[Guardian] In a small midwestern town, memories of President Harry Truman fuel hope for a brighter American future.
It’s so omnipresent, you longer notice it. On poles outside the historic courthouse and a nearby office building. In a window display at a kitchenware store and on a heart-shaped table in an antiques shop. Above neatly mown lawns and porches of Victorian mansions along North Delaware Street. Beside the grave of a US president and emblazoned on the chest of a salesman as his car pulls out of the square.
The American flag, the stars and stripes, is flying high in Independence, Missouri, an unshowy city in what is literally middle America, preparing to celebrate Independence Day. The public holiday on 4 July celebrates the declaration of independence from the British in 1776 with barbecues, bunting, fireworks, parades, picnics and patriotic songs ‐ reassuring rituals of Americana designed to guard against an identity crisis. But this is 2018, Donald Trump is president and patriotism is even more complicated than usual.
#2
He has repeatedly berated American football players for kneeling during the national anthem, in protest at racial injustice. His hardline approach to the border appeals to nativist impulses and threatens America’s longstanding reputation as a nation of immigrants.
This is a load of crap.
You lost me right there, al Guardian. Once again we have an example of a liberal/progressive, whatever that is, refusing to acknowledge a difference between legal and illegal immigration. I couldn't read any further after that line.
Yes, we are a nation of immigrants. But we decide who immigrates and who doesn't. As a sovereign nation we refuse to let foreigners from any other country in this world tell us who gets to immigrate to our country and who doesn't.
If you don't like it you are free to leave.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
07/02/2018 11:23 Comments ||
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[Sun] Tess Thompson Talley posted photos of herself posing with the slain creature online about a year ago.
But last month they were picked up by African news outlet Africa Digest, sparking a firestorm on social media. The photos show Talley, from Kentucky, standing proudly next to a dead giraffe bull.
Her caption read: "Prayers for my once in a lifetime dream hunt came true today! Spotted this rare black giraffe bull and stalked him for quite a while. I knew it was the one.
"He was over 18 years old, 4000lbs and was blessed to be able to get 2000lbs of meat from him." Yes, you've got time for another G&T. Old Blackie won't be along until the sun begins to go down.
#1
Meanwhile, the game farm owner smiles whilst the headman of the local municipality sells the meat to villagers and buys a new Rover with the licensing proceeds from her hunt. Isn't tribal governance grand ?
#6
I certainly understand the feelings, but when you dig deeper into these, the money goes along way with conservation efforts there, just like hunting here funds it. I agree it'd be better if she had taken something more numerous.
One last thing, extinction happens with or without us. I agree we should try to help keep species around but sometimes theres a good reason they are dying out, they can't survive in the wild and nature will be nature, if you can't survive, you die.
If I understand that phrase correctly, the animal is rare because it is black, and it is black because it is old. Twenty years or so seems to be the lifespan in the wild. Most animals don't die of old age.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The battle of Hodeidah is fierce and its results are crucial in managing the war that’s been raging in Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... for more than three years. There have been a lot of successes, achievements and victories which have led to the liberation of over 80 percent of Yemeni territory, with more victories and progress for the Yemeni state and people.
[CBS] White House national security adviser John Bolton says the U.S. could dismantle North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile programs within a year if the North Koreans committed to scrapping their arsenal in accordance with the agreement reached in Singapore last month.
"I'm sure that the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, will be discussing this with the North Koreans in the near future, about, really, how to dismantle all of their WMD and ballistic missile programs in a year," Bolton said on "Face the Nation" on Sunday. "If they have the strategic decision already made to do that and they're cooperative, we can move very quickly."
At the summit between President Trump and Kim Jong Un in Singapore in June, the two leaders signed an agreement in which the North committed "to work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula." The agreement contained no specifics about implementing its terms, and Pompeo has been working to set in motion more concrete steps for North Korea to give up its arsenal.
[Time] Megan McCain made her feelings clear about the way President Donald Trump repeatedly attacks her father, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), over the weekend.
On Friday, McCain accepted the Lyndon B. Johnson Liberty and Justice for All award in Texas on behalf of her father, who was diagnosed with brain cancer in July 2017. She said she remains angry about the way Trump talks about her father.
"[Trump’s] comments are never going to be OK with me, especially at this moment in my life. I’m never going to forgive it," the co-host of ABC’s The View said on stage. "I’m never going to move on from it."
Trump has a history of mocking Sen. McCain, especially for his "no" vote on whether Congress should repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, a key tenent of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. He brought up McCain’s refusal to vote for his health care bill at a campaign rally for Sen. Dean Heller in Nevada last weekend, but avoided mentioning McCain by name.
#13
On Friday, McCain accepted the Lyndon B. Johnson Liberty and Justice for All award in Texas on behalf of her father...
Tells me a lot right there. Anybody who cares about liberty and justice for all would refuse anything associated with Lyndon B. Johnson.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
07/02/2018 11:56 Comments ||
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#14
Trump's comments about McCain were very mild. On the other hand, my view is much more on point: "Benedict Arnold was also considered a war hero for a time."
Posted by: regular joe ||
07/02/2018 14:22 Comments ||
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#15
The choices were not good in 2008. Poor and poorer.
[Mercer] Journalists should be asking (but they don’t) why the most excellent John Kelly is rumored to be leaving the White House. Instead, they are rabbiting about a girl with super-model looks, Miss Hope Hicks, who left the White House.
Why is it of no interest to this incurious lot (the media) that the liberal Kushners had been gunning for White House Chief of Staff Kelly for a long time? As I warned on February 15, 2018:
... if Chief of Staff John Kelly is ousted, it will be the doing of the Goldman-Sachs West-Wing matriarchy. Dina Powel, former adviser to Ivanka and previously on Trump’s National Security Council [she has a BA], is a relic from Goldman Sachs and an Ivanka recruit. The affable Democrat Gary Cohn [he left, too], Trump’s chief economic advisor, is former president and chief operating officer of Goldman Sachs. These "Kushner-Cohn Democrats" ousted Stephen Bannon from the West Wing, and are, no doubt, gunning for John Kelly.
When Powel and Cohn departed, the work to oust Kelly was likely completed by the Kushner duo.
[Wash Times] Michael Moore on Friday said he would rally on Capitol Hill with a million others to keep lawmakers from confirming President Trump’s pick to succeed outgoing Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy.
Appearing on HBO’s "Real Time with Bill Maher," the liberal filmmaker and activist said he’d participate in a wide-scale protest to prevent the Senate from approving the president’s second Supreme Court nominee, assuming Republican leadership schedules a vote before the November midterm elections when Democrats risk gaining control.
"We’ve got to hold the Democratic seats we have, but look, 90 percent of incumbents are always returned," Mr. Moore. "The Democrats in Montana and North Dakota, West Virginia, they’ve got to do their job, they’ll do their job. Our job is to win Nevada, Arizona and Tennessee and they could all be won!"
"But the vote’s going to take place before then, no?" responded comedian Bill Maher, the program’s host.
Nearly four months until midterms, Mr. Moore said Democrats "have to find ways" in the interim to stop the Senate from voting on whoever Mr. Trump picks to replace Justice Kennedy, who announced his retirement earlier this week.
#9
When we're talking about replacing Justice Kennedy, we ought to remember what Trump said about him in a June 27 press release -
In 1987, President Reagan nominated him to the Court, and he was swiftly confirmed without opposition. A Californian — like the President who appointed him — Justice Kennedy is a true man of letters. During his tenure on the Court, he authored landmark opinions in every significant area of constitutional law, most notably on equal protection under the law, the separation of powers, and the First Amendment’s guarantees of freedom of speech and religion.
Justice Kennedy has been a tireless voice for individual rights and the Founders’ enduring vision of limited government. His words have left an indelible mark not only on this generation, but on the fabric of American history.
Sounds like one o' them right-wingers. SO he should be replaced by another right-winger.
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/02/2018 8:26 Comments ||
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#10
Justice Kennedy Ginsburg has been a tireless voice for individual rights and the Founders’ enduring vision of limited government. His Her words have left an indelible mark not only on this generation, but on the fabric of American history.
#11
Has it occurred to anyone to notice or suspect that MICHAEL MOORE has no Faith or respect for the American Constitution ?
Perhaps he never read it or even knows it exists. Michael, honey, put down the Sandwich and pay attention. The Constitution is the Rule Book for the effective maintenance of the United States.
You are a citizen of the United States and you have a National Flag, you know that Red White and Blue thing? You are not an elected Official, you are a man far too ginormous to sit on a conventional sized toilet.
You are in over your head. The Constitution WILL win and you...well, you will have to buy a custom made toilet. Some thing with a bigger... .how do I say this...a much bigger HOLE.
#12
I make my girlfriend laugh every time I point out a grossly obese person and say "How do they know when the right part of their ass is over the toilet?"
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
07/02/2018 8:53 Comments ||
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#13
At least his jowls appear to be well exercised. Not certain what impact that may have on this cardiovascular health, if any.
#15
How much will be politics and how much will be trying to drum up "a cast of thousands", a Free horde of extras, for his next documentaryinfotainment film?
#17
The muscles of Michael Moore's jowls
Are naught to the brawn in his bowels
That can crush -- do you hear? --
Every part of a steer
And expel it in pellets like owls'.
#19
He is beautifully marbled, and so should become wonderfully tender after long exposure to the heat of a Washington, DC summer. May I suggest adding a strong red wine and packing him with root vegetables?
[Daily Caller] High-profile members of America’s media and political circles have used amplified, irresponsible rhetoric to describe President Trump’s immigration detainment policies. Terminology from Nazi Germany is now regularly used to describe American immigration policy in the public arena. Many have likened illegal alien detainment facilities on the Southern border to "concentration camps," referred to Trump as a "Nazi" or "Hitler" and call Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents the "Gestapo."
Democratic Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal likened America’s zero tolerance immigration policy to the "cattle cars of Nazi Germany." Many pundits and politicians have echoed the sentiment.
David Tuck was born in Poland in 1929. He was enslaved by the Nazis and survived multiple concentration camps. In the wake of pundits and politicians comparing illegal immigrant detainment facilities in modern day America to Nazi concentration camps, Tuck felt compelled to speak out.
Today, Tuck has a message for those comparing American illegal immigrant detainment facilities to the Holocaust. "They know nothing of the Holocaust," Tuck says. "Grow up. You can’t compare. Every time I hear it, it’s sickening."
#3
..well, it is the popular 'N' word these days among the Left, who seem totally oblivious to the fact its slang for National Socialist Workers Party.
#6
..that was part of the falling out among the Socialist circa 1941-45. The winner seems to have killed more than the loser (outside the strictures of war).
#8
My mother, who survived the same war in hiding in Holland, is not worried about a repeat here.
who seem totally oblivious to the fact its slang for National Socialist Workers Party.
I watched a European historian of Fabian disposition become verbally violent when this point was raised, the equivalent of covering his ears and chanting, “Lalalalalalala...”
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Anyone with an interest can notice the chaos related to the issuance of Fiqh rulings in the past few years. The revolutionary tide, the formation of fundamentalist movements and the resurgence of political Islam groups have coincided with the fragmentation of many countries’ structure, unrest in their institutions and breakdown of their relations to the point thon the lam areas of the region ended up being managed by militias and other countries.
Despite their great history, several countries are losing the essential prerequisites of statehood to eventually end up as failed states and enter into a dark history where officials in these countries adhere to the order of the ’Wali al Faqih’. Nevertheless, the most dangerous aspect related to the issuance of fatwas and rulings by ISIS, al-Qaeda and the Moslem Brüderbund is the latter’s establishment of Fiqh groups claiming they represent the Ummah. They attempt to break down religious institutions in each country in order to issue their disastrous fatwas and terrorist rulings.
The positive thing in light of all of this chaos is how moderate countries have stepped in to strengthen the work of local religious institutions and to revamp them in a way that is relevant to the different facets of life and developments. The UAE cabinet issued a decision on June 25 to form the Emirates Fatwa Council under the chairmanship of Sheikh Abdallah bin Bayyah.
As reported by the UAE News Agency (WAM), the Council "will aim to combine relevant efforts, visions and objectives, and organize the work of government authorities, institutions and individuals related to fatwas. The Council will issue general fatwas concerning various topics, upon the request of official authorities, institutions or individuals. It will also grant licenses to issue fatwas, train muftis and develop their skills, and conduct related studies and research." It will also oversee the Fatwa Center in the General Authority of Islamic Affairs and Endowments, WAM added.
This council restrains the chaotic fatwas issued by the ignorant and snuffies and restores the prestige of Fiqh after many charlatans have taken it as their profession. Issuing fatwas has its conditions. Not everyone who has memorized Sharia or Hadith can issue fatwas. Indeed, there are personal conditions related to the understanding and knowledge of the signs and purposes of the Sharia, along with having interpersonal wisdom.
Many of the problems facing Moslems today are because of the Fiqh renewal, like some did in terms of issuing provisions including their exaggerated opinions about jihad. This approach has been adopted by groups of snuffies and theorists such as Sayyed Qutb.
In the end, if Islamic countries want to take the route to development, they will first need to control the disruptive religious rhetoric coming from Ifta and speech platforms, and media programs that describe themselves as legitimate religious sources, while they are purely fundamentalist movements. Without this restraint, bitter experience will repeat itself. The experience of the UAE should be praised and highlighted. Allah has full power and control over His Affairs, but most men know not.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/02/2018 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
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[Tech Crunch] Lasers! Everybody loves them, everybody wants them. But outside a few niche applications they have failed to live up to the destructive potential that Saturday morning cartoons taught us all to expect. In defiance of this failure, a company in China claims to have produced a "laser AK-47" that can burn targets in a fraction of a second from half a mile away. But skepticism is still warranted.
The weapon, dubbed the ZKZM-500, is described by the South China Morning Post as being about the size and weight of an ordinary assault rifle, but capable of firing hundreds of shots, each of which can cause "instant carbonization" of human skin.
"The pain will be beyond endurance," added one of the researchers.
Now, there are a few red flags here. First is the simple fact that the weapon is only described and not demonstrated. Second is that what is described sounds incompatible with physics.
Laser weaponry capable of real harm has eluded the eager boffins of the world’s militaries for several reasons, none of which sound like they’ve been addressed in this research, which is long on bombast but short, at least in the SCMP article, on substance.
#6
I would rather be hit by a laser that causes great pains than a bullet that spatters my brains.
I could see a laser being a very nice assassination weapon if you had time and space to set up in your sniper hole but as a hand-held battlefield weapon they are just too finicky and power requirements too high. Maybe on a vehicle, certainly on a ship, but not carried by soldiers. This sounds like nonsense to me.
#7
With a laser gun you have to verbally make the "pew pew pew" sounds
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/02/2018 10:14 Comments ||
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#8
The tow-behind generator (or big friggin' D-Cell carriers) would make it somewhat problematic for the stealth angle you speak of rj, so I would agree.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
07/02/2018 12:34 Comments ||
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#9
But skepticism is still warranted.
I'm going with that.
[AAWSAT] "Who is behind all this?" Iran’s "Supreme Guide" Ayatollah Ali Khamenei reportedly asked on Wednesday when he received several judges in special audience.
The "all this" in his question referred to protests that led to the closure of Tehran’s Grand bazaar followed by similar shutdowns in at least 30 other cities.
[SultanKnish] On Tom LoBianco’s LinkedIn profile, the former Associated Press reporter self-identifies as a "White House reporter covering Trump Russia probes." At CNN, LoBianco writes that he "covered the 2016 presidential race and the Russia probes."
Now LoBianco is in trouble for reasons having nothing and everything to do with the Russia probe.
Earlier this year, Elliot Broidy, a Trump ally and Republican fundraiser, was targeted by Qatari hackers. Broidy had been sharply critical of the terror state which has been linked to everything from 9/11 to Iran. And his emails were quickly peddled to media figures who spun them into pro-Qatari hit pieces.
When Broidy struck back with a lawsuit targeting Qatar and its lobbyists, phone records showed that LoBianco had spoken three dozen times to a registered foreign agent of the Islamic terror state.
...Stolen emails have become typical tools of political warfare. But colluding with foreign agents and receiving stolen emails from foreign hackers is at the center of the Russiagate allegations. Yet the same reporter investigating Russiagate appeared to be involved in his own Qatargate. And he wasn’t alone. Of course that pales compared to official security agencies using foreign intelligence service to spy on a presidential candidate.
h/t Instapundit
[AmericanThinker] If you’ve been fed up with the left’s hijacking of America, he certainly is fun -- because bit by bit he’s dismantling their power, supply train, and prestige. The shaky premises upon which they’ve controlled life in America for some time is being exposed and overturned. Let me explain.
...This week the Supreme Court by 5-4 majorities upset three linchpins of leftwing rule in America:
...Justice Thomas’s observation that District Court issuance of nationwide injunctions (a practice begun in 1963) is based on dubious legal authority.
...The Mueller clown show continues with the Flynn case being postponed yet again, doubtless under a ton of rapidly accumulating exculpatory material Mueller’s team must fork over to the defendant and the Court. In New York his case against a nonexistent firm and unreachable defendants is moored on the shoals with defense counsel demanding extensive discovery. Even the Manafort cases, which continue, have drawn skeptical comments from D.C. Judge Thomas Ellis.
...Just as the left is drumming up support for open borders and largely pro-abortion harpies are marching about using children of illegal aliens separated from their parents as this week’s stated outrage, the Department of Justice seems to have cut them off at the knees. Citing a victory in another court brought ironically by open border advocates, they argue the Flores decision, which required either the children be separated or their parents free to be released into the U.S., is without further effect. (One left hand doesn’t know what the other left hand is doing?)
...The president is assessing the cost and necessity of retaining our troops in Germany -- a significant moneymaker for Germany and another means by which we are bearing a huge share of the European defense costs.
Apparently, this has created angst for Angela Merkel and her freeloading, blinkered EU partners whose dream was to bring moneybags Uncle Sam to heel. American Leftism is an imitation and adoration of EUrope.
#3
Entertaining to right and a burr under the saddle to the left. What could be better. "Throw me to the wolves and I will return leading the pack." Exactly why he got elected.
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.
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic...
[CBS] White House national security adviser John Bolton says the U.S. could dismantle North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile programs within a year if the North Koreans committed to scrapping their arsenal in accordance with the agreement reached in Singapore last month.
[Wash Times] Michael Moore on Friday said he would rally on Capitol Hill with a million others to keep lawmakers from confirming President Trump’s pick to succeed outgoing Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy.
