eyes of our Creator. We are equal under the law. And we are equal under our Constitution. Those who spread violence in the name of bigotry strike at the very core of America. . . ." August 14, 2017, President Donald Trump

Trump pardons Sheriff Joe

Trump's enemies go crazy. (What's new?) Then look at Obama's pardons. . . crack dealers, money launderers, bank defrauders, wire fraud, mail fraud, tax fraud, transporting stolen goods. Trump pardons a man doing his job victim of the government's witch hunt. https://www.justice.gov/pardon/obama-pardons

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/348061-trump-pardons-arpaio

What are the specific charges?

Just like the Russian hacking charges or stealing the election, so we hear the references to Trump being a racist, but nothing specific. Once the DNC and DWS became serious suspects, the whole Russia story faded and the whole statue and flag conspiracy blossomed.  Oh, they didn't like the speed at which he condemned neo-nazis in Charlottesville.  But Obama waited 6 years to condemn terrorism by an Islamist at Ft. Hood.  Why the emphasis on speed--especially since the cell phone videos circulating now show how much of the violence was perpetrated by the alt-Left.

I see the charges and claims on social media and in the Bezo-WaPo/NYT/cable news cabal that Trump is a racist. I haven't seen or heard actual racism or specifics, just the charges.

•  Is it his slogan, "Make America great again," and you don't know any great black people or communities or leaders so you think he's leaving out people of color?
• Are you afraid that black citizens will take your job, so you want to frighten them?
•  Is it the Islamist terrorism warnings, the incidents Obama ignored and called work place violence?
• How many drone killings without trial has Trump ordered? Obama did that for some Islamists who were American citizens and they were quite frequent in Yemen according to the Guardian before Trump was elected.
•  Are Mexican gangs afraid they won't get sanctuary in Democrat run cities so they can kill more Mexican immigrants? 

 And besides, exactly what race are Mexicans and Muslims? Mexico is a very wealthy, multicultural country with citizens of many ethnicities who speak a European language, Spanish. In fact, if you turn on Telemundo or Univision, they are much whiter than U.S. cable.  Islam is a religion with several divisions, but it's not a race.

Mona Lisa smiles

Earlier this year our daughter gave us Roku, a device that allows streaming if you have an internet connection.  I selected quite a few movie channels, but most were just awful.  In fact, I didn't know there were so many terrible movies until I started browsing my Roku possibilities. Finally, I found a channel with Roku with some good movies (free), FXM. We watched Mona Lisa Smile with Julia Roberts (2003) last night because I didn't care much for the program at Hoover in Lakeside. We'd seen it when it was fresh, but since it is a period piece (1954) it doesn't age, even if its view of the early 50s is a bit prejudiced (said to be based on H. Clinton's recall). True, college women thought a lot about marriage in those years (at least I did in the late 50s), and we'd joke about the PHT degree, putting hubby through, but when I see the serial relationships and rape charges today, or educated women starting families at 40, are college students so much better off or prepared for life's challenges in 2017?

http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/mona-lisa-smile-2003

Ebert opines: "Julia Roberts is above all an actress with a winning way; we like her, feel protective toward her, want her to prevail. In "Mona Lisa Smile," she is the conduit for the plot, which flows through her character. The major supporting roles are played by luminaries of the first post-Julia generation, including not only Dunst, but Julia Stiles as Joan Brandwyn, a girl smart enough to be accepted by Yale Law but perhaps not smart enough to choose it over marriage; Maggie Gyllenhaal as Giselle Levy, who is sexually advanced and has even, it is said, slept with the studly young Italian professor, and Ginnifer Goodwin as Constance Baker, who is too concerned about her looks."

It was certainly better than this Rolling Stone review:  "The girls are played by a who's who of young Hollywood womanhood — Kirsten Dunst, Julia Stiles, Maggie Gyllenhaal — each given one emotion to play and each forced to stare at Roberts in awe for showing them the way. That Mike Newell (Donnie Brasco, Four Weddings and a Funeral) directed this insulting swill is beyond depressing. Women of the Fifties, rise up in protest."

https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/history-versus-her-story/Content?oid=914311

http://www.threemoviebuffs.com/review/mona-lisa-smile.html

D'Souza knows racism

According to immigrant Dinesh D'Souza (who is classed as White in the U.S. Census as is Bobby Jindal) there's no evidence that Republicans ever owned a slave (whereas free blacks did), so maybe when all the statues are destroyed, the Democrats can claim there was no slavery?

"Part of the Democrats’ big lie is to shift the blame for slavery from themselves to the South. This licenses leftist intimidation, vandalism and even violence in the name of fighting Southern bigotry. But let’s remember that most Southerners did not own slaves. Most Confederate soldiers did not own slaves. Let’s also recall that the Northern Democrats led by Stephen Douglas supported slavery with the same resourcefulness and determination as the Southern Democrats."

Christians and social media

Today I read a really convicting article on line about social media and why it is so bad for Christians. Of course, she had a blog, wrote for on-line publication, uses FB and e-mail and twitter, but still made good points. I am guilty as charged. So now I'm dropping a quarter into a cup on my desk each time I turn on my computer. I'll find a good cause. So far, it's $1.25 today.

Things I know about President Trump. He's not a racist.

• I know hip hop performers and black comedians regularly use the N-word, but I’ve never heard the President use it.
• I know white liberals whose only black friends are their janitor, door man or the med tech in their doctor's office, but President Trump has decades of real friendships and working relationships with the black movers and shakers.
• I know of some neighborhoods where liberals use “green” regulations to raise costs to keep out minorities, but I’ve never heard that a Trump development did that.
• I know that many government regulations work together, whether by design or accident, to keep minorities poor by destroying families, but President Trump wants wealth for everyone.
• I know that Planned Parenthood targets black communities with their abortion services, but I’ve never heard of President Trump favoring abortion to reduce the black population.
• I know that our public school system works against poor minority students, but President Trump wants all children to succeed and have choices like charter schools that the children of rich Congress members and President Obama have.
• I know that tougher crime laws have reduced violent crime by about 70% since 1993, mostly to the benefit of black citizens, but I’ve never heard President Trump sound like Mayor DiBlasio who seems to be working to undo 2 decades of improved law enforcement in NYC.
• I know bullying when I see and hear it. The advice is usually one of two methods to counteract it: push back or walk away.  Do you really believe he will walk away from this bullying from the Left?

So why when the President points out that two fringe movements (with the same basic philosophy of hate and anarchy) are a problem in Charlottesville and in the culture, do the media and Democrats rend their clothing and scream racism? Everyone now calling out bigotry and hatred are using them as code words for racism, unless it is from Communist inspired Antifa and BLM.  But Democrats are Johnnie one Note and have no other song.

Diversity

Daniel Henninger of Wall St. Journal:

  "The Google firing of James Damore was one of these big events. Its meaning was that the goal of diversity, whatever its original intent, has become mostly a totem. Mr. Damore was the little boy in the folk tale “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” who shouts, “But he doesn’t have anything on!” Google’s emperors banished James Damore for unmasking their diversity conceit."

http://www.businessinsider.com/harmeet-dhillon-james-damore-2017-8

https://www.usnews.com/opinion/op-ed/articles/2017-08-22/why-fired-engineer-james-damore-may-have-a-federal-case-against-google

If you defend yourself, the leftists will call you a mascot of the Alt-Right. https://qz.com/1055466/the-alt-right-has-an-all-new-formula-for-undermining-silicon-valley/

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/14/fired-google-engineer-james-damore-says-this-.html

A plea to Democrats from Alan Dershowitz

Alan Dershowitz implores his fellow Democrats: "Do not glorify the violent people who are now tearing down the statues. Many of these people, not all of them, many of these people are trying to tear down America. Antifa is a radical, anti-America, anti-free market, communist, socialist, hard-left sensorial organization... They use violence. Just because they are opposed to fascism and to some of these monuments, should not make them heroes of the liberals. ... Doing what Stalin did, just erasing history and rewriting it to serve current purposes does pose a danger. And it poses a danger of education malpractice. I'm a liberal, and I think it’s the obligation of liberals to speak out against the hard-left radicals, just like it’s the obligation of conservatives to speak out against the extremism of the hard right.'' (via Patriot Post) I'm afraid if Dershowitz doesn't stop making so much sense, he'll lose all cachet with the liberals.

From liberal rag to fish wrapper

Since Amazon's Bezo bought Washington Post almost 4 years ago, it's been a less than worthless fish wrapper. Anti-Christian, anti-U.S., anti-Trump. Someone please buy it and "make the Post great again." Is it worth giving up on Amazon to protest? http://www.dailywire.com/news/20102/wapo-editorial-satan-good-christians-are-john-nolte

Antifa and BLM

"When Minnesota Black Lives Matter marchers chanted of police, “Pigs in a blanket, fry ’em like bacon,” was that a call for violence that was not long after realized by a spate of racist murders of policemen in Dallas? Are such advocates of torching police officers morally equipped to adjudicate which Confederate statue must come down?" Victor Davis Hanson

"Two parties, two culpabilities; but except for the initial statement of President Donald Trump, condemning both sides, only one party has been held accountable, and that happens to be the one that was in the park legally.

What is taking place in the media accounts and political commentaries on this event is an effort by the left to turn the mayhem in Charlottesville into a template for their war against a mythical enemy — "white supremacy" — which is really a war on white people generally." David Horowitz, Aug. 21

The Boston rally in a nutshell: “Excuse me,” one man innocently asked a Globe reporter, “where are the white supremacists?” (Jeff Jacoby tweet)

When a peaceful group called for prayer, it was called “White Supremacist. Nancy Pelosi has called Joey Gibson's group white supremacist): “I’m not white. We have about eight speakers and only one speaker is white. You know, we have a couple of black speakers, a Hispanic, we have a transsexual speaker; we have a woman speaker. It’s very diverse. It’s really just about what’s on the inside – what you believe, what’s in your heart, your soul – it has nothing to do with skin color.”

In Charlottesville, one side wore white hoods the other black hoodies.  Both violent, both racist, but only one side is part of a global movement with financial support from George Soros.

The refugee crisis in South Sudan

You haven't heard about it?  Not surprised. This summer at Lakeside we had a speaker from South Sudan who now lives in Columbus, Bol Aweng  one of the "Lost boys of Sudan" who were in the news some years ago. He has a non-profit and is also a very talented artist.  I subscribe to a Catholic news service which is covering the tragedy in South Sudan and noticed its story.  So I Googled it. "South Sudan refugee crisis." The top seven entries (mostly paid ads) were all charities, Save the Children, Doctors without Borders, CARE USA, Rescue. org, Mercy Corps, UNHCR, and Oxfam. No news from the major MSM in the U.S., but some from BBC and Aljazeera.  Contrast that story which involves millions of people and ethnic (black on black tribal and political violence) conflicts with the Google search "Trump Charlottesville" and you'll find the top entries CNN, NYT, WAPO, Politico, Fox News, NY Post, Fast Company and NPR.  And they all focus on the same story--Trump condemned violence on both sides in Charlottesville, one group had a permit to demonstrate, and the other didn't.  It's too bad those news outlets have no one in Africa. With whom would they side?

https://www.crs.org/media-center/news-release/uganda-now-hosts-more-1-million-south-sudanese-refugees-hunger-crisis

http://www.unhcr.org/en-us/news/stories/2017/8/59944a0b4/khaled-hosseini-marks-millionth-south-sudanese-refugee-uganda.html

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2017/06/uganda-south-sudanese-refugees-crisis-170621092317423.html

Trump and the Republicans

"Something has gone very wrong since Trump ascended. And it’s not him. He’s virtually the only one trying to do the right things. At this point, it’s clear we have a combination of sick factions in the GOP, and none of them give a damn about the party’s voters, none of them give a damn about the principles they claim to have stood for in the past years, and none of them have a clue about what they are doing.

What has this party done since Trump saved their bacon, keeping them in the majority, saving them from becoming a worthless second fiddle to a corrupt Hillary? Nothing. Just nothing. And now worse than nothing. I am not the first to say this, but let’s be clear, the GOP has become a party of spineless wimps and frauds. They have betrayed half of America, betrayed the base that once supported them so well, and also betrayed their country."

American Spectator, Aug. 21, 2017

The Resistance--now it's statues, tomorrow maybe you

The Durham, NC statue "was pulled down and then stomped on by a crew of radical leftists, identified by the local paper as members of the Workers World Party, Industrial Workers of the World, Democratic Socialists of America, and the ubiquitous antifa gang. In other words, these people are about as far left as you can go without falling off the edge of the earth." https://www.billoreilly.com/b/First-They-Came-For-the-Statues/425206911343892859.html

I wonder where the Democrat Congressional leaders, media poo-bahs, librarians, teachers and electricians are who will condemn American Communism by name and rank? And it must be names--can't just condemn bigotry and hate, as we have learned this week. Communism or some form of it killed about 100 million of its own citizens in the 20th century.

 When, like the Taliban destroying ancient Buddhist temples in 2001 in the name of Allah and Islamic political correctness, any founder who owned slaves will need to have his/her reputation destroyed; but it never ends, because self-righteous, virtue signaling feels so good to people who don't know history or who abort black babies in the name of "health care for women." It's critical to destroy history, as communists well know.

 Eventually, when demonizing white microaggression and bullying the millions whose ancestors came well after 1865 from hundreds of countries, including Africa, have run their course, the Leftists will need to take out those blacks with European ancestry. No one will be safe. Remember when Joe Biden called Obama the storybook candidate because he was a clean, light skinned African American?

The Soviet show trials, or purge, would be a good place to start for those in the vanguard of the resistance. For old timey liberals, and newby socialists, and 40-something followers. "The NKVD was handed a list of those who were now labelled ‘enemies of the state’ – effectively the Bolshevik Party’s Old Guard – for example, Kamenev, Zinoviev and Bukharin. Anyone associated with these men was also under suspicion. They were put on trial at heavily manipulated show trials where the verdict was never in doubt. The show trials had to prove their guilt preferably with a very public admission of betraying the revolution and therefore the people." http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/modern-world-history-1918-to-1980/russia-1900-to-1939/the-show-trials-in-the-ussr/

Friday Family Photo Lakeside 2017

Bob and his sister Deb heading to Hoover for an evening of music.

 

 

Checking out the new pool and wellness center at Lakeside. Deb and Sue went to water aerobics.

Whataboutism

Robert C. Byrd waited years to say that his KKK membership was a mistake. Democrats loved him; named highways, mountains and parks after him. (Where are the demands to take his name down?) He was a good friend of the Clintons.  President Obama waited six years to even hint that the Ft. Hood massacre was terrorism, and even then he never clearly stated it. Loretta Lynch has never fessed up to the tarmac tango with Bill--we're still waiting. Donald Trump waits 24 hours to name KKK after his original condemnation as just one of the hate groups (Antifa was there too but they are ignored by media), and Democrats, media and never Trumpers go berserk

http://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/2017/08/09/new-york-times-emailed-obama-white-house-about-lynch-clinton-tarmac-meeting-jordan-sekulow.html

http://thefederalist.com/2017/08/09/yes-media-covered-lynch-clinton-tarmac-meeting-pillow/

https://spectator.org/hypocrisy-at-charlottesville/

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/aug/14/eric-holder-hit-with-fort-hood-workplace-violence-/

Trash talking in Lakeside

A strike for equality. Bob watched the "sanitation engineers" in the giant blue garbage truck doing the north south route deftly tossing sacks and cans Tuesday. "Hey," he said, "There's a woman on that truck, and she's really good--moving fast." Knowing that she was probably earning a higher hourly wage than a librarian or an RN, I thought, "YES! You go girl." Then later when I was walking to the Farmer's Market, I saw the truck doing the east west streets, and the same worker jumped down to grab the garbage. It was just a guy with a "man bun" and a slender build. So disappointed.

Our great grandnieces

Twin grand daughters of our niece, holding hands as they go to class. I think this is pre-school in the private school where their grandma teaches.