[Investors.com] Sunday, March 11, is the start of daylight saving time across the country. But it might be the last time people in Florida have to switch their clocks.
The legislature there voted overwhelmingly to abolish the biannual changing of the clock, and stick with daylight saving time year round.
Last year, Massachusetts considered a similar move by switching to Atlantic Standard Time, which would permanently set their clocks ahead one hour. Maine also passed bills to ditch daylight saving time. Arizona and Hawaii don't abide by daylight saving time.
The problem Florida faces is that while the law lets states opt out of daylight saving time, they can't opt out of standard time. So, Congress would have to amend the law.
The European Union, meanwhile, is studying whether switching their clocks back and forth each year is worth it.
The answer is, it isn't.
The main reason for imposing daylight saving time has always been that it "saved" energy, since it would stay light an hour longer in the evening. The U.S. extended daylight saving time in 2007, as part of President Bush's woefully misguided energy bill ‐ which also banned traditional incandescent light bulbs ‐ specifically because it was supposed to cut the nation's energy consumption.
At the time, Massachusetts Rep. Ed Markey said it would save consumers $4.4 billion over 15 years.
But research shows this is simply not the case. In fact, it's just as likely that daylight saving time costs energy.
#1
Assumption, assumptions, assumptions. We didn't have 'standard' time till the technological introduction of the railroads. It was a little complicated in 19th century tech to have timetable when everyone ran their own local time. Locals didn't need to know anything but the basics for relative time as most people didn't move about more than 20 miles a day. High noon was relative. So a convention was established/imposed to accommodate the technology.
Today, as a culture, we are no longer tied to that 19h Century technology. That our 'standard' time is tied to that original imposition of organizing ourselves definitely needs reexamination. Particularly given that 19th Century 'standard' was established long before modern electrification/lighting has altered our way of living.
'Standard' time is less of the year's calendar than the daylight adjustment. Its the evolution of our daily cycle supported by our contemporary society and technology. It's time to shift everyone one zone eastward. Its a social reference tied to the technology that we swim in.
#2
DST is like the Star Spangled Banner. It drives some people insane out of all proportion to anything at all. They are more against it than cancer but really can't explain why.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/10/2018 14:27 Comments ||
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#3
I normally get up at 3:50 PST for work, but have been waking an hour early for some reason. This works for me. Thank you, America
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/10/2018 17:31 Comments ||
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#4
The only reasonable system is to have noon as near as possible to solar noon, and keep it thus year-round.
Posted by: Si vis pacem ||
03/10/2018 18:23 Comments ||
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Virtue signaling by the left on guns continues, this time in Virginia where a democrat candidate running for Congress, Karen Mallard, made a demonstration of how she destroyed her husband's AR-15 rifle.
A few matters to point out: Mrs. Mallard did not actually destroy the rifle, she merely cut the barrel short. An AR-15 barrel is a general commodity, and is easily replaced. Had she wanted to destroy the rifle, she should have cut into the receiver where the barrel is. It must be noted that Mallard violated US firearms statutes by cutting the barrel short, and it doesn't matter if she subsequently turned it over to the police.
It goes to show just how ignorant the left are when it comes to firearms. Trolling the Facebook page of Huffington Post shows that democrats think running on gun control will help them win back Congress in 2018. They seem to be counting on new voters to help the democrats vote away their Constitutional rights.
Concerning the Parkland High School Massacre: We still know so little about what happened. I have heard that the shooter was sold a Daniel Defense rifle, which is a medium quality AR, in my opinion. South Carolina US Senator Lindsey Graham said that the shooter's rifle jammed, so when it did, the shooter dropped the rifle and left the premises.
ARs once were considered to be jam prone, but over time the quality of the rifles has improved. The most common failures I have heard about have been stove pipes, which is a kind of extractor failure. In a fire fight, it is a pretty dangerous thing to be forced to clear a stovepipe, but with practice it can be done in just a few seconds.
If the rifle did jam, and the shooter did drop the rifle because of it, it tells me he had zero help in learning the handle the rifle.
That part of the incident reminds me of the attempted assassination of a pair of police officers in Vallejo, California 15 months ago. In that incident the shooter's rifle jammed after firing only one shot. When that happened, he also dropped the gun and fled. He was gunned down shortly afterward. Photographs of the rifle showed the failure was a stovepipe, which is supposedly relatively easy to clear. The shooter simply was not prepared for the failure and simply left the scene, only to die tired.
In the article I read, the cause of the failure in Florida was said to be a poor quality rifle, which I very much doubt, or bad ammunition. Russian ammunition is particularly bad about AR extractor jams, so much so, it is said that when your AR has a stovepipe failure, it is your AR giving you the finger for using cheap ammunition.
Finally, CNN did a television report on the AR, using a retired US Army general, Mark Hertling, as their expert. The video is hilarious, and not just because of the background commentary. It is when the general tells the reporter, "Now, those were single shots. If I wanted to fire this on full semiautomatic..." The general, who had been trading on his time in the service, should have known better.
Loads.
Rantburg's summary for arms and ammunition:
Pistol ammunition prices were mostly steady. Rifle ammunition prices were steady.
Prices for used pistols were mostly higher. Prices for used rifles were lower.
New Lows:
None
Pistol Ammunition
.45 Caliber, 230 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (5 weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Red River Reloading, Silver Bear, FMJ, Steel Casing, .22 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1,000 rounds: East Carolina Trading, Own brand, FMJ, Brass Casing, Reloads, .20 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (8 Weeks))
.40 Caliber Smith & Wesson, 180 Grain, From Last Week: +.01 Each)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Ammo King, Sellier & Bellot, FMJ, Brass Casing .20 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1,000 rounds: East Carolina Trading, Own Brand, CRN, Brass Casing, Reloads, .17 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (4Q, 2017))
9mm Parabellum, 115 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (3 weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Extreme Reloading, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing .14 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1,000 rounds: Fedarm, Own Brand, FMJ, Brass Casing, Reloads .14 per round (From Last Week: +.01 Each After Unchanged (5 Weeks))
.357 Magnum, 158 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (3Q, 2017)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Outdoor Limited, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .23 per round
Cheapest Bulk: 1,000 rounds: Outdoor Limited, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .23 per round (From Last Week: -.01 Each)
.38 Special, 158 Grain, From Last Week: -.07 Each
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Centerfire Systems, CCI, FMJ, Aluminum Casing .16 per round
Cheapest Bulk: 1,000 rounds: SG Ammo, Prvi Patizan, RNL, Brass Casing, .23 per round (From Last Week: -.01 Each After Unchanged (3 Weeks)
Rifle Ammunition
.223 Caliber/5.56mm 55 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (4Q, 2017)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Able's, Wolf WPA, FMJ, Steel Casing, .20 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1,000 rounds: Expert Ammo, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .20 per round (From Last Week: +.01 Each After Unchanged (2 Weeks))
.308 NATO 150 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (3 Weeks)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Expert Ammo, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .30 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: SG Ammo, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .30 per round (From Last Week: +.02 Each After Unchanged(2 Weeks))
7.62x39mm AK 123 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (2 Weeks)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Target Sports USA, Wolf WPA, FMJ, Steel Casing, .23 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1,000 rounds: True Shot Gun Club, Wolf WPA, Steel Casing, FMJ, .19 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (3Q, 2017))
.30-06 Springfield 145 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (2 Weeks)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Outdoor Limited, Wolf WPA, Steel Casing, FMJ, .54 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: United Nations Ammo, Wolf WPA, Steel Casing, FMJ, .53 per round (From Last week: Unchanged (4Q, 2017))
.300 Winchester Magnum 150 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (4 Weeks)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Selway Armory, Prvi Partizan, Brass Casing, SP, .75 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: Target Sports USA, Prvi Partizan, Brass Casing, SP, .85 per round (From Last Week: +.10 Each After Unchanged (2 Weeks))
.338 Lapua Magnum 250 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (9 Weeks)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Outdoor Limited, Ten Ring, Brass Casing, SP, 2.15 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 200 rounds: Cabelas, Prvi Partizan, FMJ, Brass Casing, 2.80 per round (From Last Week: +.55 Each
.22 LR 40 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (6 Weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Ammo King, Federal, RNL, .04 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 5,000 rounds: Outdoor Limited, Armscor, RNL, Brass Casing, .04 per round (From Last Week: +.01 Each After Unchanged (2 Weeks))
#2
Back when the going price was $2500, I was amazed, delighted and nearly achieved a full chubb when I first picked up the 5.7. The grip fit perfect, the diameter was right, trigger reach caressed my forefinger pad and the backstrap texture massaged my medial nerve. Even now the memory gives me tingles like Mary Lou's first kiss.
#3
In a way I understand when butt snorkel cut his barrel a couple weeks back it might have been an Baby Oopsie Goes Poo. Even though the guy had 'supposedly' pro gun tats and banter. He was pretty quick to come back and clarify he then also cut up his lower.
Like when that reporter flashed magazines on-air in DC and broke the law. So many laws one can accidentally break one, like that gal in NJ. Like why Kansas confirmed that the only gun laws are the state and federal gun laws.
This stick of dip not only broke the law, but broke the law in a manner already poostormed two weeks prior. No research. No thought. Just heard about it at some fourth tier cocktail party of failure. Seriously, the buzz is so old on this trick when it happened KU had not yet wrapped up the Big 12. Some serious wasted away in f n loserville, looking for her lost shakers of fault.
Nevermind tyrants, commies, bullies, and jerks. These people are flat out incompetent. Charlie personas who are such failures they agitate the Betas. If the dog chewed through the vacuum cleaner's electrical cord, they would blame the vacuum and not know how to fix the cord then steal the neighbors vacuum.
Posted by: Matt ||
03/10/2018 10:33 Comments ||
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#3
Take the time to watch this. The entire speech. She is inspirational, funny, and a truth teller. Her stories of personal experience are stunningly prescient to what is beguine here.
Full article at title link. Short form maybe or just join together with Iran and Iraq as main supplier to EU and China. The "however clause" explores price fixing tendencies which are upsetting the EU and might really upset China. Maybe enough that they join together to cut Russia out. Lots of hand waving and sloppy scenarios.
#4
Actually, bringing down OPEC would be a good idea.
It would put an end to a lot of the moslem BS running rampant in the ME and we'd have fewer pictures on YouTube of silver plated Audis and diamond encrusted Ferraris...
Those places are just tribes with flags (Hat tip to the late great Chris Hinchens).
Good catch, g(r)omgoru. Given that, the question for the group is whether Russia succeeded. Or perhaps whether the intention succeeded via the American execution thereof.
#6
What P2K said as much as anything brought about a weakening of OPEC. OPEC screwed the U.S. for far too long. Often oil money from the U.S. was in turn used to fund terrorism against us. Radical environmentalists in the U.S. have also thwarted becoming independent from OPEC. I appeciate a clean environment, but extremists have carried their cause to the left of loony.
#7
C S Lewis said that people have to worship/believe in something...so if they do not believe in God or Jesus the Messiah, they have to find something to worship.
Just color environmentalists just another group of religious fanatics.
[TheJamestownFoundation] Russia Seeks Total Military Domination Over West.
During his annual address to the parliament, on March 1, Russian President Vladimir Putin unveiled an array of nuclear superweapons, claiming Russia has secretly overcome the mighty United States and assumed a dominant military position. Putin demanded the West now “negotiate,” which sounded more like a demand of strategic surrender (see EDM, March 1). The Western response to Putin’s presentation was disappointing at best. The Kremlin leader’s mix of threats and complaints about US (Western) intransigence in rejecting Russian (Putin’s) “constructive proposals” was conspicuously illustrated with animations of missiles flying across the world to America and brief footage of Russia’s missile testing grounds and military research facilities. Yet, none of these particularly impressed Western audiences. Are Putin’s fancy superweapons real or more of a hypersonic “pie in the sky?” Was this a serious message to Washington or an electioneering show before the March 18, presidential elections (see EDM, March 5)?
Speaking on March 1, Putin insisted the West must take him seriously: “You did not listen before—listen now!” But this passionate call seems to have been largely in vain. The somewhat mute Western (US) response to Putin’s speech is seen in Moscow as highly disappointing and inadequate. At a special background briefing for Russian journalists, a top defense ministry official scolded the West and the US for being apparently too dumb to understand that Russia has already won the arms race and there is little choice left but to follow Putin’s public offer to “sit down and negotiate” an orderly surrender. The hundreds of different US land- and sea-based missile-defense (MD) interceptors (GBI, SM-3, THAAD), “Have been rendered totally useless and have no military significance. At best, good for shooting at sparrows, because they cannot defend against the new Russian weapons,” the Russian military insists. US naval ships and newly deployed forces in the Baltics and Poland are defenseless and open to attack. “Against new Russian weapons, US MD is like a slingshot against a MiG fighter,” according to the Russian defense ministry. “No one in the world but Russia has a deployed hypersonic weapon. There is no defense or hiding from the Kinzhal airborne missile that travels at a speed of Mach 10,” the defense ministry added, assuring that all the fancy weapons Putin revealed are real and are being deployed or readied for deployment. The Russian defense ministry, backing up and following Putin, insists the US must stop squandering its fortune on MD and other weapons that have been rendered irrelevant and “recognize the new reality” (Militarynews.ru, March 3).
Continued on Page 49
#2
There's not enough Russophobia dammit! Everyone panic! Let's get an arms race started! Because if there's one thing we don't spend enough on, it's the military-industrial complex!
[TheJamestownFoundation] Conflict in the North Caucasus has slowed significantly since 2014, and violence there has made few headlines, despite occasional significant events. Nevertheless, insurgent attacks and counterterrorist operations have continued, including in some areas that have been peaceful for years.
Total casualties resulting from violent conflict in 2017 were radically different from republic to republic in the North Caucasus. The number of deaths resulting from armed conflict fell by 73 percent in Dagestan (Caucasian Knot, January 15), with a similar decrease in the number of conflict incidents. Kabardino-Balkaria saw a massive reduction: 93 percent fewer victims of armed conflict in 2017 than in 2016, with only a single dead militant and no security personnel among the casualties (Caucasian Knot, January 14). Ingushetia, meanwhile, saw an increase of 26 percent in casualties from violence in 2017, with 10 violent incidents recorded that year compared to five in 2016 (Caucasian Knot, January 16). A major increase in violence was recorded in Chechnya, which saw an increase of 74 percent over the previous year (Caucasian Knot, January 15).
The major increase in casualties in Chechnya suggests there is potential for greater violence in Ramzan Kadyrov’s republic this year. Examining the course of events over the last five months provides some clarity on what to expect from the region.
Salt because retired General Wesley Clark is the author
[WashingtonTimes] Four years ago this week, Moscow launched its hybrid war against Ukraine and seized Crimea. Six weeks later, it began its not-so covert military operation in Donbas. One of the great, if unheralded stories of this war has been the largely successful effort of Ukraine to defend itself against this hybrid war in the east.
Ukraine has been on the front lines of a new generation of warfare where Russia blurs the lines between peace and war. Moscow’s aggression began with the seizure and then annexation of Crimea in February and March, and then the not so-covert war in Donbas in April.
While the Kremlin has claimed that this was an uprising of Donbas’ ethnic Russians and Russian-speakers against the government in Kyiv, the truth is that this has been a war led, financed and armed from Moscow. Thousands of regular Russian troops stopped Kyiv from retaking the entire Donbas in the late summer of 2014 and thousands of Russian troops remain in the occupied territories today. Moscow controls the military activity of the so-called separatist forces.
We have watched carefully the evolution of Ukraine’s armed forces since the war began and it is impressive.
We were in Kyiv in the first half of December at the invitation of the Victor Pinchuk Foundation for discussions with senior politicians, military representatives and representatives of civil society. We were impressed by their competence, dedication and energy.
Ukraine’s army has largely fought Kremlin forces to a stalemate. The old, static, Soviet-style army that Ukraine had in 2014 has been transformed into a capable fighting force. Part of that is due to the training provided by NATO members and especially the U.S. But most of this is due to the exigencies of wartime and Ukraine’s creative response.
Ukrainian officers have adapted well to battlefield developments and proved ingenious at countering Moscow’s clear advantages in tanks, artillery, cyber and electronic warfare.
For instance, reluctance on the part of Western countries and Israel to provide state-of-the-art drones prompted Ukrainian engineers to create their own, less complicated versions that have proved quite serviceable; and Ukraine’s own formidable cyber community has done a stalwart job shutting done Russian attacks on electricity grids and other infrastructure. Ukrainian hackers also got into the files of senior Putin-aide Vladislav Surkov and revealed embarrassing details about Kremlin operations in Ukraine.
In short, the Russian campaign in Ukraine is the face of future, hybrid war; and Ukraine has gained valuable experience that NATO and the U.S. are currently absorbing. This knowledge is critical for our own defense against an aggressive Kremlin.
[Free Beacon] Former Obama administration official Susan Rice on Friday questioned President Donald Trump's ability to successfully execute a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and she warned an unsuccessful meeting could increase the risk of conflict.
MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell‐in response to an announcement that Trump will meet with Kim in the coming months‐said to Rice that while the United States doesn't necessarily have a strategy for negotiations for an upcoming meeting, North Korea does.
"What is the downside, if there is this big-flags-waving, red carpet summit and then no results?" Mitchell asked the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and national security adviser.
"I think it's very risky," Rice said. "It risks the president's credibility, the credibility of the United States, and worse still, I think it increases the risk of conflict if they go into something with very high expectations, poor preparation, and the president acting in his typically mercurial way."
"We could end up in a much worse place then we are today," Rice warned.
Rice said there are steps that could be taken to make the meeting productive, but she expressed caution in describing the meeting as "high risk" and commenting that Trump "may not have the temperament" to execute a successful meeting.
"I do think this is high risk if executed in the typical Trumpian fashion," Rice said.
"If, however, the president has the presence of mind and the confidence in his team to allow this to be done responsibly and effectively, then I think it's worth attempting and the downsides can be potentially mitigated," Rice added.
#1
I question whether anyone in the 0bumhole administration had the presence of mind to squeeze a meeting out of the twit like Trump did. In a little over a year. While being undercut by Socialist forces like Russia and China. And the "Democrat" party and the media. But I repeat myself.
[PJ] When President Trump tipped reporters to expect a big announcement Thursday evening on North Korea, I joked to a friend that this could only amount to good news in the unlikely event that North Korean tyrant Kim Jong Un had just sent Trump a note saying "Help! I want to defect!"
No such luck. Instead, Kim has asked President Trump for a meeting as soon as possible, and Trump has agreed to meet with Kim by May.
This plan is now being widely hailed as a historic step forward; a triumph for Trump's campaign of coralling Pyongyang with "maximum pressure." It's historic all right, but there's an enormous hazard that it's a step right into the same old North Korean trap.
North Korea has a record of deceit that includes not only the series of broken nuclear deals over the past 24 years, but the surprise invasion of South Korea way back in 1950, with which Kim Jong Un's grandfather, founding tyrant Kim Il Sung, triggered the 1950-53 Korean War. The totalitarian character of the regime itself -- a system built on brute force, threats and lies -- ought to warn us that Kim's goal in proposing a summit is not to surrender to maximum pressure, but to deflate it, via assorted diplomatic stunts. All the better for Kim to regroup and carry on with North Korea's predatory projects, global rackets and nuclear missile program. (Forget the idea that Kim might be suddenly looking to repent of his murderous ways and scrap his totalitarian system; odds are, his own grotesquely abused citizenry would seize the chance to kill him.)
#2
Trump never said "Little rocket man", you stupid dumb idiot media.
He mentioned the term rocket man during the UN speech in a way that was not really dis-respectful but just enough to give us the perfect way he said it.
Like he said antifa same quarky way. It was awesome. Kim was drinking wine and eating watching the same speech live and Kim liked it.
He laughed it off as I thought he would. He likes the power of a fame like that and power peoples like shit like that - viewed as a term of endearment.
Like a club that when they award eachother, they know there is a respect of some kind and want a seat at the table.
The moral of the story you stupid fucking media is use the words that were used and do not add to it.
As for all the rest, I don't care. It is Trumps rodeo with this, he handles it.
[American Thinker] In agonizing, painful, miserable news for the Trump-hating left, a new Marist poll finds that President Trump's popularity has reached a new high at 42% approval, the highest it's been since he took office. According to The Hill:
Trump's approval rating rose from the 38 percent he received in the poll last month. And the percentage of Americans who strongly approve of Trump held at 24 percent from last month’s survey, an all-time high for the president.
At the same time, Trump's disapproval rate, now at 50%, fell four percentage points from 54%. The voters that the Trump haters the left has fed from for the past year, is shrinking.
Something has changed. And better still, these good numbers for Trump are a trend. For the rest of us, the trend is your friend.
The reason he's up, despite the Beltway's over-covered supposed turmoil at the White House, and the Russia,Russia,Russia obsession of the leftwing press, is not hard to discern. Job creation just hit the 300,000 mark, a number we have not seen in about a decade. Taxes went down - and they went down hard for almost everyone. Factories and their jobs are returning to the states. Workforce participation is growing. And get a load of this one, from the Wall Street Journal:
[Hot Air] Today the View discussed the ongoing controversy over Women’s March co-founder Tamika Mallory’s fondness for anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan. For the most part, everyone seemed to be in agreement that Farrakhan was a genuine anti-Semite (and anti-white racist) and that people who claim to be social justice leaders probably shouldn’t be hanging out with him. There was one note of dissent, however. The guest for this segment was former Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett who suggested that sometimes, as a leader, you need to meet with people who you strongly disagree with.
"Part of learning to be a leader effectively is that you have to use your voice and you have to be very clear," Jarrett said. She continued, "Now you work with people all the time with whom you disagree. Goodness knows I met with the Koch brothers when we were working on criminal justice or Rupert Murdoch when we were working on immigration reform. But you have to, if you want to lead an inclusive movement, you have to be clear about hate. And you have to be against it every single time."
From ZH, so 'Nervousness Alert Trigger'
In a Daily Caller op-ed calling the Russian meddling narrative a "false public manipulation," Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska claims that Daniel Jones - a former FBI investigator, Feinstein staffer and now a Fusion GPS operative - told the Russian Oligarch's lawyer in March, 2017 that Fusion GPS was funded by "a group of Silicon Valley billionaires and George Soros."
"[O]n March 16, 2017, Daniel Jones ‐ himself a team member of Fusion GPS, self-described former FBI agent and, as we now know from the media, an ex-Feinstein staffer ‐ met with my lawyer, Adam Waldman, and described Fusion as a "shadow media organization helping the government," funded by a "group of Silicon Valley billionaires and George Soros." My lawyer testified these facts to the Senate Intelligence Committee on Nov. 3. Mr. Soros is, not coincidentally, also the funder of two "ethics watchdog" NGOs (Democracy 21 and CREW) attacking Rep. Nunes’ committee memo. -Oleg Deripaska" And there's more innuendo at the link.....If even partially true, answers a few questions I have
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
03/10/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
Interesting article. I think Muslim countries would benefit from Chicom rule. The one improvement China would bring is the conversion of radical Muslim clergy and laity into involuntary organ donors or makers of textiles and shoes from political prisons. There's not much to admire about the system, but if there's one regime that can annihilate radical Islam without genocidal measures, it's Communist China. It may take a century or more, but China has the distinction, almost alone among the infidel nations of the world, of converting Muslims into patriotic citizens.
[DEBKA - so SALT]North Korea’s Kim Jong Un invitation to meet US President Donald Trump to talk about denuclearization has left Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei high and dry. He is now the only world ruler still holding out against discussing his country’s nuclear program. Instead, the ayatollah using it as muscle for trying to impose Iran’s will on the United States in the Middle East. “Rocket man” in Pyongyang may have factored into his provocative policies the inevitability of having to face Trump at some point to discuss terms for the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, while preserving his regime. His escalations were countered by the pressure of biting world sanctions, in the imposition of which even China was active. Now, Khamenei can no longer escape the realization that he will have to face the US and renegotiate the changes Trump is demanding for filling in the loopholes in the nuclear deal which Tehran signed with six world powers in 2015.
The first reference to this could be found between the lines of the message Trump posted on Twitter early Friday, March 9, after he accepted the invitation delivered from Kim by South Korean officials: “Kim Jong Un talked about denuclearization with the South Korean Representatives, not just a freeze. Also, no missile testing by North Korea during this period of time. Great progress being made but sanctions will remain until an agreement is reached. Meeting being planned!”
The content of the Trump tweet closely followed the outline of the proposal delivered by French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian this week to Tehran, on behalf of Presidents Emmanuel Macron and Trump, DEBKAfile’s sources report. It was brushed off within 24 hours by senior Revolutionary Guards generals and regime officials. As one of them tellingly put it: “European countries come to Tehran and say we want to negotiate with Iran over its presence in the region. It is none of your business. It is our region. Why are you here?”
While this response was brazen enough, it interestingly omitted mention of nuclear arms and ballistic missiles.
Posted by: 3dc ||
03/10/2018 00:00 ||
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[8 views]
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#1
It is waaay to early to talk like there's a deal on de-nuclearization in the works. It sounds like China left a horse's head in Kim's bed, with a warning to calm things down before Japan and South Korea build their own nukes and delivery systems.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
03/10/2018 10:25 Comments ||
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[Hot Air] Sadly, there will always be those who see people with Down syndrome as nothing more than a burden on society. Princeton University professor Robert George recently tweeted out a shocking video in which a bureaucrat from the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment uses a blackboard to show a man with Down syndrome how "expensive" he is for society compared with "normal" people. "Do the Dutch, who suffered under ‐ and in many cases heroically resisted ‐ Hitler’s domination, forget that the ’final solution’ began with the dehumanization and eugenic killing of the handicapped?" George asked.
Today, more and more people with Down syndrome are speaking out and demanding recognition of their humanity. Recently, Frank Stephens appeared before a House appropriations panel, where he told members of Congress, "I am a man with Down syndrome, and my life is worth living." Noting the abortion rates for Down syndrome babies in Europe, he declared, "I completely understand that the people pushing this particular ’final solution’ are saying that people like me should not exist," but pleaded, "Let’s be America, not Iceland or Denmark. . . . Let’s pursue inclusion, not termination."
[National Review] America’s two great ideological tribes are in the midst of a similar conflict. It’s the battle over civility, and all too often reason, compassion, and grace are on the losing side. On the left, aggressive social-justice activists scorn engagement and dialogue as "respectability politics" and instead favor the shout-down, the boycott, and the online shame campaign.
On the right, online pugilists mock more mainstream or "establishment" conservatives as unwilling to do what it takes to win. They mock conservatives who refuse to make Trump-style attacks and decry Trump-style rhetoric as obsessed with "muh principles." In the face of a ferocious Left, we just don’t have what it takes ‐ or, as Milo Yiannopoulos said earlier this week in a long piece calling me "the most reliably frustrating person in conservative media," we’re more prepared to "lose gracefully" than to "be seen as lacking in manners."
First, let’s acknowledge that there’s more than a kernel of truth in these critiques. Civility isn’t always a virtue. There are times when injustice demands a dramatic response. The modern image of Jesus Christ as essentially the nicest person who ever lived is laughably one-dimensional. He compared the Pharisees to "whitewashed tombs." Jesus cleansed the Temple "with a whip made out of cords." He modeled grace and compassion. He also modeled righteous anger.
Moreover, it’s also true that calls for civility are often one-sided, manipulative, and made in bad faith. It turns out that each ideological tribe is often quite tolerant of the vicious voices on its own side and positively repulsed by anger in response. You see the double standard all the time. The same people who lament the angry voices on Fox News or talk radio will positively thrill to the latest Michael Moore documentary or make excuses for Democratic leaders who just can’t quite bring themselves to condemn Louis Farrakhan.
For three election cycles now tens of millions of Americans voted for a presidential candidate who called Christians, gun owners, business owners, and people who believe in limited government and intact borders SUBHUMANS. And they voted that way primarily because they are government funded, want the party most likely to keep their government funding intact in power, and are willing to go down the path of treating other human beings as untermensch in order to keep their magic paychecks. In other words, they value their happy metric-free and anxiety-free status quo more than the businesses, liberties, and lives of their neighbors in the private sector.
The people who did this cannot be handled by civility. At best they can be defanged and kept from the levers of power and outed as sociopaths. At worst........
Posted by: no mo uro ||
03/10/2018 8:00 Comments ||
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#4
Without even looking, I could guess that the author was David French.
No, David, the time for civility is long past; surely, if you have a brain you should know that the civility will be one-sided.
We are in a fight for our very survival. It's time to start acting like it.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
03/10/2018 9:02 Comments ||
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#5
No different than the colonists here who whined that 'yeah the king did this and did that and violated our natural rights of Englishmen' but in the end he's our king.
[PJ] Two sociology professors have published a new book on how victimhood culture -- as evidenced by safe spaces, speech restrictions, and "microaggression" hype -- is causing problems for students, faculty, and staff alike.
Historically, students learned to "hold their head up high" in response to insult, the book argues. But now, students learn to interpret everything from insults to compliments through the lens of microaggression theory. Protests, conflict, and safe spaces ensue. The Rise of Victimhood Culture -- authored by Bradley Campbell, a professor at California State University, Los Angeles, and Jason Manning, who teaches at West Virginia University -- presents the harrowing details of what happened, and what’s next.
In an interview with PJ Media, Manning warns that victimhood culture "will get worse before it gets better." He says that elite campus culture moves upstream into the workplace, yet it also moves downstream towards youth, and everyone should be concerned. While professors often get blamed for teaching students victimhood culture, this isn’t always the case, argues Manning. In fact, many freshmen arrive with a fully developed understanding of "social justice," due in part to its creep into TV and internet culture.
#3
Then the allure of drugs becomes an obsession. The intensity of chronic drama and insecurity coupled with no relief invites escape by any means possible. This stage of the game I call Planned Parenthood for adults. The culling of the herd. The reset button.
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.
[PJ] When President Trump tipped reporters to expect a big announcement Thursday evening on North Korea, I joked to a friend that this could only amount to good news in the unlikely event that North Korean tyrant Kim Jong Un had just sent Trump a note saying "Help! I want to defect!"
[American Thinker] In agonizing, painful, miserable news for the Trump-hating left, a new Marist poll finds that President Trump's popularity has reached a new high at 42% approval, the highest it's been since he took office. According to The Hill:
