[Townhall] If you're surprised by this, you haven't been paying attention to our politics for the last few years. Intense agitation from one side of the ideological aisle begets a backlash from the other -- with Americans throwing money at dueling causes, out of both fear and pure spite. With anti-NRA demagoguery dialed up to eleven after the Parkland shooting, anti-gun activists have succeeded in eroding the public's views of the organization. But they've also helped recruit legions of new NRA members and donors. Some of these new supporters have signed up out of Second Amendment solidarity, while others have likely found the group's 'culture war' messaging alluring (I personally find it needlessly partisan and borderline-apocalyptic). So even if the National Rifle Association currently finds itself in a position of diminished overall popularity, and as more of a touchstone for hyper-partisanship than ever before, scores of ordinary Americans are voting with their pocketbooks to send financial reinforcements to the embattled guns rights group:
h/t Instapundit
You might remember Vladimir Putin's speech last month, in which he revealed five "new" nuclear weapons systems. They weren't really new, because as Norman Friedman notes in a new article, "the Sarmat ballistic missile, the Avangard hypersonic maneuvering reentry vehicle, the Kinzhal air-launched hypersonic cruise missile, the Status-6 nuclear-powered autonomous underwater vehicle, and a nuclear-powered cruise missile," are all derived from previous Cold War-era systems. But it was a helluva speech, filled with sound and fury... but aimed at whom, exactly?
That's where Friedman's new piece for the U.S. Naval Institute gets really interesting, because he posits that Putin's bluster was not, despite all appearances, aimed at the West. Friedman believes that Putin's real audience sits at the headquarters of the Communist Party of China in Beijing. Friedman reminds us that "Chinese maps still show one of the results of the 'unequal treaties' between the Qing Dynasty and foreign powers ‐ Russia’s possession of large swaths of Chinese Siberia, where many ethnic Chinese live today." And then there's the "intense nationalism" which the CPC has nurtured, especially in the last two decades as the country has grown rich.
The view from the Kremlin not only includes Chinese revanchism, but also that "the Russian Army is thinly manned while the Chinese have a seemingly bottomless pool of manpower coupled with increasingly sophisticated weaponry." As I suggested in the past, I don't see "collision" so much as an effort to overthrow Trump (regardless of the motivation of the actors), as an attempt - successful to date, to sour USA Russian relations for the benefit of China.
[FOX] When Alexander Hamilton wrote of the judiciary, in Federalist 78, he called it the "least dangerous branch." It lacks the executive power of the sword and Congress’ power of the purse. It has only the faculty of judgment, and must depend on the executive to enforce its judgments.
But what if the judges mistrust the executive, and announce that his orders be ignored? In that case the entire system of separation of powers might be undone, in matters purely political. The judiciary will have usurped the executive power and made little presidents of themselves. A frightening thought, and yet that is where we seem to be headed.
The threat began with the practice, begun over a year ago, of federal District Court judges announcing that Trump’s travel bans were unconstitutional. It wasn’t that presidents lack the authority to manage immigration policies. That wasn’t in question. Rather, it was the authority of this president that was impugned. Trump was poison, and his directives were the fruit of a poisoned tree. He had shown himself to be biased against radical Islam, and as a consequence was deprived of any constitutional authority over immigration from Muslim countries. As the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals put it, Trump’s tweets showed that he was "tainted with animus toward Islam."
There have been a series of such decisions, from District judges cherry-picked as Trump haters. And they did more than impugn Trump’s authority in their judicial District. They went beyond this to issue a countrywide injunction, a single judge ruling over the United States as a whole.
The issue is now before the Supreme Court. After initial judicial rebuffs, Trump is now on the third iteration of his travel ban. The Court will hear an appeal of a District Court decision in Hawaii, affirmed by the Ninth Circuit, that the ban revealed Trump’s hostility to Muslims. "For over a year, the president campaigned on the pledge, never retracted, that he would ban Muslims from entering the United States." Continues
#3
IIRC - "refugees" must seek asylum in the first country they come to: Messico. They are NOT entitled to be allowed to enter
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/25/2018 9:42 Comments ||
Top||
#4
As the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals put it, Trump’s tweets showed that he was "tainted with animus toward Islam."
That reasoning has NOTHING to do with Trump's constitutional ability / requirement to enforce immigration laws. It merely shows the Court is "tainted with animus" towards TRUMP, so much so that it violated its own duty.
[BBC] The concept of "forest bathing" is becoming popular in the West, but it originates from Japan.
It is the art of how trees can help you find health and happiness.
Dr Qing Li, an expert in the field, has been looking at the science behind how trees can improve wellness through emitting essential oils into the environment.
Yalda Hakim joined him for a walk with a difference.
#3
No deer in nearly a decade. No tree hugs, yoga, or air kisses involved, but some of my best sleep has come in the woods.....safely tethered of course.
#4
That's one reason I live out in the woods. Also I'm a semi-hermit who does'nt like nosy or loud neighbors.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
04/25/2018 13:10 Comments ||
Top||
#5
That's why I go camping. Just spending entire days out of a building & (mostly) away from electronics and artificial sounds feels great. My lifelong sleep timing disorder goes away completely when I sleep on the ground in a tent.
I also walk an hour every day, sometimes more, whether I'm traveling or at home. In foul weather I walk at an indoor track. When I can tolerate the weather, I walk at an outdoors track near the house - even during snow and sleet storms. Proper clothing and footgear is essential for this - and not at all easy to buy locally. My boots and parka were both purchased far away from where I live.
I have some very scenic trails (and a National Park) just a few miles from home - but seldom go there due to time constraints. Spending an hour driving to & from a trail head, every day, seldom matches my schedule.
I didn't need an authority to teach me all this.
[SmallWarsJournal] Violent extremist groups are using all methods possible to wage a successful long-term campaign using children. These groups infiltrate existing systems, threaten and radicalize important players, use extreme forms of violence to attack those they perceive as non-compliant. No foundation of society is off limits be it: hospitals, schools, religious organizations, legal institutions, law enforcement, orphanages, charities, sports, businesses, transportation, recreation or communication sites. Every means is justified for their stated aim of a worldwide Islamic caliphate under Sharia law. The scope of this phenomenon has increased in the past decade, however the methods implemented were developed and refined during and after World War II. No child is left behind if they can be exploited.
#1
Home Front: I dated a First Grade teacher from 1998 thru 2000 (who worked at a really miserable school), and she had a "unit" that taught the kids to dislike the country due to the horrible conditions in which the Indians were placed in the past.
I bring it up because I was wittingly part of the problem - after calling her in 1999 while in Cherokee, NC, I bought 2 items, and was reimbursed by the school district promptly.
(1) a hardboard book that contained maybe ten pages of pictures and light text; no people, but an overall incongruous picture of how Indian children lived in earlier periods. Pictures inside the tepee showed a Western style bedroom in the tepee, with a small dresser and moccasins neatly arranged next to the bed.
(2) a cassette tape of an older Indian wailing about the Trail of Tears.
#2
Home Front: I dated a First Grade teacher from 1998 thru 2000 (who worked at a really miserable school), and she had a "unit" that taught the kids to dislike the country due to the horrible conditions in which the Indians were placed in the past.
Unfortunately, native children in the USA are still being brought up like this, and this advocacy of cultural Marxism continues to get worse. Children who never got to know their own native grandparents wind up believing things about their grandparent's experiences which are just not true.
Ca. 2011 I was in the audience hearing a lecture about native Americans who fought for the Union in the Civil War. Some one in the audience asked the question, "If the Indians were treated so badly, why did they fight for the US government?" The lecturer & I were friends. He referred the question to me. I stood up & answered: "Real warriors fight for a future, they are not concerned about the past."
Modern "children" have no idea about this, including ones who are much older and should know better.
h/t Instapundit
[KimDuToit] ...And here’s the really good news: Obama was just the beginning. The next Democrat president is going to make him look like an amateur socialist: a member of the 1930s Fabian Society, as opposed to Joseph Stalin.
This, by the way, is the reason I’m really irritated by the NeverTrumpers: their childish little tantrums about Trump’s uncouth manner, his "undignified" behavior (e.g. his use of Twitter) and the "chaos" of his Administration don’t do anything but help make the Leftists’ screams that "Trump Is Hitler!" ring true.
But if the NeverTrumpers irritate me, the pillars of the American Left (academia, the Press, the Democrats and so on) have a different effect. Where before I looked on them with scorn and some amusement ‐ FFS, do they actually believe that bullshit they’re spouting? ‐ I now look on them as I would a rabid dog or a black mamba: they really do believe that crap, and they are that fucking dangerous.
#4
I once worked on a rug shampooing crew during my college years. I really really really got tired of their foul language. One day I lost it, and decided to out-curse / out-profane / out-obscene whatever they came up with. And I discovered I have a real knack for that. Not only did I not get punched in the nose, they seemed rather scared of me, and their own language became much tamer and easier to put up with. Maybe I was giving them an outlet, too. I think Trump's "undignified" behavior and his "mis" use to Twitter has served a very similar function.
#5
When I want my men to remember something important, to really make it stick, I give it to them double dirty. It may not sound nice to some bunch of little old ladies at an afternoon tea party, but it helps my soldiers to remember.
General George S. Patton, Jr. The Unknown Patton (1983) by Charles M. Province, p. 184
#7
There are far more "dirty" mnemonics because they stick, like the way I learned resistors
0 BlackBad
1 Brown - Boys
2 Red - Rape
3 Orange - Our
4 Yellow - Young
5 Green - Girls
6 Blue - But
7 Violet - Violet
8 Grey - Gives
9 White - Willingly
Tolerance: Gold/Silver/None 5 10 20 =
Get Some Now
And don't get me started on the anatomy ones - they get nasty in a hurry.
[Forward Observer] One Friday night about a month ago, I sat down to write out 10 reasons why I thought the United States was headed towards a domestic conflict. My goal was to flesh out some ideas that many of us have considered intuitively, but provide some research and structured thinking to them. I got to the fifth reason and realized that it was an exercise in futility because I didn’t need 10 reasons. You likely don’t, either.
Demographically, culturally, fiscally, we’re hemorrhaging as a country. Studies show that most immigrants, legal or illegal, have a political predilection towards larger, more authoritarian government. They do or will vote Democrat. That’s why amnesty is the death knell for the right-leaning electorate. And amnesty is only a matter of time, which means the GOP as a nationally viable party could have an expiration date within your lifetime. Several states, including Texas, were decided by fewer votes than those states have illegal immigrants. Amnesty pushes those states blue, which then push a far Left agenda in a Democrat-controlled Congress. That writing is on the wall.
Without amnesty, studies show that larger percentages and greater numbers of future generations are slightly or consistently liberal. Millennials are the least white voting generation on record; Generation Z is less white than Millennials, and these two groups are or would vote for Leftist populists (like Bernie Sanders) in far greater numbers than previous generations. If we look at political leanings by generation (graph below), we can see the decline in percentage of those mostly or consistently conservative. (Look at each generation in 2017, for instance.) The opposite is also true: the Baby Boomer generation in 2017 had a greater percentage of mostly or consistently liberal than the Silent Generation; Generation X had a higher percentage than the Baby Boomers; and the Millennial generation has a higher percentage than Generation X. Each generation is becoming more liberal due wholly to immigration. Because immigration is little more than importing future Democrat voters, I don’t see how the GOP hangs on to anything outside of regional power without a cultural resurgence (like Reagan, for instance).
#2
What we are seeing is a form of mass hysteria. Older liberals built up a dream version of the soviet union and communism that came crashing to reality in the 90s. They've been increasingly untethered to reality since. Older liberals are also well placed to brainwash their pathologies into younger liberals through their control of schools and universities.
#3
We should start with a law saying the children of politicians must attend a public school in their district. We'd see schools cleaned up or elite's in Congress move on quickly.
#4
"We should start with a law saying the children of politicians must attend a public school in their district. We'd see schools cleaned up or elite's in Congress move on quickly."
#5
Wealthy White New York City Liberals Scream and Shriek About Plan to Desegregate Their Lily-White Schools and Reserve Space In Their School for Underperforming Students https://buff.ly/2Jqjysn
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
